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Uttama-adhikari is living in a close relationship with Krsna. The uttama-adhikari is always thinking about Krsna in every moment. And every moment is dedicated to Krsna. This devotee is not wasting a single moment on anything else.

kṣāntir avyartha-kālatvaṁ
viraktir māna-śūnyatā
āśā-bandhaḥ samutkaṇṭhā
nāma-gāne sadā ruciḥ
(Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya Lila 23.18-19)

When the seed of ecstatic emotion for Krsna fructifies, many symptoms manifest in one’s behaviour. One of them is a taste for chanti

I walked to “Theatrics Plus” and the friendly clerk found for me what I came for, a prop for the virtual drama that a group of us are putting together. “Rolling the Dice” is the name of the play. The highlight of the story focuses on some shady gambling from the “Mahabharat.” The props I purchased were dice, four of them at $2.50 a crack. They look good, roll nice, sound good when you shake them and are made in China. According to the epic, the iconic dice are supposed to be made of the bones of

Drizzle! Drizzle! That is the sum and substance of weather conditions today and tonight. My encounter with it was in the evening. I didn’t mind. My full day was indoors, where it was rather dry. The important thing is one’s state of mind, regardless of the situation. Krishna is within and without. So let the rain come down.

I received a call from someone in Edmonton. He, like many, are quite affected by the fear culture installed by Covid-19. My response to him was to not get over-exposed to the

Appearing near Katva, Krishna Dasa Kaviraja left for Vrndavana after Lord Nityananda told him in a dream: are are krishnadasa, na karaha bhaya, vrndavana yaha tanha, sarva larya haya, “0 my dear Krishnadasa, do not be afraid. Go to Vrndavana. For there you will attain all things.” (Caitanya-caritamrta Adi 5.195)

Krishna Dasa took diksa from Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami. He lived a renounced life at Syama-kunda near Manasa Pavana Ghat, Radharani’s midday bathing place.

Sri Jiva Gosvami, as per his cu

By Madhava Smullen 

The cabin where Shyamasundar Das, one of ISKCON’s earliest pioneers, worked on his ‘Chasing Rhinos With the Swami’ trilogy burned down last month in the Lionshead wildfire in Oregon, USA.

The wildfire began on August 16th and has burned 204,469 acres, making it the sixth-largest fire of the past 100 years in Oregon.

“By Krishna’s grace, I managed to escape with my computer and all my research material,” Shyamasundar says.

Read more: https://iskconnews.org/shyamasundar-dass-w

The Sacred Ecology Forum – which facilitates environmental activism and spiritual growth rooted in the Krishna Bhakti tradition – is presenting a special Eco-Bhakti weekend from October 23rd to 25th on Zoom.

The weekend is presented in collaboration with the Bhakti Center (NYC) and the Hindu Life Program at Princeton University, with Allegra Lovejoy organizing on behalf of the Sacred Ecology Forum and Venkata Bhatta Das (Vineet Chander) organizing on behalf of the Princeton University Hindu Life

It was 7 PM. I was in my room just wrapping up on a zoom call with Argentina when David came to my door.

“Are you coming?” David asked in anticipation of our nightly staircase kirtan.

“Yes,” I responded. “By the way, I have to go!” I told the people on the Zoom call. “Good-bye!” I said, as did they. Along with an appreciative, “Gracias!”

We hit on a good topic—the theme of Achintya-bedabeda-tattva, which translates as “the inconceivable, simultaneous principle of oneness and difference.” Also, s

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