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As jack-o-lanterns, comedy gravestones, and fake ghosts and zombies crop up on our neighbor’s lawns, and every kid in town shakes with excitement about their candy haul, ISKCON devotees may be wondering whether or not to take their own children out trick-or-treating.

Some devotees have expressed concerns that in celebrating non-Gaudiya Vaishnava holidays like Halloween or Thanksgiving, we will wind up becoming culturally indistinct, and gradually assimilating all the practices of ordinary mater

kasturi-tilakam lalata-patale vaksah-sthale kaustubham

nasagre vara-mauktikam kara-tale venuh kare kankanam

sarvange hari-candanam su-lalitam kanthe ca muktavali

gopa-stri-parivestito vijayate gopala-cuda-manih

“All glories to the crest jewel of cowherd boys known as Gopal, who has a musk tilala-mark on His forehead, the kaustubha jewel on His chest, a graceful pearl on the tip of His nose, a flute in His hand, a bracelet on His wrist, graceful sandalwood paste on all of His limbs, a necklace

The renowned International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding by revered spiritual leader A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada with an elaborate black-tie gala in Washington DC late last month. The event brought together scores of religious, academic and political leaders from across the country to celebrate the life of Swami Prabhupada and the influential, global organization his work inspired.

Founded in 1966 in New York, ISKCON boasts mo

Vedic culture says that nature will respond according to the behaviour of people. The behaviour of nature is directly related to the behaviour of people on the planet. This is something that I never thought of before coming to Krsna consciousness, it had never occurred to me. And the reason for this correlation is because nature has a divine origin – behind nature is the Supreme Lord and everything in this world is going on under the control of the Supreme Lord. As the Bhagavad-gita explains, ‘

Lord Jagannath Shobha Yatra at Budh Vihar of North West Delhi district in Delhi by ISKCON Rohini Delhi’s devotees (6 min video)
Srila Prabhupada: If you get one thousand of rupees, ten rupees is already there. If you get Krishna, you get all perfection. Hrishikesh, May 15, 1977.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/yh5WGt

Source:http://www.dandavats.com/?p=32674

Today I was in Sydney central I stopped this young Chinese couple saying, “We’re stopping all the good looking couples today and showing these books on meditation,” They laughed and stopped happily. The guy said, “Oh meditation? My golf teacher said that he plays good golf because he meditates daily and he highly recommends it.”
The boy was into it right away. The girl wasn’t into it but ended up she was the one who had the money so I was praying to Krishna to help. The guy asked her if she cou

There comes a time, sometimes regularly, where we may feel, Oh, Krishna. I can’t do this anymore. This ‘this’ will be different for everyone. It happened to Arjuna in the Gita – he wanted to give up, not to fight, and go off to the forest to be alone. He did not want to deal with people and life’s problems. He told Krishna: I’m not fighting, I can’t do it, I can’t see the point, better if I don’t act and move to the side.

If it can happen to Arjuna, who had everything going for him, including t

So one thing is to simplify your life and this is really nice for the modern age to give yourself permission to simplify your life.
Atyahara, you don’t have to collect too much. In fact nowadays studies are showing that when you have less clutter in your life you can focus more and actually that focus is more important than intelligence. It’s better to be a focused person than to be a genius whose attention is being pulled all over the place. And one of the ways he’s recommending that you becom

Tamal Krishna Goswami: “This Braj is in prakad and aprakad, prakad means manifest and aprakad unmanifest. So, we cannot see the Braj without getting the eyes to see Braj, and Giriraj Govardhana has the power to bless us to be able to see. We can pray that 'You have seen everything, you have arranged everything, all of the pastimes happened on your own slope, on your lap.’ Just like if a child is sitting on the lap, you can see very nicely that child. So Krishna and Krishna’s associates, they’re

Devotee artist: After Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate Mike Pence said in a speech that we had to stop illegal entry into the country otherwise ‘we’ll have taco trucks on every corner’, a Los Angeles curator invited me to participate in a new art exhibit called 'A Taco Truck on Every Corner’, the theme being, of course, taco trucks.
Remembering Srila Prabhupada’s directions, I dovetailed my abilities with the show’s theme and created a piece called 'Govinda’s Vegetarian and Vegan T

Satsvarupa das Goswami: Sri Krishna is “handsomeness and waves of nectar of handsomeness.” (Brhad-Bhagavatamrta). But Srila Prabhupada was seventy or eighty years old. We were all young men, so why were we attracted to this “old man”? (Srila Prabhupada used to say, “I’m an old man, I may die at any moment.” And, “I am a poor foreigner. Why are they after me?”) He had the attractive features of a sage. The way he sat, the shape of his head, the gestures of his hands. He was from the East, like G

In this chapter, the passing away of Bhismadev, in the purport to this verse there is a list of challenges for society at large to improve their quality of life. The first challenge is, “Not to become angry!” We remember Upadesamrta, the Nectar of Instruction Verse 1, vaco vegam manasa krodha vegam, one must control the pushings of anger. So even when anger is pushing, one must somehow or other subdue it. Bhismadev also said that in order to conquer anger, one must learn to forgive because it i

When I was 21, a close college friend of mine died. Suddenly, just like that. And I felt like someone had cut the phone line and I could never speak to her again. It was over and I was shaken to the core.

That event, among others, made me rethink life. What are we all doing here, where are we going, and what really matters? It propelled me to continue my search, not exactly sure what I was looking for, but certainly something better than what was presenting itself before me.

This week again, whe

On this day in October 1966 I was ten years old and living in a small village in Cornwall. I’d gone out for a walk in the afternoon and wherever I went, people were talking to each other about a terrible thing that had happened that morning in a Welsh village.

I don’t remember hearing about disasters very much when I was young, so this made a deep impression on me. It was as if the whole village felt it. News travelled a little slower back then, but the grainy images on a neighbours black and w

The mid-term GBC meeting usually comprises strategic planning sessions with the leaders discussing a range of topics on how to develop and spread Krsna Consciousness all over the world.

The local devotees, headed by TP Brajahari das, provided all the necessary facilities, such as, accommodation, conference halls, office needs and and wonderful prasadam.

Source:http://www.ramaiswami.com/iskcon-gbc-meeting-juhu-part-2/

National Institute of Education (NIE) – Sri Lanka celebrated the annual Navaratri festival during the first week of October. Participants were the Minister of Education Mr. Radhakrishnan and all leading educational officers from different districts of the country. On this occasion, ISKCON devotees were invited as guests along with Buddhist head-monks and Christian priest. As ISKCON’s representative, Vasudeva Datta Prabhu spoke in length on the importance of adding the study of Bhagavad Gita As

GBC meetings in Mumbai.
The GBC Body today is meeting with the Indian ISKCON Bureau at Juhu in Mumbai.

Source:http://www.dandavats.com/?p=32580