On my way to speaking at Ohio State University (OSU) last night, I visited Hitchcock Hall, where Srila Prabhupada and Allen Ginsberg had presented a program. And I reread the account of the event in BTG, which began, “On the night of May 12, 1969, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and poet Allen Ginsberg filled a campus auditorium at Ohio State University in Columbus to twice its capacity. About two thousand students flooded the stage and aisles, and soon after His Divine Grace led the chanting, students jumped from their seats, crowded the stage, and danced and chanted ...

Sri Jagannath is the Lord of the Universe. His Kitchen is considered as the largest and the biggest Kitchen in the world. It is situated south-east direction of the outer compound of Srimandir. The length of the Kitchen is 150 feet, breadth is 100 feet and height is about 20 feet. It consists of 32 rooms with 250 earthen ovens within these. Around 600cooks(Suaras) and 400 assistants serve here everyday for preparing Lord's food. These are three types of hearths in the Kitchen of Srimandir such as Anna Ch...

After throwing out all the debris, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates cleaned the temple a second time, looking for finer grains of sand and dust that they might have missed. Then they thoroughly washed the temple. With hundreds of devotees throwing hundreds of pots of water, they cleansed the ceiling, the walls, the floor, and everything else. Sri Caitanya Himself personally washed the sitting place of Lord Jagannatha with His own two hands. Even then, Lord Caitanya was concerned that d...

"Whoever comes to Gundicha temple during rathayatra and sees Jagannatha, Balarama and Subhadra will have his mind turned towards Lord Hari. If he sees the Deities while They remain there for seven days on the throne of Gundicha, he will go to Vaikuntha."

When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu began His pastimes of congregational chanting of the Holy Name of Sri Hari in Navadwip, Sri Vakreshwar Pandit was an important singer and dancer in that assembly. It was by His mercy that Devananda Pandit was delivered from the wrath of Mahaprabhu. He was also present during the Lord's journey to Ramakeli. Devananda Pandit was, at one time, known as the foremost lecturer on the Bhagavat. One day Srivas Pandit went to hear his discourse, and being moved in ecstatic love by hearing the Bhagavatam, he began to cry. A few of the ignorant stud...

The word kirtana means "praise" or "glory" and is the name given to glorification of God in song, especially in call-and-response style. There are different categories of kirtana. For example, nama-kirtana refers to singing God's sacred names, lila-kirtana celebrates the transcendental activities of God and His associates, sankirtana is group singing, and nagara-sankirtana is public chanting in the streets. There are numerous variations of these. Closely related is bhajana, or prayerful song. Dev...

With the help of Krsna. who lives within everyone's heart, all impediments to this pure consciousness will be overcome. If we are eager to hear about Krsna, well learn from the scriptures how to recognize His existence everywhere. While drinking water we'll reflect that He's the taste that quenches our thirst. If we gaze upon a flock of birds in graceful flight well appreciate Krsna's artistic sense. Well see ability as His gift, wisdom as a particle of His knowledge, and death as His unavoidabl...

Reincarnation, of course, is accepted as a given in India’s mystical literature, and, according to Eastern sensibility, its truth undergirds any genuine metaphysical understanding of life. We are spirit-soul, say texts like the Bhagavad-gītā (2.13, 21, 22, among others), and not the material body. We are a quantum of energy, and energy, we learn from the natural sciences, is never created or destroyed. It continues to exist in some form. God, too, is spiritual substance, and He/She/It reincarnates as well.1 But whereas regular souls are forced to incarnate according t...

When you're actually on the platform of love of God, you understand your relationship with God: "I am part and parcel of God - and this dog is also part and parcel of God. And so is every other living entity." Then you'll extend your love to the animals also. If you actually love God, then your love for insects is also there, because you understand, "This insect has got a different kind of body, but he is also part and parcel of God - he is my brother." Sama sarvesu bhutesu: you look upon all living beings equally. Then you cannot maintain slaughterhouses. If you maintain...

The readers of your books also become deserving of worship. And the active principle that underlies hearing with proper consciousness—with complete faith, without argument, in rapt attention—is the blessing of an eternal associate of the Lord. Srila Prabhupada, you are the eternal associate of the Lord who made it possible for the world to taste real relief from the sufferings of the degraded Age of Kali and to feel true happiness by reading your book...

When I first joined ISKCON in 1969, we all were quite young and not many of us were married. And we were so new to Krsna consciousness and so dependent on Srila Prabhupada that we asked him for guidance in every area. When one devotee, Advaita dasa, who had recently gotten married, asked Srila Prabhupada about his having loving feelings for his wife, Prabhupada replied, “One hand cannot love the other hand directly—it must go through the stomach. Similarly, one person cannot love another person unless God is in the center.” There is the right hand, and there is the left hand, but...

Bursting out of the pillar, eyes full of fire, His claws ready to cut up the liar, He says he's a king, yes the king of dung, That wasp better watch out, he's gonna get stung

For the pleasure of the devotees, below is Chapter 231 of the Garuda purana, where Mahadeva Shiva calls on Lord Narasimhadeva. (The Matrgana's mentioned in this story are eight goddesses produced from the bodies of Vishnu, Shiva and six other main deities during the killing of a powerful demon called Andhaka. Their origin is recounted in the Varaha-purana.)

Powerful mantras for protection to the Lord's half-lion incarnation and His weapons. These are for protection from such things as malevolent spirits and material desires, as well as increased devotion and a peaceful world. Also contains the Nrisimha Kavacha. Prayers to the Lord’s Weapons. To the Chakra. To the Club. To the Conchshell. Ugra-Nrisimha Dhyana

Sita Follows Her Conscience: In the Ramayana, Sita Devi first clearly expresses her own will by disobeying Lord Rama, who wants her to stay behind when He leaves for His exile to the forest. She decides that to be with Rama in all circumstances is her sacred duty. The unequivocal voice of her conscience will not allow her to do otherwise. By insisting on going with her husband to the forest, Sita defines for herself what a devoted wife is. To convince Rama to allow her to go with Him, Sita says, “Every day I will serve You and prac...

As many of you know, Lord Caitanya is Krsna Himself in the role of a devotee. He is Krsna, but with the complexion and mood of Srimati Radharani. There are different purposes for the Lord's advent. The internal reason for Lord Caitanya's appearance was that He wanted to experience the glory of Srimati Radharani's love for Him, the wonderful qualities in Him that She alone relishes through Her love, and the happiness She feels when She experiences the sweetness of His love for Her--which only She can experience. The external reason (not that it was any less significant) was to propagate the y...

Since we don’t hear of a demon named Madhu in Krishna’s pastimes, why does Arjuna address Krishna as “the killer of Madhu”?Madhusudana. The name always seemed curious to me. Where did it come from? In the Bhagavad-gita, one of our most sacred texts, Krishna is referred to as Madhusudana, or “the killer of the Madhu demon,” no less than five times. And yet, Krishna didn’t kill a demon named Madhu. I looked through the vast storehouse of Krishna’s pastimes ...

“When the Lord assumes a humanlike body to show mercy to His devotees, He engages in such pastimes as will attract those who hear about them to become dedicated to Him.” (SB 10.33.36) By hearing these pastimes, we can think, “I want to go to Vrindavan. I want to live in Vrindavan eternally and have a relationship with Krishna as a servant or a cowherd boyfriend or as a parental figure or as a young gopi.” By hearing about Krishna and His loving relationships with His devotees in Vrindavan, you may develop that desire.

Balarama was the second body of Krishna himself and the depth of his real self was like the depth of a million oceans. He came to Vraja from Dvaraka and stayed during the two months of Chaita and Vaishakh to console Sri Nanda, Yasoda and the others. He pleased his sakhas in various ways. There also Balarama gave solace to all the Krishna priyas and charmed his own dear and loving gopis by having lilas with them. At that time Krishna killed Sankhachuda. Then Krishna and Balarama both performed divine lilas with their own lovers and played Holi. Only a learned devotee can d...

All of us—husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, children, students, and teachers—have duties, and sometimes we begrudge the performance of our duties because we think their execution will impede our personal happiness. But duty is duty, and duty must be done. Even in the cold of winter, one must bathe. And even in the heat of summer, one must cook. "

We, as conditioned souls, tend toward impersonalism. Every conditioned soul has two conditioned tendencies: one is toward sense gratification, and the other is toward impersonalism. So we carry impersonal conceptions with us even when we come to devotional service, and our impersonal conceptions may influence us to deal in impersonal ways even though we know in theory that we all are eternal persons and that Krsna is the supreme eternal person. Still, in practice we may tend to act in impersonal ways, because we may still have impersonal ideas that devotees s...