Gaura Purnima is the auspicious appearance day of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (who is also known as Gauranga due to His golden complexion), and this year we are celebrating the 531st anniversary of His appearance on March 12, 2017. This festival also marks the beginning of the New Year for Gaudiya Vaishnavas.
The Supreme Lord Sri Krishna appeared as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to establish Sankirtana (chanting of the Holy Names) – the Yuga Dharma for this age of Kali. He appeared on Phalguni Purnima,
By Anandini Padayachee
“They [the masses] must have their illusions at all costs; they turn instinctively, as the insect seeks the light, to the rhetoricians who accord them what they want. No truth, but error has always been the chief factor in the evolution of nations…. The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduces them.” (Gustave Le Bon, 1995: 132).
The advent of ‘modernity’ saw the eradicatio
I was reading in the Uddhava Gita where there is a whole list of qualities given. One quality given is heroism. It is said that heroism means to overcome the natural tendency to enjoy the material life; that is a hero! Men and women alike, are heroes and heroines when they give up this tendency to enjoy material life.
In youth, when still very young, when taking up Krsna consciousness, one may wonder “Don’t you know what you are giving up? Those few years that you have, you are so eager to sacr
No one is so powerful that he is not influenced by maya, the illusory energy. Even Lord Brahma can sometimes become bewildered by illusory energy. Therefore we can never think, “Oh well, now I have been a devotee for ninety-nine years and maya cannot touch me. What can maya do to me? It does not affect me. I am a bhakti yogi.”
No. We should understand what Srila Prabhupada mentions about Ajamila – Ajamila was a qualified brahmana, Ajamila went through gurukula, Ajamila was properly trained, he
By Mahatma das
Vengeance, envy, anger, and discord are often higher within religious groups than elsewhere (“We have enough religion to hate, but not enough to love”). We need to be careful about this in Iskcon.
Recently I came across this quote:
“Religious people often become self righteous, judgmental, resentful, condemning, etc. as they see more faults in man than other’s see. Psychologists have noted that piety can easily become an unhealthy form of neurosis rather than a healthy form of r
“The best time and place is Mayapur on Lord Caitanya’s Appearance Day. That is not only the best for me but for everyone. Mayapur is meant for that. If possible all devotees from all our centers should go for 8 days at that time.” – Srila Prabhupada, Letter to Tamal Krishna, Bhaktivedanta Manor 20 July, 1973
A few hours north of Kolkata is the holy land of Navadvipa, also known as Sri Dham Mayapur, which is celebrated and worshiped by Gaudiya Vaishnava devotees because it was in this very place
From Back to Godhead
Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita is the record of immortal activities of the Lord. In the first part 9th chapter of the book the welfare activities of the Lord is described in nutshell.
According to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, everyone who is born in the holy land of Bharat Varash or India must engage himself in the welfare activities for the human society. He says that one desirous of doing welfare activity must implant in his own life the real ideas of welfare. For witho
Lecture on Gaura Purnima Class by HH Bhakti Charu Swami on 27 Mar 2013 at ISKCON Phoenix
(Bhakti Charu Swami is from a Bengali family and spent most of his early childhood in urban Kolkata. He met with Srila Prabhupada at the end of 1976 after a long and intense search for a spiritual teacher. This initial meeting resulted in Bhakti Charu Swami being assigned to translate the books of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust into the Bengali language.)
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From Back to Godhead
Discover Krishna’s law of attraction, the real power behind the latest rage in the self-improvement marketplace.
The Secret, a book and DVD by Rhonda Byrne, is getting a lot of attention as sales soar. The author claims that if we apply the principles she lays out, we can achieve whatever we desire. People from all walks of life are excitedly latching on to her ideas.
In the beginning of the DVD, ancient-looking texts in a medieval ambiance invite us to discover secret know
Prasadam is All-Attractive
Someday the masses of people are going to find out about prasadam. It’s inevitable.
Prasadam is all-attractive, who could resist it? No matter who you are there’s some variety of prasadam which has the potency to captivate you, absorb you, make you forget about everything else that you hold dear. For no one can taste prasadam only once. After the first experience one is invariably forced to try it again and again until finally he gives up eating everything else. It
Less reading of Srila Prabhupada’s books, minimizing his position by more elaborate guru-pujas than SP’s guru-puja, introduction of new, unauthorized literature, demigod and non Vaishnava worship in Iskcon temples, Indian social customs like rakhi, minimizing prasadam standards, inappropriate items offered to the deities like frozen vegetables, relaxed sexual behavior, improper decorations of the Deities, non traditional kirtans by chanting names non associated with Lord Krishna and more.
Sourc
Some suggestions on how to stay inspired.
Somehow, it happens that our motivation in Krishna consciousness may falter. Usually that faltering comes in the form of lacking the desire to do some practical service, associate with devotees, or develop our spiritual practices, such as improving the quality or quantity of our chanting or of our reading of Srila Prabhupada’s books. Whenever this happens to me or a friend, I realize the urgency and fragility of devotional service and the importance of
Hare Krishna, please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
“Yes, my order still stands. Please organize Back to Godhead distribution and do it nicely. The sankirtana party and distribution of our magazines and books is our real program. Other things are secondary. So during the summer time you should utilize this program of sankirtana and book distribution vigorously. Attention diverted to incense business is not a very good sign. We should give all our energy for distri
In writing this article, I am sure that I am going to offend a few people… no, actually, quite a lot of people. However, it is mandatory for these points to be taken in consideration. It has been proposed on numerous occasions, yet an entire organisation body fails to implement, what to speak of acknowledge, what so many people within this movement, fundamentally, feel so strongly about. It is an outrageous crime to holy places, spiritual life, culture, and is costing the environment. Then, we
Nartak Gopal Devi Dasi: Krishna arranged for devotees to be there at the time of his death. This was December 8th 1980. The New York temple was on West 55th Street in Manhattan and two devotees lived at that temple. Bakula and Surottama, and they had their daughter Shringara born that morning. She was born in the temple so by the afternoon she had developed kind of a cough so they thought well we better take this baby to the hospital because you never know. So they asked another devotee Keshiha
In the late sixties Hare Krishna devotees from New York went to Philadelphia to open a temple. Many people were attracted by their kirtans and by the philosophy and lifestyle that they were teaching.
Lord Jagannatha, Lord Baladeva and Lady Subhadra were installed in 1972 and taken out for the first Ratha-yatra festival on the East Coast of the USA. Srila Prabhupada visited the temple in 1975 and attended the Ratha-yatra that year.
The current temple in the beautiful suburb of Mt. Airy was acqui
Lecture on Disappearance Day of Madhavendra Pur by HH Bir Krishna Goswami on 12 Mar 2016 at New Goloka
(Bir Krishna Goswami spent his childhood in Long Island, New York. As an academically gifted student at North Western University, he began reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. Impressed by Srila Prabhupada's scholarship and saintliness Bir Krishna Swami became a member of the Krishna conscious community in Gainesville, Florida in 1971.)
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An old Farmer lived on a farm in the mountains with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Bhagavad-gita. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way that he could.
One day the grandson asked, “Grandpa! I try to read the Bhagavad-gita just like you but I don’t understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bhagavad-gita do?”
The Grandfather quietly
By Kesava Krsna Dasa
If a devotee were to ask, “Please bless me so that I’ll never take birth again in this horrible material world,” would this be asking for some kind of liberation? Hundreds of times, Srila Prabhupada encouraged us to “Go Back home, back to Godhead.” Would it be a form of boldness or naiveté to desire to come back to this world and serve by preaching?
That would depend on our level of perception and spiritual progress. There were times when some disciples indicated to Srila P
By Yadunandana das
Translation: Sofiya Perfilyeva
Edited by Visnu Murti das
The first Russian to visit Vrndavana was Emperor Nikolas II, 125 years ago
On Friday, January the 4th in 1891, Hindus who were bathing in the sacred river Yamuna witnessed an amazing scene. A ship with the name of an unknown language approached.
In the morning mist, surrounded by armed soldiers, a young light-skinned man in an officer’s jacket, looking, however, not belligerent came ashore. The stranger was the crown pr
