hare krishna movement newsletter - march 2015

Swayambhu Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy KshetramRoad No. 12, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad

Serving the mission of HDG A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

HARE KRISHNA COMMUNITY NEWSLETTERMarch 2015

CONTENTS

2 MESSAGE FROM TEMPLE PRESIDENT

3 THE APPEARANCE OF GOLDEN AVATARA

4 GAURA PURNIMA CELEBRATIONS AT HKM HYDERABAD

5 GAURA PURNIMA CELEBRATIONS AT HKM TIRUPATI

6 MARKAPURAM FESTIVAL

8 SRI MADHAVENDRA PURI

9 SRI RAMA NAVAMI FESTIVITIES AT HKM HYDERABAD

10 IIT HYD STUDENTS JOIN SRI SITA RAMA RATH YATRA

10 VEDIC SCIENCE CLUB OF BITS HYD CELEBRATES SRI RAMA NAVAMI

In the Service of His Divine Grace A.C. BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI SRILA PRABHUPADA

President: HG Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa Vice President: HG Bindu Madhava DasaCommunications Co-ordinator: Mukunda Charana Dasa Design & Editing: Raja Rama Dasa

Swayambhu Sri Lakshmi Nrsimha Swamy KshetramHare Krishna Movement,

Road No.12, Banjara Hills, Hyerabad - 500034, TelanganaTel: 040 - 23326999 Mob: 9390379689 E-mail: [email protected]

The month of March is very special for Gaudiya Vaishnavas. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s ap-pearance fall in this month on Sri Gaura Poorni-ma day which marks the beginning of a new year for the Gaudiya Vaishnavas.

Sri Chaitanya MahaPrabhu is Lord Krishna Him-self. He appeared in Navadwip (west Bengal) as the son of Smt Sachidevi and Jagannath Misra. Lord’s appearance is proclaimed in all the re-vealed scriptures. One such prediction from Narasimha purana is mentioned below:

satye daitya-kuladhi-nasa-samayesimhordhva-martyakrtis

tretayam dasa-kandharamparibhavan rameti namakrtih

gopalan paripalayan vraja-purebharam haran dvapare

gaurangah priya-kirtanahkali-yuge caitanya-nama-prabhuh

The Supreme Lord who assumed the form of a half-man, half-lion in the Satya-yuga to cure a dreadful disease that had devastated the Da-ityas, and who appearing as Rama conquered the ten-headed Ravana in the Treta-yuga, and who removed the burden of the earth in the Dvapara-yuga and protected the cowherd men of Vraja-pura, will be the Lord by name Chaitanya in the Kali-yuga. He will have a golden form and He will take pleasure in chanting the Lord’s holy names.

Lord Chaitanya is the most merciful form of the

Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna who inaugurated the Hare Krishna Movement 500 years ago and gave the simplest process of self realization for this age of Kali i.e to chant the Holy names of Sri Krishna.

Simply by chanting...Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

...one can purify his consciousness and achieve pure love of Krishna which is the actual mission of human life.

Though this age of Kali is full of faults & con-tamination, this age is been glorified in the ve-das simply because of this facility of chanting Sri Krishna’s names. Just by chanting Sri Krishna’s names, one can attain liberation from this world and reach the abode of the Supreme Personality Sri Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada, the eternal associate of Sri chaitanya Mahaprabhu, appeared in this plan-et & took this mission of Lord chaitanya all over the world. Now by the mercy of Srila Prabhupa-da, millions are chanting the Hare Krishna Maha mantra all over the world and attaining happi-ness by purifying themselves from the ill effects of this age.

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada! All Glories to Sri Gaura Nitai! All glories to the Sankirtana move-ment!

- Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa(M.Tech, IIT Chennai)

Temple President, HKM Hyderabad

MESSAGE FROM TEMPLE PRESIDENT

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Jagannatha Misra, a poor brah-mana of the Vedic order, and his

wife Sacidevi, a model good wom-an, lived in Navadweep, with their lives dedicated in worshipping the supreme lord Krishna. Sac-idevi gave birth to eight daugh-ters one after another, but just af-ter their birth they died. Unhappy at the death of his children, and desiring a son, Jagannatha Misra worshiped the lotus feet of Lord Visnu. After this, Sacidevi gave birth to a highly qualified son, whom they named Visvarupa. Greatly pleased with their son, the husband and wife especially began to serve the feet of the Su-preme Lord with much great ven-eration.

Lord Krishna, after being pleased with their devotion, decided to take birth as their son. Sri Cait-anya Charitamrta describes that, in the month of January in the year 1407 of the Saka Era [A.D. 1486], Lord Krishna entered the bodies of both Jagannatha Misra and Saci. Jagannatha Misra said to Sacidevi: “I see wonderful things! Your body is effulgent, and it ap-pears as if the goddess of fortune were now staying personally in my home. Anywhere and every-where I go, all people offer me respect. Even without my asking, they voluntarily give me riches, clothing and paddy.” Sacimata told her husband: “I also see won-derfully brilliant human beings appearing in outer space, as if of-fering prayers.” Jagannatha Misra

then replied: “In a dream I saw the effulgent abode of the Lord enter my heart. From my heart it entered your heart. I therefore understand that a great person-ality will soon take birth.” (Cc. Adi-lila 13.80-5).

It was Lunar eclipse on the eve-ning of February 18, 1486. It was usual on such occasions that peo-ple all over the country take bath in various sacred rivers and chant the holy names of the lord. And so, the people of Navadweep, in the district of Nadia, were also

bathing in the Ganges and loud-ly crying, “Hari bol! Hari bol!” At that time, just after sunset on the evening of February 18, 1486, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna, advented Himself in the form of Lord Caitanya Ma-haprabhu in the house of Jaganna-tha Misra and Sacidevi. Krishna-dasa Kaviraja relates that not only were the followers of the Vedas chanting Hare Krishna, but the Mohammedans and others joined them, imitating the chanting. Thus everyone joined together in chanting the holy name of the Lord when Sri Caitanya Mahapra-bhu appeared. Certainly it sig-nalled the advent of a great leader of sankirtana. Lord Caitanya’s ap-pearing as the son of Sacidevi and Jagannatha Misra cannot be com-pared to the birth of an ordinary conditioned soul. It is comparable only to Krishna’s appearance as the son of Devaki and Vasude-va. Lord Caitanya was a beautiful child, and the ladies of the town came to see Him with presents. They named Him Gaurahari on account of His golden complexion, and His mother called Him Nimai on account of the nim (neem) tree near which He was born.

Caitanya-caritamrta states, “Lord Caitanya is very merciful to any-one who hears this narration of His birth, and thus such a person attains the lotus feet of the Lord.”

The Appearance of

Golden avatara

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Gaura Purnima Celebrations atHare Krishna Movement, HyderabadGaura Purnima is The Divine Ap-pearance Day of Sri Krishna Chai-tanya Mahaprabhu who is none other than Lord Krishna Himself!

The celebrations started from the early morning with blissful mangalarathi & ecstatic kirtans at Sri Nitai-Gauranga Mandir. All the devotees observed fasting till

moonrise. In the evening Their Lordships Sri Sri

Gaura-Nitai were taken in a pro-cess to Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple while the melo-dious kirtans accompanies the process. Later Their Lordships ar-rived in Sankirtana Bhavan.

Then a Grand Abhishekam cer-emony was performed for the pleasure of Their Lordships Sri Gaura-Nitai.

The Deities were bathed with scented water, panchamritha & panchagavya which includes milk, curd, sweetened water, ghee and honey. The Deities are then given

Sarvaushadhi Snana followed by herbal water, scented water & ex-otic fruit juices. The Deities were then given 108 kalasha snana fol-lowed by showers of flowers.

There were many initiatives from the temple, like “Intinta Ni-tai-Gauranga (Lord Nitai-Gauran-

ga in Every House)”, wherein 40 families who are practicing KC sin-cerely, received Sri Nitai-Gauran-ga Deities to worship them in their homes every day!

GIFTS-Gauranga International Foundation for Spiritual Services was launched for many locations.

Special Prizes were distribut-ed to those, who remarkably did wonderful service by distributing hundreds of Srila Prabhupada’s books, during SP’s Book Mara-thon.

There were 56 different varieties of special delicacies were offered

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to Their Lordships on this auspi-cious day and then all the items were distributed to the devotees as prasadam along with delicious dinner feast prasadam.

More than 1000 devotees took part in this divine event and re-ceived the blessings of Their Lordships Sri

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu & Nityananda Prabhu!

All Glories to Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu!

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Gaura Purnima Celebrations atHare Krishna Movement, Tirupati

Celebrations started in Sri Radha Gopinath Mandir of HKM Tirupati from the early morning with bliss-

ful mangalarathi & ecstatic kirtans.

In the evening Their Lordships Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai were taken in a procession in the streets of Bairagipatteda and reached Viakhanasa ashram while the melodious kirtans accompanied the procession.

Then a Grand Abhishekam ceremony was performed for the pleasure of Their Lordships Sri Gaura-Nitai.

The Deities were bathed with scented water, panchamritha & panchagavya which includes milk, curd, sweetened water, ghee and honey. The Deities are then given Sarvaushadhi Snana followed by herbal water, scented water & exotic fruit juices. The Deities were then given 108 kalasha snana followed by showers of flowers.

Children recited the famous “Sri Siksha-takam” – the eight principal instructions of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Then Prat-aparudra Prabhu gave a short Talk on Sri Sikshashtakam.

Around 500 devotess assembled and ev-

eryone has chanted one mala of Hare Krishna Mantra(108 times) in front of Their Lordships and many of them said they will be continuing. All Glo-ries to Sri Krishna Sankirtanam.

With huge kirtan and heavy dancing by devotees ,Maha Mangalarati was performed to Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga. The Program ended sumptuous , deli-cious dinner feast prasadam to all the devotees.



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Markapuram marks the 2nd Gaura Purnima Festival

HKM-Hyderabad as part of its Village Preaching Program, conducting preach-ing programs in Rayavaram Village reg-ularly.

On Gaura Purnima day the festival was celebrated in this village also. Nagara Sankirtana was performed in the village before starting the evening celebrations, where many villagers joined in glorifying the Supreme Lord.

Then a Abhishekam ceremony was per-formed for the pleasure of Their Lord-ships Sri Gaura-Nitai. The Deities were bathed with scented water, pancham-ritha. The Deities were then given 9 kala-sha snana. All the devotees participated in chanting & singing the glories of Their Lordships through Harinama Sankirtana.There were 70 different varieties of special delicacies were offered to Their Lordships on this auspicious day and then all the items were distributed to the devotees as prasadam along with deli-cious dinner feast prasadam.

More than 200 devotees took part in this divine event and received the blessings of Their Lordships Sri Sri Chaitanya Ma-haprabhu & Nityananda Prabhu!


All Glories to Sri Krishna Sankirtana!


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Sri Madhavendra Puri An embodiment of Divine Love

Srila Madhavendra Puri appeared

in the 14th century. He was a guru of the Brahma or Madh-va sampradaya, one of the four (Brahma, Sri, Rudra and Sanaka) Vaishnava lineages that purify the world in the age of Kali.Madhavendra Puri was the disci-ple of Lakshmipati-Tirtha. He had many but Shri Advaita Acharya and Shri Ishvara Puri were the chief disciples of Madhavendra Puri. In one way or another, all the Vaisnavas in Bengal and Kshetra mandala (Jagannatha Puri) were connected with Shri Madhavendra Puri. After Lord

Chaitanya came many of his disciples joined Mahaprabhu’s sankirtana move-ment.

Srila Bhaktisid-dhanta Saraswati Goswami states that “Madhav-endra Puri was the fist shoot of the desire tree of divine love that came out of the Madhva lineage. Prior to his appearance, there was no sign

of the conjugal mood of devotion in the Madhva line.The feeling of sepa-ration from Krishna, or transcendental vipralam-bha is the only practice by which the spirit soul can achieve perfection. Material feelings of separation give rise to a despon-dency that reveals the attach-ment one has for matter, whereas the despondency that results from the feelings of separation for Krishna are the best proof of one’s desire to bring pleasure to His senses. The desire to bring pleasure to Krishna’s senses shown by Madhavendra Puri, the great soul who is the root of this movement, is the ideal example to follow for anyone who wishes to serve the Lord. It is especially worth remarking that Mahapra-bhu and His closes followers later adopted this example and made it their standard.”

After making an extensive pil-grimage of Bharata-bhumi (In-dia) he passed his life in Vrinda-vana and Orissa. He began the restoration work of Vrindavana that Shri Rupa and Sanata-na Goswamis continued later. Wandering from grove to grove, remembering Radha Krishna’s sweet Vrindavana pastimes,

Madavendra Puri would faint in ecstasy.

In a dream, Shri Gopala ordered Madhavendra Puri to uncover a buried Gopala Deity and in-stall Him atop Govardhana Hill. Madhavendra Puri celebrated Gopala’s installation with an annakuta (grand festival offer-ing a mountain of foodstuffs to Krishna). This Annakuta festival, also called Govardhana Puja, is one of the most important Vaish-nava festivals in Vrindavana, in India, and around the world. The original Gopala Deity, known’ as Shri Nathaji, is now worshiped in Nathadvara, Rajasthan.

At the time of his departure from this world, Madhavendra Puri was completely absorbed in sep-aration from Krsna and constant-ly repeated one sloka. This verse is considered by Gaudiya Vaish-navas to be the essence of expres-sion of the mood of separation.

“Madhavendra Puri was a well known

sannyasi of the Madh-va sampradaya. His grand-disciple was

Sri Chaitanya Ma-haprabhu. Prior to his appearance, there was no evidence of prema bhakti in the Madhva line. In his verse, ayi

dinia-dayardra-natha (Chaitanya Charita-mrita 2.4.197), the

seed of the religious doctrines of Chaitanya

Mahaprabhu can be found.”

- Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura 8

Sri Rama Navami Celebrations

Hare Krishna Movement-Hyd celebrated Sri Rama Navami festival at Sankirtan Bhavan, Swayambhu Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Kshetram.

Sri Narasimha Swamy uthsavar deity was dec-orated as Sri Ramachandra and Lord gave dar-shan to hundreds of devotees holding Bow & Arrow. This special alankara happens only once in a year. Devotees fasted throughout the day till sunset and remembered Sri Rama, by chant-ing His holy names and hearing from the Sri-mad-Bhagavatam. They broke the fast at sunset.

In the evening the Sri Rama Tharaka Homa was performed by chanting Sri Rama Ashtottara Sha-ta Nama. While all the devotees sing the glories of Lord Rama and chant His names, His Grace Satya Gaura Chandra Prabhu explained the sig-nificance & meaning of some of the selected names of Lord Rama and various incarnations of Lord Krishna.

After the homa a grand Maha Mangalarathi was performed while the devotees sing the glories of Lord Rama and chant Hare Krishna maha man-tra. Also all the devotees got an opportunity to sing “Nama Ramayana” - a special song which narrates the entire Ramayana.

Special Dinner Prasadam was distributed to all the participants. Special Delicacies like Panakam & Vada-pappu (Kosambari) were distributed from morning to all the devotees.

More than 500 fortunate devotees participated in this sublime festival and received the bless-ings of Sri Sita Ramachandra.

All Glories to Sri Sita Ramachandra!

All Glories to Srila Prabhupad!

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Students from IIT Hyd Participate in Sri Rama

Ratha Yatra Celebrations

Vedic Science Club celebrated Sri Rama Navami festival at Sri Sita Rama Temple & in VSC Hall at ODF.The managing committee mem-bers of Sri Sita Rama Temple of Ordanance Factory (ODF) invited Vedic Science Club members to perform Harinam Sankirtan for the pleasure of Their Lordships & the devotees. during the Chariot Procession of Sri Sita Ramachan-dra. Therefore, many members of the club along with other devo-tees performed ecstatic Harinam Sankirtan, while the melodious songs glorifying the pastimes of Lord Ramachandra were sung & all the devotees performed divine

dance.Later, the festival was celebrated at VSC Hall, started with ecstatic sankirtan, all the devotees got an opportunity to sing “Nama Ra-mayana” - a special song which narrates the entire Ramayana. Some of the important pastimes & qualities of Lord Ramachandra were discussed. Everyone enjoyed watching a spe-cial video presentation, which displays the Glorious Activities & Perfect Qualities of Lord Rama along with the Darshana of Lord’s

pastime places. Everyone also got an opportunity to chant Hare Krishna Maha Mantra 108 times on this auspicious day.The event was concluded with a special arathi to Their Lordships, while all the participants dance to the tunes of ecstatic kirtans in great jubilation. Also Special Din-ner Prasadam was distributed to all the participants. Special Deli-

cacies like Panakam & Vada-pap-pu (Kosambari) were also distrib-uted.More than 85 fortunate students of IIT-Hyd & ODF participated in this sublime festival and received the blessings of Sri Sita Ramach-andra.All Glories to Sri Sita Ramachan-dra! All Glories to Srila Prabhu-pad!

Hare Krishna Movement-Hyd per-formed “HARINAMA SANKIRTAN” @ BITS-Pilani (Hyd-Campus) as part of celebrating Sri Rama Na-vami festival that the campus con-ducts every year.Vedic Science Club students and

Staff of BITS college got the divine touch of Harinama Sankirtan: Sang and danced to the tunes of the Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra. Everyone expressed their desire to see similar programs in future.

Jai Srila Prabhupada.. !Jai Sri Nitai-Gauranga... !!Jai Sri Sita Ram... !!!

Vedic Science Club at BITS Hyd Celebrates

Sri Rama Navami

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Join Hare Krishna Satsang Programme on Every Sunday

DAILY PROGRAMME TIMES

Nitai Gauranga MandirDaily Arati Timings

04:30 AM Mangala Arati05:00 AM Narasimha Kirtan05:15 AM Tulasi Arati07:30 AM Darshana Arati08:00 AM Guru Puja12:00 PM Raj Bhog Arati04:15 PM Sandhya Arati06:45 PM Tulasi Arati07:00 PM Gaura Arati08:00 PM Shayana Arati

Daily Classes

09:00 AM Srimad Bhagavatam10:00 AM Reading & Discussion

Swayambhu Sri Lakshmi Nrsimha Swamy MandirDarshan & Arati Timings

06:00 AM Deity Greeting07:45 AM Narasimha Kirtan & Arati08:00 AM Deity Offering12:00 PM Raj Bhog04:00 PM Deity Greeting08:00 PM Shayana Arati

Lunch Programme12:30 PM - 1:30 PM Free Lunch Prasadam Distribution

Weekly Satsang Programme05:30 PM - Every Sunday

hare krishna movement newsletter - march 2015

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