![Shyamasundar: He always made you feel like you were his friend. He listened to what you had to say and took your puniest achievements. First of all he overlooked all your glaring outrages and took your puniest achievements and made them very big. I’ll never forget this. I had worked hard on this Bury Place temple (in the photo) for several months, doing all the building and carpentry. In those days there were only three or four of us and a couple of new English boys. So it was pretty much a one-man job. I was going to stick to the standard I set out when I designed it, even though Prabhupada was in England pushing me day and night to finish this thing so that he could get on with things. But he respected the fact that I wanted it done just right because we were going to be a central showplace in which what was then the most happening city in the world, and right on the main street. And the people who saw it should see something perfect. I was determined to make it that way. Prabhupada went along with that for months, despite his discomfort. One day after it was finished and the Deities had been inaugurated, we took a walk in the park one morning. We were walking back, and Prabhupada looked at the front of the temple. He looked it up and down, and he motioned to either Gurudas or Mukunda and said, “You shall put a plaque on the front of this door (he showed with his cane beside the door where he wanted the plaque), a brass plaque, and you will put on that plaque, ‘This temple has been built by the hard labor of Shyamasundar das Adhikary.’” [Breaks up crying.] We took this idea of just doing anything we wanted for Krishna, no matter how outrageous it might appear to anyone else. It was very common for us to think that there was no such thing as an impossible situation, and we just did everything. And that is a good case in point, because without any building permits we gutted this whole building in downtown London, took out the first-floor story, and made it two stories high. That is, until the building inspectors arrived, Mr. Savage and Mr. Black, typical English bureaucrats. They had seen that we had already done it, so they were quite willing to go that extra mile to help us out a little. But we had to comply with certain regulations. And these steel beams were going to be very expensive. They had to be fifty or sixty feet long, in one single throw. I-beams of very heavy steel. And somehow we had to get them into the ceiling. And we had no money. So I went to Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and asked him, and he said, “Oh, yes, just have my secretary give you the check.” So he bought them. [Laughs.] Those days we rubbed elbows with those characters, you know. After we lived in John Lennon’s house, we still maintained contact with all the Beatles. We interacted with them whenever we needed something, or when they needed. One day John Lennon called up and asked if I could come and carve a piano for him. Yoko wanted Krishna carved in the music stand in the front of her white piano. The piano was on the ground floor of Apple Studios on Salvo Row, next to the recording studio. It took about a month, and I carved a very nice Krishna in that piano. And during that time Brian Jones had died of the Rolling Stones, and they were breaking in a new guitar player named Mick Taylor. So they had borrowed Apple Studios to bring Mick Taylor up to date on all their songs. So I had live Rolling Stones for a month while I worked. “Hey, you, get off my cloud” over and over. [Laughs.] And we thought nothing of it. This was just an ordinary thing. And Prabhupada made us feel that. He always appreciated going for the top, going for the highest people in realms and spheres of influence to accomplish spreading Krishna consciousness, to accomplish the desire of his spiritual master.](http://41.media.tumblr.com/c9abcd8b1da566c444864e21b4b747f9/tumblr_nwmchaidQk1sbj0vuo1_1280.jpg)
Shyamasundar: He always made you feel like you were his friend. He listened to what you had to say and took your puniest achievements. First of all he overlooked all your glaring outrages and took your puniest achievements and made them very big. I’ll never forget this. I had worked hard on this Bury Place temple (in the photo) for several months, doing all the building and carpentry. In those days there were only three or four of us and a couple of new English boys. So it was pretty much a o
Srila Prabhupada’s grand disciple Srimati Radha Vinodini Devi Dasi passed away yesterday morning at 6:37 AM at the Bhaktivedanta Hospice in Vraja. Please pray for a smooth and auspicious transition for this great soul.
Pious Credits in a Cab
A while ago we reported how one cab driver, Yamaraja das, tries to give Krishna to people while on the job. “I try to influence people in any way possible, while maintaining a respectful distance and without imposing my beliefs on them,” he said. A driver must be careful not be perceived as soliciting his customers in any way. Here are a few more examples of Krishna’s causeless mercy operating on the conditioned souls who think they are merely ordering a cab. A student
For more information, please read the article "Only on the Banks of Mother Ganga"
Today marks Sri Rama-vijaya-dasami (Dasara), the day on which Lord Ramachandra vanquished the powerful tyrant Ravana. As described in Srimad-Bhagavatam (2.7.25):
“When Ravana was engaged in the battle, the trunk of the elephant which carried the king of heaven, Indra, broke in pieces, having collided with the chest of Ravana, and the scattered broken parts illuminated all directions. Ravana therefore felt proud of his prowess and began to loiter in the midst of the fighting soldiers, thinking
When the rising sun appeared in the East, the jewel of the twice-born, Lord Gaurasundara, awakened, and, taking His devotees with Him, He went all over the countryside towns and villages. The mrdangas (khol) resounded "tathai, tathai," and the jhajas [large metal karatalas that look like small cymbals] in that kirtana played in time. Lord Gauranga's golden form slightly trembled in ecstatic love of Godhead, and His footbells jingled. All the devotees chanted the names Mukunda, Madhava, Yadava
HH Lokanath Swami Maharaj gave a very wonderful lecture on "Kirtan and Book Distribution" today 22nd October. This lecture is dedicated to all ISKCON devotees who all are distributing Srila Prabhupad's books for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupad.
https://youtu.be/eBuZPsG77xM
Preaching in Mauritius (Album with photos)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/BDEDYW
Lecture on To Manage the mind regulate the minds diet by HH Chaitanya Charan Prabhu on Oct 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)
To Listen and Download - click here
Lecture on The Science of Consciousness by Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu on 07 Nov 2014 at Carpinteria
(Ravindra Svarupa Dasa received a BA in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1966 and a Ph.D. in Religion from Temple University in 1980.)
To Listen and Download - click here
Lecture on Nobody to Somebody by HG Akuti Mataji on 11 Oct 2015 at ISKCON Alachua
(Bhagavad Gita Chapter 03 Text 27)
(HG Akuti Mataji is a disciple of Srila Prabhupada and the spearhead behind the new Krishna Lunch program at Santa Fe Community College. )
To Listen and Download - click here
Lecture on Feed the Good Starve the Bad by HG Charu Prabhu on Oct 2015
(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.)
To Listen and Download - click here
October 23. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
At Ananda Ashram, Prabhupada met an important contact in a young man named Harvey Cohen. In the future weeks, we will tell how Harvey played a crucial role in increasing Prabhupada’s followers and influencing his move downtown. Harvey was a newcomer to Ananda Ashram and he had difficulty in beginning to practice hatha-yoga. When he arrived at the morning meditation all the mats were taken up, so he picked a spot at the back of the room w
Sunday Harinama in Vrindavan (Album with photos)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/r8G6Ir
A challenge to Kadamba Kanana Swami!
Kartik vows
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 04 October 2009, Durban, South Africa, Lecture)
So, Kartika is the time to tighten up the loose screws, of all the loose ends and to bring it back to the real standard. Kartika, is our chance! It is only one month but of course, after that month, it becomes a habit! Habits are like that. If you do something for one month then it is easy to keep on doing it. So in this way, we can take so much advantage.
I thought my main
By Bhakta Nikhil
Friends, disciples and well-wishers of HH Subhag Swami Maharaj gathered in the holy land of Jaipur to participate in a festival of hearing, chanting and sadhu sanga between the dates of 15th ~ 20th October 2015. This is the 5th annual parikrama Maharaj has been holding in various holy places across India. Jaipur, also known as “Gupta Vrindavan” plays hosts to our Gaudiya Sampradaya’s most cherished deities’: Radha Govindadev and Radha Gopinath. As stated by Maharaj on a n
By Brigid Beatty (Source: http://goo.gl/hel5gQ)
The walking monk kept to the narrow shoulder of Route 85 in Rayburn on Tuesday morning. Trucks roared by and curious motorists occasionally slowed to get a closer look at the 63-year-old man dressed in saffron robes.
Bhaktimarga Swami, a Canadian native and Hare Krishna monk, was headed toward Butler on a journey that began in Boston on Sept. 20. From Butler he plans to head back east to New York City.
“I’m walking for several purposes,” Swami
By Ajamila dasa
Sorry this is a little long but believe me itÍs worth reading it all with a huge ISKCON surprise bonus at the end of the rainbow.
The Krishnanagar Jail Preaching program yesterday, upon the invite of the Superintendent, went surprisingly far better than expected.
The one hour program commenced with 5 male and 4 female ISKCON devotees chanting on a platform with a powerful Durga Festival sound blasting system under a big shade giving tree in the centre of the huge complex t
