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 Japa Mala, chanting the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra

How to properly chant the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra – Japa

” Nish, nish, ram, ram, nish, nish, ram, ram .” Srila Prabhupada once imitated how we sometimes chant without focus, without concentration, without proper pronunciation – how we chant when we dd this type of chanting; “I have to chant but I’d rather be doing something else.” And in our minds we are thinking, “I can’t wait to get these rounds out of the way, when shall I be finnished.” We all do this. And it can get pretty bad. I know devotees who chant rounds while watching football games on TV.

Srila Prabhupada explained that this type of chanting is more or less useless because it will not produce the desired result, love of Krishna. To even call this chanting is a stretch. It is closer to a ritual. But Prabhupada acknowledged the value in the ritual by saying that although this kind of chanting is not very productive, at least those who are chanting this way are keeping

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila 7.108
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
San Francisco, February 18, 1967

Prabhupada: Brahman means “the greatest.” So what is the idea of the greatest? The greatest means… That is described by Parasara-sutra, that He is the greatest in wealth, greatest in fame, greatest in knowledge, greatest in renunciation, greatest in beauty, everything, whatever attractive. How, how you can understand “greatest”? “Greatest” does not mean that sky is the greatest. That is impersonal theory. But our “greatest” idea is that one who can swallow millions of skies within Himself, He is greatest. The material conception, they cannot go further. They can simply think of the greatest: the sky. That’s all. “As great as the sky.” But we Vaisnava, we see that Krsna has within His mouth millions of skies. So who is greatest? Krsna is greatest or the sky is greatest? This is the difference between the Mayavadi philosophers. Just like Krsna, when He wa

Bhagavad-gita 9.29-32
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
New York, December 20, 1966

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Srila Prabhupada:

samo ’ham sarva-bhutesu na me dvesyo ’sti na priyah ye bhajanti tu mam bhaktya mayi te tesu capy aham

The Lord says that “I am… Although I am equal to everyone…” God is nobody’s enemy and nobody’s special friend, just like the king, the government, nobody’s enemy, nobody’s friend. As you act, so you get result. Similarly, for common man, there is no special favor from God. Ye tu bhajanti mam bhaktya. Ye tu. This tu means “but.” Here is a word, but. But means just like we sometimes say that “I am such and such, but…” “But” means there is something special. So this word is used here, tu. Tu means “but.” What is that “but?” Ye tu bhajanti mam pritya: “Anyone who is engaged in devotional service of Me, so for him I have got special attention.” Ye tu mam…, ye bhajanti tu mam bhaktya mayi te tesu capy aham: “As he is always, constantly engaged in My serv

Amazing darshan of Hanumanji: You have to see this to believe it!
This happened in Kalika Mata temple in Ratlam, M.P., last month.

Pictures tell the true story. The Saint was telling the story of Ramayana and “Hanumanji” appeared in the form of langur !! The langur first went and sat near the singers and listened to the kirtan, held the mic of the mahantji, got blessed by him, then “blessed” the saints and then sat in front of Shri Ramji’s photo and took some of the flowers (note similar position to Shri Hanumanji in the framed picture) and left quietly.

Bolo Siyavar Ramchandra ki Jai. Pavanasuta Hanuman ki Jai

Hanuman Chalisa
Hanuman – the Personification of Servitorship

Srila Prabhupada;

This is the greatest drawback of modern education, that not only in your country or any country they have completely neglected what is meant by God. And in India, they are especially… Now, as soon as there is any question of God, they see phobia: “Oh, this is all nonsense.” They have become so clever.

So anyway, my appeal to you, American people, that you are considered to be the leader of all nations of the world. You should take this Krishna conscious movement very seriously. It is good for you. It is good for the whole world. It is individually, collectively, without any consideration of caste, creed, or color.

Everyone can chant Hare Krishna, anyone and everyone, at home, on the street. There is no expenditure. Suppose while walking if you chant Hare Krishna, there is no loss, there is no expenditure, but you see how much you are profited by chanting Hare Krishna.

This is practical. We don’t say that “You come to our temple and give us some subscription.

Reader Deva Narayana das of Canada forwarded us this article about a large community of “Christian sannyasis” who live in a cloistered community upon Mt. Athos in Greece. We have edited the article for brevity.-Ed.

The Monks of Mount Athos

Krishna Chandra Das

I just returned from a pilgrimage to the holy Mount Athos in Greece, considered the spiritual center of the Orthodox tradition. Athos is an independent state and only monks can live there. There are (about two) thousand monks and few visitors are allowed to enter. Especially if one is non-orthodox, a special visa is required of which only four per day are issued. Meat is not allowed. There are also no cars, no restaurants and no buildings other than monasteries. For the last 1200 years it is forbidden for women or children to enter. For the past 1000 years also no female animals - that means also no milk and eggs.

The monks arise at 11 PM and chant japa for 3 hours in a completely dark room. Their "mantra" is the tradition

                Memories: The Past Life of a Pure Devotee

Hari das Prabhu

Note: Your Editor once showed Shrila Prabhupada’s horoscope to a renowned astrologer, Shri Shashikant Jain, whose hospitality and insight I enjoyed in Bangalore for many memorable weeks in 1976. The pandit noted that all Prabhupada’s planets were in perfect order. But he commented “There’s one minor flaw in the chart. That flaw was put there so that he would have to appear on earth. Otherwise he could not take birth.” He pointed to the conjunction of exalted Moon with Mars in the 6^th house of medicine. I told the pandit how in 1968 Prabhupada had related to us that he had been “medically-connected” in his past life, but had killed a snake by accident. For that one misdeed he had to take birth again. The pandit immediately agreed that this was indeed a plausible explanation for the combination. It was not until 2010 that I would discover the entire story, from watching the Memories Series of Videos by Shriman

 

This gola yoga phenomenon of all planets meeting in one sign was last observed on February 3^rd 1962 in Makara. The gola yoga continued for 3 days until February 5^th when the Moon moved into Kumbha rashi. In that gola yoga all the planets were aligned in Capricorn along with the South Node Ketu. When the Moon broke the alignment of planets, by moving into Aquarius, the next step or yuga yoga appeared in the heavens.

This significant event must have marked the early beginnings of the promised 10,000 years of Satya Yuga, which is supposed to occur after 5000 years of the present Kali Yuga. This is described in the Brahma-vaivarta Purana 4.129. Krishna spoke to Mother Ganga about the future events which would come to pass after His departure from Earth about 5000 years ago. Mother Ganga was very disturbed by the fact that Kali Yuga was coming and she was afraid that nobody would protect her. Shri Krishna promised her some relief with the following words:

“O Ganga devi, on the earth 5

Prabhupada: It will go on like that. In America (indistinct), why you are envious of me? That disease is there. His enviousness is a different quality. Actually, comparing with America, the people are more happy in America, not in Russia. It’s a fact. I have seen it. They are terrorized, no freedom. So everyone is terrorized, they must be. What is that? Is that life? I have to live under terrorism conditions. I must do it. (indistinct). It is not life.

Brahmananda: Here comes Gurudasa. (break)

Gurudasa: (making notes on tape) Morning, 11 September, 1974, Vrndavana. Srila Prabhupada was saying that manager and assisting managers is not difficult, except that all the European and American boys didn’t understand the concept of prabhu. We each call each other prabhu, but we are thinking that “I am prabhu and all others are servants.” Not that the one I am calling prabhu or the one who is calling me prabhu are mutual prabhus. (break)

Brahmananda: He’s typing the tapes now. To type one ta

Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON Bangalore to go on appeal

Lecture at Upsala University Faculty
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Stockholm, September 7, 1973

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Prabhupada: So I shall try to discuss Bhagavad-gita, Thirteenth Chapter, in which nature, the enjoyer, and consciousness is described. Sri arjuna uvaca. Arjuna belonged to the royal family of the Pandavas, and he was friend of Krsna. So there was a fight between two groups of cousin-brothers, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. So Arjuna… Krsna was requested by both the parties to join either of them, but Krsna decided not to take part in the fighting because both of them were equally related to Him. So after all, Krsna divided His soldiers one side and Himself another side with the condition that if He joins, then He would not fight. So Arjuna preferred to take Krsna on his side, and the other party, Duryodhana, he decided to take Krsna’s soldiers. So while just the fighting was to begin, Arjuna declined to fight because the other party were all his relative

There are two Arjunas in Krishna lila: one is a priya-narma-sakha in Vraja, the other is one of the Pandavas. These two combined to become Ramananda Raya, the dear companion of Mahaprabhu. He was very knowledgeable in the teachings of loving devotion to Radha and Krishna, which he described to Gauracandra on a daily basis.

Some people say that Ramananda Raya was Lalita Sakhi, while others do not. Mahaprabhu himself

Srila Prabhupada's fundamental instructions

Sperm whales like to be individuals; they use accents to identify themselves to others in their extended family group, new research finds.

The accents are specific to one call, or "coda," used by whales worldwide, enabling them to recognize strangers from any region.

"It's not that the individuals in a group are making different codas, they don't have different names, they just say the same things in different ways," said study researcher Shane Gero, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. "We believe they can pick between each other, that they can tell each other apart by this call."

Sperm whales live in family groups, with several generations of females living together with their young. They communicate using these codas, specific combinations of clicking sounds. The codas travel for about a kilometer in the ocean, and they are used mostly within a group to communicate during dives and social situations.

The team followed one group of sperm whales, called the "group

Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.15
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Auckland, February 22, 1973

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Prabhupada:

kecit kevalaya bhaktya vasudeva-parayanah agham dhunvanti kartsnyena niharam iva bhaskarah [SB 6.1.15]

So purificatory process. Our disease is… Try to understand very patiently. The living entity, he is under diseased condition. What is that diseased condition? Accepting birth, death, old age and disease. This is diseased condition. We living entity, we are eternal, pure. Because we are part and parcel of God, therefore… God is the purest. Param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan [Bg. 10.12] Krsna when realized… Arjuna, when he realized the teachings of Bhagavad-gita, he accepted Lord Krsna that “You are Parabrahma. You are the Supreme Brahman.” We are all Brahmans, but He is Supreme Brahman, param brahma. We are isvaras or… It is very now popular to become God. We are God. That’s all right. But the Godhead, He is Godhead. Therefore we use the wor

Ingredients:
♦ 1½ Tbsp ginger
♦ 2 hot green chilies, chopped
♦ ½ Tsp turmeric powder
♦ 1 Tbsp coriander powder
♦ ¼ Tsp red chili powder
♦ 1½ C water
♦ 4 Tbsp ghee/oil
♦ 1½ C paneer cubes
♦ ½ Tsp yellow asafetida powder
♦ 1½ Tsp cumin seeds
♦ 2 bay leaves
♦ 1 C tomato puree
♦ 1 large potato, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
♦ 2 carrots, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
♦ 1 bell pepper, cut into 2cm squares
♦ ½ head of cauliflower, cut into florets
♦ 1 C green beans cut into 1-inch lengths
♦ 1 C green peas
♦ 1 C zucchini, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
♦ 2 Tsp salt
♦ 1 Tsp garam masala
♦ ½ Tsp amchur powder (dry mango powder)
♦ 2 C milk
♦ 1 Tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1/3 C cold water
♦ ½ C chopped fresh coriander leaves
♦ 1/3 C pineapple cubes
♦ ¼ C cashews & raisins (for decoration)

Preparation
1. Process the first 5 ingredients with ¼ cup of water in a blender to a paste.
2. Heat 2 Tbsp of ghee/oil in a pan over moderate heat. Saute the paneer
cubes until lightly

Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.21
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
New York, April 13, 1973

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Devotee:

krsnaya vasudevaya devaki-nandanaya ca nanda-gopa-kumaraya govindaya namo namah

“Let me therefore offer my respectful obeisances unto the Lord, who has become the son of Vasudeva, the pleasure of Devaki, the boy of Nanda and the other cowherd men of Vrndavana, and the enlivener of the cows and senses.”

Prabhupada: So in the beginning Kuntidevi said that namasye purusam tvadyam isvaram prakrteh param: “I offer my obeisances unto the person, purusam, who is prakrteh param, who is beyond this material manifestation.” Krsna is complete spirit soul, Supersoul. He has no material body. So in the beginning Kuntidevi gave us this understanding that God, the supreme purusa… Purusa means person. He’s not imperson. Purusa. But He’s not a purusa of this material world, not a personality of this material creation. That is to be understood. The impersonalists cannot accommoda