Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead who appears as Lord Sankarsana and Lord Vasudeva. He is the original father of Brahma, Siva, Indra, Brhaspati, all the demigods, and all moving and nonmoving living entities. He is the original cause of all that is temporary and all that is eternal.

If I were to tell you, that once, no other country, save India, revered the cow as much as Japan, I could understand your disbelief. Today, we think of Japan as a meat-eating culture. However, this image is a product of the last 150 years of American influence. The traditional Japanese culture held the cow as the most sacred animal. What follows next is the true story of among the greatest protectors of the cow – the Samurai.

I remember my first impressions of Vrndavana. The historic temples, the many pilgrims, and the ubiquitous calls of "Jaya Radhe!" ("All glories to Krsna's most beloved Srimati Radharani") deeply impressed me with the veracity of my newly adopted Vaisnava practices. Will Vrndavana affect my very independent-minded daughters in the same way? I have three days to show them the Vrndavana I love. It's hard to believe how much Vrndavana has changed since 1975. Vrndavana then had few amenities for visito...

The answer for Dawkins is that the mind of the Designer is eternal and uncreated as Dawkins’ subatomic particles, the cause of the Big Bang, chance, energy, mass etc. are eternal. The cause of chance, the anthropic principle, evolution drive, natural selection etc. etc i.o.w the organizers of the molecules, flora and fauna are also unexplained.

Admittedly, the problem of hating the mind is far less common than the problem of believing it naively. But just as dualities characterize almost everything in the material world – heat-cold, pleasure-pain, honor-dishonor – so too can they characterize our attitude towards our mind. We can oscillate from attachment that manifests as unhealthy trust in the mind to aversion that manifests as unhealthy loathing of the mind. However, such loathing is unscriptural and unworkable. <...

In a famous story from the Mahabharata, Krishna once met with Yudhishthira Maharaja and Duryodhana. Desiring to glorify His devotee Yudhishthira, Krishna requested him to find a person lower than himself, and asked sinful Duryodhana to find a person greater than himself. Yudhishthira had all good qualities. He was peaceful and self-satisfied. No doubt he had healthy self-esteem. Yet he could not find anyone he considered lower than himself. Again, this is the example of an advanced Vaishn...

How inspiration to become a devotee of Krishna came from two unlikely sources: an interest in wrestling, and words from the founder of Transcendental Meditation. As a student, I competed in the sport of wrestling for eight years, from 1963 to 1971, but happiness eluded me. In high school, even when I won the California Interscholastic Federation championship at 123 pounds, I felt strangely empty inside. At the University of California at Berkeley, wrestling was a diversion, but I couldn't forge...

Sukadeva Goswami says: “These sins are like the dried leaves of creepers beneath a bamboo tree, which may be burned by fire although their roots remain to grow again at the first opportunity” (SB 6.1.13). The problem of sinful desires, or what may be more neutrally called addictive behaviours, has been of great interest in modern psychology. Different schools of thought have approached the problem differently, but perhaps the most prominent in recent modern history has been the behaviour...

Srila Prabhupada would say that this miraculously transformed educational system would still be a grand failure. Why? Because it would still be built on ignorance, on mistaking the body for the self, and on making the gratification of our bodily demands—the needs for eating, sleeping, mating, and defense—the central focus of our life. The animals know of no higher purposes in life than to eat, to sleep, to defend themselves, and to have sex. Of course, as human beings we share these same ne...

Prabhupada wrote to his disciples elsewhere in the world expressing his appreciation of the festival. “The Bhagavata Dharma discourses here in New Vrindaban are going on very nicely, and daily several hundred devotees and guests are coming to hear, and it is truly a wonderful time,” he wrote to Radha Damodar Das. And to Brahmananda, he wrote, “Now go on holding [these] Bhagavata Dharma discourses in every city of the world.”

Admiration for the astounding abilities of Sherlock Holmes is certainly not misplaced. The methods he and his contemporary scientific counterparts use for acquiring knowledge—observation and reasoning—are universal and necessary, and even the Vedic literature of ancient India recognizes them as valid for certain purposes. Nevertheless, they are not sufficient. Because they are imperfect processes, subject to limited certainty and scope, they should not be independently relied upon. Inducti...

I analyzed my work through the lens of Krishna consciousness and found it degrading and contrary to Krishna consciousness. I work for a retail company where I create propositions that entice people to buy more and more. I started feeling that any kind of work is equivalent to contributing to maya's trap of increasing material desires. "I'm on the path of Krishna consciousness to escape the influence of maya, but I'm busy creating material allurements for others." That thought disturbed me constantly...

Some things must, unavoidably, be jettisoned as excess baggage and some things adapted if the distinct religious community is to survive. Yet it would seem that some things – essential aspects of the theology, for instance – must be carefully protected if the religion is to continue to exist at all. Full cultural assimilation may completely swallow up a unique religious tradition causing it to disappear, along with any contribution it offered. The questions confronting religions today, spread ...

To comprehend the reality underlying this appearance, we need to understand Krishna’s transcendental position and disposition. The world’s theistic traditions proclaim God’s transcendence, underscoring his self-existence in a realm that transcends time and space. Being the source of everything, including the fabric of time and space, he is never limited by his emanations.

When we decide to engage our minute freedom to manipulate matter, rather than enjoy in our spiritual relationship with the Supreme, problems arise. The consciousness that we are the supreme controllers i.e. we are God, leads to sufferings, as it’s not who we inherently are. Just as a spark cannot claim to be a fire, the miniscule soul has no claim to be God. In fact, this entire creation was created for us, because we had the initial desire to play the role of God.

I used to love the thought of being a travelling monk, no responsibility or accountability to anyone, no arguments, just travel and do what you like. Obviously my idea of it was tinged with a level of escapism. Being in close proximity with the same people in a spiritual community is great but inevitably, over time there are disagreements, quarrels, the rise of envy, pride etc; familiarity usually breeds contempt.

"Due to ignorance, the materialistic person does not know anything about his real self-interest, the auspicious path in life. He is simply bound to material enjoyment by lusty desires, and all his plans are made for this purpose. For temporary sense gratification, such a person creates a society of envy, and due to this mentality, he plunges into the ocean of suffering. Such a foolish person does not even know about this." —Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.16. Due to...

"The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead." The venerable Suta Gosvami spoke this verse to a gathering of learned sages at Naimisharanya, on the banks of the river Ganges about five thousand years ago. Each of us performs work according to his position, Suta Gosvami tells us, but the work is just useless labor if it does not fulfill its main purpose: p...

By chanting Krishna’s holy name, One cleanses all the dust, From the mirror of one’s consciousness. ~ Srila Prabhupada. Strains of melodious Kirtan (holy hymns) and gregarious chants pierced through the air as I hurriedly paced across the corridor through the modestly set courtyard of the Sri Radha Kunjbihari ISKCON Temple in the camp area of Pune.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura established this Temple. One day, while taking his disciples on pilgrimage from Svananda Sukhada Kunj (Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s house) to Nrsimhapalli, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura saw this tract of land and told his disciples to locate the owner as he wanted it. The owner was a little perplexed.

Garuda Purana 1.142.19-29 tells the story of a Brahmin named Kaushik who lived in the city Pratishthanpur: Kaushik was afflicted with leprosy, but still his wife, Sandili, worshiped him like a god. She was very chaste and faithful to her husband. Even when he rebuked her, she never ceased to consider him her worshipable deity. One evening, Kaushik instructed his wife to take him to the house of a prostitute. Obeying his order, Sandili brought a quantity of money with her, and carrying her hu...

His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada mentions the sage Mandavya Muni. Mandavya was a mighty yogi capable of great asceticism. Beneath a tree at the entrance to his asrama, he stood unmoving with upraised arms and observed a religious vow of silence. Much time passed, until one day, as the sage dutifully performed his penances, a band of thieves rushed into his asrama carrying stolen valuables. Being followed closely by a large group of police, the frightened thieves quickly co...

Among scholars, the position of women in the Vedic culture is a cause for controversy and debate because of different, sometimes contradictory statements found in Vedic literature. Sages have their own opinions and often contradict other sages. Thus the only path to the truth is the path traversed by great authorities. That is why we would like to analyze through the teachings of Srila Prabhupada and our previous acaryas some of the different quotes and arguments presented in the paper "Some...

With a significant generational turnover ahead of us, the issue of succession in ISKCON has become more pressing than ever. This presentation explores Srila Prabhupada’s view of succession by extracting principles and lessons from his teachings. The success of any society depends on the quality of its leadership. Hence, succession depends on the training of good leaders. A good leader is one whose character and behavior are based on Srimad-Bhagavatam.