Even if you are not physically present in Mayapur, watch our Gaura Purnima festival videos and join with the devotees assembled in Mayapur. Devotees interviews, Gaura Purnima Festival inauguration, Jala Yatra (procession to Ganga for fetching water for Maha abhisheka) are added now to the festival videos collection.

Throughout time it feels as if two people exist within us. One is the historic self, the so-called “false ego”: suspicious, arrogant, proud, irritable, egocentric, substantially fearful and vile. The other one is the spiritual Self, often unseen, the atman, whose clear voice of wisdom is seldom heard and even more rarely listened to.

The GBC meetings ended yesterday, I am posting also a historical pic of all the GBC members including HH Jayapataka Swami sitting on his wheel chair in the middle. The Chairman elected of this year is His Holiness Romapada Swami.

Our festivals in Sydney were a huge hit. We had given the event a French name, Le Carnaval Spirituel. During December we averaged more than five hundred people a show. After the New Year, we traveled north to Brisbane and held another round of successful programs on the Gold Coast.

For complete results and to send in your scores go to www.SankirtanNewsletter.com (password: wsnhome) Deadline for scores is the 15th of the next month.

So the future of this Krishna Consciousness movement is very bright, so long the managers remain vigilant that 16 rounds are being chanted by everyone without fail, that they are all rising before four in the morning, attending mangal arati-our leaders shall be careful not to kill the spirit of enthusiastic service, which is individual and spontaneous and voluntary. They should try always to generate some atmosphere of fresh challenge to the devotees, so that they will agree enthusiastically to rise and meet it. That is the art of management: to draw out spontaneous loving spirit of sacrificing some energy for Krishna.

On Sunday we had the ecstatic grand finale of the 6th anniversary of Vrinda Kunda Temple. All the devotees gathered beside Pavana Sarovar and after a nice hot breakfast of kichari, we began the preparations for the famous Kalash Yatra.

Watch Sri Sri Pancha-Tattva Maha Abhisheka LIVE from Sri Mayapur. Maha Abhisheka will begin at 8am (IST) on 25th February and will continue till noon.

To the vibrant chanting of Garuda Dandakam prayers by Balaji Swami of Tirumala Tirupati, ecstactic harinam and blowing of conch shell & ‘ulu’dvani , the garuda flag was hoisted by HH Jayapataka Swami announcing the inauguration of Gaura Purnima festival 2009.

On Thursday Feb. 21th, 2009, Day 10 of the AGM GBC Meetings in Sridham Mayapur membership was voted upon. This year, there was one new member added to the GBC Body (by unanimous vote), Her Grace Dina Sarana Devi Dasi (ACBSP), who oversee's Germany and Austria.

We are very happy to announce that ISKCON's GBC body approved the sannyasa initiation of Yadunandana prabhu (the principal of Bhaktivedanta College)

Times are changing rapidly as many choose to fall in the booby but beautiful trap of love. Yes, we “fall” in love, but never “elevate” in love. This is not to portray love as a blasphemous emotion, or a taboo but to prove that the consciousness in which an activity is carried put plays a paramount role in its execution.

There's werk ta be dun! And a whole world of hungry people just waiting for them "hairy Krishna fellers and gals" to help Krishna feed them all. Let's get to it! Now is the time for Love! And more than ever before there's no time to waste. For everyone's sake.

In the early hours of this morning, amidst tears of joy, priests, farmers and congregational members witnessed the birth of a healthy female calf. This was no ordinary calf, but a symbol of reconciliation and a new era between the RSPCA and Vaishnava communities across Britain.

For the last several years, strategic planning has been a major theme of the GBC meetings. Several days of the Annual General Meeting, as well as the second GBC meeting later in the year, is exclusively focused on this important theme. This year was no exception. Days four through six saw all regular work shelved and the entire Body, plus many other devotees, come together to proactively discuss the best way for the GBC and ISKCON to prepare for the future.

In the early ‘70’s, when Srila Prabhupada was arriving at the New York airport, a reporter asked, “Why have you come to the West?” “I have come”, Prabhupada replied, “to give you a brain. Your society”, he continued, “is headless.”

My Father-in-law was at first alarmed by the framed photo of Srila Saraswati Thakur adorning our living room wall captioned with His Divine Grace's bold declaration that "...Western civilization must be crushed."

Yesterday, our Prison Preaching team went for their regular program in the Bharatpur Jail, just 40 km. from Vrindavan in Rajasthan. They were very wonderfully surprised when they reached the jail, the prisoners were having Srimad Bhagavatam class.

As part of the regular Saturday practical Krishna Conscious activities, children from the Sri Mayapur International School went on harinama around Srila Prabhupada’s Samadhi on Saturday afternoon.

And again, another miracle….. Goura Prema dasi, aspiring disciple of Lokanath Swami and performing Kathak classical dance for Maharaj’s Festivals since she was 3 yrs old, stunned the audience with her swirling and twirling!

In modern times, disbelief has so far entered into the essence of our existence, that both faithlessness and faith have become fundamentally two varieties of faithlessness.

In another FIVE days, devotees from all over the world will arrive in holy dhama to celebrate Gaura Purnima festival in this spiritual center. Festival Committee has carefully planned many festivities so that the visiting devotees get more spiritually uplifting experiences and carry the same mood in their preaching fields.

The second day of the GBC meetings opened with a presentation by the Law Book Committee. Aniruddha Prabhu presented the progress of the committee in revising the current law book which contains constitutional principles, action orders, rules of order, administrative guidelines and governing law.

The 2009 Annual General Meeting of ISKCON's Governing Body Commission commenced with arati and guru-puja kirtana to Srila Prabhupada, who is present in murti form in the meeting hall. Apart from the large murti, this year there is a small murti of Srila Prabhupada fixed on a beautiful altar near the Chairman's seat.