By Meena Chand
The Bhakti-sastri and the Bhakti-vaibhava courses are a systematic study of Srila Prabhupada's books. Srila Prabhupada wanted ISKCON devotees to deeply study his books, so that they could become better preachers and teachers, and, very importantly, achieve a clear understanding and application of the beautiful science of devotional service.
This year the Vrindavan Institute for Higher Education (VIHE) has scheduled its English Bhakti-sastri course for the period starting July 5
By Radha Sakhi Dasi
On the eve of Saturday, the 14th of April 2018, the majestic city of Kanpur witnessed a Mega Youth Program ‘Xpression’ in ISKCON Kanpur under the supervision of Devaki Nandan Das (ISKCON, Zonal secretary). This yearly phenomenon has gained the love and support from the youth of the universities in the vicinity. ISKCON Kanpur has been enlisted under the ‘De-addiction and Value Empowerment Project’ initiated by the Indian Government, hence this event provided the perfect pla
Our first Ratha Yatra in Jaipur was a humble attempt. The devotees had just recently opened a small little centre. It was not much but they still wanted to have Ratha Yatra so we decided to keep it simple.
They had one chariot. A life member made a little stage and in India, it is quite common that the stage is built to the height of the chariot. When the chariot stops people go to the stage and make offerings to the deity. So they had one such stage at the end of the procession.
But as the par
Below is a short summary of a book by William Hazlitt given by Chota Haridas das where he gives some important information that any sane devotee should not ignore.
Saints and Psychopaths
Psychopaths pretending to be saints present a very serious problem for all spiritual traditions. There are many more psychopaths pretending to be saints than there are real saints.
If you have a true saint for a teacher, then you have a real possibility for spiritual attainments, including enlightenment. If
By Sunanda Das
Lord Nityananda and Lord Nrsimhadeva in the forms of Their shoes and helmet respectively, continue to guide our tour and perform miracles. Although we were only scheduled to visit the Sri Sri Gaur Nitai temple in Poland, a last minute arrangement was made to also visit the Nava Navadvipa temple.
Each temple had about 25-35 devotees in attendance, and as usual the Lord was greeted with an arati, abhisheka and kirtan. Jananivas and Braja Vilas prabhus both spoke and presented an in
By Sunanda das
On Friday, April 13th we arrived in Koln, Germany and made our way to Gauradesh, home of the Deities Sri Sri Vijay Gauranga Doyal Nitai. Two programs were scheduled here for Saturday and Sunday to accommodate guests who could not come on Saturday.
As usual, the programs included arati, a pushpa abhishek, kirtan and talks by Their Graces Jananivas and Braja Vilas prabhus. His Holiness Bhakti Bhusana Maharaja was also present and spoke very enthusiastically to all the devotees and
By Chandan Yatra Das
Sri Varaha Nrsimha Swamy Temple
at Jiyada-Nrsimha Ksetra or Simhachalam
Sri Varaha Nrsimha Swamy - He has the face of Lord Varahadeva, and He has a body like Lord Nrsimhadeva, body of a man, and the claws & the tail of a lion
Simha means “lion” and chalam means “hill”. So this is lion’s hill, the hill of Lord Nrsimhadeva. The Deity here, Sri Varaha Laxmi Nrsimha Swamy, is popularly known in Sanskrit as Simhadrinatha or in local Telugu language as Simhadri Appanna (“the Lord
Malati Dasi: Devotees in The Hague are working hard to premiere the movie in their prestiguous theatre. After being sold out for the smaller hall which we had booked first, the premiere will be now in the biggest hall on Sunday 22 April 5pm.
In the presence of Yadubara prabhu, the Indian Ambassador, H.H. Kadamba Kanana Swami, and Hrdaya caitanya prabhu (GBC), devotees will honor the local Dutch disciples of Srila Prabhupada. With the help of Mahaprabhu prbahu, the movie will have Dutch subtitle
In the morning, I sing the words of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur from Arunodaya -kirtan to millions of suffering jivas as I ride through the pre-dawn darkness on my way to work. I follow with Sri Rupa’s famous prayer of extreme self-abnegation (mat tulyo nasti papatma) and Srila Kaviraj Goswami’s obeisance to all the Gurus, Vaishnavas and the diverse aspects of the Divine Lord Who is recognized in completeness as Shree Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Then I sing some verses from Sri Brahma-samhita g
From Back to Godhead
For a long time scientists have been asking,
What’s going on? And some of them
have tried to find out,
What’s behind it all?
Sir Isaac Newton once made a remarkable model of the solar system. Thanks to a clever hand-cranking mechanism, all of the tiny spinning globes orbited a small “sun.”
On entering Newton’s study, one of his colleagues, a materialist, couldn’t help noticing the model. He was flabbergasted.
“Dr. Newton,” the man stared, “who made this wonderful contrap
Generally we find that four gross needs namely sleeping, mating, eating and defending are basic necessities which are predominant in both animal and human society. When these basic four needs get fulfilled in one’s life one desires for subtle needs like love, affection, adoration, friendship etc. which exhibited through expansion of family, community, society , nation and so on . Every living entity socializes or attempts to make any relationships because of desire to relish some sort of taste d
Imagine a situation where we have been put a glass, which is red colored. What will happen ? We would see all the things around us with red coating. The same happens when our mind is colored. Now how can mind be colored? To understand this we first have to know what is mind. Mind is basically the medium through which our consciousness flows to the outside world and consciousness is the symptom of a conscious being i.e. soul. [Bhagavad Gita 7.4: Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence
Hare Krsna
Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada
Srila Prabhupada's First Talks in America (New York, March 1966)
tad viddhi pranipatena
pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam
jnaninas tattva-darsinah
"Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you, because he has seen the truth." [Bhaga
Hare Krsna
Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada
Hare Krsna
Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada
A lecture given in October 1968
At the University of Washington, in Seattle.
om ajnana-timirndhasya
nananjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena
tasmai sri-gurave namah
"I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, who has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, with the torchlight of knowledge."
Everyone in th
Hare Krsna
Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada
Paris June 13, 1974
The key to fearlessness is to rise above material existence by connecting with the supreme controller.
tasmad bharata sarvatma
bhagavan isvaro harih
srotavyah kirtitavyas ca
smartavyas cecchatabhayam
"O descendant of Bharata, one who desires to be free from all miseries must hear about, glorify, and also remember the Personality of Godhead, who is t
Giriraj Swami: My beloved spiritual son Kunjabihari dasa left this world today, on the auspicious occasion of Akshaya Tritiya, from a heart attack, in Dallas. Just last night he wrote me, “One thing I admire about you, you have so many wonderful, qualified disciples all over the world. I am not qualified in front of them. But I have true love and attachment for you. I love to talk about you. I love to glorify you to others, and when I do, I really get joy in my heart for you. I feel very much
Dwaipayana das: We have a wonderful programme of giving out free prasad to students on a Wednesday at Glasgows main university we are having up to and over 60 students lining up for our nutritional vegan meals.Sundays we give out prasad to everyone students, homeless people and the general public and we are having a wonderful response from everyone there is alot of homeless people on our streets here and they really appreciate a good warm meal.
We at Karuna Bhavan are hoping to expand our pr
“When one is on the bhakti marga everything is personal. Yamuna devi’s abundantly nutritious persona was the direct catalyst making the crucial difference between myself merely looking at the honey inside the jar and my deliberate decision to dive in.
By way of my attendance of a Srimad Bhagavatam class she gave one morning in the summer of 1968 at the Frederick Street temple in San Francisco (my first visitor’s experience of a temple morning program), I, a 17-year-old agnostic, was delightful
One-day Seminar on “PANCHAGAVYA AYURVEDA FOR LEADING HEALTHY LIFE”
A one-day seminar on the above theme of Panchagavya Ayurveda for Leading Healthy Life was conducted in Hyderabad. The event was organized by ISKCON-IDVM- (India), in cooperation with SAVE organization, Bharateeeyam and Venugopala Swamy Mandir Goshala.
The main speaker at the seminar was Acharya Mehul Bhai, who holds a PhD in Ayurveda and Darshan philosophy. Acharyaji conducts these programs on regular basis and is involved
