Author Archives: Dandavats

Basu Ghosh Das: Holika dahan [burning of the demoness Holika], Abhishek etc.

By Sri Nandanandana dasa If we do a comparative study, we can recognize numerous aspects of the Vedic culture, Krishna consciousness, in many of the Native American traditions. In order to show this, I conducted an interview with Felicity O’rourke who …

By Padmapani Das

In early 1978, Tribhuvanatha Prabhu gathered together a small group of devotees with the aim of spreading Krishna consciousness in the Middle East for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada. The group traveled overland from London to Beirut where 5,000 Arabic Bhagavad-gitas and thousands of Arabic Sri Isopanisads were distributed in the midst of civil war. Some devotees were imprisoned — risking life and limb — but were eventually released unharmed.

By Bhurijana dasa Kamsa was thinking: “Simply hearing Krsna’s name causes my heart to tremble. By some trick, by some clever plan, He must be killed. Already I have tried plan after plan, each one more clever than the last, but all have failed. They we…

By Chaitanya Charan das Doesn’t renunciation indicate an absence of the will to keep fighting amidst frustration? Not necessarily. Renunciation can also be a sign of realization; it can indicate the presence of the insight that there is more to life th…

By His Divine Grace A.C.B. Swami Prabhupada Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita is the record of immortal activities of the Lord. In the first part 9th chapter of the book the welfare activities of the Lord is described in nutshell. According to Sri Chaitanya M…

By Mahaprabhu das

On Tuesday, March 22nd, 2016, a terrorist attack with multiply blasts has shaken Belgium’s capital Brussels killing and injuring dozens at Zaventem Airport and in the subway. On March 23rd, ISKCON Belgium has issued the following statement: “ISKCON Belgium deplores the atrocious acts of violence committed by monsters that do not represent or practice any spiritual tradition but on the contrary, only represent and practice hatred, madness, envy, violence and terror. Our prayers and thoughts are for the victims and their families. May all faiths stand together to condemn all acts of terror and promote peace, dialogue and respect.”

By Dwarakadhisha Devi Dasi I love chanting japa—some days. Other days, I endure chanting japa. It seems to be bliss or boredom. On the good days I am enthralled. Krishna feels very close, and very dear. Not that I’m seeing visions or hearing voices—not…

Sahadeva dasa: On the auspicious occasion of the appearance day of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, we offer two Esraj songs unto His divine lotus feet.

Vraja Bihari Dasa: “Wow! He really looks stunning; is he some demi-God?” I asked innocently, looking at a huge billboard.

By Krishna Dasa Kaviraja Goswami When Lord Caitanya was preaching in the town of Navadvipa, two of His closest associates, Nityananda Prabhu and Haridasa Thakura, approached a noisy crowd on the main road. They learned from passers-by that two brothers…

By Gour Govinda Swami WE SHOULD KNOW the cause for the appearance of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, Lord Caitanya. There are two causes: external and internal. The external cause is to teach Kali-yuga dharma, the religion for Kali-yuga, the Age of Quarrel. That …

By His Divine Grace A.C.B. Swami Prabhupada

Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but He’s channa. Channa means “covered.” Lord Caitanya is a covered avatara, or incarnation, of the Supreme Lord because He appeared as a devotee. In the Kali-yuga He does not appear directly like other incarnations, such as Narsimhadeva, Vamanadeva, or Lord Ramachandra. He appears as a devotee. Why? Because He is the most magnanimous avatara. People are so foolish that they could not understand Krishna. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared to give mercy to the fallen souls, who are so foolish that they cannot take to Krishna consciousness. He is personally teaching how to take to Krishna consciousness. And that process is this kirtana, chanting Krishna’s holy names. – Lecture in Mayapur on the appearance day of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu: March 16, 1976

By Vedic Scriptures The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda, the supreme enjoyer, whose form is transcendental, who is beyond the touch of the three modes of material nature, and who is the all-pervading Supersoul residing in the hearts of all livi…

By Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami We know a great deal about the life and teachings of Lord Caitanya because His immediate followers wrote many books, all authoritatively based on the Vedic scriptures. His chief literary followers were known as the six Gosvam…

By Bhakti Carudesna Swami

The spirit soul, the living entity, has no death, for he is eternal and inexhaustible. Being free from material contamination, he can go anywhere in the material or spiritual worlds. He is fully aware and completely different from the material body, but because of being misled by misuse of his slight independence, he is obliged to accept subtle and gross bodies created by the material energy and thus be subjected to so-called material happiness and distress. Therefore, no one should lament for the passing of the spirit soul from the body.

By Srila Bhaktivinod Thakura It was at the age of 16 or 17 that He travelled to Gaya with a host of His students and there took His spiritual initiation from Isvara Puri, a Vaisnava ‘sannyasi’ and a disciple of the renowned Madhavendra Puri. Upon His r…

By Aniruddha Dasa

The positive reputation of ISKCON in Australia is built in good part on the good will created by the prasadam distribution of our restaurants and the vegetarian or bhakti yoga clubs in our universities. It is an essential element of connecting with the man on the street, especially in countries with small populations where you can’t sell a book to an individual every day of the week. They will however, be hungry every day, and happy to pay for a good, healthy, scrumptious meal of delicious Krsna prasadam. Sometimes eating more than one meal a day!
We should take advantage of this global opportunity!

By Giriraj Swami Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared on the full-moon day of the month of Phalguna in Sri Navadvipa-dhama in western Bengal. He manifested His pastimes on earth for forty-eight years. For the first twenty-four years, in Navadvipa, He playe…

Purushottam Nitai Das: “Why is the Supreme Lord so concerned about him? And most importantly where could we find him?” The devotees were wondering.

By HH Bhakti Madhurya Govinda Swami

I asked Srila Prabhupada personally, Srila Prabhupada, I said, United States is like a heavenly planet, if you go to super market then everything is there. In US you could buy imported jams and jellies real fruits you know & packets good, packet, cereals, canned goods and very fresh produce from various place around the world. It’s like a paradise except the meat department. So I asked Prabhpada, it’s so much like a heavenly planet and so much opulence and all that but no yajña to support it. Of course I was thinking of the BG “yajno vai visnuh”, that you know, “annad bhavanti bhutani”, I was thinking of that sloka I dint spell it out to Srila Prabhupada, I didn’t have to say the verse he knew what l was talking about. There is always prosperity, but there is nothing to sustain it because this prosperity is sustained by yajña and there is no yajña. He said very ominously, it will not last very soon it will be finished.

By His Divine Grace A.C.B. Swami Prabhupada The so-called political leaders are busy making plans to advance the material prosperity of their nation, but factually these political leaders only want an exalted position for themselves. Due to their greed…

By Chaitanya dasa Avatars of Sri Krishna Bhagavan must: 1. Comply with predictions in authoritative scriptures 2. Display 32 auspicious markings on the body and feet 3. Have long arms that past the knees. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is 7 ft tall and also…

By Vrajendranandan Das

HH Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaja apprised the Prime Minister about the global preaching efforts of ISKCON, particularly the propagation of the priceless message of the Bhagavad Gita in most of the significant languages of the world. The Prime Minister was pleased to hear that the Bhagavad Gita is available in 81 languages of the world. The Prime Minister was also presented with a copy of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is in Russian, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi and English. Maharaja also offered to have a copy of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is in all languages, kept in the Prime Minister’s Library; something which Srila Prabhupada would have been pleased to hear.

By Nitya Kishor Dasi

On the 8th day (18th of March), we are going to see the sacred places in Antardvipa, the island of full surrender. It is interesting that a big part of ISKCON Mayapur complex is situated in Antardvipa. We are just 1km from Yoga Pitha. Those who come to Mayapur or live here are invited to practice the process of surrender; these are the blessings of this island. We are scheduled to reach ISKCON Mayapur campus tomorrow 9:00am where a Maha Milan (great meeting) will take place with all the parties meeting at the same time, which demands a lot of communication and organization from the leaders, securities, Parade commanders and Coordinators.

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 February. North American Totals, Monthly Temples, Monthly Weekend Warriors. Monthly Top 100 Individuals, Monthly Top 5, Cumulative Countries, Cumulative Temples, Cumulative Top 100 Individuals, Cumulative Top 5

Isvara Dasa: We are delighted to announce the release of the new publication, Sri Laghu-Bhagavatamrta of Srila Rupa Goswami.

By Vraja Vilasa das

On this most auspicious occasion, 530 years ago, Lord Krsna Himself descended here as the Golden Avatar to deliver a spiritual treasure to each and every one of us. Even as the branches of the sankirtan movement continuously spread from Mayapur all over the globe, every Gaura Purnima thousands of joyful devotees return to where it all began to celebrate, worship, and pay homage to our Lord. Together, through our collective prayers and determined efforts, Lord Caitanya’s new temple is being raised by your generous contributions.

By Nagaraja Dasa Many people think the members of the Hare Krsna movement have failed to join the dance of life. They think we are no longer free to experience life’s Joys. “Your lives are too restricted,” they say. “How can you be happy? You’ve given …

By Omkara devi dasi One time when Srila Prabhupada came to New Dwaraka he was passing out sweet balls instead of the traditional Prabhupada cookies. The temple was so crowded with visiting devotees, sannyasis and GBC I thought there was no way I could…

By Chandan Bhatia The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Caitanya, propagated the essence of all religion for the age of Kali – congregational chanting of Lord Hari’s holy name. Accompanied by His associates, He appeared in Kali-yuga simply to establ…

By Sita Rama das

Why are people more attracted to churches that demand more, when they could choose one that demands less? Answers to this are found in an academic paper published in the, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (Sacrifice and Stigma: Managing Religious Risk, by Prosper Raynold). It is because people have the propensity to develop faith and hope in God; but people tend to rely on “faith intermediaries” to deepen their understanding of the will of God. They need to believe they have found intermediaries who have access to God (through sacred texts) and can transmit the will of God, and not exploit them. People then act in accordance with God’s will in order to obtain eternal life. But there is a, “mediation risk”, involved regarding whether the prescribed path will lead to the desired outcome. This intermediary risk is mitigated by “strictness.”

Patita Pavana dasa: Dylan must have seen or heard Prabhupada in all likelihood but I doubt he’d admit it.

By Mahasundari Madhavi Devi Dasi

Since the last five years, book distribution in North America has been on a steady increase. In 2012, under the encouragement and guidance of H.G. Vaisesika Prabhu, temple presidents and leaders assembled Team North America (continent wide team with one goal). In 2012, Team North America set a goal of 20% increase in the dollars remitted to BBT versus prior year; in 2013 another 20% increase on top of that, and in 2014 and 2015 each, additional 10% increase. The results were astounding – remittances more than doubled, implying an average annual growth of 18% over the last 5 years! This unprecedented and steady increase in book distribution has created new waves of enthusiasm in several centres across North America.

By Anuttama Das

I have a friend, he is a professor who is a Muslim man and he is older. He may be in his seventies. He went and heard Prabhupada speak at Harvard University, whenever Prabhupada was there in early 69 or 70’s something like that in the early days, he just happened to walking through the hall of the divinity college and he saw someone in saffron. Being from India he knew saffron was not something you ordinarily see in the Harvard campus. So, he went to hear Prabhupada and two things he said came out which convinced is that there is great spiritual truth in every tradition. Because he was Muslim and he came and heard this Vaishnava saint speak, he was so impressed. So I knew this story for years and recently I was with him again. I asked I said, tell me that story again about your time with Prabhupada. So he told me the story again. At the end he said, you know something funny?, he said I’m a muslim he said whenever I’m in trouble and whenever there is a problem I think of him. He said I’m a muslim and you think I would think of something in Islam, but I don’t, I think of him. He started to cry and then it went like that, I can’t talk about any more.

By Nitya Kishor Dasi

Early in the morning we left the beautiful Pratapnagar towards the Ganges shore (only 2 km walk). We boarded the boats and ship to Sankarpur. You can’t imagine how it is to get all these boats on the right time and cross the Ganga with more than one thousand people. How much managerial work is necessary to get these things done? To be honest with you there is no such thing as Boat Company here and the boats need to be hired individually, what takes a lot of time, patient and work. Before leaving we offered respects with folded hands to the dhamvasis who were bathing in the Ganges and all the women started the auspicious uludhuani (the loudly sound like a conch shell that we only hear in Bengal), and we felt blessed by them.

By Madhava Smullen

The words “Kuli Mela” literally mean “celebrate community!” in Sanskrit. And the tenth anniversary of the very first Kuli Mela – coming back to New Vrindaban from June 15th to 19th –will do exactly that. With its main themes of “celebrating family” and “building community,” the festival will bring around 1,000 people from the first, second, and third generations of ISKCON together: the original pioneers of Prabhupada’s society, their now grown-up children, and their children. The days will feature a variety of seminars, with a special focus on family and community. For instance, there’s one seminar on parenting, and another on how to start and maintain intentional communities, with successful examples from around the U.S.