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Dear Maharajs/Prabhus,
pamho agtsp,
Plymouth Rathayatra July 2013
In 1620 the Mayflower left Plymouth on a pilgrimage to the new lands in America.
Plymouth is also the starting point of the massive UK slave industry.
But this time Plymouth becomes a pilgrimage place due to Jagannath’s presents and pure devotional service has replaced slavery.
Manu prabhu organised a pilgrimage from America of 40 enthusiastic “gurukuli kids”, and boy can they chant the Holy Name.
Such wonderful devotees gives us hope in the future of Harinam.
your servant Parasuram Das
Enjoy the movie
ISV Devotees goes in Bus for LA Rath Yatra and help distribute 22,500 books in less than 5 hours Read more › 
In the ISKCON Krishna-Balaram Temple at Vrindavan, the sanctum sanctorum of the Deities are beautifully decorated with green bush leaves and blossoming flowers for Them to feel pleasure-roam in the lush green forests of Vrindavan Read more › 
This was our second visit to the town of Rovinj. As soon as we parked our cars and proceeded to the main square, people started to greet us on the streets loudly saying "Hare Krishna"! Kids gathered very soon to get some prasadam sweets and with full mouths appreciated how good it tasted to them. A crowd gathered around our crew and Subhadra sang melodiously for hours. It was a sweet and inspiring evening it is so wonderful to see how many people are in search for Krishna and actually ready to take up chanting! Sankirtan yajna ki jai! Read more › May 26, 1975
My dear Vahna dasa,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 12, 1975 and have read the Cintamani poetry book. It is indirect, impersonal and useless. Who will read these things? Krishna’s name is only mentioned in two poems in the whole book. What is this? There are so many poems written by great acaryas. Why do you try to concoct something like this? It is not in our line. How is that our Kirtanananda Swami is there and he has approved printing this? It is a waste of time, paper, money, ink, and labor. There is so much work to do for spreading this Krishna Consciousness. Who will become attracted by such things as this. You should all spend more time reading my books very carefully and stop all this unnecessary manufacturing.
I hope this meets you in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
N.B. Why there is no picture of Krishna on the cover? If you have the desire to write poetry, better if you read one chapter of Krishna book very carefully. Then put it into poetry. But, do not concoct anything. There is no need for that type of poetry. If you do this, I think it will be appreciated nicely.
Memory by Sacimata
Remember
I’ve lived at New Vrindaban for 32 years, and have known Vahna that long. However, I became much closer with him over the last several years, since he moved back to Talavan. Even though Vahna, as most of us know, didn’t follow the regulative principles strictly, there was one principle he did follow, “chanting his japa.” You would always see Vahna walking on Talavan Road chanting. A couple of years ago, he was spending a lot of time at his house, so he would call me and ask me to bring him some prasadam. So I would go over and bring him plates of maha, sweets and garlands. He was always so happy to receive the Lord’s mercy. He always told me I reminded him of Hladini in that way of bringing him the mercy of the Lord. He always spoke fondly of her, and I’m sure that she has helped him over the pathway to the spiritual sky.
One day a couple of years ago, he phoned and said his neckbeads had broken, and asked if I could buy him a set at the temple. I said that I always kept some neckbeads at my home and I would give him a set. So I sent a set of the old-fashioned big black tulsi neckbeads strung with silver and had my daughter, Nitai bring them to him.
When I read that Vahna was sick this summer, I was in Canada with my daughter, and planned to go see him as soon as possible in the hospital. Well the day he passed, I had went to the temple, got him some maha rasagullas, and was planning to visit that afternoon. Then I got a call from Gopisha saying that he had left. I was so sad, to hear that I missed the opportunity to visit, I cried for about 2 hours. One thing was consoling though, Gopisha was telling me that he and Kalindi had visited him on the weekend before, and was relating their visit together, and he said, one nice thing was that Vahna was chanting his japa on his neckbeads. He said it was one of those black tulsi and silver sets. Wow! That may me feel a lot better as I knew that in some way I was with him, in the form of my gift of neckbeads being with him to the end of his material life.
So, although I felt sorry that I missed the physical visit, the transcendental was still in place. But hopefully we will all remember how temporary this life is, and to always make time to visit devotees not only when they are sick, but as an exchange of love. It is a wonderful service to give our association to each other; which is one of the reasons Srila Prabhupada wanted his “SKCON.”
Your servant, Sachimata dd
July 31, 2013
The post August 9th, 2013 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.
Parasuram das: Glastonbury is a famous city in England. It was the centre of Christanity for the whole of Europe. After Jesus's crucifixion, Joeseph of Arimithea brought the "Holy Grail" to Glastonbury Read more › 
Indradyumna Swami: Inconceivable! These photos were taken 72 hours after Woodstock. Please honour these men and women and give them your blessings. We have 21 more festivals to go! Read more › 20130806 HH Bhakti Rasamrita Swami
The essence of the spiritual journey is not research, but search. Research refers to an academic, intellectual quest for information, whereas search refers to a personal, all-consuming quest for transformation.
Gita wisdom provides us an exciting and fulfilling arena for both research and search. Its philosophy incorporates and integrates different schools of thought in a comprehensive and coherent worldview. Understanding its multiple and multi-layered teachings can be a fascinating research project.
The central message of the Gita is a call for search, for seeking the supreme spiritual happiness by redirecting the heart from the world to the source of the world, Krishna. For this redirection, it offers various yogic processes culminating in bhakti-yoga. By yogic practice, we reach and relish higher spiritual realities centered ultimately on Krishna.
Research can reinforce search. It can introduce us to the basic terms and concepts of spiritual life. It can provide metaphysical scaffolding on which to ascend the spiritual ladder. And it can equip us with a compass to gauge our progress and success.
But research can never replace search – information alone doesn’t bring about transformation. Knowledge can show us the way, but it doesn’t move us along the way. Application alone moves us forward. Internalizing scriptural principles centered on remembrance of Krishna and thereby seeking the spiritual experience of love for Krishna is the search that is the heart of spiritual life.
Different yogic processes outlined in the Gita use different frames of reference to describe spiritual truths. Only by experience attained through search can we reconcile these variations. If we restrict ourselves only to research, then we remain caught in confusion and contradiction.
That's why the Bhagavad-gita (06.08: jnana-vijnana triptatma) urges those who seek contentment to complement research with search, to complete the spiritual journey by going beyond theoretical information to transformational realization.
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A person is said to be established in self-realization and is called a yogi [or mystic] when he is fully satisfied by virtue of acquired knowledge and realization. Such a person is situated in transcendence and is self-controlled. He sees everything – whether it be pebbles, stones or gold – as the same.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 30 June 2013, Vrndavan, India, Student Talk)
After Srila Prabhupada left Vrndavan, he tried to preach in the Western world. It wasn’t easy; it is not just an easy success story. When Prabhupada was anchored with the Jaladuta just on the pier in New York city, at that time Prabhupada was reflecting how difficult it was to bring Krsna consciousness to the Western world.
Imagine that you would have to go all alone to New York to preach this sanatana-dharma from Srimad Bhagavatam!? What would you say!? So Prabhupada also felt like that.
While he was on the ship, the Jaladuta, with which he had come to America, he wrote a song called Mārkine Bhāgavata-dharma. In that song he says, “My dear Lord, I don’t know why you’ve brought me to this place. Here, everyone is engaged in all the sinful activities. I don’t know what I’m going to say to convince them. I can’t think of any word that I could say to convince them. All I can think of is that maybe your words will convince them.” And then he started to quote Srimad Bhagavatam:
srinvatam sva-kathah krishnah
punya-sravana-kirtanah
hridy antah stho hy abhadrani
vidhunoti suhrit satam (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.17)
That by simply hearing about Krsna, all the impurities and all inauspiciousness from the heart will disappear and gradually one becomes purified. So, on the strength of that faith, Prabhupada did it. He had full faith in the holy name.
This morning in the Bhagavatam lecture, I spoke for a moment about the Tompkins Square Park where Prabhupada started kirtan. It’s sort of a symbol, this Tompkins Square Park, of Prabhupada’s first public chanting in the Western world.
In that way, gradually having that faith, that if we just chant Hare Krsna then everything will change. If I send you to America to make everyone devotees, that would not be so easy.
But Prabhupada went alone, without help, but with this great faith that the chanting of the holy name and Srimad Bhagavatam would make the difference.
We are sending sankirtana parties all over the world, and they are experiencing that even in the remotest part of the world, where there is no knowledge of Krishna, the Hare Krishna maha-mantra attracts thousands of men to our camp. In some areas, people begin to imitate the devotees by shaving their heads and chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, only a few days after hearing the mantra. This may be imitative, but imitation of a good thing is desired. Some imitators gradually become interested in being initiated by the spiritual master and offer themselves for initiation.
Giriraj Swami at the Question and Answer Tent at the Ratha-yatra festival.
“Material wealth may not be the best thing for you. What people really want is happiness. It is well documented that wealth does not bring an increase in happiness. Unless you are really poor — then a little increase to bring you to the point of having the basic necessities can result in some increase in happiness. But once you have the basic necessities, increasing your wealth does not increase your happiness. People have been told that if you get a good education, make a lot of money, have a beautiful wife and intelligent children and a large house and fast car and go on fabulous holidays you will be happy. There is a entire generation of people who did exactly what they were told would make them happy, and guess what? They did not become happy. That has given rise to a whole new study called ‘positive psychology’. Researchers have found that doing something meaningful for others and practicing some meditation technique can actually raise your level of happiness.”
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Q & A, Ratha-yatra LA
