By Sarah Pulliam for The Columbus Dispatch on 19 Jul 2008
MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. -- Sujoy Bhowmik lives in two worlds.
On most days, he is a pharmacist at a CVS in Columbus. Other days, he is Narottama Das, a devotee of Hare Krishna, who finds peace in West Virginia at the Palace of Gold.
Once a religion whose members gave their life to the movement, the Hare Krishnas today welcome the most devoted people and the casual follower. In the 1970s, many of the members lived in communes. Now many, like Bhowmik, have careers and live outside the movement but are still devoted to their religion.
As sacred tour guide Dina Bandhu Dasa approached Varsana, the legendary home of Lord Krishna’s consort Radharani, dusk was falling; but the festivities were only beginning.
Dina Bandhu is one of the privileged few westerners who know about the annual Phul Bangalas – flower palaces – and Kavi Sanmelans – poetry recitals – demonstrated at Varsana and Nandagram, the village of Krishna’s adoptive father Nanda Maharaja.
Andhra Pradesh [India] Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said today that, with the oil crisis deepening, the time had come to explore alternative energy sources.
Mr. Reddy released a book entitled "Oil: Final Countdown to a Global Crisis and its Solutions" by ISKCON member Sahadeva Dasa at an impressive function. He said the problem was of even more concern for oil importing countries such as India.
It is interesting that the US and UK style themselves as “liberators” of Iraq. Subtly implied in this euphemistic term is the assumption that we are ourselves already liberated, in a position to bestow our happy state on others. And that is surely a commonly held assumption in the West. We view ourselves as having the most progressive and free societies. But how true is this?
Krishna Dasa, an ISKCON youth from Moscow, died on March 20, in Mayapur, India. He was twenty years old. The day before the Gaura Purnima festival, Krishna Dasa and his friends had taken a boat out into the Ganga, and were playing, swimming and diving from it. Krishna Dasa is reported to have been dragged under by the current, although details are sketchy at present.
Their hearts full of devotion, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims will stream into Braj Bhoomi [India] around Tuesday for Janmashtami - the birthday of Lord Krishna. But most will turn a blind eye to the poor condition of the sacred area.
By Krsnanandini Devi Dasi, Certified Family Life Educator, Director, Grihasta Vision Team (GVT) on 19 Jul 2008
Wouldn’t it be grand if married couples everywhere could have enduring, satisfying relationships, based on spiritual principles? Wouldn’t it be marvelous if all children could grow up in a healthy two-parent home? Such was the goal of most of the attendees of the 12th Annual SmartMarriages conference from July 2-6, 2008 in San Francisco, California.
By Shery Demian for Liverpool City Champion (Sydney, Australia) on 9 Jul 2008
One of the oldest and most important Indian celebrations was held in the Liverpool CBD [Sydney, Australia] last Saturday when about 4000 people attended Rathayatra, the Festival of Chariots.
It was the second year the festival had been held in Liverpool and organisers said it could become an annual event.
By Madhur Singh for Time Magazine Online on 12 Jul 2008
The Tirumala temple, in the south Indian city of Tirupathi, is one of Hinduism's holiest shrines. Over 5,000 pilgrims a day visit this city of seven hills, filling Tirumala's coffers with donations and making it India's richest temple. But since 2002, Tirumala has also been generating revenue from a less likely source: carbon credits. For decades, the temple's community kitchen has fed nearly 15,000 people, cooking 30,000 meals a day.
By Vyenkata Bhatta Dasa (Vineet Chander) for beliefnet.com on 23 Jun 2008
As anyone who has ever told a "How many _____ does it take to change a light bulb?" joke knows, humor can be tricky. Attempting religious humor can be downright dangerous. On the one hand, we fear offending people's cherished beliefs; on the other, spiritual growth seems to necessitate that--from time to time, we all learn to not take ourselves quite so seriously.
More than one million people in Taiwan have pledged to help cut carbon emissions by being a vegetarian. Taiwan's population is about 23 million, and the one million vegetarians would reduce at least 1.5 million tons of carbon emissions in Taiwan in one year.
For Americans, the fourth of July is the day they gained independence, a day for celebration, a day for reveling in their patriotism. Spirituality is rarely part of the proceedings.
But this year, the fourth of July seems blessed.
In Washington D.C., ISKCON devotees joined the Independence Day parade, singing the Hare Krishna mantra and pulling Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra—deity forms of God—on their classic Ratha Yatra cart.
By Venkatesan Vembu for Daily News & Analysis (Mumbai) on 22 Apr 2008
HONG KONG: By day, Kenneth Valpey dons his academic robes to elevate his students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong to a higher orbit of understanding about Indian religions and cultures.
But come evening, he assumes another avatar. He slips into something a little more comfortable — like a pristine white dhoti-kurta and a wrap-around angavastram — and sermonizes on the Bhagavad Gita to the devotees of Krishna in Hong Kong.
By David Klinghoffer for Religion BookLine on 13 Mar 2007
In today's culture war pitting secularism versus religion, Eastern religions usually get a free pass from atheist authors and other foes of faith. But that doesn't mean that Hindus can afford to rest on their laurels. Several new books from Hindu experts and advocates seek to dispel misconceptions, including negative ones, about the ancient Indian tradition.
Below you can read along as you listen to the audio.
This radio show was featured on National Public Radio on the 28th of May 2008.
There's not much traffic on First Avenue in lower Manhattan at 5:15 a.m. But in the building between a darkened tattoo shop and electronic store, a light shines bright from the second floor.
Inside is the New York City headquarters of the Interfaith League, a Hare Krishna group. A visitor is greeted with a blast of sights and sounds: Thirteen men and one woman are twirling and dancing, playing cymbals and drums and chanting Hindu tunes. Hare Krishna monks are in orange or white robes. Civilians are in business suits or jeans. They all face an altar adorned with flowers and statues of the supreme Hindu God, Krishna, and his female counterpart, Radha.
A little over an hour later, a 35-year-old monk named Gadadhara Pandit Dasa blows into a conch shell and pours a water offering.
Plenty of hard work and searching has paid off for ISKCON devotees in sunny Orlando, Florida with their recent acquisition of a large house and seven-acre property. Set on the east side of town, and well connected by main roads, the house has been converted into a temple with an ornate altar, large temple room, two kitchens, prasadam hall and three bedrooms for devotee accommodation.
All glories to the chanting of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s Holy Names!,
Which easily extinguishes saṁsāra’s blazing flames
By polishing the lust-encrusted mirror of the heart.
That chanting is the waxing moon that knows the secret art
Of causing the white lotus of good fortune to unfurl
Its petals far and wide throughout this bleak and blighted world.
Of transcendental knowledge, which will take us to life’s goal,
The chanting of the name of Kṛṣṇa is the life and soul.
The ocean of ecstatic bliss floods far beyond its bounds
Wherever Kṛṣṇa’s merciful and mystic Name resounds.
Indeed, whenever Kṛṣṇa’s Names are sung in congregation,
At every step one tastes a joy that knows no limitation.
So hear with great attention as I earnestly proclaim,
Just bathe your consciousness by chanting Kṛṣṇa’s Holy Name!
By transcendental potency that Name will surely bless
You with pure love for Kṛṣṇa and the end of all distress.
“Kṛṣṇa,” “Govinda,” and “Keśava,” too—
Your Names have no end, and in each of them You
Have invested Your potencies, leaving none out.
Whenever we want, we can chant them without
The slightest restriction of time or of place.
O Lord, who can fathom Your infinite grace?
Yet I am so wretched, devoid of all shame,
That I haven’t developed a taste for Your Name.
3) tṛṇād api sunīcena
taror api sahiṣṇunā
amāninā mānadena
kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ
More humble than a blade of grass, more tol’rant than a tree,
To think “All praise belongs to others, none belongs to me”—
These qualities attract the Lord to bless one with the power
To chant His Name incessantly until the final hour.
4) na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ
kavitāṁ vā jagadīśa kāmaye
mama janmani jamanīśvare
bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi
Wealth and women, followers, the fruits of mundane piety,
Liberation from this world of limitless anxiety—
For Me, O Lord, such common goals have not the slightest worth:
Let Me serve You purely now and in each future birth.
Your servant for eternity, I lost My true identity
And fell into this horrid sea of birth and death, O Lord.
O Nanda’s son, please hear My plea: By Your sweet grace consider Me
A speck of dust upon Your lotus feet forevermore.
Tears streaming from My eyes, My voice choked with bliss,
The hairs upon My body standing up in happiness—
When will all these signs of rapture decorate My limbs
As I chant your Holy Name, the monarch of all hymns?
7) yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa
cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam
śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ
govinda-viraheṇa me
Every moment drags on for a million years or more;
From the rain clouds of My eyes the tears in torrents pour;
This whole creation’s nothing but a vast and joyless void—
O Govinda! By Your absence I am being destroyed!
8) āśliṣya vā pāda-ratāṁ pinaṣṭu mām
adarśanān marma-hatāṁ karotu vā
yathā tathā vā vidadhātu lampaṭo
mat-prāṇa-nāthas tu sa eva nāparaḥ
Let Mādhava embrace this maid who’s fallen at His feet,
Or let Him trample Me, or My most ardent hopes defeat
By never giving Me a chance to see Him anywhere,
Thus shattering My heart and plunging Me into despair.
You see, He is a reckless libertine and not a saint;
So let Him act in any way He likes, without restraint.
Yet though His cruel and crooked ways may cause Me constant woe,
Kṛṣṇa is the only Lord My heart shall ever know.
[Benediction verse by Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja (Cc Antya 20.65)]
These eight essential verses Lord Caitanya wrote to teach
The practice and the goal of chanting Kṛṣṇa’s Holy Name.
Day by day, whoever chants or hears this hymn will reach
A little closer to perfection, spotless Kṛṣṇa-prem.
Below you can read along as you listen to the audio.
Nature gave us the opportunity to realize God, but God-realization is meant for human being. The human being, if he does not realize God, he's simply engaged in animalistic way of life—eating, sleeping, mating—then nature will call, "All right, sir, again become animal." Punar mūṣiko bhava: "Again become a mouse."
You know this story? Punar mūṣiko bhava. There is a story. There is a very nice story. One rat, mouse, he came to a saintly person. Everyone comes to saintly person for some blessing, you see. Real blessing they don't want. Some material blessing. Real blessing, Kṛṣṇa, they don't want. If you give him some blessing that "You become very rich man and..." These... they'll be very much pleased.
So this mouse also came and begged the saintly person, "Sir, I am in difficulty. If you give me some blessing?"
"What is that?"
"The cat chases after me always. I'm very unhappy."
"So what do you want?"
"Now, if you make me a cat, then I can get relief from this."
"All right, you become cat." So he became cat.
So after few days, again he comes. "Sir, again I am in trouble."
"What is that?"
"The dog is chasing me." (laughter) Don't laugh, hear seriously. "Dog is chasing me."
"All right, then, what do you want?"
"Now, make me a tiger."
"All right, you become a tiger."
So when he became a tiger he was staring on the saintly person like this.
So he asked, "Why you are staring upon me? You want to eat me?"
"Yes."
So he again curses, punar mūṣiko bhava: "Again you become mouse. Again you become mouse."
So that is our position. We are advanced in civilization. Now we want to kill God. So we are again going to be uncivilized, to remain in the forest and to remain naked. Actually, they are practicing that: nature's life. So again they are going to be aborigines. And that is being practiced. They are going to the forest, they remain naked. So actually, punar mūṣiko bhava: "Again become mouse."
