Gaura Mani Devi Dasi - Mayapur Kirtan Mela D4 - 16.4.21

Why as soon as we become devotees, why don't we just become pure souls and go back to Godhead? For the same reason, because Krishna wants to see the quality of our love. He wants us to develop the quality of our love, then love is developed through the process of sacrifice and if we didn't have to undergo the tests of lust and anger and envy and pride and greed and illusion and all these horrible things that are within us, that we have created ourselves to all of our previous births, we have created the condition of our consciousness but Krishna wants us to face all of these testing elements within our life and with faith and conviction and determination and with trust in the guidance of the great soils and faith in his words, he wants us to pursue to work, to strive, to sacrifice for him. And when he sees that quality in us, then by His mercy, he very gracefully awards love of God to us. You see, love of God is not something that you can acquire. It is already within you, but you'll never find it on your own. It is only when Krishna reveals it by his own sweet will that you can understand where it is. And he reveals it when he sees that you have qualified yourself through sincere devotion and sacrifice, through passing through so many tests, then you have showed your love for him.

Why Krishna Allows Maya to Test His Devotees Very Severely?

It has taken us millions and millions of births, suffering birth, old age, disease and death to finally come to the point where the doors to the spiritual world are being opened before us through friendship and the association of devotees.

The Essence of Friendship

No Time To Live - The 5 Steps Of Time Management From The Gita | 5 Oct 2022 Redbridge London

Think Gita 101 Ep.3 - Guided Tour | 19 Jan 2023

A True Spiritual Warrior - Remembering Bhakti Tirtha Swami | 29 Jan 2023

Srimad Bhagavatam Class (SB 5.5.15) by HH Radhanath Swami at ISKCON Gita Nagari on 06May2023

Detachment Is Desirable | Houston Texas USA 4 Oct 2023

2016 - 03 - 09 Kirtan Mela 2016 - Hare Krishna Kirtan Day - 04 - Kamal Gopal Prabhu ISKCON Mayapur

Jahnavi Harrison (Jahnavi Jivana), Jaya Jagannath, Kishor Gopal, Keshava, and Vasudev at Joe Carini's  5.12.18

Gurvastakam

In 1965, when Srila Prabhupada suffered sea sickness and multiple heart attacks on his voyage to America, his reading of Caitanya-caritamrta brought him great solace. He said it was the “nectarine of life” and his “source of vitality.” We want everyone to understand the greatest gifts given by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

Srila Prabhupada also recollects how Caitanya-caritamrta was his spiritual master’s favourite book. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur had predicted that a time would come when people would learn the Bengali language simply to relish this classic composition of Krisnadasa Kaviraja Goswami.

At present, however, Caitanya-caritamrta remains a relatively unexplored literature. Since the studies of Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam are vast in and of themselves, many neglect the opportunity to bathe in the delightful narrations of Sri Caitanya’s life.

In 5 sessions, we hope to:
 - present an easy-to-follow overview of Sri Caitanya’s life
 - provide a ‘road map’ and framework for anyone who desires to explore the Caitanya-caritamrta in greater detail

CC Compact #1 | Oct 2017

Radhanath Swami is a Vaishnava sanyassi (a monk in a Krishna-bhakti lineage) and teacher of the devotional path of Bhakti-yoga. He is author of The Journey Home, a memoir of his search for spiritual truth. His teachings draw from the sacred texts of India such as The Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, and Ramayana, and aim to reveal the practical application of the sacred traditions, while focusing on the shared essence which unites apparently disparate religious or spiritual paths.
Born Richard Slavin, on December 7, 1950, in his teens he came to confront a deep sense of alienation from suburban Chicago life and the civil injustices of mid-century America. At the age of nineteen, while on a summer trip to Europe, his internal struggles culminated in a commitment to search for God wherever it might lead him. Meditating on the Isle of Crete, he felt a supernatural calling and the next morning set off alone to find spiritual India. The Journey Home documents his odyssey as a penniless hitch-hiker though Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and finally India. There he lived as a wandering ascetic, first amongst the forest dwelling Himalayan yogis and later amongst a wide variety of gurus and spiritual practitioners throughout India and Nepal. Ultimately, he was led to the holy town of Vrindavan, where he found his path amongst the Bhakti-yogis.
In Vrindavan he found the teacher he was searching for in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), and representative of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, (the Krishna-bhakti tradition stemming from the 16th century mystic avatar Sri Chaitanya). In choosing Bhaktivedanta Swami, as his guru, Radhanath Swami felt compelled to shear his matted locks and reenter Western society with a mission to share the sacred wisdom he had received. This return exemplifies the form of devotional yoga which is at the heart of Radhanath Swami’s teachings, a spiritual practice expressed as tangible action meant to bring about personal fulfillment and benefit the world.
At the the age of 31 he took the monastic vows of a Vaishnava sanyassin and became known as Radhanath Swami.
Today Radhanath Swami travels regularly throughout India, Europe and North America, sharing the teachings of Bhakti-yoga. He resides much of the year at the Radha Gopinath Ashram in Chowpatty, Mumbai. For the past twenty-five years he has guided the community’s development and has directed a number of acclaimed social action projects including Midday Meals, which daily serves more than 260,000 plates of sanctified vegetarian food to the children of the slums of Mumbai. He has also worked to establish missionary hospitals and eye camps, eco-friendly farms, schools and ashrams, an orphanage, and a number of emergency relief programs throughout India.


Why Krishna Allows Maya to Test His Devotees Very Severely?

Radhanath Swami

Related tracks