Many people say “By your mercy, I will surrender” or “Give me your blessings so that I will surrender” or “When Krishna wants”. Srila Prabhupada says these are spoken under “FALSE PRETENSE”–These are just “PLEA’S” Not to Surrender.

Srila Prabhupada: Surrender is willing. If you don’t like to surrender who can make you obliged to surrender? Surrender is voluntary. “Yes I surrender.” Determination, “Yes I surrender.” Who can make you obliged to surrender? Nobody can make. Even Krsna can not work.

When is a person Krsna Consciousness enough to preach? Srila Prabhupada encouraged us to preach immediately, regardless of our degree of realization. By preaching we cement our understanding. Hearing is the first step in devotional service, and the second step is chanting. Either privately or Congregationally. Preaching really means teaching.

It is commonly accepted that by teaching others your own understanding becomes enhanced. They also say your retention levels increase when you pass on to

With the release of the Hugely Successful Hare Krsna and Govindam records 50 years ago, many tourists wanted to visit the London Temple but may not want to take their shoes off. So how to accommodate this flood of interest?? HDG Srila Prabhupada explains a unique way how this can be done.

Srila Prabhupada: I think on account of this record, many people, at least from different parts of Europe, will come to see our Temple. Many tourists also may come there. So you do not take it as gloomy, but y

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

Srila Prabhupada explains the importance of chanting 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna Mantra every day and how Krishna protects you.

By Nanda Kumar Dasa ACBSP who was Srila Prabhupada’s personal servant in the early years of ISKCON.

From the time I took initiation from Srila Prabhupad in Los Angeles in June of 1969, I was blessed to be able to keep my vow of chanting 16 rounds a day for some time.

Then not long after becoming Srila Prabhupad’s cook and personal servant, I missed doing 16 rounds fo

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

We see that brahmanas in Vedic culture would refuse to simply take up a job. They just lived from teaching scriptures and glorifying scriptures. People would bring them some rice and other things and in this way they lived their whole lives; it was very simple, “My wife makes this very nice soup. We have a tamarind tree in our yard and my wife uses its leaves to cook this nice soup with the rice. I am very happy!” So like this, it was a virtue in Vedic culture; the highest class people were the

From a talk by Srila Prabhupada on Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 25.29, January 21, 1967, San Francisco.

The laws of nature are so strict that if you have to suffer, nobody can check it. That is realized by Prahlada Maharaja. There are so many evidences. Balasya neha saranam pitarau. (SB 7.9.19) [“My Lord Nrsimhadeva, O Supreme, because of a bodily conception of life, embodied souls neglected and not cared for by You cannot do anything for their betterment. Whatever remedies they accept,

One of the books I truly love is the JAPA book my Bhurijan Prabhu. It is such a practical, beautiful and deep book. It just makes so much sense and puts things in perspective.

Krsna is so attractive, yet our material desires constantly bounce back up like a ball in water. We push it down, but then it always pops back up. How about that? Krsna will always win in the end because Krsna is the most attractive, however maya also appears to be attractive. Not as attractive as Krsna, but enough to make you think, “Yes, you can have Krsna, but He is far away. But I am here right now. You also have to live now. I mean of course, pure love of God is a beautiful and desirable t

God is one. Moreover, according to Caitanya Mahaprabhu, that one God is Krishna, the cowherd boy of Vrindavan, who chooses to expand Himself unlimitedly still remain the same one Supreme Person, just to increase His own pleasure. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.3.28) designates this original Godhead as svayam bhagavān: Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead has three primary energies. The first is antarańga–śakti, or the internal potency. The second is known as taṭastha–śakti, th

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.8.6.

“In discharging such devotional service, as ordered by Brahmaji to Narada in the preaching of Srimad-Bhagavatam, sometimes a representative of the Lord engaged in preaching work meets various so-called difficulties. This was exhibited by Lord Nityananda when He delivered the two fallen souls Jagai and Madhai, and similarly Lord Jesus Christ was crucified by the nonbelievers. But such difficulties are very gladly suffered by the devotees

There are various answers in various scriptures to this question. In the Bhagavad-gita, we have the verse: paritrāṇāya sādhūnāḿ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām dharma-saḿsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge (Bhagavad-gita 4.8). Krsna says here that He appears millennium after millennium to annihilate the demons and to re-establish the principles of religion. In the Srimad Bhagavatam, Kuntidevi is explaining that the Lord appeared because of the austerities carried out by Vasudeva and Devaki and that it was

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

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 Giriraj Swami

Many residents of Mathura believe that Lord Krishna appeared in Mathura, but the residents of Vrindavan know that He was born in Vraja, in Gokula. Yet Srimad-Bhagavatam states that Lord Krishna appeared in the prison house of Kamsa in Mathura as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki and thereafter was carried by Vasudeva to Gokula to be taken as their son by Nanda and Yasoda, in exchange for Yasoda’s newborn daughter, Yogamaya. So, how to solve this mystery?

Let us turn to Srimad-Bhag

By Purushottam Nitai Das

In spite of being bound by iron shackles and confined in a prison cell and in spite of having witnessed the killing of their six little children by Kamsa, Vasudeva and Devaki were indifferent to all the pains because they always meditated on Krishna and were eagerly waiting for his arrival.

And when finally beautiful Krishna appeared in their lives their hearts were inundated with infinite bliss. Not just Krishna’s presence but in fact his mere remembrance mitigates all

While attending the Janmastami festival at the ISKCON farm in Czechoslovakia several years ago, I was asked to give a lecture about the appearance of Lord Krishna. Afterwards I asked for questions and an elderly, red-haired lady raised her hand. Since almost all the devotees there spoke only Czech, I was surprised when she began to speak in English. She said, “Satsvarupa Gosvami, could you tell us something about Prabhupada, because you knew him very well?”

I started out by remembering Janmasta