Massive preparations are under way in India to celebrate the first International Day of Yoga on Sunday - even as an unsavoury row has broken out over whether practising the ancient discipline makes one a Hindu, writes the BBC's Geeta Pandey in Delhi. "The numbers are mindboggling, we expect tens of millions to participate," Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is a huge yoga enthusiast and according to reports practices it daily, will be in attendance. Yoga ...

“My dear Lord Krishna, I have simply wasted my time.” Without Krishna consciousness, we are simply wasting time. We have great opportunity in the human form of life, but our attention is diverted simply for eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. And our real business is spoiled. That is summarized by Narottama Dasa Thakura. Hari hari biphale janama gonainu: “I have simply spoiled my life.”

Krishna conscious government leaders and educators should be tolerant and compassionate. For example, a Krishna conscious leader should encourage the Muslims to become better Muslims and the Christians to become better Christians, all the while understanding that different spirit souls influenced by various combinations of the modes of nature may need more time to come to the platform of pure devotional service, the true religion of the soul. As Srila Prabhupada explains, we should e...

I am such a fool that I have given up the service of that person who, being eternally situated within my heart, is actually most dear to me. That most dear one is the Lord of the universe, who is the bestower of real love and happiness and the source of all prosperity. Although He is in my own heart, I have completely neglected Him. Instead I have ignorantly served insignificant men who can never satisfy my real desires and who have simply brought me unhappiness, fear, anxiety, lamentation ...

"I am praying to Krishna to offer you all His strength in the discharge of His noble service." "I am praying for your long life and prosperity in Krishna consciousness." "I pray that Krishna may bless you with a long life with which to open many temples and that in this very lifetime you may return back to home, back to Godhead." "I pray to Krishna that you all may use your intelligence for Krishna's service and not for any personal ambition."

"I would believe only in a god who could dance," wrote German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. During his times, God was generally portrayed as a frozen perfection—remote, static, and wholly unsociable. No wonder Nietzsche was disillusioned. He might have been pleasantly surprised to hear about Krishna, the God who dances with spellbinding expertise on the hoods of the venomous serpent Kaliya; the God who dances to the tune of His mother just to get butter; the God who dances with the g...

There’s not a more charming or mysterious place in the universe than Govardhana Hill in Vraja Mandala, some ninety miles south of Delhi. While present on earth Krishna lifted Govardhana Hill and held it for seven days to protect the residents of Vrindavan. He also revealed that Govardhana is identical to Himself. Now, fifty centuries later, millions of pilgrims come here to perform parikrama—a reverential walk around the hill—during the holy month of Karttika.

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur states in Amrta Vani: "One who gives personal instruction to each and everyone does more for others than the platform speakers do. Generally, whatever platform speakers say cannot solve the problem of everyone in the audience, nor can it always benefit every individual. A person's defects are better rectified in a private tutorial class or private coaching than in hearing lectures in a school or college. Therefore those who instruct particular persons separately ...

The story of how the Hare Krsna movement came to Africa starts in 1971 in the United States. I was in Tallahassee, Florida, teaching an experimental course in Krsna consciousness at the state university, when I received a letter from my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, instructing me to go immediately to West Pakistan for preaching work. I had very little money, and I knew the trip to Pakistan would be long and arduous. However, a disciple takes his spiritu...