Q&A with Srila Hridayananda das Goswami on the Maha-mantra and the Perfection of Life

Question: How can we overcome all our material problems and unhappiness and attain the perfection of life?

Answer by Srila Hridayananda das Goswami:

The best way to overcome all sorts of unhappiness is to remember who we really are: pure souls, part of Krishna/God/Spirit. We have innumerable fellow pure souls with whom we are eternally related in unbreakable bonds of love and devotion.

As Krishna explains in the Gita, our consciousness is now ‘covered’ by ‘un-knowledge’ and we can dissipate that covering thru knowledge.

The Maha-mantra, ‘great mantra’, is: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Hare is an address to HarA, the feminine counterpart of Krishna. By chanting ‘hare’, we appeal to the supreme feminine power to spiritually uplift us and engage us in the Lord’s eternal service. The word hare is from the root hR, which means ‘to take’. Thus the supreme feminine power, also known as Radha, will take away all our troubles and take us to Krishna.

Krishna comes from two Sanskrit verbal roots:

1. Krsh = ‘to attract’;  2. nand = to give, or feel, bliss. [the word a-nanda is from this root.] Thus ‘Krishna’ means that God is the source of infinite bliss because He is infinitely attractive/beautiful. You are beautiful because you are an eternal part of the infinite beauty of Krishna.

Rama comes from the Sanskrit root ‘ram’ which means ‘to enjoy’. Rama means ‘the source of pleasure.’ There is a Sanskrit text which states:

ramante yogino anante satyanande cid-atmani

iti rama-padenasau param brahmabhidhiyate

“The yogis enjoy in the infinite bliss of truth, in the conscious Soul. Therefore the Absolute Truth is described by the word Rama.”

So the Maha-mantra is ‘one stop shopping’ to achieve a perfect life. If you make this mantra your constant companion, you will never be alone. A final point: the Vedic wisdom teaches that the Absolute Truth is identical to His/Her name. So when you chant the Maha-mantra, you are not merely referring to something, but rather you are directly in contact, in touch, with the Truth. In Sanskrit, the word for ‘contact’ is ‘yoga.’ So by chanting, singing, remembering, meditating on this mantra, you are directly in a state of yoga, directly in touch with the infinitely beautiful source of all happiness. By that contact, you will revive and enjoy your own eternal, divine nature. It is only because that nature is now covered that we experience, artificially, sadness, loneliness etc.

With best wishes,

Hridayananda das Goswami

Carnival Yoga Retreat in Pandavas Paradise

Brazil is famous for its Carnival – a very colorful popular celebration of life that happens all over the country, that has been made specially world famous due to Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival, the richest and biggest of all the Carnival celebrations. Of course, Carnival is also famous for being a very sexual, very crazy time – lots of booze, lots of scantily clad women, loud music and very lusty men. It’s basically a city-wide party going on simultaneously in every major city of the country. Naturally, because it is so wild, so “carnal”, a select minority of people do their best to avoid all the madness. It’s not surprising, therefore, that Carnival is our most sought after yoga retreat here in Pandavas Paradise.

We had people coming from many different parts of the country, some travelling over 2000km to get here. We had a good mix this time, with two couples (one young, one older), a single male (policeman), which is a rare occurrence in our retreats, and the rest were women (including a med school student, a state prosecutor, a university teacher and an architect).

We invited a lovely devotee couple to help us out – Tulasi and Radharani. They came with their baby daughter, Hladini. Radharani has been the yoga teacher many times in our retreats and guests always tell us how much they like her. Of course Hladini was a big hit!

The guests also went nuts over the prasada, prepared by Carana Renu. They couldn’t believe how good everything was and kept going on about it during the five days of the retreat! They also enjoyed the cooking course held one afternoon.

At night I presented a new lecture, on Maya. Finally, after all these years giving lectures about Krishna consciousness, I could speak on something which I truly understand! No, but seriously, I noticed that it’s important to present “the problem” more clearly, before presenting the solution.  In other words, instead of just jumping in by explaining what the path of self-realization in yoga is, I realize now it’s important to emphasize why a person should want to take it up in the first place.

Though it’s the rainy season, the weather held out nicely, and we had several great walks and a great time at our waterfalls.

A more dedicated group of the guests came everyday for japa and our mangala aratik, but all of them participated in the evening aratiks. Most guests bought books (printed and audiobooks in CDs) in the end.

Here are some comments left by the guests:

“This was really one of the most important moments in my life, in all regards… I go back home with the certainty that the soul’s greatest obligation in this life, aside from love, is self-realization… Thank you very much for everything!!!” –Antonio, Brasília-DF

“Pandavas Paradise has left me with longing… EVERYTHING was good there… the people, the place so full of peace, the delicious food, the yoga classes, the mantras, the waterfalls, the walks, the sharing of life experiences and the teachings… My gratitude, care and longing! See you soon!” – Gisele, Belém-PA

“I’m still feeling a profound sense of inner peace. Even if destiny does not allow us to meet you all again, believe me, you have left a permanent impression in me. Hare Krishna!” – Paulo Cesar, Miguel Pereira-RJ

“Though we only spent five days there, they will never be erased from our minds, because our perception was so uniquely changed. We learned that life is lost in the whirlpool of superficial life, to the detriment of true “being”. And through introspection we forgot this superficial existence, and through meditation, mantras and the teachings of the Bhagavad-gita, we experienced our “soul consciousness”. In this state we return to our regular lives with the firm conviction that life is a long road and that we should share our love while we travel.” – Eliana, Palmas – TO

Click here to see more pictures of the retreat.

Retreat With Chandramukha Swami in Pandavas Paradise

Chandramukha Swami (HDG) spent 3 nights in Pandavas Paradise, from the 17^th to the 20^th of February. Though we only had two weeks notice that he was coming, we decided to organize a bhakti retreat to make the most of his visit.

Chandramukha Swami will be celebrating this year 25 years of sannyasa – quite an accomplishment for anyone, what to speak of someone who took sannyasa in his twenties and preaches in Rio de Janeiro! Though little known outside of Brazil, Maharaja is very popular here. He’s quite creative and has written dozens of books on Krishna Consciousness and recorded dozens of kirtan CDs with popular Brazilian musicians. He’s also an excellent preacher, well versed in the shastras. Since being appointed guru a few years ago, he has taken on nearly a hundred disciples.

We had a full house for this retreat, all but two people being regular congregational members in Brasília, which though 250km away is the closest big city to Pandavas Paradise. Pandavas Paradise and ISKCON Brasilia have a synergetic relationship – an essential key to the success of retreat and farm projects.

At the start of the retreat, it seemed we had a disaster in our hands! Maharaja, after eating some vegetarian sushi with a bit too much wasabi (horseradish), felt his throat tighten up. It turned out that Maharaja has developed some lumps in his vocal chords from all these years of intense speaking and chanting and will apparently need surgery. With his throat aggravated from having just come from an intense preaching tour in Santiago, Chile, the wasabi was the final blow. He called his doctor, who chastised him and told him to remain in total silence! 16 people had come to listen to Maharaja and upon arriving were informed that it was likely Maharaja would not be speaking at all!

I quickly thought of an alternative – I’d speak to the guests on the fascinating story of Chitraketu Maharaja, from Sixth Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam. The first night I spoke on Chapter 14 and was prepared to extend the presentation all through the weekend.

But, to our surprise and delight, the next morning Maharaja showed up at class time and said he was feeling better after only one night of silence – you can’t keep a good swami down! He then went on to lecture for nearly 5 hours that day, giving a Bhagavatam class on Ajamila,  a long questions and answers session, and a Bhagavad-gita class on verse 18.67!

We also went on a walk to our waterfalls, with ladies going to the big waterfall and Maharaja with the men to another. To avoid unnecessary speaking on the way, it was a mauna-vrata or japa-vrata walk.

Maharaja cracked us up by carrying a little piece of paper with the words mauna-vrata!

Maharaja was very impressed with the scenic beauty of Pandavas Paradise and our waterfall.

The ladies went to a separate waterfall.

On Sunday morning Maharaja left at 5am. I finished the presentation on Chitraketu Maharaja that morning and, after breakfast, the retreat was brought to a close. The guests were inspired and spiritually recharged, happy to have gotten such wonderful association in Paradise.

Maharaja wrote in his blog:

“By the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, I spent the last weekend literally in ‘Paradise.’  And not just any paradise, but a Krishna conscious paradise, the best of both worlds.”

Click here to see more pictures of the retreat!

Two Yoga Retreats with Laurent Dauzou in Pandavas Paradise

We had two yoga retreats with the famous French Iyengar trained yoga teacher, Laurent Dauzou. The first was from the 19-23 of January and the other from the 11-16 of February.

Laurent is a very skilled and knowledgeable teacher. His classes are intense and, quite literally, body altering – your body gets realigned, stretched and more balanced. The students had over 4 hours of yoga classes with him every day!

Both groups (of about 12 guests) were especially united and quickly took to each other, creating a loving and family like atmosphere.

In the first group we had a reporter, from a travel magazine. It was his first time in contact with the practice and philosophy of yoga and Krishna Consciousness.  He’ll be writing an article on Pandavas Paradise to be published in March. He was very well impressed and I expect his article will be very positive.

It’s summer here in Brazil (as all of you buried under massive snow storms will be pleased to know, I’m sure!).  In this time of the year we have beautiful sunny days, with the occasional massive thunderstorm. We were blessed with great weather for hiking our trails.

Even though we’re at 4000 ft altitude, when it’s sunny it gets quite hot – perfect weather for splashing about in our waterfalls!

Every day the guests practiced concentrated, sitting-down, japa, after the mangal aratik. In the evenings, after Gaura aratik, I lectured on different topics of our yoga philosophy and how to apply it to our lives. In the second retreat we also showed the “Ever Wellwisher” documentary on Srila Prabhupada. (Nice as it is, isn’t it time ISKCON had a new professional documentary on Srila Prabhupada?)

In both retreats, the guests bought Gitas, Yoga Sutras, other books and japas and neck beads in the hopes of continuing what they had started in Pandavas Paradise.

Here are some of the comments we got from our guests:

“Again, wonderful and intense moments, nurtured by the company of super special people, invigorating practices of yoga, and absolutely refreshing and delicious prasadam, which incidentally, is one of the highlights of Paradise. I thank you for all the moments of fun, introspection, life and yoga lessons, talks, walks and refreshing swimming in the waterfalls. To the folks of Pandavas Paradise, after my third visit, I can safely say, ‘until next time!’”- Helena, Brasilia-DF

“I needed some time for myself, to go back to my essence, to hear my inner self, and, within days, not only did I get all that, but I also got to know special people that made me feel at home, a “home” that I never thought existed, with everyone seeking the same things despite having such different personal backgrounds. The place – precious, the company – wonderful, the food – divine, the lessons – challenging and the peace – eternal. Thanks for everything and everyone for taking part in this special moment!”- Fernanda, Brasilia-DF

“My friends, I thank you for everything. Thanks for such a wonderful place and for the people who complete the magic of this paradise on earth. “- Adriana, São Paulo-SP

“Frieds, I am very grateful to you all for sharing such important and amazing moments with me! I can still feel the good energy that we cultivated in these days of meditation, kirtans, yoga classes, and in every moment. I hope that Pandavas Paradise will continue to be this wonderful place of giving and receiving of good energy. “- Gabriela (Gal), Aracaju-SE

“It was really a unique opportunity to have participated in the retreat in Pandavas Paradise! I was very happy to meet people who are so dear and attuned to subtle and valuable aspects of life! “- Mario, Brasilia-DF

“I really enjoyed those days we spent together and carry with me the positive mood, fond memories and lasting impressions of each one of you. I thank you all, and especially Giri and Laurant for facilitating these moments of peace, connection and understanding. “- Ju, Florianópolis-SC

Click here to see more pictures of the retreat of our January retreat and here to see pictures of the February retreat!

Kirtan at Laya Yoga in Brasilia

Last weekend we were invited to perform kirtan at the Laya Yoga school in Brasilia, as part of their offer to help us raise funds for Pandavas Paradise. The event was the finale of their “Week of the Divine Mother”, in honor of Sri Lakshmidevi.

Many of our local ISKCON devotees joined in for the fun, playing, singing, dancing or just helping out by selling books and distributing flyers to the guests.

Three of us lead the kirtan.

First Sadhu Sanga Prabhu, the music teacher to many members of our congregation…

followed by me.

Then my wife, Carana Renu, beautifully singing Bajahu Re Mana, followed by the Hare Krishna mantra.

At the request of the owner, I spoke to the guests about our campaign to raise money to rebuild our burnt-down Shanti guest house. She suggested I use a bowl to get the donations! It was kind of funny… but it worked!

I also gave one of my books to their leader, who had flown in just for the closing ceremony, a lady from another important city in Brasil, Belo Horizonte. She’s the “acharya” of Laya Yoga in Brazil. The next day she wrote to me:

“I liked very much the content covered and the way in which the book was written. I found your writing very acessible and a pleasure to read, without distorting the teachings of Yoga. I wish you happinness and success in your work of spreading the teachings of Yoga.”

By the end of the almost three hours of kirtan, the devotees were deep in the bliss of the holy names, dancing, singing and laughing!

Click here to see more pictures of the event.

Trip to Miguel Pereira and Rio de Janeiro

In the mountains of the State of Rio de Janeiro are many beautiful towns, surrounded by the Altantic Forest and peaks. One such place is Miguel Pereira, a town with a population of 26 thousand people. It’s only about 90 minutes from Rio and because it’s not too high (600m altitude), the temperature is always quite pleasant there. A devotee couple recently opened a preaching center there and invited me to give a lecture.

Actually, the recent story of this couple is a nice example of how Krishna makes wonderful and unexpected arrangements for His devotees. The couple fell quickly in love last year and got married soon after. However, they did not want to live in Rio (the husband, Tulasi Bhakta Prabhu, is a policeman – imagine being a policeman in Rio!). Praying to Krishna for guidance they embarked on a tour of the country, a sort of honeymoon/pilgramage, visiting many different ISKCON temples and projects in Brazil, as well as other scenic spots. In their travels they met a pious lady from Miguel Pereira. She immediately liked them (they are very likeable!) and offered them a beautiful, well located house in Miguel Pereira – for free! There was only one catch: they would have to maintain an ISKCON preaching program there, with at least one program a week. She signed a two-year contract with them. Just amazing! And the wife, Radharani DD, was already pregnant by this time too. So, in the space of about 10 months, Radharani and Tulasi went from not even knowning each other, and both living in the temple (one in Rio, the other in Belo Horizonte) to being married, with a baby (she was very premature but healthy), and an excellent, free house/preaching center in this charming town in the mountains! By the way, they met and fell in love in Pandavas Paradise!

They organized the program very nicely and managed to get a full half-page article in the local newspaper about the lecture. As a result, the small preaching center was packed to maximum capacity (just over 30 people). My wife started with a nice bhajan and then I gave the lecture. The crowd was very interested and asked lots of questions. It’s a great lecture that I have taught in several different cities: “Karma, What it Is and How to Get Rid of It!”.

In the end we managed to sell several books and CDs.

The next day we came to Rio de Janeiro, where I held a “12h Gita”. It’s a lecture I have come up with, which contains the full content of the Gita, and key quotes from Prabhupada’s purports. It’s quite intense (nearly 500 slides worth of powerpoint), but gives the participants a full view of the Gita, allowing them to perceive the flow of the entire text and Krishna’s message. I don’t read all the verses, but I do include all the information contained in them, in the same sequence. It’s the second time I’ve done this presentation and the students have given me very positive feedback.

On Sunday I was invited to give the Sunday Feast lecture at the Rio ISKCON Temple. I spoke on “Karma-yoga”, to a lively and attentive crowd.

Devotee Training Retreat (JIVA) in Pandavas Paradise

For the third year in a row, we organized a bhakta training program in Pandavas Paradise, called JIVA (Jornada Intensiva de Vaishnavismo). It’s probably our favorite retreat, because it’s such a pleasure helping sincere devotees in their Krishna Consciousness. It’s also our longest retreat, a full seven nights.

We had participants from far away places, such as Aracajú, in the far northeast and Erechim, a city in the far south (the young man endured a 36 hour bus ride, a sleep over in a roadside motel and a further 3 hour bus ride to get to us!). We also had two college professors, a physiotherapist, a lawyer, a fligh attendant and an office worker (and a six-year old little devotee girl).

We teach them about our Vaisnava philosophy, literature, sadhana, etiquette, cleanliness, our principal songs, basic sanskrit pronunciation, even how to apply tilak.

We also teach them everything about prasadam (what it is, how to prepare it, how to offer it, how to serve it) and the basics of home Deity worship (a major topic of interest). And finally, we teach them about Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON, BBT and the importance of preaching.

One of the major threads that run through the retreat’s classes is the importance of japa and studying Prabhupada’s books. We especially emphasize the Srimad Bhagavatam and every year we sell many sets. This year we sold 5 full Bhagavatam sets (the sixth participant already had her set).

The participants feel deeply moved and inspired by the retreat. Here are some things they wrote to us later:

“JIVA was decisive for the progress of my spiritual life”

“Spending a week at the farm (Pandavas Paradise) was an intense watering of our plant of devotional service…”

“I can’t find words to properly express my gratitude for all the wonderful moments I experienced in JIVA 2010”

We are now thinking of organizing an additional week-long bhakti retreat, focusing on the four bhakti-shatri scriptures.

Click here to see more pictures of the JIVA retreat.

July Yoga Retreat in Pandavas Paradise

We are trying to increase the number of retreats we offer in Pandavas Paradise, as we continue to improve and expand our services. One of the extra retreats we did this year, that we had previously not done, took place from the 10-15 of July. We decided to add a 5 day yoga retreat for the many Brazilians who take their vacations in July.

We got two yoga teachers to come from Rio de Janeiro. One is a devotee, Bn. Paula, and the other a teacher in Rio’s fanciest yoga studio, Edson Ramos. Edson is a Buddhist, ex-paramilitary and martial arts expert. Yet, these days, he’s hanging around with devotees a lot, and learning to play the mrdanga. In the picture above you can see the two of them, on the right, enjoying a bit of our therapeutic mud!

We had a small group and they quickly bonded. They came from different parts of Brazil, as far North as Macapá, and others from São Paulo, Goías and Minas Gerais. Above we can see some of them doing one of the cooking courses we had during the retreat. We had a nice gurukuli, Govindaji DD (in the middle, wearing a purple top, in the picture above), as our retreat cook.

They did lots of different yoga styles, even some basic acro-yoga.

Best of all they participated in all our aratiks and learnt to chant japa very attentively, both maintaining a proper sitting posture and walking. In the evenings they learnt many important basic points about the philosophy of Krishna consciousness with a full 90 minutes a day of lectures, given by me.

July is an amazing time of the year here in Chapada dos Veadeiros, with beautiful blue skies. We walked every day, in different trails through our nature reserve to our waterfalls.

In the end they all bought books and japa beads to continue with their study and practice and promised to come back soon!

Click here to see more pictures of the retreat!

Women’s Retreat in Pandavas Paradise

Over the weekend of April 9-12 we held our first women’s retreat at Pandavas Paradise. The event was inspired by the visit of Jaya Gauri Prabhu (ACBSP) to Brasilia, her home town. Here is an English translation of a report on the retreat, written by Bn. Claudia, one of the participants:

The Women’s Retreat in Pandavas Paradise brought together a great group of good-spirited and dynamic women who were all very enthusiastic to hear what Jaya Gauri Prabhu had to say.

Jaya Gauri Prabhu (pictured above), a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, shared with the group her profound knowledge of Vedic Culture and bhakti-yoga and her experiences as a woman in the Hare Krishna Movement. She also gave hatha-yoga classes.

Jaya Gauri enchanted all the participants with her sweet and inspiring presence.

In her association we experienced unforgettable moments, as much for the more advanced devotees as for the beginners…. pure nectar!

Besides the wonderful lectures and yoga classes, the ladies enjoyed the beautiful natural surroundings, moments of peace and well-being, bathing in the waterfall, days of sun and nights full of stars.

The energy required to participate in all this came from the delicious organic vegetarian meals prepared by our dear Carana Renu Prabhu.

The feminine energy reigned in Paradise! We had wonderful days that only left us wanting more…

Click here to see more pictures of the retreat.

Easter Retreat in Pandavas Paradise

Over the weekend of April 1-4 we held our Easter Retreat in Pandavas Paradise, our 1000 acre bhakti-yoga retreat center in the heart of Brazil.

By divine arrangement, the group was very “sattvic”, in other words, very high minded. We had mostly teachers and ecologists, who came there seeking a break from the demands of modern life and to get to know more about spiritual life in the yoga tradition.

One of the participants, in his young university days, had met the first ISKCON devotees to come to Brazil, in the early seventies (surfers!). He had gotten into it, chanted japa, etc., but then got involved with his career and forgot Krishna Consciousness. This retreat was his way of restarting the process, almost 40 years later!

On the other side of the age spectrum, we had two young ladies (18 and 19), who came all the way from Campinas, SP (1100 km away!). A funny thing happened: after signing up for the retreat, one of the ladies went to a large bookstore to buy a book on yoga spirituality. She found one she liked, took it home and only much later realized it was a book I had written, printed by our NGO!

As usual our guests were treated to a full schedule, starting at 6 am with a sweet melodic kirtan, followed by japa (mantra meditation) and then a yoga class at 7am.  After a hearty breakfast (with varied breads, fruits, juices, yogurt, cake, jams etc), we hit the trails, which end up in either one of our waterfalls or our natural pool (Mahavira Kunda).

After the walks, a delicious lunch. After lunch we also offered cooking classes and a special class on how to wear a sari. The women loved it!

At night, after more kirtan, I spoke on self-realization in yoga.

Click here to see more pictures!