Srila Prabhupada gave us so much, so easily. There was no fanfare, for he was graciously unassuming, seeing himself simply as an instrument and messenger of his Guru Maharaja. Our conditioned nature may sometimes have trouble with this, for that nature tends to be a little gross, doubtful and forgetful. Perhaps the preciousness and potency of what Srila Prabhupada gave us has not really impressed upon our hearts. Perhaps our enthusiasm to follow the simple things he taught us has waned with the passing of time, or been butchered by mechanical, mindless habit. And so, let’s take another loo...

“In his prayers to the spiritual master, Srila Vishvanatha Chakravarti Ṭhakura confirms that all the revealed scriptures accept the spiritual master to be identical with the Personality of Godhead because he is a very dear and confidential servant of the Lord. Gaudiya Vaishnavas therefore worship Srila Gurudeva (the spiritual master) in the light of his being the servitor of the Personality of Godhead. In all the ancient literatures of devotional service and in the more recent songs of Srila Narottama dasa Ṭhakura, Srila Bhaktivinoda Ṭhakura and other unalloyed Vaishnavas, the ...

May the Supreme Lord who is known as the son of Srimati Saci-devi be transcendentally situated in the innermost chambers of your heart. Resplendent with the radiance of molten gold, He has appeared in the Age of Kali by His causeless mercy to bestow what no incarnation has ever offered before: the most sublime and radiant mellow of devotional service, the mellow of conjugal love.

For anyone seeking to engage with modern science as a devotee of Krishna, specifically as a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the question of positioning becomes important. A practitioner of Krishna consciousness ultimately identifies as a jiva, an eternal conscious self, whose constitutional position is to render loving service to the supreme conscious self, Krishna. But practitioners of Krishna consciousness now find themselves in the world of matter, which covers but also reveals Krishna. The Srimad-Bhagavatam recommends that as a first step practitioners of...

Anyone who has ever visited a Hare Krishna Temple feast or a Hare Krishna restaurant will have undoubtedly tasted halva. The memory of its sweet, warm, moist, spiritually-infused 'comfort food-iness' will no doubt have lingered long after all traces of the buttery ecstasy have left the lips. You may not know just how widespread the halva story actually is, and how much world history there is to it. Halva is one of those dishes found from the Balkans to India and claimed a...

If we are at all aware of how dependent we are on God--for the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the very ability to eat and drink and breathe, to think and feel and will, and to walk, talk, and sense--we will feel grateful and want to reciprocate God's kindness. We will want to do something for He (or She or They) who has done, and continues to do, so much for us. Often we take things for granted until we lose them. I use my right hand to chant on meditati...

A Native American storyteller named Ron Evans tells a tale that warms the heart of all who agonise over the effects of contemporary media. Ron visited Africa some years ago and was present the day electric lines were installed for the first time in a tiny village. Along with wiring came a gift from the local government: the village's first television. Ron describes how the entire village sat mesmerised for three days watching every programme. Then as if on cue, rose, ...

The devotees had seen in second volume of Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavatam, there was a verse and a purport. In the purport, it was written in verse form, it was names of Krishna. He Krishna Govinda Hari Murari, He Natha Narayana Vasudeva. In the purport, Prabhupada was explaining that Krishna is all of those in one. So we thought this was a mantra of some kind and they were obviously names of Krishna, so we started chanting it. We put it to music, of course, with all the various instruments, and we were singing it

Questioning modern theories on the history of evolution on the basis of available evidence, to determine without predjudice, how old the human species is.

After the Mahabharat war ended, Krishna asked Arjuna to get down from the chariot first. But Arjuna requested Krishna to get down first. Krishna advised Arjuna to do what he is being asked to do. So Arjuna got down first and then Krishna followed. And as soon as Krishna got down, it blew up and burned to ashes. Arjuna was horrified. Krishna explained that the weapons unleashed by Bhisma, Drona and other Kaurava warriors were extremely powerful but because of ...

The tussle between “freewill” and “destiny” has been primordial. Bhagavad-gita explains the wonderful attributes of the soul besides the minuteness of soul. It is just one ten-thousandth part of the upper portion of the hair point in size.* The minute "freewill" of this super-micro soul has created so much of furore that there are 14 planetary systems and countless universes, and further sub- and sub to sub-systems to place everybody according to their "freewill"! So wonderful is freewill! This diff...

“It is not so much that because there may be some faults in our godbrothers and godsisters, or because there may be some mismanagement or lack of cooperation, that this is due to being impersonalists, no. It is the nature of the living condition to always have some fault. Even in the Spiritual World there is some fault and envy—sometimes the Gopis will quarrel over Krishna's favor, and once Krishna was so much attracted to Radharani that by mistake he tried to milk the bull instead of the cow. And sometimes when the Gopis used to put on their dress and make-up fo...

I’ve always felt a kind of need to glorify God in my work, because painting is something He’s given me. And now I have that desire even more. I’m mostly interested in trying to show how beautiful Krishna is. He’s great and H’s beautiful; He’s kind and He’s compassionate. I just want to try to remind people that God is actually a very beautiful and kind. Person. Whether it takes me ten years to do a painting or ten days, I have to glorify Krishna the best I can. Anything less than that I consider very unsatisfactory and very frustrating.