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Andy Fraenkel was born in Germany in 1947 and came to America with his parents at the age of five. He is a multicultural storyteller, author, and workshop leader. He is the author of Mahabharata: The Eternal Quest and Hanuman’s Quest.

Andy is a long-time resident of New Vrindaban Community in West Virginia. He was initiated by Swami Prabhupada in 1973 and given the name Sankirtana Das. He is a presenter of the Krishna-Bhakti tradition and offers Katha – a traditional Vedic format of dramatic st

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Rascal in Me by Bhaktimarga Swami

An invisible virus – not here to please
Has locked us all in a very deep freeze
The source of which is our very own fault
Mistreatment of animals is the cause of the halt
Think of the chicks crammed in one place
Think of the cows all tight in one space
Think of the bats that are in your soup
Think of the pigs all killed in a group
Think of the flesh of an ape as your lunch
Think of the dog on a plate as your brunch
Get down to the root, yes we are the cause
Blame it on God – please take a pause

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The personal concept of the universe is very important. It is a devotional universe. Yes, there are demons in the upper regions of the universe and also in these regions. Demons are everywhere. As long as we take shelter we do not need to worry. Someone came to me in anxiety and said, “I have to talk to you very urgently. There is a conspiracy from the reptilians – from the abode of the nagas.” 

We have read in the Srimad Bhagavatam that the nagas are residing on the planetary systems below our

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By Madhava Smullen 

ISKCON UK has been amongst the worst affected communities by COVID-19, with twenty-one confirmed cases in the greater London area congregation, and five devotees passing away.

Although the names of the others have not been officially released by their families, one of the deceased was Rameshvara Das, a disciple of Bhakti Charu Swami in his mid-seventies. A devotee for over thirty years, Rameshvara was instrumental in the campaign to save Bhaktivedanta Manor from closure i

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ISKCON Mayapur has started distributing prasad to rural villagers as a part of covid-19 relief program in the region. Very much appreciated and indeed, as few villagers mentioned that they were waiting for this prasad, came in large numbers and accepted prasad, maintaining social distance norms. On the occassion of HH Jayapataka Swami Vyasapuja celebrations, sweets were also additionally distributed to the community.

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Source: https://www.mayapur.com/2020/iskcon-mayapurs-food-for-life-program/

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I only did some pacing in our temple room today, and chanted on my beads during that time. I kept myself grounded. The wet, gray weather of the outdoors didn’t necessarily beckon me. Besides, I was at the mercy of my service which required indoor attention.

Most importantly was the broadcast on “Zoom” (Zoom Cloud App-free from your App Store) delivering my message, and answering questions to members of the KCS (Krishna Consciousness Society)who are all young men starting off their careers. I w
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This is a picture of Srila Prabhupada’s samadhi, as it was, after he entered samadhi in 1977.

It was a small brick house with cow dung on the walls and floor. The small mound that you see beneath the asana and picture was the original samadhi stambha.

In front of the asana there was a piece of marble to place the offering plate upon, and there was another marble piece that I sat on to perform the puja.

Not only was Srila Prabhupada in the samadhi. It the home to cobras, numerous frogs during th

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On Saturday, March 28, ISKCON’s Ministry for Cow Protection and Agriculture had a Zoom conference with its European representatives. Everything is online in these corona times, even farming!

The members shared reports among themselves. Considering the present crisis, everyone still seemed to be faring somewhat okay. For instance, at New Vraja Dhama, ISKCON’s farm community in Hungary, devotees have a stock of food for seven months plus land and cows constantly yielding more grains, vegetables a

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By Madhava Smullen 

With India in a 21-day Coronavirus lockdown, ISKCON temples have stepped up to feed the needy in cooperation with the Indian government, distributing over one million plates of prasad so far. 

The government began with a quarantine in 79 districts across India recognized as COVID-19 hotspots, before officially locking down the entire nation – 1.3 billion people – on March 23rd in a bid to stop the spread of the virus.

As in many other parts of the world, people have been

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By Prabhupada-priya Dasi and Guru Gauranga Das

On March 11, 2020 the University of Florida (UF) suspended on-campus classes and urged students to go home in light of public health concerns related to COVID-19. Several days later, ISKCON Gainesville (also known as “Krishna House”) suspended operation of its “Krishna Lunch” program.

Racking their brains to find a way to keep “Krishna Lunch”going in conformity with public health guidelines, Krishna House president Srutisagara Das and his managemen

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What is called? A quarantine, quarantine.

How you can violate the nature’s law? It is not possible. Nature’s law is so strict, a little deviation will put you into suffering. This is going on. That is Yamaraja. And if you violate more and more and more, then you suffer more and more and more. This is the law. You cannot escape. That is the general law everywhere, all over the world: life for life. So, in God’s law there is no such thing that if you kill a human being you’ll be killed, and if yo

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There is a wonderful, simple and instructive anecdote from the life of Namacharya Haridas Thakur. Haridas Thakur was staying in a small village called Phuliya in Bengal and chanting the Holy Names of Krishna, throughout the day and night. Chanting the Holy Names was his food, his sustenance, his everything. The local magistrate of that place (Kazi) knowing that Haridas had been born in a Muslim household, and now was showing such a taste for chanting the Holy Names of Krishna, began to fear tha
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For the longest time, three raccoons were at each other in a vicious fight, clasping onto the flimsy branches of the huge tree outside my window. It was nighttime and this was before I retired for sleep. They snarled, growled, whimpered and screeched in opposition to each other.  https://www.instagram.com/p/B-UDtp_A8j3/?igshid=19nk0zmokjbsh
 
I first of all saw them from below, at street-level, watching them and happy for them—happy for them being healthy and alive. They kept up their noises of
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Most ISKCON members around the world are now in “lockdown” due to the corona virus pandemic, and struggling to maintain regular association with other devotees. However, due to modern technology, there are various daily live virtual classes, discussions, japa circles that devotees can take advantage of by joining in from all over the world:  

Daily lectures from Vaishnava scriptures:

Daily seminar on Uddhava Gita with Bhakti Charu Swami

When: 6PM IST

https://www.mayapur.tv
 

Daily Chaitanya Bh

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This is a simple introduction to how we can begin to recognize how Vedic culture infiltrated or was simply accepted into various cultures around the world. If you are interested in understanding this more deeply, please see my books “Proof of Vedic Culture’s Global Existence” and “Mysteries of the Ancient Vedic Empire.”

WHAT IS THE VEDIC ARYAN CULTURE?

It is often considered that the Vedic Aryans are a race of people. But aryan actually means a standard of living, an ideal. It was the Sanskrit

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On Saturday, March 28, ISKCON’s Ministry for Cow Protection and Agriculture had a Zoom conference with its European representatives. Everything is online in these corona times, even farming!

The members shared reports among themselves. Considering the present crisis, everyone still seemed to be faring somewhat okay. For instance, at New Vraja Dhama, ISKCON’s farm community in Hungary, devotees have a stock of food for seven months plus land and cows constantly yielding more grains, vegetables

Read more…

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Many devotees have been discussing about making the best use of a bad bargain and using this crisis as an opportunity to better get our message across, given the world’s consciousness has effectively become ‘corona-consciousness’

The main reason for this increased focus? — Everyone’s mortality has now been brought into super sharp focus with many feeling they are being hunted down by a sinister, invisible killer

Please view this video, which could easily have been made by a devotee

The main poi

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Lord Ramachandra’s attachment to Sitadevi was not one that could be compared to an ordinary husband’s attachment to his wife. In the pastimes of Lord Ramachandra, we must recognise that there are two levels – the first is that Lord Rama is acting out the role of a husband in this world and the second is the spiritual relationship that exists between Sita and Rama.

Prabhupada explains that the separation of Rama from Sita is spiritually understood as vipralambha which is an activity of the hladi

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