Srila Prabhupada mentions in the purport of SB.3.25.25 the importance of devotee association. He explains that devotees should give up the association of materialistic persons and seek the association of devotees; he describes that to understand the pastimes of the Lord, to see the Lord as a person with personal activities and to offer devotional service one should have devotee association. Srila Prabhupada states that devotee association means association with the Lord

Living in the New Vraja Dhama farm community in Hungary has always felt like a blessing to me. My husband and our two four year old daughters moved here a little over two years ago from Canada. From the first moment my husband and I started associating, we knew that we would like to raise a family on a farm. We understood that Srila Prabhupada’s desire was to establish farm communities, varnasrama and self-sufficiency in ISKCON and we wanted to be a part of that. Our understanding of what that actually meant was at first insufficient and immature, however, with time, and as we lea...

The seeds of this important project lie in Srila Prabhupada's request that his disciples preserve the works of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. My journey to India two years ago was punctuated by unexpected discoveries. Usually when I make the pilgrimage I focus on the holiest of holies: I visit Vrindavan, the land of Lord Krishna, in Uttar Pradesh, and Mayapur, the birthplace of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, in West Bengal. I often underestimate or even neglect the cities that get me there – Delhi and Kolkata, respectively. This time, however, Krishna had a different plan. In Delhi I visited Gop...

“How did they do it?” I asked for fun. Get all the nations to move as one. Herding the cats of the Coronal globe. In the culture of kama, krodha, and lobh. And who are they-anyway Conspiracy theorists do certainly say It's the Orient or perhaps an elite few But this is so much fodder to actually chew. We need not delve into the depths of this. It can lead to a dark, ominous, abyss.

Before formally meeting Hare Krishna devotees, I was one of those who ran in the opposite direction when I saw them coming. I used to think they were from another planet. Who are these guys with their chants and dancing in the street? Or are they going to hit me up for a donation? But one day I had no choice, I was forced into a corner. The front door was open and a devotee knocked on the door. I had to let him in. I thought, since no one was home I will make this quick, a quick donation and get rid of him. But he was different. I offered him some fruit juice and two...

In this coronavirus emergency, the Italian government has declared the country lockdown and people are experiencing serious difficulties just to get food. People who made a choice of life based on farming and engaging in self-sufficiency, in this condition find themselves in an advantageous situation. Gunagrahi das and Rukmini devi dasi say “We live in our farm Cintamani Dhan in central Italy and we have been engaging for almost 30 years in organic farming and self- sufficiency. We try to satisfy Krsna by collaborating to spread these practices in the society of devotees...

Prior to the kirtan procession leaving I realized that I could not go with Srila Prabhupada. I was the cook. I needed to prepare a feast for his samadhi ceremony. I called upon my dear friend Narottama prabhu and asked him to assist as he was, and probably still is, one of the most excellent cooks in ISKCON. He immediately agreed. I also went to our now-departed god-brother Rksaraja prabhu, who was as good a cook as he was kirtaneer. When I requested him to assist he very sorrowfully replied, "No, I'm going with Prabhupada." As I was roughly four times bigger than Rksar...

An invisible virus - not here to please Has locked us all in a very deep freeze The source of which is our very own fault Mistreatment of animals is the cause of the halt Think of the chicks crammed in one place Think of the cows all tight in one space Think of the bats that are in your soup Think of the pigs all killed in a group Think of the flesh of an ape as your lunch Think of the dog on a plate as your brunch Get down to the root, yes we are the cause Blame it on God - please take a pause The shop and the office are now closed down This is reality all over the town People are keepi...

Interview about the newly released Hanuman book. Hanuman is considered the perfect bhakta or dedicated, unwavering devotee, of Sri Rama. He is a renaissance “man” and a superhero rolled into one. He’s very talented. He’s heroic. He’s someone who takes the initiative. And sometimes, he might even make a mistake. He is the most compassionate. He helped to reunite Rama and Sita. And he also wants to help us and inspire all of us in our life’s journey, to reunite us with the Divine. I believe that. That’s the qualification of a sacred storyteller. You can’t tell these stories ...

One reason for these similarities between the Americas and India is that in ancient Vedic times there were two great architects, Visvakarma of the demigods or Aryans, and Maya of the asuras. The Mayan people, also known as technicians, were no doubt named as such because of being connected with this person named Maya, or Mayasura and Maya Danava. They were a part of his clan or tribe. They had fallen away from the Vedic way of life and were sent or escaped to the region of Central America. They also carried with them much of the science of astronomy and navigation for which this Maya...

* Momma, I have a question for you. * Sure! What is it, my darling one? * Momma, is this Corona Krishna? It was a real stomp-the-teacher question — but not unusual for my Lalita. She’s a very precocious child with a very, very active mind and an ongoing limitless list of questions. There was a time when I would dismiss all her thoughts as childish gibberish and give her an emphatic NO for an answer. But I’ve realized that her vision is much broader than mine and that I can truly learn from her. I hesitated before replying ….

On Saturday, March 28, ISKCON’s Ministry for Cow Protection and Agriculture had a Zoom conference with its European representatives. Everything is online in these corona times, even farming! The members shared reports among themselves. Considering the present crisis, everyone still seemed to be faring somewhat okay. For instance, at New Vraja Dhama, ISKCON’s farm community in Hungary, devotees have a stock of food for seven months plus land and cows constantly yielding more grains, vegetables and milk products. Similar reports were there from New Mayapur in the Ukraine and other far...

An incident from the story of Lord Rama that depicts unity in diversity. Can two persons be alike in all respects? No! Everybody is an individual with unique thoughts, aspirations, opinions, mannerisms and lifestyles. Although birds of same feather flock together, every bird is an individual and unique. There are differences even within one community of people with multiple commonalities, led by one able leader.

Doesn’t renunciation indicate an absence of the will to keep fighting amidst frustration? Not necessarily. Renunciation can also be a sign of realization; it can indicate the presence of the insight that there is more to life than fighting futilely for perishable material pleasures. Firstly, we need to recognize that the material eye and the spiritual eye don’t see alike, as the Bhagavad-gita (2.69) confirms. For materialists, the journey of life has only one track: the track ...

How should a devotee treat his wife? How should he address her? How should he pacify her when she is angry? How should he guide her if she makes some mistakes? Can we get some clues about these topics from Srimad Bhagvatam? One might wonder whether these are mundane topics and even worth being discussed among the devotees. Srila Prabhupada, nevertheless, stressed a lot on having a harmonious relationship between husband and wife. "A wife should always remain sati...

Everybody has found their way to the Internet; practically every belief, interest, desire, and product has some representation on the Web. It is therefore not surprising that Gaudiya Vaishnavas have also made their way into the online village. After all, with a spiritual aspiration culminating in a bucolic life, one would expect us to gravitate towards village settings, and in this case—for better or for worse—we have. The prospect of Gaudiya Vedanta circulating throughout the global village and thereby reaching people of every background is wonderful. Such an opportunity woul...

We are opposed to the atheists alone who live and enjoy for themselves. Those who are anxious for the blessing of God are our brothers in faith, whatever error there may be in their ideas and forms of worship. Love of God, however misdirected it may be, does by force of its own natural strength, rise higher and higher in the scale of spiritual progress. Its want is the degradation of the soul alone. Those who do not love God have an opposite course from us and are obje...

Srila Prabhupada recommends that we prepare ourselves for death by training our minds to constantly remember the Lord and His holy names. We should become capable of continuously remembering the Lord, even amidst the disturbances of a rapidly deteriorating body. Such training includes chanting the holy names in our minds, a practice that comes easily to one who has practiced attentive chanting throughout his or her life. In his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.18.4, Srila Prabhupada writes: By scientific adoption [of the process of de...

His words hit me like Indra’s thunderbolt and sent my mind and heart reeling. They haunted me throughout the week and into a new month. So powerful! A not so gentle reminder that diksa is bound by space and time, but siksa is not! Srila Prabhupada said, Real thing is bhakti. What you can offer to Krsna? Everything belongs to Krsna. What you have got? What is your value? And what is the value of your things? It is nothing. Therefore real thing is bhaktya; real thing is your FEELING. "Krsna, kindly take it. I have no qualification. I am most rotten, fallen, but [weeps] I have brought t...

The consciousness of the gopis is exemplary.The entire day they think of how to serve Krishna. Their minds are not focused on material desires or selfish delusions. When they meet amongst each other, instead of going on about themselves, they constantly glorify the Lord and teach His message without discrimination. These are indicators of those who have surrendered themselves to God. Their actions, thoughts and words are never independent of the Lord.

My father, perhaps despairing of my dreams of the East and of becoming an artist, urged me to try for officer selection for the British Army, enticing me with stories of travel, adventure, and a decent salary to boot. To my surprise I passed the entrance exams, and before I knew it I was attending a Sixth Form boarding school for potential officers, located in a wonderful old English stately home. My mind kept returning to those initial strong impressions I had when ...

When it comes to humanity’s conception of God, it seems that each religion and culture describes the character of God differently. In some we find God described as an angry and jealous God. Or we find the God of the Old Testament of the Bible with lots of rules but little mercy. Or in other religions we read about a God who is heartless to any nonbelievers, even if they merely lack understanding. In other cultures, God recommends killing all that do not wish to surrender to the local faith. Others may describe that there is a just and loving God watching over you. So, what are we...

This is the point in time when the Hare Krishna devotee shines a torchlight of knowledge into the darkness. Krishna has arranged the stage and the spotlight. The vicious virus is yet another 9/11, a pause, of silence in which the conditioned soul can hear the chanting of the holy names, the transcendental sounds of the Gita and Bhagavatam, come into contact with the pure devotee. Let us use our intelligences to take advantage of this Golden opportunity. Maybe our message can go viral.