Cover Art by Balaram Ghooran In this Issue An Offering of Love Editor’s Note DurbanKrishna News What’s New 4 Twenty-thousand visitors will bring offerings for Sri Sri Radha Radhanath over Sri Krishna Janmashtami. Living with Srila Prabhupada Therefore I decided to share how to make an V for Vandanam 5 appropriate offering. This guideline will help you decide the best way for you to make your offering. Devotional Meditation There are two major categories: an offering directly The Gateway To The Spiritual World 6 to Krishna or an offering that can be used in direct Sri Krishna Janmashtami Fesitval Guide 8 service to Krishna. Farewell Pusta Krishna! 10 What is a direct offering? A direct offering is items that require no further preparation, eg. a flower or Creatures in Bhakti fruit arrangement, sweets, milk, cards or letters, How to Make God Indebted 11 and lamps. When making a direct offering consider presentation and content. Just as you take out the Marriage Matters best China when you entertain important guests in Will Sex Save your Marriage 12 your home, in the same way you should find the best offering dishes for the Supreme Person. The plate On The Cover 14 should be free from cracks, dents and scratches. Arrange the fruit, flowers, and sweets artistically on The Vaishnava Chef the plate. While it is convenient to bring milk in it’s Nut Butter Oat Balls 14 packaging, it is best to decant it into an appropriate drinking cup for Krishna to enjoy. Imagine offering For the Kids an important guest to drink milk from the packaging? We Love Cows 15 After the offering you can pour the offered milk back Temple Directory into the milk bottle. Of course Krishna only accepts Communications Krishangi Radhe 083 254 8339 our devotion and not the items that are offered, Facilities Manager Deepak 076 541 6661 however the effort of presenting a beautiful offering Festival Manager Balaram 082 881 4521 Finance Nityananda 083 557 9140 to Him is an act of devotion. It is not about acquiring Youth Officer Sudhir 079 144 0003 the most expensive items but rather our mood and General Queries 031 403 3328 o/h 9am – 5pm attitude in making the offering. Contact the Temple directly for the following departments: What is an offering in direct service? An offering Back to Godhead Queries (Wednesdays only 9am – 2pm) Book Table (10am – 8pm) in direct service is items you offer to be used in Breakfast/Lunch Sponsorships the worship of the Deities. This includes cooking Bhakti Devi 031 403 4600 ingredients such as basmati rice, ghee, butter, sealed Govinda’s Restaurant milk, fruit, and vegetables; and for puja, bunches of (9:30am – 6:30pm. Direct line 031 403 4600) flowers, jewellery, and cloth. Radhanath’s Gifts (10am – 6pm) Take Care of Krishna – Bhakti Devi (Retail Manager) Departments Both these offerings can be laid out in front of the altar Book Distribution Krishna Baladev 082 551 8047 and offered to the Lord with your personal prayers. Deity Department Deva Deva 076 178 6850 When leaving you may take your direct offering and Funerals Ananta Sesh 084 686 2618 distribute it to friends and family as maha-prasad. Guest Accommodation [email protected] 031 403 3328 Offerings in direct service are collected by the pujaris House Programmes Radha Giridhari 076 190 8485 (trained brahmanas who worship the Deities) and are Patita Pavan Nitai 074 782 0720 used for the various offerings and deity worship. Outreach Programmes Alanath 083 775 2760 Street Chanting Virabadra 071 870 0588 Krishna tells us that he will accept even water if it is Temple Room Coordinator Arjuna Acharya 031 403 3328 offered with love (Bg 10.10). We can attract Krishna’s University Programmes Rukmini 084 579 1080 attention by our love for him. An offering is a simple Smart Box Queries Vrajanath 081 5405176 but intimate way to grow and show our love for Him. Men’s Ashram Radhika Jivan 064 851 6282 Ladies’ Ashram Radha Radhanath 071 473 3355 Warmest regards Email Subscription: [email protected] WhatsApp/SMS Subscription: Rasa-sthali Dasi WhatsApp or SMS “Subscribe” to +27 81 759 0191. Quotes from the Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita and pictures Save the number as SSRRT News. Note this is a no reply service. on pages 6, 8, 9, 10,11 & 16 are © The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Child Protection Office - www.childprotectionoffice.org International, Inc. www.Krishna.com. Used with permission. [email protected] | 076 719 6461 Printed by ATLAS PRINTERS Design and Layout by Lashika Ravjee - 082 309 2396 How Do You Spend 5.9 Hours? It is described in the Krishna Book that as Message from the Temple President soon as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Vibhu Chaitanya Das wakes up, the Lord washes His mouth, offers respect to sun, and meditates upon Himself, the Click, Click. Swipe, Swipe. Like, like. Emoji, Supreme Personality of Godhead. Sri Krishna Share! Janmashtami is the perfect way to refocus our energy on the Absolute Truth so why not make The average person spends 5.9 hours a day with the time for it? digital media. Most people have developed the habit of looking at their devices as soon Sure, social media intrigues and entices but as they awake to catch up on what they may if that post is solely on the material plane it have missed during their sleep. FOMO has will eventually leave us dissatisfied; either gripped the world! We spend so much time by us yearning for something we don’t have looking down at our devices that we completely or for something we may have once had. forget our surroundings. The current trend will This dissatisfaction with the present leads to devolve humans into an even more impersonal frustration. Ultimately everything can be used in way of life. I recently heard someone say that Krishna service. We can listen to class given by phones were used best when they were attached a spiritual leader across the world on Facebook to a cord. Live, or if you can’t come to the temple every day, you can see Sri Sri Radha Radhanath on With most of us spending 5.9 hours on our our social media. Yet every once in a while ask phones, we can’t claim to not have time. How yourself the question, “Do I really use social about we re-dedicate some of those hours to media in Krishna’s service?” According to Lord Krishna and Krishna's teachings? Choose Srimad-Bhagavatam, writing volumes of books on to invest in the eternal, which is beneficial to dry philosophy devoid of Krishna consciousness our mind (no FOMO), body (no text neck), and is entirely futile. Wouldn’t this be similar to soul (every body has one). We are so distracted the avalanche of posts, tweets, and messages by social media that we forget to work on the of temporary and unimportant information? essential aspect of life, which is developing our Scripture defines such activity asatyahar a or the spiritual life. If we are in proper consciousness, need to possessing more and more things in the this world can be the best place for spiritual shape of scientific knowledge or monetary gain. advancement. Regardless of all the special effects technology affords us, no movie director So, come along to Krishna Janmashtami and or scientist can truly create a sunrise or sunset. like, love, and share the joy of the Krishna The sky at night, the light of millions of moons kirtan, Krishna's beautiful pastimes, and Krishna and stars, or a heartbeat. God creates the ultimate prasada. This Janmastami let’s go for what is real special effects with a spark of His splendour, and truly alive. Let’s be a part of the celebration and yet we do not take notice! Why? Because that magnifies Krishna’s joy in 3D living colour. we are forgetful of Krishna. The Greening of Govinda’s A New Tulasi Garden No plastic bags & no plastic straws at Govinda’s! Have you visited the new Tulasi garden on the North Sri Sri Radha Radhanath Temple takes a small step side of the temple? Laxminath Das and team have in our bid to reduce single-use plastic. Another great created a tranquil Tulasi garden. You are invited to reason to shop at Govinda’s Restaurant! spend time chanting or reflecting in this beautiful new space! A New Festival-Cooking Kitchen Letter to Editor Just over a year ago, devotees took the initiative to Hare Krishna! Just a short note to say it took me a build a new kitchen, which would facilitate the large while to realize I can access your Krishna News scale cooking of the Love Feasts and festivals. The online. No idea why I didn't think of that before. new kitchen consists of six burners (of which four are Nevertheless, I'm absolutely loving it. I have attached high pressure burners), a cold-room, a pantry and a a painting done by my 11 year old daughter, Sohalia. beautiful altar for offering all the food preparations. She keeps this painting next to her books and prays The opening ceremony was in April. for guidance daily. Thanks again for the wonderful magazine. Best wishes Dee Naidoo V for Vandanam many sacrifices in Juhu, Mumbai to build a Living with Srila Prabhupada home for Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari. At that time, Gaura Bhumi Devi Dasi the location seemed isolated, the devotees were cheated of the property, and their temporary “Communication is the key to healthy temple was almost bull-dozed with the Deities relationships.” If we are truly serious about inside.