Building custom frames for windows. For more info on our earthbag building see http://www.krishnalounge.com/earthbag/.

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After leaving India, Kadamba Kanana Swami visited South Africa from 04-21 April. Maharaj spent his first few days in SA in Johannesburg and celebrated Rama Naumi at the temple in Lenasia. The programme began with an initiation ceremony which was followed by a class and then a kirtan. Visit Flickr to see photos.

After leaving Johannesburg, Maharaj made a quick visit to Durban for a medical check-up (all is well) before travelling to Cape Town on the 9th and arrived just in time for the Sunday afternoon lecture. He stayed in Cape Town until Thursday morning and the highlight of his visit was the celebration of his appearance day on 12 April. After a short morning class, disciples got the opportunity to read their offerings to Maharaj and in the evening, the programme continued with other well-wishers saying words in glorification of Maharaj’s service in Iskcon. Visit Flickr to see photos.

The Durban Ratha Yatra took place from 14-17 April. Kadamba Kanana Swami has been part of this festival for over 20 years now. The first chariot procession took place on Friday morning with Maharaj leading kirtan in front of the first of three chariots. Maharaj also participated in Q&A and kirtan slots in various tents at the site over three days but needed to recover on day four. Visit Flickr to see photos.

Kadamba Kanana Swami left South Africa on Friday, 21 April and travelled to Europe for his Vyasa-puja festival (24-27 April).

It was with great sadness i heard about the passing away of a wonderful devotee Bhadaranga Das Prabhu most would know him as Bhakta Ben who spent some time at Bhaktivadanta Manor.

His enthusiasm was indeed infectious and always took time out to talk, sit and share prasadam and whenever he gave class it was always personal and from the heart. With a great thirst for knowledge, leaving to enhance his qualifications so scholar’s would be more willing to hear about Krishna.

It was upon his return home to New Zealand catching up with family went for a short cycle ride and was hit by a truck instantly leaving his body at what many would see a very young age of 30.

He was indeed a unique soul like me not always conformist but with a love of chanting and reading Srila Prabhupada books, and always a joke or two to lighten the mood and put any difficulties faced into a positive perspective.

As always I pray to Sri Krishna for his onwards journey back home

And for many another great soul whose association we will miss

Hare Krishna

Harinam Eva Kevalam in Germany, Cologne (Album with photos)
Harinama sankirtana and book distribution are 2 sides of one arrow to hit the target of making people Krishna conscious. Srila Prabhupada had such an ambitious plan to change the world, because harer nam harer nama harer nama eva kevalam: “Harinama is the only way for spiritual perfection in this age.” This simple life is very conducive for spiritual advancement.
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[Sunday feast lecture at ISKCON, Baltimore, USA]

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[Sunday feast lecture at ISKCON, Washington DC, USA]

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23 April - WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY
Bhaktivedanta Book Trust has so far translated Bhagavad Gita As It Is into 58 languag...

When the majority of people in a country are influenced by commercialism and addicted to the four most karmically implicating activities--meat-eating, intoxication, illicit sex, and gambling--there will definitely be reactions to endure in the future. This is the universal law. There is no amount of economic planning, defense buildup, agricultural arrangement, or even weather forecasting that will help us to avoid unexpected karmic reactions. If the ruler of a country receives one-sixth of the aggregate good or bad karma of the citizens, then the citizens themselves will also experience the reactions that the country is destined to receive, as arranged by nature. Continue reading "Karma of the Nation
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Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Goswami Maharaj entered Nityalila on 21st April amidst 6 days long round the clock Sri Harinam Sankirtana, when His favourite bhajan ‘Radha Kunda Tata Kunja Kutira…’, was being sung. Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaj is a grand disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and disciple of His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad Srila […]

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Transcription in hindi
प्रश्न: हम शास्त्रों को जीवन में लागू करने की दृढ़ता कैसे प्राप्त कर सकते हैं?

उत्तर: आध्यात्मिक ज्ञान के सीखने की प्रक्रिया क्रमिक होती है। अतः हम यह आशा नहीं कर सकते कि शास्त्रों का अध्ययन करने के पश्चात अगले दिन से ही हमारे व्यवहार में आध्यात्मिक प्रगति दिखाई देने लगेगी। यह समझना आवश्यक है कि शास्त्रों को सीखने पर आध्यात्मिक प्रगति एकदम से नहीं होती अपितु धीरे-धीरे होती है। जब हम शास्त्रों का अध्ययन करते हैं, हरे कृष्ण महामंत्र का जप करते हैं, नियमित रूप से भक्तों का संग करते हैं, तब जीवन के प्रति हमारी आंतरिक अवधारणा में परिवर्तन आने लगता है और जैसे-जैसे यह अवधारणा बदलती है, वैसे-वैसे क्रमशः हमारे बाहरी चयन में भी परिवर्तन आने लगता है।

एक स्तर पर हम सोच समझकर, पूरी निष्ठा के साथ अपना प्रयास करते हैं कि शास्त्रों के अनुरूप ही अपना जीवन जिऐं। जब इन्द्रिय विषय हमें लुभाते हैं और तंग करते हैं, तो हम श्रीकृष्ण का स्मरण करते हैं और प्रार्थना करते हैं कि हे प्रभु हमारी रक्षा करें। कहने का भाव यह है कि हम एक सोचा समझा प्रयास करते हैं कि इंद्रिय विषयों के प्रलोभनों से बचें। ऐसा करने के लिए हमें प्रयत्नशील रहना भी चाहिए। किन्तु कभी हम अपने प्रयास में सफल होते हैं तो कभी नहीं भी होते।

लेकिन दूसरे स्तर पर जब हम शास्त्रों का नियमित अध्ययन करते हैं तो हमारी मूलभूत धारणाऐं बदलने लगती हैं। जैसे-जैसे हमारी धारणाऐं बदलती हैं, हम अधिकाधिक यह अनुभूति करने लगते हैं कि हम एक आध्यात्मिक जीव हैं और यह विश्वास दृढ़ होने लगता है कि सच्चा आनंद तो श्रीकृष्ण से सम्बंध स्थापित करने में है। अंततः, जब यह बदलाव अवचेतन स्तर पर होने लगता है, तब हम जो चयन करते हैं वे पहले से बेहतर होने लगते हैं। अतः, हमें निरंतर अपनी तरफ से पूरा प्रयास करना चाहिए कि सही निर्णय करें और निराश न हों। किन्तु साथ ही साथ, हम अपनी भक्ति पर भी ध्यान देते रहें जो मूलभूत अवचेतन स्तर पर हमें शुद्ध करती रहती है।

यह ठीक वैसे ही है जैसे एक माँ चाहती है कि उसका बच्चा अच्छे से पढे़-लिखे किन्तु बच्चे का मन बाहर जाकर खेलने में अधिक लगता है। बच्चा प्रतिदिन खेलने के लिए बाहर जाता है और उसकी माँ उसे बार-बार पढ़ने के लिए बुलाती रहती है। माँ प्रतिदिन ऐसा करती रहती है लेकिन साथ ही साथ बच्चा प्राकृतिक प्रक्रिया से बड़ा भी तो हो रहा है। जैसे-जैसे बच्चा बड़ा होता जाता है उसकी बुद्धि भी विकसित होती जाती है और जिस माँ को अपने पाँच साल के बच्चे को पढ़ने के लिए बार-बार कहना पड़ता था, अब उसे अपने पच्चीस साल के पोस्ट ग्रेजुएट बेटे को पढ़ने के लिए कहने की आवश्यकता नहीं पड़ती है। ऐसा इसलिए क्योंकि अब बच्चे की बुद्धि विकसित हो गई है और वह अध्ययन के महत्व को समझने लगा है, और यह सब स्वाभाविक रूप से धीरे-धीरे समय के साथ सम्भव होता है।

इसी प्रकार एक स्तर पर हमें अपनी बुद्धि का उपयोग बच्चे के समान मन को एकाग्र करने में करना होता है। यदि यह गलत दिशा में जाता है, तब हमें इसे वापस लाना होता है। लेकिन जब हम भक्ति का अभ्यास करते रहते हैं, तब हम आध्यात्मिकता में बड़े होते जाते हैं। जैसे-जैसे हम बड़े होते हैं, हमारी समझ गहरी होती जाती है, हमारी धारणाऐं विकसित होती जाती हैं, वैसे-वैसे सही निर्णय करना हमारे लिए अधिकाधिक स्वाभाविक होता जाता है। अतः ऐसा दो स्तर पर होता है – (क) अपनी इच्छा शक्ति का प्रयोग कर सही निर्णय करने का प्रयास करते रहने से और (ख) भक्ति के निरंतर अभ्यास से, जिससे सही निर्णय करना हमारे स्वाभाव का अंग बन जाता है। इस प्रकार हम अपने जीवन को शास्त्रों के अनुरूप ढाल सकते हैं।

End of transcription.

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[Congregation program at Richmond, USA]

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QUESTION: If consciousness stems from the “Ultimate Consciousness”, which is perfectly refined and brilliantly aware, why is our consciousness SO unrefined and SO unaware?

Is our consciousness really so unrefined and unaware?

Even animals, plants, insects, and germs seem to be so acutely aware of what to do and how to do it. Look how well they do their thing! Even the parts of an atom seem to have refinement and awareness.

The only thing we have wrong is what to DO with our refinement and awareness. We don’t know what to do with it because we aren’t aware of the ultimate object and subject: bhagavān.

So, all that we have wrong is a lack of bhagavān. Naturally, lack of bhagavān is not found in bhagavān. This is not an ontological problem, because the non-existence of something coexists with its existence, as per logic. For example, darkness coexists with light, because darkness is defined as the lack of light. It is therefore created by light but is not part of light.

Vraja Kishor

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QUESTION: Does God answer prayers?

We perceive/experience God to three extents: as brahman (the fundamental “energy” of life and existence: consciousness itself, pure and without any adjunct), as paramātmā (a distinct conscious entity who sustains all the world’s subjects and objects), and as bhagavān (a blissful infinite personality enjoying consciousness to the fullest, in relationships with infinite other conscious personalities).

Brahman has no ears and perceives no sound, so doesn’t “hear” prayers, or anything else.

Paramātmā has ears and perceives sound, but is completely neutral to all of it. He gives people only exactly what they deserve. He simply empowers the gods and the laws of karma to ensure you get whatever you deserve by your actions. So, he too doesn’t “answer prayers.”

Bhagavān has ears and perceives sound, but still is completely neutral towards the world that 99.9% of prayers are all about. Yet, if your prayer is the rare type that has some significance to the real world where subjects and objects are absolutely integrated to their origin and whole, he will eagerly respond.

However bhagavān has a kind and generous by nature, so to whatever extent your prayer for things in the disintegrated world are not harmful to yourself and others in the long run (which they usually completely are), and does not drastically violate what you and yours really deserve (which they usually completely do), bhagavān will arrange for the gods to adjust the timelines and fulfill your prayers.

Therefore most people with conventional desires prefer to pray to the immediate gods of the world, which can be either supernatural or ordinary (government figures, CEOs, powerful friends, etc.) depending on your own scope of vision.

But God Answered My Prayers!

Of course people will claim that “God answered my prayer!”

The truth is that their prayer must have met the above criterion, or (far, far more likely) they coincidentally had the karma to get what they happened to pray for. The prayer’s timing is also orchestrated by karma to give us a nudge towards religion and god, which in due time in this life or a future life, may blossom into a full-fledged spiritual awakening. Which is really the only long-term good.

Dear God, Change my Karma. Take my Sins.

Most people think karma is something God should save them from (case in point,  “Jesus takes your sins” a.k.a. “guru takes all your karma“). These are bedtime stories for spiritual infants.

Karma is what you deserve. No one but you (yes, not even God) can save you from that. You simply have to change your actions to be more selfless, dutiful and responsible. There is no way around it, and that will prove far more effective than prayer for 99.9% of what you pray for.

Prayer does give the psychological effect of respect for divinity, which is helpful to making us more selfless, dutiful and responsible. So in that respect, it is also good. There is no point to discouraging prayer. But please know that, for what you probably want to get from your prayer, prayer without action is like a seed without a field.

Vraja Kishor

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A lone eagle soars high in the sky above the craggy foothills of the Himalayas, wheeling and gliding on the thermal currents. Her golden-brown wings, extending to a gloriously feathered span of five feet, catch every breeze.

At times she seems to hover, so perfectly balanced are the calculations of her own forward movement and the counter-thrust she feels from the wind. Deep below her, over a mile away on the slopes, a small rabbit ventures out of its burrow. It’s just a grey speck in a greyish landscape but she sees it. Making a large circle so as to descend behind her prey, she calculates the distance, her own speed, and the speed of the rabbit, then plunges quickly down and forward. The rabbit has no chance.

Just one scene that plays out every day in nature, but one which reveals how every species has a particular advantage in the struggle for survival. If you and I had the eyes of that eagle, we’d be able to see an ant from the tenth floor of a skyscraper. Eagles have such acute vision because they’re endowed with retinas that have a dense coating of light-detecting cells known as cones. Humans have around 200,000 cones per millimetre whereas eagles have 1,000,000, five times the amount. Like pixels in an image, the more cones, the clearer the picture and the further you can see. The part of the retina known as the fovea – in humans a one millimetre sized dip – is the part where vision is most acute. In an eagle the fovea is a much larger convex pit. They also see in bright colour, as well as in ultraviolet. Not only that, but because of the positioning of their eyes, they can see 340 degrees to our 180. Life is not all about being able to catch rabbits, but if you’re an eagle it is very useful.

The basic impulse of all life is to stay alive, and each species has some special sensory advantage that contributes to its fight for survival. Moths can smell other moths over a mile away, and a fish can hear over huge distances through the water. Even the humble housefly can walk upside down using sticker pads on its feet, and an earthworm can completely regenerate its own body. By comparison, we humans have strict limitations on our senses. We have greatly increased problem-solving intelligence, but our eyes, noses and ears are not the greatest in the natural world.

We tend to consider reality to be only that which we can see, smell and hear; but compared to other creatures we really don’t experience much of ‘reality’ at all. What is reality anyway? If we can only experience directly a very small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum – not even including ultra-violet and infra-red light – then does it mean that anything beyond what we can see is not real? The little rabbit was ‘real’ for the eagle, but any humans flying at that height would have missed it entirely. It would not have been ‘real’ for them.

That’s why eastern spiritual teachings begin with the principle that the five senses alone are insufficient to experience spiritual reality – if indeed there is any such thing as a spiritual reality beyond the physical world. The plane of spiritual existence cannot be proven by any sensory evidence – but neither can it be disproved. The Sanskrit word for ‘proof’ is pramana, and the closely related word for ‘evidence’ is pramanya. When one is able to provide evidence then one has proof that something is real, or that something really happened. The senses cannot provide this proof, hence the logical conclusion that sensory pramana is not good enough for understanding spiritual reality.

The next type of proof often comes from a logical deduction based on gathered evidence. It is known as anuman or ‘deduction.’ You did not see the eagle catch the rabbit, but you know that eagles do catch rabbits, and you’ve just seen an eagle eating what looks like a rabbit. From this you deduce that the eagle caught the rabbit.

But anuman can also be as unreliable as pratyaksha or direct sense perception. After all, it depends on sense perception followed by a logical deduction. For instance, you see smoke on a mountain and become fearful that there is a forest fire. Although it is true that there are many forest fires on that particular mountain close to your wooden home, and although it is true that last year the fire was so large that your house was threatened, you cannot conclude that it is indeed a forest fire. It may be a controlled fire from a mountaineers’ breakfast camp. You don’t know. Still the apprehension comes based on faulty deduction. Your pratyaksha was without fault – ‘there is smoke’ – but your anuman was faulty – ‘there is smoke again on the mountain, therefore it is a forest fire.’

The third method of gathering evidence or pramana is through shabda, or ‘authoritative knowledge,’ the speech of an expert eye-witness or knowledgeable person. When that person tells you: “No, I actually fed the already-dead rabbit to that eagle. I’m a zoo-keeper and I was trying to lure the eagle back to the zoo…” Or when a stranger on the telephone informs you: “No, please don’t worry about a forest fire, I’m the leader of the mountain rescue team and we’ve been having a training camp up on the mountain. We’re just finishing breakfast right now. I’ll make sure the fire is out before we leave.”

But since sense perception is faulty, and since even eye-witnesses and experts get it completely wrong, and since such knowledge tends to get compounded and then presented as truth, we are often left disappointed and looking for a fresh source of conclusive evidence. When finding our way to a house in an unfamiliar town we can take the risk of asking any strangers, but when our safety, prosperity, health, happiness is at stake we need the best possible opinions. And when the destiny of our life is the question, the ‘expert opinion’ must be absolutely reliable.

So in Vedic culture the ultimate shabda or authoritative knowledge is the Vedas.  The Vedas are also known as shabda, and it is considered that the Vedas are the final word on reality or tattva, the truth free from imperfect sense perception, faulty deduction, and fallible experts.

This does not sit well with empirical scientists and philosophers. That an intelligent person can rely on a source of information whose validity cannot be immediately proven by direct sensory experience, experimentation or collected research, even the idea is a very strange one indeed. But that is the Vedic model, and is held to be particularly pertinent to discovering the nature of the transcendent, by definition that which is beyond the scope of the physical senses.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, November 2014, Mayapur, India, Youth Class Lecture) 

Without mercy, we will die. There is no doubt about it. Without mercy, we will not survive in spiritual life.  So if anyone has any mercy – share it, because if you share whatever mercy you have today, then maybe others will share with you also. So that is the system. It is not like, ‘I have got mercy and I am holding it here and I will make sure nobody gets any because I do not have so much.’ Because if you keep mercy like that, then it disappears; at one point it dries up or goes stale. So like that, we are sharing mercy because then there is a lot more.

We remember that story about Narada Muni who had received some amazing maha prasadam from the Supreme Lord and then he became very ecstatic. He came before Lord Siva. He said to Lord Siva how ecstatic he was because he had some amazing prasadam. Then Lord Siva asked, ‘Have you got some for me?’ And Narada Muni said, ‘No, actually I ate it all.’

Lord Siva said, ‘What? Narada, how could you do that? You did not save me any.’ And then there was a whole thing and finally Narada Muni realized that there was a little bit between his teeth and said, ‘Okay, I will give you this.’ He dug it out and Lord Siva was very happy as he also got some mercy. You can see this sharing of the mercy! So friendship is there amongst devotees, honour is there amongst devotees, to be ready to give all respect to others and whatever mercy we got, let us share it!

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And a Russian Court bans Jehovah’s Witnesses As Extremist (To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/Yq6xl8) They must disband and hand over all property to the state.

The Vedanta-sutra philosophy begins with this inquiry about life, and the Bhagavatam answers such inquiries up to this point, or the mystery of all inquiries. Lord Brahma wanted to be perfectly educated by the Personality of Godhead, and here is the answer by the Lord, finished in four nutshell verses, from aham eva to this verse, etavad eva. This is the end of all self-realization processes. Men do not know that the ultimate goal of life is Visnu, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, due to being bewildered by the glaring reflection in the darkness, and as such, everyone is entering into the darkest region of material existence, driven by the uncontrolled senses. The whole material existence has sprung up because of sense gratification, desires based principally on the sex desire, and the result is that in spite of all advancement of knowledge, the final goal of all the activities of the living entities is sense gratification. But here is the real goal of life, and everyone should know it by inquiries put before a bona fide spiritual master expert in the science of bhakti-yoga, or from a living personality of Bhagavatam life. Continue reading "Unfolding the mystery of bhakti-yoga
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6 Devotees took initiation today, 23rd April 201...

Harinam in Northampton, UK - 22nd April 2017 (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Nityananda Prabhu approached Jagai and Madhai at the risk of being personally injured and still He definitely delivered them. The world is full of Jagais and Madhais; namely drunkards, women-hunters, meat eaters and gamblers, and we will have to approach them at the risk of insult, injury and similar other rewards. To face such reverse conditions of life and to suffer thereby the results of actions is considered as the greatest penance and austerity in the matter of spiritual advancement of life. To sit down in a corner without preaching risk and to make a show of chanting Hare Krishna Mantra is condemned by my Spiritual Master and He has written a very nice song in this connection. The substance is that to become very dear to Krishna or Balarama or in other words to Lord Caitanya and Nityananda is to take the task of preaching work very seriously at all risk. Please always remember this and you will be successful. Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Gajendra – Los Angeles 27 January 1970
Find them here: https://goo.gl/Olb8vg

Recently, I took the initiative to encourage the BBT trustees to correct the translation of the refrain in Srila Prabhupada’s Bengali poem written on the Jaladuta as he arrived in America. On September 13, 1965, he wrote: “Today I have disclosed my mind to my companion, Lord Sri Krishna. There is a Bengali poem made by me in this connection.” Coincidentally — precisely fifty-one years later — on September 13, 2016, the BBT trustees discussed the proposed correction. During a Skype meeting, they decided to get the revision’s accuracy endorsed by three qualified Bengali speakers. By early December, three endorsements were obtained. So the trustees accepted the correction and passed this correspondence resolution (CP16-01) Continue reading "Correcting a Bengali Poem’s Refrain
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