Yesterday my dear godbrother HH Siddhartha Swami Maharaja came to visit me in Carpinteria. He was the head pujari in Juhu for many years when I was the temple president, and we shared many fond remembrances of our time together in service to Srila Prabhupada and Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari.
Now Maharaja is developing a huge temple complex in Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh. The project is 70 percent complete, and he hopes to open it next year.
Maharaja has become a learned scholar who knows ma
We were on our way to the Tommy Thompson Park, a shaded-in-spots trail where cyclists and pedestrians share the space, when a man on a bicycle stopped to ask if we had any drugs. His articulation was weak and so we had to ask him to repeat himself. We were still wet from the swim at Cherry Beach and in our swimwear, not recognizable as monks. With me were Emanuel, Karuna, Ryan, and Arjuna. We didn’t really come across looking like folks who take substance to get high. He was naturally disappoin
On October 3,1972, psychologist Dr. Gerald Frazer visited His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada at ISKCON’s world headquarters, in Los Angeles. Their conversation follows.
Dr. Frazer: I am curious to know what you do when one of your students has a problem on the physical or emotional platform. Do you help that person over his problem by getting him to transcend it, by rising above it?
Srila Prabhupada: Yes, we speak only on the transcendental platform, not on the bodily or menta
I just came back from traveling sankirtan, where many amazing encounters took place. The other day I went into a shop and first gave a small book, then The Science of Self-Realization, and then, when the lady gave a nice donation, also the Bhagavad-gita. The lady explained to me her spiritual transformation after her father had had a very severe stroke; it really changed her life for the better.
When I was talking with her she suddenly said, “My hairs are standing on end.” Crying, she added, “T
In India, people have worshiped the Lord’s form for centuries,
and now the practice is flourishing in the West.
When Krsna the Supreme Lord appeared five thousand years ago to enact His pastimes, good people rejoiced to be in His presence, to live on the same earth with Him. Yet, when Lord Krsna no longer visibly walked the earth, how did these people, His devotees, react? We’d expect that they were unbearably lonely. But for thousands of years devotees in India have known that we can personall
Hare Krishna Dear Devotees,
I was distributing in Kilbirnie, Wellington.
Amongst many nice young people, I met Alex.
He was amazed to see the books and explained that Krishna now has special significance in his life.
Yesterday he went to view a room in which Wanzi ( a Wellington devotee) is renting and has taken the room. Now he is super excited about moving into a “Hare Krishna flat”.
He told me that he is a vegetarian and very interested in meditation.
As such, he was more than happy to chip i
By Yudhisthira dasa
My Story
In 1971 when I was studying at SUNY Buffalo (and playing on the college tennis team), many of the now famous shaved-up orange-robed ISKCON devotees were a regular part of the landscape on campus. At that time, I had little contact but would stand around to stare at their alien appearance and briefly listen to their message. In those years, I hadn’t found my passion and was passing time in college as one of many of America’s “disillusioned” youth.
Fast forward a few
By Rukmini devi dasi
Urvasi devi dasi passed away last week in Ojai California and will be cremated. She was a beloved member of the ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) movement, worldwide. Below is a compilation of memories and tributes to Urvasi devi dasi.
In her honor, a Vanipedia page was created of the letter Srila Prabhupada wrote to her parents, the Kimmels.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/a-tribute-to-urvasi-devi-dasi-prabhupadas-girl/
By Bhaktimarga Swami
It was my second swim-in-the-lake for this year – a personal milestone. And with me was Brihat Mrdanga and his associate, Arjuna. Their purpose was to scrape off, with water and sand, the caked-on-make-up from the play. I was submerging for the chill of it all. It’s been a long two days on Centre Island, and the quiet time is needed. When you are a swami, there are many demands from the public. Just by sitting at one spot, person after person comes to you.
In my teens, I wo
“Like father like son,”
the saying goes. So how was it that
the most sinister personality ever
to darken the universe fathered a great saint?
Adapted from Srimad-Bhagavatam, translation and commentary by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
A vicious storm raged through the darkness. Pierce winds hissed again and again and uprooted gigantic trees. Thick clouds covered the sky, and lightning flashed as though laughing. The ocean with its high waves wailed as if stricken with
We had a book table in Hornsby, a northern suburb in Sydney. It was a cloudy day so there wasn’t much crowd. So I decided to walk around and approach people. I saw a young guy smoking and browsing through his phone.
I approached him and asked him if he was from Hornsby and caught up a conversation. He said he was working in the supermarket and it is his break time. I presented the Bhagavad Gita but he was a bit reluctant and was not showing much interest. I turned to the picture which shows the
With theories being established, taught, and discarded like disposable napkins, a father wonders whether his child will get a real education.
In the summer of 1970, I felt for the first time the fear that parents know when their child ventures out into the world. My daughter Emily wasn’t even three years old, a toddler. Yet one morning, as I watched her walking down the street to play, I suddenly saw her facing the whole sweep other future.
At moments like this, a person really comes face-to-fa
ISKCON Gita Nagari to host 44th country style Ratha Yatra after two-year hiatus.
After a two-year hiatus due to the global pandemic, ISKCON Gita Nagari is gearing up to celebrate its 44th Annual Ratha Yatra on Saturday, July 30, 2022, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Gita Nagari Eco Farm, Port Royal, Pennsylvania.
“This is probably the only Ratha Yatra in ISKCON North America and possibly the world which is done country-style. Imagine singing and dancing to the Holy names of Krishna surrounded by natu
Urvasi Dasi was Srila Prabhupada’s beloved disciple and my dear godsister. His Divine Grace said that when a Vaishnava departs, we feel simultaneously happy and sad—sad because we will miss the Vaishnava’s association, and happy because we know they have gone to serve Krishna.
In the last few months, I have had several programs at my ashram in Carpinteria, and Urvasi attended—and enjoyed—all of them. Her presence—her humanity and divinity—uplifted our spirits and consciousness. She was always p
We had hiccups. The sound systems weren’t working for the procession at the three chariots, however some of our young men visiting from other parts of North America compensated for this by their booming voices. The sheer crowds that ended on the south-bound journey on Yonge St were stunning. So, that was not the greatest issue as far as having a successful fest. On the street and on the island, there was record breaking attendance. I was surprised and, like others, was uncertain as to how the t
While distributing books in a parking lot in Dallas, I approached a couple of men at their truck and offered them an “Easy Journey to Other Planets.”
“This book explains that there is life on other planets, and many of those planets are a lot better than this one,” I said. “We’re destroying this one. We just ask for a donation for it.”
They said, “We just gave the little cash we had to the guy there with the bike that has a dog in his front basket.”
There was this man with his dog that had sun
By Premanjana Das
The beginning of book distribution
Krishna Bhava Das, from ISKCON Punjabi Bagh community in Delhi, 68 year old , strongly built, having a sharp gaze of determination yet having an air of simplicity around him, eldest in his family of 30 members, untouched by modern flare , who prefers to keep to his village roots and culture, a strong businessman is been one of the most enthusiastic devotee when it comes to book distribution. Over the last 10 years, he has distributed lakhs of
For a long time scientists have been asking,
What’s going on? And some of them
have tried to find out,
What’s behind it all?
Sir Isaac Newton once made a remarkable model of the solar system. Thanks to a clever hand-cranking mechanism, all of the tiny spinning globes orbited a small “sun.”
On entering Newton’s study, one of his colleagues, a materialist, couldn’t help noticing the model. He was flabbergasted.
“Dr. Newton,” the man stared, “who made this wonderful contraption? The planets move
I was uncharacteristically minding my own business after a very busy day of book distribution at Fisher’s Ghost Festival in Campbelltown, in south Sydney, when Tony, a geologist, looked at the Gita in my hand and “Searching for Vedic India.”
He very solemnly said, “The best place to hide something is to keep it in plain sight.”
I asked, “What do you mean?”
He responded, “Here you are, sitting with the summum bonum of knowledge, and thousands of these people don’t even realize this.”
He continue
Mathuranath Das: In Alchevsk, rockets hit directly into the Food of Life building. Krishna Tattva, Madan Gopal and Arjuna were in the building.
Arjuna was taken to hospital, he is alive.
And Krishna Tattva and Madan Gopal remained under the rubble. Doctors have confirmed their death. The bodies will be extracted today.
Verovsky Maxim – Madan Gopal prabhu.
Gubarev Kirill – Krishna Tatva prabhu. (in the picture on top)
Yakovlev Andrei – Arjuna Prabhu. ( at the hospital)
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Please pray for the
