Cow Protection at Krishna Valley Goshalla, Hungary — 26 March…
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Cow Protection at Krishna Valley Goshalla, Hungary — 26 March 2018 (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Actually as I have already discussed in my Srimad-Bhagavatam, for economic problem one requires a little land and a few cows. Then the whole economic problem is solved. We should utilize our time for elevating ourselves in Krishna Consciousness than for so-called economic development. If we are satisfied with plain living, with minimum time and the balance time is engaged for elevating our Krishna Conscious program, then every man can be transferred to Goloka Vrindaban, just in this very life. The modern civilization has encumbered the mode of living and people are engaged all the time in the matter of eating, sleeping, defending, and mating. Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Hansadutta – Los Angeles 11 January 1968
Find them here: https://goo.gl/stGg6V

“Pride Can’t Save Us” by HG Mahatma Prabhu
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“Pride Can’t Save Us” by HG Mahatma Prabhu - March 28, 2018 (5 min video)
Pride can’t save us from death. In fact, pride can’t do anything useful for us. Pride will cause fault finding and offenses and impede our ability to appreciate others. It can only get us in trouble. Pride is probably the biggest anartha we face. It’s at the root of our material existence and thus is the foundation of all bad qualities.

ISKCON Child Protection Office Policy & Operational Guidelines
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Hare KrishnaBy the GBC

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is committed to the well being of all individuals involved with ISKCON, especially children and other more vulnerable participants. ISKCON recognizes that children, for their full and harmonious development, need to be raised in an atmosphere of love, support, guidance and understanding. ISKCON acknowledges that children, when so raised, are likely to play a vital role in the future of our Society. Thus, placing the interests of the children first is not only in the best interest of the children themselves but also of ISKCON and society at large. Continue reading "ISKCON Child Protection Office Policy & Operational Guidelines
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TOVP News and Updates – Stay in Touch
- TOVP.org

Want to receive regular TOVP news and updates right in your email box? Just click on the link below and fill out the form, and we’ll send you regular announcements of upcoming events, construction progress, new videos, and exciting updates as we move forward to the Grand Opening of the TOVP in four years, 2022.

We’re calling this combined Maha ISKCON marathon, MISSION 22. And we are all part of this historic project, the temple built by the hands of every devotee. So stay in touch and keep informed.

Click on this link to receive TOVP News and Updates

https://goo.gl/forms/ojJ2WcUUuqWh8bXt1

Follow us at: www.facebook.com/mayapur.tovp
Watch us at: www.youtube.com/user/tovpinfo
Support us at: www.tovp.org/donate/seva-opportunities/

The post TOVP News and Updates – Stay in Touch appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

ISKCON Ministry for Sannyasa Services Policy Manual
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Hare KrishnaBy the GBC

A sannyasi, in the varnasrama society, is expected to have material and spiritual qualifications even more exalted than those possessed by a brahmana. According to the Bhagavad-gita, a brahmana should possess the following qualities: Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, knowledge, wisdom and religiousness – these are the natural qualities by which the brahmanas work. Bg. 18.42 Therefore, a bona fide sannyasi is expected to possess the above qualities plus others such as renunciation and spiritual wisdom. If an ISKCON sannyasi breaks his vows of celibacy, becomes greedy for money, or displays other anarthas, ISKCON devotees’ faith in the sannyasa asrama is diminished. Therefore, it is a duty of the leadership of ISKCON to correct a sannyasi’s errant behaviour, and when necessary discipline him. Continue reading "ISKCON Ministry for Sannyasa Services Policy Manual
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Spiritual Advisors Bhagavata Assembly (SABHA)
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Hare KrishnaBy the GBC

Establishing the Spiritual Advisors Bhagavata Assembly, or SABHA, has manifold functions. It aims at strengthening unity among ISKCON’s global spiritual leaders. It facilitates their cooperation, communication and working relation for the progress of Srila Prabhupada’s movement. The SABHA provides checks and balances on the authority of the GBC and course-correction for its decisions. More consultation, more dialogue and more interaction can be conducive to better, wiser and more acceptable decisions. Continue reading "Spiritual Advisors Bhagavata Assembly (SABHA)
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Minutes Of The Annual General Meeting Sri Mayapur Dham, 2018
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By the GBC

The ISKCON Initiated Devotees Global Database is hereby established; all ISKCON initiating spiritual masters (and others who might be managing databases of departed diksa-gurus) shall share their disciple database with this repository upon request and on a regular basis. The ISKCON Initiated Devotees Global Database will provide a secure platform for storage, collation, information processing and management reporting, and should regularly update the database for meaningful data analysis and data mining. The database shall be owned by the Governing Body Commission and shall not be used for any other purpose without the written authorization of the Governing Body Commission. The ISKCON Initiated Devotees Global Database shall provide all initiating spiritual masters the technical platform and relevant training for effectively maintaining and operating their individual disciples’ database (within the Initiated Devotees Global Database). The Manager of the ISKCON Initiated Devotees Global Database shall develop systems for handling information requests. Caitanya Avatari Das is appointed as the Manager of the ISKCON Initiated Devotees Global Database. Continue reading "Minutes Of The Annual General Meeting Sri Mayapur Dham, 2018
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Saturday, March 24th, 2018
→ The Walking Monk

Toronto, Ontario

A Message Came

What showed up on my phone screen was the following:

You have a new message:
Via: http://www.thewalkingmonk.net/
Message Details:
Subject - I was humbled and inspired
Message - Greetings, I wanted to pass on my best wishes and share with you a few thoughts.  When you travelled through Jackson, California last summer I met you at the local park.  I was enthralled at your tales from the trails.  I was humbled and inspired.  Since that chance meeting I have walked in the woods weekly.  Your card is attached to my backpack and your presence keeps me grounded as I put one foot in front of the other.  Thank you.  You have added something to my life that I can’t explain but I hope someday to understand.  Safe journeys… Robert
Sent on: 24 March, 2018
Thank you!

And thank you Robert.

What a ‘good feel’ message that was, as I was just about to board a plane at O’Hare Airport.  I wish I had some forest to walk through today, but I'm satisfied knowing that someone is doing what we all ought to do.  For the sanity of the world, let us walk.

May the Source be with you!

3 km

Friday, March 23rd, 2018
→ The Walking Monk

Honolulu / Chicago

No Swimming, No Surfing, but Chanting

In late 2015, I trekked from Pearl Harbor to the north shore of Oahu, where waves are ideal for surfing.  However, I haven’t seen that many people are taking advantage of the waves the south shore has to offer.  It’s mostly middle-aged men who very religiously show up at that early hour to catch the best wave possible.

This year, Gurudas, Kapu and I walked along the beach at Magic Island, aka Aina Moana, where the exotic banyan trees tower above grassy domains, while the surfers pull out their boards.  Speaking for myself, I’m looking for that perfect moment when I'm chanting with clarity, and with attention.  Often I find myself missing the boat, so to speak, but making an endeavour to sound it out right, softly, while using my beads.

As we leave the surfing beach behind and pace along with more walkers, it’s a greeting of “Hello!” and “Good morning!” in mutual exchange.  Kapu and I are in traditional garb.  It catches people’s attention.

Kapu, 23, who is a native Hawaiian, was demonstrating to Gurudas and me how they used to greet one another.  “It’s rare to find someone doing it today,” he told us.  It’s interesting.  “You put your foreheads together, even noses, and take your right hand to brace the other person’s neck.”  Rather intimate isn’t it?
https://instagram.com/p/BgsB9eqlUCn/

Kapu also told us that it was illegal to speak Hawaiian until more recently.  Rather sick, I would say.  Can you imagine living in a place where it is illegal to chant on beads, something that you’re thoroughly accustomed to doing?

May the Source be with you!

5 km

Accept guidance from others, that is true humility.
→ KKSBlog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, March 2008, Durban, South Africa)

So humility is the key element in our spiritual life. Humility means that we are ready to put our own ideas aside, and that is an essential element in humility. It is not that necessarily one is always walking with the head a little bowed down, looking at the ground with folded hands – that may not necessarily be humble. Humble is simply that we are ready to accept others as our superiors and we’re open to accept guidance from others. That is true humility. So humility must not be mistaken for externally acting very timid and keeping oneself always in the background; that is not true humility. True humility, rather, is simply submitting oneself before superior persons and ask, “What should I do?”  That is true humility. It’s not simple. To take guidance of the vaisnavas, to take guidance of the scriptures – that is humility. To hold the scriptures in such high esteem and say, “Yes, these scriptures will become the guidelines in my life”, that is humility.

We can see that we don’t have it, that rather we are practicing and under the circumstances we’re trying to have a humble attitude but it’s very difficult to take shelter of superiors – very hard, very difficult. Our independence is very great and we’d rather figure it out ourselves. “Is everything fine?” “Yes, yes, very fine…”  And then afterwards – it’s total chaos but somehow or other we’ll work it out because we rather not take the risk that someone else tells us to do something we don’t like. So humility requires that we are ready to allow others control our lives, that is a big thing.

This theme of humility is a major theme in spiritual life and that is why we are looking at it – because it can purchase the Lord.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, March 2008, Durban, South Africa)

The article " Accept guidance from others, that is true humility. " was published on KKSBlog.

Why I Tithe. by Dhritarastra das and Tulasi devi dasi. We tithe…
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Why I Tithe.
by Dhritarastra das and Tulasi devi dasi.
We tithe because we are very grateful to Srila Prabhupada, who gave his life to establish places where devotees can come together to hear, chant, study, serve, glorify, and remember Krishna. This Alachua temple for us is an OASIS in the desert of Kali Yuga. One time we were in Russia for a whole month, and there was no temple. We could see how hard it was for devotees there to find the relief from the overwhelming material energy. When we arrived here and were getting off the Alachua exit, we thought, “Here is the land of Krishna—what a wonderful place.” We really appreciated all the time and energy that countless souls spend to make this Oasis possible for us and everyone else.

There was a time when I served as a brahmacari for 11 years and was fully engaged in temple service and sankirtana. However, even after becoming a householder we want to continue contributing and serving Krishna’s temple to please Srila Prabhupada. We should not be misers, but we should make a sacrifice for Krishna’s temple. It is not like when someone sees a beggar in India and gives him 50 paisa or 1 rupee to get him off our backs, but we should always try to make a sacrifice for Krishna. The more we give to Krishna, Krishna reciprocates thousands of times. Srila Prabhupada said that if you make one step towards Krishna, Krishna will take 10 steps towards you. Srila Prabhupada gave a personal example of this when he came to this country with a few rupees in his pocket, and in a short time, Krishna gave him everything—temples, thousands of devotees—just because Srila Prabhupada’s only desire was to please Krishna. So, trying to please Krishna and Srila Prabhupada by contributing our time and money is the very least we can do.

Also, if you have a desire to work and give part of your laxmi to Krishna, it gives you a meditation while you are working very hard making money. It gives you something to be spiritually motivated about. Otherwise, it is very hard to motivate oneself to make money, so turn it into LAXMI. Trust Krishna. It is all in the sacrifice. When I am thinking that I am giving something to Krishna, just through this thought my activity becomes purified. Please don’t make the excuses, “Oh I’m not sure where the Laxmi actually goes.” It goes for the beautiful service of Radhe-Shyam, Krishna-Balaram, Gaura Nitai and Srila Prabhupada, and we become purified for our service and endeavor. It is a win, win situation. Thank you. Hare Krishna.

Sivarama Swami ~ How to be Fearless (3 min video)
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Sivarama Swami ~ How to be Fearless (3 min video)
Srila Prabhupada: It is very simple, very simple – simply thinking of Krsna. Smartavyah satatam visnur vismartavyo na jatucit. Always, simply if you think that Hare Krsna, if you think simply Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, that is sufficient, even if you do not go into the Bhagavad-gita, if you do not go in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, simply as you are chanting. Krsna has given us the ear, and Krsna has given us the tongue. No expense, no difficulty. You haven’t got to go to college and take degrees to become Krsna conscious. It is easy for the rich, for the poor, for the learned, for the fool, for the black, for the white, for the rich, for the poor, everyone. There is no distinction because Krsna is for everyone. Bhagavad-gita 4.12-13 – July 29, 1966, New York

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Hare Krishna! The Mantra and the Swami who Started it All — in Lithuania
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Hare KrishnaBy Dr. Ausra Maldeikiene

When I'm really happy, I cry: happiness is somewhere deep in the throat and it is excited by hope and light-carrying tears. The next time I was crying was on Vilnius Street when I first saw the dancing people of the Krishna consciousness movement. I saw how the Soviets fed them into psychiatrists simply because they read "no" books and did not want to turn into a Soviet monstrous communist man. And when I first saw on the street the colourful white, saffron-tone dressed and lovingly looking, singing, dancing, people who distributed meals made by themselves and so pure of God's name, I understood freedom and respect for the choice of man had really come. Continue reading "Hare Krishna! The Mantra and the Swami who Started it All — in Lithuania
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Spiritual but not religious – Analyzing four permutations
→ The Spiritual Scientist

[Talk at ISKCON, Las Vegas, USA]

Podcast


 

Podcast Summary


 

Video:

The post Spiritual but not religious – Analyzing four permutations appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Is the Bhagavad-gita Pessimistic?
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Hare KrishnaBy Chaitanya Charana Dasa

After teaching a university seminar, I was asked questions I had myself raised when I first encountered the philosophy of Krishna consciousness: “Why is the Vedic philosophy so pessimistic? When the world offers both pleasures and pains, why does the Bhagavad-gita call the world a place of misery?” Over my decade and a half of practicing and sharing Krishna consciousness, I have been preparing and refining the answer to these questions. Here's my short four-point answer: • The Bhagavad-gita is not pessimistic, but realistic; the reality is that the pleasure-pain balance of the world is tilted heavily toward the pain side. • Even if we still consider the Gita philosophy pessimistic, that pessimism is only initial, not final. In its conclusion, the Gita offers a supremely optimistic message. • Even the best worldly optimism pales and fails in front of the longing of our heart, a longing fulfilled only by the vision of reality offered by the Gita. • The Gita doesn’t teach us to reject this world for the spiritual world, but to harmonize this world with the spiritual world. Continue reading "Is the Bhagavad-gita Pessimistic?
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Confessions of a Prasadam Addict: Maha is as Good as Gold
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Hare KrishnaBy Taru Das

“And when the spiritual master sees the devotees are taking bhagavat prasadam, he is satisfied” - Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur. If there is any other instruction which the devotees of New Vrindaban have taken up more seriously than the one above, I have yet to run across it. In their undaunted endeavors to obtain bhagavat prasadam, devotees have crossed over the difficult ocean of contraptions, locks, chains and booby traps grouped together under the heading of maha cabinets. According to Webster, a maha cabinet is “any device or container, usually a box, a safe, cupboard, or so forth, which is used to preserve maha prasad, i.e., to protect it from being stolen, hidden or ingested from the time of its being lawfully distributed.” A little further on down, mention is made of the fact that as of the present, there are no fool-proof models available. Continue reading "Confessions of a Prasadam Addict: Maha is as Good as Gold
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Sri Rama-navami, March 25, Santa Barbara
Giriraj Swami

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Brhad-Bhagavatamrta.

“Gopa Kumar said. ‘Hanuman then quickly made me leave that place and enter the inner precincts of the city where I saw the most amazing sight — the Supreme Lord as the best of human beings. He sat comfortably on a royal throne in the best of palaces. A palace full of the best of charming attractions. Happy and marked with the signs of a great personage He seemed somewhat like lord Narayana.’ Commentary by Srila Sanatana Goswami. ‘Lord Ramacandra’s face showed all the marks of a great person that are set forth in scripture. Such as an expansive chest and a neck  like a bull and mighty arms as broad as the trunks of a Shala tree. His youthfulness, His ornaments and the exquisite shape of His limbs made Him look much like the Lord of vaikuntha but certain especially attractive features distinguished Him from that Lord.”

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First kirtan by Sarvatma dasa (Right-click to download)
Kirtan by Isvara Puri dasa (Right-click to download)
Second kirtan by Sarvatma dasa (Right-click to download)
Talk by Giriraj Swami (Right-click to download)
Nrsimha Prayers by Giriraj Swami (right-click to download)

Can we say that intelligence comprises of knowledge processing, discrimination, analysis and determination?
→ The Spiritual Scientist

Answer Podcast

The post Can we say that intelligence comprises of knowledge processing, discrimination, analysis and determination? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Are you convinced!?
→ KKSBlog

Kadamba Kanana Swami, 21 Dec 2010, Cape Town, South Africa

Conviction cannot be based on intellectual understanding. Are we convinced that Krsna consciousness is true? Yes, I am because it makes sense. But that’s just the beginning and it is a lot more than that. It has to be experienced in the heart. It must be really felt that Krsna consciousness is the most wonderful thing. That’s living on the cutting edge and spiritual life is about living on the cutting edge!

It cannot become routine because as soon as it does then we get into trouble. We start to dry up and feel the austerity and the weight of spiritual life – the weight of the promises and the strictness because we are practicing in the spirit of routine. But each time we apply ourselves to service and give it our best, that’s when we are on the cutting edge. Then spiritual life becomes magic when we are inspired. So one has to conquer Krsna!

The article " Are you convinced!? " was published on KKSBlog.