63 pics: Inspiring harinam in Rovinj
→ Dandavats.com

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 ›

Memorial for Vahna; Letter to Vahna From Prabhupada; A Remembrance
→ New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

MEMORIAL FOR VAHNA DAS
 
When: August 16, 2013
Time: 6PM
Place: The island between parking lots at Radha VrndavanaCandra Temple
( weather permitting…otherwise there will be signs around the temple indicating where it will be )
PLEASE NOTE: There will be prasadam after the memorial. We are making a few basic preps, but this is also a  PRASADAM  POT LUCK.
We need a little of everyone’s “mercy” to make this a special event!
 
Questions? Please email (jamalves@hotmail.ca) or call me (613-332-4977).
 Daivata and I will be in New Vrndavana starting Aug 14th. See you then.
 
Just a note: I have already received many offers of help from the devotees and so many good wishes. From my heart Thank you so much.  Though Daivata and I have been gone for so many years, you, all our god-brothers and sisters, continue to encourage us by you ever warm welcome and encouragement. Words fail in trying to express our gratefulness.
 
Sincerely
Your servant
Visvadhika dd
Regarding Vahna’s poetry, here’s a letter from Srila Prabhupada to Vahna instructing him how to develop his poetry skills.

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

 

06.08 – Let research reinforce, not replace, search
→ The Spiritual Scientist

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.

**

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.

 

Wednesday, August 7th, 2013
→ The Walking Monk

The Woman

Burnaby, British Columbia

The woman at the Toronto airport was a passenger, ready to embark on the same flight as myself, destined for Vancouver. At the waiting area, she asked me that all too familiar question, "Are you a monk?" We began a conversation. Naturally, we got onto talking about not just me but also herself. She was born in Scotland and was raised Catholic. In recent years she had gone more "eastern" in her approach quoting Deepak Chopra that it's all inside of you, meaning the spiritual you. There was some implication from her side that you don't need an organized religion to depend on for your salvation.

I have to agree in part that it's all "from within" and that no religion should tell you all of what to do, but we can get some guidance and direction from someone. After all, Deepak did give this woman (my age) some direction. The moment we stop hearing from good sources, I guess, you think you're God.

In the Vedic system from India, a person on the path of self-actualization, actually accepts a guru, one who teaches selflessness, how to cultivate good character, how to live, even how to think and how to love.

This woman, who resides in Windsor and was on a visit to the west coast, concurred that teachers are needed. We wanted to continue but boarding time came and so we broke off the uplifted dialogue between us.

After a 4 and a 1/2 hour flight I deplaned and a gentleman in a suit and with the warmest smile and who was trying to sell me on an air miles program, asked the classic question, "Are you a monk?" "Yes, a Krishna monk," I said to the man who happened to be Iranian. "So you are from Iran, an Aryan, right?

"Yes, we Iranians are supposed to have some of that in us," he said.

"Great," I indicated. Aryans of India always accepted teachers, were keen on spiritual progression and were God-believing.

0 KM

Great faith
→ KKS Blog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 30 June 2013, Vrndavan, India, Student Talk)


srila-prabhupada-jaladuta-1After 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)

tompkins square parkThat 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. 

 

 

Imitation of a good thing is desired
→ The Spiritual Scientist

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.

Nectar of Instruction 7 purport

Ratha-yatra, August 4, Venice Beach, Los Angeles
Giriraj Swami

08.04.13_07.Ratha-yatraGiriraj 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.”
——————————————————————————————————————————–

08.04.13_09.Ratha-yatraGRS_and_Drutakarma08.04.13_03.Ratha-yatra08.04.13_02.Ratha-yatra08.04.13_04.Ratha-yatra08.04.13_05.Ratha-yatra08.04.13_06.Ratha-yatra08.04.13_08.Ratha-yatra————————————————————————- ——————————————-
Q & A,  Ratha-yatra LA

Wow! Maya’s good at her Job!
→ simple thoughts

Share

I was saddened to read the latest statement from the GBC and wondered how long before the usual ISKCON critics e-mail or make comments on social media; it didn’t take long the usual barrage from the usual suspects.

What surprises me or doesn’t depending on your point of view is that a fall down becomes a universal comment on the whole ISKCON devotee community; some how it appears that universally falldowns are only found in the ISKCON community.

Well coming from the Jehovah’s Witness community I can say that their was announcements of dis-fellowships for discretion from the expectations of baptised members; the protocol was that their association would be avoided until a time of penance and change in attitude prevails.

You can not have a statement like that issued by the GBC of dis-fellowships unless you actually have a standard and a committee that oversees that these standards are maintained for the good of the general society. If then this action is taken then it is usually with a heavy heart from those who had to discuss, research and follow the protocols leading to such an announcement.

For me this recent GBC announcement serves as a warning, in devotional life I am on a knife edge, especially given the little association. But more so that maya devi is wonderful at doing her job, to keep the spirit soul entrapped in material life it is amazing that somehow or another Krishna has allowed me to continue in association and to do a little seva.

I’m also thankful that I’m not seen as senior nor in a position within ISKCON indeed if I fell down today it wouldn’t even register; but to end up again captivated by material energy rather than Krishna is tragic. This being if one had been in devotee association for a day or 40years (given that ISKCON at Bhaktivedanta Manor is only 40years).

I’m not surprised that there is the voices of LOOK ISKCON doesn’t work rather than WOW LOOK MAYA is doing a Great Job; “May I take shelter and become more serious in devotional life”

And as an end notation over the years I’ve seen those who have gloated over devotee fall-down themselves struggle in spiritual life, fall down or worse cease to seek and association with devotees and indeed forget Krishna.

And as we are meant to be full of compassion our thoughts should be: “How can I please help them return back onto a spiritual path and end their material suffering once and for all” and be the first to open the door for them with a smile and prasadam.

Reflective Information From Srila Vyasadeva
→ simple thoughts

Share

VICARU DAS
BHAKTIVEDANTA MANOR
ISKCON UK

SB 7,10,8
Indriyani manah prana
atma dharmo dhrtir matih
hrih sris tejah smrtih satyam
yasya nasyanti janmana

Oh; my lord because of lusty desires from the very beginning of ones birth,The functions of one’s senses,mind,life,body,religion ,patience,intelligence shyness,opulence,strength,memory, and truthfulness are vanquished.

SB 7,13,34
Soka-moha,bhaya-krodha
raga-klaibya–sramadayah
yan-mulah syur nrnam jahyat
sprham pranarthayor budhah

Those in human society who are intelligent should give up the original cause of lamentation ,illusion,fear,anger, attachment,poverty,and unnecessary labor,The original cause of all of these is the desire for unnecessary prestige and money.

SB 7,15,22
asankalpaj jayet kamam
krodham kama-vivarjanat
arthanartheksaya lobham
bhayam tattvavamarsanat.

By making plans with determination,one should give up lusty desires for sense gratification,similarly by giving up envy one should conquer anger, by discussing the disadvantages of accumulating wealth one should give up greed,and by discussing the truth ,one should give up fear.

SB 7,15,16
santustasya nirihasya
svatmaramasya yat sukham
kutas tat kama lobhena
dhavato ‘rthehaya disah

one who is content and satisfied and who links his activities with the supreme personality of godhead residing in everyones heart enjoys transcendental happiness without endeavouring for his livelihood,where is such happiness for a materialistic man who is impelled by lust and greed and therefore wander’s in all directions with a desire to accumulate wealth?

Glastonbury Rathayatra
→ simple thoughts

Share

July 21st 2013 Glastonbury Rathayatra

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.
This cup was used in the last supper and was filled with the blood of Jesus Christ.This was buried beneith the Tor, so as part of the Rathayatra we climb the hill and perform the kirtan in the Tor.
Enjoy the movie

your servant
Parasuram Das