When we finally go to the spiritual world, it's transcendental, and then you have different levels of the spiritual world, where in the Vaikunta planets the devotees of the Lord worship Lord Narayana with awe and reverence and with great pomp, majesty and very formally.Then you go to Ayodhya where Sita, Rama, Lakshmana and Hanuman are there, where Sita-Rama are being worshipped. It is a little less formal, because Rama is playing the part of a king but is more approachable than Lord Narayana.Then you come to Krishna loka, and there you find in Dwaraka, Krishna is the part of a king. He is more approachable than Rama, but at the same time, a little formal.When the Gopis met Krishna in Kurukshetra, they said, "We don't want to be with You as a prince, we want You to come back to Vrindavana, where you were just like a cowherd boy." So from the Gopis' point of view, and for the residents of Vrindavana, they didn't like to see Krishna as a young prince, they liked to see Krishna as a cowherd boy.So in Vrindavana, Krishna is playing in a very casual loving manner. There is no formality at all. It is the opposite of Vaikunta. Everything is spontaneous there.Krishna's father and mother don't even think of Him as God. They are just serving Krishna in spontaneous parental affection. His friends don't think Krishna is God; they just think that Krishna is our friend, He is our dear most friend and they are playing with Krishna as equals."HH Jayapataka SwamiFrom the book: Taking Shelter of Krishnahttp://www.guruvakya.comRead more…
Even this mood of anger is there in the Personality of Godhead. He is angry when His pure devotee who are simply dedicated to preaching this message and delivering the fallen souls from their misery, are tortured is harassed and... in so many ways offended and mistreated. Then He becomes angry.Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu advised that vaisnava aparaad mata haathi.. that the MAD ELEPHANT offense is to offend the Vaisnava. Just like an elephant goes into the garden and uproots and those branches being uprooted their leaves dry.Similarly by offending Vaisnavas, great devotees of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Lord Krishna, Lord Vishnu, this destroys one's spiritual progress."HH Jayapataka SwamiLecture 17th June 1981 Los Angeles, USAhttp://www.guruvakya.comRead more…
My friends, if we look in the world today, we see that, what do we need most of all but... PEACE! We see that in Bosnia, we see in so many parts as Somalia. People all over the world are killing each other based on what? Some people blame it on religion, some people are blaming it on race.But the real thing that is actually responsible is a lack of higher spiritual consciousness. People are in bodily consciousness, they think they're the body. If we are born in a particular family, or born in a particular religion, and if we think, and we identify 'this is my body's identity'.We have to get beyond body consciousness. We have come to the transcendental vision, 'we are the living force in the body, we are all parts of ONE Supreme Godhead'. There may be different ways that people worship this Supreme Godhead. We should respect those different paths. But there is only ONE Supreme Lord.Just like, one time I was in Bangladesh with a group of devotees from about all the six continents, and I asked each of the different people, about 17 nations, to name the word "water" in their country. And then different people they said, 'Whata'...'Agua'..'Aqua', and so many different words for water... 'pani pani' and so on.And then I said, now you say the name of God in your respective language. And then someone from Arabia said, 'Allah'...and some in English said 'God'...and someone in German said 'Gaut'... and then somebody in Spanish said 'Deus', and they went around the room and they had all the different words...and then someone from India said 'Krishna'.So the point is that there may be so many different words but the personality of Godhead is ONE. There is only one Godhead, and we are all part of His transcendental family, we are all His children, we are all His devotees.And in this way the whole world...if we have the SPIRITUAL VISION which comes about naturally by chanting the names of God- "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare", then we can actually have the World Peace that people are looking for."HH Jayapataka SwamiRatha Yatra Lecture28th December 1994Byron Bay, Australiahttp://www.guruvakya.comRead more…
“Basically the problems that we are facing in the world today, when we look in the newspapers, we can sum it all up into one common denominator – IGNORANCE! The prejudice, misunderstanding, the lack of mercy, the lack of responsibility to ecology, to the world, the lack of honesty amongst leaders, lack of personal satisfaction, lack of love, are all due to Ignorance.So what is the anecdote for ignorance? KNOWLEDGE! Knowledge is the actual cure for ignorance. It’s like if you have darkness, what is the anecdote for darkness? Light. So there is a Vedic saying which is very famous, Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamayah, “Come out of the darkness of ignorance by bathing in the light of transcendental knowledge.”Every human being has the responsibility of gathering transcendental knowledge. It’s not something you can inject intravenously or something someone else can do it for you. Transcendental knowledge is something, each person has to consume and digest intellectually and mentally realize it.”HH Jayapataka SwamiFrom the book: Taking Shelter of KrishnaCourtesy: Mathuradesh PublicationsSUBSCRIBE FOR DAILY QUOTES OF HH JAYAPATAKA SWAMI: http://www.guruvakya.comRead more…
Hare Krishna Prabhus & Matajis,Please accept our respectful obeisances.All Glories to Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON Gurus and Vaisnavas.The last 31 days have been very exciting.More than 2000FREEdownloads of Damodar Astaka and growing!!We are extremely thankful for your valuable support and good wisheswithout which this wouldn't have been possible.By the blessings of HH Jayapataka Swami and by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada,On the 10th of OCTOBER 2009"ILLUMINIZE - The Album"finally launched in every major music network internationally.Be one of the first people to listen to it!http://www.illuminize.comBeing my FIRST International-debut....This concept-album has taken 4 years to come into shape,Consists of 12 songs...and every detail in production/compositiondealt with love and diligence :)We would really consider our efforts successfulif even 1 song from the albumis able to touch your hearts.We are still giving FREE Copies of Damodar Astaka on the websitehttp://www.illuminize.comthat you can use during the Karthik Month. Get your copies soon!Damodar Month 2009 Ki Jaya!Glad to be in your service,Shabda Hari DasVanita Siddharthwww.illuminize.comRead more…
New Album Release - ILLUMINIZEHare Krishna Prabhus/MatajisPlease accept our respectful obeisances.All Glories to Srila Prabhupada. All Glories to Guru & Gauranga!Just wanted to let you know that, by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON Gurus and Vaisnavas, my wife Bhaktin Vanita and I have officially pre-launched our first album under the banner Supersoul Records, called ILLUMINIZE, on 09-09-09.We would like you to visit www.illuminize.com, which is LIVE now. The album theme is based on the Damodar Month.The Album:- Consists of 12 songs- Has a western/modern feel, targeting a world-wide audience- The Album name was also chosen with this in mind; to have an international-appeal- Has songs such as Damodar Astakam, Jagannath Astakam, Guruv Astakam, Guru Vandana and 5-6 MahamantrasAnyone who visits the site will be able to download a FREE Damodar Astaka track that they can use during the Karthik month.- Our goal is to give away as many as 5000+ FREE copies of Damodar Ashtaka (through the website) before the start of Karthik month.- Also planning to give new KC ringtones, wallpapers and other goodies once we have a data base in place.We really hope to reach out to as many devotees and non-devotees from around the world and make them hear the Damodar Astakam so that they benefit spiritually by just hearing it. We need your special blessings that this endeavor is successful.We would be very grateful if all can spread the word about our website, so that many more devotees can download the songs and benefit during Karthik month.Many of my Muslim and Christian friends previewed some of the songs and were really appreciative were eager to get the full songs.The album is set to hit all major digital music stores on the 10th of October. iTunes, Amazon, etc in all countries..By all your blessings, we are hoping that this would be an effective preaching tool in the mission of Lord Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada, especially during the Damodar month.Damodar Month Ki Jaya! Srila Prabhupada Ki Jaya!In your service always,Shabda Hari DasVanita Siddharthwww.illuminize.comTESTIMONIALS:"Congratulations on the launch of the album. I downloaded the free track and found it very capably done.And I like your idea of a Kartika 'Damodar Campaign'. My blessings for your sincere endeavor to spread Krsnaconsciousness through transcendental sound." - HH Jaiadvaita Swami (ACBSP)"Thank you, very nice. I was also going to record this in a similar way, butyou beat me to it. All glories to your service." - HG Mahatma Das (ACBSP)"Well Done!" - Nagaraj Das (ACBSP - Chief Editor BTG)"Wishing you the very best!" - HG Basu Ghosh Das (ACBSP-ISKCON Baroda)"Great Track! I look forward to the whole album" - HG Kurma Das (ACBSP-Sydney Austraia)"The song is superb. I'm very glad to hear your composition. Thank you so much for this beautiful contribution.May Sri Guru & Gauranga always continue to inspire you in this way... so to inspire others with your nive seva." - HG Sadhu Prabhu (ACBSP)GET YOUR FREE COPY OF DAMODAR ASTAKA NOW!Read more…
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