Planet ISKCON

Respected Srila Prabhupada,

Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to your divine self.

Every year brings to me deeper appreciation of your unparalleled contributions to enriching my life and the lives of millions all over the world. This year, my enhanced appreciation centered on your extraordinary dedication amidst immense obstacles in Western outreach.

On the suggestion of an erudite follower of yours, I felt inspired to offer at your lotus feet a series of audio-video talks on your life-story, meant especially for new people. To prepare these talks, I started re-reading the Lilamrita. And I started going through the many other biographies of yours that I had read earlier as well as the many insightful biographies that have been recently published.

Initially, I had planned to cover the highlights of your life in ten-fifteen episodes, each of about twenty-five minutes. But after I started speaking, I realized that so many aspects of your life were so inspiring that a dozen or so talks couldn’t do justice to them. Of course, even thousands of talks can’t do full justice to your glories. But given the constraints of time for potential hearers, I have decided to keep the series length around fifty to seventy episodes. I seek your blessings so that through my feeble attempts to glorify you, a fraction of your glories may manifest in the hearts of the hearers.

At the very least, your glories have manifested more in my own heart. While reading the Lilamrita, especially the section about your early days in America, I realized more and more the mountainous challenge you faced there and the sublime dexterity with which you tackled those challenges. What we can appreciate depends on what we appreciate. Now, by your mercy, I have been to America three times and have interacted with a cross-section of our movement there, ranging from the top leaders, the field preachers and the new people coming for our programs. Through this small first-hand experience, my appreciation of the magnitude of what you accomplished there has increased manifold.

When I go for a program, almost everything is arranged – I just have to speak. Devotees host me, coordinate my travel, organize venues, invite people for the programs and cultivate them thereafter. Prabhupada, in the early days of your outreach in America, you had to arrange al these things – you had practically no assistants. As a solitary preacher, speaking was just one of your challenges.

I have found being a solitary preacher unnerving. On the few occasions whenever I have gone alone to a program where no one is a devotee, I reassure myself with the knowledge that I have many friends, well-wishers and guides at my base temple as well as in the global devotee community. But when you went alone to the US, you had no one; you didn’t even have a base temple to start with. Of course, you were eternally based at Krishna’s lotus feet. How intimate a connection you must have with Krishna, how closely you must have felt his presence, how sweetly must he have reciprocated with your dedication by revealing his all-attractiveness in your heart.

When I try to analyze and verbalize the challenge you faced, the metaphor of a doctor comes to mind. As a pre-eminent spiritual doctor, you went to a distant land where people were afflicted with an epidemic of acute materialism that was transmogrifying into atheism, nihilism and hedonism. There, you treated thousands of patients. You also trained many patients to become doctors. Not only that, you even established a hospital where generations of people could be treated and trained as doctors. I am grateful to be one such servant in the bhakti hospital. In pioneering the bhakti hospital from the scratch, you demonstrated your competence, your commitment, your compassion and, perhaps most importantly, your courage.

Treating patients can be risky – what if unexpected complications occur?

Training patients to become doctors is riskier still – what if inexperienced doctors misdiagnose patients?

Entrusting the hospital to trainee-doctors is riskiest of all – what if they ruin the hospital through misdiagnosis or mismanagement?

And yet you courageously did all these things. You have made us, your followers – your first-generation followers and now your second-generation followers –doctors in your hospital. How could you entrust something you gave your life to establish to us who are so unqualified to take up such a responsibility?

You entrusted it to us with the same trust with which you started off, when you took the momentous step to board the Jaladuta for going at an advanced age to an alien land despite having no money, no followers and no institutional support. You trusted Krishna then, and you trusted Krishna later when he sent souls to assist you.

Once, one of your disciples whom you wanted to entrust the responsibility to preach told you, “I don’t trust myself.” You asked him, “Do you trust me?” When he replied in the affirmative, you said emphatically and endearingly, “I trust you. So, trust yourself because you trust me.”

Your trust in us is the basis of our trust in ourselves. But still the question begs itself: How could you trust us?

My little understanding is that you trusted us because you trusted Krishna and you saw us as souls sent to you by him. You mentioned that you saw your disciples as representatives of your spiritual master. You had the faith that the Lord will send souls in each generation to keep the bhakti legacy alive. And I pray with trust in your trust in Krishna that he make me worthy of your trust. Perhaps the area where this trust is being challenged most nowadays is in the pursuit of balance – when we try to learn how best to balance between fidelity and flexibility while making bhakti wisdom accessible to the contemporary generation that lives in a drastically changed world.

Meditating on your preaching in America gives me the conviction that the more we study your example prayerfully and thoughtfully, the more we will be guided by your grace towards this delicate balance. In your example, you embodied an inconceivable integration of paradoxical attributes: an inspiring blend of faithfulness and resourcefulness, a divine synergy of dependence and determination, and an empowering harmony of specific instructions for implementing and universal guidelines for improvising.

By your mercy, while I am still sick, I assist your servants in treating the sick. But the more I learn about the treatment, the more I appreciate how difficult it is to administer the treatment to others, and even to ourselves. And the fact that you administered the treatment so expertly in so short a time to so many people is nothing but miraculous – I cannot but marvel at your divine genius.

Falling prostrate at your feet, in profound appreciation and in fervent supplication, this sick soul seeks your mercy for serving constructively in the bhakti hospital,

Your servant

Chaitanya Charan das

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Because of my state of complete foolishness and paucity of pious activities, although the Lord offered me His personal service, I wanted material name, fame and prosperity. The conclusion is that anyone who is engaged in the loving service of the Lord should never ask for material prosperity from the Lord. Continue reading "Name, fame, glory
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Srila Prabhupada Vyas Puja Offering 2017 - ISKCON Pune (9 min video)
In 1965, a 69-year-old spiritual teacher from India arrives in the West and settles among the hippies of New York’s Lower East Side. From a tiny storefront, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami starts a revolution of consciousness influencing tens of thousands in the US and worldwide. This is a small offering made by ISKCON Pune Devotees as a Homage to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami on his 121st Birth Anniversary and on completing the 51st Anniversary of ISKCON. Vyasa-puja is an annual celebration by devotees of Krishna to offer homage to their guru, or spiritual teacher. Krishna says, “ one who claims to be My devotee is not so. Only a person who claims to be the devotee of My devotee is actually My devotee.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/znqL7v

My dear divine Master Srila Prabhupada, please accept my most humble obeisances unto your lotus like feet.
Citraka dasa: A distinguished astrologer, after studying your personality declared that you were a person capable of building a home in which the whole world could live peacefully.
And as a matter of fact, in due course of time, you did create that house which now exists, open for all. It is like an extension of the original abode of the Lord, Goloka Vrindavana.
It is not a physical space, ashram or farm community. It is a reality existing in sound. It is the sound which originally emanated from Lord Chaitanya and His associates, like the six Goswamis, and was further expanded by your translations of Srila Vyasadeva’s Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita and the rest of the cream of the Vedas, into western languages.

Yes, the sound of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and the teachings of the Srimad Bhagavatam are our real and eternal home. The Lord has chosen this way to be present in this age of Kali, in the form of the transcendental sound of His Holy Names. And the whole world can reside there.
The key you gave to enter and live in it is the sankirtan method of being constantly in contact with this sound - by hearing it, vibrating it, individually or collectively, reading it or writing it. As long as all these are performed with rapt attention.

And now, thanks to your sublime service, millions of fortunate souls who come in contact with your blessed influence, are meeting like this the Lord Himself and experience again their relation with Him. Each one according to the humility, faith, sincerity and devotion which masters by his practice of your sacred instructions.

When I think of you crossing the ocean in a small cabin of Jaladuta, suffering repeatedly heart attacks at such an old age, I become overwhelmed by strong emotions of gratitude and love. It is thanks to this heroism and sacrifice of yours that now I am saved.

And then, later, remembering when you had to support a year of struggle in the cold of New York, with no money or friends, or even warm clothes, I am crying for your sacrifice and for the lack of mine.

You wrote: “Vaisnava is never alone. When I first came to the United States I was seemingly alone for one year. But I never felt alone. I always felt the presence of my Guru Maharaja. Myself, I was cooking, I was printing books, I was selling books, everything seemingly alone. But I did not lose my determination. Actually, you should know this, you are never alone.” (Srila Prabhupada letter, December 27, 1974)
With such example, Srila Prabhupada, you taught me how to take shelter of the Lord even in the midst of the greatest difficulties.

Although your body was in such a, practically always, painful condition, you never manifested any symptom of suffering because you were absorbed in a state of transcendental consciousness. You were engaged intensely in your preaching mission while keeping your body’s maintenance reduced to the absolute minimum.
Thank you, Srila Prabhupada, if you hadn’t done so where would I be now?

It is beyond description the benefit that your movement has generated and it still does every single day! Please allow me to present, for your pleasure, a “panoramic view” of your Iskcon as it stands today.

After the unprecedented worldwide celebrations for the 50 years of Iskcon, attended by heads of state and politicians of important countries like UK, India and others, filled up stadiums and venues like the Netaji Indoor Stadium of Kolkata and the famous Sydney Opera House of Australia, with Gala Dinners in Washington D.C. and Houston full with VIPs, Iskcon stepped into its 51th year of its assistance to your missionary work with full enthusiasm for further growth and accomplishments.

The first and most worthy attainment of all is its unity and strict adherence to your instructions. Your Governing Body Commissioners have found the way to cooperate and engage in an ever improving and refining work of legislation for the smooth functioning of your worldwide society.

They also have made arrangements ensuring that in the future there will be a smooth transition to the next generation of qualified leaders with the help of the GBC College for Leadership Development. And there is an ongoing work for the monumental task of writing a constitution for Iskcon.

More than 532 million of your books have been distributed so far and are still being translated in new languages and distributed even in countries where it was unthinkable previously, like China, Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan and other Muslim nations!

New ways of distributing them have been introduced by stalwarts like Vaisesika Prabhu, as for example, placing them in Motels or presenting and distributing them in bulk to teachers and students of different schools and other educational institutions.

New devotees are made and new strategies are being developed for attracting, training and guiding them into the process of initiation, like those existing in Bhaktivedanta Manor and Krishna House in Gainesville headed by Kalakantha Prabhu. As for today, there are more than 75,000 ISKCON devotees who have received initiation.

There are also about 2,000 home study (Bhakti Vriksa) groups who meet regularly (consisting of some 30,000 devotees). The worshipers who attend the ISKCON centers annually are calculated to be about 7 million.

Many big new temples are being constructed all over the globe, with some of them being architectural wonders like the one in Ujjain and Tirupati by Bhakti Charu and Gopal Krishna Swamis. Presently there are more than 650 Iskcon temples in over 100 countries.

The superb Temple of the Vedic Planetarium in Mayapur is quickly becoming a reality under the guidance of Ambarisha Prabhu. It promises to be a world attraction making Lord Chaitanya’s birth place famous and known to all.

There are street Harinama parties practically 24/7 in all the seven continents, even in Antarctica where two devotees held the first kirtan and distributed your books there for the first time, placing the Bhagavad-gita As It Is in several Antarctic research stations. There are at least 1,000 public Harinama chanting parties going out on the streets worldwide every week.

Padayatra parties with bullock-carts and Gaura-Nitai murtis keep traveling in many countries of the planet, attracting the attention of the local media and thus creating favorable impressions to the populace. Just for the 50th anniversary of Iskcon 64 of them were performed. To this date, Padayatra devotees have walked 210,000 km on Padayatra Worldwide, visiting 52.000 villages in 110 countries.

Hundreds of Rathayatra and other similar festivals are taking place without interruption all over the globe. More than 6,000 Vaishnava festivals are held every year globally in ISKCON Centers. There is also the mobile Festival of India team which travels all over the US and with its near to perfect equipment sets up festivities for all the temples in that big country.

New community farm projects with cow protection are being set up and the Agricultural Ministry has been created to guide and lead them towards the establishment of Daivi Varnashrama Dharma, headed by Bhakti Raghava Swami. Presently Iskcon counts 65 established farms and eco-villages.

Restaurants are being opened all over the world. These restaurants, other than being a source of income for the missionary activity, have contributed dramatically to create a favorable impression for your movement due to the first class preparations they offer and their reasonable prices. There are 110 vegetarian restaurants run by Iskcon devotees so far.

Free prasadam distribution to millions is going on daily. Just the ISKCON Food Relief Foundation – Annamrita, which recently won a prestigious National Quality Award, feeds 1.2 million kids every day with Krishna prasadam. So far Iskcon has given out 3 billion plates of prasadam worldwide.

There are programs developed for reaching out to all kinds of people. The politicians, the scientists, the celebrities, the university professors and academics, the businessman and entrepreneurs, the prison inmates, the yoga practitioners, the woofers and the youth. Some of the devotees have academic titles, like Radhika Ramana, Garuda, Shaunaka Rishi and Yogesvara prabhus and through their preaching have drastically increased the appreciation of many well-established intellectuals for the Vedic tradition.

Your Bhaktivedanta Institute is still preaching to the scientists with Drutakarma and Rasaraja Prabhus being by now known and appreciated speakers in many science related events.

Sound and safe schools are functioning in many communities ensuring the proper education for the children of the devotees like the Mayapur Academy, the TKG Academy in Dallas and others. Presently there are 54 Iskcon educational institutions, including primary schools, secondary schools and colleges. There are some schools which have gained support from the government, as for example in UK, in which even the Queen of England paid a visit and expressed appreciation for the education given.

A group of qualified devotees has formed the team of Child Protection Office assuring the proper conduct among adults and children within the walls of Iskcon society.

The ISKCON Youth Ministry, headed by Manorama prabhu, is organizing annual bus tours so that the newer generations of devotees can travel together and visit several Iskcon temples, engage in devotional service and associate with advanced devotees.

An other branch of the movement, the Bhaktivedanta Research Center, headed by Hari-sauri prabhu, has taken up the mission of finding and preserving all the scriptures related to the Vaishnava Gaudiya tradition assuring thus their preservation for the future generations.

In many countries the movement, thanks to the tireless work of the local devotees, has been legally recognized by the state authorities, with the status of a bonafide religious institution. Millions from the diaspora of Indians all over the world have accepted Iskcon as their shelter and spiritual authority.

The deity worship in your temples has been enhanced and kept authorized under the guidance of the deity ministry headed by Nrsimha Kavaca Prabhu.
In many temples, there are regular visits from local schools and many students having thus the opportunity to familiarize with the Hare Krishna movement.
Other temples, like Radhadesh in Belgium, have become touristic attractions and they have a steady flux of visiting guests who are given tours and taken care properly with nice facilities specially designed for them.

Arrangements have been made in several places for the care of aging devotees and their preparation for their departure from this world like the Bhaktivedanta Hospice in Vrindavan created by Giriraj Swami.

New books are being written by your disciples and followers, some of them becoming best-sellers, like one of Radhanath Swami, to expand your glory and make Krishna consciousness ever more accessible and known to the masses.

Japa retreats, kirtan melas, specialized seminars are being conducted regularly as also educational courses like Bhakti-sastri and others allowing a deeper cultivation of Bhakti for those inclined.

Many devotees are entering the sannyasa order of life, dedicating themselves completely in the preaching mission of your Iskcon after they have been selected and trained by the Iskcon Sannyasa Ministry headed by HH Prahladananda Swami.

Your followers have become expert in using the media and are producing many high-quality videos, musical productions as also professional theatrical and dancing performances, like the Bhaktivedanta players. Recently a new, professional movie about your life and achievements, “Hare Krishna!”, produced from your expert disciple and videographer Yadubara Prabhu and his wife Vishaka Devi Dasi, has been released and shown in regular movie theaters in the USA, proving to be a big success.

Ever new Krishna conscious paintings to illustrate your books are being produced and several Iskcon Art Museums have been set up for permanently hosting them like the ones in Radhadesh, Belgium, (Museum for Sacred Art ) and Villa Vrindavana, Italy.

All the several divisions of your BBT have been printing huge quantities of your books, some of them destined for specific sections of society, of rare value and beauty like the Bhagavad-gita illustrated, Krishna-art and others. All the printers now are after the BBT knowing well the number of books the Iskcon distributes every year.

The devotees have a strong presence on internet and are using expertly the social media for introducing and cultivating people online. Technical wonders, like live broadcasting of temple programs through the web, allow even those who do not reside close to a devotee community, to be nevertheless connected. Viewers can even make questions and interact with the speaker by calling in, transforming thus each temple program into a television studio, with few physically present and with the majority of the audience attending from home or from their work place.

An other branch of the movement, headed by Anuttama Prabhu, is organizing or participating regularly in Interfaith dialog events, to keep your movement in a proper and balanced relationship among the different religious denominations.

The property trustees, assigned by the GBC, make sure all the properties of Iskcon are held properly, all the legal procedures and requirements are observed and that no abuse of any kind is taking place.

The Vaishnavi Ministry is making sure that ladies within the movement are protected and that there is no possibility of exploitation.
The Ministry of Justice is handling any cases of unruly behaviors within the society and the ISKCON Dispute Resolution Office mediates when there are differences among vaishnavas.

These are the Ministries which are operating within Iskcon to serve your will:

Ministry of Communications
ISKCON Deity Worship Ministry
Ministry of Health and Welfare
Congregational Development Ministry
Vaishnavi Ministry
ISKCON Youth Ministry
Ministry of Sannyasa Services
Ministry of Book Distribution
Ministry of Cow Protection and Agriculture
Ministry of Padayatra
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Justice: ISKCON Dispute Resolution Office
Ministry of Fund Development
Sastric Advisory Council
ISKCON Property Office
ISKCON Central Office of Child Protection

Thus, dearest Srila Prabhupada, your mercy is being made available in an amplified way, allowing each and every individual to engage his mind, body and words in Lord Chaitanya’s movement and make his life perfect. Thanks to your dedicated disciples, who are acting on your behalf as your personified energies, each performing miracles in his area of responsibility, your beneficial influence is spreading far and wide all over the globe.

Which other movement is endeavoring so intensely, year after year, in distributing this king of knowledge and connecting the unfortunate conditioned souls with Lord Chaitanya, right in the middle of Kali-yuga! All glories to Your Divine Grace!

You wrote: The preacher must love the people. Otherwise why he is taking? He can do it for himself at home. Why he is taking so much trouble? Why in eighty years old I have come here if I do not love? So who can love better than a preacher? (Morning Walk–May 17, 1975, Perth)

And you did demonstrate to love us all Srila Prabhupada by giving us the exact same thing that you were relishing: Krishna-bhakti and Nama-rasa. What could be a higher act of love than this?

With your living example of a highly devoted Bhagavata, that I had the fortune to personally witness, you taught exactly and practically how a saintly personality behaves and how he prepares to leave his body: like an other Maharaj Pariksit, always absorbed in the transcendental sound, talking about Krishna, hearing about Krishna, reading about Krishna and preaching about Krishna.

I bow down to you and offer again and again my heartfelt obeisances and gratitude.
And now let me use your matchless gifts that I have received and make my life successful, demonstrating by example the proof of how your teachings actually work!

Thank you Srila Prabhupada, thank you!
Your aspiring servant
Citraka dasa

Niranjana Swami, Sruti-rupa d.d.

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Ecstatic August 5th Harinam at Jacksonville Beach, Florida, United States (Album with photos)
Every month many Harinams are held at various football games, parades, events and beaches. Jacksonville beach is one such location. Devotees blissfully sing and dance with the sincere drunks and distribute books in the scorching summer sun - often coming back ten shades darker.
Afterwards, everyone takes prasadam at Mother Vishnupriya and Godruma’s home. Sankirtan yajna ki jaya !
(photos by Narottama)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/tTq8Zg

The pure devotee is always within the core of My heart, and I am always in the heart of the pure devotee. My devotees do not know anything else but Me, and I do not know anyone else but them. Continue reading "Was Srila Prabhupada Superhuman?
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O Krsna, Who descended in the province of Mathura, O Lord Who gives the great gift of pure love for Yourself, O Perfromer of extraordinary pastimes, O great Treasure-house of various kinds of sweetness, O Lord Who is full of transcendental opulences, great mercy and majesty. All glories unto You Continue reading "Sanatana Goswami describes the transcendental appearance of Krsna in his Krsna Stava
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Janmastami 2017. H.G.Panca Gauda Prabhu’s Class at ISKCON Vrindavan (video)
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/BDAp2b

Even though Krsna Janmastami was on Tuesday this year, many devotees, as far afield as Sydney, attended the wonderful celebration at New Gokula farm.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, Krsna, personally appeared as the son of Vasudeva. Before He appeared, all the demigods, along with their wives, appeared in different pious families in the world just to assist the Lord in executing His mission.

At the time of Krsna’s birth, the planetary systems were automatically adjusted so that everything became auspicious.

Vasudeva saw that wonderful child born as a baby with four hands, holding conchshell, club, disc, and lotus flower, decorated with the mark of Srivatsa, wearing the jeweled necklace of kaustubha stone.

He was dressed in yellow silk, appearing dazzling like a bright blackish cloud, wearing a helmet bedecked with the vaidurya stone, valuable bracelets, earrings and similar other ornaments all over His body and an abundance of hair on His head. Due to the extraordinary features of the child, Vasudeva was struck with wonder.

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