Dear Prabhus,
Please accept our obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Hare Krishna!
We understand that you are all engaged in the most important service of keeping ISKCON members worldwide informed and enthused about the expansion and development of ISKCON. Srila Prabhupada’s family extends to every corner of the Earth now and it is essential to maintain unity of purpose and consciousness.
With that in mind, we would like to emphasize at this time that in two years, starting from Decembe
Jananivas Prabhu’s service was to bring frankincense to Srila Prabhupada’s room in the evening. He mentioned that usually after you fill a room with frankincense, you open the doors and windows so that the mosquitos go out with the smoke. Srila Prabhupada however liked to keep the smoke within the room and stopped Jananivas Prabhu from opening the doors and windows. Since it was Srila Prabhupada’s darshan time, there would usually be many western devotees in the room and these western devotees
Hard work with the drama practice, but while waiting for all to show up, I pulled together this poem:
Dream and Cream
It’s a blessing to be alive
In such a honey bee hive
Sharing space of purity
Where darkness becomes obscurity
In a safe ashram temple
Far from the judge mental
We sing and we play
Even on the most gloomy day
Keeping to some regimen
For even Bhakta Benjamin
We sit and hear a lesson
Always time for some question
We honour the best food
At the three point interlude
A ses
From Back to Godhead
From the Vedic literature: the history of King Prthu,
the incarnation of the ruling potency of the Supreme Lord.
Long ago, the normally peaceful wise men of a Vedic kingdom forcibly deposed an intolerably corrupt ruler. But instead of replacing him with another unprincipled politician (as has so often happened in the history of the world), they selected a perfect chief executive to command the state. The story of this ancient coup d’etat holds many lessons for the people of
Jananivas Prabhu’s service was to bring frankincense to Srila Prabhupada’s room in the evening. He mentioned that usually after you fill a room with frankincense, you open the doors and windows so that the mosquitos go out with the smoke. Srila Prabhupada however liked to keep the smoke within the room and stopped Jananivas Prabhu from opening the doors and windows. Since it was Srila Prabhupada’s darshan time, there would usually be many western devotees in the room and these western devotees
The Lord is known as Bhava-grahi Janardana because He accepts service in devotional emotion if we are sincere, humble, and fully surrendered at His lotus feet (Bhagavatam: 8.23.2). The Lord is most pleased by the attitude of service rendered by a devotee, with unalloyed devotion. Devotion is a process that attracts Krsna and directly connects one with Krsna. The Lord reciprocates by inundating that devotee with His infinite mercy.
Practicing unalloyed devotional service to the Lord is practical
My last festival here was in 2019 and now that I’m back at the same service of giving class, leading the chant and directing a drama, it almost seems like I have not missed a beat. The last item is the biggest but happiest challenge.
First of all, there is a language barrier. I know little Spanish. So, how does one direct a play written in English to a Spanish-speaking group? Getting the script translated was accomplished, but, as most people know, intent can be lost in translation. A lot of th
Among the most striking of these passages from the Vedic sastras are the following:
In the Kali Yuga, wealth alone will be the deciding factor of nobility [in place of birth, righteous behavior or merit].And brute force will be the only standard or deciding what is righteous or just.
Mutual liking [and not family pedigree, social status, etc.] will be the deciding factor in choosing a partner in marriage; cheating will be the order of the day in business relations; satisfaction of sexual pleasu
Delhi, Wednesday 20th June, 1956 (Series #8)
Edited and Founded
Under direct order of His Divine Grace Sri Srimad Bhakti-Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada
By Goswami Abhay Charan Bhaktivedanta
____________
In the Secretariat Buildings in New Delhi there is an inscription on the stone that Liberty does not descend upon a people but it has to earned before it can be enjoyed. Actually this is the fact and we have seen it that much sacrifice had to be rendered by the people of India before the
I just meditate on mercy. The point is this – we have to appreciate that this is a mercy movement and we somehow or other just take shelter constantly. We do not measure ourselves all the time, because if we start measuring ourselves, we will always fall short and then we will become increasingly frustrated. So, there is no need for measuring, instead, we just take shelter. Take shelter of the Holy Name, take shelter of the Srimad Bhagavatam, take shelter of the devotees, take shelter of prasad
A very kind-hearted Markandeya was at arrivals to pick up my check-in, my carry-on and myself. The airport at Buenos Aires has very much improved with its renovations. I got through the customs with a cinch. On the freeway, I could see the usual tall hardwoods and, with it being spring, good fragrances are in the air. Colours too. The purple-flowering jacaranda is stunning. There’s also the very red santa rita, which gives life just by looking at it. However, in man’s world of duality there is
Srila Prabhupada appeared to Prthuputra Swami, the first French sannyasi, just before Prthuputra died. Maharaja had done a lot of service for Srila Prabhupada’s preaching mission. But after Srila Prabhupada’s physical demise, Prthuputra left Krishna consciousness. He broke the regulative principle and went back to the sinful lifestyle he had led before. Nevertheless, he never criticized ISKCON or Krishna consciousness.
Some years later Prthuputra contracted AIDS. As the disease progressed, he en
Kirtan is the call-and-response form of chanting that characterizes the Hare Krishna movement. It is the fundamental religion of the age – the soul crying out for God as a means to reunite with Him.
Robert Gass, author of Chanting: Discovering Spirit in Sound, believes that ritual chanting is among the most universal of human impulses, as well as one of the first: “We have no recordings of the earliest humans,” he writes, “but when we encounter indigenous tribes who’ve had little contact with m
By HH Bhakti Raghava Swami
I was walking down Rideau Street in the city of Ottawa some time during the summer of 1973. Although I had still not found what I really wanted in life, I was somewhat relieved that I had been able to walk out of the expected social pressures of modern day society.
I had already finished my university studies, graduating from Ottawa U in 1968, had worked for three years as a Social Worker with the Children’s Aid Society in my home town of Timmins in Northern Ontario,
When I boarded Delta Airline enroute to Atlanta, as a stopover for Buenos Aires, I had a little chat with the flight attendant. I remarked that customs were so long and so slow. “Unacceptable!” I said.
Her remark, “It’s always like that here (Toronto). I love the city, but the airport…” And as she said this her eyes were rolling. I thought to lodge a complaint next time I had the chance, regarding an improvement in service that could happen at the Toronto Airport. Afterall service is everything
My dear devotees,
Please accept my best wishes. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
In a letter to me dated December 1971, Srila Prabhupada wrote, “Go on increasing books, and go on increasing my pleasure.” December is a special opportunity to focus on Srila Prabhupada’s desire that we distribute books—and thus increase his pleasure. As he wrote in the same letter, “I am most pleased especially to hear that you are distributing many books.”
tad-vag-visargo janatagha-viplavo
yasmin prati-slokam ab
All the wealth we can accrue from a whole lifetime of service is insignificant compared to the blessings of our spiritual master. It is blessings that are the principal factor and not only of our spiritual master but of the entire sampradaya, of the previous spiritual masters. One should however not jump over though. One should approach through the lineage and through the Vaisnavas and therefore, one has to become soft.
In the beginning, we make distinctions between Vaisnavas, thinking, “This Va
Road rage is very much on the rise. On the previous night, while on the freeway, two drivers involved in a collision were almost at each other’s throats in a shouting match, blaming each other for the accident. They used unholy terms. Not surprising is that this overall “etiquette” on our roads is on the rise. Too many cars. Not enough roads. Levels of speed are up. More and more motorists cut each other off. Check out the words kama, krodha and lobha in the scriptures and where these traits le
“They [the masses] must have their illusions at all costs; they turn instinctively, as the insect seeks the light, to the rhetoricians who accord them what they want. No truth, but error has always been the chief factor in the evolution of nations…. The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduces them.” (Gustave Le Bon, 1995: 132).
The advent of ‘modernity’ saw the eradication of the ancien regime
