By Varsana Swami
The efforts, austerities, and practices involved with the acceptance as a disciple do not end with initiation. Rather they begin, in a formal sense, at that point. Whatever outer challenges or inner demons we have, will be overcome by Krishna’s grace for those who persevere in their vows. It is only those who quit who will suffer defeat.
Even as the connection and dependency between the words “disciple” and “discipline” are obvious, some devotees tend to be more attentive to
By Jayapataka Swami
Srila Prabhupada was given the whole world as his frontier for preaching. He wanted to fulfill Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s prediction that His holy name would be spread all over the world. Prithivite ache yata nagaradi grama / sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama (Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya 1.117). Srila Prabhupada traveled the world eleven times, published volumes of Krishna conscious books and established 108 temples and centers. Everything was a massive success.
Srila Prabhupad
“Krishna says, svakarmana: ‘Whatever talent you have got, you can serve Me and be perfect.’ That is the program.”
“Yes, it is your good fortune that you can serve Krishna in so many ways — to work, to write, to speak, to paint, to build — all of these talents must be employed in Krishna’s service. That will make you perfect. We are so fortunate to be in this human form of life, and to have the opportunity and the capacity to serve Krishna, and as there is very little time, we must do as much ea
“No man is an island,” the great poet once wrote.
We are not alone in our suffering, in our diseases. We are not alone on the highway on the way to work, in the football stadium, watching the tv. We are not alone in our grief, in our outrage, in our happiness. Yet at times we feel so alone, so estranged, so disconnected, even in a crowd.
And so lonely.
Who has not known it, or felt it, or seen it?
We are lonely because we have forgotten Krishna, and forgotten who we are. We have forgotten that K
In 2010, I visited Athens and the historically interesting Pnyx Hill, with its special atmosphere and amazing views of the Acropolis and the Parthenon, the temple that reminds everyone of the glory and the decline of the ancient Greek world. Between visiting members of the Hare Krishna movement and speaking with contemporary Greeks about Sri Krishna, the Supreme Being, I learned of a remarkable resemblance between Classical Greece and the Vedic culture of India. Classical Vedic literature makes
Dear Maharaja and Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances at the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Greetings from Sridhama Mayapur and blessings from Sri Sri Radha Madhava, Sri Pancha Tattva and Sri Nrsimhadeva.
The TOVP Team, consisting of Their Graces Jananivas, Ambarisa and Svaha prabhus along with myself, and led by Lord Nityananda’s Padukas and Lord Nrsimhadeva’s Satari, recently concluded its ten day tour of South Africa on a highly successful note.
This is our
International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).
But what Is Krishna Consciousness?
These are notes found in a handwritten diary kept by Srila Prabhupada, outlining how he intended to present the teachings of Krishna consciousness to the Western world.
1. Krishna consciousness means clear consciousness.
2. Material existence means hazy consciousness.
3. Identifying the body as self is hazy consciousness.
4. One has to understand himself first before making progress in Krishna conscious
Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 12, No. 17
By Krishna-kripa das
(September 2016, part one)
Hull, Sheffield, York, Scarborough, Newcastle
Belfast, Dublin, Kilkenny, New York City Harinam
(Sent from Manhattan, New York, on October 1, 2016)
Where I Went and What I Did
Govardhan Dasi, a Prabhupada disciple who loves harinama, and her husband John joined me forharinama in Hull, a city none of us had chanted in before. Then I went to Sheffield for the last time this year, and did two evening p
When we read about Krsna’s neutrality, we need to understand it in proper perspective. Krsna is looking at all the living beings and thinks, “Please, do not get so entangled in the material energy. Just somehow or other, avoid all this. Use what you need to live but never for a moment think that this is the place to be! The spiritual world is the place where we should be.”
Do not love the place of your birth because birth is not loveable, birth is painful. If you love the place of your birth, y
We wait for trains, planes and summer rains
we wait in line all the time,
we hold our breath and wait for the score
we wait as a loved one moves to breathing no more
We wait wondering what it’s all about
this life between birth and death and throughout
We wait as we chant for the ego to lift
We wait as we serve for love as the gift
We wait before judging, trusting the good
we wait for grace, knowing we should
Too often we wait till the end of our life
to question the craziness, question the stri
17th Sept (Acc to English Calendar) and 23rd Sept (Acc to Vedic Calendar) marks the historic anniversary of Srila Prabhupada arrival in USA.
Defying all odds, after a long struggle in India, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada arrived in USA to carry out the order given to him by his spiritual master almost 40 years ago of delivering the timeless teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in western world.
Who could imagine at that time that a person with ‘strange appearance’ in saffron robes, havi
Since temple is a place where people come to take darshan of the Lord or bring something to offer to the Lord, one should be ready to receive them at any time of the day. Especially during darshan hour timings one should anticipate such visits and be ready. The spirit of welcoming should never be lost.
(Two or three devotees can work in shifts throughout the day so that one devotee is not hard pressed. This also helps in developing good rapport with visitors and congregational devotees. People
The Gita is a book about change. It’s protagonist, Arjuna, is changing his mind about leading the fight. He is having a ‘reality’ check as he faces his opponents, many of whom he knows. He is also facing the consequences of this war – no matter how important or needed, there will be much loss and disruption.
As Arjuna moves through his crisis, asking questions and seeking guidance, we learn so many things about change – both change that happens to us and change we can make happen. It’s a book to
Last Saturday, on September 24, history was created when ISKCON of Suriname held its first Ratha-yatra festival in the capital City of Paramaribo, with the Lord Jagannath cart parading through one of the busiest streets in the city. The festival was organised as part of ISKCON Suriname’s main 50th anniversary initiative. The procession began at 5:00 pm sharp with the ribbon cutting done by the Raghoebier family, who, over a decade ago, had kindly provided the facility in Paramaribo that ISKCON
On Sunday, 19th September 2016, we had a wonderful ‘2nd One Day PADAYATRA’ in Ahmedabad, as a part of ISKCON 50th Annivarsary celebration. We have three more Padayatras to go, which we will have in every month of the current year. All the devotees suggested having such events every month, for the rest of the years to come. If Srila Prabhupada wishes, we can plan to do so in future.
Details of “2nd One Day PADAYATRA”:
On Sunday, we started the Padayatra from Shri Shri RadhaGovind Dham, ISKCON Ah
George Harrison sings a song of his separation from Krishna. This same sort of separation is also sometimes felt in regards to the Vaishnavas.
For the majority of my devotional life, Krishna has arranged it so that I’ve never had a devotional community to tap into as a regular daily function. I started off living in Wilmington, DE whereby ISKCON Philly was about an hour drive. This was the closest proximity I’ve ever lived to an active temple. Unfortunately, He made it so that I would be relocat
As they walked together under a steel bridge, Prabhupada pointed upward with his walking cane, “Look”-a sign under the bridge read UNALLOYED STEEL-“they have unalloyed steel, and we have unalloyed devotional service.
"What if people don’t want to hear our message?” Pradyumna asked.
“The people might not understand our message, but Krsna will be pleased,” Prabhupada replied. “And that is our mission. They thought Jesus Christ’s mission was stopped. They killed him. But his mission was attained.
Mukhya Devi Dasi (President of Iskcon’s Raman Reti community in Alachua): We’ve spent the past week in the rarefied atmosphere of Sri Vrindavan Dhama, by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. ISKCON’s Krishna Balaram Mandir is chock full of life: kirtan, seva and bhakti vibrating from end to end. Just watching the pilgrims stream through during sundara arati and hearing the 24 hour kirtan in full swing begin dancing as they have darshan of Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, Sri Sri Krishna Balaram and
It is quite easy to find health benefits of a particular food item especially when we like its taste. This is the reason modern food industry keeps adding some sort of taste to anything they sell. Some companies add taste even to packaged water (and spoil it) in order to make it stand out. The other tactic they use to sell their products is add flavor. Although the word “flavor” sounds attractive you may have noticed that you cannot stand particular flavors that may be favorite of your next do
