By 1977 Bala Books (in Sanskrit bala means "child") was fully launched. The first book, Agha the Terrible Demon, had been prepared as carefully as possible to preserve the exact meaning of Srila Prabhupada's original translation of the story from the Sanskrit.…
When Lord Krsna appears in the present age His complexion is golden, He is surrounded by various associates, and His mission is to teach people how to make their lives spiritually sublime through the sankirtana-yajna, or chanting of the holy names Hare Krsna.…
"Oh, why shall I hear from him? I can think. I can speculate. I can manufacture something new in my own circle of friends." This is nonsense. This is not the Vedic process. The Vedic process is hearing.…
Today ISKCON in Australia and New Zealand includes four temples and three farms totaling more than 1,200 acres. It has opened four vegetarian restaurants, initiated two drug rehabilitation programs, and established the Ratha-yatra chariot festival.…
Prabhupada retired through the rear door, back up to his apartment, his guests would disappear through the front door, back into the city. Don and Raphael would turn out the lights, lock the front door, and go to sleep on the floor in their blankets.…
Devotees of Krsna were surprised, therefore, when they recently found a B'nai B'rith pamphlet rife with stereotypes of Krsna devotees as cultists and brainwashed robots. Such caricatures, the devotees thought, had been discredited long ago.…
A person is said to be established in self-realization and is called a yogi when he is fully satisfied by virtue of acquired knowledge and realization. Such a person is situated in transcendence and is self-controlled. He sees everything—whether it be pebbles, stones, or gold—as the same.…
Gurukula, "the school of the guru," has no equivalent in Western education. It is all at once a place of spiritual formation, character development, academics, and vocational training.…
In the early summer of 1966, Srila Prabhupada was sharing a Bowery loft with a young American friend. But when the boy went crazy on drugs and drove him out, suddenly Prabhupada found himself in the street, homeless and alone.…
By 1977 Bala Books (in Sanskrit bala means "child") was fully launched. The first book, Agha the Terrible Demon, had been prepared as carefully as possible to preserve the exact meaning of Srila Prabhupada's original translation of the story from the Sanskrit.…
When Lord Krsna appears in the present age His complexion is golden, He is surrounded by various associates, and His mission is to teach people how to make their lives spiritually sublime through the sankirtana-yajna, or chanting of the holy names Hare Krsna.…
Today ISKCON in Australia and New Zealand includes four temples and three farms totaling more than 1,200 acres. It has opened four vegetarian restaurants, initiated two drug rehabilitation programs, and established the Ratha-yatra chariot festival.…
Prabhupada retired through the rear door, back up to his apartment, his guests would disappear through the front door, back into the city. Don and Raphael would turn out the lights, lock the front door, and go to sleep on the floor in their blankets.…
In West Germany, devotees have evolved a preaching strategy adapted from the nama-hatta program established by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in India during the last century.…
Tap into the reservoir of pleasure. By chanting the names of God, you'll immediately be in touch with the source of all pleasure. The name Krsna means the all-attractive person, and Rama means the supreme pleasure. Hare is the form of addressing Hara, God's devotional energy, to whom we pray to be engaged in the Lord's service.…
The name Krishna means "the all-attractive one" the name Rama means "the all-pleasing one," and the name Hare is an address to the Lord's devotional energy.…
At Fifty-ninth Street and Fifth Avenue the chariots are waiting. Forty feet high with spires atop. I bow to the statue of Srila Prabhupada which sits on an elegant throne in the second chariot.…
We grabbed the chariot ropes and pulled Krsna, and He pulled us along with Him. Krsna's chariot rolled on and on, and the waves of chanting and feeling rolled in and in, deeper and deeper. Hare Krsna,…
August 1973 at the Bhaktivedanta Manor, in the countryside near London. Several thousand guests (including the Indian High Commissioner) listen to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada speak about the day Lord Krsna made His appearance on earth.…
Like all Americans, I've seen my destiny shaped by the U.S. presidents under whose rule I have lived and served. But now that I think about it, although my life was shaped in certain ways by their decisions, none of the presidents were really leaders to me.…
Strange that these Baptists should discover, looking back at them under a shaven head marked with the twin clay lines of tilaka—the signs of a servant of Visnu—such a disconcertingly familiar American Protestant face.…
He considered how a religion, as a whole, measures up to narrow expectations drawn from Christianity. Thus he complained, "India has no 'expiator' [referring specifically to Jesus], no Golgotha [the hill upon which Jesus was crucified], and no Cross."…
Engage your mind always in thinking of Me and become My devotee. Offer obeisances and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me.…
Delicious, traditional Vedic cuisine was part of the legacy Krsna consciousness brought to Western shores. Eating, like everything else for Krsna devotees, is a part of the complete spiritual experience of life.…
As we began to work on Prabhupada's home, it began to take on the shape of a palace. This was not the original conception—the original idea was rather modest.…
We didn't have, any kind of professionally drawn architectural plan. It's not a matter of what inspired the Palace. It's a matter of who inspired the Palace. That was His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.…
Full-time devotees number three hundred in Britain and Life Members and other supporters tally in the tens of thousands. They have, for the most part, come in contact with devotees through daily street chanting parties and ISKCON publications.…
Last year the printing total surpassed the previous year's total by thirty percent, and BBT books appeared for the first time in Danish, Greek, and Kannada (a South Indian dialect).…