Vrindavan: The Land Of The Supreme Cowherd Boy

Vrindavan is a town in the district of Mathura on the site of an ancient forest which is believed to have been the region where Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appeared as a cowherd boy and spent his childhood days. He performed many wonderful pastimes there with His associates. It is about 15 kilometers away from Mathura city, where Krishna appeared as the son of Vasudev and Devaki in the prison cell of King Kamsa. The town has about 5000 temples dedicated to the worship of Radha and Krishna. Vrindavan is a very sacred place that is very dear to the vaishnavas and staunch worshippers... Read more »

Prayers Of Queen Kunti - Words Of Divine Inspiration

The prayers of Queen Kunti are very significant and well loved by the devotees of Krishna. These heartfelt prayers were offered when the Lord mounted His chariot and was about to depart for His magnificent city, Dvaraka. Seeing the Lord seated, Kunti Devi felt an immense mood of separation overwhelming her heart. She couldn′t restrain herself for she was a pure devotee of Lord Krishna and therefore she approached Him with utmost humility and offered her prayers of surrender at the lotus feet of the Lord. Lord Krishna protected them through thick and thin.... Read more »

The River That Gives Liberation To The Soul

The Ganges, or Ganga, is a major river flowing through India, Bangladesh and Nepal. The 2,510 kilometer river has its source in the Himalayas at a place called Gangotri. The streams are fed by melting snow and ice glaciers including those from peaks such as Nanda Devi and Kamet. Since time immemorial Indians have been worshipping her in her deity form as Mother Ganga, who rides on an alligator. The Ganga travels a distance of 200 kilometers through the Himalayas before emerging at the pilgrimage town of Haridwar. There a dam diverts some of its waters into the Ganges Canal, which links the Ganga with its main tributary, the Yamuna, which is also... Read more »

The Health Of Household Life

We normally refer to the events of the Srimad Bhagavatam when it comes to instructing ourselves about householder life. There are examples like Kardama Muni and Devahuti, Kashyapa and Aditi, the Pandavas and Draupadi and many more exemplary householders. This is what we call culture. They were successful in their lives. We learn from the way they lived and apply it to our present time, place and circumstance. Even in the Caitanya Caritamrta, Lord Caitanya never engaged in frivolous activities with His wife. The relationship was serious. Sometimes, depending on the... Read more »

The Spiritual Quest For Liberation

Kumbh Mela is a spiritual event that occurs four times every twelve years in four diffferent locations: Allahabad (Prayag), Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik. After twelve years there is a Maha Kumbha Mela that takes plce in Prayag, which is attended by millions of people, making it the largest spiritual gathering in the world. The story of the origin of this event goes as follows: Millions of years ago, in the Vedic period, demigods and demons made an agreement to work together churning amrita (the nectar of immortality) from the ocean of milk, and to share the nectar among themselves. However, when the Kumbh (urn) containing... Read more »

Offending Devotees - The Mad Elephant Offense

The Yamuna is a major tributary of the Ganga in northern India. Actually it is the main tributary. It is around 1400 kilometers long and therefore it is the longest tributary of the Ganga. According to sacred scriptures, the Yamuna is said to be the sister of the Ganga and that both of them descended from the spiritual world to purify the material creation. Like the Ganga, the Yamuna also has a personified form. The source is found at a place called Saptarishi kund in the Himalayan glaciers. It is 12 kilometers above Yamunotri, on the mountains. Its course starts from Yamunotri and then it flows to Delhi, Vrindavan (the sacred land of Krishna), Mathura, Agra and finally merges with the... Read more »

Not A Feature Of This World

To understand the meanings of liberation and immortality one must first agree on a common point and from there we shall proceed with the explanation. First of all, the body is temporary and the soul is eternal. The soul is the actual living entity that gives consciousness to the body. Without the soul, the body dies and decomposes with time. The quality of the soul is that it is eternal. It transmigrates from one body to another according to its past activities. If we agree on the existence of the soul then we can move on. The subject of reincarnation is a very complex one and we are not going to explain that here. To be immortal means to live eternally in a particular realm and in a particular type of body compatible with... Read more »

Puranas: Stories And Teachings From Ancient Times

Purana means stories or histories of ancient times. There are several subject matters in the puranas and they are classified into five sections. Their five sections are history, cosmology, secondary creation, genealogy of kings, and of Manvantaras or Manus. The Puranas are part of the Itihasas. The Puranas were written to popularize the religion of the Vedas. They contain the essence of the Vedas. The aim of the Puranas is to impress on the minds of the masses the teachings of the Vedas and to generate in them devotion to God, through concrete examples, myths, stories, legends, lives of saints, kings... Read more »

Prayer Beads: Medium For Vibrating Transcendental Sound

Prayer beads, known as japa mala by the Hindus and by yoga practitioners around the world, are used to keep count of the repetitions of prayers or mantras. The mala consists of a certain number of beads depending on the religion. The material with which it is made also varies. While chanting, one moves from one bead to another and in this way keeps track of the number of prayers said. The beads allow one to focus the mind on the chanting. If it were without beads then the attention... Read more »

Reality And Illusion: Modern And Vedic Living

In the words of the Lord, everything that is connected to Him is real whereas things acting independently of Him are unreal. Modern culture is also of the same nature since people are working independently and most of the people in this age are atheists. Such a culture is eventually leading us to destruction. There is nobody in this modern culture whom we can regard as an example to follow so that future generations can benefit from the activities of such a person. An academic is seen as great when he defeats... Read more »