For those who have never been to Vrindavan, the monkeys in this small town roam wild and free. They are fearless and will try at any moment to get something to eat by stealing bags or other items right from peoples hands. They will enter houses and help themselves. They are most famous here for taking glasses right off peoples faces, jumping up to the nearest rooftop to chew until they receive some fruit in exchange.
The mind is often compared to a monkey, jumping here and there looking for s
re is no division between the name and the named”(abhinatvaṁ nāma-nāmīnaḥ). This is certainly the Gauḍīya conclusion, but it does not mean that the name is just a sound with no meaning. It means that the the sound of the word is intrinsic to and inseparable from its meaning.
If the true Gauḍīya attitude is that name of Krishna has no meaning or is “beyond meaning,” why would the founding ācārya of the Gauḍīya school, Śrī Jīva Goswāmī, explain the meaning of the name in Tattva-sandarbha?
Looking at some of the headlines for last couple of days, I wonder if India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sincere desire, or a difficult-to-materialize dream, will ever come true. After Digital India, Make in India, Clean India, Skill India, and a number of other projects, the PM has now launched the Startup India project. Understandably, his intention is to elevate India’s image on the global map, and although everyone agrees that he is a man with vision, and I also believe he has a vision,
Lecture on Glory of Srimad Bhagavatam and Vritrasura by Romapada Swami on 01 June 2015 at Detroit
(Romapada Swami‘s first encounter with Krishna consciousness came in Buffalo, in the shape of a lecture at the State University of New York in 1969. The lecturer was His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The following year, Romapada Swami joined the movement in Boston and was initiated in 1971.)
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Lecture on Experiences and Realizations by HH Giriraj Swami on 03 Jan 2016 at Dallas
(Giriraj Swami was born Glenn Phillip Teton in the home of a respected Chicago lawyer. He met His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder-acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.)
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Lecture on Accepting Reversals in Brahmajis Spirit of Surrender by HH Radhanath Swami on 15 Jan 2016 at ISKCON Chowpatty
(Radhanath Swami was born in Chicago in 1950. Radhanath Swami's childhood name was Richard Slavin; Radhanath Swami was given the name Radhanath Swami after he entered the renounced order. In his teenage years)
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Tattva Darsi means to see the absolute truth. We get our knowledge from the Vedic literatures. Our mission includes traveling to different schools and festivals in North America and providing books on yoga & meditation. Our home base is in Los Angeles, California. We are a group of monks who live together in a monastery. We have a temple open to the general public with spiritual music (kirtan), philosophy, and vegetarian feasts. Our society is the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
apareyam itas tv anyāṁ
prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām
jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho
yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat [Bg. 7.5]
[Besides these, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature.]
If we closely observe the situation in the world it is full of exploitation: the ‘haves’ exploiting ‘have-nots’, strong exploiting the weak, masculine gender exploiting the female gender, human species explo
Question: From my understanding of your class on the nine stages of BHAKTI, it could take a number of years before one got any experiential taste of the practice.
Answer: No.
It’s true that it usually takes years (or lifetimes) to come to the stage ofruci (characterized by a taste for the beauty and joy of sādhana-bhakti), but nonetheless one gets small fragments and crumbs of ruci even from the very outset, the very beginning of being involved with Krishna-bhakti.
In fact, śraddhā itself (the
By HH Kavicandra Swami
There seems to be a lot of confusion about what it means to give fifty percent. For most householders their income does not allow them to live and to give 50% to the temple.
The following from a purport by Srila Prabhupada might help to clear the air. I have inserted a few comments using [ ] to indentify them. The stress is on preaching, not what our our financial condition is. By finding some way to preach bhakti will be the most pleasing to guru and KRSNA. One need not
By Hari Narayana Das
Batam is the largest city in the Riau Islands Province of Indonesia, across the Strait of Singapore, the third-largest city in Sumatra region and the eighth largest city in Indonesia. Located 20 km off Singapore‘s south coast, it is an industrial boomtown, an emerging transport hub and part of a free trade zone the Indonesia–Malaysia–Singapore Growth Triangle.
His Grace Samudrasena das (leader of ISKCON Batam) under the guidance of His Holiness Subhag Swami Maharaj organ
Lecture on Rising Above Goodness by Charu Prabhu in 2016
(Charu Das was initiated by Srila Prabhupada in 1970. He has been President, variously, of the Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Berkeley (USA) temples.)
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Lecture on Pastimes of Lord Jagannath by Bhakti Vinoda Swami on 03 Jan 2016
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Lecture on Spiritual Determination by HG Tamohara Dasa on 03 Jan 2016 at ISKCON Alachua
(Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02, Text 41)
(His Grace Tamohara Dasa has been involved in ISKCON leadership for many years. In addition to services of temple president, BBT manager and director of two gurukulas, he served as the director of the ISKCON Child Protection Office,He has been a GBC member since 2006 and currently serves on the executive committee of the international GBC.)
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Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 03, Chapter 16, Text 21 by HG Narayani Mataji at ISKCON Melbourne
(Her Grace Narayani Devi Dasi joined ISKCON in Boston in 1970. She has done many services for Srila Prabhupada including Deity worship in Calcutta temple, traveling book distribution in Western India for the Bombay temple, and teaching Bhakti Sastri, Bhakti Vaibhava and Bhaktivedanta courses in the VIHE in Vrndavana. )
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My trip to India brought a few surprises. It’s been some years since I was last there and things are changing fast. The cities are still the same bustling mess of teeming madness, much like anywhere else I suppose, but it’s in the outlying rural areas that I was most shocked. In my many visits to India I’ve always headed straight for a small village called Vrindavan, the most sacred place for Hindus where Krishna appeared some 5000 years ago. Last time there I remember taking pleasant rickshaw
Harinama inTel Aviv, Israel (5 min video)
Srila Prabhupada: If one somehow or other chants the Hare Krishna mantra, he will immediately be purified, just as one who takes a potent medicine will feel its effects, regardless of whether he takes it knowingly or unknowingly. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 6.2.19 Purport)
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The first question often asked about the Bhagavad-gita is why was it spoken on a battlefield? Despite a common view that religion is a major cause of war, the general view is that the two should remain separate. Religion or spirituality should result in peace not conflict. If one’s spiritual practises bring about the bloodthirsty desire to eliminate the followers of some other faith then they must be suspect. That would surely seem to make sense.
Nevertheless the Gita did arise from a war, the
