Comments

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  Agarwal Sushil April 7, 2010 at 7:16am

  ....radhe krishna..
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  sarthi dhar April 5, 2010 at 3:01pm

  hare krishna!
  danadavat pranam!
  its not me, prabhuji...its Radharani's n gurugauranga's mercy...
  plz bless me...
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  Sanghmitra April 1, 2010 at 5:15pm

  Hare Krishna!
  Prabhuji what beautiful photos!Superb!!!
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  Krsna-sakti dd February 25, 2010 at 11:02pm

  Hare Krishna,
  Detroit is a very special place, where when devotees come to take darshan they are able to see Radha Kunjabihari up close, unlike in other temples. Prabhupada predicted that one day Detroit would be a major center for North American Iskcon. Right now I think we are far from making that a reality, but there are many wonderful and sincere devotees serving there. We also have Beautiful Gaura Nitai deities along with large Jugannatha, Baladeva and Supadra deities, as well as Sri Nataiji. In our hallway we have one of the rare deities of Sada shiva (shiva chanting japa). Our temple is the former Fisher mansion, so it is quite opulant, however, there are not as many devotees living in the temple or around the temple as before. We have many Srila Prabhupada Disciples that live around the community in comparison to other parts of the world.
  Japan there are 3 nice centers of Iskcon devotee activities, one in Tokyo and Osaka are the official temples which are similar to houses, with beautiful wooden Gaura Nitai, that sort of look Japanese. They also have shalagram shilas in the temples, and the devotees are very sweet. At Mt. Fuji a sweet devotee family lives, where the mataji worships shalagram shila along with other small dieties. Japan is a very special and intense place. There are lots of demigods inside temples and shrines. So they at least understand japa and the idea of chanting and the vedic cosmology, due to heavy bhuddist influence.
  Sorry I did not get your message until now... so I am responding a bit late. What is your temple yatra like?
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  Srinivasa Prasad February 9, 2010 at 12:52am

  Srila Prabhupada tells the story of a young prince who became attracted by a beautiful girl who happened to be a devotee. Just by seeing this girl once, the prince fell in love with her and made arrangements with her father for marriage. But since the girl was devoted to Krishna, she refused him. "Oh, your beauty has captivated me," the prince said. "If I cannot have it, I will kill myself" Understanding the situation, the girl said, "Come back in two weeks, and my beauty will be yours." The prince went away, but when he returned after two weeks, he hardly recognized the young girl. Because she had taken a very strong purgative that had flushed her body of all liquids, she was shrivelled and emaciated like an old hag. "You want my beauty?" she asked the horrified prince. "You will find it there in the corner." And she pointed to a pot full of stool and vomit. "There is the beauty you desired," she said. "Take it and be happy."
  
  ---
  
  Ramanuja-das- brahmachari automatically turns to admire a pretty girl.
  
  "That's just a combination of blood, pus, and stool," I remind him. "Of bile, urine, flesh, phlegm, bone, and guts."
  
  "Yes," he says, "but it's all in the right place."
  
  ---
  
  "Miss Maya is so strong," Swamiji tells us, "that when she sees you trying to become Krishna conscious, she'll knock you down." He shakes his head and smiles, as if facing an unconquerable foe. "She is so strong, and we are so weak. Like fire and butter. We should never think that we are stronger than Maya. We have only one recourse Hare Krishna. When Mayadevi attacks, we must cry, 'Krishna! Krishna! Please save me!' Since only Krishna is stronger than maya, only Krishna can protect us. When the pure devotee conquers Krishna through love, then Mayadevi stands before the devotee and says, 'How may I serve you?' Only then does maya cease to be a foe. Only then is maya seen as Krishna's smile. "
  
  
  
  - From the "The Hare Krishna Explosion" by HG Hayagriva dasa
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  Srinivasa Prasad February 9, 2010 at 12:52am

  "But Krishna says that all roads lead to Me," someone says.
  
  "Where does He say that?" Swamiji demands.
  
  Swamiji's translation of the "roads" verse from Bhagavad-gita is precise: "All of them -- as they surrender unto Me -- I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pritha."
  
  "That does not mean that all roads lead to the same place," he tells us. "Yes, they are all Krishna's roads, just as all the roads in America belong to the government. But is that to say that all roads lead to San Francisco? The devotees attain the person Krishna, and the impersonalists attain the Brahman effulgence that emanates from Krishna. The roads are all Krishna's, but the goals are not the same. In the material universe there are 8,400,000 species of life and roads leading to each of them. They are all Krishna's roads because He is the Father of all living entities. But does this mean that we aspire to be a cat or dog? Our aim should be to serve Krishna, that's all. We do not aspire to be demigods or whatever. Lord Chaitanya had but one request: causeless devotional service life after life, regardless of the type of body. Hanuman served Lord Rama very well in a monkey body."
  
  Yet many of us stumble on the road of Krishna consciousness and fall back into our old ways. How can we channel everything to the person Krishna? There's music, fast cars, intoxicants, and golden California lasses calling, "Fun, fun, fun!"
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  Srinivasa Prasad February 9, 2010 at 12:52am

  Here's a nice explanation from Prabhupada for you, very inspirational :-)
  
  Only Krishna can protect us
  
  Being somewhat older -- late twenties and early thirties -- Haridas, myself and a few others marvel over the apparent ease with which teenagers renounce these common drives, inebriants, habits. "Maya is but Krishna's smile," I try to remember.
  
  "It should be easier for you," the younger members say. "You've been partying since 1958. We've hardly had a taste."
  
  Swamiji supports another viewpoint.
  
  "Best to be trained up brahmachari from the beginning," he says. "It's easier to renounce what you have never tasted. Once you are habituated to intoxication, sex, gambling, meat eating, or whatever, it is very difficult to give them up. Habits are hard to break. The urge for sense enjoyment is the very cause of our conditioning. We forget that our real enjoyment is in serving Krishna, and in being enjoyed by Him. In ignorance, we become habituated to so many undesirable things. Now our younger members are finding it easier to give up so much because they've not had the chance to become addicted. But even addicted, you reach a point where you see that there's no happiness in sense gratification. Frustrated by maya, you may turn toward Krishna. But that is not the desirable road. The best way is not to forget Krishna for a moment."
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  Srinivasa Prasad February 8, 2010 at 10:37pm

  Also Prabhu associate with devotees as much as possible. If you have a scarcity of devotees near you, then its your duty to preach and create a large group of devotees. Devotees association is most important for spiritual growth and it strenghthens you to fight against the forces of Kali. This is my view.
  
  at your service.
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  Srinivasa Prasad February 8, 2010 at 10:34pm

  The main purpose of Brahmacarya life, is to train you as a devotee of the Lord, who don't ogle at women, but considers them as servants of Bhagavan just like he is. Even if that Brahmcari gets married in later life, he doesn't do it for the purposes of satisfying the urges of his body to rather help in the devotional service being performed at home. By giving shelter to the woman, his wife, that Brahmcari can give spiritual knowledge about Krishna and by the his devotional wealth can recommend liberation to his wife. That children he begets will also get liberated into the spiritual world and for the only purpose of serving Bhagavan he begets children. That is the whole purpose, to control ourselves, to control our life, to take control of this body and mind and make it do what we want, chant Krishna's names, for Krishna is the reservoir of pleasure, he is our one and only associate, he's Bhagavan and we are his eternal servants.
  
  We must realize, as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says, we are forever servants of Krishna. "Jivera Svarupa hoy, nitai Krishna Das". So, when we have this realization to ourselves, how would even think of enjoying the body of the women. When you find a women attractive, you can say to yourself, "Look at this women, she seems so attractive to me, but in reality she's just a big ball of blood, urine, bones, skin, excreta and mucus. Below this shiny skin is only that. Say to this yourself and as you start realizing the attraction will go on.
  
  So in summary the process is control your mind with knowledge and devotion and channel it to the service of Bhagavan, cleaning his temple, preparing prasadam, dressing him up, loving him, asking Krishna for guidance and strictly chanting your prescribed rounds. And the most important of all --- complete surrender to your spiritual master will guide you to become a good Brahmcari. You can stay in temple or be at home, but following Brahmacarya is most important!
  
  at your service.
  
  Hare Krishna!
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  Srinivasa Prasad February 8, 2010 at 10:15pm

  First of all prabhuji, we must start at the source of the problem. The source of the problem is media? We cannot change the media alone, we need to change the minds of people who are responsible for this kind of an attitude in media? It is still more difficult. So, next level, we get to ourselves. Ok, we can shut ourselves down from looking at things that pervert. We dont read any kind of unwanted literature, mundane books, paper, magazines, shut ourselves up. But mind is very fickle. It wanders, it urges you to do things that you are not supposed to do. So how can we control our minds? We should not feed it with anything that is not suitable for Krishna Consciousness. So as long as you get stronger, dont watch movies, dont watch T.V., dont talk to women, dont look at them even, and ofcourse keep chanting.
  
  The mind as long as you keep it in the service of Krishna, it'll not think of anything else. So, try and keep it always thinking about Krishna. If it wanders, pull it back to think of Krishna. Cannot control it like that, start chanting. Do sankirtan till mind comes back. Do Bhakti seva at the temple. Help clean the temple hall. Have an alter at home? Clean it, clean as many times as possible, and each time you do it, pray to Lord Sri Chaitanya and Nityananda Prabhu to cleanse your heart. Then read Srila Prabhupada's books. They are treasure house of knowledge. Try to follow what Prabhupada says. My Guru Maharaj urges in his book to abstain from masturbation too. and that's how you maintain your Brahmacarya. If you have an urge for sexual desire, then you are authorized to marry, but before that you must realize that this human form of life is not for mundane sexual desire, but to serve Krishna with humility. To stay away from any kind of material attachment and think of Krishna all the time to back.