Planet ISKCON

Our "Paramahamster" comic strip follows an enthusiastic devotee as he navigates a 9 - 5 work day in the corporate world. Please check back weekly for new episodes!

The Sri Mayapur International School, one of the educational institutes of ISKCON Mayapur, has been educating the children of Mayapur since it was founded in 1988.  Students of many different countries study together here and receive a quality academic and spiritual education.

On November 11th the TOVP Tour Team brought Lord Nityananda’s Padukas and Lord Nrsimhadeva’s Sitari to the original Capital City of Australia, Melbourne. Although Canberra is now the Capital, Melbourne is one of the largest cities in Australia and this showed by the incredible response of the devotees who pledged over $500,000 U.S. to the TOVP.

Since 2007, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust’s training center for new book distributors – Colegio Bhaktivedanta in Mexico – has been gradually strengthening book distribution culture in Latin America. Now, with visible results all over the continent and two new centers on the way, this innovative idea seems to be reaching its turning point.

Miss World 2017 Manushi Chhillar receives Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is by H.G. Govind Krsna Das on the behalf of ISKCON at the same Land where Lord Krishna Spoke the Bhagavad Gita (Kurukshetra, India) & on the same day when it was spoken (Gita Jayanti - The Advent of Bhagavad Gita)!
She had nice exchanges with the devotees and chanted the Hare Krishna Mahamantra.
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!

An altar that looks like the ToVP (Album with photos)
Sadbhuja Das: One of our ToVP artist named Samir shared these photos with...

H.G.Srutakirti Prabhu’s recent talk in Vrindavana, about merciful Srila Prabhupada (video)
Srutakirti Prabhu joined in the early days of the Hare Krishna explosion. Soon he was secretary to Srila Prabhupada. He would travel with Srila Prabhupada to various countries. He noted the details of his travels and thus he is one of the greatest speakers on Srila Prabhupada’s pastimes. He has been widely preaching everywhere in the world fulfilling Srila Prabhupada’s mission.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/Xu7wuz

ISKCON Auckland NZ: Friday night Harinam (Album with photos)
This sankirtana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at...

Hindu-Catholic Dialogue Discusses Love of God and One’s Neighbor.
Around 125 people from both traditions attended the third annual Hindu-Catholic Dialogue, held at the Shiva Vishnu temple in suburban Washington D.C. on Saturday November 11th.
Participants included Catholic bishops, priests and several dozen Catholic laypeople. From the Hindu community, there were leaders from local Hindu temples, along with a number of congregational members. These included about a dozen from the ISKCON temple in Potomac, Maryland; among them ISKCON Communications Director Anuttama Das, one of the founding organizers of the Dialogue.
This year’s discussions shed light on the topic “Love of Neighbor in the Catholic and Hindu Traditions: Reflections on Nationalism, War and Poverty.”
Beginning the Dialogue via a pre-recorded video speech was Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, who describes herself as a “Vaishnava Hindu.”
“If we truly want to “love our neighbor” and solve the problems of nationalism, war, and poverty, it’s going to take each of us cultivating our love for God and others,” she said.
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/eNmNoY

The post Daily Darshan: December 01,2017 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Harinama in a cold Moscow (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Although a Vaishnava is the most exalted person, he is prideless and gives all respect to everyone, knowing everyone to be the resting place of Krishna. If one chants the holy name of Lord Krishna in this manner, he will certainly awaken his dormant love for Krishna’s lotus feet. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, 20.25.26)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/ZJb92V

Deena Bandhu Das: Today we celebrated the 10th Disappearance anniversary of my very dear Godbrother Vibhu Chaitanya Prabhu. (Album with photos)
A real Vaishnava, but unknown to most devotees. He worked tirelessly from 2 am to 10pm in Krishna Balarama’s kitchen for many years singing all the while. In fact, Srila Prabhupada told him that he didn’t have to chant his rounds, just sing and cook. His kachoris were out of this world!! When he couldn’t cook anymore due to old age, he distributed caranamrita with incredible devotion! He would grab your hand and a surge of devotion would enter your body!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/RC9Y7f

Those who are eating animals are animals; they are not human beings. Although they have the form of a human being, they are not considered human beings. When a person is civilized, cultured, then he’s a human being. If he’s not civilized, if he’s not cultured, if he simply has two hands he’s an animal. Civilized culture begins in the Aryan families. Therefore they are called Aryans, which means “advanced.” Continue reading "Reducing the Burden Of the World
→ Dandavats"

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The post If past mental impressions stay despite a long practice of bhakti, what to do? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

The post Duryodhana character analysis (3) appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

[Seminar at ISKCON, Perth, Australia]

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The post Duryodhana character analysis 3 – Envy perpetuates dissatisfaction and invites destruction appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

[Seminar at ISKCON, Perth, Australia]

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The post Duryodhana character analysis 2 – Ambition distorted by envy becomes cancerous appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

[Festival class at ISKCON, Perth, Australia]

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The post Gita Jayanti class – The Gita brings a message of fearlessness to a fear-filled world appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 20 December 2010, Cape Town, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 7.8.34)

Let us be devotees but let us not punish ourselves, “I am a failure, I am not humble! I can’t chant properly, I am a failure…”

When we punish ourselves and then our Krsna consciousness becomes black and gloomy because we have a standard and day-by-day we are failing that standard. Therefore, “I am so sinful… loser! My whole spiritual life is just stress.”

We need not bring this type of mentality into Krsna consciousness. It is not required. We just pick up from we left off and go back to the standard. That is the system of spiritual life.

I often stress the point of rising early because it gives us so much time for spiritual activity because the day is full of so much activity and passion, therefore it is nice to read and chant in the morning. I am recommending that one is strict in trying to rise early but what does it mean to be strict with oneself?

Strictness means that when sometimes our health is really bad or exhaustion goes into the red, at that stage it may be wise to take rest. Strictness means that we should take shelter of the standard of rising early and no matter what happens, we will always go back to it. Then at one stage it becomes a culture, a habit. Like for me, these days rising at 4am I consider sleeping in but there are different cultures. My point is that in spiritual life there is STRICTNESS but not FANATISM. Strictness in the mode of goodness. Spiritual life is joyful!

On this day, 5000 years ago, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, the Supreme Lord Krsna delivered the most confidential and topmost knowledge of devotional service in the form of Bhagavad-Gita to His dear devotee Arjuna.

The Bhagavad-Gita is also meant to help humanity at large, in order that all understand the purpose of life and the way to surrender unto Krsna.

Gita Jayanti is celebrated by reading the Bhagavad Gita and discussing it. Devotees  fast on this day as it falls on Ekadasi. The main purpose of celebrating Gita Jayanti is to recall the words of the Gita and apply them in our daily lives.

This is a brief update on the progress of the preparation work for the historic Grand Installation Ceremony of the Chakras onto Sri Radha Madhava’s and Lord Nrsimhadeva’s domes on February 7th, 2017, and the sponsorship of Their abhishekas.

1. Current abhisheka sponsorships:
Lord Nrsimhadeva Chakra – 402 sponsors
Radha Madhava Chakra – 312 sponsors

2. The preparation of the domes for the installation of the Chakras is full-steam ahead with a three month marathon underway. Below is a video update by Sadbhuja prabhu, the TOVP project Managing Director, about the marathon and other progress in the temple construction.

https://tovp.org/construction/tovp-quarterly-report-3-month-marathon-preparation-chakra-installation/

3. Due to so many donors sponsoring abhishekas we will not be able to accommodate everyone to personally bathe the Chakras. Instead, all ISKCON gurus will perform the bathing on behalf of their disciples who have sponsored the abhishekas. We will also read the names of all donors during the Maha Sudarshana Yajna, place their names at the base of the Chakra(s) they sponsored, and provide the special gifts mentioned in our original announcement.

If you haven’t yet sponsored a Chakra abhisheka and would like to be part of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, please visit the TOVP website here: https://tovp.org/donate/once-in-a-lifetime-chakra-abhisheka-seva-opportunity/

The post Chakra Installation Update appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

• Special properties of our universe point to an underlying intelligence.
• God is defined as consciousness and that parts of that consciousness are embedded in us.
• Our reality and the laws of physics is like a vast simulation within God consciousness.
• The universe is like a virtual reality developed and advanced over millions of years.
• Fine tuning of the laws of nature strongly meant to the idea that our universe was meant to be lived in and that near-death experiences allude to a spiritual reality. All of this he says points to God's existence.

Around 125 people from both traditions attended the third annual Hindu-Catholic Dialogue, held at the Shiva Vishnu temple in suburban Washington D.C. on Saturday November 11th.Participants included Catholic bishops, priests and several dozen Catholic laypeople. From the Hindu community, there were leaders from local Hindu temples, along with a number of congregational members

One of the best ways to celebrate the advent of Bhagavad Gita is to share it with others.
One devotee asked Jayananda Prabhu how can one go back to Godhead? Jayananda Prabhu replied “ I don’t know, I’m too busy serving Srila Prabhupada “

Gita Jayanti celebration in MOSCOW TEMPLE (Album with photos)
Round table “Bhagavad-gita: in the pursuit of harmony in the modern multipolar world” The round table is held in the framework of celebrating the 70th anniversary of Russian-Indian diplomatic relations, celebrated throughout the year 2017 in Russia and India, and timed to the popular Indian holiday “Gita-jayanti ”. Representatives of state authorities, academics and the capital city administration, Indian diaspora, Hindu organizations, experts in the field of Russian-Indian relations, interreligious and interethnic dialogue, journalists, students take part. The aim of the Roundtable is to consolidate the efforts of the society and the state in the development of interethnic and interdenominational dialogues, to promote the exchange of experience and the dissemination of programs and projects aimed at constructive interethnic dialogue and preservation of cultural diversity as the basis for cooperation. In the program: presentation on the actual topics of spiritual and cultural interaction and dialogue, musical and dance numbers, exchange of opinions, reception. The round table is organized jointly by the Moscow House of Nationalities, the Moscow Center for Indian Culture and the Council of Hindu Communities of Russia. Gita Jayanti (the appearance of “Bhagavad-gita” ) is one of the oldest sacred holy days on earth. According to the legend, “Bhagavad-gita” (“The Song of God”) sounded more than 50 centuries ago before the start of the grand battle between the families of the Pandavas and the Kauravas as a call to fulfill a man’s duty to God and people. “Bhagavad-gita” is not just a sacred text of Ancient India and the main part of the epic “Mahabharata”, which has survived to the present day from the depths of millennia, but also a unique message to the whole world, regardless of nationality and religion. “Bhagavad-gita” is rightfully considered the quintessence of the thousand-year wisdom of the Vedas and one of the greatest works of philosophical classics in the world. Sincerely, Sanjit Kumar Jha (Director of the Center for Indian Culture)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/vEEMrN

Kirtan London (3 min video)
“6 Hours of Happy” Highlights - Oct 2017
Filmed and edited by Jonathan Caicedo-Galindo
Music - “Govinda Jaya Jaya” by The Hanumen.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/dY3KDQ

Gita Jayanti Address (8 min video)
by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami.
Gita Jayanti actually means the birth of Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita appeared was conceived when Krishna spoke it to Arjuna. Bhagavad Gita is actually the essence of the entire Vedic wisdom.
The Vedic wisdom flows through two streams predominantly. One through the stream of Upanisad and second through the Purana. Bhagavad Gita is the essence of all the Upanisads
All the Upanisads have been compared to a cow and Krishna is the cowheard boy who milked that cow. The cow gives milk for the sake of the calf but actually here the human beings drink that milk. The objective is to provide food for human beings that’s the purpose of the milk. So, similarly Upanisads that have been compared to a cow and Krishna milked that cow making Arjuna the preliminary objective but actually that is for the benefit of everybody.

vatsapartha (Gita-mahatmya 6)

In this arrangement Krishna made Arjuna the calf and the milk is gitopanisad and who drinks that milk? sudhirbhokta, those who are endowed with very advanced intelligence drink this milk like. arthovatsaùsu-dhirbhokta, dugdhamgitamrtaàmahat

That milk is the nectar of Bhagavad Gita. Yes, it is nectar. But why is it the nectar? It helps us achieve immortality. The Sanskrit word for nectar is amrta. The word amrta means a- mrta. Mrta means death and ‘a’ means negation of death. So, negation of death means no more death, death is destroyed. How do we achieve immortality? We can achieve immortality through proper knowledge. It is not like we drink some liquid and achieve immortality. Yes, there is also a liquid like that which one can drink to become immortal. This liquid the demigods actually take advantage of. They drink that nectar but that nectar gives immortality or so-called immortality to the body. Unfortunately, the body is not going to last forever although it lives for a long duration. But we should aim to grab the permanent nectar that Bhagavad Gita is giving. This nectar is coming in the form of knowledge. What is this knowledge about? This knowledge is about our spiritual identity. It makes us realise that we are not this body but we are spirit souls and this body is perishable. When the soul leaves the body, the body dies. So, death is to the body but this body is not our real identity. Real identity is the spirit soul and the soul never dies. So, we are spiritual beings and we never die. That is our constitutional position. We are all immortal to begin with but because of our misidentification with this body, we think that we die when the body dies.
So,the nectar that the Bhagavad Gita is giving is in the form of knowledge. This knowledge gives us immortality, real immortality and this knowledge is not only extending the duration of this body but this knowledge is situating us in our spiritual identity and enabling us to go back to the spiritual world.
yadgatvananirvartante (Bhagavad gita 15.6).

Going there we never come back to this world. This is a world of death, Sanskrit word for this world ismrtyu-lokaor the world of death. Everyone here is subject to death. Whereas that world is the world of immortality or there is no death in that world in the spiritual world. Nobody dies there because the spirit soul never dies. So that is why this knowledge of Bhagavad Gita is so important. Everyone wants to become immortal and we have this nectar that gives us immortality, gives everyone immortality. It’s just a matter of accepting it, understanding it and leading one’s life according to that understanding.

So, in this way Krishna created such a wonderful opportunity for this world by giving this nectar of Bhagavad Gita which is the essence of all the Vedic wisdom. Vedic wisdom does not originate this world. Vedic wisdom came from the spiritual world. The Vedas, this knowledge and the essence of this knowledge came from the spiritual world. The purpose of this knowledge is to take us out of this material nature back to the spiritual world, back to godhead. And that is why it is important that we celebrate it the proper way. The proper way to celebrate this knowledge is not by having some festival but by distributing this knowledge to others. Of course before we distribute it we have to accept it ourselves. In order to celebrate this wisdom, this opportunity, this occasion we give it out to everybody out there, “Come take it.” So, let us celebrate the birthday of Bhagavad Gita by giving it to everybody and showing them the way to immortality.
Thank you very much.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
GauraPremanande Hari HariBol!
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/nDnroN

ISKCON-London 48th Anniversary 26/11/17 (3 videos)
1. Srila Prabhupada arrival
2. MC Opening
3. Jai Nitai dasa Welcome
4. Mantra Lounge (Part 1)
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/PKiM51
1. Interview Mr Goyal & Jai Nitai dasa
2. Mantra Lounge (Part 2)
3. Mother Mandakini devi dasi
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/7cBU22
1. Drama
2. Guru Puja with kids and final kirtan with Srila Prabhupada disciples
3. Event Close
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/vqQte7

Radhanath Swami Debates at the Cambridge Union (Album with photos)
In November 2017, Radhanath Swami was invited to debate at the worlds oldest, and arguably most prestigious debating society, the Cambridge Union. The topic was “Have we lost faith in faith? Does it have meaning in the modern world? Can we justify faith in line with the rest of the world’s atrocities?”
The Cambridge Union was founded as a small debating society in 1815, but today is the largest student society in Cambridge and has over 70,000 life members worldwide. It established a forum in which the art of public debate was defended and the free exchange of ideas was encouraged. The Union hosts many of the most famous speakers in the world including politicians, olympians, businesspeople and journalists, so that its members can meet them, question them, and challenge their views. In the past the Society has hosted important world figures such as Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt and the current Dalai Lama. Recent guests have included Germaine Greer, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Robert Downey Jr, Vivienne Westwood, Buzz Aldrin, Russell Brand and Julian Assange, to name but a few.

The Union also serves to encourage younger generations in public speaking, providing free debating workshops to local schools, and thrice-weekly workshops for all student members in Cambridge, at every level of ability, to train themselves in public speaking and learn how to competitively debate. It is this training that produced the top two debaters at the World University Debating Championships in 2015.

Over 200 people gathered in the chamber of the Union for the debate on faith. On the side proposing the motion, was Ken Follet, a Welsh Author who has sold more than 150 million copies of his works, and is a staunch atheist. Ajhan Brahm, a British Theravada Buddhist monk and the Abbot of Bodhinyana in Serpentine, Western Australia and Sadia Hameed, spokesperson for the Council of ex-Muslims of Britain, also joined him.

Opposing the motion was His Holiness Radhanath Swami, alongside Virginia Moffat, religious editor for Peace News and Asad Dhunna, board member of Imaan, Europe’s biggest charity supporting LGBTQI Muslims.

Before the debate started, the Cambridge Union created a poll on their Facebook page to ask attendees to vote whether the motion stands firm. That is, have we lost faith in faith? Fifty-eight percent voted that we had, leave 42% defending that we had not. This meant the debate was on the side of the Ken Follet and his peers.

The debate started with Ken Follet defining the word faith and sharing his thought on why faith had no place in our society. Radhanath Swami spoke in opposition first, arguing that giving up artificial faith makes us eligible to find genuine faith. As the debate proceeded, it swung to become a debate on religion versus science, but a member of the audience, Jonathan, who studied Philosophy and Religion at Cambridge University brought it back. He mentioned that we must have faith in something. We can have faith in empirical science, but that is still faith. Therefore, we can never lose our inherent faith by definition. The debate was closed by Ajhan Brahma for the motion and Asad Dhunna who was against the motion.

The evening came to an end with a book signing of both Mr Follet’s and Radhanath Swami’s books, with students intrigued to know the outcome. The Swami presented his memoir The Journey Home and New York Times Bestseller The Journey Within to all speakers and the President of the Cambridge Union, Page Nyame-Satterthwaite who mentioned, “It was a pleasure to speak to the Swami. It’s rare to have a speaker with such gravitas at the Union. We were very grateful he could attend.” Jonathan, the student who criticised both sides earlier, also met Radhanath Swami at the end. He said, “It was an honour to meet him and I enjoyed listening to his point of view.”

The result of the debate was confirmed at the end of the evening and the opposition claimed victory by receiving 54% of the vote to the propositions 27% of the vote. The rest of the audience abstained. This meant that arguments that Radhanath Swami and his peers put forward had swung the Cambridge audience to vote against the motion that we had lost faith in faith.

UK: 1st day of the Marathon kicks of to a great start! (1 min video)
Sutapa Das: The mercy month is just beginning! Last night we visited the Queens Sankirtan team who were distributing Bhagavad-Gita’s in Morrisons Superstore! They managed to distribute a total of 95 books!
They explained how they started the day off by reciting the whole Bhagavad-Gita together which took 3 hours! Then they were spiritually surcharged and ready to distribute the fruits!
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/x1zMS1

This year the double blessing Gita-jayanti confers upon the participants continues to flow.

Those who take part on the Gita-jayanti celebration on December 2 or support its book distribution by sponsoring a book package will receive special blessings. Aside from the blessings of Bhagavad-gita, they will get Sri Sri Radha-Syamasundara’s personal blessings since the Gita-jayanti celebration supports Radha-Syama’s Nitya Seva as well.

There is still time to apply for the double mercy or to double the double mercy by sponsoring more book packages :))

For the double and double double mercy, please contact Asta Sakhi devi dasi.
Phone: +36 30 600 1459
E-mail: Asta.Sakhi.SRS@pamho.net

The post Daily Darshan: 30 November, 2017 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

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The post Gita Jayanti talk – Appreciating the Gita’s message by contemplating the starting and ending names of Arjuna and Krishna appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 02 October 2013, Melbourne, Australia, Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.2-7)

We should never think that somebody is not a devotee. We should think that everyone is a devotee! The uttama-adhikari sees everyone as a devotee. We should find the devotee in other people. The devotee is there; we should just find it! When we treat someone as though they are not a devotee then they may also say, “Yes, I am not a devotee!” but if we find the devotee; awaken the devotee… then there is a devotee in every person!