Planet ISKCON

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The post To say that philosophy is dead is to be dead to philosophy Gita 18.22 appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

[Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Nasik, India]

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The post Whom are we giving our mind – Hindi appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

The post Can we say that the brain processes various energies and one kind of energy processing leads to consciousness? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

The post Is an unfavourable family situation Krishna’s arrangement – should we accept or reject that situation – Hindi? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

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The post If feelings of satisfaction deter us from doing difficult duties, what should we do – Hindi? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Answer Podcast

The post If we give up all emotions, then what will motivate us to work – Hindi? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

More success for the movie about His Divine Grace!
Giriraj Swami: Today we took Rajani Priya Dasi (Rose Forkash) to see “Hare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement, and the Swami Who Started It All” in Pasadena. At ninety-six years of age, she may be the oldest person to have seen the film, but she enjoyed it with the enthusiasm and verve of a young girl. Such is the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and his society. Hare Krishna!
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Becoming Addicted … Today, after seeing the film *Hare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement, and the Swami Who Started It All* for the third time in ten days, I at once began thinking of when and where I could see it again. But then I became concerned: “Maybe I’m becoming addicted.” Yet when I recalled Srila Prabhupada’s words in Juhu, “Instead of thinking, ‘Unless I have a drink, I will go mad,’ one should think, ‘Unless I associate with a sadhu, I will go mad,’ ” I concluded that this addiction—for a sadhu, for Srila Prabhupada—may be desirable, by his divine grace.
—–
Documentary Review: ‘HARE KRISHNA! The Mantra, The Movement And The Swami Who Started It All’
Review by LC Cragg
To read it click here: https://goo.gl/G64cZc

Answer Podcast

The post Is thinking negatively the default setting of the mind – Hindi? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

A humorous compilation of monkey pranks. Some of them might look very familiar to those who ever visited Vrindavan.

Rain Rain Go Away! (4 min video)
Indradyumna Swami: There’s a saying, “Rain or shine the show must go on.” Unfortunately, one day our show didn’t go on. The driving rain simply wouldn’t let up. We were obliged to cancel our festival. Praying for sunny weather so we may share our good fortune with others.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/MnKd3b

New App for ISKCON Temples
As we continue to be connected with mobile devices, we have a tremendous opportunity to engage with people like never before. Mobile is where people are connecting with friends and engaging with businesses. It has thus, become the most effective way to reach people anywhere at anytime. We envision our ISKCON family taking advantage of this technological trend and utilizing it to connect and communicate with their community.
We took this to heart and came up with a fantastic mobile app design. With this framework, we will work with each temple’s unique needs and create their app with features like:

Events
Media
Darshan
Donations (via Apple Pay, Android Pay and credit cards).
Temple info
And more

If you are interested in engaging your community with this flexible and affordable app, we would love to hear from you.

Please contact Venu Madhava Das at info@110digitallabs.com. Phone (830)-255-7684

On Tuesday 27th June, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Netherlands of his three-nation tour after concluding his visit to the United States. During the visit, Prime Minister Modi was meeting the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, King Willem-Alexander and the Indian Diaspora in The Netherlands.

New home for ‘slaughter-free’ Ahimsa Dairy farm.
BBC: The UK’s first “slaughter-free” dairy farm has moved to a new permanent home - where it hopes to provide a model for other farms to copy.
Dairy cows are usually culled when they get older and cannot produce as much milk, and their male calves are normally killed or sold for meat.
At the Ahimsa dairy in Rutland, oxen are put to work and cows can “retire”.
The farm was previously on rented land in Leicestershire but has secured its future with land bought in Manton.
Nicola Pazdzierska said that while their milk was more expensive, many people were willing to spend the extra.
“We charge a lot more for the product but part of that money is going into our cows’ pension fund, and at the same time, we don’t think milk should be a cheap product,” she said.
“In London a pint of craft beer can sell for £6.20, so we don’t think it’s unsustainable for our milk to sell for £4.50 a litre at a farmers’ market, or £3.50 for members.
"We want to make the model replicable so other farms can follow.”
Dairy cows are normally slaughtered after about five years when they stop producing as much milk, but Ahimsa cows go into retirement.
Male calves are normally killed shortly after birth or sold for meat, but the Ahimsa dairy puts them to work on the farm.
Newborn calves are normally separated from their mothers, but they stay together as grazing partners at the Ahimsa dairy.
Cows are usually artificially inseminated, but Ahimsa cows are impregnated by bulls.
Ahimsa cows are milked by hand rather than by machine.
Ahimsa cows can choose between sheltering in a barn or grazing freely on organic pasture.
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/mFfJo8

Due to significant growth in student enrollment every year, the current Mayapur Institute classrooms and offices are inadequate. Hence, MI had embarked on setting up an exclusive campus at Mayapur.

An eight-point action plan to clean up the holy place.

Driving an automobile in the service of the Lord (dasyam) is equal to performing any other service in bhakti-yoga such as sravanam, kirtanam, distributing books, offering arati to the deities, managing a temple, etc. Sri Daruka, Sri Hanuman, Sri Garuda and other devotees are famous for rendering the service of transporting the Lord from one place to another. Srila Prabhupada wanted devotees to drive carefully and he censured careless driving on several occasions. If we ignore his request and the laws governing safe driving, we are spiritually and materially at fault. Continue reading "Driving for Krishna
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Sunday feast lecture in London Iskcon Temple. How to install the Srimad Bhagavatam in your house. Those persons who worship the Vaishnava literature Srimad Bhagavatam in their house are freed from all sins and they become worshipable by even the demigods. In the age of Kali, I become very pleased with those who regularly worship Srimad Bhagavatam in their house and dance without fear. Continue reading "Installing the Srimad Bhagavatam in your house
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The devotees organised a wonderful festival in a central Denpasar park the day before the Rathayatra. There was kirtan, lecture, dance and wonderful prasadam all day.

Indonesians are very fond of going to parks with their families so not only were there thousands of devotees but many who had come just for a day in the park. Needless to say, they took advantage of the devotee festivities as well.

This is ISCOWP's first ox training video made in 1995. it contains comprehensive instruction for training a young team.

Perkumpulan (Indonesian for "Association") ISKCON is a legal body registered with the Indonesian government since September 2015. Perkumpulan ISKCON was founded directly by the ISKCON Governing Body Commission (GBC) representatives for Indonesia. Executives, Supervisors and Members of the Association forms the National Council of ISKCON for Indonesia. Continue reading "2016-2017 report of the activities of ISKCON’s National Council in Indonesia
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On June 23^rd, Indradyumna Swami, kirtan singer Bada Haridas, Sita Charana Dasi from Macedonia and Saci Sundari Dasi from Bulgaria appeared on two prime time television programs in Skopje, Macedonia. One of the programs was in the morning, at breakfast time. The other, TV Macedonia 24, was at lunch time. Both were watched by over one million people. 

The post Daily Darshan: July 3rd, 2017 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 04 March 2017, United Kingdom, Pandava Sena Event – The Real Adventure)

Question: You mentioned that you did not agree with your father who said that life is a compromise. Sometimes it is not always clear what is a compromise and what is not. What is a compromise and what is not a compromise?

Yes, it may not be clear always. But in my talk, I kind of emphasised that the essence is that we should keep on striving for the ideal. It does not mean that in life we just stubbornly go in one direction and nothing can stop us.

Sometimes we may have to make adjustments in our plans but we do not adjust our ideal. Our ideal is still: To be become pure devotees, pure followers of Krsna and Prabhupada. That we will never give up for anything. I had to temporarily leave Vrindavan although I wanted to stay there for the rest of my life. It broke my heart but what to do, I had to!

One may say, “C’mon, you should have not compromised. You should have just relied on Krsna. He would have protected you.” Yeah, but also I had to use my brain and say, “Let things cool down for a while,” which I did. So one should NOT compromise one’s commitment to pure devotional service.

The website, created by developer and second-generation devotee Krishna Kirtan Das, is designed to help devotees search, locate, contact and see the current status of all Srila Prabhupada disciples world-wide. The website is also publishing these disciples’ memories of Srila Prabhupada, encouraging them to share them before they pass away, and to be part of an important historical archive.

The power of motherly love.

How to find Krishna in family life (video)
Yesterday’s lecture by Bhakti Rasamrita Swami at ISKCON Leicester, UK.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/THSgjy

Pancharatna Das was and still is one of the important managers in Mayapur, who started living there since the middle of 70 and till now is striving to make this place better. Continue reading "Pancharatna Prabhu – Interview
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Photos and videos from the Sravanam-Kirtanam Festival in Villa-Vrindavana, Florence, Italy.
Srila Prabhupada: The Lord’s holy name is called sravana-mangala. This means that one receives everything auspicious simply by hearing the holy name. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 2.7.15 Purport)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/4XFFGs

A two day retreat by HH Bhanu Swami on Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu and the Sandharbhas (Album with photos)
HH Bhanu Swami had visited Govardhan Ecovillage on 2 nd June and had given seminars on Rupa Gosvami’s work, Bhakti Rasamrta Sindhu; Madhurya Kadambini of Srila Visvanath Cakravarti Thakur and Tattva-Sandarba of Jiva Gosvami. The 2-day retreat was held in the seminar hall of the Satsang Bhavan and was well attended by the students of Bhativedanta Vidyapitha and the resident monks of Govardhan Ecovillage

The State of the State - your tithing dollars at work! Wow, we are already half way through 2017, so here's a peek at what your tithing dollars are allowing us to do at the Temple. We have spent the past 16 months working on securing development permits for Phase II of our master plan, which includes building guest cottages around the pond. It’s been a long and tedious process, where every department of county regulators comes over to have a look and give opinions on what we want to do. Thank you to all of our donors and tithers, your generous contributions make these projects possible. Please encourage your friends to support our temple; we are here to serve you! Continue reading "Latest developments of Iskcon Alachua community
→ Dandavats"

Had an awesome day yesterday!

2:30am: Wake up
4am – 5:25am: Travel to temple
5:25am – 6:50am: Deity paraphernalia service
6:50-7am: Gobble down maha-sweets as a award to myself for the morning activities
7am-7:10am: Checking out my friends iPad out
7:15am – 8:45am: Deity greeting, Guru Puja, Bhagavatam class
8:45am-9:30am: Massive breakfast prasadam (rice, zucchini curry, puri, coconut chutney, tomato chutney & halva)
9:30am – 10:45am: Bus & train travel to Liverpool where the Ratha Yatra would be held.

As i get out of the train station and look for directions to the carpark where the event would be held, someone touches me on the shoulder and says, “Hari Bol!”

I turned around and its Sri Prabhalad prabhu, the wonderful devotee and kirtaneer. I was so happy to see him there. Every time i see him, i am reminded of my early days of ISKCON where his kirtan would sustain me. Together, we make our way to the venue using Google Maps. We almost got lost before a devotee came looking for him. A short walk and we were at the venue – a car park.

The car park were full of devotees! There was s stage and an altar. Prasad and book distribution counters were being setup. Thick waft of Vrindhavana incense filled the underground park and passed into the street outside. Prabhus in dhotis, others in western wear (me included), matajis in super colourful indian attire and kids running around – the place looked, felt & sounded like a temple!!

Sri Prahalad prabhu got into action right away adorning himself with a harmonium. A prabhu held out a mic for him. Young boys on karatalas and mridangas joined in. Lord Jagannath, Baladeva and Subadra got into Their carts. The local Council members stood in front with a coconut in their hands, ready to smash them to the ground. They looked amused as they were told they would be doing this! Once that ceremony was done, the cart was signalled to move. Devotees cheered, onlookers gathered by the pavements and kirtan was in full swing.

A devotee came running towards me and said, “Prabhu, come quickly! We need a person to carry their Lordships and Their palanquin!”. I couldn’t believe my luck! I had the same opportunity when the Ratha Yatra was opened at the St. Kilda Festival, some 6-7 years ago! There were 4 boys resting the palanquin on their shoulder but it was slightly slanted because i was short compared to the others! So after some 10 mins of walking, i was replaced by someone with the right height that matched everyone else. Yet, i was happy and thankful for the opportunity. The rest of the trip, I continued to walk with Them lest i might get an opportunity again.

Basically, we went along the streets circling the carpark. Storekeepers and their customers spilled onto the street to watch the procession. Some smiled and some looked confused. It seemed to me that they had no idea what was going on. To them, it looked liked some Hindu festival. I wish many of them were given handouts about the significance of the event, invited to pull the ropes and perhaps ask them to join us for the lunch prasad afterwards.

Speaking about prasad, this was on the menu – big pooris, tomato chutney, green salad, rice, eggplant & paneer subji, water & cordial. It was nice – everyone were hungry! There were some stage shows but i didn’t stay back for them as i was so sleepy by now. Walked back to the bus stand, and took a 1.5 hr trip back home.

I couldn’t help thinking that as Lord Jagannath travels across the streets with the gigantic ropes, a large cart and plenty of devotees, He is actually riding on the road on our hearts. May He continue to give us this privilege year after year!

Here are the video highlights:

Although Lord Krsna, being the possessor of infinite powers, is the only cause of the creation, maintenance and destruction of innumerable living beings, He simply did not desire to keep His body in this world any longer. Thus He revealed the destination of those fixed in the self and demonstrated that this mortal world is of no intrinsic value. (SB 11.31.13) Continue reading "Lord Krsna, the possessor of infinite powers
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Rathayatra and book distribution in Surat (Album with photos)
Jagannatha Damodar das: There was arranged the Rathyatra festival on 25 June'17 Sunday, on the auspicious day of Ashadh dwitiya in the city of Surat, Gujarat. Since Surat is one of the major cities of Gujarat, many thousand faithful people took part in it with a great enthusiasm. It was one of the best chance for the devotees to please Srila Prabhupada by distributing his books as Rathyatra is a festival in which totally new beginners who even don’t know the lord, some faithful people, few who do not believe in lord and even the people of different religions and sampradayas take part. As Srila Prabhupada once said in his lecture that “ There is no question of darkness where there is light, and Krishna Consciousness is the light that dispels the darkness of material sense enjoyment.”( Lecture, Ratha-yatra-San Francisco, June 27, 1971 ) and to bring the light of Krsna Consciouness to the conditioned people, under the guidance of the vice president of Surat ISKCON temple H.G. Vrindavan Das, team of around 150 devotees leaded by H.G. Radhesh Das celebrated this festival of Chariot by sacrificing their time totally to book distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada and in order to bring the Mercy of Lord Jagannatha to every people. The following is the book distribution report:
Maha Big books - 491
Big books - 75
Medium books - 25
Small books - 991
Srimad Bhagwatam full set - 13
Caitanya Caritamrita set - 1
Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Vaibhav - 1 Set
Lose BTG - 860
BTG 1 year subscription - 33
Plus some more books which are not counted
Total 2.07 L INR Lakshmi received.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/3eQ4Eq