By Rādhā Devi Dasi, Karuṇā Śakti Devi Dasi & Loka-pāvanī Devi Dasi
Manu-Samhita states, “The gods are very happy with those families where women are respected. And where women are not respected, there all kinds of sacrifices/charities are futile.” Yet the abuse of women and children is the most pervasive human rights violation in the world, what to speak of spiritual violation? ISKCON’s Founder-Acharya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada emphasized the importance of protecti
Dear Devotees and Friends of the TOVP,
Hare Krishna! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
The year 2022 comes to a close, opening the door to the beginnings of another year of service and surrender, and opportunities to bring Krishna into the lives of the conditioned souls. Underlying all our intense efforts to finance and build the TOVP is this focused intention to bring Krishna consciousness to the world at large. And at the foundation of this motivation is the desire and order of His Divine Grac
These days, more and more people are becoming vegan, not only outside of our movement but also inside of our movement. Of course, Srila Prabhupada in the first Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam very much emphasises the importance about drinking milk. He also emphasises that milk sweets should be offered to the deities. Here, in Vrndavana, Srila Prabhupada reserved the milk sweets for the Gurukula. Yes, they got all the milk sweets. Sometimes we would steal, and such things were going on. So milk is es
Bliss is at the beach, but for those of us who are bhakti boys, the earlier in the day, the better; before crowds set in. A couple from Milton, Ugresh and Urmila, joined us in the oceans of water for a morning Sadhana comprised of prayers to the guru, prayers to Narasingha, the lion avatar, and then finally a Bhagavatam discussion.
What do we get out of this? A water massage, vitamin D, minerals nourishing the body, time to touch the brain and heart. Time to touch humility. We dried off and the
By Chaitanya Charan das
Speaking on the Mahabharata outside Bharata – at Princeton
During my visit to Central New Jersey, 2016, Govinda Prabhu and I spoke at Princeton University on the topic of “Tragic Hero? Lessons from the life of the Mahabharata character Karna.”
Vineet Chander (Venkat Bhatta Prabhu) serves as the Director of Hindu Affairs at Pinceton University; and he had invited me to speak on this topic. Later, it turned out that Govinda P was also there in Central New Jersey at the tim
From HH Niranjana Swami’s book: Taking Care of Krishna’s Devotees
Istagosthi with Brahmacaris – August 8, 1999
The counselor system is a topic that is very important to me. I am happy to speak about this subject whenever the opportunity arises.
I wanted to express my convictions today, not based upon my position as an “authority”, but from a personal and open-hearted viewpoint of someone who has had 27 years of experience in ISKCON. If you see any validity to these years of experience, then may
From Back to Godhead
Although Lord Krsna wants our full surrender,
He encourages us to progress gradually to that exalted goal.
THE Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.29.11-12) states, “The manifestation of unadulterated devotional service is exhibited when one’s mind is at once attracted to hearing the transcendental name and qualities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is residing in everyone’s heart. Just as the water of the Ganges flows naturally down towards the ocean, such devotional ecstasy,
सीतानाथ समारम्भां रामानन्दार्य मध्यमाम्।
अस्मदाचार्य पर्यन्तां वन्दे श्रीगुरू परम्पराम् ।।
भक्तमाल सुमेरू श्रीमद् गोस्वामी तुलसीदास जी महाराज के चरणों में कोटि-कोटि नमन;
तुलसीदास जी महाराज हिंदू समाज की एकता के प्राण कहे गए हैं, जिन्होंने अपने कालजई काव्य से संपूर्ण हिंदू समाज को एक सूत्र में बांध दिया था। मैंने स्वयं कुछ हिंदू संगठनों के अधिकारियों से बात करी थी और उनसे पूछा था कि आपके अनुसार हिंदू धर्म को अभी तक किस चीज ने बचा के रखा है तो एक बात मैं बहुत गर्व से कह सकता हूं कि सभी का मत एक ही था
The Hindus who visit our Krishna temples perceive ISKCON as an orthodox movement, appreciating the traditional temple service and how beautifully the altars are maintained. Many of our western friends might appreciate the Krishna movement differently: as a modern and relevant movement which advocates vegetarianism, honors the Earth, and offers meditation through joyous singing and dancing.
One might say Vaisnavism is the most stable and orthodox of all the Vedic traditions. Everyone knows how at
In the heart of Toronto, Canada’s biggest city. Five thousand years into Kali Yuga. Shortly after a
brutal pandemic. Surrounded by an ocean of materialism, sin, and providers of sense gratification, such as cosmetic surgery and Botox clinics, strip clubs, liquor stores, cannabis stores, and night clubs. In this most unfavorable environment, a residence of young devotees within the Toronto ISKCON temple ashram has surfaced with energy, commitment, and engagement to learn and practice Bhakti Yoga
As Lord Jesus Christ said, we should hate the sin, not the sinner. That is a very nice statement, because the sinner is under illusion. He is mad. If we hate him, how can we deliver him? Therefore, those who are advanced devotees, who are really servants of God, do not hate anyone.
When Lord Jesus Christ was being crucified, he said, “My God, forgive them. They know not what they do.” This is the proper attitude of an advanced devotee. He understands that the conditioned souls cannot be hated,
Last week members of ISKCON, took part in the conference on Biological Diversity (COP15) to the United Nations (UN), being held in Montreal, Canada, December 7-19th. The conference’s goals are to discuss protection planning of the natural world by international governments and interested parties for the next decade.
ISKCON members presenting at the conference were: Gopal Lila das UN Co-chair of the UN Multifaith Advisory Council, and Rasa Bhakti dasi, Gauranga das both from the Govardhan Eco Vi
Tropically settled on the southern coast of the Sunshine State, Delray Beach is a welcome home to many- especially those looking to catch some waves or connect body, mind, and spirit! A month before the Bhakti Lifestyle Retreat, five New Vrindaban devotees had scoped out the area during a short fall vacation earlier. At the time, they didn’t realize Krishna would soon place them back in Delray Beach to gift a spiritual revolution to the salty-haired yogis they had crossed paths with- but they w
“Anyway, print books, distribute profusely, and that will be the best preaching work. What will your three minutes’ preaching do? —but if they buy one book, it may turn their life. So, make this your important task, to print our books…and distribute widely, and that will please my Guru Maharaja. Never mind it takes little time to make progress, our process is slow but sure, and we are confident that if we continue in this way, we shall go one day back to home, back to Godhead.”
– Srila Prabhup
My last hours were spent in comfort, both physically and otherwise. I was asked to give another Bhagavatam class, my fourth this week, and I caught up on some rest before the drive to Tigre. Tigre (Spanish for tiger) is a tourist attraction outside of Buenos Aires. There is located a vegetarian restaurant run by Daksha, and so visitors from other ISKCON communities in the country made this fine dining place their stop over before returning to, more in particular, Mar del Plata. We brunched. We
Compiled by Stephen Knapp
The Bhagavad-gita is the essence of all Vedic philosophy and is composed of 700 verses and explains such topics as the nature of the soul, God, the material universe, the nature of activities and karma, reincarnation, the process of yoga, the purpose of life, and more. Within the Bhagavad-gita we can find the teachings for such additional topics as how to have a peaceful life, how to gain stability of mind, how to understand the workings of material nature, or even get
By Sucitra Devi Dasi
In 1962, working alone with a manual typewriter, Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda condensed the Bhagavad-gītā’s seven hundred verses into simple rhyming Bengali couplets. His book, ‘Gītār Gān’, is a beautiful and easily-understood poetic rendition of the gītā, aimed at making its wisdom more accessible to Bengali-speaking people. When it was first published in 1973 it became a grand success, widely loved and appreciated by the Bengali populace. One distributor rep
By Parasuram das
Devotees coming from Ukraine put their own Sunday Feast together in their ‘New Beginning Cafe’, in the City of London. Today we received £10,000 worth of computer equipment for learning English and establishing initiatives. The cafe helps raise income and acts as a resource centre, thanks to the hard work of Bhaktin Inna. All these devotees have a story to tell, but Srila Prabhupada has come to take the devotees suffering away so they can chant the Holy Name:
It was the beginni
Bhakti takes two forms in this world. On the one hand the form of activities you perform with body, voice and mind, and on the other hand the form of feelings. These devotional feelings are the inclination to serve Krishna in a favorable way, in other words giving pleasure to Him. The feelings of bhakti-bhava also include eagerness, gratitude and being moved by genuine love.
Just yesterday I developed another feeling: urgency. This is what happened.
I was on parikrama around Govardhan Hill, car
An old Farmer lived on a farm in the mountains with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Bhagavad-gita. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way that he could.
One day the grandson asked, “Grandpa! I try to read the Bhagavad-gita just like you but I don’t understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bhagavad-gita do?”
The Grandfather quietly
