I remember the amazing story of a boy who went into an old Cathedral in Melbourne on February 18th 1972 to desperately pray to God within his own heart and within the Church for guidance and direction, crying out within, ‘Oh my Lord, please show me the way’. He had entered that church in a totally helpless condition, prayed, and begged to God to ‘please’ show him the way. He felt totally useless and lost in this world and believed no one on the planet has any real understandi...

Today, we celebrate the appearance of Sri Jahnava devi, the wife of Lord Nityananda. Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, in his Kalyana Kalpataru has prayed as follows at the lotus feet of Shri Jahnava Mata: "Having fallen into this ocean of misery, my life is a bewilderment, and I do not know how to reach its shore, nor even where to search for it. All my efforts (karma) are useless, all my knowledge (jnana) is useless, as are mysticism (yoga), austerity, religious penance, and mundane piety. None of these processes have any power to rescue me. I am weak, helpless. ...

On this occasion, we pray to Mother Sita to bless us to become pure-hearted servants like Hanuman, Laksmana, and Mother Sita herself—and to save us. Whatever Ravana-like demonic tendencies we have, let them be vanquished by her mercy, by her will, so we may continue in our devotional service without any impediment and ultimately attain pure love (prema), our ultimate goal.

Often times, women practicing Bhakti who are without the protection of a male family member owing to various reasons beyond their control, do find themselves wondering about how they can adapt to this recommendation from the Vedas. Just like there are numerous examples in our scriptures about women being nicely protected by male family members there are also examples of women who had to live without that. Now what did those women do? How did they live their lives? Where did they find their...

Sometimes ISKCON members think about ISKCON as an institution, or as the "leaders" of the temples, or the GBC, or someone else other than us. We expect ISKCON to care for devotees, and we may feel hurt or disappointed when care is not given as we would expect or as we would like. ISKCON is a society made up of members. Each of us is ISKCON. When each one of us feels that we have the responsibility to care for one another, then ISKCON will be a caring organization, with a family atmosphere based on love and trust, as Srila Prabhupada wrote. If, however, we wait for such a society to ...

As we read about how Madhavendra Puri would take darshan of the Deities in the temples, Gopinatha in Remuna and Jagannatha in Puri—how he would chant and dance in ecstasy, how he would fall to the ground and rise up again—we are reminded of Lord Chaitanya and how He would chant and dance in ecstasy when He would see various Deities in different temples and especially when He saw Lord Jagannatha in Nilacala. That external manifestation of love of Godhead comes from the internal state of love of Godhead of separation from Krishna and ecstasy in meeting Him. That is the mood of Radharani, a...

Established in 1973, Bhaktivedanta Manor has truly developed into a spiritual hub like no other. It is organized, structured, and methodologically presented in such a way that it leaves a lasting impression on visitors all year round. Śrīla Prabhupāda’s presence is felt in every corner of the Bhaktivedanta Manor grounds; from the temple room to the Tulsi house, from George Harrison’s memorial garden to the beautiful lake, and from the Haveli to New Gokul Farm, our beacon cow sanctuary!

The day known as Aksaya-tritiya occurs on the third (tritiya) day of the waxing moon in the month of Vaisakha. Every second of this blessed day is completely auspicious, and so there is no consideration of any one period (muhurta) being better than another. Aksaya means “inexhaustible”; anything a person undertakes on the day of Aksaya-tritiya is bound to succeed, especially the performance of devotional activities, which guarantee inexhaustible benefit.

Chanting felt good. I was beginning to change and then something happened: I got to chapter 2, text 56 of the Gita and, reading in the purport, I learned that a person in Krishna Consciousness “accepts all miseries as mercy of the Lord, thinking himself worthy of more trouble due to his past misdeeds; and he sees that all his miseries, by the grace of the Lord are minimized to the lowest” A powerful realization lifted me like a Saturn V rocket. I had found Krishna, which is an astounding blessing. When I dove deep, fearlessly, and in complete self-honesty, facing those ugly past mi...

If you assess a gorakshya relationship with humans we find a numerical context. For example if the whole UK was following gorakshya and you gave each person half a pint of milk per day you would have a UK herd of about 10 million with a human population of about 60 million. In other words there is one cow for every 6 people. That statistic is not even based on super high-yielding cows but gorakshya cows with extended lactations, milked by hand and allowed to live out their full lives.

“The Western world means countries where the people are gross materialists, who have no Krsna consciousness, no God consciousness at all. Therefore, who is able to spread Krsna consciousness among them? It is completely impossible, unless, krsna-sakti vina nahe tara pravartana, one is empowered by Krsna’s sakti and becomes krsna-sakti-pusta-parikara. That is guru-tattva. One who is sad-guru, sri-guru, a pure Vaisnava, sadhu mahajana is krsna-sakti-pusta-parikara. He is Krsna’s eternal as...

ON MARCH 24, 1984, at 12:20 A.M., thirty-five men armed with weapons and bombs attacked Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir, ISKCON's center in Mayapur, West Bengal. When the dacoits tried to steal the deities of Srila Prabhupada and Srimati Radharani, the devotees fearlessly challenged the attackers. How could the devotees see Srila Prabhupada and Srimati Radharani carried away? Both sides fired shots, and people on both sides were injured. Srila Prabhupada was rescued, but the Deity of Radharani was not.

We have a magazine of disciples of H.H. Niranjana Swami which name is "Mukam Karoti Vacalam". Once the theme of an issue was Deity worship, so we put together different articles about that including an interview with His Grace Pankanjanghri Prabhu. It was in 2011. This was a quite big interview with many interesting and important points, which, I believe, can be interesting and important to the readers of your site

Nightmare or sweet dreams — we continue to live the illusion. So many wake-up calls, but still we stubbornly hold on to a world of I, me and mine. Dressed in the garb of a devotee, and so attentive to the external detail of the rituals and rites, we seem to have lost contact with the heart of the matter — spontaneous, selfless, loving service for Krsna! Do we have it? Do we really want it?! Do we really want to love Krsna and accept Him as our eternal master, controller and enjoyed? What does it mean to live a life beyond illusion? Can we do it now?

HG Pankajanghri Prabhu, ISKCON's most beloved Nrsimhadeva pujari, has departed from this world in Sri Dham Mayapur. Having joined ISKON in the footsteps of his twin brother, HG Jananivasa Prabhu, in 1973, the two brothers dedicated their lives to serving the Lordships of ISKCON's International Headquarters in Lord Caitanya's divine abode of Sri Mayapur.