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By HH Nirañjana Swami

I oftentimes say, when devotees ask me to speak about Prabhupada, that I can say my only qualification is that I happened to be on the planet at the same time that Prabhupada was spreading the Krsna Consciousness Movement. I took part in his mission, but I didn’t really have so much personal exchange or association with him. I did get the opportunity to see him many times: a few times in the United States, twice in New York as well as in Philadelphia, and also in Mayapura

By Madhava Smullen

This year, ISKCON is celebrating the 125th birth anniversary of its Founder-Acharya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, born in 1896 in Calcutta.

Among his many contributions, Srila Prabhupada taught his disciples how to prepare food with love for Krishna, or God, and how to offer it to the Lord and accept the sanctified food as “prasadam,” meaning “mercy.” Under Prabhupada’s direction and inspiration, there are now around 110 restaurants serving pure vegeta

To honor the fiftieth anniversary of the installation of Sri-Sri Rukmini-Dwarakadisa, as well as the inception of Their beautiful worship, a commemorative festival will be held. Special guest speakers from the time of those glorious beginnings will speak, and a variety of special Krishna Janmastami worship and kirtan will be performed throughout the two-day festival.  

The celebration will take place on August  28-29 as well as on Janmastami Day, because the Deities were installed in August fif

I had myself set up at a picnic table with a majestic blue spruce to my back. I was just beginning with a Zoom call and connecting with our Ottawa admins. I popped my two-day-old walking cane on the table. Like all meetings, virtual included, we start by reciting prayers to the guru, our founder, Srila Prabhupada. 

That was completed and then a decent looking man appearing to be in his 60’s came over to grab for my cane. He thought it was his. I placed my grip on it.

“Oh!” He looked back and sa

अध्याय दो – कलियुग के लक्षण (12.2)

1 श्रील शुकदेव गोस्वामी ने कहा: हे राजन, तब कलियुग के प्रबल प्रभाव से धर्म, सत्य, पवित्रता, क्षमा, दया, आयु, शारीरिक बल तथा स्मरणशक्ति दिन प्रतिदिन क्षीण होते जायेंगे।

2 कलियुग में एकमात्र सम्पत्ति को ही मनुष्य के उत्तम जन्म, उचित व्यवहार तथा उत्तम गुणों का लक्षण माना जायेगा। कानून तथा न्याय तो मनुष्य के बल के अनुसार ही लागू होंगे।

3 पुरुष तथा स्त्रियाँ केवल ऊपरी आकर्षण के कारण एकसाथ रहेंगे और व्यापार की सफलता कपट पर निर्भर करेगी। पुरुषत्व तथा स्त्रीत्व का निर्ण

KRISHNA: HIS BIRTH AND HIS ESCAPE

There had never been a day like this, nor night

Planets repositioned to create a heavenly sight

Prominent was the star, Rohini, so bright

A pervading peace kept at bay any tendency to fight

Such was the cosmic sky on that day, and what of the Earth?

Lotus flowers, trees, and rivers were welcoming a new birth

Unbounded joy, lightness, and expressions of mirth

Were centered around a bundle of Absolute Worth

Tucked away in a royal prison was a woman, a man

And a person, b

From Back to Godhead

By Snigdhamayi Sudevi Devi Dasi

On July 18th, ISKCON Malaysia released stamps to commemorate the arrival of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada in Malaysia fifty years back in 1971 from the 3rd to the 8th of May. A private stamp was released, under the Setemku service by Post Malaysia. It is not an official stamp released by the Government of Malaysia for public usage.

During his stay in the country,  Srila Prabhupada traveled from Kuala Lumpur to Teluk Intan, Ipoh, and P

By Madhava Smullen

The Gita Nagari farm in Port Royal, Pennsylvania has launched the Bhakti Immersion Experience, a Krishna conscious residency for new and experienced bhakti practitioners aged 18 to 28 with three, six or nine-month options.

The program is tailored towards both second generation devotees looking to get some formalized ashram training and experience in full-time temple/farm service, and young people who are relatively new to bhakti and would like to learn more.

“It’s a finite am

This weekend the Scarborough ISKCON team held their Ratha Yatra, starting at 6:30 AM on Saturday and completing near midnight. What I’m hearing from some of the different centres we have is that the Covid approach to this festival may be better than the usual way of doing things. Several items make the event more favorable such as: 

1) It reaches more people as a vehicle with Jagannatha inside, goes to the neighborhoods where people get curious

2) Less-to-no permits required

3) Easier to organi

अध्याय एक – कलियुग के पतित वंश (12.1)

1-2 श्रील शुकदेव गोस्वामी ने कहा: हमने इसके पूर्व मागध वंश के जिन भावी शासकों के नाम गिनाए उनमें अन्तरिम राजा पुरञ्जय था, जो बृहद्रथ के वंशज के रूप में जन्म लेगा। पुरञ्जय का मंत्री शुनक राजा की हत्या करके अपने पुत्र प्रद्योत को सिंहासनारूढ़ करेगा। प्रद्योग का पुत्र पालक होगा और उसका पुत्र विशाखयूप होगा जिसका पुत्र राजक होगा।

3 राजक का पुत्र नन्दिवर्धन होगा और प्रद्योतन वंश में पाँच राजा होंगे जो 138 वर्षों तक पृथ्वी का भोग करेंगे।

4 नन्दिवर्धन का शिशुनाग नामक

By Madhava Smullen

The San Francisco Rathayatra, ISKCON’s first, returned on August 14th after missing the year 2020 due to the pandemic, with a bright and colorful celebration for the Lord of the Universe at Golden Gate Park.

With the exception of last year, San Francisco Rathayatra has been held annually since 1967, when Srila Prabhupada sketched a truck with a four-pillared canopy on the back and organized his early disciples in introducing Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra to North Ame

अध्याय इकतीस – भगवान श्रीकृष्ण का अन्तर्धान होना (11.31)

1 श्रील शुकदेव गोस्वामी ने कहा : तब ब्रह्माजी, शिवजी–उनकी प्रेयसी भवानी, मुनियों, प्रजापतियों तथा इन्द्रादि देवताओं सहित, प्रभास आये।

2-3 भगवान का प्रस्थान देखने के लिए चारणों, यक्षों, राक्षसों, किन्नरों, अप्सराओं तथा गरुड़ के सम्बन्धियों को साथ लेकर पितरगण, सिद्ध, गन्धर्व, विद्याधर तथा बड़े बड़े सर्प भी आये। आते समय वे सभी व्यक्ति भगवान शौरी (कृष्ण) के जन्म तथा लीलाओं का कीर्तन और उनकी महिमा का गायन कर रहे थे।

4 हे राजन, उन्होंने आकाश में अपन

अध्याय तीस -- यदुवंश का संहार (11.30)

1 राजा परीक्षित ने कहा : जब महान भक्त उद्धव जंगल चले गये तो समस्त जीवों के रक्षक भगवान ने द्वारका नगरी में क्या किया?

2 ब्राह्मणों के शाप से अपने ही वंश के नष्ट हो जाने के बाद, यदुओं में श्रेष्ठ भगवान ने किस तरह अपना शरीर छोड़ा जो सारे नेत्रों की परमप्रिय वस्तु था।

3 एक बार उनके दिव्य रूप पर अपनी आँखें गड़ा देने पर, स्त्रियाँ उन्हें हटा पाने में असमर्थ होती थीं और यदि वह रूप एक बार मुनियों के हृदयों में प्रवेश कर जाता, तो फिर वह हटाये नहीं हटता था। ख्याति पाने

Today is the appearance day of Lord Balarama, the Personality of Godhead who is the first expansion of Lord Krishna, the original Personality of Godhead. As Krishna states in the Bhagavad-gita (4.7):

yada yada hi dharmasya
  glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
  tadatmanam srjamy aham

“Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion—at that time I descend Myself.” Lord Krishna says, srjamy aham: “I manifest

अध्याय उन्तीस – भक्तियोग (11.29)

1 श्री उद्धव ने कहा: हे भगवान अच्युत, मुझे भय है कि आपके द्वारा वर्णित योग-विधि उस व्यक्ति के लिए अत्यन्त कठिन है, जो अपने मन को वश में नहीं रख सकता । इसलिए आप सरल शब्दों में यह बतायें कि कोई व्यक्ति किस तरह इसे अधिक आसानी से सम्पन्न कर सकता है।

2 हे कमलनयन भगवान, सामान्यतया जो योगीजन मन को स्थिर करने का प्रयास करते हैं, उन्हें समाधि की दशा पूर्ण कर पाने की अपनी अक्षमता के कारण, निराशा का अनुभव करना पड़ता है। इस तरह वे मन को अपने वश में लाने के प्रयास में उकता जाते

WOOOAHHH! That’s it!” I said when I came across the German word sehnsucht (ZEN-zookt). “That sums it all up!”

Sehnsucht means “longing,” “yearning,” or even “craving,” but it also carries implications of “intensely missing,” as when pining for something as if one’s life depended on it. The word hearkens to the need a person feels when addicted to hard drugs, an addiction so intense one’s entire being calls out for it.

The word also indicates the feeling that one’s life is unfinished or imperfec

By Kalyana Giriraja das

On August 10, Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture Julia Kloeckner chose the ISKCON Bhakti Retreat Center Goloka Dhama in southern Germany as the start of a tour with e-bikes in her ongoing election campaign. The minister is running for the federal elections on September 26, 2021, and Goloka Dhama in the small village of Abentheuer is part of her election district.

Source: https://iskconnews.org/federal-minister-julia-kloeckner-visits-goloka-dhama-germany,7956/