September October 2021 Radhadesh E-Newsletter

E-Newsletter ISSUE 10 SEP-OCT '21

KRISHNA IS IN YOUR HEART

Also in this issue WONDERFUL NEWS FROM OUR GOSHALA

STORY OF THE GOVINDAM PRAYERS

This newsletter is dedicated to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Founder-Acarya of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness We remain forever indebted to him, our eternal spiritual master, and pray for his blessings so that we may continue to establish Vrindavan here in Radhadesh.

Editorial team : Shyamsakhi dasi, Surabhi Kunja dasi, Syamananda das Photography: Syamananda das, Surabhi Kunj dasi and our community members.

IIllustrations: Satcidanandana das & unknown artists Graphic design: Surabhi kunj devi dasi Proofreader: Syamananda das

WELCOME

I started my last editorial in the last issue with the question "Do you believe in magic?".

This time I want to present the question 'Do you believe in miracles?' We have a wonderful article in this issue from the Goshalla department, explaining how on a single day a number of unexpected and inexplicably miraculous things happened. Altogether they clearly are signs from Krishna that we are entering a new and exciting period for our cow protection program here in Radhadesh.

There was also another miracle that we had been experiencing but sadly came to an end! Although the world has been in the grip on the Global pandemic since February last year, Radhadesh had somehow managed to remain COVID-free throughout 2020 and most of 2021...till just now. About 28 devotees eventually became COVID positive and we entered a self-imposed lockdown to prevent spread and to focus our time and energy on caring to the sick. But thankfully we are all back up on our feet and nearly everyone is fully recovered.

And another miracle was that right in the middle of our COVID challenge, we saw first hand the miracle of new life. One of our resident families, Manu and Sita welcomed into their life and into Radhadesh, their second child - Dani, a wonderful 'big' bouncing boy.

He came a few weeks early but was as big as a baby that was a few weeks late!

And while we appreciate all these miracles, a devotee does not depend on Krishna showing miracles. We are reminded that on a daily bases, we are all given access to the miracle that the Supreme Personality of Godhead has ignored the fact that we are all rebellious souls who have turned away from Him and that He has come with us in so many forms to help us get back home. And especially in the most miraculous form where He ask nothing but for us to call out His Name: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

DARSHAN

DARSHAN OF THE LORD and how to do it

To come and see Krsna, is always an exciting meditation for a devotee. But like everything in Bhakti-yoga, there is a proscribed way to do it. The proper manner in which one should take darshan of the Lord is described in Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.13: "The process of meditation should begin from the lotus feet of the Lord and progress to His smiling face.

The meditation should be concentrated upon the lotus feet then the calves, then the thighs, and in this way higher and higher. The more the mind becomes fixed on different parts of the limbs one after another, the more the intelligence becomes purified."

This is our disease.

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to awaken the dormant Kṛṣṇa consciousness in everyone's heart. Otherwise, how these Europeans and Americans and other countrymen, they never heard of Kṛṣṇa four or five years ago, how they are taking Kṛṣṇa consciousness so serious? Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there in everyone's heart. It has to be awakened only.

QOUTE

SRILA PRABHUPADA SPEAKS...

"KRSNA IS THERE IN EVERYONE'S HEART"

So Kṛṣṇa advents to give us lesson. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata [Bg. 4.7]. Kṛṣṇa says, "My dear Arjuna, I come when there is discrepancies in the process of religious life."

Dharmasya glānir bhavati. And what is dharma?

The simple definition of dharma is dharmāṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam [SB 6.3.19]. This is dharma. Dharmāṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam.

Whatever... Just like what do you mean by law?

Law means the word given by the state. You cannot make law at home. That is not possible.

Whatever the government gives you, that "You should act like this," that is law. Similarly, dharma means the direction given by God. That is dharma. Simple definition. You create dharma. I have created this dharma, another man creates another dharma---these are not dharma.

Therefore, where the Bhagavad-gītā ends, that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ [Bg. 18.66], this is dharma---to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Any other dharma, they are not dharma.

Otherwise, why Kṛṣṇa asks, sarva-dharmān parityajya: "Give up"? He said that dharmasaṁsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge: "I advent to establish the principles of religion." And at last He says, sarva-dharmān parityajya. That means the so-called dharmas that we have manufactured, man-made dharma, they are not dharmas. Dharma means what is given by God. But we have no understanding what is God and what is His word. That is the modern civilization defect. But the order is there, God is there---we won't accept. Where is the possibility of peace?

So everything is there. Especially in India, we have got so much asset for understanding God. Simple thing. Everything is there, ready made. But we won't accept. So what is the remedy for such disease? We are searching after peace, but we won't accept anything which is actually giving us peace.

SRIMATI RADHARANI'S APPEARANCE DAY 14 September

APPEARANCE DAY

"RADHARANI IS THE COMPASSIONATE NATURE OF KRISHNA." HH Radhanath Swami

ARTICLE

SRIMATI RADHARANI

THE MOTHER OF ALL GOOD QUALITIES

By Syamananda das

Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but when we come closer to Him, we uncover the deeper story...

Without Krishna there is no meaning to Radharani and without Radharani there is no meaning to Krishna. Because of this, in the Vaishnava tradition we always pay respects first to Her, the Lord's internal energy in the form of Radharani, and then to the Krishna. Thus They are referred to as Radha-Krishna, or in other names as Sita-Rama, Lakshmi-Narayana, and so on. In this way, Radha and Krishna are one, but when Lord Krishna wants to enjoy, He manifests Himself as Radharani.

Otherwise, there is no energy in which Krishna can attain pleasure outside Himself.

Among the gopis of Vrindavana, Radharani and another gopi are considered chief.

However, when we compare the gopis, it appears tha Radharani is most important because Her real feature expresses the highest ecstasy of love. The ecstasy of love experienced by the other gopis cannot be compared to that of Srimati Radharani.

We understand from the acharyas that all the other gopis, and Queens of Lord Krishna, manifest from Her. Actually everything good manifests from Her. Here is a list given by Rupa Goswami on Srimati Radharani qualities: She is shy.

She is cunning.

She is very sweet.

She smiles brightly.

She is always calm.

She is always grave.

She is the chief gopi.

Her eyes are restless Her speech is charming.

She is very expert in singing.

She is very humble and meek.

She has beautiful, auspicious lines.

She is the reservoir of loving affairs in Gokula.

She makes Krishna happy with Her bodily aroma.

She is very submissive to the love of Her friends.

She is very expert in joking and speaking pleasantly.

She is situated in the topmost level of ecstatic love.

Harivilasa Dasa shares his

memories of the recording of

the Govinda prayers, which

later became the song for

greeting the Deities.

In 1969 I was a new devotee, just arrived in London from Paris. This was basically my first contact with Krsna consciousness. I had met the devotees in Paris, but this was the first temple I had ever come to. Srila Prabhupada had just left, after installing Sri-Sri RadhaLondon-Isvara. I went to the temple, and Yamunadevi was the first devotee I met. The atmosphere in the temple was saturated with the presence of Srila Prabhupada. The first and second day of my stay there I was given the privilege of cleaning his vyasasana. My whole body was vibrating the presence of Prabhupada, and one could also see it in the devotees, they were all really elevated and inspired. I could feel the amazing presence of the pure devotee in the words, actions and dedication of those devotees. I was a musician. I played the Arabic lute, and I brought it with me. The devotees were saying they were going to make a record with George Harrison. They had already made a record in America and they were going to make another one. One day George Harrison showed up at the temple for lunch, and the devotees asked me to be present. About one or two days after I am in the temple, I meet George Harrison from the Beatles, who at that time was a famous person with a music career.

In fact, my first meeting with the devotees in Paris was somewhat connected with George Harrison. I was managing a little macrobiotic cafe in the American center in Paris. One day I received a little note and the jacket of the first Hare Krsna 45 RPM record. On the jacket was an explanation by Srila Prabhupada of the transcendental nature of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra, which basically he took, almost word for word from his spiritual master, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.

So someone handed me this paper and said, "These people want to rent your cabaret on Sunday night." I read the paper, and it blew me away completely.

THE STORY OF GOVINDAM PRAYERS

I said, "O my God, what are the Beatles doing?" I thought George Harrison wrote that; I didn't know anything about Prabhupada. I thought the Beatles wrote this explanation, and I couldn't believe it. I thought this was the most esoteric thing I'd ever read in my life. They were talking about some transcendental mantra, etc. I thought they had taken some amazingly potent LSD and now were leading us on this trip. Later, I found out it was Srila Prabhupada who had written the text and that there was a movement called the Hare Krsna movement and that George Harrison was connected to.

Anyway, I met George Harrison. This to me was a sign from God that I was on the right track. How could I, a really insignificant person, meet George Harrison, an international star? In my mind it was not still clear; I had some idea that maybe he is the guru of this whole thing.

So George came to the Bury Place temple. He brought his guitar, too.

Yamunadevi, Mukunda, Gurudasa, Syamasundara, Malati, me-we were all sitting down in a small room with a humble setting. We were taking prasadam, having a gentle type of discussion. I was really flashing, "This is unbelievable!"

All of a sudden George finished and picked up his guitar, sat next to Yamunadevi and started going through his chord progressions. He said, "I was thinking about your song Govinda."

And he came up with the chord progressions, asking, "What do you think of this?" The devotees were giving their opinion. This is the way he began to construct the Govinda song, the first step in the creation of the commercial presentation of this transcendental song.

The next day a group of ten or eleven devotees went to Apple Studios. There was Yogesvara Prabhu, me, Mukunda, Yamuna, and a few other devotees. We spent the whole day there.

That's when we really saw the genius of George Harrison in the way he worked in a recording studio. He was constructing a song from bits and pieces. He was asking Yamuna to sing it over and over again; and he kept recording it. "Govindam adi purusam "-that was Yogesvara, me, Jayahari. There were also others singing; I cannot remember everybody. If I am not mistaken, it was about six people standing and singing.

George Harrison brought in an orchestra of six or eight people to play string instruments, and he played the guitar. He was mixing it and balancing it. He had thirty three tracks to mix it together. It was very, very exciting. We saw he was a creative man, an artist. His paintbrush was his creative mind, and the canvas was his thirty-three tracks and the actual mixing. I remember he had hired musicians.

At one point he looked at me and said, "Come over here; bring your instrument." We sat down next to each other. He picked up my lute, looked at it a little bit and gave it back. Then he picked up his guitar and started fingering something.

Then he asked, "Can you do this?" I did it. He played another motif and asked me, "Can you do that?" It worked really well because the instrument was made for doing sounds like that.

He saw that it was like a piece of cake on this instrument. Then he decided to record me playing. They had previously recorded Syamasundara playing the esraj, the Indian violin.

Then he had me play the lute. I did it two or three times.

I was blown over by the whole thing-George Harrison sitting down and asking me to do this.

What really impressed me was that he was really a gentleman. Very polite in the way he talked to people. He didn't have to draw things out from people or make them feel in any way imposed upon.

At one point we all sat down and had some lunch, with vegetarian sandwiches. Then his wife came in. It was a really pleasant day. The next day we came back again to hear what he had done. We were all very impressed by his work. Then he refined it more and more before he released it.

The recording of the Govinda prayers was a sincere effort of the devotees to glorify Krsna and Prabhupada. It was a very transcendental experience. It convinced me that Krsna consciousness was definitely taking over the world. George Harrison had such an impact on the young people in the world, at least the young people I knew.

Srila Prabhupada heard this recording for the first time a little later, when he was in Los Angeles. Devotees say that he actually cried and said, "Play that every time for the greeting."

NEWS

FEATURED GLOBALLY

On the request of the Indian Embassy through Mahaprabhu Prabhu, Radhadesh was illuminated in colours of the Indian Flag on Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th August on the occasion of India's 75th Independence Day. The idea was to illuminate iconic buildings and ISKCON Radhadesh was chosen for Belgium.

See various links (news channels-social media) where ISKCON Radhadesh was featured: https://www.aninews.in/news/world/europe/belgiums-iconic-building-lights-up-in-tricolour-to-mark-indias-75th-independence-day20210815160009 https://twitter.com/TezChannel/status/1426918268023967746?s=08 https://twitter.com/thefirstindia/status/1426868014029279232?s=08 https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/belgiums-iconic-building-lights-up-in-tri-colour-tomark-indias-75th-independence-day-2510984 https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/270725618/belgium-iconic-building-lights-upin-tri-colour https://www.zee5.com/zee5news/belgiums-iconic-building-lights-up-in-tri-colour-tomark-indias-75th-independence-day/amp

NEWS

GOSHALLA MIRACLE BHUMI GIVES MILK!

On the 25th August morning after moving our cow family to a new pasture we noticed some white drops in the grass. Very quickly we could see it was milk and sure enough Bhumi was pouring drops of milk out of her udders onto the grass. In the evening we decided to milk her and since then she has been steadily giving over 3 liters of first class creamy milk for the pleasure of Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha and the devotees. It is a genuine miracle after over a year of not giving any milk, and just in time for Krsna's birthday.

And to add to the miracle, this was the same day that we received final confirmation from the devotee who will become our new head of the Goshalla department starting November; a devotee from Switzerland called Rohininandana das, who is scheduled to move to Radhadesh with his family. www.radhadesh.com/cows www.facebook.com/RadhadeshGoshala Support us: IBAN: BE84 0682 5042 8159 Paypal.me/RGoshala

NEWS

RADHADESH ONLINE SHOP Our Radhadesh Eshop is equipped with many articles which can be hard to find elsewhere. We always strive for the best quality and try to keep the prices as low as possible! The shop itself is located in the Ardennes in Belgium near the famous Durbuy. Where you can also find most of the articles featured on this online shop.

Next to the articles from the shop, we are also starting to expand to having merchandise of Radhadesh and in the near future from other departments within the Radhadesh community! So stay tuned! We update almost everyday! radhadesh.com/eshop

NEWS

RATHA YATRA Sunday 18th July, we had the annual snana-yatra for Their Lordships Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra. As we understand that Lord Jagannatha is a unique form of the Lord who is very generous to His devotees, everyone was invited to bath the Deities.

This special bath of Jaganatha takes place on the Purnima of Jyestha month, to commemorate the appearance day of Lord Jaganatha. According to Skanda Purana when King Indradyumna installed the wooden deities he arranged this bathing ceremony.

This day is considered to be the appearance day of Lord Jaganatha.

After snana yatra they got ill and in this period they got special attention and care. After a week we had a Ratha Yatra procession in Radhadesh. The program was vibrant .

NEWS

MEMBERSHIPS PROGRAM

Radhadesh is a non-profit organization with 100 permanent residents and more than 5000 congregational members and friends. Become part of this wonderful spiritual family and participate in our lovely programs from your home. For €10 a month you help support Radhadesh achieve amazing things together with us, and become part of our annual member's weekend and participate in this joyous occasion.

Become a member and you directly serve Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha.

For more information go to radhadesh.com/members or email members@radhadesh.com

WEEKLY HAPPENINGS

HARINAMA

Next Maha-Harinama: 11 September in Gent

BHAKTI HOME PROGRAMS

To facilitate those devotees who are inclined towards Krishna Consciousness but cannot come to the temple every day, ISKCON Radhadesh organizes Bhakti Home Programs at various places. Bhakti Home is a program centered around Krishna-conscious homes aiming to connect Krishna-conscious families with additional support and exciting resources in today’s busy world.

“Everyone can establish a small temple in his house, and he can begin familywise — himself, his wife, his children. That is wanted. This Krsna consciousness movement wants to see that every house has become a temple of Krsna. That is our program.”

Lecture by Srila Prabhupada, 13 December 1972 The program consists of Kirtana, the Holy names of Lord Krishna, spiritual discussion on Bhagavad-gita or other Vedic scriptures, Question/Answer session and concludes with prasad (sanctified food offered to the Lord). After the Corona measures are relaxed, we would like to contact you by email to plan a date for your house program. If you are interested in the Bhakti Home programs, scan this QR code to fill in the form to register or you can contact shyam@radhadesh.com.

WEEKLY HAPPENINGS

SRI KRISHNA JANMASTAMI

JANMASTAMI

NEWS

This online shop is maintained by Shyamsakhi dasi & Surabhi Kunj dasi to raise funds for Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha temple, Radhadesh and simultaneously make our Lordships the most famous. We hope you can visit our temple and webshop soon.

All proceeds go to the temple!

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