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!

Understanding the Origin of the Jiva
→ The Enquirer

The breakthrough for me came when I stoped thinking in terms of “origins” – “inceptions” and so on. Also, go back to the very basic beginnings and make sure you understand the ramifications of statements like “na jayate kadācit” or “na tvevāham jātu”

Another breakthough for me was carefully studying Tattva Sandarbha and hearing Śrī Jīva Goswāmī explain Vyāsa’s samādhī and explicitly use the phrase “anādi bhagavad ajñāna” – so then I knew I had to stop trying to figure out the situation as if it was a “choice” between two known options.

Once I had these two things – understanding that I didn’t have an origin point any different from my current origin/root, and understanding that I never know Bhagavān directly… then it is very simple.

Also another important breakthrough for me was to allow non-intellectual reasons to have their place. After all, reality is acintya. (supra-intellectual). Not everything has an intellectual rationale. In fact, all the really “original,” deep, primary stuff about existence is more based on “kāma” than buddhi (“so kāmayata, bahu syām prajāyata”). Desires are not rational but they do make sense.

Consciousness wants to enjoy what it can experience, so it always manifests things to experience. This is the basic prakṛti/puruṣa paradigm. There is never puruṣa without prakṛti and never prakṛti without puruṣa. You can’t even define one without the other. So Krishna and the individual conscious entities are always co-existant. It makes sense.

And what consciousness wants to experience is something “beautiful.” Which is why bhakti is fundamental to the essential nature of reality. It’s the relationship between the puruṣa (Krishna) and prakṛti (us). Beauty involves variety, and thats why there are so many varieties of prakṛti (us), and that’s why there are some unexpected varieties, such as prakṛti that wants to be puruṣa (us in the material world).

Another big breakthrough for me to understand this whole thing was to learn the different sanskrit terms for “eternal”. Especially when I learned the difference between anādi (beginningless) and ananta (endless) – and heard how Jīva Goswāmī explained their relevance to this topic – everything made sense. Our bhagavad-ajñāna (lack of experience of Bhagavān) is anādi (beginningless) but not ananta (endless) if we dont want it to be. And if we do want it to be, bhagavān’s māya provides us the opportunity to fulfill our desires so long as we cooperate with others who want to do the same.

To me it all makes sense, so maybe if you sit with these concepts for a few months it will also make sense to you.

Hey Dude, I am almost finished with the first Canto of…
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Hey Dude, I am almost finished with the first Canto of Bhagavatam!
Hare Krishna, Dear devotees. This is a letter from someone I met at the Bonnaroo music festival. Whilst it’s not exactly Vaisnava jargon and etiquette [hopefully that will come later]; it proves the importance of distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books, and over and above that, of spending time cultivating people and giving them your own contact info. As individuals, we can distribute a limited number of books, but if we can convince others to do it too, obviously the numbers will increase.
Your servant
Adikarta das

Hey Dude! Have your made your way to Europe yet? I am almost finished with the first Canto of Bhagavatam. I am in process of ordering all the volumes as translated by Prabhupada. I wanted to say Hi and make sure you know how thankful I am you gave this great gift to me. To be honest, I’m so taken with it I would probably aim for reaching renunciation in this life to return to Godhead, but I am not able to do so my friend. I cant leave my soon to be wife as she very much helped save me from failing in the material world, so I cant leave her to save myself in terms of the spiritual world. I hope that I can at least work hard and earn a better position in a future life so that I soon will be able to renounce all sensory pleasure to return home. But I cant feel right about sacrificing the family I have around me who gave me so much to save myself. Perhaps I can sacrifice myself to help save them and open their eyes a bit to the point of this material life. I see in the book now why you insist I surround myself with pure devotees and follow a spiritual master, but not sure this is realistic for me…at least at this point in my life. So for now, you’ll have to be my Swami Aidi :-) haha I hope you are well my friend. Tell me about what stage you are in in the transcendental devotional work to Godhead ! I would like to hear where you are and what you have left to achieve in this life. I have grown a lot since we met Aidi and that is thanks to you. I have a clear picture of the impersonal Brahman and God’s cosmic form. I also feel his presence daily and he is always on my mind. One thing I would like to develop further is the correct meter to chant Hare Krsna to better communicate directly to Vishnu. Well, I am going to get back to my daily chores before work. Take care !
Hare Krsna.
Brett was in the marines with the colorful shirt who wrote the unusual letter.

A Treasure Trove of Vaishnava Literature
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In South Kolkata, a treasure trove of Vaishnava literature can be found in ISKCON Mayapur’s Bhaktivedanta Research Centre. This library is a gem hidden in a quiet Kolkata neighborhood, in which can be found copies of almost every book written by the previous acharyas going back to Srila Rupa Gosvami, and many rare and out […]

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Michigan Rathayatra 2018 (Album of photos) Srila Prabhupada:…
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Michigan Rathayatra 2018 (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: “One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and ready to offer all respect to others. In such a state of mind, one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi-lila, 17.31)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/accYFW

A Treasure Trove of Vaishnava Literature
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Hare KrishnaBy Iskcon Mayapur

In South Kolkata, a treasure trove of Vaishnava literature can be found in ISKCON Mayapur’s Bhaktivedanta Research Centre. This library is a gem hidden in a quiet Kolkata neighborhood, in which can be found copies of almost every book written by the previous acharyas going back to Srila Rupa Gosvami, and many rare and out of print books, such as Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s compilation of commentaries on the Padma Purana and his commentaries on the Bhagavad-gita. The library also contains scans of many original, handwritten manuscripts, as well as many of the original manuscripts themselves, such as the only known copy of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s personal diary, dating from 1904 -1906. Continue reading "A Treasure Trove of Vaishnava Literature
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An amazing movement of amazing people!
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, March 2018, Durban, South Africa, Ratha Yatra Human Relationships Lecture)

You cannot become saintly by declaration, “From this day on, I will be saintly!”

Good luck, this sounds like a New Year resolution to me. Usually, such resolutions break down quite soon; if not on the first of January then definitely on the second. So ultimately, it is recommend that we try to cultivate good qualities; saintly qualities. This can be done by making a conscious effort while we are engaged in devotional service, so thereby we are purified by this process of devotional service and the combination of those two things will bear fruit in saintly qualities. This is how we can improve in our human relationships as well. And in this way, I feel that this movement in particular is challenged to live up to its philosophy.

We have such an exalted philosophy and we know the 26 qualities that a vaishnava should possess. Qualities like simplicity, non-violence, kindness, truthfulness, friendliness, humility, the ability to control anger, determination, cleanliness and so on are all mentioned here. So these are all transcendental qualities. Such saintly qualities are exactly what we need to really impact our relationships – to really make our movement what it should be – an amazing movement of amazing people! It is good if someone gives a nice lecture regarding this movement, but if we truly want this movement to be a success, it is ultimately about our qualities as vaishnavas that will make all the difference!

The article " An amazing movement of amazing people! " was published on KKSBlog.

Gita 18.25 To see our actions disconnected from the past and the future is to see in illusion
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Should we not do good to others because to get the good reaction we will have to take birth again?
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Answer Podcast

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Bhagavatam study 101 1.18.31-36 Presuming that we know God’s will and are doing his work is presumptuous and dangerous
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Festival of India in Ma’alot-Tarshiha, Israel (Album of…
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Festival of India in Ma'alot-Tarshiha, Israel (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Because we live in the temples of Radha-Krishna and continuously hold hari-nama-sankirtana – the chanting of Hare Krishna – we consequently live in Vrndavana and nowhere else. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila, 16.281 Purport).
Find them here: https://goo.gl/rKKLkG

What the Vedas say about hiṁsa milk
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  • Śrī Nanda-nandana quotes Ṛg-veda 10.37.17: „Milk forcibly derived from cows is poisonous and leads to many kinds of incurable diseases.”
  • Aside from the offence one commits towards one’s mother karma also comes to the consumer of violently obtained milk
  • By consuming hiṁsa milk we are putting ourselves and others at risk
  • „Cows are recievers of all heavenly constallations. Thus she contains influences of all constallations. Wherever there is a cow there is influence of all heavenly constallations and so blessings of all the Gods. The cow is the only divine being that has sūrya-ketu-nāḍī or the vein connected to the sun passing through her back bone. Therefore the cow’s milk, butter and ghee has a golden hue. This is because sūrya-ketu-nāḍī on interaction with the solar rays produes gold salts in her blood. These slats are present in the cow’s milk and the cow’s other bodily fluids which miraculously cures many dideases. Ancient scriptures state that the sūrya-ketu nerve on a cow’s back absorbs harmful radiations and cleanses the atmosphere.”
  • The physical condition of the cow is reflected in her psychological position and that passes on both benefits and demerits to the consumer.
  • Non devotees are more supportive of Sīta Rāma prabhu’s ahiṁsa milk project than devotees
  • Most of the food we buy today are poisoned
  • Saving money on the short run may be expensive on the long run