Divine Connection - kids' newsletter

8/8/2019 Divine Connection - kids' newsletter

1/8

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Janmashtami is a very important festivalof celebration for the Vaisnavas. It is theappearance day of Lord Krsna, who kindlydescends to this material world to enjoyloving relationships with His devotees, and to destroy the demons. Krsna is verymerciful, and loving to His devotees. Krsnaloves His devotees more than Himself and similarly, His devotees love Him more thanthey love themselves! He is their very life and

soul.In the following two Bhagavad Gita verses,Krsna says that He personally comeswhenever and wherever there is decline inreligious practices, to annihilate themiscreants, to protect the devotee, and to re-establish the principles of religion.

yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata

abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham

In this material world, each and every livingentity wants to enjoy and experiencehappiness. But no one can find truehappiness here. Can you guess why? Itsbecause this place is dukhalayamasasvatam,as Krsna Himself states in

Bhagavad Gita. This material world istemporary and full of miseries. Everyone isputting themselves in the center and tryingto have lots of sense gratification. No onewants to serve Krsna and thats why there issuffering. Actually, our real position is toserve the Lord and please Him. And that isthe way to become truly happy. Krsnaappears on this auspicious day, from thehighest, eternal planet of GolokaVrndavana, to this earth, just to simply giveevery living entity real happiness.

So, why do we call Janmashtami as theappearance day of Krsna and not Hisbirthday? God has no birth or death. He isunborn, ever existing, and primeval. Hisbody is not material like the ordinaryconditioned living entities. He is fullytranscendental and ever fresh. He iscompared to the sun which rises at dawnand sets at dusk. His appearance and disappearance are like that of the sunsrising and setting. When the sun appearsearly in the morning, it seems as if it is bornand similarly when it sets in the evening, itlooks as if it is dead. But actually, the sun isalways there in the sky. Due to ourimperfect senses, we cannot see itsexistence. In the following verse of Bhagavad Gita,

ajo 'pi sann avyayatma bhutanam isvaro 'pi san

prakrtim svam adhisthaya sambhavamy atma-mayaya

International Society for Krishna ConsciousnessFounder Acarya His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupadawww.iskcondc.com

Divine Connection Divine Connection

Issue 12Issue 12Issue 12Issue 12

FESTIVAL/ EVENTS

By Mansi Suresh (9) Coloring Corner

Poem

The mood on Vrndavan

Reflections

Story 1- Darling of Vrnda-

van

4

Acharya Series

Vegetarian recipe

Game 1Word SCramble

Story 2

Srimati Radharani

Verse of the month

Game 2 Crosswords

Special Interest


2/8

In this age of Kali, Krsna descends in ourhearts in the form of His Holy Name.There is no difference between the Lord and His Holy Name. When we chant at-tentively, Krsna will appear in our hearts.So, lets all sincerely call out to Krsna bychanting His Holy Names on this mostauspicious and most sacred festival day

and awaken our love for Him.In Bhagavad Gita, 4.13,

janma karma ca me divyam evam yo vetti tattvatah

tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eti so 'rjuna

Krsna says that one can go back to Him just by remembering his transcendentalappearance and activities. Therefore, onthis most Holy occasion of Janmashtami,we can all meditate on this sweet pastimedescribing the descent of Krsna:

Many thousands of years ago, there was apowerful dynasty called the Yadu dy-nasty. Its king was called Ugrasena. Ug-rasena had one son and one daughter. Hisson, Kamsa, was very cruel, wicked, and demoniac. His daughter, Devaki, was avery nice devotee of the Lord, who had performed so many austerities and sacri-fices in her previous birth.

On the day of Devakis marriage, Kamsaeagerly drove the chariot of Devaki and Vasudev. Suddenly, the king heard a voice

from the sky. He was startled. The voicethundered, You fool, the eighth son of Devaki will kill you. Upon hearing thevoice, Kamsa became very disturbed and got ready to kill Devaki. Just then,

Vasudev, wanting to protect his new wife,made a solemn promise to give each and every child to Kamsa as soon as they areborn. Kamsa paused. Then he imprisoned Vasudev and Devaki and took them toMathura. Vasudev gave every new bornbaby and Kamsa killed them one after an-other.

When it was time for the seventh child,Krsnas internal potency, Yoga-Maya, trans-ferred the child from the womb of Devaki tothe womb of Vasudevs other wife, Rohini.Soon, it was time for the eighth child to beborn. The Lord appeared before Vasudev ina four handed form and instructed him totake Him to Nanda Maharajs home at Go-kul. Immediately, all their chains fell off and the prison gates opened. The guards werefast asleep. As Vasudev went, River Yamunamiraculously parted, giving way. Vasudevgave the baby to Nanda Maharaj and tookthe girl baby that was born to Yasoda to theprison house of Kamsa. Once he entered hiscell, the gates closed by themselves.

Soon after, the baby cried. The guards wokeup and informed Kamsa. Kamsa took thebaby and tried to kill her. But the baby, whowas Goddess Durga, flew from his handsand informed him that the child who is go-ing to kill was already born.

Meanwhile, the residents of Vrndavana ec-statically celebrated the descent of Krsna.They had such intimate love and devotionfor the Lord. The Supreme Lord Krsna per-formed many sweet past times, just to at-tract the conditioned souls back home.

Lord Krsna, the Supreme Per-sonality of Godhead, has per-sonally come to deliver theconditioned souls, to protecthis loving devotees, and toslay the wicked. On this mostauspicious festival day of theLords descent, lets lovingl

perform nice devotional ser-vice for the pleasure of theLord. Thats the only way togo back Home, back to God-head, which is full of eternabliss and joy.

Sri Krishna Janmastami ki Jay!


3/8

The animals, trees, birds, vines

And all the other living entities

Yearn to see the rising of

Krishna- The Moon of Vrndavana

A Poem -

The Moon Of Vrndavan

By Sunethra Ramkumar (10)

Maya is not strong but because we are weak, Maya is stronger than us. The only way to overcome Maya is by taking shelter of Krsna.

The two important things are to remember Krsna and never forget him. A pure devotee always chants and thinks of Krsnas qualities, pastimes, and activities. We can see this in the

pastimes of Radharani. One time, a bumble bee was buzzing around Radha. So she told Mad- humangal to take the bee. And after Madhumangal did as told, he said, Madhu has gone. Hearing this, Radharani was broken-hearted. Out of separation, Radharani started crying.Because she was always remembering Krsna, she thought that Madhu- Krsna- had gone. This

shows how Radhas life was fully centered around Her beloved, Krsna. Prabhupad has said many times how humans should live: Simple living and High thinking. Srila Prabhupad was so determined and was so dedicated to fulfill his gurus orders. Even

though he was old and faced many difficulties on the Jaladuta , still Prabhupad had strong desire to preach to the West, on the order of his guru. Similarly, we should not be lazy and should have a sincere desire to have a strong desire to please guru and Krsna.

Krsna wants His devotees to be happy and the devotees want to make Krsna happy.

Reflections...

By Pranesh Ambokar (6) By Hamsika (4)

By Mansi Suresh (9)


4/8

Krishna was the darling of Mother Yashodaand Nanda Maharaj, and the whole of Vrnda-van. He performed many wondrous feats at atender age.

Nanda Maharaj and Mother Yashoda were celebrating the first birthday of Krishna, and for Krishnas wel-fare, Mother Yashoda bathed Krishna and then gave vast amounts of charity to the brahmanas. After this,Yashoda Mata decorated herself very nicely and sat down to hear the Vedic hymns with baby Krishna on

her lap. Meanwhile, she noticed that Krishna was becoming sleepy soshe put Him on a bed and went to welcome the inhabitants of Vrnda-van and their relatives. Being very busy in doing this, she forgot to feedKrishna. Krishna was very hungry and was crying for His mother, and just like an ordinary child, he started kicking his feet and shouting. Un-fortunately, Mother Yashoda still could not hear. Krishna was placedunder a hand driven cart and while kicking His legs, He accidentallykicked the wheel of the cart. Then the wheel detached from the cart

and the cart broke. Then, all the utensils fell down to. Hearing all thecommotion, everybody rushed to the spot, wondering how the cart felldown. All the children playing there said, Krishna did it! He broke thecart! The gopis and gopas did not know of the Lords inconceivable

power and thought it to be childish talk and didnt pay heed to them. Then Mother Yashoda pickedKrishna up, fed him, and thinking this to be the influence of a bad planet, called all the brahmanas andasked them to chant Vedic hymns to protect Krishna from inauspiciousness. The brahmanas chantedprayers to appease the planet and then Nanda Maharaj asked the truthful brahmanas to offer blessings tothe child so he would be in no further danger. Then he fed all the brahmanas sumptuously.

A few months later, Mother Yashoda was carrying Krishna and all of a sudden, he felt as heavy as amountain peak. Not able to bear that weight, Mother Yashoda had to put Krishna down and she prayed toLord Narayana. Mother Yashoda called the brahmanas and asked them to counter the heaviness, thinkingthat it was some ghost or demon. When Krishna was sitting there, a demon named Trnavarta, a servant ofKamsa, came as a whirlwind, on Kamsas order and took Krishna far, far away into the sky. Then Krishnabecame heavier and heavier and the demon was forced to stop going up. He felt as though Krishna was amountain peak or a chunk of steel. Meanwhile, down in Vrndavan, all the inhabitants were thrown intoconfusion and Mother Yashoda not being able to find Krishna fell to the ground and was lamenting. Whenthe gopis saw and asked her what happened, their eyes were filled with tears too. Krishna way up in thesky was choking Trnavarta, and Trnavarta not being able to breathe and not even able to make a soundlost his life and fell down from the sky onto a stone, his limbs dislocated. Then the gopis found Krishna onTrnavartas chest and picked him up and gave him to Mother Yashoda. Because Krishna was unhurt andnow free from misfortune, everybody was happy.

Who can understand the inconceivable potencies of Lord Krishna, the Darling of Vrndavana?

DARLING OF VRNDAVAN

By Koumudhi Kammari (13)


5/8

Srila Prabhupada, the founder of our ISKCONmovement, appeared on September 1st, 1896, on theday after Janmastami. From his early childhood days,

he worshiped his Radha Govinda deities with a lot of devotion. He also hosted an annual rathayathra that he and his little friends conducted every year. He went to Scottish churches collegeand then married Radharani Datta. Then, known as Abhay Charan De, Prabhupada worked in apharmaceutical company.

One day, a college friend of his requested Abhay to meet a renownedsadhu who was visiting Calcutta. At first Abhay was reluctant, thinkingthat this was a bogus devotee, but when he went there, he knew that hehad met his eternal spiritual master: Srila Bhakti Siddhanta SarasvatiMaharaja. Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Maharaja instructed Abhay:Whenever you get money, print books and preach KrishnaConsciousness throughout the world.

At the age of seventy, Abhay Charan, now Bhaktivedanta SwamiPrabhupada, boarded a steamship to America to fulfill his spiritualmasters dream. On the way, he suffered two heart attacks but withKrishna's mercy, he reached America safely. The first year was very difficult and it was a long time before people finally came to realize thepotency of Krishna consciousness movement.

After initiating a few devotees in New York, Prabhupada went to San Francisco and installed thedeities of Jagannath, Baladev, and Subadhra, naming it New Jagannath Puri. Prabhupadaraveled around the world 14 times and established many ISKCON centers. He sent a group of

devotees to London who met George Harrison and also recorded a Hare Krishna album, whicheached the top of ratings in many states. He also wrote many books for our benefit andstablished deity worship and the principle of Simple living and high thinking, throughout.

Prabhupada always gave full credit to his spiritual master, and after fulfilling his spiritualmaster's instructions. Prabhupad went back home, back to Godhead on November 14, 1977.

We have to be very grateful to Srila Prabhupada, who came all the way just to send us back to

Godhead through his books and teachings.

Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!!

ACHARYA SERIES

By Sruthi Mungara(13)


6/8

DIVINE BROWNIES...DIVINE BROWNIES...DIVINE BROWNIES...DIVINE BROWNIES... By Sunethra Ramkumar (9)

1/2 cup- butter

1/2 cup- carob powder

2 tablespoons- lechitin

3/4 cup- warm soy milk

1 cup- whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 teaspoon- baking powder

1/2 teaspoon- salt

1 teaspoon- vanilla essence

1/2 cup- maple syrup1 cup - carob chips

Preparation:

Combine carob powder with butter. Add lechitin, warm soymilk, and maple syrup. Mix well. In a separate bowl, siftflour, baking flour, and salt. Add vanilla essence. Blendwell. Stir in carob chips. Grease and flour baking pan of choice and pour butter into pan. Bake at 350 for 30 to 35minutes. Let it cool. Offer to the Lord and enjoy!!!!!

Maya is on the back side ofKrishna and if we keep ourselvesalways in front side of Krishna,engaged in His service, then the

external energy on the back side ofKrishna will not be able to attack

us.

Contributed by ~ Panchajanya Mungara (10)

Word Scramble

Dheeraj Kammari (12)


7/8

Appearance

Srimati Radharani appeared as the daughter of Vrshabhanu and Kirtida. For along time, Vrshabhanu and Kirtida did not have a child. So, they made Rvaltheir residence to receive the sanctification and blessing of such a holy place tohave a child.

One early morning, King Vrshabhanu went to the River Yamuna to take hisbath. In the middle of the river, he saw a golden lotus flower effulgent likemillions of suns. He approached the lotus and found a baby in the middle ofthe lotus flower. Lord Brahma then appeared before King Vrshabhanu andtold him that, as Sucandra and Kalvat in their previous lives, they had un-

dergone long and severe austerities to get the consort of Lord Vishnu as their daughter, and thus, the baby on the lotus was none other than Srimati Radha-

rani. The King gladly accepted the little child and brought Her home. For the pleasure of the devotees, yogamy acted in such a way that Vrshabhanu andKirtida thought of Srimati Radharani as their own daughter. With pure devotion, they began caring for this divinechild. But there was a problem. The little child appeared to be blind, deaf and dumb.

Meanwhile, Nrada Muni figured out that Krishna had made His appearance in Vraja. He concluded that SrimatiRadharani would have also appeared. Nrada Muni greatly desired to see and worship the form of Srimati Radha-rani as a small child. So he started going from home to home on the eastern side of the River Yamun to give bless-ings to new-born children. Finally, he reached the house of Vrshabhanu and Kirtida, who hesitantly took him toSrimati Radharani. In the presence of Srimati Radharani, Nrada Muni became stunned: his hairs stood on end, andhis body trembled. Seeing the golden effulgence, he understood that this was Srimati Radharani. In solitude, he paidhis obeisances to Her and worshipped Her to his hearts content. Because of his purity, Nrada Muni understoodwhy Srimati Radharani was manifesting Her external circumstance of apparently being blind, deaf and dumb.Nrada Muni suggested Vrshabhanu to hold a big festival and invite Nanda, Yasoda and little Gopla, so thatRadha's external conditions could be improved. They followed the advice and organized a big festival. While thefestivities were going on, the mischievous Gopla crawled to the cradle of Srimati Radharani and peeped inside. Assoon as He looked, Radharani opened Her eyes very wide and cried out very loudly.

"Srimati Radharani has no interest in anything apart from Krishna, and She had no reason to see, hear or speak anything till She met Krishna. From that timeRdh-Krishna were again united. Actually They are always present together."

The mood of Srimati Radharani

"There is only one thing in the heart and the mind of Radharani and that is serving and pleasing Krishna. Because of this unequalled love that Radha has forKrishna, Radha steals the heart and the mind of Krishna." When we say Rdh, in the vocative form, it becomes Rdhe. Similarly Hara in the vocativeform becomes Hare. Hara is the internal potency of the Lord who is none other than Radha. While chanting Hare Krishna mah-mantra, we pray, "O Su-preme Goddess Rdh, You who steal the heart of Krishna, please engage me in the service of the Supreme Lord, Krishna". "When we make some offering toKrishna, we actually request Radha to make the offering to Krishna. If Krishna receives the offering from Rdh, He will surely accept it." "What if our offer-ing of everything is so insignificant that Krishna might not want to accept? But, if Rdh comes to Krishna and says, Oh! It is a very nice offering! Pleaseaccept it. Take this soul as Yours, Krishna accepts the offering. So, we pray should from our hearts that Srimati Radharani may kindly accept our life dedi-cated in service to Krishna."

Beauty of Srimati Radharani

The descriptions of the beauty of Radharani are wonderfully poetic and descriptive. In describing SrimatiRadharani, it is also said in the Vidagdha-madhava (1.32) by Rupa Gosvami, "The beauty of Srimati Radha-rani's eyes forcibly devours the beauty of newly grown blue lotus flowers, and the beauty of Her face sur-passes that of an entire forest of fully blossomed lotuses. Her bodily luster seems to place even gold in apainful situation. Thus, the wonderful, unprecedented beauty of Srimati Radharani is awakening Vrnda-vana."

"Although the effulgence of the moon is brilliant initially at night, in the daytime it fades away. Similarly,although the lotus is beautiful during the daytime, at night it closes. But, O My friend, the face of My mostdear Srimati Radharani is always bright and beautiful, both day and night. Therefore, to what can Her facebe compared?" (Vidagdha-madhava 5.20)

"When Srimati Radharani smiles, waves of joy overtake Her cheeks, and Her arched eyebrows dance like the bow of Cupid. Her glance is so enchanting thatit is like a dancing bumblebee, moving unsteadily due to intoxication. That bee has bitten the whorl of My heart." (Vidagdha-madhava 2.51)

Lord Krishna appearing as Lord CaitanyaKrsnadasa Kavirja Goswami explains that Lord Krishna descends as Caitanya Mahprabhu in the mood and luster of Srimati Radharani to experience thefollowing three things:

- The love Srimati Radharani feels in Her relationship with Him.

- The happiness that She experiences in that love.

- The qualities in Him that Srimati Radharani becomes attracted to.

We should offer our prayers not just from the head, but from the heart, "Let the love that Srimati Radharani has for Krishna, which steals away His heart,somehow capture our hearts also."

Srimati Radharani ki Jaya!

Srimathi radharani By Aayushi Jain(8)

( Artwork) - Ramya (Lakshmi) Suresh (16)


8/8

Verse of the month(Verse 9.26)

Srimad Bhagavat Gita- By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktive- danta Swami Prabhupada

By Dheeraj Kammari(12)

patram puspam phalam toyam yo me bhaktya prayacchati tad aham bhakty-upahrtam

asnami prayatatmanah

If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower,fruit or water, I will accept it.

RealizationsThis verse talks about how merciful and loving Krsna is,that He accepts only the loving service of the devotee and

nothing more. The process of achieving a permanent andblissful abode for eternal happiness is very easy and can beattempted even by the poorest of the poor, without anyqualifications. The only qualification required is to be apure devotee of the Lord. The process is so easy that even aleaf or a little water or fruit can be offered to the SupremeLord in genuine love and the Lord will be pleased to acceptit. Krsna accepts even a little flower from His pure devotee.He does not want any kind of offering from a non devotee.HE is not in need of anything from anyone, because He isself sufficient, and yet He accepts the offering from Hisdevotee in an exchange of love and affection.

There is a wonderful pastime in Mahabharat that I wasreading, which sets a perfect example for how Krsna ac-cepts the pure devotees offering, and not from a non devo-tee. When Krsna went to Duryodhanas house, he offeredKrsna so many varieties of food, but Krsna didnt acceptanything, instead He went to Vidhuras house. Vidhura wasliving a simple life with his wife. When Vidhura and hiswife saw Krsna, they invited Him in to their house, and of-fered Him some bananas. Vidhura was offering these ba-nanas with so much love and devotion that he didnt even

notice that he was offering banana peels instead of bananas.But, Krsna accepted even the banana peels, because of theintense love behind the offerings.

So, Srila Prabhupada says that, Who is such a fool that hedoes not want to be Krsna Consciousness by this simplemethod and thus attain the highest perfection in life: eter-nity, bliss, and knowledge?

Translation

Krishna's Names

L N H R S G I P B A G S A S L

Q Q A L F A B R G I B H T H A

P X C N X M E S R D B V L Y P

F V I J D I A I G A I U A A O

P I A X J A D V L V J Q B M G

J Y M B Z H N L A P L S P A F

J U A H A L A A C H X O W S H

F F T R G V N Y N O S E G U Q

E K I J A A Z H Y D T E P N H

R Q C H K P P U J K A S K D Q

M P D V H T A Z U K A N Q A I

V A Z B E F K N X W Z J A R U

R F A D N I V O G H O G W K H

M A D H U S U D H A N A A V B

B B E U Q B X O W D X K A M I

GIRIDHARI

GOPAL

GOVINDA

KESHAVA

MADHUSUDHANA

NANDANANDANA

RADHAVALLABHA

SHYAMASUNDAR

GAME CROSSWORDS

By Panchajanya Mungara (10)

Your feedback and suggestions are very important and valuable for us. Please feel free to send your feedback/ suggestions to [email protected]

EditorLakshmi (Ramya) Suresh

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