A Simple Gita

The Bhagavad-Gita – with all its depth and detail – in simple, succinct, straightforward terms.

Available in paperback, kindle and pdf here: http://www.vicdicara.com/gita

The Australian National Council met at Govinda Valley in May for their annual general meeting. There were about 20 participants who came from the temples to discuss various issues pertaining to development of the Australian yatra.

Govinda Valley, a property of about 20 acres, was purchased about 10 years ago and is set in a beautiful valley at Otford, just one hour south of Sydney. It is also only 5 minutes from the beach and visitors like to swim there during the summer months.

Throughout the year devotees have retreats there and at other times yoga groups book the facility for their functions as well.

2013-04-25 Srimad Bhagavatam 10.18.23-24 – Sweet and Wonderful Pastimes of Lord and his Devotees

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[reposted from 05-20-2013]
Saturday, May 20th was the death anniversary of my mom. I usually post the blog I wrote a few days after she “left her body” (as devotees call death of the physical body, since the soul moves on) seven years ago. Although, I’ll give some links for a whole series of blogs I wrote around that time, I would like to express some thoughts for your consideration, and perhaps, for thinking of your own mom, or your relationship to your parents in general. One of the questions I am thinking about is: “How has your relationship with your parents affected your life in terms of your relationships with your spouse and children (if you are married), or to friends, people in general, or yourself?”

There are many events in life which are like initiations into stages of growth, the first being birth and the last death—the number and type of “initiations” in between those two periods are as individual as people are. For me, some of my significant growth opportunities were: moving from Los Angeles to San Francisco at four years old, the shock of going to Junior High School from a tightknit grammar school, when my parents divorced and I had to live with my father, when my High School met Haight-Ashbury (so to speak), or how I let hippiedom appear to torpedo my education but also lay the ground work for my spiritual quest, my second girlfriend, spiritual initiation at 20, my guru Shrila Prabhupada’s leaving his body, marriage, the struggle to find an occupation, and to the point of this blog, the “death” of my parents.

I haven’t spoken about my father’s death, though I should, as he died by his own hand with a 38 Special revolver. He was obviously miserable, felt his life unmanageable, and had no spiritual knowledge to help him. Although I later went to the place where he committed suicide in an attempt to release his soul, in case he had a ghost body, his death was not as fortunate as my moms. I was able to surround her with prayers and a spiritual environment as she passed on.

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

Monday, May 20th is the death anniversary of my mom. I usually post the blog I wrote a few days after she “left her body” (as devotees call death of the physical body, since the soul moves on) three years ago. Although, I’ll give some links for a whole series of blogs I wrote around that time, I would like to express some thoughts for your consideration, and perhaps, for thinking of your own mom, or your relationship to your parents in general. One of the questions I am thinking about is: “How has your relationship with your parents affected your life in terms of your relationships with your spouse and children (if you are married), or to friends, people in general, or yourself?”

There are many events in life which are like initiations into stages of growth, the first being birth and the last death—the number and type of “initiations” in between those two periods are as individual as people are. For me, some of my significant growth opportunities were: moving from Los Angeles to San Francisco at four years old, the shock of going to Junior High School from a tightknit grammar school, when my parents divorced and I had to live with my father, when my High School met Haight-Ashbury (so to speak), or how I let hippiedom appear to torpedo my education but also lay the ground work for my spiritual quest, my second girlfriend, spiritual initiation at 20, my guru Shrila Prabhupada’s leaving his body, marriage, the struggle to find an occupation, and to the point of this blog, the “death” of my parents.

I haven’t spoken about my father’s death, though I should, as he died by his own hand with a 38 Special revolver. He was obviously miserable, felt his life unmanageable, and had no spiritual knowledge to help him. Although I later went to the place where he committed suicide in an attempt to release his soul, in case he had a ghost body, his death was not as fortunate as my moms. I was able to surround her with prayers and a spiritual environment as she passed on.

read more

The Perfection of Horror This Sunday 26th May, at the Loft will be the ultimate mid year festival. From the international speaker, spiritual teacher and author, Devamrita swami, we will hear about real wisdom and the origin to our pleasure propensities, including the pleasure of horror or being scared. This will all be sandwiched with [...]

The post Fierce Festival appeared first on The Loft Yoga Lounge Auckland.

SB Class – Ramnavami – HG Navin Nirada dasa

In this episode His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami discusses using our psychophysical nature so that we can engage ourselves properly in Krishna consciousness.      This is the basis of the varnasrama system and follows on from our discussion last week with His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami about how to find your varna.      […]

The post 09 Bir Krishna Goswami-Psychophysical Nature appeared first on Successful Vaisnavas - Personal Development for Hare Krishnas.

In this episode His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami discusses using our psychophysical nature so that we can engage ourselves properly in Krishna consciousness.

This is the basis of the varnasrama system and follows on from our discussion last week with His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami about how to find your varna.

To contact His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami or to hear more from him visit

http://bkgoswami.com

There is also an update on the “tidy up the house” and “put shelves in the cupboard” project (that we have been discussing for the last few weeks. )You will get some tips for communicating with employees and tradespeople to make sure that the job gets done the way that you really want. 

Final preparations are being put in place for the launch of the Successful Vaisnavas Online Course.

 More information will be given on the upcoming live online event.

Go to http://successfulvaisnavas.com/hangout to register.

This can be what “Hare Krishna, Hare Rama” LOOKS like when you hear it.

Krishna’s name is a noun, a transcendent noun.

Nouns are words, sounds that carry meaning. When you hear a word in a language you don’t understand – it is only sound. But as you repeatedly listen with curiosity and intelligence the meaning becomes clear. When you understand a language, hearing the sound of a word immediately invokes your awareness of the meanings and implications of the word.

There is no real meaning to “hearing the sound” of Krishna’s name without the sound of that name causing you to become aware of Krishna.

When we are “newborn” we don’t understand much in the sound of words (Krishna’s names). So it behooves us to listen carefully to the sound, with curiousity and intelligence (i.e. do our best to learn as much as we can about the person being named,  mainly by reading Śrīmad Bhāgavatam). When we are “a few years old” we begin to understand words. When we hear the names of Krishna, the sound will invoke in us awareness of the person being named – naturally, that is simply what nouns do.

However, the names of Krishna are transcendental nouns. Therefore as we become “full grown” in hearing and chanting these nouns – hearing the name of Krishna will invoke in our awareness direct cognition of the named (Krishna). At this stage we begin to experience in the name more than what we read about Krishna – more directly, more personally. The name is becoming pure and showing its inherent nature of non-duality from the named.

The effort to “simply hear” the name, without “remembering Krishna” as a result of hearing it is rather like an infant trying to remain an infant and never learn how to use words.

2013-05-04 Prerna Festival – Bound to be Free – Akincana Krishna Prabhu, ISKCON Chowpatty

Chandan Yatra 2013 – Radha Shyamasundar Darshan

The Wellington Temple Higher Taste Restaurant is in Willis Street in the Lampton Quay area. This is a very busy area of downtown, especially during lunchtime. It has been operating for over ten years and before that we had another restaurant just a few streets away.

Both these restaurants were started under the auspices of Jagjivan Prabhu, the Wellington temple president. There is a staff of 10 to 12 devotees working there in shifts between 11am and 9pm 6 days a week.

The menu is a fusion of western and Indian styles of food, which of course is offered to Their Lordships Gaura Nitai. I usually pop in for lunch when I’m in town and it’s always gratifying to see so many people enjoying the Lord’s tasty prasadam.

Our party sang . . .

. . . and distributed books.

 In particular, Tulasirani Devi Dasi was very enthusiastic about book distribution.

Holi (Festival of Colors) in North Florida

In ISKCON, Caru Prabhu who has a temple in Utah, has a holi festival which attracts thousands of people to his temple there, many of the them local Mormons. In fact, one Mormon music major became so enchanted by Hare Krishna kirtana from that festival, she went on do her Ph.D. dissertation on Kirtana at Hare Krishna Festivals, and is planning to write a book on kirtana using the extra material she collected.

I wore a dhoti and kurta with holes that I was planning to throw out in case the dye did not come out.

Krishna House Farewell

With all the harinamas, the chanting in the temple, the outreach programs, and the classes, I felt I got to know and love the devotees at Krishna House more than usual during the three or four months I spent there. It was awesome for me to see a lot of young people with wonderful devotional qualities like such as appreciation of kirtana, appreciation of spiritually advanced personalities, enthusiasm to serve others, delight in cooking for Krishna and his devotees, and enthusiasm to share Krishna with others. I hope they are able to maintain and expand these assets throughout their glorious lives of service to Krishna and humanity. The leaders of the project were also exemplary in steadiness and concern for others, and truly inspirational. I felt happy to be involved with the project, and I look forward to returning in October for another three months. We are indebted to Kalakantha Prabhu for heading up the project, and devotees, like Hanan and Ballaba and Caitanya, who are very dedicated, spending years with it. Tulasirani devi dasi did a good job arranging classes and special events this year. Especially memorable was Gasparilla harinama,the 12-hour kirtana, and the First Fridays harinama in Tallahassee, and also the Ocala Rainbow Gathering harinama, which Caitanya organized.

1. My mother is not barren.
2. The king is most pious and compassionate.
3. The queen is most chaste.

Our party sang . . .

. . . and distributed books.

 In particular, Tulasirani Devi Dasi was very enthusiastic about book distribution.

Holi (Festival of Colors) in North Florida

In ISKCON, Caru Prabhu who has a temple in Utah, has a holi festival which attracts thousands of people to his temple there, many of the them local Mormons. In fact, one Mormon music major became so enchanted by Hare Krishna kirtana from that festival, she went on do her Ph.D. dissertation on Kirtana at Hare Krishna Festivals, and is planning to write a book on kirtana using the extra material she collected.

I wore a dhoti and kurta with holes that I was planning to throw out in case the dye did not come out.

Krishna House Farewell

With all the harinamas, the chanting in the temple, the outreach programs, and the classes, I felt I got to know and love the devotees at Krishna House more than usual during the three or four months I spent there. It was awesome for me to see a lot of young people with wonderful devotional qualities like such as appreciation of kirtana, appreciation of spiritually advanced personalities, enthusiasm to serve others, delight in cooking for Krishna and his devotees, and enthusiasm to share Krishna with others. I hope they are able to maintain and expand these assets throughout their glorious lives of service to Krishna and humanity. The leaders of the project were also exemplary in steadiness and concern for others, and truly inspirational. I felt happy to be involved with the project, and I look forward to returning in October for another three months. We are indebted to Kalakantha Prabhu for heading up the project, and devotees, like Hanan and Ballaba and Caitanya, who are very dedicated, spending years with it. Tulasirani devi dasi did a good job arranging classes and special events this year. Especially memorable was Gasparilla harinama,the 12-hour kirtana, and the First Fridays harinama in Tallahassee, and also the Ocala Rainbow Gathering harinama, which Caitanya organized.

1. My mother is not barren.
2. The king is most pious and compassionate.
3. The queen is most chaste.

On May 15th, 2013, His Holiness Rtadhvaja Swami visited the school!  It was a wonderful end to the school year.

He immediately engaged all 23 students with questions and jokes.  You could tell he had been a teacher for many years!   “How many of you can spell my name?”  He ever-so-patiently guided the kids in the correct spelling, allowing almost every student to try.

Allowing the students to establishing sweet relationships with such generous and advanced devotees is something we truly aspire for at TKG Academy.  We’re so thankful to Rtadhvaja Maharaj for visiting us and sharing his guidance and wisdom.

Hey Remember Us?!

We’re that group of Krishna kids that were dancing and chanting with you some time ago and somehow you signed up to our Enewsletter. Yeah, we’ve been slacking on the newsletter but not without a good excuse. While the members of the Mayapuris aren’t flying around the world with Kirtan capes on, we lead semi-regular lives (except for Kish who never takes his cape off). Vrinda and Vish are busy expanding the Mayapuris troupe: they’re expecting a baby in August.  Bali is in pharmacy school getting ready to deal drugs and his wife Dhanya just graduated in psychology so she can provide much needed counseling to the rest of the group. Meanwhile of course Kish continues to be Kirtan Super-Man.

In between these alter-ego lives, Kirtan continues to be the eternal thread that holds us together. We just returned from touring the North-East. We had a Kirtan Rave Party at Rutgers University in New Jersey with 700 wild dancing students and faculty (glow-sticks and all) and then we took part in the Spring Ecstatic Chant Weekend at OMEGA in upstate New York. In between, we played at Yogamaya in New York City. It’s so much fun to travel with the crew including Gaura Vani and play kirtan together every evening. We’re very grateful to all the kind yoga studio owners, festival coordinators, and hosts who take such good care of us while we’re on the road.

Now, we have some exciting projects coming up that we’d love to share with you:

- A Recording Studio: we are building our own recording studio in our hometown of Alachua, Florida. The studio is called “The Hanuman House” and is practically completed. Our vision is to have a facility where we can streamline our projects which include: albums, music videos, recording collaborations, festival organization, and empowering conscious youth. We need your support for this project, especially since we are now collecting recording equipment. We need mixers, microphones, monitor speakers, cables, mic stands, and a variety of recording paraphernalia.  If you have any equipment you’d like to donate or would like to give a monetary donation for this project, please contact Vish or Kish. In return, we will send you presents!

-Retreats: we love hanging out with fellow bhaktas and kirtan enthusiasts, so we’ve organized a few retreats that are coming up this year:

Himalayan Adventure, India – Going to the Source of Two Holy Rivers. Vish is facilitating a group tour to India, June 20-July 2. Early Bird Special $2500 extended til June 1st. Don’t miss this escapade to the sacred and picturesque mountains! Find Out More or Sign Up!

Thanksgiving Kirtan Retreat – Thanksgiving is a beautiful time in Florida. We are proud to be hosting a 4 day retreat in our hometown, Alachua FL. We’ll show you around to our favorite spots, go swimming in the beautiful crystal clear fresh water springs, eat healthy vegetarian food and do yoga and pranayama. Each member of the Mayapuris will offer unique workshops on The Art of Kirtan and Bhakti Yoga. The culmination of the retreat will be a deep immersion into kirtan, taking part in the annual Festival of the Holy Name. Listen to kirtans from the past festivals. Sign Up

Kirtan Camp with Jai Uttal and Vish: finally, at the end of the year, join Vish and Vrinda (and their soon-to-be-born-newborn baby) in Costa Rica for Jai Uttal’s Yoga and Kirtan Camp at the beautiful Blue Sprit Retreat Center. Jai and Vish will lead us in the ancient practice of Kirtan, or chanting, the heart and soul of devotional yoga. Together they will guide us in a heart- opening adventure through breath, movement and sacred sound, blending these traditions in a deep and playful way.  Find Out More

For more updates visit: www.mayapuris.com

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

[Originally published on 05-16-2013, I'm reposting it now, as I want to share the book with new readers who like my blogs. It is still available in many places in the world.] This was originally the introduction for Give to Live, but we decided to cut it, since the size of the front matter and whole book, had to be reduced. Still, I think it gives a good introduction for the book for those of you who don’t have a copy. Additionally, there is a 15 minute video at the end giving a glimpse into the journey of creating the book.

As an introduction to my book, Give to Live, I am thinking about the blessing (or curse) of being a writer. Part of being a writer is the desire to share experience, which is equally true of photographers, artists and the like—people who try to share their perceptions, feelings and thoughts with others through some different medium of one or more dimensions. Yet, sometimes thinking of an experience (or extracting the creative angle) as it is happening makes one less present in the moment. I have taken photos and videos at some temple functions, and felt like I missed the whole thing!

My usual means of sharing experience is what you are reading—words. I think I am very balanced in my “observer’s eye” in that I really have to work at turning it on. It doesn’t come that naturally for me like with some writers. A friend sent me a book about a poet/gardener now in his 90’s who has always loved words, and writing about nature and his garden. His mood of observation and being in the moment is very impressive to me, as I was such a dull, unobservant, and uncreative child. In my current “later years” I am much more present than I could have ever dreamed as a child, though still very inferior to this poet! It is always good to take the humble position regarding our Krishna-given abilities. We are always dependent on His mercy and help in any endeavor and yet we will always find people much better than we are in anything we do. Never the less, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to use our talents and desires in the service of the Lord, his devotees, and people in general.

read more

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

This was originally the introduction for Give to Live, but we decided to cut it, since the size of the front matter and whole book, had to be reduced. Still, I think it gives a good introduction for the book for those of you who don’t have a copy. Adding further to the mystery of this piece of writing is that somehow it disappeared after being posted last week. So I am reposting it again. Do keep an eye on it for me. Additionally, there is a 15 video at the end giving a glimpse into the journey of creating the book.

As an introduction to my book, Give to Live, I am thinking about the blessing (or curse) of being a writer. Part of being a writer is the desire to share experience, which is equally true of photographers, artists and the like—people who try to share their perceptions, feelings and thoughts with others through some different medium of one or more dimensions. Yet, sometimes thinking of an experience (or extracting the creative angle) as it is happening makes one less present in the moment. I have taken photos and videos at some temple functions, and felt like I missed the whole thing!

My usual means of sharing experience is what you are reading—words. I think I am very balanced in my “observer’s eye” in that I really have to work at turning it on. It doesn’t come that naturally for me like with some writers. A friend sent me a book about a poet/gardener now in his 90’s who has always loved words, and writing about nature and his garden. His mood of observation and being in the moment is very impressive to me, as I was such a dull, unobservant, and uncreative child. In my current “later years” I am much more present than I could have ever dreamed as a child, though still very inferior to this poet! It is always good to take the humble position regarding our Krishna-given abilities. We are always dependent on His mercy and help in any endeavor and yet we will always find people much better than we are in anything we do. Never the less, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to use our talents and desires in the service of the Lord, his devotees, and people in general.

read more