"Dandavats" - 4 new articles
The coming eclipsesBy Patita Pavana das As you read this, the Moon has already entered into an eclipse cycle. This means that the present lunar month ends with an eclipse of the Full Moon in Gemini or Mithuna rashi occurring at 19:21 Greenwich Mean Time, in the last few hours of 2009. How Will the Forthcoming Eclipses Affect You?How Will the Forthcoming Eclipses Affect You? By Patita Pavana das Adhikary Thus Spake Shrila Prabhupada: “In this connection, the darkness occurring before the full moon, the lunar eclipse, can be explained as being another planet, known as Rāhu. According to Vedic astronomy, the Rāhu planet, which is not visible, is accepted. Sometimes the Rāhu planet is visible in the presence of full moonlight. It then appears that this Rāhu planet exists somewhere near the orbit of the moon. The failure of modern moon excursionists may be due to the Rāhu planet. In other words, those who are supposed to be going to the moon may actually be going to this invisible planet Rāhu. Actually, they are not going to the moon but to the planet Rāhu, and after reaching this planet, they come back.” (Shrila Prabhupada’s Shrimad Bhagavatam Purport to SB 4.29.69) ECLIPSE SURPANAKHA—LUNAR ECLIPSE IN GEMINI 31 DEC 2009: As you read this, the Moon has already entered into an eclipse cycle. This means that the present lunar month ends with an eclipse of the Full Moon in Gemini or Mithuna rashi occurring at 19:21 Greenwich Mean Time, in the last few hours of 2009. As a result, even now the orbital path of the Moon is surcharged with static energy that can “cause” weird disasters and sudden global misgivings at any step along the way. Expect to see some screaming headlines and bizarre news stories in the months to follow. This coming New Year’s Eve black-out is a partial eclipse, and therefore it is not of much interest to myopic astronomers and atheistic “scientists” awed by the “marvels of the heavens”. But for Vedic astrologers, Eclipse Surpanakha is a signal of further ongoing Kali Yuga disasters that have been created by a world of five billion tamasic individuals, each one maddened by greed for personal sense gratification for his own dead body. From the point of view of Vedanga Jyotish—when Eclipse Surpanakha is considered in tandem with Eclipse Jagai to follow it in a fortnight (see below)— it is understood that the interest now due on the earth’s collective karmic debt is a serious retribution indeed. Despite glowing smiles from the White House, there is serious cause for concern. It is a common misconception that eclipses effect only those places of the world where their dark paths are visible. True, places where they are visible are prone to suffer reactions regardless of the sign or rashi involved. Still, an eclipse can affect any country of the earth, even places that cannot see it, especially if a particular event occurs in the ruling sign of that country or region. It takes more than gross instruments like telescopes and satellites to measure the subtle influences of an atmosphere surcharged with the hostility of Rahu and the One Hundred Ketus. Eclipse Surpanakha will occur on the full moon night of Narayana-masa or Pausa Purnima. It will be visible in the Eastern Hemisphere which means it will be seen throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, India, and Australia. Since it occurs on New Year’s Eve, it is expected that there will be horror stories for revelers at parties-from-hell on January the first. The lunar event occurs in the sign of Gemini, an air sign, which indicates a likelihood of headlines announcing a higher occurrence of air disasters or bomb blasts than usual. Since eclipses “electrify” the atmosphere with tension, disasters can erupt at any point during the cycle and for weeks following it, and not only on the day of the eclipse. As an example of this, the nakshatra sullied by an eclipse is generally forbidden for yagnas for an entire year following an eclipse. This means that devotees traveling to Mayapur should depart under nakshatras that “allow” for safe journeys. Beginning a journey under ugra (horrific), krura (cruel) or tikshna (sharp) nakshatras is strongly discouraged in the interest of safety. While—even during times of eclipse—the chance of a mishap is relatively small, still the overall effects of a journey begun without the help of a panchang must be taken into consideration. For example, leaving during a cruel nakshatra can “invite” the proximity of thieves, cheats or other unpleasant circumstances that can vex pilgrims. From the worldview, fighting and wars will be intensified in an atmosphere of increased hostility, and there might be an instance of air piracy or hijacking. A big jet may go down. Armed conflicts will spark at higher altitudes, in mountainous regions, such as along the Hindu Kush ranges of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Communication networks will be upset as the web goes down here and there. Disastrous fires, explosions and freak accidents will grab the headlines. Incidents of savage “serial killers” roaming the streets in American cities will increase along with gangland activities. Mob violence will rise from anarchy in places like Africa or Indonesia. Wind storms may strike at random. Conflicts involving armed “liberation” movements for places you’ve never heard of will spring to prominence for a short time. Expect a New Year’s Eve horror story to greet the “new year”. It goes without saying that Jan 1st does not begin a new year. It is an arbitrary date that was randomly picked some few centuries back by the Vatican. A true new year is demonstrated by the movements of the demi-gods Lord Surya, Lord Chandra or even Shri Brihaspati (Jupiter), as established by Shri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, when He created this universe. However, lunar, solar of Jupiterian new years are the subjects of a different essay. Even Shakespeare noted that eclipses foreshadow the fall of the great. Already the eclipse cycle has spurned freakish news stories like the Tiger Woods scandal, the night club fire in Russia that incinerated over a hundred party-goers, or the Chinese school stampede that killed several children. In Africa, Guinea’s dictator was shot in the head in an assassination attempt and Malawi has been rocked by deadly earthquakes. Freakish news from Britain: a convicted sex offender burned his family of seven to death in a house fire and the Queen’s florist drowned her daughter and then herself. There are riots in Iran, huge increases in suicide bombings in Iraq and Pakistan. In Afghanistan, Pres. Obama has promised a nudge of 30,000 more American troops for Afghanistan. THIRTY THOUSAND TROOPS! And it’s going to get worse because vikarma will not be cancelled by additional vikarma, and neither will wars created as a result of slaughter houses go away until the slaughter houses are shut down. Uselessly sacrificing young lives in the pursuit of the unobtainable is no solution. ECLIPSE JAGAI–SOLAR ECLIPSE IN CAPRICORN JAN 15, 2010: Makara Sankranti, the day that the Sun turns from his southern course or dakshinayana and heads north into uttarayana occurs next month on Jan. 14th. Makara translates as “Capricorn”. However, Capricorn is a poor translation by Vedic standards since a makara is not some goat, but is a wondrous creature that is inconceivable by modern so-called “intelligence”. Sankranti means “change” or even “revolution”. Thus, Makara Sankranti is the date when the Sun “changes” from Sagittarius and moves into Capricorn, as well as also turning north. On this day, the shastras tell us, the demi-god of the sun Lord Surya-Narayana turns from the region of the forefathers into the region of the demigods. Therefore the southern movement of the Sun is also called pitrayana and the Sun’s northern movement is also called devayana. Obviously an eclipse at Makara Sankranti magnifies the unwelcome augury, and Eclipse Jagai occurs when the Sun is barely one degree into Capricorn. One degree means the distance the Sun travels in one day, so the eclipse occurs the day after Makara Sankranti. It will be visible throughout Asia, and at one point will last eleven minutes, the longest eclipse predicted for a thousand years. Capricorn is ruled by the greater malefic, Saturn or Shanideva. This year, Saturn (in the sign of Virgo) actually stops moving in the heavens from the 9th till 19th Jan. Hence, the planet of karmic retribution and sweeping social changes will be stopped dead in his tracks at the time of sankranti and the eclipse. Saturn will be just sitting above pouring the results of past accumulative misdeeds upon the great nations of the earth. And Capricorn is also the sign under which America was founded, and is a co-ruler of India. Saturn will be sitting in judgment in Virgo, India’s primary sign. So the picture that emerges from the scene is not a rosy one for either America or India. Regarding America, it should not be forgotten that this “friend of the world” was founded on war. Neither have the unmitigated sins of the country’s savage beginnings been expiated. Just as Roman Polanski, the popular film director now in his seventies, is paying for a crime committed in America thirty years ago, so America’s karmic visitation from past sins is long overdue. “The debts of the father are left to the son,” and the colonial sins of America’s founding fathers have been bequeathed to the world. Since America has grown from atop the slain bodies of the land’s original inhabitants—the slaughtered “Indians” who taught British “pilgrims” how to grow crops and live in their new “free world”—war has been the nation’s fuel that has kept “the land of the free” running for hundreds of years. Considering themselves as free in a fool’s paradise, American slaves to debt sit in huge traffic jams on the way to work. There they sit hypnotized by six-speaker stereos in order to pay off the interest to the banks for the very cars they are locked inside of. We wonder what happens when those banks—and even the companies that made those fancy cars—go bankrupt? We are sure to find out even more on this subject after the two forthcoming eclipses, with the continuing domino effect of corporations and banks becoming swallowed by larger ones in a vicious cycle of ongoing corporate bankruptcy. Eclipses are times when the real leaders of the earth, the demonic elements that operate behind the scenes like unseen giant Rahus, emerge from their smokescreens. With ever grander schemes to increase their endless wars and create more global subservience to artificial financial strategies, they offer ever-fresh promises of economic security in a rehearsed stage-play of pretended compassion for the common American. A generation ago Shrila Prabhupada warned, “It is not democracy, but demon-crazy.” And it is worse now, much worse. America and India are not the only places on earth that will suffer the ravages of Eclipse Jagai with Saturn stalled like a million-ton lead weight overhead. Saturn is the planet of the people. Rioting mass movements that seek to topple third world governments in Africa and Asia will face harsh opposition. The shadowy swath of the eclipse cuts right through Somalia and heads out into the Arabian Sea for the Makdives and Southern India, from where it moves into China. Somalia will reach new levels of lawlessness as seen by the suicide bomber that killed three government ministers last week. India can look forward to tribal rebellions and the border areas will grow increasingly tense. Tantric sadhus will perform black rites and terrorize villages. Random acts of sabotage will again raise their ugly visage in the “free world” and many police forces will be sent into high alert against clandestine plotters. Governments, informed about the terrible situations at hand will continue to sing soft lullabies to their subservient masses through their deputies in the news media, though the public is buying into their sanitized stories less and less. In any battle when there are losers, there are winners. When the battles of Lanka or Kurukshetra began, eclipses tainted the sky overhead. As the outcomes whould prove, these were bad omens for those who stood in opposition to the Supreme Lord, but not for the Lord’s devotees. Therefore, eclipses can have a bright side, too, though we should always keep in mind the dangers they foretell, protecting ourselves by remaining karma-free and transcendental. As devotees, we are not so concerned with the woes governments create for themselves as we are with fixing those woes through hari nama. For Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, an eclipse at the time of His birth not only forced His countrymen to take shelter of the Lord’s holy name, but it foretold that the Supreme Personality of Godhead had now appeared and would reveal Himself as a renunciate. What a beautiful sight to devotees: the very Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself “eclipsed” of His aishwarya or opulence, a beautiful sannyasi armed with only with the weapon of His holy name, the yuga dharma for the Golden Age of Kali Yuga. In this way Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu “eclipsed” the false and erroneous philosophies of mayavadism culminating in absorption, and engaged everyone in the simplest yet highest truth, unalloyed service at the lotus feet of the Divine Couple Shri Shri Radha and Krishna. Shrila Prabhupada writes in the Introduction to his Shrimad Bhagavatam: “So the Lord advented Himself on the Phālgunī Pūrṇimā evening of 1407 Śakābda, and it was by the will of the Lord that there was a lunar eclipse on that evening. During the hours of eclipse it was the custom of the Hindu public to take bath in the Ganges or any other sacred river and chant the Vedic mantras for purification. When Lord Caitanya was born during the lunar eclipse, all India was roaring with the holy sound of Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. These sixteen names of the Lord are mentioned in many Purāṇas and Upaniṣads, and they are described as the Tāraka-brahma nāma of this age. It is recommended in the śāstras that offenseless chanting of these holy names of the Lord can deliver a fallen soul from material bondage. There are innumerable names of the Lord both in India and outside, and all of them are equally good because all of them indicate the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But because these sixteen are especially recommended for this age, people should take advantage of them and follow the path of the great ācāryas who attained success by practicing the rules of the śāstras (revealed scriptures).” Planning a trip? Want to know how the eclipse will affect you? For a prompt answer you can rely on, please contact us: Mithuna Twiins Astrological Services dhimanakrishna@yahoo.comSpiritual Fashions online shopSankarsana das - ( non guru): The Spiritual Fashions shop which is often present at North American ratha-yatras and Festival of India events now has an online shop at spiritualfashions.com We carry a wide variety of devotional t-shirts, hoodies, beads, caps and clothing from India. Spiritual Fashions online shopSpiritual Fashions online shop (submitted by Sankarsana das - non guru): The Spiritual Fashions shop which is often present at North American ratha-yatras and Festival of India events now has an online shop at spiritualfashions.com We carry a wide variety of devotional t-shirts, hoodies, beads, caps and clothing from India. Vrajamandala Padayatra Kartika 2009
The full moon rose into the Vrindavan sky, the rasalila moon, announcing the beginning of Kartika. Devotees had cooked big pots of sweet rice and had left it overnight on the roof for Krishna to enjoy. Vrajamandala Padayatra Kartika 2009Vrajamandala Padayatra Kartika 2009
By Parasuram das - October 3. The full moon rose into the Vrindavan sky, the rasalila moon, announcing the beginning of Kartika. Devotees had cooked big pots of sweet rice and had left it overnight on the roof for Krishna to enjoy. 5:30am devotees were joyfully respecting that divine Prasad. 600 devotees gathered outside Srila Prabhupada’s Samadhi mandir ready to embark on the greatest pilgrimage of all. The Vraja mandala parikrama. A one month trek through the twelve forests of Vraj. Just as we were assembling to leave, the most unexpected thing happened. Thunder and lightening, and down came the rain, it was bucketing down. Everyone ran for cover as the roads turned into rivers. The rain continued but by the afternoon it had eased off a bit and we took to the open road, one bullock cart temple, three kirtan devotees, and two devotees distributing books and prasad. I always feel nervous about going on this adventure, even though this was my 25th time around. We were giving up our M. V. T. apartment, with clean toilets and hot water, for the uncertainties of the padayatra lifestyle in the villages of Vraj. But as soon as you see the brajabasis eagerly running for Srila Prabhupada’s books and Prasad then you know you are doing the right thing. This year we got 40,000 small books from Bombay BBT, each book would be distributed free with a prasada banana. There was nobody on the streets who didn’t want a book and Prasad. The Brajabasis love to read, and each book would be read by not just one person, but by many. By the time we reached Mathura the rain was still falling and the street had turned into a gushing river. I felt I was back on a Ganga safari. The two oxen Ram and Ghynashama were in water up past their knees yet they still managed to pull the padayatra cart. This was all wonderful lila for Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasunder to behold. The mud, the rain, the kirtan, and over 3,500 books had been distributed just on the first day. The first forest we enter is Madhuvan - the Lord appears here as all four yugas. As Narayana to meet Druva, Shatrughna to kill Lavenasura, as Lord Krishna to bring his cows for grazing and drinking water, and as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu who came here at the beginning of His parikrama of Vraj. We arrive at 5:30pm, we position the cart in a suitable place for inviting the villagers for the evening program. In case some people don’t know we’re here I collect about 50 children and go on Harinama of the village. This is always a wonderful experience, by the time we return evening has come and we put on the movies to the delight of the villagers. Most of these villages do not have electricity, so the people have a choice of sitting in the dark or coming to the movies. We get between 1,000 to 2,000 people nightly. The priojector is solar powered and in India there is no shortage of sun. We get enough energy for 3 to 4 movies nightly. When the movie is over the best part begins - madhu kari - we go door to door begging food - rotees - hot milk - subji - pickle. We bring it back to their Lordships and after have a wonderful feast under the peaceful Vrindavan stars. We had a team of 5 devotees, HH Mahavishnu Swami also joined us for a few days. He loved it and has committed himself for the whole parikrama next year. 48,000 small books were distributed this year on the tour, and tonnes of Prasad. This year’s books and Prasad were sponsored by the big hearted devotees of Ilford, East London. Prem Niketan prabhu, Hari Chandra prabhu + friends and family. We are eternally indebted to you. Your servant, Parasuram das 1 Comment posted by dhimana_krishna on December 12th, 2009 What a blissful article! This is the stuff that really makes Shrila Prabhupada’s heart pound for joy. Sankirtan in Vrindavana, books and prasad, with the bulls for a solid month. Krishna ppoured His Yamuna on you to start you off in god fashion. All glories to Shri Parashuram das Prabhu and the wonderful devotees on Vraja Parikerama. Your wretched servant,
Bhaktin Lord Mayor is at it again!
I got a phone call from the Mayor's office a couple of weeks ago expressing how eager she was to partake of some more prasadam and how even more eager she was to introduce her fellow 51 councillors to that prasadam experience! It was also mentioned that this would be an historic event, as never in the history of Dublin City Council has the cuisine been totally vegetarian, a Council that dates back to 1840, 80 odd years before independence from the UK More Recent Articles |
By Parasuram das
By Praghosa DasaClick here to safely unsubscribe now from "Dandavats" or change your subscription or subscribe
Unsubscribe from all current and future newsletters powered by FeedBlitz
| Your requested content delivery powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. +1.978.776.9498 |
Comments • [comment feed]