Planet ISKCON

Dear devotees of the ISKCON Sydney community.
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Woman as Soul–Woman as Scripture: Theology of Love in Hindu Mysticism and Art (video)

HH Mukunda Goswami is featured in this latest offering as he remembers the early days with Srila Prabhupada

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Preaching program in Iskcon Croatia (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra is the easiest p...

Rathayatra Pastimes by Lokanath Swami.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu spent His later years in Jagannatha Puri, Orissa, immersed in love of Godhead and absorbed in wonderful pastimes with His intimate associates and with the Deity of Krsna in Puri, known as Jagannatha, “the Lord of the universe.” This was nearly five hundred years ago.

Tamal Krishna Goswami: If they are loyal to me, I’ll be loyal to them
Giriraj Swami: On Saturday, Hridayananda das Goswami, Rtadhvaja Swami, and many other devotees gathered at our ashram in Carpinteria to celebrate Sripada Tamal Krishna Goswami’s Vyasa-puja. Rtadhvaja Swami quoted a statement that Tamal Krishna Goswami had made about his disciples: “I don’t mind where they are at or what they have done; if they are loyal to me, I’ll be loyal to them—to the end.”

On July 5 we celebrate the divine disappearance day of Sri Srimad Bhakti Tirtha Swami Maharaja, who left our world on this date on the Vedic calendar in 2005.

Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto Four, Chapter Twenty-eight: “Puranjana Becomes a Woman in the Next Life,” discusses the disappearance of the spiritual master:

TEXT 48

uttisthottistha rajarse
  imam udadhi-mekhalam
dasyubhyah ksatra-bandhubhyo
  bibhyatim patum arhasi

TRANSLATION

O best of kings, please get up! Get up! Just see this world surrounded by water and infested with rogues and so-called kings. This world is very much afraid, and it is your duty to protect her.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Whenever an acarya comes, following the superior orders of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His representative, he establishes the principles of religion, as enunciated in the Bhagavad-gita. Religion means abiding by the orders of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Religious principles begin from the time one surrenders to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is the acarya’s duty to spread a bona fide religious system and induce everyone to bow down before the Supreme Lord. One executes the religious principles by rendering devotional service, specifically the nine items like hearing, chanting, and remembering. Unfortunately, when the acarya disappears, rogues and nondevotees take advantage and immediately begin to introduce unauthorized principles in the name of so-called svamis, yogis, philanthropists, welfare workers, and so on. Actually, human life is meant for executing the orders of the Supreme Lord, and this is stated in the Bhagavad-gita (9.34):

man-mana bhava mad-bhakto
  mad-yaji mam namaskuru
mam evaisyasi yuktvaivam
  atmanam mat-parayanah

“Engage your mind always in thinking of Me and become My devotee. Offer obeisances and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me.”

The main business of human society is to think of the Supreme Personality of Godhead at all times, to become His devotees, to worship the Supreme Lord, and to bow down before Him. The acarya, the authorized representative of the Supreme Lord, establishes these principles, but when he disappears, things once again become disordered. The perfect disciples of the acarya try to relieve the situation by sincerely following the instructions of the spiritual master. At the present moment practically the entire world is afraid of rogues and nondevotees; therefore this Krsna consciousness movement is started to save the world from irreligious principles. Everyone should cooperate with this movement in order to bring about actual peace and happiness in the world.

*   *   *

This section of Srimad-Bhagavatam describes a king and his devoted wife, who have entered the forest as vanaprasthas to perform austerities and realize God. At a certain stage, the king leaves his body, and feeling great anxiety in his absence, his widow begins to cry piteously. Srila Prabhupada, following the previous acharyas, explains in his purports that figuratively, the queen is the disciple of the king, or spiritual master.

So, here the widow is praying for her husband to get up and protect the world from rogues and so-called kings. Of course, because he actually has left his body, he will not return, at least not in the same form in which she had known him. But still, the principle of being protected by the instructions of the acharya continues even after his disappearance, and the essence of those instructions is that one should surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, and become His devotee, always think of Him (man-mana), worship Him (mad-yaji), and bow down to Him (mam namaskuru).

In the purport, Srila Prabhupada states, “It is the acarya’s duty to spread a bona fide religious system and induce everyone to bow down before the Supreme Lord.” Not only does the acharya present the system, but it is also his duty to induce people to actually follow. Thus the acharya thinks of ways and means by which he can induce people to surrender unto the Supreme Lord.

One example that is prominent in our line is that of Lord Caitanya. He was a teacher in Navadvipa, but His own students misunderstood Him and criticized Him. So He thought, “As long as they disrespect Me, as long as they criticize Me, they will not be able to be delivered.” And, as described in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, the Lord, after full consideration, accepted the sannyasa order of life, because followers of Vedic culture in every varna and ashrama respect a sannyasi.

Srila Prabhupada explains that an acharya must think of the ways and means by which he can spread Krishna consciousness, that preaching methods are not stereotyped. His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami, following in the same line, also considered how to induce people to surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. Like every acharya, in doing so he preserved the basic principles of Krishna consciousness, but he adjusted the presentation to attract people and induce people to actually take up the process of bhakti-yoga.

When I first heard of some of Bhakti Tirtha Swami’s preaching, specifically to members of the black community, I was a little surprised, because I’d never heard anyone preach like that. Srila Prabhupada, at least superficially, never preached like that. So I wondered what was going on. But then I had the opportunity, with His Holiness Tamal Krishna Goswami, to visit Maharaja’s institution in Washington DC—the Institute for Applied Spiritual Technology (IFAST)—and we met some of the devotees who had come to Krishna consciousness by his preaching. I was very impressed by them—extremely impressed. They were very intelligent, sincere, competent, and respectful—they were just wonderful. It was so nice to be there with them. After attending the morning program and seeing the devotees there, seeing the organization, we had breakfast and later lunch with His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami, and he explained some of his unique approach. He told us that he had people chanting sixteen rounds and following the four principles, engaging in the service of Krishna and the worship of Krishna, for months, if not years, before they knew that such a thing as the Hare Krishna movement even existed. So I thought, “Wow! How did he do that? How does he do that?” Continue reading "Appreciating Bhakti Tirtha Swami
Giriraj Swami"

By Samita Sarkar

The Srimad Bhagavatam frequently refers to the universe as "the cosmic ocean," with the planets as "islands." This analogy was used countless times in my astronomy textbook, since outer space is composed mostly of, well, space. Although we know how our universe began, our astronomy textbook concluded that modern scientists are not sure how (or if) our universe will come to an end. Will it expand forever? Will it end with a "big crunch"? Scriptures reveal that our universe will eventually be absorbed by Mahavishnu's inhalation. Continue reading "How Studying Science Strengthened My Faith
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By Vishakha Devi Dasi

Longevity attracts me because I’m an eternal spiritual being, an imperishable soul. In my natural state I don’t transmigrate. So, since I’m not meant to be helplessly, traumatically dragged from one body to another, I crave permanence in this life. But I don’t really want the permanence of a giant Sequoia. Although by comparison to mine, the length of its life is awe-inspiring, to stand in one place, immobile and incommunicative, would be awful. I’m not meant for that. I’m meant to serve Krishna, without interruption and without motivation. By such devotional service I’ll rejoin Him eternally in His eternal home in a blissful, eternal, spiritual body. Unfortunately, my present service to God is both interrupted and motivated. So I don’t qualify to regain an eternal body. I’m stuck with temporary ones unavoidably accompanied by birth and death. My attitude reminds me of that of my two-year-old, who blithely answers “no” to the most reasonable requests: “Sit down and eat your dinner.” “No.” “Let’s put your shoes on.” “No.” And so forth. “No” to her is an easy answer that saves her the trouble of stopping whatever she’s doing to do something else—even something better. Continue reading "In Touch With Eternity (Almost)
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[Talk to doctors at KLE Hospital, Belgaum, India]

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Sri Vakresvara Pandit was present with Sriman Mahaprabhu during His pastimes in Navadwipa and after his acceptance of Sannyasa he also accompanied Him to Jagannath Puri.

During the time of the Lord’s residence in Puri he continued to live with Him there as well. Sri Vakresvara Pandit took birth in the village of Guptipara near Triveni. He was an especially proficient dancer and kirtaniya and could dance continuously for 72 hours.

When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu began His pastimes of congregational chanting of the Holy Name of Sri Hari in Navadvipa, Sri Vakresvara Pandit was an important singer and dancer in that assembly.

Vakresvara Pandit’s worshippable deity is Sri Sri Radha-kanta, whom he worshipped in Kasi Misra’s house, which was also the residence of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu (Gambhira).These Deities are still being worshipped there to this day.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 25 April 2015, Radhadesh, Belgium, Culture Festival Lecture)

I think it would be really nice if my disciples would have real, genuine relationships amongst each other – positive vaishnava relationships. It would be something that would have power; power for ourselves. Such relationships would nourish us and it would attract people from everywhere, because the whole world is looking for deep and genuine relationships.

I have always looked for friendships in ISKCON, for real friendships. Sometimes in our movement, people ask, “Is that your colleague?” But if we become like colleagues, I think we are not acting on the platform that we should be. We should have warm, loving, personal, appreciative vaishnava relationships where we would generally be happy to see each other. If such relationships could exist between my disciples, between all godsisters and godbrothers, that would fulfill my dream!

The article " My dream " was published on KKSBlog.

Poised for a Sankirtan Explosion!
From a book distribution seminar organized by Bhaktivedanta Manor devotees at the Krishna Avanti school.
Vaisesika Prabhu: We are poised for a sankirtana explosion with harinama-sankirtana, book distribution, and prasadam distribution, with personal contact.

A visit to Iskcon Mayapur (17 min video)
Mayapur is a holy city located on the banks of the Ganges river, at the point of its ...

Everyone else is prabhu and I am dasadasanudas.
Radhanath Swami: Real Vaishnavism is something very deep and something sublime, it’s not simply a type of dress or a type of hairstyle, it’s the substance of our consciousness.
(Album of photos)
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Rathayatra in Africa (Album with photos)
Awesome 3rd Annual Chariot Festival this weekend in Gaborone, Botswana, Africa!
...

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, October 2011, Sydney, Australia, Lecture)

If you come to the temple once a week, that is spiritually poor! It’s a poor lifestyle. You don’t get much spiritual wealth. We must seek out devotees all the time. We must be eager to be with devotees. Even if it is at a distance, somehow or other, we must be there all the time as much as possible. That is eagerness.

The article " Spiritual wealth " was published on KKSBlog.

42GB of a complete library of kirtans ready for free downloading.
Nimai Sundar: I am finally able to share all my recordings of Aindra Prabhu’s Live Kirtans. They are mostly arranged by YYYY.MM.DD, have Album Artwork and metadata that matches.
I have been collecting Aindra’s Kirtans for many years now and it’s been a pain having duplicates, different naming formats and different album names.
So I downloaded all the recordings from 24hourkirtan.com, VIHE.org and Gauravani.com. Then added them to the recordings sourced from Aindra Himself. I then sorted them according to the year as much as possible.

Iskcon New Govardhana: Panihati Festival Pots Auction - 01 July 2018 (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Chanting of the Hare ...

Transcendental book distribution ki jaya!
This is my most treasured book as it was the one that planted the seed. My parents were gifted this book and a picture of Radha & Krishna by devotees in the early eighties. While they were preaching my mum

By Niranjana Swami

As we all know from various understandings of Kṛṣṇa consciousness philosophy, our life is going to move just like this also. Sometimes when we realize how quickly our life is passing by, we begin to analyze: “Where am I going?” These are good thoughts, “Where am I going? What direction am I moving towards?”, because as we know, everybody by nature has to have some goal, some aspiration in life. Sometimes we get caught up in immediate goals, and sometimes even we hear an expression: “I am just taking it from day to day.” It is very common in America. I know that people often times will say like that when you ask them how they are doing. “Well, I am just taking it day by day.” Their goal is simply to make it to the next day. And usually ‘just to make it to the next day’ means ‘just so I can survive’. If I’ve survived to the next day, at least the next day I can have my goal for the following day. Continue reading "Our Progress in Life is Gauged by Our Chanting
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By Radhapadma Devi Dasi

It was truly a re- treat from the busy schedule of hustle bustle, traffic and time constraints to fresh air, dense forest, tall green mountains and vast expanse of water around, so much to experience it in essence. The valuable subject matter of our life is the true connection with the Absolute Truth. As Srila Prabhupada quotes, "Because human life is a combination of matter and spirit soul, the whole process of Vedic knowledge is directed at liberating the spirit soul from the contamination of matter.” Continue reading "Coordinated, Connected and Committed- Retreat to Re- treat
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By Satya Medha Gauranga dasa

In 2008, he suffered a serious stroke. Doctors said that he had only 1% chance of survival. It did not stop him to continue his mission. Between 2008 and 2017, being in a wheelchair he traveled 782,906 km on flight journeys using 325 flights, attended 1,427 meetings, traveled 25,942 km on road journeys, 1,629 km on train journeys and gave 1,411 lectures. To summarise the life of someone who has done so much and had so much positive influence on the world is not an easy task. Continue reading "Jayapataka Swami – 50 years of service in ISKCON
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[Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Belgaum, India]

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The post Daksha – Shiva conflict 2 – The proud consider others proud appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

[Sunday feast Class at ISKCON, Belgaum, India]

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The post Parikshit M – Dharma discussion – Don’t blame 3 – How to deal with troubling people – Hindi appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

[Class at ISKCON, Belgaum, India]

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The post Parikshit M – Dharma discussion – Don’t blame 2 – If why has no answer focus on how – Hindi appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

[Class at ISKCON, Belgaum, India]

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The post Parikshit M – Dharma discussion – Don’t blame 1 – See beyond the immediate cause – Hindi appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

[Brahmachari class at Belgaum, India]

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The post Role of determination and association in devotion – Hindi appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Sometimes you get an interesting question that means rather than giving a simple answer it makes you pause and ponder, explore and indeed ask yourself a number of questions before putting down an answer. I like these sort of questions as being challenged always encourages and inspires.

it was a basic question on the guru disciple relationship and how if this is the most important relationship why does it appear to be less intimate than all other relationships?

We do emphasise the guru disciple relationship to the point that in many ways we miss the more subtle shiksha guru emphasising the importance of Diksha guru so that one becomes almost obsessed with the pursuit of one’s own initiating guru.

It made me think about one’s own experience of diksha guru and indeed that of many of those I know, few get to directly serve their own guru maharaja indeed even when we look at Srila Prabhupada he didn’t spend much time with his guru maharaja. It is actually the instruction of the initiating spiritual master that makes the difference. If we want to make great advancement taking the guru’s instruction seriously means that we will make it home back to Godhead this lifetime. Again Srila Prabhupada was the greatest example of this as he kept always focused on his Guru Maharaja’s instructions, indeed the instruction and more to the point our sincerity in following the instruction makes it the most important relationship.

However for many this is not always the most important understanding of relationship and require a more intimate personal time to which they feel loved and can speak to regularly; which is more rare than normal within the vaishnava movement .

If we analyse and ponder the greatest and more intimate relationship, the one that we will benefit from each and every day is that of the shiksha guru. Our friends and association who will be there during our high’s and low’s in our krishna consciousness life. They are the persons who we will have the greatest association with, will be at the end of a phone, who we will serve alongside with.

For those who have been successful in krishna consciousness have several things in common:
they have taken the instruction of there guru maharaja seriously
they have surrounded themselves with friends and individuals who are also serious in there krishna consciousness
They have the ability to inspire others to take Krishna Consciousness seriously.

My conclusion thought was that Shiksha Guru is in many ways more important than Diksha Guru as these great saintly people those I have intimate personal relationships with are the ones who daily inspire and encourage me in continuing in devotional life; this despite my own battle with my mind.

So if you find yourself struggling in Krishna Consciousness there will be two things missing
taking the instruction of the Diksha Guru seriously
taking the association of our Siksha Guru seriously
In both if we are serious then success will always be there.