Websites from the ISKCON Universe
The recordings of the “Holy Name Festival 2017 Videos”
Srila Prabhupada: When that name enters the holes of the ears, we desire many millions of ears. And when the holy name dances in the courtyard of the heart, it conquers the activities of the mind, and therefore all the senses become inert. (Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, 4.71 purport, Vidagdha-Madhava 1.12)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/4QA0sP
Krishna Wisdom: Making a Difference in the World (2 min video)
Balaram Nityananda: Honoured to be working with our Temple President at Bhaktivedanta Manor Srutidharma Prabhu as he encourages devotees to help fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s desire by taking part in outreach activities aimed at local people completely new to Bhakti, through www.krishnawisdom.com
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/QIGVEp
Keshav Das, 30, an ISKCON of Washington D.C. devotee, won the gold medal at his tri-county Special Olympics meet on Sunday May 21st, competing in the 100-meter track and field. Keshav, who was born with Down Syndrome, had been training for the past year with his coach, and was cheered on by thirteen family members, including father and mother Sachchida and Sharmistha Gupta, and brothers Gopal and Vishal.
Bhakti Gauramani Swami’s last class in NVD.
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The Telangana, South India Padayatra On The Road Again.
Vishnu Swamy Dasa: The state of Telangana is located in south India. It is the twelfth largest state in India with an area of 112,077 square kilometres (43,273 square miles) and a population of 35,193,978. Its major cities include Hyderabad, Warangal, Khammam, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Nalgonda. The first Telangana padayatra started on December 6th 2012 and was completed on November 1st 2015. The padayatra travelled approximately 4500 kilometres to all 10 districts in Telangana and visited 500 villages and towns there. Our small team of devotees decided to do another padayatra in Telangana. We set off on January 22nd 2017 and have covered 500 kilometres and visited 60 villages thus far.
Our daily routine on padayatra starts with mangal arati at 5 am, Guru-puja and Bhagavatam class from 7 am and prasadam at 9:30 am. We generally travel from one village to the next after mangal arati or in the evenings according to the weather conditions. We usually have supper prasadam at 5 pm and then sankirtana with our Gaura Nitai chariot from 6 to 9 pm. When people give us donations we give them a book in return. Many people also give us donations of rice and flowers and other things.
We originally started with four padayatris: another devotee named Vishnu Swamy Das, Srinivasa Sevananda Dasa, Ramanuja Dasa and myself. Ramanuja Dasa had to leave after a month so there are just the three of us of now. We travelled to the area of Narsampeta in the Warangal district from April 7th to April 13th. While there we stayed at the ‘Narsampeta Orphanage’.
By Acarya Dasa We all took darsana of the beautiful deity of Lord Adi Kesava Perumal and performed kirtana in the temple while circumambulating the deity. The vigraha (deity) is said to contain up to 16,008 shaligrams We stayed there for three days preaching and distributing books in the nearby areas. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited this temple in 1510 AD during His South India tour. It was here that He discovered the 5th Chapter of the Brahma-saṁhitā, which, is said to contain a hundred chapters. This scripture is so old and so sacred it was practically lost to the general population at the time. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu understood the supreme importance of this scripture and therefore He rediscovered it in the Sri Adi Kesava Temple . During Lord Caitanya’s visit to the temple he discussed spiritual matters to highly advanced devotees. He also bathed in the Tamprapani river before taking darsana of Sri Adi Kesava Perumal. Continue reading "The All India Padayatra Visits The Adi Kesavaperumal Temple In Thiruvattar, South India
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Krishna Arjuna Temple - The Glory of Kurukshetra (Album with photos)
ISKCON Vedic Cultural Centre Update - 30th May 2017. Have a look at Srila Prabhupada’s Dream Project!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/ljc6pZ
The “Hare Krishna!” movie’s premier in Sedona sold out.
Visakha Dasi: Front page of Sedona’s local paper Kudos - Verde Valley Newspaper featuring Prabhupada! We are in town all week, our premiere is sold out but due to popular demand there is a second screening on Sunday 4th at 10.20am at the Sedona Performing Arts Centre, buy tickets through our website harekrishnathefilm.com
Srila Prabhupada and Kirtan (video)
“Being part of the prophecy!” Vaiyasaki Prabhu’s lecture at ISKCON Los Angeles, 5-28-17
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/CK1JUp
By Giriraj Das I worship the one absolute truth, Krsna, who is eternal bliss and supreme consciousness, (Nityananda, Advaita-Caitanya), personified as the eternal Bhagavatam which is the complete form of Brahma-sutra, in its most embellished form and who resides with eternal bhakti and the eternal devotees in the eternal spiritual abode. I take shelter of the eternal form, name and qualities of Krsna known from Bhagavatam, which I studied for a long time by the mercy of guru. After having studied the Vaisnava-tosani of Sanatana and after having understood the conclusions of Lord Caitanya from the Sandarbhas of Jiva, by the mercy of Sridhara Svami, I produce this commentary to show the essence of Bhagavatam. I am not learned. Oh! I am rash in this attempt! The cause, being either my own foolishness or the causeless mercy of the Lord, gives rise to its manifestation, even in an unqualified person. If its cause is my foolishness, it will produce mockery, and if its cause is mercy of the Lord, it will produce bliss with every word for the devotees. Continue reading "Ambrosial Srimad Bhagavatam
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By Karnamrita Das This message was given to me on a magnet many years ago from a friend who sold it at her store. It is a cute and funny saying, but never more true for me than at this time. For those of you in anxiety trying to figure out your life mission or calling, take some solace that I am still figuring that out for myself at 67! You can do it at a much younger age than I have. I am learning what I want to do when I grow up, and for me that time is now, and every day thereafter! I just got pushed out of the nest and I have to fly, or die! We all have our time to flower. The past is over, and useful only to learn from, and today, well, I may die today, so what shall I do to make a difference in my life and that of others? As long as we are growing as a person, we have service to do in our body, in the world, to make as an offering to our conception of Divinity--for me, Radha-Krishna. Conversely, when we stop learning and becoming more as a person, we aren’t truly living. Continue reading "It Is Never Too Late To Be What You Could Have Been!
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 08 June 2014, Stockholm, Sweden, Srimad Bhagavatam 2.5.14)
I used to think, before I came to Krsna consciousness, that now I would join a movement of very like-minded people and that I would feel very intimate friendship. Then, I was shocked to see that that person who I kind of detested for his views, he also had joined! (laughter)
I thought, “How is this possible? Not this guy! How is it possible that he became a devotee!?” Well, because of the universal nature of Krsna consciousness, people of all kinds, from all walks of life, even from opposing world views, can join the Krsna conscious movement and therefore it is not always easy to have that kind of intimate friendship with everyone. We do not!
Some devotees never get beyond colleagues. We do have some friends also, in this movement. With colleagues, it can get very impersonal and very distant with virtually no affection; and therefore we can feel alone, especially if we have not deeply developed our relationship with Krsna. If we have deeply developed our relationship to Krsna, then there we find a satisfaction that nourishes us even when we are alone or with people. Then once one is nourished in that relationship, one has to bring it back down to the social platform and begin to develop real relationships with people. But without first going up to Krsna – and first up to Krsna means developing a relationship of attachment to Krsna, intimate interaction with Krsna and always feeling that he is interacting with you – without that, we are on the normal social platform! Then we will only be able to deal with people who are kind of like-minded, and others remain strangers even when they chant Hare Krsna. Then we are a movement of strangers with a few friends because how many people can you relate to, anyway?
When we go up in attachment to Krsna and really interact with Krsna closely at every moment, and we bring that down into our relationships with others, then we can become like Prabhupada! He had that capacity. He was not limited by his social background and he could be completely relevant to hippies in America although they were culturally so different and in such a different stage of life and so on… Prabhupada was so relevant and that is what I am talking about because he went to the root of the things. Yes, unless we have that, we will just still be alone because we will just still associate on the level of like-mindedness and the normal social dynamics will still apply. That is what I see and it is all over the world. Loneliness is becoming an issue in our movement…
A video by ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry.
On May 21-22nd, the Krishna Institute in New Raman Reti Florida along with the Bhaktivedanta Institute of Gainesville, organized a lively onsite and online workshop titled, “Unraveling the Mysteries of the Sacred Universe, Level 1.” Bhakti Caru Swami, ISKCON’s GBC Chair, opened the workshop on both days with an inspiring talk sharing his realizations on the significance of Prabhupada’s outreach program engaging this subject.
Music and video by Ledevo.
Sanatana Goswami on Guru and Disciple.
Kripamoya das: Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu begins his teaching to Sanatana Goswami by explaining that the soul wanders the universe, life after life, and then in one special life, by the grace of Krishna and the guru, he begins the journey of bhakti.
When Srila Rupa Goswami wrote about the sixty-four elements of bhakti, the first five on the list are related to the guru and disciple; and when Sanatana Goswami wrote his Hari Bhakti Vilasa along with his friend Gopala Bhatta Goswami, the first two of twenty chapters in the manual explain the guru and disciple relationship. This is a brief extract of his quotations from several scriptures.
“The human body is a ship, the guru is the captain, the instructions of God are the favourable winds.” – Srimad Bhagavatam 11.20.17
“Any person who desires happiness must seek a guru and take shelter of him. The qualification of the guru is that he has realised the conclusions of scripture and is able to convince others.” – Srimad Bhagavatam 11.3.21
“One should approach a guru who is in full knowledge of me as I am, who is peaceful, and who by spiritual elevation is non-different from me.” – Srimad Bhagavatam 11.10.5
“To learn about transcendence one must approach the guru with wood in his hands for the fire sacrifice. The symptom of such a guru is that he is expert in the Vedas and therefore he constantly engages in the service of God.” – Mundaka Upanishad 1.2.12
“The disciple should be free from false prestige, active, never lazy, and should give up all proprietorship. He should have feelings of friendship towards the guru, and should not become bewildered or deviated. The disciple should always desire advancement in spiritual understanding, should not not envy anyone and always avoid useless conversation.” – Srimad Bhagavatam 11.10.6
“The guru and disciple should reside together for at least a year, testing each other before they decide to enter into a guru-disciple relationship. They should examine each other to find out their nature, character and compatibility.” Mantra Muktavalli
“A disciple must endeavour with his life, wealth and work for the favoured projects of the acarya and serve him with body, mind and words. In this way the disciple attains the highest spiritual good.” – Vishnu Smriti
“When a person obtains the mercy of his guru, he receives the Vaishnava mantra from him. By constantly chanting the mantra he inherits unimaginable opulence and ultimately the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord. Those who have performed immense pious deeds and austerities over many hundreds of years chant this mantra and thus are able to deliver the entire world.” – Agama Shastra
“When a person who has been properly chanting the Vaishnava mantra constantly for a long time glances on anyone, that person is instantly freed from the worst type of fear and anguish.” – Vishnu Purana
Harinama in Paris, France (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: We are trapped souls in a state of forgetfulness of Krishna, ...
THE ALL INDIA PADAYATRA IN KANYAKUMARI, TAMIL NADU (Album with photos)
Acarya Dasa: The Southernmost tip of India!
We reached Kanyakumari on March 29th, also known as Kanniyakumari and formerly referred to as Cape Comorin. It is located in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu and situated at the southernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent at the confluence of the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. These bodies of water are the final destination of most of India’s holy rivers such as the Ganges and the Yamuna. The nearest town, Nagercoil, serves as the administrative headquarters of the Kanyakumari district and is twenty-two kilometers away. Kanyakumari is less than a three hour drive from Trivandrum.
A special place for Vaishnavas
dakṣiṇaṁ tatra kanyākhyāṁ
durgāṁ devīṁ dadarśa saḥ
Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.79
Kanyakumari is a significant place for all devotees. It is mentioned in Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 10, Chapter 79, in verses 16 to17 that Lord Balarama visited Kanyakumari on pilgrimage. It states that He went to the shore of the southern ocean, where He saw Goddess Durga in her form as Kanya-kumari.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu also visited there during His South India tour.
kanyā-kumārī tāhāṅ kaila daraśana
Translation: “Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to Kanyakumari. Lord Caitanya took His bath at the holy confluence of three oceans” (CC Madhya 9.223).
Other great souls have also visited this place. On his way to America, Srila Prabhupada sailed through here on the Jaladuta. However, the main reason why we, as Vaisnavas should visit Kanayakumari is because Lord Caitanya visited there. Wherever the Lord went that place was transformed into Vrindavana. Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami explained that what Lord Caitanya didn’t give in Navadvipa, He gave in South India. During that time many people in Navadvipa were very materialistic and ritualistic but in South India people were simple, and they opened their hearts to receive the Lord’s mercy and thus attained perfection.
The All India Padayatra’s experience in South India
We stayed at the Vivekananda ashram in Kanyakumari for three days. While there we visited the sea shore, Lady of Ransom Church, Vivekananda Rock Memorial, Sunrise Point and Sunset Point and performed sankirtana along the way. We went to the temple of mother Kanyakumari as well and took darsana of her foot prints. Mother Kanyakumari is a great Vaishnavi, she is always chanting the Holy Names of the Lord. When Lord Caitanya visited Kanyakumari, He gave her darsana. She becomes very happy when Vaishnavas come to take darsana and so we all prayed to her to give us unalloyed devotion to Lord Krishna. All the padayatris took bath at the same place that Lord Balaram and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu took bath at too.
During the sankirtana we met many pilgrims from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Bengal all of whom joined us in loudly chanting the mahamantra. It was a great pleasure being in Kanyakumari –as padayatris we travel all over India from North, to South, to East and West all by the mercy of Lord Caitanya, who gives us the strength to walk.
Photos and videos: https://goo.gl/L2rvEH
Dubai April 10
All the video recordings from the SADHU-SANGA 2017!
Annual Kirtan Mela in North Carolina.
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Travel Adventures of a Krishna Monk.
Krishna-kripa Das: I share some fascinating material on Hare Krishna devotees surviving the war in the former Yugoslavia by Vrsabha Prabhu of Croatia.
Vrsabha Prabhu: Material opulence can never give us satisfaction. There was one beautiful opera singer who was very fat and voluntarily ate a tape worm, hoping that would help her become more shapely. It worked, but unfortunately the worm did not leave enough to nourish her, and she ultimately died. Other people who were rich and famous, not being satisfied, turned to drugs and ruined their lives. So many examples are there, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monoe, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, etc.
Many people received Srila Prabhupada’s books in Yugoslavia, but most did not take them seriously. When the war began, however, people began to take the books off the shelves and read them.
Sarajevo is a city in valley, and Serbian soldiers surrounded it. Only a one-kilometer tunnel the residents had dug could take people out of the city. One man, who read the books and heard there were devotees in Sarajevo, wanted to go inside the city. No one could believe it. He did and found the devotees and became one.
The UN donated two truck loads of ingredients to devotees distributing food in Sarajevo.
The devotees in Sarajevo were so enthusiastic to hear about Krishna, they would walk across the city at the risk of being shot by Serbian snipers, either coming or going to the Sunday feast. One invalid devotee had a friend who would bring him and his wheelchair, one at a time, down 14 flights of stairs and push him 7 kilometers to the Sunday feast.
There is one Croatian devotee Madhavananda who was captured by the Serbians, who put him to work in a death camp. He refused to eat meat, and said, “You can kill me but I will not eat meat.” They needed him to dig ditches, so they gave him vegetarian food. He would preach Bhagavad-gita to people in the camp, whether they were Croatians or Muslims. Serbian army people noticed that the people who heard his preaching were easier to control, so they told him to give classes twice a day and gave him an office to prepare for them. Previously before being captured, he had organized a gurukula in one city because the men were engaged in the war and the city was filled with women and children who were unengaged. He taught them verses and bhajanas and the chanting of Hare Krishna. Even so many years later, he still gets messages on Facebook or by email from kids who were there, thanking him for taking care of them.
One woman who came to Hare Krishna in Sarvejo during the war, considered, “When I was chanting Hare Krishna in a mood of helplessness and praying to God, I was in bliss, I complete forgot about my identification with the material body. That was best time of my life.”
One person who later became a devotee but was an atheist at the time, when he saw a line of Serbian tanks approaching him, addressed the Lord, “Dear God, if you really exist, get me out of this situation.” Dark clouds appeared, lightning struck his machine gun, which exploded and blew off his boots and left him unconscious. He was moved off the battlefield and was saved. Many of his friends were killed.
Sometimes war causes people to take shelter of God. Many people in Bosnia, and also in Croatia, became devotees because of the war. Not a single devotee in Bosnia died or was injured.
Just one virus, so small you cannot see it, can reduce a body builder, who has worked out for years, to a skin-and-bones guy like me.
God does not need money from us. He is the richest person in the world.
God demands us to give up only that which is not good for us anyway, sinful activities.
Comments by Bhakti Rasa Prabhu:
One of the consequences of misusing of our independence is that we come to this world. You can say “if things are so nice in the spiritual world, how could anyone one leave?” but by eliminating the possibility of one leaving, you eliminate their free will.
It is comforting to reflect, “Our karma is temporary, but we are eternal and Krishna is eternal.”
Comment by Caitanya Vallabha Prabhu: Suppose after 45 years of marriage to your wife, you find out the only the reason she married you was someone put a gun to her head, how would you feel? In the same way, Krishna is looking for freely given love.
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/rKxqvI
Holy Cow!
Another early morning at the Krishna Village. Walking towards the paddock amidst the dew and early morning light, a group of around twenty cows becomes visible, calves and their mothers huddled around the milking shed. A mixture of black and white friesians and light brown and white Indian gyrs, they are waiting patiently to be herded after the daily 5am milking, an activity that can be joined by any Krishna Village guest who wishes to attend.
Claire, one of their main custodians, explains how despite being vegan she drinks this milk because it is ‘ahimsa’ milk - obtained in a non violent way. Unlike the cows at mainstream dairies, these cows are milked by hand, leaving them with more than enough milk for their calves, who are free to stay with their mothers from birth. Visible most times of day in the paddocks eating grass or frolicking with their friends, the cows are an integral part of the Krishna Farm, considered sacred by Hare Krishnas and loved by everyone in the community.
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/IPkfXo
The Spiritual Master and Krishna are two parallel lines. The train, on two tracks, moves forward. The Spiritual Master and Krishna are like these two tracks, they must be served simultaneously. Krishna helps one to find bona fide Spiritual Master, and bona fide Spiritual Master helps one to understand Krishna. If one does not get bona fide Spiritual Master, then how he can ever understand Krishna? You cannot serve Krishna without Spiritual Master, or serve Spiritual Master without serving Krishna. They must be served simultaneously. Letter to Mahapurusa, February 12, 1968 
By Krsnā devi dasi The participants of “Unraveling the Mysteries of the Sacred Universe Level 1” were asking themselves this very question while attending this informative workshop co- sponsored by the Bhaktivedanta Institute of Gainesville and the Krishna Institute in Alachua on May 20-21. How we view the universe impacts our understanding of ourselves. Additionally, the more we push the boundaries of knowledge, the more knowledge expands before us. In the Vedic literature it is said, sa-tattvato 'nyatha-buddhir vikara ity udahr?tah? from one fact another fact is generated. For example, a father is one fact, and a son generated from the father is a second fact. Thus both of them are truths, although one is generated from the other. Continue reading "How can a frog in a well understand the vastness of the ocean?
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