Planet ISKCON

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.

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Nagar-Sankirtana Mayapur Dham (Mayapur Daily Harinama) Read more ›

Reporter: How do you know that the animal has a soul? Srila Prabhupada: You can know, also. Here is the scientific proof... the animal is eating, you are eating; the animal is sleeping, you are sleeping; the animal is defending, you are defending; the animal is having sex, you are having sex; the animals have children, you have children; they have a living place, you have a living place. If the animal's body is cut, there is blood; if your body is cut, there is blood. So, all these similarities are there. Now, why do you deny this one similarity, the presence of the soul? Read more ›

Totally sublime wedding at the Lotus Feet of GIRIHARI Read more ›

The whole material creation is a jugglery of names only; in fact, it is nothing but a bewildering creation of matter like earth, water and fire. 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.

- Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.3 purport

H.H Sacinandan Swami Maharaj 11/18/2013

Good Letter

Toronto, Ontario

I was reluctant to read stacks of personal letters (you know, messages on paper) that were left on my desk, or rather, given to me by the person whom they were addressed to. His name is Steve Mann, otherwise known as Satyavrata. He had left these letters which were written over a period by a well wisher, Kirtanananda, who was the son of a minister and later took to the practice of bhakti yoga. He had become controversial and had written these letters when in prison. But, to his credit, he wrote some insightful literature much to do with the comparative thought between Christianity and spirituality from the east.

In an effort to reach out to one in need, Kirtanananda wrote the following letter to his friend. I thought it worth sharing and after reading it and after a walk through Rosedale:

“Thank you for your recent letter, 15th March, 1998.

So far as Lord Jesus is concerned, His mission is the same as all the other representatives of Godhead; namely, to remind us that we are all children of the one Almighty Father, and that He wants us to come Home, Back to Godhead! Again, don’t worry about some ‘final dissolution’ of the material world’. Material nature is also eternal, although any particular manifestation is temporary. The sacrifice Christ made is the same sacrifice demanded of all of us, ‘die before you die’, ‘die to live’. Unless we die to the ‘old man’, the false ego self, we cannot live to the ‘new man’, the real self that is part and parcel of the One, Krishna.

My instruction to you is the same instruction Prabhupada gave, ‘Chant and be happy’. Surrendering to Krishna means to stop worrying about your future and leave everything in His hands. Trust Him completely, He is your Father. He loves you perfectly and completely. He knows what is BEST for you. He is able to accomplish it and has the will to do it. Just trust Him!

Perhaps you should pray the serenity prayer, Lord, grant me the serenity (intelligence) to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.

Also, the second part of Saint Francis’s prayer gives the secret of that sacrifice I mentioned, ‘Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love, for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we born to Eternal Life.’

May the Source be with you!

7 KM

1967 November 22: "It is my duty to deliver you the right thing in right earnestness and it is the duty of the receiver to act in the standard spiritual regulation. Any good soul who approaches me for spiritual enlightenment is depending on my responsibility to get him back to home, back to Krishna."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1967

1968 November 22: "Your father and mother are very good souls. We are trying to educate our disciples to produce Krishna Conscious children, but your father and mother, without being Krishna Conscious, have produced such nice Krishna Conscious devotees, so I am very much obliged to them."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968

1968 November 22: "Prahlada never protested against his father, but he never agreed either. That should be your policy also. I am always praying to Krishna to protect you because I know purposefully I have sent you into a fiery condition of maya."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968

1968 November 22: "Arjuna sacrificed all his good sentiments and accepted the order of Krishna thus he came out victorious. Follow this principle and you will be never disturbed by any frightening condition of maya. We are neither renouncer nor enjoyer. We are simply servitor of Krishna."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968

1971 November 22: "I am happy to accept them all as my sincere disciples. Now you give them good advice how to push on this Krishna Consciousness Movement. Let them know it for certain that something given to Krishna is never lost or wasted and if they are determined they may go back to Godhead very soon."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1971

1971 November 22: "Let our philosophy be challenged by anyone and we shall defeat them. We show people by the results: so many centers, happy devotees, big books, strong conviction - like that. Let people judge who is better by the results."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1971