Planet ISKCON

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Sankirtan Spirit!
Sutapa das, UK: Prayojana prabhu is cleaning and maintaining the temple running… but he puts up a book table outside the shoe room so he can do his bit for the marathon. Now that’s what I call the sankirtan spirit! I’m going over to buy a book from him just to receive it from his transcendental hand :)
Mother Kulangana is also right there, encouraging and inspiring the marathon at every step. We are blessed to have such vaisnavas… Their spirit is the fuel behind this endeavor to please Srila Prabhupada :)
Three days have gone and we have reached 3,000 books! See the latest scoresheet here: https://goo.gl/pOjHwZ

By Giriraj dasa

We can understand how pure is the service which Tulasi offers to Sri Krsna. So we should always endeavor after becoming the servant of Tulasi devi. I do not know who has taught you that part of a Tulasi plant may be cut off and then replanted? From the Tulasi plant you can cut off only leaves for offering them to Krsna, never for cutting and planting. That is an offence. The manjaris (seeds) can be offered in water and it makes the water fragrant and tasteful. And the manjaris can be planted for growing new Tulasi plants. Yes, the prayer you have enclosed is bona fide. Tulasi devi never goes back to Godhead, she is always with Godhead. She is a pure devotee and thus she has appeared on this planet to render service to Krsna by being offered in all temples throughout the world by being offered up to the lotus feet of Krsna.” Continue reading "Tulasi Care
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By ISKCON Coimbatore

“Goloka Goshala” was inaugurated at ISKCON Coimbatore temple premises on 27th November 2016, for the pleasure of Their Lordships Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra Devi, by the chief guest, Sri S.P. Velumani. Hon. Minister of Tamilnadu Municipal Administration, in the auspicious presence of HH Bhakti Vinoda Swami Maharaj, Temple President and Zonal Secretary of ISKCON. A special plaque marking the occasion was also unveiled by the chief guest. The inauguration function was graced by the presence of special dignitaries like Sri.P.Nagarajan (Member of Parliament),Sri.P.R.G.Arunkumar( MLA, North Coimbatore), Sri.V.C Arukutti (MLA, Kavundampalayam constituency)and other VIPs. Three healthy cows and a bull were donated to the temple by devotees. HH Bhakti Vinoda Swami Maharaj named the cows as Ganga, Yamuna, Surabhi and the bull as Sudhama. Continue reading "Inauguration Of Goloka Goshala At Iskcon Coimbatore
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His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami visited Central New Jersey on 16th November 2016 gave evening Bhagavad Gita class at temple. This November Maharaj visited the following places during his visit to US : > 12th November: New York > 13th November : Central New Jersey...

The post Bhakti Charu Swami At ISKCON Central New Jersey appeared first on Bhakti Charu Swami.

Swamiji and “The Hare Krishna Chanters” Produce a Record Album

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 2011, Helsinki, Finland)

In preaching, we should not throw Krsna consciousness like a ton of bricks on people’s heads and all at once tell them, “You have to follow everything!” and then runaway, never to be seen again. No, preaching means that we have to be sensitive, depending on which stage a person is at, and offer them the next step – that is preaching!

There is no stereotype lesson for everyone. No, each person is at some level and the preacher has to check them out partially by asking some questions and by being sensitive, try to give the person the next step to take.

About book distribution, Vaiseshika said interesting things, “When we take members of the congregation out on book distribution for the first time, usually I tell them that for the first three times they are not allowed to distribute any books! They can only watch but anybody, who is a little bit of a natural, ignores those instructions and starts distributing books! The ones who are shy, they feel secure with these instructions. It is authorized now for them to watch three times and they don’t feel pressurized.”

So I thought it was intelligent. It gives people the next step!

The bane of routine. When we perform a sequence of actions regularly everyday like a fixed program, it falls in a routine and we just do it like we are on auto-pilot mode. In the beginning, when I came to Krishna consciousness, it was all new and fresh and the added lifestyle change was a fresh of breath air for me. The holy names could not have been holier and the prasadam any less tasty. However, as we reach the zenith of what we can do daily and settle into a routine habit, over time, spiritual practice becomes a drab of everyday chore. It is at this crucial juncture that we have a tendency to do something outside the routine and more often than not land in spiritual trouble. In other words, all the material contaminations in our heart will give us the impetus to break the routine. If we trust our material mind, eventually we will fall away from our goal of serving Krishna.

So when we reach this plateau of our sadhana, instead of trying to do something different or more, it is important to enhance our quality of our routine. When we desire to go deeper into the mysteries of the Holy name, deeper into the verses of Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavatam, and deeper in our remembrance of the Lord, then it is in the deeper journey we will relish true spiritual mellows.

How to go deep? One way is to slow down our mind and intentionally meditate on the meaning and purpose behind every item we do in terms of our sadhana. This sort of meditation can instigate our gratitude towards our acharyas and what they have given us. This gratitude when sincere will relieve us from the mental anxieites that result from the dualities of this world and the more relief we experience, the lighter and happier we will become thus increasing our ability to always remember Krishna and never forget Him (in refuge).

Thus that which begins with a bang, coasts as a routine can turn into an opportunity to penetrate more into our mind to take shelter of our acharayas and Krishna in a mood of refuge.

Hare Krishna

By Chirag Dangarwala

In order to understand what selfishness is, let us first of all examine what the self is, generally speaking people consider the body which is seen with the naked eye to be the self and selfishness in this regard is the tendency to please the body or the senses, i.e sense gratification. Some consider the mind as the self and engage themselves in mental speculation and excessive thinking and selfishness in this regard is the tendency to please the mind at the cost of others. Some others consider the intelligence as the self and they are engaged in philosophical discussions and debates, and selfishness in this regard is the tendency to establish one's ideas as true amongst the others. From the Vedic point of view we can understand that the self is neither the body, nor the mind or the intelligence. In the eighth chapter of Bhagavad Gita Arjuna asks Lord Krishna about what is the self Continue reading "Spiritual Selfishness
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We have a nice farm in southeast Germany called Simhacalam. Lord Nrsimhadeva is the presiding deity. While taking prasada there, I asked a book distributor, Advaita Simha Dasa, how he came to Krsna.
Advaita Simha said, “A monk in the street once approached me, and proposed to give me a book. I gave a donation and received a book with the title “Science of Self-Realization”. At first I thought it was about a cult, so I was curious to hear what they had to say. But after reading a few chapters I realized that this was very profound knowledge.
A year later I was looking for more books by the same author, Srila Prabhupada in a bookstore. I was with a friend in the shopping area, and somehow we got separated. He then called me to ask where I was. I told him I was in the bookstore looking for another one of those books like the one the monk had given me a year ago, but the store didn’t have any.
My friend said, ‘Well, if you go outside the bookstore you’ll see a monk there. Maybe he has what you’re looking for.’ I went out, and the same devotee that gave me the Science of Self Realization, Gaur Mohan Prabhu, was there! I asked him whether he had more books by Srila Prabhupada.
He had the Bhagavad-gita, so I gave a donation for that. He told me that there would be a talk on the Gita that evening and invited me. I went, and it was nice. Eventually I visited the temple and joined ISKCON. Now I’m also a book distributor.”
Jaya Srila Prabhupada!

Never seen a boy chanting in a public Harinama like him! (4 min video)
Srila Prabhupada: Since all the great sages and devotees apply all energy and all activities in the service of the lotus feet of the Lord, there must be some transcendental pleasure in the toes of His lotus feet. The Lord licks His toe to taste the nectar for which the devotees always aspire. >>> Ref. VedaBase => SB 3.33.4
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/7OBFMl

The 2016, Book Distribution Marathon Begins!
Jayapataka Swami: “Here we are in Mayapur dham, Srila Prabhupada said that Mayapur is the spiritual headquarters. Here, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has descended from Goloka Vrindavan. He was known as Vachaspathi. As Vachaspathi he was the husband of Lakshmi and expert in speaking. He would tell everyone to chant the holy name. In his hand he would always carry shastra.
Those days people didn’t have books, but they were very intelligent so they would realize the Shastra. You know people today are not so intelligent, they have to read the books again and again. Therefore books are very important.
So we are very grateful for the speakers. They have said so many nice things, how we have to serve Srila Prabhupada, how this is the modern day Yagnya, how by doing this Sankirtan Yagnya,it is Raghanuga Bhakti , how we can help the people who are otherwise deprived of this mercy, how Krishna helps every book distributor and how he performs miracles and that story by Hridanya Chaitanya, who were those people ? The butchers! The butchers of the city had a function exchanging presents on behalf of Santa Claus. The butchers, they received Bhagavat Gita and other literature. How Lord Chaitanya is distributing his mercy to the conditioned souls, through these literatures.
In the Shastra it says even if there are some defects we give out these transcendental literatures, spreading the lords special mercy. Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavatam that was the first to be taken to the United States. Srila Prabhupada brought these cases of Bhagavatam and it has such a lasting effect. So, our while community should unite to fulfill this for the satisfaction of Srila Prabhupada. Our sankirtan devotees go out and they meet the people on their own places. So like that they are certainly taking big risks. Some devotees ,they go to Kolkata, some have book table here. Everyone , we should put out our maximum energy. This Sankirtan yagnya is a special way we can satisfy Srila Prabhupada. I am very grateful to the devotees and their efforts in the next months. The Delhi temple has 2500 devotees who participate in the marathon. So we need to also have all our devotees, back up the Sankirtan devotees and distribute books. All over India there is demonetization. So that problem is these for everybody. It’s not only our problem.
We heard how Prabhupada tried to carry out the order of his spiritual master and how he tried his best to please his spiritual master. So we want to please Srila prabhupada , we would like to remember all the lessons given by the senior devotees here and be inspired for the next two months,we are very very grateful that the BBT devotees and Sankirtan devotees are working hand in hand. So before the deities, we pray for their mercy.”-

Participate in the Gita Jayanti Book Sponsoring Marathon

We plan to distribute 5000 Bhagavad-gitas with the help of book sponsors.

You may sponsor the following book-packets with Bhagavad-gitas and other Srila Prabhupada books:
1. 16 books 12.000 HUF / 40 EUR
2. 25 books 20.000 HUF / 65 EUR
3. 20 books 30.000 HUF / 100 EUR
4. 50 books 50.000 HUF / 165 EUR
5. 108 Hungarian soft bound Gitas 120.000 HUF / 390 EUR
6. 108 Hungarian hard bound Gitas 200.000 HUF / 650 EUR

Budapest Temple: 10 Dec, Saturday from 10.30am and 5pm Live webcasts!

You are welcome to participate in the reading, the blessings that go with it and the feast after the yajna. If you wish to attend any of the above programs or would like to just sponsor books for free distribution or for any further information please contact Asta Sakhi devi dasi:
tel.: +36 30 600 1459,
e-mail: Asta.Sakhi.SRS@pamho.net

By Vaisesika Dasa

"Why distinguish between chanting and book distribution? These books I have recorded and chanted, and they are transcribed. It is spoken kirtanas. So book distribution is also chanting. These are not ordinary books. It is recorded chanting. Anyone who reads, he is hearing. Book distribution must not be neglected." Continue reading "Dear highly esteemed devotees of ISKCON Africa
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Bhakti Sastri graduates in Iskcon Juhu.
Mayapur Institute has been regularly conducting Sastric Training Programs at ISKCON Juh...

Book distribution marathon in UK (Album with photos)
Already more than 2000 books distributed. Below is the Japanese-Chinese Sa...

Winter in Vrindavan (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Krsna in Vrndavana has got a great family. He has got His father. He has got His mother, Mother Yasoda, Nanda Maharaja. He has got so many friends, hundreds and thousands–boyfriends, girlfriends. The trees, the plants, the flowers, the fruits, the land, the water, the cows, the calves – He is surrounded by a great family. He is not a single person. Suppose if we say, “Now the president is coming.” So president means he is not only coming alone; he is coming with secretaries, his ministers, his military secretary and so many other people, some soldiers and bodyguards. He is not alone. So if a material president, insignificant, is always surrounded by his associates, so the Supreme Being, how He is associated with His surroundings, you can just imagine. He cannot be alone. That is Krsna. >>> Ref. VedaBase => Arrival Lecture – Dallas, March 3, 1975
Find them here: https://goo.gl/bnbWSi

Ratha Yatra Festival in Guadalajara, Mexico (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: O Lord, as the small sparks of a fire cannot ...

The Book Marathon Inauguration Ceremony took place on the 24th of November at Sri Dham Mayapur. HH Jayapataka Swami, Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaj, HG Jananivas prabhu ,HG Bhima Prabhu , Bhakti Purushottam Swami and other senior devotees addressed the Mayapur Sankirtan and community devotees. “So our whole community should unite to fulfill this for the […]

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What cricket can teach us about life 1
What cricket can teach us about life 2
What cricket can teach us about life 3

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Talk to aspiring brahmacharis at Abudhabi, UAE
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Talk at Sharjah, UAE
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The East Village Other Displays Swamiji Front Page and Centerfold

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The nature of the material world is change and transformation or as the Gita teaches us, the world is “endlessly mutable.” Accordingly, in physically conditioned life, which covers our soul, our body and mental states change, other people change, our life situation and the greater conditions of the material world change and go through cycles and stages. As a result of such changes we have to recommit and sometimes renegotiate our relationships to others, ourselves, and to bhakti, many times in our lifetime.

If we don’t voluntarily change or fight against conditions we have no control over, we will likely be forced to change because nothing stays the same, however much we drag our feet and resist. While this is a natural process, materially speaking, having to change can be disconcerting especially when we are set in our ways or have identified material conditions as who we are, and the underlying and foundational fact that the soul (who we are), or our animating consciousness, being eternal, wants permanence and doesn’t relate well to changing conditions which seem foreign.

While those who are Gaudiya Vaishnavas, or in fact anyone engaged in some kind of spiritual practice to realize their soul, even if they are grounded in deep spiritual philosophy of the nature of matter and spirit, will also struggle with the changing conditions within and without to the degree

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