“At the beginning of winter, there is a ceremony known as the Odana-sasthi. This ceremony indicates that from that day forward, a winter covering should be given to Lord Jagannatha.” - Sri Caitanya Caritamrta, Madhya-lila16.79, purport
Once, Srila Pundarika Vidyanidhi and Srila Svarupa Damodara came to Jagannatha Puri and saw the festival of odana-sasthi. On this day, the Lord is offered new cloth, and from that day forth, the Lord should be offered winter clothing. This cloth that was offe
By Madhava Smullen
On October 15th the Mayapur Institute of ISKCON opened its first classroom kutir, or hut, which creates the perfect atmosphere for study of the Vedic scriptures.
Built with natural, environmentally-friendly local materials like bamboo, bricks and thatch, the kutir makes students feel like they have stepped back in time to learn with the sages of the Srimad-Bhagavatam.
But the hut doesn’t eschew modern facilities either – electricity inside provides power for ceiling fans and
By Bhadra Balaram das
While the opposition parties in India are recklessly engaged in criticizing the Modi-led BJP government on the issues of its GDP growth and allegedly weakening economy, the same government has been acknowledged by the World Economic Forum to be the third most-trusted government in the world.
At the same time, a few days back the Moody’s Investors Service, a USA based reputed financial analysis provider has upgraded India’s rating after some 14 long years.
Do the Indians h
By Kadamba Kanana Swami
In many ways, old age is a blessing. For a Vaisnava, it is a great blessing. Why is it so? Because then, there is no more distraction. When we are young, we have so much fight. “Oh, I want to enjoy… but I have to be Krsna conscious! I should be Krsna conscious. I really want to be but I want to enjoy also.” When you are old, “Yeah, I want to enjoy but let’s be real. Can I? Can I really?” You can try to squeeze a few more drops out of the old broken machine but it is not
By Kadamba Kanana Swami
We have to take inspiration from our previous acaryas. Advaita Acarya was around 85 years old when he was given the role as one of the main dancers in Lord Caitanya’s Harinama Sankirtan party and Haridas Thakur was in his 70s and he was another one of the main dancers. They danced in ecstasy, out of taste and spiritual strength. Vakreshwar Pandit would dance for 72 hours.
Then we have the six Goswamis. When people would just see Sanatana Goswami, they would become ecstati
By Subal Shyam Das and Jaganmohini Devi Dasi
This year (2017), on Nov. 24th, Friday, disciples, servants and well-wishers of H.H. Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami will be celebrating his 80th vyasa-puja.
On this most auspicious occasion, for the pleasure of all vaishanava community, we recall one of his vital contributions to the BI-scientific mission which was visible since the inception of Bhaktivedanta Institute by the blessings of Srila Prabhupada. Today we would like to emphasize on this aspe
By Purushottam Nitai Das
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura met with opposition when he had taken his disciples for braj mandal parikrama because many temple priests of Vrindavan were of the opinion that he should not have given brahminical threads to those who were not born in a brahmana family.
But Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura gave reference of various scriptures and proved that one should be considered a brahmana not by birth but by qualities. He quoted verse from Srimad Bhag
By Ramai Swami
After visiting Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne temples, the ToVP team went to Sydney. The function was held at the North Ryde School of Arts hall, which the temple management use to fund raise for their new temple out west.
The event went well with Ambarish Prabhu and and his wife Svaha Devi Dasi giving speeches about the need to help finish the Temple of Vedic Planetarium. Braja Vilasa Prabhu asked every to donate generously and took pledges from the nearly 100 devotees who atten
Please join us for a special Tuesday Sanga Seminar on Tuesday, November 28, 2017 at 6:30pm - 8:30pm on the False Ego: Our Constant Companion and Trouble Maker. This seminar will be given by our special guest, Hayagriva das. Some topics that will be addressed in this seminar:
Countless people come to ISKCON Mayapur from all over India and the world, and ISKCON Mayapur has a number of preaching endeavors to attract these people to Mayapur and to preach the science of Krishna consciousness to them. ISKCON Mayapur’s preaching targets all people, both those from far away lands and those who reside within and near Mahaprabhu’s own land.
One of these preaching programs is the Mayapur Bhakti Vriksha program. Bhakti Vriksha preaching is a method derived from Srila Bhaktivin
By Anand Caitanya das
Every year the Aqua Foundation Group organizes the World Aqua Congress (WAC) on a theme related to environment and invites excerpts of papers from speakers from all over India. During the XI World Aqua Congress, this year, ISKCON Govardhan Ecovillage (GEV) was awarded with the prestigious Aqua Excellence Award in the category of ‘Green Housing – Social Sector’. Jadu Thakur Das, Head – CSR, GEV received this award from Dr. Vandana Shiva, the famous author, activist, pioneer
By Amarendra Das
Gayatri dd and I joined Krishna consciousness when Gargamuni Prabhu [then a sannyasi] came to Gainesville, FL in November, 1970. We were living together in a small duplex a couple of blocks from the University of Florida campus, where we were going to school. A short time after meeting Gargamuni, we invited him to move in with us.
By mid-January, 1971, over 100 students a day were coming to the original “Krishna House” for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. About ten students soon m
Havi das (Ilan Chester), a disciple of Srila Prabhupada received recently a Grammy Award in Las Vegas for his extraordinary musical career as a musician, singer and composer. Millions of people attended or watched the ceremony while Havi das took the opportunity to include Krishna conscious messages in his speech of acceptance, translated into English in this report.
Havi das: Good morning to you all, many thanks to the directors of the Grammy Academy for this recognition.
Because time is limit
By Bhakta Mukesh
HG Chaitanya Charan Prabhu needs no introduction. From Australia to America he has given talks on spiritual subjects at universities like Princeton and Cambridge and companies like Intel and Microsoft. This time, it was New Zealand’s fortune to welcome this spiritual scholar of ISKCON’s leading intellectual body to the capital city of Wellington. The highlight of this visit was his intriguing seminars to the Wellington’s Journey of Self Discovery (JOSD) and Bhakti Sastri studen
From Back to Godhead
By Danavira Goswami
“My father and the coach at UCLA were pleased with my volleyball successes, and my mother was satisfied with my academic work. But I wondered if Krishna was pleased.”
I was born in Los Angeles in 1949. My parents were avid volleyball players. My father had been one of America’s best, and my mother had been a third-team All-American. I started playing volleyball when I was four. I passed through school easily. Sports dominated my free hours, and generally
By Visnupriya devi dasi
On November 3 and November 10, 2017 the United Kingdom radio station Source FM (96.1), which broadcasts in the Falmouth/Penryn area, presented Lord Sri Krishna’s peace formula, from Bhagavad-gita 5.29, to its listening audience via both FM and the internet. This wonderful sharing was done by radio host Sophie Sweatman on her weekly show, “Sophie’s Springboard Show”, which airs every Friday from 2pm to 3:30pm UK time.
Krishna’s peace formula was presented in the form of a
By Hari Narayana Das
The people of Bandung City flocked to the Asia-Africa area to watch the Bandung Light Festival event which is the closing event of the 207th anniversary series of Bandung City
Approximately 70 cars are decorated in various forms and filled with light, lined up along the Asia-Africa Road closed for private vehicles. Dozens of cars come from Government department, service, and private parties. The devotees also invited as the part of Community in Bandung. Devotees presented L
By Kesava Krsna Dasa
Within such a huge organisation like Iskcon, it is not surprising to sometimes experience less of the affection we expected. There are several reasons for this. But if a disciple feels this way about his or her guru in good standing, does it indicate a neglect of some sort?
The worldwide preaching mission of Iskcon is still a novelty in historical vaisnava terms. This is the first successful attempt, and still very much work in progress. Often we hear that other religious o
By Udayananda dasa (ACBSP)
Dear assembled Devotees,
I was doing some work at my home, and I was listening to some Srimad Bhagavatam lectures giving by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada told a humorous story about a rabbit that killed a lion. It was so transcendentally pleasing that I thought I would share this nectar with all the assembled devotees on this world wide web site.
“God’s energies are a variety. All those varieties are grouped into three divisions. Out of the three
