Planet ISKCON

Mukunda Charan das, SA: Billionaires And Supermodels

Mukunda Charan — 2009-06-22T17:02:54+00:00

Sankirtan, Sandton City Mall, Johannesburg

I was on the phone to Rupa this afternoon, finalizing our tickets to Cape Town, when I saw a familiar-looking face in the crowd. His was a serene, aristocratic face: a face of distinction.

It suddenly dawned on me who it was: Patrice Motsepe, one of the richest men in South Africa. In a somewhat exuberant mood, I half-forgot about my telephone conversation and called out, ‘Patrice!’. Trying to identify where the sound was coming from, Mr Motsepe finally recognized its source. I said something like, ‘We’re meeting all the celebrities in the Mall here today’, and he smiled. I was taken a little by his warmth.

I then resumed my conversation, but remembered that this was an opportune moment to connect with a powerful man. So, I caught up to him, shook hands, and gave him my card. ‘Please check out my web-sites’, I said. He did not seem fazed at this unusual encounter. I said to him, ‘I am a monk.’ He said, ‘This is special.’ He was most charming and very aristocratic. I offered pranams, and he returned the gesture.

Mr Motsepe, it was nice to meet you!

Manoj, Melbourne, AU: 144. Part 6: Weekend away with HG Bhurijan Prabhu

9days8nights — 2009-06-22T14:42:05+00:00

No…we are not yet done with this series on “Weekend away with HG Bhurijan prabhu”. Infact, I might have another 3-4 more posts on this. The last few days leading upto the weekend that went by, was too busy for me. I was tired and just couldn’t pen down anything. Excuses? Yup. Plenty of them. Anyways, here I am and let’s start with where we left off…

Part 6 : The children

The kirtan continues

In my last post, I mentioned about the beautiful kirtan, led by HG Bhurijan prabhu in which everyone participated so well. I was lost in it for a while. When I opened my eyes at some stage, I could see that many others were in a similar mood. When you see people with eyes closed, swaying about slowly, or have their hands folded in prayer or even tears, just about to drop, you know that the music is just wonderful. Another sign, is when kids are mesmerized that they forget to carry out their regulative principles of distracting parents and making noise ! It was so wonderful to see such young vaishnavas take Krishna Consiousness, so seriously and with so much happiness. What luck !

"I need a bigger one for more sound..."

“Children’s nature is to imitate, because they have to learn. So nature has given them the propensity to imitate. So the first imitation begins from the parents. So if the parent is nice Krsna devotee, naturally the children become devotees. That is the opportunity of taking birth in a Vaisnava family. So you are all Vaisnavas. If your children do not become Vaisnava in the future, then it is a great, I meant to say, fault on your part. So you should be very cautious, careful, that children are not going astray, they are becoming actually Krsna conscious. That means you have to imitate, er, you have to be devotee, and they will imitate. By imitation, imitation, imitation, they will come to Krsna consciousness. Then they will never give it up.”
- Srila Prabhupada

"After this, I need the harmonium!"

“Regarding the child problem: I may inform you that all children born of the Krishna conscious parents are welcome and I want hundreds of children like that. Because in future we expect to change the face of the whole world, because the child is the father of man.”
-Letter to Krishna devi dasi, August 21, 1968

"Can't wait to grow up to preach more!"

I am very glad to learn that the children at Gurukula school are making good progress in their Krishna Consciousness education, that is very good news. Yes, if we simply train them properly they will come out just to the highest standard of Vaisnava devotee. And what is that training? Simply they should be engaged in such a way that they are somehow or other remembering Krishna at every moment, that’s all. It is not something mechanical process, if we force in such a way they will come out like this, no. We are persons, and Krishna is a Person, and our relationship with Krishna He leaves open as a voluntary agreement always, and that voluntary attitude–Yes, Krishna, I shall gladly co-operate whatever you say–that ready willingness to obey is only possible if there is love. Forcing will not make me agree. But if there is love, oh, I shall gladly do it. That is bhakti, that is Krishna Consciousness. So similarly, if we train children by developing and encouraging their propensity to love Krishna, then we shall be successful in educating them to the topmost standard. Then they shall always very happily agree to do whatever you ask them. So I have heard that there as been some beating with sticks on the children. Of course I do not know, but that should not be. You may show the stick, threaten, but better art is to somehow or other, even by tricking them, avoid this matter of force and induce them to obey out of loving spirit. That is success of disciplinary method. Hoping this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.
Srila Prabhupada Letter to: Rupa Vilasa Hyderabad 18 November, 1972

"I think I understand what's going on..."

“It is very good news that Vishnu-arati is advancing nicely in Krishna consciousness and I know that you and your husband will always do your best to bring her up on the right path of Krishna consciousness. To raise one soul to Krishna consciousness is counted by Krishna as a very great service, so you do this duty very carefully and Krishna will certainly bestow His blessings upon you.”
ibid., November 2, 1969

"One day, I will be a big vaishnava!"

“Child-worship is more important than deity-worship. If you cannot spend time with him, then stop the duties of pujari. At least you must take good care of your son until he is four years old, and if after that time you are unable any more to take care of him then I shall take care. These children are given to us by Krishna, they are Vaishnavas and we must be very careful to protect them. These are not ordinary children, they are Vaikuntha children, and we are very fortunate we can give them chance to advance further in Krishna Consciousness. That is very great responsibility, do not neglect it or be confused.”
Letter to Arundhati dasa, July 30, 1972

"The Holy Name is so beautiful...."

“We require so many householders to set the example for others, how in Krishna consciousness we can live peacefully, even in married life. Also we require so many Krishna conscious children to show how nicely and beautifully a child can develop when he is following the principles of God consciousness.”
Letter to Upendra dasa, December 8, 1968

"Me again...I think I found a bigger one.."

Rupa Madhurya das, TX, USA: Rathayatra - Bhajan - Amala Kirtan das

Rupa Schomaker (rupa@rupa.com) — 2009-06-22T14:17:00+00:00

Amala Kirtan das singing bhajans on stage at Rathayatra.

Dallas, TX
2009-04-25

Download: 2009-04-25 - Rathayatra - 3 - Bhajans - Amala Kirtan.mp3

Japa Group: Poor Man Japa Diary

muniraja dasa (muniraja108@gmail.com) — 2009-06-22T13:23:54+00:00

Jaya Nitai-Gaura

Last two months have been bit of a downward period in chanting. There are various factors that I have tried to analyze:

For several years I had a habit that I didn't take any prasadam before finishing 16 rounds. Sometimes it is difficult to maintain, lately I was a pujari for a week and there was often 12 or 14 rounds to be done at 1pm. And then devotees should take prasadam together, it's not nice if someone disappears somewhere to chant while others honor prasadam.
These maybe valid reasons, but when I started to compromise chanting in the morning, basically always there were rounds left in the evening, and usually the chanting is not very first class in evening...

Anyhow, around two weeks back I firmly decided that I'm not gonna compromise my old good habits, no matter what and there is certainly positive change in my state of mind.
Another small realization came from our ashram renovations and maha-cleanings. If you keep your belongings simple and everything very clean, there is direct influence in our abitility to concentrate on chanting.

ys

Muniraja dasa

Gauranga Kishore das - USA: The Bhagavata: Its Philosophy, Its Ethics, and Its Theology

Gauranga Kishore Das (gaurangakishore@gmail.com) — 2009-06-22T12:42:54+00:00

The Bhagavata: Its Philosophy, Its Ethics, and Its Theology was written By Srila Bhaktivinode and delivered as a lecture to the most prestigious members of the cultural elite of his time in Bengal, which was at the time the headquarters of the British empire and a powerful center of religious and culture development. In this essay Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur makes a compelling case for Vaisnavism, he presents the essence of Vaisnavism and addresses many of the issues that the intellectuals of his time were grappling with. Although a few names are unfamiliar the basic presentation is as relevant as ever. It could have been prepared as a response to the religious critics of our time. In addition to being full of profound spiritual insight, like the Bhagavat itself, it reads like the most beautiful poetry.

The Bhagavata: Its Philosophy, Its Ethics, and Its Theology
By Kedarnath Dutta Bhaktivinode

"O Ye, who are deeply merged in the knowledge of the love of God and also in deep thought about it, constantly drink, even after your emancipation, the most tasteful juice of the Srimad- Bhagavatam, come on earth through Sukadeva Gosvami's
mouth carrying the liquid nectar out of the fallen and, as such, very ripe fruit of the Vedic tree which supplies all with their desired objects." (Srimad-BhŒgavatam, 1/1/3)

We love to read a book which we never read before. We are anxious to gather whatever information is contained in it and with such acquirement our curiosity stops. This mode of study prevails amongst a great number of readers, who are great men in their own estimation as well as in the estimation of those, who are of their own stamp. In fact, most readers are mere repositories of facts and statements made by other people. But this is not study. The student is to read the facts with a view to create, and not with the object of fruitless retention. Students like satellites should reflect whatever light they receive from authors and not imprison the facts and thoughts just as the Magistrates imprison the convicts in the jail! Thought is progressive. The author's thought must have progress in the reader in the shape of correction or development. He is the best critic, who can show the further development of an old thought; but a mere
denouncer is the enemy of progress and consequently of Nature. Begin anew, says the critic, because the old masonry does not answer at present. Let the old author be buried because his time is gone. These are shallow expressions. Progress certainly is the law of nature and there must be correction and developments with the progress of time. But progress means going further or rising higher. Now, if we are to follow our foolish critic, we are to go back to
our former terminus and make a new race, and when we have run half the race, another critic of his stamp will cry out: Begin anew, because the wrong road has been taken!Ó In this way our stupid critics will never allow us to go over the whole road and see what is in the other terminus. Thus the shallow critic and the fruitless reader are the two great enemies of progress. We must
shun them.

The true critic, on the other hand, advises us to preserve what we have already obtained, and to adjust our race from that point where we have arrived in the heat of our progress. He will never advise us to go back to the point whence we started, as he fully knows that in that case there will be a fruitless loss of our valuable time and labor. He will direct the adjustment of the angle of
the race at the point where we are. This is also the characteristic of the useful student. He will read an old author and will find out his exact position in the progress of thought. He will never propose to burn the book on the grounds that it contains thoughts which are useless. No thought is useless. Thoughts are means by which we attain out objects. The reader who denounces a bad
thought does not know that a bad road is even capable of improvement and conversion into a good one. One thought is a road leading to another. Thus the reader will find that one thought which is the object to-day will be the means of a further object to-morrow. Thoughts will necessarily continue to be an endless series of means and objects in the progresses of humanity. The great reformers will always assert that they have come out not to destroy the old law, but to fulfill it. Valmiki, Vyasa, Plato, Jesus, Mohammed, Confucius and Caitanya Mahaprabhu assert the fact either expressly or by their conduct.

The Bhagavata like all religious works and philosophical performances and writings of great men has suffered from the imprudent conduct of useless readers and stupid critics. The former have done so much injury to the work that they have surpassed the latter in their evil consequence. Men of brilliant thought have passed by the work in quest of truth and philosophy, but the
prejudice which they imbibed from its useless readers and their conduct, prevented them from making a candid investigation. Not to say of other people, the great genius of Raja Rammohun Roy, the founder of the sect of Brahmoism, did not think it worth his while to study this ornament of the religious library. He crossed the gate of the Vedanta, as set up by the mayavada
construction of the designing Sankaracarya, the chosen enemy of the Jains, and chalked his way out to the Unitarian form of the Christian faith, converted into an Indian appearance. Rammohun Roy was an able man. He could not be satisfied with the theory of illusion contained in the mayavada philosophy of Sankara. His heart was full of love to Nature. He saw through the eye of his mind that he could not believe in his identity with God. He ran furious from the bounds of Sankara to those of the Koran. There even he was not satisfied. He then studied the pre-eminently beautiful precepts and history of Jesus, first in the English translation and at last in the original Greek, and took shelter under the holy banners of the Jewish Reformer. But Rammohun Roy was also a patriot. He wanted to reform his country in the same way as he reformed himself. He knew it fully that truth does not belong exclusively to any individual man or to any nation of particular race. It belongs to God, and man whether in the poles or on the equator, has a right to claim it as the property of his Father. On these grounds he claimed the truths inculcated by the Western Savior as also the property of himself and his countrymen, and thus he established the samaja of the Brahmos independently of what was in his own country in the beautiful Bhagavata. His noble deeds will certainly procure him a high position in the history of reformers. But then, to speak the truth, he would have done more if he had commenced his work of reformation from the point where the last reformer in India left it. It is not our business to go further on this subject. Suffice it to say, that the Bhagavata did not attract the genius of
Rammohun Roy. His thought, mighty though it was, unfortunately branched like the Ranigunj line of the Railway, from the barren station of Sankaracarya, and did not attempt to be an extension from the Delhi Terminus of the great Bhagavata expounder of Nadia. We do not doubt that the progress of time will correct the error, and by a further extension the branch line will lose itself somewhere in the main line of progress. We expect these attempts in a abler
reformer of the followers of Rammohun Roy.

The Bhagavata has suffered alike from shallow critics both Indian and outlandish. That book has been accursed and denounced by a great number of our young countrymen, who have scarcely read its contents and pondered over the philosophy on which it is founded. It is owing mostly to their imbibing an unfounded prejudice against it when they were in school. The Bhagavata, as a
a matter of course, has been held in derision by those teachers, who are generally of an inferior mind and intellect. This prejudice is not easily shaken when the student grows up unless he candidly studies the book and ruminates on the doctrines of Vaishnavaism. We are ourselves witness of the fact. When we were in college, reading the philosophical works of the West and
exchanging thoughts with the thinkers of the day, we had a real hatred towards the Bhagavata. That great work looked like a repository of wicked and stupid ideas, scarcely adapted to the nineteenth century, and we hated to hear any arguments in its favor. With us then a volume of Channing, Parker, Emerson or Newman had more weight than the whole lots of Vaishnava works. Greedily we poured over the various commentations of the Holy Bible and of the labors of
the Tattwa Bodhini Sabha, containing extracts from the Upanisads and the Vedanta, but no work of the Vaishnavas had any favor with us. But when we advanced in age and our religious sentiment received development, we turned out in a manner Unitarian in our belief and prayed as Jesus prayed in the Garden. Accidentally, we fell in with a work about the Great Caitanya, and on reading it with some attention in order to settle the historical position of that Mighty Genius of Nadia, we had the opportunity of gathering His explanations of Bhagavata, given to the wrangling Vedantist of the Benares School. The accidental study created in us a love for all the works which we find about our Eastern Savior. We gathered with difficulties the famous karcŒs in Sanskrit, written by the disciples of Caitanya. The explanations that we got of the Bhagavata from these sources, were of such a charming character that we procured a copy of the Bhagavata complete and studied its texts (difficult of course to those who are not trained up in philosophical thoughts) with the assistance of the famous commentaries of ür”dhŒra SvŒm”. From such study it is that we have at least gathered the real doctrines of the Vaishnavas. Oh! What a
trouble to get rid of prejudices gathered in unripe years!

As far as we can understand, no enemy of Vaishnavaism will find any beauty in the BhŒgavata. The true critic is a generous judge, void of prejudices and party-spirit. One, who is at heart the follower of Mohammed will certainly find the doctrines of the New Testament to be a forgery by the fallen angel. A Trinitarian Christian, on the other hand, will denounce the precepts of
Mohammed as those of an ambitious reformer. The reason simply is, that the critic should be of the same disposition of mind as that of the author, whose merit he is required to judge. Thoughts have different ways. One, who is trained up in the thoughts of the Unitarian Society or of the Vedanta of the Benares School, will scarcely find piety in the faith the Vaishnavas. An
ignorant Vaishnava, on the other hand, whose business it is to beg from door to door in the name of NityŒnanda will find no piety in the Christian. This is because, the Vaishnava does not think in the way which the Christian thinks of his own religion. It may be, that both the Christian and the Vaishnava will utter the same sentiment, but they will never stop their fight with each other
only because they have arrived at their common conclusion by different ways of thoughts. Thus it is, that a great deal of ungenerousness enters into the arguments of the pious Christians when they pass their imperfect opinion on the religion of the Vaishnavas.

Subjects of philosophy and theology are like the peaks of large towering and inaccessible mountains standing in the midst of our planet inviting attention and investigation. Thinkers and men of deep speculation take their observations through the instruments of reason and consciousness. But they take different points when they carry on their work. These points are positions chalked out by the circumstances of their social and philosophical life, different
as they are in the different parts of the world. Plato looked at the peak of the Spiritual question from the West and Vyasa made the observation from the East; so Confucius did it from further East, and Schlegel, Spinoza, Kant, Goethe from further West. These observations were made at different times and by different means, but the conclusion is all the same in as much as the object of observation was one and the same. They all hunted after the Great Spirit, the unconditioned Soul of the Universe. They could not but get an insight into it. Their words and expressions are different, but their import is the same. They tried to find out the absolute religion and their labors were crowned with success, for God gives all that He has to His children if they want to have it. It requires a candid, generous, pious and holy heart to feel the beauties of their
conclusions. Party-spirit --- that great enemy of truth --- will always baffle the attempt of the inquirer, who tries to gather truth from religious works of their nations, and will make him believe that absolute truth is nowhere except in his old religious book. What better example could be adduced than the fact that the great philosopher of Benares will find no truth in the universal brotherhood of man and the common fatherhood of God? The philosopher, thinking in his own way of thought, can never see the beauty of the Christian faith. The way, in which Christ thought of his own father, was love absolute and so long as the philosopher will not adopt that way of thinking he will ever remain deprived of the absolute faith preached by the western Savior. In a similar manner the Christian needs adopt the way of thought which the Vedantist pursued, before he can love the conclusions of the philosopher. The critic, therefore, should
have a comprehensive, good, generous, candid, impartial and a sympathetic soul.

What sort of a thing is the Bhagavata, asks the European gentlemen newly arrived in India. His companion tells him with a serene look, that the Bhagavata is a book, which his Oriya bearer daily reads in the evening to a number of hearers. It contains a jargon of unintelligible and savage literature of those men who paint their noses with some sort of earth or sandal, and wear beads all over their bodies in order to procure salvation for themselves. Another of his companions, who has traveled a little in the interior, would immediately contradict him and say that the Bhagavata is a Sanskrit work claimed by a sect of men, the Goswamis, who give mantras, like the Pope of Italy, to the common people of Bengal, and pardon their sins on payment of gold enough to defray their social expenses. A third gentlemen will repeat a third explanation. Young Bengal, chained up in English thoughts and ideas, and wholly ignorant of the Pre-Mohammed history of his own country, will add one more explanation by saying that the Bhagavata is a book, containing an account of the life of Krishna, who was an ambitious and an immoral man! This is all that he could gather from his grandmother while yet he did not go to school! Thus the Great Bhagavata ever remains unknown to the foreigners like the elephant of the six blind who caught hold of the several parts of the body of the beast! But Truth is
eternal and is never injured but for a while by ignorance.

The Bhagavata itself tells us what it is:
nigama-kalpa-taror galitam phalaµ
suka-mukhat amrta-drava-saµyutam/
pibata bhŒgavataµ rasam Œlayaµ
muhur aho rasika bhuvi bhavukah//

It is the fruit of the tree of thought (Vedas) mixed with the nectar
of the speech of Sukadeva. It is the temple of spiritual love! O! Men
of Piety! Drink deep this nectar of BhŒgavata repeatedly till you are
taken from this mortal frame.

The Garuda-purana says, again:
granthoÕ§ a-da½a-sahasra-½r”mad-bhŒgavatŒbhidhŒ
sarva-vedetihŒsŒnŒµ sŒraµ sŒraµ samuddh¨taµ/
sarva-vedŒnta-sŒraµ hi ½r”-bhŒgavatam i½yate
tad rasŒm¨ta-triptasya nŒnyatra syŒd rati-kvacit//

The Bhagavata is composed of 18,000 slokas. It contains the best parts of the Vedas and the Vedanta. Whoever has tasted its sweet nectar, will never like to read any other religious book.

Every thoughtful reader will certainly repeat this eulogy. The Bhagavata is preeminently the Book in India. Once enter into it, and you are transplanted, as it were, into the spiritual world where gross matter has no existence. The true follower of the Bhagavata is a spiritual man who has already cut his temporary connection with phenomenal nature, and has made himself the inhabitant of that region where God eternally exists and loves. This mighty work is founded
upon inspiration and its superstructure is upon reflection. To the common reader it has no charms and is full of difficulty. We are, therefore, obliged to study it deeply through the assistance of such great commentators as Sridhar Svami and the divine Caitanya and His contemporary followers.

Now the great preacher of Nadia, who has been deified by His talented followers, tells us that the Bhagavata is founded upon the four slokas which Vyasa received from Narada, the most learned of the created beings. He tells us further that Brahma pierced through the whole universe of matter for years and years in quest of the final cause of the world but when he failed to find it
abroad, he looked into the construction of his own spiritual nature, and there he heard the Universal Spirit speaking unto him, the following words:

j–Œnaµ parama-guhyaµ me yad vij–Œna-samanvitam/
sarahasyaµ tad-a›gam ca g¨hŒna gaditaµ mayŒ//
yŒvŒn aham yathŒ-bhŒvo yad-rŸpa-guºa-karmakaú/
tathaiva tattva-vij–Œnam astu te mad-anugrahŒt//
aham evŒsam evŒgre nŒnyat yat sad-asat param/
pa½cad ahaµ yad etac ca yo Õva½i§yeta so Õsmy aham//
¨te Õrthaµ yat prat”yeta na prat”yeta cŒtmani/
tad vidyŒt Œtmano mŒyŒµ yathŒbhŒso yathŒ tamah//(BhŒg. 2/9/31-34)

Take, O Brahma! I am giving you the knowledge of my own self and of my relations and phases which is in itself difficult of access. You are a created being, so it is not easy for you to accept what I give you, but then I kindly give you the power to accept, so you are at liberty to understand my essence, my ideas, my form, my property and my action together with their various relations with imperfect knowledge. I was in the beginning before all spiritual
and temporal things were created, and after they have been created I am in them all in the shape of their existence and truthfulness, and when they will be all gone I shall remain full as I was and as I am. Whatever appears to be true without being a real fact itself, and whatever is not perceived though it is true in itself are subjects of my illusory energy of creation, such as, light and darkness in the material world.

It is difficult to explain the above in a short compass. You must read the whole Bhagavata for its explanation. When the great Vyasa had effected the arrangements of the Vedas and the Upanisads, the completion of the eighteen Puranas with facts gathered from the recorded and unrecorded tradition of ages, and the composition of the Vedanta and the large Mahabharata, an epic poem of great celebrity, he began to ruminate over his own theories and precepts, and
found like Fauste of Goethe that he had up to that time gathered no real truth. He fell back into his own self and searched his own spiritual nature and then it was that the above truth was communicated to him for his own good and the good of the world. The sage immediately perceived that his former works required supercession in as much as they did not contain the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In his new idea he got the development of his former idea
of religion. He commenced the BhŒgavata in pursuance of this change. From this fact, our readers are expected to find out the position which the Bhagavata enjoys in the library of Hindu theological works.

The whole of this incomparable work teaches us, according to our Great Caitanya, the three great truths which compose the absolute religion of man. Our Nadia preacher calls them sambandha, abhidheya and prayojana, i.e., the relation between the Creator and the created, the duty of man to God and the prospects of humanity. In these three words is summed up the whole ocean of human knowledge as far as it has been explored up to this era of human progress. These are the cardinal points of religion and the whole Bhagavata is, as we are taught by Caitanya, an explanation both by precepts and example, of these three great points.

In all its twelve skandhas or divisions the Bhagavata teaches us that there is only one God without a second, Who was full in Himself and is and will remain the same. Time and space, which prescribe conditions to created objects are much below His Supreme Spiritual nature, which is unconditioned and absolute. Created objects are subject to the influence of time and space, which form the chief ingredients of that principle in creation which passes by the
name of maya. Maya is a thing which is not easily understood by us who are subject to it, but God explains, as much as we can understand in our present constitution, this principle through our spiritual perception. The hasty critic starts like an unbroken horse at the name of maya and denounces it as a theory identical with that of Bishop Berkeley. Be patient in your inquiry, is our
immediate reply. In the mind of God there were ideas of all that we perceive in eternal existence with him, or else God loses the epithet of omniscient so learnedly applied to Him. The imperfect part of nature implying want proceeded also from certain of those ideas, and what, but a principle of maya, eternally existing in God subject to His Omnipotence, could have a hand in the
creation of the world as it is? This is styled as the maya sakti of the omnipresent God. Cavil as much as you can. This is a truth in relation to the created universe.

This maya intervenes between us and God as long as we are not spiritual, and when we are able to break off her bonds, we, even in this mortal frame, learn to commune in our spiritual nature with the unconditioned and the absolute. No, maya does not mean a false thing only, but it means concealment of eternal truth as well. The creation is not mŒyŒ itself but is subject to that
principle. Certainly, the theory is idealistic but it has been degraded into foolishness by wrong explanations. The materialist laughs at the ideal theory saying, how could his body, water, air and earth be mere ideas without entity, and he laughs rightly when he takes üa›karŒcŒryaÕs book in his hand at the butt end of his ridicule. The true idealist must be a dualist also. He must believe all that he perceives as nature created by God full of spiritual essence and
relations, but he must not believe that the outward appearance is the truth. The Bhagavata teaches that all that we healthily perceive is true, but its material appearance is transient and illusory. The scandal of the ideal theory consists in its tendency to falsify nature, but the theory as explained in the Bhagavata makes nature true, if not eternally true as God and His ideas.
What harm there can be if man believes in nature as spiritually true and that the physical
relations and phases of society are purely spiritual?

No, it is not merely changing a name but it is a change in nature also. Nature is eternally spiritual but the intervention of maya makes her gross and material. Man, in his progress attempts to shake off this gross idea, childish and foolish in its nature and by subduing the intervening principle of maya, lives in continual union with God in his spiritual nature. The shaking off this bond is salvation of the human nature. The man who has got salvation will freely tell
his brother that If you want to see God, see me, and if you want to be one with God, you must follow me. The Bhagavata teaches us this relation between man and God, and we must all attain this knowledge. This sublime truth is the point where the materialist and the idealist must meet like brothers of the same school and this is the point to which all philosophy tends.

This is called sambandha-jnana of the Bhagavata, or, in other words, the knowledge of relations between the conditioned and the Absolute. We must now attempt to explain the second great principle inculcated by the Bhagavata, i.e., the principle of duty. Man must spiritually worship his God. There are three ways, in which the Creator is worshipped by the created.

vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaµ yaj j–Œnam advyayam/
brahmeti paramŒtmeti bhagavŒn iti ½abdyate//

All theologists agree in maintaining that there is only one God without a second, but they disagree in giving a name to that God owing to the different modes of worship, which they adopt according to the constitution of their mind. Some call Him by the name of brahman, same by the name of paramatma and others by the name of bhagavan. Those who worship God as infinitely great in the principle of admiration call him by the name of brahman. This mode is called jnana or knowledge. Those who worship God as the Universal Soul in the principle of spiritual union with him give him the name of paramatma. This is yoga. Those who worship God as all in all with all their heart, body and strength style Him as bhagavan. This last principle is bhakti. The book that prescribes the relation and worship of bhagavan, procures for itself the name of Bhagavata and the worshipper is also called by the same name.

Such is Bhagavata which is decidedly the Book for all classes of theists. If we worship God spiritually as all in all with our heart, mind, body and strength, we are all Bhagavatas and we lead a life of spiritualism, which neither the worshiper of brahman, nor the yogi uniting his soul with paramatma the universal soul can obtain. The superiority of the BhŒgavata consists in the uniting of all sorts of theistic worship into one excellent principle in human nature, which passes by the name of bhakti. This word has no equivalent in the English language. Piety, devotion, resignation and spiritual love unalloyed with any sort of petition except in the way of repentance, compose the highest principle of bhakti. The Bhagavata tells us to worship God in that great and
invaluable principle, which is infinitely superior to human knowledge and the principle of yoga.

Our short compass will not admit of an explanation of the principle of bhakti beautifully rising from its first stage of application in the form of Brahmic worship in the shape of admiration which is styled the santa-rasa, to the fifth or the highest stage of absolute union in love with God, sweetly styled the madhurarasa of prema-bhakti. A full explanation will take a big volume which is not our object here to compose. Suffice it to say that the principle of bhakti passes five distinct stages in the course of its development into its highest and purest form. Then again when it reaches the last form, it is susceptible of further progress from the stage of prema (love) to that of mahabhava which is in fact a complete transition into the spiritual universe where God alone is the bride-groom of our soul.

The voluminous Bhagavata is nothing more than a full illustration of this principle of continual development and progress of the soul from gross matter to the all-perfect Universal Spirit who is distinguished as personal, eternal, absolutely free, all powerful and all intelligent. There is nothing gross or material in it. The whole affair is spiritual. In order to impress this spiritual
picture upon the student who attempts to learn it, comparisons have been made with the material world, which cannot but convince the ignorant and the impractical. Material examples are absolutely necessary for the explanation of spiritual ideas. The Bhagavata believes that the spirit of nature is the truth in nature and is the only practical part of it. The phenomenal appearance of nature is truly theoretical, although it has had the greatest claim upon our belief from the days of our infancy. The outward appearance of nature is nothing more than a sure index of its spiritual face. Comparisons are therefore necessary. Nature as it is before our eyes, must explain the spirit, or else the truth will ever remain concealed, and man will never rise from his boyhood though his whiskers and beard grow white as the snows of the Himalayas. The whole intellectual and moral philosophy is explained by matter itself. Emerson beautifully shows how all the words in moral philosophy originally came from the names of material objects. The
words heart, head, spirit, thought, courage, bravery, were originally the common names of some corresponding objects in the material world. All spiritual ideas are similarly pictures from the material world, because matter is the dictionary of spirit, and material pictures are but the shadows of the spiritual affairs which our material eye carries back to our spiritual perception. God in his infinite goodness and kindness has established this unfailing connection between the truth and the shadow in order to impress upon us the eternal truth which he has reserved for us. The clock explains the time, the alphabet points to the gathered store of knowledge, the beautiful song of a harmonium gives the idea of eternal harmony in the spirit world, to-day and to-morrow and dayafter-to-morrow thrust into us the ungrasped idea of eternity and similarly
material pictures impress upon our spiritual nature the truly spiritual idea of religion. It is on these reasonable grounds that Vyasa adopted the mode of explaining our spiritual worship with some sorts of material phenomena, which correspond with the spiritual truth. Our object is not to go into details, so we are unable to quote some of the illustrations within this short compass.

We have also the practical part of the question in the 11th book of Bhagavata. All the modes by which a man can train himself up to prema-bhakti as explained above, have been described at great length. We have been advised first of all, to convert ourselves into most grateful servants of God as regards our relation to our fellow brethren. Our nature has been described as bearing three different phases in all our bearings of the world. Those phases are named sattva,
rajas, tamas. Sattva-guna is that property in our nature, which is purely good as far as it can be pure in our present state. Rajo-guna is neither good nor bad. Tamoguna is evil. Our pravrttis or tendencies and affections are described as the mainspring of all our actions, and it is our object to train up those affections and tendencies to the standard of sattva-guºa, as decided by the moral principle. This is not easily done. All the springs or our actions should be carefully protected
from tamo-guna, the evil principle, by adopting the rajo-guna at first, and when that is effected, man should subdue his rajo-guna by means of the natural sattvaguna which is the most powerful of them cultivated. Lust, idleness, wicked deeds and degradation of human nature by intoxicating principles are described as exclusively belonging to tamo-guºa, the evil phase of nature. These are to be checked by marriage, useful work and abstinence from intoxication
and trouble to our neighbors and inferior animals. Thus when rajo-guna has obtained supremacy in the heart, it is our duty to convert that rajo-guna into sattva-guna which is pre-eminently good. That married love, which is first cultivated, must now be sublimated into holy, good and spiritual love, i.e., love between soul and soul. Useful work will now be converted into work of love and not of disgust or obligation. Abstinence from wicked work will be made to lose
its negative appearance and converted into positive good work. Then we are to look to all living beings in the same light in which we look to ourselves, i.e., we must convert our selfishness into all possible disinterested activity towards all around us. Love, charity, good deeds and devotion to God will be our only aim. We then become the servants of God by obeying his High and Holy wishes. Here we begin to be bhaktas and we are susceptible of further improvement in
our spiritual nature, as we have described above. All this is covered by the term abhidheya, the second cardinal point in the supreme religious work, the Bhagavata . We have now before us, the first two cardinal points in our religion, explained somehow or other in the terms and thoughts expressed by our savior who lived only four and a half centuries ago in the beautiful town of Nadia, situated on the banks of the Bhagirathi. We must now proceed to the last
cardinal point termed by the great Re-establisher, prayojana or prospects.

What is the object of our spiritual development, our prayer, our devotion and our union with God? The Bhagavata tells that the object is not enjoyment or sorrow, but continual progress in spiritual holiness and harmony.

In the common-place books of the Hindu religion in which the rajo and tamo-guna have been described as the ways of religion, we have descriptions of a local heaven and a local hell; the Heaven as beautiful as anything on earth and the Hell as ghastly as any picture of evil. Besides this Heaven we have many more places, where good souls are sent up in the way of promotion! There are 84 divisions of the hell itself, some more dreadful than the one which Milton has described in his Paradise Lost. These are certainly poetical and were originally created by the rulers of the country in order to check evil deeds of the ignorant people, who are not able to understand the conclusions of philosophy. The religion of the Bhagavata is free from such a poetry. Indeed, in some of the chapters we meet with descriptions of these hells and heavens, and accounts of curious tales, but we have been warned somewhere in the book, not to accept them as real facts, but as inventions to overawe the wicked and to improve the simple and the ignorant. The Bhagavata , certainly tells us a state of reward and punishment in future according to deeds in our present situation. All poetic inventions, besides this spiritual fact, have been described as statements borrowed from other works in the way of preservation of old
traditions in the book which superseded them and put an end to the necessity of their storage. If the whole stock of Hindu theological works which preceded the Bhagavata were burnt like the Alexandrian library and the sacred Bhagavata preserved as it is, not a part of the philosophy of the Hindus except that of the atheistic sects, would be lost. The Bhagavata therefore, may be styled both as a religious work and a compendium of all Hindu history and philosophy.

The Bhagavata does not allow its followers to ask anything from God except eternal love towards Him. The kingdom of the world, the beauties of the local heavens and the sovereignty over the material world are never the subjects of Vaishnava prayer. The Vaishnava meekly and humbly says, Father, Master, God, Friend and Husband of my soul! Hallowed be Thy name! I do not
approach You for anything which You have already given me. I have sinned against You and I now repent and solicit Your pardon. Let Thy holiness touch my soul and make me free from grossness. Let my spirit be devoted meekly to Your Holy service in absolute love towards Thee. I have called You my God, and let my soul be wrapped up in admiration at Your greatness! I have addressed You as my Master and let my soul be strongly devoted to your service. I have called You my friend, and let my soul be in reverential love towards You and not in dread or fear! I have called you my husband and let my spiritual nature be in eternal union with You, for ever loving and never dreading, or feeling disgust. Father! let me have strength enough to go up to You as the consort of my soul, so that we may be one in eternal love! Peace to
the world!

Of such a nature is the prayer of the Bhagavata. One who can read the book will find the highest form of prayer in the expressions of PrahlŒda towards the universal and omnipresent Soul with powers to convert all unholy strength into meek submission or entire annihilation. This prayer will show what is the end and object of Vaishnavas life. He does not expect to be the king of a certain part of the universe after his death, nor does he dread a local fiery and turbulent
hell, the idea of which would make the hairs of young Hamlet stand erect like the forks of a porcupine! His idea of salvation is not total annihilation of personal existence as the Buddhists and the twenty-four gods of the Jains procured for themselves! The Vaishnava the meekest of all creatures devoid of all ambition. He wants to serve God spiritually after death as he has served Him both in spirit and matter while here. His constitution is a spirit and his highest object of life is divine and holy love.

There may be a philosophical doubt. How the human soul could have a distinct existence from the universal Soul when the gross part of the human constitution will be, no more? The Vaishnava cannot answer it, nor can any man on earth explain it. The Vaishnava meekly answers, he feels the truth but he cannot understand it. The Bhagavata merely affirms that the Vaishnava soul when freed from the gross matter will distinctly exist not in time and space but
spiritually in the eternal spiritual kingdom of God where love is life, and hope and charity and continual ecstasy without change are its various manifestations.

In considering about the essence of the Deity, two great errors stare before us and frighten us back to ignorance and its satisfaction. One of them is the idea that God is above all attributes both material and spiritual and is consequently above all conception. This is a noble idea but useless. If God is above conception and without any sympathy with the world, how is then this creation? This Universe compose of properties? the distinctions and phases of existence? the
differences of value? Man, woman, beast, trees, magnetism, animal magnetism, electricity, landscape, water and fire. In that case Sankaracaryas
mayavada theory would be absolute philosophy.

The other error is that God is all attribute, i.e. intelligence, truth, goodness and power. This is also a ludicrous idea. Scattered properties can never constitute a Being. It is more impossible in the case of belligerent principles, such as justice and mercy and fullness and creative power. Both ideas are imperfect. The truth, as stated in the Bhagavata is that properties, though many
of them belligerent, are united in a spiritual Being where they have full sympathy and harmony. Certainly this is beyond our comprehension. It is so owing to our nature being finite and God being infinite. Our ideas are constrained by the idea of space and time, but God is above that constraint. This is a glimpse of Truth and we must regard it as Truth itself: often, says Emerson,
a glimpse of truth is better than an arranged system and he is right.

The Bhagavata has, therefore, a personal, all-intelligent, active, absolutely free, holy, good, all-powerful, omnipresent, just and merciful and supremely spiritual deity without a second, creating, preserving all that is in the universe. The highest object of the Vaishnava is to serve that Infinite Being for ever spiritually in the activity of Absolute Love.

These are the main principles of the religion inculcated by the work, called the Bhagavata, and Vyasa, in his great wisdom, tried his best to explain all these principles with the aid of pictures in the material world. The shallow critic summarily rejects this great philosopher as a man-worshipper. He would go so far as to scandalize him as a teacher of material love and lust and the injurious principles of exclusive asceticism. The critic should first read deeply the pages
of the Bhagavata and train his mind up to the best eclectic philosophy which the world has ever obtained, and then we are sure he will pour panegyrics upon the principal of the College of Theology at Badrikashram which existed about 4,000 years ago. The shallow critics mind will undoubtedly be changed, if he but reflects upon one great point, i.e., how is it possible that a spiritualist of the school of Vyasa teaching the best principles of theism in the whole of the
Bhagavata and making the four texts quoted in the beginning as the foundation of his mighty work, could have forced upon the belief of men that the sensual connection between men with certain females is the highest object of worship!

This is impossible, dear critic! Vyasa could not have taught the common vairagi to set up an akhanda (a place worship) with a number of females! Vyasa, who could teach us repeatedly in the whole of Bhagavata that sensual pleasures are momentary like the pleasures of rubbing the itching hand and that man's highest duty is to have spiritual love with God, could never have prescribed the worship of sensual pleasures. His descriptions are spiritual and you must not
connect matter with it. With this advice, dear critic, go through the Bhagavata and I doubt not you will, in three months, weep and repent to God for despising this revelation through the heart and brain of the great Badarayan.

Yes, you nobly tell us that such philosophical comparisons produced injury in the ignorant and the thoughtless. You nobly point to the immoral deeds of the common vairagis, who call themselves. The followers of the Bhagavata and the great CaitanyaÓ. You nobly tell us that Vyasa, unless purely explained, may lead thousands of men into great trouble in time to come. But dear critic! Study the history of ages and countries! Where have you found the philosopher and the reformer fully understood by the people? The popular religion is fear of God and not the pure spiritual love which Plato, VyŒsa, Jesus, and Caitanya taught to their respective peoples! Whether you give the absolute religion in figures or simple expressions, or teach them by means of books or oral speeches, the ignorant and the thoughtless must degrade it. It is indeed very easy to tell and swift to hear that absolute truth has such an affinity with the human soul that it
comes through it as if intuitively. No exertion is necessary to teach the precepts of true religion. This is a deceptive idea. It may be true of ethics and of the alphabet of religion but not of the highest form of faith which requires an exalted soul to understand. It certainly requires previous training of the soul in the elements of religion just as the student of the fractions must have a previous attainment in the elemental numbers and figures in arithmetic and geometry.
Truth is good, is an elemental truth, which is easily grasped by the common people. But if you tell a common patient, that God is infinitely intelligent and powerful in His spiritual nature, He will conceive a different idea from what you entertain of the expression. All higher truths, though intuitive, require previous education in the simpler ones. That religion is the purest, which gives
you the purest idea of God, and the absolute religion requires an absolute conception by man of his own spiritual nature. How then is it possible that the ignorant will ever obtain the absolute religion as long as they are ignorant? When thought awakens, the thinker is no more ignorant and is capable of obtaining an absolute idea of religion. This is a truth and God has made it such
in His infinite goodness, impartiality and mercy. Labor has its wages and the idle must never be rewarded. Higher is the work, greater is the reward is an useful truth. The thoughtless must be satisfied with superstition till he wakes and opens his eyes to the God of love. The reformers, out of their universal love and anxiety for good endeavor by some means or other to make the thoughtless drink the cup of salvation, but the latter drink it with wine and fall into the
ground under the influence of intoxication for the imagination has also the power of making a thing what it never was. Thus it is that the evils of nunneries and the corruptions of the akhanda proceeded. No, we are not to scandalize the Savior of Jerusalem or the Savior of Nadia for these subsequent evils. Luthers, instead of critics, are what we want for the correction of those
evils by the true interpretation of the original precepts.

Two more principles characterize the Bhagavata, viz., liberty and progress of the soul throughout eternity. The Bhagavata teaches us that God gives us truth and He gave it to VyŒsa, when we earnestly seek for it. Truth is eternal and unexchausted. The soul receives a revelation when it is anxious for it. The souls of the great thinkers of the by-gone ages, who now live spiritually, often
approach our inquiring spirit and assist it in its development. Thus VyŒsa was assisted by Narada and Brahma. Our Sastras, or in other words, books of thought do not contain all that we could get from the infinite Father. No book is without its errors. God's revelation is absolute truth, but it is scarcely received and preserved in its natural purity. We have been advised in the 14th Chapter of 11th skandha of the Bhagavata to believe that truth when revealed is absolute, but it gets the tincture of the nature of the receiver in course of time and is converted into error by continual exchange of hands from age to age. New revelations, therefore, are continually necessary in order to keep truth in its original purity. We are thus warned to be careful in our studies of old authors, however wise they are reputed to be. Here we have full liberty to reject the wrong idea, which is not sanctioned by the peace of conscience. Vyasa was not satisfied with what he collected in the Vedas, arranged in the Puranas and composed in the Mahabharata. The peace of his conscience did not sanction his labors. It told him from inside, No, Vyasa! you cannot rest contented with the erroneous picture of truth which was necessarily presented to you by the sages of by-gone days! You must yourself knock at the door of the inexhaustible store
of truth from which the former ages drew their wealth. Go, go up to the Fountain-head of truth where no pilgrim meets with disappointment of anykind. Vyasa did it and obtained what he wanted. We have been all advised to do so. Liberty then is the principle, which we must consider as the most valuable gift of God. We must not allow ourselves to be led by those who lived
and thought before us. We must think for ourselves and try to get further truths which are still undiscovered. In the 23rd text 21st Chapter 11th skandha of the Bhagavata we have been advised to take the spirit of the sastras and not the words. The Bhagavata is therefore a religion of liberty, unmixed truth and absolute love.

The other characteristic is progress. Liberty certainly is the father of all progress. Holy liberty is the cause of progress upwards and upwards in eternity and endless activity of love. Liberty abused causes degradation and the Vaishnava must always carefully use this high and beautiful gift of God. The progress of the BhŒgavata described as the rise of the soul from Nature up to
Nature's God, from maya, the absolute and the infinite. Hence the Bhagavata
says of itself:

nigama-kalpa-taror galitam phalaµ
suka-mukhad amrta-drava-saµyutam/
pibata-bhagavataµ rasam alayam
muhur aho rasika bhuvi bhavukah//

It is the fruit of the tree of thought, mixed with the nectar of the
speech of üukadeva. It is the temple of spiritual love! O! Men of
piety! Drink deep this nectar of BhŒgavata repeatedly till you are
taken from this mortal frame!

Then the saragrahi or the progressive Vaishnava adds:
surasa-sŒra-yutaµ phalam atra yat
virasŒt Œdi-viruddha-guºaµ ca tat/
tyŒga-viragamito madhu-payinaú
rasika-sŒra-rasaµ piba bhavukaú//

That fruit of the tree of thought is a composition, as a matter of
course of the sweet and the opposite principles. O! Men of piety,
like the bee taking honey from the flower, drink the sweet
principle and reject that which is not so.

The Bhagavata is undoubtedly a difficult work and where it does not relate to picturesque description of traditional and poetical life, its literature is stiff and its branches are covered in the garb of an unusual form of Sanskrit poetry. Works on philosophy must necessarily be of this character. Commentaries and notes are therefore required to assist us in our study of the book. The best commentator is Sridhara Svami and the truest interpreter is our great and noble
Caitanyadeva. God bless the spirit of our noble guides.

These great souls were not like comets appearing in the firmament for a while and disappearing as soon as their mission is over. They are like so many suns shining all along to give light and heat to the succeeding generations. Long time yet they will be succeeded by others of their mind, beauty and caliber. The texts of VyŒsa are still ringing in the ears of all theists as if some great spirit is singing them from a distance! Badrikashram! The seat of Vyaasa and the selected religion of thought! What a powerful name ! The pilgrim tells us that the land is cold! How mightily did the genius of Vyasa generate the heat of philosophy in such cold region! Not only did he heat the locality but sent its ray far to the shores of the sea! Like the great Napoleon in the political world, he knocked down empires and kingdoms of old and bygone philosophy the mighty stroke of his transcendental thoughts! This is real power! Atheist, philosophy of Sankha, Caravaka, the Jains and the Buddhists shuddered with fear at the approach of the spiritual sentiments and creations of the Bhagavata philosopher! The army of atheists was composed of gross and impotent creatures like the legions that stood under the banner of the fallen Lucifer; but the pure, holy and spiritual soldiers of Vyasa, sent by his Almighty Father were invincibly fierce to the enemy and destructive of the unholy and the unfounded. He that works in the light of God, sees the minutest things in creation, he that works the power of God is invincible and great, and he thatworks with God's Holiness in his heart, finds no difficulty against unholy things and thoughts. God works through his agents and these agents are styled by Vyasa himself as the Incarnation of the power of God. All great souls were incarnations of this class and we have the authority of this fact in the Bhagavata itself:

avatŒaraŒ hy asa›khyeyŒ hareh sattva-nidher dvijŒah/
yathŒvidŒsinah kulyŒah sarasah syuh sahasrasha//

O Brahmins! God is the soul of the principle of goodness! The incarnations of that principle are innumerable! As thousands of watercourses come out of one inexhaustible fountain of water, so these incarnations are but emanations of that infinitely good energy of God which is full at all times.

The Bhagavata, therefore, allows us to call Vyasa and Narada, as saktyavesh avataras of the infinite energy of God, and the spirit of this text goes far to honor all great reformers and teachers who lived and will live in other countries. The Vaishnava is ready to honor all great men without distinction ofncaste, because they are filled with the energy of God. See how universal is the religion of BhŒgavata. It is not intended for a certain class of the Hindus alone but it is a gift to man at large in whatever country he is born and whatever society is bred.

In short Vaishnavaism is the Absolute Love binding all men together into the infinities unconditioned and absolute God. May it, peace reign for ever in the whole universe in the continual development of its purity by the exertion of the future heroes, who will be blessed according to the promise of the BhŒgavata with powers from the Almighty Father, the Creator, Preserver, and the Annihilator of all things in Heaven and Earth.

Madhava Ghosh dasa: Vishwa Mangal Gow Gram Yatra

Madhava Gosh — 2009-06-22T12:31:29+00:00

Vishwa Mangal Gow Gram Yatra to begin from Kurukshetra on Vijayadashami, 2009, A pilgrimage to save the national heritage

By Pramod Kumar

“It is a massive movement to protect the cow, develop the villages and bring prosperity and happiness to the nation. It is an agro-socio, economic revolution and the real independence movement, which will spread the message—“Save the cow, save the nation, save the world, save the village and save the nature”.

“Over 21 crore people of the country are expected to give their assent over the memorandum, which will be presented to the President of India Smt. Pratibha Patil demanding the total ban on cow slaughter, status of national animal to cattle and implementation of the existing laws against cow slaughter…

“The saints are going to give a joint call to the countrymen—Chalen gay ki or, chalen gaon ki or, chalen prakrati ki or, chalen gram rajya se Ram rajya ki or (turn to the cow, village, nature and from gram rajya to Ram rajya). The saints will also administer a pledge to the farmers and the villagers to adopt the cow-based farming and not to sell the cow and its progeny to butchers at any cost…”

“ ‘The overall objective of the Yatra is to restore happy life in the world. Bharat is the soul of the world, village is the soul of Bharat, agriculture is the soul of village and the cow is the basis of our agriculture. When we connect all these links we find that the cow is the soul of the whole world. But the cow is being slaughtered all over the world and farmers are compelled to commit suicide. The whole world appears to be treading a disastrous path. If we have to live a happy life, the cow slaughter has to be stopped forthwith and the atmosphere of self-respect has to be developed for the farmers. The best way to protect the cow is that every family of the country resolve to protect it,’ says Shri Sitaram Kedilaya, Akhil Bharatiya Sewa Pramukh of RSS…

“No political party, organisation or community will formally lead the Yatra. Only the gobhakta saints will lead it. The saints will educate the people to love the cow, grow organic foodgrains, fruits and vegetables. Families will also be advised to become gopremi. That family will be called gopremi, which feeds the cow everyday and contributes to the goshalas. There will be a pictorial exhibition highlighting the different aspects of the cow and its progeny in the Yatra.”

Read complete article here.

Posted in Cows and Environment

Dandavats.com: Preaching in Mid-Air

Administrator — 2009-06-22T11:06:21+00:00

By Radhikakrpa Devi Dasi

“Is it Sai Baba?” a bold voice questioned me over my shoulder aboard the Cathay Pacific flight from Sydney to Hong Kong. I lifted my head out of the book I was reading and turned my face towards the speaker to find a tall lady dressed in an official attire with a pleasing personality stood indicating at the ring in my second finger.

Ananda Subramanian, Iowa, USA: saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair

ananda (noreply@blogger.com) — 2009-06-22T09:33:47+00:00

Prabhupada: So that requires little intelligence, that anyone who is preaching the holy name of God, he is also God. Anyone who preaches the glories of God, he is also God.

Guest (5): Are you God?

Prabhupada: I am servant of God.

Guest (5): But you're preaching the holy name of God?

Prabhupada: Yes, that is my business.

Guest (5): But then, by your own words, you are God.

Prabhupada: But that does not mean I am God, but I am equal to God. Or at least you should see like that. That is explained. A guru... That is explained.

saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair
uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih
kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya
vande guroh sri-caranaravindam **

Guru's position is like this. What is that? Saksad-dhari. He is God. Saksad-dhari. How he is Hari, God? No, samasta-sastraih: "In all revealed scriptures it is explained that 'Guru, the servant of God, the son of God, the preacher, he is God.' " Saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair uktah: ** "It is said." Tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih: "Those who are intelligent, they accept like that." Then next line says, kintu. Why he is God? Kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya: "He is God because He is very, very dear to God." So as I said, in the absolute word, God and a person very dear to God, he is also God. But he does not think that he is God. He knows that he is servant of God. It requires little intelligence, spiritual intelligence, the Absolute, how the servant of God and God is the same. [break] Yes.

Hare Krishna

Jahnavi, UK: G is for Graduation, Gratitude, and also ‘Goodbye’.

jahnavi — 2009-06-22T09:06:13+00:00

I graduated last month, and whilst initially I was just enjoying the feeling of not having to sit at my computer, racking my brains and consulting a stack of books, for the past week or so I’ve been tying up loose ends and preparing to leave England for yet another summer.

Part of leaving has been saying thank you to all of those people who have helped me, taught me, inspired me or just been friends to me. If that seems a bit final, perhaps it’s only because we often wait until the last moment to show gratitude. I think it’s so important, and I’m really trying to remind myself to make a point of appreciating people as a natural habit.

Since I’ve had more time lately, my gratitude has been coming out creatively, which has been doubly satisfying.

I’ve also had time for other little creative projects, like designing things for the new farm shop at the Manor.

And just having time to draw – for no reason!

So what’s next? I will be travelling to the west of Canada in a few days, to the Hare Krishna farm community in British Columbia – known as Saranagati. I’ll be there for a little time and will then be joining Gaura Vani and As Kindred Spirits for recording and touring in different places in America. It’s exciting, but I’m also just a little nervous. I am taking the first step on the path of ‘life after university’. So far I’ve been overwhelmed with the way that things have beautifully fallen into place. This is surely all by Krishna’s merciful arrangement, and I hope to never, ever forget it.

I’m hoping to keep this blog updated as far as possible while I’m away. For other updates, check www.gauravani.com, where you can see photos and download kirtans from all of the shows we do.

Since it’s possible to do almost everything on the internet, I figure I can also seek your blessings. Please bless me to strive for sincerity, humility and real devotion – and if you see me on my travels, say hello!

Dandavats.com: Two books in HINDI based on the lectures of RadhaGovind Goswami Maharaj released

Administrator — 2009-06-22T08:48:25+00:00

Brajsunder das: In Grihastha dharma book maharaja gives a Presentation of an ideal householder life & Naamapradh Svarup prakashika speaks on avoiding the offenses to holy name.

Mukunda Charan das, SA: A Principle Of Empowerment

Mukunda Charan — 2009-06-22T08:07:15+00:00

Devotees often marvel at the astonishing success of ISKCON Chowpatty, in Mumbai. This inspiring project has been painstakingly developed by His Holiness Radhanath Maharaja and his dedicated followers since the late eighties.

Those who have read Maharaja’s autobiography will know something about Maharaja’s life-long friend, Gary. Gary was Maharaja’s travelling companion during his odyssey from America to India in 1970/71. In March 2007, I, along with Jai Gauranga prabhu (my dear friend and godbrother from LA) had the good fortune of hosting one of Gary’s dear friends, Mike, at Chowpatty.

We took Mike to Ban Ganga, a holy place of pilgrimage in the area. It is here that Lord Rama shot an arrow into the beach, to slake Sita’s thirst, and Ganga Devi manifested. Laksman built a Siva Lingam out of beach sand which is worshipped today as Valkeshwara. So this place is known as Valkeshwara or Ban Ganga (’the place where Ganges manifested from Rama’s arrow’). Caitanya Mahaprabhu also visited Valkeshwara. And Jai Gauranga and I bathed here with Mike.

That night, Mike jammed with his djembe and flute to Jai Sachinandan’s enchanting kirtans. Amongst other things, we took Mike to the local music shop. When Mike went to Hrishikesh to meet with Maharaja, I wasn’t sure if I’d see him again.

Six months later, however, I joined Nitai prabhu and a party of frontline Hare Krishnas at the Burning Man, in the Nevada Desert (near Reno). On the second day of the Burning Man, I went for a bit of a walk around the playa. Lod and behold, I met Mike! I consider this meeting even more amazing, since it was my last day in America! I was so happy to meet this simple and gracious soul again. Plus, I wanted to know what had transpired of his meeting with Maharaja. Mike informed me that he had not met with Maharaja in Hrishikesh, but had met ‘Swami’ at Gary’s place in Malibu. ‘What did you think of Maharaja?’, I asked. Mike said that Maharaja was very nice and very down-to-earth. I said, ‘Was there anything in particular that struck you about Maharaja?’ Mike replied, ‘Yes. I asked Swami how he managed to get so many people to do so many things. And Swami said, ‘I don’t do anything. They come to me with ideas; and I let them do it.’

When I met Maharaja in Dublin some weeks later I told him of my unusual encounter with his friend Mike.

Dandavats.com: Make Vrindavana villages - now available in French language

Administrator — 2009-06-22T08:03:10+00:00

Bharat Chandra Dasa: Priya Bhakta prabhu, who served for many years in the French BBT helping in the French edition of Srila Prabhupada’s books, has translated the book into the French language

H.H. Mukunda Goswami: The 'Meme' Philosophy'

Mukunda Goswami — 2009-06-22T07:00:00+00:00

'Meme' (rhymes with 'gene') philosophy ultimately declared there is no such thing as a soul or personhood, only 'memory,' from which the recently coined word 'meme' is derived. A meme, unlike a gene, is based on self-replicating memory units, cells, or instincts, but memetic philosophers do not accept the existence of the ego, 'me-ness,' selfhood, or the atma. Memetic philosophy holds that we are not simply a bundle of electromagnetic impulses, not a cluster of genes or genomes, but a collection of memes, or 'memories.' Go figure.

Gouranga TV: Holi Festival in New Vraja-dhama

uploader — 2009-06-22T06:00:40+00:00

Holi Festival in New Vraja-dhama

Madhava Ghosh dasa: My POV 24 Hour Kirtan Glimpses

Madhava Gosh — 2009-06-22T01:30:06+00:00

I rested Friday before the 24 Hour Kirtan started so I had SOME juice to run on. I checked it out as it started for a while then went home and laid down for a bit. I went back up in the afternoon and ran into Deet (former team mate from the Palace Guards, a mixed adult and teenager roller hockey team we had in the 90s) who was scheduled in for 3:00 PM with a crew from Columbus so I made my move then.

There was room for some dancing by Lord Nshimadev’s altar as it was the tail end of the lunch prasadam serve out so lots of devotees were outside. Conserving energy by not moving my torso laterally or vertically, I was able to dance for over a half hour. It was good.

I went home, took a nap and came back for the evening, thus able to do some more dancing during Radhanath Swami’s prime time slot. The temple room was packed but I found some room back by the Panca Tattva diorama.

There I got to see the best dancing in the house, IMHO. There was a 2 something year old girl dancing in that area. She had on a black and orange outfit with a wide skirt. It had sequins on it so she was twirling and looking down, watching the reflections. Her mother was attentively watching her from the edge of the open space, letting do as she wished.

She would also clap her hands over her head. Not like bringing her hands up in one motion and clapping them, but doing a move. One of those classical Indian dance moves, where she would bring them up over her head, then a slight hesitation, finishing with a rapid acceleration so she struck them together authoritatively right on the beat.

It seemed to be a more sophisticated move than would be expected from one so young, but she was repeating it and right in rhythm, so it wasn’t happenstance, she was consciously doing it. I was impressed and charmed.

The best T shirt of the festival was worn by a teenager who had designed it himself. The front said “Scottish Churches College Calcutta.” I immediately loved it. He said he didn’t get a lot of reactions to it but the ones he got were enthusiastic. Wearing college and professional team T shirts is common American apparel so to the casual eye it didn’t stand out — it caught me with the delayed reaction.

You will either get that or not, and I could let it stand there, but no need being culty, I guess. On the back of the T shirt was the name “A. Charan De”. Which would be the next level of figuring out why I liked it. Prabhupada’s legal name is Abhay Charan De. He went to Scottish Churches College.

I told the kid if he did it in a soccer jersey style, I would buy a copy. Which brought up the discussion, what number to put on it. The obvious response was “8″. Evolving the concept, I asked Soma if the next time he went to India he could go to Scottish Churches College, check out their archives, and see if he could get the actual number Prabhupada had when he played soccer there.

His response indicated to me it might not be his top priority next time he goes to India. Maybe someone else interested in trivia will check it out.

I went to the last hour of the kirtan. The mood was infectious, but even though the spirit was willing, the flesh was weak and I ended up sitting in a chair instead of dancing.

It was still good.

Posted in News, Ramblings or Whatever

H.H. Bhaktimarg Swami: Friday, June 19th, 2009

Bhaktimarga Swami (noreply@blogger.com) — 2009-06-21T23:42:07+00:00

Lighthouse

Olympia, Washington

Our group of thirty or so participants divided into teams who were determined to trek. Those interested in a short leisurely walk in the bush were part of the team on The Sita Stroll. The more daring were on the Ram Run. And the most bold tackled the trek on the world’s longest land spit, a five and half mile stretch were called the Hanuman Haul.

I gave the names and decided to walk the spit, which culminates at a gorgeous light-house made in 1857. Our team fought the wind, some ocean spray, and dodged bird poop. Driftwood on the shore were works of art. Caspian terns, a unique bird, nest along the spit. Seals were curious and came near us, but stayed in their natural habitat, the water.

When we reached the lighthouse and met the keeper, he asked where we were from.

“We need to see Hare Krishna’s at the airports,” he remarked.

“We switched to lighthouse for now ” I said.

That gave him a chuckle for sure. Another keeper showed off his t-shirt which read “I’ve seen the light.” The most elevated of the keepers was third. He was at the top of the lighthouse tower (ha,ha) giving us a tour of that bird’s eye view. Our team was an all-male team, except for Aditi, a small ten-year old. She became our hero for the day. Her dad, Nandasuta, seeing the vast benefits of this type of walking committed himself to making it a daily routine. Aditi startled us all, a second time, when after covering a twelve mile (19.8 km) distance walk for the day, engaged in a dramatic reading where she joined her older soul brothers (monks). She read the lines for Krishna’s gopis (milk maidens) and did a marvelous job!

Victory to Aditi!

H.H. Bhaktimarg Swami: Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Bhaktimarga Swami (noreply@blogger.com) — 2009-06-21T23:41:05+00:00

Boldly

Sequim, Washington

He sat there like a wise old sage does in a cave of the Himalayan range. Still, up high, above everything, content, and contemplative he sat perched on a bare branch with a white head and dark brown body, a bald eagle right near our cottage. I asked Kalakantha, a soul brother who also came on the retreat, if he had seen an eagle recently.

“It’s been a long while,” he said.

So I pointed to the large bird and Kalakantha looked on with awe. The bird didn’t seem to be disturbed by our endless gazing.

We, however, became distracted by other things, such as the lavender farms in the area, and the great aroma wafting from them.

Without getting too carried away by our surroundings including one of the oldest light houses at the end of the largest spit in the world, near our rented cottages, we set out to our most important task which was to give ourselves (us senior men & women) our time and realizations to patron donors of our Washington community. We spoke of our guru’s- personal revelations which were sweet, instructive, engaging, and deep.

Kirtan (chanting) was very participatory as principle facilitator, Hari Vilas, churned out powerful honeyed melodies from his harmonium, When it was his turn to speak, he relayed to us his time in Paris when in an unzipped robe, bald and all, he approached the chief administrator of Olympia Hall, a prestigious theater almost impossible to book. By some miracle he got the hall booked. He introduced himself as the Beatles’ agent and how the Beatles’ and their guru, Srila Prabhupada, were going to meet in the venue.

There was little promotion as the Krsna monks had no money, but people came and saw the guru, minus the Beatles. A deception it was, but we had a good laugh.

6 KM

H.H. Bhaktimarg Swami: Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Bhaktimarga Swami (noreply@blogger.com) — 2009-06-21T23:39:57+00:00

Wonders

Vancouver, British Columbia

The very ground that we walk upon has the most beautiful colours, aromas, and formations. While en route to Sequim, Washington, for a retreat, I stopped in Vancouver to catch a car ride. My driver, Akrura, and his family took me to the showroom of their business, Hari Stones Ltd. In this one of the three outlets located in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb, you will see displayed some of the best pieces of granite that this earth has to offer. Massive slabs, of granite, marble, and slate, grave their warehouse and showroom with astounding colours and natural designs. Deep penetrating reds and greens form veins and splashes of eye-opening wonder. In some of the slabs you see fossils, crustaceans, or shells, embedded into the ancient pressurized rock that hails from India, Turkey, Brazil, Italy, Canada, and other such places.

People may wonder what a monk and rock have in common. Well, my response to that would be that I highly appreciate the awesome aesthetics of nature, with the creator behind it. I also had the good fortune to stroll a trail in the great cedars of the west coast. The smells, heights, and hues of these green giants struck my sensitivities once again.

I endorse the travelling and walking cultures once again as it enhances our gratitude for what’s around us. There are as many great wonders in the world that we find in our midst. We just need to stroll and look around.

5 KM

ISKCON Melbourne: Daily Class - Nanda Mandir Prabhu

Timothy Mcleod — 2009-06-21T23:35:42+00:00

Srimad Bhagavatam 11.10.2 - The process of becoming free from material desires + Glories of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur

ISKCON Toronto, Canada: Deity Darshan: June 21, 2009

Vijay Teli (noreply@blogger.com) — 2009-06-21T22:50:11+00:00

Ekendra das, Alachua, USA: Year of the Ox Who Plays With His Food

ekendradasa — 2009-06-21T22:10:15+00:00

To get to Krishna.com’s offices, I have to drive down a dirt road (featuring signs that say: “maximum speed limit: 15 mph—We Love Our Children”) that borders cow pastures.

I’m glad I live in a place where there aren’t signs declaring, “Drive As Fast As You Can—These Kids Shoot To Kill.”

Anyway, in one field lives a picture-perfect ox—tall, sturdy, dark brown with long, pointy horns. I love to watch him eat—for reasons mysterious to me, he always, always, always has a bunch of hay on his back which stays there for as long as he chews. Always.

Dear ox experts: Does this enhance the pleasure derived from eating hay? Is this similar to children gleefully, cluelessly wearing their lunch? Is there a scientific reason? I’ve never seen another cow, bull, or ox do this.

Your feedback is appreciated.

Sita-pati dasa: Kirtan at Fusion Hot Yoga

sitapati — 2009-06-21T21:58:40+00:00

Kirtan at Fusion Hot Yoga
Friday July 3, 2009
7.30 pm

Thanks to Bhakticandrika dd for the poster design. If you're viewing it on the atmayogi.com homepage, give it a click to see the whole thing.

Ekendra das, Alachua, USA: THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR SITTING PROPERLY

ekendradasa — 2009-06-21T21:51:41+00:00

You know how sometimes your Spam folder doesn’t catch everything, and then, sitting in with the mail you want to read, is something you don’t want to read, something sent to you by someone who doesn’t know you, doesn’t want to know you, couldn’t care less about you, someone who’s either nuts or has an axe to grind or meds to sell or an African inheritance?

Today I somehow received this little gem in my email, but I found it so entertaining I just had to share it with you:

“We, the members of The International Society for Sitting Properly (ISSPROP) feel that Srila Prabhupada’s (and Krishna’s) instructions on SITTING PROPERLY have been minimized over the years, especially by the members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

 Many who are familiar with the Krishna Consciousness Movement are doubtlessly familiar with a famous recording of Srila Prabhupada Chanting Japa. During the course of this recording, Srila Prabhupada clearly instructs his disciples to SIT PROPERLY.

 In the new, digitized, edited mp3 recording of “Group Japa” now available from the Bhaktivedanta Archives, it is clear that the original tape MUST HAVE been edited. There are ONLY TWO occurrences of Prabhupada saying “SIT PROPERLY” on the newly edited “Group Japa” recording. The original probably has many, many more, but OF COURSE they have been unscrupulously edited out by the Bhaktivedanta Archives.

 Where is the UNEDITED original—the tape the GBC doesn’t want you to hear, the way it was PROBABLY meant to be heard—Prabhupada, like a true Zen master, simply instructing his disciples to SIT PROPERLY? [INSERT LINK FOR ORIGINAL, ONCE WE FIND IT ]

During OUR morning program at ISSPROP, we have our OWN painstakingly re-edited version of the recording, in which Srila Prabhupada simply—and repeatedly—says, “SIT PROPERLY.”

We strongly believe there must be a vested interest on the part of the GBC to gloss over the importance of SITTING PROPERLY, especially since Prabhupada made such clear and repeated statements referring to the necessity of being “properly situated” in devotional service.

 Where are the ISKCON authorities stressing this essential point? It’s almost as if there is, in fact, a plot to COVER UP Prabhupada’s DEARMOST DESIRE that we all learn to SIT PROPERLY.

 Even a layman will notice that the root of “situated” is “sit”— in other words, one absolutely must first SIT PROPERLY in order to become “properly situated” in devotional service to Krishna.

 Look here at all the pictures of our predecessor acharyas—those venerable Vaishnavas whom we count as our gurus in parampara—all SITTING PROPERLY. [include pictures of parampara here]

ALL VAISHNAVA ACHARYAS SIT PROPERLY

 Anyone with half a brain giving even the most cursory examination of the basic texts of Bhagavad-gita will notice that Krishna spends more time telling Arjuna how to SIT PROPERLY than He does talking about chanting Hare Krishna. In fact, the entire sixth chapter is practically devoted to the science of SITTING PROPERLY.

 Hari-bhakti-vilasa has many instructions how to SIT PROPERLY (and how not to sit), which Prabhupada saw fit to include in his most foundational handbook for performing devotional service, the Nectar of Devotion.

 Yet today in many ISKCON temples, you will see “devotees” sitting with their knees up, their arms around their legs their hands touching their own feet, etc. etc., in other words, clearly NOT SITTING PROPERLY.

 We, the undersigned members of ISSPROP, demand the restoration of emphasis given to ISKCON members about the need to SIT PROPERLY, and that the Bhaktivedanta Archives release an UNEDITED version of the “SIT PROPERLY” tapes, (now known simply as “Group Japa,” with no reference to Prabhupada’s DEARMOST DESIRE).

 SIGNED, Simhasan dasa Adhikari, Virasan Swami, Yogasan devi dasi, Dharmasan das, Asan tattva, das, Asana dasi, Vyasasan dasa, Mahasana dasi, Bhakta Lotus Position The International Society for Sitting Properly”

Ok, now that I’ve shared it with you, I can mark it as “Spam.”

Sutapa das, BV Manor, UK: Boiling Point

Sutapa das (sutapa.kks@hotmail.com) — 2009-06-21T21:51:30+00:00

"One who is composed in a moment of anger can save themselves a hundred days of sorrow" (Chinese proverb). Anger is an emotion that most of us come face-to-face with on multiple occasions everyday. A recent survey in America revealed that over 60% of office workers have seriously contemplated physically harming their boss! In our angry moments we think, say, and do things we usually regret later. As they say, anger is one letter short of danger.

Anger comes from unrealistic expectations of reality. The Bhagavad-gita explains how we are all trying to take the Supreme position of being the ultimate controller in this world. We try to control situations, control people, and control the objects around us. When we fail, we become frustrated and angry. Everyone boils at different degrees, but one who has unrealistic expectations in life will repeatedly face the problem of anger.

All that is available at our disposal is our best efforts. Living a spiritual life means we try our best and simultaneously understand that there are factors involved beyond our control. An experienced monk once told me, "if you want to make God laugh then just tell him your plans!" Acting free of anger ensures that all actions in life are performed with the clarity of spiritual intelligence, and thus we can avoid all the physiological, emotional and societal ramifications of this destructive emotion.

HH. Satsvarupa das Goswami: Japa Essay: Bhajana Kutir #109

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami — 2009-06-21T20:28:22+00:00

Japa essay

Sometimes when you begin your japa, you feel reluctant. It just doesn’t have a taste. The only solution for that is to keep going resolutely. The taste eventually comes, always. The lack of taste may be due to many things, often physical. You may be tired from lack of sleep or some physical malady. Mental lack of taste is due to your poor Krishna consciousness. It may be prominent on a particular day just because of the whims of the cancala mind. It is a sad reflection to reveal to you that you’re just not a good chanter. There is no excuse for it, you just must keep chanting and overcome the bad state of the mind. It’s sad that we are not instantly excellent chanters in the morning, and that some mornings find us with the blues. During the chanting we can pray to Krishna to help us out of this slump and bring us to our rightful position. Chanting is a kind mechanism. With a little effort, we’ll find ourselves back on track. Those are the days to push with extra effort to find our rightful place. Determination is required and the strength not to become overwhelmed with depression at our poor state. Don’t take it as such a terrible thing, just work through it and come to the right position.

This morning I found this tastelessness when I began, but it did not last long. Within a couple of rounds, I was feeling better and cheerful, and I was chanting at a good speed. I didn’t give in to the poor start, which could have lasted longer. Maya is always waiting to catch us and tell us that the chanting is not working and that we are worthless and might as well give up. But actually we are just having a little bump in the road that we can overcome with persistence. It is just a temporary mood that can easily be overcome by chanting several rounds of japa without quitting. Krishna does not want to withhold the sweetness of the holy names, and He is just testing us. He is showing us our low state. He will allow us to overcome it in short order.

A poor beginning will

not last for the gutsy

chanter of the Names.

Soon the soothing balm of

Nama Prabhu covers the

rough patch with its nectar.

Like a bad dream, the

faulty start evaporates

and a cheerful sunrise

appears through the beads.

All that was required was

that I show Krishna I’m

sincere and not a fair-

weather chanter—I

can endure a bad first inning.

from #109→

Giridhari das, Brasilia, Brazil: Corpus Christi Retreat

Giridhari Das — 2009-06-21T19:25:10+00:00

Taking advantage of the Corpus Christi holiday, we held another yoga retreat in Pandavas Paradise. It was a four night event, starting on Wednesday and ending after lunch on Sunday.

About half the people came from distant cities for the retreat, some from Rio de Janeiro, some from São Paulo, and about half of them were new-comers. This is one of the characteristics of these retreats. It’s not that these people are Hare Krishnas going to a retreat, these are people who have had little or no contact with Hare Krishnas. For most of our visitors, this is their first contact with ISKCON devotees. And we make sure it’s a very sweet experience!

We also don’t hold back on the spirituality, or water it down, just to make it more “commercial”. These yoga retreats are really full on bhakti experiences: two aratiks a day, 30 minutes of japa, extra mantra sessions, 90 minutes of Krishna consciousness lectures a day… the works! Even the morning (hatha) yoga classes are infused with a good dose of bhakti thanks to our devotee yoga teacher, Radharani dd. Practically all of our visitors leave with their own japa beads and at least one book, normally 2 and sometimes 3. The yoga retreats serve as springboards for the more spiritually inclined to go on to do weekend Gita courses, more retreats and some to become full on devotees.

One case in point: we had a lady, in her mid-thirties, come to our Carnaval retreat, just 4 months ago. It was her first contact with Krishna devotees. She loved it so much, she started doing our Gita courses and coming to our regular weekly programs in Brasilia. And now, next week, she’s off to New Zealand to join the women’s ashram at Gaura Yoga for 3 or more months of intense training and service!

Now that we have entered the dry season here, the weather for the Corpus Christi retreat was near perfect with shining sun and clear blue skies. As usual we enjoyed the scenic walks, crystal clear waterfalls, and plenty of healthy and tasty prasadam.

You can see more pictures of the retreat here.

Gauranga Kishore das - USA: Everyday should be Father's and Mother's day

Gauranga Kishore Das (gaurangakishore@gmail.com) — 2009-06-21T18:54:22+00:00

I was thinking how funny the idea of a father's day and a mothers day is to someone from a traditional culture, like traditional Indian culture, which is based on the Vedic culture.

In traditional cultures everyday is father's day and everyday is mother's day.

Upon getting up the children would go and greet their parents, touching their feet or offering obeisance out of respect. That is traditional culture.

In the western hemisphere, the ten commandments are ideals that have very powerfully shaped culture over the past 2,000 years and one of the commandments is to "Honor thy father and mother."

It's amazing that we need God to tell us honor our parents. Sad but true.

One of the many instructions that Radhanath Maharaj has given me that I have failed to execute properly is to offer obeisances to my parents everyday.

"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." Mark Twain

David Haslam, UK: Surrender, thoughts.

David — 2009-06-21T17:22:59+00:00

The other day I was informed of a special celebration for my Guru Maharaja’s Vyasa Puja, although the mataji arranging it although having both my e-mail and mobile phone number has not even contacted me with the date even though everyone else has been informed. I am saddened in two ways she is my Guru Maharaja’s [...]

HH. Satsvarupa das Goswami: SDGonline – Bhajana Kutir #108

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami — 2009-06-21T15:09:57+00:00

In yesterday’s lecture, Prabhupada said that one who hears from the right source will have his love for Krishna increase. The real purpose of life is to renounce the material body, but people are not interested in liberation. They want material benefits. But material benefits are all fixed by the body you have.

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami - June 20, 3:30 A.M.

I had a peaceful night but woke up several times during the night. I finally got up around 3:30 A.M. Narayana came up, and we talked some before I began chanting.

4:52 A.M.

Japa essay

When you miss your big block of japa in the morning, you have to remain calm and assure yourself that you’ll get them done during the day. There’s no doubt about it. Just be sure you don’t rush them. Stay calm and enunciate the mantras. Try in the future to ensure you get those big blocks in the morning, when you can stretch out and chant lots of mantras. We’ll be going to the beach, and I can chant there in the car. Keep the mind fixed on the goal of the mantras, the yearning to reach Radha and Krishna. Reciprocate with Them in your mind. Chant from your lowly position, and reach out. You have nothing to regret, no reason to panic. Everything will go all right. You may just have to chant a little more in the late morning. But that will be fine also. Relax in your chair and utter the Hare Krishna mantra in peace. With such a high priority to the mantras, you cannot fail. The pain of missing the big block of chanting early in the morning creates a greater desire to do them. Chanting Hare Krishna is your greatest friend. You will not desert Him, and He will not desert you. Better than writing this essay, I should go and chant.

Chanting in a hurry

creates a worry.

Better to slow down

and creach the crown.

There’s no question you’ll reach the quota

not even an iota.

So don’t be anxious,

just feel your pulse

and pray to Hari

without a hurry.

The time is the same,

the boy is the same,

it’s just a little time difference,

so don’t make a big inference

that you failed Nama Prabhu.

6:46 A.M.

We decided not to go to the beach because I could chant my rounds better in the yellow submarine. So far, I have chanted thirteen rounds.

In yesterday’s lecture, Prabhupada said that one who hears from the right source will have his love for Krishna increase. The real purpose of life is to renounce the material body, but people are not interested in liberation. They want material benefits. But material benefits are all fixed by the body you have. Those who have American bodies have comfortable life, and those who live in the desert do not. Our dharma in life is not our particular religion but is the tendency to serve. People render service to their country or family, but real service is to the Supreme. God is not a servant. He is the only master and enjoyer. So love should be reposed in Him. If you serve maya, you will never be satisfied. Neither the master nor the servant is satisfied because Krishna is missing. If you serve the stomach, then the whole body will be satisfied. One who understands, “I have to die,” is intelligent.

Prabhupada said that when he went to the bank, he saw a billboard that said, “Is there sex after death?” They think that if there is sex, then that is life. They will have sex after death, but it may be as cats and dogs. The higher inquiry should be about spiritual sex. There is sex in the spiritual world in Radha and Krishna, but it is not abdominable. There, sex is happy, eternal and blissful. The mayavadis see that the result of sex in the material world is miserable, and so they want to make it zero. But sex in the spiritual world is blissful.

Give us another poem,

just a little one, something

to remember. Put

Krishna in the center of it,

in Vraja now 114 degrees

in summer.

He is walking the path just

as he did five thousand years ago

and can be seen by pure

devotees. Others can hear

His names chanted in

the roadside kirtanas and the

asramas and temples

accompanied by gongs and drums.

Give us another poem with

Krishna in the center, our

hankering to please Him with

a verse about His majesty.

Give us Krishna in the morning

in your clumsy lines,

at least His name and

your attempt to capture

His fame—He conquered

the demons and danced with

the gopis.

Give us an attempt at verse

about your dearmost,

when you don’t have pain

explain why you love Him.

Because he’s lovable.

My Radha-Govinda stand

before me erect and still,

not dancing.

I like Them the way They are

in yellow, red and silver,

Krishna with His flute,

Radha with Her extended hand

and delicate lips.

They give me consolation

that I’m not in Vrndavana

but can see the Divine Couple

right before me.

I don’t care for Them enough,

bathe them only once a week, but

They are patient with me

and glow Their effulgence

to my tired eyes

and pressured head. They

are my room’s best possession.

They are a boy and girl

in love.

I’m an old man in love

with Them.

11:00 A.M.

Free write

Better write while you can before a headache comes. You like to make smooth, personal Krishna consciousness. There is so little time. You try to concentrate. What’s the subject matter? The quiet life. Making up my rounds this morning. Overcoming constipation. Time eaten up. You sit in the yellow submarine and wait for a good idea. Tiger Woods is behind in the U.S. Open. It doesn’t look like he will win. That shouldn’t matter to me. I’m concerned how Under Dark Stars reads. I haven’t had free time to keep reading the whole book. My time gets stolen. It’s a book that does well to be read parts at a time, not trying to read the whole thing through at once. But I read 129 pages, and so far, so good.

The headaches are devastating. One in the morning and one all afternoon yesterday. I spoke with Dr. Nitai-Gaurasundara this morning, and he has no solution for them. We work to stop them when they come, but it often doesn’t work, or it works for a while or after a while. I live with it, and it definitely keeps me confined. You’re lucky to get the journal in.

Narayana continues to write poems every day. He writes them for his survival. He writes confesionally and eloquently. Eventually he’s going to select the best ones and print them. I encourage him; I think he’s good.

In Brhad-bhagavatamrta, the form of Vishnu in Brahma Loka advised Gopa-kumara to go to Vraja and see the Lord’s sweeter pastimes there. Gopa worried that he’d been away so long, the place may have changed, but Vishnu informed him it is the same eternal dhama. Gopa-kumara will go, but he will still have many detours before he reaches Goloka Vrndavana. It is a bit frustrating.

It’s starting to rain again, and it’s a good feeling to be dry and inside a quiet house. I’ll probably get together again with the swamis. Maybe we’ll read. Listening to a Prabhupada lecture is a good addition to my day. They are a great legacy and should not be neglected. Hearing him speak is close association. He’s speaking about how Maharaja Pariksit gave up everything and heard Srimad-Bhagavatam from Sukadeva Goswami in the last even days of his life. It’s a great narration, the setting is a favorite story of mine. And then it’s told again by Suta Goswami—who was present for the first telling—to the sages at Naimisaranya. It gets told faithfully in disciplic succession again and again, and the Swami told us in 1966.

I think I’ll try to read Under Dark Stars now that I’m clear, then look for a break to make my daily prayer. Each day I face Krishna with a different prayer. I try to open to Him (and Radha) person to person. They are true communications, and I marvel that They let me continue to do it. I pray that I may continue to pray.

12:00 P.M.

My Dear Lord Krishna...

I thank You for letting me write to You. You make me feel that You are actually listening to me. I feel that You and Srimati Radharani are reading my words and reciprocating with me. And as Supersoul in the heart, You dictate to me what to write. Today I want to write about this fact of reciprocation with You. According to the Vedic authorities—guru, sastra and sadhu—You invite me to speak to You. In Bhagavad-gita, You ask us to worship You, bow down to You, and offer homages to You. I am here offering an homage, written words of respect and prayer. I am praising You in parampara in the way You advise in the words You suggest. I am repeating Arjuna’s words, “You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the absolute truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest” (Bg. 10.12-13).

I am praising You in my own words too. You are my dearmost friend and guide. You reside in my heart as my individual guru, and You tell me what is best for me. I pray to follow Your instructions and not go against them or be independent of them. (As I write this, there is thunder in the sky, and heavy rain—a mighty manifestation of Your material nature. And as I write this, You are playing in Your pastimes in the undisturbed spiritual sky.)

You and Srimati Radharani are in every way persons, individuals, with particular tastes and likings. I want to know them and serve them. I want to serve You. I am serving You, and all living beings are serving You, but we are not doing it exactly according to Your liking. Some are serving Your material nature by force and denying Your spiritual personhood. I am not like that. I believe in You as the Supreme Person, and I want to serve You with love. I want to please You.

I’ve learned Your teachings as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu from my spiritual master, and I know You can be easily pleased by the chanting of Your holy names in the mahamantra. I want to attain offenseless chanting and enter krsna-prema. I know that is not easy, but I aspire for it and chant daily with devotion. I pray for Your mercy that I may come to the stage of suddha nama (perfected chanting) and experience the ecstasies of a pure chanter. You will grant this if I act sincerely to serve Your mission in this world. I am like a dwarf trying to touch the moon in saying I am trying for this, but I cannot help but think of it. Suddha nama is the boon I seek, even though I am millions of miles away from attaining it. I cannot help but admit it is my hidden, helpless desire.

You know my disqualifications and lack of adhikara, my lack of intense greed. I write like a fool. But I ask You for help in improving my condition. I should pray to You, praise You, and chant Your names in the perfect stage, because You deserve it. And I should strive for it. I should not chant Your names offensively or fail to serve Your mission. I am ashamed of my failures. But I maintain hope against hope that I can still please You. I wait for the day when I can chant Your name purely and help others to do so. Please give me the desire to strive for this.

from #108→

Japa Group: Free From Anarthas

Aruna (noreply@blogger.com) — 2009-06-21T14:44:14+00:00

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I hope your japa is going well. Very good reminder was the last post of Rasa prabhu talking about how the mind can trick us in so many ways trying to persuade us telling we don't need to follow the basic guidelines anymore, the ones we may become familiar with and may sometimes think we are done with them.

A good example of how the mind can trick us is when she comes with the thoughts that our anarthas are so many that we will never clean our hearts to chant nicely and we just become comfortable with this situation we are in and accept this preaching of the mind. A devotee asked me this question today, how he could be free from his anarthas since he was chanting and the anarthas kept inside his heart. So I said that sometimes it takes time so we can see the purifying effects of chanting, but as we have learned in the japa room sessions, we need to try to get to the stage of avoiding offenses and by doing that we may achieve namabhasa - the clearing stage of chanting and feel our purification - the Lord reveals Himself to us and we become more aware of our anarthas so we can work on them.

Another important thing is to pray and ask the Lord to help us get purified and free from our material desires, in the beginning we all have our chanting with material desires and we still perform unfavourable activities which may interfere with our japa. After some time we experience the Holy Name's effect on our lives and we don't even meditate on the anarthas we have but focus on our aim which is pure chanting, Krsnas' service and our relationship with the Lord.

Below is a quote from the Harinama Cintamani that points talks about this subject so we can learn more from the Acharyas, specially Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur who always brings us the humble and prayer mood.

Overcoming namabhasa and attaining prema

Anyone wanting to attain the highest spiritual success of chanting purely must approach a bonafide spiritual master and serve him carefully and sincerely. Gradually, as all the anarthas or unwanted desires in the heart are destroyed, the
transcendental name of Krsna appears and dances on the tongue of the devotee. The holy name, now nectarean in taste, cannot but be relished by the devotee at every moment. Thus spiritually intoxicated, the devotee always feels like dancing. As the holy name dances, the devotee likewise dances, and at that moment the ecstasy of love of Godhead also enters dancing into the devotee's heart. Then the entire world will dance and maya will flee away.

In this quote it's nicely explained how the anarthas and unwanted desires are destroyed when we are focused on chanting to achieve prema through the guidance of a bonafide spiritual master.
I hope you can meditate with me on this nice quote and about what you would like to have fixed on your chanting. If you still have anarthas you would like to be destroyed, let's pray so the Lord can help us to chant nicely and get them vanquished by the pure association of Krsna's names.

yr servant

Aruna devi

Sastra Dana, San Diego, USA: UCLA Repents of Banning Jesus from Graduation

Mahat — 2009-06-21T14:14:28+00:00

UCLA campus

By Kristina Arriaga on 20 Jun 2009

According to news reports, the University of California in Los Angeles yielded to media pressure and agreed to allow a graduating student to thank Jesus in her personal statement. UCLA student Christina Popa claimed the school’s Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology was denying her freedom of speech when a faculty advisor told her that she could not mention “Jesus” in her graduation remarks.

“Public universities don’t get to censor student speech just because the speech is religious. That’s called viewpoint discrimination, and it’s unconstitutional. Let’s hope that UCLA’s biology department knows more about biology than it does about constitutional law,” said Luke Goodrich, legal counsel to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

According to email exchanges that Popa posted on Facebook and that were reported by the press, UCLA Biology Professor Dr. Pamela Hurley deliberately censored Christina’s proposed speech, and emailed Christina saying: “UCLA is a public university where the doctrine of separation of church and state is observed,” and the professor proposed a censored version of Christina’s proposed speech, deleting any reference to Jesus Christ.

When Christina objected, Dr. Hurley threatened, “If you prefer, Christina, I can read none of what you wrote. I am very sorry that this is a problem for you.”

“The Becket Fund will defend any graduate from a public institution who wants to exercise his or her First Amendment right to engage in religious speech,” added Goodrich.

Rupa Madhurya das, TX, USA: Rathayatra - Parade

Rupa Schomaker (rupa@rupa.com) — 2009-06-21T13:58:00+00:00

The Dallas Rathayatra parade. Fired up Kirtans by Chaitanya Chandra Prabhu, Giriraj Swami, Hari das, Amala Kirtan das and probably others that I've left out.

Dallas, TX
2009-04-25

Download: 2009-04-25 - Rathayatra - 2 - Parade.mp3

Prema-Rupa dd, USA: I found it!!!!

Prema-Rupa Devi Dasi — 2009-06-21T13:56:06+00:00

Ok, eariler I was looking for a section from Caitanya Caritamrta about devotees fighting with each other and it had mysteriously disappeared. Recently I found it! But not in Caitanya Caritamrta, it was in the Nityananda Caritamrta- close but no burfi, hehe.

Its at the very end of Adi-lila:

Vaisnavas are always pure and full of knowledge. So, if there is ever any quarrel between them, know it simply to be part of their pastime. If a person takes the side of one Vaisnava and criticises another, then certainly he is vanquished.

for some reason I thought there was more to it than this. But anyway, good passage to keep in mind when you see devotees fighting.

New Vrndavan, USA: Photos from the end of the 24 Hour Kirtan

ATD — 2009-06-21T13:40:55+00:00

Twenty four hours has come come and gone, but the kirtan is still going on! Again, log on to www.krishna.com/nv24 to catch the end!

The legendary Agnideva Prabhu singing (left of stage)

Dandavats.com: Sanatan Goswami Samadhi Repair

Administrator — 2009-06-21T13:10:37+00:00

By Deena Bandhu dasa

One day, one devotee, who wishes not to be named, came to see me. He said he had a large donation and he wanted to see Sanatan Goswami's Samadhi repaired and wanted to know if I could do it. I was completely amazed as just the day before I was thinking about this.

Kirtans in Oxford, UK: Crowd goes wild in Washington, D.C.

Kirtaniya (noreply@blogger.com) — 2009-06-21T12:11:50+00:00

While crowds went wild yesterday, at Barrack Obama's inauguration ceremony, people danced and chanted "Obama, Obama!"

The previous day, thousands gathered at the Church of the Holy City, within sight of the White House, and burst into exuberant chanting and dancing to ancient, sacred mantras - "O Rama, O Rama"

The first "Inaugural" kirtan, Chant4change, was a huge success. Tickets were sold out days in advance, and to facilitate those who hadn't managed to get one, there was a live webcast. All the most famous American kirtaniyas appeared and sang, such as Jai Uttal, Krishna das, Gaura vani, Shiva Rea, David Stringer and more.

From the very young to the quite elderly, everyone there felt it to be a tremendous occasion. Gaura vani who conceived the idea and orchestrated the event is a young kirtaniya of extraordinary energy and dedication - he has a website here. from which you can buy his CD. I have it and it is excellent!

Kirtans in Oxford, UK: Chant For Change...

Kirtaniya (noreply@blogger.com) — 2009-06-21T12:09:39+00:00

This jovial cartoon was designed for Chant4Change. Chant4Change, an intrepid group of chanters in Washington DC, have organised a prestigious kirtan event for the inauguration of the new president, next week. You can read about it and even buy a tee-shirt here. If any of our readers live in Washington, there are still some tickets left. And Mr Obama, if you are reading this - why not go along too! All proceeds to charity.

I like the way the cartoon shows chanting as transcending the differences between so many designations and bringing all into a consciousness of harmony and delight. And the inference in the name chant4change that the change so many people are hoping and longing for can only come from a purified heart, free from the negative qualities of greed and selfish desires.

The inspiration for the cartoon must surely have come from the episode pictured below of the medieval saint Sri Chaitanya, chanting and dancing with wild animals in Jarakhanda forest.

Dandavats.com: Saranagati Vedic Village Rathayatra July 4th

Administrator — 2009-06-21T09:39:20+00:00

Karunamayi dasi: Saturday, July 4th marks the annual Jagannath Rathayatra in Saranagati, BC. Kindly join us for a wonderful procession through the valley and culminating in a wonderful feast at the festival site by the lake.

Dandavats.com: Anniversary Specials

Administrator — 2009-06-21T09:37:21+00:00

Isvara Dasa: Srila Prabhupada came to this world to fulfil the order of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu that His name will be chanted all over the world.

Dandavats.com: Not Preaching? Think Again

Administrator — 2009-06-21T09:34:23+00:00

By Kesava Krsna Dasa

Many devotees, who were previously active in preaching when living full time in the temples, feel that now - living outside and earning a living – those “good old days” remain just distant topics of nostalgia. Will those days ever return, they wonder?

Dandavats.com: Kankan Kunda Revealed!

Administrator — 2009-06-21T09:30:05+00:00

By Deena Bandhu dasa

Everyone was anticipating when we would get darshan of the original Kunda excavated by Srimati Radharani and Her sakhis with their golden bangles, kankans. However the pumps that were pumping out the water were getting clogged with mud and each time they got close, they would break down.

Dandavats.com: Kancana Kunda Darshan

Administrator — 2009-06-21T09:23:47+00:00

By Devaki Prana das

After several days of battling with the upsurging waters coming into Radha Kunda from Kancana Kunda with pumps breaking, clogging pipes and goverment disunity amidst general mismanagement (a body without a head), despite such shortcomings, Sri Radha has finally allowed a darshan of Her sacred lila stan.

Dandavats.com: The Flag of Devotion

Administrator — 2009-06-21T09:17:07+00:00

By Keshava Murari das

We find that in our material endeavors, we often invoke the name or memory of someone as a way of bringing good luck. Athletes often carry good luck charms given to them by legendary figures in their sport.

ISKCON Melbourne: Daily Class - Gangesvara Prabhu

Timothy Mcleod — 2009-06-21T08:06:20+00:00

Srimad Bhagavatam 11.10.1 - Devotees must be very careful to remember the presence of the Supreme Lord while engaged in devotional service. A classic class.

Club 108, New Vrndavan: The Social Role of Cows

Club 108 (noreply@blogger.com) — 2009-06-21T08:00:54+00:00

From the May 23, 2009 edition of ISKCON News

Click here to read a great article about "The Social Role of Cows"

Club 108, New Vrndavan: ISCOWP Farms 09 Power Point

Club 108 (noreply@blogger.com) — 2009-06-21T08:00:07+00:00

“Our farm projects are an extremely important part of our movement. We must become self-sufficient by growing our own grains and producing our own milk, then there will be no question of poverty. So develop these farm communities as far as possible. They should be developed as an ideal society depending on natural products not industry.” Letter to Rupanuga 18 December 1974

Our friends at The International Society For Cow Protection have posted their 2009 ISKCON Farms Power Point Presentation.

It's informative, challenging, and inspiring, a vision we can get behind to restore Prabhupada's vital call for rural prosperity and self-sufficiency.

You can download the presentation at the ISCOWP website by clicking here

ISKCON Melbourne: Sadhana Retreat 2009 - Bhurijana Prabhu

jayendra — 2009-06-21T07:03:22+00:00

Kirtan.

H.H. Mukunda Goswami: How Krsna is an 'incarnation'?

Mukunda Goswami — 2009-06-21T07:00:00+00:00

Spoken by Srila Prabhupada on 31March 1975 in Maypur (from Adi1.7): "We have to follow the sastra; otherwise there is no other alternative to understand the exalted position of Krishna, how He expands in different forms, as Visnu, as Narayana. Sometimes they argue that Krsna is incarnation of Visnu. That is also truth. You'll find in Caitanya... Truth in this way, that when any incarnation comes, He comes through the Ksirodaksayi Visnu. But Ksirodaksayi is partial expansion of Krishna.

ISKCON Melbourne: Sadhana Retreat 2009 - Jagattarini Mataji

jayendra — 2009-06-21T06:53:23+00:00

Jaya Radha Madhava.

ISKCON Melbourne: Sadhana Retreat 2009 - Bhurijana Prabhu

jayendra — 2009-06-21T06:39:51+00:00

Day 4-The Great Hero Dhruva Maharaja 3.

ISKCON Melbourne: Sadhana Retreat 2009 - Jagattarini Mataji

jayendra — 2009-06-21T06:38:37+00:00

Day 4-The Life of Srila Madhavendra Puri 5.

ISKCON Melbourne: Sadhana Retreat 2009 - Bhurijana Prabhu

jayendra — 2009-06-21T06:36:29+00:00

Day 3-Lila Kirtan 2.

ISKCON Melbourne: Sadhana Retreat 2009 - Jagattarini Mataji

jayendra — 2009-06-21T06:34:55+00:00

Day 3-The Life of Srila Madhavendra Puri 4.

ISKCON Melbourne: Sadhana Retreat 2009 - Bhurijana Prabhu

jayendra — 2009-06-21T06:33:38+00:00

Day 3-The Great Hero Dhruva Maharaja 2.

ISKCON Melbourne: Sadhana Retreat 2009 - Jagattarini Mataji

jayendra — 2009-06-21T06:32:07+00:00

Day 3-The Life of Srila Madhavendra Puri 3.

ISKCON Melbourne: Sadhana Retreat 2009 - Bhurijana Prabhu

jayendra — 2009-06-21T06:30:13+00:00

Day 2-Lila Kirtan 1.

ISKCON Melbourne: Sadhana Retreat 2009 - Jagattarini Mataji

jayendra — 2009-06-21T06:28:43+00:00

Day 2-The Life of Srila Madhavendra Puri 2.

ISKCON Melbourne: Sadhana Retreat 2009 - Bhurijana Prabhu

jayendra — 2009-06-21T06:27:00+00:00

Day 2-The Great Hero Dhruva Maharaja 1.

ISKCON Melbourne: Sadhana Retreat 2009 - Jagattarini Mataji

jayendra — 2009-06-21T06:25:02+00:00

Day 2-The Life of Srila Madhavendra Puri 1.

ISKCON Melbourne: Sadhana Retreat 2009 - Bhurijana Prabhu

jayendra — 2009-06-21T06:22:47+00:00

Day 1-Introduction and Presentation.