Planet ISKCON

Answer Podcast

The post If aspiring disciples feel that they can’t get their guru’s association, what can we tell them? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

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!

Radha’s Abode (Album of photos)
Indradyumna Swami: On my first day back in Vrindavan I went to Varsana, the home of Srimati Radharani, in the early morning hours with a small group of devotees. As we traversed the trail up the mountain to the magnificent temple on top, family after family invited us into their humble homes to take prasadam. I am so happy to be back in this transcendental abode in the association of the wonderful people who live here!

The first topic up for discussion in the afternoon March 7th, was ISKCON’s Radha-Govinda Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The last few years have seen conflict over the managerial authority of the temple, prompted by an earlier proposed sale of the property.

In response to the current superhero craze, the album will be called “The Original Superheroes” and will feature songs about spiritual personalities and role models.

One of the largest international awards for independent books published by small or academic presses, the Eric Hoffer Book Award is given in honor of the American philosopher Eric Hoffer, who reflected on the human condition.

Food For All took it over two years ago. “I began giving out free meals every Monday, and it became very popular,” says Parasurama. “130 homeless people came the first time. 

International devotees performed harinam in the streets of nadvadvipa town today, as on the Navadvip Mandal Parikrama 3rd day parikrama, devotees after walking to the holy places of Pushkara and Kuruksetra, crossed Ganga and entered Koldvipa, the present day town of Navadwipa. “One day during the afternoon , Lord Nityananda reached Koladvipa along with Sri […]

The post Singing in the streets of Navadvipa! appeared first on Mayapur.com.

All glories to Sri Navadvipa Dhama, the birth place of Harinama sankirtan! Sri Caitaya Mahaprabhu said: “This sankirtana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon.” Kali Yuga it is an hopeless age in all respects, chanting the Holy Name is the only means to […]

The post Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama: Day1 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

The Independent online news reports that this weekend (24th of February) the animated cartoon Peppa Pig has attained 10 years of being broadcast for the entertainment of young children. The Independent mentions that Peppa Pig is being shown in 180 countries and has been translated into 40 languages. One might ask why does the show has so much success among little children. Basically because the episodes use children´s ordinary interests as main topics and show children natural ability to do imaginative play also call “Pretend Play”. Continue reading "“Pretend Play” about Krishna versus “Pretend Play” about Peppa Pig: the impact of non devotee association on the lives of devotee children
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In February, the leaders of the Sri Mayapur International School had requested me to spend quality time with their pupils aged 11 to 18. We had decided to first welcome the boys with a group of teachers for two days to Nityananda's abode, and then a bus-load of girls and their teachers. What a wonderful excursion! Our children are very special, and they start chanting in japa and kirtan already at a very young age. If we can inspire them to develop good chanting habits from the very beginning of their life, it will give them a wonderful start to their way back home, back to Godhead. Continue reading "Holy Name Retreat for the youth at Ekachakra Dham
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Life Of A Devotee - Hayagriva Das (video)
Srila Prabhupada: The Hare Krishna maha-mantra gives liberation and at the same time...
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One Day Vaishnavi Padyatra - Women’s Day - ISKCON Amravati (3 min. video)
Srila Prabhupada: If the surface of the globe is overflooded with the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra, the people of the world will be very, very happy. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 4.24.10 Purport)

So the purpose of the program today is to increase the awareness and the importance of all of us participating to complete the TOVP project in time. Whats our deadline? 2022! And how many years are left? Three years! We don’t have a lot of time left! Only three years! So we have to go a real marathon to increase the awareness and the urgency of this project. Prabhupada had a great desire to build this temple to fulfil the desires of the previous acharyas Continue reading "Presentation on ToVP by senior speakers in Mayapur
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Srutakirti prabhu, who served as a personal servant of Srila Prabhupada for several years, narrates several episodes from his experience, highlighting the personal protection and care Srila Prabhupada provided for his disciples.

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Tulsi Gabbard on CNN yesterday about being a Gaudiya Vaishnava, a devotee in Krishna Consciousness.
(It’s a two-minute fraction of the whole interview)
The link will bring you to the exact point of the relative discussion.

I have been distributing Srila Prabhupada's books for more than 12 yrs. This is the part of my book distribution that I have started for the last 2 years now, and this has been successful. I give Srila Prabhupada's books, I explain to them about Peace mantra for their mind, body, and soul. I request them if they like to participate with me in chanting Hare Krishna Maha-mantra, they happily do it. You can see the clips to believe it. Continue reading "New souls chanting full Hare Krishna mahamantra for the first time
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The materialists spend their whole time fixing petty problems. We should appreciate the scope, the depth, the value of Vedic wisdom. It goes to the heart of the matter. What is the first thing that’s essential for a good doctor? What is the first thing to get cured? Medical, good insurance? No. You have to have a good diagnosis, you have to know the cause of the disease is, and otherwise you might as well be taking colored water for medicine. Continue reading "Srimad Bhagavatam class in Mayapur, March 11, 2019
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Answer Podcast

The post Should devotees fast on Mahashivaratri? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

This update video produced by the ToVP team covers the gamut of the finishing work currently being undertaken on the TOVP and which will continue over the next three years, and gives some glimpses of what the amazing and magnificent finished product will look like.

Construction on the 520,000-square-foot temple is now in the final phase after decades of development and nearly ten years of work onsite. 

Cow protection has been going on at Australia's thousand-acre farm in some form since its establishment in 1979.

Vaisesika Dasa made the presentation on behalf of the BBT’s new Marketing Communications Innovation department. This relatively new area of the BBT focuses on ascertaining how to assist and inspire ISKCON members around the world to distribute books.

Ambarish Dasa, the ToVP Chairman, and other members of the ToVP team presented an hour-and-a-half report on the progress made in the past year and described the plans and projections that will see the ToVP to its grand opening in 2022.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 04 August 2018, Vrindavan, India, Bhagavad-gita 4.9)

In Germany Srila Prabhupada was speaking with professor Durkheim. In that discussion they were speaking about the soul being eternal and separate from the body. Prabhupada said, “The body actually does not die because it is never alive. Never was there a moment when it was alive. It is the soul that is alive and that makes the body move and animates it. But otherwise it is not alive.”

Of course, as conditioned souls, all this philosophy is something we can only remember and remind ourselves about, because to realize this is not so simple. To actually experience this is very difficult. But we see that some great personalities are completely dhira – completely undisturbed. They have absolutely no relationship with the material energy.

In the Srimad Bhagavatam there is the example of the sage Dadhīci (Canto 6). As we know, the demigods have a much greater level of enjoyment than human beings. They have a very long life and a very nice standard of enjoyment but there is only  one problem – the demons.  The demons are always attacking so there is always war and constant fights. On one occasion the demigods needed a weapon which was to be made from the bones of Dadhīci who had performed a lot of austerities. So they went to Dadhīci and asked him, “Can we have your bones?”

In most cases when people start to ask for our bones, we are not so eager to give our bones! But in this case Dadhīci had no concern whatsoever. He was ready to give these bones. He said, “Just wait a minute. Let me give up the body and then you can take the bones.“ So he had absolutely no attachment to the body; absolutely no identification with the body. For a Vaisnava the essence is to identify as the servant of Krsna and to simply begin devotional service.

anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād
bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje, (SB 1.7.6).

Then that devotional service will remove all the anarthas – all the unwanted things, including identification with the body.

So we may initially philosophically understand that we are not this body but we cannot realize it actually. It is more difficult  to realize when we are about to be wheeled into the operating theater – at that time the blood pressure may be a little higher than usual. So it is difficult to have this aloofness fully realized. But philosophically we understand and then we engage in devotional service. It is through devotional service that we actually realize this experience of brahma-bhūtaḥ, of having nothing to do with the material energy – in a more advanced stage of devotional service. And it is at that stage also that we can engage fully in devotional service because these two enhance each other. As long we are in the bodily concept of life to a degree, we are not able to fully connect with Krsna. Part of understanding the nature of Krsna is also understanding our own nature as being his parts and parcels – his vibhinamsa – his separated parts and parcels and as such being of the same nature – being of sat-cid-ananda as Krsna is sat-cid-ananda. Then we can realize our potential. When we are not realizing it then we are in illusion.     

The article " An Essential Realization " was published on KKSBlog.

New York Temple gets some help (Album of photos)
The second day of the Sanga of GBC, Guru and Sanyasis was equally amazing from the previous day. Vaisesika Prabhu gave the Srimad-Bhagavatam lecture and emphasized on reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. This topic, the reading of Srila Prabhupada’s books, was one of the two main conclusions from the previous gathering. And all of us in ISKCON need to undertake this in our daily sadhana. Link of the lecture can be seen at the bottom.

Becoming immune to Kali-yuga by realizing the Lord’s presence.
Srila Prabhupada: There is nothing in the world with which the Lord is disconnected. The only thing we must learn is to excavate the source of connection and thus be linked with Him by offenseless service. We can be connected with Him by the transcendental sound representation of the Lord.

A real prayer comes deep from within!
The following prayers, which Srila Prabhupada described as “the sum and substance of devotional life [v. 24]”, are spoken by the demon Vrtrasura – to Indra’s great astonishment – in the middle of his fight for life or death with the king of the demigods (Indra):

In 2019, kirtan is readily available anywhere in the world. Kirtan is daily performed in temples and on the streets across the globe. Every year, more kirtan events are held, some drawing hundreds of thousands. Kirtan recordings and albums are available online at any time. Even so-called mainstream culture in the Western world is embracing […]

The post Devotees from 60+ Countries Chant Together in the Birthplace of Sankirtana appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Purushottama Dasa was the son of Sadashiva Kaviraja, a great Devotee of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

One thing we’re aware of is that it’s an offence not to have faith in the chanting of the holy names of the lord, indeed as initiated or aspiring devotees a minimum of 16 rounds is required and the like of my own Guru Maharaja speaks of our japa being fun and how if we can we do more than just 16 rounds.

So it’s surprising when attending funerals of devotees how. Note the phrase “May be next time Sri Krishna will give them a better opportunity”. This leaves me perplexed given the sincerity of the devotee there love for Sri Krishna the service they undertake and most importantly there faithfully chanting the holy names in the form of the Mahamantra. But somehow we have little faith in the results.

Yes we can look at what the devotee didn’t do or what we think they should or could have done, whilst forgetting all Sri Krishna asks for is not our perfection in service but our sincerity our small offerings and chanting.

The same individuals how little lack of faith if the person is a big name Guru or devotee we appear to be certain they would return home, but we view what is unfortunately called congregational members with uncertainty. Whilst forgetting that anyone who comes to the temple are simply devotee’s only devotee’s would come to see Sri Krishna and do service.

Many congregational members serve nicely there own deities at home, making and offering nice preparations and sharing this with others. And sincerely chanting each day without fail not out of duty but out of love. Having complete faith in the process of chanting so why would Sri Krishna then deny the results? Indeed Sri Krishna explains what happens if one sincerely chants but for one reason or another stops and one hopes the opportunity to take birth in a devotee family would be there.

But we do need to take this chanting of the Mahamantra seriously, chant with sincerity and with complete faith. This way as Srila Prabhupada spoke about we will go home this lifetime, and we should all develop faith that this will be the result.

Reincarnation (video)
Scientific, Logical and Relational perspectives - by HG Chaitanya Charan Prabhu.

Final Day Parikrama of Vrinda Kunda Festival (2019) (Album of photos)
Our last parikrama of our 16th Annual Vrinda Kunda Festival was to Javat, Ter Kadamba, and Vrinda Kunda. Javat is the most important place for the Gaudiya devotees as the parakiya bhava is born there. It is the place of Radharani’s so-called husband Abhimanyu, mother-in-law Jatila and sister-in-law Kutila. Ter Kadamba is the favorite cow-herding place of Krishna and Balaram, as well as, the bhajan-place of Rupa Goswami. We ended our parikrama in Vrinda Kunda, the eternal residence of Vrinda Devi!

In 2019, kirtan is readily available anywhere in the world. Kirtan is daily performed in temples and on the streets across the globe. Every year, more kirtan events are held, some drawing hundreds of thousands. Kirtan recordings and albums are available online at any time. Even so-called mainstream culture in the Western world is embracing kirtan as a form of meditation in the music and yoga scene. Kirtan is now available for all. But it wasn’t always like this. Before the 15th century, the chanting of God’s own holy names was a sacred activity reserved for the highest of ecclesiastic society in the inner sanctums of temples. Continue reading "Devotees from 60+ Countries Chant Together in the Birthplace of Sankirtana
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It is so unfortunate that today, especially in India, that people think these are fairy tales, concocted stories. No, these are not concocted stories, these are historical facts. These are facts. People think that this is mythology or whatever because they never read them. They never read the scriptures but they will say that these are all fairy tales. Another thing is that it's not just by reading the books that they understand. They will need a teacher to reveal those scriptures. We are so fortunate that we came across Srila Prabhupada's teachings. That is how we get to know what the scriptures are and what they are saying. Continue reading "Srimad Bhagavatam class in Mayapur 9.15, 16-24
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Sri Locana dasa Thakura, he very beautifully describes sankirtana as an actual yajna. He says in his Caitanya Mangala – “The living entities ears are sacrificial openings, yajna kunda, our ears are yajna kunda, the tongue is a sacrificial ladle that you pour the ghee with, sound of Krishna’s glories is charming sacrificial ghee. So the sound of Krishna’s names or glories is actually that ghee that you pour into the fire. When the ladle of the tongue pours that ghee into the opening of the ears, the ghee enters the heart. In the heart the ghee adds fuel to the fire of ecstatic love. It makes that fire burn with great flames. The flames of that fire make the body tremble. They make the body’s hairs stand erect. Freed from sin in this way the living entities dance. Salokya and other kinds of liberation follow behind them. However, the living entities will not cast even a side long glance at liberation. Instead tasting the sweet nectar of Lord Krishna’s glories they joyfully dance. The Vaisnava acharyas all perform this yajna. Please know that the sankirtana yajna is the best of all the yajnas. Hare Krishna!” Continue reading "Srimad Bhagavatam class in Mayapur 9.15.26
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Answer Podcast

The post How can a hunter-devotee justify that he is simply doing the profession ordained by past karma – can a terrorist argue the same way? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.