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By Madhava Smullen

ISKCON sannyasi Bhakti Madhurya Govinda Goswami Maharaja had recovered after being hospitalized some years ago; more recently, however, his spinal cord condition worsened. He is now once again in hospital and in a serious condition, with devotees around the world requested to pray to Lord Narasimhadeva for his recovery.

“The doctors had warned us that there was a high probability of Maharaja being paralyzed in the event of a surgery, even if successful,” says Rishi Kumara Das o

Since past few years ISKCON has had a small temple in the heart of Varanasi, in Bhelupur and now the temple is expanding and evolving into the impressive ‘Sri Sri Radha Gopal Mandir Vedic Indian Cultural Center’ (VICC). The talented young devotees’ ensemble of the Temple envisions making ISKCON VICC the most attractive place in Varanasi succeeding the popular Kashi Vishwanath Temple and the Ghats of River Ganga.

VICC aspires to become a source of enlightenment for spiritual seekers and a cultura

It was a typical October day, I mean to say, perfect for walking. The wind, a cloud and the sun were above and around, not only me but everyone. I was walking west on Dupont and at one crossroad, at Davenport, also known as the Ancient Trail used by the Huron for centuries, I met one road worker. His name is Jordan, he left his tools and came down.

“Hare Krishna!” said Jordan. “We’ve met. I know Phil, who is in Hungary now at the farm community… I do chant and follow some of your classes on Zoom

अध्याय छह – पुरुष सूक्त की पुष्टि (2.6)

1 ब्रह्माजी ने कहा: विराट पुरुष का मुख वाणी का उद्गम-केंद्र है और उसका नियामक देव अग्नि है। उनकी त्वचा तथा अन्य छह स्तर (आवरण) वैदिक मंत्रों के उद्गम-केंद्र हैं और उनकी जीभ देवताओं, पितरों तथा सामान्यजनों को अर्पित करने वाले विभिन्न खाद्यों तथा व्यंजनों (रसों) का उद्गम है।

2 उनके दोनों नथुनें हमारे श्वास के तथा अन्य सभी प्रकार की वायु के जनन-केंद्र हैं; उनकी घ्राण शक्ति से अश्विनीकुमार तथा समस्त प्रकार की जड़ी-बूटियाँ उत्पन्न होती हैं और उनकी श्वास-शक्ति से

The following official statement has been released by Temple of the Vedic Planetarium Chairman Ambarisa Das and Director of Development Braja Vilasa Das:

Dear ISKCON Leaders and Devotees Worldwide:

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

As you all know, we have planned for some time now to shift the Mayapur Deities into the new TOVP temple room by 2022. In the meantime, of course, the COVID -19 Pandemic came on the scene and all construction came to a halt from mid-M

Uttama-adhikari is living in a close relationship with Krsna. The uttama-adhikari is always thinking about Krsna in every moment. And every moment is dedicated to Krsna. This devotee is not wasting a single moment on anything else.

kṣāntir avyartha-kālatvaṁ
viraktir māna-śūnyatā
āśā-bandhaḥ samutkaṇṭhā
nāma-gāne sadā ruciḥ
(Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya Lila 23.18-19)

When the seed of ecstatic emotion for Krsna fructifies, many symptoms manifest in one’s behaviour. One of them is a taste for chanti

I walked to “Theatrics Plus” and the friendly clerk found for me what I came for, a prop for the virtual drama that a group of us are putting together. “Rolling the Dice” is the name of the play. The highlight of the story focuses on some shady gambling from the “Mahabharat.” The props I purchased were dice, four of them at $2.50 a crack. They look good, roll nice, sound good when you shake them and are made in China. According to the epic, the iconic dice are supposed to be made of the bones of

नारद मुनि ने कहा – इस ब्रह्माण्ड के भीतर जितनी सारी वस्तुएँ हैं वे सब आपके नियंत्रण में हैं।   (2.5.4-12)~~श्रील प्रभुपाद ~~

अध्याय पाँच – समस्त कारणों के कारण (2.5)

1 श्री नारद मुनि ने ब्रह्माजी से पूछा: हे देवताओं में प्रमुख देवता, हे प्रथम जन्मा जीव, मैं आपको सादर नमस्कार करता हूँ। कृपया करके मुझे वह दिव्य ज्ञान बतायें, जो मनुष्य को आत्मा तथा परमात्मा के सत्य तक ले जाने वाला है।

2 हे पिताजी, कृपया इस व्यक्त जगत के वास्तविक लक्षणों का वर्णन कीजिये। इसका आधार क्या है? इसका सृजन किस प्रकार किया ग

Today is the auspicious disappearance day of three great acharyas in the Gaudiya-Vaishnava sampradaya: Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, Srila Raghunatha Bhatta Gosvami, and Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami. We shall read about Srila Raghunatha Bhatta Gosvami from Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja’s Sri Caitanya-caritamrta.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, Chapter Thirteen: “Pastimes with Jagadananda Pandita and Raghunatha Bhatta.”

TEXT 89

etha tapana-misra-putra raghunatha-bhattacarya
prabhure dekh

Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami (1505-1579) is one of the six Goswamis of Vrindavana, leading disciples of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Raghunatha Bhatta’s father, Tapana Mishra, was also a prominent follower of Lord Chaitanya. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu asked Raghunath Bhatta to go to Vrindavan and constantly chant the Hare Krishna mantra and read Srimad-Bhagavatam.

Every day, Raghunath Bhatta would sing the verses of the Bhagavatam to the Vrindavan residents, and his tears of spiritual emotion would wet the pag

Drizzle! Drizzle! That is the sum and substance of weather conditions today and tonight. My encounter with it was in the evening. I didn’t mind. My full day was indoors, where it was rather dry. The important thing is one’s state of mind, regardless of the situation. Krishna is within and without. So let the rain come down.

I received a call from someone in Edmonton. He, like many, are quite affected by the fear culture installed by Covid-19. My response to him was to not get over-exposed to the

Appearing near Katva, Krishna Dasa Kaviraja left for Vrndavana after Lord Nityananda told him in a dream: are are krishnadasa, na karaha bhaya, vrndavana yaha tanha, sarva larya haya, “0 my dear Krishnadasa, do not be afraid. Go to Vrndavana. For there you will attain all things.” (Caitanya-caritamrta Adi 5.195)

Krishna Dasa took diksa from Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami. He lived a renounced life at Syama-kunda near Manasa Pavana Ghat, Radharani’s midday bathing place.

Sri Jiva Gosvami, as per his cu

अध्याय चार – सृष्टि प्रक्रम (2.4)

1 सूत गोस्वामी ने कहा: श्रील शुकदेव गोस्वामी से आत्मा के सत्य के विषय में बातें सुनकर, उत्तरा के पुत्र महाराज परीक्षित ने आस्थापूर्वक अपना ध्यान भगवान कृष्ण में लगा दिया।

2 भगवान कृष्ण के प्रति एकनिष्ठ आकर्षण के फलस्वरूप महाराज परीक्षित ने अपने निजी शरीर, अपनी पत्नी, अपनी सन्तान, अपने महल, अपने पशु, हाथी-घोड़े, अपने खजाने, मित्र तथा सम्बन्धी और अपने निष्कंटक राज्य के प्रति प्रगाढ़ ममता त्याग दी।

3-4 हे महर्षियों, महात्मा महाराज परीक्षित ने भगवान कृष्ण के विचार में

By Madhava Smullen 

The cabin where Shyamasundar Das, one of ISKCON’s earliest pioneers, worked on his ‘Chasing Rhinos With the Swami’ trilogy burned down last month in the Lionshead wildfire in Oregon, USA.

The wildfire began on August 16th and has burned 204,469 acres, making it the sixth-largest fire of the past 100 years in Oregon.

“By Krishna’s grace, I managed to escape with my computer and all my research material,” Shyamasundar says.

Read more: https://iskconnews.org/shyamasundar-dass-w

It was 7 PM. I was in my room just wrapping up on a zoom call with Argentina when David came to my door.

“Are you coming?” David asked in anticipation of our nightly staircase kirtan.

“Yes,” I responded. “By the way, I have to go!” I told the people on the Zoom call. “Good-bye!” I said, as did they. Along with an appreciative, “Gracias!”

We hit on a good topic—the theme of Achintya-bedabeda-tattva, which translates as “the inconceivable, simultaneous principle of oneness and difference.” Also, s

अध्याय तीन – शुद्ध भक्तिमय सेवा – हृदय परिवर्तन (2.3)

1 श्रील शुकदेव गोस्वामी ने कहा : हे महाराज परीक्षित, आपने मुझसे मरणासन्न बुद्धिमान मनुष्य के कर्तव्य के विषय में जिस प्रकार जिज्ञासा की, उसी प्रकार मैंने आपको उत्तर दिया है।

2-7 जो व्यक्ति निर्विशेष ब्रह्मज्योति तेज में लीन होने की कामना करता है, उसे वेदों के स्वामी (ब्रह्माजी या विद्वान पुरोहित बृहस्पति) की पूजा करनी चाहिए; जो प्रबल कामशक्ति का इच्छुक हो, उसे स्वर्ग के राजा इन्द्र की और जो अच्छी सन्तान का इच्छुक हो, उसे प्रजापतियों की पूजा क

An older man with whitish hair and beard has seen me passing by before, at least twice.  Once he offered a quick exchange of words, with a cigarette in his mouth.

“Hi! How are yah!”

Today was similar, “Hey, how’s it goin’?”

“Fine,” I said as I stopped.

“Yah I know, I met a holy man the other day as he was passing…”

“Is that right?” I inquired.

“And, he blessed me. Minutes later I found a $20 bill on the street.” He was chuckling.

“Lucky you! Well, God bless. Hare Krishna!”

“Yeah!”

“Have a good o

By Madhava Smullen 

Sometimes when we see a need, the solution is to step forward and fulfill it ourselves.

This is what Arjun Bhattacharyya, a young devotee known in ISKCON as a photographer and assistant to Deena Bandhu Das, realized when he decided to volunteer his own time to add the original Bengali script that had been missing from the digital version of Sri Caitanya-caritamrita.

The service meant a lot to Arjun personally.

“I am born and brought up in Kolkata,” he explains. “So Bengali is

अध्याय दो – हृदय में भगवान (2.2)

1 श्रील शुकदेव गोस्वामी ने कहा: इस ब्रह्माण्ड के प्राकट्य के पूर्व, ब्रह्माजी ने विराट रूप के ध्यान द्वारा भगवान को प्रसन्न करके विलुप्त हो चुकी अपनी चेतना पुनः प्राप्त की। इस तरह वे सृष्टि का पूर्ववत पुनर्निर्माण कर सके।

2 वैदिक ध्वनियों (वेदवाणी) को प्रस्तुत करने की विधि इतनी मोहनेवाली है कि यह व्यक्तियों की बुद्धि को स्वर्ग जैसी व्यर्थ की वस्तुओं की ओर ले जाती है। बद्धजीव ऐसी स्वर्गिक मायामयी वासनाओं के स्वप्नों में मँडराते रहते हैं, लेकिन ऐसे स्थानों में वे सच

Today marks Sri Rama-vijaya-dasami (Dasara, or Dussehra), the day on which Lord Ramachandra vanquished the powerful tyrant Ravana. As described in Srimad-Bhagavatam (2.7.25):

vaksah-sthala-sparsa-rugna-mahendra-vaha-
dantair vidambita-kakubjusa udha-hasam
sadyo ’subhih saha vinesyati dara-hartur
visphurjitair dhanusa uccarato ’dhisainye

“When Ravana was engaged in the battle, the trunk of the elephant which carried the king of heaven, Indra, broke in pieces, having collided with the chest of Ra