What is spiritual strength?

Question to Radhanath Swami: In spiritual circles they often talk of ‘bala’ or spiritual strength. What exactly is this spiritual strength?
Radhanath Swami Answers: What is spiritual strength? Spiritual strength is essentially the awakening of our soul. The soul is part and parcel of Krishna, who is all-powerful. Spiritual strength is the sincere ability to overcome the illusions and the distractions of maya. Spiritual strength protects us from engaging in sinful activities and egoistic activities. Spiritual strength is the power of God; spiritual strength essentially is the mercy of Krishna.

Lecture on Jagannathastakam by HG Kundal Krishna Prabhu on 14 Oct 2015 at ISKCON Nairobi

To Listen and Download - click here

Lecture On Bahulastami Appearance of Radha Kunda by Prabodhananda Sarasvati Swami at Vrindavan on 11 July 2012

To Listen and Download - click here

It is stated in Chaitanya Charitamrita (a biographical account of the Life and Teachings of Lord Chaitanya written by Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami) that a devotee who is engaged in the service of Krishna is free from all obligations. He has no other duty to perform. He need not perform any ritualistic functions enjoined in the Vedas; nor is he required to worship any demigods. Krishna wanted to firmly establish this principle during His presence in Vrindavana.

When Krishna saw the residents of Vrindavana arranging for Indra-yajna (a traditional ceremony to please Indra, the chief-of-demigods, who is responsible for supplying water) He suggested that they forgo the worship of Indra and instead worship Govardhana Hill.

When Indra understood that the sacrifice which was to be offered by the cowherd men in Vrindavana had been stopped by Krishna, he became angry. He ordered Samvartaka (the cloud of devastation) to go over Vrindavana and inundate the whole area with an extensive flood. Riding on his elephant Airavata, he personally came to punish the inhabitants of Vrindavana.

Ordered by King Indra, all the dangerous clouds appeared above Vrindavana and began to pour water incessantly, with all their strength and power. There was constant lightning and thunder, blowing of severe wind, and incessant falling of rain. The rain seemed to fall like piercing sharp arrows.

All the inhabitants of Vrindavana prayed to the Supreme Lord Krishna and took shelter at His lotus feet. Lord Krishnaimmediately picked up Govardhana Hill with one hand, and asked everyone to come under the umbrella of Govardhana Hill along with their properties and animals. For one week, they remained there without being affected by hunger, thirst or any other discomforts. Indra was astonished to see the little boy Krishna holding the Govardhana Hill in His little finger and protecting Vrindavana from the devastating rainfall. He immediately called for all the clouds and asked them to desist. The sky became completely cleared of all clouds and there was sunrise again, the strong wind stopped. All the inhabitants of Vrindavana came out and Krishna replaced the Govardhana Hill in its place.

Indra, the King of heaven, became conscious of his offense before Krishna; therefore he stealthily appeared before Him and immediately fell down at the lotus feet of Krishna and offered his prayers.

Related Links: Govardhan Puja | Govardhan Lila | Sri Govardhanashtakam

Source...https://www.iskconbangalore.org/festivals/govardhana-lila/

Shyamasundara (1967 ACBSP): “After many years of writing, “Chasing Rhinos With The Swami” is finally complete. This two-volume memoir describes in exciting, intimate detail the many years I [Shyamasundar das] spent at the side of our amazing Srila Prabhupad–in San Francisco, London, and as Prabhupad’s personal secretary, in India, Russia, and all over the globe. It is an adventure book, fast-moving, filled with the philosophy, fun, spontaneity and magic that distinguished Prabhupad’s special journey among us. To find out more about “Chasing Rhinos”, and to pre-order the book, please go to chasingrhinos.com

Shyamasundara (1967 ACBSP): “After many years of writing, “Chasing Rhinos With The Swami” is finally complete. This two-volume memoir describes in exciting, intimate detail the many years I [Shyamasundar das] spent at the side of our amazing Srila Prabhupad–in San Francisco, London, and as Prabhupad’s personal secretary, in India, Russia, and all over the globe. It is an adventure book, fast-moving, filled with the philosophy, fun, spontaneity and magic that distinguished Prabhupad’s special journey among us. To find out more about “Chasing Rhinos”, and to pre-order the book, please go to chasingrhinos.com

Source...http://www.dandavats.com/?p=21105

Source...http://www.dandavats.com/?p=21070

By Mathura Lilesvari Devi Dasi

The Karthik month is a very busy month for most Malaysian devotees. While getting the family together daily to offer ghee lamps to our sweet Lord Krishna, devotees in Malaysia has, over the years, introduced various preaching methods to extend the opportunity of offering ghee lamps to the general masses.

Like every year, the month-long festival was launched in Sri Jagannath Mandir Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 25 October 2015. Under the leadership of Sri Jagannath Mandir , Kuala Lumpur Temple President, HG Kripa Sindhu Krishna Prabhu, this launch event was held to reiterate to the devotees the glories of Karttika month and to get everyone in the right mood of servitude. Devotees were also presented with different preaching techniques that can be used to ensure the opportunity of offering ghee lamps to Krishna reaches more people.

Damodara Home Kits were printed and distributed to devotees to facilitate their preaching. A sweet drama depicting the pastimes of Lord Damodara was enacted by the Gokul Garden children for the pleasure of Their Lordships, Sri Sri Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra Devi and Sri Sri Nitai Sundara Gaura Hari.

Every year, a ten day Deepavali shopping carnival is held for Indian Businesses in Kuala Lumpur. Hundreds of exhibitors gather in the venue to sell to shoppers. ISKCON Sri Jagannatha Mandir sets up a ‘Damodara Booth’ at this venue and encourages shoppers to offer a ghee lamp to Lord Damodara. Shoppers are also given a Damodara home-kit to enable them to continue offering the lamp at their respective homes. In this way, Lord Damodara has entered the homes of many Indians in Malaysia.

Harinams are also organised and each home that opens their door to the devotees are taught how to offer a ghee lamp to Krishna in this month. Many are ever ready to do it once they learn the immense benefit it has to offer.

Food for Life programmes and Sastra Dana are also organised in schools. Children and teachers are given an opportunity to offer the ghee lamps.

Programmes are also held in universities and orphanages. A complete programme with kirtana, spiritual discourse, offering of lamps and prasadam is organised by devotees.

Devotees are also approaching Hindu Temples in their area to conduct Damodara programmes.

The devotees of Sri Jagannatha Mandir pledge to give this divine opportunity to offer ghee lamps to Krishna to 100,000 people during Karttika 2015.

We seek the blessings of Vaisnavas worldwide to enable our congregation to achieve this target and please Srila Prabhupada and our spiritual masters.
Click below to see the complete gallery

Source...http://www.dandavats.com/?p=21073

Source...http://www.dandavats.com/?p=21113

You can’t get a taste of something you don’t come into contact with. So first you have to find someone with some significant quantity of divine love. Then you have to try to see things the way that person does, feel things, understand things the way that person does – even if its only for a few moments, like in a kīrtan while that person is singing and you can feel at one with their expression. If you do this you will get an initial taste for Krishna’s bhakti, and that will enable you to “practice” (cultivate) that taste in your own self by doing similarly as that person does (i.e. kīrtan, for example), especially if you can have that person’s guidance somehow.

Source...https://vicd108.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/how-to-get-an-initial-taste-for-bhakti/

We are pleased to present the latest (Nov) issue of The Astrological Newsletter. In this issue  you will find - The Left and Right Eyes of God and Secrets of Combinational Astrology

Download. pdf

ere is a very prevalent notion that we will attain self-realization / enlightenment / liberation / Vaikunṭha / Vraja Prema (call it what suits you best) by the mercy of Krishna / Rādhā / Guru / Vaiṣṇava alone. “It’s all up to the mercy of the Lord.”

This is wrong.

If our enlightenment is up to Krishna, then why are we not enlightened? It would have to be that he wants us to suffer? He can enlighten us whenever he likes, but he doesn’t – so what would that say about him? He prefers us to be ignorant and unfulfilled? What kind of “Supreme Person” is that? That is obviously wrong.

It is true that enlightenment/ prema cannot be generated by the individual soul. But it is not true that the individual soul has nothing to do with attaining enlightenment / prema. A cup, for example, does not create water – but it would be ridiculous to say that the cup has nothing to do with a cup full of water. The individual soul is consciousness, which is like a “cup” for knowledge (vijñāna) and love (prema). The soul cannot generate pure knowledge or pure love on its own, but that doesn’t mean it’s own efforts and constitution have nothing to do with its attainment of enlightenment / prema!

Our “cup” has its open end facing the wrong way. It points down, away from the flow of divine knowledge and love. Therefore it doesn’t fill up. Our job, our effort is to turn the cup around – set it right-side-up, and then the downpour of divine mercy fills it!

It is not anyone else’s job or capacity to turn the cup around. Only the cup can set itself right-side-up. The “cup” is consciousness, which is synonymous with will. Krishna has established eternally independent conscious-wills (“souls”), and does not tamper with their individual will. Only we can adjust our own consciousness by our own will. We cannot produce divine knowledge or prema, but we can (and must!) adjust our own consciousness so that it “points the right way” to receive the constant flow of divine knowledge and prema that springs from the Original Person, Śrī Krishna.

The Goswāmī’s discuss this pretty thoughly when they define sādhana-bhakti, because sādhana-bhakti is an EFFORT, a “work” we perform. So they question whether this effort and work actually CREATES the goal (bhāva- and prema-bhakti) or if there is some other factor involved. Their answer is that our efforts do not literally create the goal (divine love), but they create receptivity in ourselves which can then absorb the goal (divine love), which descends out of compassion, mercy, grace.

Source...https://vicd108.wordpress.com/2015/10/19/its-all-up-to-krishnas-mercy-prabhu/

Rcently I gave a brief class for the residents of an ISKCON center, during their daily morning spiritual programme. The topic of my class was the nine stages of development in Bhakti-Yoga and how to make sure and steady progress towards the goal: Krishna Prema. When I received feedback about this class, I came to realize the significance of “generation gaps” between people who enter ISKCON at different eras.

As I see it, ISKCON has a few key eras:

1. The Newborn Era – Prabhupāda is directly accessible to the few dozen devotees who were newly forming around him. Chanting with him and learning from him is the main focus.
2. The Childhood Era (c.1970 ~ 73) – Prabhupāda establishes people to lead on his behalf, under his oversight. Kīrtan in the streets is the main focus.
3. The Era of Adolescence (’73 ~ ’77) – Society becomes huge. Aggressive book distribution becomes the focus.
4. Adult(eration) Era (’78 ~ ’86) – Prabhupāda departs, others take over the position of guru, primarily with disastrous outcomes. Making money becomes the focus.
5. Midlife Crisis (’87 ~ ’90) – Attempts at reform and self-improvement, amidst the aftermath of the previous era. Reconstruction is the focus.
6. The Era of Higher Education (’91 ~ ’98) – Emphasis begins to fall on thorough study of śāstra and deeper commitment to and understanding of sādhana. Spiritual and philosophical education becomes the focus.
7. The Era of Diversification (’99 ~ present) – Broader definitions of what it means to be a “devotee.” ISKCON itself starts to develop capacity for fostering diverse viewpoints, and splinters of ISKCON become plentiful and begin offering diverse attitudes and approaches to Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism.

The first four have one strong, unifying characteristic that make them almost seem like four phases within a single era. That characteristic is the very firm and fervent belief that Krishna consciousness is primarily all about “surrendering to guru” and “pleasing guru” by doing “whatever guru asks of you.”

When almost all the gurus proved unreliable, it made us search for the flaw in our attitude towards them. Thus the later eras started to see śāstra as the ultimate authority, and came to view guru as the key figure whose merciful guidance and instruction helps us deeply and clearly understand śāstra, and the practices and precepts revealed therein.

When I gave my class on the 9 stages of progress in Bhakti Yoga, one person in attendance was a devotee from the older generation, who had been absent from ISKCON during the 5th, 6th, and 7th eras and had returned to an important role in the society in recent years – making him a particularly extreme example of “generation gap” since he is someone from the older generation who did not participate in the gradual evolution that lead to many of the contemporary outlooks.

I will take the opportunity to clarify a few doubts he expressed in my class.

I – “Just Surrender”

He felt that concentrating on one’s progress in Bhakti Yoga, and on ones spiritual practices, was antithetical to the mood of surrendering to guru. This is a false dichotomy because the bonafide guru primarily directs one to concentrate on your spiritual practices and make careful progress in Bhakti Yoga.

II – Kṛpa-Siddhi or “Self-Discovery”?

He felt that the results of bhakti come by the blessings of the guru, not by efforts to understand Gauḍīya philosophy and apply oneself carefully to Gauḍīya practices. This is also a false dichotomy because the “blessings of guru” literally are the philosophy they communicate to us, and the practices they reveal and direct us in. If this were not the case, why did all our Gauḍīya gurus, including Śrīla Prabhupāda, write so many books and put so much emphasis on kīrtan and fundamental spiritual practices like chanting a significant set number of “rounds” of mantra every day?

Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu (Nectar of Devotion) reveals that kṛpā is always the key to success in Bhakti, but that we obtain kṛpā as a result of our efforts to appreciate and value it. In other words, we obtain mercy as a result of our practice (sādhana). To obtain perfection by mercy alone, neglecting philosophy and practice is, they say, exceedingly, exceedingly, exceedingly rare.

III – Sādhana is Rāgānugā. Book Distribution is Vaidhi.

This is completely wrong. Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu very clearly defines that there are two types of sādhana. Both of them follow the rules and regulations of the spiritual practices, but one of them (rāgānugā) does so out of a specific desire to attain a specific type of love for Krishna. “Services” (like managing a temple, or selling a book, etc) are mostly karma-miśra-bhakti-yoga, or, for advanced practitioners could be either vaidhi or rāgānugā sādhana, depending on their motivation and realization of the individual.

IV – “Many Gurus” is a Bogus Idea

Previously ISKCON defined the “guru” as the person who runs every aspect of your life. Now, ISKCON is beginning to understand that the guru is a person who reveals Krishna to you and gives you the opportunity to attain Him through Krishna prema. As such a guru may or may not be involved in many or a few details of your personal life.

With the previous idea of guru it would be very hard to understand how there could be many gurus. How could you follow many “ultimate masters” at the same time!?!? How could you have many husbands, so to speak!?!? But with the correct understanding of guru, it is easy to understand why śāstra describes that there are many gurus, some who are inspirations, some who start us off in the right direction, some who teach us different aspects of philosophy and practice, and one who grants us a mantra and tilak and official acceptance into a specific branch of the family of spiritual practitioners.

Source...https://vicd108.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/the-generation-gap-in-iskcon/

Our movement is growing and it is not only growing in numbers but it is also growing in complexity! In the earlier days of Srila Prabhupada establishing the preaching mission, this movement was more simple. The membership was more homogenous – people of a similar age group and all engaged in the same activity.

Now, there is much more diversity! Diversity in different members of this movement and also diversity in different kinds programs so we need a very broad movement! We need a movement which provides various ways for all kinds of people to engage in Krsna consciousness because Krsna consciousness is possible in any condition of life therefore it is meant for all kinds of people.There is not just a particular stereotyped way of practicing Krsna consciousness. So in one way, engaging ones nature is valuable!

In recent years, a lot of focus is there on individuality, on engaging according to ones nature, in finding ones natural place in Krsna consciousness. In the earlier years of this movement, a lot of emphasis was placed on sacrifice – sacrifice for the mission and ones nature. Both elements are there where people are looking more for individual expression. We can also see more creative ways of engaging in devotional service, which opens up more avenues for more people to connect. So in that way, we established our movement in so many ways to society! That is fine and nice but the sacrificing spirit still remains very valuable. The spirit of simply putting ones own idea aside for the higher interest!

Just like Srila Prabhupada emphasized book distribution and that emphasis will not go away no matter what we do. There was a time when book distribution was the emphasis of the Hare Krsna movement as a whole and there was only a small percentage who were not part of the book distribution focus but times have changed and book distribution had at one point become a peripheral program – a side program and it lessened as a mainstream focus.

Now in recent years, we see worldwide a resurgence of book distribution. There is an increase and the focus is also increasing, as statistics shows. So as they say, the pendulum swings – it swings from one side to the other but Srila Prabhupada’s desires remain valid. Whether our community takes different forms at different historical points in time, Prabhupada’s desires still remain as an exceptional source of blessings! We can get such blessings by simply trying to fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s desires!

Therefore, again and again, that will come to the fore front, even if at times the focus shifts a little but remains within the boundaries of authorized vaisnava behaviour. If we miss the emphasizes which Srila Prabhupada gave or the points that he stressed, then we will dry up a little bit. So therefore our connection with Srila Prabhupada is extremely important and it must remain in the focus of our movement, then our movement will flourish!

Source...https://www.kksblog.com/2015/11/a-focus-area/

Lecture on Respecting Radha Kunda by HH Giriraj Swami at ISKOCN Dallas on 24 April 2013
(Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 10 Chapter 36 Text 16)

(In 1972 Giriraj Swami was appointed by Prabhupada to be president of ISKCON Bombay and trustee of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.)

For Listen and Download - click here

Read more about Bahulastami on www.harekrishnacalendar.com

Lecture on Appearance of Radha Kunda by HH Varsana Swami

(Varsana Swami was born in 1950 in Morristown, New Jersey. From his childhood he was strongly drawn to the workings of the natural world. He became a vegetarian of his own accord at the age of seven and was determined to lead a life of compassion.)

To Listen and Download - click here