Taste for Nityananda Gauranga - the surest path

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna!

It is difficult to develop taste and attachment for Lord Krishna's Holy Name and Pastimes as long as one is under control of his or her material desires and indulging in sinful activities. The Holy Names and Pastimes of Lords Nityananda Gauranga are different, however. They are a stronger medicine. Their extraordinary mercy is, that they give a particular taste for Their Holy Names and Pastimes to their surrendered devotees, irrespective of their material conditioning. This taste for the Holy Names and Pastimes of Nityananda Gauranga causes the soul to continue chanting and hearing the Holy Names and Glories of Lords Nityananda Gauranga, in any condition. In this way a devotee, although unqualified and impure, yet desirous and endeavouring of becoming pure, keeps on pleasing the Lords Nityananda Gauranga and applying for their ultimate mercy...

Matus

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Re: NITAAI Yoga Live Temple Room

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna!
Jaya Guru Parampara! Jaya Swamiji Gaurangapada!

My time zone: CEST

Preferred times:
During the week: Thursday 18-20 CEST (=16-18 GMT)
Sunday: usually between 09 and 18 CEST (= 07 - 16 GMT)

Damodara Svarupa dasa

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How is True Love described by the acharyas?

Nityananda, Gauranga, Hare Krishna!
Jaya Guru Parampara, Jaya Swamiji Gaurangapada!
Dandavats to all the Vaishnavas.

 Sorry for asking a fairly difficult question, but what is understood with "True Love"? And is it truly unconditional? Is it like loving and giving everything one has and not wanting anything back, just enjoying every moment of/with this true love? Is it this how a devotee should feel about God? Is it this what God shows to those who love Him? And how is "True Love" described by the Acharyas?

Your student,

Damodara Svarupa dasa

 

 

 

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Re: NITAAI Yoga Live Temple Room

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna!

My time zone: CEST

Preferred times:

Weekdays: 09.00 am - 12.00 am or 18.00 pm - 21.30 pm

Weekends: anytime (upto 21.30 pm)

Thank You
Matus

 

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Re: NITAAI.com Devotee Map

Respected Swamiji and all Vaisnavas,

       Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna! Please accept my respectful obeisances!

      My suggestion to this map is to go to this link http://www.gorissen.info/Pierre/maps/googleMapLocation.php. Find the exact location of one's residence and post the latitude and longitude co-ordinates over here as I did it over here. Later the same link can be used to go to the location by whoever is doing the job of adding our names on the map simply by knowing the latitude and longitude. http://www.gorissen.info/Pierre/maps/googleMapLocation.php

      It takes only a few minutes to do. At the moment some locations show only the streets.

Thank you very much,

Daaso'smi,

Srinath

 

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Re: Other Pastimes of Shrila Prahlada Maharaja

Nityaananda Gauraanga Hare Krishna!
All glories to Guru Sampradaya!

Dear Swamiji and all Vaishanavas,

Please accept my obeisances! Swamiji, thank you so much for that article. Both Srinath and I have heard the Madhva Sampradaya's view which Srinath has posted above. They praise Prahlada as a maha - bhagavata and even today they worship the jiva samadhi of Raghavendra (an incarnation of Prahlada) in Mantralaya, Andra Pradesh. Prahlada is said to reside there for another 400 years.

Also I'd like to add one more thing. It is said that Maharaja Bali is the Grandson of Prahlada. When the Vaamana avatara of the Lord placed His lotus foot on Bali Maharaja, Prahlada, who was quite old by then came running and said to the Lord,"Oh my Lord! How fortunate is my grndson. YOu have placed your lotus foot on his head. I have not been so fortunate!". The Lord replied,"My dear Prahlada! You are very dear to me. You have to take a few more births in this material world. During those births you will spread my glories and teach the ignorant masses, how to attain me." Saying thus, the Lord consoled Prahlada.

This and the above statements posted by Srinath are accepted by the Madhva Sampradaya.

In your service,

Dasadaso'smi
Venkat

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Re: NITAAI Yoga Live Temple Room

Nityaananda Gauraanga Hare Krishna!

My time zone is IST and on Weekdays (including Saturday) it'll be best if it is from 8 - 11 pm. On Sunday it doesn't matter much. I am ok if it is anytime between 6 in the morning and 11 in the night. These are my preferred timings. But I think I can flex it a bit. However mornings is impossible for me on weekdays.

Thank you so much!

Dasadaso'smi,
Venkat.

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Disappearance pastimes

Respected Swamiji and all Vaisnavas,

   Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna!

Jaya Visnupada Srila Prabhupada!

Jaya Swami Gaurangpada!

All glories to the guru parampara!

All glories to the Vaisnavas!

     Regarding the departure of the Pandavas to the spiritual world, there are a few differences between Srimad Bhagavatam and Mahabharata. In the Mahabharata it is said they went to Svargaloka and in the Bhagavatam it is said that they attained the spiritual world in their self-same bodies.

    In the Mahabharata, Kunti goes along with Dhritarashtra and Gandhari and the three of them pass away in a forest fire.

    In the Srimad Bhagavatam though, only Dhirtarashtra and Gandhari go alone and Dhirtarashtra generates a fire from his yogic power and burns up his body along with Gandhari and the asrama and attains impersonal Brahman liberation. Kunti on the other hand hears the disappearance of Lord Krishna from Arjuna's talk with Yudhisthira, and then after fully engages in devotional service while the Pandavas leave.

   What I want to know is that are these differences because in each appearance, the Lord and his associate perform their pastimes in a slightly different manner?

    Srimad Bhagavatam mentions Lord Krishna's disappearance though And the other thing is that why none of the biographical scriptures on Lord Caitanya describe his disappearance pastimes along with his associates? Is it because these pastimes are beyond the understanding of this material world?

Always in doubt,

Srinath

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Re: Other Pastimes of Shrila Prahlada Maharaja

Respected Swamiji and Vaisnavas,

   Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna! Please accept my respectful obeisances!

   The Madhva sampradaya holds slightly different views on Prahlada Maharaja.

   In addition I would like to quote something that is very actively propounded by the Madhvacharya sampradaya on Prahlada. According to them, he initially served Brahma in Satyaloka with the name of Sankukarna and he was assigned the duty of collecting flowers for the worship of Lord Visnu. One day he was late in returning from his service and hence Brahma was angry that the worship of Visnu had been delayed. Hence Brahma cursed him to be born in a family of daityas.

   The Madhva Sampradaya also states that Prahlada Maharaja appeared twice in their sampradaya, as Vyasatirtha and Raghavendra Tirtha. They substantiate this stating that it had been declared by Goddess Sarasvati. They also state that he took one more appearance as Bahlika Maharaja (in the Mahabharata, he was killed by Bhima while fighting on the side of the Kauravas, because he wanted to have a glimpse of Lord Krishna.)

   There are some different views on Prahlada Maharaja in this manner. How do we reconcile them?

   Oh and it is said that Prahlada's qualities declined after Indra asked to become virtuous like him. How can this be understood since Prahlada was such a great maha-bhagavata devotee full of transcendental qualities? How could he lose them simply because Indra wanted to become like him? He incarnated as Haridasa Thakura. How can that happen to a devotee. Or is this only something to bewilder faithless souls like us?

    The same Prahlada incarnated with Lord Brahma as Haridasa Thakura, the great namacharya who got such special mercy of Lord Caitanya. His spiritual master was Lord Advaita Acharya. Daily he chanted atleast 300000 names in a day. By his mercy even a prostitute became a tri-lakshesvari. He was actually the spiritual master of Mayadevi herself and could not be distracted despite all her efforts -- not all of us can conceive of his greatness. He was the crest jewel of all devotees and he is the only one to whom Mahaprabhu personally carried out the funeral services. The glories of Haridasa Thakura cannot be expressed with millions of mouths. So great was he that the Chaitanya Bhagavata and Caitanya Caritamrta have devoted entire chapters simply to his glories. Simply by praising the glories of the namacharya one can see a dramatic improvement in chanting. It is as though the holy names come to forcibly give us mercy by glorifying the devotees. Jaya Haridasa Thakura! Vaishnava Vijaya!

Surrendering to the feet of the namacharya,

Srinath

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Re: NITAAI Yoga Live Temple Room

Nityaananda! Gauraanga! Hare Krishna! We will be starting our Live Webcam Room very soon as shown above. I need some feedback about the time during the day in your timezones in which you are normally free to join in this Live Temple Room. I just want an idea of the time convenient in different timezones so that we can finalize a suitable time from your cumulative data in different timezones.

Please give your time range during a weekday and weekends when you can join us in the Live Room by replying in this topic. Please also mention your timezone. The more devotees who give feedback on this, the better we can decide the time which will be suitable for everyone.

You can join us during any day you wish or all days depending on your availability of time. The plan is to have it around one hour a day and two hours on Sunday. After receiving your data, we should be able to discuss and fix a suitable time.

Daaso'smi, Swami Gaurangapada.

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