Dear Devotees,

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!  All glories to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga!
After the special issues on Radha Kund and Govardhana for the first anniversary of the NBS e-magazine, we are resuming to the topics of Srimad Bhagavatams Third Canto. In this issue, the Supreme Lord is arranging the marriage of Kardama and Devahuti. Additionally, a fresh translation from the Mahabharata, in regard to the conversation between Draupadi and Satyabhama, is done for this issue. 

Sri Krishna Kathamrita Bindu is always free from politics and institutional bashing or promotion. Just simply nectarean Krishna Katha! 

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Nityam Bhagavata-sevaya is a Fortnightly E-magazine for serving Srimad Bhagavatam.

Odana Sashti Festival In Rajapur. 
Being in Mayapur and very close to Rajapur, home of Lord Jaganath, Baladeva and Subadhra, we all jumped in a car and went to take part of the festivities that were organized for the very sweet pastime of Odana sashti. This yearly Rajapur festival is a rare opportunity for the devotees to all sit in front of Lord Jaganath and listen to some of his very delightful pastimes this year told by HG Jananivas prabhu.
The weather in Mayapur is very pleasing at that time which gives a break from the intense heat that devotees usually have to tolerate, so it makes it easy and cozy for everyone to join the festivities and peacefully enjoy the narratives of the sweet pastimes. Odana sashti being the first day of winter, all the Mayapur Deities are from that day onward, dresses in winter clothes.
Lord Jaganath,Baladeva and Subadhra, receive special treatment as they are given new starched cloth and beautiful handmade new mukut pieces. Young Mayapur devotees worked hard to shape 26 new mukut pieces to share between Lord Jaganath and his brother Lord Balaram and Subadhra was prowdly wearing a new splendid crown also made with love by young devotee girls. This tradition helps the devotees remember the pastime of Lord Jaganath and his great devotee, Pundarika Vidyanidhi, who once became critical of the Lord’s servants.
“Sri Pundarika Vidyanidhi, a close associate of Lord Chaitanya’s, once upon seeing that the Deities were being offered starched garments, became critical towards the servants of Lord Jagannatha. When Pundarika was thus speaking in this way, Svarupa Damodara tried to explain that the characteristics of the Supreme Lord are beyond the jurisdiction of worldly etiquette, and encouraged Pundarika not relinquish his critical thoughts. Svarup Damodara’s advice fell on deaf ears, so Lord Jagannatha and Balarama enacted the pastime of appearing to Pundarika in a dream that evening and slapping him on his cheeks nonstop, leaving him with red marks on his face. Thus Jagannath destroyed the sinful mentality of criticizing the behavior of the Supreme Lord’s servants by his supreme mercy.”
In the forenoon, sweet graceful Kirtan was lead by HG Narahari Nityananda prabhu which brought about a soft but still festive mood that was ideal for that auspicious day.
And of course the festivities ended with a Prasadam feast which was appreciated and relished by hundreds of pilgrims and devotees.
Lord Jaganath,Baladev and Subadhra Ki Jay

Source: http://m.dandavats.com/?p=17722

BERKELEY, Calif. – An Indian American couple has pledged $4.6 million to establish a Hindu Studies program at the new Center for Dharma Studies in Berkeley, Calif., which was launched Dec. 5.

The Center for Dharma Studies, which will be housed in the Graduate Theological Union near the UC Berkeley campus, is the first of its kind in North America, Prof. Purushottama Bilimoria, assistant director and senior lecturer at the Center, told India-West.

San Francisco, Calif., Bay Area couple Dr. Ajay and Mira Shingal have pledged to create an endowment fund that will create the Mira and AjayShingalCenter for Dharma Studies. The GTU offers a certificate, M.A., and Ph.D. concentrations in Hindu Studies. Seminars in the program examine Hindu theology, classical and modern Hindu literature, Indian philosophy and ethics, Hindu arts, yoga and other facets of the religion.

Ajay Shingal – a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur – said in a press statement announcing the endowment: “I have two kids, they don’t go to the temple without us. I truly believe if we want these temples to survive, our kids have to be very grounded in their religion through education.”

“To me the biggest contribution one can make is the gift of education; I truly believe that the institution we are forming at GTU will be transformative in its impact,” said Shingal, who serves on the Board of Trustees of the Dharma Civilization Foundation.

Mira Shingal – an entrepreneur in the fashion, financial services and hospitality industries – said: “From childhood I have studied Hinduism; have read scriptures; I have been immersed in it; and I appreciate the beauty of this wonderful world of thought and philosophy.”

“In the Hindu community we have not understood the importance of academically studying the faith that we belong to, and producing scholars who are also practitioners who understand the depth and meaning of this great and wonderful legacy that we have. We have not understood the need for accredited scholars that can speak about Hinduism with authority in this country,” she said.

GTU president Dr. Riess Potterveld said: “As you think globally, and culturally, it is clear: here is a massive India with its ancient traditions. How could you study religion and not have them at the table.”

“This gift from Mira and Ajay Shingal enables the Graduate Theological Union to expand the representation of the world’s great religious traditions at this consortium and create a robust and singular place for scholars, students, and the public to engage one another to build deep mutual understanding and promote the common good,” said Potterveld.

Applauding the historic gift, Shiva Bajpai, a renowned historian and president of the Dharma Civilization Foundation, observed: “Our philosophy is ‘the concord, rather than the clash, of civilizations. The GTU is a perfect place for promoting this.”

“We invite the Indo-American community to get engaged with this historic vision and contribute towards its fulfillment,” said Bajpai.

Kalyan Viswanathan, executive vice president of the Dharma Civilization Foundation, who spearheaded the endowment, said: “It is my hope that this gift is a beginning, and that many more members of the wealthy Indian community will follow and make the Center for Dharma studies at GTU a great place for the creation of a community of scholar-practitioners, from many Dharma traditions.”

Source: http://goo.gl/VTnVJM

Gift a Van. Get the mercy of a million books!
Please help us to buy 2 new sankirtan vans and to distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books in Germany.
Dear Devotees and Friends, approaching ISKCON’s 50th anniversary in 2016, we have one very special goal in mind: distributing ONE MILLION Shrila Prabhupada’s books from Simhachalam, our Prahlada Laksmi Narasimhadeva’s temple in Germany. And you could easily be part of it! Simhachalam temple is not only well known for the first Narasimha deity installed in the West, but also for its amazing distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books. Since 1987 till November this year devotees have distributed around 918 000 books from Simhachalam temple!
For two years now our book distribution is on the rise. In 2014 our three sankirtan teams distributed almost 50,000 books! Also the number of our book distributors is increasing now. 
Unfortunately two of our three vans were not willing to be part of Prabhupada’s mission any longer and broke down several times during this year. Some of our book distributors had to spent more time repairing the engines than being active in the book distribution.
Read the entire article here: https://goo.gl/wahoIn

Source: http://m.dandavats.com/?p=17741

By HH Sivarama Swami

Krsi goraksya vanijya. Krsi means ploughing or agriculture and goraksya, cow protection. These are the staples of society, this is what people live on. All living entities subsist on grains. So the ksatriyas may direct and instruct people, the brahmanas may perform their yajnas, but if they don’t eat then giving shelter or instruction is not going to work.

That eating is therefore the most essential aspect of life and this is why the vaisyas and their assistants, the sudras, are so integral that the other castes think that they are the most important people, because it is actually they who are feeding. Of course the vaisyas think that the brahmanas are the most important because they are taking the result of their work and offering it back to the Lord.

Srila Prabhupada said that this very common type of exchange was there but the responsibility of this goraksya, is it the duty of just some people? Some very very exclusive people? Is it the responsibility of all vaisyas, or is it for all grhastas or all devotees?

My proposition is that it is everyone’s responsibility. Just like everyone’s responsibility is chanting Hare Krishna, watering Tulasi devi, reading Bhagavatam. Similarly part of our common dharma is to protect cows. This is something that you see ingrained in communities like Bhaktivedanta Manor, where they have to limit the amount of cows they receive as gifts, and be very careful about the type of food that is offered to the cows, because to a greater or lesser degree all the devotees see the protection of cows as their dharma.

It is everyone’s dharma: the cow is our mother, she gives us milk while all over the rest of the world cows are being butchered, slaughtered, abused, and taken advantage of. Vaisnavas must take it as their responsibility to protect cows. Now, how do you protect cows? Does that mean that you have a cow on your balcony in downtown Singapore? No, that type of cow protection is actually cow abuse. You cannot just keep your own cow.

Cows only give milk if they have calves, which means you have to constantly have calves, which means you have to have a herd, and that is a full time business. So how is it that individuals should protect cows? They should in some way or another be connected to ISKCON’s herds. Srila Prabhupada established cow protection for instance in New Vrindavan, Gita Nagari, or as we have done here in Hungary at New Vraja-dhama. These herds are not the sole responsibility or duty of the local devotees in those places, they are the responsibility of the devotees and congregation of the local country. It is their responsibility to contribute to the cow protection, to donate towards the maintenance of the cow, to come and do some cow seva, and when they come to the temple they should bring some bhoga for the cows, to find out what items are needed by the cowherds. And the cow herds.

Cow protection is everyone’s business, it is everyone’s responsibility. This is being written down as varnasrama dharma. If one does not contribute or participate directly in cow protection then he should know that he is neglecting his dharma, he is neglecting his dharma. In other words he is adharmic.

This is in my view the greater picture of what varnasrama means. Varnasrama doesn’t mean that we simply philosophise about a way of life, but what are the duties of varnas and asramas, what are the duties that are common for all Vaisnavas, for all humans. And one of them is the protection of cows, just like chanting Hare Krsna is a common responsibility as mentioned earlier.

So, similairly, cow protection is a common responsibility for everyone. It doesn’t necessarily always occur to us, and even when it does, it’s difficult to get devotees interested. More difficult than getting devotees to do sankirtan, more difficult than getting someone to cook in the kitchen or be temple president, is to get devotees to be cowherds. To make devotees work with the cows, bulls, and oxen and to make that their life, it is very difficult for devotees to do this. “I am an educated person, I have this diploma and you want me to take care of cows? You want me to do that thing that God does? You want me to do that activity that is going on in the spiritual world?”

And that is what is going on the spiritual world. That is what is going on where we are going–at least where I want to go is where there is only gopas and gopis. The whole social identity is based on go, on cows. There are milkmaids and there are cowherd men. And if we are not willing to be milkmaids and cowherd men here in the material world, if this service is beyond us and we cannot forsee how we are going to dedicate our lives to working with the cows, then were are we going? Then you had better look for somewhere other than Braja. Then you had better go to Dwaraka or Vaikuntha, where that is not a compulsory, integral part of life.

Because in the spiritual world, in Goloka Vrindavan, Krishna goes out every day to tend cows. And yet it is so difficult to get devotees to be cowherders, to see that this is a respectable future, and to stick with that service. Because once again, cow protection is something that we talk about as being against the principles of slaughtering the animals. We don’t believe in slaughtering the cow, we don’t believe in eating the meat of the cow, cows should be properly protected. But, when it comes to properly protecting the cows, are we willing to do it? Are we actually willing to dedicate our lives to taking care of cows? Or are we willing to participate and support the protection of cows?

Therefore, we should ask: “What am I doing for protecting my mother? What am I doing to sustain cow protection in my zone? It is my responsibility, my duty as a Vaisnava. Am I performing my dharmic duty?”

Source: http://m.dandavats.com/?p=17739

Source: https://soundcloud.com/premasindhu/hh-prahladananda-swami-cc-madhya-1054

Drip drops of rain pattered on my windshield. I careened around corners, twisting the steering wheel through the mountain road, lost in thought. Music blasted from the speakers and every so often I tapped my thigh in rhythm. 

Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 03, Chapter 15, Text 44-45 by HG Vijaya Prabhu on 11 Dec 2015 at ISKCON Melbourne

To Listen and Download - click here

Prabhupada: Yes. Three kinds of happinesses, bhoga, tyaga, and bhakti, seva. Bhoga tyaga seva. The karmis, they are after bhoga, sense enjoyment. And the jnanis, they are after another side of negation of sense enjoyment. When one is fed up with sense enjoyment... Just like in your country, the young boys, they are practically fed up with the way of sense enjoyment as their fathers and grandfathers had done. So in the name of tyaga, renunciation, they have taken another kind of sense enjoyment -- intoxication, unrestricted sex. So this is also another sense enjoyment. Bhoga and tyaga. Real enjoyment is devotion. There is a very practical example. Just like if you get all of a sudden a certain amount of money, say, one hundred rupees note lying on the street, if you get... Or lying here. So if you take it, your conscience will beat, because that does not belong to you. You have picked up. You'll always think, "Oh, I am taking somebody's money. Whose money it was? I'm doing some sinful." In this way, your mind will disturb. So that is the taking. And similarly, if you don't take, if you leave it there, then you'll also be disturbed. You'll think, "Somebody has left this money here. So I did not collect it. Somebody will collect it, and he'll take it away. This is not nice." The best thing is that you pick it up and, if you deliver to the person who has lost the money or who has left that money. Three things. The one thing is bhoga, if you take yourself. And if you don't take, that is tyaga. And if you pick it up and deliver to the right person, that is devotion.

Source: http://dinesh-krsna.blogspot.in/2015/12/three-kinds-of-happinesses.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/krsna+(Krishna-Bhakti+Yoga)

In appreciation of the service rendered by his disciples, Srila Prabhupada once said that his guru maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, had sent them to help him in his preaching mission.

One disciple spoke up and said, “But Srila Prabhupada how could that be? We were so sinful before we met you.”

Srila Prabhupada replied, “That is superficial. As soon as you heard the chanting of Hare Krsna you all came running!”

Source:http://www.travelingmonk.com/34203/service-rendered