Sacinandana Swami: As practitioners that chant the holy name we all know how difficult it is to connect the mind with the holy name because by definition, the mind is only able to grasp material things. The mind can think of holidays at the beach or any other material subject. It is especially attracted to think about how to increase one’s wealth and how to engage in sexual activities. These are things we can easily think about because the mind is shaped like this. It wraps itself around money and the opposite sex very easily; it’s made like this, it’s a perfect material match. but the mind has great difficulty to stay with Krishna. Since we have come to the world, this is our problem: we have turned our back to Kåñëa, and this bahir-mukha, being outwardly faced, especially manifests when we try to chant the holy names. In other words, our basic envy of god, our feeling ill at ease with the lord manifests to a very obvious degree when we chant the holy name.
As long as you turn away from Krishna, you cannot chant his holy name. You can try to concentrate, but after some time you can’t stay with it any longer. The mind will go back to the material subjects it is made for. Chanting the holy name is therefore only possible if you turn back to Krishna, in other words, if you chant with a sense of a relationship. Therefore we say during kirtana, when you chant – call out for Krishna! Without overcoming this tendency to turn away from Krishna there is no way that you will learn to chant Hare Krishna There is no way if you remain a bahir-mukha, an outward looking person. You can make kirtana which has a nice melody or rhythm or which is sung by a nice voice, but after some time you will give it up. You will switch it off like you switch off music that you have heard for too long. Only if you learn to get away from these external distractions, only if you learn to chant with your heart for Krishna, you will chant throughout the evening and the night. It’s that serious. You have to become a god-lover in order to love the holy name, or you have to love the holy name in order to love Krishna When we talk of the holy name, we talk of a love affair with god. Just as a lover will always think of the beloved, the devotee who engages with the holy name will always think of Krishna and therefore he will repeat the names of the Lord again and again. It will not be mindless repetition; it will be a loving journey. So this one offence, turning away from Krishna, is the root cause of all other obstacles. It is the primeval disease. Haridasa Thakura says about this, “Even if one successfully overcomes all the other offences in chanting and even if one chants the name continuously, prema or love may still not appear. The reason for this is that if one commits the offence known as pramada or inattention the progress to prema will be blocked.” (Hari-nama-cintamani, ch. 12) You may respect the devotees, you may respect lord Vishnu, you may respect your guru, you may respect the sastra, you may do all the other things, but as long as you have still turned your back to Krishna and are not thinking of Krishna while you do all the other things, you are still in the material world. Therefore, you must turn to Krishna, you must correct this one primeval, original problem of turning away from Krishna
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Q: You mentioned in your video, diksha refers to getting the mantra and shiksa refers to getting instructions on how to chant it…
Dīkṣā means acceptance into the educational process (aka “sādhana”) of a given school. This acceptance is accomplished by giving the student the school’s study materials (mantra and śāstra)
Q: We already got the mantra from some devotee, we may not even remember whom. Would a formal initiation ceremony benefit us?
Hearing a mantra from someone on the sidewalk is a haphazard dīkṣā at best. Real dīkṣā should be intentional. The person giving it should be recognized by the school as worthy of evaluating whether a candidate is worthy of being inducted into the school. And the induction should be done deliberately.
Just hearing a mantra doesn’t mean I am inducted into the school that uses the mantra. Induction into a school involves being given their mantras, but simply hearing their mantras doesn’t mean you have been inducted into their school.
Q: Siksha guru plays more significant role than diksha guru?
Dīkṣā is the beginning of śīkṣā. The aren’t two different things, and generally its best if the dīkṣā guru is also the primary śīkṣā guru.
But if for some reason the primary śikṣā guru is different from the dīkṣā guru, then yes, the śīkṣā guru is practically more important – for dīkṣā is the beginning of śīkṣā, śīkṣā is the main process, dīkṣā is the beginning (“initiation”) of it.
Q: In the current scenario, the siksha gurus who guide us daily are mostly not authorized by the ISKCON institution to give diksha. In this case, should one aspire to receive dīkṣā initiation from the diksha guru of one’s siksha guru, based on the assumption that since his siksha guru is so great, the diksha guru must be great as well – because a deer cannot give birth to a lion?
If you feel that a person represents a school very authentically and deeply, and want to be joined to the school via that person – but that school (or a branch of it in this case) does not agree that the person is worthy – you will have to figure out who is wrong: you or the branch of the school. Either your opinion of that person is wrong, or your opinion of the value of that school-branch is wrong. If you decide that the branch is wrong, then leave the branch. If you decide the person is wrong, leave the person. If the person will not induct / “initiate” you, then ask that person what to do (after all, you are their student).
Q: The diksha gurus authorized by ISKCON are often too busy having thousands of disciples, and may not have time to talk to his disciples directly. Most of the instruction comes through others, the councillors or siksha gurus. In such a situation, how will the formalities of initiation help a practicing devotee?
If the dīkṣā guru is authorized by an empowered branch of the school to accept you as a member of the school, then you are accepted. If that dīkṣā guru is too busy to instruct you carefully he or she would assign you to an appropriate śīkṣā guru, and would not interfere with the instruction you receive there, knowing his practical limitations. If he or she does not entrust you into the care of a śikṣā guru then the dīkṣā guru is not sincere, for they do not truly desire to benefit the disciple.
Such people should be corrected, and if that is impossible, they should be renounced.
Q: Can one person have more than one guru?
An individual should accept one school, or at least one at a time. It generally difficult to attend two schools simultaneously. Therefore there should be need for only one successful dīkṣā (per school, at least) So, basically, there should only be one dīkṣā guru per disciple. But everyone in the universe and everything should become our śikṣā guru. We should have multiple śīkṣā gurus, infinite śikṣā gurus, but there should be order and priority amongst them. The dīkṣā guru would ideally be the śīkṣā guru of highest order and priority. Others further along in our own school are other high-priority śīkṣā gurus. Others from other schools, or just random people and animals are also śīkṣā gurus, but their teachings are understood in context of the teachings of the higher-priority śikṣā gurus.
Śrī Krishna Dās Kavirāja therefore says, “vande ‘haṁ śrī guroḥ, śrī guruṁ vaiṣṇavamś ca” which means “Obeisance to my guru (singular, dīkṣā guru), and also to my gurus (plural, śikṣā gurus), especially the Vaiṣṇavas (the highest-priority śikṣā gurus).
Source:https://vicd108.wordpress.com/2016/09/21/important-questions-about-gurus/
More than 2,000 people gathered for the Rath Yatra festival Sept. 17 at the Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago as part of the national kickoff celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, better known as the Hare Krishna Movement.
Prior to the advent of ISKCON movement Jagannath and the “Ratha Yatra” were relatively unknown in the West. However, after its founding, A. C. Bhaktivedanta, founder of ISKCON popularized the festival when he selected Jagannath as one of the chosen forms of Krishna, installing an idol of Jagannath in ISKCON temples around the world. Today the “Ratha Yatra” festival is celebrated by ISKCON in many cities in the West where they are popular attractions.
The yatra, or the parade, which started from Clark and Adams streets, featured a colorful 40-foot chariot decorated with thousands of flowers, with “Lord Jagannath” the presiding deity of the festival placed in the center.
Hundreds of devotees, pulled the chariot by hand across large city blocks, dancing, playing drums and cymbals and euphorically chanting the mantra “Hare Krishna Hare Rama.” It was an eye-catching spectacle as many Chicagoans watched the procession and took to their phones to capture pictures.
The yatra concluded in Daley Plaza where religious ceremonies were performed by Romapada Swami and included arti, and food offering of 56 items to Lord Jagannath prior to the commencement of a free fun-filled afternoon for families which included a spectacular kirtan, devotional singing performance by Gauravani Buchwald; classical Odisi by Sigma, and performances by Natya Dance Theater depicting the stories of Sri Krishna.
Romapada Swami, member of governing body commission of ISKCON and Chicago area dignitaries – Clerk of Cook County, Dorothy Brown, Chicago 49th District Alderman Joe Moore, and Chicago philanthropist and trustee of FIA Chicago Iftekar Shareef, spoke about the impact of the “Hare Krishna” movement in the their state, district and personal lives.
Romapada Swami talked to Desi Talk Chicago in an interview about ISKCON’s 50th Anniversary and the organization’s vast growth and goals for the next 50 years.
“Two things are very important to highlight, when an organization endures for 50 years, at least here in America, it is taken as We are here to stay because often times after a great personality establishes an organization and passes away, things change. Here in ISKCON there is still a continuation and growth. For us the 50th anniversary is a time for celebration and communication.
The communication part is the “Rath Yatra” which is a message of the mercy of Lord Jagannath for everybody. Just like in celebrations in Puri, our founder very much wanted this Rath Yatra all over the world so that people can experience his mercy and so here we are; we need to celebrate the mercy of Lord Jagannath being given to millions across the world, ” said Romapada.
“There are areas of the world where ISKCON is expanding explosively and when an organization expands so vastly, my personal concern as a leader is making sure we are maintaining the purity of the principles and teachings through the Bhagavad Gita and teachings of Prabhupada and then surely everything will be fine” commented Romapada.
The Daley center was surrounded by booths providing information on topics such as Sri Krishna, ISCKON vegetarianism, reincarnation, meditation, yoga, handicrafts, idols of worship, and henna application. There was also an activity center, especially for children where they could make arts and crafts related to Sri Krishna.
“ Although I am not a member of ISKCON I wanted to bring my children to see and learn all about our culture, and it was great fun for them, I hope that this will make them more inclined to learn about our culture and religion ” shared one of the attendees.
The 50th anniversary celebrations will continue later this year with Rath Yatra parades in cities worldwide, including San Francisco, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, London, and Paris, and gala events at the Sydney Opera House, European Parliament, and other major venues.
Source:http://www.newsindiatimes.com/iskcons-50th-anniversary-rath-yatra-attracts-thousands-in-chicago
"A natural human sentiment, compassion finds its highest expression in the works of devotees of the Lord.
The tenderness of the heart experienced toward Krishna is known as bhakti. All other jivas are servants of Krishna. When one experiences tenderness of heart toward them, it is known as daya, compassion. Therefore, compassion is included within bhakti."
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Jaiva Dharma, p. 179
I was aware of the concept of compassion before I met Srila Prabhupada. While studying at Brooklyn College, I took a philosophy course in which we studied the writings of Bertrand Russell. In particular, I remember how he presented Nietzsche in comparison to Buddha. He gave a synopsis of Buddha's philosophy, compared it to Nietzsche's approach to humankind, and said in effect, "Which do you think is better?" Russell was obviously taken with Buddha's compassion for living beings, and considered a Buddha superior to a philosopher who worked with humanity as an idea. That was my introduction to how compassion was meant to be a heartfelt sentiment.
Just before I entered the Navy, I went to Confession at a Staten Island church. I told the priest I had begun to doubt the sacrament of Confession. When he invited me to meet him at the rectory, I poured out my concerns - the injustice whites were perpetrating against blacks, the senseless Korean War, and the complete materialism of standard American values.
The priest said simply, "I see you have a lot of love in you."
I was flattered, but I knew what I was really saying: How could a loving God allow so many injustices in the world? I was losing faith. The world seemed cold-hearted, competition- based, and loveless. Most of my friends agreed with this analysis. Thinking back, I see now that the priest was acknowledging my sentiment but recognizing that I had no idea how to express my love properly.
Being in the Navy did not help develop such sentiments. Upon discharge, I accepted a job in the Welfare Department. This is usually considered a compassionate field. I didn't take the position because I felt any particular sentiment for the poor, however; rather, I took it because it was an easy job for a college graduate to get.
There were people working in the Welfare Department who actually cared about their clients, but I saw right away that such concern was difficult to maintain. So many of these clients were simply trying to beat the system; few of them were interested in improving their lives. Many used the money to buy alcohol or drugs or engage in activities that degraded them. I felt my heart grow hard while working with those people. I think what really affected me was that there was no way out for them. The welfare system provided only a subsistence lifestyle, and many of these people were genuinely needy. It was going to take more than a new refrigerator or a few dollars to lift them out of both their poverty and the mentality that prevented them from being able to do more with their lives.
I could see that the Welfare Department was bailing a boat with a leaky bucket. My experience is probably common in the professionally compassionate fields. Later, I would hear Prabhupada quote Vidyapati in another context: When you are dying of thirst in a desert, what good is one drop of water? I realized early that I could make no real impact on my clients' lives, and that material welfare work could not lift these people above their suffering.
Diminishing Compassion
Later, in 1966, I broke my heels in a fall and was confined to bed for six weeks. I used the time to read books on Eastern philosophy and religion, including the Upanishads and other Vedic books, and books on Buddhism. I still remember one book in particular - The Compassionate Buddha - because I liked the idea of being compassionate. Although selfishness is a natural characteristic of conditioned souls in Kali-yuga, few of us are born without a natural sense of compassion. Still, Srila Prabhupada states that that natural compassion is becoming more and more covered in this age:
But in this age - it is called Kali-yuga - we are reducing our bodily strength, our memory, power of memorizing, our feelings of sympathy for others, compassion, age, duration of life, religious propensities. ...Formerly if somebody is attacked by another man, many persons will come to help him: "Why is this man attacked?" But at the present moment if one man is attacked, the passersby will not care for it because they have lost their sympathy or mercifulness for others. Our neighbor may starve, but we don't care for it. This is Kali-yuga." New Vrindaban, September 2, 1972
Even those who manage to retain their compassionate sentiments into adulthood are deluged by the media with images of suffering. Gradually, we become jaded, our sentiments dulled. It is normal to hear that fifty thousand were killed here, twenty thousand there, two million in such-and-such earthquake, ten thousand homeless from such-and-such flood - again and again and again - and all of it is horrible. We are helpless in the light of so much suffering. Over time, we back away from the world's pain to experience or sidestep the suffering we can find in our own backyards. It just seems too much to try for more.
When I met Srila Prabhupada, I came to understand real compassion. I also came to understand how truly rare a compassionate person is. Compassion is not a material quality but an extension of our spiritual consciousness. The dictionary defines it as "a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another's suffering or misfortune, accompanied by a desire to alleviate the pain or remove its cause." Synonyms: commiseration, tenderness, heart, clemency. Antonyms: mercilessness, indifference.
Sympathy: "Harmony of or agreement in feeling, as between persons or on the part of one person with respect to another; a quality of mutual relations between people or things whereby whatever affects one also affects the other; the ability to share the feelings of another, esp. in sorrow or trouble; compassion or commiseration; sympathies: feelings or impulses of compassion."
Here is a list of Sanskrit terms that further divide the sentiments of compassion:
Anukampana: sympathy, compassion
Anugraha: favor, kindness, conferring benefits upon, promoting the good objective of, gracious toward
Karuna: compassion; the pathetic sentiment in poetry
Kripa: compassion accompanied by tenderness, pity (kripalu); specifically refers to compassion expressed toward those whom one knows
Daya: widespread or generalized feelings of mercy or sympathy. (In the Bhagavatam, Daya is the daughter of Daksha (Expertise) and the mother of Abhaya (Fearlessness).)
The Compassion Of Great Souls
Compassion means we think beyond our own troubles and feel sympathy and heartfelt sorrow for the troubles of others. There are those who are compassionate toward those they know - their friends, relatives, countrymen, or fellow religionists; and there are those great souls who are compassionate toward all spirit souls. Prabhupada was such a great soul. Prabhupada's heart bled to see our suffering, and he dedicated his life to helping us overcome it. What makes him rarer still is that not only was he willing to dedicate his life to alleviating our pain; he actually knew the panacea.
And he asked us to repay him by helping those whom we met.
But what if we don't share the depth of his compassion? What if we don't feel any compassion at all? We can still enlist in his mission. By working for someone compassionate, we can develop compassion. By serving others, and by serving Srila Prabhupada's compassionate heart, we can give up selfishness and become big-hearted.
Some devotees may hear this and wonder how this could be true. If Srila Prabhupada began a compassionate movement, and if we have been working for him all these years, why didn't we become compassionate? Or perhaps it can be argued that we did become compassionate, but only toward those who had not yet contacted Krishna consciousness. But why didn't our compassion spill over in our relationships with other devotees?
I won't pretend to have the single answer to that question, but I think it is healthy to ask it. There was a time in ISKCON when we presumed we were the most compassionate people in the world; after all, we were distributing the Hare Krishna mantra, the greatest benediction ever to be given to humankind. The scriptures define Krishna consciousness as the best welfare work for humanity. It is supposed to be better than the Peace Corps, better than the Cancer Research Society - better than any other idea anyone else has ever had about how to free people from suffering. Krishna consciousness is also universal, and there is nothing to bar anyone from taking part. It is sarvatra sarvada, suitable to be practiced in all times, all places, and under all circumstances. Srila Prabhupada writes:
Men do not know that the ultimate goal of life is Vishnu … due to being bewildered by the glaring reflection in the darkness, and as such everyone is entering into the darkest region of material existence, driven by the uncontrolled senses. The whole material existence has sprung up because of sense gratification … principally … sex desire, and the result is that in spite of all advancement of knowledge, the final goal of all the activities of the living entities is sense gratification… . Universal consciousness is factually achieved by coordinated service of all concerned to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and that alone can insure total perfection. Therefore even the great scientists, the great philosophers, the great mental speculators, the great politicians, the great industrialists, the great social reformers, etc., cannot give any relief to the restless society of the material world because they do not know the secret of success … namely, that one must know the mystery of bhakti- yoga… . The Srimad-Bhagavatam therefore says again and again that without attainment of the status of bhakti-yoga, all the activities of human society are to be considered absolute failures only.
—Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.9.36, Purport
That we have such a great, compassionate gift to offer others, however, does not mean that we are ourselves the most compassionate of workers. It also does not mean that those who are working in less glorious ways but who are giving more selflessly of themselves are not expressing compassion. In fact, they may be expressing more compassion toward others than we are. Many grassroots workers in this world sacrifice their lives for their chosen causes, even though those causes may offer only temporary relief to those whom they are trying to help. What could be motivating them except a sense of compassion? Still, we devotees tend to think we are better simply because we have access to the highest welfare.
Real compassion is not achieved automatically upon joining the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Compassion is not a line of work but an expansion of heart. Srila Prabhupada genuinely understood the suffering of material life and the pain of rebirth. He knew and taught his followers that only by awakening the people’s dormant Krishna consciousness could they be freed from the cycle of birth and death. It is not enough, he said, to alleviate people’s material hunger and thirst. It is not enough to alleviate their suffering for this lifetime only. He wanted his followers to save not only the drowning man’s coat but the drowning man himself.
Bhakta Priya Devi Dasi: Dear devotees and friends, I urgently need your prayers! My husband, Jagajivan Das is in intensive care, in a critical condition. His heart is giving up. The doctor said that he can leave his body any moment. But we all know how powerful Vaisnava prayers could be. Miracles can happened and he still can pull through. There is still a chance for him to recover. I beg you at your feet to pray for him. Your humble servant, Bhakta Priya dd
More than 2,000 people gathered for the Rath Yatra festival Sept. 17 at the Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago as part of the national kickoff celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, better known as the Hare Krishna Movement.
Prior to the advent of ISKCON movement Jagannath and the “Ratha Yatra” were relatively unknown in the West. However, after its founding, A. C. Bhaktivedanta, founder of ISKCON popularized the festival when he selected Jagannath as one of the chosen forms of Krishna, installing an idol of Jagannath in ISKCON temples around the world. Today the “Ratha Yatra” festival is celebrated by ISKCON in many cities in the West where they are popular attractions.
The yatra, or the parade, which started from Clark and Adams streets, featured a colorful 40-foot chariot decorated with thousands of flowers, with “Lord Jagannath” the presiding deity of the festival placed in the center.
Hundreds of devotees, pulled the chariot by hand across large city blocks, dancing, playing drums and cymbals and euphorically chanting the mantra “Hare Krishna Hare Rama.” It was an eye-catching spectacle as many Chicagoans watched the procession and took to their phones to capture pictures.
The yatra concluded in Daley Plaza where religious ceremonies were performed by Romapada Swami and included arti, and food offering of 56 items to Lord Jagannath prior to the commencement of a free fun-filled afternoon for families which included a spectacular kirtan, devotional singing performance by Gauravani Buchwald; classical Odisi by Sigma, and performances by Natya Dance Theater depicting the stories of Sri Krishna.
Romapada Swami, member of governing body commission of ISKCON and Chicago area dignitaries – Clerk of Cook County, Dorothy Brown, Chicago 49th District Alderman Joe Moore, and Chicago philanthropist and trustee of FIA Chicago Iftekar Shareef, spoke about the impact of the “Hare Krishna” movement in the their state, district and personal lives.
Romapada Swami talked to Desi Talk Chicago in an interview about ISKCON’s 50th Anniversary and the organization’s vast growth and goals for the next 50 years.
“Two things are very important to highlight, when an organization endures for 50 years, at least here in America, it is taken as We are here to stay because often times after a great personality establishes an organization and passes away, things change. Here in ISKCON there is still a continuation and growth. For us the 50th anniversary is a time for celebration and communication.
The communication part is the “Rath Yatra” which is a message of the mercy of Lord Jagannath for everybody. Just like in celebrations in Puri, our founder very much wanted this Rath Yatra all over the world so that people can experience his mercy and so here we are; we need to celebrate the mercy of Lord Jagannath being given to millions across the world, ” said Romapada.
“There are areas of the world where ISKCON is expanding explosively and when an organization expands so vastly, my personal concern as a leader is making sure we are maintaining the purity of the principles and teachings through the Bhagavad Gita and teachings of Prabhupada and then surely everything will be fine” commented Romapada.
The Daley center was surrounded by booths providing information on topics such as Sri Krishna, ISCKON vegetarianism, reincarnation, meditation, yoga, handicrafts, idols of worship, and henna application. There was also an activity center, especially for children where they could make arts and crafts related to Sri Krishna.
“ Although I am not a member of ISKCON I wanted to bring my children to see and learn all about our culture, and it was great fun for them, I hope that this will make them more inclined to learn about our culture and religion ” shared one of the attendees.
The 50th anniversary celebrations will continue later this year with Rath Yatra parades in cities worldwide, including San Francisco, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, London, and Paris, and gala events at the Sydney Opera House, European Parliament, and other major venues.
I found today’s blog in a shop window. ‘Give Presence’, the sign said. How clever I thought. In the gifting season of the year, the greatest gift of all is the gift of our presence, on all levels. Whether it is being present in a conversation, being present with our meditation, being present while driving – what does ‘being present’ or ‘giving presence’ mean?
It’s simply ‘being with’. Not half being with, not almost being with, but fully being with. We can’t do this all the time, but we surely must have good doses of it throughout the day.
In our spiritual practice presence is essential. In Bhakti the goal is to be fully present in our relationship with Krishna. Fully present especially when we are directly serving Him – chanting on beads, singing in kirtan, studying the teachings, serving the Deity. It seems so easy but it’s often not. And here’s why.
We are spiritual in origin but we are covered by layers of material nature. First by the outer body and then by the subtle body (mind, intelligence, and false ego). This material nature, called maya or ‘that which is not’, is such a powerful illusion that it takes all our energy to remove ourselves from it. It’s like swimming upstream. It’s difficult to distinguish the body from the soul.
So when we come to our chanting or offering prayers we need to consciously work at being present. First we still our body and call it to be quiet. It could be how we sit, or where we chant, or how we breath. Then we face the mind and that’s where the real work begins. We basically live in our mind and it’s restless. Arjuna in the Gita calls the mind “restless, turbulent, and more difficult to control than the wind.”
Those of us who meditate every day know this. The mind can visit the world while we sit in one place. The mind can be totally thinking of other things while we chant Krishna’s name. We will travel down the labyrinthine ways of our mind endlessly, being more present in our mind than the spiritual practice at hand.
So when we talk of presence we speak of mindfulness, or bringing the mind to the present moment. For a devotee of Krishna, mindfulness means bringing the mind to Krishna. It means leaving this world behind and placing ourselves in Krishna’s world. It means filling our mind with the beauty and truth of that sweet Lord. It means controlling the mind by filling the mind with Krishna, leaving no space for anything else.
To be fully present, to give presence in Krishna consciousness, is to love. It is to love and be loved and to be absorbed in that exchange with Krishna. To be so fully caught in it that nothing can distract us from drawing our mind o the object of our love, like rivers moving to the sea. We can experience this to some extent in this world – a mother to her child, or new young lovers to one another. Bhakti invites us to enter that feeling with Krishna. To get there we have to practice first, while in the end it will be spontaneous – a love that cannot be stopped. A mind full of love.
Give presence this season. Give presence every day. Give presence to the most important person in your life, Krishna. It is the best gift you can give yourself and others.
Govardhan Eco Village (GEV) of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) has received the Green Apple Awards for Built Environment and Architectural Heritage Award 2016 in UK.
The award, instituted by the Green Organisation, UK, was received by Radha Mohan Prabhu on behalf of GEV for its green building initiatives at a function held recently at London in UK, a release said here today. Spread across 100 acres, GEV is a sustainable farming community and retreat centre located near Mumbai.
ISKCON Spiritual Leader Radhanath Swami Maharaj said, "ISKCON's GEV is one such initiative where 100 per cent recycling is demonstrated. Everything that is produced is consumed and recycled into bio-reusable material."
On the occasion, GEV was also honoured as the International Green World Ambassador, the release said.
Set up in 1994, the Green Organisation is an independent, non-profit, non-political, environment group, dedicated to recognising, rewarding and promoting best environmental practice around the world.
Of priests, O Arjuna, know Me to be the chief, Bṛhaspati, the lord of devotion. Of generals I am Skanda, the lord of war; and of bodies of water I am the ocean. (Bhagavad-gita As It Is 10.24)
…And of all bodies of water, the ocean is the greatest. These representations of Kṛṣṇa only give hints of His greatness. (from purport)
Full text and purport
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Chapter Ten, Text 24
purodhasāṁ ca mukhyaṁ māṁ
viddhi pārtha bṛhaspatim
senānīnām ahaṁ skandaḥ
sarasām asmi sāgaraḥ
purodhasām—of all priests; ca—also; mukhyam—chief; mām—Me; viddhi—understand; pārtha—O son of Pṛthā; bṛhaspatim—Bṛhaspati; senānīnām—of all commanders; aham—I am; skandaḥ—Kārtikeya; sarasām—of all reservoirs of water; asmi—I am; sāgaraḥ—the ocean.
TRANSLATION
Of priests, O Arjuna, know Me to be the chief, Bṛhaspati, the lord of devotion. Of generals I am Skanda, the lord of war; and of bodies of water I am the ocean.
PURPORT
Indra is the chief demigod of the heavenly planets and is known as the king of the heavens. The planet in which he reigns is called Indraloka. Bṛhaspati is Indra’s priest, and since Indra is the chief of all kings, Bṛhaspati is the chief of all priests. And as Indra is the chief of all kings, similarly Skanda, the son of Pārvatī and Lord Śiva, is the chief of all military commanders. And of all bodies of water, the ocean is the greatest. These representations of Kṛṣṇa only give hints of His greatness.
Source:https://theharekrishnamovement.org/2016/09/19/i-am-the-ocean/
THE VEDAS DESCRIBE the cow as our mother (go-mata). Why? Because she gives the milk that nurtures and nourishes us from infancy to old age. When the cow is happy, satisfied, and well taken care of, she produces far more milk than her calf requires. We can use this milk for our dietary needs.
Srila Prabhupada writes, “Foods such as milk, milk products, sugar, rice, wheat, fruits, and vegetables are the foods that best aid health and increase life’s duration.” He calls milk “the most wonderful of all foods.”
The ox plows the fields from which grains, fruits, and vegetables are produced. Therefore the cow and ox together provide human beings with the complete foods to satisfy all our nutritional needs.
In return for all the service the cow and ox provide, the Vedas prescribe three duties for human beings toward the cow:
1. Serving the cow (go-seva)
2. Worshiping the cow (go-puja)
3. Protecting the cow (go-raksya)
Serving the cow: We should serve the cow with the same attitude that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krsna, serves the cows in Vrndavana. The Srimad-Bhagavatam describes in detail how Lord Krsna takes the cows and calves every morning to graze on the pastures of Govardhana Hill. There are hundreds of thousands of cows at the palace of Nanda Maharaja (Lord Krsna’s father), and each cow has her own name. Whenever Lord Krsna plays His flute and calls the cows by name, the cows, intelligent and affectionate, come running toward Him.
The Vedic literature enjoins us to satisfy the needs of the cows daily (with food, shelter, and so on) before we satisfy our own needs. This is how Aryans civilized persons should serve the cows.
Worshiping the cows: The Vedic scripture states that all the demigods and demigoddesses reside in the body of a cow. This explains why the body of a cow is divine and holy. If we worship Mother Cow, we attain the same material benefits we’d get by worshiping the demigods and demi-goddesses individually. The Garuda Purana says that anyone who has even once worshiped Mother Cow will be saved after death from the great suffering of hell (Naraka). Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, gave more importance to the worship of the cows than to the worship of the king of the demigods, Indra. Therefore in India even today many millions of pious Vedic followers worship Mother Cow at least once a year on Govardhana Puja day.
Protecting the cows: If we accept the cow as our mother, she deserves our veneration and love. And we should protect her from all dangers. In Vedic times it was the duty of everyone, especially kings, to protect the cows at all cost.
In the Vedic literature we find the revealing story of Emperor Dalip (an ancestor of Lord Ramacandra in the Sun Dynasty) and his commitment to cow protection. Once when Emperor Dalip was in the forest, he saw that a ferocious lion had gotten hold of a cow and was going to kill her. The emperor challenged the lion, “If you kill the cow, I will kill you. Let this cow go free!”
The lion replied, “O pious king! For my food I must kill animals. If I let this cow go free, what will I eat? I’ll die of hunger.”
Emperor Dalip thought for a few moments and replied, “O lion, if you let this cow go free, you do not have to die of hunger. I offer my body for you to eat! Let my body be your food!”
As soon as Emperor Dalip lay before the lion to be killed so that the cow could live, the lion and cow transformed themselves into a divine man and woman. The lion was Dharma, righteousness personified, and the cow was Mother Earth personified. They had been testing the emperor’s commitment to cow protection.
How can we protect cows today? In the United States alone more than forty million cows will be slaughtered this year to satisfy the demands of meat-eaters. And all over the globe many millions more will be slaughtered for the same reason. Yet this should not discourage us from our goal of cow protection. Even today, when the effects of Kali Yuga (the Age of Ignorance) are so strong, intelligent people can take part in the auspicious act of cow protection in two ways:
1. Never eat cow flesh (never eat meat!) and thereby never support cow killing. Please also tell others about the sinfulness of cow slaughter.
2. Help ISKCON farm projects where active cow protection is being practiced under Srila Prabhupada’s direct order. For example, the Adopt-A-Cow program at the Gita Nagari farm in Port Royal, Pennsylvania, provides you a direct opportunity to give financial and other help for the upkeep of about 150 cows.
The three basic duties of human beings toward the cow service, worship, and protection should and can be practiced today. The cow needs our love, affection, and reverence because, after all, she is our mother and she is so dear to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krsna.
SCHOLARS OFTEN restrict the meaning of the term “Vedic” to that which relates only to four original Vedas Rg, Sama, Yajur, and Atharva and the period in which they assume they appeared. Authorities within the tradition itself, however, usually expand the meaning to include not only the Vedas but their corollaries as well. They give the corollaries at least equal status to the Vedas and refer to them as Vedic literature. Following are some references to support that view:
“One should expand and accept the meaning of the Vedas with the help of the Itihasas and Puranas. The Vedas are afraid of being mistreated by one who is ignorant of the Itihasas and Puranas.” (Mahabharata, Adi 1.267)
“I consider the message of the Puranas to be more important than that of the Vedas. All that is in the Vedas is in the Puranas without a doubt.” (Naradiya Purana)
“I consider the Puranas equal to the Vedas. … The Vedas feared that their purport would be distorted by inattentive listening, but their purport was established long ago by the Itihasas and Puranas. What is not found in the Vedas is found in the smrtis.And what is not found in either is described in the Puranas. A person who knows the four Vedas along with the Upanisads but who does not know the Puranas is not very learned.” (Skanda Purana, Prabhasa-khanda)
Finally, the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad (4.5.11) states: “The Rg Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, Atharva Veda, Itihasas, Puranas, Upanisads, verses and mantras chanted by brahmanas, sutras [compilations of Vedic statements], as well as transcendental knowledge and the explanations of the sutras and mantras all emanate from the breathing of the great Personality of Godhead.”
Nivedan- Invoke the mercy of Lord
“Offering prayers is one of the most essential items of bhakti. Simply by learning the proper method of praying in the spirit, we can invoke the mercy of the lord within our lives and know him face to face. The Vedic literatures are filled with hymns and prayers. In fact within the Vedas, so much of the teachings are conveyed through the offerings of prayers of great souls. Srimad Bhagvatam, which is considered the essence, the jewel of all Vedic Literatures, is predominantly manifested through the prayers of the hearts of great souls.”
- By H.H. Radhanath Swami
The Bhajans of great Vaishnav Acharyas are non-different than the Vedic literatures as they present the same essence in a compact manner. Each word of the bhajan is the realized knowledge of these vaishanav acharyas, presented in simple language for the purpose of understanding of sadhaka devotees. Prayers offered with the spirit of devotion can perfect devotee’s life. But in Kali yuga the conditioning is so strong that sadhakas may not be able to offer proper prayers. When we offer the prayers of Vaishnav acharyas, Krishna due to merciful nature accepts them and the sadhaka is benefitted. Moreover, the Music accompanying these bhajans serves its purpose when it becomes an effective vehicle to carry them.
Through this global launch of Nivedan we request you to kindly download these bhajans. Below is the link
This is a Nivedan or request at the feet of you all Vaishnavas to accept this offering in the form of professionally recorded CD of bhajans and bless us to serve you all, Guru and Krishna with sincerity and dedication which is perfection of life for a sadhaka.
Your servant,
Vrindavan Prasad das
Sivarama Swami’s latest book, the fourth volume of the Krishna In Vrindavana series, is hot off the press. Shri Damodara-janani weaves a captivating tale of the glories of Mother Yashoda. No other person has ever received the unique mercy that Krishna showed His own mother, teaching devotees for all time that the binding force of love for Him is more powerful than even His own supreme will.
The dedication
A pastime that stopped the demigods in their tracks, captivated the residents of Gokula, and even stunned the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, this most powerful and beautifully scripted spotlight on Mother Yashoda is a revelation that will bind the devotees’ hearts, and in turn, detail the path to hopefully binding the heart of our beloved Sri Krishna.
Totalling 464 pages, with a 40 page introduction, 12 chapters of detailed descriptions of the pastime, and 8 unique, interesting appendices, the book is based on commentaries of the damodara-lila section of theBhagavatam by Shridhara Svami, Sanatana Gosvami, Jiva Gosvami, Shrinatha Cakravarti, Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakura, Baladeva Vidyabhushana, and the purports of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
The author receives the first printed copy of his new book
At Sivarama Swami’s request in the spring of 1999, Gopi-paranadhana Das translated all the above acharyas' Sanskrit commentaries to the verses relevant to the damodara-lila as an audio recording. Incorporating these recordings and scriptural references from Padma Purana, Brahma-vaivarta Purana, Brhad-bhagavatamrta, Ananda-vrndavana-champu, Sanatana Gosvami’s commentary on Sri Damodarashtakam, and Gopala-champu, this unique retelling of this special pastime is written as a wonderful narrative like the Krishna Book and it's a flood of sweet nectar. There is also a fresh rendering of the Damodarashtaka prayer.
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To order please visit www.srsbooks.com or write to Bhakti Devī Dasī at srsbookclub@1108.cc and have a wonderful Kārttika month meditation.
Source:http://iskconnews.org/sivarama-swamis-latest-book-praises-motherly-love,5812/
Devotees of ISKCON Brahmapur in the Indian state of Orissa made a unique offering to Srila Prabhupada on 16thAugust for the 50th anniversary: they have opened a permanent book store inside their local railway station with the permission of the railway authorities.
“This is the first time in the world that ISKCON has received official permission and support to open a permanent book store inside a railway station,” said Pancharatna Das, President of ISKCON Brahmapur. “The railway authorities arranged a prime spot inside the railway station, just next to the VIP room on platform 1. We are distributing all of Srila Prabhupada’s books from this store.”
The signboard at the book stall has the logos of ISKCON as well as the Government-owned East Coast Railways, making it an official retail outlet. The store will be managed by full-time book distributors as well as volunteers from the congregation.
“The sign above the book store says: one book will change your life,” commented Pancharatna Das. “All of us know that Srila Prabhupada’s books have transformed the hearts and minds of millions of people around the world. We hope that our humble offering to Srila Prabhupada in the 50th anniversary year of ISKCON will please His Divine Grace by increasing book distribution and generating more publicity for ISKCON.”
Source:http://iskconnews.org/iskcon-brahmapurs-permanent-book-store-at-railway-station-for-iskcon-50,5813/
I regard this article as a supplement to my book, Śrīla Prabhupāda: Founder-Ācārya of ISKCON. It expands upon discussions relating the importance of the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, especially in light of the philosophical and spiritual significance of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s parent temple, Śrī Caitanya Maṭha, in Māyāpur.
As I write, the resplendent Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, its central dome now towering 350 feet above the alluvial soil of Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, continues to reveal its form, within and without. This temple, when complete, will realize a key component of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, vital to the fulfillment of the mission of its Founder-Ācārya: to construct Lord Caitanya’s saṅkīrtana movement as the efficacious vessel for delivering humanity worldwide from the rising floods of the spiritual, mental, and physical calamities of our times.
By this undertaking, Śrīla Prabhupāda continued his revival of the interrupted mission of his Guru Mahārāja, and he has left us with all directions and facilities to complete it. Through us, Śrīla Prabhupāda continues his work. The temple taking shape at Māyāpur is central to that task.
We know that the intention to establish the spiritual center for the entire movement at Māyāpur inspired Śrīla Prabhupāda when, in 1972, he celebrated Gaura-pūrṇimā by ceremoniously inaugurating this temple—descending below ground to ritually install its cornerstone. On the previous day he had written to his London disciple Caturbhuja dāsa:
Now I am pleased that you are making serious study of our Krsna philosophy, so I want that you go on like this until you will able to defeat any challenge from atheists and rascals. Then your preaching work will have real potency and combinedly with your God-brothers around the world and at the London temple you shall preach so strongly that one day this Krsna consciousness movement will change the world from the most dangerous condition. That is the wish of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and tomorrow we shall be celebrating the Lord’s Appearance Day by laying down the corner-stone for our World Headquarters here at Mayapur.
Having committed ourselves to what Śrīla Prabhupāda committed himself to in 1972, we now strive to complete the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, the ultimate home of the present Śrī Māyāpur Candrodaya Mandīra. When the golden cakra— signifying the all-pervading power of the Lord—will be ceremoniously established and placed upon the gleaming kalaśa at the pinnacle of the temple, the whole edifice itself will be revealed as the very cakra, the hub and apex, of world-wide ISKCON, that victorious, world-spanning deliverer of the mercy of the Rising Moon of Māyāpur. All other far-flung temples and centers and gathering places of the entire International Society for Krishna Consciousness will be knit together as this central temple’s aṁśas and kalās—its incorporated expansions and sub-expansions—as parts, branches, and limbs of itself.
In order to complete this temple, ISKCON itself will have to act as a unified whole, exemplifying that unity in diversity which lies at the heart of Lord Caitanya’s teaching. We may take this as the test of the Founder-Ācārya: “Your love for me,” Śrīla Prabhupāda said in his final months, “will be shown by how much you cooperate to keep this institution together after I am gone.”
To aid us in passing this test, we should try to appreciate the temple both for where it is and forwhat it is. Each of these aspects is full of deep spiritual significance as regards the structure and the function of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission.
We can think of the temple placed here as a spectacular three-dimensional maṇḍala or yantra, as both a model and a symbol of ultimate reality, taking care to not minimize this maṇḍala as a “mere” symbol: when dealing with the absolute truth, the symbol and the symbolized are non-different. Those who are qualified can directly perceive, for example, that the Lord and His divine names or images are the same. The temple is similarly potent and filled with spiritual power: Śrī Māyāpur Candrodaya Mandīra is the manifest form and emblem of the spiritual dynamo driving the universal saṅkīrtana movement of Lord Caitanya.
THE HEART OF A GLOBAL MOVEMENT
In the sixteenth century, Śrīla Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura, divine author of the first great biography of Lord Caitanya, set down the future as if it were present to him: “By the mercy of Lord Nityānanda,” he wrote in Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, “the entire world is now singing the glories of Lord Caitanya.”
Some three centuries later, Śrīla Prabhupāda sat before his disciples in Māyāpur outlining his plan for erecting a great thirty-story temple there, displaying within it the form and contents of all worlds, both material and spiritual.
In short, all that there is: Kŗșṇa and Kŗșṇa’s multifarious energies.
Śrīla Prabhupāda said: “I have named this temple Śrī Māyāpur Candrodaya Mandīra, the Rising Moon of Māyāpur. Now,” he enjoined his followers, “make it rise, bigger and bigger, until it becomes the full moon. And this moonshine will be spread all over the world. All over India they will come to see. From all over the world they will come.”
Two years later in Māyāpur, Śrīla Prabhupāda disclosed the text that had inspired his name for the temple—a phrase found in the first verse of Lord Caitanya’s Śikṣāṣṭaka: śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇam. Mahāprabhu’s beautiful metaphor here likens saṅkīrtana to the rays of the moon (candrikā) that open the perfumed blossoms of the night-blooming lily (kairava) of our topmost good (śreyas)—that is, our eternal relationship with Lord Kŗșṇa.
“The ultimate benefit of life is compared with the moon,” Śrīla Prabhupāda said in a Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class. “So spreading Kŗșṇa consciousness means spreading the moonlight. Therefore we have named this temple Śrī Māyāpur-candrodaya.” The rising (udaya) moon (candra) of Śrī Māyāpur: the name given by Śrīla Prabhupāda intimates that the influence of this temple will come to pervade the entire world.
Moreover, “Caitanya-candra” and “Māyāpur-candra” are both names of Lord Caitanya. So “Śrī Māyāpur-candrodaya” denotes the temple as well as Lord Śrī Caitanya Himself, who presides in His five features as the Pañca-tattva on the temple’s central altar. With these and many other elements and components, the great temple becomes the spiritually energetic and energizing center or dynamo from which the blessings of Lord Caitanya become dispersed throughout the world.
Accordingly, “Within our movement,” Śrīla Prabhupāda told his secretary Brahmānanda Swami, “Māyāpur temple is the first.”
PREDECESSORS OF ISKCON AND ITS
TEMPLE OF THE VEDIC PLANETARIUM
We find that Śrīla Prabhupāda received the inspiration and direction for his whole movement—including the singular temple located at its heart—from the work and teachings of his own spiritual master, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura.
A brief look at the accomplishments of Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura will shed light upon those of his singular servant, the sārasvata deva who took up and completed his spiritual master’s project of establishing Lord Caitanya’s teaching (gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇa) in the Western lands (pāścātya-deśa), so overwhelmed by varieties of nihilism and impersonalism (nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi).
In 1918 Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura had inaugurated His preaching organization—“Gauḍīya Maṭha” or “Gauḍīya Mission”—with the establishment of the Śrī Caitanya Maṭha in Māyāpur. Over the following decade and a half that mission grew to include over sixty Maṭhas, temples with ashrams for sannyāsīs and brahmacārīs.
This impressive achievement, however, was only the foundation of his far more audacious project of establishing Lord Caitanya’s movement in the West. Another vital component: in 1927 Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura endowed English-language preaching with eminent status when he transformed one of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s major preaching organs, the Bengali language Sajjana-toṣaṇī, into the English-language journal The Harmonist. Stressing his point, Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura personally took the position, and title, of Editor. Then three years later, he celebrated the opening of a singularly opulent and imposing temple at Bāg-bazar in Calcutta, designed to serve as his mission’s headquarters for worldwide preaching.
Calcutta was a “world city.” It had served as the imperial seat of the British Raj in the East until 1911. The seat was then transfered to Delhi, yet Calcutta continued on as a vibrant center of commerce, finance, and culture. The city was thus an appropriate location for the headquarters of a global mission, and in 1933 Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura saw off three selected disciples as they embarked for London to preach and establish a temple there.
Yet from the beginning of Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s hugely ambitious mission, the unique position of the secluded Māyāpur center had been always recognized and honored. In the movement’s published lists of centers, the Śrī Caitanya Maṭha came first and usually bore the distinctive designation of “Parent Math.” But then, in 1930, the dazzling new Calcutta temple—named as “Sri Gaudiya Matha”—with its prominent location, its facade of pure white marble, its lavish appointments, and its bold mission—seemed to eclipse all other centers, especially the sacrosanct “Parent Temple.” There were seeds, as we now know, of an unhealthy rivalry, a fissure opening in the framework of the movement. The Editor of The Harmonist wanted to counteract that tendency. The temple’s grand opening, accordingly, also occasioned the publication of a rich and detailed explication of the relationship between the conspicuous new center in a great city and its “Parent Temple” hidden somewhere out in the remote Bengali countryside.
This long essay turned out to be a profound exposition of the spiritual morphology of the entire institution. Titled “Sri Gaudiya Math,” the article was serialized over three issues of The Harmonist, the movement’s English-language periodical, and was produced under the direct personal supervision of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. This three-part essay impressively conveys the theological model of the spiritual institution—the ecclesiology—that guided Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura and, later, as it would turn out, his most resolute and faithful student Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda as well.
The immediate concern of the article is to elucidate the deep spiritual reasons why the spectacular, newly inaugurated Bāg-bazar temple—“in the modern urban environment,” as the article puts it—is not only subordinate to the Śrī Caitanya Maṭha in Māyāpur, but also is itself an “expansion” of it:
The Gaudiya Math (in Calcutta) is the principle branch of Sri Chaitanya Math of Sridham Mayapur. The distinction between the Gaudiya Math and Sri Chaitanya Math is all analogous to that between one lamp lighted by another. The Gaudiya Math is the expansion of the Chaitanya Math in a visible form into the heart of the world. Sri Chaitanya Math is eternally located as the original source even when it is manifested to the view of the people of this world, in the transcendental environment of the eternal Abode of the Divinity. The activities of the Gaudiya Math and of the other sister branch Maths are, however, essentially identical with those of Sri Chaitanya Math and are categorically different from the ordinary activities of this world.
Here we discover the template upon which Śrīla Prabhupāda faithfully modeled ISKCON’s own spiritual configuration, presented together with the profound—you can say “esoteric”— meaning of it: There is a unique, preeminent “parental” temple situated in Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, “eternally located as the original source,” even as it also “is manifest to the view of the people of this world.” Note that “the original source” is not a reference simply to some relatively recent construction in rural Bengal. Rather, “the original source” of the Gauḍīya Maṭha is “eternally located” in the spiritual realm, that is, “the transcendental environment of the eternal Abode of the Divinity.” That transcendent temple, however, is also made immanent, “manifest to the view of the people of this world.”
Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, the place of Lord Caitanya’s appearance and activities, is simultaneously transcendent and immanent, for, we know that whenever and wherever the Lord descends, His eternal abode and associates all descend with Him. Thus the transcendent realm of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s eternal vṛndāvana-līlā, called Goloka Vṛndāvana, becomes manifest on the earthly plane as Gokula Vṛndāvana. Similarly, the everlasting realm of Lord Caitanya’s līlā in Kṛṣṇaloka, known as Śvetadvīpa, appears in Bengal as the manifest Navadvīpa and its enclosed Śrīdhāma Māyāpur. At these and other such sacred places on earth, the material and spiritual worlds are made, so to speak, contiguous, facilitating crossing over. Hence, the name for such pilgrimage destinations istīrtha, or ford.
This and more, as we shall see, is disclosed, celebrated, and facilitated by the Founder-Ācārya at the “Parent Temple,” which serves at the tīrtha as a visible kind of entrance as of a portal, or gateway, or bridge.
When this central temple, by the mercy of devotees, extends outward from its inherently sacred environment into profane regions, these expansions or branches, even though distant from their source, are essentially identical with it. The analogy of “one lamp lighted by another,” employed by The Harmonist, is taken from Brahma-saṁhitā (5.46), where it is used to elucidate the relationship between Lord Kṛṣṇa and His expansions, like Balarāma, Mahā-viṣṇu, and so on. The use of the metaphor here implies that all the institution’s temples, as integral components of a spiritual organization, will be equally potent, even though one is the original, and the others, its branches or branches of branches.
Having established the essential unity of the original source with its branches and sub-branches, the article goes on to propound the spiritual identity that unifies the Founder-Ācārya with his organization, its various parts and branches, and each of its individual members:
The Gaudiya Math is also identical with its founder Acharyya (sic). The associates, followers and abode of His Divine Grace are limbs of himself. None of them claim to be anything but a fully subordinate limb of this single individual. This unconditional, causeless, spontaneous submission to the Head, is found to be not only compatible with, but also absolutely necessary for the fullest freedom of initiative of the subordinate limbs.
The wholesome spiritual organization, acting with exemplary coherence and concord, is non-different from the Founder-Ācārya. The society is that august, divine personage in another form, the incorporated expansion of his own loving service to Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya. This point is further elucidated:
All activity of the Gaudiya Math emanates from His Divine Grace Paramahansa Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj, the spiritual successor of Sri Rupa Goswami who was originally authorised by Sri Caitanyadeva to explain the process of loving spiritual devotion for the benefit of all souls. The reality of the whole activity of the Gaudiya Math depends on the initiative of the Acharya. Sri Chaitanya Math of Sridham Mayapur reveals the source of the Gaudiya Math. The Acharya dwells eternally with the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya in His transcendental Abode in Sridham Mayapur, White Island of the Scriptures. From there the Acharya manifests his appearance on the mundane plane for the redemption of souls from the grip of the deluding energy and conferring on them loving devotion to the Feet of Sri Sri Radha-Govinda. The off-shoots of Sri Chaitanya Math are an extension of the centre of the bestowal of grace for the benefit of souls in all parts of the world. The recognition of the connection with Sridham Mayapur is vital for realising the true nature of the Gaudiya Math and the grace of the Acharya.
This passage repays alert reading and reflection. It is a penetrating portrayal of the spiritual structure and function of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s organization. It was written in 1930, yet we can clearly recognize the organization of essential elements of a spiritual institution—the Founder-Ācārya, the central temple of the Ācārya, its disbursed extensions—that is the clear template for ISKCON, founded thirty-five years later by Śrīla Siddhānta Sarasvatī’s fully dedicatedsārasvata disciple, who constructed ISKCON on the basis of a deep and faithful comprehension of his own guru’s works.
Guided by that paradigm, we can recognize the Śrī Caitanya Maṭha of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura as the prototype, in regard to place, form, and function, of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Temple of the Vedic Planetarium at Māyāpur. The basis for Śrīla Prabhupāda’s determination to have his movement’s central temple and world headquarters here becomes clear.
It was at first, to many of us, a great mystery, accepted on faith alone. Most who journeyed to Māyāpur for the first of the annual Gaura-pūrṇimā observances were astounded, upon arrival, to think that Prabhupāda wanted our “world headquarters” here, that here the Governing Body Commission was to hold its annual plenary meeting—here, set down amid cane-fields and rice-paddies stretching to the horizon, here, where we bathed and shaved with icy water in the open air while working the lever of a hand-pump, here where the sparse telephone and electrical facilities were antiquated, haphazard, and hazardous. Was it really and truly here that Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted to establish the heart of ISKCON? “Why not Los Angeles?” some wondered aloud. “Or at least Bombay?” It became yet another test of our faith and of our surrender.
Śrīla Prabhupāda’s conviction that ISKCON’s headquarter temple belongs here testifies to his own faith in and surrender to his spiritual master, whose spiritual vision of the Gauḍīya institution is conveyed by The Harmonist article.
Moreover, since Śrīla Prabhupāda faithfully fabricated ISKCON on the paradigm of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s movement, we can also take advantage of the depiction of that movement in The Harmonist to understand the higher, extraterrestrial region of ISKCON.
Today at Māyāpur in Bengal anyone can observe the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium and the memorial temple of ISKCON’s Founder-Ācārya—both of them domed structures, as it turned out—facing each other across an open plaza. We should regard this display as the terrestrial manifestation of a transcendent fact: “The Acharya dwells eternally with the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya in His transcendental Abode in Sridham Mayapur, White Island of the Scriptures.” Referring to that place in a letter to a disciple, Tuṣṭa Kṛṣṇa dāsa, Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote: “We will have another ISKCON there.” Andthere, he affirmed in the same letter, the spiritual master and disciple are together forever.
Nor can it be that the ISKCON here and the ISKCON there are disconnected. The Temple of the Vedic Planetarium itself is both the sign and assurance of that connection, between, so to speak, the bhauma and the divya ISKCON. As Founder-Ācārya, Śrīla Prabhupāda leads the ISKCON yatrathere—an everlasting saṅkīrtana-yajña in gaura-līlā—but he is also able to exercise a special providential care for the ISKCON here and even, upon occasion, to depute his associates there to guide, strengthen, and inspire his followers here.
TEMPLES THAT EMBODY AND TEACH PARĀ-VIDYĀ
There is another distinctive feature of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s “Parent Temple” that his faithful sārasvata disciple received, adapted, and developed for his Temple of the Vedic Planetarium. The temple at the heart of ISKCON is fashioned— like its prototype, the Śrī Caitanya Maṭha—not only for the purpose of arcana, divine worship, but also for parā-vidyā, for education in supreme transcendental knowledge as given by Lord Caitanya.
The Śrī Caitanya Maṭha presents this highest knowledge by means of the history of its revelation, its historical unfolding over time. The Temple of The Vedic Planetarium sets forth the same parā-vidyā, but in another way—spatial more than temporal— through depictions of the divine geography and cosmology as disclosed in Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam.
In particular, the Śrī Caitanya Maṭha is designed to proclaim and to celebrate particular, providential, historic acts of Lord Kṛṣṇa, occurring within the 5,000 year- long history of our age, to prepare the way for the advent of Lord Caitanya—who descended in Māyāpur 530 years ago in order to absorb Himself in, and to teach, saṅkīrtana, which is the yuga-dharma, the divine dispensation for this age of Kali.
The appearance of Lord Caitanya had been foretold in the pages of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, which records the sage Karabhājana informing King Nimi of the four yuga-avatāras who descend in each age to reveal the yuga-dharma. “In Kali-yuga also,” the sage said,
people worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead by following various regulations of the revealed scriptures. Now kindly hear of this from me. In the age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the names of Kṛṣṇa. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.
The Sanskrit word here for weapons is astra, meaning, etymologically, “that which is thrown.” Lord Caitanya’s astra is the Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā-mantra, a subtle, sonic weapon of immense power, that, when broadcast, spares the life of the ungodly or demonic person, but works to dissolve that person’s godless or demonic mentality. Kali-yuga is so bad, that were all the godless slain, there would be hardly no one left. So Lord Caitanya’s saṅkīrtana is the appropriate process, the yuga-dharma, for our times.
The Śrī Caitanya Maṭha, erected in the birthplace of Lord Caitanya, is designed to make manifest the historical preparation for the advent of this golden-formed avatāra.
Sheltered under a traditional Bengali parabolic dome are the temple’s three main Deities: The mūrtis of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, named “Śrī Śrī Gāndharvikā-Giridhārī,” and, standing right beside Them, the mūrti of Lord Caitanya, named “Śrī Gaurāṅga.” The specific name given Lord Caitanya here—meaning “golden-limbed”—and His close proximity to Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa highlight the significant teaching that Lord Gaurāṅga is Himself a combined form of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa: He is Kṛṣṇa who has taken on the emotions and bodily hue of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, His own supreme, eternal devotee— the embodiment of His internal spiritual energy of bliss—in order to savor, directly for Himself, Her sublime loving ecstasies.
If you circumambulate these three Deities, starting at the main altar and moving clockwise along the circumference of the raised circular base, you will encounter four evenly spaced cubical shrines projecting out from the central dome. Each displays a mūrti of one of the Founder-Ācāryas of the four historical Vaiṣṇava communities, or sampradāyas. Identifying signs flank each shrine—Bengali on the left, English on the right.
The English-language sign by the first looks like this:
Within this shrine you indeed see the formally seated figure of Śrī Madhva, the exemplary teacher or Ācārya—as the sign informs us—of the doctrine (vada) known as śuddha-dvaita, “purified dualism,” the name for Madhvācārya’s signature theistic articulation of Vaiṣṇava Vedānta, inculcating bhakti. If you lean forward a little and peer into the shrine, you will be able to see, within a niche on 
the upper left, the form of four-headed Brahmā, the primordial, prehistorical originator of Śrī Madhva’s community, the Brahma-sampradāya. Continuing around the circumference, you will similarly encounter Śrī Viṣṇu Swami, Ācārya of śuddhādvaita (“purified monism”) in the Rudra-sampradāya, with its divine originator Lord Śiva in the niche; then Śrī Nimbārka, Ācārya of dvaitādvaita (“monism and dualism”) in the Kumāra- sampradāya, with the four young sons of Brahmā in the niche; and finally, Śrī Rāmānuja, Ācārya of viśiṣṭādvaita (“qualified monism”) in the Śrī-sampradāya, with Lakṣmīdevī in the niche.
This symmetrical layout is a great three-dimensional maṇḍala in which the rectangular shrines of the four Founder-Ācāryas converge, spoke-like, upon the hub of the central domed sanctuary of Lord Śrī Caitanya and Śrī-Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. It impresses upon the visitor, in a formidable and memorable manner, the central Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava recognition, both historical and philosophical, of the comprehensiveness, inclusiveness, and supremacy of the ultimate Vedāntic synthesis, acintya-bhedābheda- tattva, promulgated by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself.
The understanding of Vaiṣṇava history that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura expounded in this tangible way had been received by him through his father, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, who, in the late nineteenth century, had commenced the endeavor of propagating Lord Caitanya’s movement globally. In his book Daśa-mula- tattva, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura summarized his presentation of how Lord Caitanya “purified and perfected” the teachings of the four Founder-Ācāryas:
The previous philosophical expositions of the Absolute Truth based on the Veda by different ācāryas were all incomplete and at variance with each other. As a result, different paramparās, preceptorial chains of disciplic succession, were founded. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, appeared and, by His omniscient potency, synthesised and supplemented the ideas of their philosophies. Śrī Madhvācārya’s concept of the transcendental form of the Supreme Lord—the embodiment of eternality, absolute knowledge and unlimited bliss; Śrī Rāmānuja’s concept of the status of the Supreme Lord’s eternal associates and transcendental energies; Śrī Viṣṇu Svāmī’s concept of purified monism; and Śrī Nimbārka’s concept of eternal simultaneous oneness and duality—all these esoteric concepts were purified and perfected by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He gave to this world, by His unlimited mercy, the most exact and scientific delineation of the Vedic conclusion in His teachings of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, the principle of inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference. Within a short time, a singular spiritual line—the Śrī Brahma- sampradāya—has gained unexpected pre-eminence [because Lord Caitanya received initiation into it], and all the other sampradāyas, spiritual lines, have become subservient to and will reach perfection by its metaphysical precepts.
In this way, by means of the central maṇḍala of the “Parent Temple,” the entire institution becomes knit together and expressed as an integrated whole, exemplifying as well as teaching the ultimate principle of divinity taught by Lord Caitanya, acintya- bhedābheda-tattva.
TEMPLE OF THE VEDIC PLANETARIUM
Śrīla Prabhupāda had devoted profound and prolonged attention to the words and deeds of his spiritual master, and he had taken to heart his guru’s instructions—given orally at their first meeting and in writing in their last communication—to spread Lord Caitanya’s movement in the English language. He managed singlehandedly the task of translating into English and commenting on the First Canto of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, printing and publishing the work in three volumes in India.
Armed with these books, he sailed for the United States, alone, where in New York City he began to gain dedicated students. Seeing great potential for preaching, he appealed to Godbrothers in India for help and cooperation, but his appeals fell on deaf ears. At the same time, his own guru’s organization remained shattered and in disarray, the sundering having begun along the very fracture that the 1930 Harmonist article had sought to heal. Śrīla Prabhupāda realized that when it came to the revival and continuation of his Guru Mahārāja’s mission, he was on his own. Consequently, in July of 1966 in New York he founded The International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
As ISKCON quickly blossomed into a world-spanning enterprise, Śrīla Prabhupāda remained guided by his spiritual master’s prior effort. For him, the Gauḍīya Mission served as the prototype or template for ISKCON, which itself became, in effect, the resurrection, augmentation, and perpetuation of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s organization, an organization that served for Śrīla Prabhupāda as a kind of beta-test version of his global movement. In this way, Śrīla Prabhupāda followed in the footsteps of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura.
It is not surprising to recognize that Śrīla Prabhupāda undertook to construct ISKCON according to the principles spelled out in The Harmonist article of 1930, which disclosed the singular import of the central or “parent” temple at Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, as well as its connection with the Founder-Ācārya. And, as we have seen, that unique temple embodies the most confidential teaching disclosed by Māyāpura- candrodaya—Lord Caitanya—Himself: acintya-bhedābheda-tattva.
Śrīla Prabhupāda chose not to imitate or duplicate the way Śrī Caitanya Maṭha presented the supremacy of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva; rather he chose to augment and expand on that exposition. Just as his world-wide movement itself is an expansion and augmentation of Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s, so, appropriately, will be its headquarter temple.
The Deities on the three main altars of the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, for example, are expansions and elaborations of the Deities at the Śrī Caitanya Maṭha. The Śrī Caitanya Maṭha enshrines Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa; the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa accompanied by the eight intimate associates of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, the aṣṭa-sakhī-gopīs. The Śrī Caitanya Maṭha worships Lord Gaurāṅga; the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, the entire Pañca-tattva. The Śrī Caitanya Maṭha hallows the four historical Founder-Ācāryas; the altar in the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium hallows the entire lineage of great Ācāryas in our Brahma-sampradāya.
The Temple of the Vedic Planetarium also embodies acintya-bhedābheda-tattva as the ultimate principle of Vedānta, not through the history of teachings, but rather by means of a dynamic representation of the entire inventory of existence, of all that there is: to put it succinctly, Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s energies. This representation hangs, suspended over the main temple room from the apex of the dome “a huge, detailed model of the universe as described in the text of the fifth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam,” as Śrīla Prabhupāda described it in a letter of 1976. He went on to list fifteen numbered features, beginning with Pātāla-loka and the bila-svarga underworld at the base, and ending with Goloka Vṛndāvana at the top. “This model,” Śrīla Prabhupāda further specified, “will be engineered to suspend from the structure of the dome and rotate according to the real movement of the planets.”
The model—about 140 feet in length and 65 feet in diameter—will, of course, be visible from the main temple-room floor, and visitors will get much closer, detailed views from three levels of open gallery, accessible by escalators, around the inside of the dome. These galleries will also offer additional details and explanations, and the entire cosmology will be further explored and explained in the west, museum wing, of the temple.
KṚṢṆA’S UNIVERSAL FORM:
THE COSMOS AS BODY OF GOD
The source of the cosmology in the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium is, as Śrīla Prabhupāda directed, mainly the exposition in The Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
That begins (5.16.3) with this question by Mahārāja Parīkṣit:
When the mind is fixed upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His external feature made of the material modes of nature—the gross universal form—it is brought to the platform of pure goodness. In that transcendental position, one can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, who in His subtler form is self-effulgent and beyond the modes of nature. O my lord, please describe vividly how that form, which covers the entire universe, is perceived.
SB 5.16.3
Readers or hearers of the Bhāgavatam have been prepared for this Fifth Canto presentation from early on in the work. In the Second and Third Cantos we encounter five separate descriptions of the universal form—the virāṭ-rūpa—of the Lord (in the first, sixth, and tenth chapters of the Second Canto and the sixth and twenty-sixth of the Third). The initial presentation in Canto Two, Chapter One is titled, significantly, “The First Step in God Realization.”
Now in the Fifth Canto the Bhāgavatam returns to and enlarges on this topic of the virāṭ-rūpa; it presents the reader with a directed contemplation of the material world, one that purifies and elevates the consciousness, “brings the mind to the platform of pure goodness.” The conventional way of looking at this world has the opposite effect; it besmirches and degrades the mind. Our customary way of seeing, probing, and appraising the world is undertaken with the aim of enjoying, controlling, and exploiting it and its contents. By so doing we explicitly or implicitly separate the creation from its creator, mentally alienating the world from its true owner and controller. Consequently, the divinity that pervades and hallows the world remains beyond our ken.
Our materially infected consciousness, corrupted by desire, cannot perceive even this world as it really is, to say nothing of the Lord in His transcendent form. Even so, we do recognize objects that correspond to words like “tree,” “cloud,” “mountain,” “river,” “bird,” and the like, and the Bhāgavatam directs us (in the first chapter of the Second Canto) to see trees as the hair on the Lord’s body, rivers as His veins, mountains as His bones, birdsongs as exhibitions of His artistic taste, and so on.
Perceiving these natural phenomena as belonging to the Lord’s form begins to cleanse our perception. As consciousness becomes clarified, the presence of divinity in the world becomes self-evident. This perception, articulated as a theology, is called pantheism; from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam’s perspective, it is a part—an initial glimpse—of the truth of divinity.
With this we see one of the reasons for prominently featuring the virāṭ-rūpa at the heart of Lord Caitanya’s global movement: offering that “first step” in God realization to all comers.
THE RESPIRITUALIZATION OF MATTER
The other purpose is to put on display a vivid and comprehensive presentation of Lord Caitanya’s Vedāntic synthesis, acintya-bhedābheda-tattva. This principle (tattva) expresses the relationship between Lord Kṛṣṇa and His various energies. It stipulates that you can neither conceive of the creation as identical with Kṛṣṇa, nor can you conceive of it as different from Him.
Śrīla Prabhupāda formulates the principle quite succinctly in his purport to the final verse of Bhagavad-gītā: “Nothing is different from the Supreme, but the Supreme is always different from everything.” He gives another aphoristic formulation in his purport to Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 1.51: “In a sense, there is nothing but Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and yet nothing is Śrī Kṛṣṇa save and except His primeval personality.”
“The universal form is certainly material,” Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote, commenting on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.16.3, “but because everything is an expansion of the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, ultimately nothing is material.”
He elaborates on this idea in the short book The Path of Perfection:
In a higher sense, there is no matter at all. Everything is spiritual. Because Kṛṣṇa is spiritual and matter is one of the energies of Kṛṣṇa, matter is also spiritual. Kṛṣṇa is totally spiritual, and spirit comes from spirit. However, because the living entities are misusing this energy—that is, using it for something other than Kṛṣṇa’s purposes—it becomes materialized, and so we call it matter. The purpose of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to respiritualize this energy. It is our purpose to respiritualize the whole world, socially and politically. Of course, this may not be possible, but it is our ideal. At least if we individually take up this respiritualization process, our lives become perfect.
“Respiritualization” is also described in the purport to Bhagavad-gītā 4.24:
The more the activities of the material world are performed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or for Viṣṇu only, the more the atmosphere becomes spiritualized by complete absorption ….. The Lord is spiritual, and the rays of His transcendental body are called brahma-jyoti, His spiritual effulgence. Everything that exists is situated in that brahma-jyoti, but when the jyoti is covered by illusion (māyā) or sense gratification, it is called material. This material veil can be removed at once by Kṛṣṇa consciousness; thus the offering for the sake of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the consuming agent of such an offering or contribution, the process of consumption, the contributor, and the result are—all combined together—Brahman, or the Absolute Truth. The Absolute Truth covered by māyā is called matter. Matter dovetailed for the cause of the Absolute Truth regains its spiritual quality. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the process of converting the illusory consciousness into Brahman, or the Supreme.
Those who are highly advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness perceive this world in relationship to Kṛṣṇa, as pervaded and controlled by the Lord (īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam), and the cosmology as described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and as depicted in the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, is the record of their direct experience.
Today we also have been given the means by Lord Caitanya to verify that experience by our own. For this reason, Śrīla Prabhupāda has called Kṛṣṇa consciousness “a science.” The science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is certainly not the same as the relatively recently developed material science, and the cosmos modeled in the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium differs greatly from that as perceived by our limited material senses, whether working unaidedly or augmented and extended by instruments of modern technology. The Temple of the Vedic Planetarium is a challenge to the limitations, defects, and errors of our man-made ways of knowing.
Space travel, for example, is described regularly in the pages of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. We find frequent accounts interplanetary travel, most notably the star trekking voyages of the sage Nārada Muni, a great yogi and Vedic cosmonaut; Śrīla Prabhupāda referred to him as “the eternal spaceman.” In fact, the Bhāgavatam presents systematically descriptions of all the greater and lesser yoga-siddhis—science-fiction-like powers such as teleportation, miniaturization, remote viewing, and so on—which in the Bhāgavatam are recognized not as miracles or magic, but rather as jñāna and vijñāna, knowledge and science. But, as the scientist and science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke observed: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Lord Caitanya has ushered into the modern world the highly elevated and sophisticated technology of an earlier time, giving us in this kali-yuga some access to its advanced conclusions and their practical applications. The Temple of the Vedic Planetarium presents many of them, and the area of ancient Vedic cosmology and astronomy is a large and fascinating field of study. To encourage and facilitate such research, there will be, as an adjunct to the Temple, an Institute for the Study of Vedic Cosmology and Astronomy. This will be part of a broader project to fulfill Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desire to make Māyāpur to be a center for the academic study of Vaiṣṇavism. In 1976 he gave clear directions for what he called “ISKCON Bhāgavata College” in Māyāpur. He wanted this to be a graduate level, degree-granting institute, affiliated with an established “secular” university. Our institute would house a extensive research library centered on our own Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava literature as well as the works of the four historical Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas.
RESEARCH ACCORDING TO
PRINCIPLES OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE
Our research into Vedic cosmology and astronomy will take advantage of modern scholarship, but it will also facilitate researchers who work according to the recognized Vaiṣṇava principles of knowledge, which prominently included four regulative principles: to abstain from meat eating, intoxication, illicit sex, and gambling. People commonly categorize such injunctions as “principles of morality” having to do with reward and punishment, with good or bad karma. The Vaiṣṇava traditions, however, regard them also a cognitive principles.
These principles make possible a culture of sattva-guna, the mode of goodness, and Bhagavad-gītā (14.17) states sattvāt sañjāyate jñānaṁ, “from the mode of goodness real knowledge develops.” Thus, the mode of goodness is the basis of the brahminical or intellectual class, which is supposed to guide and direct human society.
Of course, modern intellectuals recognize no such regulative principles of knowledge. As Śrīla Prabhupāda notes, in the purport to Bhagavad-gītā 14.7, “Modern civilization is considered to be advanced in the standard of the mode of passion. Formerly, the advanced condition was considered to be in the mode of goodness.” For those scientists and intellectuals advanced by modern standards, the realm of transcendence or divinity is opaque, a matter at best of faith, not knowledge. They have no cognitive access to it, and probably little, if any, interest.
The Bhāgavatam cosmology is the product of knowledge and experience based on sattva, on purity in thinking, feeling, and willing. When the condition of sattva undergoes further purification and intensification, it is called viśuddha-sattva—pure goodness. In that state, it becomes possible to attain pareśānubhavaḥ, direct perception of the Supreme Lord. And thereupon all else becomes known: “When the cause of all causes becomes known, then everything knowable becomes known, and nothing remains unknown. The Vedas (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.1.3) say, kasminn u bhagavo vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavatīti” (Bhagavad-gītā 7.2, purport).
Such is the process of knowledge by which the cosmos becomes known and understood. To be sure, there is some congruence between the cosmos as understood through modern technology and that as presented in the Bhāgavatam. But the latter discloses the creation in relation to the creator, the cosmos as pervaded and animated by the Lord—īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam, as the first verse of the Īśopaniṣad puts it. And the cosmos, as perceive in that way, is itself pūrṇa, full, perfect and complete. “All forms of incompleteness,” Śrīla Prabhupāda comments, “are experienced due to incomplete knowledge of the Complete Whole.”
When you look at the model of that cosmos suspended beneath Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa under the dome of the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, you may not recognize the cosmos as you think you know it. For that model is derived from that ultimate vision of everything as spiritual. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.29.69, the yogic cosmonaut Nārada Muni himself discloses how one may attain that vision. He says,
“Kṛṣṇa consciousness means constantly associating with the Supreme Personality of Godhead in such a mental state that the devotee can observe the cosmic manifestation exactly as the Supreme Personality of Godhead does.”
Keeping one’s mind very close to Lord Kṛṣṇa, one may be able to see the phenomenal world in just the way that He does.
When, by our cooperative efforts worldwide, the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium is completed at the heart of ISKCON, all of its associated centers everywhere will become more fully manifest as entranceways to the spiritual world. This will be a major achievement—a crowning achievement—of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s project, following Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, of “the respiritualization of the entire human society,” empowering the whole world to “convert the illusory consciousness into Brahman.”
Gratitude to Yadubhara Prabhu, Shrisha Dasa, Sraddhadevi Dasi, and others for use of their photos.
“Morning, Looking East Over the Hudson Valley from the Catskill Mountains” painting by Frederic Edwin Church.
“World Highest Standard of Living” photo by Margaret Bourke-White.
Every year over 100,000 people line the streets of Towoomba in Queensland Australia for the Grand Floral Street Parade. This year on the 17th Sept Iskcon Bhakti Centre Gold Coast participated with our Rathyatra cart.
Jaganath, Subhadra and Baladev were so well recieved that we won first prize. The theme is flowers so who does flowers better than the Hare Krishnas? The cart was decorated by Sukla Devi Dasi, Rasarani Devi Dasi and Dhruva Das who worked on it for 5hours before the parade. So many people were clapping and chanting and dancing as the cart passed by with more than 50 devotees chanting the Maha Mantra, dancing and pulling the cart.
Thanks to the efforts of our Devotee community who enthusiastically try to please Srila Prabhupad by spreading the holy name far and wide.
The Rathyatra cart was built by Janmejaya Das our own ‘Visvakarma’. Organisers were Jamalarjuna Das, Radharanipriya Devi Dasi, Madhavananda Das, Lochananada Das, Satyaraj Das and Madhu Mangala. It takes a mammoth effort to coordinate.
There was prasadam distributed after the parade enjoyed by all in the park cooked by Brisbane devotees and Lochanananda Das.
Thanks to Brisbane yatra, New Govardhan yatra and Iskcon Bhakti Centre Gold Coast Yatra for their participation.
Your servants Iskcon Bhakti Centre Gold Coast.
On this date, Sri Visvarupa, the elder brother of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, took sannyasa. It is also the date on which Srila Prabhupada took sannyasa.
“If Srila Prabhupada hadn’t taken sannyasa and come to us, where would we be? We wouldn’t be anywhere—I shudder to think where we would be. So that renunciation is necessary. Sat-nyasa. Nyasa means to give up, and sat means the Supreme. One takes sannyasa to give up everything for the service of the Supreme, Krishna. Many of our acharyas have takensannaysa. They gave up the limited families of their homes or their towns and embraced the larger family of all humanity and all living beings.”
He had a massive cerebral hemorrhage to the right side of the brain. The devotees there got him into the hospice facility. Soon after left his body.
Swarup Das: I remembered that Nitai Das and I had some very wonderful personal exchanges using the message facility here on facebook - he wrote me the following in 2012:
“Swarup Prabhu, you said you were with ISKCON Press in Boston in those early days. It reminded me of one of my early Krsna conscious memories. I had met the devotees in LA in ‘69 with my hippie wife at the time. We were coming out of a Beatles movie in Hollywood and Visnujana Maharaja and the devotees were doing their 24 hour Harinama (it was about 2AM). We immediately began dancing with the devotees as if drawn into a world we had lost somewhere. A devotee gave us a mantra card and we began singing along with the Kirtana. Then this Mataji came up to me and showed me a copy of Krsna, The Reservoir of Pleasure and pointed to the picture on it and, with the purest look I have ever seen, she said, "This is God! His Name is Krsna, He’s blue and He plays a flute!!!” From that moment on I have never lost faith that Krsna is God. (I would love to find out who that Mother was…I have asked a lot of devotees…since you are in CA. maybe you have heard of someone like her…Then again, she may be long gone but she was my first siksa-guru and it would be nice to know who she is).
But that’s not the story I was talking about. After the kirtana settled down and we were talking to the devotees and then every time I met more devotees, that word “nice” was used over and over so I thought it was part of the devotee lingo. At any rate, i was and still am a songwriter/poet/musician and I wrote a poem about the devotees with the theme being “Nice”. I sent a copy of it to ISKCON Press in Boston hoping it would get published in BTG. I got a very nice rejection letter back from Satsvarupa Maharaja (who as you said was a householder at that time). So when you told me your story, I was thinking, Swarup was probably there when that poem came in the mail and I was wondering what the reaction was…laughter, “another hippie” or “How 'nice!’” I know you don’t recall the exact poem but what would the mood of the devotees at that time have been? When I get back to America, I am going to look thru all my old poems and songs and see if I can find that one and even the rejection letter that I probably saved. I’m just curious what the mood would have been like tho.
I often wonder if all of us who took seriously to this mission are not bonded together from previous lives. it was just so easy for some to take to it and others no interest at all.
Hope this finds you well and blissful in Krsna consciousness…
Your servant…
Nitai das"
EVERYBODY SHOULD JOIN THE SANKIRTAN PARTY ASAP!
Ramesvara dasa: I remember my first morning walk with Srila Prabhupada. It was when he came to New Dwarka in 1973, and I remember I had just written the sankirtan scores for the day before. I asked Karandar to give it to Srila Prabhupada, which he did. Prabhupada wrote back a handwritten note saying, “Thank you boys and girls. I give you so much thanks, because you are helping me serve my guru maharaj. Surely he will give his blessings, pour his blessings thousand times more than me on you, and that is my satisfaction.” And then he wrote “n.b.”, note below: “Everyone should join the sankirtan party as soon as possible.”
This is a fascinating photo taken around 1870, on the grounds of Bhaktivedanta Manor. The present building that everyone recognises today was built in 1884, so this is the former building.
