The miracle of forgiveness : Much has been written in spiritually themed literature, Vedic scriptures and Prabhupada's translations, and personal growth/self-help books about forgiveness. As a young person and devotee I had no idea how important forgiveness could be. It was only after years of introspection and prayer that I personally understood how important it was for me to forgive important persons in my life and myself.
The topic came up in my reading of the last few days, and I wanted to
The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature.
. . . The person in material consciousness is convinced by false ego that he is the doer of everything. He does not know that the mechanism of the body is produced by material nature, which works under the supervision of the Supreme Lord. The materialistic person has no knowledge that ultimately he is under the control of Kṛṣṇa.
Spiritual Knowledge has to be obtained from a bonafide spiritual master or Guru. A bonafide Guru is one who has his own Guru, and so on. The original Guru is God who is perfect in all respects.
The Bhagavad Gita is a standard text for spiritual knowledge and we must be careful not to bypass it's essential message when talking about spirituality. Bhagavad Gita's essential message is to become a pure devotee of Krishna and get out of the cycle of birth and death that characterizes the material wo
Whenever you go to visit a temple in India, and participate in the doing pujas or rituals, the priest will often ask you to which gotra your family line belongs. Then you tell him your gotra, and usually the names of your father and mother, and he puts that into the recitation of prayers to offer to the deity you are worshiping, and to get blessings from that deity. In other cases, a person introduces himself to elders by stating one’s name and gotra. This is a form of acknowledging one’s ance
If i let myself think, “aparadha-bhajan is better than no bhajan at all,” then i probably won’t stop this aparadha bhajan for a long time to come.
Bhajan with aparadha is worse than no bhajan at all.
Bhajan with aparadha is worse than no bhajan at all. Just as having a negative experience with a person is worse than having no experience with them at all. But the solution is not to stop the bhajan. The solution is to stop the aparadha.
Bhajan with mistakes and failures is certainly better th
I like the comparison, of the love of Srimati Radharani to a mirror which reflects the qualities of Krishna – as she discovers more and more qualities of Krishna , her love is just responding to those qualities. In this way, the love of Srimati Radharani is eternally growing. This explains the nature of love in the spiritual world and how one is increasing in one’s devotional service and one’s devotional experience eternally. Krishna becomes captured by this love which increases his experience
Conflict, friction and human disagreement is, unfortunately, a major part of daily life. Whether it’s the erratic driver who cuts in front of you on the high street, crafty and cunning work colleagues pulling a fast one, or ungrateful and insensitive friends, unsavoury interactions can spoil our day really quickly. Fortunately for us, the great saint Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur offers invaluable wisdom to help handle these daily challenges:
"When faults in others misguide and delude you
Devotees at ISKCON New Vrindaban, West Virginia are in the midst of major renovations on Srila Prabhupada’s Palace. And they’re launching a campaign to help them continue restoring the renowned Smriti Samadhi, or memorial shrine to ISKCON’s Founder-Acharya, to its full glory.
The effort is a labor of love, just as it was when devotees first started building the Palace in 1973, intending it as a residence for their guru, who expressed a strong desire to retire there and translate his books.
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Dear devotees,
Year after year many soldiers of Srila Prabhupada are leaving us bereft of their association. These are great Prabhupadanugas who has dedicated their lives for the mission of Srila Prabhupada. There is so much to learn from their lives.
As an attempt to glorified one such soldier, Kaulini Devi Dasi we have set up a blog in her glorification. This blog is an initiative by HG Sudevi dasi (SDG) to record homages to HG Kaulini Devi Dasi. Her life was an inspiration to many and we hop
Simple Daily Meditations
How to know Krishna? How to get a sense of who He is, a feeling towards Him? How can we think about Him naturally throughout the day and not just while we battle with our mind during our chanting practice? In other words, can we meditate off the mat and into the day?
Meditation is mind work. For some it’s emptying the mind of everything. For us it’s filling the mind with thoughts of Krishna. Letting the mind drift to His side, lean into His space and rest there.
Arjuna
Radha’s 25 transcendental qualities, by which She controls Krsna. The first version is from CC Madhya 23. 87-91 and next to it is a slightly different version from the “Teachings of Lord Caitanya” Ch. 14. The original reference is said to be Ujjvala-nilamani, Sri-Radha-prakarasa (11-15).
(1) She is very sweet.// She is sweetness personified;
(2) She is always freshly youthful.// She is a fresh young girl;
(3) Her eyes are restless.// Her eyes are always moving;
(4) She smiles brightly.// She is
Verse 4.37: As a blazing fire turns firewood to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the fire of knowledge burn to ashes all reactions to material activities.
Motivation. It's the hidden catalyst behind everything we do. Whether we acknowledge those reasons or turn a blind eye to them, the fact remains, we are motivated beings.
Those motivations lead us to act which naturally bring some type of result; that is essentially what karma is all about.
This verse, however, indicates that there is a missing
World Holyname Week is celebrated throughout ISKCON fraternity every year to propagate congregational chanting of the holy name.
The world holy name week (WHNW-16) was celebrated globally from 28th Jul – 14th Aug 2016. Devotees in Singapore at the Gauranga Centre, played their part of spreading the glories of holy name by doing harinaam sankirtan.
Indeed, the holy name week had a rousing start as devotees were led by a senior kirtaniya to an ecstatic round of kirtan. In Singapore owing to a h
One of the few physical features that distinguish Buddhi Wilcox is a small pigtail. But the otherwise ordinary appearance hides a compassionate being, dedicated to helping the less well off in his community.
Buddhi, a member of the Hare Krishna faith, set up the Food For Life programme in Whangarei, feeding the poor, the homeless and children who would otherwise go hungry. But behind the good work is a big team of supporters committed to the vision.
“It’s not just the community we feed but
Radha Damodar Das, One of the First Devotees in the Soviet Union passed away on September 3rd evening succumbing to lung cancer.
ISKCON Communications Director Anuttama Dasa remembers:
"Radha Damodara prabhu was a true, humble and dedicated servant of his guru maharaja and Srila Prabhupada. Despite the dangers and troubles of being a Krishna devotee in the early years in Russia, Radha Damodara was fully committed to Lord Caitanya's mission.
Later as leader of the Communications team in Russia
There is a difference between a “sin” (adharma orpapa) and a “hatred” (a.k.a “offense” – aparadha). “Hatred” is “sin” but not all “sin” is “hatred.” “Hatred” is a special subset of “sin” – it is the worst type. It is so bad that it is considered in a separate category.
A “sin” is simply failure to fulfill our duty, responsibility and function. A father, for example, sins if he cannot provide physical and mental security for his family. The acts he does which contribute to this failure are also
Question: I was wondering why earth is so special? Why did Krishna manifest his pastimes here instead of some other planet?
Well, what “other planet” should he appear on? Life is centered on Earth.
Yes, there are many dimensions to the earth, sky, heavens, and under-earth, but these multi-dimensional realms (loka) are not literally identical to our modern astronomical conception of “planets.” The modern astronomical model is not the same model presented in the Purāṇa. It also describes reali
..so this is the biggest problem …on the one hand we think I really want Krishna, I really do, I really want spiritual life but on the other hand we can’t: on the other hand there is another part in us that wants something else. Sometimes when we are in the spiritual mode we don’t want that part of our self, we say “I wish I didn’t have that” but then we snap out of the spiritual mode and we again don’t want spiritual life, so much. Somehow we are accepting and then we are giving up and we ar
I have read and re-read the Foreward to The Science of Self Realization by Mukunda dasa Goswami many times now, and every time I am moved by this written account.
From the very start, I knew that His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was the most extraordinary person I had ever met. The first meeting occurred in the summer of 1966, in New York City. A friend had invited me to hear a lecture by “an old Indian svamī” on lower Manhattan’s Bowery. Overwhelmed with curiosity about
Speaking of honesty - for a deep cleansing of the heart.
Sajjana Ashraya das: In the vocabolary of italian language we read: Honesty, from the latin “honestate” is the quality of an honest person, that acts with rectitude, with loyalty, justice, abstains from doing evil, a conscientious person, responsible, aligned to moral principles, that has dignity and decorum, that expresses decency and modesty. Living with dignity, with decorum, with politeness, elegantly.
It is said in the Srimad Bhaga
