By His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Founder-Acharya: International Society for Krishna Consciousness
In ten short years, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada inundated the world with Krishna consciousness. In the following excerpt from one of his essays, he smashes the sectarian misconception that the Spiritual Master is limited to a particular person, form, or institution, and establishes the universal conception of Guru. This lecture was originally published in
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu continued, “My dear friend, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna , has a voice as deep as a cloud resounding in the sky. With the tinkling of His ornaments, He attracts the ears of the gopis, and with the sound of His flute He attracts even the goddess of fortune and other beautiful women. That Personality of Godhead, known as Madana-mohana, whose joking words carry many indications and deep meanings, is increasing the lusty desires of My ears.’
“Krishna's deep vo
Surrey Now
Surrey - The last place you’d expect to find a guy nicknamed “The Walking Monk” is in a car heading toward Chicago.
So apparently Bhaktimarga Swami does not walk everywhere, despite the moniker he’s earned for hoofing it across Canada an impressive four times.
The Ontario-born Swami, who finished his last such trek in 2014, is currently halfway through a similar walk across the U.S., in another effort to promote a “more car-free, carefree lifestyle.”
This week, he’ll be in Surrey to
Brahma-vaivarta Purana
Chapter Two Sridama-Radha-kalaha-varnana
Description of the Quarrel Between Sridama and Radha
1-2 On whose request did Krishna come to the surface of the earth, what the Lord did before He returned to His own abode, how He removed the earth’s burden, and how He killed the demons, of all these I will, carefully thinking of what happened, tell you the story.
3 Listen and I will tell you of Lord Hari’s descent as a cowherd boy. His arrival in Gokula, and Radha’s descent as g
There are many who openly state that they don't believe in God and don't follow any religious principles or practices. These people are harmless for those who have decided to explore god-centered spiritual alternatives in life.
There are many others who accept, follow, and even propagate various degrees of religiosity while still denying the eternal existence of the supreme person, God, as the Absolute Truth. They talk about the all pervading impersonal energy, or the ultimate oneness of everyt
Faith in eternal spiritual truths gets a chance to blossom only when one questions one's piteous reliance on and strangling attachment to the mundane.
Source : http://thebandwagonofmoltengold.blogspot.in/2015/04/let-faith-blossom.html
From the Rik-parisistha:
“Srimati Radharani is always to be found with Sri Krishna, and Madhava is always to be seen with Radhika. One is never without the other’s company.”
From the Gopalottara-tapani:
“She is the embodiment of maha-bhava, or the highest transcendental ecstasy, and none of the other gopis, or cowherd damsels of Vrindavan, possesses Her excellent qualities. Radharani is therefore known as the most famous Gandharva.”
In the Padma Purana Narada Muni describes Srimati Radharani:
“
My friend Padmapani Prabhu has been coming out with so many beautiful posts of late on his page The Prabhupada Connection, the following is one example.
Simple Living and High Thinking
by Padmapani Dasa
Srila Prabhupada stayed in these rooms for six years (1959-1965) while he was preparing for his trip to America. The rooms were simple and austere.
“Yes, we are trying to set a perfect example according to the Bhagavad-gita as it is, how to execute simple living and high thinking. We are not i
Burning material desires may manifest in various ways. One way is that we think of sense objects. Another way may be that we do not think of sense objects – as devotees, we can come to a stage where we do not allow our mind to think of sense objects, so we do not think of sense objects – but then, the blazing fire of material desire manifests in dissatisfaction. And for a long time, we are dissatisfied. When a devotee is not happy it is dangerous because we need happiness. A devotee MUST be hap
Radha Damodar Das has been following in Srila Prabhupada's footsteps since almost 40 years, and his path has not been an easy one. He first heard the Maha-mantra in 1979 and began chanting right away. He soon became one of the leaders of the ISKCON movement, which was then illegal in the Soviet Union. In May 1983, he was arrested and imprisoned for his faith. While in prison, he had to work in dangerous conditions, which included using a poisonous glue. He also suffered from malnutrition. Never
Central to the concept of avatar is the idea of crossing over from one realm to another. In its original Sanskrit philosophical context, avatar refers to the Absolute Truth descending from the spiritual world to the material world. The divine’s existence beyond this world is called transcendence, whereas his existence in this world is called immanence. The question of how the transcendent can become immanent has intrigued many thinkers throughout history. To get a sense of the question’s profun
Hunger in our mouths
Comes from emptiness in our stomachs.
Hunger in our senses
Comes from emptiness in our hearts.
The mouth can fill a stomach’s emptiness
But can the heart’s emptiness be filled through the senses?
The heart’s emptiness
Is best filled by her close friends: the mind and words.
If you hear the right words
And think about them deeply, feelingly.
You will never again go hungry.
Hear about All-Attractive, All-Delighting Krishna-Rāma.
And contemplate what you hear, deeply… feelingl
Einstein, Emerson, Thoreau, Huxley, Hesse… I was amazed that this list an intellectual who’s who from recent world history was actually a list of thinkers who had appreciated the Gita.
As I had been born and brought up in India, the place where the Gita was spoken millennia ago, I was familiar with it as an ancient Hindu text. I had even memorized some of it for verse recitation contests. But I had no idea that its contents were of interest to the modern mind, much less praised by some of the g
One time a saint observed a candala walking along the road was sprinkling water on the path to purify before his every step. This was kinda strange and so the saint approached him and asked the reason. The Candala told its sinful to walk along the path where an ungrateful person has walked over. Even a candala feels he gets sin to touch the earth that was walked over by an ungrateful person.
The following is quite impersonal but is ultimately about connecting to the nature and the creator ind
Extracted from an article "With Krsna in the Peaceable Kıngdom"
By Ravindra Svarupa Das
The material body of every living being is animated by a spiritual soul, who is the eternal offspring of Krsna. Each souls individual history of good or bad deeds causes him to become fastened into a higher or lower body, yet all souls remain in essence equal as children of God. God never forgets them, and a godly person, Krsna tells us, sees all animate beings as spritually equal sparks of the divine (Bg.5.
Reversals teach you lessons!
Nourishment is what the soul seeks
A moment of attention to grasp the music
A moment of concentration to sink into the holy name
A moment that unknowingly becomes minutes
Minutes if not hours of being engulfed
Love? Peace? Contentment?
Pale in comparison to - bliss
Bliss of Hari-nama
So dear mind! Why?
Why the mindless clapping with a vacant expression?
Why the trek through mountains of thought?
Allow that music to float across your ears
Once the boat of music enters the shores of your ears
The process of Krishna consciousness brings about a very dynamic and ongoing transformation – a transformation of our life and ourselves. Spiritual life is ever increasing – there are always new insights to gain and new discoveries to make.
Lord Chaitanya compares a devotee to an expert gardener, who cultivates the Bhakti Lata with care and attention throughout his entire life to one day harvest the fruit of pure love to Krishna. For our Bhakti Lata to grow healthy and strong it is of the great
Extinguishing the blazing fire of material existence
‘World Holy Name Week’ is a festival held by devotees worldwide to commemorate Srila Prabhupada’s arrival in the West. Devotees celebrate it by chanting and distributing the holy names to everyone. It helps us remember that it is by the causeless mercy of Srila Prabhupada that we have received the holy names and what was once a one day celebration, became a weeklong celebration, then a 10 day celebration and this year a two week celebration
The three biggest fears in life: exams, public speaking and death. Of them, the final is probably the most acute. As that fateful hour approaches, everything we worked so hard for is snatched away, throwing our entire sense of identity and purpose into question. On a subtle level, however, we are regularly subjecting ourselves to this disturbing experience. How so? The world teaches us to base our sense of identity and self-worth on transitory, external and artificial considerations. When we id
