Caitanya Candrodaya Dasa, Rotterdam (2026)

Е.М. Чайтанья Чандродая прабху, вводная лекция курса Бхакти-Вайбхава

01/09/2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTBqjOjQ4zk Overview of 5-6 canto - Sthanam / Posanam

Е.М. Чайтанья Чандродая прабху, вводная лекция курса Бхакти-Вайбхава ★ ОФІЦІЙНИЙ САЙТ: http://harekrishna.org.ua/♥ Ми у соціальних мережах Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iskcon.odessa.newInstagram: https://www.instagram.c...

31/08/2024

Уже завтра, 1-го сентября в 8-00 утра пройдет обзорное занятие по курсу "Бхакти Вайбхава" -

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Требования к студентам курса Бхакти Вайбхава - хорошая садхана и сильное желание изучать Шримад Бхагаватам. Прохождение курса Бхакти Шастры и Школа Бхакти желательно.

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Photos from Caitanya Candrodaya Dasa's post

30/07/2024

History of one sculpture

The most memorable sculpture adorning Radhadesh is probably the large golden devotee with folded hands on the facade, just to the left and above the main entrance. It hasn't always been there, in fact it's a fairly recent addition. Not only in historical photographs of the castle, but also in recent years, the space under the granite canopy of the Madonna is empty.

Madonnelle - or street shrines - date back to ancient Rome. The tradition began with ancient lares (paintings or statues of domestic Roman or Etruscan deities) placed at crossroads (or compita) to watch over passers-by. Roman tradition held that demons from the infernal regions would crawl out of Tartarus (or Patala in the Vedic tradition) to haunt pedestrians in the evening, and the lares provided protection and warded off these evil spirits. When Rome converted to Christianity and the old practices declined, madonnelle - miniature street shrines, usually dedicated to the Virgin Mary - replaced the lares.
Corner Madonnelle shrines are common in Roman Catholic dwellings, especially in Malta and in Renaissance Italy. These shrines mark some of the "critical places" in the Eternal City and can still be found in the unique spaces of all the main tourist streets in Rome, Florence and Venice.

And in this case, the Walloon neo-Gothic residence of the de Hamal and de Grane families also had a Madonna shrine, probably since the 1460s. We do not know exactly when the original medieval statue was removed from the present castle and if it was something of value and moved to the nearby church, but in Radhadesh castle the renovations were extensive. After almost 35 years of renovations at Radhadesh, this golden devotee sculpture is probably the latest and most significant addition to the appearance of the original castle.

Hrdaya Caitanya dasa says of his early years in Radhadesh: "As pioneers, we learned to do many things we had not done before. As a result, some things came out better than others. We also didn't really have the tools we needed, so we had to do the best we could with what we had. It was a very challenging time.
The work on the statue was not done by Krishna Svarupa Dasa (a Dutch devotee trained as an architect), nor by Darius from Poland, who also helped with temple renovations in the early years. The design and origins of this sculpture are connected to the designs of Srila Prabhupada's Puspa Samadhi and the way it was completed in Sri Dham Mayapur.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, two teams completed the Puspa Samadhi at Mayapur. Under Sadbhuja's direction, an Australian devotee, Bharata Maharaja dasa, created a series of life-size sculptures based on the original design drawings by Kadamba Kanana's team. Twelve sculptures were made and are now positioned around the dome of the samadhi, sometimes called "statues of devotees chanting kirtan", at the top of structural cantilevers that form the base of the concrete ribs of the pushpa samadhi dome. In 1993, the SMPDC (Sri Mayapur Project Development Committee) expedited the completion of the pushpa-samadhi, prompting consideration of some cost-cutting measures. Because of the budget overrun (that was extremely high) the BBT funds were withdrawn, and it was not funded by the BBT Temple fund, originally established by Srila Prabhupada.

A sample prototype sculpture for the dome was made by Milan (a Bengali sculptor from Santipur) and Bharata Maharaja dasa, it had a special technology of a costly Italian gold thermal finish that would not deteriorate over time. This golden terracotta option was presented to the SMPDC but was rejected by the committee because of the cost. It was excessive. It is not just the look, design and size of the sculpture that is similar to the one in Radhadesh.

The Radhadesh sculpture, like the Pushpa Samadhi prototype, has a very expensive gold finish.

Chatanya Charan dasa recalls that he considered applying an additional coat of varnish, but was told that because of the double gilding technique usually used on special or sacred outdoor objects, it would last for dozens of years without deterioration. "The special gold we put on this sculpture is called double tower gold. This means that it also has some other metals [platinum etc] in it" - Chatanya Charan recalls - "It was about two thousand euros of gold leafing on this statue, but when it was about two-thirds finished... the gold was finished." The congregation of Radhadesh from Benelux was asked and many replied. "Both my mother and my sister donated about fifty euros, some devotees of Radhadesh donated some Laxmi, Visnumurti prabhu, Ekachakra prabhu..." - he recalls, not mentioning everyone by name - "but the next day we collected 750 euros, so in one day it was donated, then we could finish it and it was 2000 euros worth of gold".

"It took Benny and Jasomatinandana (disciple of Kadamba Kannana Swami) two months of gold-leafing everyday, 5-6 hours daily, and the two of them were did the double leafing. I just put a gold leaf at the bottom of the lotus to show them how to do it, and it was mostly done by Benny Prabhu, he put the gold leaf very peacefully, very carefully, and it is still shining as it was in the beginning.” And Chaitanya Caran concludes that, against all odds, “no birds have ever been seen sitting on this murti”, which will soon be matched by additional gold accents of the metal grill parts, similar to the front door of the castle.

29/05/2024

A devotee from Bulgaria approached me after Bhagavatam class in Radhadesh and asked about the Kruschev gifting of Ukraine Crimea. Both Crimea and all other areas that were occupied by Russians before the war were originally Ukrainian territories and the main spoken language there was Ukrainian. It is close to the contemporary Russian language, just as Bulgarian is close to Russian. There is a 35% lexical disparity between French and Italian. And there is a 38% lexical disparity between Ukrainian and Russian, yet there is a greater cultural disparity.

Today starts Ukraine festival Nitay Gauranga with hundreds of devotees coming for the fest in the Western Ukraine. They are risking going to the festival to get sadhu-sanga... Before the war, the Odesa festival in Ukraine was the largest in the Western world, with an average of 12,000 devotees coming together for kirtans and lectures. All glories to Ukrainian devotees!