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The third annual MAN-tra Retreat was held online November 20th to 21st. Due to Covid-pandemic restrictions,  the planned 2020 New Vrindaban in person retreat was cancelled but then, bad became good. With 210 registered participants from Canada, US. England,South Africa, Trinidad, India, Indonesia, Australia, Russia and Bangladesh the audience widened. International participants have requested that the online format continue next year.   

The retreat included panel discussions, powerpoint present

I committed to time in the walk-in cooler where we keep produce of fruits and veggies but also flowers and greens. The lifting, stretching and reaching, to some degree, compensated for the day’s no-walking program. The sorting out had to be done and the coolness of the fridge made me feel as if, indeed, I was outside.

By the way, the cold rain and wind of the out-of-doors was a deterrent for me. First and foremost, the cleaning and setting things up for the sake of efficiency was my impulsive se

Dear Devotees,

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

The GBC Strategic Planning Team (GBC SPT) is looking for devotees to join our team and take on responsible service in several key areas.

If you would like to join yourself or help us find qualified devotees to be part of a highly dynamic, forward looking team, dedicated to helping manifest Srila Prabhupada’s brilliant vision for all of ISKCON, then read on to know more.

At the start of the pandemic in March, the

Every year after kartika the VIHE holds the Holy Name Retreat and the Govardhana Retreat at the foot of Giriraja. However, as many of you might have expected, we will not have the retreats at Govardhana this year BUT we have decided to present to you a wonderful online retreat helped by our esteemed speakers HH Sacinandana Svami, HG Bhurijana Prabhu, HG Jagattarini Devi Dasi, and HG Madhavananda Dasa so that you may start the new year with Giriraja’s blessings. The dates are January 2-6, 2021.

J

Devotees around the world are aiming to distribute at least two million Bhagavad-gitas during the last quarter of 2020, as part of the Prabhupada marathon and the Live to Give campaign.

The campaign will culminate with World Gita Day (also known as Gita Jayanti) on December 25th. To mark the occasion, there will be a live Zoom broadcast wherein ISKCON communities from all over the world will glorify the Bhagavad-gita As It Is in creative ways, concluding with a COVID-safe fire yajna broadcast on

The sun was hitting the rooftops, and people too, and it was beckoning people to come out of hiding. Yes, people like me. At 9°C who wouldn’t go for a stroll with Friday night optimism in the air. I set out for Bloor Street.

At Hot Docs movie house the curved art deco. awning shelters a homeless crew. How many? I don’t know. They do seem to hoard a lot of paraphernalia. It’s a bit unsightly with it sprawled out, including a half dozen comforters or so.

One of the blanket proprietors did see me a

By Indulekha Devi Dasi

Vatsala Prabhu, our spiritual brother, left his body tonight. His whole world was serving at the Indian Festival, whenever I had contact with him he always lived and spoke about this service. Sending my sympathy and support to His Daughter and the rest of the family.

Source: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=91962

Srimati Tungavidya Devi Dasi, wife of Trikalajna Das, left this world from Sri Vrindavan Dham due to an accute cardiac arrest on 14 December 2020 at 4:20am.
Around 1980s, she served Sri Radha Madan Mohan of ISKCON Washington DC with all her love and dedication while Trikalajna Prabhu served as the Temple President. She constantly served the deities and preached zealously bringing many lost souls into Krishna consciousness. She was extremely loved by the local devotees. Both Mataji and Trikalajna

Source: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=91985

By Mohan Luthra

The first thing that has changed about the Bhaktivedanta Manor Gurukula is that it is no longer called that, it is now simply referred to as the Gurukula – The Hare Krishna Primary School. This is part of the story which has seen big changes happen over the last year and half.

In 2017, due to the construction of the Haveli, the Manor School had to move to the nearby picturesque Elton Cottage. Here a former residence has been transformed into a well-equipped school. While the teac

By Jyotisvara dasa

In today's world, scientific temper, or temperament occupies the center stage in deciphering the nature of reality. 

Scientific temper refers to an individual and social process of thinking and acting, including questioning, observing physical reality, testing, hypothesizing, analyzing, and communicating. Scientific temper also describes an attitude, which involves the application of logic. This term was popularized by late Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who urged his

The express postman left a parcel for us about a week ago. We had been waiting for it and it just so happened that he left it at the wrong door. A passerby in a nearby address noticed it sitting right by the door. It’s surprising that no one bothered to pick it up off the street and run away with it during the entire week. It appears that there are still some honest people in the world. This pedestrian did spot it and brought it to a proper door where he found one of us.

Wow! Really! What if a s

By Mandakini Devi Dasi

Dear devotees we are very sad to inform you that one of the first preachers in the Soviet Union Brahmananda Puri Prabhu left his body out of Covid. During that time where circumstances were extreme, he published Srila Prabhupada’s books in clandestinity, at his own life’s risk. He came from Armenia and became so enthusiastic after reading Srila Prabhupada’s books that most of his village inhabitants became devotees. Let us all pray that he reaches safely the Lord’s mercy g

By Madhava Smullen 

After many years residing on the third floor of Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s temple, Tulasi Devi at the New Vrindaban farm community in West Virginia has been offered a beautiful new dedicated greenhouse to provide her with a high standard of care. 

An intimate servant of Lord Krishna who appears in the form of a plant, Tulasi Devi is described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam as very dear to Lord Krishna. Her leaves are placed on the lotus feet of the Lord, and her Manjari flow

My day finished with a piece of lightly sweetened carob cake. The topping of the day, not the cake (with no icing), was a continual cleanup in the temple’s pantry, some emailing, some calls to promote the Gita-drive known as “Give to Live,” and a call with Radhanatha Swami, something we regularly share.

My conversation with Radhanatha was private enough, however, we did cover conversations of a more sharing nature. First of all we were both participants in a forum of eulogies about our recently

The Bhaktivedanta Players of UK have made their Bhagavad-gita audio drama available for everyone to hear during the this most auspicious month of Marga when Bhagavad-gita was spoken, and when whole of ISKCON focuses on the Gita.

The nearly hour-long play consisting of two parts uses carefully chosen music and dramatic sound effects to make listening to the most important conversation in humankind a memorable experience for the audience.

Listen to the audio drama here: https://www.bhaktivedantama

From Back to Godhead

By Mohini Radha Devi Dasi

In the interactions between the Lord and His
devotees, both relish the highest happiness.

Bhagavad-gita and other scriptures praise Arjuna for his close relationship with Krishna. Arjuna is known for his mood of friendship (sakha-bhava). Since relationships are by definition reciprocal, not only is Arjuna known as Krishna’s friend, but Krishna is known as Arjuna’s friend. Krishna drove Arjuna’s chariot and is therefore called Partha-sarathi, the “c

Have you ever asked yourself: What keeps holding me back despite my best efforts to advance and break the chain of undesirable habits? The answer, more often than not, is our karma. To be more precise, it’s the part of our karma that must be experienced and cannot be mitigated even through various methods like austerities or sacrifices. Such unavoidable karma is called prarabdha karma.

Prarabdha karma is so strong that even a Brahman-realised soul, who directly and uninterruptedly perceives the

By taking initiation, there are such powerful blessings which are passed, that practically our journey back to the spiritual world is guaranteed. We just simply do our level best, whatever that is, as good as we can. To follow this for our lives and surely, then success will be there. So it is a very joyous occasion. It is a serious matter also. One question we can raise is that how can one take a vow for one’s whole life? How do we know what it would be like in ten years’ time? It maybe be very

It’s strange but Toronto has been my home base since 1973 and in all that time I’ve never had, or taken, the opportunity to venture into High Park. It is rated as 4.5/5 and I can testify. When you’re there you won’t feel like you’re in the city.

Walking along the pond called Grenadier is pleasant as well as the main trails and off route ones. It’s always great to be in nature, with or without company. I’m not going out to even small home events but in nature’s social-distance venues I have no pr