(Adapted from classes by His Grace Vijaya Das and His Grace Chaitanya Charan Das)
In August 1965, Srila Prabhupada, under the instruction of his spiritual master Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, traveled with a mission to share the timeless wisdom of Krishna consciousness with the Western world. Srila Prabhupada sailed from Calcutta, India to New York City aboard a cargo ship, with a mere seven dollars in Indian rupees and his translations of sacred Vedic texts. Upon reaching America, Sr
By Radhapriya
ISKCON Toronto will once again be holding Toronto’s biggest annual kirtan to commence its Ratha Yatra festivities. Being held at the ISKCON Toronto temple on Friday, July 15th, kirtan leaders from around the world will be descending upon the city to chant for 12 continuous hours. As part of ISKCON Toronto’s 50th annual Ratha Yatra festival celebrations, this year’s 12-Hour Kirtan will be bigger than ever and is an event that is not to be missed.
In 2020 and 2021, the Toronto kirt
Not but a few days ago I signed papers for registering ISKCON Saranagati with the property in Venables Valley, British Columbia. Today I signed papers for our newest project, ISKCON Milton. Also, I noticed when I returned form the airport, our downtown centre at 243 Avenue Road has got a new paint job. The work on all window and door frames is still in progress. It looks spiffy, classy, handsome.
Anyway, all the above achievements indicate we are growing and improving, yet much work still needs
By Sunanda Das
Please take a look at these elegant marble railings that will be placed on all three levels of the museum floors of the main temple room.
These wonderful railings, with exquisite peacock reliefs, are made of the highest quality marble and brought to us here directly from Makrana (Rajasthan), the only place in India where there is a deposit of such marble. The famous Taj Mahal in Agra was made from the same Makrana marble. The peculiarity of this marble is that it does not turn ye
On June 22nd, 2022 at the Vedic wedding ceremony of Jayesh Dasa and Elsa Thunander, ISKCON Almik Farm community had the honor of receiving the Indian Ambassador to Sweden and Lativa, H. E. Mr. Tanmaya Lal and his wife, Mrs. Sumita Lal.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/swedens-indian-ambassador-visits-iskcon-almik/
New initiate, Mukunda Madhava, sent me a pic of his five-day old baby, Hari Priya. Sweet indeed. It is the hope of her parents (Nancy is her mother) that naturally Hari Priya will grow up to be a strong devotional human being.
Mukunda, Vallabha and I went for that early stroll to the nearby Chinese/Punjabi farming district. There is it peaceful and calm.
By noon, the Vancouver areas was heating up and I found the temple room a trite stuffy, but visitors were anticipating a recharge, spiritually
In Stratford, I met Sandy, a Westpac Bank worker from New Zealand, who told me that she has most of these books and LOVES reading them. She said that every time a devotee comes through, she buys another book.
“These are not books you just read once and move on,” she said. “I read them through fully, then after a few months I re-visit them and start reading them over again.”
She was so inspired, and she really takes shelter of Prabhupada’s books. This time, we sat on a park bench, and I showed h
Fluff floats in the air at this time of year, which is actually seeds sent off by poplars. Well, that is what is occurring in many places in North America, and the several acres off of Marine Drive, the location of the “Sage the Earth” event at ISKCON, is also having that magical touch.
Ananda Gauranga, the priest for the event, is conducting the fire ceremony, not missing a beat with his Sanskrit mantra pronunciation. “He sounds like an auctioneer,” happily blurted out Patrick, the sound man a
All of us need to find an identity in Krsna Consciousness. We are all servants but we need to find a service that meets our nature and ability.
These are all the activities of sadhana-bhakti-yoga, it cleanses the heart from the conception that “I am the body” and it changes the spirit of possessiveness from “I want to possess things for myself, my enjoyment” to “I only want to possess Krishna”. And when we give ourselves to this process of hearing and chanting about Krishna, then the more we do it the more we want to do it, because we get the taste and there is nothing that’s more powerful than the taste. And when we get the taste for
We hired a gardener for a job at our home in Perth. His job was to help our plants get some nutrition. I offered to be his assistant, for which he offered us a small discount.
James arrived on the scheduled day, and I put on my gardening hat and was out on the earth. As we worked, laying down heaps of soil conditioner and mulch, my laptop played some nice kirtans.
James commented, “This music is really nice. It is very soothing.”
I agreed and told him it is spiritual music.
After working in the
I was out in a remote village in Gujarat, walking through the village, and many people said, “We already have the Gita.” This is a common response. It’s true, most households do have a copy, so then I ask the question, “Do
you read it?” The answer is often no. So I reply, “Please read at least a verse a day.” Or I introduce those stuck on their mobiles, who have “no time” to read to Mayapur.tv or another devotional site.
After receiving many rejections for the above reasons, I passed two homes
Congratulations to Bhakta Michael who accepted diksha initiation. What a fine person he is! A gourmet chef and caterer, he is also a good devotee. His Sanskrit name now is Mukunda Madhava.
Offering initiation to Mukunda Madhava is one of my reasons for coming to Vancouver. I’m also here to participate in an event called “Sage the Earth.” I just finished a poem on the topic.
Sage the Earth
She goes by the Vedic name Bhumi
And is worshipped by many a sage and muni
Sometimes she’s described as
By evening I was able to reflect on the day’s affairs as I strolled down on Marine Drive. It was past the sun’s setting. The air was cool; good for contemplation. I’ll add that overall, it is the coolest spring (and now the dawn of summer) that I’ve ever experienced.
A five-hour flight from Toronto and a three-hour time-zone change threw the biological clock a slight bit off course. I settled down in a room by the ISKCON facility, visited Govinda’s Restaurant for physical and spiritual nourishm
One of Prabhupada’s intimate followers after Prabhupada’s departure had a period where it was difficult to connect. For many devotees after Prabhupada left, it was not so easy. Those disciples of Prabhupada who had his association and who were there during his time, were there during the difficult period when Prabhupada left and ISKCON went into the hands of new leaders. As a result, many withdrew. So as they withdrew, the standard of Krsna consciousness also went down a little bit, or external
Krishna Das and I invited two young guys who bought a book to the temple of Villa Vrndavana. They came, stayed a while, and then we left in a week.
After a year, we went back to the Villa with a group to do harinamas. I went to the dining room to eat prasadam and sat down with the Italian devotees. I saw a devotee, and his face looked familiar to me.
I asked, “Do I know you?”
He replied, “Did you forget me? You came last year, you distributed a book to us and I stayed here.”
He began to follow
I put hours into drama practice. It’s coming along – the production “Demon.” I’m blessed once again with a good team, but it’s hard work. Following that came a visit to Adi Kurma’s. He’s a good cook. He pulled together everything I like – spiced avocado, boiled asparagus (lightly, then sauteed), sweet potato, moong dahl paratha and a lime-mint drink sweetened with maple syrup. All offered to the Lord. Thanks chum, I loved it!
A rush back to the temple/ashram landed me at another Zoom call with
By Madhava Smullen
What has kept the International Society for Krishna consciousness going for 54 years now, “systematically propagating spiritual knowledge to society at large” as Srila Prabhupada wrote when incorporating the movement in 1966?
Much has been down to the steady efforts of quietly dedicated devotees, doing their services day in and day out for decades – the pujaris, the teachers, the mothers, the cooks, the cleaners, the maintenance workers, the accountants, the book editors, the
The flight from Winnipeg on Air Canada was early, at 5:35 a.m. Usually at such an hour you can bet that passengers on a full flight like this will be fast asleep. Such was the case for all, except the pilot and flight attendants. I sat at the emergency exit seat, struggling to stay awake to fit in some japa meditation. It was hard. Fortunately, we are looking at a mere two-hour flight.
Nanda Maharaja Das picked me up in Toronto and zoomed me over to our Brampton ISKCON Centre.
“Happy Father’s D
After a two-year hiatus due to the global pandemic, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness of Harrisburg (ISKCON of Harrisburg) is gearing up to celebrate the 12th Annual Hare Krishna Festival of India on Saturday, July 9, 2022, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at City Island in Harrisburg.
The devotees of ISKCON of Harrisburg are extending their warm welcome to one and all to attend the festival. The unique, 1-mile long, 63-acre City Island, is conveniently located just across the walking b
