GAURANGA! This expression will be heard loudly in all Hare Krishna temples throughout the world this month. Gauranga is a name for Lord Chaitanya, Krishna’s golden avatar who comes to spread the ultimate goal of life - loving God. Welcome to Krishna.com’s March Newsletter. On March 21 all Hare Krishnas and Gaudiya Vaishnava’s celebrate the birth of Lord Chaitanya. This event is called Gaura Purnima and means “Golden Full Moon,” signifying that Lord Chaitanya took birth at the time of the full moon rise. This month we offer you a variety of new material and entertainment in which you may immerse yourself. Through reading, hearing, and viewing, you can center your consciousness on Krishna and Lord Chaitanya. Here at Krishna.com we work hard to provide all of the below and more for your and Krishna’s enjoyment!
Your servants,
The Krishna.com Team
Volunteer with Krishna.com! Around the world there are dedicated volunteers tirelessly working on improving Krishna.com. There are many ways to perform devotional service to Krishna, and through the internet we try to spread His glories to everyone. Check out our updated Volunteer Engagement Form and engage your skills in Krishna’s service!
In the latest episode from our Krishna TV Video Blogs, Carl Woodham discusses the many questions that present themselves when one is looking for the truth. “What will happen to my career goals, my economic goals, the things that are important to me in life if I take up spiritual life.? Do I have to set all of those things aside in my search for the truth?” From the perspective of the Bhagavad-gita, Carl Woodham precisely answers all of these questions and explains that the meaning of your pursuit will become much clearer through the Bhagavad-gita. Tune in now and become enlightened!
GAURA PURNIMA is the annual celebration of the appearance of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. “Gaura” refers to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s golden complexion, and “Purnima” refers to the full-moon night on which He appeared. In a special appearance, Krishna personally came in A.D. 1486 to Sridhama Mayapur, West Bengal, India as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and acted as His own devotee. He appeared in this world to spread love for Krishna through the congregational chanting of the holy names of the Lord. Sri Chaitanya’s teachings cover three main topics:
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare
To celebrate his glorious appearance, festivals are held throughout the whole world every year, and especially at His birthplace - Sridhama Mayapur. Visit our Gaura Purnima page for more information about Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, His life, and teachings.
Watch an amazing slideshow video on the visitor statistics to Krishna.com for 2007. Did you know that we had over a million unique visitors from every country except two? We hope this video inspires you as much as it does us and thank you for being one of our visitors!
Bhagavad-Gita As It Is is the largest-selling edition of the Gita in the Western world. It contains knowledge of five basic truths: Krishna (or God), the individual soul, the material world, action in this world, and time. The essence of India’s spiritual wisdom, it answers questions posed by philosophers for centuries. Listen to this new Bhagavad-gita audio book produced by Kamlesh Patel and narrated by Titikshava Karunika Dasa. For a high-quality version, you can purchase the CD set at our Krishna.com store.
While the month of March is highlighted by the celebration of Gaura Purnima, or Lord Chaitanya’s birth, we also have some wonderful stories about His eternal associate and brother - Lord Nityananda. Listen to Lord Nityananda’s Pastimes from the Sri Chaitanya Bhagavata, narrated by Harinam Chintamani Dasi.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Lord Chaitanya and His teachings, Krishna.com recommends you read “The Life and Times of Lord Chaitanya” by Steven Rosen (Satyaraja Dasa). This book covers important historical and philosophical points in an easy-to-understand format and condenses the biographical information from Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami’s seventeen-volume Chaitanya-Caritamrita, translated by Srila Prabhupada. Visit Krishna.com’s online store and pick up a copy today!
We’ve recently added some new features to our live Webcasts! The Mayapur Temple Live Webcast now has Live Sound that you can listen to. To celebrate Gaura Purnima, you can now watch Full Screen AND listen LIVE to celebrations at ISKCON’s temple in Mayapur, India (Calcutta Time, GMT +5:30). You can also read and listen to morning lectures given by dignitaries at the 2008 Gaura Purnima Festival. The Gaura Purnima Festival in Mayapur runs from March 5 to March 22. Another new feature we’ve added this month relates to the Alachua Temple Live Webcast. Have daily lectures sent to your email with a short description and MP3/Audio link of the class. During the lecture you can also visit the
and ask questions to someone who will relay them to the speaker to answer live!
Krishna.com is proud to be associated with Friends of the BBT, a new organization established to help devotees of Krishna throughout the world become more directly involved in the work of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.