Blog

Today is Varaha-dvadasi, Lord Varaha’s appearance day. Srila Prabhupada spoke on this occasion in Los Angeles on February 18, 1970:

“Today is the incarnation day of Lord Krishna’s appearing as the Boar. He lifted the world when it was submerged within the water of Garbhodaka Ocean. The universe which we are seeing is only half. The other half is filled with water, and in that water Garbhodakasayi Vishnu is lying.

“So, one demon, Hiranyaksa, pushed this earthly planet within that water, and Lord

By Kumari Kunti Dasi 

There is only one word to describe the Next Generation Leadership conference - excitement. There was a buzz felt throughout the two-day virtual conference, by youth and youth leaders that lingered on after in group chats and social media.

Over Valentine’s holiday weekend, February 13-14th, 2021, just under 100 devotee youth leaders and youth workers gathered for the ISKCON 3.0 Next Generation Leadership Conference to share their realizations, stories, and goals for buildin

Tomorrow we shall be celebrating the appearance anniversary of Varaha avatar. Varaha is Krishna appearing in the extraordinary form of a gigantic boar—gigantic enough to carry the Earth on His tusks. Sound amazing? It is. And why should the activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead be anything less than supremely amazing?

Koladvipa is an emblem of “pada-sevanam” or rendering devotional service unto the lotus feet of the Lord. This island is also known as Koladvipa parvata. “Kola” means bo

By Acarya dasa, All-India Padayatra leader

Padayatra reached the large and colorful Gujarati city of Rajkot on February 5, 2021. Rajkot ISKCON temple president Sriman Vaishnavseva dasa, a disciple of Mahavishnu Swami Maharaja, loves padayatra. He has followed the AIP since it entered Gujarat and arranged the grand welcome for us at Dwarka on completion of our sixth round of India. He sent two devotees to padayatra who have been walking with us since Dwarka and also welcomed padayatra in the town

Video: Click here

“As a matter of principle, devotees should read, speak and hear Srimad-Bhagavatam persistently, twenty-four hours daily if possible. That is the recommendation of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu” Srila Prabhupada Srimad Bhagavatam 5.6.16, Translation and Purport

Source: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=93430

By Madhava Smullen 

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Bhakti Center in New York City has been offering a new selection of virtual yoga teacher training and meditation teacher training programs, as well as training in Ayurveda and kirtan.

Taking advantage of the online format, the classes are held at times that also accommodate a global audience – often hour-and-a-half sessions from 5:30 to 7:00pm on weekdays, with some modules offered between 10:00am and 5:00pm on weekends. This

By Giriraj Swami

Today is Siva-ratri. Vaishnavas generally do not celebrate Siva-ratri, and to begin, I will explain why, with reference to the Bhagavad-gita. We read from Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Chapter 7, “Knowledge of the Absolute,” text
23.

antavat tu phalam tesam
  tad bhavaty alpa-medhasam
devan deva-yajo yanti
  mad-bhakta yanti mam api

TRANSLATION

Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to the planets

Video: Click here

By Garuda Das

The picture above is of Tom and I in his library at his home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, taken about two years ago, when he was eighty-nine years of age. Tom and I were very good friends and close colleagues. Please note the books on some of the shelves behind us: all the Līlāmṛtam volumes, the three original “Delhi” Bhāgavatams, other books by devotees, and a complete set of the Journal of Vaishnava Studies on the top shelf.

Saturday, February 20, 2021

My Dear

Diving deep into the core elements of our philosophy as expounded in the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, GBC Strategic Planning Team (SPT) invites you to join us for an enlivening talk by Kadamba Kanana Swami.

Video: Click here

About Kadamba Kanana Swami

Kadamba Kanana Swami started his spiritual life in Vrndavana, the Holy land of Krishna and immediately felt he found his home. He became a disciple of HH Jayadvaita Swami.
He joined ISKCON in 1978 shortly after Srila Prabhupada’s departure from this wo

By Madhava Smullen

“The Rising Sun: Vrindavan Samadhi Diary” by Alfred Valerio (Bhaktisiddhanta Das), now available on Amazon Kindle, recounts the story of how the Vrindaban samadhi, or mausoleum, for ISKCON’s Founder-Acharya Srila Prabhupada was built. 

Author Bhaktisiddhanta Das, a seasoned professional in bronze casting, fiber-glass and mixed media sculpture, assisted in the design and construction of both the Vrindaban Samadhi and Mayapur Pushpa Samadhi of Srila Prabhupada. He also created s

Amala Ratna is a highly devotional-type of person with a night job. She drives around from skating rink to skating rink in the downtown area for maintenance of those operations. They are all over the city and kids/adults are on a craze about gliding on ice. While walking on an average day I come upon these ice fields in parks and I’m sure, one day, I’ll have the opportunity to meet up with Amala and wish her a “Haribol!” Which means “say the name of Krishna!”

During a phone call today, I spoke

Video: Click here

“Metpally . . . Radha-Krishna installation . . . festival . . .” Our ashram at ISKCON Chowpatty was buzzing with this discussion last week when I visited after a gap of few days. Many brahmacharis were excited about visiting this small town in Telangana, around 800 kms from Mumbai. The temple managers were busy arranging for all the essential services that had to be taken care of in the absence of so many devotees.

Ever since lockdown was imposed in Mumbai and the rest of Indi

By Gauranga Das

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) stands appraised and recognized with one of the highest honors nationally- “IGBC Green Champion Award 2020” during the 18th edition of ‘Green Building Congress’ organized from 29th – 31st October 2020. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), was unanimously chosen as a winner of the 7th IGBC Green Champion Awards under the category of ‘Pioneering Institution in sensitizing the masses by going green

By Madhava Smullen

The Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies, founded by American businessman Robert T. Bigelow, is currently running an essay competition on “Best Evidence for Afterlife.” Bigelow is the owner of hotel chain Budget Suites of America and the founder of Bigelow Aerospace.

According to http://www.bigelowinstitute.org/, “The goal of the essay contest is to award contestants for writing papers that summarize the best evidence available for the survival of human consciousness

I have had the fortune of staying in Vrndavana. There were prices of austerities to pay undoubtedly. I had a lot of malaria in the Holy Dhama. In one year, I had it twelve times and each time it took about two weeks to recover. So I was sick for about half of the year. As a result, I lost a lot of weight and they sent me to Australia. When I arrived in Melbourne, I found that the sparrows there were twice as fat as they were in India, and I knew that I had come to the right place! (laughter) I k

A poem I wrote to honor the guru (Prabhupada):
 

Inspiring Captain
 

Bless that a new power be bestowed upon me

To be humbled as if standing next to the big sea.

It’s what I’ve never known, never seen

For behind the ears, I’m embarrassingly green.
 

I am small, I am petite

Searching constantly for what’s labelled as sweet.

Conceit is the weakness that brings this about

Causing an entrance, an exit — I’m in, I’m out.
 

I find a straw-in-teeth so hard to swallow.

Pride ‘n snobbery is what I’m up t

Today is the day when we honor that personality who has brought the descent of Lord Caitanya into this world Shri Advaita Acarya, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is Mahavishnu, He is the personality who created this entire cosmic manifestation and knowing the purpose of the cosmic manifestations to send everyone back to Godhead that same Mahavishnu incarnated within this material world slightly over five hundred years ago. He was born in a little village in Bengal called Navagram, h

Today we shall discuss Sri Advaita Acharya and His desire to induce the Lord to appear to deliver the fallen souls, who were so engrossed in material thoughts and activities, by introducing the yuga-dharma of hari-nama-sankirtana.

We read from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, Chapter Three: “The External Reasons for Lord Caitanya’s Appearance.”

TEXT 96

prakatiya dekhe acarya sakala samsara
krsna-bhakti gandha-hina visaya-vyavahara

TRANSLATION

Advaita Acarya having appeared, He found the world

In a recent ISKCON Leadership Sangha (ILS-2020) Lokanath Swami requested ISKCON Nepal regional secretary Patri dasa to organize a padayatra (pilgrimage) in Nepal. Patri took Maharaja’s words to heart and discussed the idea with the Nepali devotees.

A friend of Patri, Brahmacari Sahastranam dasa from Ukraine, who has been serving in Nepal for twelve years engaged in community and farm services, was inspired by the proposition and used his own money, to buy oxen and construct a cart from his uniqu

The message came from Ohio. It came from a fine fella who considers himself a punk, perhaps an X. His name is Kaustubha and it is good news — I’m sure he doesn’t mind me sharing the message regarding a new trail. Seems like he would go for trail blazing it. That’s his offer. He’s wondering if I still have some steam in my tank for a marathon. My answer is “Yes, most probably, but after some work is done on the knees.” Here is his message:

“Just saw a wonderful article about a new walking/biking