The New Year brings opportunities to start fresh and do things better. Here are 3 simple bhakti practices that are worth considering – EAT, PRAY, LOVE. They are so simple that we might miss them, yet so profound that we would be foolish to do so. . . .
The world today is really in a very critically precarious state – nuclear bombs, so much hatred and conflict within religions, nations and races. The ecology is being exploited in so many ways which endangers so much of the life we know. There is a need for real change. (more…)
Sometimes when people begin practicing Bhakti Yoga, they think that by putting their hearts and energy into yoga, they will have to give up too much. They worry that those things they love and that give them pleasure might have to be abandoned.
Every spiritual seeker who has found their personal path has a story. But there are not many stories as powerful and moving as Radhanath Swami’s The Journey Home. (more…)
When we began our study of Bhakti yoga in the early 70s, nearly every aspiring Bhakta lived in one of our spiritual master’s ashrams. Living in the ashram was a bit like a spiritual boot camp. We awakened very early (around 3:00 am), showered with cold water, attended a morning worship program and classes that lasted until around 8 am, and then worked hard all day at whatever service we’d been assigned. In the evening there was another kirtan and class, and after it was all over, we dropped onto our sleeping mats exhausted. It was austere but blissful, and it was easy to see our life as service and as a celebration of our growing relationship with the Supreme, Krishna.
“Out of the bosom of the air
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Oer the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent, and soft, and slow
descends the snow.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
During this retreat I would like to go deep into myself, leaving all the different layers behind. I know that deep down in the very bottom of my heart a treasure is waiting for me. I can find it by the process of “spiritual archaeology.” I feel that this treasure will give me the strength required to deal with the compromises I make in my life that keep me in the so-called comfort zone. It is a dangerous zone that gets darker each time I act in a way contrary to what I know to be true.
When our spiritual teacher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, explained the philosophy of Bhakti Yoga to all of us students in the 1960s-70s there was already a small ecology movement in this country. (more…)
Good evening.
We have all come together this evening to pray for, and show solidarity with, those who are suffering at the hands of others in Darfur. Certainly prayer is appropriate and powerful.
But we should also inquire: Why is there so much suffering, not just in Darfur, but everywhere? And what can we do about it? Because if we are really compassionate and sane, we want to stop the suffering in Darfur and around the globe, permanently.
One day, high up in the mountain retreat of Shiva, Vishnu came to see him, & left behind, at the entrance, his eagle-like carrier, Garuda.
FEATURED SITE: The Bhakti- vedanta Center has sponsored the Bhakti Yoga Club, a CIO at the University of Virginia, for nearly two decades. Click here to go to the BYC site.
RECIPES: Featured recipes from dishes served at the Bhakti- vedanta Center programs.
QUESTIONS sent to us via email.
SLIDESHOW:Bhaktivedanta Ctr.
ESSAYS: Short quotes
VIDEO: Karnamrita sings
BYC member Abeer Saha Sings
Watering the Seed
HH Giriraj Swami
Miracle on Second Avenue
Mukunda Goswami
The Journey Home
By HH Radhanatha Swami
Bhagavad-Gita: The Beloved Lord’s Secret Love Song
Graham M. Schweig
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Subscribe to this feed