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Sahyadri Ksetra is a vedic village community being developed by His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaj at Hebri near Udupi, Mangalore, India.

Nature is God's amazing gift to mankind. God Himself maintains it by generously supplying pristine waters, fresh air, tempered heat and illuminating light. We at Sahyadri Ksetra are convinced that people can become happy and safe only by living under the shelter of God, in harmony with His creation. If you feel inspired to assist us in this endeavor, pl

Hare Krsna

Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada

Sadly, many of us keep convincing ourselves, “Someday I’ll be happy.” We tell ourselves ‘I’ll behappy when I will be a president, when I will be doing so and so service, get a particular mobile phone’ etc. We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, then another, then another, on and on and on we go with our wish list.

Meanwhile, life keeps moving forward. The truth is, there’s no better time to 

Hare Krsna

Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada

Different shifts were assigned for kirtana parties in Srila Prabhupada's room. Hari-sauri volunteered for one such shift and entered Srila Prabhupada's room upstairs on the back section of the roof. Hari-sauri noticed how Srila Prabhupada had grown extremely thin, even since he last saw him. He now appeared like a great ascetic. Srila Prabhupada asked how everything was in Australia, especially the book distribution. Hari-sauri gave his report, outlining some recent arrangements to

Srila Prabhupada's health was poor and Bombay in May was hot. The monsoons would soon come and make things worse. Prabhupada had occasionally talked of travelling to a place better for his health, but nothing definite had ensued. One gentleman suggested Hrsikesa, on the banks of the fast-flowing Ganges river, and Prabhupada took the advice seriously. Within a week, he and his party were situated in the heavenly, idyllic setting. But not for long.

After one week, a vio

Two things in Australia awaited Hari-sauri's urgent attention: the purchasing of the new Sydney temple, and the new farm. A non-returnable 10 per cent deposit had been put down on the new Sydney building; only a few weeks remained for the devotees to come up with the balance of over $160,000. But when Hari-sauri went to see the property, he was shocked. The inside of the building had been gutted, and was a mass of smashed windows, collapsed ceilings and ruined brickwork. A quantity

Later in March, while in Vrndavana, Hari-sauri heard surprising news. After only a short time in Australia, Bali-mardana had proved very unpopular with ISKCON's leaders there. Their substantial complaints were various. After a hasty emergency meeting, they had taken the step of asking Bali-mardana to leave the country.

Hari-sauri flew to Bombay and broke the news to Srila Prabhupada, whose main practical concern was who would take charge in Bali-mardana's place. He sugges

On 5 March, devotees celebrated Gaura Purnima, the holy Appearance Day of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Srila Prabhupada accepted over 200 disciples for first initiation, and awarded second initiation to 100 disciples. Many of the visiting devotees next travelled to Vrndavana for the second half of the festival, but Srila Prabhupada decided to stay in Mayapur to recuperate. After six days of serious illness his health improved, but Srila Prabhupada was still very wea

Camp: Mayapur

Towards evening, Prabhupada's room was packed with devotees, including those from Australia, armed with gifts, happy just to be sitting in Prabhupada's presence. Bali-mardana gave his report on the proposed new Sydney temple. He admitted that although it was in a good location, only minutes from the city centre, and looked good from the outside, it needed considerable work inside.

The conversation turned to farms. Prabhupada stressed to Bali-mardana the economic n

Monday, 14 February 1977 - Mayapur

The anti-cult controversy raged on, especially in Europe and in North America. Devotees continued to keep Prabhupada abreast of the latest developments. Further to Prabhupada's recent comments on brainwashing, Satsvarupa Goswami read Prabhupada an interesting letter from the Indian Brain Research Association, Department of Biochemistry, at the University of Calcutta.

Gentlemen:

Hare Krishna Kirtana Mantra used in meditation, or chanting of Rad

It had been evident from ISKCON's earliest days that Srila Prabhupada desired to establish farming communities. In his seven-point charter drawn up in 1966, Prabhupada mentioned how he wanted the movement "to demonstrate a simple, more natural, way of life". Such a life (and Srila Prabhupada thought of the villages of India, where people lived just as Krsna lived) was most conducive to developing Krsna consciousness.

In his correspondence with the original founding

In January 1977, on a 24-hour train ride from Bombay to Allahabad, Prabhupada responded further to the "anti-cult" furore. As Ramesvara, in mock-debate style, put forward various arguments, Srila Prabhupada enthusiastically dismantled them one by one.

"They claim," Ramesvara said, "that our lifestyle tends to take the devotee and isolate him from the world."

Prabhupada was disarmingly frank. "Yes, we hate to mix with you. No gentleman tries to mix with loafers. Crows will n

The latter half of 1976 had seen the first of a series of major battles with aggressively active "anti-cult" groups in the United States. The Krsna consciousness movement was being lumped-in with other new movements and was being attacked in the courts and press there as a "psychologically dangerous brainwashing cult". Whatever happened in America would more than likely surface later in Australia. Consequently, the Australian devotees kept a careful wa

In the calm, quiet solitude of his room in Honolulu, Prabhupada showed the depths of his realisation on the subject. While working on his Bhaktivedanta purports, he narrated the story of Gajendra the elephant, and his fight with the crocodile in the heavenly planets. The crocodile had attacked the elephant as he bathed in the river. A fight ensued for a considerable period of time, and while the elephant's strength reduced, the crocodile's increased, f

When a letter arrived from Madhudvisa on 20 May 1976, Prabhupada was hopeful. Madhudvisa admitted that he was suffering due to his fallen condition, and felt that he would like to approach spiritual life in a "more straightforward fashion". If Krsna allowed, he said, he would keep chanting and praying. He intimated that hopefully he would be able to see Srila Prabhupada in Los Angeles in a week or so. Srila Prabhupada immediately sent a reply:

My dear M

'The Farm Acarya' -- Australia, 1976-1977

This is the next aspect of Krishna consciousness which I wish to push forward. If I am able to travel again, then I shall visit the farms and make them perfect. On these farms we can demonstrate the full varnasrama system. If these farms become successful, then the whole world will be enveloped by Krishna consciousness.

Srila Prabhupada, from a letter to Hari-sauri.

Madhudvisa Swami appeared well-situated in his new service in New York. It se

Prabhupada rose to depart. Although his quarrelsome sons and daughters in New Zealand certainly needed his association, so did the rest of the world. As he had explained to the press, he had come to New Zealand to encourage his disciples. "They are also trying their best to spread this Krsna consciousness movement," he had said. But he had thousands of other disciples, and they too were waiting for him. Prabhupada had written of his plans to Giriraja in Bombay only one day before.

Tomorrow

Srila Prabhupada's car pulled up outside the airport's sole departure terminal. Prabhupada entered the building and, accompanied by kirtana, walked the full length of the walkway to the international check-in. There he peacefully sat in the old, wood-panelled lounge, with his disciples sitting in a semi-circle at his feet.

In half an hour he would be mounting the escalator for final departure formalities. The atmosphere was tranquil. A few passers-by s

Hari-sauri, assisted by newly-initiated Kalasamvara, completed the final packing. Prabhupada slowly paced, chanting almost inaudibly on his beads. He paused, listening for a moment to the sweet kirtana downstairs lead by Hare Rama on guitar. "Who is that chanting?" he asked. "This is very nice," he added, and sang along softly. Hari-sauri applied saffron-coloured sandalwood paste to Prabhupada's forehead. Then it was time to go.

Kalasamvara: As Srila Prabhupada

In material world nature there are five gross elements: earth, water, air, fire and space.  In different planets there are different atmospheres due to one of these five elements prevailing, and there are different bodies for the living entitites composed of whatever element may be predominant in a particular planet.  We should not think that all planets have the same quality of life,  yet there is uniformity in the sense that these five elements are present in some form or other.  Thus on some