Individuality in bhakti – The Monks Podcast

Emotional challenges on the devotional path – The Monk’s Podcast 60 with Anuttama P and Rambhoru M

Posted on January 28, 2022February 15, 2022

Rambhoru Brinkmann M.Div; MA; BCC ACPE Certified Educator
Rambhoru was initiated in 1974 in Cologne, Germany, by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. She spent the next twenty-six years assisting her husband, Prithu Dasa, to establish and manage ISKCON temples in Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, and India. During that time she and her husband had two sons, Madan Mohan (Madi) Dasa and Nila Madhava (now Sri Madhava Mahotsava) Dasa. In 1999, Rambhoru returned to Guilford College to complete her BA in Religious Studies, and spent the next ten years studying interfaith dialogue, practical theology, pastoral care, and religious education. She also earned a Master of Divinity degree from Claremont School of Theology, completed four units of Clinical Pastoral Education at Yuma Regional Medical Center in Arizona, and earned a masters degree in Patient Counseling at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she worked as an adjunct faculty member at the Allied School of Health. In 2007, Rambhoru began training to be an ACPE Certified Educator (www.acpe.edu) at Virginia Commonwealth University, and served as resident senior chaplain there.
In 2008, Rambhoru became a Board Certified Chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains (www.professionalchaplains.org), a fourth-level Healing Touch Practitioner, and a therapeutic harpist while ministering bedside to suffering persons at the Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital. In 2010, Rambhoru became the Director of the St. Camillus Center for Spiritual Care: Urban Interfaith Chaplaincy program in downtown East Los Angeles, which serves patients at the Los Angeles County Hospital and University of Southern California Medical Center, Eastlake Juvenile Prison, Homeboy Industries, and other inner-city hospitals, hospices, and projects. Rambhoru became certified as an ACPE Educator (doctorate equivalent) in Clinical Pastoral Education in 2015. Rambhoru has been a member of the ISKCON Prison Ministry since 2015, and has corresponded with and provided Srila Prabhupada’s books to prison inmates since that time.
https://karunacare.iskcon.org/karuna-…
https://karunacare.iskcon.org

Using our imagination in Krishna’s service – The Monk’s Podcast 58 with Krishna Kshetra Maharaj

Posted on January 28, 2022February 15, 2022

Krishna Kshetra Swami – teacher, writer, and traveller – is a disciple of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

He has served as a missionary, temple priest (pujari), and counselor for bhakti-yoga practitioners from the time of his formal initiation in 1972. From 1972 to 1976 he was based in Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark; then he began to participate in Vaishnava missionary activities in central Europe. Almost every year, from 1978 to 1995 he visited India on pilgrimage.

In 1995, as coordinator of a research group, he compiled and published Pancaratra-pradipa (in 2 volumes), a manual for Caitanya Vaishnava temple worship. He also served ISKCON’s GBC as the minister for Deity worship from then until 2005.

In 2004, after eight years of university study (resuming his interrupted studies from 1972), he received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Oxford (St. Cross College), for his dissertation on Caitanya Vaishnava image worship, now available from Routledge Publishers as Attending Krsna’s Image: Caitanya Vaisnava Murti-seva as Devotional Truth (2006), as a book in the Routledge Hindu Studies Series.

Krishna Kshetra Swami is now a Research Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. He also teaches at Bhaktivedanta College, Radhadesh, since 2002. He recently taught survey courses in Indian religions and Asian religions in the Religion Department at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Beginning in September 2007, he began teaching at Chinese University of Hong Kong — courses in Indian religion and culture. After a full year of teaching, he then continued to teach one semester per year for the next four years. Since then, he has been giving lectures at several universities in the People’s Republic of China.

Amidst academic work he also travels extensively, teaching about spiritual life, as comprehended in the Vaishnava devotional (bhakti) tradition coming from Sri Caitanya.

These are the countries in which he has studied, taught, counseled, and participated in spiritual community-building:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Macedonia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Rumania, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad, United Kingdom, United States, Yugoslavia.

How to spiritualize our profession – The Monk’s Podcast 50 with Yogesvara Prabhu, (Joshua Greene)

Posted on January 27, 2022February 15, 2022

JOSHUA M. GREENE is a popular lecturer on Holocaust history and the spiritual quest, and a brilliant, entertaining communicator. A former instructor at Hofstra and Fordham Universities, Greene is recipient of numerous awards for his historical biographies and documentary films. https://joshuamgreene.info/about/

JOSHUA M. GREENE
The host for Gita Wisdom is Joshua M. Greene. In 1970, at age twenty, he was initiated as Yogesvara dasa by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. In 1982, after living thirteen years in ashrams of India and Europe, Yogesvara returned to New York and started a career in film, producing children’s programs for The Disney Channel and PBS. In 1995, he became Director of Programming for Cablevision, the nation’s sixth largest cable television provider. From 1999 to 2002 he served as Senior Vice President at Ruder Finn, an international communications firm, where he advised faith communities on their role in peacekeeping initiatives. In 2012, he retired after ten years as religious studies instructor at Hofstra University. He is the author of several books on Holocaust history and the lives of contemporary spiritual figures.
https://gitawisdom.org/about/about-st…

Nourishing our individuality within a bhakti institution – The Monk’s Podcast 39 with Madhavananda P

Posted on January 7, 2022February 15, 2022

Madhavananda Das, joined ISKCON in Los Angeles in 1982. He moved to Bhubaneswar Orissa in 1993 where he has been living since. He was instructed by Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaj to edit his lectures into publications. For over twenty five years he has been serving as the director of ISKCON Gopal Jiu Publications, the editor of Sri Krishna Kathamrita Magazine, and the email magazine Sri Krishna Kathamrita Bindu.
https://iskconleaders.com/madhavanand…
Letter to Karandhara: https://vanisource.org/wiki/721222_-_…

Monasticism – Why and how – The Monk’s Podcast 26 with Shyamananda

Posted on January 7, 2022February 15, 2022

Shyamananda Das is a mentor, life coach, inspirational speaker, and a practicing monk for over 3 decades. MBA by education and well-known for his work to bring mindfulness into the mainstream of society. He is serving as a translator in one of the largest vedic-wisdom publishing house in the world and a current editor of the Indian edition of English language monthly magazine. He is a key leader of a vedic community which runs into several thousands and offers services such as mentoring, non-violent communication, conflict-resolution, and strengthening bonds.
He is the pioneer for a vast forum for providing ancient vedic wisdom resources for corporate excellence and also given many seminars on Stress Management, Work Life Balance, etc. at multiple professional organizations and universities across India.