We live in the age of Kali, which is a difficult age. Here’s what is said about it: “O learned one, in this iron age of Kali men but have short lives. They are quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky and, above all, always disturbed.”
With such a flattering background, it’s not surprising that early morning spiritual practices are hard for us. If it’s the choice between more sleep or getting up for meditation, it can be a battle between the mind and the mattress. We know getting up is good for us
Lord Caitanya, the 16th Spiritual Teacher in disciplic line from Lord Krishna, left only one prayer (eight verses) behind him. It contains the complete guide to the practice of devotional service. Here it is in short form with the complete prayer at the end.
. Clean the heart
. Transcend with names
. Humility, like grass
. Desire devotion
. Request a rescue
. Nurture longing
. Feel separation
. Love, no matter what
1. Clean the heart – the first prayer invites us to clean the dust accumulated
I have an iPhone.
They are everywhere. We talk on them, walk with them, search them, listen to them, laugh, cry, sleep, and die with them. The ubiquitous iPhone is a friend to all. If we forget it or lose it we feel pain. And today, I write my blog on one.
Studies are now showing that we should leave our phone aside more often. It distracts, interrupts, can cause ill health and certainly fatal accidents. “Don’t let the things we own, own us” we learned last week during the Sunday Open House. Wh
Dear devotees,
Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
We just celebrated ISKCON’s 50th anniversary at the Sadhu Sanga Retreat last week. To thank all the sponsors and core volunteers who work for the retreat all-year, we have a tradition of gifting them a sweatshirt. This year, we wanted to do a very special design for the sweatshirt to commemorate ISKCON50.
The inspiration for the design came from His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja who had come up w
By Kavicandra Swami
My dear god brother H H Purna Candra Goswami went to his samadhi some time back and we heard many praises. HH Bhakti Vijnana Goswami was lamenting that Purna Candra Prabhu was not so well known world wide since he had much to offer.
He did leave us a very beautiful book that I think should be studied by anyone who is serious about spiritual advancement while serving, in any position, within ISKCON.
The book is titled, UNSPOKEN OBSTACLES ON THE PATH TO BHAKTI. The title says
On Saturday 28th May, ISKCON-London had our first Open Day event of the year. Every year, we organise several Open Days during the summer months to welcome new and inquisitive souls to the Temple.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of ISKCON, and to increase the public’s awareness and appreciation of the movement, the theme for this year’s Open Days is “50 Years of Contribution to the Global Community”. Attendees start a journey of self-discovery and gain insight into topics including the s
Two Highlights From The Waikato (Waikato is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand).
Damodara Krsna Dasa: Recently, I went on a six-day stint in the Waikato.
I was in Hamilton East–in a small car park–and stopped an athletic lady. She happened to be Joelle King, the best women squash player for New Zealand.
After an injury, her ranking dropped from No. 4 in the world to 17th. Six months after her recovery, she is now up to 11th in the world. But she explained that s
Here are a few questions about Bhagavad Gita, with my replies.
The first questions I have are about chapter 10 – verse 7-8…
Why by comprehending krishna\god’s mystical nature, will we develop a devotional feeling towards him?
We may develop devotion to him after understanding his unique nature and position. It is not certain. Just like by hearing that someone is very amazing you may become more attracted to that person, or you may not. Most likely you will, but it is not certain.
why by underst
We can become free from personal motivation. It comes from sacrifice in devotional service; it cannot come from anything else. We just put our own ideas aside and do something, and over time we take responsibility for Prabhupada’s movement. We just volunteer and we become very flexible and we say yes to whatever the vaisnavas desire.
A few months after I started working with ISKCON Prison Ministry, I received a letter from an inmate which helped drive home to me the nature of this service and just how important it is.
“I only know what I read in your letters and Prabhupada’s books,” was part of his response to me, regarding my reply to a question he had posed. His words brought me a sudden, clearer understanding and. I’ve often since reminded myself of them.
Although I had some idea of the nature of this service when I beg
Yes we are talking about Sunder hall of Hotel City Park Pitampura, where about 150 businessmen with family, who are contributing for ISKCON Rohini project gathered on Sunday, 29 May. Subject was to present progress report of ISKCON Rohini construction. In the this program HG Varah P ( CO-President Punjabi Bagh) perform kirtan. Then the Deep was ignited by HH Gopal Krsna Goswami Maharaj.
Rukmini Krishna P (Co-President Punjabi Bagh) briefed the audience about the contribution of ISKCON around th
A new marriage matching service for devotees has recently been launched in the UK as a combined effort between the former ISKCON Marriage Team UK and Sacred Ashram Team, who have joined together to become the Krishna Marriage Team and have amalgamated their databases together to provide a coordinated national service.
Current members of the new team are Visvambhara das and Jagannathesvari devi dasi, Gaura Kishore das and Saumyaradhika devi dasi, Sundarananda das and Kirtiradhika devi dasi,
Since the end of February this year our padayatra party enlisted a new member, Sahadev Dasa, a Russian devotee. We met him during our stay in Navadvipa where we spoke to him about the ‘All India Padayatra’. He was very interested and wanted to serve Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar and ever since then he has become one of us –a padayatri. This is his first time travelling around India and he is a perfect example of the mercy of Lord Caitanya. First, the Lord gave Sahadev Dasa His divine darsana in May
The Anna Dan Food for Life complex in Mayapur serves thousands of meals every week. Everything is done to the highest standards, from filtered water, to stainless everything, and very high standard of cleanliness.
To fulfil the desire of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada that “No one should go hungry” his followers, well-wishers, supporters have started a non-profit, non-sectarian, non-religious charitable project to connect with humanity by a humble endeavour to distribute
Recently in India I inquired from a Mohammedan gentleman why their women are ardently concealed behind a curtain of cloth, which often completely covers their faces? He replied, “If you have a valuable diamond, which to you is precious and dear, how will you keep it? Will you store it in an old cardboard box in the backyard rubbish heap? No, naturally, you will protect it by putting it safely and securely in a place where the untrustworthy can neither see it nor steal it. Our women are very imp
DON"T BE CELLFISH
The material world we live in, is a huge Prison House. Every country is a cell . Instead of trying to find a way to get out of the Prison House people in one cell fight with people in either other or neighboring cells. What they will get out of such fights. They should accept the Hare Krishna Mahamantra Masterkey of Krishna Consciousness from Srila Prabhupada which he received in disciplic succession from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu , to open the doors of their
பக்தி வேதாந்த ஸ்வாமி பிரபுபாதா
On the evening of Friday, May 6th, New York’s Bhakti Center partnered with Upbuild to hold a dinner event featuring a talk by Radhanath Swami on the topic “Living Your Calling in an Age of Confusion”.
Upbuild is an educational social enterprise created by Rasanath Das and Hari Prasad, who both used to live and serve at The Bhakti Center as monks. Upon graduation from the monastic order they went on to launch Upbuild which aims at maximizing the human potential by creating environments that insp
