Man has the chance to bloom spiritually by raising himself to the highest level of love of God.The Vedic scriptures divide consciousness into five categories, namely covered, shrunken,budding, blooming, and fully bloomed.
Trees and plants, for example, are almost inert. They fall into the “covered consciousness”category. They seem to show no sign of consciousness, but when we observe them carefully, we see they have a limited consciousness.
Other living entities, such as worms, insects, and oth
In Stratford, I met Sandy, a Westpac Bank worker from New Zealand, who told me that she has most of these books and LOVES reading them. She said that every time a devotee comes through, she buys another book.
“These are not books you just read once and move on,” she said. “I read them through fully, then after a few months I re-visit them and start reading them over again.”
She was so inspired, and she really takes shelter of Prabhupada’s books. This time, we sat on a park bench, and I showed h
As I was chanting my rounds in the metro, somewhat disheartened because I wasn’t able to preach to anyone (they were all into phones & magazines), a man around 40, wearing fashionable cloths – yet quite worn out and dirty after a more careful look – entered the train with many bags in his hands.
I concluded that he was yet another homeless (there are more and more of them lately) and perceived his sad, bitter smile. He came by me and said something I didn’t hear, so I faintly smiled back.
“Oh,
Bhaktivedanta Manor’s goshala, New Gokul Farm, is dedicated to the welfare of a beautiful herd of cows, oxen and two bulls. Beyond meeting their everyday needs, the goshala team love preaching to our community about Śrīla Prabhupāda’s teachings of Cow Protection! We enjoy delivering courses on Cow Protection with the School of Bhakti, hosting retreats, and doing workshops. But for the very first time, we headed to a school to preach about Cow Protection to young students!
Friday 8th July 2022 w
Fluff floats in the air at this time of year, which is actually seeds sent off by poplars. Well, that is what is occurring in many places in North America, and the several acres off of Marine Drive, the location of the “Sage the Earth” event at ISKCON, is also having that magical touch.
Ananda Gauranga, the priest for the event, is conducting the fire ceremony, not missing a beat with his Sanskrit mantra pronunciation. “He sounds like an auctioneer,” happily blurted out Patrick, the sound man a
All of us need to find an identity in Krsna Consciousness. We are all servants but we need to find a service that meets our nature and ability.
These are all the activities of sadhana-bhakti-yoga, it cleanses the heart from the conception that “I am the body” and it changes the spirit of possessiveness from “I want to possess things for myself, my enjoyment” to “I only want to possess Krishna”. And when we give ourselves to this process of hearing and chanting about Krishna, then the more we do it the more we want to do it, because we get the taste and there is nothing that’s more powerful than the taste. And when we get the taste for
We hired a gardener for a job at our home in Perth. His job was to help our plants get some nutrition. I offered to be his assistant, for which he offered us a small discount.
James arrived on the scheduled day, and I put on my gardening hat and was out on the earth. As we worked, laying down heaps of soil conditioner and mulch, my laptop played some nice kirtans.
James commented, “This music is really nice. It is very soothing.”
I agreed and told him it is spiritual music.
After working in the
I was out in a remote village in Gujarat, walking through the village, and many people said, “We already have the Gita.” This is a common response. It’s true, most households do have a copy, so then I ask the question, “Do
you read it?” The answer is often no. So I reply, “Please read at least a verse a day.” Or I introduce those stuck on their mobiles, who have “no time” to read to Mayapur.tv or another devotional site.
After receiving many rejections for the above reasons, I passed two homes
Congratulations to Bhakta Michael who accepted diksha initiation. What a fine person he is! A gourmet chef and caterer, he is also a good devotee. His Sanskrit name now is Mukunda Madhava.
Offering initiation to Mukunda Madhava is one of my reasons for coming to Vancouver. I’m also here to participate in an event called “Sage the Earth.” I just finished a poem on the topic.
Sage the Earth
She goes by the Vedic name Bhumi
And is worshipped by many a sage and muni
Sometimes she’s described as
By evening I was able to reflect on the day’s affairs as I strolled down on Marine Drive. It was past the sun’s setting. The air was cool; good for contemplation. I’ll add that overall, it is the coolest spring (and now the dawn of summer) that I’ve ever experienced.
A five-hour flight from Toronto and a three-hour time-zone change threw the biological clock a slight bit off course. I settled down in a room by the ISKCON facility, visited Govinda’s Restaurant for physical and spiritual nourishm
One of Prabhupada’s intimate followers after Prabhupada’s departure had a period where it was difficult to connect. For many devotees after Prabhupada left, it was not so easy. Those disciples of Prabhupada who had his association and who were there during his time, were there during the difficult period when Prabhupada left and ISKCON went into the hands of new leaders. As a result, many withdrew. So as they withdrew, the standard of Krsna consciousness also went down a little bit, or external
Krishna Das and I invited two young guys who bought a book to the temple of Villa Vrndavana. They came, stayed a while, and then we left in a week.
After a year, we went back to the Villa with a group to do harinamas. I went to the dining room to eat prasadam and sat down with the Italian devotees. I saw a devotee, and his face looked familiar to me.
I asked, “Do I know you?”
He replied, “Did you forget me? You came last year, you distributed a book to us and I stayed here.”
He began to follow
Video: Click here
Srila Bhaktivinode explains that by reading Vraja Vilas Stava we can learn how to appropriately conduct ourselves with the residents of Goloka Vrindavan.
Well, I read it, and it is indeed relishable.
But clearly I know that it is going to be many, many maha yugas till I associate with the residents of Goloka Vrindavan.
And, if ever I do have that association, it will happen only by the causeless mercy of Srila Prabhupada, who has liberally given us the process and goal of atta
I put hours into drama practice. It’s coming along – the production “Demon.” I’m blessed once again with a good team, but it’s hard work. Following that came a visit to Adi Kurma’s. He’s a good cook. He pulled together everything I like – spiced avocado, boiled asparagus (lightly, then sauteed), sweet potato, moong dahl paratha and a lime-mint drink sweetened with maple syrup. All offered to the Lord. Thanks chum, I loved it!
A rush back to the temple/ashram landed me at another Zoom call with
The greatest challenge in performing Sadhana Bhakti is our attempt to serve the Lord with only the cognizance of Him being an almighty God. The immense distance between us and the Lord during the clearing process (Anartha Nivrtthi) is such that most Sadhakas face difficulty in maintaining steady service. This misfortune can solely be attributed to a lack of Sambandha Jnana or in other words due to forgetting who we are.
Most of our energy during the clearing process goes into fighting our previ
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Any contact with Krishna purifies our consciousness and gradually qualifies us for eternal loving exchanges with Him.
Pradyumna Dasa, Srila Prabhupada’s Sanskrit editor, begins reading The Nectar of Devotion, Introduction:
Invoking auspiciousness: Lord Sri Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes, the reservoir of all rasas, or relationships, which are called neutrality, or passive adoration, servitorship,
Many of my friends thought life was just a huge meaningless game.
But I always felt there was something more and I had to find it
I was born near Boston in 1958. My father had a Masters in architecture from Harvard, my mother a B.A. in literature from Smith. They were well-to-do, yet they instilled in me the understanding that money wasn’t the ultimate cause of happiness. Before I was born they had moved out of Boston to the country, to bring up their family in a place where they felt moral val
By Madhava Smullen
What has kept the International Society for Krishna consciousness going for 54 years now, “systematically propagating spiritual knowledge to society at large” as Srila Prabhupada wrote when incorporating the movement in 1966?
Much has been down to the steady efforts of quietly dedicated devotees, doing their services day in and day out for decades – the pujaris, the teachers, the mothers, the cooks, the cleaners, the maintenance workers, the accountants, the book editors, the
In the middle of the night I vividly dreamed about the Bhagavad-gita being held in someone’s hand. I had never seen or heard of the book. But in the morning, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. So I looked on the internet and then went to some bookstores looking for it. No luck.
Then I had an urge to go to Byron Bay, an hour and a half north of where I live, which is just north of Sydney. I got a hotel room and went walking around Byron Bay. One man approached me and offered me the Bhagavad-gita.
