Blog

By Pancharatna das

Hare Krishna,

The annual December book distribution marathon is approaching and devotees throughout the movement are thinking about how to increase their outreach efforts.

One way is to connect your efforts to Chantnow.com , an online follow-up and cultivation system centered around teaching about the maha-mantra.

A few years ago, we formally launched Chantnow.com and began our marketing efforts. Now, every day we receive over 120 new visitors and enroll 3-4 new students for o

Dark, ominous clouds set in and at the corner of Guy and Maissoneuve Streets in downtown Montreal, thousands of Concordia University students were making their way to destinations – classrooms, apartments, or coffee shops. Snowflakes hit our faces, but just momentarily, at this busy student hour as we chanted away letting the nippy nature of the night not bother us too much.

Students were curious. With a big percentage being from India they are indeed familiar with the sound. We received smiles

First meetings

I first met my spiritual master on March 6th 1975 in Dallas Texas. Srila Prabhupada had just been in South America and had toured the Southern United States. I was on travelling book distribution with a sankirtan party and had strayed quite a distance from Montreal my home base.

While reporting to the temple president about our scores, we were informed that Srila Prabhupada was flying from Atlanta to Dallas the next day and would be there for some time. We immediately drove west t

From Back to Godhead

The race for supremacy continues even in the virtual world

This is the age of internet.People are spending more and more time online. They are emailing, socializing, chatting, downloading, uploading, sight-seeing, blogging. And of course they are searching. In fact to perform all the previous tasks, one needs the help of a search-engine like Google. Google is so famous today for helping people find something on the internet that it is almost synonymous with a search-engine.

The Krishna consciousness movement is not a new creation but is simply presenting the teachings of the Bhagavad-gita for the benefit of the whole world.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you very much for your kindly participating in this great movement. This movement was not started by me. It was started long, long ago by Krishna Himself. First He spoke the philosophy of Bhagavad-gita to the sun-god. As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita (4.1),

imam vivasvate yogam
proktavan aham avyayam
vivasvan ma

- Srila Prabhupada and George Harrison, London, 1973

“I liked Prabhupada’s humbleness. I always liked his humility and his simplicity The servant of the servant of the servant is really what it is, you know. None of us are God—just His servants. He just made me feel so comfortable. I always felt very relaxed with him, and I felt more like a friend. I felt that he was a good friend. Even though he was at the time seventy-nine years old, working practically all through the night, day after day, w

The last time George associated with a large group of devotees was when he and his wife, Olivia, visited the Manor in the summer of 1997. We had invited him to a celebratory dinner a few days after we got permission to build the new approach road.

This dinner was held shortly after we had another amazing fundraising dinner called “Prabhupada’s Dream”, during which guests and patron members of the Manor were invited to raise funds to buy the land for the approach road. That evening the target was

I wanted to offer my congratulations to the four new initiates from Mauritius. This last Sunday, we got plugged into the Zoom system with the community in Bon Accueil, in that country which apparently holds the post of having the most covid deaths per capita in the world at present. There is no way that I would be physically present in this otherwise lovely nation with the virus being too infectiously in the atmosphere. Things are done in separation these days.

Kudos go to Akilesh who received t

An Early Essay by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada.
A pure devotee is just like the Desire-Tree from whom we can have on request everything desireable. This is no myth or bluff but it is actual fact. The devotee can deliver to us the mercy of God and what is not obtainable by one who has got the mercy of God? Therefore the devotees are the most magnanimous in their charitable disposition of mind. They are also the deliverer of the fallen souls and we need to offer our o

The Sacred India Gallery in Perth, created by Jagtarini and his other associates, gives a glimpse of India’s important shrines. In Mann Ki Baat, PM Modi praised her devotion to Krishna and said that people visiting her Sacred Art Gallery in Perth will be able to see the art of Jagtarini and get a glimpse of the traditions and cultures of India’s famous pilgrimage cities of Vrindavan, Nabadwip and Puri. is seen.

Jagtarini Dasi’s husband Bhurijana Das is the head of the project ‘The Sacred India G

GBC Strategic Planning Team (SPT) invites you to discover the holy land of Vrindavan outside the real Vrindavan in our 4 day special series. Jagattarini Devi has joined us on Day 4 to talk about the hidden Vrindavan and its glories.

About Jagattarini Devi

Her Grace Jagattarini Mataji joined ISKCON and first met Srila Prabhupada in America in 1970 (many of you may have heard of this famous story of a successful actress becoming a devotee). Through her connections with the Movement, Jagattarini m

MADHUMATI GOPI AS SRILA NARAHARI SARKAR THAKUR

pura madhumati prana-sakhi vrindavane sthita
adhuna narahary-akhyah sarakarah prabhoh priyah

She who was previously Radha’s intimate girlfriend named Madhumati is today Narahari Sarkar, the Lord’s dear associate. (Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika 117)

Sri Narahari Sarkar Thakura participated in all of Sri Gaurasundora’s pastimes. He was Lord Gauranga’s chief associate amongst the residents of the village of Shrikhanda. By Mahaprabhu’s desire, he took birth i

One very hip street in Hamilton is called Hess Village. It’s trendy and it is natural to have a few yoga studios in the area. One such place is in a loft. “Church 444,” for some reason or another, is the name of the place. Monica runs the place. Shawn is the handy man around. Chris, a local barber, co-ordinated the event this afternoon for kirtan, chanting and dancing.

Chris has a bad cough and declined from coming, but Monica, Shawn, Ben, Kartik, Rahul, Zak, Henry, Jyoti, Aindra, Dhruva, Roman,

Preaching is the essence. Devotees preach by the order of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and the order of the spiritual master. Those who sincerely try to follow the directions of the spiritual master and the Guru-paramparā earn unlimited blessings and strength to execute their service. Even a sincere attempt in the service of the ācāryas, irrespective of it being a success or a failure, is sufficient to draw profuse blessings of the Guru-paramparā.

There are some devotees who serve in difficult situat

In October a very special event happened at the TOVP, the arrival of Srila Prabhupada, the installation of the Srila Prabhupada Murti. On the same date, Hari Sauri Das made the official announcement of the arrival of his latest book - Back to Vrndavana: Srila Prabhupada's Final Lila – and it is now available for purchase.

“Srila Prabhupada spent his last 6 weeks on this planet in Vrndavana Dhama, and I was fortunate enough to spend the month of October serving him while chronicling every event,

By Madhava Smullen

Up till now, one of the main methods of getting your Bhakti Sastri Degree in ISKCON involved taking six months off from your job or service to study in person in Mayapur or Vrindavan. This made it elusive and difficult for many to get the “family transcendental diploma” based on Srila Prabhupada’s books which Prabhupada wanted all his “spiritual sons and daughters” to inherit.

This system also required anyone who taught the Bhakti Sastri program to have a Bhakti Sastri degree

Two young students from the Toronto Film School lined me up for a documentary assignment interview. The questions included, “What is Hare Krishna?”, “Do you believe in an after-life?”, etc. The filming went well.

Many marvelous moments filled my day. Then I came up with a poem inspired by phrases spoken by Prabhupada. In bold, Ill relay those messages. In lower case is my contribution.

BOOKS ARE THE BASIS

BOOKS ARE THE BASIS

They come in many cases

And go to different places

Contents evoke hap