Bhaktivedanta Manor: Our prayers are with Rishi Kapoor, famous actor and director, who sadly passed away today.
We remain forever grateful that in our time of need, he came to our aid. In 1989 when Bhaktivedanta Manor was under threat of closure, he joined over 7000 campaigners on a sponsored walk to raise funds for the legal fees. Rishi walked at the front and gave a rousing speech.
Today the Manor flourishes but it would not be without the support of those kind persons such as Rishi Kapoor wh
Dear Prabhus,
Amidst the pandemic and the uncertainties it has brought (including for our printers), we have decided that this year we will publish Srila Prabhupada Tributes – “the open Vyasa-puja book” –exclusively as
an eBook (Kindle, ePub, and PDF). We plan to release the book in August just ahead of Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa-puja celebrations.
A newly discovered opera, Krishna, by Sir John Tavener is to be staged for the first time after the late composer’s friend Prince Charles flagged up its potential.
Sir John Tavener is one of the most acclaimed British composers of the postwar years, admired by Prince Charles and the Beatles, among others.
Tavener’s mesmerizing, trance-inducing music – listened to by some fans with a joint in hand – won him a cult following. At the age of 24 the Guardian called him “the musical discovery of the
Life is like a game of chess – whether you’re the king, queen or pawn, at the end of the game everyone ends up in the box. Unless, of course, you get cremated. Morbid? Depressing? Dark? Though discussions on death are not usually number one on our conversation list, I was invited to the Southbank Centre a few weeks ago to speak on the topic “what happens next?” In an auditorium filled with coffins and somber lighting, I shared some thoughts on the logic of life after death. Living in a communit
Prabhupada would tolerate disrespect of himself in order to keep a disciple engaged but he did not tolerate disrespect of Iskcon and his disciples. Although we were incompetent, he did not allow disciples to criticize other disciples.
“The intention of this video is not to defend the misdeeds of leaders and I agree that there needs to be a system in which complaints can be heard and addressed. In fact, I just mentioned this in a seminar this past weekend. I have been concerned about this since
The Passing of Arca Vigraha Devi Dasi
by Daivi Sakti Devi Dasi
Arca Vigraha Devi Dasi joined ISKCON in 1985. She was a successful artist who was disillusioned with material life and wanted an alternative. For a long time she searched for the truth, and she was finally satisfied when she met Srila Prabhupada’s devotees in South Africa.
She discussed philosophy with them and considered how to dovetail her art career in Krishna’s service. Thus she began working on a series of charcoal drawings whi
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
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
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
