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For convenience and to suggest a celebration, we sometimes say that Janmastami is Krishna’s birthday, since anyone we know of on Earth, either past or present, is apparently “born” into this world. However, this is not an accurate description for Krishna (who we understand as the original feature of God), or for any of God’s other incarnations.

Why?

There is no “birth” or “death” for God, since by definition He is primeval, always existing, the source of everything, who has no material form with

By Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami

It was Janmastami, the annual celebration of the advent of Lord Krsna some five thousand years before. Residents of Calcutta, mostly Vaisnavas (devotees of Lord Krsna) but also many Muslims and even some British, were observing the festive day, moving here and there through the city’s streets to visit the temples of Lord Krsna. Devout Vaisnavas, fasting until midnight, chanted Hare Krsna and heard about the birth and activities of Krsna from Srimad-Bhagavatam, one of

By Ananda Vrinavana Devi Dasi

In spiritual parlance there are ‘thin’ places in the world. These are holy places, sacred spaces, where the line between the spiritual and materials worlds is very thin and the ability to feel and perceive our relationship with Krishna is heightened. It’s easier to chant there, to call Krishna deeply from the heart, and thus to call ourselves to experience our spiritual selves.
There are also thin days (and even thin times in the day). Janmastami is one such day.

By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Krsna and His brother Balarama passed the childhood age known as kaumara and stepped into the age of pauganda, from the sixth year up to the tenth. At that time all the cowherd men conferred and agreed to give those boys who had passed their fifth-year charge of the cows in the pasturing ground. Given charge of the cows, Krsna and Balarama traversed Vrndavana, purifying the land with Their footprints.
Accompanied by the cowherd boys and Balarama, Krsna herded the cows and played on His flute thr

If, in our marriage, we focus on what we need and negate the needs of our partner, the relationship can’t last. If we give up who we are to please our partner, we may suffocate and become frustrated, resentful and depressed. One who is self-controlled doesn’t need to lord it over another, and neither does that person need to be overpowered by another. Marriage is a balance between satisfying our self and satisfying our partner. It means maintaining an awareness of the other person and their des

In spite of the fact that everything comes from the Supreme Being, He is still aloof from it all. He does not disengage Himself from His eternal pleasure pastimes with His devotees in the spiritual realm. So, in the process of creating the material worlds, the Supreme expands Himself into various forms, which are His plenary parts. Krishna is the primeval Lord, the original Personality of Godhead, so He can expand Himself into unlimited forms with all potencies. They are no different from Him,

From Back to Godhead

In the Bhagavad-gita (7.14) Lord Krishna refers to maya, the deluding material energy, as mama maya: “My maya.” We Vaishnavas accept His word on this, with profound philosophical implications.

The chief philosophical opponents of Vaishnavas are the Mayavadis, or impersonalists, who posit ultimate reality as one homogeneous impersonal energy, with no second thing: All the unique entities we perceive, whether things or living beings, are merely mirages. Variety and individual

Sometimes people say that they want to see God, or that God is not perceivable. And this is confirmed in the Vedic scripture, but with additional points of instruction on how we can perceive the Supreme Being. The Svetasvatara Upanishad (4.20) explains “His form of beauty is imperceptible to mundane senses. No one can see Him with material eyes. Only those who realize, through deep pure-hearted meditation, this Supreme Personality, who resides in everyone’s heart, can attain liberation.”

Krishna

“Srila Rupa Gosvami, after consulting various scriptures, has enumerated the transcendental qualities of the Lord as follows: (1) beautiful features of the entire body: (2) marked with all auspicious characteristics; (3) extremely pleasing: (4) effulgent; (5) strong; (6) ever-youthful; (7) wonderful linguist; (8) truthful; (9) talks pleasingly; (10) fluent; (11) highly learned: (12) highly intelligent; (13) a genius; (14) artistic; (15) extremely clever; (16) expert; (17) grateful; (18) firmly

The practice of serving the Lord’s lotus feet is one of the fundamental processes of devotional service. Srila Prabhupada mentions it in his writings and spoken words nearly twenty-thousand times! It is recommended by Prahlada Maharaja in Srimad-Bhagavatam. Pada-sevanam is listed among the nine activities which are technically called bhakti.

Pada-sevanam, or service to the Lord’s lotus feet, is the constitutional position of an accomplished servant of Krishna such as Laxmi devi. Laxmi exemplifi

From Back to Godhead

A brief analysis of Bhagavad-gita 9.4, 9.5, and 9.6.

The Bhagavad-gita is one of the world’s perennial wisdom texts. Because it offers knowledge of the Absolute Truth, some of its texts can be difficult to understand. Few are as difficult as verses four and five of Chapter Nine: “By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them. And yet everything that is created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystic opulence! Alt

Wednesday morning, after clamoring aboard a United 747 Jet, I flew over the Pacific Ocean, crossed the international dateline, and landed in Tokyo, Japan at 2:30pm Thursday afternoon.

Ten minutes before our jet landed in Tokyo, our chief purser asked the passengers - who had been without sunlight for nearly eleven hours - to open their window shades.

The instant the passengers opened the shades we were treated to a most magnificent sight: the green earth below with all its majesty and variety.

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.

Krsna is full with six kinds of opulences. So this is the opulence of Krsna’s beauty. Krsna wants everyone…we are offering obeisances to Krsna with awe and veneration. But nobody comes here to Krsna with a rope: “Krsna, You are an offender. I shall bind You.” Nobody comes.

That is another one of the prerogatives of the most perfect devotee. Yes. Krsna wants that. This privilege is especially given to Yasodamayi, because she’s such an advanced devotee that she has got the right to chastise the S

From Back to Godhead

Which way does one go in moments of despair?

LORD KRSNA HAS TWO ENERGIES, material and spiritual, but they can be used interchangeably if one knows how. Just as the same electricity can be used to heat or cool a building, so Krsna’s energies can be used for different purposes according to the living entity’s desire.

That doesn’t mean that the living entity can control Krsna’s energies, only that he can use them. When a conditioned soul wishes to exploit the material nature

By Gauranga Darshan Das

“A brief outline of the twelve cantos of Srimad-Bhagavatam that represent the bodily limbs of Lord Sri Krsna and present ten transcendental topics.”

Of all the sacred Vaisnava scriptures, Srimad Bhagavatam is considered the topmost. Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu hailed the Bhagavatam as the spotless authority (pramanam amalam) amongst the Vedic literatures. Srila Rupa Gosvami, in his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu declared that hearing Srimad Bhagavatam is one of the five most po

Submitted by Nandini Radha Devi Dasi

Right Foot – 11 Signs

1) BARLEYCORN (Jon) – This mark signifies that His devotees receive all enjoyable opulences of prosperity by serving His lotus feet. It also means that once one finds shelter at His lotus feet, then the devotee’s former journey through many, many births and deaths is actually very tiny, just like a single grain of barley. It further demonstrates that just as the barley grains are sustenance of life for living beings, similarly it is wid

SB 1.1.2 … sadyo hrdy avarudhyate ‘tra krtibhih susrusubhis tat-ksanat …As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhagavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart.

Ref. VedaBase => SB 1.1.2

By the hearing process Krsna IMMEDIATELY (sadyo) is established in the heart.

Please note the word RAPT [attention, in the previous quote] – there is a consistency in the Bhagavatam methodology. One has to hear attentively.

The sadhana of hea

“Therefore, although I was born in a demoniac family, I may without a doubt offer prayers to the Lord with full endeavor, as far as my intelligence allows. Anyone who has been forced by ignorance to enter the material world may be purified of material life if he offers prayers to the Lord and hears the Lord’s glories.” (Sri Prahlada to Lord Narasimhadeva, Srimad-Bhagavatam, 7.9.12