It was at a tent program in the center of Mumbai during a warm March evening in 1971 that I first encountered actual knowledge. Srila Prabhupada was speaking, and although I missed much of what he said because of his accent, I sensed that I was hearing something worlds apart from all that I’d ever heard before. The experience was scary but exhilarating, and something in me that had been sleeping began to stir. Because Prabhupada was noble, learned, and gentlemanly, despite myself (I was an ...

Many people treat devotion as a calling to which some are called and some (they) aren’t. Thus, they rationalize delaying their practice of devotion till some uncertain future when they will feel the call. It’s true that many great saints had life-defining moments of calling – moments that folk narratives about them glamorize. But such narratives often neglect the reality that those saints’ devotion was not just a calling but also a choice, a choice they resolutely exercised lifelong...

Unless we understand and accept that eating is intrinsically linked to agriculture then our understanding will always be flawed and incomplete. What we put into our mouths is based on a huge agricultural system that began months before we even bought or grew the food. The way our food is farmed bears down exactly on whether there is violence in our food, whether the environment has been exploited and damaged, whether animals have been slaughtered, whether artificial pharmaceutical fertilisers, her...

In ISKCON, there is some ambiguity in the term "fasting". This ambiguity is reflected in the VCal computer program, and it is often perpetrated in many printed calendars produced by ISKCON centers. Sometimes "fasting" means fasting from grains all day, as on Ekadasi. Sometimes it means not eating anything, even non-grain prasad, until a certain time, as in the phrases "fasting till noon on Ekadasi" (which is mentioned for the Ekadasis that occur before Vamana and Varaha Dwadasis) or "fasting till mo...

O Krishna, sanctifier of the world! You are always favorable to the inhabitants of all the planets of the universe, including the demigods, who are able to give all sorts of material favors, and You bring happiness to everyone. O Lord of time, protector of the devotees! The whole existence rests within You, the Cupid of Vrindavana. Please remain dwelling happily here, being present before our eyes according to Your own will

Srila Prabhupada: The Founder-Acarya of ISKCON—A “Soft-Ritvik” Work? ISKCON Now A “Fifth Sampradaya”? A Reply to These And Other Criticisms. As part of a strategic planning effort by ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission to undertake certain foundational projects to secure the long-term future of ISKCON, I devoted considerable time and effort to researching and writing a scholarly essay on the significance of Srila Prabhupada’s position as ISKCON’s Founder-Acarya. In February...

Though others before Karl Marx had promoted the idea, he made it famous: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” What does the religion-as-opium argument imply? Atheists allege that just as opium intoxicates people with illusory feelings of well-being without offering any real relief, so does religion. Only when people shed the false hopes offered by religion will they strive for ...

One might ask: "How is it, that a woman is delivering a seminar for men?" Actually, this course is all about women - what men always wanted to know about women, and never even thought of asking....! And who else should give such a seminar but a mother...! Our audience was greatly interested in the presented topics - listening with wrapped attention, asking good questions and engaging in lively discussions.

I am glad to announce that while searching for Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana’s works, I found a manuscript of Srila Rupa Gosvami’s Hari-namamrta-vyakarana. Just as Srila Jiva Gosvami’s Sat-sandarbhas were based on Srila Gopala Bhatta Gosvami’s notes on the Srimad-Bhagavatam, similarly Srila Rupa Gosvami’s grammatical treatise is the work which inspired Jiva Gosvami to write a full-fledged version of it.

Srila Prabhupada said. "She tells me she is eating just a little bit, but she keeps on gaining weight. You don't know anyone who keeps on gaining weight without eating, do you?" "Yes!" Srila Prabhupada said. " She has to be eating very much. She tells me she is not eating, but I know she is eating. She complains to me about her health, that she doesn't feel well. I told her, 'You are so fat. How can you be healthy?' She said, 'I don't know how. I am hardly eating at all. I don't know how I am so ...

Yes, Krishna does miss us. Let's stop putzing around. Krishna is waiting for us! Depression and feelings of unworthiness are usually associated with failures and setbacks in life. An unsuccessful person, struggling to survive in a competitive world, feels doubtful about his or her competence and may feel depressed and unworthy. In fast-paced cities like Mumbai, work pressure and the race to the top are making people a clinically depressed lot, say psychiatrists. The increase of mental disorders and ...

The Bhagavad-gita repeatedly urges us to not become attracted by sense objects. Yet the same Gita (10.41) asserts that the attractiveness of everything attractive comes from a spark of Krishna’s splendor. When the attractiveness of sense objects also comes from Krishna, why shouldn’t we be attracted to them? Because becoming attracted to them doesn’t take us to Krishna.

Sri Ananta Padmanabha temple is one of the most prominent temples of India. It is considered as one of the 108 Vaishnava temples (divya sthanam), one of the seven moksha sthalas and one of the six Narayana sthalas. Lord Balarama, Lord Nityananda and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited this temple. The Temple is located inside the East Fort in the city of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.

Let me introduce Narayana and Laura Meyer. We wish to recognize them as the Donor Spotlight for this month and express our gratitude for their support over the past year. In addition to their regular monthly donation, they gave $1,500 to TKG Academy over the New Year holiday. Narayana is the son of Kalachandji Dham’s Mathuranatha Prabhu and Mother Lila. He grew up in the Dallas Hare Krishna community. Along with his brother Janardan, he attended TKG Academy throughout his entire education ...

A Vaishnavas Care Team (V-Care Team) is a group of devotee volunteers within your temple or community who assist members of your congregation when they are acutely or chronically sick or even terminally ill with an end-of-life illness. Even when a devotee is sick with a “flu” or has had an accident, is hospitalized for any reason, or needs surgery, help is often required from the community. Visits from our volunteers, bringing prasadam meals or maha-prasadam from the Deities, flowers, or p...

It is about the implementation of the Counselor System as introduced by His Holiness Radhanath Maharaja at Sri Sri Radha Gopinath Mandir in Chowpatti, Mumbai. Using quotes from Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura, Srila Prabhupada, and parts of lectures and presentations, including letters and istha-gosthis with devotees in and around Russia, it highlights the importance of the Counselor System to developing vibrant and caring communities.

The Bhagavad-gita (16.21) identifies lust, anger, and greed as the “three gates leading to hell.” Present-day society is unfortunately well equipped to aggravate the disease of lust. Obscenity has become so common in movies, TV, advertisements, Bollywood songs, and so on. some leading newspapers and magazines are stuffed with semi-nude pictures of women just to increase circulation. Internet and mobile pornography is at its peak. Even in cricket tournaments like IPL semi-clad cheerleaders ...

To understand how sankirtana makes this inauspicious age auspicious, let’s consider the prison metaphor. What matters most in a prison is not how miserable it is, but how accessible the way out of it is. In Kali-yuga, the way out of the prison of material existence becomes eminently accessible: no strenuous yogic austerities, no expensive fire-sacrifices, no complicated deity worship, as was required in the previous ages; just the chanting of the names and glories of Krishna.

Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, as the greatest logician of his day, was the professor of many sannyasis. He was an elderly gentleman, about the age of Lord Caitanya’s father, and so he felt some paternal affection for Lord Caitanya. He was also greatly struck by the personal beauty of the Lord, and he thought that it would be very difficult for such a beautiful young man to follow the strict rules and regulations of the renounced order of life. He therefore desired that Lord Caitanya hear from him ...

Why should God have to appear over and over again? After all, if God is perfect, shouldn’t He be able to establish religion perfectly? Shouldn’t once suffice for all? It is, however, the nature of the material world that all things decay in time, and while God is infallible, the human beings who receive and transmit God’s instructions are fallible. Consequently, the religious traditions God establishes become compromised and undermined by a worldly spirit, and so in time they disinte...