Our first Ratha Yatra in Jaipur was a humble attempt. The devotees had just recently opened a small little centre. It was not much but they still wanted to have Ratha Yatra so we decided to keep it simple.
They had one chariot. A life member made a little stage and in India, it is quite common that the stage is built to the height of the chariot. When the chariot stops people go to the stage and make offerings to the deity. So they had one such stage at the end of the procession.
But as the par
By Sunanda Das
Lord Nityananda and Lord Nrsimhadeva in the forms of Their shoes and helmet respectively, continue to guide our tour and perform miracles. Although we were only scheduled to visit the Sri Sri Gaur Nitai temple in Poland, a last minute arrangement was made to also visit the Nava Navadvipa temple.
Each temple had about 25-35 devotees in attendance, and as usual the Lord was greeted with an arati, abhisheka and kirtan. Jananivas and Braja Vilas prabhus both spoke and presented an in
By Sunanda das
On Friday, April 13th we arrived in Koln, Germany and made our way to Gauradesh, home of the Deities Sri Sri Vijay Gauranga Doyal Nitai. Two programs were scheduled here for Saturday and Sunday to accommodate guests who could not come on Saturday.
As usual, the programs included arati, a pushpa abhishek, kirtan and talks by Their Graces Jananivas and Braja Vilas prabhus. His Holiness Bhakti Bhusana Maharaja was also present and spoke very enthusiastically to all the devotees and
Malati Dasi: Devotees in The Hague are working hard to premiere the movie in their prestiguous theatre. After being sold out for the smaller hall which we had booked first, the premiere will be now in the biggest hall on Sunday 22 April 5pm.
In the presence of Yadubara prabhu, the Indian Ambassador, H.H. Kadamba Kanana Swami, and Hrdaya caitanya prabhu (GBC), devotees will honor the local Dutch disciples of Srila Prabhupada. With the help of Mahaprabhu prbahu, the movie will have Dutch subtitle
In the morning, I sing the words of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur from Arunodaya -kirtan to millions of suffering jivas as I ride through the pre-dawn darkness on my way to work. I follow with Sri Rupa’s famous prayer of extreme self-abnegation (mat tulyo nasti papatma) and Srila Kaviraj Goswami’s obeisance to all the Gurus, Vaishnavas and the diverse aspects of the Divine Lord Who is recognized in completeness as Shree Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Then I sing some verses from Sri Brahma-samhita g
From Back to Godhead
For a long time scientists have been asking,
What’s going on? And some of them
have tried to find out,
What’s behind it all?
Sir Isaac Newton once made a remarkable model of the solar system. Thanks to a clever hand-cranking mechanism, all of the tiny spinning globes orbited a small “sun.”
On entering Newton’s study, one of his colleagues, a materialist, couldn’t help noticing the model. He was flabbergasted.
“Dr. Newton,” the man stared, “who made this wonderful contrap
Generally we find that four gross needs namely sleeping, mating, eating and defending are basic necessities which are predominant in both animal and human society. When these basic four needs get fulfilled in one’s life one desires for subtle needs like love, affection, adoration, friendship etc. which exhibited through expansion of family, community, society , nation and so on . Every living entity socializes or attempts to make any relationships because of desire to relish some sort of taste d
Giriraj Swami: My beloved spiritual son Kunjabihari dasa left this world today, on the auspicious occasion of Akshaya Tritiya, from a heart attack, in Dallas. Just last night he wrote me, “One thing I admire about you, you have so many wonderful, qualified disciples all over the world. I am not qualified in front of them. But I have true love and attachment for you. I love to talk about you. I love to glorify you to others, and when I do, I really get joy in my heart for you. I feel very much
Dwaipayana das: We have a wonderful programme of giving out free prasad to students on a Wednesday at Glasgows main university we are having up to and over 60 students lining up for our nutritional vegan meals.Sundays we give out prasad to everyone students, homeless people and the general public and we are having a wonderful response from everyone there is alot of homeless people on our streets here and they really appreciate a good warm meal.
We at Karuna Bhavan are hoping to expand our pr
“When one is on the bhakti marga everything is personal. Yamuna devi’s abundantly nutritious persona was the direct catalyst making the crucial difference between myself merely looking at the honey inside the jar and my deliberate decision to dive in.
By way of my attendance of a Srimad Bhagavatam class she gave one morning in the summer of 1968 at the Frederick Street temple in San Francisco (my first visitor’s experience of a temple morning program), I, a 17-year-old agnostic, was delightful
One-day Seminar on “PANCHAGAVYA AYURVEDA FOR LEADING HEALTHY LIFE”
A one-day seminar on the above theme of Panchagavya Ayurveda for Leading Healthy Life was conducted in Hyderabad. The event was organized by ISKCON-IDVM- (India), in cooperation with SAVE organization, Bharateeeyam and Venugopala Swamy Mandir Goshala.
The main speaker at the seminar was Acharya Mehul Bhai, who holds a PhD in Ayurveda and Darshan philosophy. Acharyaji conducts these programs on regular basis and is involved
From Back to Godhead
I love chanting japa—some days. Other days, I endure chanting japa. It seems to be bliss or boredom. On the good days I am enthralled. Krishna feels very close, and very dear. Not that I’m seeing visions or hearing voices—nothing dramatic that would excite the tabloid crowd. The experience is closer to returning home after a long, arduous journey. Such a sweet pleasure from the simple fingering of beads, the rhythmic repetition of the maha- mantra:Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna
The history of the establishment of the great temple in Puri, and the hypocrisy of temple priests as opposed to sincere devotional worship in pure love of God. Written by the Thakur in English, 1871.
There is not a Hindu who has not heard the name of this temple. The old and the young, the male and the female, the Rajah and the ryot, and the weak and the stout, all visit this temple out of a religious curiosity. Three hundred and one miles south-west of the Vice-Regal palace at Calcutta, stands
By Chaitanya Charan Das
aśanaṁ me vasanaṁ me jāyā me bandhu-vargo me
iti me me kurvāṇaṁ kāla-vṛko hanti puruṣājam
“This food is mine; this cloth is mine; this spouse is mine; these relatives are mine.” Thus, the goat-like conditioned soul keeps uttering “Mine! Mine!” while the wolf of time pounces on it and devours it.”
Suppose a person driving a car to a shopping mall becomes infatuated with dreams of buying various things. If they become so infatuated that they don’t even notice that their c
By Nagapatni Devi Dasi
This year’s International Vaisnavi Retreat was exceptional. Eighty-six radiant sadhakas from 13 countries, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia, Russia, Germany, USA, India China, Canada, Italy and Ukraine, came to Govardhana with the unifying desire to deepen their understanding of service to the Deity.
The yearly International Vaisnavi Retreat was established in 2011 to give the ladies of ISKCON special educational opportunities and to strengthen netw
Gadadhara Pandita-The Embodiment of Pure Love for Lord Caitanya
Yesterday (16 Apr 2018) was the appearance day of Sri Gadadhara Pandit.
gadadhara-paṇḍitadi — prabhura nija-sakti
tan’-sabara carane mora sahasra pranati
“I offer my respectful obeisances unto the internal potencies of the Lord, of whom Sri Gadadhara Prabhu is the foremost.” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila 1.41)
On this most auspicious appearance day of Sri Gadadhara Pandita, we had abhisheka, arthi & pushpanjali to Sri Gadadhar
It is said in the scriptures that when we have a goal which is other than satisfying the senses of Krsna, then we will remain in anxiety. When our goal is to control, then anxiety will follow – “Will I get it? What do I do? I hope nothing will go wrong! Is it going to work or not? Let me cross my fingers, cross everything, even my toes!” Everything is crossed in the hope that it will go according to our wishes, but there is no guarantee, none at all. This is because the protection of Krsna is t
By Rishab Hauter
This Wednesday, April 18, is Akshaya Tritiya, one of the most important days in the Vedic calendar. Akshaya means “imperishable” or “that which never diminishes”. Traditionally, this is the best day for starting important endeavors or projects. For example, Vyasadeva and Ganesa chose this day to start writing the Mahabharata, and every year construction of the huge Ratha carts in Puri also starts on this day. Srila Prabhupada chose this day in 1953 to start the “League of Devot
Dear Devotees and TOVP Donors,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Greetings from Sridham Mayapur and blessings from Sri Sri Radha-Madhava, Sri Panchatattva and Lord Nrsimhadeva.
This Wednesday, April 18, is Akshaya Tritiya, one of the most important days in the Vedic calendar. Akshaya means “imperishable” or “that which never diminishes”. Traditionally, this is the best day for starting important endeavors or projects. For example, Vyasadeva and Ganesa chose t
Srila Prabhupad said of Rathyatra:
‘So this festival, taking part in these festivals means a step forward for our self-realization. Rathe ca vāmanaṁ dṛṣṭvā punar janma na vidyate. Simply by seeing the Lord on the chariot, one makes advancement for stopping the repetition of birth and death.’
Every year the Rathyatra cart of Iskcon Bhakti Centre Gold Coast participate in the festival of lights parade in Ipswich Queensland. This years festival was on the 14th of April.
The cart was transported t
