Here are the latest updates for
- H.G. Sankarshan das Adhikari, USA: Wednesday 22 September 2010--Walking Dog or Walking God--and--Our Friend Says God Does Not Exist
- New Vrindavan, USA: New Vrindaban hosts 9th Annual Vaishnavi Retreat
- New Vrindavan, USA: 24 Hours Kirtan - Kartika
- Sastra Dana, San Diego, USA: A Beautiful Contribution
- ISKCON Melbourne, AU: Daily Class - Bhurijana Prabhu
- Akrura das, Gita Coaching: BE MORE CONSCIOUS
- Bharatavarsa.net: Book distribution seminar: Gujarati brahmacari attracts British Catholic to Krsna
- Kurma dasa, AU: Yamuna Devi Recipe # 5 : Nutritious Whole Grain, Split Pea and Vegetable Soup (Sabji Matar Dal)
- Book Distribution News: Gujarati brahmacari attracts British Catholic to Krsna
- Bharatavarsa.net: Bhakti Vikasa Swami: Krsna, Krsna, Krsna, Krsna, Krsna. This is life.
- H.H. Bhakticharu Swami: Srila Prabhupada Memorial Festival Radhadesh 2010
- Dandavats.com: Money and Varnashrama Culture
- Dandavats.com: Using Loyalty To Srila Prabhupada To deceive Others
- Dandavats.com: Addiction of Social Networking sites
- Dandavats.com: Radhastami at ISKCON Vrindavan
- H.H. Sivarama Swami: Video of initiation talk
- Dandavats.com: New Vrindaban Hosts Ninth Annual Vaishnavi Retreat
- Dandavats.com: Ratha Yatra in Nashville
- Dandavats.com: Radhastami Darshan
- Dandavats.com: Gita Nagari Damodara Rati & AaC News
- Japa Group: I Pray For That Success
- New Vrndavan, USA: From Yamini and Mangalananda
- Madhava Ghosh dasa, New Vrndavan, USA: Tilok For Your Home
- H.H. Bhakticharu Swami: Disappearance Day Srila Haridasa Thakur
- H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami: 78
- H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami: Prabhupada Smaranam
- H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami: Poem from Under Dark Stars
- H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami: Silhouette Outlines
- Gaura Vani, USA: Kartik 24 Hour Kirtan – October 30 – 31, 2010
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Australian News: 'Sanskrit Pronunciation the easy and fun way'
- Australian News: HARINAMA REVOLUTION! Brisbane
- Australian News: Sri Harinama Sankirtan Sydney THURSDAY this week
- Akrura das, Gita Coaching: JUST DO IT!
- H.H. Bhakticharu Swami: London 2010 Janmastami, Radhastami & Srila Prabhupada Memorial Festival
- ISKCON Melbourne, AU: Radhastami 2010 - Initiation photos
- ISKCON Melbourne, AU: Diwali FOLK News Online Edition
- Mayapur Online: Svananda Sukhada Kunja-Srila Bhakti Vinoda Thakur's Residence
- Japa Group: Please Join The Japa Group
- Mayapur Online: Vamandeva appearance day celebrations
- Gouranga TV: Lecture – Prahladananda Swami – SB 9.13.4-5 – Vasistha vs Vishvamitra
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- Srila Prabhupada's Letters
- H.H. Sivarama Swami
- ISKCON Melbourne, AU: 12 Hour Kirtan - Sunday 26th September
- H.H. Bhakticharu Swami: Appearance Day Celebration of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura on 20 Sept. 2010
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In this world everybody wants to love somebody, and if they cannot find anyone to give their love to, they will keep a dog and give their love to him taking him on a walk every morning. But the difficulty in the modern world is that people lack the understanding of where to repose their love so that they and everyone else becomes fully satisfied. In...
On Saturday, October 2, Praladananda devi dasi, a new York-based film producer, will be presenting a seminar in New Vrindaban on film production for amateurs. Her presentation is entitled "How to Film: Making the Best Use of Your Time and Video Equipment."
This seminar will cover a wide spectrum of topics such as how to frame or compose an image; looking at light and shadow; filming from different angles and perspectives; zooming in and out; and the art of interviewing. Praladananda will also discuss the use of sound. Students will be given time to practice what they are shown, and to bring their work back for review and discussion. Bring either a camcorder or zoom-and-shoot digital with video capacity.
Praladananda is currently producing a 60-minute documentary film on New Vrindaban's Palace of Gold. "The Palace of Gold is an architectural wonder," said Praladananda.
"The devotees who built the Palace of Gold had a dream. Very few people make their dreams into reality, but they did it," explained Praladananda. "The devotees who built the Palace of Gold were young, and in general they had no previous training or experience. But they dedicated their lives to building the Palace, and they have left their mark on the world. The Palace will be here for many years to come.
The 24 Hour Kirtan is
October 30 – 31, 2010.
Register Now | Accommodations | Directions | Schedule | Sponsor
Each year the 24 Hour Kirtan gets bigger and better. The first 24 Hour Kirtan in 2007 was just a group of friends coming together to celebrate the chanting of the Maha Mantra. Now in it's fourth year, the 24 Hour Kirtan has become one of the largest kirtan events on the East Coast.
Tickets are $40 per person advanced / $50 at the door.
Student tickets are (with valid ID) $20 advanced / $25 at the door.
Children under 12 are free.
In an effort to maintain the quality of the festival, facilities and meals, the organizers have carefully decided that a ticket for the kirtan is required to cover the costs and expansion of the festival.
The 24 Hour Kirtan is a not-for-profit event which means that after production costs such as travel, meals, sound systems, promotional supplies, accounting etc. are covered, any funds left over will be used towards next year's 24 Hour Kirtan. If there is a considerable amount of left over funds we will donate towards the 24 Hour Kirtan in Vridanvan which needs financial help after the passing of Sri Aindra Prabhu.
You can view our working budget (PDF) to get a sense of what it takes to put on this festival. We will post a Profit & Loss statement after the festival for full financial transparency. If you have any questions about the budget or financial structure, please email us here.
If you need help with registering or coming to the festival, call us at 304-845-9591.
Please note that your registration fees DO NOT include accommodations. To find and book accommodations click here.
The fact of the matter is that our budget is not awfully too fat. It takes about $1,000 a month, or $3,000 a quarter, to run the Sastra Dana program. About $2,500 a quarter is spent for buying books and printing the 16Rounds newspaper. Remaining $500 is spent on printing and mailing the Sastra Dana newsletter, shipping books, gasoline, vehicle maintenance, and renovating and fixing abandoned newspaper racks. Since we don’t have big enough a budget to allow us to buy new racks, we find abandoned ones, restore them, put our logo on, and use them to distribute our newspaper. A new outdoor plastic rack costs about $80 to $90. We spend $10 to $20 a rack to renovate one.
About a month ago, Mohan Shyam Prabhu, a devotee from Long Beach, saved for us two abandoned racks he found at the Trader Joe’s, the place where he works. He also told us of a newspaper company that went out of business more than six months ago and whose racks were still sitting abandoned in the streets of Long Beach. All we needed to do is to get a van, drive to Long Beach, and pick as many racks as we could fit in our vehicle.
Pavamana Prabhu, a devotee from San Diego, took a day off from work and drove us to Long Beach. After driving and searching through the streets of Long Beach we were able to find seventeen new racks. Unfortunately we were not able to fit more than thirteen racks in the van. All of the racks were beautiful, clean, and the perfect size for our 16Rounds publication. Now there are thirteen more racks engaged in Krishna’s, rather than maya’s, service.
Dear reader, if you live in Long Beach, or anywhere else in Southern California, please let us know if you find any abandoned newspaper racks. We’d be thrilled to engage them in propagating Krishna conscious messages.
This is what most abandoned racks look like.
Mohan Shyam Prabhu with his two sons.
Beautiful, newly acquired newspaper racks.
Putting racks in storage before they will get renovated.
Pavamana's van filled with newspaper racks.
Pavamana's van filled with newspaper racks.
Pavamana Prabhu
CC Antya 11 - Lila Kirtana on Disappearance of Haridas Thakore.
Start today to pay closer attention to the things you do.
Be more conscious of how you think and act.
Think about your tasks carefully before you begin.
Identify your most important tasks for a day and concentrate on them single-mindedly.
I was distributing books in Northampton (in the Midlands of England) and stopped a young man who seemed quite well-natured. He had grown up in a Catholic family, but he introduced himself as a 21-year-old searcher looking deeply into Buddhism. I showed him our new VEDA book and told him that the article on Buddhism and KC may interest him. He had heard of the Vedas and was happy to take it away, along with a couple of other books, and generously gave a £20 donation.
Two weeks later, I decided to stop in Northampton on my way back to the Manor. About midday I bumped into this young man again. He smiled when he saw me and immediately came over to say that he had read all the books. And he'd read VEDA three times. It was exactly what he was looking for.
He was hungry for more knowledge, so I took him over to my trolley, gave him another three books, and took his contact details.
A week later I e-mailed him. He'd read the new books and was interested in taking up the process. I made a trip to Northampton to meet him. We decided to sit down in Costa Coffee and have a chat. I was ready to introduce him to chanting, but he was one step ahead. He explained how he had obtained some beads and was already chanting every day (he found information online). He had photocopied pictures out of the books and had made an altar at home. Now he offers some water and fruits to Krishna every day.
He recently visited the Manor and loved it. Another soul on the journey home, thanks to the potency of Srila Prabhupada's books.
Your servant Sutapa das (Text D:3582769) -------------------------------------------
------- End of Forwarded Message ------
More serialising of recipes by my cooking guru, Yamuna Devi. Before attempting to cook any of her recipes, make sure you are aware of the difference between US measures and Australian/metric measures. See below*
This is a quick pressure-cooker soup that is warming, nutritious and very welcome on cold winter days. You can vary this recipe by substituting Parsnips, green beans, zucchini or corn for any of the suggested vegetables. A nice stew can be obtained by adding large, even-sized pieces of potato or winter squash. (You will need to increase the amount of water a bit when cooking these starchy vegetables).
Try your own favourite combinations according to the season and time of day. You can get whole grains and split peas at most health food stores and co-ops, so the next time you are out shopping pick up a pound (455g) each of whole barley, wheat, rye, brown rice, millet and split peas. At the rate of only 1-2 table spoons (15-30 ml) per pot of soup, you will be able to stretch these wholesome ingredients over many meals. This soup is a meal in itself, and it is also goes especially well with buttered steamed Rice, a bowl of home made Yogurt and a tossed green salad.
Grain and dal soaking time: 2 hours, Preparation time (after assembling ingredients): 5 minutes, Cooking time: 25 minutes in a pressure cooker, Serves: 6 to 8.
2 tablespoons each barley, wheat, rye, brown rice, wild rice, millet and split peas, 7 cups (1.75 liters) water, 1 medium-sized carrot scraped and cut into ¼ -inch (6 mm) rounds, 1 medium-sized celery stalk and leaves, sliced, 1 large firm ripe tomato, cut into 8 pieces 1 generous handful of spinach (about 1 ounce/30 g), washed, dried, stemmed and coarsely chopped, 1 teaspoon scraped, finely shredded or minced fresh ginger root, 1 teaspoon minced seeded hot green chili (or as desired), 1 teaspoon turmeric, 2 teaspoons ground coriander, 1½ teaspoons salt, 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley or coarsely chopped coriander, 4 tablespoons ghee or vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds.
Mix together the grains and split peas and soak in hot water for 2 hours.
Combine them with the remaining ingredients (except the salt, parsley or coriander, 2 tablespoons of the ghee or vegetable oil and the cumin seeds) in a 6-quart/liter pressure cooker.
Cover and cook under pressure for 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the pressure to drop. Uncover and stir in the salt and herb.
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of ghee or vegetable oil over moderate heat in a small saucepan. When it is hot, add the cumin seeds and fry until they are brown. Pour them into the soup and cover immediately. Allow the seasonings to soak into the hot dal for 1-2 minutes. Stir and serve.
*Note that since Yamuna wrote her recipes using US measurements, the weights are in US with metric in brackets.
More importantly, her tablespoons are US (15ml) whereas Australian/metric tablespoons are 20ml. So if you follow these recipes using metric measures, your tablespoons should be scant.
Similarly, the US cup is 240ml as distinct from the Australian/metric 250ml cup. The same scant measuring should thus apply to Australian/metric cup users.
The teaspoon is a universal 5ml.
I was distributing books in Northampton (in the Midlands of England) and stopped a young man who seemed quite well-natured. He had grown up in a Catholic family, but he introduced himself as a 21-year-old searcher looking deeply into Buddhism. I showed him our new VEDA book and told him that the article on Buddhism and KC may interest him. He had heard of the Vedas and was happy to take it away, along with a couple of other books, and generously gave a £20 donation.
Two weeks later, I decided to stop in Northampton on my way back to the Manor. About midday I bumped into this young man again. He smiled when he saw me and immediately came over to say that he had read all the books. And he'd read VEDA three times. It was exactly what he was looking for.
He was hungry for more knowledge, so I took him over to my trolley, gave him another three books, and took his contact details.
A week later I e-mailed him. He'd read the new books and was interested in taking up the process. I made a trip to Northampton to meet him. We decided to sit down in Costa Coffee and have a chat. I was ready to introduce him to chanting, but he was one step ahead. He explained how he had obtained some beads and was already chanting every day (he found information online). He had photocopied pictures out of the books and had made an altar at home. Now he offers some water and fruits to Krishna every day.
He recently visited the Manor and loved it. Another soul on the journey home, thanks to the potency of Srila Prabhupada's books.
Your servant Sutapa das (Text D:3582769) -------------------------------------------
------- End of Forwarded Message ------
So about Krsna, it is called krsna-katha, topics about Krsna. The topics or the instruction given by Krsna is the Bhagavad-gita, and the topics about the activities of Krsna is Srimad-Bhagavatam. So some way or other, let us always discuss about Krsna. That should be the life of Krsna conscious people. So this is life of Krsna, worshiping Krsna in the temple, to sell Krsna's books, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita, to think of Krsna -- Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna -- to eat krsna-prasadam, to take all risk for Krsna, to do work for Krsna, as Arjuna, to fight for Krsna. He did not like to fight, but for Krsna's sake he fought. So fight for Krsna, work for Krsna, think of Krsna, eat krsna-prasadam, talk of Krsna, read for Krsna. So Krsna, Krsna, Krsna, Krsna, Krsna. This is life. This is Krsna consciousness.
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.1.1-5 -- Melbourne, June 26, 1974
Dear Prabhus, please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to Guru Maharaja. In Radhadesh Belgium we had an attractive Srila Prabhupada Memorial Festival. With a small group of disciples, we started to read out our vyasa-puja offerings, which was followed by a guru puja. Then more devotees came to watch [...]
By Dhanesvara Das
Money, that ubiquitous substance that everyone the world over pursues to fulfill their desires, is rather young in the history of the world—a mere 2,600 years or so old. Prior to that there was no such thing as we now understand it anywhere on this planet
