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Puskar das: In 1956, I moved from one area of Brooklyn (near the temple) to the Benson Hurst area, where I entered fifth grade. Peter Viggiani (a.k.a. Kusakratha) was in my class for the next two years. He also attended the same junior high as I, and we shared some of the same classes. For approximately 5 years we were good friends. He was always quite eccentric and didn’t appear to have many other friends.

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A Durga Puja Pandal in Howrah, West Bengal resembling Temple of Vedic Planetaurium.

After Howrah now a Durga Puja Pandal in Durgapur, West Bengal resembling the architecture of Temple of Vedic Planetarium can be seen below…

Photos are courtesy of Goutam Mukherjee.

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Vishoka Dasa: Kusakratha Prabhu’s life is an inspiration to the devotees of Lord Krishna. I first saw him in the San Francisco temple, where he was staying for a short time, just coming from the NY temple.
He was sensitive to the cold weather, and so he wore pants or jeans under his dhoti. He chanted japa very, very slowly, carefully pronouncing each syllable of the maha-mantra, taking several hours to chant his rounds. This is a great example for us all, to remember to slow down and carefully enunciate the holy names during our japa.

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Q: There are many tips and instructions, such as “just hear the mantra” and “listen to yourself chant sincerely”, as well as “the name reveals everything – but to let it do so you need to arrive without own made-up concepts!”. However, there are also recommendations to  actively focus on the meaning, maybe even “imagining” it.  Could you help me reconcile these different teachings? 

I ask because when I try to really just focus on the sound and feeling of the names on my tongue it feels kind of dry and void often and my mind slides into contemplation of the named persons – but I am not sure if this is just a psychological thing going on, because of something I recently read, a picture I saw etc. or, I almost don’t dare to write it, the slight beginning of spiritual revelation?

Mantras are made of very special words.

Words are sounds that have meaning. A word without a meaning is not a “word” – it is a sound. If I listen to Mandarin Chinese, for example, it sounds like music, not like words – because I don’t know the meaning within the sounds. Thus if you listen to a mantra without comprehending the meaning, you are not listening to the mantra fully.

Often people argue that a mantra is magical. All you have to do is hear the words, and poof, something happens.

It is true that mantra are magical, but even magic operates according to principles. You’ll notice that mantras are not melodies or whistles and claps. They are words. This means they are more than “vibrations” and “frequencies” – they are vibrations and frequencies with meaning. To truly hear the vibration requires comprehending the meaning.

This is why dīkṣā and śikṣā are always coupled together. Dīkṣā bestows us with a mantra. If the sound of the mantra itself is all we need, then what is the need for anything further? What is the need for sambandha if the abhideya is completely “magical” and works by its own power, with nothing from our side? Dīkṣā is always accompianied by śikṣā because to use the mantra correctly requires learning what the words mean. To do the abhideya properly requires sambandha.

If you listen to a mantra without comprehending the meaning you are barely listening to it. There will still be an effect: the effect is that you will eventually inquire about the meaning, receive proper śikṣā and then start to meditate on the mantra much more effectively. Thus even simply hearing a mantra does lead eventually to the full fruit of the mantra, but only after it leads to the stage of meditating on the mantra correctly.

Now, contemplate how “comprehending the meaning of a word” happens.

It is a function of buddhi, intellect. Buddhi recognizes patterns of sounds, and associates them with meaning. Then it presents an image of that meaning to the manas. The ahankara establishes how the manas reacts to those images. And the whole affair is observed by the ātmā (consciousness) via the citta. 

Think about it carefully. What buddhi does is translate a pattern of sound into an “image” with meaning.

Therefore intelligence works through imagination. And you will notice that the most intelligent people are excellent at visualizing and imagining abstract things, even things they have not seen before with their eyes.

It is not “imagination” in the sense of making something up. But it is “imagination” because the word produces an image of its meaning in the intellect.

 So, hearing a mantra should produce an image in the mind, then the mind should react to that image. This is how the mantra changes the citta (ceto darpana marjana) and soon the ātmā can see into the mantra directly, without clouds of saṁskāra in the citta. Then there is direct samādhī of the mantra and one immediately attains the full effect of the mantra.

In the case of a Krishna nāma-mantra. The words should produce vivid images in the buddhi, which are not “imagined” according to the saṁskāra of the individual, but are informed by the “dictionary” of śāstra. The sambandha-jñāna gained by study of śāstra allows the sound of Krishna’s name to produce a reasonably accurate manifestation of itself in the buddhi. The manas should then react to this with affection. This causes the ahaṁkāra and citta to develop saṁskāra positive to bhakti. Which allows the ātmā to perceive the complete presence of Krishna within the sound of his name.

The image produced by the nāma in the sambandha-jñāna-yukta-buddhi will contain in it the guṇa and rūpa (particular qualities and specific beauties) of the named. Later, when still more clarified and powerfully manifest, those guṇa and rūpa will “animate” – revealing the other entities they interact with (parikāra) and the way they all play together (līlā).

Thus the full dhāma of Krishna exists in the name “Krishna” but we require dīkṣā and śikṣā to develop buddhi that can host those names and thus clarify the sentience/citta so that the ātmā can directly contact them.

Simply trying to chant the nāma-mantra without any image in the mind is ineffective, as you yourself have noticed. People without proper sambandha may want to err on the conservative side by avoiding “imagination” of the meaning of the mantra but that is a very short-term solution at best. We actually need proper śikṣā from śāstra immediately following dīkṣā, then nāma-smaraṇa can be truly done.

When japa is done with perfect sambandha the entire dhāma manifests to our perception.

Vraja Kishor das (www.vrajakishor.com)

Tagged: Japa, Krishna-nama, Mantra Meditation, mantra-japa, Meditation, nama-japa

The post Daily Darshan: October 8, 2016 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

By Kesava Krsna Dasa

We may read or hear some gurus say that Sri Vrndavana Dhama is the land of Sambhoga, or meeting with Lord Krishna. Devotees might think this is at odds with what Srila Prabhupada taught us in Krishna Book and Srimad Bhagavatam tenth canto. Does not Vipralambha occur in Vrndavana? Have we ever considered why Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu exhibited His most elevated ecstatic emotions, not in Navadvipa or Vrndavana-dhama, but in Jagannatha-puri? One answer is that Sri Jagannatha-puri is also referred to as Vipralambha-ksetra among devotees, the place of separation from the Lord. The feelings of separation experienced by Lord Chaitanya in the mood of Srimati Radharani are replicas of those same Vipralambha events that occur in Vrndavana even now in the present. The Lord’s highest ecstasies were exhibited as “… His body was at Jaganna-tha Puri- but His mind was in Vr.nda-vana.” (CC Antya 20.123) Continue reading "“I Thought Vipralambha-Seva Is The Highest Thing”
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The TOVP fundraising Team consisting of Their Graces Jananivas, Ambarisa, Svaha and Braja Vilas prabhus, and led by the holy Padukas (shoes) of Lord Nityananda and Satari (helmet) of Lord Nrsimhadeva recently returned from a grand, successful ten day tour of South Africa with over $2 million in pledges, matching the results of our first tour in 2014.

From October 15-25, the TOVP Team visited the temples in Durban, Capetown, Botswana and Johannesburg, as well as some smaller cities like Santana, Lenasia and Midrand, and multiple private homes. From the wonderful receptions of the Padukas and Sitari, to the ecstatic kirtans and sumptuous feasts, all leading to the momentous fundraising success, the unity, enthusiasm, comradery and teamwork of the South African leaders and general devotees to serve the TOVP project was exceptional and exemplary. This practical display of cooperative, focused service to Srila Prabhupada and Mahaprabhu not only brought financial results for the TOVP, but enlivened all the devotees and blessed them with the realization that by together serving the acharya’s orders to build the TOVP all devotees and all the temples will benefit simultaneously. As explained by Swarupa Damodar prabhu, the Regional Secretary of Durban:

“The TOVP team made such exciting and inspiring presentations and although about $1m was ‘liberated’ from the Durban yatra, everyone, including the managers and devotees were so blissful. This is clearly a project that can unite us all on a macro level, and if we can all band together behind it, we can learn from those unifying elements to work together here in South Africa….I am also convinced that if the South Africa yatra puts its full weight behind building the TOVP, our own yatras will flourish since the flood of love of Godhead will flow with tremendous current here…. So, I encourage our yatra leaders here to take a leap of faith and support this project whole heartedly and as Jananivasa prabhu comments, “It will be good for the world and it will be good for you.”Swarupa Damodar prabhu, the Regional Secretary of Durban

This same spiritual principle was confirmed by Srila Prabhupada who said:

“The more you help develop Mayapur, the more Lord Chaitanya will bless your area of the world and it will flourish…Mayapur is the spiritual world manifest on earth. Build your sambandha by seva and glorification of the dham. As the dham manifests so also your seva to it will give you the path back to godhead.”Srila Prabhupada

And Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur:

“Those who are living their best to keep intact the flow of service to Sri Mayapur, will be considered the benefactors of the world of Vaisnavas.”Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur

South Africa has a special place in the hearts of the TOVP Team. It was here in 2014 that we had our first-ever TOVP tour achieving a level of success we did not anticipate. Although we only had the square foot ($150) program in place, we raised over $2 million in pledges plus a $1 million pledge from one donor. From our experiences there we developed our ideas for other levels of donors such as the Golden Brick, Nrsimha Tile, etc.

Coming back for a second visit, we were overwhelmed by another wave of success. One anonymous donor in Durban pledged $250,000. At one house program in Ermilo we raised $50,000. At the small congregation in Midrand we raised $230,000 using up our last 16 Silver Coins. And we ran completely out of Nrsimha Coins early on because many South African devotees are Nrsimha bhaktas and his prayer for protection is their mantra.

The support we received from the South African leaders is to be lauded. From His Holiness Bhakti Caitanya Swami, to Govardhana, Devakinandana, Swarupa Damodar, Vibhu Caitanya, Nanda Kumar, Nanda Kishore, Siddhanta, Jyotirmaya, to all the other devotee organizers, we owe a debt of gratitude for their wholeheartedly opening the gates of their zones and temples to our team.

To conclude, we wish to reiterate this important point of cooperatively serving the Holy Dhama and the gravity of the TOVP project. It is not just a fanciful, imaginary idea but one that is inherent in our philosophy and essential to our spiritual understanding of Sridhama Mayapur. This has been expressed in a new essay by His Grace Ravindra Svarupa das,
Revealing the Heart of ISKCON, when commenting on an article by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur:

“When this central temple (the TOVP, ‘Parent Temple’), by the mercy of devotees, extends outward from its inherently sacred environment into profane regions, these expansions or branches, even though distant from their source, are essentially identical with it. The analogy of “one lamp lighted by another,” employed by The Harmonist, is taken from Brahma samhita (5.46), where it is used to elucidate the relationship between Lord Krsna and His expansions, like Balarama, Maha-Visnu, and so on. The use of the metaphor here implies that all the institution’s temples, as integral components of a spiritual organization, will be equally potent, even though one is the original, and the others, its branches or branches of branches.”

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur

To read the entire essay please go to: https://tovp.org/inspiration/revealing-heart-iskcon/

[See image gallery at tovp.org]

The post South Africa Tour a Grand and Unifying Success appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

Prabhupada pilgrimage places on America’s eastern and western coast (Album with photos)
Chaitanya Charan Das: Prabhupada’s quarters at the New Dwarka temple in Los Angeles are the place where Prabhupada spent the maximum time outside India. During my last year’s US visit, seeing the Matchless Gift center on the Lower East Side in New York had been the most poignant Prabhupada pilgrimage for me. This year, seeing Prabhupada’s quarters in the LA temple was a similarly poignant moment. It’s symbolically significant that these two memorable places exist on the two coasts of America – the eastern and the western. They remind us that Srila Prabhupada, during his manifest presence, spread Krishna consciousness so vigorously all over America, starting from its Eastern coast, where it all began at the Matchless Gift storefront, to its Western coast, where the LA center became the model temple for exemplary deity worship.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/9lMyTl

By Sutharsan Chakra das

The special feature of the program was the drama – “Who is a Fool”. The story of the drama revolved around a proud king who engaged in vain materialistic endeavours and social welfare without any higher goal in life. The king ordered to find the biggest fool in his kingdom and hand over him a stick. At the end of his life, the king understood that he had wasted his valuable human life and realised that he is actually the biggest fool and the “fool’s stick” should actually be given to him. He then became repentant and took complete shelter of the holy name of Krishna. This drama was full of spiritual instructions emphasising the precious knowledge of Bhagavad-gita and the importance of the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. It thus conveyed a strong spiritual message in a very amusing and humorous way. Especially youngsters liked the drama very much. Some of them said that they had never seen such an enlivening spiritual program in their whole life. Continue reading "Public Program in Colombo, Sri Lanka
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Prabhupada’s quarters at the New Dwarka temple in Los Angeles are the place where Prabhupada spent the maximum time outside India. During my last year’s US visit, seeing the Matchless Gift center on the Lower East Side in New York had been the most poignant Prabhupada pilgrimage for me. This year, seeing Prabhupada’s quarters in the LA temple was a similarly poignant moment. It’s symbolically significant that these two memorable places exist on the two coasts of America – the eastern and the western. They remind us that Srila Prabhupada, during his manifest presence, spread Krishna consciousness so vigorously all over America, starting from its Eastern coast, where it all began at the Matchless Gift storefront, to its Western coast, where the LA center became the model temple for exemplary deity worship.

I have shared some more photos here – https://www.facebook.com/ChaitanyaCharana/posts/1869791049916507

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During my 2016 US tour, I have been blessed with a lot of inspiring association of many senior Vaishnavas.

While I was in Los Angeles at the lotus feet of Their Lordships Rukmini Dvarkadhisha in New Dwarka Dhama, I got more than two hours of association of the Temple President H G Svavasa Prabhu. He personally showed me the Prabhupada quarters that have been preserved as it is. He explained the significance of the many Prabhupada paraphernalia and memorabilia, even telling some special Prabhupada pastimes.

Svavasa Prabhu explained how he was entrusted the charge of the temple when it was in a major crisis with the then-leader and his followers leaving bhakti and with the few remaining devotees having extremely low levels of trust and morale. Since then, under his mature, gentle and wise guidance, the temple has blossomed once again, wherein its festivals are especially attractive and are marked with huge, enthusiastic participation. The Watseka Avenue on which the temple is situated is the only place in metropolitan America where a whole community of devotees stays around a temple.

Learning about how Svavasa P has strived so much to manage and lead the temple enhanced my appreciation for him. It also reminded me of my spiritual master, H H Radhanath Maharaja, who has similarly toiled to raise the Radha Gopinath temple from its spiritually weakened state three decades ago to its present spiritually vibrant state.

Svavasa Prabhu’s association reminded me of Radha Gopinath Mandir in another way: by underscoring the need for competent management to facilitate serious intellectual work. Drutakarma Prabhu, a leading devotee-scientist whom I know for more than a decade, once told me that he chose to stay in the LA temple because it was so well-managed that he could peacefully focus on intellectual work while living in the temple’s spiritually potent atmosphere. On contemplating that I too was in a similar situation, I felt grateful to the managers of Radha Gopinath temple, for their efficient management enables me to undistractedly focus on my writing and online outreach service.

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After Howrah now a Durga Puja Pandal in Durgapur, West Bengal resembling the architecture of Temple of Vedic Planetarium

By Amala Prema devi dasi

As Prabhupada once said in a room conversation on farm management on December 10, 1976 in Hyderabad, “But attract them. They will come here to eat, ‘Oh, very nice thing.’ That is wanted. I made this movement successful simply by love feast. They did not come to hear Hare Krsna. They came for love feast. From very beginning, when I was in 26 2nd Avenue, every Sunday I was giving nice foodstuff, at least 200 men. Daily at least more than 15, 20. I was cooking myself. That is the beginning of my movement”. Following on in Prabhupada’s footsteps, the Bhakti Tree team primarily serve prasadam to the community. A group of Bhakti Tree visitors eating prasadam on a regular basis have come to be the first valuable gems of the Soul Searching Saturdays. We know from the Bhagavad-Gita, “Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.” Therefore, these souls coming to hear the Vedanta philosophy are precious, and they should be cared for and we should continue feeding their souls as well as their bodies. Continue reading "Soul Searching at The Bhakti Tree, Newcastle, Australia
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Thoughts of Swamiji from Five Blocks Away

        

The board members of ISKCON New Vrindaban & ECO-Vrindaban humbly invite all New Vrindaban residents, neighbors and well-wishers to participate in the upcoming weekend activities.

WEEKEND SCHEDULE:

Friday, November 11th

7:30 pm to 8:30 pm: Dinner Prasadam with Board Members & GBCs (at Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s Temple)

Saturday, November 12th

9:00 am to 10:00 am: Breakfast Prasadam (at Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s Temple)

9:45 am to 1:30 pm: ISKCON New Vrindaban & ECO-Vrindaban Department Head Presentations (under the Palace Lodge)

1:30 pm to 2:30 pm: Lunch Prasadam (at Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s Temple)

2:30 pm to 5:00 pm: Community Dialog (Join us in a lively discussion about current topics TBD, under the Palace Lodge)

7:30 pm to 8:30 pm: Dinner Prasadam with Board Members & GBCs (at Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s Temple)

Sunday, November 13th

9:00 am to 10:00 am: Breakfast Prasadam (at Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s Temple)

10:00 am to 1:00 pm: New Vrindaban Community Tour (various locations TBD, weather permitting)

1:00 pm to 3:00 pm: Sunday Program & Feast (at Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s Temple)

3:30 pm to 5:30 pm: Community Service Appreciations (under the Palace Lodge, details to follow)

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 13 August, 2012, New Vraja Mandala, Spain, Srimad Bhagavatam 6.3.31)

We have doubts sometimes and we think, ‘Chanting doesn’t work! I’m trying to be a devotee for such a long time and I have been chanting for many years, almost every day but I feel that I am still the same fallen person that I always was…’

But Srila Prabhupada said, ‘By chanting the Holy Name once, it can purify more sins than one can commit in an entire lifetime!’

So, my only explanation is that it takes a little longer for us to become completely purified since we have been in this material world for unlimited lifetimes, engaging in unlimited sinful activities and now we are being purified like anything!

About Chaitnya Charan Prabhu : Chaitanya Charan is a monk and spiritual author. He has done his Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering from the Government College of Engineering, Pune. He subsequently served as a software engineer in a prominent multinational software corporation.

Seeing the prevalent problems of stress, depression, addiction and overall misdirection – all caused by a lack of spirituality – he felt inspired to dedicate his life to the cause of sharing the spiritual wisdom of the Bhagavad-gita under the aegis of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna consciousness). He is a member of ISKCON’s leading intellectual body, the Shastric Advisory Council, and is the associate-editor of ISKCON’s global magazine, Back to Godhead. He is the author of the world’s only Gita-daily feature, wherein he writes daily a 300-word inspirational reflection on a verse from the Bhagavad- Gita. He has written over seventeen hundred Gita meditations that are posted on www.gitadaily.com and are read through daily feeds by thousands from all over the world.

He also answers questions by seekers on his site www.thespiritualscientist.com, where his over three thousand five hundred audio answers and several hundred articles are available.

He travels all over the world from Australia to America, giving talks on spiritual subjects in temples, universities and companies. His articles have been published in many national newspapers including Indian Express, Economic Times and Times of India in the Speaking Tree column. His writings in English have been translated into several foreign languages including German, Chinese and Romanian and several Indian languages including Kannada, Telgu, Bengali, Hindi and Marathi. He is the author of sixteen books.

The Beginning of My Journey.
Stevie Rojas:
I have always been attracted to religion and spirituality. I grew up as a Catholic, because it is the dominant religion in my country (Philippines), but when I became a teenager, I began exploring different religions and philosophies.

“Buy the car and enjoy the envy in your neighbours’ eyes”. With this tagline a car company hopes to lure more people to buy their brand. And what’s wrong with the message if today people prefer buying products not because of their needs but because of their desire to flaunt their wealth to prove their worth. 

Everyday, we are being bombarded by tens of thousands of impressions. All of these impressions can clutter the mind. When we get a better understanding of where most of our stress is coming from, we will be able to reduce or eliminate it. A video by Gadadhara Pandit.

A recent article published by Scientific American suggests, “Meditation can decrease stress, lower blood pressure, and lift one’s mood.” With increasing competition and demands in the workplace, mindfulness is more relevant than ever.

Toronto's Hare Krishna Centre (ISKCON Toronto), has always been the hub of a rich, vibrant and enthusiastic community. Whether it be grand festivals, programs at local universities and yoga studios, philosophical discussions, cooking sessions, or singing and dancing on the streets, there are events taking place for everyone's interest. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has shared a congratulatory message for the Canadian Hare Krishna communities for ISKCON's 50th Anniversary.

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