New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

O fool, give up everything and run to Vrndavana, the kalpa-vrksa grove of pure love for Sri Sri Radhika-Suratanatha! Don’t stay to fulfil your obligations!

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-71 Translation.]

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Memories of Srila Prabhupada in New Vrindaban – Rasa lila dasi.

My initiation [in July 1974] was a wonderful moment.  It was one of those moments that Srutakirti describes – when you’re so bewildered you can’t remember even your own name.  To be in front of Srila Prabhupada for the first time was that kind of a feeling.

The devotees in New Vrindavan had put Prabhupada’s vyasasana on a landing about halfway up the stairs leading to Kirtanananda’s cabin [at Bahulaban].  To get your beads from Prabhupada, you had to climb up those stairs.  It was very dramatic.  The moment was so awesome you felt like you were climbing Mount Sumeru.

The night before, my husband, Narada Muni prabhu, had jokingly said, “And you better get a nice name from Srila Prabhupada.”  I said, “Well, yeah, I hope so.  I’ll try, what can I say?”  So, when I went to get my beads, the sounds system was reverberating and I could barely hear His Divine Grace’s words.  Besides that, I was practically stunned anyway.  I thought I heard him say that my name was Rasa Lila but I wasn’t sure.  I heard all the devotees gasping and cheering.  In those days we were studying Krishna Book intensely and we had contests and quizzes about it.

When Prabhupada spoke my name, I experienced what he describes about the gopis during the rasa-lila – that as they sang and danced, their movements, their smiling , their clothes, their earrings, and their hair with flowers combined together to appear like clouds, snow, thunder and lightning.  That passage flashed through my mind.  When he said my name it was an experiential moment.  Even though I wasn’t positive what he had said, that was what I experienced.  I walked down the stairs stunned and asked someone, “What did Prabhupada say my name is?”  It was incredible.  In one moment Prabhupada can reveal the spiritual world to you.  That’s his potency.

Don’t, don’t harbor illusions about your body, home and everything else! Know that death will thwart all your plans! O friend, run, run to Sri Vrndavana! Don’t make your heart harder than a thunderbolt.

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-70 Translation.]

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To body, home, wife, and possessions don’t uselessly think “I” and “mine”. With help from the guru’s words cut the shackles of illusion. Go at once to Vrndavana, the beginning of the kingdom of bliss. Live there on fruit and other simple food, and always remember the pastimes of Vrndavana’s king.

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-69 Translation.]

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Sinful or pious, infamous or famous, wealthy or so poor a morsel of food is hard to get, incomparably dull or a great treasury of knowledge, friend, don’t count these things. Somehow see Vrndavana, and with the help of the words of guru and sastra, cut, cut the ropes of material illusion.

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-68 Translation.]

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New Vrindaban’s Transcendental “Throwback Thursday” – 02/20/14.

Each week we highlight an earlier era of ISKCON New Vrindaban.

This week’s challenge: There are nine devotees in the photo. Who can correctly identify them all?

Post your guesses on the “who, what, when & where” in the comment section at the New Vrindaban Facebook Page.

Technical stuff: We share the photo Thursday and confirm known details Sunday. Let’s keep it light and have a bit of fun!

Special request: If you have a photo showing New Vrindaban devotees in action, share it with us and we’ll use it in a future posting.

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If you leave Vrndavana, if you leave this forest of kalpa-vrksa trees and go to another forest, if you stop talking about the nectar of Vrndavana and take pleasure in other talks, then, knowingly throwing away the sweetest nectar, you desire to eat dog-stool.

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-67 Translation.]

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Video of Ananta Govinda leading New Vrindaban’s 24 Hour Kirtan – June 15th, 2013.

Everyone is invited!

Puspanjali (flower offering)

Appearance Day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta  Sarasvati Thakura

12 noon  in Temple Room

Wed. Feb. 19, 2014

Impersonal liberation is bitter, the objects of the senses shine like a fearful hell, sense pleasures are great flames of virulent poison, all great demigods are insects, and yogic powers are mirages, now that my heart is intoxicated by tasting the sweet nectar of Vrndavana.

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-66 Translation.]

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