From Back to Godhead
A devotee-bookseller explains.
Have you ever met a Hare Krsna devotee in an airport, a parking lot, or on the street distributing books and collecting donations? Many people wonder why we do this. I’ve been distributing books for over six years, and I’d like to tell you something about the origin of book distribution.
Devotees are not ordinary booksellers; their bookselling is transcendental. It is sankirtana, the glorification of Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead
By Giriraj Swami
Today is the auspicious occasion of Gita Jayanti, the day Lord Krsna spoke the Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kuruksetra, the day of Moksada Ekadasi. To begin, we shall read from Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Chapter Nine, “The Most Confidential Knowledge,” two verses that can provide us with guidance for our lives:
TEXT 30
api cet su-duracaro
bhajate mam ananya-bhak
sadhur eva sa mantavyah
samyag vyavasito hi sah
SYNONYMS
api—even; cet—if; su-duracarah—one committi
The Advent of Srila Prabhupada's
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
— Presented by Srimati Dasi and team
ISKCON, Sri Vrndavana Dhama
Read more: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=92124
February 1971: BENARES, INDIA Festival glorifying Lord Chaitanya
Radha Govinda Swami: I was in Benares at that time when Srila Prabhupada was touring, traveling India with his 40 disciples. I read in a newspaper in America Krishna-bhakti is preached. Naturally, I was a devotee of Krishna so I liked this topic. So I went there. Then there was a procession from Dashashvamedha Ghat to Tapan Misra’s house that is now in Benares.
When the procession finished, I approached Srila Prabhupada and I spok
From Back to Godhead
Presence of joy is higher than absence of sorrow.
I was zooming along a beautiful tree-lined highway when I slammed on the brakes. Screeeech! Thud! Generally, when you run over a squirrel scampering across the road just a little too late for you to stop, you get a sinking feeling. Unless you’re stone-hearted, the next few minutes are not joyful. The guilt of having taken a life lingers until it’s replaced by more important things. But this time I was not gripped by remo
By Sesa Dasa
In medicine, a coma, or comatose, (from the Greek “koma”, meaning deep sleep) is a profound state of unconsciousness.
Talk about living a nightmare. There was a report on the news that a Belgian man “though to be in a coma for 23 years was actually conscious the whole time.” Alex Watts of Sky News Online writes, “For the whole time, he was trapped in his own body with no way of letting friends and family know he could hear every word they were saying.”
It gets worse. In an intervie
By Omkara devi dasi
I feel very much blessed to have the shelter and ability to take darshan of Sri Sri Rukmini Dwarkadisha in New Dwaraka. I have lived in and outside of the temple community for over 33 years and throughout the years have had various spiritual realizations.
It is important for me to have devotee association and to go to the temple program. Even though I work full time and my day consists of many laborious hours I enjoy going to evening aroti and increasing my devotee temple
In this article, I compare the origin of universe as described in the Srimad Bhagavatam (SB) and the Big Bang (BB) theory .
1. The initial state
According to SB, the initial state of matter immediately previous to its manifestation is calledpradhāna (SB 3.26.10p). In the BB theory, this initial state is called the singularity. The table below compares these two states:
Pradhāna SB 3.26.10p, SB12.4.20,21 |
Singularity ref : [1]-[4] |
*Unmanifested/undifferentiated form of matter. *No |
Dramas are a true meditation on the leelas of the Lord. They give us a wonderful opportunity to enter these divine pastimes and, in some way, relive them. It is truly a magical experience to witness these performances as part of the IBC community. We are deeply grateful to have this chance to serve the community for the pleasure of our dear Srila Prabhupāda and our Lords.
We warmly welcome you to join our programs and become part of this beautiful experience. Hare Krishna.
It has been a great o
When His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada frst arrived in America in the midst ol the cultural turmoil of the sixties, he quickly captured the hearts and minds of the New York hippies and the San Francisco flower children with the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra.
Within three years, he journeyed to London, and by 1971, Hare Krsna had been recorded on hit records by former Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison. By then the mantra had been heard by hundreds of millions of peop
“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
FIRST CONTACT WITH THE HOLY SOUND
My life took an apical turn when I stumbled across the Hare Krishnas. Being born in India I had some knowledge of “Krishna” but I was like most Indians are – conscious of Krishna but not Krishna Conscious. Being just “conscious of Krishna” didn’t mollify my thirst for happiness. When I was introduced to the programs conducted by the Hare Krishnas near our college campus new hope dawned upon me. What mesmerized me the most in these programs was the chanting of t
I was born into a vegetarian family. They practiced yoga and followed the philosophy of con men, an impersonal philosophy but rooted in yoga and principles like not eating meat. That was my upbringing. At the same time, I attended a Roman Catholic school. So from a young age I was exposed to both yoga, the idea of having a teacher and that whole atmosphere because of my parents’ practices.
Source: https://www.dandavats.com/?p=116514
Srila Prabhupada departed from this world in Vrindavan dham, India, on the 14th of November 1977. One would not usually celebrate the disappearance day of a person, especially one so loved and revered as Srila Prabhupada. However, the departure of a pure Vaishnava gives cause for jubilation because he returns to his eternal service at Krishna’s lotus feet in Goloka Vrindavan, the spiritual world.
Source: https://www.dandavats.com/?p=116334
The disappearance day of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (the founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness) allows us to meditate on his pastimes and his teachings. Srila Prabhupada had this to say about the disappearance of vaisnavas:
“As Lord Krishna’s appearance and disappearance are all spiritual, transcendental, they are not ordinary things, similarly Lord Krishna’s devotee, His representative, who is sent to this material world for preaching t
In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Shri Krishna explains,
janma karma ca me divyam
evaà yo vetti tattvataù
tyaktvä dehaà punar janma
naiti mäm eti so ‘rjuna
[BG 4.9]
‘One who understands the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities never attains…never has to take birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode.’ Those divine personalities who come to distribute the treasure of prema bhakti, the emissaries of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, their lila is of the same natu
“That night, Srila Prabhupada called me. I was attending Srila Prabhupada – actually one of us used to always be with Srila Prabhupada for two hours. My shift was 12am-2am. So it must have been around 1am. Srila Prabhupada called me, and told me: “The time has come for me to leave this planet, therefore you should make arrangement to take me to Vrindavan immediately.” He wanted to leave his body in Vrindavan. I was completely shocked, and immediately ran downstairs to wake up Tamal Krishna Ma
Dear Srila Prabhupada! As I was preparing the accompanying lecture on your pastimes in Vrindavan over the years, I stumbled across this photo of myself looking at you in Vrindavan from a short distance away with a smile on my face. I feel so honoured to have been with you at that time! For the pleasure of the devotees I researched many of your pastimes in Vraja from 1925 to 1977. My talk on Tuesday on my YouTube channel at 3:30 pm India time will highlight your glories the day before we all cele
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!
It is only possible to deliver a conditioned jiva from Maya,
By divine intervention of God.
To a realm that is higher;
Ecstatically deep and broad.
An ocean of liquid love!
In His mercy, to bring us there,
He sent us Srila Prabhupada.
Sri Krsna Caitanya desired to moisten the dried-up souls.
To acheive it,
He not only comes Himself, But Nitai-Balarama empowered Srila Prabhupada,
To bountiful conceive it.
A world encircling garland of prema-nama-sankirtana!
All G
