brahmacari | The Hare Krishna Movement

How the Hare Krsna Movement Came to Africa

30 Nov 2014 1 Comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Back to Godhead, Brahmananda das, The Hare Krishna Movement Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Back to Godhead Magazine, brahmacari, Brahmananda das, Brahmananda Swami, BTG, BTG Vol.10 No. 12, How the Hare Krsna Movement came to Africa, krsna consciousness, prabhupada, preaching in Africa, The Hare Krishna Movement

How the Hare Krsna Movement Came to Africa
by His Holiness Brahmananda Swami
Excerpted from; Back to Godhead Magazine 1975 Vol. 10, No. 12

The story of how the Hare Krsna movement came to Africa starts in 1971 in the United States. I was in Tallahassee, Florida, teaching an experimental course in Krsna consciousness at the state university, when I received a letter from my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, instructing me to go immediately to West Pakistan for preaching work. I had very little money, and I knew the trip to Pakistan would be long and arduous. However, a disciple takes his spiritual master’s order as his very life and soul, and I was determined that nothing would stop me.

A Perfect Guru

26 Sep 2013 1 Comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Guru & Disciple, guru-tattva, Lectures Tags: a perfect guru, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada varnasrama-dharma, audio link, brahmacari, class on the srimad bhagavatam, guru what is guru, hindu dharma, hinduism, human civilization, Indus region, prabhupada vani, Sanatana-kharma, Sanskrit, SB 7.12.2, Srila Prabhupada lecture, Srimad Bhagavatam lecture, Vaisnavas, Vedas

This is a very nice lecture given by Srila Prabhupada in Bombay April, 1976 and is a very good description of what is a guru. We have also included a link to the audio file so that you can listen to the lecture at the same time you are reading it. This is our first audio link that we have posted from this site, as an experiment.

In this lecture Srila Prabhupada begins “So the first training, how to create a brahmacari… This is human civilization…So we must come to the platform of varnasrama-dharma, not “Hindu dharma”. As he’s stated many times, the term “Hindu” is not a name that you find in the Vedas or in Sanskrit. Rather, it was a name given by the Muslims, who were referring to the people of the Indus region. The religion of the Vaisnavas is Sanatana-dharma, not Hinduism.

Also a very nice definition of what it means to be a guru is described; “A perfect guru is one who is speaking on behalf of Krsna – not on his own behalf.” “If you want to have a perfect guru, then you have to see whether he is speaking on behalf of Krsna or on his own behalf. One who speaks on his own behalf, manufactures, he is not guru. He’s a rascal. One who speaks on behalf of Krsna, he is guru.”

Class on the Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.12.02
Bombay, April 13, 1976
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

to Listen to Lecture

Jayananda

15 May 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Devotee's, Jayananda Thakur, Padmapani das Tags: brahmacari, devotee, Jayananda, Lord Jagannatha, Padmapani das, Rathayatra Festival, Srila Prabhupada disciple, Visnujana Swami

Jayananda Prabhu: Staunchness Personified
By Sriman Padmapani Prabhu

The first time I saw Jayananda Prabhu was in 1974 in San Francisco. A number of devotees had driven down from Vancouver to participate in the Rathayatra Festival there. As soon as we arrived, the brahmacaris were sent over to help out at the cart site. There were many devotees there lifting wooden beams, hammering nails and working like mad to meet the deadline. Then along came a tall serious looking devotee who struck me as a genuine no-nonsense leader. It was Jayananda Prabhu. He immediately took charge and began engaging everyone in Lord Jagannatha’s service. Along with Visnujana Swami, I had never seen anyone with such a powerful devotional aura about him. There was no mistaking his total dedication to his service. In fact, I recall thinking to myself at the time, “This devotee is staunchness personified.” To this day, I always remember him in that light.

Every day we had to help work on the carts and around the grounds to help get things ready in time for Rathayatra. I heard that there were about 500 brahmacaris there from all over the U.S. and Canada. It seemed like total mayhem to me, but Jayananda always

looked like he knew what he was doing, so I assumed that everything was in complete control.

Jayananda Prabhu was all over the site and beyond during those Rathayatra Festivals, attending to every little detail and making sure that everyone was engaged and well fed so that we could try and keep up to his pace. But it was obvious to everyone that he was specially empowered to perform this service like no one else. Yet he made no big fanfare about it nor showed even a trace of false ego. He was just totally sincere and worked harder and longer than anyone else.

While working alongside him, I think that the best word which comes to mind in describing his attitude is “determined.” His mind was totally fixed on devotional service. His consciousness was unlike that of an ordinary conditioned soul, prone to wandering here and there. He was blessed with pinpoint concentration, which he fully engaged in the service of his beloved Srila Prabhupada and Lord Jagannatha. What a blessing just to be in his presence and watch him serve with such unparalleled devotional zeal.