Planet ISKCON

A recent article headline suggests that the widespread use of Kapalabhati pranayama (skull-polishing breath) in India promoted by Swami Ramdev’s popular television campaigns and yoga camps is dangerous and may lead to death, echoing lesser admonitions voiced by B.K.S. Iyengar and other yogis concerned about the impact of selling Kapalabhati as a quick fix.

Acharya Agyaatdarshan, a yogi from Delhi, shares that Kapal-kriya is the process of releasing prana or life breath, after death. Kapalabhati is controlling one’s lifespan through one’s breath, he notes; simply put, get it wrong, and you shorten your lifespan.” Long-term Iyengar practitioner Ashwini Gokhale likens Kapalabhati to a dose of strong antibiotics which should only be prescribed by a doctor, rather than the cure-all pill it’s currently marketed as.

A 2008 study by the Asian Heart Institute found a 100% correlation between 31 cases of heart attack and the reckless practice of Kapalabhati, although these results should be interpreted cautiously without more information about study design and details.

Kapalabhati, a cleansing and purifying breathing practice, is characterized by slow or rapid repetition of passive inhalations with a soft belly, followed by a sharp exhalation, during which time the belly is simultaneously drawn in and up towards the spine. This pranayama, when practiced vigorously and rapidly, is activating to the sympathetic nervous system and generates bodily heat. Practiced more gently, with no more than 10-15 repetitions per minute, sympathetic activation is minimized.

Considerably more research remains to be conducted on Kapalabhati’s safety and efficacy. Promising are the results of a study commissioned by senior doctors with the Yoga Institute in Mumbai; their findings indicate that the pranayama, when taught under the guidance of medical and yoga experts, showed benefits in controlling diabetes, obesity, asthma, energizing the mind, and improving depression.

What does this all boil down to? Pranayama is powerful, and should be taught and employed with attention to individual medical concerns and constitution. It is not intended for mass consumption and should be taught and initially supervised by a qualified yoga instructor or expert. Like all powerful techniques if Kapalabhati is used incorrectly it can have serious side effects.

Do you practice Kapalabhati?  Have you noticed any adverse or beneficial effects on your health?

Filed under: News, Ramblings or Whatever

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This Sunday ” Laugh your way to enlightenment “ Yes, a whole evening of comedy entertainment, that will not only have you laughing, but also leaving a whole lot wiser. Come and see a brilliantly funny and thought provoking DRAMA, followed by REGGAE Mantra jam, topped by a ‘no joke‘ amazing DINNER, all for just $5. [...]

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73 photos: Balarama Festival in Iskcon Belo Horizonte 2013, which celebrated the 29th anniversary of the onset of the deities of Sri Jagannatha, Sri Baladeva and Srimati Subhadra Maharani Read more ›

ISKCON New Vrindaban Board Meeting Minutes – 8/8/13

Vision Statement: Founded in 1968, Srila Prabhupada boldly envisions New Vrindaban as a sacred place known worldwide for Cow Protection, Self-Sufficiency, Holy Pilgrimage, Spiritual Education, and, above all, Loving Krishna.

Board of Director Members Present:  Jaya Krsna, Dayavira, Chaitanya Mangala, Ranaka, Gopisa

Recording Secretary: Laxmi Honest

The first item discussed was improving community spirit. Chaitanya Mangala shared a timeline of New Vrindaban listing milestones and highlights in the history of the community.  It was agreed that the timeline should be shared and ask devotees to contribute dates and events that they remember as important and can be celebrated.

Jaya Krsna then informed the members that an Irish couple will be coming to create a video of New Vrindaban. They will conduct interviews with senior devotees and will stay one month doing research and tapings and will then return to Ireland for editing and post production.  It is hoped that this may encourage devotees to collect photos, videotapes, etc. for an archive at the Srila Prabhupada exposition planned as part of a renovated Palace.

Sankirtana Das will be coordinating events for a 2018 50^th anniversary celebration of the founding of New Vrindaban.

The next topic was finding additional board members. There are two available seats on the INV Board. After some discussion it was agreed that the board should approach and encourage some of the Second Generation devotees to take on more active roles.

The next item was regarding the Palace.  Jaya Krsna pointed out that at the annual Joint Boards Meeting in April of this year it was agreed that we cannot move forward without a clear plan.  There are many ongoing problems with the building.  It was suggested that we put out an international call for an experienced project manager.

“Million People March to Luneta” for the abolition of the pork barrel Read more ›

Balaram Jayanti – Morning Class HG Jaydev dasa

The world usually defines us by our possessions – what we wear, what we drive in, what we own, for example. Being influenced by this pervasive social mirror, we too frequently define ourselves similarly.

But such a self-definition is fickle and fallible. Fickle because it can change dramatically or traumatically as our material fortunes change. And fallible because it doesn’t reveal our character, our heart, the essence of who we are.

Yes some people are so desperate to see a flattering reflection of themselves in the social mirror that they frantically crave and slave to increase their possessions – and even ride roughshod over their morality and integrity. They become blind to the reality indicated by Arjuna in the Bhagavad-gita (01.44) that such people unwittingly set themselves up for reaping heavy karmic consequences.

To avoid these consequences, we don’t have to give up our possessions; we just need to change our self-definition. The later sections of the Gita address Arjuna’s concerns by refining and revising his self-definition. The Gita replaces the fickle and fallible self-definition offered by society with our eternal and factual self-definition: we are eternal souls on a multi-lifetime journey meant to culminate in our return to Krishna’s supreme abode for a life of unending love. During this journey, our progressively unfolding love for Krishna is our only lasting possession. Nothing else will last, though it can make a lasting contribution if used for the service of Krishna – it can purify us and propel us forward on our spiritual odyssey.

Animated by our revised understanding of who we are and what is actually ours, we act as competent custodians of our belongings, using them in Krishna’s service. Thus our possessions become reinvented vehicles in our ongoing spiritual evolution.

**

01.44 - Alas, how strange it is that we are preparing to commit greatly sinful acts. Driven by the desire to enjoy royal happiness, we are intent on killing our own kinsmen.

 

Open your heart to the love and guidance of people who truly care about you.

They will not hurt you.

They will give you strength and confidence.

At the present moment also there are so many editions of the Gita (especially in English), but almost all of them are not according to authorized disciplic succession. There are innumerable interpretations rendered by different mundane scholars, but almost all of them do not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, although they make a good business on the words of Shri Krishna. This spirit is demonic, because demons do not believe in God but simply enjoy the property of the Supreme.

Bhagavad Gita As It Is 4.2 purport

Today I could not sleep.....I don't know why but I could only sleep 2 hours then I had to rise and I immediately took my beads and took advantage of the very early hours of the morning 2.45am.

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15 photos: Beautiful Paintings from Villa Vrindavana's Museum Read more ›

An atheist was seated next to a little girl on an airplane and he turned to her and said, “Do you want to talk? Flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.”

The little girl, who had just started to read her book, replied to the total stranger, “What would you want to talk about?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said the atheist. “How about why there is no God, or no Heaven or Hell, or no life after death?” as he smiled smugly.

“Okay,” she said. “Those could be interesting topics but let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff, grass. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, but a horse produces clumps. Why do you suppose that is?”

The atheist, visibly surprised by the little girl’s intelligence, thinks about it and says, “Hmmm, I have no idea.” To which the little girl replies, “Do you really feel qualified to discuss God, Heaven and Hell, or life after death, when you don’t know shit?”

And then she went back to reading her book.

Filed under: Jokes

From Manoj P

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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." (Mark Twain) Read more ›

Dvijapriya Dasi: The Temple kitchen is tiny so Bala prabhu arranged for Parasuram & Acintya prabhus to cook in a nearby Forest/Park. There was only a water hose. Para brought pots, gas bottles and Bhoga with them from London. Cooking started at 3am in the dark. Really amazing!!! Read more ›

From a series of letters written by Srila Prabhupada outlining his vision for New Vrindaban.

Thanks to Vanipedia for the source material.

——————————————————————

November 18th, 1968.

My Dear Hayagriva,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of Nov. 12, 1968, and I am very much pleased to note the contents. The handbill of Dr. Frog, Ph.D. is very funny, and we should try to fight with these frog philosophers overcrowding all over the world. Your success in kirtana performances in the University campus is also very encouraging.

New Vrindaban should be taken up very seriously because actually I want to develop a replica of Old Vrindaban. I have got ambition to construct there 7 temples as follows: 1. Radha Madan Mohan, 2. Radha Govinda, 3. Radha Gopinatha, 4. Radha Damodara, 5. Radha Raman, 6. Radha Gokulananda, 7. Radha Syamasundara.. The whole modern city of Vrindaban was established originally with these temples, started by different Gosvamis. And later on, many kings and princes started their own temples and thus the present Vrindaban is now full with small and big 5000 temples. We have to make such scheme in our New Vrindaban, gradually expanding to an area of one mile long and one mile broad. Vamanadeva is still here, and I have advised him to construct some thrones for Radha and Krishna, because Nara Narayana is attempting to get some pairs of Radha Krishna Murtis 24″ high. We shall require so many pairs of Radha Krishna Murtis at different temples. Anyway, do not feel discouraged. As soon as New Vrindaban is connected with a link road as well as electricity, very soon it will develop into our idea. I shall personally go and stay there and see it is developed.

Regarding Srimad-Bhagavatam, please send me the chapters which you have already revised. I want to see it, how it is being done. I am glad that you are not omitting anything, but just making grammatical correction, and phrasing for force and clarity, and adding Pradyumna’s transliteration, that is very nice.

Yes, henceforward, as I have already told you, that Srimad-Bhagavatam will be ultimately seen by you, before being printed. That will keep consistency, I quite agree with you. My present plan is to stay in Los Angeles, perhaps at least for more than a month, which will cover Christmas holidays. And so, during that time, if you come here, it will be very nice. In January I may go to Hawaii, if Gaurasundara takes me there. As you have given up the idea of marriage, I think you can give up the idea of seeing your parents annually. You just prepare yourself for further advanced spiritual life. After all, our mundane relationships with father and mother, or wife and children, cannot protect us from the trap of maya. It is said by one Vaisnava poet that in every form of life, one gets a father and mother, because without father and mother, nobody is able to get a material body. So father and mother is possible in any form of body, but only in this human form of body one can get in touch with Krishna and a bona fide Spiritual Master. That is the highest gain of our travelling in different species of life in different planets.

I am so pleased that you are feeling for me and listening to my old tapes with pleasure. As you are remembering our old meeting days on the second avenue, when I first started my lectures there, similarly I also remember the incidents and speak to so many friends and disciples. So our meeting was Krishna’s desire. Apparently it was accidental but actually it was Krishna’s plan. So we should always remember this plan of Krishna and must continue to work jointly for advancement of Krishna Consciousness movement in this part of the world. I shall always pray to Krishna to give you more and more strength and confidence in this great responsibility and I shall pray for your long life to execute this mission.

Thank you once more for your nice sentiments, and I hope you are all well.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

P.S. I would like to know whether if two young boys come there, if you can take charge of them as teacher for them. They are very nice young Krishna Conscious boys, and their mother is very much in favor of them being trained up in our philosophy. They are between 10 and 12 years about. By teaching I mean teaching them The Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Bhagavad-gita, and Srimad-Bhagavatam, not preliminary education; preliminary education they already know. Please let me know about this.

ACB

BY GOLOKA CANDRA DASA

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: MALAYSIAN INDIAN BUSINESS MAGAZINE (AUGUST 2013 ISSUE)

KUALA LUMPUR - In the last issue of this magazine, we responded to a reader's query by narrating a historic pastime of God playing chess and gave evidence of an ancient temple in South India which still stands as testimony to God's chess-playing pastime. Today we follow up with supporting evidence from one of the most famous temples in the world. 

Up in the Tirumala hills in the state of Telugu Desam, nearby the ancient temple of Lord Balaji which is thronged by millions of pilgrims annually, there is a shrine dedicated in memory of a great devotee of the Lord called Hathi Rama Babaji. 

Although the main temple of Lord Balaji (an Incarnation of the Supreme Lord Krishna), is well-known as the richest temple in the world (why millions of people come from all over the world to pay their respects and their dues here annually is related to another pastime of the Lord, to be narrated on another occasion), not many people today know about Hathi Rama Babaji or the shrine built in his memory.

The local priests say that the Babaji was a pilgrim who came from the north, a Sri Rama bhakta who was initially called Bhavaji. This story explains how he became to be venerated as Hathi Rama Babaji, literally meaning the transcendental worshipper of the Lord Who took the form of an elephant.

When the Babaji saw Lord Balaji for the first time, he was immediately awe-struck and decided to stay put in that place and worship the Lord till the end of his life. He built himself a hut nearby the main temple and lived there. Daily he would frequently visit the temple, take darshana of Lord Balaji, bathe in the Pushkarini lake and sing in praise of the Lord. Engrossed in worship and remembrance of the Lord, he did not eat or sleep much. For subsistene, he would simply chew the leaves of a tree called Ramapatra.

His frequent visits to the temple, and gazing fixedly at Lord Balaji for long hours, sometimes breaking into ecstatic singing and dancing (kirtana) in a temple where the devotees traditonally worship the Lord with respectful awe and reverence, irked the temple management and staff. They became upset with his eccentric behaviour and eventually the chief priest banned him from entering the temple. 

Barred from seeing Lord Balaji directly, the Babaji pined in separation within the confines of his hut. His mind however remained fixed in remembrance of the Lord and His variegated pastimes. Chess is one of the many pastimes of the Lord Krishna, as described in the Srimad Bhagavatam and other Vedic scriptures. The Babaji imagined himself playing chess with Lord Balaji. The Babaji would actually make his moves on a chessboard, and would also move on behalf of Lord Balaji. Sometimes he would win the game, and exclaim: "My game!". Sometimes the Lord would win, and he would exclaim: "All right, You win this time!" and proceed to reset the chessboard and start another game. Like this, the Babaji carried on playing chess while always meditating on the Lord and His transcendental pastimes. 

One night when he fell asleep after another long chess session, he heard a voice calling out: "Bhavaji, wake up!" He opened his eyes and was astonished to see Lord Balaji standing before him. Overjoyed, he cried out in praise of the Lord: "O Govinda! O Venkatesha! O Srinivasa! O Jagatdrakshaka!" and prostrated at the Lord's lotus feet. The Lord smiled at him and said: "Come on, let's play chess."  

The Babaji quickly seated the Lord on a mat made of deerskin, brought out his chessboard and started the game. And surprise of surprises, he even won the first match. The Lord conceded: "All right, Bhavaji, you win. Now ask Me for any boon and I will be pleased to grant it." The Babaji replied: "My Lord, I am satisfied with Your darshana. I do not need any material pleasure or wealth. Kindly just allow me to be always situated at Your lotus feet and render devotional service to You." 

Pleased with his request, the Lord blessed him and vanished, after promising to return the next day to play another match with him. The next day, the Babaji excitedly waited for the Lord. True to His promise, after the temple altar was closed at night, the Lord appeared at the door of the Babaji's hut to enjoy another session of chess.

This way the Lord and the Babaji played chess for many days. Lord Balaji would regularly sneak out of His magnificent temple in the dark of the night to visit the Babaji in his hut and play chess with him, and then rush back to His altar in the pre-dawn hours before the temple services resumed.

One night, when the Babaji was thus engaged playing chess with the Lord, there was a sound outside the hut and the Lord asked him to check it out. The Babaji went out to investigate but found nobody in the vicinity. When he returned to his hut, he discovered that the Lord had already left the place, but His diamond-studded necklace was on the chessboard. The Babaji thought the Lord had inadvertently left behind His necklace and would soon return to pick it up. The Babaji anxiously waited through the night for the Lord to return, but to no avail.

Knowing that the Lord would need to be adorned with His beautiful necklace when temple services resume before dawn,  the Babaji took the necklace in his hand and ran towards the very temple that he had been barred from entering.

In the meantime, the pradhana archaka and other priests in charge of the temple services had already noticed the necklace missing from the Lord's neck and had raised the alarm. The guards started searching for the "thief". Just then the Babaji ran in, holding the necklace in his hand. He was immediately arrested for theft. His protests, that he was merely returning the ornament that the Lord had left behind in his hut, seemed far-fetched to everybody. Nobody believed his explanation either that Lord Balaji used to regularly visit his hut at night to play chess. 

The guards and temple staff beat him up and hauled him before the king for further punishment. The king, named Sri Krishna Devaraja, heard the charges against the Babaji and his explanation as well, and carefully considered his course of action. 

On one hand, theft of the Deity's ornament is sacrilege and anybody found guilty of it had to be severely dealt with. On the other hand, the intelligent king sensed that the Babaji was somehow innocent, despite his far-fetched story. The king decided to put him to the test.

The king devised a test whereby the Babaji would have a chance to prove his claims of innocence. He ordered that the Babaji be put into jail together with a huge pile of sugarcane. "If you really have such power as to attract the Lord to visit you regularly, then you should have no problem finishing off this pile of sugarcane before sunrise tomorrow."

The king knew that it would take either a miracle, or literally, a gigantic being, to finish off the pile of sugarcane. And if any gigantic being entered the jailhouse, his guards would surely notice and would alert him.

The Babaji was disinterested in proving anything to anybody, even if his life depended on it. He simply prayed to the Lord as always, and then fell asleep in his cell. While sleeping, he dreamt of a huge, white elephant entering his cell and eating up all the sugarcane. Then he felt the elephant waking him up with its trunk and loud trumpeting, which also brought the guards running. They were all astonished to see a huge, white elephant breaking through the grills and lumbering out, and the mountain-pile of sugarcane gone.

The Babaji realised that his personal deity Lord Rama had come in the form of the white elephant just to bail him out. He cried "Hathi Rama, Hathi Rama, Hathi Rama" and ran like a mad man after the white elephant who moved towards the direction of the temple and then simply vanished into thin air. 

The prison guards rushed to report the incident to the king who immediately understood it to be confirmation of the Babaji's transcendental position. The king rushed to the jailhouse and fell at the feet of the Babaji and begged forgiveness for all the harsh treatment meted out to him. The temple priests, workers and guards too begged forgiveness from the Babaji, especially those who had abused him, assaulted him and barred him from the temple.

The king then appointed the Babaji to be the chief priest of the Lord Balaji's temple. The Babaji finally got his spiritual desire fulfilled, to render direct devotional service to Lord Balaji (including of course, playing chess!). He spent the rest of his life personally serving Lord Balaji until he attained samaddhi.  

Today the Hathi Rama Babaji shrine is located near the main entrance to Lord Balaji's temple in Tirumala. The samaddhi of this Vaishnava saint is located near the Sri Venugopala temple on the way to Papavinasam in Tirumala. The Ramapatra tree can still be found growing here. 

By the mercy of my spiritual master His Holiness Jayapataka Swami, I got the good fortune to visit this place when I followed him on a spiritual tour of South India back in 1999, and personally heard him narrate on the spot this history of Lord Balaji playing chess with His great devotee.

I can remember tasting, on the insistence of my spiritual master, the leaves of the Ramapatra tree on which the Babaji used to subsist. I recall that it had a somewhat astringent flavour. We ate a lot of Ramapatra leaves that day, especially after our guru maharaja light-heartedly said that it would hopefully give us a bit of the great devotional love for the Lord that Hathi Rama Babaji had.

So this in short is the story of how this great devotee who played chess with Lord Balaji came to be known as Hathi Rama Babaji and why his humble abode,  which served as Lord Balaji's chess retreat, is venerated to this day.

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Balaram Jayanti – Drama ISKCON London

“This meditation stuff doesn’t work.” We may think like this when we don’t feel happy while chanting the holy names of Krishna.

The problem, however, is not bhakti’s impotence; it is the mind’s petulance. Let's understand how.

The Bhagavad-gita (15.09) explains that the mind is the receiving center for inputs from all the knowledge-acquiring senses. These senses constantly bring in from the outer world alluring images of sense objects. Exposure to such images makes the mind crave for them.  But its cravings stay largely unfulfilled not only because many of them are immoral or anti-devotional but also because our physical capacity to enjoy the sense objects is unchangeably limited. Due to such unfulfilled desires, the mind tends to become petulant just as children become sulky when refused a toy that has caught their fancy. So many are the desires that the mind craves for and sulks over that we may not even be consciously aware of any specific desire. Nonetheless, a generic sense dissatisfaction and irritability lurks in the background of our consciousness

With such negative feelings, what happens when we practice meditation? The mind just doesn't let us focus on Krishna. Consequently, we are unable to relish the illumination, satisfaction and rejuvenation latent in the remembrance of Krishna. If we mistakenly conclude that bhakti is impotent, then we deprive ourselves of the only process that can ever free us from the mind’s arbitrary and autocratic moods. Thus we sentence ourselves to perpetual dissonance, slaving to fulfill the mind’s unending desires and sulking over their unfulfillment.

If instead we intelligently persevere with meditation irrespective of our feelings, then gradually our persistent remembrance of Krishna breaks down the wall of the mind’s petulance and grants us the ultimate fulfillment.

 

**

The living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains a certain type of ear, eye, tongue, nose and sense of touch, which are grouped about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular set of sense objects.

On The Hour

Estevan, Saskatchewan

On the hour, local radio stations were announcing the trek across Canada. I was interviewed at their studios, so my voice came on briefly, but hourly. Facebook also went wild on the story. Responses on the road were tremendous.

One slim fellow pulled over. He caught the news. He showed me the photo of someone with a very prosperous frame at 350 pounds, “That’s me,” he said, “I had to get determined to lose all the weight.”

“That’s great. Now let’s try to decrease karma,” I said. He was right on board with my suggestion. Another motorist who had heard the news also pulled over at that point, and then another. We all got into deep down discussion. It was a huddle of sorts. One of the fellows was native. He had no trouble in accepting the concept of Creator, a higher power, a superior intelligence.

My response was, “Look at all this out here,” implying the beauty of the prairie as we stood at the edge of Estevan, known as the energy city, “when you walk through it all, all the 3D, all the smells, the colours and textures, it really enhances your appreciation for the artist behind it all.” Everyone there seemed to be on the same page.

“Do you guys accept Jesus?” asked the natives, “Is he the son of God?”

I began to respond, “If God’s the father for everyone… “ to which he completed the statement, “then we are also His son.” He got it. Even though the group of us were in the middle of going somewhere, in the middle of work you could say, we all seemed to be ready for a drum and mantra session. There was all this enthusiasm.

Being Friday afternoon, it has something to do with the good cheer in the air. The sun’s out, everyone’s making money (remember, it’s oil country here), and now there’s a novelty, a monk to excite a few folks. Roxie, was kind to let journalists from the local papers, The Estevan Mercury and Lifestyles, interview me in her new age store called “Soul Hideout”. An amiable gal she is. Journalists were super. As usual writers want to know about motivation behind the walk, and behind being a monk. So, I give my brief bio, which includes the inspiration of Beatles music, a fascination for anything East Indian, and a strong attraction for the mysticism within monasticism. Bhakti, devotion, is the goal – devotion to the great artist.

I feel that for people to sometimes take you seriously, you may have to do something to the extreme. That’s why it’s a cross country walk and a 4th one. It’s a matter of walking the talk, isn’t it?

30 KM

God. The word evokes various images in people’s minds. Some think of God as a cosmic judge seated on a celestial throne. Others envision him as an ageless sage with a long white beard. Still others conceive of him as an all-pervading spirit.

Whatever people may conceive God to be, they wouldn’t conceive him to be a fun-loving bluish-black cowherd. Or would they? One-sixth of humanity does indeed conceive of God thus. A billion Hindus believe that God is a flute-playing, peacock-feather-wearing, sixteen-year-old youth named Krishna who plays in a pastoral paradise with his cows, his boyfriends and his girlfriends.

Such a vision of God might seem too fanciful to merit serious attention. But surprisingly it has been elucidated by some of the greatest minds in the Vedic wisdom-tradition that originated in the world’s most ancient sacred literature, the Vedas. The Vedic wisdom-tradition has survived, even flourished, over millennia and continues to do so even today. Among the many books in this tradition that describe Krishna’s godhood, the most well-known is the philosophical masterpiece, the Bhagavad-gita. Therein, Krishna’s godhood is not only explained philosophically and theologically. It is also demonstrated dramatically in the vision of the Universal Form, one of the most mystical visions in world-literature. In that vision, the entire universe in all its complexity, variety and activity is seen to be present within the form of Krishna, hence its name: the Universal Form.

Visions like these, though demonstrating Krishna’s godhood, are not what have captured the hearts of millions of worshipers for millennia. Devotees have been in love with a far more intimate and sweet manifestation of Krishna as he is at his home in a pastoral paradise known as Vrindavan. This manifestation reveals a refreshing new dimension of God’s perfection.

God is universally understood as the perfect being. His perfection has been conventionally conceived as a frozen perfection like, say, that of a perfect painting. When a painting is being made, it becomes perfect at a particular point in its making. One stroke less and it is not that good. One stroke more and again it is not that good.

Similarly, the idea went, for God to be perfect, he has to be frozen. If he has any desire or if he does any action, both indicate that his present state is lacking in something because of which he desires and acts.

Such an intellectualized notion of God might be analytically perfect, but it is emotionally impotent. After all, how long can one love someone who never desires or does anything?

The Vedic wisdom-tradition reveals that God’s perfection is not the static perfection of a dead painting, but the dynamic perfection of a loving person. Love by its very nature induces reciprocations among the lovers. Love becomes perfect not when these reciprocations freeze but when everything else freezes so that these reciprocations can go on undistracted – or, even better, when everything else contributes to intensifying these loving reciprocations.

The arena where this happens is the kingdom of God. To enable love to attain the zenith of perfection, God removes conceals his godhood. Among the community of his most intimate devotees, he acts like just another member – the sweetest and most lovable member, no doubt, but still just another member. To remove any residual inhibitions, he avoids a royal setting for these reciprocations but instead chooses a pastoral setting: an idyllic village surrounded by a beautiful forest. This pastoral paradise is known as Vrindavan. And for himself he chooses the undistinguished vocation of a cowherd. Not even the king of cowherds, but the prince of cowherds.

The God who thus conceals his supremacy so that love can reign supreme is Krishna. Janamshtami is the day when Krishna descends to this world to invite all of us back to the world where love reigns supreme.

 

The SAKKHI, or International Society for Krsna Consciousness in Indonesia, recently had a meeting at the headquarters of the Hindu Parisadh in Denpasar. Devotees and devotee leaders were invited to hear reports and give input into the activities of Krsna Consciousness in Indonesia. There were more than two hundred devotees who attended this function, which went from 9am until 5pm.