Blog

We were on an airplane from Mexico City to Caracas and Prabhupada started taking his puffed rice, puffed rice and peanuts. He ate for about 10 minutes or so, and then he just looked and said, "OK." So I moved the puffed rice over and I gave half to Paramahamsa, the other half I had in front of me. After a few minutes, there was this stewardess, she was walking down the aisle and she stops right in front of us and she reached over, put her hand in my plate and grabbed a handful of puffed rice an

On Saturday morning, April 9, 2016, the quaint Florida costal town of St. Augustine hosted the Lord of the Universe, Jagannatha, along with His sister Subhadra and brother Balarama, for Their traditional, annual Rathayatra parade and festival. The weather was perfect, the townspeople curious and friendly, and the devotees jubilant to be participating in the first Rathayatra of the year.

The mayor of St. Augustine, Nancy Shaver, was delighted to attend. She said, “The Festival of Chariots is a m

The VIHE in Vrindavan was established to fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s desire for an educational institute in Vrindavana. The VIHE in the holy Dhama provides an ideal facility and atmosphere for you to improve your sadhana, develop your devotional qualities, engage in serious study, associate with senior devotees, and receive training in practical skills relevant to management and preaching.
The VIHE also aims to preserve and disseminate standards Srila Prabhupada set for acting in Krishna conscio

There is a lot of emphasis nowadays on the need for love and trust among devotees. We can cite the six loving exchanges between us. We can also use the strength of the often quoted, “your love for me will be shown by how you cooperate.” In spite of our efforts to promote this ideal, can we ever expect a situation where love and trust dominates in all of our devotee interactions?

Are we too big as an organisation to assume that this will happen? Can each of us get by simply by being polite to ea

When Lord Krishna played on this Earth as a child, He lived in a community of cowherds in the region known as Vraja, in northern India. He was in charge of the young calves and took them out each morning to the pasturing grounds.

Accompanied by dozens of His friends, and with hundreds of calves each, Krishna would walk through the Vrindavan forest in search of lush vegetation. The cowherd boys’ herding and adventurous play went on all day, stopping only for a picnic, when they’d happily share t

The three steps of anything: 1) Initial enthusiasm, 2) doubts, disinterest and struggle 3) eventual reward for the committed. This seems to be the standard pattern for most things in life: studies, career, relationships, hobbies, and yes, even spirituality. The beginning of our spiritual journey is often characterised by idealism. Everything is fresh and fascinating, a whole new world to explore and unlimited opportunities to pursue. We can’t imagine any problems, since it all seems so simple a

From Back to Godhead

By Urmila Devi Dasi

Pure chanting of God’s names requires reverence for God in all His forms , including revealed scripture.

Esteem For Sacred Writings

This article discusses the offense of blaspheming Vedic literature or literature in pursuance of the Vedic version.

IT IS FASHIONABLE in modern secular societies to regard sacred literature as the mythological musings of undeveloped people. Schools teach that with our current understanding of physics, medicine, psychology, d

My first connection with the Hare Krishna maha-mantra happened during the “Summer of Love” in August, 1967 in the course of a wedding within a three-room apartment in Powelton Village, the budding hippie district in Philadelphia. The wedding epitomized the time and place.

The groom and I had become close friends during our travails as fellow philosophy majors at the nearby University of Pennsylvania. Thin, angular, his pale beak-nosed face densely hedged with a curly black beard, Steve presente

After the disappearance of Jayananda Das on May 1, 1977, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada instructed devotees all over the world to commemorate the event every year as they would any great Vaishnava’s disappearance day.

Therefore we respectfully submit these pages to all devotees and friends of ISKCON as a means to remember and understand more about Jayananda’s devotional service. Of course, we will see how he joined ISKCON and how he left this mortal world. More importantly, we shall see the

Samsiddhir Hari Toshanam -  Everything for the pleasure of Lord Hari 

Whatever we do in our life must be for the pleasure of the Lord. Once when Hanuman heard from mother Sita that the kumkum she puts on her fore head is for the pleasure of the Lord, then Hanuman covered his whole body with kumkum to please Lord Rama, without even thinking how he will look, what the people in society will think of him. His only concern in life was how to please Lord Rama.

  Sri Hanumanji ki Jay

Kirtan London presented kirtan at the ‘Amazing Grace’ multi-faith concert at Union Chapel in Islington, London, England today. It was a beautiful evening and hundreds of voices joined in chanting the Hare Krishna mantra with us.

Srila Prabhupada: The secret of surrendering to Krishna is that such surrendered devotee sees that everything is part of Krishna’s plan. Whatever is meant to be I am doing. Let me do it with my full attention to every detail. Let me become absorbed in such service, neve

Women of ISKCON: Past, Present and Future

View ebook

“It is better to go deep in Krishna consciousness than to go broad to go here and there looking for different philosophies and processes. I think of an incident with a devotee of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu named Mukunda. In His Maha-prakasa Lila, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu called His devotees one by one and gave them sublime mercy, but he refused to call Mukunda. When Srivasa Pandita asked, ‘Why aren’t you calling Mukunda?’ Mahaprabhu replied, ‘When Mukunda is with us, he speaks like one of us, but when he

“It is better to go deep in Krishna consciousness than to go broad to go here and there looking for different philosophies and processes. I think of an incident with a devotee of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu named Mukunda. In His Maha-prakasa Lila, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu called His devotees one by one and gave them sublime mercy, but he refused to call Mukunda. When Srivasa Pandita asked, ‘Why aren’t you calling Mukunda?’ Mahaprabhu replied, ‘When Mukunda is with us, he speaks like one of us, but when he

By Braja Vilas das

Dear Devotees and TOVP Donors,

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Greetings from Sridham Mayapur and blessings from Sri Sri Radha-Madhava, Sri Panchatattva and Lord Nrsimhadeva.

This Monday, May 9, is Akshaya Tritiya, one of the most important days in the Vedic calendar. Akshaya Tritiya is the appearance day of Lord Parasurama, and it is also the day that the Ganges descended to the earth. Most devotees know it as the beginning of Candana-ya

By Hunter Wells

It all looked a bit incongruous really. Given name John, John Herbison – spiritual name Yasoda Dulal – is standing in the middle of small-town New Zealand, the mist is swirling and he’s beating his drum and chanting mantras.

“…hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, hare hare.”

Shaven head except for that trademark tuft, draped in a traditional dhoti or robe, dripping with beads and the very materialism he’s busy renouncing is rumbling by at 100km/h. Trucks, cars and people obsessed with “matt

By Hunter Wells

It all looked a bit incongruous really. Given name John, John Herbison – spiritual name Yasoda Dulal – is standing in the middle of small-town New Zealand, the mist is swirling and he’s beating his drum and chanting mantras.

“…hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, hare hare.”

Shaven head except for that trademark tuft, draped in a traditional dhoti or robe, dripping with beads and the very materialism he’s busy renouncing is rumbling by at 100km/h. Trucks, cars and people obsessed with “matt

Akshaya tritiya, according to the Vedic calendar, is a day considered to be conducive to success in any significant endeavor. Traditionally, those aware of Akshaya tritiya's benefits schedule major life events, charities and spiritual activities on this day. To Watch the importance of Akshaya Tritiya by HG. Kripamoy Prabhu, Click Here. (Source - Krishna.com)

Since the time of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Mayapur has been a place for learning Gaudiya Vaishnava scriptures. It was a highly reputed plac