Author Archives: H.H. Giriraj Swami

My dear Sridhar Swami Maharaja, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. One of the most important lessons in Krishna consciousness is service in separation, and I have learned much about that from you since your departure. Three days after you left, while on my daily walk, I suddenly began to feel […]

Today I heard a lively argument between Srila Prabhupada and Dr. Patel on a morning walk on Juhu Beach, February 23, 1974. Srila Prabhupada was criticizing so-called gurus who are actually Mayavadis and say, “I am God. Let me now have rasa dance. Send your children. Send your wife, send your daughter. We’ll dance.” “These […]

Zack Richards and Chaitanya Mishra received first initiation and the names Vraja Mohana Dasa and Chaitanya Priya Dasi, and the sisters Priti Radhika Dasi and Priya Gopika Dasi were awarded second initiation.   Zack Richards and Chaitanya Mishra received first initiation and the names Vraja Mohana Dasa and Chaitanya Priya Dasi, and the sisters Priti […]

My dear Gopal Krishna Maharaja, Congratulations on your seventy-fifth appearance day!  My first vivid recollection of you is from 1973. I had heard about you—how you had studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and then at McGill University in Montreal and then held responsible positions with Pepsi Cola and Bristol-Myers, and how you would come […]

 
Giriraj Swami’s Talk during Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa-puja celebration at ISKCON Silicon Valley
Posted by Damodar Das on Monday, August 26, 2019

Audio
Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa-puja talk (Right click to download)

Giriraj Swami Janmashtami talk, August 23, ISKCON Silicon Valley
Posted by Damodar Das on Sunday, August 25, 2019

Audio
Janmashtami Talk, ISV (Right click to download)

Dear Srila Prabhupada, I wish to tell you about my journey to meet you—and how your journey to meet me was effective. In my youth I aspired to attain perfect happiness, and soon I realized that such happiness could not be achieved materially but only spiritually. And, through reading spiritual books, I came to understand […]

We read from Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto Ten, Chapter Two: “Prayers by the Demigods for Lord Krsna in the Womb.” TEXT 18 tato jagan-mangalam acyutamsam   samahitam sura-sutena devi dadhara sarvatmakam atma-bhutam   kastha yathananda-karam manastah SYNONYMS tatah—thereafter; jagat-mangalam—auspiciousness for all living entities in all the universes of the creation; acyuta-amsam—the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is […]

When I arrived at my chiropractor’s office today, all the tables were occupied, so I took the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, gifted to him by Rtadhvaja Swami, from the shelf and began to read. Then the chiropractor came out from the treatment room, took Life’s Final Exam from the shelf, handed it to me, and […]

Today I heard an inspiring conversation in which Srila Prabhupada explained the reason for his great success, namely his faith in the order of his spiritual master and in chanting the holy names, and encouraged us to follow in the same way, using the same formula. He said, “In the shastra it is said, harer […]

“Because He is as powerful as Lord Krsna and can bestow spiritual power to the devotees, He is therefore known as Baladeva. In the Vedas also it is enjoined that no one can know the Supreme Lord without being favored by Baladeva. Bala means spiritual strength, not physical. Some less intelligent persons interpret bala as […]

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 2, and from Sri Caitanya-bhagavata. “The son of Rohini will also be celebrated as Sankarsana because of being sent from the womb of Devaki to the womb of Rohini. He will be called Rama because of His ability to please all the inhabitants of Gokula, […]

Today is the appearance day of Lord Balarama, the Personality of Godhead who is the first expansion of Lord Krishna, the original Personality of Godhead. As Krishna states in the Bhagavad-gita (4.7): yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata abhyutthanam adharmasya   tadatmanam srjamy aham “Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, […]

Saturday was the beginning of Jhulana-yatra, which is steeped in the moods of Vrindavan. When I first began reading Srila Prabhupada’s books I was struck by the following description in the introduction to Teachings of Lord Chaitanya: “Actually, the Vrindaban on earth is as good as the spiritual Vrindaban, and therefore Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami […]

Today is the disappearance day of Srila Rupa Gosvami, a direct disciple of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu whom Mahaprabhu entrusted with the order and the power to present the science of Krishna consciousness in books. All the acharyas in our line after Rupa Gosvami are considered rupanugas, followers of Rupa Gosvami. And much of the Krishna […]

US congresswoman and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard spoke at the Los Angeles Ratha-yatra yesterday. She is a sincere devotee of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krishna—and a very nice person.
Hare Krishna.
Yours in service,
Giriraj Swami

Sacitananda dasa passed away on July 27. His Grace Satcitananda dasa was born in 1950 as Ashok Gulab in what was then known as Rhodesia. His father had left his native Gujarat (India) at the age of two, and his mother joined him in what had since become Zimbabwe after her marriage was arranged with […]

While I was chanting japa this morning, my mind was flooded with a verse from Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s song Gurudeva!: jogyata-vicare, kichu nahi pai, tomara karuna sara karuna na hoile, kandiya kandiya, prana na rakhibo ara “Upon examining my value, I find that I have none; your mercy is essential to me. Therefore, if you […]

While singing the Nrsimha prayers today, I was struck by the juxtaposition of two very different moods of the Lord—prahladahlada-dayine: He gave bliss to Prahlada, and hiranyakasipor vaksah-sila-tanka-nakhalaye: He cracked the stonelike chest of Hiranyakasipu with His sharp chisel-like nails. namas te narasimhaya prahladahlada-dayine hiranyakasipor vaksah- sila-tanka-nakhalaye “I offer my obeisances to Lord Narasimha who […]

“One year when Lord Caitanya was at Allalanatha the devotees from Bengal arrived in Jagannatha Puri and word was sent to Lord Caitanya that they were there waiting for Him and He should go there. But, He was so much in the mood of separation that He did not want to go back to Jagannatha […]

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For Gopala Bhatta Gosvami’s disappearance day, I thought to read one verse and purport about him from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, Chapter Ten, “The Branches of the Caitanya Tree”: TEXT 105 sri gopala bhatta eka sakha sarvottama rupa-sanatana-sange yanra prema-alapana TRANSLATION Sri Gopala Bhatta Gosvami, the forty-seventh branch, was one of the great and exalted branches […]

In Calcutta, 1971, the temple was in quite a bad state because the temple president had become preoccupied in an incense business he had started to raise funds. In the course of his absorption in the business, the devotees in the temple were being neglected. He hardly spent any time with them, and they really […]

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Today is Guru-purnima. Srila Prabhupada has explained that the system of honoring the spiritual master is current among all Vedic followers. In Mayavadi (impersonalist) sects, disciples offer respect to the spiritual master once in a year, on Guru-purnima. And in the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaya, disciples also offer homage annually—on the appearance day of the spiritual […]

I received the following letter from Vrndavanesvari dasi in South Africa. Dear Guru Maharaja, Please accept my most humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and all glories to your divine self. During the renovations the manager named Daniel surprised us all. We hung a huge picture of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada on the […]

This weekend ISKCON Los Angeles will be celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the installation of the small deities Sri Sri Rukmini-Dvarakanath, and I will be driving to New Dvaraka on Sunday morning to join HH Badrinarayan Swami, HH Devamrita Swami, HH Radhanath Swami, and others in the festivities. Please do join us—in person or through […]

My dear Guru Maharaja, Please accept my humble obeisances at the dust of your divine lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to Srila Gurudeva! It has been one year since you initiated me. I am amazed that one year has passed! There is so much that I can say about that day, […]

Fifty years ago, out of his causeless mercy, Srila Prabhupada accepted me as his initiated disciple and wrote me the following letter: My dear Giriraj, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 2, 1969, sent along with your beads. I have chanted on them, and your initiated name […]

On the auspicious day of Jagannatha Ratha-yatra in Puri, two of Lord Chaitanya’s most confidential associates, Srila Svarupa Damodara Gosvami and Srila Sivananda Sena, left this world to return to the supreme abode. The inner moods of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, especially in Puri, were not easy to understand, and they were unknown to most devotees. […]

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.12 during a Skype call with disciples in Mumbai. “Everyone should be friendly for the service of the Lord. Everyone should praise another’s service to the Lord and not be proud of his own service. This is the way of Vaisnava thinking, Vaikuntha thinking. There may be rivalries […]

Today we are observing the disappearance day of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Sri Gadadhara Pandita. I first learned of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura when I visited the Boston temple. At that time there were only two published books in ISKCON—the abridged edition of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, published by Macmillan, and Teachings of Lord Chaitanya, published […]

Kirtan with Madhava das at the ashram of HH Giriraj Swami.
Posted by Giriraj Swami on Sunday, June 23, 2019

A talk by Giriraj Swami on July 13, 2008, in Berkeley, California. This year Snan-yatra was on June 16, and Ratha-yatra will be on July 4. It is a great honor, privilege, and pleasure to be here on the auspicious occasion of Snana-yatra. The first deities of Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra in ISKCON were discovered […]

We will be having kirtan at my ashram in Carpinteria with Madhava, Radhika, Vrindavan Kirtan, and others on Sunday, June 23, at 5 p.m., followed by prasada. Please join us in person—otherwise the kirtan will be live streamed on Madhava Naidoo’s and my Facebook pages. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Yours in service, Giriraj […]

“Vyasa was the spiritual master of Sanjaya, and Sanjaya admits that it was by Vyasa’s mercy that he could understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This means that one has to understand Krsna not directly but through the medium of the spiritual master. The spiritual master is the transparent medium, although it is true that […]

When my chanting is going well and I’m feeling some love for the holy names, the physical representation of the holy names, the maha-mantra, on my altar strikes me as extraordinarily beautiful and effulgent.
Hare Krishna.
May this find you well.
Yours …

Srila Prabhupada expressed his appreciation for his father in his dedication to his book Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, “To My Father, Gour Mohan De (1849–1930)”: “A pure devotee of Krsna, who raised me as a Krsna conscious child from the beginning of my life. In my boyhood ages he instructed me how to […]