Adapted from a Talk by Giriraj Swami
December 17, 2000
Ojai, California

Our host, Urvasi dasi, called tonight’s occasion “The Holiday Festival.” In the West this is the holiday season, with Christmas and Hanukkah both coming up. As Srila Prabhupada explained, the Lord comes to this world to enlighten people with transcendental knowledge. Sometimes He comes personally, and sometimes He sends His son or His prophet or His messenger or His representative, but they all come with the same message. They may speak in different languages according to the circumstances and the audience, but the essence of the message is the same: God is great; we are but small parts and parcels of God, meant to serve Him with love; we have come from God and are meant to return to Him.

Srila Prabhupada’s purport in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is contains a statement that relates to the holidays people in the West are about to celebrate:

“‘The avatara, or incarnation of Godhead, descends from the kingdom of God for material manifestation. And the particular form of the Personality of Godhead who so descends is called an incarnation, or avatara. Such incarnations are situated in the spiritual world, the kingdom of God. When they descend to the material creation, they assume the name avatara.’ [Cc Madhya 20.263­–264] There are various kinds of avataras, such as purusavataras, gunavataras, lilavataras, sakty-avesa avataras, manvantara-avataras, and yugavataras–all appearing on schedule all over the universe. But Lord Krsna is the primeval Lord, the fountainhead of all avataras. Lord Sri Krsna descends for the specific purpose of mitigating the anxieties of the pure devotees, who are very anxious to see Him in His original Vrndavana pastimes.” (Bg 4.8 purport)

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, the spiritual master of Srila Prabhupada, said that Jesus Christ was a saktyavesa-avatara. As we just read, avatara means one who descends. So, he accepted that Jesus Christ descended to the earth from above. That is avatara. And saktyavesa means one who carries the power of the Lord. Thus, he accepted that Jesus Christ descended to earth with the power of the Lord to preach the message of Godhead. And Jesus Christ preached more or less the same message as Lord Krsna in the Bhagavad-gita. Sometimes people would ask Srila Prabhupada about Jesus, and Srila Prabhupada would reply, “In the Bible Jesus said that he was the son of God, and in the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna says that He is the father of all living entities, so there is no contradiction.”

Jesus Christ filled the role of a spiritual master, or guru. The spiritual master teaches the science of Godhead, and when a disciple surrenders to a spiritual master, the spiritual master accepts the disciple’s sinful reactions. Jesus Christ performed the same functions in relation to his followers or disciples; he taught them about God and accepted their sinful reactions. Sometimes Christians quote Jesus as having said, “There is no way to the Father except through me.” This statement is a little controversial in learned circles–there is some question whether the attribution is authentic or not. But in any case, Srila Prabhupada took the truth in these words to be that one cannot approach the Lord directly; one can approach the Lord only through the Lord’s representative, the spiritual master.

As far as the idea that Jesus Christ accepted the sins, or sinful reactions, of his followers, Srila Prabhupada expressed one concern: The followers should refrain from sin. They should consider, “Oh, if I sin, my spiritual master will have to suffer!” Christians in particular may consider, “If I sin, Jesus Christ will have to suffer for me, so I should not commit sin.” That should be the basic sense. They should not think, “Oh, I can go on sinning and poor Jesus will suffer for me.”

So, we accept Jesus as a saktyavesa-avatara, as an incarnation of Krsna. Christmas should be a time when we remember the teachings of Jesus Christ, the mercy of Jesus Christ, and the sacrifice he made for us. And we should resolve to be better followers, better servants of God and God’s representatives, and of all humankind and all living beings.

Hanukkah, in the Jewish tradition, is also an important festival celebrated at this time of year. Different festivals take place in different seasons and have different points of significance. Hanukkah is a winter festival, and winter is a dark season, when the sun sets early and rises late. Hanukkah is the festival of light. Historically, the ancient temple in Jerusalem had been seized and desecrated, but eventually, with great courage and sacrifice, the Jewish heroes, the Maccabees, won it back. They wanted to clean and purify the temple to make it fit for worship of the Lord. The worship included a flame that was sustained by sanctified oil, to be maintained at all times. But when the Maccabees regained the temple, they found only one flask of the priestly oil, enough to burn for only one day. Still, they lit the great temple lamp, or menorah, and, according to the story, the oil burned for eight days, until they could get more. So the miracle of Hanukkah is that the purified oil, which was sufficient to last only one day, burned for eight days, time enough to obtain more.

Figuratively, the temple is the heart. Cleaning the temple means cleaning one’s heart of the many dirty things that accumulate there by material association. That dirt includes false identification with the body and material desires for the gratification of the body’s senses and mind independent of God’s sanction and God’s service. And figuratively, the light is transcendental knowledge, or consciousness of God, which illuminates the heart and dispels the darkness of ignorance.

Just as the year has its cycles, we also pass through phases. We wish we could always be fully God conscious, but practically we may find cycles in our spiritual life, periods of increased devotion to God interspersed with periods of increased preoccupation with other matters. So the Hanukkah festival, the lighting of the candle or the burning of the lamp, means brightening our hearts with God consciousness or Krsna consciousness–cleaning the temple of the heart and rekindling the light of God consciousness, or devotion to God, within the heart.

In such devotional activities we require help, because alone each of us is quite weak. In the face of the material world, in the face of maya, we are weak and feeble, and we need the support and help of other devotees. If one person alone had to clean the temple, he or she would have a very hard job. But when all the devotees clean the temple together, the job becomes much easier.

The most complete science of God consciousness is presented in Srimad-Bhagavatam, which nicely explains the process of cleansing the heart:

srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah
   punya-sravana-kirtanah
hrdy antah stho hy abhadrani
   vidhunoti suhrt satam

 “Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramatma [Supersoul] in everyone’s heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.” (SB 1.2.17)

The Bhagavatam says that hearing topics of Krsna, or God, is itself pious activity. For example, we all have gathered here and are hearing the message of Krsna–just sitting here and hearing is itself pious activity. We have only to open our ears to the message of Godhead and we become pious (srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah punya-sravana kirtanah). Then, hrdy antah stho hy abhadrani: the inauspicious things in the heart–we could say the dirty things in the heart, the evil thoughts and selfish desires–become cleansed. How? Vidhunoti suhrt satam: The Lord Himself helps the truthful devotee to clean the dirt, because the Lord Himself is already there in the heart. He is already there, but because the heart is covered by material contamination, we cannot perceive the Lord’s presence; we cannot hear the Lord’s voice. However, when we show our eagerness to hear the Lord’s message through our ears, the Lord within reciprocates. He helps cleanse the dirty things from the heart so that we can hear Him there, guiding us. And when we surrender to the Lord and make sacrifices for Him, He supplies unlimited fuel for maintaining the flame of devotion in our hearts.

Satam means “truthful devotee.” The truthful devotee is honest in his or her endeavors in Krsna consciousness. One who is dishonest will make a show of piety or religiousness, but behind the show he will have other interests. He will harbor other ambitions. But the truthful devotee actually wants to understand the science of God and actually wants to serve the Lord and all living beings. Though he may be weak, if he is honest in his endeavors to listen to the messages of Godhead and apply the principles in life, even if he is incapable of executing the orders perfectly, still he is considered satam, a truthful devotee. And the Lord within the heart, who acts as the well-wishing friend of the truthful devotee, will cleanse the heart of the dirty things that have accumulated there.

Again we see how important association is, because the process for cleansing the heart is hearing the messages of Godhead, and only in the association of devotees can we receive the messages properly. Through our hearing and then chanting and repeating what we have heard, the heart becomes cleansed by the grace of the Lord. Ceto-darpana-marjanam: By chanting the holy names of God and by hearing the transcendental glories of God, the heart becomes cleansed and the light of Krsna consciousness there burns more brightly. It spreads throughout the entire body, and it comes out–through the skin, through the eyes, through the different senses. Especially, it comes out through the mouth in the form of transcendental sound, which comes from the heart. The messages that one has received through the ears and that have entered the heart come out again through the mouth and spread light, enlightenment, throughout the world.

So, we greatly appreciate the efforts of Mother Urvasi, for she works so hard to create a situation where we all can come together and speak about God, hear about God, and remember God. Holy days are special occasions when we can get together and remember the Lord’s appearance, or some great devotee’s appearance or disappearance, or some great event that took place in the service of the Lord. And when we get together and hear about the Lord and the great devotees of the Lord and the great service and miracles that took place in relation to the Lord, we become purified. We become enlightened and engladdened.

Peace on earth and goodwill toward humanity actually can be achieved through God consciousness. The Bhagavad-gita explains how we can achieve peace. As we have heard, we must “first make peace with God.” If we reestablish our relationship with God and experience God’s peace and friendship, then we can have real peace and friendship amongst ourselves and help each other in our relationships with God.

Srila Prabhupada said, “God consciousness is there. You have begun these Christmas holidays in your country. Throughout the whole month of December you’ll observe nice festivities. Why? It began with God consciousness. Jesus Christ came to give you God consciousness, and in relation to him these festivities are going on. It may have degraded into another form, but the beginning was God consciousness. Now we may have lost it. But people cannot be happy without reviving God consciousness. It may be named differently–‘Krsna consciousness’–but that means God consciousness. That is the necessity. We want to love somebody. Our love will be perfected when we love Krsna, or God. We are teaching that. Try to love God, and if you love God, if you love Krsna, then automatically you love everybody. That is the perfection of love.”

Are there any questions?

Guest: I want to ask how you feel about a belief I am entertaining, namely that Jesus was a spiritual master because he had attained a spiritual level of consciousness or ascendancy through releasing his ego attachments and becoming transparent to God, and that statements attributed to him such as “No one can come to the Father but through me” and “I am the way, the truth, and the light” could be referring to the way that he had attained his level of spiritual mastery. That is, such statements may be indicating that one cannot come to the Father in any other way but to release ego attachments and create this transparency to God. I realize that you were referring to the need for a spiritual master to assist one in achieving a level of spiritual ascendance, but could Jesus have been saying, “This is the way–the way I’ve done it”?

Giriraj Swami: What you say could be true. In fact, Srila Prabhupada used to describe the spiritual master as transparent. To be transparent we have to purify ourselves of all material dross, and the subtlest level of material contamination is false ego. We cannot be transparent unless we become free from false ego. However, we do not accept the idea of the impersonalists that we give up our ego to merge and become one with God. Rather, we accept the instruction of the Bhagavad-gita, of Jesus Christ and other theists, to give up the false ego, the misconception that “I am the body, I am the Lord, I am the controller, I am the proprietor, I am the enjoyer” in favor of the real ego, the true understanding that “I am the eternal servant of God.” Certainly the spiritual master is the eternal servant of God, or Krsna, so he can properly represent Him and direct others to Him. And certainly the process of giving up the false ego in favor of the real ego, the process of devotional service, is the only process that will bring us to God, that will enable us to fully realize we are eternal servants of God rather than illusory masters of the world.

Hare Krsna.

Our thoughts can cause a lot of turbulence in our mind. Everyday, we're bombarded by thousands of images, sound, and smells. Mindfulness and meditation can help tame the turbulent mind. www.panditdasa.com

Before he could say anything more, the uninvited guests, who were the agents of death, grabbed him and took him away and his body dropped dead. He was not willing to go but he was hopelessly powerless, his dear family members wanted him to be with him but they were hopelessly helpless. 

“The Time of the Sages,” a documentary film currently in production, will aim to bring the same kind of worldwide recognition to the Srimad-Bhagavatam as is awarded to the Bhagavad-gita. The hour-long film will follow scholar Krishna Kshetra Swami (Dr. Kenneth Valpey), a research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, as he interviews fellow academics and visits key places in India relevant to the Bhagavatam.

Kirtaniyas & Sufi Soul Sangeet in Australia just after our debut tour of Australia. Video produced, filmed and edited by Nila and Sundari Vanwolf (AUS).

Please excuse the pace of speaking due to lingering illness.

And while trying to sell the Bhagavad-gita the man asked him if he reads the book and Nimai quoted the verse they learnt the day before: https://youtu.be/K1CWUoGXzIY

Congregational members in UK distribute almost 40.000 of Srila Prabhupada’s books for the marathon (Album with photos)
Sutapa Das: Planting the Seeds
“Don’t judge each day simply by the harvests that you reap, but also by the seeds that you plant”
Bhakti Vriksa Manor are going from strength to strength… they’re empowered gardeners in the mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu! They have distributed nearly 40,000 books in this marathon so far, and still have some transcendental tricks lined up Reaching out on the streets, door-to-door, holding Gita Programmes, meeting shop owners, and finding ingenious new ways to connect with people. They know the art of planting the seeds and harvesting the crop! Inspired vaisnavas indeed. Thank you so much.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/BbGupN

With Christmas upon us, we take a look at what our Founder, Srila Prabhupada said about Jesus. The title is from a letter Prabhupada wrote in 1965 to a Mrs. Sally Agarwal. Prabhupada stayed with Sally and her husband Gopal in Butler, Pennsylvania when he first arrived in America. Sally told the background story of the name: "One time something happened with our little girl, Kamala, who was only three years old. I used to take her to Sunday school, and she learned about Jesus in Sunday school. Then when she would see Swamiji with his robes on and everything, she called him Swami Jesus. And this one time when it first dawned on us what she was saying, she called him Swami Jesus, and Swami smiled and said, 'And a little child shall lead them.'" Sally Agarwal Later, when Prabhupada was in New York he wrote to Sally: "I am obliged to your good daughter for awarding me a good degree as SWAMI JESUS which is actually a great honour for me. Some time the Lord speaks through innocent child and I take this honour as sent by Lord Jesus through an innocent child free from all formalities of the current society. Lord Jesus preached the message of God and I have taken up the same mission, and it would be a good luck for me if I can follow the footprints of Lord Jesus who preached the message of God in spite of all persecution. Lord Jesus is a living example how one has to suffer in this material world simply for the matter of preaching the message of God." Srila Prabhupada, 1965 Continue reading "Swami Jesus
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The Best Exercise is Walking.
Lots of walking is good for your health.
Walk away from maya when she invites you to play wi...

Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s chief disciples, the Six Goswamis, set goals!
About this, Srinivasa Acarya writes:
Sankhya-purvaka-nama-gana-natibhih … “The Six Goswamis performed their daily sadhana in a scheduled manner, carefully counting their chanting, bowing down, and so on.”
Srila Prabhupada calls the Goswami’s measured approach: “Maintaining a numerical strength.”
Those who are serious about spiritual advancement may take advantage of this technique by setting daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals for their spiritual lives.
Once you set a goal and you write it down, you’ll see that your mind immediately begins working to attain it. It’s like magic.
Here are a few practical tips on setting goals.

1. Decide what you want and write it down.

2. Make your goals SMART:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely
3. Write your goals in present tense and make them positive:

“I read the entire SB in the next five years.”

4. Break large goals in smaller tasks.

Example– Ask: “How many pages a day must I read to finish the SB in one year, two years, etc?”

5. Create accountability by sharing your goals with others you trust.

6. Make your list of goals visible and review it often.

“Where attention goes, energy flows.”

7. Stay on course: regularly assess and celebrate your progress.

8. If needed, adjust your goals to make them realistic and exciting.

(This means, you may have to adjust them up or down …)

9. Categorize your goals:

Spiritual
Family
Professional
Health, fitness
Etc.
10. Use various time frames:

One minute, hour, day, week. Thirty Day, One year, Five year, Ten year, Lifetime, Etc.
Of all the tips listed above, the first is most important: “Decide what you want and write it down.” Doing this transfers your goal from the subtle level of thought, to the grosser level of ink on paper. From there it will continue to manifest outwardly. (Especially if you purposely work at it.)

Begin today by sitting quietly with a pen and paper. Meditate on elements of your spiritual practice and life that you’d like to improve; think of what you’d like to attain, and transform your aspirations into written goals. Don’t worry if they seem to be very small or humble goals. Remember, “Drops a day wear the stone away.” “Inch by inch, it’s a cinch.”

After writing down even one new goal, you’ll be off to a fresh start in your spiritual life and you’ll feel a new sense of animation.

Hare Krsna!

Quotes to note:

“Disturbance is due to want of an ultimate goal, and when one is certain that Krsna is the enjoyer, proprietor and friend of everyone and everything, then one can, with a steady mind, bring about peace” (Srila Prabhupada; Bhagavada-gita As It Is, 2.66, Purport).

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” (Alice in Wonderland)

“Goals are potent.” (Will McCoy)
Vaisesika Dasa

This journey started with an intense eagerness to bring back enthusiasm, life and energy to our brahmacari ashram. So, my friend Mukharavinda Dasa and I decided to walk 654kilometers from the city of Johannesburg to the city of Durban in South Africa. We had never done anything like this before and we were not athletes, but the idea to raise funds to buy a sankirtana bus became the driving force behind our bravery. As part of our preparation to walk the 654kilometers, we practiced walking 47kilometers from Johannesburg to the city of Pretoria on weekends. We quickly realised during our practice walks that it would be unrealistic to walk 47 kilometres each day. So, we decreased the number of kilometres we would walk to 30 to 35 kilometres a day which brought the number of days we would be on the road to 18 days. We knew that the walk would be very challenging, but once we started, turning back would not be an option. Also, the prospects of being assisted to purchase a mini bus for our preaching and travelling sankirtana party was so encouraging and enlivening that little attention was paid to the fatigue and tiredness of the body and mind. Continue reading "Walking 654 Kilometers From Johannesburg To Durban (South Africa) To Collect For A Sankirtana Bus
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Sri Mohan Bhagavat is a famous personality throughout India. This is due to the fact that the BJP that is ruling India at present is the political wing of the RSS. The Prime Minister of India is an "RSS pracharak", a full time dedicated member of the RSS who was deputed to the BJP. Therefore, several prominent members of Baroda society assembled at the temple during his visit Sri Mohan Bhagavat arrived at ISKCON Baroda at 11 am. He was well received and greeted by Sriman Nityananda Ram Das, Vice President of ISKCON Baroda, along with the temple resident devotees and several prominent citizens of Baroda, city i.e. Shivlal Goyal, Ketan Patel, Chirag Barot, Mr. Bharat Patel, Mayurbhai Shah, Suresh Bhogilal Patel and others Immediately upon his arrival, Sri Mohan Bhagavat went to temple hall had the auspicious darshan of Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar, Sri Sri Sri Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadradevi and Sri Sri Gaur Nitai. Continue reading "The chief of Rashtriya svayam sevak sangha, Sriman Mohan Bhagavat, visited ISKCON Baroda
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Blissful Arabic book distribution in the subways of New York City! (Album with photos)
From the streets of London, to the beaches of California, to the subways of NYC – more specifically, throughout the USA, Canada, UK, eight countries in Europe, Australia, and even in India – book distributors worldwide are relishing the truly unique nectar of Arabic book distribution. They are directly tasting the very special mercy that Srila Prabhupada specifically declared just for Arabic book distribution, and once tasting it they don’t seem to want it to stop!
Wherever there are universities, tourist places, and major city streets, faithful Arabic-speakers are literally reaching out for answers now, often desperately (due to the backlash they are experiencing now in today’s world). This makes it *very easy* to distribute now, more than at any other previous time since book distribution began!
The Arabic books are now stocked at the BBT’s worldwide. The distribution is easy, truly blissful, fun, and it awards the book distributors with the greatest mercy possible, as directly expressed by Srila Prabhupada per his own words in Vrndavana 1976.
Plus, as an ancillary benefit: It Could Change The World…!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/3jcXDi

Harinama at Surfers Paradise - Australia (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: When there is krsna-kirtana, people, all classes of people, become very much pleased, and they join. As soon as your kirtana will be pure sankirtana, not artificial, not professional… There are many professional dancer. That will not attract. But even if you do not know the art of dancing, if you simply dance in ecstasy for Krsna’s love, that will be appreciated by everyone. That will be appreciated by everyone. Krsnot-kirtana-gana-nartana-parau. These are the art. —From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on The Nectar of Devotion – January 8, 1973, BombayFind them here: https://goo.gl/lRVsBl

The post Daily Darshan: December23,2016 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Swamiji’s Core Principle: Always Think of Krishna

The post Daily Darshan: December 21, 2016 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

“A full twelve hours of pure unalloyed Krsna Consciousness.” – (Shatadhanya Prabhu) “How can I ever have a favourite part? The kirtans are fantastic, there is so much senior association, all the devotees want to serve, the management is par excellent, the prasad is delicious, and the Dham is so beautiful! Still hearing from the […]

The post 2016 Mayapur Chandra’s Parikrama appeared first on Mayapur.com.

https://youtu.be/ctH2WgLDaJM

In a sea of inspiring memoirs by ISKCON devotees about Srila Prabhupada and coming to Krishna consciousness, Visakha Dasi’s new book is unique because it’s aimed not internally but at a broad mainstream audience. “The book starts where I started, which was entirely materialistic life, and then goes gradually through the experiences and thoughts that I went through, with the hope that readers will come with me each step of the way,” she says. “Then, even if they don’t agree with my conclusion, they can understand it.”

Jay (Ganashyam) Shetty discusses the best ways to find and create opportunities in your life.

“We have seen several successful social media campaigns such as Digital India and the Paris solidarity movement after the bombings when people overlaid their profile pictures with a flag,” explained Toshan Nimai Das. “Similarly, we have designed an overlay using the ISKCON 50 logo, which devotees around the world can use on top of their existing profile pictures. This way, we can build more awareness about ISKCON 50 through social media.”

Two copies of the Hindi edition of Watering the Seed just arrived from India, and we offered them to our deity of Srila Prabhupada here in Carpinteria. The volume appears very nice, and I am indebted to Radha Charan, Charan Renu, Dhananjaya Krishna, Radha Priya, Hari Priya, and all the other friends and devotees who worked to bring the project to fruition. And I must also acknowledge Kalachandji, Visakha Priya, Varsabhanavi, Nikunja Vilasini, Mayapriya, and all the others who helped with the English edition. I pray that Srila Prabhupada will continue to inspire them in Krishna consciousness and that this Hindi edition will serve to bring many souls closer to Srila Prabhupada and his beloved lords, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Lord Sri Krishna.

—Giriraj Swami

One of Srila Prabhupada's first disciples publishes memoirs of his experiences in the Hare Krishna movement. Acyutananda Prabhu takes us through life in the 60s and 70s with the biggest spiritual revolutionary of the 20th century.

A Warm December In Vrindavan (Album with photos)
Indradyumna Swami: Vrindavan is enjoying unseasonably warm temperatures this ...

As an offering for ISKCON 50 and for the pleasure of Guru & Gauranga, teachers of NICE (Narasimha Institute for Children’s Education) decided to conduct ‘Srila Prabhupada Book Review Contest’ in the schools as an interschool competition. The main aim of this contest was to introduce Srila Prabhupada to as many students as possible. Execution: The teachers of NICE approached 90 schools for this project. We presented this project to the Principal of the school with a file containing a letter, a booklet that described Srila Prabhupada and his achievements, a Question Bank consisting of 100 questions based on this booklet (question bank was prepared by H.G. Kamal Lochan Prabhu). Here the questionnaire was of the objective type. This contest should ideally be conducted in school premises itself, depending on the convenience of school authorities. The students from std. 4th to 6th formed the junior section and students from 7th to 9th, the senior section. Continue reading "Srila Prabhupada Book Review Contest’ for 2,500 School Students by Iskcon Miraroad
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Help for Reaching out “Your Ever Well Wisher”
This year being the 50th Anniversary since the establishment of ISKCON, and the occasion of the glorious December Book Marathon, Pandava Sena have set ourselves a target of distributing 10,000 of Srila Prabhupada’s books.

The subject of Moon landings has been contentious for devotees since forever and it is often cited as a reason to accuse us of shutting down our intelligence and blindly following gurus, or, even worse, as a reason to attack Śrīla Prabhupāda's integrity. The fact that we don't have an official position on it doesn't help either, leaving each one of us to our own devices. There must be devotees who made their peace with it and take one of Prabhupāda's explanations as a shared truth between them and can't care less what the rest of the world thinks about it. Intruding into these personal relationships would be inappropriate. Yet there are also devotees who simply don't know what to say and try to avoid the topic if it comes up or blurt out the first thing that comes to their minds. One such strategy is to compare Prabhupāda's Moon statements with the bulk of his spiritual message and declare them insignificant. This is a tacit admission that Prabhupāda was wrong. There are also devotees who go into Moon landing conspiracy and continue arguing that it was a hoax, often coupled with arguments that the Earth is really flat and NASA has been lying to people about every aspect of their programs and all other world space agencies and governments are in on it. This makes for a lively debate but also makes them look insane in the eyes of many. Continue reading "Srila Prabhupada and Moon Landings
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The mood and the importance of visiting Dwaraka. Connection Between South India Yatra And Dwaraka Yatra. Krsna Establishes The Dwaraka Fort and Mira Bai. Rukmini's letter, Kidnap and Marriage with Krsna. Rukmini's Marriage (Contd.) Krsna Marries The 5 Princesses. Satyabhama, Parijata tree and the Story Of The Syamantaka Jewel. Narada Muni's visit, Krsna's daily activities, deliverance of King Nrga. Siva Tattva. Talks between Krsna and Rukmini. Jambavan, Jamabavathi. Sudama Lila. Pastimes of Gopi Talav. Disappearance of Yadu Dynasty. Arjuna Marries Subadra, Pastimes of Narsi Mehta. Disappearance pastime of Krsna and Balaram. Teachings of Lord Siva. Raivata Mountain - Balaram marries Revati, kills Dvivida. Pastimes of Ranchod rai, Killing of Jarasanda, Sisupal. Lord Kapila Deva Teachings, Sadhu Sangastaka. Continue reading "2016 Dwaraka Yatra
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Austerity as a stepping stone.
Kadamba Kanana Swami: Austerity in itself is not a limb of bhakti. Bhakti has sixty-four limbs; this means that there are sixty-four types of activities which give us bhakti but austerity is not amongst them.
However, austerity is glorified in the scripture that by performing sacrifice, by giving in charity and by engaging in austerity even saintly men are being purified. So in this sense, austerity is held in high esteem in the scripture. It is also said, nayam deho deha-bhajam nrloke, kastan kaman arhate vid-bhujam ye, tapo divyam putraka yena sattvam, suddhyed yasmad brahma-saukhyam tv anantam (Srimad Bhagavatam 5.5.1). This is where Maharaj Rsabhadeva is speaking to his one hundred sons and instructing them about spiritual life. He says that this human form of life is not meant for sense gratification; this human form of life is meant for penances and austerities so that one may reach the transcendental state of happiness which is beyond the three modes of material nature.

Like this, austerity is glorified in the scripture but austerity is a preliminary – austerity gives us strength to practice bhakti but austerity in itself is not spiritual. A lack of austerity may make us weak in our determination. So a certain amount of austerity is required as a preliminarily activity to get some basic determination because in the initial stages of devotional service we are acting in the mode of goodness; we are not yet transcendental; we are in a transcendental process but we ourselves are not transcendental. Therefore we are trying to fix ourselves in the mode of goodness. This is the interim stage of devotional service. Then, as we get more and more advanced, eventually we will come to a transcendental stage.

Recipe for vegetarian “Christmas Cookies” (15 min video)
Baking is as much a Christmas tradition as stockings and carols. Fill your home with Krishna conscious Christmas spirit – and sweet-smelling desserts – with our favorite cookie recipe.
Bring holiday cheer into your home with these fun and beautiful sugar cookies.