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By Yadunath Das 

Many of us have heard the story before: In the summer of 1966, ISKCON founder Srila Prabhupada acquired a storefront space in New York’s Bowery neighborhood with the help of a couple disciples. It had previously been a curio shop, the name of which Srila Prabhupada found quite suiting to his mission of spreading Krishna consciousness: Matchless Gifts. This would become the birthplace of ISKCON worldwide.

Despite all the transformations that New York has undergone throughout the

Our cook, Dwarkanath, made this amazing pumpkin cake. It was baked to perfection; somewhat moist and sweet. Since pumpkin is a fruit I hope no sugar was added, especially that dreadful worst of foods—white sugar.

I do have a small issue with my friends from India or Bangladesh, that cook or bake, over the use of the word “pumpkin.” “Pumpkin,” I tell them, without malice, “is roundish, orange and is a member of the squash family.” I also mention that our indigenous people of this area grew squash

[ भगवद्गीता 7.26 में भगवान ने कहा है -- वेदाहं समतीतानि वर्तमानानि चार्जुन ।

जो कुछ भूतकाल में घटित हो चुका है और भविष्य में जो कुछ होने जा रहा है, मैं वह सब जानता हूँ।   भगवान विष्णु सर्वज्ञ हैं, अतः वे जानते थे कि दक्ष की यज्ञशाला में क्या होगा।

इसी कारण से न तो नारायण और न ही ब्रह्माजी दक्ष के महान यज्ञ में सम्मिलित हुए।   (तात्पर्य श्रीमद भागवतम 4.6.3 – श्रील प्रभुपाद)

अध्याय छह – ब्रह्मा द्वारा शिवजी को मनाना (4.6)

1-2 जब समस्त पुरोहित तथा यज्ञ-सभा के सभी सदस्य और देवतागण शिवजी के सैनिकों द

In 1971, as a young devotee in Calcutta, Giriraja Swami approached Srila Prabhupada, “I have been trying to understand what your desire is, and two things seem to please you the most: distributing your books and building the big temple in Mayapur.” Prabhupada’s face lit up, his eyes opened wide, and he smiled, saying: “Yes, you have understood. If you all build this temple, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur will personally come and take you all back to Godhead.”

Now that’s quite a statement from Srila P

By Gauranga Das

Festival for the soul

During the extended lockdown due to the pandemic situation, the residents of Govardhan Ecovillage (GEV) took to an in depth study of Srimad Bhagavatam, making the most of the collective opportunity.

GEV is the home for many scholarly devotees who share the wealth of their Vedic wisdom across the world. As circumstances would have it, many of them like Sanatkumar Prabhu, Gauranga prabhu, Chaitanya Caran prabhu, Damodar prabhu, Gauranga Darshan prabhu, Balara

AMAZING RECORD-BREAKING DAMODARA GHEE LAMP OFFERING BY JANANANDA GOSWAMI SISYA SAMUHA (JGSS) MALAYSIA HEADED BY HG JAGABANDHU PRABHU! TOTAL GHEE LAMP OF WHOPPING 132,180!

HG Jagabandhu das, a disciple of HH Janananda Goswami Maharaj is a humble youth & highly inspiring devotee who distributes Srila Prabhupada’s teachings through his words, actions and preaching by conducting major scale Ratha Yatra, distributing Mahaprasadham, chanting beads & Srila Prabhupada’s books! All glories to Srila Prab

Sri Narahari Sarkar Thakura , who is Madhumati Sakhi in Vraja pastimes, was born at Sri Khanda. Sri Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami describes that the residents of Sri Khanda formed a branch of the desire tree of love of God. “Sri Khan davasi (the residents of Sri Khanda) Mukunda and his son Raghu nandan were the thirty ninth branch of the tree, Narahari was the fortieth, Chiran Jiva the forty first and Sulocana the forty second. They were all big branches of the all merciful tree of Caitanya Mahapra

I made an official call on behalf of our temple to an agency. It’s not my favourite type of service but nevertheless it must be done. My legal name was in their records but not my email address. I gave them my current email address but it did not compute with what they had. They were nice to me in terms of being helpful but the mood of service stepped up when I explained the following.

“Well, at one time I may have had thewalkingmonk@pamho.net. You see, I’m a monk who’s walked long distances, fo

सती के भस्म होने पर शिवजी के गणों द्वारा यक्ष प्रजापति का वध तथा उसके यज्ञ का विध्वंस किये जाने पर ब्रह्मादि देवताओं सहित सब लोगों का उनके पास जाना। (4.5.24-26तथा 4.6.1-34)

अध्याय पाँच – दक्ष के यज्ञ का विध्वंस (4.5)

1 मैत्रेय ने कहा: जब शिव ने नारद से सुना कि उनकी पत्नी सती प्रजापति दक्ष द्वारा किये गये अपमान के कारण मर चुकी हैं और ऋभुओं द्वारा उनके सैनिक खदेड़ दिये गये हैं, तो वे अत्यधिक क्रोधित हुए।

2 इस प्रकार अत्यधिक क्रुद्ध होने के कारण शिव ने अपने दाँतों से होंठ चबाते हुए तुरन्त अपने सिर क

Being God, Krishna has no work to do and simply enjoys in His original abode, while His expansions and energies, such as time, take care of the material creation.

As working men and women we typically leave home in the early morning and spend eight or nine hours on the job. Life at work sustains life at home. Official dealings at work contrast with family intimacies at home. However diffuse and overlapping the boundaries between the two, our work persons differ from our home persons.

Krishna, t

I got into cleaning again, tackling another corner of the kitchen. In truth, there’s too many items and too much clutter. However, it’s therapy. Cleaning anything in the temple/ashram is like cleaning the corners of your heart.

Included in the fun is being in the room with two younger, Bangladeshi devotees. One is cooking and the other cleaning the pots. I have to be careful not to be too isolated in my upstairs room. Lest it be perceived as an ivory tower. I feel the driving need to give time t

Sometimes we may question the suitability of the term “razor’s edge” when applied to the process of Krsna consciousness. Isn’t this too harsh? Shouldn’t Krsna be more kind and yielding to His devotees? Is there not a more suitable term that we could use?

That God displays features of unyielding and uncompromising hardness cannot be denied. In Bhagavad Gita Lord Sri Krsna says: “Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, I perpetually cast into the ocean of material exi

शिवजी के मना करने पर भी सती का अपने पिता के यज्ञ में आना तथा अपने पति के लिए यज्ञ का भाग न दिए जाने पर योगाग्नि से स्वयं को भस्म करना।  (4.4.3-27)

अध्याय चार – सती द्वारा शरीर-त्याग(4.4)

1 मैत्रेय मुनि ने कहा: सती को असमंजस में पाकर शिवजी यह कहकर शान्त हो गये। सती अपने पिता के घर में अपने सम्बन्धियों को देखने के लिए अत्यधिक इच्छुक थी, किन्तु साथ ही वह शिवजी की चेतावनी से भयभीत थी। मन अस्थिर होने से वह हिंडोले की भाँति कक्ष से बाहर और भीतर आ-जा रही थी।

2 इस तरह अपने पिता के घर जाकर अपने सम्बन्धियो

Today is a red-letter day—I received an advance copy of my book about Srila Prabhupada and Juhu: I’ll Build You a Temple: The Juhu Story. The volume is beautiful, and I felt humbled by and grateful for all the help I received in this effort.

Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna.

Yours in service,
Giriraj Swami

Source: https://girirajswami.com/blog/?p=16720

By Gauranga Das

Do you know before the advent of proper paper, what was the substance on which people used to write? What are the types of manuscripts?
The Manuscript Mission team at Bhaktivedanta Research Centre has visited more than 50 remote corners of India and Bangladesh over the past decade. BRC now has over 1000 manuscripts preserved digitally and around 70 physical manuscripts.
There are three primary types of manuscripts:
1. Tree Bark – Birch bark manuscripts are documents written on p

ISKCON Temple of Greater Chicago is based in Naperville, a growing suburb of Chicago, Illinois, USA. The temple moved to its current location a few years back and since then, the community has been growing exponentially. Looking at the growth, there is need for a commercial kitchen, community hall along with additional space to conduct different programs for children, youth, devotees and other community members, and thus a new temple construction plan was in motion.

And then COVID came along! W

With folded hands, we thank all the Vaishnavas for participation in this year’s Kshetra Parikrama.  Irrespective of the pandemic and the bridge in physical association it has caused, in great numbers from all around the world, has tuned in daily to participate in the parikrama engaging our minds fully in Puri Dham.

This has proved to us that indeed we can systematically and devotionally engage modern day technology fully for the service of the Lord and how it can be used perfectly in this period

We had a full day of rain, then a full day of snow. Finally, on Tuesday, the sun reigned and dominated the skies.

After a session of cleaning in the kitchen and taking a small portion of kheer, a sweet prep quite renowned in our temple in Toronto, I laid down on the floor to bathe in the rays of the sun. What a comfort that was, receiving vitamin D in such a fine dose, along with the prana in the air due to having my windows open.

I heard the ringtone on my phone. It was Victor, my young Muslim

{ शिवजी का अपनी पत्नी सती को उसके पिता दक्ष प्रजापति के यज्ञ में जाने के लिए मना करना।  (4.3.18-25)}

अध्याय तीन – श्रीशिव तथा सती का संवाद (4.3)

1 मैत्रेय ने आगे कहा: इस प्रकार से जामाता शिव तथा श्वसुर दक्ष के बीच दीर्घकाल तक तनाव बना रहा।

2 ब्रह्मा ने जब दक्ष को समस्त प्रजापतियों का मुखिया बना दिया तो दक्ष गर्व से फूल उठा।

3 दक्ष ने वाजपेय नामक यज्ञ प्रारम्भ किया और उसे अत्यधिक विश्वास था कि ब्रह्माजी का समर्थन तो प्राप्त होगा ही। तब उसने एक अन्य महान यज्ञ किया जिसे बृहस्पति-सव कहते हैं।

4 जब यज