Blog

By Felipe Araujo

James Edwards was 16 and partying at Lollapalooza when a Hare Krishna devotee handed him a book called Easy Journeys to Other Planets.

Intrigued by its descriptions of meditation and yoga and how our spirits can transcend our material body, he says the encounter made an impression on him as a teenager. Looking back, he recalls that he felt he had found a kind of truth. “This is what I have been looking for,” he thought.

Edwards, who is now known as Jai Nitai Dasa, became a vege

Foreword

Sacred texts lie at the very heart of human history, where they are much more than pieces of paper bound between covers. Sacred texts are dynamic literary creations that possess incredible beauty and power, which can be applied for a variety of purposes. The Bhagavad-gītā, for example, has been recited orally for generations, published in hundreds of editions, translated into dozens of languages, performed on stage, painted on canvas, debated in courtrooms, employed in daily worship

In response to my last blog ‘Turning distress into an opportunity‘, I received a few calls from devotees on taking shelter of Krishna in times of distress. In all the calls the crux was the same- Should we trouble Krishna with our material problems? Shouldn’t bhakti should be practiced without any motivation. My response was- of course bhakti should not be motivated, which means we practice bhakti for no other purpose than to please Krishna. But when faced with challenges in our lives then whos

Krsna’s beauty is not only external. His beauty is not only in His form and in His lotus eyes and so on, the beauty is in His very nature. Krsna is very noble. Our Krsna is extremely kind. When Draupadi was in the assembly of the Kurus and Shakuni was carrying out his tricks with the dice and cheating, the Pandavas lost everything. Even Yudhistira himself was totally lost. He lost all his brothers, then he lost himself and then he wagered Draupadi. So Draupadi was saying that it was not a prope

"The main thing is to keep the main thing as the main thing."

Ghaṭṭakuṭīprabhāta nyāyaḥ (toll-collector's booth)

One night a traveler was traversing a road on which was a toll point. Because he was niggardly-minded, he wanted to escape the tax payment by making detour. Thus he walked throughout the whole night. At dawn, to his great astonishment, he arrived right before the eyes of toll-collector, and to his won displeasure he had to pay the toll.

This is another appropriate illustrative story of mechanism of karma. A materialistic-minded people are naturall

By Brahma-vaivarta Purana

Chapter Two
Sridama-Radha-kalaha-varnana
Description of the Quarrel Between Sridama and Radha

1-2 On whose request did Krsna come to the surface of the earth, what the Lord did before He returned to His own abode, how He removed the earth’s burden, and how He killed the demons, of all these I will, carefully thinking of what happened, tell you the story.
3 Listen and I will tell you of Lord Hari’s descent as a cowherd boy. His arrival in Gokula, and Radha’s descent as

By Gargamuni Das

October – November 1966: NEW YORK CITY, “Happiness on 2nd Ave.”

We used to make these leaflets called “Stay high forever.” People really got a kick out of those.

Gargamuni das: We had a big tape recorder that weighed 50 pounds. I was in charge of that.

Brahmananda would bring it down from Prabhupada’s closet every night.

So my job was to set up the tape for Prabhupada’s lecture.

Prabhupada was very insistent in having his lectures tape recorded – so much so that when the tape r

By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

dharmah svanusthitah pumsam
visvaksena-kathasu yah
notpadayed yadi ratim
srama eva hi kevalam

“Duties [dharma] executed by men, regardless of occupation, are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Supreme Lord.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 1.2.8)

In human society there is always some kind of religious institution. One’s religion is called dharma, faith. Dharma, precisely, is one’s constitutional and fun

By Acarya Dasa, All India Padayatra leader

On October 2nd we were making our way from Virar to Govardhana Eco village, Wada. The distance is about 18 kms. After walking about 10 kms we were searching for place to honour prasada. As it was a highway there was no locality or school where we could have stopped for prasada. Finally we stopped near a small river. After prasada we again started walking and Vitthaal, our padayatra ox was walking behind the ratha. One padayatri was holding his rein. B

By Giriraj Swami

I heard a beautiful talk by Srila Prabhupada in which he spoke of the order of the guru and his own achievement:

“[Sanatana Gosvami] therefore said, krpa kari’ yadi more kariyacha uddhara: ‘I know that it is due to Your mercy that I have been able to give up my material position, as Your man. Now order me what is my duty.’ This is devotee, you see? Not that ‘Now I am free from family life, I have no responsibility. Now I shall take prasadam and sleep.’ No. You must be hundred t

By HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

“Because of my state of complete foolishness and paucity of pious activities, although the Lord offered me His personal service, I wanted material name, fame and prosperity. My case is just like that of the poor man who, when he satisfied a great emperor who wanted to give him anything he might ask, out of ignorance asked only a few broken grains of husked rice.”

PURPORT

In this verse the word svārājyam, which means “complete independence,” is very sig

Radha devi dasi, ISKCON Vaishnavi Minister, recently announced the appointment of Ekanga devi dasi and Sati devi dasi, both from Russia, as regional co-ministers for Russia and the CIS. They will serve as the liaisons for the Vaishnavi Ministry in those regions and will also continue organizing sanga opportunities for Vaishnavis and communicating with local leaders on behalf of Vaishnavis in their regions.

Sati devi dasi is a disciple of Bhakti Tirtha Swami and served as his secretary and inter

“Recommend it!? It’s a must! If you haven’t been on the Mayapur Chandra’s Parikrama, 50% of your life is wasted.” – Pankajanghri Das.

Kartik Navadwip Mandal Parikrama organized by the Mayapur Chandras is a small and intimate gathering of devotees travelling to various holy places hearing and chanting about the glories of Sri Sri Gaura Nitai and Their associates. The transcendental Sankirtan Movement is an everlasting phenomenon; Mayapur Chandras is simply here to facilitate. Going on Kartik Nab

I heard a nice talk by Srila Prabhupada in which he said, “A devotee is not afraid of dying”—and explained why:

Here in the material world, padam padam vipadam. At every step there is vipada; there is danger. So don’t think that “She is dying” or “He is dying, and I shall not die.” Everyone will have to die. At every step, there is danger of dying. It is not that . . . Everyone has to die. So before that death we must become fully Krishna conscious so that ante narayana-smrtih. [“The highest pe

“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of, so they can see that it’s not the answer.” ― Jim Carrey, American - Canadian actor