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By Yasoda-dulal Das

Great day spent at the Bhakti Center, then with the many exalted souls who came to the Monthly Sankirtan Festival.
Then a drive to a holy place (439 Henry Street in Brooklyn) and walk around the block while discussing pastimes of Srila Prabhupada at that temple.
That place was the site of the first Iskcon temple in New York where Radha Govinda were installed. Hundreds of devotees lived there, and tens of thousands of lives were touched by them with daily Harinams, street pl

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Events

Cyclone Fani slammed into Northeast India on Friday May 3rd with heavy rainfall and winds of up to 127 miles per hour, leaving at least 38 people dead in Odisha, hundreds injured and thousands without homes. 

Death tolls were relatively low since over 1 million people were evacuated from about 15,000 villages and 46 towns in Odisha in preparation for the Cyclone.

The sacred city of Jagannath Puri was one of the worst hit, with 25 deaths. According to ISKCON devotee Madhavananda Das, who runs Go

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People

Kamlesh Krishna Das, the International Director of the ISKCON Child Protection Office, has been appointed as a Justice of the Peace Magistrate in the British judiciary system. 

He will be serving within the Magistrate Court, which handles 95% of all legal cases in the UK. He was officially appointed and sworn in on Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is on April 1st, and will be based primarily in Hertfordshire. 

Kamlesh Krishna previously worked with the Ministry of Defense, held senior pos

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Vyasa-puja Ceremony - Day 3

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he guro jnana-da dina-bandho
svananda-datah karunaika-sindho 
vrindavanasina hitavatara 
prasida radha-pranaya-prachara

“O spiritual master, O giver of divine wisdom, O friend of the fallen, you are the giver of your own bliss and you are the only ocean of mercy. Although dwelling in Vrindavana, you have descended for the welfare of fallen souls like myself and you are preaching the divine love of Radha for Krishna. Please be kind upon me.”

(from Prayers in Glorification of the Spiritual Master

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It struck me like a culture-shock, as I looked out the arched window of Prabhupada's quarters, viewing the damp coolish weather outside.  I have just come back from Mauritius where everyone says it's been intensely hot for the summer.  Now that summer is behind us, it's still hot—at least for me.
 
I could just go out in proper wear, and bear the rain, but reason says, "Sometimes you just have to take it easy."  So that's what I did.  My mind wandered to two years ago.  In May, I set out w
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Day Broken Up by Bhaktimarga Swami

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The layover in Istanbul was a good seven hours, providing an opportunity to divide up time with either sitting, lying, standing or lotus-sitting.  There are carpet patches which interrupt the tile floor, and they were just perfect for doing some yoga stretching.  I guess in an international setting like this, one might  expect a guy in orange robes to do such maneuvers.
 
Personally, though, I had to address my right side pain, a new feature to aging. It helped.
 
I indulged in a breakfast, an
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By Kishori Jani

We lost one of the pillars of the Iskcon movement, one of the stalwart female pioneers in Srila Prabhupada’s mission- in the most glorious way! Her service to SP in the US, Kenya, Mumbai and Vrindavan is almost unparalleled. The stories and glories go on and on…

But the true test comes at the end.. And the whole affair at the end for her was SO beautiful and uplifting! Witnessing it gives me so much courage and confidence that this path is real! Experiencing such a glorious pass

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(English version of the ‘Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu’ by Sri Rupa Goswami)

Edited by Tridandi Goswami Abhay Charan Bhaktivedanta Swami

Text

Akhilla, Rasa, Amrita, Murti, Prasrmara, Ruci, Ruddha, Taraka, Pali, Kalita, Syama, Lalita, Radha, Preyan, Bidhu, Jayati.

Akhila=All inclusive, Rasa=Mellow, Zest, Amrita=Nectar, Murti=Form, Prasrmara=Expanding, Ruchi=Attractive features, Ruddha=Controlling, Taraka=of the name, Pali=of the name, Kalita=Influenced by, Syama=of the name, Lalita=of the name, Radha=

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Happy Narasimha Chaturdashi!

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Happy Narasimha Chaturdashi! Today is the most auspicious appearance day of Sri Narasimhadeva. Mayapur is filled with devotees assembled to celebrate this special festival. Evening from 4 pm onwards, Abhisheka will begin. Watch the festivities live at mayapur.tv. Maha Sudarshana Yajna & adhivas took place yesterday. We thank all the donors for their kind support for the festival. Happy to announce that all the sevas has been taken up.

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Source: http://www.mayapur.com/2019/happy-narasimha-chat

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By Giriraj Swami 

Srila Prabhupada was with us in Juhu for Nrsimha-caturdasi on May 5, 1974. The following excerpt from my forthcoming book about Srila Prabhupada and Juhu, entitled I’ll Build You a Temple: A Good Fight and a Promise Fulfilled, describes the devotees’ drama:

For Nrsimha-caturdasi, a troupe of devotees led by Jagat Purusa organized a drama depicting the appearance of Lord Nrsimha, to be performed in the temple room. There was an all-male cast, including the young and slender Nav

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Here are dozens of activities you can do with kids from age 2-18 about Lord Nrsimhadeva and Prahlad Maharaja. Some are general, and others are grouped by age. There are posters for quick reference. You can also print out the posters and give them to kids–let them choose what activities they would like to do!

<!–We hope in the future to greatly improve and expand these festival-based activities, adding boxes of ready-to-use resources such as masks, photos, activity sheets, and so forth. Suggesti

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Entering the clear waters of the Yamuna to prepare for the incomparable worship of goddess Katyayani, the girls of Vraja left their garments on the shore. Smiling and clever Krsna stole those garments, climbed a kadamba tree, embarrassed the girls by speaking many splendid joking words, and eventually returned their garments. I take shelter of Chiraghatta, where the Lord enjoyed these pastimes. -Vraja Vilasa Stava

For more darshan pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/iskcondesiretree/sets

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Arts

After their successful debut album “Mrdanga” in 2010, The Mayapuris are about to release their second. The project, titled "Nine Islands", features the Mayapuris' signature sound, carried along the current of their musical evolution as recording artists. 

"Nine Islands" refers to the holy land of Navadwip, where the sacred river Ganga splits the earth into nine distinct regions. Each region represents one of the nine processes of bhakti. 

The Mayapuris took this theme and created unique sounds

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So why should everyone just accept all these far out stories from the Srimad Bhagavatam? It is true that some are difficult to understand. Priyavrata did not like the darkness at night, so he got himself a chariot, followed the sun and it was sunny all the time! I mean, it sounds like mythology, right? The wheels of the chariot cut the land mass into seven pieces, and so we got the seven continents! It sounds as mythological as one could imagine. Some, therefore, have offered that the Bhagavata

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Sukadeva, like myself, is departing today for his homeland, South Africa, and he raised his arms up to the sun as if to say, "Good-bye."  It was our last stroll along the Indian Ocean on peaceful Belle Mare Beach, and a last dip in saltwater until our re-visit next year.
 
From here we darted off to Bon Accueil and the temple of Krishna Balarama. Dhananjaya is in his middle-aged years, and has been waiting for a year to gain his initiation.  From what I can see, he's a happy man, settled in hi
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Activism
 
By Madhava Smullen

Hosted by a second-generation devotee, new Youtube talk show “The Inspire Show” is a witty, creative and enlightening take on the late night chat show format.

On the show, Balaram Nityananda Das, who also runs Bhaktivedanta Manor’s outreach department in the UK, interviews a variety of ISKCON devotees about the challenges they face, what their spiritual perspectives are, and how those perspectives help them overcome their challenges.

Balaram hopes the show will not only bri

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Satsvarupa das goswami is an avid writer and a well known personality in the history and present day of ISKCON. Satsvarupa das Goswami is a writer, artist and spiritual master in the Gaudiya Vaisnava sampradaya. He is one of the first disciples of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), also known in the Western countries as the Hare Krishna movement.

Based in Albany, New York Satsvarupa has written hundreds of books in the

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Candana-yatra

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Candana-yatra began on Aksaya Tritiya, May 7, and continues for twenty-one days.

We continue our observance of Candana-yatra. We are reading from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila, Chapter Four: “Sri Madhavendra Puri’s Devotional Service,” which describes how Madhavendra Puri traveled by foot from Govardhana to Jagannatha Puri to procure sandalwood to grind and mix with camphor and place on the body of the Deity Gopala whom he had installed on the top of Govardhana Hill. After Madhavendra Pu

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I could only dream of trekking today.  Pain overnight, but finally by this evening an Ayurvedic doctor, Narada, came to figure out my issues.  They were purely mechanical by nature, and the issue has much to do with how I position myself when lying in bed.
 
You never stop learning.  Learning is about everything.  Chapter Four of the Gita concentrates on jnanam, learning or knowledge.  Now one translation I've always thrived on—by our guru—on the subject of knowledge, is to discern the differ
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[Statement] (Proposed and Sponsored by the SAC)

Resolved:

That the GBC accepts the conclusion and recommendation as found on page 38 of the SAC’s Patiguru paper: http://gbc.iskcon.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Pati-guru_April_2019_SAC2.pdf

Conclusion and Recommendation

1) A guru should not marry a disciple: As marrying a disciple is improper by both śāstric example and ordinary moral codes, it is right and proper for ISKCON law to prohibit such relationships or have sanctions against those who

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