Blog

By Madhava Smullen

Throughout this year, ISKCON New Vrindaban is reaching out to local leaders, neighbors, congregation, and both present and past residents to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

New Vrindaban, established in the rolling hills of West Virginia in 1968 at the behest of Srila Prabhupada, is a unique place. It’s ISKCON’s very first farm community, and the first cow protection program in the Western World.

It was specifically defined by Srila Prabhupada as a place of pilgrimage, non-di

By Karnamrita Das

CONFESSIONS OF BEING A HABITUAL “SLUMP,” TRANSFORMED BY FULLING MY MISSION TO GIVE: Generally, I’m not in favor of self-deprecation, especially as a habitual go-to attitude of who we are as persons, which I see as an ill-informed, bad affirmation that can keep us stuck in behavior that needs to be overcome or changed into something positive. We aren't our past sad story, or who we "think" we are, which we only are if we resign ourselves to our limiting beliefs about what is pos

Every spiritual master is representing the sampradaya and is representing the knowledge of scriptures inparampara and at the same time, every spiritual master is an individual and each individual is different and therefore every spiritual master brings in his own individual mood.

Well, I am from that small country, the Netherlands. A country that has a lot of history and was involved in a lot of wars because it is always the small guys that get picked on naturally. For example, in the time when

Whereas when Deity worship is done properly following the rules of worship and maintaining strict cleanliness and punctuality, the worship is enlivening to devotees;

Whereas, it has been seen that in temples where the worship is below the required minimum standard, it is often a result of zonal leadership, temple management, and/or the head pujari not knowing the proper standards of worship;

Whereas GBC members and other leaders of ISKCON may not have the time to learn appropriate standards for

[ISKCON Law]

Resolution A:

Whereas Srila Prabhupada has stated that the worship of Radha-Krsna is the “ultimate pinnacle” of worship and “must be done with the utmost caution and attention”;

Whereas there are Radha-Krsna Deities being worshipped with less than five aratis per day;

Whereas there are Radha-Krsna Deities being worshipped by, or cooked for by non-brahmanas;

Whereas improper worship of Radha-Krsna is having long-term detrimental effects on individual devotees, local communities, and

Whereas ISKCON does not have established formal Policies and Procedures to maintain ecclesiastical leadership standards within our Society regarding Sexual Misconduct of Leaders nor does ISKCON have methodologies to respond appropriately when a leader demonstrates Sexual Misconduct;

Whereas many large and global religious organizations have deemed it proper to establish such systems;

Whereas having such Policies and Procedures in place has many specific advantages including:

• Leaders are tr

Interruptions are a part of life. They often come when least expected and have us doing things we never planned to do.

For most of us, Krishna comes as an interruption in our life. There we were living as best we could, planning our future and how we may work or study, live or travel. Then hello! Krishna arrived through a friend or music or a book and suddenly things were different. We look back after years of chanting or service and think – I never thought I would be doing this with my life!

A

Festival of art and cultural carnival and ogoh-ogoh annual parade enliven the streets of Semarang, Sunday (25/3). Spatter rain did not dampen the intention of residents and tourists to enjoy the event. The purpose of this event is one, stimulating creativity of art and culture across religions, and the most important thing is to knit togetherness in diversity. Because those who join here were not just Hindus, just because ogoh-ogoh is their specialty. But there were also Muslims, Buddhists, Chr

For the first time in the history of the Kenyan Yatra, the Lord of the universe Jagannatha along with His brother Baladeva and sister Subhadra devi came out in a beautiful procession to bless the jubilant and colorful people of Eldoret city, which is the principal city in western Kenya.

This Rath Yatra was made possible by the joint effort of ISKCON KISUMU which is about 118km from Eldoret and ISKCON Nairobi which is about 318km away. The Main person behind organizing the event is the local Mem

For the first time, ISKCON Pune hosted the GBC College for Leadership Development, for the forth English edition of the Zonal Supervisor Course, in the newly-built guest-house and conference halls, from Feb 24 to March 8, 2018. Participants highly praised the quality of assistance and the devotional atmosphere.

While the participants came mostly from India, we also had some international presence: Nepal, Sri Lanka, but also as far as the United States and Chile. We were graced with the presence

By Romapada Swami

Queation: My father is now deceased, but was a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. He was placed in a mental hospital for years. My brother is also paranoid schizophrenic and is on strong medication. I grew up observing the actions of the mentally ill.

As such I look very carefully at the reasoning given. I am a retired police officer and have come in contact with many people who are mentally ill.

Now to the question, If a mentally ill person believes his delusion and acts acco

For nearly five decades, His Grace Harivilas Prabhu has been exemplary in his service to Srila Prabhupada. From the beginning of his life in Krsna consciousness, Harvilas Prabhu earnestly took on the responsibility of Srila Prabhupada’s mission in many capacities and many places, beginning with the development of the French yatra.

Along with much service responsibility, Harivilas Prabhu has been an ideal grhastha, caring for his family and giving generously towards the printing of Srila Prabhup

Resolved:

The GBC Body grants Romapada Swami a Leave of Absence based on his below letter:

I am requesting permission from the GBC Body to take a leave of absence from my GBC duties and ISKCON management responsibilities until the Freeport Temple litigation is finally resolved. I will, however, continue as before with the performance of my duties as the GBC for the Freeport Temple.

My reasons are:

1. To dedicate myself to the Freeport Temple litigation, which I have been handling on behalf of

Whereas the GBC law passed as resolution 104 of 1999 “COMPLAINTS ABOUT SANNYASIS” states as follows in its entirety:

THAT the GBC Sannyasa Sub-committee shall deal with any complaints against sannyasis. An investigation will be initiated if a majority of the members judges a complaint to merit investigation. Decisions will be made by a majority vote. The GBC Executive Committee shall present the decision to the GBC Body either by correspondence or at the next annual general meeting. A decision

Do you know God’s name, qualities, address, description, history dating back to billions of years, witnessed by millions, and proven?

If you can answer these questions, only then can you truly say you know God.

The Vedic scriptures are the oldest scriptures in the World and the only scriptures that can answer all these questions and in detail.

The Vedic scriptures completely describe God. His history, address, qualities, description, how he creates and maintains and so on. That God is Lord Kris

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 01 April 2014, Cape Town, South Africa, Evening Lecture)

We may think, “What about my security? I need some security; like a little money in the bank, a credit card maybe. You know, just in case, something happens. Need to be prepared. What about my security?”

But a vaisnava’s security is his goodwill; his goodwill with the people. That is the best security because goodwill goes much further than the bank. You know, the banks may say, “Well, sorry!” If you have maybe 150