Websites from the ISKCON Universe
26 pics: Kalachandji's Restaurant was started in Dallas, Texas in 1982 at the Hare Krishna Temple in East Dallas Read more › 
135 pics: August 4, 2013 - Taken at the Festival Of The Chariots, Venice Beach Read more › 
Indradyumna Swami: The final days of the Polish Woodstock were successful beyond our wildest imagination. Read more › Niranjana swami @ Vaishnava summer festival BALTIC 2013 kirtan
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 24 June 2013, Czech Summer Camp, Srimad Bhagavatam 8.2.33)
Yes, we should get serious now. Our time is running out. We must increase our devotional life, and that is really necessary.
It is not so cheap, going back to godhead.
We get the chance but we have to work for it. Why else did we join the Hare Krsna movement if we did not want to go back to godhead? Did we really join for the halva?
This Krishna consciousness movement is a transcendental science, and there is no room for jealousy. This movement is meant for the paramahamsas who are completely free from all jealousy (paramam nirmatsaranam). One should not be jealous, whether he is born in a family of gosvamis or has the title of gosvami awarded to him.
118 pics: Rathayatra 2013 at Venice Beach Read more › We would like to invite you and your family personally to take part in this wonderful opportunity to bathe Their Lordships on the most auspicious day of Sri Krishna Janmastami. For the pleasure of Their Lordships, this year we will make available wonderful and unique Kalashes and Conches for the bathing ceremony. To take part in this event, please download and complete the attached form and return to the temple office or email us at info@harekrishna.org.nz
Srila Prabhupada meets Kaliya, New Vrindaban’s original cow, on the path to the New Vrindaban farmhouse, 1976.
An excerpt of an article, written by Madhava Smullen, titled “ECOV: A Dynamic Solution to a Modern Dilemma.”
The first cow protection program that Srila Prabhupada established in the Western World was in the rural community of ISKCON New Vrindaban—named after Krishna’s village and nestled in the hills of West Virginia. “Krishna by His practical example taught us to give all protection to the cows and that should be the main business of New Vrindaban,” Prabhupada wrote to his disciple Hayagriva in June 1968. He suggested a life close to the land: “So these duties are there in New Vrindaban, and we shall live there independently, simply by raising cows, grains, fruits, and flowers.”
In May 1969, Srila Prabhupada visited New Vrindaban, and met its very first cow—and only cow at the time—a black Jersey named Kaliya. Prabhupada would drink a little of her milk morning, noon, and night. “I haven’t tasted milk like this in sixty-five years,” he said. Looking around at his disciples, he told them that he wanted New Vrindaban to demonstrate to the world the social, moral, and economic advantages of protecting the cow and utilizing her milk, rather than killing her and eating her flesh.
When Prabhupada visited New Vrindaban for the fourth time in 1976, the cow protection program had grown to hold many more cows, including Kaliya.
“The cows would graze up on the hill,” recalls Kuladri Dasa, who has served at New Vrindaban since 1970. “One day, as Prabhupada was walking up the road with a group of devotees, Kaliya came ambling down the hill towards them, all by herself. Prabhupada immediately recognized her from his first visit, and addressed her, ‘Ah, my dear old friend Kaliya.’”
In those early days, devotees would milk the little herd twice a day, and the milk would be more than enough for the small, dozen-strong community. “We would have two devotees milking the cow by hand at once—one on each side,” says Kuladri. “Radhanath Swami, now a major spiritual leader in Mumbai, was one of the cowherd boys then, and I would milk with him. I remember he was a strong milker—our cow would always give the most! Altogether, four or five of us would team up and milk all the cows.”
Bhakti Bringa Govinda Swami @ Vaishnava summer festival BALTIC 2013
We tend to lead our life in pieces – a piece for our career, a piece for our family, maybe a piece for society. And if it makes us look good, we let God have a piece too, as a showpiece adorning a wall.
How all these pieces fit together is something that we don’t think much about.
Unless the various pieces start fighting with each other and falling apart.
That’s what happened to Arjuna at the start of the Bhagavad-gita (01.36). The imminent fratricidal war set one piece of his life, his professional duty (kshatriya-dharma), for a head-on collision with another piece, his dynastic duty (kula-dharma). As a warrior, he had to protect law and order by punishing wrongdoers, whereas as a member of the respectable Kuru dynasty, he had to protect his relatives. What to do when the wrongdoers were his relatives?
The conflict tore at his heart, threatening to throw the pieces of his life far apart.
In despair, he turned to Krishna for help and thus the Bhagavad-gita was spoken.
The Gita puts all the pieces of life together in a magnificent whole with the glue of enlightened love. All of us are indestructible souls meant for everlasting happiness in a life of pure spiritual love with Krishna. All our duties are ultimately meant to aid us in progressing towards attaining that love. When we keep our eyes and heart fixed on Krishna, we gradually get the intelligence, by his grace, to integrate all our roles with that goal.
Before an unexpected perplexity puts our life’s pieces into conflict, we can proactively elevate Krishna from a showpiece to the centerpiece of our life and let him show us how to put the pieces together through Gita wisdom.
***
Sin will overcome us if we slay such aggressors. Therefore it is not proper for us to kill the sons of Dhrtarastra and our friends. What should we gain, O Krishna, husband of the goddess of fortune, and how could we be happy by killing our own kinsmen?
From: Mukund
If ultimate aim of the human life is to get liberation from cycle of birth and death then why do scriptures recommend women to perform "Vat Savitri" puja to get same husband for Seven lifes (Saat Janam)? Is this practice at all mentioned in scriptures?
From GaneshPandian
Is the soul aware of time period in between death and the next birth or is he just in the Susupti(deep sleep) stage?
This was done in an ISKCON temple in Europe.
From: Muralidhara dasas
What is the difference between desire and free will?
The capacity to desire is a property of the soul; Desire (iccha sakti) is an energy of the soul which gets transformed to lust (kama) when it comes in contact with the mode of passion.
The nature of this lust depends on the dominant mode of the subtle body.
Is free will a distinct property of the soul different from desire or is free will a focused desire directed by the intelligence?
We have established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness to give people an opportunity to associate with those who have not forgotten Krishna.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 20 July 2013, Cape Town, South Africa, Spirit Matters Program)
If we are very tolerant, patient and positive, I think that we can deal with a lot. Our false ego may be in the better modes of nature than someone else. Because we are not completely transcendental, we are looking to get close to people that stimulate us positively and from others, we keep a little bit of distance. Our capacity to absorb all that negative energy is not so great; it pulls us down. It is intense to absorb a lot of negative energy.
Sometimes people come to me and say, “Well, I have nothing to say to you because I don’t have any problems.”
Am I only for problems!? Tell me something nice; tell me something good for a change…
Stranger Danger!
The assumption that everyone other than those known to you are out to harm you; instilling FEAR.
As one of my clients got into my car they started to tell me what they had learnt in school today, that strangers were a danger and then related the various stories they had been told as to why those unknown to them are a threat.
It for me is unhelpful teaching and also presents as facts the dangers that are not always statistically true; indeed friend danger would be better as most abuse (physical, emotional, financial) is done in a sad majority of cases by someone known to them not the stranger.
Indeed I am reminded of a saying “A stranger is a friend you have not met get” Yes we have to be cautious especially when meeting someone new for the first time.
Exploring the stranger danger I asked if he knew the teacher before being left with them? No I didn’t know them, did your mum know them? No! So is the teacher a threat to you? No! What about me did you or you mum know me? No! Am I a danger to you? No! And what of your friend were they not once a stranger? Yes! Are they a threat to you? No!
In our lives we meet up with so many people, sometimes a stranger may help us at times of distress and sometimes we meet people who become friends for the rest of our life.
We propagate stranger danger out of fear, fear that our child will come to harm we want to protect out child which is a good thing. But if we instil fear we then contribute to the child’s isolation and lead to social difficulties later on in life; for life is full of interactions with strangers how we deal with them is the key.
Teaching the child how to discriminate between those who they can trust implicitly and those who they keep a distance away from serves the child much better; but this is as much a skill learnt through the hard knock system than practical in a classroom; it is easier to paint all people as a danger.
More important is teaching the child that they can say NO! And that this should be respected, if they feel uncomfortable they can say NO! But most important if the person does it any-way’s and tells them to keep it secret of threatens them harm then they can TELL!
We as parents will protect you from harm.
That the child feels safe enough to talk.
That they can tell someone they trust that some secrets are not meant to be hidden, that if someone touches you or forces you to do something you don’t like then speak. Remember in most cases abuse is caused by a family member or someone trusted by the family, but again remember this is despite press hype still rare.
Rather than stranger danger the more balanced NSPCC Pants teaching is more beneficial for the child
http://www.nspcc.org.uk/help-and-advice/for-parents/keeping-your-child-safe/the-underwear-rule/the-underwear-rule_wda97016.html
As a society we want to keep our children safe, but we also don’t want them to become fearful and miss out on meeting many amazing people; and the devotee community is full of amazing characters that will enhance our child’s knowledge and understanding of this material world.
It’s a thought but what’s your view?