Planet ISKCON

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).

***

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

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Answer Podcast

Special Days Meditation Podcast

Lecture Podcast

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Holy Name Meditation Podcast

It was a stunningly beautiful day in Helen and we had a wonderful day of music, dancing, association, and food!! Thank you to all of the devotees for all of your wonderful service! Read more ›

Harinama is the congregational chanting of the holy names of the Lord as shown to us by Srila Prabhupada. Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu introduced the sankirtan movement 500 years ago and it is the spiritual process recommended in the Vedas for the age of Kali, the age we now find ourselves in. From the beginning of the Krishna consciousness movement in the West, Srila Prabhupada directed the devotees to chant congregationally in the temple as well as in the parks and streets of the towns and cities Read more ›

Or introducing the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra in a more acceptable way for the western mind... Read more ›

An historic early 20th century chateau, surrounded by 80 hectares of forests and pasture. Srila Prabhupada’s original quarters where he stayed during his visits to New Mayapur in the 1970s are preserved in the temple. Read more ›

O King, the pastimes of Lord Ramacandra were wonderful, like those of a baby elephant. In the assembly where mother Sita was to choose her husband, in the midst of the heroes of this world, He broke the bow belonging to Lord Siva. This bow was so heavy that it was carried by three hundred men, but Lord Ramacandra bent and strung it and broke it in the middle, just as a baby elephant breaks a stick of sugarcane. Thus the Lord achieved the hand of mother Sita, who was equally as endowed with transcendental qualities of form, beauty, behavior, age and nature. Read more ›

2013 09 11 Srimad Bhagavatam 10 24 14 Understanding Lord’s Intention and Appearance of Lalita Sakhi

Warmer Than A Fireplace

Vancouver, British Columbia

There is something warmer than a fireplace which has a block of hardwood crackling in a dancing fire.  That warmth I’m referring to is a group of people who are tightly knit together in spirit.  This has little or nothing to do with people holding hands and hugging and feeling each other’s body heat. It is not warm temperature, rather warm temperament that we are looking at.  In fact, cool heads often times have attached to them warm hearts.

In the conference room of Loon Lake’s retreat centre our group of like minds glanced through mammoth windows to admire the body of water as placid as you could imagine.  Your spruce, pine and cedar trees are also to be adored, if not explored.  But not now!  Exploration can come later, at break time.  First, we chanted before a make shift shrine of Gaura Nitai deities and a picture of our guru, Srila Prabhupada.

I then read a passage from the book, “Blazing Sadhus”.  The contents of the passage saw a bit of the laughter warmth; more than was already there.

Brahmananda (an early student of his) was consulting a lawyer to help renew the Swami’s expired visa.  He explained to Swamiji that one way to solve the problem was to go to Canada, stay for some months, re-enter the USA and reapply.

“That is too much botheration,” Swamiji said.

Brahmananda then said, “Well, the only other way is to marry to an American citizen.”

Sitting with us was a pleasant mannish woman who, along with a lady friend, who had been attending classes regularly for weeks.

She said, “Well, I can marry you if it will help.”

“No, no.” Swamiji laughed.  “I am sannyasi, I cannot marry.  But thank you.  That is nice service attitude.”

This reading started and stoked up our sessions of discussion. We went for review of past business, discussed our publication sales and succession planning – principally.  It was apparent that some of our leaders are too exclusive with their members; that inclusiveness is lacking.  In other words, it’s important to demonstrate personalism at all times; to emphasize ‘togetherness’, the team spirit.  Connect well with your community.

I was obliged to attend “Enchant” at the Unity Yoga Studio off of Commercial Drive in Vancouver.  Here the attendees are warmly receiving  the maha mantra and then returning it.  We all got to dancing and I must admit the body heat was rising.

It’s the company you keep that makes all the difference in your life.

May the Source be with you!

6 KM

A Few Of Us

Loon Lake, British Columbia

A few of us leaders of Krishna Consciousness converged at Loon Lake located near Maple Ridge.  It’s the venue for our AGM - Annual General Meeting for Canada.  The place is pristine, near a mountain’s summit.  Lodges, cabins, are made from the local logs.  It’s totally rustic; a perfect setting for thought, review, inspiration and planning.  Actually the place is a research centre for UBC, University of British Columbia.

Anubhava from Montreal and I, while waiting for others to turn up, got adventurous and helped ourselves to the short journey across the lake by way of a rope ferry.  Then we explored a trail around the lake.  We were disappointed to find no loons in the water.  Wildlife seemed in slumber to the exception of a few chipmunks and bird.  Cedars and pines are tall and erect.  Anubhava and I were dwarfs as we trekked amidst ferns and other humble plants.  A maintenance person informed us that snow comes in such quantities that boards are leaned against cabin windows otherwise the snow bursts through, breaking glass.

No bugs makes it pleasant.  As always, the biggest pest is the mind.  This thought, of the mind’s dictation, was expressed by myself in the documentary, “The Longest Road” released 10 years ago by the National Film Board.  The film was a re-enactment of my first walk of ’96.  I was recorded saying that while doing the long sojourn you may end up feeling very fatigued yet no pest is more pronounced than the mind.  That’s why the chanting.  That’s why you keep the best company with good support.  That’s why you immerse yourself in the promising stories of “The Ramayan”, “The Mahabharat” and other Puranic tales of righteousness.

Also when in a terrific natural setting as Anubhava and I find ourselves in, it just makes for the best environment to believe in such Divine presence.  We just felt really blessed.

I should also not fail to mention one of the accelerators in spiritual life – the prasad in the form of a hot soup, and butter on bread with roasted sesame.  The sun went down.  The fireplace was lit. What more can  you want?

May the Source be with you!

9 KM

We Were in Many Places

Burnaby, British Columbia

Squirrels.  There’s hardly a time in the year when you won’t find them scurrying about.  And now, with the fall clearly in its full blown manifestation, they are preparing for the coming cold.  They are going nuts – gathering them.  But by the creek near our ashram in Burnaby there appears little sing of life unless you consider the greenest of algae to be that.  The occasional bubble surfacing indicates the sign of life below.  “Have heart,” I think.  I was probably submerged in that same murkiness sometime in the past, perhaps in the same creek, under the same algae.  I was in another form of life before and I could have easily been there causing bubbles.

I had walking companion Pancha by tree and shrub nurseries as we admired the diversity of them.  Here too, I can so perceptively see myself as a bush of sorts in the past.  There I could have been rendering service by dint of my natural aesthetics giving beauty to someone’s classy front lawn.

We also noticed a mushroom, golden in colour.  Likely I was that in a previous existence.  From a mushroom to a squirrel, I’ve been there, done that. Each successive life that we adorn the soul with according to the evolutionary system is slightly more evolved in sensitivity and sophistication than the previous life.

By the laws of karma we travel through a series of lives. Then as a human we reach reason and enter the realm of responsibility.  If we foul up after great opportunities in the human form we come to the ebbtide of our journey going in reverse through experiential lives.  Fortunately opportunities for gaining human existence will avail themselves.  Eventually we hope to end samsara, the cycle of birth and death and make a linear ascension to a place of the soul’s freedom, moksa.

When trekking and seeing various life forms it’s hard to avoid the connection we have with each others as we share the same habits of eating, sleeping, playing, defending and mating.

May the Source be with you!

5 KM

If we look in a mirror and find a stranger looking back at us, we will be disturbed.

That’s what sometimes happens to us when we take a close look at ourselves using the mirror of introspection.

We all have a certain picture of ourselves: who we are and what we stand for.  But the mind often makes us act in ways that are contrary to our values. The Bhagavad-gita (06.06) cautions us that the mind can be our worst enemy. The mind acts as our enemy by alienating us from ourselves, by expanding the yawning chasm between what we wish to stand for and where we actually stand. It increases this distance by carrying us away on the waves of its impulsive emotions towards unprincipled actions meant for short-term pleasures. When we repeatedly give in to the mind, we keep changing in small and big ways. During our occasional moments of introspection, we suddenly realize that we can no longer recognize ourselves – the present me bears little similarity to me.

Gita wisdom reassures us that the present me is not the real me. We are actually souls, who are forever pure, being eternally the parts of the all-pure Krishna. Whatever be our present conditions and conditionings, that is only peripheral to our true identity as souls.

Bhakti-yoga offers us a time-honored method to start living in harmony with our nature as souls. When we start practicing bhakti-yoga, the resulting devotional connection with Krishna provides us an inner stronghold, a deep and rich inner fulfillment that counters the lure of outer pleasures which alienate us from ourselves. Over time, the stranger in the introspective mirror disappears and we recognize ourselves for the beauty and the glory that Krishna has provided us in the status as his beloved children.

***

06.06 - For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.

 

"You taught the importance of performing one's chanting without inattention. Inattention is counted as one of the aparadhas. Even if one successfully overcomes all the other offenses in chanting, and one is chanting continuously, love of God may not come. One should know that the reason for this is that one is committing the offense known as pramada, or inattention. This offense will block progress to prema."

Harinama Cintamani by Bhaktivinoda Thakura
Chapter 12 - Inattention While Chanting