Websites from the ISKCON Universe
BY SIMHESVARA DASA
REGIONAL SECRETARY ISKCON MALAYSIA
KUALA LUMPUR - This is the first announcement for the upcoming Malaysian preaching tour of ISKCON GBC member and Co-Zonal Secretary for Malaysia, HH Jayapataka Maharaj Swami. Also appended is programme schedule for the upcoming Malaysia Hare Krishna Convention to be held at the Hare Krishna Farm in Lanchang, Pahang.
Who will be joining HH Jayapataka Swami?
Convention Fee: RM125 (Covers prasadam, infrastructure, etc)
Accommodation:
At Our Farm
RM60 for those wishing to stay at farm. Farm stay for ladies will be dormitory style, only 60 - 80 beds available. First come first serve basis. For men accommodation will be Mayapur Parikrama style. About 200 men can be accommodated. Mats, pillows and mosquito nets will be provided for all.
Nearby Farm
We may also be able to get some accommodations nearby our farm. This is however limited. Will also be on a first come first serve basis.
Mentakab (Nearby Town)
We will be providing telephone numbers, addresses, e-mails addresses and rates for rooms of hotels in Mentakab. This is for for those who prefer hotel accommodation and who do not mind driving about 45 minutes to and from farm and hotel.
For those adventurous
Those who wish to be adventurous and skip the RM60 accommodation fee can bring along their camps, caravans, vehicles, etc (but will have to pay convention fee) We will designate spots for campsite. This is limited to MEN only.
Activities planned for convention?
We encourage devotees to come forward and give helping hands for convention organization, especially those who can stay with us at the farm a few days before the convention.
This preliminary announcement is made so that devotees will be able to make plans ahead of time and be with us for the MAHA SANGA with Their Holinesses.
Please write to me at srktdu@gmail.com for enquiries and bookings. Or call 03-7980 7355 for more information.
Here are some pictures of Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balarama, and Lady Subhadra’s bathing ceremony (Snana Yatra) two weeks ago, Sat. July 6, 2013.
The follow-up is their RATHA YATRA two weeks later, Sat. July 20, 2013, coming up.
The post July 17th, 2013 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.
24 Hour Kirtan at New Vrindavan – 2013 – Kirtan during the circumambulation of the Palace of Gold
Tick, tick, tick. The ticking clock, or in this digital age the changing figures on a timer, are a common icon of the passage of time.
Whatever be the way we measure time, the fact remains that time is passing away constantly, relentlessly, irreversibly. The passage of time forces us to undergo things that we usually don’t even want to think about, leave alone go through. Foremost among such things are old age, disease and death. The image of an old person struggling to move with a walking stick can jolt us if we think seriously about it. So we prefer the comfort of oblivion to the horror of recognition. But time makes the unpalatable unavoidable.
Gita wisdom informs us that the unavoidable doesn’t have to stay unpalatable. The body’s journey towards disease, debility and destruction can’t be stopped, but our emotional entanglement with it can be stopped.
Time after all is a manifestation of Krishna, as the Bhagavad-gita (11.32) declares. And Krishna manifests himself in a far more palatable and relishable form as the flute-playing, threefold-bending, peacock feather-adorned Lord of our heart. When we offer our love to him instead of to worldly things, we don’t remain so emotionally invested in the body and its fate. The more we rejoice Krishna’s sweet remembrance, the less we suffer the body’s painful deterioration. Krishna by granting us his purifying and uplifting remembrance makes the unpalatable palatable both in the transition and the destination.
For a devotee, the ticking of the clock or the changing numbers on a timer are the visual reminders that Krishna is calling. He is inviting us from the finite to the infinite, from the temporary to the eternal, from the painful to the joyful.
All we need to do is respond.
***
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Time I am, the great destroyer of the worlds
From: ShivamSaraogi
Is dealing in shares in stock market against the regulative principle of "No Gambling"? What if someone invests in shares (a) for long-term financial security and (b) speculative gains?
From: Krishna Dhan Das
When Arjuna wanted give up fighting Lord Krishna inspired him to fight. When King Ashoka wanted to retire from fight after fighting Kalinga war, Buddhism supported this. Are Lords opinions contradictory? how to reconcile?
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 24 June 2013, Czech Summer Camp, Slovakia. Srimad Bhagavatam 8.2.33)
Sometimes, a household life is compared to a deep dark well, in the scriptures. So it maybe that one is a brahmacari or brahmacarini and then one feels, “I cannot do this anymore. It is time to get married.”
Some people, when they get married, they go to a deep dark well and they dive in head first! They think that, “Oh, now I am changing ashram, now I am really going to do it and go straight down to the bottom.” But that is not intelligent.
Generally speaking, in these wells – I have seen many in India – they usually have some brackets inside that are made like levers so that maintenance work can be done. So there is no need to go to the bottom; one can keep a strong spiritual culture. In fact, that is the idea, that in the brahmacari or brahmacarini ashram we are cultivating good spiritual habits and then we maintain them in our household attachment. Because after all, we do not forget the long-term goal. All right, we want something in this life but, we cannot risk that we lose our opportunity for going back to godhead.
In some letters or in some other occasions when speaking about the household ashram, Srila Prahbupada made statements like, “Fifty percent less chance of going back to godhead,” or sometimes even stronger statements. So what can we say? The grhasta ashram is also meant for going back to godhead, all the ashrams are meant for that purpose and that is what we are doing.
Yesterday we had initiations but initiation into what!? Initiation into the process that takes us back to godhead! So that should be our result. We should always act in such a way that we are faithfully on the path back to godhead, from the very beginning of spiritual life.
When we are new and when we accept the four regulative principles, sixteen rounds, we are under the directions of the spiritual master and other spiritual authorities, then we are on the path back to godhead and we must stay there our whole life - no detours in the forest or in the hills, no vacations. No we must stay within the boundaries of Krsna consciousness.
This year the Brisbane temple community observed the Jagannatha Rathayatra in the nearby park at the bottom of the hill. This park has been developed by the city council to facilitate nice water, lawn and playground areas for families.
The deities of Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra rode majestically in a special purpose built cart for Their pleasure. It was not a big cart, but Their Lordships looked happy being pulled by hundreds of chanting and dancing devotees on various pathways around the park.
This year the weather was a little drizzly but that didn’t dampen the mood of the ecstatic devotees. At the end a sumptuous feast was served back at the temple. Lord Jagannatha Ki Jaya!
Dallas Morning News,Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.
Whatever happened to shame? It wasn’t that long ago that a politician tainted by a sex scandal or caught cheating on a spouse was finished in public life. But a couple of political comebacks this year illustrate how things have changed. Two years after he resigned from Congress for sending a sexually suggestive picture of himself to a follower on Twitter, Anthony Weiner is in contention for mayor of New York City. Eliot Spitzer abandoned the state’s governor’s race in 2008 in disgrace following reports he frequented high-end prostitutes. He could be the city’s next controller.
And they’re not alone. Mark Sanford was elected to Congress in South Carolina after admitting an affair in 2009. David Vitter overcame scandal when his name showed up on the customer list of the “D.C. Madam” in 1999, winning reelection to the Senate and is at the top of the GOP list to be the next governor of Louisiana. And Bill Clinton, despite the White House intern scandal, is more popular than ever.
What’s happened? What does it say about the culture that behavior once considered inappropriate or indecent, doesn’t pack the same punch it once did. Are we more understanding, more willing to forgive? Or have we just become indifferent? In politics and religion, no narrative is more powerful than the backslider redeemed. But there’s another tradition in politics: we hold the leaders we elect to office to certain standards and believe that failure to meet those standards has consequences.
Here’s this week’s question: What do recent political comebacks by scandal-tarred politicians say about our culture? Have we become more tolerant and forgiving or grown more callous and indifferent
NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas
In the past, duty was of importance. Duty means acting in such a way that is helpful to everyone. By the influence of time, people have become more and more selfish and therefore concepts such as duty cannot even be conceived of by the common man. Selfish life has now become the norm.
The ancient Mahābhārata describes that in the days of yore, political leaders would gladly give up their life rather than go against their vows. For this reason and others the citizens experienced a parental relationship between the leaders and themselves. A genuine feeling of care.
The more we connect with Krishna, God (God has many names), the more we feel satisfied. Thus the propensity of selfishness gradually recedes. This connection can easily by established by calling on God’s holy names such as Hare Krishna.
A leader with selfless standards inspires their citizens with the greatness of selfless love.
To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.
Dallas Morning News,Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.
Whatever happened to shame? It wasn’t that long ago that a politician tainted by a sex scandal or caught cheating on a spouse was finished in public life. But a couple of political comebacks this year illustrate how things have changed. Two years after he resigned from Congress for sending a sexually suggestive picture of himself to a follower on Twitter, Anthony Weiner is in contention for mayor of New York City. Eliot Spitzer abandoned the state’s governor’s race in 2008 in disgrace following reports he frequented high-end prostitutes. He could be the city’s next controller.
And they’re not alone. Mark Sanford was elected to Congress in South Carolina after admitting an affair in 2009. David Vitter overcame scandal when his name showed up on the customer list of the “D.C. Madam” in 1999, winning reelection to the Senate and is at the top of the GOP list to be the next governor of Louisiana. And Bill Clinton, despite the White House intern scandal, is more popular than ever.
What’s happened? What does it say about the culture that behavior once considered inappropriate or indecent, doesn’t pack the same punch it once did. Are we more understanding, more willing to forgive? Or have we just become indifferent? In politics and religion, no narrative is more powerful than the backslider redeemed. But there’s another tradition in politics: we hold the leaders we elect to office to certain standards and believe that failure to meet those standards has consequences.
Here’s this week’s question: What do recent political comebacks by scandal-tarred politicians say about our culture? Have we become more tolerant and forgiving or grown more callous and indifferent
NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas
In the past, duty was of importance. Duty means acting in such a way that is helpful to everyone. By the influence of time, people have become more and more selfish and therefore concepts such as duty cannot even be conceived of by the common man. Selfish life has now become the norm.
The ancient Mahābhārata describes that in the days of yore, political leaders would gladly give up their life rather than go against their vows. For this reason and others the citizens experienced a parental relationship between the leaders and themselves. A genuine feeling of care.
A leader with selfless standards inspires their citizens with the greatness of selfless love.
To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.
People are being educated and trained to work very hard for sense gratification. and there is no sublime aim in life. A man travels to earn his livelihood. leaving home early in the morning, catching a local train and being packed in a compartment. He has to stand for an hour or two in order to reach his place of business. Then again he takes a bus to get to the office. At the office he works hard from nine to five; then he takes two or three hours to return home. After eating, he has sex and goes to sleep. For all this hardship, his only happiness is a little sex. Yan maithunadi-grhamedhi-sukham hi tuccham. Rsabhadeva clearly states that human life is not meant for this kind of existence, which is enjoyed even by dogs and hogs. Indeed, dogs and hogs do not have to work so hard for sex. A human being should try to live in a different way and should not try to imitate dogs and hogs. The alternative is mentioned. Human life is meant for tapasya, austerity and penance. By tapasya, one can get out of the material clutches. When one is situated in Krsna consciousness, devotional service, his happiness is guaranteed eternally.