Planet ISKCON

part 1 here

Continuing from the third verse, we conclude the four-verse Bhāgavatam-core with Canto Two, Chapter Nine, Text Thirty-Six

etāvad eva jijñāsyaḿ tattva-jijñāsunātmanaḥ | 
anvaya-vyatirekābhyāḿ yat syāt sarvatra sarvadā ||

Brahmā: How can I personally realize all these things?

Hari: You must certainly investigate them to the fullest extent!

Brahmā: How?

Hari: By inquiring.

Brahmā: From who?

Hari: From individuals who have themselves comprehended these truths.

Brahmā: How did they realize these truths?

Hari: By their own investigative inquiry.

Brahmā: From who?

Hari: From those who inquired before them.

Brahmā: Does this chain of inquiry have an origin?

Hari: I am the origin. It is only by my mercy that anyone can realize anything about me, who am beyond everyone. My mercy spreads out in the world through those who have already availed themselves of it.

To put it simply, I am saying that you will learn the method of realizing these truths by inquiring from one who has already realized, guru. Without receiving my mercy through this channel, it’s not possible to comprehend me by independent conjecture.

Brahmā: How should I inquire?

Hari: Always and everywhere, directly and indirectly.

Brahmā: Would you elaborate on “always and everywhere”?

Hari: There is no circumstance in which you cannot strive for me. No matter who you are, where you are, when you are, or what your condition is – pious or impious – you can always immediately strive for me via sincere inquiry and investigation.

Another implication is that the process of searching for me is itself transcendental and eternal. Even in perfection, the essence of this adventure does not cease.

Brahmā: Would you elaborate on “directly and indirectly.”

Hari: Inquire directly: “What am I?”, and indirectly: “What am I not?” Directly: “What is the Absolute Truth?” Indirectly: “What is ignorance of the Absolute Truth?” Inquire about the value of my love, and the worthlessness not having my love. Inquire about the direct taste of my love when united with me, and the indirect taste of my love when separated from me.

Camera: Imperial Savoy
Film: FujiChrome Provia 100D RDP (expired mid 90s)

I used to have a Deviant Art account. I would post my digital photos and some poetry and for a time I really liked it. Then Flickr came along and I stopped. Also, Instagram came along and made the Photoshop process of turning normal images into photos that looked like medium format shots became all too easy. I stopped taking photos all together, until I rediscovered film and started this blog.

So I’ve been thinking about restarting my Deviant Art account, but I’m not really sure why. I’d still continue this blog, of course, but it’s nice to have all my photos in an easy-to-view place specifically set aside for people who insist upon calling themselves artists. Flickr is great, but there’s just so much out there and not as user-friendly (especially the newish Flickr incarnation.

I first captured the above scene in 2006 with a digital camera. I later doctored the image and posted it to DA. You can still view it here along with my other stuff – some of it from nine years ago.

–
You can also view this shot on Flickr.
Flickr.

Event: Tour Of New Vrindaban
Date: Saturday, November 9th, 2013
Time: 10:00 am to 1:30 pm
Place: Starting at the Bahulaban Barn

Dear New Vrindaban residents and well-wishers,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

As you may be aware, the board members of ISKCON New Vrindaban and ECO-Vrindaban will gather for a bi-annual face to face joint boards’ meeting the weekend of November 8th – 10th, 2013.

On behalf of the board members, I invite you to join us on a tour through parts of New Vrindaban. We will start at Bahulaban and include stops at the Old Vrindaban Farm, Srila Prabhupada’s Palace, Garden of Seven Gates and perhaps a few other locations as well.

Our goal is to visit each of these places before having more in depth discussions about them throughout the weekend.

We would be pleased if you accompany us and express your cares and concerns, ask questions and engage in open dialog along the way.

We appreciate your participation and look forward to seeing you!

Hare Krishna.

Your servant,
Jaya Krsna dasa
ISKCON New Vrindaban Community President

P.S. While this is a walking tour of each location, we will be driving from one place to the next. Please make sure to arrange your transportation ahead of time. Immediately afterwards we will partake in lunch Prasad at the Temple and you are welcome to join us then as well.

Well the coal black sea waits for me me me
The coal black sea waits forever
The waves hit the shore
Crying more more more
But the coal black sea waits forever

The tornados come up the coast they run
Hurricanes rip the sky forever
Though the weathers change
the sea remains the same
The coal black sea waits forever

There are ashes spilt through collective guilt
People rest at sea forever
Since they burnt you up
Collect you in a cup
For you the coal black sea has no terror

Will your ashes float like some foreign boat
ot will they sink absorbed forever
Will the Atlantic Coast
have its final boast
Nothing else contained you ever

Now the coal black sea waits for me me me
The coal black sea waits forever
When I leave this joint
at some further point
The same coal black sea will it be waiting

The post Due to Internet problems I regret that I cannot post a podcast today appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

H.G Hari Sauri Prabhu(ACBSP) – SB 4-31-2

“O Maharaja Parikshit, this entire universe, with its great, exalted demigods like Lord Siva, Lord Brahma, and Lord Indra, is under the control of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Yet the Supreme Lord has one transcendental attribute: He comes under the control of His devotees. This was now exhibited by Krishna in this pastime.” (SB 10.9.19)

I thought, ‘This is the answer! Just as Krishna comes under the control of His devotees, Srila Prabhupada also comes under the control of his devotees.”

There is another aspect to what Srila Prabhupada taught us at the end. As we recite every day in the Damodarastaka (3): “By such pastimes He is drowning the inhabitants of Gokula in pools of ecstasy and revealing to those devotees who are absorbed in knowledge of His supreme majesty and opulence that He is conquered only by devotees whose pure love is imbued with intimacy and is free from all conceptions of awe and reverence. To this Supreme Lord, Sri Damodara, whose belly is bound not with ropes but with His devotee’s pure love, I offer my humble obeisances.”

Of course, Krishna lila is different, because in Vrindavan the devotees forget that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. With the spiritual master, however, there is always an awareness that he is the spiritual master and we are his disciples. Still, Srila Prabhupada was trying to bring us to a higher, more spontaneous platform in interacting with him, which is also the message of the Damodara lila.”
——————————————————————————————————————————
Srila Prabhupada’s Disappearance Day Talk

Today at the temple, many would have gathered to remember the disappearance day of our beloved founder-acharya Srila Prabhupada. I am at work though at the moment and completely forgot that I could tune-in LIVE to hear the remembrance talks. Hopefully, they are recorded and I can listen to them later on.

During my lunch time, I decided to watch any YouTube video of him and the first one that came up was a collection of his time preaching in the western countries. Shortly into the videos, this particular one came up – him in Melbourne 1974.

Smiling at what he said, I continued to honor the Maha Prasad (food offered to the Lord) which I had collected yesterday from the temple.

Thank you Prabhupada for everything.

Continuing from verse two – here is the third of the the essential, four-śloka core of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam – recorded in the Second Canto, Chapter Nine, Text Thirty-Five. (Large text is direct, literal translation, small text incorporates the Gaudiya Sampradaya commentaries.)

yathā mahānti bhūtāni
bhūteṣūccāvaceṣv anu
praviṣṭāny apraviṣṭāni
tathā teṣu na teṣv aham

Brahmā: How do you interact with the realities that your magic generates?

Hari: I am within them, yet outside them, too.

Brahmā: Can you give an example to help me comprehend this apparent contradiction?

Hari: The primordial elements of the universe are beyond everything within the universe. Yet they are also within everything in the universe, great and small, because everything has evolved from them. Similarly I am beyond yet within all perceptions of reality.

Brahmā: I know that your phrase “I am within them, yet outside them, too.” must have many meanings.

Hari: Yes, listen:

“I am within everything, but beyond everything.” One important meaning is this: the fact that I am spread throughout all of reality does not mean that I cannot also localize myself and display my individual name, form, qualities, and activities. I can be within all things, but also have my own transcendent individuality distinct from them.

You can also take the phrase as, “I am within some  things, but beyond other things.” This reveals another important meaning: Although factually I am everywhere, my presence is not tangibly obvious within the illusory reality of māyā. My presence is tangibly direct within the reality revealed by yoga-māyā. So I am within the spiritual reality of yoga-māyā, but beyond the material “reality” of māyā.

You can also take the phrase as, “I invest myself into some things, but remain univested from others.” I am everywhere in all realities, but I am very detached from the affairs within the so-called realities of māyā. I merely facilitate everyone’s dreams of independence and self-importance, and I do so in an utterly neutral and dispassionate manner. I “do not invest myself” in those “realities.” Yet I thoroughly and absolutely invest myself in the realities revealed by yoga-māyā. I am extremely attached and passionate to serve the perceptions of the spiritual individuals existing therein. I give myself to them, wholeheartedly and emotionally. I offer my divine beauty simply to serve their divine vision, decorating myself and dancing for them. I offer the divine sound of my flute and my voice to their divine hearing, playing music that delights them, and playfully conversing with them day and night. Thus I enter into their vision and hearing, saturating their eyes and ears. So too do I passionately long to drift into their noses as my intoxicating fragrance, to enwrap their skin with my velvet-silk embrace, and to fill their mouths with the nectar flavor of my kisses. So, my heart is detached from the affairs of māyā, yet passionately attached to the affairs of yoga-māyā.

Camera: Imperial Savoy
Film: FujiChrome Provia 100D RDP (expired mid 90s)

Even though it was Amarillo, I didn’t see any cowboys at the Cowboy Motel. Never have. I’m not saying that they don’t stay in this fine establishment when passing through the Texas Panhandle, I’ve just not come across them.

Neither have I stayed there. I’m hardly a cowboy.

–

Flickr.