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Hare Krishna and pranams dear devotees,

Today is Bhadra Purnima, a very auspicious and special day for all the devotees of lord Krishna.

Visvarupa- mahotsava

Today is Visvarupa- mahotsava , the date on which Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s elder brother, Visvarupa, took sannyasa, the renounced order of life. We hear from Caitanya Caritamrta –

After this, Jagannātha Miśra got a son of the name Viśvarūpa, who was most powerful and highly qualified because He was an incarnation of Baladeva.

Viśvarūpa

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By Purshotam Govind, Anousha Maheshwary & Neeta Maheshwary

The appearance day of Lord Balaram symbolizes to resemble the devotees to be prepared for greeting Lord Krishna. Lord Balaram is firstly and in conclusion defined as THE SERVITOR GOD TO LORD KRISHNA. The caption compels the devotees to initially approach Bal Bhadra to serve Krishna. In fact, he is the ADI GURU (the teacher) for all the devotees, the purification GOD of our annuities onward restricting a devotee to be eligible for servi

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Bhadra-purnima by Giriraj Swami

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Today is Bhadra-purnima. Srimad-Bhagavatam (12.13.13) states, “If on the full moon day of the month of Bhadra one places Srimad-Bhagavatam on a golden throne and gives it as a gift, he will attain the supreme transcendental destination.” As explained in the purport, “One should place Srimad-Bhagavatam on a golden throne because it is the king of all literature. On the full-moon day of the month of Bhadra, the sun, which is compared to this king of literatures, is present in the constellation Le

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Today is the divine appearance day of the transcendental twins: Rangadevi and Sudevi Sakhi. In the year 1992, the last of the four Asta-sakhis, or principle associates of Srimati Radharani, appeared in Mayapur and took their places on the altar. Rangadevi and Sudevi, were two of these four and they stand third and fourth on Srimati Radharani‘s left.

Rangadevi and Sudevi are identical twins. Their father is Rangasara and their mother is Karuna. Rangadevi is married to Vakreksana, and Sudevi is

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Once we were in Mayapur. We had an old—I think it was a 1948 Hudson or some old, big car. And I was driving. We had left the main road. If you have been on the main road you know how bad it is. You can imagine how bad this secondary road was like. We were going to visit Lalit Prasad, who was Bhaktisiddhanta’s living brother, who was a very old man then. We didn’t know the road, and we didn’t know the way very well. We knew that it was up that road somewhere. And we drove halfway up or so, and

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By Madhava Smulen
 

As well as the official ISKCON Disciples course, which is required studying before taking initiation, ISKCON offers many retreats around the world for devotees to learn about the guru-disciple relationship, and to build their personal relationships with their guru and their godbrothers and godsisters.

One of these was the recent retreat for disciples of Niranjana Swami, which ran from July 30th to August 4th at New Mayapur, Ukraine. 

A rural community located two hours’ d

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Our drive to New Brunswick, a very scenic experience, allowed for a feast for the eyes. To some degree the word ‘feast’ became significant to Samuel, Marshall, Nicholas and myself.  At the stroke of midnight, we will break our full day fast on this auspicious day of Krishna's birthday.  It is not that food is on the mind, necessarily, though hunger pangs do rise. It's a dose of determination that makes for success in this realm of resistance.
 
As the day rolled out, the four of us scored wel
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The Purple flower

The following article was written by my wife Shefali Jandial in June,2013 which talks about her experience of Krishna Consciousness through Kirtan/Kirtan Mela and an incident which strengthened her faith in Krishna. She recently left her body in an unfortunate accident.

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Where is the joy?

Oh! Just around the corner.

I turn the corner-

Where is the joy?

Oh! Up there & yonder.

Closer I wander…

I hear Krishna’s heartbeat,

Radha Rani’s anklets

I hear vibrating mridangas

& tinkling kartalas

Oh

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Bhagavad-gita As It Is - 18.44

TEXT 44
krsi-go-raksya-vanijyam
vaisya-karma svabhava-jam
paricaryatmakam karma
sudrasyapi svabhava-jam
 
SYNONYMS
krsi—ploughing; go—cows; raksya—protection; vanijyam—trade; vaisya-vaisya; karma—duty; svabhava-jam—born of his own nature; paricarya—service; atmakam—nature; karma—duty; sudrasya—of the sudra; api—also; svabhava-jam—born of his own nature.
 
TRANSLATION
Farming, cattle raising and business are the qualities of work for the vaisyas, and for the sudras there is labor and service to others.
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Changing our outlook

Hare Krishna dear devotees,

Dandavat Pranams.

Hare Krishna dear devotees,

Dandavat Pranams.

Today is the appearance day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur,  the spiritual master of Srila Prabhupada.

Few weeks ago a senior Vaishnava shared a revolutionary article by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, which I am sharing with you below. It is deep and very insightful and can give us key(s) to make a very rapid progress in Krishna consciousness by changing our outlook towards the world and ou

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CURE OF SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS

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Andhasyaivāndha lagnasya nyāyaḥ (association with the blind)

If one associates with a blind person, he is sure to develop same blindness.

This is particularly the case of persons blind in the subject matters of morality, wisdom, culture, spiritual knowledge, and detachment from matter. An intelligent man can hardly appreciate the association of such blind people. How they became blind? Their blindness is caused by the glitter of materialistic association with women, and money, which is another fo

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A six hour bus ride on Megabus brought Nicolas and I (and seventy-nine other passengers) to downtown Montreal.  I mentioned to him that we could relax and let the bus empty out before we exit. "We don't need to be part of the stampede," I suggested.

The woman sitting in front of us was of the same spirit.  She also waited, and hearing a piece of our conversation said, "I work for an airlines as a flight attendant and I can tell you this, because I'm not in uniform, the biggest agitation is when
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“Today we are observing the Sri Krishna janmasahtami adhivas because lord Krishna Janmastami is one of the most holy days in the universe. Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita  My birth and My work is transcendental. We will offer about 26 sacred items to the deities. We will offer that with various prayers. We have here the gurukula students who will chant the mantras and different pujaris, brahmanas and sanyasis will offer the sacred items. See the deities have come forward in their utsav murti and

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By Madhava Smulen 
 

Over 1,000 people new to mantra culture are expected to attend Mantra Fest in Moscow, Russia on September 1st at the Green Concert Club.

It’s the second such event this year. The first, says organizer Shaktyavesha Avatar Das, came about as a result of a collaboration with Georgia Wyss, director of the film Mantra Movie: Entrance into Silence, and was a big success.

Taking place on April 24th, the festival featured a combination of local Hare Krishna bands and well-known

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Bhismadeva was not only a pure devotee, but very much a self-reliant devotee. He was a devotee who chose the transcendental position even though he was in a condition of life which was mundane. Living in a royal court is not the ideal situation for a brahmacari. Generally, brahmacaris are nicely locked away in the brahmacari ashramas, where they are protected from the heavy aspect of sense gratification straight in their face. But here, Bhismadeva was living in royal opulence, a very difficult

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"kartum akartum anyatha kartum"
"Everything happening, not happening or otherwise happening is His happening."

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to participate in a retreat for brahmacharis (monks) connected to the Radha Gopinath temple, Mumbai at the Govardhan Eco Village - the farm project of Radha Gopinath temple. Among other feelings, retreats like these always leaves you feeling a little more grounded and humble. You feel small in front of hundreds of other accomplished monks. The sayi
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Bhagavad-gita As It Is - 18.43

TEXT 43
sauryam tejo dhrtir daksyam
yuddhe capy apalayanam
danam isvara-bhavas ca
ksatram karma svabhava-jam
 
SYNONYMS
sauryam—heroism; tejah—power; dhrtih—determination; daksyam—resourcefulness; yuddhe—in battle; ca—and; api—also; apalayanam—not fleeing; danam—generosity; isvara—leadership; bhavah—nature; ca—and ksatram-ksatriya; karma—duty; svabhava-jam—born of his own nature.
 
TRANSLATION
Heroism, power, determination, resourcefulness, courage in battle, generosity, and leadership are the qualities o
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By Khonika Gope-Kumar

[Translated and abridged from the Bengali Book “Gauda Mandal Parikrama: The Holy Tirthas in Bangladesh” by Patita Uddharan Das Brahmacari. Publisher: Hare Krishna Publications, ISKCON Swamibag]

 

After the disappearance of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates from the planet Earth, non-Vedic philosophies and customs propagated and practiced by pseudo sampradayas completely misled the common population, and Mahaprabhu’s preaching was almost lost. In such a dire situa

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Kamiya Sindoor is a popular kind of sindoor and it is the blessings from the goddess Kamakhya.

Kamakhya Devi or as her devotees and believers refer to her as Kamakhya devi and Kamiya Maa is the goddess of fulfilling desires of everything we want in our life which is related to the worldly wishes. To know about the origin of the deity we have to back in time when the supreme lord shiva got married to the aadishakti sati. Sati was the daughter of a great king who was the utmost important man in th

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Bhagavad-gita As It Is - 18.42

TEXT 42
samo damas tapah saucam
ksantir arjavam eva ca
jnanam vijnanam astikyam
brahma-karma svabhava-jam
 
SYNONYMS
samah—peacefulness; damah—self-control; tapah—austerity; saucam—purity; ksantih—tolerance; arjavam—honesty; eva—certainly; ca—and; jnanam—wisdom; vijnanam—knowledge; astikyam—religiousness; brahma—of a brahmana; karma—duty; svabhava-jam—born of his own nature.
 
TRANSLATION
Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, wisdom, knowledge, and religiousness-these are the
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