Remembering Shrila Prabhupada
→ Matsya Avatar das adhikari



PART I
In the sacred occasion of the departure of Bhaktivedanta Swami Shrila Prabhupada, we pray Shri Krishna to empower us with strength so that we could carry in our hearts the example of His extraordinary life, character, deeds and works forever. Those who were able to witness His life and teachings, had the greatest luck to testify the changes in their lives and in the lives of so many people.
These transformations are the great events from which we can draw an inexhaustible inspiration: Shrila Prabhupada gave us the opportunity to live in the spiritual awareness. The path traced by Him is followed by hundreds of thousands of people, and the most favored are those who welcomed Him in the heart, dedicating their service to the realization of His dream, that is make available the love of God to as many people as possible regardless of race, creed, culture, social position, politics or religion.
36 years ago Shrila Prabhupada left His physical body and this material world to return to where He came from, the spiritual universe. We pray Bhagavan Shri Krishna to give us the purity to be able to celebrate His glories properly. By celebrating His glories we become aware of his greatness, and becoming aware of the greatness of a pure devotee of the Lord, we can experience the greatness of God. In this way, practicing the nine paths of Bhakti, we can realize our divine nature and become purified from the distortions of psychic structure and its conditionings.
We take this special opportunity to increase our sincere attachment to the lotus feet of Shrila Prabhupada, to humbly serve His teachings and His way of life so as to bring us closer to Him and to Shri Krishna through the nine paths of love mentioned before.
Shrila Prabhupada allowed hundreds of thousands of people to transform their lives by changing their vision, allowing them to get rid of the identification with the material structure that covers their eternal Self. Shrila Prabhupada gave the possibility to understand the difference between the spiritual Self, the body and the mind and to realize the divine potential of each person regardless of age, gender, social status and culture. The term Acarya means exemplary. Through His example and model of life, Shrila Prabhupada made the teachings of the Shastras feasible.
A person can take the Bhagavad-gita, read some sublime passages and reflect: "How nice it would be to live like that, but who is able to? I would not be capable of doing that for sure." We need a model, an example, there must be someone who lives the teachings of the Bhagavad-gita constantly, faithfully, coherently, and joyfully. The sacred work becomes a person, and the highest aspirations become applicable in our lives. It is exactly what happened to all of us. Why? Because Shrila Prabhupada experienced Bhakti so intensely and joyfully, no matter what life presented to Him in terms of ordeals, difficulties and obstacles to overcome. His relying on Krishna at all times without ever becoming fatalistic allowed this great Acarya to live in this world in pure spiritual consciousness. Faith is not a fatalism, it is an evolutionary creativity for searching the best solution for the existential problems; if we direct our efforts towards the spiritual evolution with commitment and faith, such solution will appear as Paramatma in the heart, as well as through the expert guidance of the Spiritual Master in the outer world.

The point that is missing in our love
→ The Spiritual Scientist

The basic principle of the living condition is that we have a general propensity to love someone. No one can live without loving someone else. This propensity is present in every living being. Even an animal like a tiger has this loving propensity at least in a dormant stage, and it is certainly present in the human beings. The missing point, however, is where to repose our love so that everyone can become happy. At the present moment the human society teaches one to love his country or family or his personal self, but there is no information where to repose the loving propensity so that everyone can become happy. That missing point is Krsna.

Nectar of Devotion, Preface

Sunday, November 17th, 2013
→ The Walking Monk

Out With The Down And Out

Miami, Florida

For a change I decided to walk down the poor route.  Right near Coconut Grove you have this enclave of low rental low real estate properties.  There are even empty lots.  Who in their right mind would invest in an area like this?

It was after the Sunday program at ISKCON Miami that I opted for a less comfortable, perhaps, less safe space.  A place which doesn’t reek of money like the affluent shops and posh drinking joints of the Grove.  Perhaps I was taking a risk in the dark like this passing by people on drugs, drink, or just being down and out.  Somehow the test of this moment had me feeling more God dependant, and for this reason I was actually feeling not so bad off.

One woman who was quite high on something, followed me for some distance and began talking to me after having a loud conversation with herself.  She was coherent enough and just asked which group I belonged to, so I said, “Hare Krishna.”  That rather ignited her further on as she couldn’t stop saying the name over and over again.  For others it was easy to get some little remark from them, “Hello”.  I guess they see me as a minority figure as they are – a person of common ground.  One young chap, however, just looked so ashamed as he looked the other way.

My stay at Virginia and Day Juncture at the ISKCON centre nearby, had been interesting.  Louis Lumis, recently met one of our members.  He had been homeless.  Now, he takes his mantra beads everywhere he goes, feels clear headed, and feels joyful over the new turn in his life.  Sergio also had a serious drug issue just a year ago.  He came to our open house vegetarian feast and felt so good about his life slowly coming together.

At the feast where there was chanting and an initiation ceremony, I met briefly a broad spectrum of people, many of whom are professionals.  Quite the opposite end of the social status that I had met later.

People are people, rich or poor, healthy or ill; they all have the same spiritual need.  After all, we really are all very much the same, we are spirits.  Thank God!

I would like to congratulate the initiates, Steve, has a new name, it’s now Sri Dhama, Anna is now Ananda Rupa, and last but not least, Tony is now Tirtha. 

May the Source be with you!

4 KM

Do you have too many bangles?
→ KKS Blog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 21 July 2013, Cape Town, South Africa, Bhagavad-gita 14.21, Sunday Feast Lecture)

There is a story about a young girl in India who was of marriageable age and one day she was home alone and just then two unknown men came to the door of the house – there was an elderly man and a younger man. When she saw that younger man, he reminded her of the prince she had been waiting for and she decided that she wanted to impress him. So, she decided to cook since men can be impressed this way. And she made all arrangements to make a first-class meal, including first-class rice because in India, they know their rice, if you know what I mean.

So, you know, she cooked a first-class meal and in the process of trying to make first-class rice, she took the rice on a tray and then threw up the rice in the air because then the little stones and pieces of wood that could possibly break the tooth of the innocent eaters, would fly out of the rice. Of course, nowadays that is all done by machines but in the old days, it was done like that.

24Anyway, as she was throwing up the rice, on her wrists she had many bangles, many bracelets and they were making a clunking noise. So, she realized, “Oh! They can hear, they can hear this noise of the bangles and when they hear it, they will realize that I don’t have a servant to clean the rice. Hmmm, that we are too poor to have servants. Then, he will never marry me. Hmmm. Not a good idea.” So, she broke off the bangles, all except for one. She left one bangle on each arm and when she threw up the rice there was no more noise. Everything perfect.

So this bangle story is speaking about ornaments and how we have many of our prize ornaments in life. Those things that we are proud of, “Ah yes, my family background, my nationality, my diplomas - three swimming diplomas. Yes, so many diplomas.”

So okay, lots of bangles are there, anything that adds to our prestige - the bangles. So all these bangles have to broken until only one bangle remains, the Krsna bangle on either arm. Then it is possible, when there is no other interest. But when there are so many other interests, so many other prized, valuable, important ornaments in life, then there will be a collision – a conflict of interest. That is what happens. The more ornaments we have in the material world, the more conflicts of interests there will be in our lives.

 

 

Eco and the Ego
→ 16 ROUNDS to Samadhi magazine

A crippled economy and a polluted environment plague our social body. Both largely stem from the same core disease — pollution of hearts. Blinded by distractions, one can forget how to invest in what awards a meaningful, fulfilling life.

Parallel to our vast strides in technology, there is a dangerous rise in unemployment, foreclosures and degrading education. Millions of people are stricken with hopelessness and strife. Sadly, in the name of progress we have polluted the air, water, soil and the food we eat. What can we do? The following is a story about an encounter I had with someone who cared.

It was winter in New Delhi when the days are mild and the nights are biting cold. New Delhi’s wide roads are lined with massive government buildings – the older ones built by the British perhaps a century back with stone pillars, ornate statues and vast lawns. Others built after independence in 1947 are adorned with Indian style arches and domes.

I rode toward the airport. Monkeys appeared everywhere, scampering along the boundary walls. At the crossroads we passed circular islands of grass and trees surrounding memorials for the country’s freedom fighters. The streets were congested with cars, trucks and motorcycle rickshaws spewing out trails of exhaust fumes. Overhead a murky cloud of smog hung in the sky and reduced the sun to a gray, lifeless ball. The fumes were thick, the smells toxic, and they sat on our tongues like sour lozenges. On the roadside an elderly man squatted cross-legged with back erect, performing pranayama, a yogic breathing exercise. He vigorously inhaled and exhaled. I wondered if it did him more harm than good.

We crossed a bridge over the Yamuna River. I looked down and remembered 30 years before, when I first came to India, that under the same bridge the Yamuna flowed in her full glory. Now, she looked plundered and crippled. What was once a pristine river had now become a thick, blackish liquid, foaming bubbles, and a current so lame she barely flowed.

When I reached the airport and was waiting at the gate for my flight, a lady informed me that sitting close by was the Union Minister for Environment and Forests. She wanted to talk to me. I obliged.

The minister stood up and greeted me, “Namaste Swamiji.” After a pleasant exchange she suddenly challenged me with a passion.

“What are you spiritual leaders doing about the ecology?” She was very serious.

“Every second the air is being saturated with cancerous smog,” she said. “Tons of raw sewage and toxic waste are dumped hourly into rivers where millions of people bathe and drink. The earth is being stripped of its forest and has become a dumping ground for deadly waste. The world is on the brink of ecological disaster while all of you spiritualists are praying, meditating or chanting. What is all your devotion doing to save the ecology?”

Her concern was real and impassioned. It was exciting to see that depth of concern from a powerful leader over an issue that affects us all.

“Yes, the environment is everyone’s responsibility,” I responded, “and I sincerely admire your tireless commitment. The spiritual leaders I know believe that along with passing laws and doing the cleaning work, we need to address the root cause of the problem. If a person is covered with boils, the symptoms must be treated, but unless the cause of the problem is addressed, the boils will recur. In the case of boils, the cause may be a disease in the blood. The root of cause of pollution in the world is pollution in the heart.

“Toxic greed has contaminated the minds of human society. The environment is simply an external manifestation of the ecology of the mind. Greed is an obsession, an addiction. It can never be quenched. The more it gets, the more it needs. Greed hardens the heart and fools us into rationalizing cruelty and justifying crime. Greed induces envy, divides families, provokes wars and blinds us to our real self-interest. Greed for money, power, fame, sex — the world is ravaged by greed. It is practically an exercise in futility to attempt to clean the environment when politicians are corrupted by bribes, industrialists pollute rivers to maximize profits and scientists put aside their ethics for funding.

“The Bhagavad Gita states that greed is a symptom of avidya or ignorance that covers the natural virtues of the true self within us. I’m sure you would agree with me that most people are not bad spirited, but due to a lack of awareness they may be destroying the environment, not understanding that what may seem convenient, like dumping industrial waste into a river, is actually killing fish, animals and people. So along with the pollution of our rivers, we must give attention to the pollution in our hearts. If you successfully clean the air, the sky, every river and every ocean, it is for certain that people will pollute them again unless they reform the ecology of their hearts.

“Spiritual life is the science of cleansing the heart and tasting the joy of living in harmony with God, each other and nature. It begins with cultivating good character, the willingness to make personal sacrifices for a higher cause, to make the right choices even in the face of temptation and fear, and put concern for the well being of others as a priority.

“How to do that? All of these virtues can spring from bhakti or spiritual love. The Bible teaches that ‘the first and great commandment is to love God with all one’s heart, mind and soul.’ And the natural result of that is, ‘to love your neighbor as yourself.’ Nature is also our neighbor, she is alive with rights like everyone else, but too many people don’t see nature that way. The Vedic scriptures tell that the most simple and powerful method of cleansing the ecology of the heart and awakening this dormant love within us is to chant God’s names. In my tradition we chant the names of Krishna.”

“God has empowered all of us in different ways and if we agree on what the real problem is, then we can all contribute our part of the solution. The well being of Mother Earth is everyone’s problem. It is crucial for leaders in all fields to serve cooperatively.”

At that point the minister was called to board her flight. She thought for a moment, then stood up and smiled saying, “Yes Swamiji, What you say is true. We all need to work together.”

She was right to take me to task. Religious and spiritual leaders should be held accountable for environmental activism, not only because they have access to large communities and can influence votes but because service is integral to religious and spiritual life. Reducing carbon emissions is important, but it is shortsighted if not coupled with reducing the toxic emissions from our heart; and that is something spiritual leaders are supposed to teach and something all thinking people, regardless of their beliefs, should practice.

We should honor Mother Earth with gratitude; otherwise, our spirituality may become hypocritical. The earth nourishes us with every necessity for a prosperous life. When, on a massive worldwide scale we plunder her oil, destroy her forests, pollute her resources, torture and kill her animals, soak her with the blood of her children, exploit one another and trample her with immorality, there will naturally be devastating consequences.

We should honor our mother and respect all of her children as our brothers and sisters. Otherwise, we may force her to react. Humanity has reached a critical crossroads. We have made monumental progress in technology, medicine, science, academics and globalization but if we do not use them with compassion, what will be our fate? The dire need is at hand to take responsibility as caretakers of the helpless and live as dedicated instruments of God’s love.

One Step Closer
→ NY Times & Bhagavad Gita Sanga/ Sankirtana Das


Without being didactic, my recently published Mahabharata: The Eternal Quest offers an authentic Vaisnava perspective in the understanding of who Krishna is, of dharma, of real leadership qualities, and of the foreboding nature of our age, the Kali-yuga. All this as the story  moves steadily forward, and as the tension builds,  and all in under 280 pages (a comfortable read for a college or even high school course).

My hope is that MahaTEQ  will eventually replace William Buck’s ambiguous rendition that so many professors are accustomed to using. To bring this goal one step closer, I am asking for your help. 

In the last five months, if you googled Mahabharata, my site has jumped from page 15 to page 3. Buck's book is on page ONE. My first step was to write a good piece of literature; the second was to have the book's back cover adorned with quotes by professors, and now the third (but not final stage) is to get more visibility on google. I humbly request that you visit my site -    www.Mahabharata-Project.com    - to help  achieve this next step and bring it up to page one next to Buck.

It's that simple. THANKS!


New Vrindaban Hosts Homeopathic Flu Protection Presentation
→ New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

FLU PROTECTION

with Homeopathy…

Find out how to Protect and Support your Immune system prior, during and after a Flu outbreak.

Answers to such questions as:

  • What is the best way to get immunity?

  • “The best offense is a good defense.” How can I strengthen my immune system?

  • Is the Flu virus really the enemy? Maybe it plays a role in improving health…

flu

WHEN: December 1st, 3PM

WHERE: Lodge building. Room to be announced

This is a free information session

 WORKSHOP GIVEN BY: Visvadhika dd (Joanne Alves DCHM)

Volunteer Opportunities this Weekend
→ The Toronto Hare Krishna Temple!

Volunteering at Toronto’s Hare Krishna Temple is always a most rewarding experience!  As you may know, the Hare Krishna Temple is famous for providing several thousands of plates of prasadam (spiritualized food) at many Yoga Conferences and Food Shows in Toronto each year.

This coming weekend Nov 22-24th is one such Food Fair, and we need YOUR help to make it successful!
If you are available to help out, please fill out this form and indicate your availability! We will get in touch with you shortly.

Learning digests slowly
→ The Enquirer

विद्य कालेन पच्यते

“vidya kālena pacyate”

We can digest different things at different rates. Fruits digest so quickly, for example – that you increase your risk of indigestion if you eat them with or just after other foods. Vegetables digest more quickly than grains, and so on. But what substance takes the longest time to digest?

vidya kālena pacyate

Knowledge / learning is the most difficult substance to “digest” (to really make full use of).


Why Does the Soul Have a Form? (And other questions)
→ The Enquirer

Question: The population of India is around 1.2 billion now. It was a much smaller number in the 15th century. I am not mocking, but how did so many souls come into being?

Human beings, no matter how many, are a tiny minority. There are more living entities on the tip of a pin than there are human in India. Each bacteria is a soul. More than that, every atom (irreducable quark) is a soul. There are an infinite number of souls. Sometimes the number of instances of a species fluctuates. Some species even become extinct, but the number of souls is constant at “infinite.”

Souls do not “come into being.” They eternally exist. “नित्यो नित्यानां” (nityo nityānāṁ)the upanishads say (Katha Upanishad, I believe). An infinite number of souls eternally exist. Also पूर्णं अदः पूर्णं इदं (pūrṇaṁ adaḥ pūrṇaṁ idaṁ – “from the infinitely complete comes the infinitely complete – Iśa Upanishad).

Question: Has it been written in any scriptures that there will be a lot more souls yearning to merge into Sri Krishna in Kali Yuga than in the other Yugas?

No. Quite the opposite, in Kali Yuga very few human beings seek mokṣa.

Question: Why does the Soul need to take a form?

This is an excellent question!

What is a “soul”? Bhāgavata Purāṇa 2.10.8 explains that a “soul” is the conscious entity which possesses three qualities: divinity (power of perception), substance (the body, sense organs that facilitate perception), and individuality (a specific point of view, from which one perceives).

The soul is consciousness, but consciousness cannot do anything (even perception) without it’s three intrinsic qualities of divinity, substance and individuality. So the soul inherently requires to have (1) an individual, subjective point of view, (2) to have substances and structures which facilitate its interaction with the world – a “body”, and (3) to have divine empowerment to extend its consciousness through individuality and into the substantial body.

That’s the long answer. The short answer summarizing the same thing is “the soul needs a form because the soul is an individual entity.” Individual entities require an individually distinct locus – some type of form.

If you ask why the soul must be an individual entity, the answer is “because it is consciousness.” Consciousness means awareness. When you are aware of something, you comprehend it from your point of view. So, the principle of subjectivity, and thus individuality, is inherent within the principle of consciousness.

The question can arise if the soul must have a form in the state of mokṣa, liberation. The answer is that the soul can extinguish the tangibility of its existence by remaining devoid of a form and losing itself entirely into the non-active, almost non-existent brahman, but this is a very rudimentary, elementary level of enlightenment / mokṣa. The soul can go beyond Brahman and enter the reality of Bhagavān, a reality known as Vaikuṇṭha (which is synonymous with nirvāṇa). In that condition the soul is real, tangible, and thus still has three qualities: divinity, individuality and substance. The difference is that the substance provided to the soul in material existence is an illusory substance generated by transformation of māyā-śakti, but the substance of the form provided to the soul in Vaikuṇṭha is a real substance generated by transformations of yogamāyā-śakti.

Denst-Desapego-body-art


A World of Names
→ 16 ROUNDS to Samadhi magazine

“The enlightened person endeavors only for the minimum necessities of life while in the world of names. Such a person is intelligently fixed and never endeavors for unwanted things, being competent to perceive practically that such endeavors are merely hard labor for nothing.” -Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.3

Commentary by Srila Prabhupada

The bhagavata-dharma, the spiritual way, is perfectly distinct from the way of fruitive activities, which are considered by the transcendentalists to be merely a waste of time. The whole universe, or for that matter all material existence, is moving on as jagat, simply for planning business to make one’s position very comfortable or secure; although, everyone sees that this existence is neither comfortable nor secure and can never become comfortable or secure at any stage of development. Those who are captivated by the illusory advancement of material civilization (following the way of phantasmagoria) are certainly mad. The whole material creation is a jugglery of names only; in fact, it is nothing but a bewildering creation of matter like earth (solids), water (liquids), and fire (heat). The buildings, furniture, cars, bungalows, mills, factories, industries, peace, war, or even the highest perfection of material science, namely atomic energy and electronics, are all simply bewildering names of material elements with their concomitant reactions of the three modes of illusion. One who knows them perfectly well is not interested in creating unwanted things for a situation which is not at all reality, but simply names of no more significance than the babble of sea waves. The great kings, leaders, and soldiers fight with one another in order to perpetuate their names in history. They are forgotten in due course of time, and they make a place for another era in history. But the devotee, the transcendentalist, realizes how much history and historical persons are useless products of flickering time. The fruitive worker aspires after a big fortune in the matter of wealth, sex, and worldly adoration, but those who are fixed in perfect reality are not at all interested in such false things. For them it is all a waste of time. Since every second of human life is important, an enlightened person should be careful to utilize time cautiously. One second of human life wasted in the vain research of planning for happiness in the material world can never be replaced, even if one spends millions of coins of gold. Therefore, the transcendentalist desiring freedom from the clutches of maya, or the illusory activities of life, is warned not to be captivated by the external features of fruitive actors.

Human life is never meant for sense gratification, but for self-realization. Srimad-Bhagavatam instructs us solely on this subject from the very beginning to the end. Human life is simply meant for self-realization. The civilization which aims at this utmost perfection never indulges in creating unwanted things, and such a perfect civilization prepares people only to accept the bare necessities of life or to follow the principle of the best use of a bad bargain. Our material bodies and our lives in that connection are bad bargains because the living entity is actually spirit, and spiritual advancement of the living entity is absolutely necessary. Human life is intended for the realization of this important factor, and one should act accordingly, accepting only the bare necessities of life and depending more on God’s gift without diversion of human energy for any other purpose, such as being mad for material enjoyment. The materialistic advancement of civilization is called “the civilization of the demons,” which ultimately ends in wars and scarcity. The transcendentalist is specifically warned herewith to be fixed in mind, so that even if there is difficulty in plain living and high thinking, he will not budge even an inch from his stark determination. For a transcendentalist, it is a suicidal policy to be intimately in touch with the sense gratifiers of the world, because such a policy will frustrate the ultimate gain of life.