November/December 2012

Welcome One of the most popular festivals for Krishna’s devotees is Rathayatra, the Jagannatha chariot festival. The festival started many centuries ago in Puri, Odisha, was brought to the West by Srila Prabhupada, and is now celebrated by Hare Krishna devotees all over the world. In this issue a devotee from the West gives his impressions on seeing the festival in the place of its origin for the first time.

This issue coincides with the month of Karttika, or Damodara. In “Karttika: Lord Krishna’s Favorite Month,” Vamshi Vihari Dasa explains why this month, especially, can inspire the devotees’ festive spirit.

A life filled with festivals centered on Krishna is one of the many benefits of the practice of bhakti-yoga, or Krishna consciousness. As Rasa Purusha Dasa tell us in “Krishna, the Purest of the Pure,” contact with Krishna cleanses our hearts. Shivarama Swami explains in “The Seven Wonders of the Word” that our hearts need to be cleaned of envy, the cause of our suffering in this world of matter, and that a clean heart is one of the first results of offenseless chanting of Krishna’s names. In “Misplaced Doubt” Vishakha Devi Dasi says that chanting Hare Krishna destroys doubt, the enemy of spiritual progress.

Hare Krishna.—Nagaraja Dasa, Editor

Departments

Dying to Disappear

www.gbc.iskcon.org

Letters

The Artist Behind the Creation

Vedic Thoughts