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75th DIAMOND JUBLIEE VYASA POOJA 2019

By Chetan Kumar & Neeta Maheshwary
 
As a member of ISKCON Prahla desh, lastly I received a formal invitation to attend an annual offering of special honor pooja known as 75th Diamond Jubilee Vyasa Pooja at the Library Hall, Swami Narayan Temple on 15th September 2019 (Sunday). I made up my mind to attend the event with my family.
 
I never had a clear understanding what it was or could be, in fact the “Vyasa Pooja” title itself being self explanatory
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Prayers request for HG Virabahu Das

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Hare Krishna,

We are requesting your prayers and well-wishes for a senior disciple of Srila Prabhupada, His Grace Virabahu Das, an initiating ISKCON Guru and member of the Governing Body of Commissioners (GBC). Virabahu Prabhu recently had an elective surgery at the Bhaktivedanta Hospital in Mumbai, India. Kindly keep him in your prayers to the Lord so he can have a speedy recovery and can return to his devotional service very soon. Thank you very much.
Yours in service, Sangita Devi Dasi

Sourc

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Westerners, in general, take too much for granted and are not careful enough in social dealings.
Modern Western society conditions one to artificially come too close, too soon without respect for one another. 
Modern Western society respects nothing beyond fame, money and sexual prowess; it is the antithesis of Vaishnava culture.
Prematurely judging others and jumping to conclusions are other negative traits found almost everywhere, which most of us must admit. These traits, born of the mode

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The Bhaktivedanta Research Centre in Kolkata was happy to welcome HG Ananga Mohan Prabhu from the ISKCON Kolkata Temple at the library. He was fascinated to see the rare collection of the library especially the handwritten songbook of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. He was notified about the recent projects in which he showed great interest. Overall he was very satisfied to see the progress of the BRC.

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Source: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=79920

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The original ISKCON “ CONSTITUTION OF ASSOCIATION ” prepared by HDGSP and signed by Himself as acharya and co-signed by Rayama-Mukunda-Ravindra Swarup and Jagganath. Notice that all of the statements expounded by HDGSP became realized by HDGSP’s Supreme Purity and Spiritual Power and Knowlege.

CONSTITUTION OP ASSOCIATION
1. The name of the society is The International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
2. The headquarters of the Society are located at Radhakrishna Temple, 26 Second Avenue, New

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Seeing Krsna by Kadamba Kanana Swami

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Everybody close your eyes and take a deep breath – breath in and then breath out. Now, in your mind, go to your favourite place, wherever that is. Now in that place, try your best to see Krsna. Do you see Krsna? Maybe, maybe not. This is difficult. What we see is usually a picture of Krsna that we may have seen of Krsna, maybe even in the form of His deity. That is what we try to remember when we see Krsna. So we have this mental image of Krsna, but can we actually see Him? Can we see His face

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The Power and Glory of the Holy Name

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I heard a wonderful talk in which Srila Prabhupada and Srimad-Bhagavatam glorified the chanting of the holy names. I was present when Srila Prabhupada gave the talk at the Ardha-kumbha-mela in Allahabad on January 31, 1971.

Srila Prabhupada said, “The conclusion is:

na vai sa narakam yati
neksito yama-kinkaraih
yady apy amangalo martyo
visnu-loke mahiyate
 [SB 6.2.48]

[‘Because this very confidential historical narration has the potency to vanquish all sinful reactions, one who hears or describ

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Life's Tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late." - Benjamin Franklin

As I carefully see the mirror and observe my face, I notice a few strands of white hair in my chin area. Time has passing is a known fact but never expected it to pass so soon. It appears that I recently passed out of college and entered my youth but I now realize that I am almost 36 years old and a grown up adult, at least physiologically. I also realize that there is a long way to go till I become a psycholog
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Working together: Unity in diversity

We can't demand to have the association of only pure devotees in this material world, especially if we are not pure devotees ourselves. We can read in Srila Prabhupada Lilamrta that Srila Prabhupada was not rejecting anybody. Even the lowest person, if he had some sincerity, some propensity to do some service, however small, Srila Prabhupada would accept and engage him. He would "fan the spark" until it became a big fire, capable of incinerating one's contaminations. Similarly, we should also se

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Small miracles to change ourselves and our surroundings.

The King & a Human Skull 

How do the eyes of the wise see through the ears?

A king was once presented with a human skull as a gift. He assembled his political advisers — whom he paid exorbitantly — and enquired from them whether the person whom the skull belonged to, was a fool or an intellectual. If they could not give a suitable answer he would have them killed. How does one tell based only on bodily remains? However the most intelligent of

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Bhagavad-gita As It Is - 18.72

TEXT 72
kaccid etac chrutam partha
tvayaikagrena cetasa
kaccid ajnana-sammohah
pranastas te dhananjaya
 
SYNONYMS
kaccit—whether; etat—this; srutam—heard; partha—O son of Prtha; tvaya—by you; ekagrena—with full attention; cetasa—by the mind; kaccit—whether; ajnana—ignorant; sammohah—illusion; pranastah—dispelled; te—of you; dhananjaya—O conqueror of wealth (Arjuna).
 
TRANSLATION
O conqueror of wealth, Arjuna, have you heard this attentively with your mind? And are your illusions and ignorance now dispell
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Life lessons : Five minutes to wisdom 2

1. Tantalus

Tantalus was the son of Zeus. He invited the gods to a banquet and served them the dismembered body of his own son, Pelops; when the gods discovered the trick, they punished Tantalus and restored Pelops to life.

He was punished by being “tantalised” with hunger and thirst in Tartarus: he was immersed up to his neck in water, but when he bent to drink it all drained away; luscious fruit hung on trees above him, but when he reached for it the winds blew the branches beyond his reach.

Our

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Meeting Tony by Bhaktimarga Swami

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Achuta is a young father originally from Tamil Nadu, who is now living in Qatar. He is exploring Canada as a place to move to.  He happily accepted my proposal for a one hour walk.  We did so in a drizzle, in a nearby neighbourhood of the temple/ashram.  We both chatted and compared notes, so to speak, on the differences between the three cultures of India, the Middle East and Canada.  Our conclusion was that while there are variant ways to do things, in the end, everyone is often quite the s
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Most devotees (and people in general) are married, grhastha, and further, the grhastha asrama is the basis of all other asramas—and of the lives of our children. So we want the grhastha asrama to be as strong as possible. Recently, from December 18 to 20, we held a Couples’ Weekend in Durban, facilitated by Arcana-siddhi and her husband Karnamrita. All the participants felt enlivened by the experience. Here is my address on the opening day:

When I first joined ISKCON in 1969, we all were quit

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Bhagavad-gita As It Is - 18.71

TEXT 71
sraddhavan anasuyas ca
srnuyad api yo narah
so 'pi muktah subhal lokan
prapnuyat punya-karmanam
 
SYNONYMS
sraddhavan—faithful; anasuyah ca—and not envious; srnuyat—does hear; api—certainly; yah—who; narah—man; sah api—he also; muktah—being liberated; subhan—auspicious; lokan—planets; prapnuyat—attains; punya-karmanam—of the past.
 
TRANSLATION
And one who listens with faith and without envy becomes free from sinful reaction and attains to the planets where the pious dwell.
 
PURPORT
In the 67th vers
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The King of Knowledge by Srila Prabhupada came to me at a pivotal time. I got the book without wanting it. My friend wanted to share it with me after he perused it. I had no idea – I was “book distributed!”

I was skeptical but on my friend’s recommendation, I studied the book for at least a month. The King of Knowledge held ample flawless arguments. At the time I was busy trying recklessly to fill my life with mind altering substances and such. The “mind altering substances and such” did not f

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By Madhava Smullen
 

Fifty years ago, in 1969, three couples – Mukunda and Janaki, Gurudas and Yamuna, and Shyamasundara and Malati – were inspired by Srila Prabhupada to start the first ISKCON center in London.

At the time, London was the music capital of the world, with bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Cream, and Moody Blues conquering global pop culture.

The devotees knew what they had to do to make an impact, and they approached it fearlessly. Befriending The Beatles,

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By Madhava Smullen

 A Francophone division of the Mayapur Institute has launched and will begin teaching courses online and onsite in the French language in mid January 2020. 

The landmark effort is the first time a Bhakti Sastri degree has been offered in French on such a worldwide scale. With twenty-nine countries where French is the official language, it’s an important step.

While previous efforts were not approved by ISKCON leaders, the new project was sanctioned by the GBC and leaders o

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Duty Has To Be Done by Giriraj Swami

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“O son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.” —Bhagavad-gita 2.14

In Los Angeles, on November 29, 1968, speaking on this verse, Srila Prabhupada said, “Now the question is that ‘Yes, I understand that my grandfather is spirit soul and this body i

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The Unbroken Chain by Nashvin Gangaram

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What is the point of happiness if it doesn’t last forever? What is the key to everlasting happiness? Srimad Bhagavatam, the ripened fruit of Vedic knowledge, offers us a solution: “Any person who seriously desires real happiness must seek a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation.” The guru gives knowledge of real happiness. Since the founding of ISKCON fifty years ago, over 75 000 disciples have been initiated within ISKCON, beginning their spiritual journey to eternal

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