namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

This week the ISKCON New Govardhana farming project in Australia received organic certification from the national Organic Growers Association. After several rigorous inspections, the farm was granted a certificate of compliance which allows all fruit and vegetables grown to carry the official OGA logo.

NUFF SAID

Watch video

This Sunday, 29th July 2008, is the second annual Yoga fest in Brisbane.

Jonathan Murphy from Radiant Light Yoga has worked really hard to pull off this event, which brings together Brisbane's entire yoga community once a year.

Commitment is an essential feature of all devotee relationships, especially the marriage relationship.

All of us have ups and downs, periods of craziness, and periods of clarity. Of course, as we become purified, situated in goodness and, ultimately, transcendental, we fluctuate less and less in our mood and character. But while our material conditioning still has a grip on us we experience periods of more or less Krishna consciousness.

This been said, devotees who have seriously committed themselves to applying the process have in effect declared, by this demonstration of commitment, that they deeply value purity of heart and aspire for it themselves. When a person shows such commitment and dedication, Krishna takes a personal interest in them and is committed to them in return. As devotees we must do the same for each other.

by Anuttama das

On June 20, 2008, Paramount Pictures releases The Love Guru nationwide. The film tells the story of Guru Pitka (Mike Myers), a westerner raised at an Indian ashram, who grows up to be a high-profile and eccentric holy man come west.

While the level of humor contained in the film is crass, the comedy has drawn significant attention even before its official opening—both pro and con—and from Hindu-Americans concerned that it violates appropriate boundaries in dealing with a religious subject.

On behalf of the North American chapters of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a Vaishnava, or devotional Hindu organization with an ethnically diverse membership, we understand that many Hindus are concerned that the film may mock their faith. At the same time, having seen the film in its entirety, we find it to be a typical satire that does not intend to hurt religious sentiments.

While it is normally only considered cliché that "laughter is the best medicine," specific medical theories attribute improved health, increased life expectancy, and overall improved well-being, to laughter.

[Video]

Our Bhaktivinode Thakur Sankirtan Festival begins today with a harinam procession in downtown Palo Alto. Here is an excerpt from an email Vaisesika Prabhu sent out to inspire everyone for the upcoming festivities.

It is a really amazing glimpse into the heart of a vaishnava; I am very grateful to be connected to such a wonderful personality.

Pandu das shared the following on Pariprashnena.com:

I just composed the following e-mail in response to a "hot dog sale," which I intend to send to my office of about 200 people during lunchtime today:

After delivering a extended philosophically intricate Bhagavatam lecture, the Temple President announced that he wished to meet with the temple board after the program, in his office. He returned to the office to find that the first person to arrive was an older Indian man, whom he didn’t recognize.

“Pardon me, Prabhuji,” the President said, “I think you misunderstood my announcement. This is a meeting of the board.”

“I know,” said the man. “If there is anyone here more bored than I am, I’d like to meet him.”

A while back I posted the original comic as it appeared in Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them. Since the topic came up in a discussion of Christianity with a couple of students yesterday I wanted to check it out again, and when I googled it this video came up. If you want to see the original post you can check it out here, but the video is even cooler.

[Video about a Buddhist couple's marriage experiment inside.]

by Vijay Venugopal dasa and Prema Padmini dd

Everyone got their turn to pour different coloured ingredients on their Lordships: milk, ghee, curds, and all sorts of juices. Then, as They were being dried and dressed, my husband narrated the story of the pastimes at Panihati, which everyone heard with great enthusiasm and joy, resolving to think of the lake as the river Ganga, hoping Their Lordships would bless them.

Once dressed, Caitanya Avatari and I in turn led a rousing kirtana, going round and round the deities with the devotees. Offerings were made, and we finally enjoyed the delicious mahaprasadam—chipped rice separately, and all the other items mixed together. The other visitors to the lake, as well as some locals, also got their share.

As His Holiness Bhakti Vidya Purna Maharaja put it so succinctly: "When men are men, women are women."

That's a simple yet powerful statement with profound implications in terms of both ideal and strategy for implementation.

A lot of problems come when unqualified men demand that roles be respected when qualification is not present. This is the same dynamic that lead the people to reject the varnas at the time of Buddha. Similarly people have rejected traditional gender roles.

Just as both Buddha and Sankara demonstrated at their relative points in the course of social development, we need intelligent readjustment. We have to keep the goal in sight like the pole star ("normative view" in the language of Krishna-kirti prabhu), and work our way back onto the "royal road" of varnasrama (as Srila Prabhupada describes it Bhagavad-gita—the safer path).

by Kaunteya Das

No, it's not my daughter—nor the daughter of any of my friends. It's the name of the new youth Nama-hatta group inaugurated in Mexico City.

On 21 May 2008, at around 4:00 pm, His Holiness Bhakti-bhusana Swami (GBC and initiating guru), accompanied by fifteen to twenty devotees (including yours truly) from the local temple, went to officially, and joyously, start the new congregational group coordinated and hosted by Bhaktin Carla. The devotees' happiness and enthusiasm was obvious.

by Devaki dd

The highlight of my visit to Mayapur this year was Anuttama Prabhu's seminar on leadership and management—an extremely valuable course, which teaches so many important skills and principles of effective leadership and management.

Taking this course confirmed my realization that there is another reason why we have lost so many devotees worldwide over the past years besides the fact that we have failed to create a supportive spiritual culture which would give nourishment and shelter to each and every devotee joining this movement. We have also failed to educate and train our leaders systematically and equip them with the necessary skills in order to become true servant-leaders, who lead with affection and detachment. Rather we have so often allowed that dangerous weed to grow and flourish: the attachment to power, position and facilities...

Of course, for a movement like ours to grow, we need the book distributors to also become interested in the people who actually read the books as well as those who buy them. We also need them to be interested in someone who, after reading one of Srila Prabhupada's books, decides to take up the practises of bhakti-yoga such as chanting the Hare Krishna mantra and offering food on their home altar.

Whilst it is tempting for any of us to simply be a book distributor, it defies logic if, after a person reads the book you gave them, for us to then not be interested in that newcomer's welfare. It defies logic but it does happen sometimes. Unfortunately, there are not enough devotees for some of us to 'only' be book distributors. Each of us must also be well-rounded teachers and encouragers to everyone who takes up our Vaishnava path.

Tucked in the upper northwestern corner of Mexico, between the Pacific Ocean and the U.S. border, Tijuana—said to be the most-crossed frontier point in the world—is a nondescript urban metastasis, born from countless people’s dream of crossing the line from poverty (their birthplaces in Latin America) to prosperity (Yankee land).

No imposing cathedrals or picturesque old-town here; on the other hand, plenty of drugs and other Kali-yuga specialties are easily available. Yet even here, Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s devotees actively engage in reawakening their consciousnesses and kindling bhakti. This outpost is some three thousand kilometers away from the capital and the main temple in the country, but otherwise is close to San Diego and Los Angeles. As a result, they have received the visit of such luminaries as Radhanatha Maharaja and Devamrita Maharaja.

Recently the GBC has been considering multiple ISKCON centers in one city. It's an inevitable historical development that is currently being groked. One center cannot be all things to all people. The reality is that a cutting-edge urban preaching center reaching out to a western population has radically different priorities to an established ISKCON temple serving Deities and an established congregation including many ex-pat Indians. You can't effectively do both in the same place at the same time.

In order to have these two centers functioning at their optimum we've discovered that you need to have separation and cooperation between the two—they need to be interdependent. Each can remain focused on its core values and identity. There needs to be a constant process of communication and negotiation between the two. One cannot be subservient to the agenda of the other. In this way they can coexist in a symbiotic relationship.

Over the weekend I went to visit the Gaura Yoga centre in Wellington. It was very inspirational to see what they've done there. In my travels within ISKCON, I have seen nothing quite like it. Although there are many places trying to learn from its model, there is no substitute for the original. There are three aspects to what they do there which I think make it so special.

Part of being "inclusive", innit? :-)