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We live in an overcommunicated world. Good etiquette insists we reply to all text messages within 10 minutes, be mindful of the mountain of emails building up in our inbox, and unfailingly return all ‘missed calls’ on our phones.

ISKCON Leadership Sanga
→ Ramai Swami

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The 2014 ISKCON Leadership Sanga was attended by around 1000 devotees from all the world.

This was the second time this event was organised and almost double the amount of devotees came from the first one. Also, whereas in the first Sanga there were 44 seminars, this time there were 88 presented.

The morning started with Kadamba Kanana Maharaja leading guru-puja to Srila Prabhupada on stage. That was followed by the GBC Chairman, Tamohara Prabhu, welcoming all the devotees to this year’s function. Gopal Bhatta, the Chairman of the strategic planning team, rounded out the morning with an outline of the events for the next 8 days.
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New Vrindaban Daily darsan @ February 19, 2014.
→ New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

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If you leave Vrndavana, if you leave this forest of kalpa-vrksa trees and go to another forest, if you stop talking about the nectar of Vrndavana and take pleasure in other talks, then, knowingly throwing away the sweetest nectar, you desire to eat dog-stool.

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-67 Translation.]

Please click here for more photos

Vedic Planetarium or …?
→ KKSBlog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 13 April 2013, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Srimad Bhagavatam Lecture)

Question: Maharaj, can you say a few words on Prabhupada’s mission for the Vedic Planetarium?

vedic planetariumWell, Srila Prabhupada wanted to construct in Mayapur the temple that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur had predicted – a huge, large temple. In that temple, he wanted to make a model of the Vedic Planetarium according to Srimad Bhagavatam and he called it a Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

So what do we understand by that? Did Prabhupada particularly think that cosmology is very important for us? No, that is not the point. The point is that through this model of the universe which is so important to people, so intriguing to the world of science, something to explore – through that Vedic model, Prabhupada wanted to actually give Bhagavatam. Therefore, it is actually not the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, it is the Temple of the Bhagavatam.

It is the Bhagavatam that Prabhupada wanted to give to the people! What do we care about the moon? Whether the moon is made out of rocks like in Arizona or whether the moon is made out of green cheese, who cares? I don’t care! Couldn’t care less whether they went to the moon or not. Wish them well but why do we care about the moon! It is said:

ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ
punar āvartino ‘rjuna
mām upetya tu kaunteya
punar janma na vidyate (Bhagavad-gita 8.16)

 

It means that all the planets within the universe are places of misery where repeated birth and death takes place. Thank you! Can we write-off the universe please, can we move to the next topic? Not interested in your universe, you can have it, the whole thing, please take it. I want the spiritual world! That was Prabhupada, that was Prabhupada… So, if you thought he was so interested in a planetarium – no!

His goal was that people who have interest in planetariums and the universe, would come to study it, look at it and be impressed; and with this trick, they would be pulled into the Bhagavatam. Then once they would read the facts about the universe from the Bhagavatam, then the rest of the Bhagavatam would follow and it would end with Krsna in the tenth canto, tasting his sweetness!

 

God is simultaneously identical with His creation and yet exists in His completeness
→ The Spiritual Scientist

We often say that God created this material world, and this means that God existed before the world. Since the Lord was existing before this material manifestation, He is not subject to this creation. If He were subject to the laws of the material world, how could He have created it? That the Lord is simultaneously identical with His creation and yet exists in His completeness apart from it is stated in Bhagavad-gita.

- Srila Prabhupada, Elevation to Krishna Consciousness : 1 - Choosing Human and Animal lives

Elevation to Krishna Consciousness

Prabhupada Letters :: Anthology 2014-02-19 15:51:00 →

1969 February 19: "Have your nice, fixed-up wife and be happy working hard for Krsna together. I never discourage marriage. Male and female may join together, not for sex-life, but to glorify the Lord. In Vaikuntha the men and women there are so much attracted by the chanting of Hare Krsna that they do not get any sex impulse even by intimate mingling."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969

Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.13.14 – Radhanath Swami & Jayapataka Swami
→ Mayapur.com

(kindly transcribed by Sheela Mataji, Singapore) Download the audio for this lecture here: Download From: Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir Date: February 18, 2014 (Devotee Care Day) Speaker: HH Radhanath Swami (lecture one of two) Verse: Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.13.14 ity uktvadri-dari-kuñja-gahvaresv atma-vatsakan vicinvan bhagavan krsnah sapani-kavalo yayau Translation: “Let Me go and search for the calves,” Krsna […]

The post Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.13.14 – Radhanath Swami & Jayapataka Swami appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.21.36 – HG Krsna Ksetra Das
→ Mayapur.com

(Kindly transcribed by Sheela Mataji, Singapore) Download the audio of this lecture from here: Download From Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir Date: February 17, 2014 Speaker: HG Krsna Ksetra Das Verse: Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.21.36 We are reading from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 4, Chapter 21, verse number 36. The chapter is entitled ‘Instructions by Maharaj Prthu’. I thought this […]

The post Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.21.36 – HG Krsna Ksetra Das appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Srimad Bhagavatam 5.5.18 – HH Sivarama Swami
→ Mayapur.com

Audio for this class may be downloaded here: Download [Kindly transcribed by Sheela Mataji, Singapore] From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir! Date:    February 16, 2014 Verse:   Srimad Bhagavatam 5.5.18 Speaker: HH Sivarama Swami —————————————————————————- Hare Krishna! Welcome to all of the members of the ILS festival that is taking place. This a leadership seminar and I […]

The post Srimad Bhagavatam 5.5.18 – HH Sivarama Swami appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Saturday, February 15th, 2014
→ The Walking Monk

Missing But Found

New Delhi, India

Its always an honour to speak about walking icons.  Before me were dozens of resident brahmacharis (monks), I talked about this young prince who actually ran away from home, perhaps walked.  He felt some neglect from his parents, a step mom and biological father.  He was only five. 

He took to the wilderness and also the trails of sadhus (sages) and finally found a suitable place for his meditation.  He met his guru there - Narada Muni, who gave him a mantra.  "om namo bhagavate vasudevaya".  From this mantra he becomes powerful as an ascetic and a medium to communicate with the Divine.  With his strong conviction and encouragement from the aforementioned personalities he had gone through an internal cleansing.  After a brief six months practice of both astanga and bhakti yoga, he decided to leave his place of meditation and return back home on foot, back to the palace actually.  The missing child came home.  Troubles and miscommunications were reconciled.  A regretful father and his two mothers (even the nasty step mom) had regained consciousness, so to speak.

I had been telling the boys from our little drama troupe after their terrific performance before a packed house at the temple that there is nothing more unsettling for me than when I see these bill posted, like at a bus station, of missing persons.  Mostly they are kids or teens.  In our Vancouver community one teen was last seen on a bus.  He never made it home and police have not heard hide nor hair of the unfortunate young fella.

Practically in most cases these missing persons did not go for a walk to achieve enlightenment.  Your imagination can go wild on what may have happened to such souls.

Dhruva's story was a happy one.  He had anger issues from time to time.  For the most part he championed those frailties and became a great leader.  It was  a pleasure to talk about one of my most favorite walking heros, Dhruva, to a group of great bhakti yogis.

May the Source be with You!

4 KM

Sunday, February 16th, 2014
→ The Walking Monk

New Delhi, India

Missing But Found


It’s always an honor to speak about walking icons.  Before me were dozens of resident brahmacharis (monks), I talked about this young prince who actually ran away from home, perhaps walked.  He felt some neglect from his parents, a stepmom and biological father.  He was only five. 

He took to the wilderness and also the trails of sadhus (sages) and finally found a suitable place for his meditation. He met his guru there - Narada Muni, who gave him a mantra.  "om namo bhagavate vasudevaya".  From this mantra he becomes powerful as an ascetic and a medium to communicate with the Divine.  With his strong conviction and encouragement from the aforementioned personalities he had gone through an internal cleansing.  After a brief six months practice of both astangaand bhakti yoga, he decided to leave his place of meditation and return back home on foot, back to the palace actually.  The missing child came home.  Troubles and miscommunications were reconciled.  A regretful father and his two mothers (even the nasty stepmom) had regained consciousness, so to speak.

I had been telling the boys from our little drama troupe after their terrific performance before a packed house at the temple that there is nothing more unsettling for me than when I see these bills posted, like at a bus station, of missing persons.  Mostly they are kids or teens.  In our Vancouver community one teen was last seen on a bus.  He never made it home and police have not heard hide nor hair of the unfortunate young fella.

Practically, in most cases these missing persons did not go for a walk to achieve enlightenment.  Your imagination can go wild on what may have happened to such souls.

Dhruva's story was a happy one.  He had anger issues from time to time.  For the most part he championed those frailties and became a great leader.  It was a pleasure to talk about one of my most favorite walking heroes, Dhruva, to a group of great bhakti yogis. 

May the Source be with you!

4 km

Saturday, February 8th, 2014
→ The Walking Monk

To the Hill

Vrndavan India

The sun hadn't yet met Vrndavan until late. The six of us who took that popular pilgrimage around the celebratory and sacred hill, Goverdhan, were rather okay with that. Given the time of the year (days are short) in the northen hemisphere) and the overcast that stubbournly hung for a while, it gave our treck more energy retention.
 
Maha Mantra and Fil, both from Canada were on this trail for the first time, Nrsinghananda and Mukunda from the U.S had hit the dust here before. I've relished the six hour trek in the past (eleven years ago was my last) but it was our New Zealander, Kala, who appeared to be the expert, knowing the trail, he became our guide.
 
The 6:15 AM starting point was momentous at some juncture in the road, a mere few kilometers from Vrndavan. Which got us there by cab, from there our 22 KM trek commenced with the magic of Goverdhan itself unfolding delectibly before us.
 
Goverdhan is more like an escarpment flounting its ancient work and trees. The rock takes on hues of orange and violet, big and small. From a birds view Goverdhan assumes the shape of a peacock. At its edge are some quaint and significant temples. It is home to hundreds of bird, monkeys and nilagava, a blue deer- like cow, famous from the time of Sri Krishna Himself. At one point we admired the various animal communities enjoying breakfast together- green parrots, pigions- pigs, monkeys and cows. Pilgrims from all over India recognized our crew. They addressed us with a Hare Krsna which goes to show that Krishna Consciousness is becoming well established in India. Interaction with fellow foot travelers was inevitable.
 
Our vist to Radha Kunda, a particular watery haven was also memorable, one you get beyond exception. One aggressive apparent resident guide, was a very high strung, in your face guy who was mostly rupee conscious. I asked him to sit down with me, next to the sacred water. He did. " Now let us go over the mantra together," Hare Krishna..." I would not get past the first two words with him. I figured that if the mantra could meet his pan-chewing, never-seen-a-tooth-brush for teeth that there could be some benefits. As we sat together I asked him to chill, politely, and even stroked with my hand over his back a minute long massage just to get him on his good side. To no avail did he calm and left without a coin to his keep from us.
 
Our pilgrim group terminated this trek where literally thousands of pilgrims were, on this trail daily. We were happily fatigued, visited numerous temple along the way, chanted mega-numbers of mantra, interacted with folks, loved each others company and admired being by a hill that once Krishna lifted to protect his devotees from torrential rains, demonstrating his affection for the spiritually-based
 
May The Source Be With You!
 
23 KM

Thursday, February 6th, 2014
→ The Walking Monk

Brussels / Delhi

In The Air
 
Our flight attendant, who is training to be a pilot and whose surname is Krishna, interesting to chat with. He regularly chants on his meditation beads as the two of us passengers were doing.

My companion to India is a young monk, Maha Mantra, who hails from Pickering, Ontario. We were both learning from our attendant about flying. For instance the engined plane we were on with Jet Airways has the bulk of its fuel in the wings, "More so than fuel in its belly," as he put it. We didn't know that.

We were watching the guys outside de- Icing the plane. Apparently the aircraft doesn't get off the ground when the wings carry some resistance for instance the ice. Despite all the engine power, the size of the wings and quantity of fuel the mechanics are such that the plane won’t get off the ground with all the ice on it.

From Brussels to Delhi a new team of flight attendants came on board. This time Anish, took over the shift of taking care of people's need. I always learn something about hospitality from these people. I've seen incidents when their patience is tested. According to Anish, “When someone has had just one drink too much he/she can go over the top with their behavior. At that point, we the flight attendants can never get angry," he said. Anish was curious about the Bhagavad Gita. He had been on old truth that applies even to modern times.

"Right you are," I explained to Anish, who is a young father, you learn first how to submit to your own psychophysical nature. Do as you are obliged. The second and final lesson is about submit to the will of the Supreme. "The first attitude blends into the second."

Take care Anish and Krishna from earlier on!

May the Source be with you!

0 KM

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura: Genuine Morality is a By-product of Bhakti
→ Dandavats.com

During Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura's visit to Dacca in 1935, a group of scholars came to hear from him, and one of them, the Sanskrit professor Sri Yukta Abhay Chandra, M.A., opened the conversation by stating that as a result of modern education, today's students were becoming misbehaved, vulgar, and immoral, and thus it was not possible to speak to them about devotion to God, which they snorted at as if it were a laughing matter; yet without first giving religious instruction, moral standards could not be established. Read more ›