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I could not resist going down an endless prairie dirt road for the friendly skies of Krishna – blue clouds, great air, and no stop signs or intersections to worry about. The road I chose is located where I’ve been staying; I didn’t catch the name of it but it is edged by lots for new housing units. Out of nine lots, seven are sold and one of them is already under construction, at least the foundation. Three men were up and at it, hard hats and all. They were surprised to see a spec of saffron a

I remember coming to the temple with two of my friends, and a beautiful kirtan—a very sacred kirtan—was in progress, probably led by Yamuna. We sat down and all of a sudden the devotees fell flat on the floor. Being polite young girls, we did the same for the first time in our lives. I was very curious and I wanted to see what was happening. I was thinking, “Why are they doing that?” I put my head up a little and I saw two beautiful golden feet passing by my head. I wanted to see to whom these

Cholars, artists  and folk cried  after  freedom  from  time  immemorial.  Unfortunately,  it  frequently  continues to be  cry  only for a  simple  reason – nobody of them  knows  what  constitutes  freedom  and what  slavery.  So the  meaning  of the  freedom  itself  is  degraded.

In this  essey I will  deal  with  with bondage  in its  unalloyed  and  primary  form  as  defined  in Bhagavad-gita, the  oldest  book of freedom.  My subject  is  easily  understandable  analogy  of thraldom,  w

Just as a very good sweet will have something hidden inside of it, or a company will have the inner group of key people, the Gita has a core made up of four verses. These are called the Catur Sloki (catur = four, and sloki = verses), and they summarize the entire Gita.

The eighteen chapters of the Gita are themselves divided into 3 parts. The middle six chapters focus on bhakti and are “protected” on either side by teachings on karma-yoga (the first six chapters) and jnana yoga (the focus of th

Lord Krsna is the source of all love. All living entities are emanated from Sri Krsna and He has created us for the exchange of unlimited love. Hence there is no question arising for love without Sri Krsna. On material level, we love people or a things for our sense gratification. There is always an expectation hidden in our love. But the real love is that in which there is no expectation. This is the test of a love. This love evolves only between Lord and His devotees. In other words if we wish

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