Daily number of rounds of Hare Krishna mahamantra.
1
When, where and how did you come into contact with the Hare Krishna Movement?
Believes
Name the nearest or most frequently Visited ISKCON temple/ centre and name few of the devotees whom you know.
Juhu
Please describe yourself so that other like minded devotees can find you.
Dance
Comments
then our mind is clean;
If our mind is clean, we can do anything.
If our room is dirty, then so are we;
If we are dirty, then we are not happy.
1. We promise to hear the voice of the Lord situated within our hearts.
2. We promise to try to realize the presence of consciousness everywhere.
3. We promise to stop being mad after sense gratification and become completely simple.
4. We promise not to exploit the other living entities but depend on our own self.
5. We promise to take a dip into the spiritual literature every day.
6. We promise to come to the right direction.
7. We promise to become ‘prasanna’ by coming to the ‘sat’ instead of ‘asat.’
8. We promise to recognize the supreme authority.
9. We promise to hand over this tradition to the younger generation.
10. We promise to understand that I am the only reason for my miseries.
11. We promise not to prolong the material matters unnecessarily.
Virag Prabhu
How are you? I wanted to know are you from Karad.
In his purport to the above verse, Srila Prabhupada very nicely explains that punya means that which is not decomposed; punya is original. Everything in the material world has a certain flavor or fragrance, as the flavor and fragrance in a flower, or in the earth, in water, in fire, in air, etc. The uncontaminated flavor, the original flavor, which permeates everything, is
Krishna.
Why do the laborers who carry heavy cement bags on their shoulders and work all day knee deep in cement have their particular duty to perform, while others recite from the scriptures in a peaceful and nurturing atmosphere? While others are scared to even touch the cement which is full of harmful limestone, manual laborers have to stay in touch with it without protective clothing for a whole day, and at the end of the day they get hardly 80 rupees. The difference in abilities we see among men is Krishna. From Him the ability is given according to the desire of the living entity. How can the soul, who measures a tenth thousandth part of the tip of a hair lift cement bags weighing 25 kg up a flight of stairs? Even for turning the pages of the Bhagavatam, the ability is supplied by the Lord.
Bhagavad gita 7.9
punyo gandhah prthivyaam ca
tejas caasmi vibhaavasau
jivanam sarva-bhutesu
tapas caasmi tapasvisu
"I am the original fragrance of the earth, and I am the heat in fire. I am the life of all that lives, and I am the penances of all ascetics."
Srila Prabhupada explains that pranava, or the omkara transcendental sound in the beginning of every Vedic hymn, addresses the Supreme Lord. Because the impersonalists are very much afraid of addressing the Supreme Lord Krishna by His innumerable names, they prefer to vibrate the transcendental sound omkara. But they do not realize that omkara is the sound presentation of Krishna.
Krishna relays His message across all the creation to every living being. In the Bhagavad gita 15.15 Krishna says:
sarvasya caaham hrdi sannivisto
mattah smrtir jnaanam apohanam ca
vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedaanta-krd veda-vid eva caaham
‘I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas, I am to be known. Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.’
The secondary creator of this universe, Lord Bramha is able to tune in to Krishna’s relay, therefore when there is cosmic disorder he goes to the shore of the causal ocean and by meditation he receives direct instructions from the Supreme Lord within the heart. Since Krishna is also situated in our heart we can in the same way tune ourselves to the relay of Krishna. If we keep on hearing the voice from the heart it will never stop. In order to achieve this, the first step is to shut one’s ears to material sound vibrations. Material sound covers the living entity's pure awareness. Like in the experiment with water, sound pollution has been found to negatively impact the growth of plants. Any sound which is destructive and atheistic will pollute the consciousness, which in its natural state is completely pure. By constantly chanting the holy names of the Lord and by hearing the message and descriptions of the Lord in Srimad Bhagavad gita and Srimad Bhagavatam, one is always nourished by the Lord in His form as transcendental sound
Srila Prabhupada has explained that the light of the sun and the moon is also originally emanating from the brahmajyoti, which is the impersonal effulgence of the Lord.
Sunshine is the source of health. In countries where sunshine is absent, people are sick both bodily and mentally. When we are mentally disturbed, if we simply see the sunrise and sunset our mind will become very light. Seeing the sunrise and sunset also keeps our eyes healthy. If one regularly looks at the moon one will not get cataract in old age. Man-made pollution such as smog in big cities is again a reaction to our neglect of Krishna, and due to it we cannot experience Krishna in the form of sun and moon.
Even scientifically we all know that it is the sunshine (along with water) that supplies starch to the plants and trees by which they grow. Without sunshine, it is not possible for the plants and trees to grow, what to speak of bearing fruits, flowers etc?
And then regarding Moonshine, Krishna says in Bhagavad gita 15.13,
gaam aavisya ca bhutaani
dhaarayaamy aham ojasaa
pusnaami causadhih sarvaah
somo bhutvaa rasaatmakah
"I enter into each planet, and by My energy they stay in orbit. I become the moon and thereby supply the juice of life to all vegetables."
All the fruits, vegetables, grains etc have the potency to give us physical and mental strength only because they were nourished by Krishna in the form of moonshine. Unfortunately, in this modern world, the fruits, vegetables etc are artificially grown using injected hormones which destroys their natural nourishing strength. When we go against the nature's law, we are doomed. If we go along with Krishna's plan, then we will be healthy both mentally and physically. Because we do not see Krishna in sunshine, moonshine etc, we think that we can grow everything artificially.
Previous to the industrialization of India one could go to the bank of a river, dig a h*** in the sand, and drink the pure water gushing out of the h***. Now however hard we try, this cannot be done. We may be able to turn water into coca-cola, but can we create pure water? The absence of pure water is a reaction of the predominance of anti-Vedic culture. By modern so-called advancement, Krishna is disappearing from our sight. We may have faith in artificial water, but only Krishna knows how they prepare the water.
What can we do in the present circumstances where we cannot even get pure water to drink? The only thing we can do is to take the water that we get, pray intensely and offer it to Krishna, and then it will be purified. Intense prayer will give us the same result as we get from natural products. In the Bhagavad-Gita 10.8 the Lord says aham sarvasya prabhavo, therefore everything must be offered to the Lord. By following this process, our whole being gradually becomes spiritualized and love of God is re-established in our heart.
By knowing these important utilities of water, we can meditate gratefully on the Lord for providing us with all sorts of comforts through this vital medium for our subsistence
Srila Prabhupada says: “The taste of water is the active principle of water…Attraction for water depends on the purity of the taste, and this pure taste is one of the energies of the Lord."
One of the important transformations of water inside our body is saliva. No solid food can go in the food pipe; therefore when we chew the food, water in the body is converted into saliva in the mouth by Krishna's arrangement for turning the food into juice. Saliva is also antiseptic and essential to the body. Lord Krishna has created this body as purnam idam – a complete whole and has equipped it with an automatic medical system. Everywhere in the intestine antiseptic liquid is present which helps in digestion of different types of food items we eat.
Unfortunately water is depleted in vitality by outside pollution. In addition to outside pollution modern appliances such as the refrigerator and the microwave oven also deplete all foodstuffs including water. An experiment was recently carried out by watering two plants, the first with normal tap water and the second with water heated first in the microwave and then left to cool. The result showed that the plant watered with tap water was showing a normal growth pattern, whereas the microwave watered plant’s growth was stunted. Therefore we should decide to throw two things out of the house: The refrigerator and the microwave oven. At the very least one should reduce the use of these things to the minimum.
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