By Kasisvar Das
Florida is (pre-Covid) a season of Rathayatra festival parades that take over the crowded beaches or towns, typically with eight events across the state: at the Gasparilla festival in Tampa, Daytona Beach, St. Augustine, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Clearwater Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Tampa Bay, and Orlando.
This year, fewer events are scheduled with the Daytona Beach parade just passed on June 26th, and the Clearwater Beach event is upcoming on Saturday, September 18th. It wi
We are receiving much rain, but as long as it ceases for a time for me to stroll, then it’s okay. Stroll I did, through the park and up Yonge St. I realized one thing about myself and walking; I always get a thrill from crossing rivers via a bridge but dislike crossing streets where there’s crazy traffic, either in motion or halted. A pet peeve of mine — the wider the road, the more the lanes, the higher the risk.
Tonight, I took to a bench when a couple approached me. The fellow introduced him
One day, I was in New York City and as I was walking, I saw a chapati machine. It was a first-class machine. The dough went into the top, made some balls and rollers, and made a nice round chapati. Then, it went into a hot plate, where an arm came and pushed the chapati into a hole with a slide and then the slide turned the chapati around and it fell on another hot disc below. And then the chapati was cooked on the other side. That’s the nature of chapati. They get cooked on both sides.
So, if
I want to thank Paramahamsa, from Guelph, who came to do some physio work on me today. I’m also grateful to Jhorom, who came as a special guest when I hosted him in the sitting quarters of our guru, Prabhupada, who spent a few days there in June of 1976.
Jhorom is loving the Bhagavad-Gita, As It Is, and since reading this exceptional text he’s been asking me questions. He is just intrigued with the conversation based on a fratricidal misunderstanding.
“Most misunderstandings, if not all, have t
By Madhava Smullen
Sana Mittar, a young devotee who attends the ISKCON Punjabi Bagh temple in Delhi with her family, has been honored with the Diana Award. Established in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, it is the most prestigious accolade a young person aged 9 to 25 years can receive for their social action or humanitarian work.
Sana was presented with the award for her work on clean water and sanitation; starting GVAN, a non-profit that empowers youth to advocate for social causes; and sup
We have gone back, steadily, to our older program of stairway kirtan. Neighbours who pass by love it. As long as we don’t perform with symbols, drum, harmonium “in-their-face,” so to speak. Gentle, sweet and melodious is the way to go. Actually, the weather is conducive for outdoor kirtan and our group’s intent is to gain as much mileage with this presentation as possible.
In addition to the kirtan, which is now regular at night, 7 pm punctual, the morning and noon chants are also steady. I can
Dear devotees,
Please accept our humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
As we would be observing His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja’s Tirobhava Tithi in the coming weeks – which marks a year of His Holiness’ physical disappearance please find this brochure (attached herewith). It will be a source of great solace and inspiration to be participating in honoring a vaisnava acharya and our beloved spiritual Master, in the wider association of devotees – our ISKCON family.
By Kasisvar Das
On June 26th over five hundred devotees from Alachua and other ISKCON communities gathered in Daytona Beach, a picturesque vacation place in Central Florida, for joining the Ratha Yatra Festival. It was a long-awaited event indeed.
The Covid-19 pandemic delayed everything in the world and many festivals and events were placed on hold for months. Millions of people have been pulled out of their comfort zone to realize what Bhagavad-Gita calls the reality of this temporary miserab
“Perhaps you’re one of the few centres that’s really taking care of older Vaishnava men,” remarked an observer, a friend, the other day. Mind you, we do have younger men as residents in addition to the five who are average 71 years of age. Yes, I am one of those golden boys who joined monkhood in the 70’s. I’m in that age bracket, naturally.
We scheduled a meeting in our new seminar room and called it a “Seniors Meeting” to delve into the conditions of our remaining lives for the coming years.
While at the temple in Los Angeles, when the weather permitted, Srila Prabhupada would take his massage outside in his garden. He described his garden in New Dwarka as his favorite place in the world, because there were so many Tulasi plants there. It was Vrindavan.
"The morning sun gives you energy and the afternoon sun takes it away," His Divine Grace told me. He would sit with his back to the sun, benefitting from the energizing rays it gave. On this particular sunny, springlike day he was h
Video: Click here
Vanipedia-Behind the Screen-Live conversation with Visnu Murti Das
GBC SPT brings to you inside insight into one of the most valuable projects within ISKCON-Vanipedia. This live interview aims to bring us to an understanding of how Vanipedia is invoking and fully manifesting Srila Prabhupada’s Vani-presence amidst us. We have the fortune to have with us the project director, Visnu Murti Das.
About Visnu Murti Das
Visnu Murti Dasa was born in New Zealand in 1958. Leaving New Zea
By Madhava Smullen
Started in the mid-2000s, MayapurTV now hosts broadcasts by over 150 ISKCON centers, sannyasis and leading devotees, with 314,000 subscribers on YouTube. The channel inspires viewers and provides free access to ISKCON programs worldwide, all in one place.
The next step for MayapurTV Manager Antardwip Das is to establish different branches of MayapurTV for different languages. With nearly 500 million native Spanish speakers in the world, one of these, naturally, had to be Maya
While the US is celebrating its birthday, on this beautiful day and weekend in remote Canada — actually Montreal — the Krishna community and I are seeing to a marriage. Samuel and Nandini Radha, tied the knot as a couple at around noon today at the Pie-IX Boulevard temple.
Priest Madan-Mohan conducted the ceremony at which parents from both bride and bride-groom were seated at the corner of the kund, or tiny arena, observing rites that were colourful and new to their eyes and ears.
I gave the a
Our life is like a yatra – a pilgrimage, a spiritual journey towards the Divine. Our body symbolises the rath or chariot, through which we embark on the journey towards serving and attaining eternal love of the Lordships. Though we live in this material body or ‘rath’, the bonafide shastras and acharyas advise us to surrender its control to the all-merciful Lord Purushottama. Thus, by sincerely following their instructions, we earn their blessings and eventually we are able to blissfully maneu
Ratha Yatra or Chariot Festival'is a festival associated with Lord Jagannath held at Puri in the state of Odisha, India. It is the oldest Ratha Yatra taking place in India and the World, whose descriptions can be found in Brahma Purana, Padma Purana, and Skanda Purana and Kapila Samhita.This annual festival is celebrated on Ashadha Shukla Paksha Dwitiya (second day in bright fortnight of Ashadha month).The festival commemorates Jagannath's annual visit to Gundicha Temple
The presiding deities o
One of the special book distribution efforts during this year’s campaign, inspired by Bhaktivinod Thakur, will be “Books to McGill.” In 1896 – the year of Prabhupada’s birth – the Thakur mailed copies of his book Sri Chaitanya: His Life and Precepts to McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Following Bhaktivinod Thakur’s example, the Books to McGill program will see devotees send an introductory letter, as well as some of Prabhupada’s books, to the thinkers, political leaders and luminaries of
All Glories to Sri Gadadhar Pandit whose emotions are not possible to describe!
“Another name of Lord Gauranga is the ‘Lord of the life of Gadadhara.’ Who can understand what mercy has been bestowed upon him? Their glories are sung by everyone as Gadai- Gauranga.”
Today is the holy disappearance day of Gadadhar Pandit, who is none other than Shrimati Radharani, appearing in this material world to bless the household of Madhava Mishra and Ratnavati devi and to assist Shri Chaitanya in fulfilling
Karuna Sindhu is a safe driver behind the wheel and so I was his passenger, safely seated as we moved along eastward bound. It was momentous because this morning marked my first time beyond the Ontario border in approximately 16 months. We both felt a kind of freedom; enjoying what we could not for all this time. Entering into the city of Montreal was a sweet sensation and being greeted by the community of Vaishnavas I haven’t seen (many of them fairly new to bhakti) for so long was a real brea
This past weekend, New Vrindaban hosted hundreds of devotees for its 24-Plus Kirtan event. It was the first major festival held in over a year since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and devotees traveled from all over North America to be a part of it. Among them was a group of nine Vaishnavis from Krishna House in Gainesville, Florida. Most of them were new devotees who had joined during the pandemic and had never been to New Vrindaban, or for that matter, to any major ISKCON festival.
To re
