Srila Prabhupada has compared chanting the holy name to making ghee. In ghee making, we boil butter, and must work to skim off the “impurities” or milk solids which rise to the surface. Then we will be able to create clarified butter, or ghee, which has so many medicinal properties and uses. This is an interesting analogy which can help us in our daily spiritual practice. We can think of our spiritual practices, like chanting the holy name, as the cleansing fire, that is meant to burn up the impurities or material contaminations. If we expect to go anywhere spiritually...

I inched forward to hear better and was stunned when the tallest monk told the crowd about Krsna and the spiritual world. I learned later that what he was speaking is found in the ancient Vedic scripture Brahma-samhita: Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He lives forever in the spiritual world, beyond the dualities of material life. His transcendental land of Vrndavana is populated by goddesses of fortune, who appear as milkmaids and who love Krsna beyond anything else. The trees there fulfill all desires, and the waters of immortality flow through land made o...

I first came to know about ISKCON in Pune at around 1998. My sister informed me about the ISKCON temple on the Janmashtami day. First time when I saw the temple structure from outside I felt that it's not a traditional temple which is seen in India. That was confirmed when I went inside the temple as to see the devotional attitude and energy in the temple was just fantastic. Till that point I had not seen so much devotional energy anywhere else. All the devotees chanting and dancing in ecstacy in the Gaura Arati - Yes, that was what I witnessed first! Though then I did'nt k...

You feel entitled to special treatment or status, and when you don’t get it you become critical of those who should give it (or who should arrange for it to be given). You have a strong need to be right which manifests as a strong need to make others wrong. You are trying to get attention or communicate your feelings but you lack the proper skills to do this, and thus the only way to get attention is through criticism. You are an expert in a specific area(s) and therefore criticize or condemn others for their ignorance or inability. When you are misunderstood, your frustrati...

Still, after the disappearance of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, a black period was there. Who fulfilled Mahaprabhu’s prediction? Bhaktivinode Thakur started. Because India was blindly following the West, he thought that the books and teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu should be presented in English‚ and that this science should be taught in the Western world.

HG Bhurijana Prabhu, in a recent class, shared an interesting pastime during a program in Japan, when Srila Prabhupada, did not let a mayavadi sanyasi speak for too long, starting a impromptu Kirtan in the middle of his speech, much to the bewilderment of the audience. Srila Prabhupada, later, shared with his disciples that he could tolerate the mayavadi sanyasi for some time but when he started speaking that Supreme Lord has no form, no senses, can not talk and so on, then Prabhupada could not tolerate it any more! HG Bhurijan Prabhu said that such is the love Srila Prabhupad...

In Jagannath Puri, the annually organized Ratha-yatra engages thousands of artisans (for cart making), priests, and general populace in the service of the Lord. The king of the region is also engaged in actually sweeping the road on which the most merciful Lord rides on the chariot. Globalizing the exclusive and confidential ways, in which Srimati Radharani herself implored their Lordships Sri Krishna, Sri Balarama and Subhadra Maharani to come to Vrindavan, and then Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu danced in front of the Chariot and cleansed the Gundicha temple, Sril...

Recently on TV in Wales a famous BBC, Welsh news reporter decided to do something about his burgeoning weight. He wanted to lose weight, become healthier and enjoy more energy. But like us all he was faced with the same wall of contradictions of diets to follow to achieve his goal. Nowadays the UK governments advice for a healthy diet is to eat a good balance of foods and carbohydrates but with little saturated fats. The fats in this instance represent meat and dairy fats. And the carbohydrates represent Breads, Pastas, Potatoes and Sugars.

As a world body, how do the members of Iskcon – the devotees – deal with truth telling or the revelation of sensitive information in a vaisnava way, among themselves? Some believe there should be no restrictions while others urge caution due to aparadha. Is there a balanced way? It normally takes a trustworthy official statement to put a matter to rest. In between the official statement and an incidental cause for emotion and betrayal, our vaisnava approach to how knowledge or information should be revealed, is tested. If the brahminical quality of truth rules in all of our...

The Russian Krishnaite said he respected the right of the Orthodox priest to have an opinion but felt the young man was misguided. “We have absolutely no political agenda of any kind. Even if we had 100,000 followers in Russia, could we possibly topple a government in a country of 140 million?” Das agreed that there were many followers from Western countries but insisted that these people merely sought salvation from the “vicious cycle of karma.” He said his guru told him about how some Western intelligence agents “penetrated the ranks of the movement,” but added that t...

In 1967, Srila Prabhupada wrote to his disciple: “Be careful about your health first. This information is not only for you but all my noble sons. I am an old man. I may live or die it does not matter. But you must live for long time to push on this Krishna Consciousness movement.” Since time immemorial, human societies have championed Mother Nature’s therapeutic splendor as a reliable and sacred source of healthcare. Whether one is a spiritual dilettante or a vigorous meditator, it is important to be aware of the various health issues sprouting up during this iron age of...

First, devotees need to understand there is no way to manipulate natural resources for sense gratification without being a burden to the Earth. Srila Prabhupada wrote: According to Vedic understanding, men are transformed into thieves when they plan economic development for sense gratification (SB 4, 18.7) The earth became overburdened due to dharma-glani, or irregular discharge of the Lord's desire. The Lord appeared on the earth to curb the increase in miscreants, and not the increase in population, as is wrongly put forward by the mundane economist (SB 3.3....

Once during a meditation session a teacher decided to do an experiment. As soon as all his pupils assembled and sat in an erect posture with closed eyes waiting for his instruction, the teacher said, “I have a special instruction for you all today. For next one hour during the meditation session no one should think about the red monkey.” And suddenly from nowhere the red monkeys came, attacked and conquered everyone’s mind. For the next one hour all the participants whose eyes were still closed were utterly miserable because while meditating today they were se...

Some will get married and some will not, some will have children and some will not. But also those who don’t get married and those who have already surpassed this phase of life will greatly benefit by knowing the basic dynamics, the rapport of weights and measures, the values of family life in the Vedic-Vaisnava civilization. In the past so much damage has been done by people—who had no positive experience in this area—who tried, disastrously, to handle the life of others. Therefore those directly involved in family life—as well as those who have to come in touch...

With Christmas upon us, we take a look at what our Founder, Srila Prabhupada said about Jesus. The title is from a letter Prabhupada wrote in 1965 to a Mrs. Sally Agarwal. Prabhupada stayed with Sally and her husband Gopal in Butler, Pennsylvania when he first arrived in America. Sally told the background story of the name: "One time something happened with our little girl, Kamala, who was only three years old. I used to take her to Sunday school, and she learned about Jesus in Sunday school. Then when she would see Swamiji with his robes on and everyt...

But now, scientists say that meditators may be benefiting from changes in their brains. The researchers report that those who meditated for about 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had measurable changes in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. M.R.I. brain scans taken before and after the participants’ meditation regimen found increased gray matter in the hippocampus, an area important for learning and memory. The images also showed a reduction of gray matter in the amygdala, a region connected to anxiety and str...

Modern Paper Currency Flawed: Within the system of varnasrama, three-fourth of the population does not earn money, namely the brahmacaris, those in the vanaprastha and those in the sannyasa asrama. Grhasthas, in particular the ksatriya householders and the vaisya householders, assisted by the sudra householders, are meant to support the rest of society. The brahmanas and sudra class do not earn money, only the ksatriya class through taxation and the vaisya class, but only one portion of the vaisya class, those engaged in trade, vanijyam. Those engaged in both krishi, agriculture and g...

It struck me the other day the astonishing similarity between the words Christmas and Krishna- Prabhupada once pointed out the similarity between the words Christ and Krishna, but when “mas” is added, and the “i” is shortened, the similarity becomes much stronger- one could even say to someone “krsnas tu bhagavan swayam” and they might respond “What was that about Christmas?” We all know the magic and enchantment that the word “Christmas” had over us when we were young, as we knew that from this word, everything of our hearts’ desire would be manifest, and as we c...

RABBI: In the Torah, Moses describes to the people some of the requirements of a king. One of the requirements is, "When [the king] is established on his royal throne, he must write a copy of the Torah as a scroll edited by the Levitical priests. [This scroll] must always be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life. He will then learn to be in awe of God his Lord, and carefully keep every word of the Torah and these rules. He will then [also] not begin to feel superior to his brethren, and he will not stray from the mandate to the right or the left. He and his ...

Srila Prabhupada is the soul of ISKCON and ISKCON is his body. Because ISKCON is a spiritual organization, both body and soul are non-different. Srila Prabhupada continues to act effectively in this world so long as ISKCON remains the instrument of his will. He holds a unique position in ISKCON as its Founder-Acharya: “Just like if I am taken as the origin of this Krishna consciousness movement, that means I know everything directly and indirectly of all this movement. If I do not know directly or indirectly everything of this movement, then I cannot be called the Found...

Now we can follow the Global Economic model and hear the comprehensive reports and opinions on Capitalistic health it has now become apparent that the capitalistic model is on the cusp of failing and disappearing. It’s not that an economic model that has been conceived by man will last forever as long as we maintain its veracity. All things created by man are imperfect, transient and liable to fail. And today in 2016 the Capitalistic model has reached its zenith and now is on the way down and out. It does not come as any surprise for devotees that man-made processes and sys...