By Ranchor dasa

This paper was the ISKCON keynote address at an Inter-faith conference hosted by our communications group in the UK and devotees in Bhaktivedanta Manor. Twenty Christians and twenty ISKCON members took part in the exchange, which was described by Rev. Michael Barnes SJ as, “one of those rare occasions when head and heart seemed somehow to be united…. I was left wondering why it is that Catholics and Vaishnava Hindus get on so well together.” Ranchor’s paper was very well received and the sincere realisation and gift of presentation it displays can serve us as well in our efforts in dialogue with other faith communities.

My first attempt at inter-faith dialogue was a bit of a disaster. As a young man of twenty I was out chanting on the streets of the West End with my newly-found brothers and sisters of the Radha Krishna Temple. We danced in a double file along the side of the pavement to the rhythm of drums and cymbals, chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. Turning from Oxford Street up Tottenham Court Road, we found a place where the pavement widened out and paused there to allow a crowd to gather. People began to stop and look on with curiosity, some of them smiling and laughing, or nodding their heads in time with the music.

A few of us started to sell our magazine, Back To Godhead. I was one of those, and as I walked among the crowd, offering it to anyone who looked interested, I noticed a middle-aged man wearing the white collar and black suit of a Catholic priest. With him were a young couple, and the three of them stood at the edge of the crowd. I had grown up as a Catholic, so I thought, ‘Here are some friends from the Catholic church. They believe in God, so I’m sure they’ll understand what we’re doing.’

Smiling broadly, I approached them. To my surprise, as soon as the priest saw me with my saffron robes and shaven head, and a Back To Godhead in my outstretched hand, he recoiled and declared in a loud voice so that others could hear, ‘You’re not singing to God, you’re singing to the devil!’ and he indignantly swept away, taking his young friends with him.

I was puzzled. I had hoped to share a mutual understanding with the priest: after all, he was committed to the service of God, and now so was I. In today’s materialistic society, I thought, those who were serving God should support each other and feel solidarity together. If his reaction was to be typical of other Christians, then I was going to find it difficult to relate to.

I soon found that not all Christians had his attitude, and thankfully many were very appreciative of Krishna Consciousness. Nevertheless, it was clear that inter-religious understanding was not something to be taken for granted, and this gave me a personal sense of purpose. With my extensive Catholic background and my present faith in Krishna, I felt I had a ‘mission to explain’.

I have often been asked why I converted from Catholicism to Krishna Consciousness. My reply is always that I did not convert: I built on the faith I already had. My roots are in Christianity, and I cannot change that. I cannot change the fact that for the first twenty years of my life God appeared to me through Jesus; that my character and morals were moulded by Sisters of the Holy Cross and Benedictine monks; and that a Christian church to me is still a holy place where I intuitively feel at home.

Nonetheless, the question remains: what made me decide to become a devotee of Krishna? One major attraction was the chanting of the Holy Name. The simplicity of just chanting was irresistible. Devotees chant in two ways. One is by singing together, and the other is by private prayer. My first encounter with the singing was on television, when I watched the 73-year-old founder of the Hare Krishna Movement, Srila Prabhupada, being interviewed on Late Night Line-Up in 1969. Prabhupada explained to his interviewer that he had come to Britain to teach how to love God. His wise and kindly face and his sincere voice seemed to tell to me that he knew what he was talking about. ‘And which God are you referring to – the same one as Christians worship?’ asked the interviewer. I wondered what his answer would be. Could he be worshipping the same God as me?

‘Yes, I am speaking of the same God,’ replied Prabhupada. Hearing this, my interest deepened. I had always wanted to learn from someone of another religious tradition about their idea of God.

‘And how do you teach that we should love God?’

‘The easiest and most direct way is to chant His name,’ Prabhupada replied, ‘If you chant the name of God, you can not only love Him, but you can speak to Him face to face, just as I am speaking to you.’ I was intrigued. He spoke with such conviction, but surely it couldn’t be that simple.

Prabhupada got up and walked across to another part of the studio where six of his disciples were waiting with musical instruments. Together they sat in a circle on the studio floor. A rich harmony swelled up from the Indian harmonium and a stringed instrument called a tambura, accompanied by small cymbals and a clay drum. Then Prabhupada began to chant the Hare Krishna mantra, rhythmically, majestically, while the devotees chanted their response. Together they wove a mystical web of transcendental sound that seemed to stretch from the studio right across the country and into my heart.

The closing credits of the programme rolled down the screen and I prayed that the chanting wouldn’t stop, not yet! But too soon it faded away and the screen went blank. From that day I never needed to be convinced of the simple truth that just by chanting the Holy Name it is possible to see God.

Later on, when I met the devotees in person in London, I had another experience with chanting, this time the recitation of the mantra using prayer beads. A japa mala has 108 beads; on each bead the Hare Krishna mantra is chanted. This completes one round. Serious devotees of Krishna are normally expected to chant sixteen times round their prayer beads each day, which takes about two hours. This chanting is done softly to oneself as a meditation. I wanted to live the life of a devotee, but I hesitated to make such a commitment. So on my second visit to the temple I arrived in the early hours of the morning to experience the devotees chanting on their beads.

Let me describe the scene. Outside it was still dark and the pavements were empty. In the small shrine room a dozen men and women were praying. The smell of incense filled the air. The curtains of the shrine were open revealing the sacred images of Radha and Krishna, from Whom a soft golden light cast shadows between the pillars along the sides of the room. At the rear of the room a young man, his beads held out before him and his eyes closed, moved from side to side in a hypnotic dance, absorbed in chanting. Others sat in the shadows, some contemplating the forms of Radha and Krishna or the many devotional pictures hung around the room. Before the shrine a young woman swayed back and forth blissfully smiling as she gazed at Krishna and almost sang her mantras. In one hand were her prayer beads; in the other she held a cord attached to a row of small bells hanging from the ceiling, which tinkled melodically along with her chanting. Everyone chanted softly but intently, and the sounds in the room merged into a harmony of divine sound alive with sacred energy. I was swept up by the atmosphere and sat down to chant with my own beads. That morning, with no need of further encouragement, I completed sixteen rounds without difficulty and knew that I would become a devotee.

As I learned how to chant Krishna’s names on prayer beads, I found I was able to pray to God in a direct, uncomplicated way I had never experienced before. I could feel His presence through the sound vibration of the mantra.

The mahamantra is made up of three names: KRISHNA, RAMA and HARE. Krishna and Rama are names for God. KRISHNA means the most attractive person, and RAMA means the source of all happiness. Both of these names describe God in a very personal way as the focus of devotion and joy. HARE refers to the loving mercy of God, without which we could not know Him. This mercy is personified as Radha, Krishna’s eternal companion. She is the female aspect of Krishna, and the embodiment of pure love and mercy. The mahamantra is a prayer to Mother Hara to engage us in the loving service of Krishna, the giver of all happiness.

In the spirit of the chanting, I began to think of God as Krishna. It made sense to me that God should be eternally youthful and at play. The wise old man whom I had been shown as a child had never quite fit my image of God, and had left a gap of uncertainty, which I had filled with the vague sense of an unknowable, invisible, all-pervasive Spirit. Now that I had the image of Krishna, I embraced Him through chanting His name, reading about Him and meditating on His picture, and for the first time I felt a personal relationship with God.

While visiting the temple I was introduced to the Bhagavad-gita. I found it quite different from any book I had read before, except the New Testament. It seemed to me they both had the same authentic voice of divine wisdom. The teachings presented by Krishna were profoundly meaningful for me. I had always held an intuitive belief in God and reincarnation, and here I found them both clearly described. As Krishna spoke of the eternal self which is never born and never dies, but which passes from one body to another, I had the feeling that I was hearing words that I had heard before. It was as if I was being reminded of things I had once known but had forgotten.

One teaching made particular sense for me. In the sixth chapter of the Gita Arjuna asks Krishna an important question: ‘What becomes of the one who starts on the spiritual path but who does not reach the end; who falls away because of attraction to the world he has left behind?’ Arjuna’s fear is that if he tries to achieve his spiritual goal but fails, he will end up losing everything in the process.

Krishna’s answer is that one who has begun the path to God is never disappointed. A devotee who fails to complete the path in this life will get the chance to carry on in the next life. So, if I have made a certain amount of progress, and achieved a certain level of understanding in some previous lifetime, that level will be revived in my present life. It is Krishna who reminds me of that spiritual knowledge from within my heart and who makes sure that I am able to continue on my path from the point where I left off.

When I read this I felt Krishna was speaking directly to me. I felt that I must have encountered Krishna in a previous life, and that now He had intervened in my present life to bring me back to His path. With this understanding I decided to make a commitment to Krishna.

Becoming vegetarian was easy, because the food which the devotees ate was so attractive it left me with no taste for meat. It seemed so obvious that meat-eating should be avoided if possible: how could killing animals, who were also God’s children, be compatible with a life of love and service to God? The other rules for temple life were: no gambling, no intoxication and no illicit sex. Cigarettes and alcohol were no problem and I had never gambled. Celibacy was more of a challenge, but I was ready to give it a try, until such time as I might get married. I moved into the temple twenty-four years ago this week.

An important part of my faith since then has been my relationship with my guru as teacher, friend and guide. He always spoke as an expert scholar with deep knowledge of the Vedic scriptures, and his words have been a constant source of inspiration and understanding. My personal feelings towards him, which are like those of a son to a loving father, are at the heart of my belief and commitment to Krishna.

When my faith is tested by difficulties or doubts, it is the certain knowledge that he believes in me, and wants me to stay faithful, that keeps me going. He always said that most of all what made him happy was to see his disciples happy in Krishna consciousness. He defined Krishna consciousness as active service to Krishna, something which everyone can do, even a child, and he very much favoured preaching. His one direct and personal instruction to me was, “Somehow or other, preach.” I carry those words in my heart.

It is not just that he wanted this: the whole line of teachers who came before him, all the way back to Sri Caitanya who founded the Hare Krishna movement five hundred years ago, wanted the same thing. It is a myth that Hinduism has never been a missionary religion: there have been many preachers and reformers in Indian religious history, among whom Sri Caitanya is very great. So when my guru asked me, and all his disciples, to preach, he was only passing on the family values. And he himself practised what he preached. He always said that his only qualification was that he was carrying out the order which he had received from his own guru, to teach Krishna consciousness to the English speaking world.

The knowledge that I have a spiritual father who has asked something from me, and who is relying on me to carry the message of Krishna consciousness into my own community, is at the foundation of my spiritual life. It is mainly because of my feelings for him that I stay in the religious organisation which he founded. Over the years there have been many good reasons to leave – poverty, disagreements, bad leadership and the knowledge that others think I’m crazy to be a Hare Krishna follower. But what keeps me here is my relationship with my guru, my desire to please him and not to let him down, and to pass on to others what he gave to me. How else can a son repay his father’s love?

In the years since becoming a disciple of Srila Prabhupada I have seen many changes. In the early years of the Hare Krishna Movement we tended to keep ourselves separate from outsiders, except to preach to them. The price of joining was high. You had to give up all thoughts of education or a career. We were drop-outs from mainstream society. This marginalised our community from the world about us.

There is something about life on the fringes that is quite appealing in its rejection of materialism and its idealistic spirit. But there are problems arising from the isolation it brings, such as the dispute between our community here at Bhaktivedanta Manor and some of the villagers of Letchmore Heath, which in the past was fuelled by our own isolation from the village community.

This isolation is now diminishing as more and more Krishna devotees are family people living in the wider society. I myself now live as a family man and work for a living as a writer. During the last ten years I have felt the need to establish my own independence and make my own decisions after years of semi- institutional living in Hare Krishna communities. This has made me less dependent on the movement and brought me more in contact with everyday society. My children belong to a generation who are growing up with Krishna Consciousness as their religion in the same way as others are Christians or Jews. Seeing them growing up in a world full of uncertainty, I am more than ever aware of their need for a clear set of beliefs and values on which to base their lives.

In this time of change, the Hare Krishna Movement is very much in need of its links with those sections of society who understand it and with whom we have things in common. This particularly points to the religious community. Some of our most valuable friends come from other religious groups. They are the first to appreciate the problems we encounter as a small religious movement new to this country. We have much to learn from these friends and I hope that they also feel that we have something of value to offer in return.

I would like to think that every religious group has something unique to contribute to the world, especially in this age of materialism. If Krishna Consciousness has something to offer, I think it is the combination of a clearly articulated philosophy of the soul, karma and reincarnation as taught in the Bhagavad Gita with devotion to a very personal God in the form of Krishna: a God of grace who shows mercy, forgiveness and love. This personal God pervades the universe. In the words of Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita:

I am the taste of water, The light of the sun and moon, The heat in fire, The fragrance of the earth And the life of all that lives. (BG. 7.8-9)

God is not just present in the world about us, He also lives in the heart of every living being. This mystery is taught by Krishna:

I am in the heart of every being, Giving knowledge, remembrance and forgetfulness. (BG. 15.15)

Although God dwells in my heart, and although He knows everything about my past, present and future, I do not know Him. But Krishna teaches that I can know Him through bhakti, or loving service-a ceaseless act of love which fills every waking moment:

Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, whatever hardships you undergo-make these an offering to Me. (BG. 9.27)

This is the basis of our daily life as devotees of Krishna. We try to relate all our actions to Him, so that even the simplest deeds, like eating breakfast or putting out the rubbish, become a meditation upon God. Through such constant devotion, Krishna is revealed to His devotee. As He says:

To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me. (BG. 10.10)

This is the essence of Krishna’s teachings in the Bhagavad-gita. When He is served with constant love and devotion He reveals Himself. He releases His devotee from the karma of past sins and from all material attachments, filling His devotee’s heart with the light of pure knowledge of Him. Bhagavad-gita teaches us to look for God as our dearest friend-who knows us better than anyone else, who accompanies us through countless lifetimes in this world, and who invites us to live with Him forever.

There are many stories of Krishna which help us understand Him in a personal and loving way. Krishna lives in the eternal forest of Vrindavan, the source of all life, where He is surrounded by His friends, the cowherd girls and boys, and looked after by His mother and father, Yasoda and Nanda. When He was a small boy, Krishna and His brother used to go out and play with their young friends. One day, when they came home for lunch, Krishna’s brother and the other boys complained to Yasoda:

‘Mother, Krishna has been eating clay.’

Yasoda caught Krishna’s hand and said, ‘Why have you been eating earth? All the boys are complaining about you.’

‘Mother,’ said Krishna, ‘they’re all lying. I never ate any clay. They just want to get me into trouble. If you believe them, why don’t you look inside my mouth and see.’

‘Very well, open your mouth.’

So Krishna did as He was told and opened His mouth. Inside His mouth, Yasoda saw the whole creation. She saw mountains, islands, oceans and planets; the sun, moon, stars, and outer space; she saw all the universe; and she saw herself, with her child Krishna on her lap. She was dumbstruck. She didn’t know whether she was dreaming or was actually seeing something real. She thought she must be mad.

In this troubled state, she began to pray, ‘Let me offer my respects to the Supreme Lord, under whose influence I am thinking that Nanda is my husband, that I am queen of this village, that the cowherd men and women are my subjects, and that Krishna is my son. All these illusions are brought about by the power of the Lord. I pray that He will always protect me.’

Seeing her bewildered condition, Krishna overwhelmed her with feelings of love. She forgot her confusion and turned her attention back to Krishna. Taking Him on her lap, she gave Him a big hug full of motherly love and thought, ‘Krishna is my own child.’

Stories such as this are powerful ways of meditating upon God as a personal, loving and accessible friend. I should emphasise that they are not mere stories: they are windows to a higher reality allowing devotees to actually experience the presence of Krishna.

All over the world in the late twentieth century children of Christians have adopted Krishna Consciousness as a means to understanding their place in the universe, and as a way of exploring their feelings for God. My own view of this phenomena is based on my understanding of reincarnation as taught in the Bhagavad-gita. As I mentioned earlier, Bhagavad-gita teaches that God revives a person’s faith in Him from one lifetime to the next, so that the soul may gradually progress on her path back to Godhead. It is my belief that some in the West, through repeated births in Christian countries, have found a personal and devotional faith in God, and that this faith has brought them to Krishna.

The growth of Krishna Consciousness outside India forms part of a wider spiritual transition in the West. This transition is from an age of institutional religion dominated by the duality’s of punishment and reward, heaven and hell, sacred and profane, to an age of holistic religion which reveals God’s presence in the heart of the individual, in the natural world, in daily life and in the community: a personal religion based not on fear but on love.

In closing, I must give mention to a man who encouraged me on my path at a crucial time many years ago. In 1970, when my father discovered that I was about to move into the Krishna temple, he asked me to spend a week with the Benedictine monks of Worth Abbey, who had educated me, to discuss my decision with them. I gladly went down to Sussex and had a wonderful time chanting in the woods and telling them all about Krishna. On the eve of my departure back to London the saintly Abbot, Dom Victor Farwell (now sadly deceased), called me to his room. He told me some of the monks were worried about me and were preparing to hold a vigil to pray for my soul. However, he said he did not share their worry.

‘If I was your age,’ he assured me, ‘I would do exactly as you are. May God bless you!’ So I began my life as a devotee of Krishna with his blessings, and, I felt in my heart, with the blessings of Jesus Christ.

This paper was originally delivered at an Inter-faith conference entitled, ‘The Experience of God’, hosted by ISKCON and held at Bhaktivedanta Manor, England, on 10 September 1994.

By Kesava Krsna dasa

Do we come to Krsna Consciousness to advance? If so, does that advancement have to be recognized by others, to earn a generous pat on the back? And perhaps to hear something like “You are so advanced prabhu” to which we either feigningly or embarrassingly recoil in protest, or return the compliment with “I am very fallen and unqualified”. While these crèches are well meaning, until we come to the real advanced stage beyond the three modes of material nature, our perceptions of spiritual advancement can be tainted and misapplied, mistaking it for material ability, imitative behavior, and motivated actions, above average knowledge or intelligence, or sentimental hype and so on.

Another incorrect notion is to standardize a blanket estimation of advancement to all devotees, who may differ in their approach to Krsna Consciousness, some being more refined than others, some more introverted or extroverted, frontline or background, seen or unseen, practicing in the temple or at home, doing thankful or thankless tasks and more.

By combining Lord Krsna’s assessments with Lord Kapila’s in the third canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, we can generally gauge the outlook on spiritual advancement according to those colored by the gunas. Someone influenced by tamo-guna will think he is very advanced, and will likely consider someone not so advanced to be advanced. One in raja-guna will also think he is advanced, along with those who glorify his stupendous deeds. In sattva-guna, one will not think he is advanced, but he can succumb to pride. He can recognize advancement in others. These are distinct from advancement above the modes.

Some years ago, in certain parts of our devotee world, there was a trend in growing big wide sikhas as big as Chinese noblemen. Sometimes, after a devotee had returned from the Holy land nicely tanned, he would also speak with Indian pronunciation as though he had lived there for almost half a lifetime. Because these devotees tended to be influential, these exotic traits were soon adopted. For us Bhaktas who, during japa times were trying to curb our rabid minds by head banging, foot stomping, whirling dervishes and high decibel chanting, to see the sagely calmness in our distinguished guests was something to aspire for. It was as if they were boats of serenity in the midst of the turbulent ocean of Bhakta japa. Quite soon some of our leaders acquired the pronunciation and eventually, many op us vere talking like betevans op the holy dhama. It vecame bogue. Durving classes, the sfeakers would boice their bery bery vise heartpelt vealizations to the portunate listeners. This pancy sfeaking comvined vith ourv vig sikhas must habe made us peel quite imfortant. This vell meaning vut misguided vay op trying to peel adbanced did not vork so vell, so apter some time ve all reberted vack to ourv oviginal accents. Such imitative behavior is a symptom of passion as it was intended in part to impress among our social circles and was therefore ‘enacted from a sense of false ego’ BG. 18.25.

One extended Christmas marathon in which devotees were selling commercial products, it culminated in a win for a devotee who received the traditional uproarious rousing moment of victory complete with bashing whompers, clanging kartels and walloping mrdangas, loud jayas and hand stomping on the floorboards which became outstretched to clamor for the feet dust of the victor as he strolled to the Vyasaasana. The cacophony heightened even further when the disciple was embraced by his Guru. Without diminishing his achievement, and a nice day to remember, this devotee quite soon left the association of devotees. He confided that during the marathon he visited the cinema frequently, did not follow sadhana principles properly, and relied purely on his expertise as a salesperson to succeed. We have to ask, was the glorification all in vain? Was it an informed measure of whether he was truly advanced or not? Indeed he was considered advanced. Realizing the facts however, the estimation was based on deed alone, ignoring the internal suspect mood which has to be ‘….without knowledge of the truth, and which is very meager’ BG.18.22. combined with ‘….what ought to be done’ BG.18.30. because devotees like to glorify others.

Srila Prabhupada says in BG.14.20. purport:’ when one is freed from the influence of the modes of material nature, he enters into devotional service’. If we consider this in the case of a devotee who stringently follows all the rules of sadhana and attends every temple programme, yet he is flustered with those who do not come to his standard. Are we to assume he is transcendental? Highly advanced? Is it not that if one were above the modes his understanding would at least be in the mode of goodness, in which case he would not do ‘what ought not to be done’ BG.18.30. that is not to criticize others. There is a likelihood of karma-misra-bhakti infestation. Same applies to those who think themselves learned, yet are judgmental about others who fall short of their flair for discussing Sastra. A warning is sounded in BG.14.6. purport:’ the difficulty here is that when a living entity is situated in the mode of goodness he becomes conditioned to feel that he is advanced in knowledge and is better than the others’. Jnana-misra-bhakti results in a hardening of the heart which will be unable to attain transcendence.

So what is true advancement? How do we recognize it? Is it so rare? In BG.2.71. purport Srila Prabhupada says: ‘….desire for becoming Krsna Conscious is actually desirelessness’ and ‘….real desirelessness is desire for the satisfaction of Krsna’. In effect, desirelessness is – vyavasyatmika buddhir – which later on in BG.11.54. is described as ‘undivided devotional service’ by which one can ‘enter into the mysteries of My Understanding’. This understanding, this entrance, given by the grace of the Spiritual Master, is what determines an advanced devotee’s demeanor. He has the greatest respect for all things connected to the absolute nature of devotional service and has a friendly disposition towards them. He is privy to – rahasyam hy etad uttamam – he can understand the mysteries of this science. BG.4.3. such a devotee is not mystified by the seeming contradictions found in Srila Prabhupada’s instructions given according to time, place, and circumstance. He is not swayed by pedantic arguments, preferring to bathe in the drops of mercy flowing through our parampara. For one who has not gotten the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada and his teachings will forever remain a conundrum, a puzzle, to manifest as diversions from the truth.

For practical purposes, the advanced vaisnava’s behavior can be discerned. For one, he will never engage in Sadhu-ninda, for he is fearful of that, ‘what is to be feared’ BG.18.30. He abides by the positive and negative injunctions of the scriptures, ‘what ought to be done, and what ought not to be done’. He does not act independently of Sri Guru’s orders, ‘what is liberating’. He will not contravene such orders, ‘what is binding’.

The topic of Sadhu-ninda is given such importance because one can be desensitized to its effects. Persistent exposure to hearing criticism of vaisnavas can cause this, which is so insidious as to be unnoticeable by many. When one realizes his taste for chanting is waning, it is of concern. Advanced devotees just cannot, will not and do not offend vaisnavas. Can one be said to be thinking of Krsna while doing so? Highly unlikely. As BG.18.58. says, ‘if however, you do not work in such consciousness but act through false ego, not hearing Me, you will be lost ‘. Lost where? Perhaps in the misunderstood banyan tree.BG.15.3-4. Even though the taste has gone, if one continues to practice devotional service without making palpable advancement it may just drag on as in –niyamagrahah – performing regulations just for the sake of it.

The definitive description of advancement has to be Srila Rupa Goswami’s kindness. He says – bhajana-vijnam – that an advanced soul performs devotional service without – ananyam – deviation, and whose – hrdam [heart], is completely devoid of the propensity to criticize others – anya-nindadi-sunya. Such a vaisnava’s association is most desirable, and he has a natural relish for chanting Hare Krsna – svadvi – but chants carefully, every day – adarat-anudinam. Sri Upadeshamrta 5 & 7.

While it is nice to glorify devotees who are expending an effort trying to please Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga, and whenever any discussion centers around who is advanced and who is not, we should bear in mind the following “One has to learn this science of activities in terms of the modes of material nature, otherwise one’s life will be misdirected”. BG.14.19.

Thank you, your servant, Kesava Krsna dasa –GRS.

Lecture on Food for the Soul by HG Charu Prabhu

(Charu Das was initiated by Srila Prabhupada in 1970. He has been President, variously, of the Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Berkeley (USA) temples. He served on the BBT library party in 1976, received Bhakti Shastra in 1979, and was Life Membership Director in Los Angeles for 10 years in the 1980's.)

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Lecture on Independent Desires by HH Niranjana Swami on 13 Aug 2015 at Dnipropetrovsk

(His Holiness Niranjana Swami was born on December 10, 1952, in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. In 1972, his spiritual search took a turning point when he saw a Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, on the counter of a bookshop in Washington, DC.)

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Lecture on Beware of Spritiual Crisis by HH Radhanath Swami on 22 Aug 2015 at ISKCON Chowpatty

(Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 10, Chapter 67, Text 04 )

(Radhanath Swami was born in Chicago in 1950. Radhanath Swami's childhood name was Richard Slavin; Radhanath Swami was given the name Radhanath Swami after he entered the renounced order. In his teenage years)

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Lecture on Surrender to Krishna and Don't Oppose Him  by HH Bhakti Charu Swami on 19 Aug 2015 at ISKCON Chowpatty

(HH Bhakti Charu Swami was born in Bengal in 1945, he met with A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada at the end of 1976.From their very first meeting, Srila Prabhupada gave His Holiness the assignment of translating his books into Bengali and made him his Secretary for Indian Affairs.)

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Lecture on Mercy Even for the Animals and Insects by HG Madhavananda Prabhu on 16 Jul 2015

(Madhavananda Das, joined ISKCON in Los Angeles in 1982. He moved to Bhubaneswar Orissa in 1993 where he has been living since. He was instructed by Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaj to edit his lectures into publications.)

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Lecture on Amrita Vani-How is it Possible to Actually Serve Krsna by HH Niranjana Swami on 05 Aug 2015 at Odessa

(His Holiness Niranjana Swami was born on December 10, 1952, in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. In 1972, his spiritual search took a turning point when he saw a Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, on the counter of a bookshop in Washington, DC.)

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Lecture on Keval Sannyas se siddhi nahi by HH Bhakti Vikas Swami on 09 July 2015 at Damodaradesh

(HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami appeared in this world in 1957 in England. He joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in London in 1975 and was initiated in that year with the name Ilapati dasa by ISKCON’s founder-acarya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. )

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A.C. BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI PRABHUPADA – Just like we are meeting in this meeting face-to-face, similarly, you can also meet the Supreme Personality of Godhead face-to-face, but you have to be qualified for that purpose. If you want to understand Krishna in His impersonal Brahman feature, there is risk also. I will explain that. The Brahman feature is impersonal.

Just like… Try to understand that there is sun, the sun globe, and within the sun globe, there is the sun deity, and outside the sun globe, there is sunshine. All of them are light. Within the sun globe, there is light, and in the outside the sun globe, there is light, and the sunshine is also light, but still, there are differences. Another example is: just like if you try to observe a mountain from distant place, it will appear as a hazy cloud. And if you go still nearer, you will find something, greenish rock. The subject of observation is the same thing, but you are looking in different way on account of your different angle of vision. Similarly, if you actually enter the mountain, you will find there are many trees, many houses, many animals, many men. It is full of varieties. Similarly, the Absolute Truth, object of vision, is one, but according to our angle of vision, sometimes we are seeing it is hazy cloud, sometimes as greenish mountain, and when you actually in that place, you see varieties of living entities, trees and houses, everything there.

Similarly, those who are trying to understand the Absolute Truth by dint of his limited knowledge, they realize impersonal Brahman. Here Krishna says, mama vartmanuvartante manusyah, everyone. Everyone means those who are actually seeking after God realization, they are following the same path, but on account of their distance of vision, they are realizing the Absolute Truth in different way. But all of them are beyond this material world. That I have already explained yesterday. Tapasa puta bahavah. Tapasa puta mad-bhavam agatah. Bahavo jnana-tapasa. Bahavo jnana-tapasa puta mad-bhavam agatah. The process of going to the spiritual world is knowledge and austerities. That is for everyone, either he is jnani, yogi or bhakta. But even going to the spiritual platform, there are differences according to the angle of vision.

So risk of impersonal realization is that because in the impersonal feature you cannot enjoy that blissfulness eternally, therefore sometimes — not sometimes, mostly — they come back again into the material world. Because by nature we are jubilant, in the impersonal feature of brahmajyoti, we cannot enjoy life. Therefore again we come back to this material enjoyment. Just like by an airplane, you want to go higher and higher, but if you don’t get the shelter, a shelter in another planet, you will have to come back again to this planet.

Aruhya krcchrena param padam tatah patanty adhah anadrta-yusmad-anghrayah: [Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.2.32] “Unless you become elevated to the position of serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face, simply by impersonal Brahman realization you cannot become happy. Therefore for enjoyment…” Enjoyment means variety, the varieties of enjoyment. “You come down again to the material world.” We have seen it practically. Many big, big sannyasis and transcendentalists, they give up this world as mithya or false and take to sannyasa [renounced, monk life], but after some time, again they come back to this material world for executing philanthropic activities like opening hospitals or opening schools and other philanthropic activities. It so happens because they cannot fully realize the Absolute Truth as the Supreme Person, they again come to these material persons.

Therefore in the Bhagavad-gita you will find, Krishna says, bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate, which means, “After many, many births, the jnanis, after speculative knowledge, when actually they come to the platform of knowledge, they surrender unto Me or they understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”

The next line is, vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma sudurlabhah. One who can understand Krishna, whose another name is Vasudeva, so He is everything, He is the origin of everything, one who can understand, He is supposed to be mahatma, the liberated soul, or the great soul. Mahatma. Maha means great. Atma means soul. But sa mahatma sudurlabhah. It is very difficult to find out such mahatma. So the Krishna devotees who are engaged in these missionary activities, Krishna consciousness movement, they are not ordinary persons. They are mahatma, but very rarely to be found. Sa mahatma sudurlabhah. So although everyone is searching after Krishna, either in impersonal Brahman or localized Paramatma, the person who has understood Krishna, the Supreme Person, he is the greatest, I mean to say, successful man within this world.

Excerpt from a lecture given in Geneva, Zurich on June 1st 1974.

Art of keeping mind allof from all distractions by Chanting by HH Lokanath Swami on 18 Aug 2015 at Nagpur

(Lokanath Swami born in Aravade, a small village Maharashtra, Indian, he went to Mumbai for studying. In the year 1971, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was touring India with his foreign disciples and had organized a pandal program in Mumbai.Intrigued, maharaj attended the whole Hare Krsna Festival and heard from Srila Prabhupada.)

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As the main dome structure is almost complete, a lot of preparation has been going on to commence the next step, the Kalash.

We have seen the Kalash mock-up from McCoy industry made in titanium nitrite coated stainless steal, being fabricated in Mumbai. Our latest addition is a life size bracket that will support the Kalash. It’s made from GRC and measures 3/4 of an inch thick (1.9 cm) and 14 feet (4.5m) tall. This frame is being built in house, right here in Mayapur.

Next week we are planning to start fabrication of mold for the bracket using fiber glass and polyurethane. There will be total of 24 brackets and each one will weight 1.2 tons (2,646 lbs).