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Damodarananda Das: We celebrated our 5th Festival of Chariots on Sept 18 in Bloomington, Illinois, United States. It was attended by more that one thousand people. The procession started with prayers and sweeping of the road by the Mayor of the City, Tari Ranner. 
One devotee drew Rangoli in front of the Ratha at every stop. The event was well received by the community and was bigger than previous years.

Source:http://www.dandavats.com/?p=31557

ISKCON New Vrindaban is warmly inviting everyone to attend its Srila Prabhupada Festival this September 30th to October 2nd. As an offering of love and appreciation for their service and sacrifices, current and previous New Vrindaban residents, as well as all Prabhupada disciples, will have their lodging and prasadam for the weekend completely covered.

The festival is a revival of the historical Prabhupada Festivals that began in the West Virginia rural community with the opening of Srila Prab

Dear Devotees,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Features of Bhagavata Vidyalaya Program:

1. A weekly program mainly lead by the congregational leaders for their congregation members.

2. It would be a three-hour session which includes Kirtan, Reading, Lecture and Question / Answers

3. In each session one chapter of Srimad Bhagavatam will be covered.

4. A maximum of 15 students per session is advised.

5. Each session will be conducted by two to three teachers.

6

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CHANT4CHANGE
8th Oct 2016
What is it?

In 1976 Srila Prabhupada chanted and danced with devotees on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, during America’s Bi-Centennial Independence day celebrations. 

On ISKCON's 50th anniversary year, we will be chanting and dancing at the same venue for a very special CHANT4CHANGE event! This will be the biggest ISKCON 50th event in North America.

CHANT4CHANGE is a unique outreach opportunity. It brings what we know to be a universal message - si

Source:http://www.dandavats.com/?p=4517

The term conversion is typically used in the context of people changing or forced to change their allegiance from one religion to another. Religion in this context is one of Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and so on. The reason for such conversions is always material.

Some forceful converters consider it their right and duty to convert others by force to their religion because they have dogmatically decided that all other religions are demoniac. Others who share such beliefs try to co

Even though typical conversions have no spiritual aspect, they can harm genuine spiritual causes if they take people away from genuine spiritual paths. For this reason, due to their compassion, genuine spiritual organizations are pained by seeing forced conversions that make it more difficult for the converts to take to genuine spirituality.

Source:http://thebandwagonofmoltengold.blogspot.in/2014/12/conversion-concerns.html

This morning I was reading from the Srimad Bhagavatam Canto Eight, Chapter 8, entitled “The Churning of the Milk Ocean”

“…how the goddess of fortune appeared during the churning of the ocean of milk and how she accepted Lord Viṣṇu as her husband. As described later in the chapter, when Dhanvantari appeared with a pot of nectar the demons immediately snatched it from him, but Lord Viṣṇu appeared as the incarnation Mohinī, the most beautiful woman in the world, just to captivate the demons and sa

The saṅkīrtana movement inaugurated by Lord Caitanya is a transcendental pastime of the Lord. “By it I live simultaneously to preach and popularize this movement in the material world.” In that saṅkīrtana movement of Lord Caitanya, Nityānanda and Advaita are His expansions, and Gadādhara and Śrīvāsa are His internal and marginal potencies. The living entities are also called marginal potency because they have, potentially, two attitudes-namely the tendency to surrender unto Kṛṣṇa and the tenden

HH Jayapataka Swami is in the Bhaktivedanta Hospital in Mumbai for routine exams. This didn’t impede him to give a class live, through skype, to a Malaysian convention in Penang where more than 1400 devotees were gathered

https://www.facebook.com/iskconmalaysia/posts/1184922354862851

What’s Your Mission?

“If we don’t change the direction we are going, we’re likely to up end where we are headed.” (Chinese proverb)

The reality is that you have already ended up somewhere. The question is, “Is this where you want to be?” If it isn’t, there are steps you can take to get somewhere else.

But first, of course, you must know where you want to go. So it’s important to ask, “What’s my life’s purpose? What’s my life’s mission?” Anyone on a spiritual path will say something like, “My

Spiritual life can be received in any state of mind. If the seed of bhakti is received when we are in ignorance, when there are unwanted activities, actions, etc. then these other “creepers” choke the “devotional creeper”. Even in the mode of passion, there are disturbances. We will become insensitive because of our selfishness; we exploit the world, other living beings and so on…
That is what is going on in the world today!

Madness is a result of uncontrolled senses and we get entangled in thi

Sri Haridas Thakur is an eternally liberated associate of the Lord. The associates of the Lord are worship-able wherever they make their appearance.

Just as Garuda appeared as a bird, and Hanuman as a monkey, Haridas Thakur appeared in a family of Yavanas. From his very birth he was very deeply devoted to the Holy Names of Sri Krsna and later became known as “Nama Acarya.”

When Lord Caitanya went to Jagannatha Puri, Haridas also went and took up residence there. Everyday, after attending Lord

There is only one religion - to love God.

Different denominations like Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, etc. and even denominations within these denominations present this one religion in different ways and to different degrees. Since people of this world are more or less selfishly (materially) inclined, every denomination presents its teachings considering the material conditioning of the people it is talking to. What's more, new denominations arise when new ways of materialism get mixed with ex

Suraiya Ali: I grew up going to many types of religious houses, but I had never been to a temple sanctioned by ISKCON. I had met the cowherd Lord in books and in my relationships, but now I was going to His house, for the very first time. So we dressed up, as my best friend said that evening, “there is no such thing as being overdressed to the temple, as you’re dressing for the pleasure of Krishna.”
In blue and pink hues and traditional Indian earrings, we ran into aarti about five minutes late

Living in a temple is nice – it is simultaneously the material world and the spiritual world. I compare temple life to a blanket. I travel a lot and have different blankets all the time and sometimes, the blanket is too long, too short, too thick or too warm. So in the same way, the external feature of the temple may also look like that. There may be many things about it which we do not like – people, facilities, food and so on… But that is all insignificant, all temporary and will change. BUT