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By Madhava Smulen
 

A new restaurant under the “Radha Govinda” brand, “Mandala by Radha Govinda,” opened on the 11th of September in Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital city.

The stunning 350 square meter (3,757 sq ft) space is in a prime spot in the city center and offers healthy vegan prasadam to cater to current trends.

A large variety of dishes from Indian, Balkan, Slovenian and Mediterranean cuisines, changing daily, are available from the salad bar and hot bar, along with a selection of swee

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One of Sripada Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja’s most prominent qualities is his deep love for Srila Prabhupada. Very soon after Maharaja met Srila Prabhupada, Prabhupada included him in his personal staff and made him his secretary for Bengali and Hindi correspondence. Soon thereafter, Srila Prabhupada gave him first and second initiation and then sannyasa. And Maharaja personally served Srila Prabhupada throughout Prabhupada’s last days.

His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami is also very devoted to ISK

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Bridges of Consciousness by Bhaktimarga Swami

I believe most walkers love walking over bridges, especially if there's a wooden flooring which has a little bit of a spring to it.  Once a railway bridge, the Bill Thorpe Bridge crosses over the Saint John River, and is the length of five hundred and eighty-one metres, with a serious iron framing on each side.
 
A repair man on the bridge asked if we were monks, and we naturally said, "Yes." He was curious.  There were other repair crewmen ready to embark on a four-month workover of the bridge.
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Bhaktivedanta Manor is pleased to announce the appointment of Visakha Dasi as Temple President. In August, Visakha Dasi spent time at the Manor and met with various official bodies that represent the community, managers, and trustees. The outcome was a unanimous decision that she was most suitable to lead and inspire the temple community. Former president Sruti Dharma Das welcomed the news: “It is an honour to have such a senior Vaisnavi and disciple of Srila Prabhupada now at the helm.” 

Duri

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In the Bhagavad-Gita, it is mentioned that there is the austerity of the body, austerity of the speech and austerity of the mind. In the austerity of the body, there are things like offering respect to elders. In the austerity of speech, we speak truthfully and such things. In the austerity of the mind however, there is one interesting point. This point that is mentioned is ‘to be satisfied’.

So since when is being satisfied an austerity? Are we experiencing satisfaction as an austerity? 

Well,

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On Sunday, September 15, in Dallas, in the presence of Sri Sri Radha-Kalachandji, Srila Prabhupada, and their followers, I was pleased to officially connect eight devotees to Srila Prabhupada and the guru-parampara through hari-nama initiation. Rajesh Sharma became Radha-vallabha dasa, Seema Sharma became Srimati dasi, Deo Pun became Divya Nama dasa, Manju Pun became Manjari dasi, Syamasundara Dasshort became Syama-vallabha dasa, Maria (Maggie) Caldwell became Madhuri Gopika dasi, Vanitha Sukum

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Fresh by Bhaktimarga Swami

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To me it was just a perfect morning around ten degrees Celsius.  No jacket required or chaudar (the Indian version), but for Samuel, who is slender, Marshall, too, and come to think of it, Nicholas, as well, bundling up was necessary.  Once we all ventured into a good clip walking the trails near the St. John River, over the well-known walking bridge, and into town, we all felt we could do without the extra hides.
 
Goodness, people are friendly.  It must be because everything is smaller and d
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Mathura, 2019-09-12: On Wednesday, September 11, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the holy town of Mathura to inaugurate and announce various projects related to animal/cattle healthcare, dairy development, cleanliness and tourism. The program was organized at Mathura’s Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Veterinary Science University and Cattle Research Institute.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Mathura MP Hema Malini were also present.

Addressing the (approx.) 15000 strong crowd in Brajbhasha, the

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By Madhava Smulen
 

More than 5,000 devotees have flooded to Jubga, near the Black Sea, for the epic Sadhu Sanga festival which started on September 4thand will run for one week until the 11th.

A popular vacation spot in the south of Russia, Jubga is bordered on one side by lush greenery and on the other by the picturesque Black Sea. It has been the site of Sadhu Sanga for the past five years, although the festival was launched over two decades ago.

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Fittingly, this year the coastal event ha

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All Over by Bhaktimarga Swami

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Covering a two day blitz of bhakti was a fun type of back-and-forth shuttle between three cities. And below are the highlights.
 
First, our small troupe of monks drove to a region outside of Moncton (perhaps one day we could change the spelling to Monktown) and there, just off of a panoramic ridge on Indian Mountain Road, was our destination for five hours of devotion. The setting, a rustic barn transformed into a place of living accommodation, and craft and yogic functions, was the place for
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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

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It was evening ārati time,

Which began at a clock’s precise chime

And from that gorgeous shrine

Was projected softly your voice divine.

From the modest speaker box it came,

A sound that only purity can claim.

It was the subject of ten avatars

Some who declare peace while others wars.

No vibration could dare to match

Your depth and power, the ear to catch

The pastimes of courageous heroes

And saints of softer mellows.

The harmonium you play hums through the song

Causing the listen
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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

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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

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Bhadra-purnima by Giriraj Swami

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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

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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

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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

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By Madhava Smulen
 

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

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Our drive to New Brunswick, a very scenic experience, allowed for a feast for the eyes. To some degree the word ‘feast’ became significant to Samuel, Marshall, Nicholas and myself.  At the stroke of midnight, we will break our full day fast on this auspicious day of Krishna's birthday.  It is not that food is on the mind, necessarily, though hunger pangs do rise. It's a dose of determination that makes for success in this realm of resistance.
 
As the day rolled out, the four of us scored wel
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“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

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