As the festival season of December to March begins at ISKCON Mayapur, pilgrims are flooding into the holy town. For many, the recently built full dome planetarium theater is a major attraction.
“The feedback we’re getting is fantastic,” says Sridham Das, project manager for the Vedic Science Museum and Planetarium Theater at the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium (TOVP).
Immersive technologies are a major part of the plan for the still-under-construction TOVP, including a hu
By Giriraj Das
We often read and hear, how being a devotee, our heart should be soft, full of humility and compassion for others. Sometime we are not even sure where to draw the final line as there are different instructions for devotees at different levels of consciousness. We do not even know what is true humility and many a times wonder how a pure Vaishnava thinks, what are his emotions and how does he acts?
Caitanya Mahaprabhu quoted the below verse, from Mahabharat, to a brahmana during
By Madhava Smullen
Nitaipriya Dasi has to balance many responsibilities in life: she’s a mother of two, serves on the board of the ISKCON Philadelphia temple, and works as vice president of a reputed bank.
However she’s found yet another sweet service to offer – making astonishingly beautiful and delicious cakes for Sri Sri Radha-Saradbihari and Their devotees.
Years ago when her sons Varun and Tushar didn’t like the vegan birthday cakes she would purchase from Wholefoods, Nitaipriya decided
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, March 2018, Durban, South Africa, Ratha Yatra Lecture)
Human relationships become meaningful when Krsna is the priority. It is not good enough when Krsna is simply there in our lives. I mean, it is still nice that Krsna is there, but when Krsna actually becomes the priority, then it becomes significant to the point that everything will change. This is the unique feature of Srila Prabhupada, who truly made Krsna the priority and showed that consistently throughout his whol
Karma – Activities of the Conditioned Soul
Ignorance of Krsna
Desire to Enjoy
Material body
Identity with body
Desire to enjoy in body
Action to get enjoyment
Immediate Experience
Of enjoyment
Or suffering
Attachment to objects
causing enjoyment
Repulsion to objects
of suffering
(samskara)
Desires or hatred Restrictions
in next life (vasana) in next life (karma)
Free will, intelligence
Action
Tama Raja Sattva
Misery Immediate Detachment
Pleasure Peace
Action: Prakrti in combina
Srila Prabhupada explains in many places that the human form of life is a juncture at which one can elevate or degrade himself.
What is the value of atonement if the propensity to commit sin is still there?
One reaction for sinful activities is the continued tendency to commit sinful activities.
One cannot counteract one fruitive activity with another fruitive activity. The analogy given is counteracting a bad dream with a hallucination.
An intelligent person does not endeavor for happiness bec
We have to remind ourselves again and again who we are and who we are not.
Most people seek only to increase their sense gratification rather than to understand who they are.
Everyone is in a rush going nowhere.
If people can understand their bodies are changing but they are not changing, that is a second birth.
If we cannot give up hankering and lamenting and see all people on the spiritual plane, we cannot begin devotional service. [Bhagavad-gita 18.54]
Neither Brahma nor the insignificant a
From Back to Godhead
By Sadaputa Dasa
The ancient Greek writer Aratos tells the following story about the constellation Virgo, or the virgin. Virgo, he says, may have belonged to the star race, the forefathers of the ancient stars. In primeval times, in the golden age, she lived among mankind as Justice personified and would exhort people to adhere to the truth. At this time people lived peacefully, without hypocrisy or quarrel. Later, in the age of silver, she hid herself in the mountains, b
Presented at Toward a Science of Consciousness 1996, April 8-13, 1996, Tucson, Arizona
by Michael A. Cremo
Research Associate in History and Philosophy of Science,
Bhaktivedanta Institute, 9701 Venice Blvd. Suite 5, Los Angeles, CA 90034
Email: 105406.257@compuserve.com, (310) 837-5283, Fax (310) 837-1056
Topical Area: Phenomenology/Culture
Key words: Consciousness, dualism, religion, India, parapsychology
Abstract:
One barrier to acceptance of interactionist models for mind/body dualism is a
We chant the Hare Krsna maha-mantra because it is said that by chanting these sixteen syllables all the influence of the Kali will be destroyed. Under the influence of Kali, we are becoming totally degraded. Illicit activities such as meat eating, gambling, intoxication and illicit sex are rampant in the world. Day-by-day, we become pulled down more and more, and degraded more and more and we sink deeper into the swamp of suffering. But, the chanting of Hare Krsna can liberate us from all this
By Giriraj Swami
On the auspicious occasion of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s disappearance day, we were pleased to officially connect Vishal Amarnani and his wife, Shweta, to Srila Prabhupada and the guru-parampara through hari-namainitiation. Their new names are Vraja Bihari dasa and Sveta-manjari dasi. Please bless them and support them in their service to Srila Prabhupada, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and their mission.
By Chaitanya Charan Das
Suppose someone said in English, “I don’t know a single word of English.” Their statement would be a blatant self-contradiction.
A similar self-contradiction results when scientism abuses science to deny the existence of consciousness.
Science is an attitude, a way of analyzing the world through empirical observation and rational inference. As a matter of methodology, science largely seeks natural explanations for natural phenomena, wherein natural is a synonym for mater
By Parvati devi dasi
Vrndavan Krishna Balarama Mandir celebrated its 19th Annual Recitation of the Sanskrit verses of the Gita Mahatmya and the Bhagavad Gita in the temple courtyard 19 Dec. 18, Moksada Ekadasi. It was a wonderful Community Event and we thank everyone for their participation, including the chanters and those who helped set things up. We began by 9:30 a.m. with a short aroti to the Bhagavad Gita, and finished the ecstatic recitation just before 12 noon, followed with Ekadasi Maka
Gopi Gita Devi Dasi: There are times in all of our lives, as progressing spiritualists, where no matter how hard we work/surrender/strive for the highest level of purity and love, we fall flat and feel not enough; unable to be enough; ready to give up.
We may feel the challenges we face outwardly and inside our hearts to be insurmountable. We may feel that we are making no progress as to the lessening of material desire, attachments, lust, anger, greed and so much more.
This most incredible pur
As we come into Krishna consciousness then many a times we may get lost in the philosophy itself. The mind too likes newer subjects and intellect is also satisfied by gaining deeper understanding. However we should be careful not to feel satisfied remaining at these levels. Most of us do understand that our real position in the material world is not unlike that of a criminal put in a prison for reform. Criminals can also, rather they do, have high level of mental and intellectual capabilities!
Setting a Good Example
We should concentrate on training the children up in Krsna consciousness, not so much formal academic educationa little reading, writing, mathematics, that’s allbut more by giving them facility to follow the examples of the older devotees in the regular Krsna conscious program.
Letter to Satsvarupa dasa, February 16, 1972
Let the children associate with the elders as much as possible in the routine Krsna conscious program.
Letter to Aniruddha dasa, February 16, 1972
The b
In The Late Eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, European scholars and scientists began to come in contact with the culture of India. Many were impressed by the antiquity of Vedic civilization and the deep spiritual and material knowledge contained in the Vedic literature. But other European intellectuals were dismayed by these developments. For example, in 1825 the British scholar John Bentley wrote of his conflict with the scientist John Playfair, who was an admirer of Indian culture:
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 03 May 2016, Vrndavana, India, Bhagavad-gita 3.34)
It is interesting that when speaking of prema (pure love for Krsna) in the Srimad Bhagavatam, the example is given of the intermediate devotee, the madhyama-adhikārī. Not the kanishta-adhikārī (the neophyte), but of the madhyama, someone a bit more advanced, a devotee who has shown determination. It is provided: īśvare tad-adhīneṣu bāliśeṣu dviṣatsu ca prema-maitrī-kṛpopekṣā yaḥ karoti sa madhyamaḥ (Srimad Bhagavatam 11.2
By Chaitanya Charan Das
We long to be free. And we long for love. Yet love and freedom don’t seem to go together.
Why? Because love apparently restricts freedom. We are finite beings with finite resources such as time, energy and emotions. When we love someone, we have to focus on developing a connection with them. And this focus decreases the resources available for us to connect with others. Moreover, to connect with anyone, we need to do the things that please them and avoid doing the thing
Srila Prabhupada: In the beginning, the Vedic purpose is pursued in three ways (trayi) — by karma-kaṇḍa, jsana-kaṇḍa and upasana-kaṇḍa. When one reaches the complete, perfect stage of upasana-kaṇḍa, one comes to worship Narayaṇa, or Lord Viṣṇu. When Parvati asked Lord Mahadeva, Lord Siva, what is the best method of upasana, or worship, Lord Siva answered, aradhananaḿ sarveṣaḿ viṣṇor aradhanaḿ param. Viṣṇupasana, or viṣṇv-aradhana, worship of Lord Viṣṇu, is the highest sta
