Looking at the ruins of what we’ve been calling until recently Western civilization, I can say that the mankind is illogical and irrational. Led by misguided and selfish leaders, people themselves planned and led their existence to its end, such as we knew it. How come we got here? Couldn’t the ruination of our world be prevented? Couldn’t any of the world leaders  remember the bitter lessons of the millenary  bloody history of mankind? And why the progress of material science and modern technology, which reached unimaginable levels, didn’t help human beings...

Love is our innermost longing. Gita wisdom declares that our longing for love is best fulfilled when we learn to love Krishna. Let's understand this central Gita teaching in five parts: Loving Krishna enables our love to break free from all limitations, Krishna is eminently lovable, Krishna loves all of us impartially, Krishna's love for us is unconditional and Krishna engages his omnipotence to help us when we choose to love him.

“We say God’s on our side but the more important question to ask is are we on God’s side…” (George Washington) Democracy is supposed to be ‘by the people, of the people, and for the people,’ but I fear it may soon be redefined as ‘buy’ the people, ‘off’ the people, and ‘far’ (from) the people,” exclaimed Suresh, a 25-year-old man I met while returning to the temple from an outstation program. He was disappointed that India, the world’s largest democracy, recorded just 35-50% polling in the recent elections. Suresh also noted that over 150...

On Friday, January the 4th in 1891, Hindus who were bathing in the sacred river Yamuna witnessed an amazing scene. A ship with the name of an unknown language approached. In the morning mist, surrounded by armed soldiers, a young light-skinned man in an officer’s jacket, looking, however, not belligerent came ashore. The stranger was the crown prince Nicholas, soon to be the future last Russian emperor. The small town of Vrindavan, 80 miles to the south of Delhi, ...

While Lord Krishna enjoys the informality of intimate dealings at home with devotees who are in the mood of family and friends, in the office of creator Lord Maha-Vishnu attracts worshipers who prefer a God primarily endowed with grand, omnipotent, awe-inspiring features. Maha-Vishnu’s caliber is inconceivable. To illustrate, the Bhagavad-gita and other texts say that not only are we not alone in the universe, but the universe itself is not alone. Past the enormously distant shell of our own universe are an uncountable number of others....

In all relationships we find some element of dependence. However the dependence is voluntary. The desire for freedom or independence remains ingrained within us. It may not be a physical struggle against slavery. It may be our financial or physical constraints, relationships or just plain boredom etc, but the quest for freedom continues to haunt us. We have human rights and laws to protect them. We have the United Nations and many organizations dedicated to preserving peace. We have lotteries and casinos feeding off the hope...

Srila Prabhupada’s beloved disciple Yamuna-devi dasi passed away on Saphala-ekadasi. There is so much to be said about Srimati Yamuna-devi dasi. In October of 1970 I was one of a group of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples from America going to join him in India. On the way, we stopped in Brussels, and it was there, in an apartment, that I first met Yamuna—and Malati and Syamasundara (I had met Gurudas before that, in Boston). Upon entering, I could immediately feel their intense, extraor...

The Lord advised Arjuna to regulate the senses from the very beginning so that he could curb the greatest sinful enemy, lust, which destroys the urge for self-realization and specific knowledge of the self. Jnana refers to knowledge of self as distinguished from non-self, or in other words, knowledge that the spirit soul is not the body. Vijnana refers to specific knowledge of the spirit soul’s constitutional position and his relationship to the Supreme Soul.

Sometimes devotees they find themselves in some situation, which they think is hopeless. They are struggling, struggling, struggling and they seem to make no progress and then they start to think: “Oh, what is the use.” And then they wonder they just give everything up, give up Krishna consciousness, go back home to mama, what’s the use. Once there were two frogs who by accident fell into a pot of milk. So after struggling to keep afloat for some time one frog gave up hope: “Oh, it’s useless.” And just drowned down and was dead. But the other frog was more dete...

My dear King, Bali Maharaj donated all his possessions to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vämanadeva, but one should certainly not conclude that he achieved his great worldly opulence in bila-svarga as a result of his charitable disposition. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the source of life for all living entities, lives within everyone as the friendly Supersoul, and under His direction a living entity enjoys or suffers in the material world. Greatly appreciating the transcendental...

Today, many intellectual Indians are leading the Hare Krishna preaching movement in India and around the world. Thus, Maharaj’s achievement as the leader of Srila Prabhupada’s scientific mission cannot be quantified. The prestige he brought to ISKCON and his influence in inspiring the scholarly community to embrace the movement is unparalleled. His significant contribution lies in planting the seeds that motivated India’s intellectual/scholarly community to respect the Hare Krishna movement as scientific—a feat that defies numerical measurement.

Sri Prahlada Maharaja, a five-year-old child, spoke eloquent philosophy, but he was a simple boy who had simple conclusions. He looked around at the whole world, and he looked at his father, Hiranyakasipu, who was a really complicated person [laughter]. His father was a brahmana and the son of a rsi, and yet he was really confused. Prahlada said that when we lose reference to the focus of the goal of life, then every time we try to solve a problem, our solution becomes a bigger problem than the original problem. And isn't that what is happening in the world? We want more convenienc...

Srila Prabhupada had a godbrother named Akinchana Krishnadasa Babaji, whom Prabhupada said was a paramahamsa, a liberated soul. Babaji Maharaja approached another godbrother of Prabhupada’s, who had been sent by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura to England to preach but who didn’t really have much effect and then came back to India, and said to him, “You went to the West, and Swami Maharaja [Srila Prabhupada] went to the West. You presented the teachings of Lord Chaitanya, and Swami Maharaja presented the teachings of Lord Chaitanya. You introduced the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, ...

Almost every morning in Bombay Srila Prabhupada used to walk on Juhu Beach. One morning I was feeling especially wretched and miserable. Although so many other devotees were present, Srila Prabhupada began to speak as if he were addressing me personally. He quoted a Sanskrit verse and said there are two words—a-natha and sa-natha. Natha means “master,” so a-natha means “without master” and sa-natha means “with master.” The whole goal of life is to become sa-natha, “with master.”

Today is Gopastami, the day on which Krishna and Balarama and other boys Their age, who previously had tended the calves, were given charge of the cows. The celebration was meant for only the cowherd men and boys, but Srimati Radharani also wanted to enjoy the fun, and so, because of Her resemblance to Subala-sakha, she donned his dhoti and other garments and joined Krishna. Thus, on this occasion, in temples in Vrindavan and elsewhere, Srimati Radharani is dressed as a cowherd boy

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) was sent by the Lord Krishna to fulfil Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's prediction “Prtvithe ache yata nagaradi grama, sarvatra pracara haibe more nama” - In every town and village of the world, My name will be heard. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura wrote in his Sajjona-tosani, "Soon there will be a time when the chanting of Krishna's name will be heard in England, France, Russia, Germany and America." Srila Prabhupada is widely regarded...

A few days before he was to leave us, Srila Prabhupada expressed a desire to travel by bullock cart to different holy places in India. His Holiness Lokanath Swami had been traveling by bullock cart to different places of pilgrimage, and Srila Prabhupada was very enlivened when Lokanath Swami reported to him in Vrndavana. And Prabhupada said that he too would like to go on pilgrimage in a bullock cart. He asked Lokanath Swami to arrange it, and Lokanath Swami was very enthusiastic, having been en...

Srila Rupa Gosvami compiled the law book of Krsna consciousness, the science of devotion, in the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, translated by Srila Prabhupada in a summary study as The Nectar of Devotion. There the observance of Kartika is mentioned as one of the sixty-four items of devotional service. Rupa Gosvami quotes from the Padma Purana that just as Lord Damodara is favorably inclined toward His devotees, so the month of Kartika, which is also dear to Him, bestows great favor upon His devotees, even for a li...

Sri Murari Gupta was a very intimate associate whose pastimes with Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu were steeped in the loving bond of their eternal relationship. As an incarnation of Hanuman, Murari Gupta is as dear to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as Hanuman is to Lord Ramacandra.

On September 17, 1965, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada arrived in Boston on board the ship Jaladuta, carrying within his heart the orders of his spiritual master to spread the teachings of Sri Caitanya beyond the borders of India, throughout the entire world

Sri Siddha-Bakula is located near Gambhira Temple on Bali Sahi road in Sri Jagannatha Puri Dhama. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu personally arranged for Srila Haridasa Thakura to reside at this place. This is the place where he performed his daily bhajana of chanting 192 rounds (3,00,000 names) of Hare Krishna maha-mantra

Although Namacarya Haridasa Thakura chanted the holy name day and night, he also found time to read and hear scripture, and he discoursed on the glories of the holy name with reference to scripture. And although he was fully absorbed in chanting the holy name, he was affectionate to the devotees and always tried to help them

Thakura Haridasa was present during most of the Lord Caitanya's pastimes in Nadia, and when the Lord went to Jagannatha Puri, Haridasa also went and took up residence there. Every day, after attending Lord Jagannatha's mangala arati, Lord Caitanya would come to see Haridasa Thakura and bring him some of Lord Jagannatha's prasadam. When Sri Sanatana Goswami and Sri Rupa Goswami would come from Vrindavana to Puri they used to stay with Haridasa Thakura. Haridasa, in order to maintain the etiquette, would not go near Lord Jagannatha's temple but would offer his obeisances ...