A Logo for the Blog - What do you like?

We have been looking and thinking about the design of a new logo for the new blog. And we still do not really know what we like to see there. So the best thing to do is ask you! Have you any ideas about a logo? Or can you give us an excellent idea or point us in the right direction ?

Then now is your time. Let us know what you think & like. Drop it in the comments below. Post it in Facebook. Email us at info@kksblog.com.

Let your creative side out...

Are you getting Ready for Queensday ??? You should....!

We like to invite you to the most auspicious Vyasa-puja and Queensday  festival on April, 29th and 30th. The preparations have started. Again, like last year, the vyasa-puja festival will be held in Radhadesh, Belgium, and from there we will go to the Queensday celebration in Amsterdam. It promises again to be two big huge wonderful ecstatic festivals with lots of kirtans, association and fun.

• Registration

• Latest News & Updates

• Vyasa-puja Book & Offerings

• Donations

FESTIVAL PROGRAM

28 Apr : Arrival, Disciple meeting and Cultural program
29 Apr :
Vyasa-puja festival (morning)
Initiations (Afternoon)
There will be no evening program due to Queensday

30 Apr : Queensday Amsterdam
Buses will leave at 5:00 am from Radhadesh.
Arrival in Amsterdam around 9:00 am.
Start Queensday parade : 10:00 am
Finish Queensday parade : 19:00h
Back at Radhadesh around 23:00h

1-2 May : Departure from Radhadesh

FESTIVAL FEE

The festival price this year will be €33 for dormitory and €42 for shared room facilities.

SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

Since the costs for flowers, bhoga etc. are considerable, we kindly request those devotees who do have some money to give a donation. Please let me know in advance if you want to contribute something. This is a very nice opportunity for Vaisnava seva, so please don't miss it!

Please donate

Library108.com downtime

You favorite website ;-) library108.com will be offline for a while due to extensive updates to the website.
Like kksblog.com is will be moved to another webhosting. Sorry for the inconvenience and stay tuned for more info.

Special thanks to our kind donors

I would like to thank the following people for their financial donations to this nice blog. We can make 2011 a super year for spiritual articles, classes, videos and fun.

Please bless our donors for giving with love and pray for them to increase their devotional service to Sri Krishna, our only shelter, also in 2011.
Happy New Year

Uddhava & the Blog team

Alexandra Tcherkassova from Russia, Germany

 Yamuna devi dasi from Croatia

Campakalata from The Netherlands

 Dimitry van Ackeleyen from Belgium

 Nama rupa devi dasi from Sweden

Nrtya gita devi dasi from Finland (left side)

Holger Kunze from Germany
(sorry, could not find a photo of you)

 Vinoda Bihari das from The Netherlands

Alice Glaser from Germany

Raymond and Samira from The Netherlands

Ondrej Hladek from Czech

The blog on your mobile

Good news for all your viewers with a too small screen on your mobile phone. Now you can view this website nicely on your mobile phone.

Go ahead and try.

The blog depends on you. Donations and help

This blog was not possible without the help of our editors and financial supporters. And for 2011 we have a few new ideas and plans that we want to share with you. First we are going to have a new and better website with more photos, videos and more media. Second we will put more classes and mp3 audio on the blog for your hearing pleasure. Last but not least you can join our contact list to keep yourself updated on the new website.

So we have a bright future for 2011, but we need your help.
If you like to help writing articles, sharing photos, mp3s and videos then let us know!!! You can fill the blog with a flood of content made by you. So join our blog!!
(Leave a comment under this post if you are interested)

 It is also possible to financially support this website. Just follow the details below
 
 
The hosting costs for this blog are € 300/year *
Please support us:
Donate € 10
Donate € 25
Donate € 50 (get a free CD)

Received donations : 342 euro
We like to thank Samira & Marcel (Netherlands), Vinod Bihari d (Netherlands), Ondrej Hladek (Czech), Alice Plage (Germany), Alexandra Tcherkassova (Russia,Germany), Dimitry van Ackeleyen (Belgium), Nama Rupa dd (Sweden), Nrtya Gita dd (FI), Holger Kunze (DE), Campakalata dd (NL) and Yamuna dd (Croatia) for their kind donations.

(* Server hosting €260 (ex. VAT) or €300 incl. VAT)

2011 is coming - New Plans for the future

You like us!

You keep coming back!

Thank you for coming, and thank you Aatish, Hina, Rukmini, Yadurani, Ragalekha, Nama Rupa, and the many others that are contributing daily to this website. Without you this blog would be empty and soulless.

This month we got these numbers :
Pageviews today 66
Pageviews yesterday 195
Pageviews last month  5,400
Pageviews all time history  22,149

Coming changes for a better future.
This blog has been started in jan 2008. Before that there was only the library108.com website to provide you with news about HH Kadamba Kanana Swami. In 2005 kkswami.com was started. And to download classes and videos you could go to another website media.library108.com.
This blog has been using the blogger software that Google provides, and it is beginning to show its limitations. Uploading mp3's and other big media files is too slow & complicated for our editors. So we need a better and faster solution.

New Plans
- Move the kksblog to a new server
- Move library108.com also to this server
- Change blog software to Wordpress
- Enable easy uploading of mp3 and other files


Wanna help?

update : Thank you Tuuli from Finland for her donation!!

Let us know when you want to help in any way.
We need donations. The server hosting costs € 260/year.
Donate € 10
Donate € 25
Donate € 50 (get a free CD)

We need writers!!!
We need media guru's....

Different but the Same

Maybe you have noticed it. Maybe not. The essence stays the same but the name has changed. Your favorite blog is initiated and received a new name. We call him www.kksblog.com

But you can call him still http://kkswami.blogspot.com if you like. :-)

Congratulations to you all !!!

Share Share Share

As you can see below every new post on the blog (look down ;-) we have new share buttons.
If you like a message you can click on the little icons to share it with somebody.
For example you can like this post on your own facebook account. Click on the little facebook icon, that you can find below each message in the footer.

Share & Prosper

Aindra Prabhu In the early days

Words of Appreciation - by Krishna-kripa Prabhu

Saturday, July 17, 2010
Aindra Prabhu--Words of Appreciation

Kadamba Kanana Swami shocked me today, telling me just after I finished japa, that Aindra Prabhu had just left his body in Vrindavana. How unexpected! How sad for the devotees who love his kirtanas and his association!
I had just been thinking of my association with him this week when I was in Zurich. I met one harinama enthusiast there, who aspired to become his disciple, and so I was recalling my brief exchanges with him.

A Shop on the Blog

You can now buy all the media from Jayadvaita Swami & Kadamba Kanana Swami in the new Blog Shop. We have Audio CD's, a Bhajans Box and a USB Hard drive that holds all the media that is collected.

Visit the shop now

You can pay with PayPal or order by email. Shipping is free on all items and we will send anywhere in the world.

Spotted at Radhadesh

Kadamba Kanana Swami was spotted in the company of other elevated souls in Radhadesh. He is currently visiting Radhadesh and Amsterdam for the coming Vyasa puja & Queensday Festival !!!


Only 4 days left for the wonderful festival and the next day it is again Queensday. See more info about that here.

 Join the fun on the 29th and the 30th of april.
See you all there...

Posting of MP3's

This is a small guide how to include MP3 file(s) inside a post.

Listen & Download Directly

Now you can also Listen & Download an unlimited amount of classes, bhajans, seminars and lots more from this blog. Ok, no time to waste and click here
There is a handy link also available on the top menu.. (see up ;-)

So Listen & Download

Do We All Get The Same Revelations?

Devotee: What also did help me was the book "The Art of Chanting". If I did understand correctly the names will bring realizations ,very individually. While I was always thinking that would we all get the same revelations?

Kadamba Kanana Swami: The Holy Name is non different from Krsna. Everyone is having his own unique relationship in service with Krsna. There are five principle relationship with Krsna, namely madhurya(conjugal), vatsalya(parental),sakhya (friendship), dasya(servitorship), santa (neutrality), we have any of these five relationship in common with many others. But within these five rasas every individual has his own unique relationship with Krsna. Some gopis wave the camara, other gopis make tambula and again other gopis are messengers. In this way some realizations we all have in common, realizing that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that we are His eternal servant,. but then everyone serves Krsna in his own unique way.

More from Japa Talks

What really matters...

In many years of chanting, not every day was an optimal one. I have chanted when I was tired, when I was ill and injured,in cars, on planes,boats. Once I have chanted on a horse racing track doing my rounds. The quality of the rounds has varied due to my own physical condition and the external circumstances and due to the state of my consciousness. But the holy name has stayed as an integral part of my life, the name is like a friend always there,soothing my mind,creating stability in the turbulence of life in the material world, making me detached from the ongoing affairs by making me remember the eternal perspective, that what really matters is my service to Krsna...

(HH KKS, Japa Talks, 15 July 2009)

Ratha Yatra in Soweto

(HH KKS: 10/2007)
Soweto with its 2 million people, is the heart of South Africa, the stage of oppression for Black South Africa. Where in 1976 african high schoolkids protested against education in Afrikaans instead of their own language, a protest which was crushed by the local police firing bullets in to the crowd. That day Soweto had enough and the revolution began. Soweto today is going through face-lift, it has the second biggest shopping mall on the African sub continent, and it will host the 2010 Soccer Worldcup finale in Orlando Stadium. Still there are plenty of people living in tin sheds in extreme poverty. ISKCON has had a small temple there since 1995, run by Mahaprabhu, a dedicated Sowetan disciple of Giriraja Swami, who maintains a regular Food for Life program. On October 13 & 14 a historical event took place, Lord Jagannatha’s Ratha Yatra festival came to town. Amongst the crowds were several busses of African students from all over the country and also many schoolkids joined in as well as devotees from all over South Africia and many more local people..

Andrew Whitlock, a reporter wrote the following;
“Soweto residents were treated to a new experience at the weekend when the first ever Rathayatra (chariot festival) was held in the township. The colourful festival has been held in India for thousands of years and has also been held in most major cities worldwide. Hundreds of Hare Krsna devotees from around the country, descended on Soweto to follow the three-metre high chariot through the busy streets, and were joined by excited residents, many of them young children. The first Rathayatra was held in the West some forty years ago after the International Society for Krsna Consciousness (Iskcon) founder, Srila Prabhupada, brought Krsna Consciousness to America. “We are very happy that this event is taking place in Soweto for the first time” said Dobsonville resident Lehopo Lechaba. “You are promoting God and that is great after all the crime and violence we have had here. I really like what I am hearing today,” he said.

After a short journey through the streets the chariot, carrying five of Iskcon’s leading spiritual masters arrived at Mofolo Park, where guests were treated to a free lunch and an afternoon of singing and dancing.

It was quite a happening on the open air stage in Mofolo Park. Besides powerful kirtanas by various sannyasis, and the famous plays of Bhakti Marga Swami, there was also ample opportunity for local talent to perform on the stage with lots of Hip Hop, traditional Zulu dances and more Local TV celebrities came and the band Dhira from Europe was a big hit. It was very nice that everyone got an opportunity to actively take part in the festival and make it their own. Our guess is that Ratha Yatra has come to Soweto to stay!

How to keep one’s relationship with Vrndavana

(HH KKS 07/2006)
1.) First let us analyze what our relationship is with Vrndavana and then see how we can develop it. Lord Caitanya explained that these are the five most important aspects in devotional service, which if even a little bit performed, can quickly bring one to the stage of love of God.

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana, mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

One should associate with devotees, chant the holy name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith and veneration.

Mathura-vasa to reside at Mathura or Vrndavana.” So we must become a resident of Vrndavana. We must realize that Vrndavana is our home. Now you are in Czech republic and I am in New Govardhana, Australia. But part of us is always in Vrndavana, because Vrndavana is our home. We are now far away from home in foreign countries Czech or Australia, and even although it may be very nice at times still how can we be fully satisfied it is just not like Vrndavana, being in a foreign country we are always feeling the desire to go back to home. In my passport my “place of residence” is written as: “Vrndavana”, I feel quite good about that and consider it auspicious and I hope it will bring me back to that Holy land. No one in Vrndavana, nor man, nor animal ever steps on the footprints of Krsna, which are decorating the fine Yamuna sand. “Its great branches extending from one side to the other, a banyan tree is like a bridge across the Yamuna. Playing on that bridge, again and again the cowherd boys cross from one side to the other”. “In one place it had a hollow like a palace. In another place it had a delightful branch like a couch. In another place was a vine-covered branch like a swing. What pastime-place did that banyan tree not provide for Lord Krsna?” Gopal Campu 1.84-85 How can I ever forget Vrndavana?

Another point to remember is that the reason why Vrndavana is so wonderful is because it is the abode of Krsna. It is Krsna that make Vrndavana wonderful and without him, we would not be interested in Vrndavana at all. When Krsna left Vrndavana for Mathura some of the cowherd boys decided to also leave Vrndavana, because there was nothing remaining for them there.

3.) Bhauma Vrndavana, the earthly Vrndavana in this world is non different from the spiritual world. However it is covered with a layer of yoga maya which makes it appear to be a temple village in North India. However the spiritual nature is shining like an effulgence through that covering and although we can not actually perceive the Dhama in its full transcendental glory, still whatever we do perceive is already very inspiring. Prabhupada pointed out that one can not just buy a ticket to Vrndavana. Vrndavana will be revealed by the mercy of Krsna. We have visited that place in North India, south of Delhi, yet the question may be asked, have we actually been in Vrndavana and still we will never forget.

Seeing that the time has come to milk the cows, Krsna and the gopas bring the cows to the barns made of jewels, barns surrounded by lotus flowers and kalpa-vrksa trees.” from Gopal Campu 1.74, by Srila Jiva Gosvami

“When Krsna does not play His flute, the Yamuna flows with waters like melted sapphires. When Krsna does play His flute, the Yamuna, stunned in ecstasy, becomes like the land paved with sapphires. In these ways, as either water or land the Yamuna serves Lord Krsna.” Gopal Campu 1.80, Srila Jiva Gosvami

4.) In his commentary on the first chapter of the 10th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, Madhvacarya refers to Mathura as a state of consciousness. It is a fact that if one really wants to enter Vrndavana, than we must realize it internally. Even while physically one may be in Vrndavana (North India), internally one may not have actually entered Vrndavana. To internally enter in to Vrndavana one must enter in to the mood of service. Such devotional service is done under the authority of a superior vaisnava. So to really become Mathura vasa we must develop our internal relationship with Vrndavana by developing our relationship with Krsna, through devotional service.

5.) You can transform your home in to Vrndavana by chanting the holy name and the bhajans of the vaisnava acaryas, by inviting vaisnavas, by hanging transcendental pictures which Prabhupada called windows to the spiritual world. By bringing Srimad Bhagavatama to your house and reading it. You can transform your heart in to Vrndavana by always chanting the Holy name non-stop in a humble state of mind. You can attain Vrndavana by serving Srila Prabhupada who is a pure resident of Vrndavana. You can attain Vrndavana by patiently rendering devotional service in the temple of the Lord. You can attain Vrndavana by the mercy of a bona fide spiritual master.

Get Glimpses of Krishna

Devotee's written question: Hare Krishna. I have a query
Prabhupada says: "To associate with the holy name and chant the holy name is to associate with the Personality of Godhead directly."
However my limited mind says: surely chanting japa is inferior to actually e.g playing ball games or having fun directly with Krishna face to face.
Please help eradicate my misconception

(HH KKS (Japa Talks)) You wrote about how Prabhupada said that chanting the holy name was to associate with Krsna directly, but you didn't really experience it like that.
This is what I think about it:
The wall of my false ego is thick and high, yet this chanting and devotional service in general is wearing down the stone. Here and there some holes or cracks have appeared in the surface of that wall and I am beginning to get glimpses of Krsna. This how I associate with Krsna now during my chanting. Sometimes in my wanderings I have come across an elevated desire tree and by climbing its branches for a short while I could look over the wall, before I had to return to the ground. But all these experiences have made my faith stronger and stronger that one day this wall of false ego will break down.