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ISKCON Youth Ministry Mexico Bus Tour in Puerto Morelos

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ISKCON Youth Ministry Mexico Bus Tour in Puerto Morelos

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ISKCON Youth Ministry Mexico Bus Tour in Puerto Morelos

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Glimpses into our Krishna Culture Festival of India in the small town of Puerto Morelos, about an hour south of Cancún, on Dec. 27, 2022. ISKCON Youth Ministry Mexico Bus Tour. After the kirtan, we served everyone a delicious free vegetarian prasad meal, and encouraged participants to purchase Srila Prabhupada's books as souvenirs.

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Stimulation for Ecstatic Love Part 6 - YouTube

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Stimulation for Ecstatic Love Part 6 - YouTube

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ISKCON Leadership Sanga (ILS) 2023 at the TOVP

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ISKCON Leadership Sanga (ILS) 2023 at the TOVP

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ISKCON Leadership Sanga (ILS) 2023 at the TOVP

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Secrets to Living COMPLETE Life of Krsna Consciousness – New Year GOALS (video)

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Secrets to Living COMPLETE Life of Krsna Consciousness – New Year GOALS (video)

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New Year’s Resolutions, Samsara, and Srimad Bhagavatam

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New Year’s Resolutions, Samsara, and Srimad Bhagavatam

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2022.12.27 – Surrender to Krishna resolution for next year

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2022.12.27 – Surrender to Krishna resolution for next year

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Srimad Bhāgavatam 3.19.18-21 | HH Chandrasekhar Swami

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Srimad Bhāgavatam 3.19.18-21 | HH Chandrasekhar Swami

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Utilising Faith for Our Planet - Bhaktivedanta Manor - Hare Krishna Temple Watford

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Utilising Faith for Our Planet - Bhaktivedanta Manor - Hare Krishna Temple Watford

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Bhaktivedanta Manor - Hare Krishna Temple Watford

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Please view the December - February 2018 edition of the Bhaktivedanta Manor community newsletter HERE

The PDF file can be easily downloaded and printed.
Leading articles include:
New site for Manor School

Braving the cold to share spiritual knowledge (Winter book Marathon results)

Celebrating Lord Nityananda's Appearance

"Keep it Spiritual" - the Temple's motto for 2018

Shri Krishna Haveli project update

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Manor Newsletter online - Bhaktivedanta Manor - Hare Krishna Temple Watford

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Please view the December - February 2018 edition of the Bhaktivedanta Manor community newsletter HERE The PDF file can be easily downloaded and printed.

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Sunday gathering in Kharkiv, Ukraine – December 11, 2022 –

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Sunday gathering in Kharkiv, Ukraine – December 11, 2022 –

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ISKCON News | Niranjana Swami's Letter to North American Leaders and Congregation | ISKCON News

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ISKCON News | Niranjana Swami's Letter to North American Leaders and Congregation | ISKCON News

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Niranjana Swami’s Letter to North American Leaders and Congregation

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Date: December 13, 2022 To: North American Leaders and Congregation From: Niranjana Swami Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I visited Ukraine twice this year, in August and October. My first visit was for Janmastami and Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja. Since I was…

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Personalities from the Caitanya Caritamrita – Jagadananda Pandita, Naperville, Dec 27th 2022

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Personalities from the Caitanya Caritamrita – Jagadananda Pandita, Naperville, Dec 27th 2022

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Personalities from the Caitanya Caritamrita - Jagadananda Pandita, Naperville, Dec 27th 2022

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Personalities from the Caitanya Caritamrita - Jagadananda Pandita, Naperville, Dec 27th 2022

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Srimad Bhagavatam Class 10.43.2 | By HG Trivikram Swami Maharaj | 17th Dec 2022 | ISKCON Juhu Mumbai

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Srimad Bhagavatam Class 10.43.2 | By HG Trivikram Swami Maharaj | 17th Dec 2022 | ISKCON Juhu Mumbai

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Srimad Bhagavatam Class 10.43.2 | By HG Trivikram Swami Maharaj | 17th Dec 2022 | ISKCON Juhu Mumbai

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Srimad Bhagavatam Class 10.43.2 | By HG Trivikram Swami Maharaj | 17th Dec 2022 | ISKCON Juhu Mumbai

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Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.12 – Speaker – HG Pancaratna Das

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Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.12 – Speaker – HG Pancaratna Das

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Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.12 - Speaker - HG Pancaratna Das

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Srimad Bhagavatam Class 10.43.17 | By H.G Bhima Prabhu | 18th Dec 2022 | ISKCON Juhu Mumbai

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Srimad Bhagavatam Class 10.43.17 | By H.G Bhima Prabhu | 18th Dec 2022 | ISKCON Juhu Mumbai

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Srimad Bhagavatam Class 10.43.17 | By H.G Bhima Prabhu | 18th Dec 2022 | ISKCON Juhu Mumbai

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By Jayapataka Swami
Srila Prabhupada was given the whole world as his frontier for preaching. He wanted to fulfill Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's prediction that His holy name would be spread all over the world. Prithivite ache yata nagaradi grama / sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama (Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya 1.117). Srila Prabhupada traveled the world eleven times, published volumes of Krishna conscious books and established 108 temples and centers. Everything was a massive success.

Srila Prabhupada was the pioneer who paved the way for the future of Krishna consciousness. Millions of his books were distributed, yet at the same time he realized there were not as many devotees to match the numbers of books that had been distributed. Therefore, Srila Prabhupada said, "Training is needed."

That training is fulfilled by congregational preaching, which emphasizes small group cultivation of people, and training in the principles of devotional service. He wanted to see Krishna conscious communities develop all over the world. His vision was that people will practice and preach Krishna consciousness from their homes. The congregation can help preach alongside and support the temple preaching in various ways.

"Make Homes Into Centers"

Congregational development is an untapped field that presents new opportunities for all kinds of preachers,. It incorporates a systematic method for contacting and cultivating new devotees and engaging them in service. New people and potential devotees should, as far as possible, be brought into the loop, their details taken and follow-ups commissioned. As Srila Prabhupada said, we have to fan the fire and cause it to burn.

In the developmental stages of Krishna consciousness, new members can serve from their homes, and participate in programs at the temples. Everyone can be engaged in congregational development; everyone can be a part of the rich programs that bring in new devotees. There are possibly over one million people already in the Krishna consciousness movement. Yet we must ask ourselves, "Is everyone engaged? Particularly, is everyone engaged in bringing in new devotees?"

It is very important that people utilize their talents and abilities to give other people Krishna consciousness. This was the mood of Lord Caitanya. This is what He told the brahmana in Kurmaksetra.

"Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Sri Krishna as they are given in the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land."

-Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 7.128

The Lord instructed His follower, "Stay in your home and make your country people Krishna conscious. You do not have to become a sannyasi." This is the idea motivating congregational preaching: It is spread by those empowered by the mercy of Lord Caitanya. If the Lord desires, a devotee is able to tell people about Krishna consciousness. And there is no limit to Lord Caitanya's mercy.

Every devotee should be engaged in spreading Krishna consciousness. There is no limit to how many people can become involved and we need to get everyone involved. Everyone should see that they have a very important part to play in developing Krishna conscious communities.

People in many parts of the world are not so favorable to organized religion due to previous negative experiences. When congregational development is at the forefront of the preaching, however, people can be taught how to practice in their home, a pressure-free environment. After that, it is up to the individual to determine how much he or she wants to be involved in organized temple programs. The home can be made into a suitable place for practicing Krishna consciousness. The point is that everyone should practice Krishna consciousness. Krishna consciousness is a very open process - at any place and in any circumstance, everyone should chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and read Srila Prabhupada's books.

As one becomes more and more Krishna conscious, the temple festivals and preaching activities become naturally more attractive. Sometimes people are allergic to Krishna consciousness because they think that joining the movement means becoming a monk or living a monastic life. Of course we have that option for people who want to live as monks, but we also have the option for people to practice Krishna consciousness from their homes. Srila Prabhupada said you do not have to shave your head or join the temple. Krishna consciousness is very relevant to everyone. Congregational outreach programs bring new opportunities and new challenges. These programs save people from illusion and contamination from the material world. Krishna consciousness gets rid of the binding illusion of the material world and liberates us from material identification. We need to give people this contact with Krishna consciousness, and this is where congregational development becomes essential. Congregational development reaches out to people in various ways and gives a range of options for a variety of prospective devotees.

Another important aspect is that as the congregations grow, it becomes difficult for the temple presidents and temple devotees to care for the congregational devotees. Temple devotees have time-consuming services, deity worship, and the routine work of the temple. Caring for the congregation and training them can be done by the congregational members themselves. Helping the congregations to develop is a very exciting aspect of preaching. The more devotees are trained and inspired in Krishna consciousness, the more effulgent they become. The more active they are, the more instrumental they become in spreading the sankirtana mission..

Sometimes we do not know how to engage new devotees, especially devotees in the congregation. But the idea is that everyone can be a preacher. Lord Caitanya told the brahmana to be a preacher. Anyone can share what they know; even new devotees have something to share. They can tell their relatives, friends and neighbors about how wonderful Krishna consciousness is. Every man, woman, and child has the potential to be empowered by Lord Caitanya and do service for the temple and for the conditioned souls.

Many senior devotees have experience in the temple and in congregational preaching but don't know how to engage their talents and abilities in expanding Krishna consciousness to meet the demands of the times. This wealth of experience can be actively utilized in congregational preaching. I know some devotees who have their own Nama-hattas or Bhakti-vrikshas and they engage their time in cultivating people in Krishna consciousness. One example is Matsya Avatara Dasa, who has his own center in Italy for training people. (Prabhu's testimonial is included in this book.) Some devotees may preach in a big way, and some may preach in a small way from their home. By "preaching" we do not mean in a negative, pushy way. Effective preaching means sharing information and distributing our wealth of experience to help new people see the value of taking up the process of bhakti-yoga. Congregational preaching offers a wide range of opportunities for devotees to help people go back to Godhead. If one person goes back to Godhead, then the person who helped them gets a free ticket to the spiritual world.

We know that when we help others come to Krishna consciousness, our own spiritual progress is increased. I know some families who were living in an environment unfavorable to spiritual life. But when the family worked together to spread Krishna consciousness, the whole environment changed. The family members became preachers, soldiers in Krishna consciousness, serving in Lord Caitanya's army to deliver the conditioned souls.

Another avenue where congregational preachers may have considerable influence are yoga and vegetarian societies. Millions of gurus and organizations promoting different varieties of yoga and vegetarianism. People are interested in things that are favorable to a Krishna conscious lifestyle. Hare Krishna devotees can try to make bhakti-yoga attractive to them. We can propose, "Why stop at hatha- yoga when you can go for the topmost yoga, bhakti?" This is an opportunity for our devotees to bring practitioners of other types of yoga to higher levels.

Congregational development was the original preaching program of Lord Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada

Srila Prabhupada mentioned that Lord Caitanya did not personally establish any temples. Lord Caitanya spread the congregational chanting of Hare Krishna by preaching everywhere He went. Lord Nityananda started the Nama-hatta. But even before Lord Nityananda and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu started the sankirtana movement, Srila Krsna Dasa Kaviraja Gosvami described in Caitanya-caritamrta that Advaita Acharya, Srivas Thakura, and the Vaisnavas of Nadia district held meetings in the devotees' homes. From Sri Caintanya-bhagavat (2.111) we find that Srivas Pandit and his brother loved to chant the names of Hari in his house.

After Lord Caitanya went to Sri Jagannath Puri, He sent Lord Nityananda to Bengal to start Nama-hatta. Then there was a gap of four hundred years. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura revived Nama-hatta and wrote about the importance of congregational preaching. He had over five hundred Nama-hatta groups all over Bengal. These groups were more developed than what we call Nama-hatta today. Some of the groups would meet daily. Bhaktivinoda Thakura required that every full-time member of the Nama-hatta visit five homes per day with a flag in their hand. The name of the flag was the "Victory Flag of the Holy Name." The devotees would go door-to-door and chant Hare Krishna just like the original followers of Lord Caitanya. This style of preaching is very good for learning how to surrender to Krishna.

The Nama-hatta groups were called prapanna ashram (a center of surrender), and the homes that were Krishna conscious were called sraddha kutirs (a home of the faithful). Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura developed very extensive programs to involve people in preaching and, with his followers, organized different festivals called maha-utsavas.

Later, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati took over the birth place of Mahaprabhu and formed a matha. He established 64 temples and preached in London and Bangladesh. He said book distribution was the brihad mridanga. Book publication was most important in his vision, yet when he gave his final address to his disciples, he conveyed a more holistic view of the preaching: he talked about the importance of developing the Gaura Mandal parikrama. He stressed the importance of devotees serving the holy dham. Book publication and distribution and Nama-hatta preaching will bring more people into the Mayapur parikrama. With the development of Sri Dham Mayapur and increased book distribution and Nama-hatta groups, congregational development will take on even more importance.

Preaching Is the Essence

The Congregational Development Ministry is trying to develop different strategies to stimulate the preaching work. These preaching methods can be standardized, copied, refined, and perfected. Some of the preaching programs were developed by devotees in the field. Some approaches (like the cell-program) already existed, and we adapted the method to suit our Vaisnava tradition. Some things were done by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu 500 years ago, and we are continuing in the tradition He established. And, of course, we are always trying to improve in every respect. Presently we have many Nama-hatta groups, and the devotees are holding kirtana, lectures, and distributing prasada. One of the interesting priorities is identifying and recognizing Krishna conscious families. We want to give them recognition by calling them Sraddha Kutirs. We need millions of Krishna conscious families in the world to be bases for Krishna consciousness.

The activities of many groups will be discussed in this book so that readers can understand the different systems in summary. Of course, if one wishes to delve deeper into any of the subjects, The Bhakti-vriksha Manual and the Congregational Preaching Journal are available from our Ministry library and give more detailed information. In The Nectar of Congregational Preaching some of the programs that will be discussed are:

In the future we are certain that new ideas will arise as devotees become more and more determined to spread Krishna consciousness. The different kinds of preaching are like links in a chain. Books are the basis, preaching is the essence. To pull people out of material suffering, we need a strong chain of different kinds of connected preaching. We want to pull this civilization up. We want an ISKCON where congregational preaching is very strong. We need many expert preachers. For that purpose, we have compiled this book. We hope that people take some inspiration from it, get a vision from it, and get some ideas about what they can do within their realm of congregational development.

What is congregational preaching?

Even after many years, a clear understanding of congregational preaching has yet to emerge in many devotees' consciousness. Many devotees seem confused, even mystified, about what congregational preaching is. They are not able to grasp that what has actually developed in this field is relevant to them. Congregational preaching is relevant to every person in the Krishna consciousness movement. It's a basic necessity for us to preach. We hope that The Nectar of Congregational Preaching will provide basic information about the field. We seek to clarify what congregational preaching is and give an overview of many of the basic programs. We hope that all of the mysteries will be revealed and that devotees will become part of the inner circle by reading this book. We want that preachers and devotees at all levels get a taste of the nectar by reading this book.

We have compiled testimonials of various senior devotees, sannyasis, preachers, gurus, and devotees who have direct, hands-on experience in congregational preaching. We have tried to address the following questions:

It is important to hear from the congregational field preachers, the people who are actually serving as congregational preachers as their primary service to Lord Krishna. When we read their realizations, it's enlightening for all of us. What do they feel? What do they experience? What are the challenges that they face? What are the goals that they have? We hope that some of these questions will be answered in the following pages.

Sometimes Srila Prabhupada criticized inactive Hindus who just believe, but don't practice defending, propagating, or protecting their own religion. We want to avoid a static congregation. Static congregations don't help spread the Krishna consciousness movement, don't help support the temples, nor help in saving the conditioned souls-this is what we don't want. There's a need for engaging everyone in congregational preaching. We want dynamic congregations in every temple. We want congregations that are actively preaching and are empowered, enlivened, and enthusiastically bringing in new devotees. We want congregations that are supporting Krishna conscious programs to their capacity. Everyone has their different capacity. Many devotees have household duties, and it is understood that there will be a limit to the amount of time they can give. But there's a need for everyone to identify themselves as congregational preachers to make a bigger community. We need everyone to give some time and some energy to make it all progress.

In 1972 or 1973, Srila Prabhupada urged the English devotees to reproduce the wonderful book distribution results of their American godbrothers. The boxes of Krishna books and The Teachings of Lord Caitanya filled the book room at the Bhaktivedanta Manor and devotees were wondering how they could distribute so many books. Tribhuvanatha Dasa, who was very enthusiastic about Hare Krishna festivals and who had been very much encouraged by Srila Prabhupada, became concerned that perhaps he should stop the festivals and simply distribute books instead. When he expressed this to him on a morning walk, Srila Prabhupada quickly turned around, struck the end of his cane on the ground, and said very firmly: "No. Everything should go on simultaneously - side by side."

Temple devotees should be trained in congregational preaching so that they can make new devotees from people who don't fit into the temple devotee profile and make them part of the congregation. We have options to offer. Everyone should know what those options are and the methods by which we identify whether a person is suitable to be a temple devotee or is better situated as a congregational devotee. Then we can preach accordingly.

Hare Krishna,

Jayapataka Swami
Minister, ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry

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By Jayapataka Swami Srila Prabhupada was given the whole world as his frontier for preaching. He wanted to fulfill Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's prediction that His holy name would be spread all over the world. Prithivite ache yata nagaradi grama / sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama (Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya 1.117).

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A Meditation on the Importance of True Humility

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A Meditation on the Importance of True Humility

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From Back to Godhead

By Guru Dasa (Gurudev D. Allin), a disciple of His Holiness Bhaktimarga Swami.

"Oh, God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams." Shakespeare's Hamlet, 2.2 (First Folio) This line from Hamlet nicely sums up the absurdity of our delusions of self-importance. I wrote this meditation on the importance of humility as part of my effort to shake my own delusions of knowledge and significance.

Human nature seems to drive us to thinking we know more than we actually know. I like to tell people, "The more you know, the more you know you don't know." I believe this principle holds true for any sphere of human activity or learning, be it scientific, theological, or anything else, even vocations.

We should always try to appreciate that the "unknown unknowns" - those things we do not know that we do not know - vastly outweigh both the tiny pittance of knowledge we have obtained in our years and those things we actually understand we don't know.

We are all in that boat no matter how accomplished, learned, or scholarly, but appreciating that fact takes effort. We seem to be hardwired to think we understand things even if we do not. I count myself as no exception to this rule, and it takes great mental effort for me to step outside of my own shoes and even try to appreciate my own ignorance.

"The more you know, the more you know you don't know" could be regarded as a truism. Merriam-Webster defines truism as "an undoubted or self-evident truth." This same truism goes for all fields of so-called knowledge, including all faith traditions, all philosophical points of view, and all sciences, whether considered "soft" or "hard" or anything in between. You see this false confidence in the rabid atheist who insists that there is no God and no such thing as the soul. You see it in the fanatic who shouts that nobody else understands God or that everyone else is going to hell for their sins.

We followers of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition and of Srila Prabhupada are not exempt either. Generally speaking, we all have our anarthas, the dirt in our minds and our hearts that causes us to be arrogant or do things that are unhelpful for ourselves or others. We also all have our false ego, or ahankara, that false sense of self that identifies with our specific situation of the moment. This is our "false ego" - a false sense of self - and it evolves over the course of our life and from one life to another. It is temporary, as are all things in this material world.

The Tao Te Ching advises that humility is the best policy. One quote I like is translated as follows: "If the sage wants to stand above people, he must speak to them from below. If he wants to lead people, he must follow them from behind." (Chapter 66) Leadership and humility paradoxically go together. We don't often associate leaders with humility, but wisdom traditions teach us they do go together.

Jesus also advised humility. He said, "So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen." Matthew (King James Version) 20:16.

Last year I heard a talk about this same principle at a conference in San Francisco attended by hundreds of defense and corporate lawyers. We were told how the U.S. Marines follow this principle - they eat together by reverse rank order. The newest private eats first. The general eats last. It is not a written rule but is a tradition going back for centuries. This practice of humility demonstrates leadership and quality of character.

Our own shastras are replete with examples of humility. Even God Himself shows by example the importance of humility. Lord Chaitanya, whom we accept to be an incarnation of God, often speaks humbly in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, disclaiming His own divinity and knowledge, or claiming He is a fool or pretender even though He is God Himself posing as His own devotee. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam we have many examples of demigods - advanced souls invested with great opulence and cosmic responsibilities - being humbled or having faults. We have the story of Lord Brahma trying to trick Krishna (God) and finding out that he is only one of numberless Brahmas. There is a reason for all this. It is all directing us to endeavor for humility if we really want to make spiritual progress.

Fighting Our False Pride

We must always fight our false pride. False pride in ourselves or in our knowledge makes us miserable. Humility is liberating. When I think about how small I am and how little I actually know, it is liberating, like a weight lifted off my back. I am not in control, so why worry? Stress at work? Stress at home? It will all pass. It is just material nature and time playing their usual tricks. All of our stresses and insecurities are like a fleeting shadow play. Shakespeare said it well: "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts."

We all have our parts to play at various stages of life, but unlike the actors in a Shakespeare play, we forget we are acting and think we are the character we are playing.

Our false pride also corrupts our sentiments about who God is. One of my favorite verses in the Srimad-Bhagavatam is "O brahmanas, the incarnations of the Lord are innumerable, like rivulets flowing from inexhaustible sources of water." (1.3.26) This makes intuitive sense. Could a limited God be God? Doesn't that defeat the very definition of God? Shouldn't God have limitless forms and activities?

Who are we to understand God? We do not even understand ourselves, what to speak of God or God's spiritual world. How arrogant is it to think we understand who God is? Don't we all box God in within our minds even if unknowingly?

Another area where this comes into play is the seeming conflicts between faith and the sciences. Over the years I have thought about this topic quite a bit, and now I ask myself this: Do I really understand either the sciences I look to or the scriptures I have faith in? I like to think I do as to both, but in truth I do not understand either fully. Therefore there is no need to dwell on any seeming conflicts between science and faith.

I have faith in God, but not blind or unreasoned faith. My faith in God is tested by critical thought, and that testing strengthens it. If I were to have only blind faith, I'd easily be swayed away from faith.

True humility does not mean self-hatred. It's an acknowledgment of our own limitations, and that is all. As I have heard some wise friends say, one who is humble does not think less of himself, but thinks of himself less. We should seek that humility which does not diminish our sense of self-worth but abhors narcissism and self-promotion.

Finally, the value of humility in our spiritual quest is that it opens our minds and hearts to instruction from higher authorities. If we do not have humility, we close the door to learning. Spiritual sources of knowledge are guru, sadhu, and shastra. It's easy to feign respect for these higher authorities and put on a show of humility; it's not as easy to truly achieve that humility. Without achieving it, who are we fooling? We might fool others, and we might fool ourselves, but we can't fool the Paramatma in our hearts, the Supersoul who sees and knows all. Ultimately only the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the witness who actually matters - and we can't fool him. So why try?

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A Meditation on the Importance of True Humility

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From Back to Godhead By Guru Dasa (Gurudev D. Allin), a disciple of His Holiness Bhaktimarga Swami. "Oh, God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams." Shakespeare's Hamlet, 2.2 (First Folio) This line from Hamlet nicely sums up the absurdity of our delusions of self-importance.

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By Purushottam Nitai Das
"Fake News" is in the news, everyone seems to be or pretend to be worried about it. A news or an information or a story or a data is considered "fake" when the truth is suppressed and is manipulated to suit a certain narrative. Political parties, journalists, twitter warriors, social activists today do not hesitate to spread fake news to further their agenda. Thinking people are up in arms and are vociferously demanding to check the menace of fake news.

It is good to be concerned about the fake news but since time immemorial we have been victim of fake news from a very powerful news agency but most of us never bother to counter it. When the intelligent men and women caution us we ignore their warning. The Lord's illusory energy's powerful news agency "Maya Times" has been peddling the fake news and we gullible people have been blindly believing it.
Two important lies peddled by Maya Times are:
Since childhood this principle is inserted in our brain and we are made to believe that happiness is directly proportional to worldly achievement. So we work extremely hard to climb the ladder of success and we are ready to pay any price to achieve our coveted goals. During the journey we are ready to sacrifice anything and everything - for wealth we compromise our health, we do not even hesitate to forego our near and dear ones. Our endeavor for material positions and possessions are akin to building a castle of sand.

Firstly, most of us do not get what we want in our life and so we feel miserable from within always. Either we lack the skill, the opportunity, the support, the environment or the lady luck constantly betrays us.

Secondly even if we get, we do not find any satisfaction in our heart. Failing to understand why is it so we hanker for more.

Thirdly, all our endeavours are filled with fear. Bhartrhari explains that there are nine types of fear: bhoge roga-bhayam kule cyutibhayam vitte nrpalad bhayam mane dainya-bhayam bale ripubhayam rupe jaraya bhayam sastre vadi-bhayam gune khalabhayam kaye krtantad bhayam sarvam vastu bhayanvitam bhuvi nrnam vairagyam evabhayam [Vairagya-satakam 31]

In enjoyment there is fear of disease;

In a family there is fear of disgrace;

In wealth there is fear of hostile rulers;

In honor there is fear of humiliation;

In knowledge there is fear of opponents;

In beauty there is fear of old age;

In power there is fear of backbiters;

In virtue there is fear of jealousy;

In body there is fear of death.

Frustration, failure, anxiety, betrayal, humiliation constantly haunts us. Recently during the Karnataka assembly election when one of the aspiring candidates was not given ticket then publicly he started crying! He felt betrayed. Yes, we may be put into a hopeless situation at any moment.

Although we know that life here is as permanent as a bubble in the ocean still we try our best to live here as if we are going to be here forever. We are perennial losers, we lose everything of this world. But the veil of ignorance is so thick that in spite of knowing the reality we shrug it off. Just like a goat standing in front of a butcher's shop continue munching on green grass oblivious of the fact that the butcher's knife is just waiting for him, we too try to enjoy in this world without bothering that the agents of death can knock at our door at any moment.

Krishna, our Supreme Father, knows our precarious situation. He tries his best to make sure that we are not misled by the fake assurances and promises of "Maya Times". This is why He provided us the fact checking books - the Vedic literatures. If we refer the holy Vedas and listen carefully to holy sages we would find that they have been logically and with data have been exposing the nefarious designs of "Maya Times."

Srimad Bhagavatam 7.9.25 explains, "In this material world, every living entity desires some future happiness, which is exactly like a mirage in the desert. Where is water in the desert, or, in other words, where is happiness in this material world? As for this body, what is its value? It is merely a source of various diseases. The so-called philosophers, scientists and politicians know this very well, but nonetheless they aspire for temporary happiness. Happiness is very difficult to obtain, but because they are unable to control their senses, they run after the so-called happiness of the material world and never come to the right conclusion."

Will a hungry and thirsty person ever feel satisfied if we apply sandalwood pulp all over his body or decorate his body with valuable jewels? Definitely not. Will a fish be satisfied if we take it from the water and put it inside a waterless golden jar? The fish will die, for sure.

Similarly, as we are souls, having the covering of material body, so no matter how nicely we take care of our body unless and until we understand the needs and requirements of the soul we will never experience joy in our life. As soul belongs to the spiritual world, so how can it be happy in a foreign land in an unfavorable condition. The soul continuously longs for Krishna's love but unfortunately we try to give everything but Krishna.

Maya forces us to believe that happiness can be attained in this material world. Srila Prabhupada points out, "This place is miserable. But maya's illusion, we are taking this miserable condition of life as happiness. This is called maya. There is no happiness in this material world. Everything miserable." Lecture on BG 2.6 - London, August 6, 1973.

Animals do not have sufficient intelligence to scrutinize the false claims of "Maya Times" but we do have. Let us ask ourselves: In spite of all our efforts why are we suffering? Why our life is not eternal? Who is Krishna and what is our relationship with Krishna? Let us not just ask but also start working on the solution.

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By Purushottam Nitai Das "Fake News" is in the news, everyone seems to be or pretend to be worried about it. A news or an information or a story or a data is considered "fake" when the truth is suppressed and is manipulated to suit a certain narrative.

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Cultivating your area | ISKCON Book Distribution

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Cultivating your area | ISKCON Book Distribution

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Posted on Dec 29, 2022 in Sankirtan Stories

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Dandavats.com: Srimad Bhagavatam Class 10.44.8 to14 | By H.G...

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Dandavats.com: Srimad Bhagavatam Class 10.44.8 to14 | By H.G...

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Srimad Bhagavatam Class 10.44.8 to14 | By H.G Aniruddha Prabhu - 27 December 2022 (video) ISKCON Juhu Mumbai Watch it here: https://bit.ly/3YZyQMj

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Do you want to end the cause of the conditioned state of existence?

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Do you want to end the cause of the conditioned state of existence?

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Do you want to end the cause of the conditioned state of existence?
Read how you can achieve it according to Srimad-Bhagavatam and Srila Prabhupada.
"Thus being fixed, one must render service unto the Supersoul situated in everyone's own heart by His omnipotency. Because He is the Almighty Personality of Godhead, eternal and unlimited, He is the ultimate goal of life, and by worshiping Him one can end the cause of conditioned state of existence."

Prabhupāda: [ Prema-dhvani] Thank you very much.

[28:48] Hmm. [sings Jaya Rādhā-Mādhava] [ Prema-dhvani] Thank you very much. [Devotees offer obeisances]

Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [Prabhupāda and devotees repeat] Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2nd Canto, 2nd Chapter, verse number 6.

"Thus being fixed, one must render service unto the Supersoul situated in everyone's own heart by His omnipotency. Because He is the Almighty Personality of Godhead, eternal and unlimited, He is the ultimate goal of life, and by worshiping Him one
can end the cause of conditioned state of existence."

So last night we discussed that why one should bother about his maintenance and go to beg from a person who is very proud of his wealth. He can arrange his own living condition. The living condition is āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ [ Hitopadeśa 25]. So far one is in the renounced order of life, so he should first of all renounce the sex life and the state of fearfulness. That is renounced. Just like here there are many brahmacārīs, sannyāsīs. They are supposed to be renounced
order, especially the sannyāsī, and vānaprastha, brahmacārī. Renounced. First renunciation is to renounce sense gratification. Therefore the person in renounced order is called svāmī. Svāmī means master. Or gosvāmī. So go means "senses," and svāmī means "master." One who has become master of his senses, he is gosvāmī or svāmī. Otherwise, if one is servant of his senses, how he can be svāmī or gosvāmī? Every word has got meaning. So one has to renounce. This is material life. Material life means everyone is engaged for sense gratification, and that is taken as the advancement of civilization. The same sense gratification in different way, same
intoxication, same meat-eating, same sex life; either go to club or naked club or this club. Therefore the practice is the same. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām [SB 7.5.30], repetition of chewing the chewed. This is material life.

So renounced order means to stop; not stop, at least control sense gratification. That is renounced order. And without being in renounced order you cannot go to the spiritual world. Just like if your..., your hand is there, you have got something
which is not very good within your hand, and if you want to take something better, so you have to throw it away and take it, the better one. You cannot keep the both things. That is not possible. Therefore, what is the difference between material
life and spiritual life? Material life means simply full of problems, every step. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ [SB 10.14.58]. Simply dangerous. We are riding very nicely, comfortably, in a Cadillac car or motorcar, but we are riding on danger,
that's all. We are driving; any moment the car may be smashed, especially in your country. [laughter] Any moment. So shall I sit down at home? No. At home also there may be so many dangers. We are in dangers. Simply we are trying to counteract
it. That is called advancement of civilization. The animals, they depend on nature's protection. But we are human being; we are utilizing our higher consciousness, higher intelligence-the same thing. The Russia is manufacturing an, what is called,
weapon, an atom bomb. So...

Devotee: Nuclear weapons.

Prabhupāda: Nuclear, yes. And America is also trying to. And the cat and dog, they are trying to protect by their nails and teeth. So the real question is defense. So the defense is... It is not that because we have got better life than the
cats and dogs we haven't got to defend. We have to defend. This is..., but in a better way. Not better way-after all, we have to die. So anyway, we think that is a better way of defense.

So material life means only busy in four things = how to eat, how to sleep, and how to have nice sex and how to defend = āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca sāmānyam etat paśubhir narāṇām [ Hitopadeśa]. But these things are not solving
our problems. That we do not understand. The problems are there. Not that we Indians who have come to America to see that very rich nation, whether they have solved their problems. No. There are problems-more problems than India. India may have
only one problem, that there is... Actually there is no, but we are advertised that Indians are starving. But I have not seen anyone starving. Anyway, so the problem is there. The material life means problem, and if you want to solve the problems,
then here is the prescription given = taṁ nirvṛto niyatārtho bhajeta. Taṁ means the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Then the question may be, "Now you have asked me to give up all endeavor for maintaining yourself, Śukadeva Gosvāmī. You have prescribed that for your food you just wait under the tree, and he will give you some fruits; you can eat. For water you
go to the river and drink as much water as you like." Then, before this verse, he said, "For sleeping, there is very nice mattress in the grass. I won't require any pillow. Now you have got natural pillow this; you have got your hand. Lie down."
So, āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca. But if you want to advance in spiritual life, simply you have to give up this sense gratification. And the essence of sense gratification is sex life. Otherwise, there is full arrangement for your eating,
sleeping, compartment, apartment. Everything is there. Temple also there you have got. "Where is the temple? I want to worship God. Where is church? Where is temple? If I live on the cave, then I will have to find out another means to go to the
temple." Therefore Śukadeva Gosvāmī advises, "No." Evaṁ sva-citte svata eva siddha. "Your, within the core of your heart, the Lord is there. You sit down anywhere-in the cave, in the jungle or anywhere. If you like, you can find out
the Lord is there within your heart," īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati [Bg. 18.61].

Kṛṣṇa says that the Supreme Lord-that means He-He is situated in everyone's heart. If we are sincere... "We" means these living entities. We are also living within this body. Asmin dehe, dehino 'smi..., dehino 'smin dehe [Bg. 2.13]. We
are not this body. I am, you are, we are also situated within this body, and Kṛṣṇa is also situated within this body. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe [Bg. 18.61]. It is not that He is situated in the heart of the Hindus and not of the
others. No. Everyone. Sarva-bhūtānāṁ. He is situated even within the heart of cats and dogs and tigers and others. Everyone. That is īśvaraḥ. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe. This verse we have repeatedly discussed-it is very,
very important-that this body is just like a motorcar, yantra. Māyayā... Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrā rūḍhāni māyayā [Bg. 18.61]. Māyayā. Through the agency of māyā, material energy, this vehicle, machine, has been
given to me. Why? Because I wanted to wander throughout the universe, just like they are going to the moon planet. So everyone has got this. This is called philosophical ideas. Everyone, every human being, if he is at all human being, he considers.
That is philosophical mind. He considers, "Oh, there are so many stars. Whether..., what they are doing? How many men are there? Whether there is motorcar? Whether there is hill, ocean?" These questions automatically come to an intelligent man.
That is the beginning of philosophy. Natural.

So actually that is the fact. We are traveling all over the universe. Not only that we have come to this planet. We have traveled many other planets. Otherwise, how Kṛṣṇa says bhrāmayan, wandering; sarva-bhūtāni, all living entities-either
in the higher planetary system or this lower planetary system? And how he is traveling? Yantrārūḍhāni. This yantra, this body. He is given body. Now if I want to go to the moon planet and other higher planet, yes, you will get.
But not this yantra, your so-called teeny sputnik. No. You have to take the yantra, the car, the vehicle, from Kṛṣṇa. He will give you if you want, if you are serious, that if you want to go to the moon planet, then you pray
to Kṛṣṇa that "Give me a yantra, or a machine, I can go to the moon planet." Then you can go. Otherwise you will unnecessarily spend money and try to go somewhere and bring some dust, and you will say, "Now I..., we are triumphant." That's
all. But if you want to go there seriously, then you have to prepare yourself in this life. Pray to the Supreme Lord, who has created all this moon and sun and other and this planet, and He will make you befitting, qualified to go there. You cannot
go to the sun planet. It is very, very hot, high temperature. Similarly, it is very, very cold in the moon planet. So how you can go with this body? This body means this machine.

Then you have to accept another machine. That is the process. That is the process. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā:

Everything is clearly stated there, that if you want to go to the heavenly planets or higher planetary system, they are in the..., in front of you. You can see them, that the sun planet is there; but you are so unqualified you cannot go there. But
the thing is there. It is not fictitious. The temperature is there, śāstra description, yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇāṁ [Bs. 5.52]. Savitā means the sun. He is the eye of all the planets, because without sunshine
you cannot see. You are very much proud of your eyes, but as soon as there is no sun, then you are blind. Therefore, yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇāṁ. All, all the planets, unless there is sunlight you cannot see. And the sun planet
is there in front of you. Every morning you are getting the sunshine. Why don't you go there? Huh? Go. You have got nice 747. [laughter] That you cannot. Then you have to pray. Īśvara, Kṛṣṇa, is within your heart, and if you fervently
pray, He is very kind. Therefore He gives you different types of vehicle. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā [Bg. 18.61]. Bhrāmayan means making him wandering in every planet, in every species of life. Sarva-bhūtāni: all species of life. There are different types of birds, different types of beasts, different types of human being. This is called vicitra, varieties. God's creation is varieties.

So if you want to go somewhere within this material world or beyond this material world, beyond this material world = paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ [Bg. 8.20]. Kṛṣṇa giving you the information that there is another
material nature. That is spiritual nature. Just like we have got this experience, although we could not go anywhere, but we see, by studying geography, that there are many, many hundred, thousands and millions of planets. Similarly, there is another
nature. There also, similarly. The same-not only same; it is three times more than in this material world. This is only God's one part of creation. Ekāṁśena sthito jagat.

When Kṛṣṇa wanted to know..., Arjuna wanted to know from Kṛṣṇa, "How much Your potency is extended? How You are working? I want to know." Because he is inquisitive, brahma-jijñāsā. He is trying to understand what is God. And God is personally
replying. So He has stated in that chapter that "I am this amongst these; I am this amongst these; I am this." Then, then He summarizes that "How much I shall say? Just try to understand Me, My potency, that the..., this material world there are
innumerable universes, and in each universe there are innumerable planets. So I want in every one of them," viṣṭabhyāham idaṁ kṛtsnam, "all of them, and I maintain them." Just like Kṛṣṇa is situated in everyone's heart, then the..., similarly,
Kṛṣṇa is situated in everything, even within the atom. That is Kṛṣṇa. We want to imitate Kṛṣṇa, but if I..., if we are asked that "You enter into the atom," "That I cannot do." No.

Kṛṣṇa, God, means He is..., can, He can be, become that the greater than the greatest. We can conceive of the greatest, the universe. So, not only this universe, but many millions of universes, they are being created from the holes of..., of His bodily
hair. Yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vila-jā jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ [ Bs 5.48]. That is God. Probably we have got many millions of holes on our body. So God has got, Mahā-Viṣṇu, and from that hole universes are
coming out, continually, breathing. Yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam. So you must have what is the conception of God = greater than the greatest, and smaller than the smallest. That is God. He can produce these big, big universes simply by breathing,
and again-we do not know how many atoms are there in each universe-He can enter in each atom. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-sthaṁ.

This is the conception of God.

So here the proposal is that we are suffering in this material world, that we are simply thinking that "In future we shall be happy if I do like this." But before that future comes, we become finished. This is our position. Not only once, but many
times. Still I, you, have opinion. Just like the so-called scientist = millions of years' gap, and then this will be happening, this will be happening. No. These are all nonsense. Then how-your age is fifty or sixty years-how you are considering
millions of years? Your fifty, sixty years of age will be millions' time finished before you realize the truth. But the so-called scientists, they are thinking, "No. This fifty, sixty years is large extent of..., span of life." In that way cannot
understand. That is not possible. Ciraṁ vicinvan. If you stipulate in this foolish way for ciraṁ, eternally, still you cannot understand. Ciraṁ vicinvan.

Ciraṁ means "eternally." If you speculate to understand God by your teeny brain and limited sense perception, it will be none. To take the prescription of the śāstra, if you want, the first is that you must give up material attachment.
Nivṛtta... [aside:] Take this. Material attachment, so long I will be attracted by material things, Kṛṣṇa will give me a relative body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir [Bg. 2.13]. If we want this temporary material enjoyment, then according
to the body there is enjoyment. In the ant's life there is also the same thing = eating, sleeping, sex and defense. And in the Lord Indra's, or the King Indra, the heavenly king, he has all the same propensity-eating, sleeping, mating and defense.
So if you go to the moon planet or sun planet or the topmost planets, wherever you go, the four things will follow = eating, sleeping, mating, defense; and birth, death, old age and disease.

So, so long I shall remain in this material world, I may be Lord Indra, Lord Brahmā, or President of America, or this or that-you cannot avoid these four things. That is material existence. That is the fact. But if you want to solve the problem,
then this is the process giving = the nivṛtta. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ. Don't aspire for material enjoyment. Enjoyment is there. Don't think that "If I stop my material enjoyment, then my life of enjoyment is finished." No. It is not finished.
Just like a diseased man = he is also eating, he is also sleeping, he is also having other duties; but that he is eating, sleeping, and the healthy man's eating, sleeping is not the same thing. Similarly, our material enjoyment-the eating, sleeping,
mating and defense-that is with..., full of dangers. We cannot enjoy without any hindrance. There are so many hindrances.

So if we want that uninterrupted happiness... Happiness is there. Just like a diseased man, he is also eating, and the healthy man is eating. But he is having bitter taste. A man with jaundice, if you give him sugar candy, he will taste as bitter.
That's a fact. But the same person who is cured from the jaundice disease, he will taste it very sweet. Similarly, in the material condition of life there are so many inebrieties, we cannot enjoy life fully. If you want full enjoyment of life,
then you must come to the spiritual platform. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam [Bg. 8.15]. This material world has been described in the Bhagavad-gītā that this is duḥkhālayam. It is the place of miseries. Then if you say, "No,
I have made arrangement. I have got now good, nice bank balance. My wife is very nice, my children are also very nice, so I don't mind. I shall remain in the material world," Kṛṣṇa says aśāśvatam: "No, sir. You cannot live here. You will
be kicked out." Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. If you agree to stay here, in this miserable condition of life, that is also not allowed. No permanent settlement. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir.

So these problems, where is the scientists they are discussing about these problem? But the problems are there. Who wants to give up whatever family he has got? Everyone has got family, but nobody wants to give up his family. But by force he is taken
away. The man is crying, "Oh, I am now going. I am now dying. What will happen to my wife, my children?" He is forced. He must get out. So this is the problem. So where is the solution of the problem? There is no solution of the problem. If you
want solution of the problem, then Kṛṣṇa says,

"If one comes to Me," mām upetya, "then he hasn't got to come to, again, in this material world full of miseries."

So here Śukadeva Gosvāmī is suggesting that you become devotee. Your all problems will be solved. He is describing here, evaṁ sva-citte svata eva siddha [SB 2.2.6]. You don't have to find out where is God, God is there within your heart,
svata eva. How he has come? Svata eva. He is so kind that he is by his own nature, by his habit, he is accompanying you, as friend, just to save you. Just to save you. You are rotting in this material world and Kṛṣṇa, God is
within your heart, just to, looking forward, when you will say, "Kṛṣṇa, now I have finished my business, please save me". He is simply waiting, and he says, " sarva-dharmān parityajya [Bg. 18.66], you rascal, you are simply suffering,
you give up all this nonsense engagement, you surrender unto Me, I shall give you protection." Kṛṣṇa is opportunities, he is looking after the opportunities when after being thoroughly being experienced, that your so-called material life hasn't
given you any comfort at any moment, now you surrender unto the Supreme Lord. That opportunity he is saying, therefore He comes, just to offer, paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya. Those who are a little advanced, Kṛṣṇa gives His instruction,
"Oh, you are very nice, all right, satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ [Bg. 9.14]. You, 24 hours chant about Me, satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ, satataṁ. Satataṁ means knowledge. Caitanya Mahāprabhu also says, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ [Cc. Ādi 17.31]. So this is the opportunity to make solution of all the problems, bhajeta taṁ, bhajeta, bhaja, this is Sanskrit word, the root meaning is to serve, bhajeta. How bhajeta? Taṁ nirvṛto niyatārtho bhajeta [SB 2.2.6]. You become relieved from all these so-called material duties.

Nirvṛta. Nirvṛto niyatārthaḥ. Niyata artha means that is your permanent duty. Artha. Artha means the aim of life or the achievement. Niyata. That is your real purpose of life. "Real purpose of" means that you are part and
parcel of God, and He is waiting when you give up service, your manufactured service, and come to this service of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotional service. Then what will be the result? Saṁsāra-hetūparamaś ca. Your this material life begun
because you did not like to serve Kṛṣṇa. Saṁsāra. Saṁsāra means this material life. Saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka-trāṇāya kāruṇya-ghanāghanatvam. So it is the spiritual master's duty is, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, that inform this, that
"You are suffering in this material world. So because you wanted to be relieved from the suffering, so here is the message. Here is the message." Satataṁ kīrtayanto mām [Bg. 9.14]. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that, enechi auṣadhi māyā nāśibāro lāgi'. "This māyā, this illusion, you want to get relief from this illusion. So I have brought medicine for you." Enechi auṣadhi. Auṣadhi means medicine. Enechi, "I have brought," enechi auṣadhi māyā nāśibāro, "to...,
just to drive away this māyā." What is that? Hari-nāma mahā-mantra lao tumi māgi'. Māgi, "you voluntarily take it." He doesn't force. That is not good. It is not force.

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means on behalf of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, we are canvassing from door to door; "My dear sir, you are very intelligent, but you are suffering always. Take this medicine. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa."

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya! Haribol! [applause] [end]

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Do you want to end the cause of the conditioned state of existence?

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Do you want to end the cause of the conditioned state of existence? Read how you can achieve it according to Srimad-Bhagavatam and Srila Prabhupada. "Thus being fixed, one must render service unto the Supersoul situated in everyone's own heart by His omnipotency.

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Extreme winter conditions in Canada and the USA – Why?

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Extreme winter conditions in Canada and the USA – Why?

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Extreme winter conditions in Canada and the USA – Why?

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BG 9.29: Is Krishna partial or impartial?

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BG 9.29: Is Krishna partial or impartial?

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BG 9.29: Is Krishna partial or impartial?

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Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.11 – Speaker – HG Kripanidhi Das

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Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.11 – Speaker – HG Kripanidhi Das

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Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.11 - Speaker - HG Kripanidhi Das

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Power of Obedience by Gauranga Das (4 min video)

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Power of Obedience by Gauranga Das (4 min video)

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Power of Obedience by Gauranga Das (4 min video)

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Power of Obedience by Gauranga Das (4 min video) The ability to reciprocate with the changing demands of the Lord. Watch it here: https://is.gd/L5QDE2

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Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death (video)

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Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death (video)

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Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death (video)

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Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death (video) HH Bhakti Rasamrita Swami speaks on Srimad Bhagavatam 04.07.35 at ISKCON Perth. Watch it here: https://goo.gl/KShMy3

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How I came to Krishna Consciousness – HG Jagat Purush Das

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How I came to Krishna Consciousness – HG Jagat Purush Das

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How I came to Krishna Consciousness - HG Jagat Purush Das

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How I came to Krishna Consciousness - HG Jagat Purush Das (30 min video) Srila Prabhupada: Happiness is meant for the devotees, not for the karmis, the jnanis or the yogis. It is the property of the devotees. Just like these devotees are chanting very happily. They are not expecting anything.

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Worry is the interest we pay on loans we haven’t yet taken

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Worry is the interest we pay on loans we haven’t yet taken

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Asiatoday got an opportunity to meet a young travelling monk, Chaitanya Charan Das, from ISKCON aka Hare Krishna group. Chaitanya Charan Das is an acclaimed author, scholar, mentor, life coach, and monk. He has been an invited speaker at several international conferences on the interface of science and spirituality, including the World Peace Conference 2006 and World Peace Congress 2008 organized by UNESCO. Based in India, he has given talks at colleges and companies all over the world from Australia to America. He was visiting phoenix as part of his North America tour this year.

Asia Today(AT): It is very nice to meet you. We have heard lot about you but want to know more about of your journey to spirituality.

Chaitanya Charan Das (CCD): Nice to be here with you. I was following a normal career chart and I did engineering and was planning to come to America. I gave my GRE in 1996 and I was first in the state of Maharasthra, India to get 2350 out of 2400 at that time. And at that time my dream was two things. One was I want to achieve something extraordinary and secondly to contribute something to society. But, my criteria for achievement were primarily on academic field. I wanted to be a topper and when I got high score in GRE, I was not the first in my college, but first in the history of my university to achieve this. So, I felt my dreams come true. But then unfortunately there was no real satisfaction. Because looking at the marksheet does not give any pleasure rather someone has to come and congratulate you then only you feel happiness. I felt that I am becoming more dependent on others for my happiness. That time I came across Bhagavad Gita (BG). which helped me to understand that the real happiness is found within through spiritual realization and I started following the principles of BG. I was positively transformed. I had a short temper that time but that also substantially went down. Before that time I was looking at BG more like a religious book or a philosophical book. But later I realized that BG can also be a book for self development and for self empowerment. Parallel with my studies, I was doing some social service in my college. And as part of that social service group, I used to go to the slum and teach slum children. I would teach them english, maths and history and I found them most of the kids came from dysfunctional home. like father is alcoholic or there is so much of domestic abuse in the house. And I felt that I was really helping them substantially by teaching them maths, history etc. I was very much convinced about the power of education to help people. During that time, one of my friend was very much into social service. He went to a village and he saw how much alcoholism is creating havoc to poor people. We decided to make an anti alcohol campaign also. My friend by his effort got the whole village deaddicted from alcohol. And one day he was shattered seeing that in local panchayat election, local panchayat member has brought several free alcohol bottles and not only the father but the children are drunk. And that time I felt that by offering academic education, I am opening new options for people but people don't just need options but they also need the inner capacity to choose wisely the right option. And that inner capacity to choose wise option, I felt, can come by sharing the principles of BG. By that time I passed out from my college, one year senior to me was a student who had been university topper throughout. And he had got the highest paid job in the history of our college that time. But he was a chain smoker and within the first 6 months of his high paying job, he has been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and he died. So here it struck me that whether it is uneducated people or well educated toppers working in MNC, they all had something within them which could destroy them. And then I felt that by the knowledge of BG, we become empowered internally to make healthier choices and to resist harmful forces that reside within us. Thereafter I worked in software company for sometime but I felt that whatever I was contributing to society through writing software programs can be done by several hundreds of other people. I felt that I discovered something more valuable to contribute to society. As I said earlier, BG has been initially typecasted in my mind as Hindu religious book or as a abstract philosophical text but then after I saw it as a spiritual book which is for self empowerment. And as I was having a scientific background because of my engineering I felt that science is one big mountain of knowledge and spirituality is another big mountain of knowledge. But there are few bridges between them. I felt that with my training and experience I could contribute to the society best by presenting the wisdom of BG in contemporary scientific logical terms. And thats how I decided to dedicate my life that time onwards by studying and sharing the wisdom of BG.
AT: When you become the ISKCON's member?
CCD: In 1996, I got introduced to ISKCON and in 1998 I got passed out from my college. I worked for a year and in Feb 1999, I joined ISKCON as a monk.
AT: Somebody took you to ISKCON or you just find you own way?
CCD: In 1996, after I have given my GRE exam, it has been my anticlimax as even though I achieved what I wanted but I was not satisfied. (Smiling) I was kind of frustrated by success. Then at that time, one of my childhood friend has become introduced to ISKCON and he gave me a BG. My first reaction was I have already read this and I know this. But then when I saw how transformed he was, I was surprised. He had been a typical materialist happy go lucky kind of person but now he was so sober, gentle and transformed. I felt may be there is something in the BG that I have missed out. That was in Sep 1996.

AT: Then you became a follower of ISKCON temple from then onwards. One more question. You talked about two things. Spirituality and Science. So, so far how much successful you are in building bridge between these two.

CCD: Ok. I think making a bridge is a huge effort which will require not just one individual but the whole groups of individual working for several generations. But in my own small way, I feel that I am able to make some contribution. In last 17-18 years now, I have been speaking on BG, writing on it, since 2011 I have been writing daily on BG 300 words article in my blog Gitadaily and thousands of people reading all over the world. And I feel that on many occasions people are dramatically benefitted. In 2015, when I came first to a tour of America I was speaking at the OHIO state university to a Vegetarian society on regulating our mental diet. After that session, one American science graduate student came to me and told me that just before this class, he had been contemplating suicide. He had been a steady relationship but his girl friend left him for some other boy. While he was contemplating suicide somehow he has seen poster for this program. He felt something within him said lets go for it. And now after that session as he understood that it was not he who wants to commit suicide rather uncontrolled mind within him which was prompting him to do this. And by understanding this wise inside him, he resisted. Again in 2016 when I go to same university I saw that boy again and now he is well situated and good at his career and now in another relationship and he has internalized the principles of BG. So I feel that there are definitely people who are benefited by the wisdom of BG. I see myself not as a teacher of BG, I feel that the Gita teaches me and teaches through me. There is a great satisfaction in becoming a channel for higher wisdom.
AT: Any message for the reader of Asia today and any particular instruction for where to go to get peace:
CCD: I would say 3 points. BG offers a vision of light which is very devotional and dynamic. What you are is God's gift to you but what you become is your Gift to God. God has given us something. For some it is more and for some it is less. Whatever we have if we use it well, we can always make valuable contribution in life.

We dont have to compare ourself with anyone else. Comparison is the cancer which can sap out energy. If God has wanted us to be someone else he would have made us someone else. God has made you "you" and BG wisdom can empower you the best "you".

One last point, spiritual wisdom is not just a spare wheel in our life. When things dont work then we will go to temple or we will pray to God. We keep it like a spare wheel. But if we make spiritual wisdom as the steering wheel of our life, we make it pivot by which we shape our decisions then we will find that whatever life sends our way we will be able to bring the best out of it. In life good and bad things will anyway happen. But with BG wisdom, we can bring best out of the good and also of the bad. That is what Arjuna did, he was devastated at the start, but by the Gita wisdom he was inspired at the end. Arjuna's bow represents our determination. At the start of BG he kept aside his bow saying I can not fight. But by the end he raised his bow again and he was ready to fight. Similarly, life diversities make us put aside our bow. I can not do any thing. We give up. But by hearing the message of BG, Arjuna became confident. We can also become confident by the understanding of the God' benevolence, the God's love for us. And we can be inspired in loving determination like Arjuna to make our contribution in life.
AT: From where you to get your inspiration for your classes and practical and wonderful examples which makes it easy for people to understand.
CCD: Greatest inspiration for me is Srila Prabhupada who authored the BG as it is. When he was all alone on the ship, jaladyuta, who was carrying him, he had two heart attacks. Here is a person who is alone and practically penniless, who is having no medical attention. Normally when we get a heart attack lot of relatives come and take us to hospital. But he was all alone and he was thinking not that God should save him rather he was praying oh god make me an instrument of your compassion. Make me dance according to your tune. So that I can share your message with the world. This selfless dedication of srila prabhada is my enduring inspiration. He was a preeminent teacher of BG and he has inspired several of other people to teach and thousand to live on the principles of BG. So, primarily from Srila Prabhupada and many other teachers who in their own way are sharing the wisdom of BG from different perspective, I get inspiration. And I try to share that wisdom in contemporary language. Srila prabhupada would say that we should present BG message in the language of science. I see that science is one language but every generation has ethos and that timeless wisdom should be presented in a timely way according to the idiom and ethos of the generation. So, I try to serve all the previous Gita teachers by taking inspiration from there and presenting in contemporary language using contemporary examples. In this way, I serve in my own small way in bridging between traditional and contemporary world.

By your work worship the lord. Tool of my trade is word to beautify and glorify the lord.
AT: Is everything about God is written in BG?
CCD: See, God is greater than any religion or any book. God is greater than any philosophy. We can not say that everything about God can be understood from any book. Gita tells us essential things which we need to know by which we can know and love God. All sacred books are meant for God. God is not meant for the book. Religion is meant for God not other way. When there is a religious conflict which often happen because some religion claim that God is their monopoly and God can only be known through their religion. Here there is a fundamental mismatch. God is bigger than any religion that we have. BG actually focuses on transcendental essence. At the end, BG says a verse sarva dharman parityajaya [Bg 18.66]. Give up all externals, give up all religion formalities and focus simply on loving devotion to me. In that sense BG takes us to the essence of the spirituality and gives us the instrument both intellectual and practical and by which we can realize and relish the essence. God knowledge is exhaustive. Gita can guide us in our journey of knowing God so that we can keep relishing our journey.
AT: What is biggest problem in this so called developing world where we have so many things to relish? And why should we turn towards spirituality?
CCD: Two things - Just that I have good food does not mean I don't need oxygen. Food is important. But oxygen is also important. Just that I am great in professional life does not mean I don't need family life. Great success in professional life can not compensate for my failure in family life. There are different areas of life. In today;s world we have tremendous progress of science in material world. But material is external to us. We have very good gadgets. In past people used to sweat in the sun but today we have air conditioning but people are still sweating not because of heat but because of stress. So we have the paradox of people having comfort but they are comfortably miserable. We are externally going right, but internally very few things are going right for us. Never before in the history of world so many people committed suicide. According to statistics, one million is committing suicide every year. One in every 40 sec. and this figure of one million is more than who are being killed in murders/wars/and violent crimes together. So, people are killing themselves more than getting killed. There is something fundamentally wrong here. We are learning to control outer world but not inner world. BG gives the knowledge by which we can control the inner world. Arjun was the great warrior but he was internally disturbed by confusion and he was reduced to tears. BG demonstrates here that inner war is far more decisive than outer war. BG knowledge help Arjuna to win the inner world. Science can makes things better but spirituality can make people better. We need a balance of science and spirituality. For our fulfillment, peace and true enjoyment we need to get better control over the inner world. And that is what provided by the wisdom of BG.
AT: When did you start writing daily on the Gita? What inspired you to do so?
CCD: I have been writing daily since November 1, 2011. I had been reading the Bhagavad-gita daily for nearly fifteen years before that and I had found it unfailingly, inexhaustibly inspiring. And I had been sharing that inspiration through my talks.

During my talks, I would often coin succinct statements that summarized in English some of the Gita's teachings, especially those relevant in our personal and social lives. Many in my audiences appreciated those succinct statements and asked me to elaborate on them. So, I made a list of those statements and started writing brief articles on them.

Knowing that everyone is hard-pressed for time, I wanted to keep the articles as short as possible. I found that on an average people can read 100 words in a minute. So, I felt that if I could write a 300-word meditation on the Gita, it would appeal to people as they could get a daily connection with the Gita in an accessible and appealing way.

I had seen similar short reflections written by teachers of other traditions on their respective sacred books such as the Bible and the Koran. Yet no one was writing similarly on the Gita. I thought, "It has been a source of wisdom for millions of millennia. Why should it be deprived of a similar honor?"

Actually, I felt that I was not qualified for writing on the Gita daily, but none of my spiritual mentors had the time to do this. The spiritual teacher who has influenced me the most, A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, author of Bhagavad Gita As It Is, urged seekers to write daily for deepening their understanding. I see myself as a Gita student who writes on the Gita to understand it better. I don't teach the Gita - the Gita teaches me and teaches through me.
AT: What do you think is the greatest need of people in today's world? And how Bhagavad Gita or GitaDaily articles can fulfill that?
CCD: Martin Luther King said, "We have guided missiles and misguided men. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power." Through science and technology, we have transformed our outer world. But our inner world remains an area of profound darkness and even distress. Over a million people commit suicide every year. This figure is more than the number of people killed in wars, terrorist attacks and murderous crimes combined together. More than the number of people being killed by others is the number of people killing themselves. Going wild within the human psyche is a force that is dark and deadly.

That force brought Arjuna, a battle-heartened warrior to a breaking point, even before the battle started. And that same force is bringing countless people to breaking point today.

There is an acute need to illumine our inner life so that we can identify and rectify the malevolent forces within us. The Gita did that for Arjuna; it did that for millions over millennia; it can do that for all of us too.
AT: What kind of issues do you deal with in your Gita daily articles?
CCD: I primarily focus on the Gita's capacity to tap the hidden depths of human potential. We all have within us so much potential that is dissipated because of our stray thoughts, wild desires and unconsidered actions. By applying the Gita's principles, we all can discover that we are meant for much bigger things than what we may have thought - transformational achievement and enduring fulfillment can be ours if we empower ourselves with Gita wisdom.

I try to center the Gita-daily articles on one of the following six themes:

1. Growing through life's reversals

2. Learning to see the world with the eyes of the Gita

3. Understanding important Gita concepts in small accessible thought capsules

4. Empowering themselves with Gita insights to choose intelligent pleasures

5. Applying the Gita's teachings for leading a principle-centered life

6. Using Krishna's words to perceive his presence in our heart and life and thereby learning to love him

AT: Do you think that the Gita should be declared India's national book?
CCD: The question has become unnecessarily politicalized and gone into the area of religious one-upsmanship. Declaring the tiger to be India's national animal doesn't mean discriminating against other animals - it just means acknowledging the specialness of the tiger for Indians.

Similarly, if we consider the formation of modern India, no book was as wide-ranging in inspiring Indian independence fighters. Right from those who championed non-violent political agitation to those who advocated counter-aggression, the whole gamut of Indian leaders derived inspiration from this timeless classic.

Prior to that, the Gita has inspired millions in India for millennia. Given this rich stamp of the Gita on the formation of the fabric of India, declaring it to be India's national book is entirely fitting.

At the same time, if such a declaration is going to inflame communal fears and if such fears can't be addressed by proper education, then probably the energy spent on canonizing the Gita as India's national book can be better used in sharing its wisdom. Applying the Gita in life will benefit India and will enable India to benefit the world by becoming an exemplar and exponent of universal spiritual wisdom.
AT: Stress is a major problem in today's world. How can the Gita help us deal with it?
CCD: While stress is a complex problem with multiple causes, one major cause is the tendency of the mind to focus on things that are not in our control, instead of things that are in our control. I often say, "Worry is the interest we pay on loans we haven't yet taken."

The Gita's spiritual knowledge and its recommended practice of meditation can help us relish inner security and serenity. By this, we can face stress-causing uncertainty with greater calmness and effectiveness.

At the end, Asia today team thanked Chaitnya Charan Prabhu for his wonderful message and insight to spiritualism.

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Worry is the interest we pay on loans we haven't yet taken

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Asiatoday got an opportunity to meet a young travelling monk, Chaitanya Charan Das, from ISKCON aka Hare Krishna group. Chaitanya Charan Das is an acclaimed author, scholar, mentor, life coach, and monk. He has been an invited speaker at several international conferences on the interface of science and spirituality, including the World Peace Conference 2006 and World Peace Congress 2008 organized by UNESCO.

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How Many Gods in Hinduism? || CC Adi Lila (7.9-10) with HH Bhakti Vijnana Goswami – 24 December 2022 – Dandavats

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How Many Gods in Hinduism? || CC Adi Lila (7.9-10) with HH Bhakti Vijnana Goswami – 24 December 2022 – Dandavats

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How Many Gods in Hinduism? || CC Adi Lila (7.9-10) with HH Bhakti Vijnana Goswami - 24 December 2022

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Declutter Your Life for a Peaceful Mind by Vaisesika Dasa - YouTube

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Declutter Your Life for a Peaceful Mind by Vaisesika Dasa - YouTube

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Declutter Your Life for a Peaceful Mind by Vaisesika Dasa

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Srimad Bhagavatam 3.4.33 – Hari Sauri das – 27 Dec 2022. – Dandavats

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Srimad Bhagavatam 3.4.33 – Hari Sauri das – 27 Dec 2022. – Dandavats

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Srimad Bhagavatam 3.4.33 - Hari Sauri das - 27 Dec 2022.

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Southcare: Caring for Each Other with Kishor Rico and Madhuryalila devi – Dandavats

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Southcare: Caring for Each Other with Kishor Rico and Madhuryalila devi – Dandavats

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Southcare: Caring for Each Other with Kishor Rico and Madhuryalila devi – Dandavats

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Food for All in Ukraine for Christmas – Dandavats

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Food for All in Ukraine for Christmas – Dandavats

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We left London on the evening of the 22nd of December and just avoided the border patrol strike the following day. Driving took us through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland and finally on Christmas Day we crossed into Ukraine and arrived at our Lviv kitchen.

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ISKCON MOE Global Viplavah Symposium 2022 Session 4 - YouTube

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ISKCON MOE Global Viplavah Symposium 2022 Session 4 - YouTube

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ISKCON MOE Global Viplavah Symposium 2022 Session 4

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Gangasagar Mela Anna-Dan Appeal 2023 - Blog - ISKCON Desire Tree | IDT

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Gangasagar Mela Anna-Dan Appeal 2023 - Blog - ISKCON Desire Tree | IDT

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Dear protector of Sanatan dharma and ISKCON's well-wisher family,

Hare Krishna!! First, I'd like to thank you from my heart for your support over the years towards "ISKCON"! Please accept, New Year's Greetings and the blessings of Lord Krishna to you and your family.
On Makar Sankranti (January 14) every year, lakhs of people take a holy dip at Gangasagar, where the river Ganga meets the Bay of Bengal, and offer prayers at Mother Ganga and Lord Kapil Muni. The Gangasagar Mela is the most popular second largest religious gathering in India, after Kumbha.

To welcome and accommodate the lakhs of pilgrims, a temporary city is erected on the shores of Ganga Sagar on this auspicious bathing day. Ganga Sagar Mela is the convention of great souls like yogis, pious pilgrims, sadhus (saints), sannyasis, and brahmacharis, the spiritual tourists who come from around the world.

Mela is very close, and we have to complete our preparation urgently. The pilgrims and yogis congregate at Ganga Sagar with complete faith "That Lord Sri Hari will send charitably disposed devotees like you to fulfill these basic needs of theirs: A plate of prasadam consisting of rice, dal, seasonal sabzi, pickle, and sweets will cost Rs. 30/-. Hence, we need to raise Rs. 30,00,000/-. Without your support, we can't organize this huge charitable event.

You have always been a generous supporter. I request you to spare us a few minutes and write a tax-deductible cheque/ Demand Draft in favor of "ISKCON Ganga Sagar Fund", and send it by registered post. Please consult the brochure for alternative modes of sending your donation like NEFT, internet banking, and online donation. The Matsya Purana states: "On the day of Makar Sankranti, one should feed devotees and the poor sumptuously. Those who make offerings on this day are rewarded by Sun God in many future lives. The Vishnu Smriti states, "The goddess of fortune, Lakshmi, lives in those who are charitable."

To view the pdf brochure please download two attached files. For online donations, https://www.iskcongangasagar.com/gangasagar-mela-2023.htmlAs a gesture of appreciation for your donation of Rs. 2,100/- or more, a special puja and tarpan will be performed on your behalf at Ganga Sagar, which will bring prosperity and success to you.

I am approaching you for support on behalf of poor sadhus and sanyasis. All of your Anna-Daan donations are tax exempted under section 80G in India.

Big or small every donation counts.

For further assistance, please contact me at 9735333511 or 9874437164, or 790079003 or mail at sgd108@gmail.com or iskcongs@gmail.com
May Sun God bring good fortune and auspiciousness in the New Year to your life!

Source: https://www.mayapur.com/2022/gangasagar-mela-anna-dan-appeal-2023/

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Dear protector of Sanatan dharma and ISKCON's well-wisher family, Hare Krishna!! First, I'd like to thank you from my heart for your support over the years towards "ISKCON"! Please accept, New Year's Greetings and the blessings of Lord Krishna to you and your family.

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Lord Chaitanya’s Moon is Rising! 5 min. musical and historical video – Dandavats

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Lord Chaitanya’s Moon is Rising! 5 min. musical and historical video – Dandavats

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Lord Chaitanya's Moon is Rising! 5 min. musical and historical video

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The music for this video is a song I wrote in the winter of 1971, Columbus Ohio. Lord Chaitanya's moon is rising No it's not at all surprising That we're singing in the street Telling everyone we meet we're going home

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Here is the text of the Speaking Tree article:

Caring for cows can have a healing effect, says Iskcon monk KENNETH R VALPEY, aka Krishna Kshetra Swami, to SONAL SRIVASTAV

French philosopher Rene Descartes suggested that animals are merely reflex driven and have no intellectual capacities that imply self-consciousness. "It actually goes all the way back to Aristotle," says Kenneth R Valpey, aka Krishna Kshetra Swami, a Gaudiya Vaishnava theologian with a D Phil degree on Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy, from Oxford University. A professor at Bhaktivedanta College, Belgium, Valpey also teaches at the University of Florida and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Valpey explains that even before Descartes' views on animal ethics were widely accepted in the 17th century, Aristotle's notion of teleology had already sealed the fate of animals in the context of their place in the human world. "Aristotle," says Valpey, "gave a purpose to everything and for him the purpose of animals was to serve humans. Therefore, humans can do whatever they want to, with animals. This changes the way we perceive other beings and it goes all the way back to ancient Greece, approximately to fifth century BCE."

Vaishnava Tradition
Western philosophical notions that denied the presence of reason or consciousness in animals led to their large scale exploitation.

In stark contrast is the way animals, particularly cows, are perceived in Indic thought, especially in the Gaudia Vaishnava tradition."In the Vaishnava belief system, the Infinite is not something abstract and impersonal; the Infinite is the supreme person Krishna, and what does Krishna do? He takes care of cows. Krishna is an untiring champion of gau seva, cow care, points out Valpey, talking about references to cow care in Indic scriptures.

In his latest book, Cow Care In Hindu Animal Ethics, he explores references to the cow from the Rig Veda and the Bhagavata Purana to medieval bhakti poetry. "Altogether, scholars have counted some 700 times that words indicating a cow have been used in the Vedas," says Valpey, positing that there are economists who will obviously say that this is because Vedic people had an agrarian economy.

He says that the Vedas have profoundly rich poetry that suggests cows and hymns are all tied with rituals, most centrally to yajna, which is crudely translated as sacrifice. It really has to do with the idea that human beings are in particular function of maintenance of the cosmic order, and cows are essential to humans performing that function.

"This central idea then gets carried along and elaborated in the later texts including the Upanishads. With the Upanishads, the central question is, what is ultimate reality? The term Brahmn is most commonly used. Along with this question is a major change of values, where the Rig Veda and others are referred to as karma kandiya texts, meant for worldly well-being. The Upanishads turn things in a different direction, from pravritti, worldly path, to nivritti, path of renunciation; still, cows appear in the Upanishads. I want to suggest that it's not just accidental, it's important," says Valpey.

Did the rishis use cows as a metaphor? "Cows were not just a metaphor," says Valpey, recalling a legend from an Upanishad. He says that in the Chandogya Upanishad, Satyakama is given a task by his guru Gotama to take care of 400-odd cows. Satyakama welcomes this as seva, takes the cows and comes back later with a thousand cows, to his guru. By the time he comes back, he has realized Brahmn, but he is very humble, so he asks his guru 'to confirm what I have learnt.'"That's what his service was - taking care of cows. This becomes a kind of seed for an idea that gets prominent among champions of cow care. First of all the word 'seva', gets translated as service, but I want to say that it is constant, attentive service. There's a distinction to be made between seva and puja. Puja is a temporary ritualistic activity often done for a specific purpose to get a specific result for oneself, whereas seva is caring for the other person. I'm using the word person in a broader sense; the cow is also a person. In a similar way, a mother cares for her child - that is seva, unconditionally, constantly and attentively," explains Valpey, a Tridandi Swami in the Iskcon tradition. He carries a staff - three sticks tied together that represent three aspects - service of Krishna with body, mind and soul, at all times.

Special Symbol
Valpey suggests that there's a spectrum of meaning of the cow, going from the most literal - physical animal with animal needs - to the symbolic, abstract and figurative."Robert Neville, a theologian at Boston University, says that a symbol is marking a boundary between the finite and the Infinite. So a symbol acts as a liminal entity between these two and it is also connecting the two. I would say that's why in Vedic culture, cows become particularly important because we see the cow as somehow making access for us to the Infinite through their finite being. We feel there's something special about cows and that by doing their service, we get access to the Infinite," explains Valpey.

In his book, he also refers to M K Gandhi's view on cow protection and writes about Gandhi's disappointment with Hindus for doing the most damage to cows. "Yes, he was very upset about it. He was mainly addressing Hindus for their hypocrisy. He felt that the Hindus say that the cows are sacred but then they neglect cows and he also spoke about the beating of oxen and bulls; he was very disturbed about that," recalls Valpey.

Talking about cow care in India in present times, he adds that we must think about better ways of treating them, drawing from ancient Indian scriptures. Valpey says that in present times, there is an element of tamo guna in cow care, which means darkness, and that the care is not being effective in the long run, for tamo guna is also reflected in the activity of cow vigilantes. Those who are supposedly caring for the cow are themselves becoming violent; hence the actual purpose of what they want is self-defeating.

For effective saatvik cow care, he envisages more thoughtful people coming together to make some major changes in lifestyle, collectively. He suggests that we find a way to know more about cows. Maybe, we can start with visiting a goshala, cowshed, and offering seva, volunteer work. Sometimes, contributing by spending time with cows and just brushing the cows can be therapeutic. "People, Hindus in particular, have to rediscover that cows are nice. A lot of changes could be made in the saatvik side of things," says Valpey.

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Here is the text of the Speaking Tree article: Caring for cows can have a healing effect, says Iskcon monk KENNETH R VALPEY, aka Krishna Kshetra Swami, to SONAL SRIVASTAV French philosopher Rene Descartes suggested that animals are merely reflex driven and have no intellectual capacities that imply self-consciousness.

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One Story Four Truths (video) – Dandavats

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One Story Four Truths (video) – Dandavats

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One Story Four Truths (video) Using the ancient wisdom of Srimad Bhagavatam to meet the challenges of life. Srimad Bhagavatam class by His Grace Bhurijan Prabhu at ISKCON Delhi. Watch it here: https://is.gd/VavbRY

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Our Simple Solution For Plastic Waste (6 min. video) – Dandavats

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Our Simple Solution For Plastic Waste (6 min. video) – Dandavats

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Our Simple Solution For Plastic Waste (6 min. video)

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HG Srutakirti prabhu: Srila Prabhupada’s airline slippers… – Dandavats

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HG Srutakirti prabhu: Srila Prabhupada’s airline slippers… – Dandavats

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HG Srutakirti prabhu: Srila Prabhupada’s airline slippers… – Dandavats

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Attachment to Being Right VS Attachment to Pleasing Krishna | Sri Prahlada das | Bhagavatam Class - YouTube

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Attachment to Being Right VS Attachment to Pleasing Krishna | Sri Prahlada das | Bhagavatam Class - YouTube

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Attachment to Being Right VS Attachment to Pleasing Krishna | Sri Prahlada das | Bhagavatam Class

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Is America Materially Advanced? – Dandavats

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Is America Materially Advanced? – Dandavats

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Is America Materially Advanced??
Srila Prabhupada: - Your seventh question, "How is it that there is so much material "advancement" in the USA even though there is no formal demigod worship? "

Actually there is no material advancement in the USA. Material advancement means there is amply opportunity for eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. Superficially, it appears that in the USA there is sufficient provision of eating, sleeping, mating and defending, but actually nobody is safe even in his good apartment.

I have got practical experience in New York. Several times my typewriter and tape recorders were stolen and the police could not take any action. There are many persons in the Bowery street, they have no shelter to live. So if a certain fraction of the people are supposed to be very materially happy at the cost of others, that is not material advancement. Had it been so, then why there are so many persons confused and frustrated? So actually there is no material advancement here. Here, I am seeing practically that Gaurasundara, such a nice intelligent and qualified boy, he has to work hard 12 hours simply for his subsistence. I think there are many instances like that, so this is not material advancement. You can call it capitalist advancement, and the reaction for such advancement is communism.

Such movement is simply suppressed in your country, but actually the reaction is this. So the Western type of civilization, industrialism and capitalism, is no material advancement. It is material exploitation. When one gets the bare necessities of life, namely peaceful home, sumptuous eating, necessary sex life, and feeling of security, then it is called material advancement. In the absence of such four preliminary necessities of life, it is not at all material advancement - just try to understand. According to Vedic civilization, a man is supposed to be rich when he has got sufficient grains and cows. Here we have neither sufficient grains or cows, but you have got sufficient quantity of papers only - falsely thinking that it is money. When there is some catastrophe, this bunch of papers will neither supply milk or grain. They will be seen only and the man will starve.
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Rupanuga - Hawaii 14 March, 1969

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Is America Materially Advanced?? Srila Prabhupada: - Your seventh question, "How is it that there is so much material "advancement" in the USA even though there is no formal demigod worship? " Actually there is no material advancement in the USA. Material advancement means there is amply opportunity for eating, sleeping, mating, and defending.

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Bhagavan: God the Person.
By Adi Purusha Dasa

The bhakti tradition acknowledges the personal and impersonal aspects of the Absolute Truth, but values one of them as the more desirable of the two.

For hundreds of years, philosophers and theologians have debated whether God is ultimately personal or impersonal. After all, the nature of God plays a major role in our fate. If God is a person, then we have the potential for a loving, eternal relationship with Him. But if God isn't a person and is instead impersonal, like a light we merge into, then we miss out on the opportunity for such a relationship.

The Nature of God
For God to be complete He must have both a personal and an impersonal aspect. If God were only personal or only impersonal, then He wouldn't be complete, because He would lack something. The bhakti tradition acknowledges that God has an impersonal feature, a personal feature, and even a "localized" feature - a form within the heart. The Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.2.11), an important bhakti text, states,

vadanti tat tattva-vidas
tattvam yaj jnanam advayam
brahmeti paramatmeti
bhagavan iti shabdyate
"Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramatma, or Bhagavan." Brahman is the impersonal aspect of God. It's like a white light that one can merge into if one so wishes. Paramatma is the localized aspect of God, also called the Supersoul. Readers of Ralph Waldo Emerson might be familiar with his idea of the Oversoul, similar to the idea of the Supersoul. As the Supersoul, God is in the heart of every living entity, witnessing and sanctioning the living entity's actions. He also guides those willing to listen to Him, which can explain why people feel they have real experiences of God communicating with them from within.

Finally, there is Bhagavan, the personal aspect of God, which can be said to be His original feature. Though the Supersoul is personal, Bhagavan is the personal feature of God whom those who have realized the Bhagavan aspect of God can see face to face and interact with in an intimate way. Bhakti-yogis focus on Bhagavan because they can experience great ecstasy by participating in His pastimes, which God performs to give joy to His devotees.

With the impersonal feature there's no love and affection. If we merge into God's existence and lose our individuality, we cannot have a loving relationship with Him. It takes two people to have an intimate relationship, and the annihilation of our identity makes any relationship impossible.

When God Comes to This World
Periodically, God comes to this world to perform marvelous acts and pastimes. The bhakti texts are filled with stories of how God acts when He comes to this world in His personal feature. According to the bhakti tradition, God is not a deistic God. In deism, God creates the world but then distances Himself from it and chooses not to become involved with it. According to the bhakti tradition, however, God isn't disconnected from our world but instead comes in various incarnations to please His devotees and attract us to Him by His different activities. He also fights evil, saves His devotees, and restores justice to the world.

When God comes to this world, He sometimes instructs us so that we can go to Him. When He came in His original form as Krishna, Arjuna asked Him, "Which are considered to be more perfect, those who are always properly engaged in Your devotional service or those who worship the impersonal Brahman, the unmanifested?" (Gita 12.1) Krishna replied, "Those who ﬁx their minds on My personal form and are always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith are considered by Me to be most perfect." (Gita 12.2) Thus Krishna dispels any doubts or fears we may have about pursuing the path of personalism.

Still, those accustomed to the impersonal mode of worship may think that the impersonal Brahman is the source of Krishna and that we should therefore focus on the impersonal aspect of God. To clarify matters, however, Krishna later states, brahmano hi pratishthaham: "I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman." (Gita 14.27). Therefore the impersonal aspect of God, Brahman, comes from Krishna, and not the other way around.

God's favorite thing to do when He comes to this world is to have loving relationships with His devotees. When Krishna is with His friends, He has sweet, loving exchanges with them. With His fellow cowherd boyfriends, He plays hide-and-seek, imitates the sounds of local animals, plays music, dances, eats, and does all sorts of other fun activities. God doesn't want to just sit on a throne and judge people; He wants to have fun, and He wants us to join in.

Moreover, God even takes pleasure in serving His devotees. Arjuna had to fight a great battle, and out of affection for Arjuna, Krishna agreed to become his charioteer. As God, there was no need for Krishna to take that humble role. He could have finished off the entire army in the blink of an eye. But because Krishna has so much love for Arjuna, He decided to become Arjuna's charioteer and render service to him.

The Benefits of Personalism
Still, despite the sweet nature of God's personal aspect, the impersonal aspect can have its appeal. We may sometimes feel frustrated with material variety, so we conclude that variety of any sort leads to unhappiness and that the way to true happiness is by stopping all activity. Thus we may conclude that the ultimate happiness is to merge into God's impersonal feature. But does this sound like real happiness?

Imagine you had to stop all your activities and just sit in a room doing nothing. Would you be happy? Probably not. You'd be much happier being with someone you love. A person on the path of impersonalism may be able to escape suffering, but he or she misses out on the opportunity to feel a greater sense of happiness by experiencing a loving relationship with God. Personalism gives us the opportunity to share our joy with God and His devotees. In contrast, impersonalism is like solitary confinement.

In bhakti-yoga we establish our loving relationship with the Supreme Lord through a variety of spiritual activities, like hearing about Him, chanting His names, dancing for His pleasure, and even gardening for Him or doing business for Him. Many spiritual paths say that our suffering is caused by material activities, but, as mentioned before, refraining from all activity, as one might do on the impersonal path, is boring. Personalism offers a perfect solution because it provides us with the opportunity to perform spiritual activities, which are full of variety. And as we know, variety is the spice of life. Plus, unlike material activities, spiritual activities don't frustrate us.

In the Bhagavad-gita (2.62) Krishna explains why material activities frustrate us,

dhyayato vishayan pumsah
sangas teshupajayate
sangat sanjayate kamah
kamat krodho 'bhijayate
"While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises." When we perform material activities, we feel frustrated when we don't get what we desire. Or if we get what we desire but it doesn't match our expectations, then we may also feel frustrated. It's just like when a young boy sees an ice cream cone. He starts to desire it more and more, but if his mother says he can't have it, he gets frustrated. But if he were to get the ice cream and it wasn't as good as he thought it would be, he would still be frustrated. Ultimately, he'll feel frustrated even if the ice cream meets or exceeded his expectations, because bodily pleasure alone can't satisfy the soul.

When we act to please God and not ourselves, we don't experience unfulfilled lust. In fact, when we act for God's pleasure, we feel a greater joy than if we had tried to act for our own sake. On the other hand, we feel less and less happiness from material activities. Take ice cream as an example again. It tastes really good, but after a certain point you get sick of it. Spiritual activities are different. The more you perform them, the better they taste.

The Lord's Reciprocation
Another great thing about personalism is that the Lord reciprocates our love for Him and loves us to an infinite degree. We are all searching for love, and God can completely fulfill our desire to love and be loved. An exchange between Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who is Krishna Himself, and His devotee Sanatana Goswami illustrates how much God loves us. Sanatana Goswami was once suffering from itching, oozing sores all over his body. But Lord Chaitanya had so much love for His devotee that He embraced him, and Sanatana Goswami was cured of his condition.

This incident highlights some of the wonderful qualities of the Lord. He loves us unconditionally, despite our imperfections or blemishes. Our boyfriends, girlfriends, friends, pets, and so on could leave us at any moment. Yet even in our darkest hours we can count on Krishna to be there for us, ready to embrace us. Moreover, the Lord can also preserve whatever we have and carry to us what we lack. Thus by taking shelter of God we can overcome any difficulties we may face.

Another story involving Lord Chaitanya portrays God's love for His devotees. When the great devotee Haridasa Thakura died, Lord Chaitanya carried his body to the sea, bathed it, performed the funeral ceremony, and covered his body in the tomb with sand. Being God, He didn't have to do any of this; He could have gotten someone else to do it. But out of love and affection for His devotee, He did this service for Haridasa Thakura.

The Bliss of Bhakti-yoga
Moreover, the whole process of bhakti-yoga is very blissful. We can get a hint of how blissful bhakti-yoga is through the story of Dhruva. Dhruva was a child whose father was a king with two wives. Unfortunately for Dhruva, his mother was the king's less-favored wife. One day when Dhruva tried to sit on his father's lap, his stepmother stopped him. She told Dhruva that if he wanted to sit on his father's lap, he would have to worship God and take birth from her womb.

Disappointed, Dhruva told his mother what had happened. She tried to console him, and she too said that worshiping the Lord would be the only way he could sit on his father's lap. So Dhruva set out for the forest to worship the Lord, not only to be able to sit on his father's lap, but also to gain a kingdom far, far greater than his father's. Along the way Dhruva met the sage Narada, who gave him a mantra to meditate on. By chanting this mantra, Dhruva eventually saw God face to face.

After seeing God (Krishna in His Vishnu form), Dhruva was ecstatic. He felt such intense bliss that he condemned himself for approaching God for material benefits. He considered the bliss of seeing God far greater than any material opulence. He said that he set out to find some broken glass and instead found a diamond. Therefore, even though we may derive great joy from material opulence, the joy of love of God makes such happiness seem as insignificant as broken glass.

Such intense bliss is available to us through the practice of bhakti-yoga, beginning with hearing and chanting God's names, as in the maha-mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Chanting this mantra revives the dormant love for God that lies within us. Thus, by approaching the personal aspect of God, we can feel increasing levels of bliss and experience the love we are all searching for.

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Bhagavan: God the Person. By Adi Purusha Dasa The bhakti tradition acknowledges the personal and impersonal aspects of the Absolute Truth, but values one of them as the more desirable of the two. For hundreds of years, philosophers and theologians have debated whether God is ultimately personal or impersonal.

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From Back to Godhead
By Mathuresha Dasa A look at what the Srimad-Bhagavatam has to say about time, a concept that has challenged philosophers for centuries.
Time is a little difficult to define. Philosophers and theologians have tried for at least twenty-five centuries. Albert Einstein remarked, in the midst of slightly more esoteric statements regarding physics, that time was what his wristwatch measured. St. Augustine said that he knew what time was as long as no one asked him to explain it. And sounding a note of frustration in her book What, Then, Is Time (the title too is from St. Augustine), Eva Brann laments, "Why don't I know what that is which I tell, save, spend, mark, waste, and even kill every day of my life with perfect aplomb?"

If we don't know what time is, perhaps we can at least place it, or say where it is, and is not. In A Brief History of Time scientist Stephen Hawking proposes that "the concept of time has no meaning before the beginning of the universe," thus placing time, say, alongside the universe, or inextricably involved with it. Hawking quotes (yet again) St. Augustine as saying that time is a property of the universe created by God, a property that did not exist before the creation.

The Vedic literature, which covers a wide range of topics, also deals with time. The Srimad-Bhagavatam, specifically, weighs in on the subject of the place and function of time in the creation of the universe. Portions of the Bhagavatam confirm and contradict the assertions of Hawking, Einstein, Augustine, and others, while providing unique perspectives.

The Bhagavatam teaches that Lord Krishna in his form as Vishnu is responsible for creation. Though Brahma and Siva also have roles to play, their power comes from Lord Vishnu. He exists alone before the creation, when nature is a subtle attribute of his person and time is in a dormant state as one of his powers. From his own attributes and powers, Lord Vishnu creates the universe, which is thus identical to him, while remaining unchanged and aloof himself. He maintains the creation effortlessly for an unimaginable length of time, then destroys it and absorbs it back into himself, then creates again.

This happens over and over, and after each destruction Vishnu is alone. Or nearly so. Vishnu has an eternal abode beyond the creation and destruction of matter where his perfect devotees live with him. Vishnu gives these devotees divine, affliction-free bodies like his own, bedecked with crowns and garlands. They reside with him forever, free from rebirth in a temporary universe. Lord Vishnu himself sometimes visits his creation, however, and some of his descents as avatars are described in the Bhagavatam. These avatars come to save the world, delivering the good and destroying the wicked while establishing dharma. Lord Vishnu descends this way of his own free will, unlike the array of subordinate individual souls, all under the sway of their karma, who enter the universe in the beginning of creation.

This cycle of creations is in line with the recurring theme of circular time described in the Vedic literature. The ages of Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali rotate like seasons. The individual living beings rotate through cycles of birth and death in different bodies. Creation and destruction of the universe also occur repeatedly.

Time as an Instrumental Cause

The Srimad-Bhagavatam recounts that as the creation of the universe gets underway, nature manifests from Vishnu in an inert and formless state. With no elements yet, no air, water, and so on, nothing is happening. Vishnu uses his time power to cause a "commotion" in nature and inseminates her with a multiplicity of individual living beings, or souls, as yet without bodies. This sets the creation on its way. The metaphor of a pregnancy is dramatic, with living beings now in the womb of nature, and with time, as an "impelling force," clearly playing a central, if not precisely specified, role in the mix. Time is an original cause as an instrument of Vishnu, inert nature the original ingredient.

We living souls too are part of the time-activated mix. In his commentary on the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Vijayadvaja identifies time with "the fate of the individual souls necessary for the fruition of their karmas." Expressing a similar notion, the Bhagavatam speaks of "time which awakens the fate of beings." By their karma, or past activities, the living beings have a destiny to fulfill, with time, under the direction of Vishnu, awakening and impelling them to it. With this impelled life now in the womb, things begin to happen, and time remains to relentlessly direct each step of the creative process. Time is, in the words of one Bhagavatam commentator, "winkless."

Portraying time as a power of God may not, as far as definitions go, satisfy a purely scientific mind. But so far, the Bhagavatam perspective does provide time, in response to the "where" question, with a theoretical location or origin beyond the creation, and in response to the "what" question, with a familiar status as one of God's instruments. Neither of these responses wholly contradicts the statements of Augustine and Hawking that time has no existence or relevance before the creation. Since time in the Bhagavatam is dormant before the universe begins, and awakens more or less simultaneously with the first phase of nature, in one sense it is nonexistent and irrelevant prior to that. On the other hand, Bhagavatam time is not exactly one of the created elements, which have not appeared yet in nature's womb. It is a property, as Augustine calls it, that precedes other properties.

A Vaishnava wall calendar, filled moment by moment with favorable and unfavorable times for all kinds of religious as well as ordinary activities, demonstrates that placing time beyond creation would not tell the whole story. Time is present in the cycle of ages, as well as in daily affairs. Time's impelling nature may have its source beyond the universe, but manages to enter the days as well, somehow reconciling its precedence and its "pursuit" of the creation.

On the everyday level, the words "impelling" and "commotional" that the Bhagavatam uses for time in its primordial feature could just as well apply to the unsettling effects a person feels glancing at a calendar or clock. The same kind of impelling force is at work in the daily mix. When Eva Brann asks, "Why don't I know what time is?" it is the contrast between this extremely familiar, ever-present thing that people daily save, waste, kill, mark, and spend, and the mysterious thing we can hardly know, that provokes her. The Bhagavatam make practical use of these everyday dynamics and images to construct a transcendent view of time. As time pursues the creation, the Bhagavatam, through an elaborate system called Sankhya, draws further on the everyday.

Pursuing the Creation: Sankhya Background

Nature, pregnant with living beings, and in flux under the force of time, next begins to differentiate into component elements. The Bhagavatam puts its description of this process under the heading of Sankhya cosmology. Sankhya carries the meaning of "number," and the Sankhya system's efforts to enumerate and categorize the elements of nature bear a loose resemblance to modern scientific efforts to assemble the periodic table. As the periodic table arranges the elements by their atomic numbers, which in turn correspond to their structures and properties, Sankhya describes the properties of its twenty-four elements, or categories of elements, and their relationship to each other. In A Survey of Hinduism, Klaus Klostermaier says of Sankhya, "The enumeration of the twenty-four basic elements is intended to provide a physically correct description of the universe and prepare the ground for the way back to its source." Reflecting a related motivation in modern science, Hawking writes, "Our goal is nothing less than a complete description of the universe we live in."

The Second and Third Cantos of the Bhagavatam present several descriptions of the Sankhya system, each differing slightly. The count of elements is sometimes twenty-four, sometimes twenty-five or twenty-seven, depending on how some elements are subdivided. My discussion here draws a general outline of the Sankhya system from various descriptions, including one from the Third Canto, Chapter 26, which lists time as an element. To preview, and to make a long story short, the elements appear in a particular sequence, evolving from one to the next, with one basic explanation for this evolution: the force of time and the force of destiny, or fate. Again time and destiny in the Bhagavatam, if not identical, are closely related.

Pursuing the Creation: Theory of Evolution

Beyond the fundamental similarities already noted, the Sankhya list of elements differs markedly from anything Einstein or Hawking would recognize. There are five "gross" elements: earth, water, fire, air, and space. This is a lot like Aristotle's list (earth, water, fire, air), and is as close as Sankhya gets to elements or categories resembling those in the periodic table. There are then five sense objects: sound, touch, form, taste, and odor. Then five sense organs: ears, skin, eyes, tongue, and nose. Then five working senses: arms, legs, speech organs, genitals, and anus. And three subtle elements: mind, intelligence, and ego. That makes four sets of five and one set of three. Add time for a grand total of twenty-four elements in the entire universe.

Time both moves the creation from step to step and is the context for the sequence of these steps. Of the twenty-four elements above, the Bhagavatam lists ego as the first to appear in the womb of nature. From ego, which "undergoes modifications" by the force of time, both mind and intelligence are produced. Time also modifies ego to produce sound, which appears along with space and the ear. Space evolves through time to produce another group of three: touch, air, and the skin. Air produces form, fire, and the eye. Fire evolves to taste, water, and the tongue. Water transforms to smell, earth, and the nose. Everything appears in automatic sequence by the power of time, under distant supervision by Vishnu. At this point in creation there appears to be only an inventory of elements with nothing fully assembled from them. The Bhagavatam does go on to describe assembly of species of life and planetary systems, all still under the control of time. The chosen topic here, though, is time's place and the properties that make it elusive.

Properties of the Propertyless

From this summary version of elemental evolution, it is notable that each stage of three elements includes a corresponding sense. Sound and space appear with the ear, touch and air with the skin, form and fire (or light) with the eye. According to Sankhya analysis, as light illuminates form and is perceived by, and inseparable from, the eye, so space is connected to sound and the ear. Space "illuminates" the sound perceived by the ear. It carries sound the way light carries form. Similarly, water carries taste for the tongue, earth originates smell for the nose. Earth, in fact, as the last gross element to evolve, interacts with all five senses. You can smell it, taste it, see it, touch it, and-as it can produce sounds-hear it. Water, the element preceding earth, is odorless in its pure form, and so perceived by only four senses. And so on down to space in the first group of three along with sound, which is perceived by only one sense, the ear. All this is a very analytical, roundabout way of saying that time, though an element, has no corresponding sense or medium, nothing to directly illuminate or perceive it. This is another unique feature of time, one that hints at Eva Brann's point as to why time is so hard know. Time is present with all the other elements, an essential part of the mix, but lacks a sensory access or affiliation.

A further unique aspect of the time of Sankhya, or perhaps a feature of its second, sense-less aspect, is that it has no special property. The Bhagavatam lists the other twenty-three elements along with their properties, many of which are strikingly obvious. Among water's properties, for example, are to moisten, soften, remove heat and exhaustion, and slake thirst. The properties of touch are softness and hardness, cold and heat. Sound conveys meaning. And so on with all the elements. Even the mind (thinking, meditating, desiring), the intelligence (doubt, misapprehension, coming to conclusions), and the ego (pride, feeling of dominion) have their properties. Time does not have characteristics the way earth and the other elements do and is not interdependent as the other elements are. Many commentators hold forth on this point of properties, or propertylessness. Gosvami Giridhara-lala writes that time "is not characterized by any peculiarity, and hence it is beginningless and endless." How being without peculiarity leads to endlessness is not explained, but another commentator echoes the same idea, saying that time "is not dependent on another cause; he exists of his own accord. Hence, he is endless." The Bhagavatam itself says that time "is endless but puts and end to all. Time is beginningless but marks the beginning of all. He is immutable." Beginninglessness and endlessness, as well as the ability to impose beginnings and ends on everything else, are features of time in the Bhagavatam that are evidently not considered to be properties comparable to the elemental properties.

Time's Effects: Light-years and Timepieces

In its Bhagavatam version, time, being without properties, is perceived only by its effects. From the primordial commotion in nature to the appearance and evolution of the elements, time imposes beginnings and ends. Apart from the Bhagavatam, Brann notes that "When time is spoken of ... in the world of nature ... it is usually a word for something else-for motions of various kinds and for their measurements.... When time is named in natural science ... what is meant is a standard motion or a probabilistic tendency." The Bhagavatam time sets the world in motion and keeps it in motion while remaining invisible. Brann's comments on time and motion could be taken as another way of saying that time is not only visible by its effects but measured by those effects as well. Her "standard motions" would then, in Sankhya language, be motions of the twenty-three elements, caused by time. And to measure these motions, other elements or objects have to be used. Einstein's wristwatch, like most standard clocks, was a device calibrated to complete twenty-four cycles within one cycle of the sun. Less common timepieces, like carbon 14, also compare movements in one element with movements of the sun. Practically any element could serve as a clock if its patterns of motion or change are known. Einstein himself was partial to light-years. Old hourglasses used sand. Grand Canyon dating uses the erosive movement of water through stone. If time pursues the creation as the cause of motion or change, then in each of these cases it appears, using a Bhagavatam perspective, that time's effect on one object is being compared to time's effect on another, and the comparison is itself taken to be time or a measurement of time. The Bhagavatam proposes that the transformation, change, or movement of an object or element is the mark of time, not time itself.

The Bhagavatam is aware of this object-to-object conception of time and offers a range of measurement instruments, from the movement of atoms to the movement of the sun (which appears to be as central to Bhagavatam calculations as it is to ours). Time calculations range from millionths of a second up to the length of the creation, which is trillions of years.

Sports Section

In terms of definitions, time is elusive. Some of the Bhagavatam verses sound like definitions. For example, time is "God's power which itself remains unmanifest, but occupies and encompasses [nature] and is competent to manage the creation, etc., of the universe." Or, time is "the propelling force that awakens the fate of beings." On closer inspection, though, what sound like definitions are not really definitive-not final, exhaustive, or quintessential. Instead of definitions, they are more like placements, or attributions for the cause of something else. "Time 'occupies' nature" is a general placement or location. "Time 'awakens' fate" is a causal attribution. Other would-be definitions seem to define roles without fully identifying the role-player. Time as "the power of motivation," for example. Or time as "the instrumental cause" or as "a weapon in God's hands." These are all about what time allegedly does. To some extent the Bhagavatam can respond to Hawking's statements about time's relation to the universe, or to Einstein's remark about his watch, but Brann's simple question about what time is remains open.

To devotees of Krishna or Vishnu a standard definition may not matter. Time, which is beyond perception and empirical observation, is a power of Krishna, one of the features that makes God worshipable. Using time, Krishna as Vishnu creates without strain. Several places in the Bhagavatam describe Vishnu's "sportive" (lilaya) approach to the creation of the universe. One verse says that Vishnu "sportively procreated himself in the form of the universe by using Time" as his instrument. Others state that "the sportive actions of the Lord ... comprise within them the preservation, origination, and destruction of the universe" and that by devoted contemplation of his "sportive work" with time, human beings become disgusted with sense pleasures.

Though the Bhagavatam, as well as its commentators, do appear to devote considerable attention to the scientific (in the Sankhya sense) and philosophical aspects of time, time is also portrayed as a divine recreational tool with sportive functions beyond its mysterious and awe-inspiring, thunderboltlike facets. On one hand time "creates terror in beings and reduces their life," "cuts asunder the hope of life in this world," and disperses people as the wind disperses clouds. On the other hand time "has no power over the Almighty God," whose sportive proclivities lead to the repeated creation of the universe.

The contrast between sport and terror is a little alarming, but may bear some similarities to the discussion, outside the Vedic tradition, regarding how God can be good if there is suffering in the creation. As a Christian may assert in the face of suffering that God is all good, so the Vaishnava concept of a playful Vishnu may hint at the same idea of a benign God. For Vaishnavas, Time in creation gives living beings the chance to pursue their goals both in life after life and in creation after creation. While there is fear and terror involved in this process, mention of eternal suffering or condemnation is absent. Everyone gets a sporting chance at improving their standing in life.

The idea of sport may also emphasize the independence of a Supreme Being. In any tradition, the appearance of God within the creation might raise a doubt concerning divine supremacy. One perspective derived from the Srimad-Bhagavatam is that whether God speaks from clouds, a mountain, or a burning bush, or whether he descends as an avatar, these are all sporting activities in the sense of freely chosen and undertaken for enjoyment without the prospect of negative consequences. God's actions are fully voluntary. He never comes under the control of nature, which is controlled by his energy known as time.

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From Back to Godhead By Mathuresha Dasa A look at what the Srimad-Bhagavatam has to say about time, a concept that has challenged philosophers for centuries. Time is a little difficult to define. Philosophers and theologians have tried for at least twenty-five centuries.

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The Holy Name is the Incarnation of God for the Age of Kali-Yuga – Dandavats

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The Holy Name is the Incarnation of God for the Age of Kali-Yuga – Dandavats

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By Sri Nandanandana dasa (Stephen Knapp)

In the Bhagavad-gita (4.7), Sri Krishna clearly explains, "Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion-at that time I descend Myself."

From all that we have learned in the previous chapters about the holy name of the Lord, we can understand that during this age of Kali-yuga it is the holy name, especially in the form of the Hare Krishna mantra, that is the present incarnation of the Lord and His energy for this present age. Between the time of Sri Caitanya 500 years ago, and the next avatara of the Supreme in His form as Lord Kalki, who appears at the end of the age of Kali-yuga, who or what is there for us to take shelter? It is this maha-mantra, the holy sound of Hare Krishna. As the Caitanya-caritamrta (Adi-lila, 17.22) and the Padma Purana says, the Hare Krishna maha-mantra is the sound incarnation of Krishna, and anyone who chants this mantra is in direct association with Krishna and can be delivered from the clutches of the material energy.

So the names of the Lord are also the same energy of the Lord. They are identical. By chanting Hare Krishna we are in immediate contact with God. This is further elaborated in the Caitanya-caritamrta (Madhya-lila, 17.131-133), which explains that there is no difference between the Lord's name, form, or personality, and they are all transcendentally sweet. Krishna's name is the same as Krishna Himself, and is not material in any way. It gives spiritual benedictions and is full of pleasure.

In this way, the more we engage in chanting these names, the more purified we become, and the more we can chant these names purely, or more spiritually. This means that as we become more spiritualized, the more the names can exhibit their true potency. Then the more we can derive the ultimate benefits from this transcendental sound vibration.

The point is, just as we can take shelter of the Lord when He is appearing in one of His forms on earth, we can also take shelter of His holy names. The holy name is the incarnation of the Lord in this age.

This also means that the more we associate with these names through any number of ways, the more positive effect they will have on us, both individually and socially. We can chant these names in japa meditation, quietly chanting for our own benefit, or we can chant these names in the congregational singing of them. Or we can also merely think about them and chant them in our mind. In any way we do this, they will bring about a spiritual effect. Of course, the more spiritualized we become, the more dynamic that effect will be.

For example, as we associate or practice the chanting of this maha-mantra, it will purify us from our bad habits, addictions, and negative thought patterns, and help us rise above the more debased tendencies that we may have. It will help us reach our higher potential, think more clearly, give us peace of mind, realize who we are and how best to live our life, and so on. It can also protect us from dark forces that may be lurking nearby, and that may try to pull us down into unwanted thoughts and activities or experiences. Socially, it will also raise the consciousness of humanity, help reduce the tendency toward crime, assaults, robberies, rapes, corruption, greed, lying, and so on. It will help put humanity on the right track. It can clear our consciousness so that we can recognize the various levels of the illusion around us, the basis of wicked activities, and show us how to be free of such things. Therefore, the sound of the holy names needs to be broadcast or chanted through the streets of towns and cities. This is easy when people gather in groups to do this and practice chanting together. It will bring a subtle and spiritual relief to those who hear it, and also help pave the way for a more positive future for society, and provide spiritual development for those who join in the chanting.

People may not think of it very seriously at first. The more materialistic people are, the less attractive they may be to something that is genuinely spiritual. But that is the diseased condition of a materialistically motivated society. They may stoop to any level to get more money, power, position, influence, and sensual pleasure. But the more spiritual a person becomes, the more he or she will see the futility and superficiality of such desires, which only keep one chasing a temporary dream like needing another fix from a drug for another temporary high. In the end, when the high is gone, you are still left with nothing. But the spiritual joy is free and only increases with one's experience with the spiritual dimension. The maha-mantra is the channel through which the spiritual dimension descends into this material world. Therefore, we need to take advantage of it in any way we can. Otherwise, the darkness of materialism, and any philosophy that is based or promotes such darkness, will only increase and drag humanity farther and farther away from any real happiness and constructive and progressive way of living.

For this reason, the importance of associating with the holy names cannot be emphasized enough. It is our choice whether to do so or not. God does not force this on anyone, but the information has been supplied by His arrangement that we should see that it is to our benefit to utilize this methodology and experience the power of the holy names in this Hare Krishna maha-manta. It is indeed the incarnation of the Lord in the easiest way for any of us to approach Him. Anyone can chant this mantra. No one is restricted. We only need to give it a chance, then become steady at it and take it seriously. Then the name can begin to act in all kinds of ways.

Quite honestly, when I was younger I used to smoke cigarettes. But when I started chanting the holy names on a regular basis, which at the time was only for about 15 minutes a day, or two rounds of 108 names each, I felt an inner strength I had not felt before. I wondered what I should first do with this inner power. I decided I would give up smoking once and for all. And that is what I did. I put more concentration on chanting, felt a higher taste and strength, and gave up smoking and never looked back, and never started smoking again. This is a very simple example, for the holy names of the maha-mantra have the power to do much more than that, which I have also experienced. But this simple example shows what can be done and how the maha-mantra can help anyone in any number of ways.

So, if we all took to this association with the spiritual realm, then we can see how so many dark tendencies of humanity can be overcome, and how our higher abilities can be awakened. Our love, compassion, morals, empathy, kindness, sympathy, forgiveness, cooperation, managerial abilities, insights, and so on, can all increase, not just individually but also socially on a mass scale. It can change the world. And these names can give more power in a healthier and more natural way than whatever power can be obtained by any dark practices that promise to assist us for temporary material awards or benefits, which always have unwanted side effects or consequences. This is the power of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra through which we can associate with the Supreme Lord and experience the spiritual realm, and surround ourselves with it, and raise ourselves to a higher level of awareness.

(An excerpt from the new book, "The Power of the Maha-Mantra," by Stephen Knapp)

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The Holy Name is the Incarnation of God for the Age of Kali-Yuga

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By Sri Nandanandana dasa (Stephen Knapp) In the Bhagavad-gita (4.7), Sri Krishna clearly explains, "Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion-at that time I descend Myself."

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What Does GOD Sound Like? by Satyaraja Dasa – Back To Godhead

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What Does GOD Sound Like? by Satyaraja Dasa – Back To Godhead

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"O lotus-eyed one, Your sweet voice and charming words, which attract the minds of the intelligent, are bewildering us more and more." - Gopis to Sri Krishna , Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.31.8

It Might seem naive to wonder what God sounds like, to speculate about the tone of His voice and the language He employs when communicating with those near and dear. Because He is transcendental, we know He is beyond mundane sounds. Most religious people would simply say that when God communicates, He does so in unmistakable tones, and they leave it at that. Extrapolating freely, we can say that He speaks the language of love, and anyone who communicates with Him purely, sincerely - in any language, any pitch - will be understood and can have a back-and-forth with Him based on their own devotion. And this is certainly true as far as it goes.

And yet, historically, God has communicated in specific ways with those who love Him. In the West, Judaeo- Christian scholarship theorizes an ancient divine language, a spiritual proto-dialect that predates human speech. Jews and Christians have traditionally wondered about the language of Adam, who gave names to all living things (Genesis 2:19). It is usually suggested that the early form of language he used deviated slightly from God's very own system of verbalization. In the early books of the Bible, God uses language during creation, a language medieval Jewish authorities assumed was Hebrew. Since it is clearly indicated that He uses language, some have pondered related questions: Is His voice deep or high? Would it always please the ear?

Christian scholars say that Jesus spoke Aramaic as his primary language and probably knew Hebrew and Greek as well. Because of Jesus's intimate relationship with God, Christian scholars often say that his language must be the same one that God uses. But there is no evidence for this in biblical literature.

When we turn to Vedic sources, as in, for example, the Rig Veda (1.164.45), we learn of four kinds of sound: para, pasyanti, madhyama, and vaikhari. These correlate with four states of consciousness: turiya (transcendental), susupti (intellectual), svapna (mental), and jagrata (physical). The first of these is spiritual, the next two are subtle, usually employed by beings on higher planets, and the final variety is grossly material, used by beings on lower and middle planets, such as earth. God, of course, can use any of these methods to communicate with beings of this world, and we in turn can use any to communicate with Him.

Srila Prabhupada says that chanting the maha-mantra - Hare Krishna , Hare Krishna , Krishna Krishna , Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare - "is directly enacted from the spiritual platform, and thus this sound vibration surpasses all lower strata of consciousness - namely sensual, mental, and intellectual. There is no need, therefore, to understand the language of the mantra, nor is there any need for mental speculation or any intellectual adjustment for chanting this maha-mantra. It springs automatically from the spiritual platform, and as such, anyone can take part in the chanting without any previous qualification, and dance in ecstasy." Prabhupada is essentially saying that the sound of Krishna 's name is transcendental, or of the turiya variety, without any connection to the three lower forms of sound.

Since Krishna is absolute, His form and the sound of His name are identical. And so, because the mahamantra is Krishna in the form of sound, hearing or uttering that sound with a pure heart gives practitioners an auditory experience of Him. This is true of any selfless prayer chanted with devotion. By perfecting one's chanting, one can come to see the Lord in all His glory.

Unlike other religious traditions, Vaisnavism affords a scientific procedure of just how to do this, and a close study of Srila Prabhupada's books, all gleaned from the Vedic literature, will disclose methods of practice that put one in direct touch with the Supreme Lord. The specificity or particularity of Vaisnavism's divine revelation of God through sound is unparalleled in the history of religion. We get to know who God is and, through intimate proximity, what He sounds like.

Krishna the Linguist

For example, in Chapter 21 of Rupa Gosvami's Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, as summarized by Srila Prabhupada in The Nectar of Devotion, we find details about Krishna as a transcendental polyglot:

Rupa Gosvami says that a person who knows the languages of different countries, especially the Sanskrit language, which is spoken in the cities of the demigods - as well as other worldly languages, including those of the animals - is called a wonderful linguist. It appears from this statement that Krishna can also speak and understand the languages of the animals. An old woman in Vrndavana, present at the time of Krishna 's pastimes, once stated in surprise, "How wonderful it is that Krishna , who owns the hearts of all the young girls of Vrajabhumi, can nicely speak the language of Vrajabhumi with the gopis, while in Sanskrit He speaks with the demigods, and in the language of the animals He can even speak with the cows and buffalo! Similarly, in the language of the Kashmir Province, and with the parrots and other birds, as well as in most common languages, Krishna is so expressive!" She inquired from the gopis as to how Krishna had become so expert in speaking so many different types of languages.

In other words, Krishna speaks all languages. This fact hearkens back to a more general conception of God - that He hears and understands whatever we say, especially if we communicate with Him in a mood of love and devotion. But here we learn specifically how Krishna employs this talent and of some instances when He does so.

Srila Rupa Gosvami wrote many books besides Bhaktirasamrta-sindhu, including dramas. In these, Krishna is depicted as speaking with some people in Prakrta (the language of ordinary people) and with others in Sanskrit. Prabhupada said that when Krishna was in Vraja, some five thousand years ago, He spoke Vraja-bhasa, the local language of the cowherds spoken even today. And yet when conversing with Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, He spoke in poetic Sanskrit, as both scholars and demigods still do when they find it appropriate. In fact, as Prabhupada informs us, Krishna sometimes speaks this same sophisticated language on His own planet in the spiritual world: "Yes, Sanskrit is spoken not only on Krishna loka but also in higher planets of the demigods." (Letter, February 1, 1968)

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu revealed something even more specific about Krishna 's voice:

My dear friend, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna , has a voice as deep as a cloud resounding in the sky. . . . Krishna 's deep voice is more resonant than newly arrived clouds, and His sweet song defeats even the sweet voice of the cuckoo. Indeed, His song is so sweet that even one particle of its sound can inundate the entire world. If such a particle enters one's ear, one is immediately bereft of all other types of hearing. (Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya 17.40-41)

In Chapter 21 of Bhakti-rasamrtasindhu, Rupa Gosvami also describes Krishna 's voice as deep.

Sounds for Loving Exchanges

In the end, the voice of God manifests variously, embodying, we might say, limitless inflections. Sometimes He speaks to us without words - through a trying situation, the morning dew, a sunset, a stranger's smile, a loving child, a physical ailment. He comes to us in numerous forms, and we need to be ready to hear Him, regardless of our expectations or preconceptions.

That being said, the Vedic literature tells us of His ultimate form and reveals that we can perceive Him when we truly love Him with heart and soul. Krishna sounds different for different people. But for pure devotees there is a certain uniformity of experience as well. To be sure, they perceive Him according to their unique, subjective relationship with Him, but they all hear the call of His alluring flute, relish His deep, resonant voice, and communicate with Him in languages that enable the deepest of loving exchanges.

Satyaraja Dasa, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, is a BTG associate editor and founding editor of the Journal of Vaishnava Studies. He has written more than thirty books on Krishna consciousness and lives near New York City.

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What Does GOD Sound Like? by Satyaraja Dasa

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"O lotus-eyed one, Your sweet voice and charming words, which attract the minds of the intelligent, are bewildering us more and more." - Gopis to Sri Krishna , Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.31.8 It Might seem naive to wonder what God sounds like, to speculate about the tone of His voice and the language He employs when communicating with those near and dear.

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Hare Krishna kirtan rocks Carnaby Street - 26.12.22 - YouTube

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Hare Krishna kirtan rocks Carnaby Street - 26.12.22 - YouTube

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Hare Krishna kirtan rocks Carnaby Street - 26.12.22

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Dandavats.com: Srimad Bhagavatam 6.3.25 by HH Badrinarayan Swami...

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Dandavats.com: Srimad Bhagavatam 6.3.25 by HH Badrinarayan Swami...

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Srimad Bhagavatam 6.3.25 by HH Badrinarayan Swami 12/25/2022 (video) Watch it here: https://bit.ly/3FVtEAv

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The Musk Deer Analogy | Mahatma Das - YouTube

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The Musk Deer Analogy | Mahatma Das - YouTube

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Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.8 - Speaker - HG Kalakanta Das - YouTube

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Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.8 - Speaker - HG Kalakanta Das - YouTube

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Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.8 - Speaker - HG Kalakanta Das

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Can the Sankirtana movement be stopped by material calamities? – Dandavats

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Can the Sankirtana movement be stopped by material calamities? – Dandavats

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Can the Sankirtana movement be stopped by material calamities?

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Can the Sankirtana movement be stopped by material calamities? Srila Prabhupada: "You have asked about whether nuclear devastation on this planet would effect the Sankirtana Movement. No, there is nothing that can stop the Sankirtana Movement because it is the will of God Himself, Lord Caitanya, that His Holy Name be heard in every town and village.

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Schwarzenegger and Hare Krishna. – Dandavats

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Schwarzenegger and Hare Krishna. – Dandavats

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(Above: Sabhapati das)

Schwarzenegger and Hare Krishna.
Sabhapati das ACBSP: I​ met with​ Arnie in Melbourne in​ 1974. ​I​ was​ standing as a devotee for​ the​ Australian​ Federal​ elections. (Inspired by​ Balavanta's program in​ the​ USA)​
I​ received a lot​ of​ TV​ coverage. Arnie saw​ the​ TV​ news​ report.​ At​ this​ time​ he​ had just won the title of Mr. Universe for the third or fourth time. ​That happened before​ his​ movie career.​ He phoned the​ next​ day. ​He​ was​ after​ his​ own​ press coverage​ and suggested that​ we​ team​ up​ and​ get​ some​ joint​ publicity. ​At​ that​ time​ he​ had​ no​ management​ and​ no​ PR man.​ He​ was​ his​ own​ PR​ man.
So​ the​ next​ day​ I​ and​ Caru das (from Utah)​ met​ with​ him.​ You​ will​ be​ to​ see​ the​ half hr​ conversation​ in​ my​ upcoming​ autobiography.
After​ Caru​ argued with​ Arnie​ for​ a​ while, Caru​ stormed out.
But​ Arnie​ and​ myself​ had​ a​ cordial chat.
He​ had brought​ along a​ local​ newspaper photographer.
The​ next​ day​ this​ photo appeared on​ page 3​ of​ "THE MELBOURNE​ ​SUN", Australia'​s​ biggest​ daily at​ the​ time.
Arnie​ was​ expert at​ getting​ his​ own​ publicity. (His​ ego being​ much​ bigger than​ his​ body). The​ caption above​ the photo​ said.​ THE​ MAN​ OF​ THE​ BODY​ MEETS THE​ MAN​ OF​ THE​ SPIRIT.
Arnie​ spoke the​ holy name​ HARE KRISHNA​ a​ couple​ of​ times.
--
"The man of the body meets the man of the spirit"

[May 1975: MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA]

Sabhapati: Each evening Srila Prabhupada would give a lecture, and a couple of lectures he spoke on how society should be organized according to the varnasrama-dharma and how it was the duty of the leaders of society to rule properly.

So I was very impressed by these sort of lectures because previously I'd been to university and I'd studied economics and politics, and I was interested in how society should be organized.

Previously in 1974 after coming back from the Mayapur Festival, some devotees in America, Balavanta prabhu in particular, were running for Congress.

So in elections in Australia, I was put up to be the representative of the In God We Trust Party, the political party of the Hare Krishna Movement.

From this we got so much wonderful publicity-interviewed on so many of the leading current affair TV programs, on the Mike Willesee Show, on In Melbourne Tonight.

When I was on the Mike Willesee Show, he asked me what my policy was.

And I was explaining to him how we weren't so much interested in so many political ideologies, but actually we were more interested in the quality of the politician, of the morality of the politician.

The politician should have good spiritual qualities because in the past so many politicians were so corrupt and involved in so many different types of scandals and corruption so they were of no good quality.

One of our platforms was that if we got elected, we would close down the two bars in Parliament House where the politicians would go and they would drink so much alcohol.

And then after deciding to have the vote, they would ring the bell so that all the politicians were forced to leave the bar and to leave their drinks and to go back into the House and make the vote.

So we made a big point that so much legislation was passed in the Parliament by intoxicated leaders.

So we thought that this was actually quite disgusting.

Our political platform was actually based on Harinam.

We would go out and we would chant on the streets of Melbourne, and we would stop in a particular place and perform the kirtan and, of course, hundreds of people would come around.

Then we would stop the kirtan, and I would stand on a soapbox and get up and talk about the philosophy of Krishna consciousness.

We would talk for three or four minutes and everyone would listen, and I would finish and they would all clap in appreciation.

Then we would continue chanting on down the street and stop at the next corner and get up and give another talk.

So actually we went around the suburban streets where there were just houses.

Then we would have kirtan up and down the suburban streets.

So in this way, not only were we participating in a political process, but it was all based on the Harinam of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

So in that way, we were spreading Krishna consciousness.

So as we engaged in the electoral campaign, we got quite a lot of publicity.

One evening we were on a show called Melbourne Tonight, which was a big variety show in Melbourne; and one man came to Australia, and his name was Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He had just won the title of Mr. Universe for the second or third time, and he was doing a tour of Australia.

So he was a very smart guy, and he saw me on this political show.

So he wanted to get publicity for himself.

So the next day he rang up and he suggested that we have a meeting together and he could bring along a cameraman, and we would have publicity for him and publicity for the Hare Krishna political campaign. So we agreed to it.

So the next day Arnold Schwarzenegger came and we met with him, and we had a big discussion and we were explaining to him that we're not this body, we're the soul.

But he was flexing his muscles and telling us how good and how big and how powerful he was, and he was fit and healthy and we weren't fit and healthy because we were doing meditation.

But we challenged him to come out on an eight-hour kirtan with us and see if he could keep up.

You have to be very fit. Anyhow, he declined.

Then finally he brought a photographer along, and he took a photograph of myself and him shaking hands.

The next day it appeared in the paper, and it had "The man of the body meets the man of the spirit" and a very, very nice favorable article underneath that caption.

-Sabhapati

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The article is written by Michael Ryan:
" Body and soul met in a match of minds."
" The perfect body met with a perfect soul yesterday in the city of Melbourne and got into a brain fight. A man from the movement of Hare Krishna Das (Philip Scott) in his election campaign to Parliament wants to make us all aware of God. His guest was the conscious body Arnold Schwarzenegger, who became the owner of Mr. Universe for the fifth time."

Next will translate only the dialogue that the journalist captured:

- "You are in the dark of the physical concept of life" said the monk of the cult. "You think you're this body".
- "I am this body" answered quietly Mr. Universe. " And I am ready to quote my Austria land Dr. Sigmund Freud, that all spiritual beliefs are just a sublimation of personal pleasure."
- " No," the devotee said, "Bhagavad Gita makes us understand that the soul is reality, and the body is only dust."

He then called Mr. Universe to come to the street to chant for many hours in a row. 😃🤗 😃🤗
Schwarzenegger showed a gym-card saying, "I'll come to hang with the Hare Krishnas for three hours if you spend the other three hours with me". 😂

However, history showed that Arnold didn't come to sing, and Sabhapati didn't go to the gym 😊

In conclusion, though Arnold, unfortunately, did not go to chant with the devotees, but recently he has been very much against the meat industry and has become a vegetarian.
Source: https://is.gd/4KhW87

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(Above: Sabhapati das) Schwarzenegger and Hare Krishna. Sabhapati das ACBSP: I​ met with​ Arnie in Melbourne in​ 1974. ​I​ was​ standing as a devotee for​ the​ Australian​ Federal​ elections. (Inspired by​ Balavanta's program in​ the​ USA)​ I​ received a lot​ of​ TV​ coverage.

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H.G. Panca Gauda Prabhu_Śrī Caitanya-Caritāmṛta_CC Ādi 2.2_26.12.2022 - YouTube

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H.G. Panca Gauda Prabhu_Śrī Caitanya-Caritāmṛta_CC Ādi 2.2_26.12.2022 - YouTube

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H.G. Panca Gauda Prabhu_Śrī Caitanya-Caritāmṛta_CC Ādi 2.2_26.12.2022

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Brief History of the Relation between the Vedic and Western World Views – Dandavats

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Brief History of the Relation between the Vedic and Western World Views – Dandavats

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Brief History of the Relation between the Vedic and Western World Views – Dandavats

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By HH Subhag Swami
Lord Ram constructed a bridge to Lanka across the Ocean. Lord Ramchandra does not require a bridge to cross over the ocean, he is God, but in order to glorify his followers, good devotees like Hanuman and others including the little squirrel, Lord Ramchandra constructed a bridge to Lanka across the Ocean. Lord Ram gave them a chance, they simply chanted 'Jai Shri Rama' and threw stones into the water and the stones started floating, such is the potential of the holy name.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said in his Sikshashtakam prayers:

'namnam ak āri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis'

"The Lord has invested all his transcendental strength in his holy names, Krishna, Govinda, Rama". If you believe, then you must have got some experience that whatever you thought and desired while you were chanting, was fulfilled. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu quoted a verse from the Padma Purana. (CC Madhya 17.133):
'nāma cintāmaṇiḥ kṛṣṇaś caitanya-rasa-vigrahaḥ pūrṇaḥ śuddho nitya-mukto bhinnatvān nāma-nāminoḥ'
The Holy name is Cognizant, it knows everything, it is a person. We need to take shelter at his lotus feet. Are we taking shelter at the lotus feet of the Holy Name? Am I surrendering? We need to ask ourselves. Srila Haridasa Thakura took shelter of the holy name. He chanted three lakh names of the Lord daily. Those who have taken the shelter of the holy names are able to chant feelingly like Srila Haridasa Thakura. One who is chanting the Lord's names is automatically taking a dip in all the pious tirthas on the earth. He is performing all the pious activities, renunciation, austerity, just by chanting the holy names of the Lord.

As we chant purely, the holy names manifest themselves. Srila Rupa Goswami reveals (CC Antya 1.99):
'Tuṇḍe tāṇḍavinī' ratiṁ vitanute tuṇḍāvalī-labdhaye karṇa-kroḍa-kaḍambini ghaṭayate karṇārbudebhyaḥ spṛhām...
Rupa Goswami expresses that as he chants the names of Lord Krsna, Rama, the holy name starts dancing in his mouth. As soon as the nectar from the holy name enters the holes of his ears, he feels unsatisfied with his one tongue and a pair of ears, he then longs to have lakhs and lakhs of tongues and lakhs and lakhs of ears to taste just a little bit of it, the sweet mellow emanating from chanting 'Kṛṣ-ṇa', these two syllables, even once. Further as the holy name starts dancing in the courtyard of his heart, it conquers the activities of his mind making his senses inert. Rupa Goswami experienced it, that's why he is able to say this. But sadly, we are not able to chant pure name. Rather, sometimes we drowse off while chanting.

This Holy Name is unlike anything of this material world. It is an ocean of bliss, like nectar, an ocean of nectar. It has the potency to clear all our sins. We need to taste it. So, chant the holy name very very carefully and correctly. Probably we are still committing offenses but if we chant continuously the holy name, then gradually, we will become free from all our offenses.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura prayed:
"kṛṣṇa-nāma-sudhā koriyā pān, jurāo bhaktivinoda-prāṇ, nāma binā kichu nāhiko āro, caudda-bhuvana-mājhe"
The names of lord Krishna are the life and soul of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. But unfortunately, we are not able to relish this 'Naam Sudha', the nectar which is emanating from the holy names, as is being experienced by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. Nevertheless, it is possible that we are able to get few drops of this nectar when we feelingly call out the names of the lord during loud sankirtan. But what type of taste do we actually hanker for? We need to introspect. Maybe, we are more interested in eating palatable dishes! It will take some time to start relishing the holy names. But as we progress in our devotional life, we'll definitely start developing some affinity towards listening Harikatha, towards our services for the lord. Then that's real sign of progress.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura said further, 'nāma binā kichu nāhiko āro, caudda-bhuvana-mājhe"

There is nothing else more significant in this material world except the Holy names of the lord. Lords names have all the benedictions within them. The holy Dham resides within the names of the Lord, Mukti(liberation) is present within the names of the lord, all the austerities are present in the holy names of the lord, all the pilgrimages are present in the chanting of the names of the Lord, moreover the Lord himself reside in his names, all the renunciation, sacrifices are all present within the holy names of the Lord. By chanting Lord's names, you'll get them all. But we are unable to chant Lords names with the desired quality. If yes, we did, then we would have been craving to have lakhs and lakhs of tongues to relish the nectar emanating from chanting Lord's names, as Srila Rupa Goswami said. It's not so easy to chant purely Lord's names like Haridasa Thakura.

A proper mood of chanting is very important. Those who like to chant always, they must understand that it is only possible to chant constantly, only if they possess a humble attitude devoid of all sense of false prestige. Chanting of the holy name is like calling god, as loud as a child, who cries for his mother and father or his well-wisher. So, we should cry, chanting Hare Krishna means, not just mechanical chanting, there should be a proper mood, mood is just like that of a child who helplessly cries out for his parents, we need to cry to the Lord to get his service and to please him. If we are calling out Krishna with these feelings, then we are chanting Krishna's name with proper mood. We should have firm faith that Lord Krishna will protect me and maintain me. He is our real well-wishing friend. Although Krishna wants everyone to surrender to his Lotus but because of our sinful activities we cannot do so. Nevertheless, if we keep chanting constantly the Hare Krishna Mahamantra, than some day we will be able to surrender. This is the instruction of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His most confidential servant Srila Haridasa Thakura. (CC Antya 3.137, Srila Haridasa Thakura's instructions to the prostitute.)

Hare Krishna Mahamantra is a humble prayer offered to the lord. It's meaning according to our present level of consciousness, is in a mood of prayer, " Oh! pleasure giving internal energy of the lord, Srimati Radha Rani! Oh Lord! deliverer from birth and death, all attractive, ocean of bliss and supreme enjoyer, Krishna! Rama! please, please, please engage me in your loving devotional service so that I do not serve Maya or ignorance which make me forget your service".

Rupa Goswami said that as harinama entered his mind, all his senses stopped functioning and as the holy name reached his heart, there was inundation, the love overflowed. We are far away from realizing it. But we have hope. If we have a goal to pass with first class in our exams then we need to start getting good results from now onwards. Srila Prabhupada told us that we need to know our goal, that is, how to get the 'Love of Godhead'. To achieve it, we need to pay a price. According to our acharyas, this price is the sole requirement to gain bhakti, 'laulyam ekalam mulyam',we need to have greed to get this 'Krishna prem', greed to get the love of godhead. If we start experiencing a greed for listening to Krishna's pastimes, serving Krishna, then we are definitely progressing in our devotional life.

Srila Prabhupada said, "Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and you become purified, more, more. And day will come when you find that you are completely pure from all material contamination and you become eligible to enter into the kingdom of God, and that makes a solution of all problems". (691226 - Lecture Initiation - Boston)

Ramananda Ray is telling that whatever price one has to pay to get this greed, must be paid because this greed is the only price to get Krishna. Our Goswami's are also telling us like this. Ramananda Ray said (CC Madhya 8.70):
'tatra laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ. janma-koṭi-sukṛtair na labhyate'
One price, Krishna is not asking from us some high material education neither some merit earned from renunciation and sacrifices, no, only one qualification, extreme eagerness, you should be extremely eager to serve the lord. Almost like a greed. Everybody is greedy, somebody is greedy after money, greedy after beautiful women, greedy after a rich husband, greedy after name, fame and high position, but someone may also be extremely greedy to serve Krishna, yes, our acharya's are telling that this is the only price to get Krishna bhakti, loving devotional service at the lotus feet of the Lord. Anyone and everyone can achieve Krishna bhakti, pure devotional service at the lotus feet of the lord, in this manner.

We are not experiencing such feelings because we are diseased, we are suffering from the disease of this material world. We are unable to taste the holy name's real sweetness. Without relishing Krishna Consciousness, we cannot cultivate a greed for it. One who is afflicted with jaundice, he is unable to taste the sweetness in sugar. But gradually, as the patient recovers, he begins to relish this sweetness more and more.
Srila Prabhupada explains, "The holy name, character, pastimes and activities of Kṛṣṇa are all transcendentally sweet like sugar candy. Although the tongue of one afflicted by the jaundice of avidyā (ignorance) cannot taste anything sweet, it is wonderful that simply by carefully chanting these sweet names every day, a natural relish awakens within his tongue, and his disease is gradually destroyed at the root." (Nectar of Instruction 7, Translation)
I'll suggest everyone to try to chant maximum number of rounds before the Mangal Arti. Rise up early. Stay alone on your own where no one talks to you, just see you are feeling fresh, splash some water on your face. If you want, you may take a quick bath, but if you don't take bath so early, doesn't matter. Finish your rounds very nicely. It is a time when you are there and your most beloved Krishna is there, try to establish your relation with him, you may also cry if you have a picture of Krishna or a picture of Mahapraphu deity in front you. You are getting prepared for your final destination. We cannot tell when our final moment will come and we will have to leave these bodily relations, so called near and dear ones. Our only near and dear one is Krishna. Rest of the relations are all temporary. I hope it's clear. We have to face the reality. Reality is like this, 'Krishna is my master and I am his servant'. Krishna is my dearest friend and I can rely on him. You cannot rely on anyone else. Everything temporary will be left behind, even your own body, what to speak of your money, your near and dear ones. But one needs to carry out his responsibilities with a sense of duty. Make your relations Krishna Conscious. Krishna Consciousness is the primary consideration, others are secondary, tertiary.

There is a book with a compilation of topics related to chanting Hare Krishna. It's called 'Sri Namamrta'. It is compiled with the instructions of Srila Prabhupada which he gave to his disciples regarding chanting Hare Krishna Mahamantra. Some devotee said to Prabhupada, "Prabhupada, when I chant, can I think of Krsna's lila". Srila Prabhupada replied, "The thoughts of Krishna will come automatically while Chanting." Prabhupada's answer was like that. So, many questions and answers are there in this book. They will help. The chanting of the holy name gives us a lot of strength, spiritual strength. So, it destroys all our accumulated sin. But a devotee needs to carefully guard against all the offences to the holy name.

Often Srila Prabhupada instructed his disciples regarding chanting Harinama. He prescribed chanting of sixteen rounds of Mahamantra as the minimum standard for a beginner. He always encouraged anyone who was able to chant a greater number of rounds. He said, "your upper lips and lower lips will move and tongue will move and fix your concentration on the sound vibration, "HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE" and then he told about the proper mood of chanting, as enunciated by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, "tṛṇād api sunīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā". One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind.

More you chant, more you feel like chanting more. Do you have some experience? When we chant more, we feel like chanting more and more and more. You'll feel more confident. Once, Prabhupada was asked by one of his first disciples, Brahmananda Swami. He asked, "Prabhupada, what is the effect of chanting more?" Prabhupada replied, "when you chant more, do you feel like chanting more?" Brahmananda swami replied, "yes, Prabhupada". Srila Prabhupada: "Then it is good, that means you are developing attachment to the lord....", assured Prabhupada.

A Vaishnava feels real compassion for other living beings. He tries to bring them to Krishna Consciousness. It's called ' jive doya'. He has developed a taste('ruchi') in chanting Harinama. It's called ' nameruchi'. A devotee is attached to serving other Vaishnavas. It's called ' vaishnava seva'. These are the jeweled ornaments adorned by the Vaishnavas. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that by assessing these three superior Vaishnava qualities, we can check our advancement in Krishna Consciousness.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura sang in his bhajan:
nam siva jape panca-mukhe re (madhur e harinam) e nam brahma jape catur-mukhe re (madhur e harinam) e nam narada jape bina-jantre re (madhur e harinam)'
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura is glorifying the sweetness of the holy name. He says, 'Madhur e harinam', 'Madhur e harinam', 'madhur' means sweet. Krishna is also called 'madhu'. 'madhu' means honey. In the material world there is one kind of 'madhu' which is made by bees, but in the spiritual world, is another 'madhu', that is absolutely sweet. In the material world there is Kandarpa(cupid) but in the spiritual world, Madan(cupid) is actually Krishna, and everybody is running after him. So, Krishna's names(harinaam) and Krishna are non-different. Even Brahma with his four mouths is chanting the holy names in ecstasy, Narada muni is singing Lords names, playing his vina in ecstasy. Even with five mouths Mahadev(shiva) is chanting lord Hari's names. It is so sweet.

When we go to Krishna, Krishna will not see whether we were a Sanyasi, a man or a woman, he will see our heart, he will see our love for him, he will see our attachment for him. Krishna's holy names are more merciful than Krishna himself. They can fulfill all our desires. They can take us back to godhead, back to Krishna!
Srila Prabhupada said, "Everything can be attained simply by chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Everything. The means is the end and the means is the whole". (Lecture at Initiation Fire Sacrifice - Los Angeles, July 16, 1969)
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!

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By HH Subhag Swami Lord Ram constructed a bridge to Lanka across the Ocean. Lord Ramchandra does not require a bridge to cross over the ocean, he is God, but in order to glorify his followers, good devotees like Hanuman and others including the little squirrel, Lord Ramchandra constructed a bridge to Lanka across the Ocean.

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ISKCON News | "Karma, Grace, and Free Will - Perspectives for Integral Transformation" 2022 Vaisnava Christian Dialogue | ISKCON News

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ISKCON News | "Karma, Grace, and Free Will - Perspectives for Integral Transformation" 2022 Vaisnava Christian Dialogue | ISKCON News

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With Christmas coming, I thought to share these thoughts about our recent Vaisnava Christian Dialogue that was held online last week with Catholic, Protestant, Sri Vaisnava and Gaudiya Vaisnava participants in India, the US and the UK.

My husband, Anuttama dasa, and I have been hosting two such dialogues each year. Our dialogue in the Washington, D.C. area where we live, has continued for over twenty-five years. For two years we met online because of Covid. Last April we met again in person for the first time at the ISKCON of DC temple.

Our dialogue in India has been going on for almost ten years. We met in person in India before Covid, and it has been online for the last few years.

The participants are all religious practitioners, and many of them are scholars and professors as well. Some are Jesuit priests, one is a Catholic nun, and one is a Catholic Archbishop. One is the President of a seminary. There is no audience or media present. It has been a meeting of authentic hearts across religious and cultural boundaries.

Our format is that each previous year, we conjointly choose a topic. Four members agree to write papers- from the perspective of their own tradition- one from the outlook of a Protestant Christian, one from a Catholic Christian perspective, one sharing as a Sri Vaisnava, and one from a Gaudiya Vaisnava perspective.

This dialogue is especially interesting and distinct from others, in that many of the participants are practitioners of a minority religion (Christians in India, or Vaisnavas in the US and Europe) in a country where the majority of the population follows another religious tradition.

In this dialogue we also have some Indian born Vaisnavas (men, women, and sannyasis) who grew up attending Catholic schools, and feel grateful for the foundational moral education they received there.

One of our participants, Parijata Devi from Mumbai, was happily surprised to be reunited with her dear high school teacher, Sister Teresa, at our dialogue after many years.

One woman, who is a member of our dialogue, is Dr. Gifta, who is a Protestant Christian originally from Odissa, and who now lives and teaches in Kolkata. She was awarded her doctorate degree this past April. Her topic of study is quite interesting.

As a (Protestant) scholar, she argued that the writings and teachings of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada can uplift the condition of women in living India today.

Her Ph.D. advisers at the university requested her to provide documentation of her idea. Many women who are disciples and followers of Srila Prabhupada contributed papers, each from their own personal experience, confirming Srila Prabhupada's egalitarian vision in engaging women equally along with the men in the activities of devotion.

Congratulations, Dr. Gifta!

This year the topic of our Dialogue was "Karma, Grace, and Free Will: Perspectives for Integral Transformation".

In India, sometimes the philosophy of karma has been misinterpreted and weaponized by sectarian people in order to discriminate and deny social mobility to so-called lower caste people.

Our Sri Vaisnava participant, Dr. Jagannivas, said that in the eyes of God, no one is untouchable. And that this misunderstanding of the varnasram system has created havoc in India.

Dr. Israel (an Indian Protestant minister living in Leicester, UK) said that millions of the poor are reeling under this system and that we must challenge this travesty.

Dr. Ravi Gupta (Radhika Raman Prabhu) described his vision for an Engaged Vaisnavism. He told the story of how the sage, Narada, out of compassion, stepped off his own path to ask the hunter, Mrgrari, why he was so cruelly half-killing animals.

Narada expressed the idea of karma in a forward-facing way: You have the capacity to change your actions and to better for your future. Seeing karma as a tool to effect positive change in someone's heart and in their life.

A suffering condition may be someone's karma, but it is the dharma of a Vaisnava devotee to assist and uplift whomever he or she meets. The philosophy of karma is not meant to be a type of stigma or fatalism.

With the blessings of holy company, as we experience in this Vaisnava Christian Dialogue each year, each of us has the capacity to transform our hearts and discover the diamonds of our true identity as eternal devotees, servants and lovers of God, whom we Vaisnavas address as Lord Sri Krishna.

As Jesus Christ is quoted as saying in the Bible: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of one of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for Me." Matthew 20:40

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas, Hanukah, and many blessings to you all in the coming New Year!

Hare Krishna!

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"Karma, Grace, and Free Will - Perspectives for Integral Transformation" 2022 Vaisnava Christian Dialogue

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With Christmas coming, I thought to share these thoughts about our recent Vaisnava Christian Dialogue that was held online last week with Catholic, Protestant, Sri Vaisnava and Gaudiya Vaisnava participants in India, the US and the UK. My husband, Anuttama dasa, and I have been hosting two such dialogues each year.

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Vaishnava Relations Seminar – Part 1,2 and 3 – Dandavats

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Vaishnava Relations Seminar – Part 1,2 and 3 – Dandavats

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Vaishnava Relations Seminar - Part 1,2 and 3

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IC Newsletter Vol.7, Issue 52, 25. December 2022

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IC Newsletter Vol.7, Issue 52, 25. December 2022

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IC Newsletter Vol.7, Issue 52, 25. December 2022

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Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 1/15/68. And I have noted the contents, especially the activities of Maya, carefully. Krishna Consciousness movement is actually declaration of war against Maya. The conditioned souls who wanted to enjoy this material world are captivated by the sex desires.

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Dandavats.com: A lecture on Lord Caitanya’s pastimes with HG...

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Dandavats.com: A lecture on Lord Caitanya’s pastimes with HG...

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A lecture on Lord Caitanya's pastimes with HG Chaturatma Das (video) Watch it here: https://bit.ly/3veu00f

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Lord Jesus Christ – Give the gift of Love for God – Dandavats

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Lord Jesus Christ – Give the gift of Love for God – Dandavats

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Lord Jesus Christ - Give the gift of Love for God

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Merry Christmas The Beatitudes of Jesus - Matthew 5:3-10 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

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Alachua Temple Live: ATL 2022-12-04 Kalakanta dasa Sunday Feast Lecture

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Alachua Temple Live: ATL 2022-12-04 Kalakanta dasa Sunday Feast Lecture

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ATL 2022-12-04 Kalakanta dasa Sunday Feast Lecture

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L isten to a class given by Kalakanta dasa for the Sunday Feast Lecture, given on December 4, at the Hare Krishna temple in Alachua, Flor...

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A detailed history of the harmonium! – Dandavats

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A detailed history of the harmonium! – Dandavats

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A detailed history of the harmonium!
The harmonium was born in Europe - so how did it become synonymous with Indian music?
The Indian harmonium similarly made its way to the United States in the first half of the 20th century, but it was the Asian immigration wave in the 1950s-1960s that popularised it.
This was also the period of the American Counterculture, an anti-establishment cultural movement fuelled by such disparate elements as women's rights, race relations, and the Vietnam War. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, widely known was ISKCON, was assisted in his early years in America by Beatniks like Allen Ginsberg.
As the harmonium was by this time an established vehicle for devotional music, ISKCON members using it became a common sight. Beatniks and hippies gravitated towards the instrument. Ginsberg played it constantly, most famously when he whipped it out and chanted the Hare Krishna mantra to the conservative writer and commentator William F Buckley Jr on his "Firing Line" television show in September 1968.
To read the entire article click here: http://goo.gl/k1voGq

Or read below the text only version.
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This is the story of a musical instrument that was birthed, died, and was reborn in the 230 or so years of its existence. The harmonium was conceived in the West, but today largely resides in the East, particularly in the Indian subcontinent; so much so that many mistakenly think it to be an Indian instrument.

To go into the past and locate the precise starting point of an idea or an invention is tricky, but one must start somewhere. The prototype of the harmonium was designed by Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein, a professor - not of music but physiology - at the University of Copenhagen. As an academic, Kratzenstein experimented with the effects of electricity on the human body. It is believed that Mary Shelley was so fascinated by his research that he became one of the inspirations for her classic novel, Frankenstein. She even adapted his surname for her fictional scientist.

French connection
Professor Kratzenstein did not produce a monster; his creation was quite the opposite. When he was not conducting physiology experiments, Kratzenstein indulged in music. He was fascinated by the sheng, a Chinese free-reed instrument shaped like a vertical pipe. Marco Polo had introduced the sheng to Europe centuries earlier, and by the 1700s shengs were being brought to Europe in fair quantities. One had wound its way along the Copenhagen streets and in through the door of Kratzenstein's house.

The professor was charmed by the free reed, as much by the physics behind it as with the crystal-clear notes it produced. In 1779, the Academy of Science at St Petersburg offered a prize for an essay on the formation of vowel sounds on an instrument similar to the "vox humana" of an organ. Kratzenstein built a small pneumatic organ fitted with free reeds, presented it to the Academy and bagged the award.

Others began building similar instruments. In Vienna, Anton Haeckl constructed the physharmonica, a keyboard instrument filled with free reeds. John Green invented the seraphine, which produced music when air was blown over metallic reeds. Such instruments are now museum pieces.

Gabriel Joseph Grenié invented the orgue expressif (Expressive Organ) because his reed-instrument had a wider range, and could produce crescendos and diminuendos. Alexandre Debain of France further developed Grenié's instrument, patented it in 1840, and named it the Harmonium.

The harmonium is like a smaller-sized organ that produces sound when foot-operated bellows sends wind through a pressure-equalizing air reservoir, causing metal reeds (fixed at one end, free at the other) to vibrate. Volume can be controlled by various means, by valves operated by the knee, by stops placed above the keyboard that allow the wind supply to bypass the reservoir, and by the force used to pump the bellows.

When Europeans emigrated to the United States they introduced the harmonium to their adopted country, and soon American firms like Mason & Hamlin and the Estey Organ Company began manufacturing the instruments. Harmoniums achieved their peak popularity in the nineteenth and early 20th century. Small churches and synagogues that couldn't afford expensive pipe organs particularly loved them.

Had you attended church 150 ago, very likely you would have heard church music or classical music on a harmonium, like this rendition of JS Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor (BWV 565):

Changing hands
Harmoniums were lighter in weight and smaller in size than organs and therefore easier to transport and less liable to be damaged in transit. Due to this, many reasonably affluent families ordered one for their living room. Heat and humidity did not affect harmoniums as much as they did pianos, so it was also suitable to ship to the tropical colonies of Western powers in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Western classical musicians began composing pieces specifically meant for the harmonium, among them the Bohemian composer Antonín Dvořák, the German composer Sigfrid Karg-Elert, the French composer Louis Vierne, the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, and the American composer William Bergsma. Belgian composer Cesar Frank's collection, L'Organiste, was written for the harmonium and not for the pipe organ, as some believe.

Passages scored for the harmonium were part of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No: 8, Edward Elgar's Adagio for String Orchestra Op. 70, and Gioachino Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle. The American composer Arthur Bird, who spent much of his life in Germany, wrote musical sketches (waltzers, skizzens and gavottes) specifically for the Mason & Hamlin harmonium model, which Bird called The American Harmonium.

With all this limelight shining on them, harmoniums with two or even three keyboards were built. Their larger bellows often required additional pumping by an assistant operating a lever on the side while the musician pumped the foot pedals as usual.

The harmonium gained an upper class image, one that went with tuxedos and evening gowns, diamonds, and champagne. But that notion turned topsy-turvy when folk musicians of Appalachia and the American South took to the harmonium. As the instrument became widely accepted, it was also used for patriotic music.

Here is the American national anthem played on a French double-keyboard harmonium from the nineteenth century:

The harmonium became an important instrument in the folk music of Scandinavia, Finland in particular. While the instrument largely disappeared from Europe after the mid-twentieth century, as late as the 1980s it remained an essential part of many Scandinavian bands and school ensembles. Contemporary Finnish composers Milla Viljamaa and Timo Alakotila continue to make good use of the harmonium.

Here is a vibrant Nordic polka, Snoa efter Boda Spelmanslag, played on a sturdy 100-year old Lindholm harmonium:

The harmonium's decline began in the early 20th century. Changing tastes in music meant it was no longer popular as a household musical instrument. The knockout blow: the invention of the electronic organ in the 1930s. This shiny new creature had the musical range and tonal quality of a pipe organ, and the size and price range of a harmonium. Even better, it provided a greater number of stops than the harmonium. And no pumping of bellows was involved.

Moreover, in litigation-oriented America, patent laws came into play. Harmonium manufacturers could patent the action mechanism on their instruments, so that companies entering the field had to tack on something new or significantly modify something existing, even if it was just a crank or a shaft. Harmoniums became increasingly more expensive to produce and maintain in the United States. And when the modern electronic keyboard with its MIDI sound systems came into existence, it was time to sing a requiem for the harmonium.

A Second Life in India
Or was it? Another story had been playing out on the opposite side of the world.

The portability of the harmonium (relative to the organ, the harpsichord and the piano), and its heat resistance meant that the British could export the instrument to their colonies for their homes and their churches there. Thus, several European harmoniums made their way to India where they became the cynosure of the eyes of Indian musicians.

One such musician was Dwarkanath Ghose, whose company Dwarkin & Sons, was a leading manufacturer of musical instruments in Kolkata (then Calcutta). In 1875, he brought out his version of the Indian hand-harmonium, an instrument more than halved in size from the European harmonium because it was pumped by hand-operated bellows located at the back of the instrument instead of foot-operated bellows beneath the keyboard.

This new incarnation of the harmonium was more durable, far less expensive to build, and easier to maintain and repair. Ghose simplified the internal mechanism of the instrument, and added drone stops that would render it suitable for Indian classical music.

A scale-changing mechanism was added later. Moreover, Indian musicians traditionally sat on the floor when they gave concerts, and the modified harmonium could be played while placed on the ground.

But the fundamental difference that made such adaptations possible at all was this: Western music is based on harmony, Indian music on melody. Therefore it was quite feasible to pump the bellows with one hand and play the melody with the other. One did not need both hands on the keyboard. India started manufacturing its own harmoniums, and by 1915, had become the world's leading producer of the instruments.

Like any new kid on the block who had outsider written all over, the harmonium was received with suspicion by many Indian musicians. But when well-known performers like Ganpat Rao and Govindrao Tembe introduced it in their classical musical concerts and into Marathi opera, it gained grudging respect. Then politics derailed this acceptance.

Discordant note
The partition of the state of Bengal in 1905 into East and West Bengal by the British sparked off the nationalist Swadeshi movement. One of its tenets was that anything British was to be rejected, that which was Indian favoured. And the harmonium (never mind that it originated from continental Europe, not Britain) became a target.

In the pre-harmonium days, Indian vocalists would be accompanied by musicians playing the sarangi (a bowed, short-necked string instrument). Though said to approximate the human voice, the sarangi was technically difficult to master and needed extensive re-tuning for each raga (melodic musical scale). Moreover, some performers shunned it because it was historically associated with courtesans and titillating music.

The harmonium began to replace the sarangi as the instrument of choice to accompany vocalists. But with the politics of national identity and the designation of the harmonium as "foreign" (though a Bengali, Dwarkanath Ghose, had Indianised it), the sarangi came into favour again. Gone was the taint of courtesans and debauchery; the good old sarangi was Indian, and therefore to be preferred over that nasty little foreigner, the harmonium.

The harmonium also had its limitations. While the Indian scale of music of twelve semitones is nearly the same as that in Western music, there are discernible differences between the two. The Indian concept of swara (note in an octave) does not relate to a specific pitch point, rather to a pitch-range with variegated possibilities of shades and nuances.

No keyboard instrument can meet this concept of swara; it can only play one note or the next. Thus, the harmonium could not generate the meend or gamaka (a glide from one note to another) in the way a veena or a sitar could. Therefore the harmonium cannot produce alankars (sound ornamentations), the trills that are so beloved in Indian classical music. A given swara in two different ragas has subtle intonational differences; musicologists claimed that the harmonium could not bring these out effectively.

All of this became ammunition for the anti-harmonium brigade's use. The instrument's name itself suggested that it was devised to play harmonies, two or more keys pressed simultaneously to register the melody note and the chord. This is an instrument of evil, the purists cried, a Frankenstein monster that will inflict harm upon Indian music.

All India Radio (which, at one time, had the monopoly over commercial radio broadcasting in India) then banned the instrument from its airwaves from 1940 to 1971. It now allows the broadcast of orchestral music of which harmoniums form a part, but solo harmonium recitals are still prohibited.

Listen to some classical music of the kind banned by All India Radio
Growing acceptance
The instrument initially was the darling of Rabindranath Tagore, who used it to compose many of his songs, although he later not only fell out of love because of its musical limitations but condemned it outright and forbade its use in his residential school, Santiniketan.

But the harmonium was not without its champions. Lions of Indian classical music such as Pandit Bhimsen Joshi , Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Begum Akhtar picked the harmonium as the instrument of choice to accompany them when they sang. The harmonium had a rich, continuous tone that only a violinist with a steady hand and immaculate bow control could match. Besides - and politics be damned - wasn't the whole idea to set the right atmosphere and bring out the best from the singer with the instrument most suited for the occasion?

The harmonium had other good points. Without a doubt it was easier to master than the sarangi or the violin. It was excellent for group singing, loud enough for the drone to fill a concert hall, and it became the key instrument in teaching students the rudiments of music and song. Hindu and Sikh groups quickly adopted it for their devotional music (bhajans, kirtan, dhun, shabad), using a tabla or dholak for the percussion beat, and often with other accompaniments like bells and cymbals.

The Christians didn't lag behind; they used it to sing hymns in Indian languages just as the Europeans and Americans had once used it for church music. The harmonium became the principal (and often, the sole) instrument for qawwali, a devotional music tradition of the Sufi branch of Islam that went back seven centuries. The harmonium had now justifiably developed a reputation as an instrument for devotional music in four religious traditions on the Indian subcontinent.

The international harmonium: Pakistani maestro Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and his troupe render a Sufi qawwali composition to welcome South African hero Nelson Mandela to Birmingham, England; October 1993.
The Carnatic (South Indian classical) school of music has been ambivalent about the harmonium as a natural fit in its repertoire, though it had its great exponents such as Perur Subramanya Dikshitar whose wizardry on this instrument, many say, cannot be surpassed. Another veteran harmonium player, Palladam Venkataramana Rao, said that the instrument is so good that it is silly to hold its inability to produce a gamaka against it, because gamakas alone do not Carnatic music make. But for all that, a solo harmonium performance is as rare in the famous Chennai Carnatic music concert season in December as snowfall is in that city.

The naysayers notwithstanding, the harmonium became popular across a wide spectrum of music: rural folk music all over India, in ghazals (Urdu poetry set to music), kathak (North Indian classical dance), thumri (North Indian semi-classical variation) and khayal (North Indian classical vocal). Even the Indian movie industry embraced the harmonium with an open heart. The harmonium became an instrument for popular entertainment.

The harmonium & the movies: an evergreen tune from the 1959 Tamil romantic drama 'Kalyana Parisu' [The Wedding Gift] A Global Reemergence
The European harmonium is, for all practical purposes, dead and extinct, only to be found in antique shops, museums, and in the homes of collectors of musical instruments. It does give little gasps and hiccups now and then from the grave. The Beatles used it in many of their songs, including "The Inner Light," "Doctor Robert," "We Can Work It Out," "Cry, Baby, Cry," and "Rocky Raccoon." Lisa Hannigan made full use of it in her album "Sea Sew," Pink Floyd in "The Final Cut," and Queen in "Tio Tariotte / Let Us Cling Together."

As the 19th century segued into the 20th, as mentioned earlier, the great wave of European immigration to the United States introduced the European harmonium to America where it thrived before dying out. The Indian harmonium similarly made its way to the United States in the first half of the 20th century, but it was the Asian immigration wave in the 1950s-1960s that popularised it.

This was also the period of the American Counterculture, an anti-establishment cultural movement fuelled by such disparate elements as women's rights, race relations, and the Vietnam War. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, widely known was ISKCON, was assisted in his early years in America by Beatniks like Allen Ginsberg.

As the harmonium was by this time an established vehicle for devotional music, ISKCON members using it became a common sight. Beatniks and hippies gravitated towards the instrument. Ginsberg played it constantly, most famously when he whipped it out and chanted the Hare Krishna mantra to the conservative writer and commentator William F Buckley Jr on his "Firing Line" television show in September 1968.

Allen Ginsberg, with harmonium, chants the Hare Krishna maha-mantra to William Buckley.
But the evolution of the harmonium still continues, as ingenious minds seek to introduce modifications that would make it more and more desirable as a vehicle for Indian music. Following in the forgotten footsteps of Dr Kratzenstein, who adapted the concept behind a Chinese musical instrument to suit European music, another doctor, Dr Vidyadhar Oke, a pharmacologist who resigned his position at a pharmaceutical corporation to pursue his interest in music, has invented a harmonium that can play the 22 shrutis (microtones) required by Indian classical music.

Whereas Western music is based on a fundamental diatonic scale (C-D-E-F-G-A-B, or, in popular parlance, Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti) and a repeated octave, Indian classical music uses a seven note movable scale (Sa-Ri-Ga-Ma-Pa-Dha-Ni) and additionally employs semitones as well as inflections smaller than a semitone. Oke worked with craftsmen from a company that had been manufacturing harmoniums for 75 years; together they produced an instrument that can generate the requisite microtone by providing knobs positioned below the keys, the pulling of which activates additional reeds. Tagore might quite possibly be smiling from beyond the grave.

Other innovators are also at work. Pandit Bhishmadev Vedi amalgamated the harmonium with the swarmandal (a small, harp-like instrument, India's answer to the zither and the autoharp), and the design was developed by his disciple, Pandit Manohar Chimote. Chimote named this new instrument (the hand-harmonium with the swarmandal affixed horizontally on its flat top surface) the samvadini.

That which is stagnant eventually dies. That which evolves survives. And through its new incarnations, the harmonium looks set to march on through the 21st century.

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A detailed history of the harmonium! The harmonium was born in Europe - so how did it become synonymous with Indian music? The Indian harmonium similarly made its way to the United States in the first half of the 20th century, but it was the Asian immigration wave in the 1950s-1960s that popularised it.

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Srila Prabhupada: “Whatever you have on your plate when you start, you have to finish that prasadam!” – Dandavats

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Srila Prabhupada: “Whatever you have on your plate when you start, you have to finish that prasadam!” – Dandavats

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Srila Prabhupada: "Whatever you have on your plate when you start, you have to finish that prasadam!"

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Srila Prabhupada: "Whatever you have on your plate when you start, you have to finish that prasadam." Daivishakti: In 1974, maybe in August, after Janmastami, Prabhupada was again recovering from his sickness. And we used to cook for Prabhupada, and then after cooking for Prabhupada we would make something for his servants and secretaries to eat.

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In the West, is the holiday season, with Christmas and Hanukkah both coming up. As Srila Prabhupada explained, the Lord comes to this world to enlighten people with transcendental knowledge. Sometimes He comes personally, and sometimes He sends His son or His prophet or His representative, but they all come with the same message. They may speak in different languages according to the circumstances and the audience, but the essence of the message is the same: God is great; we are but small parts and parcels of God, meant to serve Him with love, and we have come from God and are meant to return to Him.

One of Srila Prabhupada's purports in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is contains a statement that relates to the holidays people in the West are about to celebrate:

" 'The avatara, or incarnation of Godhead, descends from the kingdom of God for material manifestation. And the particular form of the Personality of Godhead who so descends is called an incarnation, or avatara. Such incarnations are situated in the spiritual world, the kingdom of God. When they descend to the material creation, they assume the name avatara.' [ Cc Madhya 20.263 -264] There are various kinds of avataras, such as purusavataras, gunavataras, lilavataras, sakty-avesa avataras, manvantara-avataras, and yugavataras-all appearing on schedule all over the universe. But Lord Krsna is the primeval Lord, the fountainhead of all avataras. Lord Sri Krsna descends for the specific purpose of mitigating the anxieties of the pure devotees, who are very anxious to see Him in His original Vrndavana pastimes." ( Gita 4.8 purport)

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Srila Prabhupada's spiritual master, said that Jesus Christ was a saktyavesa-avatara; he accepted that Jesus Christ descended to the earth from above. That is avatara. And saktyavesa means one who carries the power of the Lord. Thus, he accepted that Jesus Christ descended to earth with the power of the Lord to preach the message of Godhead. And Jesus Christ preached more or less the same message as Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita. Sometimes people would ask Srila Prabhupada about Jesus, and Srila Prabhupada would reply, "In the Bible Jesus said that he was the son of God, and in the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krishna says that He is the father of all living entities, so there is no contradiction."

Jesus Christ filled the role of a spiritual master, or guru. The spiritual master teaches the science of Godhead, and when a disciple surrenders to a spiritual master, the spiritual master accepts the disciple's sinful reactions. Jesus Christ performed the same functions in relation to his followers or disciples; he taught them about God, and he accepted their sinful reactions. Sometimes Christians quote Jesus as having said, "There is no way to the Father except through me." This statement is a little controversial in learned circles-there is some question whether the attribution is authentic or not. But in any case, Srila Prabhupada took the truth in these words to be that one cannot approach the Lord directly; one can approach the Lord only through the Lord's representative, the spiritual master.

As far as the idea that Jesus Christ accepted the sins, or sinful reactions, of his followers, Srila Prabhupada expressed one concern: The followers should refrain from sin. They should consider, "Oh, if I sin, my spiritual master will have to suffer!" Christians in particular may consider, "Because I have sinned, my spiritual master had to suffer! So I should not commit sin any longer." That should be the basic sense. They should not think, "Oh, poor Jesus suffered for me, but now I can go on sinning."

So, we accept Jesus as a saktyavesa-avatara, as an incarnation of Krishna. Christmas should be a time when we remember the teachings of Jesus Christ, the mercy of Jesus Christ, and the sacrifice he made for us. And we should resolve to be better followers, better servants of God and God's representatives, and of all humankind and all living beings.

Hanukkah, in the Jewish tradition, is also an important festival celebrated at this time of year. It is a winter festival, and winter is a dark season, when the sun sets early and rises late. Hanukkah is the festival of light. Historically, the ancient temple in Jerusalem was seized and desecrated, but eventually, with great courage and sacrifice, the Jewish heroes, the Maccabees, won it back. They wanted to clean and purify the temple to make it fit for worship of the Lord, and their worship included a flame that was sustained by sanctified oil, to be maintained at all times. But when the Maccabees regained the temple, they found only one flask of the priestly oil, enough to burn for only one day. Still, they lit the great temple lamp, the menorah, and, according to the story, the oil burned for eight days, until they could get more. So, the miracle of Hanukkah is that the purified oil, which was sufficient to last only one day, burned for eight days, time enough to obtain more.

Figuratively, the temple is the heart. Cleaning the temple means cleaning one's heart of the many dirty things that accumulate there by material association. That dirt includes false identification with the body and material desires for the gratification of the body's senses and mind independent of God's sanction and God's service. And figuratively, the light is transcendental knowledge, or consciousness of God, which illuminates the heart and dispels the darkness of ignorance.

Just as the year has its cycles, we also pass through phases. We wish we could always be fully God conscious, but practically we may find cycles in our spiritual life, periods of increased devotion to God interspersed with periods of increased preoccupation with other matters. And the Hanukkah festival, the lighting of the candle or burning of the lamp, means brightening our hearts with God consciousness, with Krishna consciousness-cleaning the temple of the heart and rekindling the light of God consciousness, devotion to God, within the heart.

But we require help with such devotional activities, because alone each of us is quite weak. In the face of the material world, in the face of maya, we are weak and feeble, and we need the support and help of other devotees. If one person alone had to clean the temple, he or she would have a very hard job. But when all the devotees clean the temple together, the job becomes much easier.

The most complete science of God consciousness is presented in Srimad-Bhagavatam, which nicely explains the process of cleansing the heart:
srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah
punya-sravana-kirtanah
hrdy antah stho hy abhadrani
vidhunoti suhrt satam
"Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramatma [Supersoul] in everyone's heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted." ( SB 1.2.17)

The Bhagavatam says that hearing topics of Krishna, of God-just as we are sitting here and listening to Krishna's message-is itself a pious activity, a form of devotional service. We have only to open our ears to the message of Godhead and we become pious ( srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah punya-sravana kirtanah). Then, hrdy antah stho hy abhadrani: the inauspicious things in the heart-we could say, the dirty things in the heart, our evil thoughts and selfish desires-become cleansed. How? Vidhunoti suhrt satam: The Lord Himself helps the truthful devotee to clean the dirt, because the Lord Himself is already there in the heart. He is already there, but because the heart is covered by material contamination, we cannot perceive the Lord's presence; we cannot hear His voice. However, when we show our eagerness to hear the Lord's message through our ears, the Lord within reciprocates. He helps cleanse the dirty things from the heart so that we can hear Him there, guiding us. And when we surrender to the Lord and make sacrifices for Him, He supplies unlimited fuel for maintaining our heart's flame of devotion.

Satam means "truthful devotee." The truthful devotee is honest in his endeavors in Krishna consciousness. One who is dishonest will make a show of piety or religiousness but behind the show will have other interests, harbor other ambitions. But the truthful devotee actually wants to understand the science of God and to serve the Lord and all living beings. Though he may be weak, if he is honest in his endeavors to listen to the messages of Godhead and apply the principles in life, even if he is incapable of executing the orders perfectly, still he is considered satam, a truthful devotee. And the Lord within the heart, who acts as the well-wishing friend of the truthful devotee, will cleanse the heart of the dirty things that have accumulated there.

Again we see the importance of association, because the process for cleansing the heart is hearing the messages of Godhead, and only in the association of devotees can we receive the messages properly. Through our hearing and then chanting and repeating what we have heard, the heart becomes cleansed by the grace of the Lord. Ceto-darpana-marjanam: By chanting the holy names of God and by hearing the transcendental glories of God, the heart becomes cleansed and the light of Krishna consciousness there burns more brightly. It spreads throughout the entire body and then emerges-through the skin, through the eyes, through all the different sense organs. Especially, it comes out through the mouth in the form of transcendental sound, which comes from the heart. The messages that one has received through the ears and that have entered the heart come out again through the mouth and spread light, enlightenment, throughout the world.

So, tonight we greatly appreciate the efforts of Mother Urvasi, for she works so hard to create a situation where we all can come together and speak about God, hear about God, and remember God. Holy days are special occasions when we can get together and remember the Lord's appearance, or the appearance or disappearance of great devotees, or great events that have taken place in the service of the Lord. And when we get together and hear about the Lord and the great devotees of the Lord and the great service and miracles that have taken place in relation to the Lord, we become purified. And we become enlightened and engladdened.

Peace on earth and goodwill toward humanity actually can be achieved through God consciousness. The Bhagavad-gita explains how we can achieve peace: we must first make peace with God. If we reestablish our relationship with God and experience God's peace and friendship, then we can have real peace and friendship amongst ourselves and help each other in our relationships with Him.

Srila Prabhupada said, "God consciousness is there. You have begun these Christmas holidays in your country. Throughout the whole month of December, you'll observe nice festivities. Why? It began with God consciousness. Jesus Christ came to give you God consciousness, and in relation to him these festivities are going on. It may have degraded into another form, but the beginning was God consciousness. Now we may have lost it. But people cannot be happy without reviving God consciousness. It may be named differently-'Krishna consciousness'-but that means God consciousness. That is the necessity. We want to love somebody. Our love will be perfected when we love Krishna, or God. We are teaching that. Try to love God, and if you love God, if you love Krishna, then automatically you love everybody. That is the perfection of love."

Are there any questions?

Guest: I want to ask how you feel about a belief I am entertaining, namely that Jesus was a spiritual master because he had attained a spiritual level of consciousness or ascendancy through releasing his ego attachments and becoming transparent to God, and that statements attributed to him such as "No one can come to the Father but through me" and "I am the way, the truth, and the light" could be referring to the way he had attained his level of spiritual mastery. That is, such statements may be indicating that one cannot come to the Father in any other way but to release ego attachments and create this transparency to God. I realize that you were referring to the need for a spiritual master to assist one in achieving a level of spiritual ascendance, but could Jesus have been saying, "This is the way-the way I've done it"?

Giriraj Swami: What you say could be true. In fact, Srila Prabhupada used to describe the spiritual master as transparent. To be transparent, we have to purify ourselves of all material dross, and the subtlest level of material contamination is false ego. We cannot be transparent unless we become free from false ego. However, we do not accept the idea of the impersonalists that we give up our ego to merge and become one with God. Rather, we accept the instruction of the Bhagavad-gita, of Jesus Christ and other theists, to give up the false ego, the misconception that "I am the body, I am the Lord, I am the controller, I am the proprietor, I am the enjoyer" in favor of the real ego, the true understanding that "I am the eternal servant of God." Certainly, the spiritual master is the eternal servant of God, or Krishna, so he can properly represent Him and direct others to Him. And certainly, the process of giving up the false ego in favor of the real ego, the process of devotional service, is the only process that will bring us to God, that will enable us to fully realize we are eternal servants of God rather than illusory masters of the world.

Hare Krishna.

[Adapted from a talk by Giriraj Swami, December 17, 2000, Ojai, California]

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In the West, is the holiday season, with Christmas and Hanukkah both coming up. As Srila Prabhupada explained, the Lord comes to this world to enlighten people with transcendental knowledge. Sometimes He comes personally, and sometimes He sends His son or His prophet or His representative, but they all come with the same message.

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A Fish Out of Water.
When you're out of your element, nothing seems to satisfy.
Drutakarma dasa: For years, Frederick J. Fish lived a very ordinary life beneath the waves of the blue Pacific Ocean off Malibu. But one day he noticed that up on the beach there were finless creatures who appeared to be having more fun. So he rode in on a wave and hopped up on the sun-drenched sand. Soon he was all fixed up to enjoy himself-beach chair, FM radio, a cold drink, sunglasses. But something was wrong. Gradually Fred's feeling of discomfort turned to panic. Finally, gasping for breath, he realized, "I'm out of my element!"

According to the sages of ancient India, we're all out of our element. Originally, we all lived blissfully in the spiritual world, rendering transcendental loving service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna. Since this material world is not our real home, no amount of material gratification can satisfy us.

People often ask. If we were so blissful, why would we choose to leave the spiritual world? The answer is that we mistakenly thought we could enjoy greater happiness away from the Supreme Lord. In the spiritual world, God is the center of everyone's attention. Everyone cooperates to serve Him. When a living being attempts to assume the position of God, he is forced to enter the material universe, where he can live out his fantasies of being the supreme enjoyer.

In the material world, a person tries to enjoy himself by becoming friends with the best sort of people, by picking the most attractive sex partner, by doing everything possible to guarantee a good future for himself and his family members. He dresses as sharp as he can, drives the most expensive car he can afford, takes vacations in posh resorts, buys a house in a good neighborhood. He gets a color television, a personal computer, a second home in the country. He eats at the best restaurants, savors his favorite intoxicants, and goes out to see first-run movies. But these material things can never completely satisfy the yearnings of the soul.

In a recent interview, Alfred Ford (Ambarisha dasa), great- grandson of Henry Ford and now a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, spoke of the hopelessness of trying to buy happiness: "At a very early age, perhaps because I was born and raised in a very opulent situation, I began to notice that wealth alone can't make people happy, and that everything in the world, even the 'good things,' are temporary."

Sometimes people think that because devotees of Krishna reject material happiness they must lead extremely dull lives. Actually, transcendentalists are the most discriminating connoisseurs of pleasure.

A person serious about enjoying himself will naturally reject inferior pleasures and concentrate upon superior ones. In fact, he should be interested in finding the highest pleasure possible. Logically, a pleasure that never ends is superior to a pleasure that does. Also, pure pleasure is superior to pleasure mixed with some kind of unpleasantness. Finally, a pleasure that constantly increases is superior to one that is static, or that diminishes after a time.

Using this standard, we can see that any kind of pleasure derived from a material object is inferior to the spiritual pleasure obtainable from serving Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose very name means "the reservoir of all pleasure." Any person or object we try to enjoy in this material world will eventually be destroyed by the force of time, and the body with which we try to enjoy the material objects will also be destroyed. But the pleasure that comes from serving Krishna is eternal, because both the Lord and the soul are eternal.

Furthermore, pleasures derived from material objects and relationships are always mixed with pain. For example, there is some pleasure in sexual relationships between a man and a woman, but that is always followed by the burdens and difficulties of marriage, divorce, jealousy, envy, pregnancy, abortion, venereal disease, unfaithfulness, and so on. But the pure spiritual relationship of the soul with Krishna is purely blissful. The Nectar of Devotion, Srila Prabhupada's summary study of a devotional classic called Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, describes the condition of one who has achieved love of God: "At that time one's heart becomes illuminated like the sun, and from his pure heart there is a diffusion of ecstatic love more glorious than the sunshine."

Finally, attempts to enjoy a material situation inevitably yield diminishing returns. The first ice-cream cone may taste delicious. The second may be just as good. But the third will be hard to eat, and the fourth may make you sick. At the very sight of the fifth, you'll feel nauseous. But love for Krishna is like an ever-expanding ocean of transcendental bliss, and devotees pray to remain always immersed in its waves.

The Vedic literatures recommend a very simple process by which anyone can enter into this ocean of bliss: the chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra-Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. This mantra is composed of Sanskrit names of God. Being Absolute, God's name is nondifferent from God Himself and possesses all His transcendental energies. Five centuries ago Krishna appeared as Lord Caitanya and taught His followers: "The chanting of the holy name of God expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life." That's where we really belong, not washed up on the beach of material existence.

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A Fish Out of Water. When you're out of your element, nothing seems to satisfy. Drutakarma dasa: For years, Frederick J. Fish lived a very ordinary life beneath the waves of the blue Pacific Ocean off Malibu. But one day he noticed that up on the beach there were finless creatures who appeared to be having more fun.

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Lord Chaitanya, The Lord Who Gives Krishna Prema – HH Krishna Kshetra Swami – New York – Dandavats

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Lord Chaitanya, The Lord Who Gives Krishna Prema – HH Krishna Kshetra Swami – New York – Dandavats

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Lord Chaitanya, The Lord Who Gives Krishna Prema - HH Krishna Kshetra Swami - New York

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Lord Chaitanya, The Lord Who Gives Krishna Prema - HH Krishna Kshetra Swami - New York

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Alachua Temple Live: ATL 2022-12-16 Tamohara dasa SB 2.7.15

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Alachua Temple Live: ATL 2022-12-16 Tamohara dasa SB 2.7.15

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Lis ten to a class given by Tamohara dasa on text 15 of the Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana), canto 2, chapter 7, entitled "Scheduled Incarnations with Specific Functions" given on December 16, 2022 at the Hare Krishna temple in Alachua, Florida. The Srimad-Bhagavatam is a sacred Vaishnava text from India that narrates the history of God (Krishna) and His devotees. It is translated with elaborate purports by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Srimad-Bhagavatam is available for sale at Krishna.com.

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Lis ten to a class given by Tamohara dasa on text 15 of the Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana), canto 2, chapter 7, entitled "Scheduled Incarnations with Specific Functions" given on December 16, 2022 at the Hare Krishna temple in Alachua, Florida. The Srimad-Bhagavatam is a sacred Vaishnava text from India that narrates the history of God (Krishna) and His devotees.

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Shrimad Bhagavatam_ 6.3.20 || HH Chandramauli Swami Maharaj || 24th Dec 2022 || ISKCON Pune Camp – Dandavats

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Shrimad Bhagavatam_ 6.3.20 || HH Chandramauli Swami Maharaj || 24th Dec 2022 || ISKCON Pune Camp – Dandavats

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Shrimad Bhagavatam_ 6.3.20 || HH Chandramauli Swami Maharaj || 24th Dec 2022 || ISKCON Pune Camp

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Shrimad Bhagavatam_ 6.3.20 || HH Chandramauli Swami Maharaj || 24th Dec 2022 || ISKCON Pune Camp

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Alachua Temple Live: ATL 2022-12-18 Sesa dasa Sunday Feast Lecture

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Alachua Temple Live: ATL 2022-12-18 Sesa dasa Sunday Feast Lecture

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ATL 2022-12-18 Sesa dasa Sunday Feast Lecture

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L isten to a class given by Sesa dasa for the Sunday Feast Lecture, given on December 18, at the Hare Krishna temple in Alachua, Florida,...

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Srimad Bhagavatam 3.4.32 – Mukunda Goswami – 22 Dec 2022. – Dandavats

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Srimad Bhagavatam 3.4.32 – Mukunda Goswami – 22 Dec 2022. – Dandavats

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Srimad Bhagavatam 3.4.32 - Mukunda Goswami - 22 Dec 2022.

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Srimad Bhagavatam class given by HH Mukunda Goswami at ISKCON New Govardhana Temple.krishnafarm.net Srimad Bhagavatam 3.4.32 - Mukunda Goswami - 22 Dec 2022.

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Dandavats.com: SB Class | HH Trivikrama Swami | SB 4.21.48 |...

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Dandavats.com: SB Class | HH Trivikrama Swami | SB 4.21.48 |...

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SB Class | HH Trivikrama Swami | SB 4.21.48 | 24-12-2022 | ISKCON Hyderabad (video) Translation The audience continued: Dear King Pṛthu, your reputation is the purest of all, for you are preaching the...

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TOVP New Year's Message from Ambarisa and Braja Vilasa Prabhus - Temple of the Vedic Planetarium

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TOVP New Year's Message from Ambarisa and Braja Vilasa Prabhus - Temple of the Vedic Planetarium

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TOVP New Year's Message from Ambarisa and Braja Vilasa Prabhus - Temple of the Vedic Planetarium

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By Rachael LeValley Some time back I was offered a gift - Caitanya Caritamrta, a multi-volume set of books which cradle eternal knowledge in biography format... the biography and philosophy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu who lived from 1486 to 1533 as a Vaisnava Saint; He founded the Gaudiya Vaishnava Samp…

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Reality, Poetry, Consciousness, Enlightenment, Metaphor and Srimad-Bhagavatam – Dandavats

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Reality, Poetry, Consciousness, Enlightenment, Metaphor and Srimad-Bhagavatam – Dandavats

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By Akruranatha Dasa
We are familiar with the literary devices of similes and metaphors. In a simile, we may say something like, "The summer air was as hot as a furnace", but in a metaphor we do not simply compare two things but describe one as the other, as in Sandburg's poem: "The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches, and then moves on."

The language of metaphor and poetry is the language of emotion and love. In the Italian film "Il Postino" (The Postman), a simple, poor, shy, love-besotten mailman learns to win the heart of a beautiful girl when the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who is staying on an Italian rustic island in exile from the dictatorship of Gen. Pinochet, teaches him to use metaphor. Similarly, in Rostand's drama "Cyrano de Bergerac", an ugly hero helps a handsome soldier win the heart of a beautiful girl through poetry, although in Cyrano the hero-poet actually also loves the girl.

In our modern culture, we think of metaphor as a poetic device, distinct from reality. We have a concept of prosaic reality and of the poet as a creative interpreter or describer of emotional themes that are less real, only "imaginary". This is part of how modern people have learned to think about reality. Value and quality, personality, emotion and morality, have been bled from the "real", leaving only mass and force and wavelengths and particles moving in space over time (or in space-time). This aspect of modernism is also at work in the characteristically modern tension between science and religion as rival authorities on knowledge and truth. Religion and superstition are viewed by atheists as persistent errors that may be hardwired into the human psyche but are erroneous nonetheless.

In Srimad-Bhagavatam culture, there is not such a breakdown between prosaic reality and poetic metaphor. Actual reality is far more enchanted and magical and strange than our modern scientific, mechanistic, deracinated conception. Things that we think of as concepts - like fear, love, intelligence, decay and so on - are actually living beings who can interact with other, similar beings. The universe is full of demons, demigods, ghosts, goblins, sages, yogis, siddhas, gandharvas, caranas, apsaras, humans, animals, plants, and all kinds of mystical beings. They are not symbols sprung from the imagination of a human artist, who in turn sprung from unconscious, soul-less chemical interactions. They are actual living beings, souls expressing themselves through different kinds of actual bodies (many of which are imperceptible to the limited vision of humans).

In Greek mythology, originally the poets and composers of hymns and epics were supposed to be like seers or oracles who could explain such other-worldly (or super-earthly) affairs by virtue of their special sensitivity. However, there came a point in Greco-Roman classical culture where secular poets felt free to make creative use of the old stories of the Gods, much in the way that modern novelists manipulate metaphors and allegorical works of art.

European literary culture retained this tradition of mining the symbolism of the Pagan pantheons (not just Greek and Roman, but Norse, Teutonic and so on) for this reason, long after or alongside Christendom, on down to the present day. Nobody thinks that Dante or Shakespeare or Milton or Shelley or Wagner are actual seers describing the sacred reality of gods and demons, but that they are talented artists who manipulate these symbols and metaphors in effective, powerful and aesthetically sophisticated ways, in the imaginative, imaginary world of literature.

(And yet Eurocentric arrogance, mixed with the spirit of colonialism and imperialism, often scoffed at the religious and magical traditions of non-European, supposedly "inferior" cultures. Even when they encountered Vedic India, for the most part they were compelled by nationalistic politics and prejudices to regard this far more ancient and sophisticated culture as inferior, even as they justified their imperialstic enterprises as a philanthropic mission to bring Christianity to benighted, savage idol-worshipers.)

But Srimad-Bhagatavam culture is far more profound and ancient than Classical or modern European culture.* Here, reality and literature, science, history, philosophy and religion intersect. Yes, there are allegorical and metaphorical passages, and there are also metaphorical or allegorical significance to things that actually happened (because life imitates art, or actually is art). But Vyasadeva, as Narada Muni explained in the First Canto, was endowed with the power to describe the lilas of the Personality of Godhead and His material creation in a way that brings reality to life for us, enlightens us, purifies our consciousness and clears away illusions and doubts. He is not merely a gifted artist or seer; he is an incarnation of God creating a literary work which is "God in literary form", crafted in such a way to show the true face of the Absolute Truth to the sincere devotee-reader.

Whereas our sense of so-called historical or scientific reality is very limited and faulty and imperfect, filtered, as it is, through our conditioned, contaminated consciousness, tainted and stained by our false ego, our misconception of erroneous identification with our material minds, bodies and senses.

*[In Plato's "Timaeus", the Greek sage Solon was told by an Egyptian priest that the Greeks were "children", that all their beliefs and sciences were but fledgling new, immature ideas. Of course, modern humanists will apply their modern techniques to present a picture of Srimad-Bhagavatam as having been composed at a later stage of Indian history, grafting newer, post-Buddhist concepts onto a lost, older Vedic religion and philosophy. But how have such scholars qualified themselves to study and understand the Vedas, let alone the mature fruit of the desire tree of Vedic literature that is Bhagavatam? Their whole approach to history is non-brahminical, non-Aryan. They are not fit to comment on the meanings contained in this vast body of Sanskrt literature, or of how Bhagatvatm truly represents the essence of the essence of that culture, the cream of the cream. Their philosophy of history and conception of reality is part of the very modernist spirit which blinds one from becoming a genuine connoisseur of Bhagavatam or Vaisnava culture. Not that we have to decry or slander them: We need to win them over, as Lord Caitanya won over the Mayavadi authorities of His time. They have to be open-minded enough, to be receptive to different ways of conceiving of history, reality, literature and imagination. Moreover, such tools are available to them even within the European traditions of idealism and phenomenology, as also in their Middle-Eastern religious traditions.]

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By Akruranatha Dasa In Srimad-Bhagavatam culture, there is not such a breakdown between prosaic reality and poetic metaphor. Actual reality is far more enchanted and magical and strange than our modern scientific, mechanistic, deracinated conception. Things that we think of as concepts -- like fear, love, intelligence, decay and so on -- are actually living beings who can interact with other, similar beings.

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What It Was Like To Be With Prabhupada? – Dandavats

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What It Was Like To Be With Prabhupada? – Dandavats

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By Mahatma Das How do we describe the ecstasy we felt reading a letter to us with the words, “I am very pleased that …” We lived only for his pleasure, and to know that our little efforts were pleasing to him was infinitely more intoxicating than the best psychedelic drugs. To know that our humble e…

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Morning Class SB 7.1.8 - HG Narayani Mataji - 24 December 2022 - YouTube

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Morning Class SB 7.1.8 - HG Narayani Mataji - 24 December 2022 - YouTube

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Morning Class SB 7.1.8 - HG Narayani Mataji - 24 December 2022

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Bada Haridas Prabhu – Mayapur Mellows – 18th December 2022 – Dandavats

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Bada Haridas Prabhu – Mayapur Mellows – 18th December 2022 – Dandavats

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Bada Haridas Prabhu - Mayapur Mellows - 18th December 2022

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Bada Haridas Prabhu - Mayapur Mellows - 18th December 2022

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Real Happiness is in Serving the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna With No Motive Other Than to Please Him – Dandavats

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Real Happiness is in Serving the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna With No Motive Other Than to Please Him – Dandavats

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How to Cultivate a Peaceful Mind by Vaisesika Dasa - YouTube

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How to Cultivate a Peaceful Mind by Vaisesika Dasa - YouTube

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How to Cultivate a Peaceful Mind by Vaisesika Dasa

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The Kind of God I Would Believe in | Brahmā Tirtha das ACBSP | Morning Bhagavatam Class – Dandavats

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The Kind of God I Would Believe in | Brahmā Tirtha das ACBSP | Morning Bhagavatam Class – Dandavats

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The Kind of God I Would Believe in | Brahmā Tirtha das ACBSP | Morning Bhagavatam Class

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The Kind of God I Would Believe in | Brahmā Tirtha das ACBSP | Morning Bhagavatam Class

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H.H. Hanumat Presaka Swami Maharaja_SB-10.29.2-4_24.12.2022 – Dandavats

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H.H. Hanumat Presaka Swami Maharaja_SB-10.29.2-4_24.12.2022 – Dandavats

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2022.12.23 – Midlife crisis in devotional service London – Dandavats

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2022.12.23 – Midlife crisis in devotional service London – Dandavats

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2022.12.23 - Midlife crisis in devotional service London

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2022.12.23 - Midlife crisis in devotional service London

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Sri Locana Dasa Thakura Appearance | Ramai Swami

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Sri Locana Dasa Thakura Appearance | Ramai Swami

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Shri Lochana Dasa Thakura was a disciple of Shri Narahari Sarakara Thakura, a dearest associate of Lord Gaura Raya.

Lochana Dasa Thakura wrote Chaitanya Mangala which tells many pastimes of Lord Chaitanya not revealed by Vrindavana Dasa Thakura or Krishna Dasa Kaviraja. He mentions an especially touching conversation Shri Gaurasundara had with Vishnupriya Devi the night before He took sannyasa.

Being a talented musician, Lochana Dasa told Mahaprabhu's pastimes in beautiful poetry filled with fire and rhythm. Common people could easily understand the divine character of Shri Chaitanya and awaken their religious feelings. As Devotees regularly chant the Vedic epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, Gaudiya Vaishnava's still wander through Bengal reciting the Chaitanya Mangala.

Lochana Dasa Thakura also wrote many songs praising Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Shri Nityananda Prabhu, and Gauridasa Pandit. Lochana Dasa stresses that raganuga bhaktas must take shelter of Gadadhara Vrindavanishvari to attain Radha-Govinda prema bhakti.

Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura used to print and distribute Lochana Dasa Thakura's Shri Chaitanya Mangala. Shrila Prabhupada was very fond of his bhajans. While singing Parama Karuna Shrila Prabhupada would plunge into the ocean of Gauranga prema.

Prabhupada wrote an extensive commentary on this bhajana: Bhajo bhajo bhai, Caitanya Nitai, sudrdha visvasa kori ... "Lochana Dasa asks everyone, 'My dear brother, just worship Lord Chaitanya and Nityananda with firm faith and conviction.' Don't think that this chanting and dancing will not lead to the desired goal; it will. It is the assurance of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that one will get all perfection by this process. Therefore, one must chant with firm faith and conviction."

His samadhi is in 64 Samadhis Area.

Written by: Ramai Swami on December 24, 2022.

This entry was posted in Australia by Ramai Swami. Bookmark the permalink.

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Shri Lochana Dasa Thakura was a disciple of Shri Narahari Sarakara Thakura, a dearest associate of Lord Gaura Raya. Lochana Dasa Thakura wrote Chaitanya Mangala which tells many pastimes of Lord Chaitanya not revealed by Vrindavana Dasa Thakura or Krishna Dasa Kaviraja.

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Govardhan Hill – this place is magical! – Dandavats

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Govardhan Hill – this place is magical! – Dandavats

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Demons Portrayed in Western Religions: SB 3.18.25-28 RGM 12/22/2022 – Dandavats

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Demons Portrayed in Western Religions: SB 3.18.25-28 RGM 12/22/2022 – Dandavats

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Demons Portrayed in Western Religions: SB 3.18.25-28 RGM 12/22/2022

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Demons Portrayed in Western Religions: SB 3.18.25-28 RGM 12/22/2022

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Dandavats.com: Stimulation for Ecstatic Love Part 5 (video)...

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Dandavats.com: Stimulation for Ecstatic Love Part 5 (video)...

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Stimulation for Ecstatic Love Part 5 (video) Indradyumna Swami Watch it here: https://bit.ly/3PP5Lis

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Everyone else is prabhu and I am dasadasanudas – Dandavats

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Everyone else is prabhu and I am dasadasanudas – Dandavats

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Everyone else is prabhu and I am dasadasanudas

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Everyone else is prabhu and I am dasadasanudas.
Radhanath Swami: Real Vaishnavism is something very deep and something sublime, it’s not simply a type of dress or a type of hairstyle, it’s the substance of our consciousness. (Album of photos)

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Guided Discovery, Learning Efficiencies, and Retention – Dandavats

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Guided Discovery, Learning Efficiencies, and Retention – Dandavats