Dear Malati,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 22, 1973.
You write that things are in a crisis in England, with oil shortage and IRA bombing. Therefore, we have to take shelter of Krsna. If Krsna wants to kill us that is not wrong, if it is His desire. Our business should just to be to follow the regulative schedule, deity worship, distributing prasadam, chanting, book distribution and never mind the material danger. Krsna Consciousness means
By Bhaktisiddhanta Swami
We can study the example of a topmost Vaishnavi, Queen Kunti-, who prayed for calamity to remember her Lord again and again. Of course, she is the personified zenith of devotional dependence, but we can greatly benefit by trying to at least get a glimpse of her mood.
SB 1.8.25
vipadah. santu ta-h. s’as’vat tatra tatra jagad-guro
bhavato dars’anam. yat sya-d apunar bhava-dars’anam
I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You agai
The secret to protection and universal welfare
“Absorption in Krsna” and “Dependence on Krsna” are the two main aspects of spiritual life demonstrated by Lord Sri Krsna in Sri Vrndavana. A materialist is generally absorbed in one’s own self and has quite a lot of faith and pride in one’s own intellectual capabilities, achievements, resources and contacts. As opposed to such materialists, the Vrajavasis are a group of people who are totally absorbed in the thoughts of how to serve Krsna and are
भगवद्गीता यथारूप 108 महत्त्वपूर्ण श्लोक
अध्याय सात भगवदज्ञान
येषां त्वन्तगतं पापं जनानां पुण्यकर्मणाम् ।
ते द्वन्द्वमोहनिर्मुक्ता भजन्ते मां दृढव्रताः ॥ 28 ॥
येषाम्– जिन;तु– लेकिन;अन्त-गतम्– पूर्णतया विनष्ट;पापम्– पाप;जनानाम्– मनुष्यों का;पुण्य– पवित्र;कर्मणाम्– जिनके पूर्व कर्म;ते– वे;द्वन्द्व– द्वैत के;मोह– मोह से;निर्मुक्ताह– मुक्त;भजन्ते– भक्ति में तत्पर होते हैं;माम्– मुझको;दृढ-व्रताः– संकल्पपूर्वक।
भावार्थ : जिन मनुष्यों ने पूर्वजन्मों में तथा इस जन्म में पुण्यकर्म किये हैं और जिनके पापकर्म
भगवद्गीता यथारूप 108 महत्त्वपूर्ण श्लोक
अध्याय सात भगवदज्ञान
इच्छाद्वेषसमुत्थेन द्वन्द्वमोहेन भारत ।
सर्वभूतानि सम्मोहं सर्गे यान्ति परन्तप। ॥ 27 ॥
इच्छा– इच्छा;द्वेष– तथा घृणा;समुत्थेन– उदय होने से;द्वन्द्व– द्वन्द्व से;मोहेन– मोह के द्वारा;भारत– हे भरतवंशी;सर्व– सभी;सम्मोहम्– मोह को;सर्गे– जन्म लेकर;यान्ति– जाते हैं, प्राप्त होते हैं;परन्तप– हे शत्रुओं के विजेता।
भावार्थ : हे भरतवंशी! हे शत्रुविजेता! समस्त जीव जन्म लेकर इच्छा तथा घृणा से उत्पन्न द्वन्द्वों से मोहग्रस्त होकर मोह को प्राप्त होते ह
By Atma Tattva Das
On September 21, 2024, the streets of Rose Belle, Mauritius, hosted the Rathayatra Festival, an important festival on the Vaishnava calendar. The event featured a procession involving the deities Lord Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadra. It was organized by a team of volunteers led by Kaunteya, a prominent figure in ISKCON Mauritius.
Kaunteya’s journey in Krishna consciousness began in 1989 when he joined the temple as a new devotee. His dedication quickly found expression in var
By Suniti Devi Dasi
ISKCON Resolve and the North American Regional Governing Body (NA RGB) announced a new free online seminar entitled “Fostering Effective Cooperation for a Unified Mission” hosted by Vraj Vihari Das to be held on Saturday, October 12th, 10 AM – 12 PM EDT. The seminar will be on the Zoom platform and a link will be emailed to you prior to the event.
Srila Prabhupada consistently emphasized that cooperation is essential for the success of his mission. However, as many of us kno
Energy is a very active principle and that is personally felt by myself. On this second day of MANtra endeavouring to piece the play together was just that - a lot of energy output. It was a labour of love, for sure. My directorship was necessary for practice even during MANtra sessions, so I missed some good presentations.
I was fortunate to be present during the women’s panel which was so revealing. My dear god sister, Praharana spoke about the real tough times she had when a wave of anti-wome
A sign of a good leader is that he does not request those under him to do something that he is not prepared to do. So before we desire to distribute this Vedic culture to the whole world, we ourselves have to be following it in such a way that nobody can find even a minute discrepency in our practice. People are too attached to their sense gratification and wont be so readily eager to give it up, and although they may have some attraction to the Vedic culture, if the mind can find an excuse for
What will happen to me after death?
In the second chapter of Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna explains this subject to Arjuna in great detail. Arjuna was faced with a situation where, in order to uphold dharma, he had to fight and kill people who were very dear to him, his own relatives and friends. As one might expect, it caused great disturbance to Arjuna, and when he finally saw the people with whom he was going to fight, he lost all composure and began to cry.
Arjuna threw down his bow and told
From Back to Godhead
Lessons on life, death, and living in a spirit of devotion
ISKCON devotees commonly use the phrase, “Going back home, back to Godhead.”Have you ever thought about what this means when a traveler is anxious to return home? Home is where our family is, where there are people who love us, who trust us. It’s the place we’re comfortable and happy. It’s the place we feel most natural.
The world we live in is foreign to the soul; we are strangers in a foreign land. In this alien p
भगवद्गीता यथारूप 108 महत्त्वपूर्ण श्लोक
अध्याय सात भगवदज्ञान
वेदाहं समतीतानि वर्तमानानि चार्जुन ।
भविष्याणि च भूतानि मां तु वेद न कश्चन ॥ 26 ॥
वेद– जानता हूँ;अहम्– मैं;समतीतानि– भूतकाल को;वर्तमानानि– वर्तमान को;च– तथा;अर्जुन– हे अर्जुन;भविष्याणि– भविष्य को;च– भी;भूतानि– सारे जीवों को;माम्– मुझको;तु– लेकिन;वेद– जानता है;न– नहीं;कश्चन– कोई।
भावार्थ : हे अर्जुन! श्रीभगवान् होने के नाते मैं जो कुछ भूतकाल में घटित हो चुका है, जो वर्तमान में घटित हो रहा है और जो आगे होने वाला है, वह सब कुछ जानता हूँ। मै
ISKCON congregations around the world contributed their part in caring for the Earth, Mother Bhumi, by picking up trash and removing unsightly litter along rivers, parks, and roadways as well as tidying up their own temple properties. Their inspiring efforts were in response to an invitation from the ISKCON Environmental Initiative (IEI) encouraging our communities to participate in the global “World Cleanup Day” initiative.
Originating as a small initiative in Estonia in 2008, World Cleanup Da
By Kulavati Krishnapriya Devi Dasi
On the auspicious occasion of Radhashtami, Harikatha Studio, an innovative initiative led by Raghavendra Bazari under the guidance of Kartikeya Das, Hariksetra Das, Acyuta Arjunasakha Das from ISKCON Whitefield, launched the first episode of their animated web series based on Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Currently, it is only available in Hindi.
This series marks a significant step forward in presenting the wisdom of the Bhagavad-gita to modern audiences in a digita
Providing a strong challenge to established academic perception and methodology, Drutakarma Dasa presents the Vaisnava Hindu worldview on the fundamental concepts to the approach to and interpretation of the archaeological record. His presentation is articulate and thorough and the extensive research he has undertaken to support his thesis is very impressive. He contrasts the currently accepted time concept, which closely resembles the Judaeo-Christian model, with the ancient Puranic model and
This is for all of our preachers in the Far East. May it give them more preaching information to use in their location to help convince people of their connection with Vedic culture.
Bharatvarsha’s beginnings go back to a very long way in time and it is almost certain that the results or influence that is seen today around the world, in the main, were not achieved by military expeditions or conquest, but by peaceful trading and religious teaching, and thereby all the more permanent. This is esp
Here is the text of the Speaking Tree article:
Caring for cows can have a healing effect, says Iskcon monk KENNETH R VALPEY, aka Krishna Kshetra Swami, to SONAL SRIVASTAV
French philosopher Rene Descartes suggested that animals are merely reflex driven and have no intellectual capacities that imply self-consciousness. “It actually goes all the way back to Aristotle,” says Kenneth R Valpey, aka Krishna Kshetra Swami, a Gaudiya Vaishnava theologian with a D Phil degree on Gaudiya Vaishnava philos
On September, HH Radhanath Swami was in New York City to speak at The Bhakti Center for their 3rd Annual Pearl Festival, celebrating Radhastami (the Divine appearance of Srimati Radharani). A special feature of this festival is that all guests received the opportunity to write a prayer on a paper pearl and offer it, along with a real pearl, to Radharani. All the real pearls were then collected, strung into a necklace and offered to Radharani as a gift. Below are some excerpts of his talk.
“The
भगवद्गीता यथारूप 108 महत्त्वपूर्ण श्लोक
अध्याय सात भगवदज्ञान
नाहं प्रकाशः सर्वस्य योगमायासमावृतः ।
मूढोSयं नाभिजानाति लोको मामजमव्ययम् ॥ 25 ॥
न– न तो;अहम्– मैं;प्रकाशः– प्रकट;सर्वस्य– सबों के लिए;योग-माया– अन्तरंगा शक्ति से;समावृत– आच्छादित;मूढः– मुर्ख;अयम्– यह;न– नहीं;अभिजानाति– समझ सकता है;लोकः– लोग;माम्– मुझको;अजम्– अजन्मा को;अव्ययम्– अविनाशी को।
भावार्थ : मैं मूर्खों तथा अल्पज्ञों के लिए कभी भी प्रकट नहीं हूँ। उनके लिए तो मैं अपनी अन्तरंगा शक्ति द्वारा आच्छादित रहता हूँ, अतः वे यह नहीं जान पाते
