Planet ISKCON

Sri Krishna Haveli Project Update (Bhaktivedanta Manor, UK)
After many months of looking at tenders from over 6 different companies, we are now working with Vascroft Construction Ltd on valued engineering with a view to signing a contract soon. Vascroft contractors have over 40 years experience in the construction industry and have built many luxury hotels, private homes and restaurants delivering them on time and budget.
What happening now:
• The Pre-School has been relocated for the construction period.
• The construction of the interim facilities for the Manor School is ongoing.
• The pre-works to secure the site and provide amenities to construction crew have begun.
• Value engineering to make sure the costs stay within budget are being carried out before the full work commences after Janmashtami.
• The roads leading into the car parks are currently being constructed.
More info: http://haveli.bhaktivedantamanor.co.uk/

Volunteers unwind at uplifting mountain retreat in UK.
The Volunteer Care Council at Bhaktivedanta Manor annually organizes a spiritual retreat at Buckland Hall in the heart of the beautiful rural Brecon Beacons mountains of Wales. This year’s edition in late March saw a record number of attendees, including the management team and residents. There was a total of 170 attendees who were all enthusiastic to immerse themselves in topics about Krishna for the weekend. The theme was ‘Looking back, to move forward’, centered around our meditation for 2017, namely, how to afford godly hospitality to guests. During the retreat, visiting guest speakers delivered thought-provoking seminars. Vraja Bihari das, a monk from Mumbai, emphasized the importance for us to all stop, pause and take time to reflect on our past actions. We can thus learn lessons on how to move forward positively rather than lament about the past. Gaur Gopal das continued the theme of insightful learning, conveying the message of ‘Experience over Convenience’; the process of tolerating inconveniences to concentrate on improving our consciousness. Sutapa das explained how life is like a jigsaw puzzle: to solve it, we first need to put down the corners (understand the overall picture). The children had a fun time going on an organized treasure hunt, as well as taking part in many other activities especially arranged for them. There was also an incredibly heart touching drama based on the history of Lord Ramachandra and His wonderful devotees. Buckland Hall director Akhandadhi das said, “The whole weekend had a wonderful atmosphere where Srila Prabhupada’s Krishna consciousness family came together to support one another and learn in harmony, sharing the same goals in reviving our relationship with Krishna.” Harish Baldi said, “The experience was excellent!” Haridasvarya Das and Sundari Gopika devi said: “We feel spiritually charged. It was a great opportunity to walk in beautiful country surroundings.”

And Vignesh asks “Why are sexual agitations there even though placing oneself under strong sadhu sanga?”

Coming soon – Chantnow.com
Pancharatna Das: We have exciting news to report from ISKCON Online. In just about one month from now, with the mercy of Sri Guru and Gauranga, we will have the beta launch of our first outreach project – Chantnow.com. And with it we’ll be opening up some wonderful opportunities for online seva.

Kirtan of Shyamananda Das with Vrindavan Darshan. Vrindavan is a holy land where Lord Krishna spent his childhood days. The village hosts many temples dedicated to the worship of Radha and Krishna and is considered sacred by Vaishnavism.

The festival program along the Baltic Sea in Poland is a step into Vrindavan, the spiritual world. Three hundred devotees put on 48 festivals in 2 months in various towns and villages along the coast. Tens of thousands of people enjoy the cultural programs. A video by Ananta Vrindavan.

Neither Filippo Paonessa nor his wife-to-be Sukhayanti Dasi had any previous experience in cow protection or agriculture when they met at the Toronto ISKCON temple. But they found that they were both inspired by Srila Prabhupada’s words on simple living and shared a desire to follow them practically. Sukhayanti had grown up in Israel and traveled the world in her twenties, meeting devotees at a Rainbow Gathering in Germany in 2005. Attracted by their authenticity, she visited the farm temple of Simhachalam in the Bavarian forest and decided she wanted to join ISKCON. Continue reading "Canadian Family’s Journey in Simple Living Takes Them to New Vrindaban
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Among Small Temples, ISKCON Silicon Valley was again No. 1, with a whopping 522% increase and 27,102 book points, making it the No. 1 temple in the USA. The leader, Vaisesika Prabhu, is now extending his time at other temples worldwide to increase people's knowledge of Krsna, which Prabhupada said "is the great need for society at large." Among Maha-Small Temples, Sofia increased the most (285%), reporting 4,090 book points. Stanu Prabhu and his merry team of transcendental book distributors continue year after year traveling around the country giving Krsna consciousness to the people in Bulgaria. Continue reading "WSN June 2017 – World Sankirtan Newsletter
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15 days, 11 temples and $1 million U.S. in pledges! This was the amazing result of the first tour to the small temples of the Maharashtra region of Western India. Inspired by the amazing success of his recent Vyasa Puja TOVP fundraising event which also raised $1 million U.S., His Holiness Lokanath Maharaja, Chairman of the Western India District Council, personally orchestrated the recent first leg of the Maharashtra tour, calling temple leaders on the phone every day and creating a transcendental competition to give more to the TOVP. Every single devotee enthusiastically responded to this ‘Call to Action’. Even devotees who had given at his Vyasa Puja celebration upgraded their pledges, being overwhelmed by the ecstatic mood of the competition and festival of kirtan and abhisheka for Lord Nityananda’s Padukas and Lord Nrsimha’s Sitari. Continue reading "Maharashtra TOVP Tour an Amazing Success
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Dear Devotees and Friends,

You may have noticed that during the last few months whenever we post lectures, we have been trying to post lecture summaries as separate audios. Now, we will also be trying to post transcripts of those summaries.

Currently, the transcripts of the following lectures have been posted.

• Krishna is the trans-personal shelter of all the things that shelter us
• Spiritualizing our relationships 4 – Accept yourself to relate better with others
• Spiritualizing our relationships 3 – Learning to separate people from their behavior
• Spiritualizing our relationships 2 – To improve relationships, decrease expectation and increase contribution
• How to cultivate positive thinking in bhakti
• What your phone can teach you about your mind 4 – Let bhakti change your memory
• What your phone can teach you about your mind 3 – Check your energy drainers
• What your phone can teach you about your mind 2 – Hardware improvement doesn’t solve software problems
• What your phone can teach you about your mind 1 – Deal with your default settings maturely
• From Grudging to Gratitude 4 – Forgiving internally and externally by focusing on Krishna
• From Grudging to Gratitude 3 – Learn to re-interpret reality devotionally
• From Grudging to Gratitude 2 – See beyond the immediate cause of suffering
• From Grudging to Gratitude 1 – Grudging is like driving with brakes pressed
• Gita Essence 3 – The transformational power of love – World-knowledge as the vehicle for love
• Gita Essence 2 – The transformational power of love – God-knowledge as the fuel for love
• Gita Essence 1- The transformational power of love – Self-knowledge as the basis of love
• What your phone can teach you about your mind 4 – Let bhakti change your memory
• What your phone can teach you about your mind 3 – Check your energy drainers
• What your phone can teach you about your mind 2 – Hardware improvement doesn’t solve software problems
• What your phone can teach you about your mind 1 – Deal with your default settings maturely
• Overcoming resentment amidst difficult situations

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Answer Podcast

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Answer Podcast

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[Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Chowpatty, Mumbai]

Podcast

Podcast Summary

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My most attended program for a Western audience was at the Ohio State University. Naveen Krishna Prabhu, along with an inspired team, has been conducting a weekly vegetarian cooking class, which has over the years blossomed into a full-fledged program. Over one hundred and fifty students attended the program where I spoke on “Focus on conscious intention, not circumstantial emotion.” I explained how our intentions are often sabotaged by our emotions, and how we can subordinate our emotions to our intentions using spiritual wisdom and meditational practice.

After the class, a Chinese girl asked, “How can we conquer all our fears?” I answered that fear is an essential psychological defense mechanism that alerts us to danger, just as pain alerts us to physical danger. Fear is not the problem; fearfulness is. When fear continues to be present even when there is no danger, then fear morphs into fearfulness. The way to overcome it is by filling ourselves with positive, protective, purposeful thoughts – and the most efficacious of such thoughts are thoughts about our spiritual core and the whole to which we belong.

This article is part of a series of articles about the recent Western tour. Full article can be read here

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• Can someone say that my nature is to talk insensitively – Hindi?
• How can we intelligently neglect some people’s criticism of us?
• If we don’t see others’ faults, how can we guide them to improve – Hindi?
• When the mind is like software, then how can pills for treating the hardware – the brain – cure mental problems?
• Why did Krishna allow the desecration of Deities by foreign invaders in medieval times?
• Will banning beef lead to economic problems?
• Why do serious devotees sometimes die prematurely?

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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, September 2013, Cape Town, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 8.20.12)

Many artists are only recognised for their greatness once they are dead but Beethoven was famous during his life but then, he went deaf. Can you imagine that!? It was practically the worse thing that could have affected him. For a musician, the ear is essential. People who cannot sing, it is not that they cannot sing – they cannot listen! Music begins with listening. It is all about the ear, really!

Beethoven, with the perfect ears, who he could perfectly hear different tones and notes, went deaf. It was a setup, he became bigger and bigger, he was the greatest and then he went deaf, lost it! He had to go through the agony of everything being taken away!

In spiritual life, it is also like this. In spiritual life, in the course of our service we may get recognition; we may get so many facilities and so on, many external attributes. Over the years, you collect a library of your books, your fancy chadaars and everything. But in a spiritual crisis, all that we have is the Krsna consciousness within! Therefore, we have to make commitments within. Internally, we have to say, “Yes Krsna, I will put you first. I will put you before my senses. I will put you before my mind. Yes, whatever you say.”

The ISKCON Brooklyn Temple President has refused to comply with the GBC's recent notice for his removal and has locked the Brooklyn Temple and removed the "ISKCON" sign from the face of the building

After viewing the installed Kalashes and Chakras, Sadbhuja and Rangavati prabhus have decided that the Dome brackets which hold the Kalashes in place need a color adjustment to match the gold color of the titanium nitrate Kalashes and Chakras. They have created a new design which includes painting sections of the Dome brackets gold.

To fulfill the need for a durable, weather-resistant and long-lasting paint they have turned to a German based company named Keim known for its high quality paints. Their paint is very unique because it is a ready-to-use mineral based silicate paint whose pigments and minerals are engineered to meet the challenges of extreme climatic conditions and is renowned for its proven durability to last for over one hundred years. It is water-repellent, offers high vapor permeability and forms an insoluble, chemical bond with the mineral substrate. There is evidence of this in Germany, Austria and other European countries where Keim’s paint has been used on royal mansions and other important structures and buildings that are over one hundred years old.

They have further plans to use Keim’s paint on other outside areas of the structure as well as inside in the coffered pillars and on the pillars.

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Who are the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas?
Devotees of Viṣṇu are called Vaiṣṇavas, devotees of Kṛṣṇa are called Kārṣṇas, and the devotees of Śrī Rādhā (Gaurī) are called Gauḍīyas (Gaurīyas).
Lord Gaurāṅga’s devotees, who are under the shelter of parakīya-mādhurya-rati and who follow Śrī Rūpa, are called Gauḍīyas. The Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas follow Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī, the incarnation of Lalitā. Therefore they can be defined as followers of Śrī Svarūpa and Śrī Rūpa. Therefore Mahāprabhu commented to Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara Prabhu, “This is the behavior of your Gauḍīya devotees.”
The Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas are interested in mañjarī-bhāva, and Śrī Rādhā-Govinda, Śrī Rādhā-Gopīnātha, and Śrī Rādhā-Madana-mohana are their worshipable Deities.[…]
Generally, Lord Gaurāṅga’s devotees are known as Gauḍīyas (Gaurīyas), and the devotees in Gauḍadeśa (Bengal) are also called Gauḍīyas, just as the devotees in Utkala (Oḍissa) are called Oḍiyās.
Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura
Amṛta Vāṇī - Nectar of Instructions for Immortality
***Phonemes [r] and [ḍ] are both retroflex and sound almost similarly. Gaurīyas and Gauḍīyas are homonyms

Iskcon Center Vesu (Surat) Rathyatra And Book Distribution Report (Album with photos)
“Distribution of books and magazines is our most important activity.Without books, our preaching has no solid basis”- Srila Prabhupada’s Letter to Cyavana 26-12-71.
Embracing these divine words of Srila Prabhupada in their hearts and acting accordingly, The devotees from Surat has once again emerged victorious in their 4 hours combat against Maya during a fabulous Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra in the Vesu area of Surat city on 30-7-17.
Troops of devotees entered the residential buildings of this posh area and bombarded mostly each and every house with the weapons in the form of Srila Prabhupada’s books.
Other groups of devotees marched along the roads with their hands loaded with Prabhupada books surrounding the Rathyatra of the Lord of the universe who was mercifully delivering the conditioned souls by His beautiful sidelong glances.
This Transcendental 4 hours battle came to end in a moment and by Prabhupada’s divine mercy the devotees were able to distribute the books as follows:
342- Maha big books
21- Big books
56- Medium books
1543- Small books
5 Annual BTG subscriptions. H.G. Radhacharàn prabhu and H.G.Radhesh prabhu administered the proper arrangements in the Rathyatra and book distribution respectively.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada transcendental book distribution.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/Xz75q7

Troupes of neon-vested Segway riders and strolling tourist families exploring Golden Gate Park on Sunday made way for an especially vibrant interruption: the Festival of Chariots, an annual Hindu parade and celebration with roots going back millennia in India. Held since 1967 in San Francisco, the festival drew hundreds of smiling worshipers who helped pull three large chariots along John F. Kennedy Drive that carried likenesses of Lord Jagannath — who to many Hindus is known as Lord of the Universe or Krishna — his brother, Lord Baladeva, and his sister, Subhadra. Men knelt to touch their forehead to the ground and women in jewel-toned saris danced with the procession. The large wooden carts were painted with elephants and swans, draped with garlands of carnations, and capped by tall red tents meant to resemble temples. “This is a way to bring the lord outside and into the park,” said Haladhara Rupa of Dublin, who wore a traditional purple-blue kurta, or long shirt, and billowing white dhoti pants over bright green running shoes. “You can bring the lord in a joyous way.” Continue reading "Devotees celebrate with Festival of Chariots in San Francisco
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“Whenever I get report of my books selling, I feel strength. Regarding book sales figures, please endeavor in this way. This is the only solace of my life. When I hear that my books are selling so nicely, I become energetic like a young man.” – Srila Prabhu pada, September 2, 1974 Continue reading "North European BBT’s Report for 2016
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“Opportunity may knock only once but temptation leans on the door bell” – Oprah Winfrey

Podcast:

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Suppose we are busy working in our house. If someone knocks on the door, and knocks softly, we may not hear them, especially if we are not expecting anyone. But if that person keeps knocking and knocking, we may feel as if we have no alternative except to open the door.

If we consider our consciousness to be like a house, then various stimuli from the outer world are like visitors that knock on the door of our consciousness. When opportunity knocks, it knocks softly. So, we need to be alert enough to notice and grab it.

Whereas we need to be alert to notice when opportunity knocks, we need another kind of resourcefulness when temptation knocks. If a visitor leaned on the doorbell, it would ring on and on and on, leaving us with no option but to open the door. Temptation is such an insistent visitor. When it appears in our consciousness, it just keeps propositioning us repeatedly and relentlessly. Over time, its siren call consumes our consciousness so completely that we feel as if we have to put everything else aside and just give in to it.

How does temptation ring the doorbell incessantly? By appearing irresistible. Initially, temptation allures us with the promise of pleasure that seems immense and immediate and irresistible. However, once we indulge in it a few times, then the desire becomes increasingly forceful, goading us towards indulgence. Being goaded, we indulge not so much because the pleasure is so irresistible, but because the torment of not indulging is so unbearable. Thus, the incessant and loud ringing of the bell of our consciousness by temptation manifests initially as the promise of irresistible pleasure and eventually as the misery of intolerable torment. Either way, we feel driven to open the door just to silence the bell. But as soon as we open the door, temptation barges into our consciousness and takes it hostage, as the Bhagavad-gita (02.44) warns. With our consciousness thus captivated, temptation impels us into self-defeating actions that cause tribulation and degradation.

Significantly however, we don’t have to open the door. If a persona non grata is leaning on the doorbell, we can just turn off the power to the doorbell. How can we turn off the power to the bell when temptation rings it? By not thinking about the temptation. What gives any stimulus, the power to disturb us is the attention we give it. If we turn our attention to something else, that stimulus becomes disempowered.

To turn our attention away from temptation when it allures us, we need to have ready at hand activities that can engage and absorb us. We will readily have such activities if we have cultivated for our life some higher purpose, a purpose that brings out our higher, nobler, purer side. Gita wisdom explains that the highest purpose is spiritual purpose – the purpose of lovingly harmonizing our spiritual core with the supreme spiritual reality. This supreme reality manifests as the all-attractive, all-pure, all-powerful supreme, Krishna. Thinking about him, engaging in his service and redefining our life as an offering of loving service to him brings sublime, supreme fulfillment. And we can access this fulfillment by practicing bhakti-yoga, which trains our consciousness to connect with him. To the extent our consciousness becomes thus devotionally enriched, to that extent we can pull our attention away from temptation without inordinate difficulty.

And just like an unwanted visitor goes away when their repeated ringing elicits no response, so too does temptation go away when we don’t respond to it.

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yad atra skhalitaṁ kiñcid                 vidvāṁsaḥ pūrayantu tat

yad atra sauṣṭhavaṁ kiñcid                         tad guror eva me na hi

yad — that which; atra — here; skhalitaṁ — is faulty; kiñcid — whatever; vidvāṁsaḥ — the learned souls; pūrayantu — may kindly correct; tat — that; yad — that which; atra — here; sauṣṭhavam — is beautifully done; kiñcid — whatever; tad — that; guror — belongs to my guru; eva — certainly; me — mine; na — it is not; hi — certainly

“Whatever errors are present in this commentary, may the learned souls correct it; and whatever good is found here, it is due to my gurus, not me.” (Krama Sandarbha introduction, Jiva Goswami)

When authors write a book, they usually include a section for acknowledgments where they give credit to all those who helped them in writing that book. But few authors go to the extent as to give all credit for the good in the book to others. They naturally want credit for what they feel is their creativity, their hard work, their original contribution.

However, in devotional and spiritual circles, especially circles that draw from a venerable lineage of teachers, books often feature acknowledgements such as that expressed by Jiva Goswami here. Are these spiritual authors expressing excessive humility, refusing to take credit where it is due? Or is a deeper truth operational?

In any intellectual or artistic work, no one starts from scratch. We use the language thinkers before us have developed, and we draw extensively from their ideas.

Of course, we may claim credit for having brought those words and ideas together distinctively. However, even for that distinctive integration, we are more a channel than the source. All insightful works rely on inspiration, and inspiration comes from outside of ourselves, giving us in fully developed form ideas that we simply receive and write. The Bhagavad-gita (15.15) indicates that the source of inspiration is the indwelling Supreme Lord. In that sense, we can’t take sole credit for either the points or their integration.

Additionally, in spiritual circles, originality has a sense distinct from its sense in contemporary circles. Nowadays, originality refers to coming up with an insight that no one has come up with till now. In traditional spiritual circles, originality refers to that which is as close to the origin as possible. If we were traveling using a map and wanted to understand the symbols in the map, we would need the second kind of originality, not the first kind. We wouldn’t need to come up with some new meaning for those symbols; we would need to know that meaning intended by the map-maker. When we understand that meaning, we can properly navigate the terrain depicted in the map.

The Bhagavad-gita (16.24) indicates that scripture is a guidebook for helping us make sound decisions. Thus, scripture is like a map for our life-journey. Naturally therefore, when scriptural commentators keep this purpose in mind, they consider their commenting successful if they convey the import given by the previous teachers who had successfully used scripture as a guide for their life-journey. The Gita (04.10) states that many in the past have attained perfection by living in the light of its spiritual knowledge– and it urges us to do the same (04.15).

When we are able to explain a map to someone, helping them find the directions to the desired destination, we don’t feel proud of our creativity – we feel grateful to those who made the map and to those who taught us to read it properly. Similarly, when we are able to explain scriptural knowledge effectively, helping people find the way to enduring spiritual growth, we don’t feel proud of our creativity – we feel grateful: to the universal spiritual master, the Lord, who has given scripture to humanity; and to the exalted lineage of spiritual masters who have made those scriptural directions accessible to each generation for millennia.

And if we make some mistakes in reading the map, we feel grateful when those who are better map-readers than us correct our reading. While explaining a map, our purpose is not to prove that our understanding is right, but to ensure that we gain and share the right understanding. When we share spiritual knowledge in such a mood, we endear ourselves to our Lord, and he guarantees our spiritual elevation and liberation (18.68-69).

Thus, the mood of profound humility amidst devotional creativity is founded in philosophical reality, and it helps us go closer to the ultimate reality, our eternal Lord.

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• As sadhus, should we focus on internal change through sadhana or social change through activism?
• I was initiated earlier by a priest – how do I see it when seeking initation from a Vaishnava guru?
• Should we use the words “fools and rascals” just as Srila Prabhupada did?
• When a close relative troubles us, do we need to tolerate infinitely?
• Understanding how dharma culminates in prema
• When we can’t overcome our bad habits, what to do – Hindi? 

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