So my sister bluntly expressed to Srila Prabhupada that she wanted to leave. She told him that “When you are here, everything is fine; but when you leave, everything becomes harder to deal with, especially the men, and I don’t want to do it.” I looked at Srila Prabhupada, whose eyes glistened with tears of love. I was also crying—we all were. With a combination of deep love and gravity, he said: Please do not leave. We have the best philosophy. You will not find a better philosophy in this world. There is nothing like the knowledge that we have in Krishna Consciousnes...

Saranagati is the chief symptom of a devotee. Saranagati should be complete. The symptoms of it are there. One should have firm faith, drdah visvas, that “avasya raksibe krsna”, Krishna will protect me. If you have no faith, you cannot achieve the goal; asraddhadanah purusah… says the Gita: You’ll have to come back in this mortal world. The Vedic siddhanta is that everything is based on firm faith, sastriya sraddha. Saranagati, unconditional surrender, is the life of the devotee, through which the most difficult to achieve krsna-prema is obtained, by the mercy of the magnanimous Gau...

The title is meant to call attention to the fact that this question assumes the either/or fallacy. Pusta Krishna: He said that morning "What can we do, Prabhupada?" He said, "What can we do? If we do not compromise, we will make enemies." Prabhupada: No, you'll not compromise; at the same time, you'll not make enemies. That is tactics. If you make enemies, then what is your tactics? You must speak the truth; at the same time he'll not be displeased (Morning walk, 6/11/1974).

At the second annual Rathayatra in Wheeling, West Virginia – New Vrindaban’s neighboring city – on July 8th, over two-and-a-half thousand locals delighted in Lord Jagannath’s parade. When interviewed they said they loved the energy, prasadam, trying out japa meditation, and the family-friendly activities. Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliot spoke at the event, saying he was honored New Vrindaban had chosen Wheeling for the Festival and praising the diversity it brought to the community; Congresswoman Erikka Storch thanked devotees for sharing their culture and tradition. ...

His Grace Udayananda Prabhu recalls Srila Prabhupada’s final days: “One day Prabhupada said, ‘I’ve given you this big ISKCON movement. If you can, please expand it.’ He said, ‘At least maintain it. Don’t let this decrease.’ Then he said, ‘Please cooperate,’ as he said so many times before. And then Prabhupada started to cry. Everyone in the room started crying. That was probably the most painful moment of my life, to see Prabhupada cry. So we have this movement. It’s Prabhupada’s movement. We have the good, we have the bad, and we have...

I dread the thought of leaving this world with anything less than shouting the Holy Names - or, at least, having someone doing that to me. I cannot allow myself to think that 70 is old, or limiting, or time to wind down - not when Srila Prabhupada showed that it was a benchmark to pick up the pace like a runner sprinting to the finish. Retirement is a dirty word in my personal dictionary; it spells boredom, inertness, and doldrums.

Krishna-kripa dasa is known for his blissful engagement traversing the planet singing the glories of the Holy Name. But three decades ago he began what may appear to be a very different kind service with the Bhaktivedanta Institute: In 1988 he visited the San Diego branch and offered to engage his BA in Computer Science from Brown University, in its scientific preaching mission. The San Diego BI team – Sadaputa, Drutakarma, and Madhavendra Puri Prabhus – invited him in. He soon became a dedicated assistant of Sadaputa Prabhu, working hand-in-hand with him as he publ...

Srila Prabhupada says in his purport that mode of goodness is better than the others because in this mode one is able to see all the things in their right perspective and hence it gives chance to develop devotional service to Godhead. So if one wants to develop this Love for Godhead and become eternally blissful he has to work in order to maintain this mode of goodness and eventually transcend this. Modes of passion and ignorance are not conducive qualities for developing devotional service and hence they should be completely avoided. Just like in order to become a Masters of Science one...

The compassion exhibited by Parikshit Maharaj is indeed exemplary. Although he had a few days to live, still he interrupted Sukadev Gosvami, after hearing the discussion of people suffering in various types of hell. Overcome with compassion, he asked Sukadev Goswami the way how these people could be relieved from these suffering conditions. Now to what extent and in what way, a sadhaka can imbibe the spirit of Parikshit Maharaj is important to note.

I would like this work to be considered a contribution not only to the study of the Bhagavad Gita, but to the emerging field of Comparative Theology, as once the structures of great theological works could be articulated, these could be compared, contrasted and grouped together, thereby offering a unified sense of pluralistic spirituality which may serve as an alternative to materialism. Originally, Greek philosophy was inseparable from Greek religion, and only gradually was it articulated as a universal philosophy. Similarly, this work may further a slight step in th...