By Dvijapriya dasi

For the pleasure of all here is a link to photos of Indradyumna maharaja's Alachua visit in March of this year

By Lavanga - latika devi dasi

Come and dance through the streets of historical Old East Dallas with Their Lordships Sri Sri Sri Jagannatha Baladeva Subhadra and Their Devotees!

By Kaunteya das

Some of you might have read how the devotees in Malaysia optimized the opportunities afforded by the month of Damodara (Kartika). HH Jayapataka Maharaja was telling me that the Purusottama month (appearing this year but not every year) possesses similar glories. Such specialty makes it easier for people—especially of Indian origin, but not necessarily only them—to accept devotees in their homes for short propitious programs for bringing auspiciousness and positive vibrations. (Many members of the community can manage, with a little training, to conduct a successful visit.)

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By Bhurijana dasa

Prabhupada: I have faith in you. Now, I give sometimes this example. Just like you go to a barber shop, and you put your neck like this, and he is with the razor. So unless you have faith, "No, he is good man. He will not cut my throat," how can you do so?

By Tamohara das

As the Director of the ISKCON Central Office of Child Protection, I would like to respond to the concerns about the status of Dhanurdhara Swami raised by the “Expert Gurukula Proofreaders.” I was also a member of the GBC committee that drafted the resolution that was passed in Mayapur, so I can speak to the intent of both the CPO decision and GBC resolution.

By the Editors

Puru das ACBSP has left his body via a heart attack. He was a dedicated vaishnava who was the curator of the Srila Prabhupada museum at the W. 55th Street temple in Manhattan. The following is an article that appeared in Back to Godhead magazine written in 1982 by Sriman Puru Dasa.

By Kesava Krsna Dasa

A devotee answered then passed me on to the guest master. A strange thing happened while I held the phone. A perfumed aroma assailed my sense of smell. It did not come from the room I was located, yet it hung there for the duration of the call. It was accompanied by very slight crackling sensation.

By Rangavali dasi

The primary responsibilities will be to ensure the New Raman Reti temple: Maintains Srila Prabhupada's spiritual standards. Is cared for logistically and practically. Welcomes appropriately all disciples and congregational members of ISKCON. Develops / maintains required temple departments, and is financially sound.

1966 April 25 :
"Sasthi. I went to see Mr. Bogart. Came back & settled to postpone return back to India."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1966

1969 April 25 : "Immediately upon receipt of your picture, I had it hung right above my Deity room. Wherever I go I convert one closet into my Deity room, so I shall always be seeing your picture there."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969

1970 April 25 : "Yes, the conditioned souls were with Krsna before being conditioned. But at that time they are resting in susupti which is deep sleep without dream, or anesthetized state, therefore they do not remember."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1972 April 25 : "We want to unite everyone; Parsis, Jews, Christians, Muslims, all parties are participating in this Movement. Intelligent leaders should try to understand this fact in depth."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1972 April 25 : "It is the necessity of human society to become Krishna Conscious and each state has to seriously implement the idea. We expect to push on our movement to that extent, that is our objective."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1972 April 25 : "There are four bona fide Visnu sampradayas. They have created so many others following off-shoot authorities, but these are not recognized by us."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1972 April 25 : "Yes, you do not know how to serve Krishna, so you simply assist your guru - we must always think like this. In this way we can offer one plate and many plates are distributed."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1973 April 25 : "I want that all you boys use your American intelligence cooperatively in spreading this Sankirtana movement. You are doing solid work and I thank you very much for assisting me."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1973

Every day something happens that could be written about but it goes by unnoted due to lack of someone taking the time to jot it down. If I haven’t asked you personally to do so, please let me know if you have any interest at all. Polished writing is not a requirement.

There is a children’s program that goes on every Sunday that someone could write about. This past weekend the newly remodeled snack bar opened up for the season. There are plants emerging and being planted in the garden.

Yesterday Jayaprabhupada, Dev, and Prahlada herded 34 cows of the main herd from the big barn through Vrindaban down to the summer pasture at Bahulaban. Jayaprabhupada is going to make another run with the rest of them that are able to make the 5 mile walk after sorting out the ones that will need a ride.

Hari das and Shanka were spreading compost in the beds in front of the temple formerly occupied by the thorn bushes that remained after all the nice ornamental shrubs had died off over the last 24 years. A simple listing of plants that will go there would be of interest to a lot of readers.

Today? Something happens every day if you have eyes to see it and ears to hear it. Do you? If you want to help share the goings on of the devotees, please email me. Your address will remain private if you use the form below; it simply generates an email with me as the only receipient.

Please note the April 24th 2007 reprint from the old Brijabasi Spirit contained herein and note that the reporter was Radhanath. Yes, that Radhananth. So anyone interested in following in the footsteps?

It has been a few days since I've posted anything about my travels, I feel like I've been a little remiss in my duties, so here we go.

Last Thursday we left Athens after successful vegan cooking dinner (the theme was Nacho Libre ie lots of fresh nachos served with rice, beans, tvp, salsa, guacamole), and Wednesday night discussion.

After arriving in New Vrindaban I went into the temple to pay my obeisances to the deities and there was a new devotee kneeling down in front of Radha Vrindabancandra, freshly shaven in dhoti and kurta, with a caddar draped over his shoulder. What a beautiful sight! As I offered my obeisances in front of Gaura Nitai I could not help but feel they were very pleased.

Bhakta Dan got a book from us at the Rainbow Gathering last year in Colorado, and when he started reading Srila Prabhupada's Bhagavad Gita he finished it within a few days, and soon after he Chaitanya Prabhu at a college program in Ann Arbor, and now he is living with us at New Vrindaban.

The weekend was really nice. The weather was gorgeous. I even got a sun burn. Soon it will be so hot that everyone will be complaining that it is too hot.

On Saturday I did my usual weekend service of cooking for the deities, that is always a nice service. This week I thought all the preparations came our very well, so I became more proud than usual, and immediately Krishna smashed me, as I was putting away everything I dropped the container of vanilla extract and it spilled everywhere, including all over me.

Sunday was nice, Balaramacandra, Chaitanya and I met and we finalized our commitment to go through with getting a house here in Athens, there are two devotee students who will be living there, and we will all spend sometime every week there. We are all excited about this next phase of development in our outreach programs.

Then Sunday evening Chaitanya and I headed out to Morgantown to do kirtan with the New Vrindaban youth that are staying there and going to college. There were about twenty kids, and the kirtan was a lot of fun.

Monday it was back to New Vrindaban, I spent the majority of the day studying Bhagavatam in preparation for our study group, the more I study Srila Prabhupada's purports the more I can appreciate their value.

And Tuesday it was time to cook, get packed up, and hit the road again. Last night instead of meeting indoors at The Wire we took vegan cooking outside to college green and had a big picnic consisting of pasta salad, salad, soup, bread, and vegan pina colada icecream. Everyone had a great time enjoy the good food, good weather, and good company.

Just a few of the highlights from the past week.

Tonight we have our discussion group at Mauricio's house, and tommorrow we head to Columbus, Bhakti Marg Swami will be there, so it should be quite an entertaining evening.

“We are not doers of good or bad deeds, nor are we scholars or illiterate. Carrying the shoes of Hari's pure devotees as our duty, we are initiates into the mantra "kirtaniya sada hari".”

Here Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur is clarifying for us what our position and duty is. Bhagavat Dharma, the vaishnava "religion," has nothing to due with anything mundane, it no connection to anything of this world.

It is stated here that "We are not does of good or bad deeds."

Our only business is to serve Krishna. Devotion to Krishna is based on pleasing Krishna, whereas both good deeds and bad deeds are based on pleasing one’s senses.

Bad deeds are gross (immoral) forms of sense gratification, and good deeds are subtle (moral) forms of sense gratification. Those in lower modes seek sense gratification through “bad” deeds and those in the mode of goodness seek sense gratification through “good” deeds. But both good and bad deeds are bad because they take us further away from Krishna and lead to another birth in this material world.

The mundane morality of this world is based on sense enjoyment. Arjuna’s so called moral considerations in the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita ultimately came down to his sense gratification, “How shall we care to live if we kill the son of Dhrtarastra? How shall we enjoy when everything is tainted with Blood? How can we be happy by killing our own kinsmen? Sin will overcome us.” Arjuna was not considering Krishna’s happiness, he was only concerned about his own selfish happiness and the extended selfish happiness of family and society.

Therefore, we are not interested in the morality of this world, what ever Krishna desires and whatever pleases Krishna is our standard of morality. Giving pleasure to Krishna is the ultimate standard of morality, and we are willing to sacrifice all other moralities (dharmas) to surrender to Krishna.

“We are not scholars or illiterate,” this is an apparently strange statement coming from one of the greatest scholars in the history of the world.

Although Srila Saraswati Thakur was a great scholar he was never concerned with the mundane pursuit of knowledge and he never identified himself as a scholar, his only identity was that of a maidservant of Srimati Radharani.

Scholarship can never bring one even an inch closer to transcendence, and due to increasing ones bodily and mental identification and pride it distances one from the Absolute.

It is completely temporary, just any other opulence of this world, such as beauty, strength, or wealth. When we give up these temporary material bodies we must also give up whatever material opulence we have accumulated, including our knowledge.

And worst of all it deludes one into thinking that one has “knowledge” of transcendence, when in reality one may be completely ignorant of the transcendental subject matter. Empiric study has no relationship to realization of transcendental subject matter.

And ultimately knowledge is just another form subtle sense gratification, by which one fancies himself very great, or very spiritual, or enjoys various subtle pleasures of mode of goodness. But ultimate this happiness binds one to the material world.

Our only aspiration is to serve, to “carry the shoes of Hari’s pure devotees.” We are not concerned with anything of this of this world, because anything of this world simply paves the way for another birth in this world.

We are not even concerned with any of the external formalities of religion or devotion. Our religion is to constantly serve the pure devotees and to constantly glorify the supreme Lord Sri Krishna.

By BB Govinda Swami

Thus it appears that the Kazakh government is again playing the game of dragging out time, doing nothing, but sending signals to the world that the issue is being dealt with in order to secure its OSCE bid. In reality, nothing has been done.

These days the hottest matter on Turkey’s agenda is the attack to a publishing house on April 18, in Malatya. Nearly two weeks past over the incident. I looked a bit at the news, and I noticed quite many frequently used words and wondered how they may look and feel when put together, as if gathered like tags:

fanatic, nationalist, terrorist, murder, missionary, diversionist, threat, organization, protesto, slaughter, minority, Islamist, suspicious, fundementalist, enmity, hatred, Christianist, condemnation, hidden, forbidden, shock, security, horror, terror, action, attack, aggression, barbarian, precaution, sadness, worry, bad, claim, to kill, religious, ethnic, intolerance, racism, foreign enmity, violence, what a shame!

Well… obviously they are not lighting up my consciousness. But as a devotee, I find it refreshing to look and face the results of the modern, material world view. I can not say that they are going well, all is as it was before and having more and more declining tendency. Human beings most unique ability of speech carries the qualities we nourish. Headlines are a mirror into our selves. And what do we see? … you may read above. Yet, it is “refreshing”, through struggle we survive and I am pushed strongly to help myself and others to become one of the fittest

There is a saying, “The fish smells from the head”. Meaning, nobody and no society adopts a life style “spontaneously”. Naturally we all desire to live happy but unfortunately todays trend is ornamented with the above words. And this atmosphere is so heavy that the people become disregardful to themselves, their lives and even to others lives. Common men’s need of finding an example for their live is supplied from the dark frame of these words. Vedic scriptures refer to this important point wih Krishna speaking in Bhagavad-gita:

“Whatever action a great man performs, common men follow. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.” BG 3.21

After some struggle I managed to get our online bookstore working: now you can order & purchase books and magazines directly from our web site. Not all available publications are listed yet, but, depending on electricity-supply and internet-connection at my place, they will be soon.

Standard prices include shipping (by air) to destinations outside India; if you specify a shipping-address in India during the checkout-process, a substantial regional discount will be granted. A smaller volume discount will be applied if you order more than nine copies of one book or magazine; in some cases another discount applies for 30+ copies. (Volume discounts are different for each product, depending on printing cost and other overhead.)

You can pay via PayPal, Western Union, bank transfer, or postal money order. We will ship your order as soon as the payment arrives. Delivery should happen within 10-15 days, ideally. (Prices may change in the future due to re-print or other distribution arrangements.) For questions or different arrangements for payment or delivery, please write to cdministry@namahatta.org.

Your servant, phanisvara das.

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Who am I? Am I this body? Or something else? An intrepid journey of self discovery

"It's called austerity, and it's something you'll have to do whether you like it or not." This, my friends, is today's internalized, me to me (i2i), inspirational, motivational, points-to-consider, pep talk. The battle begins everyday from within and gradually works its way outward, onto the moped, and finally onto the street. "Austerity is the wealth of the brahmanas, so may as well get with it before it gets with you and takes you in an unpalatable direction - one bereft of KC".

By the way, this 'brahminical wealth' meditation was inspired by a side-note during a long philosophical and historically surcharged phone conversation I had with Mahatma last night. The question is, what is this wealth? Russian Oligarchs would be clambering over each other for the privilege of giving you every last penny of their so-called vast wealth if you were the only one left on earth in possession of a cup of water to sell. And yet we take water so cheaply, while accumulated commodities and big bank balances take precedence in our list of things to achieve. Similarly, I take spiritual life so cheaply without considering what wealth is contained within just one of its many invaluable ingredients - austerity.

So, chin up, stiff upper lip, take that big step outside old chap

Srimad Bhagavatam 10.53.21-24 - We should always seek guidance from the elders and Vaisnavas.

From Servant of the Servant:

In the true spirit of Saint Nicholas, the charitable Christian saint, devotees dressed in their Santa suits and moved about the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore area, distributing Krsna's gifts of candy canes and Prabhupada's books, to the great delight of holiday shoppers.

By Christmas Eve every temple throughout America had nearly all their devotees out on sankirtana. Never before had the mood of sankirtana swept ISKCON so totally. Setting aside the final six days leading up to Christmas as a special "Sankirtana Marathon of the Year," devotees went wild, competing to see who could distribute the most books. In this six-day period an astounding total of 606,848 books of all varieties were distributed, as Lord Caitanya's mercy literally overflooded America. Leading the individual distributors was Radha-Damodara's outstanding devotee Praghosa Prabhu, who distributed 573 big books, or nearly 100 for each day of the marathon. In the six-day period, devotees of New Dvaraka (Los Angeles), apart from distributing 6,500 big books, also sold 93,000 BTG's. And their counterparts, the devotees in New York, performed no less wonderfully. With their airports closed, they concentrated on distributing Krsna book trilogies, with the result that 40,000 trilogies were distributed in the marathon-19,000 in one day!

Finally, on the first day of the new year, Ramesvara Prabhu revealed the overall results for the month of December. Taking loans, emptying their savings accounts, and employing every conceivable means to scrape together extra money, the West Coast temples combined to send the BBT the largest remittances of all. But the Radha-Damodara party was the winner in actual books distributed, with an unprecedented 65,000 big books and 225,000 BTG's distributed in December alone, more than double their own record set the previous month. On that very same day a letter arrived from Srila Prabhupada, as if His Divine Grace had personally come to offer his congratulations.

I'm still busy cooking, and enjoying it as yoga, or connection with the Supreme.

I aspire for this position as enunciated in Bhagavad-gita Chapter 4 verse 18:

"One who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, is intelligent among men, and he is in the transcendental position, although engaged in all sorts of activities"

If you will need transportation to and from the Pittsburgh Airport for the Festival of Inspiration, please see the following instructions.

Please go online to www.festivalofinspiration.com as soon as possible and register for airport transportation services. Fill out the section on Flight Details and press Submit. Be sure to include both Arrival and Departure information. Please use the PayPal icon in the top right hand corner to make your payment. The prices are listed on the site.

Transportation services are only available by prior reservation. We cannot guarantee that any last minute requests will be accommodated. We request, therefore, that you please register as soon as you obtain your flight information. Please direct any questions to servingkrishna@aol.com.

Thank you and we look forward to your visit.

New in the shop this week.

• CDs and DVDs
• Radha Krishna doll sets
• Altar Paraphernalia
• Tulasi Japa mala and neck mala
• Mens Kurtas, including traditional white, khadi and white bhandi style
• And some very special "pyramid" style stainless steel tiffins with tiers graduated in size to suit varying amounts of dishes. 5, 4 and 3 tier

(from the July 14th, 1974 Issue of Brijabasi Spirit by Amburish das and Radhanatha dasa)

Bahulaban Goshalla Report

“0 bull, you are offenseless and thoroughly honest; therefore I wish all good to you” “The bull Is the emblem of the moral principle and the cow is the representative of the earth. When the bull and the cow are in a joyful mood, it is to be understood that the people of the world are also in a joyful mood. The reason is that the bull helps production of grains in the agricultural field and the cow delivers milk, the miracle of aggregate food values. The human society maintains these two important animals very carefully so that they can wander everywhere in cheerfulness. Surabhi is the name of the cows which exist in the spiritual planets and are especially reared by Lord Krishna Himself. As men are made after the form and features of the Supreme Lord, so also the cows are made after the forms and features of the Surabhi cows in the spiritual kingdom.” Srimad Bhagavatam 1-17, verse and parts of purports.

Beginning with today’s cow protection report we will include a record of total milk given by each individual cow at the Bahulaban Goshalla. Satyabhama became the third cow at New Vrindaban to give 80 lbs. of milk or better in a day (Himavati holds the highest record at 90 (plus) lbs. in a day. 77.9, 76.4, 77.2, 80.8, 72.4, 69.6, 77.4, is Satyabhama’s daily production this week for a total of 531.7 lbs. The rest of the barn, with the latest butterfat records, is as follows: (The butterfat percentage is given first and then the amount in pounds.)
Cow Percentage Amount
Satyabhama 4.0 531.7
Dvaraka 3.3 298.6
Ambika 3.9 359.6
Sati 3.6 256.2
Surabhi 3.8 184.1
Sarasvati 3.5 330.0
Rukmini 4.4 345.2
Laxsmi 3.7 339.2
Bhadra 3.5 416.3
Yasoda 4.4 295.2
Rocana 5.3 298.6
Rabbri 4.5 211.4
Isani 4.6 242.2
Syama 4.0 191.3
Parvati 3.4 509.2
Kaliya 00 176.9
Cintamani 00 490.7

Two weeks ago it was stated that a 4.0 percent test means out of 100 lbs, of milk 4 lbs. is cream. This is incorrect. The correction is this: for every 100 lbs, of milk, 4 lbs, is butterfat, and butterfat directly refers to ghee.

Seventeen cows were milking in the barn this week with these daily totals in pounds:
July,6th 785.1

July,7th 786,8

July,8th 784.5

July,9th 804.1

July 10th 781.3

July 11th 76l.6

and July 12th 796,0

The daily herd average was at 782.7 lbs and the daily average per cow was 46 lbs.
The fly population in the barn has decreased greatly this week by using the Yellow Golden Maldrin fly poison dry on plates and not wet. This seems to maintain the potency of the poison rather than diluting it. Also,, in preparation for Srila Prabhupada’s arrival the old whitewash is being scraped off and a fresh coat is going on. The cowherd boys are very much anticipating the moment when Srila Prabhupada comes to spread His purifying rays of Krishna Prema all over the barn.

Haribol!
Amburish das

Vrindaban Farm Goshalla Report

The statistics this week for the Vrindaban cows is as follows: (in pounds)
Basya Mallika Kunti Himavati
11.1 31.0 29.4 45.0
11.4 32.1 29.4 44.3
11.5 30.6 30.0 45.5
11.2 30.2 29.6 35.5
11.5 30.5 30.6 29.9
10.9 31.5 29.2 33.2
10.2 30.6 27.9 40.5
Totals 77.8 216.5 208.2 213.9
Total for week: 7l6.4 lbs

On Tuesday Mother Himavati was struck with a 107 degree fever (a cow has a normal body temperature of 101.5 to 102.5). She was extremely weak and had a most evident case of mastitis in her two rear quarters and came down 10 pounds of milk from the day before. All of this was discovered when she came back for her night milking after an ordinary day of grazing in the pasture. The next day her body temperature was down to normal but her mastitis has persisted through the present day even after receiving the recommended treatment. By the causeless mercy of the spiritual master, I pray that by His Divine Grace, I may sincerely pray constantly for the desire to care nicely for these sacred cows who are so dearly loved by our Lord Govinda.

Radhanatha das

Sourced from livescience.com
By Melinda Wenner
24 April 2007

Kids with religious parents are better behaved and adjusted than other children, according to a new study that is the first to look at the effects of religion on young child development.

The conflict that arises when parents regularly argue over their faith at home, however, has the opposite effect.

John Bartkowski, a Mississippi State University sociologist and his colleagues asked the parents and teachers of more than 16,000 kids, most of them first-graders, to rate how much self control they believed the kids had, how often they exhibited poor or unhappy behavior and how well they respected and worked with their peers.

The researchers compared these scores to how frequently the children’s parents said they attended worship services, talked about religion with their child and argued abut religion in the home.

The kids whose parents regularly attended religious services—especially when both parents did so frequently—and talked with their kids about religion were rated by both parents and teachers as having better self-control, social skills and approaches to learning than kids with non-religious parents.

But when parents argued frequently about religion, the children were more likely to have problems. “Religion can hurt if faith is a source of conflict or tension in the family,” Bartkowski noted.

Why so good?

Bartkowski thinks religion can be good for kids for three reasons. First, religious networks provide social support to parents, he said, and this can improve their parenting skills. Children who are brought into such networks and hear parental messages reinforced by other adults may also “take more to heart the messages that they get in the home,” he said.

Secondly, the types of values and norms that circulate in religious congregations tend to be self-sacrificing and pro-family, Bartkowski told LiveScience. These “could be very, very important in shaping how parents relate to their kids, and then how children develop in response,” he said.

Finally, religious organizations imbue parenting with sacred meaning and significance, he said.

University of Virginia sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox, who was not involved in the study, agrees. At least for the most religious parents, “getting their kids into heaven is more important than getting their kids into Harvard,” Wilcox said.

But as for why religious organizations might provide more of a boost to family life than secular organizations designed to do the same thing, that’s still somewhat of a mystery, said Annette Mahoney, a psychologist at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, also not involved in the research. Mahoney wondered: “Is there anything about religion and spirituality that sets it apart?”

Unanswered questions

Bartkowski points out that one limitation of his study, to be published in the journal Social Science Research, is that it did not compare how denominations differed with regards to their effects on kids.

“We really don’t know if conservative Protestant kids are behaving better than Catholic kids or behaving better than mainline Protestant kids or Jewish kids,” he said.

It’s also possible that the correlation between religion and child development is the other way around, he said. In other words, instead of religion having a positive effect on youth, maybe the parents of only the best behaved children feel comfortable in a religious congregation.

“There are certain expectations about children’s behavior within a religious context, particularly within religious worship services,” he said. These expectations might frustrate parents, he said, and make congregational worship “a less viable option if they feel their kids are really poorly behaved.”

The final in this series: the weeds of deviation — choking the plant of bhakti — take firm root in offenses to the holy name.

By Suhotra Swami

Part Four: Kartabhaja and Neda-Nedi

Kartabhaja - Worshipers of Guru as God

In India people generally associate the Kartabhaja apasampradaya (deviant sect) with the Baulas of Bengal (another deviant sect). The Kartabhajas and the Baulas are indeed similar in many ways. They share, for example, the concept of jiyante mara — living death — as the highest goal.

But the Kartabhajas are distinguished by their doctrine of guruvada. All the deviant tantric sects have a philosophy of guruvada, or veneration of the guru, but only the Kartabhajas go to the extreme of proclaiming the guru to be God incarnate. Kartabhaja guruvada arises from the Mayavadi idea of absolute oneness. For the Kartabhajas, the guru alone is the worshipable form of God. No other form than the guru’s is worshipable, not even that of the arca-murti, the temple Deity. The Kartabhajas chant no name other than the name of the guru. They do chant the name Krsna, but only because they say that the guru is Krsna. And for the Kartabhajas the names of Krsna and Khoda (Allah) are just as good, because all are names of the guru.

The Kartabhaja sect was founded by Karta Baba Aul Cand, a fakir who lived from 1686 to 1779. His followers say he was the reappearance of Lord Caitanya Himself. Aul Cand’s principal disciples were Karta Ram Sharan Pal and his wife, Sati. The Kartabhajas consider them adi purusa (the original man) and adyasakti (the original woman). Their house in Ghosepara, in the Nadia district of Bengal, is preserved as a Kartabhaja place of pilgrimage. Nowadays, many Baulas come to the the Ghosepara Kartabhaja center during the three-day Dola Yatra festival. This may be why many people associate the Kartabhajas with the Baulas.

The Kartabhajas have their own scripture, the Bhaver Gita, mostly written by Dulalcand in the form of songs. The text is puzzling and deliberately contradictory: it is to be understood only by initiates. Yet it clearly hints at Mayavadi and tantric ideas. The Kartabhajas, unlike the Baulas, do not have a reputation for promiscuity. They are enjoined to marry and be true to their partners. On Fridays (the Muslim sabbath) they must refrain from sexual relations and be vegetarian.

In the last century, the Kartabhajas were a powerful force against the jata-gosani and smartas, who had become the sedentary establishment of Gaudiya Vaisnavism. The Kartabhajas and other sahajiya groups converted thousands of common folk on the plea that “the company” (the Gaudiya Vaisnavas) was once rich but now bankrupt. Out of the ruins of the old company, the Kartabhajas said, a new company had arisen (the Kartabhajas themselves). And this company, they said, did not carry out business in the name of religion.

In 1893, Karta Dulalcand, a famous Kartabhaja songwriter and guru, was invited to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago (where Vivekananda lectured). But the invitation was a little late: Dulalcand had already been dead sixty years.
The Kartabhajas address their gurus, beginning with Karta Ram Sharan Pal, as Karta (”master” or “boss”). All the Kartas have lived at the residence of the first Karta and run the Kartabhaja mission from there. The faithful followers of the Kartas are called Baratis, “members of the bridegroom’s party.” The Baratis accept and worship the Karta as God on earth. Whatever words he speaks are themselves scripture, to be blindly obeyed. His activities are divine, even if he dances naked at a wedding of his disciples, as did Karta Baba Aul Cand.

The Kartabhajas say that deceased Kartas continue to initiate disciples through living representatives known as rtviks.

Neda or Neda-Nedi - Vaisnava-Buddhist Syncretists

Neda means a shaven-headed man, nedi a shaven-headed woman. Members of the Neda- Nedi sect can be seen in the area of Navadvipa, West Bengal. They resemble other Vaisnavas, with shaved heads, tilaka, and white clothes.

It is said that Sri Virabhadra Gosvami, the son of Lord Nityananda and Jahnava-mata, converted more than a thousand Nedas and a thousand Nedis to Vaisnavism from tantric Buddhism. Under his direction, they took to the chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra. Most of them accepted marriage, ending their indulgence in illicit sex, which they held to be tantric meditation. But after some time, a number of them resumed their old practices while claiming to be Vaisnavas. Nowadays, the Neda- Nedi is taken to be a type of Baula.

Conclusion

In the first part of this series, I mentioned that a genuine devotee of Krsna is known by his good qualities. Because the Vedic scriptures prescribe the chanting of the holy name of Krsna as the essential dharma, or spiritual practice, in the present age, a devotee of Krsna is to be known especially by the quality of his chanting.

As Srila Prabhupada explained, “Nobody can strictly follow all the rules and regulations. In the Kali-yuga [the Age of Degradation] it is not possible. Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu has recommended that hari-nama, chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra, should be very rigidly performed.”

A person may advertise himself as a follower of Lord Caitanya’s and chant the Hare Krsna maha-mantra, but if he deliberately commits namaparadhas (offenses to the holy name) he disqualifies himself.

The link between namaparadhas and deviation from the path of Krsna consciousness is indicated by Srila Jiva Gosvami. He warns in his Bhakti-sandarbha that there are offenders to the holy name who are acikitsya, or incorrigible (jnana-lava-durvidagdhastra-acikitsya -atva-dupeksa). As soon as they acquire a little knowledge from the Krsna conscious community of devotees, they become insolent and arrogant. They are excluded from the genuine devotional community because of three kinds of offense to the holy name: sadhu-ninda (blasphemy of devotees), guru-avajna (disregard of the spiritual master), and sruti-sastra ninda (blasphemy of the Vedic scriptures).

The incorrigible offender never admits his offenses. He cannot understand that the mercy of the spiritual master and the association of pure devotees are indispensable for the chanting of the holy name. He considers the spiritual master not a transcendental teacher but a worldly one and tries to measure the person and instructions of the guru by his own mental standards. Thus he commits guru-avajna. Because he values worldly knowledge and accomplishments, he looks down upon the simple devotees who have surrendered themselves to devotional service. Thus he commits sadhu-ninda. Finally, he studies the revealed scriptures as if they were ordinary books, accepting whatever seems to support his preconceived notions and rejecting the rest. Thus he commits sruti-sastra ninda (blasphemy of the Vedic scriptures).

The incorrigible offender mistakes the growth of these and other offenses within his heart for the growth of the bhakti-lata (the plant of devotion). He mistakes his fallen condition for great advancement. Such is the illusion from which the apasampradayas, or deviant sects, have sprung.

Author’s Note
In preparing this series, I have drawn from a number of sources. The most important are the books, letters, and lectures of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. I drew a great deal upon Apasampradaya Svarupa, a work by one of Srila Prabhupada’s Godbrothers, Sri Bhakti-vilasa Bharati Maharaja. This was translated for me from the Bengali by Bhakta Krishanu Lahiri, a student of languages at Calcutta University and a member of Bhaktivedanta Youth Services. Krishanu was ably assisted by Sriman Sarvabhavana Prabhu and Kishore Ghosh. I consulted The History and Literature of the Gaudiya Vaisnavas, an unpublished manuscript by another Godbrother of Srila Prabhupada’s, Sambidananda Dasa. I also consulted the following books: Vaisnavism in Bengal, by Dr. Ramkantha Cakravarti (Sanskrit Pushtak Bandhar, Calcutta, 1985), Obscure Religious Cults, by Dr. Sashi Bhushan Das Gupta (1976 reprint by Firma KLM Ltd.), The Bauls of Bengal, by Rebati Mohan Sarkar (Gian Publishing House, New Delhi, 1990), and Braj — Centerof Krishna Pilgrimage, by Alan W. Entwistle (Egbert Forsten, Holland, 1987). Sri Bhakti Vikasa Swami Maharaja and Kiranasa Prabhu brought me up to date on the modern deviant sects they have encountered in their years in Bangladesh.

Maharaja apologises for the lack of postings on the site, even in written form. He is absorbed in writing. Podcasts will resume sometime sometime after May 1st.

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The GBC is the Governing Body Commission of ISKCON - the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Over the past few years one of the things that I've been considering deeply is the role and function of the GBC. I've always been interested to here people's perceptions and conceptions, and I've carefully considered them along with studying Srila Prabhupada's vision as recorded in his conversations, letters, and the recollections of his disciples. I am always thinking: "What is the guna and karma of the varna?" Here is my current conclusion:

The defining instruction from Srila Prabhupada relating to the role of the GBC is expressed in a number of places, such as a letter penned today (April 24) in 1972, where he writes:

"The duty of the GBC is to make each and every center spiritually strong. Don't bother too much about financial matters, we have to increase our preaching propensity."

The role of the GBC as envisioned by Srila Prabhupada was to make sure that the focus on the basics, on watering the root, takes place. If you water the root, naturally you get the fruit.

What this translates to in organizational practice is this: GBC-level leaders must be leaders of leaders. They have to inspire, empower, and enhance the effectiveness of local leaders. They must counsel and coach them, and act as a point of accountability.

For local leaders, they must be inspired by someone who has the ability to lead them, who can increase their effectiveness by advising and counselling them, and who they can confidently be accountable to.

Those in a leadership role must be accountable. Leaders and those who create their leadership by choosing to follow them must be mutually accountable. They are both serving a higher cause, one is serving in the role of leading, another in the role of supporting.

At the same time, it is not always possible for a formally designated leader to be completely accountable to those who follow. They require someone that they can confide in, and who can counsel them, without having to feel that they are undermining their authority by displaying some weakness.

In reality this conception represents weakness itself. No-one is perfect, and that's why people think that they have to be. Once we recognize and acknowledge our imperfections, our weaknesses, we can receive the support of others in that area, and these weaknesses become strengths.

While a person is still developing in their understanding of themselves and the service of leadership they may feel uncomfortable doing this, and so coaching and counselling confidentially by a senior leader that they respect is necessary and beneficial.

So to qualify for service at this level of the organization it is necessary to become effective as a local leader, then develop to the point of being able to lead local leaders, adding value to them and thus to the organization by serving them in this capacity.

In order to be effective in this service the agenda has to be to increase the effectiveness of the local leaders.

One former ISKCON leader once told me that the essential idea of leadership is to come up with a plan, and then send people out to do it. You can start out like this at a low level, but you have to progressively give up your own agenda to be able to effectively discharge this service at higher levels.

Leadership of a small team can go on like this. Leadership of a narrowly focused temple can go on like this. Leadership of a broad community cannot.

Effective leadership at higher levels and of broader constituencies has to be devoid of personal agenda to a large degree. Leaders and those who choose to follow them serve a cause beyond all of them. Leadership means to help people to understand, focus on, and serve that cause.

That was the thought for today...

Scroll down to read Part 1, or just click here.

It is once again time for our weekly/bi-weekly meditation on the ripened fruit of the tree of Vedic knowledge, the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

I humbly ask you to read first the translation and Bhaktivedanta purport to today's verse, from the 1st Canto, Seventh Chapter, Fifth Verse.

yayā sammohito jīva
ātmānaḿ tri-guṇātmakam
paro 'pi manute 'narthaḿ
tat-kṛtaḿ cābhipadyate

Due to this external energy, the living entity, although transcendental to the three modes of material nature, thinks of himself as a material product and thus undergoes the reactions of material miseries.

A very famous example of the intense mercy of the Lord came in the final months of the life of one of our dearest saints, Bhakta Tirtha Swami. As he dealt with the final stages of terminal cancer, Krsna was actually feeling so much love for him that he decided to purify him of any remaining material attachments by letting him face and pass one final, very challenging, but incredibly rewarding test.

So many devotees who experienced his final pastimes in his direct presence realized that their own devotional life was actually being affected in the most positive way. The powerful experience of seeing and hearing from a pure devotee in the direct process of going back to Godhead, being used by Krsna as a vessel for all to see the temporary nature of the body and the eternal nature of the spirit, allowed a real sense of re-committment and renewal to come back into the lives of all involved.

Throughout the process, Bhakta Tirtha Swami repeatedly said, despite the bodily pain he was feeling, that he could not have been more grateful to have been allowed to be of so much benefit to those who came to him in love. It was the exclamation point to his ideal example that we should all follow.

In a more common example, for those in the throes of the various types of addiction, the difficult circumstances involved can often lead to a personal enlightenment that could never come to someone who never faces any serious challenges. Indeed, we are all addicted to the idea that we are our body, and unless we face up to and overcome the serious challenges that are involved with breaking this bodily addiction, we will never be truly happy. We cannot blame maya, for she is just acting a vessel of mercy in the Lord's hands. She is tied to Krsna as we are tied to Krsna. We cannot blame Krsna either. He is always with us, guiding us, pushing us, and desiring for us to return to His side more so than we ever realize.

Prabhupada says "that eternal relation between the Lord and the living being is transcendental, otherwise the Lord would not have taken the trouble to reclaim the conditioned souls from the clutches of māyā." This is the foundation of Krsna's causeless mercy. Like a lover after a stormy fight, we huff away for a few moments, determined never to return, but the pull is too strong. We must go back! Difficult circumstances will be arranged before the original condition is restored, so that we fully understand our own foolishness.

The beat-down of boot-camp that this material life is is not meant to be comfortable. We have to go kicking and screaming back. This life is for some serious learning, and the sufferings imposed by maya are a very powerful teacher. We must understand what she is actually trying to tell us, and when we are finally able to reach our head and hand above the surface of this ocean of misery, we must take grasp of His hand reaching down to pull us out. He is always there, waiting, and by serious endeavor and prayer, we will get back to Him. This is the real promise, and the real goal of our lives

Intelligent people are Krishna Conscious. This is a class given on 24 Oct. 1997 in Basel, Switzerland. Click here to download (duration: 1h25m, filesize: 9.7mb) (Right click the link and choose either “save link as” or “save Target as”)

1970 April 24 : "I dreamt John Lennon took me in a place at Calcutta and he was showing me a house, a big palatial building, which formerly belonged to a very rich man, and he was a famous musician also."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1970 April 24 : "I am glad to learn George Harrison is chanting with you. That will make him advanced. How he can learn about God from persons who have no preliminary knowledge of the soul, even?"
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1971 April 24 : "All our centers are managed by local members. If you raise funds locally and establish a center, then you could develop a press also."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1971

1972 April 24 : "The duty of the GBC is to make each and every center spiritually strong. Don't bother too much about financial matters, we have to increase our preaching propensity."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1972 April 24 : "We are members of Krishna's family. Krishna maintains 16,000 families, and if you get a chance to serve in one of the families, our life is a success."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1972 April 24 : "He is just like your younger brother. He is a good soul, try to encourage him. So far your apologies, what is done is done, it doesn't matter."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1972 April 24 : "If it is possible to make the Rathayatra more gorgeous by your all going, than do it. I may come also, if Lord Jagannatha attracts me."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1972 April 24 : "That is the heart of our expanding progress in Africa, go on like this and make many hundreds and thousands of Life Members."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

Bhagavad Gita 18.78 - Wherever there is devotional service unto Krsna, there will be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality.

Some pastimes on Caitanya MahaPrabhu & kirtan.