Question: Spiritual wisdom-traditions often glorify forgiveness as a virtue, but isn’t it impractical and foolish to forgive someone who repeatedly hurts us?
Answer:
When someone hurts us, forgiving that person is our best response. But often our indignant emotions make us overlook the subtle but vital line that differentiates forgiving a person from trusting a person: forgiveness is for the past; trust is for the future. We are urged to immediately forgive, but not immediately trust, the wron
“When we love those who love the Lord, the Lord reveals his love to us. Krishna sends his loving devotees to this world, so that we can transfer our attachment.”- Radhanath Swami
Shivananda Sen, he was taking all the 200-300 devotees from Bengal to Puri. They were walking so many days. And a little dog just started following. And that dog… he wasn’t a kind of pedigree, beautiful kind of dog. He was just the kind of dogs that you find in the streets of India. He followed. He followed. And Shivan
An enlightened person sees with equal vision a learned scholar,
a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a dog-eater.
Attempts to establish equality among all people are naive and superficial unless supported by spiritual understanding. Materially, we are not equal. Some people are geniuses; others are fools. Materially, the rule is not unity but diversity. Ours is a world of diverse bodies, diverse faces.
And it is in terms of these diversities that we think of our selves. We think, "I am a man" or "I a
By Sri Nandanandana dasa (Stephen Knapp)
These days fewer people are interested in taking up anything that they cannot immediately apply to their lives. The common question is: “What is this going to do for me?” Or “What am I going to get out of this?” So if we cannot relate the purpose of Vedic culture or its spirituality to people today, especially to the youth, then it is not likely they will take an interest. Yet, everyone is interested in gaining more out of life, or reaching their higher
From Back to Godhead
We all worship someone all of us but the question is…
One of the principles of worship is at traction. When you are reverentially attracted to someone, you have the desire to establish a relationship with that person, and when the relationship is established then you want to perform some worship. Therefore the most important principle is attraction. So the question is what makes a person attractive?
In a spiritual discourse if we announce beforehand that there will be a lec
It’s a general concern of devotees which we hear in many of the classes, forums and seminars on what can be the real key to balance one’s material and spiritual lives.
There is a very interesting statement made by famous French priest and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience but we are spiritual beings having a human (material) experience.” It’s true that because of our past conditionings, desires and lifetimes of karma, we are having a
I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes. My flight was circling over Delhi, waiting for permission to land. My thoughts flashed through the entire process of flying from purchasing the ticket till reaching my destination. Some facet of Krishna consciousness seemed present at every step.
Ticket Reservation
We are careful when we do this checking all the available flights and then choosing the most convenient one. We make reservations days in advance so we get the best rates. After booking t
Recently I was in New York attending an initiation ceremony. As I watched the new devotees, young and old, take their vows, I reflected on my own beginnings.
Over 35 years ago I sat before the fire and took the same vows. I am grateful to still be practicing. Later that day I heard a talk which shared 4 reasons why devotees sometimes give up the process of Krishna consciousness, the one they once started so enthusiastically. Turning them into positives, here are 4 things, if we do them well, th
Our consciousness is a very important factor. The most important factor in anything we do is our consciousness. And if we have material consciousness we will suffer, for sure. And if we have vaisnava consciousness we will be able to assimilate and digest different situations.
It may be one of those situations like walking through fire; and when you come out the other side you’ll be a new person. Many times with think if we walk through fire we will just get burned to ashes. And sometimes Krishn
If we don’t sleep at the right time, we will sleep at the wrong time (Based on Gita 06.16)
When practicing spiritual life, we may equate spiritual advancement with denying our bodily needs such as sleep. We may deprive ourselves of sleep to demonstrate our spiritual advancement.
However, spiritual advancement centers not on physical deprivation, but on spiritual absorption. To grow spiritually, we need to become conscious of our own spiritual identity and of the supreme spiri…tual reality, Kris
Although narcissism is a broad subject, it is marked by an exaggerated self-importance and perceived superiority, abnormal levels of selfishness and entitlement, and extreme self-centeredness. Generally speaking, a narcissist is a person who thinks too highly of themselves and continuously feeds on the egotistic admiration from others, typically rooted in unresolved and exaggerated feelings of inferiority and shame. As a result, they often manipulate and exploit others to fuel their delusions a
From Back to Godhead
Being God, Krishna has no work to do and simply enjoys in His original abode, while His expansions and energies, such as time, take care of the material creation.
As working men and women we typically leave home in the early morning and spend eight or nine hours on the job. Life at work sustains life at home. Official dealings at work contrast with family intimacies at home. However diffuse and overlapping the boundaries between the two, our work persons differ from our
New ISKCON Temple Opens in Bengaluru, to serve as a Spiritual & Cultural Centre
ISKCON has brought great joy to the devotees of Sri Krishna by executing the inauguration ceremony of Sri Sri Radha Vinoda Temple & Cultural Centre (ICC) which also houses the shrines of Sri Sri Jagannath, Baladev & Srimati Subhadra Mai, Sri Sri Gaura Sundara Nityananda Natavara at Kumaraswamy Layout, Bangalore. A separate altar has been dedicated for Srila Prabhupada, where his murti is installed.
Sri Sri Radha V
By Kaliarupa Jagannath Dasa
Dignitaries on the Dais- Left to right (audience perspective): HG Varada Krishna Das ( Temple President – ISKCON HBR Layout), HH Bhakti Vinoda Swami (Zonal Supervisor & ISKCON Coimbatore Temple President), Honourable Member of Parliament Sri Tejasvi Surya, Honourable Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot, HG Narahari Chaitanya Das (Temple President – ISKCON South Bengaluru), HH Jayapataka Swami (GBC), HH Bhanu Swami (GBC), HH Bhakti Prachar Parivrajak Swami (Chairman – ISKCO
From Back to Godhead
With spiritual fasting, you may not make headlines,
but you’ll make headway on the path back to Godhead.
What do Mahatma Gandhi, Dick Gregory, Jane Fonda, Norman Mailer, Bolivian dissidents, British suffragettes, and Irish revolutionaries have in common? Well, for one thing, at one time or another and for one reason or another, they’ve all fasted. Materially their fasting was somewhat successful, whether it was undertaken to free India from British domination, turn public o
Q.
Dear Bada Haridas,
I led my first kirtan yesterday evening! I was wondering what is the role of the kirtan leader? I know that practically speaking they are playing an instrument and singing the mantra for the group to repeat, but what is their job spiritually?
I felt a little bit nervous to take on the task at first and was wondering if you could share some of your wisdom in that regard. Hare Krishna!
A.
Glad to hear you are leading kirtan. Thank you for asking such a nice question and for
From Back to Godhead
Which way does one go in moments of despair?
LORD KRSNA HAS TWO ENERGIES, material and spiritual, but they can be used interchangeably if one knows how. Just as the same electricity can be used to heat or cool a building, so Krsna’s energies can be used for different purposes according to the living entity’s desire.
That doesn’t mean that the living entity can control Krsna’s energies, only that he can use them. When a conditioned soul wishes to exploit the material nature
Remembering Not to Forget: But if its amnesia you want, Krishna will give it to you
It’s funny how if you give Krishna, God, an inch, he gives you a mile. I remember in my earliest days as a devotee, I had left the movement for some time. I was home, watching TV with my family. All of a sudden, right on the screen there was an ad for the television station with a photo of New York City streets. There he was, my Godbrother Bhaktivinoda, with a close-up of the Channel Two logo below his chin. I h
Management to facilitate preaching is spiritual, not material.
Srila Prabhupada: Everywhere, in the office, there is some immediate boss. So you have to please him. That is service. Suppose in office, in a department there is office superintendent. And if you do in your own way, “Yes, I’m doing my business,” and the office superintendent is not pleased, do you think that kind of service is nice? No. Similarly, everywhere we have got immediate boss. So we must work. That is systematic. If ever
If a devotee were to ask, “Please bless me so that I’ll never take birth again in this horrible material world,” would this be asking for some kind of liberation? Hundreds of times, Srila Prabhupada encouraged us to “Go Back home, back to Godhead.” Would it be a form of boldness or naiveté to desire to come back to this world and serve by preaching?
That would depend on our level of perception and spiritual progress. There were times when some disciples indicated to Srila Prabhupada that they w
