In bhakti, how do we decide which aspects are matters of principle and which, matters of preference?
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​How do we explain the concept of achintya to scientific people?
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Mahabharata 2 – Draupadi – Dishonored yet honorable
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​Seminar at ISKCON, Toronto, Canada

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​Learning to change our rasa from the world to Krishna
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​Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Scarborough, Toronto, Canada

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First Arkansas Rathayatra
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Hare KrishnaBy 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…
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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.

When does “food” become…
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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
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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.

Early Miracles Of Caitanya Mahaprabhu
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Hare KrishnaBy 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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New Sydney Temple Project
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img_1918img_1919

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.

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Recordings: August 2016
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Please find below recordings of lectures and kirtans by Kadamba Kanana Swami captured during August. 

Download ALL (zip file, 834 MB)

Slovenia

KKS_SLOVENIA_26August2016_Srila_Prabhupada_Vyasa_Puja_Address

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

KKS_CROATIA_23August2016__EveningProgram_Lecture_CC_Adi_7.20

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

 

Prabhupada, “You can also see God in six months if you simply become this sincere and determined
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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.

​How do we address the conflict between the mind and the heart?
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​How could omniscient Krishna not locate his abducted son Pradyumna for many years?
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​Does science offer real knowledge – can we live today without scientific knowledge?
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​Why do scientists criticize spirituality and spiritualists criticize science?
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​Does bhakti cause increase in our problems or does increase in problems intensify our bhakti?
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​If Bhagavan and Brahman are non-different, are a gulab jamun and its fragrance non-different?
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​Mahabharata 1 – Bhishma – Misunderstood by the world, understood by Krishna
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Hidden History of Kusakratha prabhu
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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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Durga Puja Pandals Resembling Temple of Vedic Planetaurium
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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…

durga_puja_pandal_in_durgapur_wb_2016

Photos are courtesy of Goutam Mukherjee.

The post Durga Puja Pandals Resembling Temple of Vedic Planetaurium appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

Kusakratha Prabhu, a transcendental genius!
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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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Meditation and Imagination (nāma-bhajan)
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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