namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

Re-presenting Srila Prabhupada involves tracking the current culture and keeping it real.

Great preachers always present a timeless message in a timely and relevant fashion - mainly by using relevant cultural examples. Witness Jesus' use of stories of fishes and animals, lost coins and greedy farmers.

Small-time preachers can also make a humble contribution to the tradition in their local area by giving relevant illustrations to explain the teachings.

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Location: Park Rd and Judge St, Kalinga
Date:: Sunday, September 7th, 2008
Time: 2 pm

Kalinga—remember when their King had his teeth smashed out by Balaram? Well, this week we're going to give them the benediction of Sri Krishna Sankirtan.

Google have released their own browser, Chrome (currently available at www.google.com/chrome for Windows - Linux and Mac OS X builds coming soon).

What's cool about this? A lighter, faster, stronger, more resilient browser to begin with.

Bikram and me hanging out in Sydney.

I recently finished a Bikram 30-day challenge. That's where you do at least one 90 minute class per day for 30 days, doing Bikram's signature 26 posture set in a room heated to 37 degree celsius.

During that challenge I went down to Sydney and did a 12 hour seminar (9 am - 9 pm) with Bikram himself. Great guy - very entertaining, and very dedicated.

Prem Yogi just before we went out.

Here's me. I'm pretty fatigued at the moment - getting sick, going to Sydney, doing the Bikram challenge and fasting for Janmastami was just a little too much...

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Date: Sunday, August 31st, 2008
Time: 2 pm
Location: Kedron Park Rd and Rigby St, Wooloowin

This weekend I am in Sydney, and Sunday is Janmastami.

His Holiness Janananda Goswami is in town, and the word is that he is leading harinam in the city on Saturday, starting at Govindas at 11 am.

Call the temple on 3379-5455 to confirm this.

Haribol!

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Whether great devotee or direct incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no denying the potency of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. More than 500 years after his appearance in Bengal, India, his instruction to loudly chant the Holy Names of the Lord is being carried out around the world.

Phanisvara prabhu points me to this excellent page maintained by VEDA.

OBJECTION: Madhva has said in his commentary to the Kathopanisad that there are nine types of offense to Lord Visnu, such as ascribing divinity to an ordinary mortal. You are guilty of this because you claim that Caitanya is an incarnation of God. The result of this is that you will go to the darkest regions of hell.

Here's a chance for you to examine the underpinnings of your faith, or not.

Here's the question:

There was this great spiritual personality who preached widely about love of God. He inspired many people to reawaken their dormant love of God, and explained that we are all servants of God. He always presented himself as a servant of God, and denied it whenever anyone claimed that he himself was God.

I'm 21 days into the Bikram 30 day challenge.

Friday I'm flying down to Sydney. There I'll do a class with Darren Ma, two time Australian Yoga Champion, and then on Saturday I'm spending the day with Bikram Choudhary himself.

Sunday morning I'll go to mangalarati at the Sydney temple, then fly back to Brisbane at mid day to attend the evening festival here. My band is playing at 8 pm. I'll try to get a video for y'all.

Location: Chapel st and Tobruk St, Lutwyche
Date: Sunday 17th August
Time: 1 pm

Everyone is going down to the farm for the festival in the afternoon, so we'll do an hour or so of harinam in Lutwyche before leaving.

At the moment I am very immersed in my job and all the attendent responsibilities of managing a group. On Friday I had someone hand in their resignation, and I am already hiring to replace someone else.

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Bhaja hure mana in English.

It's starting to come together for Janmastami, where we will be playing.

I will work on my singing over this next week. I don't have a lot of natural talent so I have to work hard to get my voice to hit the notes. A week of practice will make it a lot better.

As you may have noticed, I'm a little short on words these days. Here's an article that I whipped up for the upcoming Janmastami magazine here in Brisbane. I would have like more time to rewrite and edit it, but anyway - life is short.

In the heart of Brisbane city since 2004, Atma Yoga offers guests a yoga class, dinner and dessert five nights a week. Additionally Brisbanites can attend discussions on philosophy, join a study group reading Bhagavad-gita, or participate in a kirtan (devotional singing) session.

There is only one person who can do whatever they want and get the result they want - and His name starts with K.

For the rest of us - choose one:

Bikram yoga for the win!

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Time: 12 pm
Date: Sunday August 10, 2008
Location: Milne St and Bonney Ave, Albion

Please note the starting time of 12 pm this week. This is because we are preparing for Janmastami in the afternoon.

Tri Yuga and Jolie are visiting from Melbourne and will be there. Tri Yuga will also be speaking at the Sunday Feast at Govindas, and at Krishnafest at Atma on Saturday night at 5 pm.

How many did you get right?

Answers tomorrow.

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Too funny!

Hey lazyweb, there's a Bhagavatam verse that says to practice yoga to mitigate material miseries. I've posted it before. Does anyone know where that verse is to be found?

I'm writing an article for the Janmastami magazine about Atma Yoga, where you can get yoga, dinner, and dessert in Brisbane city five nights a week! I'd like to use this verse in there.

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Corner of Constitution Rd and Mackay St, Eildon Hill
Sunday 3rd August
2 pm

My thought this morning:

Preachers should be compassionate. Administrators should be just.

When mercy replaces justice in a land, the people are left unprotected by the rule of law.

One of the great things about our modern political systems is that they are based on the idea that everyone should be protected by the rule of impartial law. There are no favorites, no elites who can act with impunity.

Fasting for one day each month may reduce the risk of clogged arteries by 40 percent, according to a new study conducted by researchers from Intermountain Medical Center and the University of Utah and presented at a conference of the American Heart Association.

Researchers first began to study fasting when an analysis of a health registry indicated that significantly fewer Mormons than non-Mormons in Utah suffered from the clogged arteries indicative of heart disease, even after different smoking rates were taken into account.

''We cannot say with any certainty that cellphones are either safe or not safe,'' Dr. Black said on CNN. ''My concern is that with the widespread use of cellphones, the worst scenario would be that we get the definitive study 10 years from now, and we find out there is a correlation.''

- Experts Revive Debate Over Cellphones and Cancer, New York Times