Thursday Night Kirtan, a student program at Krishna House, Gainesville FL.

Ananta Gauranga 09.26.19 Thursday Night Kirtan @Krishna House

2021 - 05 - 23 Lord Will Provide Required Knowledge  Bhagavad - Gita  15.15 HG Vaisesika Dasa

rādhā-kṛṣṇa prāṇa mora jugala-kiśora
jīvane maraṇe gati āro nāhi mora
 
(2)
kālindīra kūle keli-kadambera vana
ratana-bedīra upara bosābo du'jana
 
(3)
śyāma-gaurī-ańge dibo (cūwā) candanera gandha
cāmara ḍhulābo kabe heri mukha-candra
 
(4)
gāthiyā mālatīr mālā dibo dohāra gale
adhare tuliyā dibo karpūra-tāmbūle
 
(5)
lalitā viśākhā-ādi jata sakhī-bṛnda
ājñāya koribo sebā caraṇāravinda
 
(6)
śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-prabhur dāser anudāsa
sevā abhilāṣa kore narottama-dāsa

Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Prāṇa Mora Jugala-Kiśora

Madhukar das - Vrndadevyastakam

Bada Hari Prabhu At BBGS's House 11.11.19

Trapped more than ever before in an already isolated, dystopian world, you may wonder: "Where have I landed? Where do I belong? How did the unthinkable become ‘normal’?" As winter creeps up on us, perhaps some of us are wondering why things are so difficult. The thought can cross our minds, "What would it be like to run away somewhere to get a break from all this..." But where do you run to? You are where your consciousness is. We are left with the question: what does the road to escape look like?

Join us for an evening of discussion with Devamrita Swami, world-traveling monk and Yale graduate, as he takes us into the realm of consciousness to find the perfect escape the heart dreams about. Make this time of great inner and outer turmoil an opportunity for the greatest transformation.

Talk given by Devamrita Swami for Mantra Lounge, Philly on 16 October, 2020.

Run Away To Nowhere: The New Normal? - Devamrita Swami

'In Memory of Krsnanandini' by HH Radhanath Swami on 29th Nov 2020

Therefore, one must have a very strict sadhana. One should moderate once life by having a very specific time every day to chant for two hours, to hear the Srimad Bhagvatam, ‘naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā’ it is essential to hear the Bhagvatam every day. It is essential to chant according to the vow we have made to our spiritual master every day, it is essential to invite sadhus to our home to serve them and humble ourselves before them. These are the principals of Grihastha ashram given in the scriptures and exemplified by all the great devotees of the Lord throughout history in that ashram. It is the duty of a Grihastha to regularly associate with devotees, it is the duty of a Grihastha to install the deity in his house and worship that deity and offer all food to that deity and make one’s house the holy place. So, we have these minimal devotional principals - to chant two hours every day, to hear the Bhagvatam every day, to offer all one’s food and worship the deity of the Lord within the house and to serve the sadhus and associate with devotees; these are four minimal principals that must be adhere to. And if you neglect those, then your mentality will become like a karmi. You may wear tilak on the outside but inside you will not have the proper spiritual principles to live by.

Whether Grihastas Should Spend More Time On Profession Or On Spiritual Activities?

He said, ‘I have been chanting 16 rounds for 3 years now but I never knew how to say it, because I never met a devotee. I am only saying what I am reading.’ He said, ‘but I never knew that there was such thing as devotees till I saw you.’ Somehow or other he found out about our New Vrindavan. So, He said, ‘I have come to surrender.’ He said, ‘I want to surrender everything.’ He said, ‘This is what I read that I am suppose to surrender everything.’ Then he said, ‘Sarvadharmanparityadya’ and he said it in all different ways, He said, ‘you are supposed to abandon everything and surrender to Krishna. This is what I have learned from reading this book. So, I want to surrender everything to Krishna.’ So, he had a house trailer, he had 2 cars, he had about a 50 thousand dollars with a welding equipment. He said, ‘Am I allowed to give all this to my guru? Because I read you are supposed to give everything to your guru.’ I said, ‘Yes, you are supposed to do like this.’ He said, ‘I have permission?’ I said, ‘I am Sure you can get permission.’ Now this is an example of someone who never met a devotee before but was living perfectly as a devotee for 3 years and completely and properly understood our whole philosophy, didn’t understand the proper pronunciation, just by coming in contact with one of these wonderful books. So, this is the power of transcendental knowledge. This is the greatest service that we can offer to humanity, by somehow or other influencing people’s lives by which they could live according to this transcendental knowledge. The world is suffering so terribly because of the lack of proper understanding of the goal of life.

Anecdote About Bhagavad Gita's Influence

'Flower Festival Special Class' with HH Radhanath Swami at ISKCON Chowpatty on 30th Jan 2021

To be congenial means tapasya. It’s going to be difficult. But when a husband and wife are congenial together with Krishna in the centre of their lives, service to Krishna, service to their children, service to the society, service to each other in reference to devotion to Krishna, then Lakshmi and Narayan are living in that house, not figuratively but for real. Lakshmi and Narayan are living in that house even if you don’t have deities, they want to live there with you because of your devotion to each other and even if you do have deities, and you spend lakhs and lakhs of rupees on beautiful altars, and getting deities made in Jaipur and calling all devotees to do the yajnas,  to install Them and abhisekams, and everything else, if you don’t have that congenial relationship of oneness for the higher principle, Radha Krishna, Laxmi Narayan, They are not in your house. They are statues in your house. Hare Krishna! Because They are going to be there to accept your devotion, they are everywhere. They are in deities too but They are not going to reciprocate unless you approach Them according to Their desire.

Principles of Marriage

Radhanath Swami is a Vaishnava sanyassi (a monk in a Krishna-bhakti lineage) and teacher of the devotional path of Bhakti-yoga. He is author of The Journey Home, a memoir of his search for spiritual truth. His teachings draw from the sacred texts of India such as The Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, and Ramayana, and aim to reveal the practical application of the sacred traditions, while focusing on the shared essence which unites apparently disparate religious or spiritual paths.
Born Richard Slavin, on December 7, 1950, in his teens he came to confront a deep sense of alienation from suburban Chicago life and the civil injustices of mid-century America. At the age of nineteen, while on a summer trip to Europe, his internal struggles culminated in a commitment to search for God wherever it might lead him. Meditating on the Isle of Crete, he felt a supernatural calling and the next morning set off alone to find spiritual India. The Journey Home documents his odyssey as a penniless hitch-hiker though Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and finally India. There he lived as a wandering ascetic, first amongst the forest dwelling Himalayan yogis and later amongst a wide variety of gurus and spiritual practitioners throughout India and Nepal. Ultimately, he was led to the holy town of Vrindavan, where he found his path amongst the Bhakti-yogis.
In Vrindavan he found the teacher he was searching for in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), and representative of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, (the Krishna-bhakti tradition stemming from the 16th century mystic avatar Sri Chaitanya). In choosing Bhaktivedanta Swami, as his guru, Radhanath Swami felt compelled to shear his matted locks and reenter Western society with a mission to share the sacred wisdom he had received. This return exemplifies the form of devotional yoga which is at the heart of Radhanath Swami’s teachings, a spiritual practice expressed as tangible action meant to bring about personal fulfillment and benefit the world.
At the the age of 31 he took the monastic vows of a Vaishnava sanyassin and became known as Radhanath Swami.
Today Radhanath Swami travels regularly throughout India, Europe and North America, sharing the teachings of Bhakti-yoga. He resides much of the year at the Radha Gopinath Ashram in Chowpatty, Mumbai. For the past twenty-five years he has guided the community’s development and has directed a number of acclaimed social action projects including Midday Meals, which daily serves more than 260,000 plates of sanctified vegetarian food to the children of the slums of Mumbai. He has also worked to establish missionary hospitals and eye camps, eco-friendly farms, schools and ashrams, an orphanage, and a number of emergency relief programs throughout India.
