Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya Lila chapter 19 is a chapter dedicated to the biography of Rupa Goswami and how he receives instructions from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. What it begins with and which is interesting, is ‘lip service’. The term ‘lip service’ is found there. It is said that 500 years ago, most devotees, upon hearing transcendental instruction, were rendering only lip service. I kind of like that! I thought it was really something because that was 500 years ago and we thought that things w
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This morning I was inspired by a post I happened upon on Prabhupada Connect. I expanded on the post with a few select verses from Srila Prabhupada’s books.
“So far as I am concerned, I have accepted you as my disciple and you have accepted me as your spiritual father. This relationship cannot be ended anymore. It is eternal.” (Srila Prabhupada letter, July 9, 1969)
…The relationship of a disciple with his spiritual master is as good as his relationship with the Supreme Lord. A spiritual master
“Arkadeva (the sun god), being merciful upon me, will appear in front of me with his red- dish complexion, wearing saffron coloured cloth, his whole body smeared with sandal- wood and tears flowing from his eyes while he chants the holy name of Gaurahari.”
Hare Krishna, After travelling though Ritudvipa and Jahnudvipa, today the international party has arrived in Modadrumadvipa.
The morning kirtan is always full of enthusiasm; mrdangas, kartals and voices full of devotional ecstasy fill the en
By Murari Gupta Dasa
Even in the most hopeless situations there is hope—when we turn to Lord Krishna.
“Can you please speak to my relatives,” a doctor friend requested me after a Sunday feast program in our temple. “Their youngest son died in an accident recently, and they are much traumatized.”
I agreed and went to meet the family in a corridor outside the temple hall. The father told me how the son had gone to a picnic with his friends and had drowned in a river. He was just eighteen. I liste
Naturally, every devotee desires to see Krsna and the desire to see Krsna is not a fruitive one. You might say, “Well, the top most level of pure devotion was to be free from all selfish desire so isn’t it selfish when we are desiring to see Krsna. Isn’t it about our desire instead of the higher principle of satisfying Krsna’s desire?”
Hare Krishna! Jay Nitai!
Now we have reached half way through Navadvipa Mandala. We had the honor to see Samudragar which is the place Lord Krishna appeared during the battle between two great devotees Bhima and King Samudra sena. The Gurukul boys brought the pastime to life, by enacting a drama on it. The devotees were amused and pleased with them.
Next devotees arrived in Champahati wherein a variety of pastimes took place. The Gopi Champakalata used to pick Champs flowers from here in orde
Speaker: HH Lokanath Swami
SB: 11.5.32
Date: 16 Feb 2018
Mayapur Dhama
Verse
kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ
sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair
yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ
Translation
In the Age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the names of Kṛṣṇa. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.
Purport:
T
CHAPTER VIII: THE YOGA OF THE INDESTRUCTIBLE BRAHMA
Our lord Sri Krishna explains that the supreme permanent, eternal and everlasting being is Brahma, the individual jivatama is adhyatma, and the dutiful discharge of actions is Karma (action), all perishable beings are adhibhuta, the shining purusha (Brahman) is Adhidaiva, and the great lord residing in all beings as inner witness and conscience keeper is adhiyajna which again goes to prove that everything in the three worlds is Parmaatma , Sri
CHAPTER VII: THE YOGA OF JNANA AND VIJNANA
In this chapter VII, our dearest Lord Sri Krishna wants Arjuna to listen with one pointed concentration, total devotion and exclusive love the pure science of knowledge of Parmaatma in his form and formless aspect after knowing which nothing on earth needs to be known.
Our Sri Krishna very clearly conveys it is very difficult to attain him for only one striving soul, among countless can do so, but this
"Gauuuuuraaaangaaa! Early this morning when it was still cold and foggy the parikrama reached Brahma Pushkara, followed by Dharmakshetra, Kurukshetra.
These holy places like all holy places although appearing in various different regions in truth are expansions of their original realm Navadvipa Dha.ma. From here they expand themselves. After crossing Gauranga Setu breakfast prasadam which had a touch from South India was served sumptuously. Fully energised, the International Parikrama party en
The mind fluctuates but we cannot do anything about that but everything is overcome by devotional service. Some people say that spiritual life is a struggle. No, that is not the problem. The problem is that we don’t do enough service. The gap between service gives rise to lust, anger and greed. How difficult it is to overcome envy!? So many difficulties and we struggle to overcome them. The solution is always to do more service and more chanting. Developing attachment to service and chanting is
I have a story of my spiritual master, Jayadvaita Swami. He comes up with good titles of seminars and he came up with the title: The hopes and horrors of household life. Even before the seminar, there was a storm of discussion and people were saying all kinds of things, “The hopes and horrors of household life – what does he know about it? He has never been married. Why doesn’t he speak of the hopes and horrors of sannyasa!” There were all kinds of comments going around. So it was a good title
By Indradyumna Swami
As our taxi slowly made its way to the airport through the Delhi traffic, Sri Nama Vanamali Krsna Dasa turned to me. “Why are you going to Bhutan?” he asked. “Everyone there is Buddhist.”
“Well,” I said, “it’s a sannyasi’s duty to travel far and wide to introduce Krsna consciousness, especially in places where people know little or nothing about our spiritual tradition.”
“But I heard that in Bhutan it is forbidden to proselytize,” said Sri Nama.
“That’s true,” I said, “and
By Sukanti Radha Dasi
The TOVP World Tour continues and is now being organized to visit nine European Countries in the Spring of 2018. Led by Lord Nityananda Prabhu’s divine lotus shoes (Padukas) and Lord Nrsimhadeva’s sacred helmet (Sitari) from the Mayapur Chandodaya Mandir, They will be accompanied by His Grace Jananivas prabhu (head pujari of Mayapur), His Grace Ambarisa das (TOVP Project Chairman) and his wife, Her Grace Svaha mataji, and His Grace Vraja Vilas Das (Global Fundraising Direc
By Giriraj Swami
Sri Krishna informs us, “By service of the Absolute Truth, even for a few days, a devotee attains firm and fixed intelligence in Me. Consequently he goes on to become My associate in the transcendental world after giving up the present deplorable material worlds.” (SB 1.6.23)
This powerful verse calls to mind the Sadhu Sanga Retreat held recently near Austin, Texas. The retreat lasted only a few days, from Friday evening to Monday noon, but during that time, especially in the k
By Krishna-kripa das
This is an excerpt from the Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 14, No. 3 available here: https://goo.gl/tkcZmU
Julia Zimmerman, director of University Libraries for over ten years, stopped by my book table at Landis Green at Florida State University. She was familiar with Bhagavad-gita, and she had eaten Krishna Lunch years ago. Yoga was part of her life, and she been involved in different yoga groups in her youth. She was happy to see me on the campus as example of diversi
Kolkata: The state government and ISKCON will set up a Vedic Centre for Culture and Education at Gangasagar to promote spiritual tourism.
Besides this, the state government and ISKCON are jointly working to build a world class fountain park, community hall, light and sound exhibition to attract the visitors.
An NRI, Govind Sahay Gupta has also expressed his desire to contribute to the cause.
Gangasagar is visited by thousands of people from all over the country during Makar Sankranti. Because o
By Ramai Swami
The GBC members again came to Mayapur for the annual general meeting, which lasted around eleven days.
Different topics were discussed and ministers gave their reports in the areas of health and welfare, devotee care, deity worship, book distribution, communications, cow protection, etc.
Source: http://www.ramaiswami.com/mayapur-gbc-meeting-2/
By Karnamrita Das
[I am continuing the reposting of this 5 part series. The basic premise of this series is to posit that our greatest challenges, problems, reveres, difficulties, hurts, or pain, have the power to crush us (if we let them), or offer the greatest opportunity for personal and spiritual growth. Specifically here, I am speaking of our childhood, and how huge a shadow it casts on our life—which could be good or bad, or likely, a mixture. Our parents are instruments of our karma and a
This Iskcon movement is a treasure box. It is sort of like a gift packet; a big gift packet full of all kinds of goodies! This movement is like that; it is just packed with mercy. None of us really have the capacity to understand Srila Prabhupada! I think that we cannot understand the mercy Prabhupada has given us. We can see some of it.
When I read the Lilamrta and I read the Prabhupada stories that the devotees tell, sometimes I think, “Yes that person describes how they perceived the transce
