Vishnujana Swami | The Hare Krishna Movement

Visnujana Swami

03 Jun 2023 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Deena Bandhu das, Vishnujana Swami Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, chanting Hare Krishna, Krsna, krsna consciousness, Visnujana Swami

Visnujana Swami

by Deena Bandhu das

Today June 2 is the English calendar birthday of my very dear older Godbrother Vishnujana. When I first joined the temple they sent me to LA to get trained up. Vishnjana was the temple commander and I fondly remember being trained by him. We would spend hours on the streets those days chanting the Holy Name with him!

I learned so much from him especially about preaching. He would speak in such a way that child could understand and a scholar could understand. He made Krishna Consciousness so exciting! I remember someone asked what is that stuff on your forehead, a question that you stumble around dully trying to get them to understand. He said with a voice full of love, “This is a beautiful meditation that we perform in the morning where we take sacred clay and mark our bodies as a temple of God!”

Even now if I hear a recording of him, before even understanding that it is Vishnujana, my hairs stand on end. I miss him so much!

Vishnujana Swami: Vrindavana Ramya-Sthana

03 Jun 2023 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Songs of the Vaisnava Acaryas, Vishnujana Swami, Vrndavana, YouTube Tags: chanting Hare Krishna, krsna consciousness, Srila Prabhupada, vishnujana swami, Vrindavana Ramya-sthana

Srila Prabhupada knowing Visnujana Swami’s talents asked him to make a melody for this song. The very next day Visnujana had this amazing melody with a very sweet spoken purport. It is a heart melting song that shows Visnujana Swami’s amazing love and devotion that inspired and still inspires so many. -Gauridas Pandita das

Letter to Visnujana

30 Jan 2016 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Hare Krishna Maha Mantra, Letters by Srila Prabhupada, Vishnujana Swami, Visnujana Swami Tags: chanting, chanting Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krsna Book, Letters by Srila Prabhupada, missionary success, Srila Prabhupada, Visnujana Maharaja, Visnujana Swami

…I have got confidence in you because Krishna has given you special talent for chanting Hare Krishna Mantra. When you were chanting in L.A. temple in the evenings, or in the mornings, I enjoyed your chanting so nicely that I thought myself immediately carried to Vaikuntha. So I am always thankful to you for your activities in announcing the interest of our mission. Thank you very much. Most probably when I return to L.A. I may call you back just to hear your chanting of Hare Krishna Mantra.

…So take advantage and enchant those who are coming by your chanting of Hare Krishna Mantra. You will be victorious. And try to introduce our books there and it will be a great missionary success. One Krishna book sold means we go forward one step in our Krishna Consciousness. We should always remember this. (Letter to Visnujana Swami April 4, 1971)

This morning as I was reading some letters by Srila Prabhupada, this letter to Visnujana Swami really touched my heart. “My Dear Son, Visnujana Maharaja, Please accept my blessings.” Srila Prabhupada was so sweet in his dealings with his disciples, particularly those who took the mission seriously.

Full letter More

Some Day the Tiny Soul Will Want to Get Out of Illusion

09 Aug 2014 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Back to Godhead, Soul, Spiritual Life, The Hare Krishna Movement, Vishnujana Swami Tags: Back to Godhead Magazine, Bhagavad-gita 2.59, BTG, His Holiness Visnujana Svami, illusion, illusory energy, mercy of the Lord, neophytes, regulative principles, soul, Spiritual Life, the Hare Krsna movement, vairagya, Visnujana Swami

Some Day the Tiny Soul Will Want to Get Out of Illusion

Instructions to the devotees of the Hare Krsna movement
given in New York City, March 31, 1974
by His Holiness Visnujana Svami
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine 1974 Vol. 1, No. 65

…As soon as one gets the association of the bhakti-vedanta, the pure devotee or spiritual master, and hears from his lips the nectarean waves flowing just like the wonderful River Ganges, these waves enter his ears and his heart and purify him. Thus he is freed from the seeds of contaminated material desires. When he hears sufficiently, his intelligence becomes satisfied, and he agrees to act on the instructions of his bona fide spiritual master. The more he acts on these instructions, the more he becomes freed from past bad habits and the conditional responses of this material world. Thus his conditional association is completely vanquished. This, of course, is where he achieves a spiritual taste (ruci) and spiritual strength (vairagya).

full lecture More

Sri Damordastaka

23 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Damodara, Songs of the Vaisnava Acaryas, Vishnujana Swami Tags: eternal form of blissful knowledge, namanisvaram sac-citananda-rupan, Songs of the Vaisnava Acaryas, Sri Damordastaka, Sri Satyavrata Muni, Supreme Controller, Visnujana Swami

click on underlined link to listen

Sri Damordastaka sung by Vishnujana Swami

Kabe Ha’be Bolo

03 Dec 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Kabe Ha'be Bolo, Songs of the Vaisnava Acaryas, Vishnujana Swami, Visnujana Swami Tags: devotee, kabe ha'be bolo, Songs of the Vaisnava Acaryas, Srila Bhaktivinoda Takura, Visnujana Swami

Visnujana Swami

This song written by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and made famous in the West by the illustrious Visnujana Swami, has always been a favorite of mine, and the devotees of The Hare Krishna Movement.

Kabe Ha’be Bolo
(Invocation of the Holy Name)
By Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura

When, oh when will that day be mine?
When my offenses ceasing, taste for the name increasing.
When in my heart will your mercy shine?
When, oh when, will that day be mine.

Lower than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree.
When will my mind attain this quality?
Respectful to all, not expecting their honor,
then shall I taste the name’s nectar sublime.

Great wealth or followers, feminine beauty,
I won’t care for them or the comforts of my body.
Birth after birth, give me, Oh Lord Caitanya,
causeless devotion to Your feet divine.

When will I utter Krsna, Krsna, Krsna,
with words choked up and shivering body?
When will I be trembling all over, lose bodily color,
tears pouring from my eyes.

When in Navadvipa along the Ganges bank,
shouting ‘Gaura-Nityananda’ as a surrendered soul,
dancing, chanting, running everywhere,
when will I become half mad of mind?

When will Lord Nityananda show mercy upon me,
when will I reject the world of Maya:
Bestow unto me the shade of Your lotus feet,
let the right to preach the name be mine.

I will beg, borrow, or steal the nectar of the name.
By the name’s effect I will feel paralyzed.
Oh! Enjoyed of the nectar of the name
when will I touch your lotus feet till the end of time?

When kindness to all beings will be appearing
with free heart forget myself comforting
Bhaktivinoda in all humility prays
“Now I will set out to preach Your order sublime.”

Sri Damodarastakam as explained by Visnujana Swami / Verse Eight

26 Oct 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Songs of the Vaisnava Acaryas, Sri Damodarastakam, Vishnujana Swami, Visnujana Swami Tags: Lord Brahma, Lord Damodara, Mother Yasoda, namas te stu damne sphurad-dipti-dhamne, Sri Damodarastakam, Srimati Radharani, Visnujana Swami

O Lord, the entire universe was created by Lord Brahma, who was born from Your abdomen, which was bound with a rope by Mother Yasoda. To this rope I offer my humble obeisances.

namas te ‘stu dāmne sphurad-dīpti-dhāmne
tvadīyodarāyātha viśvasya dhāmne
namo rādhikāyai tvadīya-priyāyai
namo ‘nanta-līlāya devāya tubhyam

namaḥ–obeisances; te–to You; astu–may there be; dāmne–unto the rope around Your waist; sphurat–splendrous; dīpti-dhāmne–unto the effulgent abode; tvadīya-udarāya–unto Your belly; atha–thus; viśvasya–of the entire universe; dhāmne–unto the shelter; namaḥ–obeisances; rādhikāyai–unto Rādhikā; tvadīya priyāyai–unto Your Beloved; namaḥ– obeisances; ananta-līlāya–unto Your limitless sportive pastimes; devāya– unto Your transcendental nature; tubhyam–unto You.

8) O Lord, the entire universe was created by Lord Brahma, who was born from Your abdomen, which was bound with a rope by Mother Yasoda. To this rope I offer my humble obeisances. I offer my obeisances to Your most beloved Srimati Radharani, and to Your unlimited pastimes.

At the conclusion of the prayer, obeisances are offered (namas te) to the Lord’s unique binding, His bodily limbs, His associates, and to the Lord Himself, in order to arouse the mood of bhakti. Even the rope that binds His belly (damne) receives worship. That rope is the abode of, or source of, effulgence (sphurad dipti-dhamne), and the poet here suggests that the rope is also the source of the all-pervading brahman effulgence.

Then, obeisances are offered to the Lord’s belly, which is bound by this wondrous rope (tvadiyodarayatha). What is that belly like? It is the abode or support of all the infinite universes in the creation (visvasya), including all the moving and non-moving living entities dwelling therein. A gigantic lotus flower that sustains the fourteen worlds sprouts from that belly and is the abode of Lord Brahma.

Vishnujana Swami: Chanting Hare Krishna on the Street 8-10 Hours DAILY!

23 Apr 2011 2 Comments

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Chanting Hare Krishna, Devotee Books, Devotee's, Vishnujana Swami Tags: Book Distribution, Dhristadyumna das, Diamond Jim's, Labangalatika dd, Madhudvisa, prabhupada, Radha-Damodar Vilasa, sankirtan, sankirtan party, Sukadeva, Sunset Strip, Vaiyasaki das, vishnujana swami

Vishnujana Swami: Chanting Hare Krishna on the Street 8-10 Hours DAILY!
From Radha-Damodar Vilasa by Vaiyasaki dasa Adhikari

In the early days sankirtan [chanting Hare Krishna and distributing books in public] is everybody’s prime function. All the devotees are inspired by Vishnujana’s love and dedication to sankirtan.