Balarama Jayanti Celebration

On Saturday 29th August we celebrate Balarama Jayanti, Lord Balarama's appearance day. 

The presence and effulgence of Lord Balarama in a Deity form

Balarama, or Baladeva, is Krishna's first expansion: His big brother in the spiritual world. He is also Sri Guru/the Guru principle, manifesting in the heart of a self-realized soul surrendered to Krishna, to guide the souls in the material world to the spiritual, or more precisely to Vrindavan, the innermost of The Absolute – Krishna-land. 

Come and celebrate with us on Saturday! We will sing bhajans, Brahma-Samhita prabhu gives lecture, there will be arati (altar ceremony), and afterwards we take some fine vegetarian Krishna-prasadam.

17.00

Warm welcome!

Another temporary temple cat

Now and then during summertime the temple expands its range all over Great Gothenburg by means of a 40 square meter big party tent, which we have since Vasudeva's and Arci's wedding and started renting out occasionally after that. Whether it is an actual expansion of the temple itself or an apparent expansion of it as an idea in the Platonic sense, we don't really know. But Gurumaharaj has been in it and sung and given lecture, so vaikuntha sabda – transcendental sound – has filled it, and a fire yajna has been performed in it, so Divine Presence has been there that way too. So maybe. We don't exactly know. But if a cat enters the energy field of the tent, we are inclined to say Lo y'all, another temporary temple cat!

An expansion of the temple. Maybe. In Sätila by Lygnern. 

The renters donated a jar of high quality own-produced honey to the temple.

Lo, y'all! Another temple cat! 

A very friendly little guy, 1-2 years old, pitch black with green eyes.

Very calm, fearless, trusting and sweet.  

Come to the world of love (Srila B.A. Paramadvaiti Maharaj)

Another great intimate lecture from the days around Christmas in Berlin 2011. Gurumaharaj on his favorite topic: Love. 

"Love for God is in your heart already. It's a potential, it just has to be awakened. By what? – You have to hear, you have to listen to the heart, to the words coming from pure-hearted people – those who are pure in purpose, those who love God, who talk about God."

Listen to this.

 (Picture by Rasa Lila dd)

The tent: Vallda. Another perfect day (Pictures)

Vallda the other day, 33 km south of the Temple. Another perfect tent day. Perfect tent conditions: big flat lawn, no special arrangements, nice and quiet area. Perfect tent weather: blue sky, 23 C, a light breeze. As made for a new time record... 

"Siddhanta. Perfect conditions."

"Yup."
"Take timing or enjoy it?
"Enjoy it."

Srila Sridhar Maharaj Disappearance Day

Today is the disappearance day of one of the greatest Vaishnavas of recent time, the sannyasa guru of our guru Srila B.A. Paramadvaiti Maharaj, and a great favorite in Nimaihuset: Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. 

Srila Prabhupada himself maintained the highest respect and confidence in Srila Sridhar Maharaj (at one time he wanted him for president of Iskcon but Srila Sridhar Maharaj declined), and there is a famous quote by Srila Prabhupada to one of his disciples, recommending him to take direction from Srila Sridhar Maharaj when his own direct guidance was not possible: "I consider Srila Sridhar Maharaj to be my siksa guru, so what to speak of the benefit that you can have by his association." He sang the glories of Srila Sridhar Maharaj by saying "Jaya Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Maharaj ki jay!" – a glorification that is only ever offered to one's guru.

A drop of Nectar (Srila Sridhar Maharaj)

On Srila Sridhar Maharaj's disappearance day, here is 4 minutes with him from the veranda in Navadvip: A drop of nectar. 

Nectar is something concentrated and sweet that is both fulfilling, satifying, and at the same time creates a desire for more. In this talk Srila Sridhar Maharaj speaks about that. "More... More..." 
This is also an adequate description of the ever-fresh, ever-new talks themselves from Srila Sridhar Maharaj. Sweet, satifying, with some palpable attraction. It's not possible to say exactly what the attraction is, but it creates a desire for more. It's not really the words, what he is speaking about, neither just the sound, the frequenzy or energy of it, but some still excitement and intense attraction by which it is uttered, by which it flows. Which tells of a true connection with That which he speaks about, that seems to be possible to chase by just talking about it. Preferably in terms of unconditional self-surrender, sacrifice, service – love.
Here is a drop of that.

More drops of nectar:

Last week's Saturday Feast (Pictures)

Last week's Saturday Feast we were visited by two friends from Stockholm, Uffe and Raya. Uffe took some pictures.

The lounge on a sunny summer Saturday afternoon

No other business (Srila Sridhar Maharaj)

The Search For Sri Krsna 

Reality The Beautiful 

 By Srila B.R. Sridhar Maharaj

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Introduction

Everyone is searching for rasa, pleasure. The status of rasa is the highest. As persons we have our subjective existence, but rasa, pleasure, has His supersubjective existence. He is a person. He is ahkila rasamrta murtih: the reservoir of all pleasure. He is Krsna. Rasa is Krsna. There cannot be rasa in any other place but Krsna. He is the fountainhead of all different types of rasa. So, by the nature of our constitution we have to search after Krsna. 

The tent: Something like a dream

Fjärås the other day. Another sweet day in service to the temple: sweet weather, sweet company of devotees, nice renters, nice ride with the car. Normal. 

We don't take timing anymore, we're fast and we know it, it's nicer to just enjoy it. But this day we could feel we were very fast. Most likely the fastest ever. We were amazed as it was happening – "Can you see it Siddhanta, extremley fast, isn't it?" Normally when you have put up a tent you can feel it for a while – Yeah, we put up a tent, it was nice. But this time we were so fast that when we left Fjärås there was no such feeling; it was as if we had put it up the day before and had come back just to see if it was still there. Something like a dream. Not normal. 

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Earlier posts about the tent here, here, here, and here

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Picture by Siddhanta das