Lord Caitanya

This Sunday, the 28-th of February! Sri Gaura-Purnima at the Sri Sri Radha Damodara Temple!*** 

Divine Appearance of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu - the Father of the sankirtan movement:

"In this chapter the author has fully discussed the reason for the descent of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, after displaying His pastimes as Lord Kṛṣṇa, thought it wise to make His advent in the form of a devotee to explain personally the transcendental mellow reciprocations of service and love between Himself and His servants, friends, parents and fiancees. According to the Vedic literature, the foremost occupational duty for humanity in this Age of Kali is nāma-saṅkīrtana, or congregational chanting of the holy name of the Lord. The incarnation for this age especially preaches this process, but only Kṛṣṇa Himself can explain the confidential loving service performed in the four principal varieties of loving affairs between the Supreme Lord and His devotees. Lord Kṛṣṇa therefore personally appeared, with His plenary portions, as Lord Caitanya. As stated in this chapter, only for that purpose did Lord Kṛṣṇa appear personally in Navadvīpa in the form of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu."(Cc. Adi-lila : Adi 3)

 

Ecstatic chanting, dancing, feasting, reading about Lord Caitanya!

You are invited! Don't miss out!

The program starts at 5 pm.
*** The program continues on Monday at 7 pm with a big feast!

 

Call (514)656 1335 for more info.

 

 

Hare Krsna!

You must accept the standard way, then you’ll get siddhi, you’ll get sukha and parāṁ gati. Unless you follow the standard way, na sukhaṁ na parāṁ gatim. So if you have interest in bhakti-yoga, then you practice the bhakti-yoga properly. That will make you successful. Otherwise, teṣām asau kleśala eva śiṣyate, simply whatever labor you are doing, that is your profit and no other profit. Kleśala eva. Nānyad yathā sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinām. The example is tuṣa. Tuṣa you know? The skin of rice? Husk. Yes. So if there is paddy, if you beat it, you’ll get rice. But if you beat on the husk, then...
Yogi Amrit Desai: You won’t get anything.
Prabhupāda: But your gain is only that labor. So similarly, if you don’t know what is the substance, you go on laboring, that laboring is your only achievement and nothing else.
Yogi Amrit Desai: Such a beautiful example. If you keep on beating the husk...
Prabhupāda: What you’ll get?
Yogi Amrit Desai: The labor you get.
Prabhupāda: Śrama eva hi kevalam.
dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ
viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ
notpādayed yadi ratiṁ
śrama eva hi kevalam
[SB 1.2.8]
Śrama eva hi kevalam. What is the profit? (Hindi) Sewer. Pigs. These are the natural examples. (Hindi) Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed sattvam. Just purify your existence, that tapasya. Then you’ll get... Yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam. Ramante yoginaḥ anante. That is real yogic perfection. Satyānande cid-ātmani. (Hindi) So if you have taken the bhakti-yoga system, do it nicely. You’ll get success very quickly. Otherwise, śrama eva hi kevalam. So why should we waste our time, simply satisfied with the labor?

Conversation with
Yogi Amrit Desai of
Kripalu Ashram (PA USA)
--
January 2, 1977, Bombay

Bhagavad-Gita

TRANSLATION

In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.

PURPORT

According to Bhagavad-gita, a sadhu (holy man) is a man in Krsna consciousness. A person may appear to be irreligious, but if he has the qualifications of Krsna consciousness wholly and fully, he is to be understood to be a sadhu. And duskrtam applies to one who doesn't care for Krsna consciousness. Such miscreants, or duskrtam, are described as foolish and the lowest of mankind, even though they may be decorated with mundane education; whereas another person, who is one hundred percent engaged in Krsna consciousness, is accepted as sadhu, even though such a person may neither be learned nor well cultured. As far as the atheistic are concerned, it is not necessary for the Supreme Lord to appear as He is to destroy them, as He did with the demons Ravana and Kamsa. The Lord has many agents who are quite competent to vanquish demons. But the Lord especially descends to appease His unalloyed devotees, who are always harassed by the demoniac. The demon harasses the devotee, even though the latter may happen to be his kin. Although Prahlada Maharaja was the son of Hiranyakasipu, he was nonetheless persecuted by his father; although Devaki, the mother of Krsna, was the sister of Kamsa, she and her husband Vasudeva were persecuted only because Krsna was to be born of them. So Lord Krsna appeared primarily to deliver Devaki, rather than kill Kamsa, but both were performed simultaneously. Therefore it is said here that to deliver the devotee and vanquish the demon miscreants, the Lord appears in different incarnations.

(Bhagavad-gita 4.8.)

This Wednesday, on the 3-rd of February we are celebrating appearance of the spiritual master of our spiritual master His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Goswami Prabhupad at the Sri Sri Radhadamodara Temple!

Everyone is invited to join chanting, dancing, feasting, reading the pastimes of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Goswami Prabhupad!

Program starts at 6 pm, do not miss out!

Please call: (514)656-1355 for more details!

Hare Krsna

Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupāda: Ah. They cannot understand what is the meaning of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are such dull headed men. They have no brain to understand. They are coming down again. Just like the dog’s tail. Know, dog’s tail. You may, however grease it... (laughs) They are hearing about this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The aim is the body, the dog’s tail. They are hearing daily about Kṛṣṇa na..., but they cannot understand. It is very difficult. These karmīs... Now they say... Because we are reading this Bhāgavatam, now gradually they dispersed. Gradually they dispersed. They are not interested. Hare Kṛṣṇa. And if you talk politics and all nonsense, oh, they will gather.
yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke
sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ
yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
[SB 10.84.13]
The go-khara class.

Morning Walk
--
May 9, 1974, Bombay

Sri Nityananda Prabhu, who is the incarnation of Godhead as divine master, delivered the typical naradhamas, the brothers Jagai and Madhai, and showed how the mercy of a real devotee is bestowed upon the lowest of mankind. (Bg. 7.15)

Celebrate Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Appearance Day at The Sri Sri Radhadamodara Temple!

Ecstatic chanting, dancing, reading the pastimes of Lord Sri Nityananda Prabhu.

Program starts at 6 pm on the 28-th of February, on Thursday!

Everyone is invited!

Celebrate Lord Sri Advaita's Appearance Day at the Sri Sri Radha Damodara Temple!

This Friday,on the 22nd of January you are invited to hear about and glorify Lord Sri Advaita Acarya.

Lord Advaita is the cause of the advent of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu - the last form of Krsna appearing on this planet. 

The program starts at 6 pm.

Everyone is invited to chant Hare Krishna maha-mantra, dance in extasy, and hear the sublime commentaries of Srila Prabhupada on the topic and then feast to the fullest satisfaction on delicious, vegetarian, karma-free meal(prasadam)

If more info required, please call the temple: (514)656-1335 

vistarenatmano yogam
vibhutim ca janardana
bhuyah kathaya trptir hi
srnvato nasti me 'mrtam

Tell me again in detail, O Janardana [Krsna], of Your mighty potencies and glories, for I never tire of hearing Your ambrosial words.

Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupāda: Anyone who takes milk... Everyone takes milk. The cow is the mother. Mother gives milk. And mother, when she cannot supply milk, mother should be cut up. Is that a very good philosophy? Is it human philosophy? What is the answer? But if you say that somebody wants to, say in your country majority they want to eat meat. So, if you put that argument, then you can eat some lower animals. You can eat the pigs. You are eating also, pigs. Not in a massive scale. Massive scale—if you are Christian you should follow your religious scripture: “Thou shall not kill!” This should be the principle. But if you are a rākṣasa, if you want to eat meat, then at least don’t kill the cows. You can eat other, insignificant animals. You are eating also. You are eating everything. Except the moving cars, you are eating all the moving animals. The car also moves, but you cannot eat. Otherwise you are killing everything. You have become so civilized rascal that your business is to kill other animals and eat. You are so civilized. You are still in the crude form of human being, just like in the jungles, the aborigines, the Africans, they do not know how to develop civilization—crude methods, eating the animals. That also, they are not so uncivilized that they keep slaughterhouses. You are so uncivilized that you are keeping slaughterhouses, regularly. These Africans and other jungle people they eat meat, but they directly kill. They have no such civilization as to maintain a slaughterhouse. The tigers eat meat, but they do not keep a slaughterhouse. And you are civilized. You are keeping slaughterhouse. Why should you keep? The government shouldn’t allow you to keep slaughterhouses. If anyone wants to eat meat, let them eat like tigers and others. Individually, kill one animal—a lower animal, not cows. This should be the government law. You can kill one insignificant animal, like pigs or goats. It has not very much use. You kill it in your home, before your children and family, and eat. THe government may not have any objection. But why should you maintain slaughterhouses? So the agriculturist and the mercantile men, they should produce enough food, give protection to the cows, and if there is excess, sell it. Where there is not enough food grain produced you can make business. That is the instruction given in Bhagavad-gītā, kṛṣi-go-rakṣya vāṇijyam [Bg. 18.44]. That is really needed. Nobody is interested. Everyone comes to the city, the mercantile class. They are doing business, big, big skyscraper building, and they have artificial money, paper. And instead of eating food grains they are maintaining slaughterhouses. This is not good civilization. Hare Krsna.

Morning Walk
--
May 10, 1975, Perth

Srila Prabhupada

Material life means life of ignorance. And spiritual life means life of enlightenment. That is the difference. Material life is called tamas. Tamas means darkness. Tamaso mä jyotir gamaya. This is the Vedic mantra. Don’t remain in darkness. But people cannot understand. “I am living in the light. Why I’m darkness?” Darkness means without any spiritual enlightenment. That is darkness. So the Vedic injunction is “Don’t remain in darkness. Come to the light.” The light is my spiritual life, and material life means darkness. Because he does not know what is going to happen next. You are under the laws of material nature. The nature will act according to the association you make, exactly. You do not know that you are infecting some contagious disease. You may not know it, but it will act. In due course of time, you’ll develop that disease and suffer. Similarly, without knowledge, in ignorance, imperceptibly we are associating with a certain law of nature, and we shall be victimized. We may not know it, but we shall be victimized. That is the life of ignorance. A child does not know that if he touches the fire it will burn and it will cause some disease, some sore. He does not know. But he, somehow or other, if he touches fire, these things will come. This is the life of ignorance. You do something, you do not know what is the effect. But the effect will come, and you’ll have to suffer. You know or not know, it doesn’t matter. That is ignorance. Life of darkness. The Christian theologicians, they say that “Why shall I suffer for my...?” They do not believe in the karma, fruitive activity. But that means ignorance. They have no sufficient knowledge. Karma is there and effect is there, but they do not know it. Poor fund of knowledge. Therefore it is failing. They have failed, these Christian priest, to explain everything philosophically. So advanced Westerners, they are now educated in science philosophy, they are not attracted with these dogmatic views. So to remain in ignorance is animal life. To be enlightened is human life. And the topmost enlightenment is to understand God and to love Him. That is the topmost enlightenment. Unfortunately, there is no education to know what is God, and what to speak of loving Him. This is modern civilization. Ignorance. A civilization of ignorance. They do not know what is what. Simply speculating, wasting time, talking all nonsense. This is going on in the name of education, but actually they are in ignorance. They do not know what is what. They are reading so many philosophical speculation, horrible condition of the so-called philosopher, scientist. Simply “I believe,” “In this believe, that believe.” You believe.... Believe something. That is your (indistinct). But your belief is not final. That is creating chaotic condition. You believe some way, I believe something, he believes something. What is the profit? Chaos. So all these philosophers, scientists, they believe “I believe,” as if his belief will be a doctrine. Why he believes like that? People also accept like that. Nobody questions that a person says “I believe,” that means he is not in perfect knowledge. But in Vedic çästra, there is no question of belief. This is the fact. Jalajä nava-lakñäëi. It never says that “I believe there are so many aquatics.” No. Clear declaration: Jalajä nava-lakñäëi. There are nine hundred thousand different forms of life in the water. Bas. This is Vedic knowledge. It never says, “I believe.” What is the meaning of belief? You must know definitely and declare it. That is Vedic knowledge. Speculation is not allowed. Truth must be declared as it is.

Room Conversation with
Mother and Sons
--
June 13, 1976, Detroit

http://www.archive.org/details/HarinamAtMetroSnowdonInMontreal

Paramahaṁsa: When I first joined the movement, Śrīla Prabhupāda, I used to listen to your lectures and then go talk with my father. And he would argue with me, and I would find a question and come back and ask you and find the answer and go back and argue with him. But the thing I always came up against is that if he assumes that there’s life on other planets or that there is a supreme source, a supreme energy or God, then it destroys his entire life’s work, his study.
Prabhupāda: Then they are fools. They should stop all this education. This university should be broken. (laughter) Because they are producing only fools. That’s all. They should stop this education.
Bahulāśva: Donate all these buildings to you.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. The buildings will remain there, but they will be finished. What is this education? They do not know what is God, what is soul, and what is the meaning of education? Simply bodily concept of life like cats and dogs, so what is the use of education? They remain cats and dogs. That is no value.

Morning Walk
--
July 21, 1975, San Francisco

Srila Prabhupada Morning Walk

Prabhupāda: ...difference between our activities and general people’s activities.
Devotee (1): The result is different.
Hari-śauri: Our activities are liberating, and their activities are entangling.
Devotee (2): The difference in our activities is that because we see everything as Kṛṣṇa’s energy, we feel the material world is never disturbing to us. Whereas for the karmīs, the material world is always very disturbing for them.
Prabhupāda: Yes. But they want that disturbance. He’s trying to be happy, but they do not know what is eternal happiness. We’re also trying for happiness, but our aim is eternal happiness.
Devotee (3): They think that eternal happiness means the same happiness that we experience in the material world, but it lasts forever, because they cannot conceive of a different quality of blissfulness.
Prabhupāda: This is difference. One is eternal; one is temporary and miserable. Although it is so-called happiness, it is temporary. At any moment it is finished. Actually there is no happiness. Still, even they consider this is happiness, that is temporary. You cannot enjoy. At any moment you’ll be finished. Just like the surfers, they’re enjoying happiness. At any moment they can be finished.
Devotee (3): Danger also.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Any moment.
Devotee (3): So there’s anxiety in all of the happiness in this world.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (Sanskrit) asad grahāt. Because they have accepted something which is not happiness, temporary, they’re always full of anxiety. This is the nature. The bird flying, anxiety “Oh, so many men are coming.” He’s not in peace. He was eating something; as soon as he sees so many.... “Oh, away,” flying. Anxiety.

Morning Walk
--
May 30, 1976, Honolulu

Radhastami festival

Friday 28 Aug 2009

starting 6.30 PM

kirtan, philosophical discussion and prasadam(vegetarian refreshment)

Free entry

more information : 514 656 1335

Hare Krsna!

Janmastami

(The Appearance of The Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna)

Friday the 14th of August

The program starts at 6.30pm.

Kirtana(devotional chanting), lecture with a philosophical discussion and a vegetarian feast.

Vyasa Puja

(The appearance of our beloved spiritual master Srila Prabhupada)

Saturday the 15th of August

starts at 6.30pm

Kirtana, reading about Srila Prabhupadas divine lila (pastimes), discussions and another sumptuous feast

Everyone is welcome to join the festivities!

Hare Krsna

for more info do not hesitiate to call 514 656 1335

your servants

On Monday 22nd, we'll have a small festival in our temple. Everyone is welcome. We'll celebrate the disappearance of Srila Gadadhara Pandit and Srila Sachchidananda Bhaktivinoda Thakur. The program starts at 6.30 PM. Chanting, aratika, discussion and refreshments! Hare Krsna!

(from the introducation to Srila Prabhupada's book entitled Krsna
for which Sriman George Harrison has kindly contributed $ 19,000 to meet the cost of the entire volume.)

our dear spiritual master Srila Prabhupada

This explanation will hopefully make it clear to the honest seekers of Krsna Consciousness about the actual situation with the ISKCON institution. What is presented here is not a distortion but the actual facts. It is indeed a painful reality to face and we are not proud of it but the truth must be spoken to benefit others who may not be in awareness of the true happenings.

Dear friends,
Please accept our most respectful Obeisances,
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.

We are sending out this most urgent appeal in the hope that a Sankirtana project here in Montreal can be saved. To put the whole thing to context it is helpful for all concerned that we briefly give its history, the present situtiation and what the devotees involved in this project hope to accomplish in the next few years ahead.   
       

In 1987, 10 years after physical departure of His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna movement(ISKCON), George Harrison was interviewed by Sunday Tribune. Among other topics, they have discussed his involvement in the Hare Krishna movement. The following is a quote from this interview:

At the turn of the Seventies, George became a benefactor to the Hare Krishna movement. He not only made records with them and talked about them publicly but also forked out a quarter of a million pounds to buy them a 15-room Elizabethan mansion with 17 acres of land. Since then, George's friend His Divine Grace Guru Bhaktivechanta Swami, the leader and founder of the International Society For Krishna Consciousness, who was 77 when they met, has died. George feels that some of the remaining Krishnas have at times abused his patronage, and he cites letters from people who wrote saying that they were hassled at airports by devotees using Harrison's name. Nevertheless, he still subscribes to "the Swami's ancient Vedic way of having God consciousness. The technique of chanting, just like the monks and Christians, they do it too really but it's just using beads and chanting these ancient mantras... they do have great affect. I wouldn't knock them at all. I am always a bit dubious about organisations and since the swami died it does seem to be chaotic, with all kinds of guys thinking they're the gurus. To me, it's not important to be a guru, it's more important just to be, to learn humility." And George still chants. "I've still got my bag of beads and they're really groovy now, all polished up."

The Sunday Tribune October 18 1987
source:

http://www.bpfallon.com/article_harrison.html