Planet ISKCON

Monday mantra meditation & mantra chanting (also known as KIRTAN). Each session will include powerful mantra chanting together as a group, using styles with beads and also chanting to kirtan music. These forms of yoga are extremely powerful yet so joyful and easy to do. Don’t feel like you need some prior experience, just come along and enjoy the […]

The post NEW MEDITATION CLASSES appeared first on The Loft Yoga Lounge Auckland.

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Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.24.30 during the Sunday program.

“Because Lord Siva is a great devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he loves all the devotees of the Supreme Lord. Lord Siva told the Pracetas that because they were devotees of the Lord, he loved them very much. Lord Siva was not kind and merciful only to the Pracetas; anyone who is a devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is very dear to Lord Siva. Not only are the devotees dear to Lord Siva, but he respects them as much as he respects the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Similarly, devotees of the Supreme Lord also worship Lord Siva as the most dear devotee of Lord Krishna. They do not worship him as a separate Personality of Godhead.” (SB 4.24.30 purport)

Maha Siva-ratri Los Angeles 2014

…one should first of all understand that this material existence is anartham. Anartham means purposeless life. There is no purpose. Real purpose should be how to get out of the spell of material nature. That is real purpose. They do not know. They are taking very seriously some temporary purpose of life, which will be changed with the change of body. Now, as human being, I am manufacturing so many purposes of life, but as soon as the body is changed and I get the body of a cat or dog or tree, the whole purpose is changed. Therefore it is purposeless life, anartham.

- Srila Prabhupada lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam 3.26.6, Bombay, December 18, 1974

1966 March 3:
"Today Ekadasi observed. In the evening two visitors came. There were some topics on the meditation yoga. Dr. Mishra wanted my kirtan in his meetings. I am considering the proposal. The situation is adverse. Let me first of all see how they receive it in the Ananda."
1966 March 3

1968 March 3: "I am pleased you have begun practicing for the Kirtana party; please keep me informed how you are progressing. Responsive chanting is very nice; one singer may lead, and the others join in. That is the system. Arrange for costumes and wig; one boy dressed as Lord Caitanya, another as Nityananda."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968

1968 March 3: "One God, one scripture, one mantra, this idea is not manufactured by me, but it is authoritative statement. In Life Magazine, Feb. 9, 1968, there you will see how nicely the American boys and girls are dancing and chanting the Holy Name of the Lord. I think a very nice Sankirtana party can be organized to travel all over the world."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968

Who are the Pancha-tattva? The Pancha-tattva are a five-fold manifestation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, featured as five tattvas (truths), namely, isha-tattva (the Supreme Lord), His expansion tattva, His incarnation tattva, His energy tattva and His devotee tattva. These five tattvas incarnate with Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and thus the Lord executes His sankirtana movement with great pleasure. In Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.5.32) there is the following statement regarding Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu:-"In the Age of Kali, people who are endowed with sufficient intelligence will worship the Lord, who is accompanied by His associates, by performance of the sankirtana-yajna." Lord Chaitanya is always accompanied by His plenary expansion Sri Nityananda Prabhu, His incarnation Sri Advaita Prabhu, His internal potency Sri Gadädhara Prabhu and His marginal potency Sriväsa Prabhu. He is in the midst of them as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One should know that Lord Chaitanya is always accompanied by these other tattvas. Therefore our obeisances to Lord Chaitanya are complete when we say:- sri-krishna-chaitanya, prabhu-nityananda sri-advaita gadadhara, srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda. Read more ›

1968 March 3: "Ultimately you want to merge in the formless, or you want some material facilities, or you want to serve Krishna as His personal associate. Never mind, whatever you want, you worship one God, Krishna. The ultimate gain can be achieved as one desires."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968

1968 March 3: "The Indian transcendentalists who are very serious about spreading the message of Bhagavad-gita may join us and backed by the Sankirtana movement, it will be great success. And there is every possibility of oneness all over the world, without any communal differences."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968

1970 March 3: "Organization of the European centers and World Sankirtana Party - for these reasons I called you. You are all tested devotees, remain engaged in Krsna's service, then there will be no misunderstanding. See that the French and German BTGs are nicely done - that is my ambition."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

The renewed website of HH Jayadvaita Swami has been launched today, the 3rd of March 2014. Jayadvaita swami has been writing extensively for the Back to Godhead magazine, published and co-edited several books and is in charge of editing the BBT books of Srila Prabhupada and other contemporary devotees.

His website has been refreshed with a new layout and navigation menu. You can now easily find interesting articles about reincarnation, 9/11 and even about health issues. you can comment on articles and even subscribe to receive new articles by email when they are published. So you will not miss anything.

Visit : www.jswami.info

Here are some jewels of articles

• Reincarnation : http://www.jswami.info/reincarnation/
• Articles about editing : http://www.jswami.info/category/about-editing/
• Bless this house : http://www.jswami.info/bless_this_house/
• Why chant Hare Krishna?: http://www.jswami.info/whychant/

 

 

 

 

1974 March 3: "We will present our program exactly in the line of Lord Caitanya, by kirtana, prasadam distribution and speaking from Bhagavad-gita. We cannot deviate even an inch in order to attract the followers of the ecology philosophy or any other materialistic, utopian movement. Our ideal Vedic community will attract everyone on its own merit."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1974 March 3: "What is the use of knowing a number of influential leaders, since you yourself found them deficient? Our ideal will attract on its own merit, and we shall be glad to attract everyone who comes without compromising."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

“O devotee of the Lord, to see you is the perfection of the eyes, to touch your body is the perfection of bodily activities, and to glorify your qualities is the perfection of the tongue, for it is very rare to find a pure devotee like you.” [Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya (13.2), quoted in CC Madhya 20.61] Read more ›

Devotees from the ISKCON New Govardhana farm perform the congregational chanting of the Holy Names to spread transcendental awareness amongst the residents and tourists of the Byron Bay which is a beachside town located in the far-northeastern corner of the state of New South Wales, Australia. Read more ›

The post Sankirtan mela on March 3rd appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

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Lecture Podcast

Lecture Podcast

In the Pancaratra scriptures there is a saying that in the ultimate analysis devotion is the only element which might cause the Lord to appear. That’s how the small Panca-tattva came, due to the great desire and devotion of His devotees. Then, as long as the devotee wishes to serve Him, the Lord reciprocates in the same way. Regarding the big Panca-tattva Deities, a whole book has been written on how They were manifested, first in South India, and then installed in Sri Mayapur dhama. Read more ›

On 3rd March, 2014, the worldwide vaisanva community gathered at Mayapur to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Sri Panca Tattva Installation in Mayapur. Around 6000 devotees were already in Mayapur, taking part in the kirtan mela. Thousands more devotees arrived yesterday and today from all over the world. A Maha Abhiseka was performed to Sri Panca Tattva. This is the mercy of Their Lordship Sri Panca-Tattva, who have manifested at Mayapur in Their magnificent 7ft deity form. Once again, They are gathering devotees together so they can relish the pastimes of the Lord in the association of His dear devotees. Read more ›

From the LA Times

Filed under: Cows and Environment

PHOTOS

The post TKG Tirobhava Mayapur appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Iskcon Vrindavan 24 Hours Kirtan (Shyamananda Prabhu)

Friend, when you will die? Do you know? Do not even infants sometimes die unexpectedly? With clear intelligence, without attachment to the body and sense, and without stopping to think, run to Vrndavana.

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-78 Translation.]

Please click here for more photos

I am on the Board of Directors for ECOV  and was recently requested to give a brief bio.

According to our website”ECOV is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to cow protection, local production of food, sustainable housing, alternative energy production and energy conservation. Cow protection includes not sending cows to the slaughter house and letting them live out their lives until a natural death. We are also working towards having active teams of oxen, planting 1000 fruit and nut trees and building earth sheltered low impact housing using recycled or locally produced materials. “

So applying the filter of what would be relevant to that here goes.

I was raised on a farm. My father put me on a tractor at age 11 in the flat and long fields of North Dakota. By the time I came to New Vrindaban at age  24 I had had my fill of industrial agriculture and wanted to get into a simple living scenario.  In the beginning  I trained a team of oxen, Bala and Deva, and worked the community vegetable gardens.

After a year in 1974 I was approached by the community leaders and asked to take over the field side of agriculture in New Vrindaban. As they wanted to free up labor to work at the Palace I was asked to use tractors and assured it was a temporary situation and we would go back to oxen later. It is now 40 years later and I am still trying to get back there thus supporting efforts to train ox teamsters and oxen and build an ox barn.

In the meantime I have had various services including Purchasing when we had 600 people here and were doing major construction projects many of which  you see  today.  For a couple of year I ran the Finance department of New Vrindaban. I  was also involved in various businesses New Vrindaban did to help support the community, including spending 3 years over a ten year period in New York City.

When I came back from NYC the final time I noted there was zero vegetables being grown in NV and have dedicated a lot of energy to reintroducing growing into NV culture.

I have 5 children and 3 grandchildren and still live in New Vrindaban where I garden, burn wood for heat, support my wife’s crafted gourd business,  and try to enable Srila Prabhupada’s vision for NV of  living simply dependent on the land and the cow.

I have also been keeping a blog  for 8 years that may   give some insight.

Filed under: Cows and Environment

Answer Podcast

Answer Podcast

Answer Podcast

Answer Podcast

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 13 January 2014, Mayapur, India, Lecture: Kirtan Academy 2)

Naturally, every devotee desires to see Krsna and the desire to see Krsna is not a fruitive one. You might say, “Well, the top most level of pure devotion was to be free from all selfish desire so isn’t it selfish when we are desiring to see Krsna. Isn’t it about our desire instead of the higher principle of satisfying Krsna’s desire?”

Yes, but still every devotee in his heart-of-hearts desires to be with Krsna, desires to see Krsna because that is how we are designed, we are made like that. We are pleasure seeking – this we cannot stop. The constitutional position of the living being is described in the Vedanta Sutra (1.1.12) as ānandamayo ‘bhyāsāt, or being pleasure seeking.

So, this element of being pleasure seeking is something that cannot be taken away out of our nature therefore any process that denies us that is an artificial process and cannot be maintained. Therefore, we see that impersonalism and Buddhism are two processes that are based on negation, processes that are based on denial of desire, denial of pleasure. In these two processes, one has to basically write-off the whole material world whereas in Bhagavatam, we find that the beauty in this world can be taken as the smile of Krsna.

A smile can be taken as “welcome”. So the beauty in this world is the welcoming smile of Krsna. This is nice so then we don’t have to develop this mood where we write-off the material world altogether; that if we see anything beautiful in this world that can’t appreciate it. We can appreciate it and see that Krsna is behind it all. If we see some beautiful birds, not that we desire to become like that, but we can see that there is beauty in this world because it is reflecting the even greater beauty of the spiritual world. And that all the aesthetics of this world are inviting us to the higher world of beauty and aesthetics…

 

Always have respect for the Holy Names, as you would respect the Supreme Lord Himself
Be careful to avoid offenses in chanting the Holy Names, especially the offense of inattention
Chant a fixed number of rounds each day, and always aim to increase that number