November/December 2015

WELCOME  

This issue coincides with the holy month of Karttika, during which devotees worship Lord Krishna as Damodara, the darling child of Yashoda who allowed His mother to bind Him to a grinding mortar. This transcendental pastime of the Lord is one of many that have been remembered and honored in the culture of India for thousands of years.

Vrindavan, the place of Krishna’s childhood pastimes, is a pilgrimage site whose current renown derives primarily from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s visit there. This Karttika, devotees celebrate the five-hundredth anniversary of that visit, recounted in Lokanath Swami’s article “Lord Chaitanya Visits Vrindavan.”

As Lord Chaitanya revealed sacred sites in Vrindavan, His pure representative Srila Prabhupada created new ones around the world. In an excerpt from Satyaraja Dasa’s book Swamiji, Brahmananda Dasa recalls how Prabhupada’s visit to Kenya inspired Krishna consciousness in the hearts of many of that country’s residents.

In “Transcendental Poetry and Muslim Poets,” Damodara Nityananda Dasa discusses a little-known topic – Muslim devotional poetry dedicated to Lord Krishna.

Sureshvara Dasa continues his series “Srila Prabhupada: Our Founder-Acharya,” Tattvavit Dasa muses on his life and its connection to Prabhupada’s, and Hari Parayana Dasa explains why bhakti is the highest form of yoga.

Hare Krishna. – Nagaraja Dasa, Editor

Departments

Letters

Science’s Imitation Barking

ISKCON.org

Village Talk

Vedic Thoughts