Planet ISKCON

Rathayatra in Vilnius, Lithuania (Album with photos)
Bhakti Chaitanya Swami: Yesterday we had an amazing Rathayatra in Vilnius...

This is a small 8 min. movie which tries to clear common misconceptions people have about the Hare Krishna devotees.

The Gita teaches that wherever our mind is at the time of death, that will determine our next destination. Better not leave that to chance as our mind is undependable. In a split second it goes off on any emotion, both good and bad. Before we die, therefore, we need to practice what state of mind we want to be in at the time of death. That’s the practice of Bhakti. If our heart is filled with affection for Krishna, then at that critical moment we will call out to Krishna, and place our heart, and therefore our mind there. Love conquers all, especially the mind. If we love Krishna, that is where we will go for shelter. And that is where we will go at the time of, and after, death. Continue reading "Before I Die…
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While performing our services according to ability and inclination, mistakes will be expected. The tendency to highlight those as faults can be habitual, which has the effect of being caught up in a cobweb. If we persist in complaining about faults, thinking we are still advancing in spiritual life, without any ill effects to our health or well-being, will solidify to become steel cables. The fact that the mind is attracted to flying towards the sores of others’ mistakes is evident the Lord is displeased. Such behavior is really a selfish activity. How so? More often than not, if we are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but due to our own estimation of it, and we have the power to revoke it by becoming more Krsna conscious. Continue reading "Do We Complain Too Much?
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Bhagavad-gita verse-by-verse podcast

The post Gita 18.07 Renunciation done in illusion can’t take us out of illusion appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Podcast

The post Bhagavatam study 83 1.16.1-6 How Parikshit Maharaj manifested his predicated qualities appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

The post What is the traditional meaning of yoga in the Yoga sutras? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

The post What is the difference between conscience and intelligence? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Podcast

The post Spiritual lessons from world history 1 – Reflections on the Christian Reformation appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Festival in Sri Vrindavan Dham Farm, Almaty, Kazakhstan (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s transcendental mission is to distribute love of Godhead to everyone. Anyone who accepts God as the Supreme can take to the process of chanting Hare Krishna and become a lover of God. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, 4.41 Purport)
Find them here: Find them here: https://goo.gl/DbdHnb

Book Distribution Seminar in Sweden - HG Vaisesika Dasa, 21 June 2018 (video)

Gratitude Community Cooking and Sharing 27.06.2018 (Album of photos)
Shantasya Carlisle: Oh what fantastic helpers today; we were honoured to be visited by Kripamoya Das and Havi Das who are world famous for their devotional music. They made these super tasty pizzas for us. Thank you very much.
Tesco’s community champion and her line manager poped in to see what we do with their food donations and gave us a hand cutting cherries.
We had new comers and old comers having lots of fun preparing together great dishes using what we collected yesterday from the paddock Road Allotments.
We also broke off with a Gratitude tradition, due to the heat we didn’t make soup!
Our lunch included;
Boiled artichokes
Roasted baby potatoes
Roasted zukini
Green salad
Rice
Baked white sauce pasta
Corn on the cob
Panir in red sauce
Sweet roasted parsnips
Baklava
Dates
Fresh cherries
Rhubarb pudding
Drinks
Thank you lovely people, till next time …
Find them here: https://goo.gl/4rJuBW

Mayapur Fulldome Theater (1 min video)
ISKCON Mayapur’s immersive 360-degree spatial augmentation multimedia theater!
Come and experience exciting FullDome films!

Keynote talk to visiting European youth group.

Padayatra Lithuania 2018 (Album with photos)
Bhakti Chaitanya Swami: Padayatra Lithuania 2018 began 2 days ago with a harinama...

I was born and brought up in a Hindu family in Delhi, and we used to go to various temples and offer prayers before the gods. Two questions, however, always tickled my mind: Why do we worship so many gods, and who is the real God? As I never got answers to my questions, I considered all the gods equal, and in my teenage years all religions and faiths became one for me. Be it Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, or Christianity, all pointed towards one God. But I could not find out who this God is. During my school days, when I badly needed the help of God I would cry out to Him, but no name would come on my lips. Sometimes I wondered whether God has any name, and slowly and steadily I felt that God has no form or name but is a supernatural power—a powerful light we cannot see but can only feel. Continue reading "Looking for the Supreme God
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Beautiful photos from the 50th London Ratha Yatra.
Please find below links for high-resolution photos from the 50th London Rat...

ISKCON CENTER VESU (SURAT) RATHYATRA AND BOOK DISTRIBUTION REPORT.
“Many fanatic spiritual movement have come and gone, but without the flawless philosophy of Krishna, they cannot stand.Therefore I want especially that my book and Literature should be distributed profusely.This is our substance,real philosophical information, not some weak sentiments.So try for this,to give all men this Krishna philosophy,and many real devotees will come with us back to Home, back to Godhead.”-

I just wanted to thank you for being a model of dedication to Srila Prabhupada, his Back to Godhead, his society, ISKCON, and his mission. You have been designing, laying out, and taking photos for Back to Godhead ever since I met you in Philadelphia around 1984. When did you start? Thank you for designing practically all of Sadaputa Prabhu's books, both in the past and present. You were always a great supporter and friend of his. I do not think any devotee appreciated Alien Identities to the extent you did. Thank you for cooking for all the devotees, the halava for the Sunday feasts, the capatis for lunch, the pancakes and the upma for breakfast. Thank you for teaching me typesetting and proofreading so I could do layout for Sadaputa Prabhu's books and so I could help out by proofreading those books, Back to Godhead, Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami's books, Tattva Sandarba, Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Vaibhava, and so many more. Thank you for teaching me how to make capatis, upma, and tricks for mass quantities of halava. Thank you for being a good example of a steady devotee and a steady brahmacari. Continue reading "In Glorification of Yamaraja Prabhu
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And that is the activity of Lord Hari, when that fear is taken away by remembrance of the Lord. Lord Hari is the ‘One who takes away’, but He also takes away our fear because generally, it’s the fear which is the cause of so much anxiety. As Śrīla Prabhupāda explains, ‘fear’ means to not know what lays in the future. That’s why we fear. “If I do this, what’s going to happen? If I get on the plane, is it going to land?” Fear comes from the anticipation of the unknown. Continue reading "Chanting with Feelings
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Answer Podcast

The post If someone is suffering but is not open to spirituality, how to help them? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Bhagavad-gita verse-by-verse podcast

The post Gita 18.06 Karmic bondage is like emotional dependence – focus not just on the action but also on the motivation appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

The post When the mind starts misleading, does the Supersoul intervene? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Podcast

The post Bhagavatam study 82 1.15.45-51 Our spirituality is our responsibility, not anyone else’s responsibility appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Yesterday we were blessed with the association of seven stalwart brahmachari book distributors who are following the Warped Tour. They arrived the night before, attended our entire morning program, and then, after breakfast, we discussed various aspects of the practice and preaching of Krishna consciousness. These devotees are extending Srila Prabhupada and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy to many, many fortunate fallen souls.

Hare Krishna.

Yours in service,
Giriraj Swami

Glorious Rathaytra in London 50th Central Rathayatra - Sunday 24th June 2018 (11 min video)

Uma devi dasi and Nandini Tulasi’s wedding (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Decorate the Deity as nicely as possible with nice flowers and dress. You will forget all other false beauty. Letter to Kirtanananda, October 22, 1968
Find them here: https://goo.gl/eet3uy

There is something I’ve noticed about my japa over the years: Bad habits don’t die easily. Prabhupada said chanting produces more chanting. But the question is what kind of “more chanting” does it produce? My experience is that bad chanting produces more bad chanting. And if the bad chanting goes on long enough, it pretty much becomes a habit. Then bad becomes the norm. Since bad chanting is not relishable, japa tends to take less of a priority in life. It becomes harder to finish rounds and they get put off till later. And sometimes later never comes. As bad chanting continues, one becomes weaker. And as one become weaker, it becomes more difficult to chant well. Of course, good chanting produces more good chanting. So if we turn things around and start chanting well, we can expect many wonderful things to happen in our lives. One of the greatest gifts anyone can give themselves is sixteen good rounds daily. By good rounds I mean the best possible rounds one can chant. But if old habits die hard, how does one turn things around? Here’s how I did it. Continue reading "When Bad Chanting Becomes the Norm, You’re in Trouble
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 20 March 2013, Melbourne, Australia, Srimad Bhagavatam 2.7.52)

Humility is something alien in the modern world. We had a comic in Holland; I saw it as a kid but it made an impression on me. It was a simple man; he had a cap on – a labourer type – and he was coming for a job interview which was happening in a big hall. The interviewer was sitting behind a glass with a screen so you couldn’t see him but his voice was coming out through a loud speaker.

The voice was saying, “Name?” Then the man said his name and he said, “Thank you very much, please.” And after every question that he answered, he said, “Thank you very much, please,” and he looked like a total fool but actually, if you think about it, he was very humble and the other man (the interviewer) was very cold and arrogant.

But this humility was depicted as like… you become a fool when you are humble. when you are simple! So the whole world projects this upon us that you’re a fool when you’re simple.

Even when you are a devotee, it hounds you, “How many slokas do you know?”

Reply, “Seven!”

“Only seven! My god, how can you know only seven slokas!?” Who can be so simple to say so…

So, the social pressure upon us in this whole world, where you have to be greater than you are, comes into every field. In the modern world, it came into the field of sex because ordinary sex will not do – it has to be super sex! You have to be a super lover and if you’re not a super lover, you’re a loser. That’s the image that is being projected.

The article " The pressure to be super good! " was published on KKSBlog.

Whenever a devotee leaves his or her body, we hear so much praise of them. Everyone becomes happy to be absorbed glorifying a devotee. It seems that we do not do enough of praising devotees while they are with us. Of course a devotee should not be hankering to be praised. St. Francis of Assisi would tell those who started to praise him, "Wait until I am dead, I could fall down at any time". Of course that just makes him more worthy of praise. "Offering all respect to others, but not expecting anything in return" Siksastakam 3. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu took great pleasure in praising devotees. He gave both a personal example and guidelines. "‘One should see that because of the meeting of material nature and the living entity, the universe is acting uniformly. Thus one should neither praise nor criticize the characteristics or activities of others.' Continue reading "Wait Until I Am Dead
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The animal part of a human being necessarily require food to eat, shelter to live in, protection from fear and gratification of senses. These four principles of life are common both to the man and the animals. A time is nearing when there will be no wheat paddy in the field and no politician will be able to make a quick supply of bread. The food problem is already acute. The atheistic civilization is to be troubled more and more with the progress of materialism. We have such foretellings in the pages of Srimad-Bhagavatam. The more the people are turning to the atheistic, the more things of disturbing elements do appear before us. And that is the thing which matters at present. This is a wrong type of civilization. Continue reading "What is the matter with the world
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The latest culinary conquests by Kurma, the Chef (Album with photos)
Kurma Dasa: My final day in Sweden.
The grand finale of my sojourn at Korsnäs Gård was the Vegetarian World Food Masterclass.
Thanks to Kalindi Vraj for most of the images.
Goodbye Scandinavia - I’m looking forward to some nights without sunshine
Find them here: https://goo.gl/b8wX9F

A Mountain of Faults
Dhirasanta Das Goswami: It was the hour of the day when anyone could come to the king and present anything and the king would deal with it. So Maharaja Yudhisthira was on the throne waiting for people and Bhima was at the entrance to the castle in the next room.

Old time North American farmers arrived in DeLand, Florida, to discuss cow protection and farming on the 25th of June. Watch the op...