Planet ISKCON

Vedic Discourse by His Grace Mahabhagavat Das on Nov 24th 2013. Vedic Discourse by Her Grace Kamala Gopi Devi Davi on Nov 17th 2013.

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The post Caitanya Nitai passes away in the true spirit of the Mahabharata – humbly embracing Krsna’s will appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

After a series of successful communication conferences in the Northern, Western and Eastern parts of India, ISKCON Communications conducted its annual "All India conference", at one of the prominent temples in South India, at Sri Radha Govinda temple, Tirupathi. Read more ›

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The term is similar to a mid-life crisis, but it refers to the plight of students in school or right out of college trying to figure out what they want to do with the rest of their lives. When I ask senior students if they know about their plans after they graduate, they give me a consistently similar response: "I have no idea." Read more ›

The battlefield setting of the Gita often prompts people to ask the question: “How can God instruct a peace-seeking person to fight a deadly war that caused so much suffering?”

The Gita (05.29) unequivocally declares that Krishna is the greatest well-wisher of all living beings. He never wants to cause anyone any suffering; in fact, he wants to end all sufferings of everyone. And his instructions are meant to promote that benevolent purpose.

Let us understand this by looking at a paradoxical instruction of Krishna. In the Gita (11.55), he asks Arjuna to work for him (mat-karma krn) and to never bear malice towards anyone (nirvairah sarva-bhuteshu). For Arjuna to do Krishna’s work meant fighting the war against the Kauravas headed by Duryodhana. How could he fight without malice? In other words, how could he be nonviolently violent?

The fact is that neither Krishna nor Arjuna desired to harm Duryodhana – the war was their last recourse to protect Duryodhana from his selfish lower nature that was harming himself and everyone else, including the Pandavas.

Gita wisdom explains that all of us have a selfless higher nature, our spiritual side, and a selfish lower nature, our material side. Krishna wants us to triumph over our lower nature, as the Gita (03.43) urges, and thereby do good to ourselves as well as everyone else. To help us win our inner war, he shares spiritual knowledge (Gita 04.01). And he also personally descends (04.09) to protect dharma which is essentially the means to apply that spiritual knowledge and thereby win the inner war. An integral part of dharma is to act as the well-wisher of all living beings, as the Gita (12.13) exhorts, and help them win their individual inner wars. Thus, from the enlightened spiritual perspective, everyone is our on our side – everyone is like us, pure souls pitted against their lower natures.

Unfortunately, in this war, the lower nature so seduces some people that they fight for it instead of against it. Such misled people rebuff all counsel intended to help them see how they are ruining themselves by their defection. Duryodhana was a tragic example of such an individual whose greed so dominated and perverted him that he shamelessly perpetrated grievous injustices against the Pandavas. Not only that, he scornfully rejected the counsel affectionate elders like Vidura and Bhishma, venerable sages like Vyasa and Maitreya, and even the Supreme Lord, Krishna, who accepted the menial post of a peace messenger in a last-ditch effort to avoid bloodshed.

In fact, the Mahabharata describes in an entire section, the Udyoga Parva [The Book of Effort], the vigorous efforts of the Pandavas to avoid war. And after the war, the longest section of the Mahabharata entitled Shanti Parva describes elaborate guidelines for the king to rule justly and thereby do everything possible to maintain peace.

But despite the best efforts, some people like Duryodhana are so bent on gratifying their lower nature that only the surgical treatment of capital punishment can redeem their lost souls. For such extreme situations, the Gita does not fight shy of recommending physical warfare. But even while fighting such an unavoidable war, it urges us to not let animosity blind us to spiritual reality, as is demonstrated in the Gita’s call (11.55) to Arjuna to do his prescribed duty of fighting and yet not give in to animosity. The Pandavas honored the Gita’s call for nonviolent violence, as is evident in their arranging after the war for a respectable funeral of the Kauravas for their spiritual welfare.

For most of us, this nonviolent violence doesn’t have to ever express itself as physical violence. Our relationship conflicts hardly ever warrant drastic actions like violence. For resolving such conflicts, Gita wisdom urges us to remember that we are not fighting against people, but are fighting against their lower nature. This insight can deter us from malevolent responses that will involve our succumbing to our lower nature and making a bad situation worse. By remembering that others are like us in that they are also battling their lower nature, we can direct our nonviolent violence against our lower nature. We can choose mature responses that express our higher nature, thereby doing our best to improve the situation. And we may well be surprised how often our choosing to honor our higher nature will inspire others to similarly act according to their higher nature, thereby dramatically improving the prospects of a win-win resolution.

Thus the Gita’s insight that we are all on the same side in the inner war and the Gita’s call for nonviolent violence in this war is the strongest foundation for sustainable peace.

Last Day of Kartik – ISKCON Chowpatty

Srila Prabhupada wanted to distribute prasadam (spiritual food) along with spiritual education. He wrote:

“If we open a branch in Madras, actually there are so many poor children there. Spiritual education and food, that is proper. Simply supplying food is nonsense.” (letter to Gurudasa, 13 May 1972)

Hare Krishna.

The post “Simply supplying food is nonsense” appeared first on Jayadvaita Swami.

Srila Prabhupada wanted to distribute prasadam (spiritual food) along with spiritual education. He wrote:

“If we open a branch in Madras, actually there are so many poor children there. Spiritual education and food, that is proper. Simply supplying food is nonsense.” (letter to Gurudasa, 13 May 1972)

Hare Krishna.

Get Clean

Toronto, Ontario

After a long day at a desk and a phone (for one hour with students) I took an evening trek west on Bloor Street.  I unwound, I reflected.

There’s a neighbourliness to this segment of the street right up to include Little Korea and the Christie Pitts Park where a magnificent large image of a tiger is lit up in the dark.  On my return I popped into a place of shop owners, one of those east Indian trinket and clothing shops.  I’ve known the family for years.  I stepped in.  They looked a little morose, I wondered why.

“Lots of merchandise, no customers,” complained Mrs. Agarwal.  I could not verbally be critical of their place, only in the mind, I am their priest after all.  They demonstrated their natural reverential side, however.  I couldn’t help noticing that if there was a little more effort towards a smart displaying of the goods, there might be some customers.  It’s Christmas time, presentation is practically everything if you want to sell something.

Again, I didn’t feel it was my place to say anything.  I wanted to help in some way.  Even though they seemed to be struggling with their sales, their natural piety came through.   Mrs. Agarwal handed me an envelope which had a donation as the content inside.  It came from the heart.  It’s in the Indian culture to give to a sahdu (monk) when they see one.  The mentality is, “A holy man came into my shop, how auspicious.”  Of course, I don’t feel that way about myself, I have a lot of karma that I’m carrying.  I’m not particularly clean, but I can say that I’m strict with principles, no intoxications touch my lips or enter my blood stream.  No meat meets my belly.  No gambling engages my hands, and no sex.  These principals keep me protected.  In that way, there’s less contamination in my being, I guess you could say.  Thank Krishna.

I thank the Agarwals for their time, their kind words and gift.  I was left to trek back and in that time of contemplation, remembered what one personal friend from the States today said on the phone, “When my wife and I did our marriage vows 30 years ago, we promised we would never raise our voice at each other.”

Well, they’ve been doing it.  Sounds like a pretty clean program they’ve got going on.  That’s exactly what I told the students that came from Kingston today.  Our purpose in this world is to get clean.

May the Source be with you!

5 KM

1965 November 23: "Now we have got our English Srimad-Bhagavatam and any intelligent man impressed with our Siddhantas will certainly change his life's mode of action. And above all this is to satisfy the transcendental desire of Srila Prabhupada who desired very enthusiastically to start centres like this in the foreign countries."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1965

1967 November 23: "The disciple may misunderstand a bonafide Spiritual Master under pressure of Maya's influence. But a bonafide Spiritual Master never lets go a devotee once accepted. When a disciple misunderstands, the Master regrets his inability to protect the disciple and sometimes cries with tears in the eyes."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1967

1969 November 23: "Our Movement is very genuine, scientific and benedictory. Only the first class intelligent class of men can understand the value of this movement. But Lord Caitanya has given us the Hare Krishna Mantra which makes things very easy. So go on chanting."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969

1972 November 23: "Develop your program to perfection so simply by hearing and seeing you, students will want to come forward to join. And distribute many millions of books, that Krishna will help you do."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1972 November 23: "So long you remain active only satisfying Krishna's senses, then this movement will be successful without any doubt. As soon as someone wants to satisfy his own senses, then everything fails."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1974 November 23: "The independent cooking done in the temple kitchen is not good. Any paid cook is not desirable. The right thing is that only twice initiated brahmana disciples may cook in the temple."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1974 November 23: "Why a servant? Godbrothers are not meant for being servants. Without the spiritual master's order, nobody can utilize the service of a godbrother as one's personal servant. We address each-other as prabhu, so how can we engage our godbrother as servant?"
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1975 November 23: "Traveling and preaching, this is the business of a sannyasi. Please follow my order in this regard. So far your becoming GBC, yes I wanted that, but there are so many complaints. This is not good. GBC must mean that by his managing, there is not any complaints."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1975

The post November 23rd, 2013 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Bhakti Bhringa Govinda Swami accepted disciples and he and Giriraj Swami and others spoke at the ceremony.

“Srila Prabhupada would say that initiation means that we really come to understand that ‘I am hopelessly and helplessly lost in the ocean of material existence; I am completely bewildered and I don’t know how to get out on my own — therefore please help me.’ Srila Prabhupada said when a person has that type of consciousness, that warrants the person’s receiving initiation. Since Srila Prabhupada based everything he established and did on the principles of Bhagavad-gita, he always used the example of Arjuna surrendering to Krishna as a prime example to illustrate this point. Arjuna was totally bewildered and expressed his frustration by saying:

karpanya-doshopahata-svabhavah
pricchami tvam dharma-sammudha-cetah
yac chreyah syan niscitam bruhi tan me
sishyas te ‘ham sadhi mam tvam prapannam

‘Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of miserly weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me for certain what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.’ (Bg 2.7) “ — Bhakti Bhringa Govinda Swami
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Bhakti Bringa Govinda Swami
Giriraj Swami

There is always going to be room for improvement with our Japa - even when we make the decision to reform our Japa and chant good quality rounds. Even when we reach that stage of good quality chanting, we should never think we are there - our chanting requires constant attention to the sound of the Holy names and we should always keep our mind in that place of Krsna's Holy names

Sunrise in England. Hard to catch it, sometimes, but always worth the effort.

This week I have been thinking about the Gayatri mantra and how it is chanted at sunrise, noon and sunset. Although the Hare Krishna maha-mantra can be chanted without following any ‘hard and fast rules,’ the Gayatri does have rules attached to it, and they must be followed in order to achieve the full effect. When I was living in the tropics, in East Africa, it was very easy to chant the Gayatri mantra at the same times every day. That’s because the sun always came up at six in the morning and went down at six in the evening. And when I was living for a few months on the equator, noon was easy to calculate because it was when the sun was directly overhead.

In England the sun rises and sets at different times each day, and its a little bit harder to chant at the right times. In this month of November, sunrise does not happen until around 7.30, and sunset comes upon all of us quite unexpectedly, right in the middle of the afternoon!

But a brahmana is meant to chant the Vedic Gayatri according to the movements of the sun, and so becomes a bit of a sun-watcher. However, brahmanas have almost a one hour period in which to chant their mantra, so there’s a bit of laxity allowed in their precision timekeeping. The old Vedic lengths of time are the muhurta, which lasts for 48 minutes; and the danda, which lasts for half of that, 24 minutes. A brahmana wanting to chant the Gayatri in the morning can do so any time from one danda before sunrise (24 minutes before sunrise) all the way through until one danda after sunrise (24 minutes after sunrise). Let us say that it is late November somewhere in England and the sun rises at precisely 7.36 am. The brahmana can chant his/her Gayatri at any time from 7.12 am until 8.00 am. The same rule applies for the evening Gayatri at sunset.

Punctilious brahmanas will also tell you that the most preferential time for chanting the Gayatri is slightly before sunrise, before the first glimpse of the sun disc can be seen; and slightly after sunset, when the sun has disappeared but before the stars can be seen.

For those who chant the Hare Krishna maha mantra, any time is a good time. However, it has been proven by thousands of years of experience that chanting any mantra is particularly efficacious during the early morning Brahma-muhurta period. That’s not because the mantra becomes any more powerful – its because the chanter can listen to the mantra with more concentration! The Brahma-muhurta is a golden period every morning before sunrise and it is highly recommended to take advantage of this little celestial secret of Mother Nature and to use this time to our great advantage. When is it, and how long does it last?

You’ll notice from the word muhurta that the golden period lasts for 48 minutes. It begins two muhurtas  – or 96 minutes – before sunrise. So let us say, again, that sunrise is at 7.36 am. Counting back 96 minutes (or one hour and 36 minutes) from 7.36 am brings us to 6.00 am. That means that the Brahma-muhurta begins at 6.00 am and will last until 6.48 am. This will be the best natural time for meditation or any kind of contemplative or transcendent activity.

In the summertime it will naturally be difficult for English people to take advantage of this golden period as it falls very early in the morning. Take the month of June, for instance. On the 6^th of June, 2013, sunrise in England was at 4.46 am. Counting back 96 minutes from sunrise brings us to 3.10 am. That gives us a Brahma-muhurta from 3.10 am until 3.58 am. Taking into account getting up out of bed, brushing your teeth, having a shower and getting dressed, that would mean your alarm clock going off at 2.30 am. Which, if you want to get any beauty sleep at all, means that you would need to go to bed by 8.00 pm the evening before. Not easy with three children.

What it does mean is that as far as early morning meditation is concerned, the darker winter months in England – beginning right now – are the best. They’re an even better opportunity than living in India would give you. So I warmly recommend my readers to take full advantage and grab at least a few minutes of that golden period in darkest winter.

If you want to know the rising and setting times of the sun and moon throughout the year, this site may be helpful.

Everyone can become a fearless and honest person if his very existence is purified by discharging the prescribed duty for each and every order of life. One can become fixed in one's prescribed duty by faithful aural reception of Vedic instructions and assimilation of the essence of Vedic knowledge by devotional service to the Lord.

- Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.5 purport

BG 06.35 How to Experience Krishna in Chanting 2010-05-09 Polish

False Propaganda Of Happiness 2010-05-11

original video post here.

Krishna is so sweet! That is His special quality apart from all other qualities He possesses! He has so many names but all of them actually are tied to His devotees in some form. This connection embodies sweetness or mellows or bhava or rasa. This is the reason Krishna is Swayam Bhagavan. He is a complete Person or Purusa. We all want to imitate that completeness.

We want to be complete and in that sense of completeness we want to become perfect and in perfection we derive happiness. However, we can never imitate that perfection or completeness of Krishna because He has all characteristics of glory in full. Does He also have the bad characteristics we see in this world such as envy, pride, one may ask? Just as there is darkness, or shadow as a result of light, similarly these negative attributes are shadow truths of Krishna's opulent glory. In other words, darkness is simply an absence of light and envy, pride et al is simply an absence of love, humility et al.

In our desire to become all complete and perfect we in a subtle sense aspire and compete with the All Complete Krishna. But by nature we are separated and particle emanations of Krishna. Materially speaking if the whole disintegrates into parts, the whole no longer will exist in time. But the spiritual nature is the opposite. The whole remains and the parts also remain holistically. So Krishna still remains in His full blown glory and we also are full within our sphere of existence.

The ideal fullness or completeness therefore, is to fulfill our separated and particle property by subordinating to the Whole Krishna for that is indeed our constitutional nature. This subordination of energy actually will complete us and make us perfect and it is in this perfection or completeness that we will be happy.

So yes Krishna is so sweet that only He can be considered as God because it is through this sweetness that He blows His Flute and attracts the minds of all those living beings who have voluntarily agreed to use their minute energies in enhancing the sweetness of the Lord.

No other forms of God possesses this quality of sweetness and in no other forms of God is the mood of service of the minute individual beings so complete/perfect and consequently in no other relationships (mundane or spiritual) will we be satisfied, happy and blissful to the fullest!

Hare Krishna

Q&A’s Two Concepts of Life: Material and Spiritual 2009-05-18

2009-05-03 Wroclaw Vedic Cultural Days

To enter into Vrindavana we need to develop an intense desire to serve Radha and Krsna as They desire to be served. We should learn this from the brajavasis beginning with Srila Prabhupada.

Is it an impediment to have lustful attachment to Radha, to, How important is it to give up attachment to women.

The post Nityananda Candra, Bh. Attila, Bhakta dasa, Isvara Krsna and Bh. Zeno ask questions ranging from: appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.