Discovering Spiritual Knowledge
It all began with meeting a young lady, who is an astrologer. She prepared my natal map and gave some recommendations as far as what I should and should not do. First of all, she recommended to switch to a vegetarian diet. The reason for that is because I was born on Caturdasi. It is a must for people who are born on this day to be engaged in spiritual practice. Otherwise, consequences can be really harsh. I became interested. Actually, I had always been inter
The desire to see God, to touch God, to talk to God is in itself probably the strongest argument for His existence; besides the logic and evidences from the scriptures, this direct experience is very significant indeed. Bringing Deity Worship from the insiders circle of elderly pujari-priests and making it part of the congregational development is probably the only way it may become part of the positive future for many places in ISKCON. While everyone hankers for direct experience of God in per
From Back to Godhead
Just to attract us to His service, God appeared on earth more than one million years ago as Lord Ramacandra the most benevolent ruler and valiant hero the world has ever known.
The incarnations of Godhead are as numerous as the waves of the sea, yet Krsna, the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the source of them all. Just as from one original candle we may light many other candles equal in potency, so Krsna expands Himself in many incarnations, each as powerful as
We often get questions about surrender, like “how can we surrender”. Recently I was reading one old BTG, 2001, and found a nice practical statement from Srila Prabhupada. If we search “surrender” on the vedabase we find 7445 hits, so we know it is an important topic. And we all know the conclusion of the Bhagavad Gita:
sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksayisyami mä suca
TRANSLATION
Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall de
The world around us is changing at an ever-increasing rate. The notion of keeping up with the changing world may have relevance in devotional service. But is this perspective relevant in all areas of our practices of bhakti? Are there some elements of devotional service that must always be constant? Srila Prabhupada wrote:
The greatest danger to our movement will come when we manufacture and create our own process for worshiping the deities. … Whatever is going on, follow it just to the exact
(Bhaktivedanta Research Centre: This is a one of a kind original photo of Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj found by BRC while going through Sri Sundaranand Vidyabinode’s collection.)
Today is Srila Jagannatha dasa Babaji Maharaja’s disappearance day. He comes in the Gaudiya Vaishnava disciplic succession after Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura and Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana. He was a renounced ascetic, fully engaged in chanting the holy names of Krishna and meditating on His pastimes. For
We are afraid to make chanting our number one priority in life because of the fear of failure.
Chanting Hare Krishna can be the most humbling experience, especially if we make it the most important goal of our life. Krishna is inaccessible to the conditioned souls; those who are not qualified won’t get access to Krishna’s intimate association. He reserves the right of not being exposed to the conditioned souls. Thus chanting can expose us to our own disqualifications; chanting can reveal to us
On the all-auspicious disappearance day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati we should all try to remember His divine instructions and make them our life and soul – guru mukha parma vakhya cittete koriya aikhya ara na koriho mane asa. This philosophy that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati epitomises and that he expounded is well worth remembering on this day when the prediction of Padma Purana –
sri-brahma-rudra-sanaka vaisnavah ksiti savannah
catvaras te kalau bhavya hy utkale purusottamat
“In Kal
So on the occasion of Varaha’s appearance day, we are reading a verse in relation this pastime. This is from Canto Three, Chapter Eighteen “The Battle Between Boar and Hiranyaksa”, Text number two.
dadarsa tatrabhijitam dhara-dharam
pronniyamanavanim agra-damstraya
musnantam aksna sva-ruco ’runa-sriya
jahasa caho vana-gocaro mrgah
Translation:
“He saw there the all-powerful Personality of Godhead in His boar incarnation, bearing the earth upward on the ends of His tusks and robbing him of his
Quotes from Radhanath Swami
1) From letters
“The culmination of all our preaching efforts is when a sincere soul experiences his or her spiritual home when they visit our temple. I cannot overestimate the great importance the service, which you have accepted as a guest receptionist. I am most indebted to you for taking this service so seriously. Any person who ever visits our temple should feel so personally welcomed that they feel they have made a true friend. A devotee who genuinely is con
From Back to Godhead
Taking into account the many descriptions of Godhead found in ancient books, scriptures and the eternal wisdom heard by disciples from their venerable masters, the Absolute Truth may be defined as follows: He is by Himself and for Himself; He has all knowledge, strength, opulence, fame, beauty and renunciation; He is the Fountainhead of limitless energies and the Fountainhead of infinite qualities all of which are identical with Himself. He has infinite forms, all of which
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
By Giriraj Swami
Today is the auspicious occasion of Gita Jayanti, the day Lord Krsna spoke the Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kuruksetra, the day of Moksada Ekadasi. To begin, we shall read from Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Chapter Nine, “The Most Confidential Knowledge,” two verses that can provide us with guidance for our lives:
TEXT 30
api cet su-duracaro
bhajate mam ananya-bhak
sadhur eva sa mantavyah
samyag vyavasito hi sah
SYNONYMS
api—even; cet—if; su-duracarah—one committi
In this article, I compare the origin of universe as described in the Srimad Bhagavatam (SB) and the Big Bang (BB) theory .
1. The initial state
According to SB, the initial state of matter immediately previous to its manifestation is calledpradhāna (SB 3.26.10p). In the BB theory, this initial state is called the singularity. The table below compares these two states:
Pradhāna SB 3.26.10p, SB12.4.20,21 |
Singularity ref : [1]-[4] |
*Unmanifested/undifferentiated form of matter. *No |
“Srila Rupa Gosvami, after consulting various scriptures, has enumerated the transcendental qualities of the Lord as follows: (1) beautiful features of the entire body: (2) marked with all auspicious characteristics; (3) extremely pleasing: (4) effulgent; (5) strong; (6) ever-youthful; (7) wonderful linguist; (8) truthful; (9) talks pleasingly; (10) fluent; (11) highly learned: (12) highly intelligent; (13) a genius; (14) artistic; (15) extremely clever; (16) expert; (17) grateful; (18) firmly
FIRST CONTACT WITH THE HOLY SOUND
My life took an apical turn when I stumbled across the Hare Krishnas. Being born in India I had some knowledge of “Krishna” but I was like most Indians are – conscious of Krishna but not Krishna Conscious. Being just “conscious of Krishna” didn’t mollify my thirst for happiness. When I was introduced to the programs conducted by the Hare Krishnas near our college campus new hope dawned upon me. What mesmerized me the most in these programs was the chanting of t
From Back to Godhead
If God is inconceivable, as the scriptures state, can we really know anything about Him?
Sri Isopanisad states that Krsna is simultaneously very far away and very close. The Vedic scripturesencourage us: The best way to know Krsna and bring Him closer is to hear about Him.
As we open any book about Krsna, we’ll immediately feel the richness of the clear and scientific knowledge it contains. We’ll also come to understand that Krsna is by nature inconceivable to finite beings
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
The greatest challenge in performing Sadhana Bhakti is our attempt to serve the Lord with only the cognizance of Him being an almighty God. The immense distance between us and the Lord during the clearing process (Anartha Nivrtthi) is such that most Sadhakas face difficulty in maintaining steady service. This misfortune can solely be attributed to a lack of Sambandha Jnana or in other words due to forgetting who we are.
Most of our energy during the clearing process goes into fighting our previ
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
