My first close encounter with ISKCON Press was when I visited the Boston ISKCON temple in December of 1969. At the time I was living as a brahmacari at the 61 Second Avenue temple in New York City’s lower east side. Srila Prabhupada was in London at the time but his travel plans were to return to the U.S. on December 21st with his first stop being the Boston center. The day before his arrival all of us New York ISKCON devotees (there were approximately 12 of us brahmacaries living there) headed
By Chaitanya Mangal
Grammy-nominated Mantra America chants Hare Krishna on the Hollywood red carpet.
After several years of effort, 2023 marked the first time the Grammys officially included chant as a music category. This year the album “Mantra Americana,” by Madi Das & Bhakti Without Borders, was nominated in the “Best New Age, Ambient, & CHANT Album” category. While the album didn’t win the award, a highlight of the experience was the Maha Mantra was chanted on the red carpet, and broadc
The Beatles taught us the mantra: “All You Need Is Love” and sang “Love me Do!” However, for the most part they didn’t tell us where to find lasting love. George Harrison was the exception. He gave us songs reminding us that the Lord is Sweet and that the Lord loves the one who loves the Lord! Let one of the most disturbing things currently being promoted as the pinnacle of spiritual wisdom is the concept of “Oneness.” While there is an aspect of similarity we all share, everyone merging togeth
The purport of the verse is that even Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu — He is God himself, Krsna Himself — He felt, alone, unable to do this task. He felt.
So this is the position. You are cooperating; therefore I am getting the credit. Otherwise alone what could I do? Ekaki amara nahi paya bolo.
Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself wanted our cooperation. He is God, Krsna. And therefore cooperation is very important thing. Nobody should think that “I have got so great ability. I can do.” No. It is simply by c
The common understanding of an Advanced Civilization in today’s context is to be advanced in Technology, having a comfortable lifestyle, Earning Lots of money and having enough or rather lavish facilities to enjoy the senses to the fullest. This is the yard stick that is generally used to gauge the Advancement in Civilization. Owing to this yardstick Countries like United States of America, Great Britain etc are considered as First world Countries and more advanced in civilization then others.
By Sri Nandanandana dasa (Stephen Knapp)
In the Bhagavad-gita (4.7), Sri Krishna clearly explains, “Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion–at that time I descend Myself.”
From all that we have learned in the previous chapters about the holy name of the Lord, we can understand that during this age of Kali-yuga it is the holy name, especially in the form of the Hare Krishna mantra, that is the present incarnati
I was pleasantly surprised to see a recent article on ISKCON News: “Christmas Drama Has Audience Enthralled.” I understood immediately that the Bhaktivedanta Players wanted to bring the sacred elements from the East and the West together in their performance from the East The Bhagavad Gita,and A Christmas Carol from the West. I understood because these texts also hold a special connection for me. I’ve offered performances based on them, playing the roles of Arjuna and Ebenezer Scrooge respect
If I wrote an article telling you how to double your money in ten days, would you be interested? Of course you would. Well if I knew how I’d tell you. But I don’t, so sorry.
But I can tell you something better. I can tell you how to double your blessings in ten days. Are you as interested? I hope so. After all, the more blessings the merrier, right? So read on and learn how to have a doubly blessed Christmas and thus make Christmas really, really merry.
May you always think of Krsna.
By Mahatma
From Back to Godhead
Why are some people by nature outgoing and talkative while others are quiet and shy? What are the forces of nature that compel people to act the way they do? How do these forces work, and who is controlling them?
Dr. and Mrs. A. B. Bright and their two children have a small home, just suitable to their needs, in a peaceful country town. Dr. Bright is the local, M.D., a thoughtful, qualified man, respected for doing his job honestly and selflessly. His hobby: reading books o
Kirtan is the call-and-response form of chanting that characterizes the Hare Krishna movement. It is the fundamental religion of the age – the soul crying out for God as a means to reunite with Him.
Robert Gass, author of Chanting: Discovering Spirit in Sound, believes that ritual chanting is among the most universal of human impulses, as well as one of the first: “We have no recordings of the earliest humans,” he writes, “but when we encounter indigenous tribes who’ve had little contact with m
So, let us just look at the phone. Because that is the issue of the day. It is the phone that is being used in the name of pushing on this movement, that is destroying this movement. It is a crisis, an addiction. Very addictive thing. Try not to touch it and see how long you can. How long can you not touch it? Do not touch it! There, we can see how it creeps in little by little. We are using all these electronics in the service of Krsna. And then these electronics are taking over our life and gr
From Back to Godhead
Presence of joy is higher than absence of sorrow.
I was zooming along a beautiful tree-lined highway when I slammed on the brakes. Screeeech! Thud! Generally, when you run over a squirrel scampering across the road just a little too late for you to stop, you get a sinking feeling. Unless you’re stone-hearted, the next few minutes are not joyful. The guilt of having taken a life lingers until it’s replaced by more important things. But this time I was not gripped by remo
From Back to Godhead
Nowadays everyone knows what yoga is. Or do they?
In the West yoga is more popular than ever.
“It’s at the top of its game,” says Dan Gurlitz, general manager of Koch Vision, whose distribution of Yoga Zone DVDs and videos is a “serious seven-figure business.” According to Kimberly Leonard, writing in US News & Word Report, “During the last decade the number of Americans who report practicing yoga has nearly doubled to 21 million.” Other Western countries follow close
Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! (chorus)…Hare Krishna. I’m Sacinandana Swami and am every excited to be here with all of you. Hare Krishna… yes now since Malika Mala has arrived, we all feel complete. Before Malika Mala arrived it felt as if one kidney was missing. Ha ha.. But now we are complete. Hare Krishna.
I wanted to ask you before I start:
Were you successful in practicing what you were discussing at the end of this morning program?
Yes? Was it working? 50 -50?
Please keep on trying. Some tim
In this article, I compare the origin of universe as described in the Srimad Bhagavatam (SB) and the Big Bang (BB) theory .
1. The initial state
According to SB, the initial state of matter immediately previous to its manifestation is calledpradhāna (SB 3.26.10p). In the BB theory, this initial state is called the singularity. The table below compares these two states:
Pradhāna SB 3.26.10p, SB12.4.20,21 |
Singularity ref : [1]-[4] |
*Unmanifested/undifferentiated form of matter. *No |
When His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada frst arrived in America in the midst ol the cultural turmoil of the sixties, he quickly captured the hearts and minds of the New York hippies and the San Francisco flower children with the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra.
Within three years, he journeyed to London, and by 1971, Hare Krsna had been recorded on hit records by former Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison. By then the mantra had been heard by hundreds of millions of peop
The other day I was remembering Srila Prabhupada’s statement of how paintings of Krsna are like windows to the spiritual world; it means that through these paintings, we are looking into the ‘real world’, and when we are looking out of this window (of the building), we are simply looking at a picture. So Krsna consciousness must begin with that understanding, that the spiritual world is the real world. It is there where we find our nourishment because after all, in the material world, we will n
I often have to encourage devotees, especially those not living in the temples, to rise early in the morning and come to the temple for the morning program, or to have one at home. Devotees should generally rise by 4 am, which means that their lives must be organized in such a way that they get sufficient rest, meaning taking rest early.
Certainly there are many considerations for individual cases; however, we will see from the collection of quotes from Srila Prabhupada below (not referenced) t
Today is Gopastami, the day on which Krishna and Balarama and other boys Their age, who previously had tended the calves, were given charge of the cows. This event is described in Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.15.1):
tatas ca pauganda-vayah-sritau vraje
babhuvatus tau pasu-pala-sammatau
gas carayantau sakhibhih samam padair
vrndavanam punyam ativa cakratuh
“When Lord Rama and Lord Krsna attained the age of pauganda [six to ten] while living in Vrndavana, the cowherd men allowed Them to take up the
It was with great satisfaction that I conducted a Kirtan Standards course along with the Bhakti Academy students. The feedback that I received from this three hour interactive workshop/presentation were words like “informative,” “educational” and “clarification on things.” It was felt that before these students develop some habits regarding Kirtan (chanting) that fall in the realm of divergent, why not get it right in the beginning?
It was the founder-acarya of the movement, Prabhupada, who est
