Author Archives: Dandavats

By Kesava Krsna Dasa

Many devotees, who were previously active in preaching when living full time in the temples, feel that now – living outside and earning a living – those “good old days” remain just distant topics of nostalgia. Will those days ever return, they wonder? This whole material world is a preaching tool to remind us constantly about the miseries and sufferings it causes, therefore the demigods in charge of universal affairs are preaching there part too. There is an absolute preaching quality in Lord Krishna’s description of birth, death, disease and old age, and His Time factor preaches that all good things must come to an end, including our comfort zones. By becoming mentors or advisors, or organisers, or any background service within Iskcon, it is all preaching nonetheless. To think again about our recommitment and voluntarily coming forward to assist, will, in the higher sense mean that we will be helping to reunite all lost souls back into the divine company of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna.

By Nitya Kishora devi dasi

Before sunrise the International Party moved slowly from Svarupa Ganj (Godrumadvipa) to Hamsa Vahana (Madhyadvipa) . Lord Shiva appeared in this place just to hear Gauranga Lila, so this is very auspicious island. From there we went to the manifestation of Kuruksetra in Navadvipa dhama where the devotees heard about the glorious of the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam from HH Jayapataka Swami Maharaj. Delicious breakfast was serving in Pancaveni, under Gauranga setu as we go every year. Panchaveni means the confluence of the five sacred rivers: Ganga, Sarasvati, Yamuna, Alakananda and Godavari rivers. The current in this part of the island is very strong, so the devotees just pour water in their heads and pay obeisances.

By Caitanya Caran das These mental viruses infect us when we let ourselves become overwhelmed by excessive material desires for either the gross pleasures like smoking and drinking or the subtle gratifications of the ego. When we forget our spiritual i…

By Nitya Kishora devi dasi

HH Bhakti Dhira Damodara Maharaja was explaining how it is important to chant japa without any distraction, he said “Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura affirmed that those who chant japa without full attention like talking, checking emails, having meetings, managing etc are influenced by pramada, or madness”. Maharaj said “We are known as the Hare Krsnas, because we chant Hare Krsna, but the day has 24 hours and how many hours are we supposed to chant? Only 2 hours and the rest of the time what do we do?”. The devotees were listening to him with full attention. We are very fortunate to have HH Bhakti Dhira Damodar Maharaj on Parikram because he always sets a very serious and deep mood for chanting in the devotees minds, and everybody becomes happy when he is present, everybody becomes powerful, with the mind under control.

By Jagannath Das

Rathayatra is a festival for Lord Krishna and His devotees. Its an extraordinary spiritual event that originates in Jagannath Puri on the east coast of India and dates back over 2,000 years. Everyone chants the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and dances in ecstasy as Krishna in His most merciful form of Jagannath is pulled along on a huge wooden cart. Main Attractions of Chariot of Festival at Shivaji Park: Cow Protection (Go Raksha), Pahandi Dance of Lord, Cultural Stall, Drama, Kirtan, Prasadam, 2 Day Mega Event. Guests: H.H. Radhanath Swami H.G. Radheshyam Das

By Visakha Dasi In each of its twelve cantos, Srimad-Bhagavatam, the “flawless ripened fruit of all Vedic scriptures,” tells of miracles and mysticism, of the esoteric and extraterrestrial. We hear a cow, bull, elephant, monkey, and bird speaking deep …

By Sureswara Dasa Bir Krishna the calf loves coconut fudge, and Sita the teamstress knows it. Her pockets bulge with the sweet as she and Bir walk to the training ring. Today the calf will learn his first call: “Get up!” The earth is soft from the rec…

By Niranjana Swami

Therefore he makes distinction between chanting of the names which is executed or performed by those who are materially satisfied or trying to improve themselves materially, and those who have the quality, which is described by Queen Kunti in this verse, those who are materially exhausted, who no longer see any need to pursue such mundane pursuits. Therefore because they have no interest in this world they are feelingly calling out the name, Krishna, and that quality of feelingly chanting Krishna’s name of course is that which attracts the Supreme Lord by the qualities the devotees has in chanting. First point of course which is important to take note of is, Prabhupada says that those who are intoxicated by wealth janma, aisvarya, suta, shri, intoxicated by these, are generally proud of their wealth. Therefore such proud persons also cannot call out the name feelingly.

By Madhava Smullen

Some of his main purposes for the Society included “to systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to society at large,” and “to bring the members of the Society together with each other and nearer to Krishna.” Fifty years later, residents of his first rural community, New Vrindaban, are celebrating his Society’s Golden Jubilee with a packed year of events that intend to spread spiritual knowledge and deepen connections with devotees, the general public, and local municipal leaders. The first event will be a two-day festival on May 20th and 21st celebrating the 30th anniversary of the installation of New Vrindaban’s Nrismha-Prahlad Deities, the only full-sized such Deities in North America.

By Radhanath Swami In Srimad Bhagavatam in ninth canto, there is a story of Shaubhari muni. He was a very powerful yogi. Millions of time more powerful than any materialist today in his ability to fulfill his material desires. He had attained very grea…

By Kaviraja Shanti Prakash Dasa In all relationships we find some element of dependence. However the dependence is voluntary. The desire for freedom or independence remains ingrained within us. It may not be a physical struggle against slavery. It may…

By Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur We are opposed to the atheists alone who live and enjoy for themselves. Those who are anxious for the blessing of God are our brothers in faith, whatever error there may be in their ideas and forms of worship. Love of God, …

Aradhana Devi Dasi: It took a major turn in San Francisco in 1967, when Mr. Siegel became Gurudas, a disciple in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or Iskcon

Krishnabhakta Das: A senior disciple of HH Lokanath Maharaja and one of the most profound Vaishnava Purohit of ISKCON has left his body.

By Ambika devi dasi

Bhaktivedanta Gurukula has welcomed students at the beginning of the new school year. Gurukulas are very important in our society because while the students are being trained in academic knowledge, they are also being guided to remember the cause of all causes, Lord Krishna. This early guidance will remain with them throughout their lives and will assist them to see the Lord’s presence in everything. In the sixth chapter of Bhagavadgita, Krishna explains how a spiritual seeker who does not attain perfection returns to this world, taking birth in a pious, prosperous or transcendentalist family. That soul then revives the divine consciousness of his previous life and makes further progress in order to achieve complete success.

By Padmapani das

As the latest headlines and news reports from around the world become more disturbing for us all, it’s quite natural to wonder just where the joy of life has gone for so many people. The pressing threats of world war, terrorist attacks and a host of other menacing perils hang ominously above our heads as we go about our daily activities, hoping against hope that somehow everything will work out all right. Yet deep in our hearts we know that something might happen at a moment’s notice which can potentially destroy everything. Our precious lives — and the lives of our loved ones — hang in the balance. In reality, most of us don’t have much of a safety net except for a vague sense of faith that life will go on. If truth be told, we live on a wing and a prayer.

By Piyush We all know that Krsna’s birthplace was a prison cell. Not many of us, however, know that before Srila Prabhupada left for the West, Srila Prabhupada brought Krishna’s message to the Tihar prison, Asia’s largest prison based out of Delhi, in …

By Badrinarayana Swami

Suppose that I open Badrinarayan Swami’s Convenience Store, Best and Cheapest. You come on in and buy something. Suppose that you give me a hundred dollars to buy a ten dollar item. I say thank you very much, jaya, and close the cash register. You will say hey, where is my change? I’ll say no, no, it’s there. They are just dark dollars. It’s laughable, but that is the cornerstone of astrophysics, dark matter. One devotee told me a joke: dark matter, anti-matter, it doesn’t matter. They are completely in a fog.

By Kesava Krsna Dasa Some devotees think, that because they are devotees, they must preach instantly to whomever they meet. Perhaps if we had the required force of purity, we could effect changes in people’s hearts on first contact. The reality is ho…

By Karnamrita dasa The idea that it is better to give than to just receive (to just be “on the take”), is a universal truth understood by people of all religions. In addition people understand that giving is actually getting, or by giving you are nouri…

By Mahatma das

Let’s start with the good news: we can be Krsna conscious anywhere. And here’s the bad news: there really isn’t an ideal environment for being Krsna consciousness. I hear you saying, “How can you say that?” What about the temple, what about Vrndavana and Mayapura, what about a Rathayatra Festival?” Yes, those would seem to be ideal environments for developing Krsna consciousness. But let me ask you a question: Does everyone who goes to Vrndavana, or a temple, or to a Rathayatra become Krsna conscious? Most people do, but one can even fall into maya in the Lord’s personal presence. The panacea of the age is the maha-mantra. It is the yuga dharma, it is the best way to be Krsna conscious. Does everyone who chants Hare Krsna become Krsna conscious? The impersonalists don’t. They chant to become one with Krsna. And I would be embarrassed to tell you how many rounds I have chanted in my life and not even thought of Krsna while His name was continually coming from my lips.

Ananda Tirtha Das: Various devotees have helped transcribe over the years, but at the moment we are looking for volunteers to help for the next two weeks.

By Giriraj Swami “If one tries to spread Krsna consciousness all over the world, he should be understood to be performing the best welfare activity. The Lord is automatically very pleased with him. If the Lord is pleased with him, what is left for him …

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.”