From Back to Godhead
Even in the most hopeless situations there is hope—when we turn to Lord Krishna.
“Can you please speak to my relatives,” a doctor friend requested me after a Sunday feast program in our temple. “Their youngest son died in an accident recently, and they are much traumatized.”
I agreed and went to meet the family in a corridor outside the temple hall. The father told me how the son had gone to a picnic with his friends and had drowned in a river. He was just eighteen. I liste
Of all reading material that comes my way in a natural devotional setting – the Gita, the Bhagavatam and anything else which is a publication of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, I also include the occasional more secular material (even an occasional newspaper) – I confess to my favorite amongst all.
I just love hearing or reading of the past times of Prabhupada. There is a wealth of material out there on the subject of His Divine Grace, the founder and acharya (teacher) of the great bhakti movemen
The light winds aroused the spirits of people as I walked on Bloor St., West. It was a struggle at intersections to get my dhoti (lower robes) to behave. But I was having fun with pedestrians.
The first one to approach me was like an elder hippie who came up beside me and said, “Are you on the path of enlightenment?”
“I’m on it,” I said. “It’s truly a work in progress. How about you? Are you taking steps to get there?”
To this he responded, “I’ve taken them.” We reached a red light and he made
Hare Krishna Dear Devotees.
Please accept my humble obeisances, All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!
We have reached that auspicious time of the year after the Bhadra Purnima festival when we will celebrate the 3rd edition of the annual Book Are The Basis Week. 11th to 17th September this year is dedicated on the ISKCON calendar to encourage Srila Prabhupada’s followers to read the Bhaktivedanta purports everyday. The GBC Executive Committee Chairman, His Holiness Bhanu Maharaja, has kindly offered
By Srigarbha das
Hare Krishna, this year Janmastami festival was celebrated with great joy and enthusiasm in Bangladesh. Thousands of devotees gathered together for a huge extravaganza. Janmastami festival is celebrated as the holy appearance day of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna. Srimad Bhagavatam told, Krishna is the only God and all others are his expansions. Various acharyas like Shankaracharya, Madhavacharya, Ramanujacharya, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu have accepted Lord Sri
Suppose we get an opportunity to serve Krishna, say, by speaking about him. We may think, “I am too fallen and impure. I’m not qualified to speak about Krishna.” We may positively contrast such an attitude with the proud and presumptuous attitude, “I want to speak about Krishna;. I am qualified to speak about Krishna.”
We need to remember that the essence of our relationship with Krishna is service; and that service requires us to be less conscious of ourselves and be more conscious of Krishna.
When instructing Yudhisthira, Narada said that in any endeavour, one must start with the end in mind. In our case, it is always the same, to please our Founder Acharya Srila Prabhupada. I am sure all parties in this conflict share this aim and are convinced that their desired outcome would be most pleasing to him. However, I would suggest that the overarching consideration is that we work together harmoniously. As we know, Srila Prabhupada famously said that our love for him will be shown by ho
On September 7th, the ISKCON Governing Body Commission (GBC), released its final decision regarding the 30-year case on the status of Lokanatha Swami in ISKCON. Their final decision is: that his status as initiating guru continues. The decision, however, is three-fold: firstly, the panel created in 2021 to decide on the proper handling of the case, decided against ever re-opening the case or sending it to the Child Protection Office (CPO) for re-examination. Second, the GBC decided that any regi
to the Lord to bestow higher destination to his forefathers. One should alBy Sunanda Das
The TOVP Communications Department is pleased to announce the release of the new online publication, ‘The TOVP Story, 1971-2022’. This new virtual flipbook covers the history of the TOVP from its earliest dates of inception by Srila Prabhupada to its current status in beautiful photos, videos, and detailed descriptions that will educate and inspire the reader.
Like all the flipbooks in the TOVP Flipbook Collection, the book is available to read, share and download for free. This
By Rasasekhara Dasa
Sri Radha Kalachandji Temple (ISKCON Dallas) celebrated the first-ever Krishna Janmastami Festival in Frisco, North Dallas area on Aug 27, 2022. The event was celebrated at the Collin College Conferen
Archives, what's in a name?
The origin of the word Archives can be traced back to the Greek word archeion, which derives from archaios, meaning ancient, and architekton, meaning chief builder; and gives us words like architecture and archbishop. Archeion, translates to “the office or authority of a magistrate”.
With the later rise of the Roman Empire, it transformed into the Latin word archivium. When the Romans conquered Gaul, Latin became the predominant language we now know as French, and th
From the ISKCON Communications Ministry
September 7, 2022
Dear Devotees,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
The ISKCON Governing Body Commission (GBC) today released its decision regarding the status of Lokanatha Swami. That resolution is attached below along with other relevant documents.
The GBC also released two other documents. One is the 73+ page report and recommendations of the 5-member Panel appointed by the GBC to review Lokanath Swami’s situation.
The
By Nandeep VJ
Have you ever heard of a Bhakti Convocation? Or heard of a graduation ceremony where the students met their teachers face to face for the first time since their teacher-student relationship?
It so happened at ISKCON Coimbatore, on the 24th of June 2022, the Bhaktivedanta Academy awarded 125 Bhakti Shastri certificates to students who had successfully completed the graduation in the last two years of its operations. Approximately 250 candidates attended the course and exams, an
Oleg Prabhu is a vaishnava from Melitopol. The city has been occupied by the Russian army since March. He needs our help to evacuate his family.
Oleg Prabhu tells us:
“Since the war broke out, the city has been occupied, there are a lot of military men on the streets and right in front of our house. The city is shelled all the time, something explodes almost every night. Because of this, my wife often has panic attacks and, in general, she is depressed, all the side effects following (sleep dis
Hare Krishna,
Welcome to Sri Kshetra Parikrama 2022.
We would like to welcome you to our 19th anniversary celebration of Sri Ksetra parikrama which will be celebrated from the 10th to 13th of November 2022.
Throughout the year various groups of devotees from different parts of the world visit Puri Dham in the name of Puri parikrama or Yatra. During their visit they go to different temples while performing Harinama Sankirtan and engage in hearing the different pastimes of The Lord. Parikrama lite
By Jaya Govinda dasa
ISKCON Vancouver hosted the inaugural Sage the Earth (not a typo!) event on June 25, 2022. The five simultaneous fire sacrifices, complete with kirtan yajna of the holy names and prescribed mantras, were offered to reverse global incongruities: climate disturbances, wars, and racial violence.
The presence of sages such as Bhaktimarga Swami, GBC for North American Zone 1, the North; Gauranga Das, director of Govardhan Eco-Village, India; and Ananda Gauranga Das, specialized
By Nandeep VJ
Srila Prabhupada had said that he feels like an “emperor” every time one of his books gets published in a new language. Crowning him once again, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT) of Kerala, India, publicly released The Malayalam Chaitanya Charitamrita on the 26th of June 2022 in the Holy Land of Guruvayur in a lavish setting with famed dignitaries.
Mr. V Muraleedharan, Central Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, released the nine volume, opulently finished Chaitanya Charitamrit
This is the first year of a Chariot Fest, on more of a grand scale, in Canada’s Nation Capital. The chariot, so well constructed and conserved by competent craftsman from Montreal, Abhuy Charan, came in on the scene in this residential student area of Ottawa University. The route of the procession also took us along the Rideau River, where you have many embassies situated from around the world.
Starting from Templeton Street, the chariot and its people-power procession made its way in a counter
Every year on the Labor Day weekend, the devotees from Seattle organize a Rathayatra parade and festival for Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra in the Redmond area of the city. I was asked to start off the kirtan and after a while my god-brother, Hari Vilasa prabhu took over.
All Rathayatras are blissful and the Seattle devotees were ecstatic chanting and dancing before Their Lordships. I met one devotee who came all the way from Calgary, Canada to attend. The numbers grew as the parade wen
