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ISKCON

How Pain Can Motivate

Pain is a Stronger Motivator Than Pleasure

In the seminar I give on prayer, devotees look at their obstacles to bhakti and consider why it is important to overcome them. Then I ask devotees to focus on the pain they feel when they allow these obstacles to impede their spiritual progress. I ask this because if we do not associate significant pain to our anarthas, we may not be motivated to give them up. It is said that people don’t change when they see the light; they change when they feel the heat.

Spirituality – The Foundation of Morality

Daily news reports of things like corruption, nepotism, favoritism, and infidelity have us fed up. Politicians say, “Education in ethics and values is the solution.” But don’t most people already know right from wrong? I think so. They just feel they’ll fare better in life without following moral codes. And exhortation by moralists or legislation by politicians doesn’t inspire them to think differently.

The Cherry on Top of the Cake

Diary of a Traveling Monk – Volume 13, Chapter 4 – September 7, 2012

I sat in my room in the temple building in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, taking prasadam and listening to a bhajan by devotees downstairs in the temple itself.

“That’s such a sweet bhajan,” I said to a devotee, “and it’s been going on for hours.”

“Yes, Maharaja,” he said. “The Macedonians are very musically inclined. We love to sing and play musical instruments. We even have our own form of a tamboura here, a four-stringed instrument. Devotees use it often in bhajans.”

Free and Happy Within Prison Walls

“Where is your tilak?“ Candramauli Swami asked us as we gathered in front of Karlovac vege restaurant club, managed by local devotees, preparing to go for a preaching progam in a nearby prison. Quickly running to refresh my already invisible vaisnava marking, I overheard Maharaja quoting Prabhupada on the importance of wearing tilak and vaisnava clothes and remembered Sridhar Maharaja’s instruction, 

If you are unable to preach by explaining philosophy, just dress as a Vaisnava and go out. You will be a walking advertisment for Krsna consciousness.

A Childhood Hero Revisited

Diary of a Traveling Monk – Volume 13, Chapter 3 – September 5, 2012

By Indradyumna Swami

As my flight landed in Skopje, Macedonia, I couldn’t hold back a smile when I saw that the airport was named after one of my childhood heroes, Alexander the Great. Like many other boys, I had been fascinated by the adventures of the young Alexander as he conquered much of Asia, even part of India.

The Show Must Go On…

Let me first introduce you to a vaishnava— His Grace Radha Madhava Prabhu (formerly Richard Mende) who is now 77 years old and has just completed writing two books which will be published soon. He graduated from the Stanford University and has worked in New York in the film producing industry while he was absorbed in worldly ways of life.

His Grace Guru das Prabhu writes about His Grace Radha Madhav Prabhu:

Gopal Krishna Goswami giving GITA to President of India, Pranab Mukherjee

HH Gopal Krishna Goswami met the honourable President of India, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee on 12th June, 2014 at the President’s official residence in New Delhi and presented him the BBT’s deluxe edition of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is along with the maha-prasad of Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Parthasarathi.

Maharaj thanked the President for inaugurating ISKCON’s Pune center last year and invited him to inaugurate ISKCON upcoming center in Kanpur later this year, and presented him with a brochure of this 12 acre project and explained him the different activities that would be held there.