Offerings to Jayapataka Swami on his Vyas Puja.

Dallas, TX
2008-04-05

Download: 2009-04-05 - Jayapataka Swami Vyas Puja - 2 - Offerings.mp3

I would like to share with you some topics on chanting that he mentioned which inspired me a lot and may have the same effect on you for sure.

"When we chant we should do so with attention, with devotion, with love. Then we can get the full benefit. There are various instructions on how to chant the holy name, and we are advised to avoid the ten offenses against the holy name in order to quickly achieve the desired results.

The same Lord who came out of the pillar as Nrsimhadeva to protect Prahlada has appeared in Kali-yuga as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to protect the fallen souls. And Prahlada, although he was only five years old when Nrsimhadeva appeared, knew that the Lord appears in different incarnations in different ages and that He would appear in Kali-yuga as a channa-avatara. Channa means"covered." In Kali-yuga the Lord does not assert Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as He does in other ages, but appears and acts as a devotee to show us how to be devotees, practice Krsna consciousness, and develop love for Krsna. He knew that people in Kali-yuga are so fallen that if He were to openly express Himself as God there would be so many pretenders who would falsely claim to be God, to be Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So whenever He was addressed as God He would block His ears and exclaim,"Visnu! Visnu! I am not God." Otherwise, we can only imagine how burdened the world would be with false incarnations. Now there is one, with a big place in Texas, who claims to be Caitanya Mahaprabhu, but there are not many, fortunately. The channa-avatara covers His identity as Krsna so that only confidential devotees, who receive knowledge through parampara, from niskincanam, will understand who the incarnation for this age is and worship Him by performance of the sankirtana-yajna, chanting Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Since we can easily achieve the highest success just by chanting the holy names of the Lord, one may question why we need temples and temple worship.Why take so much trouble to build temples and worship Deities? The answer is that although hari-nama is sufficient, most people cannot appreciate the full value of the holy name of the Lord. They are do not have sufficient intelligence or faith to appreciate the potency of hari-nama alone, and they feel that they need some more elaborate procedure, or they want some gorgeous ceremony. For them we construct temples, and when they come to the temple they hear pure devotees speak about Krsna, about Krsna consciousness,about the holy name of Krsna-- and they begin to chant as well. By such chanting, their consciousness is cleared (ceto-darpana-marjanam), and as their consciousness becomes purified they are able to understand more and more about Krsna and the process of Krsna consciousness. For devotees too, especially neophytes and householders, Deity worship is also recommended. It serves to keep them regulated and clean in their habits. Further, householders are always busy earning and spending money(diva carthehaya rajankutumba-bharanena va), and at least some of that money, which they earn by various means, should be purified by being engaged in the service of theLord. Therefore householders are advised to keep Deities and spend their money on the worship of the Deity, or to go to the temple and participate inthe worship there and support the worship in the temple. That will purify their grhastha-asrama and enhance their Krsna consciousness. Still, the real essence of spiritual advancement, especially in the age of Kali, is to hear and chant the glories of the Lord. Such chanting and hearing, especially of the holy names, should precede and follow--and if possible accompany--the Deity worship. Prahlada Maharaja, as we see throughout Srimad-Bhagavatam, always engaged in chanting and hearing the glories of the Lord. Although he was born in a demonic family, his low birth was no impediment to his Krsna consciousness. Of course, he did pray to the Lord to purify his heart. Generally a person born in a demonic family--and in Kali-yuga, practically everyone--is controlled by the lower modes of nature--tamo-guna and rajo-guna--and as long as he is covered by these lower modes, he cannot properly appreciate or glorify the Lord. Prahlada prayed to Nrsimhadeva to enter his heart and cleanse it of all desires for fruitive work and material enjoyment; thus he would be freed from the fears and anxieties of embodied souls.

"I offer my respectful obeisances unto Lord Nrsimhadeva, the source of allpower. O my Lord who possess nails and teeth just like thunderbolts, kindly vanquish our demon like desires for fruitive activity in this material world.Please appear in our hearts and drive away our ignorance so that by Your mercy we may become fearless in the struggle for existence in this material world." (SB 5.18.8)

On the auspicious occasion of Nrsimha-caturdasi, we pray to Lord Nrsimhadeva that just as He saved Prahlada from the demon Hiranyakasipu, He will appear in our hearts and save us from the demonlike desires for fruitive activity in this world--and from the desire to escape the world by merging into the existence of God, by becoming one with God. He should free us from every desire or tendency other than to serve and please Krsna, which we can best accomplish, especially in this age, by chanting His holy names: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Devotees in Karlovac, Croatia, installed Sri Sri Nitai Gaurachandra, their first deities, earlier this month. The Karlovac ISKCON temple was established eight years ago, when devotees began holding spiritual programs in the Croatian towns of Križevci, Kalnik, and Lička Jesenica. They also prepared for the monumentous event years ahead of them by travelling to the USA and India to learn how to conduct traditional rites and care for deities.

Krishna lunch at the University of Florida means more than just grabbing a quick bite to eat; for some students, it has become a tradition. The Krishnas have been there, in the same spot at the plaza, for more than 38 years. Every day, rain or shine, students can enjoy a healthy vegetarian, all- you- can- eat buffet, for a donation of $4. Students can also buy lunch cards, which drop the price to a mere $3.33.

As part of an ongoing effort to maintain Vraja, the holy land in India where Lord Krishna is said to have been born, the adjacent sacred lakes Radha-Kunda and Shyama Kunda are being cleaned for the first time since 1987. ISKCON devotee Devaki Prana Dasa, who has lived and served at Radha-Kunda for many years, says, “The water is over twenty-two steps down at present, and the full cleaning will take about a month and a half to complete.”

The Amar Ujala, a daily Indian newspaper ranked 34th in the world in circulation, has selected ISKCON’s Bhaktivedanta Gurukula and International School in Vrindavan (BGIS) as the top school in the Mathura district and the second best school in the State of Uttar Pradesh.

Every year at the ISKCON Center in Mayapur, India a festival is held where the presiding deities are covered in sacred sandalwood paste (candana) and decorated beautifully.

The year was 1997. In the midst of a frantic search for material enjoyment, Vasudeva Datta reluctantly agreed to go along to a Hare Krishna meeting with one of his friends. There he bought Life Comes from Life and a set of japa beads—and within two weeks he found himself chanting sixteen rounds a day and devouring Prabhupada’s books.

It is the summer of 1983. A jury in Orange County, California—that bastion of “traditional American values,” that home to Disneyland and the pioneering mega-church Crystal Cathedral—a jury stares at a large poster. Faces register shock and awe. They behold the astonishing Narasiṁha, the avatāra with the body of a man and the head of a lion, sitting before a shattered pillar.

6th Street and 23th Avenue, it’s clearly the most patriotic intersection in town. A star-spangled red, white, and blue painted building on one corner, and diagonally opposite an intrusively large signboard that continually boasts inspirational sayings. The latest edition of the signboard reads, “America 3, Pirates 0.”

In the evening, we had a transcendental two hours ecstatic abhisheka to Lord Nrsimhadeva. On the day before Nrsimha Chaturdasi, oil abhisheka was offered. Usually it is done on the day of Nrsimha Chaturdasi. So, it was surprising for devotees to have darshan of the Lord without chandan during adhivas. HH Gopalkrsna Goswami and Lilasukha prabhu gave English Srimad Bhagavatam class while HH Bhakti Purusottama Swami delivered a series of five days lectures on Nrsimha katha. Students of Sri Mayapur International School had put up a fancy dress show.

read more

If the selection above is hosted by YouTube then after the video plays there will be several links presented to other videos. ISKCON News Weekly has no control over the selections presented and is not responsible for their contents.

If the selection above is hosted by YouTube then after the video plays there will be several links presented to other videos. ISKCON News Weekly has no control over the selections presented and is not responsible for their contents.

The Bhaktivedanta Research Centre (BRC) situated at 110A Motilal Nehru Road, Kolkata 700029 is seeking a creative and enthusiastic librarian. The successful applicant should ideally hold an MLS or B. Lib. Sci or have on-site experience of information management and be able and willing to lead a variety of services in the development of the BRC library.

A study of why people change religious affiliations, released this week by the Pew Forum for Religion & Public Life, found that more than half of Americans have changed faiths in their lifetime. Sixteen percent of the population is not affiliated with a religion, according to the study, but many respondents said they had not found the right religion.

Srimad Bhagavatam 11.8.13 -

If you would like to contribute to our year-long "celebration" of Darwin's 200th birthday, please send your articles, editorials, or any other creative and informative pieces to nvclub108@gmail.com

From "Life Comes From Life"

Karandhara: Modern proponents of Darwinism say that the first living organism was created chemically.
Srila Prabhupäda: And I say to them, "If life originated from chemicals, and if your science is so advanced, then why can't you create life biochemically in your laboratories?"
K: They say they will create life in the future.
SP: What future? When this crucial point is raised, they reply, "We shall do it in the future." Why in the future? That is nonsense. "Trust no future, however pleasant." If they are so advanced, they must demonstrate now how life can be created from chemicals. Otherwise what is the meaning of their advancement? They are talking nonsense.
K: They say that they are right on the verge of creating life.
SP: That's only a different way of saying the same thing: "In the future." The scientists must admit that they still do not know the origin of life. Their claim that they will soon prove a chemical origin of life is something like paying someone with a postdated check. Suppose I give you a postdated check for ten thousand dollars but I actually have no money. What is the value of that check? Scientists are claiming that their science is wonderful, but when a practical example is wanted, they say they will provide it in the future.

Suppose I say that I possess millions of dollars, and when you ask me for some money I say, "Yes, I will now give you a big postdated check. Is that all right?" If you are intelligent, you will reply, "At present give me at least five dollars in cash so I can see something tangible." Similarly, the scientists cannot produce even a single blade of grass in their laboratories, yet they are claiming that life is produced from chemicals. What is this nonsense? Is no one questioning this?
K: They say that life is produced by chemical laws.
SP: As soon as there is a law, we must take into consideration that someone made the law. Despite all their so-called advancement, the scientists in their laboratories cannot produce even a blade of grass. What kind of scientists are they?
Dr. Singh. They say that in the ultimate analysis, everything came from matter. Living matter came from nonliving matter.
SP: Then where is this living matter coming from now? Do the scientists say that life came from matter in the past but does not at the present? Where is the ant coming from now—from the dirt?

Those scientific folk are still at it. Click here to read about the latest claims for a "second genesis". They're "knocking at the door!"

On 20th Oct 1972, lecturing on Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.18 in Vrindavana, Srila Prabhupada said this: "Chanakya Pandita says that 'Who is happy?' He says, 'The man who does not go out of home, and who is not a debtor he is happy.' Very simple thing. Who does not go out of home, and he's not a debtor, he's happy. So now we see everyone is out of home, and everyone is a great debtor. So how you can be happy? In America the bank canvasses that 'You take money, you purchase motorcar, you purchase your house, and, as soon as you get your salary, you give me.' That's all. Finished.

read more

View Larger Map

Where: Beatrice St and Lewin St, Jubilee
When: Sunday 10 May, 2 pm

This week Sridhar das is joining us with his saxophone, so come along and joyously chant the Holy Names in the streets of Jubilee. It's a festival every weekend.

Pancha-tattva maha abhisekha in Mayapur, 2009

“When we dedicate ourselves to spirituality or science, we are not doing something extra. We should not think like “let priests or scientists deal with it”. Nowadays we should go beyond this kind of mentality and we hope that the new millennium will help in this sense. For his/her own complete self-realization, each one of us primarily needs to satisfy both the rational needs of the intellect and the deep aspirations of the soul”.

Matsya Avatar Das

May 8, 3:00 A.M.

I woke at 2:30 A.M. after a night of sleeping and dreaming and waking. I began my japa after 3:00 A.M. It was not very good japa. After four rounds, I became drowsy.

Japa essay

Japa is a blessing. You bless yourself, as when taking caritamrta. It’s like when you take the flame which is offered by the pujari, or when he sprinkles you with water or offers you the flower to smell. It is like honoring prasadam. Only it is better. It is directly Radha and Krishna. You are nourished by your tongue and your ears. Japa is even more merciful than the saksad darsana of the Lord’s form. I am a japa chanter. I do not chant at the perfect stage (suddha nama), but I am very fortunate. I chant sixteen rounds a day and try to avoid offenses. I am bathed in Krishna’s mercy, harinama. It is the best way to approach Radha and Krishna and ask for seva.

Oh japa boy, I’m sorry for you,

your medicines make you drowsy

but somehow you pull through every day

and make your quota with quality.

Quality? It’s questionable.

I like your gutty spirit and your utmost determination

to do what you must.

Never fail your quota,

chanting from the heart.

6:41 A.M.

The sun is up bright in the sky, but only a few people are at the beach. The seagulls are squawking. I’m feeling drowsy and could only walk one lap. My legs are tired, and my shoulder hurts. The drowsiness comes, I think, from not enough sleep and from taking pain medicine for the shoulder. It’s hard to celebrate Krishna in this condition. I’m chanting my rounds slowly, too slowly. And I can’t seem to make them go faster.

Nevertheless, it’s a brilliant spring day, and I appreciate it. I hope I’ll be able to write and chant my quota when we get back to the house. I see a young person running on the beach, and I feel envious. But the oldsters accompanying her, with big bellies, take slow steps. Youth and age, health and injury. They make a world of difference, but not for the transcendentalists. An old saintly person limps but feels light at heart, enjoying Krishna’s springtime. I am too affected by the bodily condition, and my spirits drag along with my feet. Nothing holds the sea birds back. They chatter and fly vigorously, even though they may not be getting enough food. In that regard, they are better off than I am.

Oh Stephen, lift your spirits. Be joyful. You are near to Krishna. You are dear to Him. This dragging your heels does not befit you. Your shoulder could be worse. The Lord does not like to see you morose. It is a lack of Krishna consciousness. Please try to overcome it.

Spring has sprung, and the terns are hopping, but what is that to me? A man goes by in a speedboat, but that means nothing to me. The girl on the beach is racing, followed by her two stumbling caretakers. As Bhaktivinoda Thakura states, “Oh Lord, Your material nature is a strange place.” I am looking for freedom from this phantasmagoria. Please let me find it in the spiritual energy.

8:23 A.M.

“Monk and the Nun.” This sounds a little dangerous. The monk and the nun should not mix. Prabhupada was once asked, “What should the exchange be between a man and a woman in the temple?” He said the exchange should be limited to saying, “Please pass the salt.” Of course, when working in parallel lines, they are faultless, the monk and the nun. Monks are great, and nuns are great. But when they work too closely, then it is abominable. Anyway, Ornette is honking his way through his own melody, which has some conflict in it and lots of eeriness. He’s bouncing, and it’s nice. A monk lives with other monks. Sometimes in the Catholic Church, nuns and priests work together in a church. The nuns teach the classes, and the priests oversee them. But monastic monks don’t have much to do with nuns, do they? Sometimes you hear of monks teaching nuns. One has to be very careful, or it becomes the ordinary affairs of men and women. The monk is surrendered to Krishna, and Krishna is his only Lord. The nun worships Jesus, or she worships Radharani, and has no thought for any other man. Don Cherry is working it sweetly. He seems to understand the complexity and how to get through it. It needn’t be an impossibility, because they are both workers in the cause of God. Just don’t let corruption enter, and things will be all right. The monk and the nun are workers in the same cause. Ornette is the monk, and Don Cherry is the nun. They play apart, and sometimes come together, but always chastely. It’s a happy bebop theme.

“Just for You.” It was Krishna’s attitude toward His devotees. He comes to the earth just for them, just to rescue them from miscreants and just to give them good things. They’re playing this song very softly and gently, like sweethearts exchanging. That’s how Krishna feels toward His devotees. They feel the same way towards Him. They do everything just for Him. “Just for you” applies to them both. It’s a rare quality, when you think of it. Most people have some selfishness. They don’t do something just for someone else, but they have a motivation for themselves. But to do it “just for you” is pure love. They’re playing the music like that, just for you. Whatever I have, it’s just for you. I’m not keeping anything for myself. Krishna says that to His devotees. In exact kind, they exchange with Him, and that makes for prema.

“Eventually.” It can’t take place at once, in a moment. It takes time. It takes millions of lifetimes. But you have to work hard and fast. This song is being played very fast, so you wonder why it’s called “Eventually.” It sounds like it should be called “Right Now.” It is called “Eventually” because even if you work hard and fast, it’s going to take some time. You have to clean out all the dirt within you, all the mountains of anarthas. Therefore, you work hard at it. It’s not just work, it’s play. They blow. This is Ornette at his best. Screaming. Rumbling. Stringing out notes so fast together you can’t separate one from the other. And Don Cherry follows him in kind. Nevertheless, it will happen eventually. This kind of speed will take us a long way fast, and we’ll reach the spiritual world before you know it. It’s got a wonderful beat. Jazz should have a beat like this, one two three, one two three, one two three four, one two three four. The drum beats faster. Eventually, we’ll get there. Not eventually like an oxcart but eventually like a jet. Because it’s so far to go. And anyway, they’re having fun going fast. Coming fast to the end.

“Una Muy Bonita.” This is a pretty, Spanish song to a bonita girl, to the bonita play of the rasa dance. They’re dancing in a circle, and it’s very pretty. The girls are the prettiest. The song is muy bonita also. The players like to play together una bonita tune. It’s about una muy bonita, maybe Radharani when She was a very young girl. Or any of the gopis. Everyone in Vrndavana is bonita. The flowers are bonita, and the does and the fawns and the mountain Govardhana. It’s all pretty. There’s nothing ugly. And the most bonita of all is Krishna, who wears a peacock feather in His helmet. Or should we say Radharani is the most bonita? Let us say They are bonita together in Their perfection. They are one very bonita couple. Don Cherry plays it soft and pretty, with a mute and a nice, swinging sound. The whole atmosphere is surcharged with loveliness. That’s Vraja. Una muy bonita place. Scott Lefaro plucks his bass like plucking flowers.

“Bird Food.” “Bird” must stand for Charlie Parker. So the music is food for him. Music styled after Bird. A tribute. They sound like a Bird band. Like Bird used to play, with his own trumpeter. “That’s for the birds” is a disparaging remark, but you can also think of it as something nice. Throwing little seeds for the pretty birds. Bird food is nice. A song made after the Bird, Charlie Parker, is also nice and not disparaging. Throw him seeds, and they will grow into beautiful plants. Feed Bird the melodies he loved. Imitate him. Follow him. Both players play as he did, yet with their own uniquette Ornette Coleman sound. Everyone’s an individual, playing to please Krishna. And they follow various greats in parampara, but with their own words. Rupa is not the same as Sanatana. And Visvanatha Cakravarti went even further. Bhaktivinoda Thakura did something unique, and so did his son, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. And Prabhupada broke the mold. So it’s all really Krishna food, or Lord Caitanya food, being offered to the One and making it your own contribution.

“Change of the Century.” This sounds a little presumptuous. Ornette Coleman is claiming that he’s making a change of the century. But he does live up to it. He made a change that was as great a change as the one Charlie Parker made. Everyone gets a chance. Don’t do the same old thing. Do something new. Make a change of the century. You can’t imitate it, you can’t fake it, but if you’re fortunate, you can do something new for the pleasure of Krishna. He likes new things, but only great acharyas can do it. They had honky-tonk, then they had New Orleans jazz, then they had swing, White music. Big band music. Lots of changes within the century, not just one. The change throughout the century was enacted by many players. And within one century, many followers of Lord Caitanya came and made big changes while at the same time not changing anything at all. They kept it exactly as it was, no concoction. But each one has their own sound, their own change of the century. Do you have a favorite spiritual master who made a change of the century? I think it was Prabhupada.

“Music Always.” This is their dedication, their evocation. All they want is music always, day and night. It comes even before food and drink and sex. They live on the waves of music. That’s a musician for you. And with such dedication, it reaches heights where it can be offered to Krishna because they play with such heart. That’s what I think. And they’re so sincere and hardworking and talented. How can you deny that Krishna likes it? Music always. It’s a form of offering. Some people offer poems, some people offer philosophical tomes, some people offer money to build big temples. Ornette Coleman offers music always. It’s a kind of purity, like a pure devotee. They can’t think of anything else but music, pure music, and they definitely do make it as an offering. They’re not playing it for sense gratification. It’s not that kind of sound. It’s sound that’s offered in love to others. They hope to please, and who’s the first one you want to please? It’s the top one, the top Musician. If you please Him, then you can please all others. But to do it, you have to play music always and not be diverted. An actor will act, a painter will paint. But a musician will play music always. And that’s what’s so wonderful about the artists, their particular love and dedication. Krishna has captured them in that way and put them in that service, and they’re happy to do it for Him.

11:25 A.M.

My Dear Lord Krishna...

The first thing that comes to my mind, my Lord, is the pain in my shoulder. It seems to be getting worse rather than better, although that’s probably not a fact. It clouds my mind from making clear prayers to You. After I admitted this, I now want to clear my mind and make a regular prayer to You without complaining about my injury.

This material world is dukhalayam asasvatam, miserable and temporary. In the Bhagavad-gita, You say that having come to this miserable, material world, we should engage in devotional service and attempt to go back to You, back to Godhead. You have explicitly certified that this place is an unhappy place. When we think we are happy, it is just a time of temporary mitigation from the normal blows of unhappiness that are our lot in the material world. The normal condition is lousy. A devotee detaches himself from this material life by concentrating on the transcendental life by hearing and chanting about You. As we try to indulge our senses in material enjoyment, we only entangle ourselves more in the complexities of material life and suffer. To those who bear the bumper stickers, “Life is good,” the devotees’ viewpoint seems cynical. But when you look at the naked facts of birth, old age, disease and death, it is hard to keep an optimistic viewpoint about life. But You, Lord, offer us the opportunity for happiness despite the inherent misrey of this prison-like abode. If we bow down to You and worship You and become Your devotee, the complexion of life changes from unhappy to happy. Because by associating with You as Your servitor, we escape samsara, or the chain of repeated birth an death, and make our path clear for going to the all-happy spiritual world. Even while in these bodies, subject as they are to miseries, if we set foot on the path of liberation, then unhappiness diminishes. United with You, we learn that we cannot be happy in this material world, but that we can be happy with You. From the very first chapters of Your Bhagavad-gita, we learn that material life is temporary and that spiritual life is eternal and infinitely joyful. So with trust in You, we abandon endeavors in material life and strive for spiritual life, devotional service. You convinced me of this at the rather advanced age of twenty-six years, but I am now determined to follow Your path, and I believe in Your instructions. Unfortunately, very few people believe that Your instructions about eternal spiritual life are true, and they rot here in this material world, trying to make temporary improvements. By the grace of my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, I am one of the relatively few people who understand what is what. I am very grateful for the gift I have been given. I am trying to reciprocate by helping to tell others of the truth of Your message.

I pray to You to give me more enthusiasm and empowerment to be a preacher of Your bhagavat dharma. Unless people come to know the basic facts of life in the material world and the promise of the spiritual world, no one can be happy, despite all endeavors and welfare work. Please convince me more of the actual situation and tell me how to be Your servant in the mission that Srila Prabhupada has given us. You have recently reminded me of the material miseries that his body is heir to. I ask You to combine that with the desire to instruct others on how to get out of all miseries by getting freedom from this material world. I realize that this is a clumsy prayer and that I still lack conviction, but that is why I am imploring You to help me, because I am one of Your workers, and I should do better. Please let me comprehend Your love for all living beings. Inspire me to help disentangle them from their sorry condition. Only then will I too also be free from my sorry predicament in this complicated network known as the material world.

Satsvarupa Maharaja reading My Dear Lord Krishna... during local Nrisimha Caturdasi celebrations.

the yellow submarine, my bhajana kutir #65→

Mrs Obama started work on the kitchen garden with a gang of schoolchildren last month. Media coverage of the first White House food plot since Eleanor Roosevelt "dug for victory" in the Second World War garnered media coverage across the world. But to the consernation of Big Ag, Mrs Obama has said the project will not use chemical products to tackle pests or give her plants a boost, the Times reports.

There was a time when red meat was a luxury for ordinary Americans, or was at least something special: cooking a roast for Sunday dinner, ordering a steak at a restaurant. Not anymore. Meat consumption has more than doubled in the United States in the last 50 years. Now a new study of more than 500,000 Americans has provided the best evidence yet that our affinity for red meat has exacted a hefty price on our health and limited our longevity.

PUNE: The Pune rural police have questioned 20 people, having past record of stealing idols from temples, in connection with the theft of an idol [sic] from a temple at Bajarangwadi near Shikrapur. But even after a month of the theft taking place, the police have failed to make any headway in the case. The nearly-200-year-old idol [sic] of Krishna was stolen along with silver ornaments from the temple at Bajarangwadi, about 50 km from Pune, on April 12.

“Most people are religious because they’re raised to be. They’re indoctrinated by their parents.” So goes the rationale of my nonreligious friends. Maybe, but a study entitled “Faith in Flux” issued this week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life questioned nearly 3,000 people and found that most children raised unaffiliated with a religion later chose to join one.

The Government of India has announced new airport screening measures at each of its international terminals in response to the outbreak of H1N1 flu in a number of countries. These measures will take effect immediately. The screening measures include requiring all travelers arriving on international flights to complete a questionnaire that will be reviewed by health care screeners upon arrival. Travelers who answer yes to any of the questions or show signs of fever or cough may be referred to a doctor and possibly detained for observation. Travelers showing signs of fever or cough during a flight may also be asked to wear a mask for the duration of the flight.

Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 5, No. 8
By Krishna-kripa das
(April 2009, part two)
Jacksonville, London, Radhadesh, Amsterdam
(Sent from Simhacalam, Germany, on 5/8/09)

Highlights: Links to Great Videos on Queen's Day Harinamas

Where I Am and What I Am Doing

For three months I had practically no time to write this journal or answer questions for Krishna.com. What did I do? I lived in at the Gainesville Krishna House, where a number of students, both American and Indian, are beginning to take the practice of Krishna consciousness very seriously, several studying Prabhupada's books together both morning and evening. We had evening programs that always went late three nights a week, a two-hour harinama Wednesday at the Farmer's Market and a harinama in the downtown Friday night where the bars and restaurants are. I thought of eliminating the late night harinama, but three people had come to visit the temple as a result and had good experiences, some coming back, so I was reluctant to stop it. Two weekends and one weekday a month I went to Tallahassee to assist in the outreach there, mostly by doing harinama and giving lectures. I couldn't write with my laptop enroute as it was so flaky I was unwilling to invest in a new battery for it. When I didn't spend the weekend in Tallahassee, I spent hours in Alachua with a fellow assistant of Sadaputa Prabhu's, Sthita-dhi Muni, in looking through Sadaputa's materials to preserve and ultimately share them. We came across a script for a video called "The End of Physics" and a partial manuscript for a book called The Roots of Genius. It was spooky to see my handwriting on some of the documents in the files. There were whole articles I had typeset for him, and then forgotten about. It seemed so long ago, like another life. Reviewing the material, I was reminded of his genius, his talent, and his hard work. I have no regrets about that service, other than I really did not take advantage enough of his association. Both Drutakarma and Sthita-dhi Muni Prabhus became scholars as a result of his association, and I remained but a proofreader of publications. The good thing is that it doesn't matter what you do for Krishna, as long as you work for Him. That is my only solace.

Now by the grace of Brahmatirtha Prabhu and Hridayananda Dasa Goswami, I have a computer so I can write while traveling. I shall try to share the high points of the last three months, going into detail on other journal entries.

The happiest thing for me is to see young people taking the congregational chanting of the Lord's holy name more and more seriously, especially with a little or no encouragement. One time Bhakta Tim had explained how he had too much schoolwork to come on harinama. He walked with us to the car, to wish us well as we were leaving. As the door between us closed, I smiled, and said, "See you there!" Amazingly enough, despite his previous protestations of being too busy, he came out and had a great time.

Once I spent half an hour trying to encourage Bhaktin Jena to go chant with us at the Tallahassee Rainbow Gathering. At least a couple times during the conversation, she even said she would not go. As it turned out, she did finally go, bringing her guitar and ukulele to play along. She had a great time and was glad she came. I see in these examples the power of the holy name to attract people out of their humdrum material life and give them a higher taste. Now that many of the old-timers are leaving their bodies for new ones, it is heartening to see the young people are becoming more and more attracted, and so the movement will go on. Our Gainesville evening programs have such lively kirtanas that once when the lecture went an hour and twenty minutes, the lecturer tried to forgo the kirtana and go straight to prasadam, but the congregation refused to agree. The lecturer offered a ten minute kirtana, but the devotees kept going twenty minutes or more. Once in Tallahassee I had a party of five to chant at the local downtown park, Lake Ella. All were uninitiated devotees who had a taste to chant. During spring break, Tim and Kelly each drove me two hours to Jacksonville to chant at the campus there, and on the weekend they and some college-aged friends went to the beach in St. Augustine and chanted bhajans much of the time. This all reminds me that the interest in the Hare Krishna mantra among the youth is not just a 1960s phenomenon but the spiritual inclination of the soul shining through his/her coverings of ignorant darkness and thus we should give people all facility to gain such attraction.

Enroute to Europe

Enroute to Europe, while waiting in Jacksonville airport for Jet Blue's afternoon flight, having missed the morning one at an expense of $40, I had the good fortune of meeting Bhakti Visrambha Madhava Swami who was just arriving, and who in his usual jovial mood firmly embraced me with affection. He told me about his latest innovative outreach strategy—to enthuse householder devotees to grow vegetables and fruits for Krishna. It gives them something practical to do that gives a good result, and can inspire them further in Vedic culture and Krishna consciousness. Every little bit of land can be utilized for such gardening, even the roof of buildings. You can grow potatoes in the rings of old tires, stacked one above the other, and at the end of the growing season harvest the potatoes simply by removing the tires.

The Jet Blue flight to JFK was an hour late, and I arrived at the gate designated for my Delta London flight twenty minutes after it was scheduled to depart. I was the last person to board, and I apologized but the stewardesses said not to worry.

London

When I arrived in London, my customs officer turned out to be a Brahmin who got a masters degree in Sanskrit from Punjab University. I told him I was here to give a few lectures on Bhagavad-gita, and then go on to Amsterdam. He asked if I knew Sanskrit. I said I knew a few words and quoted Bhagavad-gita 4.9. He chants the Hanuman Chalisa and other prayers at 3:30 a.m. every morning. I suggested that he become a preacher as he was a Brahmin but he did not reply. He was aware of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and when I said I would speak on Gadadhara Pandit, he said that he was not a mortal. I replied affirmatively saying, "All the principle associates of Caitanya Mahaprabhu were liberated souls." I invited him to come to our temple at 10 Soho Street. He said he rarely comes but that his wife comes there almost every day. Because of my inviting him, he said he might come. It is nice to connect with people who have a connection with Krishna.

Harinama in London was great as usual. The day I arrived we had a party of nine devotees and Krishna blessed us with a rare sunny afternoon. One girl joined us midday, dancing as enthusiastically as the other devotees for at least half the harinama. Turns out she had seen the devotees in her homeland of Poland and she does Indian dance professionally so for her to join us and participate was natural.

On Saturday, I joined the "weekend warrior" party who went to Kensington and set up with sit down kirtana, prasadam, and book distribution. They were mostly new devotees, so I got lots of opportunity to play my harmonium tunes. After that, we stopped half an hour from the temple on the way home, and chanted harinama the rest of the way. Later to top of the day, we had the famous Saturday night downtown harinama. Many people danced with us. I distributed invitations to those who smiled, danced, or took pictures of our party. Once I gave a flyer to three teenaged girls who were approaching our party with great curiosity. I told them, "Don't repress your natural urge to dance." Two of them gave their belongings to the third for safekeeping and joined the female kirtana dancers with great delight. Another time I encouraged a couple in their thirties who were dancing with each other, amidst the kirtana dancers. I praised their dancing, and they continued another ten minutes before remembering their planned evening engagement, and leaving with invitation in hand. My realization is that a few positive words can really increase a person's participation in devotional service.

In London I was reminded of the smallness of our Hare Krishna world when, one day, four different devotees came up to me and reminded me of my previous connection with them—one girl from Finland, one boy from Slovakia, and two boys who visited Alachua.

On the flight from London to Amsterdam, I happened to sit with an Indian student who is just becoming interested in Hare Krishna. He had read Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers and was beginning Science of Self-Realization. He was going to Amsterdam to visit some friend who had invited him for Queen's Day. I gave him a copy of my BTG with the article on last year's devotee participation in the event, and he was grateful. I hoped to see him there, but I think his association with friends that were not devotionally inclined kept him from meeting up with the devotees during his brief visit to Amsterdam.

Wise Words

Kadambda Kanana Swami's Vyasa Puja was a nice event. He gave a couple of lectures that day that I attended. Here are some of his realizations:

The secret of Krishna consciousness is to remain always inspired. We must fix our mind on Krishna, not just for some time, but at every moment. We must create a culture where this constant remembrance of Krishna goes on.

It is said a pure devotee of Lord Caitanya can deliver the universe. In Srila Prabhupada, we can see how it is possible. We are here by the devotees' mercy.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saravati Thakura said that the kirtanas of Lord Caitanya and His associates are still going on at Srivasa Angam and some can hear while others cannot. Those who cannot can hear them through the scripture, and then there is no different between the two groups.

This movement is compared to waves. Different groups appear from time to time and play key roles.

Always make sure our roots are strong. See what Srila Prabhupada valued and make sure we are doing that.

This movement is flooding the entire world, and yet it is simply moving from one person to another.

Q: How can I not be proud of what you [as my guru] have been able to do through me?
A: Just look at how much more devotees like Vishnujana Swami and Jayananda Prabhu were able to do. And look at Srila Prabhupada himself.

The spiritual master is always present, even if he doesn't always answer our emails.

It makes me feel like a failure as a guru that a disciple wound up in jail. As far as disciples disobeying the order of the guru is concerned, I simply ask that they are honest with me. In this way, things will not get completely out of hand.

Suhotra Swami would practically never argue on the basis of his being a GBC or temple president. He would argue philosophically. Suhotra Swami could not tolerate compromise. He was a sadhu, a man of truth.

To think we are mercy cases is actually good, especially if we aspire to repay the guru, but still, the chanting of the daily sixteen rounds and following the four principles is good enough.

I want you to utilize your nature and capacity in Krishna's service. I look for maturity, sadhana [spiritual practice], and doing something for the mission. If you need ideas, I have them.

As a youth, I vowed never to follow any authority, other than my own. I was depressed, and encountering Srila Prabhupada, I agreed to surrender to him, but to surrender to the different leaders of his movement, was another thing. But I was able to because I was not willing to let temporary, insignificant things, get in the way of attaining Srila Prabhupada's mercy.

Everything is parampara [the line of spiritual predecessors]. That is the essence. I am simply trying to follow the parampara.

Lord Caitanya promised his followers who chanted 64 rounds they would attain Krishna. Srila Prabhupada reduced it to 16 rounds and four rules. Can those who recommend four rounds really promise their followers that they will go back to Godhead?

Spiritual life is more than choosing a service or accepting one chosen by the spiritual master. Our natural inclinations will become obvious in the course of time. Anyone who is a natural book distributor should try to do it as long as possible without being disturbed by asrama or other external considerations.

I will tolerate all kicks from any cow that gives milk.

Do something special in acara [behavior] and pracara [enlightening others] and get some special mercy.

Notes on Vyasa Puja offerings:

Mayapur Chandrodaya Prabhu mentioned that although he played the role of his guru's personal servant and that others were also eager to serve him, his guru always made sure there were proper accommodations for his personal servant.

One lady, I didn't know, mentioned how hearing the realizations of the other disciples brings us closer to the guru.

The feast was so extensive that if you took all you felt like, your body could not handle it, so it was a test of my self-control. There were several desserts including the treasured gulabjamons.

Queen's Day

Queen's Day was bigger both in terms of participation by the general populace and by the devotees. Apparently there was an attack on the royal family which prompted the government to cancel all the festivities in cities other than Amsterdam, so everyone went to Amsterdam to celebrate. Kadamba Kanana Swami had his Vyasa Puja festival at Radhadesh, just under four hours away, so he would get more people to participate, and the strategy worked. There must have been at least a hundred and fifty devotees taking part, at least seventy more than last year. Maharaja thanked me for the BTG [March/April 2009] article on last year's event, saying that now half the devotees in South Africa want to come to Amsterdam for Queen's Day!

Our chanting party lasted seven and a half hours, two hours sitting at our booth, and the rest during two harinamas through the streets, before and after our lunch and rest break. In the beginning at least twenty people joined in dancing with us, becoming part of a 'snake' of dancers winding through the crowd, and they all appeared very happy to take part. [Click here for video.] While at our booth, I would dance at the side of the entrance, offering invitations to those who took pictures, smiled, or stopped to look. [Click here for video.] One pair of college girls watched for a while, and taking an invitation, one began chanting the mantra along with us. I informed her about the prasadam, the books, and the temple nearest her. She was interested in other cultures and had a special interest in India. For more videos on the Hare Krishna participation in Queen's Day 2009, click here.

naham tisthami vaikunthe
yoginam hridayesu va
yatra gayanti mad-bhaktah
tatra tisthami narada

"Lord Krishna told Narada, 'I am not situated in the spiritual world Vaikuntha, nor am I in the hearts of the yogis, but you will find me, O Narada, wherever My devotees are chanting my glories.'" --Padma Purana

Next on to Antwerp, Munich, the German Nrsimha farm (Simhacalam), and more.

Henna, which has been playing a vital role in Hindu weddings since ancient times, is becoming popular with Hollywood and other celebrities. Also known as mehndi, it is turning into an in-thing with celebrities as a trendy alternative to traditional tattoos. Although the final result is similar to tattoo, but the mehndi experience is delightful and painless, and the images are temporary, according to acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed.

A number of disgruntled Kurmaphiles wrote and suggested that a week without my blogs was a tough call.

'Memory Lane' is a new series of reposted, archived blog entries for when there are no blog entries worth blogging. I mean, ironing, porridge-making and housework don't warrant a report, now do they?

Basically it's like repeating my favourite episodes of "The Days of Kurma's Lives". So, here's Memory Lane #1:

As the Perth rain thundered down yesterday, I cooked a perfect batch of marmalade. Kumquats are in season, so I picked up a kilo of the oval variety at the markets for $3.00. A kilo of fruit plus the sugar cost me less than $6, and I made 8 big jars. Marmalade making is very, very cost efficient.

Some of my earliest childhood memories are of returning home from primary school in England and finding the whole house perfumed with sweet citrus aromas, and seeing big pots of seville orange marmalade bubbling away on the stove, the steam misting up the cold windows of the kitchen. I am carrying on the tradition, and I think my mother would be proud of me.

Here's my recipe. It really works well.

Kumquat Marmalade

Kumquats look like miniature oranges, and although they are closely related to the citrus species, they belong to a different genus altogether.

Whereas most citrus fruits are considered sub-tropical, kumquats are very hardy and grow easily in home gardens. The round, ornamental variety of kumquats are common, but I prefer to cook the more firm, oval variety (pictured above). Nevertheless, all kumquats yield a delicious marmalade which is both refreshing and tangy. It is a favourite with those who don’t like their marmalade too sweet.

STANDING TIME: overnight (that's the fruit and water standing, not you!) PREPARATION AND COOKING TIME: about 1 1/4 hours YIELD: about 4 cups

250g kumquats 3 cups (750ml) water sugar

Wash the kumquats and slice them as finely as possible. Remove the seeds, if any, and reserve them. Combine the sliced fruit and water in a bowl or jug and leave overnight.

Next day, place the fruit and water mixture in a non-stick 3-litre/quart saucepan. Gather the reserved pips and tie them in a square of muslin to form a little bag. Drop the bag into the kumquat and water mixture and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat, and simmer, tightly covered, for about 1 hour. By this time the fruit will be tender. Remove the saucepan from the heat.

Discard the muslin bag of pips. Pour the mixture into a bowl, measuring exactly how many cups there are. Add an equal volume of sugar and return the mixture to the saucepan.

Stir over low heat to dissolve the sugar. Return the mixture to the boil, and cook without stirring for 10–15 minutes, or until a spoon of the marmalade sets on a cold plate. You may like to keep the plate in the freezer for a quick set test.

Remove the marmalade from the heat. Skim off any scum from the surface and let the marmalade rest for 15 minutes. Spoon it into hot, sterilised jars. Cover immediately, and seal when cold.

Tomorow, and for several days to come, at 8.00AM Eastern Standard time, Guru
Maharaja will give a live video lecture, available at www.mogulus.com/krsna

New Vrindavana az amerikai West Virginia államban taláható. Ez volt az első farm, amit Srila Prabhupada, 1969-ben alapított. Itt található a híres Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold templom is. A 80-as évek elején kb 300,000 turista látogatta.

Jelenleg 30 teljes idős bhakta lakik itt, és 150 bhakta a környéken.

A Festival of Inspiration a mi Nama-hatta táborunkhoz hasonlítható. A 3 nap alatt 500-1000 bhakta gyűlik össze. Ezalatt szemináriumokat hallgathatnak, kirtanozhatnak, társulhatnak egymással. Sok Swami látogatott el a programra. Radhanatha Maharaja, Devamrta Maharaja, Varsana Maharaja, Romapada Maharaja, Satsvarupa Maharaja néhány, akinek a neve most eszembe jutott.

Érdekes tapasztalat egy ilyen régi farmot látni, elképzelve, illetve történeteket hallva, hogy miken mentek keresztül. Idén 40 éves Új Vrindaban. Ehhez képest Krisna-völgyet csak 16 évvel ezelőtt hoztuk létre. Ennek ellenére a magyarországi tapasztalatokra nagyon kíváncsiak az itteniek. Malati mataji Mayapurban találkozott Radha Krisna prabhuval, aki a GBC-nek tartott bemutatót Krisna-völgyről, az Öko-völgy projektünkről. Nagyon örült neki és ezért meghívott bennünket, hogy a prezentációinkkal színesítsük a programjukat. Radha Krisna prabhu az Öko-völgy programról beszél. Én pedig a magyar tagsági rendszerről, a csatlakozás folyamatáról, a Bhaktiról és a farmról tartok egy előadást. Emellett van egy asztalunk, ahol Sivarama Maharaja könyveit áruljuk, illetve Öko-völgy magazinokat, dvd-ket. És itt elég sokat vagyok. Ráadásul a netezés elég nehézkes. Remélem, azért lesznek videók is.

Az időjárás tűrhető. A páratartalom magas. Olyan 70%-os. De legalább nincs meleg. Így talán túlélem. (Akik ismernek, tudhatják, hogy a nagy páratartalmat nehezen viselem.)

Most kint ülök az asztalnál, és az egyik bhakta említette, hogy kedden az ista-gostin mi leszünk a téma. Szóval, készülhetünk a kérdésekre

It is said that because Krsna was constantly performing various types of sacrifices and was inviting the demigods from the higher planetary systems, the demigods were almost always absent from their consorts. Therefore the wives of the demigods, regretting the absence of their husbands, began to pray for the appearance of Lord Buddha, Krsna's ninth incarnation, who appears in the age of Kali. In other words, instead of being pleased that Lord Krsna had come, they began to pray for Lord Buddha, who is the ninth incarnation, because Lord Buddha stopped the ritualistic ceremonies and sacrifices recommended in the Vedas in order to discourage animal-killing. The demigods' wives thought that if Lord Buddha appeared, all kinds of sacrifices would be stopped, and thus their husbands would not be invited to such ceremonies and would not be separated from them.

Sometimes it is inquired, "Why don't the demigods from higher planetary systems come to this earth planet nowadays?" The plain answer is that since Lord Buddha appeared and began to deprecate the performance of sacrifice in order to stop animal-killing on this planet, the process of offering sacrifices has been stopped, and the demigods do not care to come here anymore.

(from Nectar of Devotion)

Dear devotees.

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

We were on travelling sankirtana in a small town nearby Helsinki. Before beginning a day I always chant one round extra. After chanting I saw a fat lady walking on the street.

I opened the conversation by saying: ÒDear Madam, we are looking for aristocratic people in this town today. I must say you look exactly like the Queen.Ó (This is one of the mantras I use while distributing Teachings of Queen Kunti.)

To my surprise she replied: ÒHow did you know I am related to the Queen. My son was elected the Drag Queen if Finland 2008.Ó

I put two books (TQK and Caitanya-caritamrta) in her hands. She accepted them and started telling the story of her life. I thought her life had a little semblance to that of Queen Kunti, i.e. she had gone through many difficulties, and she was raising her children alone. She mainly spoke about the special children she had.

Her elder son was the Drag Queen, a man who dresses as a woman. He was a regular face in the TV, in charge of a late-night music program. He was earning nicely (over 100 an hour by doing that job).

Her younger son was just ten years. He had some neurological disease called the Asperger syndrome. This means he is very introverted, but still very intelligent. She told every now and then her son would become interested about something and become totally absorbed in it. In my heart I was praying to Krsna he would some day become interested about Krsna consciousness in this way.

She was an extremely softhearted lady and eventually she took both the books, although she had very little money.

Later that day she had phoned the temple. She was in happy moods and said she had already read some of the books. She was wondering how on earth I could have known she was related to the Queen. She asked whether our monks have mystic powers. Our temple president Tattvavada Prabhu replied it is not something mystical. It is a matter of understanding oneÕs relationship with God. When we know our relationship with Krsna, we can also know something about the other living entities as well.

Your servant, Avadhutacandra das (Text D:562199) --------------------------------------------

------- End of Forwarded Message ------

TRANSLATION

In this way, my Lord, You appear in various incarnations as a human being,
an animal, a great saint, a demigod, a fish, or a tortoise, thus maintaining
the entire creation in different planetary systems and killing the demoniac
principles. According to the age, O my Lord, You protect the principles of
religion. In the age of Kali, however, You do not assert Yourself as the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore You are known as Triyuga, or
the Lord who appears in three yugas.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

As the Lord appeared just to maintain Lord Brahma from the attack of Madhu
and Kaitabha, He also appeared to protect the great devotee Prahlada
Maharaja. Similarly, Lord Caitanya appeared in order to protect the fallen
souls of Kali-yuga. There are four yugas, or millenniums–Satya, Treta,
Dvapara, and Kali. In all the yugas but Kali-yuga, the Lord appears in
various incarnations and asserts Himself as the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, but although Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who appears in
Kali-yuga, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He never asserted Himself
as such. On the contrary, whenever Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was addressed as
being as good as Krsna, He blocked His ears with His hands, denying His
identity with Krsna, because He was playing the part of a devotee. Lord
Caitanya knew that in Kali-yuga there would be many bogus incarnations
pretending to be God, and therefore He avoided asserting Himself as the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is accepted as the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, however, in many Vedic literatures,
especially in Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.5.32):

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam
sangopangastra-parsadam
yajnaih sankirtana-prayair
yajanti hi sumedhasah

In Kali-yuga, intelligent men worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead in
the form of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who is always accompanied by His
associates such as Nityananda, Advaita, Gadadhara, and Srivasa. The entire
Krsna consciousness movement is based on the principles of the sankirtana
movement inaugurated by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Therefore one who tries to
understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the medium of the
sankirtana movement knows everything perfectly. He is sumedhas, a person
with substantial intelligence.

COMMENT by Giriraj Swami

We have gathered on the auspicious occasion of Sri Nrsimha-caturdasi to
celebrate the appearance of Lord Nrsimhadeva. In his Dasavatara-stotra (4)
Srila Jayadeva Gosvami sings,

tava kara-kamala-vare nakham adbhuta-srngam
dalita-hiranyakasipu-tanu-bhrngam
kesava dhrta-narahari-rupa jaya jagadisa hare

“O Kesava! O Lord of the universe! O Lord Hari, who have assumed the form of
half-man, half-lion! All glories to You! Just as one can easily crush a wasp
between one’s fingernails, so in the same way the body of the wasplike demon
Hiranyakasipu has been ripped apart by the wonderful pointed nails on Your
beautiful lotus hands.” In every verse of his poem, Jayadeva glorifies
Kesava, Krsna, who appears as different avataras, including the avatara of
Nrsimhadeva. This means that Kesava, or Krsna, is the origin and that all
the other incarnations expand from Him.

In fact, Krsna is the origin of everything, as He states in the
Bhagavad-gita (10.8),
aham sarvasya prabhavo mattah sarvam pravartate: “I am the source of all
spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me.” Spiritually, He
is the origin not only of the various expansions on the spiritual planets
but also of the Lord within the hearts of the living entities (Paramatma)
and of Brahman, the impersonal brahmajyoti, the spiritual light that
pervades the spiritual sky.

vadanti tat tattva-vidas
tattvam yaj jnanam advayam
brahmeti paramatmeti
bhagavan iti sabdyate

“Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual
substance Brahman, Paramatma, or Bhagavan.” (SB 1.2.11) Different categories
of transcendentalists aspire to realize different features of the Absolute
Truth: the jnanis try to realize the Brahman feature; the yogis, the
Paramatma feature; and the devotees, Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of
Godhead.

Most people are not transcendentalists at all. They are materialists,
fruitive workers, called karmis, who engage in fruitive activities with the
desire to enjoy the material world. They are very attached to the body. They
identify with the body, and they work to gratify the senses of the body.
Prahlada Maharaja’s father, Hiranyakasipu, was such a materialist, very
attached to the body and to household life. His very name, Hiranyakasipu,
suggests the two goals of materialistic people. Hiranya means
“gold”–wealth. Everybody wants wealth. And kasipu means “soft cushion” or
“bed.” Everybody wants to enjoy sense gratification. That is why they work
so hard–to enjoy material comforts and sense gratification, which for them
culminates in sex enjoyment.

Most people are karmis. They want to enjoy the material world. And even if
they perform pious activities, their ultimate goal is to enjoy material
facilities, either in this life or the next. They have no idea of the actual
goal of life, as Prahlada Maharaja explained to his father: na te viduh
svartha-gatim hi visnum–people do not know that the goal of life is to
serve Visnu, or Krsna, and go back home, back to Godhead. Rather, they
pursue material happiness in what is compared to a blind well (andha-kupam).
People are trying to find happiness in the material world. In their pursuit
of happiness, they stumble and fall into a blind well where there is no
water but there are often snakes and scorpions.

And they cannot get out on their own. When Hiranyakasipu asked Prahlada how
he had become Krsna conscious even though his father and teachers had raised
him to be a materialist, Prahlada replied that one cannot become Krsna
conscious by one’s own endeavor, by the endeavors of others, or by the
combined efforts of oneself and others, by having big meetings and passing
resolutions.

matir na krsne paratah svato va
mitho ‘bhipadyeta grha-vratanam
adanta-gobhir visatam tamisram
punah punas carvita-carvananam

“Because of their uncontrolled senses, persons too addicted to materialistic
life make progress toward hellish conditions and repeatedly chew that which
has already been chewed. Their inclinations toward Krsna are never aroused,
either by the instructions of others, by their own efforts, or by a
combination of both.” (SB 7.5.30)

We are in a most precarious position in the andha-kupam, the blind well of
material existence, and have almost no hope of deliverance. Still, there is
one hope, as Prahlada says: mahiyasam pada-rajo-’bhisekam niskincananam na
vrnita yavat–unless one takes the dust of the lotus feet of a pure devotee
of the Lord upon his head, he cannot become freed from the unwanted miseries
of material existence.

naisam matis tavad urukramanghrim
sprsaty anarthapagamo yad-arthah
mahiyasam pada-rajo-’bhisekam
niskincananam na vrnita yavat

“Unless they smear upon their bodies the dust of the lotus feet of a
Vaisnava completely freed from material contamination, persons very much
inclined toward materialistic life cannot be attached to the lotus feet of
the Lord, who is glorified for His uncommon activities. Only by becoming
Krsna conscious and taking shelter at the lotus feet of the Lord in this way
can one be freed from material contamination.” (SB 7.5.32)

Anartha. Artha means “that which is desired,” and anartha means “that which
is not wanted.” The basic principle of anartha is this body, which is called
asad-grahat, a temporary dwelling for the spirit soul, and as long as we
identify with the body we are filled with anxiety (samudvigna). The actual
goal of human life, of Vedic civilization, is to become free from this body
and all its concomitant miseries–janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi. The Bhagavad-gita
says that these miseries–birth, death, old age, and disease–come with the
body and that we cannot escape them as long as we are confined within the
body.

In this body, this asat-grahat, this andha-kupam, we suffer. We desperately
want to enjoy, but mainly we suffer. Although there is some enjoyment–some,
but not much–there is a lot of suffering and anxiety. And the only way to
get out is to become Krsna conscious and go back home, back to Godhead. And
to become Krsna conscious, we must take the dust from the lotus feet of a
pure devotee upon our heads (mahiyasam pada-rajo-’bhisekam). That means that
we must learn the science of bhakti-yoga, Krsna consciousness, from a pure
devotee. Because the world was so much in need of this knowledge–people
were suffering so much without it (and still are suffering without it)–His
Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, at an advanced age, just before his
seventieth birthday, left India and came to New York City and began the
Krsna consciousness movement.

In the present age of Kali, there is a special process to become Krsna
conscious and go back home, back to Godhead. Each age has a specific process
suitable for the people of that age, and in Kali-yuga the recommended
process is hari-nama-sankirtana (yajnaih sankirtana-prayair). In Kali-yuga
those who are intelligent (sumedhasah) will worship the incarnation of Krsna
for the age, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, by performance of the
sankirtana-yajna.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself quoted the Brhan-naradiya Purana (38.126):

harer nama harer nama
harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva
nasty eva gatir anyatha

“One should chant the holy names, chant the holy names, chant the holy names
of Lord Hari. There is no other way, no other way, no other way for success
in this age.” That one should chant is repeated three times for emphasis.
And that there is not other way is repeated three times to suggest “not by
karma, not by jnana, and not by yoga.”

When we chant we should do so with attention, with devotion, with love. Then
we can get the full benefit. There are various instructions on how to chant
the holy name, and we are advised to avoid the ten offenses against the holy
name in order to quickly achieve the desired results.

The same Lord who came out of the pillar as Nrsimhadeva to protect Prahlada
has appeared in Kali-yuga as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to protect the fallen
souls. And Prahlada, although he was only five years old when Nrsimhadeva
appeared, knew that the Lord appears in different incarnations in different
ages and that He would appear in Kali-yuga as a channa-avatara. Channa means
“covered.” In Kali-yuga the Lord does not assert Himself as the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, as He does in other ages, but appears and acts as a
devotee to show us how to be devotees, practice Krsna consciousness, and
develop love for Krsna. He knew that people in Kali-yuga are so fallen that
if He were to openly express Himself as God there would be so many
pretenders who would falsely claim to be God, to be Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So
whenever He was addressed as God He would block His ears and exclaim,
“Visnu! Visnu! I am not God.” Otherwise, we can only imagine how burdened
the world would be with false incarnations. Now there is one, with a big
place in Texas, who claims to be Caitanya Mahaprabhu, but there are not
many, fortunately. The channa-avatara covers His identity as Krsna so that
only confidential devotees, who receive knowledge through parampara, from
niskincanam, will understand who the incarnation for this age is and worship
Him by performance of the sankirtana-yajna, chanting Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna,
Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Since we can easily achieve the highest success just by chanting the holy
names of the Lord, one may question why we need temples and temple worship.
Why take so much trouble to build temples and worship Deities? The answer is
that although hari-nama is sufficient, most people cannot appreciate the
full value of the holy name of the Lord. They are do not have sufficient
intelligence or faith to appreciate the potency of hari-nama alone, and they
feel that they need some more elaborate procedure, or they want some
gorgeous ceremony. For them we construct temples, and when they come to the
temple they hear pure devotees speak about Krsna, about Krsna consciousness,
about the holy name of Krsna– and they begin to chant as well. By such
chanting, their consciousness is cleared (ceto-darpana-marjanam), and as
their consciousness becomes purified they are able to understand more and
more about Krsna and the process of Krsna consciousness.

For devotees too, especially neophytes and householders, Deity worship is
also recommended. It serves to keep them regulated and clean in their
habits. Further, householders are always busy earning and spending money
(diva carthehaya rajan
kutumba-bharanena va), and at least some of that money, which they earn by
various means, should be purified by being engaged in the service of the
Lord. Therefore householders are advised to keep Deities and spend their
money on the worship of the Deity, or to go to the temple and participate in
the worship there and support the worship in the temple. That will purify
their grhastha-asrama and enhance their Krsna consciousness.

Still, the real essence of spiritual advancement, especially in the age of
Kali, is to hear and chant the glories of the Lord. Such chanting and
hearing, especially of the holy names, should precede and follow–and if
possible accompany–the Deity worship. Prahlada Maharaja, as we see
throughout Srimad-Bhagavatam, always engaged in chanting and hearing the
glories of the Lord. Although he was born in a demonic family, his low birth
was no impediment to his Krsna consciousness. Of course, he did pray to the
Lord to purify his heart. Generally a person born in a demonic family–and
in Kali-yuga, practically everyone–is controlled by the lower modes of
nature–tamo-guna and rajo-guna–and as long as he is covered by these lower
modes, he cannot properly appreciate or glorify the Lord. Prahlada prayed to
Nrsimhadeva to enter his heart and cleanse it of all desires for fruitive
work and material enjoyment; thus he would be freed from the fears and
anxieties of embodied souls.

om namo bhagavate narasimhaya namas tejas-tejase avir-avirbhava vajra-nakha
vajra-damstra karmasayan randhaya randhaya tamo grasa grasa om svaha;
abhayam abhayam atmani bhuyistha om ksraum.

“I offer my respectful obeisances unto Lord Nrsimhadeva, the source of all
power. O my Lord who possess nails and teeth just like thunderbolts, kindly
vanquish our demonlike desires for fruitive activity in this material world.
Please appear in our hearts and drive away our ignorance so that by Your
mercy we may become fearless in the struggle for existence in this material
world.” (SB 5.18.8)

On the auspicious occasion of Nrsimha-caturdasi, we pray to Lord Nrsimhadeva
that just as He saved Prahlada from the demon Hiranyakasipu, He will appear
in our hearts and save us from the demonlike desires for fruitive activity
in this world–and from the desire to escape the world by merging into the
existence of God, by becoming one with God. He should free us from every
desire or tendency other than to serve and please Krsna, which we can best
accomplish, especially in this age, by chanting His holy names: Hare Krsna,
Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare
Hare.

Are there any questions or comments?

Devotee: You mentioned mahiyasam pada-rajo-’bhisekam. How can one recognize
a pure devotee? What are the symptoms?

Giriraj Swami: How can we recognize mahiyasam, great souls? A great soul,
mahat or mahatma, is one who has served another great soul, through
parampara, and thus come under the shelter of the divine energy (mahatmanas
tu mam partha daivim prakrtim asritah). He is niskincanana. He has nothing
to do with this material world; he is freed from material contamination and
attachment. The real process of Krsna consciousness is to become attached to
Krsna, and the result of becoming attached to Krsna is that one becomes free
from material attachments.

Pure devotees, because their principle is to serve Krsna, follow
yukta-vairagya, which means that they use everything in Krsna’s service.
Unlike impersonalists, they do not reject so-called material things but
accept them and engage them in Krsna’s service.

anasaktasya visayan
yatharham upayunjatah
nirbandhah krsna-sambandhe
yuktam vairagyam ucyate

prapancikataya buddhya
hari-sambandhi-vastunah
mumuksubhih parityago
vairagyam phalgu kathyate

“When one is not attached to anything but at the same time accepts anything
in relation to Krsna, one is rightly situated above possessiveness. On the
other hand, one who rejects everything without knowledge of its relationship
to Krsna is not as complete in his renunciation.” (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu
1.2.255-6)

Prahlada is an example. Nrsimhadeva wanted him to accept the throne, and at
first Prahlada declined, because he had seen how his father had been deluded
by material opulence and attachment, and did not want the same to happen to
him. But he realized, by Nrsimhadeva’s grace, that if he were free from
material desires, he could use his position and opulence in Krsna
consciousness. He prayed,

yadi dasyasi me kaman
varams tvam varadarsabha
kamanam hrdy asamroham
bhavatas tu vrne varam

“O my Lord, best of the givers of benediction, if You at all want to bestow
a desirable benediction upon me, then I pray from Your Lordship that within
the core of my heart there be no material desires.

indriyani manah prana
atma dharmo dhrtir matih
hrih sris tejah smrtih satyam
yasya nasyanti janmana

“O my Lord, because of lusty desires from the very beginning of one’s birth,
the functions of one’s senses, mind, life, body, religion, patience,
intelligence, shyness, opulence, strength, memory, and truthfulness are
vanquished.

vimuncati yada kaman
manavo manasi sthitan
tarhy eva pundarikaksa
bhagavattvaya kalpate

“O my Lord, when a human being is able to give up all the material desires
in his mind, he becomes eligible to possess wealth and opulence like Yours.”
(SB 7.10.7-9)

And Nrsimhadeva accepted his prayer and blessed him.

sri-bhagavan uvaca
naikantino me mayi jatv ihasisa
asasate ‘mutra ca ye bhavad-vidhah
tathapi manvantaram etad atra
daityesvaranam anubhunksva bhogan

“The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Prahlada, a devotee like
you never desires any kind of material opulences, either in this life or in
the next. Nonetheless, I order you to enjoy the opulences of the demons in
this material world, acting as their king until the end of the duration of
time occupied by Manu.

katha madiya jusamanah priyas tvam
avesya mam atmani santam ekam
sarvesu bhutesv adhiyajnam isam
yajasva yogena ca karma hinvan

“It does not matter that you are in the material world. You should always,
continuously, hear the instructions and messages given by Me and always be
absorbed in thought of Me, for I am the Supersoul existing in the core of
everyone’s heart. Therefore, giving up fruitive activities, worship Me.” (SB
7.10.11-12)

Nrsimhadeva wanted Prahlada to accept the position of king for the benefit
of the people and at the same time remain absorbed in Krsna consciousness.

In more recent times we have the examples of Srila Prabhupada and his
followers. Srila Prabhupada expanded the conception of yukta-vairagya and
used things in devotional service that had not been used by acaryas
before–airplanes, tape recorders, Dictaphones, and, through his disciples,
computers. He used anything and everything to preach the glories of the
Lord. Using so-called material things in the service of the Lord, to
broadcast the glories of the Lord and His holy name, is also kirtana.

idam hi pumsas tapasah srutasya va
svistasya suktasya ca buddhi-dattayoh
avicyuto ‘rthah kavibhir nirupito
yad-uttamasloka-gunanuvarnanam

“Learned circles have positively concluded that the infallible purpose of
the advancement of knowledge, namely austerities, study of the Vedas,
sacrifice, chanting of hymns, and charity, culminates in the transcendental
descriptions of the Lord, who is defined in choice poetry.” (SB 1.5.22) In
his purport to this verse, Srila Prabhupada concludes, “Scientific knowledge
engaged in the service of the Lord, and all similar activities, are all
factually hari-kirtana.” In the same vein, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati
Thakura, Srila Prabhupada’s guru maharaja, referred to the printing press as
the brhad-mrdanga, the great drum used in the great kirtana of glorifying
the Lord through transcendental literature.

So a sign of pure devotees who have no material attachments (mahiyasam
niskincananam) is that whatever facility they get they use in the service of
the Lord–not for sense gratification.

Devotee: Prahlada Maharaja was a devotee from childhood. He must have been a
great devotee in his previous life. Could you shed some light on his
previous life, what he did?

Giriraj Swami: It is true that Prahlada was a devotee from his previous
life, but there is another reason why he was a devotee from childhood: when
he was in the womb of his mother he was graced by the merciful instructions
of a great soul. While Hiranyakasipu was at Mandaracala Mountain executing
severe austerities, there was intense fighting between the demigods and the
demons, and when the demigods became successful, they captured Prahlada’s
mother, Kayadhu. Because she was carrying the seed of Hiranyakasipu in her
womb, the demigods, led by Indra, apprehended that the child would be
another great demon and disturb the universe. So they planned to keep her in
their custody until her child was born, at which time they would kill the
child and release her. But Narada Muni intervened and told them, “No, the
child in the womb is a great devotee.” He took Prahlada’s mother to his
asrama and instructed her–and Prahlada in the womb–in devotional service.
Within the womb Prahlada received transcendental knowledge from Narada Muni
and accepted him as his spiritual master. Thus the Bhagavatam (7.4.42) says,
sa uttama-sloka-padaravindayor nisevayakincana-sanga-labdhaya: “Because of
his association with a perfect, unalloyed devotee who has nothing to do with
anything material, Prahlada constantly engaged in the service of the Lord’s
lotus feet.”

Still, it is said that Prahlada was already advanced when he came to earth.
Thus in one sense he was nitya-siddha, eternally perfect, but at the same
time he was sadhana-siddha, because he attained perfection by executing the
instructions of his spiritual master, Narada Muni. He is considered both
nitya-siddha and sadhana-siddha.

Nitya-siddha is one who is always perfect, who was never conditioned. He
does not have to practice bhakti-yoga to become perfect. And the
sadhana-siddha becomes perfect by spiritual practice, by sadhana. Then too
there is the krpa-siddha, who becomes perfect by mercy, even without
sadhana. Of course, everyone needs mercy. Even the sadhana-siddha requires
mercy to be successful. But the krpa-suddha becomes perfect even without
sadhana–just by krpa.

When Lord Nrsimhadeva offered him material benedictions, Prahlada said to
the Lord, “Why do You want to tempt me? You have sent me to this world to
show the example of a pure devotee, so why do You want to tempt me with
material things?”

ma mam pralobhayotpattya
saktamkamesu tair varaih
tat-sanga-bhito nirvinno
mumuksus tvam upasritah

“My dear Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, because I was born in an
atheistic family I am naturally attached to material enjoyment. Therefore,
kindly do not tempt me with these illusions. I am very much afraid of
material conditions, and I desire to be liberated from materialistic life.
It is for this reason that I have taken shelter of Your lotus feet.

bhrtya-laksana-jijnasur
bhaktam kamesv acodayat
bhavan samsara-bijesu
hrdaya-granthisu prabho

“O my worshipable Lord, because the seed of lusty desires, which is the root
cause of material existence, is within the core of everyone’s heart, You
have sent me to this material world to exhibit the symptoms of a pure
devotee.” (SB 7.10.2-3)

The statement that “You sent me to the material world to show the example of
a pure devotee” suggests that Prahlada was a nitya-siddha devotee, already
perfect before he took birth. Yet He also accepted a spiritual master,
Narada Muni, and followed his instructions. And he presented himself as
someone influenced by the lower modes of nature, by the demonic association
into which he was born, who could become freed by engaging in devotional
service.

tasmad aham vigata-viklava isvarasya
sarvatmana mahi grnami yatha manisam
nico ‘jaya guna-visargam anupravistah
puyeta yena hi puman anuvarnitena

“Although I was born in a demoniac family, I may without a doubt offer
prayers to the Lord with full endeavor, as far as my intelligence allows.
Anyone who has been forced by ignorance to enter the material world may be
purified of material life if he offers prayers to the Lord and hears the
Lord’s glories.” (SB 7.9.12)

By sadhana, by sravanam kirtanam visnoh smaranam–especially by
smaranam–Prahlada achieved perfection. When Prahlada was being tortured by
his father, he had no chance to hear and chant or worship the Lord. But he
remembered the Lord always. And thus it is said that Prahlada achieved
success by smaranam. Sri-visnoh sravane pariksid abhavad vaiyasakih kirtane
prahladah smarane, krsnaptir esam para: “Pariksit Maharaja attained the
highest perfection, shelter at Lord Krsna’s lotus feet, simply by hearing,
and Sukadeva Gosvami attained perfection simply by chanting. Prahlada
Maharaja attained perfection by remembering the Lord.”
(Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.265)

Prahlada set a perfect example of Krsna consciousness. He showed and taught
us how to serve the Lord under the guidance of the Lord’s pure devotees. We
pray that we may serve Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu under the guidance of
Srila Prabhupada and his paramapara, without material motives, and thus
please the Lord and His pure devotees. By their mercy, param vijayate
sri-krsna-sankirtanam: “Let there be all victory for the chanting of the
holy name of Lord Krsna.”

Thank you very much. Hare Krsna.

Nrsimha Bhagavan ki jaya!
Prahlada Maharaja ki jaya!
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki jaya!
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Gaura-bhakta-vrnda ki jaya!

Tagged: Giriraj Swami, Nrsimha-caturdasi

Tagged: cow protection, cows, goshalla, india, vrindavan

Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. - Mathew 22: 36-37The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be

Dear devotees.

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

We were on travelling sankirtana in a small town nearby Helsinki. Before beginning a day I always chant one round extra. After chanting I saw a fat lady walking on the street.

I opened the conversation by saying: ÒDear Madam, we are looking for aristocratic people in this town today. I must say you look exactly like the Queen.Ó (This is one of the mantras I use while distributing Teachings of Queen Kunti.)

To my surprise she replied: ÒHow did you know I am related to the Queen. My son was elected the Drag Queen if Finland 2008.Ó

I put two books (TQK and Caitanya-caritamrta) in her hands. She accepted them and started telling the story of her life. I thought her life had a little semblance to that of Queen Kunti, i.e. she had gone through many difficulties, and she was raising her children alone. She mainly spoke about the special children she had.

Her elder son was the Drag Queen, a man who dresses as a woman. He was a regular face in the TV, in charge of a late-night music program. He was earning nicely (over 100 an hour by doing that job).

Her younger son was just ten years. He had some neurological disease called the Asperger syndrome. This means he is very introverted, but still very intelligent. She told every now and then her son would become interested about something and become totally absorbed in it. In my heart I was praying to Krsna he would some day become interested about Krsna consciousness in this way.

She was an extremely softhearted lady and eventually she took both the books, although she had very little money.

Later that day she had phoned the temple. She was in happy moods and said she had already read some of the books. She was wondering how on earth I could have known she was related to the Queen. She asked whether our monks have mystic powers. Our temple president Tattvavada Prabhu replied it is not something mystical. It is a matter of understanding oneÕs relationship with God. When we know our relationship with Krsna, we can also know something about the other living entities as well.

Your servant, Avadhutacandra das (Text D:562199) --------------------------------------------

------- End of Forwarded Message ------

In his purport to "nitai-pada-kamala" by Narottama Dasa Thakura, Srila Prabhupada tells us, "Without being eternal, nobody can serve the eternal. That is the Vedic injunction. Without becoming Brahman, one cannot approach the Supreme Brahman. Just like without being fire, nobody can enter into the fire. Without being water, nobody can enter into the water. Similarly, without being fully spiritualized, nobody can enter into the spiritual kingdom. If you catch the lotus feet of Nityananda, then you become immediately spiritualized.

read more

Lovers of maple syrup beware: "The trees were also given one fourth of the sinful reactions, and therefore they drip sap, which is prohibited for drinking." (Summary to Srimad Bhagavatam sixth canto, ninth chapter). And, "In return for Indra's benediction that their branches and twigs would grow back when trimmed, the trees accepted one fourth of the reactions for killing a brahmana. These reactions are visible in the flowing of sap from trees. [Therefore one is forbidden to drink this sap.]" (Srimad Bhagavatam 6.9.8).

1969 May 8: "You should try for the church by all means, and if need be I shall see that the funds will be loaned to you. Such a nice church will be a tremendous boon to our propaganda activities."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969

1969 May 8: "Regarding your future, Krishna will save you; don't bother yourself about it. There is great possibility of pushing our movement there, so it is a great advantage for you to be there."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969

1969 May 8: "If anyone faces difficulties, it is considered as blessings, because without tapasya nobody can realize the Transcendence."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969

1970 May 8: "I am pleased how you are carrying out our Sankirtana program amidst the demonstrations. This Sankirtana Movement is most practical and authorized."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1973 May 8: "Preach Krsna Consciousness very strongly. The modern scientists are confusing everyone with their false propaganda and it is our duty to expose them and kill the demoniac tendency to forget Krsna."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1973

1973 May 8: "If we can construct a temple and building without permission of the landlord that will be our greatest triumph. If such a law is inaugurated then it is to be supposed that it is Krsna's plan."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1973

1974 May 8: "Therefore this rumor is completely bogus. Whoever told you that is a rascal, saying it in my name. I never said that."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1974 May 8: "This sankirtana movement will expand and continue so long we are sincere. There is no question of it stopping. There is no cessation. This movement is eternal."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1969 May 8: "You should try for the church by all means, and if need be I shall see that the funds will be loaned to you. Such a nice church will be a tremendous boon to our propaganda activities."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969

1969 May 8: "If anyone faces difficulties, it is considered as blessings, because without tapasya nobody can realize the Transcendence."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969

1969 May 8: "Regarding your future, Krishna will save you; don't bother yourself about it. There is great possibility of pushing our movement there, so it is a great advantage for you to be there."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969

1970 May 8: "I am pleased how you are carrying out our Sankirtana program amidst the demonstrations. This Sankirtana Movement is most practical and authorized."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1973 May 8: "Preach Krsna Consciousness very strongly. The modern scientists are confusing everyone with their false propaganda and it is our duty to expose them and kill the demoniac tendency to forget Krsna."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1973

1973 May 8: "If we can construct a temple and building without permission of the landlord that will be our greatest triumph. If such a law is inaugurated then it is to be supposed that it is Krsna's plan."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1973

1974 May 8: "This sankirtana movement will expand and continue so long we are sincere. There is no question of it stopping. There is no cessation. This movement is eternal."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1974 May 8: "Therefore this rumor is completely bogus. Whoever told you that is a rascal, saying it in my name. I never said that."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

From the Think Again blog by Stanley Fish from the New York Times

In the opening sentence of the last chapter of his new book, “Reason, Faith and Revolution,” the British critic Terry Eagleton asks, “Why are the most unlikely people, including myself, suddenly talking about God?” His answer, elaborated in prose that is alternately witty, scabrous and angry, is that the other candidates for guidance — science, reason, liberalism, capitalism — just don’t deliver what is ultimately needed. “What other symbolic form,” he queries, “has managed to forge such direct links between the most universal and absolute of truths and the everyday practices of countless millions of men and women?”

Eagleton acknowledges that the links forged are not always benign — many terrible things have been done in religion’s name — but at least religion is trying for something more than local satisfactions, for its “subject is nothing less than the nature and destiny of humanity itself, in relation to what it takes to be its transcendent source of life.” And it is only that great subject, and the aspirations it generates, that can lead, Eagleton insists, to “a radical transformation of what we say and do.”

The other projects, he concedes, provide various comforts and pleasures, but they are finally superficial and tend to the perpetuation of the status quo rather than to meaningful change: “A society of packaged fulfillment, administered desire, managerialized politics and consumerist economics is unlikely to cut to the depth where theological questions can ever be properly raised.”

By theological questions, Eagleton means questions like, “Why is there anything in the first place?”, “Why what we do have is actually intelligible to us?” and “Where do our notions of explanation, regularity and intelligibility come from?”

The fact that science, liberal rationalism and economic calculation can not ask — never mind answer — such questions should not be held against them, for that is not what they do.

And, conversely, the fact that religion and theology cannot provide a technology for explaining how the material world works should not be held against them, either, for that is not what they do. When Christopher Hitchens declares that given the emergence of “the telescope and the microscope” religion “no longer offers an explanation of anything important,” Eagleton replies, “But Christianity was never meant to be an explanation of anything in the first place. It’s rather like saying that thanks to the electric toaster we can forget about Chekhov.”

Eagleton likes this turn of speech, and he has recourse to it often when making the same point: “[B]elieving that religion is a botched attempt to explain the world . . . is like seeing ballet as a botched attempt to run for a bus.” Running for a bus is a focused empirical act and the steps you take are instrumental to its end. The positions one assumes in ballet have no such end; they are after something else, and that something doesn’t yield to the usual forms of measurement. Religion, Eagleton is saying, is like ballet (and Chekhov); it’s after something else.

After what? Eagleton, of course, does not tell us, except in the most general terms: “The coming kingdom of God, a condition of justice, fellowship, and self-fulfillment far beyond anything that might normally be considered possible or even desirable in the more well-heeled quarters of Oxford and Washington.” Such a condition would not be desirable in Oxford and Washington because, according to Eagleton, the inhabitants of those places are complacently in bondage to the false idols of wealth, power and progress. That is, they feel little of the tragedy and pain of the human condition, but instead “adopt some bright-eyed superstition such as the dream of untrammeled human progress” and put their baseless “trust in the efficacy of a spot of social engineering here and a dose of liberal enlightenment there.”

Progress, liberalism and enlightenment — these are the watchwords of those, like Hitchens, who believe that in a modern world, religion has nothing to offer us. Don’t we discover cures for diseases every day? Doesn’t technology continually extend our powers and offer the promise of mastering nature? Who needs an outmoded, left-over medieval superstition?

Eagleton punctures the complacency of these questions when he turns the tables and applies the label of “superstition” to the idea of progress. It is a superstition — an idol or “a belief not logically related to a course of events” (American Heritage Dictionary) — because it is blind to what is now done in its name: “The language of enlightenment has been hijacked in the name of corporate greed, the police state, a politically compromised science, and a permanent war economy,” all in the service, Eagleton contends, of an empty suburbanism that produces ever more things without any care as to whether or not the things produced have true value.

And as for the vaunted triumph of liberalism, what about “the misery wreaked by racism and sexism, the sordid history of colonialism and imperialism, the generation of poverty and famine”? Only by ignoring all this and much more can the claim of human progress at the end of history be maintained: “If ever there was a pious myth and a piece of credulous superstition, it is the liberal-rationalist belief that, a few hiccups apart, we are all steadily en route to a finer world.”

That kind of belief will have little use for a creed that has at its center “one who spoke up for love and justice and was done to death for his pains.” No wonder “Ditchkins” — Eagleton’s contemptuous amalgam of Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, perhaps with a sidelong glance at Luke 6:39, “Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch?” — seems incapable of responding to “the kind of commitment made manifest by a human being at the end of his tether, foundering in darkness, pain, and bewilderment, who nevertheless remains faithful to the promise of a transformative love.”

You won’t be interested in any such promise, you won’t see the point of clinging to it, if you think that “apart from the odd, stubbornly lingering spot of barbarism here and there, history on the whole is still steadily on the up,” if you think that “not only is the salvation of the human species possible but that contrary to all we read in the newspapers, it has in principle already taken place.” How, Eagleton asks, can a civilization “which regards itself as pretty well self-sufficient” see any point in or need of “faith or hope”?

“Self-sufficient” gets to the heart of what Eagleton sees as wrong with the “brittle triumphalism” of liberal rationalism and its ideology of science. From the perspective of a theistic religion, the cardinal error is the claim of the creature to be “self-originating”: “Self-authorship,” Eagleton proclaims, “is the bourgeois fantasy par excellence,” and he could have cited in support the words of that great bourgeois villain, Milton’s Satan, who, upon being reminded that he was created by another, retorts , “[W]ho saw/ When this creation was…?/ We know no time when we were not as now/Know none before us, self-begot, self-raised” (Paradise Lost, V, 856-860).That is, we created ourselves (although how there can be agency before there is being and therefore an agent is not explained), and if we are able to do that, why can’t we just keep on going and pull progress and eventual perfection out of our own entrails?

That is where science and reason come in. Science, says Eagleton, “does not start far back enough”; it can run its operations, but it can’t tell you what they ultimately mean or provide a corrective to its own excesses. Likewise, reason is “too skin deep a creed to tackle what is at stake”; its laws — the laws of entailment and evidence — cannot get going without some substantive proposition from which they proceed but which they cannot contain; reason is a non-starter in the absence of an a prior specification of what is real and important, and where is that going to come from? Only from some kind of faith.

“Ditchkins,” Eagleton observes, cannot ground his belief “in the value of individual freedom” in scientific observation. It is for him an article of faith, and once in place, it generates facts and reasons and judgments of right and wrong. “Faith and knowledge,” Eagleton concludes, are not antithetical but “interwoven.” You can’t have one without the other, despite the Satanic claim that you can go it alone by applying your own independent intellect to an unmediated reality: “All reasoning is conducted within the ambit of some sort of faith, attraction, inclination, orientation, predisposition, or prior commitment.” Meaning, value and truth are not “reducible to the facts themselves, in the sense of being ineluctably motivated by a bare account of them.” Which is to say that there is no such thing as a bare account of them. (Here, as many have noted, is where religion and postmodernism meet.)

If this is so, the basis for what Eagleton calls “the rejection of religion on the cheap” by contrasting its unsupported (except by faith) assertions with the scientifically grounded assertions of atheism collapses; and we are where we always were, confronted with a choice between a flawed but aspiring religious faith or a spectacularly hubristic faith in the power of unaided reason and a progress that has no content but, like the capitalism it reflects and extends, just makes its valueless way into every nook and cranny.

For Eagleton the choice is obvious, although he does not have complete faith in the faith he prefers. “There are no guarantees,” he concedes that a “transfigured future will ever be born.” But we can be sure that it will never be born, he says in his last sentence, “if liberal dogmatists, doctrinaire flag-wavers for Progress, and Islamophobic intellectuals . . . continue to stand in its way.”

One more point. The book starts out witty and then gets angrier and angrier. (There is the possibility, of course, that the later chapters were written first; I’m just talking about the temporal experience of reading it.) I spent some time trying to figure out why the anger was there and I came up with two explanations.

One is given by Eagleton, and it is personal. Christianity may or may not be the faith he holds to (he doesn’t tell us), but he speaks, he says, “partly in defense of my own forbearers, against the charge that the creed to which they dedicated their lives is worthless and void.”

The other source of his anger is implied but never quite made explicit. He is angry, I think, at having to expend so much mental and emotional energy refuting the shallow arguments of school-yard atheists like Hitchens and Dawkins. I know just how he feels.

Amala Kirtan singing a bhajan at the start of Jayapataka Swami's Vyas Puja celebration.

Dallas, TX
2009-04-05

Download: 2009-04-05 - Jayapataka Swami Vyas Puja - 1 - Bhajan by Amala Kirtan.mp3

Caru Das gave this opening prayer at the National Day of Prayer services, held at the historic Provo Tabernacle, coincidentally on the Day of Narsimha Caturdasi. At the end the crowd very nicely chanted with him, "Om Shantihi, Shantihi Shantihi."

There’s nothing to say except, “Please help me.” Other than that, I’m saying to myself, “Here are some ideas on how to help yourself.” And I’m saying, “Here are some obstacles.”...."Bhajana Kutir #63

This is a small but grainy clip of my spiritual master, it’s one I watch most and helps inspire me when I’m struggling: HH Devamrita Swamu Also included is this nice thought on identity: identity HH Devamrita Swami Just thought I would share it

Gaura Purnima, Hungary

Please take darshan of Sri Nrsimhadeva in Mayapur. We have posted today’s darshan pictures here. Sri Nrsimha Maha Abhisheka will be telecasted LIVE from 4 p.m. onwards at www.mayapur.tv. Stay connected to join the devotees in Mayapur celebrating the appearance day of Sri Nrsimhadeva. There was also a pleasant surprise in Sri Radha-Madhava altar.In Sri Sri Radha-Madhava altar, Gurukulis have made an ornate pillar and there was a beautiful form of Nrsimhadeva appearing on the pillar.

read more

Although falling on a Thursday evening, Nrsimha Caturdasi celebrations at Toronto's Hare Krishna Temple brought over 100 devotees as an evening dazzled with kirtan, class and ancient tradition awaited all.
View Photo Gallery of Festival Below:

A Croatian bakery has a unique way of keeping away burglars - Chuck Norris.

The bakery suffered from regular break-ins until it put up a life-sized photo of the Hollywood tough-guy, well-known for B-movie action classics like Delta Force and Invasion USA, news.com.au reported.

The photo also has a sign, saying the shop is "under the protection of Chuck Norris".

Since putting up the photo one month ago, the bakery in the city of Split has had no burglaries.

A sales assistant at the bakery said the Chuck Norris photo started as a joke but "people seem to respect him", news.com.au reported.

"Thieves haven't been anywhere near us for ages."

Burglars aren't the only ones fooled either - several customers have asked whether they can get Norris' autograph, the assistant told media.

"They really believe he is sitting in our storeroom out the back ready to pounce on any burglars."

via Stuff.co.nz

On the Auspicious Appearance Day of Lord Nrsimhadeva, we are happy to inform you that our little weblog is changing into a full website! Due to the suggestions and encouragement of many of you out there we have, by your mercy, managed to open the following website:

Every morning is most Hare Krishna temples, we sing the Nrsmha Prayers (Nri-sim-ha). The bhajan is pretty mellow usually, but I came across a wonderful version of it awhile back. It’s done by Visnujana Swami and was recorded in the mid 70’s.

Here are the lyrics and the translation:

namas te narasimhaya
prahladahlada-dayine
hiranyakasipor vaksah-
sila-tanka-nakhalaye

I offer my obeisances to Lord Narasimha who gives joy to Prahlada Maharaja
and whose nails are like chisels on the stonelike chest of the demon Hiranyakasipu.

ito nrsimhah parato nrsimho
yato yato yami tato nrsimhah
bahir nrsimho hrdaye nrsimho
nrsimham adim saranam prapadye

Lord Nrsimha is here and also there. Wherever I go Lord Nrsimha is there.
He is in the heart and is outside as well. I surrender to Lord Nrsimha,
the origin of all things and the supreme refuge.

tava kara-kamala-vare nakham adbhuta-srngam
dalita-hiranyakasipu-tanu-bhrngam
kesava dhrta-narahari-rupa jaya jagadisa hare

O Kesava! O Lord of the universe!
O Lord Hari, who have assumed the form of half-man, half-lion!
All glories to You! Just as one can easily crush a wasp between one’s fingernails,
so in the same way the body of the wasplike demon Hiranyakasipu has been ripped apart
by the wonderful pointed nails on Your beautiful lotus hands.

And here is the song:

From KT-08

Suddha Bhakata by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur

Srimad Bhagavatam 7.4.36 - Krsna came as Lord Nrsimhadev because He likes a good fight.

When Insults Had Class

The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor: She said, "If you were my husband I'd give you poison." He said, "If you were my wife, I'd drink it."

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease." "That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

"He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." Clarence Darrow

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." - Oscar Wilde

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend.... if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one." - Winston Churchill, in response.

"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop

"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." - Irvin S. Cobb

"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson

"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." - Charles, Count Talleyrand

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker

"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination.." - Andrew Lang

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx

May 7, 3:00 A.M.

Last night I fell back into my sleep and wake mode, having dreams and waking up in the middle of the night. I finally got up at 3:00 A.M. I began my japa as soon as possible.

When Baladeva came up at 5:00 A.M., I had only finished four rounds, due to drowsiness. It was pouring rain and winy outside, so we decided not to go to the beach. I went back to bed and slept. Today we’re going to Mahahari’s to celebrate Lord Nrsimhadeva’s appearance day. I’m worried whether I’ll have time to do my japa and writing before we go there.

From Forgetting the Audience (1993): “Soon we'll be living in the van again and not spread luxuriously through two rooms. And without the feeling of physical security I get living and sleeping in houses. Staying parked at a temple is more secure, but then P-rest stops on the highway. . . It’s coming up, so get ready for it. I can’t expect the peace and ease of my present routine. See the good and advantage in what I’ll be doing.

“Write and be detached, even if something gets lost. Be prepared. In his list of most essentials, Jack Kerouac has ‘accept loss forever.’ We don’t lose because any service done for Krishna never suffers loss or diminution. So I request that you always write in devotional service. Don’t get carried away with the concept or identity of yourself as a writer, but always a devotee who is writing.”

9:00 A.M.

“Focus on Sanity.” Oh! This is Ornette Coleman on plastic alto sax and Don Cherry on toy trumpet. Charlie Haden plays bass and Billy Higgins is on drums. This is the early 1960s. What is the connection to Krishna? They are avant-garde. It was very beautiful, exciting music, a wonderful time when they appeared on the scene. Just like when Swamiji came to New York City. Coleman departed from so many standard elements of jazz that some people couldn’t understand him, but many people know he was the new cutting edge. What is the connectio to Krishna? Focus on sanity. Swami spoke from the floor, and then from an improvised vyasasana and told us to focus on sanity. Who is crazy? The man who thinks that this material body will last forever and that he is meant to enjoy it—he is crazy. Ornette Coleman neighing like a horse is not crazy. He knows what he’s doing. He’s telling us it’s the spirit soul, not the body. It’s not the cover but the soul within. They are saying we are crazy, and we are saying they are crazy. So you have to go to the judge. The judge is Lord Caitanya. That’s how Prabhupada expressed it in a lecture. This is nice music. You can relax to it and at the same time know you’re being taken into outer space. Just don’t resist it. Swamiji came into a place of madness. Chips of glass sprinkled on the sidewalks, Bowery bums bumping into passersby, sitting on his front steps. His own “students” asking if a red light appeared when we offered food to Krishna. He said it’s Krishna, there’s no need for a red light. Focus on sanity.

“Chronology.” Everything comes in a chronological order. First came the invitation to go to America. Then came the P form, then came the passport, then came the free ticket from Mrs. Murarji. Then came the actual trip and the heart attacks, the arrival in New York, the transfer to Pennsylvania, back to New York, down to the Bowery, 26 Second Ave. That’s the chronology. Don Cherry on a toy trumpet. Imagine. This was the chronology of jazz from the early days of Louis Armstrong up to Don Cherry. He plays such nice riffs. Charlie Haden, solid behind him. Solid, and yet esoteric. Jazz has its chronology, and the Ornette Coleman Quartet is part of it. And that little storefront, which anyone hardly noticed and which still had the “Matchless Gifts” sign over it, but now it had arrived in New York City and the “new religion” that gets you higher than LSD had arrived. No more coming down. The Swami is in New York, 1966. He went on to San Francisco in 1967. Even more chronology, even more avant-garde, and Ornette Coleman would continue to play. Ornette Coleman is a product of all those who went before him, including Charlie Parker, and yet he emerges on his own, like a chick out of the egg. But it’s chronology, jazz history. And Prabhupada comes from Lord Caitanya, the Six Goswamis, Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, Krsnadasa Kaviraja, Jagannatha dasa Babaji, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura—they come in chronology. It’s called parampara, with no change in the message, and yet it is change. It’s old wine in new bottles. Prabhupada is a new bottle, relaxed among the hippies. Some of the jazz musicians even started to play the Hare Krishna mantra tune in their riffs. We were very welcome there.

“Peace.” Ah, and didn’t we want peace? We pretended we wanted madness, LSD madness—jumping out windows, winding up in hospitals. Not just one person but many. Crazy cases all over New York City. An increase in LSD crazies. People were unhappy. Running in the streets, uptown gangs. The Swami brought peace. You don’t have to run around so crazily, looking for happiness, looking out there, trying to agitate your mind and your consciousness, as if that would bring spirituality. Just relax and chant Hare Krishna. The big red beads from Tandy’s bead store strung with a knot in between each bead, 108 beads. Swamiji chants on them and you’re initiated. Sixteen rounds a day brings peace. You don’t have to worry about your coworkers at the welfare office. You’re apart from them now. You’re not entangled in their agitation when they go on strike. You have peace in your chest. Ornette plays peacefully. Strange tunes. He’s offbeat, onbeat, new music. Things have progressed to such a stage now that Ornette could play in a kirtana group. People listen to him, open-eyed and open-mouthed. They’ve never heard such sounds before. This is something new, like the kirtanas in the storefront. They make you feel peaceful. Don Cherry sounds a little lonely out there by himself, but he’s actually at peace. He’s playing with his group. They’re just quiet for now, giving him a chance to play. Everyone likes their own turn. Let me hear your peace, brother, and then I’ll play you mine. Charlie Haden ends it by bowing the bass.

“Congeniality.” There were good feelings among the young Americans on the Lower East Side. Swami’s little band, and Swami himself. They liked him, the old spiritual master. He didn’t seem old, though, he was so virile and powerful. People came to see him and talk with him. When we went into the park, we were received congenially. Even Allan Ginsberg came and sang with us. We weren’t so congenial with the Puerto Ricans or the Ukrainians in the neighborhood. There was no violence. Congeniality among the twelve members of the Hare Krishna movement. Some little disagreements, but we had the basic cause of Swamiji, and that made us get along. And you felt congenial with the whole universe. The buildings used to intimidate you. They were so tall and so close-knit, surrounding you. The Empire State, New York City. But now it didn’t seem so threatening. Even the Bowery bums—everything seemed congenial. The universe was congenial because of the Hare Krishna mantra and what Swamiji was teaching. A congenial world. He said it could be like that if we just followed Krishna and the Bhagavad-gita. Peace for everyone. Focus on sanity. Don Cherry is a friend. There’s definitely congeniality among the members of Ornette Coleman’s group. They used to live and eat together. They were the best of friends, making their own music. They even called one of their albums, This Is Our Music. They had a congenial message for the world, just as Swamiji did.

“Lonely Woman.” This is a crying song. It reminds you of Srimati Radharani crying out for the absent Krishna. Ornette cries on his horn. The lonely woman has no one in the world to turn to. She cries tears down her face. She’s restless and doesn’t know what to do with herself. At least Srimati Radharani had lots of sakhis to console Her. But they couldn’t reach Her, not Her loneliness, and She cried out, “Where has Krishna gone? When will He come back? He promised He will return. Will He ever return? Will I ever feel the touch of His aguru-scented hand again?” Ornette’s horn sounds like a woman in distress. Don Cherry cries with him, and Charlie Haden rounds out the Greek chorus. Despite the sadness, it’s a lovely tune. Going into the upper registers for cries, and down to lower registers for sighs.

Laksmi Nrisimha at Satsvarupa Maharaja's ashrama. Photo: Nrsimha-caturdasi 2009

10:30 A.M.

My Dear Lord Krishna...

Today we are celebrating the appearance day of Yourself in the form of the half-lion, half-man Deity, Nrsimhadeva. You appear in this form to kill the demon Hiranyakasipu and protect You devotee Prahlada. We recently read in the Brhad-Bhagavatamrta that Hanuman declared that Prahlada Maharaja was the supreme object of Your mercy. But when Narada went to see Prahlada, he denied that he was the greatest object of Your mercy. He said he never gets to see You except for the occasion when you come to save him. He recommended to Narada that Yudhisthira and the Pandavas were greater devotees than he was. Narada went to see the Pandavas, but they denied that they were the greatest objects of Your mercy. Yudhisthira said You never come to see him now that he is established on the throne. He said the real object of Your mercy were the Yadus, who live with You in Dvaraka. He said You stay with them constantly and enjoy with them as a loving family member. Their whole lives are focused on their daily meetings with You. This is as far as we have read in the Brhad-Bhagavatamrta, but I read it years ago and vaguely remember the rest of the story. When Narada goes to visit the Yadus, he meets the best of them, Sri Uddhava. You once sent Sri Uddhava to Vrndavana to give the gopis solace in Your absence. Uddhava was astonished at the high level of prema that the gopis held for You, and he considered his own devotion nothing compared to the love in separation, vipralambha, exhibited by the cowherd girls in Goloka. Uddhava prayed that in a future birth, he might be born as a plant or blade of grass in Vrndavana so that the gopis might by chance step on him and brush him with their lotus foot dust. Thus, the conclusion of Volume I of Brhad-Bhagavatamrta is that the gopis are the greatest objects of Your mercy.

I like this conclusion because for me, my favorite form is Your form as Govinda, the cowherd boy and lover of the gopis. This is not just my opinion. It is the opinion of Sanatana Goswami and all the other Gaudiya Vaisnava acharyas, including their Lord, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. As Govinda or Gopal, carrying a flute in Your two hands, You are the most attractive form of Godhead. You share the greatest form of intimacy with Your devotees, and they reciprocate with You by giving You the greatest pleasure of all Your bhaktas. Nrsimhadeva is Your expansion and a lila avatara and, unlike Hiranyakasipu, many worshippers find Him handsome, heroic and kind. He demostrates Your greatest quality, bhakta-vatsala, Your kindness and protection You show to Your devotees. Devotees pray to Lord Nrsimhadeva for the removal of anarthas from their heart. Today, Baladeva is going to bathe his Nrsimha Deity and decorate Him with His best paraphernalia. Because of my shoulder, I cannot bathe Radha-Govinda, but Baladeva will bathe Them, and we will dress Them in new outfits giving by Surabhi dasi. You, Govinda, are my istha-devata, my favorite Deity, and even on Nrsimhadeva’s appearance day, we want to give You a special bath. I like Your charming, slender, three-bending form. You are the Deity I hope to join in the spiritual world in one of these lifetimes. Your play with the gopis is considered by Lord Caitanya to be the highest form of worship. Your mixing with all of the residents of Vrndavana is your topmost expression of love. The Vrajabhasis are Your favorite devotees, and their land is Your favorite land. I pray to You that I may gain attraction to bhauma Vrndavana and that when I am not there, I may constantly think of Goloka Vrndavana and Your pastimes. My spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, has directed me toward this goal and to live with You and dance with You in Vraja. I am fortunate that he has allowed me to worship Your Deity forms of Radha-Govinda, and I look forward to seeing Them every day in new dresses and ornaments. I pray that my heart may become a suitable throne for Radha-Govinda and that I can meditate on You in my heart as well as in Your Deity form. And when I chant the Hare Krishna mantra, I want to join with Radha-Govinda—Hare Krishna—begging them, “Please let me serve You.”

I know I am speaking words of high aspiration beyond my actual state of realization. But I trust you will accept these aspirations as my hopes for actual realization some day. Even today, I can honestly say that I find Your form most attractive, and that I worship You as God in this way. Now let us sing the prayers to Nrsimhadeva, never forgetting that He is Your expansion and that You are the original form of the avataras of Godhead. Krsnas tu bhagavan svayam. Govindam adi purusam tam aham bhajami. I worship Govinda, who is the Supreme Enjoyer. May You one day accept me as Your intimate servant in the blessed land of Vraja.

the yellow submarine, my bhajana kutir #64→

By Hari-sauri dasa

An exciting new ISKCON project is taking birth in Kolkata, the city of Srila Prabhupada’s birth. The location is four-story building in the heart of Kolkata.

Hari-sauri dasa: The Bhaktivedanta Research Centre (BRC) situated at 110A Motilal Nehru Road, Kolkata 700029 is seeking a creative and enthusiastic librarian.

The following is a lecture given by H.H. Bhakti Charu Swami on 7 May 2009 in Towaco, USA.

To download the lecture, right click on the download link and choose either “Save link as” or “Save target as”

The following is a lecture given by H.H. Bhakti Charu Swami on 7 May 2009 in Towaco, USA. To download the lecture, right click on the download link and choose either ldquo;Save link asrdquo; or ldquo;Save target asrdquo;

The following is a Śrīmad Bhāgavatam class given by H.H. Bhakti Charu Swami on 6 May 2009 at Towaca, USA.

To download the lecture, right click on the download link and choose either “Save link as” or “Save target as”

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.2.35 - Chapter 2: Prayers by the Demigods for Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Womb

The following is a Śrīmad Bhāgavatam class given by H.H. Bhakti Charu Swami on 6 May 2009 at Towaca, USA. To download the lecture, right click on the download link and choose either ldquo;Save link asrdquo; or ldquo;Save target asrdquo; Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.2.35 - Chapter 2: Prayers by the Demigods for Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Womb

The following is the second speech H.H. Bhakti Charu Swami gave at the United Nations Headquarters, New York City, NY, USA for the Panel Discussion on “Forgiveness: a pathway to human transformation”.

The following is the second speech H.H. Bhakti Charu Swami gave at the United Nations Headquarters, New York City, NY, USA for the Panel Discussion on ldquo;Forgiveness: a pathway to human transformationrdquo;.

In this material world, to render service to the lotus feet of Govinda, the cause of all causes, and to see Him everywhere, is the only goal of life. This much alone is the ultimate goal of human life, as explained by all the revealed scriptures.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => SB 7.7.55

One of our distinguished teachers explains that there are three major temptations in this world – temptations that can allure anyone at any stage of their spiritual evolution. In Sanskrit they are termed kanaka, kamini & pratistha. In English, these translate to wealth, the opposite sex, and position & prestige. All negative qualities like anger, greed, envy, criticism, pride, harshness and so on, generally have their roots in one of these desires.

A modern day spiritualist, however, will find it incredibly difficult to refrain from interacting with these three things. It is difficult even within a spiritual community, what to speak of the day-to-day world. However, when we are dealing with matters of money, interacting with the opposite sex and exercising power, influence and control over others, there must be great vigilance and caution. The moment we develop a mood of exploitation and enjoyment of these things, at that time our spirituality is lost, and we descend again into the material realm. Thus, spiritual life is like a tight rope - one must tread very carefully.

It is not that as one advances on the spiritual path, one can feel more security from these allurements. As one’s tree of spirituality grows, the roots of humility, gratitude and feeling of spiritual dependence must also grow deep, lest the tree may extend so big that it topples over. The real spiritualist is not a shooting star, but a pole star. I force myself to reflect on this again and again as I make some feeble attempt to remain on this wonderful and exciting path of spirituality.

I first met Jeff Greene with John Kruth a little while back and we went out to a funky musical instrument store in the Village. There were instruments from all over the world hanging off the walls. When we saw Jeff again at the East West Living fundraiser he invited us over to his apartment to look at his own collection of musical instruments.

Ananta, Caitanya, Rasa and I. You wouldn’t believe it. He has instruments from all over the place - a hurdy gurdy, and a rubab, and a dutar, and a nickelharpa, tonic tamorbourine or something like that…man. Drums from all over. Frame drums and tambourines and kanjeeras and all kinds of stuff. The coolest thing is that Jeff can play them all really well. And his apartment is beautiful. What a fun thing to do on a Sunday afternoon.

Listen to some of the jam!

To listen, click on the links below then press play. To download, Right Click on the word “Download” and select “Save As…” from the menu. Having trouble downloading? Read our Help Section.

• Jeff Greene, Gaura Vani, Ananta Govinda, Caitanya Nitai - Jam (253)

Ila devi dasi: On the auspicious Appearance Day of Lord Nrsimhadeva we wish to announce the launching of the new official website of HH Mahavishnu Swami.

Sridevi dasi: His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami will be in New Talavana, MS, USA over the weekend from May 22nd until May 24th, 2009 and will offer a seminar on "Varnasrama."

Karunika dasi: In 2008, His Grace Sarvabhauma Prabhu was invited to Mauritius to speak on Rama Katha during the Sri Rama Nawmi celebrations at Hare Krishna Land, Phoenix.

Isvara dasa: It is our pleasure to announce the reprint of “The Uddhava Gita”. Our first print run of this great book, known simply as “The Book”, has long been exhausted, after the initial release.

Jeevanmukta Das: I picked up a deep concern that Srila Prabhupada had often voiced. The issue I am referring to is ‘science and its stealth battle against religion’ the same, which the BI was instituted to combat.

Antardwip das: Watch Nrsimha Chaturdasi live on www.mayapur.tv this Friday! Featuring extra live cameras, interviews with devotees, and much, much more!

Gour Gopal Das: All Glories to Srila Prabhupada! We at Varnasrama Media Productions (VMP) are happy to bring the copies of two documentaries: 1. 'Save Our Cows-Save Our Villages' and 2. 'Varnasrama Shikshalaya'

By Rita Gupta

The widely popular DVD series, “Memories of Srila Prabhupada,” now has three volumes, with an incredible total of 48 DVDs.

By Padmapani das

Mother Shyama Priya was obviously very devoted to Srila Prabhupada and his great mission of spreading Krishna Consciousness, especially in her chosen service to the ISKCON Prison Ministry.

By Omkara devi dasi

I feel very much blessed to have the shelter and ability to take darshan of Sri Sri Rukmini Dwarkadisha in New Dwaraka. I have lived in and outside of the temple community for over 33 years and throughout the years have had various spiritual realizations.