Karuna Sindhu and I were setting up our tent at a suburban intersection where it was fairly quiet – grassy with some trees to provide enough privacy for the night’s slumber. It was just another one of those days, on the road, walking the country, putting in a good 40 kilometres/25 miles. Some young boys, a half a dozen or so from the neighbourhood, heard about the Walking Monk. They huddled around Karuna and I as we were setting up. They were intrigued with our rugged life-style as marathon
All Posts (35618)
Sort by
Who is Rai Hridiharan Chandrabhan Ji? What more can I know about him? Why does he so much resemble Madan Mohan Ji Maharaj residing at Karauli??
Question: I read a quote that says that the secret of success is that we should act as if everything depends on ourselves, but internally we should pray as everything depends on Krishna, and these are two lines that internally we develop our devotion to Krishna, but also our expertise in different fields, like if we cook – then we should learn how to cook properly, or for example we play mridanga, we should also learn how to do it properly. The question is that while developing an expertise in
By Vijaya Prabhu
One Muslim boy was reluctant to take a book from me because it was from outside his tradition. I saw him another day, and he said, “I had this dream the Bhagavad-gita came to me glowing.” I again encouraged him to get the book, and after repeated attempts, he finally accepted it.
This knowledge can pull people out of the modes of material nature.
We are still tinged, but we have come a long way.
We are not distributing paper and ink but jewels.
I tell the people, “You cannot pu
The loving service of the Lord in ISKCON Vrindavan is being carried out by the dedicated devotees living within the temple compound, while simultaneously taking full precautions such as social distancing, hygiene and so forth. In order to celebrate the auspicious festival of Chandan Yatra, the devotees had started grinding Chandan well in advance, and, the day before the festival, other Vaishnavas artistically prepared gorgeous flower ornaments for the deities. On Akshaya Tritiya, the Lords we
By Madhava Smullen
Spanish-speaking devotees around the world attend the retreat virtually
With everyone in self-isolation and practicing social distancing due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, devotees are coming up with more and more creative ways to associate with each other and hold events virtually that would previously have taken place in person.
On April 18th, over 100 Spanish-speaking devotees from Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, the United States, Italy, Spain, Mexico
My dear friend, the scent of Kṛṣṇa’s body enchants the entire world. It especially enters the nostrils of women and remains seated there. Thus it captures them and forcibly brings them to Kṛṣṇa.
Kṛṣṇa’s eyes, navel and face, hands and feet are like eight lotus flowers on His body. From those eight lotuses emanates a fragrance like a mixture of camphor and lotus. That is the scent associated with His body.
When sandalwood pulp is mixed with aguru, kuṅkuma, musk and camphor and spread on Kṛṣṇa’s
Mother Arca-vigraha left this world in Vrindavan in 1994 on Jahnu-saptami, which is Wednesday, April 29, in America, and Thursday, April 30, in India.
In her last days, Mother Arca-vigraha gave me the inspiration and vision to establish the Bhaktivedanta Hospice in Vrindavan. She had been a prominent artist in South Africa, and she built a house in Vrindavan, in Raman Reti, near the Krishna-Balaram Mandir, to serve as a residence and art studio whenever she visited India. But not long thereaft
One of the most outstanding bhakti-yogis of all time is Prahlad, who while in the womb of his mother, became enlightened when hearing from Narada, the sage. By the time he was five he impressed upon his classmates the value of spiritual practices.
Prahlad grew up in a culture when social distancing from God was standard. In the coming days we will remember Prahlad because of his devote connection with one of the popular avatars, Narasimha, a half-man/half-lion incarnation, who manifested (by
For example - Dhritarashtra
The Divine Love Trip, is a deeply thoughtful saga of the devotional life and realizations of Samapriya devi dasi. In this book, she chronicles her spiritual journey through biography, poetry, prayers, realizations, scripture, and the words and pastimes of Srila Prabhupada. These many highly literate and very readable forms of spiritual expression are interwoven expertly as she reveals both her outward activities and her inner spiritual life from first meeting devotees, to her mature realization
In 1976 Hansadutta Swami had come to India with two German busses filled with mostly German and European devotees. I was a new sannyasi and Srila Prabhupada arranged for me to join Hansadutta Swami’s World Travelling Sankirtana Party.
We traveled together all over North India for nearly 5 months holding festivals, performing street Sankirtana and distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books. Srila Prabhupada was very pleased. We developed a strong bond of friendship and we became buddies. He was one o
Srila Prabhupada mentions in the purport of SB.3.25.25 the importance of devotee association. He explains that devotees should give up the association of materialistic persons and seek the association of devotees; he describes that to understand the pastimes of the Lord, to see the Lord as a person with personal activities and to offer devotional service one should have devotee association. Srila Prabhupada states that devotee association means association with the Lord.
It is relevant for devo
March 21, 2020
Invitation to Participate
Dear devotees,
Please accept my humble pranams. Jaya Srila Prabhupada!
This is to inform you of a Vaishnava community writing project in which you are invited to participate. In brief, it is about sharing your thoughts, reflections, and inspirations on the basis of some portion of the Second Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, by writing (a maximum of 1200 words).
One very powerful way of fixing one’s attention on shastra is to read with the aim of responding-in
By Madhava Smullen
With ISKCON book distributors off the streets and staying at home due to the Coronavirus pandemic, you might think their service has completely ground to a halt. Instead, however, they’ve put all their energy into innovations such as mailing, contactless delivery, and e-books to distribute thousands of Prabhupada’s books at a time when people need them more than ever.
In North America, one of the teams most affected was New York City’s Yuga Dharma Ashram led by Rama Raya
The message to Milton was simila
The battlefield of kurukshetra was full of mysterious & dangerous warriors besides Bhishma , Drona, Kripa, Karna who could very easily swallow many Arjuna. It was twelfth day of Mahabharata war & Drona was in charge of Kaurava forces as Supreme commander. Lord Krsna was very anxious for his devotee Arjuna. His cause of anxiety was the brave Bhagdatta, the king of Pragjyotisha. He was a veteran of very advanced age. His grey and wrinkles on his old face gave him the appearance of a Lion,
What is namahatta other than the marketplace of the holy name?
Bhaktivinoda Thakura wrote this book where he explains that this marketplace of the holy name is widely available and it can be purchased for the price of one’s faith.
He said there are those who are looking after the marketplace, those who are supplying the marketplace, and there are personalities who look after different marketplaces and sometimes come to supply that marketplace with fresh inspiration.
Then he describes that he
Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad Bhagavatam 7.9.19 while on a Zoom conference with devotees in Spain.
“Through parental care, through remedies for different kinds of disease, and through means of protection on the water, in the air and on land, there is always an endeavor for relief from various kinds of suffering in the material world, but none of them are guaranteed measures for protection. They may be beneficial temporarily, but they afford no permanent benefit. Despite the presence
I’m rather regulated with my walk through Rosedale and having that balance to the day. There are dead ends for cars but for pedestrians you can transcend those barriers. Let me draw a simple analogy. Spiritualist have a capacity to go beyond, to do the extraordinary, to defy what laws of nature impose. Spiritualist tread a trail that knows no barrier.
For me, well I’m a novice in my practice. I have a long journey yet to make and that’s alright. I believe that I have two rods to hang on
