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Recently the TOVP Communications Department released a new online flipbook, ‘The TOVP Story, 1971-2022’ for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada and the Vaishnavas. We are happy to announce the publication of yet another flipbook, ‘Srila Prabhupada in Mayapur’. This flipbook is a compilation of most of the known quotes from Srila Prabhupada related to the […]
The post TOVP Publishes ‘Srila Prabhupada in Mayapur’ appeared first on ISKCON News.
After a three-year COVID-related hiatus, the hills of West Virginia were covered in colorful clouds again as locals returned to Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold for the 2022 Festival of Colors. Guests enjoyed the musical stylings of Devananda Prabhu, NamRock, Ananda Groove, and Malini devi dasi, who also led participants in dance and yoga. Local Sarah […]
The post Locals Embrace the Return of the Festival of Colors to West Virginia appeared first on ISKCON News.
Her sister and her were drawn to the festival, they went in and eat lots of sweets and the visiting swami from India blessed her and the child within the womb. It was chiddha dahi festival and she met Jayapataka swami before his stroke and received profuse blessings. It all came to her 14 years later when she saw me today. No wonder this boy was drawn to the books and Krishna philosophy. She promised to bring her son and come for kirtan this week
Srila Prabhupada: Both the living entity and Lord Krishna are full of consciousness. The living entity's consciousness is within himself, and Krishna's consciousness pervades everywhere. That's the distinction.
𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗸𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗻𝗮, 🙏𝗣𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗼𝗯𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀. 🙏All Glories to Srila Prabhupada! 🙏All Glories to Sri Mayapur Dham! 𝐖𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐲 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 🙏🙏 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐏𝐢𝐭𝐫𝐮 𝐏𝐚𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐚 𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬, 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲. 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 […]
The post Mahalaya Amvasya Seva Opportunity – Sept. 25th 2022 appeared first on Mayapur.com.
TOVP Chairman, His Grace Ambarisa Prabhu, is pleased to announce to the worldwide ISKCON community the future opening of a beautiful, inspiring and permanent Prabhupada Museum in the TOVP, to preserve and display various artifacts related to ISKCON Founder/Acharya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The museum will be called The Srila Prabhupada International Heritage Museum.
We are appealing to devotees throughout the world who possess items such as Prabhupada’s original Bhagavatam sets, personal furniture, clothing, beads, shoes, pens, watches, etc. to donate their collection or item of Prabhupada memorabilia for the higher cause of preserving and displaying them to the general public for hundreds of years to come in the TOVP. Sridham Mayapur is the World Headquarters of ISKCON, and we anticipate 10 million+ visitors a year once the temple opens. It is highly befitting that a museum of this kind be present to preserve and display Srila Prabhupada mementos for generations of visitors into the future to view.
There is a great risk in keeping these possessions private. Over time they may get damaged, lost, destroyed or even forgotten. And no one gets the opportunity to see the auspicious prasadam of Prabhupada’s personal artifacts which, according to shastra, are as worshipable as he is. What better place to keep these sacred items of our empowered Founder/Acarya and Senapati of Mahaprabhu than at Srila Prabhupada’s ‘Place of Worship’, Lord Gauranga’s own birthplace, Sridham Mayapur.
This project also raises another opportunity for devotees to become sponsors and finance the construction, display cases and other paraphernalia that will be needed for such an important museum. $250,000 is being raised for this specific purpose.
If you would like to add to our growing collection of Prabhupada memorabilia or help finance the project, please contact Braja Vilasa directly at +91 96359 90391 or brajavilasarns@gmail.com.
Hare Krishna!
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Cleveland, Ohio
Great at the Lake
Kaustubha and I were ambling along at Lake Erie’s edge in Lakewood Park when one of the many, shall I say, “worshipers” of the water and sun noticed my garb. “Oh! Monk! Yeah! I agree!” As he gives me a fist pump. Perhaps to say “worshiper” was a trait bit over the top, but in reality, people from this neighborhood and the greater Cleveland area come to the spot where massive and smooth concrete blocks have been placed as if stairways for giants; some kind of grandstand for viewing the sun setting. They show up as an audience watching the slow descent of the western sun disappearing beyond the aqua colored liquid of Erie.
My first bumping friend, an Afro American, seemed to approve of Kaustubha and I being in his presence with his partner and two kids. Cell phone cameras were raised by onlookers of the sun for video or photo shots of one of the most hailed objects of the universe. When the intense sun actually vanished from sight the spectators gave an applause. Eureka!
Kaustubha mentioned that the lake is much cleaner than in the past. That’s good news. And another good piece of news for the day was the great find for me. My kind host in Columbus had packed some of that local paw-paw fruit for Kaustubha, his wife Tulsi and their son Kapila. It truly is about the best fruit one can ever consume with the mixed flavour of a mango, banana and papaya as well as a texture almost like A custard. And get this – it grows naturally in the wild. It’s definitely a fruit to be offered to the Creator. Krishna is pleased.
May the source be with you!
5 km
Cleveland, Ohio
Great at the Lake
Kaustubha and I were ambling along at Lake Erie’s edge in Lakewood Park when one of the many, shall I say, “worshipers” of the water and sun noticed my garb. “Oh! Monk! Yeah! I agree!” As he gives me a fist pump. Perhaps to say “worshiper” was a trait bit over the top, but in reality, people from this neighborhood and the greater Cleveland area come to the spot where massive and smooth concrete blocks have been placed as if stairways for giants; some kind of grandstand for viewing the sun setting. They show up as an audience watching the slow descent of the western sun disappearing beyond the aqua colored liquid of Erie.
My first bumping friend, an Afro American, seemed to approve of Kaustubha and I being in his presence with his partner and two kids. Cell phone cameras were raised by onlookers of the sun for video or photo shots of one of the most hailed objects of the universe. When the intense sun actually vanished from sight the spectators gave an applause. Eureka!
Kaustubha mentioned that the lake is much cleaner than in the past. That’s good news. And another good piece of news for the day was the great find for me. My kind host in Columbus had packed some of that local paw-paw fruit for Kaustubha, his wife Tulsi and their son Kapila. It truly is about the best fruit one can ever consume with the mixed flavour of a mango, banana and papaya as well as a texture almost like A custard. And get this – it grows naturally in the wild. It’s definitely a fruit to be offered to the Creator. Krishna is pleased.
May the source be with you!
5 km
Dublin, Ohio
Embrace Encouragement
This morning a handful of Columbus congregants and I took to trekking along the Ohio River on Riverside. What was to be more of a chanting walk ended up being more of a chattingwalk. The conversation hovered around the direct versus indirect sending of the message of the Gita to the world. The trail along the river, with fresh air and blue skies, made for that clear head experience and so I offered my opinion; that we need both.
Boat rowing was going on up and down the current of the Ohio as we discussed how things could go smooth in our bhaktioperations. One of the topics was the position of guru in our lives as well as how prominent should be the situation of ISKCON’s founder.
It really was a lively chat.
In the afternoon Naveen and his twenty-year-old son, Narada, took us to Alum Creek Dam. It’s a popular place for trekkers. Here you can catch the great air that blows off the water. Two serious fishermen on a boat were waiting for a catch on the line at the reservoirs edge. For us it was hellos, namastes and Hare Krishna greetings to pedestrian passersby. I really appreciated father and son’s company on the two mile stretch and back.
Evening was like a weekend party. Rakesh and Sveta just moved-in to a suburban home. Call it a “housewarming.” I was greeted with wholesome avocado chunks and spiced rice. But then the real essence of the day set in with my regular Zoom class on this Tuesday night, from Canada, and a merge with seventy people dwelling on the Gita’smessage of encouragement from verse 3.25 and 26. Encouragement, inclusiveness and non-judgment are all important words to behold.
May the source be with you!
10 km
Columbus, Ohio
Food, Students and Paw-Paw
I spent the bulk of the day in the residence of Chandra and Kalpana with their son Gertik (it’s his birthday), 14, and daughter Dashika, 11. They live in a place called Dublin, a bedroom community to Columbus.
Ohio state university at 60,000 students has one of the largest student populations in the US. Chandra was kind to take me to several park trails. The area is just perfectly manicured with grass. The entire neighborhood, in fact, with ponds, fountains and trees, leaves one in awe of this type of paradise. But where are the weeds?
Monday night at the campus is the time for students to come for a demo on cooking, conducted by Alankara and Sri Radha. This evening the feature was without any cuisine routine. The actual weekly meal dominated the 7:00-8:30 pm timeslot. However, before any students could apply their lips to the vegan delicacies of today, I was asked to deliver a “Tales From the Trails” talk. I was trying to help the listeners, numbering 60+, to imagine themselves as monastic people going on a long introspective walk. Included in the talk was some of the foraging that I had done in the course of walking. One student raised his hand, Joshua, and let me know that one of the prized fruits in the district, that was part of native foraging, is the paw-paw. I was raised in a section of the Carolinian forest, in southern Ontario, and apparently it grows on my home turf in the wild. Probably the local Whitetail deer thrive on it. I was so happy to learn more about the outdoors and can’t wait to try one of those fruits.
May the Source be with you!
7 km
Moundsville, West Virginia
Finale
It was a drizzle of a morning but that was no roadblock for some enthusiasts to circum-ambulate the lake at New Vrindavan. There has been no conversation during the strolls around the lake, named Rada Kunda. When our mantra sessions were completed at today’s half-point, I had several devotees from various locations say that it was the first time they ever walked with a swami and just chanted those mantras. It is my hope at least some of them would return to their respective places and form japa walking groups; with or without a monk.
The last session for the weekend was a presentation by Partha on the topic of “Integrating Compassion,” done on Zoom, but fortunately the interest on the topic was maintained and followed by a breakout session in the location of our meetings – the Yoga Shala. The final kirtancalled for moving and stacking chairs to allow for free space to chant and dance.
This dancing over the last three days compensated for the reduced amount of walking I’ve done. The lake is small. Overall, the experience of men bonding on a human and spiritual platform was very potent. It was interesting to see emotions projected such as when tissues came out to absorb tears over the topic of fatherhood.
One observation was that Brhat and myself were the only saffron-clad chaps at the retreat when the MANtra retreat called for all practitioners of bhakti yoga of different backgrounds. Maybe next year?
May the Source be with you!
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Moundsville, West Virginia
Relishable Topics
Other topics on the agenda at MANtra 2022 were “The Art of Meaningful Association,” “Chasing the Wild Monkeys: Lust, Addiction and the Power of Healing Association,” “Flourishing as a Father” and “Compassion as a Man.” Also on the list was our drama “Demon,” as part of the entertainment section including beautiful chanting by Gaura Vani in the evening.
Singing also resounded outside with millions of crickets at the relatively quiet hours of our morning when a group of us went zoom zoom around the lake, a small man-made body of water. This is the home of swans, ducks and, at times soaring above, turkey vultures, when food below appears to be available.
One feathered friend, a resident in New Vrindavan, is a peacock. Accustomed to the outdoors is a family of these handsome creatures. During a presentation one of these fellows, with spread plumes, came inside while the door was open. He was an uninvited but welcome guest. He didn’t stay long. He just wouldn’t understand the topic at the time – pornography and drug/alcohol addiction.
You sometimes wonder why humans have all the complexities and non-humans, such as the creatures mentioned, have it so simple. The role of a human could be a curse or it could be a blessing. When humans take to the principle of dharma it sets them in a truly organic position. This word dharma should be researched and explored. In the context of men’s roles, it means to be great providers and protectors. To be effective in this, men must be strong in the areas of responsibility.
May the Source be with you!
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