Websites from the ISKCON Universe
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
→ Dandavats"
Gita verse-by-verse Podcast
Download by “right-click and save content”
The post Gita 11.55 The same chapter that calls for war also calls for giving up animosity appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Vedic Magic
QUESTION: I want to practice the magic spells from Atharva Veda, can you advise me on a good translation that’s really simple and explains things “for dummies.”
You might benefit from doing Atharva Veda spells, but the benefit would be mainly due to psychological and psychosomatic effect. The real, practical magic wouldn’t happen in any profoundly tangible way. Here’s why.
Magic spells only work when they are done exactly right, and its pretty damn near impossible to do any Vedic rituals exactly right anymore. Even the Vedic language alone is very difficult and exacting (it is much more strict and difficult even than classical Purāṇic Saṁskṛta) not to mention the myriad other components of the ritual. In an incantation, even the pitch-intonation of a syllable is important. There’s a famous incident: by getting the wrong pitch on just one of the symbols of a spell, even the great and accomplished mystic magician…
View original post 646 more words
(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!
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 20th 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:
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
→ Dandavats"
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
→ Dandavats"
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
→ Dandavats"
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
Download by “right-click and save content”
The post Gita 11.54 Pure devotion grants the topmost spiritual vision appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
(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.
By Indradyumna Swami I inched forward to hear better and was stunned when the tallest monk told the crowd about Krsna and the spiritual world. I learned later that what he was speaking is found in the ancient Vedic scripture Brahma-samhita: Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He lives forever in the spiritual world, beyond the dualities of material life. His transcendental land of Vrndavana is populated by goddesses of fortune, who appear as milkmaids and who love Krsna beyond anything else. The trees there fulfill all desires, and the waters of immortality flow through land made of wish-fulfilling stone. There all speech is song, all walking is dancing, and the flute is the Lord's constant companion. Cows flood the land with abundant milk, and everything is luminous like the sun. Since every moment in Vrndavana is spent in loving Krsna, there is no past or future. "That's it!" I yelled out. Continue reading "Shelter Beyond Duality
→ Dandavats"
By Dina Dayala dasa Speaking about Jiva, Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of the present-day most influential Gaudiya-Vaisnava organisation, ISKCON, said: “The Vaisnavas are by far the greatest philosophers in the world, and the greatest among them was Srila Jiva Gosvami.” (Bhaktivedanta, 1983, 354). Jiva is not only praised amongst the followers; acknowledging his greatness, Benares Hindu University dedicates an entire department to the study of his works. Jiva Gosvami’s importance and role in the beginning days of the Gaudiya–Vaisnavas movement cannot be underestimated. As a leader of the first generation of devotees after Caitanya, he finalized the organisation of and systematized the philosophy of the young Gaudiyas movement. S. K. De writes: “Jiva became the highest court of appeal in doctrinal matters as long as he lived.”[ii] For that purpose, Jiva was exceptionally prolific; he wrote about four hundred thousands Sanskrit verses, which is four times more than the numbers contained in the world’s biggest epic Mahabharata. His six treatises on Srimad-Bhagavatam, called Sat-sandarbhas are certainly one of his most important works and methodically present the whole of Caitanya’s philosophy. Continue reading "Is Jiva Gosvami’s philosophy the same as Sri Caitanya’s?
→ Dandavats"
Appreciating that a visit to the temple is to be in God’s presence.
Prayers required.
Indradyumna Swami: An update on my condition. Unfortunately, the bacterium infection which I contracted from my prostate biopsy has developed into Septicemia, a serious and dangerous blood infection. I am in a good hospital here in South Africa with the best doctors and they are administering strong antibiotics. Once again I am humbly appealing for your prayers that I may quickly recover and continue with my services to Srila Prabhupada.
Jayapataka Swami: The sankirtana devotees were cooking for a preaching program and the gas exploded, causing four to be injured. Their bodies were severely burned. Two are in the ICU. One is serious and doctors don’t know what will happen. The devotees are now in Bhubaneswar. Please pray for them. Their names are Ananta Acarya Dasa, Tirtha Nityananda Dasa, Tribhanga Syama Dasa and Bhakta Rajesh (60% body burned). They are from Mayapur sankirtana bus number nine.
A Helpful Heart Food for Life Nepal (4 min video)
Food For Life Nepal a non-profit organization actively working by feeding 160...
By Yudhisthir Govinda Das New Delhi – 21st January, 2017: ISKCON Govardhan Eco Village (GEV) won a prestigious United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Award for India on 18th January in Madrid, leading over 55 countries in the category of ‘Innovation in Non-Governmental Organizations’. The UNWTO awards are recognized as one of the world’s most coveted awards in the global tourism sector. The 13th edition of this award saw 139 applications from 55 countries. Govardhan Eco Village, spread over 70 acres in Wada near Mumbai is the first Indian NGO to win a UNWTO Award. It was recognized for its ground-breaking work in using eco-tourism to reduce poverty and provide sustainable livelihoods in one of the most backward tribal regions of India. Continue reading "ISKCON Govardhan Eco Village Wins Prestigious UN WTO Award in Tourism
→ Dandavats"
Gita verse-by-verse Podcast
Download by “right-click and save content”
The post Gita 11.53 Krishna can’t be known by the Vedas, although the Vedas are meant for knowing him appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
SELF-ABSORPTION isn’t thought of favorably and generally means to be excessively concerned with one’s own life and interests without taking into consideration other people. Some synonyms are egoism, self-centeredness, narcissism, self-importance, self-preoccupation, etc. However, in my thinking this morning while chanting, which is the attempt to “hear” God in his holy names, or become absorbed in the Supreme Self, we need to be self-absorbed in the sense of becoming aware of those parts of ourselves that need to be adjusted and purified. When we are chanting or praying we become aware of our highest ideals and our various types of material interests, or even our lowest worldly desires.
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 except 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.
To go beyond superficial appearances we must dig deep to what we may not want to look at, to uncover our conditioned, or “naked” self, free from colored pretenses, either thinking we are great or are nothing. In spiritual life we must understand where we are, and where we aspire to go.
ISKCON Govardhan Eco Village (GEV) won a prestigious United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Award for India on 18th January in Madrid, leading over 55 countries in the category of ‘Innovation in Non-Governmental Organizations’. The UNWTO awards are recognized as one of the world’s most coveted awards in the global tourism sector. The 13th edition of this award saw 139 applications from 55 countries.
Tirupati class.
Will you exercise or exorcise the demands of the senses?
In the Gita, Krsna says that only one who is free from sinful life can engage in His service with determination:
“Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life and whose sinful actions are completely eradicated are freed from the dualities of delusion, and they engage themselves in My service with determination.” (Bg. 7.28)
Souls conditioned by material nature become used to obeying the demands of the senses.
One Vaisnava poet has compared the senses and their unhealthy demands to “bad masters.”
One who takes seriously to spiritual life must learn to tolerate the impulses of the senses, for by doing so the practitioner gradually becomes peaceful and gains the power to focus his or her mind on the supreme.
On the other hand, those who continually surrender to misdirected sense impulses eventually become addicted to obeying them. A person afflicted by addiction finds it nearly impossible to override the sense impulses with his or her intelligence.
Therefore Krsna recommends, “… in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.” (Bg. 3.41)
It is helpful to note that when one tolerates the impulses of the senses, the impulses gradually go out of the body, mind and senses; and they don’t come back (as long as one does not re-stimulate them).
A human being, equipped with knowledge from the Bhagavad-gita may make the wise choice to regulate and control the senses.
Others without such knowledge, who continue to entertain material desires, are obligated to rotate in the cycle of birth and death.
Fortify and spiritualize your intelligence each day by chanting Hare Krsna with attention, reading Bhagavad-gita, and accepting good association.
Following such an auspicious path, one gradually rises to the position of nistha, or steadiness in spiritual life.
In human life, we have the choice to exercise or exorcise the urges of the senses.
Krsna Himself implores Arjuna (and all of use) to choose the later:
“Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental to the material senses, mind and intelligence, O mighty-armed Arjuna, one should steady the mind by deliberate spiritual intelligence [Krsna consciousness] and thus—by spiritual strength-conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust. (Bg. 3.43)
Vaisesika Das
Maha Nectar in Auckland, New Zealand (Album with photos)
When Sri Krishna brought the Maha-Mantra, He did not just bring it so ...
