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By Giriraj Swami

We have again reached December, that most auspicious time of year when the book-distribution marathon takes place. In honor of the occasion, I quote two verses from Srimad-Bhagavatam that embody the devotee’s mood in distributing Krishna consciousness.

naivodvije para duratyaya-vaitaranyas
  tvad-virya-gayana-mahamrta-magna-cittah
soce tato vimukha-cetasa indriyartha-
  maya-sukhaya bharam udvahato vimudhan

“O best of the great personalities, I am not at all afraid of material

From the beginning of Prabhupada’s preaching in New York he spoke about the development of an international society, but his new followers couldn’t imagine Krsna consciousness going beyond the walls of the little storefront on 26 Second Avenue.

Fortunately Prabhupada didn’t share their vision. He had such a deep faith in Lord Caitanya’s prediction and the instructions of his Guru Maharaja that he said the Krsna consciousness would someday go down in history for changing the world in its darkest

By Giriraj Swami

Today is Odana-sasthi, the date on which Lord Jagannatha is given a winter shawl. One year, when Lord Chaitanya and His associates celebrated this festival in Puri, Pundarika Vidyanidhi, who is Vrsabhanu Maharaja, Srimati Radharani’s father, in krsna-lila, received some special mercy. His experience is instructive for us all.

Srila Prabhupada explains, “At the beginning of winter, there is a ceremony known as the Odana-sasthi. This ceremony indicates that from that day forward,

By Chaitanya Charan Das 

We all worry sometime or the other. And to some extent, worrying is just natural and unavoidable because so many things that are important for us are not in our control.

Still, if we consider the amount of mental time we spend on worrying, we will recognize that it is enormous – and enormously unproductive, in fact counterproductive.

While there are no quick fixes to the problem of excessive worrying, still we can progress towards a solution by appreciating that the sam

Guest: What is the highest devotion, the highest bhakti, please?
Srila Prabhupada: To love Krishna. If you become expert how to love Krishna… The idea of loving is not unknown to you. You love somebody. You love your wife. You love your children. You love your country. You love your society. There are so many loving aspect. But when you love Krishna, then your life is perfect. That we have to…
sa vai pumsam paro dharmo
yato bhaktir adhoksaje
ahaituky apratihata
yayatma samprasidati
(Srimad-Bhag

This write-up is not intended as a criticism of the preaching efforts of any particular devotees. I am sure that all devotees involved in preaching to scientists and scholars are doing their best to promulgate the philosophy of Krsna Consciousness. However, there are certain general issues that are of great importance. Inevitably, the discussion of these general issues involves illustrations taken from the preaching work of particular individuals. I hope that these individuals will forgive me f

There are various answers in various scriptures to this question. In the Bhagavad-gita, we have the verse: paritrāṇāya sādhūnāḿ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām dharma-saḿsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge (Bhagavad-gita 4.8). Krsna says here that He appears millennium after millennium to annihilate the demons and to re-establish the principles of religion. In the Srimad Bhagavatam, Kuntidevi is explaining that the Lord appeared because of the austerities carried out by Vasudeva and Devaki and that it was

Dear assembled Devotees,

I was doing some work at my home, and I was listening to some Srimad Bhagavatam lectures giving by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada told a humorous story about a rabbit that killed a lion. It was so transcendentally pleasing that I thought I would share this nectar with all the assembled devotees on this world wide web site.

“God’s energies are a variety. All those varieties are grouped into three divisions. Out of the three divisions there are tatas

In his talk on the Bhagavad-gita 9.20–22, on December 7, 1966, in New York, Srila Prabhupada stated:

“The Lord says a very nice thing. What is that?

ananyas cintayanto mam
ye janah paryupasate
tesam nityabhiyuktanam
yoga-ksemam vahamy aham
       [Gita 9.22]

[But those who worship Me with devotion, meditating on My transcendental form to them I carry what they lack and preserve what they have.] Here the Lord gives assurance that ‘Those who are unflinching and cent percent devoted in the transce