Things are moving along with the recording of the audiobook for The Saffron Path. I have completed forty-three chapters and I am well into walking the United States to reach the Elm tree at Tompkins Square, Park, NY. It’s fun going through the book’s content again. It feels like I’m on the road again. Nice to see some people purchasing the book as a Christmas gift.
Being stuck in a tight studio for the recording restricts the opportunity to mobilize the body. And on top of that, there are obliga
If a devotee were to ask, “Please bless me so that I’ll never take birth again in this horrible material world,” would this be asking for some kind of liberation? Hundreds of times, Srila Prabhupada encouraged us to “Go Back home, back to Godhead.” Would it be a form of boldness or naiveté to desire to come back to this world and serve by preaching?
That would depend on our level of perception and spiritual progress. There were times when some disciples indicated to Srila Prabhupada that they w
His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, appeared on 1st September 1896 at 4pm at premises number 63 Tollygunge Road, Kolkata-700033. The house where Srila Prabhupada was born was under a Jackfruit tree. In 1920’s the maternal uncles of Srila Prabhupada sold this land to a Zamidar (landlord) and the new landlord sublet it to different people. Later the Indian Government acquired this land from the landlord along with the sub-tenants and Bharatiyas.
When I joined the Hare Krishna movement, I was 20. I was young and full of anticipation for an improved life. Well, that has happened. I am blessed. Now looking at fifty years later, my intentions are the same. I continue to work on self improvement, although externals have changed.
Other young persons had joined when I did. For instance, two of the decent people I got to know were a couple, Vallabha Chaitanya and Lila Sukha. Last week, Vallabha passed away at Saranagati where I just visited. L
Srila Prabhupada once explained the festival this way: “Krishna was just a toy in the hands of the Gopis, so one day the Gopis decided that we shall decorate Him. Pusya abhisheka means a ceremony to decorate the deity profusely with flowers, ornaments, cloths. After there should be lavish feasting and a procession through the streets, so that all the citizens should see how beautiful Krishna appears.”
If you feel very inspired to decorate Krishna nicely tomorrow for Pushya Abhishek please visit
Recently it was the auspicious Siva-Ratri and let us take some time to read the wonderful prayers offered by Lord Siva as found in SB 4.24
SB 4.24.32: The great sage Maitreya continued: Out of his causeless mercy, the exalted personality Lord Śiva, a great devotee of Lord Nārāyaṇa, continued to speak to the King’s sons, who were standing with folded hands.
SB 4.24.33: Lord Śiva addressed the Supreme Personality of Godhead with the following prayer: O Supreme Person
It is no exaggeration when I say that it is liberating when you take a trip to the farm. To be more specific, current and personal, I had the pleasure to hit Highway-1 with Jay Govinda, Hari Nishta, and Bhakta Vishnu for a drive to our rural community; four hours northeast from Vancouver.
The drive is scenic and super pleasant. I was quite shocked, however, to see the extremely low level of water in both the Fraser and Thompson Rivers. At certain sections the water of the Thompson was like a cr
The new British prime minister Rishi Sunak has brought a large community and their estate of Bhaktivedanta Manor near London back into the spotlight. The park is home to the headquarters of the Hindu cult in the West and politicians are increasingly passing through it.
Translated from Italian: In the hours following th
HER GRACE AJITA DEVI DASI, SRILA PRABHUPADA’S DISCIPLE, WIFE OF 35 YEARS TO HIS GRACE SIDDHANTA DASA PRABHU, LEFT HER BODY THIS MORNING, THIS WINTER SOLSTICE MORNING. HER DAUGHTER KARTIKA DASI: “This Winter Solstice morning, my mother passed away in her sleep during the Brahmamuhurta, or Amritvela, the most auspicious time of the day for rising early, before the sunrise, to meditate. As all who knew her would probably recall, she had a strong belief in astrology and auspicious timings. It’s no
Deena Bandhu Das: Please join us in prayers!! I requested a few weeks ago for my dear older Godbrother, Nara Narayan Prabhuji and now on January 2nd, Krishna has finally taken him surrounded by devotees and children at the apartments in Los Angeles doing kirtan. Srila Prabhupada nicknamed him Visvakarma for his many wonderful services including making the first very ornate Vyasasana and engineering the up and down movement of the rath carts among many. Srila Prabhupada loved him dearly and he w
I was milking the cows in the afternoon, and an Indian family came into the goshalla. We had a talk as I was finishing the milking, and then I engaged them in bottle-feeding the calf Nishta.
Afterward I offered to show them some books. The head of the family agreed to take a whole stack and gave a nice donation. I also mentioned that I had full sets of the Bhagavatam and Caitanya-caritamrta at home and encouraged him to consider taking a look at them.
To His Holiness Pope Francis Members of the Roman Catholic Church
January 1, 2023
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) extends our heartfelt condolences to all of our friends and colleagues in the Roman Catholic Church, who are feeling great loss due to the passing of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.
Pope Benedict was a great theologian and scholar of the modern Church. Among his many contributions, we are moved by his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, in 2005, where
The festival of Gaura Purnima is upon us once more, and whether you are physically present or not, we gladly invite you to join us in celebrating! Take advantage of the chance this year to serve Sri Pancha Tattva on Gaura Purnima and receive Gauranga Mahaprabhu’s unending blessings!
Please watch out for the Seva Sponsorship Forms On www.mayapur.com page!
It gets fairly interesting when the boiler breaks down and you sit in a frigid space. I’m talking about our temple hall in Burnaby, where I’m staying. In sacred places like Vrindavan, India, you just don’t have central heating, therefore a pilgrim will naturally feel a chill. As pilgrims do at these times of year, they wrap themselves in coats, scarves, mits, and chauddars (shawls). It’s the norm to bundle up in the winter.
What compensates for the chill in the air is chanting and reciting the
I like this idea very much. Our chanting is the medicine and our prasadam is the diet for curing material disease.
SP letter to Dayananda (October 17, 1968)
How to Honor Prasad
When a devotee distributes prasada, remnants of food offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in order to maintain our spirit of devotional service we must accept this prasada as the Lord's grace received through the pure devotees. Nectar of Instruction (Text 4 Purport)
Stop—where are you running? Everything you seek lies inside:
Soul, God, happiness, and joy. You might miss it all If you keep searching outside.
(Found on the walls of a medieval monastery)
Please consider that the most essential things in life are invisible. Breath, life force, love, soul, and God; all can’t be seen with our present eyes nor touched with our hands. Nevertheless, they are what matters most. Without them, all the things we surround ourselves with are like a big meal without sal
I know, I know, of the cup that cheers but doesn’t inebriate; But the world cup sure gives no cheer for some close affiliate For those that know and see, and get conditioned to the game Its misery and sorrow I heard, and what to speak of shame? For the World Cup that may chee, is sure not writ on their fate!
Oh! come on, it’s all in the game, said one, a wager won; While another, who knew naught – a village idiot, told his son: “My God ! why all the kicks and fig
In Vraja there was a dancer named Candrahasa who was very expert in the tasting of rasa. In Chaitanya-lila, he became Jagadisa Pandit who also took great pleasure in dancing for the Lord. (Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika 143)
Jagadisa Pandit is considered to be simultaneously both Nityananda-shakha and Chaitanya-shakha, a branch both of Chaitanya as well as Nityananda in the desire tree of devotion. He was born in the town of Gauhati (Pragjyotishpur) in modern Assam.
In Vraja there was a dancer named Candrahasa who was very expert in the tasting of rasa. In Chaitanya-lila, he became Jagadisa Pandit who also took great pleasure in dancing for the Lord. (Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika 143)
Jagadisa Pandit is considered to be simultaneously both Nityananda-shakha and Chaitanya-shakha, a branch both of Chaitanya as well as Nityananda in the desire tree of devotion. He was born in the town of Gauhati (Pragjyotishpur) in modern Assam.
During this year’s book marathon in Durban, I met many people who had a change of heart. Not heart transplantations but a transformation of consciousness.
A Christian lady whom I spoke with was going through difficulties. I told her about the Fifth Canto and what happens after one is involved in the four sinful activities. I gave her details, such as how eating meat puts you on a hellish planet, where in a pot of boiling oil, you are boiled alive.
