“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 “Advancements of Ancient India’s Vedic Culture”)
By Stephen Knapp (Sri Nandanandana dasa)
When we talk about the planet’s earliest civilization, we are talking about the world’s earliest sophisticated society after the last ice age. This means that according to the Vedic time tables, various forms of civilization have been existing for millions of years. But the first record of an organized and developed society was the Vedic culture that arose in ancient India with the Indus Sa
By Mohini Radha Devi Dasi
In the interactions between the Lord and His
devotees, both relish the highest happiness.
Bhagavad-gita and other scriptures praise Arjuna for his close relationship with Krishna. Arjuna is known for his mood of friendship (sakha-bhava). Since relationships are by definition reciprocal, not only is Arjuna known as Krishna’s friend, but Krishna is known as Arjuna’s friend. Krishna drove Arjuna’s chariot and is therefore called Partha-sarathi, the “charioteer of Partha
A look at what the Srimad-Bhagavatam has to say about time, a concept that has challenged philosophers for centuries.
Time is a little difficult to define. Philosophers and theologians have tried for at least twenty-five centuries. Albert Einstein remarked, in the midst of slightly more esoteric statements regarding physics, that time was what his wristwatch measured. St. Augustine said that he knew what time was as long as no one asked him to explain it. And sounding a note of frustration in
I have been in the home of the deities, Radha Gopinath, for 5 decades and when I was just in Trinidad, Longdenville, the temple there has the same name for their set of Radha Krishna deities. The name Radha, God in feminine form, refers to the most gracious goddess. The masculine God is Krishna and Krishna as Gopinath means the lord of the Gopi, in particular, the exquisite milk maiden, Radha. They are two in one.
Whenever I travel on foot, on plane, in car, train, truck, the name I know as
Keshava Prabhu, from Hare Krishna Valley (New Nandagram) in Bambra, Victoria, invited Devamrta Maharaja and I to the Radha Krishna boat festival at the farm.The previous day was hot and gusty but the weather turned more pleasant on Sunday and there were 300-400 guests who attended.
The day started with arati and kirtan at the temple, then everyone went in procession down the hill to the lake. There was a joyous mood as the devotees anticipated seeing Their Lordships, Sri Sri Radha Krishna in a
Today is Gopastami, the day on which Krishna and Balarama and other boys Their age, who previously had tended the calves, were given charge of the cows. This event is described in Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.15.1):
tatas ca pauganda-vayah-sritau vraje
babhuvatus tau pasu-pala-sammatau
gas carayantau sakhibhih samam padair
vrndavanam punyam ativa cakratuh
“When Lord Rama and Lord Krsna attained the age of pauganda [six to ten] while living in Vrndavana, the cowherd men allowed Them to take up the
By Gauravani dasa
1. He is known by many names, the most common ones being Vamana (the little dwarf), Trivikrama (he who has taken three step; the giant form), and Upendra (Indra’s younger brother);
2. In every planetary system the denizens worship a particular visnu-tattva as their sole Lord (Plaksadvipa, Surya-Narayana; Brahmaloka; Maha-purusa; Maharloka; Yajna-purusa, et cetera) and in the heavenly planets, the demigods worship Lord Visnu in His plenary portion: the four-armed Vamana;
3.
By Kripamoya Das
Lord Vamanadeva appeared within this world from the womb of Aditi, the mother of the gods. He appeared at midday on the shravan-dvadasi, the 12th day of the lunar month of Shravan when the moon is waxing.
There are many lessons for Vaishnavas to learn from the narration of His activities, as found in the 8th canto, 18th chapter of the Bhagavat Purana (Srimad Bhagavatam). Amongst the lessons are these:
1. That God comes to this world in many forms; not just once, in one form
Srila Prabhupada writes to one his disciples about Lord Vamanadeva:
Montreal 3 July, 1968
My Dear Satsvarupa,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 28, 1968, and I thank you very much for it. Regarding Bali Maharaja: He is born in the same atheistic family of Maharaja Prahlada. He happened to be the grandson of Maharaja Prahlada, and as his great grand-father, Hiranyakasipu was very powerful, and as there was animosity between the demigods and the demons,
By Radhanath Swami
The Appearance of Lord Vamana
“Bali Maharaj, very intelligent personality. He was the son of Virochana, grandson of Prahlad, great grandson of Hiranyakashipu, great grand-nephew of Hiranyaksha. A very mixed up type of family heritage!”
So he performed yajna to please his guru Shukracharya, and his guru-maharaj was very pleased with him. In fact he arranged for the descendents of Bhrigu Muni to come to perform this yajna. And his disposition, his good qualities, was so ple
Brahma-vaivarta Purana
–
Chapter Two
Sridama-Radha-kalaha-varnana
Description of the Quarrel Between Sridama and Radha
1-2 On whose request did Krsna come to the surface of the earth, what the Lord did before He returned to His own abode, how He removed the earth’s burden, and how He killed the demons, of all these I will, carefully thinking of what happened, tell you the story.
3 Listen and I will tell you of Lord Hari’s descent as a cowherd boy.
His arrival in Gokula, and Radha’s descent as g
One lady raised her hand after Prabhupada had finished a Bhagavad-gita class, as she had a question. She asked, “In the Bhagavad-gita it is said that if one thinks of Krishna at the time of death, one will go to Krishna. Now my question is, What if I think of you at the time of death? Will it have the same effect?”
Prabhupada didn’t answer right away. He closed his eyes for two or three seconds as if he were searching for the answer, and then he smiled and said, “That is very nice. Yes, it will
A Dubai commuter, stuck in traffic, muses on how modern inventions have failed to improve the quality of our lives and have added to our distress.
It’s 7:00 P.M., and I’ve been driving for more than an hour. As I head home from work along Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai, I’m caught in the usual evening traffic jam. Like the car ahead of me, my car starts, stops, and starts again. While my car moves slowly, my mind races. I do mental mathematics with the number on the car plate in front of me. The tr
Now in its sixth year, Brazil’s Radha Krishna Camp will run from January 20th to 26th 2020, with a bilingual program in both English and Portuguese that is open to international youth.
The camp will be organized by Brazil’s Vaishnava Youth Secretary Vaikuntha Murti Das and his wife, Secretary of Education Subhadra Dasi.
Around forty youth, aged 12 to 17, are expected from Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru and USA.
The event will be held at Govardhana Eco Village, forty-five minu
For the occasion of Srimati Radharani’s appearance day we present a wonderful lecture titled “Rādhā-Prema Makes Kṛṣṇa Mad”, given by Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja on 19th March 1992 in Bhubaneswar, India.
Rādhā-Prema Makes Kṛṣṇa Mad
rādhikāra prema—guru, āmi—śiṣya naṭa
sadā āmā nānā nṛtye nācāya udbhaṭa
“You will find three topics in rādhā-prema. Firs
