Het pro­gramma ziet er als volgt uit:

17.00 uur Guru en Tulsi puja

17.30 uur Lez­ing door Vijaya Govinda das

18.30 uur Gaura Aarti

19.15 uur Ekadasi prasadam

Hari­nam weke­lijks, verza­me­len voorz­i­jde Rot­ter­dam CS

vri­jdag om 19.00 uur

zater­dag om 14.00 uur

zondag om 12.00 uur

Hari­bol en graag tot ziens.

Pro­gramma voor vri­jdag 3 sep­tem­ber, Ver­schi­jn­ings­dag Srila Prabhupada

17.00 uur Guru en Tulsi puja

17.30 uur Kirtan

18.30 uur Abhisekha van Srila Prab­hu­pada en Puspanjali

19.00 uur Lez­ing door Jank­i­natha das

19.45 uur Gaura Aarti

20.30 uur Prasadam

Srila Prabhupada–Most Munificent

By Giri­raj Swami

We have gath­ered on the most aus­pi­cious occa­sion of Srila Prabhupada’s appear­ance day. His Divine Grace appeared in Cal­cutta in 1896, one hun­dred and four­teen years ago. Still, as he wrote of his spir­i­tual mas­ter, Srila Bhak­tisid­dhanta Saras­vati Thakura, “He lives for­ever by his divine instruc­tions and the fol­lower lives with him.” So although from the phys­i­cal point of view Srila Prab­hu­pada is no longer with us, from the spir­i­tual point of view he is: “He lives for­ever by his divine instruc­tions.” And by fol­low­ing his instruc­tions, we feel his pres­ence; we live with him.

Srila Bhak­tivin­oda Thakura’s inscrip­tion for the tomb of Hari­dasa Thakura in Jagan­natha Puri states:

He rea­sons ill who tells that Vais­navas die When thou art liv­ing still in sound.

The Vais­navas die to live, and liv­ing try To spread the holy name around.

Both Srila Prabhupada’s ded­i­ca­tion and Bhak­tivin­oda Thakura’s inscrip­tion tell us that the spir­i­tual mas­ter, the Vais­nava, never dies; he con­tin­ues to live in sound, in his instruc­tions (vani), for­ever. And by fol­low­ing his instruc­tions, by chant­ing the holy name, we can ful­fill his pur­pose and live with him.

One verse that espe­cially glo­ri­fies Srila Prabhupada’s mer­ci­ful nature and ser­vice comes in Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto Ten, Chap­ter Thirty-one: “The Gopis’ Songs of Sep­a­ra­tion.” The same verse appears in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila, Chap­ter Four­teen. It is a very beau­ti­ful verse in thought and mood.

TEXT 9

tava katham­r­tam tapta-jivanam

kav­ib­hir idi­tam kalmasapaham

sravana-mangalam sri­mad atatam

bhuvi grnanti ye bhuri-da janah

This verse was sung by the gopis after Krsna left the area of the rasa dance. They were search­ing the for­est of Vrn­da­vana for Him, and in their mood of sep­a­ra­tion they sang this song, or verse, to Him.

“The nec­tar of Your words and the descrip­tions of Your activ­i­ties are the life and soul of those suf­fer­ing in this mate­r­ial world. These nar­ra­tions, trans­mit­ted by learned sages, erad­i­cate one’s sin­ful reac­tions and bestow good for­tune upon who­ever hears them. These nar­ra­tions are broad­cast all over the world and are filled with spir­i­tual power. Cer­tainly those who spread the mes­sage of God­head are most munificent.”

Dur­ing the Ratha-yatra fes­ti­val Lord Cai­tanya was in the mood of Sri­mati Rad­ha­rani when She met Krsna at Kuruk­se­tra and wanted to bring Him back to Vrn­da­vana. And when the pro­ces­sion stopped to allow devo­tees to offer food to Lord Jagan­natha, Lord Cai­tanya, who felt exhausted from His danc­ing in sankir­tana, went to a nearby gar­den to rest. While He was lying on a raised plat­form, immersed in ecsta­tic lov­ing feel­ings, King Prat­a­paru­dra entered the gar­den and, tak­ing per­mis­sion from the Lord’s other asso­ciates there, he began to mas­sage the Lord’s lotus feet and to recite the gopis’ songs of sep­a­ra­tion, which was per­fectly suit­able for Lord Caitanya’s mood.

When Lord Cai­tanya heard the verse describ­ing the glo­ries of the mes­sages of God­head and of those who broad­cast such mes­sages, He rose and embraced the king, cry­ing, “Bhuri-da! Bhuri-da! You are the most munif­i­cent! You are the most munificent–because you are giv­ing Me the nec­tar of krsna-katha, which is so glorious.”

And that is exactly what Srila Prab­hu­pada did for us–he gave us krsna-katha. He gave us many thou­sands of pages and thou­sands of hours of krsna-katha. He is bhuri-da, the most munif­i­cent personality.

Now, to get the full ben­e­fit of what Srila Prab­hu­pada came to give us and do for us, and con­se­quently to expe­ri­ence the appre­ci­a­tion and grat­i­tude and love that are nat­u­rally due him, we–I–must take advan­tage of his tran­scen­den­tal gifts, espe­cially krsna-katha: first and fore­most his books, and also his lec­tures, morn­ing walks, room con­ver­sa­tions, letters–all that he gave us; they are all krsna-katha.

Tava katham­r­tam. The katha that Prab­hu­pada gave us, and that King Prat­a­paru­dra gave Lord Cai­tanya, is amrta. Amrta means “nec­tar,” the nec­tar that gives immor­tal­ity. Mrta means “death,” or “birth and death,” and amrta means “no death.” The demigods drink an amrta that yields a long life of sense enjoy­ment, but this amrta gives one an eter­nal life, full of bliss and knowl­edge, in the com­pany of Krsna and all His asso­ciates, which includes Srila Prabhupada.

Tapta-jivanam–krsna-katha gives life to those who are aggrieved in the mate­r­ial world. Tapa means “pain,” “mis­ery,” or, more lit­er­ally, “heat,” or “burn­ing.” We are all burn­ing in the blaz­ing fire of mate­r­ial exis­tence, suf­fer­ing the three­fold mis­eries, and the spir­i­tual mas­ter is like a rain­cloud that pours down water to extin­guish it. The spir­i­tual mas­ter show­ers the nec­tar of krsna-katha on the parched con­di­tioned souls and thus deliv­ers them from all suf­fer­ing. It was said of the Six Gos­vamis, papottapa-nikrntanau tanu-bhrtam govinda-ganamrtaih: “They puri­fied all con­di­tioned souls from the reac­tions of their sin­ful activ­i­ties by pour­ing upon them tran­scen­den­tal songs about Govinda.” (Sad-gosvamy-astaka 3) And it is said of Srimad-Bhagavatam, tapa-trayonmulanam: “It uproots the three­fold mis­eries.” (SB 1.1.2) Srila Prab­hu­pada has given us krsna-katha–Srimad-Bhagavatam and the works of the Gosvamis–which can deliver us from mate­r­ial mis­eries and give us new life.

samsara-davanala-lidha-loka

tranaya karunya-ghanaghanatvam

prap­ta­sya kalyana gunarnavasya

vande guroh sri-caranaravindam

“The spir­i­tual mas­ter is receiv­ing bene­dic­tion from the ocean of mercy. Just as a cloud pours water on a for­est fire to extin­guish it, so the spir­i­tual mas­ter deliv­ers the mate­ri­ally afflicted world by extin­guish­ing the blaz­ing fire of mate­r­ial exis­tence. I offer my respect­ful obei­sances unto the lotus feet of such a spir­i­tual mas­ter.” (Gurv-astaka 1)

Tapa also has another meaning–the fire of sep­a­ra­tion. Sri Cai­tanya Mahaprabhu, and Sri­mati Rad­ha­rani and the other gopis, were burn­ing in the fire of sep­a­ra­tion from Krsna. Talk­ing about Krsna, krsna-katha, gave them life. Sim­i­larly, any­one suf­fer­ing in sep­a­ra­tion from Krsna, from Sri Cai­tanya Mahaprabhu, from Their asso­ciates, from Srila Prab­hu­pada, or from his asso­ciates, can get solace from krsna-katha.

Kavibhih–“great thinkers,” “sages,” “poets.” Srila Prab­hu­pada was a great thinker. Ravin­dra Svarupa Prabhu tells us that as a stu­dent of phi­los­o­phy and reli­gion in the uni­ver­sity he had encoun­tered so many philo­soph­i­cal and reli­gious con­cep­tions but that when he dis­cov­ered Srila Prabhupada’s books and teach­ings, every­thing else he had heard and read before was–in clar­ity, in depth, and in substance–like child’s play com­pared with what Srila Prab­hu­pada gave us. And Srila Prab­hu­pada was also poetic.

Iditam–“described.” These great thinkers, devo­tees, and poets, such as Srila Prab­hu­pada, describe Krsna.

Kalmasapaham–kalmasa means “sin­ful reac­tions,” or “mate­r­ial mis­eries,” and apa­ham means “dri­ves away,” or “erad­i­cates.” Sin­ful reac­tions result in mate­r­ial mis­eries, and krsna-katha, chant­ing and hear­ing about Krsna, brings imme­di­ate relief. We have all expe­ri­enced it. The Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu says that from the stage of sadhana-bhakti one expe­ri­ences kle­saghni, the erad­i­ca­tion of mate­r­ial mis­eries. From the very begin­ning, we can expe­ri­ence it. Engag­ing in krsna-katha frees us from sin­ful reac­tions and thus enables us to progress in devo­tional ser­vice. As Lord Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita (7.28),

yesam tv anta-gatam papam

jananam punya-karmanam

te dvandva-moha-nirmukta

bha­jante mam drdha-vratah

“Per­sons who have acted piously in pre­vi­ous lives and in this life and whose sin­ful actions are com­pletely erad­i­cated are freed from the dual­i­ties of delu­sion, and they engage them­selves in My ser­vice with deter­mi­na­tion.” Only when we are free from sin­ful actions and reac­tions can we take to devo­tional ser­vice with firm determination.

Srimat–“filled with spir­i­tual power and opu­lence.” The nec­tar of krsna-katha, accord­ing to Srila Vis­vanatha Cakravarti Thakura, bestows all wealth, up to prema (prema-dhana), and so, even if we give every­thing we pos­sess to one who broad­casts (atatam) the mes­sages of God­head, we will never be able to repay him.

Bhuvi grnanti–“chanted and spread all over the world.” This phrase par­tic­u­larly applies to Srila Prab­hu­pada, who left India, jour­neyed to Amer­ica, and trav­eled all over the world to trans­mit these nar­ra­tions, to broad­cast the mes­sage of Krsna. No one had ever done that. Sri Cai­tanya Mahaprabhu had desired and pre­dicted it, yet even learned schol­ars in the line of Mahaprabhu and Saras­vati Thakura could not imag­ine that it would come to pass. They took Mahaprabhu’s state­ment as a poetic devo­tional out­pour­ing, not as a lit­eral prediction.

prthivite ache yata nagaradi-grama

sar­va­tra pracara haibe mora nama

“In as many towns and vil­lages as there are on the sur­face of the earth, My holy name will be preached.” (Caitanya-bhagavata, Antya 4.126)

Srila Bhak­tivin­oda Thakura made a begin­ning. He sent copies of his book The Life and Pre­cepts of Lord Cai­tanya to some libraries in dif­fer­ent parts of the world. And Srila Bhak­tisid­dhanta Saras­vati Thakura sent some san­nya­sis to preach in Europe (though with­out much effect). But it was Srila Prab­hu­pada who actu­ally trav­eled and spread the holy name of Krsna–krsna-katha–all over the world. He per­son­ally trans­lated Sri­mad Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, and other Vedic scrip­tures into Eng­lish, and he inspired his fol­low­ers to trans­late his books into other lan­guages and dis­trib­ute them every­where. He also said that if he could live longer he would ren­der more Vedic texts into Eng­lish, and his fol­low­ers are con­tin­u­ing his work.

Where would we be now if he hadn’t done what he did? We would prob­a­bly be where we were, or even worse, burn­ing in the blaz­ing fire of mate­r­ial exis­tence, burn­ing in the fire of hell­ish sin­ful reactions.

Thus Srila Prab­hu­pada is bhuri-da, the most munif­i­cent. Srila Rupa Gos­vami glo­ri­fied Lord Cai­tanya as the most munif­i­cent incar­na­tion of Godhead:

namo maha-vadanyaya

krsna-prema-pradaya te

krsnaya krsna-caitanya–

namne gaura-tvise namah

“Lord Sri Krsna Cai­tanya is more mag­nan­i­mous than any other avatara, even more than Krsna Him­self, because He is bestow­ing freely what no one else has ever given–pure love of Krsna.” (Cc Mad­hya 19.53) Per­son­ally, Lord Cai­tanya preached only in India. It was Srila Prab­hu­pada who preached through­out the world, freely dis­trib­ut­ing krsna-katha, krsna-nama, and krsna-prasada, which bring one to krsna-prema.

And Srila Prab­hu­pada wanted his fol­low­ers, the devo­tees in ISKCON–he specif­i­cally men­tioned the tem­ple pres­i­dents and zonal secretaries–to be munif­i­cent, because they are rep­re­sent­ing Lord Cai­tanya. We should all be munif­i­cent, benev­o­lent. How? By spread­ing the mes­sage of Godhead–distributing tran­scen­den­tal lit­er­a­ture and per­son­ally speak­ing about Krsna.

Con­sid­er­ing the value of what Srila Prab­hu­pada has given us, we can never repay him. Still, we should want to repay him, and act to repay him, by fol­low­ing in his foot­steps. As Srila Prab­hu­pada wrote, “If you feel at all indebted to me, then you should preach vig­or­ously like me. That is the proper way to repay me. Of course, no one can repay the debt to the spir­i­tual mas­ter, but the spir­i­tual mas­ter is very much pleased by such an atti­tude by the disciple.”

Srila Prab­hu­pada is spir­i­tual master–at least siksa-guru–for all of us, so we must work to repay our debt to him by fol­low­ing in his foot­steps and preach­ing. And to preach, one must also prac­tice; one must have spir­i­tual strength. So we–I–must do both: prac­tice and preach.

At last year’s Ratha-yatra in Los Ange­les, soon after the char­i­ots arrived at Venice Beach, I met my dear god­brother Bhar­gava Prabhu, and he poured some of the nec­tar of krsna-katha into my ears. The atmos­phere at the Ratha-yatra was sur­charged with spir­i­tual potency and emo­tion and bliss, and he told a story that was most appro­pri­ate for the occa­sion, about the res­i­dents of Vrn­da­vana going to Kuruk­se­tra to meet Krsna.

Krsna Him­self was always feel­ing sep­a­ra­tion from the res­i­dents of Vrndavana.

In His sleep He would call out the names of the cowherd boys, the cows, and the gopis, and some­times His pil­low would be wet from the tears He had shed.

So, Krsna thought that if He went to Kuruk­se­tra He might be able to meet the res­i­dents of Vrn­da­vana, because Kuruk­se­tra, unlike Dvaraka, is not so far from Vrn­da­vana. The res­i­dents of Vrn­da­vana, too, were eager to meet Krsna.

And so the Vraja-vasis jour­neyed to Kuruk­se­tra. From the time of His youth, Krsna had an under­stand­ing with Nanda Maharaja that no one should ever know about their inti­mate rela­tion­ship, because if the demons knew that He had been raised as the son of Nanda in Vraja, they would attack Vraja and do harm to the Vraja-vasis–to get at Krsna.

When Nanda Maharaja and the cowherd com­mu­nity reached Kuruk­se­tra, there were so many peo­ple and horses and char­i­ots and ele­phants and tents every­where, he couldn’t see Krsna. But he could smell Him, the divine fra­grance of His tran­scen­den­tal body. So he fol­lowed the scent to the place from where it was ema­nat­ing, and then … he saw Krsna. But was it Krsna? He knew Krsna as his lit­tle cowherd boy. But here was a king, attired in royal garb, with so many princes and war­riors, all well-dressed and orna­mented, offer­ing Him praise and respect and bow­ing their heads at His feet. Still, Nanda wanted to approach Krsna, but remem­ber­ing their agree­ment, he restrained him­self and retired to the camp allot­ted to him and the other Vraja-vasis.

Later, Krsna Him­self came, secretly, to meet them all. And He rec­i­p­ro­cated their ecsta­tic lov­ing feel­ings. It is described that Mother Yasoda took Krsna on her lap and with the tears from her eyes and the milk from her breast, she bathed Him. She per­formed an abhiseka of Krsna with her love.

Yasoda’s body is com­pletely spir­i­tual, com­posed of prema. Her tears are liq­uid prema. Her milk is liq­uid prema. And so she per­formed a lov­ing abhiseka for Krsna.

Then Krsna went out to see the bulls and oxen. They were now all grown up.

He went to each of them, one by one. He recalled each one’s name and lov­ingly pat­ted each and every one of them, say­ing, “Oh, So-and-so, I remem­ber you. I remem­ber when you were just a small bul­lock, and now you are all grown up, so big and strong.” And He affec­tion­ately embraced each one.

And I was think­ing how mer­ci­ful Krsna is, how kind He is, even to the bulls, to the ani­mals. I remem­bered Srila Prabhupada’s words: “You have seen Krsna’s pic­ture. He’s embrac­ing the calf also, and He’s embrac­ing Radharani.

Not that He’s sim­ply attached to Rad­ha­rani and the gopis. He’s attached to every­one, every liv­ing entity. Krsna is the best friend of every­one. So if you want friend­ship, make friend­ship with Krsna. He’ll pro­tect you, and He’ll sat­isfy you in all respects.” There is a beau­ti­ful pic­ture in which Krsna has His arm around a calf. Even if you are an ani­mal (which basi­cally I am), Krsna has affec­tion for you, espe­cially if you try to serve Him. “To become an ani­mal of Krsna is a great for­tune. It is not an ordi­nary thing.

Any asso­ciate of Krsna, His cowherd boyfriends or calves or cows, or the Vrn­da­vana trees, plants, flow­ers, or water–they are all devo­tees of Krsna.

They serve Krsna in dif­fer­ent capac­i­ties. Some­body is serv­ing Krsna as an ani­mal. Some­body is serv­ing Krsna as a tree, with fruits and flow­ers, as Yamuna water, or as the beau­ti­ful cowherd men and damsels, or as Krsna’s father and mother. Krsna has so many who love Him, and He also loves them.”

Krsna con­scious­ness is so beau­ti­ful, and deep.

And then I was think­ing about Bhar­gava Prabhu–it was not an intel­lec­tual idea but a feel­ing that arose spon­ta­neously in my heart: “You have given me the great­est gift, krsna-katha.” And that is what Prab­hu­pada did for us. And that is what we, as his ser­vants and fol­low­ers, are meant to do for oth­ers, and for each other.

“It is called krsna-katha, top­ics about Krsna. The top­ics, or instruc­tions, given by Krsna is the Bhagavad-gita, and the top­ics about Krsna, the activ­i­ties of Krsna, is Srimad-Bhagavatam. So, some way or other, let us always dis­cuss about Krsna. That should be the life of Krsna con­scious people–to wor­ship Krsna in the tem­ple; to sell Krsna’s books, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita; to think of Krsna–Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna; to eat krsna-prasada; to take all risk for Krsna; to do work for Krsna; or, as Arjuna, to fight for Krsna. Arjuna did not want to fight, but for Krsna’s sake he fought. So fight for Krsna, work for Krsna, think of Krsna, eat krsna-prasada, talk of Krsna, read of Krsna. So, Krsna, Krsna, Krsna, Krsna, Krsna. This is life. This is Krsna con­scious­ness. This is a very glo­ri­fied life.” (SP lec­ture, June 26, 1974)

For krsna-katha, for the holy name of Krsna, for the beau­ti­ful life of Krsna con­scious­ness, and for his bound­less, cause­less mercy, I owe my life to Srila Prab­hu­pada, eternally.

Srila Prab­hu­pada ki jaya!

Hare Krsna beste vrienden,

Graag willen wij u alvast atten­deren op twee spe­ciale programma’s voor deze week. Namelijk Krsna Jana­mastmi en de ver­schi­jn­ings­dag van Srila Prab­hu­pada. En uit­er­aard onze reg­uliere pro­gramma op de zater­dag. Dus dat betekent, 3 dagen één en al nectar!!!

We hebben ook drie inspir­erende gast­sprek­ers uitgenodigd.

Hier­bij bent u dus van harte uitgen­odigd. Neem ook uw fam­i­lie en vrien­den mee op deze spe­ciale dagen.

Hieron­der ziet u de programma’s voor deze week. Noteer dit alvast in uw agenda!

Pro­gramma voor don­derdag 2 sep­tem­ber, Krsna Janamastmi

17.00 uur Guru en Tulsi puja

17.30 uur Kirtan

18.30 uur Abhisekha van Sri Krsna en Puspanjali

19.00 uur Lez­ing door Nav­ina Nirada das

19.45 uur Gaura Aarti

20.30 uur Ekadasi prasadam

( toegewi­j­den kun­nen tot twaalf uur in de tem­pel blijven)

Pro­gramma voor vri­jdag 3 sep­tem­ber, Ver­schi­jn­ings­dag Srila Prabhupada

17.00 uur Guru en Tulsi puja

17.30 uur Kirtan

18.30 uur Abhisekha van Srila Prab­hu­pada en Puspanjali

19.00 uur Lez­ing door Jank­i­natha das

19.45 uur Gaura Aarti

20.30 uur Prasadam

Pro­gramma voor zater­dag 4 september

17.00 uur Guru en Tulsi puja

17.30 uur Lez­ing door Vijaya Govinda das

18.30 uur Gaura Aarti

19.15 uur Ekadasi prasadam

Hari­nam weke­lijks, verza­me­len voorz­i­jde Rot­ter­dam CS

vri­jdag om 19.00 uur

zater­dag om 14.00 uur

zondag om12.00 uur

Hari­bol en graag tot ziens.

Het pro­gramma ziet er als volgt uit:

Hier­bij een foto impressie van Sri Balarama Purn­ima. Foto´s met dank aan Moksa Lak­shmi devi dasi

Update: (heel belan­grijk voor de tem­pel bezoek­ers)

Zater­dag 14 augus­tus is Audarya Dhaam ges­loten wegens Ratha Yatra Amsterdam

Zater­dag 21 augus­tus is Audarya Dhaam ges­loten wegens Ratha Yatra Eindhoven

Zater­dag 28 augus­tus is Audarya Dhaam nor­maal open vanaf 17.00 uur