The seven opulences listed — fame, fortune, fine speech, memory, intelligence, steadfastness and patience — are considered feminine. If a person possesses all of them or some of them he becomes glorious. So this doesn’t just mean women can have these qualities; men can have these qualities too. If a man is famous as a righteous man, that makes him glorious. So that’s interesting! The first quality is called kirtiḥ. That means fame. So what makes a person really famous? The fact that they...

I went to see him as a visitor. I did not know that he was born in our family. But I had heard from my father a long time back that that man, Abhay Charan, (we used to call him 'Abhay Kaka') had went abroad. We knew that very well. But Prabhupada never informed us that he came back with all the foreign disciples. So, I went there, and Prabhupada asked my name. I told him my name, and he said, "Oh, you're coming from Taliganj?" My name then was Gauri Shankar. My calling name is Shankar. So when I t...

ISKCON can report there are: CENTRES 602 ISKCON Temples World wide  65 Farms / Eco Villages  54 Educational Institutes: Including primary schools, secondary schools and tertiary Colleges  110 Vegetarian Hare Krishna Restaurants worldwide  DEVOTEES 75,000 devotees in ISKCON have received initiation (taken clerical vows) 7 million worshippers attend an ISKCON centre annually 2000 home study / worship (Bhakti Vriksa) groups meet regularly worldwide (consisting some 30,000 devotees) BOOK...

Fifty years ago, on August 13, 1965, a lone elderly monk and teacher, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami boarded the cargo ship Jaladuta in Calcutta for the one month sea voyage to New York City not seeking riches, but to teach and distribute the greatest wealth of India and the East—knowledge of God, or “Krishna Consciousness”. This historic journey introduced the Western world to the Bhakti tradition unlike ever witnessed in history before. Srila Prabhupada established #ISKCON in 1966 to share...

Kirtan music in the West, spurred by the growth of the international Hare Krishna community, but also of yoga studios in the US, has built up an extensive kirtan circuit with performers like Jai Uttal and Krishna Das filling vast auditoria, and getting up to a million You-Tube hits. Jahnavi Harrison toured extensively in the US with the group Gaura Vani and As Kindred Spirits (producer of CD) from 2009-2012, giving violin accompaniment, singing, dancing and storytelling. Jahnavi brought her trai...

Chapter nine of the Bhagavad Gita is referred to as: “The Most Confidential Knowledge” and in the first two verses Lord Krishna tells Arjuna: “The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall impart to you this most confidential knowledge and realization, knowing which you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence. This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and bec...

Being a selfless care giver means, that we don't even expect the most subtle gratification in return for our service. It implies that we should have healthy and appropriate ways of fulfilling our financial, emotional and managerial needs and thus never use our dependants for those needs. Unless we are stably situated in one of the ashrams, this condition will not be fulfilled. There will be some unfulfilled needs, which very easily enter the relationship in which we are meant to give shelter.

According to Egyptian texts this universe is produced from the primordial waters at the beginning of creation. From these waters a mound is produced and from this mound a lotus flower travels up to the top of this universe upon which Ra, the great sun God appears. Now this of course is the same account we find in the Vedas, a lotus appears from the navel of Lord Visnu residing upon the causal ocean and upon this lotus Lord Brahma appears and proceeds to create this universe. The mound which appears,...

Anticipation and nervous excitement filled the atmosphere. It was the first day in the dissection room for the three hundred new medical students in my year. Entering the foyer area, we slipped into our white coats and prepared our surgical kits. The doors to the interior theatre swung open, and we were hit by an overwhelming smell of formaldehyde, the chief embalming agent. Inside lay fifty veiled cadavers, evenly spaced around a large white hall. Many of us, having not even attended a fune...

Flood has been on everyone’s mind for awhile now, as we experienced record amount of rain throughout July. But most of us thought it’s too early, previous times it was at the end of September back in 2007 and 2000. It is a grand Mayapur ‘tradition’ that every 7-8 years Ganga Devi is coming to visit Sri Sri Radha Madhava and Ashta Sakhis, Sri Panca-Tattva and Sri Prahlad Nrsimhadev. So it’s official, Ganga Devi is in the temple room now getting a divine darshan. She also visited TOVP con...

This year’s Janmastami festival at New Vrindaban, West Virginia on September 5th is expected to be packed with inspiring spiritual activities and sweet exchanges between residents and guests alike. “Under the steady leadership of our community president Jaya Krishna Prabhu, the quality of the festival has been improving every year,” says one of the festival’s organizers Gaura Nataraj Das.

Discover more about the historical connections between Greece and India in this online wonderful book by Edward G Pococke. (434 pages embedded in pdf format posted in here. Freely downloadable also). “The affinity between the Greek language and the old Parsee and Sanskrit is certain and essential. The use of cognate idioms prove that the nations who used them to have descended from the same stock. That the religion of the Greeks emanated from an Eastern shore no-one will deny. We must therefor...

This is another precedent: "We can jump, we can dance, we can play the mridanga, and now we can also lead kirtan, because here, this lady is doing it. Prabhupada asked her to do it." Everybody was in total euphoria. Shyama Devi led the most melodious kirtan. It went on and on. Srila Prabhupada was dancing, and she was dancing, and it built up and was the most fantastic experience that all the devotees could have had. Before the dust even settled from the kirtan, a devotee was on a phone saying,...

Oh Almighty, create thoughts and actions in the minds of the people of the nation so that they live united. Oh Almighty, bless the people to take a path of life with righteousness as righteousness gives the strength of character. Help all religious leaders of the country to give strength to the people to combat the divisive forces. Guide the people to develop an attitude to appreciate different ideologies and transform enmity among individuals, organizations and nations into fri...

There should be no compromise in our Vaisnava appearance. We are representatives of Srila Prabhupada. We should aim to be first class representatives. We need to be aware of the bonafide standard of appearance, maintain it and preach it. In the age of Kali deviations easily become the standard. We should be alert to this. Proper Vaisnava dress helps us maintain proper consciousness regarding our identity and responsibility in service to Srila Prabhupada and the Vaisnavas.