My disciple Rohini-nandana Dasa, from Israel, who has helped tremendously with my book about Srila Prabhupada and Juhu, and his devoted wife, Vrinda Devi Dasi, a wonderful disciple of Bhurijana Prabhu (she took the picture), have come to spend eight days with us in Carpinteria. We are truly relishing their association, and look forward to more of it whenever time and circumstances—and Srila Prabhupada and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy—allow. They and other devotees are rendering invaluable s
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By Anuradha Imseng
On Thursday, 17 May 2018, a second VIP event was held at ISKCON New Vrindaban to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary with dignitaries, supporters, friends, and local and worldwide devotees. It was an opportunity to thank the guests for their unrelenting support during New Vrindaban’s fifty-year journey.
The pre-event began with a tour of Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold, the breathtaking memorial shrine (Smriti Samadhi) of Srila Prabhupada, while the lady guests were treated to h
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 13 May 2012, Sydney, Australia, Srimad Bhagavatam 5.11.14)
I remember when the Australian devotees used to come to Vrindavan. I used to be in charge of allocating rooms in the ashram. For the Australian brahmacaris, I used to give them a whole room for themselves which was pretty good and they had somewhere to sleep. In India, basically you have a room with a cement floor and they said to me, “Is this our room? Where is the carpet? It’s just a bare floor! But okay, let’s
It is extremely nice to explore Krsna because he is a personality who constantly moves between being very human-like and also very super-human. It is the human element however that brings him close to us because we can recognise ourselves in Krsna and his experiences. And yet, his solutions are sometimes very super-human in nature which is purely amazing. So in this way we become close to Krsna – the Supreme Personality.
Krsna’s all-pervading universal form is described in the eleventh chapter
By Giriraj Swami
In a talk on Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3.13, on May 30, 1972, in Los Angeles, Srila Prabhupada spoke about the qualities of a devotee, and I was struck by the following:
A devotee is sympathetic and friendly. “Sympathetic. We should be very much sympathetic. If some of our fellow men fall sick, we must take care of them, give help to them. Because after all, we have got this body; sometimes we may fall sick. So, we should be sympathetic. And friendly. Everyone’s friend. As Krishna is
By Rasananda das
“How any spiritual activity should be done is understood from three sources: saintly persons, standard scriptures and the spiritual master”. (Srimad Bhagavatam 3.28.4, purport)
Proper sankirtan – a phrase used by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati in his Sri Sanmodana Bhasyam and by Lord Caitanya Himself – means certain tunes, certain instruments, a certain musical style, certain dress and certain kinds of dancing by the members of the chanting party. In Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s sank
Habit can be terribly powerful. When people get caught in some bad habits such as smoking or drinking, they find quitting those habits almost impossible – it appears that habits have a power bigger than theirs.
The key in dealing with habits is understanding that even if habits can’t be rejected, they can be replaced. Whatever habits we have, they serve some need. To the extent we cultivate a positive habit that fulfills the need fulfilled by a negative habit, to that extent freeing ourselves f
Once a king called upon all his wise men and asked, “Is there a mantra or suggestion which works in every situation, in every circumstance, in every place and at every time, something which can help me when none of you are available to advise me. Tell me is there any mantra?”
All the wise men were puzzled by the king’s question. One answer for all questions, something that works everywhere, in every situation, In every joy, every sorrow, every defeat and every victory? They thought and thought
In so many ways, maya (the illusory energy) is infiltrating our lives. Maya is everywhere. They say maya is a witch. For the male, maya takes a female form and for the female, maya takes a male form. In this way, maya has only one purpose which is to bind the living beings. Different chains are being used; chains of greed, chains of anger but the strongest chain of all is known as mayy āyuṅktām anugraham (Srimad Bhagavatam 3.14.11), the chain of sex! That is maya’s most powerful weapon because
By Niranjana Swami
Much can be said about compassion, and although we’ve covered many of its different facets, there is still much more that can be said, specifically in terms of our relationships with each other as practitioners of Krsna consciousness.
This whole theme expands from one line in The Nectar of Devotion—that one should not give unnecessary trouble to any living entity. This is a principle of Krsna consciousness that every Vaisnava should aspire to achieve because, as we say every
On May 19 and 20, 2018, All India Padayatra traveled from Hubali city to Navgaon via Keshavpur in Karnataka.
For the pleasure of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara, Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev we would like to announce the book distribution score of All India Padayatra on 19th and 20th May, 2018.
Maha-big Books – 112
Big Books – 12
Small Books – 239
Total Books – 363.
Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara ki jai…
Srila Prabhupada ki Jai…
By Madhava Smullen
An incredible fifteen thousand people attended the grand opening of a newly renovated temple in Farmington Hills, a Detroit suburb, from April 18thto 22ndthis spring.
A pearl-white Indian-style dome with a golden chakra rose from the $1.4 million converted restaurant, glinting in a blue, sunny sky as devotees from all over the U.S., along with general public from the local area participated in the five-day festival.
Guests included Farmington Hills Mayor Ken Massey, Congress
By Sadhu-priya Das (Iskcon Moscow Temple President)
On 20.05.1988, 30 years ago ISKCON Russia officially got registered in USSR . On a beautiful spring day in 1988, the Council for Religious Affairs officially registered the Moscow Society for Krishna Consciousness, concluding, or so it seemed, a longstanding feud between the devotees and the State. It was the first religious society registered in the Soviet Union since World War II. Honb’le Prime minister of India has sent his message on this
By Chitra Sakhi Dasi
In August 2018, the New Mayapur community in the Loire Valley, France will have their first Transcendental Art Seminar. The courses will be given by Dhriti dasi and Ram Das Abhiram Das, senior disciples of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who were personally guided by him to create “windows to the spiritual world” through their exquisite paintings. Their artworks can be found in almost every canto of Srimad Bhagavatam and they will generously share their guidance, exper
By Giriraj Swami
On this day twenty-four years ago, Mother Arca-vigraha passed away, in Vrindavan, and to honor the occasion, I share a remembrance of her by Raghava Pandit das:
When I think of Mother Arca and her myriad of good qualities, I am reminded of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions to one of his disciples: “Do it enthusiastically, with the courage of an Englishman and the heart of a Bengali mother.” I was fortunate to see both these sides in her—her nurturing affection and her courage—in
By Romapada Swami
As we progress in spiritual life, something which naturally arises in the heart is compassion. Once awakened, how are we to properly repose our newly-enriched compassion tendency? Persons who are “spiritual” are expected to be compassionate. Different people in this world have very diverse ideas of what compassion means, and how it should be expressed. Commonly, the worldly notions of compassion are far from what we understand compassion to really mean, and how it is best disp
Gaur Gopal Das shared dias with Indian Film Actress Manisha Koirala, at Global Exhibition on Services, India (GES) on 17th May 2018 at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai.
GES is one of the biggest global events of the Services Sector organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, Services Export Promotion Council(SEPC)-India and Maharashtra Government.
The session entitled ‘Celebrity Session,’ discussed Spirituality & Wellness and w
We have always heard the statement that God works in mysterious ways. We’ve always heard the statement that we have our plans and Krishna has His plans. So I can only say that we should continue to endeavor sincerely and we should wait for Krishna to reveal His hand.
Just like I was speaking to the person from OSCE in Kazakhstan here the other day. And I told him, his name was Dyorn, I said “Dyorn, I’m really not a politician. I haven’t been a politician my whole life.
I’ve been basically a guy
By Kadamba Kanana Swami
There is another world than the one we live in. It is transcendental and is not subjected to the material influences of our world. There, Lord Brahma operates on a different time scale to ours where one of his days includes thousands of cycles of the four yugas – even one cycle of which in our world is considered to be a very long period of time. In fact, kali yuga does not even manifest in such higher regions of the universe. It is said that in the heavenly planets, th
By Mukhya devi dasi
The second Community Development Conference was a big success this past Saturday. There were over 100 devotees in attendance, and another 25 facilitators. The essence of the day was moving into specific focus groups of individual interest, and meeting together to see what is working, what is needed, and what being more involved would look like. The teams went through exercises together as a preview of what the actual committees (which will be identified based on a form eve
