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I was scrolling through my Facebook timeline awhile back, half paying attention, when an image came up which read:

Don't know which is worse: To be present and your presence not acknowledged or to be absent and your absence not felt.

It caught me off guard and made me stop what I was doing, reflect and pose the question as to which would be worse for me. As a person who thrives on validation, my initial response was immediate - obviously being present and not having my presence acknowledged w

Giriraj Swami read and spoke on Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.33.36 at Lord Krishna’s Appearance Day festival.

“When we hear these stories, we should think, ‘Krishna is so kind to His devotees.’ Even in the midst of the worst calamity, if you just take shelter of Krishna — just surrender to Krishna — He will protect you.  ‘I could have that facility if I surrender to Krishna. Why am I missing out — puttering around with my little toys and sense gratification and fallible soldiers? I am wasting my time.

While attending the Janmastami festival at the ISKCON farm in Czechoslovakia several years ago, I was asked to give a lecture about the appearance of Lord Krishna. Afterwards I asked for questions and an elderly, red-haired lady raised her hand. Since almost all the devotees there spoke only Czech, I was surprised when she began to speak in English. She said, “Satsvarupa Gosvami, could you tell us something about Prabhupada, because you knew him very well?”

I started out by remembering Janmasta

Including Manipur ISKCON in the worldwide celebration of 50 Golden years of ISKCON, the Youth Forum of ISKCON Manipur organized ‘The Achintya Youth Festival 2016’, from 21st to 24th August 2016 at the temple premises and was completed successfully. A festivity replete with cultural programs, musical performances, debate, quizzies, interesting competitions, interaction with distinguished professors, social workers and celebrities, martial arts presentationa, kirtans, prizes and to complete

Beautiful floral decorations today for the Bhaktivedanta Manor altar and Deities.

Source : http://www.dandavats.com/?p=30768

San Francisco, Calif. – Several thousand Indian Americans, along with other devotees of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, gathered together here Aug. 14 to celebrate the 50th annual Ratha Yatra.

“I have come every year since 1994,” Mohini Raj, bearing several garlands of marigolds which she offered to Sri Jagannatha, told India-West. The elderly woman brought her young grandchildren along this year, to clap, sing and dance at the joyous festival. “This reminds me of the festi

The Holy Appearance Day of 
His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Maharaja

When Nanda Maharaja is observing a great festival for the appearance day of his beloved son, Sri Krsna, that very day Krsna’s very dear devotee, very intimate devotee, His own man, has appeared.
What is the necessity of the Vaisnavas coming here? Sadhu-vaisnavas, Krsna’s own men are always with Krsna in that sat-cid-ananda-maya-dhama. Those who have attained Krsna, only see krsna-sambandha, the rela

In the chapter of the Krishna book titled “Prayers by the Demigods for Lord Krishna in the Womb” Srila Prabhupada cautions against the tendency to be a bit impersonal towards God. We understand that Krishna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has both personal and impersonal aspects – He is simultaneously one with everything and different from everything. It’s easy to see and appreciate the power and energy of Krishna in the world in front of us, but sometimes not so easy to see or understa

janma karma me divyam

Today marks the auspicious celebration of the Appearence Day Of Lord Sri Krishna, Janmastami. We will fast all day and have a small feast at midnight. The following are some selected quotes by Srila Prabhupada on understanding Krishna.

“Let us understand Krishna. That is Krishna consciousness movement. Let us understand Krishna. And if you simply understand Krishna, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita, janma karma me divyam yo janati tattvatah… Tattvatah, in truth, not su

As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord says that His appearance, birth, and activities, are all transcendental, and one who understands them factually becomes immediately eligible to be transferred to the spiritual world. The Lord’s appearance or birth is not like that of an ordinary man who is forced to accept a material body according to his past deeds. The Lord’s appearance is explained in the Second Chapter: He appears out of His own sweet pleasure. When the time was mature for the appear

One thing you notice is that if like me you use social media there is a lot of articles that come along and once you closely scrutinise them it becomes clear that the information contained is not what it seems to be.

So it was of interest that I found a reference to an article that caught my curiosity and so a further look and small research was undertaken and it appeared to be valid; but interestingly made me feel inspired as Sri Krishna had made the whole journey of Srila Prabhupada even more

I've taken the auspicious opportunity of Srī Krishna Janmāṣṭhamī to resume my work on presenting Canto Four of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, in the same manner as I have so far managed, despite myself, to present the first three. I resume from the very beginning of Chapter 22:

Just as the citizens finished expressing their appreciation to King Pṛthu, four sages entered the arena, descending from the sky and shining as brilliantly as the sun. The King and his retinue recognized them as Brahma’s original qu

By Kripamoya das

I went to the Bhaktivedanta Manor this afternoon. It was a hot summer’s day for England, but a team of dedicated volunteers were underneath a marquee surrounded by chopping tables and hot gas stoves, preparing food for the 30,000 pilgrims that will be arriving on Thursday for Lord Krishna’s birthday. Just last month our teams prepared hot meals for 17,000 in Trafalgar Square. In Glastonbury the Hare Krishna tent fed 15,000 hungry mouths over the festival, and the same team prep

On the 6th of August, the capital of Croatia – Zagreb – welcomed Lord Jagannatha with the Ratha-yatra festival for the first time.

A big, colorful procession of around 350 people with the wonderful Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra deities joyfully resting on a chariot beautifully decorated with flowers and cookies began its way at the Europski square, proceeding through the main square and finally reaching Zagreb’s biggest city park, Zrinjevac, where kirtan and book and prasadam distribution w

Celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of ISKCON are here and ISKCON Cape Town hosted a formal banquet in honour of ISKCON’s 50th anniversary with around 120 attendees. This included VIPs, influential friends of ISKCON in Cape Town and religious leaders. The evening was a wonderful combination of information sharing about Srila Prabhupada and ISKCON as well as entertainment, over a sumptuous dinner of Krishna prasadam.

The venue was beautifully decorated and the guests were seated at round tables

By Giriraj Swami

Today is Guru-purnima. Srila Prabhupada has explained that the system of honoring the spiritual master is current in all sections of Vedic followers. In the Mayavadi (impersonalist) sects, the disciples offer respect to the spiritual master every year on Guru-purnima. And in the Gaudiya Vaisnava sampradaya, the disciples offer homage annually on the appearance day of the spiritual master; this occasion is called Vyasa-puja, because the spiritual master represents Vedavyasa, the

Tonight I Dined: Govinda’s Houston
Govinda’s opened this summer at the ISKCON Hare Krishna temple in the Houston Heights. The facility was always worth a visit because of the beautiful architecture, and now it’s definitely worth a visit since the opening of this vegetarian restaurant! They are opened for a lunch buffet and a dinner buffet with a mix of Indian and American cuisine. There is a small salad bar and about 8 hot offerings. Everything is labelled, and most of the offerings are labelle

32.741 rounds chanted from Krishna Katha Desh devotees for World Holy Name Week and Iskcon’s 50th anniversary.
Krishna Katha Desh celebrated WHNW by chanting for 50 hours non-stop this year to mark 50 years of Iskcon along with World Holy Name Week. All the Devotees started chanting at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday 11th August 2016. They continued chanting till Saturday 13th August 2016, 9:00 p.m. 412 Devotees participated in this Japathon and chanted 32,741 rounds. Many Devotees are on vacation else t