Why to become spiritual now
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[Program for Intel employees, Phoenix, USA]

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A story from the Ramayana
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 29 April 2011, Radhadesh, Belgium, Vyasa Puja Lecture)

Just now I came from South Africa and my spiritual master was also there and I met him. He was telling a nice story, which I’ll share with you. It was a story of the Ramayana. The Ramayana as we all know is an endless saga, there was great battle in Lanka to free Sita from captivity. Meanwhile Sita was kept in Lanka in this Asoka Grove and there were these raksasis who were constantly harassing her, torturing her in so many ways and just trying to convince her to surrender to Ravana. So this was going on. So the battle was over; Ravana killed and defeated, Hanuman was the first to reach the Asoka Grove and to bring the news to Sita. At that time the raksasis were still there, still surrounding her, so Hanuman said, “Ravana is killed! The battle is won! You are free!” and then he saw that she wasn’t free but was still surrounded by all these raksasis, so he said, “Shall I kill ‘em? I’ll just kill ‘em all!” and she said, “No Hanuman, no, no don’t kill them.”

“No but it’s just a small thing, I’ll just get rid of them. They caused you so much suffering….” and then Sita told Hanuman a story and the story was that once there was a hunter hunting in the forest and then in his hunting activities he came upon a tiger but this tiger was just not a tame tiger and the roles reversed. Instead of the hunter chasing the tiger, the tiger chased the hunter and the hunter was running and running and running! And then there was a tree and he climbed in the tree and as he was up on the branches of the tree, there was a bear! And he looked up, saw the bear, looked down and saw the tiger…and then the tiger said to the bear, “My dear bear, this hunter is our mutual enemy. Kick him down and I will finish him off!”

“No,” the bear said, “how can I do that? How can I kick him down? He’s a guest in my home. That I cannot do.”

The tiger then turned his strategy and he turned to the hunter and he said to the hunter, “Look at that bear, just kick him down and I will eat him instead of you.”

And the hunter did it, the hunter suddenly kicked the bear and the bear fell down but on the way the bear somehow or other managed to grab a branch and hang in there and climbing back up and the bear was saved. Then the bear was back up in the branches and the tiger said to the bear, “just see, just see what kind of person this hunter is, you know what I mean? He betrayed you! While you were giving him shelter, he just betrayed you completely! Kick him down now, before he kills you! You can’t trust him, as soon as you turn your back on him. Kick him down!”

“No,” the bear said, “I cannot do that because even if my guest is misbehaving and behaving in a way that is totally inappropriate, that doesn’t give me a license to also act inappropriate. I still have to act properly. So he’s my guest, so no, I can’t kick him down.” And in this way the tiger went hungry that day…!

So our noble bear is a wonderful person. My spiritual master, who is so much dedicated to being a man of noble character, that is his outstanding quality. If I see whatever mercy has been bestowed on me, which is so much generosity, then the thing that penetrates the deepest in my heart is his noble character. That is the one thing that each time I’m thinking…I’m just a low minded person who is just trying to somehow or other become a vaisnava but then I see a man of truly saintly character. Like my spiritual master is known for his thunderbolt, karate blows and he has a tongue, which is as powerful as a lightning bolt and a very sharp intelligence. And he can with one or two words just go to the essence of something and just expose everything. Therefore people are afraid wherever he goes and people are in fear. So when I approached him for initiation, well I was also thinking about the brace position, as they speak about in planes…in case if it gets too rocky then brace yourself. So I was sort of getting ready for anything! I thought that even if thunderbolts come, I’ll take them, that was my mood. But I got a few thunderbolts over the years but not too many. Mostly, he melted me with his noble character and he did it again with his bear story which was such a nice story and I somehow or other missed that story in the Ramayana. It is very nice because I thought, here is spiritual nourishment. All of us have to become vaisnavas of noble character. It’s not just what we do but it is really who we are. We have to become very noble persons and that is one point that I wanted to make today.

 

The article " A story from the Ramayana " was published on KKSBlog.

Gold Coast home program (Album of photos) Ramai Swami: On the…
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Gold Coast home program (Album of photos)
Ramai Swami: On the way to the Saturday evening Brisbane temple program I stopped off for a lunch program at Rupa Vilasa’s house on the Gold Coast.
He and his family operate a preaching center in Southport, which has been going for about five years now. Quite a few devotees came and it was an enjoyable stopover.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/ZUwVNP

ISKCON Zagreb — Sunday Feast: 18 March 2018 (Album with…
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ISKCON Zagreb — Sunday Feast: 18 March 2018 (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Sri Krsna, in His Paramatma feature, lives in the hearts of all living beings in both the transcendental and mundane creations. As the Paramatma, He witnesses all actions the living beings perform in all phases of time, namely past, present and future. Sri Krsna knows what the living beings have done for hundreds and thousands of past births, and He sees what they are doing now; therefore He knows the results of their present actions that will fructify in the future. As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, the entire cosmic situation is created as soon as He glances over the material energy. Nothing can exist without His superintendence. Since He sees even the abode where the collective living beings rest, He is the original Narayana. (From Srila Prabhupada’s purport to Cc Adi 2.46)
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Harinam Sankirtan in Taiwan, China (Album with photos) Srila…
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Harinam Sankirtan in Taiwan, China (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Here we have got attraction, material, so we have to withdraw this attraction. How it will be possible? If we become more attracted to Krsna, then this attraction will go away. Bhaktih paresanubhavo viraktir anyatra syat [SB 11.2.42]. Bhakti means the more you realize Krsna, the more you will become detestful: “Ah, nonsense.” This is test. One side increasing taste, the other side decreasing. This is the test.
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Mahaprabhu’s Humor
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Hare KrishnaBy Khonika Gope-Kumar

Being Krishna Himself, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Rasaraj, the Supreme Enjoyer of rasa and the emporium of all rasas. With His devotees, He relished different rasas, including "hasya" rasa, one of the seven indirect mellows. Particularly, in His youth, as Nimai Pandit, He was very mischievous and used to make fun of everyone. Sri Chaitanya Bhagavat (CB) mentions that there was no one in Nabadwip that Mahaprabhu did not make fun of in some way or other. Mahaprabhu especially liked to make fun of the migrants of Sri Hatta (Currently Sylhet in Bangladesh). Continue reading "Mahaprabhu’s Humor
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In the Prasthana-traya, what does nyaya mean – how does it relate with Vedanta-sutra?
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Answer Podcast

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Where is the verse om purnam adah .. from – why is it included as the Ishopanishad invocation?
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Answer Podcast

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How are fruitive activities the engagements of one’s reactions from past good or bad deeds?
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Answer Podcast

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How can we say that we are spiritually equal when in the spiritual world every soul is different?
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Answer Podcast

The post How can we say that we are spiritually equal when in the spiritual world every soul is different? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Gold Coast home program
→ Ramai Swami

On the way to the Saturday evening Brisbane temple program I stopped off for a lunch program at Rupa Vilasa’s house on the Gold Coast.

He and and his family operate a preaching centre in Southport, which has been going for about five years now. Quite a few devotees came and it was an enjoyable stopover.

 

Sunday, March 18th, 2018
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Honolulu, Hawaii

They Paved Paradise

There’s Joni Mitchell’s famous song, “Big Yellow Taxi,” with lyrics that go, “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot / With a pink hotel a boutique and a swinging hot spot.

“They took all the trees, put ’em in a tree museum / And they charged the people a dollar and a half just to see ’em.”

Gurudas, Kapu and I were walking along the beach with surfers nearby, and runners and walkers moving past, when Kapu, a native Hawaiian, said, out of the blue, “The pink hotel, Joni Mitchell sings about, is right here, downtown.”

“On our way back to the temple, can we take a look at it?” I asked Gurudas, our driver, out of curiosity.

So we did, and we imagined the green that was there before erecting the monster, and, of course, the parking lot.  Interesting!

I delivered two classes today—one was on the topic of the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th avatars as listed in the book, Bhagavatam,and at 5:00 p.m. I spoke from verse 9.6 of the Gita regarding the wind contained in the sky and how even the forceful is under control by the Divine.

These were stories and concepts that lingered in my mind, which occasionally veered over to the theme of Joni’s song.  It’s in the chorus.

“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone / They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

We take so much for granted.

May the Source be with you!
5 km


Saturday, March 17th, 2018
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Honolulu, Hawaii

Aloha!

My morning began with a walk on what everyone calls Magic Island.  With a group of young followers of bhakti,we executed our individual mantras on our japa beads.  “How did you like the walk?” I asked the crew, who all seem to represent a different part of the world.
https://instagram.com/p/BgdpysiH7sG/ 

“Great!  Awesome!  Fantastic!” and more.

Who would ever consider a simple beach trek to be all those things?

At ISKCON Honolulu, I met Reverend Tim of the Unity Church.  Very devotional.  He quoted 18.54 from the Gita about devotion being undivided and how this type of devotion brings one to see Him standing before you.

After another smaller trek, halfway up the mountain valley outside of the city, another small group and I went to see the property of Mayapur Lila from Canada.  Quaint and breezy it is.  We also included a look at Butter the cow, Cinderella the sow and Radha, from the breed of gircows—Indian origin—at a farm nearby.

I was getting some well-needed sun.

Reverend Tim came to meet us, once again, at Gurudas’ home, the location of a house-packed sanga.  I spoke of how I joined the ranks of monks.  I opened with verse one of the Isopanishad, on accepting what we’re given.  In this regard, one devotee offered to say a quote from Gandhi, “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”

May the Source be with you!

5 km


Friday, March 16th, 2018
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Toronto / San Francisco / Honolulu

Moving West

Long, stretched out airport wings or corridors became my only walking venues for the day.  Long was the day—an additional six hours going west to Honolulu with stopover in San Francisco.  In San Fran I had the opportunity to call, write and wait, also to reflect.  My reflections were mostly a delving into the past few days.

When at the home of Janmastami, before a group of young and old, some compliments came my way.  “You had the students from the Academy in stitches!” regarding the class given.  “That was the best Bhagavatam class in five years.”  Also, there was a generous remark, a big “Thank you!” in reference to the completed walk across the U.S.  I pray that such kind statements don’t go to my head.

My reflections of gratitude also go to Murari Gupta who put me up and took me around in Miami, as well as to Ananta Shesha, my good host at Alachua, Florida, his wife Vaishnavi and their sons, Aravind and Gopal, who are both good at the mrdunga.

My anticipation of a good week in Hawaii is strong.  A Kirtan Standards session is up for my presentation, in addition to speaking on the system of varnashram—the four social and spiritual orders.  I also look forward to nature’s presentation, including a trip to the Big Island where there’s a promise of the flow of lava.  Thanks to Gurudas for getting me to Honolulu and the application of mustard oil on knees, legs and feet.  There was a decent follow-up dose.

May the Source be with you!

3 km


Matters that matter more than matter – Origin, Value, Meaning
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[Seminar at Intel, Phoenix, USA]

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Requesting everyone’s prayers for Sruti-dharma prabhu’s recovery
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  • Bhaktivedanta Manor temple president Srutidharma prabhu’s aggressive brain cancer
  • We never know when the material energy will reveal one of its facets to us
  • We need to always be ready and not be complacent in our Kṛṣṇa consciosuness
  • Keep Srutidharma prabhu in your prayers
  • The right mood of prayer: „My dear Lord, if you so desire….”
  • Noone is indispensable
  • Our choice is how we respond to the inevitable

ISKCON Newcastle center in South Africa (Album of photos)…
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ISKCON Newcastle center in South Africa (Album of photos)
Bhakti Chaitanya Swami: We have been staying near our ISKCON Newcastle center in South Africa. Last night we had a pre-Ramnavami program with the devotees there. It’s a nice yatra, and they have a nice property which they’re developing. They already have a large hall, which they built, and a house behind it which they use as a temple, but they’re going to build a proper, purpose-built temple shortly.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/iSHnpS

Book Distribution Tsunami
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Hare KrishnaBy Vaisesika Dasa

The presentation about book distribution done during the first day of the GBC meetings in Mayapur. Amazing facts and figures. What other organizations do for their book printing and distribution, be dissatisfied, book distribution means high sadhana, One Word Team, Success is not mystery - is a recipe, "Glocal", plans and strategies and much more. Continue reading "Book Distribution Tsunami
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Preaching program in Stuttgart, Germany (Album with…
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Preaching program in Stuttgart, Germany (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Even if you find in devotee something bad, and his behavior is not in the standard, but because he is Krsna conscious, he has no other business, he is sadhu. Api cet suduracaro bhajate mam ananya-bhak, sadhur eva sa mantavyah [Bg. 9.30]. He is sadhu. He is saintly man. Even if you find some defect in his character, because he is sticking to Krsna consciousness, he is saintly. Krsna says. How is that, a saintly man has got some this bad character? So that answer is next verse: ksipram bhavati dharmatma sasvac-chantim nigacchati kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktah pranasyati [Bg. 9.31] “Yes, there are some defects. It is right. But it will be very soon finished.” Just like you make the switch off, electric fan. So after the switch is off, still it is moving. But that movement is not real movement because the switch is off. It will stop very soon. Srila Prabhupada – June 22, 1975, Los Angeles
Find them here: https://goo.gl/xTpDSW