June 21, 2007
Bhaktin Sol, Spain : Sunday Feast - Brahmin Initiation by Param Gati Swami
Murari Govinda and Krsna Lila Prabhus got brahmin initiation last Sunday. HH Param Gati Swami Maharaja did the fire sacrifice. Many devotees gathered to bless the couple. It was a very auspicious afternoon. You have here, as ussual, many many pictures hehehe 
Everything ready…
Maharaja gave a beautiful lecture…
Getting the brahmin thread…
Getting everything ready for the fire sacrifice…
The audience…
The fire… the mantras…
Offering the bananas…
The bliss… ans smoke…
Jaya Srila Prabhupada…!
The kirtan…
And prasadam…
It was a wonderful Sunday
ys, Sol
technorati tags:paramgatiswami, harekrishna, brahmininitiation, firesacrifice, sundayfeast, malaga
Bhaktin Sol, Spain : More Harinam in Malaga, this time with Param Gati Swami
Yes, Maharaja came to Malaga for a few days and he blessed us with His association. This are the pictures of Saturday’s Harinam..
Murari Govinda Prabhu, the official film maker of Malaga Yatra…
Uttara Mataji preaching to Muslims and Krsna Lila Mataji dancing happily…
…and here with her husband, exemplary Grihasthas… and Jivatatva Prabhu, always spreading the Holy Name…
…
I took these pictures for my Indian friends This is a typical Western Bride…
We crossed paths with one Catholic procession…
Uttara, Hemma Gauri and Draupadi Matajis… my inspiration…
People on the street…
On my way back home…
They also offer incense
That’s all I hope you liked them.
ys, Sol
technorati tags:harinam, malaga, harekrishna, paramgatiswamimaharaja
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1968 June 21 : "Yes, they can go out everyday int...
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1969 June 21 : "I am glad the Beatles have showed...
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969
Candidasa dasa : Body kaputt (and healed again)
Two weeks after my maha-long flight my body started malfunctioning. Digestion went down the drain, stomach wound itself up in pain and PhD work showed no gain. This if fairly normal for me. Two weeks after some damage to the body I get the delayed reaction. However, Phil thought his preemptive treatment should have prevented this from happening this time.
So, I emailed Dr Phil and asked for advice. His advice: fast for a day or two to give the digestion system a break, take loads of the clay and slippery elm powder to coat and heal the colon and drink loads of Aloe Vera juice to soothe the digestion and add some more healing power to the mix.
It worked. In a few days I was (almost) back to normal. See here for more of the miracle of Aloe Vera and how to Harvest Fresh Aloe Vera Gel.
by candidas das at June 21, 2007 03:31 PM
Madhava Ghosh dasa : Crossculturalization
While Hindus coming to America have found themselves being Westernized, Hinduism is also having an effect on America.
” With Britney going to a Hindu temple, karma on NBC, and yoga everywhere, Hinduism–or something like it–is hot in pop-culture.
” Throw another ingredient in the American spirituality blender.
“Pop culture is veering into Hinduism–sort of. Call it a Hindu-esque sampling of the flavor, images and style of a 6,000-year-old faith but with no actual theology involved.
” “This is how the culture manages everything,” says Luis Gonzalez-Reimann, who teaches Southeast Asian studies and religious studies at the University of California-Berkeley. “Remember Dharma & Greg?”
“That 1997 sitcom featured a free-spirited gal, named Dharma by her hippie parents. Forget the Hindu idea of dharma as a way of living that leads to spiritual advancement. It just sounded flip.
“The latest sign of infatuation with the Hindu-esque is NBC’s new Thursday night hit “My Name Is Earl.”
“It starts with a mangled take on the concept of karma as the low-life main character tries to reverse a lifetime of scamming and stealing by undoing a life list of misdeeds.
That’s a slick, quick notion of karma, rather than a true reflection of the Hindu idea of action and reaction as the “neutral, self-perpetuating law of the inner cosmos,” says Hindu monk Sannyasin Arumugaswami, editor of Hinduism Today magazine…”
Britney Spears Visits Malibu Temple
| “Call it cosmopolitan faith or crossover loyalty, Britney Spear paid a visit to the Hindu temple in Malibu recently – all the way from Kabblah order. With her four-month-old son Sean Preston tucked in her arms, she silently took part in the lengthy temple rituals. |
“Apart from darshan of the deity, the other things that impressed the popstar were the regular food offerings in the temple – Puligere and Sadam…”
(an aside — there is a Malibu Hindu temple? Why does that strike me as ironic on so many levels?)
(another aside — Sanjaya was a contestant on American Idol who became a cultural phenomenon. More Americans vote for American Idol contestants than vote in the Presidential election)
Sanjaya’s Mom Talks, Discusses Hare Krishna
” “This story is very significant to the Indian community,” says Jillian Rechi, or Jayaradhe as she was known in the Hare Krishna movement a decade ago.
“The story is about her children Shyamali and Sanjaya Malakar who became famous overnight, thanks to the talent contest American Idol.
“Both Shyamali (Rosaria Malakar) and Sanjaya (Joseph Malakar) embraced their Indian cultural roots.”
“Recchi, who spent over two months recently with her 17-year-old son in Hollywood, was often joined by daughter Shyamali, and on one occasion her former husband Vasudeva Malakar, who left his construction business and chores at the Hare Krishna temple in Seattle, to be with his children.
“Since her divorce nearly a decade ago, Recchi, who since remarried, raised the children mostly on her own. She says she has not been a member of the Hare Krishna congregation for many years but the Indian spirituality is deeply ingrained in her and her children.
” “I consider the Hare Krishna way of life to be my spiritual foundation,” said Recchi, who met her future husband Vasudeva while she was a devotee at the Seattle Hare Krishna Temple 21 years ago. “I do not live in the temple though.”…”
Sanjaya’s a Hit at White House Correspondents’ Dinner
by Madhava Gosh at June 21, 2007 12:48 PM
H.H. Sivarama Swami : 21 Jun: NVD
Download 8 MB
by Editor at June 21, 2007 11:54 AM
H.H. Sivarama Swami : 21 Jun: Mysteries
No, the subject of the podcast today isn’t “mysteries,” but its content is a mystery to this editor, who is at a facility where I can’t download and listen to it, only post it — enjoy 
Download 4.4 MB
by Editor at June 21, 2007 11:37 AM
Tri-yuga das, AU : Urban Yoga Core Values
- Spiritual Friendship
- The Pursuit of Truth
- Growth and Purification
- Living to Serve
Here are some of the ideas that go with each of these values:
Spiritual Friendship
- Saddhu Sanga: friends on the path of Truth.
- Life change takes place in the context of genuine community.
- People don’t let people influence them in the absence of a relationship of trust.
- The growth of the Krihsna Consciousness movement means to bring more people into the community of devotees. The quality of the relationships within the community greatly influences whether or not new people will want to join.
- Healthy community will grow, naturally...
- True community provides Accountability, Belonging, and Care (ABC)
- Qualities of tolerance, acceptance, forgiveness and patience are essential within any human community.
- Taking a journey with others might take a little longer than a journey alone, but it is much more fulfilling and fun in the long run.
- Krishna Consciousness is the pursuit of the Absolute Truth.
- Self-realisation is all about seeking and assimilating truth into our outlook and lifestyle.
- To a sincere person, a truth, even if hard to swallow, is preferable to an illusion, however comfortable.
- Honesty and authenticity are both essential qualities here.
- It is the unwanted ‘stuff’ in our own hearts and minds that give us trouble wherever we go. No point in blaming the people and world around us because we can’t change them. Instead, let's take responsibility for our own growth and purification and we’ll see our capacity for peace, happiness and fulfilling relationships with others blossom.
- Progress in spiritual life means to uproot unwanted habits, destructive patterns of thought, and doomed desires from the mind and heart.
- Revelation about the nature of the spiritual life flows freely into the mind once the obstacles and impurities are cleared.
- “Pure love for Krishna is eternally established in the hearts of the living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, this love naturally awakens.” CC Madhya 22.107
- Thus at Urban Yoga, we encourage each other to commit to cultivating spiritual realisation, the refinement of character, and the constant effort to improve the quality of our devotional service.
- The essence of the spiritual transformation is to change the question you ask from: “What’s in it for me?” to “How can I serve?”
- True fulfilment and lasting achievement come to those who learn how to serve.
- Krishna Conscious self-realisation means to understand ourselves as spirit souls: eternal servants of Krishna, and to act on that realisation.
by triyuga@gmail.com at June 21, 2007 11:25 AM
Tri-yuga das, AU : Association and Guidance: 2 essential keys for effective preaching
ISKCON Communications, USA : NY Ratha Yatra Coverage: India Post
Wednesday, 06.20.2007, 03:19am (GMT-7)
Today, the British Empire has come and gone, but Ratha Yatra rolls down some of the most famous streets in the Western world. Case in point: on Saturday, June 9, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) presented their jubilant annual Ratha Yatra (Festival of the Chariots) parade down Fifth Avenue.
Modeled after the original Ratha Yatra held in the seaside holy city of Puri, the New York City version of this event featured a procession of three 40-foot high traditional Indian chariots - pulled by hand by Krishna devotees and guests.
The custom built chariots, bearing sacred images of Lord Krishna, were festooned with colorful canopies, flower garlands, and other decorations by a team of hundreds of devotee volunteers from the Hare Krishna temple in Brooklyn, New York. "This festival brings the East and West together," said Pragnesh Surti, an architect and festival volunteer from Queens."It is a demonstration of universal peace, goodwill, and the equality of all in the eyes of God."Like many of the young volunteers helping to keep the parade running smoothly, Surti is a second-generation Hindu-American who grew up attending the Hare Krishna temple. He credited ISKCON with connecting him to his cultural and spiritual roots."Being a part of ISKCON has helped me to understand and better appreciate the amazing gift that I was given," he said.
"Now I am trying to do my part to share this gift with others - Indian, American, white, black, or brown." From 2pm until 7pm the celebration continued with the Festival of India, a traveling exhibition of India's spirituality and culture. Washington Square Park morphed into a traditional Indian mela, with performances by professional artists and local community groups. Western-born Krishna devotee Anapayini Dasi and her Bhakti-kalalayam Dance School presented a bharat-natyam dance ballet on the ten incarnations of Vishnu, while the East-West School of Dance portrayed Krishna's famous dances with the gopis of Vrindavan.
The show-stealer, however, was a multi-ethnic local cast performing their take on The Age of Kali, a Bengali classic. The drama, which depicted personified Sin and her agents being defeated by the power of Lord Krishna's holy name, had the audience of over one hundred adults and children spellbound. Along with the stage show, display booths allowed festival-goers to get their hands on traditional Indian handicrafts and books on bhakti-yoga, and approximately ten thousand visitors were treated to a complimentary multi-course vegetarian feast.
"The festival celebrates the beauty of Eastern spirituality encountering 21st century New York City." said Vineet Chander, a communications director with ISKCON.The Festival of the Chariots is modeled after the ancient festival of Ratha Yatra, one of the most important yearly events in the calendar of the Hindu faith. This festival is especially sacred to Vaishnavas (devotees of Lord Krishna).In the sea-side holy city of Jagannath Puri, every summer, at the beginning of the monsoon season, the Deity is taken out of the temple amidst great fanfare, and placed on bright and colorful chariots.
Almost a million worshippers throng to the city and pull the chariots with love and devotion, accompanied by joyful music, religious chants, and dancing. In 1976 A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the worldwide Hare Krishna Movement, inaugurated the New York City version of this ancient Indian parade. Since then, it has been celebrated annually here and has become a New York summer tradition.
This festival blends the splendor of a millennia-old celebration with the excitement of a parade down New York's world famous Fifth Avenue. This event draws thousands of people of various walks of life from all over the world, bringing the best of the East and West together in a demonstration of universal peace, harmony and goodwill.
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1970 June 21 : "A Spiritual Master is always libe...
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1970 June 21 : "By the grace of Krsna I was born ...
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1971 June 21 : "I just arrived in Moscow. We are ...
Prabhupada Letters :: 1971
Dandavats.com : Message for Kesava Krsna dasa
Hi. This is the qmail-send program at telkomsa.net.
I’m afraid I wasn’t able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I’ve given up. Sorry [...]
Sita-pati dasa : On Impregnating Someone Else's Wife...
I gave class at the local temple on this subject the other morning. Srimad Bhagavatam 9.14 contains the story of Soma's kidnapping the wife of Brhaspati and impregnating her.
I discussed the difference between the treatment of this issue in the Bhagavatam and the Manu-samhita. There wasn't really enough time to develop that theme, but we introduced it at least. Prahlad made a couple of comments, and we closed on a good note.
Here's the class if you'd like to hear it:
- Impregnating Other's Wives mp3, 21MB
And here's the video that I mentioned in the class, showing how impregnating other people's wives is a common occurrence - common enough to appear in popular comedy, universal history, and civil legal code.
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1972 June 21 : "There must always be good will an...
1972 June 21 : "There must always be good will and cooperation amongst yourselves. I want that our place shall be the model for all the world to emulate and respect as the perfect example of a Krishna Conscious community."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972
by letters at June 21, 2007 07:41 AM
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1972 June 21 : "The regulative principles are our...
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972
by letters at June 21, 2007 07:40 AM
ISKCON Melbourne : Tasty food tempts prisoners to stay in Indian jail
Inmates at a prison in southern India are eating so well that many are reluctant to leave while other convicted criminals are trying to move in, a newspaper said Thursday. The Parappana Agrahara prison in Bangalore is crowded with 4700 inmates, more than twice its capacity, because small-time criminals are refusing to apply for bail, according to the Bangalore Mirror.
Juvenile offenders are also overstating their age to qualify as adults and enter the facility, the newspaper added. The reason is the healthy food served by ISKCON, or the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, a Hindu evangelist organisation, said the paper, whose reporters visited the facility.
"When we are getting tasty, nutritious food three times a day here, why
should we go out and commit crimes," said prisoner Raja Reddy, who has
been arrested 20 times in 30 years for theft, robbery and burglary.
I was tempted to put this in the Humour department.
by Aniruddha at June 21, 2007 07:21 AM
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1973 June 21 : "Why are you giving spiritual name...
Prabhupada Letters :: 1973
by letters at June 21, 2007 06:20 AM
Utah Krishnas : Hanging in the High Desert
ISKCON Melbourne : Daily Class - Gangesvara Prabhu
by Nanda Mandira Dasa at June 21, 2007 12:18 AM
June 20, 2007
H.H. Bhakticharu Swami : Conversation with Tapapunj Prabhu
Click here to download (duration: 29m filesize: 10mb)
(Right click the link and choose either “save link as” or “save Target as”
by Vinod-bihari das at June 20, 2007 10:51 PM
Kurma dasa : Feedback
The Open Letter to the Dalai Lama has elicited some interesting feedback. It's there, buried in the COMMENTS that are posted next to the letter.
I've reproduced the latest exchange here for easy reading:
Kachoe writes:
Dear Norm,
In the service of true peace, I should think we would not judge how
others eat, but pray they all have sufficient nourishment that pleases them;
since all sentient beings have value, I myself think equal harm is done to
sentient beings in the harvesting of vegetarian food, as well; it is a part of
the suffering imposed upon us in this cyclical existence, that we must eat and
that the food choices we make inevitably harm other sentient beings of all
kinds.
It doesn't seem to me to be a good thing to insist others choose to
behave and believe as we do, within the law, of course, but it seems right to
allow them their choices as a matter of conscience, which helps them continue
along the path of personal growth. As a practicing Mahayana Buddhist, the last
thing I would undertake is to correct or criticize His Holiness' eating habits,
or to criticize any Sangha or begrudge any one the nourishment he or she might
choose.
Norm Phelps replies:
Dear Kachoe,
The questions you raise are good ones, and I pondered them long
and hard before deciding to write the open letter to the Dalai Lama. I finally
reached the following conclusions:
1) The issue is not "how others eat," but the
the simple fact that meat cannot be obtained without killing an innocent
sentient being. The proper focus for a follower of the blessed Buddhadharma is
not on us and our eating preferences, but on the suffering and death that are
intrinsic to animal flesh. The First Precept "Do Not Kill" is universally
understood to apply to animals as well as human beings.
Every time the Dalai
Lama (or anyone else) eats meat, he is killing a mother being and violating the
First Precept. As the Buddha said, "If no one ate the meat, no one would kill
the animal." The Mahayana Scriptures quote the Buddha numerous times
unequivocally condemning all meat eating. If someone preferred to obtain sexual
satisfaction by rape, incest, or child molestation, all Buddhists would condemn
that as wrong. No one would suggest that "The last thing I would undertake is
to . . . criticize any Sangha [member] or begrudge any one the sexual
fulfillment he or she might choose." We would all recognize that the issue is
the victim, not the perpetrator.
Likewise with eating human flesh. The issue is
the suffering and death of the victim, not the "nutritional choices" of the
flesh eater. Acording to the Mahayana teaching, all sentient beings have at one
time been our mother; eating meat is, in a very real sense, eating the flesh of
your mother. It is a form of cannibalism and explicitly condemned as such by
the Buddha. We do not have a right to make personal choices that inflict
suffering and death on innocent beings. It is as simple as that.
2) It is
factually inaccurate to say that "equal harm is done to sentient beings in the
harvesting of vegetarian food." Animals are very inefficient producers of
protein. It takes many more acres (roughly 10 times as many by many estimates)
of grain to feed a meat eater than it takes to feed a vegan.
Therefore, a meat
diet kills roughly 10 times as many sentient beings as a vegan diet, not
counting the animals (some 48 billion of them worldwide every year) who are
killed deliberately for their flesh. We cannot live a perfectly harmless life
in this imperfect world. But our goal as Buddhists should always be to live as
close to harmlessly as possible. The fact that we must inevitably kill some
sentient beings accidentally in the production of grains, fruits, and
vegetables is not a valid reason to kill far more sentient beings for the sake
of food we do not need to live long, healthy lives, i.e. for the sake of the
very kind of craving that Buddhist practice is intended to help us overcome.
This is why Buddhists are forbidden to be butchers or to raise animals for
sale, but are not forbidden to be grain and vegetable farmers. The fact that
some people will inevitably die accidentally in automobile accidents is not an
excuse for deliberately running down pedestrians. Killing is a far more
grievous offense than criticizing someone for killing.
I feel that I would be
committing a far worse sin if were to condone by my silence the killing of 48
billion sentient beings every year for food than the sin I may be commiting by
criticizing the Dalai Lama for eating food derived from murder.
3) The law has
nothing to do with Buddhist morality. The Precepts do not say, "Do anything
that is legal." They specify what we as Buddhists and moral human beings may
not do. And at the top of the list is "Do not kill," whether the killing is is
legal or not.
by Kurma at June 20, 2007 10:51 PM
Gauranga Kishore das - USA : New Vrindaban Wildlife
While I was away last weekend the swans had four babies. What do you call a baby swan?
One of things I really love about New Vrindaban is all the wildlife.
On any given day just take a walk and you can see:
Cows
deer,
peacocks,
swans,
ducks,
geese,
lots of other little birds whose names I don't know,
groundhogs,
muskrats,
possums,
raccoons,
rabbits,
occasionally foxes,
turtles,
fish,
snakes,
frogs,
And of hundreds of varieties of living entities in grass, herb, bush, creeper, and tree bodies.
Of course we also have cats and dogs as well. It is bonafide because in Goloka Vrindaban Krishna has a pet dog, but I don't think his dog eats the other animals like Nityodita Prabhu's, actually we need dogs to eat the groundhogs and other pesky critters that decimate the gardens.
And there are also some very unique Homo Sapien Sapien Apalachis specimens in the area.
by Gauranga Kishore Das at June 20, 2007 09:44 PM
Gouranga TV : Param Gati Swami: “Jaya Radha Madhava”
Centro Cultural Hare Krishna de Itaipu, em 24/03/2007.
by admin at June 20, 2007 09:13 PM
Gouranga TV : Jaya Radha Madhava
HH Shri Jayapaka Swami performing kirtan during his visit at ISKCON Berkely
by admin at June 20, 2007 09:10 PM
Gouranga TV : HH Jayapataka Swami
HH Jayapataka Swami at ISKCON Sacramento
by admin at June 20, 2007 09:06 PM
Gouranga TV : Kirtan night Radhadesh
Kirtan with Kadamba Kanana Swami
by admin at June 20, 2007 09:04 PM
Gouranga TV : Vyasa Puja Kirtan 2006
Kadamba Kanana Swami Vyasa Puja 2006, Simhachalam
by admin at June 20, 2007 09:00 PM
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1966 June 20 :
"Tritiya. One artist has drawn a ...
"Tritiya. One artist has drawn a picture of Sri Sri Radha Krishna. So I have hung over the present Lord Chaitanya's picture. It is looking nice. There was meeting: sixteen persons attended and the contribution was $9.00, book collection $1.25."
Prabhupada Journal :: 1966
by letters at June 20, 2007 06:12 PM
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1968 June 20 : "I am simply remembering your face...
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968
by letters at June 20, 2007 06:12 PM
Mayapur Online : Upgrade Your Life: Systematic Sastric Study in the Holy Dham
Gauranga Kishore das - USA : Rainbow Gathering Krishna Camp Update
On the way to the Friday evening program at Carnegie Mellon I saw a white station wagon in front of me, the back was plastered with bumper stickers promoting such noble causes as the environment and world peace, and then in the midst of these stickers I spotted the beautiful lotus face of Lord Jagannath. He was obviously a rainbow family member.
I pulled up next to Him and rolled down the window, He greeted us with a very enthusiastic "Hare Krishna! Hey Are you guys going to be at the gathering."
Unfortunately I had to reply "No."
"Oh man, no Krishna's at the gathering this year."
He was very disappointed that we were not going to be there but not as disappointed as I am.
Due to a variety of reasons we unfortunately will not be able to make it this year. Nitai Prabhu who has done a lot in previous years was not able to help this year, Balaramachandra Prabhu was also busy serving Radhanatha Maharaj, and Caitanya Prabhu has become the unofficial temple president of New Vrindaban. That leaves me, who am completely useless. I wanted to go by myself but Chaitanya Prabhu wouldn't let me. He is my authority now so I have to very humbly obey him.
Radhanath Maharaj wanted us all to go but somehow it was not possible for us. Sometimes you have to cut your losses and make a strategic retreat from the front lines, live to fight another day, regroup and consolidate for another attack.
I would really like to thank all those who helped by donating to Krishna Camp this year:
Anonymous Donor $500
Devakinandana Prabhu $108
Reza Abhari$108
Anonymous $108
Tara Raj Put $108
We collected a total of $932.
Our sincere gratitude to everyone that helped out.
Although we won't make it to the national gathering, we will still use the money for Krishna Camp outreach activities. Our plan is to attend local regional gathering which will be in nearby Pennsylvania around the end of August.
I think that is a reasonable comprise for us. It is doable for us to attend the local regional and in that way we can, at least to some degree, maintain our Krishna camp momentum. Our plan is to use the funds collected for the regional gathering. In order to do the national gathering properly we would have need $3,000-5,000 but with the money we collected we will be able to have a very nice camp at a regional gathering.
by Gauranga Kishore Das at June 20, 2007 03:57 PM
Gauranga Kishore das - USA : Radhanath Swami at the Rainbow Gathering
Radhanath Swami, affectionately known as the Rainbow Swami, performs kirtan at a rainbow gathering sometime in the 1990's.
by Gauranga Kishore Das at June 20, 2007 03:27 PM
The true aim of education must be seen as the direct realization of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- Srila Prabhupada
by Editor at June 20, 2007 03:24 PM
H.H. Sivarama Swami : Panel’s Nod Sparks Debate
SYDNEY: A multicultural commission’s view that Sikh schoolchildren have the right to carry the ‘kirpan’ - the dagger that is among the five items of faith that Sikhs are supposed to wear - has sparked off an intense debate in the Australian state of Victoria.
Responding to demands from some Sikh families that their children be allowed to wear the ‘kirpan’ to school, the Victorian Multicultural Commission’s said the students should have the right to do so.
The ‘kirpan’, up to 15 cm long, is one of the five items of faith that represents the ideals of Sikhism.
“The dagger is an important article of faith. Some children wear them safely under clothes,” commission chairperson George Lekakis said.
Lekakis said safety issues could be addressed in consultation with the community, Herald Sun reported.
But the president of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals, Brian Burgess, said the ‘kirpan’ could be used as a weapon.
“I would not support this in any way, shape or form,” he said. “It’s not appropriate that something that can be used as a weapon is brought into school.
But Victorian Sikh Association president Kerpal Singh Marne said the ‘kirpan’ was one of five articles of faith baptised Sikhs were to carry at all times.
It was not considered a weapon, he said, describing it as a blunt version of a scout knife.
Sikh Interfaith Council of Victoria president Gurdarshan Singh Gill said a minority of Sikh children were baptised and carried the ‘kirpan’ for religious, not violent, reasons.
“He or she is taught to respect people of all faiths, therefore there is no reason for any concern,” he said.
A Victorian department of education spokesperson said wearing a ‘kirpan’ had not been an issue of concern, but compromises could be made.
“In some instances, the ‘kirpan’ can be represented in an alternative way — as a miniature pendant,” she said.
Last month, a prominent Sikh association in neighbouring New Zealand had told a parliamentary committee hearing submissions on the country’s new aviation security legislation bill that it fears its community members could be targeted if changes are made to New Zealand’s security legislation.
The association argued that aviation security staff needed to be educated about the Sikh religion so they understood that the ‘kirpan’ was a religious symbol, not a weapon.
Earlier this year, concerns were raised about airport security after a group of Sikh priests were allowed to board an Air New Zealand flight carrying ‘kirpans’
by Editor at June 20, 2007 03:21 PM
Bhakta Chris, New Vrndavan, USA : Turning The Material Into The Spiritual
For those in and out of the know, here is a very interesting piece about the process of turning material foodstuffs into spiritualized prasadam (the mercy of the Lord.
Here is a link to the original post, from www.gopala.org. The full article is below
The phenomenon of something changing from material to spiritual is an extraordinary one, but it is something we as devotees are involved in daily—often several times a day. It happens when prasadam (unoffered food) becoming prasadam, or food sanctified by the Lord.
When I was a new devotee in Montreal, we arranged a program that was to be given on campus at McGill University. The leaflet advertising the program read, “See matter transformed into spirit before your very eyes.” That title certainly drew interest from a lot of people.
During the program, the temple president was giving the presentation, and he was leading up to this point. Finally he said, “OK, now it’s going to happen. You are going to see spirit manifest before your very eyes.”
The students were sitting on the edge of their seats. The plate of unoffered food, which was the feast for that day, was brought in and placed in front of a picture of Panca-tattva (Lord Chaitanya and His four main associates). A devotee then bowed down, rang the bell, and uttered some mantras.
Finally he stood and declared, “Here it is! We brought in ordinary food, and now it’s transformed into spiritual substance.”
And before anyone could challenge, he said, “The proof will be that you eat it now and see the effect that it has.”
As Krishna says, pratyakshavagamam dharmyam: “The principle of religion is understood by direct experience.” (Bhagavad-gita 9.2), or in this case, the proof is certainly in the tasting. Those who have tasted Krishna’s prasadam know that it has extraordinary potency, and eating it is a very different experience from eating food that isn’t offered to the Lord with love and devotion.
So when does prasadam become prasadam? When it is offered, certainly. But for an offering to be successful, it must be accepted. When Krishna accepts what we offer to Him, it becomes prasadam. The word prasadam means “mercy,” and in the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krishna says, prasade sarva-duhkhanam hanir asyopajayate: “Receiving the mercy of the Lord destroys all misery.” Therefore, when we eat (or, as we say, honor) prasadam, we feel elated. prasadam destroys the results of our past sinful activities. Rupa Goswami says it makes us feel “very auspicious.”
And what is it that is really being accepted? Is it the foods itself? Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita (9.26),
patram pushpam phalam toyam
yo me bhaktya prayacchati
tad aham bhakty-upahritam
ashnami prayatatmanah
“If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water, I will accept it.” He says, “I accept the bhakti.” You may offer a leaf, a flower, fruit, milk, or ghee-cooked preparations, but the devotion is what carries those preparations to Krishna, and that’s what makes Him inclined to accept it. Sri Ishopanishad (Mantra 5) tells us, tad dure tad v antike: although Krishna is very far away, He is also very close. So wherever we are when we offer something to Krishna, devotion brings Him right to us.
We should recognize, however, that not all offerings are on the same level; they depend on the nature of the devotee. Although there are many ways to categorize devotees, in this case we may consider three types: motivated, pure, and love-saturated devotees. Consequently, their offerings will fall into one of these three categories.
The Motivated Offering
A motivated offering is when something is offered to Krishna with the idea that some material benefit will come in return, such as liberation from material suffering: “If I give this to Krishna, I’ll be prosperous, I’ll be healthy, my children will find suitable spouses,” and so on. Or someone might desire to be free from suffering, or to recover from an illness—this is offering with motivation. But even that motivated offering can be done in two ways. If it is done through the guru-parampara, the succession of gurus, then Krishna will accept it, because pure devotees are very merciful, and to elevate motivated devotees they beseech Krishna to accept their meager offerings. In other words, it is the purity of the devotees in the guru-parampara that transforms the impure offering into a pure offering. If a motivated person just makes an offering whimsically, however, not through a guru-parampara, then the offering doesn’t become prasadam but remains prasadam. Yet still such offerings have value in the sense that the person is thinking, “At least I am offering this to Krishna.”
Of course, whatever way people think of Krishna is beneficial. Akama, sarva-kama, moksha-kama: without material desires, full of material desires, or desiring liberation. In each case they become gradually purified. But unless Krishna exercises some extraordinary mercy, He doesn’t accept food offered with ulterior motives. Yasyaprasadan na gatih kuto ‘pi: “Without the grace of the spiritual master, one cannot make any advancement.” (Gurvashtaka 8th verse) Krishna won’t accept something unless it comes through the guru-parampara.
An interesting question often arises regarding congregation members or new devotees who are not initiated but who are making offerings: Are the offerings prasadam or prasadam? In this case we should consider the potency of the disciplic succession. The disciplic succession is not restricted to initiated devotees. If someone receives an instruction from an authorized Vaishnava to offer food, then Krishna will accept their offering. Krishna won’t reject their sincere approach, because such persons are, in effect, accepting the guru-parampara even though they have not yet gone through the process of diksha.
The Pure Offering
The second type of offering is the pure offering, when a devotee offers something to Krishna to please Him. A devotee has no selfish motives; he only wants please the Lord. Therefore at home he offers food to a picture, to a deity, to a shalagrama-shila. And in the temple, pure-hearted pujaris try to please Gaura-Nitai and Radha-Krishna. But even in this category there are two types of offerings: regulated and spontaneous. Regulated offerings are done out of duty, following all the rules and regulations. The other also involves the devotee doing everything just right, but out of a spontaneous attachment to the Lord. Such a devotee has a certain degree of affection, and the dominant thought is not one of obligation—”I will do this because I’ve been instructed to by guru and shastra.” Yet by doing things according to guru and shastra, devotees awaken their natural attraction to Krishna and perform spontaneous acts of devotion out of affection. This affection is a little different from mature love, spiritual love, but it is genuine. Still, both these pure offerings have to be made through the guru-parampara.
The prasadam is also different in this category. When you offer something to Krishna out of duty, He accepts it out of duty. He feels duty-bound. In the Bhagavad-gita (3.24) Krishna says, “If I didn’t follow the rules and regulations, then other people would be misled.” Krishna is acting out of duty. But Krishna considers that of all the devotees who are surrendered to Him, the one who is offering things to Him with affection is most dear to Him. Consequently, Krishna reciprocates in kind: He responds with loving affection toward that devotee.
Naturally the question arises, Are there different kinds of prasadam? And the answer, then, is yes. Krishna says, ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamyaham: “As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly.” (Bg. 4.11) According to the quality and quantity of devotion with which one makes an offering to Krishna, that offering proportionately becomes prasadam. It is interesting to note that a devotee’s ability to taste prasadam will also be in proportion to his or her ability to offer prasadam. In other words, devotees will taste the spiritual nature of prasadam in the same degree they are manifesting devotion in the offering.
The Offering in Pure Love
The third kind of offering is that which is done with pure love. When devotees come to the stage of loving devotion, Krishna directly accepts offerings from their hands, and He reciprocates with them in kind. Loving devotion is that which is exhibited by Krishna’s eternal associates in the spiritual world, where He is directly engaged in tasting all the types of love His devotees offer.
So what is it that’s different, and how is it that prasadam becomes spiritual? The food looks the same before and after the offering, but what actually happens is that Krishna reciprocates with the devotion of the devotee by manifesting His svarupa-shakti, or His daivi-prakriti, His internal spiritual potency, to the degree that the devotee allows. By “allows” I mean to the degree the devotee wants, or to the degree that he manifests a quality and quantity of devotional service. When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was in Jagannatha Puri and tasted Jagannatha prasadam, He became overwhelmed by the ecstatic taste of the prasadam. He glorified the prasadam and could directly taste the saliva of Krishna’s lotus lips mixed in with the food. He went on to glorify the effect of the touch of Krishna’s lips.
This is what happens when someone in loving devotion tastes food that has been offered to the Lord. And in this case, no doubt, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s ability to taste the potency of the prasadam exceeds that of the brahmanas who offered it to Lord Jagannatha. But, still, that prasadam is Krishna’s internal potency. It is non-different from Krishna, and it is dynamic. A loving devotee may taste more of the spiritual potency present in prasadam than was originally manifest to the pujari who offered it.
We may also consider the examples of Prahlada Maharaja and Mirabai: Both were given poison to drink, but because of their great loving devotion, the poison was transformed into nectar and had no effect. Why is that? Because both poison and nutritious food are part of the relativity of this material world. But when we offer something with love to Krishna, then Krishna’s sac-cid-ananda potency manifests in that food. In this way, poison becomes as much prasadam as a pakora does.
Offering Our Lives
We shouldn’t think, however, that an “offering” is simply the prasadam or food we offer to Krishna. Devotees make their entire life an offering:
yat karoshi yad ashnasi
yaj juhoshi dadasi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
tat kurushva mad-arpanam
Krishna is saying, “Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform—do that, O son of Kunti, as an offering to Me.” (Bg. 9.27) Ultimately every breath a devotee takes is an offering: when devotees sleep because they need to maintain their bodies for Krishna’s service, then that sleep becomes an offering to the Lord; their eating to maintain their bodies so they can remain healthy to serve Krishna is an offering to the Lord; when they receive anything—food, soap, money—all of these things are offered to Krishna. In New Vraja Dhama (the devotee farm community in Hungary) anything the devotees acquire or receive, they first offer to Radha-Syamasundara, the presiding deities, on a tray that sits before the altar. In this way the practice of offering everything to Krishna becomes natural.
We should learn how to offer everything. We rise early in the morning, and the first thing we do is offer prayers to the Lord. We chant Hare Krishna not as entertainment but as an offering to glorify Krishna. And when someone lives like that, then in one sense the act of making the offering becomes unnecessary (although devotees do it to set the example) because such devotees are always absorbed in doing everything for Krishna. Therefore, yo me bhaktya prayacchati—the bhakti is already there, and Krishna is very eager to receive it. In fact, Krishna follows behind devotees to accept their loving devotion every moment of the day, in every movement of their bodies, and in every thought they manifest in relation to their devotional service to Him.
Ultimately this is what we aspire for, and this is what loving devotees do: they live for Krishna, and thus everything they do becomes Krishna conscious—it becomes prasadam. The cowherd boys simply sit down with Krishna and eat from their lunch packs—they don’t make any offering to Krishna. When they offer something to Krishna, they take from their lunch packs and put it right in Krishna’s mouth. Or they may even bite off half a sweetball and then say, “Oh, Krishna, just see how wonderful this sweetball tastes!” and put the rest in Krishna’s mouth. Yo me bhaktya prayacchati: it’s just their love. The formality and technicality of offering is no longer relevant, because what Krishna really wants is the love and devotion. That’s all that actually interests Him. And whether Mother Yashoda offers her breast milk, the gopis offer their bodies, the cows offer their milk, the cowherd boys wrestle and jump on Krishna’s shoulders—everything becomes prasadam because everything is an offering of love.
Our business in Krishna consciousness, therefore, is to live in this world of prasadam and thereby become prasadam ourselves. This is what Krishna concludes in the Bhagavad-gita (4.24) when He says, brahmarpanam brahma havir brahmagnau brahmana hutam …: “A person who is fully absorbed in Krishna consciousness is sure to attain the spiritual kingdom because of his full contribution to spiritual activities.” If we’re thinking about offering everything to Krishna, if our physical acts are an offering to Krishna, if our words are an offering to Krishna, then ultimately we become an offering to Krishna. Then we become prasadam. And Krishna is always very eager to taste the wonderful mellows of our loving offerings to Him.
by Bhakta-Chris at June 20, 2007 03:09 PM
Candidasa dasa : Acupuncture (part 11): out of whack
Just back from my trip to New Zealand I saw Dr Phil again. He did a brief calculation of my astrology. The result: it seems just around the time I’m due to finish my PhD my planetary influence moves from “study” to “work”. My health should get a bit better too at that point. Oh and I’ll have influential children…
The irregularity of travel had thrown my body a bit out of whack. I was feeling quite hot (where I’m usually too cold) and was needing only 6 hours sleep (not because I was healthy, but because my body was so confused it didn’t quite know what to do and when).
Philip used acupuncture to sort those things out by unblocking a few meridians. He stuck needles in various exotic places like my arm pits, the upper side of my chest, my feet and the sides of my legs (the last two are fairly common).
I had some acupuncture done while in New Zealand and I asked Philip about this. The person I saw in NZ was trained to use as thick needles as possible and stuck them in as deep as possible.
“The bigger and deeper the needle, the more the effect.” - he said
While this is true in one sense, Philip prefers a more subtle approach. Chinese bodies’ constitutions are, in general, strong as oxen. They don’t get sick like we westerns do. Traditional Chinese treatment is therefore too heavy handed for the average frail western body. So, it doesn’t work. Systems of medicine have to be adapted to the changing conditions of the patient group. Even 20 years ago people were completely different and required a different alternative medical approach in order to heal them. The treatments of yesterday no longer work today. The doctor needs to keep learning and adapting.
A lump had been developing under the skin of my chest. It was very unlikely to be cancer around to western doctors, however they didn’t have a cure. If it got too big they offered surgery as the only solution. “That’s no solution” said Philip, “it has to be caused by something”.
The acupuncture should help it. He also gave me a herbal mix to reduce growths and cancers, as well as increase my testosterone level slightly. He also gave me some zinc and probiotics to help my body in general.
by candidas das at June 20, 2007 02:57 PM
H.G. Jagattarini dd : Rathayatra 1970 -memories
Perth June 2007
Recently a friend directed me to some images of Srila Prabhupada they’d found on a website. Some photographs included a young woman they thought to be me. I looked them up, and sure enough, there I was.
For a long time I stared at the screen, first at this happy young girl, and then at Srila Prabhupada.I downloaded, and once more found myself staring at these pictures, trying to recall the moments when they were taken. read more »
by Jagattarini dasi at June 20, 2007 02:02 PM
Madhava Ghosh dasa : There Are Gurukulis Who Are Grandparents
Here I am pictured sitting by my grandfather’s left shoulder.
Last week I wondered if any gurukulis were grandparents yet. Bhimasena, a Kulimela co-organizer and apparently the man with his finger on the pulse of what’s happening, responded with this comment:
“I know of two gurukuli grandparents. Gavin, son of Vasudeva Datta and Saraswati, is both third and fourth generation. Rukmini’s daughter is pregnant with a fourth generation child.”
One thing about having children is that the inexorable march of time is impossible to ignore. They grow and change so rapidly it is essential to also grow and change to keep up with them, if you want to at least try to be a competent parent.
One unintended consequence of celibacy is that that inevitability of growth can be more easily ignored. Other than losing a step in kirtan, or the gradual accumulation of a collection of aches and pains, it is easy to get locked into a certain mindset that was either successful for a time, or at least appeared to be successful, and stick to it.
One symptom of being locked into a rigid mindset might be if you were surprised that gurukulis have grandchildren. Now, I am addressing my own generation here, Prabhupada’s disciples. For younger people, still in the formative demographical stages of life, this may not be so relevant. It will seem normal to you.
The idea behind celibacy helping to avoid family attachment has often been misinterpreted to mean no affection or relationships with children. I think that the true meaning of detachment to family life means to not limit your affection to your own biological children, but to feel m/paternal to all children.
Obviously, considering the history of the gurukulas, this was not the operative understanding in the old days. Still, I propose that for the long term celibates in the movement, they do have a sort of parental relationship with the Kulis.
If, emotionally, they still think of Kulis as young, then hearing that there are Kulis who are grandparents should be a big wakeup call. We are aging. Parents know this well.
by Madhava Gosh at June 20, 2007 12:09 PM
H.H. Sivarama Swami : 20 Jun: Receptivity of pure devotion
- After mapping NVD back to writing Nava-vraja-mahima.
- Receiving and accepting the bhakti-lata-bhija.
- The effect of ajnata-sukrti on receptivity.
- Prabhodananda Sarasvati’s dedication to Lord Caitanya.
Download (10:38) 4.9 MB
by Magyar editor at June 20, 2007 10:53 AM
H.H. Sivarama Swami : Júni 20: Lila-sthanák UVD-ban
Tegnap este Guru Maharaja vetítéssel bemutatta az UVD-ban beazonosított kedvtelés helyszíneket, melyekről a Nava-vraja-mahimában ír. Ennek a vetítésnek a hanganyagát hallhatjátok.
- A murtikhoz hasonlóan a kedvtelés helyszíneket is meg kell hívni.
- 100 milliárd szent hely van Vrndavanaban.
- A cél az, hogy bármerre megyünk UVD-ban, tudjunk elmerülni a Krisnáról szóló gondolatokban.
Letöltés (54:47) 25.7 MB
Új-Vraja-dhama felülnézete
by Magyar editor at June 20, 2007 10:37 AM
Gopala Guru dasa : Second Stop Mayapur: Getting Set-up
ISKCON Melbourne : Hare Krishna Radio Show
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
by Nanda Mandira Dasa at June 20, 2007 07:57 AM
Book Distribution News : Srila Prabhupada's example
Citrarupini Dasi (ACBSP), from Italy, tells of attending the London
Ratha-yatra in 1973, when she was sixteen. That's the Ratha-yatra where
Srila Prabhupada danced on the street the whole time and even distributed
prasadam to the people who attended.
She received prasadam from his hand.
At that moment, he asked her, "Where are you from?"
She was so overwhelmed that she said, "I don't know."
So Srila Prabhupada responded, "What country are you from?"
"Italy."
"So we are opening a center in Rome, and you should go there," he said.
Then he said to the devotees, "Make sure that she gets one of our books."
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1972 June 20 : "This is a very, very important wo...
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972
by letters at June 20, 2007 05:54 AM
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1972 June 20 : "We have got enough followers, let...
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972
by letters at June 20, 2007 05:52 AM
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1972 June 20 : "If we neglect somehow or other an...
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972
by letters at June 20, 2007 05:50 AM
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1972 June 20 : "If we are able to make a whole ge...
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972
by letters at June 20, 2007 05:48 AM
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1972 June 20 : "Our children may be given two-fol...
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972
by letters at June 20, 2007 05:46 AM
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1972 June 20 : "Children are naturally hungry lon...
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972
by letters at June 20, 2007 05:37 AM
Malati dd, USA : Hare Krishna BlogWorld! Panihati 2007 Part 1 (Sri Sri Chota Gaura Nitai Installation)
After a long time of not updating my blog now I’m finally rejuvenated 
I didn’t write anything for a long time coz somehow, once again I got lost in translation in Maya’s uncanny ways….ahem!….
Krishna Lunch will be over soon for the summer. We will stop serving after summer A and that will be on June 22 and after that bus tour 2007 here I come! But before I get to that I would like to share first a wonderful experience, so to commemorate my rejuvenated blogging enthusiasm let’s start with the Panihati Festival ‘07 in Atlanta.
Their Lordship Sri Sri Chota Gaura Nitai is getting ready for installation.
Sri Sri Gaura Nitai after the installation ceremony (I feel so lucky coz my friend Laksmi and I was given the mercy to do Their Lordships berrylicious garlands )
Actually the installation ceremony was kind of too long, it was really something new like it was more elaborate in the sense that a lot of different kinds of offerings was made, anyway all in all it was excellent. For more pictures click here , I’ll upload some more pics soon and promise to post the part 2 tomorrow. Thanks again Krishna and to all the wonderful devotees who continues to inspires me in engaging more in Srila Prabhupada’s mission, Hare Krishna.
by mala108 at June 20, 2007 04:08 AM
ISKCON Melbourne : Daily Class - Kesava Prabhu
by Nanda Mandira Dasa at June 20, 2007 12:19 AM
June 19, 2007
New Vrndavan, USA : First Week of Bhakti Sastri
June 11 was the first day of this year’s Bhakti Sastri course! Many devotees from around the US, the Caribbean, and from as far off as South Africa and even Mayapur have come to New Vrindaban to study Bhagavad-Gita in the Dham. His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami conducted the classes for the first week.
Maharaja, being an international luminary in ISKCON, attracted many devotees to attend just his week of the course. Photo taken under the Lodge.
Archana Mataji typifies the bliss derived from sastric study!
Group photo of Maharaja and his students. Apart from attracting devotees to come to New Vrindaban, many NV residents have taken advantage of this opportunity, from stalwarts like Rupa Ramesvari, youth like Radhika, newer devotees like Bhakta Vaiko, Chris, Dan and Meghan, plus Syamasundara, Yugala Kishore, etc.
Click below for more pictures and description:
After the final session, Maharaja kindly arranged a small party for the children of NV, with gifts, cup cakes and ice cream.
Maharaja ended his stay in NV by throwing a pizza party for all students. Thus ended a dynamic first week of Bhakti Sastri!
by ATD at June 19, 2007 10:14 PM
New Vrndavan, USA : The Comfrey Story
( from May 18, 1975 Issue of the Brijabasi Spirit )
by Madhava Gosh dasa
“I think that we should all go to the forest known as Vrndavana, where just now there are newly grown plants and herbs.”—KRSNA BOOK
We took the first cutting of comfrey this week. The best time to take it is just when the buds form; if the flowers blossom out, then it has passed its highest value as food, feed or medicine9 and growth is slowed. This is the second year for our 100 plants, and they are producing more per plant, although they won’t reach peak levels until their third year.
We use lots of comfrey at New Vrindaban, both as a dahl green and as a medicinal tea. But one day Kirtanananda Maharaja came up and clued us to a new use. He had seen an ad in the Farm and Dairy (the local farm oriented newspaper that plugs us into the latest who, what, when and where) for a series of comfrey meetings throughout Ohio, in which the theme was comfrey as an animal feed.
Tapapunja and I got really excited about it and asked if we could go. Maharaja said we could, so we made plans to go to the one nearest New Vrindaban.
As it turned out, there was an auction the same day that was to begin before the comfrey meeting, and it was right on the way. There was a pile of black walnut boards to be offered, so Parambrahma came along also.
We got to the auction and the boards were just what Parambrahma had his eye out for to be used for some of the windows at Prabhupada’s Palace. We waited, but after a while, instead of the auctioneer coming over by where the boards were, they went down to sell all the sheep instead; if we waited for that to be over, we would have been late for the meeting and maybe missed it altogether. So Parambrahma put his faith in Krsna and just stayed.
Tapapunja and I went on ahead the last 20 miles to Carrolltown, Ohio, where the meeting was. You can just see how Krsna’s in control, because we weren’t there very long, talking to the farmers who had come and just ‘getting ready’ for the slide show to begin the meeting, which was late, when Parambrahma showed up. He said that the auctioneer came to the boards just after we left. He started bidding on them and got them for such a fraction of their value that instead of saying ’sold,’ the auctioneer said ’stole!’
The slide show and lecture dealt with the value of comfrey as a field crop. The moderator likened comfrey’s position today to that of soybeans 30 and ho years ago when nobody was growing them in this country because they didn’t know what to do with them. Now it’s one of the country’s leading crops.
Comfrey is a perennial that needs to be reestablished only once every 15 to 20 years, and is producing as high as 100 tons per acre per year in semi-tropical climates and it should produce as high as 50 to 60 tons in this area.
The moderator said that comfrey, when used as a large portion of the ration, will cure scours and’mastitis in cows. This is because of the presence of allantoin, a healing agent in the comfrey. I’ll be writing more about this in a later issue.
After the meeting, when we had asked all the questions about comfrey and talked about New Vrindaban, he gave us the book about comfrey that he was selling. Tapapunja didn’t miss the opportunity to preach a little bit, and the comfrey man ended up giving us a donation for a Krsna Trilogy.
We left the meeting and went back to the auction site, loaded up the black walnut and headed back to New Vrindaban and the lotus feet of Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Vrndavana Candra.
The next night Kasyapa and I were out working late trying to get the disc ready for the next day’s plowing, when the night guard came out and said there was a karmi looking for me. Turned out it was the comfrey man. Kirtanananda Maharaja was just coming out of the temple and invited him and his friend up to the cabin.
The comfrey man is a representative of the Wonder Life Corporation, which sells natural animal medicines, supplements, a soil conditioner, and is now starting to preach comfrey and natural farming. After they had given us the rundown, Kirtanananda Maharaja waved his hand indicating the bowls of maha-prasad that had been brought up and told them to take prasadam, explaining that this was spiritual food, offered to Krsna.
Then he benedicted them with a nectarean lecture about New Vrindaban, Prabhupada and Krsnaa He said that, yes, we are also interested in doing things the natural way, but what makes us different is that we are asking Whose nature, and that no matter how-wonderful a system of farming or how wonderful a plant we have, we are still subject to birth, death, old age and disease.
When the comfrey man left, you could see he was impressed, and even a little awed, and all the devotees were again inspired by the association of, Kirtanananda Maharaja, who is so attached to Srila Prabhupada and the Sankirtan movement of Lord Caitanya, which is the only hope for all the suffering conditioned living entities in this age of Kali Yuga. And as soon as it quits snowing in Oregon, 5,000 comfrey plants will be heading towards New Vrindaban, to be used in the service of Krsna’s cows.
Jai Radhe, Madhava Ghosa dasa
by jm at June 19, 2007 10:12 PM
Srila Prabhupada's Letters : 1968 June 19 : "You are always with me because yo...
Prabhupada Letters :: 1968
by letters at June 19, 2007 06:14 PM
Gouranga TV : Vaiyasaki bhajan, Hilo 2007
Vaiyasaki chanting Mahamantra in Hawaii
by admin at June 19, 2007 06:08 PM
Gouranga TV : Vaiyasaki Das in Rishikesh, India
Vaiyasaki Das in Rishikesh, India
Subido por worldviewsmedia el 19/03/2007
bhajan for the departed saints song for Sri Swami Rama, written by Narottam Das
Vaiyasaki Das in Rishikesh, India
Hare Krishna Vaiyasaki das
Subido por TheMusicForSoul el 05/08/2009
Song:Hare Krishna mahamantra Artist:Vaiyasaki das
by admin at June 19, 2007 06:05 PM
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Conceptos Hinduistas (2919)SK
Aa-Ag · Ah-Am · Ana-Anc · And-Anu · Ap-Ar · As-Ax · Ay-Az · Baa-Baq · Bar-Baz · Be-Bhak · Bhal-Bhy · Bo-Bu · Bra · Brh-Bry · Bu-Bz · Caa-Caq · Car-Cay · Ce-Cha · Che-Chi · Cho-Chu · Ci-Cn · Co-Cy · Daa-Dan · Dar-Day · De · Dha-Dny · Do-Dy · Ea-Eo · Ep-Ez · Faa-Fy · Gaa-Gaq · Gar-Gaz · Ge-Gn · Go · Gra-Gy · Haa-Haq · Har-Haz · He-Hindk · Hindu-Histo · Ho-Hy · Ia-Iq · Ir-Is · It-Iy · Jaa-Jaq · Jar-Jay · Je-Jn · Jo-Jy · Kaa-Kaq · Kar-Kaz · Ke-Kh · Ko · Kr · Ku - Kz · Laa-Laq · Lar-Lay · Le-Ln · Lo-Ly · Maa-Mag · Mah · Mai-Maj · Mak-Maq · Mar-Maz · Mb-Mn · Mo-Mz · Naa-Naq · Nar-Naz · Nb-Nn · No-Nz · Oa-Oz · Paa-Paq · Par-Paz · Pe-Ph · Po-Py · Raa-Raq · Rar-Raz · Re-Rn · Ro-Ry · Saa-Sam · San-Sar · Sas-Sg · Sha-Shy · Sia-Sil · Sim-Sn · So - Sq · Sr - St · Su-Sz · Taa-Taq · Tar-Tay · Te-Tn · To-Ty · Ua-Uq · Ur-Us · Vaa-Vaq · Var-Vaz · Ve · Vi-Vn · Vo-Vy · Waa-Wi · Wo-Wy · Yaa-Yav · Ye-Yiy · Yo-Yu · Zaa-Zy
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