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The year is full of holidays and special events unrelated to spiritual life. Even in India, where Janmashtami, the anniversary of Krishna’s divine birth, is a general festival, many other days are dedicated to the country or some ordinary, materialistic person. Outside of India, festival days sometimes even focus on demonic beings such as witches. National holidays, and even religious festivals such as Christmas, are often occasions for diving into intoxication, illicit sex, and materialistic l

All wondrous phenomena showing power, beauty, grandeur or sublimity, either in the material world or in spiritual, are but partial manifestations of Krsna’s divine energies and opulence. He is the supreme cause of all causes & the essence of everything living or non living. Anything extraordinarily opulent, beautiful and glorious should be considered as a fragmental manifestation of Krsna’s splendor. All things are existing due to Krsna’s entering into them as supersoul. Krsna is supreme object

Srila Prabhupada has told us that the culmination of all of our preaching in Krsna Consciousness is to induce people to wholeheartedly chant the holy names of Krsna. The chanting of the Holy names must continue. Srila Prabhupada said we can do without temples, we can do without everything. We don’t need money. If we can get it, we will use it. We don’t need property. If we get it we will use it. We don’t need vehicles. If we get it we will use it. We don’t need good PR, Public relations. If we

I am pleased to encourage you to participate in the Prabhupada book-distribution marathon. Srila Prabhupada explains, “Srila Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami had no fixed residence. They stayed beneath a tree for one day only and wrote huge volumes of transcendental literature. . . . It is certainly not good to write literature for money or reputation, but to write books and publish them for the enlightenment of the general populace is real service to the Lord. That was Srila Bhaktisiddhanta S

Dear Devotees,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

This November 30th, our Vrndavan Krishna Balarama Mandir celebrated its 18th Annual Recitation of the Sanskrit verses of the Gita Mahatmya and the entire Bhagavad Gita in the temple courtyard. It was a wonderful Community Event and we thank everyone for their participation, including the chanters and those who helped set things up.

We began by 9:30 a.m. with a short aroti to the Bhagavad Gita, and finished the e

Vancouver, BC – One of Canada’s fasting rising young opera stars, Dustin Hiles, first met the devotees seven years ago in Winnipeg, MB, while campaigning as a candidate for the provincial Liberal Party of Canada. After his staff put together a list of temples and mandirs for him to visit, he eventually made it to 108 Chestnut Street where the devotees invited him, and his team, to hear about Krishna and take prasadam. This meeting had a profound effect on Dustin who, after a few weeks of sadhu

THE OPULENCE OF LORD KRISHNA

No matter who we are or where we live we have someone (or something) to thank. Perhaps we thank the sun for brightening our day, or our car for starting without trouble. We may thank Krishna for our connection to Him, or our co-worker for helping us out. We thank because we are dependent on others in all aspects of our life. We thank because it is good for us, especially for our spiritual practice.

To make our thanks genuine and communicate our gratitude in the best way possible we can consider

The Supreme Personality of Godhead has three kinds of internal potency, namely the hlādinī-śakti, or pleasure potency, the sandhinī-śakti, or existential potency, and the samvit-śakti, or cognitive potency. In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa (1.12.69) the Lord is addressed as follows: “O Lord, You are the support of everything. The three attributes hlādinī, sandhinīand samvit exist in You as one spiritual energy. But the material modes, which cause happiness, misery and mixtures of the two, do not exist in Yo

To our book distributors, I would like to say this. When you are distributing books on the street, it is tough because people are not waiting for you. They did not come out to the streets to buy books. They came for another reason and then suddenly some ‘extra-terrestrial’ comes in his orange dress and tries to put a book in their hands, “Woah. Noooooooooo! Not interested.”

But sometimes, somebody is just a little absent-minded and you just like, “Bang!” put the book in his hands. You know, he

Vedic culture is all about dharma. The kshatriya is not to become non-violent but they should use their violence only to protect the principles of religion thus they are protectors and not aggressors – not just big guys with big muscles; big bullies where you cross the road when you see one coming down the street. No, this is a sudra with muscles and there are plenty of them. It is not that everyone with big muscles is a kshatriya. The proof of that is Ekalavya who was practicing shooting targe

By Sri Nandanandana das

I feel there needs to be some clarification about the use of the words “Hindu” and “Hinduism.” The fact is that true “Hinduism” is based on Vedic knowledge, which is related to our spiritual identity. Many people do accept it to mean the same thing as Sanatana-dharma, which is a more accurate Sanskrit term for the Vedic path. Such an identity is beyond any temporary names as Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or even Hindu. After all, God never describes Himself as belonging t

While distributing books at a college, I met a really favorable kid named Edward. He told me he was a Bhakti Buddhist. I'd never heard that before and found it pretty cool. I gave him a set of books (seven different titles), and he gave a very nice donation. A few minutes later he came back and asked to take a picture together. We exchanged numbers and became friends.

Two days later, the Minister for Book Distribution, Vijaya Prabhu, was at the same school and met Edward again. This time he to

If we are at all aware of how dependent we are on God—for the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and our very ability to eat and drink and breathe, to think and feel and do everything else we do—we will feel grateful and want to reciprocate God’s kindness. We will want to do something for He (or She or They) who has done, and continues to do, so much for us.

We often take things for granted until we lose them. I use my right hand to chant on meditation beads, and one morning I

When they are thus valued (as any great wealth is), they will be protected by those who value them. Lack of protection indicates a lack of appreciation – that is, the fault is not with the wealth, it is with the unappreciative wealth holder. Danakeli Dasi once wrote a very nice explanation why they should be protected.

1. COWS: These animals are extremely valuable because they give a most wonderful food to us (milk), a most wonderful fertilizer & fuel (their dung), a wonderful medicine (their u

After a day off we flew from Australia to New Zealand for a one day program at the Auckland temple of Sri Sri Radha Giridhari on November 23rd. We were welcomed enthusiastically by all the devotees and prepared for the TOVP program at the temple.

300 devotees attended and participated in the Lord’s arati and abhisheka, and listened with great enthusiasm to talks about the TOVP project. Being so inspired, the devotees pledged over $300,000.

We wish to thank the Temple President Kalasamvara prab

Answer by HH Romapada Swami

Question:People should help people just for the sake of helping them, and without any additional motivation. The propagation of that kind of behavior is the positive part of society in general. Doing everything for God negates the basic human decency of every good act, even though the outcome might be the same. The difference in motivation removes all of the good will from the equation. Essentially, people who do things only for indirect purposes are only automatons.

By Kadamba Kanana Swami

Srila Prabhupada makes the point that Krsna is more eager for us to go back to Godhead than we are ourselves. We sometimes say, “Yeah, I definitely want to go back to Godhead…” but what if suddenly, we would get the opportunity?

One devotee, a friend of mine who joined ISKCON in 1967, when he was young, he was looking for the truth and he went into nature and sat down on a hill. He started meditating and he was thinking, “I really want to get out of this world.”
Suddenly

By Kadamba Kanana Swami

Our ISKCON movement is growing every day, and not growing only in numbers but it is also growing in complexity! In the earlier days, when Srila Prabhupada was establishing the preaching mission, this movement was simpler; membership was more homogenous – people of a similar age group and all engaged in the same activity.

Now, there is much more diversity! Diversity in different members of this movement and also diversity in different kinds programmes needed. We need a ve