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The Covid pandemic has affected ISKCON’s operations around the world, especially in regard to international travel. The New Govardhana devotee community usually has the Sacred Sounds festival in April every year, which devotees from around the world attend. However, the last couple of times a smaller local festival has been organised.

Nevertheless, around 500 devotees registered to come over the Queens Birthday long weekend and everyone was blissfully engaged in chanting the holy name of the Lo

From Back to Godhead

Variety is said to be the spice of life. Imagine a life where you eat the same vegetables daily, wear the same clothes, meet the same people, and visit the same places. So boring, right? This world is full of varieties seasonal changes in the form of summer, winter, autumn, spring; periodic appearance and disappearance of the sun and the moon; cultural differences among people of different nations; the language, the dress, and the eating habits in different parts of the wor

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

These are all the activities of sadhana-bhakti-yoga, it cleanses the heart from the conception that “I am the body” and it changes the spirit of possessiveness from “I want to possess things for myself, my enjoyment” to “I only want to possess Krishna”. And when we give ourselves to this process of hearing and chanting about Krishna, then the more we do it the more we want to do it, because we get the taste and there is nothing that’s more powerful than the taste. And when we get the taste for

From Back to Godhead

After years searching and struggling, she finally found the right place to develop the natural connection she felt with God.

It was the third day in the hospital. The IV was still in my right arm. As I gazed through the window, a few leaves, colored yellow and red by the season, fell from a nearby tree. It was a beautiful fall day in Montreal, I was twenty, and I was trapped in here. How did it come to this?

I was raised in a middle-class, French Canadian, Catholic family

It’s still early morning, the sun is starting to rise over the horizon, and it’s reddish—it reminds me of Srimati Radharani’s tilak upon Her beautiful broad forehead. And the glowing of the sun, the rays that it casts everywhere, paint the village nearby and the field in front of me a golden color.

There are flowers everywhere, and those flowers are growing in tall grass, knee-high grass, which sways to one side and then another. It’s like the way the Brijbasi’s sway under the winds of their pr

The second annual International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) Law Department conference was conducted May 1st and 2nd, 2021, in a meeting attended by more than 50 devotees, with good representation from six continents. Following formal recognition of the Law Department by the GBC in 2018, the first conference of the Law Department was held in January 2020, in Gainesville, Florida. This year plans to hold the conference in India were scuttled due to Covid-19, and the meeting was held

Candana yatra starts on the third lunar day of the waxing moon of Vaisakha month, and continues for twenty days. Lord Jagannatha gave direct instructions to King Indradyumna to perform this festival at this time. Smearing the body of the Lord with ointments is an act of devotion, and the best of ointments is sandalwood paste. Since the month of Vaisakha is very hot in India, the cooling effect of the sandalwood is very pleasing to the body of the Lord.
Sandalwood paste is ap

The devotees wanted to worship a Deity of the Lord in his fiercest form, but at first no sculptor was willing to carve Him.

ON MARCH 24, 1984, at 12:20 A.M., thirty-five men armed with weapons and bombs attacked Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir, ISKCON’s center in Mayapur, West Bengal. When the dacoits tried to steal the deities of Srila Prabhupada and Srimati Radharani, the devotees fearlessly challenged the attackers. How could the devotees see Srila Prabhupada and Srimati Radharani carried awa

As a genuine spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada takes personal responsibility for the advancement of each of his students in the spiritual life of Krsna consciousness. Although now his transcendental instructions are available in book form, when Srila Prabhupada first began the Krsna consciousness movement, the only way his new disciples could get the answers to their many questions was to ask Sri

Lord Narasimhadeva Appears in Mayapur

In ISKCON Sri Mayapur itself is an act of ‘Maya’ of the Supreme Lord. The story of how Lord Narasimhadeva came to Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir is really flabbergasting to know. The story below is reproduced ‘as such’ from the Mayapur journal based on experiences of HG Atma Tattva Prabhu (ACBSP)

On the 24th of March 1984, at 12.20 a.m., thirty-five dacoits armed with weapons and bombs attacked Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir. They harassed the devotees and t

For instance, during the last Gaura Purnima festival, I called over a devotee in the crowd and asked her to distribute the Lord’s caranamrta to the ladies, which she did. Later, when she brought the caranamrta pot back, she remarked that Lord Nrsimhadeva was very merciful to reciprocate so quickly.

“I was praying this morning that I might be able to offer some direct service to Him, and now you have given me this service.”

“Yes,” I said, “desires are quickly fulfilled in the dham. Just see, the

Kartamasa das: The first time I met Yamuna devi, my life changed forever.
I was in Saranagati for the Christmas holidays in 2000 having a reunion with my closest childhood friends. We were all in our early twenties, and having recently finished our university education and started work, we spent our time together recalling our childhood activities. One day we decided to have kirtan, but in a rather irreverent way, mocking the showy, elaborate vocal and instrument style we had all absorbed growi

India Today’s news report on ISKCON’s free food distribution program in the Delhi region where more than 18,000 meals are home delivered to senior citizens, pregnant women, and Covid patients.

Source: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=94972

There are two tracks (vidhis) required to walk safely on the spiritual path, as Srila Prabhupada often mentioned: In the same way as the physical train needs two parallel tracks, also the train of bhakti needs two tracks: one is the bhagavatvidhi or the path of sravanam and kirtana, also known as rag-marg and the pancaratrika-vidhi or the path of arcana, also known as vidhi-marg.

When Srila Prabhupada came to the West to teach Krishna-consciousness, he first introduced the religion of this age:

By Srila Vyasadeva

SB 9.10: The Pastimes of the Supreme Lord, Rāmacandra

This Tenth Chapter describes how Lord Ramacandra appeared in the dynasty of Maharaja Khatvanga. It also describes the Lord’s activities, telling how He killed Ravana and returned to Ayodhya, the capital of His kingdom.

The son of Maharaja Khatvanga was Dirghabahu, and his son was Raghu. The son of Raghu was Aja, the son of Aja was Dasaratha, and the son of Dasaratha was Lord Ramacandra, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Sri Ramanujacarya’s Life History (By Sri Ubhaya Vedantha Anbil Ramaswamy)

Sri Ramanuja (1017 – 1137 CE), the most important philosopher-saint of Sri Vaishnavam and one of the most dynamic characters of Hinduism. He was a philosophical as well as a social reformer, displaying a catholicity that was nearly unparalleled in Hindu religious history before him. He revitalised Indian philosophy and popular religion so much that nearly every aspect of Hinduism has been influenced by his work. His life