Yudhisthira Maharaja said, "0 Supreme Lord, I have heard from You the explanation of Amalaki Ekadasi, which occurs during the light fortnight of the month of Phalguna [February-March], and now I wish to hear about the Ekadasi that occurs during the dark fortnight of the month of Caitra [March-April]. What is its name, 0 Lord, and what results can one attain by observing it?"

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As a continuation of remembering the glories of our Guru Maharaj H H Mahavishnu Goswami, I am presenting below the letter that were written by one of the great stalwart and exalted Vaishnavas of ISKCON to our Guru Maharaj.

Glorification of Maha Bhagavata Srila Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj – Part 2 [granthraj]

Glorification of Maha Bhagavata Srila Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj – Part 1 [granthraj]

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I came across a nice story. "One day little girl and her father were crossing a bridge. The bridge was badly damaged and water was heavily flowing under the bridge due to storm. The father was kind of scared so he told his little daughter, "Sweet heart, please hold my hand so that you don’t fall in to the river." The little girl said, "No dad you hold my hand." The puzzled father asked "What is the difference?"

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While going through Srila Prabhupada lilamrta, we find that in 1967, when Srila Prabhupada was in Sanfrancisco, he had an heart attack and his left side was paralyzed. At that time, the disciples admitted him in the hospital and while in the hospital, Prabhupada always wanted to preach to the doctors and nurses. He used to ask his disciples to play his taped lecture for the doctor to hear. He always tried speaking to the doctor wanting to explain about Krishna . The doctors were advising that swamiji should not be preaching while in such weak health. While in the hospital, a disciple asked Prabhupada the meaning of the lotus feet of Krishna and then immediately Prabhupada sang the following verse from Srimad Bhagavatam 10.14.58

samaashritaa ye pada-pallava-plavam
mahat-padam punya-yasho-muraareh
bhavaambudhir vatsa-padam param padam
padam padam yad vipadaam na teshaam

For those who have accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation and is famous as Muraari, the enemy of the Mura demon, the ocean of the material world is like the water contained in a calf’s hoof-print. Their goal is param padam, Vaikuntha, the place where there are no material miseries, not the place where there is danger at every step.

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The beauty of the Lord, has described by Markendya Rsi, Srimad Bhagavatam 12.9.22-25:

mahaa-marakata-shyaamam / srimad-vadana-pankajam
kambu-greevam mahoraskam / su-naasam sundara-bhurvam
shvaasaijad-alakaabhaatam / kambu-sri-karna-dhaadimam
vidhrumaadhara-bhaasheshac / chonaayita sudhaa-smitam
padma-garbhaarunaapaangam / hrdaya-haasaavalokanam
shvaasaijad-vali-samvigna / nimna-naabhi-dalodaram
caarv-angulibhyaam paanibhyaam / unneeya caranaambujam
mukhe nidhaaya viprendro / dhayantam veekshya vismitah

"The infant’s dark-blue complexion was the color of a flawless emerald, His lotus face shone with a wealth of beauty, and His throat bore marks like the lines on a conch shell. He had a broad chest, a finely shaped nose, beautiful eyebrows, and lovely ears that resembled pomegranate flowers and that had inner folds like a conch shell’s spirals. The corners of His eyes were reddish like the whorl of a lotus, and the effulgence of His coral-like lips slightly reddened the nectarean, enchanting smile on His face. As He breathed, His splendid hair trembled and His deep navel became distorted by the moving folds of skin on His abdomen, which resembled a banyan leaf. The exalted brahmana watched with amazement as the infant took hold of one of His lotus feet with His graceful fingers, placed a toe within His mouth and began to suck."

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The beauty of the Lord, has described by Markendya Rsi, Srimad Bhagavatam 12.9.22-25:

mahaa-marakata-shyaamam / srimad-vadana-pankajam
kambu-greevam mahoraskam / su-naasam sundara-bhurvam
shvaasaijad-alakaabhaatam / kambu-sri-karna-dhaadimam
vidhrumaadhara-bhaasheshac / chonaayita sudhaa-smitam
padma-garbhaarunaapaangam / hrdaya-haasaavalokanam
shvaasaijad-vali-samvigna / nimna-naabhi-dalodaram
caarv-angulibhyaam paanibhyaam / unneeya caranaambujam
mukhe nidhaaya viprendro / dhayantam veekshya vismitah

"The infant’s dark-blue complexion was the color of a flawless emerald, His lotus face shone with a wealth of beauty, and His throat bore marks like the lines on a conch shell. He had a broad chest, a finely shaped nose, beautiful eyebrows, and lovely ears that resembled pomegranate flowers and that had inner folds like a conch shell’s spirals. The corners of His eyes were reddish like the whorl of a lotus, and the effulgence of His coral-like lips slightly reddened the nectarean, enchanting smile on His face. As He breathed, His splendid hair trembled and His deep navel became distorted by the moving folds of skin on His abdomen, which resembled a banyan leaf. The exalted brahmana watched with amazement as the infant took hold of one of His lotus feet with His graceful fingers, placed a toe within His mouth and began to suck."

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The most common phrase in non-devotee circle is Heart Attack and in the devotees circle is "Maya Attack". Yes Maya is very powerful but only when we are not with Krishna. During our childhood, most of us would always have the habit of hiding behind our parents if we are scared of someone or something. In a similar way, if we hide behind Krishna, Maya would not be able to cast her spell.

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We all try every other way to impress and get the attention of our dear ones, and move closer to them, but all our efforts in the material relations has just expectations and no gains. Our efforts are never appreciated in the material platform. Even when we try our sweat and blood to get special attention of our loved ones, we are going to fail one day. But all the efforts drawn to come close to Lord Krishna never goes in vain. It simply depends on our endeavour and Krishnas mercy. There are lot of things we can follow to get Krishnas special mercy. But this verse from Srimad Bhagavad gita 12.13 is the base of all and most important to follow:

adveshta sarva-bhutaanaam / maitrah karuna eva ca
nirmamo nirahankaarah / sama-duhkha-sukhah kshami

"One who is not envious but is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think himself a proprietor and is free from false ego, who is equal in both happiness and distress, who is tolerant, always satisfied, self-controlled, and engaged in devotional service with determination, his mind and intelligence fixed on Me, such a devotee of Mine is very dear to Me."

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We were discussing a wonderful verse from Srimad Bhagavatam during an internet chat. The verse is from Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.14

aapannah samsrtim ghoraam / yan naama vivasho grnan
tatah sadyo vimuchyeta / yad bibheti svayam bhayam

"Living beings who are entangled in the complicated meshes of birth and death can be freed immediately by even unconsciously chanting the holy name of Krishna which is feared by fear personified."

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What is it that’s hard to break ??? Diamonds are hard to find but not hard to break. What is the hardest thing to break then? The answer is: HABIT! If you break the H, you still have A BIT. If you break the A, you still have BIT. If you break the B, you still have IT! After you break the T in IT, there is still the ‘I’. And that "I" is the root cause of all the problems that we are all facing. We just recalled reading this verse in one of the emails.

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It is one month now our Guru Maharaj H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj entered into Samadhi and left for Krishna loka. He became role model for all of us by teaching how to live and how to leave. While performing Guru arati by H H Radhanath swami maharaj at Nasik ISKCON temple, we could understand the Bhava and deeply thinking how pure our Guru Maharaj is that by the mercy of Lord he could hit the target and achieved the supreme goal of life to go back to Godhead. His each instructions are documents. Only remembering him is not enough but to practice his instructions is important. Maharaj clearly told us that your chanting, reading Bhagavat gita and Srimad Bhagavatam is good, but if you follow and practice my instructions then you will be more connected to me than before.

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Dear Satsangis,

Hare Krishna!! All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to Guru and Gauranga !

Tue Mar 2, 2010 is the Birthday of Bhakta Ravi Chandran.

We humbly request all the Vaishnavas to bestow their blessings on the occasion of this birthday.

Join us to beg at the lotus feet of Guru and Krishna and request their causeless mercy and choicest blessings on this soul, to have many more wonderful and blissful years of Krishna Conscious life.

Yours humble servants,
Ruby & Saravana.

Today we are celebrating the most auspicious occasion of the appearance of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. In one of the lectures, our beloved Guru Maharaj was referring to the following beautiful verse from Caitanya Caritamrta Adi lila 2.2:

krishnotkirtana-gaana-nartana-kalaa-paathojani-bhraajitaa
sad-bhaktaavali-hamsa-cakra-madhupa-shreni -vihaaraaspadam
karnaanandi-kala-dhvanir vahatu me jihvaa-maru-praangane
shri-caitanya dayaa-nidhe tava lasal-lila-sudhaa-svardhuni

"O my merciful Lord Caitanya, may the nectarean Ganges waters of Your transcendental activities flow on the surface of my desertlike tongue. Beautifying these waters are the lotus flowers of singing, dancing and loud chanting of Krishna’s holy name, which are the pleasure abodes of unalloyed devotees. These devotees are compared to swans, ducks and bees. The river’s flowing produces a melodious sound that gladdens their ears."

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Today we are celebrating the most auspicious occasion of the appearance of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. In one of the lectures, our beloved Guru Maharaj was referring to the following beautiful verse from Caitanya Caritamrta Adi lila 2.2:

krishnotkirtana-gaana-nartana-kalaa-paathojani-bhraajitaa
sad-bhaktaavali-hamsa-cakra-madhupa-shreni -vihaaraaspadam
karnaanandi-kala-dhvanir vahatu me jihvaa-maru-praangane
shri-caitanya dayaa-nidhe tava lasal-lila-sudhaa-svardhuni

"O my merciful Lord Caitanya, may the nectarean Ganges waters of Your transcendental activities flow on the surface of my desertlike tongue. Beautifying these waters are the lotus flowers of singing, dancing and loud chanting of Krishna’s holy name, which are the pleasure abodes of unalloyed devotees. These devotees are compared to swans, ducks and bees. The river’s flowing produces a melodious sound that gladdens their ears."

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The Lord states in the Gita that He accepts a leaf, flower, fruit or water from His bhaktas if it is offered with devotion. These items are easily available and by offering these things one can get His blessings to enter into His Kingdom. And from the scriptures we hear that the Lord has great liking for Tulasi leaves and He is very much pleased if we offer tulasi leaves to Him.

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Today we will share a beautiful offering of H H Janananda Goswami Maharaj unto our spiritual master H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj on the occassion of his samadhi on 27th Jan 2010. H H Janananda Goswami Maharaj is a senior disciple of Srila Prabhupada. He had become a devotee in London and served there in the beginning years of his Krishna consciousness (early 70’s) wherein he had spent a lot of time with our Guru Maharaj. Janananda Maharaj is a very exalted devotee, traveling and preaching all over the world, the main driving force behind the World Holy Name initiative and various other wonderful projects in ISKCON. His kirtans, harinam, spontaneous skits, realizations, scholarliness in the shastras, witty nature, humility and many other transcendental qualities attracts even the most demoniac souls to the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krishna.

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Kalacakra Krsna das
H H Janananda Goswami wrote:

Dear Mahavishnu Maharaja,

Please accept my humble obeisances and ecstatic embraces. All glories to Srila Prabhupada who brought us together and has now separated us at least for a while. But not really. I cannot but remember many wonderful times together laughing and laughing. You were just like my favourite uncle. I love your sense of humour. Right from the first time I saw you, maybe back in 1974, I was naturally attracted to you. You used to roll up to Bhaktivedanta Manor in that little old car – what was it? After your work you would come. I remember you sitting in Prabhupada’s room quietly studying his books – practically unseen by the “busy” devotees who had “things to do”. At that time you hesitated to heed Prabhupada’s call to join him and preach.

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It is one month since our Gurudev left our physical vision. Days and hours are difficult to pass by but we are remembering him more and more. It is only by remembering Gurudev’s glories again and again that we can purify our life and please him. I would humbly like to share the transcribed speech of H H Radhanath Swami Maharaj on 27th Jan 2010 when our Guru Maharaj H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj entered Samadhi.

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During Nityananda Prabhu’s tour of all the holy places of India for the purpose of purifying them, by the will of providence, he happened to meet Madhavendra Puripada somewhere in western India. When Nityananda Prabhu saw Madhavendra Puri Goswami he fainted away in a swoon of ecstatic love and His transcendental body became completely still. Similarly, when Madhavendra Puri gazed upon Nityananda Prabhu, he completely forgot himself and fainted to the ground.

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This is the concluding part of the excerpts of the wonderful class given by our beloved Guru Maharaj on Srimad Bhagavatam verse 4.28.42:

Survive To Serve – Part 3 [granthraj]

Survive To Serve – Part 2 [granthraj]

Survive to Serve – Part 1 [granthraj]

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King MAndhAtA once said to Vasishtha Muni, "O great sage, kindly be merciful to me and tell me of a holy fast that will benefit me eternally."

Vasishtha Muni replied. "O king, kindly listen as I describe the best of all fast days, Amalakii EkAdasi. He who faithfully observes a fast on this EkAdasii obtains enormous wealth, gets free of the effects of all kinds of sins, and attains liberation. Fasting on this EkAdasii is more purifying than donating one thousand cows in charity to a pure brAhmana. So please hear me attentively as I tell you the story of a hunter who, though daily engaged in killing innocent animals for his living, achieved liberation by observing a fast on Amalakii EkAdasii and following the prescribed rules and regulations of worship.

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