Websites from the ISKCON Universe
By Hector Rosario, PhD Now, you may ask, but Srila Prabhupada instructed us to only chant 16 rounds. Why should we change that standard? Actually, we are not asking to change the institutional standard from 16 to 64 rounds. Our suggestion is simply that, on an individual basis, devotees should consider increasing their minimum daily vow of 16 to a higher number of rounds. Continue reading "Chant (at least) One More Round: Increasing our attachment to the Holy Name
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Toronto, Ontario
Night Tree of Colour
Despite cooler temperatures most trees in the area remain a rich green. Some, like the maple, are starting to show its true colour. At the end of the street from the temple/ashram you have got a majestic maple that is not just “showing” but it’s “showing off.” And it’s under that tree where, in two days, I’ll meet with my philosophical/spiritual friends for discussion. For now, a lit park lamp-post in the night is all that is necessary for the splendor of this tree to catch my fortunate eye.
With this vision my weekend ended, after Zoom classes and meetings. The day also included a good salad, endorsing papers for furthering spiritual education at one of our centres, speaking to Russians about the power of sweet mantras, watching videos of people who met our guru, Prabhupada, and much more. All culminating in the admiration of a tree.
My walk was deliberately brief—advice from my physio-therapist. I’m not doubting him, like I won’t doubt Mars getting close, and like I did not doubt, in our reading today, that a great avatar by the name Chaitanya, descended to establish this phenomenon of kirtan, under the plea of a concerned saint who sought a world that was slipping into darkness and danger.
I’m glad there are trees of color that offer hope.
May the Source be with you!
3 km
Scarborough, Ontario
Big Small
A good friend of mine, a former schoolteacher, sent me images of the subject: “The Scale of Things,” featuring a seven-foot long leatherback sea-turtle at 2000 pounds, and a whole bunch of other astounding statistics of what’s big on Earth and in our universe. One picture he forwarded featured an eagle’s talon/claw as enormous. Another one lined up a cut-and-paste Titanic next to a modern cruise liner. Quite the difference in size, showing how modern-day shipbuilding has truly excelled in 100 years. There’s an image of Michelangelo’s David, the size of three men. Terrifying is the scale of a gorilla’s hand in comparison to a human’s. One display showed how 1.3 million Earths fit into the sun.
I got back to my friend after looking at these images and I proposed to him to consider setting up the soul against the ego. The Vedas say that the atma, the soul, is one ten-thousandth the size of a tip of a hair. Compare that tiny spark of life we call a soul against the average human’s ego, and you’d have trouble comparing the difference in scale.
What we might draw as a conclusion, from imagining such, is the need to deflate that crazy entity we call ego. Yes, indeed, it’s the ego that gets us into trouble. Think of it in terms of a hot air balloon. It looks substantial but it’s really so much less than it poses to be.
Another thing that is big is our dreams. Some dreams become reality. It would be nice to get back Home, where we all belong.
May the source be with you!
0 km
Queen’s Park, Toronto
Numerals
These days many numbers are thrown at us—stats about Covid. How many people are infected this very day? How many died from the virus? Stay at home and keep your number of people gathering down to ten. Outside you can have twenty-five, etc.… The numbers are on the rise for those found with the virus. It’s not good! It’s a second wave. The number two.
However, someone sent me some figures about saving lives if the world switched to a plant-based diet. It reads like so:
If the world switched to plant-based food by 2050:
- 8.1 million human lives would be saved every year.
- Food related greenhouse gas emissions would fall by 70%.
- $1 trillion would be saved every year in healthcare costs.
Source: Oxford study.
Those are lofty numbers concerning sparing humans. Animals too.
For those of us who made vows, whether a monastic, like me, or a grihasta, householder, we’ve committed ourselves, to our guru, to chanting a minimum of sixteen rounds on our meditation beads, to follow four regulative principles, to the seven purposes of ISKCON, to honoring the avoidance of ten offenses to the Holy Name, cultivating nine processes of bhakti (devotion), and the list goes on.
Oh yes! And today I was to remember to follow a schedule. At 4:30 pm I was to meet Saurav, a young student who has questions on the goal of life. By 5:45 pm I was to return to the ashram. A nice few minutes with him.
May the source be with you!
3 km
Vrndavana forest improved from the rains and was replete with ripened dates, mangoes, blackberries, and other fruits. Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, accompanied by His cowherd friends and Lord Balarama, entered the forest to enjoy the new seasonal atmosphere.
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We are happy to announce that we are sending Tulasi seeds to anyone who would like some!
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In this vlog we meet some diverse people who all have one thing in common ... they are all Hare Krishna's.
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As part of the World Holy Name week celebrations, we invite you all to hear from Shaktyavesha Avatar Das and Pancharatna Das. They will share their realizations and experiences on how to effectively propagate the most sublime chanting of the Holy names in the digital age.
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We often hear that devotees live a life of mature compassion. They perform multifarious activities out of their compassion for the welfare of all living entities. While performing these compassionate acts, their vision is set on serving the Supreme Lord and begging for mercy, not for themselves, but for others. Each mature devotee performs different acts of compassion according to his inclination and capacity
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By Pusta Krishna das When our Godbrother, Atreya Rsi, was in Tehran in the 1970s, he wrote to Srila Prabhupad to inform him that he had gotten some of the Muslims to chant the Hare Krishna Mantra. Srila Prabhupad's reply was very interesting and enlightening Continue reading "Glorification of the Holy Names can Unite the world
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By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada “My dear Lord, I received this valuable human form of life, but I have wasted it for nothing. This life is meant for understanding Radha and Krishna, but I did not do so. Therefore I have knowingly taken poison.” Sometimes a person takes poison to commit suicide. He knows that as soon as he’ll take the poison he’ll die. Similarly, one who is not taking to Krishna consciousness is drinking poison. Continue reading "Freedom through the Holy Name
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Podcast
Video:
The post The Monk’s Podcast 67 with Gauranga Prabhu – Intellectuals in bhakti @ Bhaktivendanta Research Center appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Video – Bhagavad Gita 5.29 The Peace Formula 2020-08-30 Ljubljana
The post Video - BG 5.29 The Peace Formula 8/30/2020 first appeared on Prahladananda Swami.
At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, ISKCON temples around the world closed their doors, and many found challenges in maintaining themselves without traditional in-person outreach activities. By June, some had begun to reopen, with locally mandated restrictions. New Vrindaban, ISKCON’s first farm community, in West Virginia, faced particular economic challenges due to the size […]
The post New Vrindaban Endures Through COVID-19, Provides Visitors with Respite in Safe Space appeared first on ISKCON News.
More recently New Vrindaban devotees welcomed guests on Labor Day Weekend, from September 5th to 7th. As always, masks, sanitization, and social distancing were in place over the weekend.
>Krsna has many pastimes, of which His pastimes in Goloka Vrndavana are supreme. He also has pastimes in the Vaikunthas, the spiritual world, as Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha.
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 13 April 2020, Durban, South Africa, Caitanya Caritamrta Lecture: Deities)
In Jagannatha Puri, besides the deity of Lord Jagannatha, there is another famous deity which was the Gopinatha deity of Gadadhara known as Ṭoṭā-gopīnātha. We had just described in the Caitanya Caritamrta that Gadadhara had taken a vow of ksetra-sanyasi. The vow was to just stay in Jagannatha Puri and serve the deity, but Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, “How can you break your vow?” And Gadadhara said, “I am not interested in keeping that vow. I am interested in the association of the Lord.” But Lord Caitanya instructed him to stay. Anyway, the deity of Ṭoṭā-gopīnātha is a very large deity and Gadadhara in his old age found it very difficult to actually decorate the head of the deity. So one day, the deity just sat down overnight. When they opened the door, the deity was in a sitting position, in a crossed-legged position. So this is a very famous deity in our line. Gadadhara is very significant and very important to us.
The article " The story of Ṭoṭā-gopīnātha " was published on KKSBlog.
Today is the divine appearance day of Chitra Sakhi. Chitra is the fourth of the varistha gopis. Her beautiful saffron complexion resembles the color of kumkuma, and her garments are the color of crystal. She is 26 days older than Srimati Radharani, being 14 years, 7 months and 14 days of age. Her father is […]
The post Chitra Sakhi Appearance Day appeared first on Mayapur.com.
We together as one world team smashed our goal of 10,000 to do 23,000 sets!
Read More...Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.25
When Lord Krsna wanders in the forest of Vrndavana with His friends on an equal level, there are innumerable cows grazing. This is one of the Lord’s blissful enjoyments. When He plays on His flute, all living entities-including trees, plants, animals, and human beings-tremble and are saturated with jubilation. Tears flow constantly from their eyes.
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We have been informed that Caitanya Candra Carana Prabhu, one of our Russian GBCs and his wife, Gauracandrika Devi, have tested positive for Covid-19. They have both been extremely ill for quite some days now but are on the mend.
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English rendition of the beautiful song Kevalastakam (madhuram madhurebhyo api… harer namaiva kevalam.)
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Bhakti Prabhava Swami: "Our life is very short. The Krishna consciousness movement is not meant for fulfilling one's personal ambition, but it is a serious movement for the whole world. I am therefore going to the Eastern hemisphere, beginning from Japan. We are going four in a party and all of us are sannyasis. In this old age I am going with this party just to set an example to my disciples who have taken recently the sannyasa order... Take it now with great responsibility and every one of you may serve jointly for Krishna's satisfaction. That is my request to you all."
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Be aware of how your lifestyle, attitude and activities are supporting your chanting. The more you change your lifestyle, around the sound vibration of the Maha-mantra, the more your consciousness will change. The more your consciousness changes, the more your lifestyle will change. Purified consciousness leads to purified lifestyle, and purified lifestyle leads to purified consciousness. Therefore, it is important to consciously organize your lifestyle to support better chanting of the Maha-mantra.
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Jagattarini Mataji joins us with Part 2 of her fascinating puppetry adventures!
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An Opportunity to Worship Supremely Merciful Lord Gauranga in Supremely Merciful Abode Navadvipa Dhama, in the Supremely Powerful Purusottama Month by performing the Navadvipa Dhama Parikrama!
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Recently our very innovative centre manager Madhavananda Das saw a plane flying above with a banner that had an anti political statement. From this he got the brainchild to do the same thing with 'Hare Krishna' in the message. He made inquiries and when the aviation company heard it was for the 'Hare Krishnas' they were so favourable they agreed to do it for a heavily discounted price. Result was the plane flew all around the Gold Coast for one hour displaying a banner saying 'Chant Hare Krishna For World Peace' while our Harinam party was chanting below. The 700000 strong population plus thousands of weekend visitors on a beautiful sunny Saturday all saw the holy name.
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To be attentive on the level of the heart when chanting the holy name requires deep internal work. We have to become personal in our relationship with Krishna, consciously directing ourselves towards Him while calling out in helplessness: "I know You are there - please accept me!" The secret is to chant while mindfully turning towards Krishna, appealing to Him with a deep and genuine longing in our heart - longing for this loving relationship.
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By Tapana Misra dasa The International Shravanam week is not the end of the emphasis on reading every day. It was meant to have a concerted effort to remind us all of the significance of reading Srila Prabhupada’s books every day for every member of ISKCON. At the ministry we have now close to 108 realizations and several recorded interviews that we will release one every week. We hope that with your support we can maintain the enthusiasm until the next year festival and for lifetimes to come :- ) Continue reading "International Shravanam Week – An Expression of Gratitude
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Deer Park, Toronto
Concerning Talks
A yogi friend of mine, Devananda, who I’ve known for forty-five plus years, came by. He spends half his time in India and half in China. It looks like he retreats to his native Toronto now and then. We always have a good chat. Today we covered everything from The Gita, bhakti, jnana, smarta brahmins, Covid-19, transgender, vaccines, Indian history, Islam, you name it. We spoke while eating prasadam, nice blessed food, in the environment of “Govinda’s” dining hall.
Devananda is cool, a Canadian, Jewish, and yes, a yogi; genuine in his practice. We’ll meet again, soon.
It was a stimulating GitaZoom class from 5 to 6 pm, a regular, blissful undertaking every Thursday. A subsequent reading from the book Chaitanya Charitamrta is a regular daily happening, followed by our staircase kirtan. Oh! How passersby respond, especially when the drumming is good.
My final event for the day was a vigorous walk to the Deer Park area, by Davisville, to see some of our bhakti-yogi devotees that I haven’t seen for some time. Covid-19 has put them into hiding. I enjoyed the prasadamthey fed me with, homemade bread and buns with veggie stuffing inside. The pool, with water fountains, was pleasant as the day came to a close. I sat there in concerning thoughts about our world—so much turmoil.
On the topic of transgender please check out Father Mike https://youtu.be/4-9_
May the Source be with you!
3 km
Toronto, Ontario
A Week of Chanting
For one week (September 17-23) there will be beautiful presentations of chanting. For this celebration I wanted to include in this day’s blog one of my favorite songs regarding the practice of kirtan or chanting. I was in Atlanta when our guru, Prabhupada, taught us this song in February of ‘75.
The song is called Sri Gaura Nityananda Daya and here is the translation:
The two Lords, Nitai-Gaurachandra, are very merciful. They are the essence of all incarnations. The specific significance of these incarnations is that they introduced a process of chanting and dancing that is simply joyful.
My dear brother, I request that you just worship Lord Caitanya and Nityananda with firm conviction and faith. If one wants to be Krishna conscious by this process, one has to give up his engagement in sense gratification. One simply has to chant, "Hare Krishna! Hari Hari!" without any motive.
But Lochana Das (the author) regrets that I am entrapped by sense gratification. Since I have no attraction for the lotus feet of Sri Chaitanya and Sri Nityananda, then Yamaraja, the superintendent of death, is punishing me by not allowing me to be attracted by this movement.
May the source be with you!
0 km
Sukadeva GosvamI said to King Pariksit, “For one who has accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation and is famous as Murari, the enemy of the Mura demon, the ocean of the material world is like the water contained in a calf’s hoofprint. His goal is Vaikuntha, the place where there are no material miseries, not the place where there is danger at every step.”
Read More...Answer Podcast
The post When exactly does the soul enter during the process of conception? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
