So the darkness is there, and the light is also there. Simply we have to be awakened. Therefore Vedas, they instruct us that "Don't sleep! Get up!" Uttisthata prapya varan nibodhata jagrata. Similarly, Bhaktivinoda Thakura also sings, kota nidra jao maya-pisacira kole. Jiv jago, jiv jago, gauracanda bole. Gauracanda means Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He says, "O the living entities, you get up! Be awakened!" We may say, "Now we are awakened." This is not awakened. This is also slumber in darkne

Anyone Can Take a Book

by Caitanya Chandra Das (Porto Alegre, Brazil)

As I distributed books last Sunday morning in the park, I saw one guy who seemed a bit gloomy. I stopped him and started my usual mantra: "Hello, I'm from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. We're distributing some books about spiritual knowledge. They"

He interrupted me and said, "I'm looking for a girlfriend. Can you help me?"

Before I could reply he repeated the question, adding a note of desperation: "I reeeal

Hare Krsna

Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada

Hare Krsna

Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada

When Srimati Radharani first saw Krishna, She suddenly became conscious of all transcendental happiness, and the functions of Her different limbs were stunned. When Lalita, Her constant companion, whispered into Her ear, the holy name of Krishna, Radharani immediately opened Her eyes wide. (Nectar of Devotion, pg 259)

"One day, in a joking mood, Krishna informed Radharani, 'My dear Radharani, I am going to give up Your Company.' Upon saying this, He immediately disappeared, and because of this, R

Hare Krsna

Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada

I’ve written or called hundreds of people during my career who have never written back or returned my call. I’ve learned that people are often overwhelmed and overcommitted, and therefore unable or unwilling to help me. 

Instead of feeling defeated, I try to focus instead on how grateful I am that many other people have returned my calls or answered my letters.

Many years ago, I wanted to get in to see a certain professio

So Krsna orders only maya that "Give this living entity a body like a demigod, or a dog, or a pig, or a tree." So there are 8,400,00 varieties of body. He has to manage all these. How He is managing? Is He managing personally? No. He is managing through His potency, atma-mayaya. Here it is said, atma-mayaya. Samanvety esa sattvanam bhagavan atma-mayaya. Maya means energy, energy, tricks. This is called maya. So everything is being done by His potency. So the Mayavadi philosopher, they says, "Whe

The thought that we can become God is very dangerous. God is eternally God and we are eternally His parts and parcels, His servitors. It is true that qualitatively we are same as God but quantitatively there is an ocean of difference. Scriptures says that Krishna, God, has six opulences in full: all wealth, all fame, all beauty, all power, all knowledge and all renunciation. We the jivas, the living entities, too possess these qualities but in very minute quantities. Krishna has 64 qualities and

Why does our consciousness come down to this plane? Why doesn't it have a higher conception of higher spiritual existence. Instead our attention is drawn to some material thing on the mundane plane. We think that some medicine, or some intoxication can help us. When we cannot raise my consciousness to the finer and higher conscious substance, then we come to seek help in the material world. "These substances will help me." It is suicidal.

We cannot manage to have a connection directly with the hi

How can one define faith? Is it a feeling or a function of the brain? Or is it just unfounded belief? The English word ‘Faith’ is associated with many things. The word is used to define a trust or belief in someone or something, but more commonly it is used in association with religion and God.

The definition of the word faith in the unabridged Oxford Dictionary is:

 1- Complete trust or confidence. 

 2- Strong belief in a religion. 

 3- A system of religious belief.

The English word faith origina

(The Following article is based on a class given by Srila Narasingha Maharaja at Sri Sri Radha-Damodara Temple in Vrndavana on October 20th 2009)

In his illumination on the eighth verse of Sri Upadesamrta, Srila Sridhara Maharaja discusses faith in relation to what faith is and what it is not. This is the Vedic process of learning. When you learn about something you must also understand what it is not. Take gold for example – when you learn what are the qualities of gold, you must also learn what

Hare Krsna

Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

In Krsna's instructions to Arjuna, He emphasizes duty both 
for the common man and for the self-realized soul.

sva-dharmam api caveksya
na vikampitum arhasi
dharmyad dhi yuddhac chreyo 'nyat
ksatriyasya na vidyate

"Considering your specific duty as a ksatriya, you should know that there is no better engagement for you than fighting on religious principles; and so there is no

Hare Krsna

Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada

TEXT 23

yotsyamānān avekṣe 'haṁ
ya ete 'tra samāgatāḥ
dhārtarāṣṭrasya durbuddher
yuddhe priya-cikīrṣavaḥ

SYNONYMS

yotsyamānān—those who will be fighting; avekṣe—let me see; aham—I; ye—who; ete—those; atra—here; samāgatāḥ—assembled; dhārtarāṣṭrasya—the son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra; durbuddheḥ—evil-minded; yuddhe—in the fight; priya—well; cikīrṣavaḥ—wishing.

TRANSLATION

Let me see those who have come here to fight, wishing to please the evil-minded son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra.

PURPORT

It was an open secret that Duryodhana wan

Toronto Sankirtan Story 2011 – EVERYONE Matters, Every BIT counts!

By Mahasundari Madhavi devi dasi

At the end of 2010, the Toronto Sankirtan Team set an ambitious goal to distribute a minimum of 35,000 books during 2011. This seemed like a tall task given that it was more than three times the number of books distributed in the whole of 2009! But as Srila Prabhupada emphatically said, “Impossible is a word in a fool’s dictionary.” Devotees in Toronto truly imbibed that mood and endured extreme wea

Pliasaur

Varuna riding Makara that resembles Pliasaur

In Sanskrit 'Makara' is a word that means ‘sea dragon’ or ‘aquatic-monster,’ long thought to be a mythical creature in Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Paintings and sculptures of this fantastical creature are found in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Japan — practically everywhere in Asia.

The Makara in India is known to be the vahana(vehicle) of Ganga-devi - the goddess of the river Gan

Have you met anyone in this world who wants to fail in an exam, or want to lose his job or want to meet with an accident?  Do we find anyone who boldly declares that “The goal of my life is to lead an UnHappy life”.

Have you ever wondered why everyone wants or struggles to be happy?  From a beggar on the street to a business magnate, everyone makes plan to ensure a happy and fulfilling life. Even small babies who do not know anything about “Being Happy” or “Being UnHappy” want to be happy.

What