Author Archives: H.H. Giriraj Swami

Today in Vrindavan is a memorial program for Srila Prabhupada’s dear disciple Parvati devi dasi. I wrote a letter to her for the occasion: My dear Parvati Devi, Please accept my humble, respectful obeisances. All glories to our eternal spiritual master and savior, Srila Prabhupada. Now you have left us—on Mohini Ekadasi, in Vrindavan—and we […]

titiksavah karunikah suhrdah sarva-dehinam ajata-satravah santah sadhavah sadhu-bhusanah Translation: The symptoms of a sadhu are that he is tolerant, merciful and friendly to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime. SB 3.25.21 “Srila Prabhupada related this verse to his own situation […]

Srila Prabhupada was with us in Juhu for Nrsimha-caturdasi on May 5, 1974. The following excerpt from my forthcoming book about Srila Prabhupada and Juhu, entitled I’ll Build You a Temple: A Good Fight and a Promise Fulfilled, describes the devotees’ drama: For Nrsimha-caturdasi, a troupe of devotees led by Jagat Purusa organized a drama […]

Today is Nrsimha-caturdasi, the appearance day of Lord Nrsimhadeva. The appearance and activities of the Lord in the world are a great mystery. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gita (4.9) Lord Krishna says: janma karma ca me divyam    evam yo vetti tattvatah tyaktva deham punar janma    naiti mam eti so ’rjuna “One who knows the […]

Candana-yatra began on Aksaya Tritiya, May 7, and continues for twenty-one days. Today we continue our observance of Candana-yatra. We are reading from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila, Chapter Four: “Sri Madhavendra Puri’s Devotional Service,” which describes how Madhavendra Puri traveled by foot from Govardhana to Jagannatha Puri to procure sandalwood to grind and mix with camphor […]

Today is Sita-navami, the appearance day of Srimati Sitadevi, the eternal consort of Lord Ramachandra. To begin, we shall read from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila, Chapter Nine: “Lord Caitanya’s Travels to the Holy Places.” TEXT 2 jaya jaya sri-caitanya jaya nityananda jayadvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vrnda TRANSLATION All glories to Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu! All glories to Lord […]

My mind is so filled with memories of Mother Arca-vigraha that it is difficult to isolate what inspired me about her. But I think she embodied the two most important devotional principles—chanting the holy names and serving the Vaishnavas—and she performed these activities with great determination and enthusiasm. I miss her as a friend. She […]

On Jahnu-saptami twenty-five years ago His Holiness Giriraj Swami’s disciple Arca-vigraha devi dasi passed away from this world and went back to Godhead. Mother Arca-vigraha and I were very good friends and had been friends for a long time. We first met in 1986, when she came to Vrindavan. Then, in 1987, I went to […]

Today is Aksaya Tritiya. In May 2003 I wrote Deena Bandhu Prabhu, my godbrother who is based in Vrindavan, about the date, and his reply follows: My dear Giriraj Swamiji, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! I’m not sure of the history of Aksaya Tritiya. But ksaya means to diminish, so […]

  Initiation Ceremony by HH Giriraj Swami Posted by ISKCON Durban on Saturday, May 4, 2019 . On Sri Gadadhara Pandita’s appearance day, Giriraj Swami officially connected seven disciples with Srila Prabhupada and the parampara: Anil Basdew became Ananda Krishna dasa, Clive Jugathpal became Krishna Kishore dasa, Leeann Govindsamy became Lila Manjari dasi, Mayawatee Sewjathan […]

Today is the most auspicious occasion of Sri Gadadhara Pandita’s appearance day. As many of you know, Lord Chaitanya is Krishna Himself in the role of a devotee. He is Krishna, but with the complexion and mood of Srimati Radharani. There are different purposes for the Lord’s advent. The internal reason for Lord Chaitanya’s appearance […]

Today is Srila Vrindavan dasa Thakura’s appearance day. Sri Caitanya-caritamrta (Adi 11.55) states, “Srila Vyasadeva described the pastimes of Krsna in Srimad-Bhagavatam. The Vyasa of the pastimes of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu was Vrndavana dasa.” In his purport, Srila Prabhupada elaborates, “Srila Vrndavana dasa Thakura was an incarnation of Vedavyasa and also a friendly cowherd boy […]

A talk by Giriraj Swami, September 5, 2010, Sri Vrindavan Dham, Kazakhstan. Hearing His Holiness Niranjana Swami’s wonderful talk, I felt we were being elevated to the spiritual world. He quoted from Vishnujana Maharaja. Vishnujana had a program in which he went by boat along the Ganges River, in Bengal, and chanted the holy names all day, […]

Sripada Jayapataka Swami’s Vyasa-puja in Houston, April 15, 2019.

Anticipating Earth Day, I thought of a prayer that resonated with me in my youth: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For He has founded it on the seas, and established it on the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or […]

For Balarama Rasa-yatra, we shall read from Srila Prabhupada’s summary study of the Tenth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, called Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead—about Lord Balarama’s visit to Vrindavan after He and Krishna had been away from Vrindavan for many years. In our meditation on the deity of the Lord, we begin from His lotus […]

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad Bhagavatam 2.7.23. “Ravana wanted to take the property of the Lord and enjoy it for himself. We, in our own ways, may have that same inclination—to be the proprietors, the enjoyers, and the controllers. That is the mind and the false ego which puts us in competition with […]

“Jatayu was really no match for Ravana. But still, out of duty and love, he fought Ravana and was defeated. Later when Lord Ramachandra was travelling through the forest looking for Sita, He came upon Jatayu who explained exactly what he had seen. Lord Ramachandra was so pleased with him He embraced Jatayu and told […]

Giriraj Swami, SB 2.3.23, Home Program, Houston from Derek Carter on Vimeo.
Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3 23 (Right-click to download)

Today, in observance of Sri Rama-navami, we shall read a verse from Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Seven: “Scheduled Incarnations.” TEXT 24 yasma adad udadhir udha-bhayanga-vepo margam sapady ari-puram haravad didhaksoh dure suhrn-mathita-rosa-susona-drstya tatapyamana-makaroraga-nakra-cakrah TRANSLATION The Personality of Godhead Ramacandra, being aggrieved for His distant intimate friend [Sita], glanced over the city of the enemy Ravana […]

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Bhagavad-gita 3.10. “After reading and examining and discussing, the conclusion is that we should engage in sankirtan yajna. That will enable us to live happily in this life and to go back home back to Godhead at the end of this life. We should all chant as much as […]

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Bhagavad-gita 3.10. “The Lord created this material world to enable the conditioned souls to learn how to perform yajñas (sacri?ces) for the satisfaction of Visnu, so that while in the material world they can live very comfortably without anxiety, and after ?nishing the present material body they can enter into the […]

 
HH Giriraj Swami Bhakti-v?k?a Program Coppell, TX
Posted by Radha Kalachandji Temple in Dallas on Friday, April 5, 2019

Audio File
Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3.17 (Right-click to download)

“The residents of Vrindavan, including Srimati Radharani, decided to go to Kurukshetra to see Krishna. Krishna—or Jagannatha, His sister Subhadra and brother Balarama went from Dwaraka to Kurukshetra on a chariot. When they got to Kurukshetra the residents of Vrindavan met them and they were filled with ecstatic love to see Krishna again after a […]

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Ratha-yatra Address (Right-click to download)

“If you buy a plane ticket from Dallas to New York in a way it is your destiny to go to New York. But you still have free will to decide how you use your time on the airplane and once you arrive. Our destiny may carry us in a certain direction to a certain […]

April Fools’ Day is celebrated yearly on April 1, and today I thought of Srila Prabhupada’s instruction that we remain fools before the spiritual master. In a room conversation in Bombay, on August 16, 1976, a devotee asked Srila Prabhupada whether even a nitya-siddha, a liberated soul, had a guru. “A liberated soul never says […]

We have gathered on a most auspicious day. Srivasa Thakura is one of the members of the Panca-tattva. He lived in Navadvipa-dhama in Mayapur, near the residence of Jagannatha Misra and Sacidevi, where Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared. Later, when Lord Chaitanya began the sankirtana movement in Navadvipa-dhama, He and His other most confidential associates would […]

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Presentation by Vaisesika Dasa
Talk by Giriraj Swami

 
Presentation by Vaisesika Das
Posted by Fan The Spark on Saturday, March 23, 2019

 
Children’s Drama
Posted by Fan The Spark on Saturday, March 23, 2019

 
Special Talk by His Holiness Giriraja Swami
Posted by Fan The Spark …

 

 

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Gaura-purnima, Los Angeles (Right-click to download)

Today we are celebrating the appearance of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna, who descended in the age of Kali in the role of a devotee. He appeared on what we now call Gaura-purnima, in the evening of the full moon day in the month of Phalguna. At the time, there was […]

Today is the disappearance day of Sri Madhavendra Puri, who appears in the line of disciplic succession as the grand spiritual master of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Madhavendra Puri’s disciple Isvara Puri was accepted by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as His spiritual master. Sri Madhavendra Puri is very important for us, and today we shall read about his […]

While chanting japa this morning, I thought of Srila Rupa Gosvami’s verse about the holy name: tunde tandavini ratim vitanute tundavali-labdhaye   karna-kroda-kadambini ghatayate karnarbudebhyah sprham cetah-prangana-sangini vijayate sarvendriyanam krtim   no jane janita kiyadbhir amrtaih krsneti varna-dvayi “I do not know how much nectar the two syllables ‘Krs-na’ have produced. When the holy name […]

Today is Srila Jagannatha dasa Babaji Maharaja’s disappearance day. He comes in the Gaudiya Vaishnava disciplic succession after Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura and Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana. He was a renounced ascetic, fully engaged in chanting the holy names of Krishna and meditating on His pastimes. For some time, he made his residence at Surya-kunda in […]

Our deity of Sri Gopisvara Mahadeva at our ashram today, Siva-ratri. In his Sankalpa-kalpadruma (103) Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura prays: vrndavanavani-pate jaya soma soma-   maule sanandana-sanatana-naradedya gopisvara vraja-vilasi-yuganghri-padme   prema prayaccha nirupadhi namo namaste “O gatekeeper of Vrindavan! O Soma, all glories to you! O you whose forehead is decorated with the moon (soma), […]

By Nikunja Vilasini Dasi Whether it is 3 a.m. in New York, 6 a.m. in California, 4 p.m. in South Africa, or 7:30 p.m. in India, devotees all over the globe can connect with Giriraj Swami at the same time every day to chant the holy names together. Gone are the days when disciples could […]

Today is Siva-ratri. Vaishnavas generally do not celebrate Siva-ratri, and to begin, I will explain why, with reference to the Bhagavad-gita. We read from Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Chapter 7, “Knowledge of the Absolute,” text 23. antavat tu phalam tesam   tad bhavaty alpa-medhasam devan deva-yajo yanti   mad-bhakta yanti mam api TRANSLATION Men of […]