Narottama Dasa Thakura wrote many devotional songs about the spiritual master, the Devotees, devotional service, the six Goswamis, Gaura-Nityananda and Radha-Krishna. Although composed with sweet melodies in simple Bengali language, Narottama Dasa’s songs give shastric siddhanta and devotional inspiration.
Srila Prabhupada often sang these bhajanas. Considering them non-different from Vedic shastra, He quoted them in his Bhagavatam lectures. Prarthana and Prema-bhakti-chandrika are Narottama’s most famous works.
The following excerpt comes from Prema-bhakti-chandrika: “Radha and Krishna are my goal in life and death, and They are the masters of my breath. Performing my bhajana only for Them, I rise and fall in the ocean of prema. I pray that I can always maintain this conception within my heart as my highest ideal.
“Let me serve the lotus feet of Radha-Govinda. Let my mind be filled with dedication to Their divine forms that defeat the beauty of Cupid and Rati. With a straw between my teeth I fall at Their divine feet and present my humble appeal: ‘0 Kishora-Kishori! 0 son of Nanda Maharaja-Shyamasundara! And 0 daughter of King Vrishabhanu, Shri Radha. You enchant even Hari, and Your bodily complexion is the color of a golden lotus. 0 Krishna, with a bodily colour like an indranila gem (blue jewel), Your beauty mocks Cupid.
‘0 topmost dancers Shri Radha and Shri Krishna-please dance within my mind. 0 You whose beauty increases the charm of Your dazzling ornaments, day and night I only wish that I shall go on singing Your glories in great ecstasy.”
Narottama Dasa serves Shrimati Radhika as Chamaka-manjari. His samadhi is in Radha Gokulananda’s Temple courtyard.
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Srimad Bhagavatam class given by HG prabhu at ISKCON New Govardhana Temple.krishnafarm.net Srimad Bhagavatam 3.3.8 – Mukunda Goswami – 13 Oct 2022 Read More...
I will share with you some photos of festival pandals in West Bengal and other parts of India during Durga Puja this year. This has become an annual tradition and has been increasing over the years.
These pandals exactly replicate the design and outdoor decorations of the TOVP. It is wonderful to see this. Such pandals cost a fortune and take months to assemble. And they look very attractive also and are spreading the glory of the TOVP all over India. As the saying goes:
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”
Apparently, everyone really likes the TOVP design, and it looks like it will soon become the Hallmark of West Bengal.
Hare Krishna!
This is a short but inspiring video overview of the major milestones in the TOVP construction progress since 2009. Please watch with devotion and help support this magnificent and historic project desired by Srila Prabhupada so we can open it in 2024. Make the TOVP First!
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 15 September 2022, Vrindavan, India, Balarama Hall Program)
The nature of time is that it is constantly passing. Everything comes into being, everything grows, everything flourishes, gives some by-product, dwindles and then ceases to exist. Our meetings are also going through these stages and we are coming to the latter stages of these meetings. So many people are coming to say goodbye to me. I was calculating – say if people come in groups, 200 people come to say goodbye, with 5 minutes per person – that is 1000 minutes alone! That is over 15 hours of non-stop goodbyes. So to those who are leaving, I am saying goodbye to you now. Not because I am cold, not because I have no heart, not because I do not care, but sheer practicality.
Yesterday, I opened the doors to my apartment, and there was a flood. A flood of kindness, a flood of affection. Such exchanges are important and they are very valuable. At the same time, it is gradually coming to a transition that you carry my desires in your heart. My desire is that you really connect with Srila Prabhupada. Here in Vrndavana, Prabhupada is here on his vyasasana with his lions. They look like real lions, I really like them! There are so many nice paintings here and they say so much about Prabhupada’s meditations. So, please connect to Srila Prabhupada here. Vrndavana was one of those temples that had a full set of Srila Prabhupada’s letters before they became widely available on the Internet, Vedabase, etc. But back in the day, this was rare and they were not published anywhere. The archives in Los Angeles had some copies, and a few temples here and there also had them. But here, everyday, a different letter would be on Prabhupada’s desk. To make that connection with Srila Prabhupada and to understand Prabhupada through his letters was being done to manage his worldwide mission. It was a different time with less connectivity. But now we live in an age of connectivity – even on flights, there are airlines that offer these services.
In those days, Srila Prabhupada would send devotees, young people, to open up temples in new countries. Yes, I wish that you all would also open up temples, that would be so nice. If instead of working in an ordinary job, you would just instead go preach and say, yes, we will start and run a temple and through that temple, we will influence thousands of people. That is much more exciting! So how about being part of the great transcendental adventure? In the earlier days, it did not matter whether someone was a bramacari, sanyasi or a grihasta – none of that mattered as everyone was involved in mainstream preaching, in driving the mission. And then things changed and now we have been referred to as a congregational movement where many of the programs we are having are actually for ourselves. There are these nice gatherings with pizzas and cakes and we are meeting one another and it is enlivening for ourselves. And then we invite swamis who are revolutionary, who want to change the world and they want to see that we are somehow or other bringing more people to Krsna consciousness. Some go out on book distributions – when someone writes me a letter and they say that they are going out on book distribution, those are the letters I like to read – those are the fun letters – please send me the scores, give me updates on your sacred street parties or whatever they are called. This spirit of reaching out is great and it is very important. This was important when Srila Prabhupada was here and whatever was important when Srila Prabhupada was here is still important today – we should always understand that. Although times have changed and I appreciate that, but what was important to Srila Prabhupada is timeless and forever relevant. So this is something we should always do – turn to Srila Prabhupada. We should see what he emphasised as the work is not finished – the whole world is not Krsna conscious yet! So we can have nice prasadam and nice kirtan together, but let us also go out and preach as that is what Srila Prabhupada wants from us.
Watch this full program on our YouTube channel below:
Cobras in Srila Prabhupada’s Quarters
As I walked past the first toilet stall a huge six feet long cobra quickly slithered past me into the stall. Terrified I raced out of the bathroom as fast as my shaking body could take me. I was not sure what kind of snake it was. I didn’t want to create a big scene and interrupt Srila Prabhupada’s darshan…
You know, every day is different as each day I am able to speak to a vast array wonderful spirit souls from all walks of like and from all over the world, inc a few well known personalities who are the same as everyone else searching for sound perfection at the highest level and searching Read More...
By Radha Mohan Das Sir Keir Starmer, Leader of the Labour Party, visited Bhaktivedanta Manor in Hertfordshire to mark the start of the Hindu holy month of Kartik. On arrival, the Labour leader was greeted and garlanded as part of a traditional ceremony to welcome guests, and met with the Temple President, Her Grace Visakha Read More...
Please accept my humble obiesances. All glories to Srila Prabhupad.
The devotees of Iskcon Scarborough are planning to have Kirtan, japa session etc for the health and speedy recovery of our dear Mother Dwaraka who was admitted to hospital on Sunday Oct 09th. Please, let's all get together on Wednesday October 12 at 6:30pm at the temple - iskcon Scarborough - to show our love and support but most of all to pray for mataji's full recovery.
Devotees who would like to bring prasadam are welcome to do so.
Report from Ekantia-buddhi dasa “PAMHO. AGTSP. Today is a very unusual day. It started with the fact that the minibus arrived unscheduled, because they shelled the city center. I had to walk to my favorite distribution area. There I saw the consequences of today’s shelling exactly where I was chanting gayatri just 3 days ago. Read More...
Kripamoya Das: I try never to miss Monday evenings with the devotees online, but last night I had been invited to a dinner. Not a 40th anniversary dinner, although that would have been good too, but with Sir Keir Starmer and his inner circle of staff and advisors. They loved the prasadam of bindi subji, Read More...
