A swami, as people are learning, travels. A swami performs austerities. A swami inspires by his words and actions. A swami makes friends and contacts people. A swami endeavors to get closer to the Creator, Krishna. A swami leads a simple life. Yes, we are living outside (camping with Garuda), cooking outside, doing our laundry, outside. Its all so simple and sweet. We are having a blast.

The father of the bride came from Hong Kong. He was very religious. I could hear him mumbling many of the Sanskrit slokas with me. At the end he happily exclaimed, “I never expected any ceremony this good in America!” . . .

O Gopinatha! How shall I reach the goal? My mind is overwhelmed by the powerful senses. I cannot shake off attachment to worldly pleasures...Destroy these dangerous obstacles, correct my mind and guide me to Your own true path...I am helpless, but You are Harikesa, the Lord of the senses.

Who will not steer a small child away from a fire? Any sane person will do it, even if he is a complete stranger. No one will just sit there and watch him get burnt, especially not someone who considers himself religious. So who will not jump up to steer these ignorant people away from hell. It is so easy; just give them a book, some prasada, the holy name.

Marriage binds two individuals together for life, and binds them jointly to the next generation that will follow in their footsteps. Marriage elevates, orders, and at times constrains our natural desires to the higher moral end of fidelity and care.

The Fourth Annual Vaishnavi Retreat in New Vrindaban takes place on Oct. 6t, 7th, and 8 th 2006(Columbus Day Weekend) this year. It is a spiritually exciting event set in the Appalachian foothills during the delightful early fall season....the climate is lovely and the scenery is spectacular. The association is fantastic and the seminars and workshops inspire ladies of all ages.

Guru Maharaja's stitches on the hand were removed now. The situation is worse now. Because of the puss remained closed inside the stitches, the wound got infected and it requires surgical intervention. The wound is deep and it is in the shape of a cup with surface diameter about two to three centimeters. It was also now diagnosed that his bone (near the wound) is also fractured. It was not clear in the X-ray in Manipur hospital.

Since Caitanya did not produce any writings except a series of verses known as Sri Siksastaka, for more details on his life and philosophical doctrine we rely on the biographies about him. Although there are several, it is widely accepted that Krsnadasa Kaviraja’s Caitanya-caritamrta, finished in 1581, is the most popular and offer the most authoritative insight on Caitanya’s life and teachings.

There is essentially no difference between the fanatics who embrace and use the Talmud, the Koran or the New and Old Testament, to substantiate their pillage, plunder and murder - all in the name of being the "favored Chosen Ones" of Yahweh, Allah or Jesus Christ.

Bhaktivedanta Institute is organizing a two-day conference on December 9 - 10, 2006 entitled "Second All India Students' Conference on Science and Spiritual Quest (AISSQ - 2006)". The conference will be held in Town Hall, Jagannath Puri, Orissa, India.

Divorce is also associated with poverty, depression, substance abuse, and poor health among adults. More broadly, widespread divorce poisons the larger culture of marriage, insofar as it sows distrust, insecurity, and a low-commitment mentality among married and unmarried adults.

First, on behalf of Bhojadeva Prabhu, I would like to express heartfelt thanks for the prayers and words of encouragement that have come in from the devotees all around the world. These kind offerings have been a constant source of strength for him. We read them to him daily. I would like to also thank those generous souls who have sent financial help so far.

Dear GBC members, please accept my humble obeisances. I’d like to take this opportunity to express my genuine gratitude for all you have done and are still doing for our beloved Srila Prabhupada and Sri Caitanya’s Sankirtana mission. To assist you and Srila Prabhupada, I’d like to offer my humble contribution to the improvement of the efficiency of our ISKCON society by submitting to you this letter

Once, when a young hippie had attended a few Sunday feasts in the early days of the Krsna consciousness movement, he noticed that, when devotees became angry, they would say to each other, "Just chant 'Hare Krsna.'" On one particular occasion, Srila Prabhupada was in attendance, and he had become angry about something. Seeing this, the young hippie naturally turned to Prabhupada and said, "Just chant 'Hare Krsna.'"

Read some realizations, observations, and appreciations while living close to the cows and land. There are stories from the cow’s point of view too. “Life With the Cows and Land” is a new blog started by Balabhadra das, president of ISCOWP and the ISKCON Minister for Cow Protection and Agriculture.

This is our religious function. Not only ISKCON, most of the temples celebrated it. But how can we provide each and every temple adequate security. It's just not possible,'' he said. He said the militants who carried out the attack were yet to be identified but search was on. The Government would foot the entire medical bill of the victims.

The family environment provided by marriage allows children to grow, mature, and flourish. It is a seedbed of sociability and virtue for the young, who learn from both their parents and their siblings. Specifically, the married family satisfies children's need to know their biological origins, connects them to both a mother and father, establishes a framework of love for nurturing the young, oversees their education and personal development, and anchors their identity as they learn to move about the larger world.

While reading this passage of the Bhagavatam it struck me that the propensity to defend is just as strong, if not stronger, than the propensity to eat, sleep and mate. For whatever reason I had subconsciously concluded that eating and sleeping were top of the list (things that could more or less only be 'overcome' by death) and then the attraction for sex life (mating) was naturally more difficult to overcome than the need to defend oneself. Studying this passage tended to change my perspective, as I could never imagine myself responding in such a way after being so brutally attacked by someone.

The festival was graced by the blissful kirtans of HH Kadamba Kanana Swami and HH Sacinandana Swami. Kadamba Kanana Swami commented that he felt the Berlin Ratha Yatra to be special because all the devotees were joining in the kirtana. The dancing led by HH Sacinandana Swami was especially ecstatic and the many shoppers and tourists along the road were stunned and very anxious to accept beautiful invitation cards.

Jagadananda Pandita has been described as an incarnation of Satybahama Devi. However, Srimati Visnupriya has also been described as the incarnation of Satybhama Devi. They both appeared in Lord Caitanaya's pastimes at the same time, so could some learned devotee kindly explain who is Jagadananda Pandita in relation to Satyabahama Devi?

Those who, even while remaining situated in their established social positions, throw away the process of speculative knowledge and with their body, words and mind offer all respects to descriptions of Your personality and activities, dedicating their lives to these narrations, which are vibrated by You personally and by Your pure devotees, certainly conquer Your Lordship, although You are otherwise unconquerable by anyone within the three worlds.

By the mercy of Sri Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra Devi and by the blessings of Srila Prabhupada, we are having the first ratha yatra in Orlando on the 9th of September 2006. The yatra starts at 4 pm in Downtown Orlando in front of Lake Eola Park. After the parade we'll have prasadam distribution and a Vedic cultural program - live music, dance, books, arts, etc.

The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust would like to give a free book to all devotees and congregation members in North America in honor of Srimati Radharani’s appearance day. The book, entitled "This Is My Request", expresses, with beautiful photographs and inspirational quotes, that giving knowledge of Krishna to everyone is the highest philanthropic and spiritual offering to the world.

I often have to encourage devotees, especially those not living in the temples, to rise early in the morning and come to the temple for the morning program, or to have one at home. Devotees should generally rise by 4 am, which means that their lives must be organized in such a way that they get sufficient rest, meaning taking rest early.

If every ISKCON leader would have a mentor or a coach, it’s likely he’ll be a better leader. He could meet with his mentor at least once a month and discuss how to improve his service, based on spiritual leadership principles given in Srila Prabhupada’s books. Mentor could also take feedback from leader’s close associates and use it to help the leader improve, as well as coach leader’s associates in how they can help the leader improve.

Throughout his life, a brahmana should consider material prestige to be like poison and dishonor to be like nectar. After all, if one learns to tolerate dishonor, then his agitation will subside and he will happily sleep, happily wake, and happily move about. The person who insults him will, because of his sin, become regretful, and his happiness in this and the next life will be vanquished.

Marriage is under attack conceptually, in university communities and other intellectual centers of influence. To defend marriage will require confronting these attacks, assessing their arguments, and correcting them where necessary. We are persuaded that the case for marriage can be made and won at the level of reason.

Those who consider casteism among the Vaisnavas, classifying them as brahmana-Vaisnavas, ksatriya-Vaisnavas, vaisya-Vaisnavas, sudra-Vaisnavas, or as candala-Vaisnavas, simply indulge in a speculative inference as "golden" stone pot.

There is a Krishna-conscious discussion group called Govindadwipa [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Govindadwipa], which is named after the beautiful ISKCON island temple in Northern Ireland [http://www.krishnaisland.com] in which we discuss the Vaishnava scriptures like Bhagavad-Gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Brahma-Samhita, Caitanya Caritamrta etc.

Whether it was the cowherd boy Lord Krsna or the young shepherd Jesus Christ, it appeared the great Woodstock Festival had been purified of all animosity and both groups were now free to peacefully share their message of love. "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb; and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them."

Since this unfortunate incident at our Manipur Temple many people have been questioning/asking/inquiring about "How could Lord Krsna let this happen to devotees, in His own temple". There are several ways to answer these questions and at times its hard to find the right answer.

There were many hundreds of guests there. They gave us from 22.45 until 23.15, which was prime time and a longer period than anyone else had. The President of Singapore was present, so television and other news media were covering everything.

This comes after we received a letter asking for our assistance for this disciple of Srila Prabhupada who has been a book distributor for over 30 years. Presently, his health remains poor after both legs were amputated. He is also, unfortunately, going blind in one eye.

Perhaps you are meditating on how to optimize your spiritual development and your contribution to Srila Prabhupada’s movement, or perhaps you feel the need to revitalize your spiritual life. If you are in either of these situations, then please consider the opportunities to study Srila Prabhupada’s books in the association of advanced devotees in Sridhama Mayapur

By now the entire worldwide devotee community must have heard of the tragic events that took place in Manipur on Janmastami. The devotees of ISKCON Manipur wish to thank everyone for their continued prayers and blessings for all of the vaisnavas who were injured and for those who have left this world. We will continue to provide updates on the situation.

While it is nice to glorify devotees who are expending an effort trying to please Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga, and whenever any discussion centers around who is advanced and who is not, we should bear in mind the following “One has to learn this science of activities in terms of the modes of material nature, otherwise one’s life will be misdirected”.

That young boy who left Ireland all those years ago had come home and there to greet him was Lord Chaitanya and Lord Jaganatha. I wondered at the thought of what it will really be like to actually go Back Home...Bact to Godhead. I had experienced a little taste that day and I can surely say, it is very very sweet.

I am hesitant to enter into the philosophical discussion that has evolved in regards to how best to manage the Danudhara Swami conundrum because I believe Satyaraja has already done an excellent job reminding anyone who wants to have the honor to wear tilok on their forehead, that they are expected to think, behave, and carryout jurisprudence on a higher standard then a hate filled vigil anti lynch mob.

Srila Prabhupada emphasized that when devotees associate together they should take the opportunity to relish sad-priti-laksanam, the six kinds of loving exchanges described in the Upadesamrita (Nectar of Instruction).

We are going to reside at Varshana, visiting places like Ter Kadamba (Sanatana Gosvami's bhajan place in the forest), Ucchagaon (Lalita Devi's residence), Maur Kutir to chant in these special sites. The whole retreat, as the title suggests, is focused on quality japa. Special classes/workshops related to the Holy Name will be given by HH Sacinandana Swami, HG Bhurijana Prabhu and other senior devotees.

Without ever becoming tired, please always meditate on beautiful Vrndavana, which is glorious with numberless charming forests of parijata and other splendid trees, worshipped by demigods full of love for Lord Hari's lotus feet, plunged into an ocean of the light of millions of moons, and unapproachable even by the host of Upanisads.

For two non-consecutive days one black dog named "Isi" offered outright obeisances to the Holy Name. Each time the dog saw me on my morning Japa walk, in a first move she rubs the left side and back of her head on the floor and then would just lie down on her belly as if offering obeisances, with front leg outstretched.

Then I went to Govindadwipa and was amazed by the beauty of the island of Govinda and another amazing thing was all the western devotees (!!!) up at 4.30 am in the morning, wearing dhotis and singing the Guruvashtaka (I did'nt know it was Guruvashtaka then!) with full devotion to Radha-Govinda

She was very thankful to me, expressing again and again her happiness that I brought these books to her. She told me that it must be by the grace of God that I came there. Then she started to shed tears profusely. Seeing I was a little bit embarrassed by this, she told me, "Do not mind these tears; they are tears of happiness."

You have sufficiently paid for your past mistakes and it’s time for the GBC and compassionate leadership to show their forgiveness. In my own case I was recently received back among the devotees at the New Vrndaban Festival of Inspiration with great warmth and affection.

‘We have come to know about the Imphal incident but there is nothing to worry. The capital is under a high alert and security arrangement in and around the temple has been in place since early this morning. However, we have directed our officers to be more vigilant and keep a tight look over the situation,’ said Anil Shukla, deputy commissioner of police (south).

With the trouble in the middle east, there has been much speculation by the media if this is indeed the beginning of World War III, the beginning of the end of the world. For some reason, I have not been overly anxious about the future, or what might be in store. And as I was reading The Bhagavad-Gita tonight, I found the answer why.

Because of my state of complete foolishness and paucity of pious activities, although the Lord offered me His personal service, I wanted material name, fame and prosperity. The conclusion is that anyone who is engaged in the loving service of the Lord should never ask for material prosperity from the Lord.