Advancement of material vision or material civilization is a great stumbling block for spiritual advancement. Such material advancement entangles the living being in the bondage of a material body followed by all sorts of material miseries. Such mate
Read more…The Lord is very kind to the forgetful souls. He therefore comes Himself and leaves behind necessary instructions and also sends His good sons as representatives to call all the conditioned souls back to Godhead. Recently, within the memory of everyo
Read more…One may question how one can always think of the Lord in regard to His name, fame, quality, etc., if one is embarrassed by thoughts of family affairs. Everyone in the material world is full of thoughts about how to maintain his family, how to protect
Read more…Before reciting this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is the very means of conquest, one should offer respectful obeisances unto the Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, unto Nara-nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi, the supermost human being, unto mother Sarasvatī, the goddess of le
Read more…When the ruling administrators, who are known as the kṣatriyas, turned astray from the path of the Absolute Truth, being desirous to suffer in hell, the Lord, in His incarnation as the sage Paraśurāma, uprooted those unwanted kings, who appeared as t
Read more…The same truth is also indirectly described in the Garuḍa Purāṇa as follows:
pāraṁ gato 'pi vedānāṁ
sarva-śāstrārtha-vedy api
yo na sarveśvare bhaktas
taṁ vidyāt puruṣādhamam
"Even though one may have gone to the other side of all the Vedas, and even t
From the Bhāgavatam we understand that Lord Buddha is the incarnation of Kṛṣṇa who appeared when materialism was rampant and materialists were using the pretext of the authority of the Vedas. Although there are certain restrictive rules and regulatio
Read more…A devotee is also always kind to everyone, even to his enemy. Nirmama means that a devotee does not attach much importance to the pains and trouble pertaining to the body because he knows perfectly well that he is not the material body. He does not i
Read more…Although Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya supposedly took birth in a śūdra family, he is not to be considered a śūdra, for he was a great advanced devotee. Indeed, he was on the transcendental platform. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore embraced him. Out of spirit
Read more…Only out of His immense compassion does the Personality of Godhead reveal Himself as the spiritual master. Therefore in the dealings of an ācārya there are no activities but those of transcendental loving service to the Lord.
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta
Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura sings:
janmāobi more icchā yadi tora
bhakta-gṛhe jani janma ha-u mora
kīṭa-janma ha-u yathā tuyā dāsa
"My Lord, if You want me to take birth and accept a material body again, kindly do me this favor: allow me to take birth i
The whole atmosphere of the age of Kali is magnified by the deluding energy, and the proportion of measurement is inexplicable.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----1:17:23-----purport).
With the progression of the age of Kali, people are becoming very proud, and a
Read more…In his prayers to the ten incarnations, Jayadeva Gosvāmī says, keśava dhṛta-narahari-rūpa jaya jagad-īśa hare. Prahlāda Mahārāja was a devotee of Lord Nṛsiṁha, who is Keśava, Kṛṣṇa Himself. Therefore when this verse says vāsudeve bhagavati, one shoul
Read more…I am the father of this universe, the mother, the support and the grandsire. I am the object of knowledge, the purifier and the syllable oṁ. I am also the Ṛg, the Sāma and the Yajur Vedas.
The entire cosmic manifestations, moving and nonmoving, are m
The words sādhur eva, "he is saintly," are very emphatic. They are a warning to the nondevotees that because of an accidental falldown a devotee should not be derided; he should still be considered saintly even if he has accidentally fallen down. And
Read more…A karmī suffers the result of his own fruitive reactions, whereas a devotee is reformed by chastisement directed by the Lord Himself. The sufferings of an orphan and the sufferings of a beloved child of a king are not one and the same. An orphan is r
Read more…The more one hears about Kṛṣṇa, the more one becomes enlightened and detached from everything that draws the mind away from Kṛṣṇa. By detaching the mind from activities not devoted to the Lord, one can very easily learn vairāgya. Vairāgya means detac
Read more…These are some of the reasons why Balarāma is known as Saṅkarṣaṇa, Balarāma or sometimes Rāma. In the mahā-mantra—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare—people sometimes object when Rāma is accepted
Read more…"The conchshell and cow dung are bone and stool of two living beings. But because they have been recommended by the Vedas as pure, people accept them as such because of the authority of the Vedas."
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----introduction).
The examples gi
Read more…The four major vices of Kali-yuga are (1) illicit connection with women, (2) animal slaughter, (3) intoxication, (4) speculative gambling of all sorts.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----1:1:6-----purport).
Gambling of all description, even speculative business
Read more…