The snake of time
→ KKS Blog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 24 June 2013, Czech Summer Camp, Srimad Bhagavatam 8.2.33)

snake-time-pieceIn this verse, there is a description of the kala-sarpa, the black snake of time. In Bengal, there is an ancient drawing that illustrates this point, kala-sarpa; it shows a frog croaking and a snake is crawling up from behind.  And as we know, snakes don’t chew, they just swallow their prey whole.

So in the drawing, the snake came up from behind and starting swallowing the frog. And the frog is already swallowed up to its neck - only its head is still sticking out of the mouth of the snake – then a little fly comes past and the tongue of the frog is shooting out of its mouth trying to catch the fly!

So it is the snake of time, the kala-sarpa by which we can calculate, according to our age, how much we are already swallowed. Like myself, at age sixty, I don’t know how much is still sticking out of the mouth of the snake; not much!  At age twenty-two, if you make it to seventy-five, almost one-third already swallowed. At age forty, most likely more than half is swallowed and above that…

KKS in Aindra Prabhu's roomSo if you think like that, that’s valuable. We have to look at our life from the perspective as a whole and not just become lost in the moment, “Oh romantic springtime, oh beautiful daffodils and sweet fragrant flowers!  Oh wonderful valleys, oh the enjoyment in the material world!” Yes, for a while! And even then, even while we are enjoying in the material world, it is still not fulfilling. There is enjoyment but it is not enough to fill the emptiness in the heart.

 

The day Has Come
→ travelingmonk.com

“Alas! When will that day come when all greatly fortunate souls in countries such as England, France, Russia, Prussia and America will take up banners, kettle drums, mrdangas and karatalas and thus cause the ecstatic waves of Hari Nama kirtan and the singing of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s holy name to rise in the streets of [...]

Srila Rupa Gosvami’s Disappearance Day, August 18, New Dvaraka, Los Angeles
Giriraj Swami

RupaGoswami1“To be empowered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one has to qualify himself. This means that one must engage twenty-four hours daily in the loving devotional service of the Lord. The material position of a devotee doesn’t matter, because devotional service is not dependent on material considerations. In his earlier life, Srila Rupa Gosvami was a government officer and a grihastha. He was not even a brahmacari or sannyasi. He associated with mlecchas and yavanas, but because he was always eager to serve, he was a qualified recipient for the Lord’s mercy. A sincere devotee can therefore be empowered by the Lord regardless of his situation. In the preceding verse from the Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, Srila Rupa Gosvami has described how he was personally empowered by the Lord. He further states in the Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu (1.2.187):

iha yasya harer dasye karmana manasa gira
nikhilasv apy avasthasu jivan-muktah sa ucyate

‘A person acting in the service of Krishna with his body, mind and words is a liberated person even in the material world, although he may be engaged in many so-called material activities.’

“To keep oneself free from material contamination and attain the Lord’s favor, one must be sincerely eager to render service to the Lord. This is the only qualification necessary. As soon as one is favored by the mercy of the spiritual master and the Lord, one is immediately given all the power necessary to write books and propagate the Krishna consciousness movement without being hampered by material considerations.” — Cc Madhya 19.135 purport

Rupa Gosvami’s Disappearance Day

Rhythm Tree – Pioneering preaching on the Isle of Wight
→ Dandavats.com

It all started at the large Glastonbury Festival in June where we met the organisers of the Rhythm Tree Festival there. They were very encouraging us to attend the festival and bring our Hare Krishna Tent there too, we were interested, but we were so busy as after Glastonbury we went on the Scandinavian Ratha Yatra tour for two weeks straight after that Read more ›

Srila Prabhupada Shares His Vision for New Vrindaban in a Letter – June 14th, 1968
→ New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

 

Srila Prabhupada at the Bahulaban Temple, 1972.

Srila Prabhupada at the Bahulaban Temple, 1972.

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

Thanks to Vanipedia for the source material.

——————————————————————

June 14th, 1968.

My Dear Hayagriva,

Please accept my blessings. I was just expecting your letter since I have come here from Boston. I have already informed you about my successful program in Boston, attending many colleges and universities, and the church meetings, practically throughout the whole month. And Sriman Satsvarupa is to be congratulated for his endeavor to keep me engaged in such meetings. I thought that you were going to San Francisco as you informed me previously that during Rathayatra festival you would be there. The Rathayatra festival is going to be held between 27th June to 7th July, and they are making broader arrangement than last year, and expecting people numbering from 1000 to 5000 will attend the procession, chanting Hare Krishna. They have been advised to turn San Francisco gradually into New Jagannatha Puri, and I have advised Kirtanananda and yourself to convert West Virginia into New Vrindaban. I understand the spot is very beautiful, and the hills may be renamed as New Govardhana. And if there are lakes, they can be renamed as Syamakunda and Radhakunda. Vrindaban does not require to be modernized because Krishna’s Vrindaban is transcendental village. They completely depend on nature’s beauty and nature’s protection. The community in which Krishna preferred to belong was Vaisya community, because Nanda Maharaja happened to be a Vaisya king, or landholder, and his main business was cow protection. It is understood that he had 900,000 cows and Krishna and Balarama used to take charge of them, along with His many cowherd boy friends, and every day, in the morning He used to go out with His friends and cows into the pasturing grounds.

So, if you seriously want to convert this new spot as New Vrindaban, I shall advise you not to make it very much modernized. But as you are American boys, you must make it just suitable to your minimum needs. Not to make it too much luxurious as generally Europeans and Americans are accustomed. Better to live there without modern amenities. But to live a natural healthy life for executing Krishna Consciousness. It may be an ideal village where the residents will have plain living and high thinking. For plain living we must have sufficient land for raising crops and pasturing grounds for the cows. If there is sufficient grains and production of milk, then the whole economic problem is solved. You do not require any machines, cinema, hotels, slaughterhouses, brothels, nightclubs—all these modern amenities. People in the spell of maya are trying to squeeze out gross pleasure from the senses, which is not possible to derive to our heart’s content. Therefore we are confused and baffled in our attempt to eschew eternal pleasure from gross matter. Actually, joyful life is on the spiritual platform, therefore we should try to save our valuable time from material activities and engage them for Krishna Consciousness. But at the same time, because we have to keep our body and soul together to execute our mission, we must have sufficient (not extravagant) food to eat, and that will be supplied by grains, fruits, and milk. So if you can develop this place to that ideal life and the residents become ideal Krishna Conscious men, in that part of your country, I think not only many philosophically minded people will be attracted, but they will be benefited also.

So far I am personally concerned, the United States Immigration Department has denied my application for permanent visa on some technical ground. In other words, just to avoid a Swami, because the government is disgusted with so-called Swamis who exploit the innocent public in your country. The difficulty is that the people in this country, they want to continue their practice of sense gratification, and at the same time they want to become transcendentally advanced. This is quite contradictory. One can advance in transcendental life by process of negativating the general practice of materialistic life. The exact adjustment is in Vaisnava philosophy, which is called Yukta Vairagya, means that we should simply accept the bare necessities of our material part of life, and try to save time for spiritual advancement. This should be the motto of New Vrindaban, if you at all develop it to the perfectional stage. And I am always at your service to help you by practical suggestion and assistance also.

On the other hand I was thinking that if I get permanent visa in Montreal, I shall make Montreal my headquarters and at that time I may require your help in so many ways. As we passed correspondence previously, that we should live together either in India or in this part of the world for publication of so many Vaisnava literatures. But if you want to develop New Vrindaban, I can spare you for that purpose, and it may be that we can live there together. For the time being, if you actually want to develop such ideal asrama, we must have sufficient land, and all other things will gradually grow. For raising crops from the land, how many men will be required—that we must estimate and for herding the cows and feeding them. We must have sufficient pasturing ground to feed the animals all round. We have to maintain the animals throughout their life. We must not make any program for selling them to the slaughterhouses. That is the way of cow protection. Krishna by His practical example taught us to give all protection to the cows and that should be the main business of New Vrindaban. Vrindaban is also known as Gokula. Go means cows, and kula means congregation. Therefore the special feature of New Vrindaban will be cow protection, and by doing so, we shall not be loser.

In India of course, a cow is protected and the cowherdsmen they derive sufficient profit by such protection. Cow dung is used as fuel. Cow dung dried in the sunshine kept in stock for utilizing them as fuel in the villages. They get wheat and other cereals produced from the field. There is milk and vegetables and the fuel is cow dung, and thus, they are self-independent in every village. There are hand weavers for the cloth. And the country oil-mill (consisting of a bull walking in circle round two big grinding stones, attached with yoke) grinds the oil seeds into oil. The whole idea is that people residing in New Vrindaban may not have to search out work outside. Arrangements should be such that the residents should be self-satisfied. That will make an ideal asrama. I do not know these ideals can be given practical shape, but I think like that; that people may be happy in any place with land and cow without endeavoring for so-called amenities of modern life—which simply increase anxieties for maintenance and proper equipment. The less we are anxious for maintaining our body and soul together, the more we become favorable for advancing in Krishna Consciousness.

Hoping you are well.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

73 photos: The day of the fulfillment of Bhaktivode Takura’s desire has come!
→ Dandavats.com

Alas! When will that day come when all greatly fortunate souls in countries such as England, France, Russia, Prussia and America will take up banners, kettle drums, mrdangas and karatalas and thus cause the ecstatic waves of Hari Nama kirtan and the singing of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s holy name to rise in the streets of their towns and cities? Read more ›

10.10 – To hear Krishna accurately, first hear about Krishna attentively
→ The Spiritual Scientist

“Can we hear Krishna speaking to us from within?” We may get this question when we come to know from the Bhagavad-gita that Krishna resides in our heart to guide us.

Yes, we can hear Krishna provided we first hear about Krishna.

That’s because Krishna’s voice is not the only voice present within us. There are also the voices of our desires and fears, our beliefs and biases, our dreams and nightmares. All these have lodged into our subconscious, creating impressions that surface unpredictably. When one of these impels us to do something, we may mistake that impulse to be Krishna’s voice.

To avoid such misjudgments, we need to train ourselves to recognize Krishna’s voice. This training centers on learning about Krishna from authentic sources, namely guru-sadhu-shastra (spiritual master-saintly teachers-scriptures). Krishna is non-different from the sound vibrations that glorify him. In fact, he manifests himself as those sound vibrations. The more we hear about Krishna, the more we associate with him and become acquainted with him, just as we become acquainted with a person by spending time with that person. Thereafter, if someone masquerades as that person, we can recognize and reject that imposter. Hearing about Krishna equips us to similarly screen the inner voices.

Additionally, in devotional life we are not alone in doing this screening; Krishna helps us. Hearing about Krishna is one of the most important forms of devotional service. When we render this service lovingly by hearing eagerly and applying enthusiastically, then Krishna becomes pleased and gives us the intelligence by which we can return to him, as the Bhagavad-gita (10.10) indicates. That intelligence comes as both the spiritually audible voice of Krishna and the discernment to separate this voice from other voices. Thus hearing about Krishna prepares us to hear Krishna.

***

To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.

 

 

i’ll have no karma with that, thanks
→ everyday gita

Verse 4.14: There is no work that affects Me; nor do I aspire for the fruits of action. One who understands this truth about Me also does not become entangled in the fruitive reactions of work.

The laws of karma have been discussed extensively in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of the Gita. There, it was highlighted that both good and bad karma are unwanted. We also learned that all actions result in karma.

It was at this point that the Gita introduced the concept of akarma, or performing actions that do not incur any karma. The secret to performing akarmic work was given. Anyone remember? If you said a transformation of consciousness...you're right!

Any action that is performed with the attitude of offering it in gratitude to the Divine results in no karma.

If you've ever wondered why that's the case, today's verse gives the answer. The Divine Himself is not subject to the laws of karma, nor is He responsible for the karma that all of us incur. Although the King or President of a country is responsible for their citizens, there may be laws that do not apply to them due to their position. Furthermore, if their citizens break those laws, the King or President is not responsible for their actions. Those citizens have free will and have chosen to exercise it.

Since the Divine is not subject to the laws of karma, when our consciousness transfers from being self-centred to offering our best to the Divine, our actions are also not subject to karma.

The Gita is prompting us to imbibe a culture of gratitude and reciprocation.

Instead of succumbing to the overwhelming ethos of "mine, mine, mine!" which is pervading our society, we can instead be instruments to help elevate it. By recognizing the gifts we have been given as those coming from the Divine, the greatest happiness can be experienced when we act as instruments of grace and offer our actions, and whatever results that come from it, on the altar of love for the Divine.

Jhulan Yatra Invitation
→ ISKCON Malaysia

BY VRINDA MAHARANI DEVI DASI

 

KUALA LUMPUR - Every year there is a five day festival all over Vrndavana called Jhulana-yatra, at which time the vijaya-vigraha (small) Deities of Sri Sri Radha and Krsna are swung by hundreds of thousands of Vrajabasis and others, in their various temples or homes, on a beautiful swing attached to long ropes. In the month of Sravana (the rainy season), the clouds in the sky begin to make a thundering sound and extremely fine mist-like rain drizzles everywhere. The atmosphere is very beautiful and pleasant after the heat of the summer months, for at that time all the forests of Vrndavana begin to bloom. Many types of flowers on both sides of the Yamuna, such as beli, cameli, jui, and madhavi begin to bloom. The bumblebees look here and there and chant, "Radhe Radhe" and the cuckoos also call out, “Radhe Radhe” .

Come and experience the transcendental happiness of swinging The Divine Couple!

Place:48 Jalan SS1/23, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, MalaysIA

Date:19/8/2013

Time:7p.m.