Blog

For Gopala Bhatta Gosvami’s disappearance day, I thought to read one verse and purport about him from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, Chapter Ten, “The Branches of the Caitanya Tree”:

TEXT 105

sri gopala bhatta eka sakha sarvottama
rupa-sanatana-sange yanra prema-alapana

TRANSLATION

Sri Gopala Bhatta Gosvami, the forty-seventh branch, was one of the great and exalted branches of the tree. He always engaged in discourses about love of Godhead in the company of Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvam

In the holy land of Vṛndāvana, where the Divine Couple Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Govinda are performing their eternal pastimes, resided a great devotee named Śrīla Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, one of the six Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana. But where did he come from? Why did he reside in Vṛndāvana? To know that we have to go to a holy place called Śrī Raṅgam.

In 1510, Mahāprabhu went to Śrī Raṅgam. Located in South-India, it is a major pilgrimage destination for Śrī Vaiṣṇavites. There, with His hands raised, He began cha

This weekend four Chariot Fests are being held within the Quebec/ Ontario area. Burlington, Oakville, Kingsville and Montreal. It is Burlington's 2nd, Oakville's 1st, Kingsville's (I'm not sure), but Montreal's running for decades is the largest. After beautiful overnight showers and a persistent overcast sky, the procession began at Sherbrooke and Ste. Laurent.

A large number of police escorted. They were great and most co-operative. By the end of the day, at festival site, Joanna Mance Park,

Please join us in prayers for Vishvambhara Das, who left his body on Guru-Purnima in Montreal, Canada.  According to his godbrother Deena Bandhu Das, “He went to France and expanded the preaching there very widely for Srila Prabhupada’s pleasure. He was a wonderful Vaishnava who was like a big brother to the devotees who knew him. He will be greatly missed! Hare Krishna!”  Other godbrothers like Giriraja Swami noted, “I have fond memories of serving with him in New Mayapur. He was a great soul

First Meaning: –

Srila Jiva Gosvami reveals the meaning of each of the sixteen Names in the Hare Krishna Mahaamantra in his Mahaa-mantrartha Dipika as follows: –

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

(1-Hare)
Krishna steals the minds of everyone, yet Radha steals even His mind by Her divine expertise. Thus She is known as Haraa.

(2-Krishna)
He forcibly attracts Sri Radha with the sweet sound of His flute, therefore that Lord of all enchantin

From Back to Godhead

Academic knowledge provides information of the world, but spiritual knowledge awards us eternal liberation

One of my friends in college was known for his immense general knowledge. He knew the names of all recent Hollywood and Bollywood movies, the actors, directors, and producers of each movie, and the winners of Oscar and Filmfare awards from every year. In sports, he knew the winners of each Grand Slam tennis tournament from every year as well as similar information abou

By Giriraj Swami  

“Srila Prabhupada has explained that the system of honoring the spiritual master is current in all sections of Vedic followers. In the Mayavadi (impersonalist) sects, the disciples offer respect to the spiritual master once a year, on Guru-purnima. And in the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaya, the disciples offer homage annually on the appearance day of the spiritual master, called Vyasa-puja because the spiritual master represents Vedavyasa, the empowered incarnation of Krishna w

By Kulavati Krishnapriya Devi Dasi

Mayapur Clean & Green, led by Murari Mohini Devi Dasi, along with ISKCON Mayapur Land Office Central and the Mayapur Environmental Protection Team, came together on July 7, 2024, to clean Sri Mayapur Dham and welcome Lord Jagannath on the first day of the Rathayatra. The cleaning was sponsored by the Land Office and some volunteers lead by Anadi Krishna Das.

The cleaning started in the morning of the Rathayatra day, from the precinct at the beginning of the IS

Still in Toronto, and showing a new trail for the group of walking companions. We are dodging on foot the main motorists thoroughfares and taking to the neat hidden pathways at the University of Toronto. Near Yorkville we stood behind an artist's iron sculpture of a bull. It is symbolic. The bull stands for the principle of dharma and that's what we must always stand behind.

Now dharma, or duty, is always the obligation of a monk, and travel is one of them. Being the weekend of Ratha Yatra, the

From Back to Godhead

Conceptions of God in the Bhagavad-gita encompass those of other traditions and give full picture of the Absolute Truth.

“The Bhagavad-gita teaches a pantheistic view of God,” he said, his confidence and years of learning clear from his authoritative tone. “The massive vishvarupa—Krishna’s universal form, which encompasses all material phenomena, including time—tells us much about God in the Gita.”

His friend, another scholar of some renown, seemed to disagree.

“The Gita go

My heart is like a desert, hot with the rays of the sun. This is my internal mental condition. The desire for temporary, material things cannot satisfy me because by nature they are death producing. And not one or two, but thousands of such death-producing desires have taken shelter in my mind. So, my subconscious region is always burning. This is my condition. But somehow, by the grace of sadhu and my guru, the holy name of Krishna with its infinite prospect has entered through the holes of my

By Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura

The holy command of Shri Guru has been that we shall serve Godhead in association with one another. By the word ‘we’ he did not mean any one individual. There are many persons who are very selfish, indeed. They say, ‘I alone shall serve. It is incumbent on me alone. No one else has any claim to join me in my service of Godhead.’ But the kind heart of Shri Gurudeva says, ‘Come, let all of us jointly worship Godhead by giving up malice.’ The service of G

Sri Madan Mohan Temple at Karoli

and Srila Sanatana Gosvami

Glory to the all-merciful Radha and Madan Mohan! I am lame and ill advised, yet They are my directors, and Their lotus feet are everything to me. (Sri Caitanya Caritamrta Antya lila 1.5)

Srila Sanatana Gosvami was the principal disciple of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and is one of the Six Gosvamis of Vrindavana. Sanatana Gosvami (or Santosha as he was named at birth), appeared in Jessore in Bangladesh in 1488 as the son of Mukunda, the p

By Atma Tattva Das

The 2024 Krishna Bhakti Art 4 exhibition, a transformative event hosted by the Krishna Balaram Ashram, was held in Manila on July 7th, 2024. Set against the backdrop of the Balaw Balaw Restaurant, a prominent art gallery in Angono Rizal, this annual event captured the essence of Krishna’s consciousness through a stunning array of visual artworks, music, and cultural expressions.

The event’s start was memorable, and many important people attended, including Vice Mayor Gerry C

July 18, 2024 – The Saranagati Village, a Vedic Eco Community located 4.5 hours northeast of Vancouver in British Columbia’s southern interior, was given an immediate fire evacuation notice last night. The expansive property, threatened by these latest local wildfires, is home to about 30 families. It includes a K-12 school, a goshala, and a temple.  Everyone was safely evacuated to the local village and government resources provided hotels and food allowances. A generous neighbor from the vill

On this day number 2 of a walk with Bhakti Academy we landed ourselves at a picnic table to attempt a concentrated session with the maha mantra. At this hour, 6.45am, we could find no disturbances externally, perhaps internally. Everyone could speak for themself on this, but chronically that agitating does get in the way. As it was put by one of the callers later on in the afternoon on the Gita zoom, "I'm lucky to have just one minute of internalization."

Such is the nature of the monkey mind.

Why Follow Caturmasya?

“The real purpose behind the vow taken during these four months is to minimise the quantity of sense gratification. This is not very difficult.”
Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya Lila 4.169, Purport

In the purport to Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya-lila 4.169, Srila Prabhupada explains that the Caturmasya period begins in the month of Ashadha (June-July) from the day of Ekadasi called Sayana-ekadasi and ends in the month of Kartika (October-November) on the Ekadasi day known

Writing the last chapter of the Srila Prabhupada-lilamrita was an intense experience for me. Prabhupada was teaching “the final lesson,” and I relived the day-by-day remembrances of being with Srila Prabhupada and serving in his ISKCON movement in the final days leading up to his disappearance. Those days were like a drama unfolding. Would Prabhupada stay with us? What would we do without him? And again I felt the grief at his departure. I was also reminded that Prabhupada’s last days were fille

On July 18th, the “Bhakti: The Art of Krishna” exhibit opened to the public for a limited one-month run, concluding on August 18th. The one-of-a-kind exhibition takes patrons on a transformative journey through Lord Krishna’s life, from his childhood Gokul to the giving of the Gita on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra. 

The exhibit is housed at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai, where Founder and Chairperson Mrs. Nita Ambani was on hand with Radhanath Swami to inaugurate the