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By Madhava Smullen

With this holiday season upon us, devotees from Alachua as well as from Gainesville’s Krishna House, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine participated in the St. Augustine Christmas Parade in Florida on December 4th.

Hare Krishna devotees were the first part of the parade in 2012, for which they received the first prize trophy for best float. After receiving a trophy in 2013 as well, they have participated annually since only missing three years including 2019 and 2020.

The parade

It was a full day of rain and I’m not used to this, but such is nature.

Special about today, though, is that it’s the birthday of Vrnda. Who is Vrnda? Well, she’s a very sweet and intelligent woman who is doing a lot for this movement. She has an incredible devotional and legal head and is most helpful in so many capacities, most of all acting as the zonal secretary for our North Zone here in North America. She assists me in my GBC responsibilities. GBC stands for Governing Body Commissioner.

It

• FRIENDS WITH OUR MIND

Jai Sriman SriNarayanaya Namaha. 

Yoga is often misunderstood as merely breath control, asanas or exercises; for some it is about practising some rules and regulations based on morality and for others it is cultivation of scriputral knowledge. But the real purpose of Yoga is to fix our mind on the Supreme.

According to Bhagavad-gita, yoga can not be practiced unless we practice mind control. An uncontrolled mind restricts the soul from reaching its natural blissful state, which a practioner is trying to acheive through yoga.

Ou

By Kunkuma Devi Dasi

It’s with a heavy heart and blessings from his family (who aren’t on facebook) that I want to tell everyone that last night December 16 at 11:45pm Hawaii time His Grace Revatinandan ( former Swami) passed away in Honolulu after a short illness which was diagnosed as lymph cancer. He was my partner for 5 years about 6 years after having been married to his first wife Pushpanjali Dasi and having a child Nila Chala Chandra das. He was first cousin to Vishnujana Swami who broug

What did it mean when Srila Prabhupada said that ISKCON cannot be destroyed from the outside, but only from the inside?

Yes, ISKCON can be destroyed from the inside. Srila Prabhupada is referring to a forest fire here. There are two forest fires that Krsna swallows. One of these forest fires is the disagreement that comes about in the spiritual movement in the sanga of the devotees. And so, this is highlighted as something that can destroy our movement from within. As long as there is a core g

It was the first sunny bright day in weeks, so a number of us took full advantage. We took to De Boville Slough, which has a dyke running along to one side and then edges along Pitt River. Bears do frequent the area.

We strolled for two-and-a-half kilometres and then returned, making it a five kilometre stretch of glory-walk. We talk as we walk, and sometimes get silly. It is a component of my daily reality to get down to dealing with grave matters, but I have found it necessary for equilibrium

By helping us see that we are meant to become like our Lord because we are his parts. Just as he has forgiven us, we should forgive others.

Bhakti wisdom is also to understand that we are eternally the part of Krishna, mamaivansho jeeva loke. Just as we are parts of God, we are meant to be godly. If we look at our own lives we have committed so many misdeeds in this life and previous lives. There are so many reactions that we could have got for those misdeeds. One reaction to past misdeeds is t

From The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 11:

“In the Hari-bhakti-vilasa there is the following statement about self-surrender: ‘My dear Lord, a person who has surrendered himself unto You, who is in firm conviction that he is Yours, and who actually acts in that way by his body, mind and words, can actually relish transcendental bliss.’”

“In the Nrsimha Purana, Lord Nrsimha-deva says, ‘Anyone who prays unto Me and takes shelter from Me becomes My ward, and I protect him always from all sorts of cal

From Back to Godhead

In believing our senses, how far do we go?

“Not enough evidence, God! Not enough evidence!”

The atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell was once asked what he would say if he found himself standing before God on judgment day and God asked him, “Why didn’t you believe in Me?” Russell replied, “I would say ‘Not enough evidence, God! Not enough evidence!’”

When philosophers or scientists complain about lack of evidence, they mean empirical evidence or evidence that can be interpr

A fresh snowfall descended recently and has blanketed the surface throughout most of the province. Nature, it seems, speaks to us all the time. With the whiteness of snow, the message is “be introspective,” “be pure,” “be still,” “be calm.” When spring comes around the message is “move about,” “clear the space,” “dance and sing,” “stretch,” “grow.” When summer rolls in I hear it saying “take in the sun,” “relax,” “swim,” “play.” And when autumn ushers in it says “breathe,” “eat,” “sleep,” “smell

Prabhupāda: Abhijñe, one who knows. We should approach person who knows things very well, abhijñaḥ. Kṛṣṇa is abhijñaḥ, svarat. So similarly, Kṛṣṇa’s representative is also abhijñaḥ, naturally. If one associates with Kṛṣṇa, if one talks with Kṛṣṇa, he must be very abhijñaḥ, very learned, because he takes lessons from Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa’s knowledge is perfect; therefore, because he takes knowledge from Kṛṣṇa, his knowledge is also perfect. Abhijñaḥ.

And Kṛṣṇa talks. It is not that it is fictit

By Jyotisvara dasa 

What is this conference all about?

Consciousness has been the most elusive object in all scientific explorations of reality. With gradual advances in modern science, it is increasingly receiving the singular focus simply because all our perception of reality is rooted in it. 

Despite incredible success in Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, Neuroscience as well as basic sciences like physics and biology, we have practically no clue as to how information translates int

If we were to distill the Bhagavad-gita to one word, it would surely be, “Krishna.” If we were to distill the Bhagavad-gita to eighteen sentences, one per chapter, it might read like this:

Before a just and vital battle, recognizing beloved relatives and mentors among his opponents, the great warrior Arjuna tells his friend Krishna that he will not fight.

Krishna points out that by giving up the battle Arjuna would fail to see the spiritual essence in others, fail in his duty as a warrior and fa

Who am I?” or “What is Mine?”

Here I'm with a new thought process, that developed by seeking Visions of Gita book. So, I started realizing the process of our life, our perspective, the way how the world looks at us.

Our life story is essentially the story of our quest for happiness. This quest is directed by a driving question. For spiritualists, the question frequently is, “Who am I?” For materialists, the question usually is, “What is my?”

These questions reflect two radically different concep

Someone sent me an article by James Clear (in the photo). I thought he made a very interesting point. So many times we heard Srila Prabhupada say, “Just give them my books.” Of course, sadhu sanga helps explain the books according to time, place and circumstance. But I thought you all might find this interesting.
“Any idea that is sufficiently different from your current worldview will feel threatening. And the best place to ponder a threatening idea is in a non-threatening environment. As a res

Achyutananda Prabhu says that according to proper kirtan principles, we should always begin with Srila Prabhupada’s pranama-mantras. He said that he noticed several kirtan leaders not doing this or not knowing kirtan etiquette.

A Russian devotee, Purnamasi devi dasi, told the story of when she was imprisoned by the KGB for practicing and preaching Krishna consciousness in the Soviet Union.

While she was in jail, she would encourage other prisoners to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. The auth

For thousands of years Greece has been known as a land of great thinkers, with such men as Aristotle, Hippocrates, Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras, Plutarch, and Archimedes leading the way. It stands to reason that a “thinking man’s” movement such as Krishna consciousness should do well there.

International Society for Krishna Consciousness devotees have been active in Greece for over forty years, with some success. Over the years, eight different temples opened in Athens, and at least one successfu

By Pranjal Joshi

The journey of a young millionaire, who blends spirituality with entrepreneurship.

It's evening; a young Bengali gentleman sitting in his office in Kolkata completes a webinar on entrepreneurship and moves on to an online TV interview. Interviewer asks him questions relating to investment, business and startups and he answers them all with fervid expressions. Being in limelight, guiding budding entrepreneurs, focusing on resolving queries and making people think differently is a