Planet ISKCON

From Subramanian

Athyahara means accumulating more than necessary. A vaishnava should  keep only what is necessary for upkeep for daytoday existence. In this context how do we understand , Rupa and Sanathan Goswami accumulating boat loads of  gold?

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From Ronak Pr

To hear the answer podcast please click here

 

 

Kostrzyn nad Odra is over 1,000 years old and has a population of 27,000 inhabitants. But next week over 400,000 people will descend on the town for this year’s Polish Woodstock Festival. Krsna’s Village of Peace will be right in the center of it all. For now the Woodstock field is relatively quiet, but it’s [...]

Last week 30 good hearted people decided to sacrifice their time and energy by coming to Matchless Gifts in London and spend the day decorating the whole building.We took this as a good opportunity to revamp the whole place.

Now we have new toilets,sinks,floors and a full paint job. It was all in honor of Nelson Mandela and his ethics. In the 80′s I used to distribute prasad to those people who would protest out side the South African embassy.

People love to support those personalities who put a cause about their own existence. Let’s distribute Srila Prabhupada lilmrita and in the future we will see thousands of volunteers engaging in devotional service.

Your servant Parasuram Das

East London Rathayatra will be on the 22nd September 2013.

We are calling all devotees from the UK and abroad to attend the second Rathayatra in Ilford, East London.
All brahmacaries, brahmacarinies, householders, sanyasis, Pandava send, devotee youth and children for the greatest party in East London ever.

Please come hungry to the best Rathayatra feast ever and invite your friends to be amazed by our wonderful stage program.Jai Jagannath, Jai Srila Prabhupada.

Enjoy the movie,(put together by Rajesh Hirani prabhu)

your servant Parasuram Das

For the old time New Vrindaban devotees who remember him, Vahna has left his  body.  We were notified 7/24/13 it may have been the 23rd. There will be a memorial service in about two weeks, details forthcoming.

He was 68 years old. He was preceded in leaving the planet by his father and his second wife Hladini. He is survived by his first wife Visvadhika, his son Rich (Paratha Sarthi)  and two grandchildren.

He ran a poetry magazine at the end of the beat era and was the original publisher of some of Allan Gingsberg’s poetry, that was the crowd he rolled with. He  was a poet himself and wrote hundreds if not thousands of poems.  He has a book of poetry available from Amazon.con, The blind receptionist and other poems.

He moved to New Vrindaban in the early 1970″s (that was before my time (1973)  so someone correct me if it was earlier) and was initiated by Srila Prabhupada.  He built the house across the road from the Madhuban temple and was married to Hladini  who lived with him there where she  was the pujari  at that time. His father was an early supporter of New Vrindaban.

He was a brilliant tortured soul who struggled with alcohol for most of his life. This caused him to avoid the direct association of devotees of whom he always spoke well and respected. As his son is going through his affects, he discovered a medical diagnosis that Vahna was schizophrenic and had some bipolar issues.

As his son said, he dealt with it by writing poetry, and had a bottle of Jack Daniels in one hand and a bead bag in the other.  When he was at the funeral home making the arrangements for cremation, the director asked him if he wore any jewelry. He told him he always had his bead bag.  They looked and found his hand in his bead bag.

When he wasn’t drinking, and he would have periods where he could keep it together months or even years at a time as  in his early days at New Vrindaban, he was the sweetest person, who was always interesting to talk to.

To newer devotes all they would know of Vahna is seeing him walking from his house in Talaban to the Limestone General Store. Although he was walking there to get his booze, he had his hand in his bead bag as he walked.

He continued to live in New Vrindaban in Talaban until his passing. Once when Srila Prabhupada was here he told the devotees to just stay in New Vrindaban no matter what. While Vahna may have had his struggles, he did obey that instruction.  He also never deviated from the instruction to chant Hare Krishna.

Filed under: News, Ramblings or Whatever, Poetry

From Sheela Mataji

To hear the answer podcast, please click here

Srimad-Bhagavatam class.

Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th
5pm yoga classes + 6pm on the path with Devamrita Swami + dinner = $12!

Here are links to video and audio recordings of the recent Vaishnava Etiquette seminar held on July the 22nd.


They are well-worth hearing.

GITA COACHING: INTERVIEW WITH AKRURA DASA BY KRSNENDU DASA OF SUC...: Audio interview via Skype on 4 September 2012 (1 hour) Hosted by Kiwi6 file hosting .   Download mp3 - Free Music Hosting . Inte...

GITA COACHING: INTERVIEW WITH AKRURA DASA BY KRSNENDU DASA OF SUC...: Audio interview via Skype on 4 September 2012 (1 hour) Hosted by Kiwi6 file hosting .   Download mp3 - Free Music Hosting . Inte...

 

ISKCON New Vrindaban Board Meeting Minutes – 6/13/13

Participating Board Members: Dayavira, Chaitanya Mangala, Jaya Krsna, Ranaka & Tamohara.

1. Increase Transparency

It was discussed and approved that we begin publishing the minutes of the monthly board meetings.

2. Community Investment Fund

The report on the Community Investment Fund (CIF) was explained. The balance of the CIF account will be $17,863.37 if all project budgets are completely used. The reconciled balance of the CIF account on 5/31/13 was $85,686. The different CIF projects are in line with their respective budgets, except the restaurant, which is over budget by $28,366. The amount will be paid back from the operational account sometime in August or September.

3. Jaga Account

The Jaga account reconciled amount is $119,229; the available balance is $79,549. The Jaga funds are dedicated to create housing in New Vrindaban; this is done either through acquisition of new properties or to improve the general infrastructure. Some of the projects currently financed through the funds are the Temple area water supply, the road to Kestners, the set up generators for the temple and the lodge. Projects are in line with the budgets, except the water project which is over budget by $11,652.

4. Bahulaban Pink Building Demolition & Securing the Utility Building

The budget for the demolition of the pink building is in total $30,000. ECOV is donating half of the amount and providing a loan to INV for the other half. ECOV also decided to donate $5,000 to secure the Utility Building at Bahulaban. Madhava Gosh had a quote for a new metal roof on the pink building for $20,000. The combined amount of $35,000 should cover the costs for the demolition as well as the other measures to secure the Utility Building.

5. Improving Community Spirit

Chaitanya Mangala Prabhu listed three topics for discussion.

a. Individual counseling by a devotee counselor from outside NV.
b. Group counseling for community members about past events & experiences.
c. Professional interpersonal communications training.

Jaya Krsna Prabhu mentioned that he is waiting for a proposal from Vrajalila Prabhu for counseling sessions in New Vrindaban. Sukhavaha Prabhu had done a number of good mediations last year. She was so far not active this year.

Jaya Krsna informed the board members that he is organizing family and organizational constellations with Krsna Lila devi dasi from New York. She is respected for her service all over the world. A number of senior community members joined for the recent seminars. It can be easily detected that the devotees participating are making substantial progress.

Jaya Krsna mentioned that he is organizing his schedule so he can spend more time focusing on devotee care and community building.

6. Succession 

During the Community Dialog in April Sankirtan Prabhu mentioned three prerequisites to attract new community members: housing, income, schools.

Along these lines it was mentioned that NV needs new apartments & town houses; we have to create income opportunities for grhastas and develop high school level education.

To attract new temple devotees, additional accommodations for support staff are needed. It will allow a clearer separation between devotees following strictly the temple program and the staff who are engaged in various services but not ready to follow a temple standard.

The department heads need additional training in their day-to-day service as well as in developing successors within their staff. Jaya Krsna is actively inviting devotees from all over the world to assure succession for the temple and community.

7. Service & Employment Structure

Points discussed:

- Develop a clear structure outlining which occupations are volunteer service and which may be paid.

- Needs of devotees/staff to stay long term in New Vrindaban.

- Clarification is needed to separate devotional and organizational relationships.

- Members of the Board sees this as an important topic that should continue to be discussed again in the near future.

After the kirtan festival in Villa Vrndavana (Italy), Maharaja attended the traditional summer camp in Serbia (8-14 July) which was held at the national park Fruska Gora near Novi Sad, capital of the Province of Vojvodina.

We are still not sure of the reason that Maharaja keeps coming to the camp for the tenth year in a row now but it couldn’t be the mosquitoes, the accommodation or the weather; yet we are so grateful that he has included this event into his travel schedule. Many devotees, spiritual masters and deities attended the camp; and the mercy flowed in all directions.

During his stay, Maharaja gave several classes and amongst others, a seminar on the topic of How to actually enter Sri Vrndavana Dham. The main point made was that one cannot merely buy a ticket and fly to Vrndavana as no amount of money can take us there but rather that Vrndavana is a state of consciousness.

The central event of the week was definitely the Ratha Yatra festival which was held in the city of Novi Sad, on the 10 July. Two hundred devotees sang and danced in front of Lord Jagannatha’s chariot and distributed prasadam, books and the holy name to everyone around.

The day after the Ratha Yatra, devotees organized a twelve hour kirtan, which has now become a tradition, and relished the nectar of the holy name, just like the bees who are constantly humming in the search of nectar. Maharaja sang at the final part of the evening, ending the day in a most ecstatic way.

During Maharaja’s last full day at the camp, he initiated two new diciples, giving them the names Dahani Devi Dasi and Nandarani Devi Dasi. It was held on the grass just outside of Maharaja’s room and the whole occasion was auspiciously blessed by the personal presence of Sri Giriraja Govinda.

Please find below, the various classes given by Maharaja during his stay. To download a class, just right-click on a title and “save target as“.

KKS – CC. Madhya 3.137 (introducing the seminar) – 08 July 2013 in Fruska Gouranga, Serbia

KKS – Seminar Part I – 09 July 2013 in Fruska Gouranga, Serbia

KKS – Seminar Part II – 10 July 2013 in Fruska Gouranga, Serbia

KKS – Seminar Part III – 12 July 2013 in Fruska Gouranga, Serbia

KKS – SB. 10.14.36 – 12 July 2013 in Fruska Gouranga, Serbia

KKS – Initiation Lecture – 12 July 2013 in Fruska Gouranga, Serbia

 

If you cannot view the slide-show below then please visit flickr.

 

 

After the kirtan festival in Villa Vrndavana (Italy), Maharaja attended the traditional summer camp in Serbia (8-14 July) which was held at the national park Fruska Gora near Novi Sad, capital of the Province of Vojvodina.

We are still not sure of the reason that Maharaja keeps coming to the camp for the tenth year in a row now but it couldn’t be the mosquitoes, the accommodation or the weather; yet we are so grateful that he has included this event into his travel schedule. Many devotees, spiritual masters and deities attended the camp; and the mercy flowed in all directions.

During his stay, Maharaja gave several classes and amongst others, a seminar on the topic of How to actually enter Sri Vrndavana Dham. The main point made was that one cannot merely buy a ticket and fly to Vrndavana as no amount of money can take us there but rather that Vrndavana is a state of consciousness.

The central event of the week was definitely the Ratha Yatra festival which was held in the city of Novi Sad, on the 10 July. Two hundred devotees sang and danced in front of Lord Jagannatha’s chariot and distributed prasadam, books and the holy name to everyone around.

The day after the Ratha Yatra, devotees organized a twelve hour kirtan, which has now become a tradition, and relished the nectar of the holy name, just like the bees who are constantly humming in the search of nectar. Maharaja sang at the final part of the evening, ending the day in a most ecstatic way.

During Maharaja’s last full day at the camp, he initiated two new diciples, giving them the names Dahani Devi Dasi and Nandarani Devi Dasi. It was held on the grass just outside of Maharaja’s room and the whole occasion was auspiciously blessed by the personal presence of Sri Giriraja Govinda.

Please find below, the various classes given by Maharaja during his stay. To download a class, just right-click on a title and “save target as“.

KKS – CC. Madhya 3.137 (introducing the seminar) – 08 July 2013 in Fruska Gouranga, Serbia

KKS – Seminar Part I – 09 July 2013 in Fruska Gouranga, Serbia

KKS – Seminar Part II – 10 July 2013 in Fruska Gouranga, Serbia

KKS – Seminar Part III – 12 July 2013 in Fruska Gouranga, Serbia

KKS – SB. 10.14.36 – 12 July 2013 in Fruska Gouranga, Serbia

KKS – Initiation Lecture – 12 July 2013 in Fruska Gouranga, Serbia

 

If you cannot view the slide-show below then please visit flickr.

 

 

The office is empty. Everyone’s gone to a team party. I chose to stay back. Few asked why I wasn’t joining. I said, “8 hours work, 8 hours sleep and 8 hours chanting, meditation, prayer, temple service, family life, reading”. I have a packed life, you know. No time to party while I am on the road to purify, self-realize, liberate and back to Godhead.

Srila Sivarama Swami Maharaja – lecture on Gundica Marjana . Budapest, 2013.07.07.

“This doesn’t make sense.” We may get such doubts while studying Gita wisdom.

To ensure that doubts don’t swamp our spiritual prospects, we need to focus on the Gita’s essential message: a call for endless spiritual love between us and Krishna. The Gita elucidates this eternal message with contextual examples drawn from the culture in which it was spoken. For example, its tenth chapter illustrates Krishna’s opulences through metaphors drawn from the Vedic cultural and cosmological worldview.

As we have been educated in a different worldview, those metaphors may raise many doubts. Such doubts are peripheral; obsession with them can distract us from the opportunity to relish Krishna’s love by practicing devotional service. And life is too short and too precious to be wasted in doubting.

If we are sick, we don’t delay medical treatment till we get comprehensive understanding – something that requires a lifetime of study. If the treatment comes from a medical authority and makes basic sense, we take it and become healthy. The Gita offers a spiritual treatment for healing our heart of the malady of misdirected love. It comes from the greatest authority in all of existence: God himself. And its message makes profound sense; it resonates with our deepest intuition that we are meant for love and happiness and life eternal. Gaining comprehensive understanding of the Gita requires a lifetime of study. But we don’t have to delay our spiritual healing till then.

Arjuna illustrates this spiritual pragmatism when he accepts the Gita’s message (10.14) based not on a hair-splitting evaluation of all its statements but on the omniscience of its speaker and the coherence of its essential message.

We too can be similarly intelligent. Why let peripheral doubts deprive us of the essential love that can satisfy our heart’s deepest longings?

***

10.14 - O Krishna, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the demigods nor the demons, O Lord, can understand Your personality.

 

 

 

The purpose of Bhagavad-gita is to deliver mankind from the nescience of material existence. Every man is in difficulty in so many ways, as Arjuna also was in difficulty in having to fight the Battle of Kuruksetra. Arjuna surrendered unto Sri Krsna, and consequently this Bhagavad-gita was spoken

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Introduction

From Rupa Gaur Pr

To hear the answer podcast, please click here

From Manoj P

To hear the answer podcast, please click here

To hear the holy name meditation podcast, please click here

"I do appre­ci­ate that I per­sist patiently and that I’m able to con­trol my mind even when there is no nectarean taste in chant­ing. I’m just sug­gest­ing that if I could be alert and bring the mind back to hear­ing, then why not try to go fur­ther. All the author­i­ties say that atten­tive chant­ing is very impor­tant and leads to think­ing about Krishna’s form, activ­i­ties, qual­i­ties and pas­times. They must be right."

From Japa Transformations
by Satsvarupa dasa Goswami

"I do appre­ci­ate that I per­sist patiently and that I’m able to con­trol my mind even when there is no nectarean taste in chant­ing. I’m just sug­gest­ing that if I could be alert and bring the mind back to hear­ing, then why not try to go fur­ther. All the author­i­ties say that atten­tive chant­ing is very impor­tant and leads to think­ing about Krishna’s form, activ­i­ties, qual­i­ties and pas­times. They must be right."

From Japa Transformations
by Satsvarupa dasa Goswami

GITA COACHING: GITA COACHING ADVANTAGE: Gita Coaching is an intensive one-to-one coaching experience designed to help you create a compelling life by getting behind the why—the rea...

GITA COACHING: GITA COACHING ADVANTAGE: Gita Coaching is an intensive one-to-one coaching experience designed to help you create a compelling life by getting behind the why—the rea...

Viewing/Contemplating

Cambridge, Ontario

Sign reads, “Trespassers will be eaten”. That sounds menacing, if not dangerous, but may the truth be told here at the entrance of the African Lion Safari.

Our group made the morning outing in anticipation to meet just a fraction of what the Vedas conclude as the world’s 8,400,000 species of life. The “safari” is a drive through (with windows closed of course). First you view free roaming animals such as llamas, then lions, then monkeys who tend to take a free ride on your vehicle’s hood. There’s more, elephants take their bath in front of a crowd, that’s something we humans would have no tolerance towards.

We spent the afternoon walking on a stretch of the Bruce Trail, the country’s oldest foot path, and refreshed ourselves at Sherwin Falls. A good physical experience.

Dear to the hearts of everyone is the kirtan sessions that we have before we set out, and what we end up with as we wind down before eyelids shut at night at the home of our hosts Aindra and Prema Gaurangi for some of that chanting and a reading on the life of Krishna. That was really special as we took it to an engaging interactive level.

For me, personally, a deep contemplation on the morning’s lesson lingered inside of me. The fourth canto of the series Bhagavatam spoke about enemies during warfare and how at the end of the day there would be a mutual friendly come together before resuming ultimate combat to the death the next morning. This burying-the-hatchet at nightfall was always an extraordinary concept for me, such is what we also read about in the Kurukshetra war. This program appears somewhat a balanced approach as far as war craft is concerned. It’s interesting, very interesting.

10 KM

Viewing/Contemplating

Cambridge, Ontario

Sign reads, “Trespassers will be eaten”. That sounds menacing, if not dangerous, but may the truth be told here at the entrance of the African Lion Safari.

Our group made the morning outing in anticipation to meet just a fraction of what the Vedas conclude as the world’s 8,400,000 species of life. The “safari” is a drive through (with windows closed of course). First you view free roaming animals such as llamas, then lions, then monkeys who tend to take a free ride on your vehicle’s hood. There’s more, elephants take their bath in front of a crowd, that’s something we humans would have no tolerance towards.

We spent the afternoon walking on a stretch of the Bruce Trail, the country’s oldest foot path, and refreshed ourselves at Sherwin Falls. A good physical experience.

Dear to the hearts of everyone is the kirtan sessions that we have before we set out, and what we end up with as we wind down before eyelids shut at night at the home of our hosts Aindra and Prema Gaurangi for some of that chanting and a reading on the life of Krishna. That was really special as we took it to an engaging interactive level.

For me, personally, a deep contemplation on the morning’s lesson lingered inside of me. The fourth canto of the series Bhagavatam spoke about enemies during warfare and how at the end of the day there would be a mutual friendly come together before resuming ultimate combat to the death the next morning. This burying-the-hatchet at nightfall was always an extraordinary concept for me, such is what we also read about in the Kurukshetra war. This program appears somewhat a balanced approach as far as war craft is concerned. It’s interesting, very interesting.

10 KM

View Details

View Details

We’re half way through our festival tour. Yesterday we did harinam and had another blissful festival attended by thousands. Today we leave for Kostrzyn-nad-Odra to begin setting up Krsna’s Village of Peace at Woodstock. The nectar is flowing like a raging river!

Verse 4.5: The Personality of Godhead said: Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy!

Many of us forget things from time to time. Whether it be where we left our keys, shut off the lights or checked the mail, there are plenty of things that fill up our head. It's no wonder that all kinds of apps and gadgets have been created to help us remember the long list of things that we hope to accomplish.

In the hustle and bustle of just trying to live our lives, it's easy to forget about the needs of the soul. After all, the majority of time tends to be spent on taking care of our body and things that are in relation to it. There's nothing wrong with taking care of the body, but just taking care of the body and totally neglecting the soul is counter-productive. That's because...

The soul is eternal whereas the body is temporary.

Most of us are well acquainted with the needs of the body, but what about the soul? In order to understand the soul's needs, one needs to learn about them from authorized sources. In this case, Arjuna has the perfect teacher, Krsna, to help him understand. To aid in that understanding, Krsna is explaining here that although the soul is eternal, it is limited.

Although eternal, the soul cannot remember the numerous bodies (i.e. births) it has taken.

Makes sense if you think about it. Many of us can't even remember what we wore yesterday, what to speak of trying to remember which body we wore in our last life or lifetimes prior! The question can be posed then - why is this important?

When we start to understand that we don't have the answers to everything because we are limited, it serves as a reminder that we are small. Sometimes the word small has a negative connotation, but in this case it just means we need some help. That help is available in the form of realized teachers who can help us understand who we really are.

When we try to sincerely learn and apply what the realized bhakti practitioners (and texts) teach us, we become empowered to understand their words. That knowledge becomes more than just theory; instead, we start to see their words manifest as reality in our lives.

So we don't remember our past lives or actions, big deal. If we stop and think about it - it might actually be a good thing! What's important is what we choose to do with our time now.

Verse 4.5: The Personality of Godhead said: Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy!

Many of us forget things from time to time. Whether it be where we left our keys, shut off the lights or checked the mail, there are plenty of things that fill up our head. It's no wonder that all kinds of apps and gadgets have been created to help us remember the long list of things that we hope to accomplish.

In the hustle and bustle of just trying to live our lives, it's easy to forget about the needs of the soul. After all, the majority of time tends to be spent on taking care of our body and things that are in relation to it. There's nothing wrong with taking care of the body, but just taking care of the body and totally neglecting the soul is counter-productive. That's because...

The soul is eternal whereas the body is temporary.

Most of us are well acquainted with the needs of the body, but what about the soul? In order to understand the soul's needs, one needs to learn about them from authorized sources. In this case, Arjuna has the perfect teacher, Krsna, to help him understand. To aid in that understanding, Krsna is explaining here that although the soul is eternal, it is limited.

Although eternal, the soul cannot remember the numerous bodies (i.e. births) it has taken.

Makes sense if you think about it. Many of us can't even remember what we wore yesterday, what to speak of trying to remember which body we wore in our last life or lifetimes prior! The question can be posed then - why is this important?

When we start to understand that we don't have the answers to everything because we are limited, it serves as a reminder that we are small. Sometimes the word small has a negative connotation, but in this case it just means we need some help. That help is available in the form of realized teachers who can help us understand who we really are.

When we try to sincerely learn and apply what the realized bhakti practitioners (and texts) teach us, we become empowered to understand their words. That knowledge becomes more than just theory; instead, we start to see their words manifest as reality in our lives.

So we don't remember our past lives or actions, big deal. If we stop and think about it - it might actually be a good thing! What's important is what we choose to do with our time now.

Hare Krishna,

 Dear Brijavasis,

 Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila PRabhupada.

 H.H.Bhakti Raghava Swami will be visiting New Vrindaban Thu, Fri, Sat  25, 26, 27 of July . He will give initiations on the 27^th Saturday morning and will give the class on Saurday morning. . He will attend the Pushya abishek. He will leave on Sunday morning for DC.

He is an inspiration for those aspiring to live in a farm community. He himself has been living in a farm for the last 2 years to set an example. If anybody would like to have a program on Fri and Sat nights please let me know.

 Yours in service of Lord Krishna,

Gaur Natraj Das