Our basic relationship with Krishna is that of the part to the whole: God is great; we're small. He's like the sun, the ocean, the fire. We're like the sun's rays, drops of the ocean, or sparks of that fire. Ultimately, God is the source of our existence, and we're all parts of His energy. As such, we're all meant to serve Him.
The following is my impression of the events of March 15. March 15 began as any other day during the Festival in Mayapur: a sweet and crowded mangala-arati spent wriggling and weaving through crowds of devotees, especially around Nrsimahadeva's altar and during Tulasi-puja. Little did anyone know what was to come
GBC Open Sri Mayapur International School Playground
By Gunacuda Dasi
On Friday 17th February, several GBC members visited Sri Mayapur International School to inaugurate the new playground which they had sponsored. The students were very excited to be given the new outdoor play equipment and basketball court and wanted to thank the donors, especially His Holiness Kavichandra Maharaja who gave a large donation
Anuttama Prabhu on SB 4.23.29 How we are Strengthened
By Anuttama dasa
If you understand and if you have some sense of gratitude to the spiritual master, if we have some little sense of gratitude then we should try to repay that debt. How to repay that debt? Did he say that we have to put ourselves through so much suffering or give so much money or do something we can't do? No. He said that, "Just try to preach as i am doing. Try to help others."
Badrinarayan Prabhu on SB 4.23.27 -Three Ghosts Haunt us!
By Badrinarayan Dasa
So this is the mood of our acarya. One devotee said, "Prabhupada I feel so sorry for these people sometimes." Prabhupada said, "Why just sometimes?" The pure devotee's heart is always like nectar. It is always flowing. So our problems are solved. Trying to enjoy in this material world is petty, pale and pathetic. We have the answer. We have our assurances. We have seen it with our own eyes. We have seen so many devotees transcend very difficult positions what to speak of our founder acarya
ISKCON Leadership Sanga (ILS), in Sridham Mayapur, was held from February 10th to 17th, 2012. The ILS provides an opportunity for GBC members to share with ISKCON's initiating gurus, sannyasis, temple presidents, project leaders, and congregational leaders the process of strategic planning they have undergone and the progress they have achieved
Lakshmi Govinda Das: The spiritual city of Mayapur is expanding. Every year the number of pilgrims are increasing, and with it there is a growing demand for safe and comfortable accommodations within the campus. During the festival season, all the guest houses (inside and outside the temple) are totally occupied and many devotees are left with their booking requests denied
(this blog is recorded on the full page: quick time player needed)
I
I am consciousness eternal
a spiritual spark of Divinity
equipped with all essentials—
no need of happiness outside
not titles, trophies, names, profiles—
instead, blissful awareness of Truth
natural identity and purpose
Spirit cooperator, giver to God—
selfishness isn’t a requirement
with no material necessities to covet—
ignoring soul satisfaction is darkness
the shackles of angry frustration
crushed dreams and dashed hopes
phantasmagoria, the will-of the-wisp
green paper appears valuable
what’s built up, crashes down
still we chase the mirage
betting our future on hallucinations
since material bodies hide our soul.
The Mayapur city, Prabhupada said, would be the fulfillment of the desires of the previous acaryas. The city would grow to a population of fifty thousand and would become the spiritual capital of the world. With its gigantic temple in the center and separate quarters for brahmanas, ksatriyas, vaisyas, and sudras, the city would be a model for all other cities. The day would come when the world’s cities would be ruined, and humanity would take refuge in cities modeled after Mayapur. The development of Mayapur would mark the beginning of a Krsna conscious world. Thus the influence of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu would increase, and His prediction would manifest: "In every town and village My name will be chanted."
As an English major studying literature, Krishna Priya Dasi noticed that many great literary movements throughout history had had their beginnings in writing communities.
TKG Academy Works Hard to Offer the Best of Both Worlds
By Madhava Smullen for ISKCON News on 18 Feb 2012
Bright, smiling children in colorful kurta tops run and sport in their playground at the TKG Academy, nestled in a pecan grove one block from ISKCON Dallas’ Kalachandji’s Palace, temple and restaurant, and four residential streets full of devotees.
Namaste! San Francisco International Airport Introduces Yoga Room
By AP for www.nydailynews.com on 18 Feb 2012
Stressed out by flying? Travelers in Northern California can now find their inner calm in the Yoga Room at San Francisco International Airport. The quiet, dimly lit studio officially opened last week in a former storage room just past the security checkpoint at SFO's Terminal 2.
Alfred Ford (Ambarish Das), an American heir to Ford fortune and the great grandson of legendary businessman Henry Ford, visited the Institute of Leadership Entrepreneurship and Development (iLead) Kolkata campus to interact with the students and teachers.
(this blog is recorded on the full page: quick time player needed) Recently three devotees of Krishna were tragically killed in a car accident near Alachua, Florida, and this short poem was my response. I wanted to wait some time before publishing this, to at least let the grieving process begin for those directly involved. Spiritual philosophy will eventually soothe, but if presented without compassion, and prematurely, it can make healing more difficult in the short term. In spite of our human grief or sadness at such events, in the larger scheme of things, they are meant to help us examine our own mortality, the shortcomings of matter, and the fact that we have to leave behind everything material at death. It is natural that this is easier as we age, and seem to be materially closer to death, but one of these devotees was in his twenties, and newly married. Old means, one will soon die. Thus we can question, since we don’t know who among us will die sooner, who among us is old?
My teacher, Shrila Prabhupada, encouraged us to keep death before us, not in a morbid sense, but in the sense that life can be finished at any moment, with or without specific notice. Therefore, we have to all be serious about our spiritual life by giving it the attention and heart it requires. We don’t want to only have “smasana-vairagya,”or the detachment that may come at a cemetery or place of cremation (or at a funeral). Ideally, to fully live in the present, and for a spiritual purpose, we should have a constant remembrance that any day could be our last in our current body.
Oscars 2012: Mother Dolores Hart, Former Elvis Co-Star, To Walk Red Carpet In Religious Garments
By Correspondent for The Huffington Post on 17 Feb 2012
Nearly 50 years after leaving Tinseltown to become a cloistered Benedictine nun, Mother Dolores Hart, who starred in films alongside the likes of Elvis Presley and Walter Matthau during her acting career, is returning to Hollywood to appear at the Academy Awards next Sunday. And she'll be wearing her religious habit.
By Contributor for The Moscow Times on 17 Feb 2012
A senior official in the Tomsk Prosecutor General's Office says an effort to ban a Hare Krishna book it considers extremist literature will continue despite being recently thrown out of court.
Queen of Britain to Unveil Tapestry at a Harrow School
By Ian Proctor for www.harrowobserver.co.uk on 17 Feb 2012
The Queen will unveil a commemorative tapesty when she visits Krishna-Avanti Primary School on the first day of her Diamond Jubilee tour. It was confirmed in a letter to parents that Britain's first state-funded Hindu primary school, has been chosen to welcome Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh on March 29 for a "community spectacular" stage show.
By Ananda Tirtha das
By Gunacuda Dasi
By Anuttama dasa
By Badrinarayan Dasa
By Lakshman das
By ILS
