(Mayesvara Dasa – I do not recall who gave me this photo but it is an excellent shot of Balarama’s Cart as it rolled down 5th Avenue. Jambavan Prabhu is on the ground steering the cart using the two bar system Jayananda designed. I am standing on the right (starboard) side of the deity deck. )
“As the man who digs obtains underground water by use of a shovel, so the student attains the knowledge possessed by his preceptor through his service.” – Chanakya Niti Sastra 14.17
Prabhupada: “So there
Laddu Sadhu
Being addicted to Krishna prasadam is not the same as being addicted to anything else. Prasadam is completely spiritual and if anyone tastes it, he makes spiritual advancement. Still, if we eat too much and fail to control our senses that is not good for spiritual life.
Naturally, a devotee of Krishna wants to become free from material contamination. So there is always a kind of moral dilemma for a prasadam addict. He doesn’t want to eat too much. But at the same time, prasadam is s
This morning, the 2018 Mayapur Gaura Purnima festival officially ended after Srila Prabhupada’s guru puja. Srila Prabhupada was taken on a palanquin for the ceremonial lowering of the festival flag, and then returned to altar.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu explained to Sanatana Goswami that we must follow in the footsteps of the eternal residents of Vrindavan. We must always act for the pleasure of Krsna. In our sadhana, Krsna must always be in the centre.
My first big festival in the temple was Gaura Purnima. I was celebrating it at the Bhaktivedanta Manor and I had just returned from India. We were in a very big room and we, the brand new devotees, our service was to roll sweet balls the whole day. We were fasting and it
By Ananda Tirtha das [BBT]
With the advent of the New Year Gaurabdha 532 we seek the blessings of all vaishnavas to enable us to serve Guru and Sri Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada states in the Madhya Lila – “Everyone in every town and village should be enlightened by the instructions of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Krisna consciousness should be distributed to everyone indiscriminately. In this way, the entire world will be peaceful and happy”.
In our small endeavor to fulfill this statement by Srila Pr
By Brajsunder Das
Secretary/Sannyasa Ministry
Three types of Sannyasa
The brahmacaris, grhasthas, and vanaprasthas engage in activities of contradictory nature to achieve their respective aims in life. To completely renounce everything is called sannyasa.
When one gives up the fruits of one’s karma, it is called karma-sannyasa. When one gives up all forms of material knowledge, it is called jnana-sannyasa. When one gives up the propensity for enjoying material objects and becomes inclined towar
By Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey
KOLKATA: Devotees from 80 countries namely China, Japan, Spain, Russia, England, Brazil, America, Australia, Mexico, Trinidad, Ivory Coast, South Africa, European continent and many more were present at ISKCON Mayapur and their loud chanting of Hare Krishna Mahamantra resounded every corner of the holy Dham.
The biggest festival in the Gaudiya Vaishnav Sampradaya- Gaur Purnima, the appearance day of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was celebrated with fervour and gaiety at th
By Radhika krpa Devi Dasi
The Journey with Guru Maharaja……
“You have my blessings to preach anywhere on this planet,” these soulful words of my Spiritual Master His Holiness Gopal Krsna Goswami always ring in my ears. They have eternally been a cause of motivation for me to be daring and fearless. Past eleven years I have accepted challenges of travelling far and wide for preaching the Philosophy I accepted wholeheartedly twenty years back.
Entering the realm of my memories I see myself as a s
By Parasuram Das
Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted His followers to move all over the world to preach in every town and village. In the Caitanya-sampradaya those who strictly follow the principles of Lord Caitanya must travel all over the world to preach the message of Lord Caitanya, which is the same as preaching the words of Krsna–Bhagavad-gita–and Srimad-Bhagavatam. The more the devotees preach the principles of krsna-katha, the more people throughout the world will benefit.
Devotees like the
By Madhava Smullen
On behalf of BBT Marketing, Communications and Innovations Department
The Go Matsya project aims to save and preserve Vedic culture through distribution of full Srimad-Bhagavatam sets, as the Bhagavatam is the essence of all Vedic literature. Now the project has spread from the US to the UK, where it is taking off in new and exciting ways.
Launched in ISKCON Silicon Valley, California in January 2017 by BBT Trustee Vaisesika Das, Go Matsya is a kind of spiritual multi-level m
By Kesava Krsna Dasa
Here are some thoughts and mediations of Sri Gaura-Hari as we approach His glorious appearance day:
Who Can Dance Like Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu?
The dancing of Lord Chaitanya was so astounding that even the Lord of the universe, Sri Jagannatha was astonished. Lord Jagannatha who has seen the best of everything within and outside of the universes, how can He be astonished? Dance in Vaikuntha and Goloka must be beyond compare. The dance of destruction by Rudra must be inexpli
From Back to Godhead
By Gour Govinda Swami
Bhubaneswar, India, March 17, 1992 – The Appearance Day of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu
WE SHOULD KNOW the cause for the appearance of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, Lord Caitanya. There are two causes: external and internal. The external cause is to teach Kali-yuga dharma, the religion for Kali-yuga, the Age of Quarrel. That religion ishari-sankirtana, the chanting of the holy name.
kali-yuga dharma haya hari-sankirtana
etad arthe avatirna sri sacinandana
Sa
Every year, in the month of Phalguna (Feb-March), the birth of Lord Chaitanya is celebrated as Sri Gaura Purnima. Lord Chaitanya advented Himself in Navadipa, West Bengal in the year 1407 of the Shaka Era on the Purnima (full moon) of the month of Phalguna corresponding to 18th February 1486 AD. He exhibited His transcendental pastimes for forty-eight years and disappeared in A.D. 1534. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu lived in grihastha ashrama for twenty-four years and in sannyasa ashrama for the next t
The word Chaitanya means “living force.” As indicated in the revealed scriptures, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Kṛiṣhṇa Himself, the supreme living entity. As the Supreme, He is full in six opulences: wealth, fame, strength, beauty, knowledge and renunciation.
As the Personality of Godhead, Lord is the reservoir of all spiritual and cosmic manifestation (animate and inanimate). He is the fountainhead of all incarnations. He is the complete for
Lord Chaitanya is the teacher of the religion of transcendental love of Sri Krishna. He was born at Sridham Mayapur in the year 1486. For a long time it was believed that the real site of birth of the Lord were washed away by the river Bhagirathi. However these places were later discovered with painstaking effort by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in the year 1887. In 1893, Bhaktivinoda Thakura established Yoga-pitha as the actual site of Lord Chaitanya’s appearance. He personally collected the fund
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
