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- H.G. Sankarshan das Adhikari, USA: Tuesday 7 June 2011--Utter Helplessness is the Greatest Asset--and--Why Not Directly Worship Krishna?
- Jahnavi, UK: Star flowers.
- ISKCON Melbourne, AU: Temple Compound Pictures
- ISKCON Melbourne, AU: Today's Darsana
- ISKCON Melbourne, AU: Daily Class - Kesava Prabhu
- 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: The World Policeman
- Japa Group: The Mood Of Chanting
- H.H. Sivarama Swami
- Bharatavarsa.net: Bhakti Vikasa Swami: Shoe-beater God
- Rupa Madhurya das, TX, USA: Bhajan - Mukunda Datta das - Hare Krishna @ Singhania's House - 1/6
- H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami (Ret.): 333—Poem for June 6th
- H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami (Ret.): OLD FRIENDS
- Dandavats.com: Kids Not Krishna Conscious?
- Vrndavana Vinodini dd, Toronto, Canada: Fully Present
- H.H. Prahladananda Swami: Vyasa Puja de Prahladananda Swami en Lima, Peru–Video
- H.H. Prahladananda Swami: Lecture – SB 5.1.1 Playing The Part Perfectly 5-21-2011
- H.H. Prahladananda Swami: Lecture – BG 15.8 Mahatma Hog
- Ananda Subramanian, Iowa, USA: Pride before fall
- Dandavats.com: Miami Herald Article on Govinda’s
- ISKCON Toronto, Canada: Deity Darshan: Sunday, June 5, 2011
- Madhava Ghosh dasa, New Vrndavan, USA: Strawberries and Rhubarb Recipe With Ginger
- Bhakti Lata, Alachua, USA: My First Birthday
- Dandavats.com: Second Annual BBT Inspired Art Seminar
- Dandavats.com: New Vrindaban Rathyatra Festival
- Dandavats.com: He entered with his raised hands, joyfully chanting “Hare Krishna”
- Dandavats.com: Luton Carnival 2011
- Dandavats.com: The First ISKCON Bollywood Movie…
- H.H. Sivarama Swami: I ask myself
- H.H. Sivarama Swami: In my humble opion Aruddha dd is doing the preaching of ten sannyasis
- H.H. Sivarama Swami: The substance of accepting a spiritual master
- Akrura das, Gita Coaching: "I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL"
- 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: Chyawanprash- Ayurvedic Herbal Wonder Supplement
- Akrura das, Gita Coaching: CLARITY AND PURE CONSCIOUSNESS
- New Vrndavan, USA: 2nd Annual BBT Inspired Art Seminar New Vrindaban, September 19th through 28th, 2011
- Bharatavarsa.net: Book distribution seminar: Re: This is for you Dravida Prabhu
- Bharatavarsa.net: Book distribution seminar: Opening temples is subordinate
- Bharatavarsa.net: Book distribution seminar: This is for you Dravida Prabhu
- Book Distribution News: Re: This is for you Dravida Prabhu
- Book Distribution News: Opening temples is subordinate
- Book Distribution News: This is for you Dravida Prabhu
- H.G. Sankarshan das Adhikari, USA: Corrected Version--Monday 6 June 2011--On Behalf of My Guru Maharaja--and--Religious Meat Eaters Get Salvation?
- H.H. Sivarama Swami
- Sita-pati dasa, AU: Nitya-baddha and Swarupa-siddhi
- Sita-pati dasa, AU: Nitya-baddha y Swarupa-siddhi (Almas Liberadas y Almas Condicionadas)
- Akrura das, Gita Coaching: FOOD
- Akrura das, Gita Coaching: ONE OF THE BEST-KEPT SECRETS OF THE SUCCESSFUL
- Japa Group: Why Do We Have To Chant?
- Akrura das, Gita Coaching: IMAGINE WHAT YOU COULD ACCOMPLISH!
- Yoga of Ecology, Bhakta Chris, USA: Plan for China’s Water Crisis Spurs Concern
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
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- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Gouranga TV: Lecture – Giriraj Swami – SB 10.3.14 – Praising God’s Activities
- Toronto Sankirtan Team, CA: Morning class with Vaisesika prabhu - LIVE!
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H.G. Sankarshan das Adhikari, USA: Tuesday 7 June 2011--Utter Helplessness is the Greatest Asset--and--Why Not Directly Worship Krishna?
A daily broadcast of the Ultimate Self Realization Course Tuesday 7 June 2011 The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna, and His eternal consort, Srimati Radharani are enjoying transcendental pastimes in the topmost planet of the spiritual world, Sri Goloka Vrindavan. They are beckoning us to rejoin them. (Click on photo to see a larger image.) Our Mission: To help everyone awaken their original Krishna consciousness, which is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. Such a global awakening will, in one stroke, solve all the problems of the world society bringing in a new era of unprecedented peace and prosperity for all. May that day, which the world so desperately needs, come very soon. We request you to participate in this mission by reviving your dormant Krishna consciousness and assisting us in spreading this science all over the world. Dedicated with love to ISKCON Founder-Acharya: His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, our beloved spiritual master, and to you, our dear readers. Today's Thought: Utter Helplessness is the Greatest Asset Uploaded from Mauritius Sometimes one's circumstances become so overwhelming and bewildering that one goes into a a state of total, complete anxiety, which can even culminate in a nervous breakdown. This is what happened to Arjuna at the beginning of the battle of Kurukshetra. At such times one may feel himself to be the most cursed and unfortunate person in the whole world. However, those who are blessed with transcendental knowledge understand that such times are the greatest asset, the greatest blessing because they enable one to call out to the Lord with feelings of utter helplessness, like a child desperately crying for its mother. Such feelings of total dependence on the kindness of the Lord are most advantageous for one's spiritual advancement because they attract and capture the mercy of the Lord. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Why Not Directly Worship Krishna? You wrote The spiritual master never accepts worship on his behalf. He only accepts it on behalf of his spiritual master, who accepts it on behalf of his spiritual master, etc., etc., all they way back to Krishna. My question is: Why worship guru, why not directly Krishna since the direct way is much better than the long indirect way? Regards, V.J. Answer: Indirect is the Direct Way If you want to understand Krishna directly, then why do you approach Him indirectly through your imperfect mental speculation? You should instead approach Him directly through His words, which are perfectly presented in the scriptures. This is the real meaning of direct approach. Mental speculation is indirect and imperfect, whereas hearing the words of sastra (scripture) is direct and perfect. By approaching Lord Krishna directly in the scriptures you will find this instruction, which He imparts in the Adi Purana: ye me bhakta-janh prtha na me bhakt ca te janh mad-bhaktnm ca ye bhakts te me bhakta-tam math My dear Arjuna, those who are My direct devotees are actually not My devotees, but those who are the devotees of My devotee are factually My devotees. So if you truly approach Krishna directly by taking His words as Absolute Truth, He will reroute you to re-approach Him properly by coming to Him through the transparent via medium of the bona fide spiritual master. This is the system that Krishna has established. Because His devotees are so very dear to Him, He does not want to be worshipped alone. He wants to be worshipped through the medium of His devotees. He confirms in the Bhagavad-gita that the only way to understand the science of the Bhagavad-gita is the through the system of disciplic succession. In other words, to properly understand Krishna we must hear about Him from His devotee. evam parampar-prptam imam rjarsayo viduh This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. Mental speculation will never allow us to perfectly understand Him. We must read what Lord Krishna has stated in the scriptures, that He is telling us to approach Him through the medium of His devotee. In this way we will achieve true direct access to Him. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Transcendental Resources: Receive the Special Blessings of Krishna Now you too can render the greatest service to the suffering humanity and attract the all-auspicious blessings of Lord Sri Krishna upon yourself and your family by assisting our mission. Lectures and Kirtans in Audio and Video: Link to High Definition Videos Link to Over 1,000 Lecture Audios Lecture-Travel Schedule for 2011 http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/schedule Have Questions or Need Further Guidance? Check out the resources at: http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com or write Sankarshan Das Adhikari at: sda@backtohome.com Get your copy today of the world's greatest self-realization guide book, Bhagavad-gita As It Is available at:http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/store Know someone who could benefit from this? Forward it to them. 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•Jahnavi, UK: Star flowers.
When I’m traveling I try and keep at least my morning walk consistent. While I walk I chant on my japa beads. It’s always my favorite part of the day. When I was young, we’d always pick flowers on any walk to take home and put on our altar. The habit is firmly stuck, and I try and find an altar space or a deity, or a dear friend to give a flower, whenever I’m out.
I found these unusual star flowers the other morning while I walked around the upscale suburbs of New Haven, Connecticut.
Now I’m back New York city, where I crave trees and flowers like a tall drink of water on a hot day. As I walk through the streets, bustling and clouded with smoke and noise, it’s a delicious surprise to come across a cool, green walled garden. Or even a stray rose, peering over a fence.
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•ISKCON Melbourne, AU: Temple Compound Pictures
If you are away from Melbourne and missing Sri Sri Radha Ballabha; or if you are so proud of your local Mahaprabhu Mandir and want to share the nectar with your friends and family, here's a slideshow covering our Melbourne Temple's facilities.
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•ISKCON Melbourne, AU: Today's Darsana
"Lord Jagannatha sometimes makes the melodious sounds of playing music and singing throughout the groves on the banks of the Kalindi river. He is like a bumblebee experiencing great delight while tasting the nectar of the lotus-like faces of the cowherd damsels.
His lotus feet are worshipped by great personalities such as Laksmi, Siva, Brahma, Indra and Ganesa. May that Lord of the Universe kindly become visible unto me."
(Sri Jagannathastakam uttered by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu)
The Lord of the universe has indeed kindly made Himself visible unto us and grants us His glorious darsana.
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•ISKCON Melbourne, AU: Daily Class - Kesava Prabhu
Srimad Bhagavatam 12.8.47-49 - Pancanga bhakti can boost your enthusiasm ( sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana, mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana).
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•16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: The World Policeman
The Biggest Dog on the Block
As the news was broadcasted, some Americans cheered at the killing of Osama. Sure, let the rat rot. But please have no illusions about who is the world’s largest terrorist. All the world terrorists together have not brought about as much harm and destruction, of property and lives, as the biggest dog on the block.
Let us have a quick look into the history of the U.S. and its growing to be the biggest dog on the block.
In the U.S., a huge part of the money the IRS takes out of our paychecks goes to support the military. Military spending adds up to more than 50% of the Federal Government’s annual discretionary spending.
The U.S. maintains the largest and most powerful military in history. U.S. warships dominate the oceans, its missiles and bombers can strike targets on every continent, and hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops are stationed overseas. Every few years the U.S. sends soldiers, warships, and warplanes to fight in distant countries.
Three centuries ago, the U.S. was a collection of thirteen small colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Today it dominates the globe in a way that even the most powerful of past empires could not have imagined.
The path to world power has, however, not been peaceful.
The American revolutionaries who rose up against King George in 1776 spoke eloquently about the right of every nation to determine its own destiny. Unfortunately, after they won the right to determine their own destiny they thought they should determine everyone else’s too. The leaders of the newly independent colonies believed that they were preordained to rule all of North America. This was so obvious to them that they called it “Manifest Destiny.” Representative Giles of Maryland said, “We must march from ocean to ocean. It is the destiny of the white race.”
This soon led to genocidal wars against the Native American peoples. The U.S. army ruthlessly seized their land, driving them west and slaughtering those who resisted. The ones that were left to live were confined to reservations.
By 1848 the U.S. had seized nearly half of Mexico’s territory. In Congress, the war was justified with speeches about the glory of expanding “Anglo-Saxon democracy,” but in truth it was the Southern slave owners’ thirst for land and the lure of Western gold that inspired these speeches.
General Zachary Taylor ordered scores of U.S. soldiers executed for refusing to fight in Mexico.
With their domain now stretching from coast to coast the “Manifest Destiny” crowd began to dream of an overseas empire. Col. Charles Denby, a railroad magnate and an ardent expansionist, argued: “Our condition at home is forcing us to commercial expansion. Day by day, production is exceeding home consumption. We are after markets, the greatest markets in the world.” Senator Orville Platt said: “I firmly believe that when any territory outside the present territorial limits of the U.S. becomes necessary for our defense or essential for our commercial development, we ought to lose no time in acquiring it.”
The next year, taking a fancy to several Spanish colonies, including Cuba and the Philippines, the U.S. declared war on Spain. Rebel armies were already fighting for independence in both countries and Spain was on the verge of defeat. Washington declared that it was on the rebels’ side and Spain quickly capitulated. But the U.S. soon made it clear that it had no intention of leaving. Senator Albert Beveridge said: “The Philippines are ours forever…and just beyond the Philippines are China’s illimitable markets…the Pacific is our ocean.”
Elaborate racist theories were invented to justify colonialism. “We are the ruling race of the world …. We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee, under God of the civilization of the world … He has marked us as his chosen people … He has made us adept in government that we may administer government among savage and senile peoples.” (Senator Albert Beveridge)
But the Filipinos didn’t share the views of Senator Beveridge and his buddies. They fought the new invaders just as they had fought the Spanish. The U.S. subjugated the Filipinos with brute force. U.S. soldiers were ordered to burn all and kill all. By the time the Filipinos were defeated, 600,000 had died.
The Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam were made into U.S. colonies in 1898. Cuba was formally given its independence, but along with it, the Cubans were given the Platt Amendment, which stipulated that the U.S. Navy would operate a base in Cuba forever, that the U.S. Marines would intervene at will, and that Washington would determine Cuba’s foreign and financial policies.
During the same period, the U.S. overthrew Hawaii’s Queen Lilivokalani and transformed these unspoiled Pacific islands into a U.S. Navy base surrounded by Dole and Del Monte plantations.
In 1903, after Theodore Roosevelt became president, he sent gunboats to secure Panama’s separation from Columbia because the Columbian government had refused Roosevelt’s terms for building the Panama canal.
Then Uncle Sam began sending his Marines everywhere. The Marines went to China, Russia, North Africa, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Between 1898 and 1934, the Marines invaded Cuba 4 times, Nicaragua 5 times, Honduras 7 times, the Dominican Republic 4 times, Haiti twice, Guatemala once, Panama twice, Mexico 3 times, and Columbia 4 times! In many countries, the Marines stayed on as an occupying army, sometimes for decades. When the Marines finally went home, they typically left the countries they had occupied in the hands of a friendly dictator, armed to the teeth to suppress his own people. Behind the Marines came legions of U.S. business executives ready not only to sell their goods but also to set up plantations, drill oil wells, and stake out mining claims. The Marines returned when called upon to enforce slave-like working conditions and put down strikes, protests, and rebellions. A reporter described what took place after U.S. troops landed in Haiti in 1915 to put down a peasant rebellion: “American marines opened fire with machine guns from airplanes on defenseless Haitian villages, killing men, women, and children in the open market places for sport.” 50,000 Haitians were killed.
General Smedley Butler, after retiring, described his career as follows: “I spent 33 years and 4 months in active military service … And during that period I spent most of my time as a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. Thus, I helped make Mexico, and especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927, I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.
World War I
World War I was a horrific battle among the European colonial powers over how to divide up the world. When President Woodrow Wilson decided to enter the fray, he told the American people that he was sending troops to Europe to “make the world safe for democracy.” But what Wilson was really after was what he considered to be the United States’ fair share of of the spoils. Wilson’s ambassador to England said rather forthrightly that the U.S. would declare war on Germany because it was “… the only way of maintaining our present pre-eminent trade status.” (Ambassador W.H.) For this, 130,274 U.S. soldiers were sent to their deaths.
“Our boys were sent off to die with beautiful ideals painted in front of them. No one told them that dollars and cents were the real reason they were marching off to kill and die.” (General Smedley Butler, 1934)
World War II
200,000 people were killed instantaneously when the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs first on Hiroshima and then on Nagasaki. Tens of thousands more died later from radiation poisoning. “We pray that God might guide us to use [the Bomb] in his ways and for His purposes.” said President Harry Truman. The defeat of Japan had already been assured before the bombs were dropped. Their main purpose was to demonstrate to the world the deadly power of America’s new weapon of mass destruction. World War II left the U.S. in a position of political, economic and military superiority.
“We must set the pace and assume the responsibility of the majority stockholder in this corporation known as the world.” (Leo Welch, former Chairman of the Board, Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Exxon) 1946)
The U.S. eagerly assumed responsibility for determining the economic policies and selecting the management of what it considered to be the subsidiary companies that made up the “corporation known as the world.” But this didn’t go over too well in many nations that considered themselves to be sovereign countries. I think you can guess what happened to them.
Cold War
The United States, however, had to contend with the Soviet Union, which had also emerged from the Second World War as a world power. For the next 45 years, the world was caught up in a global turf battle between the “two superpowers.” The U.S. was always much stronger than its Soviet adversary, but both countries maintained huge military forces to defend and expand their own “spheres of influence.” The contention between the two powers was called the “Cold War” because they never directly engaged each other in battle. The “Cold War” was marked by plenty of violence in other countries though. Typically, the two superpowers lined up on opposite sides of every conflict.
Korea, 1950-1953.
After World War II, the ambitious plans of the U.S. State Department for Asia and the Pacific were upset by revolutions and anti-colonial wars from China to Malaysia. U.S. warships, bombers, and artillery reduced much of Korea to rubble. Over 4,500,000 Koreans died; three out of four were civilians. 54,000 U.S. soldiers returned home in coffins. But the U.S. military, for all of its technological superiority, did not prevail. After 3 years of intense warfare, a cease-fire was negotiated. Korea was left divided and some 40,000 U.S. troops remained in Southern Korea.
Dominican Republic, 1965.
After a U.S. backed military coup, Dominicans rose up to demand the reinstatement of the overthrown president (who they had elected in a popular vote). Washington, however, was determined to keep its men in power, no matter who the Dominicans voted for. 22,000 U.S. troops were sent to suppress the uprising. 3,000 people were gunned down in the streets of Santo Domingo.
Vietnam, 1964-1973
400,000 tons of napalm were rained down on the tiny country. Agent Orange and other toxic herbicides were used to destroy millions of acres of farmland and forests. Villages were burned to the ground and their residents massacred. Altogether, two million people died in the Indochina War, most of them civilians killed by U.S. bombs and bullets. Almost 60,000 U.S. soldiers were killed and 300,000 wounded.
Lebanon, 1982-1983
After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the U.S. Marines intervened directly in the Lebanese Civil War, taking the side of Israel and the right-wing Falange militia which had just massacred 2,000 Palestinian civilians.
Grenada, 1983
According to Ronald Reagan, Grenada, population of about 110,000, represented a threat to U.S. security. So he ordered the Pentagon to seize the island and install a new government more to his liking. “A lovely piece of real estate.” said Secretary of State George Schultz. He also said, “I’m a Bechtel man and a Pentagon fan.”
Libya, 1986
Washington loved King Idris, the Libyan monarch who happily turned over his country’s oil reserves to Standard Oil for next to nothing. It hates Col. Qadhafi, who threw the King out. In 1986, Reagan ordered U.S. warplanes to bomb the Libyan capital, Tripoli, claiming that Qadhafi was responsible for a bomb attack at a German disco that killed two U.S. soldiers. It’s unlikely that very many of the hundreds of Libyans killed or injured in the U.S. bombing raid knew anything about the German bombing.
Behind The Scenes
So far we’ve recounted wars that have involved U.S. troops. But there are many other wars in which Washington was involved behind the scenes.
After World War II, Britain was compelled to dispose of its colonial empire in the Middle East. It decided to give a big chunk of the land known as Palestine to European Jews displaced by the Holocaust. The problem was that there were already people living there. The result has been five decades of violence and war. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven from their homes in what became Israel. The center of the conflict has been the West Bank and Gaza, where Palestinians have lived for decades under Israeli occupation.
The U.S. provides crucial political support and billions of dollars a year in aid to Israel, including the most advanced weaponry. More than three decades of occupation of the West Bank and Gaza have produced bitter anger not only at Israel but also at the United States. As Palestinian teenagers continue to die in confrontations with the Israeli Army, this anger only grows.
The bloody, U.S.-backed, counter-insurgency wars continue in Columbia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines and other countries. In Colombia, for example, a corrupt U.S.-backed army fights alongside paramilitary forces that have slaughtered whole villages and hundreds of opposition union leaders and politicians. The U.S. has been getting more deeply involved, under the cover of the “War on Drugs,” providing billions of dollars of arms used to continue the killing.
The CIA and the Pentagon have also organized proxy armies to overthrow governments that are not well liked in Washington. In 1961, for instance, U.S. warships ferried a small army of mercenaries to Cuba, hoping to reverse the Cuban Revolution. They landed at the Bay of Pigs. It was the fifth U.S. invasion of Cuba this century. But this time the U.S. was defeated.
In the 1970s and ’80s, the CIA was particularly busy financing, training and arming guerilla armies around the world.
For years the U.S. backed Portugal’s efforts to hang on to its colonies in southern Africa, helping it stave off independence wars in Angola and Mozambique. In 1975, after a democratic revolution in Portugal, the Portuguese called it quits. But Washington didn’t! Instead, it teamed up with the apartheid regime in South Africa to supply a mercenary army to fight the new government in independent Angola. And in Mozambique, top U.S. and South African politicians and ex-military officers sponsored a particularly brutal bunch of mercenaries who massacred tens of thousands of peasants.
For years the U.S. backed Portugal’s efforts to hang on to its colonies in southern Africa, helping it stave off independence wars in Angola and Mozambique. In 1975, after a democratic revolution in Portugal, the Portuguese called it quits. But Washington didn’t! Instead, it teamed up with the apartheid regime in South Africa to supply a mercenary army to fight the new government in independent Angola. And in Mozambique, top U.S. and South African politicians and ex-military officers sponsored a particularly brutal bunch of mercenaries who massacred tens of thousands of peasants.
And then, of course, there are the “contras.” After the Nicaraguan people overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of the Somoza family in 1979, the CIA gathered together the remnants of Somoza’s hated National Guard and sent them back to Nicaragua with all the weapons they could carry–to loot, burn, and kill.
Let’s Finish
This article is now getting a bit too long, but be sure that the same government is still today running a business rather than a country inhabited by people, people that need to be educated, people who for the most part do not know that their material prosperity, which is by the way now dwindling fast, is largely resting on exploitation, murder, crime, immorality, torture, etc, etc, etc. Having lived in a number of countries on several continents, it seems that the U.S. is not an exceptional country – they all appear to be doing the same thing: brainwashing the common folks, covering up the ugly reality with fairy tales about standing up for democracy, freedom, and human rights. The funniest of all cover-ups is the one of war on terror. After reading everything above, terrorist groups, such as Osama’s Al-Qaeda, seem puny.
And they are so good at misleading people who by watching the oil companies-owned television stations are totally convinced that these wars are fought for good causes. They are so convinced of this that they are ready to defend the concept even by brute force. Watch out! If something happens to me, it will simply go to support what I have just stated.
And they are so good at misleading people who by watching the oil companies-owned television stations are totally convinced that these wars are fought for good causes. They are so convinced of this that they are ready to defend the concept even by brute force. Watch out! If something happens to me, it will simply go to support what I have just stated.
“USA, USA!!!” they shouted when Osama was proclaimed dead. What is USA?
The brief history of the U.S.’s ascension to power presented in this article was taken from Ph.D. Joel Andreas’s Addicted To War. At the end of the book, which I highly recommend everyone to read, references are given for all the historical events so that you can see their authenticity and accuracy.
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•Japa Group: The Mood Of Chanting
The mood of chanting the holy name combines the actions of mind and heart-namely thinking and feeling. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu advised all devotees to be free from false ego, and to think oneself lower than a blade of grass. With feelings of deep submission and surrender one should beg Sri Radha for service.From Art Of Chanting Hare Krsna
by Mahanidhi Swami
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•H.H. Sivarama Swami
A devotee does not become his enemy’s enemy; he thinks, “This person is acting as my enemy due to my own past misdeeds. So it is better to suffer than to protest.”
- Srila Prabhupada
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•Bharatavarsa.net: Bhakti Vikasa Swami: Shoe-beater God
So how one can become God? Rascal. How one can become God. That is not possible. God knows everything. If one knows everything, then you can accept him as God. Otherwise, don't accept. As soon as somebody says, "I am God," kick him on his face. "Yes, you are God, I am God. I am the kicking God." (laughter) That should be the answer. "I am the shoe-beater God. Now you protect yourself if you are God." Don't accept this false God.
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Bhagavad-gita 13.3 -- Paris, August 11, 1973
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•Rupa Madhurya das, TX, USA: Bhajan - Mukunda Datta das - Hare Krishna @ Singhania's House - 1/6
Subido por rupagopi el 06/06/2011
Mukunda Datta das singing a Hare Krishna bhajan at the home of the SInghania's.
Dallas, TX
2011-01-08
Mukunda Datta das singing a Hare Krishna bhajan at the home of the SInghania's.
Dallas, TX
2011-01-08
Download: 2011-01-08 - 1 - Mukunda Datta das - Bhajan - Hare Krishna.mp3
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•H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami (Ret.): 333—Poem for June 6th
www.sdgonline.org.
4:26 A.M.
A Writer of Pieces
A Writer of Pieces
New format—I will begin with the poem written on the day of its printing. Then I will print random excerpts of books I have printed over the last 35 years. I hope this variety will be pleasing.
Poem for June 6
Up early chanting the numerical
counting you see the strength rise
without glancing at Radha-Govinda.
This is not the way you want to
chant at the time of death; you
want more feeling
and realization. But it will
do for now.
counting you see the strength rise
without glancing at Radha-Govinda.
This is not the way you want to
chant at the time of death; you
want more feeling
and realization. But it will
do for now.
We thought we were finished writing
the autobiog., but now it’s opened
up to the author speaking on
each of his many books and
answering questions posed by
Baladeva. It’s a new life, but I have to
prepare by reading each book
before I speak.
the autobiog., but now it’s opened
up to the author speaking on
each of his many books and
answering questions posed by
Baladeva. It’s a new life, but I have to
prepare by reading each book
before I speak.
Yesterday we received four guests:
Samika Rsi, Madana Gopala,
Kaulini Mataji, and Pancaratra’s wife.
Samika wants to open many reading
rooms in people’s homes.
Pancaratra’s wife wants to move
back to Mayapur where she says
the morning program is the life of
the devotees. And Kaulini is
wishing that Krishna will arrange for her
to go each year to Vrndavana for
hospice work. I told them
I was not planning to travel,
but I did not get a chance to
tell them of my writing work.
Madana Gopala says he’ll visit
me more often in New York.
Samika Rsi, Madana Gopala,
Kaulini Mataji, and Pancaratra’s wife.
Samika wants to open many reading
rooms in people’s homes.
Pancaratra’s wife wants to move
back to Mayapur where she says
the morning program is the life of
the devotees. And Kaulini is
wishing that Krishna will arrange for her
to go each year to Vrndavana for
hospice work. I told them
I was not planning to travel,
but I did not get a chance to
tell them of my writing work.
Madana Gopala says he’ll visit
me more often in New York.
The three of us are jolly
and relaxed in this house.
When there are no guests,
Narayana reads to us,
Vidura’s questions to Maitreya.
Vidura said he is satiated
hearing about social and historical
topics and wants to hear
directly Krishna-katha.
After eating he shuts
the book and we talk
jokingly while
Baladeva drums on his
belly like a mrdanga.
He says the wild roses’
scent reminds him
of Vrndavana and almost
every day he picks new
roses to go into the
vases of Radha-Govinda
and Prabhupada
thus his gardening is linked to
devotional service. Narayana said if I
wrote but didn’t mention
Krishna, it would be no good.
and relaxed in this house.
When there are no guests,
Narayana reads to us,
Vidura’s questions to Maitreya.
Vidura said he is satiated
hearing about social and historical
topics and wants to hear
directly Krishna-katha.
After eating he shuts
the book and we talk
jokingly while
Baladeva drums on his
belly like a mrdanga.
He says the wild roses’
scent reminds him
of Vrndavana and almost
every day he picks new
roses to go into the
vases of Radha-Govinda
and Prabhupada
thus his gardening is linked to
devotional service. Narayana said if I
wrote but didn’t mention
Krishna, it would be no good.
So my poem is Krishna-
centered, I seek the
Cowherd Boy of Gokula
even though I can’t get
His darsana. Searching for
Him is as good as finding
Him in a bush. Chanting
His holy names, when done in
devotion, is as good as
attaining His holy form.
The music leads us
into byways of
free thought, and I
claim it for the
Lord. It’s lilting
and lively like Krishna’s flute.
centered, I seek the
Cowherd Boy of Gokula
even though I can’t get
His darsana. Searching for
Him is as good as finding
Him in a bush. Chanting
His holy names, when done in
devotion, is as good as
attaining His holy form.
The music leads us
into byways of
free thought, and I
claim it for the
Lord. It’s lilting
and lively like Krishna’s flute.
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•H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami (Ret.): OLD FRIENDS
www.sdgonline.org.
From Obstacles on the Path of Devotional Service.
“Obstacles Presented by the Nondevotee World
“Osmosis
‘Because devotees live in the world, they sometimes feel influenced by it. This happens by a process of osmosis, whereby one gradually, and often unconsciously, assimilates his environment. As you breathe in the atmosphere of the nondevotees, it is likely that you will become somewhat like them. Devotees begin following the latest trends in electronic appliances, clothing fashions, and street slang. It is not necessarily wrong to be aware of the latest ‘state of the art’ computers, because such things can be used in the service of Krishna. But it may be that a devotee becomes motivated by desires other than pure service. We are not immune to the psychological influence of advertising and political propaganda that affects everyone else in society. Businessmen see devotees as just another type of customer, even if dressed a little strangely. And so devotees become sucked into the same traps as everyone else, because we live in the world. From the viewpoint of pure devotional service, these are obstacles on the path.
“In order to protect the devotees from being absorbed into the ‘pop’ consciousness of mundane society, Srila Prabhupada created a subculture. Included in the charter of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, as written by Srila Prabhupada, are several references to a society of devotees:
“1. To bring the members of the society together with each other and nearer to Krishna, the Prime Entity, thus to develop the idea within the members and humanity at large that each soul is part and parcel of the quality of Godhead (Krishna).
“2. To erect for the members, and for society at large, a holy place of transcendental pastimes, dedicated to the Personality of Krishna.
“3. To bring the members closer together for the purpose of teaching a simpler and more natural way of life.
“The Krishna conscious society lives within the buildings of ISKCON. The Society is also found in the congregation of devotees, who live in their own homes, but who sometimes gather together in the temple or in each other’s homes for the purpose of sharing Krishna consciousness. Devotees are social beings, and so the obstacle of becoming too influenced by the mundane world can only be surmounted by living in a society of like-minded friends.”
Readers inspired by this excerpt from the Krishna conscious volume Obstacles on the Path of Devotional Service are encouraged to visit www.amazon.com.
From Here is Srila Prabhupada
“We should not go to Prabhupada with everything ‘hanging out.’ We go on our best behavior, not relaxed, ‘as we are.’ Does this sound like an inferior, formal relationship after all my words about love and serving with the spiritual master? But I think the relationship can have those limits and still be called love. One ‘hangs out’ with friends. When you go to the spiritual master, we go with our highest aspirations in the forefront. The spiritual master is our true friend because he sees not only how we present ourselves but down to the level of the soul. He sees through all our coverings and sees where our aspirations can take us. Thoreau said something like, ‘A friend should accept his friend not just as he is, but as he aspires to be.’ So the guru accepts the disciple as he aspires to be, although the guru also sees the actual nature and weaknesses of the disciple. The guru does not officiate over the disciple as an ecclesiastic, but he engages the disciple and loves the disciple enough that he helps him reach his full potential as a loving servitor of Radha-Krishna.
“The disciple, out of gratitude, shows respect. We don’t sit before the guru with our feet pointing at him. We don’t belch in his presence or talk foolishly or laugh loudly. When embraced by his guru, the disciple should not throw his arms around his guru like an equal. Once a year the guru will cook for his disciples, but usually the disciple menially serves the spiritual master. There are so many details and etiquette by which we can define the guru/disciple relationship—these can make the relationship seem more formal than it is—but the real essence is father and child. It’s love.
“The disciple, out of gratitude, shows respect. We don’t sit before the guru with our feet pointing at him. We don’t belch in his presence or talk foolishly or laugh loudly. When embraced by his guru, the disciple should not throw his arms around his guru like an equal. Once a year the guru will cook for his disciples, but usually the disciple menially serves the spiritual master. There are so many details and etiquette by which we can define the guru/disciple relationship—these can make the relationship seem more formal than it is—but the real essence is father and child. It’s love.
“Years ago, I used to sing the introductory song to Saranagati every morning in the cabin at Gita-nagari. About fifty devotees would gather with me after a morning walk. I remember straining to reach the high notes in the second line of each stanza. Then I would read the translation. This theme of surrender is dear to all devotees. Managers and gurus sometimes used surrender to convince subordinates to perform. ‘Your duty is hard? Do it anyway. Surrender.’ I sang this song to remind us.
“The devotees who sang these songs with me are scattered now. They no longer collect money for the farm or teach in the gurukula. The children are no longer obeying their teachers. Some of them no longer surrender to the four rules or chant sixteen rounds. I’ve stopped singing Saranagati every day, and I’ve stopped demanding that everyone surrender. Now I am working on myself.
“‘Out of compassion for the fallen souls, Sri Krishna Caitanya came to this world with His personal associates and divine abode to teach saranagati, surrender to the Almighty Godhead, and to freely distribute ecstatic love of God, which is ordinarily very difficult to obtain. This saranagati is the very life of the true devotee.’ (Introductory Song, Text 1)
“The Lord taught surrender in the form of harinama sankirtana. Prabhupada called it an easy and pleasant method of surrender: Chant Hare Krishna and dance, and whenever you get tired, take prasadam.
“Lord Caitanya taught more difficult things too, as in His teachings to Raghunatha dasa Gosvami: don’t eat palatable food, dress like a mendicant, and avoid the company of women. When He dealt with Chota Haridasa, He spoke against hypocrisy. Lord Caitanya Himself surrendered to the sannyasa dharma and traveled and preached throughout South India.
“He taught surrender to Krishna, and He showed the ecstasy that comes to the loving bhakta. He gave that ecstasy out freely along with Krishna-nama. ‘The youthful Son of Nanda Maharaja, Sri Krishna, hears the prayers of anyone who takes refuge in Him by the six-fold practice.’ Bhaktivinoda Thakura concludes the opening song by declaring himself the lowest among men. ‘But please make me the best of men by teaching me the ways of saranagati.’”
Readers inspired by this excerpt from the Krishna conscious volume Here is Srila Prabhupada are encouraged to visit www.amazon.com.
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•Dandavats.com: Kids Not Krishna Conscious?
By Kesava Krsna Dasa
Is it possible that in spite of the parents best interest and loving Krishna conscious attention given to their children, that such children can turn their backs altogether, to pursue life, as they desire most? Would there have to be a major problem for this to occur, or is “desire” the one insurmountable force that eludes all but themselves?
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•Vrndavana Vinodini dd, Toronto, Canada: Fully Present
Have you ever had someone's full attention? I'm not talking about the few flashes of eye contact you get while the person you're talking to you is simultaneously trying to have a bbm conversation with someone else. No. I'm talking about full on 100% attention.
It's so rare. The natural tendency of a living entity is to to love and be loved. In the process of trying to be loved and not attaining success, oftentimes the living entity tries to find some way to seek attention. Whether it's through laughter, dramatic story telling, looking beautiful etc etc, my realization is that all of these things we pursue are really for one thing alone- to be loved. We feel as though by doing something extraordinary then somehow the world we live in will wake up and finally pay us the attention that we're due.
But what happens when despite doing nothing at all, someone gives you that attention so freely and without any expectation in return? It becomes overwhelming. I had such an experience this weekend. HG Vaisesika prabhu and his wonderful wife Nirakula prabhu are two examples of individuals who give you their undivided attention.
When they speak to you, it's as though no one else exists. They fan any small spark or dying ember of any good quality that may be buried inside you and magnify it a million fold. It's actually unbelievable until you experience it for yourself.
What a gift! Persons who have been so fortunate to experience this type of undivided attention are often at a loss to describe what it feels like. It's so deep, so profound and gives a glimpse of how things must be in the spiritual world.
It also serves as a great inspiration as to what we should aspire for. We all should strive to ensure every interaction we have with every living entity leaves an indelible impression upon them.
All we need to do is remember Srila Prabhupada. Whether it was months of association, a one sentence instruction or even just a smile, those who came in contact with Srila Prabhupada have described how they'll never forget how they felt a deep sense of love and connection with him. It is our duty to not imitate but follow in his footsteps. After all, it's part of our family business to be fully present and conscious. :)
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•H.H. Prahladananda Swami: Vyasa Puja de Prahladananda Swami en Lima, Peru–Video
Vyasa Puja de Prahladananda Swami en Lima, Peru–Video
Uploaded by NaraHari0016 on May 24, 2011
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•H.H. Prahladananda Swami: Lecture – SB 5.1.1 Playing The Part Perfectly 5-21-2011
H.H. Prahladananda Swami: Lecture – Srimad Bhagavatam 5.1.1 Playing The Part Perfectly 5-21-2011 Radhadesh
SB 05.01.01 Playing The Part Perfectly 2011-05-21
SB 5.1.1: King Parīkṣit inquired from Śukadeva Gosvāmī: O great sage, why did King Priyavrata, who was a great, self-realized devotee of the Lord, remain in household life, which is the root cause of the bondage of karma [fruitive activities] and which defeats the mission of human life?
SB 5.1.1: Le roi Parīkṣit s'enquit auprès de Śukadeva Gosvāmī: O noble sage, pourquoi le roi Priyavrata, cet illustre dévot du Seigneur, cette âme réalisée, choisit-il de mener une vie de famille, cause première de l'asservissement au karma [l'action intéressée] et de l'échec de la mission humaine?
SB 5.1.1: El rey Parīkṣit preguntó a Śukadeva Gosvāmī: ¡Oh, gran sabio!, si la vida de casado es la causa básica de las ataduras del karma [actividades fruitivas], y echa a perder la misión de la vida humana, ¿por qué permaneció en esa etapa de la vida Mahārāja Priyavrata, que era un gran devoto autorrealizado?
H.H. Prahladananda Swami: Lecture – Srimad Bhagavatam 5.1.1 Playing The Part Perfectly 5-21-2011 Radhadesh
PRUEBA DE UN TRADUCTOR
SB 5.1.1: King Parīkṣit inquired from Śukadeva Gosvāmī: O great sage, why did King Priyavrata, who was a great, self-realized devotee of the Lord, remain in household life, which is the root cause of the bondage of karma [fruitive activities] and which defeats the mission of human life?
SB 05.01.01 Playing The Part Perfectly 2011-05-21
Lecture – Srimad Bhagavatam 5.1.1 Playing The Part Perfectly 5-21-2011 Radhadesh
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•H.H. Prahladananda Swami: Lecture – BG 15.8 Mahatma Hog
H.H. Prahladananda Swami: Lecture – Bhagavad Gita 15.8 Mahatma Hog 2005-10-01 Hartford
BG 15.8: The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again quits it to take another.
BG 15.8: La entidad viviente que se halla en el mundo material lleva de un cuerpo a otro sus diferentes concepciones de la vida, tal como el aire transporta los aromas. Así pues, ella adopta un tipo de cuerpo, y de nuevo lo deja para adoptar otro.
BG 15.8: Comme l'air emporte les odeurs, l'être vivant, en ce monde, emporte avec lui, d'un corps à un autre, les diverses manières dont il conçoit la vie.
BG 15.08 Mahatma Hog 2005-10-01
H.H. Prahladananda Swami: Lecture – Bhagavad Gita 15.8 Mahatma Hog 2005-10-01 Hartford
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•Ananda Subramanian, Iowa, USA: Pride before fall
As they say Pride cometh before the fall.
How to NOT fall prey to pride?
We have to resist the temptation of being glorified and recognized at all levels at all times.
We have to resist the temptation of being glorified and recognized at all levels at all times.
Hare Krishna
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•Dandavats.com: Miami Herald Article on Govinda’s
By Miami HeraldGovinda's Dining Club offers satisfying meatless meals in a peaceful garden setting behind the Hare Krishna Temple in Coconut Grove. Anyone who comes is considered a member, no fee or dues required
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•ISKCON Toronto, Canada: Deity Darshan: Sunday, June 5, 2011
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•Madhava Ghosh dasa, New Vrndavan, USA: Strawberries and Rhubarb Recipe With Ginger
As the strawberries continue to pour in, despite the efforts of a raccoon(s) or possum(s) at night, I am trying to put some aside for the winter. (Note to self — get electric fence up on deer fence to deter climbing animals).
Freezing strawberries is easy — wash, de-stem, let dry and put on a cookie sheet. Once frozen put into a freezer bag and mark the date.
I have also made a rhubarb and strawberry dish that I froze and then thawed to see if it would be okay. Some things don’t freeze well. This was fine and I am already pre-enjoying for next winter in anticipation.
I am not a cook and following recipes is out of my league so I just do things with the principle of if you put good things together good things result. I like rhubarb and strawberries and I remember back in the day when Satsvarupa Swami used to visit New Vrindaban he used to like the chutney they made from rhubarb and strawberries.
I don’t know what strictly makes something a chutney, though I think it needs cayenne added to be called so. I didn’t add any to this but you could and it would probably still be good or maybe even better.
I take 12 stalks of rhubarb and cut into small pieces, like inch or half inch (1.2 to 2.5 cm). Add about a quart (liter) of strawberries de-stemmed and cut into smaller pieces. No need to let them dry as some extra water has to be added.
Not much, as rhubarb is mostly water so it just needs enough to barely cover the bottom of the pan so it doesn’t stick and burn during the first couple of minutes. Once the rhubarb starts to “melt” there is plenty of liquid. I cook until the rhubarb breaks down so it is no longer recognizable as pieces by which time the strawberries are soft.
I add finely shredded fresh ginger to taste, maybe about what would fit in the hollow of my cupped hand, maybe more. It is possible to overpower things with ginger but I like it and it is good for my joint flexibility and blood pressure I so I push that limit.
I stir in about a quarter by volume of the cooked result of sugar more or less, maybe less. That I add while it is still cooking and can dissolve well.
I have also used honey but that I add after it is off the fire as honey isn’t supposed to be cooked some say. Honey is sweeter so less is used.
Sugar stiffens it up more than honey as honey adds water and sugar absorbs it so sugar works better if you are going to serve it on a plate.
Breakfast this morning was fresh raw strawberries, organic yogurt, freshly ground flax seeds and covered with the strawberry rhubarb concoction. The mix of cooked and raw strawberries with the rhubarb and ginger with the fat feel of the 40% of flax seed that is oil really made for some good eating.
Filed under: Cows and Environment 
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•Bhakti Lata, Alachua, USA: My First Birthday
Then one day my mom told me, "Well, for a baby to survive its first year is a big deal. After that, the baby grows and becomes stronger and can contribute to the community. But that first year is crucial."
Suddenly I understood the tradition and culture of Hawaiian blessings.
In Vaishnava tradition, another term for a brahmin is "twice-born." When one receives initiation by a qualified spiritual master, the disciple transcends his or her material birth and takes spiritual birth. Thus, "twice-born."
One year ago, on May 31st, 2010, I received spiritual initiation by His Holiness Radhanath Swami. In many ways, I emerged from my initiation feeling so fragile, so not ready to take on the world and the internal challenges that the year ahead would throw at me.
Upon reflection, I realize that I am that one-year-old baby, so immature and dependent and young.
***
"Bhakti lata devi," Radhanath Swam intones into the microphone. "And also would her parents come forward."
Six or seven initiates have gone before me - my heart has been pounding with anticipation for what feels like forever. I rise from my seat and my parents rise from theirs. I feel numb that after so many years of prayer, this moment has finally come.
I settle before my spiritual master; someone hands me a microphone. I take a deep breath and say, "I vow to chant a minimum of - 16 rounds - " my voice chokes up, and heavy tears sting my eyes. My journey to chanting 16 rounds has spanned many years with many crises of faith in the holy name. Radhanath Swami himself has witnessed this journey every step of the way. I continue, " - of the maha mantra - every single day, for all of my life,"
In the silence, Maharaj gives me a playful smile. He teases, "It's not that hard."
Roars of laughter rise from the hundreds gathered in the templeroom. I begin to laugh too, but there's a part of my heart that sinks - It's not that hard? Are you kidding me?? Chanting 16 rounds not that hard? But - but - what about...?
When the laughter subsides, Maharaj says lovingly, "Everyone's cheering you on!"
With that, cheers and the thrum of mridangas and kartals sweep through the templeroom. They rise and rise and wash over me in wave upon wave. My feverish heart cools and softens with the blessings of the Vaishnavas.
When the templeroom falls quiet once more, I finish my vows with a strong and clear voice: "I vow to follow the 4 regulative principles of no intoxication, no gambling, no meat eating, and no illicit sex. I vow to imbibe the mood of the servant and be loyal to Srila Prabhupad, Sri Guru, and all of the Vaishnavas."
Radhanath Swami smiles. He turns to my parents and glorifies their talents, their marriage, their devotion, and the way they have raised me. He turns to me. "Bhakti lata is an emerging leader in her community. She loves to sing, loves to serve, loves to dance... loves Krishna." He pauses and smiles. "You were born to love Krishna,"
I feel abashed and humbled.
In the tradition of love and respect, Radhanath Swami requests that I take the dust of the feet of my parents. I touch the feet of my mother and father and embrace each one. They are my original gurus.
When I settle before my spiritual master once more, he pulls out a pair of dark, rough wooden chanting beads. These are the beads that he chanted on this morning, and the beads that I pray to chant on for the rest of my life. "I don't have the heart to change your name, " he says, "So on behalf of Srila Prabhupad and the guru parampara, your name is Bhakti lata devi dasi,"
He holds out my beads, I hold out my palms, and I receive my chanting beads amidst an ocean of cheers and blessings.
Upon the strength of those blessings, I have held to my vows through beautiful pain and beautiful peace. I feel as though I'm throwing myself a "baby luau" in my heart, because somehow, I've made it!
Upon the strength of the guru parampara and the holy name, I've made it! Hallelujah!
I pray to become only stronger and stronger in my vows - yes, even chanting 16 rounds. I vowed to chant a "minimum" of 16 rounds - now I chant beyond that number simply because I want to.
After all, it's not that hard.
Subscribe
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•Dandavats.com: Second Annual BBT Inspired Art Seminar
Malatidevi: A dynamic ten day mini- Art seminar taught by veteran ISKCON-BBT artists Dhriti Dasi and Ram Dasa Abhirama Das. Students should have basic drawing and painting experience. Dhriti and Ram Das are disciples of Srila Prabhupada with 36 yrs plus experience in painting Krsna
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•Dandavats.com: New Vrindaban Rathyatra Festival
Malatidevi: Dancing Chanting & Feasting until the sun goes down followed by Jagannath Swan Boat Festival KirtanS & Exotic Fireworks! Honored guest H H Bhakti Sundar Goswami
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•Dandavats.com: He entered with his raised hands, joyfully chanting “Hare Krishna”
By Govinda prema dasaHe was very happy having met the devotees after such a long time, he said “when I was young in the 80’s I would always eat food from Hare Krishna temple & every Saturday I would wait eagerly to see the harinam party pass an enliven everybody in the town”
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•Dandavats.com: Luton Carnival 2011
Parasuram das: Bank Holiday Monday, 30th May 2011 - I checked the weather forecast and it was heavy rain for Luton. It was going to be a washout. Should we cancel the Harinam?
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•Dandavats.com: The First ISKCON Bollywood Movie…
Parasuram das: If you have a staunch disposition definitely give this one a miss. Filmed at Bhaktivedanta Manor Goshala Music production: Dwarkadish das Lyrics: Mahamantra and Parasuram Vocals: Srikama Acted out by: Moksa laxmi
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•H.H. Sivarama Swami: I ask myself
I ask myself
June 4th, 2011
“Is my faith still strong in the ingredients and spirit of Srila Prabhupada’s cultural revolution based on Krsna consciousness.”
[ 7:40 ]
I ask myself
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•H.H. Sivarama Swami: In my humble opion Aruddha dd is doing the preaching of ten sannyasis
H.H. Sivarama Swami: In my humble opion Aruddha dd is doing the preaching of ten sannyasis
June 5th, 2011
Introduction to Sunday’s seminar (English/Hungarian)
[ 11:49 ]
3 Responses to “In my humble opion Aruddha dd is doing the preaching of ten sannyasis”
Rohini devi dasi says:
Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Is this seminar going to be available somewhere to listen to?
Thank you.
Your servant,
Rohini devi dasi
Rohini devi dasi says:
June 5, 2011 at 1:40 pm
PS: I have found it on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRnJEGtqrKA
Varsana dd says:
June 8, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Aruddha mataji is one of my heroes! One of our ISKCON treasures. Both her personal example and her service are inspirational and I’m so pleased that more devotees are getting the opportunity to have her association. A tree is known by the fruit it bears, her sons Radhika Raman prabhu and Gopal Hari prabhu are both wonderful devotees, perfect examplary vaisnava gentlemen, dedicated to continuing on the ‘mission’ of the Bhagavatam that was the foundation of their learning…. they both do their parents proud. I’m only sad that she didn’t come visit us here in the UK this time round. Our loss was your gain. :-) All glories to her wonderful service and may it continue for many years to come ….
Introduction to Sunday’s seminar (English/Hungarian)
[ 11:49 ]
3 Responses to “In my humble opion Aruddha dd is doing the preaching of ten sannyasis”
Rohini devi dasi says:
Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Is this seminar going to be available somewhere to listen to?
Thank you.
Your servant,
Rohini devi dasi
Rohini devi dasi says:
June 5, 2011 at 1:40 pm
PS: I have found it on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRnJEGtqrKA
Varsana dd says:
June 8, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Aruddha mataji is one of my heroes! One of our ISKCON treasures. Both her personal example and her service are inspirational and I’m so pleased that more devotees are getting the opportunity to have her association. A tree is known by the fruit it bears, her sons Radhika Raman prabhu and Gopal Hari prabhu are both wonderful devotees, perfect examplary vaisnava gentlemen, dedicated to continuing on the ‘mission’ of the Bhagavatam that was the foundation of their learning…. they both do their parents proud. I’m only sad that she didn’t come visit us here in the UK this time round. Our loss was your gain. :-) All glories to her wonderful service and may it continue for many years to come ….
H.H. Sivarama Swami: In my humble opion Aruddha dd is doing the preaching of ten sannyasis
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•H.H. Sivarama Swami: The substance of accepting a spiritual master
H.H. Sivarama Swami: The substance of accepting a spiritual master
June 6th, 2011
(talk with aspiring disciples)
[ 7:23 ]
H.H. Sivarama Swami: The substance of accepting a spiritual master
Suppose I am a little baby, and some worm is biting me. I cannot say "Mother" -- because at time I cannot speak -- "something is biting on my back." I am crying, and mother is thinking that "The child is hungry. Give him milk." (devotees laugh)
Just see how much this... I want something, and I am given something else. That is a fact. Why the child is crying? He is feeling uncomfortable. Then, in this way, I grow.
Then I do not want to go to school. I am forced to go to school. Yes. At least, I was like that. (devotees laugh) I never wanted to go to school. And my father was very kind. "So all right. Why you are not going to school?" I would say, "I will go tomorrow." "All right." But my mother was very careful.
Perhaps if my mother would not have been little strict, I would not have gotten any education. My father was very lenient. So she used to force me. One man would take me to school.
- Srila Prabhupada Lecture
Many people want good health, a youthful-looking-and-feeling body, and a sharp mind. We exercise, eat healthy foods, and in some cases undergo plastic surgery to achieve these goals. Following an Ayurvedic lifestyle and diet is another means to attain optimal health. An Ayurvedic routine often includes taking natural, herbal supplements that increase health, youthfulness, and longevity. Herbs come from the earth, and were given by God to keep us healthy. One such herbal formula is called Chyawanprash. It can be purchased at most Indian grocery and spice stores, as well as ordered online from Ayurvedic websites such as banyanbotanicals.com. A 500 gram bottle that has approximately thirty servings (lasting a month) costs about $8.00, making it very affordable. One popular and reputable brand is Dabur.
The wisdom of the great ancient eastern success encyclopedia Srimad Bhagavatam teaches us ...
"As water in its natural state, before coming in contact with earth, is clear, sweet and unruffled, so the characteristic traits of pure consciousness are complete serenity, clarity, and freedom from distraction."
This is also a mindset of wise and successful people: serenity, clarity, and freedom from distraction.
Our original consciousness is pure.
When it becomes materially contaminated, it becomes obscured, and ability to see things as they are becomes diminished.
Like when the water from the sky drops on the ground, it becomes muddy.
And if it drops in a clear place, it remains clear.
Similarly, our coming in contact with this material world means we come in contact of the three qualities of matter: goodness, passion, and ignorance.
If we come in contact the mode of goodness, our perception is very clear, just like seeing things in a sunshine.
As in clear, unagitated water, one can see everything clearly, so in pure consciousness, or Krsna (God) consciousness, one can see things as they are.
One can see the reflection of God, and one can see his own pure existence as well.
This state of consciousness is very pleasing, transparent and sober.
Check out Srimad Bhagavatam here:
http://vedabase.net/sb/en1
Quote by His Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami:
Hare Krsna Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
The practical tips given below may save an irreplaceable Vaishnava from a stroke:
Doctors say that if you e-mail this letter to ten people, you stand a good chance of saving at least one life. Will you send this along?
Just remember "START," for Smile, Talk, Raise, Tongue
S * Ask the individual to SMILE.
T * Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (coherently)
(i.e., It is sunny out today.)
R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
T * Ask the person to stick out his TONGUE. If the tongue is crooked, i.e., if it goes to one side or the other, that may be an indication of a stroke.
If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call an emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
Here are some other symptoms:
Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, an arm, or a leg, especially on one side of the body.
Sudden confusion -- trouble speaking or understanding.
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, or loss of balance or coordination.
Sudden, severe headache with no known cause.
A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people, you can bet that at least one life will be saved.
---------------
Srila Prabhupada once told a disciple that, in order of importance, first comes health, then our sadhana, then our service. He would end his letters "I hope this meets you in good health." He also said we should try to live long lives because we require a lot of purification. In addition to that, the longer we live the more books we can distribute.
Some devotees in our society are now senior citizens and thus some have unfortunately had strokes. They can be avoided, though. If a stroke is caught in time it can be stopped. Doctors say that, in general, from the time the symptoms appear to the actual stroke, there is a three-hour window in which the stroke can be stopped by treatment.
The number-one cause of death in the US is heart disease, two is cancer, and three is stroke.
Doctors also say a stroke can be prevented by regular exercise. A half-hour power walk (fast!) every day can be enough to prevent a stroke and other health problems.
I do yoga one morning and a power walk the next. The result of this daily half-hour of exercise is that whenever I get a check up the doctor says I'm as healthy as an athlete. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Your servant,
Vijaya das
...book distribution and preaching is our most important activity. Opening temples is subordinate. We have to see how books are being distributed and how people are joining wholeheartedly. That is actual development.
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Gopala Krsna -- New York 11 July, 1976
Hari bol Dravida Prabhu, could you please edit this for me. Your servant, Vijaya das
Part 2 - Malawi Africa discovers Prabhupada's books
One of the most amazing encounters was this family of five who came and started looking at all the books. They looked intelligent and aristocratic. Father, mother and three kids in their early teens. I was just meditating that if a family like this took interest it would be really good for our movement here as they seemed highly placed in society. Then while I was explaining to them about the books I saw all members of the family picking up and reading a book from the table and they looked quite absorbed. The father looked really surprised at the titles of the books and was showing his wife (Beyond birth and death, Life comes from Life, Easy journey to other Planets etc..). The father then held up "Life comes from life" and said that they will take that book. The children and his wife each protested to the father as they wanted to take their books also. They started arguing in Chichewa (local language) and his wife listened to him and put her book down but not the kids. And so I made a suggestion; "Why not take all the books?" And so it was settled they took 4 books [LCFL, Coming back, Easy Journey to Other Planets, Beyond birth and Death]. It didn't end there though. I gave them my contact card and today morning (a day after the end of the fair) I got a call from him; He wanted to know if I had the book called Bhagavad-gita as it is and if he could have it "today if possible". I was surprised since I didn't tell him anything about the Bhagavad-gita when we met at the fair.
So we met today in the afternoon in town and I asked him what prompted him to ask for a BG. He said that the whole family went home and the first thing they did was give his elderly father all the books to read and go through and explained to him about what they heard from me. His father just read half of the book "Beyond birth and Death", and was really impressed with what he read and also saw references to a book called Bhagavad-gita. And so he told his son to immediately get this book called Bhagavad-gita. At home they said they had books on "Kabala (Jewish mysticism), Islam, Bahai and of course Bibles. But he said he told me his father said he "never read anything like this before". Apparently (maybe because of my devotional dress, tilak etc) they thought that I wasn't from Malawi and might be leaving after the trade fair so they rushed to contact me to get the book. I assured them that I am here to stay and I told him to read the books and we can meet after a week or two to discuss if he wants.I took his contact and he looked really happy and thanked me and left.
After giving him the BG I went to do some errands and a person approached me on the street. He said I sold him a book once in his shop and he wants more books and he has been looking for me for a long time now. He saw me from his shop so ran out to meet me. So I gave him one of my newly printed mantra cards (H.H.Jayadvaita Maharaja, on his visit here recommended I handout these cards widely with my contact as well as the Mahamantr) and he said he would call me as soon as he got some money.
In total about 30 books (including 5 SSR's and 2 BG's) went out over 7 days at the fair ( I didn't attend all 10 days). That might not seem like a lot compared to many places but according to the standards here it is phenomenal. I usually do 2 or 3 small books when I go out on the street or in the shops, occasionally a big book might go (SSR, JOSD). Malawi is ranked among the 5 poorest countries in the world. Now and then the Govt runs out of money and can't buy fuel so there is no petrol for a few days in the country. They also run out of foreign currency so no one can travel as there are no dollars, South African Rands or any currency to buy for the trip and so one has to wait for it to come. Power cuts and water shortages are a regular occurrence. There is generally widespread poverty. But, due to the mercy and blessings of the Gurus, the Vaishnavas and Sri Gauranga and potency of Srila Prabhupadas words in his books, somehow or other the books are really starting to move including BG's, although sometimes I have to collect the money in installments. I recall a quote of Srila Prabhupada and a similar one by H.H. Tamal Krishna Maharaja in which it is said that the more books go out in a place, the more the possibility is for even more books to be distributed there (in reference to Siksastaka; 'anandambudhi vardhanam'). So I guess this is proof of the universality of this quote, that is, it is applicable in all places, in all times and to all people.
your servant, Murari das
Hare Krsna Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
The practical tips given below may save an irreplaceable Vaishnava from a stroke:
Doctors say that if you e-mail this letter to ten people, you stand a good chance of saving at least one life. Will you send this along?
Just remember "START," for Smile, Talk, Raise, Tongue
S * Ask the individual to SMILE.
T * Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (coherently)
(i.e., It is sunny out today.)
R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
T * Ask the person to stick out his TONGUE. If the tongue is crooked, i.e., if it goes to one side or the other, that may be an indication of a stroke.
If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call an emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
Here are some other symptoms:
Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, an arm, or a leg, especially on one side of the body.
Sudden confusion -- trouble speaking or understanding.
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, or loss of balance or coordination.
Sudden, severe headache with no known cause.
A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people, you can bet that at least one life will be saved.
---------------
Srila Prabhupada once told a disciple that, in order of importance, first comes health, then our sadhana, then our service. He would end his letters "I hope this meets you in good health." He also said we should try to live long lives because we require a lot of purification. In addition to that, the longer we live the more books we can distribute.
Some devotees in our society are now senior citizens and thus some have unfortunately had strokes. They can be avoided, though. If a stroke is caught in time it can be stopped. Doctors say that, in general, from the time the symptoms appear to the actual stroke, there is a three-hour window in which the stroke can be stopped by treatment.
The number-one cause of death in the US is heart disease, two is cancer, and three is stroke.
Doctors also say a stroke can be prevented by regular exercise. A half-hour power walk (fast!) every day can be enough to prevent a stroke and other health problems.
I do yoga one morning and a power walk the next. The result of this daily half-hour of exercise is that whenever I get a check up the doctor says I'm as healthy as an athlete. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Your servant,
Vijaya das
...book distribution and preaching is our most important activity. Opening temples is subordinate. We have to see how books are being distributed and how people are joining wholeheartedly. That is actual development.
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Gopala Krsna -- New York 11 July, 1976
Hari bol Dravida Prabhu, could you please edit this for me. Your servant, Vijaya das
Part 2 - Malawi Africa discovers Prabhupada's books
One of the most amazing encounters was this family of five who came and started looking at all the books. They looked intelligent and aristocratic. Father, mother and three kids in their early teens. I was just meditating that if a family like this took interest it would be really good for our movement here as they seemed highly placed in society. Then while I was explaining to them about the books I saw all members of the family picking up and reading a book from the table and they looked quite absorbed. The father looked really surprised at the titles of the books and was showing his wife (Beyond birth and death, Life comes from Life, Easy journey to other Planets etc..). The father then held up "Life comes from life" and said that they will take that book. The children and his wife each protested to the father as they wanted to take their books also. They started arguing in Chichewa (local language) and his wife listened to him and put her book down but not the kids. And so I made a suggestion; "Why not take all the books?" And so it was settled they took 4 books [LCFL, Coming back, Easy Journey to Other Planets, Beyond birth and Death]. It didn't end there though. I gave them my contact card and today morning (a day after the end of the fair) I got a call from him; He wanted to know if I had the book called Bhagavad-gita as it is and if he could have it "today if possible". I was surprised since I didn't tell him anything about the Bhagavad-gita when we met at the fair.
So we met today in the afternoon in town and I asked him what prompted him to ask for a BG. He said that the whole family went home and the first thing they did was give his elderly father all the books to read and go through and explained to him about what they heard from me. His father just read half of the book "Beyond birth and Death", and was really impressed with what he read and also saw references to a book called Bhagavad-gita. And so he told his son to immediately get this book called Bhagavad-gita. At home they said they had books on "Kabala (Jewish mysticism), Islam, Bahai and of course Bibles. But he said he told me his father said he "never read anything like this before". Apparently (maybe because of my devotional dress, tilak etc) they thought that I wasn't from Malawi and might be leaving after the trade fair so they rushed to contact me to get the book. I assured them that I am here to stay and I told him to read the books and we can meet after a week or two to discuss if he wants.I took his contact and he looked really happy and thanked me and left.
After giving him the BG I went to do some errands and a person approached me on the street. He said I sold him a book once in his shop and he wants more books and he has been looking for me for a long time now. He saw me from his shop so ran out to meet me. So I gave him one of my newly printed mantra cards (H.H.Jayadvaita Maharaja, on his visit here recommended I handout these cards widely with my contact as well as the Mahamantr) and he said he would call me as soon as he got some money.
In total about 30 books (including 5 SSR's and 2 BG's) went out over 7 days at the fair ( I didn't attend all 10 days). That might not seem like a lot compared to many places but according to the standards here it is phenomenal. I usually do 2 or 3 small books when I go out on the street or in the shops, occasionally a big book might go (SSR, JOSD). Malawi is ranked among the 5 poorest countries in the world. Now and then the Govt runs out of money and can't buy fuel so there is no petrol for a few days in the country. They also run out of foreign currency so no one can travel as there are no dollars, South African Rands or any currency to buy for the trip and so one has to wait for it to come. Power cuts and water shortages are a regular occurrence. There is generally widespread poverty. But, due to the mercy and blessings of the Gurus, the Vaishnavas and Sri Gauranga and potency of Srila Prabhupadas words in his books, somehow or other the books are really starting to move including BG's, although sometimes I have to collect the money in installments. I recall a quote of Srila Prabhupada and a similar one by H.H. Tamal Krishna Maharaja in which it is said that the more books go out in a place, the more the possibility is for even more books to be distributed there (in reference to Siksastaka; 'anandambudhi vardhanam'). So I guess this is proof of the universality of this quote, that is, it is applicable in all places, in all times and to all people.
your servant, Murari das
A daily broadcast of the Ultimate Self Realization Course Monday 6 June 2011 The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna, and His eternal consort, Srimati Radharani are enjoying transcendental pastimes in the topmost planet of the spiritual world, Sri Goloka Vrindavan. They are beckoning us to rejoin them. (Click on photo to see a larger image.) Our Mission: To help everyone awaken their original Krishna consciousness, which is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. Such a global awakening will, in one stroke, solve all the problems of the world society bringing in a new era of unprecedented peace and prosperity for all. May that day, which the world so desperately needs, come very soon. We request you to participate in this mission by reviving your dormant Krishna consciousness and assisting us in spreading this science all over the world. Dedicated with love to ISKCON Founder-Acharya: His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, our beloved spiritual master, and to you, our dear readers. Today's Thought: On Behalf of My Guru Maharaja Uploaded from Mauritius Upon our arrival in Mauritius on 4 June 2011 we were first driven by my disciple, Prahlada Das, to the Hare Krishna temple in Phoenix where we offered our respectful obeisances to Srila Prabhupada, who was fully present in his deity form and to the most beautiful deities, Sri Sri Radha Golokananda. After I feelingly prayed to Srila Prabhupada and Radha Golokananda for their merciful blessings the devotees requested if they could offer me guru puja, a traditional worship ceremony offered to the spiritual master. Of course, I do not consider myself to be qualified to accept such worship, but as a spiritual master it is my duty to accept such worship on behalf of my Guru Maharaja, Srila Prabhupada. As they began the arati ceremony I was most happy to see that my sitting place offered me an unobstructed view of Srila Prabhupada sitting regally on his Vyasasana. So as they worshipped me I mentally transferred all of their loving, affectionate worship to my spiritual master. It was such a pure, wonderful feeling to offer the worship of a whole room full of devotees to Srila Prabhupada. This is our system. The spiritual master never accepts worship on his behalf. He only accepts it on behalf of his spiritual master, who accepts it on behalf of his spiritual master, etc., etc., all the way back to Krishna. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Splendorous Radha-Golokananda The Deities of Phoenix, Mauritius http://www.spiritual-revolutionary.com/images/Deities/Radha-Golokananda.jpg Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Religious Meat Eaters Get Salvation? Dear Gurudeva, I read this in yesterday's Thought for the Day, Since the real meaning of Islam is submission to the will of God and obedience to His law, global Islamization and Krishna conscious globalization are exactly the same thing. Questions: Why not follow one of the Abrahamic religions where one can eat meat (Halal or Kosher for example) if they are the same as Krishna consciousness? So do followers of these faiths not suffer any Karmic reactions as they are within the law of their God? Please guide me. S.K. Answer: They Wouldn't Want It. I was speaking of the pure form of religion, not the polluted form that is masquerading nowadays as real religion. Every religious system, including even the Vedic system, gives concessions for meat eaters in order to restrict them, not to encourage them. Just like the government allows cigarette smoking, but under many restrictions. It knows that it cannot stop cigarette smoking altogether, so it allows it under restriction to discourage it. In a similar way the scriptures allow flesh eating under restriction to discourage it. But this does not mean that such flesh and blood eaters are qualified to enter the kingdom of God. They are not because in that supreme abode nobody eats meat. As long as one has a taste for flesh and blood he would be miserable in the kingdom of God and is therefore not allowed to enter there. He will take birth again in that place where meat eating is allowed, this material world. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Transcendental Resources: Receive the Special Blessings of Krishna Now you too can render the greatest service to the suffering humanity and attract the all-auspicious blessings of Lord Sri Krishna upon yourself and your family by assisting our mission. Lectures and Kirtans in Audio and Video: Link to High Definition Videos Link to Over 1,000 Lecture Audios Lecture-Travel Schedule for 2011 http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/schedule Have Questions or Need Further Guidance? Check out the resources at: http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com or write Sankarshan Das Adhikari at: sda@backtohome.com Get your copy today of the world's greatest self-realization guide book, Bhagavad-gita As It Is available at:http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/store Know someone who could benefit from this? Forward it to them. Searchable archives of all of course material: http://www.sda-archives.com Receive Thought for the Day as an RSS feed:http://www.backtohome.com/rss.htm Unsubscribe or change your email address Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Daily_Thought Sankarshan Das Adhikari on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SDASITE Thought for the Day on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ultimate.Self.Realization Copyright 2005-2011 by Ultimate Self Realization.Com Distribution of this material is encouraged. 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It is not that devotees who are less complete in knowledge are not dear to the Lord. …But the devotee in full knowledge is considered to be very dear to the Lord because his only purpose is to serve the Supreme Lord with love and devotion.
Three Points in Response to my Last Post
dvāv imau puruṣau loke
kṣaraś cākṣara eva ca
kṣaraḥ sarvāṇi bhūtāni
kūṭa-stho 'kṣara ucyate
(talk with aspiring disciples)
[ 7:23 ]
H.H. Sivarama Swami: The substance of accepting a spiritual master
• Email to a friend • •
•Akrura das, Gita Coaching: "I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL"
Suppose I am a little baby, and some worm is biting me. I cannot say "Mother" -- because at time I cannot speak -- "something is biting on my back." I am crying, and mother is thinking that "The child is hungry. Give him milk." (devotees laugh)
Just see how much this... I want something, and I am given something else. That is a fact. Why the child is crying? He is feeling uncomfortable. Then, in this way, I grow.
Then I do not want to go to school. I am forced to go to school. Yes. At least, I was like that. (devotees laugh) I never wanted to go to school. And my father was very kind. "So all right. Why you are not going to school?" I would say, "I will go tomorrow." "All right." But my mother was very careful.
Perhaps if my mother would not have been little strict, I would not have gotten any education. My father was very lenient. So she used to force me. One man would take me to school.
- Srila Prabhupada Lecture
• Email to a friend • •
•16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: Chyawanprash- Ayurvedic Herbal Wonder Supplement
Many people want good health, a youthful-looking-and-feeling body, and a sharp mind. We exercise, eat healthy foods, and in some cases undergo plastic surgery to achieve these goals. Following an Ayurvedic lifestyle and diet is another means to attain optimal health. An Ayurvedic routine often includes taking natural, herbal supplements that increase health, youthfulness, and longevity. Herbs come from the earth, and were given by God to keep us healthy. One such herbal formula is called Chyawanprash. It can be purchased at most Indian grocery and spice stores, as well as ordered online from Ayurvedic websites such as banyanbotanicals.com. A 500 gram bottle that has approximately thirty servings (lasting a month) costs about $8.00, making it very affordable. One popular and reputable brand is Dabur.
Chyawanprash is said to have been created by the sage Chyawan. His intention was to regain his own youth and longevity after marrying a young and beautiful princess. The first written formula was recorded in the Charak Samhita, one of the ancient Ayurvedic texts written in the 4th century BC.
Chyawanprash looks and tastes like a sweet and spicy jam, and is known to be quite tasty. It contains a mix of anywhere from 30 – 80 powerful Ayurvedic herbs with Indian Gooseberry as the base. Other main ingredients include ashwaganda, pippali, bala, cardamom, nutmeg and cinnamon in a base of clarified butter (ghee) and honey. It can be taken alone by the tablespoon, spread onto bread or crackers like a jam, or mixed into warm milk. One to two tablespoons can be taken per day, with or after a meal in the morning or evening. If possible, drink a glass of warm milk after taking it to improve its absorption into the body. This formula is healthy for men, women and children of all ages, and creates harmony in the body. Some specific health benefits of this “wonder-jam” are stated below.
Digestive and Immune System
Indian Gooseberry has 30 times more vitamin C than oranges, and helps to strengthen the immune system and speed up healing. Regular intake of Chyawanprash makes one’s digestive system stronger.Heart and Brain
Chyawanprash also helps the heart to function smoothly. It supports the nervous system and enhances memory power and mental focus. It is very good for students since it increases memory and mental focus.Lung, Liver and Kidneys
Regular intake of Chyawanprash gives energy to the respiratory system. It also helps eliminate toxins, and ease constipation.Other Benefits
Chyawanprash improves skin complexion, hair growth, and increases calcium absorption which leads to stronger bones and teeth. It is an anti-oxidant, so it keeps one looking and feeling youthful. This supplement enhances fertility and helps keep menstruation regular.
Taking Chyawanprash daily is like taking a daily multi-vitamin or vitamin C. It is natural, affordable and delicious, and all around good for health. If you have any concerns before taking it, you can ask your local Ayurvedic clinic to make sure it is right for you, and if you are diabetic, please take with caution. Enjoy!
• Email to a friend • •
•Akrura das, Gita Coaching: CLARITY AND PURE CONSCIOUSNESS
The wisdom of the great ancient eastern success encyclopedia Srimad Bhagavatam teaches us ...
"As water in its natural state, before coming in contact with earth, is clear, sweet and unruffled, so the characteristic traits of pure consciousness are complete serenity, clarity, and freedom from distraction."
This is also a mindset of wise and successful people: serenity, clarity, and freedom from distraction.
Our original consciousness is pure.
When it becomes materially contaminated, it becomes obscured, and ability to see things as they are becomes diminished.
Like when the water from the sky drops on the ground, it becomes muddy.
And if it drops in a clear place, it remains clear.
Similarly, our coming in contact with this material world means we come in contact of the three qualities of matter: goodness, passion, and ignorance.
If we come in contact the mode of goodness, our perception is very clear, just like seeing things in a sunshine.
As in clear, unagitated water, one can see everything clearly, so in pure consciousness, or Krsna (God) consciousness, one can see things as they are.
One can see the reflection of God, and one can see his own pure existence as well.
This state of consciousness is very pleasing, transparent and sober.
Check out Srimad Bhagavatam here:
http://vedabase.net/sb/en1
• Email to a friend • •
•New Vrndavan, USA: 2nd Annual BBT Inspired Art Seminar New Vrindaban, September 19th through 28th, 2011
Quote by His Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami:
“The people today are fascinated by so much of the glimmering so-called beauty of the external energy, and there is necessity of seeing beautiful pictures of Krishna and His devotees and His pastimes, in order to attract them to the spiritual process. So this is a great service, and there is an urgent need for such paintings.”
A dynamic ten day mini- Art seminar taught by veteran ISKCON-BBT artists Dhriti Dasi and Ram Dasa Abhirama Das. Students should have basic drawing and painting experience. Dhriti and Ram Das are disciples of Srila Prabhupada with 36 yrs plus experience in painting Krsna Art who worked directly on Srila Prabhupada’s books and now wish to share their experience.
This course will help aspiring artists learn the basics of drawing, painting with figures, landscapes and be able to utilize it for transcendental painting. Everyone will have their own painting project to develop with the assistance of Ram Das and Dhrti. They offer behind the scenes` stories of BBT art production, sharing and discussing Srila Prabhupada’s view on Krishna art,which is enlivening and informative.
The atmosphere in the scenic setting of New Vrindaban, nestled in the Appalachian foothills will be free from city lights and distractions. These occasions will bless your efforts with surcharged spiritual energy. You can expect delicious organic based Prasad, some of it coming from our organic gardens along with fresh pure milk from Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s protected cows. (Wireless internet is available for all attendees.)
This seminar is dedicated to His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, ISKCON Founder-Acharya, to provide support, training and inspiration to artists who aspire serve Srila Prabhupada in opening windows to the spiritual world or simply improve their existing skills.
Dhriti and Ram Dasa Abhirama das do not charge for their service. The cost of their air fare, a house-minder (their home was robbed during a recent absence) and required materials will be divided among the attendees. Prasadam and accommodation options are separate. For further details, please contact:
Malati devi dasi or Govinda Mohini dasi: servingkrishna@aol.com 304-845-9591
• Email to a friend • •
•Bharatavarsa.net: Book distribution seminar: Re: This is for you Dravida Prabhu
Hare Krsna Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
The practical tips given below may save an irreplaceable Vaishnava from a stroke:
Doctors say that if you e-mail this letter to ten people, you stand a good chance of saving at least one life. Will you send this along?
Just remember "START," for Smile, Talk, Raise, Tongue
S * Ask the individual to SMILE.
T * Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (coherently)
(i.e., It is sunny out today.)
R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
T * Ask the person to stick out his TONGUE. If the tongue is crooked, i.e., if it goes to one side or the other, that may be an indication of a stroke.
If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call an emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
Here are some other symptoms:
Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, an arm, or a leg, especially on one side of the body.
Sudden confusion -- trouble speaking or understanding.
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, or loss of balance or coordination.
Sudden, severe headache with no known cause.
A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people, you can bet that at least one life will be saved.
---------------
Srila Prabhupada once told a disciple that, in order of importance, first comes health, then our sadhana, then our service. He would end his letters "I hope this meets you in good health." He also said we should try to live long lives because we require a lot of purification. In addition to that, the longer we live the more books we can distribute.
Some devotees in our society are now senior citizens and thus some have unfortunately had strokes. They can be avoided, though. If a stroke is caught in time it can be stopped. Doctors say that, in general, from the time the symptoms appear to the actual stroke, there is a three-hour window in which the stroke can be stopped by treatment.
The number-one cause of death in the US is heart disease, two is cancer, and three is stroke.
Doctors also say a stroke can be prevented by regular exercise. A half-hour power walk (fast!) every day can be enough to prevent a stroke and other health problems.
I do yoga one morning and a power walk the next. The result of this daily half-hour of exercise is that whenever I get a check up the doctor says I'm as healthy as an athlete. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Your servant,
Vijaya das
• Email to a friend • •
•Bharatavarsa.net: Book distribution seminar: Opening temples is subordinate
...book distribution and preaching is our most important activity. Opening temples is subordinate. We have to see how books are being distributed and how people are joining wholeheartedly. That is actual development.
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Gopala Krsna -- New York 11 July, 1976
• Email to a friend • •
•Bharatavarsa.net: Book distribution seminar: This is for you Dravida Prabhu
Hari bol Dravida Prabhu, could you please edit this for me. Your servant, Vijaya das
Part 2 - Malawi Africa discovers Prabhupada's books
One of the most amazing encounters was this family of five who came and started looking at all the books. They looked intelligent and aristocratic. Father, mother and three kids in their early teens. I was just meditating that if a family like this took interest it would be really good for our movement here as they seemed highly placed in society. Then while I was explaining to them about the books I saw all members of the family picking up and reading a book from the table and they looked quite absorbed. The father looked really surprised at the titles of the books and was showing his wife (Beyond birth and death, Life comes from Life, Easy journey to other Planets etc..). The father then held up "Life comes from life" and said that they will take that book. The children and his wife each protested to the father as they wanted to take their books also. They started arguing in Chichewa (local language) and his wife listened to him and put her book down but not the kids. And so I made a suggestion; "Why not take all the books?" And so it was settled they took 4 books [LCFL, Coming back, Easy Journey to Other Planets, Beyond birth and Death]. It didn't end there though. I gave them my contact card and today morning (a day after the end of the fair) I got a call from him; He wanted to know if I had the book called Bhagavad-gita as it is and if he could have it "today if possible". I was surprised since I didn't tell him anything about the Bhagavad-gita when we met at the fair.
So we met today in the afternoon in town and I asked him what prompted him to ask for a BG. He said that the whole family went home and the first thing they did was give his elderly father all the books to read and go through and explained to him about what they heard from me. His father just read half of the book "Beyond birth and Death", and was really impressed with what he read and also saw references to a book called Bhagavad-gita. And so he told his son to immediately get this book called Bhagavad-gita. At home they said they had books on "Kabala (Jewish mysticism), Islam, Bahai and of course Bibles. But he said he told me his father said he "never read anything like this before". Apparently (maybe because of my devotional dress, tilak etc) they thought that I wasn't from Malawi and might be leaving after the trade fair so they rushed to contact me to get the book. I assured them that I am here to stay and I told him to read the books and we can meet after a week or two to discuss if he wants.I took his contact and he looked really happy and thanked me and left.
After giving him the BG I went to do some errands and a person approached me on the street. He said I sold him a book once in his shop and he wants more books and he has been looking for me for a long time now. He saw me from his shop so ran out to meet me. So I gave him one of my newly printed mantra cards (H.H.Jayadvaita Maharaja, on his visit here recommended I handout these cards widely with my contact as well as the Mahamantr) and he said he would call me as soon as he got some money.
In total about 30 books (including 5 SSR's and 2 BG's) went out over 7 days at the fair ( I didn't attend all 10 days). That might not seem like a lot compared to many places but according to the standards here it is phenomenal. I usually do 2 or 3 small books when I go out on the street or in the shops, occasionally a big book might go (SSR, JOSD). Malawi is ranked among the 5 poorest countries in the world. Now and then the Govt runs out of money and can't buy fuel so there is no petrol for a few days in the country. They also run out of foreign currency so no one can travel as there are no dollars, South African Rands or any currency to buy for the trip and so one has to wait for it to come. Power cuts and water shortages are a regular occurrence. There is generally widespread poverty. But, due to the mercy and blessings of the Gurus, the Vaishnavas and Sri Gauranga and potency of Srila Prabhupadas words in his books, somehow or other the books are really starting to move including BG's, although sometimes I have to collect the money in installments. I recall a quote of Srila Prabhupada and a similar one by H.H. Tamal Krishna Maharaja in which it is said that the more books go out in a place, the more the possibility is for even more books to be distributed there (in reference to Siksastaka; 'anandambudhi vardhanam'). So I guess this is proof of the universality of this quote, that is, it is applicable in all places, in all times and to all people.
your servant, Murari das
• Email to a friend • •
•Book Distribution News: Re: This is for you Dravida Prabhu
Hare Krsna Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
The practical tips given below may save an irreplaceable Vaishnava from a stroke:
Doctors say that if you e-mail this letter to ten people, you stand a good chance of saving at least one life. Will you send this along?
Just remember "START," for Smile, Talk, Raise, Tongue
S * Ask the individual to SMILE.
T * Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (coherently)
(i.e., It is sunny out today.)
R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
T * Ask the person to stick out his TONGUE. If the tongue is crooked, i.e., if it goes to one side or the other, that may be an indication of a stroke.
If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call an emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
Here are some other symptoms:
Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, an arm, or a leg, especially on one side of the body.
Sudden confusion -- trouble speaking or understanding.
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, or loss of balance or coordination.
Sudden, severe headache with no known cause.
A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people, you can bet that at least one life will be saved.
---------------
Srila Prabhupada once told a disciple that, in order of importance, first comes health, then our sadhana, then our service. He would end his letters "I hope this meets you in good health." He also said we should try to live long lives because we require a lot of purification. In addition to that, the longer we live the more books we can distribute.
Some devotees in our society are now senior citizens and thus some have unfortunately had strokes. They can be avoided, though. If a stroke is caught in time it can be stopped. Doctors say that, in general, from the time the symptoms appear to the actual stroke, there is a three-hour window in which the stroke can be stopped by treatment.
The number-one cause of death in the US is heart disease, two is cancer, and three is stroke.
Doctors also say a stroke can be prevented by regular exercise. A half-hour power walk (fast!) every day can be enough to prevent a stroke and other health problems.
I do yoga one morning and a power walk the next. The result of this daily half-hour of exercise is that whenever I get a check up the doctor says I'm as healthy as an athlete. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Your servant,
Vijaya das
• Email to a friend • •
•Book Distribution News: Opening temples is subordinate
...book distribution and preaching is our most important activity. Opening temples is subordinate. We have to see how books are being distributed and how people are joining wholeheartedly. That is actual development.
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Gopala Krsna -- New York 11 July, 1976
• Email to a friend • •
•Book Distribution News: This is for you Dravida Prabhu
Hari bol Dravida Prabhu, could you please edit this for me. Your servant, Vijaya das
Part 2 - Malawi Africa discovers Prabhupada's books
One of the most amazing encounters was this family of five who came and started looking at all the books. They looked intelligent and aristocratic. Father, mother and three kids in their early teens. I was just meditating that if a family like this took interest it would be really good for our movement here as they seemed highly placed in society. Then while I was explaining to them about the books I saw all members of the family picking up and reading a book from the table and they looked quite absorbed. The father looked really surprised at the titles of the books and was showing his wife (Beyond birth and death, Life comes from Life, Easy journey to other Planets etc..). The father then held up "Life comes from life" and said that they will take that book. The children and his wife each protested to the father as they wanted to take their books also. They started arguing in Chichewa (local language) and his wife listened to him and put her book down but not the kids. And so I made a suggestion; "Why not take all the books?" And so it was settled they took 4 books [LCFL, Coming back, Easy Journey to Other Planets, Beyond birth and Death]. It didn't end there though. I gave them my contact card and today morning (a day after the end of the fair) I got a call from him; He wanted to know if I had the book called Bhagavad-gita as it is and if he could have it "today if possible". I was surprised since I didn't tell him anything about the Bhagavad-gita when we met at the fair.
So we met today in the afternoon in town and I asked him what prompted him to ask for a BG. He said that the whole family went home and the first thing they did was give his elderly father all the books to read and go through and explained to him about what they heard from me. His father just read half of the book "Beyond birth and Death", and was really impressed with what he read and also saw references to a book called Bhagavad-gita. And so he told his son to immediately get this book called Bhagavad-gita. At home they said they had books on "Kabala (Jewish mysticism), Islam, Bahai and of course Bibles. But he said he told me his father said he "never read anything like this before". Apparently (maybe because of my devotional dress, tilak etc) they thought that I wasn't from Malawi and might be leaving after the trade fair so they rushed to contact me to get the book. I assured them that I am here to stay and I told him to read the books and we can meet after a week or two to discuss if he wants.I took his contact and he looked really happy and thanked me and left.
After giving him the BG I went to do some errands and a person approached me on the street. He said I sold him a book once in his shop and he wants more books and he has been looking for me for a long time now. He saw me from his shop so ran out to meet me. So I gave him one of my newly printed mantra cards (H.H.Jayadvaita Maharaja, on his visit here recommended I handout these cards widely with my contact as well as the Mahamantr) and he said he would call me as soon as he got some money.
In total about 30 books (including 5 SSR's and 2 BG's) went out over 7 days at the fair ( I didn't attend all 10 days). That might not seem like a lot compared to many places but according to the standards here it is phenomenal. I usually do 2 or 3 small books when I go out on the street or in the shops, occasionally a big book might go (SSR, JOSD). Malawi is ranked among the 5 poorest countries in the world. Now and then the Govt runs out of money and can't buy fuel so there is no petrol for a few days in the country. They also run out of foreign currency so no one can travel as there are no dollars, South African Rands or any currency to buy for the trip and so one has to wait for it to come. Power cuts and water shortages are a regular occurrence. There is generally widespread poverty. But, due to the mercy and blessings of the Gurus, the Vaishnavas and Sri Gauranga and potency of Srila Prabhupadas words in his books, somehow or other the books are really starting to move including BG's, although sometimes I have to collect the money in installments. I recall a quote of Srila Prabhupada and a similar one by H.H. Tamal Krishna Maharaja in which it is said that the more books go out in a place, the more the possibility is for even more books to be distributed there (in reference to Siksastaka; 'anandambudhi vardhanam'). So I guess this is proof of the universality of this quote, that is, it is applicable in all places, in all times and to all people.
your servant, Murari das
• Email to a friend • •
•H.G. Sankarshan das Adhikari, USA: Corrected Version--Monday 6 June 2011--On Behalf of My Guru Maharaja--and--Religious Meat Eaters Get Salvation?
A daily broadcast of the Ultimate Self Realization Course Monday 6 June 2011 The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna, and His eternal consort, Srimati Radharani are enjoying transcendental pastimes in the topmost planet of the spiritual world, Sri Goloka Vrindavan. They are beckoning us to rejoin them. (Click on photo to see a larger image.) Our Mission: To help everyone awaken their original Krishna consciousness, which is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. Such a global awakening will, in one stroke, solve all the problems of the world society bringing in a new era of unprecedented peace and prosperity for all. May that day, which the world so desperately needs, come very soon. We request you to participate in this mission by reviving your dormant Krishna consciousness and assisting us in spreading this science all over the world. Dedicated with love to ISKCON Founder-Acharya: His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, our beloved spiritual master, and to you, our dear readers. Today's Thought: On Behalf of My Guru Maharaja Uploaded from Mauritius Upon our arrival in Mauritius on 4 June 2011 we were first driven by my disciple, Prahlada Das, to the Hare Krishna temple in Phoenix where we offered our respectful obeisances to Srila Prabhupada, who was fully present in his deity form and to the most beautiful deities, Sri Sri Radha Golokananda. After I feelingly prayed to Srila Prabhupada and Radha Golokananda for their merciful blessings the devotees requested if they could offer me guru puja, a traditional worship ceremony offered to the spiritual master. Of course, I do not consider myself to be qualified to accept such worship, but as a spiritual master it is my duty to accept such worship on behalf of my Guru Maharaja, Srila Prabhupada. As they began the arati ceremony I was most happy to see that my sitting place offered me an unobstructed view of Srila Prabhupada sitting regally on his Vyasasana. So as they worshipped me I mentally transferred all of their loving, affectionate worship to my spiritual master. It was such a pure, wonderful feeling to offer the worship of a whole room full of devotees to Srila Prabhupada. This is our system. The spiritual master never accepts worship on his behalf. He only accepts it on behalf of his spiritual master, who accepts it on behalf of his spiritual master, etc., etc., all the way back to Krishna. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Splendorous Radha-Golokananda The Deities of Phoenix, Mauritius http://www.spiritual-revolutionary.com/images/Deities/Radha-Golokananda.jpg Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Religious Meat Eaters Get Salvation? Dear Gurudeva, I read this in yesterday's Thought for the Day, Since the real meaning of Islam is submission to the will of God and obedience to His law, global Islamization and Krishna conscious globalization are exactly the same thing. Questions: Why not follow one of the Abrahamic religions where one can eat meat (Halal or Kosher for example) if they are the same as Krishna consciousness? So do followers of these faiths not suffer any Karmic reactions as they are within the law of their God? Please guide me. S.K. Answer: They Wouldn't Want It. I was speaking of the pure form of religion, not the polluted form that is masquerading nowadays as real religion. Every religious system, including even the Vedic system, gives concessions for meat eaters in order to restrict them, not to encourage them. Just like the government allows cigarette smoking, but under many restrictions. It knows that it cannot stop cigarette smoking altogether, so it allows it under restriction to discourage it. In a similar way the scriptures allow flesh eating under restriction to discourage it. But this does not mean that such flesh and blood eaters are qualified to enter the kingdom of God. They are not because in that supreme abode nobody eats meat. As long as one has a taste for flesh and blood he would be miserable in the kingdom of God and is therefore not allowed to enter there. He will take birth again in that place where meat eating is allowed, this material world. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Transcendental Resources: Receive the Special Blessings of Krishna Now you too can render the greatest service to the suffering humanity and attract the all-auspicious blessings of Lord Sri Krishna upon yourself and your family by assisting our mission. Lectures and Kirtans in Audio and Video: Link to High Definition Videos Link to Over 1,000 Lecture Audios Lecture-Travel Schedule for 2011 http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/schedule Have Questions or Need Further Guidance? Check out the resources at: http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com or write Sankarshan Das Adhikari at: sda@backtohome.com Get your copy today of the world's greatest self-realization guide book, Bhagavad-gita As It Is available at:http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/store Know someone who could benefit from this? Forward it to them. Searchable archives of all of course material: http://www.sda-archives.com Receive Thought for the Day as an RSS feed:http://www.backtohome.com/rss.htm Unsubscribe or change your email address Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Daily_Thought Sankarshan Das Adhikari on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SDASITE Thought for the Day on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ultimate.Self.Realization Copyright 2005-2011 by Ultimate Self Realization.Com Distribution of this material is encouraged. 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• Email to a friend • •
•H.H. Sivarama Swami
It is not that devotees who are less complete in knowledge are not dear to the Lord. …But the devotee in full knowledge is considered to be very dear to the Lord because his only purpose is to serve the Supreme Lord with love and devotion.
- Srila Prabhupada
• Email to a friend • •
•Sita-pati dasa, AU: Nitya-baddha and Swarupa-siddhi
Three Points in Response to my Last Post
First Point
In response to my last post, someone asks:
"Prabhupada may have come from Goloka but did every other jiva?
Maybe. Who can say? The spiritual world is a big place.
I say this to reflect the inherent unknowability of this "every" thing. You say "may", then ask for a statement of certainty. There is none. I also want to counteract the implication in this statement that "there is one black and white statement for the origin of all jivas". There are at least as many individual situations as there are individuals, possibly more!
kṣaraś cākṣara eva ca
kṣaraḥ sarvāṇi bhūtāni
kūṭa-stho 'kṣara ucyate
There are two classes of beings, the fallible and the infallible. In the material world every living entity is fallible, and in the spiritual world every living entity is called infallible.- Bhagavad-gita 15.16
Nitya-siddha jivas in this world are those who descend to canvass amongst the fallen souls (nitya-baddha jivas).
Within this view of reality, in the view of a number of people Srila Prabhupada came into the material world from Goloka Vrndavan.
As for "everyone else", according to this view they are a mixture of nitya-baddha jivas, along with a smaller number of nitya-siddha jivas.
So according to this, only the nitya-siddhas have come from a situation of liberated existence in the spiritual world, and the rest are, up to this point, eternally conditioned.
Second Point
"It cannot be a question of raga if one's origin is different to Prabhupada's."
This statement is ambiguous, so I will address two possible interpretations:
1. That it is not a question of raga, or feeling, if one is a nitya-baddha jiva, an eternally conditioned soul.
2. That it is not a question of raga, or feeling, if one has an origin in a liberated state of existence that is different from Srila Prabhupada's.
2. That it is not a question of raga, or feeling, if one has an origin in a liberated state of existence that is different from Srila Prabhupada's.
With respect to the first one: of course raga is a means for eternally conditioned souls to achieve liberation. I have given the verses that explain this in the previous post. Pay especial attention to "sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ" .
"Back home, back to Godhead"
If you get the feeling, then you will go there.
That is the feeling: that our home is in a different soil, not here. With this feeling, one can go there. As Srila B.R. Sridhara Swami put it: "Home-going requires a home-knowing person".
With respect to the second interpretation: that it is not a question of raga, or feeling, if one has an origin in a liberated state of existence that is different from Srila Prabhupada's.
First of all, nitya-siddhas are eternally liberated, by definition; so those with their origin in some eternally liberated lila are exactly that - eternally liberated.
Perhaps you have confused raga (feeling) with rasa (flavor of spiritual relationship)?
There is a closely related argument to the "origin of the jiva" argument that underlies the original question about Prabhupada's motto. One version of the argument goes like this: the vast majority of jivas in this world are nitya-baddha. Since they have not come from the eternally liberated realm in a "previous existence", they have no standing there. Their identity in that realm must be imparted to them via siddha pranali - a mystical initiation in which they are given the seed of their spiritual identity - their passport to the eternal world.
In this view, a difference in rasa is not an issue, since the nitya baddha jiva has no inherent eternally liberated identity.
Another view is that the liberated spiritual identity of the jiva is intrinsic (svarupa-siddhi), although it has not been expressed before. This identity does not need to be implanted, but can be revealed from within.
This was the view of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. Sarasvati Thakura's father and guru, Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura, took siddha-pranali initiation from his guru Bipin Bihari Goswami. However, Sarasvati Thakura did not take siddha-pranali initiation, instead emphasising the chanting of the Holy Names as the means of revealing one's intrinsic spiritual nature.
In this view, the implications of a difference in rasa between the spiritual master and disciple arise.
If your intrinsic internal spiritual identity turns out to be something significantly different from that of Srila Prabhupada, even contrary in many respects, does that change the fact that his statement "back home, back to Godhead" is an expression of raga. No.
Does it make it irrelevant to you? No, because it's not "back home, back to Goloka Vrndavan", it's "back home, back to Godhead".
As a side note, a notable historical clash of intrinsic spiritual identities is recorded in Gaudiya history in the case of Syamananda Pandit (initiated as Dukhi Krishna das) and his guru Hrdaya Caitanya.
Shyamananda manifested a spiritual identity in the srngara rasa, as a helper of Radharani. Hrdaya Caitanya was in the sahkya rasa of the cowherd boyfriends. This lead to some apparent misunderstanding and difficulties between them, but does it change the fact that is based on raga? No, in fact it reinforces it.
Third point
"Surely there is a correlation between raga and tattva?"
Yes, too much preoccupation with tattva means you miss out on the raga, and in my opinion historically a lot of the discussion around "Back home, back to Godhead has done that. Reality is ultimately a feeling. Chant and be happy!
Sita-pati dasa, AU: Nitya-baddha y Swarupa-siddhi
Tres puntos en respuesta a mi último Escrito
Primer punto
En respuesta a mi último escrito, alguien me pidió:
"¿Prabhupada pudo haber venido de Goloka pero hizo cada otro jiva? Quizá. ¿Quién puede contestar a esta pregunta? El mundo espiritual es un lugar muy grande.
Digo esto para reflejar la incognocibilidad inherente de esta "toda" cosa. Usted me dice el "puede o pudo", entonces pida una declaración de la certeza. No hay ninguna. También quiero contrariar la implicación de esta declaración que "hay una declaración blanca y negra del origen de todas las jivas". ¡Hay por lo menos tantas situaciones individuales como individuos hay, e incluso posiblemente más!
dvāv imau puruṣau loke
kṣaraś cākṣara eva ca
kṣaraḥ sarvāṇi bhūtāni
kūṭa-stho 'kṣara ucyate
kṣaraś cākṣara eva ca
kṣaraḥ sarvāṇi bhūtāni
kūṭa-stho 'kṣara ucyate
Hay dos clases de seres: los falibles y los infalibles. En el mundo material toda entidad viviente es falible, y en el mundo espiritual toda entidad viviente se llama infalible.
Bhagavad-gita 15.16
Los Nitya-siddha jivas en este mundo son los que descienden para solicitar votos entre las almas caidas (nitya-baddha jivas). Dentro de esta visión de la realidad, según la opinión de un número de gente Srila Prabhupada entró en el mundo material de Goloka Vrndavan.
En cuanto a "cada uno de ellos", según esta visión ella es una mezcla de nitya-baddha jivas, junto con un número más pequeño de nitya-baddha jivas. Y de acuerdo a esto, solamente los nitya-siddhas han venido de una situación de la existencia liberada del mundo espiritual, y el resto, hasta este punto, son almas eternamente condicionadas.
Segundo punto
"No puede ser una cuestión del raga si el origen de uno es diferente a Prabhupada."
Esta declaración es ambigua, así que trataré de dar dos posibles interpretaciones:
1. Que no es una cuestión del raga, o de la sensación, si uno es un nitya-baddha jivas, o un alma eternamente condicionada.
2. Que no es una cuestión del raga, o de la sensación, si uno tiene un origen en un estado liberado de la existencia que es diferente de Srila Prabhupada.
Con respecto al primer punto: por supuesto el raga es el medio para que las almas eternamente condicionadas alcancen la liberación. He dado los versos que explican esto en el escrito anterior. Atención especial de la paga al "sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ"
De vuelta al Hogar, de vuelta a Dios"
Si usted consigue la sensación (el sentimiento o el feeling), entonces después usted irá allí.
Ésa es la sensación: que nuestro hogar está en un determinado universo, no aquí. Con esta sensación, uno puede ir allí. Como Swami Srila B.R. Sridhara lo dijo: "para ir al Hogar se requiere que la persona sepa donde está su Casa".
Con respecto a la segunda interpretación: que no es una cuestión del raga, o de la sensación, si uno tiene un origen en un estado liberado de la existencia que es diferente del Srila Prabhupada.
En primer lugar, los nitya-siddhas son por definición, eternamente liberados, ésos con su origen en algún lila eternamente liberado, son así, exactamente eso - eternamente liberados.
¿Quizás usted ha confundido el raga (la sensación) con el rasa (el sabor de la relación espiritual)?
Hay una discusión estrechamente vinculada al "origen de la jiva" discusión que se basa en la pregunta original sobre el lema de Prabhupada. Una versión de la argumentación es esto: la gran mayoría de las jivas de este mundo es nitya-baddha. Puesto que no han venido del reino eternamente liberado en una "existencia anterior", no tienen ninguna situación allí. Su identidad en ese reino se debe impartir a ellos por medio de siddha pranali - una iniciación mística en la cual se dan la semilla de su identidad espiritual - su pasaporte al mundo eterno.
En esta visión, una diferencia en el rasa no es una edición, puesto que el nitya baddha jiva no tiene ninguna identidad eternamente liberada inherente. Otra visión es que la identidad espiritual liberada de la jiva es intrínseca (svarupa-siddhi), aunque no se haya expresado antes. Esta identidad no necesita ser implantada, sino se puede revelar desde dentro.
Ésta era la visión de Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura el padre y guru de Sarasvati Thakura, tomó iniciación del siddha-pranali de su gurú Bipin Bihari Goswami. Sin embargo, Sarasvati Thakura no tomó la iniciación del siddha-pranali, en lugar de eso cantó los santos nombres como el medio de revelar la intrínseca naturaleza espiritual.
En esta visión, las implicaciones de una diferencia en el rasa entre el maestro espiritual y el discípulo se presentan.
Si su identidad espiritual interna intrínseca resulta ser algo perceptiblemente diferente de la de Srila Prabhupada, incluso contraria en muchos aspectos, hace que cambie el hecho de su declaración; De Vuelta al Hogar, De Vuelta a Dios" es una expresión del raga. No.
¿Hace inaplicable a usted? No, porque esto' De Vuelta al Hogar, de Vuelta a Goloka Vrindavan, o así, De Vuelta a Dios.
Como nota suplementaria, un choque histórico notable de identidades espirituales intrínsecas se registra en la historia de la Gaudiya en el caso de Syamananda Pandit (iniciado como Dukhi Krishna das) y su gurú Hrdaya Caitanya.
Shyamananda manifestó una identidad espiritual en el srngara rasa, como ayudante de Radharani. Hrdaya Caitanya estaba en el sahkya rasa de los novios vaqueros. ¿Esto llevó a algún malentendido y a dificultades evidentes entre ellos, pero cambió el hecho en lo que se basaba el raga? No, de hecho lo refuerzó.
Tercer punto
"¿Allí existió seguramente una correlación entre el raga y el tattva? " Sí, demasiada preocupación por medio del tattva que usted sale afuera del raga, y en mi opinión históricamente mucha la discusión alrededor del " De vuelta al Hogar de Vuelta a Dios, ha hecho eso. La realidad es en última instancia una sensación. ¡Cante y se feliz!
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•Akrura das, Gita Coaching: FOOD
If I see food in front of me it does not mean it is my sacred obligation to eat it.
It can stay where it is, and someone else can eat it, or I can eat it later, when I am hungry.
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•Akrura das, Gita Coaching: ONE OF THE BEST-KEPT SECRETS OF THE SUCCESSFUL
Of all the things successful people do to accelerate their journey down the path to success, participating in some kind of coaching program is at the top of the list.
Your personal coach will:
ü Help you clarify your vision and goals.
ü Support you through your fears.
ü Keep you focused on your top priorities.
ü Confront your unconscious behaviors and old patterns.
ü Expect you to do your best - and hold you to it!
ü Help you live by timeless principles and values.
ü Show you how to earn more while working smarter.
ü Keep you focused on your high potential.
It's easier to maintain laser focus when you have a trained professional coach supporting, nudging, challenging (and sometimes pushing) you in the right direction.
Personal coaching centered on Bhagavad Gita Success Principles will help get you from where you are to where you want to be, in a way you feel good about.
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•Japa Group: Why Do We Have To Chant?
A good question and one that sometimes remains lodged in our subconcious mind - lingering with us like a dark cloud when we wake up in the early morning.
We chant because our soul needs the purification of Krsna's association - we are trapped here in this body, thinking we are this person or that person....an American, Indian, Australian etc. By associating with Krsna through serious Japa - concentrated and precise - then we can feel His spiritual energy and we see a clear path ahead of us on our way back to Godhead.
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•Akrura das, Gita Coaching: IMAGINE WHAT YOU COULD ACCOMPLISH!
Imagine What You Could Accomplish Working With Your Own Personal Coach ...
I have been studying human potential and success for over 20 years and one thing has become very clear.
After working with hundreds of people, I find that most people already know what they need to do to get outstanding results in every area of their life - but they just don't do it!
The fact is that high achievers in any field who have coaches always achieve more than those who don't.
I have seen this again and again, and I've also experienced it myself.
Observe anyone at the top of their game and the results will be the same - they've all had valuable guidance and direction, and often it comes in the form of a personal coach or a mentor.
Imagine if you would have someone to help you apply the timeless success principles of the Bhagavad Gita in every area of your life!
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•Yoga of Ecology, Bhakta Chris, USA: Plan for China’s Water Crisis Spurs Concern
Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times
The project will divert six trillion gallons of water a year from the Yangtze, seen from Wuhan, Hubei Province. More Photos »
By EDWARD WONG
Published: June 1, 2011
DANJIANGKOU, China — North China is dying.
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Green Blog: Stalwarts in China's Water Struggle (June 2, 2011)
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A chronic drought is ravaging farmland. The Gobi Desert is inching south. The Yellow River, the so-called birthplace of Chinese civilization, is so polluted it can no longer supply drinking water. The rapid growth of megacities — 22 million people in Beijing and 12 million in Tianjin alone — has drained underground aquifers that took millenniums to fill.
Not atypically, the Chinese government has a grand and expensive solution: Divert at least six trillion gallons of water each year hundreds of miles from the other great Chinese river, the Yangtze, to slake the thirst of the north China plain and its 440 million people.
The engineering feat, called the South-North Water Diversion Project, is China’s most ambitious attempt to subjugate nature. It would be like channeling water from the Mississippi River to meet the drinking needs of Boston, New York and Washington. Its $62 billion price tag is twice that of the Three Gorges Dam, which is the world’s largest hydroelectric project. And not unlike that project, which Chinese officials last month admitted had “urgent problems,” the water diversion scheme is increasingly mired in concerns about its cost, its environmental impact and the sacrifices poor people in the provinces are told to make for those in richer cities.
Three artificial channels from the Yangtze would transport precious water from the south, which itself is increasingly afflicted by droughts; the region is suffering its worst one in 50 years. The project’s human cost is staggering — along the middle route, which starts here in Hubei Province at a gigantic reservoir and snakes 800 miles to Beijing, about 350,000 villagers are being relocated to make way for the canal. Many are being resettled far from their homes and given low-grade farmland; in Hubei, thousands of people have been moved to the grounds of a former prison.
“Look at this dead yellow earth,” said Li Jiaying, 67, a hunched woman hobbling to her new concrete home clutching a sickle and a bundle of dry sticks for firewood. “Our old home wasn’t even being flooded for the project and we were asked to leave. No one wanted to leave.”
Not atypically, the Chinese government has a grand and expensive solution: Divert at least six trillion gallons of water each year hundreds of miles from the other great Chinese river, the Yangtze, to slake the thirst of the north China plain and its 440 million people.
The engineering feat, called the South-North Water Diversion Project, is China’s most ambitious attempt to subjugate nature. It would be like channeling water from the Mississippi River to meet the drinking needs of Boston, New York and Washington. Its $62 billion price tag is twice that of the Three Gorges Dam, which is the world’s largest hydroelectric project. And not unlike that project, which Chinese officials last month admitted had “urgent problems,” the water diversion scheme is increasingly mired in concerns about its cost, its environmental impact and the sacrifices poor people in the provinces are told to make for those in richer cities.
Three artificial channels from the Yangtze would transport precious water from the south, which itself is increasingly afflicted by droughts; the region is suffering its worst one in 50 years. The project’s human cost is staggering — along the middle route, which starts here in Hubei Province at a gigantic reservoir and snakes 800 miles to Beijing, about 350,000 villagers are being relocated to make way for the canal. Many are being resettled far from their homes and given low-grade farmland; in Hubei, thousands of people have been moved to the grounds of a former prison.
“Look at this dead yellow earth,” said Li Jiaying, 67, a hunched woman hobbling to her new concrete home clutching a sickle and a bundle of dry sticks for firewood. “Our old home wasn’t even being flooded for the project and we were asked to leave. No one wanted to leave.”
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1972 June 6:"So you all become perfect examples of Krishna Consciousness heroes and heroines, and preach the message exactly as I have taught it. We shall all be like one great army of heroes for Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1969 June 6: "I have seen in the gas station that there are two rooms, so if one room could be used for kitchen, then the other could be utilized as temple room, and the house would serve as an asrama for devotees."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1967 June 6: "Receive one and all as our Master, and serve them with prasadam as diet and Krishna Kirtana as medicine. Follow this principle and Krishna will help us on our onward march."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1967
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1969 June 6: "The devotees there are very sincere, and upon your joining them, they will be very much encouraged. So please read our books very carefully, and as soon as there is some question you can ask me."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1967 June 6: "The difficulties of life come as seasonal changes but we should not be disturbed. Our process is to chant and that process will gradually clear everything in due course. There is nothing to be disrupted - go on with your work."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1967
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1966 June 6:
"Tritiya. In the evening there was meeting. About more than 16 men & women attended. The meeting was very interesting one gentleman has taken a set of book. Altogether five sets distributed out of 16."
Prabhupada Journal :: 1966
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1972 June 6: "I am very grateful to you for your kind article, 'Prabhupada: India's National Hero.' Anyone who is rendering service by preaching is to be considered as hero. So you are all heroes of your country and of humanity."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1975 June 6: "I am writing to find out what has happened with the Fiji affair. What has happened to the registration of the society? When I left it was settled up but I have not heard from you and I am anxious to know what is the situation there."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1975
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1968 June 5: "I am not after respectful compliments by the public. I am concerned more about my disciples and therefore I wish to stay. Otherwise, I'm not attracted for any place, either hell or heaven."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1969 June 5: "Gandhi's policy was to concentrate on village life, taking to simple life and cow protection. But just after Gandhi's disappearance, his chief disciple, Pandit Nehru, planned for up-to-date organized cow-slaughter house."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1970 June 5: "Sometimes they say about me 'jet-age parivrajakacarya' that I have done magic to the foreigners. Whatever is being done, it is Lord Krishna's unlimited mercy. By His mercy even a crow can dance like a peacock."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1973 June 5: "It is very important that we now expose the nonsense theories of these rascal scientists who assert that life comes from matter. They say that life comes from some chemicals, but where from these chemicals have come?"
Prabhupada Letters :: 1973
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1973 June 5: "We must learn to tolerate all difficulties and push on. No one can stop this Krsna Consciousness Movement. So go on with the preaching work and keep me informed of your progress."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1973
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1974 June 5: "I have asked Tripurari to dedicate his life to distributing my books. If he takes sannyasa he may not be able to assume disguise for selling books. I have decided for the time being not to award sannyasa order."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1974 June 5: "Go on holding as many festivals as possible. Your reports are very convincing, this combination of book distribution and public festivals is very good for bringing the people to an attraction for Krsna Consciousness."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974
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•Srila Prabhupada's Letters
1975 June 5: "My dear Sripada Bon Maharaja, One of my disciples informed me that you had been in our Toronto temple. Now, I invite you to come to Hawaii. The climate is very nice here and I wish that we may pass a few days together in this nice climate."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1975
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•Gouranga TV: Lecture – Giriraj Swami – SB 10.3.14 – Praising God’s Activities
Lecture - Giriraj Swami - SB 10.3.14 - Praising God's Activities
Subido por rupagopi el 03/06/2011
SB 10.3.14: My Lord, You are the same person who in the beginning created this material world by His personal external energy. After the creation of this world of three guṇas [sattva, rajas and tamas], You appear to have entered it, although in fact You have not.
SB 10.3.14: Mi Señor, Tú eres la misma persona que, en el comienzo, creó el mundo material mediante Su energía externa personal. Tras la creación de este mundo de tres guŠas [sattva, rajas y tamas], Tú pareces haber entrado en él, aunque en realidad no es así.
Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 3, Text 14 titled "Praising God's Activities" by Giriraj Swami.Dallas, TX
2011-06-03
TRANSLATION
My Lord, You are the same person who in the beginning created this material world by His personal external energy. After the creation of this world of three guṇas [sattva, rajas and tamas], You appear to have entered it, although in fact You have not.
Lecture – Giriraj Swami – SB 10.3.14 – Praising God’s Activities
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•Toronto Sankirtan Team, CA: Morning class with Vaisesika prabhu - LIVE!
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