While ISKCON’s culture and spiritual traditions hail from ancient India, many of our members live in Christian countries, come from Christian backgrounds, and send their children to Christian schools.
As a result of unavoidable interaction with the larger culture, many ISKCON devotees assimilate and participate in at least a small part of its practices—one of the greatest of which is, of course, Christmas Day.
This Christmas, devotees at the ISKCON temple in Washin
There are eight kinds of forms recommended for the devotees to see. The forms may be made out of
but all the forms are of the same value. It is not that one who meditates on the form within the mind sees differently from one who worships the form in the temple. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is absolute, and there is therefore no difference between the two.
By Hari-sauri dasa
Dear Hari Sauri Prabhu
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada
Recently I was involved in a conversation with several devotees regarding vaisnava clothes. Some of them were proponing the idea that sari and dhoti are actually not vaisnava clothes that devotees in spiritual world wear, givin
Prabhupada: ...our guest. Because somebody is guest, paying guest, therefore
we shall admit anyone in any kind of dress?
Aksayananda: No.
Gopala Krsna: We don't admit people who look like hippies or something.
Aksayananda: That girl, I told her she had to wear a sari. And she did for
some time, but then again she stopped.
Prabhupada: That I am speaking, that sa yadi kriyate raja.
Aksayananda: Due to habit.
Prabhupada: Sakrn nasnuta pahanam (?) That is the difficulty. It will be
very bad example. People
Not so long ago, I read a magazine that arrived in my letterbox. I had an hour to spare during my daughter’s Indian dance class and wanted to study its pages so that I could properly reply to the sender. Back to Prabhupada was sent to me by someone who espouses the ritvik doctrine, the conclusion that since Srila Prabhupada is the spiritual master of every ISKCON member, that cons
Posted July 31, 2011
Gaurav Mittal’s article, “Avoid Misunderstanding of Bhakti”, has sparked a lot of discussion in the devotee community. Some feel that he may be committing the “mad elephant offense” by suggesting that some statements of Srila Prabhupada were simply wrong. The implication of Srila Prabhupada being wrong, is that he is not a liberated soul, free from the four defects- the propensity to cheat, to become illusioned, to have imper
A conversation with His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
The following conversation between His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and some of his disciples took place on an early-morning walk in January 1974 at Venice Beach, California.
Devotee: Srila Prabhupada, here in California the divorce rate is nearly 50%. Why do you think that is so?
Srila Prabhupada: In India there is a saying that he who is married laments and he who is not married also laments. The married
hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare
hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare
(1)
sarva-ceta-harah krsnas tasya cittam haraty asau
vaidagdhi-sara-vistarair ato radha hara mata
Krishna steals everyone’s mind, but Radharani steals even His when She makes use of Her divine talents. Therefore She is known as Hara.
(2)
karsati sviya-lavanya-murali-kala-nihsvanaih
zri-radham mohana-gunalagkrtah Krsna iryate
Because He forcibly pulls Radha from Her home with the sound of His flute filled with His love
Devakinandana Dasa Thakur was the one of the three disciples of Purushottama dasa Thakura. Devakinandana dasa was a great Vaisnava poet. He composed many devotional songs and specifically a book glorifying all the Vaisnavas name Vaisnav Vandane.
bhattacaryah sarvabhaumah purasid gishpatir divi
Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya was formerly Brihaspati, the guru of the gods.
(Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika 119)
Sarvabhauma’s Scholarship
When Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami lists the branches of Sri Chaitanya, after listing those devotees like Paramananda Puri and Svarupa Damodar who came to join the Lord in Jagannath Puri, he enumerates those Bengali devotees who were already living in Puri when the Lord arrived there and who then met him for the very first ti
PAMHO
Radhanath Swami : That is a very nice question.
To the degree we make that ideal a priority in life, to that degree we realize it quickly. If we make it a first priority in life then we will make very rapid advancement. If we make it a second or third priority in life then we will make very gradual advancement.
Now, making a priority does not necessarily mean giving up everything else. It means giving up separate mot
I was distributing at Pierce College in Los Angeles. It was slow.....very slow. Hardly any books were going out. It's been quite some time since I've been able to go on book distribution (health problems), so it was nice to be out on the front lines again. But this was not what I expected. So I decided to save my energy for the next day. As I was leaving, a student came to me and asked, "What are these books about?" I explained to him, "These books help us understand higher spiritual values in
| The Perfection of the Liberated Soul by Niscala Dasi Posted July 31, 2011 Gaurav Mittal’s article, “Avoid Misunderstanding of Bhakti”, has sparked a lot of discussion in the devotee community. Some feel that he may be committing the “mad elephant offense” by suggesting that some statements of Srila Prabhupada were simply wrong. The implication of Srila Prabhupada being wrong, is that he is not a liberated soul, free from the four defects- the propensity to cheat, to become illusioned, to have imper |
Hare Krishna
PAMHO
His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada once told this story of Brahmin and The Cobbler:
"Narada Muni often went to see Lord Narayana (Krishna) and one day the Brahmin requested him to inquire from Lord Narayana when he, the Brahmin, would go back to godhead. A cobbler made the same request to Narada. So he went to Lord Narayana and asked Him when the two devotees would go back home. Lord Narayana said the Cobbler would promptly go back home, but the Brahmin had more lives to do. Nara
Kathmandu Valley, where you will find the capital of Nepal, is filled with many temples dedicated to the worship of the gods from the Hindu faith. One of these sacred places is called the Changu Narayan temple, considered to be one of the oldest Vishnu temples in Nepal’s Kathmandu The Changu Narayan Temple is dedicated solely to Narayan also known as Lord Vishnu.
The temple of Changu Narayanwas first built in the fourth century but was later built again in 1702 after having been destroyed by a
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura
said that when a devotee wakes up in the morning he should beat his mind with a
shoe a hundred times. Since the mind tends to be very puffed up, it must be
beaten to keep it in the proper humble state. In the evening the mind should
be beaten with a broomstick another hundred times. The mind is like a wild
animal captured from the jungle, it is never fully dependable. If it gets the
chance it will run off into the jungle again. Similarly, if the mind is not
kept on a t
Quality Chanting of the Name
Devotee (8): When chanting our sixteen rounds, we are not sure if
these rounds are sincere...
Prabhupada: You should be sure.
Devotee (8): How can we be sure?
Prabhupada: There is beads.
Brahmananda: No, he's saying that when we chant our rounds, how can we
be sure that when we chant the round that the round is a perfect,
attentive round, sincere?
Prabhupada: Therefore it is sastra, "You must." There is no question
of understanding.
Brahmananda: The quality of the chanting he's
What is Maturity?
Maturity is the ability to control anger and settle differences without violence or destruction.
Maturity is to have patience.
Maturity is the willingness to pass up immediate pleasure in favor of the long-term gain.
Maturity is perseverance, the ability to sweat out a project or a situation in spite of heavy opposition and discouraging set-backs.
Maturity is the capacity to face unpleasantness and frustration, discomfort and defeat, without complaint or collapse.
Maturity is hum
