In the Age of Kali, it is not going to be that beautiful. It is not possible to just get it perfect in this age. One has to always look out for disturbances and within it find some Krsna consciousness – that is how it is in spiritual life. We are living in a crazy world and we have to block it out and keep our little Krsna bubble. We have to find or create our own little sacred space amidst all this madness. That sacred space depends on the depth of our faith, kecit kevalaya bhaktya vasudeva-par
devotional service (32)
It is our goal to always be one in thought with Krsna. One of the symptoms of surrendering in devotional service is to have no other interest other than the interest in Krsna. Of course, it is not that our thoughts are always aligned with Krsna, what to speak of our actions, however our meditation remains to cultivate pure devotional service so that we can be one in thought with Krsna. We have the following words – anukulyasya sankalpah, accepting whatever is favourable to devotional service; pr
More so than us becoming attracted to Krsna, let us do something that attracts Krsna to us!
Devotional service is about attracting Krsna. It is not just about us getting attracted to Krsna. In the beginning, we think that devotional service is about us becoming attracted to Krsna but we can think of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, who was standing a bit off to the side for the darshan in the temple of Sri Sri Gandharvika Giridhari in his head headquarters in Mayapur. He did not actuall
Chaturatma Das leading kirtan in Ukraine, 2017, while traveling with Indradyumna Swami and Bada Haridas
During COVID-19, we are missing out on the association of devotees, as well as on many of the devotional activities we used to do in person. Lives of Service is a new ISKCON News interview series that we hope feels like sitting down for a chat at the Sunday Feast with an old friend or a devotee you’d like to get to know. Told in their own words, it’s an insightful, inspiring, lighthearted,
I do not usually cover the topic of disrespecting vaishnavas, as in one sense, it is a distasteful topic. I do not like to discuss all the unpleasantness of vaishnava-apradha as it is not filling our hearts with great happiness. To make vaishnava-apradha the focus of spiritual life is also not what it is about. Our lives must be dedicated to devotional service. Let us just think day and night about expanding our devotional service and about expanding the mercy of Lord Caitanya in all directions.
Most Yogis translate Bhakti Yoga as “Divine Love” and then Srila Prabhupada
translated it as ‘Devotional Service’.
Here is why, real love means there must be action. A mother can only claim
she loves her children when she feeds them and takes care of them .
The phrase “Divine Love” sounds cool, and you can imagine a guru sitting
twiddling a flower in his hand and dishing out blessings with his other
hand.
Guru Kripa Prabhu went to Japan under difficult circumstance and paid for
the 3 main Temple
The temple room at the ISKCON Centre is a sizeable space for worship and meditation. As is custom, men who live as monks, in the ashram section, rise early for the first devotional service at 4:30 a.m. We sing songs in honour of Guru and God. https://www.instagram.com/p/B9GTDbnAJ0H/?igshid=k7dp0n2qosjr
There are a good number of young monks living here; my wild guess is about forty. I asked one of these young and bright men, "How long do you plan to stay as a brahmacari (a monk)?"
With ha
There are few if any greater benedictions one can receive than devotional service, for devotees their service is their life and soul and they are eager to protect at all costs. Indeed the Bhagavad-gita essentially deals with no other subject, than the subject of bhakti-yoga;
“It is understood here that Bhagavad-gita is simply expounding the science of devotional service. Devotional service is the main and sole objective. Unintelligent commentators on the Bhagavad-gita try to divert the mind of
By Kadamba Kanana Swami
Devotional service binds us to Krsna in responsibility. The first time we do little seva, we gradually start to develop our service and the more service we take, the more we continue to develop our service. For example, Srimati Radharani came from Yavat to Mother Yashoda’s house everyday to cook for Krsna. Radharani took that service very seriously. It was her responsibility to cook for Krsna, and she was bound to that service. So one might think, what freedom is there in
By Kadamba Kanana Swami
In the Bhagavad-gita 10.35, Krsna says that of all the months, “I am marga-sirsa,” which is a name for the November-December period. It is said that before Krsna, first comes Radha… Radha-Krsna, Radha-Syam, Sita-Rama, like that. First the consort of the Lord is mentioned. Therefore the month of Kartik, which comes before this month of marga-sirsa, is a month of Radharani. It is a month when we are meditating on pure devotional service because she is the proprietor of pur
Full happiness means full freedom. As long as we are not fully happy, we are chained, we are trapped and we are not free. Only in full happiness are we actually free. Therefore, only in Krsna consciousness we can be really free, because nowhere else are we able to be fully happy.
So this is nice to remember that devotional service is voluntarily performed. It is performed out of free choice and no one is forced in this way. Service can be our life, but this is our choice because Krsna does not
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu had one desire. He had a desire to flood the entire world with an ocean of transcendental Krsna prema. One should see that in the spiritual world, Krsna is always engaged in loving exchanges with all His devotees. And it is said that those devotees purchase Krsna by their service. Rupa Goswami explains in the Nectar of Devotion that pure devotional service is sri Krsna-akarsani – that it can attract Krsna! So, that is the best thing we can do – flood the entire world! We
