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Raghunandan Das Thakur.
Shri Raghunandana Thakura made his appearance within this world in Shri Khanda. In his home he became acquainted with the worship of Shri Gopinatha from an early age. One day his father, Mukunda Dasa, who was a doctor, had to go away on medical business.
Shri Raghunandana Thakura made his appearance within this world in Shri Khanda. In his home he became acquainted with the worship of Shri Gopinatha from an early age. One day his father, Mukunda Dasa, who was a doctor, had to go away on medical business.
He called Raghunandana to his side. He told Raghunandana to see to it that their deity was served with great care and attention. He told him to be sure and feed the deity. At the appointed hour, taking the order of his father on his head, Raghunandan went to peform the service. He took the offering of food into the deity. Raghunandan was just a little boy. He told the deity: “Eat! Eat!” When he saw that the offering appeared untouched, he began to cry. Not being able to resist the child’s intense devotion, Krishna ate everything on the plate, leaving no remnants.
When Mukunda Dasa returned, he asked the boy, “Bring me the prasada remnants of the offering you made earlier.” The boy said, “Father, listen. I made the deity eat as you told me to. He left no remnants. He ate everything on his plate.” Mukunda was amazed at what the child was saying. Ordering the boy to offer food as before, Mukunda hid himself outside the house and watched through the window. Raghunandana, then, with great delight, offered Gopinatha a laddu. “Eat! Eat!” he said. The Lord ate half the laddu. Meanwhile, Mukunda, who was watching from outside, beheld all this in great amazement. He could understand that since the deity had already eaten once, and had not left any remnants, his hunger was satisfied. As a result, he could only finish half the laddu.
He embraced his son and held him on his lap. His voice was choked with divine emotion. Tears poured from his eyes like rain from a thundercloud. It is said that even today that half a laddu may be seen in Shri Khanda, where it is kept in one of the temples there.
Sacitananda dasa passed away on July 27.
His Grace Satcitananda dasa was born in 1950 as Ashok Gulab in what was then known as Rhodesia. His father had left his native Gujarat (India) at the age of two, and his mother joined him in what had since become Zimbabwe after her marriage was arranged with Satcitananda’s father. Their son grew up in Salisbury (now Harare) and was educated up to A level. He then joined his father’s business as a general merchant in the smaller town of Marondera. In due course of time another young girl (who was to become my godsister Kishori dasi) was brought from Gujarat to marry him.
Marondera is a peaceful place with the healthiest climate in Zimbabwe. It enjoys good rains in summer and cool weather in winter. From its origin as a relay station between Salisbury and Beira (Mozambique), it steadily grew to a town of over 50,000. The area’s main business is agriculture. Farmers grow maize, cotton, cereals, and tobacco and raise cattle for slaughter.
Satcitananda’s family owned several businesses in Marondera, and at first all the members worked together. Kishori was used to simple village life, but when she came to Zimbabwe she had to learn many things: how to drive a car, run a business, cook elaborate Gujarati feasts, and raise two sons and two daughters. Daily, from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. she faithfully served her allotted husband, accepting joys and sorrows as her pre-ordained destiny. “We work very hard,” she once told me, “but we think nothing of it. We are trained like that.”
Her husband, however, was not satisfied. He wanted to find God. The rituals of his family tradition had given no clue, and the Bible and Koran had failed to answer even his most basic questions. In desperation he turned to the Divine Life Society and Shivananda’s Bhagavad-gita. Satcitananda’s attempts to become God by merging into the brahmajyoti led him to perform many austerities, but his heart was still not appeased. And although he couldn’t explain why, he sensed that his desire to become God wasn’t right.
In August 1989, on the plea of looking for motor parts unavailable in Zimbabwe, Satcitananda went to South Africa. His real motivation was to resume his search for God. In Johannesburg he strolled through “The Oriental Plaza,” a large multi-storied shopping complex owned and managed by Indians. Although no motor-parts dealers could be found there, all kinds of shops and outdoor stalls drew the visitor’s attention, and people from all over the country crowded the plaza for a bargain, an exotic meal, a religious experience, or just a change of scene.
Eighty Winks was a linen shop down a spiral staircase on the eastern side of the plaza. As Satcitananda walked past, he remembered he needed table cloths, so he walked in. The shopkeeper, a tall, handsome Gujarati man in his mid-thirties, looked up from the book he was reading and welcomed his prospective customer with polite indifference. His jet-black curly hair was quite short, except for a one-inch-wide ponytail that hung from the top of his head to the nape of his neck; his nose bore a yellow, inverted triangular mark; and two vertical lines ran from his nose up to his hairline. He wore a long white cotton shirt buttoned up to his neck and white cotton pants that looked like pajamas.
Forgetting his table cloths, Satcitananda peered at the open book on the shopkeeper’s counter. “Have you read the Bhagavad-gita?” the shopkeeper asked. “Oh, yes, I know Bhagavad-gita.” “This one?” Satcitananda looked closer at the title: Bhagavad-gita As It Is‚ by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. “Not this one. Why? What’s the difference?” “A big one. Most translations of the Bhagavad-gita interpret the words of Krishna. This one doesn’t. Srila Prabhupada has translated the Bhagavad-gita as it is, without changing its meaning. Look. Here’s a list of the disciplic succession starting with Krishna. It goes right down to Srila Prabhupada. That means the words Krishna spoke to Arjuna 5,000 years ago are the same words Srila Prabhupada translated. That’s why this edition of Bhagavad-gita is so potent. Within eleven years Srila Prabhupada opened 108 temples of Krishna throughout the world and made thousands of devotees—whereas the other English editions never managed to turn even one person into a devotee of Krishna.”
“Where can I get this book?” Satcitananda asked. “Take this one. What is your name? Where do you come from?” Satcitananda introduced himself, and the shopkeeper reciprocated. “My name is Bharat Desai. I live in Lenasia, but our temple is in Muldersdrift, about twenty kilometers from here. You must meet my spiritual master. He will be coming to South Africa in a couple of months.”
The new friends exchanged addresses and telephone numbers, and Satcitananda went back to Zimbabwe with the Bhagavad-gita As It Is and a few tablecloths. Two months later, he was back to meet Bharat’s spiritual master, but the spiritual master had not come. Disappointed, Satcitananda went to the Divine Life Society in Durban, but he was not impressed. He started chanting Hare Krishna on and off—whenever he felt like it.
Bharat kept in touch by phone, and around March 1990 he informed Satcitananda that his spiritual master was in Johannesburg. Leaving the business in his wife’s hands, Satcitananda drove fifteen hours straight to Johannesburg and met Bharat at his shop. Bharat took him to his house for the night and to Muldersdrift the next morning.
The two men arrived at the temple on time for guru-puja, a daily ceremony honoring Srila Prabhupada, the founder-acharya of the Hare Krishna movement. Standing barefoot on a straw mat by the life-size deity of Srila Prabhupada was one tall gentleman with a shaved head and a ponytail similar to Bharat’s. He wore a long saffron-colored cotton shirt buttoned at the neck, a piece of the same material was draped around his waist and fell to his ankles like a robe, and another piece of the same cloth hung from his neck in loose folds. He was offering a flower to the deity while simultaneously ringing a bell with his left hand. “This is Giriraj Swami,” Bharat whispered, “my spiritual master.” Bharat bowed down, and Satcitananda did, too. Giriraj Swami fanned the deity with a whisk and a peacock feather, someone blew a conchshell, and the ceremony ended. Everybody sat down as Giriraj Swami began a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam. After the lecture, Bharat introduced Satcitananda to his spiritual master before driving back to town.
That night Bharat and Satcitananda accompanied Giriraj Swami to a preaching program, and Giriraj Swami and Satcitananda got to know each other better. Satcitananda’s sincerity, his austerity, and his intelligence impressed Giriraj Swami, who felt that Satcitananda’s tendency toward impersonalism was due to past association rather than to deep conviction.
The next morning, Bharat and Satcitananda again came for the lecture. Giriraj Swami spoke directly to Satcitananda about Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya and how Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu converted the learned scholar from dry logic and impersonalism to ecstatic love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. “Is the brahmajyoti platform the highest?” Satcitananda asked. Giriraj Swami explained that it was not and that one cannot find the Supreme Personality of Godhead without surrendering to a bona fide spiritual master. Hearing this, Satcitananda got up, walked over to the raised seat where Giriraj Swami was sitting, and offered his prostrated obeisances. He then knelt in front of the spiritual master and folded his palms together. “Whatever I have,” he said in a choked voice, “my body, my family, my business, I surrender unto you. Please accept me as your disciple.”
As an austerity, for many months Satcitananda had been eating only fruit and milk, but Giriraj Swami convinced him of the higher principle of honoring Krishna prasada. In celebration of his conversion, Satcitananda agreed to honor full maha-prasada.
Satcitananda’s dramatic surrender to the process of Krishna consciousness didn’t stop at that. He phoned Kishori and told her he wasn’t coming back. He wanted to take sannyasa and remain in South Africa. Kishori objected that their youngest child was only one year old and the oldest nine. “Better you come back and discuss things with me,” she said. But Satcitananda was adamant he must live in the temple. When Giriraj Swami heard about it he said there was no question of renouncing family life. Satcitananda must go back to Zimbabwe and make his wife and children Krishna conscious.
Satcitananda bought a full set of Srimad-Bhagavatam, gathered neck beads and japa beads and as many Krishna conscious books, posters, and pictures as he could find, and returned to Marondera. He banned garlic and onions from the household, threw away his Western clothes, and started wearing a dhoti and kurta—and Vaisnava tilak on his nose and forehead. At that time his father decided to split the business and divide the properties among his four sons. Satcitananda was allotted the smallest share: a supermarket in the town center and a house on one acre of land in the residential area. He felt cheated but took it as Krishna’s mercy.
Getting up at 2:30 a.m. was nothing new for Satcitananda. And the family was already praying together twice a day. But now he replaced all Divine Life hymns with ISKCON bhajans and kirtans and started holding regular mangala-arati at 4:30 a.m., insisting that Kishori and the children attend. They didn’t. For a while, Satcitananda conducted his whole morning program alone—mangala-arati, japa, greeting of the Deities, guru-puja—and then he would read Srimad-Bhagavatam for two hours. He was no longer interested in business and let Kishori manage most of it. After a few months, he told her that unless she and the children attended the morning program and chanted Hare Krishna, he would leave them. So she got the children up for mangala-arati, but she herself didn’t attend. And she wasn’t interested in chanting Hare Krishna just because her husband said so. Unless she felt like chanting, what was the use?
When Giriraj Swami sent a disciple from Johannesburg to visit them, the whole family got into the habit of chanting one round of the Hare Krishna mantra together. One afternoon, His Holiness Indradyumna Swami paid a surprise visit and spent the entire evening clearing up the temple room of demigod residues. Kishori started chanting more: five, six rounds. A few weeks later, another senior devotee, Partha-sarathi dasa, came from South Africa to do preaching programs in Zimbabwe. He said that unless Kishori chanted sixteen rounds, she couldn’t cook. How could a pious Indian lady not cook for her guest, especially a sadhu? Kishori had no alternative but to chant sixteen rounds. Partha-sarathi Prabhu stayed for a couple of weeks and did hari-nama-sankirtana every day in a different part of town.
From the beginning of his involvement with Krishna consciousness, Satcitananda knew that selling meat, liquor, and cigarettes wasn’t right. But what could he do? Somehow he had inherited the supermarket instead of the cloth business. Still, as he and Kishori became more Krishna conscious, they realized they couldn’t carry on with the business as it was. At the end of January 1991 they called their staff, explained to them that the butchery section was now closed for good, and invited them to chant Hare Krishna. To help them develop a higher taste, they banned all mundane music from the supermarket’s PA system and played only Hare Krishna kirtans and bhajans. Predictably, the business went down, but the couple didn’t worry. They knew they had done the right thing.
Satcitananda wanted to start prasada distribution in Marondera. At that time I was managing the Food for Life program in Johannesburg and was enthusiastic to help. In May 1991 our guru maharaja arrived in Marondera with a small group of disciples, four large food bins, a 700-liter cooking pot, 30 liters of oil and 200 kilos of sugar beans. Satcitananda was in ecstasy. We stayed for a week, cooked and distributed prasada, did hari-nama, and held a few programs in Gujarati houses in Harare. The following month, the regular Johannesburg crew came back for a Food for Life safari in a drought-stricken area near the Mozambique border. Officials from the provincial government drove us to the area and settled us at a government school, where the water supply was sufficient for our purposes. Every morning for ten days we cooked kichari and drove out into the dry bush to various school camps, got the staff and pupils to chant and dance, fed them Krishna prasada, and left some of Srila Prabhupada’s books with the schoolmaster. And at night, back at our headquarters, we held kirtan and Bhagavad-gita class and distributed Simply Wonderfuls. Many young men attended, danced enthusiastically, and asked lots of questions. In rural Africa, a man’s importance depends on how many wives and cows he has. Thus, when our audience heard that Krishna had sixteen thousand wives and millions of cows, they could easily understand that He must be the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
In September 1991 I was called to serve in India and didn’t return to Africa until August 1995. When I arrived in Durban, the first thing I saw on the temple’s notice board was a general invitation to the opening of the Hare Krishna Temple of Love and Devotion in Marondera on September 2. I was thrilled and immediately booked a seat on the fifty-seater coach the local devotees had hired to go to Marondera. Meanwhile Satcitananda came to Durban for our guru maharaja’s Vyasa-puja with his two younger children and a few new devotees. I noticed that the children were carrying bead bags and chanting. But the very next day they all drove back to Zimbabwe—a straight twenty-hour ride—to prepare for the temple opening.
At 4 a.m. on September 1 a busload of South African devotees pulled up in Satcitananda’s driveway. Although it was still dark we could make out the outline of the new temple. It looked like a regular five- or six-room house with a slanted tile roof, but the entire side wall (facing the driveway) was covered with a large painting of Lord Chaitanya’s sankirtana party. Above the painting, in black ornate letters, were the words “Hare Krishna Temple of Love and Devotion,” and above that on two lines, “International Society for Krishna Consciousness” “Founder-Acharya: His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedana Swami Prabhupada.”
Stumbling out of the coach after the twenty-three-hour ride from Johannesburg, we met the stumbling devotees who had stayed up the whole night waiting for us. I was happy to see Kishori again but could hardly recognize her two eldest children, Arjuna, now sixteen, and fourteen-year old Sheetal. Immediately the family arranged for our accommodation: the men at their house, a few women at another devotee’s house, and the rest of them at Satcitananda’s empty flat above the supermarket. Our hosts encouraged us to take a few hours rest before breakfast, but there was a lot to do: pick up Guru Maharaja at the airport, cook for him and for the devotees, peel and cut mountains of vegetables for the next day’s feast, help put up the pandal, make flower garlands, shop for last-minute items, and clean and decorate the temple room. The highlight of the temple opening was to be the installation of a 20cm-deity of Srila Prabhupada that Guru Maharaja had brought from Bombay.
After breakfast, I went to the temple building. The 10×17m temple room was almost a replica of the temple room in Muldersdrift, with six large windows overlooking the garden and a light-brown tile floor. The Deity chamber was larger but contained Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurahari’s original altar and the ornamented wooden canopy that Satcitananda got when Their Lordships moved to Their new temple in downtown Johannesburg. A book room, fully equipped Deity kitchen, and pujari backup area completed the arrangement.
Walking around the grounds, I recognized Satcitananda’s nephew and a few devotional employees from the supermarket, but apart from them and the devotees who had come from South Africa to help, the only other committed members of the Zimbabwe yatra were Bhakta Dev and his wife, Hemlata, the owners of Marondera’s two dry-cleaners.
On September 2, Radhasthami, at 8 a.m., just before we were to greet the Deities, a tall, good-looking man in a dark-blue suit entered the temple room. The medallion draped across his chest revealed his identity as mayor of Marondera. He graciously participated in greeting the Deities and stayed right through the ceremony, garlanding Srila Prabhupada’s picture before guru-puja and his deity after the abhiseka, clapping his hands during kirtans, hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam class, and offering obeisances to both Srila Prabhupada and the Deities. He also gave a nice speech. Picking up on the word love, which Satcitananda had used in his welcoming address, the mayor made the point that sometimes, although people speak of love, they do not know what love means. “Wherever there is love”, he said, “you could at least never expect to see or hear anything undesirable . . . We should conduct ourselves in a manner that shows love—as I am seeing here. So I am very happy to be part and parcel of this function, opening of the temple . . .” The mayor was impressed to learn that devotees from America, England, France, Spain, India, Mauritius, and other African countries had all gathered in his municipality, united by love and devotion to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna, and he wished us all success. He left after taking the feast, his arms laden with Srila Prabhupada’s books and extra prasad. As we were walking him to his car, he commented that never before had he been honored as much as he had been at the temple.
About 250 people had attended the festivities. After they left, the estate was in a mess and the devotees were exhausted. For Satcitananda and Kishori, however, there was no question of slowing down. They still had 45 guests, 4 kids, a supermarket, and a transport business to run. On the night of September 3 the South African devotees left. I stayed two more days to catch up on the family’s Krishna conscious story.
A few months after the butchery had closed down, business unexpectedly picked up. Taking it as a sign that Krishna was pleased with him, Satcitananda closed down the poultry section. As business decreased again, Satcitananda began to wonder how he would ever get rid of his tobacco and liquor counters without having to close the supermarket down.
His Holiness Krishnadas Swami visited Marondera in November 1991 and encouraged Satcitananda to hold a formal Srimad-Bhagavatam class every day. Satcitananda agreed and informed his employees that whoever attended class would get breakfast and could go to work later. He rescheduled the morning program to start at 5:30 and got Kishori to pick up the aspiring devotees from their township at 5:00 every morning. And every Friday night there was kirtan, Bhagavad-gita class, prasada, and a free ride home.
One night in 1993, Satcitananda’s motorcar broke down in the Masvingo district, a good 200 kms away from home. Satcitananda had no alternative but to spend the night in his car in a nearby garage. The next morning, he took a bus to Chivu, another small place 130 kms from Harare, where his nephew lived. Sitting in the bus with 75 odd passengers, his nostrils assailed by tobacco smoke, his eardrums pulsating with the sound of loud, inane music, Satcitananda began to dream of a bus where only Krishna conscious bhajans would be played. A few days later, the government relaxed its import policy on commuter omnibusses. Immediately Satcitananda took a bank loan and started Govinda Transports. From one 12-seater minibus he expanded his fleet to 5 commuters, each with a sound system playing Srila Prabhupada’s and ISKCON bhajans exclusively.
What can you buy in a supermarket that doesn’t sell meat, fish, eggs, liquor, or cigarettes? Walking around the aisles, I saw fruit, cereals, milk, butter, vegetables, canned foods, toys, toiletries, stationery, and many other things. In the grain section were bags of rice that said “Hare Krishna Rice” and had the maha-mantra printed all around them. At the stationery counter I picked up two writing pads. Kishori wouldn’t let me pay, but she put the pads in a plastic bag that said, “Chant Hare Krishna and Be Happy” and also had the maha-mantra printed all around. The PA system was playing soft, Krishna conscious music that soothed the shoppers’ soul, and I thought that S.A.V. Supermarket, at 6 Pine Street, Marondera, might just be the only one of its kind, if not in the world, then surely in the whole of Africa. And I felt a surge of affection for all the wonderful devotees who had made it possible.
The spring night had turned chilly. Like straws gathered together by the waves of a river, Satcitananda, Kishori, Bhakta Dev, Bhaktin Hemlata, Arjuna, the children, and I stood before the Govinda Transports minibus that would take me to the Greyhound bus station in Harare. Kishori and I sobbed unashamedly while the others held back their tears. Our sorrow was not mundane. As the eternal servants of one of Srila Prabhupada’s servants, our relationship is eternal and we knew we would serve together again, lifetime after lifetime. Kabe habe bolo se din amar?
—Visakha Priya Dasi
So it’s been a week that has given me a lot to ponder whilst confirming the need to be more determined in devotional life.
As I made a call to a client I’ve worked with for over 9 years things were a miss and sadly I found his cold rigamortis body on the floor, after calling the emergency services they wanted CPR to be started. So I found myself working on a body for 12 minutes till the paramedic arrived who simply directed me to stop.
It’s the first time I’ve had to undertake CPR without a medical team and on someone who I’ve made a personal contact with, the difference of community to hospital work; so physical and emotional responses came into play. Looking at the time line I was the last individual to see him alive and found his body so that meant talking to the police as they put everything together for the coroner.
It is of note that he had accepted the Gita from me and had read it, he liked the devotees and this is always positive and it reminded me that my Guru Maharaja talked about how if one sees and appreciates the Gita then they will have a human form of life; I pray they get the opportunity to take to devotee life.
Reflecting I spent 12 minutes working on a body even though clinically I knew it was futile and it has had me pondering. So much effort is taken on this material body and accumulating so much, but the body is temporary and so this is indeed like my CPR efforts is futile.
Yes the material body has needs and these cannot be ignored, the emergency service operator had a system to follow just in case my diagnosis was incorrect.
We miss the key, the spirit soul, I was working on the material body but the spirit soul has moved on. In my own body there remains the spirit soul but one is distracted by the material body and the spirit soul is neglected. The words of my Guru Maharaja echoes in my ear best to take care of the spirit soul as this body is temporary, and to share this love of Krishna with others and take care of there spirit soul.
So I ponder am I following the request of my Guru Maharaja?
It’s 12 minutes one doesn’t want to rerun and one pray’s Sri Krishna takes great care of his onwards journey and it has impressed how compassionate Sri Krishna is that I have been able to have devotee association and each morning I remember Krishna, and how amazing that is in itself.
Hare Krishna
HG Dravinaksha Prabhu ACBSP, a dedicated driver for the Krishna Youth bus program, husband of Mother Nanda and former member of RDTSKP, departed 10:10am Friday August 2, 2019.
He was suffering from cancer. 
The never-ending transcendental party in Poland continues (7 min. video)
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They were going to Sankirtan tour when their car was hit on the highway by a big truck. 
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A Constant Flood Of Mercy (10 min. video)
Indradyumna Swami: Our Ratha Yatra parade at this year’s Pol’and’Rock Festival goes up and down the main road of the event for 4 hours each day. Everyone sees us and most important Lord Jagannath sees everyonel. That is the true spirit of Ratha Yatra. The crowds love the chariot parade as witnessed by the hundreds of people who join in each time. A constant flood of mercy here in Poland by Srila Prabhupada’s grace. It was he who brought this all-auspicious event to the western world. Jaya Jagannath!
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P. Mehta: With a sad heart, I report the passing of Sat-Cit-Ananda Das from Zimbabwe, on the 27th of July after a brief illness, he was soon to be 70.
A disciple of HH Giriraj Swami.and a pioneer in preaching in Zimbabwe, he, was an owner of a supermarket in a small town called Marondera his business was famously referred to as "Hare Krishna" even though it was of a different name and that was because he was playing continuous bhajans and kirtans for all the opening hours of the supermarket which was one of the largest in the town. He would wear his dhoti and kurta and tilak even as the only person in town, and thus everyone chanted "Hare Krishna" 
Preaching program in Izhevsk, the capital city of western Russia’s Udmurt Republic (Album of photos)
Bhakti Chaitanya Swami: We stopped for a day in Izhevsk. We had a nice hall program with the local devotees.
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Sometimes, in the interests of spiritual development, practitioners avoid, suppress, or disconnect from their feelings viewing them as taboo.
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“Krishna Valley is not just for us to realize Srila Prabhupada’s vision of simple living, high thinking, but to show others that it’s accessible, and teach them how they can also live naturally while keeping God in the center, ” says Communications director Gandharvika Prema Dasi.
On the second weekend in July, about 10,000 people visited Krishna-valley, Hungary, to attend cultural programs, try tasty vegetarian meals and get acquinted with the different aspects of an environmental-friendly, God-conscious lifestyle. A video by Jaya Hari Das.
A Constant Flood Of Mercy (Album of photos)
Indradyumna Swami: Ratha Yatra is integral to our presence at this year’s Polish Woodstock festival, or “Pol’and’Rock.” There’s a large avenue that cuts through the entire event of 2.2 million people and we go up and down that road for 4 hours a day, every day for 4 days. Everyone sees us and most important Lord Jagannath sees everyone as well. That is the true spirit of Ratha Yatra. The people love the chariot parade as seen in these photos. A constant flood of mercy by Srila Prabhupada’s grace. It was he who brought this all-auspicious event to the western world!
A video by the Kirtaniyas.
A video by ISKCON Desire Tree.
What do John Lennon, Indira Ghandi, Allen Ginsberg, Sterling Moss (Formula One Racer), have in common? They all met Srila Prabhupada. To say Srila Prabhupada, was an epic “Communications” person, is an understatement.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 3 February 2013, Prague, Czech Republic, Caitanya Caritamrta Adi Lila 1.2)
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu had one desire. He had a desire to flood the entire world with an ocean of transcendental Krsna prema. One should see that in the spiritual world, Krsna is always engaged in loving exchanges with all His devotees. And it is said that those devotees purchase Krsna by their service. Rupa Goswami explains in the Nectar of Devotion that pure devotional service is sri Krsna-akarsani – that it can attract Krsna! So, that is the best thing we can do – flood the entire world! We are trying to attract so many things but one who attracts Krsna, attracts the perfection of life. After that, there is nothing more for us to desire – only more association with Krsna. So pure devotional service is like that – it is extraordinary!
The article " Flood the entire world! " was published on KKSBlog.
This is to inform you that His Grace Dinashyam Prabhu, a disciple of Sri Srimad Gaura Govinda Swami left his body in Atlanta Georgia USA Tuesday 30 of July evening holding japa mala. 
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Srila Prabhupada: The powerful hari-nama is so strong that even if one unconsciously or consciously they imitate; “Hare Krishna.” They have no intention to chant the holy name of Krishna, but they imitate or criticize, “Hare Krishna.” That also has effect. Calcutta, January 10, 1971
By Vijaya das Vaisesika Prabhu says that the initials ISV, which stand for ISKCON of Silicon Valley, also stand for "individual, spontaneous and voluntary service." These devotees were, in colloquial language, "fired up" in June. They did 47,082 book points, which means they were the No. 2 temple in the world and No. 1 in North America. I once asked Vaisesika whether he had had an exchange with Srila Prabhupada. He said he did. Prabhupada said to him, "Read my books." He took that instruction to heart and expanded on it by encouraging hundreds of other devotees to read the books. And on top of that, he inspires devotees worldwide to distribute millions of Srila Prabhupada's books, giving nondevotees the opportunity to read Prabhupada's books, too. He's a Vaikuntha man in our midst Continue reading "WSN June 2019 – World Sankirtan Newsletter – ISV No. 2 temple in the world and No. 1 in North America!
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Success… Failure ….. Suicide
Ever wonder what drives people like VG Siddhartha (founder Cafe Coffee Day), or Kate Spade (Top Designer) to commit suicide? They were at the pinnacle of success but then they were lonely, surrounded by their family and friends. They were weak emotionally, their fears haunted them and pushed them to commit such a sin.
Sadbhuja Das: we have been working on installing the new Kailash on Srila Prabhupada's Samadhi. We are using the same reinforcements and methods that were applied to the Chakras for the TOVP, as well as the same Russian crew which are getting the job done. They are very glad to be back doing this service in total bliss. 
By Kesava Krsna Dasa Sometimes our fixation on who’s “junior” and who is “senior” within our ranks, can inhibit proper devotee relationships. And introducing corporate ideas for managing our devotees can hinder, rather than promote healthy interactions between ourselves Continue reading "Exploiting Humility
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Temperatures in the U.K. reached an all time high, ever recorded, 39’C , it was unbearably hot but the next day Reading Rathayatra was hit with monsoon like rain.
While cooking in the morning I was thinking that nobody going to attend this festival, but we cooked anyway as if all was good.
Then by Lord Jagannath’s mercy the blue skies came and the Lord’s devotees came out in the masses.Vishal Gauranga and his wife Amala Manjari Prabhus are the main preachers out here. Running the Nama Hattas, Prasad Distribution, Festivals, and Rathayatras in 3 cities, Reading, Newbury and Basingstoke.
A great example of what can be done when the congregation get together and focus on the mission of Srila Prabhupada.
Reading is an historical city, in 870 Wessex was invaded by the Vikings, and Reading became their HQ , King Ethelred and Alfred the Great ( not so great) were defeated by the Vikings here. Then in 1121 King Henry built Reading Abbey and in 1361 the Black Death wiped out 60% of the population eeer, bad time to be around , but in the last 12 years the town is being blessed by the Lord of the Universe who rides His chariot surrounded by the chanting of the Mahamantra.
These days the residents of Reading can easily access the Lord’s mercy simply by being on the High Street as the Lord rides past.
Full gallery can be found here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/GSzegd1uz4jKTJxH6
https://spiritualnutcase.zenfolio.com/p758827182
Jai Jagannath
Jai Srila Prabhupada
Your servantParasuram das
A video by Ananta Vrindavan.
Pavitropana Ekadasi
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