"...as we were walking back to the ashram to honor prasadam I noticed some altercation was going on with the security guards. On enquiry I found out that they had caught a shoe thief and had garlanded him with a garland of shoes, as was the custom with shoe thieves"

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada established ISKCON when it consisted of one rented storefront in New York City. He wrote purposes for his new society—to teach spiritual knowledge, consciousness of our existence as a soul part of the Supreme Godhead Krishna, and a simpler natural way of life

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is worshiped with the prayer name brahmanya-devaya go-brahmana-hitaya ca. Thus it is clear that the Supreme Personality of Godhead respects and protects the brahmanas and brahminical culture, as well as the cows; in other words wherever there are brahmanas and brahminical culture, there are cows and cow protection. In a society or civilization which there are no brahmanas or brahminical culture, cows are treated as ordinary animals and...

To this day, the ISKCON Mayapur Food for Life strives and, by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, succeeds in fulfilling this instruction. Over the last eight years, the ISKCON Mayapur Food for Life program, under the Sri Mayapur Food Relief Trust, has distributed over three million, nine hundred and twenty-five thousand, seven hundred plates of prasadam (3,925,700 plates). By the end of this year, the number of plates will have reached four million.

“Kindly help me,” was Srila Prabhupada’s heartfelt request to devotees in Los Angeles in 1975. “Print as many books as possible in as many languages as possible, and distribute throughout the whole world. Then the Krishna consciousness movement will automatically increase.” Today, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust has translated Prabhupada’s books into 89 languages, but there are still unique challenges in getting them to people. What if you’re a book distri...

There’s a particle more important than the Higgs boson, and we should be investigating it. Does ‘the God particle’ disprove the existence of God?” a young man asked me after a recent talk, referring to the discovery of the Higgs boson. “The so-called God particle,” I answered, “has zero charge, zero spin, and a near-zero lifespan; it exists for less than a trillionth of a second. Does that sound like God to you?” “No, not really,” replied the questioner, taken aback. “Exactly,” I said. “Its discovery has little bearing on the existence of Go...

Sri Krishna Pusya abhisek is usually the first major festival of the year in Sri Dham Mayapur. Every year on this day, the deities are bathed in hundreds of kilos of colourful and fragrant flowers in a beautiful abhisek. The deities of Sri Sri Radha Madhava are also offered a stunning dress made out of multi-coloured flowers. The community devotees gather the day before the festival to begin the preparations for the upcoming festival. Between two hundred and two hundred and fift...

Studying the meaning of words (semantics) whether in Sanskrit, English, or our native language and their deeper implications in our lives is a useful endeavor in our introspection and personal growth, which I see as part of the work of “anartha-nivritti,” or retiring our unwanted, spiritually unhelpful mental and physical habits. Become free from these anarthas is an interim goal, not the end, but it is meant to lead to “artha pravritti,” or the ultimate goal of loving service to Radha and Krishna—but this is a side point to today...

Any parent who has raised a child knows they will sometimes get into mischief that may even be dangerous or problematic. In my case, I drove my mother crazy because I loved to play in the water. It was readily available in the stream that flowed down behind the neighbor's house and in a swamp located on the other side of the church parking lot. Simply telling me not to play in the water with my Sunday clothes on was never as dissuasive as my Dad calling me to go with hi...

I was reluctant. What will be new in it? “I know the story, have seen multiple videos about him and moreover it will be available on youtube in few months.” But none of my arguments cut the ice with my wife, she was so eager to watch the “Hare Krishna!” movie that I had to finally relent. I was skeptical when I was entering inside the hall but was thrilled while coming out. My wife was too happy. We both soon started inquiring about the possibility of b...