The vision of Serve Love was cultivated through years of experience of the world as both a place of great beauty, hope, and love, yet also filled with great pain and quarrel, based on the fractious nature of hostile disagreements between and within groups. Our conception is to celebrate the variety of life and opinions, while accepting certain undeniable principles and universal values that we can all agree upon. Thus was born Serve Love. For if we can agree upon the principle of service and love, then we can build a harmonious understanding between peoples of different beliefs. Then the only reason for war and quarrel will be the material greed of oligarchs and tyrants.

The Vedas state: lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu – may all beings everywhere be happy; and vasudhaiva-kutumbakam – the whole world is one family. How can we serve together towards this optimistic vision? In the invocation to the Isopanisad, from the Yajur Veda, is the beautiful acknowledgment that as God in the creative force of the sacred sound vibration Om is always the complete whole, all things that emanate from Om or the Divine, such as this world, are also by nature complete and whole. The Isopanisad teaches that therefore, if we accept what is necessary for ourselves without greed, without hankering after the property of others, there will always be enough for everyone. In childhood and old age, we are cared for by our families and societies; the middle portion of life is for giving back, in loving service. Our modern culture promotes and operates on the premise that life is for the gratification of our selfish impulses without higher purpose or the adoption of responsibility. Instead of becoming happier in this lifestyle, even with so many technological advances, we find depression ever on the rise. If we live by the principles of dharma, we can actually be happy, and our civilizations can carry on continuously, as forces for good.

Lofty ideals help give us an aim and moral compass in life, yet we believe that spiritual teachers who do not live by the ideals they set, nor practice what they profess, are simply cheaters causing more suffering or confusion. Karma does not judge man by his ideals, but by his actions. We thus nurture spiritual realism, not false idealism. We are nonsectarian, not seeking to convince or convert, rather we practice the universal principles of love of God and others, friendship, devotion, charity, meditation, sharing wisdom that uplifts and enlivens, and caring for people.

Honoring the divine spark within all life, we endeavor to not cause pain to any living entity, and to embody the virtues of humility, serving others, tolerating all eventualities, and adopting the most recommended practice in this age, or absorption in the Divine Couple, Sri Radha-Krishna, the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine, by chanting Their Holy Names, especially the mahamantra:

Our scriptures describe that the names of God and God are one, and that by turning back towards Godliness in our culture, by chanting the mahamantra, meditation on the Gayatri-mantras, along with the limbs of devotion and saintly association, we can achieve liberation and the experience of divine love.

Bhakta Bandhav is a developing branch of the timeless Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya lineage. Our founding spiritual masters are Bhakta Bandhav Srila BV Narayan Gosvami and his instructing spiritual master Srila Bhaktivedanta Svami Prabhupada. Bhakta Bandhav is a title offered to our Gurudeva by his Guru, meaning a dearmost friend and caretaker of the devotees. This title was originally spoken by Krishna to Arjuna, where He says: “I am the dearmost friend (bandhava) of My devotees (bhaktas), and the devotees are My dearmost friends. The devotees are teachers (gurus) of the world, and I am the Guru of the devotees.” Bhakta Bandhav Srila Gurudeva followed in the footsteps of Srila Swami Prabhupada, the founder-acharya of the Hare Krishna worldwide bhakti movement, fulfilling his request to help his disciples and mission.

Srila Gurudeva and Srila Prabhupada shared everywhere the message of divine love as taught by Lord Chaitanya, creating a mission based on the process of bhakti-yoga. Yoga or union with the Divine is realized according to our inherent spiritual nature. Loving relationships in this world are described as reflections coming from an acquired material nature. If we choose to turn towards our spiritual nature in relation with the Divine Couple, by the grace of a realized Guru and practicing bhakti, we can experience our relationship with the Divine in the sweet, pure love of a parent, dearmost friend, or beloved.

We teach and practice servant leadership, valuing people before projects and individuals before institutions. We care for people first, trusting that the people well loved and encouraged will themselves realize their unique genius in being the change and being a catalyst for change. We thus build courageous, kind, trusting teams, acting under the guidance of spiritual mentorship, that helps people discover their purpose and engage their talents in the service of others. Our hope and aspiration is to be a part of the change, by endeavoring to serve love without expectation. We are not here to fight or compete with anyone, rather we are inspired by the success of others, and are innovative and proactive in our approach.

Our mission began in 2012 in India, when we started an Ashram in Vrindavan, the holy place of Sri Krsna’s appearance. Hundreds of practitioners live there under the guidance of a spiritual successor of our Bhakta Bandhav Srila Gurudeva. Along with the rigorous devotional and meditative practices, study, and worship, we daily prepare and serve 1000’s of people free vegetarian food (prasada) in the Ashram as well as to the needy in the surrounding villages.

Since the last few years, the servant-leaders and Swamis trained in Vrindavan are being sent to open centers, serve, and share the teachings of pure bhakti around the world. In 2020, we started a 60 acre Ashram in New York, and have centers in NYC, San Francisco, Nepal, Lithuania, England, Germany, Russia, and Brazil, with more developing around the world. Ultimately, we believe that the centers or temples are the people not the buildings; that the kingdom of God is in the heart. If you are interested in being part of our online community, you can join our Serve Love Family telegram group in the link below.