Prabhupada Lilamrita by Vijay Prabhu on 12th April 2018 At ISKCON Juhu (video)

Karnamrita Das: I saw the grim reaper in my dream,
feeling no fear, I was curious to see him.
Coming near, he pointed his bony, pale hand toward me.
His other palm raised in blessing pose where it was written, the number 65—my age!
Then with both hands, he pointed to the sky, and shrugged.

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[Class at ISKCON, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA]

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NYC Harinam (Album with photos)
Ecstatic Harinama Sankirtana in Union Square Park! Friday April 13th.
Srila Prabhupada: The yogis are trying to control the senses by force. “I shall go to the Himalayas. I shall not see any more beautiful woman. I shall close down my eyes.” These are forceful. You cannot control your senses. There are many instances. You don’t require to go to Himalaya. You just remain in Los Angeles city and engage your eyes to see Krsna, you are more than a person who has gone to Himalayas. You’ll forget all other things. This is our process. You don’t require to change your position. You engage your ears for hearing Bhagavad-gita As It Is, you’ll forget all nonsense. You engage your eyes to see the beauty of the Deity, Krsna. You engage your tongue for tasting Krsna prasadam. You engage your legs to come to this temple. You engage your hands to work for Krsna. You engage your nose to smell the flowers offered to Krsna. Then where your senses will go? He’s captivated all round. The perfection is sure. You don’t require to control your senses forcibly, don’t see, don’t do it, don’t do it. No. You have to change the engagement, the status. That will help you. >>> Ref. VedaBase => Bhagavad-gita 2.62-72 – Los Angeles, December 19, 1968
Find them here: https://goo.gl/a261ss

Harinama at Coolangatta - 08 April 2018 (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: My Guru Maharaja used to say, prana ache yara sei hetu pracara. A person can become a preacher if he has got life. A dead man cannot become a preacher. So you must be very enthusiastic that “I shall preach the glories of the Lord to my best capacity.” It is not that one has to become very learned scholar to become a preacher. Simply it requires enthusiasm, “My Lord is so great, so kind, so beautiful, so wonderful. So I must speak something about my Lord.” This is the qualification, enthusiasm. >>> Ref. VedaBase => The Nectar of Devotion – Vrndavana, October 20, 1972
Find them here: Harinama at Coolangatta - 08 April 2018

“Satisfied Yet Dissatisfied” (5 min video)
Mahatma das: We will do well if we can adopt the mentality of being satisfied with where we are at yet dissatisfied in the sense that we can do better. By satisfied, I mean that we accept who we are and where we are, but focus on becoming the person we want to be and focus on our goals. If we allow our present deficiencies to discourage us, we can’t move forward. Where you are heading is more important than where you are now.

This affirmation of Jesus leads me, reading the book from a Vaiṣṇava Hindu perspective, to reflect on how the book’s exercise might best “work” for a careful reading by a Vaiṣṇava, for whom it is likely to be Krishna who is the all-in-all—not just as Bhagavān, the absolute Lord, but as the embodiment of ever-expanding love that is ever surprisingly (and often playfully) enacted and just as painfully hidden from view. Suffice it to say here that one challenge for the Hindu might be to resist the temptation to settle for easy parallels as some sort of confirmation that “it is actually the same thing.” For the Hindu to experience a similar opening of space to the Catholic tradition of loving Jesus would require a similar readiness to be unsettled and to suspend a broadly Hindu (or neo-Hindu) tendency to enfold the other into the self. Continue reading "Review of Francis X. Clooney, S.J., His Hiding Place Is Darkness: A Hindu-Catholic Theopoetics of Divine Absence
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1000 Miles Away (Album of photos)
Indradyumna Swami: One thousand miles away from Irkutsk, across the frozen Siberian tundra, is Krasnoyarsk, the 3rd city on our Russian itinerary. Here we were greeted by a blissful group of devotees, who introduced us to yet another amazing temple in this far-distant and isolated part of God’s creation. How do they do it? They are faithful followers of Srila Prabhupada, who is blessing them with unlimited mercy. Unique to the congregation is a group of gypsies, old friends of mine, who love to chant and dance in kirtan.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/nhuVFA

Headed by Premavatar Gauranga prabhu, the TOVP Construction Manager, we recently began mounting the decorative stars and ribbons onto the domes, beginning with the Planetarium dome.

Work is progressing rapidly and three segments have already been completed. Once completed, each segment is sealed and waterproofed insuring they will maintain their integrity and beauty for hundreds of years into the future.

The post Stars and Ribbons On the Domes appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

With great pomp and ecstacy, the TOVP Euro Tour led by Lord Nityananda’s Padukas and Lord Nrsimhadeva’s Sitari and accompanied by Their Graces Jananivas and Braja Vilas prabhus departed Mayapur, arriving in Belgium on April 10th. This is the third year of such touring, bringing the mercy and darshan of Lord Nityananda and Lord Nrsimhadeva to devotees in every corner of the world.

The first stop of this tour was the Radhadesh temple in Belgium. The program was held at the temple on April 11th and was attended by the entire small community of devotees headed by GBC Hrday Caitanya prabhu and temple president Manohar prabhu. As usual the Padukas and Sitari were properly greeted with kirtan, arati, an abhisheka, etc., followed by presentations and talks by Jananivas and Braja Vilas prabhus. The intimate gathering of 30+ devotees was highly enthusiastic and generous and a total of $95,000 U.S. was pledged.

This was a very auspicious start for the tour. But the next day Braja Vilas met with a few wealthy Indian diamond merchants who were so enthusiastic they want to organize a large event with many of their friends at a future time to raise funds for the TOVP. Undoubtedly, the Lord is providing us with new avenues to pursue in our fundraising efforts during the next four years of the MISSION 22 marathon.

The next stop is Cologne, Germany on April 13th. The Tour will remain in Germany for three days. The complete Euro Tour schedule is below.

The post TOVP Euro Tour Day 1: Radhadesh, Belgium appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

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[Talk at Raleigh, USA]

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[Talk to Duke University students, Durham, USA]

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Srimad Bhagavatam in Mayapur, 8.14.6, Class Speaker: HG Bana Bhatta Das on 11.04.2018 (video)

Today’s festival of Shri Shri Radha Krishna boat festival Iskcon Temple, East of Kailash, New Delhi (5 min video)

New Raman Reti - Alachua - Eco Farm Update - Building a Small Log Cabin.
Mukhya devi dasi: Our latest project happening is building a small log cabin which might serve as a little shop to sell the crafts and output from our devotees and our farm. Akuti devi dasi has been directing many sustainable projects at the Eco Teaching Farm including building a cob oven, the new Vrinda Devi temple, a sustainable flourishing garden, our biogas digester, a chikki hut with a cow dung floor, and more! Future projects for the Eco Teaching Farm include building tiny houses for volunteers & for retreats, building bamboo trellises for the garden, using the back fields for growing our staple foods, collecting the cow urine for different uses, making herbal salves, making sustainable organic clothing made from banana trees, learning to become a totally sustainable and zero waste farm…well, the sky’s the limit!
The log cabin is in the process of being built right now using local trees like White Pine and Swamp Maple. We have had some volunteers come and stop in for a few hours to help out and we’d love to have more. If anyone is interested in volunteering or just stopping by to learn how to build a log cabin, feel free to come by! This project is somewhat experimental so we will be learning how to build this together as we go. Thus far we have Akuti devi dasi heading it up with help from: Kaliyapani das, Purana Rishi, James and Erin, Jaya Nitai and Steve Hunt.

We’ve cleared an area and measured up for the 10 x 10 cabin. The guys cut down and collected some White Pine & Swamp Maple trees. They measured 14 foot section of logs and put them on the trailer. It took about 3 or 4 guys to pick up one log, but strangely Akuti prabhu was able to carry one log by herself. The guys were a bit unsure about how they would feel pulling trees from in and around the swamp where the snakes hide, but they braved it and pulled the logs through. We’ve build tripods to hold logs as we peeled the bark back. Next we will let the logs dry for a few months. This week we are hoping to finish peeling all of the logs and next week we will be starting forms for the foundation by mixing and pouring the cement pillars. The week after that we are going to be working on making the framing for the wood floor and laying the logs. In four weeks we are going to start laying and saddle notching the logs. Anyone who is interested in learning how to build a log cabin is welcome to come to our workshops. Our volunteer hours are Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. If anyone is interested in donating any materials for any of our sustainable projects, it would be much appreciated. Thank you to everyone who has helped with our sustainable projects and with The Eco Teaching Farm! Stay tuned for more of projects.

TOVP: An update about the extensive work which is being done in the Temple of Vedic Planetarium in Mayapur (Album with photos)
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Simha means “lion” and chalam means “hill”. So this is lion’s hill, the hill of Lord Nrsimhadeva. The Deity here, Sri Varaha Laxmi Nrsimha Swamy, is popularly known in Sanskrit as Simhadrinatha or in local Telugu language as Simhadri Appanna (“the Lord of the Lion Hill”). The Sthala Purana of Simhachalam recounts the history of the great devotee Prahlada Maharaja and his demonic father, Hiranyakasipu Continue reading "Sri Varaha Nrsimha Swamy Temple at Simhachalam
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Documentary about a revolutionary spiritual master!
Avant Premiére, April 3, 2018
Buenos Aires, Village Recoleta
Have you ever encountered a man you thought was supernatural? Were you ever encouraged that perhaps the world had a promise of a spiritual future? Those who attended the incredible gala last night of the movie, “Hare Krishna. The Mantra, the Movement, and the Swami Who Started it All” left feeling inspired and hopeful.“ This film by John Griesser portrays the arrival of Srila Prabhupada, a saintly sage, in America. This spiritual personality, despite so many obstacles, revolutionized the hearts of millions of people and developed the Hare Krishna movement in these latitudes.
Participants filled the room: authorities of different faiths, government members, journalists and devotees. We all received superb attention from the organizers including vegetarian snacks, music, kirtan, and the chanting of mantras. There was time for questions and answers after the film while savoring traditional Indian dishes. Free distribution of a biography of this revolutionary saint, the subject of the documentary, was available for those interested in further understanding.. Every detail of the gala was involved in the message and atmosphere that Srila Prabhupada infused into the movement: humility, tolerance, joy, and vocation of service … These were two hours of a time without time, or even better, of a sacred time!

In the following material, we will look at the evidence that seems to indicate that there was first the Avatara Buddha, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu who appeared near 1800 BCE, and then there was another person who became known as Gautama called Buddha, born around 560 BCE Continue reading "Were There Two Buddhas?
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TOVP Fundraising Event Radhadesh (Album of photos)
A very nice fundraising event was organized for the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium (TOVP) in Radhadesh on the 11th of April in the presence of Lord Nityananda’s Padukas and Lord Nrsimhadeva’s Sitari (helmet) from the Mayapur Chandradoya Mandir, accompanied by His Grace Jananivas prabhu and His Grace Vraja Vilas prabhu representing the TOVP.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/Z3oaHq

Sadbhuja Das: Another mesmerizing event took place recently - Lifting of the flagpole and new flag!
Previously because of the c...

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