Some people fantasize about accumulating immense wealth and dream of what they would buy if they only had enough. To them, happiness hovers elusively on the other side of that new car, that big house, that diamond necklace. While many of us will say, "Money can't buy happiness," do we really believe it? If not money, what is the solution to our hankerings? What is the greatest treasure that will bring true happiness? And how do we acquire that treasure? Srila Prabhupada answers these ...

Krsna consciousness is not a tower of Babel to Krsna. There are two processes in spiritual life, the ascending and the descending. Through the ascending process one tries to construct a ladder up to Krsna by processes of yoga, meditation, word jugglery, logic, dry philosophy, etc. However sincere, Krsna is acyuta, unapproachable, that process will never be successful But if the unapproachable Krsna wants to come to us, then nothing can stop Him. That is called the descending process, Krsna consciousness. Krsna is presenting Himself to you and I through the authorized discipl...

Who or what is God? In our modern world, when we observe the amount of energy consumed by all of the other topics that fill our lives, this question is given almost no consideration or thought whatsoever. As such, we are burdened with so many frivolous misconceptions of God, the Supreme. For the most part, this lack of attention to the true nature of God is due to the misconception that we cannot know God. Although there is certainly truth in thinking that total knowledge of the Infinite is not possible for one who is finite, this idea of permanent inconceivability causes...

Sanatana Goswami, a prominent disciple of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, lived under a tree as a renunciant. Once, a poor brahmana heard that Sanatana possessed a stone that could turn anything it touched into gold. The brahmana eagerly went to ask Sanatana for the stone. Without the least hesitancy Sanatana told the brahmana he could have the stone; it was in a rubbish heap nearby. The elated brahmana found the stone but, being intelligent, began to consider the situ...

The greatest challenge in performing Sadhana Bhakti is our attempt to serve the Lord with only the cognizance of Him being an almighty God. The immense distance between us and the Lord during the clearing process (Anartha Nivrtthi) is such that most Sadhakas face difficulty in maintaining steady service. This misfortune can solely be attributed to a lack of Sambandha Jnana or in other words due to forgetting who we are. Most of our energy during the clearing process goes into fighting our previously acquired Samskaras or subtle impressions and an insignificant proportion of our energy is...

When I tell you that the Naimisharanya meeting of sages some fifty centuries ago is of great importance to us today, you may doubt. After all, the meeting was so long ago and in a forest in India, so you naturally wonder what relevance it could have today. And just who were these sages? A sage, we know, is supposed to be a wise man, one who can answer life’s deepest questions. But so often we see the so- called sage depicted as an impractical, even foolish, old ...

Why hearing is the first and most important of the nine kinds of devotional service to the Lord. When I first read that hearing is the most important of the nine kinds of devotional service, I was confused. I was twenty-one at the time and had been hearing all day every day for my whole life. What was so special about hearing?

ISKCON devotees commonly use the phrase, “Going back home, back to Godhead.”Have you ever thought about what this means when a traveler is anxious to return home? Home is where our family is, where there are people who love us, who trust us. It’s the place we’re comfortable and happy. It’s the place we feel most natural. The world we live in is foreign to the soul; we are strangers in a foreign land. In this alien place we call home we experience so many ...

Krishna is no ordinary ruler. Kings or presidents represent what is grand and powerful in this world. Yet even the finest and most awesome personality is only a small indication of the opulence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His very body is constituted of eternity, knowledge, and bliss. Though Krishna as Dvarakadhisha enjoys many sporting battles, He has no one to conquer and nothing to achieve, being always complete in Himself. He always knows exactly what to do in His regal...

All the conditioned souls of this world tacitly harbor a utopian desire of obtaining perfect happiness. But this world is full of mixed happiness and misery. So the long cherished and long sought after perfect happiness is simply mirage or dream, reality of which can be experienced only in the spiritual world. Here we see that although the king had great opulence, beautiful queens, vast military power, several ministers and soldiers and so on, he was still hopeless and sorrowful.

Not only is Srimati Radharani’s love golden—that is the color of maha-bhava—but the color of prema is also like that. So our attachment to Krishna, our love for Krishna when it is offered to Him, it will also increase the greenness of all things, and green of course means that things are growing very nicely. When things become burnt out they turn brown, or when they die they wilt. So similarly, if our thoughts are always green with remembrance of Krishna’s pastimes, then that means we have a healthy state of Krishna consciousness. ...

According to the Padma Purana, within the material compass there are innumerable material universes, and all of them are full of darkness. Any living being, beginning from the Brahmas (there are innumerable Brahmas in innumerable universes) to the insignificant ant, are all born in darkness, and they require factual light from the Lord to see Him directly, just as the sun can be seen only by the direct light of the sun. No lamp or man-made torchlight, however powerful it may be, can help one see the sun. The sun reveals itself. Therefore the actio...

The Vande Arts Team would like to offer this special drama script depicting Srila Prabhupada's epic voyage on the Jaladhuta. Devotees are welcome to use the script for there own celebrations of Srila Prabhupada's arrival in the USA and throughout ISKCON. This play is heavily musical (the main soundtrack theme is the beautiful “Prayers to the lotus feet of Lord Krishna” as recorded by Indradyumna Swami), with carefully choreographed scenes. A professional soundtrack has been recorded that provides background noise and the musical soundtrack (not the actual lines)...

I first see him just after crossing the Bowery at Houston Street. As he passes before the iron-mesh fence of a playground, I distinctly glimpse the aura of saintliness. I watch him through the rushing traffic and stumbling derelicts. He strolls almost jauntily down the sidewalk. He is an old man whom age has never touched. Aloof from the people and bustle about him, he walks proudly, independently, his hand in a cloth beadbag. He wears the saffron robes of a sannyasi, and on his feet are quaint, ...

There was no time in the history of computers when they have been used for better purposes than today. Previously, a home computer was long time employed for entertainment, thus becoming a tool for a wasted life. Nowadays, under the restrictions imposed by the pandemic to social gatherings, more important or uplifting activities took shelter in the virtual space. Giving in this way to the computers an opportunity to nurture our higher nature. Lots of courses, webinars, spiritual classes or kirtans made their way to the internet, like never before. In this way, computers proved the...

A sign of a good leader is that he does not request those under him to do something that he is not prepared to do. So before we desire to distribute this Vedic culture to the whole world, we ourselves have to be following it in such a way that nobody can find even a minute discrepancy in our practice. People are too attached to their sense gratification and won't be so readily eager to give it up, and although they may have some attraction to the Vedic culture, if the mind can find an excuse for why they should not practice it, they will most li...

You write that things are in a crisis in England, with oil shortage and IRA bombing. Therefore, we have to take shelter of Krsna. If Krsna wants to kill us that is not wrong, if it is His desire. Our business should just to be to follow the regulative schedule, deity worship, distributing prasadam, chanting, book distribution and never mind the material danger. Krsna Consciousness means to be on the platform of deathlessness. Every sloka in Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam is informing us of this. If you read these books carefully you will understand this platfor...

Adapted from ‘Japa Affirmations’ by His Grace Mahatma Dasa. Treat the Holy Name, the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra, as Radha and Krishna Deities in the form of sound. When you chant the Maha-mantra, it is the same as taking darshan of the Deities. In this way, bow down to the Holy Name as you would to the Deities, as Krishna is fully present in the Holy Name.