Blogs

End of Tulasi Jala Dana During the hot season in India, a pot of dripping water is placed over Tulasi and Salagrama to keep them cool. - See more at: http://harekrishnacalendar.com/vaishnava-calendar/end-of-jala-dana-2015/#sthash.00KNbzIx.dpuf

Hare Krsna Prabhus;

As you know, this past weekend I attended the Festival of Inspiration at New Vrindaban. This was the 15^th annual event, and it could not have been more memorable. I would encourage anyone who is able to attend next year’s event.

        There were three days of talks from figures such as jayadvaita Swami, Deena Badhu Prabhu, Ravindra Swarup Prabhu, Varsana Swami, Gurudas, Sankirtana Prabhu, and Ramesvara Prabhu. And of course, you can meet many interesting people and enter into wonderful enlightening discussion over prasadam.

        A few highlights: Deena Badhu Prabhu took us on a journey to sacred places with his words and sound effects. One could see, hear and smell the road to Vrindaban.

        Sankirtana Prabhu gave us a visual history of our movement from the time of Lord Caitanya to the event at Thompkin Square.

        Gurudas, who is one of the most genuine people you will ever meet, told stories of his experiences with Prabhupada in the early days. Filled wit

Devotee: The role of woman he envisioned as that of man's companion. He says, "The first aspect, then, under which positivism considers women is simply as the companion of man, irrespective of her maternal duties," and that this friendship or companionship has as its basis sex. He says, "Conjugal union becomes a perfect ideal of friendship, yet still more beautiful than friendship, because each possesses and is possessed by the other. For perfect friendship, difference of sex is essential as excluding the possibility of rivalry." So he felt that sex, there can actually be very little friendship between men, because there's no sexual basis, that sex is the basis for the friendship between the sexes.

Approach God with a One-Way Ticket

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Question 1: Is it appropriate to approach śrī guru and Śrī Gaurāṅga with a return ticket in hand?

Answer: Never. Those who have come to the matha with a return ticket in hand do not wholeheartedly desire to attain Śrī Bhagavān. Would one who truly loves Śrī Bhagavān ever want to go away after coming to His lotus feet? Once one’s self-conception (abhimāna) of being the servant of Śrī Bhagvān has awakened, how can one leave that direct service to His lotus feet and again busy oneself in serving māyā?

Those who have attained divine knowledge (divya-jñāna) do not and cannot ever come to serve their most cherished Lord (iṣṭadeva) with the intention of returning back. But if someone considers himself to be the master or the doer; if he has other near and dear ones who are dependent on him; if he gives importance to his relation with things or persons other than the Supreme Lord; or if he identifies wi

In the Bhagavad gita, Sri Krsna has spoken of four kinds of knowledge:General knowledge is that we are this body, confidential knowledge (guhya) is that we are the soul, more confidential knowledge (guhyataram) is paramatma tattva , and the most confidential knowledge (guhyatamam) is purusottama tattva (Narayana in Vaikunta ), and the supermost confidential knowledge (sarva guhyatamam) is aprakrta tattva, Sri Krsna in Vraja.

Five hundred years ago in the district of Puri, in the village of Bentapur adjacent to Brahmagiri Alalnath, there lived a great devotee named Bhavananda Raya.
Bhavananda had five sons, the eldest of which was Ramananda.
Descendants of this family-line are known as Choudhury Pattanayaka.
It is said that Lord Caitanya visited the birth-place of Ramananda in Alalnath every year.

Ramananda was the Governor of East and West Godavari and a minister of King Prataparudra.
A great statesman of that period, Ramananda was also a poet and a scholar.
When Bhavananda met Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Lord embraced him and said, "Formerly you appeared as Pandu, and your five sons appeared as the five Pandavas."
The five sons of Bhavananda Raya were Ramananda Raya, Pattanayaka Gopinatha, Kalanidhi, Sudhanidhi and Nayaka Vaninatha.

The Gauraganoddesadipika (120-124) states that Ramananda Raya was Arjuna in his past incarnation.
He is also considered to have been an incarnation of the gopi Lalita, although in the

NOVEMBER 6: Srila Prabhupada asked Tamal at 3 AM to read the Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust document to Him, and an error was found, which Giriraj corrected the same day at the registrar's office (the word Swami had been omitted in error). "Srila Prabhupada sat up for bathing his face; but in the middle of bathing, he had to lie down, he was so weak (AK5). When it was time for him to eat, he said he could no longer sit up; however, he would (be able to) take very little prasadam while lying down. We could understand Prabhupada's condition was becoming very serious, that unless we did something immediately, Prabhupada would soon stop eating altogether."  Thus Satadhanya and Bhakticharu were sent to Mathura to call Adridharana for bringing the Calcutta kaviraja immediately.  The phone in Vrindaban had been disconnected for over a week due to an unpaid bill. Adridharana was reached.  Later in the day, Tamal and Bhavananda were able to convince Srila Prabhupada to continue taking the me

OCTOBER 18: Before mangal arati, Srila Prabhupada had Bhavananda, who was on the "night shifts,"summon Tamal, telling him, "I cannot sleep. (AK21) This allopathic medicine does not agree." Srila Prabhupada had not been able to rest properly all night and was quite exhausted. (TkgD)

            When Dr. Ghosh came in the morning, he asked if Srila Prabhupada had taken the Complan yet, and Bhakticharu said no. Dr. Ghosh found the pulse to be definitely improved, and observed that the swelling (AK17) had gone down. But Srila Prabhupada could not rest well, and Srila Prabhupada appears to have suggested discontinuing the allopathic medicines, blaming them for His restlessness (A4), and calling for Bonamali instead.

Tamal: But if I can give my opinion, Srila Prabhupada?

Srila Prabhupada: Hm?

Tamal: But you have been sleeping a lot, Srila Prabhupada… You were sleeping so much yesterday (A10), and even while you're taking these medicines. In other words, the idea with the allopathic medicine

CHAPTER 33:

HAIR ANALYSIS

THE FIRST TESTS

If Srila Prabhupada was poisoned, it stands to reason that evidence of this could be found by forensic analysis of His hair cuttings, fingernail clippings, or a tooth which may have been removed from Srila Prabhupada's physical body sometime during the period of poisoning and prior to entombment in His Vrindaban samadhi.  In December 1997 this reporter took half of his Prabhupada hair relic, about 40 milligrams worth, to First Analytical Laboratories in Chapel Hill, NC.  This hair had been received from a (name forgotten) travelling sannyasi in 1978 as a gift, and it might have been cut from Srila Prabhupada's head late in the course of His presence with us, maybe in 1977.  If there was a long term poisoning of Srila Prabhupada, this author's hair relic might provide proof of poison, detectable by chemical hair analysis. However, it is not known when this hair was cut.

However, it was learned that each chemical test can only be made for one sp