New Yorkers will be the first to admit that “Fun City” is often a hard place to be happy in. But the devotees at ISKCON’s center on Manhattan’s West 55th Street know the secret. By chanting the Hare Krishna mantra they’ve opened their minds to a whole new dimension of consciousness.
Prabhupada asked disciples to go to India and learn the art of making dioramas. Now they have returned and developed a fascinating multimedia presentation of Krishna consciousness: the First American Theistic Exhibition.
The Hare Krishna [people] are in the airports—protected by the First Amendment—and they will remain in the airports. So what do we do about it? Manage it.
I’ve been chanting Hare Krishna for over three years, and the more I chant the more I can see that this chanting is an ever-fresh experience. By absorbing my mind in the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, I feel the spiritual strength and conviction to offer this chanting process to everyone.
Srila Prabhupada founded the art academy upon that spirit of a ‘common cause.’ We paint from a desire to understand our higher selves, our spiritual selves, and to relate to others on that higher level.
"Boatman," the scholar opened, "while you're out here have you ever thought about the relationship between total torque and crosscurrent impact?" "No, sir, I can't say that I have."
I always appreciated art that pointed in a high direction. I was looking for beautiful form, and when I started to hear about Krishna, His form was something I naturally became interested in.
We should not spoil this human form of life by acting like the hogs, then what is human life meant for? Austerity and penance. You should voluntarily accept some regulative principles, even if they are not very much to your liking.
I’m in a peaceful little village, seventy kilometers north of Pondicherry. But while I write, trying my best to concentrate, the villagers we’re staying with have gathered in the next room—to watch the cinema, on television.
We want to introduce Srila Prabhupada as the specially empowered representative of Lord Caitanya who fulfilled His prediction that the holy name of Krsna will be preached in every town and village in the world.
There’s a long history to bumper stickers. It began with Stone Age cave dwellers, who sometimes painted pictures on the walls of their homes. Later on, the Egyptians invented pyramids and decorated them with hieroglyphics.
We would sit together and eat fresh hot puris with hot milk. For me it is hard to see how Westerners enjoy dry bread when there is something as wonderful as puris.
We are five in the van and the hardy mood of spiritual pioneering predominates. There is a distinct sense of mission. We travel to the remotest corners of France to distribute the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
ISKCON Devotees chanting Hare Krishna downtown and standing before the Amsterdam center of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. 1977.
Traveling north from Kanya-kumari, in a few days we come to the village of Tirukkurungudi, once visited by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu nearly five hundred years ago.
Nobody will agree to work to satisfy someone else’s senses, because everyone is thinking, “I want to satisfy my senses.” But if that is the position, then we have to ask, “Are the senses of this body mine?” That people do not ask.
Badas in India were one of my favorite dishes, but in Oregon it was such an ordeal to make them that my taste for them dramatically waned. Making badas with a blender eliminates the grind and adds to the pleasure of cooking classic Vedic dishes.
It was the eve of Rajoman’s wedding. In anticipation he put on his finest silk turban, and robes. His father called him, “Rajoman! Please hurry! It’s getting late and we have a long journey before us!”
Someone asked Gandhi, “What do you think of Western civilization?” “I think it would be a good idea,” he said. “The real strength of India lies in her villages.”
A former civil rights worker went to war-torn Northern Ireland with an ancient peace formula. It was disarmingly simple.