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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

As the representative for the Hare Krishna Movement and the Vaisnava Hindu Community in Victoria, Bhakta Dasa was again voted in as the Chairperson for the third year of the Faith Community Council of Victoria (FCCV) in Australia.

Established in 2010, the Faith Communities Council of Victoria is Victoria’s umbrella multifaith body.

Read more: https://iskconnews.org/bhakta-dasa-again-elected-as-chairperson-for-fccv/

The Youth Interfaith Walk was a three-day hybrid event to bring together individuals of different religious orientations and cultures. With the objective of enhancing social cohesion and interactions among youths of different religious communities, Ms. Fatima Jiwani decided to launch this initiative as part of her fellowship with the ‘King Abdullah International Center for Interfaith and Intercultural dialogue’ (KAICIID). KAICIID is a unique intergovernmental organization bringing together foll

The Chariot Fest fast approaches, mañana (tomorrow) to be exact. Many visitors from different locations in the country have arrived. From outside Germany, comes a monk, Bhakti Bhushana Swami, a wonderful peaceful monk if ever I knew one. I already mentioned about Mahavishnu Swami, who’s from the U.K. And then there’s myself, from Canada.

I met Mark, a New Yorker, now living in Santa Fe, who was startled to hear a kirtan party in one of the sections of Buenos Aires where he was on an art assignm

By Ekantita-buddhi dasa

I continue to distribute books. Even though the military is trying to catch and recruit all young men, Krsna protects me.

I walk along the main street, and of course I look around, but I continue to offer books. The people react very well and take books. Krishna protects me from the military.

On a recent Saturday, I was at a big market from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and people took 115 books. Then I went and dined at Food for Life and continued distributing until 6 p.m. The peop

Dear Prabhus,

Please accept our obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Hare Krishna!

We understand that you are all engaged in the most important service of keeping ISKCON members worldwide informed and enthused about the expansion and development of ISKCON. Srila Prabhupada’s family extends to every corner of the Earth now and it is essential to maintain unity of purpose and consciousness.

With that in mind, we would like to emphasize at this time that in two years, starting from Decembe

Jananivas Prabhu’s service was to bring frankincense to Srila Prabhupada’s room in the evening. He mentioned that usually after you fill a room with frankincense, you open the doors and windows so that the mosquitos go out with the smoke. Srila Prabhupada however liked to keep the smoke within the room and stopped Jananivas Prabhu from opening the doors and windows. Since it was Srila Prabhupada’s darshan time, there would usually be many western devotees in the room and these western devotees

Hard work with the drama practice, but while waiting for all to show up, I pulled together this poem:

Dream and Cream

It’s a blessing to be alive

In such a honey bee hive

Sharing space of purity

Where darkness becomes obscurity

In a safe ashram temple

Far from the judge mental

We sing and we play

Even on the most gloomy day

Keeping to some regimen

For even Bhakta Benjamin

We sit and hear a lesson

Always time for some question

We honour the best food

At the three point interlude

A ses

By His Divine Grace A.C.B. Swami Prabhupada

Authorities and Lawyers (2:10:51)

Any question that is put forward may be answered by quoting the authority, and that satisfies the saner section. That is the system even in the law court. The best lawyer gives evidence from the past judgement of the court without taking much trouble to establish his case. This is called the parampara system and learned authorities follow it without manufacturing rubbish interpretations.

Activities (Material and Spiri