In2-MeC

Helsinki, Finland
27 September 2004

 
Harinama Sankirtana in Helsinki, 25 September
Saturday
 

Saturday was Sri Vamana Dvadasi.

Letter to Brahmananda, 68-02-08:

Krishna Consciousness by the sound of Hare Krishna, it continues for a moment in the brain of the rascals, then certainly it will act in future to help them to become Krishna Conscious. In the Bhagavad-gita it is said: svalpam apy asya dharmasya trayate mahato bhayat. Bhayat means fearfulness. Even a slight injection of this transcendental vibration can save one from the greatest danger.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 4 Chapter Twenty-four, Text 10 purport:

The Krsna consciousness movement has started performing sankirtana-yajna in different places, and it has been experienced that wherever sankirtana-yajna is performed, many thousands of people gather and take part in it. Imperceptible auspiciousness achieved in this connection should be continued all over the world. The members of the Krsna consciousness movement should perform sankirtana-yajnas one after another, so much that all the people of the world will either jokingly or seriously chant Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, and thus they will derive the benefit of cleansing the heart. The holy name of the Lord (harer nama) is so powerful that whether it is chanted jokingly or seriously the effect of vibrating this transcendental sound will be equally distributed. It is not possible at the present moment to perform repeated yajnas as Maharaja Barhisat performed, but it is within our means to perform sankirtan-yajna, which does not cost anything. One can sit down anywhere and chant Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. If the surface of the globe is overflooded with the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra, the people of the world will be very, very happy.

Sunday Feast

Sunday was the appearance day of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura.

Room Conversation, Hyderabad, December 10, 1976:

But attract them. They will come here to eat, "Oh, very nice thing." That is wanted. I made this movement successful simply by love feast. They did not come to hear Hare Krsna. They came for love feast. From very beginning, when I was in 26 2nd Avenue, every Sunday I was giving nice foodstuff, at least 200 men. Daily at least more than 15, 20. I was cooking myself. That is the beginning of my movement.

Sunday, in the temple office, talking about the danger of "Internet pollution." The Helsinki temple PC was sold in pristine condition to ISKCON Helsinki by Kesava Madhava Prabhu (left). After some time, unfortunately, it became severely infected by "spybots" from the Internet. Spybots are sneaky programs that connect a personal computer to certain Internet sites even without the user's awareness. As a result there was some seriously objectionable material lurking on the temple computer; some of it got transferred to a pen drive that I use to upload/download In2-MeC stuff (in the apartment I am staying in, there is no direct link for my laptop to the Internet, so daily I go online using the temple computer with the pen drive plugged into a USB port). Devotees here told me that some months ago another visiting sannyasi was "attacked" by dirty pictures while online with the temple PC. On Sunday afternoon, Caitanya Ananda Prabhu (the former Bhakta Jani) and I spent more than an hour tracking down and destroying spybots and cleaning up the hard disk of nasty rubbish. I gave him some of the cleaning and protection programs that I use on my own laptop to keep such pollution away.

Tuesday afternoon I'll be traveling out of Helsinki with a party of brahmacaris to the city of Turku. A Festival of India program is scheduled there, as well as a lecture at a philosophy class in the university. We'll be back in Helsinki for the weekend.

Verse 34 of Sri Krsna-bhakti-ratna-prakasa

ato garudo visnur atha vaisnavah; vaisnavo visnur yatha vaisnava labhate bhaktim bhaktya mam labhate narah tasmad vaa vaisnavo visnuh ity adi. visnur api sri-krsnasya svamsah. tan-mayatvat kaliyayanugrahah krtah. tenabhayam dadau sah. na tam nihatavan iti. ata eva balya-lilaya yat krtam tat paropakaraya. y atha nrnam nihsreyasarthaya vy aktir bhagavato nrpa ity adi. param tu bhakta-prema-vaso bhutva tad anurodhena ca yatha

Because Garuda was a great devotee of Visnu, therefore He was on the same transcendental platform as Visnu Himself. The equality of Lord Visnu and His devotees, in this sense, is described in the Vedic literatures where the Supreme Personality of Godhead says "From a Vaisnava devotee one may obtain devotional service, and by engaging in devotional service, one eventually obtains Me. Because the Vaisnavas can thus give Lord Visnu to others, therefore they are on the same transcendental platform as Lord Visnu Himself." Visnu is certainly the direct expansion of Lord Krsna, and for this reason Kaliya obtained great spiritual benefit by constantly meditating on Garuda, who is a great devotee of Lord Visnu. It is because of this meditation on Garuda that Kaliya was able to obtain the direct mercy of Lord Krsna. Lord Krsna did not kill Kaliya, but instead gave Kaliya special protection, making him fearless in all situations. From this we may see that the childhood pastimes of the Lord are always performed for the benefit of others. The Lord never actually harms anyone. This is confirmed by the following statement of Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.29.14) "Just to benefit ordinary living entities the Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared in His original form as Sri Krsna, the son of Maharaja Nanda." Furthermore, we may see that Lord Krsna becomes conquered by the love of His devotees, and He cheerfully acts to fulfill their desires. An example of this may be seen in His willingness to be bound with a rope by His affectionate mother Yasoda.

<< Back