By Madhava Smullen
According to NPR, fear of food shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred people on to plant more vegetable gardens; while community supported agriculture programs (CSAs) are booming.
In New Vrindaban, West Virginia, ISKCON’s first rural community which Srila Prabhupada earmarked as an example of sustainability to the world, resident devotees have a headstart, and are using the pandemic to push themselves closer to their goal of self-sufficiency.
A few weeks ago,
Courtesy of Covid-19, the sky-high prices of vegetables and having to contend with dried-up herbs pushed us to start our own little garden. My husband was planning about organic fertilizers, timings for watering and ensuring adequate sunlight. However, as I fingered the fertile soil; I realised that the nutrients and strength that Mother Earth provides to those plants was being ignored. We focus on the externals; we praise the gardener’s skills, the fertilizers, right timings of water and sunli
On August 15, 1968, in Montreal, I was initiated at the age of 16-an unqualified person meeting such a great and unprecedented saint as Srila Prabhupada. At the same time, the six pioneers from San Francisco, on their way to London received their Gayatri mantra, or second initiation.
To listen to the transcript of my initiation, please click on this link: https://prabhupadavani.org/transcriptions/initiation-rukmini-dasi/
Written transcript begins here:
[Yamuna starts kirtana with “Hare Krsna.”
HG Padmakshi Vinodini Mataji and HG Govinda Vallabha Mataji (from Left to Right)
For the warriors of COVID-19
Reported by Dr. Chetan Hazaree
We often hear that devotees live a life of mature compassion. They perform multifarious activities out of their compassion for the welfare of all living entities. While performing these compassionate acts, their vision is set on serving the Supreme Lord and begging for mercy, not for themselves, but for others. Each mature devotee performs different acts o
When Ghanashyam Das first began his chaplaincy service in New York City, little did he know that he would end up on the frontlines of a global pandemic, risking his own health every day to provide spiritual and emotional support for patients dying of Coronavirus.
Ghanashyam, now 42, joined ISKCON in 2000 at 26 2nd Avenue in New York, the movement’s first ever temple. Later, he moved to the Bhakti Center in Manhattan, where he lived as a monk for eleven years, and where his
My dear Indradyumna Swami Maharaja,
Please accept my prostrated obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. And all glories to your service.
I could speak for many days about your service to Srila Prabhupada and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and for many hours about how you have helped me personally. But today I wish to focus on one area in particular in which you have helped me—my writing, which Srila Prabhupada said I should take up as my “first business” and which thus is my
By Indradyumna Swami
One day, we pray, we’ll chant and dance with them again!
A verse in the Brahmanda Purana states: “Those who get the darsana of Acyuta, the son of Devaki, can attain Visnuloka and never fall back to the material world. A person who celebrates the festivals of Lord Krsna with full faith becomes free of all sins and goes back to the spiritual world.”
By Badrinarayan Swami
Hare Krishna,
This message is to report the sad news that the Los Angeles Ratha Yatra, usually held in August, has been canceled due to the Covid pandemic. The City of Los Angeles is not granting permits to any large gatherings for the summer.
We are all sorry to have to report this news. We look forward to seeing you next year at the lotus feet of Lord Jagannath.
Devavrata Prabhu writes: Recently, I asked a boy whom I have been cultivating during the Corona-virus shutdown to write a testimony of his experiences in Krishna consciousness. I hope that devotees are finding it inspiring to reach out to the people we have met and to nourish the relationships.
Here is what Chris wrote:
When I met my wife, she was practicing an Indonesian martial art known as Poekoelan Tjiminde Tulen. It was deeply traditional, and I was struck by its cultural authenticity. I,
By BB Govinda Swami
I had a pleasant call from Niranjana Swami Maharaja, he told me he is in Mayapur and he was trying to express how happy he is actually feeling in being there. How happy he is being in a place where he can be regulated. He is just having an excellent time in Mayapur. For us people who are always traveling, this arrangement of not traveling is a miracle. We have regulation. We have the proper time for sleeping. We eat at regulated times. We have regulated time for sadhana and
My heart is like a desert, hot with the rays of the sun. This is my internal mental condition. The desire for temporary, material things cannot satisfy me because by nature they are death producing. And not one or two, but thousands of such death-producing desires have taken shelter in my mind. So, my subconscious region is always burning. This is my condition. But somehow, by the grace of sadhu and my guru, the holy name of Krishna with its infinite prospect has entered through the holes of my
While the coronavirus is spreading throughout the world, luckily for us, so is kindness. Even though they are physically restricted in their movement, people find ways to reach out, express appreciation to and care for one another. They sing together on balconies to cheer each other up; they leave bags of groceries at the doorstep of the sick, or the old; they clap for the healthcare workers serving at the frontline; distribute free food to the police and sanitation workers who maintain order
Jananivas Prabhu’s service was to bring frankincense to Srila Prabhupada’s room in the evening. He mentioned that usually after you fill a room with frankincense, you open the doors and windows so that the mosquitos go out with the smoke. Srila Prabhupada however liked to keep the smoke within the room and stopped Jananivas Prabhu from opening the doors and windows. Since it was Srila Prabhupada’s darshan time, there would usually be many western devotees in the room and these western devotees
Mother Krsnanandini devi, disciple of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, has been moved to hospice care after a painful battle with cancer. She is in amazing consciousness and seems to be embracing her upcoming journey with the same deep bhakti and surrender to Lord Krishna with which she has lived her entire life. She and her husband Tariq prabhu have been marriage guides and spiritual counselors to so many devotees worldwide.
Syamali devi, disciple of HH Indradyumna Swami, and wife of Bhismad
With the release of the Hugely Successful Hare Krsna and Govindam records 50 years ago, many tourists wanted to visit the London Temple but may not want to take their shoes off. So how to accommodate this flood of interest?? HDG Srila Prabhupada explains a unique way how this can be done.
Srila Prabhupada: I think on account of this record, many people, at least from different parts of Europe, will come to see our Temple. Many tourists also may come there. So you do not take it as gloomy, but y
