Srila Prabhupada is coming!

Haribol friends....

Book after book ... Srila Prabhupada never ceases to amaze us...

From his writings to the dear memories captured of him by devotees... We are left relishing the sweet nectar that our Blue Lotus Book Club has afforded us yet again

Yesterday evening we discussed “Srila Prabhupada is coming” by Mahamaya Devi Dasi…

What a beautiful life story that she tells with tender care and brutal honesty..

One cannot help but appreciate and admire her for having done so.

Her journey from Sin to Surrender was awe-inspiring.. she grabbed Krishna Consciousness with so much passion and enthusiasm that allowed her to overcome the darkest of times

“Try out Krsna Consciousness for just one lifetime.. What do you have to lose??”… she was told..

and so she did and gained her true purpose in life

Srila Prabhupada saved her soul… and through her story ... he continues to save us.. What a great motivational book to urge devotees to serve Krsna no matter the circumstance

We truly hope to see you at our next book club on the 16th of Feb to discuss

"Nectar of Instruction"

Hari Haribol!!!!

Your servants,
Sunaina
on behalf of The Blue Lotus Book Club

:o)

Transcendental party preparations

As you all know our beloved Lord Nityananda's party is taking place on the 7th of Feb, that’s just a weekend away and guess what?? We planning the party! From the prasadam, to temple program, to EVERYTHING!.



It’s a great opportunity to offer a really, really nice day to the Lord, if we please Lord Nityananda we'll automatically get the mercy of Lord Caitanya :o) Lord Nityananda is described as being eternally joyful and the devotees pray to Him saying that we are always unhappy but because You, Nitai, are always very happy, please make us very happy too! Haribol!

So on that note let us try our best to offer our very best to this Supremely Joyful Personality of Godhead!

So far different devotees have been heading up different areas:
Prasadam - Gita Govinda and Kandarpa
Devotee Welcome – Sunaina and Syamarani
Décor – Hemisha
Banners – Sitala

For the past 2 youth groups we’ve been doing a lot of cutting and pasting and (this last youth group) a lot of messy, fun painting!


With these creative geniuses, the banners are coming along nicely and I can’t wait to put them up!

2009 here we come!

Welcome to a new year!

Youth group ended last year with a fab Christmas Party. Check out the pics from the Christmas Party in the blog post below

Last Saturday was the first youth group gathering of the year and so we discussed what each one of us are going to do for Gaura Nitai in the year 2009. Each person was given a log sheet to track if they have done what they have promised and then at the end of the year or sometime during the year we can see how we are doing.


The idea is that we have SO much to be thankful to Gaura Nitai and so for 2009, every day/week/month, we want to do something for the Lord. It can be something simple like offering a flower every day, chanting one round, reading a book, coming to youth group every week … the opportunities are unlimited!

If you have not attended, it is not too late to get log sheets from me and to start your offering of love :o)

Next youth group this is what we going to do:

"Whacha gonna do?"
Kirtan,
Skit and Discussion,
Game of Cricket,
More Kirtan
End

Time: 4PM
Date: 10 Jan 09
Venue: Temple

See you all there!

Jingle bells! Jingle bells! Jingle all the way!

It’s that time of year again! Yes, Christmas! And as per tradition we held our annual youth group “Christmas Party”. The theme this year was “Old meets New”

Many of our “old” members have grown up and moved into different spheres of life (marriage, babies, and from there the list goes on :o) )while we’ve gathered other young members who’ve added a different kind of spice to our youth.

For all our parties we dress up to match our theme, once we had dressed up as Italians (soccer stars, painters, chefs, gangsters, fashion designers, etc) and last year we all dressed as either demons or demigods! Click here to view the pics from this party.

This year we all had to dress according to the olden times whatever our perception of that was.

The party was held at Mandira and Nashin’s place and to start of we had a very competitive game of 30 seconds. The boys totally whipped the other 2 teams only because they had about 20 people in there team!

After that we had something called cRaZy professions. We were divided into 8 groups, we then had to give another teams members’ crazy professions that we think would suit them. Thereafter we were called up and we’d mention the profession and everyone had to guess who we were talking about. Amidst much laughter, some really perfect and some really ridiculous professions came about. Thereafter it was prasadam time and then we just chilled out playing volley ball and soccer.

Thank you to Mandira Matajee and Nashin prabhu for so kindly lending their home to us and thank you to Sunaina for organising everything so nicely.

Click here to view all pics

:o)

Books! Books! Books!

Syamarani, Pooja and I have been meeting on every free evening possible (and there haven’t been that many much to our disappointment!) to distribute Srila Prabhupada’s glorious books.

To gently let ourselves in the mood we started off at a block of flats and the response has been great. Most people are happy to see us, and those that slam the door in our faces are there for our purification.

Oh yes, book distribution means purification, but still it has a nectar that keeps us going. We love meeting new people and even thought some may initially be wary of us, “beggars”; I feel that they are a little inspired by seeing 3 young girls sacrificing their evenings to do this work.

Some start off being all cagey but by the end of our visit they tell us to please come again. We appreciate this because it means we, teeny weeny representatives of Srila Prabhupada, have made way in to their hearts.

Why are we doing this, some of us going against our very introverted natures? For the mercy! We want the mercy and we want you to have the mercy too. Spread the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya. Whether you distribute one book to a hundred books all your efforts are being noted by the Lord and no doubt His mercy will flow on you more and more!

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The living force of immortality, Sri Caitanya

After 3 months us blue lotuses were sorely missing each others association and so with great anticipation we all gathered at Gita Govinda’s place last Monday to discuss the transcendental message of the Teachings of Lord Caitanya.

“Caitanya” means the living force of immortality - impressive or what?!



To get into the right mood we sang the beautiful prayer “Sri Sri Gaura-Nityänander Daya” by Locana Dasa Thakur, which means The Mercy of Sri Gaura and Nityänanda. This beautiful prayer describes how Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda are the most merciful incarnations of Krishna because they are giving a process of self realization that is simply joyful! (Chanting and Dancing)

This is quite a lengthily book and while we all did not finish reading it, the bits that we did read increased our appreciation for Srila Prabhupada, the six goswamis and Gaura Nitai so much more. Srila Prabhupada’s sarcastic descriptions of the Mayavadi analogy of the water pot had us all laughing.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada’s transcendental books! We pray we may be able to dive deeper and deeper!

Your servants
Blue lotuses desiring the lotus feet of the Lord

Why do you DO what you Do?!

…I mean it is kinda strange what you do…fasting like every 2 weeks…chanting on these beads every spare minute of the day...waking up in the early hours of the day just to see the Deity at the temple…only eating veggies ..very specific type of veggies… and even more stranger things like dancing by jumping up and down and that’s without any materially intoxicating drug…wearing funny garments …with even funnier markings on your face…I don’t get it…

WHY DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO?!

hear what these guys have to say:

Mohini

The heart symbolises love for coming to the temple and Krishna consciousness. The spider’s web is like when you come you are trapped. I don’t know why I keep coming but some how I’m trapped and can’t not come.

Vikash

> fasting like every 2 weeks
Discipline ... The fasting helps me dicipline myself, mind and body.
Discipline to help me to continue down this path I've chosen.
Too often mishaps and temptations find away to lead you astray.
So by persisting in the fasting, I can dicipline myself to hold onto my
aims.

> chanting on these beads every spare minute of the day...
Persistence ....
* Eventually water will carve a path through a mountain.
* practice makes perfect
* hope .... ( to hear the bhakti in my own voice oneday, then everyday
there after)

> waking up in the early hours of the day just to see the Deity at the
temple...
* insomnia
* serenity ... The only place on this planet were I am peace with who I
am, where the demons are'nt ripping me apart.
* Where beauty is not perverted.

> only eating veggies ..very specific type of veggies...
* dharma/karma
* control, to be able to control my actions to a small degree. By
ensuring that I control what I eat, I hope to be able to contol other
aspects of my existence ( that are within my control )

In short, all the above is to help me become a better person.

Sunaina

The tears are for when you see others suffering you feel there is an answer to there suffering if they could just take it. The sunshine represents happiness, light at the end of the tunnel. Foot steps are the path back to Godhead, bow down to Godhead. And the books represent my desire of always wanting to learn more.

Pooja

I like kirtan, especially HH Kadamba Kanana Maharaja’s. I love acting in plays and I am always fascinated by the way Krishna is dressed. The heart represents how Krishna wants us to come back to Him more than we want to go back to Him.

Nanda Kisore das

Out of love for my spiritual master. I like the sound of the spiritual world and I’d like to be there. There is also the element of duty. This is the right thing to do.

Kandarpa

It’s the only thing that seems real. It’s satisfying, relief from material life. It’s calming not like everything else. You know it is for an eternal gain.

Manoj

The only way to surrender is chanting and through Srila Prabhupada’s book. That’s what keeps me doing what I’m doing.

Reena

Eternal happiness – No matter what life throws at you, you are always happy when turned to Krishna consciousness. Devotees – wonderful devotees. Music – kiratna and dancing is pure ecstasy. Love –pure love for Krishna and His devotees. Krishna’s mercy. Service to the Lord. Prasadam. I’m really attracted to Nrsingadev and Lord Jagannatha.

Sitala

There is nothing that makes me truly happy than being in touch somehow with Krishna. Actually it is the only place where I am happy. The”I” represents how through different stages in life I’ve tried to fit in, first as a good student, then as the cool friend, then as the dedicated employee, etc but Srila Prabhupada has told us who we really are: spirit soul, servant of Krishna.

.

All glories, all glories to the assembled devotees

After every kirtan and before every class the prem devani prayers are spoken, each line ending in "ki jai!" then right at the end, 3 times, it is mentioned "All glories to the assembled devotees! All glories to the assembled devotees! All glories to the assembled devotees!"

All of you are glorious! What makes you glorious is your association with Krishna, your dedicated service to Him and Srila Prabhupada. Thank you dear youth group members for your selfless service attitude these past few weeks. Everyone assisted as they could juggling work, exams, family commitments, etc.

Special mention goes:

To Reena for bringing her funky drawing apparatus which made it easy and speedy to get the cut outs done;
The painters: Aarti, Kandarpa, Sunaina, Hemisha, Syamarani, Dini;
To Raji for the tricky work of cutting polystyrene,
Veemal for painting an incredible sun;
To all the girls for cutting what felt like a million birds;
To Vishaka M, Srivas Pr, Gita Govinda M, Hemisha, Hemisha’s mum, Aarti, Aarti’s mum, Sunaina, Reena, Mohini, Kandarpa for assisting with the cooking.;
To Srivas Pr, Veemal, Nanda Kisore and Vraja Vallabha for assisting with putting up everything around Srila Prabhupada;
To Gita Govinda M for helping me arrange everything and for buying everything and doing the local vyasapuja book;
To Gita Govinda M, Hemisha, Aarti, Veemal, Srivas Pr and Kandarpa for manning the book table and also to Abhiram for doing some running around for us.;
To Kandarpa for helping me get the actors ready;
And finally to the actors for their sweet performance – well done! check out the pics below!

I’m sure I’ve missed out some people – please forgive me.

All your efforts and service no matter how small or big is truly valuable. Let’s continue serving together at the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada!

Your servant and friend,
Sitala dd

See where you'd like to help out

Hare Krishna you all,

Hope you are all feeling blissful, if not well the flood of festivals coming up will definitely lift your spirits!

This Saturday, as well as practicing for the play, we will also be starting to prepare for the various services coming up for the various festivals. So those who are not taking part in the play, please attend to assist us with cutting, pulling, folding, etc, etc in fact be sure to bring a long a pair of scissors if you can.

To give a brief view of our planed activities, see below and see where you'd like to help out.

09 Aug: Pre-Janmastamini Festival
- Hosting book table

16 Aug: Balarama's app day
- doing the temple décor
- coordinating offering of candles to Lord Nityananda
- hosting Balarama's café
- hosting book table
- hosting youth group table
- handing out welcome pamphlets

18 Aug: Blue Lotus book Club
- be sure to keep reading your books!

24 Aug: Janmastami
- performing youth group play
- doing major temple décor (assisting Nandakumar Prabhu)
- cooking dhal of the feast
- hosting book table
- hosting youth group table

25 Aug: Srila Prabhupada's appearance day
- preparing the vyasapuja book
- adding additional décor (assisting Nandakumar Prabhu)

20 - 21 Sep: Lenasia Ratha Yatra
- lots and lots and lots of décor service for Lord Jagannatha's tent and chariot

It doesn't stop here actually , what with the month of kartik thereafter and the December book marathon it’s going to be a rollercoaster ride right through to the end of this year!

Youth group this Saturday, 2 August 08, will be at the temple at 2PM.

See you all there

Any closer to Krishna?

Never has a book been so clear, so direct, so certain, so capable of removing doubt. Srila Prabhupada openly, with clear logic instructs us in Sri Isopanisad what it means to be a human being.

The title itself is so wonderful: Sri Isopanisad – Knowledge that brings one nearer to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna!


As Hemisha mentions the book starts of with a “BANG!” describing the 4 defects of human life and holds our attention right through to the end of Mantra 18 - a powerful prayer to the Lord to please remember us at the time of our death.

Yes! Krishna is Supreme! And how He is the supreme is carefully described in this wonderful book. Sri Isopanisad urges us to be a true human being, to free ourselves from the modern so called “civilisation”. To be true to ourselves, to find completeness within ourselves when we discover and realise that we are a part of something majestically complete in itself!

I and the rest of the Blue Lotus Book Club members urge each and every one of you to read this compelling book. It is filled with truths that will blow all your doubts away. It does as the title suggests – it brings us closer to Krishna.

At the end of the day isn’t that what we all want?

With great pleasure we move on to our next book. We have a long stretch ahead of us as the book we are reading this time may take more time and attention to grasp.

The book is: Teachings of Lord Caitanya – read until Chapter 25.

We will convene on the 18th of August for another transcendental evening of exchanging realisations … and (how can I forget) spectacular PRASADAM!

See you all there!

Your servants of the servants
blue lotuses desiring the lotus feet of Lord Krishna

Are you a cracked pot?

With this odd tile youth group this past Saturday had us taking a closer look at ourselves and at each other. We began with the reading of a simple story of 2 water pots. Click here to read the full story. The point is that despite our faults, which are numberless, we can still be used in the service of Krishna. Actually our very faults can be turned into something wonderful.

We played a little game where we said if we were at sea in a ship wreak with only one life jacket we had to motivate why the person to our right should get it. The reasons were numberless! We than had a look at our own lives, where we tried to do something that we are not really good at yet the results were something wonderful. Pooja described how with the help of Srila Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja she is now chanting 16 rounds (Pooja is 10), Kiran described his first book distribution attempt (which is actually how he found his calling in life – a salesman) Pranisha described how fasting on ekadasi became so easy with the help of her devotee aunts. (Pranisha even dry fasted for Nirjal ekadasi despite the enticing breakfast prepared on that Saturday morning) Caitanya Prabhu described how from never being able to talk to an audience he was put in the position where he found that it wasn’t so bad (We see Caitanya Prabhu every Sunday confidently addressing the crowd).

So you see anything is possible if we just put our minds to it. Krishna is our protector and he will guide our sincere attempts.

Doctor, help me! I don’t know who I am!

Last Saturday’s youth group topic was “Expanding consciousness” the idea is that as you evolve spiritually you become more aware of things, people, actions, etc around you. Where before you may have quite easily have been rude to someone, now you know they are a spirit soul, a part of Krishna and so should be respected. Like this our every action becomes a conscious activity.

We played a game where we elected Mehul as a psychiatrist. Between the rest of us we agreed that we would all pretend we were the person to our left. So Mehul had to determine what our mental illness was. He could only ask yes/no questions. It was quite funny as we’d tried to sneak looks at the person to our left to answer accordingly. In the end with the help of the latecomers, Sunaina and sisters, they managed to crack the pattern.

The point is that we are all suffering due to this illness of not knowing who we are. Its pure craziness (as Mehul would confirm!) to think that you are this body existing for only a short while. When you realise you are spirit soul, very easily your consciousness can be expanded, because then you are seeing or seeking to see the bigger picture.

.

What a weekend!

What a weekend, huh?!!

I must say I wasn’t sure how play practice on nirjal ekadasi would go, but with everyone fasting we still managed a good practice run! Thank you, guys, for performing the play for the Randburg Ratha Yatra. It was well done and well received by the audience. Time to start working on another one :o)

And I also want to thank the devotees for assisting with the book table.
The books were flying of the tables with absolutely no effort from our side! It was totally amazing!

We sold R3000 worth of books - Jai Prabhupada!!

Blue lotuses desiring the lotus feet of the Lord

We, the Blue Lotus people, are happy to announce another book completed!

KRSNA Book is amazing! It's like Reena said, her favorite part about it was how every reading makes us more Krishna conscious. - Isn't that the whole point of us being part of this Hare Krishna movement??

Sirla Prabhupada describes this transcendental reading:

"To hear about Krishna from Vedic literatures, or to hear from Him directly through the Bhagavad-Gita, is itself righteous activity. And for one who hears about Krishna, Lord Krishna, who is dwelling in everyone's heart, acts as a best-wishing friend and purifies the devotee who constantly engages in hearing of Him. In this way, a devotee naturally develops his dormant transcendental knowledge. As he hears more about Krishna from the Bhāgavatam and from the devotees, he becomes fixed in the devotional service of the Lord. By development of devotional service one becomes freed from the modes of passion and ignorance, and thus material lusts and avarice are diminished. When these impurities are wiped away, the candidate remains steady in his position of pure goodness, becomes enlivened by devotional service and understands the science of God perfectly. Thus bhakti-yoga severs the hard knot of material affection and enables one to come at once to the stage of asamìśayamì-samagram, understanding of the Supreme Absolute Truth Personality of Godhead." (Bhāg. 1.2.17-21)

On this auspicious note we begin reading our next book: Sri Isopanisad.

Why this book? Well, because none of us have actually read it! I'm looking forward to seeing what amazing nectar Srila Prabhupada has spilt in to this book. Whatever it is I'm sure the experience is going to be fabulous.

Next book club is at

Hemisha's place: 33 Quail Str, Ext 1 Lenz
Monday, 30 June 2008 at 7PM

See you all there!

:o)

the best calming medication

Last youth group was dedicated to all the diligent students in our youth group. It is exam time and the pressures of studying and cramming is HUGE! So this youth group we had a total de-stress session with the best calming medication.

We invited the temple devotees to join us in leading kirtan. A special thank you to Adrih Prabhu, Panca Janya Prabhu and Shyamarani Matajee (the temple devotees) Panca Janya Prabhu led really nice and soothing melodies of the Maha Mantra and everyone became really absorbed in Krishna’s sweet holy names.

We will definitely be calling them again

:o)

We are fallen souls

Please accept ‘our’ humble obeisances
ALL GLORIES TO SRILA PRABHUPADA

Dear Srila Prabhupada…

We are fallen souls; Seekers of truth

Brought together; by a gift from you

Did you really realise what you were about to do

When you dedicated your life and gave us all of you

From the love of Krsna and hunger for knowledge

Was born the Blue Lotus Book Club, the beginning of our voyage

We meet once a month, with our own target set,

Something like, “Please read the Krsna book and see how far you can get”

It’s when we convene, the fun begins…

“How far did you get, what was your favourite part?”

We go around the group and share a piece of our heart

A heart that flows of love for you

For giving us a priceless gift that only you could do

Ofcourse we share in tasty prasadam too

Which we know was also highly regarded by youJ

Where would we be without Iskcon?

Without this base on which we stand upon

You have given us a home to come to

And the recipe to make our troubles few
It is in your books, we hope to see

What the ultimate purpose of life should be

You are most humble in the way you teach

From all we learn, it’s the spiritual world we wish to reach

So the Blue Lotus Book Club will continue to take refuge

In your divine books that carry Krsna’s message

And all the while we will continue to aspire

To serve and please and fulfil your every desire

Thank you Srila Prabhupada, for teaching us the way to reach Krsna, to reach our eternal home, when lost in this material world of pain and suffering, it is all that we are looking for.

Your humble servants
The Blue Lotus Book Club

*****

Offering were asked to be handed in for the national vyasa puja book that will be offered to Srila Prabhupada on Srila Prabhupada’s vyasa puja day. We asked Sunaina to write an offering on behalf of our Book Club and the above is the true feeling she captured of each of the book club members.

If you wondering who Sunaina is, here she is:

:o)

Ain’t nothing like the association of devotees

The temple arranged a hike in the Kloovendale nature reserve, a peaceful private setting just perfect of some good clean fun!

Click here to view the pics.

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A piece of cake

The past weekend was the ecstatic appearance day of Sri Nrsimhadev! So naturally the youth group’s (which took place the day before Nrsimhadev’s Appearance day) topic was Nrsimhadev. On these special days the Lord is most accessible and merciful. So our youth group discussion focused on what we can meditate on to get the most out of this day. We discussed the different things which we can pray to the Lord for. South Africa and actually the whole world is fraught with danger and naturally we turn to the Lord to protect us in these difficult times. While it is natural to pray to the Lord for this we must remember there is something more important and more lasting that we could pray for and that is that we may over come all the many obstacles that cross our path on this journey in spiritual life. This is a more effective prayer as this will certainly take us out of the world of danger and we will be firmly placed in the abode of the Lord where there is no such thing.



On the festival day itself SMD YG hosted the “Nrsinga Café” where the many cakes that we had were sold in no time at all… it is very interesting to see the effect of hunger on devotees ;o)

We also had a little section advertising the youth group where we also displayed the Nrsinga dev figurines we made last week at youth group. The kids especially went crazy for these and guess what??...we sold every single one of our Nrsingadevs’! All monies will be going towards Ratha Yatra.

Besides that, we also had a book table. We sold quite a few books as well.

Thank you, guys, for all your enthusiasm, help and creativity!
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Making the Supreme Personality of Godhead

Last youth group we got our hands dirty making figures of Nrsimhadev out of clay, these will be displayed on Sunday, the appearance day of this Supreme Lord. And if some feel inspired they can even buy one! ... unless of course the makers feel too attached to their own ones :o)

Watch this space to view some of our funky artwork.

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Krishna is there!!

Krishna is coming alive to us who have been reading Krishna book these past 2 months. Krishna is there! Somehow we just need to just tap into His sublime energy. Book club has given us that thin tread of connection that we are slowly trying to strengthen and solidify.

Srila Prabhupada is amazing! As we share our realisations and thoughts, Srila Prabhupada through his words and super cool advice is attracting each of us in different ways. We are all reading the same book but we each get something different from them. As we exchange our fountain of thoughts and inspirations each of our attachment to the Supreme Personality of Godhead is increasing and increasing.

Kandarpa doesn’t make any note but just gushes in appreciation of the different pastimes. She surpasses us all in her reading. Whatever Sunaina and Reena speak has deep meaning and often is missed by the rest of us when we read. Gita Govinda clearly gets to the just of Srila Prabhupada teaching and describes all sorts of points heard from the senior devotees. Aarti quietly observes and we feel she must be hiding all her deep realisations (don’t worry we’ll get her talking too :o) ) As for myself I entertain everyone with my funny illustrations – if I could remember what they mean it might help, but anyway..

Thank you dear Srila Prabhupada! Thank you blue lotus people, you guys are great!

Be sure to finish the remaining chapters of Krishna Book for next book club: 9 June 08.