Blog

In response to my last blog ‘Turning distress into an opportunity‘, I received a few calls from devotees on taking shelter of Krishna in times of distress. In all the calls the crux was the same- Should we trouble Krishna with our material problems? Shouldn’t bhakti should be practiced without any motivation. My response was- of course bhakti should not be motivated, which means we practice bhakti for no other purpose than to please Krishna. But when faced with challenges in our lives then whos

Krsna’s beauty is not only external. His beauty is not only in His form and in His lotus eyes and so on, the beauty is in His very nature. Krsna is very noble. Our Krsna is extremely kind. When Draupadi was in the assembly of the Kurus and Shakuni was carrying out his tricks with the dice and cheating, the Pandavas lost everything. Even Yudhistira himself was totally lost. He lost all his brothers, then he lost himself and then he wagered Draupadi. So Draupadi was saying that it was not a prope

"The main thing is to keep the main thing as the main thing."

By Brahma-vaivarta Purana

Chapter Two
Sridama-Radha-kalaha-varnana
Description of the Quarrel Between Sridama and Radha

1-2 On whose request did Krsna come to the surface of the earth, what the Lord did before He returned to His own abode, how He removed the earth’s burden, and how He killed the demons, of all these I will, carefully thinking of what happened, tell you the story.
3 Listen and I will tell you of Lord Hari’s descent as a cowherd boy. His arrival in Gokula, and Radha’s descent as

By Gargamuni Das

October – November 1966: NEW YORK CITY, “Happiness on 2nd Ave.”

We used to make these leaflets called “Stay high forever.” People really got a kick out of those.

Gargamuni das: We had a big tape recorder that weighed 50 pounds. I was in charge of that.

Brahmananda would bring it down from Prabhupada’s closet every night.

So my job was to set up the tape for Prabhupada’s lecture.

Prabhupada was very insistent in having his lectures tape recorded – so much so that when the tape r

By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

dharmah svanusthitah pumsam
visvaksena-kathasu yah
notpadayed yadi ratim
srama eva hi kevalam

“Duties [dharma] executed by men, regardless of occupation, are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Supreme Lord.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 1.2.8)

In human society there is always some kind of religious institution. One’s religion is called dharma, faith. Dharma, precisely, is one’s constitutional and fun

By Giriraj Swami

I heard a beautiful talk by Srila Prabhupada in which he spoke of the order of the guru and his own achievement:

“[Sanatana Gosvami] therefore said, krpa kari’ yadi more kariyacha uddhara: ‘I know that it is due to Your mercy that I have been able to give up my material position, as Your man. Now order me what is my duty.’ This is devotee, you see? Not that ‘Now I am free from family life, I have no responsibility. Now I shall take prasadam and sleep.’ No. You must be hundred t

By HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

“Because of my state of complete foolishness and paucity of pious activities, although the Lord offered me His personal service, I wanted material name, fame and prosperity. My case is just like that of the poor man who, when he satisfied a great emperor who wanted to give him anything he might ask, out of ignorance asked only a few broken grains of husked rice.”

PURPORT

In this verse the word svārājyam, which means “complete independence,” is very sig

Radha devi dasi, ISKCON Vaishnavi Minister, recently announced the appointment of Ekanga devi dasi and Sati devi dasi, both from Russia, as regional co-ministers for Russia and the CIS. They will serve as the liaisons for the Vaishnavi Ministry in those regions and will also continue organizing sanga opportunities for Vaishnavis and communicating with local leaders on behalf of Vaishnavis in their regions.

Sati devi dasi is a disciple of Bhakti Tirtha Swami and served as his secretary and inter

I heard a nice talk by Srila Prabhupada in which he said, “A devotee is not afraid of dying”—and explained why:

Here in the material world, padam padam vipadam. At every step there is vipada; there is danger. So don’t think that “She is dying” or “He is dying, and I shall not die.” Everyone will have to die. At every step, there is danger of dying. It is not that . . . Everyone has to die. So before that death we must become fully Krishna conscious so that ante narayana-smrtih. [“The highest pe

“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of, so they can see that it’s not the answer.” ― Jim Carrey, American - Canadian actor

From Back to Godhead

By Lokanatha Swami

The unseen merciful hand of Lord Krsna helps a determined young science student become one of Srila Prabhupada’s first Indian disciples.

I was born in Aravade, a small village in the Indian state of Maharashtra that differs little from more than seven hundred thousand others in India. After I graduated from high school, my family sent me to Bombay to study chemistry in college. But my college career was not to be.

In the year 1971, in late March, somethin

By Brahma Tirtha Dasa and Vraja Vihari Dasa 

The following is a collective report from participants and facilitators of the dialogue.

Participants: Brahma Muhurta Dasa, Dravida Dasa, Garuda Dasa, Kalachandji Dasa, Naresvara Dasa, Nrsimhananda Dasa, Radhika Ramana Dasa, Urmila Devi Dasi

Facilitators: Brahma Tirtha Dasa, Vraja Vihari Dasa 

Srila Prabhupada wrote to Malati Devi Dasi on January 7, 1974: “I have already written to [name] and [name] about their difference of opinion. We have so much

“I am happy to hear that you continued to chant despite so many doubts and skepticism. That is the process. Even there may be doubts and skepticism, but if one continues the chanting process, the doubts will all disappear, and real knowledge will be revealed by the grace of Krishna. The example is given of the jaundice patient. He is suffering from disease, and when given sugar candy, which is the cure, he finds it very bitter and distasteful. But that does not mean the sugar candy is not sweet

Krsna is like the sun – the sun that appears in this world, the sun that rises and the sun that sets. Every night, the sun sets and in that way it looks like the sun disappears. But if you board a flight on an East-West route, then you sort of keep up with the sun. I have flown from Australia towards India and I witnessed like a 6 hour sunrise or something like that. The sun kept on rising and it appeared that it never stopped rising. You are flying and the sun keeps rising – it’s just chanting

Celebrating Srila Prabhupada’s 54th arrival anniversary to the United States with great news!!
On August 28th 2019, Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold was officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places by the West Virginia State Historic Preservation Society, the Department of the Interior, and the National Park Service. During the upcoming weekend, Sept 27 – 29, we will dedicate a bronze plaque to commemorate these momentous occasions.

Source: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=78627

On the occasion of World Holy Name Festival, ISKCON Rohini organized an Interfaith dialogue on Glories of Holy Names on 23rd Sept 2019.

Traditions across the world have stories similar to the Western classic about Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde. In such stories, the same person acts sometimes like a principled, selfless benefactor and sometimes like an opportunistic, self-centered malefactor.

And similar is our own story too. What makes us behave like this? Our mind, or more precisely, the way we respond to our mind. Our mind reacts impulsively to external perceptions and internal recollections; it becomes infatuated with some things and