Dear devotees and friends: We humbly invite you to participate along with devotees from Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math Global New Jersey in the grand festival for Sri Radhastami on Saturday September 23, 2023.
Fast until noon.
The festival will include kirtana, discourses and other auspicious activities. Please RSVP via our contact page.
Included is a link for the pleasure of the devotees on this most auspicious of days – Sri Radha: “in charge of the domestic affairs of Krishna.”
You are invited to attend Sri Nandotsava and Thakura Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada appearance day celebrations the morning of Friday 8th September 2023. These festivities will follow the previous evening’s program of Sri Krishna Janmastami.
The festivals will include kirtana, discourses and other auspicious activities. Please RSVP via our contact page.
Dear devotees and friends: We humbly invite you to participate at the Sri Gaura Vinoda Saraswat Sanga Global Headquarters in New Jersey, USA in the celebration of the grand festival of Sri Krishna Janmastami on Friday the 19th September 7, 2023 at 8pm until 12am midnight Friday, September 8th 2023.
Complete fast until midnight, then no grains (anukalpa).
Janmastami-vrata paran is at 6:05 AM Friday September 8, 2023.
You are also invited to attend Sri Nandotsava and Thakura Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada appearance day celebrations the following morning on Friday 8th September 2023.
The festivals will include kirtana, discourses and other auspicious activities. Please RSVP via our contact page.
Appearance of Sri Baladeva. Fast until noon then feast.
End of Jhulan Yatra of Sri Sri Radha-Govinda.
Second month of Caturmasya begins. (yogurt fast for one month)
8/30/23 (Last day of the first month of Chaturmasya)
Dear Sriman Saraswat Putra,
My dandavats to you.
[You wrote:]
any sri chaitanya saraswat man i told of the chatermasya discrepancy in the calendar said it will not matter .
What others told you may or may not have been correct. I don’t know the circumstances or the conversation. This characterization of yours “any sri chaitanya saraswat man” doesn’t help much in evaluating how closely one should, or need not, adhere to the observance of the four months of Chaturmasya.
The rule is that one should carefully observe the four Months of Chaturmasya (as stated in the quotation of Srila Swami Maharaja Prabhupada I sent you which had been posted on the scsmath.com website).
Are there exceptions? Almost always. Here’s an example.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So penance, cāturmāsya penance, that has got also some necessity in the beginning, because we are under at present, such a plane that we do not know without enjoyment. Always calculating what benefit we can derive from that, going to have a connection with anything, the second thing, how much benefit I may derive from it. It is natural. So just to check that, to check that natural irresistible attempt in our present position, some restraint is necessary.… Read More...
Date: 8/27/23
Dear Saraswat Putra,
Thank you for your comment — “as far as i know the calendar has never had any chatermas , ect, dates 1981 — 2023.” — which has helped me to notice at least one error in the latest calendar we produced. I will immediately try to see that all errors in our calendar referring to Chaturmasya are corrected before the beginning of the second month.
Your statement is not wrong, but I think I am correct to note the beginning and end dates of each month of Chaturmasya based on the following quotation (highlighting added) originally posted on the scsmath.com website and which may be found at: Chaturmasya.
All glories to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga
Chaturmasya
Here at Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math the devotees begin Chaturmasya on purnima (the full moon day). The following is a section about Chaturmasya by Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in his edition of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, (Madhya-lila 4.169):
Verse:
At the end of summer Madhavendra Puri returned to Jagannatha Puri, where he remained with great pleasure during the whole period of Chaturmasya.
Purport:
The Chaturmasya period begins in the month of Asadha (June-July) from the day of Ekadasi called Sayana-ekadasi, in the fortnight of the waxing moon.… Read More...
It has come to my attention that a number of calendars circulated by those representing themselves as Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math have serious defects with respect to the dates of observance of Chaturmasya. This is a result of omitting the beginning and end dates for each of the individual months.
Thanks to the efforts of Sriman Gokulananda dasa (who produces our calendar) these dates are correctly noted in our calendar which is intended for use by those in or near our geographic area of Oaklyn, New Jersey, USA.
Those outside our area may want to use our calendar as a baseline by which accurate dates for each of the months of Chaturmasya may be calculated for one’s specific location.
While this may seem a small matter to some, our gurus attached considerable significance to producing accurate calendars. This was true for Srila Swami Maharaja Prabhupad, Srila Sridhara Maharaja and Srila Govinda Maharaja. I personally witnessed the distress of the latter two acharyas when they noted an incorrect calculation, notation, omission or other discrepancy. In the case of Srila Prabhupada I’ve heard and read about his displeasure in such instances.
Mistakes can be excused, but they should be corrected. We are now more than a month into the first extended month of Chaturmasya and I’ve seen no effort to correct the calendars referenced above.… Read More...
x
Argument: “All transgender women are men. All men are transgender.”
Proof of the above will be supplied upon request.
Hint:
“transgender | (also transgendered)
adjective
denoting or relating to a person whose gender identity does not correspond with the sex registered for them at birth.”
8/3/23
I have some sort of tendency to hate neutrality. On the whole one taking such a position (non-committal) appears untruthful, maybe cheating or hiding something he doesn’t want to reveal. In some cases such positions seem cowardly.
This morning I read something that favors my tendency.
udāsīno ‘rivad varyam
ātmavat suhṛd ucyate
Synonyms
udāsīnaḥ — one who is indifferent; ari-vat — just like an enemy; varjyaḥ — is to be avoided; ātma-vat — like one’s own self; suhṛt — a friend; ucyate — is said to be.
[SB 10.24.5]
“One who is neutral may be avoided like an enemy, but a friend should be considered like one’s own self.”
Perhaps there is something more in the background. When taken to the extreme, what is neutral? Neutral is brahma-vada, preference for a position in the impersonal oneness of Sri Krishna’s undifferentiated spiritual effulgence. It is a position hated by vaishnavas.
udāsīno ‘rivad varyam (“One who is neutral may be avoided like an enemy . . . ”); maybe not such bad tendency.
Swami B.K. Giri
Date: 5/24/23
My dandavats to you [Jayadvaita] Maharaja.
Thank you for sending me this quotation from our spiritual master:
So in the future please do not circulate my letters to you. All my letters to you should be considered as confidential, and if you want at all to circulate, you just ask me before doing so.
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Brahmananda — Tittenhurst 28 September, 1969
Since you offer no explanation as to the reason you sent it to me I take it as a reminder that a spiritual master has absolute authority over his disciples.
Additionally, because you are circulating the letter to me, it means the letter has already been circulated; despite Prabhupada’s prohibition.
It must also mean you and the BBT/Vedabase are comfortable distributing letters that may be considered as confidential when you feel the need to do so; just as I do when I feel the need to do the same thing for the spiritual education of others.
And yet, you demand I not circulate certain letters I have written.
If I were your disciple I would accept your Divine Right of censorship over the circulation of my letters. Likewise for my preaching, both content and methods.… Read More...