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New Temple Draft Plans For Your Careful Consideration
Haribol Prabhu's & Didi's
What follows is an update on the construction of our Kirtan Hall / Temple in Murwillumbah.
Put simply, it's a two-stage plan. First we will do a kirtan hall big enough to seat 60 or more people which we will use to start coming together NOW for kirtan and programs, when it's needed. The second stage is to embark on the main building.
Two individuals have each made donations of $25,000, and both wanted to see what we would do with that before giving significantly larger amounts. It would go a long way to impressing our potential donors if they can see that we have completely paid off a block of land and erected an attractive and useful kirtan hall - from funds raised within our own group, and with no debt burden......
Click here to read & see more...>
from the Seva Team: Premananda, Paramananda Puri, Anuradha, Jahnavi & Mahaprabhu
Gaura-purnima 2010!!
Most of the local devotees from Murwillumbah have gone to India to celebrate Gaura-purnima... Please join the festivities at Brisbane!
The Faults You Find May Be Your Own
by Srila Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Maharaja
We go to judge in the case of others: “Why should he receive all this mercy? He has got so many defects, so many disqualifications, an opposing attitude. Why should he be accepted or given any chance?” But we want mercy for ourselves: “Don’t come to judge me because then I have no hope, my Lord.”
This is jnana-sunya-bhakti, “If you come to judge me, I have no hope. Please grant Your grace, then I can have hope. I approach You to offer myself to make progress towards You. Please be very lenient; do not find fault with me.” But at the same time, in the same breath, we say, “Why should this disqualified man get any grace? Why will he get some mercy, some affection?”
That is hypocritical and it causes a great deal of difficulty within us. That is suicidal. It is vaisnava-ninda (criticizing devotees), and vaisnava-aparadha (offending devotees).
Those that are accepted by Him will gradually be purified, but we are very eager to point out faults in them. That is more dangerous for our own progress – suicidal. In my case, I want something higher, but in the case of others we can’t tolerate the same behaviour of the Lord. That is a very difficult position. Generally that is the basis of vaisnava-aparadha. One has been accepted by the Lord, and is gradually purifying himself, yet we give much attention to the fault that is still left, the difficulties still left in him. These faults particularly come to our attention.......
Serving Krishna and Everybody Else
The highest perfectional stage of life is real love for Krsna.
Since many stages are there, one must graduate from many classes. The first is sraddha.
But we do not even believe in the very first stage. We think, "What is the value of serving Krsna in the temple when there are human beings suffering due to lack of food and clothing? What is the need of pouring milk on Govardhana Hill? Daily so much milk goes down the drain; there is such a waste of food. What is the necessity of pouring ghee on the fire? Why waste so many flowers? All these things are useless. If we offered them to the poor, it would be more practical." This is the thinking of people who have no faith, no sraddha.
Everything is created by Krsna. He is the father of all beings. By serving Him, everything connected with Him is satisfied.
Since many stages are there, one must graduate from many classes. The first is sraddha.
Sraddha is confident, firm faith that by rendering transcendental loving service to Krsna, one automatically performs all subsidiary activities. Such faith is favorable to the discharge of devotional service.
But we do not even believe in the very first stage. We think, "What is the value of serving Krsna in the temple when there are human beings suffering due to lack of food and clothing? What is the need of pouring milk on Govardhana Hill? Daily so much milk goes down the drain; there is such a waste of food. What is the necessity of pouring ghee on the fire? Why waste so many flowers? All these things are useless. If we offered them to the poor, it would be more practical." This is the thinking of people who have no faith, no sraddha.
But such thinking has no value.
Everything is created by Krsna. He is the father of all beings. By serving Him, everything connected with Him is satisfied.
Everything has a connection with Him. He is the shelter of all. Nothing can rest without His shelter. When one pleases Him, everyone is pleased. But nowadays one prefers to give pleasure to the poor instead of giving pleasure to God. Their thinking is opposite to this conclusion of sastra, as is the doctrine they preach.
By watering the root of a tree, every part of the tree will be served. The root will distribute water to every part of the tree, according to its necessity. Our senses are functioning: our eyes are seeing, our ears are hearing, our hands are working, etc. What should we do to nourish them? Should we feed them separately by giving some butter and bread to the eyes and ears? No. That is not the proper process. Through the mouth we supply the stomach with food and the stomach distributes it throughout the body as necessary.
In the same way, only by worshipping Krsna is everyone worshipped.
We endeavour to serve everyone with our hearts and souls, but the result is opposite to what we expect. The more we try, the more opposite is the result. We think that by such service we will become increasingly happy, but instead we become more unhappy. Why? Because the process is wrong.
- Srila Bhaktivedanta Trivikrama Maharaja
In the same way, only by worshipping Krsna is everyone worshipped.
We endeavour to serve everyone with our hearts and souls, but the result is opposite to what we expect. The more we try, the more opposite is the result. We think that by such service we will become increasingly happy, but instead we become more unhappy. Why? Because the process is wrong.
In ancient days everyone worshipped God. Everyone tried to satisfy Him by their actions. But nowadays everyone thinks: "It is unnecessary to serve God. Instead serving of God, we should worship and satisfy the depressed and the poor." We are now pursuing such thought, but Krsna says: "If you love Me, everyone will be served." This is the teaching of sastra.
- Srila Bhaktivedanta Trivikrama Maharaja
(with thanks to 'Lord Krishna Devotee Quotes' on Facebook)
Navadvipa Prasada Distribution.
"Just Include One Kilo" is the motto for this year. Latest Developments Regarding Navadvipa Service.
1) Vaisnavis can cook in the evenings and distribute prasadam to the Westerners during the day.
2) Devotees can include one kilo of bhoga in their bags towards the prasadam.
3) Devotees can donate Punjabi suits towards the girls who are distributing prasadam.
4) We can include on item in our bag to donate to any Bengali devotee and try to make their stay with us more comfortable.
5) Vaisnavis can help with decorating the temple and the Vyasasan or contribute to the purchase of flowers or garlands for both decoration and the Vaisnava's.
Vaisnavi's Cooking and Distributing Prasadam.The happy news for Navadvipa Parikrama this year is that Vaisnavi's will be cooking for the evening prasadam. So if you have an interest in cooking then this may be the service you can be involved with. There will need to be Vaisnavis who either have a skill and sensitivity for cooking or those who are strong and capable of taking on service on a large scale and other girls/ladies to help prepare and chop vegetables or fruits, whatever is required.
Also if you could include any items, atleast one kilo of bhoga, in your bag appropriate for Prasadam this would be very very very helpful. "Just include one kilo" is the motto for this year, so please encourage other devotees who are coming for parikrama to please do the same. But of course, if you would like to be involved in the prasada distribution on a larger scale, we are very much welcoming all the support we can get.
To distribute prasadam Vaisnavis will be required to wear Punjabi suits for general cleanliness. If you have any Punjabi suits you would like to donate for this service this is also welcome. Some of the Vaisnavis distributing prasadam live in India dedicating their full energy to bhakti activities, dontating alot of their own money to the temple and festivals and live very simple; therefore, do not have the finance for new Punjabis.
Suitable Ingredients - milk powder (is most important), honey (for abhisheka), ghee, rice, dahl, basil, oregano, dried fruits are excellent, nuts and seeds (like sunflower), pasta, olive oil (bottles and bottles), olives, anything suitable for spanish cooking, dried beans (kidney beans, anything hanging around the cupboard because now in India dried beans are very expensive), good quality salt and sugar, soya flour, tomato paste, good quality rice, breakfast grains like porridge and semolina and yeast.
Just basically on the way out the door we are encouraging devotees to include one kilo of bhoga to contribute to the festival.
With support we can make this a really great festival.
Help Take Care of the Bengalis During the Festival.
We can include on item in our bag to donate to any Bengali devotee and try to make their stay with us more comfortable. Like something soft to sleep on, or anything for their daily requirements, like toothbrush, soap. Even if we approach the festival with a preaching mood and come with the understanding that some Bengalis are visiting for the first or second time, so just anyhow helping them to feel sheltered by Srila Gurudeva and Our Gaudiya Matha. Anyhow making them feel that we care deeply for them.
The Need For Extra Help this Year ?Two factors have contributed to the hope that devotees can provide financial assistance to the Navadvipa Parikram this year:
1) The number of Navadvipa Parikrama devotees, especially Bengalis, is ever increasing (due to the open heartedness and deep deep compassion of Our Srila Gurudeva and his desire to pull jivas out of maya),
2) This year there was a lack of rain in India and many farmers lost their crops. As a result the price of all types of bhoga, including potatoes and other vegetables has increased. Sadly this year there were many reports in the Newspapers of Indian farmers taking their own lives out of financial destitution and for any other associated reasons. This Parikrama is a good chance to help very poor people and people in need of sadhu sanga, who require shelter from some very harsh types of living conditions. If you can at all help shelter jivas from maya there is no greater service.
Latest News Regarding the Decoration of Srila Gurudeva's Vyasasan
The latest news regarding Srila Gurudeva's Vyasasana is Vaisnavis have constructed a series of coloured lotuses to decorate the stage. A series of pictures accompanied by sloka's or appropriate compositions that were designed for various holy days (in the last couple of months) may also be displayed, conjuring various spiritual bhavas and devotional thoughts. There may be a new display for Gaura Purnima or other important days during the Navadvipa Parikrama festival, so feel inspired to bring along your favourite pictures and/or slokas and items for artistic decoration. Please let us know if there are any artists or sloka pandits interested in partaking in this seva which involves the representation of spiritual days via artworks and various types of composition. We have also purchased various cloth to decorate the Vyasana and are very much interested in safron, yellow and colours that represent anuraga, like deep red.
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Thakura Prabhupada Appearance Day
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Thakura Prabhupada
Appearance Day
19980312_13_GM Parikrama Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Samdhi MP3 Movies BVML Hari Katha 20071227_MALAYSIAKL_PM_ENG_DISSRILABSSTP.MP3
Question: How will we recognize a messenger from Vaikuntha and the authenticity of his message? Answer: If our prayers become sincere and honest, then by the mercy of Bhagavan, who is omniscient, everything will be revealed to us. A student can recognize an erudite scholar only with the help of another erudite scholar. Sri Bhagavan, who resides in our heart, will help us in every aspect of our life. We only have to depend on Him exclusively. If we want to acquire knowledge of some entity there are two means by which we can do so. The first means is through knowledge and experience pertaining to this world. But in the case of transcendental entities the experience and knowledge of this world are to be considered incomplete. Thus the second means is to exclusively surrender one’s self to that great personality who has descended from the same realm as that transcendental entity. By hearing from him we can gain an understanding of that entity.
(with thanks to Vraja.info)
Sri Nityananda trayodasi
The Appearance Day
Sri Nityananda Prabhu
MP3s and Movies From
Srila BV Narayan Maharaja
Movies
19970220_Brisbane Class Lord Nityananda App Tape 20.wmv
19990129_30_Aust Class AM Class PM CC Nityananda App.wmv
MP3
19970220_Australia Nityananda Trayodasi.mp3
20010206BALI NITYA NANDA TRAYODASI AM T9.mp3
20010206BALI NITYANANDA APP.mp3
20010206BALI NITYANANDA TRAYODASI AM T6.mp3
20030214_BRASIL_PM_ENG_NITYANANDATRAIYODASIbb.mp3
20090207_PENANG_PM_ENG_SRINITYANANDATRAYODASI.WAV
śrī śrī guru gaurāṅga jayataḥ!
"Only Divine Blessings can Bring us to the Highest Plane"
A brief lecture given by nitya-lila pravista Om Visupad Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Trivikram Maharaja on Kartik 1997. Brought to you by the Rays of the Harmonist online team.
Image of the moment
