Lately I’ve been asking myself what’s stopping us from living the life we long for, and I’ve had to conclude that we’re usually our own worst enemies. Instead of living fully, we allow fear, selfishness, and anger to govern us, standing passively by despite their tyrannical rule. we throw ourselves into our own prison! Someone once told me, “There are as many ways to sabotage yourself as there are people in the world.”
Even saints have the ability to sabotage themselves. Have you ever wondered
On Sunday I told the story of my mother. She was born in May, named May, and died in May. She was a beautiful person and I learned much from her that continues to have a positive influence on my everyday spiritual practice.
I shared with all that I was there with my mother at the time of her leaving her body. It was a powerful experience with my sister on one side reciting prayers from the Bible and I on the other side chanting our mantra. She left peacefully on the wings of sacred sound.
What
A young lady from Colombia was walking on the Mall in DC last week. On the same day the young man who manages the Krishna House at near the University of Maryland decided to go there and sell some Bhagavad-gitas.
He met various people and sold some books. He also met this young lady from Colombia and she bought a book. After about ten minutes he saw her coming back towards him. She stopped to ask him two questions.
“Why are you out here doing this on this cold day?” she queried.
He told her he
Last week we asked the question – what do we do with the body when we know we’re not the body? How do we view it, work with it, live with it? Here are three approaches that help us see the body from a spiritual perspective and appreciate the strong role it plays in deepening our relationship with Krishna.
A Bridge: We as spirit souls connect to the world through the body. We eat, see, hear, smell and seek happiness through the mind and senses. The body bridges the inner me to the outer world. W
How to know Krishna? How to get a sense of who He is, a feeling towards Him? How can we think about Him naturally throughout the day and not just while we battle with our mind during our chanting practice? In other words, can we meditate off the mat and into the day?
Meditation is mind work. For some it’s emptying the mind of everything. For us it’s filling the mind with thoughts of Krishna. Letting the mind drift to His side, lean into His space and rest there.
Arjuna asked Krishna such a ques
In the story of the Ramayana, Sita follows her husband into exile. Up until that point their life was going fine. Princess marries the handsome prince and all in the kingdom are happy. Then boom – one person, one incident, turns their whole life upside down. An old promise has Rama banished to the forest for 13 years. He had to walk out the door with nothing but the clothes on his back. His wife Sita would not be left behind and walked the forest path with him.
Sita and Rama are divine, but the
Where we put our mind
our heart, our head, and our hands
It creates space to share
with greater things
Meditation brings peace, brings slow,
brings breath, brings perspective
It’s where we go not to forget life
but to live life
meditation is where
we can make changes
forgive
decide to be better
It returns our memory
it shows the way
home
Krishna meditation uncovers
pulls back the curtain
and we know we are not alone
it is where we can begin
to repair the long lost
ancient and eternal
relationsh
Japa is the personal practice of reciting the names of Krishna. It’s an ancient practice and similar practices can be found in many religious traditions – the muttering, murmuring, or calling out of God’s name over and over again. When we call someone by their name we feel close to them – even if we are not near them. To name and be named. A name belongs to a person. We who practice bhakti-yoga believe that Krishna, the source of all life, is a person. When we call His name we enter a relations
The latest issue of Sri Krishna-kathamrita Bindu e-magazine was just released. This edition includes:
* PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS – His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada speaks about the reality of political leadership.
* DISSERVICE TO THE BHAGAVATAM – Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur chastises impersonalists who try to write commentaries on Srimad Bhagavatam.
* DON’T STAY IN DARKNESS – Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja speaks about coming to the light of Krishna.
* K
Yamuna Devi: Srila Prabhupada, although we are very happy where we are, we are prepared to go wherever you would like to send us in order to have your blessings.
Srila Prabhupada: You westerners are always are restless. Why can’t you stay where you are?
Yamuna Devi: But we have been told that because we don’t have the association of devotees, we cannot make any advancement.
Srila Prabhupada: Association can be two or two hundred. But you must be compatible. If you are two and you are compati
On June 18th, nearly one hundred and sixty yoga teachers attended a Mantra Festival in Buenos Aires in honor of ISKCON’s 50th anniversary.
“Last year we put on a lot of events for ISKCON 50 in our temple,” says Argentina’s ISKCON 50 coordinator Merudevi Dasi. “So this year we decided to start going outside and reaching out to new people.”
The free cultural event was held at the Valle Tierra yoga center in Palermo, a hip alternative neighborhood of Buenos Aires that is particularly receptive to
yasyästi bhaktir bhagavaty akincanä
sarvair gunais tatra samäsate suräù
haräv abhaktasya kuto mahad-gunä
manorathenäsati dhävato bahih
"One who has unflinching devotional faith in Krishna consistently manifests all the good qualities of Krishna and the demigods. However, he who has no devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead has no good qualifications because he is engaged by mental concoction in material existence, which is the external feature of the Lord." (Srimad Bhagavatam 5.18.12)
Material existence is compared to fire. It is hot very very hot . To escape from burning heat of summer we install air conditioners. The bigger the room bigger the air conditioner. Can you imagine one centralised air conditioner for the entire world which Krishna sent to Earth for people to take refuge in ? This air conditioner's capacity is limitless. One tonne ? No two tonne ? No. Trillions of tonnes. This AC is none other than Srila Prabhupada - A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada - hummin
On the 10th of June around 70 devotees coming from Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto assembled in the Buddhist Retreat Center Pho Da Son in Val-des-Monts, Canada – a perfect setting to go into seclusion for three days and dive deeply into another reality: Harinama eva kevalam – the holy name alone is everything. The participants were keen to embark on this transcendental journey under the expert guidance of Devaki Mataji, and their hearts and minds were open in order to capture insights into the sec
Giriraj Swami: Today is the disappearance day of Srivasa Pandita, one of the members of the Panca-tattva: sri-krsna-caitanya prabhu-nityananda sri-advaita gadadhara srivasa. In describing the Caitanya tree, Sri Caitanya-caritamrta (Adi 10.8–11) states,
“The two brothers Srivasa Pandita and Sri Rama Pandita started two branches that are well known in the world. Their two brothers were named Sripati and Srinidhi. These four brothers and their servants and maidservants are considered one big branc
Sri Krishna Purusottama Das: Padma Purana: “Of all types of worship, worship of Lord Viṣṇu is best, and better than the worship of Lord Viṣṇu is the worship of His devotee, the Vaiṣṇava.”
When Pārvatī asked Lord Mahādeva, Lord Śiva, what is the best method of upāsanā, or worship, Lord Śiva answered, ārādhanānāṁ sarveṣāṁ viṣṇor ārādhanaṁ param. And further, he says that serving the associates and servants of the Lord is greater than serving the Lord directly. Mother Cow is an eternal and dear as
Our modern world is nearly devoid of rituals and even those that remain – such as ones that revolve around the holidays – have largely lost their transformative power and are empty and meaningless. Yet, “We see in every culture—and throughout history—that people who perform rituals report feeling better,” says Norton, an associate professor in the Marketing unit at Harvard Business School. Through various experiments they have also concluded that rituals work because they increase involvement i
At last, the ethics of compassion and non-violence, even at dinner, have made their way to the Italian Parliament!
It happened on Friday, June 24, thanks to the intervention of Shriman Matsyavatara Prabhu (Marco Ferrini), invited by the deputees, who spoke about the theme of “Prevention and Education on Nourishment.”
Many highly qualified speakers specialized in scientific disciplines participated at the conference and discussed the themes in terms of health and the environment
In the world’s great wisdom-traditions, prayers are often acknowledged as means for accessing divine power. The prayers by saints often reveal the profound depths of their selfless devotion to God.
One such exalted prayer is the song Markine Bhagavata-dharma (Teaching Krishna consciousness in America) that Srila Prabhupada composed in 1965 while he was aboard the Jaladuta, the ship that had carried him from India to America. However, the ship had only been the physical instrument – what had act
