Srila Prabhupada said "whatever little success we have had in our Movement is because of our books." In order to appeal to the minds of the people in the coming age, Srila Vyasadeva thought it wise to have what he had to say committed to writing. This, indeed, was his means of conquest. So when Sukanti Radha Devi Dasi asked me to write an article on the importance of writing and what Srila Prabhupada has said about writing, I thought of two particular quotes that Srila Prabhupada had said: "Writing is the real business."and one other.

Activities of the Hare Krishna Training Center in Nairobi during the year 2019

The purpose of human life (video)
Srimad Bhagavatam class by HH Maha Vishnu Swami - 29 January 2020 at ISKCON Melbourne.

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3.23.

“The person who has not at any time received the dust of the feet of the Lord’s pure devotee upon his head is certainly a dead body. And the person who has never experienced the aroma of the tulas? leaves from the lotus feet of the Lord is also a dead body, although breathing. SB 2.3.23

Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3.23 (Right click to download)

CHI St. Luke’s Health is a part of Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI).

Audio
Talk at St Luke’s (Right click to download)

On February 13, 2020, the auspicious Divine Appearance Day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada, the TOVP staff and all of ISKCON will celebrate another milestone event in the progress of the construction of the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium: the inauguration of the Deities’ completed new pujari floor.

This 2.5 acre floor consists of over 20 specially designed Deity seva rooms built to the highest construction standards, with state-of-the-art modern facilities to enable the impeccable service of Sri Sri Radha Madhava, Sri Pancha Tattva, Sri Nrsimha and the Guru Parampara in Their long-awaited new home for hundreds of years to come.

The celebration begins at 9am with a special procession from the current temple bringing Srila Prabhupada, Lord Nityananda’s Padukas and small Radha Madhava to the TOVP where they will be offered the first view of all the rooms of the Pujari Floor. The complete schedule is below and the entire event will be viewable live or recorded on www.mayapur.tv.

21 of the rooms on the Pujari Floor have also been selected for eager donors to sponsor. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to directly serve ISKCON’s Main Deities at our World Headquarters in sacred Sridhama Mayapur won’t come again. You can personally serve Their Lordships by financing the completion of one of these rooms, and have your name placed over the entrance as the sevaite responsible for this unique service. Make your pledge today and receive Their Lordships’ eternal blessings.

For more information go to the TOVP Rooms of Worship page here.

Grand Opening Schedule

9:00 – Svagata: Welcoming the Deities, Padukas and Srila Prabhupada
9:30 – Invocation Prayers
9:45 – Addresses by Senior Vaishnavas
11:30 – Vastu Puja/Homa Yajna
12:15 – Puspanjali for H.D.G Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur
12:30 – Pujari Kaksha Udghatana: Pujari Rooms Opening
2:00 – Bhandara: Celebration Feast

TOVP NEWS AND UPDATES – STAY IN TOUCH

Visit us at: www.tovp.org
Follow us at: www.facebook.com/tovp.mayapur
Watch us at: www.youtube.com/user/tovpinfo
View us 360° at: www.tovp360.org
App at: https://m.tovp.org/app
News & Texts at: https://m.tovp.org/newstexts
RSS News Feed at: https://tovp.org/rss2/
Buy from us at: https://tovp.org/tovp-gift-store/
Support us at: https://tovp.org/donate/seva-opportunities/

The post TOVP Pujari Floor Grand Opening, February 13 – A Landmark and Historic Event appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

Humility is essential in devotional service (video)
Srimad Bhagavatam class by HH Bhakti Rasayana Sagar Swami - 25 January 2020, Iskcon Vrindavana

Bhurijana dasa: Even ducks and other birds of Vrindaban participate in Krsna's wonderful pastimes. "Some boys imitated flying birds by running after the bird's shadows on the ground, some imitated the beautiful movements and attractive postures of the swans, some sat down with the ducks, sitting silently, and others imitated the dancing of the peacocks.

Read More...

When I arrived in Auckland the devotees had already lined up a few home programs and the first was at the home of Suryacandra Krsna and family, who are wonderful devotees originally from India.

It is a beautiful double story house and on the first floor there is a great view of the bay and the city of Auckland. As usual, we started the evening with kirtan, then lecture and questions and finally prasadam.

A video by ISKCON Boston.

Forgiveness is Pleasing to Krsna - The duty of a brahmana is to culture the quality of forgiveness, which is illuminating like the sun. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, is pleased with those who are forgiving. (SB 9.15.40)

Harinama in Australian Day Parade (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Simply by chanting the holy name of Lord Krishna, one can be freed from all undesirable habits. This is the means of awakening all good fortune and initiating the flow of waves of love for Krishna. (Sri-Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, 20.11)

Keeping in good association (video)
Srimad Bhagavatam class by HG Pancha Gauda Prabhu - 26 January 2020 at ISKCON Vrindavan

This is where His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada lived in 1944 at Kolkata, West Bengal, India

A very clever “devotee glove”! It took me a second to figure it out, but Bhakti Rasayana Sagar Swami has immediately pointed out Hladini Shakti Prabhu's ingenuity

For the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada this report contains the following North American results of book distribution for the month of December 2019. North American Totals, Monthly Temples, Monthly Weekend Warriors. Monthly Top 100 Individuals, Monthly Top 5, Cumulative Countries, Cumulative Temples, Cumulative Top 100 Individuals, Cumulative Top 5 Continue reading "NASN December 2019 – North American Sankirtan Newsletter
→ Dandavats"

Mother Kulangana had a special affinity for milk products from childhood as a result of keeping cows on her family farm. Thus, she was naturally attracted to cooking the milk sweets the devotees offered to Krishna every day. She quickly became an expert cook, mastering the various recipes, skills and techniques required for milk sweet making. Another gift which gave Mother Kulangana no end of pleasure, was painting the sweets with food colouring.

HH Jayapataka Swami gave Harinam initiation to 950 candidates in Bangladesh.
Here is a recent video of him trying to encourage the distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books with a Tulabhara.
Tula means scale and bhara means weight. Traditionally, someone sits on one side of the scale and on the other side rice with shell, coconut, banana, different fruits will be stacked, until it is equal to the weight of the person. Then this bhoga is offered to the Lord. Here it seems that the weight of His Holiness in books will be distributed to lucky souls!!!

Morning Class SB 4.27.28 HG Narayani Mataji - 23 January 2020 at ISKCON Melbourne (video)

“Unless one is protected by the mercy of the Lord, no remedial measure can act effectively. One should consequently depend fully on the causeless mercy of the Lord. Although as a matter of routine duty one must of course accept other remedial measures, no one can protect one who is neglected by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In this material world, everyone is trying to counteract the onslaught of material nature, but everyone is ultimately fully controlled by material nature. Therefore even though so-called philosophers and scientists try to surmount the onslaught of material nature, they have not been able to do so.” Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.9.19 purport.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.9.19

Below is a checklist to help you determine whether or not you are practicing a life of forgiveness, and thus what you may still need to work on. Go over this checklist as many times as needed for any person you have issues with.

Seminar - One Story four Truths 22nd Jan 2020 By HG Bhurijana Prabhu ISKCON Juhu Mumba (video)

The Living Name Retreat is a unique experience focused on reigniting one’s relationship with the Holy Name.

A video by Radhadesh Mellows.

It all started when Mukundananda  Das from Rome expressed keen interest in bringing the movie to Italy and he got encouraged to find a distributor. 

The Bhakti Center’s community is what its team are most proud of, fostering incredible transformation. Its latest report, shares several “Bhakti Journey” stories from everyday New Yorkers who were searching for something more, showing their step-by-step progress.

“It is quite encouraging to help someone leave their body in Krishna consciousness with the expectation that they wont have to take birth again in the material world but will go back to Godhead. I have spoken to people that have said that helping someone leave their body at the time of death was a very sacred time for them.”

Hospice Care (Right click to download)

The evolution from seeing Krishna as the supplier of our needs to seeing him as our greatest need usually takes many lifetimes.

You have a 20-second window to make an impression – they stop, you size them up, put in a spiritual pitch, something interesting, inspirational and endearing, and wait for a reaction – hit, miss or blank… anything could happen! One thing is for sure – people are perceptive. They can sniff out any sense of superficiality, selfish motive, or insecurity within moments.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 28 May 2019, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Srimad Bhagavatam 6.11.25)

It is important to always turn to Krsna and remember that Krsna will decide. Krsna has His plan. We can think of a chess board where we are a pawn on the chess board. So as a pawn on the chess board, we can see the squares that are closest to us. Oh, there is a horse coming! We can see that, so then we must watch out. But while there are a few squares around us that we can see, we cannot oversee the whole board. We cannot oversee the whole game. Krsna, however, is the chess player and He can see seven moves ahead. He is the ultimate chess player and so He knows everything! We can see the horse coming but we cannot see more than the immediate circumstances that we are in. All we can see is what is happening in our life right now and we see it as something good or something bad. But how do we know if something is really bad? How can we ever know?

Prabhupada told us a story about a King. There was a King and he was in the Royal Court where he was playing with an arrow and this arrow had a very sharp head. As the king was playing with this arrow, he made a wrong move and he cut a little piece of his finger. Well that was a national disaster! I mean, a piece cut off the royal finger. The whole kingdom had to lament about the royal finger. But there was one minister who said to the King, “Your majesty, this was a good thing. This has happened for a reason.” Of course, the King got really upset at the minister saying that it was good that the royal finger got cut off. “You think it was good? Well then it will also be good if you are put in the jail for a while!”, the King ordered. So in next moment, the soldiers came and dragged the minister off and threw him in the dungeons. After a few days, the King went into the forest for some hunting, but when he was in the forest, he got caught by some dacoits. These dacoits were worshipping Mahabhairava, which is the ghastly form of Durga, and so they decided that they would offer the King to Mahabhairava for auspiciousness. So these dacoits were getting the King ready for the sacrifice with the ornaments and all, but then they saw a piece was missing from the King’s finger. According to their tradition, if there is a piece missing, the person could not be offered. Oh no! So then, they allowed the King to go. After the King came back, he was thinking about his minister and called for him. He told the minister that he was right. “It was good after all that I cut that piece off my finger because it saved my life, but one thing I do not understand is why it was good that you were in jail… how is that good?”, the King asked. The minister replied that it was very good actually that he was in jail, because if he was not, he would have been with the King on the hunting trip and when the dacoits let the King go, they would have sacrificed him (the minister) instead. So in this way, Krsna can see so many moves ahead and we simply cannot. So we may think sometimes that our current circumstances are bad, but maybe what is bad now later turns out to be good. So in this way, Krsna is actually protecting us.

The article " Krsna – The Ultimate Chess Player " was published on KKSBlog.

A lady, member of the congregation, went to her local Hare Krishna Temple president and said, I won’t be attending the Temple anymore.
He said, May I ask why??
She said I see people on their cell phones during the services, some are gossiping, some just ain’t living right, they are all just hypocrites…
The Temple president got silent, and he said, ok… But can I ask you to do something for me before you make your final decision?

Tomorrow is Pancha krosa Parikrama – going on Parikrama by walk in and around Mayapur. We will leave from Srila Prabhupada bhajan kutir on 25th Jan by 5 a.m., taking sankalpa ( spiritual vow) to perform this Parikrama. The Parikrama will proceed through Jagai -Madhai ghat, Ganga nagara, Bharadwaja Tila, entering Simantadwip and visiting Jagannath […]

The post Mayapur Panchakros Parikrama appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Boat Trip to Mamgachi Holy Site with Kirtan led by H.H. Kadamba Kanana Swami Maharaja in Sri Dhama Mayapur, India. Video capture by Shyamsundar dasa. Video editing & rendering by Pandava dasa.