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By Dwaipayan De

Srila Vrindavan Das Thakura has written one song whose first few lines are as follows:

are bhai nitai amara dayara avadhi 
jivera karuna kari dese dese phiri phiri
prema-dhana yace nirabadhi

Here Vrindavan Das Thakura sings the glories of Lord Nitai who wanders from one place to another, distributing the ecstatic love of Godhead to one and all without any discrimination.

Lord Nityananda,is none other than Lord Balaram, who advents in this age of Kali, as the most merciful incarn

Gaur Krsna Dasi: In this lifetime, I have never met with death face to face. Finally that opportunity came to me recently, when my father got really ill and weak and finally left his body in our hands. As an aspiring devotee (who is trying to become a devotee of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa) and after much deliberation upon the recent events, I want to share my story in case of my father’s death with hope to inspire other devotees to consciously try to save their parents and relatives no matter what their curre

In one of the early Back to Godhead magazines, there was a cover with a butcher slaughtering an animal and Prabhupada asked, “Why did you put this? Why did you put this?”

The editor said, “Well, aren’t we against meat-eating?”

Prabhupada said, “We are not against anything. We are for Krsna!”

So our business is to be for Krsna, not just against this or against that. For Krsna, means to do what is pleasing to Krsna. In one lecture, Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes, Krsna said patraḿ puṣpaḿ phalaḿ toya

Vedic reality is a space-time continuum in which all events of past, present and future are laid out. This however, does not negate the free choice exercised by humans.

Vedic time is not just a linear progression of seconds, minutes, hours, days and years. Within the cosmos, there are time cycles of differing lengths for each planetary system. Time is also a coordinate, and all events, past and future, are to be found in different realms of the four dimensional space-time matrix. This understan

From Back to Godhead

Vaishnava acts of compassion are valuable even when apparently not on the level of transcendence.

Pure Vaishnavas care deeply. They feel the suffering of others in the core of their hearts. Their greatest compassionate wish is to lead others away from their suffering once and for all – by helping them go back home, back to Godhead. Until people reconnect with Lord Krishna and hear how to lead their lives in His service, they will never achieve true happiness, free from suf

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 14 July 2012, Modra, Slovakia, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.1)

All throughout history, people have tried to impress other people. Some men have been wearing high hats. Some ladies have been wearing high heels. In so many ways, people have tried to impress each other, generation after generation. Are we any different? It is the same thing again and again – this one has a beautiful T-shirt, that one a far-out tattoo, this one has very tight clothes, and so on. We are trying to i

How do we maintain self-confidence, yet feel ourselves a fool before our spiritual master? How can we be confident and simultaneously feel unqualified to serve Krishna? Aren’t self-confident people somewhat proud or arrogant?

We are ordinary people engaged in an extraordinary process, a process that will make us extraordinary. Thus, our confidence lies not in ourselves, but in the power of the process of bhakti.

With Krishna’s divine power and intelligence guiding us, we know we will succeed. I

By Purushottam Nitai Das

Arjuna had never been defeated in any battle. But today standing between the armies of Kaurava and Pandavas he was not even able to hold his famous Gandiva bow with which he had conquered the mightiest of the warriors. He was in total panic, his body was quivering and he said to Krishna that it is better for me to beg and live than fight this war. In fact he was unable to decide what is righteous and unrighteous behavior. He understood that his expertise in archery and

The sound of Krsna’s flute was heard by Lord Brahma and then, the sound of that flute came out of the mouth of Lord Brahma through the Gayatri Mantra. So through the Gayatri Mantra we can hear Krsna’s flute. This makes second initiation a little more exciting. It is not only about being a brahmana. It is not only about the mode of goodness but you also hear the Gayatri Mantra which was what came out of Brahma’s mouth after hearing Krsna’s flute. It is said that the Gayatri Mantra is like the so

From Back to Godhead

By Drutakarma Dasa

Revealing the Land of Krsna

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s visit to Vrndavana opened the doors to the spiritual world for all humanity.

Among the sacred cities of the world, Vrndavana is probably the least well known. Yet this small town in northern India ranks with Rome, Jerusalem, and Mecca as a center of worship. It was in Vrndavana that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krsna, displayed His transcendental pastimes during His appearance on this plane

By Purushottam Nitai Das

To control the elephant is humanly impossible. So as soon as the baby elephant is born, the elephant trainer ties him with a rope to a pole. Initially the baby elephant tries his best to break the rope but because of his tender body he fails. The newly born elephant tries again and again but every time he fails. The baby elephant gets convinced that he is not strong enough to break it. He accepts it to be his destiny and continues to be tied. And even when he grows up a

By Khonika Gope-Kumar

[Translated and abridged from the Bengali Book “Gauda Mandal Parikrama: The Holy Tirthas in Bangladesh” by Patita Uddharan Das Brahmacari. Publisher: Hare Krishna Publications, ISKCON Swamibag]

A lot of Bengali devotees lament that even though A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada instructed a number of his senior disciples to preach in Bangladesh, he personally never visited Bangladesh. However, devotees would be happy to know that Prabhupada’s Guru, Srila Bhakti Sidd

There are many devotees in Wellington serving in various capacities, such as Devamrta Maharaja’s disciples doing harinama, book distribution and running the Bhakti Lounge

Ambarish Maharaja is a leader of namahatta and bhakti vrksa programs. Every Friday he has a namahatta program in a hall at Lower Hutt. I was able to attend the Bhakti Vrksa at his home on Saturday afternoon.

Source: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=71236

By Muralimohan dasa

Continuing the successful model of doing a one-day padayatra every month, the ISKCON Ahmedabad devotees celebrated this year’s first padayatra on January 13. Padayatra began at 8am at the Boot-Bhavani temple with forty-five devotees, Srila Prabhupada, and the beautifully dressed Sri Sri Nimai-Nitai and headed for upmarket Bakeri City in Vejalpur, where the devotees performed sankirtan and distributed Bhagavad-gitas to the neighbourhood’s well-informed residents. Magnetized

By Shyama Darshani dasi

Stepping out of the bus, the salty ocean air hit me in a wave. Tampa Bay was host to the Gasparilla Pirate Festival this January afternoon. Every way I looked I saw red and black. Young and old were all dressed in costume. Amidst this crowd was the Lord of the pirates – Jagannath Swami on His chariot!

Lord Jagannath’s devotees were no less dressed up. Eighty youth from ISKCON Alachua wore bright, vibrant, colored-coordinated outfits with Harinam chaddars draped over thei

Govardhana is enchanting… and simultaneously educational. At every turn there is a lesson to learn. While pacing the peaceful perimeter path yesterday, a street vendor suddenly announced: “Monkey seva! Monkey seva!” It was an invitation to feed the mischief-making monkeys that had congregated. “Monkey seva is my thing” I thought, “I’ve been feeding this monkey-like mind for lifetimes!” Some nuts for our furry friends today, but the inner monkey has to diet. Walking a little further we encounter