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Bhakti Yoga-Devotional Service to the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna

Bhakti Yoga-Devotional Service to the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna
Gopis performing Devotional Service to the Lordships Sri Sri Radha Krishna

Work Phone Bill-Ice Breaker!!

The phone bill was exceptionally high and the man of the house called a family meeting... on a Saturday morning... after breakfast...

Dad: People this is unacceptable. You have to limit the use of the phone. I do not use this phone, I use the one at the office.

Mum: Same here, I hardly use this home telephone as I use my work telephone.

Son: Me too, I never use the home phone. I always use my company mobile.

Maid: So - what is the problem? We all use our work telephones !
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Krishna Knows!



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dr Satish Gosain (Sri Krishna Hari Das) <sri.krishna.hari@gmail.com>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Joshi, Milind <milind.joshi@se1.bp.com>
 

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,

Please accept my dandavat pranams. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

Recently I came across an interesting story. A person once visited a temple under construction where he saw a sculptor making an Archavigraha of Krishna. Suddenly he noticed a similar Archavigraha kept nearby. Surprised, he asked the sculptor, "Do you need two statues of the same Deity?" "No," said the sculptor without looking up, "We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage." The gentleman examined the Deity and found no apparent damage. "Where is the damage?" he asked. "There is a scratch on the nose of the Deity." said the sculptor, still busy with his work. "Where are you going to install the Deity?"

The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet high.. "If the Deity is that far, who is going to know that there is a scratch on the nose?" the gentleman asked. The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and said, "Any one knows it or not, Krishna knows it."

This is the realization required when we are involved in any activity in our life when we are physically awake. Krishna is present in our heart in the form of Paramatma as He is present in everything around us. This has been explained in Srimad Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagvatam in various shlokas. One of these important shlokas is Srimad Bhagavad Gita 6.30.

yo maam pashyati sarvatra / sarvam ca mayi pashyati
tasyaaham na pranashyaami / sa ca me na pranashyati

For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me.

In his wonderful purport to the above verse, Srila Prabhupada has guided us to clear our understanding on this subject - A person in Krishna consciousness certainly sees Lord Krishna everywhere, and he sees everything in Krishna. Such a person may appear to see all separate manifestations of the material nature, but in each and every instance he is conscious of Krishna, knowing that everything is a manifestation of Krishna's energy. Nothing can exist without Krishna, and Krishna is the Lord of everything — this is the basic principle of Krishna consciousness.

We are many times under illusion that no one is watching us when we are involved in certain activities, but Krishna is all pervading and everywhere. He is omni-present and omniscient. He is with us even in our thoughts and our dreams since He is situated in our hearts as Paramatma. We are never alone or left un-noticed. All our good and bad deeds are being watched out by Him and the CID agents appointed by Him. In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 6.1.42 the list of CIDs is explained very nicely.

suryo'gnih kham marud devah / somah sandhya ahani disah
kam kuh svayam dharma iti / hy ete daihasya saksinah

(Yamadutas to Vishnudutas) "The sun, fire, sky, air, demigods, moon, evening, day, night, directions, water, land and Supersoul Himself witness all the activities of the living entity."

So we need to understand and realise that every moment of our life is with Him. When we think of Him all the time, He will reciprocate in the same way by helping us to remember Him constantly. Let us therefore sincerely pray to the Supreme Lord, Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev to bestow their mercy upon us, so that we remain conscious of His existence and use this rare opportunity of human life for remembering Him all the time and stay in continuous devotional service.

Thank you very much.
Your humble servant in service of Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev,
Milind Joshi,
Singapore.

Moderator's Note : Milind Prabhuji is a serious and very good natured devotee from Mumbai. Prabhuji has started fortnightly Bhagavad Gita discussion programmes with Gurudev's blessings and is bringing many new families in touch with Srila Prabhupada. Prabhuji has two daughters and his wife, Sampada Mataji nicely assists him in the preaching and also sings very nicely.

__._,_.___
__,_._,___-
Yours Servant

Sri Krishna Hari Das
(Dr Satish Gosain MBBS DNB i Med)
Congregational Preacher, ISKCON, Delhi, NCR & Gurgaon.
+91-97170-55006, +91-98913-86194 +91-11-2512-5595, +91-11-2512-8754


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A Message To the Disciples

A Message To the Disciples

Posted on November 23, 2009 by Mahat-tattva Dasa  

saraswatithakur
By Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura
- A message to disciples.
(Excerpted from the book "Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur" by Mandala Publishing Group. Eugene, Oregon. 1997. Page 42)
Please preach the kirtan of the Supreme Lord, even if in doing so you have to incur debt; then in order to pay off that debt, you will have to be even more engaged in seva. When your creditors put pressure on you, you will be forced to beg more for alms. Again, as the pious householders will not give you alms unless your character and conduct are pure, you will be forced to preserve a pure lifestyle with great determination and care. I will not leave one penny for you, and in that way in the future you won't be able to indulge in laziness and you won't be able to give up your devotional lives full of hari-kirtan and hari-seva.
The matha (temple) is the center of hari-kirtan, and hari-kirtan is life and consciousness. To ensure that there is no place for laziness, bad conduct, trivial thought, gossip, or vulgar desire in the matha, you have to go from door to door, where your hari-kirtan will be tested by the public. When the public will think that they are the givers of alms and you are the receivers of alms , in other words, that their status is higher than yours, they will criticize you in many ways, thinking you are objects of their mercy. Perhaps some of them will also be ready to kick you out. Then, on one hand, you will be able to become trinad api sunicha, humbler than a blade of grass, and manada, respectful to others, and on the other hand you will take great care to make your lives and characters pure and exemplary.
Furthermore, what will be beneficial for you is this: as you will correct the mistakes of the common people by citing the message of sadhu, sastra, and guru-varga, you will not make those same mistakes.
Please do not be upset if someone criticizes you personally. But your guru-varga, sastra, and mahajans are completely faultless, supremely liberated, and eternal associates of the Lord. If, due to ignorance, someone criticizes them, then you should correct that person's mistakes by telling them the real truth. This will be very beneficial for both you and the ignorant people.
If you become lazy about begging for alms from door to door to collect ingredients for hari-kirtan, and if you indulge in laziness and bad habits, preferring reclusive bhajan so you can escape others' criticism, then your character will not be purified. You will not have the life of devotional practice. I will never give you any opportunity to become deceitful in the path of devotion in the privacy of your own home; I will never give you any opportunity to live in a reclusive place so that you can become undisciplined in your heart, thinking no one will come to see or hear you there.
You are my dearmost friends. I will never allow you to get into trouble. I will never allow you to give up the path of pleasing the senses of the Lord so that you can please the senses of the people of the world, as well as your own, because you received some temporary position or you could not tolerate some temporary criticism.

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Qualifications for a bona-fide disciple-Must Read!!!!

|| Hare Kṛṣṇa ||

 

All Glories to Śrī Guru & Gaurānga!
All Glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda!
Nitāi Gaura Premānande, HARI HARI BOL!

Patitānām Pāvanebhyo Vaiśṇavebhyo Namo Namaḥ!



Hari-Bhakti-Vilaasa lists the following qualifications for a bona fide disciple:


1) He should be devoted to the lotus feet of the spiritual master.

2) He should be fully capable of upholding the vows made to the spiritual master.

3) He should be engaged day and night in the Lord's service with body, mind and words.

4) He should be desirous of knowing the Absolute Truth.

5) He should be spotless in character, truthful,gentle and polite, pleasing in appearance and intelligent.

6) He should show proper respect to elders, to initiated Vaisnavas and to the Lord; he should observe silence concerning material subjects and should have control of his senses.

7) He should have no attraction for committing sinful activities.

The bona fide disciple should not possess the following characteristics:


1) He should not be lazy, dirty, sickly, continually afflicted or lamenting, angry, proud, lusty or coveting material desires.

2) He should not show the enjoying mood; he should not indulge in
sinful activities such as taking meat, intoxication, gambling or illicit sex;

3) He should not earn a living by unjust means.

4) He should not use vulgar or coarse language, should not be critical of others, and should not be miserly, malicious, devious or envious; he should not give pain to others or be addicted to cruel activities.

5) He should not be ignorant, nor should he be proud of material learning.

6) He should not indulge in non-Vaisnava philosophies

7) He should not be addicted to over-eating.

The following rules of etiquette should be observed by the bona fide disciple in relation to his spiritual master:


1) He should fall down like an uprooted tree (dandavat) on seeing the guru. When the guru approaches he should face him and when he leaves, he
should follow him.

2) He should not leave the guru's presence without asking permission.

3) He should not utter the guru's name inattentively, but always with respect. He should address him as om sri  ............Visnupada, and bow his head and fold his hands in respect.

4) He should not imitate the gait, activities or voice of the guru.

5) He should always hold the guru's words in great respect. Though he may be
punished by the guru, he should not take it unkindly.

6) He should not bear to hear criticism of the guru, the scriptures or the
Lord, but should leave the place immediately.

7) He should not step on the guru's garland, bed, shoes, aasana, shadow
or eating table.

8) He should not spread his legs before the guru, nor should
he yawn, laugh or make disrespectful noises before the guru.

9) He should not sit on an aasana or bed before the guru.

10) He should not worship others in preference to the guru. He should not give diksaa, give scriptural explanations or show superiority in front of the guru.

11) He should not give orders to the guru, but obey him.

12) He should treat the guru's guru with similar respect and he should treat the wife, son and relatives of the guru as the guru, but he should not clean the body of the son, take his remnants or wash his feet.

Always Chant...

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare |
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma Hare Hare ||

...and be Happy

Source: Sri Krishna Hari Das & Ahmedabad devotees


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Fwd: Srila Prabhupad Disappearance day class by HH Banu Swamy Maharaj



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ranjani Gopika <shyamkrishna108@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 10:00 AM
Subject: Srila Prabhupad Disappearance day class by HH Banu Swamy Maharaj
To: sangeetha sundarajan <sangeetha.krsna@gmail.com>


Srila Prabhupad Disappearance day

                  class by

    HH Banu Swamy Maharaj

 

 

 

 

                        Today is the disappearance day of Srila Prabhupad.Prabhupad actually disappeared in vrindavan.He was 81 years old. In a very short period of time he accomplished something no one else did. Of course if we take India in general, no one else influenced the western other than Srila Prabhupad. Certainly there were famous people. Vivekananda was famous.Ramakrishna was famous. But they do not influenced many people in the western world. Aurobindo also became little famous in the west but he did not influenced the people in the west. Gandhi is famous in the west,but he did not influenced anyone in the west. So western culture was not influenced by the vedic culture before Prabhupad went there. There may be few people, very very few. After Prabhupad established this movement then we see they have changed. Of course there was a change in understanding the philosophy and the Vedas.

                       Previously every one thought oh Vedas means Upanishads, Upanishads means Brahman, Brahman means Impersonalism.Prabhupad brought bhakti yoga,devotion to the personality of God.He brought this concept of god which is most Complete.Complete quality of god has all wonderful form,qualities,activities,pastimes.That was not described anywhere in Western culture.Infact if we look everywhere we find almost zero.So he communicated this to the Western world that there is another concept of god which is superior to the concept.At the same time it is non different.There is attraction because we are not condemning any belief or any religion,but including it Prabhupad established something much greater.So that was theosophy logical.Another achievement was that he gathered people who has committed to this belief.They really sacrificed alcohol,meat,smoke,drugs,tea,etc.

                      They are trying to live a completely different type of life.This was not done before by anybody.There were philosophy of Ramakrishna,Vivekananda,but nobody changed.People changed their way of living very radically.Now they adopted conditions like in India – dress,tilak.This is also remarkable achievement,introducing a culture.In other words we have introduction of a new philosophy and introduction of a new culture.As we know from BG,Krishna says bhakti is the best process and whatever benefit we get from another process are also included in the bhakti process.We have supreme philosophy and the supreme fact and for some reason these things were not known in the west,One reason is that this is not known in India.In other words chaitanya mahaprabhu's bhakti process was not very prominent.It was prominent 500 years ago when Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was there.[Goswamis trying towards in vrindavan that place is very active].

Lord Chaitanya established something very big movement.He started from nothing,he had is own philosophy and then he spreaded.After 500 years we see that the energy the impetus of that movement was  not very strong.Also people were just rarely preserving.What is there?Some of the scriptures are not there now.They are lost.This is not so far back just 500 years ago its not 2000 years ago.Still in 500 years so many things were lost.At the time of Bhakti vinod thakur,he discovered lord chaitanya's philosophy.he was living in Bengal.Still he didn't know anything about lord chaitanya's life history.He tried a complete copy of chaitanya caritamrita,he couldn't find anything anywhere.After very very difficulties he found authorized complete copy of chaitanya caritamrita.Nobody in the west heard the philosophy of chaitanya caritamrita.Then we see that bhakti began very vigorously.Greater victim and Bhakti siddhanta saraswati thakur also keeps up that mission in a big way. Bhakti siddhanta saraswati was great revolutionary.So revolutionary that his brother also rejected him.His brother was also a great devotee but he couldn't understand what Bhakti siddhanta saraswati was doing.So Bhakti siddhanta saraswati thakur very energetically established this movement in India.

                        Bhakti vinod thakur had this idea,that this greatest treasure has to be spreaded everywhere and that was committed by Bhakti siddhantha saraswati thakur and Srila prabhupad also followed it.What prabhupad did was started by Lord Chaitanya, Bhakti vinod thakur, Bhakti siddhantha saraswati thakur.After all this was accomplished, every body said its not so difficult. Any body could have done that.But really none of them did it. Even Bhakti siddhantha saraswati thakur send is disciple to England, Germany nothing has happened.So many of them doesn't encouraged Prabhupad for going to western countries.Yet somehow or other he was very determined and persevere inspite of all the obstacles. Prabhupad said,actually its not me I am like a puppet.Krishna controlled all this and whatever Krishna wants I will do.He also said I did nothing I just followed my spiritual master instruction.That instruction has great shakti.Where is that shakti comes from?Ultimately its Krishna's shakti.So Krishna is the most powerful and he can do the impossible.So through Krishna's will and through his gurus will that shakti transferred to prabhupad.Of course BSS had many disciples and he gave instructions to them. Basically it's the same order. Please Lord Chaitanya by spreading the holy name to everyone.

                         But somehow that shakti began to manifest nicely actually through prabhupad. We see that the shakti of the supreme lord manifested through prabhupad was very very strong.So we can say as the BG says that according to your surrender unto me I reciprocate.So because of prabhupads surrender and desire,Krishna responded.Therefore he was able to accomplish something very great.Krishna's shakti manifested through him because of his full surrender.So that is the greatest thing if one completely surrenders unto the supreme lord,that is very rare.From that every things happened.Lord's desire started manifesting.The desire of the devotees fulfilled.Prabhupad illustrated this very perfectly.So that is the contribution.Somebody criticize prabhupad.But they will never criticize his purity and sincerity.Every thing he did was with that purity and sincerity and for that reason his followers his disciples had faith.He didn't ask anything but his disciples surrendered to him and willing to do anything.So prabhupad's shakti then spreaded through his disciples.

                        In this way prabhupad and his disciples started spreading this movement.It was even now after 30 years of prabhupad's disappearance still that shakti goes on.So the shakti comes from Bhakti vinod thakur, Bhakti siddhanta saraswati thakur,prabhupad and continues only through their sincerity.There is nothing mysterious.All we have to do is very very sincere.We can do that by studying prabhupad's wonderful example.If we study him very very carefully,his writings,words,film,video etc…we will understand that sincerity and we can take that for ourself.Prabhupad was very intelligent he knew he will not stay here for ever.Therefore he started organization to preserve that shakti and he did that from the very beginning of his preaching in America.He had established a procedure by which the society develops.Organisation means leaders,followers,structure.He established a structure and he did that to preserve that spiritual energy.

Some people said oh organization means non spiritual.There will be rules and regulation that controls spontaneous love for Krishna.That is true if we have only material organization.Definitely it restricts the spiritual shakti.The secret is to keep the organization spiritual.By that all the members of the organization spiritualised.Therefore we do have the structure,we have rules and regulations,we have position etc…But we should always remember that the qualification for any of this is spiritual qualification.If we have material and spiritual qualification very good.If we have only spiritual qualification that's also good.if we have only material qualification that's bad.We should be very careful always keep everything spiritual.Prabhupad said I simply followed my spiritual masters order.Therefore I am successful.If we follow prabhupad's order to preserve his shakti and follow him in such a way then we can also be successful.We also preserve prabhupad's order.

                         This movement is a challenge for everyone.It is a great opportunity.We can cultivate bhakti that's for ourself and we are very free to expand this bhakti for others.That is the challenge for everyone.Increase your bhakti and spread it.That is the order given by Bhakti vinod thakur.Two phrases are there naame ruchi and jibe doya.The whole purpose of Lord Chaitanya movement is personally we develop attachment to the name of Krishna and spread it to others.Nama sankirtan also means give mercy to others.If we do one or the other it is not the best thing.So we should do both.That is what the society is for both.Our movement purpose is we can cultivate KC and we can spread KC.So the challenge is for us.Prabhupad took that challenge even in that very old age.So every devotee of ISKCON can also took up the challenge.Krishna will give that mercy.Anything is possible by the mercy of Krishna if they have faith.We can always think of new ways to expand the movement.This is the best way by which we can honour Prabhupad.We keep this movement strong and pure and expanding.He had desires.We have to fulfill his desire.It pleases Bhakti siddhantha saraswati thakur  Bhakti vinod thakur.It is pleasing to Lord Chaitanya,Nityananda,pleasing to Krishna.This is way in which we can advance and we can also expand.Every moment the world keeps going down.Every day there is more and more corruption,more and more sinful activity.So the whole world needs a change.So we want to help others.Let us propagate the mission of Srila Prabhupad to others.



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