By Madhava Smulen
On Saturday August 24th, the sacred day of Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa-Puja, a group of devotees from El Paso, Texas fed Jagannath prasadam to nearly one thousand migrants at a Central American refugee facility in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, right on the border.
The migrants, including families with young children, had fled gang violence, political instability, and economic hardship in Honduras, Guatemela, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
On their way, they had been smuggled by ‘coyotes
By Bhaktimarga Swami
Reveal One’s Impressions
At the final session of our monk sanga (gathering) our facilitator asked us to write down a statement revealing our impressions. This was my off-the-cuff rendition:
“Krishna is fond
When we do bond
In sharing views
We destroy our blues.”
Another verse from the Bhagavad-gita confirms the notion of chatting on spiritual topics. Such activity brings about the greatest joy. That verse is 10.9.
If we talk of practical matters we may get bored. If we talk
By Purshotam Govind, Anousha Maheshwary & Neeta Maheshwary
The appearance day of Lord Balaram symbolizes to resemble the devotees to be prepared for greeting Lord Krishna. Lord Balaram is firstly and in conclusion defined as THE SERVITOR GOD TO LORD KRISHNA. The caption compels the devotees to initially approach Bal Bhadra to serve Krishna. In fact, he is the ADI GURU (the teacher) for all the devotees, the purification GOD of our annuities onward restricting a devotee to be eligible for servi
Today is Bhadra-purnima. Srimad-Bhagavatam (12.13.13) states, “If on the full moon day of the month of Bhadra one places Srimad-Bhagavatam on a golden throne and gives it as a gift, he will attain the supreme transcendental destination.” As explained in the purport, “One should place Srimad-Bhagavatam on a golden throne because it is the king of all literature. On the full-moon day of the month of Bhadra, the sun, which is compared to this king of literatures, is present in the constellation Le
Today is the divine appearance day of the transcendental twins: Rangadevi and Sudevi Sakhi. In the year 1992, the last of the four Asta-sakhis, or principle associates of Srimati Radharani, appeared in Mayapur and took their places on the altar. Rangadevi and Sudevi, were two of these four and they stand third and fourth on Srimati Radharani‘s left.
Rangadevi and Sudevi are identical twins. Their father is Rangasara and their mother is Karuna. Rangadevi is married to Vakreksana, and Sudevi is
Once we were in Mayapur. We had an old—I think it was a 1948 Hudson or some old, big car. And I was driving. We had left the main road. If you have been on the main road you know how bad it is. You can imagine how bad this secondary road was like. We were going to visit Lalit Prasad, who was Bhaktisiddhanta’s living brother, who was a very old man then. We didn’t know the road, and we didn’t know the way very well. We knew that it was up that road somewhere. And we drove halfway up or so, and
As well as the official ISKCON Disciples course, which is required studying before taking initiation, ISKCON offers many retreats around the world for devotees to learn about the guru-disciple relationship, and to build their personal relationships with their guru and their godbrothers and godsisters.
One of these was the recent retreat for disciples of Niranjana Swami, which ran from July 30th to August 4th at New Mayapur, Ukraine.
A rural community located two hours’ d
“Today we are observing the Sri Krishna janmasahtami adhivas because lord Krishna Janmastami is one of the most holy days in the universe. Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita My birth and My work is transcendental. We will offer about 26 sacred items to the deities. We will offer that with various prayers. We have here the gurukula students who will chant the mantras and different pujaris, brahmanas and sanyasis will offer the sacred items. See the deities have come forward in their utsav murti and
Over 1,000 people new to mantra culture are expected to attend Mantra Fest in Moscow, Russia on September 1st at the Green Concert Club.
It’s the second such event this year. The first, says organizer Shaktyavesha Avatar Das, came about as a result of a collaboration with Georgia Wyss, director of the film Mantra Movie: Entrance into Silence, and was a big success.
Taking place on April 24th, the festival featured a combination of local Hare Krishna bands and well-known
Bhismadeva was not only a pure devotee, but very much a self-reliant devotee. He was a devotee who chose the transcendental position even though he was in a condition of life which was mundane. Living in a royal court is not the ideal situation for a brahmacari. Generally, brahmacaris are nicely locked away in the brahmacari ashramas, where they are protected from the heavy aspect of sense gratification straight in their face. But here, Bhismadeva was living in royal opulence, a very difficult
"kartum akartum anyatha kartum"
"Everything happening, not happening or otherwise happening is His happening."
Giriraj Swami read and spoke on Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3.23:
“O King Rahugana, the perfectional stage of devotional service, or the paramahamsa stage of life, cannot be attained unless one is blessed by the dust of the feet of great devotees. It is never attained by tapasya [austerity], the Vedic worshiping process, acceptance of the renounced order of life, the discharge of the duties of household life, the chanting of the Vedic hymns, or the performance of penances in the hot sun, within cold wa
Any question that is put forward may be answered by quoting the authority, and that satisfies the saner section. That is the system even in the law court. The best lawyer gives evidence from the past judgement of the court without taking much trouble to establish his case. This is called the parampara system and learned authorities follow it without manufacturing rubbish interpretations.
Material
Just before the annual Gaura Purnima festival in Mayapur in 1986, Campakalata Devi, along with three other sakhis, was installed and joined Sri Sri Radha Madhava on the altar.
Sri Campakalata Devi is the third of the eight principle gopis. Her father is Arama, her mother is Vatika-devi and her husband is Candaksa. She has a yellow-white complexion, just like the colour of a full-blown champaka flower. Her garments are described as chataka, or brown like a sparrow’s feather. Campakalata Devi’s k
The first Janmastami festival organized by the new ISKCON management at Brooklyn’s Radha Govinda Mandir focused on improving the pilgrim experience to create lasting positive impressions for devotees and visitors alike.
The inspirational event also attracted a visit by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who conferred a citation upon temple president Hansarupa Das for his service to the community.
To catch the interest of passersby, increase outreach and facilitate th
I HAVE SURRENDERED UNTO RADHA RANI’S LOTUS FEET 49 YEARS AGO BY ACCEPTING THE SANYASA ORDER -49 years of Sanyasa. At a young age of 21, HH Jayapataka Swami was awarded Sanyas by His Divine Grace A.C.BhaktiVednata Swami Prabhupada. Today at the Namhatta Bhavan disciples celebrated this historic moment. HH Jayapataka Swami is the senior most and longest standing Sanyasi in the whole of Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya. In a humble mood Jayapataka Swami said, “I need your prayers that I continue foll
Full happiness means full freedom. As long as we are not fully happy, we are chained, we are trapped and we are not free. Only in full happiness are we actually free. Therefore, only in Krsna consciousness we can be really free, because nowhere else are we able to be fully happy.
So this is nice to remember that devotional service is voluntarily performed. It is performed out of free choice and no one is forced in this way. Service can be our life, but this is our choice because Krsna does not
