The twenty-eighth week of 2025, I mostly lived at ISKCON Paris in Sarcelles, eighteen minutes by train north of Paris itself, except Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, when I visited the Netherlands for a Ratha-yatra and two harinamas. In Paris I chanted Hare Krishna for three hours each afternoon, usually from 3 to 6 p.m., except Thursday when we chanted from 5 to 8 p.m. with a group of devotees who do harinama after work. After chanting two days in Paris, on Friday I took the train to Amsterdam, where I did harinama in the evening to promote the next day’s Ratha-yatra. Saturday we had an ecstatic Ratha-yatra and stage show with a lot of kirtan, and Sunday I did harinama in Rotterdam with a party of thirty devotees on my way back to Paris. The last two days of the week we did harinama in Paris.
Monday we did a walking harinama along Canal Saint-Martin and through a park on its west side near Gare de l’Est. Tuesday we chanted at the Sarcelles market for an hour and then with the book distributors at Les Halles in Paris itself for two hours.
I share quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, and Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, as well as quotes from his lectures and conversations. I share notes on classes by Agnideva and Aksayananda Prabhus. I share quotes from Back to Godhead articles by Visakha, Ramanatha Sukha, Caitanya Carana, and Brajaraja Prabhus.
Many, many thanks to Janakinatha Prabhu of Amsterdam for kindly allowing me to stay at his place in north Amsterdam for Friday and Saturday night and for facilitating my visit there in general. Thanks to Ananda Vrindavan Dasi of Rotterdam for her kind donation.
Itinerary
June 19–August 19: Paris
– July 20: London Ratha-yatra
– July 21: Newcastle harinama
August 20: London harinama
August 21–22: Liverpool harinamas
August 23: Liverpool Ratha-yatra
August 24: Manchester harinama
August 25: London harinama and flight to New York
Chanting Hare Krishna in Paris
Wednesday several devotees chanted at the base of Montmartre, and as far as harinama collections go we got 19.55 euros, making it the biggest day in a long time. It was inspiring to see so many people appreciating the chanting of Hare Krishna. I was busy playing the instruments so I could not take any video of it.
Yashomatinandana Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Stalingrad in Paris on Thursday, the day congregational devotees join us after work, and Patita Pavana Prabhu, who came with his wife and kid, plays harmonium (https://youtu.be/y1Jk-Y66ozg):
Monday we planned to chant at the foot of Montmartre, but the police stopped us so we did a walking harinama along Canal Saint-Martin, and through a park on its west side, near Gare de l’Est.
Here Yashomatinandana Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Canal Saint-Martin, and a guitarist from southern Italy plays along (https://youtu.be/0_L1KHktunY):
Tuesday we did harinama at Sarcelles Market. One guy was moving to the music so I gave some shakers to him and to his girlfriend, and they enjoyed playing the shakers and dancing to the kirtan for a while. It was the end of the day, so they were packing up their goods for sale, and they gave us three spray bottles of perfume sitting on their table as a gift.
We gave the perfume to the head pujari, but because it had alcohol in it, she did not want to offer it to Radharani, and she gave it to the matajis instead.
Chanting Hare Krishna in Amsterdam
Parividha Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at Amsterdam Central Station, and two women play shakers and dance (https://youtube.com/shorts/0LAcdqq6D6Y?feature=share):
Ajamila Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Amsterdam, and many dance (https://youtube.com/shorts/S7fyjhPuv8I?feature=share):
Ajamila Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Amsterdam, and several play shakers and dance (https://youtube.com/shorts/WTORmiD87EM?feature=share):
Citralekha Dasi chants Hare Krishna in Amsterdam (https://youtube.com/shorts/C3MOCK1ZSgc?feature=share):
Parividha Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Amsterdam (https://youtube.com/shorts/RHqYSU_9HO0?feature=share):
Harinama Devi Dasi chants Hare Krishna at the start of Amsterdam Ratha-yatra (https://youtu.be/CyBrBlrWuXk):
Tulasi Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Amsterdam Ratha-yatra (https://youtu.be/IMFmCpvlS78):
A devotee sold a young woman a Bhagavad-gita, and I gave her prasadam and told her about the festival at the end of the procession. She asked if she could join the procession, and I said she could and gave her shakers to play and she did as you can see here during Tulasi Prabhu’s kirtan (https://youtube.com/shorts/8diMB7pRkxU):
She walked with us for half an hour, chanting the mantra for some of the time, and then she realized because of a foot injury it was impractical to walk so far. I suggested she take the metro and meet us there, but I do not know if she did.
Citralekha Dasi chants Hare Krishna in Amsterdam Ratha-yatra (https://youtu.be/bGONyxU-LIw):
Sometimes excited onlookers would watch the Ratha-yatra procession from their apartment windows.
Parividha Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Amsterdam Ratha-yatra (https://youtu.be/POyccbdxc3o):
Rati Manjari Devi Dasi chants Hare Krishna in Amsterdam Ratha-yatra (https://youtu.be/-dqMaoARv-w):
Ajamila Prabhu chants Hare Krishna on Amsterdam Ratha-yatra stage, and attendees play shakers and dance (https://youtu.be/CzBy_jsdivg):
Rati Manjari Devi Dasi chants Hare Krishna on Amsterdam Ratha-yatra stage, and attendees play shakers (https://youtu.be/Emz9cnB_PsU):
DePratap Rudra Prabhu chants Hare Krishna on Amsterdam Ratha-yatra stage, and attendees play shakers and dance (https://youtu.be/FLUZozsgUcI):
I thought it was unlikely to convince Amsterdam devotees to do a harinama the day after Ratha-yatra, so I asked Ananda Vrindavan Dasi to organize one in Rotterdam.
Sonali chants Hare Krishna in Rotterdam as the harinama party reaches the temple (https://youtu.be/0_lH-RL085o):
The harinama was only an hour and a half, but several devotees were happy to go to Central Station and chant for another half hour. I chanted Hare Krishna from the temple to Rotterdam Central Station when we did the additional half hour (https://youtu.be/kmbLnLcjEYY):
After half an hour two devotees had to catch a train, but Sonali was happy to stay forty minutes after that, as were three book distributors, including two who came from Germany for the Ratha-yatra. Here Sonali leads the final kirtan at the station’s back entrance (https://youtube.com/shorts/akIenC3duek?feature=share):
Srila Prabhupada:
From Bhagavad-gita 9.2, purport:
“It is said that the execution of devotional service is so perfect that one can perceive the results directly. This direct result is actually perceived, and we have practical experience that any person who is chanting the holy names of Krishna (Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare) in course of chanting without offenses feels some transcendental pleasure and very quickly becomes purified of all material contamination. This is actually seen. Furthermore, if one engages not only in hearing but in trying to broadcast the message of devotional activities as well, or if he engages himself in helping the missionary activities of Krishna consciousness, he gradually feels spiritual progress. This advancement in spiritual life does not depend on any kind of previous education or qualification. The method itself is so pure that by simply engaging in it one becomes pure.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.2.35:
“The Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krishna is in every living being along with the individual soul. And this fact is perceived and hypothesized in our acts of seeing and taking help from the intelligence.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.8.27, purport:
“Devotional service to the Lord is very much obliging to Him. There are many transcendentalists in different fields of spiritual activities, but devotional service to the Lord is unique. Devotees do not ask anything from the Lord in exchange for their service. Even the most desirable liberation is refused by devotees, although offered by the Lord. Thus the Lord becomes a kind of debtor to the devotees, and He can only try to repay the devotees' service with His ever-enchanting smile. The devotees are ever satisfied by the smiling face of the Lord, and they become enlivened. And by seeing the devotees so enlivened, the Lord Himself is further satisfied. So there is continuous transcendental competition between the Lord and His devotees by such reciprocation of service and acknowledgement.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.9.1, purport:
“Brahma was extremely satisfied upon observing the magnificent beauty and opulence of the Lord, and he admitted that nothing can be comparable to Him. Only by penance can one appreciate the beauty and opulence of the Lord, and when one is acquainted with that beauty and opulence, one is no longer attracted by any other.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.36:
[The earth goddess prayed:] “By manipulating a fire-generating stick, great saints and sages can bring forth the fire lying dormant within wood. In the same way, O Lord, those expert in understanding the Absolute Truth try to see You in everything—even in their own bodies. Yet you remain concealed. You are not to be understood by indirect processes involving mental or physical activities. Because You are self-manifested, only when You see that a person is wholeheartedly engaged in searching for You do You reveal Yourself. Therefore I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.12.39:
“If even only once or even by force one brings the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead into one’s mind, one can attain the supreme salvation by the mercy of Krishna, as did Aghasura. What then is to be said of those whose hearts the Supreme Personality of Godhead enters when He appears as an incarnation, or those who always think of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the source of transcendental bliss for all living entities and by whom all illusion is completely removed?”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 22.83:
“The root cause of devotional service to Lord Krishna is association with advanced devotees. Even when one’s dormant love for Krishna awakens, association with devotees is still most essential.”
From lecture on Bhagavad-gita 1.37–38 in London on July 27, 1973:
“People cannot understand that by serving Krishna we become healthy, or in our normal position. This lack of understanding is called ignorance. Somebody is trying to forget Him; somebody is trying to become equal with Him. This business is going on. And nobody is submitting, ‘My Lord, I forgot my service. From this day I again become Your servant. Please give me protection.’”
“Two things are there: religion and irreligion. If we cannot keep religious principles, then – we have to do something – then we have to enhance our irreligious principles.”
From “Trying to Be More Intelligent than Krishna” in Back to Godhead, Vol. 59, No. 6 (Nov/Dec 2025):
[An edited transcript of a conversation in Mayapur on January 16, 1976.]
“Disciple: Sometimes, Srila Prabhupada, a person who goes mad has to be put into a padded cell, so that he doesn’t harm himself.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes. Otherwise he will create danger for others. Similarly, this whole material world is a ‘padded cell’ for those who have left the spiritual world. They must be kept within this padded cell so that they can go on with their madness of mind without disturbing the sane and peaceful residents of the spiritual world. Still, Krishna has kindly left the Vedic literature here, with instructions that ‘If you act this or that way, then you can promote yourself to this or that higher material planet. And yanti mad-yajino ’pi mam – if you act in devotional service, you can come to Me.’ But the soul who has gone mad will not take that instruction.
Disciple: Coming to Krishna means he’ll have to give up all his mad desires.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes, but all the instructions are there for escaping this material world and going home to Krishna’s blissful abode. All the instructions are there. We simply have to accept them. If we don’t accept them, we suffer. What can be done? If you accept the path leading to hell, in spite of higher authorities’ instructions, then who can save you? That is going on.”
The humble servants of Srila Prabhupada:
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.86.47:
[The brahmana Srutadeva prayed:] “Indeed, no one can grasp You by his material powers, for You reveal Yourself only in the hearts of those who have learned to appreciate Your transcendental qualities.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.2.38:
“Although the duality of the material world does not ultimately exist, the conditioned soul experiences it as real under the influence of his own conditioned intelligence. This imaginary experience of a world separate from Krishna can be compared to the acts of dreaming and desiring. When the conditioned soul dreams at night of something desirable or horrible, or when he daydreams of what he would like to have or avoid, he creates a reality that has no existence beyond his own imagination. The tendency of the mind is to accept and reject various activities based on sense gratification. Therefore an intelligent person should control the mind, restricting it from the illusion of seeing things separate from Krishna, and when the mind is thus controlled he will experience actual fearlessness.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.7.23:
“Although I, the Supreme Lord, can never be captured by ordinary sense perception, those situated in human life may use their intelligence and other faculties of perception to directly search for Me through both apparent and indirectly ascertained symptoms.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.23.59:
[Lord Krishna said to his friend, Uddhava] “No other force besides his own mental confusion makes the soul experience happiness and distress. His perception of friends, neutral parties and enemies and the whole material life he builds around this perception are simply created out of ignorance.”
Agnideva Prabhu:
Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam are harmonius.
You will not find that one of Srila Prabhupada’s books contradicts another of Srila Prabhupada’s books.
Because Krishna knows all the Vedas (Bg. 15.15) therefore the Bhagavad-gita is consistent with the Vedic knowledge.
If you are thrown into the middle of the ocean, even if you are an Olympic swimmer, you will perish. The material world is compared to such an ocean. Thus we need the help of the Lord, in the form of transcendental literature, to cross it.
What happens after death? 99% of the people in the world do not know.
You can purify yourself from material existence and not have to come back.
Trinidad was colonized by the French, Spanish, and English, thus their English is colored by the other languages.
Why do people not want to die? Because life is eternal.
Do not think “Now I am a big devotee” I can treat people whimsically.
As there are not American souls or Indian souls there are not American Vaishnavas or Indian Vaishnavas.
Srila Prabhupada never stopped trying to deliver people.
During the time of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, there were no books to distribute. Lord Nityananda and his cowherd boys traveled all over Bengal inviting people to chant Hare Krishna.
Ramanatha Sukha Prabhu:
From “Mahamaya or Yogamaya? The Confusion of Illusion” in Back to Godhead, Vol. 59, No. 6 (Nov/Dec 2025):
“Srila Prabhupada explains that Durga is the warden of the prison of the material world and her trident represents the three-fold miseries – those arising from the mind and body, those inflicted by other living beings, and those arising from nature. In her role as Yogamaya, Durga helps reform the suffering ‘prisoners’ so they attain the blissful normal life of loving devotion in the spiritual world.”
“As an assistant to Yogamaya, Tulasi-devi helps devotees deeply connect with the service of Radha-Krishna. Tulasi worship should never be underestimated, since her blessings are invaluable for understanding and experiencing the sublime pastimes of Radha-Krishna. As an assistant of Yogamaya, Tulasi is the reservoir of bhakti and mercifully bestows pure devotion to her sincere worshipers.”
“As the enlightening effect of Yogamaya rises, the delusional influence of Mahamaya subsides. By the grace of Yogamaya, a devotee’s eternal identity within the spiritual world is gradually revealed.”
Visakha Dasi:
From “Perception: Material and Beyond” in Back to Godhead, Vol. 59, No. 6 (Nov/Dec 2025):
“What we’ll achieve and perceive when we serve Krishna uninterruptedly and with affection is a great wonder.”
“We start this journey simply by desiring to start it and by seeking the company of those who have progressed on it, for those whose consciousness has been transformed and uplifted can effectively help us transform and uplift our consciousness.”
Aksayananda Prabhu:
We act as devotees because we remember that we are devotees. To properly practice sadhana we have to never let our memory of our identity be disturbed. If our minds become agitated, our memory may be disturbed.
An avadhuta can disregard the principles of the scripture and his memory of Krishna is not affected, but if we were to imitate such behavior, our memory of Krishna would be lost. That is the characteristic of the avadhuta.
Lord Shiva was to give the sanjivani mantra to revive the dead to either Brhaspati or Sukracarya. Sukracarya won out, and he used the power revive the demons who died in the war with the demigods.
Eighty percent of Christians base their faith on the miracles of Lord Jesus Christ, but miracles do not play an important role in Vaishnavism. Vaishnavas do not consider them evidence of spiritual attainment.
The truth is higher than the proscriptions of the scriptures because scriptures cannot account for all possible situations.
Mystic power can distract us from our devotional service.
At the sixth stage of astanga-yoga, dharana, one attains mystic powers, and that distracts 90% of yogis from continuing their practice until the eighth and final stage.
Each devotee has the mystic power to present Krishna according to his level of worship.
Q: How do we deal with these 80% of Christians whose faith is based on the miracles of Christ?
A: The goal is love of God, and we have figure out how to present that in a way they can accept it. We can share how we tried different things, but when we encountered Bhagavad-gita, we were really transformed.
Miracles have no inherent value. If they increase one’s faith in God or His representative then they have some value.
Although the practices of people in different traditions vary, the saints in all the traditions are vegetarian because they feel compassion toward other creatures.
A yogi should practice in an secluded place so as not to be disturbed by the people in general.
Caitanya Carana Prabhu:
From “Q&A” in Back to Godhead, Vol. 59, No. 6 (Nov/Dec 2025):
“When Buddhism and Jainism rose in India, to attract followers they criticized Hinduism and their central figures, such as Krishna and Rama, along with their philosophies and teachings. But it is important to note that none of them said that Krishna and Rama were not historical figures. If these figures were imaginary, then one of the easiest ways for critics to challenge their teachings and philosophy would be to deem them mythological, but none of them did that. Hence we see that opponents of the Vedic tradition also talked about these figures.”
“Now, do we want to get a taste in our chanting, or do we want to give Krishna pleasure by our chanting? Actually, the two are connected. If we give pleasure to Krishna by our chanting, Krishna will reveal His sweetness, and we will also get pleasure. So we should focus on trying to think of chanting as service to Krishna.”
Brajaraja Prabhu:
From “The Power of Pure Devotees” in Back to Godhead, Vol. 59, No. 6 (Nov/Dec 2025):
“Although wood includes fire in that it has the potential to burn, unless a piece of wood contacts fire it will ever remain dull wood, no matter how dry or inflammable it might be. Similarly, each of us needs to contact someone on fire with divine consciousness, or Krishna consciousness, so that our spiritual potential may be realized.”
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Sometimes in our temples the food is too spicy. That is not actually recommended by Krishna in Bhagavad-gita, as He says:
katv-amla-lavanaty-usna-
ahara rajasasyesta
duhkha-sokamaya-pradah
“Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry and burning are dear to those in the mode of passion. Such foods cause distress, misery and disease.” (Bhagavad-gita 17.9)
What food does Krishna recommend?
ayuh-sattva-balarogya-
rasyah snigdhah sthira hrdya
aharah sattvika-priyah
“Foods dear to those in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one's existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such foods are juicy, fatty, wholesome, and pleasing to the heart.” (Bhagavad-gita 17.8)
Acting in passion results in distress, while acting in goodness results in happiness and progress in self-realization, life’s goal.
