Lecture on ISKCON's New Theology by HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami on 10 June 2014 at North Carolina
(His Holiness Bhakti Vikasa Swami appeared in this world in 1957 in England. He joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in London in 1975 and was initiated in that year with the name Ilapati dasa by ISKCON's founder-acarya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.)
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Lecture on Dhruva Charitra by HG Nitaisevini Mataji on 26 Jan 2014 at ISKCON Vizag
Nitaisevini Devi Dasi was born in Mumbai in a Gujarati Business family, conventional followers of the Pushtimarg. Later she with her family shifted to Hyderabad in 1984, since then she was closely connected to ISKCON Secunderbad. Inspired by Visits of many senior devotees, she later joined as a Full time devotee in 1997 and took initiation in the year 1998 in Atlanta,USA from H.H.Jayapataka Swami.
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Lecture on The Difference between Mechanical Religion and Bhakti by HG Madhavananda Prabhu on 22 May 2014 at Durban
(Madhavananda Das, joined ISKCON in Los Angeles in 1982. He moved to Bhubaneswar Orissa in 1993 where he has been living since. He was instructed by Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaj to edit his lectures into publications.)
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Lecture on Does Guru looks for Disciple or Disciple looks for Guru by HH Bhakti Charu Swami on 22 Aug 2013 at ISKCON Pune
(Bhakti Charu Swami is from a Bengali family and spent most of his early childhood in urban Kolkata. He met with Srila Prabhupada at the end of 1976 after a long and intense search for a spiritual teacher. This initial meeting resulted in Bhakti Charu Swami being assigned to translate the books of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust into the Bengali language.)
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Dear Devotees
Please accept my humble obeisances
All Glories To Srila Prabhupada
We are immensely happy to invite you for the Grand Inauguration of Srila Prabhupada's "Dream-Come-True Palace" of Sri Sri Radha Madhava Temple, ISKCON Kanpur. Srila Prabhupada said " We should certainly have a centre in Kanpur." (Letter to Aksayananda, 29th January ,1976). To fulfill his desire we started the construction in Oct 2011. We are celebrating the Pran Pratishtha for Sri Sri Radha Madhavaji Lalita-Vishakha, Sri Sri Sita Rama Laxman Hanuman , Sri Sri Gaura Nitai & Srila Prabhupada on 3rd Oct(Friday) 2014, Vijaya Dashami.
As we are in the process of finalizing the Accommodations & transportations facilities for this upcoming event of ISKCON Kanpur inauguration from 1st Oct to 5th Oct 2014.
01 Oct - Kalash sthapana & Yajna
02 Oct - Shilpi Doshana snana, Netronmilan, Vandapana, Nayasahoma, Shayanadivasa
03 Oct - Pran Pratistha, Maha Abhishek, Dhvaja sthapana
04 Oct - Cultural Programs & Seva Appreciation of devotees
05 Oct - Cultural Programs
Kindly confirm your participation to grace this occasion & make this event a memorable one. We will appreciate if you kindly let us know the number of devotees who will accompany you with tentative arrival & departure details in reply to this mail.
Looking forward for your valuable participation at Kanpur Temple opening!
Requesting you once again to kindly reply soon to enable us to serve you better?
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada
Devakinandan Das
Zonal Secretary (UP, Rajasthan, Juhu, Vrindavan)
NOTE: (Please reply back tentative details for registration before 31st July).
Lecture on Reading and Commentary by HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami on 09 June 2014 at Carolina
(His Holiness Bhakti Vikasa Swami appeared in this world in 1957 in England. He joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in London in 1975 and was initiated in that year with the name Ilapati dasa by ISKCON's founder-acarya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.)
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Lecture on How we Come to Krishna Consciousness by HH Niranjana Swami on 15 July 2014 at Kishinev
(The management and spiritual leadership experience Niranjana Swami gained during his tenure as president of ISKCON Boston from 1979 to 1983, and his service as regional secretary of New England in 1984, readied him for his GBC appointment in 1987.)
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Lecture on Lord Chaitanya is the Ultimate Goal of Life by HH Bhakti Caitanya Swami at ISKCON Durban
(Originally from New Zealand, Bhakti Caitanya Swami joined the Hare Krishna movement in London, early in 1973. Almost a year before, as a philosophy student at Auckland University, he had first seen his future spiritual master walking across the campus with his followers. Srila Prabhupada initiated Bhakti Caitanya Swami later in 1973, giving him the name Raghubir Dasa. )
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Lecture on Benefits of Chanting Holy Name by HH Bhakti Charu Swami on 10 Feb 2014 at ISKCON Ujjain
(Bhakti Charu Swami is from a Bengali family and spent most of his early childhood in urban Kolkata. He met with Srila Prabhupada at the end of 1976 after a long and intense search for a spiritual teacher. This initial meeting resulted in Bhakti Charu Swami being assigned to translate the books of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust into the Bengali language.)
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Lecture on Esoteric Significance of Jagannath Puri Dham by HG Madhavananda Prabhu on 22 May 2014 on Durban
(Madhavananda Das, joined ISKCON in Los Angeles in 1982. He moved to Bhubaneswar Orissa in 1993 where he has been living since. He was instructed by Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaj to edit his lectures into publications.)
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Lecture on Are we responsible for reactions coming to us or the three modes by HH Bhakti Charu Swami
(Bhakti Charu Swami is from a Bengali family and spent most of his early childhood in urban Kolkata. He met with Srila Prabhupada at the end of 1976 after a long and intense search for a spiritual teacher. This initial meeting resulted in Bhakti Charu Swami being assigned to translate the books of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust into the Bengali language.)
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Lecture on Disappearance Day of Bhaktivinoda Thakura by Dravida Prabhu on 26 June 2014 at Los Angeles
(Dravida Prabhu is a vaishnava scholar, musician and poet. He has edited Back to Godhead magazine and other books published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust for over 25 years.)
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Lecture on Exchanges With the Honeybee by HH Bhakti Caitanya Swami on Durban
(Originally from New Zealand, Bhakti Caitanya Swami joined the Hare Krishna movement in London, early in 1973. Almost a year before, as a philosophy student at Auckland University, he had first seen his future spiritual master walking across the campus with his followers. Srila Prabhupada initiated Bhakti Caitanya Swami later in 1973, giving him the name Raghubir Dasa. )
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English Kamika Ekadashi Mahatmya without Music
Hindi Kamika Ekadashi Mahatmya without Music
English Narration: Bhakta Neeraj Kapoor
Hindi Narration: Madhava Das (BVKS)
Recording, Editing, Music mixing : Madhava Das (BVKS) at Gopal's Studio (ISKCON Desire Tree)
Read more about Kamika Ekadashi on www.harekrishnacalendar.com
Listen Hindi Audio for Kamika Ekadashi on www.iskcondesiretree.net
View recipes for Ekadasi on www.totalveg.com
Srimad Bhagvatam Class by HH Radhanath Swami at Gita Nagari Retreat - click here
How to Control one's False Ego by HH Radhanath Swami at Gita Nagari Retreat - click here
Hare Krishna!
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
We are very happy to announce the fifth edition of Lord Jagannatha´s Ratha Yatra in Tenerife. Our guest of honor will be H.H. Bhaktimarga Swami (confirmed), H.H. Yadunandana Swami (confirmed), H.H. Bhakti Gauravani Swami (to be confirmed) as well as many other enthusiastic devotees from Spain and abroad.
You are most welcome to come and share this special event in the fortunate island of Tenerife.
Your servant,
Patita-pavana dasa
By: Madhava Smullen ISKCON News on March 28, 2014
Srila Prabhupada's room just after devotees unlocked it for the first time in 25 years. The pyramid in the center is a sacred dome indicating that the Deities' altar is directly below.
Devotees overseeing the restoration of the Delhi temple where Srila Prabhupada stayed in the early 1960s before leaving for the US have discovered a treasure of his personal belongings.
Breaking open the locks on a door that had not been opened for 25 years, they were amazed to find the items still in his room at the Chippiwada Sri Sri Radha-Vallabha Mandir in Delhi’s busiest market, Chandni Chowk, after so long.
The items included Srila Prabhupada’s harmonium and the original covers of the first canto of his Srimad-Bhagavatam translation and commentary, which he later brought with him to the US.
Along with these was a list of rules for the temple, including a handwritten correction identified by GBC Gopal Krishna Goswami as Srila Prabhupada’s.
The exterior of Srila Prabhupada's room at the Chippiwada temple
Devotees also found a Prospectus for Srila Prabhupada’s first ISKCON temple, 26 2nd Avenue in New York, covering topics such as “What is Krishna Consciousness?” and “What is the International Society for Krishna Consciousness?”
Prabhupada had left the Prospectus at the Sri Sri Radha Vallabha Mandir when he visited it during his first trip back to India from the US in 1971 with his early disciples Kirtanananda and Achyutananda.
Finally, the room also contained a very old handwritten book in Sanskrit. Devotees are yet to engage a Sanskrit scholar to confirm the author and contents, but it is presumed to be at least fifty years old and written by a Gaudiya Vaishnava.
“Finding these items was a pretty out of this world experience,” says ISKCON Delhi Communications Director Yudhistira Govinda Das. “This is something that happens perhaps only once in a lifetime.”
The Chippiwada temple hall
It’s an exciting time for ISKCON, which has been trying to acquire the Chippiwada temple for four decades.
Srila Prabhupada himself first requested the trustees to donate the temple to ISKCON in the early 1970s, but they weren’t interested at the time. He then asked Gopal Krishna Goswami to keep trying to acquire the property.
Finally, in 2011, Gopal Krishna and ISKCON Delhi Zonal Secretary Raghava Pandit Das convinced the current trustees – the sons of those in Prabhupada’s time – that their temple was falling into neglect and that ISKCON’s stewardship would be the best thing for it.
ISKCON only just acquired full ownership of the temple in February of this year, and found the precious items belonging to Srila Prabhupada when they started renovation.
Srila Prabhupada's Prospectus for his 26 2nd Ave temple in New York, which he brought to Chippiwada on a visit back to India and left there
The temple is extremely important to ISKCON’s legacy. In the early 1960s, soon after he had taken sannyasa, Srila Prabhupada was living in Vrindavana but would commute to Delhi for periods of preaching. During these visits, he would stay in his small room at the Chippiwada temple.
The Srila Prabhupada-lilamrita explains that the guest room where he stayed was just above Sri Sri Radha-Vallabha’s altar, and a three-foot-high concrete pyramid with a spire protruded up from the floor in the room, indicating that the Deities were directly beneath. The cement walls and floor of the room, the lilamrita describes, were completely bare.
Meanwhile outside, the Chippiwada neighborhood was a densely crowded and chaotic network of narrow streets, filled with oxcarts, rickshaws, bicycles and swarms of shoppers and workers.
Srila Prabhupada tolerated the intensity and austerity of the city to print his Back to Godhead magazine at a printer’s close by, then distribute them at Connaught Place. He would also meet with businessmen, politicians and other influential people in the city.
Srila Prabhupada outlines what Krishna Consciousness and ISKCON is inside the pamphlet
Back at the temple, Srila Prabhupada personally worshipped Sri Sri Radha Vallabha, the sweet two-foot tall marble Radha-Krishna Deities there. The Deities, still present at the temple, are now 110 years old, and are one of the very few non-ISKCON Deities that Srila Prabhupada worshipped.
Srila Prabhupada also worked on the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam at the Chippiwada temple, rising before dawn to translate. And in the morning and evening, he would give discourses on the Bhagavatam to all the temple’s visitors.
Today, four devotees are residing full-time in the property, in a room just next to Srila Prabhupada’s, and are worshipping the same Deities that he did.
“They moved in one month ago, and celebrated the Gaura Purnima festival there,” says Yudhistira Govinda. “It turned out to be a pretty huge success, because all the people in the community are very pious. About eighty families attended, and each family prepared and brought a dish to offer the Deities.”
A Sanskrit book found in Srila Prabhupada's room, written by an unknown Gaudiya Vaishnava author
The devotees also hold a weekly Harinama on the streets of Chippiwada, still as busy as they were during Prabhupada’s time. Meanwhile, they’re overseeing important renovation work on the temple.
“When the temple was built about a century ago in British India, they didn’t have iron beams,” Yudhistira says. “The construction was done by mixing cement with concrete and supporting it with wood. Both of these can erode over a period of time, and they did. So to prevent the ceiling from falling, we have put in some really strong reinforced iron beams.”
Workers have also renovated all the woodwork and flooring, built new cabinets and a new kitchen for the Deities, and are repainting the whole building.
In the second phase of renovation, they’ll convert the entire first floor, where Srila Prabhupada’s room is located, into a Prabhupada memorial museum. This will contain all the items devotees discovered in his room, as well as a library of Srila Prabhupada’s books where people can study in English and the most common Indian languages.
Srila Prabhupada's harmonium
The museum will also include multimedia kiosks on which visitors will be able to view presentations on Srila Prabhupada’s life and works. It’s expected to open in mid 2015, as part of ISKCON’s fiftieth anniversary celebrations.
“Just two minutes’ walk from the temple are the Jamma Masjid and the Red Fort, two of the most famous tourist sites in India,” says Yudhistira. “Our plan is to attract these tourists to vist the place where ‘the Hare Krishnas’ began, and to learn the story of their founder, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada.”
Dear Friends and Members of ISKCON,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
The tragic news of the deaths of several devotee pilgrims from Russia last month who died when their bus drove off the road and into the Bhagirathi River in the mountainous Himalayan region in India has brought us great sadness.
We send our prayers and support to their families. We pray that those who lost their lives and those that were injured will be given full spiritual protection by the Lord.
Reflecting upon this recent accident, we also remember the terrible plane crash that took the lives of six devotees from the Chowpatty community in Mumbai who were flying to the Himalayas. Both events remind us how dangerous this world is and how we must strive to protect our fellow Vaishnavas from harm.
Years ago, Srila Prabhupada had sober words to share after the death of a devotee who drowned diving and swimming in the dangerous headwaters of the Ganga. Prabhupada instructed that we should remember how fortunate we are to have taken up Krishna Consciousness, and that "we should not take unnecessary risks."
This order also applies when traveling to visit holy places. While driving is dangerous everywhere in the world, it is especially so in India where more than 100,000 people each year die in automobile accidents.
Some of the isolated Himalayan holy places where ISKCON devotees occasionally visit are particularly dangerous. These include Badrinath, Kedarnath, Muktinath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri. The roads to these places go for many miles over treacherous curves just inches away from steep, deep gorges. Landslides are common, the roads are poorly maintained, and are often without any guardrails. In addition, drivers are often poorly trained and poorly supervised.
Thus, the Executive Committee of the Governing Body Commission, concerned with the safety of our fellow Vaishnavas, announce the following Advisory Notice. We request that local temple communities post this notice where appropriate and share it through your local websites and newsletters.
Advisory Notice
Devotees and friends of ISKCON are advised to take extra precaution in planning visits to holy places in India, taking all possible steps to ensure the safety of themselves, their families, and their traveling companions.
We particularly advise pilgrims to take caution when visiting isolated holy places in the mountainous regions in India including Badrinath, Kedarnath, Muktinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. This is especially true for new members and visitors to India, and for devotees organizing tours for others.
Anyone who chooses to visit these places should do so only after fully deliberating upon the risks involved.
India is full of spiritual havens connected with the pastimes of Lord Krishna, Lord Caitanya, and the Lord's many avatars and devotees. Visits to most of these tirthas are relatively safe; some are less so.
Thus, remembering Srila Prabhupada's loving words "to not take unnecessary risks," we strongly advise that ISKCON members apply extra care and caution while visiting any of these holy places, and we pray always for your safety.
GBC Executive Committee
July 15, 2014
Anuttama das, Chairman
Praghosa das
Sesa das
Date: July 14, 2014
New Delhi: In the light of the controversy between the Shankaracharya of Dwarkapeeth and the followers of Shirdi Sai Baba, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) calls for respect and co-operation in keeping with the Hindu tradition of tolerance.
ISKCON follows the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition and accepts the Bhagavad-gita and the Bhagavata Purana as our main sources of authority. According to these sources, God incarnates again and again to further His mission of elevating human consciousness to the divine level. That same mission has been carried forward by many saints and sadhus throughout the history of humanity, not only in India but all over the world.
Recognizing the universality of the Lord’s mission we respect the spiritual teachers, gurus and saints of all the world's great religious traditions - seers who throughout history have dedicated their lives to raise human consciousness. It is natural that people serve, revere, and sometimes worship such personalities. By doing so, according to the Vedas, spiritual merit is attained.
We respect the right of all people to worship and practice their faith as guided by their conscience and inspired by the various teachers and specific scriptures they choose to follow.
Inside and outside various sampradayas or traditions, there are often disagreements about the status of particular saints, teachers, or representatives of God. For instance, some Christian denominations worship Jesus as God, whereas others do not accept him directly as God, instead as the exalted Son of God. Within the Islamic tradition, there are disagreements regarding the status of some of the Prophet Mohamed's followers. Similarly, within the Vedic or Hindu traditions there are disagreements about the status of specific teachers and saints.
Within our Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, we refer strictly to the Bhagavad-gita and the Bhagavata Purana and other Vedic texts, and worship God as He is revealed and predicted to appear in those texts. Thus, we accept that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (16th Century) is the most recent incarnation of the Godhead, based on predictions of the sastra and other evidence.
Yet, we don't expect all Hindus or all god-conscious people to believe in Him as we do. Similarly, no member of any sampradaya should be expected to fully adhere to the tenets of another's system of belief. There are vast differences of opinion within the Hindu communities. Philosophically we may not agree with their choices, but we respect their right to worship and interpret scripture as they choose.
At the same time, we also recognize the right of any member of a sampradaya to disagree and to debate robustly, but respectfully, in favor of the philosophical points to which they subscribe, and into which they place their faith. It is the great strength of our dharma to allow such debates and to live peacefully amidst our differences.
Thus, as members of the Vedic tradition and devotees of Lord Krishna, we urge our brothers and sisters to respect each other despite our differences. As sincere advocates of sanatana dharma, let us resolve our issues in the mood of humble seekers and servants of God, and not allow our differences to overwhelm the natural respect due to one another.
Contact: Yudhistir Govinda Das
Phone: +91 9654-789-832
Email: yudhistir@iskcon.org
