Author Archives: Dandavats

By Bhakti Caru Swami

Today we are going to celebrate the prize distribution ceremony of Mayapur Sankirtana. This year Mayapur is holding the first place in the world (Devotees: Haribol!) in Srila Prabhupada’s book distribution campaign. And we are very sorry to defeat HH Gopala Krishna Maharaja. (laughter) Yeah no one can defeat Gopala Krishna Maharaja. He won the Marathon. But thats the credit of Mayapur. Mayapur distributes books throughout the year and that is the real book distribution program. Isn’t it Vijay Prabhu? Yeah, The sankirtana minister, book distribution minister Vijay Prabhu is agreeing with me. Anyway in Krishna consciousness its always win-win. Even when we lose, its win. In Krishna consciousness there is no loss. And the thing is we are very happy to announce that the Mayapur devotees……how many devotees go out in book distribution? 100 devotees, we have 10 buses, sankirtana buses and each bus takes 10 devotees. So 100 devotees are continuously distributing books throughout the year all over India.

Ratnavali Devi Dasi: We’ll now be including the Harinams which promote the festivals and those at Demonstrations in the schedule.

By Karuna Dharini Devi DasiOne hundred and eleven floors up, head bent over his desk, his GPBLe (Gross Physical Body, luxury edition) was stalled. His secretary had a suggestion. “I know just what to do for you,” Punya said. “Let’s go check out that s…

Iskcon New Vrindaban: Vidura Prabhu, born November 25, 1944, left his body peacefully at his home in New Vrindaban, WV, on the auspicious appearance day of Lord Nityananda, February 20, 2016, at the age of 71.

By Lokanath Swami

So there are the astra’s mentioned, there are several astra’s. Prasadam is also astra. And hence comes the ISKCON bullet, ISKCON bullets are gulab jamuns. And you are finished! So Prabhupada just fed prasada and so many demons, American demons, demoniac nature was killed. There were hippies, there were demons, they chanted Hare krishna, ate gulab jamuns and they were happy. The hippies became happies. So Prabhupada was senapati bhakta, talking of senapati, sena means army, he is chief in commander and then he made New York his destination. Go to New York. New York the capital of the age of Kali. And upon arrival there he started showering bombs of the holy name and the time bomb his books were also weapons. They would explode but not destroy but construct beautiful heart or consciousness.

By Krpakara dasa When is a person Krsna conscious enough to preach? Lord Caitanya encouraged all His disciples and followers to preach Krsna consciousness widely-to every town and village. The Krsna consciousness movement following in the footsteps of…

By Karnamrita dasa The concept that we are not our bodies is considered a preliminary basic understanding for devotees, yet this conception has proved not so easy to put into practice. We can all look within ourself and at our communities and society …

By Bhakti Nilaya das A sign of a good leader is that he does not request those under him to do something that he is not prepared to do. So before we desire to distribute this Vedic culture to the whole world, we ourselves have to be following it in …

By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada My suggestion is that people should utilize all this vacant land for crops. I have seen so much land lying dormant. For instance, in Australia and also in America, there is so much land lying dor…

By Bhanu Swami

Why does the Lord prefer sattva guna? Why does He praise the gunas when they are all actually bad, when all gunas are material? It’s because the Lord is very clever. Built into prakriti itself, within sattva guna, there is an escape hole by which you can get out of the material world. It’s material but it also has something very interesting in it. The nature of sattva guna is vidya, knowledge, jnana. The jnana does not mean material knowledge because you can get that in raja or tamas guna a little bit. In sattva guna the jnana takes the form of beginning to understand that we are not the material body. This is the natural result of sattva guna. We become detached from material enjoyment and begin to understand that we are not the material body but that we are atma. We begin to accept scriptures.

By Bhakti Caru Swami

I’ll end the class with a pastime that HH Gour Govinda Maharaj narrated about why Krishna came as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. One day in Vrindavan, Radharani was waiting for Krishna. The sakhis arranged the kunja. They met in flower groves. They decorated the place very beautifully for Krishna to come. Radharani was waiting for Krishna, but Krishna had not come. It was quite late but still, Krishna did not come. One messenger was sent to find out what actually happened, why Krishna was not coming. So she went and found out that Krishna was with Candravali. Candravali, although she is Radharani’s sister, is Radharani’s competitor. Incidentally, in Vraja lila, it is Radharani and Candravali. In Dvarka lila, Candravali becomes Rukmini and Radharani becomes Satyabhama. So they are always with Krishna.

By Iskcon Mayapur

As a special offering to Srila Prabhupada to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of ISKCON, 50 National flags were put up in the park and 50 lamps were offered. Then as the flags reached the top of their poles, thousands of colorful flower petals came down from the sky showering all the devotees present, with sweet Bliss. Beautiful sannyasis broke coconuts as an auspicious way to officially begin the festival in front of hundreds of cheering devotees. Loud kirtan could be heard from far away and devotees could be seen dancing all around the flags. This was the official start but here in Sri Mayapur dham, it is always festival, there is so much happening at the same time, anyone can constantly be plunge deep into the spiritual world. Everywhere we look something spiritual is happening, and on top of being already in the Spiritual world, for the last week now, we have been blessed with Sravan utsava . This most amazing festival with all day long special classes one after the other. HG Madhavananda das, HH Bhakti Purusottam Maharaj, HH Nrsimha Maharaj, HH Bhakti Vinod Maharaj, HH Bhakti Rasamrita Maharaj, HH Lokanath Maharaj and HH Bhakti Charu Maharaj all gave amazing divine discourses.

By Kesava Krsna Dasa

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur writes: “Many of us maintain a similar concept that we renounce our family life, we sacrifice a lot in the service of our spiritual master, some of us collect donations and do a lot of multifarious direct and indirect service for the satisfaction of our spiritual master, but what do we gain? Here we forget that we do such sums very well and it is only for our own well-being that he is getting the sums done by us. The spiritual master is engaging us in different services for our own satisfaction and welfare in the path of devotion. Those who are averse to their own benefit, only consider such services to be meant for the welfare of the spiritual master, for the temple complex, for the vaisnavas, for the Lord, and thus foolishly take little interest in them”.(Upakhyane Upadesa)

By Karnamrita dasa Our heart is compared in the scriptures to be like a clear crystal that reflects what is before it. We become like who we associate with closely or intimately. That means that when we open our heart to someone, and they open their he…

By Madhavananda Das

There is a lot of discussion right now, especially in America, about the latest presidential election. In a recent issue of Sri Krishna Kathamrita Bindu we put together a collection of statements from Srila Prabhupada regarding his mood towards voting in secular circles. As always, Srila Prabhupada’s attitude is purely Krishna conscious. I also found it very detached — he was asked several times if he wanted his followers to vote or not, — he repeatedly replied that the choice was up to them. For brevity, I’m only posting some of the most relevant quotes below.

By Janesvari Devi Dasi

The design for the overall TOVP Master Plan has been created by one of our Russian architects, Rangavati dasi, who has been with the TOVP since 2013. We are trying to create the most aesthetic and colorful gardens in India for the pleasure of the Lord. By clicking on an icon number, you will get a glimpse of how magnificent the surrounding TOVP gardens will look. There are currently 2 sections available: Vegetation and Outdoor furniture.

By Indradyumna Swami

“One can attain the path of liberation from material bondage only by rendering service to highly advanced spiritual personalities. These personalities are impersonalists and devotees. Whether one wants to merge into the Lord’s existence or wants to associate with the Personality of Godhead, one should render service to the mahatmas. For those who are not interested in such activities, who associate with people fond of women and sex, the path to hell is wide open. The mahatmas are equipoised. They do not see any difference between one living entity and another. They are very peaceful and are fully engaged in devotional service. They are devoid of anger, and they work for the benefit of everyone. They do not behave in any abominable way. Such people are known as mahatmas.”

By Krishna-kripa Das

Hare Krishna devotees from Alachua and Gainesville chanted in the annual Martin Luther King Day March this year as they have for several years. As usual we were the only group with music, and because we had a nice loud sound system, it was easy for people to hear us. Despite our dominating presence, many people were favorable, and no one complained about us. [Lord Caitanya said:] “In every town and village of the world, in every place, My name will be propagated.” (Caitanya-bhagavata, Antya-kandha 4.126)

By Khonika Gope-Kumar The seven subterranean planets, i.e. those are below the earthly plane (not to be confused with the earthly globe) known as Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talātala, Mahātala, Rasātala and Pātāla (SB 5.24.7) are, in fact, more opulent than…

By Anantaram das Devotees often find themselves immersed in conflict with other devotees and thus see their development come to a halt. This has certainly happened to me. By the mercy of Hari-Guru-Vaisnava, this is changing and I am slowly progressing …

By Devamrita Swami

Amidst all this mayhem and we shouldn’t take this mayhem as something outlandish that well at least human beings today aren’t this bad! Just consider, there is one particular nation in this world, I wont mention its name, although I happen to have taken birth there (laughs), it has proposed that for the upliftment of peace and the stability of the world, over the course of the next thirty years, 1 trillion dollars should be spent upgrading the nuclear arsenal, 1 trillion dollars! All for the sake of peace! Srila Prabhupada explains in Bhagavad Gita that this is demoniac. He declares straightforwardly these weapons are not for peace. We have to think twice about that because perhaps we have been brainwashed, the nuclear weapons are there to maintain world peace. Therefore the governments have to spend on this. Srila Prabhupada assures us they are not meant for peace! They are actually the result of envy against living entities. I live you die! and there is some strange perverse envious satisfaction in having the ability to annihilate other creatures. Envy has a different meaning in the sastra besides just one on one enviousness which is bad enough – You are rising up! I cant tolerate that! Your rise, whether its material or spiritual, we’ve got to do something to cut you down!

By Romapada Das

Rasamandala Das, Director of ISKCON Educational Services, made a presentation on devotee care at the plenary session. Earlier, he had delivered several seminars on devotee care, many of which had proved highly popular with the international audience. He felt that the ILS offered a chance to air new ideas, become innovative and deal with things as they were happening.  “We need to be able to relate shastra to real life experiences of devotees,” he said. “In a sense it is about getting real.” Several devotees walked up to Rasamandala after his sessions on devotee care and told him they felt grateful someone was actually talking about such an important topic. “This is very relevant to ourselves,” he concluded. “And we do need to talk about it more. The vision for our devotee care initiative is to ensure that every devotee is spiritually happy, materially well-situated, and positively identifies ISKCON as a caring society.”

By Jai Nitai das

The day after Gaura Purnima, Thursday 24th March, ISKCON-London’s Radha-Krishna Temple, Govinda’s Restaurant and Radha’s Boutique will be closed to the public for at least three weeks while we undergo major refurbishment to all public areas. Our hope is that we will be re-opened in time for Ramanavami Festival on the 15th April latest. Please note that although closed in general to the public, some programmes such as courses, harinamas, and mentorship meetings may still take place. Please check with representatives in those areas for confirmation.

By Sri Nandanandana das Dharma is also said to be the force which maintains the universe. Where there is dharma there is harmony and balance individually, socially, and inter-galactically. So the path of dharma brings about the harmony and contentment…

By Vishakha Devi Dasi An appreciation of the extraordinarily devoted life of Srila Prabhupada’s beloved disciple Yamuna Devi Dasi (1942–2011). Joan: Little did I know what kind of wedding it would be. All I knew was that they had received the names Mu…

By Praghosa Das

The ILS seminars in Sridhama Mayapur during ISKCON’s 50th Anniversary celebrations and the Gaur Purnima Festival are underway and a dynamic partnership with the TOVP Fundraising Team is helping to facilitate this year’s seminars. These seminars are organized every two years under the direction of Gopal Bhatta prabhu to educate, train and inspire ISKCON devotees in different areas of management, outreach, devotee care and much more. They are attended by hundreds of GBC’s, sannyasis, Temple Presidents, Congregational Development leaders, Bhakti Vrksha leaders and general devotees from all over the world. This year also brought some additional inspiration and excitement to the gathering when the attendees themselves forged together to combinedly pledge $250,000 to the TOVP which included a $100,000 donation from Gopal Bhatta himself. The TOVP Team is very appreciative of this generous action which will undoubtedly be a springboard for further contributions during the Gaur Purnima Festival.

By bhakticharuswami.com

In the class Maharaja focused on the concept of devotion where he also discussed the philosophy of scriptures depicting the transmigration of the souls from one body to another and the cycle of birth and death. Maharaja said that the best way of understanding the Lord is by directing ourselves on the track that is illuminated by “Bhagavad Gita As It Is”. He said that “the best way to understand the taste of pudding is by tasting it”. Similarly, the best way to understand devotion is by practicing it. He also said that Krishna and Arjuna had the conversation to cultivate the instruction of devotion within his devotees. Maharaja said that the best way to understand any person is asking him directly, similarly to know the Lord, you need to read His book of instructions “Bhagavad Gita As It Is”. Maharaja gave the conclusion in Hindi Tro accommodate the Hindi speaking audience.

By Romapada Das

At the pre-launch of ISKCON Connection on the 7th day of the ILS, Praharana Devi Dasi explained that the new initiative will help connect every devotee to our worldwide community. ISKCON Connection, which will be formally launched on Gaura Purnima day this year, is a 50th anniversary initiative. “Any ISKCON devotee can register on the website, and will be able to connect to other ISKCON devotees, become familiar with GBC activities, be nurtured in spiritual life, and access a secure database of ISKCON members,” said Praharana Devi Dasi in her introductory talk.

By Prasanta Devi Dasi

What is the real life of a human being? It is to simply endeavour, to forget about all the past that we may have gone through, and simply look at the future. The future is Krishna’s lotus feet, the future is to distribute all over the world this process of hearing and chanting, to flood every street, every corner. This is what Srila Prabhupada gave us as the purpose of this movement. To instruct each and every person about the process of devotional service and to make it, to make a society that where the interactions are such that this hearing and chanting can go on uninterruptedly, both as groups and as individuals. We want to hear and chant uninterruptedly. There is no other solution for the miseries of the world. All fears, meaning that within our own society there shouldn’t be any fear, they should not be afraid. We should be afraid only of breaking our vows, we should be afraid of not following the instructions of the spiritual master. Otherwise there is no other fear.

By Radhanath Swami

In 1965 he boarded Jaladutta alone, with nothing, with no one, for that purpose. He was willing to sacrifice everything. He was willing to physically die to please his guru. And when he approached Boston Harbor, in his prayers to Krishna, just like the prayers of Haridas, Vasudeva Datta, and Prahlad, he was humbling himself completely. He said I am totally dependent upon You, my Lord Krishna. My only shelter, my only hope, is the mercy of my Guru Maharaj and this is his instruction. If You give me the power for these people to understand Your words, then they can be happy. Please let me be your puppet.
Those simple prayers are really the foundation of ISKCON.

Brijlata Dasi: Bhaktivedanta Manor, Iskcon Goshalla is currently seeking a Full time farm assistant.

By Romapada Das

After screening a short film about Mayapur on the sixth day of ILS, Brjavilasa Das spoke to the ILS delegates on behalf of the Temple of Vedic Planetarium (TOVP), stressing the importance of Mayapur in the eyes of Srila Prabhupada. He mentioned that Prabhupada had wanted to establish Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as the yugavatara for this age from the precincts of this temple. “In 1969, Srila Prabhupada gave his first ever instruction on Mayapur to Gopal Krishna Goswami,” announced Brjavilasa Das. “He told him that if he went to India, he should go to Mayapur and build a temple there.” He explained that Bhaktivinoda Thakura had seen a vision of the temple from his residence in Svarupaganj, across the river Jalangi. He had also envisioned Americans, Russians and Europeans dancing and singing here with karatalas and mridangas.

By Dwaipayan De A devotee of the Supreme Lord is magnanimous and an inspiration to one and all. A devotee of the Lord is all-purifying and it is by great fortune that one comes to associate with him. Infact even a moment’s association with a Pure devo…

By Madhava Smullen

From Govinda’s Restaurant, Vasudeva Das said that visitor numbers had notably increased throughout the year. This was probably due in no small part to the expanded menu, with world cuisine like sushi, tacos, and lasagna, as well as doughnuts, cakes, and vegan items. New décor was also added, including a book table; and increased kitchen space and a new altar made the atmosphere more pleasant for staff. Vasudeva also presented for Madri Dasi from the Devotee Kitchen, who had to return home to Northern Ireland to be take care of an urgent family matter. Madri introduced a much-needed more healthy, balanced diet for the devotees, a consistent cooking schedule, and the use of ghee rather than oil. The Devotee Kitchen was also brightened up with a newly painted hallway and new doors.

By Jananivasa Das

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura was living at the Sri Caitanya Math, just past the Yogapitha, the birth place of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, then past that Srivasa angam, then the next temple that is Caitanya Math. And he took a very severe vow to chant 1 billion names, I think. It means like you chant 3 lakhs of rounds everyday for nine years. He had to complete that vow and he did! And he was living like an avadhuta here. He would perform the Caturmasya ceremony very strictly – put some khichari on the ground and he would go down one time, put your hands behind your back and lick! lick! lick! and when you come up you don’t come down again, thats it for the day! He had grown long hair, kind of like an avadhuta. We see him very strict in his photographs like this but at that time he was like an avadhuta.

By Romapada Das

“The criteria of the devotees’ success is not that he thinks ‘I am authorised, therefore I am qualified’. One should think, ‘I am authorised, but I need to be aware of my lack of qualifications, and will always become dependent on the Lord’. Success is always guaranteed to those who are conscious of their subordinate position,” said Niranjana Swami to the delegates, many of whom had lined up 30 minutes before the lecture to hear the two speakers. “Srila Prabhupada always gave credit to his higher authorities, his spiritual master and Lord Chaitanya, and never took credit for himself.”

By Romapada Das

On the fourth day of the ILS, delegates at the plenary session heard a presentation by Anuttama Das, GBC Minister for Communications on the topic, ‘Srila Prabhupada, the greatest communicator’. He explained that we normally associate Prabhupada with his books, letters, conversations and speeches, but we should also remember that Prabhupada was a skilful communicator. “Prabhupada tried to create a favourable environment for preaching Krishna consciousness by meeting influential leaders of the day such as Allen Ginsberg, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, George Harrison, and others. He met several religious leaders, VIPs, government leaders, and businessmen,” said Anuttama Das. “Prabhupada made it clear that he did not want to convert everyone or make them into devotees. Instead he wanted influential people to become ‘sympathisers’ so that a favourable environment could be created for spreading Krishna consciousness.”

By Iskcon Kanyakumari

On 50th Anniversary of ISKCON, we wish to organise 50 Gita Yajna in our preaching area Kanyakumari. In this program our aim to distribute 5000 Bhagavad Gitas, take oath from them in yajna to read one page atleast daily, distribute prasadam to 10000 people and reach out Harinama to minimum 20000 people through this program. We started this program with 2015 Gita Jayanthi and so far conducted 11 yajna program. Distributed 1143 Bhagavad Gitas and nearly 1720 people have taken Oath to read it every day minimum one page. Nearly 3220 plates of prasadam has already been distributed. Nearly 4650 people got chance to hear Harinama kirtanam. Wish to complete this 50 Gita Yagam with the blessings of all vaishnavas.

By Vaisesika Das

In fact the whole material world if you think about it is a huge chance for Krishna to induce the living entities to go back home, back to Godhead. It’s the srishti lila, during which in the exhalation of Maha Visnu there is unlimited opportunities for living entities to come in contact with the various incarnations of the Lord, the various representatives of the Lord, the Ganges, different sastras, and its mentioned also in the Srimad Bhagavatam that the process of destruction takes place when Anantadeva becomes a little annoyed, actually angry it says. Annoyed is a more modern word. (laughs) He becomes angry that the living entities who have being offered so much opportunity to take to Krishna consciousness and Prabhupada says in the purport – to close down their business in this material world. Everyone’s got a little business going on, they have a little chip in the game here and Krishna comes along and gives a better deal, much better deal and says you kn ow, ‘Just close your business. I’ll take care of you, go back to Godhead.’ But people keep playing in here, keep playing their little business game and they don’t close it down, they don’t listen. So Prabhupada says, Anantadeva becomes angry. And from the forehead of Sankrsana comes out the eleven Rudras. They come shooting out of His eyebrows and they begin their dance of destruction, they burn down this universe because people aren’t using it properly.

By Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami

The point of discussion is about the equalness of the Lord, because we have our own particular idea of what equalness should look like. Sometimes the Lord’s actual nature of equalness is hard to appreciate. It seems that so many people get benefit and so many people get difficulties. Nice people are getting difficulties, not so nice people are getting benefits. What is the position, how do you judge equalness? This is the actual crux of the whole spiritual and material consciousness. What do you use as the factor of judgement?