By Madhava Smullen
Srila Prabhupada disciple and popular Venezuelan musician Havi Das (Ilan Chester) delivered a deep and powerful Krishna conscious message while receiving a Latin Grammy award recently.
The speech and its message of substance, amidst more typical award acceptance fare, was well received by the audience.
Havi was being presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at a special awards event in the Four Seasons hotel in Las Vegas, during the 18th annual Latin Grammys on November 15
Early next year will be the auspicious 15th Anniversary of Vrinda Kunda Temple opening! From 29th Jan to 12th February we will celebrate with special parikramas to the Holy Places of Braja. The high point of the Festival will be our famous Kalash Yatra, an ecstatic Sankirtan procession with the ladies carrying water pots with coconuts on their heads. Parikramas will be taken out almost every day with the main festival day on Sunday 4th Feb.
Plan your trip to Mayapur Gaura Purnima Festival by co
Odana Sashti is a festival that marks the beginning of winter. During the Odana-sasthi festival the devotees dress Lord Jagannatha and Balarama with starched cloth. This ceremony indicates that from that day forward, a winter covering should be given to the Lord. That covering is directly purchased from a weaver, and freshly purchased cloth is usually starched to preserve it. According to the archana-marga, a cloth should first be washed to remove all the starch, and then it can be used to cover
After successful organization of the Bhagavad Gita contest for school children in 2014-15, wherein more than 3,000 students participated, Shikshashtakam Das (Chief, ISKCON Nashik, Maharastra, India), immediately had a thought to do it for the teachers next time.
This year, a team of devotees made a booklet based on the Bhagavad Gita As It Is in just two months, in order to facilitate teachers in their study. It consisted of selected topics from all the eighteen chapters of Bhagavad Gita, import
“At the beginning of winter, there is a ceremony known as the Odana-sasthi. This ceremony indicates that from that day forward, a winter covering should be given to Lord Jagannatha.” - Sri Caitanya Caritamrta, Madhya-lila16.79, purport
Once, Srila Pundarika Vidyanidhi and Srila Svarupa Damodara came to Jagannatha Puri and saw the festival of odana-sasthi. On this day, the Lord is offered new cloth, and from that day forth, the Lord should be offered winter clothing. This cloth that was offe
By Madhava Smullen
On October 15th the Mayapur Institute of ISKCON opened its first classroom kutir, or hut, which creates the perfect atmosphere for study of the Vedic scriptures.
Built with natural, environmentally-friendly local materials like bamboo, bricks and thatch, the kutir makes students feel like they have stepped back in time to learn with the sages of the Srimad-Bhagavatam.
But the hut doesn’t eschew modern facilities either – electricity inside provides power for ceiling fans and
By Bhadra Balaram das
While the opposition parties in India are recklessly engaged in criticizing the Modi-led BJP government on the issues of its GDP growth and allegedly weakening economy, the same government has been acknowledged by the World Economic Forum to be the third most-trusted government in the world.
At the same time, a few days back the Moody’s Investors Service, a USA based reputed financial analysis provider has upgraded India’s rating after some 14 long years.
Do the Indians h
By Kadamba Kanana Swami
In many ways, old age is a blessing. For a Vaisnava, it is a great blessing. Why is it so? Because then, there is no more distraction. When we are young, we have so much fight. “Oh, I want to enjoy… but I have to be Krsna conscious! I should be Krsna conscious. I really want to be but I want to enjoy also.” When you are old, “Yeah, I want to enjoy but let’s be real. Can I? Can I really?” You can try to squeeze a few more drops out of the old broken machine but it is not
By Kadamba Kanana Swami
We have to take inspiration from our previous acaryas. Advaita Acarya was around 85 years old when he was given the role as one of the main dancers in Lord Caitanya’s Harinama Sankirtan party and Haridas Thakur was in his 70s and he was another one of the main dancers. They danced in ecstasy, out of taste and spiritual strength. Vakreshwar Pandit would dance for 72 hours.
Then we have the six Goswamis. When people would just see Sanatana Goswami, they would become ecstati
By Subal Shyam Das and Jaganmohini Devi Dasi
This year (2017), on Nov. 24th, Friday, disciples, servants and well-wishers of H.H. Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami will be celebrating his 80th vyasa-puja.
On this most auspicious occasion, for the pleasure of all vaishanava community, we recall one of his vital contributions to the BI-scientific mission which was visible since the inception of Bhaktivedanta Institute by the blessings of Srila Prabhupada. Today we would like to emphasize on this aspe
By Purushottam Nitai Das
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura met with opposition when he had taken his disciples for braj mandal parikrama because many temple priests of Vrindavan were of the opinion that he should not have given brahminical threads to those who were not born in a brahmana family.
But Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura gave reference of various scriptures and proved that one should be considered a brahmana not by birth but by qualities. He quoted verse from Srimad Bhag
Hare Krishna dear devotees!
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
In connection with the Institute for Spiritual Culture Devaki Mataji will be giving five deep and transformational courses throughout the month of January 2018 in Mayapur. Please see the course schedule below:
* 1st to 5th of January 2018: Our Need For Sheltering Relationships
* 8th to 12th of January 2018: The Vanaprastha Ashram
* 15th to 19th of January 2018: Men and Women - More Confused Than Eve
By Ramai Swami
After visiting Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne temples, the ToVP team went to Sydney. The function was held at the North Ryde School of Arts hall, which the temple management use to fund raise for their new temple out west.
The event went well with Ambarish Prabhu and and his wife Svaha Devi Dasi giving speeches about the need to help finish the Temple of Vedic Planetarium. Braja Vilasa Prabhu asked every to donate generously and took pledges from the nearly 100 devotees who atten
Please join us for a special Tuesday Sanga Seminar on Tuesday, November 28, 2017 at 6:30pm - 8:30pm on the False Ego: Our Constant Companion and Trouble Maker. This seminar will be given by our special guest, Hayagriva das. Some topics that will be addressed in this seminar:
Countless people come to ISKCON Mayapur from all over India and the world, and ISKCON Mayapur has a number of preaching endeavors to attract these people to Mayapur and to preach the science of Krishna consciousness to them. ISKCON Mayapur’s preaching targets all people, both those from far away lands and those who reside within and near Mahaprabhu’s own land.
One of these preaching programs is the Mayapur Bhakti Vriksha program. Bhakti Vriksha preaching is a method derived from Srila Bhaktivin
By Anand Caitanya das
Every year the Aqua Foundation Group organizes the World Aqua Congress (WAC) on a theme related to environment and invites excerpts of papers from speakers from all over India. During the XI World Aqua Congress, this year, ISKCON Govardhan Ecovillage (GEV) was awarded with the prestigious Aqua Excellence Award in the category of ‘Green Housing – Social Sector’. Jadu Thakur Das, Head – CSR, GEV received this award from Dr. Vandana Shiva, the famous author, activist, pioneer
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By Amarendra Das
Gayatri dd and I joined Krishna consciousness when Gargamuni Prabhu [then a sannyasi] came to Gainesville, FL in November, 1970. We were living together in a small duplex a couple of blocks from the University of Florida campus, where we were going to school. A short time after meeting Gargamuni, we invited him to move in with us.
By mid-January, 1971, over 100 students a day were coming to the original “Krishna House” for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. About ten students soon m
