Qualified By Simplicity.
For serving Lord Krsna, is being simple a bad thing?
Giriraja Swami: After successfully launching the Hare Krsna movement in the West, Srila Prabhupada returned to India with plans to build at least three large centers, including one in Mumbai. I worked on the Mumbai project, and because Prabhupada was intimately involved with it, I was fortunate to learn many valuable lessons from him during that time. In late 1971 a prominent businessman, Mr. A. B. Nair, offered Prabhupada some land in Juhu, on the outskirts of Mumbai. L...

NASA article on Sanskrit.
Modern scientists hail the ancient language of the gods as the only unambiguous natural language on the planet!
In ancient India the intention to discover truth was so consuming, that in the process, they discovered perhaps the most perfect tool for fulfilling such a search that the world has ever known – the Sanskrit language.
Of all the discoveries that have occurred and developed in the course of human history, language is the most significant and probably the most taken for granted. Without language, civilizat...

These things are required: Tapasa Brahmacaryena.
(August 11, 1976, Tehran Morn Walk)
“Prabhupada: …I.A.S. civil service examination before one man is posted in some responsible office. Similarly, to be recognized by Krsna, as He says na ca tasman manusyesu, one has to pass examination, severe test of examination. All the big, big devotees we see. Narada Muni, before becoming Narada Muni, he had to pass through severe examination, test. That chance is there in the human form of life, to pass the examination, test. But they are passing th...

CELEBRITY SANKIRTAN.
Radha Damodar dasa: Srila Prabhupada asked that his disciples go out and distribute his books. In the early days the main engagement of the devotees was to go to the busiest part of the city and blissfully sing the Hare Krishna mantra accompanied at first by guitars and kartals (cymbals) and later by mrdunga drums and kartals. So, we started to also ask the passing people to buy a book or maagazine and even went door to door to sell books but the result wasn’t satisfying. People weren’t interested and only gave us a li...

Appreciation.
Voltaire wrote: “Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
And in her prayer about the power of bhakti, Queen Kunti uses the word, “grnanti” (“appreciating”) to say that those who appreciate other’s devotional service are themselves performing high grade devotional service, just by deeply appreciating how others are doing their service. Queen Kunti says, these “appreciators” will come to see the Lord directly.
As we become pu...

Sankirtan Spirit!
Sutapa das, UK: Prayojana prabhu is cleaning and maintaining the temple running… but he puts up a book table outside the shoe room so he can do his bit for the marathon. Now that’s what I call the sankirtan spirit! I’m going over to buy a book from him just to receive it from his transcendental hand :)
Mother Kulangana is also right there, encouraging and inspiring the marathon at every step. We are blessed to have such vaisnavas… Their spirit is the fuel behind this endeavor to please Srila Prabhupada :)<...

We have a nice farm in southeast Germany called Simhacalam. Lord Nrsimhadeva is the presiding deity. While taking prasada there, I asked a book distributor, Advaita Simha Dasa, how he came to Krsna.
Advaita Simha said, “A monk in the street once approached me, and proposed to give me a book. I gave a donation and received a book with the title “Science of Self-Realization”. At first I thought it was about a cult, so I was curious to hear what they had to say. But after reading a few chapters I realized that this was very profound know...

Never seen a boy chanting in a public Harinama like him! (4 min video)
Srila Prabhupada: Since all the great sages and devotees apply all energy and all activities in the service of the lotus feet of the Lord, there must be some transcendental pleasure in the toes of His lotus feet. The Lord licks His toe to taste the nectar for which the devotees always aspire. >>> Ref. VedaBase => SB 3.33.4
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/7OBFMl

The 2016, Book Distribution Marathon Begins!
Jayapataka Swami: “Here we are in Mayapur dham, Srila Prabhupada said that Mayapur is the spiritual headquarters. Here, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has descended from Goloka Vrindavan. He was known as Vachaspathi. As Vachaspathi he was the husband of Lakshmi and expert in speaking. He would tell everyone to chant the holy name. In his hand he would always carry shastra.
Those days people didn’t have books, but they were very intelligent so they would realize the Shastra. You know people today are...

Bhakti Sastri graduates in Iskcon Juhu.
Mayapur Institute has been regularly conducting Sastric Training Programs at ISKCON Juh......

Book distribution marathon in UK (Album with photos)
Already more than 2000 books distributed. Below is the Japanese-Chinese Sa......

Winter in Vrindavan (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Krsna in Vrndavana has got a great family. He has got His father. He has got His mother, Mother Yasoda, Nanda Maharaja. He has got so many friends, hundreds and thousands–boyfriends, girlfriends. The trees, the plants, the flowers, the fruits, the land, the water, the cows, the calves – He is surrounded by a great family. He is not a single person. Suppose if we say, “Now the president is coming.” So president means he is not only coming alone; he is coming with secretarie...

Ratha Yatra Festival in Guadalajara, Mexico (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: O Lord, as the small sparks of a fire cannot ......

Man reading part of a Gita.
While listening to a nice lecture about book distribution by Vaisesika Prabhu, I was reminded of an interesting encounter I had years ago with a man in Southern California. I was distributing books when I saw a man sitting at table in front of a restaurant. He was reading a section of a book that had been torn out of a book. The section looked about forty pages long. I looked closer; it was part of the Bhagavad-gita.
So I said to the man, “Excuse me, but where did you get that torn-out section of the Bhagavad-gita?&...

“Inside Out”
Vaisesika das: Recently, while walking through the airport in Irvine, California, I saw an advertisement for a movie by Pixar entitled, Inside Out.
The sub-titles were:
“Meet the Little Voices Inside Your Head. A major emotion picture.”
The advertisement features pictures of some of the characters that will be in the film: cartoon caricatures of various qualities such as sincerity, arrogance, greed, and so on. These personified emotions live inside the heads of the main characters of the film and infl...

ISKCON Auckland NZ: Rathyatra festival 2016 (Album with photos)
Kalasamvara Das: Thousands got the mercy of Lord Jagannath on ......

Festival of the Holy Name in New Raman Reti, Alachua, Florida (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: To chant the holy name and ......

Thanksgiving at Govinda’s Tucson
Dana-Keli Devi Dasi: Thanksgiving on Govinda’s patio (Tucson, Az.) with music by Gangamantri and Dhiro Datta Prabhu was a heart warming and splendid affair. I arrived shortly before noon when the event began and already there was a long line of enthusiastic folks waiting for the doors to open. The buffet, set with a colorful and healthy array of vegetarian and vegan delights, was an excellent offering from Sandamini devi who has created and managed these great events for over 25 years. A seasoned old Tom turk...

OBEISANCES TO THE TOLERANT – From Srila Prabodhananda Saraswati’s Vrindavan-mahimamrtam.
Srila Prabodhananda Saraswati: “To those who tolerate thousands of abusive words, millions of the humiliating insults of ruffians, millions of [bodily] miseries caused due to lack of proper food, clothing or shelter, and also tolerate extreme mental despair caused due to the anguish inflicted by lust, etc. — to those who stay in this sporting ground of Krishna, tolerating all these, I offer my obeisances.”
Excerpt from the new issu...

The Vanaprastha Ashram - What Is It All About?
Madhusudan Hari Das: During the last days of Kartik we had the opportunity to welcome HG Devaki Mataji at the Jagannath Temple in Sesadripuram/Bangalore to launch the course entitled “The Vanaprastha Ashram”. It was well attended by around seventy devotees, who participated over several days in the 15-hour course. Each participant received well composed course materials with powerful quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s purports to selected verses of the Srimad Bhagavatam. Devaki Mataji very sk...

Elections in New Raman Reti - Alachua, meet the candidates.
NRR Temple Board Candidates.
There are Two Vacancies on the N......

Seven Srimad Bhagavatam Sets on Ekadasi!
Today is a very auspicious, joyful day: We distributed seven Srimad-Bhagavatam sets, which we were able to do by the mercy and inspiration of Vaisesika Prabhu.
In the morning I was doing a japa walk, and a person told me that today is Ekadasi. He said that whatever auspicious activity we perform gives a multiplied result.
This gave me the impetus to set a goal of distributing ten Bhagavatam sets. When I returned home, I saw that I had only two sets. I called the BBT to order ten more, and I planned to di...

Seeing Those Before Me…
Bhaktimarga Swami: In my humble opinion the following is worth repeating, an excerpt from our script, “Krishna Is” and it is a poeticized segment of the exchange between warrior, Arjuna, and wise Bhagavan (God). Author Bhaktimarga Swami.
ARJUNA: Seeing those before me causes me to shiver.
To lift my bow is as though I had never
Hairs stand on end, mind is reeling.
I’m confused, it’s new, this kind of feeling.
Sri Krishna, I just cannot fight.
There’s somethin...

Life is Short!
Vaisesika Dasa: I met a pathologist recently who works with cancer patients. She explained to me that there is a certain kind of pancreatic cancer that is most deadly and that one who contracts it can survive only a few months, at the most.
She said that because of the often-depressing nature of her job, she and her colleagues have a way of speaking among themselves to lighten the emotional impact when they receive bad news about a patient’s prognosis.
For example, when they read a patient’s lab results and find that t...