Planet ISKCON

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By Sri Rangavati devi dasi

Little Rock is the state capital of Arkansas so it was appropriate that the first Rathayatra should take place there. Alongside the Arkansas River is a very cosmopolitan area called River Market. Families enjoy walking and cycling along the river, the Clinton Presidential Library is located there and there are restaurants, bars, museums. It is popular with locals and tourists. In Little Rock is an international manufacturing company from India called Welspun. The company has a Radha Krsna Temple on their property. The pujaris and the senior vice president were very excited at having a Rathayatra in the city. They immediately mobilized their employees and we had the help we needed to put on the festival and parade. One employee came from Jagannath Puri and he had his father arrange for carving of the deities. He then had Them flown over. Continue reading "First Arkansas Rathayatra
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Future saints (Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future)
Srila Prabhupada: Whenever there is unwanted population these three things will naturally, by nature’s course, appear- famine, pestilence, and war- and the population will be finished. There was some unwanted population at that time also for which Krishna arranged the war. If we want very good population, very good generation, then we have to follow the principles of Bhagavad-gita. New York, May 30, 1966.

The post Daily Darshan: October9,2016 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

When does “food” become “prasadam?”
Sivarama Swami: The phenomenon of something changing from material to spiritual is an extraordinary one, but it is something we as devotees are involved in daily—often several times a day. It happens when prasadam (unoffered food) becoming prasadam, or food sanctified by the Lord.

Prasada: The Power of Sacred Food.
On the spiritual path those that are most inclined to lead a peaceful existence that respects the value of all life often adopts the vegetarian lifestyle. It is in accordance with the yogic principle of ahimsa, which is to observe nonviolence and abstain from injuring any being in any way. However, in the process of bhakti-yoga, devotion goes beyond simple vegetarianism, and food becomes a method of spiritual progress. In the Krishna temples, food is offered to the Deities in a special sacrament, after which it becomes prasada or prasadam. This means the mercy of the Lord. Thus, the food we eat after it is offered to the Lord becomes a means for our purification and spiritual development.

By Amala Bhakta Dasa

When Sarvabauma denounced himself as an offender and took shelter of Lord Caitanya, the Lord wanted to show him His mercy, so He manifested His four armed Visnu form. Then, just after this, He manifested His original two-armed Krsna form, with a blackish complexion and a flute near His lips. When Sarvabauma Bhattacarya saw this, he prostrated himself before the Lord. Then he arose and with folded palms offered Lord Caitanya prayers of glorification. By the Lord's mercy, all truths were revealed to him, and he could understand the importance of chanting God's holy names and distributing love of God everywhere. Continue reading "Early Miracles Of Caitanya Mahaprabhu
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Radha Kunda Seva: September 2016 Photos and Updates (Album with photos)
The sun is shining again and temperatures have cooled ...

New Sydney Temple Project (Album with photos)
Ramai Swami: The fourth Sydney Temple fundraising dinner for the year was attend...

Wisps of ’66 Memories

The fourth Sydney Temple fund raising dinner for the year was attended by about 150 devotees and guests.

Special speakers were HH Bir Krsna Maharaja, Gaura Gopal from Mumbai and myself.

The evening went well with kirtan, dance, progress report and construction commencement dates. Many gave generous donations for the new project.

Please find below recordings of lectures and kirtans by Kadamba Kanana Swami captured during August. 

Download ALL (zip file, 834 MB)

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Slovenia

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KKS_SLOVENIA_25August2016_Janmastami_Evening_Lecture

KKS_SLOVENIA_25August2016_Janmastami_Short_Kirtan

KKS_SLOVENIA_25August2016_Janmastami_Morning_Lecture

KKS_SLOVENIA_24August2016_Evening_Lecture_SB_10.1.3

KKS_SLOVENIA_24August2016_Evening_Kirtan

 

Croatia

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KKS_CROATIA_23August2016__EveningProgram_Kirtan

KKS_CROATIA_22August2016__Lecture_SB_10.10.15

KKS_CROATIA_21August2016__SundayProgram_Initiation_Lecture

KKS_CROATIA_21August2016__SundayProgram_Kirtan

KKS_CROATIA_20August2016__EveningProgram_NOI_Lecture

KKS_CROATIA_20August2016__EveningProgram_Kirtan

KKS_CROATIA_19August2016_HouseProgram_Lecture_CC_Antya_7.6

KKS_CROATIA_18August2016_BalaramasAppearanceDay_Lecture

KKS_CROATIA_18August2016_BalaramasAppearanceDay_Kirtan

 

Krsna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.**
Brahma-samhita, Chapter Five, 1st verse, Translated by Kusakratha Dasa. Commentary by Srila Jiva Gosvami

Prabhupada, “You can also see God in six months if you simply become this sincere and determined.”
Narada Muni: I was selling books from a book cart at the 1971 Ratha-yatra when I asked someone to take my place for a minute so I could run to see Srila Prabhupada on the Ratha-yatra cart before it left.
When I saw him, I felt that Srila Prabhupada looked at me, and everybody probably felt the same thing.

Discover the Hidden Gems and Secrets of Srimad Bhagavatam (video)
By HG Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu. Recorded at ISKCON of Silicon ...

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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]

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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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