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An older man with whitish hair and beard has seen me passing by before, at least twice.  Once he offered a quick exchange of words, with a cigarette in his mouth.

“Hi! How are yah!”

Today was similar, “Hey, how’s it goin’?”

“Fine,” I said as I stopped.

“Yah I know, I met a holy man the other day as he was passing…”

“Is that right?” I inquired.

“And, he blessed me. Minutes later I found a $20 bill on the street.” He was chuckling.

“Lucky you! Well, God bless. Hare Krishna!”

“Yeah!”

“Have a good o

By Madhava Smullen 

Sometimes when we see a need, the solution is to step forward and fulfill it ourselves.

This is what Arjun Bhattacharyya, a young devotee known in ISKCON as a photographer and assistant to Deena Bandhu Das, realized when he decided to volunteer his own time to add the original Bengali script that had been missing from the digital version of Sri Caitanya-caritamrita.

The service meant a lot to Arjun personally.

“I am born and brought up in Kolkata,” he explains. “So Bengali is

Today marks Sri Rama-vijaya-dasami (Dasara, or Dussehra), the day on which Lord Ramachandra vanquished the powerful tyrant Ravana. As described in Srimad-Bhagavatam (2.7.25):

vaksah-sthala-sparsa-rugna-mahendra-vaha-
dantair vidambita-kakubjusa udha-hasam
sadyo ’subhih saha vinesyati dara-hartur
visphurjitair dhanusa uccarato ’dhisainye

“When Ravana was engaged in the battle, the trunk of the elephant which carried the king of heaven, Indra, broke in pieces, having collided with the chest of Ra

Without love, nothing can sustain. If I do not love Krishna, I cannot surrender—it is not possible. Just like a small child—he is naturally surrendered to the parents because there is love. The child loves the parents. So without the basic principle of love—the more you love, the more the surrender is perfect. Just like a small child—you slap the child, he’s crying, yet crying with the words, “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy,” because there is love. Even in distress the child cannot forget. That is n

I take this project very seriously. “Krishna in the Mapleleaf” is a book project that details the earliest days of the birth and growth of Krishna Consciousness in Canada, during the period from 1967-1977. In these first ten years we will highlight the reflections of the different participants from that period. By the grace of God I am spear-heading the project and I am receiving much practical help from friend and devotee; Wade Wilson, from New Brunswick.

This morning David and I headed for a t

Candidasa was a devoted worshipper of Goddess Durga while his brother was a pure Vaisnava who would worship Shaligram. Candidasa was rich but his brother was poor. Candidasa had a very big and beautiful garden, he used to offer the flowers from the garden to Durga Devi. His brother too desired to offer these beautiful flowers to his Shaligram. And once he mentally offered a beautiful and colourful flower of the garden to his Shaligram. And it so happened that on that day Candidasa offered the s

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/foodforlondon

This is London in 2020 as hundreds desperately queue for a meal

These pandemic days give us a golden opportunity to push the mission of Lord Caitanya.

The Watford Kitchen / the Jagannath Kitchen, will be a great resource.

Please feel free to enjoy the devotional experience, your service will be eternally appreciated.

Need cooks, devotees chopping veg, baking cakes, delivering Prasad, a bicycle team for delivering door to door for those in isolation.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said: “Of the nine processes of devotional service, the most important is to always chant the Holy Name of the Lord. If one does so, avoiding the ten kinds of offenses, one very easily obtains the most valuable love of Godhead.” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya 4.71)
One might ask, “Then why do we hear so many lectures on the Bhagavatam in our movement. Why don’t we simply sing and dance instead of listening to so many explanations?” The answer is: the other eight process

By Dimple Parmar

School of Bhakti, United Kingdom, will hold a virtual 30-day walkthrough of the mystical village of Vrindavan - the playground of God, where every step is a dance, and every word a song!

There will be daily morning videos, in which Sutapa das and Radhika-Ranjana Das will visit the sacred sites, sharing daily meditations and stories to inspire devotees’ hearts.  

Every evening there will have a special Damodarastakam video for everyone to sing along to and offer candles at their

Video: Click here

If your phone is a karmi phone, then you are with a karmi all day. If your phone is a devotee phone, then you are with a devotee all day. Make your phone a devotee!

Source: https://www.kksblog.com/2020/10/is-your-phone-a-devotee/

As part of the morning program in the ashram we sing a song to praise Krishna. There are many songs (bhajans) to choose from. We have an arrangement where we change up a select few on a weekly basis.

The following is called “Sri Nama Kirtana” and the translation is like so:

1) Sri Krishna is the beloved son of mother Yasoda. He is the transcendental lover in the land of Vraja, the delight of Gokula, Kana, the life and soul of the gopis. He steals the mind of even Cupid and punishes the serpent K

Krishna Consciousness 101 is that we are not our bodies. We may not be our bodies, but our bodies are our vehicles, we use them to get around this world, and just like vehicles it’s important that we maintain them. Simple understanding but we tend to forget this. Even Srila Prabhupada emphasized health from time to time. "It is important to keep the body fit and healthy so that we will not meet the obstacle of ill health while serving Krishna. Ill health may hinder one's service, so, we want to

It is rather a new sensation for Aisvarya—rustling through the fallen leaves. He’s a Trinidad boy, used to the tropical experience, but at this portion in his life he’s touching autumn for the first time. He’s now gone
through three seasons. He would be in his home country by now, Trinidad, but Covid-19 has created some complications, as it has for a lot of people.

Aisvarya and I made it to the park at Allan Gardens, where the grass is still very green but the autumn drying leaves are complement

Tamal Krishna Goswami served as ISKCON Governing Body Commissioner from 1970-2002, and ISKCON Initiating Spiritual Master from 1977-2002. In January 1972, he accepted the renounced order of life, sannyasa, in Jaipur. He served as India’s GBC Secretary from 1970–74 and as trustee of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, overseeing sales in the USA from 1977-2002. He is fondly called “Srila Gurudeva” by his many disciples and “Goswami” by his godbrothers and members of the academe.

Born in Harlem New Yor

By Madhava Smullen

A three-storey, fifty-bed secondary care hospital is set to be built on Bhaktisiddhanta Road opposite the ISKCON Mayapur campus in West Bengal, expanding the already existing Sri Mayapur Community Hospital. 

The hospital will be staffed by qualified devotee doctors and nurses, and will serve ISKCON devotees, Vaishnavas from the nearby Gaudiya Maths, local villagers and pilgrims. The convenient service will save patients a journey to a hospital in Kolkata and will provide them

Karuna and I traveled safely, in our temple car, to the location of my God brother, Girijadhava. He and I sat outside, safely in the backyard, not just to “shoot the breeze” and speak about the current socio-political situation in the world but to, in a way, go back through a time machine. I was basically interviewing him about his time as a monk, living in the ashram in the 70’s, what led him to that and how he feels about that experience before he settled down to marriage and had a daughter.

T

By Kaliya Krishna Das

This nice gentleman is Lee or as some call him “Hippy Lee” or as some of the Harinam devotees more appropriately simply call him Bhakta Lee! He’s been participating in the NYC Harinam practically since it was started over 8 years ago. He walked by the Harinam in Union square park one summer and has been coming ever since. He’s a flute enthusiast who brings several different types of flutes to play along with the kirtans. A wonderful person who likes the association of devo

By Mira Rose-Dewil

Here are some practical ideas for creating a Krishna conscious environment for kids at home, many based on Montessori principles that I have found successful in my school. They are geared toward the 2-6 age group. I would love to hear from anyone who might have more ideas for this age group or for older children.

1. Organize the physical environment so that all devotional items and activities are easily within reach for children to access independently. Have a specific place

With the coronavirus death toll now exceeding one million people worldwide, the World Health Organization reported a record one-day rise in global coronavirus cases on Thursday October 8th,saying the total rose by 338,779 in 24 hours. 

In this environment more ISKCON devotees are also falling ill with COVID-19 around the world. Most recently, senior Russian sannyasi Nitai Chaitanya Goswami was admitted to the ICU with severe symptoms. Yadunandana Swami, president of New Vrajamandala, Spain, has

Our drama crew executed a meaningful practice, for our upcoming production, in the park. Two filmmakers also came so we could explore theater-by-camera. The pandemic is forcing innovation so we are discussing the settings, locations, camera angles and so forth.

Dhruva migrated from India and Michaella came from Croatia and it looks like they will work together. Dhruva is young and shows some resilience with his sockless, flip-flop shoes but Michaella’s remark was, “You make me cold looking at yo