Govardhan Eco Village, founded by HH Radhanath Swami in 2003, is an award-winning Eco-community and spiritual oasis nestled in the Sahyadri mountains near Mumbai, India. Spread across more than 100 acres, it promotes living in harmony with Krishna, the self, nature and the community.
Govardhan Eco-village is recognized by multiple United Nations bodies and is dedicated to developing and implementing sustainable models that integrate Vedic wisdom with modern methods. The GBC was fortunate to be invited here for its midterm meetings.
A continuously updated stream of Vaishnava and devotional content, combining original articles from Dandavats.com with daily posts. Covers Krishna consciousness teachings, scripture classes (Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam), devotee news, and community events from across the global ISKCON. Our desire is to promote the development of Krishna bhakti, to nurture well-informed thought, and to support sustainable bonds between devotees engaged in all varieties of services and social relationships.
by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder -Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, at an art gallery in Auckland, New Zealand.
Lord Krsna shines with unlimited energies. Everything, from the planets whirling around the sun to the electrons whirling around the nucleus, from the huge banyan tree to the delicate rose, comes from Krsna through His energies. But because His energies act in automatic accordance with His will, He doesn’t have to do anything Himself. He simply enjoys His pastimes in the spiritual world.
Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you very much for coming here and giving us a chance to speak about the Supreme Artist. The Vedas describe how great an artist Krsna is: na tasya karyam karanam ca vidyate na tat samas cabhyadhikas ca drsyate. Nobody can be found who is greater than the Supreme Personality of Godhead or equal to Him, and although He is the greatest artist, He doesn’t have to do anything personally.
In this world every one of us knows somebody lesser than us, somebody equal to us, and somebody greater than us. That is our experience. However great you may be, you will find somebody equal to you and somebody greater than you. But as far as the Supreme Personality of Godhead is concerned, great sages have concluded by research and experiment that nobody is equal to Him or greater than Him.
God is so great that He has nothing to do, no duties He must perform (na tasya karyam karanam ca vidyate). Why? Parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate: His energies are multifarious and they are working automatically, according to His desire (svabhaviki jnana-bala-kriya ca). Suppose you are an artist. To paint a picture of a very nice rose, you have to take your brush, mix your colors on the palate, and tax your brain to make the picture beautiful. But in a garden you can see not only one rose but many thousands of roses blooming. They have been very artistically “painted” by nature.
But we should go deeper into the matter. What is nature? Nature is a working instrument, that’s all—an energy. Without some energy working, how could the rose bloom so beautifully from the bud? There must be some energy working, and that energy is Krsna’s energy. But it acts so subtly and swiftly that we cannot understand how it is working.
The material energies seem to be working automatically, but actually there is a brain behind them. When you paint a picture, everyone can see that you are working. Similarly, the “painting” of the actual rose is also worked out by several energies. Don’t think that the rose has been created automatically. No. Nothing is created automatically. The rose is created out of the energies of the Supreme Lord, but these energies are so subtle and so artistic that a nice flower can bloom overnight.
So, Krsna is the greatest artist. Nowadays, in the electronic age, a scientist just pushes a button and his machine works so perfectly. Or an airplane pilot simply pushes a button and a huge machine just like a small city flies in the sky. So if it is possible for ordinary men of this world to work so wonderfully simply by pushing some buttons, how much greater must be God’s ability to work. How much more fertile His brain must be than ordinary artists’ or scientists’. Simply by His desire—”Let there be creation!”—everything is immediately manifest. So Krsna is the greatest artist.
There is no limit to Krsna’s artistic ability, because Krsna is the seed of all creation ( bijam mam sarva-bhutanam ). You have all seen a banyan tree. It grows from a small seed. This small seed has so much potency that if you sow it in a fertile place and water it, one day it will become a big banyan tree. Now, what are the potencies, what are the artistic and scientific arrangements within that small seed that allow it to grow into a big banyan tree? Also, on that banyan tree there are many thousands of fruits, and within each fruit there are thousands of seeds, and each seed contains the potency of another tree. So where is the scientist who can create in that way? Where is the artist within this material world who can create a work of art as pleasing as a banyan tree? These inquiries should be made.
The first aphorism of the Vedanta-sutra is athato brahma-jijnasa: “In the human form of life one should inquire about the Absolute Truth.” So one should carefully study these questions. You cannot manufacture a machine that automatically grows into a big banyan tree. So don’t you think there must be a big artistic brain, a great scientific brain, behind nature? If you simply say “Nature is working,” that is not a sufficient explanation.
The second aphorism of the Vedanta-sutra is janmady asya yatah: “The Absolute Truth is He from whom everything is generated.” We have to expand our vision from the small things to the great things. Now we become amazed when we see a small sputnik flying in the sky. It is flying toward the moon, and we are giving all credit to the scientists, and the scientists are challenging, “What is God? Science is everything.”
But if you are intelligent you will compare the sputnik to the millions and trillions of planets and stars. Just on this tiny earth planet there are so many oceans, so many mountains, so many skyscrapers. But if you go above this planet a few million miles, it will look just like a small spot. You will see it as just a spot in the sky. And there are millions of planets floating in the sky like swabs of cotton. So if we give so much credit to the scientists who have manufactured a sputnik, how much more credit we should give to the person who has manufactured this universal arrangement. This is Krsna consciousness—appreciating the greatest artist, the greatest scientist.
We may appreciate so many artists, but unless we appreciate the greatest artist, Krsna, our life is wasted. We find that appreciation in the Brahma-samhita, the prayers of Lord Brahma, the creator of this universe. In appreciation of Govinda, Krsna, he sings,
yasya prabha prabhavato jagad-anda-koti kotisv asesa-vasudhadi vibhuti-bhinnam tad brahma niskalam anantam asesa-bhutam govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami (Bs 5.40)
Now we are trying to understand the planetary system by our scientific method. But we have not been able to finish studying even the nearest planet, the moon, what to speak of the millions and billions of other planets. But from the Brahma-samhita we get this knowledge: yasya prabha prabhavato jagad-anda-koti-kotisv. By the glaring effulgence emanating from Krsna’s body, innumerable universes are created. We cannot study even one universe, but from the Brahma-samhita we get information that there are innumerable universes and that in each and every universe there are innumerable planets ( jagad-anda-koti-kotisv ). (Jagad-anda means “universes,” and koti-kotisv means “in innumerable.”) So there are innumerable universes with innumerable suns, innumerable moons, and innumerable planets.
All of this is made possible by Krsna’s bodily effulgence, which is called the brahmajyoti. The jnanis, those who are trying to approach the Absolute Truth by mental speculation, by dint of their tiny brain power, can at most approach this brahmajyoti. But that brahmajyoti is only the illumination of Krsna’s body. The best analogy is the sunshine. The sunshine is coming from the sun globe. The sun is localized, and the effulgence of the sun, the sunshine, is distributed all over the universe. Just as the moon reflects the sunshine, the sun also reflects the brahmajyoti. And the brahmajyoti is the bodily effulgence of Krsna.
So the greatest art is to understand Krsna. That is the greatest art. If we actually want to be an artist, we should try to understand, or try to be intimately associated with, the greatest artist, Krsna. For this purpose we have established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The members of this society are trained to see in everything the display of Krsna’s artistic sense. That is Krsna consciousness—to see the artistic hand of Krsna everywhere.
In the Bhagavad-gita [10.8] Krsna says, aham sarvasya prabhavo mattah sarvam pravartate: “Whatever you see is an emanation from Me. Everything is created out of My energy.” One should understand this fact—that Krsna is the origin of everything. Lord Brahma confirms this in his Brahma-samhita [5.1]: isvarah paramah krsnah. “Krsna is the Supreme Controller.” Here in this material world we have experience of many controllers. Every one of us is a controller. You are a controller; I am a controller. But above you there is another controller, and above him there is another controller, and so on. You may go on searching out controller after controller, and when you come to the Supreme Controller—He who is not controlled by anyone but who controls everyone else—that is Krsna. This is our definition of God: the Supreme Controller.
Nowadays it has become a cheap business to see many “Gods.” But you can test someone to see if he is God. If he is controlled by somebody else, he is not God. Only if He is the Supreme Controller should you accept Him as God. That is the simple test for God.
Now, another quality of God is that He is full of pleasure (anandamayo ‘bhyasat). By nature the Supreme Absolute Person is anandamaya, full of pleasure. Suppose you are an artist. You engage in artistic work just to get some pleasure. By painting a picture you enjoy some rasa, some pleasurable mellow. Otherwise, why would you work so hard? There must be some pleasure in painting.
So, Krsna is raso vai sah, the reservoir of all pleasurable mellows. He is sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah full of eternity, knowledge, and pleasure. (Ananda means “pleasure.”) His pleasure potency is Srimati Radharani. You have seen pictures of Radha and Krsna. So, Radharani is the manifestation of Krsna’s pleasure potency. As I have already explained, Krsna has innumerable energies, and one of these is His pleasure potency, Radharani.
So those who have developed love of God are enjoying transcendental pleasure at every moment by seeing the artistic work of Krsna everywhere. That is the position of a devotee. Therefore we request everyone to become a devotee, to become Krsna conscious, so that you will see the artistic work of Krsna everywhere.
Seeing Krsna everywhere is not difficult. For example, suppose you are thirsty and you drink some water. When you drink you feel so much pleasure. And Krsna is the reservoir of all pleasure (raso vai sah). So, that pleasure you feel by drinking water—that is Krsna. Krsna states this in Bhagavad-gita [7.8]: raso ‘ham apsu kaunteya. “I am the taste of water.” For an ordinary person, who cannot fully appreciate Krsna, Krsna is giving the instruction that He is the taste of the water that quenches your thirst. If you simply try to understand that this taste is Krsna, or God, you become God conscious.
So it is not very difficult to become Krsna conscious. You simply require a little training. And if you read Bhagavad-gita As It Is —understanding it the way it is stated by Krsna Himself, without any rascaldom or false interpretation—you will become Krsna conscious. And if you become Krsna conscious, your life is successful. You will return to Krsna (tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eti).
So there is no loss in becoming Krsna conscious, but the gain is very great. Therefore we request all of you to try to become Krsna conscious. Read Bhagavad-gita As It Is; you will find all the information you need to become Krsna conscious. Or, if you don’t want to read Bhagavad-gita, please chant Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. You will still become Krsna conscious.
The words and glories of Lord Krishna are transcendental nectar, bringing spiritual nourishment to suffering hearts and awakening our eternal relationship with Him.
Balabhadra Das at the Govardhana Charitable Trust. His Grace Balabhadra Das, president and cofounder of the International Society for Cow Protection (ISCOWP), passed away peacefully at the ISCOWP cow sanctuary on October 17, 2026, at the age of 80. He was surrounded by his beloved cows, his Deity Lord Giriraj, his family, and Srila Prabhupada chanting japa. […]
For week 41 of 2026 I was based at ISKCON NYC in Brooklyn, and I chanted Hare Krishna with Rama Raya Prabhu’s NYC Harinama party every day, except Sunday when I chanted by myself in a Brooklyn subway station for two and a half hours. Wednesday I learned that Drutakarma Prabhu left his body, and I submitted an article about his Forbidden Archeology to ISKCON News to glorify him and so that devotees do not forget that important book. I also wrote an article of more personal remembrance.
I share quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s Srimad-Bhagavatam,Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, and The Nectar of Instruction. I share quotes from Improvisations to Music, Book 2by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami and notes on classes by Hansarupa, Sri Prahlada, Sri Gopal Pran, and Jagat Saksi Prabhus. I share a quote by Prishni Devi Dasi from a Zoom meeting on God and Science.
Thanks to Sevika Devi Dasi for the video of me chanting Hare Krishna in New York City. Thanks to Madhu Sri Prabhu for his donation. Thanks to the Indian man at the Sunday feast for his kind donations.
Itinerary
September 23–December 31: NYC Harinam – October 25: Washington, D.C. harinama with Sankarsana Prabhu – November 1–???: serve Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami at Stuyvesant Falls
Locanananda Prabhu, who also led kirtan in New York City on Saturday, was the guest master at 340 West 55th St. in 1979 when I came to the temple for the first time. He showed me Science of Self-Realization, and I read enough of it to accept Srila Prabhupada as someone who knew what religion was all about and who had a practice that would lead to realization. It was great to see him again.
On Wednesday, Hadai Prana Prabhu, still on a roll from cooking for the Tuesday night program, made pizza for breakfast. The flavor of the sauce was perfect, as confirmed by Maha Mantra Prabhu.
That afternoon, I talked to Victoire, who was enjoying listening to the kirtan. She was from Paris, and she was happy to learn about Yoga Lyrique and the Paris temple. I explained the temple was largely attended by Indians, but because she works with Indians she said that was not a problem for her.
“It is stated in the Gita that those who are in the mode of goodness are promoted to better living conditions in higher planets, and those who are in the mode of passion remain within this material world on the earth or on heavenly planets, but those who are in the mode of ignorance are degraded to an animal life on planets where life is lower than human. But one who is Krishna conscious is above these three modes of material nature. It is stated in Bhagavad-gita that anyone who engages in devotional service to the Lord automatically becomes transcendental to the three destinations of material nature and is situated in the brahma-bhuta [SB 4.30.20], or self-realized, stage.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.22.37, purport:
“Distresses due to cold in winter and severe heat in summer always inflict miseries on the living entities in this material world, but one who has completely taken shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord in Krishna consciousness is in the transcendental stage; he is not disturbed by any miseries, either due to the body, the mind, or natural disturbances of summer and winter. He is transcendental to all these miseries.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.23.7, purport:
“In the material world, if someone accumulates a million dollars, he is always full of fear because he is always thinking, ‘What if the money is lost?’ But the benediction of the Lord, bhagavat-prasada, is never to be lost. It is simply to be enjoyed. There is no question of loss. One simply gains and enjoys gaining.”
“After devotional life begins, we can achieve the full result of love of Godhead. Love of Krishna is the highest perfection of bhagavat-prasada, or divine mercy. This transcendental achievement is so greatly valuable that no material happiness can compare to it.”
“In his previous life, Narada was a maidservant’s son, but his mother was engaged in the service of great devotees. He got the opportunity to serve the devotees, and simply by eating the remnants of their foodstuff and carrying out their orders he became so elevated that in his next life he became the great personality Narada. For spiritual achievement the easiest path is to take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master and to serve him with heart and soul. That is the secret of success.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.23.8, purport:
“Love of God is not an ordinary commodity. Caitanya Mahaprabhu was worshiped by Rupa Gosvami because He distributed love of God, krishna-prema, to everyone. Rupa Gosvami praised Him as maha-vadanya, a greatly munificent personality, because He was freely distributing to everyone love of Godhead, which is achieved by wise men only after many, many births. Krishna-prema, Krishna consciousness, is the highest gift which can be bestowed on anyone whom we presume to love.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi 5.52, purport:
“Having missed the goal of life, materialists run after self-sufficiency, not knowing that material nature is already self-sufficient by the grace of God. Thus creating a colossal hoax in the name of civilization, they create an imbalance in the natural self-sufficiency of material nature.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi 5.53:
“The earth, water, fire, air and ether of Vaikuntha are all spiritual. Material elements are not found there.”
From The Nectar of Instruction, Text3, purport:
“Endeavor executed with intelligence in Krishna consciousness is called utsaha, or enthusiasm.”
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
From Improvisations to Music, Book 2:
“Everything is temporary and you got KC
so why complain?”
“Nama’s power
be true to it
to hari-nama”
“My dream
will come true,
and it won’t be the kind
that makes me forget my Lord.”
“You never leave us alone
but become the One
before all our zeroes.”
“Remember the old woman who
told her doctor to stop the morphine?
‘I’ve caused others suffering,’ she said,
‘so now let me suffer.’”
“It’s true I love the freedom
the song returned love
to work free of pain
but there is woundedness,
yin and yang, both ways,
the crucified, the risen
the joyful, the heartache
and we must go to Krishna as we are.”
“O Krishna, I ask Your mercy on all
us slow students
who unlike liberated souls
can’t climb to You
until we rid ourselves of
the slow torture
of this
world.”
“All we can do is hope
we can reincarnate somewhere in sari
or dhoti, some temple somewhere
in the CIS or Hong Kong—
a cook in the temple kitchen with
no past bubbling up
so importantly
and only the simple resolve
to march with the Swami
to Vrindavan.”
“Please, Lord, in the times
ahead when we feel
too much pain, please
let us remember You
and find inner peace.”
“O Krishna, please
never leave me,
and may I increase my
gratitude my
awareness—
what I want and can’t seem
to find.
I am a broken man
soft, weak,
and You know how
to strengthen me
to make me a
supple bow
in the hands of
the great preacher.”
“In this shed I beat with hammers
on piano strings to make
a string of words
to serve the Lord
of eternity, bliss, and knowledge.”
“And our minds seeking that peak moment
when we actually hear
Krishna speaking to us.
“The mind,
the sweet moments of this
life now—may we become free of maya
and live only for God
more tender
and true.”
“Really meant to be a nice fella
the way my Mom and Dad thought
but you know how it is
Prabhupada captured me like
Narada got the ten thousand.”
“What do you expect
peace you want
a piece you get.”
“Write
while you can your
spurts of devotion.”
“When I face God—I cannot.
But I think about Him and resolve
never to leave His camp—that much.”
“The brahmanas’ wives took Krishna into
their hearts, He couldn’t stop
them because they were free to do
what they liked.”
“Don’t forget, a brahmana doesn’t want political power.”
“We simply complained
and got nothing
not realizing
that the Lord of
Vrindavan was here
all the time.
It never entered
my mind.”
“O Bhakti, I’m the happy
Recoverer recluse
singing the story
of a poet (restless) who just
wants a little fruit with his yogurt
and everyone to say he is really
good.”
“I write for You
in me even while I seek You.”
“Radha a star
always with Krishna
and what I want to know is how
such a rough person, an angry person, can be
Krishna conscious. Because he can
because even stubby fingers
can turn the pages of a book
and Krishna can accommodate
even rough souls
turn them smooth
enough to hear
the Krishna conscious melody.”
“Little man we mortals pray
would like to receive
God’s word
in the inner mind
free of intellectual challenge
while in the desert abiding.”
“My song has been laid down by
previous masters, and I repeat it
in my own way
natural my
voice
I don’t invent no
God or śastra.”
“Krishna, Krishna
I was there to commit
many mistakes but
always sang
for Your pleasure
or wished
I did.”
“The sky in this world is
a spark of Your splendor my
song a spark of His song He
empowers me to sing
it here and later
in the spiritual world.”
“Are you pure?
Do you see gopis
at night?”
No, not now, but I tell you
when I do it’ll be no
treat for you.
I’ll keep it to myself.”
“So? I am glad I’m awake
free of the fear of death
for real and
maybe I’ll get through
just once
and even if I don’t chant
if I bite the dust and can’t remember
Krishna
Krishna won’t forget me.”
“Śrila Prabhupada said he turned American Airlines
toward serving Krishna because he flew
in their planes
to Dallas
instead of flying
pigeon-back.”
“O tender friend, this
once tormented soul
prays to steer the gang
Your way.”
“I sing I
sit I walk and
trip and look for the holy
because I am supposed to
and not only that
but I really want
to find it.”
“When was I last ecstatic
loving God as a monk loves God?”
“Forgive me
but I won’t give up
working though my anarthas
will hear the master at
his best and live in
old-time
happiness.”
“I want to add that the best
of all music is when the master
makes it with us.
To see him again doing that!”
“Of the first [Gaura-Purnima] I remember
being glad we could break the fast
Rupanuga saw the moon rising from a
tenement roof and rushed into
the storefront to announce it.”
“And I remember being in Mayapura, of course
on a roof, a boss
and torn, I looked down at the masses
of devotees filing into the temple and felt
the specialness of the holy land.
That was the place to be on
Gaura-Purnima
where it actually happened and
still is happening
and where the people
know and love Gaura.”
“There are plenty of ways to please
Lord Hari
your mind
must be
on Him.”
“Yes, I do like the bird
its song is not kirtana but
it can be.
I hear it and say
inside, O Hari!
You’re the one who lifted
Govardhana lifted
the earth on Your tusks
sent Śrila Prabhupada
to lift me
and my generation.”
“You enable singers to sing,
and we hide Your glory
we misfits—but You are the source
of all song
of all sound
vibration.”
“We must out-race
maya and dance
on the temple room floor.
Because we are made to dance.”
Hansarupa Prabhu:
There are no courses on “realized knowledge” in the schools. The closest thing to that is the school of hard knocks.
Srila Prabhupada had many attractive qualities, but his purity was the most attractive quality. People could see that in his demeanor.
Timothy Leary was considered to be a guru, but he was just a drug dealer.
We offer respect to Durga because of her relationship with Krishna not because of what she can do for us.
Sometimes Krishna separates faithless people from the association of devotees so they do not commit further offenses.
The spiritual master expects us to look after each other.
Letting a person sleep through mangala-arati is not friendship, waking him up is.
Prishni Devi Dasi:
From a Zoom meeting on God and Science:
I did a brief review of the history of science when I was twenty-one, and that’s why I became a Hare Krishna. The presentation of the scientists just seemed too fantastic.
Sri Prahlada Prabhu:
The most confidential knowledge is at the very center of the Bhagavad-gita, chapter 9 out of 18.
Bg. 9.34 and Bg. 18.65 are practically the same, and that repetition indicates the verse is very important.
In Bg. 18.65, Krishna says, “If you do these four things, think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me, and offer Me prayers or obeisances, you will become dear to Me.”
We have a tendency in the West to make everything into a metaphor to make it understandable to ourselves, and in this way we make it about ourselves and eliminate Krishna from the picture. Then we do not need to surrender to Krishna any more.
There is a banyan tree at Kurukshetra, and it is said that Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna under that tree.
It is said that Srila Prabhupada wanted to build a temple in the form of a chariot at Kurukshetra.
The best examples of always thinking of Krishna are the residents of Vrindavana such as Yasoda and Radharani.
We do not usually consider ourselves devotees, because a devotee is such an exalted personality, like Rupa Goswami.
It can be said there is a heirarchy. Think of Me always. If you cannot do that, then become My devotee. If you cannot become a devotee, at least worship Me. If you cannot worship Me, at least bow down to Me.
Srila Prabhupada really believed that the process of bhakti was so powerful that his disciples could very soon become purified, and many did and thus were empowered to do many important services.
The broad definition of the devotee is to protect us from offending devotees.
Sri Gopal Pran Prabhu:
One becomes happy when he becomes a devotee because his heart is becoming purified.
If we do our service superficially, we will not feel satisfied.
Our material disease has these characteristics:
Bodily identification: Thinking, “I am this body,” rather than understanding that we are eternal spiritual souls.
False ego: Thinking, “I am the controller, the enjoyer, and the proprietor.”
Material desires: Believing that lasting happiness will come from acquiring more possessions, recognition, or sensory enjoyment.
Envy and resentment: Allowing unfavorable feelings toward others to disturb our consciousness.
Mental speculation: Trying to understand life independently of the revealed knowledge given by Krishna and the spiritual authorities.
In a heart full of gratitude and humility the seed of bhakti can grow.
Weeds can grow that choke the bhakti creeper.
The mind can make you feel that what you are doing is good even when it is not.
Before we attain nistha we have to be very careful.
Jagat Saksi Prabhu:
A materially minded person is concerned with the immediate cause. A spiritually minded person is concerned with the ultimate cause.
A materialistic person tries to seek revenge while a spiritually minded person tries to change his karma.
Buddha said if a monk has not used something in his possession for six months he no longer possesses it.
Buddha said a learned person will silence his achievements and not broadcast them.
King Indradyumna, when cursed by Agastya Muni, deeply considered the reason, and concluded it was his karma and the plan of the Lord.
Do not give the mind more and more information about a situation, and it will not be disturbed by that situation.
It is better to lose an argument and win a person’s heart.
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Different verses in Bhagavad-gita reveal the path to the supreme destination, the kingdom of God. One that is not so much quoted but that is still quite relevant is this one:
etair vimuktah kaunteya
tamo-dvarais tribhir narah acaraty atmanah sreyas tato yati param gatim
“The man who has escaped these three gates of hell [lust, greed, and anger], O son of Kunti, performs acts conducive to self-realization and thus gradually attains the supreme destination.” (Bhagavad-gita 16.22)
I am not qualified to glorify Drutakarmā Prabhu in a comprehensive way. Others have done that, and I was happy learn about more of his achievements from them. I just want to say a few things concerning my own relationship with him, and hopefully that will be interesting to readers, and they may learn additional things about him.
I met Drutakarmā Prabhu when I moved from Pennsylvania to San Diego to work with the branch of the Bhaktivedanta Institute that Sadāpūta Prabhu had there. I loved science in school and after burning out on writing accounting software for a devotee computer business, I decided I should work with Bhaktivedanta Institute. Sadāpūta Prabhu’s operation in San Diego seemed more interesting to me than what Rasarāja Prabhu had going on in Bombay, so I decided to join him. At that time, Sadāpūta Prabhu and Drutakarmā Prabhu were working on the book Forbidden Archeology. I was the typesetter, and many of the illustrations took up part of the page. When the text flowed around them, producing shorter lines, the lines often looked too loose. I would work with Drutakarmā, the principal author of the book, editing the text, so the meaning was unchanged but text was not too loose on the page.
Drutakarmā in his former āśrama, was married to a woman who was a pūjārī, and he was engaged in making ghee wicks and in dressing Rādhā-Giridhārī once a week. His ghee wicks were precision, each the identical size and shape as the others. He had artistic talent and devotion that you could see by how he dressed the Deities.
For many years he wrote an article each month for Back to Godhead magazine. He told me that he did that by working on it just fifteen minutes a day. By the end of the month, he would have a completed article.
Even as a new devotee in 1979, I loved the evening program, and when I was in San Diego, I tried to schedule a speaker for the Bhagavad-gītā class every night. Drutakarmā Prabhu was almost always willing to give class. I was happy to have a reliable speaker, especially on the nights I dressed the Deities while listening to the class.
Drutakarmā Prabhu would schedule the morning class in San Diego. He and Sadāpūta Prabhu would alternate speaking on Wednesdays. Drutakarmā was liberal about allowing any devotee in good standing to give the class. He always felt that to be following nicely they must have some realizations that would benefit others.
He had a saying that stuck in my mind regarding the numerous fasting days we observe. He said, “Fast days are slow days.”
One verse he would quote in his classes, which I feel is important, but which many devotees do not often quote is:
yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya
vartate kāma-kārataḥ na sa siddhim avāpnoti na sukhaṁ na parāṁ gatim
“He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination.” (Bhagavad-gītā 16.23)
That verse seems like the key to success in life!
In the early to mid 1990s the Bhaktivedanta Institute, along with three other ISKCON projects, decided to move to Alachua because the cost of living was cheaper than in San Diego. Thus Drutakarmā Prabhu and I drove from San Diego to Alachua the last week of May in 1994. We stopped at ISKCON temples in Tucson, Dallas, and New Orleans. Just one night we stayed in a motel near El Paso. Drutakarmā Prabhu was such a sādhaka that we chanted all the morning program songs in the hotel room before driving to Dallas. I appreciate his tolerance during that journey. I am almost never ready to go on time. Also I would chant Hare Krishna kīrtana when I drive, so Drutakarmā had to put up with me chanting four or five hours of kīrtana for five days.
Because I was a proofreader for Forbidden Archeology, I was later asked to proofread Drutakarmā Prabhu’s Forbidden Archeology’s Impact and a collection of his articles on archeological anomalies. I also was given the chance to proofread the second edition of Forbidden Archeology, some sixteen years after the original, for which he kindly gave me $500.
In around 1995 Drutakarmā and Sadāpūta Prabhu split up. Drutakarmā wanted to promote Forbidden Archeology, and Sadāpūta Prabhu wanted to write books on other topics like Vedic cosmology and consciousness. Sadāpūta Prabhu was upset to see that most of the Bhaktivedanta Institute budget was spent on the promotion of Forbidden Archeology. It was difficult to see these two devotees I admired involved in a conflict. Badrinārāyaṇ Prabhu, later Badrinārāyaṇ Swami, said I was like a child amidst a nasty divorce. I had to choose whether to work with Drutakarmā Prabhu or Sadāpūta Prabhu. Drutakarmā, then a vānaprastha who regularly attended temple programs, had a lifestyle much more like mine than Sadāpūta Prabhu, who had gotten married and lived outside, so I had some inclination to join him. I decided I should consult an authority. I knew Ravīndra Svarūpa Prabhu from when I previously lived in the Philadelphia temple, so I decided to ask him. He said he thought that Sadāpūta Prabhu could use someone to assist him, and thus I continued assisting Sadāpūta Prabhu in book and video production for the next ten years. When I saw Ravīndra Svarūpa Prabhu in Mayapur on September 16, 2026, I thanked him for his advice in this, and for the other ways he benefited my spiritual life.
Although both Drutakarmā Prabhu and I would travel, somehow our paths did not cross for twenty-four years. In 2019, followers of Sadāpūta Prabhu, who created a Gainesville Bhaktivedanta Institute for Higher Studies, organized a conference in that city on consciousness, which Drutakarmā Prabhu attended. It was great to see him again after so many years. We would see each other at other Bhaktivedanta Institute events in the following years.
I passed on a note for Bhṛgupati Prabhu, who was assisting him in his last days, to read to Drutakarmā Prabhu:
Dear Drutakarma Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances again and again. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
It was an honor and a pleasure to serve with you at Bhaktivedanta Institute. Thank you for your contributions to my spiritual life. And please forgive me for any offenses I committed to you.
I hope that you get the full mercy that Lord Caitanya appeared to bestow and which Srila Prabhupada made so widely available.
Your unqualified servant,
Krishna Kripa Das
I do not think it made it to him, as Bhṛgupati wrote, “He’s alive but not responding.”
I was impressed by Drutakarmā Prabhu’s dedication to the practice of sādhana andhis dedication to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission. He was a real team player. He did not need to be the leader of a project. He just played his role in it perfectly and assisted in that way. All glories to Drutakarmā Prabhu, an exemplary Vaiṣṇava.
His Grace Balabhadra Das, president and cofounder of the International Society for Cow Protection (ISCOWP), passed away peacefully at the ISCOWP cow sanctuary on October 17, 2026, at the age of 80. He was surrounded by his beloved cows, his Deity Lord Giriraj, his family, and Srila Prabhupada chanting japa.
Since 2008, he had medical difficulties each year, from which he recovered and thus continued his service to the cows. In the past three years, he became seriously ill with multiple health problems from which he could not recover. During those three years, his wife of 53 years, Chaya Devi, and his daughter, Lakshmi, were his 24/7 caretakers. The ISCOWP cows were his constant source of peace and serenity. In his last year of life, he stated he was preparing to leave his body.
Balabhadra and his twin sister were born in Altadena, California, on April 22, 1946. He and his sister were adopted two weeks later and brought to Highland Park, a countrified Chicago area, by Lorraine, his adoptive mother. His adoptive mother and father divorced when he was five years old, and soon after, Lorraine moved him and his sister to Hawaii. It was a closed adoption; however, he met his brother for the first time a few months ago.
Balabhadra grew up on the island of Oahu. He had an idyllic childhood swimming in tidal pools and surfing big waves. Yet, he was always questioning the meaning of his life and its purpose. In his early twenties, he met Govinda Dasi in front of the Honolulu library. By then he was a vegetarian and reading the Bhagavad Gita. She took him to the temple to meet Srila Prabhupada. Several days later, Srila Prabhupada sent Gourasundar Das (temple president) to ask Balabhadra if he would like to be initiated. The reply was yes. Ten days after meeting Srila Prabhupada, on March 25, 1969, Srila Prabhupada personally initiated him and performed the fire sacrifice. William E. Dove became Balabhadra Das, the first person to be initiated in Hawaii.
Balabhadra was deeply involved in the early development of Srila Prabhupada’s movement in Hawaii by serving as temple commander. He leveraged his local-boy popularity to expand Srila Prabhupada’s movement in the islands. Due to his connections, he helped arrange for devotees to perform kirtan at public events, reaching thousands of people. Once, the Jefferson Airplane was scheduled to perform at the Civic Auditorium in Honolulu, and Balabhadra spoke with Grace Slick (lead singer) to arrange for the devotees to open the show with kirtan. He also gave up his entire inheritance to purchase the McKinley Street ISKCON temple in Honolulu in 1971.
After moving to the mainland and serving on Jayananda Das’s dedicated Ratha Yatra project, he married Chaya in January 1973. At the court ceremony, Jayananda Das was his best man and gave Balabhadra the ring off his finger when Balabhadra forgot to bring one. Jayananda was a large man, and the ring dangled from Chaya’s finger. However, everyone was thankful for his precious loan at such a crucial moment.
In the 1970s, he and his wife welcomed two children, Valadev and Lakshmi. Balabhadra worked as a hired dairyman and eventually developed a successful honey inter-island distribution business to support his young family. Even though he was immersed in householder life, he continued to feel an intense desire to practice cow protection. The opportunity to put his desire into practice did not arise until he and his family moved to Gita Nagari. He spent 10 years at Gita Nagari farm learning to work with oxen under Paramananda Das. Through Paramananda’s association, he learned practical skills and deepened his understanding of the spiritual aspect of working with cows, which increased his love and attachment to them.
Besides being a dedicated cowherd, for a few years he became the top collector for World Galleries, a devotee business headed by Puspavan Das. World Galleries aimed to pay off Gita Nagari’s mortgage and to fund projects and investments to enhance its agricultural productivity. Although Balabhadra was separated from the cows, he considered that he was protecting them by securing and expanding their home.
“In 1990, he and his wife Chaya incorporated ISCOWP, which became an international force in cow protection. ISCOWP became an expression of Balabhadra’s deep commitment to go-seva, or cow protection. What began as a modest effort grew into an influential organization dedicated to promoting the practical and spiritual principles of caring for cows without slaughter. Balabhadra and Chaya educated countless devotees and well-wishers about how cows could be protected and engaged in farm life in ways that honored their sacred role. They also inspired many people outside of ISKCON through their outreach and educational programs.
Over time, ISCOWP became widely respected as a pioneer in cow protection, demonstrating that with devotion, knowledge, and practical skill, it was possible to build a sustainable, compassionate farm community.” Puspavan memories, Rooted in Devotion, Gita Nagari and the Path to Krsna, a das
Balabhadra and family traveled extensively throughout North America during ISCOWP’s early days in a renovated school bus with no A/C, toilet, or beds, hauling two large oxen weighing approximately 2000 pounds each. They attended ISKCON Ratha Yatras, often leading the parade with a team of oxen, and state fairs, spreading the message of cow protection.
In 1998, Balabhadra became the ISKCON Minister for Cow Protection and Agriculture. As minister, he traveled widely, inspiring and encouraging devotees to protect cows respectfully and lovingly. Under his leadership, the Minimum Cow Protection Standards were drafted by an international group of devotee cowherds and were adopted as ISKCON Law 507 in 1999. In 2003, Cow Protection Book 1 was written to help explain the standards. In 2012, he resigned from the ISKCON Ministry due to health problems, which made it difficult for him to travel extensively.
He is remembered for his ability to train oxen and teach others how to become teamsters. He had a natural ability to form a relationship with any ox he met.
“….one long-experienced trainer, Balabhadra Das (William E. Dove), the founder of ISCOWP (International Society for Cow Protection), who has been training oxen over twenty-seven years, offers videos online in which he demonstrates the process in a step-by-step manner that involves the use of voice commands as the basis of gentle engagement of oxen. Significantly, Balabhadra emphasizes that the first step in training oxen is making friends with them, which means spending time with them, addressing them by their names, and brushing and stroking them.” Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics, Kenneth R. Valpey (Krishna Kshetra Swami), Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series
ISCOWP, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by Balabhadra and Chaya, is strong; its mission is clear, and the values Balabhadra instilled in ISCOWP will continue to guide its work and growth in the years ahead. It was Balabhadra’s wish that ISCOWP be prepared to carry on his legacy of loving and protecting cows after his passing. That legacy can be viewed as it develops on ISCOWP’s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube web pages.
With heavy hearts, we humbly ask for your prayers for his journey to greener pastures with the all-attractive cowherd boy Krishna and His cows.
Some Appreciations
I would like to express my gratitude to you for all the many years of dedicated services rendered to bring awareness to the importance of cows and bulls through your ISCOWP and your many years of service as Minister for Cow Protection and Agriculture within ISKCON.
Whenever I get an opportunity I refer interested people to your ISKCOWP Newsletter which contains a wealth of information so much needed in present day society, especially for those devotees taking serious interest in serving cows and bulls. You have inspired and continue to inspire many devotees and non-devotees as well all over the world in appreciating the importance of our mother cow and father bull in our lives. Srila Prabhupada is surely very pleased with this core message that you have been focused on for many decades, and therefore rest assured that you will continue receiving the mercy of Lord Krishna and Srila Prabhupada.
Balabhadra prabhu, you are one of those few disciples who have taken to heart Srila Prabhupada’s vision and mission in his wanting to bring about a spiritual and material revolution. That revolution begins with a change of consciousness and must include giving first attention to cows and bulls. As Srila Prabupada wrote in his book THE LIGHT OF THE BHAGAVATA, “Those who are anxious to cultivate the human spirit must turn their attention first towards the question of cow protection.”
Thank you so very much for being such an inspiration to all of us. May Lord Krishna and Srila Prabhupada always be with you. –Your servant and friend in Srila Prabhupada’s mission, Bhakti Raghava Swami
I have heard of your health condition and wish you well on your journey. May you be able to remember the Lord or his names, and Srila Prabhupada, always.
When Chayadevi wrote me, I thought that I would fly over to see you, but she said personal visits are not so useful, so here I am with this letter, hoping that it is of some service and value to you. I shall write again, and in the meantime, keep you in my prayers. As a carer for cows, I know that Krsna already has his eyes on you and will care for you in all ways.
You are in my daily prayers. If there is anything I can do to help, I am available by email or by WhatsApp
–Your servant,Sivarama Swami
Dear Balabhadra Prabhu,
Please accept my respectful obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I am offering to you my sincerest, heartfelt gratitude, love and prayers. Your genuine Vaisnava character and dedicated service to Srila Prabhupada, the devotees and the cows will forever be a sacred inspiration in our lives. Radha Krishna and Their cowherd community in the spiritual world forever belong to you. Thank you very much dear Balabhadra Prabhu. -With my prayers of gratitude, Your servant, Radhanath Swami
Balabhadra Prabhu, My Prabhu
Dear Balabhadra Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I remember when I first met you, I was 17 years old, on the big Island of Hawaii in
January or February of 1972. It was on the Kona side of the island at Napo’opo’o Beach
park at the Sunday feast. I was living in a commune called, ‘Gods Free Universe’, in the
Kona Coffee jungle, and everyone in that little commune would go to the Beach on
Sundays for Hare Krishna Kirtan, and especially for Krishna Prasadam.
You would come with the brahmacaris from the Ookala farm, on the opposite side of
the island, and stay with us on Saturday nights in the commune. There was no running
water or electricity—just rainwater from a 1,000 gallon redwood water tank. On
Saturday evenings you would lead all of us in kirtans and speak something from the
little purple Bhagavad-Gita, always explaining how we are not these bodies. You would
begin, and end, every program with Hare Krishna Kirtan, which would go on for a couple
hours.
Early Sunday morning you would wake up, and wake me up before the sun rose, and
you asked me to go with you. You took all the devotees to the ‘Village Health Food
Store’ in the town of Kainaliu.
Yourself, 3 or 4 other brahmacaris, and myself all squeezed into a tiny Volkswagon
Beetle. We would drive about 25 minutes into Kainaliu.
You had arranged with the store owners to use their certified kitchen to prepare the
Sunday feast which you would take down to the Napo’opo’o Beach Park to distribute
with a big kirtan at the pavilion in the park. There were always hundreds of young
people on the beach, many doing hatha yoga, so it was an ideal place for a Sunday
Love Feast program.
One week you told us that the ‘Jagat-Guru Srila Prabhupada’ was coming to Honolulu,
and you suggested that I go to see him. On your advice I went to Oahu to meet you and
see Srila Prabhupada.
In Honolulu you welcomed me in the temple, you shaved me up, and I moved in. You
always took care of me like a father or like a big brother. Thank you; I feel that it was
you that introduced me to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna consciousness.
After being in the Honolulu temple for a month or so, you took me back to the farm on
the Big Island, and you encouraged me to stay. You made me feel ‘at home’. You were
giving several classes a day. You were always busy in devotional service. At that time,
you were working on a local dairy farm; I believe it was called Boteilho Dairy. You were
always talking about the cows. In those days, several of the devotees worked at outside
jobs to support the temple. I still remember you giving a Srimad Bhagavatam class, 1-
17-3, explaining how milking a cow was compared to drawing the principles of religion
“Although the cow is beneficial because one can draw religious principles from
her, she was now rendered poor and calfless. Her legs were being beaten by a
śūdra. There were tears in her eyes, and she was distressed and weak. She was
hankering after some grass in the field.” In that purport Srila Prabhupada writes, “The
next symptom of the age of Kali is the distressed condition of the cow. Milking the cow
means drawing the principles of religion in a liquid form.” Even though it was about 54
years ago, I still remember you speaking on this verse, milking of the cow & drawing the
principles of religion. Hare Krishna!
From the Ookala farm, you would drive into Hilo every Saturday to pick up a big
donation of vegetables from a wholesale shop. After picking up the produce, you would
take a few of us brahmacaris out on a crowded downtown Hilo street to do Harinam
Sankirtan–chanting Hare Krishna in the street and passing out some Back To Godhead
magazines.
Years later, you lived on the farm in Kalopa Park for some time; we were working
together there building the temple in the forest. I remember you explaining to me, and
then being the living example of: “devotees are never lazy, devotees are always
prepared to do the needful.” We actually mixed about 200 bags of concrete by hand—we
poured the concrete slab of that temple in the forest—just a few of us.
Later on in 1976 and 77 you were doing the honey distribution business. I was helping
you for a few months with that, driving around the island and delivering ‘Hansens
Organic Juices’ and ‘Hawaiian American Honey’. In November of 1977, one evening we
were driving in your truck and I remember you telling me that you just heard from
devotees in Honolulu that Srila Prabhupada just left this material world. Hare Krishna!
In the 1980s when you were living in Gita Nagari taking care of cows, I was traveling
with the festival program. Every spring we would talk; you asked me for the tour
schedule. You & your wife, M. Chaya dd would travel in an old school bus towing a
trailer with 2 giant Brown Swiss oxen, I think their names were ‘Burfi and Lee’. You had
a cart that the oxen would pull in many of the Ratha-Yatras around North America.
When I visited you in Gita Nagari, you took me to the barn where you had the oxen
walking in circles turning a big gear that powered a 4 or 6 foot diameter saw blade that
was cutting felled trees into firewood for the community. Then you showed me how you
were carving a yoke to be used for harnessing the oxen to whichever implement you
were going to be working with—a cart, or a plow, etc.
You came with the oxen and cart walking in so many Ratha-Yatras, then after the
parade you had a booth set up with exhibits explaining cow protection, and speaking
with the public. Answering questions and discussing simple living and high thinking. You
were coming to the Ratha-Yatra festivals with the oxen and preaching every year for
several years.
I remember calling you one spring and asking you, ‘I haven’t heard from you yet, the tour
is starting soon, are you coming?’ You had a very clear and straight forward answer:
‘Every festival we go to, the question people ask most often is: ‘it sounds nice this cow
protection and simple living etc, where can we go to see it actually being done…?’
You told me it was sad that in all of ISKCON you could not recommend any place,
because devotees were not actually practicing what Srila Prabhupada has advised and
left so many instructions on—’simple living & high thinking’, and agricultural self
sufficiency, Daivi Varnashram etc. You told me then that you wanted to dedicate the
rest of your life to actually doing what you had been preaching about for so many years.
You lived in a small devotee community in Efland, North Carolina, near the Hillsborough,
NC temple, then came to Prabhupada Village in Sandy Ridge, NC for some time.
Eventually you moved to New Vrindavan and then to the Gainesville, Florida area where
ISCOWP has been based the last several years.
Although we’ve been hundreds of miles apart, I always feel you’ve been close. Thank
you for all you’ve done for Srila Prabhupada, his movement, and personally for me.
Hare Krishna, Prabhu. You will always remain my Prabhu. I feel greatly indebted to you.
–Your friend and servant, Madhuha dasa, Festival of India
This month Mayapur, Mumbai-Juhu, and Silicon Valley(ISV) were the top three large temples. Toronto, London-Soho and Dallas were the top three medium temples. Denver, Laguna Beach and Ypsilanti were the top small temples and Baltimore, Porto Alegre and Winnipeg were the top maha-small temples this month. Over 420,000 literatures were distributed this month!
Click here to see the pdf: https://archive.org/details/wsn-2026-august_20261017_1344
Why does one correction make us forget a hundred kindnesses?
We all love to be appreciated. A few words of praise can brighten our entire day. But when someone points out our mistakes, even with the best intentions, something within us immediately begins to resist.
We become defensive. We feel hurt. Sometimes, we even begin questioning the intentions of the very person who has cared for us for years.
Isn’t it strange that we can remember one unpleasant correction more vividly than a hundred acts of kindness?
And an even more important question arises: Can we accept correction without allowing it to diminish our affection for the person correcting us?
A Beautiful Lesson from a Cow
In an article titled “The Social Role of Cows,” published in Back to Godhead magazine in 1995, Hare Krishna Devi Dasi shares a touching incident from her experience caring for cows.
One day, she accidentally left the barn door open, allowing a cow to wander outside. When she went searching, she found the cow happily grazing and unwilling to return.
Eventually, she had to use a stick to guide the cow back into the barn.
Mataji felt guilty. After all, the mistake was hers, yet the cow had to experience the correction.
An hour later, when she returned to feed the cow, something beautiful happened.
The cow approached her with the same love and affection as before.
No resentment. No withdrawal of affection. No lingering bitterness.
The unpleasant experience had not changed the cow’s affectionate response toward its caretaker.
That simple incident left Mataji with a profound lesson.
If a cow can respond with such affection after an unpleasant experience, why do we, with all our spiritual knowledge, sometimes struggle to do the same?
When Correction Hurts More Than the Mistake
In our relationships, particularly within a spiritual community, we often receive guidance from our spiritual masters, senior devotees, friends, and fellow practitioners.
Sometimes that guidance comes as encouragement. At other times, it comes as correction.
And this is where our spiritual maturity is tested.
A devotee may have supported us through difficult times, encouraged our devotional service, appreciated our efforts, and stood by us for years.
Yet one correction can suddenly overshadow all those loving exchanges.
Instead of reflecting on what was said, we begin dwelling on how it was said.
Why did they correct me? Why couldn’t they speak more gently? Don’t they know how much I have done?
Gradually, the correction becomes secondary, and our wounded ego takes centre stage.
Sometimes we are so busy defending our self-image that we miss an opportunity to improve ourselves.
What Does Śrīla Prabhupāda Teach Us?
In Bhagavad-gītā 4.34, Lord Kṛṣṇa explains the proper attitude of someone seeking spiritual knowledge:
tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā
One should approach a bona fide spiritual master with submission, sincere inquiry, and a service attitude.
In his purport, Śrīla Prabhupāda emphasizes that genuine spiritual understanding requires both humility and thoughtful inquiry. He explains that neither blind following nor argumentative questioning is the proper approach.
This is a significant lesson.
Humility does not mean that we stop thinking or questioning. Rather, it means that we are willing to learn without allowing false prestige to obstruct our understanding.
When a genuine well-wisher points out our shortcomings, can we listen with that same spirit?
Can we ask ourselves, “Is there something Kṛṣṇa wants me to learn through this experience?”
Not every criticism is necessarily correct, and not every method of correction is appropriate. But even when the delivery is imperfect, there may still be something valuable for us to consider.
The willingness to examine ourselves honestly is itself an important step toward spiritual growth.
Humility Is Tested in Our Relationships
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu gives us a beautiful instruction in the third verse of His Śikṣāṣṭaka:
We should cultivate humility greater than that of a blade of grass, tolerance greater than that of a tree, freedom from the demand for personal honour, and readiness to offer respect to others.
We often recite this verse. We may even explain its meaning beautifully.
But how do we practise it when someone corrects us?
It is relatively easy to feel humble when everyone appreciates us.
The real test of humility comes when our ego is challenged, our mistakes are exposed, or our expectations of appreciation are not fulfilled.
Can we still offer respect?
Can we still remain affectionate?
Can we still see the good qualities of the person who corrected us?
Humility is not merely something we express through words or external gestures. It is something that must gradually transform the way we respond to others.
A Correction Should Not Erase a Relationship
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.21 describes the qualities of a sādhu:
titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām
A saintly person is tolerant, merciful, and a well-wisher of all living entities.
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that a genuine devotee remains compassionate and concerned for the welfare of others, even when faced with difficulties.
This gives us another dimension to reflect upon.
When we are corrected, we have an opportunity to practise tolerance. When we correct others, we have a responsibility to practise compassion.
Both are essential.
After all, the purpose of correction should be to help someone grow, not to humiliate them. And the purpose of accepting correction should be to improve ourselves, not to suppress our feelings or abandon thoughtful discrimination.
A healthy spiritual relationship allows room for guidance, honest questions, mutual respect, and forgiveness.
We should never allow one uncomfortable moment to erase years of affection and goodwill.
A Small Practice for Everyday Life
The next time someone corrects us, perhaps we can try something simple.
Before responding, pause for a moment.
Instead of immediately defending ourselves, ask:
Is there some truth in what this person is saying?
Am I reacting to the correction, or to the discomfort of having my mistake pointed out?
Am I forgetting this person’s past kindness because of one unpleasant moment?
And perhaps most importantly:
Can I learn from this experience without allowing bitterness to enter my heart?
Sometimes we may need to clarify a misunderstanding. Sometimes we may respectfully disagree. And sometimes we may discover that the correction was exactly what we needed.
Whatever the situation, we can strive to respond with maturity rather than resentment.
The Greater Lesson
The cow in this simple incident did not hold on to the unpleasant experience. When its caretaker returned, it approached her with the same affection as before.
For us, the lesson is not merely about accepting correction. It is about protecting the affection that makes relationships meaningful.
Our spiritual journey is not simply about becoming more knowledgeable, disciplined, or accomplished in devotional service. It is also about becoming softer in heart, more grateful toward our well-wishers, and more willing to recognize our own shortcomings.
After all, what is the value of growing in knowledge if we become increasingly difficult to guide? And what is the value of speaking about humility if our affection disappears whenever our ego is challenged?
True humility is not just accepting correction gracefully; it is preserving affection despite the discomfort of being corrected.
Let correction change what needs to change in us, but never diminish the love that lives between us.
I, who had worshiped so long at the shrine of the Bard, now astounded myself by thinking, “This is greater than Shakespeare!”
by Ravindra-Svarupa Dasa
RAVINDRA-SVARUPA DASA, a devotee of Krsna for fourteen years, holds a doctorate in religion from Temple University. The above article is from the Preface to the author’s forthcoming hook. Encounter with the Lord of the Universe, a collection of the author’s articles, reprinted from BACK TO GODHEAD.
By the time I encountered the Krsna consciousness movement. I was so eager to transcend material existence that I was willing to renounce practically everything for the sake of liberation. So convinced was I that pain and suffering were of the essence of this life that I did not desire to reserve any attachment, even to the highest and best part of it.
And to me, that highest and best was exemplified in art and literature—in those timeless artifacts, those “monuments,” as the poet Yeats beautifully called them, “of unaging intellect.” And I myself had since adolescence sought transcendence in the role of the artist. I had become captivated by a certain image of the artist, an image presented with consummate lyricism by James Joyce in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: a “fabulous artificer . . . forging anew in his workshop out of the sluggish matter of the earth a new soaring impalpable imperishable being.”
A magus turning matter into spirit, the artist transmutes the tacky, mortal stuff of this life into a new “unaging,” “imperishable” creation; in so doing, he redeems his existence from time and change. Certainly this redemptive drive toward the eternal and immutable is the deepest motive of art. As such, the artistic impulse is religious. The problem is that it fails. It is bad religion.
Consider this typical example of the “eternizing theme” from one of Shakespeare’s sonnets:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest, Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade When in eternal lines to Time thou growest. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
The poet refers to his verse as eternal—as eternal as Time itself—yet in the final couplet a more deflated view prevails: the verse can at best last no longer than mankind. And while the poet boldly asserts that his verse rescues his subject from time and death, preserving him in eternal youth, we recognize a rhetorical fiction, a hyperbole. Centuries ago that fair youth moldered in his grave and is now at most a sparse handful of dust. Nothing has really been saved from time and death: not the poet, not his subject, not his art.
The promise of art is illusory. Art cannot save us, no matter how beautiful and well wrought its objects may be. They are, essentially, fictions. At best, art may palliate the pains of life, but even in this it dangerously misleads. They say that during the Holocaust, Jews were marched toward gas chambers while an orchestra beguiled them with Mozart and Brahms. Aesthetic enjoyment is like an anodyne that relieves the symptoms of a disease. Given the illusion of health, we can ignore our sickness, and eventually it destroys us.
The spell of art is hard to break once you have fallen under it, but I became at last disenchanted. Although I was still deeply attracted by great art and literature and still strongly felt the allure of the artistic vocation, I knew neither the enjoyment nor the creation of art could save me from death, I began to study spiritual writings, and eventually I became sure of at least this much: that material life is essentially suffering, that suffering is caused by our desires, and that the cure for suffering lies in the uprooting of our desires. I was willing, therefore, to give up everything, from the gross satisfaction of animal appetites to the refined pleasures of art and its creation. I set out on my own to eradicate my desires. I failed utterly.
I failed because my idea of renunciation was rudimentary, incomplete. I did not actually understand renunciation, in principle or in practice. Finally, however, I was enlightened in this matter by the devotees of Krsna. As they explained it, the Krsna conscious method of renunciation was both sensible and practical. And, as I soon discovered, it was remarkably efficacious. Moreover—and this astonished me completely—it was joyful through and through. It was not negation but fulfillment. And whatever I gave up on the material platform, I got back a thousandfold on the spiritual. In my case, this was most immediately evident with reference to literary art.
I had gleaned my previous ideas of renunciation from the teachings of various impersonalists, those mystics who think that ultimate truth is wholly devoid of names, forms, attributes, activities, and relations and that to characterize it properly we must resort to silence and negation. They hold that in the liberated state the knower, the known, and the act of knowing coalesce to absolute unity and that to enter that state we must denude ourselves of all personality and individuality and turn away from all sensory and intellectual experience. This bleak and daunting prospect can appeal only to the most burned-out victims of time, and it has sent many seekers back to material life in frustration.
But Rupa Gosvami, a great authority on devotional service, calls this impersonal sort of renunciation phalgu-vairagya, “incomplete renunciation.” It is incomplete because the realization of the supreme on which it is based is incomplete. By rejecting material qualities, names, forms, activities, and relations, the impersonalists have reached but the outer precincts of divinity, which they report to be an endless, undifferentiated spiritual effulgence. But they do not know that this effulgence conceals a still higher region of transcendence, where the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna resides. In this topmost abode, hidden in the heart of the infinite ocean of light, Krsna exhibits His most beautiful transcendental form and His unsurpassable personal qualities as He plays out endless exchanges of love with His pure devotees. Because the impersonalists have unfortunately not yet realized these variegated positive features of transcendence, they must be content with mere negation of the material.
When there is complete realization of the supreme, however, one enters the luminous realm of devotional service. Here, the senses and mind of the devotee become decontaminated from all material taint by complete absorption in the active service of their transcendental object, Krsna. In this way there is the awakening of full spiritual existence, and material existence automatically ceases. Accordingly, the devotee does not reject mind and senses, desire and activities, but he restores them to their original purity through the devotional activities of Krsna consciousness. Because the devotee focuses his full attention on the supremely attractive forms and pastimes of Krsna, he quite naturally loses his interest in all the attractions of this world. In comparison with Krsna and His society, those attractions undergo fatal devaluation.
The foremost book dedicated wholly to Krsna is the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Srimad-Bhagavatam is filled with accounts of the marvelous activities the Lord performs during His various descents into this world. It narrates His eternal, joyful pastimes in His supreme abode, and it describes in detail how he dwells as Supersoul within our hearts. With scientific precision, Srimad-Bhagavatam tells how Krsna again and again brings forth and maintains and winds up the creation. It tells of the great adventures of His devotees throughout the universe. And it instructs us in the potent practices of bhakti-yoga, by which we can regain our transcendental organs of perception and once again see Krsna always, within everything and beyond everything. The works comprising India’s vast spiritual literature are called the Vedic literature, and the Srimad-Bhagavatam is “the ripened fruit of the Vedic tree of knowledge.” Yet this work was hardly known outside of India until His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, my spiritual master, began his hugely successful project of translating it and distributing it all over the world.
The first time I read Srimad-Bhagavatam was one of the high points of my life. In those days, we had only the three russet volumes Srila Prabhupada had written and published in India and brought with him to America. But these books—crudely printed, badly bound, riddled with typos—were the greatest literature I had ever encountered. I, who had worshiped so long at the shrine of the Bard, now astounded myself by thinking, “This is greater than Shakespeare!” I read with full appreciation that one of Krsna’s names is Uttamasloka, or “He who is praised by immortal verse.” I delved deeper and deeper into the Bhagavatam, endlessly fascinated, and discovered one day that I had in the process renounced the literature of this world.
Srimad-Bhagavatam is in a class all its own, and once you have acquired a taste for it, all mundane literature seems stale and flat. Nor do you tire of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. As a rule, the higher the quality of a literary work, the more it bears rereading. A paperback thriller is notably unthrilling on second reading;
Hamlet or King Lear remain satisfying after many revisits. Still, there are limits, and even the most ardent Shakespearean requires periodic relief. But you can pick up Bhagavatam every day and find it inexhaustible; with each rereading it increases in interest. Because Bhagavatam is simply not a product of this world, it has the ever-fresh quality that is the hallmark of spirit.
All along I had really wanted Srimad-Bhagavatam. It seemed to me that all literary yearnings for the eternal unconsciously seek that crest-jewel of books. And now I had found it. So I did not, after all, have to give up my attraction to literature; I had only to purify it. Once purified, my desire was satisfied beyond my greatest expectation.
In the same way, my desire to write was also fulfilled. In becoming Srila Prabhupada’s disciple, I had become part of a distinctively literary spiritual tradition. The historical line of spiritual masters to which Prabhupada belongs is named the Brahma-sampradaya, after its first member, the cosmic engineer. Lord Brahma. At the beginning of creation Brahma was impregnated with Vedic knowledge by Krsna, and Brahma then arranged for this knowledge to be passed down carefully from generation to generation through an unbroken chain of masters. Lord Brahma is often depicted with a book in his hand, signifying his possession of Vedic knowledge, and his sampradaya, preserving its founder’s characteristic, is particularly learned. Its members are so distinguished for literary production that it is known as “the sampradaya of the book.” Thus, Srila Prabhupada himself made books the basis of his preaching effort, and he gave the world more than sixty volumes of spiritual writings.
Not long after I moved into the temple, I heard these instructions from Srila Prabhupada, on tape from a lecture in Los Angeles: “Every one of you, what is your realization? You write your realization—what you have realized about Krsna. That is required. It is not passive; always you should be active. Whenever you find time, write. Never mind—two lines, four lines, but you write your realizations. Sravanam, kirtanam —writing or offering prayers, glories—this is one of the functions of a Vaisnava [devotee]. You are hearing, but you have to write also. Then, writing means smaranam —remembering what you have heard from your spiritual master.” Thus, writing automatically involves a devotee in three prominent aspects of devotional service: hearing and chanting about Krsna and remembering Him [ sravanam, kirtanam, and smaranam ] . And in a letter to a disciple, Prabhupada said: “All students should be encouraged to write some article after reading the Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, and Teachings of Lord Caitanya. They should realize the information, and they must present their assimilation in their own words. Otherwise, how can they become preachers?”
Moreover, Prabhupada specifically established BACK TO GODHEAD magazine in America to provide his disciples with an outlet for their writings. So I had abundant encouragement. And I had inexhaustible material. There was nothing else to do but write.
Srimad-Bhagavatam recounts the occasion when the great sage Narada Muni had cause to instruct his disciple Vyasadeva concerning the principles of devotional service. Narada says: “O brahmana Vyasadeva, it is decided by the learned that the best remedial measure for removing all troubles and miseries is to dedicate one’s activities to the service of the Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna. O good soul, does not a thing, applied therapeutically, cure a disease which was caused by the very same thing? Thus when all a man’s activities are dedicated to the service of the Lord, those very activities which caused his perpetual bondage become the destroyer of the tree of work.” (Italics added.)
My own experience confirms these words of Narada Muni. Certainly my intense desire to enjoy and create fine literature had bound me tightly to this world. But when I became a devotee, the very desire that had caused my bondage, when dovetailed in the service of Krsna, produced freedom. I experienced early the purifying, liberating effect of writing in Krsna consciousness.
Writing, for me, demands great concentration. In practically no other circumstances am I compelled to meditate so intensely on Krsna and His teachings; in so doing I associate with Krsna and by that association become purified. Moreover, the effort to write clearly is the effort to understand clearly. When I see my words out there, all detached on the page, it is as if they stand exposed for judgment. And I hasten to revise and revise and revise again. In reworking and refining my writing, I feel I am being reworked and refined. In this way, writing keeps me fixed in the refiner’s fire of Krsna consciousness.
I said earlier that the ambition to attain the eternal and immutable is the deepest motive of art. In the case of Krsna conscious art, this drive can realize its end. Krsna is eternal, and whatever comes into contact with Him attains that same eternal nature. The literary artist who dedicates his craft fully to the service of Krsna, then, really does transmute matter into spirit, and he becomes redeemed fully from time and change. His work may be more or less expert in the world’s judgment, but that matters not at all. As Srila Prabhupada noted in this connection, “If one is actually sincere in writing, all his ambitions will be fulfilled.”
Bhaktivedanta Manor Communications was delighted to work in partnership with Hertsmere Borough Council to host the Hertsmere Civic Service. The gathering brought together civic leaders, faith representatives and members of the community for an uplifting occasion of prayer, reflection and celebration.
Presided over by the Mayor of Hertsmere, Councillor Parveen Rani and the Lord-Lieutenant of Hertfordshire Mr Robert Voss CBE, the service celebrated the contribution of civic and faith communities to local life, highlighting shared values of compassion, harmony and mutual respect.
The service opened with a welcome from the Mayor, followed by a reading from the Lord-Lieutenant of Hertfordshire and a traditional garlanding ceremony.
Her Grace Visakha Dasi, the Mayor’s Chaplain, led the opening prayers, followed by Sanskrit prayers and a ceremonial blessing for the civic leaders.
Prafulla Shah, from the Oshwal Centre, gave a reading, while children delighted guests with a Diwali and Ramayana-themed performance, sharing the traditional story’s message of goodness and the triumph of light over darkness.
Reverend Steven Young, Team Rector of the Parish of Elstree and Borehamwood, read from a Biblical passage which encouraged sincere love and harmony.
A particularly meaningful moment came when key guests and civic award winners each lit a lamp or tea light, symbolising hope and the positive contribution everyone can make to society.
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The successful gathering demonstrated what can be achieved when local government and faith organisations work together. Hertsmere Borough Council and Bhaktivedanta Manor created a welcoming space where diverse traditions could be celebrated and relationships strengthened.
“Such a wonderful celebration of our incredible community here in Hertsmere’, said the Mayor of Hertsmere Cllr Parveen Rani, “Our Civic Service was filled with joy and warmth at Bhaktivedanta Manor…”
In light of the recent passing of Drutakarmā Dāsa (Michael Cremo), Forbidden Archeology’s principal author, and of one of its lead researchers, Mādhavendra Purī Dāsa (Stephen Bernath), last July, I feel inspired to write something about Forbidden Archeology, a book which we all worked on together as a team under the direction of Sadāpūta Dāsa […]
Kartik Inspiration Sanga 2026, a free month-long online bhakti journey organized through Mandakini Foundation, will run from 25 October to 24 November 2026. The initiative invites people of all spiritual backgrounds and experience levels to deepen their connection with Krishna during Kartik, a particularly auspicious month for devotional service. The program offers an accessible way […]
ISKCON’s Kirtan Ministry has released its World Holy Name Festival 2026 Global Report, documenting chanting, outreach, and devotional service during ISKCON’s 60th anniversary year. Held September 17–23 under the theme “One World • One Holy Name • One Family,” the festival brought devotees together through public Harinama, temple and congregational kirtan, japa, home gatherings, and […]
Listen to a
class given by Malati devi dasi
on
text 37
of the Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana), canto 3, chapter 25, entitled "The
Glories of Devotional Service" given on October 12, 2026 at the
Hare Krishna temple in Alachua, Florida.
The Srimad-Bhagavatam is a sacred Vaishnava text from India that narrates the
history of God (Krishna) and His devotees. It is translated with elaborate
purports by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Doordarshan featured our ISKCON Annamrita Gurugram Kitchen
Channel: ISKCON Delhi
This is a wonderful recognition of ISKCON Annamrita’s work and of the dedication of our entire team in serving nutritious meals with care, commitment and purpose.
A proud moment for everyone associated with ISKCON Annamrita!
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Police in suburban Chicago have arrested a 19-year-old man accused of planning a mass shooting targeting people of Indian descent at a Hindu temple in Aurora, Illinois. The alleged plot, reportedly motivated by white supremacist ideology, was disrupted after a coworker alerted authorities to threatening communications. The area is home to two ISKCON temples. ISKCON […]
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