The Jhulan Festival is celebrated in the month of Shravana (August), from the eleventh day of the bright fortnight (Ekadashi) to the full-moon day (Purnima). This festival is celebrated to commemorate the childhood pastimes of Sri Krishna with His friends, the young cowherd boys, and girls, swinging underneath the trees.
In Sri Dham Mayapur, Sri Radha Madhava is decorated nicely and seated on a swing. All devotees wait patiently in a queue to swing Their Lordships. The swing (Jhulana) beautifie
We have a family, we have a language, we have a culture and so on, and it seems like all this is a part of ourselves due to some sense of belonging. This is described, however, in the Vedic literatures as our false identity. It is explained that our true identity is totally different – we have actually no connection whatsoever with the place of our birth or culture. If one considers the land of their birth to be a part of themselves, is thinking that their body is themselves. It is then very d
When we first met Srila Prabhupada and we told him we were artists, he immediately decided to engage us in making some paintings.
The first painting that he engaged us in was a four-foot by four-foot painting of Radha-Krishna that was to be hung in the San Francisco temple.
I had no idea what Radha-Krishna looked like so Prabhupada handed us his book cover to copy.
In the course of painting, I couldn’t tell what color Krishna’s eyes were since the picture I was copying from was too small.
In tho
So Vrndavana is just covered by cows. When you came to Vrndavana at the time of Krsna, you would hear the mooing of cows everywhere, and there was milking of cows everywhere too. The milk was being churned everywhere too. The cowshed of Nanda Maharaja was enormous. There were nine hundred thousand cows. And how many cows do we have here? Almost nine. So there were almost a hundred thousand times more cows at the cowshed of Nanda Maharaj, can you imagine?! I mean if we had nine hundred thousand c
Kurma Das is not just a wonderful chef and manager of his restaurants. He is a wonderful writer too and he takes us on a journey of when Srila Prabhupada visited Australia and New Zealand over the years. Five years of research and over 950 hours of interviews offer a stimulating book about Srila Prabhupada’s pastimes and ISKCON’s history down under.
Source: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=96018
This world is like an airport. Here, we are supposed to board a plane. But some people get so excited when they get to an airport because there are so many shops and they go shopping, and what happens is that they end up missing the plane. So, the purpose was that we had come to fly, we did not come for shopping, we came to fly to go somewhere.
It’s the same for us in this material world. So, this world is an airport and here we are meant to board the plane to fly to the spiritual world, that i
Nepal is a 75% hilly country, so our chariot can’t go everywhere and we often need to walk from one village to another. We carry only our luggage and books and do book distribution and sankirtan. In Nepal, due to poverty and casteism many residents are converting to Christianity, having their books translated into the Nepali language.
There is less preaching of Sanatan dharma, but I was amazed to see the response of people to padayatra. As they hear harinama, they come out to join us and are v
Time ago , a particular news item caught my eye: “Shmeat: Reducing Animal Cruelty or Defeating the Purpose of a Sustainable Diet?” written by Sarah Jugovic.
The article explains that shmeat, also known as “in vitro” meat (i.e., test-tube flesh), is cruelty free – it is a lab-grown food product using animal stem cells to create an edible solid without killing the creature. Or so they say.
Shmeat has been in the works for more than a decade, the article tells us, and was conceived, in its present
In Memoriam HG JAGANNATHA MISRA DAS
Hare Krishna
It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the sudden unexpected passing of HG Jagannatha Misra das, on the early morning of Saturday, July 30th, 2022 in Alachua. He was going through some health challenges.
Jagannatha prabhu was a big book distributor and collector for New Vrindavana in the early days. He also worked on the construction projects there and took care of cows. He spent a period of time in France as a married man. He was deeply af
On July 20th, Praghosa Dasa, a Governing Body Commission (GBC) member of ISKCON since 2001, resigned from the GBC. He made his resignation public in a video entitled “An Honor and a Privilege” on his personal YouTube page:
In the video, Praghosa Dasa explains his resignation is due to his disagreement with a GBC decision that is in process regarding Lokanath Swami and his position as initiating guru in ISKCON.
Praghosa Dasa outlined his reasons for stepping down based on that decision not bein
Adapted from Srimad-Bhagavatam, translation and commentary by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
With recent disgrace of an American president still fresh in our minds, it is interesting to read of a similar case in ancient times. Five thousand years ago, a blind king named Dhrtarastra dishonored his high post and caused the death of millions. His story is of special importance, even today, because he found an antidote to the crimes of a lifetime, and in his old age became sel
The Right to Distribute the American Dream
In 1776, when the American Dream was very new, you could expect to find out about the latest inspiration of Tom Paine, Sam Adams, or Alexander Hamilton when you walked along Main Street, stepped into the town square, or answered your doorbell.
Not that you would take wisdom for granted, but you could expect to find out about it. The first American settlers had come to get away from political and religious oppression; to search out a new land rich in fr
Two hundred years ago, Americans fought the War of Independence to assure life, liberty, and happiness in a fledgling nation. In a conversation with the BACK TO GODHEAD staff, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains that Americans can actually achieve these things only by maintaining a God conscious society, with God conscious leaders.
BTG: Thomas Jefferson put the basic philosophy of the American Revolution into the Declaration of Independence. The important men of the da
By Acarya dasa (All India Padayatra leader)
The All India padayatris started the char dhama yatra from Haridwar on May 10, 2022. We had darshan of Hari ki paudi at Haridwar and Sapta rishi ghat and, of course, a holy dip in mother Ganges. The next day we moved ahead from Rishikesh and after a journey of twenty days we reached Badrikashram dhama on May 30. Some congregation devotees and padayatris from the Maharashtra, Utkala-Banga and Uttar Pradesh padayatras also joined this adventurous spirit
On a Monday afternoon, in the recent mid-year marathon, Bal Gopal, my husband, and I were trying a little book distribution along the busy Lambton quay in Wellington. Nobody was showing much interest at all. We were on our way home from serving Krsna Food and had to stop at the bank to deposit the takings from that day.
Inside the bank, I held up the Science of Self Realisation, showing it to Bal Gopal, and recited the Panca Tattva mantra, pleading aloud: “Please, Gauranga, let us meet one sinc
If you live in North America, this year’s Srila Prabhupada Vyasa-puja book can now be ordered from the North American offices of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. The price is $14.25 plus shipping. The book can be ordered any time, but please order your copy by calling 1-800-927-4152 no later than August 5th so you’ll receive it in time for Vyasa-puja, on August 20th. If you’re not a resident of North America, contact your local BBT office to order your copy of the Vyasa-puja book.
The book will al
My dear Maharaji’s, Prabhuji’s and Mataji’s Please accept my most humble obeisnaces! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
By all your prayers, active support, we all were able to get 3,600 square feet land where Srila Prabhupada apperaed 175 years ago. In his letter which he wrote to his diciple and relative Shri Sankarshan prabhu, Srila Prabhupada instructed that a grand memorial should be constructed at his birthplace and we all should try to get land at his birthplace. Keeping this in mind and e
