Websites from the ISKCON Universe
BB Govinda Swami: I can still cook! (Album of photos)
Hare Krishna .. Good News .. I can still do it !!
Yesterday for Srila Prabhupada I prepared 1,000 boondi ladu that were “as good as ever” and 100 kg of bhaigun bharta that was really delicious.
Folks ..I guess I can still cook.
A late “Happy Srila Prabhupada Vyasa Puja to All.”
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Srila Prabhupada’s Appearance Day 2019 at ISKCON-London (Album of photos)
Please find below photos from Srila Prabhupada’s Appearance Day 2019 at the ISKCON-London Radha Krishna Temple.
[Talk at Radha Krishna Mandir, Cambridge, Canada]
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The post How devotion and dedication can transform our life into an adventure appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Answer Podcast
The post Most of my fears don’t actualize, but some do – how can we be prepared without becoming fearful? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
[Sunday feast class at ISKCON, Toronto, Canada]
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The post Negative and positive thinking in spiritual life appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Gold Coast Bhakti Centre Janmastami (Album of photos)
This year Bhakti Centre Gold Coast presented two Janmastamis. One at the Bhakti Centre in Surfers Paradise and one at the Arts Centre Pimpama, a northern suburb of the Gold Coast.
Over 600 guests attended the festivities over the two days. Special guests for the festivities were senior Prabhupad disciples HG Bhagavat Ashraya and HG Sarva Mangala Prabhus. There was ecstatic kirtan performed by Bhagavat Dey from Bombay and the local kirtaneers, Krishna Leela dance performances, abisheka of Sri Sri Radha Giridhari, distribution of maha prasadam and offerings of flowers to Srila Prabhupad. The Bhakti Centre Gold Coast community requests all the Vaisnavas to give their blessings so we can continue to serve Srila Prabhupada’s mission.
Dhama Seva at New Mayapura, France, August 14 by the devotee youth of the Europe Bus Tour 2019 (Album of photos)
Find them he...
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 3 October 2018, Camp de Masque, Mauritius, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.1)
We see that the residents of Vrndavana may forget Krsna’s divine nature, but they never forget Krsna Himself. And that is the thing, we should always remember Krsna. So whether we come together with many and sit in a pandala and discuss how Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or whether we are alone. There is no difference, because in reality, we are never alone. We are always with Krsna. In this way we realise that loneliness is actually maya. Loneliness is illusion. When we are feeling lonely, we are in illusion, because we are not understanding that Krsna is always with us at every moment.
The article " Loneliness is Maya " was published on KKSBlog.
My Initiation.
On August 15, 1968, in Montreal, I was initiated at the age of 16-an unqualified person meeting such a great and unprecedented saint as Srila Prabhupada. At the same time, the six pioneers from San Francisco, on their way to London received their Gayatri mantra, or second initiation.
Photos from Sri Krishna Janmashtami 2019 at ISKCON-London.
Srila Prabhupada: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, “Though the hearts of the gopis are like high-standing hills, they are inundated by the waves of the nectarean ocean of Krsna’s beauty. His sweet voice enters their ears and gives them transcendental bliss, the touch of His body is cooler than millions and millions of moons together, and the nectar of His bodily fragrance overfloods the entire world. O My dear friend, that Krsna, who is the son of Nanda Maharaja and whose lips are exactly like nectar, is attracting My five senses by force.” PURPORT This verse is found in the Govinda-lilamrta (8.3), by Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja. Cc Antya 15.14
First Manado Jagannatha Ratha-yatra, Indonesia (Album of photos)
Thousands of residents crowded the Megamas area of Manado City, North Sulawesi watching the Manado Fiesta 2019. Along the way, the Manado Fiesta route took place lively. Thousands of people poured out to watch the Fisco program. The road that became the route was crowded by people who wanted to see various regional groups from around Indonesia performed their cultures which took part in this year’s Manado Fiesta.
Celebration in Mayapur for the appearance of Srila Prabhupada with beautiful decorations (Album of photos)
Devotee: Is the pure devotee more merciful than Krsna? Prabhupada: Oh yes, yes. Because Visnu could not excuse him, but as soon as he came to Maharaja Ambarisa, fell down, and “You take all my assets of pious activities. You be saved immediately.” That is Vaisnava. When he begged, humble, “Maharaja Ambarisa, you save me, I am in danger.” “Yes, you take all my pious activities’ result. You be saved immediately.” That is devotee. Visnu refused, “No, I cannot give you protection.” Therefore he is more merciful, although he was attacked, he was harassed.
My dear Gopal Krishna Maharaja,
Congratulations on your seventy-fifth appearance day!
My first vivid recollection of you is from 1973. I had heard about you—how you had studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and then at McGill University in Montreal and then held responsible positions with Pepsi Cola and Bristol-Myers, and how you would come to the New York temple every day and were so humble that you would go around the temple room and offer obeisances to all the spiritual paintings on the walls. So, I had heard about you before I actually met you.
For some weeks in 1973 Srila Prabhupada was staying at Seth Bhogilal Patel’s palatial home in Walkeshwar, South Bombay, and you, visiting India, came to meet with him. I was struck by the way the two of you related with each other. Srila Prabhupada dealt with you differently than he dealt with the rest of us disciples. I immediately understood that there was something special about you.
Two years later, Tamal Krishna Goswami, who had been the GBC for India, returned to America and began the Radha-Damodar Party, and Srila Prabhupada asked you to replace him. Srila Prabhupada had told me that you had worked for a major international company and had your own private office and a car. I was meeting important people in Bombay, and Srila Prabhupada wanted to impress upon me your competence and status.
Soon after you arrived in Juhu, you wanted to visit your mother, who lived nearby in Santa Cruz, and you invited me to accompany you. Again I was struck by your polite and gentle manner, and by how considerate and respectful you were with her. I was impressed. When most of us youths in Europe and America became devotees, it was hard for us to visit our parents, because most of them did not understand Krishna consciousness and were quite hostile to our becoming devotees. So it was unusual—unique, in fact—for me to see such warmth and mutual respect between a nondevotee (albeit Hindu) parent and a devotee child.
Juhu was one of Srila Prabhupada’s main projects, and he faced many challenges there—first in getting the land, then in getting the permission to build the temple, and then in actually building the temple—and you and I, under Srila Prabhupada’s guidance, worked together to deal with them. We complemented each other and thus formed an effective team. We had our own individual approaches and strengths and weaknesses, but we were brought together and bound together by Srila Prabhupada’s love and mercy, and by our common love for and surrender to His Divine Grace. We dealt with many challenges and intrigues together. I cannot count the times we went together to legal firms, accountants’ offices, government departments, and social and political leaders’ headquarters to get information and support for our efforts on Srila Prabhupada and Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari’s behalf. And eventually, by their grace, things turned around in our favor and we finally got the permission to build the temple—and built it.
Srila Prabhupada said that ISKCON was his body, the BBT his heart, and the monies collected his blood. And he entrusted the most important business of publishing and distributing
his books in India to you. He was always asking you, “Where is book? Where is book?” and when you presented him with a new book, he felt great satisfaction in his heart. In 1977, at a most oppressive and repressive time in Soviet history, you brought Srila Prabhupada’s books behind the Iron Curtain, very intelligently and resourcefully introducing them through a book fair in Moscow. And just one day before he left this world, Srila Prabhupada asked for the certificate to be read to his godbrothers—“Books in the service of peace and progress. A diploma for the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, Bombay, given by the First Moscow International Book Fair, USSR.” How proud and pleased he must have felt.
You always had a tremendous capacity for managing and doing business. Yet at a certain point a deep desire formed within your heart that you wanted to preach. In Juhu you kept talking about how you wanted to go out and give lectures. But you were so fully engaged with managerial duties, you hardly had time. Still, it was such a profound desire that eventually it was realized. Especially after Srila Prabhupada left, you became one of the most enthusiastic and dynamic speakers of krsna-katha in the movement.
After you began to initiate, you were given the honorific “Bhagavatapada.” Bhagavata has two meanings: the book Bhagavata, Srimad-Bhagavatam, and the person bhagavata, in particular, for us, Srila Prabhupada. And pada means “foot,” or “at the feet of.” You are always at the feet of Srila Prabhupada and are always engaged in the service of Srimad-Bhagavatam by publishing it and distributing it, and by preaching it and living it.
Much has been said about your many wonderful qualities and activities: your impeccable sadhana, your love for and service to your deities, your care for devotees (especially your godbrothers), your expanding book distribution and developing major projects in India and throughout the world, your cultivating and engaging important and influential people, your tireless traveling and extending yourself for the sake of others, your resilience and perseverance in the face of physical illness and challenges, and your staunch and loyal dedication and enthusiastic loving service to Srila Prabhupada.
Although you and I were both attached to Srila Prabhupada and his mission, sometimes we had differences in our understandings, or approaches. I tended to be more idealistic and rigid, and you more practical and flexible. So we had differences on the means—what would be most effective or beneficial—but never on the ultimate goal: to please Srila Prabhupada and spread Krishna consciousness. You commented, “Giriraj and I are like a Vedic couple. We may have differences, but there is no question of divorce.” This statement is a testament to your dedication to Srila Prabhupada—and your kindness upon me, that you tolerated me with all my faults, for the sake of keeping me engaged in Srila Prabhupada’s service in Bombay.
In the last months, as I am completing my book about Srila Prabhupada and Juhu, I’ll Build You a Temple: A Good Fight and a Promise Fulfilled, we have come even closer. You were kind enough to write a foreword for the book and to offer to encourage the temples in India to distribute it. And nowadays, I often say, “Gopal Krishna Maharaja commented, ‘Giriraj and I are like a Vedic couple. We may have differences, but there is no question of divorce’—but now we are in love.”
On this glorious occasion I appeal to all present—including myself—to imbibe your spirit, to be prepared to make any sacrifice, go to any extreme, and expend any amount of energy for the sake of serving Srila Prabhupada and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
I am very honored and humbled to have this opportunity to express some of my appreciation and affection for you, my dear godbrother. From the beginning, I saw exceptional good qualities in you, and by your service to our spiritual master, your good qualities have multiplied and matured. You are a beacon of light in this dark world of Kali-yuga.
As stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam:
krsne sva-dhamopagate
dharma-jnanadibhih saha
kalau nasta-drsam esa
puranarko ’dhunoditah
“This Bhagavata Purana is as brilliant as the sun, and it has arisen just after the departure of Lord Krsna to His own abode, accompanied by religion, knowledge, etc. Persons who have lost their vision due to the dense darkness of ignorance in the age of Kali shall get light from this Purana.” (SB 1.3.43)
On this occasion I pray that you will have many, many more years of good health for serving Srila Prabhupada, the devotees, and the mission, that we both will continue to serve Srila Prabhupada together even after leaving our present bodies, by his—and your—divine grace.
—Giriraj Swami
Answer Podcast
The post Are some people genetically short-tempered? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
[Janmashtami class at Milton, Toronto, Canada]
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The post Krishna demonstrates through his devotees how to respond to adversity wisely appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Giriraj Swami’s Talk during Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa-puja celebration at ISKCON Silicon Valley
Posted by Damodar Das on Monday, August 26, 2019
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Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa-puja talk (Right click to download)
As for your nice sentiments about our first meeting on Houston Street, it was all arranged by Krishna. That was practically a favor shown to me by Krishna because I came in your country by superior order.
Some nice words from Bhaktivedanta Manor volunteer Shaun Bailey (2 min. video)
Happy Janmastamii to all our Volunteers here at...
Here is a present from His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami in the form of these Audio Books, now available. Enjoy the nectar!
“Around two to three hundred kilograms of flowers were used, including 10,000 roses,” says Vraja Hari. “First, the Deities were showered with flower petals on the altar. Then, the flowers were brought into the temple room, where all the devotees enjoyed lovingly throwing flower petals onto each other while a huge kirtan went on.”
During a visit to Los Angeles for a political function, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, U.S. Congresswoman from Hawaii, addressed a crowd of about four thousand devotees and members of the public at the L.A. Rathayatra festival on August 4th.
The third album proper from Srikala – once known as Srikalogy – is a major evolution musically, lyrically and personally for the artist. Released on July 16th, “Beautiful Dark Moon” is an entrancing blend of R&B, hip-hop and world music.
Incessant rains pelted the South Indian state of Karnataka from late July until August 13th, causing widespread flooding, a death toll of 76, and damage to over 75,000 homes.
Brazil shipped 1.64 million tonns of beef in 2018, making it the world largest exporter.
Harinama in Genoa, Italy (2 min. video)
Srila Prabhupada: For a devotee, liberation is no problem at all. The impersonalists u...
Srila Prabhupada Vyasa-puja in Australia
(Album of photos)
Ramai Swami: Dear master, let my prayer prevail,
For much I long to tell your tale.
Moved by your guru’s words, you began
A worldwide movement, O saintly man.
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(this blog is recorded on the full blog page: quick time player is needed; works best with Firefox or Explorer; if you are using Google Chrome it will automatically play, so if you don't want to listen, mute your speakers.)
[originally posted on 1-08-15]
Sometimes we experience great surprise and intense sadness at the unexpected departure from the bhakti path of a devotee we may have been inspired by or respected. Or even if the devotee struggled to follow the basic devotional practices and disciplines, we can still be unnerved when they leave, and then denounce and attack what is still our faith, reinterpreting their stay in an ashram in terms of cultic manipulation and brainwashing. “What really happened?” me may wonder, and how could I have helped prevent this? Sometimes in the aftermath of such a sudden departure, some devotees worry and wonder if it could happen to them, as it brings up their own doubts. This scenario recently happened in a circle of devotees I know, and it caused me to reflect on what it takes to stay on the path, and the various reasons people leave.
When I was a new devotee I experienced one of my friends leave the temple. I didn’t see him again for three weeks until he came to the Sunday feast. Though I recognized him, I was startled to see his expression. He looked like a shadow of his former self when he had a bright faced countenance. Now he had a dark gloomy appearance and seemed unfocused and dazed. I wondered what had brought this about, as if he had just entered a self-created prison.
Giriraj Swami Janmashtami talk, August 23, ISKCON Silicon Valley
Posted by Damodar Das on Sunday, August 25, 2019
Audio
Janmashtami Talk, ISV (Right click to download)
[Prabhupada Vyasapuja offering at Toronto, Canada]
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The post Prabhupada demonstrates how to be both faithful and resourceful for expanding Krishna consciousness appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Dear master, let my prayer prevail,
For much I long to tell your tale.
Moved by your guru’s words, you began
A worldwide movement, O saintly man.
Many disciples came, good and true,
To help you spread the mission, too.
They followed your orders, were loyal and bold
And by your mercy became lofty-souled.
We remember with joy and pride
How you were always by our side.
Everything went on by your grace;
All obstacles we were able to face.
Prabhupada, you came in the holy line,
So brilliant, wonderful, and divine.
You served Krsna with mind and soul—
Please help us reach that lofty goal!
[Janmashtami class at ISKCON, Scarborough, Toronto, Canada]
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The post Krishna descends to show the path to happiness – Sudama pastime analysis appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
[Janmashtami class at ISKCON, Scarborough, Toronto, Canada]
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The post Krishna descends to raise us from transactional love to transformational love appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Russel Brand - Janmashtami 2019 at Bhaktivedanta Manor (1 min. video)
We had a special guest join us here for Janmastami. Hope you had a wonderful time celebrating Janmastami here at Bhaktivedanta Manor with us Russel BRAND. We look forward to welcoming you back very soon. Hare Krishna!
Southport Krsna Janmastami (Australia) (Album of photos)
Ramai Swami: The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, is the reserv...
By Bhakta George Pratt August 14, 2019 - On Sri Balaram Jayanti Mahotsava (the Appearance Day of Lord Balaram), ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission (“GBC”) and the Board of Directors of Bharati Center, Inci. (“Brooklyn Temple” or “Temple") won a notable victory in the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court (“Appellate Court”). A four-judge panel of the Appellate Court denied a motion brought by the Temple’s former directors (“Former Directors”) for a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Temple’s current directors and officers from undertaking “any conduct . . . outside the ordinary course of business,” including the eviction of residents, the sale of real property and a merger or consolidation. Continue reading "New York State Appellate Court Denies Former Brooklyn Temple Directors’ Application for Injunction
→ Dandavats"
Super Janmastami celebration in Bhaktivedanta Manor (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: “O Lord, Your transcendental name and form are not ascertained by those who merely speculate on the path of imagination. Your name, form and attributes can be ascertained only through devotional service.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 10.2.36)
Full house for the Baltimore temple’s festivities (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: At every step there is danger. Therefore, because the Krishna consciousness movement provides the opportunity for the human being to get out of this material world simply by chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, this movement is the greatest benediction in human society. (Srimad Bhagavatam, 9.7.7 Purport)
Beautiful cake offered to Srila Prabhupada in Brisbane, Australia (Album of photos)
This year the Brisbane Yatra offered this cake to Srila Prabhupada for his Vyasa Puja. The theme was the 26 qualities of a pure devotee. The main cake was Prabhupada’s name cut out into letters and then surrounded by 26 small cakes which were very beautifully painted with one quality written on each cake. We had a fantastic team this year and I would humbly like to thank the following devotees from the bottom of my heart for their wonderful endeavors to please His Divine Grace. First I would like to thank Radha Thakurani for her very long hours and using her amazing cake decorating skills and talents to produce this cake. Then I would like to thank Bhakti Cdd for decorating the small cakes using her artistic skills with lots of love and care. Mohana Gupta was a fabulous surprise helper who spent long hours on Saturday helping with the decorations. Radhas’ son Devaki Nandana worked really hard with rolling out all the fondant, we were really happy to use his strength. Rasika Seva helped to make flowers and young Lakshmi Dasi was an angel with cutting out the letter stencils for us. All glories to your service and hope we can continue to make even better creations for Srila Prabhupada every year.