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Activism

By Madhava Smullen 

A globally recognized social media strategist and consultant is teaching ISKCON devotees how to use social media to spread the Holy Names and increase the outreach of their temples.

With his Bangalore-based agency, Shabdahari Das has run social media campaigns for world-famous personal development gurus like Tony Robbins, T. Harv Ecker, and Bryan Tracy. He’s also trained over 20,000 entrepreneurs in how to use social media to grow their businesses.

In December 2018, at t

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The German writer Goethe, who is like the German equivalent of Shakespeare, came up with an interesting point.

He said that a child is a realist because a child is trying to understand what are apples and what are pears; a child tries to figure out the difference. He tries to understand what is reality.

A youth is an idealist – a dreamer of what he is going to make of his life. He said that in mid-life, one becomes a bit of a cynic. The person goes, “But yeah, yeah, yeah. I have seen it. These

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Old Shelter by Bhaktimarga Swami

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From Montreal, Ananda, Kishor and I headed west on Hwy 401 and took a break at the rural area of Grafton to visit Jai, Rasa and family, as well as to see their new calf.  That went well.  The visit included talks of relevance over soup and bread.  It was time to depart as we were under pressure to meet a timeline for chanting at Toronto's downtown Kensington.

"Pick me up," I softly recommended to our driver, Kishor. "I need to get some walking in."
 
"Okay," said Kishor, and I then had th
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Cave Your Cave by Achyut Gopal Das

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The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone-that is the secret of invention: be alone, that is when ideas are born." - Nikola Tesla

A few weeks ago, I had the good fortune of participating in the Dwarka-Somnath Yatra with nearly two hundred devotees from Goa. One of the many places we visited during this pilgrimage was the cave of Jambavan. Our scriptu
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People

By Madhava Smullen 

Eleven second-generation devotees received first and/or second initiation from ISKCON guru Radhanath Swami in New York City on June 9th, the day after New York Rathayatra.

Initiates hailed from Houston, Washington D.C., New York, and London, and included prominent kirtaniyas such as Gaura Vani, Jahnavi, Tulasi, Ananta Govinda, and Janaki Priya. All others in the group are also dedicated to regular ISKCON service in their areas.   

The full list of initiates includes three

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Mostly Outdoors by Bhaktimarga Swami

A good amount of time was spent outside today, including a good park-bench talk with monk, Hayagriva, who's in France these days, and then a chat about our mission in Cuba with Nanda Tanuja on his balcony.  For these two souls, a jacket was necessary (this is the coolest June I've ever known).  We then joined the chanting party on streets Mont Royale and Ste. Laurent.

Our chanting procession was received with warmth.  It was Kishor's first time.  He liked it. He's a natural at bhaktiyoga.  As o
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By changing our externals our internals is not going to change. By wearing dhoti - kurta, our desires are not going to change. By wearing a Vaishnava tilak, our desires are not going to change. Yes, the external appearance of a devotee is an important aspect of Bhakti and it does have some effect on our consciousness but it is not the all in all of being a devotee. The real challenge is to bring changes from within.

Donning the dress of a devotee externally is difficult but not that difficul
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Tamal Krishna Goswami’s Vyasa-Puja

By Giriraj Swami

“Vyasa was the spiritual master of Sanjaya, and Sanjaya admits that it was by Vyasa’s mercy that he could understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This means that one has to understand Krsna not directly but through the medium of the spiritual master. The spiritual master is the transparent medium, although it is true that the experience is still direct. This is the mystery of the disciplic succession.

“Actually there is no difference between hearing directly from Krsna a

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Spike by Bhaktimarga Swami

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Spike came around today, just to drop in, and have some prasadam at Govinda's, where I test the food every day before it's served out to lovers of a different kind of food.

Spike is a different kind of fellow, by the way.  I haven't seen him for about fifteen years.  I’ve known him for about thirty.  I knew him as a Deadhead, which means he's an avid follower of the rock band, "The Grateful Dead."  I mean that literally; many Deadheads would follow the band's circuit to listen to them at conc
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Ever thought of the number of clothes we have worn and discarded since our childhood. Do we have any track of them? Ever thought of the number of shoes and slippers we have worn and discarded since our childhood. Do we have any track of them? These questions may seem quite stupid, childish and irrelevant to our present situation, isn't it! Wait a minute before you brush aside these questions, might be there is some wisdom in them. Let's see....

THE FIRST LAYER OF WISDOM

The first and the obvi
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Walk and Peace by Bhaktimarga Swami

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Given the perfect weather, with sun, moderate temperature and a fresh wind, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to go north on Yonge Street to the ‘uptown’ region.  The morning showed itself to be so optimistic, judging by the upbeat-ness of fellow pedestrians.  The greetings on peoples faces and lips were precious—just precious—as they made their way to individual destinations.  They were places you would expect—Tim Hortons, Starbucks, even church.  Tennis rackets would indicate a courtya
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Lifestyle
 
By Madhava Smullen

Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics, a new book by ISKCON guru and scholar Krishna Kshetra Swami, will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in early 2020.  The work is set to make caring for cows, in the spirit of devotion, a serious topic of discussion in academia worldwide. 

Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics speaks exclusively and in great detail to educated, thoughtful readers about the immense value and special practices involved in caring for cows, both devotionally and prof

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When Srila Prabhupada started the Sunday love feast, there were about fifteen preparations where each one was outstanding. There was nothing ordinary, everything was special. In the Lilamrtra, it is said that Satsvarupa wanted to be renounced. So when Prabhupada was serving out and asked, “Any seconds?”, Satsvarupa did not want to say “More sweet rice!“, so he instead said, “Just some rice please.” But even the sweet rice had little cheese balls in it and cashews and all kinds of other incredib

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Park Hopping by Bhaktimarga Swami

My day of thrills began at the front door in the morning.  I was poised to go for a stroll with visitor/monk, Bhakti Prabhava Swami, when an exploring raccoon shimmered his way up the cedar out front. I got close, stroked his back, and then he posed for that perfect picture.  He didn’t snarl at me.  Thanks young fella!
 
At 9:00 a.m., Ananda and I started a rehearsal with some of our female dancers using dandiya, decorated sticks that make a click-clack when the dancer makes a twirl.  The sticks
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"Krishna's love for us is far greater than our love for Him."

Ever wondered why Lord Krishna's deity in most temples are in a standing position? Because, the Lord feels that if my devotee calls for me in his moment of distress, I should be ready and not have to waste getting up. Mind you, the deity of the Lord is not a mere replica of the Lord but the Lord Himself. Can you imagine this - the Lord is personally standing on His legs for such a long time eagerly waiting for all of us. For us to
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How to conquer Krishna by Giriraj Dasa

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Krishna consciousness is an adventure, most devotee will vouch that there is never a dull moment in our spiritual journey. There are ups and downs, many a times we wish to do more, feel inspired to push our boundaries, while sometime we become morose as we see our shortcomings and feel lack of progress despite a strong and sincere desire to do so.

Sometimes devotees feel constrained by their circumstances, and start praying fervently to Krishna to change their situation. In extreme cases some d

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For a morning and early afternoon stretch, I accompanied Keshava and Jai for fundraising. We seemed to go all over the town; off to businesses, a clinic, and a factory, with gifts of books, cookies and calendars. Those whom we visited are regular donors to our Ratha Yatra or Festival of Chariots, and this being our 47thannual, you should know we are going strong!  We are grateful to meet all these people who are of that generation which came to Canada bearing that Hindu piety, and at best genuin
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Activism

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, U.S. Congresswoman from Hawaii, took a break from politics to lead kirtan at the ISKCON Rathayatra festival in New York on June 8th.

Gabbard is currently campaigning for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 2020. She has recently been named by the Democratic National Committee as one of the twenty presidential candidates to participate in the first primary debate of the 2020 campaign, which will take place in Miami on June 26thand 27th.

Tulsi Gabba

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Met Maggie by Bhaktimarga Swami

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It was a treat to meet Maggie.  Here’s how it happened.  Karuna and I walked back to the ashram after a very successful kirtan at Bellevue Square  Park.  Ekalavya  was ‘reggae-ing’  from the harmonium, making sounds of joy, while Kohl was on the guitar.  https://www.instagram.com/p/ByZ2AArgK34/?igshid=bbv845dmevcThe music drew all kinds of people, especially toddlers, with their parents, of course.  From what I could see, we left people happy.  And then it was time to pack up.

As the two of
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