Some pictures of NJP!

New Jagannath Puri is a wonderful ISKCON temple in Durban. Take darshan!

Question of the Week

Pandava Nirjal Ekadasi is this Saturday (14 June). How are you going to celebrate?!

Here’s wishing you a blessed day that truly will be the mother of devotion for you! Planning ahead really builds up the eagerness. Phone me, or I’ll phone you during the week for some inspiration about what vow to take this ekadasi.

Luv!

Deadline for Srila Prabhupada Offerings

The Vyasa Puja of Srila Prabhupada, our wonderful spiritual father and grandfather is just around the corner. Writing words in glorification of him is a profound experience that deepens our relationship with him. If you don’t usually write an offering, think about it this year! Srila Prabhupada is looking forward to hearing from you!

For those in South Africa, the deadline has been extended until 08/06/2008, send to email address: acbsp.book@gmail.com

If you know anyone who wants to send in still, then do pass on!

Thanks R, for giving us the message!

Question of the Week

We all go through phases of being uninspired in devotional life. Generally the reason for lack of taste is because we have committed some offense(s) at the feet of the Lord or His devotees. It is an extremely painful thing to not feel like going to the temple, to not feel like hearing from the devotees, and to not feel like chanting the holy name. Lack of taste is the one of the first warning sign that you’re doing something wrong.

The question is: What instructions have you heard from your seniors about what to do at such a time to again revive your spiritual life?

Lord Nrsimhadeva reciprocates instantly!

By Pankajanghri Dasa on Sat, 2008-05-17 15:47.

The fact that people just love to hear stories is one reason why some of the Vedic codes were gradually transmitted in story form, like the epic histories Mahabharata and Ramayana and the Puranas. When such stories concern the pastimes of the Lord and His devotees, they are called lilas. Being labeled Lord Nrisimhadeva’s pujari in Mayapur,I have been asked to recount some stories in connection with Him,but unlike the sastras, these “lilas” have no authority except for the testimony of the devotees who told them. In most cases there were no other witnesses.
Although I am generally quite skeptical when it comes to accepting other people’s mystical experiences as truth, just too many things started happening recently, not to sit up and take notice.
For instance, during the last Gaura-purnima festival, I called over a mataji in the crowd and asked her to distribute the Lord’s caranamrita to the ladies, which she did. Later when she brought the caranamrta pot back, she remarked that Lord Nrisimhadeva was very merciful to reciprocate so quickly.
“I was praying this morning that I might be able to offer some direct service to Him, and now you have given me this service.” “Yes,” I said, “desires are quickly fulfilled in the dhama. Just see, the same day you desire, it happened.” “No, not the same day—the same moment!” she replied.

“The very instant I expressed that desire to serve Him, you called me over.” “Wow! That is amazing!” I acknowledged. “Did you hear about how Atmarati mataji’s eye problem was cured at the same time that Lord Nrisimhadeva’s original eyes were placed back, after one donor had bought Him new eyes?
“Oh, yes,”she told me.”As a matter of fact, I was staying in the same building when Lord Nrisimhadeva spoke to her,” she added. “You know, there was so much energy around that night that nobody could get any sleep.”

Just a few days later, another devotee revealed how Lord Nrisimhadeva helped him: “I was suffering intensely. I could not even stand without supporting myself on the column in front of Lord Nrisimhadeva’s altar. I prayed, ‘Please help me, take away this suffering condition, so that I may serve You fully!’ I then felt all my pain moving up and flowing out of my body. It just left.”

While I was hearing this, I noticed another devotee who had come for the darsana of the Lord. Earlier in the morning this mataji had asked my advice what to do, for she had been afflicted for about two weeks with a problem that contaminated her body, which wouldn’t allow her to paint some Deities in Assam, although she had already been commissioned to do it and had an air ticket to go.
“Mataji,” I exclaimed while walking over to her, “Lord Nrisimhadeva is giving instant benedictions. Why don’t you ask Him to remove your problem?”
The very next morning, when she saw me, she said, “Thank you so much for the advice! You know, when I arrived home from the temple yesterday, my problem had completely disappeared.”
Some days later, another mataji came to the pujari room and told us about a dream, wherein Lord Nrisimhadeva walked and talked with her just like a father. When she asked how she could serve Him, He told her to offer Him some mangoes.
About one week later when she brought the mangoes for offering, Jananivasa was telling some other pujaris how fortunate she was that Lord Nrisimhadev came to her dream and talked to her and held her hand while walking with her and gave her personal instructions. The Mataji then exclaimed. “Actually there was more to the dream than what I had previously told you.
Lord Nrisimhadeva also said to me, ‘My pujari is very dear to Me, and I am going to take him back with Me.’ ,
‘”Oh, don’t do that, please,’ I fearfully exclaimed. ‘We want him to stay here.’ ‘”No, I think I will take him back.’”And after my pleading with Him for long time, the Lord firmly announced, ,All right then,I will take one of the leaders instead.’” And now as you know just days ago HH Gaur Govinda Swami, who was a GBC, sannyasi and Guru suddenly left his body apparently by ‘heart attack’. I didn’t mention it before because I didn’t want to alarm anyone but now it has come true, I feel it is alright to tell you.

When I repeated this story to my friend Visvambhara from Carolina, he said, “This is amazing! My wife also dreamed about Lord Nrisimhadeva and mangoes. You see, yesterday, while she was walking outside the Mayapur campus, she saw a jar of mango pickles in a shop and desired to buy them for Lord Nrsimhadeva. But doubting the purity of the contents, she refrained. However, last night, Lord Nrsimhadeva appeared in her dream and asked, ‘Where are My mango pickles?’

When Lord Nrisimhadeva first came to Mayapur, all the pujaris were reluctant to worship His awesome form. Bhava-siddhi Dasa was particularly frightened and always very nervous worshiping Him. One night, after putting the Lord to rest, he was leaving the altar, when he heard such a tremendous sound that it made his hairs stand on end. Looking back fearfully, he saw that everything was in place. So he quickly left, locked the door and paid his obeisance, praying for forgiveness for any offense he might inadvertently have committed. At the end of that night he was awakened by the shaking of his bed. Bhava-siddhi was sleeping on the top of a bunk bed. So he thought it must be the pujari below him, getting up for mangala-arati.
However, when he opened his eyes, he saw Lord Nrisimhadeva sitting on his bed. That fortunate pujari became very fearful, practically to the point of panic. As he tried to get up, Lord Nrisimhadeva placed His two hands, which felt like the weight of the universe, on his shoulders.
“Be peaceful, be calm,” the Lord consoled him. “I have just come to tell you that when you worship Me in the temple, there is no need to fear Me. Please, give up this fear.”
The Lord then disappeared, but Bhava-siddhi began to run up and down the veranda of the Long Building, where he slept.
“What happened?” asked some concerned devotees. But they received only incoherent replies. They started to think maybe he had gone mad or become haunted by a ghost. Finally, Bhava-siddhi ran over to the temple and prostrated himself before the door where Lord Nrisimhadeva is worshiped and offered heartfelt prayers. After some time, he became a little pacified and began walking back to his room. “I wonder why everyone is staring at me,” he thought. When he looked down the answer was obvious: he was only dressed in his underwear.

I saw Bhava-siddhi at last year’s Gaura-purnima festival—he is living in America now—and asked him about that incident.
“Yes,” he said, “I still have those two marks from Lord Nrisimhadeva on my shoulders. They are almost gone now, but they are still visible.”
He wasn’t the only one to claim to have seen Lord Nrisimhadeva. Once, a devotee from a nearby Gaudiya Matha temple came to offer worship to Lord Nrisimhadeva and told our head pujari, Jananivasa, that on Nrisimha Chaturdasi (the appearance day of Nrisimhadeva) he had been staying up all night chanting. Then, at the end of the night, our Lord Nrisimhadeva manifested Himself in his room.
“It was the form of Nrisimhadeva from our temple, He was wearing a red dress and He appeared to be smiling at me. My Guru Maharaja said I was very fortunate and should come here and worship Lord Nrisimhadeva.”

Another time, the frantic parents of a runaway boy, after searching all over the country, finally heard that their son was at our Mayapur center. They immediately came and spent the whole day looking for him, inquiring at the reception desk and from individual devotees, but they were not at all lucky in tracing him.
At the end of the day, during the sandhya-arati of Lord Nrisimhadeva, his mother was praying with folded hands:
“My dear Lord, the last time I came here, I happily participated in the chanting and dancing, but now my heart is broken because of my lost son, and I find no pleasure in life anymore. My Lord, if only my son could be returned to me, then I would also raise my hands and chant ‘Haribol, Hare Krishna.’”
As these words left her mouth, a figure passed and stopped before her and Lord Nrisimhadeva: it was her lost son. Both parents have now accepted Vaisnava initiation, started a nama-hatta center, and are enthusiastically preaching the Lord’s glories.

There are other stories—some I would be hesitant to repeat, and others that I can’t, having been told them in confidence. The devotees who told me these stories have had their faith and conviction strengthened, and certainly mine was, too. So if others derive the same result of helping us advance in Krsna consciousness, it will be most beneficial – even though they are not sastra.
( from Mayapur Journal)

The Significance of Sindur

The meaning of sindur, an integral part of Vedic culture, is very profound.
Although ancient, it is very much practised today. I think sindur improves a married woman very much. It not only makes her look more attractive, but is so impressive that it also makes one subconsciously forgive other blemishes in character(!) Aishwarya has her faults, but I applaud her for wearing sindur so proudly:)

The “Sindura-dana,” or putting red powder in the middle part in the hair of the bride by the bridegroom, is the most striking feature of marriage ceremonies.The sindur-dana ceremony is also called “Sumangali.”
One day as Sri Jankidevi, wife of Lord Rama, was adorning the part of her hair with sindur, Hanumanji asked her, “Mata, why do you put this red thing on your head?” Smiling at Hanumanji’s curiosity, Sri Sitaji replied, “By applying this my swami [husband] lives long.” Because Hanumanji is a Parma-bhakta of Sri Ram, he thought that if a pinch of sindur could make his master’s life long, a whole lot of it would make him live longer. So he rubbed it all over his gigantic body!

The part in the hair where sindur is applied is directly on top of the crown, which in women is considered to be very fragile. The splash of sindur symbolically draws a protective line against outside evil forces. The trail of red powder across a women’s head and the auspicious dot of kumkum on her forehead are the symbols of her saubhagya, the auspicious state of wifehood.

Regarding parting the hair in the center, Srila Prabhupada says: “This parting, this parting is also… There is some meaning. When the parting is here, in the middle, then that girl has her husband and she is coming from respectable family. And if the, I mean to say, partition is here [implying side parting], then she is a prostitute. You see? A prostitute cannot… There was king’s ruling that a prostitute cannot [laughs] part here. And then again, when a girl is well dressed, it should be considered that she has got her husband at home. And when she is not well dressed, then it should be understood that her husband is out of home.”
(Bhagavad-gita 2.7-11, New York, March 2, 1966)

Question of the Week

What helps you personally to chant your best rounds?

17 May 2008

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Thank you for a wonderful DASI meeting today!

For those of you who weren’t there, the topic was the holy name of Krsna.
First we listened to a japa conference by HH Bhakti Charu Swami together, available from bhakticharuswami.com
Then we discussed different aspects of the class that resonated with each of us.

Here are some of the points that came up…

1. When we are distracted during japa, we should not think of the holy name as something preventing us from living our lives for two hours, but rather as the thread on which everything else rests and depends on for its success.

2. Chanting Hare Krsna is a prayer to Krsna: “Dear Krsna, please allow me to love you and to express that love by serving you for your pleasure”

3. The desire to attract the whole world to Krsna is an inherent feeling in pure chanting.

4. The holy name is non-different from Krsna, so when we are in difficulty or are afraid of something, someone or ourselves, we can chant the holy name to take shelter of Nama Prabhu who is non-different from Krsna.

5. There is always difficulty in organising our lives so that we can chant all our rounds comfortably and peacefully, but quality time with Krsna in the form of chanting the holy name is very necessary.

6. Chanting Hare Krsna means following the yuga dharma. This means accepting the authority of Krsna and displaying our sincerity and submission towards Him. This obedience is very pleasing to Krsna. And He reciprocates by taking care of us.

7. Many drops of water make up the ocean. We should all try to do something to spread this movement, and cumulatively, the effort will be massive.

8. The symptom of one who chants the holy name purely is that he is absorbed in hearing the sound vibration of the holy name. We should not be overintelligent and make the process of Krsna consciousness more complicated than necessary. Chant and be happy!

Those are all the points I can remember from our discussion on the lecture.

P, we’re going to miss you terribly:( But you know we’ll stay in touch!

Your servant, kcsoulmate

The Content of the Meeting on Vaisnava Etiqette

Vaisnava Etiquette

This powerpoint presentation was compiled using Srila Rupa Goswami’s Upadesamrta.

The flow of this presentation was apparent when presented orally, but may be difficult if you’re only reading it. This should help:

Vaisnava etiqette was discussed in a broader way than usual. We interpreted the topic as the different kinds of etiqette required by a Vaisnava, to encompass the following points:

1. Different grades of respect befit different grades of devotees.
2. Recognising characteristics of devotees at each level: kanistha, madhyama and uttama; so we know how to respect them appropriately
(3. A little deviation from the topic to talk briefly about which level we’re at, and how to advance)
4. Etiquette towards the spiritual master
5. Etiquette towards the holy name
6. Practical pointers of the etiquette of a Vaisnava in general

Mango Icecream

At our last meeting, we had yummy mango icecream for dessert, since it was Ekadasi. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

1.5 cups heavy cream
1 cup cold milk
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1.5 cups fresh mango pulp

Method:

1. Semi-whip the cream
2. In another bowl, mix the milk and condensed milk well.
3. Put it all together and fold in the mango pulp (chopped mango pieces are good in there too)
4. Put in a bowl, freeze for 10-12 hours.
5. An hour before serving, put in fridge to soften (unlike me who left it on the counter and let it all melt – sorry girls!)

For the diet-watchers – using a sachet of cream powder that you have to mix with water is just as tasty, for about 2g fat per 100g)

Offer to Krsna, and honour it with friends:)