Author Archives: Dandavats

How 100 “Hare Krishnas” transformed my Lonely New York City Experience.
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Hare KrishnaBy Julia Djeke

I wasn’t sure if I was ready to admit that I was lonely. I couldn’t use the word “suffering” because that’s reserved for the “real” sufferers like the homeless, orphans, and abandoned veterans—so I found prettier, more poetic ways to describe my sadness. But something happened that night that I did not expect: I started to remember the feeling of community. I realized that a separation had occurred, quite unconsciously, between my communing self and the isolated person I had become. I had chosen to abandon people because New York City had abandoned me—and by making that choice, I divorced myself from the chaotic mess of human beings.

Sankirtan is life changing! And it is infectious! – The joy of sharing Krishna with others!
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Hare KrishnaBy Ganapati Govind Das

ISKCON Of CT has been around for more than 35 years and during that time, the small congregation has been using a small house in East Hartford as a Temple. The presiding Deities are Lord Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra Devi, along with Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai. The congregation has been actively distributing books for many years, but the year 2015 brought a dramatic change in the history of ISKCON CT.

700 students receive Bhagavad-gita in Surat
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Hare KrishnaBy Romapada Das

Over 700 students of the LPD School in Surat received copies of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is at an event organized by ISKCON Surat on 18th January. The programme organized by Ramlila Das, a youth preacher in Surat, included skits, prayers, kirtana and a lecture by His Holiness Bhaktiprem Swami. Bhaktiprem Swami described how the Gita was the essence of all the Upanishads, and engaged the students in a question-answer session that was lively and interactive. “Our school is centred around total personality development, in addition to academic learning,” said Vijay Patel, the Principal of the school. “Students are taught the wisdom of our ancient Vedic culture in a manner that can be applied to their daily lives. That is why we were pleased to partner with ISKCON in distributing copies of the Bhagavad-gita to all our senior students.” During the kirtana that followed, most of the students participated in the singing and dancing in an enthusiastic manner.

Learning to love according to the sastras
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Hare KrishnaBy Dhameshvar Mahaprabhu Das

In the preface to Krishna: The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Beatle Guitarist and songwriter George Harrison wrote, “All you need is love (Krishna)”. I am glad that he specified what he meant by love. The Hare Krishna movement took roots in the Western World, by the grace of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Shrila Prabhupada, during a time of free love, which he came not to stop, but to redirect. He gave us the Nectar of Devotion, where he explained how “Our love can be fully satisfied only when it is reposed in Krishna.”

Gaur Gopal Das was awarded ‘Yuva Adhyatmik Guru Puraskar,’ Youth Spiritual GURU Award
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Hare KrishnaBy Vaishnava Das

On 20th Jan 2018, Gaur Gopal Das was awarded ‘Yuva Adhyatmik Guru Puraskar,’ Youth Spiritual GURU Award by Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad(Indian Student Parliament), for remarkable contributions in guiding the youth by helping them to awaken their inner potential through the path of spirituality, at MIT World Peace University, Pune. Thanks to Shri Vishwanathji Karad (@vishwanathdkarad) Founder and Executive President MIT WPU,MIT group of institutions, and Shri Rahulji Karad Founder and convener BCS, Executive President MIT WPU, for this honor.

Crushing Misconceptions At Krishna Village in Australia
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Hare KrishnaBy Mary Pratt

Byron Bay is hippie central through and through and so of course the Krishna Village Eco-Yoga Community would be based nearby. About an hour’s drive away, you’ll go from the breezy beaches or Byron to being nestled in rolling hills and lush greenery, with thick grass and fresh water creeks. This is Eungella, a town in New South Wales with a peaceful, back-to-nature vibe that’ll transform even the most plugged-in of urbanites, given enough time. Since one of my mantras is #lovelife, I thought, why not pay a visit to Krishna Village to get a taste of their joyous and mindful approach to life? Maybe they could help my brain stop whirring at top speed and get me to unplug and relax!

Launching of SRI SURABHI App
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Hare KrishnaBy Bhakti Raghava Swami

I thank the few donors who made this possible especially the major donors comprising of Sri Krishna Purushottama prabhu, Sridam prabhu and Sripati prabhu. We also have a small team headed by Shubhananda Hari prabhu and a few other devotees like Yadhava Hari prabhu from Indonesia in helping coordinate the development of the App. This is the first time this is being tried and it requires still some work to be completed nicely. The Sri Surabhi App will serve mainly as a “FRIEND RAISER” (involving devotees in various activities related to the OM Sri Surabhi Campaign) as well as a “FUND RAISER” (to support local village/rural projects and campaign initiatives).

ISKCON-London’s Food for Life Initiative Honored by the Queen of England
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Hare KrishnaBy ISKCON-London Communications

Acyuta Charan dasa will be proudly accepting his BEM award later this year at a grand event presented by a representative of the Queen of England. He shares, “I wasn’t expecting it at all, a few colleagues put me forward for it. This award should really go to all the wonderful volunteers who make Food for Life possible. They sacrifice their precious time to come and distribute to the needy. Each week is a delightful experience. It has been a privilege to be a part of this service for over 10 years.”

Sriman Kedarnath Dutta’s (Bhaktivinoda Thakur) Govt. Service records from 1866 – 1896
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Hare KrishnaBy Bhaktivedanta Research Centre

Sriman Kedarnath Dutta, later known as Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur (1834-1914), belonged to the kayastha community of Bengali intellectual gentry that lived during the Bengal Renaissance and attempted to revive key strands of Hindu tradition and practice. In his youth he spent much time researching and comparing various religious and philosophical systems, both Indian and Western, with a view of finding among them a comprehensive, authentic and intellectually satisfying path. He tackled the task of reconciling Western reason and tradition by exploring religion in its phenomenal and transcendent aspects, thus accommodating both modern critical analysis and the core tenets of Vaishnavism in his writings. KedarnathDutta’s spiritual quest led him at the age of 29 to become a dedicated follower of Caitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1533). He applied himself to a deep study and committed practice of the teachings of the Chaitanya school, soon emerging as a reputed leader within the Caitanya Vaishnava movement of Bengal.

Three sections from “I’ll Build You a Temple: A Good Fight and a Promise Fulfilled”
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Hare KrishnaBy Giriraj Swami

Yesterday, Makara-sankranti, January 14, 2018, was the fortieth anniversary of the Juhu temple. On this occasion, I share with you three sections from my forthcoming book, *I’ll Build You a Temple: A Good Fight and a Promise Fulfilled*, about Srila Prabhupada and Juhu-—“Opening the Juhu Temple,” “After the Opening,” and “Concluding Reflections”—-and a link to me reading those sections in video I have also attached a scan of the Newsweek magazine article about the opening, mentioned in my account. May Srila Prabhupada and Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari bless us all.

Enough Salt- Now A Dash Of Pepper With Krishna’s Bhagavad-gita
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Hare KrishnaBy Yasodadulal Dasa

What could I draw public attention to with my little insignificant padayatra which paralleled his Salt March? At the age of 62 (Gandhi was 61) I began the 22 day journey (the same amount of days Gandhi walked) on November 22nd, concluding on the full moon of 4 December 2017. Although I began as one man and my influence over others was that I would also finish alone, still it was important for me to have a message that would take my yatra just that one step further above the worldly limitations of nationalism. My idea was to launch it on to the pure transcendental platform. I began with the simple words, “Enough Salt!”, but it soon became apparent that such a hidden message was too subtle for the general public to pick up on. As the walk progressed and the ISKCON book marathon started coming on, my mantra changed to “Enough Salt! Now take Bhagavad -gita!” It fitted well because Gandhi was a strong advocate of the Bhagavad-gita.

Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama – Reviving Mahaprabhu’s Pastimes
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Hare KrishnaBy MCO

In 1972, Srila Prabhupada and some of his disciples went on parikrama around Sri Navadvipa Dham, and since that time ISKCON Mayapur has been performing Navadvipa parikrama. The ISKCON Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama has been steadily increasing in size – from seventy devotees to ten thousand devotees and beyond – and is continuing to grow, not only in size but in activities, destinations and transcendental bliss. In 1996, the year of Srila Prabhupada’s centennial, the ISKCON Mayapur Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama was divided for the first time into two groups – Gauranga and Nityananda – which comprised of the English and Russian speaking devotees, and the Bengali and Hindi speaking devotees respectively. To facilitate the growing numbers of participants, the parikrama is now divided into six groups, allowing for smoother coordination and facilitation.

Teamwork Makes UK Marathon a Resounding Success
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Hare KrishnaBy Madhava Smullen

The result was that for this year’s Prabhupada marathon, about 55 street teams and 220 individual devotees went out on book distribution throughout the UK and Ireland, distributing a total of 138,330 books. Temple devotees went out for 8 to 10 hours a day of their own accord, while many of the book distributors were working professionals with families, giving up their evenings and weekends to dole out transcendental knowledge.

Srila Prabhupada Lila Reading Guide
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By Shrutadev Das

After I had read many of the books about Srila Prabhupada for a second or third time I found myself thinking, “Didn’t it say something about that pastime in another book?” And I would pull out a different book and read about the same event or time period from a different perspective. Or whereas in the Lilamrta it might say that Srila Prabhupada traveled to Australia and then back to Bombay but not give any details, in another book it would give the details of his trip. It was very enlivening, so I started to compile an outline of my readings. Gradually it developed into the Srila Prabhupada Lila Reading Guide.