By Nitya Kishor DasiEarly in the morning we left the beautiful Pratapnagar towards the Ganges shore (only 2 km walk). We boarded the boats and ship to Sankarpur. You can’t imagine how it is to get all these boats on the right time and cross the Ganga with more than one thousand people. How much managerial work is necessary to get these things done? To be honest with you there is no such thing as Boat Company here and the boats need to be hired individually, what takes a lot of time, patient and work. Before lea...
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- 17 Mar 2016
By Madhava SmullenThe words “Kuli Mela” literally mean “celebrate community!” in Sanskrit. And the tenth anniversary of the very first Kuli Mela – coming back to New Vrindaban from June 15th to 19th --will do exactly that. With its main themes of “celebrating family” and “building community,” the festival will bring around 1,000 people from the first, second, and third generations of ISKCON together: the original pioneers of Prabhupada’s society, their now grown-up children, and their childre...
- 16 Mar 2016
By Abhaya Mudra DasiA single event of the ancient world has been covered by a number of scriptures—even though some of these old historical texts are not generally considered as Vedic. Elements of the history of Vaivasvata Manu, our current Manu, can be found as the story of “Noah and the Flood” both in the Bible and in the Koran. The great flood is also described in some other scriptures including the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jasher.
...- 16 Mar 2016
By Chandan Yatra DasSri Gauranga Bari Temple at Katwa is the actual site where Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu took sannyasa from Sri Keshava Bharati in year 1510 AD at the end of His twenty-fourth year. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu left Navadvipa and crossed the river Ganges at a place known as Nidayara-ghata. Then He reached Kantaka-nagara, or Katoya (Katwa), where He accepted sannyasa. When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepted sannyasa, three personalities were with Him to perform all the necessary activities. They were Nityan...
- 16 Mar 2016
By Nitya Kishor DasiLord Caitanya gives his mercy to the most fallen. He said: “When Krishna manifested His pastimes only very few people, His eternal associates recognized Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He wasn’t sharing love of Himself. As Srila Prabhupada says Lord Krishna demanded that we surrender unto Him. Lord Caitanya is different. He is in the mood of the highest devotee Srimati Radharani. His mercy is a bottomless ocean; even a drop of it can drown the entire world. But are we experienci...
- 16 Mar 2016
By Candramauli SwamiOur ISKCON society is one of the most, we might say popular spiritual movements that worship Radha and Krishna all around the world. Practically in every country of the world there is very nice deity worship this is the glory of ISKCON and Prabhupada wanted that. Then he wanted to train and first bring in through preaching many many persons and give them a chance to engage in devotional service and teach them, may be engage them in developing those qualities. So he established the whole syste...
- 15 Mar 2016
By Nitya Kishor DasiFrom Mahisura, the muslim village, the devotees walk to the beautiful Campahatti, literally means the ‘market of champa (jasmine) flower’. Many pastimes are related to this place so we had HH Bhakti Purusottama Swami, Rajendranandana prabhu, Bhakti Vijna Vinas Narasimha Swami speaking about the glories of Campahatti. That includes the pastimes of Jayadeva Goswami (he was living there!). Jayadeva Goswami, the author of Gita Govinda saw the Supreme Personality of Godhead in Campahatti, nob...
- 15 Mar 2016
By Kesava Krsna DasaMany devotees, who were previously active in preaching when living full time in the temples, feel that now - living outside and earning a living – those “good old days” remain just distant topics of nostalgia. Will those days ever return, they wonder? This whole material world is a preaching tool to remind us constantly about the miseries and sufferings it causes, therefore the demigods in charge of universal affairs are preaching there part too. There is an absolute preaching quality in ...
- 14 Mar 2016
By Nitya Kishora devi dasiBefore sunrise the International Party moved slowly from Svarupa Ganj (Godrumadvipa) to Hamsa Vahana (Madhyadvipa) . Lord Shiva appeared in this place just to hear Gauranga Lila. So this is a very auspicious island. From there we went to the manifestation of Kuruksetra in Navadvipa dhama where the devotees heard about the glorious of the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam from HH Jayapataka Swami Maharaj. Delicious breakfast was served in Pancaveni, under Gauranga setu as ...
- 14 Mar 2016
By Nitya Kishora devi dasiHH Bhakti Dhira Damodara Maharaja was explaining how it is important to chant japa without any distraction, he said “Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura affirmed that those who chant japa without full attention like talking, checking emails, having meetings, managing etc are influenced by pramada, or madness”. Maharaj said “We are known as the Hare Krsnas, because we chant Hare Krsna, but the day has 24 hours and how many hours are we supposed to chant? Only 2 hours and the rest of ...
- 13 Mar 2016
By Jagannath DasRathayatra is a festival for Lord Krishna and His devotees. Its an extraordinary spiritual event that originates in Jagannath Puri on the east coast of India and dates back over 2,000 years. Everyone chants the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and dances in ecstasy as Krishna in His most merciful form of Jagannath is pulled along on a huge wooden cart. Main Attractions of Chariot of Festival at Shivaji Park: Cow Protection (Go Raksha), Pahandi Dance of Lord, Cultural Stall, Drama, Kirtan, Prasa...
- 13 Mar 2016
By Niranjana SwamiTherefore he makes distinction between chanting of the names which is executed or performed by those who are materially satisfied or trying to improve themselves materially, and those who have the quality, which is described by Queen Kunti in this verse, those who are materially exhausted, who no longer see any need to pursue such mundane pursuits. Therefore because they have no interest in this world they are feelingly calling out the name, Krishna, and that quality of feelingly chantin...
- 12 Mar 2016
By Madhava SmullenSome of his main purposes for the Society included “to systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to society at large,” and “to bring the members of the Society together with each other and nearer to Krishna.” Fifty years later, residents of his first rural community, New Vrindaban, are celebrating his Society’s Golden Jubilee with a packed year of events that intend to spread spiritual knowledge and deepen connections with devotees, the general public, and local municipal le...
- 12 Mar 2016
Krishnabhakta Das: A senior disciple of HH Lokanath Maharaja and one of the most profound Vaishnava Purohit of ISKCON has left his body....
- 10 Mar 2016
By Ambika devi dasiBhaktivedanta Gurukula has welcomed students at the beginning of the new school year. Gurukulas are very important in our society because while the students are being trained in academic knowledge, they are also being guided to remember the cause of all causes, Lord Krishna. This early guidance will remain with them throughout their lives and will assist them to see the Lord’s presence in everything. In the sixth chapter of Bhagavadgita, Krishna explains how a spiritual seeker who doe...
- 10 Mar 2016
By Padmapani dasAs the latest headlines and news reports from around the world become more disturbing for us all, it's quite natural to wonder just where the joy of life has gone for so many people. The pressing threats of world war, terrorist attacks and a host of other menacing perils hang ominously above our heads as we go about our daily activities, hoping against hope that somehow everything will work out all right. Yet deep in our hearts we know that something might happen at a moment's notice which...
- 10 Mar 2016
By Badrinarayana SwamiSuppose that I open Badrinarayan Swami's Convenience Store, Best and Cheapest. You come on in and buy something. Suppose that you give me a hundred dollars to buy a ten dollar item. I say thank you very much, jaya, and close the cash register. You will say hey, where is my change? I'll say no, no, it's there. They are just dark dollars. It's laughable, but that is the cornerstone of astrophysics, dark matter. One devotee told me a joke: dark matter, anti-matter, it doesn't matter. ...
- 9 Mar 2016
By several speakersToday we are going to celebrate the prize distribution ceremony of Mayapur Sankirtana. This year Mayapur is holding the first place in the world (Devotees: Haribol!) in Srila Prabhupada’s book distribution campaign. And we are very sorry to defeat HH Gopala Krishna Maharaja. (laughter) Yeah no one can defeat Gopala Krishna Maharaja. He won the Marathon. But thats the credit of Mayapur. Mayapur distributes books throughout the year and that is the real book distribution program...
- 8 Mar 2016
Iskcon New Vrindaban: Vidura Prabhu, born November 25, 1944, left his body peacefully at his home in New Vrindaban, WV, on the auspicious appearance day of Lord Nityananda, February 20, 2016, at the age of 71....
- 7 Mar 2016
By Lokanath SwamiSo there are the astra’s mentioned, there are several astra’s. Prasadam is also astra. And hence comes the ISKCON bullet, ISKCON bullets are gulab jamuns. And you are finished! So Prabhupada just fed prasada and so many demons, American demons, demoniac nature was killed. There were hippies, there were demons, they chanted Hare krishna, ate gulab jamuns and they were happy. The hippies became happies. So Prabhupada was senapati bhakta, talking of senapati, sena means army, he i...
- 7 Mar 2016
By Bhanu SwamiWhy does the Lord prefer sattva guna? Why does He praise the gunas when they are all actually bad, when all gunas are material? It's because the Lord is very clever. Built into prakriti itself, within sattva guna, there is an escape hole by which you can get out of the material world. It's material but it also has something very interesting in it. The nature of sattva guna is vidya, knowledge, jnana. The jnana does not mean material knowledge because you can get that in raja or tamas guna a ...
- 6 Mar 2016
By Bhakti Caru SwamiI'll end the class with a pastime that HH Gour Govinda Maharaj narrated about why Krishna came as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. One day in Vrindavan, Radharani was waiting for Krishna. The sakhis arranged the kunja. They met in flower groves. They decorated the place very beautifully for Krishna to come. Radharani was waiting for Krishna, but Krishna had not come. It was quite late but still, Krishna did not come. One messenger was sent to find out what actually happened, why Krishna wa...
- 6 Mar 2016
By Iskcon MayapurAs a special offering to Srila Prabhupada to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of ISKCON, 50 National flags were put up in the park and 50 lamps were offered. Then as the flags reached the top of their poles, thousands of colorful flower petals came down from the sky showering all the devotees present, with sweet Bliss. Beautiful sannyasis broke coconuts as an auspicious way to officially begin the festival in front of hundreds of cheering devotees. Loud kirtan could be heard from far away and...
- 5 Mar 2016
By Titiksu dasaThe European Leaders at their last meeting in Villa Vrindavan, Italy, put forward an idea for a 50th celebration event. They set up a committee to develop and implement it. Now we can announce that the details are all finalised and contained in this article. The ISKCON 50/50 Campaign is an initiative to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of ISKCON throughout 2016. Everyone is invited to join us and distribute 50 BBT books in 2016. That’s an average of just one a week. “For the pleasure of Srila P...
- 5 Mar 2016