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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

Prasadam - Rice, Dhal, Potato fry






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The Health Benefits of Drinking Water

The Health Benefits of Drinking Water

Water is a simple and essential element for your body. Did you know that drinking enough water benefits your health?

The body is made up of between 55 and 75 percent water. Muscle retains more water than fat, therefore, the leaner the body, the higher the percentage of water. Water is essential to regulate body temperature, provide lubrication for joints, help blood flow, regulate blood pressure, keep body systems functioning properly and keepskin elastic. Nearly every cell in our body requires water for proper function. Water is also necessary for digestion and the removal of toxins. Water keeps the liver and kidneys functioning well. Inadequate hydration can also cause sluggishness and headache due to a decreased flow of blood to the brain.

If you are trying to lose weight, water is useful to help you feel fuller, metabolize stored fat, and prevent water retention. Although preventing water retention by drinking more does not seem to make sense, it is actually true. When you do not drink enough water, your body goes into 'survival mode', retaining water to stay off dehydration. This causes water weight gain, as well as health problems.

Most people who do not drink enough water on a daily basis have a diminished ability to feel thirst. By the time thirst is felt, the body is already dehydrated. Once you begin drinking water daily, you will notice feeling thirst more often. The body requires at least six to eight, 8 ounce glasses of water a day. A good formula to know how much water is needed is to divide your weight in half, and figure that number in ounces of water. For example, for someone who weighs 140 pounds, 70 ounces of water would be required daily.


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Steps to becoming brave

Steps to becoming brave

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 15 December 2012, Phoenix Ratha Yatra, South Africa, Q&A Lecture)
taking stepsWell, I have been thinking about a metaphor. I call it the step-by-step metaphor. In material life, we have two steps, two feet in the world. As long as we have our two feet in this world, we get very preoccupied with all the affairs that surround us and everything seems terribly important so we always go from one important activity into another one.
When young, education is important. Later on, fashion is important. In every phase of life, everything is important. So, when our two feet are in the material world, then material life is extremely important. From one issue, we go into another and there’s always something burning and of great urgency and importance.
Then, into our life, comes a self-realized soul and by the association of such a devotee, we are suddenly struck with a totally different dimension… struck that there is a whole different dimension to life… a spiritual dimension and gradually… the spiritual world. Not just a little bit of religion in the form of spicing but actually a whole life of devotion as Prabhupada kind of painted it for us.
Suddenly, it kind of reawakens something in us… something that had gone to sleep… something we forgot but suddenly within us, there is a calling. Suddenly we feel called, and we feel like, “Yes, deep down inside, this is actually what I really want it.” And just on a emotional level, we feel strongly drawn to a spiritual life but then it has to become practical and one thinks, “Nah, it doesn’t make sense. I have so many important things to do!”
tumblr_ma1kfw6qI31rt9oreo1_1280But that spiritual dimension has entered; that taste has come. At this stage, we are hesitatingly putting our leg forward, not yet on the ground, but we’ve lifted one leg off the ground. It’s floating. So, our spiritual life is sort of up in the air at that stage, but we are not completely on the material footing anymore. Then gradually… alright, we put a toe on the ground as if to sort of check it out; what is it like actually, toe in the water. We check out spiritual life a little bit, still not making commitments. Oh no. You know, don’t get carried away now! We’re not making commitments. I mean, really! We’re just experimenting, yes, a little, it’s a toe. In due course of time, our spiritual life becomes a little bit more established, becomes in a more solid way, part of our life and yes, we put the foot on the ground but the weight is still on the material side.
So, all the weight remains on the material side and now, gradually, in our spiritual life, we have to make a shift where the weight actually starts to come onto the spiritual leg and it’s at that stage that there is a real breakthrough! It is at that stage that a tangible transformation begins to take place. That is the stage which  acaryas have classified as niṣṭhā or firm determination. It is that stage where spiritual life has become the priority and material life is there and it has its importance but it’s of secondary importance to spiritual life.
Until we come to that stage, we will be fickle. Until we come to that stage, we cannot fix our mind. Until we come to that stage where the majority of the weight is on the spiritual leg. Some weight may be there, on the material leg as well, but the majority is on the spiritual leg. At that stage, we take care of our material duties but see them as a secondary life.
srila13 (1)It is that which Srila Prabhupada really wanted for us. Not anything less, nothing less. That was really his idea. When Prabhupada said that the devotees should become at least a madhyama-adhikārī or a devotee on the intermediate platform, then that’s what it means because in the intermediate stage, one comes to niṣṭhā. Up to niṣṭhāis the kaniṣṭha stage. So, there’s kaniṣṭha and then niṣṭhāKaniṣṭhais the initial stage in devotional service, the stage of weak faith.Kaniṣṭha translates as weak faith. So it’s the faith where we are not really convinced. It is said śraddhā’-śabde — viśvāsa kahe sudṛḍha niścaya kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya (CC Madhya 22.62).
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave the definition of faith. The way he gave the definition of faith - he said that it is faith that when we engage in devotional service to Krsna, that all good will come in our life; that all good will come from that. That faith one must have. That must be very strong. So yes, that is not so simple, it seems. And on the other hand, simple, simple for the brave. One must be brave.


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Many gurus

Many gurus

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 28 April 2013, Radhadesh, Belgium, Vyasa Puja, Questions and answers)
GBCRelationships that are of a deep nature between vaishnavas, that are affecting one’s entire spiritual life and that have a binding effect on one’s spiritual life – such relationships can develop intodiksha or siksha-guru type of relationships.
There’s incidental siksha - maybe some senior vaishnava gives some instruction. We have faith in it, take it, but for the rest, it doesn’t affect our life.
Those relationships that have a deep, lasting effect on our lives, such relationships can go on eternally after this life, whether diksha orsiksha. Therefore, one can have many gurus. Once we arrive in the spiritual world, we may find that there are many gurus who have somewhere along the line, been part of our lives and we remain indebted to them, eternally so. The indebtedness is never paid off!

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The path of progress

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 24 June 2013, Czech Summer Camp, Slovakia, Srimad Bhagavatam 8.2.33)
flowersWe have to look at our life from a perspective as a whole and not just become lost in the moment, “Oh, romantic springtime. Oh, beautiful daffodils and sweet fragrant flowers. Oh, wonderful valleys. Oh, enjoyment in the material world.”
For a while, even when we are enjoying in the material world, it is still not fulfilling. There is enjoyment but it is not enough to fill the emptiness in our heart. But, if we want some, then that is authorized in the Srimad Bhagavatam but within the boundaries of pious life. Not that we enjoy in a sinful way because if we enjoy in a sinful way then we become very much tied up in sinful reactions!
So, those who wish to enjoy the senses are allowed to but within the boundaries of what is authorized. If we desire sexual activities then we must express it in a responsible way. If we want to express our sex desire then marriage is the option. “What do you do? What do you do when you suddenly get attacked by a strong sex desire? What do you do?”
Best is (to do) nothing - that is the best option! But if we feel that we have to do something then it must be done in an authorized way because if we are doing it in an unauthorized, sinful way then we are bound to material existence, and bound to suffering conditions. So, anyone who is somehow or other breaking the rules of scriptures, is binding himself in the future sufferings of the material world. This is foolishness.
So therefore, we must take shelter, as it is mentioned here, we must take shelter of the principles ofdharma. In the Srimad Bhagavatam, it is indicated that a man, if he so desires, may get married. Then it is described that the wife is like a fort and that he just focuses himself on this one wife and no other one – only this one, with all the good and bad! And then, there (within marriage) he may satisfy his material desires according to the direction of the scriptures. Then this relationship will actually protect him from lust otherwise lust can drop us in all kinds of directions where we should not really go. So in this way, whatever we do in life, we must always be on the path of progress.
etāvaj janma-sāphalyaṁ
dehinām iha dehiṣu
prāṇair arthair dhiyā vācā
śreya-ācaraṇaṁ sadā, (Srimad Bhagavatam 10.22.35; CC Adi-Lila 9.42)
We should always act according to śreya. So śreya means the long-term benefit, the path of progress. Somehow or other, this path of progress must be on our mind.

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