Dear ISKCON Leaders and Devotees,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

It is with great enthusiasm that we present to you our latest Quarterly Journal.

This issue is special for two reasons. Firstly, it has been published during a very special Sankirtan season in ISKCON. A time when there is much focus on book distribution. However, there are innumerable methods to distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books during this time. Traditionally it started with taking advant

We felt so delighted to see many young children and teenagers were offering ghee lamps to the Lord. For many, they have achieved exalted piety by the unknowing performance of pure devotional service, without spiritual knowledge (ajñata-sukriti). We prayed that by associating with a devotee of Krishna, the seed of bhakti would sprout one day.

Devotee and congregation members reached out to different spots in Hong Kong (Kowloon area) and shared the blessings of offering ghee lamps in the month of

Auspiciousness is the most sought-after element of human society today given the fact that we are compelled to carry a large baggage of the pandemic. Though the beginning of the end is in sight now . What better way to repose our faith into Spirituality than dedicating our time, energy and emotions in chanting the names of The Lord, while saying good bye to the year which we all would perhaps like to erase from the book of our life.

Scriptures say problem may be material but solution is always s

ISKCON Mayapur presents New Year Shubharambha – Auspicious Beginning…

In order to invoke auspiciousness to begin the year 2021 & leaving behind a difficult year 2020 ISKCON Sri Dham Mayapur invites world wide devotees to take part in our  special  New Year’s Shubharambha program, which includes:

•    Special Narasimha Puja
•    Narasimha Homa
•    Feeding the cows
•    Vaishnava Seva
•    Ganga Puja
•    Kirtan

You can all participate in this auspicious beginning by donating only Rs.2000 by whi

I really prefer to get my vitamin D by catching some sun when I go for my daily stepping. But what if the full day is ridden by clouds like it often is these days? By the time my calls and Zooms are completed it’s dark. The daylight is over. Although it is normally an intense time during Christmas, with the current virus lockdown all is a “silent night." Even the natural world appeared still. Not a raccoon’s scratchy claws against a tree’s bark would be heard. To fill the ether within earshot I

By Vaisesika Dasa

We humans have very short lives. Measured by geological time, our lifespans are not even a nanosecond. Nonetheless, the bhakti scriptures say that this brief period is enough for anyone to attain spiritual perfection. What’s more, they reprove as irresponsible and miserly those who do not utilize their lives to attain such perfection. Having so much at stake with so little time may seem daunting!
To inspire us Sukadeva Goswami tells us in Srimad-Bhagavatam the story of Maharaj

For Srila Prabhupada, the term “Society, Friendship and Love,” was used to refer to the primary allurement which keeps us shackled in the material world of illusion and suffering. The following excerpt is indicative of his general usage of the term:

Persons who are conditioned in the society, friendship, and love, this is the attraction for material life. “Society, friendship and love,” they think, “divinely bestowed upon man.” But that, it is not divinely bestowed upon man. From spiritual poin

It’s been another one of those weeks wherein caring for our severely autistic/mentally daughter has very nearly eclipsed all other activities. Again. Same as every minute of every day. For years on end. In order that we might truly learn and grow deeper with sincere affection from the difficult experience which the Supreme Lord has sent as mercy to reform us from all selfish considerations. Or complaint (tat te nukumpam…) about the severe circumstance we must necessarily endure. As each endless

Saturn and Jupiter were to come very close together from the earth’s viewpoint. They were to appear as a bright star. I decided to execute my walk through Ramsden Park, doing a back-and-forth pacing where there is less interference by high-rise buildings. Unfortunately hazy clouds actually blocked the view. My anticipation for this darshan (sighting) became deflated. Being equipoised was my only refuge.

Now, have any of you ever listened to “The Planets" by music composer Holtz. If you have not,

The New Year is traditionally the time for resolutions. The turn of the calendar brings both the opportunity to reflect on the last 12 months and the chance to begin planning for the next dozen. As you think about yours, GBC Strategic Planning Team (SPT) brings to you live interview with Sri Radha Govinda Dasi to help you keep up with the resolutions, better decision making, leading through crisis and grow tall in Krishna Consciousness.

About Sri Radha Govinda Dasi

Sri Radha Govinda Dasi was bo

By Prishni Devi Dasi

In 1976, Srila Prabhupada instructed the founding members of the Bhaktivedanta Institute “to build a model of the universe that could later be built full size at the future Mayapur Temple and Planetarium complex.” To help broadly facilitate Srila Prabhupada’s directive, the Bhaktivedanta Institute for Higher Studies (BIHS) in Gainesville, Florida recently hosted its second cosmography workshop with the title, “Models and memes and maps: A modern journey through ancient cosmo

By Giriraj Swami

Fifty-one years ago, on December 26, 1969, in Boston, Srila Prabhupada awarded me second initiation. He said, “Sucih means purified. And another meaning of sucih is brahman. A brahman means purified. Those who are going to be sacred-threaded today should remember that they are being accepted as sucih, as brahman. After chanting for six months or one year, it is supposed that he has already become purified. Now he should be recognized that he is purified. So this sacred thread me

By Madhava Smullen

During an especially challenging holiday season, the Food For Life Foundation in Hungary is bringing some care and support with its Christmas Love Feast prasadam distribution effort, from December 8th to 27th.

In previous years, Food For Life would hold a massive event in the capital city of Budapest, giving out thousands of meals over three days. However this year amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteers are instead distributing food at over twenty different outdoor locations

Like many pedestrians I will just take a pause when I get to a park and hit one of those benches. The sunlight was coming on strong, darting towards the northeast, almost as if pointing to that seat. I accepted the invitation and plopped myself down. A great location for a sobering time. Chanting one round on my japa beads is what I got out of it.

The park was located off of Barton St. I was not alone in the sunbathing. Others did the same; caught in their own form of meditation. I wonder if God

By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

An ideal government will treat all its citizens, both humans and nonhumans, equally, without envy.

dhrtarashtra uvaca
dharma-ksetre kuru-ksetre
samaveta yuyutsavah
mamakah pandavas caiva kim akurvata sanjaya
[Bhagavad-gita 1.1]

In the history of Mahabharata, there was a dispute in the same family who would occupy the throne. Dhrtarashtra was the eldest son of the king, and the next was Pandu, By the law of primogeniture, the eldest son bec

Please click on the above link:
Bhagavad_Gita_As_It_Is-Only_Shlokas.pdf

By Giriraj Swami

“Now these Christmas holidays have begun in your country. Throughout the whole month of December you’ll observe nice festivities. Why? It began with God consciousness. Jesus Christ came to give you God consciousness, and in relation to him these festivities are going on. It may have degraded into another form, but the beginning was God consciousness. Now we may have lost it. But people cannot be happy without reviving God consciousness. It may be named differently—‘Krishna cons

If we were to distill the Bhagavad-gita to one word, it would surely be, “Krishna.” If we were to distill the Bhagavad-gita to eighteen sentences, one per chapter, it might read like this:

Before a just and vital battle, recognizing beloved relatives and mentors among his opponents, the great warrior Arjuna tells his friend Krishna that he will not fight.

Krishna points out that by giving up the battle Arjuna would fail to see the spiritual essence in others, fail in his duty as a warrior and fa