Today he sits on the sidewalk, in minus degree temperatures, holding a ragged sign which reads “give me hope.” It’s a familiar sight that I’ve become somewhat desensitized to; I don’t think I can truly understand his situation. Seeing him sleeping rough, a few people throw in some coins, someone else gifts him a Costa coffee, while an occasional passer-by stops to offer a few comforting words. All nice gestures. But, my heart says, what he really needs is hope. In that sense we are all beggars
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A few weeks ago, I exited from the Whatsapp platform after using it for years. Here are few parallels I drew between the experience of leaving "the WhatsApp world" and the experience one has of leaving this world.
I WILL ALWAYS EXIST
After leaving the WhatsApp world, I still exist similarly after leaving this world, one will still exist because as spirit soul, we are all eternal. Lord Krishna explains in Bhagvat-gita 2.12
na tv evāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ
na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ
na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ
By Madhava Smullen
On November 16th, devotees in London celebrated the life of one of Srila Prabhupada’s greatest warriors, who continues to inspire and motivate ISKCON members to this day – Tribhuvanatha Das, who passed away in 2001.
The remembrance festival was in honor of Tribhuvanatha’s birthday or ‘appearance’ day, which is on November 27th according to the Western solar calendar, and on Gita Jayanti day according to the Vedic lunar calendar (December 8th this year).
About seventy to ei
The decorated Christmas tree came crashing down. A metal barrier at a construction site also collapsed to a horizontal position and lay there. Clear plastic bags flitted in the air, here there. It was surreal and it was happening within a certain solitude. A strong gale whipped through the downtown where I was walking. It was 3:30 a.m.
I needed that walk. It has been a sleepless night. The hike through the gale inserted energy while I held onto my dhoti (lower garment).
I entered th
On 8th Dec. 2019 became a red-letter day in the history of Sri Sri Radha Madhav Temple, ISKCON ROHINI. The temple observed not only ‘Mokshada Ekadashi’ but also witnessed its first-ever ‘Kirtan Mela’.
Month-long preparations fructified into a grand harinaam mela with the slogan ‘CHANT FROM YOUR HEART’ in the presence of exalted devotees from all around the world. As the temple is in the final stages of its completion, the mela was dedicated to its grand opening in 2020. With ‘Adhivas Ceremony’
Personally, I don’t like organized religion. Thus I’ve made a conscious and informed decision to follow science, the science of the soul. So how does it work? Let me show you. During the space race of the 1960s, NASA spent millions of dollars, energy, and resources developing a pen that would function in a weightless environment. After the Cold War, their astronautical engineers inquired from Russian cosmonauts as to their solution to this anti-gravity conundrum. The Russians used a pencil. Ala
HH Narasingha Swami is now in hospice (back from the hospital) most likely preparing to leave this world any day, any hour. He is in and out of consciousness and very much in the process of leaving his mortal frame.
Dear Devotees,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
The Annual General Meeting of the ISKCON GBC Society will begin on February 11, 2020. Following the ISKCON GBC Society’s Rules of Order, the GBC Secretariat requests proposals, duly sponsored by two GBC members, to be submitted by December 15, 2019. Note that NO proposals will be entertained after this date.
Please follow the updated format for GBC Proposals, attached as a fillable PDF.
Once ready, kindly email
By Madhava Smullen
About 100 people, including local devotees, parents and family they had invited, and members of the Indian community attended this year’s Thanksgiving program at ISKCON’s New Goloka Dham in Hillsborough, North Carolina.
Some North Carolina devotees attended the Rathayatra festival that is part of the Charlotte Thanksgiving Parade, the largest such parade in the Southeast USA. Those that did not came to the Hillsborough event instead, which has been a tradition for the past d
Kadamba Kanana Swami: What happens when you chant Hare Krsna? There is a change if you chant Hare Krsna. You look at me, everyone looking? Okay, look now, “Hare Krsna!” Did you see any change?
Devotees: Yes.
Kadamba Kanana Swami: Okay, what did you see?
Devotees: “Happy!” “Lots of energy!” “Enthusiasm!” “Blissful!” “Positivity!” “You made us all chant!”
Kadamba Kanana Swami: No, you got it all wrong, sorry. No, what really happened is that the subtle body has changed. Yes I may smile, but I do
On 11 Dec, Badrinarayan Swami and two other devotees from San Diego spent the afternoon with us in Carpinteria, and I had a wonderful time with him. Associating with him outside a temple setting, I became aware of many wonderful qualities and abilities in him for the first time. He is brilliant and truly a great asset to Srila Prabhupada’s mission, to which he is completely committed and devoted. And he has a real taste for Krishna consciousness.
Before Clare got lured away by the junkie, I shared with her a quote from W.C. Fields, whom I admired to some extent before I became a monk. She had a good laugh at it. Here it is. "Christmas at my house is always at least six or seven times more pleasant than anywhere else. We start drinking early. And while everyone else is seeing only one Santa Claus, we'll be seeing six or seven.”
Now, that was yesterday at the park. Today was a rather moist day. Jaya and I drove to Wasaga to see a
The tumultuous crescendo of base and profanities spewed forth from its speakers and flooded the ether with torrential like ferocity. As the taxi got closer I got deafer. The speakers roared out, ” I like big butts and I can not lie, all the other brother can’t deny.” Being a member of the Hare Krishna’s I thought to myself that we practice yukta vairagya, complete renunciation where nothing is falsely given up rather everything is used in The Lord’s service. So how to link such vulgarity to
Atheists think that a prayer to God is sheer imagination. But for centuries, thousands of sincere practitioners have accumulated definite evidence of the positive results of prayer. The serious doubt regarding prayer is not whether God can hear and respond, but whether the things people pray for are worthwhile. According to St. Teresa of Avila. “More tears are shed in this world from prayers that are answered than from those that go unanswered.” Those who pray, therefore, need more than the con
By Madhava Smullen
A new paperback edition of “Hope This Meets You in Good Health,” a book by ISKCON guru and Prabhupada disciple Prahladananda Swami, is now available on Amazon.com and on Barnes & Noble’s website in English. The book has also been translated into Spanish, Polish and Russian.
The title “Hope This Meets You in Good Health” is derived both from Srila Prabhupada’s famous sign-off on his letters, and from a magazine of the same name which Prahladananda Swami published for two de
The day was irresistible at ten degrees Celsius, with the sun beckoning. Spontaneously, I decided to pick up the mrdunga drum, get a ride, and do some chanting in Kensington during that fabulous window of opportunity. It may be the only day left for such freedom, before Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind, sets in.
I began to chant, with the sun on my back and my two arms in sufficient motion to get the rest of me warm. The chanting, I kept low key. I believed it would do its own mag
Nārikelaphalāṁbu (coconut water)
By nature's miracle the coconut has a tasty juice, very nourishing and healthy for that matter, inside of it.
Once coming to India from Europe, I told my little daughter that in India grows a juice in cans on the trees. She laughed saying, “How is that?” When she saw coconuts on the top of the palms, and tasted coconut juice she understood. This is just very simple example of so called miracles of nature. The atheists don't like to admit that this and the rest of t
By Pancharatna das
It’s been just over a year since we launched the completed Chantnow.com on Radhastami, 17th September 2018 and the results have been very encouraging.
We began with an experimental Facebook advertising campaign that resulted in a surge of 275 people enrolling in our 7 day Chanting workshop at an advertising cost of just about $1 each. We knew we could generate student enrollments, but could we keep them progressing?
To focus on student services, we then turned to fine-tuning o
By Kesava Krsna dasa
Have we ever embellished a telling of a lie with an assortment of trivial details to disguise the actual truth? Have we ever pretended to be someone we never were, by exuding a persona larger than ourselves? Are there any angels among us who can boldly claim to have never fibbed; ever – even to get out of an awkward situation?
The truth is out; there are no foolproof ways of telling if someone is lying or not. Shifty eyes, truth drugs and lie detectors can provide clues bu
By Madhava Smullen
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, devotees at ISKCON Boise, Idaho launched a new annual “Festival of Gratitude” this year, with the motto: “Appreciating Deity, Devotee, Nama, Dhama, Bhagavatam.”
“We wanted to focus on inspiring gratitude for Srila Prabhupada and the processs that he’s given us,” says Bhakta Nathen Wanty, who came up with the idea for the festival and co-organized it. “And with the gratitude gained from attending this festival, we hoped devotees would become m
