Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has written five beautiful prayers in “Sri Navadvipa Bhava Taranga” for receiving the mercy of Lord Narasimha. These prayers are certainly assurance to all sincere devotees that the worship of Lord Narasimha is purely in the line of aspiring love and devotion to Sri Sri Radha and Krsna.

I know that if I really want to help my children, I have to help them become conscious of Krishna. To do that, I too have to become Krishna conscious. After all, you can't give what you don't have. Children are sensitive to hypocrisy. You can't tell them "Chant Hare Krishna, offer your food to Krishna, don't take drugs or have illicit sex" unless you practice what you preach. If we want our children to be devotees, we have to teach by our own example. To me ...

I remember the amazing story of a boy who went into an old Cathedral in Melbourne on February 18th 1972 to desperately pray to God within his own heart and within the Church for guidance and direction, crying out within, ‘Oh my Lord, please show me the way’. He had entered that church in a totally helpless condition, prayed, and begged to God to ‘please’ show him the way. He felt totally useless and lost in this world and believed no one on the planet has any real understandi...

Today, we celebrate the appearance of Sri Jahnava devi, the wife of Lord Nityananda. Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, in his Kalyana Kalpataru has prayed as follows at the lotus feet of Shri Jahnava Mata: "Having fallen into this ocean of misery, my life is a bewilderment, and I do not know how to reach its shore, nor even where to search for it. All my efforts (karma) are useless, all my knowledge (jnana) is useless, as are mysticism (yoga), austerity, religious penance, and mundane piety. None of these processes have any power to rescue me. I am weak, helpless. ...

On this occasion, we pray to Mother Sita to bless us to become pure-hearted servants like Hanuman, Laksmana, and Mother Sita herself—and to save us. Whatever Ravana-like demonic tendencies we have, let them be vanquished by her mercy, by her will, so we may continue in our devotional service without any impediment and ultimately attain pure love (prema), our ultimate goal.

Often times, women practicing Bhakti who are without the protection of a male family member owing to various reasons beyond their control, do find themselves wondering about how they can adapt to this recommendation from the Vedas. Just like there are numerous examples in our scriptures about women being nicely protected by male family members there are also examples of women who had to live without that. Now what did those women do? How did they live their lives? Where did they find their...