Websites from the ISKCON Universe
I crack my face from the computer screen;
endless numbers and colours
and impressions of others’ lives.
Noise,
I am drunk on noise.
I have drunk so much noise that it flows from my ears and eyes.
Now change the view:
fields at 7pm.
I don’t care if it’s a cliche to admire this
golden hour,
somewhere between night and day.
Today it has rained so much that even the soft light is washed clean,
piercing shadow.
My eyes ache, refocus on distant points,
sheafs of cloud, brilliant white and thunder blue.
The grass shivers as the sun slips lower,
flowers close.
There is so much movement even in this stillness -
striped snails navigate the paths with cautious grace,
one magpie dives like a playing card tossed through the air,
I can feel again,
I can drink this forever -
the wet pavements covered in spatters of orange
and pink, from the flowering trees,
the sound of your name spoken softly all the while.
‘As Kindred Spirits’ by Asher Durand Cole (1849)
Question: How can we overcome all our material problems and unhappiness and attain the perfection of life?
Answer by Srila Hridayananda das Goswami:
The best way to overcome all sorts of unhappiness is to remember who we really are: pure souls, part of Krishna/God/Spirit. We have innumerable fellow pure souls with whom we are eternally related in unbreakable bonds of love and devotion.
As Krishna explains in the Gita, our consciousness is now ‘covered’ by ‘un-knowledge’ and we can dissipate that covering thru knowledge.
The Maha-mantra, ‘great mantra’, is: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
Hare is an address to HarA, the feminine counterpart of Krishna. By chanting ‘hare’, we appeal to the supreme feminine power to spiritually uplift us and engage us in the Lord’s eternal service. The word hare is from the root hR, which means ‘to take’. Thus the supreme feminine power, also known as Radha, will take away all our troubles and take us to Krishna.
Krishna comes from two Sanskrit verbal roots:
1. Krsh = ‘to attract'; 2. nand = to give, or feel, bliss. [the word a-nanda is from this root.] Thus ‘Krishna’ means that God is the source of infinite bliss because He is infinitely attractive/beautiful. You are beautiful because you are an eternal part of the infinite beauty of Krishna.
Rama comes from the Sanskrit root ‘ram’ which means ‘to enjoy’. Rama means ‘the source of pleasure.’ There is a Sanskrit text which states:
ramante yogino anante satyanande cid-atmani
iti rama-padenasau param brahmabhidhiyate
“The yogis enjoy in the infinite bliss of truth, in the conscious Soul. Therefore the Absolute Truth is described by the word Rama.”
So the Maha-mantra is ‘one stop shopping’ to achieve a perfect life. If you make this mantra your constant companion, you will never be alone. A final point: the Vedic wisdom teaches that the Absolute Truth is identical to His/Her name. So when you chant the Maha-mantra, you are not merely referring to something, but rather you are directly in contact, in touch, with the Truth. In Sanskrit, the word for ‘contact’ is ‘yoga.’ So by chanting, singing, remembering, meditating on this mantra, you are directly in a state of yoga, directly in touch with the infinitely beautiful source of all happiness. By that contact, you will revive and enjoy your own eternal, divine nature. It is only because that nature is now covered that we experience, artificially, sadness, loneliness etc.
With best wishes,
Hridayananda das Goswami
Question: Srila Prabhupada says in the book Teachings of Lord Chaitanya, that when we chant Hare Krishna, Hare Rama not only do we invoke Krishna and Balarama but also Lord Caitanya and Nityanada. You said that when we chant japa, Krsna is present in His name and so we are in the presence of Krishna, speaking directly to Krsna. Can I say, therefore, that Lord Caitanya and Nityananda are also present in front of me when I chant japa or kirtana etc. and, thus, can I pray to Lord Caitanya and Nityananda – at the time of japa – to mercifully help me chant japa more carefully and with more concentration?
Answer by Srila Hridayananda das Goswami:
Undoubtedly Gaura-Nitai are present when you sing the Mahamantra. They are very merciful and only by His mercy, manifested in this world by Srila Prabhupada, we can overcome the ocean of Kali.
With best wishes,
Hridayananda das Goswami
It seems like my favorite “Charmin” has some new competition. The new kid in the block is more environmentally friendly, more durable, and very edgy. It has a very straight forward branding, which I think has really captured the consumer’s very skeptical favors and opinions. 100% recycled, 2-ply, un-embossed, fair-trade, are just some of its main selling point, and of course, its elegant and colorful logo. Without much delayed, let’s all welcome:
Sometimes, the simplest name works!
Here’s the company’s link if you want more info:
My theme is to express myself that anyone and everyone could get me - from little kids to elders, from Americans to Tanzanians. But when I hit dry spells, sometimes I feel that no one gets me. I feel lonely and frustrated.
Sometimes I just want to write, write, write, to feel the blessed freedom to write for the sake of writing for me. If I sound eloquent, great. If I would silly and awkward, wonderful.
So in a step of evolution, I have decided to set out on an adventure! I have opened a blog called 30 Day X-ray, which I shall post on every single day for 30 days straight. An X-ray of my life, so to speak.
I invite all of you, my dear readers, to check out 30dayxray.blogspot.com.
Adventures await.
My theme is to express myself that anyone and everyone could get me - from little kids to elders, from Americans to Tanzanians. But when I hit dry spells, sometimes I feel that no one gets me. I feel lonely and frustrated.
Sometimes I just want to write, write, write, to feel the blessed freedom to write for the sake of writing for me. If I sound eloquent, great. If I would silly and awkward, wonderful.
So in a step of evolution, I have decided to set out on an adventure! I have opened a blog called 30 Day X-ray, which I shall post on every single day for 30 days straight. An X-ray of my life, so to speak.
I invite all of you, my dear readers, to check out 30dayxray.blogspot.com.
Adventures await.
Yesterday was Pandava Nirjal Ekadasi, and it was really challenging. Not just physically, but most especially spiritually. By Krishna’s mercy, I made it! Although, I have to take a tiny sip of water, for I was already having double vision due to my headache (LOL)! My husband and I was chanting our rounds, but he chanted more than me. I struggled a bit not to look at the box of champagne mangoes we have at the kitchen counter, and to divert my attention, aside from chanting, I ended up cutting paper patterns for my gopi skirt project. To keep us awake and to be somehow absorb in our KC on Nirjal, we tuned up to Krishna. com’s live broadcast and listened to bhajans and lectures, and of course more chanting. All in all, it was a really nice Nirjal Ekadasi. The following day, we didn’t have anything special to break our fast, instead we just had some mangoes and some home made muesli, and then the usual, going back to work. While I was at work, I received a text message from my husband that we should make some donuts to celebrate, and since it’s the “National Donut Day”. So, since we didn’t really had a feast after fasting, we decided to make some donuts :)
Question: Do you think that the increased food distribution to poor children and the opening of hospitals by ISKCON (in India) compromises ISKCON’s purpose as established by Srila Prabhupada, or diminishes its purity of distributing pure spirituality?
Answer by Srila Hridayananda das Goswami:
I agree that ISKCON should not become, or be perceived as having become, a mundane welfare society. It would be hard to make the case, for example, that Chowpatty is predominantly ‘mundane’, given the extraordinary attention to sadhana-bhakti there, and the powerful preaching programs at colleges etc.
In the US and West Europe there are far fewer ‘welfare’ programs, and of course the movement is largely irrelevant and forgotten. Prabhupada spoke of varnashrama and even wanted to dedicate his last visit to the US, which health did not permit, to varnashrama. Mundane society is a headless body, but ISKCON is a disembodied head. One may imagine that without widespread prasadam distribution, hospitals etc ,we will become a major spiritual force in society simply by preaching philosophy and chanting etc, but we may not. Ever.
In the West, an extraordinary historical ‘window’ opened and ISKCON grew. That window is now largely closed and we make devotees at a tiny rate compared to then. Other windows may be opening but we have yet to clearly identify them.
In India, the stunning novelty of western Vaishnavas powered the initial expansion of ISKCON, and now ISKCON India is flying under its own steam. To imagine that we can be a large, powerful movement in India and entirely reject programs such as food distribution and hospitals is, in my view, unrealistic. Such a view, I believe, ignores real history. Of course we may go too far. But we must be careful not to go to either extreme.
With best wishes,
Hridayananda das Goswami
MOSCOW: An ancient Vishnu idol has been found during excavation in an old village in Russia’s Volga region, raising questions about the prevalent view on the origin of ancient Russia. The idol found in Staraya (old) Maina village dates back to VII-X century AD. Staraya Maina village in Ulyanovsk region was a highly populated city 1700 years ago, much older than Kiev, so far believed to be the mother of all Russian cities.
“We may consider it incredible, but we have ground to assert that Middle-Volga region was the original land of Ancient Rus. This is a hypothesis, but a hypothesis, which requires thorough research,” Reader of Ulyanovsk State Universityâ’s archaeology department Dr Alexander Kozhevin told state-run television Vesti .
Dr Kozhevin, who has been conducting excavation in Staraya Maina for last seven years, said that every single square metre of the surroundings of the ancient town situated on the banks of Samara, a tributary of Volga, is studded with antiques.
Prior to unearthing of the Vishnu idol, Dr Kozhevin has already found ancient coins, pendants, rings and fragments of weapons.
He believes that todayâ’s Staraya Maina, a town of eight thousand, was ten times more populated in the ancient times. It is from here that people started moving to the Don and Dneiper rivers around the time ancient Russy built the city of Kiev, now the capital of Ukraine. An international conference is being organised later this year to study the legacy of the ancient village, which can radically change the history of ancient Russia.
Some Conclusions by others:
The discovery of an ancient Vishnu idol in an excavation in Russia only confirms certain ideas I have always had about the Vedic ancient and glorious land and culture.
The report says that the area in which the idol was found is called Staraya Maina. In the Rig Veda, there is a passage that goes, Itham ascati pasyat syantham, ekam starayath mainaa-kaalam. This translates into Staraya Maina is the name of the land of the 45 rivers (on whose banks the noble Rishis conducted the famous Horse Sacrifices), where the sun god descends into one fifty two forty seven. While the first line identifies a location, the second line talks about the exact latitude and longitude at which the solar spectrum produces interference lines at one, fifty two, and forty seven. The extreme precision of the calculations show the advanced science of the Vedic period, and also a thorough knowledge of SI units (it has been conclusively proven that French scientists stole the system from the Indians.
The discovery of the idol confirms the location in Russia, identified in the Rig Veda as rus soviath sapthamahanagaratham (the ancient and holy land of the 722 flying vehicles). The ancient connections between the Russians and the Indians has been unequivocally confirmed. In Russian orthodox Christianity, worship is conducted very much like in Vishnu temples. The Russians refer to the feast of Vizhnyir Ekoratsya Vikhunh, directly corresponding with Vaikhunda Ekhadasi.
The Russian language also owes a lot to Sanskrit, whose origins 50,000 years ago roughly correspond with the language of the people of the Smritzyi archaeological site, along the banks of the now-dried up Vernstokhlin (Varnasatyakhalini) river system.
It is common knowledge in the archaeological community that the Parashurama Sutra, the basis of all government policy in the erstwhile Kerala kingdom of Vaazhappazhaa, contains the lines Sthulyam Kaamyunishancha kalanam brighahaha. The links between the ancient Russians and Indians almost certainly aided by the 60,00 odd scholars of the University of Vexalate (Sk. Vekhshalatha, Ru. Vekholotsla), in modern-day Central Afghanistan, in the 17th Century BCE, is said to have transferred political ideas through the land of the Vanga (Ru. Vangnya) in modern-day West Bengal. 
The Vishnu idol is depicted with a hammer in one left hand while the deconglated seventh arm on the right side holds a reticulated sickle. This hammer and sickle imagery is also found in the Parashurama Sutra, conclusively placing the origin of great and popular Russian political ideology in Vedic India.
The Bringdunthaladeena Upanishad also mentions Kaamyunishcham in its list of land sacrifices, where under the directions of the King, all the land in the country was donated to the performance of sacrifices where Brahmins continuously tickled horny silk-rats (Gandharvamooshicam) until they collapsed in orgiastic exhaustion. The text also clearly identifies a group of scholars referred to as the Paalita Buryam, who oversaw the functioning of the King.
For years, western historical study dominated by Greco-Capitalists, has sought to undermine the Vedic Indian contributions to what came to be 19th and 20th Century world politics. The Greco-Capitalists also attributed the ideology of Communism to the work done by Karl Marx, one of their own. It has been well documented that Marx indeed visited Kerala and West Bengal, and had thorough understanding of the Parashurama Sutra, a copy of which he picked up in the old-book-stall near the Cochin airport. Later on, as part of the larger Greco-centric Capitalist conspiracy, Marx took all the credit himself.
In 1952 in Soviet Russia, an archaeologist, Prof. Varely Smirzkoff of Odessa University found artefacts near the ancient Belarussian town of Kozhikodz. He was the first to speculate that the ruling political ideology of his country could well have had its origins in Vedic India rather than Modern Europe. Stalin funded Smirzkoffâ’s research until Smirrzkoff was suddenly found to have stolen over 500,000 paper clips from work over the course of his tenure at Odessa University. He was sent to Siberia, and with him went almost all academic proof that would have certainly brought Russia and India closer together.
This recent discovery should resurrect the pioneering work started by Prof. Varely Smirzkoff, who died of Contracted Poloniumitis of the nose, in 1964.
Chakrini, a very well known kirtan leader visited us in 2011, Radhe Govinda being one of the songs sung on that day. We are indebted to Vasu for the recording and sound editing.
Chakrini, a very well known kirtan leader visited us in 2011, Radhe Govinda being one of the songs sung on that day. We are indebted to Vasu for the recording and sound editing.
Chakrini, a very well known kirtan leader visited us in 2011, Radhe Govinda being one of the songs sung on that day. We are indebted to Vasu for the recording and sound editing.
Comments by Srila Hridayananda das Goswami when asked to review the article “A Hindu Response to Gay Rights” (Huffington Post):
A) The notion of a ‘trtiya prakrti’, or ‘third gender’ tends to distort the Shastra view. The Shastras do not explicitly speak of a 3rd gender/prakrti. The term is not traditional.
B) Interestingly, the Manu-samhita states that homosexuality is not a big sin. The text is overwhelmingly concerned with varna-sankara, varna-mixing that produces mixed progeny. Since gays don’t reproduce, there is not much concern with them.
C) I understand the militant gay response to oppression. At the same time, there is something unfortunate about identifying oneself by sexual orientation. Bodily-identification, with any orientation, is illusory, and further identifying oneself not merely with the body, but with the body’s sexuality, is clearly not ‘the way.’
D) The abused become the abusers. I know of several cases, among my acquaintances, where gays discriminated against straight people. One case occurred with my disciple who is a straight, modern dancer. He was fired from his job, despite his qualifications, because the other dancers found out he was straight.
Conclusion: I believe we should support spirituality, and support gays within that framework.
With best wishes,
Hridayananda das Goswami
Click here to see an earlier essay on a similar theme.
The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater (outcaste).
The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater (outcaste).
Questions: How to balance philosophy and religion in ISKCON?
Answer by Srila Hridayananda das Goswami:
Inevitably in every religion there will be a theological divide between those who seek to combine philosophy and religion, as Prabhupada recommended, and those who feel that religion without rational consideration is better. Prabhupada taught us that we need reasonable devotion, and devoted reason. Otherwise, in the name of glorifying Prabhupada, some devotees drift into fanaticism and sentimentalism. And in the name of reason, others lose their understanding of Prabhupada’s unique contribution.
With best wishes,
Hridayananda das Goswami
A Hare Krishna kirtan led by Tulasi Harrison, recorded in 2009, Oxford
A Hare Krishna kirtan led by Tulasi Harrison, recorded in 2009, Oxford