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"Planet ISKCON" - 19 new articles
H.H. Sivarama SwamiWhen a Krishna Conscious person is elevated to a responsible position, he never becomes puffed up. Just like a tree when overladen with fruits becomes humble and lower down; similarly, a great soul in Krishna Consciousness becomes humbler than the grass and bowed down like the fruitful trees because a Krishna Conscious person acts as the agent of Krishna, therefore he discharges his duty with great responsibility. - Srila Prabhupada ISKCON Melbourne, AU: February-May FOLK News OnlineYour February-May edition of FOLK news will arrive in your letterbox this week. Here is your online edition.
ISKCON Toronto, Canada: Toronto's Srila Prabhupada Marathon 2010December, 2010 saw Toronto's vibrant Hare Krishna community join hundreds of Hare Krishna centres around the world in the annual "Srila Prabhupada Marathon". During the last month of the year, temples around the world make a focused effort to share (distribute) as many books of ancient, spiritual wisdom with the public! With continued inspiration from HG Vaisesika das, the goal this year was to distribute 5,000 books (that's twice the amount of last year's marathon goal). Were the devotees successful in their efforts? Watch this video to find out! ISKCON Melbourne, AU: Today's Darsana
Japa Group: We Have To Very CautiousFrom this we can understand how we have to very cautious in executing our spiritual duties by observing the rules and regulations and regularly chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 5.8.8 Bharatavarsa.net: Bhakti Vikasa Swami: Why there are so many ghostly people in the world todayLord Siva, being very kind to the ghosts, sees that although they are condemned, they get physical bodies. He places them into the wombs of women who indulge in sexual intercourse regardless of the restrictions on time and circumstance. >>> Ref. VedaBase => SB 3.14.24 Devadeva Mirel, Alachua, USA: My Tiny Vegan Birthday Party
Tagged: brunch, dessert, food, tofu, vegan, vegetarian Dandavats.com: Message from ISKCON Minister for Health and WelfareBy Prahlada- nanda Swami In 1967, Srila Prabhupada wrote to a disciple: "Be careful about your health frst. Tis information is not only for you but all my noble sons. I am an old man. I may live or die it does not matter. But you must live for long time to push on this Krishna Consciousness movement." Kurma dasa, AU: The Wanderings of the Living EntitiesSince we're talking history, I thought I'd re-publish this blog I wrote last year. "My sister absent-mindedly googled our mother's 'maiden name' the other day and was directed to the Australian War Memorial Archives. One link led to another, and she found this photo.
It was captioned "Miss Mclean conducts children singing a song she composed on the voyage". The voyage was a ship full of children being evacuated during World War Two. Children from London were being re-located to places like Australia, Canada and South Africa to protect their lives during the war. The date of this photo was 1940. My mother is in the front row, her right arm around the girl in the white floppy hat.
Between 1939 - 1945 there were three major evacuations in preparation for the German Luftwaffe bombing of Britain. The first official evacuations began on 1 September 1939, two days before the declaration of war. By January 1940 almost 60% had returned to their homes. A second evacuation effort was started after the Germans had taken over most of France. From 13 June to 18 June 1940, around 100,000 children were evacuated (in many cases re-evacuated).
When the Blitz began on 7 September 1940, children who had returned home or had not been evacuated were evacuated. From June 1944, the Germans attacked again by firing V1 rockets on Britain, followed later by also V2 rockets. One million women, children, elderly and disabled people were evacuated from London. Some of these boatloads of children did not make it to their destination. The City Line steamship, The City of Benares, sailed from her home port, Liverpool, on Friday September 13th 1940, an inauspicious day. On board she carried a very special cargo, children, 90 city kids whom their parents deemed would be safer overseas than facing the bombing at home. The ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat. 248 of the 406 people on board were lost, including more than 70 of the children.
My mother's ship made it safely to Australia, where she stayed with relatives until the war was over. She then returned to London, met my father, married and gave birth to me and my sisters. Later, in 1964, on the recommendation of my mother who had fond memories of her time in the big Southern Land, our whole family emigrated to Australia. During my last year of High School, a Hare Krishna devotee (Upananda) walked into the Indian handicrafts boutique where my mother worked, and purchased from her a set of brass vases for the first Hare Krishna Temple in the Sydney suburb of Potts Point, and she related to me the story. Later I met the Hare Krishna devotees, then in 1971 I met my Spiritual Master. This was a great turning point in my life. Such are the wanderings of the living entities."
H.H. Sivarama Swami: From IstanbulAnonymous asks: When is appropriate to protect oneself (not other vaisnavas) if at risk of physical attack and when is it not? H.H. Prahladananda Swami: Vol 16 of “Hope This Meets You In Good Health” Magazineavailable here. Subhavilasa das ACBSP, Toronto, CA: New Vrindavan, WV - Sattva-gunna, the mode of goodness is characterized by maintenance[Note: Please see yesterday's post to make sense of this one. Also, as a disclaimer the next few days of blog posts are written by Subhavilasa's son, Indresh.]
The morning of the next day we packed up from the hotel and loaded up the van and kids and through the dark curvy roads made our way to Palace Road. Of course over the last many years we have made trip to New Vrindavan a few times but this would be the first time we have gone to a morning program or during the winter since the 80's. As I drove over the dark, icy and curvy roads, the memories are bitter sweet. The sweet memories of when we attened the Palace opening in '79 and my sis getting 2nd initation at the time at the Palace. The sweet memory of me leading kirtan as a kid on the bus from Chicago and as we got closer the dancing and chanting reaching a crescendo. The sweet memory of taking multiple buses over many summers from Toronto full of devotees, Indians and once whole group of university students that made for an impressive convoy. The memory of me in a saffron dhoti dancing in the front at mangala artik. Even when Radhanath Swami, Kuladri Prabhu, and so many NV devotees came to stay at our home in Toronto... Unfortunately, those memories are mixed with some bitter memories as well. Most of which is history that does not need to be explained to ISKCONers reading this blog. I remember my dad flying into Piitsburgh to be picked up to go to NV for some meetings and this coincidentally happened during the "pipe in the head" incident and a trip that was supposed to be for a couple of days got extended as he helped out. I remember during the "off limits period", me, my dad and sis heading to the Prabhupada Centennial and ISKCON foundation meetings in Potomac and us deciding to take a detour to see Sri Sri Radha Vrindavan Chandra. At that time we felt Sri Sri Radha Vrindavan Chandra were crying and shook our head at the Budha like enormous statue of Srila Prabhupada and thought that perhaps that was the last visit. But with Srila Prabhupada's and Sri Sri Radha Vrindavan Chandra's mercy all of this changed. So it was with some of these memories playing in my head that I drove to what was expected to be a quiet morning program in the hills of West Virginia. As we entered Srila Prabhupada sat there in traquility. Then of course came darshan of Sri Sri Vrindavan Chandra and all you can do is soak up their effulgence. Of course they are not crying, but rather They are happy, smiling and twinkling. As expected the temple was not bustling with hoards of devotees like I remember it during Christmas holiday visits in the 80s. During Guru-puja I realized that this is not important. The temple was bustling with sincerity. Nityodita das (president) was chanting to Srila Prabhupada the same as he would on a festival day with a packed house. There were 4 pujaris doing service, one for Jaganatha's altar, one for the main Sri Vrindavan Chandra's altar, one for Lord Narshimadeva and another for Srila Prabhupada. I was reminded about the 3 modes of nature. Destruction is in the mode of darkness (Tamo-gunna), building up is done is done in the mode of passion (Rajo-guna) but maintenance is in the mode of goodness (Sattva-guna). I realized this was the case here and thus the title of the article. So in the hills of West Virginia on a cold December morning we were immersed in Sattva-guna and could see why Srila Prabhupada was so tranquil and Sri Sri Radha Vrindavan Chandra was smiling. Sincere devotees were carrying on Srila Prabhupada's movement, through thick and thin. This sincerity will ensure the fulfillment of Srila Prabhupada's instructions and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's precepts shall take place. With humility and honor, Nityodita Prabhu and the devotees of New Vrindavan had my dad give morning class and also share in some memories of Srila Prabhupada. During a time of gift giving over the holidays, what better way to remember the person who gave us the greatest gift of all, Srila Prabhupada. One devotee gave garlands to all the kids and they were thrilled. And then we had huge dosas for breakfast prasadam which would fuel us for rest of the day's travels. Of course, with the kids in tow, the trip would not be complete without seeing Prabhupada's Palace of Gold. Of course the Palace remains remarkable and Srila Prabhupada is in his rightful place inside a nice warm temple room. However, outside the main temple room the rest of the Palace was freezing cold to the point that after about 5 or 10 minutes the kids wanted to run and get back in the warm van. However, what stood out was the lone devotee doing her duty and service. This Mataji will be there for hours ready to give a warm greeting to all thouse who want to take Srila Prabhupada's darshan and see what devotion to one's guru can build. So Krishna sees this sincerity and like my mom often reminds me, devotional service is like bank and many have made deposits and many continue to make deposits. dasanudas, Indresh Gauranga Kishore das,USA: In The EndI'm not sure if anyone out there is still following this blog but for those that are: Well, it is a new year, and one of the things I'd like to do is get back into blogging and personal writing. Realistically it is not very likely but I'm going to give it a shot. So, here it goes, my first blog post of the new year and in quite a while. I wanted to blog this quote from Mother Teresa. I first came across it in a chain mail email spam thing and thought it was a nice quote, and I recently came across it again and it was attributed to Mother Teresa, so here it is. "People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway." -Mother TeresaThis is such a powerful way of viewing relationships because it allows one to be conscious of God at all times, in all relationships. And it does wonders for one's relationships because it allows one to offer love unconditionally without expecting anything in return. And for those that haven't realized this yet, expectations can cause a lot of problems in relationships. Of course most people realize this, but putting it into practice without a deep spiritual foundation is impossible. Rupa Madhurya das, TX, USA: Janmastami Bhajan - Amala Kirtan das - Hare KrishnaAmala Kirtan das along with Karnamrita singing a Hare Krishna bhajan at Janmastami. Amala Kirtan (lead vocals), Karnamrita (backup vocals), Gopi Gita (backup vocals), Kapil (drum), Kalindi (drum), Bhakta Alan (Violin), Achyutananda das (guitar), Arpita (Kartals) Dallas, TX
Download: 2010-09-01 - 6 - Janmastami - Amala Kirtan das - Hare Krishna.mp3 Tirtharaj dasa, AU: The futureHere in Brisbane the rain has just been non stop. In a few days I go to Hawaii for a conference and then back to Brisbane for a few weeks. Then it's off to India for a month and then to the Middle Kingdom. Stay tuned! Akrura das, Gita Coaching: FREE LOVERSThose who are eternally free, liberated, they are godly. They are always ready to serve the Lord with love and devotion. And they are fully satisfied by that.
Japa Group: Japa Workshop #4 of 6In this session of the Japa Workshop, participants share their realizations and describe the progress that they have made. Japa Group: Removes Sufferings From Everyone
O Harinama, who are sung by the sages! O You who have assumed the form of transcendental syllables that bring great happiness to all people! Even if You are spoken only once, and even if You are spoken disrespectfully or in jest, You at once remove the many terrible sufferings of everyone. Srila Rupa Gosvamipada Verse 2May you have a blessed week! your servant, Aruna devi Gouranga TV: New Year’s Eve Bhajan 2New Year’s Eve Bhajan 2 His Holiness Sivarama Maharaja More Recent Articles |
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