Planet ISKCON

It’s always a great pleasure to welcome guests. However, it is much rarer and therefore, a lot more special when guests come from my wife’s homeland, Turkey. We were quite delighted when this year on the occasion of Nrisimha Caturdasi a few friends could visit us and stayed for almost a week.

Mridanga Music video featuring The Temple Dancers. Spread the word!

The Mayapuris Official Music Video

Sivarama Maharaja advised me to read the likewise entitled article in the The New York Times. It speaks of the tendency that nowadays in a couple of hundred minor farming projects people return to ox-power. In several various kinds of works, which beforehand they conducted by tractors, now they work with oxen. However, not only the continuously rising petrol prices have a beneficial effect on the advancement of this trend. A few decades ago, farmers who worked with animals have been considered old-fashioned, obstinate, blockhead people. Children born in these families were ashamed of their kin, when they met with fellow kids whose parents ran their farm with modernized equipment. The joint spread of industrial revolution and consumerist society has led the world to an ecologic disaster. As a consequence of the recognition of the above-mentioned phenomena and the positive social feedback to it, traditional agricultural methods are not considered old-fashioned anymore, but on the contrary, are reflected on as progressional. As a matter of fact, this attitude gives inspiration, strength and self-esteem to all those farmers, who willingly turn back to the farming tradition of their great parents and elders.

This positive process is going to strengthen, if we, consumers are willing to look for produces grown in such farms. As, eventually, organic farms need not only an emotional support, but a financial one as well that can be realized by buying off their products, which comprise a lot of hours of hard work. The success of organic revolution depends on the mutual cooperation of the economic sector and consumers.

The volunteers and supporters of the village of Krisna Valley as well as the Eco Valley Foundation all work on the success of this process.

Many come up with the question how is the new ecclesiastical law, which is in preparation, going to make freedom of religion more difficult especially in relation to preaching activities. A fundamental element of this is the freedom of book distribution. If you would like to experience some travel in time and try what it is like when one cannot distribute books on streets at all, then you should visit Istanbul for a couple of days. When I preach there, this phenomenon is not something we have to be afraid of, but it is true reality. However, it was not clear to me either that one cannot distribute even leaflets on the street, but after the first fine of approximately HUF 50,000, we learned the lesson quickly.

Therefore, we distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books to our guests in the restaurant. In the photo you can see a guest getting acquainted with the Vedic literature in the Govinda Istanbul Café after the Rama Navami festival program.

MRIDANGA MUSIC VIDEO TO PREMIERE ON YOGAJOURNAL.COM MAY 19TH

Cross-over world music sensation and performance art troupe, The Mayapuris are to release a music video to showcase the title track of their hit album Mridanga (2010) which reached #7 on the iTunes world music chart the first week of its release. The video imbibes the dual nature that makes the Mayapuris unique: spunky and youthful with a new spin on the centuries-old chant culture of ancient India, kirtan. Their instrument of choice: the mridanga drum, a hand instrument invented over five hundred years ago as a portable and powerful alternative to the inner sanctum temple drums .

“Why the obsession with the mridanga?” asks Krishna Kishor (vocalist, flutist, drummer), “It was invented by Chaitanya, who revolutionized kirtan by bringing it out from the temples and into the streets for everyone to take part in. Through him we want to keep the revolution going. So…got to keep drumming.” In the video The Mayapuris are joined by The Temple Dancers consisting of Visvambhar’s wife Vrinda and his sister Ganga both of whom studied the ancient art of Bharatnatyam in South India.

The band’s ties to mridanga and kirtan run deep. All three of them attended boarding school in India where they learned the fundamentals of mantra music. Naming their group after the holy village of Mayapur, where the kirtan movement started, the Mayapuris returned home to Florida before signing to Mantralogy, a division of Equal Vision Records, in 2009. The title track of their first release, “Mridanga,” is the rhythmic instrumental composition that, when performed live, is a dance as well as a drum ensemble. It was an aspect that the band wanted reflected in their video.“We wanted it to have the energy and impact of our live performances,” says Kishor, “But with a twist.”

Gaura Vani and Rasa Acharya, who are both longtime friends of the band members and co-owners of their record label, Mantralogy, had ties to the movie industry and were eager to bring a fresh visual representation of the artform to the Mantra Music scene.“The Mayapuris are vibrant and fun people,” says Acharya who, alongside Vani, produced and directed the video, “It would be hard to not capture their spirit on camera.”

Visvambhar, lead-vocalist and drummer says, “I believe in kirtan. I believe people naturally want to give something–to sing and partake in mantra chanting. I see the Mantra Music scene growing every day in a big way. The video will add a new dimension to all of it as we begin to recognize chant culture as something much bigger than music.”

The video will premiere May 19th on YogaJournal.com and will later be viewable on YouTube, Facebook, Mayapuris.com and Mantralogy.com.

We meet quite often with our neighbour, aunt Mary, when gardening. She tells us stories of her family and the good old times. Hladini wanted to visit her one morning, so they took her some tarhana (Turkish soup powder) as a gift. Naturally, auntie Mary reciprocated their kindness and gave us home-made tomato sauce and jam from pear and plum. During the summer the girls will make the preserving for winter together with her.

Hladini volunteered for the mission in Istanbul and wanted to accompany me on my last trip. She is Turkish and speaks the language fluently; therefore, she would be perfect from all points of view. When I tried to leave her behind referring to her young age of 2 and a half, she came forward with some impish trickery in order to get on the plane.

On my last visit to Turkey I had the chance to visit Izmir as well. Izmir is Turkey’s third biggest town, a commercial and tourist centre, which has about 3.5 million residents. Nrsimha Krishna prabhu arranged everything about the trip, which takes 2 hours by ferry plus a 4-hour drive from Istanbul. The journey did not seem long as on our way there we were talking about our preaching plans. At the same time, I became familiar with the country also. I learned where they produce the Yörsan diary products, the Vestel household appliances and which area produces 50% of the world’s raisin output.

Firstly, we went to Alacati, where we met Nrsimha Krishna’s acquaintance, who welcomed us in an orange and lemon grove. I even took a genuine organic lemon for Hladini.

Afterwards we went to Izmir, where we visited a nice family of devotees. Madhu Madhavi is Azeri, who met her husband, Engin, a captain of a ship in Odessa. Their son, Artun is 5 months old. We spoke a lot about the practices of Krishna-consciousness in relation to family life, whereas, the grandmother had more questions on the philosophy. Next day, before departing we went to the city and looked for a nice spot for the to-be Govinda restaurant. On the photo we were walking on the promenade, which by Krishna’s grace could be a great place for the restaurant.

It’s high time that you see the girls after “The evening milk” post. Padma turned 9 months old a few days before Easter. She is completely healthy, very active and happy. On this photo Hladini is teaching from her notes the rest of the family to ride a motorbike.

Hare Krishna!

Below is the March 2011 update for ISKCON Philippines. Devotees can also download the newsletter in PDF form by clicking this link:March Newsletter

For further inquiries, devotees can contact:

ISKCON Philippines Communications

Email: iskconcommunicationsph@gmail.com

Mobile phone: Sridama dasa 0917 8210951/ 0916 5240951

                                Manjula devi dasi 0917 8218324/ 0906 3168324

Landline: +63 62-3582210

Malati

I’d been craving for Filipino food lately; the one that my mother used to cook! Even though almost all of those culinary memories are associated with meat and fish, I still can’t help but to long for my mother’s cooking. I’m certain it’s not the taste I’m hankering for, but it’s the amount of love and care my mother put into preparing and cooking the food. One of my personal favorite, is the one w/ black beans savory sauce with bokchoy! I love the pungent smell of black bean sauce! I know it sounds weird, but for me, the aroma of it brings back happy childhood memories. So, to satisfy my cravings, I made some veggie 2na with black bean sauce, bokchoy, and added some seasoned tofu. I also added my own masala concoction into this one, hahaha! If you notice in this recipe, a lot of tomatoes are needed. Since the black beans sauce is so salty, the tomatoes helps to mellow it down.

Ingredients:

veggie 2na (about 6-8 pieces)

seasoned tofu (optional)

2 tbsp of black beans sauce

2 tsp of white sugar

1 big tomato (cut in small pieces, if you can’t avail of a big tomato, 3 medium size tomatoes will do too)

2 tbsp minced ginger

2 cups water

1 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp peanut oil

3 cluster of bokchoy

2 medium size red and yellow sweet bell pepper ( cut into small cubes, and you can used any color you want)

broccoli florets (about a handful)

some chives for garnishing

Masala:

1/2 tsp Hungarian paprika

1/2 tsp grounded black pepper

1/2 tsp hing/asoefatida ( you can buy this in any Indian store)

Procedure:

1. Pan fry the veggie 2na until golden brown. Set aside.

2. Cut the seasoned tofu into small cubes and pan fry. Set aside.

3. Cut the bokchoy and separate the leaves from the steam. Cut the steam into medium size cubes.

4. In a hot pan, pour in the peanut oil. When oil is hot, put the ginger and cooked it until slightly brown. Add in the masala and stir it with the ginger.

5. Mix in the tomatoes, bell peppers, and seasoned tofu and add the 2 cups of water. Simmer for 2 minutes.

6. Add the black beans sauce, sugar, bokchoy steams, and broccoli. Stir and simmer again for 2 minutes.

7. Add the bokchoy leaves and sesame oil, and do a quick stir.

8. Lastly, put the veggie 2na and simmer it for a second. Garnish it with some chives.

My first try in making Hong Kong style Snow Skin Moon Cake! The green one is flavored with Pandan essence, while the pink one is coconut flavor. Both have Adzuki bean paste w/ walnuts filling. (^_^) I just followed the ingredients and procedure from this video.

However, instead of only 80 gms for both of the rice flour and the glutinous rice flour, I did 100 grams for each, since I find it kind of watery with the 200 grams of milk. Also, the red bean paste filling I use is store brought, and I added some chopped walnuts on it.

1. Use a cling wrap when you’re kneading the moon cake dough. In this way, your dough is smoother and it won’t stick to your hands.

2. For the cooked starch, I just steamed a couple tablespoon of corn starch covered with paper towel for 15 minutes.

P.S.

Excuse my blurry pictures, for I don’t have a camera (it’s broken :( ) Instead, I took the photos via my iPhone.

Adobo is a very popular method of cooking in the Philippines. Perhaps, it’s the most popular and most distinguished among all Filipino cuisines, unfortunately, it’s commonly associated with meat. It has simple ingredients and very flexible procedures, so I come up with my own version of vegetarian adobo. You can either cook it right away, or have it marinated and cook the next day. Either way, the result is the same, yummy!

Tofu Adobo

Ingredients:

sliced tofu (sliced as you like but just thick enough in size; I cut mine in triangular shape)

1/2 cup lemon juice

6 pieces of slice lemon

1/2 cup of soy sauce or Bragg aminos

dried bay leaves

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp black pepper

sliced ginger (about 1/4 cup)

1 tbsp of oil

1 tsp of sesame oil

Procedure:

1. Drained and sliced the tofu and deep fry (you can pan fry also), set aside.

2. Slice the lemon and ginger and set aside.

3. In a bowl combine, the soy sauce, lemon juice, bay leaves, salt, pepper and sugar stir well, this will be our adobo sauce.

4. In a hot pot, put the oil and sauté’ the sliced lemon, ginger and about 3 pieces of bay leaves.

5. Stir in the fried tofu, and let it simmer for 2 minutes.

6. Add the adobo sauce,mix well and make sure that the tofu are fully coated with the sauce, simmer for 2 -3 minutes then add the sesame oil.

7. Offer and serve with love :) Hare Krishna!