By Nrsimhananda das
The Devotee Care initiative has been expanding worldwide since 2015. Many hundreds of devotees have taken the Devotee Care course. Find it and everything else devotee caring at devoteecare.org/
History was made in Watford’s famous Cassiobury Park on Saturday 11th June. After local devotees gathered en masse along Watford’s bustling high street for hari nama chanting, for the first time they made their way to the park’s entrance to greet the cart carrying Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra. After a joyous Ratha Yatra procession around the park, a feast was served to everyone as they were serenaded with kirtan from a beautifully decorated bandstand.
Source: https://iskconnews.org/first-eve
The acaryas were so absorbed in chanting that they did not want to do anything else. When Gaura Kishor das Babaji was chanting and would get hungry, he would simply eat some clay from the Earth. He was hungry, but he did not want to be distracted by going elsewhere to eat since he wanted to keep on chanting. How can we understand this, how can we understand such a high taste for chanting?!
It is said in the Sri Caitanya-carita by Murari Gupta that, “Gopinatha Acarya took the path of hearing Sri
Vivaan, who’s 8, the son of my hosts in Lorette, shared with me a quote he loves about the forest – “You won’t get WIFI here but you will get connected.” I like that. I think we’ve all had incredible connections with the solitude of trees all around us.
For this morning I did not have the honour to be in the midst of green giants but did have the privilege to trek on a dirt road, to see the open prairie sky with Vivaan’s grand-uncle who is seventy-years-old but his 8. This is freedom.
At 2 pm an
By Giriraja Swami
Srila Prabhupada expressed his appreciation for his father in his dedication to his book Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead: “To My Father, Gour Mohan De (1849-1930) A pure devotee of Krsna, who raised me as a Krsna conscious child from the beginning of my life. In my boyhood ages he instructed me how to play the mrdanga. He gave me Radha-Krsna vigraha to worship, and he gave me Jagannatha ratha to duly observe the festival as my childhood play. He was kind to me, and I
While it was June 4th in Noida, India, the morning, I was delivering a class to students during my evening, several hours behind the day before. It was my second time giving a Zoom call to this group in what they say is an “Energy Class” and the topic was “Who Is Crazy?” It was fun, and the simple answer to the question is that we all are more or less crazy; based on the premise that we believe we are the body when in fact my identity is that of a spirit soul. Let’s leave it at that.
Mahadeva a
Today, on Father’s Day, some devotees thought of me and wrote to me. I thought of Srila Prabhupada and a letter he wrote to a disciple: “You have accepted me as father, so I have also accepted you as my dear and real son. Relationship of father and son on spiritual platform is real and eternal; on the material platform such relationship is ephemeral and temporary. Although I cannot give you anything as father, still I can pray to Krishna for your more and more advancement in Krishna consciousne
It was a very scenic, long drive to the area of Quebec City. A gracious host, Priya Radha, invited our troupe to her home for chanting and a talk. There was food and fun.
On the way to her home, at I’sle de Neige, I read to our troupe a recent poem I wrote about some observances of the world. This does not reflect on Radha Priya and her program. This is a first draft of “Culture? Do We Have One?”
Culture? Do We Have One?
Culture? Do we have one?
With waterways spoiled
And precious air done
With the Mangalacarana prayers, we have invoked the blessings of the entire parampara, coming down from Lord Krsna and all the acaryas. That is how an initiation takes place. It is by the grace of all these personalities. We are all here simply as representatives of the mercy flowing from this parampara. Somehow or other, we have received mercy and because of that mercy, we are able to be here in some role. And the roles we play simply depends on whatever the vaisnavas have bestowed upon us. Be
Following in the footsteps of Srila Prabhupada’s father Gour Mohan De, thedevotee community organised a wonderful Rathayatra festival in a localpark. The children led the kirtans, and put on a brilliant drama “Mrgarithe Hunter”, followed by a feast.
“These children are given to us by Krishna, they are Vaisnavas and we mustbe very careful to protect them. These are not ordinary children, they areVaikuntha children, and we are very fortunate we can give them chance toadvance further in Krishna Co
Ryan and I couldn’t get into Kingsbrae Gardens. We were too early. After looking at and reading a bit about pirates, I thought it would be nice to offset and gain balance from seeing some flowers and llamas that the garden provides. As mentioned before, pirates were a gruesome bunch. And that’s the way Hollywood used to portray them. When I was a kid, pirates were scum and clowns made you happy. Today, pirates are romanticized and clowns are evil. I don’t get it.
With Kingsbrae’s gates closed,
When fall down from the spiritual worlds takes place, it means falling down from the non-fallen condition which means Vaikuntha or Goloka Vrindavana.
The jiva-souls can also fall further to impersonal Brahman or impersonal Brahmajyoti after becoming fed up and frustrated with the material existence and the cycle of birth and death.
In this way the fallen jiva-souls seek out the "inactivity" or a dormant state in the impersonal Brahmajyoti in an attempt to escape the suffering of repeated birth and
We went to a house and were greeted by a family from north India. They invited us in. With the open-minded couple, we talked about their professional lives, kids, and women’s empowerment and connected all of that with the Bhagavatam. The lady was genuine, and they took a set. People are looking for deeper experiences and connections in life, despite having high paying jobs, big homes and all facilities.
Our next knock was on the door of a pious man from Kolkata, who at first seemed not so impre
Anyone can become a sadhu, or spiritual teacher, by following the example set by sadhus. Two famous sadhus who taught by example and left a wealth of literature started as apparently worldly men.
Dabir and Sakar lived in 15th-century Bengal. Both were well educated, wealthy, and influential. Both spoke several languages, and Dabir was Bengal’s chief minister, Sakar its minister of finance.
Though both Dabir and Sakar were dutiful, well loved, and without material needs, neither was satisfied. T
I was distributing books in Kumeu and stopped a cool looking girl, who said “no” straightaway and got into a car near where I was distributing. Shortly afterward a man joined her in the car, and he sat and watched me.
I stopped a man with a few kids, who was in a hurry. He quickly grabbed a “Hiding in Unnatural Happiness” and went into a dentist’s office. Then the man watching me got out of the car and talked to me.
He turned out to be a Christian. He just wanted to ask me a question, which he
One summer evening at the Bhaktivedanta Manor, near London, Srila Prabhupada was sitting in his room with his disciples, a few guests, and a woman reporter who was scantily dressed despite the chilly English weather. From the first, the reporter’s questions betrayed her cynical view of Srila Prabhupada’s Krsna consciousness movement, At last, clearly exasperated by his adroit and authoritative answers, she resorted to the old standby, “Why do you people have bald heads?”
“Why do you have bare l
Srila Prabhupada’s First Talks in America (New York, March 1966)
tad viddhi pranipatena
pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam
jnaninas tattva-darsinah
“Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you, because he has seen the truth.” [Bhagavad-gita4.34]
Knowledge is the solution. And for knowledge we have to go to the right person, the tattva-darsi. Tattva-darsi m
There is a lot of tension in our devotee community between ahimsa dairy lovers and vegan devotees. Let us explore what each community believes, the similarities, and the differences.
Ahimsa means non-violent. Ahimsa dairies do not confine their herd to a building where they never see the sun and they are allowed natural behaviors such as living in a herd and chewing cud in a pasture. Ahimsa dairies do not slaughter the cow at the end of her milking days. When her milking days are past, she can
It can’t get more peaceful than out here. St. Andrews is a coastal town with population of 1,700. “It’s grown,” said Jo Anne Carney, our host, while we were all in her guest house. She and her husband, Rob, run a business as well as the “Tall Ship Whale Watching” outfit at the wharf. I’ve known Rob before I undertook marathon walking. He lived as a monk in the Hare Krishna ashrams of New York and Toronto.
Ryan has become our able chef to the group. He’s putting together some good meals. He’s al
