By Vibhava Krsna Das
Seven decades ago in a remote Muslim village in the Kashmir valley (where a bus would come once in a day to drop the passengers) on the auspicious day of Akshaya Tritiya, a child was born in one of the few Hindu families that lived there. Although the family belonged to Brahmin class due to their association with the local Muslims for years they gradually fell from the Brahmanical standards and became voracious meat-eaters. The boy gradually grew up very intelligent and
We read from Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Chapter Three: “Karma-yoga.”
TEXT 41
tasmat tvam indriyany adau niyamya bharatarsabha papmanam prajahi hy enam jnana-vijnana-nasanam
TRANSLATION
Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bharatas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.
PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada
The Lord advised Arjuna to regulate the senses from the very beginning so that he could curb the great
By Syama Mohinī Devi Dasi and Nama Priya Devi Dasi
On February 10th, hundreds gathered in Phoenix, Arizona, for the annual Jagannatha Ratha-Yatra parade hosted by ISKCON of Phoenix. In addition to the procession, a festival was held at the Steele Indian School Park, which included book distribution, yoga and meditation, henna and face painting, children’s activities, cultural programs, dance presentations, and the distribution of 1,000 plates of prasadam. Though inclement weather threatened th
Sripada Hridayananda Babaji Maharaja was born in Radha-kunda and has been a pujari for 78 years. He lives next to the Radha-Damodar Temple. When, at the beginning of an interview, Babaji Maharaja was asked if he knew Srila Prabhupada, he began to cry. He said, “Never have I seen anyone do sadhana as he did. I have lived all my life in Vraja, and I have never seen anyone like him. Prabhupada did many arduous things. He worked very hard there at the Radha-Damodar Temple. At that time it was auste
By Gopi Gita Devi Dasi
“Narasimhadeva is the eternal protector, still this year, we were able to offer him a golden Kavacha armor,” said Govindadeva Dasa, who worked endlessly for weeks in South India alongside the experts to ensure the Golden Kavacha was made to perfection and on time for this year’s Narasimha Caturdasi.
The Narasimha Caturdasi Festival, in ISKCON Simhachalam, situated in the Bavarian Hills in Germany, was a grand collection of festivities, including kirtan, dancing swamis, a
An irresistible offer from the Supreme Lord
What is the current situation of the world? Miseries and suffering everyday. Terrorist attacks, global warming, deadly diseases, earthquakes, floods. The list goes on.
But there is hope.
God has decided to give an offer to uplift ourselves from this miserable condition of life. How? By giving personal loans of His special mercy. God is our father, our best friend, and our ever well-wisher. He is supreme, so He can give unlimitedly—so much that you can
In the Caitanya-caritamrta, Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami has given us a verse which is an open invitation. He is saying that if you are interested in logic and arguments, then apply them to the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. By doing so, you will experience amazement in your heart. So that is the foundation of this movement that the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is flowing, and the topmost love of God is made available to the most fallen. That is what happened and what is still happen
I just meditate on mercy. The point is this – we have to appreciate that this is a mercy movement and we somehow or other just take shelter constantly. We do not measure ourselves all the time, because if we start measuring ourselves, we will always fall short and then we will become increasingly frustrated. So, there is no need for measuring, instead, we just take shelter. Take shelter of the Holy Name, take shelter of the Srimad Bhagavatam, take shelter of the devotees, take shelter of prasad
One of Prabhupada’s intimate followers after Prabhupada’s departure had a period where it was difficult to connect. For many devotees after Prabhupada left, it was not so easy. Those disciples of Prabhupada who had his association and who were there during his time, were there during the difficult period when Prabhupada left and ISKCON went into the hands of new leaders. As a result, many withdrew. So as they withdrew, the standard of Krsna consciousness also went down a little bit, or external
Madhava Mohini, Gita Govinda, and I were in Waipukarau for one day of the mid-year marathon, and we had permission to set up a book table in front of New World.
About mid-way through the day, I called over a mature Maori lady (named Liz) with the line, “You look peaceful. Have you tried meditation?”
She didn’t answer the question, but she came straight to our table. She seemed captivated by the books and pictures on display and flicked through the books one by one. She fully focused on looking
We all know our capacity. We have our limits in all directions. All these limits are expanded through empowerment which comes from mercy.
Source: https://www.kksblog.com/2021/10/empowerment-comes-from-mercy/
Video: Click here
When we give away mercy, mercy multiplies.
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has written five beautiful prayers in “Sri Navadvipa Bhava Taranga” for receiving the mercy of Lord Narasimha. These prayers are certainly assurance to all sincere devotees that the worship of Lord Narasimha is purely in the line of aspiring love and devotion to Sri Sri Radha and Krsna. Those prayers are as follows.
e dusta hrdaye kama adi ripu chaya
kutinati pratisthasa sathya sada raya
hrdaya-sodhana ara krsnera vasana
nrsimha-carane mora ei to’ kamana
Within my sin
By Lilasuka dasi
Any activity that you begin on Gaura Purnima day becomes very auspicious. There is a special, true story in this regard. On the afternoon of Gaura Purnima, a few of us were chanting bhajans in the temple room for the pleasure of their Lordships Sri Sri Gaura Nitai. As we were doing so, a large group of about twenty-five students came in and Gauranatraj das began to give them a tour of the temple room.
He began his tour in front of Srila Prabhupada and then they visited each alt
Srila Prabhupada would describe how sometimes during the rainy season in Mayapur, the Ganga is flooding its banks and the entire area goes underwater. And sometimes, Mayapur is almost two months in a lockdown underwater, imagine that! I remember spending some time in that flood during a year and it was quite an experience. We would have to swim from one building to another and we were not the only ones swimming. There were also cobras swimming to add some excitement. Some had rubber boats and t
I do not usually cover the topic of disrespecting vaishnavas, as in one sense, it is a distasteful topic. I do not like to discuss all the unpleasantness of vaishnava-apradha as it is not filling our hearts with great happiness. To make vaishnava-apradha the focus of spiritual life is also not what it is about. Our lives must be dedicated to devotional service. Let us just think day and night about expanding our devotional service and about expanding the mercy of Lord Caitanya in all directions.
So we see how Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu introduced Santana Goswami to all of his associates from Nabadwip, who were all from Bengal, all these devotees were obviously great personalities. And of course amongst them were Advaita Acarya and Lord Nityananda, who are both the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So Lord Caitanya asked Santana Goswami to offer his obeisances to all these personalities, which he did, so they could bestow their mercy upon him. And the Vaishnavas bestowed upon him mercy, frie
Those who are intelligent know that everything is supplied by Krishna. So why not depend on Krishna only? Why so many other attempts? Therefore Krishna says,
vyavasayatmika buddhir
ekeha kuru-nandana
bahu-sakha hy anantas ca
buddhayo ’vyavasayinam
[Gita 2.41]
Vyavasayi means one who knows business particularly. Vyavasaya. Or one who knows confidently, “This is the cause; this is the effect.” Those who know that Krishna is the origin of everything are fixed up in Krishna. Vyavasayatmika
Mercy means we are increasing our relationship with Krsna.
This quote is part of the morning class on Srimad Bhagavatam 4.25.50. Kadamba Kanana Swami was in Melbourne on the 21st of Nov 2019.
