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Even when there is duty, we have to see what will be the effect of the duty. Not everything should be done very blindly. This is devotee. Devotee means he’s not blind. Yasyasti bhaktir bhagavaty akincana sarvair gunais tatra samasate surah. (SB 5.18.12) [“All the demigods and their exalted qualities, such as religion, knowledge, and renunciation, become manifest in the body of one who has developed unalloyed devotion for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva.”] Bhagavad-bhakta means he w

A leading monthly travel magazine with over 16 million readers displays a full page color photo of Tompkins Square Park with a caption that begins, “The East Village’s Tompkins Square Park has been a bastion of counterculture for decades. The Hare Krishna movement was born here.”

Srila Prabhupada describes that birth, “Our sankirtana movement was first introduced in New York in 1966. At that time I came and began to chant this Hare Krishna mantra in Tompkins Square. I was chanting there for thr

Written By Madhava Smullen for ISKCON New Vrindaban Communications

Archival Research by Chaitanya Mangala Dasa

ISKCON Founder-Acharya Srila Prabhupada visited New Vrindaban four times, giving the devotees there his association and dispensing practical advice for simple living that remains invaluable not only to New Vrindaban, but to all ISKCON rural farm communities to this day.

During his first visit, running for over a month from May 20th to June 23rd 1969, Srila Prabhupada encouraged the sma

For more than 8 months war has been going on in Ukraine and devotees keep asking us for help.
The devotees in the occupied cities and towns on the front line are facing the worst situation.
The economy is not operational there and it is close to impossible for them to support themselves.
Many devotees need to be evacuated, you might be asking how to help Ukrainian devotees. Share your care fund is the tool you can use to do this.
SHARE YOUR CARE WITH DEVOTEES
Shareyour.care project is dedicated

Hare Krishna,

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada

All glories to Sri Kshetra Dham!

Welcome to Sri Kshetra Parikrama 2022.

We would like to welcome you to our 19th anniversary celebration of Sri Ksetra parikrama which will be celebrated from the 10th to 13th of November 2022.

Puri dham is also known as Sankha ksetra as its form is in the shape of a conch shell. This puri parikrama is known therefore as Sankha ksetra parikrama or Sri Ksetra parikrama. The path is

When I flew out to North Ontario, sitting next to me across the aisle was a man, possibly in his thirties, who had his sketchbook out. For that hour-and-a-half I watched from the corner of my eye seeing this guy whipping out page after page of just gorgeous designs coming out of his drawing pen. I envied him on two counts; one is that he was so damn good at what he was doing because each sketch carried a different theme; two is that he was just keeping himself busy, engaged in something product

Amidst the Covid situation of this year, pilgrims from far and across the country are visiting Sri Dham Mayapur during this auspicious period of the year to partake in the various auspicious pastimes of the Lord. From Govardhana Puja celebration, to Gopastami, down to the most auspicious days of Bhisma Pancha, Devotees all over the Dham are observing various vrata, taking cold and auspicious bath in Ganga while reciting various sacred mantras, offering seva to our Mayapur Goshala, Sri Radha Madh

Video: Click here

Join us for a one-hour special conversation with Niranjana Swami, ISKCON Governing Body Commissioner, to learn about the current status of Hare Krishna devotees in Ukraine, the challenges they face, and how you can help.
Maharaj will share many of the stories and plight of the Ukrainian devotees. In an interview format, he will answer questions and describe the condition of the yatra and how the ISKCON community came to help.

Some of the topics:

• The situation in Ukraine now
• T

Rouge National Urban Park is a real gem located in the east end of the city of Toronto. To my understanding it is one of the largest green spaces in a major city in North America. Recently there have been bear sightings in the area. Unfortunately (or fortunately) our group from the Bhakti Academy didn’t see any, although I did take home a tick crawling on my dhoti (lower robe).

This might be the last of our outings for the group this season before late autumn chills set in. For today the scener

Srila Prabhupada: One time, Indra, the king of heaven, was cursed to become a hog, and he became a hog. He had a wife and many kiddies and was living in a filthy place, eating stool. Brahma came to him because in his absence the management in the heavenly kingdom was not going nicely.

Brahma requested, “Indra, now please come with me.”

“Where shall I go, sir?”

“Heaven.”

“What is that? I cannot go. I have responsibilities. I have my wife, my children, and I am happy here. I do not know what heav

“The cardinal principle of gṛhastha āśrama is that no one may be the owner of any property or service of another.
Everyone is only a servant whose activities are ever in the service of the Lord.
Similarly, the sole object of everyone’s service as the only master, only friend, only son and only consort is Krishna.
Marrying and giving in marriage do not give rise to any rights of a master either to the husband or to the wife.
Men and women are joined in wedlock for the purpose of serving each oth

“If one is capable the Bhisma-panchaka vow will be observed for the sake of love of God for the five days from the eleventh day (of the bright lunar fortnight in Kartika) up till the full moon day. The prescriptions for this have been given in the Vrata-Khanda-Kartika Mahatmya of the Padma-purana, in the Skanda Purana and in the Visnu-rahasya.”

After observing the fast of Prabhodhini Ekadasi in the month of Kartik, one should fast for the last five days of Kartik which are called Bhisma Pancaka

This kind of 5 day fast is also prescribed for the last 5 days of Kartika (Damodara) Month and it is known as “Bhisma Pancaka”. During that vrata puja offerings to the Lord are also prescribed. I am listing them below. There are also mantras that go with these offerings. However, I didn’t find any specific mention about this for Purusottama month. In the Padma Purana it only stated that in addition to ekadasee one can observe a “pancaratrika” fast until amavasya. Here are offerings prescribed f

The more we hear about Krishna, the more we become purified. We cannot understand Krishna because we are not purified. But if you hear the Krishna name, Hare Krishna—Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare—if you chant and hear, you become purified. So why should we not take this simple method, as it is recommended in the shastra, harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam [“In this Age of Kali there is no other means, no other means, no other means for self-realization than cha

Our visiting monk (swami) from Belgium is Bhakta Prabhava Swami, and he was emphasizing at one portion of the Bhagavatam class the importance of sadhu sangha, which means to be in the right company. We all do find ourselves in the situation of the person next to you at work, school or recreation to be not always the best association, therefore downtime is needed through some moments of solitude. A second approach would be to reach out to the acquaintances that you have known to excite and enthu

I often have to encourage devotees, especially those not living in the temples, to rise early in the morning and come to the temple for the morning program, or to have one at home. Devotees should generally rise by 4 am, which means that their lives must be organized in such a way that they get sufficient rest, meaning taking rest early.

Certainly there are many considerations for individual cases; however, we will see from the collection of quotes from Srila Prabhupada below (not referenced) t

For the past six months a party of brahmacaris has preached in Lyon, France.

Recently, Rasananda Sankirtan Dasa from Spain joined them, and here he writes about a recent preaching adventure on the streets of Lyon.

I met the man in the attached photo a while back and offered him a book, but he did not break his meditation on Heavy Metal even to look at me.

Today, however, when we arrived in a park and passed this man, he said, “If you have a book on Heavy Metal, I will take it!” The subculture i

This is one of many stories told by Harisauri dasa who was Srila Prabhupada’s personal servant for a number of years back in the 70’s:

As I laid out the straw mat on the sunlit veranda to prepare for his massage, Srila Prabhupada drew my attention to some sparrows making a nest. They had chosen a hole in the wall behind the electrical circuit box just outside Prabhupada’s sitting-room window. He said that their chirping disturbed him at night while translating his books. So before they could bu

I really had to think over what I would speak about at the Brampton ISKCON Sunday program. I was in the premises just one day before conducting workshops on kirtan standards, which went well. So, it dawned on me that not everyone attended from the congregation. “Let me try an abbreviated version of the previous day’s workshop, now that I have a larger audience today.”

I took full advantage of the situation. The end result is that people listened, were delighted and informed. The president of IS