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 growing up in ISKCON
krishna (221)
The Charm in Krishna’s Beauty
Eye contact is the biggest source of causing attraction and distraction. It is but natural, in our movements and actions, we touch upon objects and people not merely by hands, but by all our senses. Human mind is naturally drawn to beauty, pleasure and love.
In some way or the other, we tend to develop an attachment. Sometimes we keep thinking of what we touched. Sometimes even to the extent of imagining, owning, being with and dreaming. Maya, as they call it!
In the V
From Back to Godhead
A devotee-bookseller explains.
Have you ever met a Hare Krsna devotee in an airport, a parking lot, or on the street distributing books and collecting donations? Many people wonder why we do this. I’ve been distributing books for over six years, and I’d like to tell you something about the origin of book distribution.
Devotees are not ordinary booksellers; their bookselling is transcendental. It is sankirtana, the glorification of Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead
February 1971: BENARES, INDIA Festival glorifying Lord Chaitanya
Radha Govinda Swami: I was in Benares at that time when Srila Prabhupada was touring, traveling India with his 40 disciples. I read in a newspaper in America Krishna-bhakti is preached. Naturally, I was a devotee of Krishna so I liked this topic. So I went there. Then there was a procession from Dashashvamedha Ghat to Tapan Misra’s house that is now in Benares.
When the procession finished, I approached Srila Prabhupada and I spok
By Sesa Dasa
In medicine, a coma, or comatose, (from the Greek “koma”, meaning deep sleep) is a profound state of unconsciousness.
Talk about living a nightmare. There was a report on the news that a Belgian man “though to be in a coma for 23 years was actually conscious the whole time.” Alex Watts of Sky News Online writes, “For the whole time, he was trapped in his own body with no way of letting friends and family know he could hear every word they were saying.”
It gets worse. In an intervie
suklastami karttike tu
smrta gopastami budhaih
tad-dinad vasudevo ‘bhud
gopah purvam tu vatsapah
“The eighth lunar day of the bright fortnight of the month of Kartik is known by authorities as Gopastami. From that day, Lord Vasudeva served as a cowherd, whereas previously He had tended the calves.”
-Srimad Bhagavatam 10.15.1, translation
Many important pastimes take place on Gopastami. One pastime takes place on this day a few years after Krishna first started tending the cows. On this day, Jat
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Any contact with Krishna purifies our consciousness and gradually qualifies us for eternal loving exchanges with Him.
Pradyumna Dasa, Srila Prabhupada’s Sanskrit editor, begins reading The Nectar of Devotion, Introduction:
Invoking auspiciousness: Lord Sri Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes, the reservoir of all rasas, or relationships, which are called neutrality, or passive adoration, servitorship,
By H.H. Mahavishnu Goswami
(Compiled from notes on lectures of H. H. Mahavishnu Goswami)
“Ashram doesn’t matter really, whatever ashram we are, we have to remember Krishna’s words.”
caatur-varnyam mayaa srstam
guna-karma-vibhaagasah
tasya kartaaram api maam
viddhy akartaaram avyayam
“According to the three modes of material nature and the work associated with them, the four divisions of human society are created by Me. And although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet
Excerpt from the lecture by HH Nirañjana Swami
Baltics Winter Festival, January 17, 2014
The following is a partially-edited transcription of an excerpt of a lecture given on January 17, 2014, at the Baltics Winter Festival – Chanting with Feeling
Today I wanted to read and speak from a few quotes about the Holy Name. Some of them I have read recently and found a lot of significance to them, not only to myself but those with whom I shared them. A lot of times the devotees struggle to make their
From Back to Godhead
When Krishna leaves Vrindavana to become the ruler of a great kingdom, He remains the same Krishna, the treasure of His devotees’ hearts.
The Krishna deity worshiped at the Hare Krishna temple in Los Angeles, where I live, is named Dvarakadhisha, “the Lord of Dvaraka.” Dvaraka is the pristine island Lord Krishna rules in His adult years. (Although Krishna lived in Dvaraka when He was present on earth five thousand years ago, Dvaraka exists eternally in the spiritual world.
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
From Back to Godhead
Why hearing is the first and most important of the nine kinds of devotional service to the Lord.
When I first read that hearing is the most important of the nine kinds of devotional service, I was confused. I was twenty-one at the time and had been hearing all day every day for my whole life. What was so special about hearing? Then I read that the “hearing” prescribed wasn’t meant for mundane topics but for the activities and qualities of Krishna and His devotees. This hea
By Giriraj Swami and Sri Prahlada dasa
To commemorate the anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s arrival in America, we shall sing and discuss the second poem that he wrote on the ship Jaladuta when he arrived in the Boston harbor on September 17, 1965.
Poem [translation]:
1: My dear Lord Krishna, You are so kind upon this useless soul, but I do not know why You have brought me here. Now You can do whatever You like with me.
2: But I guess You have some business here. Otherwise, why would You brin
"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."– Bhagavad Gita 4.7
In every age, when dharma weakens and adharma rises, the Supreme Personality of Godhead appears in forms befitting the time, place, and circumstance—just to protect His devotees and re-establish the principles of religion. Though He is unborn and eternal, Krishna takes birth by His own sweet will.
From the Srimad-Bhagava
‘Death literacy’ is a must for all who have taken birth. Certainly, we should all enquire and seek out – “What is death? Who actually dies? What happens to us after death? Why do we die? We really do not want to die but why are we forced to?”
Well, if we are not interested or think it is a taboo to talk about it, here is something we need to remind ourselves:
We will all die (leave this body) CERTAINLY!
We DO NOT KNOW when will we die?
Death comes unannounced! So PREPARATION IS A MUST!
By Sacinandana Swami
There is one foundational principle of the Bhagavata philosophy, which is enacted and taught practically by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu during His earthly pastimes. By understanding it you will be able to live and apply what Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu had come to teach us. This foundational principle is to establish a relationship with the Lord through the mood of separation. This is best practiced in kirtan.
RECEIVING THE HOLY NAME
We have heard it so many times – in order to re
As devotees, we talk a lot about getting free from the material energy, free from the influence of maya, free from our attachments to material sense pleasures and their objects.
Why do we want to do that? What would be the reason?
Sometimes it can be confusing. It may seem like we’re taking all this too seriously, when really it’s all Krishna’s creation and life in this world can have so many pleasures to offer us.
Here is an example that perhaps will illustrate the reasons.
Suppose you are in
I was happy to see my dear friend, Kalakantha from Florida, come to visit us for a few days. He came direct from Delhi on a flight. Yes, he is jet lagged, but it was hard to tell by the expert delivery of his Bhagavatam class. Before going for his catch-up sleep, we chatted on the nature of how to advance the Krishna cause. Thinking out-of-the-box is our tendency when we get together. To be more specific, the theme of guru comes up, and in our attempts to answer the questions like, “What doe
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The MayapurTV website is a hub of spiritual engagement, offering live and recorded broadcasts of temple events, lectures, kirtans, and darshans. It features Srimad Bh
Through bhakti-yoga we can finally reunite with the person we’ve wanted all along.
The Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita, discusses dhyana-yoga, or meditative yoga. Texts 13-14 say: “One should hold one’s body, neck, and head erect in a straight line and stare steadily at the tip of the nose. Thus, with an unagitated, subdued mind, devoid of fear, completely free from sex life, one should meditate upon Me within the heart and make Me the ultimate goal of life.”
Srila Prabhupada’s purport to these
