Shiva-ratri occurs every lunar month on the 13th or 14th day of the dark half of the moon phase. Once every year during the month of Phalgun, a Maha Shiva-ratri occurs. This Maha Shiva-ratri day is considered to be the day when Lord Shiva married Parvati and it is celebrated elaborately by devotees of Lord Shiva.
Vaishnavas do not generally take part in the worship of demigods except to honor them as great devotees of the Lord. Lord Shiva is worshipped by Vaishnavas because he is the greatest
On or around Gaura Purnima 2022 all of ISKCON will ecstatically celebrate together the Grand Opening of the magnificent Temple of the Vedic Planetarium at the World Headquarters of ISKCON in Sridham Mayapur on its 50th Anniversary, and our beloved Mayapur Deities will at last be moved into Their long-awaited new home.
After twelve years of planning, execution and fundraising mixed with the blood, sweat and tears of many, we will finally make this combined offering to Srila Prabhupada, increasin
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 30 December 2017, Gold Coast, Australia, Bhagavad-gita 8.20)
We must try to properly glorify Srila Prabhupada in order to understand his unlimited spiritual potency. Srila Prabhupada was always a resident of the spiritual world. He may have been present in this material world for us, but he still resided in the spiritual world. What if I was trying to glorify Srila Prabhupada and I were to say, “At the end of his life, he went back to Godhead.” What would you say to that?
The Srimad Bhagavatam gives us full descriptions of Krsna’s appearance, of Krsna’s character and of his activities. It is in this way, by absorption in the Bhagavatam that we get everything, everything to know who Krsna is. First, it describes how of all the incarnations, Krsna is the Supreme Lord, ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.28). Then finally in the tenth canto, it gets into detail. In this way, by reading, we can gradually understand and begin to ap
By Bhakti Chaitanya Swami
The GBC Organizational Development Committee started its meetings on thursday in Mayapur, just before the full GBC meeting starts. Some of the main management experts of the movement are taking part.
Most of the times, we are running after money ( dhan ). Money is what makes the world go round, or so it appears. Many a times, this appears to be true. Money enables us to buy goods and services, food, clothing and other basic necessities of life, possessions, home, car, luxuries, etc; Since Laxmi is the goddess of wealth, we worship her to bless us with her favour and benediction. As we are mostly obsessed with money and its acquisition, we do not realize that Laxmi also benedicts us with bea
AT “SRI ANTARDVIPA” ISLAND OF SRI NAVADVIPA-MAYAPUR DHAMA
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura called this place “Vrindavana Pattan”, which means the place where the forest of Vrindavana is manifest. By Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s spiritual potency, Syama-Kunda, Radha-Kunda and Giri-Govardhana of Vrindavana are all manifest here. Established by Sarasvati Thakura in 1918, this temple was the headquarters of his Krishna Consciousness preaching throughout India. During its peak t
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura was a foremost scholar and Lord Krishna’s devotee of his day. Born on 6 Feb 1874 at Jagannatha Puri, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura is the child that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura prayed to Lord Jagannatha for, wanting an able assistant to preach Krishna Consciousness. His divinity was evident from birth. When he was born, his umbilical cord was wrapped around his body like a brahmana thread. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura gave his son the Harinama Maha-mantr
By Radhanath Swami
If someone offers you some mahaprasad, then you should honor little whenever it is, whenever they offer, you can honour little bit. But as far as going out of your way to find mahaprasad at times that are unregulated to eating schedule. That is simply feeding the tendency for your tongue to continue to be uncontrolled.
jihvara lalase yei iti–uti dhaya
sisnodara-parayana krishna nahi paya
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu instructed Raghunath Das Goswami that he who simply chases after th
Narottama Dasa Thakura was a lifelong brahmacari. He visited all the holy places and the was the best of pure devotees. On the banks of the Padmavati river, in the town of Gopalpura lived King Krsnanda Datta. His older brother was Purusottama Datta. The wealth and fame of these two brothers was beyond compare. King Krsnananda’s son was Sri Santosa Datta. In the month of Magha Sri Narottama Dasa Thakura took his birth. Seeing many auspicious omens surrounding the birth of his son, Raja Krsnanand
Giriraj Swami gave this talk on February 12, 2014 in New Dvaraka, Los Angeles.
“We think of Srila Prabhupada staying in the Bowery with that young man, David Allen, who was taking the New York version of strong liquor—LSD. David just went mad. He could have done anything to Srila Prabhupada. And Srila Prabhupada went running down the stairs onto the street, not knowing where he would go. It was like Nityananda Prabhu and Haridasa Thakura running for their life from the drunken brothers Jagai an
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
By Giriraj Swami
jaya jaya sri-caitanya jaya nityananda
jayadvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vrnda
We are gathered here to celebrate the appearance day of Sri Advaita Acarya. Advaita Acarya is an incarnation of Maha-visnu. In terms of pastimes, He appeared before Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and so was considered an elder by Mahaprabhu. He was actually older than Lord Caitanya’s own father.
Advaita Acarya, although Visnu Himself, was in the mood of a Vaisnava. As a Vaisnava, He felt compassion for t
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
