Planet ISKCON

(photo by Laura Fasulo) KEEPERS OF THE FLAME: Although this expression is most often used by our Christian brothers and sisters, I totally relate to its exclamation in relationship to what or who I am, or at least, aspire to be: A Keeper of the Flame of Bhakti, or A Keeper of the Flame of Spirituality. Personally, I see this as a responsibility for all followers of Shri Chaitanya and those who represent him. I visualize a flame burning brightly in my heart, or raising a torch in my hand to dispel darkness. To me, this is inspiring! "Lead me from untruth to truth! Lead me from darkness to light! Lead me from death to immortality." [Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad 1.3.28] This is my meditation and affirmation on being a keeper of the flame.

More than ever before in my life, this is what I want to stand for, and share, and be, and promote. Though admittedly this has waned in the last year, I keep being reminded of it, and now this is the direction I want to take. With this new year, I am reaffirming my commitment. Thus, I write and speak with the prayer to do this service of giving light and encouragement to deal with our worldly desires and nature in the context of spiritual growth—transforming our human life into the life of the soul. Easy to say, I am well aware, yet for me, I need to keep high aspirations always in mind and in my prayers for my highest prospect. Otherwise I may just settle to get by as I have for so many years.

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Maintenance of ISKCON is in the hands of the next generation by Bhakti Charu Swami. Published on Jan 5, 2018 (video)

Srimad Bhagavatam Class 11.6.34-35 By Radhanath Swami at ISKCON Chowpatty on 6th January 2018 (video)

Sivarama Swami: Yoga has lost its soul! (2 min video)
What Yoga REALLY is?

The Wall Street Journal: Psychologists Shouldn’t Ignore the Soul!
David H. Rosmarin: When I was an intern, patients frequently asked if they could talk to me about God.
In my first six months as a predoctoral psychology intern at McLean Hospital, I was approached by at least 10 patients asking essentially the same question: Can I speak to you about God? They wanted to discuss their problems not in psychological terms but in spiritual ones. I guess the yarmulke on my head suggested I was an appropriate person to offer guidance.
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/kmLzj6

New Varshana’s Ratha Yatra (6 min video)
Prananatha Das: New Varshan devotees held a Ratha Yatra Festival today, pulling the Rath cart around the farm. This was the first time that many of the devotees and guests saw our new, Govardhan Hill. You won’t believe your eyes!! (Thanks to the hard work of Saci Suta and his wife, Ananta Krishna. ).
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/DoV3Lq

Prabhupada had planned the takeover of Russia long before he ever went to Russia.
Govinda dasi: He used to sit and turn the globe, and he would meditate on the different countries.
And he would say, “Brahmananda, you shall go to Russia. Goursundar, you shall go to Japan. Somebody else, you shall go to South America.”
You have to understand, we had no money, we had no manpower, we had nothing.
We were a handful of teenagers, 10 people in their early 20’s who were rather eccentric, all of us, because we had rejected our cultural values and we were following him like a Pied Piper, and he was telling us about these different countries we were going to go to and open temples.
He had his plan. It was not haphazardly done.
I have a beautiful picture of Prabhupada sitting and turning his globe.
He did it a lot. He meditated on the globe.
He looked at the different countries. You would see him doing it a lot, and he was planning.

He had planned the takeover of Russia long before he ever went to Russia.

This is a part of what he knew he had to come to this world and do.

We just didn’t know what all he was doing, although sometimes…in Montreal when we had a lot of time and he would talk, he used to talk to me about his different plans.

We had no money. We lived in a little flat. We had rats too.

There was nothing and yet he was telling me how he was going to have a world sankirtan party, and he also told me how he wanted to have a big auditorium where people could come and watch bhajans and hear bhajans and see plays and Krishna conscious things rather than going to the cinemas.

He felt the cinemas were drawing people into another world.

He had plans of doing this.

And when I go to Bombay and I see that great big auditorium, I say, “He said he was going to do this.”

It’s just like if I’m a pauper and I tell you I’m going to build Disneyland, and that’s what it was like.

But I never disbelieved anything he said, I just listened.

I was just always listening to him, and he liked to talk about what he was going to do.

And he talked about many things.

—Govinda dasi

The appearance of Govardhana hill in New Varshana. (Album with photos)
By the mercy of Srila Prabhupada!!
The residing Deities are Sri Sri Radha-Giridhari installed by Srila Prabhupada 1972.
Work in progress.
One night Sacisuta Prabhu one of the older devotees of New Varshana, Auckland, NewZealand had a dream about Govardhana hill. And when he woke up from his dream he said to his wife Ananta Krsna dd I’m going to build Govardhana hill and as you can see by the photos Sri Giri Govardhan! is fulfilling his desire by manifesting himself by His causeless mercy.
Today we sprinkled dust from Braj over Govardhana.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/CSUpqf

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is worshiped with the prayer name brahmanya-devaya go-brahmana-hitaya ca. Thus it is clear that the Supreme Personality of Godhead respects and protects the brahmanas and brahminical culture, as well as the cows; in other words wherever there are brahmanas and brahminical culture, there are cows and cow protection. In a society or civilization which there are no brahmanas or brahminical culture, cows are treated as ordinary animals and slaughtered, at the sacrifice of human civilization.The specific mentions the word gave by Prthu Maharaja is significant because the Lord is always associated with cows and His devotees.In pictures Lord Krishna is always seen with cows and His associates such as the cowherd boys and the gopis. Continue reading "Will Veganism save the cows?
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*Absolutely no offerings will be accepted after April 15, 2018.* Offerings must be in English. Please restrict the length to a maximum of 3,000 words. Please omit all diacritics on words that can be found in the VedaBase. It’s easier for us to put them in. If you quote a verse from outside the VedaBase or compose original Sanskrit, please include diacritics. Do not "recycle" an offering — no offerings from previous years will be accepted. The Vyasa-puja book is meant for glorifying Srila Prabhupada, not venting grievances. The BBT reserves the right to reject an offering it deems inappropriate or to ask for a rewrite. When writing an offering on behalf of a temple or other unit, please try to write in such a way that the other devotees in your unit can also identify with the offering. Continue reading "Call for homages for Srila Prabhupada’s 2018 Vyasa Puja Book
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In the previous months at the old center some neighbors were disturbing the programs in different ways, devotees could not have kirtans, and there were other obstacles that discouraged guests from visiting the old temple. Eventually Temple President Prabhu Das suggested to the community to find another place in which they could properly glorify Sri Krishna loudly, without restrictions. They then began to look for another place. A few short weeks later they found out that a nearby building, in which they had previously done some Food for Life programs, was now empty and that they were looking for somebody to rent it. Continue reading "New Center in Torino
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The post Daily Darshan: January 07,2018 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Adi Purusa Das, the TP of Canberra temple, invited me to a kirtan program on a Saturday night. Even though on that day it was nearly 40 degrees, quite a few devotees attended the evening of blissful chanting.

Apart from myself there were a few local kirtaniyas who led, such as, Gauravana das, Ananda devi dasi and Ayodhyadeva das. At the end everyone relished a wonderful feast cooked by Krsna Kirta das.

Mission Impossible (The Impossible Quest)
“IMPOSSIBLE is a word in fool’s dictionary.” Hope you have heard this statement oftentimes. Such inspiring statements invigorate one to do things that apparently seem to be beyond one’s capacity. But did you ever try to contemplate in what ‘context’ such statements could be used? And what could be the driving force that enables a person to make impossible things possible?
Scriptures proclaim that not a blade of grass moves without the permission and sanction of the Supreme Lord. Sure enough, this is no exaggeration, because every living entity is utterly dependent on the Lord in every walk of his life. So, without the sanction of the Lord, how does any insignificant mortal possibly achieve anything impossible?
Here is the formula to achieve the impossible. If one has a pure intent to render tangible service to the humanity selflessly, the Lord and His representatives help him in every possible way to make the impossible tasks possible. It’s the blessings and good wishes of great souls and the Lord that make one accomplish impossible missions, and not the individual’s determination inspired by one’s own whimsical desires. If one is obsessed to achieve one’s selfish ambitions that cause no good to others, his taking of so-called inspiration from such statements is merely passionate, if not imprudent. In fact, a selfish person’s desire to achieve impossible goals doesn’t cause any good to his own self. We see several examples in the scriptures like Hiranyakashipu and Ravana who tried to become immortal, which is impossible for any mortal being, causing great disturbance to people in general and ultimately ruining their own lives.

On the other hand we have an example from the Srimad Bhagavatam that describes the glorious sacrifice of a selfless soul who took up an impossible mission and made it possible by the power of his pure intent. Once upon a time there lived the great king Sagara, who was an ancestor of Lord Rama. He decided to perform a horse sacrifice. Indra, the king of heaven, being envious of Sagara had stolen the sacrificial horse and tied it near the hermitage of the great sage Kapiladeva. The 60,000 sons of Sagara went in search of the lost horse and found it near Kapila’s hermitage. They mistook Kapila as a thief and tried to attack him. The angry sage then burnt all of them to ashes. Ansuman, the grandson of Sagara then approached Kapila and begged for the deliverance of his forefathers. Kapila told that they could be delivered only when touched by the holy waters of river Ganges. Dilipa, the son of Ansuman tried to bring the Ganges to this world but died without success.

King Bhagiratha, the son of Dilipa, was determined to bring the Ganges to this world, and underwent severe austerities. Mother Ganges, being fully satisfied by his austerities, appeared before him. Bhagiratha then requested her to deliver his forefathers. But Gangadevi expressed her concern that her waters would be very forceful that the flow would pierce the surface of earth. She therefore asked Bhagiratha to find someone who is capable of checking her force. Bhagiratha then prayed to Lord Siva who agreed for this task, and thus helped the descent of Ganga devi. Simply by the touch of the holy Ganges, Bhagiratha’s forefathers were delivered and allowed to go to the heavenly planets.

Thus Bhagiratha with his determined will accomplished the impossible mission of bringing Mother Ganges to this planet. Thus, he not only delivered his forefathers but also every living entity that would come in contact with holy waters of the Ganges for the rest of eternity.

Similarly in our journey of life, we face many ups and downs and many missions that may seem impossible. But the lesson we learn from the descent of Ganga is to remain fixed in the goal of life, by the strength of higher virtue. Life is not worth living without seemingly impossible challenges. If one takes up challenges with pure motivation and determination, in a spirit of doing good to others, Lord favors him in all his movements and makes every circumstance in life favorable to him.

Srimad Bhagavatam Class in Mayapur, Jan 4, 2018, Canto 8.6.12 by Atita Guna devi dasi ACBSP.

Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami Appearance day celebrated at ISKCON-Delhi, 06-01-2018(Album with 16 photos)
Srila Prabhupada: All gl...

Krishna katha kept everyone captivated for more than two hours (Album with photos)
On 11th Nov 2017, Gaur Gopal Das was invited to speak at Artha Forum on the topic of ‘Living in the VUCA world,’ at RELC International Hotel, Singapore.
Smart and well-informed group of entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, professionals, and students gathered to hear from him, seeking for new perspectives on dealing with the mayhem around us. Filled with deep wisdom and realizations, the talk and follow-up Q&A kept everyone captivated for more than two hours.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/6yy8op

On January 2nd in a conference call, the Global BBT unanimously voted to *continue* the special augmented book points for Arabic and Farsi books! So it did not stop at the end of the year, and is still active right now and for the whole of 2018 (at least)! This is also nicely timed for the long awaited launch of the new Arabic Gita which will be awarding the book distributors with 6 (six) points for each sale instead of the normal 2 points for a Gita. So please feel free to get this good news out to all the sankirtan devotees of your area. Continue reading "Great news for Sankirtan devotees
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To this day, the ISKCON Mayapur Food for Life strives and, by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, succeeds in fulfilling this instruction. Over the last eight years, the ISKCON Mayapur Food for Life program, under the Sri Mayapur Food Relief Trust, has distributed over three million, nine hundred and twenty-five thousand, seven hundred plates of prasadam (3,925,700 plates). By the end of this year, the number of plates will have reached four million. Continue reading "Our Secret Weapon
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Why is that thousands of these Orthodox monks can chant day and night non-stop but we can't? Now that many of our devotees are retired from active duties and call themselves vanaprasthas perhaps it's time for our society to start talking about increasing the number of our daily rounds. Not compulsory, of course, but for those who can it could be encouraged. Another important aspect is that in Orthodox Christianity following preceptors is the only way of spiritual progress. There's no democracy on Mt. Athos, you can't just show up and claim the right to be taught - one must be selected and accepted by a known teacher. Likewise, one can't practice on his own - guidance must always be there. One can't approach Jesus Christ on his own either - only through what we'd call a parampara. Continue reading "Monks of Mount Athos – is there something we should learn from them?
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The post Daily Darshan: January 06,2018 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Giriraj Swami: In anticipation of the fortieth anniversary of of the Juhu temple, Rasa-sundari dasi wrote about serving there:
Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay from 1990 to 1992 was sometimes a real challenge, because we had hardly any facilities.
In the beginning there were only three of us, not even initiated then: Bhakta Juan, Bhaktin Manju, and myself, Bhaktin Flor.
Cooking was done on the second floor in a small kitchen connected to the Bhaktivedanta Institute. Guru Maharaja always took his prasadam in his office, and as he liked hot chapattis, we were cooking them on the second floor and then running down the hall with them, one by one, to the office.
There were no mobile phones at that time, so lots of time was spent trying to find each other to get the messages through.
Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant to be able to go with him to visit all those wonderful devotees who were present during Srila Prabhupada’s time—Mrs. Nirmala Singhal, Dr. C. P. Patel, Mr. P. L. Sethi, Srimati Sumati Morariji. They all received Guru Maharaja like a long-lost son who finally had come home.
Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant witnessing how he gave himself fully to each and every person who wanted to see him, and everyone wanted to see him. He never showed any concern for himself, whether he had eaten, taken rest, or had some time for himself.
Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant being the lucky first three devotees that received initiation from him under the loving glance of Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihariji, and we became Vrindavan das, Janaki devi dasi, and Rasa-sundari dasi.
After our initiation, Guru Maharaja allowed us to collect guru-daksina in front of the restaurant. At the end of the day, when Vrindavan das told Guru Maharaja that because of his service, he had not been able to collect anything and so he had nothing to give to him, Guru Maharaja looked at him and said, “You need not worry about that—you have already given me your life.”
Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant being able to see him many mornings on the altar doing the mangala-arati for Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihariji.
Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant seeing him so expertly supervise the cleaning and maintenance of Srila Prabhupada’s quarters. He wanted us, the devotees, to do the cleaning and everything else there.
Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant watching him go almost every morning after mangala-arati to Srila Prabhupada’s quarters and chant his rounds there.
Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant meeting and serving so many of his wonderful godbrothers and godsisters who had served together with him during Prabhupada’s times, and seeing the love they all had for him.
Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant realizing that you are not this body, when after ten or twelve hours of intense service you fell on your bed, the body completely exhausted and the soul inside completely blissful, wanting to do more.
Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay was one of the happiest times in my life!
—Rasa-sundari dasi

In anticipation of the fortieth anniversary of the Juhu temple, Rasa-sundari dasi wrote about serving there:

Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay from 1990 to 1992 was sometimes a real challenge, because we had hardly any facilities.

In the beginning there were only three of us, not even initiated then: Bhakta Juan, Bhaktin Manju, and myself, Bhaktin Flor.

Cooking was done on the second floor in a small kitchen connected to the Bhaktivedanta Institute. Guru Maharaja always took his prasadam in his office, and as he liked hot chapattis, we were cooking them on the second floor and then running down the hall with them, one by one, to the office.

There were no mobile phones at that time, so lots of time was spent trying to find each other to get the messages through.

Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant to be able to go with him to visit all those wonderful devotees who were present during Srila Prabhupada’s time—Mrs. Nirmala Singhal, Dr. C. P. Patel, Mr. P. L. Sethi, Srimati Sumati Morariji. They all received Guru Maharaja like a long-lost son who finally had come home.

Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant witnessing how he gave himself fully to each and every person who wanted to see him, and everyone wanted to see him. He never showed any concern for himself, whether he had eaten, taken rest, or had some time for himself.

Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant being the lucky first three devotees that received initiation from him under the loving glance of Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihariji, and we became Vrindavan das, Janaki devi dasi, and Rasa-sundari dasi.

After our initiation, Guru Maharaja allowed us to collect guru-daksina in front of the restaurant. At the end of the day, when Vrindavan das told Guru Maharaja that because of his service, he had not been able to collect anything and so he had nothing to give to him, Guru Maharaja looked at him and said, “You need not worry about that—you have already given me your life.”

Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant being able to see him many mornings on the altar doing the mangala-arati for Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihariji.

Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant seeing him so expertly supervise the cleaning and maintenance of Srila Prabhupada’s quarters. He wanted us, the devotees, to do the cleaning and everything else there.

Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant watching him go almost every morning after mangala-arati to Srila Prabhupada’s quarters and chant his rounds there.

Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant meeting and serving so many of his wonderful godbrothers and godsisters who had served together with him during Prabhupada’s times, and seeing the love they all had for him.

Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay meant realizing that you are not this body, when after ten or twelve hours of intense service you fell on your bed, the body completely exhausted and the soul inside completely blissful, wanting to do more.

Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay was one of the happiest times in my life!

—Rasa-sundari dasi

Movie Stuntman Finds Joy in Krishna Consciousness.
Devotees from ISKCON’s Soho St temple began visiting Jason and bringing him maha-prasadam and more books. “I read Chant and Be Happy, and the idea of self-realization through chanting really appealed to me,” he says.
“Next, I read Prabhupada’s biography, ‘Your Ever Well Wisher.’ I started to become very interested in the person of Srila Prabhupada. I read more and more about his mission, and the history of how he founded ISKCON in the United States. That’s when I became vegetarian. Step by step, my consciousness was changing.”
La Shard began to look for devotee association. He visited the Soho St. temple, and then took the three-month Veda course, an introductory program to Krishna consciousness, at Bhaktivedanta Manor. There, he studied the Gita chapter by chapter, and learned about Vedic culture, Vaishnava saints, the history of ISKCON and more.
In the summer, he joined Parasurama Das’s team of preachers, putting on Rathayatra festivals all over Scandinavia as well as Northern England and Scotland. Parasurama, delighted to make the acquaintance of the “biggest devotee in ISKCON,” warmly nicknamed La Shard “Bhima.
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/DST2YD

Gopal’s Fun School - Goa.
Mission: Train Children of our society in the spiritual field with a view to awakening God consciousness in them so that over a period of time they become divine law-abiding citizens and consciously make the correct decisions in life to keep away from everything any caring parent would want them to avoid. Above all they are provided with a sense of responsibility towards themselves and society as a whole. Most importantly this all has to be done in a FUN way. 90% FUN + 10%.
GFS is a weekend FUN program for kids to create wonderful memories of their childhood and KRISHNA using a lively blend of art, stories, quiz, drama, games.
Read more: https://goo.gl/boRKA7

Kirtan by HH BB Govinda Swami, Dallas Kirtan50, 29.12.2017 (video)
Srila Prabhupada: We are not afraid of maya because Krishna is there. Krishna says, “My devotee will never be vanquished by maya.” Maya cannot do anything if we become strong. And what is that strength? Chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare loudly. (Lecture on Bhagavad-gita, 3.6.10, Los Angeles 1968).
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/rrrQjz

Attending Jagruti 2018 (Album with photos)
ISKCON Goa: Two days of Annual Spiritual festival JAGRUTI ended today. While 1000 of participants got benefitted by two great topics given by Bhaktirasamrita Swami ji during the discourse time, lot of participants also tested their SQ (Spirituality Quotient) post-session. Among 100+ participants across 2 days, 8 were able to get 100% SQ score. As a promise to them, here are their pictures. Congratulations to winners. Please consider seriously in taking your spiritual journey to next level by going through “Journey of Self Discovery Course”.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/Zmgkqp

Bhakti Center: 2017 Year in Review.
Looking back at the Bhakti Center’s growth in 2017, and looking forward a bit into 2018.
Click on the link below and blow up the window to full screen for a stunning magazine laid out by Rukmini Poddar!
https://issuu.com/bhakticenter/docs/2017_annualreview

The post Daily Darshan: Jan 05,2018 appeared first on Mayapur.com.