Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa-puja Celebration, August 29, ISKCON Silicon Valley, Mountain View, California
Giriraj Swami

—————————————————————————————– “I think of the many gifts Srila Prabhupada gave us: the holy name, the Srimad-Bhagavatam and other scriptures, the temples and deities — but I am also thinking now of the association of devotees, especially close friends. The association of peers is so important. One devotee commented that when you are in a position of […]

Sri Krishna Janmastami, August 28, San Jose, California
Giriraj Swami

—————— Giriraj Swami read and spoke on Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.33.36 at Lord Krishna’s Appearance Day festival. “When we hear these stories, we should think, ‘Krishna is so kind to His devotees.’ Even in the midst of the worst calamity, if you just take shelter of Krishna — just surrender to Krishna — He will protect you.  ’I could […]

Vyasa-puja Offering to Srila Prabhupada, August 29
Giriraj Swami

Srila Prabhupada, Spiritual Revolutionary  My dear Srila Prabhupada, Please accept my prostrated obeisances in the dust of your divine lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace. Srila Prabhupada, who can fathom your greatness, your accomplishments, your unbounded causeless mercy and love? In a letter to a sympathizer in India in 1966, you wrote of […]

Balarama Purnima, August 20, New Dvaraka, Los Angeles
Giriraj Swami

Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.7.26 during the Sunday evening program in New Dvaraka. “Bal Yogeshwar, Guru Maharaji, fell in love with his American secretary and married her, which very much upset his mother in India. Thereafter there was a full color picture on the cover of The Illustrated Weekly of India — a very famous […]

Initiation Ceremony, August 20, New Dvaraka, Los Angeles
Giriraj Swami

On Lord Balarama’s appearance day, Giriraj Swami initiated Bhakta Shawn into Srila Prabhupada’s spiritual family, giving him the name Shyama Chandra Dasa. This sweet, intimate ceremony took place at the home of Bhrigupati Prabhu and Mother Chandravali. Giriraj Swami, Rtadhvaja Swami, and Bhrigupati Prabhu spoke at the ceremony. “Now we have come to this stage, […]

Lord Balarama’s Appearance day, August 20, New Dvaraka, Los Angeles
Giriraj Swami

TRANSLATION [Krishna said to Balarama:] O original personality, these bees must all be great sages and most elevated devotees of Yours, for they are worshiping You by following You along the path and chanting Your glories, which are themselves a holy place for the entire world. Though You have disguised Yourself within this forest, O […]

Srila Rupa Gosvami’s Disappearance Day, August 18, New Dvaraka, Los Angeles
Giriraj Swami

“To be empowered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one has to qualify himself. This means that one must engage twenty-four hours daily in the loving devotional service of the Lord. The material position of a devotee doesn’t matter, because devotional service is not dependent on material considerations. In his earlier life, Srila Rupa Gosvami […]

Associating with Devotees, Caring for Devotees, July 28, Carpinteria, California
Giriraj Swami

A Skype call with devotees in Mauritius. “The idea with the mitra system is that everyone should have a friend in Krishna consciousness, someone to whom one can reveal one’s mind. Srila Rupa Gosvami in his Upadesamrita discusses priti-laksana — the symptoms of love shared between devotees. And Srila Prabhupada explains that ‘the life of the Krsna […]

Inspirations from Chanting, July 27, Goleta, California
Giriraj Swami

——————————————————————————————————— “One should practice bhakti-yoga with firm determination and faith and not be disturbed if there is a little delay in achieving the desired goal. In Srila Prabhupada’s commentary he quotes the verse: utsahan niscayad dhairyat tat-tat-karma-pravartanat sanga-tyagat sato vritteh shadbhir bhaktih prasidhyati We have to be enthusiastic, and we have to be determined and […]

Guru-purnima
Giriraj Swami

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

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s Disappearance Day, July 7, San Jose
Giriraj Swami

“Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura shows us extraordinary determination. We see that even in the life of such a great devotee, empowered with Gaura shakti, still the material world is no rose garden — although we long for it to be so. We hope, in our neophyte mentality, that by our performing bhakti Krishna will make the material world nice. It seems […]

Srila Tamal Krishna Goswami’s Vyasa-puja Celebration, June 29, Carpinteria, California
Giriraj Swami

“As he’d done when we’d walked the streets of New York City, he instructed me how to walk the paths of Raman Reti—how to deal with the monkeys. First, you carry a stick with you. We grew up in kind of tough neighborhoods. He sometimes said that the choice for him of which way to walk home […]

Initiation Ceremony, June 21, Laguna Beach, California
Giriraj Swami

Giriraj Swami and Indradymna Swami awarded first and second initiation to devotees prior to the Panihati festival at the Laguna Beach temple on Friday. During the ceremony, Giriraj Swami initiated Srila Tamal Krishna Goswami’s brother and sister-in-law, Bhakta Carl and Bhaktin Stella Herzig, as well as Saroj Wadehra. Now  Saroj will be known as Tulasi Manjari dasi, Stella as Shraddhanjali dasi, […]

Madhurika Dasi’s Initiation, June 18, Carpinteria, California
Giriraj Swami

—————————————————————————————————————— Bhaktin Mira, in Pringle Bay, South Africa, was initiated by Giriraj Swami by Skype — and given the sweet spiritual name Madhurika dasi. “Today’s ceremony is especially significant because you [Bhaktin Mira] have waited so long and prepared yourself for so many years before coming to the stage of accepting initiation. And because you have […]

A Jubilant Festival, June 16, Bhakti Yoga Shala, Santa Monica, California
Giriraj Swami

“Indradyumna Swami spoke on the bhakti movement of Lord Chaitanya at Bhakti Yoga Shala in Los Angeles. After the talk, as the kirtana built and the ecstasy rose and almost everyone in the room was dancing, I thought, “Maharaja is not an ordinary person; I should take full advantage of every moment I have with him—and other such great […]

“In His Own Words”—from Indradyumna Swami, June 9, 2013
Giriraj Swami

Diary of a Traveling Monk, Volume 13, Chapter 12 Anatoli Fedorovich Pinyayev (Ananta-santi dasa) was the first Soviet Hare Krsna devotee. Because of his active preaching throughout the USSR and because of the spiritual influence he had on many people, he was subjected to severe persecution for five and a half years at the hands […]

Srila Prabhupada’s Inconceivable Achievements, Bhakti Charu Swami, June 8, Los Angeles
Giriraj Swami

Bhakti Charu Swami spoke at New Dwaraka Dhama. “So many young Americans came forward to help Srila Prabhupada. Obviously they were somehow previously related to him from their past lives. It was not just a chance happening. One devotee, in  a humble mood, told Srila Prabhupada, ‘Before meeting you I was so fallen, so engrossed in all kinds […]