The Bhagavad-gita says that there is austerity of the body, austerity of speech and austerity of the mind. One of the austerities of the mind is to be satisfied. This is interesting. How is it an austerity to be satisfied?
It means that when everything is proper, when all the proper arrangements are made and when things are favourable in spiritual life, then one has to stop his mind from still finding fault. One just has to be satisfied! This is the austerity of the mind – to be satisfied. This
ISKCON's Radha Govinda Mandir (Bharati Center) at 305 Schermerhorn St, Brooklyn, NY 11217
On Monday May 15th ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission hosted a Town Hall Meeting to explain why it is opposing the pending sale of Brooklyn’s Radha Govinda Mandir, and what it plans to do about it.
The sale has been a matter of interest, concern and controversy amongst the New York temple’s board members and congregation as well as devotees around the U.S. So the meeting, held at the Dweck Auditorium of
In this article, I begin with a confession of what I experience as a common experience for men with an addiction to pornography, based on my life and deep empathetic conversations with others. I will share what I believe to be the way to overcome this addiction in Krishna consciousness. This includes the necessity of an environment with minimal temptations, knowing of the science of overcoming anarthas, and the value of being genuine in relationship with others. I will take the liberty of writi
“In the last week of the last year of school, students sweat at the thought of the final exam. When they’ve passed their exams and earned their degrees, they’ll be entitled to call themselves educated.
But the Vedic culture has a different standard. The sage Canakya, whose proverbs Srila Prabhupda would often quote, tested a person’s education by three questions – questions of character and ethics.
Women as Mother:
Test one: matrvat para-daresu. In the ideal system of education, a properly trai
Panchagauda holds the record as the longest standing temple president in Vrndavan India – 8 Years-
He joined ISKCON in 1976 in Buffalo NY, then moved to Miami and managed temples there for many years.
When I met him in Vrndavan this year, (2017) he was calm and casual. He seemed to have all the time in the world for me.
“Vrndavan is home for all devotees. It’s our duty to welcome everyone, to make sure they feel at home here.”
There are a myriad of instructions on how to chant japa. All of them serve to help us achieve success. In spite of the varied nuances and techniques, why are we plagued with anarthas, struggling to reach a semblance of nistha, from which to springboard to higher levels of attainment? With thousands of shades of advice available, it seems only a select few are privileged to be relishing the chanting. Is there a secret formula to fast-track our progress?
There is mention in the Prema-Vivarta that
By the GBC Brooklyn Temple Sale Committee
The pending sale of the ISKCON Brooklyn Temple (Radha Govinda Mandir) has generated interest, concern and even controversy in ISKCON, not just in the New York Metropolitan Area but also around the world, especially in light of the GBC Body’s stated opposition to the sale (see attached GBC Resolution no. 314). In order to foster openness, inclusivity and awareness of the current state of affairs as well as to dispel confusion and misconceptions, the GBC
Answers supplied by H.H. Romapada Swami
Question: My question is how to break habits? How can one become serious and follow Srila Prabhupada’s instructions more closely?
Answer: Retraction of bad habits was compared by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura as being synonymous to the jiva’s returning back to the spiritual world, because in effect these bad habits are nothing but the binding effects of our long material association and past activities.
The first step in overcoming this material conditioning
It was 1981 and early in my senior year of high school, I was walking out of the East Brook Mall in Willimantic Connecticut with two friends named Steve Walton and Clyde Hall. In my hand I was holding a bag with Jimmy Hendrix’s “Axis Bold As Love” album in it, that I had just purchased at Music World. I had loved Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced”. and had played it again and again over the summer as I delved deeply into the world of marijuana and LSD.
Though, by this time, I was burning out on dr
Hearing His Holiness Niranjana Swami’s wonderful talk, I felt we were being elevated to the spiritual world. He quoted from Visnujana Maharaja. Visnujana had a program in which he went by boat along the Ganges River, in Bengal, and chanted the holy names all day, stopping at villages along the way and chanting and speaking and distributing books about Krsna. Once, when I was in Los Angeles recovering from being sick in India, Srila Prabhupada received an issue of Back to Godhead with an article
01. All to be served should be invited to sit on the floor, and prasadam should be served by qualified devotees.
02. Those who are served should be very clean, peaceful, and satisfied. They should eat before serving, if necessary. They should try not to speak while serving.
03. Serve just the right amount so that nothing is wasted.
04. Seniors should be served first. Householders should serve the guests. Old people and children should be served first.
05. Place salt and lemon on each plate be
This is Shannon. She looks like the movie actress, named Claire Forlani. Strangely enough she has been a production manager for some television series, and some major film productions, including...
Both of these intelligent boys, hail from Omaha, Nebraska. You have Peter Elliot on the left and Thomas Schumacher next to him. These boys are both the readers, and unlike a lot of the people that I...
You talk about a coupl
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura was called ‘a vaikuntha man’. He loved the spiritual world, and sternly cautioned all thoughtful men to NOT accept the pale worldly reflection to be the Reality. His examples in this excerpt below are vivid, his application of the principles which these examples expose is forceful, and his compelling conclusions are NOT how ordinary pious souls view the world. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura insisted on exposing illusion, simply for the sake of in
“You may not keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.”
-- Martin Luther
We live amidst a culture of violence and indifference. Some people resort to violence at even the slightest provocation and others often just stand by, watching indifferently, as if they were seeing a movie spectacle rather than seeing the victimization of a living human being, who is essentially just like them. This prevailing culture of violence and indifferenc
In the Narada Pancharatra, it is said bhakti begins only after we give up our material designations that is connected to our body and mind. As long as we are connected to the body and mind, any devotion we perform is mixed devotion (mixed with karma and knowledge).
When a soul engages in service to Krishna from his constitutional position as servant, then that service is called bhakti. Any service to Krishna thinking I am this body/mind becomes mixed. So this mixed service is called sadhana kr
Today I read: “Reality. It used to seem so simple—reality just was, like the weather. Why question it, let alone disagree about it? And then came the assault, a mind-bending stream of ‘fake news,’ ‘alternative facts,’ and lies disguised as truths that cast so many of us tumbling into a state of moral panic. How did we get here?”
That statement and question brought me to Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.7.24–25), where the pious king Pariksit says to Dharma in the form of a bull, “In the age of Satya [trut
"We are instructed to “surrender”; and at the same time, Srila Prabhupada encourages us to achieve apparently impossible tasks, like “Krishna-izing” the whole world, and becoming fully qualified spiritual masters in our own right."
“Is my Krishna consciousness completely dependent on the mercy of the spiritual master and Krishna, or do Ihave something to do with it?”
Krishna says, “Surrender unto Me…”, and that may sound very simple and clear. However, there are many possible layers of reali
“The pullers of the carts were known as gaudas, and they pulled with great pleasure. However, the cart sometimes went very fast and sometimes very slow.28 Sometimes the cart would stand still and not move, even though it was pulled very vigorously. The chariot therefore moved by the will of the Lord, not by the strength of any ordinary person.29” - Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, Madhya Lila Chapter 13 “The Ecstatic Dancing of the Lord At
By Shyamasundar Das
Our Haight Street apartment in San Francisco was constructed after the great earthquake of 1906. There was an old iron fireplace with a mantel in the front room. On the mantel we kept our little doo-dads and sacred objects, like our gods-eye, a couple of photos of the Swami, and some shells and pretty rocks. One day in mid-February, 1967, I noticed a brightly painted wooden figurine there. It was about three inches high.
“What’s this, Malati?”
“I, uh, I got it the other day
(This is how the Nivaquine tablets I purchased from the local pharmacy were packaged in India. They spared me from the severe pain caused by the reoccurring malaria attacks that I fell victim to on several occasions when I wore my body down too much.)
“Canakya Pandita has advised that fire and disease and debt, don't neglect. You must clear.” - Audio Transcript, “The Nectar of Devotion” - January 28, 1973, Calcutta
The days crept closer to Friday July 7th, and on Wednesd
