Author Archives: H.H. Giriraj Swami

Today Santa Barbara County lifted the evacuation order for the neighborhood of my ashram in Carpinteria, and Kuntidevi will be returning with the Deities and other items, to begin the arduous process of cleaning up the property, reestablishing the worship, and restoring the ashram to proper function. We wish her well in her endeavor, in difficult […]

I have been moved by the many devotees who have written me expressing their concern about the wildfires in the Carpinteria area and informing me of their prayers for me and the other residents. Your concern and prayers mean much to me, and I feel obliged to you all and offer you my heartfelt thanks. […]

I have arrived safely in Dallas and am now happily under the protection of Sri Kalachandji, His dhama, and His devotees, by the grace of Srila Prabhupada and his followers.
Hare Krishna.
Yours in service,
Giriraj Swami

Terrible forest fires have been raging around Ventura and Ojai, California, devastating homes and everything else on their way. I recalled Srila Prabhupada’s discussion of the first verse of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura’s Sri Gurv-astaka: “The spiritual master is receiving benediction from the ocean of mercy. Just as a cloud pours water on a forest […]

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Srila Prabhupada’s spiritual master, is my grand spiritual master, but I feel that I never really knew him that well until I read his biography Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Vaibhava by my godbrother Bhakti Vikasa Swami. Many of the quotes and references below come from that work, which has helped bring me closer […]

Today is Gita Jayanti, the day on which Lord Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna. One year on this occasion I heard a beautiful talk in which Srila Prabhupada spoke about the perfection of reading the Gita. “When Lord Chaitanya was traveling in South India, in a big temple, Ranganath temple, He went to see […]

 I am pleased to encourage you to participate in the Prabhupada book-distribution marathon. Srila Prabhupada explains, “Srila Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami had no fixed residence. They stayed beneath a tree for one day only and wrote huge volumes of transcendental literature. . . . It is certainly not good to write literature for money […]

In the first verse of the Bhagavad-gita, the low-minded king Dhrtarastra asks his secretary, “O Sanjaya, after my sons and the sons of Pandu assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kuruksetra, desiring to fight, what did they do?” Kim akurvata: “What did they do?” Srila Prabhupada says that this is afoolish question. The two […]

Here is a video of the name-giving. The initiates names are: Prema Bhakti dasa – Premi Bhakta dasa, Pradipta and Mousumi Chatterjee – Pandita Srivasa dasa and Malini dasi, Rob Goettler – Jayananda dasa. Here is Giriraj Swami’s address. 11.03.17, Initiation, Carpinteria

Today is Gopastami, the day on which Krishna and Balarama and other boys Their age, who previously had tended the calves, were given charge of the cows. This event is described in Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.15.1):   tatas ca pauganda-vayah-sritau vraje babhuvatus tau pasu-pala-sammatau gas carayantau sakhibhih samam padair vrndavanam punyam ativa cakratuh “When Lord Rama and […]

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.7.32. “But, competent as the Lord was, He saved the inhabitants and animals of Vrajabhumi by His personal energy and proved definitely that anyone directly engaged as a devotee of the Supreme Lord need not satisfy any other demigods, however great, even to the level of Brahma or Siva. Thus […]

“The Diwali ceremony can be observed in the temple by illuminating hundreds of candles, in different parts of the temple, and offering special prasada to the Deity. This ceremony was observed by the inhabitants of Ayodhya, the kingdom of Lord Ramachandra, after Lord Ramachandra was out of His kingdom due to His fourteen years banishment […]

Today is Rama-ekadasi, the date on which Srila Prabhupada completed his translation of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta. The event is described in the following excerpt from my forthcoming book I’ll Build You a Temple, about Srila Prabhupada and Juhu. Every morning just before six I would walk up the stairs to Prabhupada’s room to accompany him on […]

Today we begin the beautiful month of Damodara. The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 4, says, “There is a statement in Padma Purana describing the ritualistic function during the month of Karttika (October–November). During this month, in Vrndavana it is the regulative principle to pray daily to Lord Krsna in His Damodara form. The Damodara form […]

GRS Vyasa Puja 2017.2w from Derek Carter on Vimeo.

Today marks Sri Rama-vijaya-dasami (Dasara, or Dussehra), the day on which Lord Ramachandra vanquished the powerful tyrant Ravana. As described in Srimad-Bhagavatam (2.7.25): “When Ravana was engaged in the battle, the trunk of the elephant which carried the king of heaven, Indra, broke in pieces, having collided with the chest of Ravana, and the scattered […]

“Srila Prabhupada wrote to one disciple, ‘You cannot survive without my mercy, and I cannot survive without your mercy. It is reciprocal. This mutual dependance is based on love—Krishna consciousness.’” —————— Special thanks to Gaudacandra Prabhu for the beautiful photographs. Devotees’ appreciations (right-click, save as to download) 1.Balaram Chandra das 2. Sarvatma das 3. Yudhisthira […]

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad Bhagavatam 3.15.25. “When one is free from all ten of these offenses in chanting the holy name of God, he develops the ecstatic bodily features called pulakasru. Pulaka means “symptoms of happiness,” and asru means “tears in the eyes.” The symptoms of happiness and tears in the eyes must appear in a person who […]

A twenty-two-year-old devotee in Mumbai, Radhika Jajodia, sent me a beautiful letter about her realizations of Srila Prabhupada’s merciful presence in his quarters in Juhu, which she entitled “Srila Prabhupada Is Right Here”: One day during your last stay in Juhu, in 2014–15, you were chanting in Srila Prabhupada’s quarters. I really wanted to take […]

———————————- Three days ago we celebrated the ninety-seventh birthday of Rajani Priya Dasi (Rose Forkash), who, with Srila Prabhupada’s approval, began the F.O.L.K (Friends of Lord Krishna) program in the 1970s and has been chanting and serving ever since. As we sat together, she said, “I wish all of you and your loved ones, my […]

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.12. “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 and apparent competition between servants in performing service, […]

“The Padma Purana and our acharyas, especially Jiva Goswami, have explained that there are ten offenses in the chanting of the holy names. And, to get the proper benefit, one should chant without offense. One of the ten offenses is pramadah which means inattention. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura  says that if we avoid the offense of […]

Visvarupa-mahotsava is the date on which Lord Chaitanya’s older brother, Visvarupa, took sannyasa, the renounced order of life. And on the same date some four hundred and fifty years later, our own spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, also accepted sannyasa. According to Vedic scripture, Lord Chaitanya is Krishna Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, come in […]

Today marks the anniversary of the birth—the appearance—of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, “the pioneer of the program for benedicting the entire world with Krishna consciousness.” To honor the occasion, I share with you a short piece I wrote about Srila Bhaktivinoda and Srila Prabhupada. We pray for their continued guidance and mercy. “Dedicated to the sacred […]

For Radhastami, the devotees decorated our altars in Carpinteria beautifully. One of the Six Gosvamis of Vrindavan, Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, prayed to Srimati Radharani: tavaivasmi tavaivasmi na jivami tvaya vina iti vijnaya devi tvam naya mam caranantikam “I am Yours. I am Yours. I cannot live without You. Understanding this, please bring me to […]

(Adapted from Srila Prabhupada’s talk on Radhastami, 1971.) We pray to Radharani because She is the pleasure potency of Krishna. Krishna means “all-attractive,” but Radharani is so great that She attracts Krishna. So we should try to understand what is Srimati Radharani’s position and offer our obeisances to Her. tapta-kancana-gaurangi radhe vrndavanesvari vrsabhanu-sute devi pranamami […]

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad Bhagavatam 3.15.25. “We have read about different symptoms — pulakasu— symptoms of happiness like tears in the eyes that come from offenceless chanting. If we don’t experience such symptoms it is to be understood that we are committing offenses while chanting. What to do? Srila Prabhupada continues here at […]

In anticipation of tomorrow’s solar eclipse, I read the beautiful chapter in Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.82), entitled “Krsna and Balarama Meet the Inhabitants of Vrndavana,” about when Lord Krishna and other pilgrims traveled to Kurukshetra to observe a solar eclipse there. The purport to the second verse says, “Vedic astronomers of five thousand years ago could predict […]

There was a wonderful discussion about Srila Prabhupada’s glories on Vyasa-puja evening, featuring Giriraj Swami and about a dozen other Prabhupada disciples.

Dear Srila Prabhupada, Please accept my humble, prostrated obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace, to your powerful love, mercy, and Krishna consciousness. Last month your spiritual granddaughter Smriti “Baby” Warrier (now Sravana Dasi) lost her son in a tragic accident at the railroad. When I wrote to […]

“That is the specific reason why Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appears. Any incarnation of Vishnu could kill the demons, deliver the devotees, and re-establish the principles of dharma, but only Krishna can show us the beautiful life that awaits us if we join Him in intimate love in Vrindavan. Therefore Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.33.36) says: anugrahaya bhaktanam […]

Dear friends and devotees, Please accept my best wishes on the auspicious occasion of Sri Krishna Janmastami. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and to Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna. janma karma ca me divyam evam yo vetti tattvatah tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eti so ’rjuna “One who knows the transcendental nature […]

Today, on the eve of Janmastami, Mother Kulangana, Srila Prabhupada’s great devotee, passed away at 6:45 in her room at Bhaktivedanta Manor, surrounded by loving devotees chanting the holy names of Krishna. My letter to her: My dear Mother Kulangana, Srila Prabhupada said that when a Vaishnava departs, we feel simultaneously happy and sad—happy because […]

  Recently I happened to hear the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and was overwhelmed with thoughts of Srila Prabhupada’s mercy, that in Krishna consciousness we do not lose anything—rather, we have everything, with Krishna, and thus everything becomes more beautiful. When I was fourteen, in 1961, I would steal into my parents’ living room, […]

“When we are present in the houses of worship of other religious practitioners during their rituals, we should remain respectful and reflect upon the following: Here, before me, is my very own God being worshipped in a form different than that to which I am accustomed. Because of my different training and practices, I am […]