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Recently the Bhaktivedanta Ashram opened a new rural relief center in Randiya, approximately 20 km away from our main Ashram in Orissa. With cooperation from the local villagers, a small piece of land was given to us for establishing a permanent relief center in the village. The village consists of people from the very poor adivasi (tribal) community. More than 300 children in the village attend regular programs at the new center.
Part of an interview for an Indian television channel, which was simultaneously recorded by a devotee on a digital camera. Topic of the interview is Puri Jagannatha temple’s policy barring foreigners from entering to worship the Lord.
A report on CNN about the Bhaktivedanta Ashram’s Jagannatha temple in Bhadrak, Orissa.
On May 22nd, we began the installation ceremony (pranapratishta) of the lifesize deities of Sri Jagannatha, Subhadra and Balabhadra at our ashram in Bhadrak, Orissa. The pranapratishta ceremony was conducted by priests from the Puri Jagannatha temple, headed by Sri Nanda Sharma, and lasted for three days.
The installation of Sri Jagannatha, Subhadra and Balabhadra will begin today at the Bhaktivedanta Ashram in Bhadrak, Orissa. Deities of Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana and Garuda will also be installed on the four sides of the temple as is the custom for Jagannatha temples in Orissa.
In a previous newsletter we had mentioned the upcoming installation of Sri Jagannatha, Baladeva, Subhadra and Sudarshana deities at the Bhaktivedanta Ashram in Bhadrak, Orissa. Panditas from Puri have determined May 22nd to the 24th to be the auspicious time for the prana pratistha ceremony and kumbhabhisheka to take place. Accordingly all preparations are being made for the occassion. Besides the main Jagannatha deities, three other deities are being cast out of ashtadhatu (a combination of eight metals: gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead, tin, iron, and mercury).
(This was originally written in 2001 for our email newsletter, Tattva Prakasha.)
Welcome to the seventh issue of Tattva Prakasha. This week our main topic of discussion will be the Vedantic conception of sound. If you are a new subscriber to Tattva Prakasha, I would like to mention that though most of our articles deal with general philosophy, this issue will be a little more technical due to the importance of the subject. Since the topic is technical, we have included a small glossary of Sanskrit words at the end of this issue. If you get confused while reading, you can refer to the glossary to put everything in proper context.
It has become quite popular nowadays to speak about mystical experiences and “siddhis”. Most yoga and meditation groups speak of them, along with other esoteric blabber such as the raising of kundalini, opening of chakras, and other things which no one has actually experienced. On one side we have new age gurus speaking of siddhis very cheaply as though they are as common as sand on a beach, and on the other hand we have “rationalists” who discount siddhis all together as mere fantasy.
The topic of this issue is the Mahabharata war in relation to world history and culture. We will begin the topic with a question we received sometime back:
“In the Mahabharata, the war seemed to have affected the whole world. We don’t find so many references to such of a huge event in other cultures. Why are there no references to a great world event?”
A question someone wrote to us: In Srimad Bhagavatam 5.17.12, Srila Prabhupada explains that people have sex in the spiritual world and there is no possibility of conception there. How is sex possible between different persons in the spiritual world and how can they be Krishna conscious at the same time?
