"Prabhus," the temple president said, "I have incredible news. I have just been told, without any room for doubt or question, the following. A pure devotee is amongst you!" Vaishnava das, a faithful servant of Srila Prabhupada, for many years serving as temple president in a temple community of devotees, had just returned from a visit to a nearby hut which an older sannyasi had chosen as his base for his writing in preparing for his next preaching tour duties. He had approached him with heavy...

One of Srila Prabhupada's early disciples, Malati dasi, saw a small figure in an import store, Cost Plus, and brought it to Srila Prabhupada. When Prabhupada saw the figure, his eyes opened wide. He folded his palms and bowed his head in respect

The original roots of an organisation – the regional headquarters or a national office – serve its branches and the branches serve the head office, or in our case the head temple or national ISKCON structure. If the head office provides nothing for the branches, they become weak and stop growing. If the branches provide nothing for head office it also becomes weak, or in many cases, begins to conserve valuable resources for itself. It gets weak all the same; it just takes a little more time. ...

The Srimad-Bhagavatam contains many beautiful gitas or songs sung by various illustrious personalities. These songs inspire and enlighten us with spiritual knowledge of various levels. The following is a brief summary of the popular gitas found in the Bhagavatam, along with the contexts in which they appear. The titles of these gitas as presented below are found either in the Bhagavatam directly or in the commentary of the great acarya Srila Visvanatha Cakravart...

Management is a headache. It can be a very big headache. But I’ll tell you why I’ve taken up such a responsibility for so many years. It’s because I see it in relationship to serving Srila Prabhupada’s mission; because, I’m one hundred percent convinced that Srila Prabhupada wanted an institution. Institution means headaches. There’s just no way around it. I saw Prabhupada take those headaches. And I saw many other leaders, under Srila Prabhupada, taking...

Hearing good news about others affects people in different ways. Personally, the feelings it evokes within me serves as a barometer of how emotionally healthy I am and my relationship with the individual. Feelings of joy and "they totally deserve it" are what I aim for. However, in instances where it dredges up not so pleasant emotions, I realize I have internal work to do. As an aspiring practitioner of bhakti this is what I too long to be: the happy well-wisher to others, especially in their time of success and joy. I have b...

Due to uncontrolled love for Visvambhara, the Ganga rushed rapidly, spilling over her banks in order to gently touch the body of the Lord. People wondered why the Ganga seemed much more beautiful today.

Imagine if a message suddenly flashes on the sky: “Due to a technical fault the supply of oxygen will remain unavailable for some time all over the world. Next update about the issue in another hour”. What would happen to us? There won’t be just utter chaos but soon the earth will become a graveyard. Not even vultures and jackals would be alive to feast on the dead bodies. But has it ever happened? Never. Can it happen in future? Sceptics and agnostics ...

We all know that Krsna’s birthplace was a prison cell. Not many of us, however, know that before Srila Prabhupada left for the West, Srila Prabhupada brought Krishna’s message to the Tihar prison, Asia’s largest prison based out of Delhi, in the 1960s. Little did I realize that my own journey of transformation would start from a prison, albeit one for children. By the year 2012, I had had a journey that many materialists would envy to have. Rising from a very humble beginning, I rose fast in the material world with my resume marked with glob...

Here is my little contribution on preparing & offering food to Krishna with love & devotion. I have developed all these recipes with special care & effort. I believe it will be of great help to everyone to learn & cook for Krishna. It is a collection of recipes, for everyday cooking as well as for the festivals & other special occasions

Genuine spiritual teachers are friends to everyone, they do not see anyone as an enemy; rather, the enemy is the illusory energy. To act on this platform, one must understand that the spirit soul can never possess material qualities. It simply contacts matter and carries it like air carries earthly aromas. This explains a seeming contradiction. The Lord and His devotees relieve conditioned souls from the “us and them” mentality by sharp words which sever material attachments. This may seem like criticism; but criticism is condemned by Krishna. There is no contradiction be...

When I work in hospitals I am always very moved by the great suffering and despair of the souls who by circumstance happen to be there, whether patient or hospital worker. Because of this, as I traverse the various stairwells, elevators, corridors and rooms I whisper Hari! Hari! over and over again