Planet ISKCON

[Bhagavatam class at Govardhan Eco-village, Wada, Mumbai]

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[Talk in Mumbai at Axis Bank Training Convention]

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QUESTION: From my association with ISKCON and its likes, I very strongly got the point that for Krishna’s service one should be willing to sacrifice everything and sever all connections with parents, spouse and children and more so if they are non devotee category. 

It’s not a nice thing for me to say, and it’s not pretty, but it’s true and its something very important for us to come to grips with: ISKCON was a cult – a radically sequestered group with radically different outlooks than the main society, where the members were exploited for the benefit of the leaders. Some people in this cult are super nice. Some are even super good. Some are even super spiritual and some even have super bhakti. That doesn’t change the fact that, as a social entity, ISKCON society operates as a cult, and many of their interpretations of śāstra are made to serve this purpose.

Maybe modern ISKCON isn’t as much of a cult as it was in the 70s, but there are still a lot of holdovers from that strong cultism lingering in the ISKCON of today.

Now, I know this isn’t nice to say, especially since the founder of ISKCON, A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Prabhupāda was a very great soul, and also because, very ironically, practically each and every one of us is extremely indebted to and grateful for many of the things this cult managed to do. Nonetheless ISKCON has a cult foundation, and that’s important to recognize and admit, because if we don’t, we will never get past the doubts of wondering if the Vedas actually legitimately justify ISKCON’s radical demonization of everyone who is a) not a theist, b) not a Vedic theist, c) not a Vaiṣṇava theist, d) not a Vaiṣṇava theist practicing to their measure of “strictness”, e) not a strict Vaiṣṇava from Gauḍīya sampradaya, and specifically not from other Gauḍīya groups outside of the “ISKCON” controlled by this big nasty thing called the “GBC” with all its “ministry” tentacles.

A cult wants to radically separate its members from everyone and everything outside the cult, so that the members feel exclusively dependent upon the support of the cult, so that they accept the flaws and malpractices of the cult leaders, because they feel they have no alternative.

I’m not saying this because I feel like being mean. I’m saying this because it’s important. We have to admit that ISKCON is a cult. It’s important.

If we can’t see or admit this, we won’t be able to objectively and clearly understand the Vedic messages. The real Vedic scriptures like the Upaniṣads and Bhagavad Gītā and Śrīmad Bhāgavatam very, very often contradict the cult-values of ISKCON. For example, Vedic śāstra like Bhagavad Gīta very often tells us to take care of our family responsibly, dutifully and lovingly. If we can’t accept that ISKCON is flawed, we won’t be able to directly accept the śāstra “as it is.”

We must realize that ISKCON has a flaw of having been built as a cult, and that the social values of ISKCON do not reflect the social values of classical Indian culture, or the Veda history. If we don’t, we won’t be able to figure out 80% of the Veda. ISKCON will tell us that it understands Indian culture better than centuries of Indians do. ISKCON will tell us it understands the Vedas better than centuries of ācāryas do. ISKCON will tell us to ignore or “rise above” the parts of the śāstra that contradict the values of a cult. This is just a cult being a cult. It is certainly not the Vedic method of approaching śāstra to cut out the parts that don’t match what we expect to hear. The Vedic method of śāstric analysis is samanvaya: syncretic, wholistic, and all-inclusive.

If we can admit that ISKCON is a cult (which really isn’t hard if anyone just takes an objective look at their history) and find guidance from someone who is not a member of a cult but is deep in bhakti and śāstra (there are plenty) then all the sudden we are free to understand śāstra a lot more clearly and without all the divisive, dualistic, demonizing cult stuff. We can let go of the misconception that karma, karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, and bhakti-yoga are at odds with each other, and that only only the most expreme for of “purest” bhakti is of any use to anyone with any integrity. We can then begin to understand śāstra with samanvaya.

Vraja Kishor

www.vrajakishor.com

Tagged: cult, cults, ISKCON, sect

Gita verse-by-verse Podcast

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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 15 July 2009, Japa Talks)

In many years of chanting, not every day was an optimal one. I have chanted when I was tired, when I was ill and injured; I have chanted in cars, planes and boats. Once I also chanted on a horse racing track! The quality of my rounds has varied due to my own physical condition and the external circumstances and to the state of my consciousness. But the Holy Name has stayed as an integral part of my life, the Holy Name is like a friend – always there, soothing my mind, creating stability in the turbulence of life in the material world, making me detached from the ongoing affairs by making me remember the eternal perspective that what really matters is my service to Krsna…

All of the material existence, the universes, outer space, galaxies, stars, planetary systems, planets, continents, countries, cities, and everyone’s body, are all on fire. In worldly consciousness, our illusory task is to deny this fire at every turn, or recognizing the fire partially, to create structures to protect us from being burned, keeping that fire “over there,” overseas, or in another neighborhood, and not in our view. However, as much as our societies, elders, and parents are trying to reassure us that there is nothing to worry about, we find clues everywhere about this all-consuming fire, if we can read the signs. We can’t combat what we deny.

Great devotees come to this world to warn everyone about the fire that is consuming all physical life and every aspect of the material world. Religions are begun around such saintly speakers of cutting truth to reveal the fire, but in course of time, religions also become deniers of the fire, or they teach people how to work with the fire so they can be happy with it until they die with the promise of going to heaven, which is just another type of fire--not giving the real solution.

We can fight this fire with a different type of fire. Though we can’t stop the material world from burning, since everything material is meant to change, transform, and eventually burn to ashes, we can fight the fever of material existence with the transcendent cooling firepower of life-giving divine wisdom and spiritual practice.

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This year’s Rathayatra at Whangarei, about 160 kilometres north of Auckland, was wonderful.

Their Lordships Sri Jagannatha, Balarama and Subhadra Devi looked magnificent and the three metre Lord Chaitanya was especially blissful.

Many devotees came with special guests, Janananda Maharaja, Mahavisnu Maharaja, Dharmatma prabhu, the Harinama Ruci group and I – all chanting and dancing in ecstasy.

By Mahatma Das

1. When taking over a position, department, project, preaching center, temple, etc., to immediately begin making drastic changes. 2. To play favorites or to speak against or criticize certain sections of devotees. 3. To do or say anything that will instill a lack of trust in a devotee's spiritual master. 4. To not give devotees facility to offer suggestions and ideas, voice opinions, or express observations in a way that will be given attention and be responded to. 5. To expect devotees to be enthusiastic about a service that you either do not encourage or facilitate. 6. To breach devotees trust in you by not doing something you promised - or bt lying to them. 7. Not attending all the temple programs (and expecting others to attend). 8. To have a budget that exceeds your income. 9. To create overheads so large that to maintain the project minimizes the preaching. 10. To not take interest in devotee's spiritual and material welfare and to not have time to deal with their problems and needs. 11. To make it difficult for devotees to see you. 12. To give devotees very little association. Continue reading "108 Mistakes I Have Made or I Have Seen Made by Other Leaders
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By Vaishnava Das

It's a scene that has been repeated countless times on the thoroughfares of cities throughout the Western world-from Hollywood Boulevard and Fifth Avenue in America, to London's Oxford Street and the Champs Elysees in Paris. There, in the midst of traffic, shops, restaurants, and movie theaters, people suddenly find themselves confronted by a group of young persons singing and dancing to the beat of cylindrical drums and the brassy cadence of hand cymbals. The men are dressed in flowing robes and have shaven heads; the women wear colorful Indian saris. Of course, it's the Hare Krsna people, chanting their now familiar mantra, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna ... But what's actually going on? Is it some form of protest, avant-garde street theater, a religious demonstration, or what? Continue reading "Chanting for Higher Consciousness: A Cultural History
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The first six months of my life were spent on an RAF aerodrome, and as a child I heard the grown-ups talking of military aircraft and of daring aerial battles during the war. No small wonder that I still think of flight as a metaphor for spiritual progress.

As every western devotee of Krishna knows, the daily commitment of a dedicated practitioner is to chant a minimum of sixteen rounds each day. This takes around two hours. The effect of the Hare Krishna mantra is quite remarkable, especially when recited early in the morning with mental focus and without distraction. The meditator feels uplifted by gradual degrees until there is a distinct feeling of lightness; of being free from gravity.

But in order to derive the most benefit from mantra meditation it must be done with determination and a feeling of gratitude and respect. Wherever the mind wanders it must be brought back to the sound of the mantra. That may take some time each morning; the mind still has to struggle with the lingering remnants of the night’s dreams, snatches of remembered conversation or hopes and longings for the future. Eventually, after an extended period of mental wrestling, the intelligence overpowers the mind and a level of absorption is reached.

I think of it as the gradual ascent of an aircraft – a British wartime Spitfire, naturally. So here’s what chanting sixteen rounds feels like in flight mode:

0 – 4 Rounds

The first round is usually accompanied by much coughing and spluttering. The engine is cold, having been out in the field all night. As you turn over the engine it may take a minute or two before it catches and you can rev it up. But once warm, the chocks are kicked aside, your plane turned in the right direction and you begin making your taxi down to the runway. You look at the sky, look at the wind direction, and begin to pick up speed along the runway. You begin to feel an intermittent lift as your plane reaches take-off speed.

4 -8 Rounds

You lift the nose of your Spitfire, but you’re a little too soon, and you jerkily come down to the ground again. Picking up just a little more speed, you see the trees flash past you. Again that feeling of lightness. And then the noise in your head stops: your wheels are no longer bumping along the ground. At first you’re only a few inches above the ground, but slowly, gradually, you lift and the ground sinks away from your eyes. Only the tops of the trees are visible. You’re flying.

8 – 12 Rounds

But you’re still too low to relax. You have to climb because flying low is dangerous. It takes more effort to climb than it does to take off. So you adjust the throttle and pull back on the lever, aiming for the wisp of cloud up ahead of you. Suddenly it goes darker; you are surrounded by cloud. You can’t see anything ahead or to the sides of you. You feel mild panic at having your vision so restricted. But after a few minutes, as you continue to climb, the cockpit becomes lighter and lighter.

12 – 16 Rounds

You break through the cloud cover and watch as it gently retreats slowly below you. The strength of the sunlight up here surprises you. It’s a completely different world; clean and fresh, light and bright. Up here there is only you, the bright blue sky and the Sun. For a moment even the mechanics that got you up here seem to disappear. The aircraft has become only a distant presence. You can’t even hear the engine anymore. You are soaring now, climbing ever higher. Nothing can stop you now. You are free.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Spitfire Pilot

 

 

 

David: Bhakti Centre is a unique project, inspired by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, who wanted to open a Youth Hostel in London to distribute Hari Katha.

Ratha Yatra in Whangarei, New Zealand (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: During several morning walks Srila Prabhupada had described how various problems of the world could be solved by the application of Krsna consciousness. He said that Bhagavan should write a book about it. Devotees like Yogesvara and Hari-vilasa had entered into the spirit of Prabhupada’s talk and introduced different world problems for Prabhupada to comment upon. On the topic of international terrorism, Prabhupada said that people should not expect to do away with terrorism as long as the vast majority of human beings were behaving as animals. If one ferocious beast fights with another in the jungle, he said, we should not be surprised. Similarly, as long as humanity lived as animals, without knowledge of self-realization, then we could not expect an end to terroristic violence. On the subject of divorce, Srila Prabhupada humorously remarked, “Don’t get married. Remain brahmacari. That is the solution.” From “Living with the Scrptures” by SDG
Find them here: https://goo.gl/Abm5Ad

By Nrsimha Kavaca dasa

Mayapur Academy has had great success over the past 10 years, yet it is not always easy for devotees to be away from their service or home for four months. To address this challenge faced by some devotees, ISKCON Deity Worship Ministry is now bringing Mayapur Academy to the world of ISKCON for the first time. This April, ISKCON Deity Worship Ministry, partnering with ISKCON Villa Vrindavan, will expand its offerings by conducting a 12-week training program at beautiful Villa Vrindavan. Villa Vrindavan will become a regional campus of the Mayapur Academy and offer course units in temple worship, brahminical culture & ethics, deity dressing, cooking for the deity, temple festivals (including maha abhisek), jewellry making, and a course in caring for and worshiping Tulasi devi. This will be the first time that devotees will be able to receive comparable training outside of Mayapur, and we encourage all interested devotees to participate. Continue reading "Mayapur Academy opens regional campus in Villa Vrindavan
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Gita verse-by-verse Podcast

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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, September 2009, Melbourne, Australia, Lecture)

The best way to chant is to chant at the same time every day. The best is to chant sixteen rounds in one go and not to break it up. The breaking up of rounds is not good – four here, four there, six and then the leftovers; this is not good. The best is to just stop everything and chant sixteen rounds in one stretch. This is the best. Or a few rounds before mangal arati and the rest after, that’s even better. Or all rounds before mangal arati is the very best! And the worst are those late night rounds!

Dog
Dogs bark. One dog barks at another dog or another human when the dog senses some territorial clash or some trespassing. Dogs also are faithful to their masters. So this dog-like mentality of barking and faithfulness is inculcated to human beings right from kindergarten, believe it or not!

When a child enters kindergarten and continues education all the way up to graduate school, the child who becomes a student of modern knowledge is taught to divide, categorize, analyze, and conclude. This process of teaching is a universal concept. Then the student graduates and enters the workforce. With his skills of conclusions based on the analysis of his categories, he is awarded and recognized in his company. He becomes a faithful servant to his company mission.

Division and categorization is like the dog perceiving a sense of boundary. Once this boundary is breached, there is alarm and barking. The advanced student, now a faithful servant of his company when faced with a breach of his imaginary self-served categories finds faults with other categories which is not self-serving. To the degree he is faithful to his owner who feeds him, to that much the advanced student will be loud in his fault-finding. This dog-like mentality of fault-finding and faithfulness blinds the intelligence of man to self-serving ideologies which is seminal to further conflicts.

Hog
A hog is a greedy animal. It eats anything without any sense of discrimination. Of course, those who have discrimination find this behavior repulsive. Human beings, out of greed and passion, accumulate or hoard things, money, real estate just like a pig without discrimination. Similarly, humans when they eat food without any sense of discrimination, cleanliness or appropriateness, then that human is no better than a pig. The recommended food for a human being is made from grains,vegetables, fruits, milk, sugar etc. Flesh is forbidden for human consumption. Religion has nothing to do with this. Greediness and cleanliness in accumulation and food habits distinguish humans from being pig-like.

Camel
Camels are desert animals that eat thorny plants. It enjoys its own blood thinking it is chewing juicy plants. Similarly materialistic people suck their own blood like the camel by trying to intensely enjoy family life by having sex, money,family members, and employment. Just like the foolish camel enjoying his false-pleasure of sucking his own blood from his mouth, similarly people who are materialistically minded work very hard to enjoy pleasures of this world ignoring their spiritual duties and at the end eat the thorny results of their actions mixed with their own blood. This is a diseased state and such people are indeed camel-like. While they are actually suffering, they think out-of-illusion, they are enjoying!

Ass
Ass or a donkey is the glorious beast of burden and is even looked down upon within the animal community. This ass carries so much burden for a few morsels of grass which is freely available without so much work. Another aspect of the ass is that the he-ass out of desire to have sex with a she-ass is willing to be kicked by the she-ass on its face. Apparently, the female ass kicks the male ass if it is not inclined. Despite this kicking, the male ass continues with its pleas of sex. Similarly, the glorified modern uber man and woman works exactly like the donkey carrying the lord for his master. The master throws some reward and the ass-like worker enjoys with that money. The man/woman also enjoys with his/her spouse and children and is controlled in various ways by them just to satisfy them. Today both man and woman work like an ass and are kicked by their masters and the opposite sex.

In summary. human beings when they engage in fault-finding, faithfulness to self-serving masters, greediness,lack of cleanliness,life-depleting work/life ethic and intense desire to enjoy this world despite its' burdens represent the four animals dog, hog, camel and ass. Such animal like human beings in the name of political partyism, religionism, philanthropism,communism,casteism, racism, scientism, nationalism etc, elect their leaders to govern will only result in chaos and not peace. There is no question of happiness with no peace!

Therefore, a true leader is one who knows the relationship between matter and spirit and adores the all-knowing God in humble service as the Supreme benefactor. Such a leader creates a system where all living beings including the lower species can live in harmony with each other. Such a leader and such a community is indeed human-like and in such a community peace and fraternity is but a natural outcome.

Hare Krishna

In the sleepy seaside town of Folkestone, known for its tourism and harbour trade, is a little oasis for spiritual awakening right on the old High Street called: Atma Lounge. The official opening was on the 20^{th of} January with the attendance Damian Collins and the landlord and Former Mayor of Folkestone Philip Carter, Leader of Shepway Council David Monk as well as other dignitaries and guests. The event included: a tour of the property, a presentation and introduction to the philosophy and organization the center is run by.

No one takes their first drink with the desire to become alcoholics. They think that they are just having some fun; they are being cool; they are fitting into the crowd. They believe that they can drink without becoming drunkards.

Sri Krishna Kathamrita Bindu Issue 392
KK Bindu #392: Includes continuation of a first time translation of a little known commentary on Raghunath Das Goswami’s prayers to Govardhan Hill.
CONTENTS INCLUDE:
* SPEECH CONTROL – Important instructions from His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
* Greatest Offense to the Holy Name – Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada speaks about the paramount importance of respect to guru.
* Residence near Govardhan – Part four, of a first time translation done especially for this issue of Bindu of a little known commentary ascribed to Srila Baladev Vidyabhushan on some of the prayers to Govardhan Hill written by Srila Raghunath Das Goswami.

* Avoiding Rebirth – Another first time translation done for this issue from the Subhashitavali a rare book by the learned and saintly Vallabhadeva.

* Accepting Rebirth – Another first time translation from Vallabhadeva’s Subhashitavali.

Cover photo by Ananta Vrindavan Das.

This issue can be downloaded at the following link:

https://archive.org/details/bindu392

By Kesava Swami

I recently connected with a childhood friend who also became a monk. As you can imagine, we had lots to talk about, and lots in common. In his tradition, one of the monastic vows is to never touch money; and if he does, even by accident, he observes complete fasting for a day. Serious detachment. Admittedly, if I had adopted that vow I’d be dead and cremated by now – financial transactions seem a staple part of my daily life! But money is dangerous, and time and time again we see how it can attack the integrity of life. It’s so easy to sell out on principles and purpose, in return for profit and pleasure. Continue reading "The spirituality of money
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By Karnamrita Das

Srila Prabhupada has compared chanting the holy name to making ghee. In ghee making, we boil butter, and must work to skim off the “impurities” or milk solids which rise to the surface. Then we will be able to create clarified butter, or ghee, which has so many medicinal properties and uses. This is an interesting analogy which can help us in our daily spiritual practice. We can think of our spiritual practices, like chanting the holy name, as the cleansing fire, that is meant to burn up the impurities or material contaminations. If we expect to go anywhere spiritually we have to keep turning on the fire of purification through the nine processes of bhakti, especially hearing and chanting, so we can remember who we actually are as sparks of Divinity imbued with the serving nature, beyond material changeable designations. Continue reading "Self-absorption
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By Urmila Devi Dasi

Our life is full of anguish when others unjustly blame us… we feel offended and angry, and feel a strong urge to defend ourselves. Is there another way, a way to freedom? "For it is in this way that you will begin to gain freedom; soon you will not care if they speak ill or well of you; it will seem like someone else’s business. It will be as if two persons are talking in your presence and you are quite uninterested in what they are saying because you are not actually being addressed by them. So here: it becomes such a habit with us not to reply that it seems as if they are not addressing us at all. This may seem impossible to those of us who are very sensitive and not capable of great mortification. It is indeed difficult at first, but I know that, with the Lord’s help, the gradual attainment of this freedom, and of renunciation and self-detachment, is quite possible." Continue reading "Freedom from feeling blame and offense against oneself
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His Grace Bhajahari Prabhu, disciple of Srila Prabhupada, left his body in the morning of 21st January 2017. Fittingly it was a Saturday, so an extra large harinama sankirtan party took to the streets of London that evening in his memory.

Gita verse-by-verse Podcast

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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 2008, Newcastle, Durban, Lecture)

My life took many unexpected turns. I made plans but I could not fulfill many of them and I had to face many surprises – sometimes pleasant and sometimes unpleasant. I lived in many countries. Many people think that I am from Holland but to tell you the truth, I am not! Even in this life, my birth was in Vrindavan because my spiritual life began in Vrindavan and thus Holland feels like a last life. I can remember it only vaguely. I’m from Vrindavan actually! But there also, I faced ups and downs. In Vrindavan also, I faced pleasant surprises and a few unpleasant ones because this is the material world. But Krsna tells us that we should learn to tolerate the happiness and distress in this world because these are temporary. And how do we tolerate? Is it impossible? One can tolerate only if one is attached to Krsna…

“First the man takes a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes the man.” – Japanese proverb

 

The man takes a drink: No one takes their first drink with the desire to become alcoholics. They think that they are just having some fun; they are being cool; they are fitting into the crowd. They believe that they can drink without becoming drunkards.

But drinking moderately is like walking too close to the edge of a road that has no fence and that borders a deep valley. Just by staying close to that edge, they run the entirely unnecessary risk of slipping and falling off.

 

The drink takes the drink: When people drink in moderation, their habitual indulgence creates within their consciousness an impression, frequently subconscious, that drinking offers pleasure and relief. When life becomes frustrating or distressing and they feel the need for some quick relief, they will turn, often without even their conscious awareness, towards alcohol for relief.

In their seeking such relief, it can be said, in terms of the proverb, that the drink takes the drink. That is, the impressions created by the previous drink impel the drinker to take another drink in what psychologists call “absent-minded indulgence.” The person drinks without even being aware that they had a desire to drink and that they had opened a bottle, poured the drink and sipped it or even swallowed it. Maybe after they drink a full glass or even a full bottle do they realize that they had been drinking.

 

The drink takes the man: Over time, the pattern of seeking relief through drinking degenerates into drinking becoming the only source of relief. Worse still, the state of not drinking becomes a state of discontent and disturbance that can be relieved only by drinking. Thus, they end up drunkards. At such times, the drink has taken the man – their intelligence, their prestige, their finances, their job, their relationships, their dignity all can be destroyed by their alcoholism.

The Bhagavad-gita (02.62-63) cautions that the degeneration to self-destruction begins with contemplation. By avoiding contemplation on a tempting object, we can protect ourselves from the entire problem of degeneration to self-destruction.

Best to be safe and eschew the drink to avoid the disastrous chain of the drink taking the drink and then the drink taking the man.

And applying this preventive principle can protect us from our particular weakness, the behavioral pattern that we tend to downplay as small, but which can put us in big trouble.

The post Don’t let the drink take the drinker appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.