By Ravindra Svarupa dasa

In Sanskrit the word haṁsa is the name for both a bird and an advanced yogī. The bird has such estimable qualities that its very name became applied to the spiritual practitioner.

In English, Prabhupāda followed a well-established convention and rendered haṁsa as “swan.” The advancedyogī or devotee is accordingly “swan-like.”

For example, Prabhupāda once remarked, in reference to his disciples: “So Kṛṣṇa consciousness means swan-like, they should be like swans. Their be

The family of vaisnavas is somehow or other our support. Prabhupada made this movement a very personal one. In the beginning, we overlook how important relationships are because we are not used to it. In the material world, when a relationship does not work, you just cut it off and try another one… then another one and another one.

Now I’m not talking just about friendships. So many friends came and went in our lives in the material world but spiritual relationships are very different. Spiritua

By Uddhava Bandhu Das

The yearly boat festival in Vrindavan, part of the Gaura Purnima celebrations, is most popular amongst the devotees. The sunken courtyard of Krishna Balaram Mandir is flooded and becomes a beautiful kund where small Radha Shyamasundara are taken on gentle ride on Their swan boat. They glide to every corner of the lake to the sounds of resounding kirtan to see all Their devotees and admirers.

The surface of the temple lake is completely covered by flower petals by artisans

By Sri Nandanandana dasa (Stephen Knapp)

As we look around the world, or watch and read the news, practically everywhere is affected by some kind of natural disaster. Floods are displacing millions of people, forest fires are destroying thousands of acres and burning out of control, earthquakes continue to force people to live in fear, and tornadoes and hurricanes have become more fierce and numerous than ever. And if that is not enough, droughts are causing massive crop damage and water shorta

Gunacuda Dasi: Sri Mayapur International School has a service opportunity for an Early Years teacher beginning in August 2016.
We require a trained teacher for our class of 4 and 5 year old students. The successful candidate should have previous experience teaching young children. Knowledge of teaching reading and writing ,using synthetic phonics, is essential as well as experience of working with children who have English as an additional/second language.

We require an enthusiastic devotee wh

ISKCON Communications Conference 2016. 
On the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of ISKCON we have a very interesting and rich Conference with many known speakers:
- Srila Prabhupada The Greatest Communicator by Anuttama prabhu
- How to discuss and resolve controversial and sensitive issues in ISKCON by Kaunteya prabhu
- ISKCON and Interfaith by Radhika Ramana prabhu
- Video Skills for High Impact Communications by Krishna Lila dasi
- Preaching, Undue Influence and Religious Freedom – Panel Disc

How Did ISCOWP Start?

By Balabhadra dasa

In 1981, our family (myself, Chayadevi, son Baladeva and daughter Lakshmi) moved to the farm community called Gita Nagari in the state of Pennsylvania, USA.

In the mid 80’s the farm started a program called “ADOPT-A-COW” which was to raise funds to help support the cows. By that time we had a herd of 157 cows and it was way to many cows for the land that we had to work with. We were th

By Radha Mohan das

As part of ISKCON’s 50th Anniversary celebrations, Bhaktivedanta Manor’s main drama group The Bhaktivedanta Players were invited to perform in ISKCON Mayapur for its huge international Gaura Purnima festival.

As part of the evening stage program, they performed different dramas over five consecutive nights. This included the premier of Jaya Prabhupada: Every Town and Village which covered Srila Prabhupada’s journey to America and his time in New York with Dr Misra, in the Bow

Los Angeles temple wins 3 awards!
Los Angeles temple (New Dwarka) recently received 3 major awards in India during the 2016 Mayapur Gaur Purnima Festival. 
#1 book distribution award for best temple in North America 2015. #1 book distributor Award to Bhakta Jay Khush. 
#1 Senior Disciple book distribution award to Bhrigupati Prabhu. A total combined effort of over 249,000 book points! 
All for the pleasure of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada! 

Source: http://m.dandavats.com/?p=20141

by Vikrama Govinda Dasa

To get the special mercy of Lord Caitanya ISKCON Kanya Kumari is organising a padayatra covering the 5 places He visited during His tour of South India . We seek your blessings and also request you to kindly join us and bring as many devotees as possible.

In the Kanyakumari District Lord Caitanya visited these five places, as mentioned in Caitanya Caritamrita ( 2.9.225 to 229) :
1. Kanyakumari – Bhagavathiamman temple
2. Suchindrum – Sthanumalayan temple.
3. Tovalai – S

One of my favourite quotes is from the business mentor Stephen Covey, who said that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. In other words, don’t lose your focus. To achieve that of course, I need to have a clear aim in life on which to focus. For many years I grappled with that, not being altogether clear what I was trying to achieve beyond survival and hopefully a bit of fun now and again. Finding myself struggling on both counts I eventually consulted the intelligent Mr Cove

“Drishti – Bharat Leads The World” | Mega Youth Festival | 20th March 2016 | ISKCON Pune

On the auspicious occasion of ISKCON’s Golden Jubilee, to fulfill the desire of Srila Prabhupada and GBC, we made our humble and best attempts. With little or no idea to start with, the planning and execution of the event was majorly done in past 3 months.

Publicity

– Phase I:

o In a span of only a week (March 9-16), 135000 students got free passes in more than 70 colleges all over Pune.

o Principals and

Humility is our main topic of the day. I was thinking that humility also includes other qualities. For example, humility includes forgiveness because if you cannot forgive then there is no question of being humble. Forgiveness comes because we do not consider ourselves so important. When we are very important, then we cannot forgive, “How could you do this to me! YOU did this to ME! I will never forgive you for this!” There is a false concept of the self in lack of forgiveness. So, I see forgiv

In the course of his Skype call to devotees in Mumbai, during their Mitrotsava, Giriraj Swami read some verses from Srimad-Bhagavatam (7.15.25-27):

TEXT 25

rajas tamas ca sattvena
sattvam copasamena ca
etat sarvam gurau bhaktya
puruso hy anjasa jayet

Translation: One must conquer the modes of passion and ignorance by developing the mode of goodness, and then one must become detached from the mode of goodness by promoting oneself to the platform of suddha-sattva. All this can be automatically do

From Back to Godhead

By Caitanya Carana Dasa

I said to Sandip, “I read about a form of addiction that is increasingly being recognized by specialists as the world’s most widespread and least discussed form of addiction: sexual addiction.”

“Sexual addiction? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just as alcoholics don’t have control over their desire for alcohol, sex addicts don’t have control over their sex drive. Drug addicts, for instance, are not necessarily evil or criminal but are in the grip of