I would like to share among you all an incident happened to me few months back. I felt it to be presentable because the whole incident is in accordance with a beautiful sloka from S.B 1.6.26.

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Manidhara Dasa: "When I arrived at Bhaktivedanta Manor, what struck me was the absolute silence. I knew that something was different from the usual visits of Srila Prabhupada. When Harikesa Maharaja saw me, he immediately took me to Prabhupada’s room.

"After we entered and offered obeisances, Harikesa Swami said: ‘This is Manidhara, one of the best book distributors in Germany.’ But Prabhupada didn’t react. He sat in a chair, his hands folded, absorbed in deep thought. When I saw him, I knew he was already far beyond this world.

"Tamal Krishna Maharaja, his secretary, brought in the mail. There was a large envelope from Los Angeles that contained photos of the recent Ratha-yatra festival. As Prabhupada looked at the pictures, he said, ‘I always wanted to have a cart like this.’

"The package also contained the latest BBT publication, a softbound Spanish Srimad-Bhagavatam. As soon as Srila Prabhupada saw the book, his eyes lit up. He took the book on his lap and looked around the room with deep satisfaction. It reminded me of Nanda Maharaja proudly holding Krsna on his lap.

"The next day, Srila Prabhupada asked to see all the German devotees. When we went to his room, we all offered dandavats, and the mood was a bit like, ‘Here we are, Prabhupada, the elite of all the sankirtana devotees in the world!’ Then Prabhupada asked us, ‘What is the most important philosophical understanding?’ We didn’t expect that. We had expected him to ask about the book distribution results or to hear sankirtana stories."

Prthu Dasa: "After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Haraka and I said: yare dekha, tare kaha ‘krsna’-upadesa. Prabhupada asked us, ‘What does it mean, ‘krsna’-upadesa?’ I ventured, ‘Desa’ means ‘land,’ so it means ‘the land of Krsna.’ Prabhupada corrected me, ‘No, it means instruction. It is the instruction of Krsna. And what is that instruction?’ Again, Haraka and I replied as if we shared one mouth: sarva dharman paritjaya.’ ‘Yes,’ Prabhupada said, ‘that is our business.’ "

Gangadhara Dasa: "Srila Prabhupada acknowledged the answer to his original question as all right, but it wasn’t really what he wanted to hear. When he saw after a while that no one had a clue, he said: ‘Aham brahmasmi. We should understand that we are not this body. This should be fully realized.’ We all sat there dumbfounded. That was all? We had heard that hundreds of times. We expected Prabhupada to speak about sankirtana, but he simply made this point."

Manidhara Dasa: "Outside Prabhupada’s quarters, we all wondered about what had just happened. In those days, we book distributors didn’t spend much time reading or studying the philosophy. Our main concern was to do big. By this little incident, Srila Prabhupada gave us a final, important lesson, something he had said repeatedly: ‘These books are not only for selling, but also for reading."’

From the "Srila Prabhupada and His Disciples in Germany" by HG Vedavyasa dasa

Disclaimer: The article is posted in the Yahoo Groups – Govindadwipa. All credits goes to the group and their services. Hare Krishna.

In this world every one of us are facing unsurpassable miseries and are always tormented by distress and we always want some respite. We are always seeking some supreme shelter wherein all our miseries and distress are completely mitigated and we can become happy. Instead of understanding the transcendental nature of spiritual solutions, most of the times, we go in for material solutions to these material problems and counteract those miseries. As a result we end up with more miseries. For example to control blood-pressure – we take medicines, but it has got its side effect and affects other parts of body like our heart etc and the doctor never gives the true picture of the side reaction. We get frustrated in our material attempts and always end our life in distress without embarking for a permanent solution from the Supreme Transcendence. Uddhava gives a wonderful prayer to the Lord in Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.18, which is worth meditating.

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From www.recipes.iskcondesiretree.info – Bhaktivedanta Hospital, Diet department

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"I am the goal, the sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge, and the most dear friend. I am the creation and the annihilation, the basis of everything, the resting place, and the eternal seed."

Lord Sri Krsna – Bhagavad gita 9.18

Disclaimer: The daily ‘Vedic thought’ are posted by Deepak Prabhu in the Yahoo Groups – Govindadwipa. All credits goes to him and the groups. Hare Krishna.

yatato hy api kaunteya
puruṣasya vipaścitaḥ
indriyāṇi pramāthīni
haranti prasabhaḿ manaḥ

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"If you cannot purify yourself by any endeavor whatsoever, then just go sit with the Vaisnavas and you will achieve all auspiciousness."

Sri Ramanujacarya – (Quoted in Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s Bhaktyaloka)

Disclaimer: The daily ‘Vedic thought’ are posted by Deepak Prabhu in the Yahoo Groups – Govindadwipa. All credits goes to him and the groups. Hare Krishna.

From www.recipes.iskcondesiretree.info – Bhaktivedanta Hospital, Diet department

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"Material enjoyments are full of poison, but you consider them pleasing. Do not think of them as a source of happiness, but understand them as distress. Be absorbed in full thought of Govinda, associate with His devotees, and conclude that devotional service is the goal of life."

Srila Narottama Dasa Thakura – Sri Prema Bhakti Candrika

Disclaimer: The daily ‘Vedic thought’ are posted by Deepak Prabhu in the Yahoo Groups – Govindadwipa. All credits goes to him and the groups. Hare Krishna.

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Dear Satsangis,

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

Today Mon Jun 29, 2009 is the Birthday of Bhaktin Divya Durga Ravi Kumaar.

We 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.

Few weeks back, we went through a short period of turbulence in our lives when our 3 year old son, Arjun, was seriously sick and admitted to a hospital in Bangalore, India. When he fell sick, I was still in Singapore and so my wife, Krishna Rati was naturally very disturbed at the turn of events.

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From www.recipes.iskcondesiretree.info – Bhaktivedanta Hospital, Diet department

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yadā saḿharate cāyaḿ
kūrmo ‘ńgānīva sarvaśaḥ
indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyas
tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā

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"I continually glorified the Lord and meditated upon Him for millions of years, and at last I was able to understand the transcendental form of the Lord as Sri Krsna, in the dress of a cowherd boy"

Lord Brahma – Sri Gopala-tapani Upanisad 1.27

Disclaimer: The daily ‘Vedic thought’ are posted by Deepak Prabhu in the Yahoo Groups – Govindadwipa. All credits goes to him and the groups. Hare Krishna.

Sri Vakreshwar Pandit was present with Sriman Mahaprabhu during His pastimes in Navadwipa and after his acceptance of Sannyasa he also accompanied Him to Jagannath Puri. During the time of the Lord’s residence in Puri he continued to live with Him there as well. Sri Vakreshwar Pandit took birth in the village of Guptipara near Triveni. He was an especially proficient dancer and kirtaniya and could dance continuously for 72 hours.

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Soon after the German BBT devotees departed for Los Angeles, Harikesa Swami began making plans to bring them back as soon as possible. He wanted to set up a multilingual book production unit at Schloss Rettershof. He was working on producing books not only in German, but also in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian, Rumanian, Bulgarian, Russian, and Arabic. The most practical arrangement was to get equipment and train a dedicated crew to handle the different languages efficiently.

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As soon as Harikesa Maharaja began acting as the GBC and BBT trustee for Northern and Eastern Europe, he organized the translation of Srila Prabhupada’s books into the major East European languages. This fulfilled a desire Srila Prabhupada had expressed to Hamsaduta as early as 1973.

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A great task lay ahead: reviving book production. For more than two years, no new titles had been published. Although under Jayatirtha, arrange-ments were made to improve the appearance and quality of the books, the plans for new books never fructified.

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