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Ananda Subramanian, Iowa, USA: Ghost Versus Hare Krsna!

As soon as we entered the apartment we understood we were in for some excitement. We'd heard different stories of how this young woman had been terrorized by a ghost for the last nine years, of how just the other week she had been hospitalized due to a flying chair striking her in the head, and how she was now at the limit of her sanity. We'd been told of knives flying across the room, pictures leaping from the walls and levitating coffee machines. Chairs and other objects independently shaking and smashing into walls was a daily occurrence in this home.

"Hey, but ghosts don't exist". Well for many people and cultures they do. Ancient Indian culture explains that a ghost is someone, a soul, who, upon dying is not awarded a new physical body, but painfully lingers around in their subtle body made of mind, intelligence and false ego. Such a situation may occur due to a sudden death or extreme negative acts such as suicide, and is a position of suffering as one has a mind full of desires yet no body to enact them. Ghosts often take advantage of weak minded persons or those under intoxication, entering their physical bodies and attempt to enjoy through this borrowed facility. Many people cannot believe what they have done whilst under intoxication or depression, acts they normally would refrain from.

So, such was the situation we found in a quiet village just outside Rome. The woman and her boyfriend had tried everything they knew to free themselves from this terrifying situation. On one occasion they'd lit incense and chanted prayers in order to purify the atmosphere only to find the nearby wardrobe seemingly come to life and violently vibrate, splitting into two equal pieces. Upon moving the ruptured closet they had been horrified to find a swarming mass of bleach-white worms, quite different from the indigenous species, covering the wall and floor.

The woman explained that nine years before she had been the object of attraction for one boy in her school. Repeatedly denying his requests for a relationships, she had found herself cursed by the boy's satanic mother, who was well practiced in the black arts of witchcraft. She was told that she would suffer for the rest of her life for this refusal. That had been nine years before, yet with some incident every evening it already felt like a lifetime. One may ask why they stayed in the same apartment, why not move? Well, theirs was a family home for several generations, and they still lived with her parents. Whilst her mother was very sympathetic to her daughter, the father had been always skeptical. Most of the happenings had been directed only to his daughter, until he also started to experience strange things.

Out of desperation, they had once invited the local Catholic monks to come and assist. The monks explained that they could perform an exorcism on the woman but they couldn't guarantee the ghost would leave the property. "Anyhow, at least let's do something", they decided, although they were not prepared for what they would witness.

At one point in the ceremony with the woman white like a sheet, trembling and covered with sweat, they beheld countless 3-inch nails shooting from her mouth, followed by a deep ghastly roar clearly not from such a simple lady. Whilst the couple were completely shocked, the monks explained that it was all quite normal in these situations and that the Vatican was full of such incidents.

Seeing no alternative, the boyfriend called upon his parents for help. As they were Vaisnava practitioners, Hare Krishnas, for more than twenty years, they enthusiastically seized the opportunity and organized a troop of devout spiritual followers, we were seven in total. We meditated not only on trying to help the disturbed family but also on helping the ghost who was himself imprisoned in such an agonizing situation. Our strategy would be to perform loud, intense chanting of Krishna 's names which purify everything and are feared by fear personified. It is said that all negativity flies away when one chants the holy name of Krishna .This would be a chance to see how much we believed in what we had dedicated our lives to, were we really taking our spiritual life seriously or were we just pretenders.
We were not sure what to expect but we were certain that we wanted to experience something extraordinary. Were we ready for what was to come?
"Oh no, it's started....it's started!"

The expression on the woman's face changed rapidly as did ours. What we had been expectantly awaiting was now immediately happening. As soon as we crossed the threshold of the apartment our hearts had taken on a new gear, sensing the thick heavy atmosphere. As if to ignite fear within us, two pictures of Christian saints had sprung from the hallway wall and crashed to the floor. Was this a message from our apparently hostile poltergeist suggesting our own immanent destiny? As each devotee individually deepened their soft recital of Krishna's names, we confidently ventured forward. Within a second a dining chair in the adjoining kitchen seemingly leaped up and smashed to the ground, sending the woman into a state of hysteria, as she frantically moved from room to room. We had been in the apartment for about ten seconds and had already experienced more than we could have imagined.

Standing in the centre of the main room we all looked at one another for a moment and then spontaneously erupted into kirtan, the loud calling of the names of Krishna , themselves feared by fear personified. The leader of the chanting requested we all chant in unison with full voice instead of the usual call and response style we are familiar with. What with the accordion sounding, clay drum booming and countless hand symbols chiming, along with the resounding call of a conchshell being blown, overall the effect was quite tumultuous. Placing all of our breath into the chanting we searched to find the protection promised from these all powerful names of the Supreme. What the neighbours were thinking was far from our thoughts as we absorbed our minds in the pure transcendental vibration;

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

One of our party had brought several sacred Narasingha stones called Salagram, and proceeded to bath them with pure water. These transcendental manifestations offer powerful protection as well as removal of inauspicious obstacles on our spiritual path. Spraying the bathing water all around we gradually moved from one room to another ardently chanting the recommended mantra for this age, Hare Krishna.
Noticing that the heavy wooden dining chairs had each begun to vibrate, the woman lay them down under the table, all the while rambling through prayers in a frenzied manner. Her mother tried to console her but had little effect. Just then a wooden drawer from a cupboard in an adjacent room came flying across the ceiling and smashed against the wall just behind the woman, spraying its contents everywhere. We instinctively moved closer to the woman and desperately called out the names. Meanwhile, in the kitchen a devotee was offering the bathing water to drink for protection to the family, when a chair rose one metre from the floor and within a split second zoomed across the room colliding with the boyfriend. Seeing no other means to assist, the devotee practically threw the liquid down the boyfriends throat only then to see the coffee machine also begin its levitation.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

We had been hoping to experience something and this local spook was certainly entertaining us. Whilst the dining chairs were continuing to vibrate we moved through to the parents bedroom all the while intensifying our chanting of the all purifying names of Krishna .Vedic scripture explains that these names, the Maha-mantra, being completely spiritual, have the unlimited power of God by which the dirt of our hearts can be cleansed. Just as the sun can cleanse urine and waste from the earth by its scorching rays yet remain unpolluted, similarly the names of Krishna can never be contaminated, yet themselves clean even the reservoir of dirt in our consciousness.
As we danced to the sweet sound, the woman along with her Mother and Father was standing in the doorway, nervously chanting to herself. She appeared distant, lost in her racing thoughts. At that moment, seemingly thrust up against the wall, she was pinned by her invisible assaulter. As if held by the throat she was dragged along the wall banging into her parents. Pandemonium arose amongst them as we chased after throwing our weapon of the Maha-mantra in an act of rescue. Again she was released, although severely shaken.

We had now been chanting intensely for forty minutes and still the atmosphere seemed thick and heavy with darkness. Although violent events had occurred to the family members, nothing had touched any of us who were taking refuge in the sound incarnation of Krishna's names. We all felt completely protected and fearless. With such faith in Krishna names as well as the mood of compassion to help both the family and their uninvited phantom, we courageously danced and span around the home. Gradually we managed to involve the family in dancing and chanting with us which brought unlimited heights of bliss as the father of the family smiled for the first time. Then the atmosphere lightened and everyone felt the overwhelming joy of freedom whilst chanting Hare Krishna. It felt like a wonderful sunrise clearing away the darkness and fog of the evening, whilst simultaneously eradicating fear of thieves and dacoits. Carrying on for another fifteen minutes we all tasted the true happiness of the soul as he reawakens his relationship with his long lost friend, Krishna.
With the mood considerably transformed we sat together on the floor and recited the twelfth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita in both Sanskrit and Italian, entitled Devotional service. We were refreshing ourselves with knowledge of our pure loving relationship with Krishna, whilst also praying that our poltergeist friend be now fully purified and able again to reawaken his own love.

We cannot be know what has happened to this ghost, although we are sure that immense purification took place not just for him but also the family and ourselves who came as menial servants of the sweet, all-powerful names of Krishna. By chanting the Maha-mantra we can purify our existence and fully reawaken our dormant love for Krishna and consequently each other. That love is within us all, even ghosts, but due to absorption in material pursuits we forget our real treasure within.

Since that day there have been no further disturbances in that home. That night was there first peaceful night in nine years. All glories to the unlimited glorious names of Krishna and all glories to the pure devotee of those names who has compassionately spread them throughout the entire world, Srila Prabhupada.

- Written by Sanatana Goswami dasa, Italy

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Hare Krishna

 

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Ekendra das, Alachua, USA: I. B. Snortin’

The cows and bulls in Jagannath Puri are not the scrawny kind you see some places. These are wild, well-fed resort town cows. They’ve got hotel after hotel after restaurant after restaurant to choose from. Remnants of lunches end up in piles on the street, and that’s where the well-fed cows come in—the originators of the concept of biodiesel.

Here, cows and bulls wander all over—on the beach, meandering through the streets. Bulls will nose up to a tea stall and smilingly wait for biscuits, as the nervous clientele edge away down the bench. At night, a large segment of the urban seaside cow population gathers at the Swargadwar Cremation Grounds, where chances are good of finding a nice warm spot in the dust, which is made up of countless former residents of Jagannath Puri.

As far as I can see, the cows don’t “belong” to anybody. They’re free agents. Twice a day, when the vegetable markets close for lunch and for the night, shopkeepers deposit their un-sellable stock in an alley, and that’s where the cows go. Cows are vegetarians, so you rarely see dogs and cows working the same pile. Remnants of fish dinners go to the Dogster.

Soon after we landed here, we noticed a particularly well-fed but apparently grumpy bull. His frequent snorts sounded like rocks being thrown into a large plastic bucket in someone’s garage. This ominous sound made us nervous. It reminded us of cartoon bulls snorting and pawing the dirt ready to charge. The same bull would often plunge his huge, horned head into a pile of construction sand and throw it over the rest of his body, causing a big cloud of dust. It was a fearsome sight.

We did not want to get on the bad side of this snorting, grumpy monster, whom we regularly met in the alley. We always gave him a wide berth, careful not to get too close to his massive head, massive neck muscles, and massive horns. We’d seen and heard of people getting too close to cows’ heads in India and ending up on the ground when said bovine decided to toss his or her head to the side unexpectedly.

But one time, standing downwind of him, I heard him snorting, and simultaneously figured out the source of his foul mood and foul breath: gas. So I gave him a name: Indigesta Bull. My theory was that he was unable to restrain himself from freely indulging in the yummy castoffs of every restaurant and subji walla in this neighborhood.

Once I saw a man come out of his house holding a rolled-up chapatti for Indigesta Bull to eat. I.B. Snortin’ calmly approached the man, lifted his head, and peacefully ate the whole thing out of his hand. As he was eating, I noticed a shower of white powder or crystals falling from his mouth. I wondered if our neighbor was administering some kind of bull antacid. After Mr. Belch had passed, and I was safely out of range of his horns, I went over to investigate the fallen granules more closely. It was sugar.
* * *
One night, some Jagannath prasadam unexpectedly arrived at our door, we both ate as much of it as we could, but there was still a pile of rice remaining that neither of us could finish. I surely didn’t want to waste such a highly coveted prize as Jagannath prasadam, but I figured the best thing to do was feed it to the four-legged residents of Jagannath Puri. Nothing goes to waste here. if the dogs didn’t get it, the cows would. It’s not like the USA, where tons of uneaten food lies sealed inside plastic bags in mountainous landfills.

I took the plate of rice to leave in the side yard. And who was already waiting right there in the dark? You guessed it. He was already coming towards me as I exited the swinging metal garage doors, bolstering my theory that residents of holy places can read minds.

I went over and emptied the rice into the grass. Indigesta Bull was right on it, licking it up, licking the plate, snorting softly and happily. I petted his massive neck and hump. “Hari bol, Indigesta Bull. Hari bol.”

 

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New Vrndavan, USA: Bad Karma Is Not Sustainable… or The Day Farmer Joel Met an 800lb Gorilla Named Karma

by Tapapunjah das

So, you wanna be a farmer, huh? You love nature, don’t mind hard work and consider yourself pretty “spiritual.” You even know a young couple, Jimmy and Jeanette, who invited you up to their New Hampshire farm where they’re making a living raising pigs for the expanding organic pork market in New York City. You won’t be directly involved in the slaughter of the pigs, which they perform as humanely as possible. You’ll help feed the little oinkers, and eventually drive the refrigerated pork to market. You’ll also get some experience in their organic vegetable garden and help out with their expanding CSA. It services the needs of 64 families with a choice selection of organic poultry, eggs, homegrown pork cuts and the usual array of pesticide free veggies. Sounds doable, huh? They pay isn’t much but it’s the experience that counts. You’ll commit for six months and walk away with some cash and enough working knowledge to strike out on your own homestead someday. Go for it!

Before jumping into your Subaru and zooming off, you might want to reconsider. Could your decision, you know, your expression of free will in the here and now, come back to negatively shape your destiny later? What about the slaughter thing? It’s OK, so long as you’re not the one actually killing the animal……..right?

You stand at the ethical crossroads. Your gut instinct is that killing is bad. Another voice in your head says, “Yah, but everyone’s gotta make a living…. and besides, the way Jimmy and Jeanette raise and slaughter the pigs is way better than the brutality animals undergo at large scale confined animal feedlot operations.“

Where do you turn for guidance? At one end of the food revolution are the die-hard animal rights activists. They come-off as kind of urban and really snooty. At the other end of the spectrum are salt-of-the-earth farmer/spokespersons like Joel Salatin. You remember seeing Farmer Joel in the blockbuster documentary, Food Inc.

During his on-camera interview, Salatin was enunciating the glories of the local foods movement while stuffing live chickens down a metal funnel and casually severing their heads with a knife. Joel was smooth and obviously emotionally removed from the act of decapitating live birds. He could have just as easily been shelling peanuts with the same poise and swagger.

Hey, there’s your role model, Farmer Joel Salatin. Or is there more to the picture? One of the peculiarities of the modern sustainable food movement in the West is how little attention is paid to the law of consequence, especially when it involves the taking of life to feed or financially support ourselves. You might say there’s a major disconnect—a Grand Canyon gap—separating the rationale for slaughter from the liability for slaughter.

Is there a universal law that protects innocent animals from harm?
Is there an exemption clause for those who raise and slaughter animals under more humane conditions? Who knows? Who decides? By what authority do we claim innocence or assign blame? Here’s the Vedic perspective:

If you live in a barren place where vegetation is scarce, e.g. an arctic or desert wasteland, taking animal life to maintain human life is permissible and non-reactive. If, however, you’re surrounded by fertile fields capable of producing ample cereal grains, fruits, and vegetables, slaughter is strictly forbidden.

According to the ancient Indian ethical codes—codes that were operative in rural India before the British began building slaughterhouses and before the current Monsanto invasion—slaughter is never an option. Not only are cows off limits, but all life is to be respected and treated as sacred.

And there’s more. Vedic injunctions warn that even the slightest act of complicity with slaughter infers culpability. Included in the list of “co-conspirators” are those who give permission to slaughter, those who finance the slaughter, those who conduct the slaughter, those who transport the carrion, those who sell it, those who buy it, those who cook it, those who serve it to others—and finally, those who eat it.
All the above participants stand nude and must line-up to taste the bitter fruit of culpability.

The choice you make—to kill or not to kill—is your free will. The reaction is not. When you knock over a piece of fine china in an expensive boutique shop, you must pay for it. The rule is clear. You break it, you own it. Whether you’re capriciously taking life to slake your tongues urging for flesh or whether you’re dutifully satisfying your CSA shareholder’s investment by packing their weekly pick-up boxes with a succulent chunk of pasture fed beef, you are responsible for that broken life. You own the reaction.

Maybe we need two definitions of sustainability: one definition that applies to Joel Salatin and his customer base, and another definition for vegetarians and others hung-up on the ethics of slaughter.

The problem with this strategy is that it flies in the face of physics and morality. Gravity has one definition. What goes up must come down. Death has one definition also, the end of a sentient being’s life. You can’t paint a happy face on involuntary death. Death is final. Death caused by kinder people, who raise and kill animals humanely and death administered mechanically by a corporate stun gun is death by another name.

Likewise, you can’t pretend that “the karma thing” is optional. Either we have to grant the Farmer Joel Salatin a kind of “diplomatic immunity” or admit that nature protects its innocent from mankind’s greed with an axiomatic law called karma. You can’t have it both ways. The notion that sustainability is an exclusive dialogue about the physical world of forests and compost piles and that the farmer is magically and morally separate from the fray is plain wrong.

Here’s the bottom line: sustainability is genuinely sustainable, if, and only if, it protects the farmer from karmic vulnerability just as it protects the land for erosion, and the watershed from pollution.. Universal codes of conduct—karmic laws—are universal because they function in all times, places and circumstances. You can’t vote on them. Karmic influence may be subtle and not immediately apparent but it looms timelessly over all relationships be they human to human, human to plant or human to animal.

In case your wondering how Judeo-Christian doctrine deals with this issue, it barely does. Western theologians send very mixed messages when it comes to precisely defining mankind’s purported “dominion” over God’s creation. What’s emphasized are biblical passages which exhort gratuitous, self-serving compliance with God’s edict to “prosper and multiply.” How convenient. What does it mean to “prosper and multiply?’ At whose expense? By what means? At what cost to the environment?

Meanwhile, lurking in the bushes, poised and ready to pounce upon the wary sinner, is an 800lb gorilla named Karma. Karma is clutching a stone tablet on which a biblical passage reads,” As you sow…so shall your reap.” Wow! What’s up with that? God’s throwing a temper tantrum, or what? Don’t fret, that’s Old Testament stuff. Jesus spared us from all that hoopla about karmic justice. And besides we all know Jesus ate fish, right? If you ever wondered why sober Western minds seek shelter in Eastern traditions, wonder no more.

By contrast, the Sanskrit literatures of ancient India’s Vedic culture are explicit about what it means to be involved, but not bound by the world of action and reaction. They guide us past the perils of being needy—we do have to eat after all!—without being greedy beyond keeping body and soul together.

The sobering results of choosing diets and occupations which unnecessarily encroach on the intrinsic rights of other beings—be they embodied as plants or animals—are not to be ignored.

That’s why the patriarchs of our modern organic farming movement, Sir Alfred Howard, Rudolph Steiner etc, as well as early American Transcendentalists, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, all turned to Indian thought and practice before writing their treatises.

Humans are collectively and individually responsible for their environmental footprint. Plants and animals do have souls. Compassion for animals can’t be turned “on” and “off” like a water faucet because kindness gets-in-the-way of income. There is an ethical blueprint for sorting out these issues and finding refuge from the storm.

Jimmy and Jeanette are good people. Like thousands of other earth bound entrepreneurs across America, their struggle to make it on the land is meritorious. Consumer demand for organic meat is real but so are the consequences of choosing that path of economic development. Their good intentions, you might say, are natural. The sand in the sweet rice, to use a Vedic analogy, is their assumption that good intentions override universal law. They don’t. Good intentions are the maidservants of universal law.

What Jimmy and Jeanette need—nay, what the whole sustainable agriculture crowd needs—is a crash course called Cosmology 101, with a minor in Ahimsa, non-violence to other life forms. When you ignore the spiritual underpinning of true sustainability, you set yourself up for a stampede by the wild horses of destiny.

And then there’s Farmer Joel Salatin. Yes, he’s expert, articulate and entertaining. His charm and cavalier approach to sustainability sells books and shoots him out the farmhouse door, keynoting his way to fame and possibly fortune before hundreds of admirers. He’s spreading the gospel as he sees it…….. but, as predictably as the cock crows at dawn, he will come face-to-face with an 800lb gorilla named Karma. Get ready Joel….by the way, gorillas are vegetarians, ole’ buddy.

 

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H.H. Sivarama Swami

Although the mind may be merged in spiritual consciousness, one should always be very careful in dealing with it, just as one is careful in dealing with a snake. One should never think that his mind is trained and that he can do whatever he likes.

- Sríla Prabhupáda

 

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H.H. Sivarama Swami

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu practiced devotional service and preached. If a preacher behaves properly in devotional service, he will be able to convert others. Otherwise, his preaching will have no effect.

- Srila Prabhupada

 

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ISKCON Toronto, Canada: Flashback Photographs - In Memory of Badra Priya devi dasi

We recently came across these photographs of Badra Priya devi dasi from the early days at the Hare Krishna Temple in Toronto.

Please join us tonight for a special kirtan prayer session for her.

 

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Australian News: Kirtan is not just spiritual music – it is a philosophy. and way of life.

“In my experience,” says Sri Prahlada, “the kirtan lifestyle is the most profound teaching there is. This is a big claim, especially considering that I have travelled all over the world and shared with people of many diverse cultures. Further, I have earned several university degrees in communication and psychology, contributed to peer reviewed academic journals, taught university lectures and self-development workshops, and am currently completing a PhD.

When I started university I believed that the science of human behaviour or psychology would give me stronger more satisfying answers to the human conditions of suffering and happiness, dissatisfaction and fulfilment, failure and success. After years of study, lecturing, and writing, however, my realisation is that these understandings are weak in comparison to the spiritual principles relating to kirtan that I learned from my dad. What he taught me over the span of a year, I have been realising ever since, gaining deeper realisation and appreciation with each passing year.

Click here to visit Sriprahlad.com where you can read the rest of the story

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H.H. Sivarama Swami: To the devotees living beyond Krsna Valley and Budapest city I say

“I think of you more than I think of Radha-Syama”

 

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Giridhari das, Brasilia, Brazil: São Paulo Gita Course and Trip

I just came back from a wonderful weekend in São Paulo, Brazil’s biggest, busiest city.

The main purpose of my trip was the “12h Gita” course, held on Saturday and Sunday (5 and 6th of February).

But, to make the most of my trip, the devotees kindly invited me to a nama-hatta program on friday, at the house of a very active devotee couple, Ananda-Maya dd and Dasananda Das. Because São Paulo is so huge, and because ISKCON only has one temple in the city, invariably the temple is hours away from home for many devotees there. The regular nama-hatta programs, being held in different homes, in different parts of the city, therefore, have brought Krishna consciousness closer to the congregation.

In this program, there were some 25 people. I took the opportunity to present Rupa Goswami’s “Citra Kavitvani”, his brilliant and intriguing poems.

On Saturday all day and Sunday morning we had the 12h Gita course. In this course I go through the entire content of the Gita (not reading all the verses, but presenting all the knowledge they contain). This is the 4th time I’ve given this course and people really love it. A chance to get the whole Gita explained in one deep overview. We had a really good crowd of 17 people present.

On Sunday evening I was invited to give the Gita class at the local ISKCON temple. I spoke on the theme of conscious vs. unconscious desires and their impact on our self-realization.  After the class, many devotees came forward to thank me and show their appreciation. There were some 60 devotees present.

 

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ISKCON Toronto, Canada: Prayers for Bhadra Priya devi dasi

*** UPDATE - Feb 8, 2011 - We have learned that Bhadra Priya devi dasi passed away last night at around 11:00pm EST under very auspicious circumstances. She was surrounded by devotees doing kirtan, led by HG Bada Hari das. Devotees will still be gathering this evening (Feb 8, 2011) to have kirtan and japa to pray for Bhadra Priya devi dasi. We hope you can join us. ***

With heavy hearts, we would like to call for all devotees in our community to pray for Bhadra Priya devi dasi who is in an active state of leaving her body. Bhadra Priya devi dasi joined the Hare Krishna movement in Montreal in the early 1970's and was then part of our Toronto community for many years.

Bhadra Priya prabhu has been dealing with life-threatening cancer for a few years now. It prompted her return to Krsna consciousness after many years of living away from a temple and she is currently in Alachua, Florida, surrounded by devotees. In recent years, she joined us here in Toronto for many festivals, programs and events in our community.

We ask for all devotees of our Toronto Hare Krishna community to pray for her during these final stages of her life. Hare Krishna.

 

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Mayapur Online: Vasanta Pancami darshan of Sri Sri Radha-Madhava

Today is Vasanta Pancami.Vasanta Pancami marks the beginning of spring. Traditionally in Bengal, new projects are started today. Srimati Radharani & Astasakhis were radiating a divine yellow glow in their new yellow and green outfits, with Their transcendental form being smeared with turmeric paste. Altar was decorated with yellow marigolds, roses, orchids, sunflowers and bright vases. Everywhere it’s vibrant with yellow flowers - all the deities had flower bracelets, armlets, necklaces and crown decorations.

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Madri dd, South Africa: Harinam sankirtana ki. Jai!

Last Saturday a small group of us went on harinam and book distribution in Johannesburg.  When on harinam you never know the potency of chanting or being an instrument of the holy name. Seen in the above picture dressed in orange is Pabalo. She told me that when she was in high school in the 1990's she saw a harinam party at this very location and gazed at them in admiration. Now years later she is courting a devotee who brought her to the harinam.



Lokanath Prabhu, harinam organiser on clay mrdanga and Nrsimhananda Prabhu on Tilak mrdanga.



These onlookers could not resist dancing with the devotees.

The busy shoppers could not escape the market place of the holy name. All we have to do is simply vibrate this transcendental sound.

Distributors of the holy name danced a lot in the streets attracting much attention. 

Damodara Prasad Prabhu distributed books too. Distributing books in English to the native Africans is blissful experience. I took along a bag filled with "Chant and be Happy". On my way from the elevator to the car two musicians greeted me with a loud Hare Krishna and asked for a copy of 'Science of Self Realization'. My bag was empty but we exchanged phone numbers and arranged to meet up next time we go on harinam.

Anna, in brown T-shirt got to play kartalas for the first time. She managed the beat quiet well.

Srila Prabhupada's books in English were well received.

Many people were videoing and taking photographs of the devotees. We pray that whoever watches these clips get to hear the holy names too!

We pray that we may be of increased service to this sankirtana mission of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. _/\`o_

 

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Dandavats.com: Sankirtana Pastimes

Parasurama dasa: Sankirtan stories from "Srila Prabhupada's Christmas marathon festival" held at Bhaktivedanta manor plus a Magic performance at a festival in Norwich England

 

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Yoga of Ecology, Bhakta Chris, USA: Helping Veterans Trade Their Swords For Plows

Click here to read the full article from the New York Times

VALLEY CENTER, Calif. — On an organic farm here in avocado country, a group of young Marines, veterans and Army reservists listened intently to an old hand from the front lines.

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From the Frontlines to the Farm

“Think of it in military terms,” he told the young recruits, some just back from Iraq or Afghanistan. “It’s a matter of survival, an uphill battle. You have to think everything is against you and hope to stay alive.”

The battle in question was not the typical ground assault, but organic farming — how to identify beneficial insects, for instance, or to prevent stray frogs from clogging an irrigation system. It was Day 2 of a novel boot camp for veterans and active-duty military personnel, including Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton, who might be interested in new careers as farmers.

“In the military, grunts are the guys who get dirty, do the work and are generally underappreciated,” said Colin Archipley, a decorated Marine Corps infantry sergeant turned organic farmer, who developed the program with his wife, Karen, after his three tours in Iraq. “I think farmers are the same.”

At their farm, called Archi’s Acres, the sound of crickets and croaking frogs communes with the drone of choppers. The syllabus, approved by Camp Pendleton’s transition assistance program, includes hands-on planting and irrigating, lectures about “high-value niche markets” and production of a business plan that is assessed by food professionals and business professors.

Along with Combat Boots to Cowboy Boots, a new program for veterans at the University of Nebraska’s College of Technical Agriculture, and farming fellowships for wounded soldiers, the six-week course offered here is part of a nascent “veteran-centric” farming movement. Its goal is to bring the energy of young soldiers re-entering civilian life to the aging farm population of rural America. Half of all farmers are likely to retire in the next decade, according to the Agriculture Department.

“The military is not for the faint of heart, and farming isn’t either,” said Michael O’Gorman, an organic farmer who founded the nonprofit Farmer-Veteran Coalition, which supports sustainable-agriculture training. “There are eight times as many farmers over age 65 as under. There is a tremendous need for young farmers, and a big wave of young people inspired to go into the service who are coming home.”

About 45 percent of the military comes from rural communities, compared with one-sixth of the total population, according to the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. In 2009, the Agriculture Department began offering low-interest loans in its campaign to add 100,000 farmers to the nation’s ranks each year.

Among them will probably be Sgt. Matt Holzmann, 33, a Marine at Camp Pendleton who spent seven months in Afghanistan. He did counterinsurgency work and tried to introduce aquaponics, a self-replenishing agricultural system, to rural villages.

His zeal for aquaponics led him to the farming class. “It’s a national security issue,” he said the other day outside a garage-turned-classroom filled with boxes of Dr. Earth Kelp Meal. “The more responsibly we use water and energy, the greater it is for our country.”

 

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Hari Sauri das, Mayapura, IN: BRC: Manuscripts-the search begins

February 7, 2011

An important day on our BRC calendar. Today we started our manuscript search and record program. With generous donations from Srutadeva prabhu in San Diego, Nrsimhadeva prabhu from Murwillumbah Australia, and Bhakta Vinoda Kumar from Dubai we purchased this week a Canon Powershot G12 semi-professional camera with various accessories such as a tripod, extra flashes etc. for making good quality digital images of the works.

The movable viewfinder is especially useful when working with a tripod.

Along with that we took delivery of a hired vehicle donated for the use of the BRC for the next three months specifically for this program by the generosity of Mayapur CEO Naru-gopala prabhu and the Mayapur Administrative Council.

Our first visit was to Kumara Hatta, nowadays generally known as Halisahar. It was a natural place to begin because our chief researcher Smt. Bharati Roy (above center) and her assistant Ashish (above right) both live in here.

This is the birth place of  Srila Isvara Puri, the spiritual master of Lord Caitanya.

Srila Prabhupada mentions it in Caitanya Caritamrta Adi 9.11:

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura writes in his Anubhasya, “Sri Isvara Puri was a resident of Kumara-hatta, where there is now a railroad station known as Kamarhatta. Nearby there is another station, named Halisahara, which belongs to the Eastern Railway. This railway runs from the eastern section of Calcutta.”
…

Isvara Puri pleased his spiritual master by service, and by the blessings of his spiritual master he became such a great personality that Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepted him as His spiritual master.
Srila Isvara Puri was the spiritual master of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, but before initiating Lord Caitanya he went to Navadvipa and lived for a few months in the house of Gopinatha Acarya. At that time Lord Caitanya became acquainted with him, and it is understood that he served Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu by reciting his book, Krsna-lilamrta. This is explained in Sri Caitanya-bhagavata, Adi-khanda, Chapter Eleven.
To teach others by example how to be a faithful disciple of one’s spiritual master, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, visited the birthplace of Isvara Puri at Kumara-hatta and collected some earth from his birth site. This He kept very carefully, and He used to eat a small portion of it daily. This is stated in the Caitanya-bhagavata, Adi-khanda, Chapter Seventeen. It has now become customary for devotees, following the example of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, to go there and collect some earth from that place.”

A temple was constructed here in 1935

and is currently run by Sri Kishori dasa Babaji, the son of the first pujari.

There are beautiful Deities of Sri Sri Radha Vinoda, Gaura Nitai and a large murti of Srila Isvara Puripada.

Following Lord Caitanya’s example, the place became so popular and so many devotees took earth from it that it was later transformed into a large pond called Caitanya Doha (doha means ‘pond’).

Kishori Baba is a friend of Bharati Roy, and he kindly agreed to give us access to their manuscript collection. Unlike many other places, this one is kept very conscientiously, with the manuscripts kept clean and protected with cloth wrappings.

Here’s the first one we viewed, a book about the glories of Srimati Radharani. According to the notation, it was written in 1708 Sakabda, or 1790 AD-over 300 years old! The paper is cotton based hand made parchment. Very durable and flexible.

Bharati is photographing 15 manuscripts here before moving on to the next place on a list of about 15 libraries, mathas and sripats this month, where we hope to discover more valuable texts and record them.

Assistant to Kishori Babaji is Sri Ajay.

By his enthusiastic endeavor they have established the Baishnab Research Institute

He has gained official government recognition for Caitanya Doha as a national heritage site and with limited funds and help is establishing a library of old books to preserve them before they rot or pass through the digestive tracts of the numerous insects and worms that abound in a tropical climate

As you can see, there is an urgent need to locate and preserve what Srila Prabhupada referred to in 1972 as a “treasure house of Vaisnava lore.” Any help our readers can provide is more than welcome.

If you are interested in supporting this important program please contact me about our BRC membership program:

hari.sauri.acbsp@pamho.net

harisauri@gmail.com

More soon!

 

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Manoj, Melbourne, AU: 204. Now we have our own big one too !

by Rasanandini dasi and Member Services Committee
(Publisher of FOLK - Friends of Lord Krishna Newsletter), Melbourne Hare Krishna Temple.

 

Be There !

Now Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra have recovered from Their colds and returned quietly to Their altar. So when is Ratha Yatra? Mark Sunday February 13th. in your diary: “attend Melbourne’s first large scale Ratha Yatra Festival since 1976.”

This year Their Lordships will make Their way to the St. Kilda Festival, the second biggest free event in the southern hemisphere! There They will give Their darshana to 380,000 people. This is unprecedented in Melbourne! How fortunate can we be?

Each year we have taken Chota Jagannatha out on Ratha Yatra early in the New Year. That has always been a small intimate event where devotees carried Their palanquin and sang and danced for Them to their hearts’ content. But this year Their Lordships will be transported in style! A great festively painted chariot overflowing with floral arrangements will make its way at 11 am. from the corner of Jackson and Fitzroy Streets to Jacka Boulevard via Luna Park and on to its destination at Catani Gardens at 12:30pm.

Jagannatha Ratha Yatra offers us some truly special services: besides being able to pull the Lords in their Ratha, you may be Sweeper of the Road before Their cart.

Ratha Yatra will be a significant part of the St. Kilda Festival. We will establish a Vedic Village in Catani Gardens from 10am. till 8:30pm. to share Krishna conscious culture. It will include a small temple with a beautiful altar for Their Lordships and Srila Prabhupada.

Then there will be a stage for bhajans, kirtanas, drama, and a yoga meltdown; a prasadam tent; face painting for the kids. World-renowned chef Kurma Dasa also will give vegetarian master classes.

If you loved Gaura Vani & as Kindred Spirits last year, they will return for the festival to enthral us with their music! We are negotiating with outstanding performers and international guests including Gitanjali, and Holland’s Parividha Dasa to guarantee you a festival to remember.

Srila Prabhupada himself flew across the globe to attend Melbourne’s grand Ratha Yatra procession of 1974, and it was his strong desire that devotees here should continue this sacred tradition.

To read more about this upcoming trancendental treat, go to http://www.festivalofthechariots.com.au or http://www.stkildafestival.com.au.

We look forward to seeing you there: make history, and bring your family and friends to join you. It promises to be a fun-filled day that will also make Srila Prabhupada very happy.

 

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Mukunda Charan das, SA: Spiritual Aspirations

Mumbai, February 2001

Vrajabihari prabhu asked me to accompany him to the airport to fetch Prahaladhananda Maharaja and Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja.  I was looking forward to seeing Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja and meeting His Holiness Prahladananda Maharaja.  Vrajabihari prabhu garlanded Praladhananda Maharaja and I garlanded Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja.

Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja asked, ‘Where are they taking us?’  I wasn’t sure.  I asked a rhetorical question, ‘The Temple?’  Maharaja said, ‘Aren’t they taking us to the hospital?’  It was distressing to see Maharaja looking so weak.  He didn’t speak much, just chanted.  When we arrived at the Bhaktivedanta Hospital, we took the sannyasis suitcases to their rooms.  They spoke to one of the main doctor’s at the Bhaktivedanta Hospital, Sri Krsna Caitanya prabhu.  I offered obeisances to Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja.  He thanked me for coming and gave me his garland.  He said, ‘Sorry for being such a nuisance.’  I replied, ‘No, Maharaja.  We were looking forward to receiving you.’  I then asked, ‘Is it an emergency?’  Maharaja said, ‘Yes…it’s serious.  We had to leave Mayapur directly.’  Maharaja had a severe case of asthma.  I asked Maharaja if he required any service.  I would cancel my Mayapur trip if necessary.  He said, ‘If you like.  But you can go ahead.’

As it turned out, several other sannyasis and senior devotees checked into the hospital.  I soon met Niranjana Swami and Vaidhinath prabhu.  The hospital was also offering relief for the victims of the Gujarat earthquake.  I shared a room with Niranjana Maharaja’s personal servant for 20 rupees a night.  I developed the habit of taking breakfast at the Mira Road Temple and dosas and sambar in the canteen for lunch.  My main service, in the beginning, was cleaning Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja’s room with the help of Savya-saci, Niranjana Maharaja’s servant.  I ended up, however, cleaning the room every morning and washing cloth for Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja, Niranjana Swami, Prahladananda Swami and Vaidhinatha prabhu.  Other services included serving prashadam for these devotees and performing various menial services in the hospital, such as accompanying His Grace Vijay prabhu into the operating-theatre and assisting the servants of the various Maharajas.  It was a great opportunity to serve, but very intense.  On one of the nights, we sang in Niranjana Maharaja’s room.  On another night, we visited Sridhar Maharaja (who had severe hepatitis) and chanted in ‘Nrsimha Kutir’.  The apartment was across the road from the Hospital.

I accompanied a young Indian bhakta, Manoja, to Sridhar Maharaja’s apartment on one of the mornings.  We presented Maharaja with a garland of marigolds from Sri Sri Radha-Giridhari.  Maharaja was very happy with the garland.  He asked what I had done before I took up Krishna consciousness.  I informed Maharaja that I had been a student of History and had written a thesis on the slave trade to the Cape.  Maharaja told me that his brother had been a Rhodes scholar.  He then asked, ‘Why History?’  He asked as if  it was incomprehensible to him that anyone would be interested in mundane history.  His brother had studied South American history.  I asked Maharaja if it was practical to take first initiation from Radhanath Maharaja, considering that Maharaja never visited South Africa.  ’Maybe I am being idealistic’, I said.  Sridhar Maharaja was encouraging.  He said, quite matter-of-factly, that the person you receive initiation from has to inspire you your whole life.  You have to have faith in that person.  I offered obeisances to Maharaja and bade him leave.

Something extraordinary happened in the afternoon when I returned to the Temple to get maha sweets from the pujari (priest of the Deity).  The altar was closed and there were no devotees around.  As I was leaving the Temple compound, a devotee called Premavatara offered me a garland.  It was the same garland which I had presented to Sridhar Maharaja in the morning!

 

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Bharatavarsa.net: Book distribution seminar: Magical slokas!

Dear Prabhus,

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

Dravida Prabhu, who may be an incarnation of one of Krishna's praying bumblebees, teaches me slokas and swears by their potency. Recently I was in Miami Beach meditating on a nectar verse by Srila Rupa Gosvami he had given me the prior evening. I looked up from my meditation in the middle of the verse and handed a set of books to a teenage girl. I briefly introduced the books and asked for a donation. She thought for a minute, reached in her purse handed me a hundred-dollar bill and said, "I'm a generous person." I was blown away!

Despite my milky-clouded consciousness, she walked away with a set of serious nectar! Behold the mystic potency of these slokas.

Your servant, Bhakta Tim

 

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Book Distribution News: Magical slokas!

Dear Prabhus,

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

Dravida Prabhu, who may be an incarnation of one of Krishna's praying bumblebees, teaches me slokas and swears by their potency. Recently I was in Miami Beach meditating on a nectar verse by Srila Rupa Gosvami he had given me the prior evening. I looked up from my meditation in the middle of the verse and handed a set of books to a teenage girl. I briefly introduced the books and asked for a donation. She thought for a minute, reached in her purse handed me a hundred-dollar bill and said, "I'm a generous person." I was blown away!

Despite my milky-clouded consciousness, she walked away with a set of serious nectar! Behold the mystic potency of these slokas.

Your servant, Bhakta Tim

 

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H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami: 214

www.sdgonline.org.

11.33 A.M.

Every Day, Just Write, Vol­ume I: Wel­come Home to the One Big Book of Your Life

The Pied Piper. Peter Pan color. Mary Martin singing in this world, swinging back and forth on cable, “I’m flying!” And I am looking to the other world, fighting for faith.

Listen, when they gather tonight tell them I have a new temple participation schedule. I’ll give Sunday A.M. Cc. reading at the temple and one day a week a disciples meeting here at house, plus I’ll go down on my own once a week in the afternoon for darsana of Radha-Govinda. They will accept it. Plus I can answer your questions in letters, if it doesn’t get too much.

And this schedule leaves me much free time to track end of year in diary. And poems in and out of divided lines.

Reading little in SP’s books. Gradually you can increase it. Little at a time. I’m leaving my Bhagavad-gita here in shed to read each time I come here. Read it aloud even if you are reluctant or if you have read it so many times…or it arouses doubts. Go through those impasses and gain shelter. Please Lord, accept me and grant me sraddha.

Foggy, frosty A.M. with brilliant pink clouds. Then it cleared suddenly, lake calm, everything visible. Then it closed in again with fog. I wore two pairs of gloves and a pair of heavy socks over my two pairs of pink socks. So I’ll keep this standard for going to shed and add more warmth as necessary. It’s good to come out here. Pour out slowly whilst you can, what is.

M in the world of computers. “Computer addiction is incurable.”

Yeah, well I don’t know anything about it. She was not afraid to die, woman in chronic illness book.

Row boat makes its way across
I see only small silhouette of person rowing.

Time about up. White paper, blue gloves. Noise outside near like a machine loading or pushing something in this place where you expect it all quiet. Good day it has been so far despite the low, depression a little about my purpose in hearing SP, say the devotee-preacher is best as I poured warm clear water on his bare body. My Prabhupada.

Little concerns of my life here. Oh write with abandon here, he suggested. On wood desk feet on floor, write,
tempter, trickster, let everyone see you are a saffron priest even with no tilaka in the afternoon. I don’t tell them my inner deeds,
words words slip away.

As I walked back from the shed I saw the Ireland sankirtana van. It was parked right on the path where I walk. The doors were open and music was pouring out of it, samsara-dava…with an electric bass and nice voices. Some men were inside the van, cleaning it out, and they were singing along with the tape. All the doors were open, but I walked by at such an angle that they didn’t see me. I hesitated, thinking maybe I should play the friendly old senior devotee and go over and chat with them, ask them what party they where. Were where they doing sankirtana? And so on and so forth. But somehow I kept walking, and I saw one of the bhakta coming out from the warehouse with a big stack of books in his hands, and we made eye contact in a friendly way. I kept walking, a little bit wishing I had stopped to talk so that a little of their energy could rub off on me and show that I was friendly, get a little out of the hermit mood and somehow be able to say to myself, “I talked to some sankirtana men. I’m not so bad.” But as I kept on walking towards Manu’s house wherein I have my own room it seemed I’d done the right thing not to be so dissatisfied with my own lot. They have their sankirtana life as brahmacaris distributing books, and I have my own life and they’re both okay.

I find it wholesame to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found a companion that were so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers (H.D. Thoreau)

November 19, 1996

“By the mercy of the Lord, all truths were revealed to Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya and he could understand the importance of chanting the holy name and distributing love of God everywhere.” (Cc. Madhya 6.205)

You might think a bhakta could write a more ecstatic diary than this one. Discoveries would take place in his inner life. He becomes a changed man, he cries for Krishna, realizes Krishna and His name are nondifferent—and it’s recorded in his diary or his is a record of outward preaching adventures. But this one is quieter, “static,” tells of me asking Aniruddha to make me bookshelves for my room in the house and please put a lock on the door of the shed. Let me show virtue of patiently accepting this life given to me generously by the Supreme Lord (kala) or just show what you are and sorry I couldn’t be better, folks.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, “Today I have conquered the three worlds very easily. Today I have ascended to the spiritual world.” (Cc. Madhya 6.230)

Please write here. The emptiness in my heart. The fact is…

 

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H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami: Her Husband Preaching (February 6, 2011)

www.sdgonline.org.

A good many people don’t
want to know. But they all
have to go out anyway, poised
against the sunlight. “Do you
want this elephant?” “No I don’t.
I don’t know what I would do with it.
These are my last days. I have no accommodations
for an elephant.” He
spoke on the phone, but
I don’t know what he
said. Just don’t try to
give me that elephant.
And we were friends for
many years just stopping in
KOAs and rising in the morning for book distribution
at the college and eating
shabby breakfast. He lectured and they listened,
took a book of devotion
telling everyone
he was trying his best.
And she admired him
good people
considered.

 

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Gouranga TV: Bhajan – Amala Purana das – Hare Krishna

Bhajan – Amala Purana das – Hare Krishna

 

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Japa Group: Does Not Earn One Hundredth Part

Even if one distributes ten million cows in charity during an eclipse of the sun, lives at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna for millions of years, or gives a mountain of gold in sacrifice to the brahmanas, he does not earn even one hundredth part of the merit derived from chanting Hare Krishna.

Srila Sanatana Gosvami - Laghu Bhagavatamrta

 

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