Can the Lord of the Universe become SICK??? Eminent Educationists assemble at Spiritual University Lord Jagannath diagnosed with cold and fever All of us eagerly await holidays to spend intimate, happy time with family members and rejuvenate in health and mind. Does the Supreme Lord, maintainer of the whole universe, need a vacation too? Yes and no! He does not require revival break since He is never affected by exhaustion. Yet, He needs it – as a pastime to attract attention, love and service of His dear family members and servant devotees. This is the internal reason behind Snana-yatra and subsequent illness of Lord Jagannath. According to Skanda Purana, the Jyestha Purnima, or the full moon day of the month of Jyestha (May-June), is the appearance day of Lord Jagannath. Lord Jagannath is Krishna who appeared in His form with big dilated eyes, a round face and hands and legs shrun, known as mahabhava-prakasha, or ecstatic manifestation of Krishna. On Jyestha Purnima (2nd June) Lord Jagannath gives a special darshan while taking shower along with His elder brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra. This festival is known as snana-yatra where thousands of pots of water is poured over Them. The Lord is bathed sunrise to sunset and anybody can serve Him by offering a shower. Due to this He catches cold and fever. The Lord’s illness goes on for 15 days, a period called as Anavasar . Newsletter Vol 12 / Issue: 7 (Monthly) / July 2015 / Price: `1/- ISKCON PUNE TODAY / July 2015 Page 1 Accoring to the Chaitanya Charitamrita, “The specific servants of Lord Jagannatha known as dayita-patis take care of the Lord from the day of the Snana upto the time of the Ratha yatra (car festival). Being sick, the Lord goes in solitude and no one can see Him except His few servants who nurse Him. The dayita-patis offer sweetmeats to Lord Jagannätha during the anavasara, the resting period and an infusion of drugs represented by fruit juices as medication to overcome the fever. Devotees feel intense separation from the Lord during this period. Then, one day prior to the Ratha-yatra, the Lord gives darshan. When the devotees witness the first darshan, with the Lord dressed in the finest clothing and jewellery, fresh in color and appearance, known as nava-yauvana vesh, they celebrate the festival of Netrotsava - festival for the eyes. Netrotsava is just like a shower of cooling streams of Lord’s darshan upon the hearts of devotees - that have become barren of feelings of separation from the Lord. This pastime was fully enacted in ISKCON NVCC temple, giving immense pleasure to Lord Jagannatha and all the devotees. Jagannath Swami ki jay ! --- Abhay Nitai Das & Yugal Shyam Das The Pune Zilla Mukhyadhyapak Sangha, an association of over 1,000 headmasters of all secondary and higher-secondary schools of Pune district, organized its annual gathering at ISKCON’s New Vedic Cultural Centre (NVCC) on Wednesday, 10th June. Shri Arun Thorat, who chaired the meeting, explained Contd... page 3
Transcript
Can the Lord of the Universe become SICK???
Eminent Educationists assemble at Spiritual University
Lord Jagannath diagnosed with cold and feverAll of us eagerly await holidays to spend intimate, happy time with family members and rejuvenate in health and mind. Does the Supreme Lord, maintainer of the whole universe, need a vacation too? Yes and no! He does not require revival break since He is never affected by exhaustion. Yet, He needs it – as a pastime to attract attention, love and service of His dear family members and servant devotees. This is the internal reason behind Snana-yatra and subsequent illness of Lord Jagannath.
According to Skanda Purana, the Jyestha Purnima, or the full moon day of the month of Jyestha (May-June), is the appearance day of Lord Jagannath. Lord Jagannath is Krishna who appeared in His form with big dilated eyes, a round face and hands and legs shrun, known as mahabhava-prakasha, or ecstatic manifestation of Krishna.
On Jyestha Purnima (2nd June) Lord Jagannath gives a special darshan while taking shower along with His elder brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra. This festival is known as snana-yatra where thousands of pots of water is poured over Them. The Lord is bathed sunrise to sunset and anybody can serve Him by offering a shower. Due to this He catches cold and fever. The Lord’s illness goes on for 15 days, a period called as Anavasar.
Accoring to the Chaitanya Charitamrita, “The specific servants of Lord Jagannatha known as dayita-patis take care of the Lord from the day of the Snana upto the time of the Ratha yatra (car festival). Being sick, the Lord goes in solitude and no one can see Him except His few servants who nurse Him. The dayita-patis offer sweetmeats to Lord Jagannätha during the anavasara, the resting period and an infusion of drugs represented by fruit juices as medication to overcome the fever.
Devotees feel intense separation from the Lord during this period. Then, one day prior to the Ratha-yatra, the Lord gives darshan.
When the devotees witness the first darshan, with the Lord dressed in the finest clothing and jewellery, fresh in color and appearance, known as nava-yauvana vesh, they celebrate the festival of Netrotsava - festival for the eyes. Netrotsava is just like a shower of cooling streams of Lord’s darshan upon the hearts of devotees - that have become barren of feelings of separation from the Lord.
This pastime was fully enacted in ISKCON NVCC temple, giving immense pleasure to Lord Jagannatha and all the devotees. Jagannath Swami ki jay !
--- Abhay Nitai Das & Yugal Shyam Das
The Pune Zilla Mukhyadhyapak Sangha, an association of over 1,000 headmasters of all secondary and higher-secondary schools of Pune district, organized its annual gathering at ISKCON’s New Vedic Cultural Centre (NVCC) on Wednesday, 10th June. Shri Arun Thorat, who chaired the meeting, explained
Contd... page 3
ISKCON PUNE TODAY / July 2015Page 2
ISKCON Pune Today | July 2015
Transforming Holidays into Holydays1,000 Youth Attend Annual Summer Camp @ISKCON
Every Summer, ISKCON Pune holds the much-awaited annual summer youth camp catering to students and professionals all over the country. This year, the youth camp was held during May-June and attracted a record 1,000 participants from 40 institutes. This camp is the culmination of year-long youth outreach programs conducted across premier educational institutes in the country under the motivating leadership and guidance of HG Radheshyam Das, the Director of Vedic Oasis of Inspiration Culture and Education (VOICE) and President, ISKCON Pune.
During the camp, participants attended the standard morning program in the temple, with devotional prayers, mantra-meditation and chanting of the Holy names sung together in chorus by hundreds of devotees. Students were fascinated seeing the beautiful darshan of their Lordships Sri Sri Radha-Vrindavanchnadra, Sri Sri Gaur-Nitai and Sri Jagannath-Baladev-Subhadra, dressed everyday in gorgeous and exquisite outfits.
Throughout the day varieties of programs were planned to imbibe and educate the audience in the infallible and timeless wisdom of Vedic science. The program included discourses, presentations, dramas, videos, group discussions, poster-making, Harinam sankirtan and many more interactive events. The dramas, based on themes from Vedic scriptures and performed with professional excellence, background music, costumes and
attractive make-ups drew huge crowds of audience. Posters designed by participating students were unique pieces of their novel ideas and drew appreciation. The Harinam sankirtan in temple premises with hundreds of students became like tidal waves drenching everybody present with ambrosial nectar of Holy Names of the Lord.
The team of speakers led by Radheshyam Das and assisted by various devotees enlightened the hearts of the youth with definite, logical, scientific yet simple philosophy of Krishna consciousness. These presentations were interspersed with stories from ancient history, songs and verses, apt examples, real-life events
and workbook activities, each ending with intense questions-answer sessions.
Last but not the least, the dedicated kitchen team won the hearts of the participants by cooking and serving attractive, delicious Indian recipes everyday throughout the camp. The event ended with high emotions, spiritual commitments, distributions of gifts and awards and sharing of realizations and experiences. Happy, inspired and spiritually surcharged individuals reluctantly departed to their respective colleges and offices, anxiously waiting to join the next summer festival!
--- Varadraj das and Toshan Nimai Das
New book releaseValue Based Stories for Children - Volume 2
The Vedic Oasis for Insipiration, Culture and Education (VOICE), the outreach wing of ISKCON, introduces a highly researched and extensively illustrated book Value-based Stories for Children - Volume 2, a book for children, parents and teachers. The book can be used for reading in schools during the morning assembly. Each story has been carefully selected and arranged to be read on each working day of the school. Teachers can use this book as a reference in their daily classroom teaching. Parents can use this book to revive the rich tradition of storytelling, giving a whole new dimension to bedtime stories while simultaneously giving the children something valuable to ponder upon. The book focuses on values that build character. Values discussed are gratitude, determination, forgiveness, overcoming anger, being sensitive, service attitude, being selfless and more.
Yearly organized ISKCON’s celebrated ‘Gita context’ for school children has tapped more than few lac children all over the country has an unexpected breakthrough this year with a Muslim girl from Munbai – Maryama Siddhiqui winning the first prize of the competition. Celebrities
from all walks of life showered greetings on her; here is one sample … Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi expressing his heartfelt wishes to this outstanding student of Gita….
Join the largest and longest walking festival on the planet in the association of thousands of loving devotees of Lord Vitthal-Rukmini!
• Begin @ Dehu – Thursday, 9th July
• Halt @ Pune – Friday, 10th July
• Continue from Pune – Saturday, 11th July, 10:00 am
• Reach Sri Dham Pandharpur – Saturday, 25th July
To participate or support, contactSri Laxmi Narayan Das on +91 96571 60054.
Sriman Gauranga Das is visiting ISKCON PuneFriday, 31st July – Sunday, 2nd August 2015During this time, Gauranga Das, well-known speaker of Srimad Bhagavatam, will deliver discourses in temple in morning hours (8:30 – 10:00 am). During the evening, Gaurang Das will address festivals and events arranged for patrons of ISKCON Pune temples. Relish the nectar of Krishna-Katha with melodious singing, insightful presentations, anecdotes and experience the spectacular persona and teachings of Srila Prabhupada.
Indian PM congratulates Muslim girl winning first prize in Gita competition
the reasoning behind choosing NVCC as the venue: “We have chosen Pune’s spiritual, cultural and architectural landmark, the ISKCON temple, as the venue for our annual meeting for past three consecutive annual meetings. The unique spiritual ambience, warmth and hospitality of the devotees, deliciously and hygienically prepared spiritual food (prasadam) and the spacious Bhaktivedanta hall makes ISKCON NVCC a favorite of all our members!”
The meeting this year was graced by Mrs. Shakuntala Kale, Deputy director of NCERT, Shri Ramachandra Jadhav, Deputy Director, Pune division, Shri Harun Attar EO of Pune, Shri Vijay Gaikwad,
continued from page 1Secretary of Maharashtra Headmaster Association and Shri Chaudhari, Deputy EO.
Balgovinda das, Vice-President of ISKCON, Pune addressed the sangha with a spiritually inspiring presentation. Balagovinda das elaborated on the five gifts given by God to everyone – body, skills and resources, facility to practice spiritual culture, relationships and a role for social contribution. He stressed that one who practices spiritual culture utilizes all these gifts to do good to oneself and the society at large. “As far as academic education is concerned, for all-round development of students, five aspects of education should be given. These are academic training, discovering and expressing the core genius
of each student, leadership and management training, life skills to make the child worldly smart and finally, practice of spiritual culture.” explained Balgovinda das.
In order to become a better teacher, Balgovinda das also requested all the headmasters to add a 30-minute program in their daily schedule – 10 minutes for reading Bhagavad Gita or similar wisdom literature, 10 minutes prayer in the form of mantra-meditation and 10 minutes to plan for the next day.
Several happy headmasters requested to hold such value addition spiritual programs at their school campuses, teachers, students and parents.
--- Chaitanya Prasad Das
ISKCON Hare Krishna Dindi from Dehu to Pandharpur Dham
Upcoming events
ISKCON PUNE TODAY / July 2015Page 4
From:Editor,
ISKCON PUNE TODAYInternational Society for Krishna Consciousness Founder Acharya : His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada 4, TARAPORE ROAD, CAMP, PUNE - 411001 (MS)Email: [email protected] | www.iskconpune.inPhone: 020-26332328
Registered NewspaperISKCON PUNE TODAYPosted at GPO, PuneOn 5th, 6th & 7th of every monthTo,
RNI Res.No.72522/2000PCE/043/2015-17Published on 2nd July 2015
Spirit of endless service…Sriman Rajiv Vadekar and Mrs Rajashree R Vadekar have made an exceptional WILL and kept their living home on the name of ISKCON. This is the spirit of serving Lord endlessly even after the end of this life. Let’s hear their hearts in their own words … Sriman Rajiv Vadekar &
