Bhakti Vikasa Swami's Blog, page 342
May 27, 2012
Children of devotees
If a child takes birth in a family of devotees, this means that in his last
life he had already taken to the yoga process, but somehow or other he could
not finish it. Therefore the child is given another opportunity to make
progress under the care of a good father and mother so that he will again
advance. In this way, as soon as one completes his development of God
consciousness, then he no longer has to take birth in this material world,
but returns to the spiritual world.
From SSR
life he had already taken to the yoga process, but somehow or other he could
not finish it. Therefore the child is given another opportunity to make
progress under the care of a good father and mother so that he will again
advance. In this way, as soon as one completes his development of God
consciousness, then he no longer has to take birth in this material world,
but returns to the spiritual world.
From SSR
May 26, 2012
Peace
“Do you think you’ll have peace just because there’s no war?” Prabhupada
asked at one lecture. “How can you ever have peace as long as there’s birth,
old age, disease, and death?”
From “Vrindaban Days” by Hayagriva Prabhu
asked at one lecture. “How can you ever have peace as long as there’s birth,
old age, disease, and death?”
From “Vrindaban Days” by Hayagriva Prabhu
May 25, 2012
Poverty means poverty of knowledge
Poverty means poverty of knowledge. Prime minister Canakya Pandit used to
live in a thatched house or cottage but he was the dictator of India in the
days of Emperor Candra Gupta. Mahatma Gandhi your political Guru voluntarily
accepted the ways of the so called poor Indians and still he was the
dictator of India’s destiny. But was he actually poverty sticken on account
of his plain living with the primitive charkha? He was always proud of his
spiritual knowledge. Therefore it is the spiritual knowledge which makes a
man really rich and not the radio set or the motor car. Please therefore try
to understand this position of Indian culture and try to give it to the
western brothers in the prescribed standard method of the liberated persons
and that will be an exchange of Indian culture with western material
advancement and necessarily bring in a happy life in the peaceful world.
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Jawaharlal Nehru — Bombay 4 August, 1958
(Jawaharlal Nehru died May 27, 1964)
live in a thatched house or cottage but he was the dictator of India in the
days of Emperor Candra Gupta. Mahatma Gandhi your political Guru voluntarily
accepted the ways of the so called poor Indians and still he was the
dictator of India’s destiny. But was he actually poverty sticken on account
of his plain living with the primitive charkha? He was always proud of his
spiritual knowledge. Therefore it is the spiritual knowledge which makes a
man really rich and not the radio set or the motor car. Please therefore try
to understand this position of Indian culture and try to give it to the
western brothers in the prescribed standard method of the liberated persons
and that will be an exchange of Indian culture with western material
advancement and necessarily bring in a happy life in the peaceful world.
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Jawaharlal Nehru — Bombay 4 August, 1958
(Jawaharlal Nehru died May 27, 1964)
Uninnocent Misconceptions
[B]Where:[/B] Kanhaiyadesh[BR]
[B]When:[/B] 15 Dec 11[BR]
[B]Scripture:[/B] BG 9.12[BR]
[B]Language:[/B] English[BR]
[CUT]
Download Uninnocent Misconceptions
[B]When:[/B] 15 Dec 11[BR]
[B]Scripture:[/B] BG 9.12[BR]
[B]Language:[/B] English[BR]
[CUT]
Download Uninnocent Misconceptions
May 24, 2012
Origin of onions and garlic
From Transcendental Diary by Hari-sauri Prabhu
December 22 1976 – Poona
The Malhotras are the owners of Weikfield Products food company, which was
established twenty years ago. They have a very large modern house, Malhotra
Bhavan, situated on several acres of well kept land at 116 Koregaon Park,
which, unusual for India, even has a moderately sized swimming pool. At the
house Srila Prabhupada was introduced to the wives of all three brothers,
and some of their children.
As I busied myself retrieving Srila Prabhupada’s silver plate and bowls for
breakfast from our bags in the car, Haridäsa escorted His Divine Grace into
the house. A few minutes later he came out grinning and told me of an
unusual story Srila Prabhupada had narrated to our hosts. The ladies had
naturally inquired from Srila Prabhupada what would he like to eat, and his
initial response was to say “anything.” He declared he would be satisfied
with whatever they wanted to offer. But then he added, as a precaution, that
there should be no onions or garlic. They knew this to be one of our
standards, but still they were inquisitive to know why.
Prabhupäda said with a smile that eating onion and garlic is as bad as
eating cow’s flesh. And he told them a story about a Muslim king, a cow and
a brähmana.
For the Muslims, cow slaughter is a regular affair. This particular king
however, before having the cow slaughtered would call a brähmana and the
brähmana would offer prayers to the effect that “In this life these people
are slaughtering you, but in the next life you will get the chance to
slaughter them.”
So one time a brähmana came there but he felt lusty and he wanted to eat
the cow’s flesh also. However, the system was that he was not allowed to see
the slaughter going on, he was supposed to offer his prayers and then leave.
So he hid in a corner and witnessed the butchering. After the Muslims had
all taken their share of the dead cow and departed, the brähmana came to
that spot and he found an ankle of the cow. Because he was not supposed to
eat any meat, he took the cow’s ankle into the forest and buried it with the
plan that he would return in the night, cook it and eat it. When he came
back he dug out the cow’s ankle and found to his great surprise that it had
turned into onion and garlic.
Haridäsa said that Prabhupäda told the Malhotras that the cow’s hoof
transformed to garlic and the ankle became onion; garlic looks like a cow’s
hoof, and just as the cow’s ankle has several layers of flesh similarly the
onion has several layers and is the color of flesh. He finished the
narration by telling them that when you eat garlic it makes a bad smell come
in your mouth and when you cut onion it makes tears come out of your eyes.
The tears come because the cow was crying that in Kali yuga even the
brähmana wants to eat onion. The family loved the story and promised not to
serve any onions and garlic.
December 22 1976 – Poona
The Malhotras are the owners of Weikfield Products food company, which was
established twenty years ago. They have a very large modern house, Malhotra
Bhavan, situated on several acres of well kept land at 116 Koregaon Park,
which, unusual for India, even has a moderately sized swimming pool. At the
house Srila Prabhupada was introduced to the wives of all three brothers,
and some of their children.
As I busied myself retrieving Srila Prabhupada’s silver plate and bowls for
breakfast from our bags in the car, Haridäsa escorted His Divine Grace into
the house. A few minutes later he came out grinning and told me of an
unusual story Srila Prabhupada had narrated to our hosts. The ladies had
naturally inquired from Srila Prabhupada what would he like to eat, and his
initial response was to say “anything.” He declared he would be satisfied
with whatever they wanted to offer. But then he added, as a precaution, that
there should be no onions or garlic. They knew this to be one of our
standards, but still they were inquisitive to know why.
Prabhupäda said with a smile that eating onion and garlic is as bad as
eating cow’s flesh. And he told them a story about a Muslim king, a cow and
a brähmana.
For the Muslims, cow slaughter is a regular affair. This particular king
however, before having the cow slaughtered would call a brähmana and the
brähmana would offer prayers to the effect that “In this life these people
are slaughtering you, but in the next life you will get the chance to
slaughter them.”
So one time a brähmana came there but he felt lusty and he wanted to eat
the cow’s flesh also. However, the system was that he was not allowed to see
the slaughter going on, he was supposed to offer his prayers and then leave.
So he hid in a corner and witnessed the butchering. After the Muslims had
all taken their share of the dead cow and departed, the brähmana came to
that spot and he found an ankle of the cow. Because he was not supposed to
eat any meat, he took the cow’s ankle into the forest and buried it with the
plan that he would return in the night, cook it and eat it. When he came
back he dug out the cow’s ankle and found to his great surprise that it had
turned into onion and garlic.
Haridäsa said that Prabhupäda told the Malhotras that the cow’s hoof
transformed to garlic and the ankle became onion; garlic looks like a cow’s
hoof, and just as the cow’s ankle has several layers of flesh similarly the
onion has several layers and is the color of flesh. He finished the
narration by telling them that when you eat garlic it makes a bad smell come
in your mouth and when you cut onion it makes tears come out of your eyes.
The tears come because the cow was crying that in Kali yuga even the
brähmana wants to eat onion. The family loved the story and promised not to
serve any onions and garlic.
Srila Prabhupada’s Books from Various Angles
Question:
Maharaj, while conversing and discussing with one devotee, I came upon one argument that was put forward at me. Srila Prabhupada said that we should understand his books from various angles. Does that mean we can understand sastra from various angles and there can be differences in understanding. How do we understand this?
Download Srila Prabhupadas Books from Various Angles
Maharaj, while conversing and discussing with one devotee, I came upon one argument that was put forward at me. Srila Prabhupada said that we should understand his books from various angles. Does that mean we can understand sastra from various angles and there can be differences in understanding. How do we understand this?
Download Srila Prabhupadas Books from Various Angles
Inauguration of Avanti Ashram, A Vedic Gurukul
On auspicious day of Vasanta Pancami, January 28 2012, an inauguration ceremony of Avanti Ashram was held in gracious presence of His Holiness Bhakti Vikasa Maharaj. Also present were His Grace Basu Ghosh Prabhu, the temple president of ISKCON Baroda, His Grace Saccidananda Prabhu, the temple president of ISKCON Vallabh Vidhyanagar, His Grace Savyasachi Prabhu along with about more than 500 devotees from all over Gujarat.
Avanti Ashram is a Vedic styled gurukul, located in the outskirt of Baroda city, for devotee childern where they will be mainly taught Srila Prabhupada's books along with other Vedic literatures, that means no more karmi syllabus and Darwinian atheism as per Srila Prabhupada's desire. The initiative is taken up by few grhastha couples from Baroda who have given up their well-paid jobs and have started living on a land. Electricity is not used at the gurukul, and all cooking is done by using firewood. The idea is to keep life simple so to save time for spiritual cultivation as per Srila Prabhupada's desire.
12►
Avanti Ashram is a Vedic styled gurukul, located in the outskirt of Baroda city, for devotee childern where they will be mainly taught Srila Prabhupada's books along with other Vedic literatures, that means no more karmi syllabus and Darwinian atheism as per Srila Prabhupada's desire. The initiative is taken up by few grhastha couples from Baroda who have given up their well-paid jobs and have started living on a land. Electricity is not used at the gurukul, and all cooking is done by using firewood. The idea is to keep life simple so to save time for spiritual cultivation as per Srila Prabhupada's desire.
12►
The root of all our problems
The whole material world is working on the basis of “I” and “mine.” This is
the root of attraction to the material world. If one is attracted to this
root of illusory conceptions — “I” and “mine” – he will have to remain
within this material world.
(SB 4.11.30p)
The karmi thinks of this world as “mine,” and the jnani thinks “I am”
everything.”
(SB 2.9.2p)
the root of attraction to the material world. If one is attracted to this
root of illusory conceptions — “I” and “mine” – he will have to remain
within this material world.
(SB 4.11.30p)
The karmi thinks of this world as “mine,” and the jnani thinks “I am”
everything.”
(SB 2.9.2p)
May 23, 2012
Keep Bhaktisiddhanta Alive
[B]Where:[/B] Damodaradesh[BR]
[B]When:[/B] 13 dec 11[BR]
[B]Language:[/B] English
[CUT]
Download Keep Bhaktisiddhanta Alive
[B]When:[/B] 13 dec 11[BR]
[B]Language:[/B] English
[CUT]
Download Keep Bhaktisiddhanta Alive
May 22, 2012
Vedic dress
Vedic dress is also nice, very beautiful. It increases the beauty hundred
times
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Initiations — Sydney, April 2, 1972
times
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Initiations — Sydney, April 2, 1972
