Author Archives: H.H. Giriraj Swami

———————————- 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 […]

Nanda Kumar Prabhu, who on occasion was Srila Prabhupada’s personal servant, shared the following remembrance:  Srila Prabhupada regularly took hot milk at night, just before taking rest. Occasionally he would have puffed rice along with it, but usually just hot milk without anything in it. One night when I took his milk in, there was […]

This morning I read a posting by Vijaya Dasa, ISKCON’s Minister of Book Distribution, in which he relates an interesting encounter he had heard described after one of his classes: When in Alachua I gave a Bhagavatam class about book distribution, a Vaishnavi, Guru Prasad dasi, commented on an experience she had had distributing books. […]

Recently our beautiful deity of Vrindadevi arrived at our ashram in Carpinteria. As Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura prays in his Vrindadevi-astaka (3, 6, 8): samasta-vaikuntha-siromanau sri- krsnasya vrndavana-dhanya-dhamni dattadhikare vrsabhanu-putrya vrnde namas te caranaravindam “Vrishabhanu’s daughter Radha made you guardian of Krishna’s opulent and auspicious abode of Vrindavan, the crest jewel of all Vaikuntha planets. […]

On the auspicious day of Jagannatha Ratha-yatra in Puri, two of Lord Caitanya’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 Caitanya Mahaprabhu, especially in Puri, were not easy to understand, and they were unknown to most devotees. Only Svarupa Damodara […]

Vyasa-puja Offering This booklet of short stories is a Vyasa-puja offering to a dear godbrother, His Holiness Giriraj Swami, who selflessly gave his every life breath to serving Srila Prabhupada’s instruction by building this grand Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihariji Temple complex, thereby helping Srila Prabhupada to save the spiritual lives of millions of persons from Bombay […]

Yesterday, on Ekadasi, Aditya dasi left her body in Sri Vrindavan dhama. She was a pure, devoted soul who sincerely served Srila Prabhupada and his Lords for the last forty-five years. She was our secretary in Juhu, and after Prabhupada’s departure she did wonderful service in his quarters. To assist me with the preaching, she […]

Bhakta Jarred, now based in Denver, became Jivan-mukta dasa, and Shilpa Gupta, from Dallas, became Sri-gopika dasi. —————————- Initiation Talk Vows and Name Giving

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 play […]

“We may forget God but He never forgets us. he makes arrangements to rescue us. We are not asking to be rescued. In previous ages people used to seek out a spiritual master. They realize their humble situation in this world and as soon as their intelligence awakens they seek out a guru: tad viddhi pranipatena […]

 
Posted by Ananda Gopika Dasi on Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Giriraj Swami initiated two new disciples: Andrea Gonzales became Ananda Gopika Dasi and Jahnava became Jahnava Devi dasi.

“Raghunatha dasa Goswami went to everyone there. he bowed down to them. he took dust from their feet with genuine feelings of humility and gratitude and reverence. And, he offered prayers to everyone. Seeing that this came from his heart. Lord Nityananda said that because you have served the devotees — his service so humble — […]

“So, your present engagement is very nice. Neither I think that you can be better educated in the universities. Practically we find that in your country three are so many big universities and the government arranges for educating the entire population. But still hippies are coming out of the institutions. It is understood that in […]

Today I read: “Reality. It used to seem so simple—reality just was, like the weather. Why question it, let alone disagree about it? And then came the assault, a mind-bending stream of ‘fake news,’ ‘alternative facts,’ and lies disguised as truths that cast so many of us tumbling into a state of moral panic. How […]

“When we come into the material world and want to compete with Krishna, the first thing we need is another identity — not ‘servant of Krishna’. That is the false ego. Then the mind is the agent of the false ego. That is why the mind is so difficult to control — because it is […]

On Nrsimha-caturdasi in Bombay in May 1974, the devotees performed a drama of the story of Prahlada, Hiranyakasipu, and Nrsimhadeva, and afterward, the actors, still in their costumes, sat down for Prabhupada’s lecture. “Today is the appearance day of Lord Nrsimhadeva,” he began. “I am so pleased that within such a short time these boys […]

Nrsimhadeva tells Prahlada, “When a devotee looks at Me without hesitation and speaks to Me affectionately, My pleasure grows with every new moment. Although I am eternally free from all limitations, such behavior binds Me with ropes of love. Although I am unconquerable, My devotees can conquer Me. And although I am subject to no […]

Two days after I first saw Srila Prabhupada and the devotees at Brandeis University in Boston, he gave a beautiful talk about the nature of a Vaishnava, how a devotee is an ocean of mercy, on Nrsimha-caturdasi, May 1, 1969: “Atheist is so unkind, cruel, that he is prepared to kill his own son, beloved […]

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.9 during the morning program. “The mercy of Lord Nrsimhadeva is manifest in different ways: There are internal demons and external demons, and He is fully competent and inclined to vanquish both. As preachers we face both internal and external demons, and being sincere in our service we […]

Today is Jayananda Prabhu’s disappearance day. I wrote this haiku for his disappearance anniversary twenty-five years ago: Prabhupada’s full moon Beams upon my heart’s lotus— Guru’s service blooms   Hare Krishna. Yours in service, Giriraj Swami

Volume One of Shyamasundar’s long-awaited memoir is now available. This is a most intimate, detailed, and exciting account of Bhaktivedanta Swami’s amazing adventures in the dawn of the Hare Krishna movement. Volume One describes the Swami’s halcyon days in San Francisco and London, 1967–1970, and describes the real story of Lord Jagannath’s advent in the […]

“Today I had a wonderful Skype call with the devotees in Mumbai in celebration of Mother Arca-vigraha’s disappearance day. My godbrother Narottamananda Prabhu’s talk was especially enlivening and enlightening. How sublime that we all could gather to remember and appreciate and glorify a great Vaishnavi.” Arca Vigraha’s Disappearance

In Juhu Srila Prabhupada would go on the roof in the evening and give darshan. One evening there were five or ten devotees around him, and a few Indian guests, including a famous movie star and his wife. Somebody had brought mangoes for Prabhupada, and at one point he called for a knife and told […]

——————— We have added another 200 lectures by Giriraj Swami to his radio station bringing the total to over 400 talks! Listen on girirajswami.com or tunein.com or install the TuneIn app on your mobile device. You can listen to lectures 24/7 and find other Krishna conscious radio stations too. Download this playlist file and open […]