Author Archives: Dandavats

By Romapada Das The Chief Minister of Maharashtra in a message sent on 16th September, praised ISKCON for its ’50 years of glorious achievements and service to humanity’. He praised ISKCON for the dissemination of what he called the ‘glorious Vedic wi…

By Varsana Swami Srimati lifted up Her skirt and stepped into the water and looked down to wash Her hands. And then, when She saw Her reflection in the water, She was overcome by its beauty. She was seized by this feeling “maybe I should be Gopal’s con…

Vivasvan das: In our sadness, we are feeling separation from Vrndavana Das, as Prabhu 67th (ACBSP) passed away from this mortal world.Read More…

By Sri Chaitanya Chandra Das Bhismadeva, great devotee, warrior & philosopher says about time- The wind carries a huge cloud from one place to another swiftly, silently and steadily. Similarly time is energy of Lord which carries everyone imperce…

By Bhakta Bhusan

Deputy Chief Minister Shri Gaikhangam inaugurated Sri Sri Krishna Janmastami Celebration 2016 at ISKCON Manipur Sri Sri Radhakrishnachandra Manimandir as Chief Guest, Commerce and Industries Minister Govindas Konthoujam, Social welfare and cooperation Minister, Kumari A.K. Mirabai and His Holiness Bhaktivyasa Tirtha Swami as president. After the ministers had ‘darshan’ of Sri Sri Radhakrishnachandra, they were explained the posters given in iskcon50.org by His Grace Barnamali Das and His grace Radhamohan Das. A four day Achintya youth festival was organised in commemoration of 50 years of ISKCON and Sri Sri Krishna Janmastami Celebration 2016 from 21st to 24th August. The inaugural function was presided by Dr. I.Ibohalbi Singh, member of Legislative Assembly and leader of opposition. As a prelude to the commemoration of the 50 years of ISKCON, Rath yatra Photography contest was organised during rath Yatra 2016 along with Manipur Photography Club. Nandotsava and Srila Prabhupada Vyasa puja was also observed and about 1100 devotees were served sumptuous Prasad of 9 different dishes.

By Ananda Vrndavanesvari Devi Dasi From the moment we are born we are knowledge-seekers. We want to know where we can find food, shelter, love, and happiness. We want information to help us avoid pain, suffering, and loss. We spend our lives building o…

By Bhurijana dasa According to the Bhagavad-gita, one’s activities can either be in goodness, passion, or ignorance. There is no being existing, either here or among the demigods in the higher planetary systems, which is freed from these three modes bo…

By Hari Narayana Das We would like to take this opportunity to thank HH Bhakti Raghava Swami for his blessings and encouragement which were so essential for the devotees. Our ever grateful obeisances are due to HH Kavichandra Swami and HH Ramai Swami, …

By Mahatma DasIn the early days of the movement a devotee explained Sigmund Freud’s theory to Prabhupada that everything one does is motivated by sex. The devotee disagreed and said he felt people are primarily motivated by a spiritual yearning. …

By Varsana Swami The Palace of Gold is the first samadhi of Srila Prabhupada in the world, although originally it was not intended to be his samadhi. The devotees had intended to construct a simple residence in a peaceful, undisturbed environment where…

By Parvati devi dasi Srila Prabhupada is sitting in Samadhi in Vrndavan in the most beautiful Mandir –out of this world. Most of us think, “Oh, it’s finally built, and that’s the end of it”. But, as everything else in this world, it still has to be m…

By Padmanabha Dasa During the padayatra, people would often ask us about Srila Prabhupada. They wanted to know why he was sitting and not saying anything, and others wanted to know if they could touch his feet. We took this as a good opportunity to ex…

By Murali Vadhana Govinda Dasa

A small padayatra was held in Malaysia on August 14th. It was organized by ISKCON Teluk (Mayapur Baru) and commemorated ‘World Holy Name Week’ and ISKCON’s 50th anniversary. Srila Prabhupada visited the town of Teluk Intan located in the Hilir Perak district of Malaysia in 1970. He also visited the Mariamman Temple here. Now, years later it was decided that this temple would be the starting point of the commemorative padayatra. The padayatra was set to take place at 5:30 pm. There were around 50 devotees gathered at the Mariamman Temple. We also carried a murti i of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. We had organized some media coverage from a local newspaper, ‘Tamil Malar.’ They were meant to cover the event from the beginning but unfortunately, because they had arrived late, it didn’t work out. They did, however; agree to publish the event later after we had completed the walk.

By Madhava Smullen

The festival is a revival of the historical Prabhupada Festivals that began in the West Virginia rural community with the opening of Srila Prabhupada’s Palace in 1979, and continued through to the mid 1980s. Lavish affairs, they saw devotees from around the world come together to serve Srila Prabhupada with processions, abishekhas and gift-giving, as well as 24-hour kirtans, dramas, sumptuous feasts, and elaborate fireworks displays. This year’s festival aims to not only bring back that tradition, but also to reconnect with previous residents who assisted in the gradual development of New Vrindaban; revive a spirit of giving special attention to Srila Prabhupada; and awaken the team spirit and sweet, sincere mood of service that the early devotees had for him.

By Mahakarta das

Honourable Mano Ganesan – Minster of National Coexistence Dialogue and Official Languages, attended the Sri Krishna Janmastami celebration at Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple. He was offered Golden shawl, Prasadam and Garland. He gave a memento in honour of Srila Prabhupada for the 50th Anniversary of ISKCON.

By Mayapur Sasi dasa During August, in the Large Temples category, Ujjain had the highest increase, 113%, with 10,082 book points. In the middle of India in August it’s hot. So devotees doing the austerity of book distribution in Ujjain’s heat get some…

By Subhangi Devi Dasi Every year over 100,000 people line the streets of Towoomba in Queensland Australia for the Grand Floral Street Parade. This year on the 17th Sept Iskcon Bhakti Centre Gold Coast participated with our Rathyatra cart. Jaganath, S…

By Advaita Acarya Dasa Protecting the cows: If we accept the cow as our mother, she deserves our veneration and love. And we should protect her from all dangers. In Vedic times it was the duty of everyone, especially kings, to protect the cows at all c…

By Jnana Dasa Implicit in current theories of evolution are two basic assumptions: first, that the myriad living forms have come into being exclusively by chance and the action of natural laws; and second, that consciousness and all life processes are …

By Ananda Vrndavanesvari Devi Dasi Just as a very good sweet will have something hidden inside of it, or a company will have the inner group of key people, the Gita has a core made up of four verses. These are called the Catur Sloki (catur = four, and …

By Sacinandana Swami As Krsna displays His attractive three-fold bending form, His left side stretches up broad and straight, without showing the three lines on His belly. His right heel is raised, and His left foot appears to be kissing the earth. His…

By Mahatma Das

In the early days, Prabhupada asked devotees how they wanted to serve Krsna. Usually they would say something like, “Whatever you want, Srila Prabhupada.” And he would respond, “No, I want to know what you want to do for Krsna. Prabhupada was doing what he taught his managers to do: challenge devotees to find out what they are most inspired to do for Krsna. “Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” – Carl Jung Our life’s purpose should not necessarily be chosen because of what others expect of us. Often what others expect is the very thing we are least motivated to do. We shouldn’t choose our mission to impress others; neither should we do it to take advantage of others. And we shouldn’t choose it because someone else is doing it. Sometimes you may have goals that are in contradiction to one another. For example, you may want to be a professor but don’t want to spend the time and effort to get a PhD. You may want to play in the Philharmonic orchestra but don’t want to spend much time learning music and practicing your instrument. This is what happens when you make goals that are not connected to your life mission. In this state you’re likely to take one step forward and one backward, and you often get in your own way. To accomplish such things you may need continual outside direction. Strong motivation isn’t going to be there when your goals are not inspiring.

By Kesava Krsna Dasa Let us say we won a general election. A majority vote sweeps us into power. All state resources are at our disposal. There will still be a democratic opposition in place, but they will want to see how we give all citizens of th…

By Bhurijana dasa Once, on the Hyderabad farm during a morning walk, Srila Prabhupada was asked whether a particular mantra could be chanted within the temple. Srila Prabhupada’s reply was that there was nothing wrong with the mantra, but our principle…

By Lakshmanesvara Dasa

Many international religious and political leaders honored ISKCON Founder Srila Prabhupada’s achievements and contributions at a special ISKCON 50th Anniversary Gala Event in Washington D.C. on Tuesday September 13th. The event took place in the Presidential Ballroom at the Capital Hilton Hotel on 16th Street. Three blocks from the White House, the Ballroom has hosted every president since Harry S. Truman and features a permanent eight-foot presidential seal on its wall. Over 300 people attended the Gala event, seventy-five of them special VIP invitees including religious leaders, religious liberty experts, members of the media, government representatives and political leaders. Among them were U.S. Congresswoman from Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard, U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts Joseph Kennedy, Nepalese Ambassador to the U.S. Dr. Arjun Kumar Karki, Community Affairs Minister N.K. Mishra from the Indian Embassy, and Deputy Chief of Mission Mahbub Hasan Saleh from the Embassy of Bangladesh.

By the Sannyasa Minister

It is the duty of a sannyasi to become advanced in Krishna consciousness by trying to please the Supreme and serve His mission, by cooperating with other devotees to spread Krishna consciousness to the innocent, and by defeating atheistic propaganda. Srila Prabhupada writes in NOI 5 that “this is the way to cultivate devotional service properly.” Sannyasis teaching these methods of spiritual advancement to the those cultivating pure devotional service, whether acting as diksa or siksa gurus are bona fide spiritual masters. amara ajnaya guru hana tara’ ei desa (Adi 12.73)

By Giriraj Swami Today is Visvarupa-mahotsava, the date on which Lord Caitanya’s older brother, Visvarupa, took sannyasa, the renounced order of life. And on the same date some four hundred and fifty years later, our own spiritual master, Srila Prabhup…

By Madhava Smullen

Religious and Political Leaders Appreciate Srila Prabhupada at ISKCON 50 Gala Dinner in Washington D.C. The response from the VIPs to the evening was overwhelmingly positive, with many commenting that they had been unaware of the depth of Srila Prabhupada’s scholarship, or the breadth of his contributions in spreading the Krishna tradition around the world. The ISKCON devotees present, meanwhile, were very inspired to see so many esteemed personalities appreciating ISKCON’s contributions. “I found the event to be an unprecedented validation of Srila Prabhupada and his contributions to the world,” says Rukmini devi dasi, one of Prabhupada’s earliest female disciples. “To see so many important people appreciating him, chanting and dancing with their arms upraised, and thoroughly enjoying the experience, was just wonderful.”

By Gokulananda das As you walk towards the twin-towered Complexe Desjardins, in the heart of downtown Montreal’s popular festival district, just opposite the prestigious Place-des-Arts, you are beckoned by the elegant Bharatnatyam dancer on the 15 x…

By Chandan Yatra Das His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) was sent by the Lord Krishna to fulfil Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s prediction “Prtvithe ache yata nagaradi grama, sarvatra pracara haibe more nama” – In every town and …

By Acarya-nistha dasa

Mayapur Academy has been established to fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s desire for the development of deity worship and brahminical culture in ISKCON. By creating an educational institution of excellence in Mayapur to teach brahminical culture, arts and sciences, deity worship, cooking, samskaras etc. this vision will be fulfilled.

By Braja Vilas das

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur is one of the most important acaryas in our Gaudiya line. He can be seen as the father of modern-day Krishna Consciousness. He, along with his son Bhaktisiddhanta, created an explosion of preaching all over India, and he was also the first Vaisnava to send books to the west. He rediscovered many of the pilgrimage sites in Mayapur and foresaw the day when devotees from all over the globe would arrive here to perform blissful Sankirtana together. Srila Prabhupada often told the devotees in Mayapur that they were fulfilling Bhaktivinoda’s prediction.

By the EuroGBC This paper aims to present the contribution of Bhaktivinoda Thakur to the establishment and development of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). It regards his personal life as the role model for the practitioners…

Bhaktivedanta Research Centre: Sri Godrumacandra-bhajanopadesha by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura. Read More…

By Mayapur Sasi dasa For the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada this report contains the following North American results of book distribution for the month of August 2016. North American Totals, Monthly Temples, Monthly Weekend Warriors. Monthly Top 100 Ind…

By Radhanath Swami Bali Maharaj performed a hundred Aswamedha yajnas when he was ruling very powerfully. So little Vamanadev, just by himself, walked with his bare feet and came upon the arena of the sacrifice on the banks of Narmada River. When Bali …

By Gauravani dasa 1. He is known by many names, the most common ones being Vamana (the little dwarf), Trivikrama (he who has taken three step; the giant form), and Upendra (Indra’s younger brother); 2. In every planetary system the denizens worship a p…

By Vamanadeva das A brahmana or sannyasi is qualified to ask charity from others, but if he takes more than necessary he is punishable. No one can use more of the Supreme Lord’s property than necessary. Lord Vamanadeva indirectly indicated to Bali Maha…

By Gour Govinda Swami Conditioned souls, being victims of illusion and the repetition of the cycle of birth and death, are prone to commit errors. The material world created by the Lord is our testing place. Here at every step we are continually being …

By Giriraj Swami Srila Prabhupada furthered many of Thakura Bhaktivinoda’s projects: engaging householders in local preaching initiatives (nama-hatta); establishing the principle that Vaishnavas, even not born brahmans, are greater than brahmans (and a…