By Madhava Smullen
Bhaktivedanta Academy, a combined Montessori – International Bacchalauratae school at ISKCON of Alachua, Florida, has been awarded a $3,000 grant for science education.
Deepa Mukhtyar (Deva Sarita Dasi), the science teacher for Krishna Sharanam, the school’s Middle Years program, applied for the grant from the Toshiba America Foundation, and received approval on October 23rd.
“This is a national program, so it was quite a surprise that it came through for us,” says Bhaktive
By Madhava Smullen
Nearly 10,000 delegates from 80 countries attended the 2018 Parliament of the World’s Religions from November 1stto 7thin Toronto, Canada. They represented nearly 200 religious, spiritual and indigenous traditions, comprising the single largest interfaith gathering in the world.
The Parliament was first held in 1893 with the aim to cultivate harmony among the world’s religious and spiritual communities, and foster their engagement with the world and its guiding institutions
I sat at the banks of Radha Kund and had a wonderful realization I must tell you about. I had already arrived before sunrise and watched the different morning scenes. Tulasi leaves drifted by from the offering to Giriraj at the Sangam. Devotees from Delhi whom I recognized sang beautiful glorifications. Later a group of villagers from the Gujar community arrived, all dressed in the most colorful outfits you can imagine. However, what caught my special attention was a group of devotees circulati
Part of my kartik-vrata is to read Krishna’s instructions to Uddhava before He left this world from the 11th canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam. The Lord makes an important point there – that the knot in the heart, the ahankara, the false ego, is destroyed by bhakti. He says: “When one engages constantly in worshiping Me through loving devotional service, his heart becomes firmly situated in Me. Thus all material desires within the heart are destroyed and the knot in the heart is pierced, the ego k
From its early years to present, ISKCON has witnessed droves of devotees leave their bodies while traveling in automobiles. Although devotees don’t drink and drive, many male devotee drivers that I know are virtual terrors behind the wheel. With a desire to reduce Vaisnava auto tragedies and hoping to improve our service to Lord Krishna, Srila Prabhupada and our spiritual authorities, we humbly suggest some guidelines for devotee drivers to follow.
Let us begin by understanding that drivin
By Kesava Krsna Dasa
To say, “I am the most fallen!” at an improper time or to an improper audience, and without genuine tears, in a casual way, is probably an imitation. It will likely be an attempt to impress others. There has to be a correct mood for such an expression, and it is usually private.
When someone expresses genuine “fallen” sentiments like Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur in his Gita-mala and other works, we should realise that these are private interactions between him and his Lord and
From Back to Godhead
The race for supremacy continues even in the virtual world
This is the age of internet.People are spending more and more time online. They are emailing, socializing, chatting, downloading, uploading, sight-seeing, blogging. And of course they are searching. In fact to perform all the previous tasks, one needs the help of a search-engine like Google. Google is so famous today for helping people find something on the internet that it is almost synonymous with a search-engine.
From Back to Godhead
By Murari Gupta Dasa
Not getting what you want? Perhaps that’s good for you.
“Please cancel my tickets,” I said to my friend on the phone. “I won’t be able to go.”
I hung up the phone and sank down onto my bed, my head in my hands. My friend had arranged my tickets for the trip to Jagannatha Puri and Mayapur I had been so eagerly looking forward to, and now I had to cancel. The past few weeks in my life had been very turbulent, so when my friends proposed a spiritual retrea
“The Varsana parikrama is situated around the Sriji Temple. The different hills here are demigods incarnating in this way to place the feet of the devotees on their heads.”
Sancaricor
First, we got lost but there is no wrong turn in Vrndavana. Following in the footsteps of the spiritual master, each step takes us closer to Krsna. A narrow path surrounded by soft sands leads us to Sancaricor; a narrow valley where two hills meet. Here, Krsna would st
By Mukhya devi dasi
The third community development conference took place at New Raman Reti beginning November. You can learn about our Community Development Initiative and how it developed at www.nrrcommunity.com
This event presented an organized approach to serving and sharing with friends by launching Action Teams for the 10 focus areas that emerged from the CDI Survey and Conferences 1 and 2 where we “Explored” and “Analyzed” the different facets of our growing community.
During this th
By Kesava Bharati Dasa Goswami
Letting Śrīla Prabhupāda Speak for Himself
Part 2
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāminn iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
My dearest Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my prostrated obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to you and your spiritually refreshing transcendental books, which are sowing seeds of pure devotion (bhakti) in the hearts of cond
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta states, “Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the most benevolent personality in human society because His only desire is to make people happy. His sankirtana movement is especially meant for the purpose of making people happy.” (Adi 9.45 p)
And Srila Prabhupada said of himself, “I have started this Krishna consciousness movement in this country, America, to make people happy: happy in this life, happy in next life. . . . So we are making little our teeny effort, how to make peopl
By Niranjana Swami
The following is a partially edited transcription of a lecture given on June 15, 2014, at the Carpathian Festival in Ukraine – SB 1.2.19 – Becoming Free from the Three Modes of Nature.
Reading from the 1st Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, Chapter 2, Text 19.
tada rajas-tamo-bhavah
kama-lobhadayas ca ye
ceta etair anaviddham
sthitam sattve prasidati
tada — at that time; rajah — in the mode of passion; tamah — the mode of ignorance; bhavah — the situation; kama — lust and desire; l
Srila Prabhupada: The Spiritual Master and Krishna are two parallel lines. The train, on two tracks, moves forward. The Spiritual Master and Krishna are like these two tracks, they must be served simultaneously. Krishna helps one to find bona fide Spiritual Master, and bona fide Spiritual Master helps one to understand Krishna. If one does not get bona fide Spiritual Master, then how he can ever understand Krishna? You cannot serve Krishna without Spiritual Master, or serve Spiritual Master wit
By Deena Bandhu Das
More than 120 disciples gathered in Vrindavan to glorify Srila Prabhupada for his Disappearance Day Festival. Fabulous arrangements were made and they churned the great ocean of the nectar of Srila Prabhupada’s glories. Again in the evening, they gathered at Srila Prabhupada’s bed where he left this world. Every year I think they will never be able to make better decorations to his bed, but again, just see how gorgeous they did. Finally there was aratika at 7:20 pm, the time
By Rahul Singh
“When you are in the field of spirituality, you think you can advise anyone on any topic. We listened to experts in hydrogeological survey and Soil Biotechnology”. This was the greatest takeaway for me from the session titled “Sustainability from the Inside out” hosted in October in Singapore by Artha Forum – the fact that knowledge makes you humble. Thanks to Rajeev Srivastava and Suman Chaki’s kind invitations, every time I walk into Tanglin Club for an Artha session, I come ou
ISKCON Member Selected as KAICIID International Fellow
ISKCON India’s Director of Communications, Yudhistir Govinda Das, was earlier this month chosen by the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) as one of its twenty International Fellows for the year 2019.
KAICIID, based in Austria’s capital city Vienna, is an inter-governmental organization jointly founded in 2012 by the Republic of Austria, Kingdom of Spain, Kingdom of Sau
On October 27, ISKCON New Vrindaban devotees in West Virginia heard of the horrific mass shooting at the Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh, a 90-minute drive away from their idyllic rural community. This tragic news affirmed the timeless knowledge of the Srimad Bhagavatam, which instructs us to take shelter of the Supreme Lord in a time where “there is danger at every step” (SB10.14.58). Devotees visiting New Vrindaban often travel to and from the Pittsburgh airport, and one o
