[Seminar at ISKCON, Chowpatty, Mumbai]

Podcast

Podcast Summary

Video:

The post Mind It 2 – How unrealistic expectations hamper our relationships appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

[Seminar at ISKCON, Chowpatty, Mumbai]

Podcast

Podcast Summary

Video:

The post Mind It 1 – Understanding the modes, mind and emotions appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

[Srimad-Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Chowpatty, Mumbai]

Podcast

Podcast Summary

Video:

The post Krishna is knowledge, object of knowledge and objective of knowledge appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

The NA Leadership Conference, 2018 (Album of photos)
The 2018 North American Leadership Conference was held last week at Camp ...

My dear Lord, one who earnestly waits for You to bestow Your causeless mercy upon him, all the while patiently suffering the reactions of his past misdeeds and offering You respectful obeisances with his heart, words and body, is surely eligible for liberation, for it has become his rightful claim.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī explains in his commentary that just as a legitimate son has to simply remain alive to gain an inheritance from his father, one who simply remains alive in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, following the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga, automatically becomes eligible to receive the mercy of the Personality of Godhead. In other words, he will be promoted to the kingdom of God.
The word su-samīkṣamāṇa indicates that a devotee earnestly awaits the mercy of the Supreme Lord even while suffering the painful effects of previous sinful activities. Lord Kṛṣṇa explains in the Bhagavad-gītā that a devotee who fully surrenders unto Him is no longer liable to suffer the reactions of his previous karma. However, because in his mind a devotee may still maintain the remnants of his previous sinful mentality, the Lord removes the last vestiges of the enjoying spirit by giving His devotee punishments that may sometimes resemble sinful reactions. The purpose of the entire creation of God is to rectify the living entity’s tendency to enjoy without the Lord, and therefore the particular punishment given for a sinful activity is specifically designed to curtail the mentality that produced the activity. Although a devotee has surrendered to the Lord’s devotional service, until he is completely perfect in Kṛṣṇa consciousness he may maintain a slight inclination to enjoy the false happiness of this world. The Lord therefore creates a particular situation to eradicate this remaining enjoying spirit. This unhappiness suffered by a sincere devotee is not technically a karmic reaction; it is rather the Lord’s special mercy for inducing His devotee to completely let go of the material world and return home, back to Godhead.
A sincere devotee earnestly desires to go back to the Lord’s abode. Therefore he willingly accepts the Lord’s merciful punishment and continues offering respects and obeisances to the Lord with his heart, words and body. Such a bona fide servant of the Lord, considering all hardship a small price to pay for gaining the personal association of the Lord, certainly becomes a legitimate son of God, as indicated here by the words dāya-bhāk. Just as one cannot approach the sun without becoming fire, one cannot approach the supreme pure, Lord Kṛṣṇa, without undergoing a rigid purificatory process, which may appear like suffering but which is in fact a curative treatment administered by the personal hand of the Lord.

HH Radhanath Swami in his narration of Dhruva Maharaj pastime from the Srimad Bhagavatam brings our valuable life lessons (video)

An Indian Union Minister of State recently triggered a furor by stating that evolution is unproven scientifically and shouldn’t be taught in schools.

Before examining the tenability of this statement, we need to understand what is implied by the word evolution. It refers to different things in different contexts.

In today’s public discourse, evolution is used in three broad senses:

1. Adaptation of species
2. Emergence of new species
3. All-explaining naturalistic ideology

Adaptation of species: Evolution can refer to the variation that happens within species as they adapt to their environment by developing certain features. For example, flora and fauna in deserts develop mechanisms to store water. Such adaptation is a well-documented phenomenon that doesn’t need to be doubted or disputed. Nature has endowed living beings with the capacity to adapt to their environment – in that sense, living beings do evolve. Almost all the hard evidence provided by science textbooks for evolution is for such biological adaptation, which can be termed as micro-evolution.

Emergence of new species: Evolution also refers to the mechanism by which one species changes into another – a phenomenon that can be termed macro-evolution. Whereas micro-evolution connotes a mechanism for the survival of the fittest, macro-evolution connotes a mechanism for the arrival of the fittest, or, in general, for the emergence of any entirely new species. The notion that incremental variation within a species can lead to the formation of another species – that such gradual change explains the origin of all species – is a gigantic leap in speculative inference that begs for evidence. This change is believed to happen so gradually that it can’t be observed, so proponents of macro-evolution turn to the fossil record as evidence. However, the fossil record doesn’t provide much help, as is admitted by prominent evolutionists themselves.

• “The curious thing is that there is a consistency about the fossil gaps; the fossils are missing in all the important places.” – Francis Hitching, The Neck of the Giraffe or Where Darwin Went Wrong
• “Paleontologists have paid an enormous price for Darwin’s argument. We fancy ourselves as the only true students of life’s history, yet to preserve our favored account of evolution by natural selection we view our data as so bad that we almost never see the very process we profess to study.” – Stephen J Gould, The Panda’s Thumb

Of course, being evolutionists by belief, they don’t let the paucity of evidence challenge their belief – instead, they come up with new theories. Whether those new theories actually address the problem remains debatable.

Nonetheless, evolution has many aggressive proponents who try to shut down any debate by labelling evolution’s critics as anti-scientific fanatics who want to take the world back to the Stone Age. Embarrassingly for such evolutionists, many of those who question evolution are credentialed scientists. And not just a handful, but several hundreds, as is evident from the list at dissentfromdarwin.org. It has over 800 scientists, with the number continuously increasing.

As a society, we value freedom of expression. So, shouldn’t we value the freedom of expression of those scientists who question evolution’s scientific tenability?

All-explaining naturalistic ideology: Beyond macro-evolution, evolution is often used to refer to something much bigger: philosophical naturalism. Herein, evolution becomes like a magic wand that explains everything existing in nature: the emergence of human beings to the emergence of all pre-human species and even the emergence of consciousness. Evolution expands to go beyond biological evolution to chemical evolution that claims insentient chemicals gave rise to conscious life.

However, evolution of consciousness is an intractable problem. The 125th anniversary issue of Science listed 125 questions for which science had no answer. The second question was about the origin of consciousness. (The first pertained to the origin of the universe.) That question about consciousness remains unanswered even today, despite much high-sounding evolutionary psychobabble broadcast in the media.

• Nobel Prize winning neurophysiologist Sir John Eccles observed: “If you look at most modern texts on evolution you find nothing about mind and consciousness. They assume it just comes automatically with the development of the brain. But that’s not the answer. (International Herald Tribune, 31 March 1981)
• Physicist Nick Herbert underscores in his book Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics: “Science’s biggest mystery is the nature of consciousness. It is not that we possess bad or imperfect theories of human awareness; we simply have no such theories at all. About all we know about consciousness is that it has something to do with the head, rather than the foot.”

In fact, when evolution becomes an all-explaining truth-claim, it no longer remains a science, but becomes an ideology. Philosopher of science Wolfgang Smith points out, “Darwinism, in whatever form, is not in fact a scientific theory, but a pseudo-metaphysical hypothesis decked out in scientific garb.  In reality, the theory derives its support not from empirical data or logical deductions of a scientific kind but from the circumstance that it happens to be the only doctrine of biological origins that can be conceived with the constricted worldview to which a majority of scientists no doubt subscribe.” The doctrine Smith refers to is philosophical naturalism, which holds that everything in existence can be explained solely through natural mechanisms.

From what science explains to what explains science

Science presumes the existence of some natural order which it tries to understand. But it can’t explain the rationale for the existence of this natural order. Consider, for example, the scientific theory that fruits fall because of the force of gravity. But why does gravity exist in the first place? Even if it is attributed to some further scientific construct, such as the curvature of space-time, that only takes the question one step back: Why does space-time have such features? Ultimately, science requires the pre-existence of some natural order. Pertinently, physicist Paul Davies points out, “Science can proceed only if the scientist adopts an essentially theological worldview …  even the most atheistic scientist accepts as an act of faith the existence of a law-like order in nature that is at least in part comprehensible to us.”

To better appreciate the implications of this founding presumption of science, we need to recognize that what science explains is different from what explains science. “What science explains” refers to the explanations in terms of natural laws or natural mechanisms, such as gravity, that science comes up with on observing the natural world. In contrast, “what explains science” raises the question why nature works according to the laws that science uncovers.

Let’s compare science with eyes. We may look with our eyes and explain what we see. But explaining what we see doesn’t explain why there exists something worth seeing and explaining. Similarly, explaining the mechanisms operating in nature doesn’t explain why nature has any mechanism at all. Actually, what science does is describe how nature operates; it doesn’t explain why nature operates that way. If Ajay hits Vijay, describing how Ajay’s fit smashed Vijay’s jaw doesn’t explain why Ajay did what he did. German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein puts it succinctly: “The great delusion of modernity is that the laws of nature explain the universe for us. The laws of nature describe the universe, they describe the regularities. But they explain nothing.”

That’s why the truth-claim that evolution is a grand non-theistic alternative for explaining everything goes beyond the range of valid science. It becomes scientism, the ideological imperialism of science extended into all domains of knowledge.

Allowing such scientism to be taught in schools is a disservice to science because it gives a misleading picture of reality. People who use science to search for the deepest answers, for answers to question about the meaning and purpose of life, will find science falling short of their expectations. This is no fault of science, for no field of knowledge can be expected to answer questions outside that field. But when education sets up the expectation that science has the answer to all questions, the ensuing frustration only alienates people from science.

Nobel Laureate Sir Peter Medawar, despite being an atheist himself, cautions scientists in his book Advice to a Young Scientist: “There is no quicker way for a scientist to bring discredit upon himself and upon his profession than roundly to declare – particularly when no declaration of any kind is called for – that science knows, or soon will know, the answers to all questions worth asking, and that questions which do not admit a scientific answer are in some way non-questions or ‘pseudo-questions’ that only simpletons ask and only the gullible profess to be able to answer.”

Summary

Thus, by recognizing the multiple connotations of the word evolution, we can address the question of teaching evolution in an appropriately sophisticated, multi-faceted way.

• Evolution as adaptation of species can be taught.
• Evolution as a mechanism for the emergence of new species, indeed all species, is debatable. This debate exists for real in the scientific world, and its existence needs to be acknowledged in educational curricula.
• Evolution as an all-explaining ideology – where it becomes a convenient tool of atheists to arrogate the prestige of science to themselves and to brand anyone who opposes atheism as unscientific or even anti-scientific – is a misrepresentation of reality and a misappropriation of science. It needs to be strongly contested and corrected.

The post Teaching evolution in schools: what science explains and what explains science appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Bhakti Chaitanya Swami: Devakinandana prabhu receives his certificate for completing the GBC College course for Regional Supervisors...

Harold S. Kushner, a Massachusetts rabbi's best-selling book proposes a radical solution to the problem of evil. Does it work? Kushner is still hostile. Because God did not satisfy his demands, Kushner must think of Him as ineffectual and weak. Kushner once thought of God as a parent who always gratifies our desires. But now Kushner views Him as needing our forgiveness—for having failed as a parent: “Are you capable of forgiving and loving God even when you have found out that He is not perfect, even when He has let you down and disappointed you by permitting bad luck and sickness and cruelty in His world, and permitting some of those things to happen to you? Can you learn to love and forgive Him despite His limitations ... as you once learned to forgive and love your parents even though they were not as wise, as strong, or as perfect as you needed them to be?” Continue reading "Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
→ Dandavats"

https://youtu.be/eWr78Kq7g3s 

https://youtu.be/QtXlbff3v-M 

• The spiritual master takes over some of the karma of the disciple
• There are many ways in which we become free of karma
• Offence also creates karma and effects the spiritual master
• An offensive disciple is an embarrasment to the spiritual master
• Accumulative effect of disciples’ offenses may cause a guru to fall down

Sadbhuja Das: We have commenced fixing the stars on the domes and we are working our way down from the Kalash, sealing the Blue Tile...

This collection of TOVP photos was taken recently by His Grace Kalasamvara prabhu, President of the Auckland, New Zealand temple who is now in Sridhama Mayapur for the grand Chakra installation ceremony and Gaur Purnima festival.

The post TOVP Photo Gallery appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

The post Daily Darshan: February 03,2018 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

A tremendous loss for Srila Prabhupada’s movement.
Bir Krishna Goswami: We are greatly saddened to hear of the sudden departure of Gargamuni Prabhu.
Gargamuni is the initiated disciple of His Holiness Sridhara Maharaj, as dear disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Sridhara Maharaj was instrumental in assisting Srila Prabhupada in establishing the Bombay temple at Juhu and other projects in India.
I have known Gargamuni for many years, first in my capacity as GBC of his home country Slovenia, and then as a dear friend and siksa disciple. Gargamuni was in line to take sannyasa from me in the near future.
Knowing of Gargamuni’s strict adherence to the Krishna conscious process, his exemplary Vaisnava qualities, and his high level of knowledge of the Vaisnava scriptures I requested him to come to Fiji to assist in establishing high standards of Vaisnava behavior and education.
While in Fiji he inspired many devotees, and won the heart of all the Vaisnavas. Everyone who met him loved him and felt inspired by him.
He was very very close to me, and I was depending on his assistance in carrying out Srila Prabhupada’s society in Fiji and elsewhere.
It is a tremendous loss for myself, and Srila Prabhupada’s movement.
Krishna has decided to take him elsewhere to render service in Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana movement.
His departure from the planet was exemplary and something that we should all aspire for. Surrounded by loving devotees chanting the Holy Name, he left this world to rejoin his spiritual master and Srila Prabhupada.
All glories to His grace Gargamuni Prabhu!
Yours in Srila Prabhupada’s service,
Bir Krishna Goswami

Answer Podcast

The post How can we avoid becoming discouraged on seeing that the modes are pulling us down? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Bhagavad-gita verse-by-verse podcast

The post Gita 16.11 We make our beliefs and our beliefs make us appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

Video:

The post If I want to come first in my class, am I being attached to results? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Marriage vow according to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur!
“The cardinal principle of gṛhastha āśrama is that no one may be the owner of any property or service of another.
Everyone is only a servant whose activities are ever in the service of the Lord.
Similarly, the sole object of everyone’s service as the only master, only friend, only son and only consort is Krishna.

Shyamsundar Prabhu and Gurudas Prabhu Lecture on Prabhupada Memories at ISKCON Chowpatty on 28th January (video)

Please find below the final, official version of the GBC Understanding ISKCON's Lines of Authority paper. This final version has taken into consideration all comments received in Mayapur and thereafter. The release of this version as the full and final paper has been approved by the GBC executive committee. The next step for our committee is to help see that course material is developed so that classes on these principles are taught. In this way the principles expressed in this paper will become part of our ISKCON culture. Continue reading "Understanding ISKCON’s Lines of Authority
→ Dandavats"

Here is my little contribution on preparing & offering food to Krishna with love & devotion. I have developed all these recipes with special care & effort. I believe it will be of great help to everyone to learn & cook for Krishna. It is a collection of recipes, for everyday cooking as well as for the festivals & other special occasions Continue reading "Why Only Krishna Prasadam?
→ Dandavats"

Please help Yamaraja Prabhu (BTG).
Back To Godhead has just launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for medical care for Yamaraja Prabhu, who has been designing and laying out BTG since the seventies. I’m writing to ask all of you to help us spread the word about the campaign. This is the link for it: https://www.gofundme.com/yamaraja-prabhus-cancer-treatment
You can read about his situation there. In summary, he has been fighting multiple myeloma, a type of cancer, for about ten years using modern medicine, undergoing one experimental treatment after another. These treatments have kept the cancer in check, but they have not – and cannot – get to the root of the problem, which is in the stem cells, so the cancer will inevitably show up somewhere. Some devotees see his situation as hopeless and have advised him to just give up and chant Hare Krishna. But he’s not ready for that, so we BTG workers here in Alachua have decided to do whatever we can to support him in his desire to get alternative treatment in Mexico, something he has been investigating for quite some time. He realizes that there is no guarantee that it will work, but it just might, and modern medicine is running out of tricks. After his many years of service to Prabhupada’s dear magazine, we feel it is appropriate to give him the moral support he needs at this time. Yamaraj prabhu wants to continue his service as long as he can, so we’re asking the ISKCON community to support him. Thank you. Hare Krishna. Your servant, Nagaraja Dasa

Like a beautiful palace with a closed door the dhama also requires a key to grant us entrance. This is chanting the Name. According to Sri Bhaktivinoda Thakura it is chanting the Holy Name with loving affection Continue reading "Gentle forgiving Krsna – the only shelter
→ Dandavats"

Hare Krishna Sheffield (Album of photos)
Hare Krishna: It was a pretty good January @ Hare Krishna Sheffield! We had Mahamantra das over sharing his wit and wisdom, we started a small food distribution program distributing food to Sheffield`s homeless, and also had a few good days out in the city distributing some amazing books to the good people of Sheffield..all in all, a pretty good month.
let us see what 2018 brings…
Find them here: https://goo.gl/2MJYfz

Harinam @ Queen St, Auckland,NZ on the 2/2/2018 (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: The easiest way to control the mind, as suggested by Lord Caitanya, is chanting “Hare Krishna,” the great mantra for deliverance, in all humility. Bhagavad-Gita, 6.34 Purport.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/SX5f5o

“The game point - The mode of goodness and economy.”
During the Iskcon Leadership Sanga of this year, which will take place in a few weeks in Mayapur, the GBC Ministry of Cow Protection and Agriculture will also be presenting “The game point - The mode of goodness and economy.”
The environment which surrounds us has a lot of influence on the way we think. This presentation is about a community in Siberia which has cows and children and is building its way towards sustainability. They are developing a viable business model for ahimsa milk, honey and vegetables, based on a cooperative community sadhana. They have ingeniously weaved part of the farm duties in their morning spiritual practices.
This sets the ground for harmony between spiritual life and economy. Their example is very relevant because it is full of elements both of the mode of goodness and economic development. Their practice is fully sheltered by the vision of their GBC, the local preacher and the GBC Ministry for Cow Protection and Agriculture.
Presenters will be Kalakantha Prabhu and Vrajaraja Prabhu, who is coming from Russia especially for these presentations.
More photos: https://goo.gl/ArSGGF

Conversation

• Kṛṣṇa is Nārāyaṇa but Kṛṣṇa’s appearance is superior
• Whatever form of the Lord we are attracted to we need to be aware of Kṛṣṇa’s position
• Whatever form of Kṛṣṇa one worships is perfect as it’s Kṛṣṇa’s desire for variegatedness
• It is not the vaiṣṇava way to say one worship is good and another is not
• Lord Caitanya’s contribution is vraja-bhakti and Kṛṣṇa’s ontological position
• The concept in Tirupati is that Viṣṇu has become Govinda although it is the other way around

Malati Devi Dasi: Dear Devotees, Her Grace Narataki Gopal based in Alachua has been taken by ambulance to Northern Regional Hospital...

The post Daily Darshan: February 01, 2018 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Answer Podcast

The post What is spirituality? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Bhagavad-gita verse-by-verse podcast

The post Gita 16.10 Taking shelter of lust amidst problems is like taking shelter of kidnappers when threatened by thieves appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Srimad Bhagavatam Class by H.G. Mukunda Datta Prabhu in ISKCON Vrindavan, 31.01.2018 (video)

“Can Lord Chaitanya wear a peacock feather?”
Jananivas: In 1973 we had just completed the lotus building in Mayapur. I went to Prabhupada’s room and asked him,
“Can Lord Chaitanya wear a peacock feather?”
He said, “Why not? He is Krishna.”
I told him some of the Gaudiya Math people were complaining that Lord Chaitanya shouldn’t wear a peacock feather.
Srila Prabhupada became very disappointed and he just looked down. He didn’t say anything else.
I took it to mean that he was disturbed that his God-brothers always criticized him.
In fact he wrote one letter, “How can they help when they only hinder us.” It was an open letter.
My understanding was that Prabhupada was wondering why they didn’t see what he had accomplished?”
He picked us out of the gutter of material existence.
We had shaved heads, we wore tilaka and dhotis and we were chanting Krishna’s names.
In other words, “Look at what he’d done rather than fault finding.”

Since that time I found new evidence where Lord Chaitanya is described with a peacock feather.

In the Advaita Gauranga Maji by Advaita Acharya he gives the description of Mahaprabhu in meditation.

In the description he says He has His sikhi-piccha, the peacock feather in His hair and another one over His ear. [laughs]

There is another in the nitya-lila of Mahaprabhu when after breakfast He goes with His friends on sankirtan.

They see all the white cows and the peacocks and He corresponds with Vrindavan-lila when Krishna goes out with the cows in the morning.

So he gets into His cowboy mood. [laughs]

So he starts calling out to all of His cows,

“Ah, Shyama he, Dubala he, Ganga he, Yamuna he, come on.” [laughs]

All the devotees would inquire, “What’s happening?”

“Oh, He’s in the mood of Krishna in Vrindavan.”

So they are all assuming the same mood as Him.

They would pick up sticks and start twirling them around like cowboys do. “Hi, hi, hi, let’s go up to Goverdhan.”

Nityananda Prabhu tends to have a Buffalo horn, “Woo, woo, woo, Goverdhan he.”

In that description Lord Chaitanya wears a peacock feather.

Also Prabhupada asked Malati mataji one time, "Why Lord Chaitanya is not wearing a peacock feather?”

She said, “Oh, He should be wearing?” He said, “Yes.”

She asked, “What about Nityananda Prabhu?”

He said, “Sometimes he could wear but Lord Chaitanya should always wear.”

So now we had guru, sadhu and shastra. It became a little bit controversial.

—Jananivas

First Monthly Sankirtan Festival Alachua (MSF)
Sri Vrindavana devi dasi: Our first Monthly Sankirtan Festival for 2018 was held on Saturday, January 20, 2018. We started the morning by reading chapter 5 of Bhagavad Gita together -Sanskrit and English translations. Then Sri Vrndavana devi dasi presented a review of Vaisesika Prabhu’s time-tested “How to distribute a Gita on its own merit” followed by a role-playing session. Ragatmika devi dasi, veteran book distributor, then led us in reciting Srila Prabhupada’s Jaladuta prayer, “Markine bhagavat dharma”. She also spoke for a few minutes encouraging us in our upcoming sankirtan yajna.
On behalf of TIA (Team ISKCON Alachua), I’m happy to share these numbers with you. -35 devotees went out in five teams door to door, store to store and to Depot Park. About 400 cookies were distributed, along with, 42 Bhagavad Gita hard 43 Bhagavad Gita soft and 128 small books. We all got back to the Temple to a nice lunch specially prepared for the MSF. We shared sankirtan stories and realizations during prasadam.
We want to thank Vaisesika Prabhu for giving us the tools to make sankirtan fun, organized, and inclusive. We are all feeling very optimistic. Srila Prabhupada ki Jai. Our next MSF will be on Saturday, February 24, 2018. Please mark your calendars.

Nityananda Trayodasi at the VIHE, January 29, 2018 (Album of photos)
Students, teachers, staff and other vaishnavas gathered a...