Sunday School
at the Temple

Each month from 5.30pm

Each Sunday Vilasa-Manjari will be holding a Sunday School for children over 6 years of age, upstairs in the temple during the Sunday Program.

Next program is 21st March 2010.

Singing teacher Gitanjai (previously known as Carmella) will also be involved in getting the children to sing.

To register please complete the form at the temple reception so that you can enjoy the temple program knowing your children are safe and having fun learning about Krishna from devotees experienced in raising children.

Toronto’s Goodwill Ambassadors Put the Fun in Book Distribution

By Madhava Smullen on 5 Mar 2010

Spiritual sweets and succor for the fortunate passerby.

When ISKCON’s Governing Body Comissioner for Canada, Bhakti Marg Swami, invited Vaisesika Dasa to help revive the culture of distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books at the Society’s Toronto temple, he knew it would have an impact on the community.

He just couldn’t have guessed how big an impact it would have.

“Toronto has always had a very active congregational group,” says Ateet Agarwal, who moved from his native India to Canada with his wife Shyama-Mohini Dasi in 2004. “And several senior devotees were going out on sankirtana—distributing Prabhupada’s books—regularly. But it was not the main focus.”

Ateet, who is aspiring for initiation by ISKCON guru Devamrita Swami, works in the financial sector, while his wife is currently finishing her Ph.D at the University of Toronto. Although he was enthusiastic about sharing Krishna consciousness with guests visiting the temple on Sundays, he notes with self-effacing humor that he never could have imagined he would go out on street book distribution “in this lifetime.”

“But,”—he grins, and his whole face lights up, “—Vaisesika Prabhu changed all that.”

An Ambassador of Goodwill

Filing into Vaisesika Dasa’s May 2009 “Sankirtana Orientation Seminar” in Toronto, Ateet, Shyama-Mohini, and the other members of ISKCON Toronto’s congregation were curious. Vaisesika was known as a leading book distributor and innovator with over 35 years of experience, and had brought national recognition to the efforts of his local temple of ISKCON Silicon Valley in San Jose, California—so they were feeling positive. But they still didn’t quite know what to expect.

Vaisesika began his Friday evening talk by establishing the mood and meaning of sankirtana. “ISKCON’s founder Srila Prabhupada came to the West as an Ambassador of Goodwill, to share Krishna consciousness,” he said. “And, like him, we should also go as ambassadors of goodwill, sharing kindness and compassion with all the people out there who are all going through their own difficulties.”

His audience were already enthralled. There was something about Vaisesika’s energy and his approach that showed he really understood people, and wanted to help them.

“The primary goal of book distribution,” he explained, “Is to leave everyone with a good impression and a gift—whether it’s a book, a cookie, a mantra card, or even just a smile.”

Again, this was something different. Wasn’t the goal of book distribution to sell as many books as possible?

On the next day, the practical application segment of the seminar, participants were met with another surprise—the day was to begin at 4:30am. Vaisesika had everyone attend the mangala arati ceremony, chant Hare Krishna on their japa beads together, sing guru-puja to Srila Prabhupada, and listen to a class on the ancient scripture Srimad-Bhagavatam, before tucking into breakfast together.

“When you distribute books,” he explained, “You are sharing the overflow of your own sadhana—your personal spiritual practice.”

After breakfast, Vaisesika shared practical tips and techniques from his many years of experience in a two-hour training session. Then, it was time to put knowledge into practice—with Vaisesika guiding them, the seminar participants all spent five hours distributing books in downtown Toronto.

When it was time for Vaisesika to leave, he had one last meeting with those of the group who were inspired to continue following the model he had taught them. Giving more detailed instructions for establishing Monthly Sankirtana Festivals—a simple, one-day-a-month program for distributing books—he told them, “If you want me to come back, I need commitment—you have to keep the program going.”

Individual, Spontaneous, And Voluntary

Four devotees—Ateet, Shyama-Mohini, Vrindavana Dasa and Vrindavana Vinodani Dasi—were determined to hold Vaisesika to his word. Forming an organizational team, they dubbed the last Saturday of every month “Sankirtana Saturday,” and set to work planning the first ever official Toronto Monthly Sankirtana Festival (MSF).

The group that set out on the last Saturday of June 2009—the four organizers plus twenty more devotees—were green, to say the least. Most were not temple residents but congregation that worked and studied full-time, and many had never distributed books before.

“But we were following Vaisesika Prabhu’s instructions to work as a team,” Ateet says. “And in a team, a lot of the pressure that one might feel going out on one’s own is relieved. As Vaisesika says, ‘A lot of people each doing a little bit.’”

With teamwork, those that felt hesitant to talk with people and sell books could give out the free cookies that devotees had packaged in their thousands. Those that found even that difficult could participate in the kirtan group, binding everyone together. And when they did feel inspired to try selling some books, they could always come back and rotate tasks with someone else when they got tired.

What’s more, with Vaisesika’s model, there was no pressure to sell books to everyone. “We are here to share the kindness we have received from Srila Prabhupada,” he had told them. “We are friendly with everyone, leaving them with a smile or a cookie, and if they are not ready to receive this spiritual knowledge yet, that’s okay. From our attitude, even they don’t take a book, people will sense that we have something special—and we have planted the seed.”

It’s a model that works. “Often people are not interested in the books, but do take cookies,” Ateet says. “They read the maha-mantra and the temple’s address included inside, and two or three weeks later, they show up at the Sunday Feast. One woman that Vaisesika Prabhu spoke to on the street while he was here—a single mother of Muslim background name Haleh—even kept in touch and ended up joining us on a later MSF! Today, she’s a regular devotee who chants, attends Bhagavad-gita classes, and distributes books with us.”

Although the group sold very few books on their first MSF, their spirit was not in the least deterred. “It’s not about numbers,” Ateet says. “Sankirtana should be individual, spontaneous, and voluntary—and it was. We had a great time, and the devotees wanted to come back again and again.”

The Four Ironclad Laws of Book Distribution

Sure enough, they did. July’s MSF landed on Toronto’s annual Rathayatra festival, and the team decided to try new things. Printing out a person-sized cover of Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is, they pasted it on a large box, cut out holes for hands and feet, and had a devotee wear it. With endorsements from Mahatma Gandhi and other famous personalities on his back, this “Walking Bhagavad-gita” was a huge success, drawing attention and starting conversations that led to sales of the sacred book.

As they planned more MSFs, The Toronto Sankirtana team strengthened the foundation of their book distribution efforts by carefully following Vaisesika’s Four Ironclad Laws of Book Distribution: 1) Have Strong Sadhana, 2) Get Books, 3) The More You Show, The More You Sell, and 4) Be Organized.

Being organized meant planning every MSF immaculately—making sure that things started and ended on time, that everyone had enough prasadam to eat, and that everyone felt taken care of and didn’t get stressed out, hungry or late. Getting books meant developing a reliable fulfillment department, so that all books were always in stock. To show more and thereby sell more, the team created attractive displays, set up book racks and tables, utilized the Walking Bhagavad-gita, and introduced the “Book of the Month,” an increased focus on a different one of Srila Prabhupada’s books every month.

For the most important law of book distribution, strong sadhana, the Toronto devotees supplemented their MSFs with a weekly Wednesday Sankirtana Sanga. “Our small yet growing group of eight to ten devotees meet at 6:30pm for kirtan,” Ateet says. “Then we chant one round of japa together, read one chapter of the Bhagavad-gita together, and spend the last twenty-five minutes sharing realizations or discussing plans for the next MSF. This is extremely important, because unless we truly understand the value of the Hare Krishna mantra and of Srila Prabhupada’s books, how can we effectively present them to others?”

The Prabhupada Marathon

The Toronto Sankirtana Team would need the inspiration that their sadhana gave them, for they were about to embark on two of their most ambitious efforts yet.

The November Sankirtana Saturday was held on Gita Jayanti, the day when Sri Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna 5,000 years ago, and inspired, the devotees decided to form 18 teams to match the Gita’s 18 chapters. “The largest number of teams we’d had before was four,”Ateet says. “And although we fell short of our goal, we reached 15 teams, and sold 200 books—a wonderful achievement for everyone!”

Coming off the back of Gita Jayanti, the team found themselves launched straight into the December 2009 Prabhupada Marathon, during which ISKCON devotees around the world attempt to sell as many of Srila Prabhupada’s books as they can. Again, Toronto set an ambitious goal. “When I looked at previous year’s scores, I saw that ISKCON Toronto had done a marathon average of about 600 books,” Ateet says. “We decided to do 2010 books to welcome in the new year—over three times as many!”

Setting their effort off to a good start, Vaisesika Dasa returned on the first weekend of December as he had promised, to reinforce skills and inspire. The energy grew. Devotees set personal targets, with some braving the Toronto winter to go out every single day of the month. They used every cue for inspiration, selling hundreds of books at every Sunday Feast and dressing up as Santa Claus and his elves for a “Krishna Christmas” special. They drew a large tilak—the Vaishnava forehead marking—on cardboard and created a “tilak meter,” to show how many books they had sold. A feeling of excitement and togetherness spread. By Christmas, the team had reached their goal of 2,010 books.

But it wasn’t over yet.

“We still hadn’t held our Monthly Sankirtana Festival,” Ateet says. “We chose the day after Christmas—Boxing Day, or Black Friday in the US—because of the amount of people the shopping craze drew. Then we went out in three shifts, covering the whole day from 6am to 6pm.
In the end, we finished the marathon with 3,200 books—over five times the amount of previous years.”

Ateet, however, is keen to point out that numbers aren’t everything. “Our biggest achievement,” he adds, “Was just to see devotees have a good experience and bond together.”

The Month of Loving Exchanges

January 2010 brought with it yet another innovation. With so much focus on numbers during the marathon, devotees were exhausted and needed a refresher.
The perfect cure? The “Month of Loving Exchanges.”

“In Verse 4 of the Nectar of Instruction, Rupa Goswami describes six loving exchanges shared by one devotee and another: Offering gifts in charity, accepting charitable gifts, revealing one’s mind in confidence, inquiring confidentially, accepting prasada and offering prasada,” says Ateet. “And in the purport, Prabhupada clearly states: “The International Society for Krishna Consciousness has been established to facilitate these six kinds of loving exchanges between devotees. So we focused on interactions of love and care for the entire month.”

The centerpiece of this effort was “Devotee Appreciation Day.” Emphasizing personal interaction, Ateet, Shyama-Mohini and Vrindavana Dasa hand-made cards, wrote personal invitations, and personally delivered them to the seventy or eighty devotees who had participated in the MSFs over the preceding months.
On the evening of January 10th, devotees began by watching a video of Toronto’s sankirtan story, then having kirtan together. Next, they read “offerings” before the likeness of Srila Prabhupada, presenting to him the successes of their marathon.

A gourmet prasadam feast, prepared with no expense spared, was then served up, with special lighting and furnishings adding to the experience. As the devotees ate, the sankirtana team organizers handed each devotee a letter personally addressed to them, highlighting how they had helped in the marathon. Each devotee also received a gift bag including the monthly Prabhupada Vani newsletter telling the story of the marathon, a 2010 calendar with all the Sankirtana Saturdays marked and a different Prabhupada quote about book distribution for every month, a poetic recitation of the Bhagavad-gita on CD by the BBT’s Dravida Dasa, and a package of prasadam cookies.

“Devotees just loved it,” Ateet recalls. “They were so happy. It was an amazing experience for all of us.”

Next for the Month of Loving Exchanges, organizers launched a Sankirtana team clean-up of the Toronto Temple, focusing on the kitchen, which needed the most love. Twenty-five devotees cleaned together throughout an afternoon, after which organizers rewarded them with a pizza party and bhajan night.

Finally, the Sankirtana team also recognized the hard work of Toronto temple’s resident devotees, including Bhakti Marg Swami, the temple president, the pujaris (priests), the cleaning crew and more. “One morning, during Bhagavatam class, we gave each devotee personal letters thanking them for their support to the sankirtana team and appreciating their long years of service,” Ateet says. “We also gave them gift bags containing Dravida’s Bhagavad-gita CD, cookies, and some practical, personalized and occasionally humorous gifts: to the pujaris who spent time on the marble altar on cold mornings, we gave warm socks; to some older devotees we gave handcreams or pillowcases; to a devotee who had recently moved, we gave a Toronto map; and to others who liked to keep in touch with their families, we gave calling cards.”
As the Month of Loving Exchanges came to an end, devotees faced January’s Monthly Sankirtana Festival with elation. Despite the minus 25 degrees, 35 devotees participated in January 30th’s Sankirtana Saturday, feeling the warmth in their hearts. And although—or rather, because—the Toronto Sankirtana team had spent the month focusing on devotees rather than on numbers, they finished January as the number seven top book distributors in North America, according to the World Sankirtana Newsletter’s definitive rankings.

The Future

As the Toronto devotees plan for the future of their sankirtana efforts, they have just completed another themed Sankirtana Saturday—Gaura Purnima, the appearance day of Gaudiya Vaishnava founder Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Despite a forecast of non-stop rain and snow over the weekend, 75 devotees participated, distributing 1,200 pieces of prasadam and 216 books, and making the event their biggest MSF to date.

Now, the team’s organizers continue to work on creating fresh challenges and themes for each month. They’ve just introduced Smart Boxes, an honor system in which book racks are placed in stores around the city, allowing people to take the books themselves and leave donations. And they’ve set their biggest goal so far: distributing 20,000 books in the year 2010.
“We’ve realized that these kind of goals bond everybody together,” says Ateet. “So this new goal is the glue we are using to connect everything this year. At the end of all our emails, we sign off “Marching towards 20,000 in 2010.” Each MSF adds towards the goal of 20,000. Specials like our Gaura Purnima effort add towards the goal. And each devotee is voluntarily making their own personal goals.”

In March, Vaisesika will return once again to inspire the devotees and strengthen their techniques. “At the end of the day, it is by the mercy of Krishna and the devotees that we achieve anything,” Ateet says. “All the credit goes to Vaisesika Prabhu, Bhakti Marg Swami, our gurus, and all the wonderful devotees who have been keeping this effort alive.”

So what is the ultimate goal for the Toronto Sankirtana team? Sustainability, says Ateet.

“Our vision,” he concludes, “Is to grow to the point that despite the coming or going of Sankirtana devotees and leaders, the culture continues.”

Gaura Purnima Festivities Ring in Vaishnava New Year

By Madhava Smullen 5th March 2010

Leaders lend a helping hand to place the auspicious foundation for the new temple in Mayapur.

ISKCON temples around the world were alive with joyous celebration this February 28th in honor of Gaura Purnima, the appearance day of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

A sixteenth-century saint worshipped by Gaudiya Vaishnavas as Krishna, or God, Himself, Mahaprabhu popularized the public singing of the Hare Krishna mantra as the foremost way to connect with God in this age. He also rejected the conservative and privileged outlook of the caste brahmanas who dominated Hinduism at the time, traveling all over India and taking his message of loving devotion to God out onto the street and to the people.

Celebrations in countries across the globe included some variety of Hare Krishna chanting, talks on Sri Chaitanya’s teachings and activities, dramas depicting his life, bathing of deities of the Lord and his associate Nityananda Prabhu in a traditional Abhishekha ceremony, fasting throughout the day, and finally a sumptuous feast at moonrise.

Festivities in India, the country of Mahaprabhu’s appearance, however, were especially impressive, adding extra activities onto the usual oeuvre.
In Mumbai, devotees attended Gaura-Katha, narration of Sri Chaitanya’s pastimes, for the week leading up to his appearance day from February 22 – 28. On Gaura Purnima itself, they flocked to ISKCON’s Juhu Beach temple early in the morning to chant, dance, and offer their prayers to deities of Gaura-Nitai (Sri Chaitanya and Nityananda Prabhu) dressed in new outfits specifically designed for the occasion. Later in the day, they attended Shobha Yatra, a procession during which devotees carried a beautifully decorated palanquin seating deities of Gaura-Nitai.

Meanwhile at ISKCON’s flagship New Delhi temple, thousands of national and international devotees and guests added on to the Gaura Purnima events by celebrating Holi, the festival of colors, as well. Locals showered each other with powdered and liquid dyes in the streets amidst cheering and shouting. Everyone had the same excuse: “Bura Na Mano Holi Hai!” (Don't Mind! It’s Holi).

An exuberant day associated with the eternal love of Lord Krishna and his consort Radha, Holi is traditionally celebrated at the onset of spring. It also signifies the triumph of good over evil, commemorating the survival of the great boy devotee Prahlada Maharaja, whose devotion to the God kept him safe even when his evil father Hiranyakashipu tried to burn him alive.

ISKCON devotees in Ludhiana, Punjab, also celebrated Holi, albeit a more gentle version using flowers instead of colored dyes. Gaura Purnima, however, was the main focus, with a huge venue being rented some distance from the temple to accommodate the more than ten thousand attendees. The area was beautifully decorated with lights and flowers, while massive billboards directed people to the festival. Devotees performed the traditional Abhishekha ceremony for Gaura Nitai on specially-erected stages outside, while people waited in long lines for two hours hoping to get a chance to bathe the deities. As the ceremony was conducted, local and national devotees chanted the holy names in a tremendous kirtan which had the general public joining in enthusiastically.

Yet it was of course at ISKCON’s headquarters in Mayapur, West Bengal, where Sri Chaitanya appeared in 1486, that the grandest festival took place.

With this year marking the 500th anniversary of Shri Chaitanya’s taking sannyasa, the renounced order of life, Mayapur devotees began the festivities early on January 14th with an epic walk known as “Sankirtana Yatra.” First visiting Katwa, the very place where Mahaprabhu took Sannyasa, they went on to visit many holy places that the Lord passed through while spreading love of God throughout India, including Ekachakra, Shantipur, Remuna, and Shakshigopal.

The group returned to Mayapur on February 4th, with only a two-day break before ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission gathered for its Annual General Meetings from February 6th to 17th, discussing ISKCON’s efforts at spreading Sri Chaitanya’s message throughout the world.
The main bulk of international devotees arrived in Mayapur for the world-famous Mayapur Festival on February 13th, while the meetings were still in session. With everyone gathered, the festival’s inauguration, as well as the historic inauguration of the brand new Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, was held on February 14th.

The finished Temple, a project that has already been thirty years in development, will be thirty storeys high and house several altars for deities of Radha Madhava, Pancha Tattva, Nrsimhadeva and the Gaudiya Vaishnava gurus; it will of course also include the eponymous planetarium, which will offer a stunning tour of the cosmic creation as described by sacred texts such as the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Its historic inauguration ceremony, presided over by one of India’s best known Vastu Shastra consultants, was attended by many prominent ISKCON figures including project Chairman Ambarisa Dasa.

The Mayapur Festival activities continued from February 18 to 24 with Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama, a walking pilgrimage through holy spots relating to Shri Chaitanya’s life. Starting at his exact birthplace, Yogapitha, the three separate groups—a 2,500 devotee Bengali group, a 1,000 devotee international group, and, for the first time ever, a separate 900-devotee Russian group—immersed themselves in the pastimes of Lord Chaitanya, led by senior devotees such as Lokanath Swami and Bhakti Charu Swami.

Many other events, including seminars, drama, dance, and a Rathayatra festival parading Jagannatha deities through Mayapur, continued the lead-up to the special day itself.

On Gaura Purnima Day, three prominent ISKCON leaders gave the morning’s Srimad-Bhagavatam class, after which devotees went to the nearby river Ganga to bathe and purify themselves. Fervent chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra pervaded throughout the day, while in the evening, Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda were bathed in milk, yogurt, honey, and fruit juices, as devotees showered them with flowers and called out the holy names of the Lord. The event, held in Mayapur’s Lotus Park, was broadcast live on the web at Mayapur.tv. Devotees then broke their day-long fast at moonrise with a grain-free meal, while the next day—New Year’s Day for Gaudiya Vaishnavas—they enjoyed a full delicious feast.

With the Mayapur Festival ending, many devotees now plan to travel on to Vrindavana, Lord Krishna’s birthplace. There, ISKCON will hold a guided pilgrimage around holy places related to Krishna’s pastimes from March 4th to 9th. March 10th will see devotees celebrate the famous “Boat Festival,” wherein small deities of Radha-Shyamasundara will go for a boatride in the temple’s water-filled courtyard. And on March 11th and 12th, many devotees will take a special two-day trip to Jaipur to pay their respects to the original deities of Vrindavana. These deities, including Radha Madanmohan, Radha Govinda dev, Radha Gopinath, Radha Damodar, Radha Vrindavan Chandra and Radha Vinod, where installed by Krishna’s own great-grandson King Vajranabha and given over to the care of Vaishnava Rajasthani kings when Muslims invaded Vrindavana.
It’s a suitably special end to an incredible two months of celebration—and an inspiring beginning to a brand new Gaudiya Vaishnava year.

The Holy Name Goes to Every Town & Olympic Village

By Lavanya-mangala Dasi on 5 Mar 2010

Spiritual victory at the Games

ISKCON Vancouver spread the Holy Names to visitors from all over the world through chanting and passing out books on the streets during the February 2010 Winter Olympics in downtown Vancouver. As a dozen devotees greeted crowds of up to 500,000 Olympics fans, they were able to move over 500 books.

Veteran distributor Kripanidhi Dasa was pleased with the experience.

“Every other person was from a different country. In fact, many people that I met were quite eager to accept a Bhagavad Gita and give a nice donation.”

The outreach efforts culminated on the final day of the Winter Olympics – which coincided with Gaura Purnima – with a massive three-hour downtown street chanting party. The enthusiastic participants induced crowds to chant, dance, and accept literature and invitations to the Vancouver Temple or to ISKCON temples in their home country.

India's Holy Ganges to Get a Serious Cleanup

By KRISHNA POKHAREL for The Wall Street Journal on 13 Feb 2010

An Indian boy searches for coins in the polluted Yamuna river.

More than a million devout Hindus bathed in the Ganges River on one day during the recent Kumbha Mela festival, braving the risk of terrorist attack, stampede and petty crime for the chance to wash away the sins of a lifetime and open the gateway to heaven after death.
But perhaps the greatest threat to the devotees who flocked to Haridwar, India was the water itself.

The river is intensely polluted with sewage and industrial waste. Water-treatment facilities have been unable to keep up with India's rapid growth, often held back by a shortage of funds and other resources.

A dip in the Ganges River in India is believed by devotees to wash away all sins. But increasingly it has become heavily polluted with sewage and industrial waste. Now, a $4 billion government program aims to clean the river.

Now, the spiritually cleansing waters of the Ganges are about to get some cleaning of their own. The Indian government has embarked on a $4 billion campaign to ensure that by 2020 no untreated municipal sewage or industrial runoff enters the 1,560-mile river.

Only 31% of municipal sewage in India undergoes treatment, according to the Central Pollution Control Board, a government agency in New Delhi, while the rest gets discharged into the country's rivers, ponds, land and seas, contaminating underground and surface waters. More than 500,000 of the 10.3 million deaths in India in 2004 resulted from waterborne diseases, according to the most recent comprehensive mortality data from the World Health Organization.

The filth in the Ganges holds special resonance for this majority-Hindu nation. The Ganges basin supports more than 400 million of India's 1.1 billion people, the majority of whom are Hindus, who revere the river as "mother" and "goddess."

The cleanup initiative, which is supported by the World Bank, includes the expansion of traditional treatment facilities and, for the first time in India, the introduction of innovative river-cleaning methods.

Veer Bhadra Mishra, a 70-year-old priest and hydraulics engineer in Varanasi, the holy city downstream from Haridwar, has been a prominent advocate of treatment methods used abroad but not yet in India. His plan: to introduce a system to divert sewage and effluents, before they enter the river, to a series of specially designed ponds, for treatment and ultimately to be used use in irrigation or directed back into the river.

His efforts were mired in court and by opposition from local bureaucrats. The bureaucrats had a "difference of opinion" with Mr. Mishra about the best way to clean the river, says Ramesh Singh, general manager of Ganga Pollution Control Unit, the local government body charged with running government treatment facilities in Varanasi.

Mr. Singh says the technologies already in use were time-tested and reliable, but suffered from a lack of trained manpower and proper infrastructure, and a shortage of funds for equipment maintenance.

Last summer, after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh identified cleaning up the river as a national priority, the government in New Delhi increased funding to operate and maintain conventional treatment facilities, and also approved Mr. Mishra's plan—giving $184,000 to his organization, the Sankat Mochan Foundation, for the design of a new sewage treatment plant.

The foundation is working with GO2 Water Inc., a Berkeley, Calif., wastewater-technology company. In the plan, 10.5 million gallons of sewage a day—13% of the daily output from Varanasi's 1.5 million people—will be intercepted daily at the riverbank, and diverted. In a nearby village, water will pass through a series of ponds, where sunlight, gravity, bacteria and microalgae will clean the water. A larger pond system is planned, to process 33% more of the city's sewage.

Devout Hindus come from all over to cleanse themselves in the Ganges for the festival of Kumbh Mela, celebrated every three years. The government has started a massive campaign to clean up the polluted river itself.

The treatment system "will be the best solution for dealing with huge amount of domestic sewage being discharged into Gangaji and other rivers in India," Mr. Mishra said, using the honorific "ji" with the river's local name, Ganga.

In Haridwar, the National Botanical Research Institute is developing a wetland with local species of reeds to absorb the polluting elements from the wastewater, according to U.N. Rai, a scientist heading the project. Other wetlands will be developed in other areas "to ease the current pollution load in the river," Mr. Rai says.

The load is heavy. On a recent winter morning in Varanasi, lab technician Gopal Pandey descended the stone stairs of Tulsi Ghat, one of the holy city's 84 bathing platforms, to fetch some Ganges water for testing at the Sankat Mochan Foundation, an organization run by Mr. Mishra.

In the laboratory, Mr. Pandey found that each 100 milliliters of the river's waters were laden with 29,000 fecal coliform bacteria, which potentially cause disease. India says a maximum of 500 per 100 milliliters is safe for bathing in the river. Another sample from downstream, after the Ganges meets a tributary carrying a black mass of thick industrial effluents, showed 10 million bacteria—mostly E-coli—in the same amount of river water.

Mr. Pandey's verdict: "The pollution is at very, very dangerous level."

Chilean Earthquake Part of a Growing Trend

By MSNBC on 11 Mar 2010

An 8.8 quake should be a very rare event.

Chile is on a hotspot of sorts for earthquake activity. And so the 8.8-magnitude temblor that shook the region on February 26th was not a surprise, historically speaking. Nor was it outside the realm of normal, scientists say, even though it comes on the heels of other major earthquakes.
One scientist, however, says that relative to the time period from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, Earth has been more active over the past 15 years or so.

The Chilean earthquake, and the tsunami it spawned, originated on a hot spot known as a subduction zone, where one plate of Earth's crust dives under another. It's part of the active "Ring of Fire," a zone of major crustal plate clashes that surround the Pacific Ocean.
"This particular subduction zone has produced very damaging earthquakes throughout its history," said Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

The largest quake ever recorded, magnitude 9.5, occurred along the same fault zone in May 1960.

Even so, magnitude-8 earthquakes occur globally, on average, just once a year. Since magnitudes are given on a logarithmic scale, an 8.8-magnitude is much more intense than a magnitude 8, and so this event would be even rarer, said J. Ramón Arrowsmith, a geologist at Arizona State University.

Is Earth shaking more?

The Ryukyu Islands of Japan were hit with a 7.0-magnitude quake on Friday night. News of that tremor, the Haiti quake and now Chile may make it seem as if Earth is becoming ever more active. But in the grand scheme of things, geologists say this is just Mother Nature as usual.
"From our human perspective with our relatively short and incomplete memories and better and better communications around the world, we hear about more earthquakes and it seems like they are more frequent," Arrowsmith said. "But this is probably not any indication of a global change in earthquake rate of significance."

Coupled with better communication, as the human population skyrockets and we move into more hazardous regions, we're going to hear more about the events that do occur, Arrowsmith added.

However, "relative to the 20-year period from the mid-1970s to the mid 1990s, the Earth has been more active over the past 15 or so years," said Stephen S. Gao, a geophysicist at Missouri University of Science and Technology. "We still do not know the reason for this yet. Could simply be the natural temporal variation of the stress field in the earth's lithosphere." (The lithosphere is the outer solid part of the Earth.)

While the Chilean earthquake wasn't directly related to Japan's 7.0-magnitude temblor, the two have some factors in common.

For one, any seismic waves that made their way from Japan to the Chilean coast could play a slight role in ground-shaking.

"It is too far away for any direct triggering, and those distances also make the seismic waves as they would pass by from the Haiti or Japan events pretty small because of attenuation," Arrowsmith told LiveScience. (Attenuation is the decrease in energy with distance.) "Nevertheless, if the Chilean fault surface were close to failure, those small waves could push it even closer."

In addition, both regions reside within the Ring of Fire, which is a zone surrounding the Pacific Ocean where the Pacific tectonic plate and other plates dive beneath other slabs of Earth. About 90 percent of the world's earthquakes occur along this arc. (The next most seismic region, where just 5 to 6 percent of temblors occur, is the Alpide belt, which extends from the Mediterranean region eastward.)

Colliding plates

The Chilean earthquake occurred at the boundary between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates. These rocky slabs are converging at a rate of 3 inches (80 mm) per year, according to the USGS. This huge jolt happened as the Nazca plate moved down and landward below the South American plate. This is called a subduction zone when one plate subducts beneath another.

The plate movement explains why coastal Chile has such a history of powerful earthquakes . Since 1973, 13 temblors of magnitude 7.0 or greater have occurred there, according to the USGS.

In fact, the Chile earthquake originated about 140 miles (230 kilometers) north of the source region of the magnitude 9.5 earthquake of May 1960, considered the largest instrumentally recorded earthquake in the world. The 1960 earthquake killed 1,655 people in southern Chile, unleashing a tsunami that crossed the Pacific and killed 61 people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines.

In November 1922, a magnitude-8.5 earthquake occurred about 540 miles (870 kilometers) to the north of Saturday's earthquake, triggering a local tsunami that inundated the Chile coast and crossed the Pacific to Hawaii.

Because the February 26th earthquake was so huge, the amount of shaking experienced in Chile would likely have caused just as much damage had a similar-sized event occurred elsewhere, said Baldwin, the USGS scientist.

"If [the quake] were in Los Angeles you'd probably have massive destruction too," Baldwin said in a telephone interview.

Is Dharma the Same as Religion?

By Bhakti Raghava Swami on 5 Mar 2010

Lord Rama is considered the ideal emblem of dharma.

One of the great Indian saintly persons of the 20th century, Srila Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati Thakura, Founder-Acarya of the well-known Gaudiya Math all over India and spiritual preceptor of yet another well renowned spiritual leader, Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness [ISKCON], has given humanity a new dimension and deeper insight to the term religion when he explained that “philosophy without religion is mere speculation” while “religion without philosophy is but sentimentalism which sometimes leads to fanaticism”. According to Vedic scriptures, in particular Srimad Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam, religion cannot be man-made. “Actually, the principles of religion can only be laid down by the Lord Himself. Dharmam tu saksad bhagavat-pranitam (SB, 6.3.19). No one can manufacture a religious principle by imperfect speculation. One must follow in the footsteps of great authorities like Brahma, Shiva, Narada, Manu, the Kumaras, Kapila, Prahlada, Bhishma, Sukadeva Gosvami, Yamaraja, Janaka, and Bali Maharaja.” [BG, 4.16, Purport].

By observation, we can see that over the centuries, the term “religion” has remained either a source of great inspiration for some, thus helping to bring peace and harmony in society, or has been a source of great anxiety for others; thus bringing disunity and disparity among individuals, communities and nations. This is largely because of man-made religious systems which are rampant in the present Age of Kali- the age of quarrel and misunderstanding. For most people, religion remains somewhat abstract, nebulous and difficult to define. However, religion can best be understood and defined when we consider the Sanskrit term “dharma”, an essential word in the Vedic literatures. Indeed, without understanding what is dharma in its deepest sense, even practicing devotees will tend to misjudge what is religion and what is not religion.

The beginning of this understanding comes when we master the ABCs of spiritual life. Without receiving this basic knowledge, it will remain very difficult for most people to understand what religion is. It will also remain impossible for people to put into practice the actual meaning of dharma. The five basic truths about religion or dharma are summarized in the perennial teachings of the Bhagavad-géta as 1) isvara [God, the controller], 2) jivatma [the spirit soul], 3) prakriti [the material nature], 4) kala [the time factor] and 5) karma [reaction to good or evil deeds]. Of these, the first four are eternal principles while the fifth one, karma, is temporary.

Religion as Dharma

Religion is generally defined and understood as some spiritual belief which is based on faith. We have observed that people sometimes change their faith, from being a Christian to becoming a Muslim, or from being a Hindu and becoming a Christian, etc. Dharma, on the other hand, refers to something which does not change because it is based on facts and reality which is further supported by philosophy and confirmed by scriptures, not simply by some belief which can change. Dharma refers to the original nature or character of something or someone. We can easily understand that all things have their natural characteristics which cannot be changed. For example sugar is sweet, that is its dharma. The moment sugar is no longer sweet, it cannot be called sugar. It may be white and looking very much like sugar, but if it has a different taste, it may likely be salt. If we take any object, it has a particular characteristic and that particular unchangeable characteristic is called its dharma. Similarly, we find that human beings have a natural character which is common to all human beings; by nature everyone has a propensity to love and to serve. Therefore, service is the common and universal dharma of all human beings; either service to the family, community or nation, but generally service to our own self. Dharma is thus known to be something common and universal to all living entities.

Religion is One

Because we are first and foremost spirit souls, aham brahmasmi, different than our physical or mental body, our first and superior nature is spiritual. Therefore, religion in its true sense refers to the natural identify and natural character of all spirit souls and is thus meant to be a common concept for all concerned. When we have that understanding, we can more easily accept the fact that religion, in its highest and purest expression, is one and universal. Due to lack of this understanding, we have created artificial differences between religious beliefs calling one group Christian, another Hindu, another Buddhist, etc. But since the spirit soul is of the same nature in all forms of life and at all times, the religion is also meant to be the same. Understanding and acting on the platform of our eternal identify as eternal spirit souls is the real religion.

Dharma as Dual in Nature, Spiritual, and Material

While dharma in its pure and highest expression in the spiritual realm generally refers to the duty or characteristic of the spirit soul, dharma in the material realm takes on a second meaning or dimension that of the natural and standard material duties of conditioned or embodied souls. Not only does one become a proper follower of dharma by awakening ones spiritual consciousness, Krishna consciousness, but also by acting according to the principles of material dharma. In the same way the spirit soul can best be situated and thus experience full happiness by acting on the natural platform of his eternal spiritual nature, i.e., of service to Lord Krishna. The conditioned soul in the material world can experience happiness by being situated on the platform of natural occupation [varnas] and in its natural spiritual divisions [asramas] as defined in the God-made system of varnasrama dharma:

catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagashau
tasya kartaram api mam viddhy akartaram avyayam

“According to the three modes of material nature and the work associated with them, the four divisions of human society are created by Me. And although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the nondoer, being unchangeable.” [BG, 4.13]

Religion as Bhagavat Dharma and Varnasrama Dharma

Unless we understand both levels of dharma, 1) bhagavat dharma, refers to the duties of the spirit soul, i.e., pure devotional service to Lord Hari or Krishna, and 2) varnasrama dharma, refers to the duties of conditioned soul, i.e., standard and ideal activities connected with the body, we will not be able to properly discharge our spiritual and material duties. Religion in its fullest sense means acting properly both on the spiritual and material platform. To understand that dharma has a dual nature is easier than to understand that religion has two features- spiritual and material. Since religion is generally connected exclusively with spiritual activity, all material activities are generally regarded as not falling in the category of religion. To be religious means to practice some spiritual activity such as going to the church or mosque, synagogue, temple or wat. Religion is generally more closely connected with rituals and prayers which are often performed at specific times of the day and at particular places. However, the Vedic literatures teach us something else. Within the context of varnasrama dharma, guidelines are given to address both the material and the spiritual natures. We have our material duties called varnasrama dharma as well as our spiritual duties known as bhagavat dharma; we thus have our material religious duties as well as our spiritual religious duties.

Modern Day Deviations from Dharma

Modern day occupations connected with factory, industry and all kinds of recently invented hard technologies, have deviated mankind from his more natural occupations connected with land, cows, nature, and God. Modern day lifestyle in urban cities has also diverted mankind from his more natural and simplified living condition, within an agrarian based environment. This has brought about unprecedented imbalances in nature, in social conduct, and in mental outlook on life; resulting in increased disparities and anomalies at all levels. For those who understand the dual nature of dharma, the present way of modern life based on consumerism, competition for material acquisition and material well-being is but a major deviation from dharma. We need to clearly understand this. The remedy lies not in making adjustments through legislation, but in returning to the natural way of life- both materially and spiritually, as defined in our standard scriptures and as advocated by all the great spiritual leaders.

Dharma as Standard for Material and Spiritual Duties

In the same way that we can more easily understand that dharma is meant to cater to the duties and activities of both the body and soul, similarly, religion is also meant to cater to the duties and activities of the body and soul. Peace and harmony can only come when we are able to synchronize both levels of religion or both levels of dharma. When we deviate from the standard norm, as is the case in modern day society, we create what is called “varna sankara”, unwanted and unplanned population which makes for a chaotic society and where people are engaged in abominable activities called “ugra karma”. In a situation of “varna sankara” and “ugra karma” no one can be happy and satisfied because both the material and spiritual duties of persons are neglected. To rectify this chaotic condition, one must acquire proper knowledge so that one can begin to discriminate and not remain on the platform of sentimentalism and mental speculation. Our sastras give us clear understanding of our duties at both levels, one being devotional service to the Lord through devotional activities [bhagavat dharma] and the other being adhering to the principles of varna and asrama [varnasrama dharma]. Unless we take this up, there is no possibility of peace and happiness in this present chaotic world or in the next world.

1973 Australian Rent-a-Ratha

By Hari-Sauri 5 Mar 2010 from lotusimprints.com

Here’s a neat picture taken by a newspaper photographer of one of our Ratha carts. He cleverly caught it parked in front of an aptly named Universal Rent-a-car sign, and made it look like a Rent-a-Ratha for the Lord of the Universe:

Universal Rent-a-Ratha

This next one was taken a couple of days before the festival when we were on the last stages of constructing two new, bigger size Rathas, one for Lord Balarama and one for Lord Jagannatha. The existing small Ratha became Lady Subhadra’s:

In the above shot, on the Ratha from left to right:

Bhakta Robert?, Krsna Prema dasa (right arm in air), Hari-sauri dasa (leaning on wheel brake), Martin, Praceta dasa (chief carpenter and surfer who legally changed his name to Charles Ofthe Sea. That’s why Srila Prabhupada gave him the name Praceta)

on the ropes, l to rt:

Sahadeva dasa, Bhakta Adrian, Gunavati dasi (in the background), Dusta Mohan dasa.

The Rathayatra was a success, and we ended up in the Botanical Gardens instead of a hall as in the previous year. Vaibhavi dasi, our resident artist (wife of Charu dasa in Utah and the first devotee I ever met) designed these wonderful suits of armour to dress their Lordships in:

Jayadharma dasa with white hat, Dipak dasa and Vidyaranya dasa carrying Lord Balarama, Ambika dasi carrying chamara

Dvaipayana dasa and Hari-sauri dasa carrying Lord Jagannatha, Sukhla dasi in background

The Deities were locally made in 1972 by Dipak and Dvaipayana prabhus. Srila Prabhupada was very pleased with Them (and them).

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