Our principle is that we are against nothing and for nothing. Only for Krishna. We want whatever is favorable for Krishna.(SP letter, Nityananda, Mar. 16, 1977)
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One of the gopis told her friends, “The highest perfection of the eyes is to see Krsna and Balarama entering the forest and playing Their flutes and tending the cows with Their friends.”From Krsna book Chapter 21, The Gopis Attracted by the Flute For Balaram Purnima
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This post is a follow up of my three earlier posts titled "Mayavadi to become stool worm","I want to kick them, never mind I go to hell " and "More face-kicking". All these posts contained quotes of Srila Prabhupada speaking very strongly against the mayavadis even to the point of kicking them on the face. The following text is an excerpt from the book "The Hare Krishna Explosion" by HG Hayagriva Prabhu. Srila Prabhupada was addressed as "Swamiji" in the earlier days of the movement.Excerpt:New York, 1966Swamiji particularly criticizes the Radhakrishnan commentary to theBhagavad-gita verse (9.34), in which Krishna tells Arjuna, “Engage your mindalways in thinking of Me, offer obeisances and worship Me. Being completelyabsorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me.”Upon this verse, Radhakrishnan comments that it is not to the personalKrishna that we have to surrender but to “the unborn, beginningless, eternalwho speaks through Krishna.”“Just see!” Swamiji says when this verse and commentary are read at theevening class. “I told you Dr. Radhakrishnan was an impersonallst. ThisMayavadi philosophy is worse than atheism.”We are not really certain what “Mayavadi” means. When asked, Swamiji saysthat impersonalists are called Mayavadis because they consider Krishna’stranscendental, eternal body to be maya, or illusion. “For them,” he says,“the impersonal Brahman is the Absolute Truth, and Krishna is subordinate toBrahman. But in Bhagavad-gita, Krishna says that He is the Supreme AbsoluteTruth and that the impersonal Brahman is subordinate to Him.”Surprising us all, Keith [later, Kirtanananda] rallies to the defense of Dr.Radhakrishnan. “I think he’s right,” he says. “After all, Krishna is in allof us. So, if we surrender to the unborn within us, then we attain theAbsolute Truth.”To support his view, Keith quotes Shankara and Huang Po, Buddha and Christ,Spinoza and St. Paul. Swamiji just sits on the dais, and for the first timeI notice him turn red. This is surprising, considering his goldencomplexion. When Keith pauses, Swamiji asks, “Are you finished?”Keith isn’t finished. He talks on about the Self and the One Mind, quotingliberally from various scriptures before winding down.“Are you finished?” Swamiji asks again.“Yes,” Keith says.“So, you have understood what we have been saying, that Krishna is God?”“Yes,” Keith says.“And that worship is due God?”“Yes,” Keith says.Suddenly, Swamiji, red and furious, begins to stand up. “Then why do youwant to take it away from Krishna?” he roars, shaking the small storefront.“It’s Krishna! It’s Krishna!” He slams his hand down on the lectern. “It’sno unborn within Krishna! It’s Krishna!” We all sit stunned, as if a lionhad pounced on the dais. “Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, isdirectly telling Arjuna, ‘To Me. Worship Me.’ And Dr. Radhakrishnan saysthat it is not to the person Krishna but to some void. Just see what anonsense rascal! Do you want to worship some unborn void instead of Krishna?Krishna is the Absolute Truth. His body, mind and Self are absolute. And Hesays, ‘Think of Me, be devoted to Me, worship Me.’ And even Shankara says,Bhaja govindam, bhaja govindam, bhaja govindam: ‘Worship Govinda, worshipGovinda, worship Govinda. Your nonsense will not save you at death!’ And yetthis rascal wants to take it away from Krishna. Do you want to follow such arascal? Krishna says, ‘Worship Me.’ Do you not understand? Then why are yousaying it is not to Krishna? Why? Why not to Krishna?”We all look at Keith as if he’d suddenly turned into an untouchable. Thissurprises us all, since usually he is so expert. Yet he simply articulatedthe Mayavadi mentality of us all. We sit in stunned silence, not daring toventure further.“Did you see how red Swamiji got?” I ask Wally [later, Umapati] afterwards.“Boy, was he angry!”“But he’s right,” Wally says. “All the commentators try to avoid Krishna.You’ve read Bhagavad-gita before. Until meeting Swamiji, did you ever thinkof worshipping Krishna?”I have to admit that it never crossed my mind.Thus we discover that we are also Mayavadi impersonalists. Addicted toinactivity and hedonism, we know nothing of spiritual personality andaction. Swamiji has to shout loud indeed to make us understand that God is aperson and that action for His sake is on the spiritual platform.“This is Bhagavad-gita’s most essential message,” Swamiji says the nextmorning. “Lord Krishna tells Arjuna to fight, but He says, ‘Do it for Me.’When we work for Krishna and chant His name, we are already liberated andliving on the spiritual plane. Just as a person feels heat when he touchessomething hot, you are liberated as soon as you enter into the service ofKrishna.”We all feel as though we’ve just touched something very hot. There is nodoubt that our long slumber is being disturbed.“We are declaring war,” Swamiji says. “War on maya.”From The Hare Krishna Explosion by Hayagriva Prabhu
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Srila Rupa Gosvami, the great devotee acarya of the Gaudiya-Vaisnava-sampradaya, has sung a song about this lotus honey,comparing himself to the bee:"O my Lord Krsna, I beg to offer my prayers unto You. My mind is like the bee, and it is after some honey. Kindly, therefore, give my bee-mind a place at Your lotus feet, which are the resources for all transcendental honey. I know that even big demigods like Brahma do not see the rays of the nails of Your lotus feet, even though they are engaged in deep meditation for years together. Still, O infallible one, my ambition is such, for You are very merciful to your surrendered devotees. O Madhava, I know also that I have no genuine devotion for the service of Your lotus feet, but because Your Lordship is inconceivably powerful, You can do what is impossible to be done. Your lotus feet can deride even the nectar of the heavenly kingdom, and therefore I am very much attracted by them. O supreme eternal, please, therefore, let my mind be fixed at Your lotus feet so that eternally I may be able to relish the taste of Your transcendental service.">>> Ref. VedaBase => SB 1.11.26For the upcoming anniversary of the disappearance of Srila Rupa Gosvami.
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Srila Prabhupad said:... do not become so foolish and rascal, that any rascal comes and poses himself as God, incarnation of God... You kick on their face. Please consult the sastras whether his name, his father's name, his mother's name, his features of the body, his activities, are corroborating with the sastra.Then accept. Otherwise don't.>>> Ref. VedaBase => Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.3.11-12 -- Los Angeles, September17, 1972
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That is my business, to punish all these rascals. You see? I become very much angry, anyone says before me, "I am God, he is God, everyone..." I cannot control myself. (laughter) Yes. I am so obstinate enemy of theserascals. I want to kick them on their face, but it is incivility. It becomes... But I want to kick them. It will be my pleasure. Never mind I go to hell.Lecture, SB 2.9.10 -- Tokyo, April 26, 1972
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Book distribution and farms: these are our solid programs. They can change the whole world. The whole foundation of animal civilization can be destroyed. If I have hope for still living, I wanted to organize the farms, make it perfect. Simple living and high thinking.>>> Ref. VedaBase => TKG: August 9
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Prabhupada continued talking about the Mayavadis, especially one in South India who has attracted many followers by displaying magic.At one point Acyutananda Swami said he heard one of his followers criticize us, saying that we were bookworms.Prabhupada immediately responded, making us all laugh, "And he is stool worm! He will become this in his next life for cheating so many people!">>> Ref. VedaBase => TD 1-7: Andhra Pradesh
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I want the world to see by our example that life can be lived naturally,peacefully if one is self sufficient with land, some cows and chanting Hare Krishna.Letter to Jagadisa, 74-06-18
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Krsna is the central pivot of living beings, and He is the all-attractiveliving entity or eternal form amongst all other living beings or eternalforms. Each and every living being has his eternal form in the spiritualexistence, and Krsna is the eternal attraction for all of them. Krsna is thecomplete whole, and everything else is His part and parcel. The relation isone of the servant and the served. It is transcendental and is completelydistinct from our experience in material existence. This relation of servantand the served is the most congenial form of intimacy. One can realize it asdevotional service progresses. Everyone should engage himself in thattranscendental loving service of the Lord, even in the present conditionalstate of material existence. That will gradually give one the clue to actuallife and please him to complete satisfaction.>>> Ref. VedaBase => SB 1.2.7
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By Maneka Gandhi for The Bihar Times [1] on 18 Jul 2009(Bihar, India) Some years ago it was discovered that owners of Vanaspathioils were putting cow and pig lard into the oil. There was a furor whichdied down after a few months and no one knows till today what happened tothe Jains who owned the enterprise ? but I have little doubt that they gotoff and a few bureaucrats and policemen are richer.Ghee (from Sanskrit gh?ta meaning “sprinkled”) is clarified butter, sacredto the gods. On June 13, a ghee manufacturing unit was raided by the healthofficers and police of Agra . Hundreds of tins of ghee were found in theJharna nullah locality . The so called ghee was being manufactured fromanimal fat boiled in huge iron pans. “25 big drums, 150 tins and fourfurnaces, knives and country pistols were recovered from the site” a policeofficial said. “Animal hides of cows, monkeys, donkeys, horses and dogshanging by the trees and bones littered showed the scale of manufacturingbeing carried out clandestinely for years.”Now comes the standard Indian part ? “Police said at least 50 people musthave been working there in the sheds but none could be caught, probablybecause the information about the raid was leaked to them.”Agra Municipal corporation?s animal husbandry department Chief B.S. Vermasaid that residents of the locality had complained for years about thespurious manufacturing unit but the department could not find the unit.TV channels aired footage filmed at ghee manufacturing plants. The footageconfirmed that across India animals were being rendered and their fat addedto ghee. The ghee plants had dead animals all around, animal fat boiling inbig drums and slabs of fat hanging from the ceilings.Members of ISKCON collected samples of commercial ghee in Pune and sent themto be tested at the Anatech Laboratory and research centre in Bangalore. Thetests based on the Fancier-Transbraned Infrared spectrum Replication showedbeyond a doubt that the ghee contained animal fat. This laboratory which hasanalyzed hundreds of ghees said that of all the brands in India, Amul wasthe best brand for ghee and butter, with even Nestle adulterated with about5% vegetable oil fats. They said that most ghee, including Amul, was amixture of cow and buffalo milkUnfortunately most labs in India do not have the equipment to test. They cansimply say that the ghee is adulterated. Why is ghee being adulterated?Firstly, because there is no milk. India prides itself on being the world?slargest producer of leather so all the cows are being killed off rapidly toservice the hundreds of leather units in Chennai, Kanpur and Kolkata ? whichkill lakhs of cows and calves. Recent raids have found that only 30% of the“milk” we drink, is milk. The rest is a mixture of soap, urea, earthwormfat, oil and whiteners. So if there is no milk, how does one get the ghee?450,000 tonnes of ghee are supposedly made every year, 80% of which is eatenand the rest offered to the gods in rituals that include marriage and death.This is an impossible figure ? the actual ghee would be less than a quarter.The second reason is that milk products like ghee only have a 5% profitmargin so the only way to be profitable is to use animal fat.If you insist on ghee make your own. Boil milk. Keep taking the cream off.When the cream is cold, take a wooden stick and churn it. The waterseparates and the rest becomes unsalted butter. Melt the butter over lowheat gradually in a heavy-bottomed pot. Do not stir. Cook until it is aclear golden liquid. It may bubble and foam may form on top which you?llneed to skim off and discard. Remove from heat while the liquid is a cleargold. Any darker and it?s overcooked. Take a large sieve and line it with 4sheets of cheesecloth or muslin. Place it over a clean dry pot. While stillhot, carefully strain the ghee through the cheesecloth-lined sieve into thepot. Transfer the strained ghee carefully into a clean glass jar and shuttightly. Ghee at room temperature looks semi-solid. Ghee can be stored forextended periods without refrigeration, provided it is kept in an airtightcontainer to prevent oxidation. Always use a clean utensil to scoop outghee.Some rights reserved.Source URL: http://news.iskcon.com/node/2148Read more…
Pariksit Maharaja, as soon as he heard that Kali, these four principles ofKali has already entered, he immediately took his bows and arrows and…“Who is that rascal, he is drinking? Kill him.” That was king. “Kill him,that rascal.” So if one is killed because he was drinking, then others willbe very careful. That was king’s duty. “Anyone who has got illicit sex, killhim. Anyone who is drunkard, kill him. Anyone who is eating meat, kill him.No other consideration. Directly kill him.” Then all these things will stopwithin a few years.>>> Ref. VedaBase => Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.16.10 — Los Angeles, January 7,1974
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So far your thinking about things and making so many plans, that is allright, but our first business is Krishna’s plan. That is the only plan, andno matter how many schemes we employ to adjust things in this materialworld, if they have no solid basis in Krishna’s plan, they remain merelydreams of phantasmagoria. SP letter, 72-04-10
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Please be always strongly fixed up in the Lotus Feet of Krishna, just as thebees are fixed up in the honeycomb. This staunch affection for Krishna willsave us from all kinds of dangers created by Maya. You know it very wellthat the material energy is so strong that it captivates the spiritualspark, living entity and the only remedy is to cling to the Lotus Feet ofKrishna. This age is especially meant for dissension, therefore wheneverthere is such occasion we should simply call for for the help of Krishna.Our task is very heavy because we have declared war against Maya. She willalways try to defeat us or even kill us but we can always be saved byclinging unto the Lotus Feet of Krishna. Kindly remember this secret of oursuccess and try to convince all your God-brothers on this point.>>> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Rayarama — Calcutta 18 November, 1967
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Following in the footsteps of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we are trying tobroadcast His message throughout the world. By His mercy, people are takingthis movement very seriously. Indeed, our books are extensively distributedin the Western countries, especially in America and Europe. Even theecclesiastical orders in these countries are appreciating the value of theKrsna consciousness movement and are ready to unite for the highest benefitof human society. The followers of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu may thereforetake this movement seriously and broadcast it throughout the world, fromvillage to village and from town to town, just as Sri Caitanya MahaprabhuHimself did.>>> Ref. VedaBase => Madhya 25.264
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If you simply take little trouble to understand Krsna... That tapasya required: to read Krsna's instruction, Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, and try to understand Krsna. Because that tapasya, if you take little painful...It is not painful. It is very pleasing. But we avoid it. We think it is painful. "Ah! Who is going to read books? We are meant for selling books,not for reading books." This is not good. We should read also. That is tapasya. Saddhaya. That is tapasya. Don't think that simply our books are meant for selling. No. It is meant for reading also. If we read regularly,at least two hours, three hours, that is tapasya. Tapo divyam [SB 5.5.1]. To understand spiritual position, my spiritual position, Krsna's spiritual...(aside:) Stop that. (child making noise) So that is tapasya. These are the tapasyas. To rise early in the morning, that is also tapasya. Not that everyday we have to ring bell -- dung, dung, dung, dung -- "Get up! Get up!" "No,I am sleeping." No, you have to accept. These are the tapasyas. We cannot avoid. If we actually want to avoid this body, working like cats and dogs,like animals, then we have to undergo tapasya, a very simple tapasya.>>> Ref. VedaBase => Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.1 -- Vrndavana, October 23, 1976
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The Lord's chest is the abode of the goddess of fortune. His moonlike face is the drinking vessel for eyes which hanker after all that is beautiful.His arms are the resting places for the administrative demigods. And His lotus feet are the refuge of pure devotees who never talk or sing of any subject except His Lordship.>>> Ref. VedaBase => SB 1.11.26 text
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