Daily Meditation on my Gurudeva – Day 4
→ A Convenient Truth

  

Gita-nagari. Not sure of the year. I remember putting that turban on his head up at the Institute House before the ceremony began. I remember being nervous that I didn’t want to bend his ear or scratch his head or make the turban too tight or something. For some reason he really liked this style of turban.

Yeah, that’s me up in the front. I don’t even remember that guy. Clean shaven, young, stereotypical round framed glasses on a monk, straight tilak. I was sitting in front of the fire yajna pit, assisting Brahma-muhurta (which basically meant just making sure the fire didn’t go out). See that grave look on my face? I was serious. Dead serious, because I knew I shouldn’t have been sitting there. I shouldn’t have been part of such a sacred ceremony, because by this point I knew I was a markata-vairagyi, a monkey renunciate. I had no right even wearing saffron. I had been struggling with sex desire and was contemplating putting on white.

For whatever reason my Guru Maharaja constantly encouraged me to stay on the path of brahmacarya and urged me to see these temporary set backs as just little bumps in the road. Even after I went to West Africa I thought the message from Krishna was to become more honest about my level of surrender and to stop pretending to be a brahmacari. But my Gurudeva again contradicted those feelings in my heart and told me I was overacting to the test. It was almost like he was insistent that I stay a brahmacari.

Looking back, I now know why he was so encouraging, loving and supportive of me staying on the path of renunciation. He knew my putting on white (changing ashrams) and moving out of the temple wasn’t going to be a solution. He knew it was going to ultimately bring more misery, pain and suffering. He was trying to protect me. Even with my faults as a so-called celibate monk, he didn’t want me to give up, give in and try to take the easy way out. He wanted me to fight, to persevere, to overcome, to reaffirm my vows. He wanted me to see the challenges and “fall downs” as a catalyst to become stronger. But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t be what he desired of me. I instead pursued my own desires, my own plans and I am now enjoying the “roller coaster ride”, as he once told me I would be. In the symbolism of this photo he is hovering above me, lovingly trying to guide me. That’s what he was trying to do all along. But I was too young, too naïve, too lazy and too selfish to do the needful.

At this initiation ceremony he was still lovingly trying to engage me in service. Just like Sri Nityananda Prabhu, he was overlooking my faults, not holding them against me. He wasn’t thinking, “Jayadeva is much too contaminated or fallen to engage in this seva.” This is such an amazing Vaishnava quality. A Vaishnava does not look at someone in the context of their past transgressions. They don’t hold grudges or resentment or look down at others because of their past sinful actions. It’s a quality that I also need to sorely develop.

When Saying "It’s Just Kali-Yuga" Is Not Enough
→ Life Comes From Life




Dr. James Cone is one of the formative personalities in the living history of liberation theology, the spiritual/religious framework of knowledge and practice based around the ideal that God, and those who are devotees of God, should be primarily concerned with the social/political/spiritual freedom of the oppressed, of those who are marginalized due to their race, sex, class, nationality, or gender. Through such courageous and groundbreaking works such as A Black Theology of Liberation, The God of the Oppressedand The Cross and The Lynching Tree, Cone has resounded a daring truth which says that God is intimately and particularly concerned and active in securing the freedom of black people in America from the shackles of bondage which have kept them and held them over much of the last five hundred years. While Cone did not invent the idea of Black Theology, he is considered one of its “founding fathers,” as it were, and is a historically important and vital figure in the field of contemporary Christian theology

Dr. Cone's work has inspired many other liberation theologians across the spectrum of race, sex, and gender to apply this ideal of God's care and love for the oppressed to their own particular situations of oppression/marginalization. He has been teaching at Union Theological Seminary, the oldest independent progressive Christian seminary in America, for much of the last four decades. Union, where I am currently working towards a master's degree in religion and ecological ethics, is where I had the good fortune of participating in Cone's Systematic Theology course this past Fall.

From the very first class, Cone was encouraging us to find our own personal theological voice, but he was also clear that there was an objective difference between good theology and bad theology. I came to understand that good theology, a working theology, must include understanding and realization of the transcendent reality of God, who speaks to us and acts within us beyond the boundaries of the material world, helping us to transcend our own limitations. Good theology must balance this understanding of the transcendent element with a clear acknowledgment and commitment to confronting, within the material world, the structures and expressions of injustice, discrimination, and oppression which deny people their material and spiritual freedom and dignity.

Bad theology is removed from this balance. A theology which doesn't work gives a framework which compels a community to think itself above the problems of the world. Bad theology commits the “sin of silence” towards the injustice of the world, either by outright ignoring the pain and suffering of oppression, or by misinterpreting how to deal with this oppression with antiquated and insensitive forms of praxis. Theology will also not work when it is too concerned with justice work at the expense of the transcendent element. Our link to the transcendent reality of God allows us, as expressed in the thought of one of Union's most influential teachers and philosophers Reinhold Niebuhr, to understand the original freedom of our own spiritual nature in relationship with God, while also making clear to us the finite nature of our material existence and our limitations within that nature to express that original freedom. Any theology, or any kind of justice work, which does not keep the transcendent relation of God at its center, will not be able to comprehend or transcend its own limitations and the multifarious flaws of human nature.

Dr. Cone was also very clear that all theology, and that our own theological voice, comes out of the element of contradiction. A major part of this element of contradiction comes from the the understanding that if we have the conviction, courage, and intelligence to wrestle with and examine how our faith tradition is expressing itself in relation to the world, we will be able to confront ideas and frameworks in that expression which do not work, which are not relevant. From the confrontation of that contradiction we will be able to shape new ideas and frameworks which insure that our faith, our theology, speaks of the reality and love of God in a way that is meaningful, powerful, compassionate, and effective to the actual time, place, and circumstance which surrounds it. The element of contradiction, when processed in a healthy, intelligent, sincere, and surrendered fashion, helps to insure the proper theological balance between faith and knowledge of God's transcendent reality with a commitment towards the active work and service that can bring the just love of God into reality to break the bonds of injustice and oppression in our world.

I am beginning to understand, as my own theological voice begins to form, as a devotee who serves within ISKCON and identifies, more or less, as a member of ISKCON, who identifies as a servant of Prabhupada's mission, that I am also dealing with a serious contradiction. This contradiction begins as I understand that while I accept the fundamental and essential tenets of sastraas given to us by Prabhupada, I have many problems with how this essential spiritual understanding is expressed culturally and socially by our society of devotees. Let us recall the words of Yogesvara Dasa, a long-standing and well-esteemed disciple of Srila Prabhupada, who in our previous piece expressed his feelings that the Hare Krishna movement is largely invisible and irrelevant to society today:

“The most candid comment I can give about public perception of Hare Krishna in North
America is that I don’t think there is one anymore. The worst possible thing has happened,
namely indifference. There was a time going back 20 years perhaps when there was a public perception of the Hare Krishna movement in the sense that people felt accosted in  airports or read reports of abuses or saw devotees chanting in public. Devotees were a more visible part of the landscape of American culture previously.

Maybe then one could say there was a public perception because Hare Krishna was in the news, it was on television, it was in the papers for good or for bad...I believe that Vaishnavism as it has been historically will not be the same in the future for the simple reason that the world it lives in is not the same. There is a compulsion within Vaishnava faith to move into the larger society and to become relevant, and the Vaishnava community has yet to demonstrate its relevance. For 99.99 percent of the world we don’t matter. Krishna Consciousness is irrelevant to most of the world.”

I feel, and I am not alone in this feeling, that there is something wrong in how ISKCON, as the standard-bearer of Prabhupada's mission, relates to the world at large. Srila Prabhupada has given us the gift of a profound spiritual revolutionary movement which is to meant to strike at the very status quo of the oppression of material nature, yet our tendency is to speak in a overtly transcendent manner to the problems and complexities of the world, as if we are speaking down to people who are trying to spiritually work through these problems and complexities. It is difficult for us to speak to, to speak with, to speak along-side these sincere-minded and sincere-hearted people working for peace, justice, love, and meaning. As I wrote in my previous piece, this contradiction crystallizes for me when we communicate to people that “they are not their body” in such a way as to completely ignore or devalue their particular bodily or human existence in the world. Telling someone “they are not the body” when they are looking for spiritual shelter to help them work through and transcend their bodily situation of oppression is a particularly insensitive and irrelevant form of communication. This is compounded by the fact that when we consider the history and concurrent living experience of ISKCON in terms of how we relate to vulnerable and marginalized people, such as our women, our children, or devotees in our community in racial and sexual bodily constructs which are considered to be the “minority” or the “alternative” to the norm, we have a long and painful reckoning to deal with.

Let us consider two statements that Srila Prabhupada makes to us in one purport from the Madhya-lilaof Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta:

“ ‘As far as religious principles are concerned, there is a consideration of the person, the country, the time and the circumstance. In devotional service, however, there are no such considerations. Devotional service is transcendental to all such considerations. Madhya 25.121
The transcendental service of the Lord (sādhana-bhakti) is above these principles. The world is anxious for religious unity, and that common platform can be achieved in transcendental devotional service. This is the verdict of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. When one becomes a Vaiṣṇava, he becomes transcendental to all these limited considerations. Madhya 25.121

Prabhupada is quite clearly expressing here that devotees should never define the essential values of Krishna consciousness, of bhakti-yoga, by the limitations of material consideration. The color of someone's skin or the nature of one's sexuality ultimately has nothing to do with anyone's eligibility to become a devotee. Therefore no one claiming to be a devotee should ever discriminate or prevent someone from approaching devotional service because of material or bodily considerations.

As Prabhupada mentions in the first passage, devotional service is transcendental to all such considerations, but the cultural principles which surround, express, and communicate the eternal, absolute values at the core of Krishna consciousness have to take time, place, and circumstance into account. Prabhupada did this himself actively in the grand spiritual/sociological “experiment” of bringing the tradition of bhakti-yogafrom its original cultural context in India to the cultural context of the West. We know many of the alterations he made, such as allowing men and women to live together in the temple environment or initiating very young men into the sannyasaasrama, and we know the kind of push-back he received from his more conservatively oriented God-brothers. We know that every consideration he made around altering certain religious/cultural symbols was done with the exact and sincere motivation to maintain and enhance the free potential for everyone to properly encounter the eternal, absolute, and transcendental principles of Krishna consciousness.

To follow his calling for us, we need to understand that as devotees we are not to limit or define ourselves by material considerations in how we grow and maintain our communities and our society as a whole. Does this mean that we shouldn't be conscious of the material diversity of psychophysical situations we encounter in growing and maintaining our communities? Absolutely not. Prabhupada was also a tremendous genius at giving the reality of Krishna consciousness to each person as he consciously and compassionately understood the location of their being in this world, in the actual ground that they stood on. To have the capacity in our preaching, in our outreach, in our advocacy of the values and principles of Krishna consciousness, to learn and practice the art of revealing devotional service in the unique and palatable way that each person may desire it, is completely essential for us if we are to properly follow Prabhupada's calling for us.
Consider two more passages from this purport:

As far as different faiths are concerned, religions may be of different types, but on the spiritual platform, everyone has an equal right to execute devotional service. Madhya 25.121

The conclusion is that devotional service is open for everyone, regardless of caste, creed, time and country. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is functioning according to this principle. Madhya 25.121

How can we say our movement is functioning according to these absolute values when we clearly understand the legacy and ongoing reality within our movement of discrimination against certain types of body, nationality, caste, and/or sexuality? There is a contradiction which exists, which we must confront, between these eternal values of openness and equality at the heart ofbhakti, and the way we either share or don't share these values with people because of the discriminatory lenses we carry with us. This contradiction is one of the core reasons, if not the core reason, why we struggle to be as relevant are we are called to be in the world around us. There are of course individual devotees and communities of devotees who are exploring this contradiction and creating outreach which truly speaks
openly and equally to the heart and mind of the contemporary human being in the 21stCentury. 

One powerful example is the Gita Sutras (gitanyc.com)program associated with the Bhakti Center community here in New York City, which is attracting a diverse and dynamic spectrum of spiritual seekers whose intelligent minds and compassionate hearts are being enlivened by a presentation of the essential principles of the Bhagavad-Gitaas given by Prabhupada. It is a presentation which meets them powerfully and profoundly in their psychophysical locations and which doesn't discriminate against those locations.

ISKCON as a whole, as a global body representing Prabhupada's body, must now courageously and specifically ask whether its cultural presentation is something that is directly relevant to the world we live in. Do the elements of the presentation of Krishna consciousness in our communities and in our society as a whole contribute to the discrimination that exists in this world, or does it help to liberate people from that discrimination? What do we need to do to translate the eternal relevance of bhaktiso that it is practically relevant to the way people feel, think, live, and suffer? What do we need to do to translate this relevance so that it is not a scandal to the intellect and experience of the people we want to reach, touch, and affect?

As individuals and as communities we have the tendency to participate in “spiritual bypassing”, or to become addicted to “spiritual heroin”, in which we consciously/unconsciously ignore the difficulties in our own hearts, in our own communities, and in the world around us. To offer a balm to this affliction, I ask this question: do you, do we, do I, really understand how terrible and how painful the effects of the Kali-Yuga are to people suffering those effects? In the same way we can say to ourselves or tell someone else that “you are not the body” without fully understanding the full spiritual import of that statement, when we pass off the tumult of our time by saying its just the “Kali-Yuga”, we are ignoring our sacred responsibility to understand, confront, and redeem the pain of our age. We have to ask ourselves: do we want to be confronted by the realities of our age, perversities of divine nature which most certainly manifest in our own heart, or do we want to be an insular, provincial, “Hindu” religious society which has little practical relevance or effect upon society?

I know it is my experience, and the experience of a good number of devotees in our communities, that once one sees and encounters the vastness of the injustice and suffering which permeates our age, there is no longer anyway to bypass it or ignore it. It changes one's entire identity and calling as a devotee. It strengthens that identity and calling. It deepens that identity and calling. Some of the most formative influences on the shape of my own spiritual journey has been books like American Holocaustby David Stannard, which detailed the mass extermination of indigenous Native American peoples and cultures upon the “discovery” of the “New World” by European settlers/conquerors. Equally as powerful isThe New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, which explores and reveals how the contemporary criminal-justice system has created a underclass of people, largely Black and Latino men, whose standing as citizens in American society has been traumatically torn asunder. I would encourage any devotees to read these books to gain a better and broader idea of the kinds of demoniac forces we encounter in this age and on this planet.

Let me also share some food for thought from my recent participation in the opening workshop of the 2013 Immersion Experience of the Poverty Initiative, a clear and committed social justice organization working out of Union Theological Seminary. The workshop was titled Conditions and Consciousness: The Current Economic Crisis, and in the opening session we were presented with a number of facts that were meant to challenge and motivate us to grasp and understand a number of elements of exactly why and how so many people face suffering and exploitation because of certain economic factors that exist in our societal infrastructure.

I hope that by listing below some of these fact/provocations/questions that like-minded and similarly concerned devotees reading this may be deepened and challenged in their own motivation and conception of what it means to serve in this Kali-Yuga. We must understand the nature of what the term economic means. It is a measuring and a conceptual understanding of who gets what and why. It is an examination of the principle of the quota from the Isopanisadand how that principle is/is not honored in our current time.
We must understand and confront in our ourselves and in our society the gap between the factual reality of certain economic conditions and our consciousness of these conditions.

To whit:

-The number of “Tent Cities”continues to rise since the 2008 financial crisis, exacerbated no doubt by the increase in environmentally related disasters. As devotees, how do we practically help the people living in these communities?

-Of course we tend to notice how machines/robots continue to replace human service/interactions in such places as the assembly line and the checkout line. What do we as devotees have to say to people whose livelihood has been replaced/is threatened by this effect of economic globalization?

-I am reminded of the time HH Devamrta Swami, in one of his visits to the Bhakti Center in NYC, showed all the brahmacaris the award-winning documentary Inside Job, which detailed the 2008 financial meltdown. He never explicitly explained why he was showing us this film, but the implication was clear: just down the road from the Bhakti Center, on Wall Street, are the kind of overt demoniac forces that Krishna spoke of thein the Bhagavad-gita, and that as devotees, we should be very aware of this and very clear about what they are trying to do.

-How much are we, as devotees, aware of how debt functions to keep this unjust economic system working? How do our own experiences of debt, as individuals and communities, define our viewpoint of how our society actually works? Do we understand that the current crises of debt inequality exist not because the system isn't working, but because that is how the system actually works?

-Through the combination of our own personal misuse and the ways the industrial food production systems work, half the food that is produced is eventually wasted/thrown out.This adds up to $165 million of food wasted per year, while 800 million hungry go around the world.
-Did you know that, despite the backlash that came after the 2008 economic crash, CEOs earns at least 185 times more on averagethat the workers under them at their corporations?

The main point of this workshop was to help us to begin to understand the structural and ideologicalroots of why our current economic situation is the way it is, from the most high corporate boardrooms on down to the people barely scraping by in slums left behind. As devotees, it is also our challenge to understand the roots of the way the Kali-Yuga is being expressed in the world around us. Understanding these roots will allow us to have a more accurate diagnosis of the problem, and it will compelus to offer the right prescription to help cure our ills as much as we possibly can.

What, according to Srila Prabhupada, is this right prescription?

Because of the increment in demoniac population, people have lost brahminical culture. Nor is there a kṣatriya government. Instead, the government is a democracy in which any śūdra can be voted into taking up the governmental reigns and capture the power to rule. Because of the poisonous effects of Kali-yuga, the śāstra(Bhāg. 12.2.13) says, dasyu-prāyeṣu rājasu: the government will adopt the policies of dasyus, or plunderers. Thus there will be no instructions from the brāhmaṇas, and even if there are brahminical instructions, there will be no kṣatriya rulers who can follow them. 7.2.11

Therefore, through the popularizing of hari-kīrtana, or the saṅkīrtana movement, the brahminical culture and kṣatriya government will automatically come back, and people will be extremely happy. 7.2.11

Having an effective consciousness and awareness of the suffering in this world will give us determination and courage to effect the change, to do what Prabhupada is calling us to do, to overcome this suffering. As devotees, we have a responsibility to always be asking ourselves if we are truly and comprehensively aware as we can be of the suffering in the world. We must always be critiquing and improving our understanding of our own responsibility and our own calling to free the world, as best as we can, from this suffering.
A few quotes to end, from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. of course, and also from Jon Sobrino, an influential Jesuit activist and liberation theologian

"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr

“Our theology has to be rooted in reality”

Jon Sobrino, S.J

The relevance of Prabhupada's mission as we move into the 21stCentury depends so very much on standing firmly on the ground of suffering in this world, in this Kali-Yuga, and in giving effectively and compassionately the unique loving and spiritual balms and solutions that we have to give.



When Saying "It’s Just Kali-Yuga" Is Not Enough
→ Life Comes From Life




Dr. James Cone is one of the formative personalities in the living history of liberation theology, the spiritual/religious framework of knowledge and practice based around the ideal that God, and those who are devotees of God, should be primarily concerned with the social/political/spiritual freedom of the oppressed, of those who are marginalized due to their race, sex, class, nationality, or gender. Through such courageous and groundbreaking works such as A Black Theology of Liberation, The God of the Oppressedand The Cross and The Lynching Tree, Cone has resounded a daring truth which says that God is intimately and particularly concerned and active in securing the freedom of black people in America from the shackles of bondage which have kept them and held them over much of the last five hundred years. While Cone did not invent the idea of Black Theology, he is considered one of its “founding fathers,” as it were, and is a historically important and vital figure in the field of contemporary Christian theology

Dr. Cone's work has inspired many other liberation theologians across the spectrum of race, sex, and gender to apply this ideal of God's care and love for the oppressed to their own particular situations of oppression/marginalization. He has been teaching at Union Theological Seminary, the oldest independent progressive Christian seminary in America, for much of the last four decades. Union, where I am currently working towards a master's degree in religion and ecological ethics, is where I had the good fortune of participating in Cone's Systematic Theology course this past Fall.

From the very first class, Cone was encouraging us to find our own personal theological voice, but he was also clear that there was an objective difference between good theology and bad theology. I came to understand that good theology, a working theology, must include understanding and realization of the transcendent reality of God, who speaks to us and acts within us beyond the boundaries of the material world, helping us to transcend our own limitations. Good theology must balance this understanding of the transcendent element with a clear acknowledgment and commitment to confronting, within the material world, the structures and expressions of injustice, discrimination, and oppression which deny people their material and spiritual freedom and dignity.

Bad theology is removed from this balance. A theology which doesn't work gives a framework which compels a community to think itself above the problems of the world. Bad theology commits the “sin of silence” towards the injustice of the world, either by outright ignoring the pain and suffering of oppression, or by misinterpreting how to deal with this oppression with antiquated and insensitive forms of praxis. Theology will also not work when it is too concerned with justice work at the expense of the transcendent element. Our link to the transcendent reality of God allows us, as expressed in the thought of one of Union's most influential teachers and philosophers Reinhold Niebuhr, to understand the original freedom of our own spiritual nature in relationship with God, while also making clear to us the finite nature of our material existence and our limitations within that nature to express that original freedom. Any theology, or any kind of justice work, which does not keep the transcendent relation of God at its center, will not be able to comprehend or transcend its own limitations and the multifarious flaws of human nature.

Dr. Cone was also very clear that all theology, and that our own theological voice, comes out of the element of contradiction. A major part of this element of contradiction comes from the the understanding that if we have the conviction, courage, and intelligence to wrestle with and examine how our faith tradition is expressing itself in relation to the world, we will be able to confront ideas and frameworks in that expression which do not work, which are not relevant. From the confrontation of that contradiction we will be able to shape new ideas and frameworks which insure that our faith, our theology, speaks of the reality and love of God in a way that is meaningful, powerful, compassionate, and effective to the actual time, place, and circumstance which surrounds it. The element of contradiction, when processed in a healthy, intelligent, sincere, and surrendered fashion, helps to insure the proper theological balance between faith and knowledge of God's transcendent reality with a commitment towards the active work and service that can bring the just love of God into reality to break the bonds of injustice and oppression in our world.

I am beginning to understand, as my own theological voice begins to form, as a devotee who serves within ISKCON and identifies, more or less, as a member of ISKCON, who identifies as a servant of Prabhupada's mission, that I am also dealing with a serious contradiction. This contradiction begins as I understand that while I accept the fundamental and essential tenets of sastraas given to us by Prabhupada, I have many problems with how this essential spiritual understanding is expressed culturally and socially by our society of devotees. Let us recall the words of Yogesvara Dasa, a long-standing and well-esteemed disciple of Srila Prabhupada, who in our previous piece expressed his feelings that the Hare Krishna movement is largely invisible and irrelevant to society today:

“The most candid comment I can give about public perception of Hare Krishna in North
America is that I don’t think there is one anymore. The worst possible thing has happened,
namely indifference. There was a time going back 20 years perhaps when there was a public perception of the Hare Krishna movement in the sense that people felt accosted in  airports or read reports of abuses or saw devotees chanting in public. Devotees were a more visible part of the landscape of American culture previously.

Maybe then one could say there was a public perception because Hare Krishna was in the news, it was on television, it was in the papers for good or for bad...I believe that Vaishnavism as it has been historically will not be the same in the future for the simple reason that the world it lives in is not the same. There is a compulsion within Vaishnava faith to move into the larger society and to become relevant, and the Vaishnava community has yet to demonstrate its relevance. For 99.99 percent of the world we don’t matter. Krishna Consciousness is irrelevant to most of the world.”

I feel, and I am not alone in this feeling, that there is something wrong in how ISKCON, as the standard-bearer of Prabhupada's mission, relates to the world at large. Srila Prabhupada has given us the gift of a profound spiritual revolutionary movement which is to meant to strike at the very status quo of the oppression of material nature, yet our tendency is to speak in a overtly transcendent manner to the problems and complexities of the world, as if we are speaking down to people who are trying to spiritually work through these problems and complexities. It is difficult for us to speak to, to speak with, to speak along-side these sincere-minded and sincere-hearted people working for peace, justice, love, and meaning. As I wrote in my previous piece, this contradiction crystallizes for me when we communicate to people that “they are not their body” in such a way as to completely ignore or devalue their particular bodily or human existence in the world. Telling someone “they are not the body” when they are looking for spiritual shelter to help them work through and transcend their bodily situation of oppression is a particularly insensitive and irrelevant form of communication. This is compounded by the fact that when we consider the history and concurrent living experience of ISKCON in terms of how we relate to vulnerable and marginalized people, such as our women, our children, or devotees in our community in racial and sexual bodily constructs which are considered to be the “minority” or the “alternative” to the norm, we have a long and painful reckoning to deal with.

Let us consider two statements that Srila Prabhupada makes to us in one purport from the Madhya-lilaof Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta:

“ ‘As far as religious principles are concerned, there is a consideration of the person, the country, the time and the circumstance. In devotional service, however, there are no such considerations. Devotional service is transcendental to all such considerations. Madhya 25.121
The transcendental service of the Lord (sādhana-bhakti) is above these principles. The world is anxious for religious unity, and that common platform can be achieved in transcendental devotional service. This is the verdict of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. When one becomes a Vaiṣṇava, he becomes transcendental to all these limited considerations. Madhya 25.121

Prabhupada is quite clearly expressing here that devotees should never define the essential values of Krishna consciousness, of bhakti-yoga, by the limitations of material consideration. The color of someone's skin or the nature of one's sexuality ultimately has nothing to do with anyone's eligibility to become a devotee. Therefore no one claiming to be a devotee should ever discriminate or prevent someone from approaching devotional service because of material or bodily considerations.

As Prabhupada mentions in the first passage, devotional service is transcendental to all such considerations, but the cultural principles which surround, express, and communicate the eternal, absolute values at the core of Krishna consciousness have to take time, place, and circumstance into account. Prabhupada did this himself actively in the grand spiritual/sociological “experiment” of bringing the tradition of bhakti-yogafrom its original cultural context in India to the cultural context of the West. We know many of the alterations he made, such as allowing men and women to live together in the temple environment or initiating very young men into the sannyasaasrama, and we know the kind of push-back he received from his more conservatively oriented God-brothers. We know that every consideration he made around altering certain religious/cultural symbols was done with the exact and sincere motivation to maintain and enhance the free potential for everyone to properly encounter the eternal, absolute, and transcendental principles of Krishna consciousness.

To follow his calling for us, we need to understand that as devotees we are not to limit or define ourselves by material considerations in how we grow and maintain our communities and our society as a whole. Does this mean that we shouldn't be conscious of the material diversity of psychophysical situations we encounter in growing and maintaining our communities? Absolutely not. Prabhupada was also a tremendous genius at giving the reality of Krishna consciousness to each person as he consciously and compassionately understood the location of their being in this world, in the actual ground that they stood on. To have the capacity in our preaching, in our outreach, in our advocacy of the values and principles of Krishna consciousness, to learn and practice the art of revealing devotional service in the unique and palatable way that each person may desire it, is completely essential for us if we are to properly follow Prabhupada's calling for us.
Consider two more passages from this purport:

As far as different faiths are concerned, religions may be of different types, but on the spiritual platform, everyone has an equal right to execute devotional service. Madhya 25.121

The conclusion is that devotional service is open for everyone, regardless of caste, creed, time and country. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is functioning according to this principle. Madhya 25.121

How can we say our movement is functioning according to these absolute values when we clearly understand the legacy and ongoing reality within our movement of discrimination against certain types of body, nationality, caste, and/or sexuality? There is a contradiction which exists, which we must confront, between these eternal values of openness and equality at the heart ofbhakti, and the way we either share or don't share these values with people because of the discriminatory lenses we carry with us. This contradiction is one of the core reasons, if not the core reason, why we struggle to be as relevant are we are called to be in the world around us. There are of course individual devotees and communities of devotees who are exploring this contradiction and creating outreach which truly speaks
openly and equally to the heart and mind of the contemporary human being in the 21stCentury. 

One powerful example is the Gita Sutras (gitanyc.com)program associated with the Bhakti Center community here in New York City, which is attracting a diverse and dynamic spectrum of spiritual seekers whose intelligent minds and compassionate hearts are being enlivened by a presentation of the essential principles of the Bhagavad-Gitaas given by Prabhupada. It is a presentation which meets them powerfully and profoundly in their psychophysical locations and which doesn't discriminate against those locations.

ISKCON as a whole, as a global body representing Prabhupada's body, must now courageously and specifically ask whether its cultural presentation is something that is directly relevant to the world we live in. Do the elements of the presentation of Krishna consciousness in our communities and in our society as a whole contribute to the discrimination that exists in this world, or does it help to liberate people from that discrimination? What do we need to do to translate the eternal relevance of bhaktiso that it is practically relevant to the way people feel, think, live, and suffer? What do we need to do to translate this relevance so that it is not a scandal to the intellect and experience of the people we want to reach, touch, and affect?

As individuals and as communities we have the tendency to participate in “spiritual bypassing”, or to become addicted to “spiritual heroin”, in which we consciously/unconsciously ignore the difficulties in our own hearts, in our own communities, and in the world around us. To offer a balm to this affliction, I ask this question: do you, do we, do I, really understand how terrible and how painful the effects of the Kali-Yuga are to people suffering those effects? In the same way we can say to ourselves or tell someone else that “you are not the body” without fully understanding the full spiritual import of that statement, when we pass off the tumult of our time by saying its just the “Kali-Yuga”, we are ignoring our sacred responsibility to understand, confront, and redeem the pain of our age. We have to ask ourselves: do we want to be confronted by the realities of our age, perversities of divine nature which most certainly manifest in our own heart, or do we want to be an insular, provincial, “Hindu” religious society which has little practical relevance or effect upon society?

I know it is my experience, and the experience of a good number of devotees in our communities, that once one sees and encounters the vastness of the injustice and suffering which permeates our age, there is no longer anyway to bypass it or ignore it. It changes one's entire identity and calling as a devotee. It strengthens that identity and calling. It deepens that identity and calling. Some of the most formative influences on the shape of my own spiritual journey has been books like American Holocaustby David Stannard, which detailed the mass extermination of indigenous Native American peoples and cultures upon the “discovery” of the “New World” by European settlers/conquerors. Equally as powerful isThe New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, which explores and reveals how the contemporary criminal-justice system has created a underclass of people, largely Black and Latino men, whose standing as citizens in American society has been traumatically torn asunder. I would encourage any devotees to read these books to gain a better and broader idea of the kinds of demoniac forces we encounter in this age and on this planet.

Let me also share some food for thought from my recent participation in the opening workshop of the 2013 Immersion Experience of the Poverty Initiative, a clear and committed social justice organization working out of Union Theological Seminary. The workshop was titled Conditions and Consciousness: The Current Economic Crisis, and in the opening session we were presented with a number of facts that were meant to challenge and motivate us to grasp and understand a number of elements of exactly why and how so many people face suffering and exploitation because of certain economic factors that exist in our societal infrastructure.

I hope that by listing below some of these fact/provocations/questions that like-minded and similarly concerned devotees reading this may be deepened and challenged in their own motivation and conception of what it means to serve in this Kali-Yuga. We must understand the nature of what the term economic means. It is a measuring and a conceptual understanding of who gets what and why. It is an examination of the principle of the quota from the Isopanisadand how that principle is/is not honored in our current time.
We must understand and confront in our ourselves and in our society the gap between the factual reality of certain economic conditions and our consciousness of these conditions.

To whit:

-The number of “Tent Cities”continues to rise since the 2008 financial crisis, exacerbated no doubt by the increase in environmentally related disasters. As devotees, how do we practically help the people living in these communities?

-Of course we tend to notice how machines/robots continue to replace human service/interactions in such places as the assembly line and the checkout line. What do we as devotees have to say to people whose livelihood has been replaced/is threatened by this effect of economic globalization?

-I am reminded of the time HH Devamrta Swami, in one of his visits to the Bhakti Center in NYC, showed all the brahmacaris the award-winning documentary Inside Job, which detailed the 2008 financial meltdown. He never explicitly explained why he was showing us this film, but the implication was clear: just down the road from the Bhakti Center, on Wall Street, are the kind of overt demoniac forces that Krishna spoke of thein the Bhagavad-gita, and that as devotees, we should be very aware of this and very clear about what they are trying to do.

-How much are we, as devotees, aware of how debt functions to keep this unjust economic system working? How do our own experiences of debt, as individuals and communities, define our viewpoint of how our society actually works? Do we understand that the current crises of debt inequality exist not because the system isn't working, but because that is how the system actually works?

-Through the combination of our own personal misuse and the ways the industrial food production systems work, half the food that is produced is eventually wasted/thrown out.This adds up to $165 million of food wasted per year, while 800 million hungry go around the world.
-Did you know that, despite the backlash that came after the 2008 economic crash, CEOs earns at least 185 times more on averagethat the workers under them at their corporations?

The main point of this workshop was to help us to begin to understand the structural and ideologicalroots of why our current economic situation is the way it is, from the most high corporate boardrooms on down to the people barely scraping by in slums left behind. As devotees, it is also our challenge to understand the roots of the way the Kali-Yuga is being expressed in the world around us. Understanding these roots will allow us to have a more accurate diagnosis of the problem, and it will compelus to offer the right prescription to help cure our ills as much as we possibly can.

What, according to Srila Prabhupada, is this right prescription?

Because of the increment in demoniac population, people have lost brahminical culture. Nor is there a kṣatriya government. Instead, the government is a democracy in which any śūdra can be voted into taking up the governmental reigns and capture the power to rule. Because of the poisonous effects of Kali-yuga, the śāstra(Bhāg. 12.2.13) says, dasyu-prāyeṣu rājasu: the government will adopt the policies of dasyus, or plunderers. Thus there will be no instructions from the brāhmaṇas, and even if there are brahminical instructions, there will be no kṣatriya rulers who can follow them. 7.2.11

Therefore, through the popularizing of hari-kīrtana, or the saṅkīrtana movement, the brahminical culture and kṣatriya government will automatically come back, and people will be extremely happy. 7.2.11

Having an effective consciousness and awareness of the suffering in this world will give us determination and courage to effect the change, to do what Prabhupada is calling us to do, to overcome this suffering. As devotees, we have a responsibility to always be asking ourselves if we are truly and comprehensively aware as we can be of the suffering in the world. We must always be critiquing and improving our understanding of our own responsibility and our own calling to free the world, as best as we can, from this suffering.
A few quotes to end, from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. of course, and also from Jon Sobrino, an influential Jesuit activist and liberation theologian

"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr

“Our theology has to be rooted in reality”

Jon Sobrino, S.J

The relevance of Prabhupada's mission as we move into the 21stCentury depends so very much on standing firmly on the ground of suffering in this world, in this Kali-Yuga, and in giving effectively and compassionately the unique loving and spiritual balms and solutions that we have to give.



Daily Meditation on my Gurudeva – Day 3
→ A Convenient Truth


 

I saw this photo for the first time when I was in Benin, Nigeria back in 2000. It was a window into the past of a version of my Guru Maharaja that I had never known. I don’t know the history of this photo, like where it was taken, what year, etc. I would assume it’s a photo of him in West Africa.
Everyone knows by now the stories of my Guru Maharaja preaching in West Africa and how he came to the conclusion to go and preach there. When I traveled there and came back psychologically/emotionally beaten and defeated we had a few email exchanges. This first quote is from when I was still in Nigeria and the quote following is from when I had already returned to Gita-nagari:
"Africa of course is an especially difficult place. Benin is full of subtle influences. Anyway you will grow from this experience. As soon as you are strong enough to return you can come back. But, if later you want to visit Ghana for one or two weeks before you come back then you can. Ghana is not as difficult as Nigeria. We have a lot of services here for you so the devotees of course will be happy to see you. Now you can understand a little better of some of the things I have had to do in trying to spread Krishna consciousness in different parts of the world." 
 
"Even when I am in Nigeria, I am never relaxed. How I worked there for so many years is only because I knew that Srila Prabhupada would want me to do this work. Somehow Krishna was very kind to me because I only caught malaria once in all those years. So it seems like taking the neem really helped."

Indeed, I had just experienced first hand the intensity of preaching in such a complex environment (at one point in an email from him he even said to me, "There is so much more use of subtle influence in the African continent. As a matter of fact devotees are always thinking that they are being attacked by each other, unfortunately sometimes it is actually true."). It only goes to prove the level of his empowerment. He didn’t waiver in the face of adversities while there. In stark contrast I folded and caved like a house of cards. A person’s true qualities are revealed in the face of difficulties. Do they run? Do they become stronger? Do they fall back into sense gratification? Do they become more faithful and surrendered?
My Gurudeva’s life and his responses to adversity were proof of his level of spiritual advancement and the spiritual blessings conferred upon him. I can only pray to one day become so fixed and resolute in my own determination and devotion. He walked his talk and was a shining example of success on the path of bhakti.

Daily Meditation on my Gurudeva – Day 3
→ A Convenient Truth


 

I saw this photo for the first time when I was in Benin, Nigeria back in 2000. It was a window into the past of a version of my Guru Maharaja that I had never known. I don’t know the history of this photo, like where it was taken, what year, etc. I would assume it’s a photo of him in West Africa.
Everyone knows by now the stories of my Guru Maharaja preaching in West Africa and how he came to the conclusion to go and preach there. When I traveled there and came back psychologically/emotionally beaten and defeated we had a few email exchanges. This first quote is from when I was still in Nigeria and the quote following is from when I had already returned to Gita-nagari:
"Africa of course is an especially difficult place. Benin is full of subtle influences. Anyway you will grow from this experience. As soon as you are strong enough to return you can come back. But, if later you want to visit Ghana for one or two weeks before you come back then you can. Ghana is not as difficult as Nigeria. We have a lot of services here for you so the devotees of course will be happy to see you. Now you can understand a little better of some of the things I have had to do in trying to spread Krishna consciousness in different parts of the world." 
 
"Even when I am in Nigeria, I am never relaxed. How I worked there for so many years is only because I knew that Srila Prabhupada would want me to do this work. Somehow Krishna was very kind to me because I only caught malaria once in all those years. So it seems like taking the neem really helped."

Indeed, I had just experienced first hand the intensity of preaching in such a complex environment (at one point in an email from him he even said to me, "There is so much more use of subtle influence in the African continent. As a matter of fact devotees are always thinking that they are being attacked by each other, unfortunately sometimes it is actually true."). It only goes to prove the level of his empowerment. He didn’t waiver in the face of adversities while there. In stark contrast I folded and caved like a house of cards. A person’s true qualities are revealed in the face of difficulties. Do they run? Do they become stronger? Do they fall back into sense gratification? Do they become more faithful and surrendered?
My Gurudeva’s life and his responses to adversity were proof of his level of spiritual advancement and the spiritual blessings conferred upon him. I can only pray to one day become so fixed and resolute in my own determination and devotion. He walked his talk and was a shining example of success on the path of bhakti.

Daily Meditation on my Gurudeva – Day 2
→ A Convenient Truth


 

This is one of the first photographs I had seen of my Guru Maharaja. The very first one I ever saw was from the same photo shoot as this one, but instead of chanting on japa beads he has his hands folded in a praying-hands greeting (namaste). This was during the time he was known as Srila Krishnapada and was pioneering his IFAST preaching strategy. When I first saw that photo it was a photocopied version on the cover an IFAST booklet (from a program that Hladini-shakti and Radha-sundari had arranged in Detroit).
I had been going to the Sunday feasts at the Detroit temple (Fisher Mansion) for some months (back in ’94) when I was informed by Bob Roberts of a new “bhakta program”. I was still a senior in high school at the time, but I decided to make the time to attend the meeting. It was then that I saw this picture of my Guru Maharaja. It struck me and stirred my soul. You sometimes hear about devotees saying they just knew that a particular spiritual master was their guru, whether they heard his voice or saw a photo or met in person.
I didn’t know what I was feeling and I didn't want to just haphazardly accept someone as guru, so I talked to Radha-sundari in her kitchen as she was pouring cold, berry zinger tea for everyone. I explained that I felt like I had a connection with this spiritual master. She said it could definitely be a past life connection, but that I should just keep an open mind and open heart to instructions from everyone and that in time I would know for sure. It was such practical, non-fanatical advice.
After that moment though I knew he was my Gurudeva, just by seeing that small, photocopied version of his photo.

Daily Meditation on my Gurudeva – Day 2
→ A Convenient Truth


 

This is one of the first photographs I had seen of my Guru Maharaja. The very first one I ever saw was from the same photo shoot as this one, but instead of chanting on japa beads he has his hands folded in a praying-hands greeting (namaste). This was during the time he was known as Srila Krishnapada and was pioneering his IFAST preaching strategy. When I first saw that photo it was a photocopied version on the cover an IFAST booklet (from a program that Hladini-shakti and Radha-sundari had arranged in Detroit).
I had been going to the Sunday feasts at the Detroit temple (Fisher Mansion) for some months (back in ’94) when I was informed by Bob Roberts of a new “bhakta program”. I was still a senior in high school at the time, but I decided to make the time to attend the meeting. It was then that I saw this picture of my Guru Maharaja. It struck me and stirred my soul. You sometimes hear about devotees saying they just knew that a particular spiritual master was their guru, whether they heard his voice or saw a photo or met in person.
I didn’t know what I was feeling and I didn't want to just haphazardly accept someone as guru, so I talked to Radha-sundari in her kitchen as she was pouring cold, berry zinger tea for everyone. I explained that I felt like I had a connection with this spiritual master. She said it could definitely be a past life connection, but that I should just keep an open mind and open heart to instructions from everyone and that in time I would know for sure. It was such practical, non-fanatical advice.
After that moment though I knew he was my Gurudeva, just by seeing that small, photocopied version of his photo.

A simple analogy
→ OppositeRule

Suppose a rich man creates a foundation for distributing the interest generated by his wealth to worthy persons who would use it wisely.  For some time, he identifies these individuals himself, but later appoints representatives to do that for him.  After some time the rich man passes away.

What should representatives then do? 

Should they divide the principle sum among themselves on the pretense that they no longer know whom to give the interest?  Then they would each have a nice bank balance and could distribute the interest almost like before.

Is there any problem there?  Yes.  The representatives stole the rich man’s wealth.  It was not given to them like that.

The trustees should have continued distributing the interest from his wealth just as they had been doing previously.  If they wanted to distribute their own wealth, they simply needed to invest what they legitimately received and made it grow until it became sufficient to distribute the interest.

Obviously this relates to initiations in ISKCON.  If a rich man can distribute his money through trustees perpetually like that, why can’t the GBC manage it for Srila Prabhupada?

Gaura-Shakti at Yoga Conference and Show on March 23rd! Check it out!
→ Gaura-Shakti Kirtan Yoga

Gaura-Shakti is very excited to be part of one of the largest yoga shows in Canada, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on March 23, 2013! We have been scheduled to do kirtan on the main stage of the hall from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.!

We are asking all our friends and fans to come out and support us by participating in chanting with everyone else there! Please come, we need you beautiful voices to sing, your hands to clap, your bodies to dance and your hearts to enjoy beautiful ancients chants along with us! See you there!

For more information about the event please visit:
http://www.theyogaconference.com/toronto/

Gaura-Shakti at Yoga Conference and Show on March 23rd! Check it out!
→ Gaura-Shakti Kirtan Yoga

Gaura-Shakti is very excited to be part of one of the largest yoga shows in Canada, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on March 23, 2013! We have been scheduled to do kirtan on the main stage of the hall from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.!

We are asking all our friends and fans to come out and support us by participating in chanting with everyone else there! Please come, we need you beautiful voices to sing, your hands to clap, your bodies to dance and your hearts to enjoy beautiful ancients chants along with us! See you there!

For more information about the event please visit:
http://www.theyogaconference.com/toronto/

Daily Meditation on my Gurudeva – Day 1
→ A Convenient Truth

I want to start a daily reflection on my Guru Maharaja. The idea is to find a photo of him, whether online or in my own files, and write something about it: some memories, some reflections, some thoughts. Here is the first photo:

  
This was actually from Lavanga and Krishna Purvaja. I’m not sure how they initially ended up with the photo, but they gave it to my wife to give to me (along with a couple other photos of my Guru Maharaja) some time ago.

This is the photo of my Guru Maharaja that I have framed and sitting on my desk at work. I sometimes notice it and sometimes I don’t. In that way, it’s kind of like the relationship I really had with him. I sometimes thought about him, yet on many other occasions (often while engaged in sense gratification) he was very far away from my mind. Doesn’t this parallel our eternal storyline with Paramatma/Sri Krishna?

From far away I can only make out the reflection on his glasses and his wide, bright smile, like a sort of Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. That smile would light up a room, change people’s consciousness from gloom to happiness. He had a powerful charisma. His energy/aura was powerful and potent. When he would walk into a room, you could feel the atmosphere vibrate with spiritual energy. I miss that nervous excitement of his physical presence. Feeling safe and secure, knowing this was someone who could guide and protect you. I just imagined him walking into my room right now and what that would feel like. I’m trying not to cry as I type this.

The tears are flowing now. Not tears of ecstasy, rather tears of regret. Tears of not being able to follow his instructions. Tears of being a failure. In my last visit with him before he left this planet he apologized to me. He apologized for being “too hard” on me. I was leveled by his humility and replied that the problem was that I was too selfish to appreciate the service. He smiled…and that was the last time I saw him.

The tears start flowing again. Damn it. I wasn’t doing this to cry, but this is where Paramatma has brought me. Down to this river of tears and regret and shame. Down to the core of the heart and soul. I was expecting to blabber on about the garb he was wearing, the room he was in, the rings on his fingers and how those things would trigger memories of physically being around him. But that’s not important here, is it? Isn’t that just more looking at the externals? More illusion? He wasn’t a black man. He wasn’t a sannyasi. He was an embodiment of Guru-tattva and that is what this photo is telling me today.

Daily Meditation on my Gurudeva – Day 1
→ A Convenient Truth

I want to start a daily reflection on my Guru Maharaja. The idea is to find a photo of him, whether online or in my own files, and write something about it: some memories, some reflections, some thoughts. Here is the first photo:

  
This was actually from Lavanga and Krishna Purvaja. I’m not sure how they initially ended up with the photo, but they gave it to my wife to give to me (along with a couple other photos of my Guru Maharaja) some time ago.

This is the photo of my Guru Maharaja that I have framed and sitting on my desk at work. I sometimes notice it and sometimes I don’t. In that way, it’s kind of like the relationship I really had with him. I sometimes thought about him, yet on many other occasions (often while engaged in sense gratification) he was very far away from my mind. Doesn’t this parallel our eternal storyline with Paramatma/Sri Krishna?

From far away I can only make out the reflection on his glasses and his wide, bright smile, like a sort of Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. That smile would light up a room, change people’s consciousness from gloom to happiness. He had a powerful charisma. His energy/aura was powerful and potent. When he would walk into a room, you could feel the atmosphere vibrate with spiritual energy. I miss that nervous excitement of his physical presence. Feeling safe and secure, knowing this was someone who could guide and protect you. I just imagined him walking into my room right now and what that would feel like. I’m trying not to cry as I type this.

The tears are flowing now. Not tears of ecstasy, rather tears of regret. Tears of not being able to follow his instructions. Tears of being a failure. In my last visit with him before he left this planet he apologized to me. He apologized for being “too hard” on me. I was leveled by his humility and replied that the problem was that I was too selfish to appreciate the service. He smiled…and that was the last time I saw him.

The tears start flowing again. Damn it. I wasn’t doing this to cry, but this is where Paramatma has brought me. Down to this river of tears and regret and shame. Down to the core of the heart and soul. I was expecting to blabber on about the garb he was wearing, the room he was in, the rings on his fingers and how those things would trigger memories of physically being around him. But that’s not important here, is it? Isn’t that just more looking at the externals? More illusion? He wasn’t a black man. He wasn’t a sannyasi. He was an embodiment of Guru-tattva and that is what this photo is telling me today.

Trying to find peace among devotees again
→ OppositeRule

Lately I’ve been trying to get back into devotional service again, but I’m finding many obstacles that I will need to overcome. A major portion of this is figuring out how to get along with devotees, because I still feel that it was problems with devotees that pushed me out.

Another big issue I struggle with relates to gurus. Mostly it was problems with gurus that made life in ISKCON impossible for me. I saw gurus breaking ISKCON Law in a variety of ways, and my confronting this made me someone whom devotees did not want around. That gave me such pain that I am still trying to get over it more than seven years later.

I remember it being announced (in 2007?) by our local GBC, a guru himself, that the temple bylaws were being changed (in a way that I thought Srila Prabhupada said they should not be) to protect the temples from takeover by the “rtviks,” who he said (twice) were “enemies of ISKCON.” I remember then thinking that if someone is said to be my enemy, then I have a responsibility to understand their point of view before accepting that. So I did, and I found their view had merit. However I had problems with them too. They were hurt a lot too, and it’s difficult to get along with hurt people.

Since I’m not a Krishna conscious person, I can’t definitively say what’s right or wrong in the process. I can say what makes sense based on what I know from Srila Prabhupada’s writing and speaking, and I can say what seems honest to me and what doesn’t.

This morning I saw a short blog series called “Diksa or Rtvik,” by Danavir Gosvami, and unfortunately it seems very biased to me to the point where I it’s hard not to call it dishonest. I wanted to comment there, but to do so requires creating an account, and I’m so fallen from devotional service that I’m not even sure what name to use, so for now I’ll write here.

Danavir’s post begins as follows:

“What has been the standard system of initiation (diksa) conducted throughout the ages in all bonafide Vaisnava sampradayas, today we neophyte American devotees desire to change.

““That is your American disease. This is very serious that you always want to change everything.” — Srila Prabhupada”

www.oneiskcon.com/2013/03/06/diksa-or-ritvik-part-one

I never saw the “rtvik” view as a change proposed by neophyte American devotees. My review of the history indicated that Srila Prabhupada instituted a system of initiations that incorporated rtviks, and that he never said to end it. The GBC changed it despite a general order to change nothing. Changing something back to what it was before an illegitimate change isn’t an ordinary change, and portraying it as such seems dishonest to me. If one somehow finds oneself driving on the wrong side of the road, that is not the proper time to emphasize the rule against crossing the double yellow lines. One must cross to get back to the correct side.

To me this doesn’t mean “no gurus.” We all know Srila Prabhupada wanted regular diksa gurus, and I see this “Diksa or Rtvik” concept as a false dilemma. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma If a guru has ten disciples and says “I want my disciples to preach East, and I want my disciples to preach West,” and then passes away, should his disciples argue over whether he wants East or West? The order is for both. It doesn’t mean two disciples go East, three go West, and the other five fight each other and go nowhere, which is a tragedy that seems to be what’s happening now.

“In effect, eliminating the diksa guru is tantamount to spiritual abortion.”

I have no idea how Danavir considers continuing the initiation system Srila Prabhupada instituted to be eliminating the diksa guru. Obviously Srila Prabhupada would be the diksa guru. Later Danavir says it prevents the year-long examination of the disciple and guru, but I always thought the July 9 letter gave full authority to rtviks to do that. It’s easy enough for an aspiring disciple to examine Srila Prabhupada by studying his books and the other products of his work.

Danavir makes the point in Part 2 of his essay that the initiation method facilitated by rtviks denies Srila Prabhupada the choice to reject aspiring disciples. The absurdity of this argument is astonishing to me. As I said in the previous paragraph, I always thought the July 9 letter authorized the rtviks to accept disciples on his behalf, and when I read it again, it says the same thing:

In the past Temple Presidents have written to Srila Prabhupada recommending a particular devotee’s initiation. Now that Srila Prabhupada has named these representatives, Temple Presidents may henceforward send recommendation for first and second initiation to whichever of these eleven representatives are nearest their temple. After considering the recommendation, these representatives may accept the devotee as an initiated disciple of Srila Prabhupada by giving a spiritual name, or in the case of second initiation, by chanting on the Gayatri thread, just as Srila Prabhupada has done.

That’s what it says. The bold and italics are my emphasis.

Danavir’s argument is hypocritical and seems disingenuous, because his position denies Srila Prabhupada his choice to accept disciples through the institutional mechanism he created, as if Srila Prabhupada’s mood was to reject aspiring disciples. Maybe Danavir is mixing up Srila Prabhupada with Gaur Kishore Das Babaji.

Danavir ends his Part 2 with a familiar argument that I always found easy to refute:

If it were so easy to jump up the ladder and become the direct disciple of Srila Prabhupada, then why couldn’t one just as easily double jump up to become Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati’s direct disciple. Going a bit further one might eventually imagine proceeding directly to the Lord Himself without the need of intermediate gurus.

We would not be talking about this if Srila Prabhpada had not created a system for accepting disciples in his absence, without asking his permission each time, by employing rtviks. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati did not do that, nor did anyone else as far as I know. However it’s a clear historical fact that Srila Prabhupada did. After his disappearance, the GBC scrapped that so the rtvik-acaryas could become zonal acaryas, and they concealed the real facts. Later the facts emerged, and many disciples wanted to reinstate Srila Prabhupada’s system. The GBC’s refusal to accept it is a problem that has caused ISKCON to splinter and become quite insignificant to the world. How can devotees present a solution to the world’s problems if they can’t even stop fighting among themselves?

Srila Prabhupada wanted his disciples to become qualified initiating gurus, but he also created an initiation mechanism to allow him to accept disciples through the institution. How can a disciple dare to destroy what the Founder-Acarya has created, when there is no order to do so? If an aspiring devotee primarily has faith in Srila Prabhupada, then why force the devotee to put his complete faith in someone else? It’s unnatural. On the other hand, if another qualified devotee is the primary inspiration for an aspiring devotee, and that qualified devotee wants to accept the disciple, then it also is natural. These two systems do not have to interfere with each other, but can unite everyone under the ISKCON banner. All that is required is for the GBC to accept it, and I really wish they would, so we can end this stupid enmity between devotees and work together instead of criticizing each other so much. Please. Hare Krsna.

I also want to offer my humble obeisances to HH Danavir Gosvami. I wish I could have kirtan with him again. It’s been a long time since I have had the opportunity for such a joyful occasion because of conflicts like this which just seem unnecessary to me for the reasons described in this blog.

Gaura Purnima – Appearance of Lord Caitanya March 26th
→ ISKCON BRAMPTON'S BLOG

Sunday Feast, March 10th @ 11:00am

The program consists of arati, kirtan (devotional chanting), philosophical discussion and prasadam.  Please come, get inspired and inspire others through your desire to share Krsna Consciousness!

Program Schedule:
11:00 am - 11:30 am Guru Puja
11:30 am - 12:00 pm Arati & Kirtan
12:00 pm – 12:05 pm Narasingadev Prayers
12:10 pm - 1:00 pm  Vedic Discourse by His Grace Mahabhagvata Dasa
1:05 pm - 1:20 pm Tulasi Puja
1:20 pm - 2:00 pm Prasadam (Vegetarian feast)


Upcoming Events:

Gaura Purnima - Appearance of Lord Caitanya March 26th 

Please mark your calender for this upcoming event. ISKCON Brampton would celebrate this festival with morning and evening programs. More details will be announced this Sunday.
 
This festival is considered to be one of the most important festivals of the entire year for Gaudya Vaishnavas (followers of Lord Caitaniya). Devotees observe this festival by fasting till moonrise and chanting when they can the holy names of Lord all day.

Lord CAITANYA is KRISHNA HIMSELF, appearing as His own devotee only to teach us by example "How to love the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna" and to gain full enlightenment simply by chanting His holy names; HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE. Thus he brought a revolution in spiritual consciousness by inaugurating the chanting and dancing.

Gaura Purnima – Appearance of Lord Caitanya March 26th
→ ISKCON BRAMPTON'S BLOG

Sunday Feast, March 10th @ 11:00am

The program consists of arati, kirtan (devotional chanting), philosophical discussion and prasadam.  Please come, get inspired and inspire others through your desire to share Krsna Consciousness!

Program Schedule:
11:00 am - 11:30 am Guru Puja
11:30 am - 12:00 pm Arati & Kirtan
12:00 pm – 12:05 pm Narasingadev Prayers
12:10 pm - 1:00 pm  Vedic Discourse by His Grace Mahabhagvata Dasa
1:05 pm - 1:20 pm Tulasi Puja
1:20 pm - 2:00 pm Prasadam (Vegetarian feast)


Upcoming Events:

Gaura Purnima - Appearance of Lord Caitanya March 26th 

Please mark your calender for this upcoming event. ISKCON Brampton would celebrate this festival with morning and evening programs. More details will be announced this Sunday.
 
This festival is considered to be one of the most important festivals of the entire year for Gaudya Vaishnavas (followers of Lord Caitaniya). Devotees observe this festival by fasting till moonrise and chanting when they can the holy names of Lord all day.

Lord CAITANYA is KRISHNA HIMSELF, appearing as His own devotee only to teach us by example "How to love the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna" and to gain full enlightenment simply by chanting His holy names; HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE. Thus he brought a revolution in spiritual consciousness by inaugurating the chanting and dancing.

Science and Hinduism
Krishna Dharma

Original article from

http://www.faradayschools.com/re-topics/re-year-10-11/an-interview-with-krishna-dharma/

My name is Krishna Dharma, a Hindu Priest and author, and I have been asked to explain how Hinduism sits with science. As some of you may know Hinduism has various branches and I personally belong to the branch known as Vaishnavism, which is essentially the monotheistic strand of the faith. My scriptures are called the Vedas, ancient Sanskrit writings comprising a wealth of both material and spiritual knowledge. You may have heard of the Bhagavad-gita, sometimes known as the ‘Hindu Bible’, and this is my main guide in life. I was born and raised in Christianity but for the last 35 years have been a worshipper of Krishna, a Sanskrit name of God meaning the ‘all attractive person’. A radical switch from my Christian roots some might say, but I have seen increasingly over the years that there is much in common between the major faiths. I guess though that’s a discussion for another time and another website. For now let’s stick with the science question and see what my faith has to say.

What are we talking about?

For me the starting point in any discussion always has to be definitions, just what do we mean by science, and indeed by religion? So let’s use the dictionary definitions and go from there. The Oxford dictionary defines science as “…the systematic study of the natural and physical world through observation and experiment.” I think that more or less sums it up. There shouldn’t be too much debate there, especially from students who are always doing experiments in science (although perhaps not always with the hoped for observations).

What about religion? Here the dictionary says, “The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.” That also sounds about right to me. My faith is certainly about worshipping a personal God and he is most definitely superhuman, but more about that later.

From those definitions one might wonder where religion and science could ever meet—one studying the natural world and the other the supernatural which defies observation and experiment—but in Hinduism this has never been a problem. For us the natural and supernatural are both aspects of one ultimate truth and both are understood by the same process of learning. Science and religion studied together? Aren’t they meant to be at loggerheads? Well, let’s see.

How do we get knowledge?

The most obvious common ground between the two is that both seek knowledge. Science aims to know about nature and religion about God. In the Vedas then the first consideration is the process by which we acquire knowledge, or epistemology as it is known by those who know big words. This is generally the crux of the conflict between the two. Religious believers are often accused by scientists of believing whatever they like, with no evidence or proof, while in contrast it is claimed that scientific knowledge is objectively acquired by observation and experiment. I would take issue with this assertion as the Vedas describe a detailed methodology for acquiring spiritual knowledge, which does indeed depend upon verification by evidence and even observation to some degree.

Before we go there though let’s examine the process by which we get scientific knowledge. Take experiments. These are about direct experience, either seeking to make discoveries, test hypotheses or demonstrate a known fact (hopefully). Data is gathered and conclusions are drawn. In Vedic epistemology this is accepted as a valid way of finding things out, and it is known, unsurprisingly, as ‘direct perception’, i.e. knowledge gathered by our senses. However, you may be surprised to know that we consider it the least reliable process. The reason for this is that our senses are fallible. We are always liable to misinterpret what we see. Ten people witnessing the same event are likely to give ten at least slightly different accounts. Try asking the police.

A good example is the sun, which appears as a small object in the sky, smaller than a coin. That’s as much as our immediate perception tells us. However, as we all know, it is in fact over a thousand times larger than the earth planet. So how do we know this if we cannot see it for ourselves? Quite simply by accepting knowledge from an authority we trust, in this case that most trustworthy of sources, our teachers. We learn so many things in the classroom that we have not and probably will never personally verify by sense perception. Fancy a trip to the sun? Acceptance of authority or aural reception as it is known in Hinduism is therefore an accepted means of acquiring knowledge, and the Vedas actually say it is the best means. But of course it depends upon having access to a reliable source.

Who can we trust?

Here one might argue that even though we may not have seen the evidence supporting scientific theories and knowledge, someone else has and that’s good enough. Okay, but we are still left having to trust that authority, and the Vedas point out that as well as our limited and fallible sense perception, we have a couple of other problems. These are the tendency to make mistakes and to cheat others, and I think it is fair to say science has not been aloof from either. So however we look at it we have to accept that scientific knowledge is not perfect, it’s just the best we can do given the various constraints.

Scientists will in fact admit that their theories cannot be proven, but they can be falsified. This is because they depend upon induction, which means formulating conclusions based upon observations. The trouble with this is that no matter how many observations you make that all concur, you cannot logically say that the next one will not be entirely opposed to all the others. The famous example here is the statement that ‘all ravens are black’. We have seen many ravens and they have all been black, but there is no logical reason to assume that we shall never see a white one, or one with purple and green polka dots for that matter. So we cannot definitely assert that all ravens are black without fear of contradiction.

We do indeed see that as new data is gathered old theories are challenged and changed. For example the Newton’s Theory of Mechanics, which for two hundred years had much success explaining experimental facts and even predicting new ones, such as the planet Neptune. However it did eventually hit problems and was falsified by new data, being replaced by Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. This has yet to be falsified, but it has certainly been challenged and there is no reason to suppose that it might not be superseded in time.

Higher authority

In the same way there is no reason to assume that other theories currently accepted may not be falsified in the fullness of time. For example Evolution and the Big Bang, which for many are the cornerstones of an atheistic worldview. Who is to say these will still be accepted even fifty years from now? Scientific discoveries and knowledge are in constant flux and always have been.

Therefore Vedic epistemology says that superior to both direct experience and induction is hearing from an authority. As repugnant as it may sometimes be, we have to accept authority all the time if we want to make progress in life. But again it must be trustworthy. If for example I want to get to Oxford and have no idea where it is, I need to ask someone. Naturally I would look for a person who I think is likely to know, an Oxford don say, or I could read a map written by trustworthy cartographers, or use a Satnav perhaps (they never let you down). Of course, if you don’t want to put your trust in anyone then you can strike out and hope for the best, but it might take a long time to get there.

Our knowledge will always be suspect though if we have heard it from a person who acquired it by the fallible processes of direct perception and induction. To get perfect knowledge we need to approach the perfect source, or someone who has received knowledge from that source. For me this means the supreme authority of God. Who better to tell us about the world and everything within it than the person from whom it has all come? Just like if we want to know how to operate a piece of machinery a good idea is to read the manufacturer’s instructions (which of course most of us don’t), so in the same way we should go to God to find out about the universe he created.

Proving God?

What God, one might ask? There are so many religions and scriptures all claiming to be right and all disagreeing it seems, so where does that leave us? Well again, this is probably a discussion for another place and time, but at least the principle of finding a perfect source for perfect knowledge is, I would suggest, a sound one. How and where we find that source is another question, but for sure it is none of us.

For me there are some simple scientific arguments that suggest the existence of God, whatever name you give him. For example from Einstein (for the time being) we know that all matter can be reduced to energy. But surely this begs a question. From where does this energy emanate? Energy always has its energetic source; ask any householder facing ever increasing energy bills from the supplier. We do not see energy in this world appearing randomly, it is generated. If you feel heat you know there is a heater or, now and again, the sun is out. When there is light we know there is a bulb or some other light source somewhere. So just where is the immense energy of the entire universe emanating from? Could God be a spectacularly huge generator? Hmm, probably not.

Or take laws. To its credit science has discovered certain universal laws, but who is the lawmaker and indeed upholder? In our experience laws do not make and keep themselves, they are made by legislators and they require enforcing. Without law enforcement agencies there would soon be chaos. So who keeps the laws of the universe working? Why can’t we break them? And why do they not randomly change themselves? Who is to say that they should not?

Expanding our perception

The Vedas offer detailed scientific answers to the above questions which can be verified, but not necessarily by the empiric method employed by science, that is to say by direct perception of quantifiable data. Nor can many of the Vedic descriptions of reality be easily conceptualised by the mind. However, a process is given by which we can expand our consciousness to enable a different kind of perception and understanding by which we can ultimately realise God and the true nature of his creation. It is a discipline requiring dedication and training, like any other. There are strict parameters, rules that must be followed and certain evidence that should be seen if one is properly practising, such as becoming more peaceful, happier within oneself and therefore less desirous of sensual enjoyments. Just like the saints we hear about. They are experiencing what the Bhagavad-gita calls the ‘higher taste’ of spiritual happiness and are thus able to remain aloof from what they realise is the lesser taste of worldly pleasure. This is one proof that one is progressing in spiritual knowledge and moving towards God.

In other words, you cannot believe and do whatever you like in the name of religion. Not at least if you want to get the desired result. You need to follow the proper instructions and traverse a carefully delineated path under the guidance of a person who has already made that journey.

Sometimes the Bhagavad Gita is called the ‘science of God’. Following its directions is not unlike a scientific experiment in that various conditions must be met, certain actions taken and a particular result expected. It goes beyond the empiric process in that the performer of the experiment must undergo personal changes, make behavioural adjustments and engage in spiritual practises, but it gives a result that no science experiment performed in the lab will ever achieve.

Perfect knowledge

So what does God say in my religion? Well, in the Bhagavad Gita (spoken by Krishna) he not only gives knowledge about the material world, how it was created and how it runs etc, but he also explains why it is here in the first place, how we ended up here and where we really belong. He also extensively describes his own nature and how he can be known. These are not areas that science will ever fathom, nor does it even try, but surely these are the most important questions we need to ask.

Krishna begins by describing how we are eternal parts of the supreme eternal whole. This can be perceived by us all with a little introspection. First of all, we are plainly different from the bodies we inhabit, which undergo constant transformation while we remain the same person within. Even science tells us that our bodily cells renew every seven years or so. There is therefore no reason to assume that when the bodily cells cease to function we will cease to exist. Large numbers of them can in fact cease to work and we continue to live on as the very same person. Krishna therefore tells us that we are immortal souls, that when the body dies we continue to live in form after form until we attain self realisation.

As the Greek oracle proclaimed, ‘know thyself’, and this is the first instruction in the Gita. It tells us we are parts of the Supreme Spirit and therefore we have the same nature—not only of eternality, but also pure knowledge and bliss. There is evidence for this as well in that we can see how we are always aspiring to attain those three states. Take the first, eternality. We constantly strive to secure our ongoing existence, seeking good health, longevity and whatever security we can in what is, let’s face it, a rather insecure world. Knowledge is also constantly sought in so many ways, we want to know what is happening (such as all those desperately important FB updates), we want the news and don’t like to be in the dark. And of course everything we do is aimed at somehow increasing our happiness or decreasing our discomfort and suffering.

From this we can understand that we are trying to attain what is in fact our real nature. Like a fish out of water struggling to get back in it again, we too are trying to get back to where we belong. The Gita also tells us where that is, but I will save that for another time. I just wanted to present this as an example of using another type of evidence, namely personal experience and introspection, to support knowledge received from hearing.

Conclusion

This is really just a brief introduction to my faith and its perspective on science. It goes much further than this for, as I mentioned, the Vedas also deal directly with many branches of material science. Some of you may have heard of Vedic mathematics for example, which I have found to be a pretty amazing alternative to the Western system. There is also Ayurveda, quite well known these days, which deals with medicine and general health. Then there is knowledge on economics, politics, martial arts and so many other fields. All of it however is received from higher authority, with its origins in divinity. Material knowledge is given to enable us to live peacefully while we work on achieving spiritual understanding. The two are meant to go together.

Ultimately the real purpose of all knowledge is to solve our problems and attain happiness. But what is that knowledge that will bring a final end to all our problems? That is the great aim of science; finding a permanent solution to all of life’s difficulties, but without religion I don’t think it will ever get there. In Hinduism therefore the two must be married together. We therefore say that religion without science or philosophy is just sentiment, but also science or philosophy without religion is only speculation that will never arrive at a conclusion. No matter what theory we reach there will always be someone looking for that white raven to disprove it, and sooner or later they will find it.

Travel Journal#9.2: Florida
→ Travel Adventures of a Krishna Monk


Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 9, No. 2
By Krishna-kripa das
(January 2013, part two)
Florida
(Sent from Jacksonville, Florida, on March 6, 2013)



Where I Went and What I Did

During the second half of January, I returned to Gainesville to live at Krishna House and help maintain the program of chanting for two and a half hours during the serving of Krishna Lunch at the University of Florida and chanting at the Gainesville Farmers Market on Wednesday. In addition, I attended a program of our Krishna Club at University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

On Martin Luther King Day five of us chanted in the parade for King, with Damodar Prasad singing enthusiastically and Hladini talking to people and distributing literature, and then we joined the other Krishna House devotees for a picnic in a nearby park. While we were chanting in the park, one man remarked that our chanting was disturbing the wildlife. I laughed to myself, thinking that as we are vegetarian, we do less damage to the environment than your average American meat eater. In addition, all the wildlife made great spiritual benefit which the poor chap could not see.

Devotees from both Alachua and Gainesville drove to Tampa to do harinama at a the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, which is said to be attended by 500,000 people, and I share some descriptions, pictures and video of that.

I have many insights from Srila Prabhupada’s lectures and his books, some notes on a recorded lecture by Niranjana Swami, notes of lectures from Prabhupada disciples, including Kalakantha and Sesa Prabhus, and realizations from newer devotees at Krishna House.

Thanks to Tulasirani dd for the picture of the Krishna House picnic crew, Flickr user BXGD for the picture of the devotees dancing at Gasparilla, and Amanda from Krishna House for the videos.

Chanting at the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa


The Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa on January 26 was a great event for exposing thousands of people to the Hare Krishna mantra and getting a number of them to dance with our chanting party.

Tulasirani dd from Krishna House commented, “At the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa people were standing around waiting for something fun to happen, and we supplied the fun with the harinama and people were very happy to dance with us.”

These videos by Amanda from Krishna House in Gainesville will give you a feel for the wildness of it all. In particular, you can see why the Tampa Bay Timeswrote, “A number of apparently well-lubricated spectators danced with devotees of Hare Krishna.”





One girl from the crowd encountered the devotees on three separate occasions and danced enthusiastically with us each time.

A party of devotees from Alachua chanted for three hours, while a party of younger devotees from Gainesville chanted for two. I was amazed that the older people from Alachua showed greater endurance than the Gainesville youth. Perhaps they did not jump up and down so much in the hot sun and thus could keep going longer. After my friends from Gainesville desisted, I joined the Alachua party, as I was psyched to do the whole three hours.

The weather was incredible, sunny and around 75°F [24°C]. I got sunburned as I was not prepared for so much sun in January.

After the afternoon of chanting the Tampa nama-hatta devotees served excellent prasadam in a nearby park for all the devotees.

We all had a great time and look forward to doing it again next year. Come and bring your dancing shoes.

Insights

Srila Prabhupada:

If I am not jolly, maya has attacked me. If I am in contact with Krishna, how can I be morose? That is the test.

We must be enthusiastic, but we cannot be enthusiastic artificially. It has to be based on connection with Krishna.

If we cannot rise early in the morning, we are under the clutches of maya. That is the test. Sleeping is very dangerous. It is the symptom of tamo-guma (the mode of darkness).

A politician may pose that he is advanced spiritually, but when we see he is more interested in politics than Krishna consciousness, we can understand his real position.

Vaishnava means to understand the Absolute Truth is a person.

Krishna understanding is difficult, but by the mercy of Krishna in the form of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, it is possible because of His great liberality. If we do not take advantage, how unfortunate we are!

from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.32, purport:

“Nothing is false. One thing may be permanent and another temporary, but both the permanent and the temporary are facts. For example, if someone becomes angry for a certain period, no one can say that his anger is false. It is simply temporary. Everything we experience in our daily lives is of this same character; it is temporary but real.”

from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.33, purport:

“Philosophers and scientists have been trying to study the entire cosmic situation and have been theorizing and calculating in different ways for millions and millions of years. However, the speculative research work of a so-called scientist or philosopher is always interrupted when he dies, and the laws of nature go on without regard for his work.”

from Bhagavad-gita 5.29, purport:

“A pure soul is the eternal servant of God as His fragmental part and parcel. He comes into contact with maya(illusion) due to the desire to lord it over maya,and that is the cause of his many sufferings. As long as he is in contact with matter, he has to execute work in terms of material necessities. Krishna consciousness, however, brings one into spiritual life even while one is within the jurisdiction of matter, for it is an arousing of spiritual existence by practice in the material world. The more one is advanced, the more he is freed from the clutches of matter. The Lord is not partial toward anyone. Everything depends on one’s practical performance of duties in Krishna consciousness, which helps one control the senses in every respect and conquer the influence of desire and anger. And one who stands fast in Krishnaconsciousness, controlling the abovementioned passions, remains factually in the transcendental stage, or brahma-nirvana.”

from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.4, purport:

“The Lord is always prepared to excuse His devotee, but if a devotee takes advantage of the Lord’s leniency and purposefully commits mistakes again and again, the Lord will certainly punish him by letting him fall down into the clutches of the illusory energy. In other words, theoretical knowledge acquired by studying the Vedas is insufficient to protect one from the clutches of maya.One must strongly adhere to the lotus feet of the Lord in devotional service. Then one’s position is secure.”

from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.7:

“Prahlada Maharaja, the topmost devotee of the Lord, is a reservoir of all the good qualities of great personalities. His character and activities have delivered all the fallen members of his demoniac family.”

from a lecture on Bhagavad-gita 2.13:

Nature is like a great machine. Every machine has an operator. Thus nature must have an operator. We may not be able to see the operator, but the operator is there. That operator is God. Human life is meant for inquiring about God.

All science and philosophy is there, but if you are not interested in philosophy you can just chant Hare Krishna and attain perfection. But if you think “what is this nonsense chanting of Hare Krishna?” Then so many books are there you can read.

Although you are not initiated, your coming here counts as service. It is like depositing a cent in the bank every day. Someday you will have $100. So coming here every day is like depositing a cent every day. When it gets to be $100, you become a devotee.

Q: One man says he is not suffering and he is not afraid of death. What do we say to him?
A: He is a madman.

You can attain Krishna by surrendering to Him. How long does it take to surrender to Krishna? It can be done in a moment. What does surrender mean? You do what Krishna says. What is that? Four things. Man mana bhava mad bhakto . . . Think of Krishna, become His devotee, bow down to Him, and offer homage to Him. Then you come to Him.

A human being will ask how he can control his mind. A dog will never ask how to control this barking habit. That is the difference between a human being and a dog.

from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.19 Chapter Summary:

“Bharata-varsa has special significance because in this tract of land there exists the Vedic principle of varnasrama-dharma,which divides society into four varnasand four asramas.Furthermore, Narada Muni’s opinion is that even if there is some temporary disturbance in the execution of the varnasrama-dharma principles, they can be revived at any moment. The effect of adhering to the institution of varnasrama is gradual elevation to the spiritual platform and liberation from material bondage. By following the principles of varnasrama-dharma,one gets the opportunity to associate with devotees. Such association gradually awakens one’s dormant propensity to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead and frees one from all the basic principles of sinful life. One then gets the opportunity to offer unalloyed devotional service to the Supreme Lord, Vasudeva. Because of this opportunity, the inhabitants of Bharata-varsa are praised even in the heavenly planets. Even in the topmost planet of this universe, Brahmaloka, the position of Bharata-varsa is discussed with great relish.”

from The Nectar of Devotion:

“In the Naradiya Purana there is a statement of how this servitorship is transcendental. It is said there that a person who is constantly engaged in devotional service by his body, mind and words, or even a person who is not practically engaged but is simply desiring to be so, is considered to be liberated.”

“Third Canto, Seventh Chapter, verse 19, of Srimad-Bhagavatam: ‘Let me become a sincere servant of the devotees, because by serving them one can achieve unalloyed
devotional service unto the lotus feet of the Lord. The service of devotees diminishes all miserable material conditions and develops within one a deep devotional love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead.’”

“In the Padma Purana also it is stated, ‘The chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra is present only on the lips of a person who has for many births worshiped Vasudeva.’”

from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.6.10 given in Bombay on December 28, 1976:

In India it is simply in name. There is actually no varnasrama. Most people are sudras.

Most people do not have a clear idea of God nor a desire to know Him.

The same activity performed with knowledge of atma-tattva, knowledge of the spiritual truth, leads on to spiritual perfection but performed without such knowledge leads to a hellish condition.

Don’t act anything except for the satisfaction of Krishna. That is Krishna consciousness.

A classless society cannot be. Even in the Russia, the Communist country, they wanted to create a classless society but ended up having to retain a managing class and a working class.

from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.17.4, purport:

[Srila Prabhupada was not enamored by the accomplishments of material science as statements like this reveal.] “So-called advanced scientists of the modern age are trying to go to the higher planets, but at the same time they are experiencing a power shortage on earth. If they were actually capable scientists, they could personally go by airplane to other planets, but this they are unable to do. Having now given up their moon excursions, they are attempting to go to other planets, but without success.”

from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.17.24, purport:

“. . . the living entity is entangled in fruitive activities, which are executed by the illusory energy, maya. He is exactly like a computer handled by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The so-called scientists say that nature acts independently, but they cannot explain what nature is. Nature is nothing but a machine operated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When one understands the operator, his problems of life are solved.”

from The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter Two:

“As a man's mental disease is cured by the directions of a psychiatrist, so this sadhana bhakti cures the conditioned soul of his madness under the spell of maya, material illusion.”

“According to Vedic injunctions, when a brahmana eats it is to be understood that the Personality of Godhead is eating through him. It is not, however, that the brahmana should simply eat on behalf of the Lord and not preach the message of Bhagavad-gita to the world. Actually, one who preaches the message of the Gita is very dear to Krishna, as is confirmed in the Gita itself. Such a preacher is factually a brahmana, and thus by feeding him one feeds the Supreme Lord directly.”

Sri Visakhanandabhidha-stotra: Prayers with Names That Are the Bliss of Visakha by Raghunatha Dasa Goswami:

She is known as Radha because the worship (radha) of Her removes all distress.

Niranjana Swami:

from a lecture on Bhagavad-gita6.32 given in Boston on Sunday, December 9, 2012:

Prahlada Maharaja describes the materialists as chewing the chewed, repeating trying to enjoy the same things that have not satisfied them in the past. I had a friend in school who would stick his gum on the bottom of his seat at the end of the day, and then take it off and begin chewing it the next day.

The Lord relishes the activities of those who are selflessly engaged in service to Him and who are thus so satisfied that they desire nothing else. The Lord gives His heart to such a devotee. And that devotee can share the Lord with others.

When Durvasa Muni approached the Lord, desiring His compassion, the Lord indicated that He had given His heart to Maharaja Ambarisa, and therefore Durvasa should approach him.

Devotional service is such a rare, precious, valuable jewel. To render service to the Lord is the most precious gift of life. We must learn to appreciate that gift when it is offered to us. Otherwise we might mistake it for something else.

The Lord can fulfill our desires much better than anyone else. He knows how to fulfill the desires of his devotees.

In Ananda Vrndavana Campu, Kavi Karnapura explains that within His form as an eternal fresh youth, are His baby and childhood forms, and He manifests those forms to please His devotees who want to see Him in those features.

Even when Krishna does something amazing, His intimate associates in Vrindavana are not disturbed by thinking the Krishna is God, but remain fixed in their intimate relationship with Him.

Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:

from his journal, Viraha Bhavan, January 30, 2013, poem:

They
are the original conjugal couple,
and all love relations expand
from Them, even the perverted
forms in the material world.
When we worship Radha-Krishna
we give up mundane sex desire
and only wish to serve Them
in Their pastimes. To serve
the Lord of the senses with
your senses is the perfection
of bhakti.It is the eternal svarupaor
nature of the liberated
being. It is eternal, blissful, and full of knowledge.

from Shack Notes:

“Love of God takes the form of lust in the material realm. The cleansing process is the chanting and hearing of the name, form, teachings and pastimes of the Supreme Lord. Just apply yourself tobhaktiand all contamination will be washed away. Extra counseling and discussion is only needed by ‘dysfunctional’ persons, or those who think they are dysfunctional. Only those persons who cannot obey the command, ‘Chant and don’t worry’ need special attention. And who is notin that category?”

Akuti Prabhu:

Maya, the Lord’s illusory energy, is sometimes called a witch, and “that which is not.” Hearing these qualities, would we be attracted to serve her?

Devotional service convinces us that in this life we should abandon illusory material enjoyment and engage in the service of Krishna.

Unless we surrender to Krishna, we are surrendering to maya.

One of maya’s tricks is glitter. She can make rotten flesh an exotic culinary preparation or rotten grapes a tasty beverage.

One trick to conquer maya is to get up early. I think she takes a nap at that time.

When the mind bothers you, go outside and chant louder and more distinctly.

Go out and tell someone else about Krishna. It is so healthy for your spiritual life. At least once a week. Tell either a devotee or a new person.

Regularly hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, online if not live.

comment by Kaliya Phani Prabhu: I have a technique for dealing with the mind like the strategy of not letting the salesman get in the door. When the mind proposes something, tell it, “We may do it or may not do it, but we will not do it now.”

comment by Indian student: I found at Krishna House during the break there was less service so my mind became more materially directed. I found if I did more service at Krishna House that solved the problem.

comment by another devotee: Prabhupada said to keep the mind at peace we should think of how to spread this Krishna consciousness.

Ananda Loka Prabhu:

In devotional service, all we give up is temporary and all we gain is eternal.

Bhakticannot be regulated or controlled by anything other than bhakti.

Brahma Tirtha Prabhu:

It is said that death and taxes are for certain. I know some successful tax evaders, but death evaders are harder to come by.

Lord Bhisma was happy that Krishna broke his vow not to raise a weapon in order to protect His devotee Arjuna, thus teaching the people in general that Krishna values protecting His devotees more than keeping His personal promises.

As devotees our biggest challenge is to do something and think of Krishna. Sometimes we decide to just think of Krishna, and we do so, for some time, before our mind wanders. Sometimes we decide just to do something. But to do something and think of Krishna at the same time is a challenge.

My mother-in-law was about as fervent atheist as you can be. As the time of her death was approaching, she moved to Gainesville to be near her daughter. When she talked to her daughter, it was all mundane, but when she would go out of the room, she would turn to me and say, “So what is going to happen when I die.” So I explained about it, and she said, “When I go, I am going to wave goodbye.” When the end was near, my wife and I were reading the Bhagavatam to her and trying to create the better spiritual situation for her passing. At one point, she did wave her hands, and then she was gone.

Q: Some say we must die to live. What does that mean?
A: Of course, we also have to live to die. To me, it means we cannot really live properly without taking into account death.
Comment by Kalakantha Prabhu: We have to give up our false conception of who we are to live spiritually.

from a class by Niranjana Swami played by Brahma Tirtha Prabhu in his class:

This civilization is designed in such a way people are taught to pursue sense gratification without considering there is an ultimate event that is going to come at the end of life and the purpose of life is to understand how to deal with that final event.

Sivarama Swami advised me to be with my mother at the time of death for in that way I could pay back the debt I owed to my mother, and that was one reason I was there.

Kalakantha Prabhu:

Bhismadeva, celebrated as the grandfather of the Pandavas, was so dear to Arjuna he was willing to renounce his occupation as a fighter rather than to fight with him.

The fact is that Bhagavad-gita is considered by the scholars to be a very authentic text, without disputes about the original text, unlike many major religious scriptures.

Utsaha, enthusiasm, means to put a little energy in to doing things nicely for Krishna. To be enthusiastic to serve our creator is our actual position.

When you are sick, focus your devotional energy on chanting your rounds.

Prevention is worth days of recuperation.

When I was a new devotee, there was a devotee who was struggling like anything to stay awake while chanting in the morning on his beads. He finally asked the temple president if he could go upstairs and take rest. When the temple president said “Yes,” the devotee exclaimed, “Jaya!” and ran up the stairs to take rest. This made a big impression on me—most fatigue is mental.

Fatigue is overcome by regulation. Go to sleep early.

from a discussion after lunch:

When packing a car, it is best to put the biggest item in first, and then pack the other smaller items around it. If you put the smaller things in first, you may not have room for the biggest one. Similarly with our spiritual life, we should put our spiritual practice first, and fit the other aspects of our life, our family, our work, etc., around that. If we prioritize our family and our work and other things, we may find we have no time for our spiritual practice, and our life may be wasted without profiting spiritually.

from a Sunday feast lecture in Alachua:

Yamuna Prabhu explained that the recording session that George Harrison did to make the Radha Krishna temple album went late into the night. All the devotees fell asleep except Yamuna who played the harmonium and sang a bhajana, a devotional song, that she had heard Srila Prabhupada sing many times, Bhajahu Re Mana, as she waited for George to finish mixing the recordings.George recorded her singing without her knowing, and decided to include it in the album. Yamuna protested vehemently, but George liked it and included it anyway. Some of the words were wrong and the verses were in the wrong order, but Srila Prabhupada liked it very much, and said she could fix it later.

There are sixty trillion cells in the human body, and the creepy thing is that only ten trillion cells are human, the others being symbiotic or parasitic.

It is not by guilt, fear, coersion, that we advance in devotional service.

We have to be happier performing devotional service, however faulty, than pursuing sense gratification, however successfully.

“O Lord please let me serve you.” I had never heard that prayer in all my life. Usually it is “O Lord give me this or that.”

That is why we like that bhajana (“Bhajahu Re Mana”) so much because it has Srila Prabhupada’s name, Abhaya Caranaravindam.

Srila Prabhupada said that if we just once say, “Krishna, take me, I’m yours” that we may forget it or change our minds, but Krishna never will, and He will make all arrangements for us.

Caru asked Srila Prabhupada how long it takes to become purified once in Australia when he was alone in Srila Prabhupada’s room. Srila Prabhupada replied, “About forty years.”

With what ever discretionary time you have, engage in your favorite devotional service, and you will advance more and more.

Q: Is our spiritual progress stalled if we do not follow the instructions of Krishna’s representative?
A: Yes. Krishna has sent this representative to us, so we must take advantage. Srila Prabhupada said we should not try to become big paramahamsas, but rather we should hang on to his dhoti, for he knows the back door to the spiritual world.

We can tell we are advancing when we spontaneously avoid things detrimental to devotional service because they are no longer appealing.

Even though they may not know a lot, no one can tell them they are not happy in devotional service. That is nistha or steadiness.

If you are enjoying japa you have made advancement.

If we had one-tenth as much faith in Krishna as we do that we are our body, we would attain Krishna prema [love of God].

Sesa Prabhu:

Srila Prabhupada was not so much interested in propagating a religion as giving people the opportunity to have their consciousness fully blossom.

One’s character is a manifestation of one’s consciousness.

Mahabharata addresses who is qualified to be the ruler of the entire world, and can be said to be about properly governing the world and not about religion.

One can take Mahabharata as a job interview by Krishna, the paramesvara (supreme controller), for the position of ruler of the world.

Employers hire for competence and fire for character.

Employers look for ability, track record, character, positive attitude, and enthusiasm.

Duryodhana was asked to find someone greater than himself, and he could not. Yudhisthira was asked to find someone less than himself, and he could not. This indicates that Duryodhana was narcissistic, proud, bombastic, etc. Would you want to hire someone like that? Often when people have these bad qualities, they have other bad qualities because of not being able to deal properly with other people. Recently many military leaders have been found to have other serious character flaws.

There is a path to full developed consciousness that people have followed in the past and which can be followed even now.

Shiva drank an ocean of poison to save humanity from its ill effects.

At a petrol station in India one devotee asked a local student who knew English what he wanted to do with his life. He said that he wanted to do something to bring honor to his father’s name. You won’t get a response like that in America! That is just a remnant of the Vedic culture.

Svayambhuva Manu would use his free time to study the scripture to become a better leader, not to enjoy his senses in different ways.

The real solution to different ills like violence in society is to change the consciousness of the people. Mahabharata gives knowledge by which we can do that.

To make mistakes is human, but as our consciousness develops, we learn from our mistakes.

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says others cannot harm us unless we harm ourselves. So just to protect ourselves it is in our self-interest to develop our character.

We can be overcome by lust but if we take shelter of the Lord, He will protect us.

Superficial change is not real change.

comment by Vaishnava dasa: I did not make a plan to be clean, but just by engaging in devotional service that came naturally.

The the asrama divisions in varnasrama follow the natural changes of our body.

The details of what we do might change but the reason we do things, to please Krishna, does not change.

Change should be made to develop our devotional service rather than as a reduction.

The instruction to stay in your own position does not mean to be complacent.

comment by a devotee: Srila Prabhupada used the analogy of cleaning a room to explain how when we begin our spiritual practice it seems that our life initially gets more complicated and confusing.

Q: What should we do when devotees disagree about what is a principle and what is a detail?
A: There is a principle of ista-gosthi, whereby which the devotees discuss the subject in detail, and then even if there seems to be no resolution, you will get mercy from Krishna from following His process of ista-gosthi.

Fault-finding is a very dangerous quality.

When we find faults, that person’s fault does not become magnified, rather our bad qualities become magnified.

Martin Luther King says he has a dream of a day when one is judged not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character.

When I was a brahmacari in LA in the 1970s, the brahmacaris would take prasadam together, mostly in silence. One day one brahmacari said, “Baseball season starts today.” He could have been advising us of good opportunities for harinama or book distribution, but we did not give him a chance. Instead we got on his case for being in maya for talking of materialistic thingsbecause in those days we were very fanatical.

There are different kinds of intelligence, and if a manager because of being attached to a particular one, and not appreciating others, discourages a person that can be very detrimental.

Mostly the criticism is more about the person who makes criticism than the person who is criticized.

Motivations for criticism:

  1. gaining a sense of superiority.
  2. getting back at someone
  3. establish our position as being the best
  4. to distract people from considering our own faults

The pure soul is devoid of the quality of fault-finding.

If we can find faults in ourselves, we are in a better position to learn from others’ criticism of ourselves.

comment by Dorian: Before Einstein was a great physicist he worked in a patent office, and his boss said that he would never amount to anything, and he said it just made him work harder.

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura said, “Look within. Amend yourself rather than pry into the faults of others. Cultivate patience, humility, and respect for others”.

some verses related to the topic of fault-finding from Krishna-kripa das:

“The worker who is always engaged in work against the injunctions of the scripture, who is materialistic, obstinate, cheating and expert in insulting others, and who is lazy, always morose and procrastinating is said to be a worker in the mode of ignorance.” (Bhagavad-gita 18.28)

“One should mentally honor the devotee who chants the holy name of Lord Krishna, one should offer humble obeisances to the devotee who has undergone spiritual initiation [diksa] and is engaged in worshiping the Deity, and one should associate with and faithfully serve that Pure devotee who is advanced in undeviated devotional service and whose heart is completely devoid of the propensity to criticize others.(Nectar of Instruction, verse 5)

Tattva-vit Prabhu:

Desire to serve the Lord personally does not imply service the Lord alone or without any intermediate.

Srila Prabhupada says becoming the servant of the Lord’s servants is the sum and substance of life. Narottama Dasa Thakura prays in that mood, “tadera carana-sebi-bhakta-sane bas—May I live with those devotees who serve the lotus feet of these six Gosvamis.”

Preachers should serve the Lord purely and joyfully to inspire others.

Our body, life, and ego are Krishna’s energy, and thus ultimately Krishna Himself.

Srila Prabhupada writes in The Nectar of Instruction that the first business of spiritual life is to train the senses and the mind.

By associating with devotees one will also come to desire eagerness to serve Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada told a reporter that his message could be very widely accepted if “they would hear it.”

comment by Bhakta Marlon: Because the self is part of Krishna if you present Krishna consciousness by telling people its about themselves that will be more appealing to them than telling them that its is about Krishna, who they are not so interested in.

Dana-keli Prabhu:

We hear about the pastimes so we can become purified and hear about about the pastimes in a deeper way.

Tamal Krishna Goswami in his Ph.D. dissertation explains that Srila Prabhupada special contribution was that he digested all the truths presented by the previous teachers in the spiritual line and expertly presented them for the modern world.

We may have difficulties in our spiritual practice but if we never abandon the association of devotees, ultimately we will attain success.

One thing that attracted me in the beginning of my practice of Krishna consciousness, was the idea that I have a relationship with God that is completely unique, not like that of anyone else’s, and I wanted to experience that.

One person would trick his mind into doing book distribution. When the mind would protest his program of going downtown and distributing books, he would tell his mind, “We are not going to distribute books. We just going to put books in the car and drive downtown.” When he got downtown, his mind would again protest, and he would say, “We are not going to distribute books, we are just going to get out of the car with a bag of books, and walk around.” So he got out of the car with the books and wandered around. When the mind was again worried about distributing books, he would say, “We are not going to distribute books, we are just going to say ‘Hello’ to people.” And by going on and on in this way, he tricked his mind into distributing books.

If we want to read the advanced Vaishnava literature Srila Prabhupada recommended in Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, it is good to do it in the association of devotees.

Madhava Prabhu (from Alachua):

Twice Prabhupada spoke on the teachings of Queen Kunti and from those lectures, the BBT was able to publish the book Teachings of Queen Kunti.

To take shelter of Krishna alone is the great lesson we can learn from Kunti and her sons, the Pandavas. Vyasadeva teaches this important lesson in the very beginning Srimad-Bhagavatam.

Q: In Mahabharata Krishna asks Arjuna to get weapons from the demigods for use in the battle, so some people argue that it is alright to worship the demigods.
A: Krishna is sending Arjuna to his devotees to get the blessings of his devotees, the demigods. It is not that Arjuna is thinking that the demigods can offer him something that Krishna can’t.

Prema Manjari dd:

This is the most important of Kunti’s prayers as it is very rare that someone prays for more calamities.

In a crisis our whole world may fall apart. We may feel fear, depression, etc. Some people fall apart emotionally. Even after the crisis, people continue to suffer for years because of not being able to process what happened.

Psychologists who have analyzed post-traumatic-stress syndrome say those who suffer the most are those who consider themselves as victims.

On the other hand, there are cases of post-traumatic growth, which is a exciting field of new research in psychology. This is symptomized by greater psychological, emotional, and spiritual confidence, greater compassion, increased faith in self and others, more capacity for intimacy, gratitude, etc.

The crisis is an opportunity for us to apply the spiritual knowledge we have acquired, especially by taking completely shelter of Krishna.

This world is not a place where we can be comfortable and happy, but unfortunately most of us do not believe that. Thus Krishna needs to create situations for us to realize this. It is best to see calamities in this way.

After being in the holy dhama, when you return to the West the power of the material energy to impede our spiritual progress is very obvious.

Rohini Kumara Prabhu:

The coach of a team that twice won the Super Bowl said, “Everyone wants to win. My teams wants to prepare to win.”

Caitanya dasi from Krishna House:

Hearing from the learned devotees while in Vrndavana, a common theme was that theoretical spiritual knowledge becomes realized more and more by sharing it with others.

My japa at Radha Damodara temple was very sweet, but it was not my doing it.

Nanda Kumar Prabhu:

What is striking about the narration of the prostitute Pingala, who because of frustration in her profession, surrendered to Krishna?

Typically misery causes frustration, but Pingala’s frustration brought detachment and knowledge. That was due to her past devotional activities.

comment by Tulasirani dd: Although sensual enjoyment is glorified in human society, Pingala the prostitute, comes to the conclusion that it is all useless, and that is very rare, and thus very striking.

comment by Indian student guest: The narration shows how even the most sinful person can get the mercy of the Lord.

Arjuna Prabhu:

It is a goal of mine to see how each of the chapters of Bhagavad-gita contributes to Krishna’s point that He is obtained by bhakti.

Tulasirani dd:

We were coming back from Festival of Inspiration, and we were really tired. The person who was driving swerved off the road. I cried out Krishna like I had never before done in my life. One of the girls was unconscious and covered with blood, and I knew she was not going to live, so I just chanted Hare Krishna and talked to her about Krishna. I was able to do that because I had just heard from my spiritual master at the Festival of Inspiration. There is nothing that anyone could have done for me in that car accident, except to tell me to remember Krishna. Earlier that very day my friend had said, “If I died today I would be so satisfied because I feel that I have this warm blanket of Krishna’s love around me.” I was so upset they took us to separate hospitals, because I would not be able help her remember Krishna, so I prayed to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. Turns out she was taken to a hospital where a devotee doctor was on duty and happened to remember her name and called all the devotees, and they came and were able to help her remember Krishna at the end of her life. This car accident helped me realize that death can come at any moment.

A friend was telling me that Krishna is the only one she has, all others will be taken away from us. I was surprised to hear she had such an advanced realization.

The devotees are valuable because they remind us to remember Krishna.

I asked one of my friends what made her so inspired. She said, “I think if this was the last day of my life, what are all the things I would do to please Krishna on this day, and then I try to act that way.”

We are dependent on Krishna, but it is up to us to depend on Krishna.

When you are in distress, where do find solace? What are you taking shelter of? It is good to step back and see, was I trying to take shelter of Krishna or something temporary?

We should be making plans to become more attracted to thinking of Krishna by hearing about Him and seriously chanting His holy names.

We should visit the holy dhamas to increase our attraction to Krishna.

Death is something that happens to everyone, yet we talk about so many nonsensical things but we do not want to talk about death.

Prepare for death is not as difficult as preparing for many tests. Going to mangala-arati and singing and dancing with your friends is easier than studying for many other tests.

Q: We make so many plans, getting our Ph.D., getting a job, etc.
A: As a duty to your family and Krishna you have to have to make plans, but you also have to spend time completely absorbed in sadhana [your spiritual practice] every day.

unspoken comments by Krishna-kripa das on the topic of the class:

In the Vishnu Puranait is written:

sa hanis tan mahac chidram
sa mohah sa ca vibhramah
yan-muhurtam kṣaṇam vapi
vasudevam na cintayet

“If even for a moment remembrance of Vasudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is missed, that is the greatest loss, that is the greatest illusion, and that is the greatest anomaly.”

yasyam vai sruyamanayam
krsne parama-puruse
bhaktir utpadyate pumsah
soka-moha-bhayapaha

“Simply by giving aural reception to this Vedic literature, the feeling for loving devotional service to Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, sprouts up at once to extinguish the fire of lamentation, illusion and fearfulness.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam1.7.7)

Vaishnava Dasa:

Radharani accused Krishna of being impure for killing Aristasura because he had the body of a bull, so Krishna called all the holy rivers to fill up Syama-kunda and he bathed there. Then he accused Radha of being impure for siding with a demon, and demanded that she purify Herself.

Jai Nitai Gauranga Prabhu:

If a scientist takes a dead mosquito he cannot repair it by taking body parts from other mosquitos. That is not possible.

We can ask ourselves how can manifest sincerity in my life now.

Dr. Dina Bandhu Prabhu:

Spiritual life includes material life, but my experience is that material life does not always include spiritual life.

Now at age 33, after 28 years of education I am a practicing physician, but in all that education I was never taught anything about the needs of the soul. I experienced difference levels of attainment in life but not the increased happiness I expected from that attainment. I was never taught that there is a spiritual goal for this human form of life.

When I would inquire about causes of the suffering in this world from people in the course of my life, they would generally discourage me, wondering why I wanted to think about such negative things.

Ultimately we take intoxication because we are not satisfied in ourselves or with our relationships.

What is required in spiritual life is to be open minded and be willing to try the experiment.

If a spiritual practice is bona fide, we should see some positive results from our practice.

comment by Amrita Keli dd: When I am absorbed in material consciousness, seeing devotees happily engaged in devotional service, makes me so happy.

comment by Matt: I was doing my own meditation and self-study, and I had come to some conclusions, but until I met the devotees, I never really had this well of bliss within me.

comment by Tulasirani dd: I was in Mayapur chanting with thousands of people from over 40 countries, and it was bliss to be with so many people chanting together from all different background. It is my dream to bring everyone there.

comments by Laura: I was agnostic before. I chanted Hare Krishna and found I was more peaceful and less angry. Why don’t I go around believing in God for a while and see if it makes a difference. So I did.

When you associate with people who have had spiritual experience their sincerity is very contagious.

from a conversation in Krishna House after hearing about Prabhupada in 1966 in New York City:

Krishna-kripa das:

I had a friend who in the beginning of his experience with Krishna consciousness was still getting high on marijuana. He noticed that the marijuana brought him down from the pleasure of chanting Hare Krishna, and so he gave it up.

Tulasirani dd:

When I first met the devotees in Ohio I had a habit of going to the bar every night, and so I would have them drop me off at the bar after the kirtana programs, saying they did not have to take me all the way home but could drop me downtown. After a while I noticed that drinking and the atmosphere of the bar did not feel so enjoyable anymore, so I would chant Hare Krishna more and go to the bar less.

The secret of Krishna consciousness is to stop endeavoring for your own happiness, but to try to act for Krishna’s happiness. Then you will find you become happier than you ever were before.

Hanan Prabhu:

I read Prabhupada’s books and lived in India, and felt that all my problems were all solved. But then when I returned to Israel, so many problems arose. We had to leave our place because it was going to be demolished, and then the Israeli army called me back for a month of service, and I had to rethink things.

story by Anna Angel: My father left home, leaving my mother with eight children to bring up, which upset me greatly. After many years, hearing I had some children, my father contacted me for the first time, wanting to see them, but I told him he could not. Four years later he died, and I had never seen him since he left. I felt very guilty and suffered greatly over it, but I came out realizing that without forgiveness we cannot progress spiritually.

One friend, who is being treated for cancer, said that they always tell the cancer patients that they are the cause of their disease, and then have to take responsibility for that, and then they can cure it.

When I am serving the Krishna Lunch, people come up and ask me why Bhagavad-gita is spoken on a battlefield, so I tell them in two minutes while I am serving the rice, that Krishna is teaching that by raising your consciousness you can do the most difficult thing in the most difficult place.

How to deal with difficulties?
  1. respond with prayer
  2. to react according to dharma
  3. get spiritual support

If a child gets up and tries to walk, adults nearby will come and help him so he does not fall over. However, if does not get up and try, no one will come to help. In the same way, God helps those who make some endeavor on their own.

There is a story from the Upanishads that is an analogy to our spiritual awakening. A merchant wanders through the forest, and is trapped by a tribe looking for a king, and rendered unconsciousness with a loss of memory of his former existence. They find the merchant has all the qualities they need, so they make him king. Later the brother of the merchant passes through the kingdom and is surprised to find his brother is king. But his brother the king could not recognize him. The brother read up on the tribe and found out the get a new king each year, and then cook the old king, and eat his body, thinking they will gain some of his qualities. So his brother tells the king of his actual situation, and after some time, was able to convince him of their relationship as brothers.

Why is bhaktithe easiest yoga?
Here are some reasons:
  1. You do not have to have any material qualification to begin bhakti.
  2. The Lord helps you because you are approaching Him directly and He is reciprocal.
  3. You can engage all your abilities and all your emotions in it.
  4. You can do it twenty-four hours a day.

Practicing yoga is like keeping a spark in the fire. Without being in the fire, it will be extinguished.

-----

svasty astu visvasya khalah prasidatam
dhyayantu a sivam mitho dhiya
manas ca bhadram bhajatad adhoksaje
avesyatam no matir apy ahaituki

“[Prahlada Maharaja prayed:] May there be good fortune throughout the universe, and may all envious persons be pacified. May all living entities become calm by practicing bhakti-yoga,for by accepting devotional service they will think of each other’s welfare. Therefore let us all engage in the service of the supreme transcendence, Lord Sri Krishna, and always remain absorbed in thought of Him.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam5.18.9)

Travel Journal#9.2: Florida
→ Travel Adventures of a Krishna Monk


Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 9, No. 2
By Krishna-kripa das
(January 2013, part two)
Florida
(Sent from Jacksonville, Florida, on March 6, 2013)



Where I Went and What I Did

During the second half of January, I returned to Gainesville to live at Krishna House and help maintain the program of chanting for two and a half hours during the serving of Krishna Lunch at the University of Florida and chanting at the Gainesville Farmers Market on Wednesday. In addition, I attended a program of our Krishna Club at University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

On Martin Luther King Day five of us chanted in the parade for King, with Damodar Prasad singing enthusiastically and Hladini talking to people and distributing literature, and then we joined the other Krishna House devotees for a picnic in a nearby park. While we were chanting in the park, one man remarked that our chanting was disturbing the wildlife. I laughed to myself, thinking that as we are vegetarian, we do less damage to the environment than your average American meat eater. In addition, all the wildlife made great spiritual benefit which the poor chap could not see.

Devotees from both Alachua and Gainesville drove to Tampa to do harinama at a the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, which is said to be attended by 500,000 people, and I share some descriptions, pictures and video of that.

I have many insights from Srila Prabhupada’s lectures and his books, some notes on a recorded lecture by Niranjana Swami, notes of lectures from Prabhupada disciples, including Kalakantha and Sesa Prabhus, and realizations from newer devotees at Krishna House.

Thanks to Tulasirani dd for the picture of the Krishna House picnic crew, Flickr user BXGD for the picture of the devotees dancing at Gasparilla, and Amanda from Krishna House for the videos.

Chanting at the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa


The Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa on January 26 was a great event for exposing thousands of people to the Hare Krishna mantra and getting a number of them to dance with our chanting party.

Tulasirani dd from Krishna House commented, “At the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa people were standing around waiting for something fun to happen, and we supplied the fun with the harinama and people were very happy to dance with us.”

These videos by Amanda from Krishna House in Gainesville will give you a feel for the wildness of it all. In particular, you can see why the Tampa Bay Timeswrote, “A number of apparently well-lubricated spectators danced with devotees of Hare Krishna.”





One girl from the crowd encountered the devotees on three separate occasions and danced enthusiastically with us each time.

A party of devotees from Alachua chanted for three hours, while a party of younger devotees from Gainesville chanted for two. I was amazed that the older people from Alachua showed greater endurance than the Gainesville youth. Perhaps they did not jump up and down so much in the hot sun and thus could keep going longer. After my friends from Gainesville desisted, I joined the Alachua party, as I was psyched to do the whole three hours.

The weather was incredible, sunny and around 75°F [24°C]. I got sunburned as I was not prepared for so much sun in January.

After the afternoon of chanting the Tampa nama-hatta devotees served excellent prasadam in a nearby park for all the devotees.

We all had a great time and look forward to doing it again next year. Come and bring your dancing shoes.

Insights

Srila Prabhupada:

If I am not jolly, maya has attacked me. If I am in contact with Krishna, how can I be morose? That is the test.

We must be enthusiastic, but we cannot be enthusiastic artificially. It has to be based on connection with Krishna.

If we cannot rise early in the morning, we are under the clutches of maya. That is the test. Sleeping is very dangerous. It is the symptom of tamo-guma (the mode of darkness).

A politician may pose that he is advanced spiritually, but when we see he is more interested in politics than Krishna consciousness, we can understand his real position.

Vaishnava means to understand the Absolute Truth is a person.

Krishna understanding is difficult, but by the mercy of Krishna in the form of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, it is possible because of His great liberality. If we do not take advantage, how unfortunate we are!

from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.32, purport:

“Nothing is false. One thing may be permanent and another temporary, but both the permanent and the temporary are facts. For example, if someone becomes angry for a certain period, no one can say that his anger is false. It is simply temporary. Everything we experience in our daily lives is of this same character; it is temporary but real.”

from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.33, purport:

“Philosophers and scientists have been trying to study the entire cosmic situation and have been theorizing and calculating in different ways for millions and millions of years. However, the speculative research work of a so-called scientist or philosopher is always interrupted when he dies, and the laws of nature go on without regard for his work.”

from Bhagavad-gita 5.29, purport:

“A pure soul is the eternal servant of God as His fragmental part and parcel. He comes into contact with maya(illusion) due to the desire to lord it over maya,and that is the cause of his many sufferings. As long as he is in contact with matter, he has to execute work in terms of material necessities. Krishna consciousness, however, brings one into spiritual life even while one is within the jurisdiction of matter, for it is an arousing of spiritual existence by practice in the material world. The more one is advanced, the more he is freed from the clutches of matter. The Lord is not partial toward anyone. Everything depends on one’s practical performance of duties in Krishna consciousness, which helps one control the senses in every respect and conquer the influence of desire and anger. And one who stands fast in Krishnaconsciousness, controlling the abovementioned passions, remains factually in the transcendental stage, or brahma-nirvana.”

from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.4, purport:

“The Lord is always prepared to excuse His devotee, but if a devotee takes advantage of the Lord’s leniency and purposefully commits mistakes again and again, the Lord will certainly punish him by letting him fall down into the clutches of the illusory energy. In other words, theoretical knowledge acquired by studying the Vedas is insufficient to protect one from the clutches of maya.One must strongly adhere to the lotus feet of the Lord in devotional service. Then one’s position is secure.”

from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.7:

“Prahlada Maharaja, the topmost devotee of the Lord, is a reservoir of all the good qualities of great personalities. His character and activities have delivered all the fallen members of his demoniac family.”

from a lecture on Bhagavad-gita 2.13:

Nature is like a great machine. Every machine has an operator. Thus nature must have an operator. We may not be able to see the operator, but the operator is there. That operator is God. Human life is meant for inquiring about God.

All science and philosophy is there, but if you are not interested in philosophy you can just chant Hare Krishna and attain perfection. But if you think “what is this nonsense chanting of Hare Krishna?” Then so many books are there you can read.

Although you are not initiated, your coming here counts as service. It is like depositing a cent in the bank every day. Someday you will have $100. So coming here every day is like depositing a cent every day. When it gets to be $100, you become a devotee.

Q: One man says he is not suffering and he is not afraid of death. What do we say to him?
A: He is a madman.

You can attain Krishna by surrendering to Him. How long does it take to surrender to Krishna? It can be done in a moment. What does surrender mean? You do what Krishna says. What is that? Four things. Man mana bhava mad bhakto . . . Think of Krishna, become His devotee, bow down to Him, and offer homage to Him. Then you come to Him.

A human being will ask how he can control his mind. A dog will never ask how to control this barking habit. That is the difference between a human being and a dog.

from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.19 Chapter Summary:

“Bharata-varsa has special significance because in this tract of land there exists the Vedic principle of varnasrama-dharma,which divides society into four varnasand four asramas.Furthermore, Narada Muni’s opinion is that even if there is some temporary disturbance in the execution of the varnasrama-dharma principles, they can be revived at any moment. The effect of adhering to the institution of varnasrama is gradual elevation to the spiritual platform and liberation from material bondage. By following the principles of varnasrama-dharma,one gets the opportunity to associate with devotees. Such association gradually awakens one’s dormant propensity to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead and frees one from all the basic principles of sinful life. One then gets the opportunity to offer unalloyed devotional service to the Supreme Lord, Vasudeva. Because of this opportunity, the inhabitants of Bharata-varsa are praised even in the heavenly planets. Even in the topmost planet of this universe, Brahmaloka, the position of Bharata-varsa is discussed with great relish.”

from The Nectar of Devotion:

“In the Naradiya Purana there is a statement of how this servitorship is transcendental. It is said there that a person who is constantly engaged in devotional service by his body, mind and words, or even a person who is not practically engaged but is simply desiring to be so, is considered to be liberated.”

“Third Canto, Seventh Chapter, verse 19, of Srimad-Bhagavatam: ‘Let me become a sincere servant of the devotees, because by serving them one can achieve unalloyed
devotional service unto the lotus feet of the Lord. The service of devotees diminishes all miserable material conditions and develops within one a deep devotional love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead.’”

“In the Padma Purana also it is stated, ‘The chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra is present only on the lips of a person who has for many births worshiped Vasudeva.’”

from a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.6.10 given in Bombay on December 28, 1976:

In India it is simply in name. There is actually no varnasrama. Most people are sudras.

Most people do not have a clear idea of God nor a desire to know Him.

The same activity performed with knowledge of atma-tattva, knowledge of the spiritual truth, leads on to spiritual perfection but performed without such knowledge leads to a hellish condition.

Don’t act anything except for the satisfaction of Krishna. That is Krishna consciousness.

A classless society cannot be. Even in the Russia, the Communist country, they wanted to create a classless society but ended up having to retain a managing class and a working class.

from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.17.4, purport:

[Srila Prabhupada was not enamored by the accomplishments of material science as statements like this reveal.] “So-called advanced scientists of the modern age are trying to go to the higher planets, but at the same time they are experiencing a power shortage on earth. If they were actually capable scientists, they could personally go by airplane to other planets, but this they are unable to do. Having now given up their moon excursions, they are attempting to go to other planets, but without success.”

from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.17.24, purport:

“. . . the living entity is entangled in fruitive activities, which are executed by the illusory energy, maya. He is exactly like a computer handled by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The so-called scientists say that nature acts independently, but they cannot explain what nature is. Nature is nothing but a machine operated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When one understands the operator, his problems of life are solved.”

from The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter Two:

“As a man's mental disease is cured by the directions of a psychiatrist, so this sadhana bhakti cures the conditioned soul of his madness under the spell of maya, material illusion.”

“According to Vedic injunctions, when a brahmana eats it is to be understood that the Personality of Godhead is eating through him. It is not, however, that the brahmana should simply eat on behalf of the Lord and not preach the message of Bhagavad-gita to the world. Actually, one who preaches the message of the Gita is very dear to Krishna, as is confirmed in the Gita itself. Such a preacher is factually a brahmana, and thus by feeding him one feeds the Supreme Lord directly.”

Sri Visakhanandabhidha-stotra: Prayers with Names That Are the Bliss of Visakha by Raghunatha Dasa Goswami:

She is known as Radha because the worship (radha) of Her removes all distress.

Niranjana Swami:

from a lecture on Bhagavad-gita6.32 given in Boston on Sunday, December 9, 2012:

Prahlada Maharaja describes the materialists as chewing the chewed, repeating trying to enjoy the same things that have not satisfied them in the past. I had a friend in school who would stick his gum on the bottom of his seat at the end of the day, and then take it off and begin chewing it the next day.

The Lord relishes the activities of those who are selflessly engaged in service to Him and who are thus so satisfied that they desire nothing else. The Lord gives His heart to such a devotee. And that devotee can share the Lord with others.

When Durvasa Muni approached the Lord, desiring His compassion, the Lord indicated that He had given His heart to Maharaja Ambarisa, and therefore Durvasa should approach him.

Devotional service is such a rare, precious, valuable jewel. To render service to the Lord is the most precious gift of life. We must learn to appreciate that gift when it is offered to us. Otherwise we might mistake it for something else.

The Lord can fulfill our desires much better than anyone else. He knows how to fulfill the desires of his devotees.

In Ananda Vrndavana Campu, Kavi Karnapura explains that within His form as an eternal fresh youth, are His baby and childhood forms, and He manifests those forms to please His devotees who want to see Him in those features.

Even when Krishna does something amazing, His intimate associates in Vrindavana are not disturbed by thinking the Krishna is God, but remain fixed in their intimate relationship with Him.

Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:

from his journal, Viraha Bhavan, January 30, 2013, poem:

They
are the original conjugal couple,
and all love relations expand
from Them, even the perverted
forms in the material world.
When we worship Radha-Krishna
we give up mundane sex desire
and only wish to serve Them
in Their pastimes. To serve
the Lord of the senses with
your senses is the perfection
of bhakti.It is the eternal svarupaor
nature of the liberated
being. It is eternal, blissful, and full of knowledge.

from Shack Notes:

“Love of God takes the form of lust in the material realm. The cleansing process is the chanting and hearing of the name, form, teachings and pastimes of the Supreme Lord. Just apply yourself tobhaktiand all contamination will be washed away. Extra counseling and discussion is only needed by ‘dysfunctional’ persons, or those who think they are dysfunctional. Only those persons who cannot obey the command, ‘Chant and don’t worry’ need special attention. And who is notin that category?”

Akuti Prabhu:

Maya, the Lord’s illusory energy, is sometimes called a witch, and “that which is not.” Hearing these qualities, would we be attracted to serve her?

Devotional service convinces us that in this life we should abandon illusory material enjoyment and engage in the service of Krishna.

Unless we surrender to Krishna, we are surrendering to maya.

One of maya’s tricks is glitter. She can make rotten flesh an exotic culinary preparation or rotten grapes a tasty beverage.

One trick to conquer maya is to get up early. I think she takes a nap at that time.

When the mind bothers you, go outside and chant louder and more distinctly.

Go out and tell someone else about Krishna. It is so healthy for your spiritual life. At least once a week. Tell either a devotee or a new person.

Regularly hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, online if not live.

comment by Kaliya Phani Prabhu: I have a technique for dealing with the mind like the strategy of not letting the salesman get in the door. When the mind proposes something, tell it, “We may do it or may not do it, but we will not do it now.”

comment by Indian student: I found at Krishna House during the break there was less service so my mind became more materially directed. I found if I did more service at Krishna House that solved the problem.

comment by another devotee: Prabhupada said to keep the mind at peace we should think of how to spread this Krishna consciousness.

Ananda Loka Prabhu:

In devotional service, all we give up is temporary and all we gain is eternal.

Bhakticannot be regulated or controlled by anything other than bhakti.

Brahma Tirtha Prabhu:

It is said that death and taxes are for certain. I know some successful tax evaders, but death evaders are harder to come by.

Lord Bhisma was happy that Krishna broke his vow not to raise a weapon in order to protect His devotee Arjuna, thus teaching the people in general that Krishna values protecting His devotees more than keeping His personal promises.

As devotees our biggest challenge is to do something and think of Krishna. Sometimes we decide to just think of Krishna, and we do so, for some time, before our mind wanders. Sometimes we decide just to do something. But to do something and think of Krishna at the same time is a challenge.

My mother-in-law was about as fervent atheist as you can be. As the time of her death was approaching, she moved to Gainesville to be near her daughter. When she talked to her daughter, it was all mundane, but when she would go out of the room, she would turn to me and say, “So what is going to happen when I die.” So I explained about it, and she said, “When I go, I am going to wave goodbye.” When the end was near, my wife and I were reading the Bhagavatam to her and trying to create the better spiritual situation for her passing. At one point, she did wave her hands, and then she was gone.

Q: Some say we must die to live. What does that mean?
A: Of course, we also have to live to die. To me, it means we cannot really live properly without taking into account death.
Comment by Kalakantha Prabhu: We have to give up our false conception of who we are to live spiritually.

from a class by Niranjana Swami played by Brahma Tirtha Prabhu in his class:

This civilization is designed in such a way people are taught to pursue sense gratification without considering there is an ultimate event that is going to come at the end of life and the purpose of life is to understand how to deal with that final event.

Sivarama Swami advised me to be with my mother at the time of death for in that way I could pay back the debt I owed to my mother, and that was one reason I was there.

Kalakantha Prabhu:

Bhismadeva, celebrated as the grandfather of the Pandavas, was so dear to Arjuna he was willing to renounce his occupation as a fighter rather than to fight with him.

The fact is that Bhagavad-gita is considered by the scholars to be a very authentic text, without disputes about the original text, unlike many major religious scriptures.

Utsaha, enthusiasm, means to put a little energy in to doing things nicely for Krishna. To be enthusiastic to serve our creator is our actual position.

When you are sick, focus your devotional energy on chanting your rounds.

Prevention is worth days of recuperation.

When I was a new devotee, there was a devotee who was struggling like anything to stay awake while chanting in the morning on his beads. He finally asked the temple president if he could go upstairs and take rest. When the temple president said “Yes,” the devotee exclaimed, “Jaya!” and ran up the stairs to take rest. This made a big impression on me—most fatigue is mental.

Fatigue is overcome by regulation. Go to sleep early.

from a discussion after lunch:

When packing a car, it is best to put the biggest item in first, and then pack the other smaller items around it. If you put the smaller things in first, you may not have room for the biggest one. Similarly with our spiritual life, we should put our spiritual practice first, and fit the other aspects of our life, our family, our work, etc., around that. If we prioritize our family and our work and other things, we may find we have no time for our spiritual practice, and our life may be wasted without profiting spiritually.

from a Sunday feast lecture in Alachua:

Yamuna Prabhu explained that the recording session that George Harrison did to make the Radha Krishna temple album went late into the night. All the devotees fell asleep except Yamuna who played the harmonium and sang a bhajana, a devotional song, that she had heard Srila Prabhupada sing many times, Bhajahu Re Mana, as she waited for George to finish mixing the recordings.George recorded her singing without her knowing, and decided to include it in the album. Yamuna protested vehemently, but George liked it and included it anyway. Some of the words were wrong and the verses were in the wrong order, but Srila Prabhupada liked it very much, and said she could fix it later.

There are sixty trillion cells in the human body, and the creepy thing is that only ten trillion cells are human, the others being symbiotic or parasitic.

It is not by guilt, fear, coersion, that we advance in devotional service.

We have to be happier performing devotional service, however faulty, than pursuing sense gratification, however successfully.

“O Lord please let me serve you.” I had never heard that prayer in all my life. Usually it is “O Lord give me this or that.”

That is why we like that bhajana (“Bhajahu Re Mana”) so much because it has Srila Prabhupada’s name, Abhaya Caranaravindam.

Srila Prabhupada said that if we just once say, “Krishna, take me, I’m yours” that we may forget it or change our minds, but Krishna never will, and He will make all arrangements for us.

Caru asked Srila Prabhupada how long it takes to become purified once in Australia when he was alone in Srila Prabhupada’s room. Srila Prabhupada replied, “About forty years.”

With what ever discretionary time you have, engage in your favorite devotional service, and you will advance more and more.

Q: Is our spiritual progress stalled if we do not follow the instructions of Krishna’s representative?
A: Yes. Krishna has sent this representative to us, so we must take advantage. Srila Prabhupada said we should not try to become big paramahamsas, but rather we should hang on to his dhoti, for he knows the back door to the spiritual world.

We can tell we are advancing when we spontaneously avoid things detrimental to devotional service because they are no longer appealing.

Even though they may not know a lot, no one can tell them they are not happy in devotional service. That is nistha or steadiness.

If you are enjoying japa you have made advancement.

If we had one-tenth as much faith in Krishna as we do that we are our body, we would attain Krishna prema [love of God].

Sesa Prabhu:

Srila Prabhupada was not so much interested in propagating a religion as giving people the opportunity to have their consciousness fully blossom.

One’s character is a manifestation of one’s consciousness.

Mahabharata addresses who is qualified to be the ruler of the entire world, and can be said to be about properly governing the world and not about religion.

One can take Mahabharata as a job interview by Krishna, the paramesvara (supreme controller), for the position of ruler of the world.

Employers hire for competence and fire for character.

Employers look for ability, track record, character, positive attitude, and enthusiasm.

Duryodhana was asked to find someone greater than himself, and he could not. Yudhisthira was asked to find someone less than himself, and he could not. This indicates that Duryodhana was narcissistic, proud, bombastic, etc. Would you want to hire someone like that? Often when people have these bad qualities, they have other bad qualities because of not being able to deal properly with other people. Recently many military leaders have been found to have other serious character flaws.

There is a path to full developed consciousness that people have followed in the past and which can be followed even now.

Shiva drank an ocean of poison to save humanity from its ill effects.

At a petrol station in India one devotee asked a local student who knew English what he wanted to do with his life. He said that he wanted to do something to bring honor to his father’s name. You won’t get a response like that in America! That is just a remnant of the Vedic culture.

Svayambhuva Manu would use his free time to study the scripture to become a better leader, not to enjoy his senses in different ways.

The real solution to different ills like violence in society is to change the consciousness of the people. Mahabharata gives knowledge by which we can do that.

To make mistakes is human, but as our consciousness develops, we learn from our mistakes.

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says others cannot harm us unless we harm ourselves. So just to protect ourselves it is in our self-interest to develop our character.

We can be overcome by lust but if we take shelter of the Lord, He will protect us.

Superficial change is not real change.

comment by Vaishnava dasa: I did not make a plan to be clean, but just by engaging in devotional service that came naturally.

The the asrama divisions in varnasrama follow the natural changes of our body.

The details of what we do might change but the reason we do things, to please Krishna, does not change.

Change should be made to develop our devotional service rather than as a reduction.

The instruction to stay in your own position does not mean to be complacent.

comment by a devotee: Srila Prabhupada used the analogy of cleaning a room to explain how when we begin our spiritual practice it seems that our life initially gets more complicated and confusing.

Q: What should we do when devotees disagree about what is a principle and what is a detail?
A: There is a principle of ista-gosthi, whereby which the devotees discuss the subject in detail, and then even if there seems to be no resolution, you will get mercy from Krishna from following His process of ista-gosthi.

Fault-finding is a very dangerous quality.

When we find faults, that person’s fault does not become magnified, rather our bad qualities become magnified.

Martin Luther King says he has a dream of a day when one is judged not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character.

When I was a brahmacari in LA in the 1970s, the brahmacaris would take prasadam together, mostly in silence. One day one brahmacari said, “Baseball season starts today.” He could have been advising us of good opportunities for harinama or book distribution, but we did not give him a chance. Instead we got on his case for being in maya for talking of materialistic thingsbecause in those days we were very fanatical.

There are different kinds of intelligence, and if a manager because of being attached to a particular one, and not appreciating others, discourages a person that can be very detrimental.

Mostly the criticism is more about the person who makes criticism than the person who is criticized.

Motivations for criticism:

  1. gaining a sense of superiority.
  2. getting back at someone
  3. establish our position as being the best
  4. to distract people from considering our own faults

The pure soul is devoid of the quality of fault-finding.

If we can find faults in ourselves, we are in a better position to learn from others’ criticism of ourselves.

comment by Dorian: Before Einstein was a great physicist he worked in a patent office, and his boss said that he would never amount to anything, and he said it just made him work harder.

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura said, “Look within. Amend yourself rather than pry into the faults of others. Cultivate patience, humility, and respect for others”.

some verses related to the topic of fault-finding from Krishna-kripa das:

“The worker who is always engaged in work against the injunctions of the scripture, who is materialistic, obstinate, cheating and expert in insulting others, and who is lazy, always morose and procrastinating is said to be a worker in the mode of ignorance.” (Bhagavad-gita 18.28)

“One should mentally honor the devotee who chants the holy name of Lord Krishna, one should offer humble obeisances to the devotee who has undergone spiritual initiation [diksa] and is engaged in worshiping the Deity, and one should associate with and faithfully serve that Pure devotee who is advanced in undeviated devotional service and whose heart is completely devoid of the propensity to criticize others.(Nectar of Instruction, verse 5)

Tattva-vit Prabhu:

Desire to serve the Lord personally does not imply service the Lord alone or without any intermediate.

Srila Prabhupada says becoming the servant of the Lord’s servants is the sum and substance of life. Narottama Dasa Thakura prays in that mood, “tadera carana-sebi-bhakta-sane bas—May I live with those devotees who serve the lotus feet of these six Gosvamis.”

Preachers should serve the Lord purely and joyfully to inspire others.

Our body, life, and ego are Krishna’s energy, and thus ultimately Krishna Himself.

Srila Prabhupada writes in The Nectar of Instruction that the first business of spiritual life is to train the senses and the mind.

By associating with devotees one will also come to desire eagerness to serve Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada told a reporter that his message could be very widely accepted if “they would hear it.”

comment by Bhakta Marlon: Because the self is part of Krishna if you present Krishna consciousness by telling people its about themselves that will be more appealing to them than telling them that its is about Krishna, who they are not so interested in.

Dana-keli Prabhu:

We hear about the pastimes so we can become purified and hear about about the pastimes in a deeper way.

Tamal Krishna Goswami in his Ph.D. dissertation explains that Srila Prabhupada special contribution was that he digested all the truths presented by the previous teachers in the spiritual line and expertly presented them for the modern world.

We may have difficulties in our spiritual practice but if we never abandon the association of devotees, ultimately we will attain success.

One thing that attracted me in the beginning of my practice of Krishna consciousness, was the idea that I have a relationship with God that is completely unique, not like that of anyone else’s, and I wanted to experience that.

One person would trick his mind into doing book distribution. When the mind would protest his program of going downtown and distributing books, he would tell his mind, “We are not going to distribute books. We just going to put books in the car and drive downtown.” When he got downtown, his mind would again protest, and he would say, “We are not going to distribute books, we are just going to get out of the car with a bag of books, and walk around.” So he got out of the car with the books and wandered around. When the mind was again worried about distributing books, he would say, “We are not going to distribute books, we are just going to say ‘Hello’ to people.” And by going on and on in this way, he tricked his mind into distributing books.

If we want to read the advanced Vaishnava literature Srila Prabhupada recommended in Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, it is good to do it in the association of devotees.

Madhava Prabhu (from Alachua):

Twice Prabhupada spoke on the teachings of Queen Kunti and from those lectures, the BBT was able to publish the book Teachings of Queen Kunti.

To take shelter of Krishna alone is the great lesson we can learn from Kunti and her sons, the Pandavas. Vyasadeva teaches this important lesson in the very beginning Srimad-Bhagavatam.

Q: In Mahabharata Krishna asks Arjuna to get weapons from the demigods for use in the battle, so some people argue that it is alright to worship the demigods.
A: Krishna is sending Arjuna to his devotees to get the blessings of his devotees, the demigods. It is not that Arjuna is thinking that the demigods can offer him something that Krishna can’t.

Prema Manjari dd:

This is the most important of Kunti’s prayers as it is very rare that someone prays for more calamities.

In a crisis our whole world may fall apart. We may feel fear, depression, etc. Some people fall apart emotionally. Even after the crisis, people continue to suffer for years because of not being able to process what happened.

Psychologists who have analyzed post-traumatic-stress syndrome say those who suffer the most are those who consider themselves as victims.

On the other hand, there are cases of post-traumatic growth, which is a exciting field of new research in psychology. This is symptomized by greater psychological, emotional, and spiritual confidence, greater compassion, increased faith in self and others, more capacity for intimacy, gratitude, etc.

The crisis is an opportunity for us to apply the spiritual knowledge we have acquired, especially by taking completely shelter of Krishna.

This world is not a place where we can be comfortable and happy, but unfortunately most of us do not believe that. Thus Krishna needs to create situations for us to realize this. It is best to see calamities in this way.

After being in the holy dhama, when you return to the West the power of the material energy to impede our spiritual progress is very obvious.

Rohini Kumara Prabhu:

The coach of a team that twice won the Super Bowl said, “Everyone wants to win. My teams wants to prepare to win.”

Caitanya dasi from Krishna House:

Hearing from the learned devotees while in Vrndavana, a common theme was that theoretical spiritual knowledge becomes realized more and more by sharing it with others.

My japa at Radha Damodara temple was very sweet, but it was not my doing it.

Nanda Kumar Prabhu:

What is striking about the narration of the prostitute Pingala, who because of frustration in her profession, surrendered to Krishna?

Typically misery causes frustration, but Pingala’s frustration brought detachment and knowledge. That was due to her past devotional activities.

comment by Tulasirani dd: Although sensual enjoyment is glorified in human society, Pingala the prostitute, comes to the conclusion that it is all useless, and that is very rare, and thus very striking.

comment by Indian student guest: The narration shows how even the most sinful person can get the mercy of the Lord.

Arjuna Prabhu:

It is a goal of mine to see how each of the chapters of Bhagavad-gita contributes to Krishna’s point that He is obtained by bhakti.

Tulasirani dd:

We were coming back from Festival of Inspiration, and we were really tired. The person who was driving swerved off the road. I cried out Krishna like I had never before done in my life. One of the girls was unconscious and covered with blood, and I knew she was not going to live, so I just chanted Hare Krishna and talked to her about Krishna. I was able to do that because I had just heard from my spiritual master at the Festival of Inspiration. There is nothing that anyone could have done for me in that car accident, except to tell me to remember Krishna. Earlier that very day my friend had said, “If I died today I would be so satisfied because I feel that I have this warm blanket of Krishna’s love around me.” I was so upset they took us to separate hospitals, because I would not be able help her remember Krishna, so I prayed to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. Turns out she was taken to a hospital where a devotee doctor was on duty and happened to remember her name and called all the devotees, and they came and were able to help her remember Krishna at the end of her life. This car accident helped me realize that death can come at any moment.

A friend was telling me that Krishna is the only one she has, all others will be taken away from us. I was surprised to hear she had such an advanced realization.

The devotees are valuable because they remind us to remember Krishna.

I asked one of my friends what made her so inspired. She said, “I think if this was the last day of my life, what are all the things I would do to please Krishna on this day, and then I try to act that way.”

We are dependent on Krishna, but it is up to us to depend on Krishna.

When you are in distress, where do find solace? What are you taking shelter of? It is good to step back and see, was I trying to take shelter of Krishna or something temporary?

We should be making plans to become more attracted to thinking of Krishna by hearing about Him and seriously chanting His holy names.

We should visit the holy dhamas to increase our attraction to Krishna.

Death is something that happens to everyone, yet we talk about so many nonsensical things but we do not want to talk about death.

Prepare for death is not as difficult as preparing for many tests. Going to mangala-arati and singing and dancing with your friends is easier than studying for many other tests.

Q: We make so many plans, getting our Ph.D., getting a job, etc.
A: As a duty to your family and Krishna you have to have to make plans, but you also have to spend time completely absorbed in sadhana [your spiritual practice] every day.

unspoken comments by Krishna-kripa das on the topic of the class:

In the Vishnu Puranait is written:

sa hanis tan mahac chidram
sa mohah sa ca vibhramah
yan-muhurtam kṣaṇam vapi
vasudevam na cintayet

“If even for a moment remembrance of Vasudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is missed, that is the greatest loss, that is the greatest illusion, and that is the greatest anomaly.”

yasyam vai sruyamanayam
krsne parama-puruse
bhaktir utpadyate pumsah
soka-moha-bhayapaha

“Simply by giving aural reception to this Vedic literature, the feeling for loving devotional service to Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, sprouts up at once to extinguish the fire of lamentation, illusion and fearfulness.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam1.7.7)

Vaishnava Dasa:

Radharani accused Krishna of being impure for killing Aristasura because he had the body of a bull, so Krishna called all the holy rivers to fill up Syama-kunda and he bathed there. Then he accused Radha of being impure for siding with a demon, and demanded that she purify Herself.

Jai Nitai Gauranga Prabhu:

If a scientist takes a dead mosquito he cannot repair it by taking body parts from other mosquitos. That is not possible.

We can ask ourselves how can manifest sincerity in my life now.

Dr. Dina Bandhu Prabhu:

Spiritual life includes material life, but my experience is that material life does not always include spiritual life.

Now at age 33, after 28 years of education I am a practicing physician, but in all that education I was never taught anything about the needs of the soul. I experienced difference levels of attainment in life but not the increased happiness I expected from that attainment. I was never taught that there is a spiritual goal for this human form of life.

When I would inquire about causes of the suffering in this world from people in the course of my life, they would generally discourage me, wondering why I wanted to think about such negative things.

Ultimately we take intoxication because we are not satisfied in ourselves or with our relationships.

What is required in spiritual life is to be open minded and be willing to try the experiment.

If a spiritual practice is bona fide, we should see some positive results from our practice.

comment by Amrita Keli dd: When I am absorbed in material consciousness, seeing devotees happily engaged in devotional service, makes me so happy.

comment by Matt: I was doing my own meditation and self-study, and I had come to some conclusions, but until I met the devotees, I never really had this well of bliss within me.

comment by Tulasirani dd: I was in Mayapur chanting with thousands of people from over 40 countries, and it was bliss to be with so many people chanting together from all different background. It is my dream to bring everyone there.

comments by Laura: I was agnostic before. I chanted Hare Krishna and found I was more peaceful and less angry. Why don’t I go around believing in God for a while and see if it makes a difference. So I did.

When you associate with people who have had spiritual experience their sincerity is very contagious.

from a conversation in Krishna House after hearing about Prabhupada in 1966 in New York City:

Krishna-kripa das:

I had a friend who in the beginning of his experience with Krishna consciousness was still getting high on marijuana. He noticed that the marijuana brought him down from the pleasure of chanting Hare Krishna, and so he gave it up.

Tulasirani dd:

When I first met the devotees in Ohio I had a habit of going to the bar every night, and so I would have them drop me off at the bar after the kirtana programs, saying they did not have to take me all the way home but could drop me downtown. After a while I noticed that drinking and the atmosphere of the bar did not feel so enjoyable anymore, so I would chant Hare Krishna more and go to the bar less.

The secret of Krishna consciousness is to stop endeavoring for your own happiness, but to try to act for Krishna’s happiness. Then you will find you become happier than you ever were before.

Hanan Prabhu:

I read Prabhupada’s books and lived in India, and felt that all my problems were all solved. But then when I returned to Israel, so many problems arose. We had to leave our place because it was going to be demolished, and then the Israeli army called me back for a month of service, and I had to rethink things.

story by Anna Angel: My father left home, leaving my mother with eight children to bring up, which upset me greatly. After many years, hearing I had some children, my father contacted me for the first time, wanting to see them, but I told him he could not. Four years later he died, and I had never seen him since he left. I felt very guilty and suffered greatly over it, but I came out realizing that without forgiveness we cannot progress spiritually.

One friend, who is being treated for cancer, said that they always tell the cancer patients that they are the cause of their disease, and then have to take responsibility for that, and then they can cure it.

When I am serving the Krishna Lunch, people come up and ask me why Bhagavad-gita is spoken on a battlefield, so I tell them in two minutes while I am serving the rice, that Krishna is teaching that by raising your consciousness you can do the most difficult thing in the most difficult place.

How to deal with difficulties?
  1. respond with prayer
  2. to react according to dharma
  3. get spiritual support

If a child gets up and tries to walk, adults nearby will come and help him so he does not fall over. However, if does not get up and try, no one will come to help. In the same way, God helps those who make some endeavor on their own.

There is a story from the Upanishads that is an analogy to our spiritual awakening. A merchant wanders through the forest, and is trapped by a tribe looking for a king, and rendered unconsciousness with a loss of memory of his former existence. They find the merchant has all the qualities they need, so they make him king. Later the brother of the merchant passes through the kingdom and is surprised to find his brother is king. But his brother the king could not recognize him. The brother read up on the tribe and found out the get a new king each year, and then cook the old king, and eat his body, thinking they will gain some of his qualities. So his brother tells the king of his actual situation, and after some time, was able to convince him of their relationship as brothers.

Why is bhaktithe easiest yoga?
Here are some reasons:
  1. You do not have to have any material qualification to begin bhakti.
  2. The Lord helps you because you are approaching Him directly and He is reciprocal.
  3. You can engage all your abilities and all your emotions in it.
  4. You can do it twenty-four hours a day.

Practicing yoga is like keeping a spark in the fire. Without being in the fire, it will be extinguished.

-----

svasty astu visvasya khalah prasidatam
dhyayantu a sivam mitho dhiya
manas ca bhadram bhajatad adhoksaje
avesyatam no matir apy ahaituki

“[Prahlada Maharaja prayed:] May there be good fortune throughout the universe, and may all envious persons be pacified. May all living entities become calm by practicing bhakti-yoga,for by accepting devotional service they will think of each other’s welfare. Therefore let us all engage in the service of the supreme transcendence, Lord Sri Krishna, and always remain absorbed in thought of Him.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam5.18.9)

No hope for justice?
→ OppositeRule

Is it too much to ask for a spiritual leadership free from corruption? Apparently it is. 

Last year I reported a violation of ISKCON Law 3.5.5.1.3.9, pertaining to Child Protection Concerns, which had occurred at Gita-nagari in 2005.  The persons I identified as violating that law were Radhanatha, Malati, and Tamohara.  In 2005, Tamohara was the director of the Child Protection Office for ISKCON. 

I did not know about ISKCON Law 3.5.5.1.3.9 until after Bir Krsna Swami was censured based upon it.  None the less, the “law” was in in effect in 2005, and those three had a duty to know and follow it.  Instead they conspired an agreement between themselves in contempt of that “law,” which created a dangerous situation at Gita-nagari.  I did my duty to deal with that situation, and my actions were nothing more than to make up for the unsafe conditions brought about by these GBC’s contempt for ISKCON Law.  Mostly I was just trying to get the facts about the situation, although ISKCON Law required the facts to be provided to householders by the Temple President or the GBC for our familys’ safety.

Because my concern for child protection exceeded my faith in these gurus after they brought a known child molester to my community, I was labeled an aparadhi against Bhakti-Tirtha and Radhanatha and treated as a demon to the point of being driven away from ISKCON and the Hare Krsna movement altogether. 

I was so upset by the injustice and Krsna’s failure to protect my spiritual life that I tried to renounce bhakti and become an atheist.  I had been doing that for about two years when I decided even though I felt quite separated from ISKCON, I still cared about their child protection problem.  So I sent a complaint by email describing the violation of ISKCON Law by those individuals, including saying that I was driven from the Hare Krsna movement because of it, along with my wife and kids.

I sent the email to the ISKCON Child Protection Office and the GBC  Executive Committee. The CPO responded that they had changed management since then and so couldn’t really do anything.  The GBC EC did not respond at all. 

So last night I learned that Tamohara dasa, the same fellow who was heading the CPO, whom I also reported as having violated ISKCON Law regarding Child Protection Concerns, is now the Vice Chairman of the GBC EC.  No wonder the EC did not respond.  The corruption of ISKCON leadership makes me sick. 

What kind of lowlifes can receive a letter saying their dereliction of duties and contempt for the laws of the spiritual society they are in charge of leading caused an innocent family to be demonized and consequently lose faith and leave, and not even have the decency to give a response?  I cannot fathom it. Apparently these people have no shame at all. 

Here is the ISKCON Law, for reference:
“3.5.5.1.3.9 Child Protection Concerns Persons, who after an ISKCON investigation, are confirmed to be guilty of child abuse must report their status to the local Temple President upon their arrival in an ISKCON community. Also, it is the obligation of a Temple President to determine for every member joining his community, if the newcomer is a confirmed child abuser. The Temple President is then obliged to notify the local householders and GBC of the offender’s presence. The local GBC should be advised if a Temple President knowingly arranges for a confirmed child abuser to be supported by a temple, or live on temple property without first notifying the householder community as per ISKCON laws. The local GBC is to supervise the situation to be sure the Temple President follows the following GBC guidelines: 1. “In no case should a confirmed perpetrator remain in the local community unless the local ISKCON authorities obtain the written authorization of no less than three-quarter of the parents of children at the project or in the community. 2. The local government authorities and/or the ISKCON Board of Education will make the final determination of the appropriate degree of segregation. (1990-119.4)” 3. Every GBC make sure the temples presidents in his zone are made aware of this resolution and GBC guidelines.”

http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/Iskcon_Law_Book

The Mayapur Academy
→ Seed of Devotion

After five years of prayer, endeavor, and many, many blessings, three days ago I received a Diploma with Distinction from the Mayapur Academy.

When Nrisimha Kavacha Prabhu came through Alachua in 2007, he spoke about the Mayapur Academy. The Academy would be a place where people from around the world could come and learn the art of worshiping the Lord in his deity form.

Immediately I resolved that one day I would take this 4-month course. Year after year passed, but the time was never right. Finally, last year I graduated from college and was free to go to India.

Only... I was a broke, fresh-out-of-college student.

But this was the year. It had to be.

With much trepidation, I began a fundraising campaign. I needed to raise thousands of dollars within only two months. Would people believe in me? I faced huge walls within myself to reach out so boldly.

I swallowed my pride and began to send e-mails and then make phone calls. I soon began to realize, though, that through fundraising for this trip, Lord Chaitanya was pushing me forward to beg the blessings of everyone I knew in my life - professional colleagues, senior devotees, peers, even juniors. A tsunami of blessings rushed in.

I reached almost my entire fundraising goal.

Thus, built upon the blessings of the devotees, last November I stepped into the Mayapur Academy. For four months I have been immersed in a powerful world filled with austerity, magic, and beauty.


I have dived deep into the reality that God is a person. Be clean for God, show up on time for God, cook the best food for God, give the best clothes and jewelry and flowers to God. Sing for Him, sacrifice for Him, be soft with Him, cry for Him.


That is love.

Love is a verb, and for the past four months I have been in the fire of that verb, realizing how how icy my heart truly is. My only hope is to remain in the fire.
























Now that I have received my diploma, I am reflecting how I have been propelled forward by the blessings I received last year and every step of the way. I especially want to thank my parents - my fundraising campaign had been unfinished, and so they have supported me in these final months to finish the Academy.

I feel deeply moved by each and every person who spoke some kind word or gave even one dollar. Thank you.  

I offer my respects to each of my gurus at the Academy, especially Jananivas Prabhu and Nrisimha Kavacha Prabhu. I offer my respects to each of my fellow students, who taught me so much about humility, patience, tolerance, and respect.

I offer my gratitude to my spiritual master, Radhanath Swami, and to Srila Prabhupad. 

I pray that to repay this debt of love I may give to others what I have been given.  

***

If you are interested in attending or offering support to the Mayapur Academy, please visit mayapuracademy.org.

If you would like to give so that I may finish my time here in Mayapur, you can visit blossomofdevotion.com. Thank you.
Subscribe

The Mayapur Academy
→ Seed of Devotion

After five years of prayer, endeavor, and many, many blessings, three days ago I received a Diploma with Distinction from the Mayapur Academy.

When Nrisimha Kavacha Prabhu came through Alachua in 2007, he spoke about the Mayapur Academy. The Academy would be a place where people from around the world could come and learn the art of worshiping the Lord in his deity form.

Immediately I resolved that one day I would take this 4-month course. Year after year passed, but the time was never right. Finally, last year I graduated from college and was free to go to India.

Only... I was a broke, fresh-out-of-college student.

But this was the year. It had to be.

With much trepidation, I began a fundraising campaign. I needed to raise thousands of dollars within only two months. Would people believe in me? I faced huge walls within myself to reach out so boldly.

I swallowed my pride and began to send e-mails and then make phone calls. I soon began to realize, though, that through fundraising for this trip, Lord Chaitanya was pushing me forward to beg the blessings of everyone I knew in my life - professional colleagues, senior devotees, peers, even juniors. A tsunami of blessings rushed in.

I reached almost my entire fundraising goal.

Thus, built upon the blessings of the devotees, last November I stepped into the Mayapur Academy. For four months I have been immersed in a powerful world filled with austerity, magic, and beauty.


I have dived deep into the reality that God is a person. Be clean for God, show up on time for God, cook the best food for God, give the best clothes and jewelry and flowers to God. Sing for Him, sacrifice for Him, be soft with Him, cry for Him.


That is love.

Love is a verb, and for the past four months I have been in the fire of that verb, realizing how how icy my heart truly is. My only hope is to remain in the fire.
























Now that I have received my diploma, I am reflecting how I have been propelled forward by the blessings I received last year and every step of the way. I especially want to thank my parents - my fundraising campaign had been unfinished, and so they have supported me in these final months to finish the Academy.

I feel deeply moved by each and every person who spoke some kind word or gave even one dollar. Thank you.  

I offer my respects to each of my gurus at the Academy, especially Jananivas Prabhu and Nrisimha Kavacha Prabhu. I offer my respects to each of my fellow students, who taught me so much about humility, patience, tolerance, and respect.

I offer my gratitude to my spiritual master, Radhanath Swami, and to Srila Prabhupad. 

I pray that to repay this debt of love I may give to others what I have been given.  

***

If you are interested in attending or offering support to the Mayapur Academy, please visit mayapuracademy.org.

If you would like to give so that I may finish my time here in Mayapur, you can visit blossomofdevotion.com. Thank you.
Subscribe

All You Need is Love…
→ Trying to reach a state of equilibrium....

  I was reading Chapter 14 of Nectar of Devotion today & came across a lovely point I’d like to share. Basically jnana (knowledge) & viragya (renunciation) are not very desirable things. Too much knowledge or renunciation can lead to a hardening of the heart which is counterproductive to developing love for Krishna. Bhakti requires […]

April 2013 Yoga Retreat
→ Atma Yoga

Spend a relaxing weekend in the Gold Coast hinterland stretching and strengthening, cleansing and rejuvenating, refreshing and revitalising at the Atma Yoga April Retreat.

Friday April 5 – Sunday April 7
Cost: $275
Location: Springbrook Theosophical Society Retreat Centre, Springbrook (Gold Coast Hinterland)

What to bring: yoga mat, cushion, pillow case, sheets, insect repellent.

What you’ll do: reading, chatting, silently meditating, bushwalks, contemplating nature, yummy yoga food, fireside chants, and of course – yoga!

Podcast 10 – Jahnavi Harrison leads the mahamantra
→ Oxford Kirtan

Recorded at our February kirtan this year, a mere few weeks ago, we are very happy to present a kirtan from Jahnavi, who has regularly visited kirtans since 2007. We have had spectacular lack of success recording her kirtans in Oxford and are indebted to Vasudeva who came all the way from East London to be our technical wizard.

I found this write-up on Jahnavi on the web, where she is highly praised by two of the giants of the US kirtan circuit:

“Jahnavi Harrison was born and raised in a family of English bhakti yogis at Bhaktivedanta Manor in Hertfordshire. She is a multi disciplinary artist, trained in Western classical violin, South Indian dance (Bharatanatyam) and Carnatic music, as well as writing and visual arts. She aims to practise and share the rich culture of bhakti yoga as taught to her parents by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Since 2009 she has been travelling internationally with sacred music bands ‘Gaura Vani and As Kindred Spirits’ and ‘Sita and the Hanumen’, and regularly collaborates with kirtan artists like Krishna Das, Shyam Das, Wah!, Shantala and Jai Uttal and Shiva Rea. She frequently features articles on bhakti yoga and the arts for publications like Pulse magazine, Elephant Journal, as well as her own blog - ‘The Little Conch’. She offers workshops in mantra music, harmonium and sacred movement and currently helps to share kirtan with a broad range of Londoners through the Kirtan London project.

‘When she sings and plays one feels that one is eavesdropping on the music of the Gods. She needs no recommendation, one only has to have ears to hear her and one knows immediately that we are in the presence of grace.’ - Krishna Das

‘Jahnavi Harrison is a being of total devotion. Listen to her sing and let the doors of your heart fly open.’- Jai Uttal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSMKAXv_9w4

Podcast 10 – Jahnavi Harrison leads the mahamantra
→ Oxford Kirtan

Recorded at our February kirtan this year, a mere few weeks ago, we are very happy to present a kirtan from Jahnavi, who has regularly visited kirtans since 2007. We have had spectacular lack of success recording her kirtans in Oxford and are indebted to Vasudeva who came all the way from East London to be our technical wizard.

I found this write-up on Jahnavi on the web, where she is highly praised by two of the giants of the US kirtan circuit:

“Jahnavi Harrison was born and raised in a family of English bhakti yogis at Bhaktivedanta Manor in Hertfordshire. She is a multi disciplinary artist, trained in Western classical violin, South Indian dance (Bharatanatyam) and Carnatic music, as well as writing and visual arts. She aims to practise and share the rich culture of bhakti yoga as taught to her parents by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Since 2009 she has been travelling internationally with sacred music bands ‘Gaura Vani and As Kindred Spirits’ and ‘Sita and the Hanumen’, and regularly collaborates with kirtan artists like Krishna Das, Shyam Das, Wah!, Shantala and Jai Uttal and Shiva Rea. She frequently features articles on bhakti yoga and the arts for publications like Pulse magazine, Elephant Journal, as well as her own blog - ‘The Little Conch’. She offers workshops in mantra music, harmonium and sacred movement and currently helps to share kirtan with a broad range of Londoners through the Kirtan London project.

‘When she sings and plays one feels that one is eavesdropping on the music of the Gods. She needs no recommendation, one only has to have ears to hear her and one knows immediately that we are in the presence of grace.’ - Krishna Das

‘Jahnavi Harrison is a being of total devotion. Listen to her sing and let the doors of your heart fly open.’- Jai Uttal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSMKAXv_9w4

Podcast 10 – Jahnavi Harrison leads the mahamantra
→ Oxford Kirtan

Recorded at our February kirtan this year, a mere few weeks ago, we are very happy to present a kirtan from Jahnavi, who has regularly visited kirtans since 2007. We have had spectacular lack of success recording her kirtans in Oxford and are indebted to Vasudeva who came all the way from East London to be our technical wizard.

I found this write-up on Jahnavi on the web, where she is highly praised by two of the giants of the US kirtan circuit:

“Jahnavi Harrison was born and raised in a family of English bhakti yogis at Bhaktivedanta Manor in Hertfordshire. She is a multi disciplinary artist, trained in Western classical violin, South Indian dance (Bharatanatyam) and Carnatic music, as well as writing and visual arts. She aims to practise and share the rich culture of bhakti yoga as taught to her parents by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Since 2009 she has been travelling internationally with sacred music bands ‘Gaura Vani and As Kindred Spirits’ and ‘Sita and the Hanumen’, and regularly collaborates with kirtan artists like Krishna Das, Shyam Das, Wah!, Shantala and Jai Uttal and Shiva Rea. She frequently features articles on bhakti yoga and the arts for publications like Pulse magazine, Elephant Journal, as well as her own blog - ‘The Little Conch’. She offers workshops in mantra music, harmonium and sacred movement and currently helps to share kirtan with a broad range of Londoners through the Kirtan London project.

‘When she sings and plays one feels that one is eavesdropping on the music of the Gods. She needs no recommendation, one only has to have ears to hear her and one knows immediately that we are in the presence of grace.’ - Krishna Das

‘Jahnavi Harrison is a being of total devotion. Listen to her sing and let the doors of your heart fly open.’- Jai Uttal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSMKAXv_9w4

Glow Party! Sunday 16 March
→ Bhakti Lounge - The Heart Of Yoga in Wellington

Moonlit Shrine – Glow Party!

Sunday 16 March 6pm
On this upcoming full moon day it’s the birthday of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu – the leader & founder of mantra music meditation. It’s a big day in the Bhakti-Yoga calendar, so come for a Glow Party! … it’ll be a dazzling decorated evening for the eyes and ears with Kirtan, a live drama performance & gourmet food, then after dinner we’ll dive into more Kirtan interwoven with a candlelit arati ceremony, koha entry.

Mailchimp_Festival


Free Book Download: Bhakti Life
→ Tattva - See inside out

We may read a lot of spiritual knowledge, but sometimes the practical application can be ambiguous and unclear. What practices should I perform on a daily basis? How can I change my lifestyle to support my spirituality? When challenges and obstacles arise, how should I react? “Bhakti Life” is a humble attempt to answer some of these questions and offer some practical information for the aspiring spiritualist.

Bhakti-yoga is not an armchair philosophy, a religious doctrine or a Sunday ritual. It is a way of life. In the Bhakti-Rasamrita Sindhu, a 16th century thesis on the science of devotion, the great teacher Rupa Goswami perfectly outlines how to practice bhakti-yoga in one’s daily life. Drawing from these timeless teachings, we have attempted to distil 18 simple steps that will aid one’s journey to Krishna. Engaging in these practical acts of bhakti-yoga will awaken a deep sense of fulfilment, happiness and enduring satisfaction. Indeed, Krishna assures us that the individual who is steadfast and determined in such spiritual practices can see Him face-to-face. It’s that simple.

Download "Bhakti Life" by clicking here (right click and "save link as...")

Free Book Download: Bhakti Life
→ Tattva - See inside out

We may read a lot of spiritual knowledge, but sometimes the practical application can be ambiguous and unclear. What practices should I perform on a daily basis? How can I change my lifestyle to support my spirituality? When challenges and obstacles arise, how should I react? “Bhakti Life” is a humble attempt to answer some of these questions and offer some practical information for the aspiring spiritualist.

Bhakti-yoga is not an armchair philosophy, a religious doctrine or a Sunday ritual. It is a way of life. In the Bhakti-Rasamrita Sindhu, a 16th century thesis on the science of devotion, the great teacher Rupa Goswami perfectly outlines how to practice bhakti-yoga in one’s daily life. Drawing from these timeless teachings, we have attempted to distil 18 simple steps that will aid one’s journey to Krishna. Engaging in these practical acts of bhakti-yoga will awaken a deep sense of fulfilment, happiness and enduring satisfaction. Indeed, Krishna assures us that the individual who is steadfast and determined in such spiritual practices can see Him face-to-face. It’s that simple.

Download "Bhakti Life" by clicking here (right click and "save link as...")

The Best of Both Worlds
→ ISKCON Malaysia

BY GUNACUDA DEVI DASI

MAYAPUR - Experience the best of both worlds in Mayapur where excellence in academic and spiritual life can be experienced simultaneously.

Due to a large increase in student numbers Sri Mayapur International School has the following service opportunities beginning August 2013:
High school Chemistry Teacher. 
Proven experience of teaching high school level Chemistry is essential. SMIS is a Cambridge International Examinations Centre so the successful candidate should be willing to be trained in the IGCSE, AS and A level syllabus of Cambridge International Examination Board and be responsible for carrying out practical activities in the school laboratory. 
Middle school English Teacher
The school requires an experienced English teacher who can plan , deliver lessons and assess students from Grades 7 to 9 (11 to 14 years olds). Candidates with B.Ed or equivalent are preferred. This is for English as a first language not ESL. This service involves teaching small classes (under 12 students) of bright, eager to learn children aged 11 to 14 years old. There are separate classes for girls and boys. The candidate needs excellent spoken and written English and experience of working in a classroom environment with children of mixed ability.
Primary School Teacher
Our wonderful Grade 3 teacher will be teaching in the High school next year so we require a Primary school teacher. Requirements for the position of Primary teacher: The successful applicant will have either a recognised teaching qualification, and/or a proven track record of successfully teaching in schools, and have the ability to plan, deliver, assess and report student outcomes according to the U.K. curriculum. The applicant should be computer literate and have excellent English skills. Experience in teaching children who have English as an additional language is desirable. 

Applications from experienced and qualified teachers of other subjects will also be considered.
For more information visit:www.mayapurschool.com
All positions would be on an ongoing basis after a trial period of 3 months. The remuneration includes:
• Modest monthly maintenance wage commensurate with experience
• Teacher's apartment provided (subject to availability) or assistance with accommodation
• Lunch meal provided
• Free education for first child of teacher, half price for subsequent children
This is a unique opportunity to live and work in Sri Mayapur Dhama, and serve Srila Prabhupada's movement at the headquarters of ISKCON. 
Please email your resume and supporting references to gunacuda@yahoo.com

What’s in a Name?
→ OppositeRule

My first upset as an initiated devotee was during my initiation ceremony.  The chief desire that motivated me to seek initiation was that I hoped it would somehow help improve my chanting of the Hare Krsna mahamantra.  I really wanted that, but it didn’t seem to happen.  I also wanted to be accepted in the parampara with a name indicating a servant of Krsna.  When I heard my name given as “Pandu das,” a feeling of dread came over me.  I had viewed Pandu Maharaj as the chief material cause of the war at Kuruksetra. 
 
When the initiation ceremony was over, I was instructed to go around and beg some dakshin for my guru.  I did that, and after giving it I asked him what was Pandu’s relationship with Krsna.  He said Pandu was Krsna’s uncle by marriage.  I asked if Pandu had ever met Krsna, and he asked me if I had read Mahabharata.  I said that I had, but it was a Hindu version from before I met devotees, so he advised that I read a specific devotee translation.  I did, but it didn’t answer the question.
 
Later he said he gave me the Pandu name because of Maharaj Pandu being a good father.  I was dumbfounded by this.  Pandu was cursed because of inadvertently killing a brahmana by reckless hunting in violation of the applicable rules of the time.  The curse said he would immediately die if he tried to have sex.  Consequently, Pandu could only be a stepfather thanks to a prior benediction given to Kunti, whom he insulted by being overcome with lust for his younger wife. 
 
Pandu knew he would die if he tried to have sex, but he attempted it anyway, even before his stepchildren were grown.  He knew this would leave his stepchildren without a father, and I presume he understood that this would create a potential conflict for control of the monarchy.  Sometimes it’s considered that Bhishma was to blame for the war because he did not break his vow of celibacy when it became a possible solution to the growing conflict, but it does not make sense to me that Bhishma should be blamed for not breaking his great vow to solve a problem created by Pandu’s inability to control himself. 
 
It could be said that Pandu had to die in order for the course of events to occur that led to the speaking of Bhagavad-gita, but I do not believe that Krsna can be thwarted by a course of material events.  To my understanding, Maharaj Pandu consciously abandoned his children just to have a moment of sex, and his inability to restrain his lust was the chief material cause of the war at Kuruksetra.  Getting named after him felt to me like a curse of failure upon my spiritual life, and unfortunately it seems to be one that has so far come true.

A Riven Cloud
→ OppositeRule

I seem to be in a very weird circumstance.  The mean behavior of devotees made me quit aspiring for Krsna consciousness and try to believe that Krsna is imaginary, but associating with atheists renewed my faith in Krsna.  I had been trying my best to serve devotees according to my duty, but the GBC contemptuously broke ISKCON Law pertaining to child protection in my community, and consequently my performance of duty was seen as offensive.  Wanting to impeach me from my service, several brahmanas lied to me and also induced my guru to lie to me.  There are no words for the grief I suffered because of this.  It still hurts me seven years later.
 
I endured feeling almost like a ghost for almost two years, and then decided to accept blame for whatever caused me to leave devotee association, although I did not actually understand any fault on my own part.  Because this humility was artificial, despite being a sincere attempt, I could not sustain it.  I simply did not trust my guru anymore, nor the brahmanas in my community.  I became attracted to ISKCON because of Srila Prabhupada’s books and not due to having met any devotee.  I had already read Bhagavad-gita As It Is three times and was convinced before ever meeting a devotee.  My faith in Krsna consciousness was due to Srila Prabhupada and Krsna’s intervention.  Accepting a substitute guru in accordance with ISKCON standards has been a disaster for my spiritual life.
 
One day our local GBC came to the temple and explained that new bylaws were being imposed because the Rtvik supporters were “enemies of ISKCON.”   I thought if anyone is to be my enemy, I should understand their beliefs.  Upon doing so, I became convinced that the rtviks understanding was better than what ISKCON was asserting.  Unfortunately this made me an “enemy of ISKCON,” although I did not want to be.   After some time, I realized that the rtvik view could not prevail because Srila Prabhupada had given enough authority to the group who would designate themselves as “Zonal Acaryas” that no one would be able to successfully challenge them.  It became my belief that Srila Prabhupada wanted to accept people like me as disciples, but that he failed to manifest that fact.  Some say he was poisoned, but I don’t know.  It’s almost irrelevant.  Getting poisoned by one’s disciples is also a failure.
 
My desire to uphold child protection standards made me an enemy of my community.  My desire to take shelter of Srila Prabhupada made me an enemy of ISKCON.  My inability to divorce ISKCON’s scandals from its Founder-Acarya made me an enemy of the rtviks.  One day the last straw came upon me, and despite chanting 16 rounds per day until then, I put my japa bag away and have not chanted a single round since.  That was in summer 2010. Previously I had completed about 55,000 rounds.   I had no other spiritual faith except for Krsna and Srila Prabhupada, so I resolved to attempt forgetting Krsna and become an atheist.  It took me about a year to stop hearing Hare Krsna in my mind, enough so that I could feel sort of normal by ordinary standards.  I identified with the atheist community for more than a year, almost two, but it bothered me that they did not seem to know Vaisnava philosophy.  I found their arguments inadequate against Vaisnava philosophy, so I presented it in an attempt to elicit their arguments against it.  It soon became apparent that they did not understand Vaisnava philosophy because they did not want to understand it.  Consequently, from atheistic association, I was able to recover my faith in the Vedas.
 
This strikes me as extremely odd, even despite the name choice for my blog.  I sought devotees because Krsna said to get their association, but then devotees made me stop believing in Krsna until atheists inadvertently helped me to again recognize the Vedas as authoritative. 
 
This puts me in a dilemma, because it doesn’t change the fact that my guru lied to me or that the brahmana leaders in my community lied to me to separate me from my duty, because the “guru” wanted to glorify a child molester in contempt of ISKCON Law.  My guru also said he would arrange a mediator to come help me resolve the problem with my community, but he never did it.  Until recently I haven’t paid attention to ISKCON politics for the past few years, but of course nothing has changed.  Devotees are still fighting among themselves.  I practically have no guru so I do not feel welcome in any devotee association.  ISKCON could easily solve this problem (by simply allowing within ISKCON both regular guru initiations and rtvik initiations with Srila Prabhupada as the guru), but clearly they won’t, and consequently I seem to have no hope for spiritual association unless my next birth gives a new opportunity.   I would like to be able to make peace with my “guru” and with the brahmanas who lied to me, but my apologies to them were never reciprocated, so I lack the experiential basis for trusting them. 
 
How can a person surrender to someone who is not trusted?  How can I trust a guru who lied to me but apparently is not sorry about it?  How can I become a devotee without devotee association, trust in brahmanas, or faith in a guru?  Devotees are supposed to be knowledgeable and merciful, but I seem to be unable to get the help I need to confidently understand what Krsna wants me to do. 

How Can I Become a Peacemaker?
→ Matsya Avatar das adhikari

Part II

Every religious tradition, if  authentically lived, conveys a universal vision because it teaches, even though in different fashions and manners, that nothing is separated from the rest, that each part is connected to the whole and that the whole is connected to each part. The term “religion” comes from the Latin "religere" which means ‘gather, unite’, the same as the word yoga derives from the Sanskrit root yuj having the same meaning: ‘connect, unite’. Without Yoga, without the reconnection between the individual consciousness to the cosmic Consciousness, peace cannot be sustained because we can realize it only when the person has acquired a deep awareness of the marvellous subtle network we are part of, when we perceive the common Source that all is connected to the whole and that our well-being implies the well-being of the others. 
Love for God is the highest warrant of peace because loving God means to love all living beings too, by considering the common origin and the indissoluble reunion with Him. One of the fundamental texts of Indovedic spirituality, Bhagavad-gita (V.29) explains that peace is reached by those who, through the recognition of  God as the beneficiary of  all sacrifices and of all austerities and the Supreme friend of all human beings, offer their service and their pure devotion to Him. The essence of Bhagavad-gita is bhakti or love for God that includes love for the world and all the creatures, as expansions (and Epiphany) of the Absolute. In this tradition the value of ahimsa or “non-violence”  is not intended solely in the respect of human beings, rather in the respect of all living creatures because compassion, solidarity and mercy cannot be and must not be reserved to a sole race or a biological specie. The path that leads to peace follows inevitably the way of consciousness,  because its vision is not seen apart from a universal vision, indeed it is aware that there are indissoluble ties that unite mankind to wholeness.
The progressive understanding of this union and a conduct coherent to it, contribute to the diffusion of the harmony among all creatures. This exercise of comprehension should be developed in the respect and appreciation of every authentic path, on the laic and religious levels,  with the awareness that there are different modes and multiple ways to approach progressively the holy Reality that is the essence of all that exists, in all its infinite manifestations, that is revealed as the Divine as supreme source of life, superior principle of harmonization, unity and peace.

How Can I Become a Peacemaker?
→ Matsya Avatar das adhikari

Part II

Every religious tradition, if  authentically lived, conveys a universal vision because it teaches, even though in different fashions and manners, that nothing is separated from the rest, that each part is connected to the whole and that the whole is connected to each part. The term “religion” comes from the Latin "religere" which means ‘gather, unite’, the same as the word yoga derives from the Sanskrit root yuj having the same meaning: ‘connect, unite’. Without Yoga, without the reconnection between the individual consciousness to the cosmic Consciousness, peace cannot be sustained because we can realize it only when the person has acquired a deep awareness of the marvellous subtle network we are part of, when we perceive the common Source that all is connected to the whole and that our well-being implies the well-being of the others. 
Love for God is the highest warrant of peace because loving God means to love all living beings too, by considering the common origin and the indissoluble reunion with Him. One of the fundamental texts of Indovedic spirituality, Bhagavad-gita (V.29) explains that peace is reached by those who, through the recognition of  God as the beneficiary of  all sacrifices and of all austerities and the Supreme friend of all human beings, offer their service and their pure devotion to Him. The essence of Bhagavad-gita is bhakti or love for God that includes love for the world and all the creatures, as expansions (and Epiphany) of the Absolute. In this tradition the value of ahimsa or “non-violence”  is not intended solely in the respect of human beings, rather in the respect of all living creatures because compassion, solidarity and mercy cannot be and must not be reserved to a sole race or a biological specie. The path that leads to peace follows inevitably the way of consciousness,  because its vision is not seen apart from a universal vision, indeed it is aware that there are indissoluble ties that unite mankind to wholeness.
The progressive understanding of this union and a conduct coherent to it, contribute to the diffusion of the harmony among all creatures. This exercise of comprehension should be developed in the respect and appreciation of every authentic path, on the laic and religious levels,  with the awareness that there are different modes and multiple ways to approach progressively the holy Reality that is the essence of all that exists, in all its infinite manifestations, that is revealed as the Divine as supreme source of life, superior principle of harmonization, unity and peace.