As a medical doctor, Ph.D. and specialist in vegetarian and vegan diets, (I wrote a 500-page medical book quoting over 1400 scientific studies on this), my research and personal experience with the health problems of senior devotees have shown clearly that we urgently need to improve and re-think our eating and health habits. The world-wide devotee community has already a large percentage of cardiovascular diseases and of neuro-degenerative diseases such as dementia and Parkinson with the high probability of developing an epidemic. One of the easier ways to revert th...

Parasurama Prabhu, who runs the Food For All centre in London, grew up in Ireland at a time when it was considered very strange to be anything other than a Catholic. In fact, he never met anyone from a different religion until he was eighteen, when he met a protestant. The story of how he joined the Hare Krishnas is interesting. In 1983, when he was eighteen, he seriously prayed to the Virgin Mary to reveal to him the absolute truth. Being a lay missionary for many years, he repeated a verse from the Bible: "Wretched and miserable man that I am! Who will [rescue me and] s...

In modern times, disbelief has so far entered into the essence of our existence, that both faithlessness and faith have become fundamentally two varieties of faithlessness. During Montaigne’s time, religious wars of unbearable cruelty rent Europe. The absolute certainty of the raging antagonists began to taint conviction itself with bad odor. But Montaigne saw deeper. He descried the doubleness within the very certitude of the religious partisans. He recognized their zeal as a kind of cover up, ov...

She went down in the north pasture. There was no shade there and it was hot. All the cows gathered around her, licking her and pushing her in an effort to get her up. She tried to but her front legs would not support her which never happened before. We waited to see if she would gain strength and get up but she didn’t. We then decided to get her up with a cow sling with the hope her legs would revive once they were free. Her legs were lifeless. We then moved her, by use of the cow sling, to a shady pla...

Here are three questions for you to ponder, dear reader: First, which came first, the chicken or the egg? Second, what do a highway billboard, a small town storefront, and the Greek philosopher Aristotle have in common? And third, what do either of these questions have to do with Lord Rama? The ancient Sanskrit epic Ramayana describes the life of Ramachandra, the incarnation of God whose advent in this world is celebrated each spring by Hindus and followers of Vedic culture worldwide. The work conta...

Jambavan also known as Jambavantha, is an eternal servant of Lord Ramacandra. He was the King of the Bears (Riksharaj). He helped Lord Ramacandra find His wife Srimati Sita devi and fight Her abductor, Ravana. He was instrumental in making realize Hanuman his immense capabilities and encouraged him to jump across the ocean to search for Sita in Lanka. Jambavan was present at the churning of the ocean, and circled Lord Vamana seven times in a brief time when Lord was acquiring the three worlds from Bali Maharaj. In his previous life, he was the King of the Himalayas who h...

Being non-judgmental about Govardhana-parikrama: Sometimes devotees think that barefoot parikrama of Govardhana is superior to wearing shoes, or that walking is superior to taking a vehicle. One should not consider one type of parikrama as superior to another. Srila Jiva Goswami says in the Gopala-campu (Purva, 15): natrapy anghri-kramitavasyakatvam svacchandatvad yanam apy atra distam Translation: It is not required that the parikrama should be performed by foot. One can also take a vehicle (and obtain the same result).

In this article Brother Aelred (Chaitanya Dasa) offers his observations on the effectiveness of ISKCON's communication of its key messages. These are particularly valuable in view of Brother Aelred's close association with ISKCON over the years and his unusual position of being both a practising Catholic monk and Vaishnava. He is frank and insightful,with a sincere desire to help devotees. As the Scottish poet Robbie Burns once said, 'I pray to God the power to give us, to see ourselves as others see us'. When I first made contact with ISKCON, Prabhupada was still alive. A...

In the mid 80’s the farm started a program called “ADOPT-A-COW” which was to raise funds to help support the cows. By that time we had a herd of 157 cows and it was way to many cows for the land that we had to work with. We were the 1st ISKCON farm in North America to stop breeding along the commercial dairy way of doing things. It was realized that if you are not killing your unproductive cows and male offspring as a commercial dairy does, then you lose your economic profit. So it was necessary to raise funds to pay for the feed that we could not grow on the farm. M...

With recent news of the tragic passing of former Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, many devotees of Toronto's Hare Krishna Community have been fondly recalling how the then-Mayor visited our annual Festival of India (Ratha-Yatra) in 2014. It was the second day of our grand two-day annual event on Centre Island and word quickly got around that the Mayor had arrived at the festival site. He first visited the Deity booth, diligently removed his shoes and then took darshan (audience) of Lord Jagannatha (Lord Krishna). He was then garlanded by one of our pujaris (priests). Mayo...

In early 1978, Tribhuvanatha Prabhu gathered together a small group of devotees with the aim of spreading Krishna consciousness in the Middle East for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada. The group traveled overland from London to Beirut where 5,000 Arabic Bhagavad-gitas and thousands of Arabic Sri Isopanisads were distributed in the midst of civil war. Some devotees were imprisoned -- risking life and limb -- but were eventually released unharmed.

The positive reputation of ISKCON in Australia is built in good part on the good will created by the prasadam distribution of our restaurants and the vegetarian or bhakti yoga clubs in our universities. It is an essential element of connecting with the man on the street, especially in countries with small populations where you can’t sell a book to an individual every day of the week. They will however, be hungry every day, and happy to pay for a good, healthy, scrumptious meal of delicious Krsna prasadam. Sometimes eating more than one meal a day! We should take advantag...

Why are people more attracted to churches that demand more, when they could choose one that demands less? Answers to this are found in an academic paper published in the, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (Sacrifice and Stigma: Managing Religious Risk, by Prosper Raynold). It is because people have the propensity to develop faith and hope in God; but people tend to rely on “faith intermediaries” to deepen their understanding of the will of God. They need to believe they have found...

A single event of the ancient world has been covered by a number of scriptures—even though some of these old historical texts are not generally considered as Vedic. Elements of the history of Vaivasvata Manu, our current Manu, can be found as the story of “Noah and the Flood” both in the Bible and in the Koran. The great flood is also described in some other scriptures including the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jasher.

Sri Gauranga Bari Temple at Katwa is the actual site where Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu took sannyasa from Sri Keshava Bharati in year 1510 AD at the end of His twenty-fourth year. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu left Navadvipa and crossed the river Ganges at a place known as Nidayara-ghata. Then He reached Kantaka-nagara, or Katoya (Katwa), where He accepted sannyasa. When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepted sannyasa, three personalities were with Him to perform all the necessary activities. They were Nityan...

Many devotees, who were previously active in preaching when living full time in the temples, feel that now - living outside and earning a living – those “good old days” remain just distant topics of nostalgia. Will those days ever return, they wonder? This whole material world is a preaching tool to remind us constantly about the miseries and sufferings it causes, therefore the demigods in charge of universal affairs are preaching there part too. There is an absolute preaching quality in ...

Bhaktivedanta Gurukula has welcomed students at the beginning of the new school year. Gurukulas are very important in our society because while the students are being trained in academic knowledge, they are also being guided to remember the cause of all causes, Lord Krishna. This early guidance will remain with them throughout their lives and will assist them to see the Lord’s presence in everything. In the sixth chapter of Bhagavadgita, Krishna explains how a spiritual seeker who doe...

As the latest headlines and news reports from around the world become more disturbing for us all, it's quite natural to wonder just where the joy of life has gone for so many people. The pressing threats of world war, terrorist attacks and a host of other menacing perils hang ominously above our heads as we go about our daily activities, hoping against hope that somehow everything will work out all right. Yet deep in our hearts we know that something might happen at a moment's notice which...

“The criteria of the devotees’ success is not that he thinks ‘I am authorised, therefore I am qualified’. One should think, ‘I am authorised, but I need to be aware of my lack of qualifications, and will always become dependent on the Lord’. Success is always guaranteed to those who are conscious of their subordinate position,” said Niranjana Swami to the delegates, many of whom had lined up 30 minutes before the lecture to hear the two speakers. “Srila Prabhupada always gav...

Gradually they are coming out the woodwork. And suddenly it seems that half the people I know are secretly meditating. They range from casual transcendental meditators to practically full-blown Buddhists or Hare Krishnas. And the strange thing is that these are not hippies or crusties or drop-outs or people living alternative lifestyles on an ashram-inspired commune near Sligo. Just regular blokes, a few of them quite senior in what they do. There are thrusting business types and entrep...

When we approached Paul in his office two weeks earlier to present our humble request for translation of one of Srila Prabhupada’s books, we were anxious and excited, but Paul’s genuine warm personality drove the anxiety away. Our excitement remained. Paul advised us to send our work to him and we sent him the Maha mantra and its explanation. Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught that the holy name of the Lord is the sound incarnation of the Lord and that since the Lord is the absol...