Should we correct devotees and become a bad guy in their eyes or just turn a blind eye to their wrongdoings?
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Answer Podcast

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Gita 18.28 Doers in ignorance act destructively for others and even for themselves
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Bhagavad-gita verse-by-verse podcast

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If demons are devotees descending for mausala-lila, will they go to brahmajyoti on being liberated?
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Answer Podcast

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Understanding the compassionate intent of the Vedas 1 – Are the Vedas agnostic?
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[Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Sydney, Australia]

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There is no better alternative!
→ Servant of the Servant

There are times when spiritual practice feels like a routine and feels like we are neither in the material nor in the spiritual. At times of plateau, it is important to realize that our process of spiritual practice is coming down through the ages through great yoga masters and it takes patience and perseverance to sustain a steady practice. We should also have an objective and unbiased understanding of the material reality we live in. Though material life on the surface always looks glossy, we have to look past the veneer and appreciate the true meaning of materialism. Honestly, there is nothing worthy to mention. Therefore, we may feel less enthused by the routine of spiritual practice but still if we continue with faith on the great yoga masters and the insightful instructions of the scriptures, certainly, one day we will experience a higher taste. I do not think there is any better alternative!

Hare Krishna

Krishna’s presence is more precious than his present
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[Seminar at ISKCON, Sydney, Australia]

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How devotion makes the insurmountable ocean of material desires insignificant
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[Brahmachari class at ISKCON, Sydney, Australia on Bhagavatam 10.3.30-33]

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Krsna’s mercy
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, November 2015, Vrindavan, India, Video Interview)

When the living being turns away from Krsna then suffering begins. Happiness only exists in the relationship with Krsna so when we turn away from Krsna, we begin to suffer. Then Krsna has also added a little suffering, he added some sand-in-the-sweet-rice. Why is this so? Because Krsna loves living beings dearly and Krsna is more eager for living beings to go back to the spiritual world than the living beings are themselves. Therefore Krsna cannot wait, so sometimes he puts a little sand-in-the-sweet-rice just so that when we take sense gratification, we come to the understanding that maybe sense gratification is not worth it – it will not let us go back to the spiritual world! So ultimately, the elevated liberated souls see even suffering as the mercy of Krsna.

The article " Krsna’s mercy " was published on KKSBlog.

Krishna Wisdom Open Day 2018 in the Manor, UK (Album of…
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Krishna Wisdom Open Day 2018 in the Manor, UK (Album of photos)
What an absolutely incredible day, thank you to all those that made it possible! And check out our website www.krishnawisdom.com for more information! Photography by Tadas Prabhu. We had to compete against World Cup ‘England vs Sweeden’ on the day, but still, so many loving people came to experience Krishna consciousness.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/sm2i9Z

You’ve never seen a Govinda’s restaurant like this! …
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You’ve never seen a Govinda’s restaurant like this! (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: In the transcendental loving service of the Lord, it doesn’t matter whether we are working, cooking, painting, writing, chanting, or whatever; they are all the same. There are no such distinctions of higher and lower on the transcendental platform. The important thing is that we are engaging our time and energy in the service of the Lord. After all, we are so tiny, what can we do? Krishna sees simply that this time is being spent in His service. Letter to Karunamayi, February 25, 1968.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/HeU3bK

Ratha Yatra in Prague, Czech Republic (Album of photos) Srila…
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Ratha Yatra in Prague, Czech Republic (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: We are not afraid of maya because Krishna is there. Krishna says, “My devotee will never be vanquished by maya.” Maya cannot do anything if we become strong. And what is that strength? Chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare loudly. (Lecture on Bhagavad-gita, 3.6.10, Los Angeles 1968).
Find them here: https://goo.gl/fA5qho

Bhagavatam study 103 1.18.44-50 Abuse of power by those representing God makes people godless
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For building a big temple, should a community’s focus shift from preaching to fund-raising?
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Answer Podcast

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Gita 18.27 Our actions reflect our self-conception and our world-conception
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Thursday, July 12th, 2018
→ The Walking Monk

Toronto, Ontario

A Reprint

I was running out of mantra cards, or, rather, what some call business cards. “Can monks have business cards?” someone asked me once in a humorous way.

“Why not?” I challenged.  “The card is promoting walking—better than that, pilgrimage,” I explained.  I have an image of myself walking a trail in Mauritius where bats are ravaging the mango trees.  The image on the card doesn’t show any bat attacks.  It’s just something I remembered about the trail when I was walking at Bon Accueil.

I had to go for a reprint of the image with the maha mantraon the reverse side.  To get to the printers it is 1.0 kilometres, exactly, from the ashramwhere I live.  So what do you suppose a walking monk will do with such a distance?  Yes, walk it, there and back.

Unfortunately, I cannot boast any more measured mileage today.  It came to exactly two kilometres.  I rather invested more time into mopping the halls in the temple ashram.  It’s a different motion than a walk—more of a dance actually.

I mopped because it was needed.  Traffic is thick these days.  Foot traffic. People are coming from the far reaches of North America in preparation for the Chariot Fest in Toronto, perhaps the continent’s largest.

The Chariot Fest, traditionally known as Ratha Yatra, is now a fifty-one year custom since beginning in San Francisco, but enjoys a much older history dating back 5,000 years.  It also involves a ‘walk’ but not to the printers, perhaps a ‘cleaners’.

The act of walking along with the Chariot of Krishna is supposed to do some purging—a lifting of karma.

May the Source be with you!
2 km

Indonesia Meeting (Album of photos) Ramai Swami: The ISKCON…
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Indonesia Meeting (Album of photos)
Ramai Swami: The ISKCON Indonesia National Council had it’s annual general meeting (AGM) in July just before the Rathayatra parade in Denpasar.
This took place over a couple of days and representatives from Java, Sumatra, Lombok, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali and Iranian Jaya attended.
Everyone gave a report of their activities through the year, which was very inspiring to hear. The committee that oversaw Rathayatra parades said that it organized thirty-seven Rathayatras last year!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/oZmyQg

Prague, Czech Republic Rathayatra: One of the best! (Album of…
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Prague, Czech Republic Rathayatra: One of the best! (Album of photos)
Urmila Devi Dasi: Rathayatra! Among the dozens of Rathayatras I have attended in the last 45 years, this was one of the most astonishing, amazing, and uplifting.
The kirtana leaders were those who are deeply devoted to kirtana such as Janananda Goswami and the members of Hari Nama Ruci. Nearly all the participants were fully immersed in the kirtana during the whole parade and the spiritual happiness expanded everywhere.
The festival filled the streets, which overflowed with tourists and residents. Every member of the public who we passed took photos, or danced, or sang, or at least smiled or stared. Every one participated to some extent. It was a total absorption.
The route was very pleasing, though one of the most beautiful cities of the world. The weather was sunny but not oppressively hot, with many opportunities for shade along the way.
The pujaris informed me that although they have had the same cart, arrangements, Deities, and route for many years, it was only this year that they were unable to control the dancing on the cart of Jagannatha and Balarama.
It was one of those many days and experiences where I am so grateful to my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, and for the life I have chosen.
Several times I wanted to take a video of the dancing and kirtana, but I couldn’t bear to pull my attention away from participating in the kirtana itself. The deep ecstasy of some of the members of the kirtana party was quite visible and nothing I have ever witnessed before–only read about in Caitanya Caritamrta.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/B2rfom

The Yamadutas…
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The Yamadutas…
Dhirasanta Das Goswami: Yamaraja has instructed his servants the Yamadutas, “Swan-like persons are exalted persons who have no taste for material enjoyment and who drink the honey of the Lord’s lotus feet. My dear servants, bring before me for punishment only persons who are averse to the taste of that honey, who do not associate with the swan-like devotees and who are attached to family life and worldly enjoyments.

Vaisnava forgiveness
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 02 January 2015, Simhachalam, Germany, Caitanya Caritamrta Antya 7.16)

It is because we are proud, because we claim to know everything, because we are lazy, because we have no tolerance and everything disturbs us, and because we are addicted to enjoying our senses all the time, that we condemn others and cannot forgive them. Forgiveness is a big point, therefore I am emphasizing it a lot. So let us take this principle of forgiveness as a meditation. It is something that deeply affects us.

Question: How can we forgive in a case of vaisnava-aparadha, the greatest offence of offending a vaisnava? Lord Caitanya said that he would forgive everything but not a vaisnava-aparadha.

Still forgive! Because a vaisnava does not take an offence. There was this person who had put paraphernalia for worshiping goddess Kali, including wine and meat, on the doorstep of Srivas Thakur and the person who did that became afflicted with a horrible disease, leprosy, all over his body and worms were eating his body. So this person went to Caitanya Mahaprabhu and fell at his feet, saying, ‘You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, please relieve me from this suffering – please!’  But Caitanya said, ‘You are an offender of Srivas Thakur, so I will have you eaten by these worms for millions of lifetimes!’  But Mahaprabhu also told him that he could go to Srivas and beg for forgiveness. So he went to Srivas and Srivas replied, ‘That was no problem, I took no offence.’  Srivas just forgave like that and that is what vaisnavas do – they forgive!

But in case of someone else being offended, we object. We will defend others, but for ourselves we feel, ‘Who am I?’ If someone screams at me, I will think, ‘Yes, I have deserved it. Whatever they do to me, I have deserved it.’  When Haridas Thakur was beaten at twenty-two marketplaces, he still remained the well-wisher of the people who were beating him. That shows that devotees always forgive. If anyone is mistreating us – externally it may look like a mistreatment but actually for the internal reasons, it is totally right as we deserve it. We have to think like that. When I got shot me in the back, I tried to think like that, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’  I was trying to see that Krsna is kind to me, by giving me this special attention. We have to learn to think in this way when people mistreat us.

The article " Vaisnava forgiveness " was published on KKSBlog.

Reflections on Crows at Butterfly Beach
Giriraj Swami

While I was chanting japa at Butterfly Beach, about forty crows converged on the sand nearby, and I told Jivan-mukta, “Look: a place of pilgrimage for crows (vayasam tirtham),” referring Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.1

na yad vacas citra-padam harer yaso
  jagat-pavitram pragrnita karhicit
tad vayasam tirtham usanti manasa
  na yatra hamsa niramanty usik-ksayah
————————————————————————————————–
“Those words which do not describe the glories of the Lord, who alone can sanctify the atmosphere of the whole universe, are considered by saintly persons to be like unto a place of pilgrimage for crows. Since the all-perfect persons are inhabitants of the transcendental abode, they do not derive any pleasure there.”

The next verse of the Bhagavatam describes a different creation:

tad-vag-visargo janatagha-viplavo
  yasmin prati-slokam abaddhavaty api
namany anantasya yaso ’nkitani yat
  srnvanti gayanti grnanti sadhavah

“On the other hand, that literature which is full of descriptions of the transcendental glories of the name, fame, forms, pastimes, etc., of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a different creation, full of transcendental words directed toward bringing about a revolution in the impious lives of this world’s misdirected civilization. Such transcendental literatures, even though imperfectly composed, are heard, sung, and accepted by purified men who are thoroughly honest.”

Srila Prabhupada explains in the purport to the first verse, “The crows take pleasure in a place where garbage is thrown out, just as the passionate fruitive workers take pleasure in wine and woman and places for gross sense pleasure. The swans do not take pleasure in the places where crows are assembled for conferences and meetings. They are instead seen in the atmosphere of natural scenic beauty where there are transparent reservoirs of water nicely decorated with stems of lotus flowers in variegated colors of natural beauty. That is the difference between the two classes of birds. . . . Similarly, there are different kinds of literature for different types of men of different mentality. Mostly the market literatures which attract men of the crow’s categories are literatures containing refused remnants of sensuous topics. They are generally known as mundane talks in relation with the gross body and subtle mind. They are full of subject matter described in decorative language full of mundane similes and metaphorical arrangements. Yet with all that, they do not glorify the Lord. Such poetry and prose, on any subject matter, is considered decoration of a dead body. Spiritually advanced men who are compared to the swans do not take pleasure in such dead literatures, which are sources of pleasure for men who are spiritually dead. These literatures in the modes of passion and ignorance are distributed under different labels, but they can hardly help the spiritual urge of the human being, and thus the swanlike spiritually advanced men have nothing to do with them. Such spiritually advanced men are also called manasa because they always keep up the standard of transcendental voluntary service to the Lord on the spiritual plane. . . . [L]iteratures which describe the glories of the Lord are enjoyed by the paramahamsas who have grasped the essence of human activities.”

I pray to increase my taste for transcendental literature, for Srila Prabhupada’s books.

Hare Krishna.

Yours in service,
Giriraj Swami

Gita 18.26 The doer is not a non-doer but is a component in doing
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Bhagavatam study 102 1.18.36-43 Avoid offenses carefully and avoid getting offended easily
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Indonesia Meeting
→ Ramai Swami

The ISKCON Indonesia National Council had it’s annual general meeting (AGM) in July just before the Rathayatra parade in Denpasar.

This took place over a couple of days and representatives from Java, Sumatra, Lombok, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali and Iranian Jaya attended.

Everyone gave a report of their activities through the year, which was very inspiring to hear. The committee that oversaw Rathayatra parades said that it organised thirty seven Rathayatras last year!