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!

By Vaikunthanath das

It is a miracle of good fortune that Srila Prabhupada’s disciple, Saradiya dasi, should leave her physical body on the very day of the Sri Krsna Saradiya Rasa-yatra (October 5, 2017). She left at 6:15 a.m. San Diego time. The time zone in India is twelve and a half hours ahead of California, so it was 6:45 p.m. in Vrindaban at that moment. The moon rose at 6:03 p.m. in Vrindaban. So Saradiya left her body just as the moon was rising above the horizon in Sri Vrindaban Dham. Continue reading "Saradiya is at Srila Prabhupada’s Lotus-feet
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The post Daily Darshan: October 06,2017 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Journey From Anxiety To Happiness (video)
HH Devamrita Swami’s lecture in the Hare Krishna temple of Melbourne.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/B5PWKb

Today we begin the beautiful month of Damodara. The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 4, says, “There is a statement in Padma Purana describing the ritualistic function during the month of Karttika (October–November). During this month, in Vrndavana it is the regulative principle to pray daily to Lord Krsna in His Damodara form. The Damodara form refers to Krsna in His childhood when He was tied up with rope by His mother, Yasoda. Dama means ‘ropes,’ and udara means ‘the abdomen.’ So Mother Yasoda, being very disturbed by naughty Krsna, bound Him round the abdomen with a rope, and thus Krsna is named Damodara. During the month of Karttika, Damodara is prayed to as follows: ‘My dear Lord, You are the Lord of all, the giver of all benedictions.’ There are many demigods, like Lord Brahma and Lord Siva, who sometimes offer benedictions to their respective devotees. For example, Ravana was blessed with many benedictions by Lord Siva, and Hiranyakasipu was blessed by Lord Brahma. But even Lord Siva and Lord Brahma depend upon the benedictions of Lord Krsna, and therefore Krsna is addressed as the Lord of all benefactors. As such, Lord Krsna can offer His devotees anything they want, but still, the devotee’s prayer continues, ‘I do not ask You for liberation or any material facility up to the point of liberation. What I want as Your favor is that I may always think of Your form in which I see You now, as Damodara. You are so beautiful and attractive that my mind does not want anything besides this wonderful form.’ In this same prayer, there is another passage, in which it is said, ‘My dear Lord Damodara, once when You were playing as a naughty boy in the house of Nanda Maharaja, You broke the box containing yogurt, and because of that, Mother Yasoda considered You an offender and tied You with rope to the household grinding mortar. At that time You delivered two sons of Kuvera, Nalakuvara and Manigriva, who were staying there as two arjuna trees in the yard of Nanda Maharaja. My only request is that by Your merciful pastimes You may similarly deliver me.’ ”

May Lord Damodara attract and deliver us all.

Hare Krishna.

Yours in service,
Giriraj Swami

 

Bhagavad-gita verse-by-verse podcast

The post Gita 14.14 A disposition of knowledge and purity elevates to the destination of the knowledgeable and the pure appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

“In a temple of Lord Visnu, there lived a mouse that daily ate the ghee from the extinguished ghee lamps, which had been offered to the Lord. One day when the mouse felt hungry, she tried to eat the ghee from a lamp that was not yet extinguished. While nibbling at the lamp, the cotton wick got stuck in her teeth. Since the ghee wick was still ablaze, the mouse, feeling the heat, started jumping up and down on the altar in front of the Deity; soon afterwards she died from the fire.

The all-merciful Lord Sri Visnu seeing the mouse jumping before Him with a lamp, assumed that she was offering Him aratik. Out of gratitude, He rewarded her with and exalted human birth in her next life from which she made further progress and then went back to Godhead.”

So, who will neglect the great opportunity to make progress in spiritual life, when even an insignificant mouse becamethe recipient of the Lord’s mercy by inadvertently offering a flaming ghee wick to the Lord?

During the month of Kartik, observed from October 5th to the 3rd of November, anyone who invests a few moments of their valuable time to worship Lord Krishna by simply offering a ghee lamp, becomes the recipient of tremendous blessing.

Please consider this auspicious time for making a sacrifice towards the ongoing construction of the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium in Sridhama Mayapur, the most important of all ISKCON projects. Consider a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sponsor one or both of the Chakra abhisheka’s during Their installation ceremony on February 7th, 2018. Read more here.

In the Skanda Purana, it is said :

“Text 99 ~ “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.”

Text 100 ~ It is further said : “Please hear the glories of offering a lamp during Kartika which is pleasing to Lord Kesava. O King of brahmanas, a person who offers a lamp in this way will not take birth again in this world.”

Text 101 ~ “By offering a lamp during the month of Karttika one attains a pious result ten million times greater than the result obtained by bathing at Kuruksetra during a solar eclipse or by bathing in the River Narmada during a lunar eclipse.”

Text 102 ~ “O Tiger of sages, for a person who thus offers a lamp burning with ghee or sesame oil, what is the use of performing an asvamedha yajna?”

Text 103 ~ “Even if there are no mantras, no pious deeds, and no purity, everything becomes perfect when a person offers a lamp during the month of Karttika.”

Text 104 ~ “A person who during the month of Karttika offers a lamp to Lord Kesava has already performed all yajnas and bathing in all holy rivers.”

Text 107 ~ The ancestors say : “When someone in our family pleases Lord Kesava by offering to Him a lamp during the month of Karttika, then, by the mercy of the Lord who holds the Sudarsana Cakra in His Hand, we will all attain liberation. Narada, no sin exists anywhere in the three worlds that will not be purified by offering a lamp to Lord Kesava during Karttika.”

Text 108 ~ It is further said : “By offering a lamp during the month of Karttika one burns a way a collection of sins as big as Mount Meru or Mount Mandara. Of this there is no doubt.”

Text 111 ~ “A person who offers a lamp during the month of Karttika attains a result that cannot be obtained with even a one hundred yajnas or one hundred pilgrimages.”

Text 112 ~ “Even a person addicted to all sins and averse to all pious deeds who somehow offers a lamp during Karttika becomes purified. Of this there is no doubt.”

Text 114 ~ “A person who offers a lamp to Lord Krishna during Karttika attains the eternal spiritual world where there is no suffering.”

Text 120 ~ “As fire is present in all wood and may be extracted by friction, so piety is always present in the offering of a lamp during the month of Karttika. Of this there is no doubt.”

Text 121 ~ It is further said : “O King of brahmanas, when someone offers Him a lamp on the full moon day of the month of Karttika, Lord Krishna, finding that He does not have sufficient money to repay that gift, gives Himself in exchange for that lamp.”

In the Padma Purana it is said :

“One who offers a steady lamp to Lord Hari during the month of Karttika enjoys pastimes in Lord Hari’s splendid spiritual world.” In the month of Karttika, one should worship Lord Damodara and daily recite the prayer known as Damodarastaka, which has been spoken by the sage Satyavrata Muni and which attracts Lord Damodara.”

Sri Hari Bhakti Vilasa 02.16.198

And don’t forget to always chant: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

The post Happy Kartika: Even A Mouse Get’s Mercy appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

Many devotees are asking about the comparative size of the Radha Madhava (Main) Dome Chakra to the smaller Nrsimhadeva and Planetarium Dome Chakras. Here is a scale image comparing them.

The smaller dome Chakras are 3.5m (11.5 feet) and the main dome Chakra is 7m (23 feet). As already clear from the one installed Chakra, the three Chakras along with the titanium nitrate Kalashes all together will look spectacular with their glaring, golden effulgence lighting up the Mayapur sky, heralding the “adbhuta mandir” and the glories of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

To sponsor an abhisheka for one or both Chakras during Their installation on February 7th, click on the link below:

https://tovp.org/fundraising/tovp-announces-lifetime-chakra-abhisheka-seva-opportunity/

The post Chakra Size Comparison appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

A video by Kevin Wu.

Here's a short video of the CNC machine in action, making a 800cm long by 12mm thick peacock model from PVC for one of TOVP designs

Chanting (mantra) is an ancient technology that, as modern science reveals, connects us in a very real way to the farthest reaches of the universe.

In this world, we have to rub shoulders daily with people devoid of devotion to God. This is normal. So instead of criticizing their lack of devotion, we can learn from them. Now you may ask what can we possibly learn from them? After all, they are devoid of good character. Actually, that is not true. In the pursuit of their selfish goals, materialistic people have a passion and drive. They work hard and practice principles of cooperation to achieve their goals. They set targets, create plans, allocate resources and have implementation strategies. All of this requires discipline. We do not have to be like them but we can learn from them – this art of discipline. There is a general criticism that spiritual life means – to give up material life. Therefore, in fear, generally speaking, people shy away from spiritual life at least in the younger phases of their life. They wait until they retire to take to spiritual life. However, this notion of giving up material life is incorrect.

Arjuna was young and strong and was ready to fight a war. It takes mental and physical strength and discipline to wage a war for eighteen days straight. Imagine fighting from sunrise to sunset (some days they fought into the wee hours of the night) continuously for eighteen days straight with heavy armor. Arjuna was a maharathi, which means he engaged in battle with many people simultaneously. If Arjuna had a slight lapse in concentration, certainly he would die. That was the condition for eighteen days. Therefore, the only way he could fight successfully was if he had the strength and discipline to fight an arduous battle. Yet he was the greatest Vaishnav there is. He is famed and glorified as the friend of the Lotus Eyed One Pundarikaksha for all of eternity in all of the universes combined. We can only conclude that Arjuna possessed the extraordinary power to excel above his peers and had the discipline to become an expert in his art of warfare. In the Mahabharat, we learn that Arjuna was the best student in the Dronacharya school of Martial Arts. Whatever lesson he learnt during the day from his teacher, he practiced it to perfection at night and the next day displayed his perfection. None of the other brothers’ excelled as him.

Non-devotees in the pursuit to exploit have a similar eagle eye for perfection and pursuit of ruthlessness. Certainly, we can learn this art from them. However, we do so with compassion and tolerance – always careful not to step on others and hurt others. We practice a higher road to the top and not use the under-hand ways normally materialistic people do. Arjuna after all the humiliation to Draupadi and his mother and brothers decided to not fight the war. Despite being humiliated multiple times, he was willing to relinquish it for a higher cause of compassion. This was his inner mood. Similarly, as practicing devotees we also learn from our spiritual masters and scriptures to practice detachment internally and practice compassion/tolerance externally. This will help to take failure in our stride and not let success to our head.

We will remain in this world but not of this world. “In this world” part we learn from non-devotees, “not of this world” part we learn from saintly people.

Indeed, this world is like a classroom, life is our teacher, and I the student.

Hare Krishna

A few years back a brand expert was asked about ISKCON UK’s presence on social media. His response was simple and to the point: ‘the good news is that you are not scary anymore, you are just confusing’. Though temples and devotees do have a solid presence on social media, the big question remains, how effective is that presence?

Raval and Varsana, the two places associated with Srimati Radharani’s appearance and pastimes. All glories to Srila Prabhupada, the revealer of the holy dhama! (16 min video)
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/Ssnq9m

Mother Yashoda’s love is unmatched in purity and is unlike any other that even the infinite Lord who pervades the entire creation is bound by her love.

HH Bhakti-Chaitanya Swami’s Srimad-Bhagavatam class from the Iskcon Ujjain Temple during the ongoing GBC Midterm meetings (video)
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/gdKrCh

Urgent and important!
Kadamba Kanana Swami: I would say that in our Hare Krsna Movement, one of the great causes of devotees becoming dry in their spiritual practices is because they do not get absorbed in reading. You see, chanting is something you do because we measure it – sixteen rounds; it is very clear. But we do not vow to do one hour of reading. We just do not make that vow so we do not give it the same urgency but it should have the same urgency. Reading of scripture is very important; very, very important. If we are not reading, I guarantee you that everything will become stale.

4th Oct 2017, The Economic Times, the world’s second-most widely read English-language business newspaper, did a post-event coverage of PMNC17, where Gaur Gopal das spoke on ‘Conscious Leadership for a Gracious Future.’

Hare Krishna from Fiji, Sigatoka! (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: When loud chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra is perfor...

“Damodara was not bound by ordinary ropes, but with the ropes of His mother’s unmatched love”
“Because mother loves the most…in this material world, there is no comparison of mother’s love. Without any exchange. Even in this material world. Mother loves the child without any expectation of return generally…that is called unalloyed love. Anyabhilasita-sunyam, free from all material gain.”- Srila Prabhupada, Srimad-Bhagavatam1.8.31 lecture, Los Angeles, April 23, 1973
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By Madhava Smullen

Since moving back two years ago, he has been serving as the construction and maintenance manager for ISKCON New Vrindaban, overseeing a team of seven. Together they are assisting the effort to physically revitalize key parts of New Vrindaban, much of which had received little maintenance over the previous thirty years. In his two years there so far Bhagavan and his team have already done an impressive number of upgrades. Continue reading "Devotee Who Grew Up in New Vrindaban Returns to Serve His Community
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Unlock your Dharma - HH Sivarama Swami (video)
An insightful discussion on purpose and real duty.
We know we are in Dharma when we cannot think of anything else we would rather be doing with our life. —David Simon
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/h2UDeM

GRS Vyasa Puja 2017.2w from Derek Carter on Vimeo.

Anantashesh Das: Srimad Bhagavat is the precious jewel, it is an unlimited radiance of Krishna’s presence.

Krsna and His devotee give a helping hand.
Burwood is usually one of the toughest suburbs in Sydney for book distribution. I have been there a few times already. So this time I started pessimistically again, then realized that I need to be positive to start book distribution, so I went on to greet some people. Met a couple of people and had unsuccessful attempts.
Then along comes this Indian gentleman with earphones on, listening to something. I stopped him and asked whether he would be interested in taking a Bhagavad-gita. It was the quickest sale of my life.
He asked me, “Can you guess what I am listening to through the earphones?”
I said I didn’t know.
He said, “I am listening to a lecture by Gaur Gopal Dasa.”
Then he gave me a solid donation, hinting that I should distribute some books on his behalf. The rest of the day turned out well. I met a lot of people with different nationalities who were genuinely interested in our books but had only a few coins to spare. The large donation helped cover the shortages, and I ended up finishing the whole stock on the day. I was disappointed that I didn’t have more stock. I returned back home wondering where that help came from. I determined that I should be an optimist in Krishna’s service.
Your Servant,
Radhika Prasad Dasa

The All India Padayatra In Bovikanam, Kerala (Album with photos)
On September 11th our pāda-yātrā party arrived in Bovikanam, a small village in the Kasaragod Taluk in Kasaragod district, North Kerala. It is located 12 kilometers east of the district headquarters of Kasaragod. We were fortunate to have had assistance from Sanatan Sankirtana Dasa who is from Bovikanam. He walked with us from Kannur all the way to Kasaragod and assisted us during our stay in the district.
In North India Janmastami, the appearance day of Lord Krishna, was celebrated on August 15th but in Kerala Janmastami was celebrated a month later on September 12th. The dates differ because in North India it is calculated according to the Lunar Calendar and in South India it is based on the Solar Calendar. There is a small ISKCON center in Bovikanam and the devotees invited us to join them for the Janmastami celebrations which included: abhishek of the deities, katha, kīrtana, cultural programs and distribution of mahaprasadam. The temple had also organized a grand shobha-yatra held throughout the village in honor of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar.

The next day we performed splendid saṅkīrtana in different areas of the village. There were many Muslim people who participated in the kīrtana and purchased Bhagavad-gītās from us as well. The news of our arrival in the town and the powerful Harinama spread everywhere. The temple devotees were also very happy and said this year’s Janmastami was very special because Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar was with them.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/ZWZ723

Radhanath Swami’s interview about the shooting in Las Vegas in which at least 59 people were killed and more than 500 injured (11 min video)
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/SjkQiW

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 04 October 2009, Phoenix, South Africa, Kartik Lecture)

In 1986, I was very involved in the construction of Srila Prabhupada’s Samadhi in Mayapur. There was NO LIMIT to what had to be arranged for that building! One day I looked at the Samadhi and it looked like a huge face with a big mouth, and the mouth just said, “Aniyor! Aniyor! Bring me more! Bring me more!”

And I brought trucks of cement, steel, bricks, stone, marble. I brought engineers and draughtsmen, drawing and technical experts and I had to deal with endless things…

I used to chant my rounds during mangal arati because I had to start working at six and in the evenings I was so tired that I would just crash. I was SO totally busy!

In the middle of that, one day Lokanath Maharaj came to me! At that time, in 1986, Lokanath Maharaj had the Padayatra. This Padayatra had a mad elephant and the elephant would pick up people and throw them about! There was also a camel that would bite people! And there were many villagers from India, MANY of them! They had many dioramas, exhibitions and tractors and everything!

Lokanath Maharaj came to me and said, “I want you to look after the Padayatra when we come to Mayapur.”

I said, “Maharaj, please Maharaj, have mercy! Maharaj, I am so busy! Maharaj, I have hardly any time to chant my rounds! One more straw Maharaj and it will break the camel’s back…”

I thought, “Finished, I got out of it!” And then, Lokanath Maharaj said, “You know, in my village, they say that if you want to get something done, you go to a busy man because a man who is not busy, is a lazy man! So if you go to him, he won’t do anything! But a busy man is by nature very active – he may be busy and he may not be able to do so much but at least he will do something! So if you want something done you go to a busy man!”

What could I say after that! Defeated by village logic!

So there I was, I had a camel that would bite, a mad elephant and then all the villagers who would constantly want something, “There is no water! We are hungry. We want maha prasadam!” God, they wanted everything! I was like the father of the Padayatra!

So this story is for all of you because I know you are busy people. And since you are all very busy, you all have no time. And I would have sympathised with you… until I met Lokanath Maharaj! He just totally smashed my illusion and made it completely clear – sorry if you are busy but you are the right person! You are the right person to do something extra! Something extra and it may be not a big thing but at least something because busy people are by nature active.

Yes, you are the right people for Kartik! Kartik is made for you busy people – the too busy people! This month of Kartik is for becoming a little more busy! In this way, we all can be busy in the service of Krsna and do something special…

A very pleasant drunkard!
Cittahari das: My uncle, Father Wallace, he was a Jesuit; but he was in charge of the whole of Victoria, so he was the head Jesuit. I said to my mother, “I’d like to get my uncle to meet Prabhupada.” So somehow she got that arranged. My mum was pretty good at arranging those things.
So my uncle came, and we were all sitting around in Prabhupada’s beautiful room on the beautiful blue carpet. Then he was sitting back on the chair, and he was quite an elegant sort of a guy and a very good speaker as the Jesuits are pretty well trained in philosophy. Prabhupada spoke philosophy with him quite a bit, and he seemed to be able to follow the thread of it and answer it, which most people when they met Prabhupada, they kind of lost it. Prabhupada was probing into what they understood and they couldn’t understand what they believed themselves, but he seemed to have some belief himself. Anyway, it went on for about three-quarters of an hour, having a pretty lively conversation but jokey too, a lot of laughter and so on.
Then finally the session was over, and he got up and shook hands and left. We were all sitting around Prabhupada, and Prabhupada was sitting there just kind of rocking a bit. I said, “Srila Prabhupada, what did you think of my uncle?” Prabhupada looked at us all and he smiled and he looked at me, he said, “A very pleasant drunkard.” And that was…we just all cracked up laughing because when immediately he walked in, Prabhupada must have picked up he’d had something. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a regular drinker. He had that kind of look, his face, a bit over-reddish. Yes, it was pretty well strong through the whole order at that time, I’d say, the whole Catholic church. That was the one thing the priests could do, have a good drink. The way Prabhupada could crack a joke was really amazing.

Vaishnava celebrations in Chisinau, Moldova (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Regardless of time or place, one who chants the...