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Today is Ratha-yatra day.

It is a great honor, privilege, and pleasure to be here on the auspicious occasion of Snana-yatra. The first deities of Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra in ISKCON were discovered in San Francisco in 1967. One of Srila Prabhupada’s early disciples, Malati dasi, saw a small figure in an import store, Cost Plus, and brought it to him. When Prabhupada saw the figure, his eyes opened wide. He folded his palms and bowed his head in respect. Then he said, “You have brought

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Ratha means chariot, and yatra means journey or procession. Generally, people are expected to go to the temple to see the Lord. That is the rule, and that is our duty. But on the day of Ratha-yatra, the Lord is so merciful that He comes out of the temple to see the people. In general, the worshiper goes to the temple to receive the Lord's mercy, but on Ratha-yatra the Lord comes out of the temple to give mercy to the people. So He is in an especially benevolent mood in Ratha-yatra. And we can
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There are several interesting episodes about the origin of Rath Yatra stated in Vedic scriptures.

(1) In the Vedic scripture 'Srimad Bhagavatam', it is said that devotees celebrated this day when Shri Krishna and Balram left Gokul for Mathura in a chariot. This was known as Rath Yatra. 

(2) After Lord Krishna delivered the evil Kansa, he gave darshan to devotees in a rath with Balram, in Mathura.

(3) When Lord Krishna was in Dwarka, on the west coast of Saurashtra, he once took his sister,
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Prayers to Lord Jagannath

Hare Krsna

Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada

Srila Sanatan Goswami

 
sri-jagannatha niladri-siro-mukuta-ratna he
daru-brahman ghana-syama prasida purusottama
 
O Lord Jagannath, the crest jewel of the Niladri hill! O supreme Brahman in a wooden form! O dark-hued Lord Shyam! Please be merciful upon me, O Lord Purushottam!
 
praphulla pundarikaksa lavanabdhi-tatamrta
gutikodara mam pahi nana-bhoga-purandara
 
O Lord with full blooming lotus eyes! O nectar of th
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Jagannath Ratha Yatra

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At the height of Indian summer, right at the beginning of the Monsoon, the Lord of Puri goes to his garden palace for the annual summer vacation. Originally the festival has its foundation in the residents of Vrindavan bringing back their Lords, Krishna, Balaram and Lady Subhadra from Kurukshetra.

Today in Puri He, the Lord of the Universe travels in some style from his temple in Puri, to his garden temple, located outside the town centre called Gundicha. Thousands of Hindus flock to see, and

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Happy Ratha Yatra

HH JAYAPATAKA SWAMI,  MERCY ON WHEEL, SRI JAGANNATH E RATHA YATRA ADDRESS, SRI MAYAPUR DHAM, INDIA

Mukam karoti vacalam pangum langayate girim

Yat kripa tam aham vande sri gurum dina tarinamc

Paramananda Madhavam Sri Caitanya Isvaram

I offer my obeisances to His Divine Grace Abhay Caran Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada! Lord Jagannath is a very special deity in Rajapur. Radharani created the Navadvipa dhama for the pleasure of Lord Krsna. And Krsna gave the blessing that all the holy places will

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ISKCON of Harrisburg is gearing up to celebrate its 14th Annual Hare Krishna Festival of India on Saturday, July 20, 2024, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at City Island in Harrisburg. Harrisburg is only a short drive from most major cities on the East Coast – 3 hours from New York City and 2 hours from most towns and cities in New Jersey, Baltimore, and Washington D.C.

The festival will start at 11 a.m. with kirtan inaugurating the festival followed by a two-hour procession of beautifully decorated car

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“I request…that everything in the Temple should be kept nice and clean… We should always remember that Krishna is the purest & similarly only the pure can associate with Him. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”

–  Letter to: Nandarani, Krsna Devi, Subala and Uddhava, Delhi, 3 October, 1967

Srila Prabhupada always emphasised the importance of cleanliness, and said that cleanliness is essential for making advancement in spiritual life: “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” In Sridhama Mayapur, the

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Gundica-marjana by Giriraj Swami

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The observance of Gundica-marjana, the washing and cleansing of the Gundica temple, takes place on the day before Ratha-yatra, in preparation for the arrival of the Lord.

The history of Ratha-yatra goes back thousands of years, to a previous age, but the specific significance of the Ratha-yatra and the cleaning of the Gundica temple for us was shown by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu when He was residing in Jagannatha Puri five hundred years ago. In the transcendental mind of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, t

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Ratha-Yatra Sponsorships

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The annual festival of Jagannath Rath Yatra will be celebrated at the global spiritual headquarter of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), Sri Mayapur Dham, Nadia.

Each year the devotees endeavour to raise the bar by adding new dimensions to the celebrations. The deities of Lord Jagannath, Baldev and Subhadra will be seated on three different carts and taken out in a grand procession. The scriptures mention that whoever takes darshan of the gleeful grin of Lord Jagannath se

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Despite this world of utter craziness, I still cannot help but to see some optimism behind it. It doesn't take much to perceive some beauty in it all, whether through the first rays of the sun, a bird in flight, the smell of dawn, a lake with shimmering water backed by a mountain or a human after a fresh bath with a smile.

Gadadhar came to my cabin in Chemainus to check if I was all packed for the ferry to the mainland. Indeed I was, prepared for the two hour playing over the sea, then a drive

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Lecture given by HH Tamal Krishna Goswami on 11th July 1991 in Dallas.

Today is the disappearance of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Srila Gadadhara Pandit. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura worshipped the deities of Gaura Gadadhara and chose to leave this world on the same day as his worshippable deity Gadadhara Pandit also left.

We cannot calculate the debt which we owe to Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura Practically this Krishna consciousness movement is based upon his design because it is he who revived

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Today we are observing the disappearance day of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Sri Gadadhara Pandita. I first learned of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura when I visited the Boston temple. At that time there were only two published books in ISKCON—the abridged edition of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, published by Macmillan, and Teachings of Lord Chaitanya, published by ISKCON. And at the front of Teachings of Lord Chaitanyawas a series of very dignified black-and-white photographs of Srila Prabhupada, Srila

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The ISKCON community in Mogok, Myanmar, has been significantly impacted by a recent armed conflict in the area. One side of the dispute has taken positions within the temple premises. Some devotees have evacuated, while others are taking refuge in a safe room. The Deities have been relocated to safety. Urgent prayers from the worldwide devotee community are requested. See the report below from Tapana Mishra Das, GBC Executive Committee Vice-Chair.

“Please accept my humble obeisances. All glorie

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We are pleased to present the 26 June 2024 GBC Meeting Highlights Report. This report aims to provide an overview of the online GBC meeting, highlighting the key topics discussed. The meeting commenced with an invocation of prayers led by Bhakti Caitanya Swami, followed by a reading from the Srimad Bhagavatam (1.5.33, 1.6.8, and 1.6.10) by Badrinarayan Swami on the theme “How Devotees see Struggle.” The passage from the chapter titled “Conversation Between Narada and Vyasadeva” was read with it

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Prem is from Mexico and has this wonderful wife, Ambika, who is one of our regular actresses in our dramas. His profession lies in massage therapy and he has his clinic in his home in The Annex. He did a great job on me this morning. I actually don't feel that I deserve this special treatment because I'm not on one of those marathon walks these days, although hankering to be which is another story.

My peers, some of whom have reached monk status (sannyasa), do take the time to receive massage,

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One year, When I was leaving the Dallas/Fort Worth airport on July 4, a large American flag flying in the wind caught my eye, and I was surprised by how happy I felt. I reflected on how fortunate we were to live in a country where we have freedom of religion, and how Srila Prabhupada said, “America has been so good to me to give me money, men—everything. I have no designation that ‘this is my country,’ but because they have given me so much facility, I cannot forget my obligation to them. I wan

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For some time now, Taruna das brahmacari has been working on an intriguing physical model of the universe according to the approach taken in the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

There are a number of ways one can try to understand the universe as described in the Puranas. Taruna das’ model is based on a particular interpretation of the plane of Bhu-mandala as proposed by the late Sadaputa das (Dr Richard L. Thompson): A map of the solar system from a geo-centric (earth-centred) perspective. Taruna das’ model

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Aspiring devotees must be ever vigilant to protect themselves from subtle messages harmful to the practice of bhakti-yoga.

Diagnosing impurities in the process of hearing.

What do teachers teach? Is it only the items of an intended syllabus – a collection of information, lessons, and learning activities? No. It is generally something more.

Along with the explicit curriculum, students pick up unwritten and unofficial – often unintended – norms, values, beliefs, and perspectives transmitted thro

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