TEXAS FAITH 123: Why are religious hostilities on the rise across much of the world? What, if anything, can be done about it?
→ Nityananda Chandra Das' Blog, ISKCON Dallas

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

A new poll finds that religious hostilities have increased in almost every major region of the world. Perhaps not surprisingly, the sharpest increase was in the Middle East and North Africa, most likely an after effect of the 2010-11 political uprisings known as the Arab Spring. But the Pew Research Center study also found a significant increase in religious hostilities in China and the Asia-Pacific region.

Todd Slater

Some numbers in the new report: a third (33%) of the 198 countries and territories included in the study had high religious hostilities in 2012, up from 29% in 2011 and 20% as of mid-2007. Here’s the link: http://www.pewforum.org/2014/01/14/religious-hostilities-reach-six-year-high/

The study looked at efforts by governments to ban particular faiths, prohibit conversations and give preferential treatment to some religious groups at the expense of others. Those haven’t changed significantly. But acts of overt hostility toward religion – religion-related armed conflict or terrorism, mob or sectarian violence, harassment over attire for religious reasons or other religion related intimidation or abuse — have increased.

Incidents of abuse targeting religious minorities seen as offensive or threatening to the majority faith are up. In Libya, for instance, two worshippers were killed in an attack on a Coptic Orthodox church. Harassment of women over religious dress occurred in nearly a third of countries in 2012 (32%), compared to less than one-in-ten (7%) as of mid-2007. And mob violence related to religion occurred in a quarter of countries in 2012 (25%) – double the number from five years earlier.

So what’s happening here? Is this just a cycle, a phase? Or is it something else? The power of religious faith to divide as well as to unite has a long history. But clearly in the last few years, people are increasingly using religion for negative and destructive ends in many places.

Why are religious hostilities on the rise across much of the world? What, if anything, can be done about it? Our Texas Faith panel weighs in:

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

The cause of any type of injustice is ignorance.  Specifically people misidentify the body at the self.  Therefore, in ignorance, one thinks oneself to be White, Black, Asian, Republican, Democrat, male, female, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, as so on.  The solution to injustice is knowledge of the self and practical application.

It is not that one needs to know just theoretically that one is not the body but the soul within.  One must have a process to practically experience it.  That individual who experiences himself beyond body is self satisfied and thus is peaceful and happy.  A society of individuals who have no self knowledge will never be happy.  Therefore peace and happiness is concomitant of actual spiritual knowledge, everything else is ignorance, despite that it may have a religious appearance.

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

HG Saksi Gopal lights up Leicester Square with the Holy Name.
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HG Saksi Gopal lights up Leicester Square with the Holy Name.

There is nothing like an old fashion Hari Nam.


Filmed by HG Bhaja Hari Prabhu.

There is about eight direct disciples of Srila Prabhupada going out regularly on this Hari Nam, in the old days these devotees would perform this sacrifice daily for eight hours.

That was the norm!

Please come out on the streets it’s “susukham kartum avyayam”, great fun.

your servant
Parasuram Das.

Friday’s Feast at Matchless Gifts
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Dear Maharajs/Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

The following video clip was taken from last Friday’s Feast at Matchless Gifts, UK. The singer’s name is “Youth” from one of my favorite bands “Killing Joke”.

He was a good friend of “Polystryne” or as we knew her “Maharani”.

x ray spex from Food For All on Vimeo.

Your servant
Parasuram Das

Nityananda Trayodasi Celebration at ISKCON Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Album 79 photos)
→ Dandavats.com

Nityananda Trayodasi: Appearance of Sri Nityananda Prabhu. Nityananda Prabhu appeared as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's principal associate for spreading the congregational chanting of the holy names of the Lord. He appeared in 1474 in the village of Ekachakra, now in West Bengal. He especially spread the holy name of Krishna throughout Bengal. His beauty was so enchanting and He was so full of ecstatic love for Krishna that, wherever He moved, crowds of people would follow and become lovers of God. He is considered an incarnation of Krishna's principal expansion, Balarama. Read more ›

Deity Darshan: Nityananda Trayodasi (Appearance of Sri Nityananda Prabhu)
→ The Toronto Hare Krishna Temple!


The appearance day of Lord Nityananda Prabhu was celebrated at ISKCON Toronto on February 12, 2014. Lord Nityananda Prabhu, whose name literally means, “eternally blissful”, appeared around 1474 AD in the village of Ekachakra, near Mayapur, West Bengal. He is the eternal companion of Lord Caitanya and both are worshiped together as are Krishna and Balaram. In the same way that Lord Balaram is considered the original spiritual master, so is Lord Nityananda.







How to quickly dry up an ocean of tears?
→ The Spiritual Scientist

The entire universe is full of miseries, and therefore the inhabitants of this material universe are always shedding tears out of intense grief. There is a great ocean of water made from such tears, but for one who surrenders unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ocean of tears is at once dried up. One need only see the charming smile of the Supreme Lord. In other words, the bereavement of material existence immediately subsides when one sees the charming smile of the Lord.

- Srila Prabhupada, Srimad Bhagavatam 3.28.32 purport

 

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New Vrindaban’s Transcendental “Throwback Thursday” – 02/13/14
→ New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

NV TBT 02-13-14

New Vrindaban’s Transcendental “Throwback Thursday” – 02/13/14.

Each week we highlight an earlier era of ISKCON New Vrindaban.

This week’s challenge: These two devotees look like they are happily engaged in their service. Who are they and what do you think they are working on?

Post your guesses on the “who, what, when & where” in the comment section at the New Vrindaban Facebook Page.

Technical stuff: We share the photo Thursday and confirm known details Sunday. Let’s keep it light and have a bit of fun!

Special request: If you have a photo showing New Vrindaban devotees in action, share it with us and we’ll use it in a future posting.

Lightening up Leicester Square with an old fashion Hari Nam (2 min video)
→ Dandavats.com

Parasuram das: HG Saksi Gopal lights up Leicester Square with the Holy Name. There is nothing like an old fashion Hari Nam. There are about eight direct disciples of Srila Prabhupada going out regularly on this Hari Nam, in the old days these devotees would perform this sacrifice daily for eight hours. That was the norm. Please come out on the streets as it's "susukham kartum avyayam", great fun. Read more ›

My prayer to Lord Nityananda Rama!
→ Servant of the Servant

Today is the most auspicious day of the appearance of Lord Nityananda Rama. He is none other than Lord Balarama who is the self same Supreme Being.

We live in a world where service and love is strongly reposed to the things and people of this world. In this condition of spiritual aridity, it is next to impossible to understand God and the eternal dharma of love of God despite the presence of many religions, places of worship and godmen.

Lord Nityananda prabhu appeared 500 years ago as the spiritual oasis to spread the sanatana dharma of prema pumartha mahan: to achieve love of Supreme Godhead Krishna as the topmost perfection of life.  There is no truth superior to this. Without the mercy and blessing of Lord Nityananda one cannot gain access into the eternal lila of Radha and Krishna. In fact, one cannot even understand in theory the position, greatness and sweetness of Krishna and His eternal consort Radha.

So on this day, we must aspire in a humble way to be the servant of the servant of Lord Nitynanda - to desire to be free from false prestige that arises from our attachment to our body and mind. We must take our Krishna conscious life seriously, sincerely and without any self motivations. When we struggle hard for this simple position of servant of servant free from false pride & prestige, then surely Lord Nityananda will be pleased with our endeavor and will grant entrance into the eternal lila of Radha and Krishna.

I pray to that Supreme Lord Nityananda prabhu to give me the desire, faith and determination to remain humble and chant the Hare Krishna Mahamantra in a way that attracts Sri Sri Radha and Krishna.

Lord Nityananda Prabhu ki jay!

Hare Krishna




Lord Nityananda’s mercy: The magnitude, the motivation and the magic
→ The Spiritual Scientist

Lord Nityananda is considered to be the most merciful manifestation of the most merciful incarnation of the Lord. The most merciful incarnation is Lord Chaitanya and he manifested his mercy most exuberantly through Lord Nityananda. Though these two transcendental brothers are non-different, still one takes on the mood of the servant of the other – Lord Nityananda considers service to Lord Chaitanya the supreme treasure of his life, indeed, the very purpose of his life.

In his service to Lord Chaitanya, Lord Nityananda manifested his mercy through many extraordinary incidents. The most celebrated among them is his deliverance of Jagai and Madhai.

To understand the distinctiveness, in fact, the uniqueness, of this merciful accomplishment, let’s analyze it on three counts:

1.     Magnitude: The sheer magnitude of the mercy was mind-boggling, even for Yamaraja. To have two people whose sins were so numerous, even mountainous, as to be impossible to even keep track of, being freed from all their sins in one moment of mercy was so astonishing, so historical, so utterly unprecedented that, as the Chaitanya Bhagavata mentions, Yamaraja on coming to know about it fainted in sheer ecstasy.

2.     Motivation: At one level, the motivation of the Lord was obvious: compassion for the fallen souls. It is for this purpose that the Lord descends millennia after millennia, as the Bhagavad-gita (04.07-09) informs. But along with that standard purpose, the Chaitanya Bhagavata gives us special insight into the transcendental psychology of Nityananda Prabhu. When he heard about the fallen condition of Jagai-Madhai, his eyes lit up with not just compassion but also ambition – the ambition to glorify Lord Chaitanya in a way that would be remembered for all time to come: “These two people are so contaminated that on seeing them pious people feel impelled to bathe in the Ganges to purify themselves. If these sinners can become so pure that people on seeing them feel that they have become purified, as if having bathed in the Ganges, then the fame of all Lord Chaitanya will spread in all the three worlds.” With this desire to glorify Lord Chaitanya, Lord Nityananda tolerated even the brutal assault on his head and uttered the incredible words of compassion that have become etched forever in the collective memory of Gaudiya Vaishanvas: "merechhish kolshir kana, tai bole ki prem debona" (Shall I stop giving you love because you have hit me with an earthen pot?).

It was this endearing blend of compassion and ambition that motivated our beloved Srila Prabhupada to attempt something similarly outrageous: to deliver people from the Western world, who were so fallen that their only regulative principle was to break all the regulative principles.

This blend of compassion and ambition of the Lord and his manifestations is our supreme hope for being delivered from our fallen condition. 

3.     Magic: The magic of Lord Nityananda’s mercy was not just that Jagai and Madhai became free from all their sinful reactions, or even that they became free from their sinful desires – though both of these transformations are no doubt incredible. But the ultimate magic of the mercy was that these two brothers became utterly free from the most subtle of all impurities – the impurity that so easily and frequently contaminates the pure, the impurity of pride.  

Perhaps nothing demonstrates this heart-rending humility of Madhai better than his constructing a ghat as an expression of atonement, begging for forgiveness from all the people who came there and, most significantly, allowing himself to be hit with stones by some of those people who were still angry with them for his past offenses and even picking up those stones and handing them back to his assaulters, saying, “I deserve worse – please hit me again.” That a person who would without the slightest pinch of consciousness assault people ruthlessly in the past was now equipping and encouraging people to assault him due to a feeling of remorse demonstrates the magical depth of his transformation.

Madhai demonstrated poignantly the consciousness of trinad api sunicena. And through him, the Lord demonstrated that by the power of his mercy this exalted consciousness that seems so impossible for us to achieve can indeed one day become achievable, thereby enabling us to relish the supreme sweetness of the holy name constantly.

Shri Nityananda Prabhu ki jaya!

 

Our Thoughts Are Like People
→ Japa Group

Instead of filling our minds with all the thoughts of our daily activities and our problems etc.
It's nice to just clear out the mind and fill it again with the sound of the Holy names.
Like a room full of people all talking at once about different things. Our thoughts are like people and when we clear the room and fill it again with the Maha mantra, then all these internal voices will disappear and we can relish and deepen our relationship with Krsna by attentive Japa.

Serving the servants of Srila Prabhupada
→ KKSBlog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Radhadesh, Belgium, 10 April 2003, Q&A Session)

Question: What happens to an aspiring devotee who may have read Srila Prabhupada’s books, heard his lectures, loves serving and associating with devotees but cannot find a spiritual master on the level of Srila Prabhupada? Srila Prabhupada has said that a disciple should accept a spiritual master as good as God and be ready to sacrifice his life to him. If such an aspiring devotee feels this way towards Srila Prabhupada but cannot find anyone who satisfy the “as good as God” requirement, is he then forced to take initiation from someone for whom he does not have full respect?

PrabhupadaI can say that I appreciate the search for the spiritual master who is like Srila Prabhupada. At the same time, I think that Srila Prabhupada was not the “ordinary” spiritual master, as there are no ordinary spiritual masters, but Srila Prabhupada certainly was more than a spiritual master; he was more than a sannyasi.

Srila Prabhupada was such a wonderful, pure devotee of the Lord, that such a spiritual master may not always be here. We must take it that Krsna has a plan. So, we are in this predicament that we find ourselves in spiritual life and we need to make advancement. So we can wait, and wait and wait, and say, “This one is too light; this one is not heavy enough – I have heard that guru means heavy.”

So, we are waiting and each spiritual master is not heavy enough! Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur says that guru is heavy but not in the sense that he speaks heavy – he may speak very sweet or he may speak heavy – but he is heavy because he never changes his position.

So, every time we may find that no one compares to Srila Prabhupada. That may be, but we are always looking for the qualifications of spiritual master. We may think, “Well, is he powerful enough?” But are we looking at our own qualifications as a disciple? We should also look at our own situation and we are probably worst off than all these spiritual masters that we are looking at. We may look at these spiritual masters and find that maybe they are really not up to the level, but where are we? We are in a position where we need all the help we can get, and for us we can find only Srila Prabhupada suitable to give us guidance, but the only problem is that now we cannot directly ask him a question or now he will not directly turn to us and correct us as we need it.

Prabhupada with JapaIf we find a vaisnava who is truly a dedicated servant of Srila Prabhupada and mature in that service to Srila Prabhupada, then we will find that this vaisnava can help us very much to increase our relationship with Srila Prabhupada. As Srila Prabhupada had a relationship with his spiritual master, his spiritual master had a relationship with his and that is how the entire sampradaya works…

In our movement, Srila Prabhupada is the founder-acarya and in that way, always the guru of all members of this movement. Some may have that relation with Srila Prabhupada by serving the servant of Srila Prabhupada, not to the exclusion of Srila Prabhupada but rather to enhance their relationship with Srila Prabhupada. So, we can spend a whole lifetime thinking, “I cannot find anyone as qualified as Srila Prabhupada,” and meanwhile we don’t accept any guru and in that way we actually become our own guru. There is a statement, “One who is his own guru accepts a fool for a disciple.”

 

 

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Prabhupada Letters :: Anthology 2014-02-12 15:19:00 →

1970 February 12: "Yes introduce Krishna Consciousness in these two universities. This is the real course of study for human beings and we should use such opportunities. I am glad to learn you are also holding successful Kirtana in the high schools. These young people are our future in Krishna Consciousness so try your best to convince them."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970