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Vaishnava Compassion.
“A natural human sentiment, compassion finds its highest expression in the works of devotees of the Lord. The tenderness of the heart experienced toward Krishna is known as bhakti. All other jivas are servants of Krishna. When one experiences tenderness of heart toward them, it is known as daya, compassion. Therefore, compassion is included within bhakti.” Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Jaiva Dharma, p. 179
Those who have known Kadamba Kanana Swami over years were accustomed to his hectic schedule. Often one would be trying to catch their breath in between attending multiple programs a day. However, things have changed drastically now. Maharaj continues in recovery mode and in the week after Radhastami, there were just three programs!
First was the Sunday Love Feast (11 September). The program began with the weekly practice of reciting a chapter of Bhagavad-gita and on that day it was Chapter 17: The Divisions of Faith. This set the tone for the lecture where Maharaj spoke at length about the modes of material nature. A barrage of questions came through at the end to which Maharaj gave very practical answers. The program ended with Guru Puja and a lively kirtan.
During the week, Maharaj gave one morning lecture based on Srimad Bhagavatam and on Friday (16 September), he was the special guest at a nama-hatta program held at the Kendra Hall, a Gujarati community centre in the city. There were many new-comers present and Maharaj spoke about the saintly person and how the saintly person is always fulfilled as he has internal happiness; he has strong conviction in God and therefore experiences the spiritual dimension!
Last week, the TOVP team also visited Durban to promote their fund-raising endeavour. On Wednesday, 14 September, Jananivasa Prabhu (Mayapur Head Pujari) and Vraja Vilasa Prabhu arrived. Kadamba Kanana Swami and Jananivasa Prabhu greeted each other in Srila Prabhupada’s room at the temple and on one of the days, they had lunch prasadam together. Ambarish Prabhu and Svaha Mataji arrived a few days later and so did Agnidev Prabhu!
As we reported already, Kadamba Kanana Swami had his six-monthly medical screening and the results were good. We remain cautiously excited and continue in our prayers for him…
We having some technical challenges with our recording device hence the delay in posting recent recordings. We are working on it! Thank you for your patience.
Visit Flickr to see more photos.
ISKCON’s 50th Anniversary Rath Yatra Attracts Thousands In Chicago.
Urvashi Verma: More than 2,000 people gathered for the Rath Yatra festival Sept. 17 at the Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago as part of the national kickoff celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, better known as the Hare Krishna Movement.
Prior to the advent of ISKCON movement Jagannath and the “Ratha Yatra” were relatively unknown in the West. However, after its founding, A. C. Bhaktivedanta, founder of ISKCON popularized the festival when he selected Jagannath as one of the chosen forms of Krishna, installing an idol of Jagannath in ISKCON temples around the world. Today the “Ratha Yatra” festival is celebrated by ISKCON in many cities in the West where they are popular attractions.
The yatra, or the parade, which started from Clark and Adams streets, featured a colorful 40-foot chariot decorated with thousands of flowers, with “Lord Jagannath” the presiding deity of the festival placed in the center.
Hundreds of devotees, pulled the chariot by hand across large city blocks, dancing, playing drums and cymbals and euphorically chanting the mantra “Hare Krishna Hare Rama.” It was an eye-catching spectacle as many Chicagoans watched the procession and took to their phones to capture pictures.
The yatra concluded in Daley Plaza where religious ceremonies were performed by Romapada Swami and included arti, and food offering of 56 items to Lord Jagannath prior to the commencement of a free fun-filled afternoon for families which included a spectacular kirtan, devotional singing performance by Gauravani Buchwald; classical Odisi by Sigma, and performances by Natya Dance Theater depicting the stories of Sri Krishna.
Romapada Swami, member of governing body commission of ISKCON and Chicago area dignitaries – Clerk of Cook County, Dorothy Brown, Chicago 49th District Alderman Joe Moore, and Chicago philanthropist and trustee of FIA Chicago Iftekar Shareef, spoke about the impact of the “Hare Krishna” movement in the their state, district and personal lives.
Romapada Swami talked to Desi Talk Chicago in an interview about ISKCON’s 50th Anniversary and the organization’s vast growth and goals for the next 50 years.
“Two things are very important to highlight, when an organization endures for 50 years, at least here in America, it is taken as We are here to stay because often times after a great personality establishes an organization and passes away, things change. Here in ISKCON there is still a continuation and growth. For us the 50th anniversary is a time for celebration and communication.
The communication part is the “Rath Yatra” which is a message of the mercy of Lord Jagannath for everybody. Just like in celebrations in Puri, our founder very much wanted this Rath Yatra all over the world so that people can experience his mercy and so here we are; we need to celebrate the mercy of Lord Jagannath being given to millions across the world, ” said Romapada.
“There are areas of the world where ISKCON is expanding explosively and when an organization expands so vastly, my personal concern as a leader is making sure we are maintaining the purity of the principles and teachings through the Bhagavad Gita and teachings of Prabhupada and then surely everything will be fine” commented Romapada.
The Daley center was surrounded by booths providing information on topics such as Sri Krishna, ISCKON vegetarianism, reincarnation, meditation, yoga, handicrafts, idols of worship, and henna application. There was also an activity center, especially for children where they could make arts and crafts related to Sri Krishna.
“ Although I am not a member of ISKCON I wanted to bring my children to see and learn all about our culture, and it was great fun for them, I hope that this will make them more inclined to learn about our culture and religion ” shared one of the attendees.
The 50th anniversary celebrations will continue later this year with Rath Yatra parades in cities worldwide, including San Francisco, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, London, and Paris, and gala events at the Sydney Opera House, European Parliament, and other major venues.
Source: https://goo.gl/771TZ2
Q: You mentioned in your video, diksha refers to getting the mantra and shiksa refers to getting instructions on how to chant it…
Dīkṣā means acceptance into the educational process (aka “sādhana”) of a given school. This acceptance is accomplished by giving the student the school’s study materials (mantra and śāstra)
Q: We already got the mantra from some devotee, we may not even remember whom. Would a formal initiation ceremony benefit us?
Hearing a mantra from someone on the sidewalk is a haphazard dīkṣā at best. Real dīkṣā should be intentional. The person giving it should be recognized by the school as worthy of evaluating whether a candidate is worthy of being inducted into the school. And the induction should be done deliberately. Giving of the mantras (etc) are the process to accomplish this induction. Just hearing a mantra doesn’t mean I am inducted into the school that uses the mantra, but induction into a school will involve being given their mantra. So “a includes b, but b does not always include a.” (where “a” is the acceptance into a spiritual school, and “b” is the bestowal of their mantras, etc)
Q: Siksha guru plays more significant role than diksha guru.
Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Generally its best if the dīkṣā guru is also the primary śīkṣā guru.
Q: In the current scenario, the siksha gurus who guide us daily are mostly not authorized by the ISKCON institution to give diksha. In this case, should one aspire to receive dīkṣā initiation from the diksha guru of one’s siksha guru, based on the assumption that since his siksha guru is so great, the diksha guru must be great as well – because a deer cannot give birth to a lion?
If you feel that a person represents a school very authentically and deeply, but there is some branch of that school that does not agree and therefore does not authorize that person to accept inductees on their behalf, then you should figure out of either your opinion of the merit of that person is wrong, or your opinion of the value of that branch of the school is wrong. One or the other is wrong. If you decide that the branch is wrong, then leave the branch. If you decide the person is wrong, leave the person.
Q: The diksha gurus authorized by ISKCON are often too busy having thousands of disciples, and may not have time to talk to his disciples directly. Most of the instruction comes through others, the councillors or siksha gurus. In such a situation, how will the formalities of initiation help a practicing devotee?
If the dīkṣā guru is authorized by an empowered branch of the school to accept you as a member of the school, then you are accepted. And the dīkṣā guru would then assign you to an appropriate śīkṣā guru, and would not interfere with the instruction you receive there, knowing his practical limitations. If he does not put you in the care of a śikṣā guru or does not allow that śīkṣā guru to perform his or her role, then the dīkṣā guru was accepted mistakenly, for they are not sincere and do not desire to benefit the disciple. They should be renounced if they persist in this behavior.
Q: Can one person have more than one guru?
An individual should accepted into one school, or at least one at a time. It generally difficult to attend two schools simultaneously. Therefore there should be need for only one successful dīkṣā per school – so, basically there should only be one dīkṣā guru. But everyone in the universe and everything should become our śikṣā guru. We should have multiple śīkṣā gurus, but there should be order and priority. The dīkṣā guru would ideally be the main śīkṣā guru. Others further along in our own school are other high-priority śīkṣā gurus. Others from other schools, or just random people and animals are also śīkṣā gurus, but their teachings are understood in context of the teachings of the higher-priority śikṣā gurus.
Śrī Krishna Dās Kavirāja therefore says, “vande ‘haṁ śrī guroḥ, śrī guruṁ vaiṣṇavamś ca” which means “Obeisance to my guru (singular, dīkṣā guru), and also to my gurus (plural, śikṣā gurus), the Vaiṣṇavas (the highest-priority śikṣā gurus).
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Chanting Hare Krishna and the original problem.
Sacinandana Swami: As practitioners that chant the holy name we all know how difficult it is to connect the mind with the holy name because by definition, the mind is only able to grasp material things. The mind can think of holidays at the beach or any other material subject. It is especially attracted to think about how to increase one’s wealth and how to engage in sexual activities. These are things we can easily think about because the mind is shaped like this. It wraps itself around money and the opposite sex very easily; it’s made like this, it’s a perfect material match. but the mind has great difficulty to stay with Krishna. Since we have come to the world, this is our problem: we have turned our back to Kåñëa, and this bahir-mukha, being outwardly faced, especially manifests when we try to chant the holy names. In other words, our basic envy of god, our feeling ill at ease with the lord manifests to a very obvious degree when we chant the holy name.
Don’t Starve your Mantras!
One of the highlights for me at the recent Sadhu Sanga Kirtan Retreat was an instruction on mantra meditation. It was spoken by Sacinandana Swami in reference to the Gayatri Mantras that are chanted when one receives advanced initiation in the practice of Bhakti Yoga, but it’s a guide that can be applied to any mantra meditation practice: “Don’t starve your mantras”
Our devotional yoga involves the chanting of many mantras, the main one being the Hare Krishna mantra. A successful chanting practice needs both regulation and attention. When we neglect either of those, the mantra becomes weak and has little or no impact in our efforts for transcendence.
When we skip days in our practice, sometimes chanting, sometimes not, we are starving our mantras. When we chant mindlessly, just getting the prescribed number of mantras done, without attention or emotion, we are starving our mantras.
When we starve the mantras they leave us.
They will also come back to us, to our life, when we give them time and attention. The mantras themselves don’t need anything, they are transcendental sound vibrations, but will not work without our participation. If we chant with committed regulation, and chant with deliberate attention, they have the potency to shift our lives to higher ways of thinking and being. The sound purifies, frees our mind from misery and reawakens our original love for Krishna. This is their magic, the gift they give to us.
So don’t starve your mantras. Give them the time and attention then need, which is really the time and attention you need.
By Padmanabha Dasa During the padayatra, people would often ask us about Srila Prabhupada. They wanted to know why he was sitting and not saying anything, and others wanted to know if they could touch his feet. We took this as a good opportunity to explain to people about Srila Prabhupada. The sun was blazing but with a cool breeze accompanying it, the procession kept moving. It was a joyous walk with many African people joining us; they sang, danced and jumped in ecstasy as they all tried to get some mercy. We ended the padayatra at the park with Nrishmadev prayers. Devotees then settled down on the grass and took the prasadam that was being served. We thank the devotees and public for their participation in making this a successful event. Continue reading "First Padayatra In Johannesburg Gauteng, South Africa
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By Murali Vadhana Govinda Dasa A small padayatra was held in Malaysia on August 14th. It was organized by ISKCON Teluk (Mayapur Baru) and commemorated ‘World Holy Name Week’ and ISKCON’s 50th anniversary. Srila Prabhupada visited the town of Teluk Intan located in the Hilir Perak district of Malaysia in 1970. He also visited the Mariamman Temple here. Now, years later it was decided that this temple would be the starting point of the commemorative padayatra. The padayatra was set to take place at 5:30 pm. There were around 50 devotees gathered at the Mariamman Temple. We also carried a murti i of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. We had organized some media coverage from a local newspaper, ‘Tamil Malar.’ They were meant to cover the event from the beginning but unfortunately, because they had arrived late, it didn’t work out. They did, however; agree to publish the event later after we had completed the walk. Continue reading "Malaysia Padayatra Celebrates World Holy Name Week And Iskcon’s 50Th Anniversary
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An Ocean of Gaura Premamrta-krpa" - An elaboration on Srila Rupa Goswami’s Sri Upadesamrta.
This wonderful book in two volumes has been compiled by H.G. Srimati Mataji (Vrindavana) and her team.
HG Srimati Mataji is a senior renounced Vaishnavi, who after serving for 18 years in Sri Mayapur dhama has now settled in Vrindavan since last 3 years.
She recently compiled a wonderful book based on Srila Prabhupada and previous acharyas which she dedicated to 50 years of ISKCON.
You can download it, as pdf files, here: https://goo.gl/ZcqsaI
Hare Krishna in Wales, UK (15 min video)
A new documentary video about Govinda’s restaurant in Swansea.
This film shows the Hare Krishna temple with Govinda’s restaurant in Swansea, and Cafe Atma in Cardiff, Wales. Some of the local devotees.speak about their experiences.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/RQvg1j
By Madhava Smullen The festival is a revival of the historical Prabhupada Festivals that began in the West Virginia rural community with the opening of Srila Prabhupada’s Palace in 1979, and continued through to the mid 1980s. Lavish affairs, they saw devotees from around the world come together to serve Srila Prabhupada with processions, abishekhas and gift-giving, as well as 24-hour kirtans, dramas, sumptuous feasts, and elaborate fireworks displays. This year’s festival aims to not only bring back that tradition, but also to reconnect with previous residents who assisted in the gradual development of New Vrindaban; revive a spirit of giving special attention to Srila Prabhupada; and awaken the team spirit and sweet, sincere mood of service that the early devotees had for him. Continue reading "New Vrindaban Prabhupada Festival to Awaken Sweet Service Mood
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5th Annual Jagannath Rath Yatra in Bloomington.
Damodarananda Das: We celebrated our 5th Festival of Chariots on Sept 18 in Bl...
A View of Tompkins Square Park
Srila Prabhupada arrives in the USA, 1965.
Tomorrow marks the anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s arrival in the U.S.A. in 1965.
Several years after Srila Prabhupada first arrived in America, a disciple discovered the diary he had kept during his passage from India on the steamship Jaladuta. Inside was a poem, handwritten in Bengali, which Srila Prabhupada had written on board the ship just after it had arrived in Boston harbor. The poem beautifully captures Srila Prabhupada’s first impressions of Western civilization and reveals his heartfelt determination to change the consciousness of America. It begins:
“My dear Lord Krishna, You are so kind upon this useless soul, but I do not know why You have brought me here. Now You can do whatever You like with me.
"But I guess You have some business here, otherwise why would You bring me to this terrible place?
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/KtFO5B
Chant4Change: Lincoln Memorial on October 8th, 2016 - “Raise Your Voice.”
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 14 December 2015, Mayapur, India, Srimad Bhagavatam 6.17.36-37)
We will be tested in our lives. It is not, ‘Maybe we will be tested!’ We WILL BE tested as this is the nature of devotional service. Srimad Bhagavatam is meant to guide us on how to act in a trying situation where we may have to face strong behavior from superiors.
What if one gets mistreated by the authorities in the institution? Still, this is not an excuse to leave Krsna consciousness! This is a very common justification found by many who have found an excuse to give into their mind and to allow themselves to return to the material life, ‘What could I do? No one understood me and I was mistreated! I’m just a soul whose intentions are good… but I was misunderstood and then as a result I was mistreated and here I am – a victim of the situation!’ No, you are a victim of your own mind! And of course, the mind is the seat of the senses and therefore a victim of the senses.
The mind is constantly looking for an emergency exit, ‘There’s gotta be some way to get out of this – this is too tight! No really, it’s too serious, it’s too much! I need a little more freedom. A whole lifetime of just four regulative principles and only Hare Krsna! Oh, please, give us a little more freedom!’
But we cannot do so because it does not align with transcendental knowledge. A way out is just not possible because you cannot argue with transcendental knowledge. But if there was a way out, what greater way out than to blame somebody else, ‘It’s not due to my fault that I fell down – I was mistreated, I am a victim!’
Yeah, believe it if you want to but it is not very convincing. Maybe you can fool your mind but I do not think you can fool anybody else. We understand very well what happened. The lower nature got the better of you and you just found an excuse to facilitate it!
We ourselves are by no means very powerful; we do not have great strength of character therefore we must read Srimad Bhagavatam and hear it again and again so that we can actually meditate on how to properly react to tests in life. We may not know spontaneously how to act in an appropriate way, therefore better we be thoughtful and meditate on it so that when such testing situations do arise then we can remind ourselves, ‘Okay, I remember what is supposed to be the right behavior!’ And after prolonged meditation, we might act properly in such a trying situation. One who is deeply thoughtful for a long time, one who has read Bhagavatam again and again, even though internally not yet completely pure, may act appropriately.
Vishwakarma is the demigod of architecture. He is accredited for designing Dwarka. The Mahabharata describes him as “The lord of the arts, executor of a thousand handicrafts, the carpenter of the gods, the most eminent of artisans, the fashioner of all ornaments … and a great and immortal god.” He has four hands, wears a crown, loads of gold jewelry, and holds a water-pot, a book, a noose and craftsman’s tools in his hands”.
Ordinarily and as explained in the Bhagavad Gita, in ISKCON we do not engage in any form of demigod worship. However in West Bengal, India it is a popular cultural tradition among workers and engineers to hold a Vishwakarma Puja to obtain the blessings for good work. In our case, this puja was held and utilized in the service of Sri Sri Radha Madhava for building Their unique and new TOVP Temple.
On Saturday September 17, 2015 our TOVP Glass fiber Reinforced Concrete (GRC) Factory workers held a Vishwakarma Puja in the factory. The day before the workers had a “Gundica Marjanam” in the GRC factory. They cleansed the entire space from top to bottom. They also washed all the tools, machines, and factory vehicles.
Pictures of Sri Sri Radha Madhava, Lord Nrsimhadeva, and Srila Prabhupada were accompanied by a deity form of Vishwakarma. All of the factory’s tools were placed on the altar and were worshipped. The yajna was performed to remove all inauspiciousness and obstacles in our work. Also, we prayed for the good health and determination of the workers.
The yajna was followed by a sumptuous Krishna Prasadam feast. The workers and their families and other TOVP staff members attended the puja. It united an uplifted the spirits of everyone. It was a positive day and a grand opportunity to honor and celebrate all of the virtuous work that is being produced for the TOVP in our very own GRC Factory.
[See image gallery at tovp.org]
The post Vishwakarma Puja in the Service of Sri Sri Radha Madhava appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.
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