Brahmacari meeting in Mayapur with Jayapataka Swami (16 photos)
→ Dandavats.com

"As I began to spend more time with the brahmacaris, I noticed an unusual trait. They seemed to be always joyful, beyond the moody ups and downs that had plagued my spiritual quest." "What would happen to me if I wanted to become a Hare Krsna devotee?" a young man recently asked me. The first step, I told him, would be to enter the brahmacari asrama, the status of life for single men serious about spiritual advancement. Though I am now happily married, the conversation reminded me of the years I spent as a brahmacari. Read more ›

Rangadevi & Sudevi
→ Mayapur.com

Rangadevi -Sri Govindananda Gosh Rangadevi is the seventh of the varistha gopis. Her complexion is the color of a lotus filament and her garments are the color of a red rose. She is seven days younger than Srimati Radharani. Her personal qualities are much like those of Campakalata. Her parents are Karuna-devi and Rangasara. Ranga-devi is always like a […]

ECO-Vrindaban Board Meeting Minutes 9-07-2013
→ New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

 

ECOV Logo 

ECO-Vrindaban Board Meeting Minutes 9-07-2013

Mission Statement: ECOV (Earth, Cows, Opportunities & Vrindaban Villages) is dedicated to cow protection, sustainable agriculture, self-sufficiency and simple living — all centered around loving service to Sri Krishna, as envisioned by the ISKCON New Vrindaban Founder-Acharya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Participating Members of the ECOV Board of Directors:  Chaitanya Mangala, Krpamaya, Madhava Gosh, Navin Shyam and Ranaka.

Advisors present: Jaya Krsna

1. Prototype house at G7G

The Cabin roof was insulated this past week.  It still needs flooring, a window, solar panels, a water catchment system, and potentially a composting toilet.  Though it will not likely be fully ready for the October 5th opening, the ceremony will take place.

After hay harvesting is done, Tom and Ray will work on the cabin.

Although funding for the solar panels and floor pavers will come from other sources, more money is needed for labor and other aspects of the project.

WHEREAS: The ECOV Board wishes to complete the prototype cabin in the Garden of Seven Gates (“G7G”) as originally envisioned.

RESOLVED: The Board augments the project budget of the G7G prototype cabin by $3K.

2. Temple foundation plantings

Brikhasanga dug a trench, applied insulation and back filled on the temple building’s foundation.

3. Pine-tree trimming around Temple area

The project will begin after the foundation plantings are completed.

4.  Reduce/Reuse Initiative

Navin Shyam will resend the final version of the three posters to Krpamaya to print, laminate, and distribute to the various reusable metal water bottle vendors.

5. Gopal’s Garden School

As requested by ECOV, Ruci and Ranaka are developing a September issue of a school newsletter, focusing on Radhastami activities by the students.

6. Bahulaban barn demolition

This will begin in October after the combination barn closing ceremony and G7G Cabin opening celebration.

7. Bulk grain purchasing

WHEREAS: The ECOV Board wishes to help improve the self-sufficiency of the New Vrindaban community.

RESOLVED: The Board authorizes a line of credit to INV of up to $20K to make bulk grain purchases, to be stored in the bins that ECOV has previously purchased and set up. Precise terms of the arrangement will be worked out in a separate written agreement between Ranaka and a representative of INV management.

8. Budget for Valley Barn maintenance

WHEREAS: The ECOV Board wishes to provide adequate shelter for its cows as well as maintaining buildings in its care.

RESOLVED: The Board authorizes a budget of up to $10K  for repairing the roof of the valley barn.

Boat Festival at Kalachandji’s Hare Krishna Temple in Dallas (127 photos)
→ Dandavats.com

After Srila Prabhupada left his body in 1977, many of the devotee members of the famous Radha-Damodara Sankirtana Party came to stay in Dallas and Houston. Today, more than 15,000 followers now live in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. There are presently 25 temple-owned homes in the immediate neighborhood which have became models of community redevelopment Read more ›

When God Leads a Political Revolution
→ The Enquirer

This is a translation of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Seven, Śloka 22

parasuramaBrahmā: When the hell bent government strayed from the moral path by controverting the philosophers who explained the spirit of the law, the Great Soul made them the oil in the sacrificial offering to fate. With his very sharp, terribly powerful axe, he uprooted those thorns from the earth, thrice seven times over.

Nārada: The Paraśurāma avatāra.

In his elucidation on this śloka, A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Prabhupāda comments that some of these governors/kings were able to flee from Paraśurāma to distant places, especially to Eqypt – where they founded the Egyptian civilization. He says this claim is supported by Mahābhārata. Elsewhere he has been quoted as including Greece and Rome among the civilizations begun by those who fled from Paraśurāma.


Within the name
→ KKS Blog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 25 July 2013, Durban, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.6)

maha mantraIn the maha-mantra, there is a relationship. There is Krsna, the all-attractive Supreme Lord, and the vocative form of Hara which is Hare and that is the hladini shakti, the pleasure potency – pure devotional service embodied by Radharani, but also referring to any devotional service.

Hare represents devotional service to Krsna, and Ram represents either Balaram or Lord Ramachandra. Balaram is the embodiment of ecstacy, and is particularly the one who gives spiritual strength. So from serving Krsna, comes Ram, which is spiritual strength and ecstacy. Therefore transcendental happiness is experienced when chanting Hare Krsna in devotional service to Krsna.

Even when referring to Lord Ramachandra, who is the embodiment of religious principles, one becomes pure and the embodiment of religious principles when chanting. So it is interesting that all these things are there within the name. If you just chant other names of the Lord, that relationship is not there. Therefore it cannot compare to the maha-mantra.

 

Within the name
→ KKS Blog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 25 July 2013, Durban, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.6)

maha mantraIn the maha-mantra, there is a relationship. There is Krsna, the all-attractive Supreme Lord, and the vocative form of Hara which is Hare and that is the hladini shakti, the pleasure potency – pure devotional service embodied by Radharani, but also referring to any devotional service.

Hare represents devotional service to Krsna, and Ram represents either Balaram or Lord Ramachandra. Balaram is the embodiment of ecstacy, and is particularly the one who gives spiritual strength. So from serving Krsna, comes Ram, which is spiritual strength and ecstacy. Therefore transcendental happiness is experienced when chanting Hare Krsna in devotional service to Krsna.

Even when referring to Lord Ramachandra, who is the embodiment of religious principles, one becomes pure and the embodiment of religious principles when chanting. So it is interesting that all these things are there within the name. If you just chant other names of the Lord, that relationship is not there. Therefore it cannot compare to the maha-mantra.

 

THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN STOP HURTING ME
→ Gita Coaching


"Hurt feelings or discomfort of any kind cannot be caused by another person. No one outside me can hurt me. That's not a possibility. It's only when I BELIEVE A STRESSFUL THOUGHT that I get hurt. And I am the one hurting me when I am believing what I think. This is very good news because it means I don't have to get someone else to stop hurting me. I am the one who can stop hurting me. It's within my power." BK

08.15 – The world is a hospital; be hospitable to the doctor
→ The Spiritual Scientist

Patients admitted in a hospital know that the doctor’s counsel is essential for their recovery. If some patients were inhospitable to the doctor, we would be appalled by their irrationality: is this a mental hospital?

Yet, might we ourselves be acting like those patients?

Gita wisdom indicates that the disease of misdirected desires afflicts us. Though we are eternal and spiritual, we crave for the temporary and the material. Whenever we lose our desired objects, as we inevitably do in due course of time, we suffer. Terribly. Repeatedly.

To heal us, Krishna, the Supreme Doctor, provides the therapy of devotional service. This process efficiently and expeditiously reverts our desires back from the world to Krishna. The Bhagavad-gita (08.15) assures that those who learn to love Krishna become forever free from this miserable world.

Krishna offers his expert help freely and lovingly through his various manifestations like the scriptures and the holy names. But we are often inhospitable to him. We misperceive that his guidance will interfere with our enjoyment in this world. We give him as less time as possible – and even in that time, we give him as less thought as possible. Our inhospitality is evident in our half-heartedness and distractedness in devotional activities like mantra meditation. By being inhospitable to Krishna, we aggravate our misery and perpetuate our hospital sentence.

Gita wisdom gives us the intellectual impetus to become hospitable to Krishna. When we adopt his guidance, the practice of bhakti-yoga cures us quickly. It also makes our recovery a joyful journey, as the Gita (09.02) indicates. Using the things of this world in Krishna’s service grants us meaningful achievement and perennial fulfillment.

By regularly reinforcing our intelligence with Gita wisdom, we can become inhospitable towards our irrational inhospitability to Krishna and help him to help us.

***

08.15 - After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogis in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.

The mystic power of the Lord
→ The Spiritual Scientist

There is no difference between His [the Lord’s] mind and Himself (as there is a difference between ourselves and our present material mind) because He is absolute spirit. Simultaneously the Lord is present in everything; yet the common man cannot understand how He is also present personally. He is different from this material manifestation, yet everything is resting on Him. This is explained here as yogam aisvaram, the mystic power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Bhagavad Gita As It Is 9.5 purport

Apology to Srila Prabhupada
→ OppositeRule

 
Dear Srila Prabhupada,
 
I am writing this because I sincerely regret blaming you for ISKCON’s apparent faults, and because my public apology was recommended by one dedicated disciple of yours.  I’m sure you realize I was practically going crazy over my lack of Krishna consciousness, and I know you would forgive me, but I didn’t think enough of how my mad elephant behavior toward you would offend others to whom you are so dear.

I do not fully understand how the troublesome facts developed, how events happened in ISKCON that were so upsetting to me, but I remember now that I did not come to ISKCON to act as its police.  I came to find Krishna, but experience forces me to admit my commitment to that goal has been mixed at best. 

Yet I expected others to behave practically as perfect Vaisnavas.  I judged devotees according to a standard much higher than I could keep myself, the opposite of what is advised for spiritual progress.  Because of this, I became critical of devotees at every level, my faith was destroyed by it, and I decided Krishna or God must be imaginary and became an opponent of theism. I tested whether you would save me from such gross ignorance, and now I am ashamed.

So I have again become a mouse, trapped by maya. I doubt I’ve learned all that I should from this, but I’ve learned something. I need your mercy. Please save me from my foolishness and do something useful with me. Hare Krishna.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Janmasthami and Brighton Ratha Yatra Photos
→ simple thoughts

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Hare Krishna Dear Devotees,

Please accept my humble obesiances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Please see below link which contains the photos I took over Janmasthami

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100637659@N06/sets/72157635635867413/

and at Brighton Ratha Yatra.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100637659@N06/sets/72157635633944374/

Please accept my apologies for taking so long to upload them.

Your servant,
Dipak

Mass prasad preparation in Iskcon Baroda – Ganapati visarjan day (106 photos)
→ Dandavats.com

Prasad was prepared by our kitchen staff for distribution at the Gotri Talao (lake) on the occasion of Ganapati visarjan (immersion of the idols of Ganesh) yesterday, September 18, 2013. ISKCON Baroda is grateful to Sri Shivlal and Smt. Kantadevi Goyal for supporting this program, and for their personal participation in the program as well Read more ›

A Visit to Astha Sakhi Mandir – Vrindavan (186 photos)
→ Dandavats.com

In Vrindavan, on the holy Krishna Janmabhoomi, lies the temple that is a “must visit” destination for devotees completing the 84 kosh Vraj Parikrama Yatra. The temple is centuries old and is the first Indian temple that is dedicated to the divine couple and their Ashta Sakhi’s - the eight “friends” of Radha who were intimately involved in her love play with the Lord Krishna. Mention of the Ashta Sakhis are found in the ancient texts of Ramayan and the Srimad Bhagvat. Read more ›

When money offers security amidst uncertainty how can one give up material ambition for spiritual pursuits?
→ The Spiritual Scientist

From Milind Sonawane

The most common reason to hold ones possessions and strive for more is to address eventualities which money can resolve, such as disease, hospitalization, accidents or incidences leading to physical or mental dis-ability or any such life’s situation which money can ease out. All of this applicable to one self or his loved ones. If this uncertainty is addressed, many might exit the material aspirations and take the path of spirituality.

Please advice…….

Answer Podcast

Tuesday, September 17th, 2013
→ The Walking Monk

Fresh Feel

Dunmore, Alberta

I had started with a fresh feel back on the Number 1 Highway, the Trans Canada, referred to in Newfoundland as TCH and sometimes called the main drag of Canada. It’s 4:30 AM, prairie dogs (gophers) are sleeping at this time.

I ventured through Urvine, population 300+. If memory tells me right the last time I came through here there was one of those old grain elevators years ago. Not anymore. I also remember meeting and speaking with a woman by the name of Natasha. I also recall meeting a fellow in a pickup truck who stopped and said he had seen me walking in Ontario; that’s three provinces over.

The sun eventually became strong. With no shade or spring water sources for thirst, I decided to check out the weigh scale station. A real nice elderly officer supplied me with plenty of cool water and even some to go.

It’s funny how now I’m on a major highway and no one stops to talk. I have to detour slightly in order to make human contact. I liked Highway 13 for the slower pace and the increased interactive opportunities.

Daruka and I did leave the area for a visit to Swift Current and a visit to Satya Yoga Studio on Central Avenue. Sasha is the facilitator to this marvellous space. As you enter near the lobby, decorative framed messages adorn the wall – Love Deeply, Laugh Often, Live Simply.

Sasha’s students had come to listen to some of my tails from the road. We also got to chanting and discussing. One message that I try to convey is to always tread the middle path and to avoid extremism. Some of the students really delighted in a brief lesson on a Sanskrit verse,’ aham brahmasmi’, which means, ‘I am spirit’.

‘Twas good.

36 KM

Monday, September 16th, 2013
→ The Walking Monk

Try To Keep Plugging

Calgary, Alberta

I consider today chill day number two. A meagre trek it was, 4 KMs at the most, in the north east of Calgary. My companion for the trek on trails was Gaurachandra, born as Gigi Festa in southern Italy. His Orissan wife has a good handle on prepping Italian food which is perhaps second to an Indian kitchery for being the ideal hot meal for a walker. When the plate of steamy hot pasta drenched in the red of tomato was presented to me, I boldly requested their garden basil as topping.

“No problem,” was the host’s remark, who speedily and eagerly wished to be guest friendly, and went on her feet to harvest the delectable greens. My intent at the request was to share this wealth, and so Gigi, Bindu who is from Costa Rica, and Vani Priya, the cook, went green on the tongue with this additional appetizer. Artichokes, avocado and asparagus were side dishes.

I mention about food, and especially prasadam, food that our friends consecrate before consuming or serving. A marathon walker can easily crave food for our burning cells and after hours on the road the only minor sensual outlet will be to please the palate.

“Not too much, please,” I must remind another host, “please understand, I am a swami ji, I must live a simple life. Too much rich food is not good for me.” Sometimes I have to check their generous offer of seconds and thirds. Even the firsts were big in quantity. “Have mercy,” I plead.

It sometimes becomes a playful thing. What appears as a shovel load of tasty edibles comes at you with speed, and you might have to place the head, torso and arms over the plate that is struggling to reach vacancy. If the host has his or her way, wheelbarrow loads would tip over as loads of delicious prasadam. All is done in good spirit.

I must remind myself, however good it all smells and tastes, that it was Sri Chaitanya who was a sanyassi (monk) who set up the standard for the renounced, “No fancy attire and no opulent food,” so I will try to follow in His footsteps and keep plugging away.

4 KM