Husband and wife Radhe Radhe Devi Dasi and Nandanandana Das, second generation devotees and disciples of Bir Krishna Goswami, are running a series of online kirtan festivals to bring devotees around the world together during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Born in South India, Nandanandana attended Vrindavan Gurukula; while Radhe Radhe was born and raised in Vrindavan and later relocated to Australia to establish the Bhakti Centre on the Gold Coast with her father Jamalarjuna Das.
Before COVID-19, t
Each year more than 70 lakh people from different parts of the world visit Mayapur, the birthplace of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and headquarter of ISKCON. Over the years Mayapur has evolved as a significant tourist destination of not only West Bengal but the entire world. However this year the global pandemic cast a spell of gloom on the devotees, pilgrims and visitors all over the world who come in search of spiritual enlightenment and submerge in the blissful ocean of Harinam Sankirtan.
After
By Narada das
ISKCON Festivals UK
(1st July 2020)
Last weekend marked the 50th anniversary of the iconic Glastonbury Music Festival – a renowned feature of the UK cultural scene. This massive event attracts over 250,000 people, hosting live stage performances from the most famous international artists, and is shown worldwide by the BBC.
It’s also a very important event for ISKCON in the UK as the movement’s biggest annual outreach event connecting with the diverse British public.
Devotees have b
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
Today, on Father’s Day, some devotees thought of me and wrote to me. I thought of Srila Prabhupada and a letter he wrote to a disciple: “You have accepted me as father, so I have also accepted you as my dear and real son. Relationship of father and son on spiritual platform is real and eternal; on the material platform such relationship is ephemeral and temporary. Although I cannot give you anything as father, still I can pray to Krishna for your more and more advancement in Krishna consciousne
Corrado cycled over to Allen Gardens, with the mrdunga drum strapped to his back, and waited there for us walkers. This is a new strategy we’re trying. Each night, after our serenade of sorts (musical display at our stairwell facing the public), those on foot will reach a different park, get down on the grass and start chanting away. Corrado’s lugging the drum by his bicycle saves us time and a burden.
We reached the garden park, which is just across the street from our old temple/ashram, at 18
From Back to Godhead
To ensure the health of our spiritual life, we must transform material hope into spiritual hope.
Hope—the recognition within the human heart that something better is attainable—can mean the difference between life and death. In Man’s Search for Meaning, Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl writes that the rate of deaths in the concentration camp increased after Hanukkah, even though there was no change in camp’s already horrible conditions. Why did more die? Because each year r
By Ekalavya Das
The ISKCON Harinam Sankirtan Ministry was appointed this year by the GBC. The minister is Lokanath Swami. In one of its first initiatives, the Ministry began Kirtan Fest Global, a global brand to promote Kirtan Festivals throughout the world. What better place to start than Mother India?
Kirtan Fest Global organized the Kirtan Fest India Online for ISKCON India from 10th May - 17th May, 2020 from 9 am-9 pm, which was live streamed on Facebook. The event was so popular that th
By Giriraj Swami
We have gathered at the lotus feet of the Panca-tattva on this most auspicious occasion of Raghunatha dasa Gosvami’s cida-dadhi festival. The background to this incident can be found in the early life of Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami. His uncle and father, Hiranya and Govardhana Majumadara, were wealthy landlords in Bengal—almost like kings—and had a huge, opulent riverside palace, with boats that plied the river. Hiranya and Govardhana were generous and devoted to brahminical
“How is our existence in the material nature? Very beautiful, very wonderful. [laughter] Full of promises and full of excitement, full of opportunities. But that is the influence of the Lord’s illusory potency. We are suffering, but we consider this suffering condition to be joyful. The reality is this material existence is full of suffering. And the thing is, the more we try to enjoy, the more we end up suffering. Therefore, saintly people in the past, they used to voluntarily accept austeriti
Kirtan musician, Jahnavi Harrison and popular singer, Willow Smith have teamed up to release a new song entitled ‘Surrender (Krishna Keshava)’. The piece is a rendition of the sacred prayer for protection and shelter purportedly sung by Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as he walked the length of India. This is a first time collaboration for Jahnavi and Willow, who met last year and share a belief in the power of music to heal, uplift and raise consciousness. ‘We had started it some months back, and ha
Kirtan Space, an online educational effort that started in 2016, has been revamped and will offer a free ten-week foundational kirtan course on Youtube starting May 25th.
“During this time, when you may be not working and may be stuck at home, is a good opportunity to learn a new instrument,” says director Balaram Nityananda Das.
Balaram has been steeped in sacred music, or kirtan, since childhood, studying it while in gurukula in Mayapur, West Bengal, and later spending time with the renow
In honor of Jayananda Prabhu’s disappearance day on May 1, we submit the following account, derived from a letter by Kalindi Dasi to her spiritual master, Candramauli Swami.— Giriraj Swami
A Hospice Miracle—Serving Jayananda’s Mother
In mid-July I started wearing tilak to my work at the hospice. I thought that since many other spiritual practitioners were expressing their faith by wearing crosses, doves, silk threads, pentacles, and other items, I would wear mytilak, which tells the world t
Srila Prabhupada mentions in the purport of SB.3.25.25 the importance of devotee association. He explains that devotees should give up the association of materialistic persons and seek the association of devotees; he describes that to understand the pastimes of the Lord, to see the Lord as a person with personal activities and to offer devotional service one should have devotee association. Srila Prabhupada states that devotee association means association with the Lord.
It is relevant for devo
In Vrindavan, on September 13, 1975, Srila Prabhupada spoke on Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.2.11:
na niskrtair uditair brahma-vadibhis
tatha visuddhyaty aghavan vratadibhih
yatha harer nama-padair udahrtais
tad uttamasloka-gunopalambhakam
“By following the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies or undergoing atonement, sinful men do not become as purified as by chanting once the holy name of Lord Hari. Although ritualistic atonement may free one from sinful reactions, it does not awaken devotional service, unlike
By Acarya dasa, Ritudeep dasa, Damodarleela dasa, and Radhavallabha dasa
(respective padayatra leaders)
All-India Padayatra
Just as the AIP reached Mahuva, a large town on the Arabian Sea coast in the Bhavnagar District of Gujarat, the Indian Government announced a three-week lockdown to inhibit the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus in the community. Initially, as people became aware that we are travelling all over India they were reluctant to provide us with anywhere to stay. The residents sa
From Back to Godhead
By His Divine Grace A.C.B. Swami Prabhupada
Chivalrous leaders guided by wise, Self controlled ministers will ensure the development of a peaceful society.
Amongst the human beings, the king is the representative of Krishna because Krishna is the maintainer of the universe, and the kings, who are appointed on account of their godly qualifications, are maintainers of their kingdoms. Kings like Maharaja Yudhisthira, Maharaja Parikshit and Lord Rama were all highly righteous k
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
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
