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Sailing in the Hawaiian Islands

Back To Godhead June 1981 Sailing in the Hawaiian Islands Back to Godhead The Departure 1967 — The Biography of Srila Prabhupada Back To Godhead June 1981 PDF Download Abortion and the Language of Unconsciousness The Yoga Dictionary All Problems Can Be Solved by Krsna Consciousness –Notes from the Editor NASA’s Space Shuttle — A Small Step for Mankind The Vision to See Life in Stone — Srila Prabhupada Speaks Out Humility by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura Govinda’s Restaurant in Tehran Bhakti, Devotion—The Highest Yoga A teakwood ketch and a devotee’s determination help bring Lord Krsna’s message to the Hawaiian Islands. “I like all religions,” Henry said as he drove along, “except the Hare Krsnas.” Narahari was quiet. The two of them had recently met and were now on their way to Henry’s home on a small island off the coast of California. Henry, a big, friendly man in his mid fifties, had a beautiful 53-foot teakwood ketch that he wanted to donate to a worthy charitable organization. He’d been intrigued by an ad in a sailing magazine: “ISKCON, a nonprofit, charitable organization, needs a boat to reach needy people in remote parts of the world.” Henry had no idea that ISKCON stood for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness or that Narahari, the Society’s likable representative sitting next to him, had been a devotee of Krsna for eight years and was president of the Krsna temple in Honolulu. Before even meeting Henry, Narahari half-expected that he would have acquired a bad impression of “the Hare Krsnas.” Inaccurate press coverage combined with some mistakes devotees had made in public relations had left many people with a bad impression. But Narahari was confident that Henry’s opinion would change if he heard about Krsna without bias. And now, as Henry was cautiously deciding among several charitable groups interested in his $200,000 ketch, he was curious to learn what “ISKCON” was all about. “We believe,” Narahari explained as they drove down the scenic highway, “that among all species of life humans are unique in that they alone have the intelligence to inquire into the purpose of life.” “So, what is that purpose?” Henry asked, both surprised and amused at Narahari’s profundity. “To become self-realized,” Narahari replied with thoughtful conviction. “To understand that this body we have is like a dress covering our real self—the soul within the body. Just as we wear some clothes for a while and then discard them when they’re old, our soul is covered by the perishable body until the time of death, when the soul leaves the body. After leaving one body the soul enters another, just as after discarding one shirt we put on another.” Later, seated comfortably in Henry’s warm, rustic living room, Narahari accepted a cup of warm milk graciously offered by Henry’s wife. Henry was contemplating what Narahari had said in the car. Now that his children had their own families an were living away from his secluded home, he was accustomed to passing quiet evenings reading his favorite novels or watching TV. Serious philosophical talk was a refreshing change. Rarely did his friends or relatives venture into such probing topics. Narahari next explained how the nature of the soul is service, how each living being consciously or unconsciously renders service to another : The trees...

Back To Godhead November 1978 Back To Godhead November 1978 PDF Download Finding Calm In a World of Calamities How Much Are You Worth? — The Vedic Observer Lord Krishna’s Pure Devotee Reaches America Questions People Ask About Chanting The God-blind Scientists — Srila Prabhupada Speaks Out How Krsna’s Garden Grows Evolution – A Theory in Danger of Extinction The Anatomy of the Self Wisdom from Bhagavad-gita Man: Just an Old Animal? — Notes from the Editor Miami, Florida A visit to a tropical paradise. by Mandalesvara dasa Jennifer is the manager of a tropical plant nursery in Key West. A thoughtful young woman, she sees herself as “a person who has always been searching for something more to life.” “A few days ago,” says Jennifer, “a woman stopped by the nursery and mentioned she’d just been to an interesting spiritual asrama in Miami. She said I ought to drive up and see for myself. “On the way there, I was picturing some kind of tall building. But when I finally arrived, I saw fruit trees and flowers and peacocks and cows and a lake with swans.” Jennifer walked in through the Malaysian coconut palms and passed under a sign that said “New Naimisaranya Forest” (after a pilgrimage site in India). A woman in a sari said hello and invited her to sit in the cool shade of a chickee, a Seminole-style pavilion made of cypress logs and thatched palm fronds. “It’s time for lunch,” the woman said. “I’ll bring you a plate ofprasada—it’s vegetarian food we grow right here in our garden and offer to Krsna. It’s spiritual.” Though she had been a vegetarian for ten years, Jennifer found theprasada “a real surprise.” After lunch she joined some other guests for a walk around the grounds. The guide was the community’s Coordinator, Narahari dasa. Before starting his work with the Krsna consciousness movement in 1972, he graduated in premed from the University of Maryland and played drums with a number of prominent jazz musicians. “Now I’m playing thekhola [an oblong Indian drum] for Krsna—and wondering what it will be like to hear Him playing His flute. “Before,” he says, “I was just living the ‘good life’ and trying to harmonize with nature. But one day a friend gave me a copy of Bhagavad-gita As It Is,and I was struck by the idea of karma “I saw that although I was getting everything I wanted at the time, it was just coming from my past good karma,and sooner or later that good karma would run out and I’d have to get old and diseased and die. And then there’d be my next life. You know-it was like a credit card. ‘Enjoy now. Pay later.’ “So,” he says, “I decided to go by the Krsna center-before ‘later’ came around-and check things out. I used to study Bhagavad-gita, which I found out means ‘The Song of God,’ and then I’d go to the Sunday festivals with lists of questions about karma and reincarnation and how to get beyond it all: I liked the answers the devotees gave me, so to learn more I eventually moved in.” Narahari showed Jennifer and half a dozen other guests the two acres of marigolds, Lake Bindusarovara, the cowpens, the sugarcane field, and the fifty beehives that produce over five tons of honey a year. They also saw the fruit...

Back To Godhead December 1976 Back To Godhead December 1976 PDF Download Reincarnation and Beyond Heroes, Anti-Heroes and Antidotes Chant and be happy Our Sense of Wonder — Gone Under ISKCON News: Farm in Florida The Prince Passed On Too Soon A brief look at the worldwide activities of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness Floridians Feel Good About ISKCON’s Farm Even the residents of South Honda, who are long familiar with exotic tropical vegetation, have never heard of the Jobaticaba tree (which produces grapes directly from its bark) or the star apple tree (whose fruit tastes just like a blue-berry sundae). Yet there they are, right on an 8.5-acre estate that fifty hardworking devotees have transformed into a tropical paradise. And there is much more at New Naimisaranya Forest (named after a pilgrimage site in India) to delight the people of semisuburban Coral Way, near the Everglades. The devotees have put in over five hundred banana trees (including special Mysores and Raja-puris imported from India), three hundred rose bushes, fifty dwarf Puerto Rican plantain trees, a full three acres of stunning yellow and orange marigolds, plus pink and yellow frangipani, super-fragrant night-blooming jasmine, gardenias, and hibiscus. They have also planted stands of litchi nut, lime, and pineapple trees, as well as papaya, fig, eucalyptus, tamarind, and others too numerous to mention. Perhaps the most popular features, though, are the thirty-eight beehives and the mango orchard. With an abundance of flowers to choose from, the bees are busy all year round. The devotees bottle the flood of honey, put their own New Naimisaranya Forest label on the bottles, and sell or give most of the bounty to neighbors or guests. Even more popular are the delicious mangoes, which the devotees harvested by the hundreds this year. When devotees first began developing the farm, under the guidance of temple president Narahari dasa, the neighbors were pleased to see the wonderful transformation of the abandoned estate. They eagerly offered various kinds of help, such as plowing up the future marigold field with a tractor-pulled disker and advising the devotees on planting techniques. Now many local children love to visit “the Hare Krsna farm.” They come, mostly on horses or ponies, to swim in the lake and get refreshments. The neighbors also appreciated that the devotees helped to keep a proposed shopping center out of the area. At a critical meeting of the local civic association, of which New Naimisaranya Forest is now an honorary member, a representative of the prospective developer contended that not a single landowner on Coral Way opposed the shopping center. At that point the neighborhood representative literally jumped out of her seat with a letter from the devotees saying that they were one of the biggest landholders on Coral Way, and that they were strongly opposed to the shopping center. The plans were shelved, to the great glee of the neighbors, and now they’re supporting the devotees’ effort to get a rezoning for widening the farm’s programs. Said Terry Skinner, president of the civic association, “The devotees are doing a wonderful job developing and beautifying their property, which is becoming a great asset to the...