Websites from the ISKCON Universe
On October 4th, a divine form of Sri Caitanya was installed on the altar of the temple at New York's The Bhakti Center. Accompanied by a chorus of voices chanting Vedic mantras and jubilant kirtan, brahmins began the ceremony by establishing the intention in the minds of the community, honoring and seeking the blessings of the seniors present and commencing the rites with the traditional Vedic fire ceremony.
On October 4th, a divine form of Sri Caitanya was installed on the altar of the temple at New York's The Bhakti Center. Accompanied by a chorus of voices chanting Vedic mantras and jubilant kirtan, brahmins began the ceremony by establishing the intention in the minds of the community, honoring and seeking the blessings of the seniors present and commencing the rites with the traditional Vedic fire ceremony.
The post Daily Darshan : October 08, 2017 appeared first on Mayapur.com.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 18 September 2017, Mauritius, Arrival Lecture)
In the spiritual world, devotees also offer aarti when greeting various personalities. This tradition manifested on this planet and in Mauritius too.
When I travel, I see different cultures, sometimes more traditional and other times more modern. Sometimes simply, “How are you?” and that is all but in Krsna Consciousness, we embrace spiritual traditions. Somehow or other, we are all playing a role in one body or another. Male and female are the big division but there are many other divisions as well. Just like, I am playing the role of a teacher given to me by my spiritual master but at the same time, I am learning also. I am learning how to come closer to Krsna every day, which is an ongoing learning process throughout spiritual life.
In the spiritual world, devotees worship other devotees. Srimati Radharani is worshipped by other gopis because worship is purifying. It is easier to worship than to receive. Receiving worship is very difficult. Just like now, you are singing Guru Puja to me instead of Srila Prabhupada. This is very difficult because I am thinking, “What does Srila Prabhupada think of me now?” Then I apologise for my lack of qualification while I sincerely try to represent Srila Prabhupada and the other previous acaryas.
Transcendentally surcharged atmosphere in Vrindavana (4 min video)
When one offers a lamp during the month of Karttika, his sins in many thousands and millions of births perish in half an eye blink.
New York Supreme Court Declares Historic Decision in favor of Hare Krishna Movement.
New York Supreme Court Justice Randi Sue M...
Ujjain GBC meeting #1.
Srila Prabhupada and Lord Venkateshwara.
Yadubara das: Srila Prabhupada stayed in Tirupati for three days, and the highlight of...
Preaching program in Tirana, Albania’s capital city (Album with photos)
Ananda Tirtha: We had a really, really wonderful six days in Tirana, Albania. The city is pleasant. People are super pleasant. We managed to sell 500 books. Bhakti-grantha and Nayananda Prabhus distributed almost all of them. I managed to meet up with the Indian consul in Tirana, a man in his 60s with moist and lively eyes, a successful businessman of a warm and unassuming nature. He helped us with our mission. I gifted him a copy of the Sri Isopanisad in Albanian, a copy of the Bhagavad-gita in English, and a copy of the Atma magazine in Albanian. We also met a vibrant woman, a yoga teacher, who without thinking twice invited us to give a lecture at her studio. That proved to be a great gathering. One of the men in attendance even offered his help to initiate an Iskcon center in Tirana and translate the Bhagavad-gita into Albanian. We look forward to our next visit to Tirana.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/y1PvWC
Every Picture Tells A Story In Beautiful Vrindavan During Kartik (Album with photos)
The Evening Programme in Iskcon’s Krishna Balaram Mandir On The 5Th Of October.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/PW8dE5
The case began in 2004 in Freeport, New York, when persons from outside Long Island, through deception and subterfuge, took control of the Long Island ISKCON Temple board of trustees. Those persons opposed GBC authority and taught a philosophical system called ritvik, which the GBC declared a deviation from traditional Hare Krishna, or Vaishnava Hindu teachings.
Dauji, The Older Brother! (Album with photos)
Indradyumna Swami: Dauji is a name for Lord Balarama meaning ‘older brother.’ It is also the name of a village in greater Vrindavan, where a very ancient deity of Lord Balarama is worshiped with great love and devotion by the citizens. It’s one of my favorite places in all of Vrindavan. Yesterday we took our parikrama party of 350 devotees to Dauji to see Dauji!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/evTxb9
By Ishvara Krishna Das This paper is engaged with the topic of reincarnation in the Bhagavad gītā, better termed “rebirth”. It first looks into the epistemological aspects of rebirth, and highlights the type of knowledge or terminology underlying the vision of rebirth, as opposed to a different type of knowledge that is not suitable for this purpose, and which leads to a different vision of reality. It then looks into the ontological aspects of rebirth, and having highlighted some Upaniṣadic sources, it highlights major Bhagavad gītā sections describing the soul and rebirth. Finally, it looks into the ethics derived from the concept of rebirth; it first characterizes these as “ethics of equanimity”, and then expands these into the “ethics of enlightened action”, which refer to action grounded in the idea of rebirth. Continue reading "Rebirth According to the Bhagavad-gita; Epistemology, Ontology and Ethics
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Sri Sri Radha Gopinath Temple Damodar AartI Darshan 5th October 2017 Live from ISKCON Chowpatty (14 min video)
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/xosMMq
After He had snuggled into Yasoda’s embrace, Krsna had become both the victim of neglect and the beneficiary of bliss. It was an extraordinary experience, one that He continued to enjoy until His rebellious mind thought,
“She has left Me for some milk.”
Following the experience of separation came thoughts of being neglected, and from those thoughts emerged corresponding feelings that stoked the anger of love. Burned thus by the fire of indignation, Krsna boiled like a baby-volcano.
Mother Yasoda was also a beneficiary of a similar but even more intense sweetness.
Upon feeding Krsna she had tasted the heavenly nectar of His touch, and when she put Him down she drank the abysmal poison of His absence. But as she rushed to save the boiling milk, her ecstasy amazingly increased step by step. Like Krsna, she too was intoxicated by the love of separation. However, because He was the object of love and she the subject because He was unlimited and she limited, her pleasures, both nectarean and poisonous, were a hundred times greater than His. So when divine love forced Yasoda to rush to the stove, she was so disoriented that in an invisible way Yogamaya had to guide her.
Knowing that His mother’s bliss exceeded His own, Krsna felt further deprived.
“Another injustice!”
Pierced thus from multiple directions, His mounting anger finally erupted.
Although a little boy of three, Krsna was the origin of anger, material and spiritual. The forms of Virabhadra and Nrsimha may have appeared ferocious by comparison to baby Krsna, but the fierceness of the anger that He felt was no less than theirs.
In this way, frustration at being neglected, jealousy of the boiling milk, and the injustice of being spiritually short-changed caused a host of bodily symptoms.
His hands clenched and unclenched, His little chest heaved with rapid breathing, and His black complexion became tinged with red. Eyes reddish, eyebrows flitting, and lips trembling, Krsna glared in the direction of the kitchen, bit His lower lip, and vowed,
“I will get revenge.”
Sri Damodara-janani
(HH Sivarama Swami)
Bhagavad-gita verse-by-verse podcast
The post Gita 14.16 Piety purifies, craving torments and intoxication stupefies appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Kirtan led by Narahari Nityananda dasa.
Vedic Sociology Seminar at ISKCON Juhu.
‘Varnasrama Dharma is the society of Vaisnavas in their conditional stage.’ (Bhaktivinod Thakur in Sajjan Toshani)
A 3-day seminar on Vedic Sociology was held at ISKCON Juhu under the aegis of IDVM-India on 1st - 3rd of October 2017. The seminar was given by His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaj. Posters of the event were displayed in the temple premises. Information about the same was also circulated on social media. There was a lot of excitement amongst devotees for the seminar.
The first day of the seminar was an introduction to Vedic Sociology. His Holiness explained that the Vedic Society is primarily an agrarian society and encouraged devotees to lead a more natural life based on land, cows and Krishna. His Holiness also mentioned that cities are supposed to be our preaching bases and villages our living bases. The presentation had many direct statements from past acharyas emphasizing the importance of Varnasrama Dharma. His Holiness explained about the ISKCON’s four movements. His Holiness explained that Srila Prabhupada wanted Krishna Consciousness movement to be not only Religious movement, Cultural movement, Educational movement, but also a social movement.
The presentation was based on Kautilya’s Arthasastra.
The second day of the seminar dealt with another very important topic of Varnasrama Education. His Holiness first explained about the three types of vidyas and then about the five pillars of education. He also explained about the qualities which student and teachers should possess. Maharaja gave the seven pillars of success under the science of politics wherein His Holiness compared the Vedic perspective and their counterpart in a modern organization. Then, Maharaj explained about the char vidyas namely Vedic Philosophy, Vedic Education, Vedic Politics and Vedic Economics. There was an interesting topic about how to determine one’s varna. At the last phase of the seminar on day 2, Maharaja showed an interesting video by Srila Prabhupada on education and politics.
The third day was on Varnasrama Economics. Due to bad health, His Holiness could not present the seminar. His Grace Vishnunam Prabhu, Vice President ISKCON Ahmedabad presented the seminar. Prabhu started with many direct quotes from Srila Prabhupada on cow protection. In his presentation, he shared his own experience with ISKCON Ahmedabad goshala and his experience with the cows. It was interesting to know that milk production could be increased by allowing calves to stay with their mother cow for 12 hours every day. He explained about the animal impact on the land through planned grazing of cows. He also gave few quotes from Vedas regarding taking care of Gomata. He explained how cows help in increasing organic matter of land and thus enables the soil to hold more water. Another interesting point he made was if we eat grains, vegetables etc made out of cow dung and urine, we do not need medicines made out of cow dung and urine.
Devotees attended the seminar in large number. They were very happy to gain holistic vision of Vedic sociology with the seminar and wanted more such kind of seminars to broaden their horizon of thinking. The audience also asked many interesting questions on the topic.
The seminar will be soon uploaded on the youtube channel ‘Varnasrama Media service’. Interested devotees may subscribe the youtube channel to watch full seminar.
Shubhananda Hari Das
To read the entire article click here: https://archive.org/download/VedicSociology/Vedic%20Sociology.docx
Book distribution in Vrindavana.
Kavicandra Swami: This is my God Sister, Radha Kunda dasi. She was Book Distributor par excellence in the 70’s. She inspired me in my early days of book distribution.
She moved to India and helped to establish ISKCON in Gujarat.
She started the Mataji book distribution party in front of Krsna Balaram Mandira. They distribute hundreds of book daily. Note the name tag, made in USA. That is to save time since everyone asks about that.
HG Anuttama Prabhu’s SB class during the interim ISKCON leaders meeting in Ujjain, October 6, 2017. (video)
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/d7kbgi
Bhaktimarga Swami Completes 3,550-Mile Walk Across U.S. for ISKCON 50.
On Friday September 15th, Bhaktimarga Swami, “The Walking Monk,” crossed the finish-line for his 3,550-mile walk across the USA in San Francisco, beneath shining blue skies and rolling white clouds.
It had been two years since he set off.
This wasn’t the Swami’s first adventure on foot. He has walked across Canada from coast to coast four times; and he has trekked across Ireland, the Fiji Islands, Mauritius, Trinidad, Guyana, and Israel, to promote a more simple, healthy and spiritual lifestyle.
But this latest walk, in honor of his guru A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and the 50th anniversary of Prabhupada’s International Society for Krishna Consciousness, has been the most personally meaningful to him.
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/a2cfb1
Vrindavana full of pilgrims for Kartika (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: “The essence of all Vedic knowledge—comprehending the three kinds of Vedic activity, the Vedic hymns, and the processes for satisfying the demigods—is included in the eight syllables Hare Krishna Hare Krishna. This is the reality of all Vedanta. The chanting of the holy name is the only means to cross the ocean of nescience.” (Narada-pancharatra)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/ZhJby4
Presenting Krishna consciousness (Album with photos)
On 23rd September 2017, Gaur Gopal das was invited to speak at SBI - SBICAPs Conclave.
SBI Capital Markets Ltd, a subsidiary of State Bank of India, organized a Conclave, which was attended by senior officials of State Bank of India, SBI Capital Markets limited, RBI and other corporates.
Gaur Gopal das spoke on the topic “Secrets to renew Energy and Enthusiasm.”
Find them here: https://goo.gl/aToDNG
By Niranjana Swami We never experienced anything else in Prabhupada’s presence other than his burning desire to give Krishna, and that’s what captured our hearts, and that’s what makes us want to make this life successful by doing something to make Prabhupada smile. And if some day we can become so blessed to be able to do that which he wants us to do, then that’s the only reason why we live in this world. There is nothing else. Continue reading "How I came to Krishna consciousness
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By Bradley Malkovsky There are two strong arguments advanced by reincarnationists against the teaching of one earthly life. The first argument regards reincarnation as a more reasonable expression of divine mercy and love than the disproportionate and unfair infliction of eternal punishment by God upon a human being for a single morally corrupt lifetime. The second argument finds reincarnation to be necessary for the continued exercise of creaturely freedom required for true moral and spiritual maturation. Catholic teaching, by contrast, asserts that a single earthly life followed by purgatory is sufficient for the perfection and completion of the human person. However, in both the satisfaction and sanctification models of purgatory the human person is entirely passive, not actively contributing to its own completion. Such an approach would seem to devalue free human participation in the process of perfection. Continue reading "Belief in Reincarnation and Some Unresolved Questions in Catholic Eschatology
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By Satyaraja Dasa Reincarnation, of course, is accepted as a given in India’s mystical literature, and, according to Eastern sensibility, its truth undergirds any genuine metaphysical understanding of life. We are spirit-soul, say texts like the Bhagavad-gītā (2.13, 21, 22, among others), and not the material body. We are a quantum of energy, and energy, we learn from the natural sciences, is never created or destroyed. It continues to exist in some form. God, too, is spiritual substance, and He/She/It reincarnates as well.1 But whereas regular souls are forced to incarnate according to their karmic activity—for every action there is an equal and commensurate reaction—God appears in various forms according to His sweet will, for the sake of play (līlā) and to educate. Continue reading "The Reincarnation(s) of Jaya and Vijaya: A Journey through the Yugas
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The post Daily Darshan: October 07,2017 appeared first on Mayapur.com.
In the month of Kartika one should worship Lord Damodara and daily recite the prayer known as Damodarashtakam along with offering a Lamp twice a day. Damodar Ashtakam has been spoken by the sage Satyavrata which attracts Lord Damodara. Very naughty yet blissful pastimes of Lord Krishna are beautifully narrated in this Ashtakam. Sri Damodarashtakam Traditional ISKCON Bhajan for Lord Damodara By Madhavas Rock Band (11 min video)
Bhagavad-gita verse-by-verse podcast
The post Gita 14.15 The modes are not just psychological constructs, they are also post-mortem destination shapers appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
On Friday September 15th, Bhaktimarga Swami, “The Walking Monk,” crossed the finish-line for his 3,550-mile walk across the USA in San Francisco, beneath shining blue skies and rolling white clouds. It had been two years since he set off.
After a long journey, a full-fledged ISKCON temple is finally set to launch in Las Vegas, receiving its grand opening from April 26th to 28th, 2018, culminating on Nrsimha Chaturdasi.
Answer Podcast
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Answer Podcast
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