Upcoming Veda course in the UK.There is an upcoming men’s…
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Upcoming Veda course in the UK.
There is an upcoming men’s residential course coming up called the Veda course.
The next Veda course will start at the beginning of October 2017 and finish in December 2017.
I’ve attached a poster for the course. Please put this information (along with the poster) through to all your channels of communication. Thank you.
Niskincana dasa

A sweet Recollection of the Mayapur Ratha-yatra celebration
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Hare KrishnaBy Mayapur Internal Communications Team

Starting in the late 80’s with one small chariot, Ratha-yatra was celebrated just inside the Mayapur campus by the gurukula students. As time went on, Ratha-yatra grew, and the campus grounds could no longer hold the festival. We had to start thinking big. In 1997, the Mayapur management organized the first ever Ratha-yatra festival coming from Rajapur to ISKCON Mayapur with three grand chariots. It was only with their leadership and expertise that this festival continues today. Continue reading "A sweet Recollection of the Mayapur Ratha-yatra celebration
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The Abnormal Normal
→ The Spiritual Scientist

“I told the doctor I was overtired, anxiety-ridden, compulsively active, constantly depressed, with recurring fits of paranoia. Turns out I’m normal.”

–  Jules Feiffer

 

This paradoxical quote illustrates how abnormal mental conditions have become normal, how mental health problems have become mainstream, how though we have progressed technologically, we seemed to have regressed mentally. Indeed, sociologists sometimes refer to this alarming phenomenon as an anxiety epidemic.

Each person’s mental health issues can have complex specific causes. While addressing these individual causes, we can’t afford to lose sight of underlying generic causes. That universal cause is pointed to by psychologist William Sheldon of Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons: “Deeper and more fundamental than sexuality, deeper than the craving for social power, deeper even than the desire for possessions, there is a still more generalized and universal craving in the human makeup. It is the craving for knowledge of the right direction—for orientation.” We need a deeper meaning and larger purpose for our life. Without this, we feel as if the ground has been pulled from under us.

Such disorientation is an inevitable result of the materialistic worldview that is mainstream today – a worldview that most of us have adopted, consciously or subconsciously. This worldview reduces us to an aggregation of chemicals bungling around in this big blind world, which too is just a bigger aggregation of chemicals. Such a conception of life causes a profound existential angst which if contemplated unflinchingly would make life almost unbearable.

To make such a pointless life bearable, we divert ourselves from reality by a frenetic immersion in matter. We seek our self-worth by piling up degrees in front of our names, figures in our bank accounts and gizmos in our houses. Or we lose ourselves in the myriad forms of entertainment that swamp us from all directions. While such achievement or enjoyment gives us some titillation, it too triggers further anxiety because none of these externals are really in our control. Life’s vicissitudes can take any and all of these away at any moment. The possibility and indeed the inevitability of such dispossession of the things that shore up our self-worth causes us further anxiety. Ironically, the very things we seek for decreasing our anxiety end up subjecting us to greater anxiety. Thus, both these factors – the fundamental spiritual alienation and the subsequent material infatuation – contribute to our increasing anxiety. These two causes are actually one because spiritual alienation leads to material infatuation, though both fuel each other.

This fundamental cause of anxiety is like the seismic disturbance point below the surface of the earth. From that point originate the vibrations that wreak havoc on the earth’s surface. Similarly, from our spiritual alienation originate the many vulnerabilities that lead to our being afflicted by myriad mental health issues.

Unfortunately, our spiritual alienation is only being aggravated by the onward march of progress in today’s world. As our world has progressed from the modern to the post-modern times, the mainstream intellectual ethos has relativized all knowledges and indeed all knowledge-systems. Consequently, spirituality, despite being a much-bandied word, has been reduced to a feel-good laissez-faire. In this spiritual free-for-all, people frantically try out various ways to feel good without knowing any process to realize the good that exists at their spiritual core. Thus, intellectual confusion exacerbates our spiritual alienation, thereby increasing further our anxieties.

And our material infatuation too has worsened with the advent of technology. With the extensive and intensive use of technology for marketing lifestyle products and even addictive indulgences, people find a whole universe of enjoyment alluring them. Hoping desperately to find pleasure somewhere in this techno-fuelled super-bazaar, they get increasingly obsessed with the materialism that indentures them to anxiety.

To address our anxiety by tackling our spiritual alienation and material infatuation, the Bhagavad-gita stands ready with coherent and cogent spiritual knowledge. It helps us understand that we are at our core spiritual beings and are meant for a life of loving  harmony with our source, the whole whose parts we are.

To regain our spiritual wholeness, we can begin by challenging the status quo that has deemed abnormal mental health issues normal. For those intrepid enough to explore the possibility that we are meant for a better life, the Gita’s yogic knowledge shows the way out of the ocean of anxiety to the shore of security and serenity.

The post The Abnormal Normal appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Hare Krishna ‘Festival Of Chariots’ Parades Through Boston
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Hare KrishnaBy Greg Cook

Around noon on Saturday, men wrapped in white robes gathered just off Boston’s Boylston Street in the middle of a festive crowd of women dressed in bright colored saris and men in dhoti kurtas, with gopi dots and lines of color painted on their faces. The robed men lined up before the tall yellow chariot wagon, garlanded with flowers, that resembled a temple on wheels. One man raised a coconut above his head, then smashed it on the pavement for an auspicious beginning to the annual Festival of Chariots — or Ratha Yatra (a Sanskrit phrase that roughly translates as “chariot procession”) — by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness Boston or ISKCON Boston or more generally known as the Hare Krishnas. Continue reading "Hare Krishna ‘Festival Of Chariots’ Parades Through Boston
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Recordings – May 2017
→ KKSBlog

Please find below recordings from “A short UK haul“.

Download all (zip file, 1.3 GB)

 

Retreat 

KKS_UK_Wales_Retreat_13May2017_Kirtan_Part1

KKS_UK_Wales_Retreat_13May2017_Kirtan_Part2

KKS_UK_Wales_Retreat_14May2017_Kirtan

KKS_UK_Wales_Retreat_15May2017_Kirtan

KKS_UK_Wales_Retreat_Part1_Hearing_Chanting_Remembering_CC_Madhya_16.186

KKS_UK_Wales_Retreat_Part2_Hearing_Chanting_Remembering

KKS_UK_Wales_Retreat_Part3_DeityWorship_Prayer_OfferingRespects_SB_11.7.59

KKS_UK_Wales_Retreat_Part4_DeityWorship_Prayer_OfferingRespects

KKS_UK_Wales_Retreat_Part5_ExecutingOrders_Friendship_CompleteSurrender_BG_5.29

KKS_UK_Wales_Retreat_Part6_ExecutingOrders_Friendship_CompleteSurrender

Other

KKS_UK_11May2017_BhaktivedantaManor_SB_10.11.33-35

KKS_UK_11May2017_DisciplesMeeting_Kirtan

KKS_UK_11May2017_DisciplesMeeting_Lecture

KKS_UK_May2017_HouseProgram_Kirtan

KKS_UK_May2017_HouseProgram_Lecture

TOVP FullDome Mayapur Project
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Hare KrishnaBy TOVP

Operation FullDome is a way to give any visiting guest to Sri Dham Mayapur an opportunity to experience the most unique immersive spiritual experience in a spiritual town. The visitors will relax in comfort and watch high-quality presentations of professionally made FullDome films, using only top grade technology – the same technology that Disney, NASA, and many Fortune 500 companies use. This place will become the pivot point of interactive educational and spiritually riveting audio-visual experience. The proceedings from this project will go towards the TOVP Exhibits. Continue reading "TOVP FullDome Mayapur Project
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Vaisesika dasa: How to trick one to say the name of Krishna
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Vaisesika dasa: How to trick one to say the name of Krishna?
Just tell them to repeat the word “sneakers”! :-) Try it!
Lecture by HG Vaisesika Dasa Prabhu Recorded on July 9th 2017 at ISKCON Silicon Valley (video)
Narada said, “I will give you a mantra that will make you the richest man in the world, if only you will repeat it constantly, day in and day out.” Narada told Valmiki to repeat the word mara over and over again, and Valmiki agreed. Holy men like Narada could not lie, and Valmiki knew that mara was an evil word, which agreed all too well with his greedy personality. Valmiki sat beneath a tree and began to chant, “Mara mara mara mara…” However, Valmiki did not realize that he had been tricked - as the syllables of “Mara mara mara” began to run together, Valmiki instead found himself chanting “Rama, rama, rama”!
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/dsP5Zf

Grand Inauguration of the Mayapur Institute Campus
→ Mayapur.com

Since the time of Lord Chaitanya, Navadvip has been a place of scriptural learning. It is evident from Chaitanya-bhagavata (Adi 2.60-61), nana-desa haite loka navadvipe yaya navadvipe padile se ‘vidya-rasa’ paya “Many people came from various provinces to study in Navadvipa because by studying there one achieved a taste for education.” ataeva paduyara nahi samuccaya […]

The post Grand Inauguration of the Mayapur Institute Campus appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Most past-life memories involve people who lived sinfully in their previous lives – shouldn’t such people have gone to animal bodies, not human bodies?
→ The Spiritual Scientist

Answer Podcast

The post Most past-life memories involve people who lived sinfully in their previous lives – shouldn’t such people have gone to animal bodies, not human bodies? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

A Sweet recollection of Mayapur Ratha Yatra Celebrations
→ Mayapur.com

Ever since his childhood, Srila Prabhupada was always very fond of Lord Jagannatha. At the young age of five, Srila Prabhupada, who at that time was known as Abhay Caran, wanted to hold his own Ratha-yatra festival in his birth home in Kolkata. Despite having some financial difficulties, Krsna arranged everything, and little Abhay held […]

The post A Sweet recollection of Mayapur Ratha Yatra Celebrations appeared first on Mayapur.com.

If the natures of a husband and a wife are not complementary, but contradictory, how can they function?
→ The Spiritual Scientist

Answer Podcast

The post If the natures of a husband and a wife are not complementary, but contradictory, how can they function? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Spiritualizing our relationships 3 – Learning to separate people from their behavior
→ The Spiritual Scientist

[Phone talk to everydaychant.com online sanga]

 
Podcast

Podcast Summary

The post Spiritualizing our relationships 3 – Learning to separate people from their behavior appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Sunday, July 9th, 2017
→ The Walking Monk

Montreal, Quebec

Peaceful Situation

A very pleasant 23° Celsius / 76° Fahrenheit blessed the city of Montreal, and Day 2 of the Festival went on with packed attendance, once again.  Summer in Canada is all about outdoor events.  From late May to the end of September, expect a lot more events than just little picnics.

On top of the staging of a world-class jazz festival, last night as I walked from Centre Ville in Montreal, to our ashram on Pie IX Boulevard, I witnessed a migration of multitudes of people moving toward the St. Lawrence River for an international fireworks competition.  The volume of people moving made me think of some kind of exodus, like the Jews from Egypt during Biblical times, or the partisan era in India when thousands of Hindus and Muslims had to leave their homes.

Well, by 10:00 p.m. the marvelous ‘explosion-of-light show’ went off with a bang, a louder sound than snap, crackle, and pop, and these folks—the spectators—were a happy lot.

And so, with another festival—ours—that lit up Jeanne Mance Park, we all served to bring together thousands of eager seekers.  As I mentioned to a couple from Sherbrooke, Fabian and Genevieve, who brought their kirtan to the stage, “We may have different Vedic beliefs, and our mantras may vary, but most importantly, we join together and sing songs and break into dance, and create a peaceful situation.”

I’ll be travelling with a group of thirty young men, in their early teens, throughout Canada to share a higher consciousness through song and dance.  Of course, I’ll walk a bit every day.

May the Source be with you!

7 km

Indonesia AGM
→ Ramai Swami

Leaders from all of over Indonesia, including, Java, Sulawesi, Lombok, Sumatra and Bali, came together for the annual general meeting of the National Council. Kavicandra Maharaja and I also attended in our role as GBCs for the area.

Each leader represented a temple or preaching centre and gave a report of their preaching activities over the last year. One notable report was that of the Rathayatra committee, which stated that there were 29 Rathayatras celebrated in Indonesia over the last year.

leadership style
→ Servant of the Servant

How to be a diplomat and at the same time not duplicitous? I think this is the art of ambassadorship. It is also the art of negotiating and leadership. A leader especially a Kshatriya type leader is trained to cultivate this art of diplomacy without duplicity. I believe today we have more duplicity than diplomacy. Unfortunately, it is very hard to tell the difference. Henceforth, people in general do not trust their leaders anymore or at the least have a dubious outlook. If we want a leader to be respected and trustworthy, then the leader should establish his or her agenda clearly, follow up on it periodically in a transparent manner with verifiable statements. To me, this type of leadership invokes trust. So when such a leader is behaving diplomatically and may seem duplicitous, still it will not create doubt as we are aware of their leadership style.

I think Srila Prabhupada was like this. He always was clear in his speeches, letters, projects, and his day-to-day dealings with people (big, small, disciples, non-disciples). Such straightforward and consistent dealings puts people at ease and any doubt that may exist will soon dissipate. People may not agree or even understand fully our philosophy but if they see our dealings as simple and straight, then they will certainly value our words. Everyone is a leader, i think, and should take it upon themselves to practice simplicity and straightforwardness (not rude) with everyone.

Hare Krishna

Overcoming the influences of previous lives
→ KKSBlog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 09 February 2012, Leicester, England, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.19)

We cannot trace how long we have been in the material world. Life after life, we are changing bodies – the gross body – but the subtle body; which is made up of the mind, intelligence and false ego; is travelling with us. Therefore, the impressions of so many lifetimes are stored in our consciousness. By the arrangement of the Supreme Lord, we have forgotten these previous lives but memories of so many previous lives are stored within the sub-consciousness and are influencing us.

Therefore a cute little child is not totally innocent because there is a whole history that may not be manifest yet but it will come out later and then you think, “How is it possible that my little darling is doing such a thing?” but your little darling has already done these things in unlimited previous lives.

So in this way we are very much influenced by the three modes of material nature which spread out over many lifetimes.

Srila Prabhupada mentioned that we should associate with the mode of goodness. He does not say that we should be in the mode of goodness, he says that we should associate in the mode of goodness, which I think is an interesting point.

To be in the mode of goodness is so not easy. Just by determination and endeavour we cannot really change our heart but by associating with the mode of goodness then one gradually develops the qualities of goodness. In the Srimad Bhagavatam, the transcendental process of devotional service is described. It is said, “By devotional service, automatically the influence of ignorance and passion disappears. Then eventually one becomes fixed in goodness and even in pure goodness!”

Unalloyed goodness is known as viśuddha-sattva, transcendental goodness. Meanwhile we are in the process of purification and the influences of the lower nature are still within and some bad habits may still be there because we were already afflicted with sinful behaviour from previous lives that the tendency is there but by associating with the mode of goodness then gradually one develops good qualities and rises above.

Ecstatic July 1st Harinam at Jacksonville Beach, Florida, United…
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Ecstatic July 1st 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/fmwwpr

In the Bhagavatam, devotees renounce the world to serve the Lord, but in the Vitthal tradition, devotees serve their parents while the Lord waits – how to reconcile?
→ The Spiritual Scientist

Answer Podcast

The post In the Bhagavatam, devotees renounce the world to serve the Lord, but in the Vitthal tradition, devotees serve their parents while the Lord waits – how to reconcile? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

When our consciousness goes up and down regularly, how is consciousness irreducible?
→ The Spiritual Scientist

Answer Podcast

The post When our consciousness goes up and down regularly, how is consciousness irreducible? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Different brain areas are activated when we have different emotions – doesn’t that show consciousness comes from the brain?
→ The Spiritual Scientist

Answer Podcast

The post Different brain areas are activated when we have different emotions – doesn’t that show consciousness comes from the brain? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.