Vaishnava Summer Festival Baltic 2018 (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Of the nine processes of devotional service, the mos...

Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold Named One of the Most Beautiful Places in the U.S.
ISKCON devotees will be pleased to note that amidst such attractions as the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art was the headline “Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold - New Vrindaban, West Virginia.”
To read the complete article please click here: https://goo.gl/58xPpt

Mahadyuti Swami’s great performance during the Vaishnava Baltic Festival 2018 (6 min video)
Mahadyuti Swami sang a song about how he likes to take prasadam at Govinda’s. Maharaj wrote this song 25 years ago when he was a manager there.

The article " Genuine appreciation " was published on KKSBlog.

Although 52 years have passed since the founding of ISKCON, the society is still growing. In 1965 Srila Prabhupada left the city then called Calcutta on a merchant steamer bound for New York. Only his son, Vrindavan Chandra De, was present to see him off. At age 60, Srila Prabhupada was carrying out the order of his guru, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada. The directive was to spread the glories of Lord Krishna to the English-speaking world. Srila Prabhupada had no friends or acquaintances in the US. Continue reading "52 Years and Counting!
→ Dandavats"

I was the TP in Nairobi from 1975 to 1982 and I know very well the extremely challenging situations preachers face in Kenya. After 36 years I returned to see the progress. Under my almost 7 year watch the preaching on the one side to the Indian community resulted in newly initiated Indian devotees and an increase of life members from 350 to 1,500. Substantial preaching was made with the African community too in terms of newly initiated devotees, Back to Godhead magazine in Kiswahili, regular performance of street and temple kirtans, and prasadam distribution. But all along our outreach to the students at the university campuses has met with very limited results and this of course left Srila Prabhupada’s cherished desire unfulfilled. Continue reading "Amazing ‘University Students’ Preaching in Kenya
→ Dandavats"

Bhagavad-gita verse-by-verse podcast

The post Gita 18.42 Brahmanas cultivate material material regulation and spiritual redirection by intellectual conviction appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

Transcription :

Transcriber: Sudeep Naik

Question: What can we do when we see terrible things happening in the world?

Answer: Whatever actions we do are reflections of the consciousness we have. Consciousness of different people is directed in different ways. Suppose we are walking on a road and we step on someone, as soon as we realize that we stepped on someone we immediately apologize. Normally a person is sensitive, when they cause pain to others, they feel sorry and apologize. However, sometimes some people may deliberately step on someone. They feel pleasure when they cause pain to others. At extreme level, people are sadistic or psychopaths. They feel pleasure in causing pain to others. Such people do not feel any remorse as there is no conscience left. These are different levels of awareness.

Wars happen, people kill, damage ecology, because their consciousness is at a particular level. Our consciousness is directed at the level where we find pleasure. Somebody who is compassionate, kind hearted feel pleasure in bringing joy to others. Somebody who is self-centered, sadistic get pleasure in causing pain to others. Somebody who is materialistic or technologically infatuated get pleasure in watching TV or playing video games.

We need to raise our consciousness because the more our consciousness evolves upwards, the more we become a part of the solution. Einstein said, “Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.” Practice of spirituality raises our consciousness upwards. We may be associated with some field – finance, engineering, politics, education etc. However, irrespective of the field, our consciousness will make us either a positive contributor or a negative contributor in that field. Spirituality help raise our consciousness which help us become more of a positive contributor. The world is a big place and we do not have control on how people act. However, we have control on how we act. Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world”. If each of us try to raise our consciousness then we can become the part of the change.

Suppose we are sitting in a room and the power goes off then we may get annoyed, complain or yell. However, we can switch on the flashlight in our mobile. The flashlight does not replace the room light but gives enough illumination to take few steps forward. Similarly, the world around us is a dark place. It is easy to curse the darkness that we are surrounded with. Yes, there are many problems, but it is much more productive to light at least one light. That light is the light of our own consciousness. If we can spiritualize our consciousness, then whichever area we are in we will be able to contribute and who knows we may start a chain reaction by which others elevate their own consciousness as well. A small change can lead to a big change over a period. On the mountaintop, it starts with a trickle of water but eventually becomes a forceful river. Similarly, a change in our consciousness in the right direction, can lead to a bigger change in the society with time.

On 60th anniversary celebration of United Nations in India, the United Nations in-charge of India told, “In last 60 years, we have worked very hard, got thousands of volunteers and spent billions of dollars. When we started, UN had 60 different forums like World Trade Organization (WTO), World Health Organization (WHO), UNESCO etc. In all these 60 different forums, things have become worse. Not even in one of the areas, things have tangibly improved. UNESCO charter states that, “Just as war begins in the minds of people, similarly peace also has to begin in the minds of people. Now we are recognizing that social activism is important but we need something to change the consciousness of people. The change has to happen inside-out.” The world is focused a lot changing the outside. Outside change is required, but for the change to be sustainable and transformational, it must be an inside-out process. By raising our consciousness, we are trying to be part of that inside-out change.

End of transcription.

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ISKCON UK and NHS in joint care initiative.
A joint initiative between ISKCON UK and the SWAN end of life scheme was launched at a conference in the ISKCON Temple in Leicester. SWAN offers dedicated support to patients in the last days of life and to their families into bereavement and beyond. The SWAN scheme is a national programme which is present in 47 Trusts across the country. It was set up by Fiona Murphy MBE, the assistant director of Nursing at the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. The conference was attended by around fifty nurses and doctors, many of them practicing devotees of Krishna, and everyone felt the concepts discussed were helpful. Sukanti Radha dasi, a nurse, was the organizer of the conference and ISKCON’s National Office was represented by Praghosa das. Key speakers from ISKCON included Kripa Moya das who presented “Journey of the Soul”, and Nila Madhava das, who spoke about last rites and funeral services.

Iskcon representative in Narendra Modi event at London.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Indian diaspora in L...

PadaYatra walking festival in Czech Republic (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Of the nine processes of devotional service, ...

Lord Jagannath At Woodstock (Album of photos)
Indradyumna Swami: Lord Jagannath gave His first blessings at Polish Woodstock [...

HH Subhag Swami in stable condition after an angiogram operation.
Srivasa Pandit Das: Good news. I just had a conversation wit...

Answer Podcast

Transcription :

Transcribed by: Sudeep Naik

Edited by: Keshavgopal Das

Question: When people are distressed, should we think philosophically, or should we just help them?

Answer: It is natural for a compassionate heart to want to help people. At the same time, we must see how best we can help someone since we all have limited resources. We also must think what is the most effective way in which we can help others. Suppose there is a hospital and next to it there is a medical college. There are people in the emergency department of the hospital and somebody needs to treat them. If some relative of the person in emergency department comes running to the medical college and says, “What you all students are sitting here in this classroom? Somebody is dying there, go and help them.” It may appear that the students are sitting for hours reading something, and when so many people are dying, they should do some practical help. However, for them to do something practical they need to learn medical science. It may appear that the students are stone hearted. However, the medical knowledge equips the students to help people in a more effective way. If they just run to emergency, they may be able to offer some basic help like bandaging or first-aid but if they become qualified doctors they can offer much better help.

When I was in college, I was a part of a social service organization where I would go to slums near my college and offer free tuitions to children. I found most of the kids came from dysfunctional families. Their fathers were alcoholics, they would suffer from domestic violence etc. Slowly as the children started to open to me, I felt that by teaching them Mathematics or English, how much am I really going to help them. Their lives were in such a mess that they needed help at a different level. Then after talking to our organization leaders, we decided that we will help people break free from alcohol. I used to go to slums, my friend would go to a nearby village. We worked together, and we succeeded in making one village dry (free from alcohol). At that time, it was a big achievement for us. One evening my friend came back from that village and he looked shattered. He told that previous week there were local elections and one of the candidates freely distributed three truckloads of alcohol. To his surprise not only the fathers but even their kids were drunk.

We thought that through education we can open doors for people. We also thought that by helping people to leave alcohol we are helping them to walk through those doors. But then we realized that there is something within people which sabotages them. I realized that not only those people but something within me also is self-destructive. I was very short tempered at that time. In fact, I was infamous for my anger. There is something within me which made me work against my best interests. I wondered what it was and how can that be combated. It was then I started reading Bhagavad-gita, where I found answer to this question, “What makes us act self-destructively?” Bhagavad-gita gives a complete psychological and spiritual analysis which explains that there are self-destructive forces within us and we need to deal with them by purification. This purification comes by spiritualization of our consciousness.

If we look at the major problems of the world today, all of these have a psychological basis. For example, problem of corruption is primarily caused by greed. Sexual violence is caused by lust. Violence is caused by anger. Environmental problem of pollution, global warming etc. are primarily because of greed. Greed, lust and anger are the three forces which are primarily the causes of most of the problems. If we could help ourselves do the inner cleansing by which we can decrease the level of lust, anger and greed then we can significantly help ourselves. We can significantly change the world to become a better place.

If people are starving we can give them some food, if somebody is sick we can give them medicine. These are all very good. If we have the capacity and inclination to do such a help we may do so, but is that a lasting solution? If somebody has certain habits which are self-destructive, will providing food or medicine really help? When I was helping those kids by teaching Math or English, I felt that the help I was offering was like filling water in a leaking bucket. The material education I gave to people, they were not really benefitted. The material education did not help in their inner purification.

If we can empower people internally to push back negative powers within them then they can help themselves. This happens by providing them spiritual education. Materially we can help anyone to a finite degree only. However, if we can equip someone to help themselves then that is a far greater help. By ourselves becoming spiritual and by sharing spirituality with others, we are equipping people to become the best that they can be. Equipping people to fight negativities within themselves through spiritual education is the best help. It is good to have the desire to help others, however, we should use our intelligence, to see what the best way is to contribute.

End of transcription.

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Bhagavad-gita verse-by-verse podcast

The post Gita 18.41 Varnashrama provides customized spirituality for elevating people from where they are appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Podcast

The post Bhagavatam tenth canto study 19 – 10.3.39-46 Omnipotent Krishna can act through transcendental or normal means appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

[Talk at Aus Crystals, Melbourne, Australia]

Podcast

Podcast Summary

Video:

The post PAST acronym – 4 reflections to go past your past appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

Video:

Transcription :

Transcribed by: Sudeep Naik

Question: Are we meant to face our destiny or to fulfill our destiny?

Answer: It is both.

Here we are referring to destiny in two different senses: (i) philosophical (ii) conversational.

Philosophically speaking destiny refers to the sum of our past karma whose reactions have not yet come upon us but are going to come. Sometimes, we may do good but get some bad reactions because it is the reaction for some other action from the past. Such destiny we need to face.

However, destiny also refers to something which we are meant to achieve. This sense of destiny is more referred in a conversational sense and not in a philosophical sense. For example, somebody has great talent for musical since early childhood and the person grows and becomes a musical maestro, then it is said that they have fulfilled their destiny. By our destiny we have been given certain talents and using those talents to achieve something worthwhile is in one sense fulfilling our destiny. That is something we all are meant to do.

Some of us may feel we do not have any special talent so what destiny can I fulfill. Our material talents can lead to the fulfilment of some destiny at a material level in terms of getting some fame or making some contribution in this material world. However, we all have spiritual destiny which every one of us can fulfill irrespective of differences in our material talent.
We are at our core souls and the soul has potential for an eternal life and eternal love. The soul is a part of the whole God. If the soul learns to love the whole purely through the evolution of its consciousness, then it can attain eternal life and eternal love by graduating from this temporary material world to the eternal spiritual world. That is the spiritual destiny which we all are meant to fulfill. Through multiple lifetimes and multiple species, we are evolving towards that ultimate destination. By practicing the process of bhakti yoga diligently and directing our love towards the Lord through such practices, everyone irrespective of their material destiny, can fulfill our spiritual destiny of attaining eternal life and love.

End of transcription.

The post Are we meant to face our destiny or to fulfill our destiny? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

[Congregation program at Wellington, New Zealand]

Podcast

Podcast Summary

Video:

The post Go beyond testing Krishna to tasting Krishna appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Hare Krishna Festival Team on non-stop tour across the UK.
So far this year, members of the Hare Krishna UK Festival Team hav...

Kirtan London’s summer of success!
This year, Kirtan London is reaching out even wider than ever before with many more outreach kirtan (music) events in London: 1. Mantra Lounge – Kirtan evenings in Covent Garden have become weekly in frequency since the beginning of the year, with 40-50 people attending every session. 2. Pop-up Temple at the Wellbeing Festival (Mind Body Spirit) in May: - over 700 people participated in kirtan and japa meditation sessions; - over 900 prasadam sweets distributed; - 340 medium and 90 big books on spiritual topics sold, and - over 300 sets of japa chanting beads have been given out to eager participants. 3. Kirtan at Triyoga - Since March 2018 the team has been running weekly sessions at Triyoga Shoreditch, one of the branches of the prestigious yoga studio in London. 4. Barefoot in The Park – in July, the team held a big 6 Hour Kirtan and picnic at the Hyde Park Bandstand. Over 500 people attended throughout the day with many more passers-by enjoying the kirtans. 5. For those who want to dive deeper into the bhakti yoga philosophy and practice, study Bhagavad Gita and learn more about kirtan and its roots, we have developed special courses, residential retreats and monthly Bhakti Sanga (reading group). We also continue to offer our guests regular day retreats at Bhaktivedanta Manor, with tours, workshops, kirtans and talks on bhakti-yoga (the yoga of devotion), as well as the quarterly 6 Hour Kirtan at the lovely Swiss Church in Covent Garden, which attracts 120150 people each time.

Bulls Massage Mother Earth (video)
“Spending a day with the bulls is very satisfying work, and Mother Bhumi (Mother Earth) likes it. She is not so happy to have the tractor pounding her around. When the bulls are working, they’re walking on

Polish Woodstock Festival: Sneak Preview (Album of photos)
Indradyumna Swami: The actual Polish Woodstock Festival [ Pol'and'...

Podcast

The post Bhagavatam tenth canto study 18 – 10.3.32-38 How past life connections make sense of present-life situations appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

Transcription :

Transcriber: Suresh Gupta

Question: What is the most effective way to combat anger?

Answer: Combating anger happens at three broad levels – the spiritual, psychological and physical.

At a spiritual level, if we do not have spiritual awareness, we think that we are meant to be the controllers, and everything should work according to our plans. When we are unable to exert our control, anger is just a natural response. With spiritual wisdom, we can understand that in the broader scheme of things we are not the controllers but we are co-operators. There is a higher plan in which we are meant to play our part. If things are not happening according our plan, we need to recalibrate how to function. Redefining ourselves as co-operators and not controllers substantially decreases anger.

Anger depends on how we process what has happened. And that depends on how we conceive ourselves. For example, if somebody shouts at us, naturally we feel hurt. If that person is someone whom we have a good relationship with, we do not expect them to act in that way. Suppose the person who shouts at us is a stranger, who is under the influence of drugs. More often than not, we do not care because they are lost in their own world. Therefore, while the event of shouting is the same, how we react to somebody yelling at us is dependent on how we are processing it. How we process it, depends on how we conceive ourselves in relationship to the other person.

Spiritual practices help us instil the belief that we are not the controllers. The more we do spiritual practices the more our anger will go down both at the conscious and sub conscious levels. Consciously, we start to understand that we are not the controllers. At the sub conscious level, if we do meditation, regularly come to spiritual association, we will find that within few months of practice those situations which would have provoked us earlier, are not affecting us so much.

At the psychological level, all of us need to express ourselves in some way. We deal with our emotions in two ways: express or repress. With spiritual knowledge, we open a third option – process. Processing means that we care about our anger. Let me explain using my own example.

Earlier I used to get angry very much. Even now I get angry. When I am angry on someone, I write an e-mail to the person. However, I have a policy that if I have written a mail in anger, I will not press the send button for twenty-four hours. By writing email, I vent my anger out. If I do not write, the anger will burn me. If I write and send it, anger will burn the other person. Hence, I follow an intermediate option – I express it by writing but do not send it. Whenever anger and thoughts are held inside us, they congest and choke us. Writing down releases the inner pressure. Many times, it happens that within twenty-four hours the other person clarifies, and the situation is resolved. However, after twenty-four hours if the situation is not yet resolved then I revisit it. I am much calmer and able to see things clearly. I analyse and see that I have made certain reasonable points, but I am expressing it harshly or that I may be making a lot of assumption about the other person’s motive. In that way, I go over the whole email. Almost every time I would edit the email. When I do so, I find that things move towards resolution much better. What is happening here is that there is expressing, but within a finite range and to myself, or on a computer. Then there is processing. When I process my emotions, I know how to deal with them. Sometimes, I may decide that this whole issue is not a big deal and I will talk with the person when I meet him in person.
At physical level, all of us have certain triggers or things which make us angry. We have to learn to be cautious about this. Sometimes, when two people come together, they bring out the best within each other. That relationship is symbiotic. However, when some people come together they bring out the worst in each other. Just being in their presence makes each other angry. They may be doing something to provoke us consciously or unconsciously, but just being with them agitates us. Therefore, if we have to work with such people, we have to prepare. We just cannot rush into a meeting with them.

If we have had a long and difficult day with things are continuously going wrong and we come in touch with this person on such a day, then, even if there was a small issue, there will be a big explosion from our side. Hence, when we are aware of our triggers, then we can be cautious. At a physical level not giving ourselves the opportunity to express the anger by keeping ourselves at a distance from the stimuli that trigger anger, that helps quite a bit. Having things or having objects by which we can express our anger can make things much worse.
In America, quite a few school shootings have happened in the recent past. I was giving a talk at a college in America and suddenly someone entered and asked all of us to duck under the desk. When I enquired what happened, they told that there was a shooter in the school and urged everyone to duck under their desks. Finally, they clarified that this was a drill to train everyone. In many of these occasions, such shooters end up killing themselves also. The shooters after killing, feel extremely horrible about their actions. Under the spell of anger, they become very cold blooded, but after the anger has been expressed, they are so horrified that they end up killing themselves.

Anger is an emotion which everyone has, but if the angry person has a gun then it makes things much worse. If we could minimise our access to the trigger of our anger or minimise our access to the channels by which we express our anger, then we will decrease the consequences of the anger.

End of transcription.

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Bhagavad-gita verse-by-verse podcast

The post Gita 18.40 To attain harmony with our spiritual nature, we need engagement that is in harmony with our psychophysical nature appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Gopala Bhatta Goswami (the son of Vyenkata Bhatta, a Sri Vaisnava brahmana) appeared in Sri Rangam, South India. Lord Caitanya once stayed for four months in his home and converted the family to Gaudiya Vaisnavism.

A boy at this time, Gopala personally served the Lord. Sri Caitanya treated him affectionately giving His remnants and blessings to become an acharya.

On pilgrimage he obtained twelve Salagrama Silas. Later the Damodara Sila manifested Himself as the beautiful Radha Ramana Deity. Since 1542, Sri Radha Ramana has been worshiped with pure devotion following precise sastric rituals.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 03 February 2013, Prague, Czech Republic, Srimad Bhagavatam 4.19.4)

If we want to be counted amongst the saints, we must have the courage to stand up for Krsna and not think, “What will the neighbours say?”

We have heard many stories of devotees during the early days of the movement in the former Soviet Union (Russia) and how the devotees were put into jails, mental hospitals and even labour camps. However, even during such circumstances, the devotees, using spoons over heating tubes, were ticking slowly in Morse code, “Hare Krsna Hare Krsna“. It takes a little longer to chant this way in Morse code as you can imagine but slowly the chanting of the holy name spread throughout the jails. Srila Prabhupada said, “This movement cannot be stopped! It is too late… it simply cannot be stopped. It is like a disease; when it has gone too far, there is nothing you can do. Nothing can be done to stop it now!” This is because vasudeva-katha-rucih (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.16). This is the key because of the taste of glorifying Krsna, how can one ever give it up!

Let the people say what they want to, we will still glorify Krsna!

Let the world criticise us, we will still glorify Krsna!

Let the word condemn us and declare us illegal, we will still never stop to glorify Krsna!

The article " Stand up for Krsna! " was published on KKSBlog.

Yesterday we were graced by a visit from Kalakantha Prabhu and Bhakta Jeff, from Gainesville. Kalakantha is such a sincere, intelligent, thoughtful, dynamic, compassionate, innovative preacher, I always feel enlightened and encouraged by his annual visits.

As stated in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta (Adi 1.50),

tesam satata-yuktanam
  bhajatam priti-purvakam
dadami buddhi-yogam tam
  yena mam upayanti te

“To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.”

Purport: “This verse of the Bhagavad-gita (10.10) clearly states how Govindadeva instructs His bona fide devotee. The Lord declares that by enlightenment in theistic knowledge He awards attachment for Him to those who constantly engage in His transcendental loving service. This awakening of divine consciousness enthralls a devotee, who thus relishes his eternal transcendental mellow. Such an awakening is awarded only to those convinced by devotional service about the transcendental nature of the Personality of Godhead. They know that the Supreme Truth, the all-spiritual and all-powerful person, is one without a second and has fully transcendental senses. He is the fountainhead of all emanations. Such pure devotees, always merged in knowledge of Krsna and absorbed in Krsna consciousness, exchange thoughts and realizations as great scientists exchange their views and discuss the results of their research in scientific academies. Such exchanges of thoughts in regard to Krsna give pleasure to the Lord, who therefore favors such devotees with all enlightenment.”

Hare Krishna.

Yours in service,
Giriraj Swami