We Belong In The Holy Dham Posted: 30 Jul 2011 12:33 PM PDT (Kadamba Kanana Swami, 2004) I always tell devotees that we should understand that Vrindavan or Mayapur is our home! This is where we live, and now at one point when we go from here to some foreign country, then we are like tourists – we are only visitors there! Whether it's New Zealand or Spain…. I don't know where you are all from…Denmark…UK and so on. Wherever we maybe, in all of these places, we should know that we are tourists. We live in Vrindavan or Mayapur…we live in the dham. It doesn't matter if you are only one day in a year in the dham – still that's home…that's where we belong, and this is the right consciousness! It says that: "One should live in the dham or at least desire to live in the dham and mentally live in the dham". So a devotee at least should mentally live in the dham………………………So here the mercy is very accessible and very available. Therefore when we come here to these holy dhams – we very quickly get the mercy! Srila Prabhupada also made that point that devotees should go every year to the holy dham. That's why he started the Mayapur and Vrindavan dham festival, because he wanted all of the devotees to go to the dham. He said: "To become purified of the possible contamination that one might get from the Western world". There you see that although it is non different, but here the spiritual energy of the spiritual world is very manifest…very much manifest. One can very very quickly relate to it, and we are all experiencing that!

"An atom at Your Lotus Feet" Posted: 30 Jul 2011 12:25 PM PDT (Kadamba Kanana Swami, Stockholm, June 2011) A devotee is never desiring liberation.  A devotee is simply desiring devotional service and he is just praying, (Sanskrit) "Life after life, please engage me in your devotional service." Still, Krsna takes him back to Godhead.  Because in his heart of hearts, he has a natural desire to be with Krsna, and therefore to be placed as an atom at the Lotus Feet of Krsna.  He has a natural desire to be in the association of Krsna.  He is so attracted to Krsna, how could he not desire to be in the association of Krsna? And then Lord Caitanya is saying that, as that desire emerges out of his heart, he says, "But I am not qualified to be in the association of Krsna!  I am so fallen!  So what to do?  But I still desire it so much!  Then let me just pray to be an atom, to take the most insignificant position.  I must pray to be in his association … I cannot avoid it … I am desiring it so much in my heart, but I can only ask for the lowest position – an atom at His Lotus Feet." So it's very deep and very nice.  We see on the one hand that there is a desire to just serve Krsna, but then because of the attraction to Krsna, the devotee still desires to go back to Godhead, and be in the association of Krsna. But he is not going to desire that, 'I want to be a gopi or I want to be this or that …no, an atom!' "I'm so fallen, I'm so insignificant. I just pray to be an atom at Your Lotus Feet."

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Viṣnujāna Swāmi ISKCON'S first Kirtan legend

About Padyavali

Starting chanting the Maha-mantra Hare Krsna on my own, (with no beads) and following the regulative principles because of a book I was given in a park at a very young age "The Teachings of Queen Kunti" what a marvelous way to surrender to complete dependence on the almighty! The perfection of poetic expression! I thought, and just the right book for me to be able to digest...
At this time I still didn't know that devotees had a center around there, actually very close to Chapultepec park and close to the zoo also where I was given the book. this great soul mataji, after learning I didn't have any money, she still let me have it.
(One section of Chapultepec park is now a holy dhama since Srila Prabhupada was there and devotees chant japa regularly there too)

Until one glorious day, when I finally met the devotees in Harinam... Me and my friends where hanging around in the streets, like most days, no particular place to go and not a productive thing to do really, just barely living and at the same time thinking what a great life this is!

It was mumbled at first, due to the everyday roar of downtown in the biggest city in the world (in that time) Mexico City... I kept on following this sound, thinking: 'I know I've heard this before somewhere' but still barely making out the words in the crowded streets... soon it began to make sense, little by little, yes, those were the words I have been chanting all along! only this time they were accompanied with a very particular and catchy tune... lala lala, lala lala etc... And then they were, flying sikhas in all their splendor! saffron robes, colorful saris, and mrdangas! Wow! what a sound!... I've always liked percussions, drums was my thing! (my sister is a concertist)

I immediately joined the party, before the bewildered eyes of my young friends that were hanging out with me... they surely thought I've had gone mad for sure this time, just by the look on their faces, and I'm thinking: "this is highly embarrassing for them" but since they've always thought I was a weirdo anyways, I knew I had nothing else to loose anymore...

Poor kids! They've been putting up with my eccentric personality for way to long: always reading 'weird' books instead of the usual: pop and magazines I supposed... countless hours secluded in a library while I see them playing outside and taping on my window so I can come out and play... and even tolerated my recently acquired habits: new diet, new philosophy, and the most unusual habit of all, the habit of always repeating this strange combination of foreign words: hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare. hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare... and now THIS!... it was to much to bare for their young minds... they were truly; mortified...

Seeing me jumping up and down in front of the "Palace of the Fine Arts" El Palacio de las Bellas Artes in Spanish (frequented mostly by intellectuals) in downtown Mexico City and surrounded by all these saffron sheet-wearing-weirdos putting on the most unique dance show and surrounded by all these people that by now they were already pointing at me, laughing at me (perhaps thinking I was high on something)... I had to admit; it was quite socking... and it was indeed to much, to much for them to bare!

So they inconspicuously tried their best to withdraw themselves from me as not to be identified or been alienated with me... to late... devotees stop them faster than they could run and started dancing around them too... it was quite a sight to see how their faces turned very rapidly from pale to red in a split second... they had their share of mercy too, only they didn't know it yet

After kirtan, I was invited to go visit the temple and since I didn't want to lose anymore time I handed out my bike to my friend and jumped in the Harinam van with my backpack, before the now bewildered devotees... they were just looking at each other not knowing what to do with me, and then I've noticed that at one point they all looked at a very tall figure holding a saffron stick... (I was hoping he won't beat me with it) but this very tall devotee (Guru Prasad Svami) simply smiled at me, and I knew then I got away with it... (GPS, I later found out, had just came back from Brazil where he had just taken sannyasi) something about him made me feel extremely comfortable and peaceful and I knew right away he was a very special person and that I was safe. (Later on, he became my well-wisher and the only father I've ever known, took me under his wing and played a big role in me staying in the ashram at such a young age)

So, at this point, I told my friends I was coming back soon (a white lie) but they knew me better than that, so they went and told I had 'run away with a bunch of shaved heads, (pelones in Spanish) wearing sheets.'

When I arrived at the temple, for the first time in my life! and I was able to see the magnificent beauty of Sri Sri Radha-Madana-Gopal; I knew right there and then, that I had found my real home... I stayed for the evening programs, ate prasadam, and remain in the temple room even after all other visitors were gone.
Brahmacaris didn't know what to do with me and directed me to the head Sankirtana mataji that was living for the ashram and she let me stay in the ashram that night - probably thinking I was a homeless child (there are plenty in such a big city as Mexico city.)

And I was indeed; literally homeless, I didn't have a home, I choose not to... I wasn't living with my family anymore, my situation at home was unbearable and recently run away, I stayed with different people that I found in different schools of thought, (I went to plenty) anywhere from spiritualism, mediums, healers, mysticism etc., that kind of thing...

That is why it was so easy for me to understand Srila Prabhupada's book of "The Teachings of Queen Kunti' because she describes so many pains and tribulations, indeed, my own language...

I stayed in the ashram that night... and the night after... and the next... and never left for the streets again or back home... I was fourteen at the time... young body, old soul...

I take the dust of the feet of all those Sankirtan and Harinam devotees that no matter what, always go out there and deliver these souls day after day with determination and full compassionate heart... I humble myself to these great souls.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Biography of HG.Padyavali Devi Dasi - Inspiring!!!

Lord Krsna told Arjuna,those who are My direct devotees are actually
not My devotees,but those who are the devotees of My servant(devotees)
are factually My devotees-CC.Madhya 11.28

--
Yours
Dinesh

Devotees of My Devotees are My Real Devotees-Lord Sri Krishna

A Continuous Dedication in Devotional Service Posted: 28 Jul 2011 12:43 PM PDT (Kadamba Kanana Swami, 2011) In the earlier days of this movement it was very mission based. One's level of advancement in Krishna Consciousness was being measured to how much one was willing to take responsibility in service within the movement. Later, the focus of our movement shifted somewhere in the mid eighties to a more individual based movement. I sometimes compare it to the renaissance, because in the renaissance people came out of the middle ages, where you were told to think in a certain way. In the renaissance people broke out and began to think along individual lines. Well some thing like that happened in Iskcon in the mid eighties. Everyone started to think: "Well in my spiritual life how am I experiencing it….how am I feeling it and what is my propensity? How should I express my bhakti?" Things like this became very relevant and that has kind of survived into the present day, which is still there. Whereas in the earlier era of Iskcon the spirit was, simply to get involved and take up service, which was a sign of advancement. Anyone who was dragging his feet was in maya and he was also told that! So one's Krishna Consciousness was directly linked to how much service one was doing. Nowadays, it may not always be seen like that. There was an element of truth in that earlier approach, because that leads to spiritual advancement. It is not automatically that one who takes on a lot of responsibility is spiritually advanced because some take responsibility (and we found out about that) out of material motives…for name fame and glory, and ambitious people… people with material ambition can sometimes do service for quite a while, and then they run out of steam. So it is not necessarily that it is fuelled by spiritual advancement, but it is a fact that if one keeps on dedicating himself to devotional service in this movement, then one will become spiritually advanced, and I do want to make this point that there is a need for devotees in this day and age to come forward to take some service!

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