The New TOVP MISSION 22 MARATHON Fundraising Website Launch
- TOVP.org

At this auspicious ending of the month of Purushottama the TOVP Team is pleased to announce the launch of its updated and improved website at www.tovp.org on May 13th.

From this website, as in the past, you can access all the various different options for donating to the TOVP, read articles relating to construction progress, etc. and keep informed about this dearmost project of Srila Prabhupada as we approach the Grand Opening in 2022. Through the new website all donations will be easy and secure, and anyone, even a child, can now give to their capacity to offer their support, large or small. Kindly consider making a contribution to the TOVP as an end to your Purushottama vrata. This will be a most perfect way to conclude the month as recommended in shastra:

“Just by bathing in a holy river during Purusottama Month, one becomes sinless. The glory of all other months is not equal to one-sixteenth of the glory of the Purusottama Month. By bathing in a holy place, giving charity and chanting the Holy Name of Krsna during Purusottama Month, all miseries are destroyed, one attains all kinds of perfection and fulfills all his desires”.

Durvasa Muni

The TOVP Team is also happy to announce the addition of three new donation options making a total of thirteen ways to participate in offering your financial support. The three new options are:

Raise a Daily Flag – Sponsor a daily Victory Flag onto one of the three domes of the TOVP and receive the flag as transcendental memorabilia.

Guru Parampara Brick – Sponsor the building of the Guru-parampara altar and have your name inscribed on a brick that will be permanently laid therein.

General Donation – Any amount can be donated by devotees of modest financial means and even by children and youth.

To read more about these new inspiring donor options, please visit our Seva Opportunities page.

Additionally, the TOVP Team wishes to stress to the worldwide ISKCON devotee community the importance and urgency of completing the project by Gaur Purnima, 2022. The countdown has begun and there are less than four years remaining to the Grand Opening. We have thus named the next four year marathon the MISSION 22 MARATHON. We need everyone’s cooperation, support and assistance more than ever now during this time, and the next two years in particular are crucial to achieving our common goal for Srila Prabhupada’s pleasure. There is always an opportunity to give and for those of us in household life it is our responsibility to continuously perform austerity, charity and sacrifice for our purification. As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gita:

“Acts of sacrifice, charity and penance are not to be given up but should be performed. Indeed, sacrifice, charity and penance purify even the great souls.”

Bhagavad-gita 18.5

Please consider making a donation during these last few auspicious days of the Purushottama month even if you have given before. Or consider completing your pledge in full or making a larger pledge payment. All seva is multiplied manifold by the Lord’s mercy at this time. And if you have not given before there is no better time to do so than during this conclusion to the Purushottama month. We salute your spirit of giving to Srila Prabhupada and the TOVP. Your donation is our inspiration to continue unflinchingly with the utmost endeavor to complete this project by 2022. Below you can read many inspiring shastric references relating to the importance and benefits of helping to build a temple of Lord Visnu. What to speak of helping build the TOVP, the most important temple in history which will spread the rays of the Benediction Moon of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu throughout the entire universe.

And lastly, we would like to request one and all to become TOVP Ambassadors and request their devotee friends and relatives to support the TOVP MISSION 22 MARATHON to help complete the TOVP by 2022. Please encourage others to also give their might and receive the immense spiritual benefits of this seva.

Here’s an inspiring look at the TOVP Masterplan: https://tovp.org/art-architecture-design/tovp-master-plan-video/

Visit us at: www.tovp.org
Follow us at: www.facebook.com/mayapur.tovp
Watch us at: www.youtube.com/user/tovpinfo
Phone App at: http://tovp.org/news/announcements/new-tovp-phone-app-goes-live/
Support us at: www.tovp.org/donate/seva-opportunities/

Some inspiring quotes on the importance and spiritual benefits of supporting the construction of a temple for Lord Visnu:

Having desired to build a temple for Hari, a man immediately takes a million of his generations, past and future, to the region of Vishnu. The departed manes of the person who builds a temple for Krishna live in the region of Vishnu, well adorned and freed from the sufferings of hell. The construction of a temple for a deity dissipates even the sin of Brahmanicide. By building a temple one reaps the fruit which he does not even gain by celebrating a sacrifice. By building a temple one acquires the fruits of bathing at all the sacred shrines.

Agni Purana

By installing the deity of the Lord, one becomes king of the entire earth, by building a temple for the Lord, one becomes ruler of the three worlds, by worshiping and serving the deity, one goes to the planet of Lord Brahma, and by performing all three of these activities one achieves a transcendental form like My own. But one who simply engages in devotional service with no consideration of fruitive results attains Me. Thus whoever worships Me according to the process I have described will ultimately attain pure devotional service unto Me.

Srimad Bhagavatam

O devoted one, one who builds a beautiful temple for Lord Narasimhadeva will be freed from all sinful reactions and he will enter the Vaikuntha planets.

Nrsimha Purana

He who builds a temple for Krishna, the son of Vasudeva, is born as a man of good deeds and his family is purified. He who builds temples for Vishnu, Rudra, the sun-god, and other deities, acquires fame. What is the use to him of wealth which is hoarded by ignorant men? Useless is the acquisition of riches to one who does not have a temple built with hard earned money for Krishna, or whose wealth is not enjoyed by the Pitris, Brahmanas, celestials, and friends.

Agni Purana

Just by starting the construction of a temple for Lord Krishna, sins committed in seven births will be wiped out and one will deliver his forefathers who are suffering in the hellish planets.

Skanda Purana

Whoever constructs or helps to construct a Visnu temple will protect eight generations of fathers, grandfathers, and forefathers from falling into hell.

Vamana Purana

By building a golden temple one is freed from all sins. He who has built a temple for Vishnu reaps the great fruit which one gains by celebrating sacrifices every day. By building a temple for the Lord he takes his family, a hundred generations past and a hundred to come, to the region of Acyuta.

Agni Purana

By building a temple of Sri Madhava, one can attain the eternal spiritual world. One who offers a garden laden with fruit and flowers for the service of the deity will attain heavenly pleasures.

Vamana Purana

The post The New TOVP MISSION 22 MARATHON Fundraising Website Launch appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

The New TOVP MISSION 22 MARATHON Fundraising Website Launch
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Hare KrishnaBy TOVP staff

Having desired to build a temple for Hari, a man immediately takes a million of his generations, past and future, to the region of Vishnu. The departed manes of the person who builds a temple for Krishna live in the region of Vishnu, well adorned and freed from the sufferings of hell. The construction of a temple for a deity dissipates even the sin of Brahmanicide. By building a temple one reaps the fruit which he does not even gain by celebrating a sacrifice. By building a temple one acquires the fruits of bathing at all the sacred shrines. - Agni Purana Continue reading "The New TOVP MISSION 22 MARATHON Fundraising Website Launch
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Urgency of Surrender to Krishna
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Hare KrishnaBy Radhanath Swami

“Srila Prabhupada stressed the urgency to surrender to Krishna. Every line of his books, every sentence of his tapes, you would hear him urgently, just pleading with you and me, to take Krishna Consciousness seriously. Death, tragedy can come at any moment. And the greatest tragedy is that our faith is stolen away by maya and her various representatives which can come in many forms. There is no comfortable position when we are secure in material existence. We are like a drop of water on a lotus leaf. Our life is compared to that. Our position in society, our health, our family members, our friends, everything in this world that exists is like a drop of water on a lotus leaf. It is going to fall and we don’t know when. It often happens at the least expected moment. Continue reading "Urgency of Surrender to Krishna
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Salila Vihar – Water Pastimes
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Hare KrishnaBy ISKCON Mayapur

In Sridhama Mayapur, Sri Sri Radha Madhava enjoy the Salila Vihar festival by sitting in the middle of a beautiful lotus shaped pond filled with hundreds of blossoming lotus flowers, each containing sacred tulasi leaves. This lotus pond is constructed in the Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir on the platform below Sri Sri Radha Madhava’s altar, and is covered by a fragrant flower canopy. A fountain sprays cooling lotus-and-tulasi-scented water on the transcendental bodies of the Divine Couple. Continue reading "Salila Vihar – Water Pastimes
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A Happy Conclusion
Giriraj Swami

By Srila Prabhupada’s mercy, I successfully completed my vratas (vows) for the sacred, extra month of Purusottama. I chanted extra rounds and read and recited the fifteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita (Purusottama-yoga) every day—and I finished the first draft of my book about Srila Prabhupada and Juhu (I’ll Build You a Temple). And, remembering how Dr. Patel brought Prabhupada a palmful of sea water on the last day of the month, for his auspicious bath, I also took some sea water on my head. So, by Srila Prabhupada and devotees’ grace, I feel a sense of accomplishment and internal happiness.

Hare Krishna.

Yours in service,
Giriraj Swami

Vedic Cosmos – An Intelligent Design
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Vedic Cosmos- An Intelligent Design is a documentary that needs to be made. It is an art in-itself, can come to life through your help. Please see the trailer, visit the website and give for the making of this documentary! Please spread the word!

Thank you very much!—Danavir Goswami

Dedicated to: His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Founder Acharya International Society For Krishna Consciousness)




Website - www.vediccosmology.com

Hare Krishna

Book Distribution weekend of June 7-10, 2018 (Album of…
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Book Distribution weekend of June 7-10, 2018 (Album of photos)
Mohanasini Devi Dasi: What an amazing adventure….wandering about meeting people who already LOVE Srila Prabhupada’s books! Especially sweet to reconnect them with Bhagavad Gita. Please….take a minute to check out what they have to say!
Book Totals for this weekend: 12 Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers, 37 Perfection of Yoga, 14 Chant and Be Happy, 79 Higher Taste Cookbooks, 2 Science of Self Realization, 79 Bhagavad Gitas, and 5 Srimad Bhagavatams Total: 218 books
Find them here: https://goo.gl/oXJb1b

Radha Kunda Seva: May 2018 Photos and Updates (Album of…
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Radha Kunda Seva: May 2018 Photos and Updates (Album of photos)
Purusottama Masa, a special lunar month that appears in the calendar every three years is a time for increasing spiritual practice and for engaging in acts of charity. Our charity for this month has been to seek out other ladies in need in the Radha Kunda area with the goal of increasing our meals served to 150 daily starting in July. In the process of seeking out ladies, we have discovered some elderly gentlemen who are also in need. We are asking your help to find sponsors for our seventy new meal recipients. Please like and share this post! And please visit this page… https://radharani.com/widow-help/ to sponsor daily meals for a Radha Kunda resident. As always, through violent summer storms and scorching heat, the service continues. Please browse our latest photos and join our efforts by visiting www.radharani.com. Your servants, Campakalata Devi dasi, Padma Gopi Devi dasi, Sri Arjuna dasa, Urmila Devi Dasi, and Mayapurcandra dasa.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/mho52L

Радхика, даруя праздник служения Себе
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“Даруя праздник вечного служения Себе, Шри Радхика – прекрасная царевна беседок Вриндавана – делает все духовные цели и практики незначительными. Совершая это, Она наводняет мир вестями о Своей нектарной красоте, и лик Ее сияет, будто неисчислимые осенние луны”.

[ Шрила Прабодхананда Сарасвати, “Шри Радха-раса-шудханидхи”, стих 62 ]

 

“Sri Radhika, the lovely queen of Vrindavan’s bower houses, makes all spiritual goals and practices insignificant when She bestows upon one the festival of Her eternal service. In doing so, She inundates the whole world with news of Her nectarian beauty and Her face shines like innumerable autumnal moons.”

[ Srila Prabodhananda Saraswati, Sri Radha Rasa Sudhanidhi, verse 62 ]

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10212049543496841&set=a.3707173840886.2134384.1321748113&type=3&theater

Respect for Individuality
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Hare KrishnaBy Urmila Devi Dasi

The individuality of the self is a central teaching in Vaisnava philosophy, but what is our practical understanding of this term? Individuality is present in all living beings on both a material and a spiritual level. This article translates how this concept needs to relate to education practices in ISKCON today. The author explores evidence in some of Srila Prabhupada' writings and scripture that deal with the issue of individuality together with some more recent research by academics in the field. With this data, the author builds a persuasive argument for devotees to become more aware of the individual, both in themselves and in others so that they may respond with respectful awareness to the individuals needs. Continue reading "Respect for Individuality
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How Sri Sri Radha Shyamasundar and Sri Sri Krishna Balarama Manifested in Jaipur
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Hare KrishnaBy Sridevi Dasi

Sitala devi dasi, a resident of Mayapur Dham, had been ordering deities for ISKCON since 1975. Many temples around the world have used her services to obtain their deities. In the 1990’s the devotees of New Raman Reti asked her to order deities in India for our Temple. “It took a while for consensus to be reached among devotees here as to who should be the Lords of New Raman Reti,” she says. “Once the decision was made, Radha Shyamasundar manifested pretty quickly - about a year from order.” Sitala prabhu’s main service was to place the order with the murti wallah and ensure that the carving was in accordance with the desires of the Temple community. The Pandeys of Jaipur were Yamuna devi dasi’s choice for deity sculptors. She had ordered ISKCON’s first deities herself from them. Continue reading "How Sri Sri Radha Shyamasundar and Sri Sri Krishna Balarama Manifested in Jaipur
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Bhaktivedanta Hospice: Aid for the Journey Home
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Hare KrishnaBy Vishakha Priya Devi Dasi

Shortly before passing away in Vrindavan, a devotee requested her spiritual master to establish a “Back to Godhead” clinic there for Srila Prabhupada’s followers. The land is adjacent to the parikrama road trod by pilgrims during their devotional walks around Vrindavan. It is a sacred grove of mostly kadamba and tamala trees known as Giriraj Bhag (“Giriraj’s garden”). For five generations it belonged to the family of Sri Padmanabha Goswami, hereditary priests and caretakers of Vrindavan’s Radha-ramana Temple. Continue reading "Bhaktivedanta Hospice: Aid for the Journey Home
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Scripture glorifies association between seer and seeker – is association of equals also uplifting?
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Answer Podcast

The post Scripture glorifies association between seer and seeker – is association of equals also uplifting? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Chanting Before Srila Prabhupada
Giriraj Swami

This morning while chanting japa before my deity of Srila Prabhupada, I was struck by how merciful he had been to accept me as his disciple, appreciating that, despite all my failings, he will never let me go but would do whatever it takes to deliver me. As he said of his guru maharaja, “My spiritual master was no ordinary spiritual master—he saved me.” Thinking of Srila Prabhupada’s compassionate, selfless commitment, my hard heart melted.

Hare Krishna.

Your grateful servant,
Giriraj Swami

Curbing pride with intelligence
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 04 February 2016, Bhaktivedanta Manor, London, UK, Srimad Bhagavatam 10.2.21)

After the Govardhana pastime, Krsna went to Govardhana Hill to inspect the damage done by Indra’s thunderbolts. During the seven days that Krsna held Govardhana Hill on his little finger like an umbrella, Indra, out of being disturbed, battered Govardhana Hill with thunderbolts. These thunderbolts were very serious and could smash mountains. So Krsna was concerned about Govardhana. But when Krsna went to check out the damage done to Govardhana Hill, Indra also appeared there.

When Krsna saw Indra, he said, “Indra, you are supposed to be a devotee. How could you act in such a demoniac way? That you were ready to kill. This is the behaviour of demons. If you are supposed to be a devotee, Indra, how could you come to this demoniac point of acting?”

Indra replied, “It is because I was proud.”

Krsna continued, “Yes, but Indra, a devotee is meant to curb pride with intelligence.”

Indra said, “Krsna, I was angry. So angry, that I lost my intelligence. Therefore, I was unable to curb my pride.”

So this is interesting. Sometimes, we may look at the sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita which describes the divine and the demoniac qualities, and think to ourselves upon reading the first part of the chapter (which describes the divine qualities) that, “This is us devotees!” And then we read the second part of the chapter (which describes the demoniac qualities) and think, “This is the neighbours.” (laughter) It is very easy to read this chapter and think in such a way, but actually, we need to consider how much of Kamsa there is in ourselves; how much of Kamsa is living in us. In that way, we can read the Srimad Bhagavatam in a more engaged way.

The article " Curbing pride with intelligence " was published on KKSBlog.