piektdiena, 2014. gada 24. janvāris
pirmdiena, 2014. gada 20. janvāris
sestdiena, 2014. gada 18. janvāris
Ksira-Chora Gopinatha in Remuna, Orissa
More information about Remuna and Ksira Chora Gopinatha can be found inf the Back to Godhead Magazine Article "Remuna – The Place of Pleasure" by Bhakti Vikasa Swami. Below is an excerpt from the article on how Gopinatha got the Name Ksira-Chora:
The Name "Ksira-chora" means "one who stole condensed milk." When Lord Caitanya visited the Gopinatha temple in Remuna, He told the devotees traveling with Him how the Deity had come to receive that name. Lord Caitanya had heard the story from His spiritual master, Isvara Puri, a disciple of Madhavendra Puri. As related in Caitanya-caritamrta, it is Madhavendra Puri for whom the condensed milk was stolen.
Madhavendra Puri was a highly advanced devotee of Lord Krsna. While living in Vrndavana absorbed in remembering the pastimes of the Lord, he saw Krsna appear in a dream and tell him He had been buried for a long time in a jungle nearby. Krsna wanted Madhavendra Puri to dig Him up. Following the Lord's instruction, with the help of the local people Madhavendra Puri discovered a Deity of Krsna named Gopala.
Madhavendra Puri built a temple for Gopala and served Him for two years. Then again one night Gopala appeared to him in a dream and asked him to go to Orissa to get sandalwood to smear on His body.
On the way to Orissa, Madhavendra Puri stopped at the Gopinatha temple in Remuna. He asked the priest what kind of food was offered to Gopinatha, thinking he could offer the same preparations to his own Deity, Gopala. The priest mentioned the condensed milk (ksira) known as amrta-keli, which was famous because its taste was nectarean.
That evening, while the priest made an offering to the Lord, Madhavendra Puri thought that if the priest were to offer him some of the condensed milk he could taste it and then be able to prepare it for Gopala. He then at once became ashamed for thinking of tasting the Lord's food during the offering. Feeling he had committed a great offense, he left the temple and went to a vacant marketplace to chant the names of the Lord.
Later that night, the Gopinatha Deity appeared in a dream to the priest and told him He had hidden a pot of condensed milk behind His cloth. Gopinatha told the priest to deliver the condensed milk to a saintly person named Madhavendra Puri. The priest did as told.
Madhavendra Puri felt ecstasy to learn that the Lord had stolen condensed milk for him. After drinking the milk, Madhavendra Puri kept the pot, and every day he would eat a little piece of it.
http://iskcontoronto.blogspot.it/2014/01/ksira-chora-gopinatha-in-remuna-orissa.html
piektdiena, 2014. gada 17. janvāris
Haridas Shastri enters the nitya lila
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| Haridas Shastri appeared in this world in an affluent and pious Brahmana family of the Kashyap Gotra
in the erstwhile Manbhum (now Purulia) district of West Bengal. His
longing for Sri Krishna brought him to the holy land of Vrindavan in
1933 when he was still in his teens.
At that time, Vrindavan was quite different from what we see today.
There were no roads, no concrete buildings and no electricity. The
temples were the only solid structures. Everyone else lived in huts. The
population was very low and most of the land was covered by jungle,
through which people walked on winding trails. In those days the spiritual aspirants of the entire Vraja-mandal used to visit a famous saint, Sri Ramakrishna Das Babaji in Dauji ki Bagicha. He hailed from the family of the chief royal priest of Jaipur and was fondly called Pandit Baba by the local residents of Vraja-mandal. Practitioners of different faiths used to go to him to have their queries answered. He would answer them in accordance with the teachings of their individual faiths. After his arrival in Vrindavan, Maharaj ji started staying under Pandit Baba’s care. Pandit Baba had never given diksha (initiation) to anybody. But he had given vesh-diksha (diksha for adopting the renounced order of life in the tradition of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu) to one great personality, Sri Vinod Bihari Goswami Maharaj. |
After taking the young Maharaj ji under his care, Sri Pandit Baba advised him to take diksha from his only vesh-disciple, Sri Vinod Bihari Goswami Vedanta-Ratna Mahashay. Maharaj ji became totally dedicated to the seva of his Gurudev.Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had sent Sri Rup Goswami, Sri Sanatan Goswami and others to Vrindavan for reviving the holy Dham. They had worked hard to clear the forests of Vrindavan, establish temples, libraries and educational institutions where students would study and get trained in devotional practices as taught by Mahaprabhu. This would benefit mankind. However, history tells us that those wonderful academic centers were destroyed. When Sri Vinod Bihari Goswami Maharaj had come to Vrindavan he had found that there was a general lack of proper scriptural knowledge amongst the sadhus there. Being exceptionally learned, he wanted to revive the academic and spiritual culture of Vrindavan that the Goswamis had established. As per this desire of his Gurudev, Maharaj ji also started working for achieving this goal. Maharaj ji went to Varanasi to study the shastras in the traditional educational system. He achieved a rare distinction of having mastered several different branches of scriptural studies. During a period of twelve years he was conferred with nine “Tirtha” degrees (vyakarana tirtha, kavya tirtha, sankhya tirtha, mimamsa tirtha, tarka tirtha (anuman), tarka tirtha (shabda), nyaya tirtha, vedanta tirtha, vaisnava-darshan tirtha), a “Shastri” degree (nyaya-vaiseshika shastri), and an “acharya” degree (nyaya-acharya). Having achieved such rare academic feats, Maharaj ji came back to the hermitage of his Guru ji in Vrindavan only to continue what he liked best – humble seva of the Lord. He stayed away from worldly honour and fame.Maharaj ji observed that due to a lack of proper scriptural understanding in Vrindavan, the spiritual practices in Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s traditions were being guided by the fancies of individuals and had become distorted and degenerated. There was hardly any scriptural text of Sri Chaitanya’s tradition available in the whole of Vrindavan save a few belonging to his Gurudev! He felt that the knowledge of the holy texts written by stalwarts like Sri Rup Goswami, Sri Jiva Goswami and other acharyas should be made available to the people so that it could be of benefit to them. But then, very few people knew Sanskrit and the texts of the Goswamis were not available in the local languages. This ignorance further precipitated in the people an indifferent attitude towards the manuscripts and old publications. As a result many texts written by the saints of Sri Chaitanya’s tradition were getting lost forever on account of neglect and ignorance. Maharaj ji took upon himself the task of saving the scriptural texts, for the shastras are extremely dear to the Lord. He toiled relentlessly, collected old books and manuscripts that were on the verge of becoming extinct, edited them, translated them into Hindi or Bengali and published them.
In the year 1965 he established Sri Haridas Niwas Ashram at the ancient Kaliyadaha Ghat of Vrindavan. The main temple of the ashram was dedicated to the worship of Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu, Sri Gadadhar Pandit Goswami, Sri Radha and Sri Govindadev. It was the first major temple in Vrindavan in which the form of Sri Gaura with his close associate, Sri Gadadhar was established. Within the premises of the ashram also lies the bhajan kutir (“Sri Giridhari Bhajanashram”) as well as the samadhi temple of Sri Vinod Bihari Goswami Maharaj. Maharaj ji struggled against many odds to give further impetus to the academic culture in Vrindavan. He established a library (Sri Gaura-Gadadhara Granthagaram), which is today one of the largest in the entire Vraja-mandal. He also set up a publication centre (Sri Gadadhara-Gaurahari Press) for publishing the scriptural texts that he was saving from extinction. So far about 90 books have been published from the press. Recently books in English, Spanish, Italian and Tamil have also been published. Through the press, Maharaj ji aims at sending out to the entire world the knowledge that the supreme Lord in the form of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu revealed to humanity, for this would benefit the entire human race irrespective of cast creed or nationality. A major contribution of Maharaj ji is his commentary on the Brahma Sutras (or Vedanta-sutras) of Sri Veda Vyas.
Traditionally, when an acharya claims to be talking about Vedanta, the gist of all spiritual knowledge available to mankind, he writes a commentary on the Brahma Sutras to establish his view point. Sri Shankaracharya wrote Shariraka Bhashya, Sri Ramanujacharya wrote Sri Bhashya, Sri Madhvacharya wrote Madhva Bhashya, Sri Nimbarkacharya wrote Vedanta Parijata Saurabh, and so on. However, when Mahaprabhu taught the supreme knowledge to mankind, He did not write any commentary on the Brahma Sutras. He said that the author of the Sutras, Sri Vyasa-dev had himself written a vast commentary explaining the meaning of the Sutras in depth, and hence no other commentary was required to understand the Supreme Truth of the Brahma Sutras. The natural commentary on the Brahma Sutras was Srimad-Bhagavatam. Followers of Sri Chaitanya therefore studied Srimad-Bhagavatam to understand the highest knowledge available to mankind. Later, during the time of Sri Baladev Vidyabhushan, scholars from different traditions started claiming that Sri Chaitanya’s tradition was an apa-sampradaya (non-authentic tradition) since they did not have a commentary on the Brahma Sutras. They did not accept the fact that Srimad Bhagavatam was the commentary on the Brahma Sutras by Vyasadeva himself. Hence Sri Baladev had to write a sutra-by-sutra commentary on the Brahma Sutras in the same style as those written by the other acharyas. He named it Sri Govinda Bhashya. Since then the Govinda-Bhashya has been recognized as the commentary of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas (the tradition of Sri Chaitanya).Maharaj ji, however, felt that the original question asked to Sri Baladev Vidyabhushan needed to be answered. How was Srimad Bhagavatam a commentary on the Brahma Sutras? Out of his mercy on mankind Maharaj ji brought to light the mind of Mahaprabhu by showing how Srimad-Bhagavatam explains the knowledge of Vedanta contained in each and every sutra of the Brahma-Sutras. He wrote a book, “Vedanta Darshanam Bhagavata-Bhashyopetam”. In this book he has listed sequentially all the sutras of Vedanta and for every sutra he has given the corresponding verse of Srimad Bhagavatam in which Sri Vyasa Dev has expounded the meaning of the sutra. He has then explained the meaning further in Hindi for the common man. Thus, in the series of commentaries by different acharyas lies this latest commentary on Brahma Sutras, the “Bhagavat Bhashya” of Sri Haridas Shastri Maharaj. One who understands the teachings of Sri Chaitanya, will easily be able to appreciate that this great work nullifies the need of mankind to produce any other commentary on the Brahma Sutras in the future. After the publication of this work, Maharaj ji was awarded the title, “Vidya-ratna” by the Vidvan Pracharini Sabha of Varanasi.
Another desire of Sri Chaitanya, which Maharaj ji has been keen to establish in Vrindavan was the original culture of Vraja that was prevailing at the time of Sri Krishna. The culture of Vraja revolved around the seva of Go, a special creation of the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. Go, in Sanskrit means the varieties of cows, bulls and calves that are native to India. (The imported varieties of cows and bulls and the hybrid varieties are called “gavay” and not Go. The glories of Go-seva are not associated with gavay). The Vedas, the Puranas, the itihasas and all other scriptures eulogize the Go. However, by the influence of modern education system, the importance that the human society attached to Go was fast diminishing. The dreadful sin of killing Go was catching up even in the holy land of India. The concept of Go-seva was getting distorted. Maharaj ji felt that if the ideal practice of Go-seva is not preserved in the society, true seva of God cannot come about. God can never be pleased by merely performing some rituals while supporting the acts of destroying the creature that He loves most. Maharaj ji began ideal Go-seva in Sri Haridas Niwas. For details on Go-seva at Sri Haridas Niwas, please click here. Maharaj ji is also a pioneer in establishing a system of organic farming for growing fodder for Go. In order to establish and spread the message of Go-seva in the society Maharaj ji has established “Sri Haridas Shastri Go-seva Sansthan”. This organisation is a Society registered with the Government of India. The management board of the Society is headed by Maharaj ji himself. For more information on the Society and its work, please contact us here.Maharaj ji, in spite of his advanced age, continues to work prolifically for the welfare of the human race. He is keen to establish the right education in the society for which he gives guidance to people who assemble at his lotus feet from the world over. A sincere seeker of the absolute Truth can take inspiration from the words of Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita (4.34); tad viddhi pranipatena pariprashnena sevaya
upadekshyanti te jnanam jnaninah tattva-darshinah
“Know that (the Truth) by surrender, seva and sincere enquiry. One who has knowledge of the Truth and has seen the Truth will instruct you.”
by on October 6, 2013
sestdiena, 2014. gada 11. janvāris
Construction updates for the magnificent Iskcon Temple in Kanpur, India
piektdiena, 2014. gada 10. janvāris
Rakhe Krishna Bakrid ke
Oct 24, 2013 — BANGALORE, KARNATAKA (SUN) —
A few days back, one devotee came up to me and told me how inspired she
was to put more faith in the Lord since the time she had heard me
mention the phrase – Rakhe Krsna, mare khe in one of my earlier classes
in Raichur. I was reflecting on the miraculous incident that occurred
just the day before and how when the Lord decides to protect, the
fortunate living entity beats the odds and survives.
The
miraculous sequence of events unfolded before our eyes on the Tuesday,
the day before the Bakrid. Bakrid is a painful day for the devotees of
Lord Krsna as they helplessly and tearfully watch the cruel butcher of
the several cows in the lanes and bylanes of area surrounding the
Narasimha Giridhari temple. But this Bakrid was different as the Lord
had a plan to involve us in a heroic rescue act.
As
I entered the temple in the morning, Suvigraha Das, the devotee
incharge of the Goshala came running towards me and told me about an
incredible event. One young cow, being taken for slaughter somewhere in
one of the lanes near the temple, had apparently escaped from the
clutches of the slaughterers and ran for its life and came running into
the Narasimha Giridhari temple complex and headed straight for the
Goshala at the rear end of the temple and joined the rest of the cows
there and hid herself. For those who don't know about our Goshala, it is
important to note that to reach the goshala, the cow had to cross the
bridge, enter the compound and take a right, then turn left and then
take a right and then a left and go straight a few hundred feet. In
other words, unless someone knows where the Goshala is, it is impossible
to stumble into it by chance. And the cow, as if lead by the hidden
hands of the Lord, came into the temple compound by crossing the road
and seemed to have headed straight into the goshala.
A
bunch of people came right behind the cow and demanded that the cow be
made over to them. They even entered the temple complex and the goshala.
Suvigraha prabhu sent them out and told them not to enter the temple
without permission. They stayed near the gate and their strength was
slowly increasing As a precautionary measure, Suvigraha called the
police to inform them about the developments and the presence of some
intruders in the compound. Within minutes, a couple of cops arrived on
the scene. They enquired about the cow that has strayed into our
compound. They informed us that the slaughterers of the cow, had lodged a
complaint against us in the police station minutes before our call.
There
is a law in the country and the state that prevents the slaughter of
the cows especially young ones, but who cares for the law, there is
numerous extraneous considerations in play and with a pliable government
in the state and the centre, the slaughters get away. So, it was not
surprising when we heard the police asking us to release the cow and let
the slaughterers have her again. The people who are to ensure that such
illegal slaughter of cows does not happen, were asking us to release
the cow. They pleaded helplessness. They cited political compulsions and
were rather straight forward in telling me that they feared that this
issue could be easily escalated and could lead to tensions between two
communities.
In
the meanwhile, I was getting calls from the chief trustee initially
telling me to hold on to the cow and he would settle the matter by
talking to the Police. But within minutes the gentleman was forced to
change his stance in view of the intense pressure from the Police. The
matter very soon escalated and several teams of police were coming and
going trying to persuade us to give the cow. We were having very anxious
moments not knowing what to do, our normally very resourceful Chief
Trustee too indicated that if we hold on any longer to the cow, the
police may send a search party to the temple premises. This could force
the Police to take action and this would probably spoil the
relationships between the Police and the leaders of the area.
We
were torn between these different pushes and pulls. While there is law
prohibiting the slaughter of young cows, nobody seemed to be talking
about it. The Police warned us that the slaughterers would get
aggressive and stage protest demonstrations (dharnas) as they
have done a few times in the last week whenever they have been
obstructed from transporting the cows or killing the cows. Here was the
cow, so shell shocked and scared, innocently looking into our eyes as if
asking us the question. The cow was badly bruised and had cuts all over
the body. The cow had very mysteriously and miraculously escaped and
had reached the temple Goshala. So, were we not obliged to at least try
to save the cow from what would have been a certain slaughter the next
day. The Chief Trustee called me again to say that he had offered the
claimants of the cow, money so they would give up their claim on the
cow.
The
Inspector of Police called me and pleaded with me to release the cow. I
offered to pay for the cow several times but the Police were unmoved.
The Cops then moved to the room where the cow was lying down and they
too were moved to see the cow in such a state.
The
A.S.I then remarked , that the cow seemed to be lucky and it would have
a long life. I clung on this statement that he made and begged him to
help us to make this statement true. I begged him to somehow grant us
time till the evening when I could safely shift the cow and claim the
cow ran away.
After
a few more exchanges , the Police came up with a formula and told us
the we should surrender the cow to the Police and that they would shift
the cow to the Jain Goshala, nearby. It seemed hard to believe the
sudden change of stance of the Police, who trusts them anyway? In the
meanwhile, the chief Trustee too called us saying that the Police did
not want to hurt our religious sentiments and they had agreed to shift
the cow to the Jain Goshala. My team here suspected something fishy but I
latched on to the offer and told the Police that it was good that they
were willing to let the cow be shifted to the Jain Goshala. All I was
proposing to them was to shift the cow instead to another goshala, we
were more familiar with. The Police were caught and could not respond
immediately. If they refused to let us shift the cow to the goshala we
were proposing, their game would be revealed. And if they genuinely
intended that the cow be shifted to a goshala what was the problem in
shifting her to a goshala we knew. They took some time to discuss this
with the A.C.P.
In
the meantime, the devotees were frantically making calls to everybody
they knew and requesting them to speak to the D.C.P or the A.C.P and
convince the police to let go off the cow. I honestly don't know how it
worked, but one thing I know is that when Krsna decides to protect, a
way would have been worked out and the cow would be saved. All of us
were trying everything we could.
We
were waiting to know if Krsna had some plan. The Assistant Sub
Inspector of Police came back and informed us that they had managed to
convince the higher ups in the department and also the set of people who
sought the custody of the cow. In a rare gesture of solidarity with the
temple, the Police team refused my offer to pay for the cow and instead
they pooled the money by collecting it among themselves and paid off
the people who sought the cow and the A.S.I had obtained permission to
have the cow shifted to the goshala we knew.
But
the Police apprehending that there could be some change of mind among
the higherups in the department, wanted the cow to be shifted
immediately. The Goshala team arranged a closed tempo and the cow was
shifted to a friendly goshala we were familiar with.
The
Police team accompanied the tempo just in case there was some trouble
on the way. The cow was safely shifted and it returned to the shelter of
Sri Narasimha Giridhari mandir, this Sunday, 20th of October. She
received a hero's welcome and the entire team of devotees greeted her
with a Go Puja and she was taken up for a darshan of the deities.
The cow is now named – Bahula.
You
too can do something to make this world a safer place for the cows.
Please chant Hare Krsna mahamantra and support Srila Prabhupada's
mission of taking Krsna consciousness to all the lanes and bylanes of
the world.
Varada Krsna dasa
Temple President
ISKCON Bangalore, Sri Narsimha Giridhari Mandir
Temple President
ISKCON Bangalore, Sri Narsimha Giridhari Mandir
http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/news/10-13/news5096.htm
ceturtdiena, 2014. gada 9. janvāris
Beautification of Puri Temple Surroundings in the Offing
Jan 07, 2014 — JAGANNATHA PURI, ORISSA 
—
The Jagannath Temple Administration in Puri has decided to beautify the
surroundings of the shrine by developing landscape lighting along the
boundary wall (meghanad pacheri). Though the Archaeological
Survey of India (ASI) recently planted saplings along the boundary wall,
lack of maintenance has damaged its beauty.
—
The Jagannath Temple Administration in Puri has decided to beautify the
surroundings of the shrine by developing landscape lighting along the
boundary wall (meghanad pacheri). Though the Archaeological
Survey of India (ASI) recently planted saplings along the boundary wall,
lack of maintenance has damaged its beauty.
"ASI authorities expressed their difficulty to develop and preserve the
park around the temple due to funds crunch. The temple administration
is ready to create landscapes and install lighting facility," temple's
Chief Administrator Arvind Padhee said after holding discussions with
ASI authorities at Puri on Tuesday.
"In nighttime, landscape lighting would provide visual delight to
pilgrims," Padhee said. The temple body is planning to develop the
landscape lighting in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode. The
proposed landscaping is also aimed at preventing vendors from
encroaching on the periphery of the temple.
Though the 12th century shrine
is one of the most famous temples in the country and attracts more than
50,000 pilgrims on a given day, the dirty surroundings of the temple
have of late spoiled the spiritual ambience. Not only vendors have
encroached around the boundary wall -- the temple dumps truck-loads of
garbage, generated from the shrine's kitchen, almost every day. The
scene is equally an eyesore inside the temple, where beautiful
architecture on the walls has been defaced by red stains of betel and
gutka spittoons.
Towards
the end of 2006, the Jagannath Temple administration decided to slap a
fine of Rs 100 on anyone spitting inside the temple, but it was hardly
ever enforced, as temple officials admit. They could not even figure out
how many offenders (both priests and pilgrims) had been fined so far
for spitting inside the temple.
"The rule has not been
implemented in a proper way due to lack of consciousness among people.
Civic sense is a vital ingredient to implement such rules. Fine alone
cannot curb such a habit. Everyone visiting the temple should take it as
a moral responsibility to not deface a holy premise through spitting,"
said a temple officer.
BY: SUN STAFF CORESPONDENT
http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/news/01-14/news5201.htm
trešdiena, 2014. gada 8. janvāris
sestdiena, 2014. gada 4. janvāris
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