The poet Keats was heading in the right direction when he said – ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty …that is all ye need to know’. In the Vaisnava spiritual practice the absolute truth is found in the relationship between Radha and Krishna – an exchange of the highest expression of pure beauty and pure love. The book, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, sets the scene:
‘It is not that Radharani is separate from Krishna. Radharani is also Krishna, for there is no difference between the energy and the energe
Nitai Gaurachandra damaged during a violent earthquake
A virgin girl dreamed that Sri Sri Nitai Gaurachandra, the Deities at our Christchurch[1] temple, where trapped. They wanted to go out into the world, to chant and dance with the people. The very next day, February 22nd 2011, there was a violent earthquake, and the whole city shook to its knees. The temple collapsed, the sringasana[2] tumbled, the marble altar jolted askew and the most beautiful Lordships, Nitai Gaurachandra, were suddenly
Goloka Dhama, Abentheuer, Germany - A two-day spiritual care workshop was recently held as part of the Janmastami festival at Goloka Dhama in Germany. It was attended by devotees from across Germany and Belgium.
Hari-dhama dasa, a senior UK disciple of Mukunda Maharaja, conducted the workshop, which looked at the skills and knowledge needed for devotees to take care of the elderly and dying in the German yatra. The two-day event looked at the theory behind spiritual care and devotees where give
Life is about what you do daily, not about where and in which condition you are.
Conditions of life, e.g. how much money you have, where your house is, how you look, your social stature, your job, etc. are all external. You might not have full control on these externals.
But what you do daily in all conditions of life reflects your internal state and the quality of your life.
Standard of living and quality of living are two different things. The former is an index of the conditions of life, whi
I have just hit a new level of realization of the phrase 'I lost my heart in Vrindavan'.
Question: Why do you please think that God has only one supreme or topmost form in your religion and this is the form of Krishna, when there have been great holy people and saints who worshiped God not in the form of Krishna. So will all others not go to God, or will they go to a God in the form they can comprehend? It’s very confusing.
Romapada Swami answers: It is not a personal, sectarian opinion that we claim the form of Krishna to be topmost, nor does Krishna belongs to any particular reli
Khonika Gope-Kumar: In several places of Srimad Bhagvatam, instructions are given on how to greet and treat someone who is less qualified, equally qualified and more qualified than us. In this article, I am quoting three important verses regarding this subject matter. The purports given by Srila Prabhupada are also worth reading. In summary,
Less Qualified:
1. Be compassionate
2. Be like a father
Equally Qualified:
1. Make friendship
2. Be like a sympathetic brother
More Qualified:
1. Be very p
[August 30, 1968, Montreal, Canada]
Now today is our Radhastami ceremony. So, so far Radharani, Radharani, today is the birthday of Srimati Radharani. Radharani is the pleasure potency of Krishna . Krishna is the Supreme Brahman. Just try to understand. Krishna is the Supreme Brahman. Param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan. So when param brahma wants to enjoy… that enjoying spirit is there in the param brahma. Otherwise we cannot have this enjoying spirit. Because we are part and parc
Setting a Good Example
We should concentrate on training the children up in Krsna consciousness, not so much formal academic educationa little reading, writing, mathematics, that’s allbut more by giving them facility to follow the examples of the older devotees in the regular Krsna conscious program.
Letter to Satsvarupa dasa, February 16, 1972
Let the children associate with the elders as much as possible in the routine Krsna conscious program.
Letter to Aniruddha dasa, February 16, 1972
The b
Kids - Srimad Bhagavatam Sloka and Kirtan Recitation from ISKCON Mira Road (Playlist of brief videos)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/HRkpF7
The eternal constitutional nature of the living entity is pure love and devotion to Krishna. The origin of this pure unconditional love is the pleasure giving potency hladini shakti, Srimati Radharani. Though hidden deep within the heart of the Lord, She manifests Herself as Krishna's eternal consort. Only She can completely satisfy and attract the all attractive Supreme Personality of Godhead by Her unsurpassable pure love, which is called mahabhava.
Srimati Radharani is the compassionate nat
Dear Friends PLEASE HELP!!! For some time now I have been concerned for the freedoms and safeties of my fellow Hare Krsna devotees in Bangladesh, who are trying to exist peacefully in a socio-political context which is extremely fractious, volatile and imminently inflammatory. I have become aware of isolated incidents of extreme physical attacks on individual priests and small gatherings during their worship practices. Such attacks have been enacted by thugs portraying themselves as Islamic ext
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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