Srila Narottama dasa Thakura says, samsara-visanale, divanisi hiya jvale, judaite na kainu upaya: “We are always suffering from material pangs, and our hearts are burning, but we cannot find any way out of it.” The materialistic person can also be called a tapasvi, which means someone who is always suffering from material pains. One can get rid of all these material pains only when he takes shelter of the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra. This is also explained by Narottama dasa Thakura: golok
kirtan (48)
Written by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami in 1958,
Published December of that Year in Gauḍīya Patrika,
The Magazine of the Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti.
Verse 1.
I am sitting alone in Vṛndāvana-dhāma
In this mood I am getting many realizations.
I have my wife, sons, daughters, grandsons, everything,
But I have no money so they are a fruitless glory.
Kṛṣṇa has shown me the naked form of material nature,
By his strength it has all become tasteless to me today.
yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ
“I
By Madhava Smullen
Gaura Mandali, a new Kirtan Academy for children – with plans to introduce adult classes soon – has launched in the New Raman Reti ISKCON community in Alachua, Florida.
The project’s director and, so far, sole teacher Thakura Das, grew up in a setting perfect for meditating on the Holy Names, and had a strong attraction to kirtan from early on.
Born and raised on the Nova Gokula farm in Brazil, simple living and high thinking was the norm for Thakura.
“My dad was the cow
By Madhava Smullen
From letters Srila Prabhupada wrote to his disciples, we know that he envisioned New Vrindaban as, among other things, a holy place of pilgrimage in North America, where devotees could gather for spiritual education.
Progress in realizing that vision has gone from strength to strength in recent times. New Vrindaban’s accommodation in its Palace Lodge, cabins, and temple guestwing have been beautifully remodeled, including several rooms with ensuite bathrooms. The recently
It has come! It has come! After a whole year Sri Navadvipa Parikrama has come once again inviting all devotees to enter its prema filled islands.
Around 6 am, in the hazy morning of the 26th , vaishnavas and vaishnavis from all walks of life and of multifarious cultural and ethnical backgrounds gather at the Sri Yogapith.
The first of many kirtans to come began startling the hearts of all with vibrant earnestness, humility and courage. “Jiv jago Jiv Jago”
The procession of Gaura bhaktas headed
(Bhaktivedanta Research Centre: This is a one of a kind original photo of Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj found by BRC while going through Sri Sundaranand Vidyabinode’s collection.)
Today is Srila Jagannatha dasa Babaji Maharaja’s disappearance day. He comes in the Gaudiya Vaishnava disciplic succession after Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura and Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana. He was a renounced ascetic, fully engaged in chanting the holy names of Krishna and meditating on His pastimes. For
By Sacinandana Swami
Our spiritual practice should nourish us, it should supply us with a taste that is better than the taste that material activities and sense gratification provide us with. When our spiritual practice lacks this taste, the temptation of material life which then allures us with a seemingly greater taste is always close to us. And at that time we are in danger. However, if we can find taste in our spiritual practice we are safe on the spiritual platform.
The chanting of the Hol
Cambodia, a small country between Thailand and Vietnam, has a population of about sixteen million people. Kala Das has regularly visited this land for the last ten years to share Krishna consciousness with people. He is a great source of inspiration for those few devotees who stay there on a regular basis.
“Kirtan is 2020 Vision for Cambodia“ was organized to bring people’s attention to the local programs so that they can become involved in devotional service to the Lord. The beautiful festival
By Madhava Smullen
Back in 2009, when devotees in Radhadesh, Belgium held a small kirtan weekend with Sivarama Swami and Madhava, just 100 people attended. It was a similarly intimate group the next year, when festival coordinator Manu Magnin, then 19 years old, took over the organizing and invited his second generation friends.
Then things skyrocketed. By 2011, 300 people were attending, and by 2013, around 600. Now Radhadesh Mellows is one of the biggest kirtan festivals in the world. This
It’s been another one of those weeks wherein caring for our severely autistic/mentally daughter has very nearly eclipsed all other activities. Again. Same as every minute of every day. For years on end. In order that we might truly learn and grow deeper with sincere affection from the difficult experience which the Supreme Lord has sent as mercy to reform us from all selfish considerations. Or complaint (tat te nukumpam…) about the severe circumstance we must necessarily endure. As each endless
My earliest memories of religion in this life are of my father (my first guru) teaching me about the Great Spirit worshiped by American Indians (“Wakan-Tanka” Who also undergoes quadruple expansion just like the all pervading yet personal Vasudev). He also taught me that I should be respectful of other people’s beliefs irrespective of race and creed. And never look down upon anyone. Ever.
Even though his mother, my paternal grandmother was a devout Baptist (my maternal grandmother was a devout
“How any spiritual activity should be done is understood from three sources: saintly persons, standard scriptures and the spiritual master”. (Srimad Bhagavatam 3.28.4, purport)
Proper sankirtan – a phrase used by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati in his Sri Sanmodana Bhasyam and by Lord Caitanya Himself – means certain tunes, certain instruments, a certain musical style, certain dress and certain kinds of dancing by the members of the chanting party. In Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s sankirtan movement, r
Crowds of revelers in Dublin, Ireland enthusiastically joined devotees in dancing and chanting the Holy Name to ring in 2020 this New Year’s Eve.
The exhilarating experience has been a tradition for ISKCON Ireland for over three decades, and is well known to the Dublin public.
Started by enthusiastic younger devotees in the early days who wanted to bring the maha-mantra to large crowds, it saw record numbers of devotees participate during the late Tribhuvanatha Prabhu’s tenure in Ireland. For
From Back to Godhead
For anyone interested in spiritual progress,
gambling is more than just a harmless amusement.
High’s convenience store is bustling with last-minute shoppers picking up odds and ends for a holiday dinner. Having run out of milk, I find myself in the crowded store, standing in a line that wraps around the food aisle. I resign myself to the waiting, and chant the Hare Krsna mantra softly to myself.
An elderly shabbily dressed woman at the counter draws my attention. She’s frant
We sometimes think of ourselves as being good adjudicators of who is serious in Krishna consciousness, and who is not. Who is pure, or not. Expecting that “More people will leave Krishna consciousness than stay,” we easily become proud of being one of the “privileged few” to remain.
Being of the surprising few and rationalising this way is certainly premature, and signals immediate complacency. The adage, “It is how you finish that counts; not how you start,” usually escapes our attention when
Worse than being alone is to be with a person who doesn’t like you; too many people have experienced the anguish and chaos caused by an incompatible marriage. Such travesties are systematically avoided in Vaishnava culture because, besides training and restraint in behaviour prior to marriage, all care is taken in matchmaking: “Formerly, boys and girls of similar dispositions were married; the similar natures of the boy and girl were united in order to make them happy.” (SB 3.21.15) “The centra
On 8th Dec. 2019 became a red-letter day in the history of Sri Sri Radha Madhav Temple, ISKCON ROHINI. The temple observed not only ‘Mokshada Ekadashi’ but also witnessed its first-ever ‘Kirtan Mela’.
Month-long preparations fructified into a grand harinaam mela with the slogan ‘CHANT FROM YOUR HEART’ in the presence of exalted devotees from all around the world. As the temple is in the final stages of its completion, the mela was dedicated to its grand opening in 2020. With ‘Adhivas Ceremony’
By Madhava Smullen
The Festival of the Holy Name, an annual community staple in Alachua, Florida is celebrating its tenth anniversary starting this week with an incredible ten days of kirtan.
The festival began in 2010, when second generation devotees Govinda Syer, Gaura Shakti Allin and Govinda Cordua decided to create an immersive experience for Alachua community members who couldn’t make it to kirtan events around the country.
The team, under the banner of the Kuli Mela Association (KMA)
Excerpt from the Bhagavad-Gita As it Is 7.7:
Chapter 7: Knowledge of the Absolute
TEXT 7
mattah parataram nanyat
kincid asti dhananjaya
mayi sarvam idam protam
sutre mani-gana iva
SYNONYMS
mattah—beyond Myself; parataram—superior; na—not; anyat—anything else; kincit—something; asti—there is;dhananjaya—O conquerer of wealth;mayi—in Me; sarvam—all that be; idam—which we see; protam—strung; sutre—on a thread; mani-ganah—pearls; iva—likened.
TRANSLATION
O conquerer of wealth [Arjuna], there is no T
DIWALI FESTIVAL: 10th October. 1968,
(Letter from Srila Prabhupada to Hamsadutta dasa written from Seattle., Letters book Vol 1. p.549.)
Diwali ceremony can be observed in the temple by illuminating 100’s of candles, indifferent parts of the temple, and offering a special Prasad to the Deity. This ceremony was observed by the inhabitants of Ayodhya, the Kingdom of Lord Ramachandra, while Lord Ramachandra was out of His Kingdom due to His 14 years banishment by the order of His father. His young
