18 Apr 2013
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Chanting Hare Krishna, Letters by Srila Prabhupada, Sankirtan, Susan Beckman, The Hare Krishna Movement
Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, chanting Hare Krishna, humble state of mind, Jayananda das, Letters by Srila Prabhupada, Lord Caitanya, lower than the straw in the street, sankirtan, sankirtan movement, Susan Beckman, The Hare Krishna Movement
…Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the incarnation of Godhead in this age has delivered the medicine for all problems of the world by his introducing the Sankirtan movement. The chanting is a process of purification. Just like we use soap to cleanse the body, this is material, but the chanting is spiritual cleansing.
…one should learn the art of chanting the Holy name of Krishna 24 hours a day and that alone is the remedy for all problems of material existence. How is it possible to chant 24 hours a day? Lord Chaitanya gave the hint, “One can chant the holy name of God in a humble state of mind, thinking himself lower than the straw in the street, more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all kinds of sense of false prestige, and always ready to offer all respects to others. In such a humble state of mind one can chant the Holy name of God constantly.” So I cannot give you any better advice for your problem, simply chant Hare Krishna and everything will be all right. (Letter to Susan Bekman from Srila Prabhupada)
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12 Mar 2013
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Chanting Hare Krishna, Krishna Consciousness, Mantra Meditation, Sankirtan, Srimad Bhagavatam
Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, age of kali, chant Hare Krishna, full of faults, Hare Krishna Mantra, Kali-yuga, kirtanad eva krsnasya, Krsna, krsna consciousness, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, sankirtana movement, Srila Prabhupada, The Hare Krishna Movement
“In the sastra it is said this Kali-yuga is full of faults, so many faults. It is the ocean of faults. But there is a very nice thing, asti hy eko mahan gunah, a very great quality. What is that? Kirtanad eva krsnasya mukta-sangah param vrajet [SB 12.3.51]. If you simply chant Hare Krishna mantra, then you become perfect. Is it very difficult? Chant Hare Krishna and you become perfect. But we are so unfortunate, we are not even prepared to chant. This is our position. So you have to make little determination that ‘I shall chant henceforward Hare Krishna mantra.’ Then everything is all right.” (Srila Prabhupada from Lecture)
and this from Srimad Bhagavatam 8.5.23
When Kṛṣṇa appeared, He gave His orders, and when Kṛṣṇa Himself appeared as a devotee, as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He showed us the path by which to cross the ocean of Kali-yuga. That is the path of The Hare Kṛṣṇa Movement. When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared, He ushered in the era for the saṅkīrtana movement. It is also said that for ten thousand years this era will continue. This means that simply by accepting the saṅkīrtana movement and chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, the fallen souls of this Kali-yuga will be delivered. After the Battle of Kurukṣetra, at which Bhagavad-gītā was spoken, Kali-yuga continues for 432,000 years, of which only 5,000 years have passed. Thus there is still a balance of 427,000 years to come. Of these 427,000 years, the 10,000 years of the saṅkīrtana movement inaugurated by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu 500 years ago provide the opportunity for the fallen souls of Kali-yuga to take to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra and thus be delivered from the clutches of material existence and return home, back to Godhead.
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10 Feb 2013
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Chanting Hare Krishna, Krsna Consciousness, Sankirtan, Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta
Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, actions which will be benificial for all living entities, adi-lila 9.27-52, devotional service, Krsna consciousness movement, sankirtan movement, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, tree of devotional service, welfare activities for the benifit of others
click on image to enlarge
Lord Caitanya’s Sankirtana Movement
“It is the duty of every living being to perform welfare activities for the benefit of others with his life, wealth, intelligence and words.”
“By his work, thoughts and words, an intelligent man must perform actions which will be beneficial for all living entities in this life and in the next.”
The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement introduced by Lord Caitanya is extremely important because one who takes to it becomes eternal, being freed from birth, death and old age. People do not recognize that the real distresses in life are the four principles of birth, death, old age and disease. They are so foolish that they resign themselves to these four miseries, not knowing the transcendental remedy of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. Simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, one can become free from all misery, but because they are enchanted by the illusory energy, people do not take this movement seriously. Therefore those who are actually servants of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu must seriously distribute this movement all over the world to render the greatest benefit to human society.
There is a very nice section in the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta wherein the author uses the figurative example of the gardener, to explain the mission of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. With pleasure we are posting the entire section below… More
03 Jan 2013
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in Chanting Hare Krishna, Quotes by Srila Prabhupada, Sankirtan
Tags: chanting, chanting Hare Krishna, kirtan, life and soul, Madhudvisa dasa, rayarama dasa, sankirtan, Srila Prabhupada, Ssatsvarupa dasa, street chanting
Importance of Hari Nama Sankirtan
Excerpted from letters and lectures by Srila Prabhupada
…I think you should try to always have Sankirtana going on. All other things are subsidiary. This chanting is our life and soul, so we must arrange our program now so that there will be as much chanting on the streets and at college engagements as possible.
…Outdoor kirtana must be done, even at the cost of suspending all editorial work. That is your first and foremost business. Temple worship is not so important. If need be, the whole temple can be locked, but the outdoor kirtana cannot be stopped.
…Your business is not to, I mean to say, satisfy the crowd. Your business is satisfy Kṛṣṇa, and then crowd will be automatically satisfied. We are not going to please the crowd. We are going to give them something, Kṛṣṇa. So you should be very much careful whether you are delivering Kṛṣṇa in the right way. Then they’ll be satisfied. Your only business should be to satisfy Kṛṣṇa.
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28 Dec 2012
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Salvation, Sankirtan
Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, An Address to American Youth, chant and be happy, chanting Hare Krishna, Kirtanananda das brahmachary, Prasadam, Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta, Tompkins Square Park
click on image to enlarge
…So we invite you to please chant with us it is such a nice thing; come to our temple if you like; take a little prasadam; and be happy. It is not very difficult if you just chant this HARE KRISHNA, HARE KRISHNA, KRISHNA KRISHNA, HARE HARE, HARE RAMA, HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA, HARE HARE. That will save you. Thank you very much, and God bless you.
Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta
An Address to American Youth
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine 1967, Vol 1, No.13
My dear young beautiful boys and girls of America. I have come to your country with great hope and a great mission. My Spiritual Master, Om Vishnupad Paramhansa Paribrajaka Acharya Sri Sriman Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj, asked me to preach this cult of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the Western World. That was the seed-giving incident. Gradually the seed fructified, and I was prepared to come to the Western World. Still, I do not know why I was so much attracted by the land of America. But from within Krishna dictated that instead of going to Europe I should better go to America. So you can see that I have come to your country under order of superior authority. And even after arriving here, when I perceived that some of the youngsters are being misled, confused and frustrated this is not the condition in your country only, but in every country, the young people are neglected, although it is they who are the flower and future hope of everyone so I thought to myself that if I go the American youth with my message and they join with me in this movement, then it will spread all over the world and then all the problems of the world will be solved. How I would like to be with you in person today, but Krishna has prevented that, so please pardon me and accept my blessings in this written form.
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22 Nov 2012
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in Book Distribution, Sankirtan, The Hare Krishna Movement, Visnujana Swami, Vyasasan das, What Happened to the Hare Krishna's?
Tags: Book Distribution, George Harrison, Guru das, Gurudasa, Jayananda das, Radha Damodara Traveling Sankirtan Party, RDTSKP, Srila Prabhupada, Tamal Krishna Goswami, Vishnjan Swami
click on image to slightly enlarge
…I loved being a devotee. I would look forward to going to the park or college campus, and putting on a festival. We set up the stage, brought on our musical instruments and chanted, while others arranged the distribution of prasadam and books. After the chanting when we went to mingle with the students or guests gathered there, I would enjoy preaching to new people and answering all sorts of questions like “why do you guys shave your head? And why do you put mud on your foreheads, etc., etc.? But sometimes the preaching was so sweet and people wanted to know who is Krishna? Who is Srila Prabhupada? And my joy knew no bounds. I hardly knew the philosophy myself, but when my desire to preach was unmotivated by false ego, Srila Prabhupada would give me the intelligence. I would be amazed how the words would just flow out of my mouth. By Srila Prabhupada’s great mercy, to one who has taken to this process of sharing with others, he gives the intelligence. I was gaining an understanding of the process of Krishna Consciousness, simply by acting in Krishna Consciousness. It was so sublime. So simple!
Radha Damadara Traveling Sankirtan Party
by Vyasasan das
First let me begin by offering my respectful obesiences to all the vaisnave devotee’s of the Lord, who are so merciful to the fallen conditioned souls that they put themselves in perilous and austere conditions of life voluntarily, in order to help others. And as always, let me offer my most humble obeisances to my beloved spiritual master A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is very dear to Lord Krishna, haven taken shelter at his Lotus feet.
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13 Mar 2012
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Sankirtan, Sri Siksastakam, Yoga
Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead Magazine, bhagavad-gita, Hari Kirtana, Kali-yuga, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, perfection of yoga, religion, sankirtan movement, The Yoga for the Modern Age
..When Rupa Gosvami first met Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu at Prayag, Lord Caitanya was chanting and dancing in the street “Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna.” At that time also he offered one prayer. Namo maha-vadanyaya krsna-prema-pradaya te. “O You are the most munificent of all incarnations because You are distributing love of Godhead.” Krsna-prema-pradaya te krsnaya krsna-caitanya-namne gaura-tvise namah. “You are Krsna Himself because if You were not Krsna You could not distribute Krsna-prema or love of God, for love of Krsna is not so easily acquired. But You are distributing this love freely to everyone.”
Hari Kirtana: The Yoga for the Modern Age
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Excerpted from ‘Back To Godhead’ Magazine
1970, Vol., 1 No. 34
Ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-mahadavagni-nirvapanam sreyah kairava candrika vitaranam vidyavadhu jivanam anandambudhi-vardhanam pratipadam purnamrtasvadanam sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam. All glories to the sankirtana movement. Param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, when He was only a sixteen-year-old boy, introduced this sankirtana movement 500 years ago in Navadvipa, India. It was not that He manufactured some religious system, just as nowadays so many religious systems are being manufactured.
Actually religion cannot be manufactured. Dharmam tu saksad-bhagavat-pranitam. Religion means the codes of God, the laws of God, that’s all. Certainly we cannot live without obeying the state laws, and similarly, we cannot live without obeying the laws of God. And in the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says, “yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata abhyutthanam adharmasya,” and there is a predominance of irreligious activities, “tadatmanam srjamy aham,” at that time I (Krsna) appear. And in the material world we can see the same principle demonstrated, for whenever there is disobedience of state laws, there is the advent of some particular state officer or police man to “set things right.”
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13 Dec 2011
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in Book Distribution, Diksha, Quotes by Srila Prabhupada, Sankirtan, Siksa
Tags: Book Distribution, books by Srila Prabhupada, Chanting the holy name, guru, Harinama diksa, kirtan, Krsna, sankirtan, spiritual master, spoken kirtans
SRILA PRABHUPADA’S BOOK DISRIBUTION: INITIATING THE WORLD WITH THE HOLY NAME.
This series of Quotes was taken from http://www.prabhupada.org.uk/diksa.htm The author is unknown. Some editing was done by me -V
Srila Prabhupada’s transcendental books are his loud chanting of the holy name. Such loud chanting is giving the people of the world Harinama diksa.
Regarding Sankirtana and book distribution, book distribution is also chanting. Anyone who reads the books that is also chanting and hearing. Why distinguish between chanting and book distribution? These books I have recorded and chanted, and they are transcribed. It is spoken kirtanas. So book distribution is also chanting. These are not ordinary books. It is recorded chanting. Anyone who reads, he is hearing. Book distribution must not be neglected. (S.P.L. to Rupanuga dasa, 19th October, 1974)
When a devotee is perfectly qualified in chanting the transcendental vibration of the holy name, he is quite fit to become a spiritual master and to deliver all the people of the world. The chanting of the holy name is so powerful that it gradually establishes its supremacy above everything in the world. The devotee who chants it becomes transcendentally situated in ecstasy and sometimes laughs, cries and dances in his ecstasy. Sometimes the unintelligent put hindrances in the path of chanting this maha-mantra, but one who is situated on the platform of love of Godhead chants the holy name loudly for all concerned. As a result everyone becomes initiated in the chanting of the holy names–Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. (T.L.C. Chapter 18)
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08 Dec 2011
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in Chanting Hare Krishna, Sankirtan
Tags: chanting Hare Krishna, Iskcon, Krishna consciousness movement, Locananda dasa, Lord Caitanya, nama-sankirtan, sankirtan, Sri Panca-Tattva, Srila Prabhupada, The Hare Krishna Movement, Vaisnavas
Sri Panca Tattva Wellington New Zealand
…What the Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself proclaims to be the prime benediction for mankind, and the activity that He Himself appeared in this world to inaugurate, has been very badly neglected by ISKCON’s leaders. To attract devotees, to engage devotees and to elevate the awareness of the public, there is no better method than to perform nama-sankirtana. This same instruction was given to Lord Caitanya by His spiritual master:
“My dear child, continue dancing, chanting and performing sankirtana in association with devotees. Furthermore, go out and preach the value of chanting Krishna-nama, for by this process You will be able to deliver all fallen souls.”
Nama Sankirtana
Editorial (VNN) – by Locanananda Das
Originally Published on Vaishnava News
By reading the Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, one should become convinced that the Krishna consciousness movement is the vehicle through which the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu will deliver the entire world. But events taking place within the movement over the last twenty years have shaken everyone’s faith, and it has become very difficult to take pride in being a member of ISKCON, the organization that Srila Prabhupad risked his life to create. The year of the Centennial having come and gone, ISKCON continues to be plagued by a malaise that is rooted in its leaders’ lack of vision and apparent lack of concern for the spiritual well-being of the devotees. Compounded by the offensive banning of vaisnavas and the enactment of deviant policies, the movement has been thrown into a tailspin from which some think it may not recover.
Personally, I have tremendous faith in the system established by Srila Prabhupad. I am thoroughly convinced that there can be a reconciliation of the parties on the different sides of all current issues, but it will require that we rise above false ego and agree to do what is best for the Krishna consciousness movement.
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03 Nov 2011
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in Book Distribution, Remembering Srila Prabhupada, Sankirtan, The Hare Krishna Movement
Tags: Book Distribution, disciple, guru, Krsna Book, Remembering Srila Prabhupada, sankirtan, spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, Vyasasan das
Remembering Srila Prabhupada
By Vyasasana das
I think we all remember very clearly where we were and what we were doing the day Srila Prabhupada first entered our lives. Many of the older devotees remember where they were when President John F. Kennedy was shot, or where they were when “The Beatles” appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. But our remembrance of Srila Prabhupada will outlive any mundane event in our lives, as our relationship with our Srila Prabhupada is an eternal relationship.
I meet my spiritual master in an unlikely place, in the Chicago O’Hare airport. I was walking through the airport just wandering aimlessly, when I was approached by a sankirtan devotee. He said “hey, you into George Harrison?” I replied “sure I just saw him in concert last night”. So he said, ”take this book and give it a read, its really far-out!” To make a long story short I took the book, the Krishna Book, and found a place to sit down and read. I couldn’t even make out some of the words it was like a foreign language. I couldn’t even pronounce some of the words like Srila Vyasadeva or Srimati Radharani. I didn’t have a clue what the book was about. But I fell in love with the picture on the cover instantly, and when I turned the book over in my hands I saw the most beautiful sight in this material world, a picture of my spiritual master Srila Prabhupada.
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14 Sep 2011
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Sankirtan, The Hare Krishna Movement
Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead Magazine, Great Apostle of love of God, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Lord Sri Krishna Caitanya, Origin of the Hare Krishna Movement, sankirtan movement
Lord Sri Krishna Caitanya's Sankirtan Movement
Origin of the Hare Krishna Movement
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Back to Godhead Magazine Volume 01, Number 20, 1968
Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Great Apostle of love of God and the Father of the Sankirtan Movement, advented Himself in the City of Nabadwipa in Bengal, India. This was in February, 1486, by Christian reckoning.
By the will of the Lord there was a lunar eclipse on that evening. It is the custom of the Hindu public to bathe in the Ganges of any other sacred river during the hours of eclispe, and to chant the Vedic mantras for purification. When Lord Chaitanya was born during the eclipse, then, the whole India was roaring with the holy sound of Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
These sixteen Names of the Lord are mentioned in many Puranas and Upanishads, and they are described as “Tarak Brahman,” the Names for this age. It is stated in the “Shashtras,” the accepted Scriptures, that offenseless chanting of the Holy Names of the Lord can deliver a fallen soul from material bondage. There inumerable Names for the Lord both in India and elsewhere, and all of them are equally good because all of them indicate the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But because these sixteen Names are especially recommended for this Age, called Kali Yuga, it is better for people to take the path of the great Acharyas, the saintly teachers who attained success by practice of this system.
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28 Aug 2011
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in Book Distribution, Sankirtan, Srila Prabhupada's Books
Tags: Book Distribution, Prabhupada's books, Prahlada-Nrsima das, traveling sankirtan
Book Distribution Opportunity
By: Prahlada-Nrsimha das
This is an open invitation to all devotees to have the most transcendentally wonderful time of your life by taking part in Prabhupada’s book distribution mission on traveling sankirtana.
Our dearmost Srila Prabhupada worked so hard to produce his books and wanted his followers to distribute them. As he says in the Srimad Bhagavatam 3.21.31:
“A person in Krsna consciousness, a devotee of the Lord, is always compassionate. He is not satisfied that only he himself is a devotee, but he tries to distribute the knowledge of devotional service to everyone. There are many devotees of the Lord who faced many risks in distributing the devotional service of the Lord to people in general. That should be done. ”
This is a great opportunity for anyone who would like to take up this wonderful service of book distribution for a short or long time.
Krishna has provided a very nice custom outfitted sankirtana camper van to distribute books in. By Gaura Nitai’s causeless mercy, I have 15 years of experience traveling to sweet spots in North America distributing Prabhupada’s books to the youth of today, who are so grateful to receive them.
Srila Prabhupada once said, “Only hope is that you distribute books, as much as possible, whole Europe, whole America. If they come to some day, they will realize what is this value. [break] …they will realize that what valuable books we have left for the study of the whole world. That will come. ” (Morning Walk — June 28, 1975, Denver)
Well that day is here! People are looking for alternatives to this materialistic, unfulfilling, economically unstable western lifestyle, and many people are looking to the East for answers. As a result, it’s sweeter than ever to distribute Prabhupada’s books and people tremendously appreciate receiving this valuable transcendental wisdom!
This opportunity is for everyone.
No experience necessary.
Will accept devotees from all Vaisnava backgrounds.
While you are with me, I only ask you to be faithful to Srila Prabhupada and only distribute his original books, which I can supply at cost.
For more information kindly contact Prahlada-Nrsimha das at:
sanatanadharma108@gmail.com
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