Last night night Swarup Damodar, Sukumari, Nikunja Viharini, and I went to visit Rose Forkash (now Rajani-priya dasi) at her home in Carpinteria. For three hours, she enlivened and inspired us with stories of her and her family’s association with and service to Srila Prabhupada. And Swarup Damodar gave me a wonderful exchange with Srila Prabhupada about her and her daughter, to read out loud.
Ramesvara: We have one mother in Los Angeles of a girl named Lila-sakti. She’s a big book distributor.
"The bus is only two stops away, honey," Ghanashyam said, glancing at his phone. "I've got to go."
"Yes, yes, coming!" I poured hot soup into my husband's thermos and twisted on a cap with shaking hands. I slid the thermos into his lunchbox and handed it over.
"Thank you!" he said, then dashed away out the door. I took a deep sigh and began to clean up the kitchen. I turned around to face another counter and my heart dropped. The inner cap of Ghanashyam's thermos. This would mean his lunch wou
JOYFULLY BEING ALONE: This subject is an extension of a frequent topic of mine which I deal with on a daily basis: extolling the virtue of introspection and self-analysis as part of clearing out impediments to devotion in the stage of bhakti called anartha-nivritti (retiring unwanted habits of thought and action)--at least that is often the hint. We live in a time of busy-ness and addiction to innumerable distractions, where it isn't seen as cool to just be sitting down without a handheld devic
With a sudden boom of new Krishna conscious farm projects in Central Canada, their leaders gathered to discuss how they could collaborate with each other at the first ever Central Canada Farm Conference on December 17th.
Canadian GBC Bhaktimarga Swami and farmer Sukhayanti Dasi brought together twenty-six devotees from seven agrarian projects across Southern Ontario and Quebec for the conference, which took place at the King Edward Park Community Centre in Brighton, Ontario.
“We’ve been having
I always wondered if by being diplomatic one borders duplicity. For some reason, right or wrong, I am not a big fan of diplomacy because of this reason of sounding or looking duplicitous. In America, political correctness is a prevalent idea. According to the dictionary, politically correct means to speak or act in such a way that no one (especially based on sex and/or race) be marginalized or offended. Diplomacy on the other hand, although overlapping in concept with political correctness deals
…Therefore, I recommend you to read books more and more and try to understand the subject matter from different angles of vision ... while you are working at the press, and when you are working and you cannot read, then listen to the tapes of my lectures and hear in that way...
- Srila Prabhupada in a Letter to: Madhudvisa, 16 June, 1972
... Our advancement in Krishna Consciousness is made possible in two ways, by knowledge and renunciation, jnana and tyaga or tapasya. So I am requesting all of my students to read my books very seriously every day without fail. In this way, if your mind becomes absorbed at least one or two hours daily in the transcendental subject matter of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita, and other books then very easily you will make your advancement in Krishna Consciousness....- Srila Prabhupada in a Letter
While reflecting on a good title to summarize the prison ministry’s activities of 2016, I was feeling a little dejected because, due to our relocating twice in a year, my service was disrupted, affecting the number of books I was able to send out in 2016. But then it dawned on me that as long as we keep endeavoring to serve Srila Prabhupada to the best of our abilities, our activities are a guaranteed success. Giving Kṛṣṇa consciousness to others can only be a victory.
We are now back i
8th February, Varaha Dvadasi will be the 14th Anniversary since the opening of our Vrinda Kunda Temple! To celebrate, we are arranging special parikramas to the Holy Places of Braja. The program culminates with our famous Kalash Yatra, an ecstatic Sankirtan procession with the ladies carrying water pots with coconuts on their heads on 19 Feb. Programs will be going on from 8 Feb-21 March.
Departing almost every morning from Krishna Balaram Mandir, we will go by bus on parikrama to different pa
As we step into the new year, we would like to thank you for your support during year 2016. Last year Mayapur Voice saw an overwhelming surge in traffic and global popularity. Taking note of approximately 25,000 to 30,000 pageviews per day was certainly encouraging.
Our new page-a-day series was well received and we had the pleasure of publishing articles by new authors who joined the team. We also added Mayapur Magazine archives and made some important changes in the navigation panel keeping i
We have now entered 2017 and with it, the Millenium of Sri Ramanujacarya. I wish all the Vaishnavas who will be directly celebrating the 1,000th anniversary of the birth a wonderful year, and I wish that his name is broadcast far and wide. May the glories of Ramanujacarya be communicated in 108 languages, by 1,008 great teachers, all over the world.
This morning I received this link and I would urge my readers to have a look and see if inspiration comes to you.
Meanwhile, our efforts to make kno
HH Bhakti Vrajendranandana Maharaja was born in Malaysia. He came to the UK to study where he joined ISKCON in 1971 in Birmingham. He was around 33 years old at the time of joining. Subhag, now swami, was his inspiration at that time and remained so throughout his life. It was there in Birmingham that I first saw him. We were both visiting the small temple at the same time and on the first occasion were the only present except Subhag swami.
He then moved to Bury Place temple in early 1972 and
Just before I came to present this class, I met Gurukripa Prabhu who said, “I am going to listen in on the radio,” to sort of put some pressure on me which I appreciated. When Srila Prabhupada wanted to build this Krsna-Balarama temple then Gurukripa Prabhu said, “Do not worry Prabhupada, I will get you the money.” In those days, it was not so easy to raise funds because there was no fame to the Hare Krsna Movement. There weren’t lots of people in India who knew about this Movement, who accep
Question: Kindly inform me on what basis we identify Krishna/Bhagavan Vigraha, which is sat chit ananda, with deity/archa which is made up of matter. I want to know the Gaudiya logic and appropriate scriptural backing.
Romapada Swami: The Personality of Godhead is the source of all energies, both material and spiritual. Because He is full of inconceivable potencies, God can convert His different potencies according to His own will, much as an expert electrician can employ the same electric ene
Mahatma das: It’s common for devotees to feel unqualified or unworthy to serve guru and Krsna. This is helpful when it is a natural symptom of spiritual advancement. But it is detrimental when, out of an unhealthy psychology, we either feel unworthy of receiving Krsna’s grace, or feel unworthy of being loved by Krsna. Spiritual unworthiness and material unworthiness are not the same. One is a by-product of a high level of Krsna consciousness and the other is a symptom of an unhealthy mental or
I eagerly gathered my utensils and ingredients to prepare my favourite Mangal* sweet—burfi. I couldn’t wait to offer this decadent, creamy, condensed milk fudge to the Lord on Diwali and Govardhan Puja. I boiled four litres of milk in a sturdy thick-bottomed pot and began to stir. “How hard could it be?” I thought. “After all, it’s just a matter of continuously stirring the milk and sugar until it’s reduced to a brown sticky mass.” But I was in for a surprise. One hour passed, and the milk redu
So we are trying our bit, almost single-handed, although the important literatures are there, Vedic literatures, four Vedas, Vedanta suttra, eighteen Puranas, hundred and eight Upanisads, then Ramayana, Mahabharata, so many, full of knowledge, transcendental knowledge. They can be distributed all over the world. But there was no organized attempt. We are just begun from 1966, this movement, Hare Krishna movement, or Krishna consciousness movement, distributing this literature. Through literatur
In 2014 Prahlada, now Panca Tattva dasa, started designing an exhibit to replace the Gita exhibit Festival of India has been using for many years. Of course nothing was wrong with the original exhibit that was being used, it is just after 12 or 15 years the exhibit needed to be replaced. Lord Krishna's words and Srila Prabhupada's purports are Guaranteed Perfect for Everyone for the next 10,000 years. Unlike Srila Prabhupada's transcendental purports, and Lord Krishna's sublime and eternal word
