Here is a very nice talk given by Dulal Chandra dasa...he explains about the offenses and gives some personal examples of how the wandering mind can be a problem during Japa.

Karnamrita das: Now the Suns of Janmastami and Vyasa puja have gone from our sight and we have to keep the service attitude, inspiration and remembrance. Today is overcast, Grey skies showering torrents of rain, for some it's depressing, though it is life giving.

Caitanya dasa (BVKS): The vyasa-puja of Gopal Krishna Goswami took place on August 27th, 2008, in New Delhi, India. For the pleasure of all of his disciples, this is a brief report of the vyasa-puja festival.

By Karunika dasi

Reports of Krishna Janmashtami celebrations across the world bear witness to the undeniable fact that ISKCON programmes are rapidly growing in popularity. Mauritius is no exception and on Janmashtami night, the ISKCON temples are the place to be!

By Champakalata dasi

A month long of preparation culminated in the biggest ever Sri Krishna Janmastami festival celebrated at the Sri Sri Radha Radhanath Temple, in Chatsworth (west of Durban), South Africa when over 20 000 guests thronged to the temple to perform their worship on this most auspicious occasion.

IskconMatrimonials: The service is totally free. No devotee needs to pay for contacting another devotee on the website. What all they need to do is follow certain guidelines set by our advisors. Devotees will be able to communicate with prospective brides or grooms through senior Vaishnavas or Vaishnavis on the website or otherwise.

Bhakta Kaplish: Most auspicious festival Sri Krishna Janmashtmi was celebrated on 24th August 08 at ISKCON, Ludhiana. 1008 bhoga of different varieties was offered to Their Lordships.

(Adapted from the 4Th chapter of Krishna book words and music by Devananda Pandit das.)

Peace came from the east
Success came from the west
And the sky was riddled with a billion stars
In villages and towns
Through many miles around
Signs of fortune offered their regards

The forests and the waters
Where dressed with fragrant flowers
The birds began to sing and peacocks danced
The wind was so appeasing
And the sense of touch was pleasing
It seemed that everyone was in a trance

Celestial beings and angels
Rejoicing with no bounds
Looked upon from their jeweled towers
The ocean waves subsided
And the thunder was delighted
Well the demigods together showered flowers

Then in the dead of night
To everyone’s delight
Lord Krishna made His way into this world
Appearing like the moon
A transcendental boon
The prophecy now finally had occured

copyright 2001 Denis Moreau

Reading the Teachings of Lord Chaitanya Chapter 13, I found a very nice and important quote that I am sure can be very useful in our everyday devotional life. Here follows the quote:

"If, due to some righteous activities which provoke devotional service, one is influenced by the service attitude and takes shelter of the good association of pure devotees, he develops attachment for hearing and chanting. By developing chanting and hearing, one can advance further and further in regulative devotional service to the Supreme Lord. As one so advances, his misgivings about devotional service and his attraction for the material world proportionately diminish. By advancing in hearing and chanting, a devotee becomes more firmly fixed in his faith, and gradually his initial faith develops into a taste for devotional service, and that taste gradually develops into attachment. When attachment becomes pure, it exhibits the two characteristics of bhāva and rati. When rati increases, it is called love of Godhead, and love of Godhead is the ultimate goal of human life." TLC Ch.13

The process of devotional service starts with chanting, the maha mantra is the basis of our spiritual lives. What called my attention to this quote is the emphasis given to chanting and hearing. We always stick to the point that when we chant, we need also to hear to the sound to get the results. By doing this we will be able to attain pure love of God, which is the ultimate goal of life. Another important aspect that comes before this is proper association - taking shelter of pure devotees...the ones who dedicate their lives to following the principles and are really serious about getting advanced. Following these simple guidelines we for sure will have support and a desire to develop this taste.

Hare Krsna

Aruna dd

By Sri Nanda - nandana das

The Lord does not forget the fallen souls who have forgotten Him, and Your Divine Grace descended to save them all. You represent your Lord Caitanya, maha-vadanyaya, the most merciful, therefore deserving the title Srila Prabhupada. So simple, why they shouldn’t know and accept it?

By Giriraj Swami

Yesterday I visited Dandavats. com to see the discussion about the design of the TVP, and I saw Tattvavit Prabhu’s letter, which included a sentence from a letter from me to him, which was featured by the editors of the Web site on the front page. And so I thought to clarify my position.

By Radha Mohan Dasa

The highlight was the flowered walk-way though the forest and lake. It lit up at night and depicted the stories of Lord Krishna. "The design and construction was planned so that visitors can feel and be close to nature and be spiritually uplifted," said Ajay Kumar, the concept originator of the project.

by Ali Krsna dd

Good Morning Everyone. All glories to your Service.

I just received an email from Bhadra dd (BTS-Atlanta) notifying me of our godsister, Shyamapriya dd in Alachua, who is in need of some help. Some of you may know her well, having maintained Srila Acaryadeva's tape ministry for years as well as working with the prison ministry program in Florida. As of late, she has had several surgeries for pancreatic cancer and has been undergoing chemo therapy and radiation. Not being able to work and with a 14-year-old daughter, Shyamapriya is struggling financially.

Bhadra Prabhu asked me if I could send out an email asking if anyone might be willing to help her financially. He writes:

Hare Krishna.
YS, Ali Krsna dd

read more

Paramahamsa Thakura , directed by Jnanagamya Prabhu is an offering to Srila Prabhupada on his Vyasapuja day. This drama is Srila Tamal Krishna Goswami’s masterpiece work on the blessings and empowerment of Srila Prabhupada by the entire parampara acaryas up to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates to carry on the important mission of spreading the glories of Sankirtan movement worldwide.

read more

by Gauragopala das

Indian Hindus are populating ISKCON Temples in the West in a way never seen before over the last forty-two years. This is happening all over the world at a massive rate and is not a phenomenon, as some suggest. The fact is, as India becomes a wealthier nation, we can only expect more and more students to leave India and attend Western educational institutions as well as many more arriving from India to become citizens of other countries.

read more

Actually the method doesn't even deserve the verb 'serving'.

The "system" is: someone brings breakfast prasadam (generally the morning maha plus something cooked in larger quantity and a drink) to the prasadam hall in plastic buckets of different sizes (often without enough spoons for serving); then people come and make their plates. No one is serving. Often there are no plates, cups or spoons for the guests. There is no way of assuring that those who come a little later will get everything (Today, for instance, one of the first devotees to arrive took three of the dozen or so puris; if the first four people to arrive do as he did, the next 10-12 people won't get any puri...).

On top of that the devotees eat and walk away, without bothering to clean the place where they took prasadam and often leaving painfully obvious signs of subji and other remnants smudged around where the plate was.

Although also unacceptable, a better way would be that one or two devotees stand behind the containers and serve the devotees, who stand on line with their plate. This is also a sub-cultured system, but unfortunately it has been adopted even in Sridham Mayapur (where people are supposedly meant to learn Gaudiya Vaisnava culture) during the last Gaura Purnima Festival.

"The" system is that devotees sit in rows on the floor--chairs and tables could be provided for those who have trouble sitting cross-legged--and then the preparations are served, again and again, till everyone is satisfied. No need of getting up; no need of asking for any particular item (it will come around). At the end one server ask each individual if he needs anything.

In this way the devotees have daily the chance to serve each other, honoring the commandment of Srila Rupa Goswami. Expert servers gauge the amount of prasadam and the quantity they will be able to dispense to avoid that someone remains without some preparation.

The consciousness and the techniques of serving affects the culture, the mood, the spiritual advancement and the digestion of the participants. Investing in doing it right assures a pleasant, productive and Krishna conscious experience. It's worth the effort.

I really wanted to make croissants, so I did.  I found some good info on the internet and got my dough a mixing. Of course, since I am impatient, I skipped about 3/4 of the steps.  I really wanted to jump ahead to the end results and see if the recipe I was using really would taste croissanty.

These are some videos recorded by my husband and Madan Gopal prabhu on Janmastami. You can see more videos on Youtube posted under the username "bvdasa". If you view the videos directly on the Youtube site then you have the option of viewing them in high quality. Just click on the link under the view counter which is just under the video to the right.

New Goloka Bhajan Band. Gaurangi-vocals, Govinda-bass guitar, Jagannath-keyboard,
Mahamantra-guitar/vocals

New Goloka kid's play


Prema Natya Vidyalaya dance school








This was an awesome Odissi dance performance of the Dasavatar/ten avatars of Vishnu~

By Indradyumna Swami

In Srimad-Bhagavatam, Prahlad Maharaja says that a devotee should see his advanced Godbrothers on an equal footing with his spiritual master. Just as we need the help of our spiritual master to understand the Supreme Lord, we also need the help of our Godbrothers to appreciate and serve our beloved spiritual master.

By Sivarama Swami

I am writing in response to the article on Dandavats.com entitled “Nine Reasons to Change the Design of the TVP.” I will not answer the nine reasons point by point because Ambarisa Prabhu has already done that. Instead, I would like to give one reason that may ring a bell with devotees concerned about the topic. Please bear with me.

By Shyamagopika devi dasi

On the occasion of his 112th appearance day, many of his disciples and Mayapur community gathered to praise his unlimited mercy, compassion and other wonderful qualities. 304 pages Vyasa Puja Offering book was submitted at the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada.

Population studies experts predict that our planet's population will
reach equilibrium in the first half of this century, and then begin a
sharp decline. All of earth's human inhabitants could fit into the
country of France with 1000 square feet (100 square meters) of living
space for each man, woman and child. Some countries are already
noticing they don't have enough people to run their factories. The
earth can easily support 10 times its present population on a diet that
includes meat, and 10-25 its current population on a meatless diet.

read more

Wednesday, 27th Aug 2008

Srimad Bhagavatam 11.1.5 - Krishna's inconceivable qualities.

Here is a family photo from Gita Nagari Ratha Yatra which I just lifted off of Kiriti's blog --a blog which no longer allows comments (boo hiss).   My husband's smile is real, since he was doing seva steering the cart. Mine is totally contrived, since I just lugged two hot and tired kids up Govardhana Hill to sit in the dry, prickly grass as the sun beat down on our heads. Oh, did I mention we had no water (just ran out when we got to the water station). And no balloons. Apparently, for my kids, the balloon shortage was a life threatening emergency.

Paul from the Blue Mountains wrote asking for a recipe for the famous Australian Anzac biscuits (cookies). Here they are.

Aussie Anzac Bikkies

Famous Aussie Bikkies that are quick to bake. Makes 24.

1 cup rolled oats 1 cup plain flour 1 cup sugar 3/4 cup coconut ½ cup butter 1 tablespoon golden syrup or treacle 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 tablespoons water

Preheat the oven to 150° C / 300° F. Combine the oats, flour, sugar, and coconut in a bowl and mix well.

Melt the butter and syrup together in a small saucepan.

Boil the water in another small saucepan. Sprinkle the soda into the boiling water and add this to the melted butter and syrup. It will froth up. Add this foamy mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well.

Place tablespoonfuls of the mixture on 2 large buttered trays.

Bake in the upper half of the oven for 20 minutes, or until the cookies are golden. Allow the bikkies to cool a little on the trays before removing.

Serve when cool.

Note: for a slightly different textured Anzac that melts in the oven to a crisper consistency, use 2 tablespoons golden syrup and 3 tablespoons boiling water.

The forecast for Sunday was an 80% chance of showers, but the morning was blue skies and white clouds.  Things were looking hopeful, even though there was a brief downpour around 8 am.  The entire day was sunny and clear.  That is, until 2 PM, about an hour before I was planning on heading over to the festival site to set up.

1968 August 28 : "I wish to begin the work immediately. I handed over the printing work to you, with expectation that you will do it nicely, but you find it difficult to do it, so please do not detain me any further."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968

1969 August 28 : "I am so pleased to learn that you are now retired and engaged in constant chanting of Harer Nama. I think by age you may be younger than me. So why not come to America and join me in this preaching work?"
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969

1970 August 28 : "If you all continue to follow the schedule of chanting with vow, going on Sankirtana and studying our literatures - this will increase your spiritual power to attract more and more sincere persons to Krsna Consciousness."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1972 August 28 : "My special blessings for they must be specifically blessed to go back home, back to Godhead without waiting for the next life. Thank them very much on my behalf."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972

1973 August 28: "I am happy to hear that your program was successful. So this festival program is very very important and it is especially effective for the mass of people. So go on making festivals and make everyone in America Krishna conscious."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1973

1973 August 28 : "Yes that is nice that you are distributing many books. I do not want money, or buildings or anything else, I simply want to see that my books are being distributed and because you are doing that I am quite happy."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1973

1974 August 28: "Regarding illegal taking of Japanese currency from the country, do not do these things. Also stop the pen stealing. This is not good, and should be stopped. Regarding Karandhara, I have accepted his resignation."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1975 August 28: "The other day while taking my morning walk from the backside of your land I reached on the main road. So much land is still vacant without any utility. If you can spare these lands we can immediately use them properly."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1975

A Dyslexic man walks into a bra...

Firstly I must apologies to those who asked me to come and see what they were doing act.
Service called and I remained busy up to returning to Wales, I managed to video only two other things other than morning class to which I am including in the video archive.

Two from my friend Parasurama Dase one is some songs he has written:

Parasurama Dasa Songs

Parasurama Dasa Magic Show

The second was a wonderful presentation followed by a small discussion, this was totally inspirational and would be useful in the area were I live which has seen a lot of suicides. I have included a clip of one of the discussions:

What would you do if you had one day left to live

It would be wonderful if the youth could bring this for a weekend I’m sure the local youth were I live would truly benefit from it

When I chant japa in our temple I usually sit near to Srimati Tulsi-devi. Bhakti Visrambha Madhava Swami once said to us that one´s japa is 80% better if you chant under Tulsirani´s shadow. She is pure devotee, and all the holy tirthas and holy rivers are situated on her leaves.
While chanting morning japa in our Tulsi-room´s corner another day a though came: "All the troubles that my mind makes up has roots in the mind's wandering to the future or to the past."
Even if there are some troubles in our lives, try not to worry in your japa time. Attentive chanting gives strength to face the possible challenges of the day.
It is always pleasurable experience if I am able to stay in the present while chanting japa....in my case it is not usually that long a period, but even some very concentrated mantras are a victory.

ys

Muniraja dasa

Before we lead the kirtana, when Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja was speaking, it made me think of the commentary, it is one of my favourite commentaries about kirtana.  Maharaja said how in everything else there is very deep philosophy, how there must be something practical, and as soon as he said that, I thought of this commentary where Prabhupada is giving the philosophy of chanting kirtana and dancing.

Prabhupada is giving the commentary in the first verse of the Sad-gosvamy-astaka.  He says they were  practicing to teach us, he said that simply teaching will not do unless we practice.  This is a very important
thing - practice.  Practical life.  Simply quoting verses like a parrot will not be very much beneficial.  One must apply jnanam vijnanam samhitam. Jnanam means to know the thing.  And vijnanam means to apply the thing in practice.  Jnanam vijnanam samhitam.  So we must develop the vijnanam.  How to be practical.  That is taught by the goswamis.  Krsna kirtanam gana nartana - always chanting the glories of Krishna.  Kirtana gana nartana. Nartana means dancing.  The more you dance the more you become light.  This means the burden of material contamination becomes reduced.  Dancing is so nice.  But even if you don’t feel it easy, if you dance by force, that will also help us.  Krsna kirtana gana nartana parau premamrtambho nidhi.  By
dancing we should develop our growing Krishna consciousness, love for Krishna.  This is a nice verse.  Krsna kirtana gana nartana parau premamrtambho nidhi.  Then we’ll merge into the ocean of love for Krishna.
So this is a higher stage of ecstasy, Krishna consciousness. Always chanting Krishna’s name, dancing in ecstasy, dancing into the ocean of love for Krishna. This leads to perfection.  Dhiradhira jana priyau.  In this way we should become friendly to many people.  So, there are two classes of men. Dhira sober, and the other class is not.  So both of them will be pleased by Krishna kirtanam.  We have practical experience. When there is Krishna kirtanam, people of all classes become very much pleased and enjoy.  As soon as kirtana will be pure sankirtana, not artificial, not professional.

There are many professional dancers. But even if you do not know the art of dancing, if you simply dance in ecstasy, for Krishna’s love, that will be appreciated by the guru. . Krsna kirtana gana nartana parau.  This is the art. One is not required to become a Vedantist.  Simply if one chants Krishna’s name, feelingly and in ecstasy dances, he is more than the Vedantist.  Actually vedanti means one who knows the ultimate knowledge. Veda.  Veda means knowledge.  And anta means ultimate.  Vedanta.  And what is that ultimate knowledge?  Krishna.  So one who has understood Krishna and Krishna’s love, is dancing.  Then what more can Vedanta do?  That is first class realization.  Krsna kirtana gana nartana parau.  So much to say.  But
to summarise what Prabhupada is speaking about perfection of vedanta, of the goal of knowledge of the Vedas:  He is saying actually that one who knows Krishna and chants Krishna’s name in love, what more can Vedanta do for you? Because that is the goal and it is the conclusion of all vedic scriptures, the goal of chanting the Holy Name of the Lord.

Prabhupada specifically states here what kind of sankirtana.  He says as soon as kirtana will be pure sankirtana, not artificial, not professional. There are many professional dancers, but even if you don’t know the art of dancing and you simply dance in ecstasy, for Krishna’s love, that will be appreciated very much.  So Srila Prabhupada is explaining how the goswamis in Vrndavan practically taught by their example.  This is jnanam vijnanam samhitam. There is jnanam -  theoretical knowledge, and vijnanam - realized knowledge.  So one who simply chants, Prabhupada says that one who chants with Krishna’s love, is better than the best Vedantist.

The other day we were reading a commentary from Caitanya Bhagavata by Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati thakur. He was giving a commentary of a verse of how i would chant and dance all night long, and would not sleep. And he was saying there were many people who could chant nicely, sing sweetly, recite Bhagavatam, but their motivation was not pure.  But he said in the case of Haridas Thakura, he was chanting all night long.  He was just chanting sincerely, feelingly, for the benefit of himself and for the benefit of the conditioned souls.  He says that therefore there is a difference between heaven and hell for one who chants  professionally and one who chants feelingly for Krishna’s love.  There is a word that is used in the
commentary: feelingly.  When the devotee who chants feelingly for his own benefit.

Of course we know in the case of Haridasa Thakura, he was certainly not thinking of his own benefit, for his own eternal benefit.  He was not chanting so that he could become wealthy, so that he could become famous. He was feelingly chanting, calling out Krishna’s name with love.  The only benefit that he wanted was of increasing his affection and his attachment to the Lord for the Holy Names.  So he was chanting for his own benefit, and for the benefit of other conditioned souls, others who could hear his chanting.  Of course there is a long story in that connection, and we were reading about it the other day, and how materialistic and unappreciative we are in not recognizing how i was chanting the holy name of the lord. Still we should understand what it means to chant the holy name with Krishna’s love, what Prabhupada is speaking about here.

The only attention we should be trying to attract is Krishna’s attention, by our pure chanting.  Kirtana should be pure, not artificial, and not professional. And even if you do not know the art of dancing, but you simply
chant Krishna’s name with love, that will be appreciated by the guru.  So I just hope, and I’m sure Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja does too, that its not just deep philosophy, but practical application.  Practical application is the deepest philosophy.  If you do not chant with Krishna’s love, then what will Vedanta do for you?  If we don’t know how to chant with Krishna’s love, then we should feel the desire to know how to chant with Krishna’s love.  The act of feelingly chanting is very purifying to the heart, because it is very attractive to Krishna.   If Krishna is attracted, then He is very much inclined to appear in the heart.

As your can see Radha Madana Mohana and Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu were looking stunning this Janmastami. Seeing them so dressed so beautifully was one of the highlights of the festival for me. They were a real treat to behold. This is a picture of the evening darshan, Radha Madana Mohana are dressed in a beautiful flower outfit.

Check out a video of this Darshan Below


Here's a video of the Morning Darshan which was also very stunning



The rest of the program was great, we had well over five hundred guest at our humble abode, everything was well organized and the guests were very nicely taken care of. All the devotees worked really hard to make it all happen.

I didn't help out much around the temple. My main service for the day was the Stanford Janmastami program, that went nicely as well, here's a picture from the program,


The festivities didn't end with Janmastami, we had a very sweet and intimate Vyas Puja celebration for Srila Prabhupada, culminating in a beautiful display of prem sankirtan.

I don't like to put pictures myself online but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, in this case maybe more, it really captured a special moment.


The kirtan reminded me of being at Radhagopinath Mandir, we made a circle and then invited all the devotees to dance in the middle one by one. After all the service, all the hearing and chanting together, and all the hard work and sacrifices, not just of this festival but over the months and years, everyone could feel the love that was overflowing from the devotees hearts.

But it didn't end there, then we had an incredible feast cooked by Mother Nirakula and Mother Jagarini, afterwords no one wanted to go home, we had been absorbed in service in the association of all the vaishnavas that no one wanted the experience to end, so we all went over to Raxit Prabhu's house and watched a sneak preview of a new video that will be coming out about the sankirtan that is going on here at ISV. The we hung out for the rest of the after noon eating icecream and relishing each others company.

We all parted ways in the evening exhausted but fully satisfied.

But the fun didn't end there, the show must go on, come Monday morning it was time to get ready for burning man, lots and lots of devotees were arriving and we were trying to figure out how to pick them all up and get them to the festival. Monday Night I picked up Jagannath Kirtan Das (aka Jagi Aragones) and Sugosh. Their flight got delayed and we didn't end up making it home till 2 am. And after making a few arrangements we figured out how they could stay and perform for us at our Tuesday night program at Stanford. All the students were charmed by their, devotion, musical talents, and good looks.

Here's a picture of Jagi in Nyc looking very superstarish.

Check out his Myspace to hear some of his music, I especially loved the tittle track "Blue" from his new demo album, it's a love song about a young boy and girl.

Today we met up with the rest of the party (Vish, Vrinda, Keesh, Akincana, Das and Ani) who flew in late last night and they are now all on their way.

I maybe heading out that way sometime on Thursday or Friday, but still not sure.

The other big news is that Radhanath Swami is getting closer to Silicon Valley. He is now in Los Angeles. Excited doesn't begin to describe it. This is the first summer in my adult life, the past eight years, that I haven't seen Maharaj at festival of inspiration and other places around the east coast, but as they say absence makes the heart grow fonder, separation makes the meeting sweeter, and soon the separation will bear its fruit.

I just read this little article:

Bhakti Vikasa Swami: Four levels of seeing others [ 2008-08-26 ]
[Srila Prabhupada] explained that there are different grades of devotees. The lowest grade will find a little fault and make a big thing out of it. The next grade will see the good and bad in a person but give more emphasis to the bad. And the next grade will see the good and the bad and give equal importance to both. But the advanced devotee, although he or she sees both the good and bad in a person, gives more emphasis to the good. And the most advanced will find a little good and make a big thing out of it.
>From HH Giriraja Maharaja’s Vyasa-puja offering, 2007

So what’s the first thing that comes to my mind?

“That’s five categories, nor four.”

I obviously have a long way to go.

Hare Krishna.

UPDATE: I wonder if anyone wants to point out my typographical error.

The devotees here do a wonderful job celebrating Janmastami. Once again, the village of Vrindavan was constructed so devotees could go on parikrama through Braja, stopping at all the different temples. I did not actually get to visit Vrindavan (if you read my old blog, you will know that I am repeatedly too fallen to enter the Holy Dhama) because I was doing my vaisya activities, selling my wares. While my table was a success, it was a definite spiritual bummer. But enough about that. I could hear the goings on in Vrindavan, and let me tell you, I was pretty grateful to see the light of Vrindavan from my prison house built of jam from the other side of the JAMuna. This community has the best (and possibly loudest) kirtaniyas.



Those are my kids climbing the tree at Chir Ghat. Oops.





Here are the devotees busy doing seva constructing Vrindavan. Notice I am not one of them.

14 July, 1975

Philadelphia

My Dear Gopala Krishna das:

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letters dated July 4, 6, & 8th, 1975 and have noted the contents.

Yes, everybody says like that, that I am incarnation of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Actually Krishna and Krishna’s representative are not different. Anything that is Krishna’s is not different from Krishna. Therefore it is said saksadharitvena ’samasta sastrair. The spiritual master is accepted by all advanced devotees as Hari.

At last plastic bags are baned in Mayapur.

I was checking out Krishna.com’s selection of Prabhupada books, looking for a Teachings of Lord Caitanya. Normally, I’d buy the pre-1978 books (the ones prior to the unauthorized changes) at Krishna.tv, but their privately printed copy of the original Teachings of Lord Caitanya is out of print.

But what I came to discover was that the BBT’s current edition of TLC is also out of print. You can get an Indian paperback, which is fine, but BBT America’s edition is gone.

Krishna.tv has the original edition of Teachings of Queen Kunti (one of my favorite books). But BBT allowed their edition of Teachings of Queen Kunti to go out of print. Weird.

Also, the BBT allowed Teachings of Lord Kapila to go out (TLK was never re-edited after Srila Prabhupada’s edition - I assume). What’s really weird is that on the BBT website, they don’t even have it listed as a book they put out.

This is really a strange thing, isn’t it? Teachings of Lord Caitanya is pretty amazing. As are the other two “Teachings of” books. Why let them go out of print?

My hope (and I realize this is pretty pie in the sky) is that they reprint them as the originals next time around.

Lucky for me, I have the original editions of all of these. I bought Teachings of Lord Caitanya from Krishna.tv a couple of years ago. The other two, I just acquired along the way. Lucky for me, yeah. But what about the devotees who don’t have these books? I can’t imagine there’s a line around the block for the Lord Kapila book, but there’s got to be some need or want for Queen Kunti. And there’s definitely got to be people asking for Teachings of Lord Caitanya (though, like I said, the Indian edition is still available).

Of course, all three books are available for free, online. However, I’ve never been able to get really into a book online. Books are the basis!

I emailed the BBT (America) and asked them if/when they’ll be reprinted. We’ll hopefully have an answer before too long. I’ll let you know what it is when I get it.

In a blur of colour, excitement and vibrance, ISKCON Toronto's 2008 Janmastami celebrations brought smiles and jubilance to so many assembled devotees. We hope you enjoy the galleries below.

Our gallery below shows pictures from Mangala Arati to the evening program and concludes with pictures of the stunning flower-outfit that was unveiled at midnight!

Overall the program was a grand success!

Click here for pictures from the Saturday night Pre-Janamashtmi Program
Click here for pictures from Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa Puja

Watch live video from iskconujjain’s channel on Justin.tv

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.5.13

We will celebrate the appearance day of Srimati Radharani, On Sunday, September 7, 2008.

( Fast until noon observed on Monday 8^th September 2008 )

Pragramme starts at 3:30 pm.

Everyone is Welcome.

If you would like to take the opportunity to sponsor any of the following
( Anyone may sponsor the full amount or a part of the total amount) :

• Maha Feast - $851
• Srimati Radharani flower set - $751
• Flower vases and altar decorations - $351
• Abhishek  -  $251
   
• New silk petticoat - $201
• Silver shoes - $251
• New wig and braids - $308

For Festival Information, please contact Gaura Shakti Devi Dasi. 

The Janmastami Day forecast was pretty glum with an 80% chance of rain. Fay had moved on, but her storm clouds seemed to have lagged behind. The morning was blue skies and white clouds, with a brief downpour. In the afternoon my husband and kids headed across the street from our house to play in the catch pond. Good thing lightning doesn't strike twice (it hit the pond about an hour or so before they went out there. *Zap*).

You have probably seen it: the mangala arati is over and the Tulasi puja is about to start; from the devotees in attendance one reaches the mat on which he will stand and then removes the socks, spectacularly flinging them to the nearest wall--possibly ten meters away--from which they bounce and come to rest as crumpled balls.

Having witnessed this cherished liturgy for a number of years and in a number of places, I ask myself?

Is this ritual of removing the socks necessary (independently if they are thrown or not)?

Who introduced or promoted it?

What's wrong with the devotees' socks at 5:00 am? Already dirty?

If they are attempting to maintain a brahminical standard of puja attire, which mandates the removal of all sewn clothing, why they keep the t-shirts, kurtas, sweaters, jackets and so on?

Is it an offense to offer puja to Tulasi Devi wearing socks? If yes, in which scriptural text or commentary is it mentioned?

To me the tradition appears as superfluous, in a similar league with "the cat in the basket" and "the Kumbha-mela excrement shrine."

PS - I remain completely open to be convinced that is necessary to remove the socks, if someone explains it to me with sastric evidence or/and common sense.

The practice of 'voluntary austerity' has become fashionable in parts
of the USA. People have opted out of high-paying corporate positions,
taken a severe salary cut and sometimes moved to country-like
surroundings, professing to be happier and far more at peace with
themselves and their families. Many of them home-school their children,
live in communities of like-minded families and periodically meet with
their neighbors to discuss and reinforce their new-found fortune.

read more

I promised you a chance to see a full photo essay of the ecstatic Sri Krishna Janmastami in Melbourne. Thanks to Rasanandini dasi, you can see it here as a very professional slideshow..

Enjoy!