Planet ISKCON

There is a new commercial ad delivery system coming our way. Talking train windows. Yup – as you drop your head against the train window to have a sleep, an ad is played to your ear which only you can hear. Check out the video to get an idea.

I was thinking – what would really help these tired urban hard working people are small spiritual quotes and instructions that can be served to their year using the same medium. Atleast that way, they can improve their lives and those of others too.

Verse 3.37: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world.

Have you ever heard of the expression "transforming lust into love"? If so, you might not have known it at the time, but you were actually hearing the very essence of the Gita.

Although certain imagery or thoughts may come to mind when we think of the word lust, the Gita explains that that it is a transformation of love.

So what does love really mean then? Yoga defines love, in its highest form, to be the natural inclination of the soul to give pleasure to the Supreme. If you really meditate on that definition, it makes a lot of sense.

We all, by nature, are seeking that person who will provide us with all our necessities, never abandon us, is capable of loving us completely and is the only person who truly understands how we feel. Am I right or am I right? ;)

It's no coincidence that the Gita, along with all other authorized spiritual texts, give us one unanimous answer to that question - the Supreme.

If it's natural that we love the Divine, then why is it so hard for some of us to access that love. Why do we turn to so many other things? That question is answered here today: Because we are clouded by lust.

"When the soul's natural affection for the Supreme is misplaced, by trying instead to enjoy the property of the Supreme instead of engaging in a relationship with the Supreme, then that love is transformed into lust"

In other words, due to lifetimes of taking on different bodies, we've forgotten our love for the Divine. Instead, some of us try to fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts with all sorts of gadgets, people and situations that we think might make us happy. If that doesn't work and we feel dejected, frustrated and become angry), we still keep trying to seek eternal happiness through our temporary material bodies.

Many of us are under a type of amnesia. The only cure to re-awaken to our natural position of happiness is to associate with those persons who have come out from the fog and confusion. That's why bhakti yoga is a transformation of the heart, not just the mind or intelligence. By practicing mantra meditation, reading bhakti texts and spending time with advanced bhakti practitioners, we start to remember who we really are and gratitude starts to infuse the heart.

That gratitude is the path by which love can develop and we can truly remember who we are.

For many of us:

Life is a journey to find true love.

That true love is waiting for us. We just need to clear the fog of lust and realize that our greatest happiness is not found outside ourselves, but by connecting to the Supreme.

Verse 3.37: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world.

Have you ever heard of the expression "transforming lust into love"? If so, you might not have known it at the time, but you were actually hearing the very essence of the Gita.

Although certain imagery or thoughts may come to mind when we think of the word lust, the Gita explains that that it is a transformation of love.

So what does love really mean then? Yoga defines love, in its highest form, to be the natural inclination of the soul to give pleasure to the Supreme. If you really meditate on that definition, it makes a lot of sense.

We all, by nature, are seeking that person who will provide us with all our necessities, never abandon us, is capable of loving us completely and is the only person who truly understands how we feel. Am I right or am I right? ;)

It's no coincidence that the Gita, along with all other authorized spiritual texts, give us one unanimous answer to that question - the Supreme.

If it's natural that we love the Divine, then why is it so hard for some of us to access that love. Why do we turn to so many other things? That question is answered here today: Because we are clouded by lust.

"When the soul's natural affection for the Supreme is misplaced, by trying instead to enjoy the property of the Supreme instead of engaging in a relationship with the Supreme, then that love is transformed into lust"

In other words, due to lifetimes of taking on different bodies, we've forgotten our love for the Divine. Instead, some of us try to fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts with all sorts of gadgets, people and situations that we think might make us happy. If that doesn't work and we feel dejected, frustrated and become angry), we still keep trying to seek eternal happiness through our temporary material bodies.

Many of us are under a type of amnesia. The only cure to re-awaken to our natural position of happiness is to associate with those persons who have come out from the fog and confusion. That's why bhakti yoga is a transformation of the heart, not just the mind or intelligence. By practicing mantra meditation, reading bhakti texts and spending time with advanced bhakti practitioners, we start to remember who we really are and gratitude starts to infuse the heart.

That gratitude is the path by which love can develop and we can truly remember who we are.

For many of us:

Life is a journey to find true love.

That true love is waiting for us. We just need to clear the fog of lust and realize that our greatest happiness is not found outside ourselves, but by connecting to the Supreme.

GITA COACHING: ONE OF THE BEST-KEPT SECRETS OF THE SUCCESSFUL: Of all the things successful people do to accelerate their journey down the path to success, participating in some kind of coaching program ...

GITA COACHING: ONE OF THE BEST-KEPT SECRETS OF THE SUCCESSFUL: Of all the things successful people do to accelerate their journey down the path to success, participating in some kind of coaching program ...

Bubbles and spiders
Plus ghosts and ghouls
Show me a picture
Of gems and jewels

Filed under: Poetry

Mahavishnu Swami and the devotees at Glastonbury Festival, having a 5 hour midnight harinama!Hare Krishna dancing to Fireworks | Glastonbury Festival 2013www.youtube.comHare Krishnas chanting and dancing with the fireworks in the background at Glastonb... Continue reading →

Mahavishnu Swami spent the past week at Glastonbury Festival, one of the biggest music and arts festivals in Europe. He was there in the large Hare Krishna tent teaching the festival guests about Krishna-Consciousness by lecturing, leading Kirtan and s... Continue reading →

Tonight ” Our Rights & Freedoms” – a discussion and presentation with Bhadrasena on, ” Our Rights & Freedoms are being undermined & stripped away ” , how does a mystic or yogi respond to this .. Great talks about how to make our way through the ever changing econ/poli, social climates? See you at [...]

The post Urban Meditations appeared first on The Loft Yoga Lounge Auckland.

A Ray Of Vishnu

The Life-Changing Loaf of Bread

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:

1 cup / 135g sunflower seeds

½ cup / 90g flax seeds

½ cup / 65g hazelnuts or almonds

1 ½ cups / 145g rolled oats

2 Tbsp. chia seeds

4 Tbsp. psyllium seed husks (3 Tbsp. if using psyllium husk powder)

1 tsp. fine grain sea salt (add ½ tsp. if using coarse salt)

1 Tbsp. maple syrup (for sugar-free diets, use a pinch of stevia)

3 Tbsp. melted coconut oil or ghee

1 ½ cups / 350ml water

Directions:

Find it in the link below on Sarah Britton’s cooking blog

via The Life-Changing Loaf of Bread | My New Roots.

You will find some amazing and very easy menu ideas for your plate from Sarah’s blog. Easy read, healthy recipes and great photos.

(c) Image from Sarah Britton’s My New Roots Blog article

Luiz Antonio questions where his dinner came from.A video has gone viral of a Portuguese boy, Luiz Antonio, explaining to his mum why he doesn’t want to eat octopus gnocchi for dinner, saying that animals should be taken care of and not eaten

via Boy Realises Where Meat Comes From | Essential Kids.

 

Interesting news and video this one. Even a child knows about compassion. Why do adults have a strong distaste for love and care for other living beings? Why are they so adamant that they want to use animals and birds for experiments, sports and taste? Is is this our so-called advancement?

On another note, we can also see he is bringing his past life habits and desires into this life. Otherwise, it is very hard to have such strong views right from an early age. Perhaps, in a life prior to this, the boy must have been a strong advocate of animal rights and protection. He has taken another birth to carry on his mission. Good luck Luiz !

We should all read Śrīmad Bhāgavatam more carefully. It is the foundation of our entire spiritual practice, for without hearing attentively and with an ear for detailed comprehension, how will we invest our consciousness into chanting? And without chanting attentively, how will we expect to make any advancement towards a transcendental goal? By winning a lotto-6 of so-called “causeless mercy”??? That fails to recognize that the transcnedental goal is personal transformation, which cannot be effected without our personal involvement. No one else can do it for us. It all starts with hearing Śrīmad Bhāgavatam very carefully, with strong curiousity.

If by chance my attempt to do so is of service to you, all the gurus, headed ultimately by the Goddess, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī will be merciful to me and look on me favorably. Please bless me by finding something of inspirational value in my work on Śrīmad Bhāgavatam.

Your servant,

Vraja Kishor das

GITA COACHING: GITA COACHING FOR YOUR SUCCESS AND HAPPINESS: Gita Coaching helps you to get from where you are to where you want to be – faster and smarter than you would do it on your own! Whether yo...

GITA COACHING: GITA COACHING FOR YOUR SUCCESS AND HAPPINESS: Gita Coaching helps you to get from where you are to where you want to be – faster and smarter than you would do it on your own! Whether yo...

(this blog is recorded on the full page: quick time player needed; works best with Firefox or Explorer)
[Originally published on July 1, 2013, though the topic is timeless, the endeavor constant]Two of the top difficult things to understand—out of many—for new readers of Bhagavad gita are the personhood of Krishna, and his Universal Form. Of course they are related, since Krishna reveals that the Universal Form comes from him, and is a manifestation of his energy as the material world. In particular this display of the Universal Form (there are others), though inspiring to show the greatness and inconceivableness of God, is also at times ghastly and fearsome, and as a form of time, “the destroyer of the worlds,” all of which may be disconcerting. While Krishna is both the creation and annihilation of everything he is also the seed of all existence, the life of all that lives, and the soul of our souls, so we have to look at the whole picture before being able to evaluate who Krishna is.

Krishna could have demonstrated his nature as the creator and maintainer by showing baby animals, lovely human children, beautiful scenes in Nature, the universe being incredibly sustained and flourishing, but specifically to get Arjuna’s attention, he wanted to encourage Arjuna in his duty of fighting by showing him that the great warriors he had to fight were already killed by Krishna’s power--in fact we all must die, our bodies that is, at our allotted time. For conditioned living beings, the Universal Form teaches us that the material world is temporary, and not really suitable for eternal souls to live, since bodies, planets, and the entire Universe are constantly changing, and will ultimately be vanquished. The point is that Krishna is present in all things and, through his energy, is everything. His greatness is all-sided and unlimited, manifested in the subatomic dimension and as the whole universe—in the micro and macro-cosmic level. For us imperfect and limited souls, he can be experienced in what we can observe. Though we can’t perceive his spiritual form, or even our own souls, we can, by the grace of the Bhagavad Gita, Shrimad Bhagavatam, and the mercy of the devotees who live by such revealed Vedic literature, “see” him, specifically in “…all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations…”[ Bg 10.41].

In what follows I will share some highlights of these manifestations of Krishna from the Bhagavad Gita, which is another version of the Universal Form, or Krishna’s material form.

read more

(this blog is recorded on the full page: quick time player needed; works best with Firefox or Explorer)

Two of the top difficult things to understand—out of many—for new readers of Bhagavad gita are the personhood of Krishna, and his Universal Form. Of course they are related, since Krishna reveals that the Universal Form comes from him, and is a manifestation of his energy as the material world. In particular this display of the Universal Form (there are others), though inspiring to show the greatness and inconceivableness of God, is also at times ghastly and fearsome, and as a form of time, “the destroyer of the worlds,” all of which may be disconcerting. While Krishna is both the creation and annihilation of everything he is also the seed of all existence, the life of all that lives, and the soul of our souls, so we have to look at the whole picture before being able to evaluate who Krishna is.

Krishna could have demonstrated his nature as the creator and maintainer by showing baby animals, lovely human children, beautiful scenes in Nature, the universe being incredibly sustained and flourishing, but specifically to get Arjuna’s attention, he wanted to encourage Arjuna in his duty of fighting by showing him that the great warriors he had to fight were already killed by Krishna’s power--in fact we all must die, our bodies that is, at our allotted time. For conditioned living beings, the Universal Form teaches us that the material world is temporary, and not really suitable for eternal souls to live, since bodies, planets, and the entire Universe are constantly changing, and will ultimately be vanquished. The point is that Krishna is present in all things and, through his energy, is everything. His greatness is all-sided and unlimited, manifested in the subatomic dimension and as the whole universe—in the micro and macro-cosmic level. For us imperfect and limited souls, he can be experienced in what we can observe. Though we can’t perceive his spiritual form, or even our own souls, we can, by the grace of the Bhagavad Gita, Shrimad Bhagavatam, and the mercy of the devotees who live by such revealed Vedic literature, “see” him, specifically in “…all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations…”[ Bg 10.41].

In what follows I will share some highlights of these manifestations of Krishna from the Bhagavad Gita, which is another version of the Universal Form, or Krishna’s material form.

read more

The city of Newcastle has a population of over half a million people and is situated about two hours north of Sydney. It was once the headquarters of mining giant BHP, which has now ceased most of its operations.

The city is the country regional hub for the Hunter Valley with more than a million people living in the area. It has a big university that caters to local students as well as students from nearby towns.

For many years we operated a restaurant, shop and preaching centre in the city central. However, a big development company bought out the city block where our restaurant was located and made us an offer we couldn’t refuse.

In the beginning of June we purchased a shop with two apartments at back in the Mayfield area of Newcastle. This is just a ten minute drive from the university where we operate a Vegie club 4 or 5 times a week. Many students who eat at the Vegie club visit our farm at Millfield.

Over the next few months we will set up the shop as a Hare Krishna Food for Life premises, where we will cater for the Vegie Club as well as provide cheap meals from the shop itself. We will also hold regular Kirtan, prasadam and lecture classes from there.

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I received a letter from a devotee asking about proper pronunciation and I could tell him how important is to slow down in chanting and make sure you listen to your voice chanting.

Speed comes naturally and the main thing is chanting your rounds with the mind focused in the mantra. Today I had a nice experience with that - we need to set a goal in chanting and I did that today.

I set this goal of chanting a certain number of rounds without stopping for anything, just focus on the mantra and go on, any time my mind tried to force me to do something else I ignored and kept on chanting, until my goal was fulfilled and my rounds finished. I felt so good after that and I felt I could control my mind any time just because the mantra was in charge of that.

Hoping you have a great week of chanting.

your servant,

Aruna devi

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Significance Of Pushya Abhishek …!!!

The 5th chapter of Srimad Bhagavatam’s Second Canto gives a fascinating, intriguing description of how the All-Attractive creates the primordial universe. Here is a footnote from the manuscript I am currently working on:

Text [2.5.]21 explains that the All-Attractive desires to be many, because its inherent nature is bliss – which is enjoyed in the form of love, which requires relationships, which requires multiple independent beings. The All-Attractive causes many beings to manifest from itself as a result of its own “magic” or mystical power (māyā) using three tools, time, destiny, and psychology.

Text 22 elaborates on this. It states the All-Attractive becomes the Puruṣa (a.k.a. Viṣṇu) to use these tools upon our “material world.” He uses time (kāla) as a catalyst to activate (vyatikara) the three qualities (guṇa). He then uses psychology (svabhāva) to stimulate evolutions (pariṇāma) within those qualities. “Psychology” refers to the various unique predilections and preferences of the various unique living entities who will populate the world. Then, the destiny (karma) that arises from the living entities psychological interaction with the three qualities causes the world to evolve out of the abstract realm and become the primeval form of the tangible universe (mahāt-tattva).

Today in the Japa Room we heard more from Bhurijana prabhu's amazing Japa Retreat in Melbourne. He outlines the problems of the mind and how to overcome distraction with the formula of just hearing one mantra. Email subscribers click here to see the video.

GITA COACHING: IN MY EXPERIENCE HERE’S WHAT I HAVE FOUND …: Those who are afraid to invest in themselves are the ones who complain the most about not attaining success. That is NOT the mindset that br...

GITA COACHING: IN MY EXPERIENCE HERE’S WHAT I HAVE FOUND …: Those who are afraid to invest in themselves are the ones who complain the most about not attaining success. That is NOT the mindset that br...

Madhav Das @ Birmingham 24 hour Kirtan 2013

Touchdown

Saskatchewan/Hwy 3/18

I never feel like I'm in some major league,nor that I'm in theplayoff, but I believe I'm in a good team and that today we made a touchdown.

With japa beads in hand and the maha-mantra on my tongue and lips, the milestone was reached by completing on foot the province of Manitoba. We made a touchdown.

It was obscure. A mere simple sign on Highway 3 that indicates that we are now in Saskatchewan. All seems the same though from an external point of view. It's the same asphalt but the nomenclature changes. It's now highway #18.

To witness the event were the spectators themselves. What would not be a more appropriate group of viewers than a herd of bison, the provincial animal whose insignia is stamped on each highway sign. Nole, just east of Pierson, a village of 140 population, 6 kilometres shy of the border, a group of the beautiful beasts went to a stunned "freeze" when they heard my feet grip the gravel and then decided to go for an intermission from feeding. In other words, they turned their backs on me and went to the far reaches of the field. At least they demonstrated solidarity.

And get a load of this - less than one kilometre before reaching the finish-line, the border, two moose gawked at Daruka, with camera in position and Billie, the parrot on his shoulder. They went the way of the buffalo. "These are humans. Let's get outta here!"

As far as humans go, a good number of passers-by in mostly trucks of canola, wheat, cattle growers and oilfield workers, did stop and cheerlead in their own way. "Keep it up," they said.

So now Daruka and I were left to celebrate with strawberry milkshakes and then make a 3 hour drive to White City for an evening house program of CEC, chat, eat and chant.

20 KM

Bliss On The Trail

Melita, Manitoba

Daruka and I really relish tenting at camp-sites as a way to accommodate ourselves. We like the simple life and the slight roughing-it-up.

The daily showers and swim cleanses and provides water to the body, which it craves, being exposed to the open sun and wind. Furthermore, H2O soothes the stiff leg muscles which are engaged in repeated action.

The soles of the feet and around the ankles have become somewhat raspy due to dead skin forming. They are not exactly like sandpaper; maybe a little more like velcro and have a tendency to stick to the inner layer of my sleeping-bag, and, when changing into my dhoti (lower monk robe), the cloth tends to hug the feet. I applied pumice to the feet and that makes a difference; a vigorous rubbing.

Now for today's trek: I began at 4AM and practically shcoked the hell out of these guys working for the oil rigs. First of all, who walks in the remote prairie and at this hour? Secondly, the wind enhances a ghostly flow of the vestments.

But what a nice break it was walking a trail with no asphalt! Call it ecstasy where for a full 9 hours your soles get a free reflexology session, gently rolling over stones. And what a joy it was seeing and hearing these coots (mud-hens is the slang) for the first time in my life. And what humour and warmth it brought to my heart to view the puzzled look on an elderly prairie farmer's face in his pickup truck when he saw my alien-self.

Yes, it was the road less traveled (Road 12 North) but it was the short-cut and it saves me 20 kms had I follwed the silly highway.

By God (Krishna's) grace today I managed my old daily average of 40 kms. "Yahoo!" Better still, "Haribol!"

40 KM

A very nice video of Mahatma dasa and his young daughter, who has a taste for chanting...she has some very amazing realisation on Japa.

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