It is mentioned in the Hari Bhakti Vilasa that if one accepts the worship of a deity then, not only should one worship that deity very nicely during his lifetime, but one is also responsible to make sure that theseva puja goes on after one’s lifetime! So we see that it is a major responsibility to worship a deity.

Krsna is very kind when he manifests himself in his deity form. Krsna descends from the spiritual world in that particular form and manifests himself here. When Krsna manifests himself in the deity form, the spiritual world is also manifest. Therefore in a way, one can say that our temples are non-different from Vrindavan because wherever Krsna is, the entire spiritual world is also manifest! That is the nature of Krsna.

In this way, we can appreciate the mercy that is manifest through the deity of the Lord. Just like here at the Bhaktivedanta Manor, it would have no meaning without the deity. It is a beautiful Manor but the deity is the centre of the entire property. Srila Prabhupada, as the principle servant, is leading all of us in service to the deity. Everything is going on very nicely. Whatever is here is an asset of the deity and whatever we develop, is offered to the deity. In that way, wherever the deity is manifest, automatically life begins to centre around Krsna. Therefore, deity worship is a very important and powerful element of thebhakti process. 
Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=21662

My first encounter of the devotees was an unexpected one. I’d heard about the Hare Krishnas before (most notably from when they were mentioned by Kermit the Frog in that seminal classic, The Muppet Movie), and only thought them as funny looking but probably good natured people in orange robes singing and dancing in the street, and this is the extent to which I suspect most college students know ISKCON. At my university, the students may talk to the devotees when they see them on their bi-weekly campus harinam, maybe sit and listen to the kirtan, maybe even take a book, but they seldom, in my experience, tried to understand why they were there beyond playing cool music and distributing tasty cookies and ginger-ade.

I, however, a curious freshman English major, decided to go further one day when I saw the friendly neighborhood representatives of Lord Caitanya’s Sankirtan army chanting under a tree outside the humanities building; a curious sight for a Thursday afternoon.

Now, I am not a socially adept person. Since I’ve been making coherent sentences I have yet to master the treacherous art of small talk. Still, my interest overcame my social anxiety, I suppose, and I approached one of the devotees. “Um… hi there!”

“Hey!” she said, smiling. Her sari was rippling violently in the wind, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“Are you guys Hare Krishnas?” I asked. What a stupid question. Who else could they be?

“Yes! You’ve heard about us?”

I proceeded to summarize to her my experience with Hindu scriptures and my geeky love of Sanskrit literature. I’d studied the Bhagavad Gita in school, and had also read versions of the Mahabharata and Ramayana, as well as some of Kalidasa’s plays, the Upanishads, and the Panchatantra.

“That’s wonderful!” she beamed.

“You should come to our center!” piped a shiny-headed devotee with a melodious Indian accent, “We have kirtan every night, and we serve free food afterwards!” He handed me a floral printed card that read “HARMONY COLLECTIVE: Learning Love through Cooperation”

I decided to go. They had me at “free food”.

The Harmony Collective is located, aptly, at 108 North Adams St. near Downtown Ypsilanti, in an old Victorian looking house that sports chipping chartreuse paint and dusky orange windowsills. Upon entering, I tried to make small talk with the devotees but was distracted by the walls, which sported small pictures and tapestries featuring stories from the scriptures; the epic Battle at Kurukshetra, the Gopis in the midst of their blissful Rasa Dance, and Krishna himself, the divine, sky-blue toddler, eating butter straight from the churn.

When I went upstairs to the altar room, kirtan was in full swing. Sitting down on cushions was Sidha (the Indian devotee who handed me the card). He greeted me with an enthusiastic “Ayeeeee!” and bade me sit down. At first, I was somewhat, if not extremely uncomfortable. Interacting with strangers is always uncomfortable. But, I decided to just close my eyes and roll with the tide.

Sooner or later, things got really, really, fun. I found that I loved making music with these people, reveling in the funky, driving rhythms, the sudden tempo changes. As with many college musicians going into a non-musical field, with the load of classes, homework, and social life, one barely has time to sing or play. I found that I really missed this.

After kirtan, I chatted up the founder of the Harmony Collective, the mellow yet piercingly intelligent Deva Madhava Das, and his wife, the equally remarkable Phalguni Radhika Devi Dasi, who was the woman who was leading kirtan that evening. I quickly struck up a friendship with her in particular, and on my subsequent visits we would discuss philosophy, scripture, literature, and our love of BBC comedy quiz-panel shows with equal enthusiasm.

I found myself being drawn to this place; no matter how hectic things got with school I always found ways to come back and visit, and I was always greeted with smiles and “how are you”s from all. It felt like things were slower there, less apprehensive, less worried than the fast-paced atmosphere of campus. No matter what was going on with my mammoth homework load or my social life or my dank existential anxiety about careers and the future, I knew I could always come to the Harmony Collective for a place to breathe and re-assess.

As I got more familiar with the HC’s devotee community, I inevitably got more familiar with Krishna Conscious philosophy. Prabhupad’s Gita, given to me by Sidha Hari on our first meeting, was different than the thin, more academic Gitas I’d read in the past. Upon diving in, I found Prabhupad’s commentary much more elaborate and distinct from interpretations I’d studied, but the process of cultivating sincere devotion and an emphasis on one’s personal relationship with God described in Prabhupad’s purports attracted me greatly.

Soon I was setting up a small altar in my room and chanting semi-regularly on beads given to me by Phalguni. By the end of the semester, I knew how to play the harmonium, how to do the swami step, and who the heck Hiranyakashipu is. Visiting devotees started referring to me happily as “Bhakta Patrick”. I liked that. It rang.

My parents, however were not so congenial. When I first mentioned to them that I went to the devotees for dinner one night, they responded with two resounding words: “STAY AWAY.” Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. I chalked this up to anxiety about me being away for the year, so I waited for a while and tried to drop subtle hints, saying things like “oh if I run out of meal plans I could always go to the Hare Krishnas”, and “I was at this Interfaith thing and the Hare Krishnas brought free food”, but alas they never warmed up to the idea, and remain decidedly cool to this day. It’s why I often find myself coming up with explanations like, “I’m going to this event put on my friend who runs a Yoga Center. It’s also why I didn’t use my full name to submit this article.

I brought this up to Phalguni one night as we hung out and watched everyone’s favorite T.V show featuring a magical azure flautist, Little Krishna.

“Parents are always like that”. She told me, “Mine totally were. It’ll take some time.”

“I have to tell them sooner or later, though” I said.

“You should invite them over” said Phalguni, sipping her hot mug of ginger tea, a Harmony Collective specialty. “Have them sit down and talk with us. Once they realize what we actually do here, they’ll be less freaked out. One time this kid documented us for his photography project and thought it was going to be exposing some weird cult thing, but all we really do is cook and play music.”

“I suppose so…” I imagined my parents meeting the devotees, a bizarre thought. I’ve always been the adventurous one in the family, so they’ve always been worried that my curiosity would get the better of me. Me joining a cult was, apparently, one of the worries on their list.

“Deva’s great with parents. There hasn’t been a parent he’s talked to that hasn’t liked him” she smiled, “Besides, he’s always willing to wear pants instead of a dhoti if he has to.” It was comforting to hear, but I don’t think I’ll take Phalguni up on her offer quite yet. Someday, but not today.

At the beginning of the winter semester, I arranged to stay at the Harmony Collective for a few days before classes started, and boy was I excited. I couldn’t wait to jump into doing all kinds of service and hang out with some of my favorite friends. What could be better than three days of spiritual renewal before being thrust headlong into that cyclone of schoolwork and extra curriculars?

It turned out to be less renewing than I expected.

Transitioning from reading and watching Netflix on the couch at home to being in an environment where everything is all Krishna all the time proved to be a heck of an adjustment, and not a comfortable one. I was glad to have the company of my friends, but as we settled into the daily routine, doubts about my bhakti practice began to surface, and I quickly began to feel overwhelmed and ill at ease. During Bhagavatam class, I’d listen to lessons that I did not understand, and, in some cases, didn’t agree with, but somehow I felt obligated to readily accept. As a few of us ventured out into the frozen wasteland of Ann Arbor for a bone-chillingly cold sankirtan , all the while eyed suspiciously by passersby, I found myself thinking, “Why am I even doing this?”. I quickly realized that I was in too deep, and, I feared that the devotees perceived me as more Hare Krishna than I actually was.

I decided not to take part in the 10 hour Kirtan that Sidha Hari had spontaneously scheduled on my final evening at the house. Phalguni and I stayed in the kitchen, busying ourselves with salad dressing and Ekadasi pakoras. As we were finishing up, I asked for a word.

“If I ever decided… like… not to be a devotee” the words caught in my throat, “would you be disappointed?”

She sighed and took my hand. Whenever I ask someone a hard or difficult question my mind always goes through a rolodex of potential responses, most of them bad ones. The rolodex was going full speed on this one.

“You shouldn’t let me influence what direction you take your spiritual life” she said, “You need to do what you feel is right, regardless of what anyone might think”. The thing about Phalguni is she has these wide, compassionate eyes that can stare directly into your soul, but in a reassuring way, not a creepy one.

I proceeded to vomit forth my concerns about Krishna Consciousness in an incoherent, anxiety driven babble. Phalguni squeezed my hand and said, “Don’t worry about it. This place is meant to be a shelter; somewhere where you can come to rest and plug in, not where you have to worry about living up to expectations. We’re not here to make you into a devotee. We love you, and we care about you, and we just want to help you have the best spiritual life you possibly can.”

And then I cried. All over her shoulder. Seldom in my life have I felt so loved and unconditionally accepted by anyone, and the reassurance and comfort was just as overwhelming as my anxiety had been, if not infinitely more so. After pulling myself together, we chatted for a bit, took some Prasad, and then went upstairs for the last leg of the kirtan. As we jammed together late into the night, I couldn’t help but think about how lucky I was to experience a community like this; not a lot of people get to. But, I suppose that is precisely what Deva and the gang are trying to do, to give community to anyone who needs it.

I have gone on to make many great memories with the devotees, including packing inside a huge auditorium to hear Radanath Swami speak, going on a 14 mile, ten hour sankirtan extravaganza across Detroit, and I plan to go Michigan YogaFest with them later this year. I love these people so much that how could I not? I’m not a Krishna devotee, and I doubt that I will ever be, but at the Harmony Collective that doesn’t matter. It never really did. It’s the mark of a genuinely loving spiritual community that one can feel loved and accepted. No conditions. No expectations. Just mutual compassion and respect, and everyone needs that, Krishna or no Krishna.

The Harmony Collective is a place where you can come to grow, connect, and feel welcome. It’s just as beneficial for people who wish to dive deep into Krishna Consciousness as for people who just want to enjoy nice music enlightening conversation, and good food. For me, whatever happens to me on my journey, at the Harmony Collective I always feel at home.

I think everyone need something like that; a spiritual home away from home. People seek it out in different ways and find it in surprising places. I can’t speak for anyone else, but there’s one thing I know for sure.

I’ve found mine. 
Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=21662

Kadamba Kanana Swami: It is true that there is that inner animal within us. The animal that we hide. The animal that lives behind the saintly expressions on our faces. There is this animal and we have chained him up in regulative principles by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy but he wants to break loose. That inner animal which lives within and he OR SHE wants to break loose and waits for opportunities!
I like this theme. I found it somewhere in a magazine, a lady writer picked up on it. She had this bag of special chips and she was like really lusting over the chips in her mind for a long time, and was waiting for an opportunity to sort of like get into it and stuff them in her mouth. So when no one was around, she attacked it, ripped it open and just like packed it in… and then someone came!
Now we can easily translate that into a mangal aarti sweet. You know, you get caught just as you secretly stuff it in your face. For a moment, you give some room to lusty desires by taking shelter of prasadam. It is good to take shelter of prasadam but you feel embarrassed when you get caught with a mouthful and you try to inconspicuously swallow it, as if everybody does not know what you doing since everybody you know does it too!
The point I am making is that it shows that we are indeed a combination of the modes of material nature and that indeed all these pushings of the senses are within us and we are controlling them with good behaviour. We say the right words, “Jaya… nectar… bliss.” Whatever words are there in the jargon, we say them and we dress in a particular sort of way… We are experts in projecting an image but internally it is still raging – there is still a volcano. There are still so many influences pulling us in so many directions. And therefore there is still a little bit of Kamsa in us… still a little bit of Putana and still a little bit of all these demoniac personalities.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 04 February 2016, Bhaktivedanta Manor, United Kingdom, Srimad Bhagavatam 10.2.21) 

Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=21666

One time a saint observed a candala walking along the road was sprinkling water on the path to purify before his every step. This was kinda strange and so the saint approached him and asked the reason. The Candala told its sinful to walk along the path where an ungrateful person has walked over. Even a candala feels he gets sin to touch the earth that was walked over by an ungrateful person. 

The following is quite impersonal but is ultimately about connecting to the nature and the creator indirectly. 

"From The Secret Daily Teachings Mobile App 

Begin your day by feeling grateful. Be grateful for the bed you just slept in, the roof over your head, the carpet or floor under your feet, the running water, the soap, your shower, your toothbrush, your clothes, your shoes, the refrigerator that keeps your food cold, the car that you drive, your job, your friends. Be grateful for the stores that make it so easy to buy the things you need, the restaurants, the utilities, services, and electrical appliances that make your life effortless. Be grateful for the magazines and the books that you read. Be grateful for the chair that you sit on, and the pavement that you walk on. Be grateful for the weather, the sun, the sky, the birds, the trees, the grass, the rain, and the flowers. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

May the joy be with you, 
Rhonda Byrne" 
Source:http://dinesh-krsna.blogspot.in/2015/04/the-ungrateful-heart-is-not-so-great.html

The material body of every living being is animated by a spiritual soul, who is the eternal offspring of Krsna. Each souls individual history of good or bad deeds causes him to become fastened into a higher or lower body, yet all souls remain in essence equal as children of God. God never forgets them, and a godly person, Krsna tells us, sees all animate beings as spritually equal sparks of the divine (Bg.5.18).

But if we forgt God and consequently develop eclipsed material vision, the transcen- dental unity of the eludes us. Once we have become estranged from Krsna, we become estranged from all other living beings-even those of our own kind. thesymptom of our divorce from God is our inability to sustain peaceful, harmonious, loving realtions with others. We incessantly make war upon our fellow humans, and we wantonly prey upon innocent animals, needlessly slaughtering them for food. At the same time we feel a need to rectify all our reationships—within our own families and communities, among races and nations, and between humans and subhumans.

Yet the disorder that has invaded all our relations is a symptom of one central enduring dislocation—our severance from God. Only when that is repaired will the disruption between ourselves and all other beings be healed. 
Source:http://dinesh-krsna.blogspot.in/2015/04/disorder-has-invaded-all-our-relations.html

When the earth moves suddenly, we all stop. The poet Govinda Das wrote – kamala talajala, jivana talamala: this life is tottering like a drop of water on a lotus flower.

In Nepal there will be many stories of those who survived, who barely missed a collapsing building, who were one minute absorbed in their everyday life and the next in a life upturned. There will be communities who come together in the face of tragedy and families forever torn apart.

Why? We will ask again and again. And what is the nature of this earth planet that cruelly dishes out a fate so desperate to thousands?

The Gita teaches that the world is a place of suffering, and there three main sources of that suffering – our own mind, other living creatures, and nature itself.

Nature is powerful. It’s strength can kill us in a minute. And yet the earth is also known as our Mother. Mother Earth – she provides nourishment, and shelter in many different ways. The problem is that we don’t take care of our mother very well. We neither respect nor protect her. We are so caught up in the pace of modern civilization and the incessant demand for more, that the earth becomes a disposable resource for our greedy selves. Use it up and throw it aside.

This leads to an unbalance; that is a dangerous thing. The earth, like ourselves, is a living entity. The Vedas explain that we must live in harmony with the earth. We must honor and respect her gifts, her energies, her resources that sustain us, and her personhood. We must wake up to the responsibility we have as citizens of the earth and walk upon it with a new consciousness.

There will always be those who don’t care. The selfish ones who will extract, frack, explode, excavate, mine, drill, pump, blast, pollute, dump and over-fish, factory farm, slaughter, and take down forests without a single shred of concern for the damage done and the imbalance created. Imbalance that will one day explode in other ways.

We are not so different as individuals. We too will crack if our life gets out of balance, if we deplete ourselves, run ourselves to the ground, stretch ourselves thin, and live for all the wrong reasons. We will either collapse into ourselves or explode onto others. If our body, mind, and spirit are not balanced by being nourished, protected, and respected we too will be a danger.

And, just like the earthquake, we won’t see it coming. It will explode on an ordinary afternoon and deliver a painful reminder that our life is out of balance. Stop now and make the change. Keep body and soul in harmony. Keep a strong spiritual practice. And most of all pay attention to how the way we live affects us, others, and the earth itself. Otherwise we will pay dearly for an unconscious life lived poorly. 

Source:http://iskconofdc.org/when-the-earth-moves/

Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 07, Chapter 06, Text 01 by HG Kamallochan Prabhu on 29 Nov 2015 at ISKCON Juhu

To Listen and Download - click here

Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam Canto - 10, Chapter - 03, Text - 28 by HH Lokanath Swami at Bhaktivedanta Manor on 03 May 2016

(Lokanath Swami born in Aravade, a small village Maharashtra, Indian, he went to Mumbai for studying. In the year 1971, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was touring India with his foreign disciples and had organized a pandal program in Mumbai.Intrigued, maharaj attended the whole Hare Krsna Festival and heard from Srila Prabhupada.)

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Lecture on Narsimha removes Ignorance and Fear by HG Urmila Mataji on 21 May 2016 at New Vrindavan

(HG Urmila Mataji has mainly served ISKCON since 1973 till the present time as book distributor, assistant secretary for the BBT, pujari, temple cook, actress, writer, traveling preacher, editor of BTG since 1990, primary and secondary teacher for 27 years, school principle for 18 years, member of Sastric Advisory Council to the GBC. )

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Lecture on How to overcoming the laziness to chant by Sivarama Swami at Budapest on 12 May 2016

(Sivarama Swami was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1949. In 1956, during the failed Hungarian revolution, he emigrated with his family to Canada.)

To Listen and Download - click here

The significance of rathayatra reached the far corners of the globe now and especially where ISKCON temples are located ever since Srila Prabhupada organised the first rathayatra in San Francisco in 1967 as briefed below. The rathayatra was scheduled on a Sunday the 9th July. On Saturday, 8th July, Jagannatha Deities were brought from Stinson Beach and draped in cloth. Although some rathayatra posters were the only official announcements, everyone in the Haight-Ashbury was talking about the festival. A Krishna parade to the beach! A love feast! Bring flowers, wear bells, paint up, chant, and get high! Celebrate Sri Jagannatha, Lord of the universe!

On Sunday, 9th July, Shyamsunder Prabhu brought the flat bed truck on which the chariots were mounted and the deities were installed, undraped and garlanded Them with hibiscus. Lord Jagannatha was placed on the right side of the cart beneath the foldable canopy engineered by Jayananda Prabhu. While placing the Deity, the devotees sang jagannatha-swami nayana pathagami bhavatu me, “O Lord of the universe, please be visible unto me.” Subhadra looked out from the rear, and Lord Balarama was seated on the left. On the cart’s four corners were placed Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and ISKCON flags. The ISKCON flag consisted of a Sanskrit AUM and a drawing of a dancing pair of Radha and Krishna.

Srila Prabhupad said, “Actually, each Deity should ride in a separate cart and the carts should be pulled with ropes by the crowds through the streets. But that is all right. May be in the future you can arrange that.” Music and kirtans were sung all way through the parade. The girls were dressed in saris, and the gents wore dotis and kurta. Drums, cymbals, and tambourines were played in rhythm, and the crowd started chanting Hare Krishna. The girls handed out oranges, apples, bananas, chapatis, and puris to all those came near. As Shyamasundar Prabhu drove down the car to Haight, people lined up the sidewalk and flowed out into the street to follow the cart, while Lord Jagannatha kept smiling. Frequently the cart slowed to a halt as people clustered around the dancing devotees in front of the car. Flowers, apples and kisses were distributed to those hippies flocked up and the crowd roared “Radha Krishna Temple ki jai! New Jagannatha Puri ki jai!” The crowd and hippies all chanted the Hare Krsna mahamantra. Finally, the cart reached the Pacific beach of San Francisco with some hitches on the way. Soon Srila Prabhupad also arrived at the beach and together they ate the prasadam and everyone was elated. All listened to Srila Prabhupad about Jagannatha Puri and Vaikuntham while partaking the prasadam. Prabhupadji said, “As long as we are in the ocean of material nature, we will feel anxiety, but not in Vaikuntha. That is what Vaikuntha means, freedom from anxiety. Everyone in the material universe- from Lord Brahma down to the tiny ant- is anxious about something. If you see a bird and make a sudden move, that bird will fly away from fear. He is anxiously thinking, ‘Oh, what will catch me and eat me?’ The Padma-purana says that the smaller living entities serve as food for the larger. So all are in anxiety- even Brahma himself, for although his years are incalculable by our system, there is finally annihilation.”

The Deities are to remain some days at Paradisio before returning to the temple. Then the devotees packed back in the empty truck and their vehicles. Srila Prabhupad said, “That was but the beginning,” Prabhupadji said the following morning. “We will inaugurate many such celebrations all over the world. One by one, I will show you.” That was the beginning of the first rathayatra outside Bharatam. Where rathayatra procession is not held, a special puja followed by great feast will be organised to all ISKCON devotees in memory of the great festival and many visitors too join for the sumptuous Krsna-prasadam distributed and receive the blessing of Jagannatha, Lord of the universe.

It remind us Srila Prabhupad’s childhood pastime in building rathas (carts) and organising yatras (processions). When he was barely six, Abhay (original name of Srila Prabhupad) wanted to organise a brief rathayatra imitating the grand procession held at Calcutta. He was also enthused at Mahaprabhu’s ecstatic dancing before the rathayatra at Puri four hundred years ago. Abhay insisted his father Gour Mohan to buy a decent Ratha for him. The father and son visited many carpenters to see some models they could chose from, but the price was unaffordable. Soon an old woman arrived at home. Seeing the worried Abhay, she enquired, “Why young Abhay is worried?” From Abhay’s mother Rajani, the woman understood about his ardent love for a ratha. The woman said, “I have a cart at home. Come and take it.” Gour and Abhay went and bought it. The wooden cart was small, but of decent size for the kids to smart on. They fixed wooden horses to the carts and painted and decorated them to resemble like the original rathas of Puri. Abhay’s sister Bhavantarini also helped him to ornament the Jagannatha Deities. Abhay collected his friends and organised a rathayatra on streets of Calcutta. It resembled like a fair mini replica of the original Puri rathayatra. It showed the young Abhay’s interest towards rathayatras and it infused confidence in the growing mind to later build upon his talent to organise large scale ratha-yatras all over Bharatam and across the globe. Abhay’s immense love for Radha-Krshna and Jagannatha Deities from childhood was inherent and God gifted, and those holy hands later blessed millions of people to become dear devotees of Gauranga and follow His path to worship Ratha-Govinda and participate in the colourful of rathayatra festivities world-wide. 

Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=21629

Deena Bandhu Das: This is what one month in Kumbha Mela looks like! We distributed 20,000 Bhagavad Gita As It Is, 20,000 Btgs, about a thousand Kumbha Mela books, and many others. We did Harinam everyday for 2 hours, and distributed very nice full prasadam plates to thousands and thousands of pilgrims! Hundreds of pilgrims chanted their first round on our Japa Parikrama. Festival of Preaching! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!! 
Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=21625

Denis, hello. My life has changed dramatically over the last fifteen months. It now makes sense and fullness. My son and husband are happy, our lives normal. I live for the first time. I live with a sense of integrity and involvement to everything around. It all began with a short, but the most important meeting of my life. Denis, thanks to you I have come to Krishna consciousness, it happened six months after it has been made this picture, but for the last six months I read the Bhagavad Gita and had the yatra has already consciously. I have no words to express the sense of gratitude that overwhelms me. It is because you have changed my mentality, attitude towards life and people. Thank you for what you have done to me, for your preaching and for the boundless happiness you gifted me with which I now enjoy. I would be immensely happy to see you again, and personally express you my gratitude. 
Answer: Hello, dear Nastya! I am very pleased that my efforts have paid off. In fact, we need to thank Srila Prabhupada, that he saves us. I’m just the postman. I am very glad that your life has changed for the better, it inspired me to continue to distribute the book. Now I live in Omsk, and will stay here until the spring, but when I come back I will be glad to talk with you. I wish you happiness! 

Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=21631

On Sri Ramananda Raya’s disappearance day, Giriraj read and spoke from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila, Chapter 8.

” ‘Although Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Ramananda Raya were embracing in ecstasy, the Lord restrained His transcendental emotions upon seeing the outsider brahmanas.’ (Cc Madhya 8.28purport)

“In this verse the word vijatiya, which means ‘outsider,’ appears. And opposed to that is sajatiya. Because the brahmanas werevijatiya, or outsiders—in other words, they were not pure devotees who could understand the loving exchanges between Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Ramananda Raya—Lord Caitanya restrained His emotions so that they would not be bewildered and commit offenses.

“One of Srila Prabhupada’s early disciples, Gargamuni, told Srila Prabhupada that sometimes he felt like crying in kirtan. Srila Prabhupada replied, ‘It is all right when you are with devotees, because they will understand. Otherwise, you should not. ” 
Source:http://www.girirajswami.com/?p=11075

In Memoriam 2016 - new video by Siddhanta prabhu about the departed sons and daughters of His Divine Grace. (20 min video)
Srila Prabhupada: You have asked if it is true that the Spiritual Master remains in the material universe until all of His disciples are transferred to the Spiritual Sky. The answer is yes, this is the rule. Therefore, every student should be very much careful not to commit any offense that will be detrimental to this promotion to the Spiritual Kingdom, and thereby the Spiritual Master has to incarnate again to deliver him. This sort of mentality will be a kind of offense to the Spiritual Master. Anyone who defies and therefore disconnects the relationship with the Spiritual Master can hardly expect the assistance of the Spiritual Master life after life. Letter to Jayapataka, July 11, 1969.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/tw9ID7 
Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=21635

My name is Nadia. I am 13yrs old, live in Zurich, Switzerland, and love cows! 
My earliest and happiest memories are of coming to Kurma Rupa Prabhu’s Care for Cows with my mother Mahapuri dasi when we visited Vrindavan and the Krsna Balaram Temple, usually twice a year. 
Once in the month of Kartik 2009, along with my mother and some friends, I was at Care for Cows with Kurma Rupa prabhu. We were petting the sick and injured cows, when a poor elderly lady walked into the ghosala carrying a tiny calf. She asked if he could take her calf as she was poor and unable to look after her. Kurma Rupa prabhu agreed. One of our friends decided to adopt her and named her Champaka Lata. Since that time we have taken over her sponsorship. 
When I first saw Champaka Lata I felt such love and just wanted to hold and cuddle this sweet little calf. Every day I would beg my mother to bring me to the Care for Cows to spend hours embracing Champi (my name for her). She would lay her head on my chest while I petted and brushed her. Years passed and our bond grew and grew. 
In September, 2012 Champi gave birth to a beautiful calf, Sarika. Upon our arrival back in Vrindavan we caught a rickshaw over to Care for Cows, Kiki Nagla. Champi ran to my mother and started pushing and licking her. Champi placed her head on my mother’s lap when she sat down and tears were flowing from Champi’s eyes. Soon all of us including, Keshi Nisudan and our friends were crying tears of affection. Keshi prabhu said she was crying with the joy at becoming a mother. Now she is a mother of a second child, a bull called Kurma Rupa. 
Champi gives me so much warmth and love that every second spent with her is filled with great happiness and strength. When I grow up I want to be a Veterinarian and serve the holy cows of Vrindavan. I know I have to study very hard. 
Thank you to all the staff of Care For Cows for always making us so welcome and for taking such good care of Champi and all her friends.
Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=21641

“The human society should recognize the importance of the cow and the bull and thus give all protection to these important animals, following in the footsteps of Mahārāja Parīkṣit. For protecting the cows and brahminical culture, the Lord, who is very kind to the cow and the brāhmaṇas (go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya), will be pleased with us and will bestow upon us real peace.”

— SB 1.17.9, Purport; Srila Prabhupada

On 16 May 2016, the city of New Delhi hosted an unprecedented event at the prestigious Vigyan Bhavan. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries have organized a first-of-its-kind day-long national conference on ‘Gaushalas’ (cowsheds). Three technical sessions were held to discuss the following issues –

1. how to increase the milk productivity of Indian cows,

2. making provision for feed, fodder and ancillary requirements for Indian cows, and

3. management of cows in the post-productive phase.

The Indian Government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working on modalities to bring in a new law to combat illegal cow transport and slaughtering. Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Radha Mohan Singh (Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare) called for restrictions on killings saying even in old age cows can be financially viable. He also said that “cow hostels and sanctuaries are being established across the country, and five new veterinary colleges have been set up to take care of old and ailing cows.”

The Om Sri Surabhi Campaign (2015 – 2027) under the ISKCON Ministry for Cow Protection (India) and ISKCON Daiva Varnasrama Ministry (IDVM-India), ties in well with these developments. A team comprised of Sri Rama Dasa, Gour Gopal Dasa, Rajaram Dasa, and Avadhut Chandra Dasa attended this conference to make relationships with like-minded experts working on cow protection to pursue the expertise for setting up healthy gaushalas and spiritual communities centered on cow protection, while pursuing governmental projects such as the Rashtriya Gokul Mission. The Om Sri Surabhi Campaign leaders are working with these experts to assist devotees in cow protection through increasing their understanding of the schemes and projects available with the Government of India. Through further initiatives in this direction, we continue marching towards Srila Prabhupada’s vision for cow protection to offer viable examples of cultural and spiritual living to modern India and the world, in general.

For further information, please write to us at info@srisurabhi.org or visit www.srisurabhi.org andwww.iskconvarnasrama.com.

When spring comes we always get excited like most of the people. But reason our excitement is about trip to New Vraja Dham, Hungary. Every year we take Turkish devotees twice to New Vraja Dham festivals. With total of 10 devotees we went to New Vraja Dham for Nrsimha Caturdasi and HH Sivarama Swami Maharaja’s Vyasa Puja Festival. Festivals are always wonderful to be a part and always meant to do more sravanam, kirtanam and smaranam. Our devotees took part in kitchen services and chanted and danced in front of Sri Sri Radha Shyama for hours. Actually, the most important part of the festival for us was the initiation ceremony that took place on Nrsimha Caturdasi day. Our 3 devotees Bhakta Nezih, Bhakta Kaan and Bhaktin Gultekin took harinam initiation from HH Sivarama Maharaja and committed their lives in the service of Guru and Gauranga. Their new names are Nanda Kumar das, Krishna Candra das and Gaura Prema devi dasi. Nanda Kumar Prabhu and Krishna Candra Prabhu are brothers by birth and they are the youngest initiated members of our congregation. It is very encouraging to see development of our Turkish Congregation. Iskcon Turkey is expanding. Slowly but surely! It gives more strength and inspiration to do more & more services.

Your servant, Nrsimha Krsna das 

Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=21575

Prabhupada wanted every temple should have farm and goshala around 50 km a way. Srila Prabhupada personaly has started some of this farm like New Vrindavan, etc. We all understand that all disire of pure devotees it will happen because it is non diferent than Krishna disire.

The 12 years of OM Sri Surabhi Campaign is bring us to the higher mood of Srila Prabhupada plan for the above mission. Surabhi Campaign since last year been continues to promote of the Glories of the Cows and traying to incourage the devotee to be more involve in Cow Protection.

Resently by Krishna mercy and Prabhupada mercy we have a chance to visit Hong Kong and conduct some various program related to the Campaign, and few other program. We had four seminars in diferent scedule time, one is about ISKCON four movement and Surabhi Campaign, Best Practice ISKCON where Maharaja introduce about the farm project all around the world, and on the other day we also have peace inter faith dialoge.

One very inspiring program that we visited one local goshala where they have 150 cows, bulls, and calves, the owner is one chinese leady who love cows very much. So we become to relise actualy there is cow protection movement been going on not to far from our temple, same is in Cambodia, Thailand, and many other places, because although those people may not yet be devotees, but due to their natural love that inspire them to protect the cow. As how all living atities naturly is to love Krishna and by daily seeing the Krishna form, name and pastime we will review our pure love to Him. It similar naturaly we will develope love to cow if we live with them and be friend to them.

Both Brahmana and cow are Krishna’s very dear friend. And without them sociaty is in the danger condition. We may seen how nowdays people in general are unhappy. The life is so compicated, people are always in worry, because no guidance of bonafide brahmana, and actualy we can not having brahmana if we dont have cows, thats way prabhupada wanted us to open goshala. Prabhupada said now we need cow, we need milk for the devotees. Maharaja said if we not care cow, how Krishna will care about us. This is known as 50 persen of Prabhupada mission that un phinish yet, and Prabhupada gave his instruction at the end of His Lila in this word about Varnasrama dharma wich mean related to Cow Protection and Farm Comunities.

Whe greatly tanks to this chinese leady although she not join the Hare Krishna Movement yet but she already protecting 150 cows and bull, and in Cambodia there are one person who did similar, also in Thailand and Kalimantan, Indonesia. So this thingwe should learn from them.

Please visit our website www.srisurabhi.org for more information related to the campaign.

Thanks
Your servant
Gunaavatara das 

Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=21581

Sangeeta Rasa DD: Ratha Yatra time is coming. I prepared some devotional kids craft activity for Ratha Yatra time.
Find them here in high resolution: https://goo.gl/2K2N9y
https://goo.gl/PPuUy6
https://goo.gl/umWQkw
https://goo.gl/7jZ4Qr
https://goo.gl/kTKFD8 

Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=21579