You cannot follow nicely unless you hear nicely, and you cannot lead nicely unless you have learned to follow nicely.
Yamuna: From the very beginning of our programs in Bombay, Srila Prabhupada became known as one “who is startling India with kirtan.” Our kirtans were full of so much excitement they were so thrilling that we were like one throbbing heartbeat, the heartbeat of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission of Krishna Consciousness.
It is difficult to describe how much potency we felt in the
By H.H. Mahavishnu Goswami
(Compiled from notes on lectures of H. H. Mahavishnu Goswami)
“Ashram doesn’t matter really, whatever ashram we are, we have to remember Krishna’s words.”
caatur-varnyam mayaa srstam
guna-karma-vibhaagasah
tasya kartaaram api maam
viddhy akartaaram avyayam
“According to the three modes of material nature and the work associated with them, the four divisions of human society are created by Me. And although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet
From Back to Godhead
The Golden Avatar delivered the gold standard of spiritual practices for this age.
In general, people like gold. It represents wealth and success. A golden age refers to an era of goodness and plenty, acknowledged in Greek, Roman, and Indian cultures. If you have everything, you were born with a golden spoon in your mouth. The Golden Rule is the epitome of cosmic justice or fairness: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. As the saying goes, “As good as gold.”
Excerpt from the lecture by HH Nirañjana Swami
Baltics Winter Festival, January 17, 2014
The following is a partially-edited transcription of an excerpt of a lecture given on January 17, 2014, at the Baltics Winter Festival – Chanting with Feeling
Today I wanted to read and speak from a few quotes about the Holy Name. Some of them I have read recently and found a lot of significance to them, not only to myself but those with whom I shared them. A lot of times the devotees struggle to make their
From Back to Godhead
What is the effect of chanting Hare Krishna?
The names of the Lord in the maha-mantra Hare, Krishna, and rama are invested with His full potencies. Singing God’s names, therefore, is to contact Him through the medium of transcendental sound. Thus, the effect of chanting is the same as the effect of directly associating with the Lord. The following beautiful verse, written by Lord caitanya, describes the seven effects the Hare Krishna mantra has on chanters.
ceto-darpana-mar
1.) First let us analyze what our relationship is with Vrndavana and then see how we can develop it. Lord Caitanya explained that these are the five most important aspects in devotional service, which if even a little bit performed, can quickly bring one to the stage of love of God.
sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana, mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana
One should associate with devotees, chant the holy name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the
From Back to Godhead
Variety is said to be the spice of life. Imagine a life where you eat the same vegetables daily, wear the same clothes, meet the same people, and visit the same places. So boring, right? This world is full of varieties seasonal changes in the form of summer, winter, autumn, spring; periodic appearance and disappearance of the sun and the moon; cultural differences among people of different nations; the language, the dress, and the eating habits in different parts of the wor
The Deep Ecology movement is rooted in the conclusions of Professors Lynn White and Arne Naess. By the late 1960s, Prof White, a historian and university president who had studied the development of technology from medieval times to the present, published “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis”. In that influential article, he identified society’s mentality of anthropocentrism (human-centrism) as the root cause of the ecologic crisis. Shortly after that, Prof Naess, philosopher and enviro
From Back to Godhead
Sri Brahma-samhita is one of the oldest Vedic scriptures, and it is accepted by Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu (an incarnation of Krsna Himself who appeared 484 years ago) as the essence of Vaisnava (Krsna conscious) philosophy. The first verse of the Fifth Chapter of Sri Brahma-samhita reads: “Krsna, who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal, blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, and He is the Prime Cause of
From Back to Godhead
From Back to Godhead
Lessons on life, death, and living in a spirit of devotion
ISKCON devotees commonly use the phrase, “Going back home, back to Godhead.”Have you ever thought about what this means when a traveler is anxious to return home? Home is where our family is, where there are people who love us, who trust us. It’s the place we’re comfortable and happy. It’s the place we feel most natural.
The world we live in is foreign to the soul; we are strangers in a foreign land. In this alien p
From Back to Godhead
Why hearing is the first and most important of the nine kinds of devotional service to the Lord.
When I first read that hearing is the most important of the nine kinds of devotional service, I was confused. I was twenty-one at the time and had been hearing all day every day for my whole life. What was so special about hearing? Then I read that the “hearing” prescribed wasn’t meant for mundane topics but for the activities and qualities of Krishna and His devotees. This hea
By Giriraj Swami and Sri Prahlada dasa
To commemorate the anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s arrival in America, we shall sing and discuss the second poem that he wrote on the ship Jaladuta when he arrived in the Boston harbor on September 17, 1965.
Poem [translation]:
1: My dear Lord Krishna, You are so kind upon this useless soul, but I do not know why You have brought me here. Now You can do whatever You like with me.
2: But I guess You have some business here. Otherwise, why would You brin
It’s still early morning, the sun is starting to rise over the horizon, and it’s reddish—it reminds me of Srimati Radharani’s tilak upon Her beautiful broad forehead. And the glowing of the sun, the rays that it casts everywhere, paint the village nearby and the field in front of me a golden color.
There are flowers everywhere, and those flowers are growing in tall grass, knee-high grass, which sways to one side and then another. It’s like the way the Brijbasi’s sway under the winds of their pr
What will happen to me after death?
In the second chapter of Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna explains this subject to Arjuna in great detail. Arjuna was faced with a situation where, in order to uphold dharma, he had to fight and kill people who were very dear to him, his own relatives and friends. As one might expect, it caused great disturbance to Arjuna, and when he finally saw the people with whom he was going to fight, he lost all composure and began to cry.
Arjuna threw down his bow and told
The universe around us appears to be orderly and symmetrical. The planets rotate perfectly in their orbits. Our bodies possess complex circulatory, respiratory, and digestive systems. Even the atoms are highly structured. All this suggests that the universe was created not by chance, but by an intelligent person. If human beings can create houses, skyscrapers, and many other structures, it is plausible that a person far more powerful than any human created the universe and everything in it.
A V
From Back to Godhead
To ensure the health of our spiritual life, we must transform material hope into spiritual hope.
Hope—the recognition within the human heart that something better is attainable—can mean the difference between life and death. In Man’s Search for Meaning, Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl writes that the rate of deaths in the concentration camp increased after Hanukkah, even though there was no change in camp’s already horrible conditions. Why did more die? Because each year r
The purport of the verse is that even Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu — He is God himself, Krsna Himself — He felt, alone, unable to do this task. He felt.
So this is the position. You are cooperating; therefore I am getting the credit. Otherwise alone what could I do? Ekaki amara nahi paya bolo.
Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself wanted our cooperation. He is God, Krsna. And therefore cooperation is very important thing. Nobody should think that “I have got so great ability. I can do.” No. It is simply by c
How is it possible to understand the mood of separation of the Brijbasis without the equivalent amount of love for Krsna. Of course, it is not possible.
…
… Here are some mundane poems about love in separation. Rupa Gosvami heard one such mundane love poem recited in Ratha-yatra by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and composed a parallel poem expressing Lord Gauranga’s mood.
…
This one is especially similar to Siksastaka: ~love considers hours – months, and days – years~
To die and part is less evil,
Bu
In the section below, I have shown in italics, the relevant portions for our discussion on Conflicting roles of Sati:
It is said, “Satī was very much anxious to see her relatives at her father’s house, but at the same time she was afraid of Lord Śiva’s warning. Her mind unsettled, she moved in and out of the room as a swing moves this way and that.” [SB 4.4.1]
Satī felt very sorry at being forbidden to go see her relatives at her father’s house, and due to affection for them, tears fell from he
