Tuesday, December 11th, 2018
→ The Walking Monk

Toronto, Ontario

The Ultimate Positive

It was awesome seeing snow move upward instead of the reverse.  From Pape and Danforth I stepped west and onto the bridge that is set over the Don Valley, and I guess gusts of wind took the descending snow in the direction that challenges gravity.  I wondered if anyone else noticed.  Pedestrians, like myself, faced a mild rawness from winter wind, but I sensed from their faces that reaching their night destination was all that mattered. How the snow blew wasn't important.

There is a rush.  It's Christmas!  Hanukkah! Perhaps other holidays.  In our tradition, Gita Jayanti is honoured on the 18th but that hasn't, as of yet, received the hype it deserves.  In any event, people are in a hustle, a bustle and sometimes a tussle at this time of year, and I always feel that a soft snow's landing makes much of the city's-traffic noise mute.  To a large extent, sounds are subdued.  Silent night!

One thing, for sure, is the average person walking the street is full in thought, as am I.  What the subjects of our thoughts are is what counts.  For instance, in the Gita it is stated, in Chapter 8, Verses 5 and 6, that whatever you are filled with in thought determines your destiny.  In particular, Verse 5 speaks of the preferential contemplation on Krishna, and that it is to His existence that we strive and hopefully arrive, due to a meditation on Him.  https://www.instagram.com/p/BrSSjtVgbGw/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=3zw8srnhcwhd

This is definitely something to work on.  The mind is a vessel that is never empty.  It must be filled with the ultimate positive.

May the Source be with you!
5 km



Monday, December 10th, 2018
→ The Walking Monk

Toronto, Ontario

40 ❤Steps to Healthy


http://www.40stepstosimple.com/lets-meet-the-walking-monk/

Sent my way to make my heart smile was the following article, filed under “restore your faith, walk more drive less.”

“Bhaktimarga Swami (otherwise known as ‘the walking monk’) is a Canadian man who so far has walked around 20,000 miles during treks across Canada, Guyana, Israel, Mauritius, Ireland, Fiji and Trinidad. Wearing out four pairs of Crocs on each walk, he walks for around 8 hours a day, always facing the traffic, and making friends along the way.  Now in his 60s, he covers around 30km daily, and says the main danger is coyotes rather than humans (though he has been propositioned a few times by female drivers). He chants as he walks (especially at night) to let the animals know he is coming! 

The Walking Monk belongs to a religion called Hare Krishna.  This is a branch of the Hindu religion, started by Sri Chaitanya of Bengal back in the 16th century.  He believed that chanting the names of God was so powerful, that monks should chant in the street to benefit all.  The Walking Monk does indeed chant for several hours a day, as he goes walkabout. 

Hare Krishna monks always bless their vegetarian food, as they believe that your emotions are infused into the food.  So a lentil stew, made by an angry monk, is as bad as a meat pie! 

He has also had his brushes with the law. Some people have reported the Walking Monk on his travels, believing with his orange robes, that he is an escaped convict.  And one person even reported him as a ‘moving traffic cone!’ If you are wondering why Buddhist and Hare Krishna monks wear orange robes, it’s a tradition that dates back hundreds of years, simply because saffron dye was readily available in Southeast Asia (Tibetan monks tend to wear maroon robes). 

Why he walks:

To inspire a greener way of life, to promote pilgrimage & connection to the Divine through nature, to honour our teachers…and to make lots of friends!”

Thank you, author!

May the Source be with you!
5 km

Let’s Talk About ISKCON’s Generations – Which One Are You?
→ ISKCON News

In ISKCON today, we typically call everyone who joined the movement “the first generation.” We call all the children of those who joined “second generation,” no matter their age, and all their children “third generation.” But now the gurukuli pioneers have come forward to say that continuing to use the term to describe everyone across a thirty-year timespan is confusing and problematic.

Bhakta-vatsalya of Sri Krishna
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Hare KrishnaBy Jaya Gaursundar Dasa

Krishna maintains as well as fulfills the desires of enumerable materially engrossed jivas. Because He is responsible; He maintains all living entities, although He does it through His expansions and energies. However Kṛṣṇa Himself personally attends to relatively small group of souls who are interested in His direct love and protection. He exemplifies this tender concern toward His faltering bhaktas. That is His real nature to reciprocate with His devotees. Continue reading "Bhakta-vatsalya of Sri Krishna
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The Folded-Palms Thingy
→ Seed of Devotion

*pseudonym

The stampede of students flew down the stairs - the end of the school day had arrived. "Hey, Mrs. Caruso," Charles*, an 8th grade student, called out to me with a grin, breezing past, "you have 180 youtube subscribers!"

"Wait, what? I do?" I replied, shocked. "How do you know??"

"We were all just checking it out in Mr. O'Connor's* class,"

"You mean, right now?"

"Yeah. We saw you singing. And dancing. You were playing that piano thingy..."

My mouth was agape. "That's called a harmonium,"

"Yeah, it was cool. A Simple Post? That's the name of the video? Pretty cool,"

"That was like, six years ago! My YouTube channel is mainly a teaching tool for singing...!"

"I know, I know. And what was that thing that all these people were doing - " Charles motioned his hands up into a kind of prayer position, " - you all came in and bowed..."

Bewildered, I said, "Uh, I don't know!"

The student swept on by. I glanced around in shock to other 8th grade students who had overheard us and they just nodded, grinning too. They also bounded away, carried away in the exultation of the end of the school day. Obviously they were in on this and had seen all the hullabaloo on Mrs. Caruso's YouTube channel.

I walked back up to my classroom, dazed.

Naturally, I looked up my YouTube channel. I looked at it through the eyes of my eighth graders. Mind you, I work at a Catholic school and I'm the Religion teacher to boot. So these kids are looking at a teacher who has all of these exotic videos of India, putting on some strange draped garment, wearing red dots on her head, performing some intricate and foreign kind of dance, being proposed to in front of an exotic priest in orange cloth, singing some kind of ancient language, and on and on.

Must be weird.

I then came home and kept watching and watching, no longer seeing through my students' eyes, but seeing through MY eyes, the eyes of a Bhakti lata who has been removed from her culture and active spirituality for a few years now. In all of these videos, I'm seeing a common thread - even the ones where I'm just demonstrating the structure of a Hare Krishna melody:

Devotion.

I'm peering into another world, another person's life.

And it's beautiful.

I keep remembering when my student Charles said that he had watched A Simple Post, which I had posted 6 years ago and was just me singing Hare Krishna in my cluttered living room. He had expressed genuine appreciation for that video. It wasn't some fancy edited video, I wasn't doing anything that dramatic. But his eyes had softened when he said, "Pretty cool,"

Some 8th grade boy thought that was pretty cool? Why? No seriously, why? Not just because of the cool harmonium thingy. Not even the foreign language I was singing in.

There must have been something else that was cool.

The holy name.

Devotion.

A hunger for something beyond this world. A hunger for a love to satisfy the soul.

In this quiet space before I jump into the whirlwind of work tomorrow, I feel this tender spiraling of my heart, this yearning to... to... be a devotee. To express my longing for God with all of my heart.

Oh Krishna. Please draw me home to You.

And if you so desire, may I sing and play the piano-thingy and may I approach you with the folded-palms thingy.


(If you are an email subscriber, you may click on the links below the videos to view)


A Simple Post: https://youtu.be/bj6lwzjFbhQ
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Srila Prabhupada’s mission is reaching out to everyone! I…
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Srila Prabhupada’s mission is reaching out to everyone!
I stopped stunning 85-year-old Noreen today. She loved what I was doing and said she has an altar at home and a beautiful relationship with God. As I told her about the Veda she eagerly took one saying she would love to read it and deepen her relationship with God. How fortunate is this 85-year old coming into contact with Krishna. It really is never too late. Srila Prabhupada’s mission is reaching out to everyone and the book marathon is making it happen!

Truly uplifting! Meet Jim (left) and John (right). Yesterday, in…
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Truly uplifting!
Meet Jim (left) and John (right). Yesterday, in Coventry, UK, as I was speaking to someone, John came over and started to look at the Veda on top of my trolley. As I finished speaking to the person, I approached John and he asked me what the books were about. I had quite literally only just started to brief him, and in an instant, he took a note out of his wallet and placed it in my hand and walked off with the book. I was amazed, intrigued and curious. This is one of the many magical experiences we encounter on the streets. I recalled this exchange a number of times in the day thinking how rewarding book distribution is. To my surprise, John came to see me again this morning with his friend Jim. He asked for another Veda. He then explained to me that he had taken the book home and his wife and son were arguing over the book, both wanting to be the first to read it. His wife started to read it and became instantly immersed so his son said he would download the e-book, however John insisted that he would buy him another book the following day. John also decided to take the Bhagavad Gita to read so they could all read a book each together as a family. Jim was standing listening to us and he became so intrigued about the books, clearly the conversation had a galvanizing effect on him, that he also took one of each. These encounters truly pierce my soul knowing that people are not only taking Srila Prabhupada’s books but they are reading and sharing them, and buying more for family and friends. Truly uplifting.

Temple Anniversary
→ Ramai Swami

Sri Sri Radha Rasesvara temple was opened 19 years ago just outside Denpasar, Bali. Since then the community of devotees has grown extensively with many purchasing houses in the area.

Atmanivedana Swami, Bhakti Jivan Maharaja and I were invited for the anniversary celebration. The afternoon started with abhiseka of the deities, then speeches, dance performances, arati and feast.

Odana-sasthi
Giriraj Swami

Today is Odana-sasthi, the date on which Lord Jagannatha is given a winter shawl. One year, when Lord Caitanya and His associates celebrated this festival in Puri, Purdarika Vidyanidhi, who is Vrsabhanu Maharaja, Srimati Radharani’s father, in krsna-lila, received some special mercy. His experience is instructive for us all.

Srila Prabhupada explains, “At the beginning of winter, there is a ceremony known as the Odana-sasthi. This ceremony indicates that from that day forward, a winter covering should be given to Lord Jagannatha. That covering is directly purchased from a weaver. According to the arcana-marga, a cloth should first be washed to remove all the starch, and then it can be used to cover the Lord. Pundarika Vidyanidhi saw that the priest neglected to wash the cloth before covering Lord Jagannatha. Since he wanted to find some fault in the devotees, he became indignant.” (Cc Madhya 16.78 purport)

And Sri Caitanya-caritamrta (Madhya 16.78-81) describes the event: “Pundarika Vidyanidhi initiated Gadadhara Pandita for the second time, and on the day of Odana-sasthi Pundarika Vidyanidhi saw the festival. When Pundarika Vidyanidhi saw that Lord Jagannatha was given a starched garment, he became a little hateful. In this way his mind was polluted. That night the brothers Lord Jagannatha and Balarama came to Pundarika Vidyanidhi and, smiling, began to slap him. Although his cheeks were swollen from the slapping, Pundarika Vidyanidhi was very happy within. This incident has been elaborately described by Thakura Vrndavana dasa.”

From this incident, we can learn that the Lord does not tolerate offenses against His servants, even from an advanced devotee, and that He chastises a devotee who commits such an offense even within the mind. We can also learn that a pure devotee accepts such chastisement from the Lord with great happiness, as a manifestation of the Lord’s mercy, of His love and care for His devotees—both for those who may commit such an offense and for those who may be objects of such an offense. He thanks the Lord for rectifying him and preventing him from committing further offenses, and he feel great jubilation within his heart.

Hare Krishna.

Yours in service,
Giriraj Swami

 

State of today’s religion
→ Servant of the Servant

The common and prevalent understanding is that religion is the cause of wars, bigotry and sectarianism. Therefore religion is not discussed in a public forum. Actually, people in general think God and religion is primitive especially in view of modern science. But this sort of awareness amongst people exist because religious leaders and their followers have made religion on the physical and mundane platform without any knowledge of the identity of God. What we see today as religion is simply another form of materialism. Real religion is something else. Below are some thoughts by Srila Prabhupada on this point. 

Real religion should be taken. Simply because religion has not been properly executed by the so-called priests, that does not mean religion should be rejected. If my eye is giving me some kind of trouble on account of a cataract, that doesn’t mean my eye should be plucked out. The cataract should be removed. So that is the idea of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement – to remove the cataract from people’s religious vision. Generally, modern so-called religious leaders have no conception of God, and yet they are preaching religion. What good is that religion? People are simply being misled. Real religion means God’s order: dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam [SB 6.3.19]. If your religion has no conception of God, where is the question of religion? Still, without any conception of God, they are professing some religion. How long will it go on artificially? It will deteriorate. That ignorance about God has resulted in the present condition.

Real religion is the source of true happiness and as humans we have the ability to understand God who is all-pervading, within and without. We should not waste this opportunity of human existence!

Hare Krishna

Closing Ceremony: Govardhana Retreat 2018 (Album of photos)…
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Closing Ceremony: Govardhana Retreat 2018 (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: “Oh Govinda! Feeling Your separation, I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from My eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in your absence.” This is the perfectional stage of chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. (Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, 8.51 Purport)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/76a1nX

Kolkata to Sri Dhama Mayapur and back by smooth ferry…
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Kolkata to Sri Dhama Mayapur and back by smooth ferry boat.
Srila Prabhupada goes out on the Maidan Cruise of the fiberglass twin-engine catamaran marine craft called the Jala - Duta 1 (3 min video)
The Company Name on the side of the marine craft is the “Mayapur Ganga Vivada Cruise Services. This ferry boat will carry passengers in quiet, smooth air-conditioned comfort like experienced on International airline flights. The craft is equipped with forty-two airline reclining seating and will bring the passenger in safe relaxing comfort from Kolkata to Sri Dhama Mayapur and back. What a nice way to travel to the Holy Dhama on the Sacred River Ganges.

The Iskcon Hare Krishna Explosion From The Inside
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Hare KrishnaBy Govinda Dasi

For me, the reason I like to hear other devotees’ memoirs and experiences, such as in Siddhanta Prabhu’s “Memories” series, and Yadubar/Visakha’s “Following Srila Prabhupada” series, and even simple memories on Facebook, is that when I came to be with Srila Prabhupada, it was at a very different time. I love to hear what other devotees experienced. I love to hear their realizations. And I see the common thread of awe and inspiration at the time of their first meeting with Srila Prabhupada. And I think it is important for everyone who was there at that magical time to share their experiences and realizations of what it was like to be in the presence of a “modern-day saint.” Continue reading "The Iskcon Hare Krishna Explosion From The Inside
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Kumbha Mela – A symbol of co-operation for greater cause
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Hare KrishnaBy Shyamananda Dasa

ISKCON devotees started the procession with a unique traditional bullock cart with hundreds of Vaisnava sadhus following the cart of Nitai Gaura Sundar and Srila Prabhupada, and blessed millions of pilgrims and devotees by their melodious kirtan. This Padyatra bullock cart has been travelling all over India for last 29 years since it started in 1984. The ISKCON Camp at Maha Kumbha Mela was located on Tulasi Marg, sector 5, Mori Gate (under Taragunj Railway bridge), and accommodated nearly 1,000 devotees from all over the world. The dioramas depicting churning Kshira Sagar by demigods and demons, the Gajendra-moksha-lila, Ram-Lila with monkeys attracted a lot of visitors.This tradition has been carried on till this day. Continue reading "Kumbha Mela – A symbol of co-operation for greater cause
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Bridging Science and Spirituality
→ Dandavats

Hare KrishnaBy Jaganmohini Devi Dasi

As a founder director of Bhaktivedanta Institute, HH Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami, was able to lay the foundation of the Bhaktivedanta Institute under Srila Prabhupada's direct guidance. During Srila Prabhupada's final days and even before that HH Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami was very enthusiastic and had adopted versatile and dynamic approach to reach to intellectual community. And Srila Prabhupada very much approved and appreciated it. There are several conversations between them in this regard. Thereafter, for nearly three decades, HH Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami has made pioneering efforts to provide a platform for mutual dialogue among scientists, religious leaders and academicians, such that both the scientists and spiritual leaders would have the opportunity to learn from each other and thereby broaden their respective world views for the benefit of mankind Continue reading "Bridging Science and Spirituality
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Jagannath Rath Yatra in Baudda, Nepal (Album of photos) Srila…
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Jagannath Rath Yatra in Baudda, Nepal (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: “As a result of chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, one makes such great advancement in spiritual life that simultaneously his material existence terminates and he receives love of Godhead. The holy name of Krishna is so powerful that by chanting even one name, one very easily achieves these transcendental riches.” (Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, 8.28)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/vAUBeW

While struggling with conditionings how can we avoid the extremes of becoming hopeless and becoming shameless?
→ The Spiritual Scientist

Answer Podcast

The post While struggling with conditionings how can we avoid the extremes of becoming hopeless and becoming shameless? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.