Planet ISKCON

Prabhupada’s Teachings are Not Like a Computer

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 18 April 2014, Durban, South Africa, Lecture: The glories of the holy name)

Krsna’s beauty is stunning! It is said that those devotees who look at Krsna, they gradually become stunned! I am worshipping Krsna in the form of Giriraja Govardhan. It is said that Govardhan Hill is non-different from Krsna. Somehow or other, my Giriraja is really nice, extremely nice. He really is very beautiful! Look on the internet if you want to see Him.

Srila Prabhupada said that if we worship the deity of Krsna then we must try to decorate that deity very nicely and if you do so, then you will lose all your taste for worldly beauty. So I am trying to do so and I must say that indeed there is a lot of taste! Such kind of taste is the awakening of spontaneous service.

Jaipur 2016: Morning program at Gupta braj. (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Although not having fully realized Krsna, pe...

Humorous and fictitious devotee character “Yama Niyama Dasa Brahmachari” impersonated by Ekendra Das ACBSP, has this Christmas message for you (5 min video)
Hare Krishna. People are now telling me, “Oh, Yama Niyama Dasa Brahmachari, you must not be doing so well in the polls! I do not hear about you on the Fox News or the CNN! Karmi Broadcasting System is devoting precious air time to other rascals only!”
To which I reply, of course we may not be so popular with General Public, but who cares for the General Public? We are servant of Lord. They are all simply servant of tongue, belly, and genital, so if we are trying to serve them, who are we actually serving? You can do the math you are so smart.
Our campaign will go on regardless of rascal public opinion. Therefore, today I will helpfully remind you that Christmas season is already here, if we are to judge by amount of shiny plastic reindeer noses already being stocked on shelves. One very nice devotee has taken great pains to produce one video explaining our views on the Christmas, at least the way it is misunderstood everywhere now. I’m sure you will like.
And of course you will want to start thinking about filling up stockings of Friends and Family with suitable gifts, so our Christmas CD, “Christmas Is…Not On Vaishnava Calendar” is always available on You Are In Maya dot com. Go there now; wasting time is a sin.
Meanwhile, Yamaraja (who is Coming To Town, as the old song goes) will be preparing to visit all the rascals to put coal in their stocking. Hot Coals. While their feet are still in the stockings.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/6vQCpu

Kartik Navadvipa Parikrama (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Lord Caitanya is Lord Krsna. His body is always decorated wit...

Dedicated father and pujari Ragunath Das Zaldivar is currently celebrating an incredible 14 consecutive years of Kartik festivals at his and his wife Yamuna Devi’s home in Alachua, Florida. “People like it because of the personal, family-like environment,” Ragu says. “It’s especially nice for the kids, who can get really involved. Not everyone has home Deities, but they want to see their kids engaged in service to the Lord." 

Srutidharma das was invited to the Diwali function at Number 10 Downing Street, the residence of the British Prime Minister, Theresa May MP. Along with the Prime Minister and other dignitaries such as the Indian High Commissioner Mr Dinesh Patnail, Srutidharma das lit the ceremonial lamp before being invited to say a few words and lead the Diwali prayers.

17th Oct 2016, During the auspicious month of Damodar, ISKCON Vrindavana Namhatta Department organized the 2nd grand Rath Yatra festival in Mathura to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ISKCON. The event co-ordinated with the 2016 Braja Mandal Parikrama with the parikrama devotees gathered in Mathura that very day to attend the festival on Oct 17, 2016. Due to the overwhelming support of the residents of Mathura and the enthusiastic participation of local and visiting devotees, the celebration is now marked to be an annual event on ISKCON Vrindavana's calendar. Continue reading "The Transcendental Pastimes Of Lord Jaganatha’s 2nd Rathayatra in Mathura Vrindavana
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Srutidharma das was invited to the Diwali function at Number 10 Downing Street, the residence of the British Prime Minister, Theresa May MP. Along with the Prime Minister and other dignitaries such as the Indian High Commissioner Mr Dinesh Patnail, Srutidharma das lit the ceremonial lamp before being invited to say a few words and lead the Diwali prayers. He shared three meditations: Diwali is all about giving to our families, community and our country. Through forgiveness we can have a new start. The Lord forgives, so we are we not to? Being grateful. With Remembrance Sunday coming up, a day when all those that made the ultimate sacrifice in war are remembered, he asked those present to be grateful for the religious freedom and equal opportunities we share today. Echoing the Prime Minister’s own words, Srutidharma das added that the fact that the community is celebrating Diwali at the Prime Minister’s home is the symptom of “a fairer Britain.” He then proceeded to recite the first verse of the Sri Isopanisad, the Panca-Tattva mantra and the Hare Krishna mantra. Continue reading "ISKCON devotees attend Diwali at Number 10 (British Prime Minister’s residence)
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Hare Krishna in Tiraspol (1 min video)
Commentator: Last place I would expect to see this. Tiraspol is the capital of de facto ...

Preaching program at Intel Headquarters, Santa Clara, California.
The microprocessor giant Intel Corporation invited Radhanath Swami to speak at their headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The event was organized and coordinated by the Intel India Association.
Speaking on the topic ‘Growing Through Adversity”, Radhanath Swami began the talk by quoting Winston Churchill, “Success means going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” He then narrated the story of Sindhutai Sapkal, a woman he had met who runs many orphanages around India and has nurtured over 1000 orphans. A village woman, she had been married at age ten to a 32-year-old man. When she was nine months pregnant, he beat her senseless and abandoned her, leaving her for dead. When she recovered, Sapkal was deeply depressed. Just as she was about to commit suicide, however, she spotted an orphan and took him under her wing. She had found her calling in life. She began an orphanage, and gradually opened much more, becoming a world-famous philanthropist. She won around 270 national and international awards. Her former husband, now eighty and having lost everything he had, came to her for shelter, and with no resentment, she took him in as her ‘oldest child.’

We have many choices in life, Radhanath Swami explained. But the best way to positively affect society is to use our lives to give love to others, find love within and transform ourselves, and ultimately love God.

He shared that Sapkal had told him, “My life was a path of thorns, but I made friends with those thorns.”

Quoting the Bhagavad-gita, Radhanath Swami said true fulfillment in life comes from within us. “When we don’t have internal fulfillment, nothing external can satisfy us,” he added. Swami stressed on building a strong internal foundation, which can withstand tumultuous storms in our life.

“A meaningful life is what we give not what we get, ” he said. Elucidating this further, he explained how the roots of red wood trees, which have lifespans of thousands of years, move horizontally, and intertwine with the roots of other redwoods and thus gain stability. As human our roots are our hearts.

Sriram Govindarajan, Hardware Design Engineer at Intel Corporation said “ After hearing the talk, I felt at ease to deal with situations around me. The key takeaway for me was having a strong connect with your inner self, makes you realize what is important in life and focus on them rather than the petty disturbances that are usually not in our control. Instead of regretting about things that we lack in life we could give to people who are less fortunate than we are.”

Unique living beings.
Kadamba Kanana Swami: Vedic culture says that nature will respond according to the behaviour of people. The behaviour of nature is directly related to the behaviour of people on the planet. This is something that I never thought of before coming to Krsna consciousness, it had never occurred to me. And the reason for this correlation is because nature has a divine origin – behind nature is the Supreme Lord and everything in this world is going on under the control of the Supreme Lord. As the Bhagavad-gita explains, ‘Not a blade of grass moves without the will of the Lord’.

It is not that he is personally involved with every aspect of it, no, these things are simply going on by his will, by his desire. He does not need to sit in the control room and make sure that nature takes its course but still, nature is acting according to a divine plan. One does not exclude the other.

It is not that we are not in this world… we are! It is not that spiritual life means that we do not deal with this world. Of course, we deal with this world – we live in this world and we have to take care of it but it is not the all and everything.

In most traditions, whether we are looking at a more Asian traditions where Hinduism became predominant…. or even Far East Asia where Buddhist tradition is more prevalent, whatever it maybe, we find that in all these kinds of traditions, the human form of life is recognized to be in a unique position amongst all other forms of life! The human form of life stands out in that sense. In the human form of life one is held responsible for one’s actions. This is a common understanding.

TOVP: Artisan Work in the Inner Staircase (Album with photos)
Sadbhuja Das: We have commenced the ornamentation of the main inn...

Turkey, June 2016.

Did you know about the "septic tank of Iskcon"? "Mother Yamuna's tears made me a devotee!" Lord Chaitanya never had a chilly pepper. As devotees we are the greatest personalists hypothetically, theoretically, scripturally but how many of you are lonely? How should we treat the protective "wire-mesh" that Srila Prabhupada installed around our tender plant of devotion? I was very bewildered, everyone was telling me to do everything, some would say the most important is the chanting, others, reading is the most important thing, others, offering obeisances was the most important, others, prasadam is the most important, it was going on and on and on and everything was the most important. I had no idea what to do! Continue reading "How to really associate with devotees
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Even if someone simply wrote that they were interested in Hare Krishna or Krishna Consciousness and only requested information I'd send them a personal reply inviting and encouraging them to read Prabhupada's books, chant Hare Krishna and write to me with any questions they might have. This personal touch was reinforced by Srila Prabhupada a few years later in L.A. We were giving him a tour of the BBT offices and warehouse facility and he was asking me how many letters we were getting every day. I told him and he then said, "I was doing when I was Dr. Bose's manager. Any inquiry coming from outside, I must continue correspondence with him unless he becomes a customer." Continue reading "Adventures in Mail Order
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Washingtonpost.com: “We used to worship different forms of God, all the forms of God. … We were like a supermarket of gods,” said Manoharan, an IT contractor for the Department of Homeland Security . Not long after Manoharan and Jeyabalan moved to the United States in the late 1990s, they were told by a relative about a palace in West Virginia built in the style of an Indian shrine. So they decided to take a sightseeing trip. “And right in this place,” Manoharan says, pointing at the ground in the West Virginia temple, he picked up his first copy of one of Prabhupada’s many books. Now, standing in the same spot years later, he points out the book that changed his life to his 10-year-old daughter Hamsika. He came to believe what the book said, he tells Hamsika — that there was only one God, Krishna, and that he should worship only the deities who are forms of Krishna. Continue reading "After 50 years, Hare Krishnas are no longer white hippies who proselytize in airports
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​Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Soho Street, London, UK

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Divya Alter noticed there weren’t many places to sit down and enjoy a meal based on Ayurvedic principles in New York City. Enter Divya’s Kitchen. Her new vegetarian restaurant, opening Wednesday in the East Village at 25 First Ave., is located in the same building as Alter’s Ayurvedic culinary school, Bhagavat Life, which she runs with her husband.

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We cause ourselves lots of stress and anxiety by needlessly thinking about the difficulties of the past and worrying about things that may never happen. This video will help understand this phenomena and how to press stop when I mind goes out of control. Please enjoy and share! website: panditdasa.com