By Karnamrita Das
I am going to reprint a series from 2010 during late April till May 20th, when I spent time with my mom. [What follows after this introduction is from 10-21-10] She lay in hospital bed in a hospice, basically waiting to die, though she didn't really understand that, and kept asking when she was going home. When both one's parents have left the world in biological death, and moved on to another life, that is a kind of initiation.
"Loosing" one's parents (were they ever really "
Today marks the appearance anniversary of Rukmini Devi, one of Krishna's primary queens in Dwaraka. Rukmini Devi is the eternal consort of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. She is the internal pleasure potency of the Lord. Whereas Srimati Radharani is Krishna’s consort in His childhood home of Vrindavana, Rukmini Devi is His chief queen in Dwaraka, His opulent capital. She was betrothed to the envious-minded Shishupala, but Krishna kidnapped her after she wrote Him a letter asking
By Kadamba Kanana Swami
Dhrtarastra was blind; not just physically blind but also spiritually blind. This is because he did not understand the goal of life. Bhagavad-gita says that we are all also blind in that way:
om ajnana-timirandhasya
jnananjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena
tasmai sri-gurave namah (Bhagavad-gita As It Is – Introduction)
It says that we have taken birth in the deepest and darkest ignorance. It acknowledges that we do not know what the goal of life is. We sometimes think t
The highlight of Chandan yatra festival in Mayapur is that different veshas depicting various pastimes of the Lord are offered to small Sri Radha-Madhava. Devotees wait eagerly for the curtains to open to reveal the day’s pastime. Being the last day of Sri Radha-Madhava boat & Swing festival, very aptly, Khat Dholi or swing pastime of the Lord is the vesha offered. Sri Madhava also gave His special Darshan of the year as Blue Madhava in blue chandan.
Khat Dholi: Swing Pastime
Of all the festiv
By Kadamba Kanana Swami
om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah
When Srila Prabhupada was lecturing on the appearance day of Lord Nrsimhadev in Bombay, he was lecturing immediately after a play and he was glorifying Hiranyakasipu because the part was played so well. Then he explained more about the pastimes of Lord Nrsimhadev and at the end he said, “If I had more time, I would have spoken about the prayers of Prahlad.” These prayers of Prahlad
By Chaitanya Charan das
madopaśamanaṁ śāstraṁ khalānāṁ kurute madam
cakṣuḥ prakāśakaṁ teja ulūkānām ivāndhatām
madopaśamanam — removers of arrogance; śāstram — scriptures; khalānām — for the wicked; kurute — they increase; madam — arrogance; cakṣuḥ-prakāśakam — eye illuminating; tejaḥ — brilliance [of the sun]; ulūkānām — for the owls; iva — like; andhatām — blindness.
“The arrogance of the wicked increases on studying scripture, which is actually meant to remove arrogance, just as the darkness
Having a spiritual master is not a casual thing! One should really dedicate himself to the spiritual master and to the desire of the spiritual master; that is very important. Sometimes, we may feel that our spiritual master is not really giving us a lot of instruction and he is not really telling us something special. That means, he just wants us to do the regular things like daily chanting sixteen rounds of japa and following four regulative principles – no meat, fish or eggs; no gambling; no
By ISKCON Mayapur
“My Dear Jayananda,
Please accept my blessings.
I am feeling very intensely your separation. In 1967 you joined me in San Francisco. You were driving my car and chanting Hare Krsna. You were the first man to give me some contribution ($5000) for printing my Bhagavad-gita. After that, you have rendered very favorable service to Krsna in different ways. I so hope at the time of your death you were remembering Krsna and as such, you have been promoted to the eternal association
On recent travels around the country I met a lady who expressed frustration in her attempts to find God. She told me her story: two years of spiritual travels, countless nights of prayer, careful scriptural exploration and persistent introspection, but still no sign! “Will I ever find Him?” she asked. “I’m beginning to question whether He even exists.” What to speak of the ‘searchers,’ even the faithful often doubt that their Supreme friend is actually alive and active. A seeming lack of recipr
Last week, as we floated along the turquoise blue of the Caribbean sea, I was reminded of the amazing quality of water. How, for instance, a large ship can sit atop it and ply along as light as a feather, how many creatures can swim within the water while some things totally sink to the bottom. How the water itself can be calm (thankfully during my trip) or wild and furious like a raging monster.
We are water creatures in many ways – 65% of our body weight is water, the earth is comprised main
From Back to Godhead
A look at the causes and cures for faultfinding, a major obstacle to spiritual progress.
CONDUCTING A SUMMER therapy group with middle-school boys is always a challenge. Donte calls Michael a retard, and Michael calls Donte’s mother a crackhead. I intervene, sitting the boys down to cool off. This age group (11-14) is notorious for saying and doing things to hurt each other. I reflect on my own years in junior high school and recall some painful interactions with peers. Whi
When I stand in front of the individual altars at our Temple I have different experiences. In front of Rama I feel courage, in front of Krishna I feel love, and in front of Lord Caitanya I feel a strong sense of acceptance.
The gift of Lord Caitanya is the gift of acceptance. Lord Caitanya is Krishna himself in the guise of a devotee. He is not only teaching us how to love Krishna; He’s also wishing to experience that love Himself. In the Gita, Krishna asks us to surrender and trust Him before
Krishna: if you win the war you can become happy with your kingdom
Arjuna: I can't be happy even if I win a kingdom with prosperity and sovereignty like Demi-gods of heaven. All I want is only transcendental knowledge.
No one can get complete satisfaction by material comforts only, We see in the western countries where they have all material comforts to the fullest extent possible but still they have no satisfaction at heart. Why? because we are not these bodies but spirit souls. Arjuna had
By Madhava Smullen
Three Rathayatra festivals in Trinidad – one in the capital Port of Spain on April 20th, and two following soon after in the villages of Dede and Chaguanas – are bringing devotees all over the island together in service to Lord Jagannath.
Trinidad’s first ever Rathayatra was celebrated in Chaguanas in 1991 with a flatbed truck used as the chariot. In 1994, devotees put on the first Rathayatra in Port of Spain, building a float onto a truck chassis. But it wasn’t until 2006 th
For the first time, by the presence of all prominent ISKCON Leaders of Bangladesh, “Servant Leaders Applied Training and Education (SLATE)” camp are successfully completed this week.
The whole camp was conducted by H.G. Radheshyam Das, Youth revolutioner, and president of ISKCON Pune, India. All the youth leaders of Bangladesh, especially general secretory of ISKCON Bangladesh, H.G.Charuchandra Das Brahmacari, joint secretory of ISKCON Bangladesh, H.G.Jagatguru Gouranga Das Brahmacari, ISKCON C
From Back to Godhead
By Syamananda Dasa
There are at least 300 books available at your online bookseller dealing with anger. Many of them just contain pop-culture variety of self-help advice on the dangers of uncontrolled anger. Anger is just one letter short of danger as these experts remind us. Lord Krishna, in the very beginning of the Gita encourages Arjuna to control anger and praises someone who has successfully done it as “a sage of steady mind.” It is quite natural to see many people to
Srila Prabhupada described Srimad Bhagavatam as the encyclopedia of spiritual life and Caitanya Mahaprabhu called it the amala purana (spotless Purana).
We all know the famous Gita Mahatamaya verse :
sarvopanishado gavo, dogdha gopala-nandanah
partho vatsah su-dhir bhokta, dugdham gitamritam mahat
All the Upanisads are like a cow, and the milker of the cow is Lord Shri Krishna, the son of Nanda. Arjuna is the calf, the beautiful nectar of the Gita is the milk, and the fortunate devotees of fine
We should understand that we are always accepted by Krsna through the prayer of our spiritual master. Therefore, we continue to remain indebted to our spiritual master. How often emails are exchanged between the Guru and the disciple does not define the relationship. We are living in a crazy world where the communication is bizarre – never have people tried to communicate through telecommunications as much as now – it is just insane! Sometimes I am asked, “Why did you not answer my email?” I co
By Meena Chand
The Bhakti-sastri and the Bhakti-vaibhava courses are a systematic study of Srila Prabhupada's books. Srila Prabhupada wanted ISKCON devotees to deeply study his books, so that they could become better preachers and teachers, and, very importantly, achieve a clear understanding and application of the beautiful science of devotional service.
This year the Vrindavan Institute for Higher Education (VIHE) has scheduled its English Bhakti-sastri course for the period starting July 5
