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
Vrsabhanu dasa: Inis Rath Island in Northern Ireland was purchased by the Hare Krishna devotees in the mid-eighties and Sri Sri Radha Govinda were installed in 1986 with a big ceremony. The deities have been worshipped for over 30 years and the annual festivals attract many people. The beautiful setting is very conducive for practicing spiritual life. At the present moment a small group of devotees are struggling to keep the project going. If you wish to support this project please click on the
Dear Devotees,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. KINDLY POST THIS ON YOUR TEMPLE NOTICE BOARDS.
We had a great festival in Vrndavana after the Mayapur Gaura Purnima Festival. The day before Ram Nauvami, the temple held a huge community event, Shobha Yatra with all the small Deities on palanquins, moving along in kirtan, department to department. First stop was the Samadhi. It was ladies day at the Samadhi, and we cordoned off the front entrance to protect them
If we are at all aware of how dependent we are on God–for the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the very ability to eat and drink and breathe, to think and feel and will, and to walk, talk, and sense–we will feel grateful and want to reciprocate God’s kindness. We will want to do something for He (or She or They) who has done, and continues to do, so much for us.
Often we take things for granted until we lose them. I use my right hand to chant on meditation beads, and one
The quality of humility and the quality of being able to develop love of God come together. It is not possible to develop love of God if there is no humility in our hearts. A person who is proud, how can he hear!? His ears are blocked because he is overwhelmed by his own ideas that he cannot even hear what everyone else says. But if one is humble, then one can think, ‘Yes, I need mercy.’
So a humble personality is eager to hear and being eager to hear from superior personalities also brings abo
Recently our beautiful deity of Vrindadevi arrived at our ashram in Carpinteria. As Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura prays in his Vrindadevi-astaka (3, 6, 8):
samasta-vaikuntha-siromanau sri-
krsnasya vrndavana-dhanya-dhamni
dattadhikare vrsabhanu-putrya
vrnde namas te caranaravindam
“Vrishabhanu’s daughter Radha made you guardian of Krishna’s opulent and auspicious abode of Vrindavan, the crest jewel of all Vaikuntha planets. O Vrinda, I bow to your lotus feet.”
rasabhilaso vasatis ca vrnd
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, the
At one stage on my evening japa walk today, the first day of Purusottama, my mind became restless, which disturbed me a lot, and I didn’t know what to do. Then suddenly within me I heard my disciple Damodar’s ringtone of Sripada Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja preaching forcefully: “Why are you unhappy? Because you are not surrendered. Surrender just now! Just now surrender and become happy, and there will be no more anxieties.” I began to earnestly pray to Maharaja to help me. And I felt immediate
Dandavat pranam. Srila Prabhupada jayatah.
Below is text of a response I wrote and posted to the Krishna Katha conference on PAMHO in response to the question: “Could someone please post the scriptural significance of performing/attending mangala aarti?”. It was just found by someone Googling for “mangal arotik” and sent to me. Copying it to a few friends and students, one godbrother friend who seems to have appreciated it very much responded urging me to send it to you.
From the nature of the
By Madhusudanan Das
There is a treasure that every devotee must seek. Not only is this treasure to be coveted by a Vaisnava, it is also always sought from a devotee. But what could possibly be desired by those who do not aim for the material?
Dr. O.B.L Kapoor narrated a story about Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada who was once a pharmacist, gave him a tonic at the pharmacy. When the doctor asked for his tonic to Krishna Prem, Srila Prabhupada replied, “I do not have a tonic, but I have a form
By Chandan Yatra Das
Sri Sri Radha Madhava enjoy various wonderful water pastimes in Mayapur, such as the boating pastimes They enjoy during the Candan-yatra season. Following the Candana-yatra festival another festival of water pastimes, known as Salila Vihar, is celebrated. The Salila Vihar festival is meant for the pleasure of the Divine Couple to keep Them cool during the hot summer season. In the Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila,Chapter 10, texts 41-52, Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami describes the water p
