Part One: The Greatest Sorrow
By Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja
Edited by Madhavananda Das
In Caitanya-caritāmṛta, madhya 8.248, it is mentioned how once Mahaprabhu asked Ray Ramananda, duḥkha-madhye kona duḥkha haya gurutara?— “Which sorrow is the most intense?” Ray Ramananda answered, kṛṣṇa-bhakta viraha-vinā duḥkha nāhi dekhi para — “Being separated from a kṛṣṇa-bhakta, a dear devotee of Krishna, is the most grievous sorrow and unhappiness.” If someone becomes separated fro
The ethics of the non-theistic moralists are compared to those of the scorpion who once requested a favor from a camel.
The scorpion wanted to cross a deep river but could not find any way to do so. Seeing a camel nearby, the scorpion approached him and asked the camel to carry him across. The camel refused, saying, “You will sting me.”
“No, no. I am an ethical scorpion. I promise I won’t sting you.”
The camel agreed and, taking the scorpion on his hump, began crossing the river. Halfway across
From Prabhupada Nectar by HH Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami
Hawaii
When Srila Prabhupada visited Hawaii, he had to deal with controversial persons who claimed to be his followers and yet who denounced the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Prabhupada wanted to encourage everyone to go on chanting Hare Krsna, yet at the same time he wanted to clearly establish that his sincere follower works within ISKCON. The questions and answers after his lectures in Hawaii often dealt with these matte
We had rented a house in Santa Cruz, CA. About 6 or 7 Brahmacaris trying to start a preaching center. I guess it was about 1981.
Some of us were doing prasadam distribution and some were selling incense. I was one of the guys selling incense. I remember it was pretty tough and usually I couldn’t collect much. One day I approached a young couple and tried to distribute something. You know the line “we’re passing these out today and just asking a donation” The man said “could you use a car”? I sa
God Does Exist!
A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said, “I don’t believe that God exists.” Why do you say that,” asked the customer.
“Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Wo
How can we face things all alone in this world!? But one who is with Krsna is never alone. When we are in a relationship with Krsna, when we are actively trying to please Krsna then we are never alone because Krsna reciprocates. It is not that we are just working hard in devotional service and hopefully there will be a reward at the end. For a whole life you have to slave day and night for Krsna – get up at an impossible time, live a really austere lifestyle and if you do it very well then at t
WASHINGTON, DC–Last week Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) celebrated her re-election to US House of Representatives and was sworn into session. She took her oath of office on the Bhagavad Gita once again.
After the ceremony, family, friends, and supporters gathered together and visited Rep. Gabbard and congratulated her.
“Tulsi shared how the Bhagavad Gita continues to serve as an inspiration in her life, and how grateful she is to the people of Hawaii for allowing her to continue to serv
A party of 50 devotees assembled at the ISKCON Lomé temple
On December 17th 2016, ISKCON devotees of Lomé, a small town in a small country (Togo has about 6 million people), held a small but ecstatic padayatra for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada. Several devotees from three other West African countries had joined the 45 devotee Togo team: three from Ghana (Yuga Prabhu, chairman of the West African Executive Council Board, Bhaktin Emma and Bhakta Abraham), one from the Republic of Benin (Bhakt
Q. 1. Since free will is operating with every soul’s choices, how is Paramatma’s guidance operative in relationship to this free will?
Q. 2. Another dimension is this: Sri Isopanisad says every other choice other than Krishna’s will, is degrading. So how can we exercise a free will choice that is within the realm of non-maya, or the spiritual realm – that may not be a predetermined choice?
Romapada Swami: Krishna dynamically responds to the free will choices of living entities. As Srila Prabhup
“Oh, Lord, the ocean of compassion and nectar! You are the dwelling place that is attractive for all. I offer You my respectful obeisances again and again. You - the only one who frees the fallen souls of this world. But how do you do it, very few people can understand. O ocean of mercy! Again and again I bow before You. ”
“Oh, Lord Jagannatha! Please save me. Oh, fallen friend, I again and again bow before You. Please deliver me from this terrible ocean of material suffering. After gaining You
Divya’s Kitchen, New York City’s first authentic Ayurvedic restaurant, cares not just about your taste buds – although it rewards them very well – but also about your health and wellbeing.
Whether you’re a New Yorker or an ISKCON devotee, as soon as you walk into the East Village eatery, with its homey amber lighting, pure cedar wood furniture and live plants, you’ll know you’re in for a new kind of casual fine dining experience.
Divya’s Kitchen, located on the ground floor of the Bhakti Center
Without giving attention to and genuinely caring about relationships, situations and aspirations, how can we achieve any real traction in life? Where the attention goes, energy flows, and results invariably show. Simultaneously, however, wisdom teachers constantly remind us to remain detached and aloof; everything in this world is a fleeting reality destined for destruction at the ruthless hands of time. We are building castles in the sand. So what’s the balance? When does genuine concern and r
You might not have heard of Jaya Caitanya Das, the thirty-year-old who’s been the number one book distributor in the U.S. for the past two years.
Even if he sold 85,000 of Prabhupada’s books this year alone.
That’s because until recently, the young man was living at home with his parents in Orange County, California.
Jaya Caitanya grew up in a Vaishnava Hindu family who were not ISKCON devotees but kept Krishna in the center of their lives.
During his teenage years, however, like most young men
Srila Prabhupada disciple Bhajahari Prabhu remains in a critical condition in hospital. He is due to have another brain scan on Monday 9th January. Please (continue to) pray for him.
The devotees took part in maha harinama sankirtan in honour of him on Saturday night. Kirtan had also been held at Bhaktivedanta Manor for the previous three evenings. The audio soundtrack used on the slideshow is a recording from Wednesday.
Slideshow (please turn on sound):
http://davidc.zenfolio.com/maha_ha
In India, “Oh, Vasudeva, we know everything of Vasudeva,” “Hare Krsna, oh, What you can teach? We know everything.” This is the Indian disease. Because familiarity breeds contempt. Because Indians are familiar with the name of Vasudeva, with the name of Hare Krsna, they think… Just like in Europe and American cities these boys and girls, they go for sankirtana, and the Indian people, they say, “Oh, we know everything about it. We have now come here to learn how to eat meat, how to drink wine.” T
Sometimes we get so disturbed by the past that the clock stops, “On 12 December 1937, I …” and we still remember what happened! Forget what happened! Who cares about what happened! First of all, accept that whatever happened maybe due to our past karma, that it was due to us. Now we are finished and we start again, start fresh, start positive and build up something good. Then the future is bright, the future is what you make it to be. The past does not make the future; the past is gone, dead-an
When I approached my spiritual master for initiation, he said, “Hmmm, as good as God, are you prepared to accept that?” And I thought, “Umm, well, I don’t know…” but I just said yes with a weak voice because it is not so simple to accept the spiritual master as good as God. But this is Krsna’s standard so what can we say. So somehow, gradually we must bring the guru-disciple relationship to that point. For me, it was not so easy because I had been initiated before and that relationship did not
In an initiation ceremony, we receive the maha-mantra. So it is like those birthdays where you get a big gift, you open up the box and inside is a gift that you already have, “Oh, I already got that! I got the holy name before.” Yes, we have the holy name already as we have been chanting for a long time before initiation. But at the time of initiation, what we are receiving?
We are receiving the holy name along with the prayer of the spiritual master who has his credit with Krsna as a result of
There was a Mr Gupta who lived in Indore in India and he had a shop selling truck parts and the whole day people would visit his shop. But there was something special about his shop in that everywhere there were pictures of Krsna! Never ever before had I seen in one space that many pictures of Krsna! There were pictures all over the wall, there were pictures on the ceiling, pictures on the door, pictures on the door knob, pictures on the table – everything had a picture of Krsna! And every day
One may want family life but how can you have a good family life without Krsna. Family life without Krsna will not be satisfactory; it will become very frustrating. It is only when we add Krsna that family life can actually start to work.
What is a job if it is not related to Krsna!? Money, money, money just for eating, sleeping and these other things. You are going to get frustrated, I guarantee you! But if you use that money for Krsna then it is okay.
In every situation, we have to make an ef
