Just as a very good sweet will have something hidden inside of it, or a company will have the inner group of key people, the Gita has a core made up of four verses. These are called the Catur Sloki (catur = four, and sloki = verses), and they summarize the entire Gita. The eighteen chapters of the Gita are themselves divided into 3 parts. The middle six chapters focus on bhakti and are “protected” on either side by teachings on karma-yoga (the first six chapters) and jnana y...

There are many examples in the Mahabharata and other Vedic scriptures of the ksatriyas’ or leaders’ duty to protect all the citizens. In the account of King Sibi, the King even protected a dove who sought his shelter when pursued by a hawk. The responsibility of leadership is very great. In the Mahabharata we also hear that when someone came to Arjuna to complain that their cow was stolen, Arjuna’s two options were either to retrieve or to replace the cow.

Sri Ramacandra Kaviraja, the son of Khandavasi Ciranjiva and Sunanda, was a disciple of Srinivasa Acarya and the most intimate friend of Narottama dasa Thakura, who prayed several times for his association. His youngest brother was Govinda Kaviraja. Srila Jiva Gosvami very much appreciated Sri Ramacandra Kaviraja's great devotion to Lord Krishna and therefore gave him the title Kaviraja. Sri Ramacandra Kaviraja, who was perpetually disinterested in family life, greatly assisted in the preaching work of Srinivasa Acarya and Narottama dasa Thakura. He resided at first in Srikhanda but later ...

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has written five beautiful prayers in “Sri Navadvipa Bhava Taranga” for receiving the mercy of Lord Narasimha. These prayers are certainly assurance to all sincere devotees that the worship of Lord Narasimha is purely in the line of aspiring love and devotion to Sri Sri Radha and Krsna.

I know that if I really want to help my children, I have to help them become conscious of Krishna. To do that, I too have to become Krishna conscious. After all, you can't give what you don't have. Children are sensitive to hypocrisy. You can't tell them "Chant Hare Krishna, offer your food to Krishna, don't take drugs or have illicit sex" unless you practice what you preach. If we want our children to be devotees, we have to teach by our own example. To me ...

I remember the amazing story of a boy who went into an old Cathedral in Melbourne on February 18th 1972 to desperately pray to God within his own heart and within the Church for guidance and direction, crying out within, ‘Oh my Lord, please show me the way’. He had entered that church in a totally helpless condition, prayed, and begged to God to ‘please’ show him the way. He felt totally useless and lost in this world and believed no one on the planet has any real understandi...

Today, we celebrate the appearance of Sri Jahnava devi, the wife of Lord Nityananda. Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, in his Kalyana Kalpataru has prayed as follows at the lotus feet of Shri Jahnava Mata: "Having fallen into this ocean of misery, my life is a bewilderment, and I do not know how to reach its shore, nor even where to search for it. All my efforts (karma) are useless, all my knowledge (jnana) is useless, as are mysticism (yoga), austerity, religious penance, and mundane piety. None of these processes have any power to rescue me. I am weak, helpless. ...

On this occasion, we pray to Mother Sita to bless us to become pure-hearted servants like Hanuman, Laksmana, and Mother Sita herself—and to save us. Whatever Ravana-like demonic tendencies we have, let them be vanquished by her mercy, by her will, so we may continue in our devotional service without any impediment and ultimately attain pure love (prema), our ultimate goal.

Often times, women practicing Bhakti who are without the protection of a male family member owing to various reasons beyond their control, do find themselves wondering about how they can adapt to this recommendation from the Vedas. Just like there are numerous examples in our scriptures about women being nicely protected by male family members there are also examples of women who had to live without that. Now what did those women do? How did they live their lives? Where did they find their...

Sometimes ISKCON members think about ISKCON as an institution, or as the "leaders" of the temples, or the GBC, or someone else other than us. We expect ISKCON to care for devotees, and we may feel hurt or disappointed when care is not given as we would expect or as we would like. ISKCON is a society made up of members. Each of us is ISKCON. When each one of us feels that we have the responsibility to care for one another, then ISKCON will be a caring organization, with a family atmosphere based on love and trust, as Srila Prabhupada wrote. If, however, we wait for such a society to ...