Blog

From Back to Godhead

By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Lecture given in New Vrindaban, West Virginia, on June 25, 1976

With practice, we can become free from limited affection centered on the body and can then realize the ideal of loving everyone.

ko griheshu puman saktam
atmanam ajitendriyah
sneha-pashair dridhair baddham
utsaheta vimochitum

“What person too attached to household life due to being unable to control his senses can liberate himself? An attached householder

By Kulavati Krishnapriya Devi Dasi

Mayapur Clean & Green, an environmental initiative led by Murari Mohini Devi Dasi, recently welcomed new devotee volunteers who enthusiastically contributed to the cleaning activity for several days and helped raise funds for the laborers. Their service highlights the challenges of a rapidly expanding population in Mayapur without a matching infrastructure, waste management resources, financial support, and more volunteers to keep the Holy Dham clean and safe.

By Rati Gopika Devi Dasi

ISKCON Malaysia Headquarters, Sri Jagannatha Mandir in Kuala Lumpur, achieved a record during the 2023 Damodara month with 222,709 lamps offered and 19,821 plates of prasadam shared. Out of this, a team of devotees conducted the Damodara Program, also known as Deepa-Damodara Program, at 25 local primary schools (ages 5-12), facilitating the offering of 104,747 lamps and the distribution of 8,656 plates of prasadam.

The Damodara Month initiative, inspired by HH Srila Jaya

If I didn’t wheel my suitcase down the city streets to Union Station from the ashram, a distance just shy of a 5 kilometre mark, I might not have put any walking in for the day. I felt to almost be in Vaikuntha, the spiritual world. Traffic was not nil, but quiet. For a good part, I stuck to the bike lane where you don’t have these cuts in the concrete. I arrived just after 6 am, and in a nice way, tuckered out, ready to plop down on the comfy train seat. With my japa meditation complete and pr

Answer Summary: By contemplating how meditation is where the biggest action is.

Answer: Action is what catches our attention. For example, in a cricket test match, when the action slows down as the batsmen start playing defensively, our interest sags. But when the action rises – the bowler delivers a googly that clean bowls the batsman or the batsman hits a huge six, for example – then our attention peaks effortlessly.

A break that we don’t need?

When it comes to meditation, we often think of it

We all have heard Srila Prabhupada warn us that television and media strengthen our materialistic mentality and divert us from service to Krishna—our consciousness being formed largely by our association. However, it is often difficult to keep our children away from the influences that are so pervasive in our culture.

Aggression and Television Viewing: The problems associated with children watching TV go beyond moral and spiritual concerns. There is mounting evidence of the many negative psycho

My dear devotees,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

In a letter to me dated December 1971, Srila Prabhupada wrote, “Go on increasing books and go on increasing my pleasure.” December is a special opportunity to focus on Srila Prabhupada’s desire that we distribute books—and thus increase his pleasure. As he wrote in the same letter, “I am most pleased especially to hear that you are distributing many books.”

tad-vag-visargo janatagha-viplavo
  yasmin prati-slo

Initaitive
Under the guidance of H.G.Kamalalochan Prabhuji (ISKCON Miraroad temple President ) devotees from Miraroad temple particularly teachers running the Narsimha Institute of Children’s Education (Sunday school) took this initiative of making students of schools and colleges light the lamp. Approaching Schools Teachers of NICE institute (Narasimha’s institute for children education) approached schools in Mira Road, Borivali, Kandivali, Dahisar,Bhayender,Surat, Ahmedabad ,Rajasthan. With m

“Often the answer to our prayer does not come while we’re on our knees, but while we’re on our feet serving the Lord and serving those around us.”
— Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Nair, a devoted nurse, had just completed a demanding night shift and was en route to her home. Despite being a single mother of three, juggling a
full-time job, and even working overtime today for extra income, her passion for her profession radiated through her.

Her beaming smile conveyed not only her love for serving the sick

This year’s Festival of the Holy Name, held over Thanksgiving weekend (November 24-25, 2023) in Alachua, Florida, was another spiritual success, welcoming hundreds of devotees to the two-day kirtan event.

The annual gathering is “fully organized and subsidized by second-generation devotees; the festival attracts every member of our local temple community as well as friends and congregation members from all over Florida and beyond,” said Mukhya Devi Dasi, Temple President at ISKCON’s New Raman R

I love the lines of Shakespeare that made me think a little bit more about Diwali, the light festival of optimism. Here it is from William Shakespeare, “How far that little candle throws its beams. So shines a good deed in a weary world.”

I had to ponder on what kind deed did I execute today? Well, here goes. I had to dredge memory, but could only come up with something miniscule compared to the heroic deeds of others. It was on my night walk when the sidewalk got tight and with a municipal tre

“The throne is yours, Bharatha. All yours.” The words dripped from Kaikeyi’s lips like sweet poison, enchanting yet deadly. She held the world in her hands and was handing it to him, gift-wrapped. Only a fool would walk away. Did it matter that her delicate fingers were steeped in blood and tears? His father’s blood and the tears of all of Ayodhya?

Power, such a seductive thing. It begins when we are infants and learn that a shrill cry can get you immediate attention. First we cry because we ne

There are bumper stickers that say, “I’d rather be hang-gliding”. For devotees of Krishna it could read, “I’d rather be distributing books”. Book distribution is that beautiful experience that melts the heart and is not
easily forgotten.

However, sometimes we neglect to distribute books, so Krishna sends certain reminders. Here are several reminders I have experienced:

Once I was standing outside the LA temple when a couple approached me. “Don’t you remember us? You gave us a calendar.” I vague

Like Ravana of the Ramayana, the heroes and heroines of today’s movies have a fatal flaw.

The Ramayana is an ancient Vedic saga of action, romance, wisdom, and adventure; a saga that has inspired a quarter of the world’s population for millennia; a saga that depicts a past when beings of celestial might both divine and demoniac interacted on our terrestrial realm; a saga of the struggle between good and the evil; a saga in which God descends and teaches virtue, righteousness, and spirituality b

Food for Life Hungary reached a historic milestone on 17 November when the head of the humanitarian program, Bhakta Vatsala Dasa, received the “For the City of Budapest” award from the capital’s mayor, Gergely Karacsony. The honor, given on Budapest’s 150th Birthday, also conferred honorary citizenship on Bhakta Vatsala. The 150th celebration commemorated the unification of the three historical parts of the city: Buda, Pest, and Óbuda.

Dozens of honorary citizens, artists, and celebrities who h

INSTED OF A JACK'O'LANTERN, A DEVOTEE FROM VANCOUVER CARVED OUT OF A PUMPKIN THIS EXTRAORDINARY PIECE DEPICTING KRISHNA LIFTING GOVARDHAN HILL.

I get so fascinated by Shyamasundar’s book, “Chasing Rhinos.” There were a few spots that I shared with Cory and Uday.

One of George Harrison’s acquaintances, David Wynne, had connections with the Queen. He offered her a Bhagavad-gita As It Is. According to David, she read the book for about half an hour and remarked, “How marvelous it would be to compl

Certain phrases and ideas tend to be especially memorable for devotees who regularly read Srila Prabhupada’s books. One such idea is that we must know not only that God is great but also how He is great.

Here’s one example of Prabhupada making this point.

The highest summit of spiritual perfection is knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Unless one is firmly convinced of the different opulences of the Supreme Lord, he cannot engage in devotional service. Generally people know that Go

The third verse of the Siksastakam is trnad api sunicena – “one should be humbler than a blade of grass.” You may wonder, “How can I be humbler than a blade of grass?” Let’s look at one way this is possible.

May you always think of Krsna.

Mahatma Das
 

Do Not Resist

Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains that grass doesn’t resist when it is walked on or thrown around. It doesn’t complain or scream out, “How dare you step on me or throw me here and there?!” As we say in California, “It goes with the flow

We concluded our last discussion on the existence of the self with the recognition that accepting our own existence somehow or other implied the existence of God, quoting Srila Prabhupada’s words “One can understand the nature of the Supreme by thorough study of oneself” (Bg 2.16, purport) (http://www.dandavats.com/?p=12367#more-12367).But by what process can this understanding be achieved?

Descartes concludes from his first two meditations that the self exists. He begins to ponder the nature o

ISKCON Malaysia Headquarters, Sri Jagannatha Mandir, Kuala Lumpur created a record this year where a team of devotees conducted Damodara Program or also known as Deepa-Damodara Programs at a total of 25 local primary schools (ages 5 to 12) in the whole of Damodara month (from 27th Oct to 29th Nov). This is a grand milestone for Sri Jagannatha Mandir, with a total lamp shown at 104,747 and with 8656 total plates of Prasadam distributed.

The Damodara Month preaching was inspired by HH Srila Jaya