Five more days until we hit the road! Time has been really flying. A couple of days back it was three months until takeoff. Still it seems as if we have three months worth of things to get out of the way before we are free to go.

Sri Chaitanya described Vraja-vasa, or residing in Vraja, as one among the five most important aspects in bhakti-sAdhana. Sri Vraja-dhama is filled with uddIpana, or stimuli, for the remembrance of Radha-Krishna and their pastimes...

The tickets -- finally! We've been at it for a good while already, with our good old partner, Aeroflot, offering budget flights from Helsinki to Delhi since years. The lady in the office was kind enough to arrange for fruit only meals for the trip.

Though the journal will officially open on the 1st of December, we'll be posting in something now and then in anticipation of the trip prior to that as well. Check in now and then...

The following narration is an excerpt from Sri Ananta Das Babaji Maharaja's commentary on the 48th verse of Sri Rupa Goswami's Utkalika-vallari.

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Sri-Sri Radha-Madhava are resting on a jewelled platform at the base of a sweet Madhavi-vine, while the sakhis fan Them and serve Them betel leaves. Everyone is absorbed in a wonderful rasa of laughter.

On Lalita’s indication Sripada, in his siddha-svarupa, makes a bed of flowers in a nearby kunja, which is filled with buzzing bees that serve as the kunja gatekeepers that will not let any hostile person in...

A world-conquering brahmana from Southern India, known as Tailanga Pandit was challenging everyone as though he were beating on a pillar. But no one could gather the courage to even come before him, what to speak of actually debating scripture with him. What a shameful affair it was for Braj! Braj, which for centuries had been the cultural centre of India, was now forced to lower its head in defeat before a single scholar from Telangana. The scholars of Vrindavan were all preoccupied with the question of how Braj would be able to save face...

He was born in a poor kayastha family of the Varendra clan in the village Cadia of Sirajganja in the district of Pavna. He was known as Bhimakishore Rakshita. His parents died during his childhood, leaving only a widow sister to look after him. In his youth He received very little education but managed to learn something about the work of an Amin (land surveyor) and thus became connected with the Zemindary estates. Padmalocana Nag Mahasaya, the Dewan of the Sanyal group of Zamindars of Salap village, was a great devotee...