By His Divine Grace ACBS Srila Prabhupada

A conversation about the Hare Krsna mantra between Srila Prabhupada and John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison

Montreal Star, June, 1969:
Reporter: Where do you get your strength?
John Lennon: From Hare Krsna.
Yoko: That’s where we get it from, you know. We’re not denying it.

In September 1969. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder-acarya (spiritual master) of the Hare Krsna movement, arrived as a house guest at Tittenhurst Park, the beautiful eighty-acre British estate owned by John Lennon. Three or four times a week, the Swami, who later became known to the world as Srila Prabhupada, gave public lectures in a tall, stately building at the northern end of the property a hundred yards from the main house, in which John and Yoko lived.
The building had been formerly used as a hall for chamber-music recitals, but now several of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples, who resided along with him in a block of guest houses on the property, installed a small Deity altar and a podium for Srila Prabhupada. The building never really had a name, but after Srila Prabhupada’s arrival, everyone called it “the Temple.”
They still call it “the Temple” today, and except for the recent addition of an enormous crimson-and-gold pipe organ nearly covering the towering west wall, it exists unchanged, now surrounded by a recording-studio complex owned by Ringo Starr.
On September 14, John, Yoko, and George Harrison, after enjoying an Indian vegetarian meal prepared by the devotees at the Temple, walked over to Srila Prabhupada’s quarters for their first meeting.

CABH 2.1: Which Mantra to Chant

Which Mantra to Chant

Yoko Ono: If Hare Krsna is such a strong, powerful mantra, is there any reason to chant anything else? For instance, you talked about songs and different mantras. Is there any point in the chanting of another song or mantra?

Srila Prabhupada: There are other mantras, but the Hare Krsna mantra is especially recommended for this age. But other Vedic mantras are also chanted. As I told you, the sages would sit with musical instruments, like the tamboura, and chant them. For instance, Narada MuniA liberated sage who travels throughout the universe preaching love of God.* is always chanting mantras and playing his stringed instrument, the vina. So chanting out loud, with musical instruments, is not a new thing. It’s been done since time immemorial. But the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra is especially recommended for this age. This is stated in many Vedic literatures, such as the Brahmanda Purana, the Kalisantarana Upanisad, the Agni Purana. and so forth. And apart from the statements of the Vedic literature, Lord Krsna Himself, in the form of Lord Caitanya, preached that everyone should chant the Hare Krsna mantra. And many people followed Him. When a scientist discovers something, it becomes public property. People may take advantage of it. Similarly, if a mantra has potency, all people should be able to take advantage of it. Why should it remain secret? If a mantra is valuable, it is valuable for everybody. Why should it be for only a particular person?

John Lennon: If all mantras are just the name of God, then whether it’s a secret mantra or an open mantra it’s all the name of God. So it doesn’t really make much difference, does it, which one you sing?

Srila Prabhupada: It does make a difference. For instance, in a drug shop they sell all types of medicines for curing different diseases. But still you have to get a doctor’s prescription in order to get a particular type of medicine. Otherwise, the druggist won’t supply you. You might go to the drug shop and say, “I’m diseased. Please give me any medicine you have.” But the druggist will ask you, “Where is your prescription?”

CABH 2.2: Prescription for the Age of Kali

Prescription for the Age of Kali

Similarly, in this age of KaliThe present age, which began five thousand years ago, characterized in the ancient Vedic scriptures as the age of quarrel and hypocrisy.* the Hare Krsna mantra is prescribed in the sastras, or scriptures. And the great teacher Caitanya Mahaprabhu, whom we consider to be an incarnation of God, also prescribed it. Therefore, our principle is that everyone should follow the prescription of the great authorities. Mahajano yena gatah sa panthah. We should follow in the footsteps of the great authorities. That is our business. The Mahabharata states, “Dry arguments are inconclusive. A great personality whose opinion does not differ from others is not considered a great sage. Simply by studying the Vedas, which are variegated, one cannot come to the right path by which religious principles are understood. The solid truth of religious principles is hidden in the heart of an unadulterated, self-realized person. Consequently, as the sastras affirm, one should accept whatever progressive path the mahajanas advocate.” [Mahabharata, Vana-parva, 313.117] This Vedic mantra says that if you simply try to argue and approach the Absolute Truth, it is very difficult. By argument and reason it is very difficult, because our arguments and reason are limited. And our senses are imperfect. There are many confusing varieties of scriptures, and every philosopher has a different opinion, and unless a philosopher defeats other philosophers, he cannot become recognized as a big philosopher. One theory replaces another, and therefore philosophical speculation will not help us arrive at the Absolute Truth. The Absolute Truth is very secret. So how can one achieve such a secret thing? You simply follow the great personalities who have already achieved success. So our Krsna consciousness philosophical method is to follow the great personalities, such as Lord Krsna, Lord Caitanya, and the great spiritual masters in disciplic succession. Take shelter of bona fide authorities and follow them-that is recommended in the Vedas. That will take you to the ultimate goal.

CABH 2.3: You Can’t Manufacture a Mantra

You Can’t Manufacture a Mantra

Evam parampara-praptam: In this way, by disciplic succession, the knowledge is coming down. Sa kaleneha mahata yogo nastah parantapa: But in the course of time the succession was broken. Therefore, Krsna says, I am speaking it to you again. So a mantra should be received from the disciplic succession. The Vedic injunction is sampradaya-vihina ye mantras te nisphala matah. If your mantra does not come through the disciplic succession, it will not be effective. Mantras te nisphala. Nisphala means that it will not produce the desired result. So the mantra must be received through the proper channel, or it will not act. A mantra cannot be manufactured. It must come from the original Supreme Absolute, coming down through the channel of disciplic succession. It has to be received in that way, and only then will it act.

According to our Krsna consciousness philosophy, the mantra is coming down through four channels of disciplic succession: one through Lord Siva, one through the goddess Laksmi, one through Lord Brahma, and one through the four Kumaras. The same thing comes down through different channels. These are called the four sampradayas, or disciplic successions. So, one has to take his mantra from one of these four sampradayas; then only is that mantra active. If we receive the mantra in that way, it will be effective. And if one does not receive his mantra through one of these sampradaya channels, then it will not act; it will not give fruit.

Yoko Ono: If the mantra itself has such power, does it matter where you receive it, where you take it?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes, it does matter. For instance, milk is nutritious. That’s a fact; everyone knows. But if milk is touched by the lips of a serpent, it is no longer nutritious. It becomes poisonous.

Yoko Ono: Well, milk is material.

Srila Prabhupada: Yes, it is material. But since you are trying to understand spiritual topics through your material senses, we have to give material examples.

Yoko Ono: Well, no, I don’t think you have to give me the material sense. I mean, the mantra is not material. It should be something spiritual; therefore, I don’t think anybody should be able to spoil it. I wonder if anybody can actually spoil something that isn’t material.

Srila Prabhupada: But if you don’t receive the mantra through the proper channel, it may not really be spiritual.

John Lennon: How would you know, anyway? How are you able to tell? I mean, for any of your disciples or us or anybody else who goes to any spiritual master how are we to tell if he’s for real or not?

Srila Prabhupada: You shouldn’t go to just any spiritual master.

CABH 2.4: Who’s a Genuine Guru?

Who’s a Genuine Guru?

John Lennon: Yes, we should go to a true master. But how are we to tell one from the other?

Srila Prabhupada: It is not that you can go to just any spiritual master. He must be a member of a recognized sampradava, a particular line of disciplic succession.

John Lennon: But what if one of these masters who’s not in the line says exactly the same thing as one who is? What if he says his mantra is coming from the Vedas and he seems to speak with as much authority as you? He could probably be right. It’s confusing like having too many fruits on a plate.

Srila Prabhupada: If the mantra is actually coming through a bona fide disciplic succession, then it will have potency.

John Lennon: But the Hare Krsna mantra is the best one?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes.

Yoko Ono: Well, if Hare Krsna is the best one, why should we bother to say anything else other than Hare Krsna?

Srila Prabhupada: It’s true, you don’t have to bother with anything else. We say that the Hare Krsna mantra is sufficient for one’s perfection, for liberation.

George Harrison: Isn’t it like flowers? Somebody may prefer roses, and somebody may like carnations better. Isn’t it really a matter for the individual devotee to decide? One person may find that Hare Krsna is more beneficial to his spiritual progress, and yet another person may find that some other mantra may be more beneficial for himself. Isn’t it just a matter of taste, like choosing a flower? They’re all flowers, but some people may like one better than another.

Srila Prabhupada: But still there is a distinction. A fragrant rose is considered better than a flower without any scent.

Yoko Ono: In that case, I can’t

Srila Prabhupada: Let’s try to understand this flower example.

Yoko Ono: O.K.

Srila Prabhupada: You may be attracted by one flower, and I may be attracted by another flower. But among the flowers a distinction can be made. There are many flowers that have no fragrance and many that have fragrance.

Yoko Ono: Is that flower that has fragrance better?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. Therefore, your attraction for a particular flower is not the solution to the question of which is actually better. In the same way, personal attraction is not the solution to choosing the best spiritual process. In Bhagavad-gita [4.11], Lord Krsna says, “All of them-as they surrender unto Me-I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Prtha.” Krsna is the Supreme Absolute. If someone wants to enjoy a particular relationship with Him, Krsna presents Himself in that way. It’s just like the flower example. You may want a yellow flower, and that flower may not have any fragrance. That flower is there; it’s for you, that’s all. But if someone wants a rose, Krsna gives him a rose. You both get the flower of your choice, but when you make a comparative study of which is better, the rose will be considered better.

Yoko Ono: I see a pattern in what you’ve said. For instance, you said that Hare Krsna is the most superpowerful word. And if that is true, then why do we bother to utter any other words? I mean, is it necessary? And why do you encourage us, saying that we’re songwriters and all, to write any other song than Hare Krsna?

Srila Prabhupada: Chanting the Hare Krsna mantra is the recommended process for cleaning our hearts. So actually one who chants Hare Krsna regularly doesn’t have to do anything else. He is already in the correct position. He doesn’t have to read any books.

Yoko Ono: Yes, I agree. So why do you say that it’s all right to write songs, speak, and all that? It’s a waste of time, isn’t it?

Srila Prabhupada: No, it’s not a waste of time. For instance, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu would spend most of His time simply chanting. He was a sannyasi, a member of the renounced spiritual order of life. So, He was criticized by great sannyasis, who said, “You have become a sannyasi, and yet You do not read the Vedanta-sutra. You are simply chanting and dancing.” In this way, they criticized His constant chanting of Hare Krsna. But when Caitanya Mahaprabhu met such stalwart scholars, He did not remain silent. He established the chanting of Hare Krsna by sound arguments based on the Vedic scriptures.

CABH 2.5: Chanting for Liberation

Chanting for Liberation

Chanting Hare Krsna is sufficient for liberation; there is no doubt about it. But if someone wants to understand the Hare Krsna mantra through philosophy, through study, through Vedanta, then we do not lack information. We have many books. But it is not that the Hare Krsna mantra is somehow insufficient and therefore we are recommending books. The Hare Krsna mantra is sufficient. But when Caitanya Mahaprabhu was chanting, He sometimes had to meet opposing scholars, such as Prakasananda Sarasvati and Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya. And then He was ready to argue with them on the basis of Vedanta. So, we should not be dumb. If someone comes to argue with Vedanta philosophy, then we must be prepared. When we are preaching, many different types of people will come with questions. We should be able to answer them. Otherwise, the Hare Krsna mantra is sufficient. It does not require any education, any reading, or anything else. Simply by chanting Hare Krsna, you get the highest perfection. That’s a fact.

By Haridas Das Brahmachari

I knew right away that he was my teacher. It was like something that happens in books.

In September 1965 I went up to Ananda Ashram, an hour and a half out of New York City. I went there mostly to get out of the city. The Indian guru who presided at the Ashram I had met before in New York at a Yoga Society. Many of my friends were involved with him studying Raja Yoga, a form of meditation. They were very enthusiastic and tried to persuade me to come uptown with them to their meetings.

To tell the truth, although I liked their teacher personally, I could never meditate successfully. My mind would always wander after a few minutes. All kinds of images drifted into my consciousness, and I would feel I wasn’t normal or as serious as the others who seemed able to sit calm and immobile for great periods of time. “It was such a good meditation,” they would exclaim after a session. I couldn’t figure it out.

Anyhow, I had to have a change from the city for many reasons. My friends said the Ashram was peaceful and beautiful with a big lake and woods. I took a but and felt gradually better as I got further from New York. It was a holiday weekend, Labor Day, and I didn’t have a reservation. I didn’t know you needed a reservation for a Yoga Camp. Arriving at two in the morning didn’t make my reception any warmer but the person in charge let me in and gave me a bed. I was beginning to get that feeling again that I was an outsider and not ready for Yoga discipline.

Next day everyone got up early and went to morning meditation. The guru was resplendent in golden Indian style jacket and his devotees were already deeply into it when I entered the room. All the cushions were taken and I picked a spot in the back of the room where I could lean against the wall to facilitate my meditation. I noticed some of my friends, eyes closed in lotus position. Seated at one side was an older Indian man in saffron dyed thermal underwear and wrapped in a pinkish wool blanket. He seemed to be muttering to himself and I later discovered that he was praying. It was Swami Bhaktivedanta. His forehead was painted with a white V-shaped sign and his eyes were half shut. He seemed very serene.

There was a lecture by the guru of the Ashram and a girl read from book. Then another meditation, this time with everyone concentrating on a circle drawn on the wall. I couldn’t do it. The circle kept changing it’s size and shape, and after a while began to fill with strange forms. My attention drifted to the faces around the room and all of them seemed involved with the circle. I looked out the window through the lacy curtains to the lake. It was green and misty and beautiful, and even if I couldn’t get interested in Raja Yoga I felt happy to be out of New York City and into the country.

It began to rain. We left the meditation room and filed to the dining room a few hundred yards away in another building. The morning session was evidently success from the conversation at breakfast. There was a Swedish nature film scheduled which I had seen, so I went to my room, sat on the single mattress on the floor and began to read. The rain was increasing and beating against the windows. It was peaceful and I was glad to be alone. I read for a while. Suddenly I sensed someone standing in the doorway. Looking up I saw it was the Swami. He was wrapped in his pink blanket. “Can I come in?” he asked. I nodded yes and he asked if he could sit in the chair in the corner. “What are you reading?” he smiled. “Kafka Diaries” I replied, feeling a little embarrassed. “Uh.” he said, and I put the book down. He asked what I was doing at the Ashram and if I was interested in Yoga. “What kind of yoga are you studying?” “I don’t know much about it” I answered, “but I think I’d like to study Hatha Yoga.” This didn’t impress him. “There are better things than this,” he explained. “There are higher, more direct forms of yoga. Bhakti yoga is the highest it is the science of God devotion”. The Swami continued, “We are all dependent. No one is independent. Everyone here is thinking “Who am I?” I can answer that in one second, I am a servant. We are all servants. Servants of what? Of whom? Servants of God. All of us are serving someone or something, a boss a cat or dog, our family, our country. Why don’t we admit this? We should serve the highest master. We should serve the Supreme Lord. This is our constitutional position and the only way to be happy and become liberated from material bondage.” As he spoke I got the overpowering realization that he was right. He was speaking the truth. And it was as if I had never heard it before. All of my questions were answered without having to ask him anything. I felt he read my soul. A creepy ecstatic sensation came over me that this man was my teacher that all my life was a mere preparation to this moment. His works were so simple and yet they seemed to come from the deepest wisdom. I lost all sense of time and place. It was truly a turning point in my life and I knew it.

After that for the rest of the weekend I kept looking at him. He sat so calmly and had such dignity and warmth. He asked me to visit him when we returned to the city. The room he occupied was a tiny office in the back of the Yoga Society in uptown Manhattan. I began to go there regularly and we sat facing each other on the floor, just him and me in this little office with his typewriter and a new tape recorder he had purchased on top of two suitcases, a box of books he had brought from India and a color reproduction of dancing figures which he looked at often. I told Swami Bhaktivedanta that I was an artist and he asked me to “please paint this picture” which he explained was of Lord Chaitanya and his disciples dancing and chanting praises to Krishna, the Supreme Lord. The painting was called Samkirtan. Whenever I came to visit him, Swami would always be happy to see me. He became my mother and father as well as my teacher and friend. I told him the most intimate things about myself. We chanted Hare Krishna together in his room many nights that winter in New York. Praise to Krishna, praise to God.

I couldn’t wait to get the train uptown from my apartment in Greenwich Village so I could see him. Everything and everyone I knew gradually receded into the hum of the city, and Swami Bhaktivedanta became the most important person in my life. I stopped seeing the woman psychologist I had gone to for therapy after the sudden death of both my parents. My relationships with friends began to change. They no longer were my center. Krishna was becoming my center and Swami Bhaktivedanta was showing me the way. It was as if the cloud that had been covering my soul was slowly lifting and the light within me was beginning to shine out. The whole world seemed to shift around me. Going home from those unforgettable evenings with Swamiji I chanted on the train, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, and didn’t care what anyone thought.

Haridas Das Brahmachary (Harvey Cohen)

Source: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=20619

By Karuna Dharini devi dasi, disciple of Virabahu Maharaja

Ecology: the study of the relationships between living organisms and their interactions with their natural or developed environment. 1

We have been hearing the term ecology popularly in use since the seventies. People have become very concerned with nature’s welfare. Some scientists spend their entire lives researching how to save a particular community of animals. There are organizations to save the elephant, Panda, plankton, frog, jungles, etc. This is only natural because the spiritual world is the beautiful, natural environment with which we are originally associated. In His Vrndavana, Sri Krsna protects cows, prevents fires, talks to the animals and enjoys the pure forest atmosphere. The cowherd boys are decorated with minerals from the caves and newly sprouted leaves and flowers.

Meanwhile, in the material world, billions of dollars’ worth of research and adjustments cannot save many of earth’s ecosystems. Life is threatened by a development that has only recently come to the attention and debate of the greater public: climate change. Carbon dioxide and methane emissions are increasingly trapping heat from the sun light into earth’s atmosphere.

The planet is warming to a degree beyond what many species can handle, altering or eliminating habitat, reducing food sources, causing drought and other species-harming severe weather events, and even directly killing species that simply can’t stand the heat. In fact, scientists predict that if we keep going along our current greenhouse gas emissions trajectory, climate change will cause more than a third of the Earth’s animal and plant species, to face extinction by 2050 — and up to 70 percent by the end of the century. Such a catastrophic loss would irreversibly diminish biodiversity, severely disrupt ecosystems, and cause immense hardship for human societies worldwide.2

If climate change is for real, it is very bad news for life on our planet. Srila Prabhupada said a devotee is so compassionate that he will hesitate to harm even an ant. Are we powerless to do anything? Why does the sun, which the Vedas describe as the symbol of the eye of God, feel as though it is torching the planet on which we live?

Scientific Explanations

Some say climate change is purely an act of nature. Others say it is human driven, mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels into earth’s atmosphere. The International Governmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 1,300 scientists from all over the globe, under the auspices of the United Nations concluded in their presentation to the public sector that there is more than a ninety percent probability that human activities over the past two-hundred fifty years have warmed the planet.

The Union of Concerned Scientists describe that one of the most practical empirical evidences is the measure of carbon dioxide in the air. What’s more, analysis of carbon dioxide indicates its source. Finer, lighter carbon dioxide is the result of fossil fuel burning. Analysis of very old air bubbles found in ice cores reveal that the lighter version of carbon dioxide was not much present before the industrial revolution. Two-hundred fifty years later it is very much present, and the stats for the future look staggering.

Future of Fossil Fuel Emissions

To understand the future of the changes we are making to earth’s atmosphere, there are three key figures. The first is 2 degrees Celsius. That is the number that the Copenhagen Climate Conference selected as the absolute maximum amount of warming that can take place without extreme consequences. This 2 degrees is the “bottomest of lines,” with any higher temperatures to result in total acidity in the oceans, complete melting of artic ice, increase in humidity above oceans to trigger disastrous storms and flooding, as well as cataclysmic destruction to the environments in Africa, Australia and other drought prone countries.3 (Drought is the most common cause of crop failure in India where a farmer’s suicide occurs once every thirty minutes.4)

The second number to take note of is 565 gigatons. That figure directly relates to how much additional carbon can be burned into the atmosphere without sending the average planet temperatures above 2 degrees Celsius.

The third figure is 2,795 gigatons:

2,795 gigatons is the amount of carbon already existent in the proven oil and gas reserves of the fossil fuel companies. In short it is the fossil fuel we are already planning to burn. Five times greater a number than the number of 565, which would hold us to the 2 degree Celsius warming limit. This coal and gas is technically in the soil. But it’s already economically above ground. It’s figured into share prices, companies are borrowing money against it, and nations are basing their budgets on it. Those 2,795 gigatons of carbon emissions are worth $27 trillion…We might as well burn all that carbon and investors will do fine, but if we do, the planet will crater.5

The second largest cause of global warming is methane gas. 27% of methane gas emissions are the by-product of animal farming. Ruminating animals such as cows, sheep, and goats exude methane gas during their digestive processes and from their dung.

Grain fed meat production heavily depends on using fossil fuel. With third world countries predicted to greatly increase their factory farming, industry and auto driving in the coming century, Co2 and methane levels will spike dramatically.

Wildlife and Domestic Animals; Souls in Peril

While we fill the air with carbon dioxide, blindly putting life on earth at risk, materialistic society continues to lavish love on pets and wildlife. Organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have gained strength, popularity and some legal clout over meat producers, puppy farms, circuses, rodeos, zoos, etc.

Yet with respect for the work of these pet rescuers, humane law enforcers and ecologists, devotees can easily see the dissonance in their proactivity. For example, “humane slaughter” laws do little to protect livestock. The pet industry profits greatly from the meat industry. Ecologists have become helpless to re-establish countless destroyed or sun baked habitats. Maya’s influence is very strong. If any change is to take place, it will have to start with the spiritual mental health inside of ourselves, not only with a web site or a green t-shirt.

We are now unprecedented in the destruction of unwanted

pets. In the U.S. it is 2.7 million per year.6 As for wildlife, we are the

driving force of an extinction rate estimated one thousand times

greater than the rate which occurred before human alteration of the

planet.7 Slaughter house technology takes the lives of nine billion farm

animals in the United States. The estimate for world slaughter is one

hundred–fifty billion yearly.8

Animals are bound by the laws of nature. Unlike humans, they do not break the laws. They are, in their own artless ways, more in touch with their creator than the modern Kali-yuga man who has become an expert at sense gratification. The eight million, four hundred thousand species of life are still trying, although it is perhaps the most pathetic struggle in their history, to simply sustain their lives in the midst of relentless peril due to human competitors, predators and exploiters. Repeated birth and death is the fate of all embodied souls, but now the tables are turned in such a way that the variety of amazing life forms will be no more. At the end of Kali-yuga, when Kalki is about to appear, the earth becomes twelve times hotter and reduced to dust.

Srila Prabhupada challenged many times, Mr. Scientist, you have invented so many ways by which to kill. Can you invent any means by which man may live? Can you put an end to repeated birth and death?

Life on earth is misinterpreted by materialistic modern science, politics, and animal husbandry. They fail to see Krishna’s reason for the creation. The Vedic wisdom tells us that the eight million, four hundred thousand species of life we see on earth are a series of temporary terms of existence designed by our creator for repeated birth and death. When we arrive at the human form of life it is a time of awakening. It is a time for the cultivation of divine appreciation, not nuts and bolts.

One who sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, one in quality with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things. What, then, can be illusion or anxiety for Him?

-Sri Isopanisad 7

This World is not our Home

As devotees we like to show respect for Krishna’s creation. We may drive a car with fewer emissions, or use public transportation. We may purchase or grow ethically farmed foods, recycle our recyclables and practice cow protection. Simply being vegetarian means we contribute a great deal less to toxic waste problems than non-vegetarians do.

While there are no easy, quick fix solutions, this time of global uncertainty is excellent impetus for self-realization. We can garner a lesson which has been a long time in the making. Climate change convinces us that the universal, infallible law of justice is a scientific fact.

We are very conditioned to the convenience og the amenities that we grew up with, filling our tanks and driving all over, flying in planes, taking much advantage from running electric appliances. Now a huge karmic fallout is making its debut. It will cause financial and physical hardships for future generations and for also us in this very lifetime: acidic oceans, desertification, severe weather events, scarcity, drought, famine and devastation to at least some of earth’s natural beauty.

How to make a difference? The way that material civilization is arranged at this time in history makes it nearly impossible to go about one’s daily duties without leaving a “carbon footprint.” To completely stop it all together we have two extreme choices: 1) give up all forms of work entirely, 2) become so expert in self-sufficiency we do not interact with any agency of further environmental contamination.

But Srila Prabhupada did not recommend that we limit ourselves in devotional service, or in what we could do to further the mission of Krishna consciousness. Working for Krsna and the spiritual master is not contaminated by material interactions. He did not even suggest that we give up the ordinary work which is born of our own nature:

Every endeavor is covered by some fault, just as fire is covered by smoke. Therefore one should not give up the work born of his nature, O son of Kunti, even if such work is full of faults.

From the purport,

This example of the fire and the smoke is very appropriate. When in wintertime one takes a stone from the fire, sometimes smoke disturbs the eyes and other parts of the body, but still one must make use of the fire despite disturbing conditions. Similarly, one should not give up his natural occupation because there are some disturbing elements. Rather, one should be determined to serve the Supreme Lord by his occupational duty in Krsna consciousness. That is the perfectional point. When a particular type of occupation is performed for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord, all the defects in that particular occupation are purified. When the results are purified, when connected with devotional service, one becomes perfect in seeing the self within, and that is self-realization.

-Bhagavad-Gita 18.48

Prabhupada’s message is appropriate now more than ever. We are surrounded by a rather insipid, invisible smoke which increasingly pervades earth’s atmosphere. When nearly every place in nature has been compromised by it, devotees should not loose heart. There is simply nothing we can do that will satisfy us as much as to continue to serve Lord Krishna. Making huge material adjustments will not bring any happiness or relief. Self-realization is the only gentleman’s way out of here. Goloka Vrndavana is the pristine destination. That is the only perfectional point. This is a non-permanent, miserable place, it is not our real home and it never will be.

Scientists and politicians will certainly grapple to put forth a positive solution for the problem of climate change. Meanwhile devotees need only try to make this earth as nice as possible in the form of Krishna conscious environments such as nice temples, big kirtans, eco-friendly farms, prasadam restaurants, etc., in order to encourage others and our own selves in self-realization. At the same time we keep in mind that Krsna has meant this planet for our rectification, not for permanent residence. The ecology of the heart is the beginning of any hope for external change. Ecology devoid of the study of humanity’s relationship with the Supreme Living Being will always be the study of living beings in a crisis.

1 Encarta Dictionary

2 Center for Biodiversity, 2015

3 Rolling Stone Magazine, McKibben, July 2012

4 Los Angeles Times, August 10, 2014, Shasank Bengali reporting from Savargaon, India

5 Rolling Stone Magazine., McKibben, July 2012

6 Washington Post 12-3-14

7 Livescience.com, 9-18-14

8 www.adaptt.org/killcounter

Source: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=20550

From Back to Godhead

[From Vanity Karma: Ecclesiastes, the Bhagavad-gita, and the meaning of life (Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 2015, ISBN 0-89213-449-6, trade paperback $15.95, www.vanitykarma.com), a cross-cultural commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes. Available at the Krishna.com store and elsewhere. For this excerpt, we’ve retained the book’s style for dealing with Sanskrit words.]

“Vanity of vanities, says Qohelet. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!” So begins the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. By “vanity,” Qohelet (pronounced ko-hell-et), the book’s sagacious speaker, means that life is absurdly meaningless. Yet despite this pessimistic view, Qohelet urges that we enjoy life.

The third chapter of Ecclesiastes opens with the famous lyrical passage “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. . . .” But then at once, in the verses below, he returns to a despairing view. Jayadvaita Swami’s commentary, with a Vedic perspective, explores the text.

3:9–11: Working for God knows what

9 What profit has he who works in that in which he labors? 10I have seen the travail that God has given man to be busy with. 11He has made everything fitting for its time. He has also set the world in their hearts, yet they cannot find out the work that God has done from the beginning to the end.

“Times” in context. Alas!

Standing alone, Qohelet’s “catalogue of times” may seem a lovely poem, celebrating the way all things come and go, each taking its suitable turn within the cycle of nature’s divine arrangement. “God’s in His heaven, all’s right with the world.”

With Qohelet, we can’t get off so easy.1 The scholar George Barton aptly sums up what Qohelet has to say: “Human activities are limited to certain times and seasons in which man goes his little round doing only what other men have done before. His nature cries out for complete knowledge of the works of God, but God has doomed him to ignorance, so that the best he can do is to eat and drink and ignorantly get what little enjoyment he can within these limitations.”

“What gain have the workers from their toil?” Qohelet asks. And his answer is plain: None at all. Under the sun, which pants in the futile labor of its vast and endless cosmic rounds, little men labor for nothing, time forcing them to plod through their routines within the prison walls of days and seasons, year after meaningless year.

“I have seen the business God has given everyone to be busy with,” Qohelet says. And he has already told us (in 1:13) what kind of business that is – “an unhappy business,” all amounting to nothing more than “vanity and a chasing after wind.” We are busy in useless labor. And why? Because God has stuck it on us.

God has made every one of our engagements “suitable for its time” and made them all absurdly meaningless and pointless. Worse still, he has tantalized, vexed, and frustrated us by putting into our hearts something crucial we’ll never get to the end of.

The Hebrew word for what that is has been variously translated and argued over. God has put “the world” in our hearts, or put “eternity” there, or “the course of the world,” or “a sense of past and future.” Or he has put “ignorance” there. Or if (as several commentators have suggested) scribes have inadvertently switched two Hebrew letters, what God has put there is “toil” – mental labor.

However you take it, God has made us in such a way that we long to understand what’s going on – what the meaning of our life is, why the world was made the way it is, what its purpose is, and what our place in it might be. We want to know how our small lives fit into the great picture of endless time, why time exists at all, and what the “right” times might be for the things we have to do. God has made us hungry to know what is ever concealed from us, and yet he keeps it concealed, and keeps us ignorant and frustrated.

“I have seen”

Here Qohelet seems forced to contend with the consequences of the way he has chosen to gain understanding. How will we understand what is what? By direct experience – by gathering evidence with our senses, especially by the powerful sense of sight. “I have seen . . . ,” Qohelet says. And he will say it several times more: “I saw . . . I saw . . . I turned and saw . . .” And if we follow Qohelet’s method, after seeing we will sift and weigh what we have seen – ponder it, analyze it, dwell on it, theorize about it, try somehow to make sense of it.

And ultimately we will fail. We will run up against the limitations of our senses: There’s only so much we can see, and there’s so much we can’t. Put a thin piece of paper in front of my eyes, and I can’t see beyond it. Put too much distance or too much haze, and my vision starts to blur. If something’s too small I can’t see it, or even if too big. I can’t see my own eyelid, the closest thing to the eye. And at night if you turn off the lights I can’t see anything at all. With my mighty power of sight, I can’t see sounds. I can’t see the wind. I can’t see anything that’s hidden. And all my other senses bump into the same sort of limitations.

I can extend my senses with various devices – spectacles, microscopes, telescopes, amplifiers, sensors for heat and movement – but shortly I’ll come to an extended set of limits. There’s no way around this. However many rings I burst through, I will always find the next. However much I can see, there’s always so much I can’t. My vision will always be boxed in.

And when I try to make sense of what I see, I run into the shortcomings of my mind. I see a rope and think it’s a snake. I see a woman and mistake her for a man. I see someone smile at me and don’t realize the smile is meant for someone else. I see a stray toy on the road when in fact it’s an improvised bomb.

And these are just basic errors in the mind’s work of recognizing patterns, of turning sight into perception. Now extend such mental failings to the work of understanding life as a whole. When I try to make ultimate sense of what I see, when I try to find ultimate meaning, my mind will inevitably take wrong turns, or drive about in circles, or get stuck in mental traffic and finally just give out.

According to the Vedic teachings, we are all shot through with four defects: imperfect senses, a tendency to make mistakes, a tendency to get carried away by illusion, and a tendency to cheat. (Despite our imperfect senses and our proneness to make mistakes and get bewildered, we come on like we’ve figured it all out. Cheating, no?)

In short: Direct experience and inductive reasoning may be fine within limits, but when we come to ultimate questions these methods fail, and so we “cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

Even if we think that there’s no God, that nature just runs on its own, we can’t be sure of that either. Nor figure out how or why existence pops into existence, nor where it’s finally headed or why. Finally, whatever we think and however much we think, the secret remains secret. As we find in the epic Mahabharata (Bhishma Parva, 5.22), achintyah khalu ye bhava na tams tarkena yojayet: “That which lies beyond the power of thought cannot be understood by logic.”

3:12–13: Eat, drink, and have a good time toiling away

12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to get pleasure so long as they live. 13And also for any man to eat and drink and enjoy pleasure in all his labor – this is a gift of God.

Nothing better?

When Qohelet says “I know that there is nothing better” we might well ask him, “How do you know?” All he can reliably tell us is what lies within his experience, not “all that is.” So perhaps he could more defensibly say, “I know of nothing better.”

But let’s not argue with him, because in any case his conclusion doesn’t seem one he’s delighted with. “I know that there is nothing better,” he says, and we might envision him saying it with a disappointed sigh. Again: Is this all? Nothing more than this?

Qohelet has come again to the same place where we found him in 2:24: Having failed at his experiment with pleasure (and that too on a royal level), he now commends as the best there is the very pleasure he has found meaningless and empty.

This is what the Bhagavatam refers to as “chewing the chewed again and again.” In tropical countries people often enjoy chewing fresh sugarcane, which yields a sweet and tasty juice. You chew the cane, relish the juice, and then leave the woody fiber aside. And that’s it. If you try to chew the same cane again – okay, you might get a bit more juice, but not much, hardly enough to be worth it, and if after putting it aside the second time you pick it up and try again, what can you expect?

Such, the Bhagavatam says, is the nature of material enjoyment. We try something and extract a little joy, and then try the same thing again, with diminished results, and then try it yet again. Soon whatever we’re trying becomes dry, tasteless, and frustrating, but for lack of anything better we keep trying, “chewing the chewed,” imagining there’s still more joy to be had from it.

I could talk about kids and how quickly they tire of old toys, but let’s go for the top: the pleasure of sex. Qohelet had it to the highest extent – “many concubines, the delights of men” – and at the end he told us what it came to: “vanity, and a chasing after wind.” And now should we try it again? Our senses cry out for it, and our mind can picture how satisfying it will be this time, and at the end – disappointment.

The pleasure a human being gets out of eating, drinking, or sex is in essence the same as what a hog gets, or a dog, or a mosquito. Finally, eating is eating, sex is sex. And yet, Qohelet says, “there is nothing better.”

In fact, he says there is “nothing better as long as they live.” Even in old age, it seems, people still pursue the same pleasure. And so a study published in 20072 found that of American men between the ages of 65 and 74, nearly seven out of ten were “sexually active,” and for men 75 through 85, nearly four out of ten. For more than half the men in the older group, this meant two or three times a month, and for one out of four, at least once a week. (For women in the same age groups the numbers were lower, in part because of not having a man: Men, on average, marry younger women, and men die somewhat earlier.) As the study’s authors tell us, “The prevalence of sexual activity declines with age, yet a substantial number of men and women engage in vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and masturbation even in the eighth and ninth decades of life.” And this despite arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and an array of troublesome physical ailments directly related to sexual performance. Amidst all this, Qohelet says, “I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live.”

For those done with sex and too old to enjoy working, there’s still the pleasure of eating and drinking and schmoozing with what’s left of their friends and families. Nothing better? As long as they live? Alas!

And what’s this about “taking pleasure in all their labor” – as many translations have it, “all their toil”? Toil, by definition, is not pleasurable but troublesome, wearisome, miserable. And toil is what Qohelet says. The Hebrew word – ’amal – carries the same strongly negative sense. As we hear from the scholar C. L. Seow, in the Bible the word is closely linked with “extremely negative terms” – trouble, grief, evil, falsehood, vexation, lies, destruction, violence, affliction, poverty, deceit. ’Amal – labor or toil – is not just work or effort but struggle, sweat, drudgery, travail. Is that what we’re supposed to take pleasure in?

As I’ve mentioned before, the word does have a dual meaning. It can refer either to wearisome labor or to its results, what we earn by such labor – or it can refer to both. The two, after all, go together. More than going together, they are bound together. What we earn is a result of our toil, but in one sense our toil is the result of what we earn because it is for the sake of those earnings that we undergo the toil. Work brings us money, but money – the need or desire for it – makes us work. We work for happiness, but since the work itself is misery, the very pursuit of happiness makes us miserable.

That is why the Vedic sages advise that one not work for happiness at all. Happiness, they say, will come of its own accord. After all, no one seeks misery – no one works for it or stands in line for it – yet misery comes anyway, on its own. Then why not happiness as well? By nature’s way, each time a living being is born his physical embodiment brings along with it a certain quota of happiness and distress. Both will find us, in whatever measure we are destined to receive. The Srimad-Bhagavatam therefore advises that one work only to keep body and soul together, for the sake of the true human project of spiritual inquiry. That alone should be the purpose of one’s work.

This, the Bhagavatam says, is the actual gift given by God for a human being: the ability to inquire about our purpose for existing, about ultimate meaning. But if that’s not the gift we want, God (or nature, if you will) has others to offer – in essence, the same gifts offered to other creatures: some food, something to drink, some sex. And for such rewards a life of hard work.

Here to enjoy

Now, let’s look at things another way. We all want to eat and drink and enjoy, and seeing the enjoyments we receive as a gift from God reflects a sense of gratitude toward the divinity, and a sense of humbleness. “So entirely dependent are we on the divine Being, that even the little which we enjoy, is not secured by our own plans and efforts, but by God’s own arrangements.” So writes the nineteenth-century biblical scholar Moses Stuart, with his usual thoughtful piety.

This fits well with what we’ve already heard from the Ishopanishad: “Whether alive or dull, all within this universe belongs to its controller, the Lord. What you may enjoy is only what he has set aside for you as your portion. One should not strive for other things, knowing well to whom they belong.”

Without reference to God the nonreligious person may think, “I am here to enjoy, and by good luck or hard work I’ll do it.” And with reference to God the religious believer may think, “I am here to enjoy, and by God’s grace I can hope to do so.” For both, the central concern is their own enjoyment. And both, therefore, are “chasing after wind.”

In the Bhagavad-gita Krishna says, “Enjoyments born of stimulation for the senses are themselves the very sources of misery. They have a beginning and an end, and one who is wise does not delight in them.”

Yet it is those enjoyments, those “gifts of God,” that religious believers are often keen to receive. By prayers, by rituals, by following commandments, by “being good,” they hope that God will grant them the gifts of good fortune, of peace and prosperity, of a bountiful life in which they can eat and drink and take pleasure in all the results of their work.

In the Vedic literature the part called karma-kanda, “the part concerning karma,” deals with precisely such goals: How can we best act to reap the best material rewards? From the point of view of the follower of karma-kanda, a virtuous or religious life is worthwhile because it will bring us prosperity, which will enable us to enjoy (or after death gain us a welcome into a heavenly realm where we can enjoy still more).

Yet the Srimad-Bhagavatam, in its opening stanzas, rejects such religious life as being materially motivated and as therefore a kind of spiritual fraud. In the name of religion or spirituality or dharma we seek pleasure for the tongue and the stomach and the little organ down below. Spiritual? The Bhagavatam rejects such “fraudulent dharma” and invites us to discriminate between reality and illusion for the sake of our ultimate welfare and the attainment of the highest truth.

NOTES
1. And like Qohelet’s poem, the lovely expression of contentment in the line above from Robert Browning has an ironic context. It’s from a song Browning puts in the mouth of an exploited Italian orphan girl who had to work long wearisome hours at a silk mill, with only one day off in a year. The girl innocently sings the song while passing by the mill owner’s wife and her lover, who have murdered the mill owner. “All’s right with the world” indeed!
2. “A Study of Sexuality and Health among Older Adults in the United States.” Lindau, Schumm, et al. The New England Journal of Medicine, 357;8, August 23, 2007.

At a lecture that Srila Prabhupada gave on April 6, 1972, at Tarrawarra Abbey, in Melbourne, one of the members said to Prabhupada, “Swami, in the Christian history, one of the people that many of us look up to is a man called Francis of Assisi, and he talks about knowing God, and he rates it up with experiences such as on the occasion when he embraced a leper. And he says, ‘If we turn away from our fellow, then we are not reaching God, or God consciousness.’ And this is in line with one of the central teachings of the Christian scriptures, which is that if any man says he loves God and does not love his neighbor, then that man is a liar.”

“If actually one loves God,” Prabhupada replied, “he must love everybody. That is the sign. Just like my mouth is now thirsty. I am quenching with drinking water and putting here. As soon as I put the water here, immediately the energy is distributed all over the body. So a God conscious person cannot be neglectful or envious of anyone. That is the test. Sarvair gunais tatra samasate surah (SB 5.18.12). [All the demigods and their exalted qualities, such as religion, knowledge, and renunciation, become manifest in the body of one who has developed unalloyed devotion for the Supreme Personality of Godhead.] All good qualities. So, this is a good quality—to love your neighbor, to give them service. So, if a person is actually God conscious, he must be sympathetic with the troubles of his neighbor, or anyone—not only human beings, animals also. They are also living entities. A God conscious person makes no discrimination between human being and animal or trees or plants, because they are also living entities.”

Source: http://www.girirajswami.com/?p=15109

Bhisma-panchaka is five days dedicated to Bhismadev, The son of mother Ganga and his father King Shantanu-Bhismah santanavo birah. He is the Grandfather of Pandavas, descendant of Great king Bharata in Kuru dynasty .The period falls in the last 5 days of the month Kartik,the resounding 5 days of chaturmasya. It is said to commemorate the life of Grandfather Bhismadev, a key figure in the history of India, one who is known as a powerful warrior and commander-in-chief of the royal army who renounced his own claim to the throne of the world and instead remained celibate throughout his life as stated in Mahabharata and the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

After the chronological events that took place on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, being extremely pleased with  Bhismadev, Lord Krishna granted a special boon to those who worship Lord Hari and engage in devotional service during these five days. What is that special boon?

Lord Krishna agreed to bestow pure devotion to those who earnestly follow certain austerities these last five days of Kartik. As per Gaudiya vaishnava, Bhismadev is very well known as one of the twelve mahajanas—authorities—in the science of Krsna

consciousness. In his youth, he received the benediction that he would only die when he wishes it. He spent his final days giving spiritual and political instructions to King Yudhisthira while lying on a bed of arrows, having been wounded on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. After the Pandavas won the battle, Bhismadeva finally felt peaceful and wanted to leave his body looking into the lotus-like face of Lord Krishna in His transcendental feature as Partha-sarathi. This shows his unflinching faith and devotion to Lord Krsna, which we know is the highest perfection of life.

drstva nipatitam bhumau

divas cyutam ivamaram

pranemuh pandava bhisma

sanugah saha cakrina

Seeing him [Bhisma] lying on the ground, like a demigod fallen from the sky, the Pandava King Yudhisthira, along with his younger brothers and Lord Krsna, bowed down before him. -SB 1.9.4

It is a joyous event since many devotees from various parts of the world come to Sri Mayapur Dham, India, situated very close to the holy bank of river Ganga. The atmosphere is filled with excitement in honoring such an auspicious, devotional vow.  Every year HH Jayapataka Swami Maharaj also joins us in Sri Dham Mayapur to give all of us His company. We have gathered an overwhelming response from many devotees participating from several countries and from many states of India..

Most importantly, HH Jayapataka Swami Maharaj always emphasises on following these 5 days in the shastric way as it is quoted by Srila Suta Goswami in the Padma Purana, Uttarakhanda, ‘This liberating fast is unknown even to the demigods.’

The Padma Purana says that this pleases Lord Keshava the worshipable Lord for the month of Kartik and he who follows, makes spiritual advancement by doing such vrata and is so powerful that one can even free oneself from one of the greatest sins.

Highlights for these 5 days:

Daily Ganga-snana.

Gaura-katha every evening.

Bhishma Panchaka roots-and-fruits prasadam.

Ghee lamp Offering to Sri Radha Madhava and all the other deities.

There are 3 Levels of fasting.

In the Hari BhaktiVilasa it is suggested to observe fasting from certain foodstuffs on the Bhisma-panchaka vrata days for the pleasure of the Lord Keshava, according to one’s capacity and dedication.

Bhishma Panchaka Fasting level-1

Honoring five products of the cow known as pancha gavya on each of the five days.

First day: Cow dung (Gomaya)

Second day: Cow urine (Go-mutra) Third day: Cow milk (Kshiira)

Fourth day: Cow yoghurt (Dahi)

Fifth day: All products of the cow mixed (Pancha-gavya)

If not then one can take fruits, nuts and roots, as said in level 2.

Bhishma Panchaka Fasting level-2

Potatoes, Sweet potatoes, Kochu (Taro), Peanuts.Plain cashew nuts.Raisins, Dates,Bananas – unripe and ripe Mosambi, Orange, Pear, Apple, Chikoo (Sapodilla fruit), Freshly grated coconut, Coconut water, Shakalu (Jicama)

Nevertheless, fruits with lots of seeds are said to be avoided like guava, pomegranate, cucumber etc. Milk products and oils are also avoided. Only sea salt can be added to enhance the flavor. The above-mentioned foods can be taken raw, boiled or baked. It is recommended to complete the particular level once it has been started.

Level 3 is introduced with “Havishya.” As referred in the Padma Purana, Brahma-khanda, Chapter 23; Skanda Purana, Vishnu Khanda, Kartik Mahatmya section, Chapter 32; Garuda Puraana, Puurva, Khanda, Chapter 123. One can follow level 3 as described below.

Bhishma Panchaka Fasting level-3

Ingredients for this level 3-Havishya as mentioned in Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa (13.10-13). The following are ingredients that can be used in making Havishya, which is like a khichdi made with these items.

Rice – not parboiled

Pure cow’s ghee

Cow’s milk and cream

Sea salt

Unripe banana

Wheat

Coconut water

Fruits

Roots

Sugarcane derivatives other than gur or molasses

Kala sak – type of spinach, Pipali herb
 

The following ingredients which are normally a part of havishya need to be avoided if one is following Bhisma-panchaka-vrata.Dal,Oil,Jeera (cumin),   Radish,Tamarind, Beta sak, Turmeric

Special Offerings to the Lord during these days.
 

Following flowers to be offered to the Deities during the Bhishma Panchaka Vrata days as per Garuda Purana.

On the first day, one must offer Padma (lotus) flowers to the feet of the Lord.

On the second day, one must offer Bilva (wood-apple) leaves to the thigh of the Lord.

On the third day, one must offer gandha (fragrance/scents) to the navel of the Lord.

On the fourth day, one must offer Java flower (hibiscus) to the shoulders of the Lord.

On the fifth day, one must offer Malati flower to the head (siro-desa) of the Lordship.

In case there is an overlap of days then the flowers for both days can be offered on the same day.

In Sri Mayapur Dham, various facilities are provided by Temple management to make this vrata easy for devotees convenience. Gita kitchen takes up the responsibilities for providing vrata prasadam. Special offering of flowers and leaves to the Lord are provided in the Radha madhava puja offering counter.

While bathing in Ganges or any other holy river prayers are offered by reciting the following mantras:

Tarpana

om vaiyaghra padya gotraya

samkrti pravaraya ca

aputraya dadamyetat

salilam bhismavarmane

Arghya

vasunamavataraya

santanoratmajaya ca

arghyam dadami bhismaya

ajanma brahmacarine

Pranam

om bhismah santanavo birah

satyavadi jitendriyah

abhiradbhiravapnatu

putrapautrocitam kriyam

The conclusion is, as Lord Brahma tells Narada in the Skanda Purana: ‘O son Narada, the month of Kartika is very dear to Lord Keshava. If anyone acts meritoriously this month just to please Lord Visnu, he receives unlimited results.’

Source: https://www.mayapur.com/2019/the-passing-away-of-bhismadeva-bhisma-panchaka/

Giriraj Swami read and spoke on Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.12.

“As members of ISKCON we all under the authority of Srila Prabhupada. And we can serve Srila Prabhupada according to our individuality. But by definition, devotional service must be anukula—favorable—and for our service to be favorable, we have to know what our master wants. We can’t properly offer the master something he doesn’t want under the plea that that is my individuality, because that is a false conception of individuality. So, the first thing is that Srila Prabhupada is the master and we need to know what the master wants. As long as we give him something that he wants, we are all right. We are not all going to offer the same thing, but what we offer will be within the range of what the master wants.”

Unity in Variety (Right click to download)

Source: http://www.girirajswami.com/?p=15081

रिपोर्टिंग

श्रील प्रभुपाद द्वारा रचित संपूर्ण के समस्त श्लोकों के हिन्दी अर्थ को कथा रुप में संकलन का कार्य श्री जगदीश चन्द्र चौहान प्रभु ने 1101 पृष्ठों में सम्पन्न करके इसे  ग्रंथ का रूप दिया है।

इस संकलन का भक्तार्पण कार्यक्रम (विमोचन)  हरे कृष्ण भक्ति वृक्ष समूह द्वारा ------ इस्कॉन मंदिर निपानिया, इन्दौर में पवित्र कार्तिक मास की रमा एकादशी पर दिनांक (24/10/2019गुरुवार) को मंदिर अध्यक्ष पूज्यनीय गुरुमहाराज महामनदासजी के  कर कमलों द्वारा सम्पन्न किया गया।

इस अवसर पर मंगलाचरण, श्रीमद्भागवतम की भूमिका, श्री भगवान के ऐश्वर्य का वर्णन, संकीर्तन, संध्या गौर आरती, दामोदर अष्टकम् , दीपदान, श्रीमदभागवत की आरती, श्री गुरु महाराज के आशिर्वचन आदि कार्यक्रम आयोजित किए गए।  कार्यक्रम का संचालन हरे कृष्ण भक्ति वृक्ष समूह के श्री ललित माधव दास प्रभु ने किया।

हरे कृष्ण

श्रीमद भागवतम

link address-https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3696685120?profile=original

Some people say that the greatest enjoyment in the material world is sex. Well, we can also say that greater than that is to be free from such desires. If you do not have the desire, then it saves a lot of trouble! You know, then you do not have to worry about Saturday nights. You do not have to buy flowers. You do not have to spend a lot of money in bars and all these things. There are so many things you do not have to do if you do not have sex desire. You do not have to spend a fortune on all kinds of clothes and things like that. Think about it, the consequences of sex desire are quite far-reaching!

The other day, I was writing about this and I was comparing it to being addicted to cigarettes (to smoking). Airports are now all smoke-free zones, so then you have this glass box and people smoke in the glass box. It looks kind of foolish to have all these people in the glass box. They just sit in there, trying to feel at ease but meanwhile it is embarrassing to go sit in a glass box and smoke. For someone who is not a smoker, they think it to be foolish.

The same we can apply to sex also. We are addicted, but when we take up serving Krsna, and then gradually our interest changes from enjoying the body to enjoying serving. Instead of taking – enjoying the body means taking for our senses – instead of taking for our senses, we now become very active in satisfying the senses of Krsna.

Srila Prabhupada wrote a letter where he explains to Kirtananda, ‘You please worship the deity and when you make the deity very beautiful, then you will forget everything about the beauty of the material world.’ 

The beauty of the material world cannot satisfy the heart. So, we are not proposing a life of giving up. We are not proposing a life of giving up mundane pleasure; that is not our focus. We are proposing a life of embracing spiritual pleasure.

Source: https://www.kksblog.com/2019/10/higher-taste-2/