Planet ISKCON

To honor the 50+ years of unwavering, dedicated service to Srila Prabhupada, and support of the TOVP for the last 15 years by H.H. Radhanath Swami, Braja Vilasa prabhu unveils a beautiful commemorative medallion in Maharaja’s name for his 75th appearance anniversary. This medallion can be sponsored on the TOVP website. Sponsorship funds will go to the completion of the Main Wing in preparation for the Grand Opening of the TOVP in 2027.

Sponsor a Radhanath Swami 75 Medallion today!

  Note: In the US, Canada and India, medallions will be shipped to you. All others can be picked up at the Mayapur TOVP office. If you cannot arrange this, please contact us at tovpinfo@gmail.com

 

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Wednesday 26th November 2025 Today is the 56th Installation Anniversary Celebration of Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Londonisvara Prayers by HG Sakshi Gopal Das & Special Evening Class Given by HG Kripamoya Das
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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 our 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.

We often take things for granted until we lose them. I use my right hand to chant on meditation beads, and one morning I found that I had severe pain in my hand and could no longer use it for chanting. I had taken the use of my hand for granted, but when I lost its use, I resolved to never take it for granted again and to always use it in the best way in God’s service.

How can we attempt to return some of God’s favor, some of God’s care and love for us? My spiritual master, Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, gave one answer:

“Whatever you have got by pious or impious activities, you cannot change. But you can change your position, by Krishna consciousness. That you can change. Other things you cannot change. If you are white, you cannot become black, or if you are black, you cannot become white. That is not possible. But you can become a first-class Krishna conscious person. Whether you are black or white, it doesn’t matter. This is Krishna consciousness. Therefore our endeavor should be how to become Krishna conscious. Other things we cannot change. This is not possible.

tasyaiva hetoh prayateta kovido
  na labhyate yad bhramatam upary adhah
tal labhyate duhkhavad anyatah sukham
  kalena sarvatra gabhira-ramhasa
      [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.18]

Kalena, by time, you will get whatever you are destined. Don’t bother about so-called economic development. So far as food is concerned, Krishna is supplying. Eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman. He is supplying even cats and dogs and ants. Why not you? There is no need of bothering Krishna, ‘God, give us our daily bread.’ He will give you. Don’t bother. Try to become very faithful servant of God. ‘Oh, God has given me so many things. So let me give my energy to serve Krishna.’ This is required. This is Krishna consciousness. ‘I have taken so much, life after life, from Krishna. Now let me dedicate this life to Krishna.’ This is Krishna consciousness. ‘I will not let this life go uselessly like cats and dogs. Let me utilize it for Krishna consciousness.’ ”

I pray that I will dedicate this life and everything I have—everything God has given me—fully in God’s service, following His pure devotees.

manasa, deho, geho, yo kichu mora
arpilun tuya pade, nanda-kisora

“Mind, body, and home, whatever may be mine, I surrender at Your lotus feet, O youthful son of Nanda!” (Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Saranagati)

Hare Krishna.

Yours in service,
Giriraj Swami

je tomār icchā prabhu 

koro ei bāre

Whatever your will, O Lord, may it be,

Please do it now—let it flow through me.

My dear Lord, Srila Prabhupada here articulates his acceptance of your will, yet such acceptance never leads him to inactivity. He has endeavoured enormously to reach America and is determined to continue endeavouring.

O omnipotent Lord, his untiring effort combined with his unresisting acceptance manifests the two dimensions of surrender: accepting your will and accepting the responsibility to do your will. Both these facets of surrender are integral in one who understands themselves as an eternal part of you and who therefore knows that their plan needs to always be within your plan—never outside it.

O beloved Lord, you sometimes manifest your will through the situations around me. When these situations go completely beyond my control, bless me so that I can gracefully accept such turns of events as your will.

Simultaneously, O my eternal Master, let me remember that your will can manifest not just in the things that happen to me but also in the things that happen through me. There are times when you want me to endeavour wholeheartedly and persist despite obstacles; through such determination and dedication, I express my devotion to you.

Bless me, O infallible Lord, with the intelligence to find this delicate balance between accepting your will and accepting the responsibility to do your will.

The post 11.2 Help me accept your will—and accept my responsibility to do your will appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

This is an AI-generated transcript and it might not be fully accurate:

Yes, if we are overwhelmed by a situation, we cannot see the bigger picture, what do we do? Well, we will not be able to see the bigger picture at that particular time. But ultimately, each one of us, we have to make one choice, will I act to make things better or will I act to make things worse? So, now we may say that who will act to make things worse, but sometimes if we are going to be caught in that tunnel vision, by that we are going to act in ways that make things worse. So this is the situation I am in, fair or unfair, that is the reality right now.

So how Prabhupada would use the word make the best of a bad bargain. So here now, what can I, how can I make the best of the situation I am in? And generally to make the best, we need to have some hope that some things will work out in the future. So it is sometimes helpful to look back at our past and see if there was some situation in our life where we felt it was the end of the world, but then through that something good came out.

So it is that, it is like one of the things which if we do introspection in life, that at a particular time if we feel what happened to me, what I refer to the incident, what happened to me, I am thinking what happened to my handwriting now here, what happened to me. So actually if we perceive it in life, maybe later we will be able to see that what happened to me actually happened for me, that through it something good came out. So even if there is one incident in our life which you can find like that, that can give us hope that, okay, it is bad and we do not deny that it is bad, but maybe something good will come out of it.

So probably this is one thing which you could do after the session, all of you can just think of in one incident, oh, this happened, something terrible happened to me, but actually it was happening for me, through it something good came out. So if you can think of one incident like that also, that can give us that equipment, that armour to face that situation without feeling resentful or collapsed, hopeless. Thank you.

Yes, fine. I was just thinking in the way that I was asking the question that, throughout your lesson also you were referring to, you said in chapter, you maybe did not say those to us, but that is what you were showing by example, okay, and those situations where we find ourselves in circumstances which we cannot understand the bigger picture, then reading the Shastra, that can give us examples, give us some examples, and by speaking with the spiritual master and keeping association with the devotees, they can also say, well, you know, I have been in situations like that, and as you said, what is happening to you may be happening for you, just have to be patient. Yes, it is a very good point.

See, it is, if the soul is here, the mind is here, and generally say people are over here. So for most of us, is this happening to me or for me? Okay, so for most people, we look at people and the world through our mind. Okay, this person is like this, somebody speaks sweetly to us, maybe in the past somebody spoke sweetly and exploited us, what does this person want from me? So we normally look at everyone through our mind.

And so if our mind is filled with negativity, this is wrong, that is wrong, everything is wrong, and we’ll also look at that person also through negativity, through negatively. We look at life also negatively, I mean. But if we have even one person who is close to us, this is where the spiritual master or the devotees are meant to be.

Then what happens is, for that one person, we look at our mind through that person. Instead of looking at that person through our mind, but we look at our mind through that person. Okay, my mind is saying, oh, it’s all gloom and doom, everything is destroyed.

But the guru sadhu shastra or the teachers are telling me, spiritual teachers are telling me, there is more to life, it’s not over. Krishna has some higher plan. So, if we have not developed that relationship, by which that person has become trustworthy for us, then we will just dismiss such statements as platitudes.

Oh, you know, you speak those things, you’re not going through what I’m going through. And we just pick these things. So, we need to have that, at least with one person, we need to have that relationship where with the whole world, we look at them through our mind.

But there is somebody who can help us to look at our mind. Guru mukha padma vakya chittate kariya ikhya. The idea that we are able to look at our mind and change our mind based on the words of our spiritual guides.

Thank you. Okay. Yes.

The post If the situation overwhelms us and prevents us from seeing the bigger picture what can we do? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

By Dayal Mora Das. ISKCON London has joyfully reacquired 7 Bury Place, the original site where Srila Prabhupada formally inaugurated the first Radha Krishna Temple in London in December 1969. This sacred building near the British Museum is where Srila Prabhupada personally installed Sri Sri Radha Londonisvara, performed abhiseka with his own hands, offered heartfelt
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All glories to the devotees in Nigeria! Sri Jaganath Rathayatra festival held in Warri Delta State (photos) Sri Jaganath Rathayatra festival held in Warri Delta State. Jai Jaganath Ananta Acharya Click on the image to read the complete post
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All glories to the devotees in Nigeria! Sri Jaganath Rathayatra festival held in Warri Delta State (photos) Sri Jaganath Rathayatra festival held in Warri Delta State. Jai Jaganath Ananta Acharya Click on the image to read the complete post
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Arjuna embodies the qualities of a complete mam harmonizing endeavour and earnestness. Arjuna also represents limitless knowledge and complete dependence on the divine. Arjuna’s story is one of human potential and limitation. It teaches us how to harmonize the two through sincere effort and dependence on God’s Grace Topics of Discussion Session 1- Arjuna Excels
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Arjuna embodies the qualities of a complete mam harmonizing endeavour and earnestness. Arjuna also represents limitless knowledge and complete dependence on the divine. Arjuna’s story is one of human potential and limitation. It teaches us how to harmonize the two through sincere effort and dependence on God’s Grace Topics of Discussion Session 1- Arjuna Excels
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athaca enecho prabhu 

kathā bolibāre

Yet still you have brought me here,

To speak your message, O Lord most dear.

My dear Lord, let my humility never become a mask for my lack of faith. Humility is an acknowledgement of my own limitedness and often of my inability, whereas faith is the acknowledgement of your infinite ability and my need for your omnipotence. Here Srila Prabhupada, after humbly admitting his lack of ability, expresses his recognition of your divine plan and his determination to do his part in sharing your message.

Srila Prabhupada is persevering in a mission that most would have considered impossible, and he is persevering not by turning a blind eye toward obstacles but by lifting his eyes above those obstacles to you. Through such perseverance, he has already succeeded before succeeding—he is already internally, spiritually successful. What others saw as the end of possibility, he saw as the beginning of providence. And how wonderfully did you, O infallible Lord, reward his faithfulness! Over the next decade, you made him visibly successful in a way that has hardly any parallels in the history of the world.

O faith-providing and doubt-destroying Lord, please bless me to deeply appreciate and assimilate the example of Srila Prabhupada. When I face gigantic obstacles in my service, let me persevere by focusing not on my inability to remove them, but on your ability to do so.

The post 11.1 Amid obstacles let me focus on your ability, not my inability  appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

This is an AI-generated transcript and it might not be fully accurate:

Is there a borderline or a limit for tolerance? Yes, there is. I will not tolerate your question now. No, definitely.

We see in Bhagavad Gita 2.14, Tamasitikshasubharata says, Tolerate. But what to do with this tolerance? Is he saying, Tolerate the atrocities committed by the Kauravas? They occupied Draupadi, they took all your kingdoms, you should tolerate that. He is not asking you to tolerate that.

What is he asking you to tolerate? Tolerate that you have to fight Bhishma. You have to fight Bhishma and Drona. This is very difficult.

But you should tolerate this. So before tolerating, what to tolerate, what not to tolerate, it is very important to understand this. So before this, in 2.13, Bhagavan says, Intelligence.

Dehinospinathadehe We should have intelligence. And there is a simple definition of intelligence. Prabhupadaji says, See things in their proper perspective.

We have to see which things are big and which things are small. And we have to give importance to big things, not importance to small things. So Bhagavan says, You are attacking Bhishma.

He is not a body, he is a soul. The corpse of the body is a small thing. The welfare of the soul is a big thing.

Emphasize on that. And what is the result of tolerance? That is Transcendence. yam hi na vyathyante te purusham purushar shabha samadukha sukham dhiram somrutatvaya kalpate With this, immortality will be attained.

trnād api suniśhā taror api sahiṣṇā And what should be the result of this? kīrtaniya sadā hari When we tolerate, with that we can always do the good deeds of Bhagavan. This should be possible. So what is there in this? Two things can be extreme.

It can be wrong. When we face difficulties, One is that we make a small thing big. So what happens with that? We become intolerant.

A small thing says something bad to us. We get very angry and start attacking it. This is not good.

But another problem can be that sometimes we make a big thing small. This is not tolerance. This is impotence.

This is powerlessness. So we should not make a big thing small. For example, there is a class going on.

Suppose there is a mother and her baby starts crying. If the baby starts crying, I start shouting. I shout at the mother.

Can’t you handle the baby? What kind of a mother are you? Can’t you handle the baby? Go away from here. If I shout at the mother, she will become intolerant. No matter how good my speech is, after the class, you will remember how I shouted at her.

So we should not make a small thing big. But sometimes what happens? If the baby is crying and no one is doing anything for him. He is crying.

I was in Seattle. There was a Western Outreach program. There was a 3-year-old boy.

He was running in the class. No one was doing anything for him. His mother was also sitting there and she was also not doing anything.

She was giving a speech. I saw the organizer. He was also not ready to do anything.

So I gave the class. Everyone was distracted. Then the organizer told me that he had come to our class for the first time.

And this woman was from the area where there was a lot of crime. So the gang leader there had a girlfriend. So someone went to tell him something.

I didn’t have the courage. I didn’t know what to do. So the point is if someone is crying in the class then we should say something.

It has become a big thing. We are not able to hear anything. So what is the small thing here? There is some noise.

The phone rings here. Someone is crying. That is a small thing.

But if there is always some noise and we have come to do some work then we have to listen to the class. If they are not able to listen then there will be a problem. So what should tolerance do? Ideally, we will keep the small thing small.

And from that we have to keep the big thing big. So that is why before doing tolerance we should develop intelligence. What are the big things in my life and what are the small things? So if there is a problem in a relationship then every relationship has problems.

No relationship is perfect. But does this mean if someone is doing physical violence then should we tolerate that? No, there are limits. There are limits.

If our life is in danger if we feel like we are going crazy in some situation if someone says if I have to live in this situation I will commit suicide. If something big is happening then you should not change it. So we have to understand intelligently what is a big thing and what is a small thing.

Keep the small thing small and then the big thing so that we can keep the big thing big. So that is the way to tolerate constructively. What should tolerance do? We need intelligence before tolerance and from tolerance we need transcendence.

The big thing that God is big and God’s service is big that will become bigger than that. God will become more important for us. Thank you very much.

Shri Prantharaj Shrimad Bhagwatam Ki Jai Shrila Prabhupada Ki Jai Gaur Bhakta Vrinda Ki Jai Gaur Premaandhi

The post Hindi-Is there a limit to tolerance? | Chaitanya Charan appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

By Praghosa dasa London, 25 November 2025: The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is thrilled to announce that it has successfully acquired 7 Bury Place, the site of its original London temple in an auction held today. This landmark building close to the British Museum in London’s Bloomsbury area holds deep historical and spiritual
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kṣudra āmi dīna hīna 

kono śakti nāhi

Lowly am I, so fallen, so small,

I have no strength, O Lord, none at all.

My dear Lord, whenever I feel powerless or helpless, let those feelings not drag me into hopelessness. Instead, let them serve as my wake-up call to shift my hope to you—firmly, fully, and faithfully. Srila Prabhupada acknowledges here that he has no power or ability of his own, yet he sees this not as a reason for despair but as a reason to redirect his attention to you—as did Draupadi when her honor was threatened in the Kuru assembly.

O ever-accessible Lord, let his words inspire me. In moments when I feel helpless, when nothing I do seems to make any difference and is not likely to make any difference, let me not resign from my service or drift into passivity. Instead, my Lord, let me refocus my attention on you. Even if I am powerless, you are always powerful—supremely powerful. If I can just become absorbed in you, I will start becoming hopeful again.

O merciful Lord, through such absorption, please enable me to experience shelter and succour even amid overwhelming gloom and doom. Infuse me, I beg you, with the strength to take small steps even when the path ahead is shrouded in impenetrable darkness.

May you, my Lord, be my refuge now and always—in times when I feel helpless, and even when I do not.

The post 10.2 Alone, I may be helpless; with you, I can be hopeful—always appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

This is an AI-generated transcript and it might not be fully accurate:

See, if somebody is not that competent, but they are well connected, or they have connection with the managers and that is how they are getting more promotion or growing or they are basically, they are showing off and they are getting more than what they merit. So, how do we deal with this situation? See, in life, basically, whatever game we play, we have to understand the rules of that game. And by saying there are some spoken rules and there are some unspoken rules.

So, we cannot be naive. In this world, the material world is such that we may say, do not judge a book by its cover, but everybody judges the book by the cover, isn’t it? So, everybody looks at appearances. And that is why, if we are in a field where appearances are valued, then we have to play that game.

See, the Pandavas were virtuous and we can see the Kauravas were so vicious and in public, Duryodhana tried to dishonor and disrobe Draupadi. You know, after somebody does something so horrendous, the whole of society should be ostracizing such a person. But when eventually the war was supposed to happen, 11 Akshahunis supported Duryodhana.

Only 7 supported Yudhishthira. Were there so many evil people that they supported Duryodhana? Well, not entirely. What happened was, the Pandavas were disconnected from the world because they were in the forest.

And the Kauravas were connected with the Kshatriya world. There were always weddings and other events that they would attend. And Duryodhana told his side of the story.

We say, what is the side of the story that is there to tell over here? He did such a thing, something so terrible. But what he said was, he gave his own side of the story. He said that I didn’t force Duryodhana, Yudhishthira to gamble.

Yudhishthira gambled on his own. And he spun the whole story. Do you really think that a man who would put his own wife on stake should become the king of the world? He twisted completely around.

Says Yudhishthira is completely undeserving of being the king. Therefore, it will be a catastrophe if such a person becomes the king. And that is how he got so many supporters.

So, my point is, he set a particular narrative and people were won over by that narrative. So, if we are in a particular arena, we have to learn the rules of that arena. And just because we are good, now we can say good, there is good in terms of morality, but there is good also in terms of ability.

Ability to do what we are expected to do in that particular field. Now, of course, there have to be boundaries. If everybody in the office is doing politics and we say, I won’t be doing any politics at all, you might just get sidelined.

Now, politics, what does it mean? Politics could mean networking, politics could mean knowing who are the power groups over here and being aware and maintaining good relationships. Now, politics can mean also being backbiting and rumour mongering and there is a dirty side to politics. Now, we may not want to get involved in that.

But my point is that wherever we are, we need to recognise how things work over here. We cannot just change the system immediately. Maybe the way the system is working is bad right now.

But who can change the system? It is only somebody who rises to the top in the system, they can bring reform. Those who are at the bottom, unless they revolt, they are not going to bring any reform. So, in that sense, whatever is required, we need to do.

And it is true that people who have an attractive appearance and who have pleasing manners, that means you can just talk sweetly, they do get a big advantage in the world. But that does not mean that they are necessarily able to do good work. But that is the way life is.

We cannot change the nature, we have to work with that reality. We had a question? Thank you Prabhu for such a wonderful talk. So Prabhu, when

The post If someone less competent grows more because of shows off, how do we deal with that situation? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Insights that empowered my theater… | by Sulalita Devi Dasi | Nov, 2025 Insights that empowered my theater performance and how they can empower our life too. Chaitanya Prabhu (on the right, playing the soul) & His wife Ilavati Mataji (on the left, playing Material Nature) posing for their philosophical pantomime drama “Long Dream” In
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Join us for today’s Srimad Bhagavatam / Sri Caitanya-caritāmṛta class on CC Madhya-līlā 10.62–73, delivered by H.G. Navin Nirad Prabhu from ISKCON Govardhan Eco Village. Dive deep into the timeless teachings of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and enrich your devotional life with this morning’s live session Srimad Bhagavatam Class | CC Madhya 10.62–73 | H.G. Navin
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ki ko’re bujhābo kathā 

baro sei cāhi

How will they grasp your message so lofty?

For that, O Lord, I seek your mercy.

My dear Lord, Srila Prabhupada is here seeking a specific blessing, which he sees as essential for his service to you. Seeking something specific from you can signify attachment, but it can also signify commitment.

O eternally loving Lord, you want me to be emotionally invested in you. You have not given me emotions so that I give them up, but so that I can give them to you. And one way I give my emotions to you is by expressing them through specific tangible service—just as in any ordinary relationship, I may express my affection for someone on their birthday by giving them a gift.

O omniscient Lord, let my desire for that particular form of service never become greater than my desire for you. Let my commitment be an expression of my desire to serve—not an attachment that makes me insist on serving only in one way or feel resentment when called to serve otherwise.

Through my commitment to serve, my beloved Lord, please draw my heart to you, so that whether my desire to serve in that particular way is fulfilled or not, my heart is fulfilled—by being filled with you.

The post 10.1 Let my specific desire to serve make me committed, not attached  appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

This is an AI-generated transcript and it might not be fully accurate:

So, it’s difficult to know someone’s intent and if they are doing something which seems to be a bit making us uncomfortable or something is questionable, then should we talk with them about to understand their intent? Well, yes, sometimes if we are doing a serious service with someone and if we are also seriously committed to that service, then sometimes that will require us to have some difficult discussions because we are investing ourselves in the service, somebody else is also investing themselves in the service and if they want us to be fully invested, then we have to try to understand them. Okay, you are spending so much money on renovating this particular thing in the temple and you want me to raise funds for that, but is this really this important? Do we need this or what funds we have got, do we need it for this right now? So, what’s the vision over here? So, asking that is not a wrong thing. So, questioning somebody’s intent is not necessarily questioning their ethics, but it could be also trying to understand their vision, understand their judgment, that’s something which is important if we are to be invested in that.

But if we feel uncomfortable asking that, then okay, that’s what you want to do, you do it. I am not really so invested in it and in general, the two aspects to consider that sometimes we may be expert in the particular field and somebody else might not be that expert. See, good intention will please Krishna, but good intention alone is not enough in this world.

To do things in this world, Jatayu had the good intention to protect Sita, but he just did not have the skills, he did not have the speed because of his age by which he could or the speed and the stamina. Initially, he was fast enough, but he didn’t have the stamina because of his age, because of which he just couldn’t sustain the fight against Ravan and he was killed. So, in this world, the results don’t come based only on the intentions.

We also have to consider the content of what we are doing. Once the devotees asked, the devotees had done Rath Yatra, I think here only in London and it is one of the first Rath Yatras and they made a big Rath Yatra cart. But then somehow they made it bigger than what was used in America, but they did not proportionately enlarge the wheels of the Rath cart and when they were actually doing the Rath Yatra, the Rath collapsed and it was a disaster.

Of course, they managed it quite well, but Avdi wrote to Prabhupada and asked, Prabhupada, did the Rath collapse because of our poor devotion? And Prabhupada replied to them, it collapsed because of your poor engineering. Poor engineering. So, the point is that in this world, the functional aspect is also important and so sometimes, there is one temple in India where one devotee was a civil engineer and the temple leader was very eager to complete the construction of the temple by a particular date and he was going to have a big festival to inaugurate the temple and the ceiling that he was building for the temple hall structure, it actually was not strong enough, its load-bearing capacity was not strong enough to sustain the whole structure and he was advised by some other civil engineer or something, somehow he had made that decision.

Now this devotee, I knew this person, he was a very intelligent person. He asked me, what should I do? The temple leader was a very very senior devotee and he said, I cannot question his judgment, but at the same time, if the program is going on, at that time the roof crashes and there are casualties, what am I going to do? That would be terrible. I told him that here, it is not that you are questioning the temple president or the temple leader, you are actually protecting the community, you are protecting the movement and you can be polite and respectful, but you also have to make your point clear.

So, my point is that intention might be good, but sometimes the content may not be right at that particular time. Say, if somebody cannot cook for Krishna, somebody is not very good at cooking and they are told cook for a big festival and they are very prayerful, they have big nice picture of Radha Rani, they have kirtan of Radha Rani going on, they pray to Krishna and they cook. They cook in a very very prayerful mood.

Krishna will be pleased with their cooking, but only Krishna will be pleased. They cannot cook. So, in the world, competence is also required for services.

Thank you very much.

The post If someone is doing something questionable should we try to know their intent-isn’t that a uncomfortable discussion? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Every year the New Varshana devotees organize a Rathayatra parade that goes down Queen Street in Auckland. This has been going on for decades and a beautiful big Jagannatha chariot is pulled through the city.

In the last year, a smaller chariot has been built that allows us to go in parades in the suburbs and smaller regional towns. I was fortunate to attend the first one in the Auckland suburb of Onehunga.

The event was joyful and the crowd waved to the devotees performing kirtan and pulling Lord Jagannatha, Balarama and Subhadra devi’s chariot through the center of town.

hṛdayer abhadra sate 

ghucibe tāhār

Their misconceptions will depart,

When your message enters their heart.

My dear Lord, Srila Prabhupada here expresses his confidence in the potency of the process of bhakti: by hearing the Bhagavatam regularly, everyone can remove the impurities that misdirect their heart’s love, thus becoming free to direct their love towards you and find therein the fulfillment they have always longed for over many lifetimes.

My fundamental misconception, O supreme enlightener, is that there exists anything lovable outside you and that it can therefore be an alternative to you. Everything attractive gets its attractiveness from you.

Help me, O all-attractive Lord, to see and help others see that whatever they desire—all that and more—they will find in you. You, O Lord, are so magnanimous—you do not want me to give up desire but to give my desire to you. Bless me, O Lord, so that I can not just intellectually understand you as the supremely desirable but also cherish you as my supremely desirable.

Just as Srila Prabhupada inspired millions to make you the life of their life, my beloved Lord, may that inspiration reach and enrich my heart—and through it, reach and enrich many other hearts.

The post 9.2 May the desire for you as my supreme desirable reach and enrich my heart appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

This is an AI-generated transcript and it might not be fully accurate:

So, if devotees get stuck at the non-negotiable level itself and not move forward, yes, I think there are two broad approaches to this. One is that we may all decide that in particular areas of life, progress is very difficult for us. And we decide that in this area, this is where I am going to stay at.

I am not going to fight this battle. But that does not mean that we should not fight any battle at all. So, somebody may decide that, okay, in my sadhana, I cannot go beyond this.

This is what I am going to do. But maybe they can study scripture more, they can do seva more. So, they can take up a particular service.

So, if in every area of bhakti, we are sticking only at the non-negotiable level, then we may not grow. But while bhakti is a complete package, not everybody can grow at the same pace in all areas. For some devotees, by their very nature, their upbringing might be such that they grew up with a structure and a routine to their life.

And therefore, structures and routines such as, okay, every day wake up in this morning, come for this morning program, that will be relatively easy for them. Some devotees did not grow up with much structure in their life. And not just did not grow up, in general, some people find peace and strength in structure.

And some people find joy and strength in adventure. And adventure basically means the absence of structure, to some extent at least. So, you know, bhakti is big enough to accommodate both of them.

So, those devotees who need adventure, for example, if you consider the pujari service, that is a very much structured service. This time we have to wake up the needs, this time we have to do the pujari service, this time we have to offer bhoga. Now, on the other hand, if you consider book distribution or travelling sankirtan or travelling speaking, that is a much more adventure centred service.

In the sense that, if you meet some interesting person, you can spend a lot of time with that person. We decide I am going to be here in one city, tomorrow I am going to another city. So, we all need to find out what is the way in which we can we can joyfully practice bhakti.

So, somebody may decide with respect to structure, okay, the basic minimum structure I will have, but I will extend my service through adventure. But somebody else may say that their extension of services that, you know, I know somebody who is exactly like, yesterday I was talking with one, yesterday evening, you know, he is telling me, his spiritual master sleeps at 8.15 and wakes up at 1.17. At 8 o’clock he is talking with someone, at 8.12 he lies down, he falls asleep by 8.15. Doesn’t need an alarm, he wakes up. He has been doing this for years.

Now, he said that I tried to do that and I just can’t. I felt as if I was a terrible disciple because I can’t follow my spiritual master. But then I told him, did you talk with your spiritual master about this? It’s wonderful somebody has that level of structure, but it’s not just a matter of willpower and discipline.

It’s also a matter of neurobiology and psychology and so many other things. Some people are just that structure. It’s nice to be like that, but that’s not the only way to be a devotee.

Somebody is not able to do that does not mean that they cannot be a serious or a progressing devotee. So, I think we have to choose our battles. Some areas non-negotiable, but some areas I will move forward.

The post If someone gets stuck at the basic non-negotiable level of practicing bhakti, how can they grow? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

The Next Milestone | The Eternal Flame

On February 11, 2026 the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium will reach another milestone: The Grand Opening of the amazing TOVP Yajna Shala in the TOVP Gardens. This huge Yajna Shala will replace the current location at the Gurukula and become the main focal point of all yajnas performed for the Supreme Personality of Godhead on a daily basis, in perpetuity, since they started in 1986 in the Lotus Park.

60ft/18mL x 60ft/18mW x 30ft/8mH in size, the marble and granite structure will be surrounded by a picturesque water channel, beautiful foliage and gardens, pleasant walkways, and an elaborate foot wash area. As you enter the teakwood door entranceways, your eyes will behold forty-four marble stambhas or pillars situated around the immense 7ft/2m x 7ft/2m Yajna Peeta (arena) with its interior Yajna Kunda (fireplace) with gold, silver and copper borders and Cakra, Kalash and Dwaja decorations, along with two sacred mandalas.

Daily yajnas for the Lord’s pleasure will take place inside the TOVP Yajna Shala as an eternal fire of sacrifice, all for the upliftment of devotees, the spiritualization of the people of the world, the success of the sankirtan movement, and the protection of Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON.

This presents another opportunity for devotees to participate in the development and growth of ISKCON Mayapur and the TOVP by sponsoring different aspects of the Yajna Shala, from the bricks used in construction, to the pillars to the entire yajna peeta. It is another once-in-many lifetimes seva opportunity that will also help us in our spiritual progress back to Godhead.

Visit the TOVP Yajna Shala Campaign today and sponsor something according to your means today!

 

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A Concert: Chandigarh, India. Homeland Global Park, Chandigarh, a night event in Chandigarh, India. An epic tour. Ever-epic mantras. In one word, the India tour so far: EPIC! An epic night. An epic tour. Ever-epic mantras. In one word, the India tour so far: EPIC!#ChantAndBeHappy Radhika Das Click on the image to read the complete
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So we are continuing with our minieries on stimulation for ecstatic love and this will be part 153 in which we will continue to discuss the various disguises that Radha and Krishna use in their pastimes. In this episode, Krishna very cleverly disguises himself as a masseuse. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload
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This is a powerful true story from Hawaii, where police unexpectedly raided a Hare Krishna center. What happened next surprised everyone. Dr. Sahadeva Dasa narrates this inspiring incident, revealing how devotees remained calm, peaceful, and spiritually strong even in the face of sudden pressure. A gripping, educational, and uplifting story from the early days of
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HH Radhanath Swami inaugurating the new elder-care residential facility at Govardhan Ecovillage. A new initiative of Govardhan Ecovillage for cartaking of elder Vishnavas who have dedicated their lives in devotional service to Srila Prabhupada’s Iskcon. Hare Krishna Radhanath Swami Click on the image to see the rest of the photos
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rajas tamo hate tabe 

pāibe nistār

From passion and darkness they will depart,

And find true peace in a purified heart.

My dear Lord, Srila Prabhupada here expresses his confidence in the cure for the infection that afflicts almost the entire world, namely, the modes of passion and ignorance. Both modes distort my consciousness, making the world seem far bigger than you—the source and sustainer of the world.

O supreme guru of the world, how insidious is the influence of the modes. They don’t make me philosophically atheistic, but they do make me functionally atheistic—living as if you do not matter at all. And when I live in this way, I keep craving for things that I can’t attain; even if I attain them, I can’t retain them. Even for the brief time that I can retain them, they don’t retain their capacity to provide me satisfaction. Thus my craving sets me up for lamenting. I end up struggling and suffering in the invisible prison that is life in these modes.

O Supreme Lord, by churning your message my perception begins to clear; my vision is cured of distortion. The more I hear about saintly devotees like Srila Prabhupada, for whom you are the greatest reality, the more you grow bigger and bigger for me. Thus, I find in you shelter, solace, strength, succor, and satisfaction.

I beg you, O Lord, please replace my craving for the world with a longing for you.

The post 9.1 Free me from the craving that ends only in lamenting appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

This is an AI-generated transcript and it might not be fully accurate:

Sometimes our environment constrains us and yes that is true. See this is where the concept of karma also comes in that we can choose our present karma but we also have a certain karma baggage from the past and that karma baggage determines the talent we have. Not everybody has the same level of talent.

So similarly our karma, our past karma also determines the environment we are in. So most of us say live in a relatively peaceful part of the world. Some occasional crimes might happen here and there but we are living in a peaceful part of the world.

There are parts of the world where there is wars happening constantly, there are sectarian violence going on. So much more difficult to live over there. So why is somebody living over there? Why is somebody born over there? That’s karma.

So we all have to live within certain limitations. So we may have to decide is my talent so important for me that I have to change the environment? What would that mean? That means that somebody drops out from college and decides I’m just pursuing my own career, my own career independent of education. So I’m going to decide no, even when we all do something that we like to do.

Nobody can do only the things they like to do. Say even if somebody wants to be an author and they like writing. Now after writing they have to promote their work, they have to publicize, they have to do interviews, they may not like all those things, they have to do those things.

Nobody in life can always do only what they like to do. So we all have to do certain things which we do not like to do. But what should not happen is that rather than simply deciding our life choices based on what we like and what we don’t like, it is that sometimes I may have to go through a particular environment so that I can be in a more favorable environment afterwards and where I can pursue.

So we have to make certain decisions like that. For Arjuna, he was a great archer. But when Draupadi was being dishonored, when the Pandavas had to live in the forest, he could not do much with archery.

The environment was such that he could not use that archery at that time to protect them from that particular danger. So for all of us, some situations we have to accept. But when we are persevering rather than taking every failure personally, oh I am a loser, that is why nothing is working out, you have to evaluate what exactly is the cause.

And then how much can the environment be changed? How much do I have to find some other talent which is more supportive in the environment? And then move forward. So those are decisions which individually we have to take. Does that answer your question? Thank you.

The post If our environment constrains us in developing our talent, what can we do? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

 Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 21, No. 46
By Krishna Kripa Das
(Week 46: November 12–18, 2025)
Stuyvesant Falls, Chatham, New York City
(Sent from Stuyvesant Falls, New York, on November 22, 2025)

Where I Went and What I Did

The forty-sixth week of 2025, I lived at Viraha Bhavan, the ashram of Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, my Guru Maharaja, in Stuyvesant Falls, New York. I helped his caretakers with different services like cleaning the kitchen, waking up the deities, singing for Them, and uploading dictation tapes. I also did some personal service for Guru Maharaja. I chanted Hare Krishna one hour on the porch most days, usually in two parts, half an hour each, because of the cold. I attended the Chatham Wednesday Program. I went to New York City on Saturday, and I chanted Hare Krishna in Tompkins Square Park after lunch and later with the NYC Harinam party at the Times Square subway station. 

In the evening I gave a lecture on Bhagavad-gita 8.20 at 26 Second Avenue, with half an hour of kirtan before and after.

I share quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sri Caitanya-caritamrita and The Nectar of Devotion. I also share notes from a lecture by Jayadvaita Swami at the Chatham Wednesday Program. I share quotes from papers on science and Krishna consciousness by Sadaputa Prabhu and Arka Prabhu.

Many thanks to both Atmanivedanta Prabhu and Yugala Piriti Devi Dasi for their kind donations. Thanks to Chris for the ride to New York. Thanks to Tony for the videos of me at the Chatham Wednesday program. Thanks to Subhangada Devi Dasi for the video and photos of me at 26 Second Avenue.

Itinerary

September 12–November 23: serve Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami
November 23–January 9, 2026?: NYC Harinam
– December 6: Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami Vyasa-puja / Hudson Winter Walk harinama

Chanting Hare Krishna in Upstate New York

Tony kindly took some videos of the kirtan led by Patrick and assisted by Katie as I was playing the mrdanga.

Patrick and Katie chant Hare Krishna at the Chatham Wednesday Program (https://youtube.com/shorts/wmnOMfDzvv4?feature=share):

Katie chants Hare Krishna at the Chatham Wednesday Program (https://youtube.com/shorts/uesXgmnGQNI?feature=share):

Later I let someone else play the drum, and I took a video of Patrick’s second kirtan (https://youtu.be/bOSjD9nqaV0):

This is an AI-generated transcript and it might not be fully accurate:

Amazing. So what you’re saying is that if something bad has happened in the past and that remembering that makes us angry then it becomes difficult to think about the future positively. Then that’s a very true thing. Uh I appreciate the thoughtful question two things. See uh we can’t choose our memories is what has happened in the past and the memories are you understand the word memories. Yeah,

what we remember, you know, we can’t choose our memories, what is going there inside us, but we can choose which memories we replay. Which memories we replay means that in our mind we can remember and something starts playing. So in our past bad things have happened. In our past good things have also happened. So maybe somebody hurt us terribly. But there are also people who are good to us, kind to us, friendly with us. Thank you.

So we can choose to replay the memories of people who are kind to us, people who are good with us. That way we won’t be constantly angry. Now having said that if somebody has hurt us or somebody has been bad has happened and we feel angry about that then it’s like sometimes we get an injury you know get hurt you get a cut you get the pain it’s paining over there. So what happens after that injury heals after that pain goes away sorry after that pain goes away but sometimes a small scar may remain you know the word scar

scar means I have a scar over here so a scar may remain so what happens is if the scar is not it’s it’s dried out then there is no pain so like that what happens that sometimes from the past The memory may remain but the pain won’t remain. The anger won’t remain. How that happens is that we pray to Krishna. We chant Krishna’s names and he say that Krishna this happened but Krishna you can bring some good out of it. Now that has happened let me accept it. And we pray to Krishna please give me help me to accept what happened. Now if that person is still going to trouble us again and again then We need to do something. We need to tell some elders, tell our parents, tell our teachers, whoever so that that person can’t hurt us again and again. But that person did something, something bad happened that we pray that Krishna you help me to accept it and then you’ll find that even if you remember that it’s like the wound is there but it’s a dry scar. It’ll memory will be there but the anger won’t come. So two things change the memory that you replay. Which memory? is remember good people who did some good thing good things that happened to you and when the memory of the bad thing comes that you know Krishna can bring some good out of it so Krishna help me to accept it help open me to see what good you’ll bring in the future and that way the memory won’t cause so much pain or anger.

Hare Krishna

The post If a painful memory keeps popping up what can we do? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

dhīra haiyā śune jadi 

kāne bār bār

If they hear your message again and again,

They will rise above illusion and pain.

My dear Lord, faith is seen through actions. If I claim faith in medicine but distrust every medicine I can access, that faith becomes impotent; I will remain sick. Similarly, O Lord, if I believe in your supreme purity but doubt the purifying potency of your manifestations placed near me, that faith won’t bring me closer to you.

O ever-accessible Lord, Srila Prabhupada reveals his holistic faith in you by expressing his faith in your manifestation as the Srimad-Bhagavatam. It carries, even embodies, your omnipotent purity and can therefore purify anyone who regularly listens to it. Just as Srila Prabhupada trusted the Bhagavatam, let me too trust your living word.

O merciful Lord, let me hear with a receptive heart—or at least an open mind—the philosophy and pastimes that demonstrate the supreme truth of your unfailing, unflinching love for us. Such hearing can reassure my fearful mind, reinforce my weak intelligence, and reawaken my dormant soul—and through all these, redirect my love to you.

Bless me, my beloved Lord, with a drop of Srila Prabhupada’s faith in the transformative potency of your message, and let me become a receiver and transmitter of this message so that my heart—and the hearts around me—are transformed.

The post 8.2 As you are supremely pure, so your manifestations are supremely purifying appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

It was a 5.5 magnitude, located in Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 300kms away from Mayapur. Three dead, several injured, tremors felt across West Bengal. Preliminary reports suggest that the earthquake was felt between 10.08 to 10.10 am for a few seconds and it was felt in Kolkata, Malda, Nadia, Cooch Behar and several other districts. Mild
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bhāgavater kathā se 

taba avatār

The Bhāgavatam’s message is your descent,

Through it your mercy is lovingly sent.

My dear Lord, Srila Prabhupada conveys a key truth about the expansive nature of your mercy: you descend not only in majestic humanlike forms such as Rama and Vamana, but also in your most subtle and sublime descent—your sonic avatar as the message of the Bhagavatam. You reveal yourself not just in sound but also in scripture. The sacred text of the Bhagavatam is itself your textual avatar. While traveling to America, Srila Prabhupada was carrying a trunk full of his translation and commentary in three volumes of the first canto of the Bhagavatam. Indeed, that was his firepower to blow illusion out of any receptive heart.

O merciful Lord, just as Srila Prabhupada felt your presence with him in the form of the Bhagavatam, let me similarly realize that your word is as potent as your form, and that through sound and scripture you offer your living presence. Grant me the faith to approach bhagavata-katha not as ordinary words, but as the descent of divinity itself into this darkened world.

May my ears and mind be purified by this avatar of your mercy, and may my soul rise toward you, the eternal sun, dispelling the shadows of illusion forever. And make me, O Lord, an instrument to share the potency and mercy of the Bhagavatam with others.

The post 8.1 You dwell in every word—sound made sacred, text made alive appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

This is an AI-generated transcript and it might not be fully accurate:

So, Krishna Shri Ram says that whatever you do my Lord, you are always my Pranama. So, how do we come to that level when we are not expecting? We are ready to do everything for the Lord. See, I think there is a big difference between expecting and say Krishna is above us, there is expecting and then there is accepting.

So, in any relationship it’s natural that there will be expectations. That’s just natural. Say, if you come after the session to ask a question, now if you are asking a question, you will naturally expect the library attention to the question.

So, in the movies for example, when they come to meet Krishna in the forest, when Krishna calls them, they expect to meet Krishna. So, when Krishna left Vrindavan and went to Mathura and Dwarka, did the movies not expect that Krishna come there? They were of course expecting it. So, to have no expectations is just not possible.

Relationship means expectations are there. But the point is, our surrender is not having no expectations. It is not being attached to our expectations.

That’s why we can be expecting, but we also need to be accepting. Yes, Krishna, if I do this, I expect something. Suppose, we do some service, we go out for distributing books or we invite someone to come for a program.

We expect something over there. But we may do our best and nobody may come. That doesn’t mean that we give up our service to Krishna.

It is that, Krishna, I will do my part. But I’ll accept whatever. If the results come or not, I’ll accept that.

But when Prabhupada went to America, in one sense, he was expecting. He said, I can see temples. I can see temples that are filled with devotees, only time is seven days.

But Prabhupada, he also didn’t know how much time it would take. That is one month, six months, one year, two years. Prabhupada tried to accept this.

Nachao, Nachao, Prabhu, Nachao, Siva. As you want to make me dance, make me dance. So, the point is that our expectations or the fulfillment of our expectations does not determine the relationship with Krishna.

So, as devotees, can we have desires? Of course. If we consider, I am here and say, Krishna is here. Now, we all can have desires.

We may have a desire to serve Krishna in a particular way. Now, it can be direct service. Krishna, I want to do this program for you.

It may be indirect service also. Krishna, I want to achieve something in my life and I have that position. I can do some bigger service for you.

So, we all can have desires. Desires are okay. In fact, to the extent we have spiritual desires, to that extent only we will be able to give up material desires.

If we don’t have spiritual desires, how are we going to, we will not be able to replace our material desires. So, what differentiated Siddhaprabhupada from many of the other godbrothers, who were also great souls, what differentiated him from his godbrothers was his strong desire. His strong desire to share the message of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, to spread the mission of Krishna consciousness.

And that’s what took him abroad all the way. So, desires are fine. But the desires should not become demands.

Krishna, you have to do this. And demands should certainly not become ultimatums. Have you heard this word, ultimatum? Ultimatum means, Krishna, if you don’t do this, I’ll stop chanting your name.

We don’t give an ultimatum to Krishna. So, having desires and having expectations is not a problem. But being attached to the expectations, we are expecting so strongly that we can no longer be accepted.

That is where the problem comes.

The post How can we come to the level of never expecting from the Lord as mentioned in Shikshashtakam verse 8 appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.