Today we have gathered for the most auspicious celebration of the appearance day of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was one of the most prominent acharyas in the disciplic succession after Lord Chaitanya, and his contribution to Gaudiya Vaishnavism and to the world is so great that one devotee called him the Seventh Gosvami. Much of the present Krishna consciousness movement founded by Srila Prabhupada is being conducted under the guidance of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and today I will focus on some of the areas in which the International Society for Krishna Conscious...

This song was sung by Rupa Gosvami. He is the real person, actual person, to understand Radha and Krsna. So he says, "All glories to Radharani." radhe jaya jaya madhava-dayite. "She's so dear to Krsna." Krsna, everyone is trying to love Krsna, but Krsna is trying to love somebody. Now how great She is. Just try to understand. Everyone, the whole world, the whole universe, all living entities, they are trying to love Krsna. Krsna-prema. Lord Caitanya describe...

How can one understand the esoteric personality of Srimati Radharani? She is the principal inspiration for the Lord, and only confidentially revealed in the Vedic scriptures. Yet, She takes shelter within the deepest realizations of pure hearted bhakti yogis. Lord Sri Krsna is bewildered by the profound brilliance of Her transcendental qualities and thus awakens a yearning within Himself to exhibit, absorb and experience Her divine nature. The influence and presence o...

Listen and I will tell you of Lord Hari’s descent as a cowherd boy. His arrival in Gokula, and Radha’s descent as gopi. Listen and I will tell you in detail what before you heard me tell only briefly in the story of Sankhacuda’s death. Sridama quarrelled with Radha and She cursed him to become the demon Sankhacuda. Then Sridama cursed Radha: Go to a human womb in Vraja! Become a girl of Vraja and walk on the earth’s surface! Afraid of Sridama’s curse, She went to Sri Krsna ...

The divine counterpart of Sri Krishna is known as Sri Radha. Together, according to the ancient Vaishnava tradition, this dual-gendered divinity is God-male and female dimensions of the Absolute Truth. Sri Radha is the complete energy, and Sri Krishna is the complete energetic source. They are nondifferent from each other, just as musk and its scent are forever merged, or as fire and heat are inseparable. Radha and Krishna are one, yet They have assumed two separate forms to enjoy loving pastimes....

This is a revised and expanded edition of an article that I originally wrote in 1995. It weaves together, through the lens of Vedic Astrology, the history of how the ISKCON Mayapura temple was first victimized by thieves who stole Srila Prabhupada’s childhood Deities. And, the subsequent more serious attack by a gang of dacoits who stole Srimati Radharani thinking she was made of gold resulting in many wounded and at least one death. And, how following a simple instruction from Srila Prabhupada could have prevented it all.

Anthropomorphism fails as an explanation for the many-armed divine forms described in the Vedic literature. When I joined the Hare Krishna movement, something in Srila Prabhupada's books intrigued me: God's unlimited nature went beyond merely having innumerable forms. these forms I was amazed to learn, often have numerous arms as well. India's wisdom texts. in fact, describe a wonderland of beatific multiarmed beings. There is four-armed Vishnu and His consort, e...

I oftentimes say, when devotees ask me to speak about Prabhupāda, that I can say my only qualification is that I happened to be on the planet at the same time that Prabhupāda was spreading the Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Movement. I took part in his mission, but I didn’t really have so much personal exchange or association with him. I did get the opportunity to see him many times: a few times in the United States, twice in New York as well as in Philadelphia, and al...

How Rupa and Sanatana came to give up the service of the Nawab is very interesting. One year I taught The Nectar of Devotion, Srila Prabhupada’s summary study of Rupa Gosvami’s Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, at the VIHE (Vrindavan Institute for Higher Education), and immediately after the course I rushed to Mayapur to accompany Radhanath Swami and Sacinandana Swami on parikrama of Gauda-mandala-bhumi, the places in Bengal where Mahaprabhu enacted His pastimes. The first place we visited was Ramakeli, the capital of Nawab Hussain Shah, where Rupa and Sanatana were engaged in service and where th...

A section of the Padma Purana glorifying the Bhagavatam presents an allegorical account of bhakti’s travels. In India’s traditional wisdom texts, bhakti, or devotion, is sometimes presented as a person. This is especially so in Gaudiya Vaishnava literature. In Kavi Karnapura’s Chaitanya-candrodaya-natakam, for example, we see bhakti personified as a character in a play. In the modern era, Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s Bhakti-tattva-viveka describes her as an embodiment of the svarupa-shakti, the internal energy of the Lord, and thus a manifestation of Sri Radha, Krishna’s ultimate spiri...

The place Srila Prabhupada called his "Western world headquarters" remains a vital oasis of Krishna consciousness. Part One: Some History Starting off in Midcity LA, 1968. ISKCON’s new center in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, was getting a good turnout. It was “the summer of love,” 1967, when idealistic youth gathering in the Haight to seek peace, justice, and alternative lifestyles often became overwhelmed by the area's crime, pimps, and drug dealers. Srila Prabhupada’s disciples offered hot prasadam meals at the ISKCON storefront every day, and their center became a dr...