Planet ISKCON

“The Lord, Sri Krishna, says,

daivi hy esa guna-mayi
mama maya duratyaya
mam eva ye prapadyante
mayam etam taranti te

‘This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.’  (Bg 7.14)

“One who surrenders to Krishna can easily overcome Maya—not directly, but by Krishna’s mercy. We do not have the strength to fight Maya independently. Maya is a very powerful energy of Krishna’s. When we surrender to Krishna He will arrange for our release from the clutches of Maya. So, Ravana is lust personified. He could be killed only by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Ravana had ten heads, and as soon as one head was cut off another head would grow. In our own practice of Krishna consciousness, we can recognize this phenomenon. Material desires come one after another. And lust does not mean only sexual desire but any desire to enjoy independent of Krishna, any desire to enjoy anything in forgetfulness of Krishna which will take us further away from Krishna.” —Giriraj Swami

Rama-navami Morning Talk

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[This verse is quoted in Srila Rupa Gosvami’s Sri Padyavali (151):]

ramo nama babhuva hum tad-abala siteti hum tam pitur
vaca pancavati-vane viharatas tasyharad ravanah
nidrartham janaki-katham iti harer hum-karatah srnvatah
saumitre kva dhanur dhanur dhanur iti vyagra girah pantu nah 

[Mother Yasoda is telling Sri Krishna a story:]

“There was once a king named Rama.”

“Yes.”

“His wife was Sita.”

“Yes.”

“On the order of His father, Rama lived in the Pancavati Forest. There Ravana kidnapped Sita.”

Hearing His mother narrate His own activities performed in ancient times, Sri Krishna suddenly called out, “Laksmana! Where is My bow? Where is My bow? Where is My bow?”

May these alarmed words of Lord Krishna protect us all.

His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaj invites devotees to the “Festival Of Inspiration”, New Vrindavan.

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Question: If Manas is Mind, Buddhi is Intelligence, and Ahamkara is Ego, then what exactly is subconscious mind?

Not every memory stored in buddhi is directly accessible by manas. This is one aspect of what psychologists are referring to with the “subconsciousness” concept.

Another aspect is that the mind has patterns of operation,” mental habits,” as a result of doing things in certain ways. These are termed, “saṁskāra.”

Yet another aspect of the “subconscious mind” is the part of buddhi which functions without words. The vast majority of our thoughts take place with the medium of words, but buddhi can use any pattern (not just verbal ones) to process information. The connection and thoughts that don’t use words are more difficult to articulate and dissect in the normal realm, because in the normal waking realm we are very involved in using words. By not using words, these thought processes can sometimes be freed from some of the incorrect definitions and understandings we have of the words we use.

Question: Is there also an unconscious mind?

Unconsciousness is a state, not a thing. That state is termed, susupta-jñāna.

Question: Many a times I have observed that certain thoughts and emotions just pop up without any external stimuli, more so when I am sitting idle. Do they come from the subconscious mind?

These are the saṁskāra, the mind’s habitual patterns, asserting themselves.

Question: Many self-help books and speakers say that there is a great potential at the subconscious level, which can be tapped. Is this a valid statement or just some fad?

What they are really saying is that if we pay more attention to life, we can get more out of it and accomplish more. This is a pretty obvious thing, but they package it in some appealing way and sell it as a new self-help technique.

They are also saying that the thought processes that happen without words can sometimes make amazing connections and discoveries.

Vedic culture valued meditation very highly. Activating the potential they are talking about is just one of the beneficial side effects of even a little meditative practice.

Vraja Kishor

www.vrajakishor.com

Tagged: mind, Psychology, Self-Help, subconscious, unconsciousness

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 26 April 2016, Radhadesh, Belgium, Vyasa Puja Address)

Very recently, we have celebrated various appearance days of the different incarnations of the Lord. Most recently, it was of Lord Ramachandra, the embodiment of dharma. Each of our main books has an overriding theme. In the Bhagavad-gita, we find the dilemma of Arjuna. Arjuna who is somehow or other having a personal agenda and Krsna wants him to act according to his will and it takes the entire Gita for Arjuna to finally say, “Yes, I will do as you say.”

In the Ramayana, we find this endless dharma in so many ways. All these things become impressed upon us. We are living in this culture of worship. It is said that nānāvatāram akarod bhuvaneṣu kintu (Brahma-saṁhitā 5.39), in so many incarnations the Lord appear and in each of these incarnations the Lord performs pastimes.

Each of these incarnations, we remember every year and each year again we contemplate. So each year, there is one day that I read the Ramayana from morning to night. On every Rama Navami, somehow or other, I just read the Ramayana the whole day. I start as early as possible and I just go on and on, through the whole thing and when you get to this huge battle at the end then so many things are occurring there…

In different pastimes, we recall simple things. Just like when Lord Ramachandra and Sita were leaving Ayodhya to enter into the forest, they crossed a river. The king of the Nisadas, Guha, who was friends with Dasaratha, brought them across and when they were making a camp for the night then they saw all these bees drinking honey from so many flowers. The bees had drunk so much honey that they could not fly straight anymore. Then one bee came who was not affected, who had not been drinking from the all these different flowers and was not intoxicated by the honey, it was this bee who was bringing back home all the other bees. By themselves, they could not do it, they could not go home. So Lord Ramachandra pointed out, he said, “Just see, this one bee is taking all the others home,” comparing it to guru. Anyway Sita thought it was funny – drunken bees and everything; some relief also from all the stress after having been banned to the forest.

So this is the system that one who is not intoxicated with all the different types of material enjoyment, one who is not indulging, is able to turn to Krsna without deviation and is able to then bring others out of that intoxicated state. This is our system!

Saint Patrick’s Day Parade Central London

There is a major newspaper in London called the Metro, of the top ten things to do in London over the weekend they recommended at number one, was to go on Harinam with these guys. (Photo attached)
900,000 people attend this festival in London. A great opportunity to distribute the Holy Name, Prasad, free booklets” On chanting Hare Krishna”, engaging the gurukula, and allowing the public to get darshan of the Lord of the Universe, Lord Jagannath.

Food For All at St Patrick's parade London 2017 from ardas on Vimeo.

Should we be taking part in the celebration of an Irish Saint?
Decide for yourself:

Srimad Bhagavatam
4.8.54
Purport (Excerpt)

Sometimes our Indian friends, puffed up with concocted notions, criticize, “This has not been done. That has not been done.” But they forget this instruction of Nārada Muni to one of the greatest Vaiṣṇavas, Dhruva Mahārāja. One has to consider the particular time, country and conveniences.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say, “Well, then, you can wear your Santa Claus
suit, but you’ll have to wear a Hare Kṛṣṇa button.”
Prabhupāda: That we can do. Never mind. But that is not under your
dictation. If I like.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They actually made us in New York, the court.
Prabhupāda: No, then there is no objection. But you cannot dictate…
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What dress.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I may dress myself to your liking; I may not. Rather,
you like the Santa Claus dress. You are Christian. I am pleasing you
by dressing myself like this. Why you are not pleased? I am trying to
please you.

Your servant
Parasuram das

Kelly J. Howard Carter

By Madhava Smullen for ISKCON New Vrindaban Communications

Kelly Carter, a science and social studies teacher at a middle school in Moundsville, never “joined” ISKCON. But she’s been a part of the New Vrindaban community longer than many devotees. Set to be honored at this spring’s Service Appreciation Ceremony, she has both love and a unique objectivity for the community that can teach us a lot and help guide us into the next fifty years of New Vrindaban.

Kelly moved to McCreary’s Ridge with her family when she was one year old in 1968, the year New Vrindaban was founded under Srila Prabhupada’s vision.

Interestingly, “New Vrindaban” is not one piece of land but many different plots on and around the Ridge, interspersed with land owned by local West Virginians. So whether they wanted it or not, devotees and locals were, and still are, part of the same broad community.

Kelly Howard’s photo taken from her front yard with a view of Vrindaban farm – late 1970s.

Kelly Howard photo taken from her front yard with view of Vrindaban farm – late 1970s

“For me, the Hare Krishnas were just always there,” says Kelly. “My house was on a hill straight across from the original Vrindaban farm, so I could see their place from my yard.”

As devotees bought more property in the neighborhood, and people began to talk about the strange new people who had moved in, Kelly would see them walking down the road in their robes and shaved heads.

“The earliest interaction with a devotee that I can remember was probably when I was six or seven, and a lady came to ask if she could pick the flowers in our field,” Kelly says. “The devotees would gather flowers such as Queen Anne’s Lace to eat. They’d fry them in ghee, they said.”

As a small child, Kelly remembers being fascinated with the devotees and the large work horses they had. But she was upset with them too – with their rigidity and how they didn’t always act in a way she considered ‘normal’ and friendly.

“I would wave at them and be friendly with them, but they wouldn’t say ‘Hi’ back to me,” she recalls. “They would only say ‘Haribol,’ and I didn’t know what that meant. It really annoyed me. So finally I stopped one devotee walking with his big horses and said, “I told you hi. Why can’t you just say hi?’ Then he did.  But he quickly added something like ‘Haribol’ again.”

In 1974, when Kelly was about seven years old, Srila Prabhupada visited New Vrindaban. Kelly’s interaction with him, while brief, made a big impression on her – his mood seemed different than that of some of his young disciples.

“I saw the devotees carrying him by, with lots of chanting and dancing,” she says. “I watched everyone go by, and then I waved to Prabhupada. He waved back, and smiled. I could tell that he was just thinking, ‘Aw, look at that sweet little girl waving to me, I’m going to wave back.’ And I remember thinking that he was much more friendly than some of the Hare Krishna people that lived there.”

Soon after, however, Kelly did meet many friendly devotees, and developed good relationships with them. At 8 or 9, the first devotee she ever really talked to, Vrindapati Das, took her to meet  his wife and new baby boy.

With her parents divorced, her brothers at an age where they were “too old to play with her,” and few friends her age, Kelly began to take walks down to the nearby Prabhupada’s Palace, then under construction. In a different era, when children would spend all day outside, nobody really noticed.

“I felt like I was Alice in Wonderland,” she says. “I would walk down the road and into my own little world – the Hare Krishna community – that nobody knew about. I’d meet people from all over the world, and watch them build a Palace of Gold.”

Kelly standing in her front yard in New Vrindaban, West Virginia, circa 1970s.

As a young teenager, Kelly became a familiar face in New Vrindaban. She befriended and helped Narendra Das in the Palace’s stained glass workshop. She helped Jala-kolahali Das lay gold leaf on the Palace walls. And when she stopped by the ladies making garlands, they were happy to teach her.

“I was really appreciative of the devotees who were willing to take the time to teach me things and let me participate,” she says. “One of my fondest memories was, I got to know the devotee who worked in the Deity kitchen. He would make all these special things for the Deities, and after they were offered he’d let me try them. I was not a very adventurous eater as a child – I was a macaroni and cheese kind of girl – so this was all way out of my league! I remember my favorite was puris and tomato chutney.”

Later, Kelly also had various jobs in New Vrindaban, washing dishes and helping in the Palace gardens.

“Pretty much all the devotees were from a major city, and they would teach me about where they were from,” she says. “I learned about the world, and about a different culture. Back then, there wasn’t so much diversity here, and not many people traveled. So I gained a lot of skills that I wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity to gain. Now I travel a lot, and meet people from all walks of life. New Vrindaban taught me how to do that.”

Not everyone at the time liked or understood the devotees, who bought a lot of property in the area, including the local bar, which had been the social center of the neighborhood. Many saw them as extra weird hippies, nicknamed them “hairy critters,” and were prejudiced against them because of how different they were.

According to Kelly, devotees, however, were prejudiced against the local people too, pegging them as backward and devoid of culture. As Kelly grew up she received negative treatment as well: devotees variously tried to pressure her into joining, feared her “bad influence,” judged her harshly, and called her names like “Karmi Kelly.”

“I was raised a Catholic, and I thought that the locals weren’t treating the devotees in a Christian way,” says Kelly. “On the flipside, I would listen to the devotees teach about Krishna, and then see that they weren’t treating the local people in a Krishna conscious way.”

Kelly & family members in 2017: son Brayden, Kelly, grandson Parker, & daughter Jaimie.

In the mid 1980s, Kelly moved to town, and didn’t keep in touch with New Vrindaban as much. More recently, she has begun to visit and be more involved. And she has seen positive changes in both the devotees and the locals.

The locals, she feels, are more open-minded, due to traveling more as well as the increasing popularity of Hare Krishna principles such as vegetarianism.

The devotees, she’s noticed, are more humble and wise. They’re also assimilating more into the broader community – devotees are out and about in town; coaching ball teams; and joining local gardening groups.

They’ve also invited Kelly to join the recently established New Vrindaban Village Association, and she has been happy to attend meetings.

“It sounds like they are much more open to embracing all aspects of the community, including the local people,” she says. “And I really appreciate that. I always wanted to see more unification, more appreciation for each other. Things could have been different if there had been more of that in the old days. Because the people who live here were good farmers – the devotees could have learned a lot from them. People could have helped each other more.”

But it isn’t too late, Kelly says. “I would like to see everybody – the broader local community, and the New Vrindaban community – becoming more and more accepting of and helpful to each other. And that has a better chance of happening now than it ever has. I think the time is ripe for some healing!”

It’s clear that Kelly wants to see New Vrindaban do well, and that it means a lot to her.

“I feel very lucky to have lived in a spiritual place like New Vrindaban,” she says. “I grew up there, built so many relationships, and I really feel like I’m part of the community – a community that helped shape my life.”

Harinama in Taiwan (Album with photos)
The Krishna consciousness movement is chiefly engaged in chanting the maha-mantra all over the world. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu introduced the congregational chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra to give everyone a chance to hear Krishna’s holy name, for simply by hearing Hare Krishna one becomes purified.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/ry1Vci

Thank you to all who have contributed towards this project. If anyone else would like to contribute, please go to http://www.krishnalounge.com/earthbag/.

Last Tuesday we went to the site, to inspect it an possibly clear it a bit. Folks felt inspired and what started as a mere prep work turned into a five hours of a serious undertaking. We ended up leveling the grounds and digging up the parameter trench. See images at http://www.krishnalounge.com/2017/03/earthbag-dome-construction-day-1/.

As of now, it seems that we are going to be working on this project on Mondays and Tuesdays, 11am – 6-7pm. To our donors, please feel free to come out and learn this technique in practice. The address is 1365 Rincon Ave., Escondido, CA 92026. Please dress suitable for the occasion. Work boots and a hat to protect you from the sun are recommended. If you would like to be a donor, please visit http://www.krishnalounge.com/earthbag/.

If you have donated towards the project but can not make it on Mondays or Tuesdays, we could meet you on the farm on another day and show and explain to you things we have done and how we’ve done them. Feel free to contact me directly by email (16rounds at gmail dot com) or by phone (858-366-5704).

Thank you.

ISKCON Ujjain has been expanding from a center to a simple center of worship to a worldwide center of excellence. In the window of March 25th to 27th , the devotees and general public were graced by the divine presence of His Holiness Bhakti Charu...

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You’ve Got to be Out of Your Mind to Chant!
Mahatma Das: When someone does or says something crazy, we might say, “He must be out of his mind.” To chant well we shouldn’t be crazy but we should be out of our mind. Why? Prabhupada said we don’t need the mind to chant.
Feeling is a function of the heart, not the mind. Feeling is what keeps us in the present; mind keeps us everywhere but the present. The mind doesn’t experience. The mind analyses experience. Therefore, when chanting, rather than controlling the mind just let the mind go. And it will automatically go when you enter the world of experience. Then you will be totally present with the name.
Fully present means there is only you and the holy name. This means just you and Krsna. No thoughts of what you have to do later, what you didn’t do yesterday, etc. It is in this plane that you taste the name. It is in this plane that you do not tire of chanting.
Have you ever eaten a meal while absorbed in conversation and when you finish you are surprised to see there is nothing left on your plate? “How did I eat all that?” The same thing happens when we chant and are not present to the experience of chanting. We don’t taste the meal of the holy name.
Be with your experience of chanting. Don’t try to create an experience, just experience what is actually happening when you chant. Don’t try to be an achiever. Be a dis-achiever.
Don’t try to analyze your experience with the name. Don’t ask if you are having the right experience, wonder when the experience will come, or when the taste will come. Just allow yourself to experience the holy names. Feel the holy names and just experience what you are experiencing. Isn’t it strange that we are waiting for the experience, struggling to get the experience, when all we have to do is allow ourselves to have the experience of our chanting.
Experience is not a function of the mind. Indeed, you can’t experience the holy name with your mind. You can understand what the name does, how the name does it, why the name does it, what you will experience when the name does it, etc, but this is not an experience of the name. This is an experience of the mind.
Your mind only gets in the way of your experience of the name. Therefore, you must be out of your mind to chant.
Have you ever observed that how absorbed you are in your conversation and when you finish your food, you are surprised to see there is nothing left on your plate? “How did I eat all that?” The same thing happens when we chant and are not present to the experience of chanting. We don’t taste the meal of the holy name.
Be with you experience of chanting. Don’t try to create an experience, just experience what is actually happening when you chant. Don’t try to be an achiever. Be a dis-achiever.
Don’t try to analyze your experience with the name. Don’t ask if you are having the right experience, wonder when the experience will come, or when the taste will come. Just allow yourself to experience the holy names. Feel the holy names and just experience what you are experiencing. Isn’t it strange that we are waiting for the experience, struggling to get the experience, when all we have to do is allow ourselves to have the experience of our chanting.
Experience is not a function of the mind. Indeed, you can’t experience the holy name with your mind. You can understand what the name does, how the name does it, why the name does it, what you will experience when the name does it, etc, but this is not an experience of the name. This is an experience of the mind.
Your mind only gets in the way of your experience of the name. Therefore, you must be out of your mind to chant.

Vaisesika Das: I can’t stop thinking about the big kirtans we had at ISV (our temple in San Jose, Ca) on Lord Rama’s appearance day. My mind keeps going back to those kirtans, wanting to relive them.
On that day, the devotees danced and sang together for hours in wild abandon: laughing, jumping, spinning, dancing, smiling and shouting with happiness.
I watched when a couple of devotees who arrived late walked into the big hall while the kirtan was roaring. The newcomers visibly turned bright, gradually shed their inhibitions and were soon dancing madly like everyone else.

Minding Our Mantras - 45 min. talk by Romapada Swami.
Why do we need to chant the Maha Mantra daily? What are some of the ways to help us improve the quality of our chanting? What does it mean to “chant from the heart”?
Listen to it here: https://goo.gl/zRFet4

[Talk at Bhakti Center, New York, USA]

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[Class at ISKCON, Central New Jersey, USA]

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[Class at ISKCON, Central New Jersey, USA]

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[Class at ISKCON, Central New Jersey, USA]

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[Talk at youth meeting, Central New Jersey, USA]

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The Real Treasure of India (15 min video)
A short lecture given by Sri Nandanandana dasa (Stephen Knapp) at the World Ramayana ...

Spiritual guidance and nurturing is, of course, meant for all devotees, both temple residents and home-based: “The temple center is started just to present example to the neighboring residents how they can make a small temple in each and every home. It is not necessary that hundreds and thousands of people will live in our temple, but if we can make effective propaganda, then the neighboring residents, householders, will be inclined to be initiated and follow the modes of temple life.” (Letter to Tamal Krishna, June 1, 1969) Srila Prabhupada elaborates on this point in his purport to Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya-lila 3.190: “Everyone can execute the cult of Krsna consciousness at home, as ordered by the Lord. Everyone can congregationally chant the holy name of Krsna, the Hare Krsna maha-mantra. One can also discuss the subject matter of the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam and install Deities of Radha-Krsna or Gaura-Nitai or both and worship them very carefully in one’s own home. It is not that we have to open different centers all over the world. Whoever cares for the Krsna consciousness movement can install Deities at home and, under superior 7 guidance, worship the Deity regularly, chanting the maha-mantra and discussing the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam.” Continue reading "GBC: Encouraging & Nurturing the Devotees
→ Dandavats"

Question: In Gītā’s Chapter 11 Krishna shows Arjuna his universal form. Does this set a benchmark? Because many people claim themselves to be GOD. If someone poses as such,  can we request him to show this universal form? Even if that guy says that, “I am showing but you are not able to see,” we can request him to grant us Divya Caksu [divine sight] as Krishna gave to Arjuna. So, can this be also one of the reasons  for Chapter 11, that no one in the future claim oneself to be God?

No. This is not a good benchmark. This is not the purpose of Chapter 11. In 10.13 Arjuna already give the fundamental reason believes Krishna to be an avatāra: because Vyāsa and other realized sages described him as such.

Do not use the Universal Form as a “benchmark” for being an avatar. Because…

1. Not every bonafide incarnation of Viṣṇu displays the universal form.
2. God reserves the right not to disclose himself (“nāhaṁ prakāśa sarvasya”), so even if you were to approach a real incarnation of God and make these demands, you might validly be denied.
3. If you base your assessment of a person’s divinity on miraculous visuals, you can be tricked into accepting a yogi or magician as an avatāra. Yogis, magicians, even con artists, can do, say, and show amazing things, especially under certain circumstances they could show you something that looks like a “Universal Form.”

The primary avatāra of Viṣṇu are listed in the third canto of Bhāgavatam. The secondary avatāra are limitless, the tertiary incarnations are literally everyone and everything.

Really, it is not very important at all if someone is or is not an avatāra of Viṣṇu, what is important is what they say and do. For example, Gautama Buddha was certainly an avatāra of Viṣṇu listed in the third canto, but, aside from his philosophy of ahiṁsa, no follower of Vedic culture accepts his teachings, because they are not founded on the Veda. So what is more important than being an avatāra or not is whether or not someone truly does understand, realize, practice, and teach the knowledge in the Veda.

It is not very important at all if someone is or is not an avatāra. What is important is whether or not they truly  understand, realize, practice, and teach the knowledge in the Veda.

Vraja Kishor das

www.vrajakishor.com

Kadamba Kanana Swami’s three-week stay at the Ayurvedic Hospital in Coimbatore is almost over. He will check-out tomorrow (03 April). His time at the hospital has been focused on the treatment and recuperation. In the past week, Maharaj was visited by the family of his disciple Swayambhagawan Das. Maharaj also visited the temple at the hospital where the form of Lord Vishnu called Dhanvantari is worshiped and the locals say that without this worship, the treatment given at the hospital does not work! When Maharaj would go out on this daily walks, people would come out of their bungalows and give flowers to him which he would then offer to Giriraj thereby giving those people some spiritual benefit (sukriti). Tomorrow Maharaj will travel to South Africa and arrive on Tuesday morning (04 April) where he will spend two weeks traveling from Johannesburg to Cape Town and then to Durban for the famous Ratha Yatra Festival (14-17 April).

The April issue of “The Conch” the monthly Newsletter
of the Iskcon New Govardhana Community is online.
In this issue: LORD RAMACHANDRA APPEARS, Perfect king, perfect example. WHERE THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A WAY, Why you should make a Will. SACRED SOUND RETREAT. Fun activities for the kids. PERMACULTURE. New course at Krishna Village. SANNYASA MINISTRY, An inside look.
You can download the pdf document here: https://goo.gl/FQSJGW

Seeking the blessing of the Lord (Album with photos)
Indradyumna Swami: Today I took a number of devotees to the village of Dauji in Gokul, Vrindavan. Tomorrow I leave Vrindavan to return to my preaching duties in western countries and I wanted to seek the blessings of Dauji, or Lord Balarama, who resides in His deity form in a beautiful temple in the center of the village. Lord Balarama gives spiritual strength to His devotees to advance in Krsna consciousness, as well as to convince others of the process of devotional service. I prayed to the deity of Lord Balarama to give me strength to fulfill the order of my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, to help spread our Krsna conscious movement far and wide.

“One cannot attain the supreme platform of self-realization without being sufficiently favored by Balarama. Bala does not mean physical strength. No one can attain spiritual perfection by physical strength. One must have the spiritual strength which is infused by Balarama. Balarama is the source of spiritual power, or the original spiritual master. “

[ Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Prayers by the Demigods for Lord Krsna in the Womb.”]
Find them here: https://goo.gl/NRwJR0

Varnasrama series.

Free Emergency Prasadam for the Murwillumbah Flood Victims (Album with photos)
The devotees from Iskcon New Govardhana quickl...

This Tamal tree, within the Iskcon Temple in Vrindavan, is a place of pilgrimage for Gaudiya Vaisnava’s. Long before when the Krishna Balaram Mandir was constructed in Vrindavan, in the early 1970’s there were reported to be very few Tamal trees in Vrindavan. One at Rasasthali and one at the Samadhi of Rupa Goswami in Radha Damodar. So, Srila Prabhupada noted that the land had a Tamal tree and he was very very pleased. There is an interesting pastime about this tree. Long before Srila Prabhupada sat under this tree, he envisioned himself sitting under this tree and looking at the deities of Krishna-Balarama. He said, we will have Kirtan under this tree and he said, this tree should be worshipped and the soil under the tree, a tea spoon of it should be taken, mixed with sand and water from the Yamuna river and then with the coconut husk you should clean the arati paraphernalia in our temple with this holiest substance. So, it is a very sacred place for us and let us pray that not only now but in the future Srila Prabhupada’s wish will be fulfilled and Gaudiya Vaisnava’s will be able to worship the sacred tree in the sacred occasion for many many more years to come. …….(Memories from Srimati Yamuna Devi)

On the 6th of March, an audience of over 500 filled the University of Melbourne’s Carrilo Ganter Theatre for a seminar offering a unique insight into the universal topic of happiness. Looking out into the full lecture theatre, the first observation one would make is to notice the variety of people present from different backgrounds, age demographics, and walks of life. Guest speaker, Devamrita Swami aptly and humorously sets the tone of the event with his opening quip, “I didn’t think there were this many people interested in the topic of happiness.” Continue reading "“Event Happiness” at Melbourne University
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Srila Prabhupada wrote to a GBC member: “Now I have invested the GBC for maintaining the standard of our Krsna Consciousness Society, so keep the GBC very vigilant. I have already given you full directions in my books.” (Letter to Satsvarupa, 5 September 13, 1970) Later, Srila Prabhupada wrote to another member of the GBC: “I have formed this GBC for that purpose, to keep the devotional standards at the highest level and at the same time to manage a world-wide organization.” (Letter to Rupanuga, November 4, 1970) Srila Prabhupada often stressed that the GBC was meant to ensure that purity was maintained throughout the Society. In a letter to Sudama Maharaja dated February 16, 1973, he wrote: “In your travelling from centre to centre, you must be very careful to see that the leaders are observing the principles of chanting 16 rounds, rising early for Mangala Arati, participating in the morning and evening classes, observing the four regulative principles etc., and if there is any deviation from this standard then it is the responsibility of you and the local GBC representative to rectify it immediately. Within these Vaisnava standards which I have put forward lies the spiritual strength of our movement.” Continue reading "GBC: Maintaining Srila Prabhupada’s Standards Worldwide – Providing Spiritual Leadership & Guidance
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BLESSED BY SPRING’S INSPIRATION and my poem, LISTENING FOR SPRING: Stepping outside this morning around sunrise was so lovely, enlivening. The “spring thing” feeling in the air, subtle, yet palpable, encouraging me with thoughts of possibilities and new beginnings. Cool temps stimulate, yet hint at approaching warmness. The sun seems especially bright after yesterday’s dark clouds and torrential downpours.

That special morning spring light shining off the dew, with new grass and other tiny excited plants coming up. A few trees just begin to show their small intense green leaves, while most are still sleeping, but telling us they know their time is coming soon. The first robins showed up two weeks ago, while the crows come daily for leftover prasad.

In a hurry, running off to work, you might miss it, or if you did sense it, you could easily forget about it in the stress of the day. Krishna’s or God’s Material Nature—his “separated energy” no less—is so amazing. As I have written about before, living in the country can really change one and give a new awareness, like the wonder of sight after being blind. One slows down, or at least that happened to me, as I have never been a passionate person—as I shared yesterday, in good and problematic ways.

However, today, I am stressing the positive aspect of the mode/quality/energy of goodness which colors one’s perception, as would the other “gunas,” of ignorance and passion.

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