Blog

So, let us just look at the phone. Because that is the issue of the day. It is the phone that is being used in the name of pushing on this movement, that is destroying this movement. It is a crisis, an addiction. Very addictive thing. Try not to touch it and see how long you can. How long can you not touch it? Do not touch it! There, we can see how it creeps in little by little. We are using all these electronics in the service of Krsna. And then these electronics are taking over our life and gr

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

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 would be found reading his own books. Someone asked, “Srila Prabhupada, you are reading your own books?” Prabhupada said, “I did not write these books, Krsna dictated these books. These books are pure and transcendental, descending from the spiritual world. The knowledge in these books is absolutely perfect.” Where in the world do you find that? We have advertisements everywhere – advertisements in our faces, trying to convince us that we need this and that to make us happy. It

By Giriraj Swami 

On October 3, 1974, in Mayapur, Srila Prabhupada spoke on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.23, Queen Kunti’s prayer:

yatha hrsikesa khalena devaki
  kamsena ruddhaticiram sucarpita
vimocitaham ca sahatmaja vibho
  tvayaiva nathena muhur vipad-ganat

“O Hrsikesa, the master of the senses and the Lord of lords, You have released Your Mother Devaki, who was long imprisoned and distressed by the envious King Kamsa, and myself and my children from a series of constant dangers.” (SB 1.8.23)

And

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:

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

Be personal. Honor each individual for who he or she is. This principle was repeatedly exemplified by Srila Prabhupada throughout his time with us. As he saw how everyone is spiritually equal and should have an equal opportunity to participate in his movement according to his or her qualifications and propensities, so can we. As he encouraged everyone, so can we. In the world today, there’s a dire need for this cutting-edge, spiritual vision, a vision that’s resonant with Krishna’s teachings, t

The other day I was remembering Srila Prabhupada’s statement of how paintings of Krsna are like windows to the spiritual world; it means that through these paintings, we are looking into the ‘real world’, and when we are looking out of this window (of the building), we are simply looking at a picture. So Krsna consciousness must begin with that understanding, that the spiritual world is the real world. It is there where we find our nourishment because after all, in the material world, we will n

How can we chant in a way that it makes us forget the material world and run to Krsna? When you sit down to chant, there will be moments in which you notice that your mind wandered somewhere else – ‘Uuups, I was thinking about my shopping list, that I have to close this deal to get more money and that Suresh Patel said something bad about me – well, he can just wait – I will show it to him!’ You will notice, ‘Where was I? I am sitting here in saintly company, chanting, but what happened?’ What

A leading monthly travel magazine with over 16 million readers displays a full page color photo of Tompkins Square Park with a caption that begins, “The East Village’s Tompkins Square Park has been a bastion of counterculture for decades. The Hare Krishna movement was born here.”

Srila Prabhupada describes that birth, “Our sankirtana movement was first introduced in New York in 1966. At that time I came and began to chant this Hare Krishna mantra in Tompkins Square. I was chanting there for thr

Written By Madhava Smullen for ISKCON New Vrindaban Communications

Archival Research by Chaitanya Mangala Dasa

ISKCON Founder-Acharya Srila Prabhupada visited New Vrindaban four times, giving the devotees there his association and dispensing practical advice for simple living that remains invaluable not only to New Vrindaban, but to all ISKCON rural farm communities to this day.

During his first visit, running for over a month from May 20th to June 23rd 1969, Srila Prabhupada encouraged the sma

The more we hear about Krishna, the more we become purified. We cannot understand Krishna because we are not purified. But if you hear the Krishna name, Hare Krishna—Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare—if you chant and hear, you become purified. So why should we not take this simple method, as it is recommended in the shastra, harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam [“In this Age of Kali there is no other means, no other means, no other means for self-realization than cha

I often have to encourage devotees, especially those not living in the temples, to rise early in the morning and come to the temple for the morning program, or to have one at home. Devotees should generally rise by 4 am, which means that their lives must be organized in such a way that they get sufficient rest, meaning taking rest early.

Certainly there are many considerations for individual cases; however, we will see from the collection of quotes from Srila Prabhupada below (not referenced) t

The Auckland Loft recently received a letter from a prisoner in the Auckland Correctional Facility, saying that he wanted The Nectar of Devotion, Teachings of Lord Caitanya and the Krsna Book. Munjaranya went to great lengths to connect with him on the phone, and after a week she succeeded. It turns out that he had just moved there from the Christchurch prison, where he had found a Bhagavad Gita and read it. Then he had contacted the temple in Christchurch, which sent him japa beads, and he sta

Srutakirti Prabhu, a disciple and former personal servant of Srila Prabhupada, recounts Prabhupada’s practical instructions regarding chanting rounds.“It was easy to understand that Srila Prabhupada enjoyed chanting japa. He always stressed the importance of chanting our 16 rounds. He once told me that as a householder, he used a simple process for completing 16 rounds that we could apply.
‘When I was a householder,’ Srila Prabhupada said, ‘I would chant four rounds before each meal and four ro

This book distribution story needs a little background. It’s like many stories from so many devotees all over the world, which give us a sense of the unexplainable magic of book distribution.

Those deeply mystical points in time, those strange moments, when synchronicity only gives a vague explanation for what just happened. Points in time when you just know deep down in your soul that Paramatma, the Supersoul, is actually the person doing everything. He is in the heart of the distributor, He i

The following is a partially-edited transcription of a lecture given on May 01, 2001 in Moscow – Our Progress in Life is Gauged by Our Chanting

I am very happy to be back in Moscow after six months. It’s hard to believe it’s already been six months since the last time I was here. One realization I am getting a lot is how fast time goes. Doesn’t seem very long ago that I was sitting here giving a class, but it’s already been six months.

As we all know from various understandings of Kṛṣṇa conscio

The following account was given by Srila Prabhupada’s disciple Atma Tattva Dasa.

One Ekadasi during the Kumbha-mela in Allahabad, Prabhupada was sitting back with his eyes closed, his legs stretched under his desk, talking about Ekadasi. Prabhupada said, “Lotus pods fried in ghee are very good on Ekadasi.” Somebody immediately ran to the market to arrange for lotus pods, but just two minutes later a Ramanandi brahman and his nine-year-old son arrived, both wearing Ramanandi tilak. They paid thei