Yamuna Devi: Three Years Ago, on Janmastami, Lord Krsna’s appearance day, I received a copy of the diary Srila Prabhupada wrote aboard the steamship Jaladuta. It’s a personal account of his first journey from India to America. Though I had read excerpts in various publications, the full handwritten text revealed a richness I had barely realized before.
Often difficult to read, the cramped and sometimes blurry script describes dramatic events…
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By Ananda Vrindavaneswari Devi Dasi
Janmastami is just one day, but how we spend it can deeply inspire us for the whole year.
Krishna consciousness mean we are conscious of Krishna. He becomes an active part of our life – like a close friend or an affectionate family member we love to be around. Krishna consciousness, then, is loving to be…
Sri Krsna Janmastami
A Talk by Giriraj Swami
We read from Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto Ten, Chapter Two: “Prayers by the Demigods for Lord Krsna in the Womb.”
TEXT 18
tato jagan-mangalam acyutamsam
samahitam sura-sutena devi dadhara
sarvatmakam atma-bhutam
kastha yathananda-karam…
Srimad Bhagavad-gita is the greatly enlightening philosophical song sung by Lord Sri Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to instruct the bewildered Arjuna on the battlefield of Kuruksetra. Bhagavad-gita systematically presents the knowledge of the soul, karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, astanga-yoga, bhakti-yoga, the modes of material nature, the virat-rupa and so on. The five truths…
From Back to Godhead
Is life meaningless until we give it meaning?
A young woman from South Africa, where I live, is a candidate for the Mars One project, the brainchild of a Netherlands-based group hoping to set up a colony on Mars by 2025. She anticipates years of vigorous training, many grueling hours of intense research, an…
It’s a general concern of devotees which we hear in many of the classes, forums and seminars on what can be the real key to balance one’s material and spiritual lives.
There is a very interesting statement made by famous French priest and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience but we are spiritual beings having a human…
When we think calmly and carefully about this wonderful universe, we can see that everything is working under the control of a supreme brain. The arrangements in nature are perfectly ordered. Things would be at random without the careful planning of a scientific and engineering brain. It is a common understanding that there is a cause behind each action. A machine cannot run without an operator. Modern scientists are very proud of…
I was working in the Soviet army. I spend quite some years also in the Afghanistan war. It was such a nasty experience that I wanted to orient myself to a more peaceful atmosphere. So I joined the Moscow Institute that trained KGB staff. Of course it is not publicly known to be in that function. I chose the justice line, for to become some spy in the foreign countries did not fit…
Thirty years ago I was doing the Prabhupada marathon at the Chicago airport. One afternoon, we devotees were so intoxicated by distributing books that we decided to show that one doesn’t have to speak to sell books, that book distribution just depends on our state of consciousness. So we didn’t speak.
Just after loading my bookbag with (20) maha books I tapped a man on the arm and…
By Kalakantha Das
Q & A From Each Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā
How do you deal with an impossible situation?
Before just bailing out without thinking about our future or other’s needs, Krishna advises us to first consider the consequences of…
We might wonder what is going on in the heart of the Lord when someone turns to Him. Any information about this would increase our desire to connect with Him manifold – but is there any reliable description, an example, a real incident?
This is very nicely answered in the following texts, where the Lord welcomes Gopa Kumara when he finally comes before Him.…
Srila Prabhupada spoke in an interview in 1968:
“We have got so many branches, they want to hear me, my singing, my speech, therefore they record it and send it to different branches.”
Interview – February 1, 1968, Los Angeles
In June of 2019, the…
Ratha Yatra is a festival of ecstasy because Lord Caitanya knew very well that Krsna cannot be happy outside of Vrndavana. Vrndavana is the place where He belongs! Vrndavana is the place where everything is designed for Krsna, and therefore Krsna can only be happy in Vrndavana. So Krsna had to be brought back to Vrndavana.
How could Krsna be in Dwarka? That is not the place where Krsna is at home. In Dwarka,…
By Radheshyam Das
If Parikshit maharaja had killed Kali instead of forgiving him, we wouldn’t be suffering the effects of Kali now.’ Isn’t this a sensible argument? Let’s analyze…
Problems in Kali yuga:
Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali yugas with their respective symptoms are described in Srimad Bhagavatam in…
From Back to Godhead
In the Bhagavad-gita (7.14) Lord Krishna refers to maya, the deluding material energy, as mama maya: “My maya.” We Vaishnavas accept His word on this, with profound philosophical implications.
The chief philosophical opponents of Vaishnavas are the…
After some time, Lord Nityananda was approached by Madhai, where he said that “My Lord, You’ve pardoned me, You’ve given me Your mercy, but I am haunted by the idea that with my hand, I have struck You and I have caused You to bleed. And I am just obsessed with this thought that I have committed this offence to You and how can I actually be forgiven. Even though You’ve pardoned me officially, still I was thinking that I…
“Shoot him,” said the man with the crowbar. Kshudhi felt the cold metal against his skull and chanted Hare Krishna like never before. His nimble nineteenyear old body was tucked under the bed. The other four men with guns hesitated. They attacked the house knowing that a Johannesburg vegetable merchant had kept cash there, but were they ready to kill for it?
Less than two…
I first see him just after crossing the Bowery at Houston Street. As he passes before the iron-mesh fence of a playground, I distinctly glimpse the aura of saintliness. I watch him through the rushing traffic and stumbling derelicts.
He strolls almost jauntily down the sidewalk. He is an old man whom age has never touched. Aloof from the people and bustle about him, he walks…
From Back to Godhead
A mother’s extraordinary love for her premature son draws those around her closer to transcendental knowledge of the soul.
In college Carol studied psychology and sociology, preparing for social work. Living in a Catholic convent during her first two years of college, she had hoped her aspiration to serve God and humanity would…
Just after the 12 years of exile of the Pandavas was completed, they were considering where to spend the remaining 1 year incognito. While still in the forest, a brahmana came to them and reported that the sticks which he used for igniting his sacrificial fire had somehow gotten entangled in the antlers of a deer, and the sticks were now gone. The sage asked the Pandavas to see if they could possibly return the sticks.…
