It seems a natural instinct to measure success by comparing and competing with others. When Swami Prabhupada met a top Japanese manager at the Dai Nippon Press, he asked him what his goal in life was. Without saying a word, the corporate cat looked at a stack of business cards of all his acquaintances, carefully removed his own card from the bottom of the pile, and triumphantly slammed it on the top! He smiled at the Swami. The message was loud and clear.
Often, this competitive desire to “be t
Prabhupada used the traffic metaphor for spiritual life and I like this metaphor. It is like this, you start driving in the night – no light and it is pitch dark. You cannot see anything of the road. All that you see are the white lines. There are white lines and you drive within the white lines. These are the white lines of the regulative principles, of the rules and the regulations and it is all about rules and regulations. There are traffic rules too. You stick to a certain side of the road,
Businesses striving to function at a higher consciousness will have huge edge
From Back to Godhead
By Mayapur-shashi Dasa
Vaishnava acts of compassion are valuable even when apparently not on the level of transcendence.
Pure Vaishnavas care deeply. They feel the suffering of others in the core of their hearts. Their greatest compassionate wish is to lead others away from their suffering once and for all – by helping them go back home, back to Godhead. Until people reconnect with Lord Krishna and hear how to lead their lives in His service, they will never achieve true ha
This year on August 18th marks the 40th anniversary of our beautiful Krishna Balarama deities installed personally by ISKCON Founder Acarya Srila Prabhupada. Due to many renovation projects at the temple, our main celebrations for this occasion will be held next year 2017.
New Mayapura is currently upgrading its facilities for the comfort of our esteemed guests. The New Mayapura guest house renovations will begin in June this year and are scheduled to be completed by mid-September 2016. This pr
In conjuction with ISKCON 50 celebrations ISKCON Malaysia has planned to conduct a cross country Mahabharatham Quiz contest in Tamil – A first of its kind in Malaysia.
Organised by ISKCON Malaysia, the first leg started off by Perak branch of ISKCON Malaysia on the first of May 2016. Tamil schools from ipoh, Taiping, Teluk Intan and Sungei Siput took part in this event. They all gathered at the Mahamariamman Temple hall in Ipoh . A total of 18 schools paticipated.
The event began by a welcome a
Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Bhagavad-gita 2.41 during the Sunday Krishna Fest.
“Keep in mind that when Srila Prabhupada was reading this verse in the Bhagavad-gita with the commentary, that was the moment that his firm resolution took place that. ‘Yes, now I must leave everything and follow the orders of my spiritual master and go to America.’ And, because of that order and his faith in that order we are all here, this temple is here and Sri Sri Radha Kalachandji is here.”
“Srila Visvanat
Perception of animals.
Question: What divides animals and humans in Hinduism? How are animals perceived in Hinduism? Are they treated differently?
Romapada Swami: First I would like to offer some background on the word “Hinduism”.
Srila Prabhupada, the founder-Acarya of ISKCON, explains, people from Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and Persia mispronounced the name of the river “Sindhu”, calling the river “the Hindu” and the people living in and beyond its valley “Hindus.” (Please refer to Science of
Wheat Alternatives.
Kurma das: Sheila from New York writes:
“Can you suggest some flours that I can use instead of wheat, especially for the grain-fast on the sacred Ekadasi day?”
My reply: “Yes. Here’s my list of non-wheat flours, some you may not have encountered.”
Amaranth flour: Milled from the seeds of the amaranth plant, this flour boasts a higher percentage of protein than most other grains, and has more fibre than wheat and rice. It is also higher in the amino acid lysine, which some f
We were on an airplane from Mexico City to Caracas and Prabhupada started taking his puffed rice, puffed rice and peanuts. He ate for about 10 minutes or so, and then he just looked and said, "OK." So I moved the puffed rice over and I gave half to Paramahamsa, the other half I had in front of me. After a few minutes, there was this stewardess, she was walking down the aisle and she stops right in front of us and she reached over, put her hand in my plate and grabbed a handful of puffed rice an
For a hundred years this elegant American elm at the center of Tompkins Square Park was just a tree. Then, in 1966, the Hare Krishna mantra was chanted under its sprawling canopy for the first time, and it became the birthplace of a religion.
To Hare Krishnas this tree is a sacred site. For everyone else it would be easy to stroll by the old elm in Manhattan’s East Village and have no idea it’s a religious landmark. It’s a handsome tree — American elms are quite rare now, known for their wide-s
When Lord Krishna played on this Earth as a child, He lived in a community of cowherds in the region known as Vraja, in northern India. He was in charge of the young calves and took them out each morning to the pasturing grounds.
Accompanied by dozens of His friends, and with hundreds of calves each, Krishna would walk through the Vrindavan forest in search of lush vegetation. The cowherd boys’ herding and adventurous play went on all day, stopping only for a picnic, when they’d happily share t
The three steps of anything: 1) Initial enthusiasm, 2) doubts, disinterest and struggle 3) eventual reward for the committed. This seems to be the standard pattern for most things in life: studies, career, relationships, hobbies, and yes, even spirituality. The beginning of our spiritual journey is often characterised by idealism. Everything is fresh and fascinating, a whole new world to explore and unlimited opportunities to pursue. We can’t imagine any problems, since it all seems so simple a
There is a lot of emphasis nowadays on the need for love and trust among devotees. We can cite the six loving exchanges between us. We can also use the strength of the often quoted, “your love for me will be shown by how you cooperate.” In spite of our efforts to promote this ideal, can we ever expect a situation where love and trust dominates in all of our devotee interactions?
Are we too big as an organisation to assume that this will happen? Can each of us get by simply by being polite to ea
The VIHE in Vrindavan was established to fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s desire for an educational institute in Vrindavana. The VIHE in the holy Dhama provides an ideal facility and atmosphere for you to improve your sadhana, develop your devotional qualities, engage in serious study, associate with senior devotees, and receive training in practical skills relevant to management and preaching.
The VIHE also aims to preserve and disseminate standards Srila Prabhupada set for acting in Krishna conscio
On Saturday morning, April 9, 2016, the quaint Florida costal town of St. Augustine hosted the Lord of the Universe, Jagannatha, along with His sister Subhadra and brother Balarama, for Their traditional, annual Rathayatra parade and festival. The weather was perfect, the townspeople curious and friendly, and the devotees jubilant to be participating in the first Rathayatra of the year.
The mayor of St. Augustine, Nancy Shaver, was delighted to attend. She said, “The Festival of Chariots is a m
From Back to Godhead
By Urmila Devi Dasi
Pure chanting of God’s names requires reverence for God in all His forms , including revealed scripture.
Esteem For Sacred Writings
This article discusses the offense of blaspheming Vedic literature or literature in pursuance of the Vedic version.
IT IS FASHIONABLE in modern secular societies to regard sacred literature as the mythological musings of undeveloped people. Schools teach that with our current understanding of physics, medicine, psychology, d
My first connection with the Hare Krishna maha-mantra happened during the “Summer of Love” in August, 1967 in the course of a wedding within a three-room apartment in Powelton Village, the budding hippie district in Philadelphia. The wedding epitomized the time and place.
The groom and I had become close friends during our travails as fellow philosophy majors at the nearby University of Pennsylvania. Thin, angular, his pale beak-nosed face densely hedged with a curly black beard, Steve presente
After the disappearance of Jayananda Das on May 1, 1977, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada instructed devotees all over the world to commemorate the event every year as they would any great Vaishnava’s disappearance day.
Therefore we respectfully submit these pages to all devotees and friends of ISKCON as a means to remember and understand more about Jayananda’s devotional service. Of course, we will see how he joined ISKCON and how he left this mortal world. More importantly, we shall see the
