Pastimes of Lord Balaram – Balaram Purnima Lecture

Artist: His Holiness Indradyumna Swami
Verse: Srimad Bhagavatham – 10.65.16
Where: Aug 26′th 2007, Warsaw, Poland.
Occassion: Lord Balaram’s Appearance day.
Essence: “In His relationship as elder brother, He (Lord Balaram) is very protective of Krsna…Lord Balaram killed long list of demons in their earthly lila to protect Krsna and the cowherd boys. Srila Bhakthi Vinod Thakur explains these demons represent obstacles on the path of devotional service, they also represent anarthas.”

“Lord Balaram is also original Spiritual Master. So duty of Spiritual Master is also to purify the heart of the disciple…We can think of Spiritual Master as Balaram’s representative, Lord Nityananda’s representative or Radharani’s representative.”

“In Rama Lila and Krsna Lila, these two transcendental brothers, they displayed nectarean pastimes, which they performed in the Spiritual World. But they didn’t invite jivas to participate. But beauty of Gaura lila is, Lord Chaitanya comes and through the medium of Sankirtana movement, He invites everyone to taste the nectarean mellows of pure devotional service – Braja bhakthi. And Lord Balaram, the Acharyas say, He especially loved this opportunity, why? Because He is the original Spiritual Master, and He takes great pleasure when He sees Sankirtana movement spread.”

“This is a good day to pray for the mercy of the Holy Name which Lord Balaram gave to the whole world as Lord Nityananda.”

Only Hope for Deliverance – Initiation Lecture

Artist: His Holiness Indradyumna Swami.
Where: Aug 18′th 2007, Poland.
Courtesy: Candrasekhar Acarya Das.
Essence: “In this Kali Yuga anyone and everyone can be delivered by the mercy of the Holy Name, but if one offends the all merciful Holy Name of the Lord, there is no hope for deliverance.”

“We have to take proper advantage by chanting Hare Krsna as our Spiritual master instructs us and trains us and inspires us. And we have to be very attentive to avoiding any offenses to the Holy Name, which may slow our progress down or in some cases take away all the benefits that we have gained through chanting Hare Krishna.”

“So we should hear attentively everyday, meditate on this and try to free ourselves of all these offenses.”

Единственная надежда для освобождения (лекция на инициации)

Artist: His Holiness Indradyumna Swami.
Where: Aug 18′th 2007, Poland.
Courtesy: Candrasekhar Acarya Das.
Essence: “In this Kali Yuga anyone and everyone can be delivered by the mercy of the Holy Name, but if one offends the all merciful Holy Name of the Lord, there is no hope for deliverance.”

“We have to take proper advantage by chanting Hare Krsna as our Spiritual master instructs us and trains us and inspires us. And we have to be very attentive to avoiding any offenses to the Holy Name, which may slow our progress down or in some cases take away all the benefits that we have gained through chanting Hare Krishna.”

“So we should hear attentively everyday, meditate on this and try to free ourselves of all these offenses.”

Unlimited Blessings – Farewell talk

Artist: His Holiness Indradyumna Swami.
Where: Aug 18′th 2007, Poland.
Courtesy: Candrasekhar Acarya Das.
Essence: “We would like to acknowledge the service of each and every member of this tour. Every body’s service was essential on this tour. Not only were you working very hard, not only were you working very sincerely and very effectively, I think the outstanding feature was that every one was serving in a loving spirit together and that loving mood created “vaikunta atmosphere” at our festivals.”

“People felt so comfortable back in the spiritual world; therefore they felt so free to dance, they felt so free to sing, they felt so free to express spiritual emotions even in public. And that is something miraculous. I wanted to take this opportunity, a very deep moment, to thank every one of you very much for the wonderful service you have done for Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya.”

“Srila Prabhupada being the personality he is, intimate associate of the Lord, is capable of bestowing upon you unlimited blessings.”

Unbelievable…

Artist: His Holiness BhakthiVaibhava Swami.
Where: Aug 18′th 2007, Poland.
Courtesy: Candrasekhar Acarya Das.
Essence: “Yes, I was really in ecstasy when I saw people overwhelmed in Krishna Consciousness. Usually people chant, dance, just participate, but when I saw people here, it is different…They exhibited symptoms of advanced stages of Krishna Consciousness. They are very blissful…That is very difficult to achieve…What emotions people exhibit? It is unbelievable…”

Festival of India – Special Attractions

Artist: Sri Prahlad Das
Where: Aug 15′th 2007, Poland.
Courtesy: Candrasekhar Acarya Das.
Essence: “We have beautiful artistic performances on stage, dance performances, theatre, puppets…Around the stage we have lot of booths..We have vegetarian restaurant…we are very famous for our cooking. We cook superb…so come hungry to the festival…and there are lots and lots of other attractions as well..”

Three Things to Bring…

Artist: His Holiness Indradyumna Swami 
Where: Aug 15′th 2007, Poland.
Courtesy: Candrasekhar Acarya Das.
Essence: “Amazing thing about this festival is that it is a great cultural event. We have been doing this for the past 19 years. We had 41 festivals this year and tens and thousands of people come to each festival. Most amazing thing is, the festival is completely free. But you have to bring with you three things to get in. You got to bring with you your dancing shoes, because you are going to do lots of dancing. You have to come with empty stomach, because we have delicious food…and most importantly, you have to come with your great vacation smile, because that is the biggest smile and you are going to be really happy at the festival.”

Essence of Spiritual Culture

Artist: His Holiness Indradyumna Swami 
Where: Aug 14′th 2007, Poland.
Courtesy: Candrasekhar Acarya Das.
Essence: “We are westeners and we adopted eastern Spiritual Culture. When asked why is that?, devotees reply – this philosophy answers every question one may have about Spiritual Life. It answers most important questions in life. Another reason is that the way of life is very conducive to understand the Absolute Truth. Way of life is – Simple living and High thinking. Central to this Spiritual process is Kirtan. Kirtan means Glorification of God by singing God’s names. In the Scriptures it is said that in this age, easy and most sublime means to awaken our original Love for God is by chanting Holy Names…This is the essence of Spiritual Culture of India.”

Real Happiness – Festival Lecture

Artist: His Holiness Indradyumna Swami 
Where: Aug 13′th 2007, Poland.
Courtesy: Candrasekhar Acarya Das.
Essence: “Though we may differ on various things, we all agree that we have one thing in common, we all are trying to find happiness. We foolishly try to find our hapinness in material things. Material things can’t give us any lasting happiness, they are here today and they are gone tomorrow. Actually what we are hankering for, is the happiness we experience in association with Lord. God is very merciful, he is present in his Name. When we say Hare Krsna we are actually associating with the Lord…We have seen that people from all over the world who chant this song become immediately happy.”

Risk of Uncontrolled Senses

Artist: His Holiness BhakthiVaibhava Swami.
Verse: Srimad Bhagavatham – 7.8.10
Where: Aug 13′th 2007, Poland.
Courtesy: Candrasekhar Acarya Das.
Essence: “Senses are like thieves. They steal away everything. They are always demanding. For a conditioned soul, they are like masters….very very ungrateful..always demanding more, more and more…They steal away even our Spiritual Life not just our body, this mind..even Spiritual  life..”