From Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir
Speaker: HG Hari Vilas dasa
Date: 9 February 2015
Subject: Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Appearance day

So I am very humbled to be here in front of so many exalted Vaisnavas, my Godbrothers and Godsisters, and of course Srila Prabhupada, especially today, on the appearance day of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada.

Today I am going to talk about of course Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and his glorious disciple Srila Prabhupada and read some things that Srila Prabhupada has written about his wonderful Gurudeva. Srila Prabhupada has quoted part of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura's pranama mantra:

rupanuga-viruddhapasiddhanta-dhvanta-harine

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura was strict follower, integral follower of Srila Rupa Gosvami.  He wouldn't tolerate anything that deviated from his instructions.  And Prabhupada says that he strictly followed the rupanuga principle.  That principle Prabhupada says, Srila Rupa Goswami write in the Bhakti Rasamrtasindhu - you somehow engage people in Krishna consciousness. yena kena prakarena manah krsna nivesayet

So he (Srila Prabhupada) says that, "Some of our friends criticize that I have done this or I have done that.  Swami Maharaja, he is doing like this he is doing like that."

Prabhupada says, "Yes, we are doing everything but our main business is just to inspire people to take to Krishna consciousness. That is the secret you have to inspire people. Then even if there is some discrepancy in the rules and regulations it does not matter.  Rupa Gowami has said,

sarva vidhi nisedha syur etayor eva kinkarah

So he means that somehow or other you bring people to Krishna consciousness. Some things can be changed Prabhupada says according to desa, kala, patra- the place, the time, the circumstances.  But the principle is phalena pariciyate, we must judge from the result whether one has become Krishna conscious or not.  Then we say that is what we want, this is the rule.  Once you become Krishna conscious then we can say -this is the rule, so you do things like this, you don't do things like that.

Prabhupada has said that in the beginning one must be very tolerant, but as people begin to understand Krishna consciousness you tighten the screws.

dharmah svanusthitah pumsam visvaksena-kathasu yah notpadayed yadi ratimsrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8)

That is that even if you follow all the rules and regulations at the end you don't become Krishna conscious it is useless.

When Prabhupada came to the United States in the beginning nobody knew what a pure devotee is, no one knew how to treat a genuine guru.  But he established his authority not by dictate.  He didn't come with a paper and say, "I am guru.  You have to listen to what I say."

He established his authority by affection and love:

dadati pratigrhnati guhyam akhyati prcchati ( Nectar of Instruction Verse 4)

He exchanged things with his devotees, giving and receiving prasadam, giving and receiving gifts and sharing endearing thoughts about Krishna.

Prabhupada says in the beginning there are many difficulties because we go to places where people's behavior, people's culture, is completely opposite to Krishna consciousness.  But we have to find a means, a strategy to bring them to Krishna.  Prabhupada says that is my first business.  That is the secret.

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura also followed strictly Rupa Goswami. He introduced that a sanyasi can go begging in a motorcar.  He introduced that sanyasi can even live in a palatial building.  But Rupa Goswami lived under a tree!  But we cannot imitate that.  Therefore here in Mayapur there are palatial buildings and devotees are going around in buses and nice cars and preaching Krishna consciousness.  In Vrindavana there are many babaji's they just have a little loin cloth on, but many of them are doing nonsense.

Prabhupada said imitation is not required.  The real thing is required.  So he says, what is the purpose of a goswami?  Somehow or other engage people in Krishna consciousness.  Prabhupada said, "That is my Guru Maharajaa. That is my Guru Maharaja's gift.  He first of all stated that there is no need to go to Vrindavana and imitate the Goswamis.  You can live in big cities, you can live in palatial houses, but preach Krishna consciousness. So therefore give the people a chance to understand Krishna.  He opened many centers in big cities."  (He is speaking about his Guru Maharaja). He says, "We are also doing that because we are strictly following the principles of Rupa Goswami."

Prabhupada said, "Somehow or other everything is coming out successfully. Krishna consciousness should be pushed forward according to this principle or rupanuga principle."

On Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati's Thakura's appearance day in 1975 Prabhupada said:

"In front of Lord Caitanya and by the grace of Lord Krishna and in the presence of my Guru Maharaja you are chanting Hare Krishna.  You are chanting Hare Krishna maha mantra very seriously.  So my Guru Maharaja will be very very pleased upon you.  He will bless you with all benefits.  He wanted this.  It is not that he is dead and gone.  That is not spiritual understanding.  Even an ordinary being doesn't die.  Na hanyate hanyamane sarire.  What to speak of such an exalted authorized personality like Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhuapda.  He is seeing you."

Prabhupada now says, "I never felt that I am alone. When I came to United States like a pauper, like a poor man, no friends, no money but I was full of faith that my Guru Maharajaa is with me.  I never lost this faith."

I have an experience of this.  In France we were very poor also. So Prabhupada wanted us to open a temple.  So somehow or other by a miracle we opened a temple.  And we invited him to come.  So first he went to Moscow from India and then from Moscow he came to Paris.  The day before he came I was in deep, deep anxiety.  We didn't have any money, we couldn't buy flowers, we couldn't buy bhoga, we didn't have a car, we couldn't even renta taxi.  That night I could hardly sleep.  I woke up very early in the morning, went down to the temple room, I started chanting.  I was thinking what are we going to do?  We are going to hitchhike to the airport, but we can't hitchhike back with Prabhupada!  Now this is a true story.  I am not making anything up, I am not elaborating it or. . . .

While chanting I noticed there was a brown bag in the temple room.  It was a brown paper bag.  So I picked it up, I looked inside it was full of money. More money than I had ever seen in my life!  So immediately I put it under my arm and covered it with a chadar. (claps) and I started to sweat thinking what will I do if someone comes looking for the bag? (laughter)  So I just started chanting, we had mangala arati.  It wasn't really a temple room, it was a room with a very small little altar, with small picture of Panca tattva and few pictures of the parampara.  By 11 o'clock in the morning no one had asked me for the bag.  We had to pick up Prabhupada at 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

So I accepted this as Krishna's mercy.  I gave people money to buy flowers, to buy bhoga, we got a taxi, and we went to the airport.

vyavasayatmika buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana (BG 2.41)

One must have resolute unflinching faith in the spiritual master and in Krishna.  Somehow or other by the goodwill of Krishna everything will work out.

Srila Prabhupada has written a letter to a bhakta.  He said:

"The spiritual master is present wherever his sincere devotees are trying to serve his instructions.  This is possible by the mercy of Krishna.  In your attempt to serve me with your sincere devotional sentiments I am with you just as my Guru Maharajaa is with me.  Always remember this."

So in this way we have to have faith

Guru mukha padma vakya cittete kariya aikya

My only desire is to have my consciousness purified by the words emanating from the lotus mouth of my guru.

'sraddha'-sabde - visvasa kahe sudrdha niscaya krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya (CC Madhya 22.62)

You must have faith but faith means you believe in something sublime, you may not see it but you know it is there. Prabhupada said, "My Guru Maharajaa is with me.  I never lost that faith."

There is vani, the words of the guru, and there is vapu the physical presence, Srila Prabhupada said the physical presence will disappear but the vani will stay.  If we keep the vani the words of the guru and spiritual master then we remain fixed up.  Just like the Bhagavad Gita was spoken five thousand years ago but if you keep the words of Krishna then it is always fresh.  It will guide you.  Then you should know that Krishna is present with you.  That means spiritual realization.  It's not a mundane history.

So in 1996 for Prabhupada's centennial I organized a program in San Jose, California.  The guest speaker was Govinda Maharaja, the disciple of Sridhar Maharaja.  And he said, "Today my dear friends I have come to make a confession.  I think in your religion you make confession, is it not?"  He said, "My Guru Maharajaa and I were sitting in Navdvipa.  And we were getting news that your Gurudeva, your Swami Maharajaa, was succeeding in the United States in spreading Krishna consciousness.  We could not believe it!"

Now the question is why did they not believe it?

Because in 1933 Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura sent his best man, the most eloquent, the most refined, the most intelligent member of the Gaudiya Math to preach in England and the Gaudiya Math sent him every month 700 Rs, which might be like I don't know, 7000 dollars or something today.  After four years he called him back to Calcutta.  He wasn't able to make one devotee and when he met him, the ultimate insult was, he said to Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, "Your process doesn't work!"

That was an insult!

Two weeks before Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura disappeared Prabhupada sent him a letter and he said - "Gurudeva, is there any service I can do for you?" r And Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura immediately replied, "Yes it will be very nice for you, you try to preach this gospel amongst the persons who speak English."

So Prabhupada said, "Sometimes I was dreaming that my Guru Maharaja was coming to me and calling and saying that I must leave my home and follow him, leave my children, leave everything and follow him.  My Guru Maharaja wants me to give up my home, give up my family and take sannyasa.  So I was thinking, Oh, this is horrible!  How can I leave my home!  That is maya!"

Guru Maharaja, Prabhupada said, made me or obliged me to give up my home life.  But his order and plan I gave up everything. I gave up a few children but now Krishna has given me thousands of children."

And he came to the West and proved that his Guru Maharaja's process works because he had absolute faith in the words of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.

So when I was young devotee, I think it was 1973, I came for the first time to India and it was the time of Janmastami and then Guru [Vyasa] Puja.  And on the occasion of Guru Puja the guest speaker, the honoured guest was the same person who had gone to England and failed.  At that time the temple was not built yet.  It was a construction site.  I was sitting on a sand pile. There was no running water yet. You had to draw water from a well.  But we were happy because we were with Prabhupada.

On that day Prabhupada was sitting on his vyasasana and we were trying to glorify him and four sanyasis came from Mayapur.  And one of them got up to speak, Gargamuni, and he said, "Prabhupada is the only disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura who had so much faith in his guru that he was willing to risk everything, his life, his health, everything to please his guru.  Not one of his Godbrothers was able to do this."

I was a little embarrassed when he said it, I was looking at the honored guest.  I was thinking why is he speaking so strong like this, it's embarrassing.  But the honored guest did not bat an eyelash. But when I looked at Prabhupada he was smiling, he was very happy. (laughter)

Gargamuni said, "Prabhupada did what his Guru and all the  parampara of the Gaudiya Vaisnavas wanted:

prthivite ache yata nagaradi-grama?sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama

Again I looked at the guest, again he was stoic, he didn't bat an eyelash, I looked at Prabhupada, he was beaming.  Then I thought in my heart one day I want to speak like that to glorify Prabhupada.

And then the guest was given a chance to speak and he said, "We cannot but accept the fact that your Swami Maharaja has done great service."

Now we know how much Prabhupada loved Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura said, "Even at the expense of all the properties of the Gaudiya Math, all the temples, all the mathas, all that I have, if I could convert even one person into a pure devotee, my mission would be fulfilled."

Prabhupada is that one devotee, the absolute pure devotee who fulfilled the prophecy of Lord Caitanya.  He fulfilled the prophecy of Bhaktivinoda Thakura, that one day the white brothers from the West will come to Sridhama Mayapur and dance with their Indian brown brothers in harinama sankirtana. These two prophecies plus the fact that the message of Lord Caitanya is spread all over the world.

So we cannot imagine how much Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura is smiling right now.  When Bhaktivinoda Thakura disappeared he went to see his mother and he was late so his father had already been cremated.  His mother said, "Before your father departed he offered you many blessings. Bhaktivinoda Thakura repeatedly mentioned that your firm faith in suddha bhakti is fixed. And he instructed that you should serve Sridhama Mayapur and propagate the message of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu."

A few weeks before Bhaktivinoda Thakura had disappeared he expressed his mano abhista, his heart felt understanding that he wanted to convey to his son Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.  He said number one, establish daiva varnasrama, preach suddha bhakti, develop Sridhama Mayapur and publish Vaisnava writings.  He said most people commit many offenses against pure Vaisnava's due to their false pride.  He said the means to rectify this is to institute daiva varnasrma.

In 1956 Srila Prabhupada wrote an essay called 'Gita Nagari Village'.  And he outlined a four point process to spiritualize the whole world.  The first point was harinama sankirtana.  The second point was deity worship and establishing temples.  He called these points movements.  He said the third point was initiating devotees and training them to be pure Vaisnavas.  And the fourth point was establishing daiva varnasrama so that there will be a classless society.

How it can be classless when you have varnas and asramas?  Because if it is done correctly all the varnas and asramas will cooperate with each other and will become a classless society.  No one will be in a ? situation.  Everyone will attain the perfection of life by cooperating with each other.

In the beginning of time Krishna sent forth generations of men and demigods and gave them sacrifice for Lord Visnu.  And he said by performance of these sacrifices you will receive all desirable things to live peacefully happily and prosperously.  And at the end of life you will all go back to Godhead. This is the program for the Krishna consciousness movement.  It was the point one of Bhaktivinoda Thakura, his mano abhistam, his heart felt realizations that he wanted to communicate to his son Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.

Second point was due to the the lack of preaching what pure bhakti is, all types of bad theories and instructions are being called devotion by false sampradayas like the sahajiyas.  He said crush these anti-devotional conceptions by preaching what pure bhakti is.  And always manifest the highest standard of Vaisnava sadacara by your behavior.

And he said begin the parikrama of Sridhama Mayapur as soon as possible then everyone in the universe will receive Krishna bhakti.

Then he said, diligently endeavor that service to Sridhama Mayapur becomes permanently established and more resplendent everyday.

So actually in the Padma Purana it says:

naham tisthami vaikunthe yoginam hrdayesu va
yatra gayanti mad-bhaktah tatra tisthami narada

"Narada, I am not in Vaikuntha, (Lord Visnu is speaking to Narada) I am not in the heart of the meditating yogis, and but whenever My devotees are chanting My glories, speaking about My katha, describing My form, My pastimes, that's where I am."

This is what Mayapur is all about.  In Mayapur you will see the best and the worst because everything is amplified here.  But our motto should be "Take the best and leave the rest!"

This is not a place for nonsense.  This is a place where you can actually become a pure devotee.

tasmat sarvesu kalesu mam anusmara yudhya ca
mayy arpita-mano-buddhir mam evaisyasy asamsayah (BG 8.7)

"At all times Arujna think of Me and do your duty with your mind and intelligence fixed on Me I guarantee you, you will come back to Me."

So why are we here?  We are here because thousands and thousands of people are coming here almost every day and it will be millions when this temple is built. This is perhaps the greatest place in the world to preach.  This is where Lord Caitanya preached, this is where Lord Nityananda preached, Srivas Thakura, all of the greatest devotees in the history of the world, they were preaching here.  This is not a place for visayis, for sense gratifiers. This is a place where you can actually attain Krishna prema and share it with hundreds and thousands and millions of people.  When we actually take that seriously Srila Prabhupada becomes very pleased. That's why he went through so much trouble to build this place.

So I will finish with one letter that Srila Prabhupada wrote.  He wrote this to his devotees in 1967.  He says:

"I always think of you because you are my heart and soul.  I am so pleased in your association.  I am always thankful to my spiritual master Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, for his favor by sending you to me, such sincere representatives of him to help me in my missionary activities in this part of the world.  I consider you all as representatives of my Guru Maharaja to help me in my helpless condition.  My Godbrothers did not help me but my spiritual master helped me.  So I do not think that I can ever forget you even for a moment.  I pray to Krishna for your more and more advancement in Krishna consciousness.  Be happy and execute more and more service for Krishna and Krishna will accept you in His association."

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada ki jaya!
Sridhama Mayapur ki jaya!
Gaurpremanande Hari Haribol!

Devotee: Could you please give the fifth point from this book "Gita Nagari
Village". You mentioned four.

HG Hari Vilas Prabhu:  There are four points.  Fifth point is everyone will become happy and go back to Godhead.

Ekalavya Das:  Hare Krishna Prabhu.  Thank you for a wonderful class. Prabhu you quoted one sloka from Padma Purana which states that "I am not in the heart of the yogis but I am where My devotees are chanting My glories."So Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto (BG 15.15), that "I am in everyone's heart."  So what is it meant by this Padma Purana verse.

HG Hari Vilas Prabhu:

namnam akari bahudha nija-sarva-saktis
atrarpita niyamitah smarane na kalah
etadrsi tava krpa bhagavan mamapi
durdaivam idrsam ihajani nanuragah (Siksatakam )

That Krishna has so many names Krishna, Govinda.  He is present in His names. All His potencies are in His names.  And there are no hard and fast rules for chanting that.  We have to understand what Lord Caitanya did.  He did something unbelievable.  Hinduism was ensconced in a lie.  catur varnyam maya srstam guna karma vibhagasah, this is what Krishna says.  But the Hindu Brahmans were saying catur varnyam maya srstam janma karma vibhagasah. So they created this false caste system.  And it caused havoc.

So Lord Caitanya He did not come to be a politician that creates friends and enemies.  He came and in a very wonderful way elevated everyone regardless of their caste, regardless of their birth, they could be Muslims, they could be Jain, they could be Buddhist, they could be atheists, doesn't matter. They can all join the sankirtana movement and become purified.

And there are three methods to this yoga system: chanting, dancing and feasting.  You don't have to be a rocket engineer to do it.  A child can do it and a person on a death bed can do it.

Now the 50th anniversary of ISKCON is coming up.  We should cause a tsunami of the holy name.  We want minimum one million people in Calcutta on harinama sankirtana for the 50th anniversary, we want minimum half a million people in Delhi, half a million people in Bombay and in Washington DC we want at least a hundred thousand people.

Let's do this!  Let's glorify Lord Caitanya!  Let's glorify Prabhupada! Let's have Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura smiling.  The entire sampradaya and gurus should be smiling.  You can do this!  Let's work together!

Hare Krishna!
Thank you very much!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Lecture on Glories of Maharaj Ambarish by HG Nitai Sevini Mataji at ISKCON Vizag

(H.G.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.)

To Listen and Download - click here

Lecture on Journey of Self Discovery Day 01  by HG Kamallochan Prabhu on 22 Sep 2014

To Listen and Download - click here

Lecture on BG 05.09 Contact of senses-Sense objects is not the problem infatuation with the contact is  by HG Chaitanya Charan Prabhu on Jan 2015

(HG Chaitanya Charan Prabhu is a celibate spiritual teacher (brahmachari) at ISKCON, Pune. He has done his Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering from the Govt College of Engg, Pune. He is a member of ISKCON's topmost intellectual body, the Shastric Advisory Council, which offers scriptural advise to the GBC)

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Lecture on Honesty is the Best Policy by Indradyumna Swami at Perth on 17 Feb 1992
(Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 04, Chapter 30, Text 42)

(Indradyumna Swami is a disciple of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a Sannyasi traveling preacher, and a guru or spiritual teacher in the Chaitanya Vaishnava tradition. Each year Indradyumna Swami circles the globe teaching the message of the Bhagavad Gita and introducing people to kirtan chanting of the Hare Krishna maha mantra.)

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 Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, the guru of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, appeared in Sri Ksetra Dhama.(Jagannatha Puri) on 6 February 1874 as the son of Srila Sacidananda Bhaktivinoda Thakura. In his childhood he quickly mastered the Vedas, memorized the Bhdgavad-gita, and relished his father's philosophical works. He became known as "The Living Encyclopedia" for his vast knowledge.

Read more - www.gaudiyahistory.com 
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From : Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir
Date: February 5, 2015
Speaker : HH Bhakti Rasamrita Swami
Subject : SB 6.3.31

tasmat sankirtanam visnor  jagan-mangalam amhasam
mahatam api kauravya  viddhy aikantika-niskrtam

"Sukadeva Gosvami continued: My dear King, the chanting of the holy name of the Lord is able to uproot even the reactions of the greatest sins. Therefore the chanting of the sankirtana movement is the most auspicious activity in the entire universe. Please try to understand this so that others will take it seriously."

PURPORT: We should note that although Ajamila chanted the name of Narayana imperfectly, he was delivered from all sinful reactions. The chanting of the holy name is so auspicious that it can free everyone from the reactions of sinful activities. One should not conclude that one may continue to sin with the intention of chanting Hare Krsna to neutralize the reactions. Rather, one should be very careful to be free from all sins and never think of counteracting sinful activities by chanting the Hare Krsna mantra, for this is another offense. If by chance a devotee accidentally performs some sinful activity, the Lord will excuse him, but one should not intentionally perform sinful acts.

HH Bhakti Rasamrita Swami: Hare Krishna!

Before I begin I seek the blessings of all the assembled devotees and especially of my exalted seniors many of whom are present here and in front of whom I am required to speak today.  I pray that my words may be meaningful, faithful to the teachings of the parampara and also give some pleasure to the Vaisnavas.

The topic for today is also a cause of great pleasure and the topic is sankirtana.  Sukadeva Goswami mentions here that the congregational chanting of the holy name can uproot even the greatest of sins.  And this theme recurs many times in the Bhagavatam and also in the other Vedic scriptures. For example, the very last verse of the Srimad Bhagavatam indicates the samething.

nama-sankirtanam yasya  sarva-papa pranasanam
pranamo duhkha-samanas  tam namami harim param

which means I offer my humble obeisances to that Supreme Personality of Godhead Hari by chanting whose names all sinful reactions are completely destroyed.

The word is sarva-papa pranasanam - pranasanam indicates not just nasanam or destruction but pranasanam which means complete destruction, thorough destruction.

pranamo dukha samanas - by offering obeisances to that Supreme Lord Hari all one's miseries are also destroyed.

And of course this is one of the features of devotional service that it completely uproots sinful reactions so that they never again recur. It is the ultimate atonement.  viddhy aikantika-niskrtam, the word niskrtam is translated by Srila Prabhupada here as atonement.

In the Sixth Canto Srila Sukadeva Goswami says

kecit kevalaya bhaktya  vasudeva-parayanah
agham dhunvanti kartsnyena  niharam iva bhaskarah (SB 6.1.15)

Meaning, that with the very glimpse, just as with a very first few rays of the rising sun the fog and the darkness of the night is dissipated. Similarly with the barely a glimpse of the chanting, of the onset of pure devotion to the Lord all sinful reactions are completely eradicated.

So in this way there are numerous references about how devotional service and the chanting of the holy names in particular destroys sinful reactions but that is not the ultimate goal of chanting the holy name as the scriptures also describe at other places.

For example in the Caitanya Caritamrta Srila Haridas Thakura clearly explains that the true result of chanting the holy names of the Lord is not destruction of sinful reactions and liberation or moksa. The real purpose of chanting the holy name and the ultimate fruit is the development of ecstatic love for the lotus feet of Lord Krishna.

So this is what the sankirtana movement is all about.  It is meant to give to the whole world ecstatic love for the lotus feet of Lord Krishna. Therefore it will be very helpful for us to understand deeper the purport of the word sankirtana which appears in this verse and after which our whole movement is named.

There are two parts to this word, the first one is sam and the second part is kirtana.  So let's talk about these two parts beginning with kirtana.

Kirtana comes from the word kirti which means glory among other meanings. So to glorify someone or something is kirtana.  Srila Prabhupada explains that the word kirtana from a grammatical point of view can mean glorification or description of anything.  However the true purport from a Krishna conscious point of view is that kirtana is  glorification of the Supreme Lord.  So Prabhupada says,

"There is nothing like Kali kirtana, for example.  Kirtana means Krishna kirtana."

However because the word kirtana can be grammatically understood in different ways many people interpret the word differently and give different purports to it which are not in keeping with true understanding of Bhagavata dharma.

In 1970 the devotees approached the authorities of the University of California at Berkeley to be allowed to give some classes on Krishna consciousness to the students.  The faculty members considered the proposal and rejected it.  There was a newspaper article sometime later in the Los Angeles Times.  And one of the professors named Professor Staal was quoted as saying, that "the Hare Krishnai..or the devotees spend too much time chanting to be able to develop a philosophy." (laughter) What he implied was that it is just sentimental, they don't have philosophy,  they just chant and dance.

Does it sound familiar? Remember somebody called Prakasananda Sarasvati in Varanasi?  (laughs)  So he considered Caitanya Mahaprabhu as sentimentalist who was simply chanting and dancing with the common population on the streets.

And Professor Staal was quoted to say many other things which were not very favorable to the Hare Krishna movement and naturally Srila Prabhupada took strong exception to it.  And he shot off a letter to the Los Angeles Times explaining the whole purpose of the Hare Krishna movement. And Professor Staal he wrote privately to Prabhupada saying he didn't want to continue talking in the press but they'd rather talk privately.   So Srila Prabhupada in that article had quoted Bhagavad Gita, so Professor Staal said that Bhagavad Gita doesn't say that you have to constantly do kirtana and chant the names of Krishna.

The exchange of letters is long but I am only giving you the essence.  Srila Prabhupada wrote back to Professor Staal saying,

"But indeed the Bhagavad Gita does emphasize that we have to do constant kirtana", and he quoted the fourteenth verse of the ninth chapter of Bhagavad Gita:

satatam kirtayanto mam  yatantas ca drdha-vrtah
namasyantas ca mam bhaktya  nitya-yukta upasate

which means that the great souls constantly do kirtana, they chant the holy names My holy name, Krishna says.  They endeavor with great determination, they are always offering obeisances to Me and they always engage in worshipping Me.

And then Professor Staal wrote back to Prabhupada and said,

"I'm not convinced that all the scriptures that you cite ask us to only chant the names of Krishna."

For example, he said,

"You have quoted the satatam kirtayanto mam verse from the Bhagavad Gita. But the word kirtayantah can be understood differently from  how you have explained it .  kirtayantah can mean simply describing, glorifying, reciting, repeating, etc.  and it refers to songs, hyms, descriptions, conversations and so on.   This is how many commentators have presented it.

Sankaracarya has merely repeated the word kirtanam and not explained it but Ananda Giri who is a mayavada sanyasi, who is a follower of Sankaracarya he has explained kirtayantah as follows, and he says, 'kirtayantah implies vedanta sravanam pranava japas ca, which means that kirtayantah means that one should hear the Vedanta Sutra and one should mutter Om!" ..like that.

And another commentator Hanuman he said,  has translated kirtayantah as bhasya manah simply taking about.

So here it doesn't imply that you have to keep talking about Krishna. "

And he pointed out furthermore,

"This verse, the fourteenth verse you have quoted doesn't indicate that everyone must chant always. It only says that, some great souls do it. (laughs)  You see, the Bhagavad Gita is very broad minded in its approach," Professor continued.  So he said, there are so many options given in the Bhagavad Gita and one can follow any of these options, of different paths that are delineated therein."

So you see how different people will interpret the verses of the Gita which are fairly straightforward and present things which are completely different.

I want to share a personal experience in brief with a certain mayavadi sannyasi.  When I was a brahmacari and I was walking down the street one time in South Bombay, I saw a pandal and it advertised a speech on the Bhagavad Gita by a very famous sannyasi, who is a mayavadi sannyasi.  And he has his whole mission named after him.  So I knew that Prabhupada said that we should not hear from mayavadi's.  But curiosity got the better of me. Let's hear what he says, why is it, what is it that these people are all about!

As I entered the pandal, everybody was sitting, I was the only person moving as I came in from the back.  And as Providence would have it, he was discussing this satatam kirtayanto mam verse.  (laughter)  And he saw me, because I was with a Vaisnava tilaka, he must have immediately understood that I am Hare Krishna.  And he immediately changed track (laughter) and then he performed a mock imitation of a Hare Krishna devotee in a rather crude way which I cannot repeat here sitting on the vyasasana.

And then he launched into a long winded speculative explanation of what the word kirtyanto mam meant.  Of course I didn't stay for it.  I left after a few moments.  He was saying satatam kirtayanto mam doesn't mean we simply have to chant Hare Krishna Hare Rama all the time.

So anyway we see from these examples that the word kirtana can have so many meanings and from depending on what philosophical point of view we have.

So Srila Prabhupada replied to Professor Staal and said,

"Well I can only cite you references on the authority of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu who said kirtaniya sada harih - Always chant the name of Hari. And as far as Ananda  Giri's explanation on kirtayantah being chanting, glorifying, describing,iyes of course I agree.  But glorifying whom?  So Krishna says in this verse satatam kirtayanto mamimam means Me, so we have to..means Krishna, so we have to constantly chant about Krishna.

Moreover in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says, veda-vit, vedanta-krt, that He is the knower of the Vedas and He is the complier of the Vedanta.  So what better opportunity for hearing Vedanta, of Vedanta sravana than to hear it from the compiler of the Vedanta Himself."

So the exchange of letters went on like that for some time.  So even though as devotees of Krishna for us the word kirtana means Krishna kirtana but not everybody sees it like that.  Therefore it helps to qualify the word kirtana.  And the word that qualifies the word kirtana here is the prefix sam.

Srila Prabhupada explained that sankirtana, the word sam indicates samyak, which means perfect and complete.  And he gives a very interesting explanation of why this sam kirtana is complete kirtana.  First and foremost it is Complete. Sam kirtana is complete kirtana because it exclusively refers to complete kirtana of the complete Supreme Lord.  So it cant refer to anybody else, so it sets to rest any doubts, and doesn't leave any scope for any ambiguity.

So sam purna sam indicates completeness like we have in the word sampurna which means completely complete.  When we take Jagannath mahaprasadam in Jagannath Puri, its an etiquette that if you are being served prasadam, mahaprasadam you never say no!  Even if you have eaten a lot you shouldn't say no, you should say sampurna.  (laughs)  I am full, purna means full and sampurna means completely full.

So samyak kirtana, complete kirtana, because it is glorification of the Supreme Lord and Srila Prabhuapda give another connotation or meaning to this.  He says that kirtana becomes complete not only when it is chanted but also when it is heard.  Only then it is complete.  In other words sravanam plus kirtanam equals sankirtanam.  Someone chants and someone hears Prabhupada said.  One may also hear the chanting oneself.

Then Prabhupada goes on to explain at another place about the significance of the sam in sankirtana.  And Prabhupada quotes this in numerous lectures right from 1966 onwards bahubhir militva kirtayati iti sankirtanam. He quotes this very often, which means that kirtanam which is performed bahubhir- by many people, militva- coming together is called sankirtanam. And that is even better than kirtana which is done by one person.

And there are numerous references in other scriptures.  I will just quote one and we will conclude because we are running out of time.  It says camatkara visesa posat, the qualities which distinguish sankirtana from kirtana is that sankirtana is exceptionally wonderful, camtkara visesa.  And posat means it is very nourishing.  And the same thing, the phrase is repeated there as well, bahubhir militva kirtanam sankirtanam. So in this way, of course the word sam has many other meanings and one could look into that and all of them ultimately refer to how sankirtana is a complete and perfect process of kirtanam.

OK, we will stop here.  Thank you very much.

Question:  One mayavadi we were arguing with him  and we gave him this explanation some of these points, not all of them that you made today.  But then in desperation he made one argument that in Bhagavad Gita there are 700 verses and you only have one verse.  So it must not be very important  this satatam kirtayanto.

Maharaj: Well but this similar theme is repeated many many times in many places.  And you have man-mana bhava mad-bhakto verse for example.  So we have to see the also other verses also in Srimad Bhagavatam and we have to see the different sections of the Bhagavad Gita in the proper context.

So of course some times it is futile to get into too many discussions with them.  So one should know when to say Hare Krishna, just give a little prasadam and come away. I devotee I know has a policy when he gets into an argument with some non devotee he just gives him prasad, so he doesn't let him speak. (laughter).

Yes, Maharaja, one last question.

Mahavisnu Swami: Prabhupada also told us that small kirtana and big mrdanga. Big mrdanga is the printing press. That's even bigger kirtana.

Maharaj: So HH Mahavisnu Maharaj is mentioning that Srila Prabhupada explained that there is small kirtana with the mridangas and there is big kirtana with brhad mrdanga, printing press. So the book distribution is also sankirtana. Yes.

Maharaja: OK, thank you very much. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Gaurpremanande
Hari Hari bol!

ISKCON DAIVA VARNASRAMA MINISTRY (IDVM) Promoting Rural Development in India

IDVM Secretariat: Room 137, Cakra Bldg, Sri Mayapur, W. Bengal, India

My Dear Prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Global Varnsrama Seminars 2015

The IDVM and SVC of the GBCSPN is pleased to announce the latest annual Global Varnasram seminar, to be held during the Gaura Purnima festival, at ISKCON Mayapur.

The theme for this year’s seminar taking place over four consecutive full days is, Land, Cows, Self-Sustainability and of course Krsna. Understanding the need for discourse on such subject matter and Sharing their experiences and realizations are among others guest speakers Minister for IDVM India His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaj, His Holiness Bhakti Dheera Damodara Swami Maharaj Co-GBC  member for Africa His Grace Srivas Prabhu Samba Prabhu Mayapur KalaKanta Prabhu Brazil (South America) We are blessed to have many other speakers as well, representing farming projects in various continents and countries from around the world. The aim of the seminar is to provide an opportunity for all devotees to hear precise and professional talks on the matter of land, cow care and self-sustainability in keeping with the teachings of His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivadanta Swami Srila Prabhuhada.

The seminar will be both informative and inspiring, hoping to even surpass
the success of previous seminars and urge all devotees to attend.

Schedule--- Feb 11th to 14th

Venue ---- Chaitanya Bhavan

Time --- 10 am on wards

Download the audio for this lecture here:
http://www.mayapurtvarchives.com/p/downloads-2015.html

From Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir
Date: February 4, 2015 Speaker: HH Romapada Swami
Subject: SB 6.3.30

tat knamyataa sa bhagavan purunau puraeo
narayaeau sva-purunair yad asat kataa nau
svanam aho na vidunaa racitaïjalenaa
knantir gareyasi namau purunaya bhumne

TRANSLATION:
Then Yamaraja, considering himself and his servants to be offenders, spoke as follows, begging pardon from the Lord. “O my Lord, my servants have surely committed a great offense by arresting a Vaiṣṇava such as Ajamila. O Narayaṇa, O supreme and oldest person, please forgive us. Because of our ignorance, we failed to recognize Ajamila as a servant of Your Lordship, and thus we have certainly committed a great offense. Therefore with folded hands we beg Your pardon. My Lord, since You are supremely merciful and are always full of good qualities, please pardon us. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You.”

PURPORT:
Lord Yamaraja took upon himself the responsibility for the offense committed by his servants. If the servant of an establishment makes a mistake, the establishment takes responsibility for it. Although Yamaraja is above offenses, his servants, practically with his permission, went to arrest Ajamila, which was a great offense. The nyaya-śastra confirms, bhṛtyaparadhe svamino daṇḍaḥ: if a servant makes a mistake, the master is punishable because he is responsible for the offense. Taking this seriously, Yamaraja, along with his servants, prayed with folded hands to be excused by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayaṇa.

HH Romapada Swami:
(Pranama mantra)

Due to time constraints regarding when the class must end, I have to speak very concisely. Three points. In the purport of this verse, Srila Prabhupada is not only speaking of mistakes or offenses one makes which may reflect badly upon the acharya; he specifies that the establishment which a servant is part of receives the reactions of its members. To illustrate this, I am going to narrate an anecdote. In 1970, Srila Prabhupada was visiting Radha Govinda Mandir in Brooklyn. As was his practice after taking his morning walk, he directly came to the Temple room. At seven o’clock he stood before the altar to greet the Deities. Many sannyasis were standing right next to him holding their dandas, appearing very formidable. The mood of their good fortune and importance was evident: “We’re next to Prabhupada!” Srila Prabhupada heard the Govindam Prayers and then paid his obeisances. Then he went to take carnamrita. Someone had put salt in the charnamrita bowl instead of sugar!

As you know, Prabhupada’s physical stature was quite short compared to his American sannyasis, whose height was much greater than his. Right in the middle of the Temple room floor he looked in all directions at these towering sannyasis, all holding their dandas. His voice was loud enough that although I was way in the back of the temple room by the vyasasana, I could clearly hear his voice. It was loud! He demanded “Who is responsible for this?!”

Now, when Prabhupada exhibited the mood of anger, everyone stepped back. They gave the wrong answer. They looked at each other and said, “Well, the head pujari must know who made the charnamrita. We will ask the head pujari, Srila Prabhupada, who made the charnamrita.” And again I was way on the other side of the Temple room and I heard what Prabhupada said to that message. He said “No. When you delegate some responsibility, you hold the responsibility for those who you delegate authority to. This should not happen again.” Everyone got ruffled and became absolutely silent. Then Prabhupada sternly walked to the vyasasana as we offered Guru Puja and he gave class.

It happened again the next morning! I’ll leave it to your imagination what that scene was like. The heat and fire and flames that came from Prabhupada’s mood!

I’ve heard from a couple of devotees who have served Prabhupada, particularly Hari Sauri, that when mistakes were made in serving Prabhupada, he was lenient in forgiving a mistake when made the first time, accompanied by an explanation of what should be done. His expectation was that the mistake wouldn't happen again. If it happened again, the person who made the mistake the second time was sorry...far more sorry than the first time!

Through this carnamrita example Srila Prabhupada wanted to teach his disciples a lesson. Whenever you act on behalf of a superior, then in turn you delegate part of that authority to someone else, you are responsible for the actions of those to whom you delegate that service or authority. The exact same message is directly what is being said in this verse.

Direct scriptural reference regarding this principle found within the purport is Nyaya Sastra, but Prabhupada cites it, as does Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura in his commentary.  bhṛtyaparadhe svamino daṇḍaḥ. Bhrtya means the servant, and aparadha means offense.  bhṛtyaparadhe means “when the servant makes an aparadha.” Bhṛtyaparadhe svamino daṇḍaḥ means that “the master of the servant who makes an offense is to be punished.”

Then there’s the flip side to this point. When we’re acting on behalf of someone, our bad conduct, mistake, or offense may go to the person we are representing. Very significant consideration isn’t it! Now, of course, we can use the excuse, or the rubber crutch, that we are neophyte, or not mature yet, so we are bound to make mistakes. Nonetheless we must remember that our Founder-acharya is being evaluated by the public, what to speak of other kinds of evaluations, for mistakes that we make! The opposite is also true: whatever successes we may achieve, our Founder-acarya is naturally honored. No matter what is our level of advancement, these two things are always present.

Those who we delegate responsibility and authority to, even if they are mixing sugar into the charnamrita bowl, or whatever the service is that we delegate to others, we bear the responsibility of their actions. Conversely, we are all doing service on behalf of someone. However we conduct that service immediately bears credit or discredit to the person who we’re serving.

It’s something like what Krishna says to Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita. “Arjuna, you’re an Aryan! You are one who understands the value and higher purpose of life. You have great ancestors. The lineage from which you come is very exalted. So there’s weight upon you, Arjuna, to act as an Aryan will act. Otherwise it will reflect badly upon your ancestors, upon your exalted predecessors.” The same applies to each of us. A principle to live by is to feel the obligation of properly representing our exalted, flawless acaryas. Through the process of diksa, predecessor acaryas have effectively accepted us their representative. Especially for initiated devotees, our character and actions are reflecting in a good way or a bad way upon them.

For a cultured person, that’s a very powerful sobering notion to carry. Uncultured persons don’t care. For cultured persons, it keeps us in the middle of the road. It keeps us on track. A cultured person accepts that I am representing others, and acts out of love and respect for their good name.

Second point. Forgiveness. In Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura’s commentary on this verse, he raises a question, a doubt, and then responds. The doubt runs like this. “Only persons who are innocent, who are found to be not guilty, they are to be pardoned or forgiven. But those who are guilty are not to be forgiven, they are to be punished.” To that doubt, he answers “The quality of the Supreme Lord is that He extends His forgiveness.” Just as a Vaisnava is to give forgiveness to others, where does that quality come from? It comes from the Supreme Lord!

There is the classic example of the offense made against Maharaj Ambarisa by Durvasa Muni. Durvasa Muni offended Maharaj Ambarisa big time. The Supreme Lord Narayana declared “I am powerless to do anything about removing my sudarshan chakra from approaching you, unless you receive the forgiveness of Maharaj Ambarisa. I cannot act independently of My devotee. If you receive his forgiveness, automatically you receive My forgiveness because My forgiveness follows his forgiveness.”

We must always remember that we are representatives of someone who we are serving. Ultimately that someone who we are serving is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Uniquely, in this case, where the offense was made against Ajamila by the Yamadutas, nonetheless the prayer of Yamaraja is going directly to the Supreme Lord.

In Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura’s commentary, he is very clear about the nature of the Supreme Lord. When one is sincerely repentant for some mistake or for some aparadha, as is the word here, His nature is that He is forgiving. Yamaraj is appealing to that quality of forgiveness in the Supreme Lord Narayana.

There’s a very nice expression of this quality of the Lord to grant forgiveness and to give shelter to the surrendered souls in Ramayana. One of the places I visited about two weeks ago in South India is called Thirupullani, which is called Saranagati Kshetram by the local people. It’s the place where Vibhishana surrendered to Lord Ramachandra. Two spies of Ravana, Suka and Sharana, surrendered to Lord Ramachandra. And Samudra or Varuna surrendered to Lord Ramachandra. Each one of them had made mistakes. The Lord not only forgave their mistakes, but He gave them shelter. In this place a very beautiful and very famous statement from Ramayana is made by Lord Rama. When Vibhishana tried his very best multiple times to persuade Ravana to stop his vicious activity and to return Sita to Rama, in this way the whole danger of being destroyed by the forces of Ramacandra and the vanaras would be over, Ravana became so angry that he tossed him out of the assembly. He said “If you weren’t my brother I would kill you.”

Vibhishana had mystic power. He rose in the air in the midst of the assembly, abandoned Ravana, and went to take shelter of Lord Ramacandra.  In less than an hour he went all the way from Lanka to the place where Ramachandra and all the Vanaras were. Following him were four ministers. Vibhishana and the four ministers remained hovering in the air -- like this verse here, with palms folded -- offering prayers to Ramachandra. In this case they approached through Sugriva, an intermediary, or as Madhusevita Prabhu uses the word interlocutor. The question for Lord Ramachandra was “Will you give me shelter?” Sugriva didn't trust him at all.

Rama turned to His ministers and said “A qualified leader will always consult with his ministers. You have heard Vibhishana’s request. What do you all think? What would be your advice for me?” He is the Supreme Lord, what does He need advice for! However, He’s showing by example what leaders are to do.

After Angada and Jambavan and others gave their different opinions, Lord Ramachandra called upon Hanuman for his advice. Hanuman first of all said “You don’t need my advice. But You’re asking, so in service to You I’ll suggest.” One by one, he repeated the advice offered by others and refuted their viewpoint. Then he stated his own opinion. He said “Just by seeing his face, because the face is the index to the mind, and by hearing the sound of his voice, I say you should accept him. In his heart there may be some selfish motive”…because that’s what Jambavan had said. [Jambavan said: ‘I think he wants to be King of Lanka and he knows Ravana will be destroyed so he’s next in line. He wants to become King. That’s why he has come. ‘I’ll become your devotee so you’ll give me the kingdom.” He clearly has a motive.”] Hanuman continued “But even if he has a motive, he wants to take shelter of Rama. That desire to take shelter of Rama will carry him beyond whatever selfish interest that may be in his heart.”

Rama smiled. He liked what Hanuman had said. And then He spoke this very memorable passage from Ramayana. “My dear devotees, please listen carefully. I take a solemn vow. For one who even once surrenders unto Me, saying ‘From this day forward I am Yours’, I will give that person protection for the rest of their life, and I will free them from the condition of fear. They will become fearless.”

Then He said to Sugriva, “Your concern is due to your love for Me. You do not want any harm to come to Me by Vibhishana having a double purpose, being a double agent. But please understand, I am the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Who can harm me? I could destroy the entire Lanka and the entire universe with a blink of My eye! Please understand that just as I need no assistance to destroy Ravana, likewise no one can harm Me. I don’t need all of your service, but I’m engaging you all in service. You are saying because Vibhisana gave up the association of his brother and is now coming to take shelter of me, he can turn against me just as he gave up the association of his brother. I request you, please ask yourself about your own brother Vali. Did you not call upon me to help destroy your brother? Nonetheless, I’m accepting you because you are my devotee. I know your heart. You also wanted something. And he may want something. Nonetheless I’m accepting you, and similarly I accept him. Even if Ravana came just now, despite all the bad things he has done, stealing Sita and tormenting so many people, if he came and surrendered I would accept him also. Listen carefully. I’ve already accepted Vibhisana as my devotee. And you’re keeping him waiting. Don’t make him wait any longer. You’ll aggravate your offense against someone who is already My devotee. Go and bring him here to Me at once.”

Beautiful passage! Filled with nice instruction for us and our devotional service!

And the third thing that I wanted to speak about, I don’t have time for.

Here it is in brief. From the side of a devotee that makes a mistake, the devotee doesn’t think “Well, I made a mistake. But Krishna is very kind, or Ramacandra is very kind, the Lord is very kind. He’ll forgive my mistake. And whatever I haven’t been able to accomplish He’ll take care of because He’s very powerful.” That’s not how the devotee thinks. When Hanuman was sent by Ramacandra to bring the Siva lingam to Ramesvara to worship, Hanuman was very happy to have some service. He just wants service, any service! As soon as Lord Ramacandra requested this service, there went Hanuman to Mount Kailash. But Lord Siva was in meditation. Hanuman couldn’t disturb Lord Siva’s meditation, but he was to get a Siva lingam personally from Lord Siva. And it took too long. The auspicious time to worship Lord Siva was about to pass. So Sita with Her own hands fashioned a Siva lingam from sand which was then consecrated and then worshipped by Lord Rama within the proper auspicious time. Just when the worship was completed, Hanuman showed up with the Siva lingam that was given by Lord Siva. And what did he feel? “I failed to carry out the service given to me!” He wasn’t saying “Well, I’ve done volumes and volumes of service. What is one half of one percent incomplete service measured against 99.5%, or all the volumes of my wonderful accomplishments?” A devotee does not think like that.

Although the Lord is very forgiving, the devotee is wishing to fully utilize whatever strength or ability and whatever is given to that devotee, to carry out his service favorably. If the devotee fails to complete some assigned service, he feels deeply repentant. Rupa Goswami felt the same way when he was unable to find the Govindaji deity; I have no time to cover all the details of that lila.

That’s the consciousness of the devotee. Side by side, there is the loving shelter and forgiveness of the Supreme Lord.

So we’re learning some nice lessons from Srimad Bhagavatam and Ramayana, the pastimes of the Supreme Lord. How does one who’s representing others feel and conduct their life? Similarly, when we receive some service, what a great responsibility we have to carry out that service very very carefully!

Hare Krishna
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya

GBC Strategic Planning Network (SPN) Mayapur 2015: Part 4 of 5

Romapada Swami, GBC member of over twenty-two years leading ISKCON in New York, New Jersey and the Midwest of the USA, and also a member of the SPN's Organizational Development Committee, speaks on how strategic planning has helped him in his GBC service and how it can better assist ISKCON's leadership to respond to what is required of it - to bring the message of Lord Caitanya to the world while ensuring that the devotees' lives continue to be enriched and invigorated.

http://gbc.iskcon.org/2015/02/03/inspired-leadership/

Gauranga Prabhu, an experienced trainer and preacher from ISKCON Chowpatty also serves on a number of SPN committees - Devotee Care, Temple Development/Systems Administration (TDSA), and Organizational Development. Here he speaks on the work being done by the TDSA meant to assist any ISKCON project practically. Gauranga Prabhu explains how Lord Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada went to great lengths to ensure that the Gaudiya Vaisnava philosophy was properly documented, how proper documentation is the basis of standardization, and that standardization is one way we can improve the quality of ISKCON projects worldwide. The TDSA offers to ISKCON temples and projects worldwide a systems template by which they can document their project's activities. To facilitate this, the TDSA created a department called the Systems Assistance Body for Devotee Care and Administration (SABDA). Gauranga Prabhu provides information on how to get your project connected to SABDA and take advantage of the support the SABDA team can offer.

http://gbc.iskcon.org/2015/02/03/systems-assistance-body-for-devotee-care-and-administration/

Bhaktivijnana Swami, a GBC leader and preacher in Russia and Israel, also serves on the SPN's Succession Committee. Maharaja expresses his appreciation of the strategic planning process, personally witnessing how the culture of strategic planning has dramatically changed the work of the GBC, allowing it to put energy into addressing important issues relevant for the whole Society and its direction for the future, particularly in the area of succession.

http://gbc.iskcon.org/2015/02/03/systematically-changing-iskcons-future/

Sivarama Swami, a GBC leader, preacher, and educator in Hungary, Romania and Turkey and a member of the SPN's Organizational Development Committee and Lines of Authority Committee speaks on strategic planning work helping to insure that ISKCON can become the movement Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya envisioned it to be. After all, he says, everything in the spiritual world is strategically planned and organized to the highest standard, for Krishna's pleasure. In ISKCON we want to facilitate unity in diversity, however the diversity should be organized and of the highest quality - and truly representative of the perfection of Krishna consciousness that is Goloka life.

http://gbc.iskcon.org/2015/01/31/spiritual-world-is-strategically-planned/

Tamohara Prabhu, a GBC member overseeing ISKCONs work in the South East of the United States of America, and serving in the SPN's Succession Committee, introduces an exciting new project that responds to the growing need to train new leaders for every strata of our Society. As a generation of leaders look toward retirement, the need for new leadership is becoming ever more pressing.

http://gbc.iskcon.org/2015/01/31/succession-leadership-training-college/

Badrinarayan Swami, a veteran GBC member, with zonal responsibilities in Southern California, Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Idaho, while also taking on service in a number of SPN committees speaks of the steps the GBC is taking to compile “legacy” papers that will compile for future generations answers to a number of the crucial spiritual and managerial questions that have shaped and continue to shape ISKCON. These papers are based on a study of Srila Prabhupada's instructions on particular matters, as well as material gathered from those who were personally trained by Srila Prabhupada, and will be one of the GBC's gifts to the future.

http://gbc.iskcon.org/2015/01/31/legacy-papers/

Hare Krsna. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Your servants,
GBC Community Relations Office of the Strategic Planning Network

Today, Badrinarayan Swami, a veteran GBC member and a member of the SPN's Organizational Development Committee and Lines of Authority Committee explains why the GBC is investing so much time and energy in planning for ISKCON's future.

http://gbc.iskcon.org/2015/01/29/why-do-strategic-planning/

Sesa Prabhu, a GBC member and a member of two SPN committees, Education and Constitution, speaks on Srila Prabhupada being the first strategic thinker among us, his vision for education being an example that illustrates this. That vision covers all aspects of our Society, and if we follow it, it will solidify both ISKCON's present and its future.

http://gbc.iskcon.org/2015/01/30/srila-prabhupada-the-first-strategic-thinke
r/

Kaunteya Prabhu, a key member of both the GBC Strategic Planning Team (SPT) and the SPN's Organizational Development Committee, gives us a glimpse into the history of how ISKCON looked, globally, when Srila Prabhupada first established the GBC in 1970, and how that has translated into zones of service for each GBC member. He explains what these zones of responsibility look like today as ISKCON has grown, and how the GBC is addressing the pressing need to redefine these zonal areas to insure more effective management, leadership, and devotee care into the future.

http://gbc.iskcon.org/2015/01/30/zonal-configuration/

Hare Krsna. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Your servants,
GBC Community Relations Office of the Strategic Planning Network

Nityananda’s Paduka (Shoes) Bless the Grand Opening of TOVP Seva Office in Mayapur

On February 1st, 2015, Lord Nityananda Prabhu’s Appearance Day, the TOVP Seva Office in Mayapur officially opened with a grand celebration consisting of Lord Nityananda’s Paduka (shoes) leaving the altar for the first time to bless the occasion.

There was a grand procession with Srila Prabhupada taking the lead. The loud chanting of the Vedic Mantras by the Gurukul Boys of Sri Dham Mayapur added to the auspiciousness of the whole occasion. HH Bhakti Chaitanya Swami, HH Subhag Swami, HH Chandra Mauli Swami, HH Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami, HH Bhakti Purussotam Swami & many other senior members of Iskcon graced the event with their presence.

HG Ambarish Prabhu, HG Radha Jivan Prabhu, HG Pragosh Prabhu, HG Bhavananda Prabhu & many other senior leaders shared their realizations & views about the TOVP. Then finally, the ceremony was concluded with Srila Prabhupada’s Guru Puja & Ribbon Cutting.

It was really an amazing experience for all the devotees & especially for the TOVP team as a whole.

The Lord’s divine shoes are also scheduled to go on an extensive three-month tour to North America starting in March, 2015 to bless and give all the devotees His darshan.

Please view the following video and pitcures:

Another new audiobook at bbtmedia.com:

"Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead" by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

French audiobook edition

Narrator: Nara-narayana Dasa

Fifty centuries ago Krishna descended from the transcendental world to show us His eternal spiritual activities. His acts reveal the fullest concept of God and attract us to join Him again. They are tangible subjects upon which to meditate.

Sri Krishna's life is fascinating and highly entertaining-even children love the stories. His life is full of deep philosophical wisdom and spiritual insight, and is a window into the personality, thoughts, and feelings of God.

Krsna is a summary study of the Tenth Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Without the Sanskrit of the Bhagavatam it's an easy way to read yourself into the spiritual realm.

Learn more and listen to a sample at:

http://bbtmedia.com/en/audio/fr-kb

Hare Krishna,
BBTmedia.com

Join us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/BBTmedia/765537146807795

(Kindly transcribed by Suvilasi Madhavi DD)

Download the audio for this lecture here:

http://www.mayapurtvarchives.com/p/downloads-2015.html

From Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir
Date:     February 3, 2015
Speaker:  HH Bhakti Visrambha Madhava Swami
Subject:  SB 6.3.29

Reading from SB 6.3.29, "Yamaraj Instructs His Messengers"

jihva na vakti bhagavad-guna-namadheyam
cetas ca na smarati tac-caranaravindam
krsnaya no namati yac-chira ekadapi
tan anayadhvam asato 'krta-visnu-krtyan

"My dear servants, please bring to me only those sinful persons who do not use their tongues to chant the holy name and qualities of Krsna, whose hearts do not remember the lotus feet of Krsna even once, and whose heads do not bow down even once before Lord Krsna. Send me those who do not perform their duties toward Visnu, which are the only duties in human life. Please bring me all such fools and rascals."

HH Bhakti Visrambha Madhava Swami:

There was a devotee of Caitanya Mahaprabhu named Satyaraja Khan. And he asked Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya Lila Chapter 15, verse 103,

grhastha visayi ami, ki mora sadhane,

"I am a grhastha steeped in material enjoyment.  What kind of practices should I do?"

So Caitanya Mahaprabhu replied in the next verse, in sloka 104.  He said,

prabhu kahena, - 'krsna-seva', 'vaisnava-sevana' 'nirantara kara krsna-nama-sankirtana'

"Serve Krishna and the Vaisnavas as much as possible and constantly chant Hare Krishna mantra and that will be sufficient."

This devotee left Bengal, walked for ten days to Puri, in June, to see Lord Jagannath at Rath Yatra and Caitanya Mahaprabhu.  And he asked Caitanya Mahaprabhu "How do I recognize a devotee?"

So Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, "One who likes the chanting of Hare Krishna is the best person in a group." So that is the lowest denominator of the Vaisnava. This is why we go on Harinama sankirtana and distribute the holy name to everybody.

When the cold weather vanishes, the merchants come out and see us devotees, "Where were you?" (chuckles).  Because the Harinama sankirtana is the joy for the merchants.  (chuckles).

Then he left Bengal, walked ten days to Puri in June to see Lord Jagannath at Rath Yatra and Caitanya Mahaprabhu, a year later.  And he asked Caitanya Mahaprabhu, "How do I recognize a devotee?"  So Mahaprabhu replied, its in Upadesamrta sloka 5, "If somebody has taken initiation, worshipping the deity, offering obeisances with your head, they are Vaisnava."

Then a year later Satyaraja Khan left Bengal, walked ten days to Puri in June to see Lord Jagannath at Rath Yatra and Caitanya Mahaprabhu and he asked, "How do I recognize a devotee?" Then Mahaprabhu said, "not even
externally aware!"

So Mayapur and Vrindavana are places for people to go after their kids are married. They have to set an example for other people.  The first ten years of life they are available for their children and grandchildren. Then they cut off their mobile phone, they cut off their internet, they are not available.  They are not externally aware.

Now you may ask what about preaching?  Sure, you know, vanaprasthi's can stay in some place and preach.  But following Prabhupada's example they should leave their body in the holy dhama.  They shouldn't leave their body in their place.  The temple is transcendental but you should leave in the dhama. (chukcles) If somebody has got some disease and they can't travel, then they try to invoke the dhama around them.

In Manah Siksa sloka 1, in Bhaktivinoda Thakura's Bhajan Darpana commentary, he is describing the word is gosthalayisu, the resident of dhama.  So Bhaktivinoda Thakura mentions two kinds of residents of the dhama, mentally and physically.  If you read Caitanya Caritamrta, Caitanya Bhagavata, then you go to Mayapur and Navadipa without buying a plane ticket.  If you read Srimad Bhagavatam tenth canto or Brhad Bhagavatamrta etc, books like that, then you go to Vrindavana without buying a plane ticket.  Such persons then they get the right to live permanent. . . physically there.

Now you may ask what about the Vrajavasis?  I asked my siksa guru in Vrindavan this question.  Do they get Krishna? And my siksa guru says, "it depends on their mentality!"

One businessman in Loi Bazaar told his relatives, "if anything happens to me don't take me out of Vrindavana."  So he had a massive heart attack and his bewildered relatives they took him to the CMC Hospital in Vrindavana.  Its closed now but previously it was a maternal hospital. And they said, "We are a maternity hospital! We can't help him. Take him to AIIMS in Delhi. They may be able to help him."  So they put him in a taxi and they took him to on the Delhi Agra highway. And just beyond Hodal in Haryana is the village of Banacari, the border of Vraja.  And he left his body then.  And all the businessmen of Vrindavana Loi Bazaar went Oh!!

Another devotee who always served devotees, he came to Vrindavana in Pandava Nirjala Ekadasi, June, blazing hot, must have been like 40-45 degrees C.  So he went to see Prabhupada's rooms and then he got some icecream and he came back to Prabhupadavani ashram.  Srimati Radharani came in his dream and said, " Welcome to Vrindavana! You just think of Us and we'll do everything else!"

Devotees asked him, what else did She say?  Oh! I forgot!  Then one day he thought if only I could have a day without pain I could leave my body happily thinking of Krishna.  Then on Pandava Nirjala Ekadasi he woke up at6 am, he goes, "Hey! I don't have any pain! Maybe today is the day!"  Sure enough, at 11'o clock he was gone. (laughter)  It's actually Krishna's company policy.  He takes His devotees on auspicious days.

One God brother, Italian God brother, left his body on Advaita Acarya's appearance day.  After the festival was over then he went out shopping.  And some car side swiped him and knocked him into the bushes and he left his body.  The Italian devotees told me they didn't find his body for ten days until the ants started to eat it.  So they generally do, when they find the body they do an autopsy.  So I called his widow in Rome and I said, what time did they say that your husband left his body?  And she said, oh! About 7'o clock or 8'o clock at night!  When I put that in the G calendar it turned out it was Advaita Acarya's appearance day!

So some people were asking Sridhar Swami, "Hey! On Gaur Purnima, are you going to leave your body on Gaur Purnima?"

"No! Gaur Purnima is going to remain for Gauranga!"

So Gauranga took him on the next one, Srivas Thakura's appearance day.

There is one good devotee in Australia.  And he left his body on Ekadesi. He had a murdercycle accident. He was sixty, broke both his arms. Prabhupada used to call it murdercycles not motorcycles, murdercycles. You have an accident, you are finished. (laughter)  So his Godbrother told me that he is in a hospital in Gold coast.  So I said, its navami, it's the ninth day, it asubha.  He has to wait two days then Ekadesi, then he can leave.  So that's exactly what he did.  He waited two days in the hospital and then left his body.  I told his widow, "you can be ambivalent about your husband, but at least you can be proud he left on Ekadasi."

There is a God brother Radhakunda dasa who left his body on Varuthini Ekadasi in Vrindavana. He was a little bit of an avadhuta.  It takes one to know one. (laughter)  He was very strange!  I mean you may think that I am strange, but he was strange even for me! (laughter)  He was really avadhuta! Even stranger than me! (laughter)  But if you leave in Vrindavana you are liberated anyway.

I brought six kilos of goji berries from South Africa to help his cancer. And he returned five and a half kilos, he said I can't use them.  Then I was shocked!  I asked Daivi Sakti Mataji, what am I supposed to do?  I tried to help his health!  She said, "Let him go! Let him go! He will be happy.  We have to rot here for 30/40 more years." (laughter)  So I gave up! And he left his body on Varuthini Ekadasi.

Then on Ramanavami I went to Bombay.  His villager(?) is there.  So I asked my God brother Bhima dasa what about him?  He said, you didn't know. He had Aids.  How did he get that?  Oh before he became a devotee, he had a girlfriend, she gave it to him, he gave it to her, I don't know!  It means Krishna used his disease as an agent of change.

So Krishna protects His devotee who chants His name. The glories of the name is mentioned in many places.  Specifically Bhaktivinoda Thakura refers to it in Gitavali in the Namastakam section.  See Namastakam was written by Rupa Goswami. There is 8 slokas.  And Bhaktivinoda Thakura wrote one Bengali bhajan for each sloka.

Basically Krishna will do anything for anybody who chants His name.  Even accidentally if we chant we are benefitted.  Ajnata sukriti, we don't even know we are making advancement.  But clearly that's ok, that's better than nothing, but its not good enough.

Visnu Dharmottara mentions you can give, offer tulsi neckbeads to anybody. Tom, Dick, Harry, Mary, drunkard, meat eater, whatever!  Basically the Sanskrit says, asucam, they are not clean, anacaro they are condemable, mam aveti they will achieve Me, na samshaya, don't doubt it.

So and also Sri Hari Bhakti Vilasa Chapter Twelve, verse 82-85, says that you can fast on somebody's behalf and you will get one hundred times the benefit than if you fasted for yourself.  So our business is to become pure devotees and Tulasirani's business it to chastise everybody and push everybody to become better. If they don't improve after some time then it just means Krishna wants you to do a little bit more.

It's not what we give Krishna, it's what's behind our backs that Krishna wants, that's what He wants.

So we are going to close right now and we are going to do parikrama. Seven times around Govardhana Sila is one time Govardhana parikrama, without buying a plane ticket.  I remember that one God brother in Radhakunda, you know from Ekadasi to Purnima the crowds in Govardhana are intense.  If you want a peaceful parikrama don't go at that time, that's for sure. (chuckles) So when it was really a lot of crowds he would just go seven times around the tongue of Govardhana and that was all right.

Those who have questions can see me in their private capacity.

Granthraj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jaya!

Jagannath Rathayatra festival at Indore organzied by ISKCON

By Basu Ghosh Das

Pictures can be seen on the  internet (google plus):

http://tinyurl.com/oj2rg5p

On Wednesday, January 21, 2015, ISKCON Indore organized a grand Jagannath Rathayatra festival.

Indore, the largest city of Madhya Pradesh, was visited by Srila Prabhupada and the first large group of disciples he brought to India back during 1970/1971.

Today, due to the rapid urbanization and industrialization of India over the past 45 years since Prabhupada visited Indore, it has expanded exponentially, and has a population of close to two and a half million (twenty five lakhs - although it is speculated to be even more) today!

It is listed as a “tier two” city and is a large business center and industrial powerhouse.  According to wikipedia it is It is the 14th largest city in India and 147th largest city in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indore

ISKCON has a three acre plot of land on the Eastern side of Indore, and plans for construction of a grand temple on that plot, near the Nipania village, have recently been approved by the local municipal authorities. Construction work on a grand Radha Govinda temple will begin later this year.

Senior ISKCON devotees  who attended the Rathayatra at Indore were Gopal Krishna Goswami, the GBC for much of North and Western India, Mahaman Das, main organizer of the festival, and ISKCON India non-GBC zonal secretary for Madhya Pradesh, and a number of other areas in North India, Basu Ghosh Das, Temple President of ISKCON Baroda, Murali Krishna Swami, now Regional Secretary for Bhubaneshwar, Patri Das, non-GBC Zonal Secretary for Nepal, Bimal Krishna Das, Ganga Narayan Das, and Radha Vinod Das, all Co-President of ISKCON Ujjain, and Guru Das and Arvindaksa Govinda Das, Co-Presidents of ISKCON Bhopal (Capitol of Madhya Pradesh).

Murli Krishna Swami brought a group of Russian and Chinese followers to the festival, and they were about 70 in number.   There presence was thus quite apparent to both the local congregational devotees and life patrons, as well as to the public who were fortunate enough to see the Rathayatra.

Local devotees who helped organize the festival were Vishal Das, Rakshak Gouranga Das, Chakravarty Das, Suvarnamalini Devi Dasi, and Congregational devotees such as Bhakta Vinay Tiwari, Bhakta P.D Agrawal and Bhakta Anil Bhandari.

Mahaman Prabhu's devoted wife of more than 35 years, Paramahamsa Devi Dasi looked after the visiting devotees needs.

Acharya Samskritananda Hari from the Kaushalya Pitham, Baroda, participated and chanted vedic mantras to inaugurate the Rathayatra.  Most of the ISKCON leaders mentioned addressed the public gathered from on top of the Rath after the recitation of the vedic mantras as a part of the inaugural observances.  Arati was performed by the senior devotees with coconuts with lighted karpoor (camphor) diyas.

Praneshwar Das, a disciple of Radhanath Swami, who was one of the leading brahmacharis at ISKCON Juhu, Bombay, has been engaged in youth preaching at Indore for the past three years now.  He organized a devotee band that rode on a specially outfitted 45 foot trailer truck, and performed kirtan throughout the procession.  Radharasbihari Das, and other devotees performed on that flatbed trailer.

The Rathayatra began at about 2 PM in the afternoon on a cool day at the Agrasen Cross Road, and proceeded to Tower Cross Road, passing the Dictrict Magistrate's office, (popularly known as the “Collectorate”), and ended at Annapurna Mandir at about 7 PM.

Thereafter a prasad feast was served to five thousand devotees and festival participants inside the Annapurna temple.   The feast consisted of Puris, subji, kadi with pakoras, rice, and bundi (sweet nano balls of chickpea flour/besan, deep fried in ghee and the submersed in sugar water).

Because of local by-elections and "achar samhita" (rules that stipulate that those running in elections may not participate in public functions during campaigning) no local VIPs were able to participate, although the local MLA Dr. Rajesh Sonkar came privately later, and welcomed all the visiting devotees.

Jagannath Rathayatra festival at Indore organzied by ISKCON

By Basu Ghosh Das

Pictures can be seen on the  internet (google plus):

http://tinyurl.com/oj2rg5p

On Wednesday, January 21, 2015, ISKCON Indore organized a grand Jagannath Rathayatra festival.

Indore, the largest city of Madhya Pradesh, was visited by Srila Prabhupada and the first large group of disciples he brought to India back during 1970/1971.

Today, due to the rapid urbanization and industrialization of India over the past 45 years since Prabhupada visited Indore, it has expanded exponentially, and has a population of close to two and a half million (twenty five lakhs - although it is speculated to be even more) today!

It is listed as a “tier two” city and is a large business center and industrial powerhouse.  According to wikipedia it is It is the 14th largest city in India and 147th largest city in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indore

ISKCON has a three acre plot of land on the Eastern side of Indore, and plans for construction of a grand temple on that plot, near the Nipania village, have recently been approved by the local municipal authorities. Construction work on a grand Radha Govinda temple will begin later this year.

Senior ISKCON devotees  who attended the Rathayatra at Indore were Gopal Krishna Goswami, the GBC for much of North and Western India, Mahaman Das, main organizer of the festival, and ISKCON India non-GBC zonal secretary for Madhya Pradesh, and a number of other areas in North India, Basu Ghosh Das, Temple President of ISKCON Baroda, Murali Krishna Swami, now Regional Secretary for Bhubaneshwar, Patri Das, non-GBC Zonal Secretary for Nepal, Bimal Krishna Das, Ganga Narayan Das, and Radha Vinod Das, all Co-President of ISKCON Ujjain, and Guru Das and Arvindaksa Govinda Das, Co-Presidents of ISKCON Bhopal (Capitol of Madhya Pradesh).

Murli Krishna Swami brought a group of Russian and Chinese followers to the festival, and they were about 70 in number.   There presence was thus quite apparent to both the local congregational devotees and life patrons, as well as to the public who were fortunate enough to see the Rathayatra.

Local devotees who helped organize the festival were Vishal Das, Rakshak Gouranga Das, Chakravarty Das, Suvarnamalini Devi Dasi, and Congregational devotees such as Bhakta Vinay Tiwari, Bhakta P.D Agrawal and Bhakta Anil Bhandari.

Mahaman Prabhu's devoted wife of more than 35 years, Paramahamsa Devi Dasi looked after the visiting devotees needs.

Acharya Samskritananda Hari from the Kaushalya Pitham, Baroda, participated and chanted vedic mantras to inaugurate the Rathayatra.  Most of the ISKCON leaders mentioned addressed the public gathered from on top of the Rath after the recitation of the vedic mantras as a part of the inaugural observances.  Arati was performed by the senior devotees with coconuts with lighted karpoor (camphor) diyas.

Praneshwar Das, a disciple of Radhanath Swami, who was one of the leading brahmacharis at ISKCON Juhu, Bombay, has been engaged in youth preaching at Indore for the past three years now.  He organized a devotee band that rode on a specially outfitted 45 foot trailer truck, and performed kirtan throughout the procession.  Radharasbihari Das, and other devotees performed on that flatbed trailer.

The Rathayatra began at about 2 PM in the afternoon on a cool day at the Agrasen Cross Road, and proceeded to Tower Cross Road, passing the Dictrict Magistrate's office, (popularly known as the “Collectorate”), and ended at Annapurna Mandir at about 7 PM.

Thereafter a prasad feast was served to five thousand devotees and festival participants inside the Annapurna temple.   The feast consisted of Puris, subji, kadi with pakoras, rice, and bundi (sweet nano balls of chickpea flour/besan, deep fried in ghee and the submersed in sugar water).

Because of local by-elections and "achar samhita" (rules that stipulate that those running in elections may not participate in public functions during campaigning) no local VIPs were able to participate, although the local MLA Dr. Rajesh Sonkar came privately later, and welcomed all the visiting devotees.

Jagannath Rathayatra festival at Indore organzied by ISKCON

By Basu Ghosh Das

Pictures can be seen on the  internet (google plus):

http://tinyurl.com/oj2rg5p

On Wednesday, January 21, 2015, ISKCON Indore organized a grand Jagannath Rathayatra festival.

Indore, the largest city of Madhya Pradesh, was visited by Srila Prabhupada and the first large group of disciples he brought to India back during 1970/1971.

Today, due to the rapid urbanization and industrialization of India over the past 45 years since Prabhupada visited Indore, it has expanded exponentially, and has a population of close to two and a half million (twenty five lakhs - although it is speculated to be even more) today!

It is listed as a “tier two” city and is a large business center and industrial powerhouse.  According to wikipedia it is It is the 14th largest city in India and 147th largest city in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indore

ISKCON has a three acre plot of land on the Eastern side of Indore, and plans for construction of a grand temple on that plot, near the Nipania village, have recently been approved by the local municipal authorities. Construction work on a grand Radha Govinda temple will begin later this year.

Senior ISKCON devotees  who attended the Rathayatra at Indore were Gopal Krishna Goswami, the GBC for much of North and Western India, Mahaman Das, main organizer of the festival, and ISKCON India non-GBC zonal secretary for Madhya Pradesh, and a number of other areas in North India, Basu Ghosh Das, Temple President of ISKCON Baroda, Murali Krishna Swami, now Regional Secretary for Bhubaneshwar, Patri Das, non-GBC Zonal Secretary for Nepal, Bimal Krishna Das, Ganga Narayan Das, and Radha Vinod Das, all Co-President of ISKCON Ujjain, and Guru Das and Arvindaksa Govinda Das, Co-Presidents of ISKCON Bhopal (Capitol of Madhya Pradesh).

Murli Krishna Swami brought a group of Russian and Chinese followers to the festival, and they were about 70 in number.   There presence was thus quite apparent to both the local congregational devotees and life patrons, as well as to the public who were fortunate enough to see the Rathayatra.

Local devotees who helped organize the festival were Vishal Das, Rakshak Gouranga Das, Chakravarty Das, Suvarnamalini Devi Dasi, and Congregational devotees such as Bhakta Vinay Tiwari, Bhakta P.D Agrawal and Bhakta Anil Bhandari.

Mahaman Prabhu's devoted wife of more than 35 years, Paramahamsa Devi Dasi looked after the visiting devotees needs.

Acharya Samskritananda Hari from the Kaushalya Pitham, Baroda, participated and chanted vedic mantras to inaugurate the Rathayatra.  Most of the ISKCON leaders mentioned addressed the public gathered from on top of the Rath after the recitation of the vedic mantras as a part of the inaugural observances.  Arati was performed by the senior devotees with coconuts with lighted karpoor (camphor) diyas.

Praneshwar Das, a disciple of Radhanath Swami, who was one of the leading brahmacharis at ISKCON Juhu, Bombay, has been engaged in youth preaching at Indore for the past three years now.  He organized a devotee band that rode on a specially outfitted 45 foot trailer truck, and performed kirtan throughout the procession.  Radharasbihari Das, and other devotees performed on that flatbed trailer.

The Rathayatra began at about 2 PM in the afternoon on a cool day at the Agrasen Cross Road, and proceeded to Tower Cross Road, passing the Dictrict Magistrate's office, (popularly known as the “Collectorate”), and ended at Annapurna Mandir at about 7 PM.

Thereafter a prasad feast was served to five thousand devotees and festival participants inside the Annapurna temple.   The feast consisted of Puris, subji, kadi with pakoras, rice, and bundi (sweet nano balls of chickpea flour/besan, deep fried in ghee and the submersed in sugar water).

Because of local by-elections and "achar samhita" (rules that stipulate that those running in elections may not participate in public functions during campaigning) no local VIPs were able to participate, although the local MLA Dr. Rajesh Sonkar came privately later, and welcomed all the visiting devotees.

Lecture on Talk on Holy Name and Kirtan by HH Niranjana Swami on 02 Jan 2015 at Cambridge

(His Holiness Niranjana Swami was born on December 10, 1952, in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. In 1972, his spiritual search took a turning point when he saw a Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, on the counter of a bookshop in Washington, DC.)

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Lecture on I am Hurt But I am Here by HG Charu Prabhu

(Charu Das was initiated by Srila Prabhupada in 1970. He has been President, variously, of the Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Berkeley (USA) temples. He served on the BBT library party in 1976, received Bhakti Shastra in 1979, and was Life Membership Director in Los Angeles for 10 years in the 1980's.)

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