Kirtan Mela – festival of chanting the holy names of the Lord begins today. In a colorful Adhivas ceremony, worship was offered to the musical instruments and prayers offered for success of festival. HH Loknath Swami Maharaj led the first kirtan after Adhivas.
Kirtan Mela : Day-1 Schedule:
“I firmly believe that simply chanting the holy name of the Lord can remove all misconceptions of the material world. I believe that simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord one can attain the shelter of
By Nikunja Vilasini Dasi
Whether it is 3 a.m. in New York, 6 a.m. in California, 4 p.m. in South Africa, or 7:30 p.m. in India, devotees all over the globe can connect with Giriraj Swami at the same time every day to chant the holy names together.
Gone are the days when disciples could see their spiritual master only rarely, what to speak of chanting together. Now by the mere click of a mouse, you can see Giriraj Swami every day and chant the maha-mantra along with him.
Before every round of ja
Our deity of Sri Gopisvara Mahadeva at our ashram, Siva-ratri.
In his Sankalpa-kalpadruma (103) Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura prays:
vrndavanavani-pate jaya soma soma-
maule sanandana-sanatana-naradedya
gopisvara vraja-vilasi-yuganghri-padme
prema prayaccha nirupadhi namo namaste
“O gatekeeper of Vrindavan! O Soma, all glories to you! O you whose forehead is decorated with the moon (soma), and who is worshiped by the sages headed by Sanandana, Sanatana, and Narada! O Gopisvara! Desiri
Shiva-ratri occurs every lunar month on the 13th or 14th day of the dark half of the moon phase. Once every year during the month of Phalgun, a Maha Shiva-ratri occurs. This Maha Shiva-ratri day is considered to be the day when Lord Shiva married Parvati and it is celebrated elaborately by devotees of Lord Shiva.
Vaishnavas do not generally take part in the worship of demigods except to honor them as great devotees of the Lord. Lord Shiva is worshipped by Vaishnavas because he is the greatest
On or around Gaura Purnima 2022 all of ISKCON will ecstatically celebrate together the Grand Opening of the magnificent Temple of the Vedic Planetarium at the World Headquarters of ISKCON in Sridham Mayapur on its 50th Anniversary, and our beloved Mayapur Deities will at last be moved into Their long-awaited new home.
After twelve years of planning, execution and fundraising mixed with the blood, sweat and tears of many, we will finally make this combined offering to Srila Prabhupada, increasin
From Back to Godhead
By Mark D. Vickers
“I have so regretted not better appreciating what was offered to me in Hong Kong so many years before.”
My first contact with ISKCON was in about 1976, when I was fifteen. I had written to Bhaktivedanta Manor in the UK, where I grew up, and they kindly sent me some information. I quickly became fascinated. I could see all these young men and women in the photographs dancing and chanting in ecstasy and was intrigued by what was giving them such happiness.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 30 December 2017, Gold Coast, Australia, Bhagavad-gita 8.20)
We must try to properly glorify Srila Prabhupada in order to understand his unlimited spiritual potency. Srila Prabhupada was always a resident of the spiritual world. He may have been present in this material world for us, but he still resided in the spiritual world. What if I was trying to glorify Srila Prabhupada and I were to say, “At the end of his life, he went back to Godhead.” What would you say to that?
The Srimad Bhagavatam gives us full descriptions of Krsna’s appearance, of Krsna’s character and of his activities. It is in this way, by absorption in the Bhagavatam that we get everything, everything to know who Krsna is. First, it describes how of all the incarnations, Krsna is the Supreme Lord, ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.28). Then finally in the tenth canto, it gets into detail. In this way, by reading, we can gradually understand and begin to ap
By Bhakti Chaitanya Swami
The GBC Organizational Development Committee started its meetings on thursday in Mayapur, just before the full GBC meeting starts. Some of the main management experts of the movement are taking part.
By Chaitanya Charan Das
Some people fear, “If I become detached, will I become emotionless, uncaring, stone-hearted?”
No, detachment empowers us to care truly for others, for it frees us from emotional dependence on them. When we are emotionally dependent on someone, we make decisions based on considerations of their pleasure, without considering any higher principles or purposes. Being driven by such narrow considerations, we often act against their best interests and even our best interests.
Question: In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Lord Siva instructs Citraketu that instead of posing as a devotee externally while lacking in devotional attitude, one should keep one’s bhakti hidden and not pose as a devotee outwardly. In this connection, I sometimes think about how irresistible it is to speak about one’s accomplishments. When talking with friends or others you like to share what you have done and the value of it. In fact it’s normal in one sense. So how do we practically apply this teachi
Today is the disappearance day of Sri Isvara Puri. He was such a perfect disciple of Sri Madhavendra Puri that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Lord Krishna Himself, was pleased to accept Isvara Puri as his spiritual master. Later, Lord Chaitanya visited Isvara Puri’s birthplace at Kumara-hatta and collected some earth from the birth site, which He kept very carefully and ate a small portion of daily. Thus He showed us how a faithful disciple worships a spiritual master who has faithfully served his s
By Sri Giridhari Dasa
19 February 2019, Chennai: Tamil Nadu Government has issued “Best Translator Award 2019” to Sri Giridhari Dasa, for translating Srila Prabhupada’s Sri Caitanya Caritamrta into Tamil. The government has recognized that the translation work of over 8,000 pages was done in fine language with elegance. In the function held in Chennai Secretariat Office, the Honorable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Mr. Edapadi K Palaniswami issued the award along with a certificate, and a cheque
SRIMAN NARAYANA, SRI LAKSHMI AMMA (DAYA DEVI) AND THE HOLIEST OF HOLY WORKS OF THE REVERENTIAL AZHWARS ( MYSTIC SAINTS ) OF THE SOUTH OF INDIA. ( Part 21 / 21)
Review and summarization Part 21 of 21 CONCLUDED
My Dearest spiritual brothers and sisters,
WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY EKADASI....MAY YOU ALL FOREVER STAY BLESSED AT THE LOTUS FEET OF LORD SRI KRISHNA AND MAHALAKSHMI AMMA.
Countless glories to our most adoring azhwars . May we forever, at our tiny
Sri Tirumangai Azhwar Part 20/21 (continued)
SRIMAN NARAYANA, SRI LAKSHMI AMMA (DAYA DEVI) AND THE HOLIEST OF HOLY WORKS OF THE REVERENTIAL AZHWARS ( MYSTIC SAINTS ) OF THE SOUTH OF INDIA. ( Part 19 / 21)
Sri Tirumangai Azhwar Part 19
OUR SRI TIRUMANGAI AZHWAR WITH HIS MOST BELOVED WIFE SRI KUMUDAVALLI THAYAR
Our dearest Sri Tirumangai Azhwar has sung more than 1200 holy verses in praise of our lord Sriman Narayana which sums up his divine contribution to more than 1/4 of the 4000 Divya Prabhandham , the other 1/4 pertains to
Dear Readers and Followers of Free Write Journal,
Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
This edition of the Journal begins by discussing how, in my old age, I am accepting personal service from a disciple (vapu) for health reasons, while in my relationship with Srila Prabhupada I chose to serve his vani, even while he was here. I typed his Srimad-Bhagavatam tapes and began the Boston center on his behalf, and even when called to serve as his servant
The preparations have begun!
With great pleasure ISKCON Mayapur invites all of you out there to join the most auspicious Sri Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama!
We are expecting at least 8 thousand devotees all round the world to join the blissful sacrifice of walking in Sri Navadvipa dhama!
“… even the vegetables that grow in Navadvipa are surcharged with Krsna Prema..” HH Jayapataka Swami Maharaj”
“…we worship Lord Jagannath by doing Ratha Yatra and we worship the dhama, Navadvipa dhama, by performi
Sri Sri Radha-Londonisvara are some of ISKCON’s famous Deities, in fact Srila Prabhupada’s Lilamrita recalls the story of Their installation with great affection.
Therefore as a result the Deity worship department at our Temple is always striving to serve Their most beautiful Lordships with ever increasing love and devotion. One way in which this endeavour is manifest is through constant training. As such, we recently held the course ‘Introduction to Pujari’, facilitated by the our Head Priest
From Back to Godhead
I said to Sandip, “I read about a form of addiction that is increasingly being recognized by specialists as the world’s most widespread and least discussed form of addiction: sexual addiction.”
“Sexual addiction? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just as alcoholics don’t have control over their desire for alcohol, sex addicts don’t have control over their sex drive. Drug addicts, for instance, are not necessarily evil or criminal but are in the grip of a habit that makes them
