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
MayapurTV has emerged as a remarkable platform connecting devotees worldwide to the vibrant spiritual activities of ISKCON temples. By leveraging modern technology, it provides an unparalleled opportunity for devotees to experience temple programs, festivals, and transcendental content from anywhere in the world.
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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
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Pradyumna: (leads chanting)
sanjaya uvaca
dantva tu pandavanikam
vyudham duryodhanas tada
acharyam upasangamya
raja vacanam abravit
[Gita 1.2]
Translation: “Sanjaya said: O King, after looking over the army gathered by the sons of Pandu, King Duryodhana went to his teacher and began to speak the following words:”
Srila Prabhupada
Prabhupada: Dhatarantra inquired from Sanjaya, kim akurvata: “After my sons and my brother’s sons assembled to
Members of the Bhagavata Dharma Nusantara group present President Widodo with a copy of the Gita.
Every Sunday, the 7th President of Indonesia holds an open house to give the public an opportunity to visit his home in Solo. Recently, devotees from ISKCON Indonesia participated in this event and presented him with a copy of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is.
Joko Widodo, commonly known as Jokowi, has been the 7th President of Indonesia since 2014. He previously served as the Mayor of Surakarta from 2005
At Schipol Airport, Amsterdam, I was greeted by some smiling devotees, and it was Ritam who graced me with a garland of fresh flowers (it’s Holland, you know), accompanied by Namen, wife Violeta, their two kids, and other enthusiasts of the Vaishnava genre. From there was destination Alpen aan Den Rijn, a town by a canal, by a windmill, and amidst flat, black fields of green. The greeting meal was kichari and palak panir, Indian dishes. From that I was fuelled enough to go over the canal by w
First Meaning: –
Srila Jiva Gosvami reveals the meaning of each of the sixteen Names in the Hare Krishna Mahaamantra in his Mahaa-mantrartha Dipika as follows: –
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
(1-Hare)
Krishna steals the minds of everyone, yet Radha steals even His mind by Her divine expertise. Thus She is known as Haraa.
(2-Krishna)
He forcibly attracts Sri Radha with the sweet sound of His flute, therefore that Lord of all enchanting
When Charles asked his son and daughter-in-law a Hare Krishna couple to move in with him, he knew he’d have to adapt, but his reward was more than he could ever imagine.
Charles was born in 1917. He grew into a man of courage and principles, serving his country in the U.S. Navy for twenty years and then the Civil Service for twenty more. Assigned to a submarine fleet during World War II, he saw his share of pain and suffering and, like many veterans, came to value a safe, secure home for his wif
“Is chanting all that your religion does? Don’t you do welfare or anything like that?”
Alex, my barber, works at the Pilatos salon in Queens, New York, on the cusp of a Hispanic neighborhood. The salon has mostly Latino hairdressers and clients, and it is bright and upbeat, with salsa music often playing softly in the background. On a recent visit there, instead of salsa, I heard the chanting of om namo bhagavate vasudevaya, which means “obeisance to the Supreme Lord Krishna.” I remarked to Ale
Excerpt from a lecture by HH Radhanath Swami
“Srila Prabhupada stressed the urgency to surrender to Krishna. Every line of his books, every sentence of his tapes, you would hear him urgently, just pleading with you and me, to take Krishna Consciousness seriously. Death, tragedy can come at any moment. And the greatest tragedy is that our faith is stolen away by maya and her various representatives which can come in many forms. There is no comfortable position when we are secure in material exis
Krishna is self-satisfied and does not need anything, but out of His mercy He will accept our offerings of love and devotion.
Krishna’s supreme opulence surpasses all description and comparison. Millions of goddesses of fortune serve Him in the spiritual realm. He is the supreme controller, the ultimate refuge, and the proprietor of everything. Yet, because of His love for His devotees, the all-powerful Lord accepts their loving offerings.
Krishna consciousness helps us recognize and reestablis
According to the shastra, the way to counteract the very deeply strong tendency for possessiveness in the grihastha life is to giving charity to the Vaishnavas and the brahmans, to the mission of the guru. According to the shastra, the first fifty percent you have give it to your guru’s mission. And then whatever else you have, maintain, that is the ideal standard. You never be possessive if you do that, because the first priority with whatever you get goes to Guru and Krishna. You cannot do fi
My baggage of books I authored, The Saffron Path and The Walking Monk – Poems.1, was dispatched successfully, destined for Tampa from the Toronto Airport. In the line for security there was a long wait for the bins to arrive for our carry on. Once my goods got through, the buzzer alarmed, addressing my new bionic knees. I waited for quite some time for a male security to search me. Next, I went in queue for the US customs. It was a long lineup. I covered at least three rounds on my japa m
Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s instructions come to the aid of those of us who shudder at the mention of the word “surrender.”
Growing up, my older brother and I would sometimes get into physical fights. I can’t remember what we would fight about, but a few times a month when my parents weren’t home we would end up in a skirmish. He would often bend my arm behind my back, telling me to surrender by saying “uncle.” I would scream and push and stomp until the pain would become unbearable. Then I would ye
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Translation (SB 11.10.17)
Although the performer of fruitive activities desires perpetual happiness, it is clearly observed that materialistic workers are often unhappy and only occasionally satisfied, thus proving that they are not independent or in control of their destiny. When a person is always under the superior control of another, how can he expect any valuable results from his own fruitive actions?
Purport
Although materialistic persons reject Kṛṣṇa consciousness and instead pursue t
Congratulations to three new initiates in Crane. Vikram has a new name, Vamana. Satya Gopal is now Satyahit, and Rajeeta is Rasalila. I have spoken at the above venues on the topics of “Strength Come from Service,” and “The 7 Purposes of ISKCON.” Below are the 7 purposes:
To systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to society at large and to educate all people in the techniques of spiritual life in order to check the imbalance of values in life and to achieve real unity and peace
The purpose of this paper is to both establish the importance of the seva of reading Srila Prabhupada’s books as well as understanding the essence of the message in Prabhupada’s books which is the performance of devotional service, regardless of one’s role or place in society.
Firstly I would like to present my own personal reading resume: I have read the Srila Prabhupada Lilamrta five times, the five-volume set of the unedited letters of Srila Prabhupada three times, the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is
