Rays of The Harmonist
- Krsna-nama, Krsna-dhama and Krsna-kama
- Srimad-Bhagavatam Can Only Be Read by a True Bhagavata
- Professional Priests and Orators Cannot Claim to Be Gurus
by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
Those who attend to the service of God’s name (nāma), His abode (dhāma) and His desire (kāma) are the only really adorable ones in the world. No being can extricate himself from wrong understandings due to māyā without engaging in service to śrī nāma. As the result of service to śrī nāma...
Read Moreby Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam must be read in the company of true Vaiṣṇavas. Śrīla Svarūpa Gosvāmī Prabhupāda said, “Go and read the Bhāgavatam with a Vaiṣṇava.” The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam cannot be chanted through the mouth of a person who is not himself a bhāgavata, or true devotee of God...
Read Moreby Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
In Śrī Caitanya-caritāmrta it has been declared: “One should first practice dharma before teaching it to another; unless you do it yourself, you cannot teach it.” Platform speakers or professional priests cannot claim to be gurus. If I were a professional discourser on the Bhāgavata and I happened upon an advertisement that the position of a sweeper had become vacant and that it carried an emolument higher than what I earn from my discourses...
Read MoreFeatured: Jagannatha Ratha-yatra
Śrī Jagannātha Ratha-yātrā is bound to take one’s appreciation of Ratha-yātrā to new heights, beyond the thrill of an extraordinary cultural or religious experience. Annually, in Purī, India, approximately a million people attend the ancient Ratha-yātrā festival, to take darśana of Lord Jagannātha on His chariot, and at least three times that view it from other places in India and around the world. Still, the deep significance of Ratha-yātrā, being most confidential, is not widely known...
The Pond Of The Anger Of Love
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By the mercy of Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga, 2010 Vraja Mandala Parikrama is going on smoothly. Today, the parikrama party went to Maan-sarovara...
Who's Curing Who?
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We have been staying in Delhi at Sri Sri Ramana-bihari Gaudiya Matha since October 7th, and will do our best to share our experiences over the past 10 days. Usually we don't write a photo-tour report with devotees' personal experiences and feelings, but this is such a heartfelt time that we beg your permission to do so.
Short but Sweet - Russia - August 11, 2010
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One day, Sri Krsna and Baladeva Prabhu went out for cow-herding with their friends. Their mothers had sent foodstuffs to Bandiravana, but by mistake the boys went to the border of Mathura and Vrndavana. In that area there were only asoka trees there – no other plants – and nearby there were brahmanas performing a yajna (a sacrifice).
Purebhakti.com
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Purebhakti.com is a place of pilgrimage on the web for it is the home of Srila Gurudeva's Harikatha and reservoir for over hundred of his books across three different languages, for download, as well as all issues of the Rays of the Harmonist, and the Harmonist Monthly online edition. Purebhakti.com also host the Vaisnava Calendar for approximately 470 locations around the world.
On Raganuga-bhakti
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Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja: What is a manjari? We have heard about kamala-manjaris and mango-manjaris. Any creeper or good flower has manjaris. Although the manjari appears first and then the flower, the manjari is always located above the flower. When a bee comes to sit on the flower and drink its honey, the manjaris tremble, being overjoyed.
Vaisnava-ninda, Criticizing a Vaisnava
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Javala and Satyakama
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Javala was a widow. She had one young son named Satyakama. One day, Satyakama approached her and said, "Mother, I want to adopt a vow of sacred celibacy and take up residence in the school of my guru. But to do so, I must know my family lineage."
TV Interview - Durban, South Africia, 8 January 2010
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The director of a very popular South African television program, called Dharma Moments, came with his cameraman to the residence of Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja to interview him for their program. They first filmed the devotees chanting the maha-mantra...
Illuminating the Path to Ragatmika-bhakti
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This surrender and complete dedication of the heart to guru is called tadatmya (oneness of heart) in Sanskrit. When an iron rod is placed in fire, the qualities of the fire enter the iron. When fire permeates an iron rod it is the fire that burns other objects; it is not that the iron rod burns other objects; The iron rod may ‘consider,’ “I am fire,” in the sense that the qualities of the iron have become one with the qualities of the fire; it now does the work of fire.
To Be Covered By Sweetness
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As Lalita trains Srimati Radhika in this way [for Radhika’s nocturnal meeting with Sri Krsna], Rupa Manjari watches, and our guru in this world, as sakhi-manjari in that world, also watches.
Sri Guru’s Spiritual Form
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This is the third of the three important slokas discussed by Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura in his Rag-vartma-candrika:
sravanotkirtanadini vaidhi-bhakty uditani tu
yany angani ca tanyatra vijneyani manisibhih
With Greed In The Center
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Abhista-bhava-mayi: Whatever practices we execute at the time of our sadhana (the practice executed to attain our goal) will be the same at the time of sadhya (the goal of life, the stage of siddhi, perfection). Sadhakas remember Krsna, Govinda, now, at the time of their sadhana, and they will do so in siddha-sarira (spiritual form as a gopi-manjari) as well. Both remembrances are the same, but one is unripe and the other will be ripe. The subject of the mood will never change, just as kirtana will never be changed, whether in the stage of sadhana or siddha. The sadhakas' absorption in their constitutional mood is called abhista-bhava-mayi.
