By Karnamrita Das
KEEPERS OF THE FLAME: Although this expression is most often used by our Christian brothers and sisters, I totally relate to its exclamation in relationship to what or who I am, or at least, aspire to be: A Keeper of the Flame of Bhakti, or A Keeper of the Flame of Spirituality. Personally, I see this as a responsibility for all followers of Shri Chaitanya and those who represent him. I visualize a flame burning brightly in my heart, or raising a torch in my hand to dispel dar
“IMPOSSIBLE is a word in fool’s dictionary.” Hope you have heard this statement oftentimes. Such inspiring statements invigorate one to do things that apparently seem to be beyond one’s capacity. But did you ever try to contemplate in what ‘context’ such statements could be used? And what could be the driving force that enables a person to make impossible things possible?
Scriptures proclaim that not a blade of grass moves without the permission and sanction of the Supreme Lord. Sure enough, th
By Kadamba Kanana Swami
The essence of spiritual life is simple – to render devotional service to Krsna. This does not require very complex philosophical understanding. However, there are some injunctions which require analysis, for example, “One who does not give to charity according to the customs of the scriptures and who does not accept from charity are considered to be in the mode of ignorance.”
So giving to charity is very important. We have to be charitable because if we are not and we j
By Visnu Murti das
Great news! On January 2nd in a conference call, the Global BBT unanimously voted to *continue* the special augmented book points for Arabic and Farsi books! So it did not stop at the end of the year, and is still active right now and for the whole of 2018 (at least)!
This is also nicely timed for the long awaited launch of the new Arabic Gita which will be awarding the book distributors with 6 (six) points for each sale instead of the normal 2 points for a Gita. So please fe
January 6, 2018
Dear follower of Srila Prabhupada,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Kindly submit your homage to Srila Prabhupada for his Vyasa-puja book by April 15.
In addition, if you’re a direct disciple of Srila Prabhupada, please check out www.sptributes.com to learn about a Vyasa-puja book open to all his disciples. The deadline for submission to this book is also April 15.
The standards for submitting an offering to the traditional Vyasa-puja book (t
By Adikarta Das
Veganism is a very fast growing diet. In the US there was a 500% increase in Veganism in the last 3 years; up from 1% in 2014 to 6% now. In the UK over half a million follow the diet, up from 150000 in 2007.
There are 3 main reasons. Health, ethics and environmental. There is much more information available now, as to the health hazards of eating meat, and there is much more awareness of the cruelty of factory farming and the meat industry. The meat industry is also an environme
In anticipation of the fortieth anniversary of the Juhu temple, Rasa-sundari dasi wrote about serving there:
Serving Guru Maharaja in Bombay from 1990 to 1992 was sometimes a real challenge, because we had hardly any facilities.
In the beginning there were only three of us, not even initiated then: Bhakta Juan, Bhaktin Manju, and myself, Bhaktin Flor.
Cooking was done on the second floor in a small kitchen connected to the Bhaktivedanta Institute. Guru Maharaja always took his prasadam in his o
By Madhava Smullen
It seemed like Jason La Shard was living the dream.
Born in Quebec, Canada to Kashubian parents (a Slavic ethnic region in Northern Poland), his incredible physical stature – 7 foot 1 with size 20 shoes – set up his destiny early on.
La Shard started out playing ice hocky, then moved to England in 2005 and became a pro wrestler for the UK Wrestling Force, playing a villain character called “The Titan.” Meanwhile, he studied art history and film at Kent University.
Soon he be
By Madhava Smullen
There’s nowhere like Govindadvipa.
The 22-acre property, originally called Inis Rath, is ISKCON’s only temple on its own island. Located on the waters of Upper Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, resplendent with emerald green foliage in the summer and often shrouded in mists during the winter, it’s perfect for spiritual reflection and growth.
In the sixth century, several of the surrounding 154 islands on Lough Erne were the sites of early Christian monastic communities – who also
Dear Indradyumna Maharaja, please accept my humble bow. Glory to Srila Prabhupada.
Sandipani Muni Prabhu, your older student from Kharkov left the body today at seven in the morning. I saw him the day before, being in Kharkov two weeks ago. Despite his long illness, he was in such an admirable state of Krishna consciousness, he did not speak of anything ’, just chanted on the japa, read and prayed by name to all the devotees in his care.
During the Soviet Union, Sandipani Muni was a military pi
By Chaitanya Charan Das
Suppose while driving to a destination, we take some wrong turns and end up far away from our goal. We may feel irritated, and understandably so. But if we keep beating ourselves up for losing our way, that won’t get us anywhere. We need to resume our journey by accepting where we are and taking the best way ahead from there.
During our life-journey, we sometimes take wrong turns. We make mistakes, indulge in immoral pleasures or get caught in harmful habits. These take
A Neuroscientist Explores the “Sanskrit Effect”
MRI scans show that memorizing ancient mantras increases the size of brain regions associated with cognitive function
From Scientific American Magazine……….
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/a-neuroscientist-explores-the-sanskrit-effect/
Madhavananda Dasanudas ACBSP 1970 : In 1972, Srila Prabhupada took us all by train from Calcutta to Hyderabad.
He was pleased that four of his sannyasis had caused a stir in South India by preachi
All schemes are only useless scraps of paper in the face of war, famine, earthquakes and other disasters. All these disasters are warnings from Mother Durga, and by them she confirms her eternal superiority over the illusioned planmakers.
[Excerpt from Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Ch 3]
It is the duty of a disciple approaching a spiritual master to inquire about his constitutional position. In conformity to that spiritual process, Sanatana has already asked, “What am I, and why am I suffering fr
By Kadamba Kanana Swami
As ISKCON devotees, we are not meant to be fundamentalists! It takes great intelligence to apply the scriptures therefore whenever things are not clear then there needs to be a discussion amongst senior vaisnavas and we try to reach some conclusions. It is not all cut and dry. Every tradition has its fundamentalists and so does the Hare Krsna movement. We have plenty of them, like the Ritviks. They are trying to reduce things to where it is all black and white, and no sh
By Giriraj Swami
Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.17.
“This verse indirectly confirms the greater importance of utilizing the human form of life to realize our lost relationship with the Supreme Lord by acceleration of devotional service. Time and tide wait for no man. So the time indicated by the sunrise and the sunset will be uselessly wasted if such time is not properly utilized for realizing identification of spiritual values. Even a fraction of the duration of life w
By Madhava Smullen
“Kindly help me,” was Srila Prabhupada’s heartfelt request to devotees in Los Angeles in 1975. “Print as many books as possible in as many languages as possible, and distribute throughout the whole world. Then the Krishna consciousness movement will automatically increase.”
Today, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust has translated Prabhupada’s books into 89 languages, but there are still unique challenges in getting them to people. What if you’re a book distributor in a foreign coun
Growing old happens slowly! You don’t notice it until one day you look in the mirror and you think, “Oh my God! I have a lot of lines! I never had those before.” That is how growing old is, you grow old every day but you do not see it every day. In the same way, we make spiritual advancement every day but we do not see it. But sometimes we have a moment where we feel, “I’m actually getting somewhere!” We are making advancement all the time so we must continue to serve, to endeavour…
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Vaisesika das: “In probability theory, the law of large numbers (LLN) is a theorem that describes the results of performing the same experiment a large number of times. According to the law, the average of the results obtained from a large number of trials should be close to the expected value, and will tend to become closer as more trials are performed.” (Wikipedia)
In our practice of bhakti yoga, each day is a new opportunity to experiment with making loving contact with Krishna through heari
Srila Prabhupada would say, “Your love for me will be shown by how you co-operate with one another.”
Cooperation means willingness to work with others irrespective of the differences.
We always wish to work with people who think like us, behave like us, speak like us, and who help us, understand us and most importantly appreciate us. However, to find such like-minded people in this material world is like finding a needle in a haystack. We all are born different, we have different set of quali
