namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

[Names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.]

Many years ago, I was on a Hare Krishna farm. One day, while working in Krishna's kitchen, I learned that there were maha sweets kept in the big fridge over night. The next day, I told my friend and Godbrother about this and we began to plan a caper. It was so easy—we simply went down to the kitchen about 2 am and slid open the window on the side of the building. We went inside and grabbed the sweets out of the fridge. Oh, if you've ever had milk sweets made from Krishna's whole milk that were offered with love then you may understand. If not, I can only tell you they are wonderful! We couldn't imagine how anyone, especially a devotee, could leave them in a fridge over night. So we began to hit the place about every couple of weeks. We felt not to would be offensive!

by bhakta Jason Matthews

It was 1973 when I first came into contact with Krishna’s pure devotees. I was five years old and traveling through the Frankfurt airport with my parents and older brother. In thinking back on the experience it’s really odd that I remember it so clearly now, especially as it has become covered by other experiences of conditional life and remained forgotten for thirty two years.

As a very inquisitive child, I liked to explore and ask many questions of my parents and others around me. Therefore, it was always necessary for either my mom or dad to hold my hand so I did not wander off into the environment. This occasion was no different. My eyes were darting around from one person to another. Looking up and down the airport corridors, I was indeed enarmoured by all of the activity.

by bhakta Jerry

There is a nine-fold process to obtaining prema—pure love of God. The first step we take in this process is sraddha, or faith. In anything we do we must first place our faith in the process and the people who propagate that process. If a student wants to become a scientist he places his faith in the teachings of his instructors with hopes that one day he will be able to replicate their experiments and have first hand knowledge of science. Similarly, religious people place their faith in the process of religion expecting to obtain a tangible result. In either case, the practitioner is not aware of the experience and understanding he will eventually have by following a particular process, but he makes a decision to follow the prescribed path to obtain the end result.

by Tirtha das

Spiritual World in Turmoil as Picket Lines Spread

In an unprecedented turn of events, Lord Krishna’s Gopis have gone on strike, declaring, “No pay, no work.” When asked where they got the notion for such strange behavior, one Gopi who asked to remain anonymous replied, “We saw how our counterparts in ISKCON were conducting their affairs. I mean, if they can claim to be devotees and demand to get paid for every little service they perform, well…. Some of us got together and decided maybe we should get paid, too. Krishna has all the money, fame, beauty, etc., so why not have a little profit sharing? Selfless service is okay, we’re not knocking it. But some of us have bills to pay. Lord knows we have an image to keep up, our cell phones, new Vaikuntha cars, priceless ornaments, ever fresh garlands, silk saris, and clothes for the kids don’t come cheap. Besides, somebody has to feed these Surabhi cows.”

by Vamanajana Prabhu

My wife and I ran a little store across the street called the Surabhi Store. We would arrange for Srila Prabhupada's afternoon refreshment of dab (fresh coconut). The last year that Prabhupada was here in Los Angeles, the GBC came to me and two others and asked if we would like to be Srila Prabhupada's bodyguards. He thought the three of us should split up the 24-hour watch.

About the middle of the second week we were doing this, and my good friend Bhaskara, who was one of the other bodyguards, and I were having lunch, and he said, "Did you notice that Srila Prabhupada does the same thing at the same time every day?" I said, "Yeah, it's amazing. You can almost set your watch by him."

(continued)

by Carl Sheppard

Finding Happiness in the Bhagavad-gita

Authors note: Although I wrote this essay for a general audience, I would like to make a short statement to those inmates who are reading my essay in the ISKCON newsletter:

I am an inmate myself. I have been confined for over five years now and face several more. As inmates, our ability to find happiness through our material senses is already greatly curtailed, and yet, as we all know, most inmates still chase this illusive goal.

(continued)

by an unknown inmate

It is important to understand envy because it is one of the six basic enemies of the mind. The most commonly used Sanskrit word for envy is matsara. In the second verse of the Srimad Bhagavatam, it is stated that Srimad Bhagavatam is meant for those who are nir-matsara, without envy. Lord Krishna told Arjuna that he would impart to him the knowledge of devotional service because Arjuna was anasuyave, without envy of Him. (Bhagavad-gita 9.1) Because an envious person cannot understand devotional service, it is important to understand the root causes of envy so we can pull out the root.

Envy is to covet another person’s possessions, such as physical property, position, or prestige. Envy has two parts: desire and hate. “All living entities are born into delusion, bewildered by dualities arisen from desire and hate.” (BG 7.28)

“Everything is so surrea l… As the senses flash before me … I see the mirror, but I am unable to see my reflection for the dust … ‘Flash’ I see the womb and I know it covers the embryo … ‘Flash’ I see the opposite sex … a feeling of heat burns, there is smoke and that’s how I know there is fire … ‘Flash’ I see Krishna and I awake from my nightmare.”

What does my dream mean, where does it come from and why is the flash of the opposite sex so intense that it stands above the others? These questions and many more roll through my mind like marbles in a whirlwind. Fortunately, there is a way to stop the whirlwind and collect my marbles, but in order to do this I must first understand why my marbles have tumbled from me.

By Bhakta Kendrick Curry

Everyone wants to be happy. The sad truth is that most of us do not understand what true happiness is, where it is found or how to go about attaining it. Fortunately for us all, the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna, has given us the keys to happiness in His famous discourse, the Bhagavad-gita. Once we come to know the source of and the means to achieve happiness we can understand that our focus must be within ourselves, for happiness is an intrinsic quality of our true self.

By Bhakta Carl Sheppard

... He found his mind on his first birthday, surrounded by giants and bright colored balls of light. He suddenly realized the giants and balloons were there for him and because of him. His shrieks of laughter filled the room when he found his mind. When he was two his mind found its creativity, joy and happiness. When he was four he was punished and he found pain and suffering because he could not understand what he did wrong. At six, the bull calf he loved and nurtured was killed for food by his father. He loved Billy the bull and stayed with him everyday. At night he would sneak out into the pasture and sleep curled up with the bull. When Billy was killed his mind found hate, anger, fear, revenge and horror. And when he was thirteen he found freedom by running away from his farm in California to San Francisco.

By Bhakta Arthur

By Bhakta Victor

During the segregation period a vast amount of energy had been put into litigation against this unjust punishment. It was unacceptable since I had not engaged in any activity that would warrant an investigation and since no real investigation was actually taking place. Later, another realization came that there was no existence of punishment and only promotion. Had Krishna called in the wilderness in order to bestow and perfect His favor? That is, He granted me the favor of being in close association with a devotee and granted me the opportunity to become a part of this great movement.

We can become so entangled in our personal concern that we start reacting instead of acting. I felt most dumb-founded having no knowledge of the acting energies of Krishna. Certain officials may have believed they were delivering punishment to me by the segregation and then the transfer to a potentially more dangerous institution very far away from my hometown. Indeed, it was easy to tune and zoom in on negative energy. But it requires a trained eye in order to tune and zoom in on the positive energy that’s sometimes strangely mixed with the negative energy.

These are truly troubled times we live in. People have forgotten that just as matter cannot be created or destroyed (a log burned turns into other forms of carbon, ash and smoke) neither are souls created or destroyed. They just take birth in different bodies.

By becoming so attached to this world, people forget that they are spirit souls. They become attached to everything, from their bodies to their cars. When the gas tank in their cars runs empty, they say, “I’m out of gas,” No, the car is out of gas.

by Carl Sheppard

nama vinu kali-kale nahi ara dharm
sarvamantra-sara nama eisastra-marma

“In this age of Kali there is no religious principle other than the chanting of the holy name, which is the essence of all Vedic hymns. This is the purport of all scriptures.”

Sri Caitanya Caritamrta Adi-lila, Ch. 7 Text 74

I am often amazed at the vast quantities of hope and joy that the message of the Vedas has brought into my life from so many different angles when it seems as though we are living in a world of turmoil where hope and joy should be the exceptions rather than the rule.

By Tirtha dasa

With even a small understanding or our precarious situation we may properly inquire, "What possible hope is there for me to ever break free from my past, from my habits and deep conditioning?" We may not be very educated or may have even lost some degree of our ability to think clearly – our nerves may already feel shattered – leaving one unable to think and focus properly. Or we may currently find ourselves in a situation of seeming total chaos, with unending noise and innumerable distractions all around us.

By bhakta David Lightsey

In the July-August issue of Freedom Newsletter, in the Questions and Answers section, a question was raised concerning atonement. This is a question I have often encountered in my own experience. Sometimes this question arises during the course of a discussion on Christian theology or can be a carry over by the novice from such perspective.

The Christian doctrine emphasizes repentance and teaches that man is endowed with a sinful nature. Due to this nature, one must have faith in the sacrifice of Jesus, as atonement is provided through him. Taking refuge under the umbrella of Christ’s death, one can become reconciled with God.

The perception that we are separated and essentially sinful is grounded in false ego. In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna explains we are born deluded by pairs of opposites. We are ignorant. Ignorance impels us to do "dirty deeds." The false ego is the personification of this sinful nature we perceive in ourselves. In actuality, we are eternal servants of Krishna.

By Janmastami dasa

 

Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita:

To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.

(BG 10.10)

In his purport to this verse, Srila Prabhupada states, "A person may have a bona fide spiritual master and may be attached to a spiritual organization, but still, if he is not intelligent enough to make progress, then Krishna from within gives him instructions so that he may ultimately come to Him without difficulty." I take this purport as an example of my life.

I was fortunate enough to first encounter devotees in the late 60's. I was even blessed to have met Srila Prabhupada and hear him speak on more than one occasion. However, due to my foolishness and stubborn independent streak, I never stuck around Srila Prabhupada's movement or the devotees for very long. I always left, looking for an adventure but, eventually, I settled down.

by bhakta David Lightsey

In the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krishna, on the battlefield of Kuruksetra, tells Arjuna “For one who has taken birth death is certain and for one who is dead birth is certain. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty you should not lament.” (2.27)

The Lord says for one who takes birth death is certain and for the dead birth is certain. Among those who embrace reincarnation, there is some philosophers that say once the entity obtains the human form of life one cannot be degraded to the animal species. Their argument is that evolution is forward so being degraded would be against the laws of nature. They reason that there would be no inducement for the entity to step down to a lower stage even if it could do so. They conclude that regardless of how we live we will always have the privilege and luxury of embodying the human form of life.

Bhagavad-gita is one of the foremost authorities on the science of reincarnation. The Supreme Authority, Sri Krishna, is the composer. Sri Krishna states, “The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas.” (15.8)

By Upendra dasa

The chanting of Hare Krishna Mahamantra is the recommended purification process in the Vedas for all the conditional souls, including the most sinful person. The Hare Krishna Mahamantra was distributed freely to all the conditional souls by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He is Krishna Himself playing the role of a devotee to teach us how to love Krishna. In the form of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Krishna is distributing a love of Krishna freely to everyone and anyone including the most sinful Jagai and Madhai. Now our Founder Acharya Srila Prabhupada is carrying out the mission of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu through ISKCON and distributing the Hare Krishna Mahamantra through out the world. I am briefly describing the most famous example mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam “Ajamila saved by the chanting of the holy name at the time of death”.

Ajamila was a brahmana boy, very pure and clean. One day his father told him to get the flower from the forest for artik ceremony. When he went to get the flower in the forest, he saw that a drunken person was hugging a prostitute. At that point, Ajamila developed the attraction for a prostitute and lost all his brahmanical qualities. He kept a prostitute as a maidservant in his house and then he got rid of his brahamanical wife and married the prostitute. Now Ajamila was practicing illicit sex, gambling and stealing to keep the prostitute happy and which brahamans are barred from practicing. Ajamila had ten children and named his youngest son Narayana (Lord Narayana is the expansion of Lord Krishna). He was very much attached to his youngest son and he would call him often saying “Narayana eat food, Narayana drink water, Narayana go to sleep, --- etc.” By repeatedly calling Narayan’s name, Ajamila was getting purified.

One day a call of death came and Narayana was playing close to Ajamila. So out of affection to the youngest son, Ajamila called his youngest son Narayana. By uttering the name of Narayana at the time of death Ajamila was freed from all sinful reactions and was given another chance by being sent to Hrisekesh, a very holy place on the base of the Himalayas. There, he carefully finished his devotional life and then went back to Godhead.

Jivananda joined ISKCON in 1978 and has spent many years serving in temples and at New Vrndaban. Currently, he is an enthusiastic preacher trying to implement innovative ideas for preaching to prisoners.

What brought you to Krsna Consciousness?

I’d have to say it was the holy names. I made an experiment of chanting the Maha Mantra and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. The immediate difference I felt in my life was so wonderful. I surrendered to Krsna and moved into the LA temple within three days of finding the devotees. It was just like coming home!

By Tirtha das

From the Caitanya-bhagavata we learn how Lord Caitanya instructed Nityananda Prabhu, Lord Caitanya's first personal expansion, and Haridasa Thakura, also known as the namacarya, or acarya of chanting the holy names of Hare Krsna, to go door to door instructing everyone to please chant the holy names of the Lord. Following the Lord's order, they had occasion to confront the two most sinful brothers of their time, Jagai and Madhai. It is said there was no sinful activity these two brothers had not committed. But because they had not committed offenses toward the devotees they were still considered candidates to receive the Lords' mercy.

“There were unlimited stories about the two, for there was no sin they had not committed. Although they were brahmanas, they were always engaged in drinking wine, eating beef, plundering other’s wealth, and burning other’s houses. They avoided royal punishment and the notices of the town authorities. They did not pass a day without wine and meat. The two would roll on the street, and they would punch anyone they met. As people watched these incidents from a distance, Nityananda and Haridasa arrived there. Sometimes the two displayed affection for each other, and sometimes they pulled each other’s hair while cursing. Every type of sin became manifest in the bodies of these two except the sin of blaspheming Vaisnavas. The assembly in which Vaisvanvas are blasphemed will be ruined, even if all other religious principles are observed. A drunkard will be delivered in due course of time, but one who engages in blasphemy will never attain the goal of life.” (Caitanya-bhagavata Madhya 2.32- 50).

When Lord Nityananda asked who the two brothers were, the people said they were from a respectable family, but due to bad association, became corrupt. Seeing them there, Nityananda Prabhu began to contemplate how they might be delivered. His thought was, “Since Lord Caitanya has come to deliver the fallen souls of this world, who better to deliver than these two, who are the epitome of sinful activity? ” Knowing the Lord’s mind, Haridasa Thakura began to dance in ecstasy, knowing that by Nityananda’s mercy the two dacoit brothers were already delivered.

by Janma Janmadi dasa

The 100 sons of Dhrtarastra (the Kurus) wanted to murder Emperor Yudhistira and his four brothers (the Pandavas) so that one of the Kurus could be the emperor. The Kurus tried, and failed, in six ways to murder the Pandavas. One of the Kurus, Duhsasana, devised a plot to steal the emperor’s throne by cheating Emperor Yudhistira in a dice game. The ksatriyas are allowed to gamble against one another.

The last bet of the gambling match was that if the Pandavas won the bet then they would regain everything they had lost in the game, but if they lost they would go into exile in the forest for thirteen years. In the thirteenth year they would not live in the forest but would live incognito. If they were identified they would suffer exile for another thirteen years.

Although there was cheating in the dice game, Emperor Yudhisthira accepted that he lost the bet. The Pandavas went into exile accompanied by their mother, Queen Kunti Devi (Sri Krishna’s paternal aunt).

While in exile, Queen Kunti and the Pandavas ate whatever fruits, roots, berries, plants, and vegetables they could find and sometimes they ate a dangerous animal they killed. Daily, they would each gather whatever edibles they could find, put it all together and divide it amongst each other. However, they did not equally divide it.

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said, “I don’t believe that God exists.” Why do you say that,” asked the customer.

“Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine a loving God who would allow all these things.”

By Bhaktin Bonnie.

I received a four month sentence within these prison walls, faced with time on my hands. The first three weeks were in the county jail and then onto prison, where there were three more grueling weeks of lockdown, before I was brought into the prison “yard.” All through this experience KRSNA was there and opened the doors for me to preach to the women that I would have seen as closed.

In the beginning, I would walk around the “yard” every morning and every evening chanting the maha mantra, not counting the time. As little as I know, I knew this: I wanted to remain close to Krsna. Immediately Krsna answered my prayers and the women started coming up to me to ask what I was singing and why? I explained that this is how I love my Lord. I am still amazed at what happened.

This writing is to further substantiate my unknown God brother who composed ‘The Soul Behind the Animal’ in the Jan / Feb issue of our Freedom Newsletter.
I am into words because if we misunderstand them it can cause strife and hate. But the antithesis to this is understanding which can invoke love and harmony. This power in Sanskrit is called matrika-shakti: the power inherent in words. What if I were to say a soul has no soul? Sounds like something a Zen Buddhist might like to ponder.

This is exactly what is being said by the so-called intellectuals when they assert animals have no soul. Such an argument is asinine. Consider the linguistics: animal derives from the Latin anima meaning soul. The word animal is a testimony against them. A soul has no soul. This is moot, it has no merit. They are simply trying to justify their meat eating propensity.

Let us consider the words fruit and vegetable. Fruit comes from the Latin fructus. We can further break this down to frui which means to enjoy. Vegetable derives from the Latin vegere meaning lively or quicken. From a simple study of the words it is evident which eating habit is conducive to our spiritual unfoldment. On the one hand we have enjoyment and liveliness and on the other the utter disregard of a soul.

By Janmastami dasa
(inspired by Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta, Adi-Lila, Ch. 7, Text 23)

Lord Chaitanya has blessed the fallen of the fallen with His presence here at the Federal Prison in McKean County, PA. He has given us His mercy and the mercy of His pure representative, Srila Prabhupada.

Within the last year, over 100 Bhagavad-Gitas (as well as other books) have been distributed to the inmates here as well as inmates in transit to other facilities. This is thanks to the selfless service of ISKCON Prison Ministries.

The devotees here have tried to act in such a way so that Lord Krishna sees us. And though our actions are so imperfect, Lord Krishna has noted our sincerity, and has reciprocated with us. After months of constant denials by the prison administration, on Govardhana Puja a devotee from Sri Gita-Nagari Dhama was able to come and associate with us. His Grace Jaganatha Pandit dasa led a kirtan and gave a very nice lecture on Bhagavad-Gita Ch. 4:38. About 15 inmates attended the program. Most of these inmates had never been exposed to the Hare Krishna movement before. Jaganatha Pandit Prabhu quickly overcame their skepticism and their suspicions. Overall it was a very fruitful program. Word spread around the prison about the devotee. When he returns there will be a lot more inmates in attendance.