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BTS Reflections by Tamal Krsna dasa Posted July 31, 2008
The next issue of Reflections will released in a few days. We will attempt to provide excerpts from Maharaja's books, previously unpublished transcriptions of lectures, as well as articles written by Srila Prabhupada and various Vaisnavas. In this issue, Maharaja takes a look at aparadhas. Also, in every issue is the "Devotee Spotlight", where we appreciate a particular devotee and his or her services in Krsna consciousness. For those of you interested in receiving this quarterly e-newsletter through e-mail, please send your address to btsreflections@yahoo.com with "subscribe" in the subject line.
Back issues are available here: Click Here
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The Brazilian BBT harks back as far as 1975, when Srila Prabhupada held the first Portuguese Bhagavad-gita in his hands. Director Ishvara Swami ran the organization impressively, translating all of Prabhupada's books and turning out huge print runs of between 100,000 and 400,000, with an unprecedented one million copies of Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers flying off the presses. Brazil was a major sankirtana powerhouse, climbing to the top of the book distribution charts for a whole year. But things changed. The eighties and nineties saw people become less interested in monastic lifestyles, and more interested in materialism. Eastern spirituality wasn't new anymore. And ISKCON changed too, becoming based more on congregation than on celibate students. The army of book distributors was radically reduced worldwide, and shrank almost to nil in Brazil. BBT directors were caught off guard and struggled to adjust to the new reality. In 2001, the Brazilian BBT had hit a new low. Their stock was practically non-existent- there was no full Bhagavad-gita, no Krishna book, no Nectar of Instruction, and only a few volumes of Caitanya-caritamrita. Sales were so low that they didn't even have enough money to get through the month. Hridayananda Maharaja, the then overseer of ISKCON Brazil, knew it was time to act. He asked Giridhari Dasa, a fresh new face who had joined ISKCON only five years prior, to be the new BBT director. The son of a Brazilian diplomat, Giridhari had been a businessman until striking up a friendship with Prabhupada disciple Mahavira Dasa. Giridhari was introduced to Krishna consciousness gradually, until reading the Bhagavad-gita As It Is sealed the deal for him. Giridhari sprang into action. To stop the BBT having to close its doors that very month, he first borrowed $5,000 from his guru Hridayananda Maharaja. Next, he downsized the inflated operation of six full-time employees and a huge two-story office-building to one employee and a much smaller office, drastically reducing costs. But it was the Bhagavad-gita and old friend Mahavira Dasa who'd once again save Giridhari's day. "Mahavira put me in touch with Devi-Deva Prabhu, who gave an amazing donation of $25,000 to print our first deluxe Bhagavad-gita," Giridhari says. "The resulting edition was called 'The most beautiful Gita I've ever seen' by our dear departed Sridhara Swami. And it was exactly the injection of money and hope we needed-with the profits from its sales, we could print new books, and get back on our feet." Giridhari thanks Devi-Deva Dasa endlessly, and with feeling. "Everything that we have now is due to his donation," he says. "If not for him, the Brazilian BBT might not exist today." The Brazil BBT may have survived, but it still must meet challenges. It currently has only two full-time employees-warehouse manager Haridasa at the office in Brasilia, and Trivikrama Dasa, a layout artist and editor who works from the Nova Gokula farm near Sao Paulo. Financial director Sadhusanga Dasa, Giridhari, and others work from their homes for free, receiving not a penny for their services. And street book distribution sales remain low-unlike many other countries, ISKCON Brazil hasn't yet managed to revitalize and increase street book distribution since the slump of the nineties. So the Brazilian BBT has turned to the internet instead. A pioneer of online preaching, Giridhari has been involved in the BBT's website Krishna.com since its inception, and translated its Portuguese version, pt.krishna.com. He's a firm believer that in this age of the Internet and Google, online sales will only keep growing for the BBT. "They establish a direct connection between us and the customer, and yield a better profit margin," he says. BBT Brazil's current online store, www.bbt.org.br, leads the way with some unique features. As well as catering to the public, they're making sankirtana more accessible by offering special prices to temples and independent book distributors. "Now that any householder can just go online and get the same price as temples, we hope that congregational members will be stimulated to buy and distribute books more," Giridhari says. "They can even use a credit card, and split the price over six months." The way of the future, he believes, lies in congregational sankirtana. "With ISKCON shifted from a movement of celibate students in temples to one of householders living outside, there is a huge untapped potential in congregational book distribution," he says. For an example, he cites Amigos de Krishna, an online newsletter the Brazil BBT started in 1996. "7,500 people have signed up voluntarily so far, and more are signing up every day. If each one of them would distribute just ten books a month, that would be huge-practically a whole year's worth of distribution for us." For now, BBT Brazil is focusing on reprinting small distribution books as part of a regional GBC effort to revitalize Brazilian Sankirtana. They're also reprinting Srila Prabhupada-lilamrita. But their big news is a brand new hardcover deluxe version of the book that brought them back to life-Bhagavad-gita As It Is. With all mistakes found in previous versions removed, corrections from the 1989 English Gita added for the first time ever in Brazil, and a beautiful new cover, they expect it to be just as successful as the first. "There's something completely magical about working for the BBT," Giridhari concludes. "It really is Prabhupada's heart. With every new edition that we print, and every year that goes by that we keep things running nicely, I can feel in my own heart that Prabhupada is happy with us."
Our July 2008 Care for Cows Newsletter has been posted. Please review it at your earliest convenience. (careforcows.org/downloads/newsletters_0). In this edition of 24 pages (2 MB) we present:
Thanks for your participation and support. I hope this finds you experiencing the happiness and inner satisfaction that accompanies cow protection. Jaya Sri Gopal!
May cows stay in front of me; may cows stay behind me; may cows stay on both
sides of me. May I always reside in the midst of cows.
Hari Bhakti-vilas 16.252 IPM Freedom Newsletter by Bhakta Jerry Posted June 28, 2008 IPM Freedom Newsletter for July, August, September 2008 (newsletter format is a 1.47MB .pdf file. You must have Adobe Acrobat installed to view the file)
You can download previous issues and get the latest in prison preaching at www.iskconpm.org.
As a young man in Lille, France, Anandamaya Dasa probably never expected to live most of his adult life in India. But in 1971, he took an epic journey that would change his life, driving thousands of miles from his home to the mystical Eastern country, where he planned to spend a year travelling.
On his way home, however, he happened to stop in Bihar, where several of Srila Prabhu-pada's disciples from ISKCON Calcutta were attending a mela. Anandamaya spoke to Tamal Krishna Goswami, and Achyutananda and Guru-kripa Prabhus, and was so fascinated with their philosophy that he followed them to Calcutta. "I joined ISKCON there in 1972, and have lived in India ever since," he says.
"But I remember he told the president Mahamsa Swami, 'You have only done fifty per cent of the work.' Mahamsa's face fell, and Prabhupada explained, 'To do the remaining fifty per cent, you have to print all my books in Telugu.'" The instruction embedded itself in Anandamaya's mind. When Prabhupada requested an outside pandit named S. Krishna- murti to translate his books into Telugu, Anandamaya assisted him, printing whatever Krishnamurti translated, and the Hyderabad BBT was born. "It was difficult and slow work," says Anandamaya. "Bhakti Charu Swami was translating in Bengal, and later Gour Govinda Swami in Bhubaneswar. But we had no devotees proficient in the complicated Telugu language, nobody to check if the translations were accurate. I did my best, talking to the translator and systematically eliminating any philosophical discrepancies." It wasn't until 1984 that the first complete edition of Bhagavad-gita finally appeared, but when it did it was a victory for Anandamaya and BBT Hyderabad. Now, twenty-four years later, and fifteen years since he took on BBT work full-time, Anandamaya is BBT Hyderabad's Telugu branch manager. With Telugu the third most spoken language in India after Hindi and Bengali, that means he's serving a potential audience of sixty million. And all from a 300 square-foot office in the basement of the Hyderabad temple. Anandamaya's not complaining, however. "It's pleasant and cool in the summer, and the temple atmosphere is very favorable for working on Prabhupada's books," he says. "I feel that the BBT is not a commercial enterprise-it is a spiritual activity. So I've tried to keep Prabhupada in the center and keep the atmosphere here spiritual, broad-minded and open." A large 2,000 square-foot warehouse helps too, allowing the Hyderabad BBT to store books for dispatching to ISKCON centers, although Anandamaya estimates that it will become too small for their needs within the next five years. With a total of 197,709 Telugu books sold in 2007, and book sales of almost eight million rupees, that's a foreseeable outcome. "We get our inspiration from Prabhupada's instructions, from dedicated book distributors around the world, and from ISKCON centers that encourage book distribution, such as Tirupati, Bangalore, Rajmundry and others," says Anandamaya. "By watching them, we have managed to increase our book distribution by ten per cent every year, and expect to continue in the future." Anandamaya and his small team are also doing their best to make sure all of Prabhupada's books are available in Telugu, just as he wanted them. So far, they've published six big books, twenty small books by Srila Prabhupada, and five books by other ISKCON authors. "Prabhupada used to say, 'Every time a new book is printed, I feel like I have conquered a new empire,'" Anandamaya recalls. "I never quite understood that. But when our latest release, Prabhu pada's biography, finally arrived from the printer after ten long years of so many different corrections, translators, and printing problems, I finally could truly comprehend what he meant." Next on the slate for BBT Hyderabad is Teachings of Queen Kunti, currently under translation, and expected by next year. Their most challenging project ever, the translation and printing of Caitanya-Caritamrita, will follow. "It's a very difficult job that requires lots of dedication, devotion and knowledge," says Anandamaya. "We can only start once we have managed to build a team of devotee translators."
Anonymous Dasis' blog is up and running at vaisnavadasi.blogspot.com/. If anyone is interested, there it is. The purpose of this blog is to discuss the position of women within our tradition and through the teachings of Srila Prabhupada. We look forward to many thoughtful contributions to the topic. There are so many things to say. Let's get going! Today we've posted GBC members' email addresses so that folks can write to them if they feel the need. Jaya Srila Prabhupada!
Can anyone post a comment or a purport about these dates (from Wikipedia): Attempts to date the events using methods of archaeoastronomy have produced, depending on which passages are chosen and how they are interpreted, estimates ranging from the late 4th to the mid 2nd millennium B.C.[13] The late 4th millennium date has a precedent in the calculation of the Kaliyuga epoch, based on planetary conjunctions, by Aryabhata (6th century). His date of February 18th 3102 B.C. has become widespread in Indian tradition .......and start of the Mayan calender
According to the correlation between the Long Count and Western calendars accepted by the great majority of Maya researchers (known as the GMT correlation), this starting-point is equivalent to 11 August 3114 BCE in the proleptic Gregorian calendar or 6 September in the Julian calendar ( - 3113 astronomical)
Click here for rest of newsletter (link for the text is Click Here)
Monthly Sankirtana Festivals Turn Little into Lots In Silicon Valley's Hare Krishna community, a new book distribution effort is turning into a juggernaut that could be the future of ISKCON's outreach. When the predominantly householder community decided in 2004 to find a new way to fit book distribution into their nine-to-five lives, they created a "Monthly Sankirtana Festival." Their motto? "Many people doing a little bit." The program grew gradually, but attracted more and more devotees with its unique approach. No one was overburdened, and everyone had a service that made them feel involved. "Sankirtana creates jobs," says US sankirtana strategist Vaisesika Dasa. "We want jobs for all our citizens. And if elected I guarantee, jobs, jobs, jobs." He may be quipping, but he's not joking. Every month, there are postcard reminders to mail, permits to be obtained, and scheduling to be detailed for one hundred devotees. Lunch packs must be prepared for everyone, cookies must be made to hand out, and thousands of books must be stamped with the temple's address and website. Then there's a fulfillment director to order books and send scores to the BBT, a communications director to spread news to the local and outside Vaishnava community, and a database team to store customer details and make sure they're followed through. And that's not counting all the book distributors, the twenty-four team leaders, and the overall sankirtana leader. The high level of cooperation isn't the only unique thing about Monthly Sankirtana Festivals at ISKCON Silicon Valley (ISV), however. "We focus on book distribution as a spiritual practice, rather than a numbers game," Vaisesika says. "We want devotees to get a greater taste for hearing and chanting through it." To this end, the community gathers every Wednesday for Bhagavad-gita class, and every Saturday for three hours of group chanting, reading and interactive discussion. "It's important for all the devotees to feel that they're in a safe environment and that their service is valued," says Vaisesika. "One of our mottos is "Encourage the heck out of everybody." Nothing's too small. We go out of our way to notice whatever service anybody does, and acknowledge it." More...... Click to Read Rest of Article >> (link for the text is: Click Here)
Integrated Posters (<200kB .pdf) We hope in the future to greatly improve and expand these festival-based activities, adding boxes of ready-to-use resources such as masks, photos, activity sheets, and so forth. Suggestions are most welcome. We are also working on a learning-to-read project.
If anyone would like to help with this and other curriculum projects, please
contact me. We can use writers and artists, though there are presently only
very limited funds to give donations in gratitude for service if
needed/desired. :-) Donations for the project, to Padma, Inc. (a
registered non-profit) can be sent through Paypal to urmila@dasya.com.
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Care for Cows August Newsletter 2008 by Kurma Rupa (das) ACBSP (Vrindavan - IN) Posted August 3, 2008 Dear Friends, Jai Govinda! Our August 2008 Care for Cows Newsletter has been posted. Please review it at your earliest convenience. (careforcows.org/downloads/newsletters_0). In this edition of 24 pages (2.5 MB) we present:
Thanks for your participation and support. I hope this finds you experiencing the happiness and inner satisfaction that accompanies cow protection. Jaya Sri Gopal!
Your friend and servant,
May cows stay in front of me; may cows stay behind me; may cows stay on both
sides of me. May I always reside in the midst of cows. New ISKCON Spain Website by ISKCON Spain Posted July 30, 2008 We just launched the new Official ISKCON Spain website. It has many features not available anywhere else like:
Please link to it if you have a spanish section on any of your sites or want to give your visitors a link to spanish content. www.harekrishna.es Here are some captures:
Please link from your sites to offer your visitors content in spanish. Thanks! ISKCON Tech team.
Click Here
Jagannathastakam on MP3 format 5.8Mb is available to download at the following link. www.mercifulsripada.com/kirtan
Yours in the service of
the devotees of Sri Krishna
I am Kunja Bihari dd from South of Brazil and I like building devotional websites. Here in Brazil people use to add stamps on their pictures before putting them in albums for Blogs, HI5, Orkut and other social networks. So I built a website where we can put a Tilaka sign on our photos. It is easy to use and has also an English version. The URL is: tilaka.yadog.net The other website is a devotional e-cards service. It is written in five languages so more people around the world can use it. I think sending e-cards is a good way to show love and affection and get association from other devotees. tarjetas.yadog.net
If you have any suggestion for a new site, please let me know.
I am sorry to hear about the recent death of Gokulananda das, as posted recently on Chakra. Since there have been other suicides in the devotee community in the past, and maybe others in the future, I just want to share that there is help out there. The place where I work has a 24 hour suicide hotline - (877) 7-CRISIS or (877) 727-4747 - Toll free in LA and Orange Counties The volunteers there are well trained and extremely supportive, and have saved life after life of callers who are feeling suicidal. They also offer support groups for family members and friends of people who have taken their lives with suicide. This is in the LA area only, but since the recent death occurred here in LA, I thought to share it. For info see: Click Here There is no shame in calling a help line if one feels suicidal - the volunteeres really can help bring hope back into one's life. We are never alone - there are people out there going through the same thing we are when we feel down, and trained, compassionate professionals who can offer help. If anyone feels suicidal, please call before it's too late. Krishna gave us life for a reason and He will give help if we try to find our purpose and find a way to live in happiness, using our God given gifts in service to others.
Hare Krishna
With much happiness we are happy to announce that our website www.vaisnavi.org is available again to visit for all.
There is a new blog specifically meant for the empowerment of women and minorities who have been affected by the teachings of Srila Prabhupada and other gaudiya vaisnava teachers. You can see it at:
harekrishnawomen.wordpress.com/
I wish to announce a website project that i created for the benefit of other devotees. www.krishnageeks.com is all about new technology and how it can be used in Krishna's service, explained in an easy way for those who might not have the experience or time to delve into this. When I was researching the options to buy a portable Sound system for our weekly harinam I wanted to share this knowlegde with others. So www.krishnageeks.com was born.
I hope devotees will benefit from the articles on the site and might even contribute through comments or creating new articles. Access is free. The website address is www.krishnageeks.com.
To register please visit gitaroom.50webs.com
"BhaktiStudies" welcomes you to free "Prasadam cooking & offering" classes over the internet. Learn at your pace and at your time. The course delivery method will be like the ongoing Sanskrit Level 1 course. For course details please visit www.bhaktistudies.com. Tentatively the course contents are:
All are welcome to join.
For more information, please contact: |
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July 2008 Issue Bhakti Tirtha Swami Reflections e-Newsletter
BBT Brazil Makes A Comeback
BBT Hyderabad Step Up to the Challenge
India certainly seemed to be Anandamaya's destiny-only four years later, when he was living in Hyderabad, he discovered his life's work. "Srila Prabhupada came to inaugurate the new temple there, and was delighted to see it," he says.
Chakra is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.