Bliss Festival 2015, Educational & Environmental Program (Srila B.A. Paramadvaiti Maharaj)

Srila Gurumaharaj about Mother Earth, Rights of Nature, veganism, eco villages, eco farming, world conscious movements networking, and more. "Reflecting the Srimad Bhagavatam's teaching in a practical application".

From Bliss Festival 2015 (17th November) in Vrindavan. 

(The sound is a little bad in the beginning but gets better after a while)

Purport to Jaya Radha-Madhava (Srila Prabhupada)

Today is the disappearance day of the world acharya and Guru of our Guru Srila Abhay Caranaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (presentation etc here, mission statement here, blog archive here). Here is a favorite: Prabhupada's purport to the song Jaya Radha-Madhava, about Krishna in Vrindavan, His original form (not an expansion or incarnation).

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The whole residents of Vṛndāvana, they love Kṛṣṇa. They do not know anything else. They do not know that Kṛṣṇa is God, or not. Neither they are very much harassed that "I shall love Kṛṣṇa if He is God." "He may be God or He may be whatever He is. It doesn't matter, but we love Kṛṣṇa." That's all. That is called unnalloyed love. "If Kṛṣṇa is God, then I shall love Him" — this is conditional love. This is not pure love. Kṛṣṇa may be God or whatever He may be, but by His wonderful acts the Vrajavāsīs [inhabitants of Vṛndāvana] they are thinking, 
"Oh Kṛṣṇa, he is very wonderful child. Maybe some demigod."

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TRANSCRIPT

Jaya Radha-Madhava (Srila Prabhupada)

Govardhana Celebration Saturday 14 November

Nimaihuset's very dear Sri Giri Raj

On Saturday we celebrate Krishna's earthly pastime of lifting the Govardhana Hill on His little finger, to protect the residents of Vrindavan from the demigod Indra's rage over being neglected in favor of Krishna – the Absolute, the Source of Consciousness, the Original and Supreme Person (a.k.a. God). Thus showing His devotees the meaning of the last instruction and 
final conclusion of the Bhagavad Gita:

“Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me.
I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.”
(BG 18.66)

There will be kirtan, Bhakti Sakti Mataji gives lecture, we will make arati for our very dear Giriraj, and as on every day of the Kartik month we also offer ghee-lamps to Sri Damodara. 
Afterwards some fine prasadam will be served, 
with a hill of sweets. 

17.00!

Welcome!

Who am I, inside out? (Srila B.A. Paramadvaiti Maharaj)

"We have to understand one thing. We don't really know who we are."
Gurumaharaj in arty clip from a lecture in Bulgaria, skillfully framing you. 

There is the day, and there is the night. Two different lives. And then each day is also a little different. And every night is also quite different.

Where do you really live?

Who are you really?

When you look in the mirror, you think you see somebody you know.

We have to understand one thing. In our normal life, we don't really know who we are.

We also don't take into consideration who we are.

We only look at the body. And we become worried about the body.

We are not the awakening, we are not the sleeping. We are the conscious soul. 

That soul which has an independent existence of this body.

The materialistic philosophy is beg, borrow or steal.

Get deed and enjoy life.

Eat, sleep and be merry. Beg, borrow or steal.

This is what our life nowadays is like.

Because we are in the age of Kali Yuga. 
This time is dominated by the spirit of exploitation. Rampant materialism.

And we are suffering from that. Because when people want to enjoy, they become crazy.

So if we preach the philosophy of dedication, to God and to humanity, we are actually trying to save people from a very negative future. Actually trying to awaken people to the reality of themselves a spirit units, conscious units.

All your life you worship this body. 

And when the conscious unit leaves, you want to throw away the body.

Do we first need to die to realize that we are not this body?

Or maybe we can try to understand it before, by listening carefully.

But if you want to listen carefully, you have to stop the materialistic lifestyle. 
And that's what people don't want to do.

Absolute Harmony: JS Bach's Air and Srila Sridhar Maharaj from the veranda (Repost from 2012)

I don't remember what came first, if JS Bach's Air reminded me of Srila Sridhar Maharaj's talk about Absolute Harmony or the other way around. But in either case, here is Bach's Air, a piece of music that most people would think of as the epitome of harmony, but which is actually full of dissonances, all the time. And below, an excerpt from Srila Sridhar Maharaj's Absolute Harmony, where there is talk of how in the Absolute even discord is harmonized.

In this clip the disharmonies can be visually seen in graphics. Every time the white rectangles touch, that is disharmony – friction, two notes of two incompatible movements meeting and creating dissonance (like in 2.36–2.50). But you won't really notice, because as listener you are following the greater movement of the piece, and you will anticipate the greater harmony that the piece itself is both promising and delivering, and in that way harmonize the discord. At 2:47 and 4:19 the discord is extra pronounced (and can be given more stress by the conductor than in this version).

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Excerpt from Absolute Harmony (transcription)

 

Absolute Harmony (Srila Sridhar Maharaj)

Today is the appearance day of one of the greatest Vaishnavas of recent time, the sannyasa guru of our guru Srila B.A. Paramadvaiti Maharaj, and a great favourite in Nimaihuset: Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. And the blog gives you another precious gem: Absolute Harmony, a talk from his veranda in Navadvip, wherein he expounds on the harmonizing capacity of the Krishna conception of the Absolute, which supersedes the mere Oneness of impersonal Brahman.
This is Srila Sridhar Maharaj as we know him. The philosopher and the poet, deep-diving and high-flying, yet practical and down to earth. Soft, low-voiced and relaxed, yet intense, concentrated and exacting. And underlying it all: his main teaching surrender – unconditional – and the unyielding focus on beauty.

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Transcription (with minor edits)

Glorification of Srila Sridhar Maharaj

Pranam mantra

devaṁ divya-tanuṁ suchanda-vadanaṁ bālārka-chelāñchitaṁ
sāndrānanda-puraṁ sad-eka-varanaṁ vairāgya-vidyāmbudhim
śrī-siddhānta-nidhiṁ subhakti-lasitaṁ sārasvatānām varaṁ
vande taṁ śubhadaṁ mad-eka-śaraṇaṁ nyāsīśvaraṁ śrīdharam

“I offer my obeisance unto my lord, Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, whose speech is most pleasing; whose divine form is adorned with garments the colour of the newly-risen sun; who is an abode of intense, ecstatic devotion; who is the sole choice of the sadhus; who is an ocean of renunciation and knowledge; who is a treasure-house of perfect conclusions; who is resplendent with pure devotion; who is the best of the followers of Srila Saraswati Thakur; who is the giver of all good; who is the leading general of the tridandi-sannyasis; and who is my sole shelter.”

Srila B.R. Sridhar Maharaj – Biography, links, blog archive

Radha Kunda Kirtan with Srila B.A. Paramadvaiti Maharaj

Today is the appearance day of Radha Kunda, according to the acaryas the holiest place in the universe, and the blog gives you a precious gem: Gurumaharaj and disciples in a great kirtan from Radha Kunda on the evening of the appearance day 2012.