Planet ISKCON



The post Daily Darshan : March24,2018 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Amala Bhakta Swami: Yesterday, one of the devotees here asked me, after he had achieved some personal victory, whether he had to give ALL the credit for the victory to Krishna or whether he could keep a little of the credit for himself.

Giriraj Swami: This verse is quoted in Srila Rupa Gosvami’s Sri Padyavali: [Mother Yasoda is telling Sri Krishna a story:]
“There was once a king named Rama.”
“Yes.”
“His wife was Sita.”
“Yes.”
“On the order of His father, Rama lived in the Pancavati Forest. There Ravana kidnapped Sita.”
Hearing His mother narrate His own activities performed in ancient times, Sri Krishna suddenly called out, “Laksmana! Where is My bow? Where is My bow? Where is My bow?”
May these alarmed words of Lord Krishna protect us all.

Lectures about Lord Ramacandra's appearance day given in ISKCON Naperville, 21, 22 and 23 of March 2018. We can see the affects of the Ramayana tradition in many countries who have adapted their own form of the Ramayana and worship of Lord Rama, especially in the countries of Southeast Asia. These include Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia (Capuchia), Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

By Hari Narayana Das

In the evening the parade of ogoh-ogoh was opened by the local authority and the one by one the people passed their ogoh-ogoh in front of the stage. Lord Jagannath chariot was pulled by devotees on the last line and people actually waited for the chariot to pass by. The people already familiar with the Ratha yatra that they waited for the darshan and get prasadam. They were happy to get maha prasadam. The kirtan was lear by Sesa prabhu filled the entire atmosphere with the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra and people also dance in the joy of the kirtan performed by the devotees. Near midnight the chariot arrived in the temple, devotees then honoring prasadam and then took rest. Continue reading "Four Jagannath Ratha Yatra in Welcoming Nyepi Day
→ Dandavats"

Answer Podcast

The post Ajamila knew scripture – yet he fell down. Why? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

The post How can we balance between bhakti and studies? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

The post Are our mistakes Krishna’s mercy? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

The post If our spouse is sentimentally following a different spiritual path, how should we deal with it? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

The post If our speaking about Krishna doesn’t transform others, does that mean we lack the purity that empowers senior devotees’ words to be transformational? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

The post Is wanting to go back after death to Krishna selfish and wanting to go to Prabhupada selfless? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Iskcon New Govardhana - Harinama at Broadbeach - 18 March 2018 (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: This is the mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, that you go and preach and make propaganda about krsna-upadesa. This is Krsna consciousness movement. We are teaching all our men how to spread krsna-upadesa, how to spread Krsna consciousness. Then anartha upasamam saksat. Then all the unwanted things he has contaminated will be finished. Then pure consciousness… Pure consciousness is Krsna consciousness. Pure consciousness means to understand that “I am very much intimately connected with Krsna as part and parcel.” Just like my finger is very intimately connected with my body. Intimate… If there is little pain in the finger, I become so much disturbed because I have got intimate connection with this finger. Similarly, we have got intimate connection with Krsna, and we are fallen. Therefore Krsna also feels little pain, and therefore He comes down: paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge [Bg. 4.8] Krsna is feeling pain. So you become Krsna conscious, then Krsna will feel pleasure. That is Krsna consciousness movement. From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.7.7 – Vrndavana, April 24, 1975
Find them here: https://goo.gl/BtZci2

Srimad Bhagavatam Class by Bhakti Brihad Bhagavat Swami at ISKCON Chowpatty on Who can Transcend Morality, Mar. 22, 2018 (video)

www.narottam.com

Comedian Russell Brand Buys Hare Krishna Vegan Cookies For Entire ‘Re:birth’ Audience.
Comedian Russell Brand is currently touring the UK and Ireland as part of his humor-laden stand-up comedy show, Re:Birth. News recently broke that the generous vegetarian celebrity brought the whole of his sold-out Swansea audience food from a local eatery, Govinda’s Vegetarian and Vegan Cafe.

Hare Krishna, dear friends, devotees, family folks and all other wonderful persons in my life. I humbly request your prayers on behalf of my daughter Saraswati, who many may recall due to her intimate pastimes with Srila Prabhupada. She is undergoing chemo & radiation for colon cancer. Prognosis is seems good although it went a bit far before being detected. Thank you. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Far East/Middle East (FEME) books in Vrindavana (Album with photos)
Satyanarayana Bbt Feme: Our BBT Far East/Middle East (FEME) book posters and new Arabic Gita banner have found a permanent new Home in Sri Vrndavana dhama, now that Daivisakti Mataji’s “Matchless Gift” bookstore and BBT Vrndavana have decided to carry all our foreign book titles, including the just-printed Arabic Bhagavad-gita As It Is…!
This means that India has now been added to the other areas of the world – North America, UK, Europe, Australia/NZ – where these foreign language titles are currently being distributed. In Vrndavana specifically, the books seem to be eagerly desired by tourists, students and devotees who are among the 100,000’s visiting the Sri Sri Krishna Balarama temple from around the world each year (eg., including the ten Arabic-speaking tourists from Lebanon who made certain they took Arabic books with them before catching their flight home a few days ago…)
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/oNgYQW

Bhaktin Dovilė: She was encouraged to win the competition by her spiritual master HG Sankarshan das Adhikari, who instructed her that Krishna Consciousness should be spread in all possible ways.

The Hare Krishna movie in Monterrey, Mexico (Album with photos)
This Wednesday, March 21, a presentation was made to the media ...

Srila Prabhupada explains: “Sita is Lakṣmiji, or the goddess of fortune, but she is never to be enjoyed by any living being. She is meant to be worshiped by the living being along with her husband, Sri Ramachandra. A materialistic man like Ravaṇa does not understand this great truth, but on the contrary he wants to snatch Sitadevi from the custody of Rama and thus incurs great miseries. The materialists, who are after opulence and material prosperity, may take lessons from the Ramayana that the policy of exploiting the nature of the Lord without acknowledging the supremacy of the Lord is the policy of Ravaṇa. Ravaṇa was very advanced materially, so much so that he turned his kingdom, Lanka, into pure gold, or full material wealth. But because he did not recognize the supremacy of Lord Ramachandra and defied Him by stealing His wife, Sita, Ravaṇa was killed, and all his opulence and power were destroyed.” (Rama-navami Lecture – 27 March 1969, Hawaii)

Read More...



The post Daily Darshan: March 23, 2018 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Podcast

 

Video:

The post Ramayana series2 – Vali-Sugriva – Don’t judge without understanding appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

The post If we have free will, how does Krishna know the future? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

The post How do we understand scriptural stories in which mountains are conscious? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

The post Are pleasures such as traveling to see new places considered addictive? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

[Program for Intel employees, Phoenix, USA]

Podcast

 

Podcast Summary

 

Video:

The post Why to become spiritual now appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

(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.

Answer Podcast

The post Why is atma translated as the Supreme in Ishopanishad mantra 6? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

The post In Paramatma realization, is God the subject or the object? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Watch this amazing 3D video rendition of the TOVP Master Plan for a look at the future of ISKCON Mayapur.

Mantra Caitanya das & Hema Mukhi devi dasi: A handful of the lucky souls who got Srila Prabhupada’s association at the University of Kent today.

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 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)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/2gMQtf

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.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/2xeQT2

By 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
→ Dandavats"