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Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee visits ISKCON Mayapur today!
ISKCON Mayapur extends a very warm welcome to the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee to Mayapur.This is the first time that the Chief Minister is visiting us, and our hope is that she will be inspired by our Mayapur international community and as a result that she will be willing to support and promote the vision of Srila Prabhupada of Mayapur as a spiritual city.
A warm welcome with harinam kirtan will be gi

For those of us who have traveled the length and breadth of India, there are many temples that have allowed us in and left indelible and inspiring memories for our spiritual progress. There have also been some temples who have kept us out, or even kicked us out after we have already entered, as if they do not want to share their culture with us, or anyone they feel does not meet their requirements. I can understand that to a degree. But with a little research, I have found that even the Vedas s

THE IMPORTANCE OF LORD SHIVA in Vaishana Sampradaya !!!!!

Today is Shiva Ratri the appearance of Lord Shiva!. Lord Shiv is very important part of bhakti as without his mercy and permission we cannot enter any dham or pastime of Lord Radha Krsna 
For example
In Vrindavan there is Gopeshwar Shiv was became in the form of gopi to enter krsna lila 

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur offered these prayers wriiten for Gopishwara Mahadev when he visited the Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneshwar on Ju

LORD SIVA’S HIGHEST BENEDICTION

Once, the great sage Narada Muni traveled to the abode of Lord Siva and began to glorify him, saying, “You are very near and dear to the Supreme Lord Krsna. Not only that, you are Krsna’s manifestation; you are non-different from Him. You can give liberation and also Krsna-prema, the rare jewel of transcendental love for Krsna.”

Hearing Narada glorify him in numerous ways, Lord Siva became angry and said, “Your glorification of me is false. I am not at all dea

Once upon a time, the cowherd men of Vrindavana, headed by Nanda Maharaja, desired to go to Ambikavana to observe the Siva-ratri ceremony. The rasa-lila was performed during the autumn, and after that the next big ceremony is Holi, or the Dolayatra ceremony. Between the Dolayatra ceremony and the rasa-lila ceremony there is one important ceremony called Siva-ratri, which is especially observed by the Saivites, or devotees of Lord Siva. Sometimes the Vaishnavas also observe this ceremony because

Glories of Shiva-ratri 

YANI KANY ATRA LINGANI STHAVARANI CARANI CA

TESU SANKRAMATE DEVAS TASYAM RATRAU YATO HARAH

SIVARATRIS TATAH PROKTA TENA SA HARI VALLABHAH

(HARI BHAKTI VILASA 14/200 from SKANDA PURANA, NAGARA KHANDA)

Whatever genital deities of Lord Siva that can be found on this earthly planet, on the night of this fourteenth day of the dark fortnight of the month of Phalguna, Lord Siva, who is a leading demigod, enters into them. For this reason, this day is called Siva Ratri. For this reaso

CHAPTER VI:  THE YOGA OF SELF CONTROL

Our lord Sri Krishna starts by conveying that the jivatma  is both a samnyasi ( Sankhyayogi ) and also a yogi (Karmayogi)   who practices the yoga of karma and gets the benefits of both yogas  for he truly has surrendered his soul at the lotus feet of his creator Lord Sri Krishna and hence each one of us practising Karmayoga will be blessed with the dual payback of both the fruits of Karmayoga and Sankhyayoga. When a man ceases to be attached to sense objects

CHAPTER V:  THE YOGA OF ACTION AND KNOWLEDGE

This chapter is brief since most of the aspects of Karmayoga and Sankhyayoga has already been discussed by our Lord Sri Krishna in the earlier chapters.

Arjuna asks our Lord SriKrishna which path is superior that of action ( Karma Yoga)  or knowledge (Sankhyayoga).   There are many avenues  that lead us to the same destination even in our day to day life, the question that arises in each of our minds is which route should one adopt, definitely the one t

By Lalitamrita Dasi

ILS is acronym for ISKCON Leadership Sanga which takes place in Sridham Mayapur about one month before the Gaura Purnima festival. It is a gathering of gurus, temple presidents, GBC members and other formal and informal ISKCON leaders from around the globe where unity in diversity is discussed as was desired by Srila Prabhupada. The meetings were opened by GBC Chairman Bhakti Caru Swami who said how Mayapur is a place of rest for all the preachers and sankirtan devotees who

I heard a wonderful lecture on Krishna Book by HG Srimati Mataji. I am quoting a small portion from the same lecture on how we should become a conscious cooperator in the hand of Lord.

Here is the text from ‘Krishna’ Book, chapter 4, where, having being warned by Durga Devi that the child who will kill Kamsa has already taken birth, Kamsa is now repenting and is also trying to justify all his past sinful actions, putting them behind the bars, killing their children, etc., as will of providence.

“Wow! You look like a beautiful gopi!”
“The sweetest gopi ever :-) ”

Two of my “devotee” girlfriends recently commented on a Facebook picture of mine. And that left me very uncomfortable.

Though since childhood, I was used to being called “gopi” by my classmates and coworkers as my surname had been “Gope”, however, that never made me uncomfortable. I knew those karmi people did not have any clue what they were referring to. But my devotee girlfriends surely know what they are talking about. Or

By Madhava Smullen

On February 7th, GBCs, sannyasis, ISKCON leaders and devotees from all over the world gathered to witness the historic installation of the final two chakras on the domes of Sri Sri Radha Madhava and Lord Nrsimhadeva atop the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

The event began with an elephant parade that carried the murti of Srila Prabhupada, along with Lord Nityananda’s sacred shoes, to the site of the towering 113 meter (370 foot) hight TOVP, which is still under construction

By Praghosa Das

Introduction

The aim of this paper is to present how the “No Objection” procedure, the mechanism the GBC has established to encourage devotees to serve as diksa-gurus in ISKCON, is not contrary to Gaudiya Vaisnava siddhanta. We will examine how the system came to be and why it remains in place as the best option available now for the GBC to ensure as best it can, that ISKCON has qualified diksa-gurus available to its aspiring bhaktas. It will also look at how the procedure best

Hare Krishna.

With Krishna's grace and blessing we are introduced to Krishna Consciousness and with his blessing we try to overcome Maya everyday. Some days are difficult as Krishna tests our faith and we lose the test and other days are better as we win the fight over Maya with Krishna's blessing. In this age of KaliYug where there are so many material distractions the struggle with Krishna consciousness continues. I worry sometimes if we will ever be one with Krishna. We are all part of Krishna

Hare Krishna,

In the kaliyuga , one of the biggest problem is adharma when righteousness is declining in major proportion.  World wars, world destruction through artificial means like hatred, terrorism, fight in the name of religion, caste, creed, status etc and on the other hand onslaught of natural calamities like flood, draught, hurricanes, eruption of volcanoes etc. The list of destruction is never ending but the most horrendous of the lot is when man destroys man, when blood is shed due to m

Some people say, “After 36 years that I have been chanting, I can see no result!”

Do not worry, one day we will all realise that making spiritual advancement is not easy. It takes time. It is a slow process. We make spiritual advancement but we do not see it. One may have no taste for chanting but if one day, it is forbidden to chant; we still cannot stop it. It is not possible. That is how it is. It is deeper that we think it is. At the end of life, all that counts is spiritual advancement. Al