Websites from the ISKCON Universe
Indradyumna Swami: Our Kartika parikrama continues as we tread the sacred path from one holy place to another in the association of loving devotees Read more › 
The official website of the center of International Society for Krishna Consciouness in Santiago, Chile where the main deities are Sri Sri Gaura Nitai and Sri Sri Giri Govardhana Read more › 
Shringara Vat is the Banyan Tree where Krishna took Radharani alone from the Rasa Dance and decorated her (shringara). On the very Rasa Purnima day, he invited all the devotees for darshan, kirtan, artika, and most delicious prasadam Read more › 
In India, Srila Prabhupada’s main program for revitalizing the Vedic teachings was the construction of major temples. In 1972, he laid the foundation stone of the temple in Juhu, Mumbai. Opened in 1978, ISKCON Juhu has become a must visit pilgrim center with nearly 25000 pilgrims streaming in daily. Read more › 
Offering of candles and prayers to the Lord every day in Union Square for the whole month of kartik Read more › 
Kartik (Damodar) is the best, the purest of purifiers, and most glorious of all months. Kartik month is particularly dear to Lord Sri Krishna. This month is full of bhakta vatsalya. Any vrata, even the smallest, will yield huge results. The effect of performing a Kartik Vrata lasts for one hundred lifetimes, Kartik or the festival of offering lamps to Lord Krishna, glorifies Lord Krishna’s pastime of being bound with ropes by Mother Yashoda. Read more › 
Vishvamitra Das (Vladimir Kritsky) joined the Krishna Consciousness movement in 1979. In the beginning of the 80's he was arrested for his faith and has spent six years in prison.
He was sentenced twice. The second time, he was punished for preaching in jail. Read more › 
Nestled away in the Appalachians, just south of Wheeling, West Virginia (the birthplace of my maternal grandfather, Charles Rowan) is a community of 350 ISKCON devotees called New Vrindaban. (Old Vrindaban is in Uttar Pradesh, India, the boyhood home of Krishna.) Read more › The post October 19th, 2013 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.
Please hear the glories of offering a lamp to Lord Damodara Krsna during this auspicious month of Damodara in Kartik, an offering that is very pleasing to Lord, starting Oct 18 and ending Nov. 17, 2013.
Mother Yasoda trying to bind Lord Damodara Krsna.
“Krishna. O’ King of brahmanas, a person who offers a lamp in this way will not take birth again in this world.”
(Text 100, Kartika-mahatmya, Hari-Bhakti-Vilasa)
“Even one who never performs religious rituals or even the worst sinner will surely be purified by this offering. O’ Narada in the three worlds there is no sin that can stand before this Kartika Deepa. Infact, by presenting this deepa before Lord Krishna, the eternal abode can be reached without obstruction.”
(Text 113, Kartika-mahatmya, Hari-Bhakti-Vilasa)
“In the month of Kartika, one should worship Lord Damodara and recite the prayer known as Damodarashtakam, which has been spoken by the sage Satyavrata and which attracts Damodara.”
(Sri Hari Bhakti Vilasa 2.16.198)
Srila Prabhupada recommended all devotees of the Lord to especially be attentive to the following activities during the month of Damodara, in order to make rapid spiritual advancement:
1. Chant Hare Krsna Japa on Tulasi beads.
2. Offer Damodarashtakam prayers every day. (Listen to Damodarashtakam with lyrics)
3. Offer ghee lamps(dipas), flowers, incense, food.
4. Worship Tulasi Devi.
Imagine three hundred devotees dancing and chanting loudly in unison under a star-lit sky; beautiful deities of Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, on Their decorated cart, leading the way; along the pavement of the winding village roads, people standing in front of their homes, holding plates of fruit and incense to offer to The Lord... Continue reading "World Holy Name Week in Mauritius (82 photos)
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Accept Reversals Gratefully Without Getting Disturbed by HH Radhanath Swami …!!!
From Visvambhara P
I have a question with regard to something you say in the article "What raises motion to action is motivation": “When we choose to act based on a spiritual motivation, material laws cease to apply”
In PQPA, when Bob Cohen asks Srila Prabhupada, that you (SP) are a pure devotee, so even if you have to drink poison, this will not affect you? Srila Prabhupada replied that as long as we are in the material world, we have to abide by the laws of material nature, as we are affected by them. I’m parapharasing this point.
How do we reconcile these apparently different viewpoints?
From Dheeraj
In this quote
“If, however, you are unable to work in this consciousness of Me, then try to act giving up all results of your work and try to be self-situated.”
What it means “giving up all results of your work”, how can we give up the results…By donation, or by doing service to Krishna? the more we get involved in material activities the more we get attached to the result.
From Sudheer P
Many people will say 'follow your heart', 'You have to pursue your own passions what your inner voice says'. I want to know what is that inner voice or passion of the heart. Are those words are given by the soul or just feelings by the modes of material nature. or can those statements can be true in any sense. please tell some few words regarding this.
Day time is not a problem for the most part - it is easy to do so many activities and engage. However, when Sexual urge strikes when we lie down in the Bed - what activities can we take shelter? Most of the days, due to being tired we immediately go to Bed but some nights the Draconian mind does not let go. We are too tired to get up and do something. The only activity left is to Chant while lying down which sometimes works and sometimes does not.
Do you have any pointers in this regards?
Two buildings may look equally firm, yet when a devastating storm comes, one crumbles, while the other stands strong.
Why the difference?
Because their foundations were not equally strong.
The same principle holds true for our spiritual life. Two seekers may appear equally steady, yet when the storms of anti-devotional temptation come, some of us give up our devotional practices, whereas others stay firm.
Why the difference?
Because not all seekers have equally strong foundations.
What is our foundation in spiritual life?
It’s our inner connection with Krishna and our conviction to continue that connection, come what may. The connection gives us an experience of higher, devotional happiness and the conviction enables us to persevere in our devotional practices even when that happiness sometimes seems inaccessible due to the mind’s ever-chanting moods. The Bhagavad-gita (06.25) urges us to use our intelligence sustained with conviction (buddhya-dhriti grihitaya) to keep ourselves fixed on the inner spiritual reality. This conviction comes by regular scriptural study sharpened by diligent application. When we are thus convinced, we can take a strong stand internally against the mind’s propositions of worldly pleasure: “Nothing doing; I am a soul meant for far better things than such fleeting unfulfilling pleasures. Krishna will offer me everlasting ever-fulfilling happiness if I just stay faithful to him.”
This strong inner stand empowers us to stand strong externally, no matter how alluring the temptation or how extenuating the circumstance. Temptations can afflict us only through the mind. When we say no to the mind, we render the temptations powerless and harmless because we cut off their channel of attack, thereby creating a safe inner haven for ourselves. A haven that enables us to practice devotional service steadily till we are transferred to the ultimate heaven, Krishna’s eternal world of love.
***
06.25 - Gradually, step by step, one should become situated in trance by means of intelligence sustained by full conviction, and thus the mind should be fixed on the self alone and should think of nothing else.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 8 September 2013, Johannesburg, South Africa, Home Program)
When having a small get-together, the idea is that some blessings are exchanged. We don’t know the workers who built this house and what karma they put in between the bricks. We think they just put cement when we see them working. No, karma is also there.
That’s why in traditional Indian houses, you have to hang a pumpkin outside the building, at the construction site. The pumpkin has to be there and there has to be a face on the pumpkin. Somehow or other, they do this pumpkin ritual and it’s supposed to capture all the inauspicious elements that have been brought in at the time of construction. You don’t know who you bought the bricks from, it maybe from a total demon, maybe Hiranyakasipu! Could be that Hiranyakasipu himself has a brick factory. His bricks are like, you know, full of suffering of so many mistreated (employees) and all the karma of Hiranyakasipu, the brick-seller, comes to us in our house.
But then traditionally, they hang the pumpkin which is supposed to capture all the evil spirits or evil karma and at the end, you’re supposed to throw out the pumpkin or even like BURN the pumpkin! Traditionally, a brahmana would come and chant mantras; nice mantras to invite all the ghosts and spirits into the pumpkin, “Welcome.” It starts very sweet and then suddenly, this brahmana starts some yajna, some fire and he takes a burning stick and he just burns that pumpkin! And throws out the pumpkin of the house, “Out!”
Nowadays, we don’t do such things although that was colourful, I must say. Sort of exciting, you know. It’s not that we cannot do some pumpkin ritual if we want but the essence of course is chanting Hare Krsna. The chanting of Hare Krsna makes everything more auspicious than a truck-load of pumpkins can do because the chanting of Hare Krsna brings auspiciousness. It’s not about driving out the inauspiciousness but it makes auspiciousness, it makes everything auspicious. It makes a house auspicious, it makes our life auspicious!
Indradyumna Swami: On the first day of Kartika here in Vrindavan our parikrama party walked to the courtyard where the sacred samadhis of Srinivasa Acarya, Ramachandra Kaviraja and Hemalata Goswami are located. We had many hours of kirtan and katha and felt our souls greatly purified. Read more › Q&A’s Bhakti Vikas Swami, Prahladananda Swami, Manidhara Prabhu 2010-08-06 (Book Distribution)
Topics covered: Krishna every word? Only 5 topics of Gita & Guru, Sadhu, & Sastra? Focus the mind and intelligence on Krishna? How important is book distribution? Parents get ekadasi karma? Blamer goes to hell? Book Distribution main act?
Kirtan is now the in-thing in many parts of the world including Europe. In many places other groups are way ahead of us as far as filling this growing need of the general public. While we cannot claim to be the sole inheritors of kirtan, we are certainly one of the first and main proponents of it in the west Read more › 
Today the animal rights lobbyists are very outspoken about animal welfare and often they advocate a vegan diet due to the cruelty inflicted on Mother cow in the dairy industry. Many devotees are being influenced by the vegan argument. We will have two presentations on this topic from different points of view Read more › 
Photo report from 12th ISKCON European Leaders Meeting Radhadesh, Belgium, October 5-6 Read more › It is Krsna who will save the world, and he will do so through those who are instruments in His hands.
The 24 Hour Kartik Kirtan will be here this Sat. Oct. 19, 2013!
Join us either on our New Vrindaban webcam or in person.
Here are some of the kirtaniyas scheduled (list not final):
Hare Krsna.
Kirtan is fully participatory, call-and-response devotional chant. A live kirtan is at once ecstatic, contemplative and — most of all — playfully improvised. Enjoy singing along with this music! Read more › 
“Much of the existing artwork by ISKCON’s publishing arm the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust is in a renaissance-influenced style, including that of Jnanajana Das,” says Villa Vrindavana temple president Parabhakti Das. “As Villa Vrindavana is located in Tuscany, the birthplace of the Renaissance, MOSA’s art will continue in this theme. For this reason, the regional government wants to support our museum, which we expect will attract many tourists.” Read more › 
In Naples, Peter attended the Art School and later the Academy of Fine Arts of this remembers with particular affection the teacher, staunch supporter of intellectual painting. Arrived in Tuscany, was introduced to oriental culture experiences doing yoga with the Hare Krishnas and handling illustration of the ancient texts of this religion at the Academy of San Casciano Read more › 
Vaisesika Dasa: Wherever one resides, one should daily offer a lamp to the Lord and sing the Damodara astakam. One should also increase one's other devotional activities, especially hearing and chanting the names and pastimes of the Lord. All these practices will be quickly effective during Kartika Read more › 
The execution of devotional service during Urja-vrata in the month of Karttika is especially recommended to be performed at Mathura . . . The Lord does not award devotional service to ordinary persons who are not serious about it. But even such unserious persons who execute devotional service according to the regulative principles during the month of Karttika, and within the jurisdiction of Mathura in India, are very easily awarded the Lord’s personal service Read more ›