ekendra's blog
Last Call for 'Festival for the Eyes' Submissions
Posted March 19th, 2008 by ekendraOn the ISKCON News site we've set a goal to compile a multimedia presentation of 108 photos of Gaura-Nitai deities worshiped in the homes of ISKCON members around the world.
If you'd like to give our current readership a view of your home deities, then dress them gorgeously, get the lighting just right and snap us a digital photo. (Try to avoid using a flash please.)
When you submit your entry you'll need to include the following details:
- What's your name? (Please make sure you spell this exactly how you'd like it to be presented.)
- Where do you live? (Include the name of the city and country.)
Send just one photo as an attachment to: editor@iskconnews.com
Please try to keep the size of the file under 1 Megabyte. The best image resolution for our purposes is 800px by 600px.
Alternatively you could upload to a photo hosting site such as www.flickr.com and send us a link.
Time is of the essence so please send your photo in today.
His Grace Bada Hari Prabhu
Posted January 31st, 2008 by ekendra
Monday February 4th & Tuesday 5th
4pm – 6:30pm New Govardhana Temple Room
Songs of the Vaisnava Acaryas
with His Grace Bada Haridas Prabhu
In 1996 he and his wife and two children moved to Alachua, FL. Since that time, Bada Haridas has been teaching devotional music in the Vaishnava Academy for Girls and has offered numerous seminars on Vaishnava devotional songs in places as far distant as the Ukraine. Bada Haridas Prabhu has produced several recordings of devotional music that include his own performances of Vaishnava songs in traditional and original arrangements. He also produces recordings for other devotee musicians.
Vegan Cooking Workshop
Posted August 14th, 2007 by ekendraFor over four years, the brahmacari ashram of New Vrindaban has been creating a community and culture of service and love on the campus of Ohio University, all of it based on the motto that “the way to a person’s heart is through their stomach.” Vegan Cooking Workshop presents an inside look at how the magic happens, from the heat of the kitchen, to the risk of the road, ending up in the bliss of seeing over a hundred hungry, happy students tasting the mercy of Krsna.
This short film from the studios of the New Vrindaban Brahmacari Ashram shows what happens when hip, young gentleman in the renounced order, with talents galore, put the pedal to the max to bring first-class prasad and association to the starving young men and women of Athens, Ohio. Join in the fun, flavor, and love of progressive outreach at its finest.
www.vegancooking.blogspot.com
What Are You Doing for Cow Protection?
Posted July 30th, 2007 by ekendraKrsi goraksya vanijya. Krsi means ploughing or agriculture and goraksya, cow protection. These are the staples of society, this is what people live on. All living entities subsist on grains. So the ksatriyas may direct and instruct people, the brahmanas may perform their yajnas, but if they don’t eat then giving shelter or instruction is not going to work.
That eating is therefore the most essential aspect of life and this is why the vaisyas and their assistants, the sudras, are so integral that the other castes think that they are the most important people, because it is actually they who are feeding. Of course the vaisyas think that the brahmanas are the most important because they are taking the result of their work and offering it back to the Lord.
Srila Prabhupada said that this very common type of exchange was there but the responsibility of this goraksya, is it the duty of just some people? Some very very exclusive people? Is it the responsibility of all vaisyas, or is it for all grhastas or all devotees?
My proposition is that it is everyone’s responsibility. Just like everyone’s responsibility is chanting Hare Krishna, watering Tulasi devi, reading Bhagavatam. Similarly part of our common dharma is to protect cows. This is something that you see ingrained in communities like Bhaktivedanta Manor, where they have to limit the amount of cows they receive as gifts, and be very careful about the type of food that is offered to the cows, because to a greater or lesser degree all the devotees see the protection of cows as their dharma.
It is everyone’s dharma: the cow is our mother, she gives us milk while all over the rest of the world cows are being butchered, slaughtered, abused, and taken advantage of. Vaisnavas must take it as their responsibility to protect cows. Now, how do you protect cows? Does that mean that you have a cow on your balcony in downtown Singapore? No, that type of cow protection is actually cow abuse. You cannot just keep your own cow.
Cows only give milk if they have calves, which means you have to constantly have calves, which means you have to have a herd, and that is a full time business. So how is it that individuals should protect cows? They should in some way or another be connected to ISKCON’s herds. Srila Prabhupada established cow protection for instance in New Vrindavan, Gita Nagari, or as we have done here in Hungary at New Vraja-dhama. These herds are not the sole responsibility or duty of the local devotees in those places, they are the responsibility of the devotees and congregation of the local country. It is their responsibility to contribute to the cow protection, to donate towards the maintenance of the cow, to come and do some cow seva, and when they come to the temple they should bring some bhoga for the cows, to find out what items are needed by the cowherds. And the cow herds.
Cow protection is everyone’s business, it is everyone’s responsibility. This is being written down as varnasrama dharma. If one does not contribute or participate directly in cow protection then he should know that he is neglecting his dharma, he is neglecting his dharma. In other words he is adharmic.
This is in my view the greater picture of what varnasrama means. Varnasrama doesn’t mean that we simply philosophise about a way of life, but what are the duties of varnas and asramas, what are the duties that are common for all Vaisnavas, for all humans. And one of them is the protection of cows, just like chanting Hare Krsna is a common responsibility as mentioned earlier.
So, similairly, cow protection is a common responsibility for everyone. It doesn’t necessarily always occur to us, and even when it does, it’s difficult to get devotees interested. More difficult than getting devotees to do sankirtan, more difficult than getting someone to cook in the kitchen or be temple president, is to get devotees to be cowherds. To make devotees work with the cows, bulls, and oxen and to make that their life, it is very difficult for devotees to do this. “I am an educated person, I have this diploma and you want me to take care of cows? You want me to do that thing that God does? You want me to do that activity that is going on in the spiritual world?”
And that is what is going on the spiritual world. That is what is going on where we are going–at least where I want to go is where there is only gopas and gopis. The whole social identity is based on go, on cows. There are milkmaids and there are cowherd men. And if we are not willing to be milkmaids and cowherd men here in the material world, if this service is beyond us and we cannot forsee how we are going to dedicate our lives to working with the cows, then were are we going? Then you had better look for somewhere other than Braja. Then you had better go to Dwaraka or Vaikuntha, where that is not a compulsory, integral part of life.
Because in the spiritual world, in Goloka Vrindavan, Krishna goes out every day to tend cows. And yet it is so difficult to get devotees to be cowherders, to see that this is a respectable future, and to stick with that service. Because once again, cow protection is something that we talk about as being against the principles of slaughtering the animals. We don’t believe in slaughtering the cow, we don’t believe in eating the meat of the cow, cows should be properly protected. But, when it comes to properly protecting the cows, are we willing to do it? Are we actually willing to dedicate our lives to taking care of cows? Or are we willing to participate and support the protection of cows?
Therefore, we should ask: “What am I doing for protecting my mother? What am I doing to sustain cow protection in my zone? It is my responsibility, my duty as a Vaisnava. Am I performing my dharmic duty?”
Tasty food tempts prisoners to stay in Indian jail
Posted June 22nd, 2007 by ekendraArticle sourced from here. Who could have predicted this consequence from our prasadam efforts? 
Tasty food tempts prisoners to stay in Indian jail
Thursday Jun 21 15:16 AEST
Inmates at a prison in southern India are eating so well that many are reluctant to leave while other convicted criminals are trying to move in, a newspaper said Thursday.
The Parappana Agrahara prison in Bangalore is crowded with 4700 inmates, more than twice its capacity, because small-time criminals are refusing to apply for bail, according to the Bangalore Mirror.
Juvenile offenders are also overstating their age to qualify as adults and enter the facility, the newspaper added.
The reason is the healthy food served by ISKCON, or the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, a Hindu evangelist organisation, said the paper, whose reporters visited the facility.
ISKCON, commonly known as the Hare Krishna movement, started serving its pure-vegetarian fare in the jail on May 21 under contract from the prisons department.
Lunch and dinner typically include piping hot rice, two vegetables and a spicy lentil dish called sambar and buttermilk. A dessert is added on festival days and national holidays like Independence Day, and also once a week.
"When we are getting tasty, nutritious food three times a day here, why should we go out and commit crimes," said prisoner Raja Reddy, who has been arrested 20 times in 30 years for theft, robbery and burglary.
"Our going out of the prison will only benefit pawnbrokers who purchase stolen items at a throwaway price from us, advocates who fleece us to fight our case and the police who collect bribes," Reddy was quoted as saying.
Steve Jobs recalls visiting the local Hare Krishna temple
Posted May 31st, 2007 by ekendraSteve Jobs (founder acarya of Apple Computers) recalls moments of his life: "It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on."
Do You Force Your Children?
Posted May 15th, 2007 by ekendraby Urmila Devi Dasi
WE SIT IN THE Calcutta Airport waiting for an announcement, the flight three hours late. The many ceiling fans do little to refresh the air, polluted by cigarette smoke and hundreds of bodies. My ten-year-old son and I sit by a door, opened a crack but with negligible effect. I talk with a blue-saried nun from Puna who wishes us the best in our spiritual journey. Then I talk with a couple who supervise testing for students seeking admission to European and American schools.
Then, from an Indian gentleman, the inevitable questions.
“Is this your son?”
“Yes, and we have a seventeen-year-old son and a thirteen-year-old daughter.”
“Are they also practicing Hare Krsna?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Do you force them?”
I take one of the last drinks from my bottle of mineral water and lean forward.
Force. Everyone wants to know if we force. The devotees at our project in Mayapur discussed this with me at length, and here it is again. Our three children certainly do not feel forced. Yet we expect, and to some degree require, their active and willing participation in our spiritual life, especially the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra. But how can one require willing participation? I’ve explained it countless times, and again I beg the Lord to give me intelligence and the ability to ignore the second-hand tobacco smoke.
“I don’t like the word force,” I say at last. “Don’t parents ‘force’ their children to brush their teeth and wear clean clothes? Yet neither parents nor children generally see this as force. Why?”
“Well, we try to explain the reasons.”
“Yes, and we set an example.”
“And habit?”
“Yes, we try to develop spiritual habits in the children. Of course, spiritual life and a love for Krsna’s name are natural for the soul, so these things are not externally imposed by habit. But developing habits in children brings them to take as natural what is actually natural.”
“Like—you wake up early, right?”
“Yes, three-thirty. So to our children that’s simply a normal time to wake up. They see six o’clock as late. In the same way, a normal person likes clean air and clean lungs. Not like this room.”
We both lean back, and my son Kesava continues to chant on his beads.
“Mata,” he asks me, “I want to see if I can leave this area and walk around the airport.”
“Sure.”
I turn to the gentleman. “It may sometimes appear that we demand things of the children, but the point is to awaken their natural attraction for Krsna. It’s like training children to brush their teeth regularly so they’ll come to feel uncomfortable with an unclean mouth.”
My acquaintance is satisfied and turns to his newspaper.
Just how do we instill in our children love for spiritual life? First, we should surround them with spiritual activities, especially the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra, and protect them from all opportunities to grow fond of the modes of passion and ignorance. These precautions won’t narrow children. Doing these things is as reasonable as surrounding children with a clean house and getting rid of dirt from clothes, floors, and furniture. Letting children live with dirt won’t broaden them.
We sit our children by us when we chant, and we expect them to chant too, just as we put clean clothes in their drawers and expect them to wear them. We teach our children the Hare Krsna mantra, show them how to finger the beads and play musical instruments, and guide them daily, as much as we check every day to see if they’re dressed for the weather or have finished their chores.
It’s easy to understand how to teach the mechanical, external aspects, but is it even possible to teach the internal, the feelings?
Just by teaching the externals, of course, we give a powerful yet subtle message: “This is important.” For example, when a mother, during her japa chanting time, always insists that her young child play quietly, the child realizes the seriousness with which his mother approaches her chanting. So the child will naturally imitate.
Beyond that, one can set the example of a deep commitment to spiritual perfection throughout one’s life. The children should see that this is a joyful commitment, free from hypocrisy and self-righteousness. The children need to be inspired by regularly hearing the philosophy of Krsna consciousness. And, finally, we can pray to Krsna, who is in the heart of our children, to reveal His glories to them.
With this program and the mercy of Lord Krsna, as our children mature they will voluntarily choose to work for the ultimate treasure, love of God.
Urmila Devi Dasi was initiated by Srila Prabhupada in 1973 and has been involved in ISKCON education since 1983, and has a Masters of School Administration and a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned a Master Practitioner certification in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, a counseling and teaching system, and is also certified in the Prepare system of pre-marital counseling.
Varnasrama Without Cow Protection: Surrealism In Action
Posted May 14th, 2007 by ekendraby Ekendra das
Have a look at this painting called The Persistance of Memory by the famous surrealist Salvador Dali. How does it capture you? Does it even draw your attention at all?
Many people find this painting captivating and definitive of the surrealistic movement in art. Here you have something familiar and distinctive - a clock. Clocks of this sort are usually found hanging on walls; yet here one is melting whilst hanging from the branch of a dead tree. Taking something out of context and superimposing it into an artificial environment is one aspect of surrealism. Even though it is sometimes said that 'a picture is worth a thousand words', this concept in relation to application of the Varnasrama culture in modern times is what I want to focus on in this article.
To help us to understand the four different divisions of varna Srila Prabhupada gave us the analogy of a human body. He likened the head of the body to the brahmanical or intellectual class of people. The arms of the body are compared to the ksatriya or administrative/warrior type of person. Just as arms can be used to activate, enforce and defend - the ksatriya class dutifully protects and administrates social injunctions under the guidance of the intellectual class. The vaisyas are like the stomach of the body. Those in this merchantile order are expected to generate an economy based on agriculture and are also expected to protect cows. The sudras are considered to be the legs of the body rendering their service by performing labour in support of the other social divisions.
Thus all four social divisions function as a whole just as the different parts of the body comprise a singular entity. So, despite that the four varnas are considered divisions of human society, they are inseperable and inter-dependent. To try to take the head, for instance, without the stomach renders a useless body. This is called ardha-kukkuṭī-nyāya, "the logic of half a hen" wherein one is impressed by the egg laying capacity of one part of the chicken but not so enthusiastic about the head which requires to be fed - so the logic is to chop off the head to remove the unwanted part .
Acknowledging the correlation between the four varnas, the question then arises "Does the existence of one particular class of people depend upon the existence of the other three?" The answer is plainly, "No". A head is a head just like a brahmana is a brahmana like a clock is a clock. Obviously an individual with distinctive intellectual capacity is who he/she is. Division, therefore, of a group of people into different classes of society solely according to their innate qualities and abilities is feasible.
"Do the activities of one particular social order depend upon the activites of the other three?" This is an entirely different question altogether. Previously we questioned whether or not a brahmana could exist without the other types of people. Why not? "Can, though, a brahmana perform his function without the other social orders?" Not sustainably. This is largely due to performing their function out of context - just like the clocks in the image above. We can say - brahmana - but if the brahmana's activities are not beneficial what to speak of in consideration of the complete social body then this definition falls into the realm of the surreal.
guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ
tasya kartāram api māṁ
viddhy akartāram avyayam
"According to the three modes of material nature and the work associated with them, the four divisions of human society are created by Me. And although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the nondoer, being unchangeable. " (Bhagavad-gita 4.13)
From this verse Krishna not only identifies that He personally has created these four social orders, He also describes that the divisions are based on two things:
1.) guna - the three modes of material nature
2.) karma - the work associated with the three modes of material nature
So as far as gunas are concerned, that has already been discussed. Action, or karma, is the consideration when we discuss the implementation of something. Since we have already divided the people in society into four social orders according to their innate capacities, now we need to assign them work. "How will they fill their day?"
- brahmanas - worship of the Supreme Lord via sacrifice (for the Age of Kali this means chanting Hare Krishna), teaching others to do the same, study of Vedic literatures and teaching this to others, giving and receiving in charity
- ksatriyas - dutiful enforcement of religious injunction as described by the brahmanas, protection of those under thier care, leadership
- vaisyas - cow protection, farming and business
- sudras - labor and service to others
When all this is all working in line with Vedic injunctions then we have a reflection of Krishna's culture in Goloka Vrindavana. What makes it a gradually spirutually uplifting experience is that the focus of the whole society is pleasing Krishna.
Specifically the protection of cows is not solely driven by economic consideration but is performed as a central religious theme that permeates all four social orders. Protection of cows is, therefore, an indisposable aspect of varnasrama life. To try to implement a concept of varnasrama without this essential aspect is, again, surreal.
Krishna loves cows. When He appears on Earth He chooses to spend His youth engaged in vaisya activites - foremost of which is the protection of cows.
go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca
jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya
govindāya namo namaḥ
"My Lord, You are the well-wisher of the cows and the brāhmaṇas, and You are the well-wisher of the entire human society and world." (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 1.19.65)
Srila Prabhupada comments: "The purport is that special mention is given in that prayer for the protection of the cows and the brāhmaṇas. Brāhmaṇas are the symbol of spiritual education, and cows are the symbol of the most valuable food; these two living creatures, the brāhmaṇas and the cows, must be given all protection—that is real advancement of civilization."
So when we as devotees in ISKCON discuss implementation of varnasrama then we should consider the above statement and the depth of wisdom from which it is articulated. Again, for emphasis, "These two living creatures, the brāhmaṇas and the cows, must be given all protection—that is real advancement of civilization."
Besides that - Srila Prabhupada made varnasrama easy for us: "Do you like a particular activity?" "Are you good at it?" Then do it for Krishna. Simple. Be yourself and make a contribution - but try to understand the greater importance of looking after cows and intellectuals as this is essential for advancement of human society. Without this focus then we will collectively move towards a very surrealistic, unsustainable and distorted reflection of varnasrama-dharma.
