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The post What is the difference between knowledge, intelligence and self-realization? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

The Vaisnava Appreciation Festival in Berlin (Album of photos)
“A family that prays together, stays together. A family that sings together, clings together. A family that dines together, shines together. A family that dances together, advances together.” (HH Radhanath Swami)
On Saturday it was time for one of the best celebrations of the year: The Vaisnava Appreciation Festival!
Many of us had been looking forward to this glorious occasion - and no one of the more than 40 guests went home disappointed!

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

Krsna is described as the source of all opportunities. This is a fact. Krsna says: sarvasya caham hrdi sannvistho mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo vedanta-krd veda-vid eva caham (Bhagavad-gita 15.15). He says that He is in the heart of all living beings and from Him comes remembrance and from Him comes forgetfulness.

Srila Prabhupada explains that Krsna helps us to remember Him and Krsna also helps us to forget Him. So the opportunities are entirely in our hands. We can decide what we want to be. We can decide if we want to live like an animal or if we want to live like a human being or if we want to live like a demigod. It is entirely up to us to decide whether we want to be in the mode of ignorance or mode of passion or mode of goodness or go to the path of pure transcendental devotional service. All these opportunities are there, so never is there a moment that we do not have an opportunity from Krsna. No one can say that they are exempt from devotional service; that is simply not possible.

There is no condition when we do not have an opportunity. May be someone cannot chant, at least not through the mouth but they can chant in the mind. Maybe someone can worship the Lord in the mind. It is there in our scriptures that this is entirely possible. It is possible in any condition to be Krsna conscious. Never can we say that, “I cannot”. It is always a challenge; even if we have everything, there is still going to be a challenge. Even if our hand is in the bead bag, it is still hard to move the beads. It is still difficult to open the mouth and to speak the mahamantra. It is hard because the mind is unwilling; because we are unwilling. We always find a reason to decline the opportunity to be Krsna conscious.

The article " Source of all opportunities " was published on KKSBlog.

(For nytimes.com) You Can’t Take It With You, but You Still Want More! The study show that even when people know clear boundaries — that they absolutely can’t take the candy with them when they go — they still earn more than they can possibly use. Continue reading "“The powerful lure of material accumulation” – scientists document the atyahara principle
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This is several questions made in the form of an article. I find them intriguing and aspire for answers. I beg kind insightful devotees to offer insights, and, if they find time, to evaluate or critique the answers which i have offered according to my own limited understanding Continue reading "Sanskrit’s Nature And History
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Open Letter to Greta Thunberg. Dear Greta! I am your fan, therefore I want you to know how we see and handle the problem of environment protection and climate change. Doctors say that healing is at its best when the cause of the illness is removed, not just the symptoms get mitigated. As you know, carbon and methane emission are not the deepest cause of our ills. These are but some of the symptoms. They show what happens when masses of people succumb to materialistic life. This simplistic world view says that human life has no higher purpose and we can only become happy if we agitate our senses more and more and, in the meantime, if we possess more and more money and things. To achieve this result, we need factories belching poisonous gases... So, greed is the real epidemic afflicting mankind. Continue reading "Greta and the Veda. Appreciation and advice from Vedic perspective on the climate change issue
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HH Indradyumna Swami’s health update.
Indradyumna Swami: Last week here in Durban, South Africa, I visited my dermatologist – a skin specialist. Unfortunately, he found a Malignant Melanoma skin cancer on my face. The tumor was very near to the first one I had five years ago. It is called recurrence cancer. I had a PET/CT scan to see if this second tumor had metastasized (spread) throughout my body. The result came back clear. It had not spread. Nevertheless, as a precaution, my oncologist (cancer doctor) asked that while surgically removing this second tumor, the doctor also perform a neck dissection and remove a number of lymph nodes to ensure the Melanoma had not spread there. It sometimes happens that PET scans cannot see small traces (micro-metastasis) of Melanoma.

“From his front room at 6 Sita Kanta Banerjee, Abhay conceived, wrote, edited, and typed the manuscript for a magazine. He designed a logo, a long rectangle across the top of the page. In the upper left-hand corner was a figure of Lord Chaitanya, effulgent with rays of light like rays from the sun. In the lower right were silhouettes of a crowd of people, in darkness but groping to receive light from Lord Chaitanya. And between Lord Chaitanya and the people, the title unfurled like a banner— BACK TO GODHEAD. In the lower right corner was a picture of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati seated at his writing, looking up thoughtfully as he composed. Above the logo ran the motto ‘Godhead is Light, Nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead there is no Nescience.’” - Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta, a six-volume biography by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami.

Back to Godhead!
Srila Prabhupada once wrote of Back to Godhead magazine, “This paper is the beginning of my spiritual life.”
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
To commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of Back to Godhead, we present Srila Prabhupada’s opening article of his first issue of the magazine, which he launched on the appearance day of his spiritual master in 1944. The world was at war, and Srila Prabhupada discusses that harsh reality in light of the purpose of the magazine.

Lecture given on July 16, 1969, in Los Angeles. A talk given on the occasion of the installation of the deities Sri Sri Rukmini Dvarakanatha.

History made in British Parliament (1 min. video)
History made in British Parliament – With Bhagavad Gita As It Is!
Radha Mohan Das: The reelected Member of the British Parliament for Harrow East, Mr Bob Blackman made history this week.
During the traditional swearing-in ceremony within Parliament’s main debating Chamber, in his right hand, he took a copy of Bhagavad Gita As It Is, along with the traditional King James Bible.
Bob Blackman MP is a Vice Chair of the Parliamentary Group Conservative Friends of India.

Srila Prabhupada’s books in Arabic now distributed in sets!
Arabic book sets going out in NYC! We hope to make these stacks larger soon with the addition of the Arabic SSR and Sri Isopanisad!

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 8 April 2019, Amritsar, India, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.6.37)

Prabhupada told us the story of the old Bengali lady, who while on her death bed, is being forced by her son to chant ‘Hare Krsna!’

The son says to his mother, ‘chant! chant! Hare Krsna bolo!’ but the mother is simply not chanting. The son then pushes her a little stronger and finally the lady says a full sentence, “I am dying, can’t you see? What more do you want me to say?” The lady says this whole sentence but still she could not say Hare Krsna! Why?

This is because the lady has not seen how chanting this mahamantra will bring her eternal happiness. The son continues to force his mother to chant, but if the son were to show her how this chanting will bring happiness, then she would be able to chant.

Therefore, somehow or other, we must be able to show people that there is happiness coming from the chanting of the mahamantra. And of course, this is easiest through kirtan because kirtan brings everybody happiness.

The article " Show people happiness " was published on KKSBlog.

So the Krishna consciousness movement is not for the persons who are envious. It is a movement to train people how to become non-envious. Yes, it is very first-class scientific movement not to become envious. Any religion system, if there is jealousy, it is not religion. We should understand what jealousy is. Jealousy means that you are rightful owner of something; I won't allow you to take it. This is jealousy; try to understand it. Continue reading "Religion of Non-envy
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About the Vrindavan days from my book "By his example". The entourage included the Maharaja of Bharatpur, two queens, the prince, various relatives, zamindhars (landowners loyal to the king), agents, a doctor, and eight soldiers dressed in Jat military uniforms, part of the Maharaja’s private army. Twelve servants carried the supplies and the largest incense sticks I have ever seen. These sticks were twelve feet high and thick as a python. Servants, beautifully dressed in long, silk robes, carried large torches ahead of the party so we could see. Continue reading "“By his example”: GOVARDHAN HILL
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Nedzad was born in a family of practicing Muslims in the city of Tuzla in present day Bosnia in the year 1965. His father was from Tuzla, but his mother was born in Montenegro. His father was not very strict in his practices and was into music. But his mother was a very strict Muslim and she had attended Muslim school. “My mother was from a strict family tradition wherein the girls were trained in high standards. They were much regulated with no illicit sex even in mind and they knew even as a child that they were meant to be married to and stay loyal to one man throughout the life,” Nedzad quips. Continue reading "Nedzad and his amazing Sankirtana experiences
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The post Why did Srila Prabhupada call his Gita commentary As It Is? (Bhagavad-gita) appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

“More consultation, dialogue and interaction can be conducive to better, wiser and more acceptable decisions,” the group writes in its manifesto.  The idea stemmed from the GBC’s own Organizational Development Committee, which was established and mandated to thoroughly review ISKCON’s current leadership model.

A holly jolly parody that celebrates the joy of blending holiday traditions. No matter how you celebrate the season, Happy Holidays!

Historically, ISKCON Brooklyn, New York, was perhaps the greatest center of book distribution in the world. The huge amounts of books distributed from Brooklyn, meanwhile, contributed much of the funds to build flagship ISKCON centers such as the Juhu temple in Mumbai, and Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir. For the past twenty years, however, book distribution came to a complete standstill in Brooklyn.

Our "Paramahamster" comic strip follows an enthusiastic devotee as he navigates a 9 - 5 work day in the corporate world. Please check back weekly for new episodes!

With an objective of making lasting changes in inmates' behavior by igniting the love for God in their hearts, devotees from ISKCON Chandigarh visited the Central Jail of Chandigarh and Model Jail Ambala (Haryana). 

In 1994, Priyavrata das, working under the guidance of Mukunda Goswami, wrote and published the first edition of the Food for Life Training Manual. Mukunda Goswami wrote the foreword to the manual, praising its importance to the preaching and success of the Krishna Consciousness movement.  

The well adored Sanskrit Bhajan composed from the Brahma Samhita in praise of Lord Krishna, performed by Sufi Soul Sangeet lead by Tahir Qawwal. Tahir is a world renowned Sufi Qawwali singer with his ensemble Fanna-Fi-Allah. Though a practicing sufi & qawwal by profession, he is also devoted to sharing sincere devotional wisdom from all spiritual paths reaching beyond the boundaries of conflicting belief systems. This cultural bridge building is one of the essential principals of the sufi way.

During the traditional swearing-in ceremony within Parliament's  main debating Chamber,  in his right hand he took a copy of Bhagavad Gita As It Is, along with the traditional King James Bible.

 ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission (GBC) recently ended a lengthy, detailed consideration of the Vaishnavi diksa guru question that has been under consideration since 2003. The Vaishnavi Ministry welcomes the new resolution, which upholds important spiritual principles and Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition while accommodating concerns about local communities having different cultural standards.