Planet ISKCON

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Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhaya-lila, beginning with verse 52.

“You can feel separation from something only if you have attachment to it. If you know someone and develop an affectionate relationship with the person and then are separated from him (or her), you will experience the mood of separation. The mood of separation makes you want to be with the person. And if you are serious about it and are ready to act upon it, you will take whatever steps are required in order to be united with the person. So, we conditioned souls in the material world have somehow become separated from Krishna. Generally, we have forgotten our relationship with Krishna, and we may even forget—or deny—that God exists. But by hearing about Krishna from devotees, one’s recollection of Krishna is revived. Srila Prabhupada, our spiritual master, gave the example that if you receive a phone call from someone and the person just says his or her name— ’This is So and so’—then immediately you remember everything about the person—because you have a relationship with the person. So, when we hear the holy name of Krishna, that serves to awaken our remembrance of our eternal, loving relationship with Him. It is very powerful.”

Laguna Beach Ratha-yatra talk

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Krishna-katha means narrations about Lord Krishna. There are two Krishna-kathas: narrations spoken by Krishna and narrations spoken about Krishna. The Bhagavad-gita, is the narration or the philosophy on the science of God, spoken by Krishna Himself. Read more ›

The first European Asana Bhakti Yoga Conference with Eddie Stern, Raghunath, Radhanatha Swami, Gauravani, Sacinandana Swami, Patrick Broome and many more was a full success! Many thanks to Madhavi and Caitanya Rasa for organizing the event. Photo courtesy: Axel Hebenstreit Read more ›

Special Day Meditation Podcast

Special Day Meditation Podcast

Special Day Meditation Podcast

Special Day Meditation Podcast

Special Day Meditation Podcast

Special Day Meditation Podcast

Special Day Meditation Podcast

The key to getting something is INVESTING or giving something. That is the law of God.

The post October 15th, 2013 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Vrinda Kund was given to ISKCON Vrindavan by Sri Madhava das Baba in 1988. Since then the devotees of ISKCON have been maintaining the worship of Srimati Vrinda Devi and developing the project Read more ›

New Raman Reti is a spiritual community based on the principles of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), located in Alachua, north Florida, USA. Situated on a rural 127-acre property surrounding a tranquil, marble-floored temple, New Raman Reti is a devotional refuge from the material world.The temple deities are the most merciful Sri Sri Radha Shyamasundara, Sri Sri Krishna Balarama, and Sri Sri Gaura Nitai. Read more ›

The GBC in session - Mumbai, India (GBC Mid-Term Meetings) 14/10/2013 – 19/10/2013 (17 photos) Read more ›

Special Day Meditation Podcast

Special Day Meditation Podcast

2013 09 14 Srimad Bhagavatam 10 24 16 Understanding Our Nature Kaunteya Prabhu

1968 October 15: "Let us grow slowly but surely. Let us try our best to spread this Krishna Consciousness movement with sincerity. And Krishna will give us all facilities. After all, it is Krishna's business. We are simply servitors. Our sincere desire is to serve Him and this is our bona fide position."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968

1968 October 15: "We sincerely serve Krishna, we are sincere servants, and we present things as presented by Krishna, and that is the test of our bona fide position and our bona fide presentation."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968

1973 October 15: "You have been in charge and now you have taken it as your personal property and you have demanded the temple? Please do not make this mistake. Please do not leave Krishna. You will not be happy. That is my request."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1973

1974 October 15: "How long do I have to bring devotees from abroad for preaching? You must recruit local devotees. That is wanted. So you cannot create? One experienced man must go and create local man anywhere; that is real preaching."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1974 October 15: "So work diligently. It is a good place, organize it nicely. You are an old, experienced worker, and I have full confidence in you. Krishna will bless you in this attempt. Next time I return that way I may go there, so please arrange."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1974 October 15: "My other godbrothers they are concerned with litigations, politics, and diplomacy, so what is the pracara? I have the blessings of my Guru Maharaj. I do not need anything else. This is how I went to your country and by his blessings it has come out successful."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

What an extremely interesting śloka I had the good fortune to study this morning! Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, Canto 2, Chapter 8, text 25. King Parīkṣit just finished presenting an exhaustive list of detailed questions to Śukadeva. Śuka’s initial reply (revealed by Śrīla Viśvanātha’s commentary):

These are excellent questions, but you know that they have already been asked and answered many times by many people. Why ask me to answer them again?

The King replies:

In these matters, you are as authoritative as the supreme, self-born divinity. You have the deepest comprehension because you personally understand the answers. Others merely repeat  what they have learned from those who have come before them.

Do you see how interesting this is!?

The general theme usually presented is that the best way to answer a question is to repeat the answer you have heard previously given by someone who has deeply realized the subject. But this śloka goes a little bit further and adds something a bit revolutionary and awfully interesting.

First let me explain the value of repeating.

I don’t know anything special about motorcycles, but my uncle is an expert – he takes them apart, puts them back together and build custom bikes. If you ask me some question about a spark plug or whatever, there is no way I can answer – because I don’t personally know anything about the subject. But I have two options, (1) I can remember if I ever heard my uncle say anything that would pertain to your question, (2) I can refer you to my uncle.

This is honest and provides sound knowledge. The knowledge will come only from people who actually know – by personal experience – what they are talking about.

Similarly, if you ask me about something that is beyond the grasp of empirically based logic, I can only answer in so far as I have personal, direct experience of the supra-empirical reality. If that is not a whole not, then I have two options (1) I can remember if I every heard “my uncle” (sages with lots of supra-empirical experience) say anything that relates to your question. And for this, I would need to regularly study the recorded material of what those sages have related (sacred texts, for example); or (2) I can refer you to a person with more supra-empirical experience.

This great system is called paramparā (successive) – the information comes from a valid source with actual personal experience of the answer. Even if the questioner cannot directly ask the valid source other agents (people without as much actual personal experience) can hand the answer over to the questioner.

The problem is in the act of handing it over. Invariably our fingerprints get onto the message we transmit – we shape it.

So there are two remedies, (1) wash your hands – get as few fingerprints as possible on the package you are transmitting, (2) become self-realized yourself – so that you have direct personal experience of the answer, and your fingerprints won’t smear the original ink, thy will decorate and enhance it instead.

Of the two, the first is somewhat hopeless. If the second is not implemented at least every few generations, dharmasya-glanir results – the original transmission gets too distorted by being transmitted through greasy hands.

Śuka was a person who put in the effort to become directly, personally self-realized. So King Parīkṣit had heard many other sages answer his questions before – and these were not just run of the mill Joe Shmoes. He had heard from the likes of Vyāsa and so on. But Śuka’s realization of reality was so special and sweet that he wanted to hear his answers to the questions.

 

Who is a Gentle Warrior? A devotee, a brahmana, a trusted authority, a sankirtan devotee (both book distributor and harinama devotee), a Gita Coach. He or she fights his fight with the help of the holy name, with Srila Prabhupada's books, with preaching and helping devotees and others succeed on their journey to Krsna. His traits are great faith in Krsna and unbreakable determination. He is

Why is it that we are chanting and hearing and still experiencing material miseries?...because we are not actually chanting and hearing in a right way. Of course, we understand about the offences, that is a negative thing, what not to do. But we do not understand what to do.

What to do is more than just chanting with the lips. Bhaktivinod Thakur says that Hare Krishna mantra does not appear simply by chanting with the lips, moving the vocal cords but one has to chant with one's heart. One has to hear with one's heart and that is a very difficult thing to do.

Bir Krsna Goswami

In Vedic culture sannyasis [ monks in the renounced order ] did not conduct weddings. But our spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, did in order to encourage his young disciples and help pioneer his fledgling Krsna consciousness movement in the early days. Following in his footsteps I performed the wedding ceremony of my Macedonian disciple, Sita-carana [...]

Giriraj Swami discussed spiritual topics with an Iranian professor and students from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“You can’t eliminate war. You can’t eliminate anything—eating, sleeping, or anything else. What you can do is regulate it and adjust it so it is favorable for Krishna consciousness. As far as different parties within the material world, we generally don’t get directly involved—because generally the parties are ignorant of the real values of life. In that sense, all the parties are the same. In the sixties there were many protests against the war in Vietnam, for example. There were young men who wanted to avoid the draft to go into the army, and they would take shelter in churches, and there would be protests. In Boston, Satsvarupa Maharaja asked Srila Prabhupada if we should take part—because naturally our sentiment was for the young people and against the war. But Srila Prabhupada said, ‘No, because when it comes to meat-eating, intoxication, gambling, and illicit sex, all the parties agree; they are all for it.’ Srila Prabhupada wrote: ‘Although everything is included in Krishna consciousness, we do not wish to take part directly in controversial politics. We can take part in politics only which is sanctioned by Krishna. This political struggle by the students is different. It is a reaction of karma. Because both the opposing parties, namely the students who have taken shelter in the churches, and the Government force which is coming to arrest them, are in the same category, because on the question of meat-eating, or supporting the slaughterhouse, both of them will agree. So the present situation is the reaction of a man’s sinful activities. We especially recommend restraining from four kinds of primary sinful activities, namely illicit sex, intoxication, meat-eating, and gambling. But all these fighting parties are addicted to all these habits. If they are serious for mitigating the unpalatable situation of the society, they must agree to accept Krishna consciousness, otherwise there is no possibility of peace in the world. Anyway, the situation in Boston as you have described is not very much favorable for preaching our Krishna consciousness, but if there is possibility of selling our Back to Godheads, that is very nice. You can take advantage.’ That is one example. But there could be another kind of example: given a choice between a government that is repressive of Krishna consciousness, and one that allows the practice and preaching of Krishna consciousness, the latter would be better. But it is very tricky, because mundane politics always change.”

Discussion with professor and students from Tulsa, Oklahoma

“I don’t have time.” That’s how we often respond whenever we are urged to give devotion to Krishna its due place in our lives.

This response stems from the mistaken assumption that Krishna is a dispensable filler in our life. However, he is an indispensable shelter. Let’s understand with an example.

If we get a serious disease, we will make time for the treatment by reminding ourselves: “The treatment is not optional; it’s essential. It’s not a filler to be added on as per my convenience; it’s a shelter around which I need to restructure my whole life.”

What holds true for the medical treatment of our physical disease also holds true for the devotional treatment of our spiritual disease. We are all souls afflicted by bhavaroga, the disease of material existence. This disease subjects us to the four intermittent miseries of birth, old age, disease and death as well as the three recurrent miseries of environmental, social and psychophysical disruptions.

Krishna is the cure for these miseries. How?

Through the process of devotional service, he provides us the means to redirect our attachment from material things towards himself. This redirection helps us to decrease, tolerate and transcend material miseries. Decrease because Krishna minimizes the karmic reactions that are the cause of such problems. Tolerate because he gives us inner stability to face life’s unavoidable hardships. And transcend because he eventually takes us to his eternal abode that is forever beyond the reach of all material distresses.

Krishna is so eager to heal us that he appreciates as pious souls (udarah – Gita 07.18) even those who accommodate him as a dispensable filler in their lives. But he lauds as truly wise (jnanavan – Gita 07.19) those who wholeheartedly surrender to him, making him their indispensable shelter (vasudevah sarvam iti).

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07.19 - After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.

One day St Francis of Assisi was walking from Perugia to the Santa Maria degli Angeli and it was early spring and it was night. It was freezing cold. It was pouring rain sometimes and it was snowing the other times as he was walking. He was walking with one of his brothers - Leo. And as they were walking through the cold, there was no food, they were just walking through the forest; it was

Goswami Remembrance Day

When ……………Tuesday, October 15th

Where…………..Srila Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold

Guest Speaker……..His Holiness Varshana Maharaja

On the disappearance day of Raghunatha Das Goswami, Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami, and Srila Krishna das Kaviraja Goswami, the Brijbhasis will honor and seek the blessings of the six Goswamis of Vrindaban so they can fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s vision for building New Vrindaban into a holy place of pilgrimage in the west.

5:45 p.m. Bhajan

6:00 p.m. Excerpts from Srila Prabhupada’s writings.

6:10 p.m. Stories and realizations shared by His Holiness Varshana Maharaja

7:00 p.m. Arotika for Srila Prabhupada

7:30 p.m. Prasadam