Blog

By Payal Shah

(Adapted from a class given by H.G. Narayani Mataji in Sydney on the 24th of December 2019)

In older civilizations, it was possible to conceive, understand and retain spiritual knowledge by simply hearing from a spiritual master. In today’s day and age, however, the majority of us need to read scriptures alongside hear in order to learn, digest and remember spiritual knowledge. The foundation of the Krishna consciousness movement is predicated on the principles presented by Lord K

Throughout his teachings, Srila Prabhupada expresses his ardent desire that his followers read and study his books. Keshava Bharati Dasa Goswami, a senior disciple of Srila Prabhupada, has not only taken this basic instruction to heart but has made it his life’s work by inspiring others to systematically read Srila Prabhupada’s books. He has dedicated forty-six years to studying, editing, distributing, and teaching his spiritual master’s books and is convinced that all challenges, internal and

Srila Prabhupada would be found reading his own books. Someone asked, “Srila Prabhupada, you are reading your own books?” Prabhupada said, “I did not write these books, Krsna dictated these books. These books are pure and transcendental, descending from the spiritual world. The knowledge in these books is absolutely perfect.” Where in the world do you find that? We have advertisements everywhere – advertisements in our faces, trying to convince us that we need this and that to make us happy. It

I was distributing at the Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, and, as usual, was stopping people by asking, “Did you get one yet?”

A student stopped and said, to my surprise, “Yeah, man, I have these books. Krishna is my Lord and Master.”

I asked him, “Which one of these books did you read to come to that conclusion?”

He pointed to the “Journey of Self Discovery” and said, “That book changed my life. I actually found it on the ground about two years ago, and when I read it, I was convinced tha

You can tell when someone is reading Srila Prabhupada’s books:
So this actress looking middle eastern lady and her young son parked their Porsche, walked past my book table and went inside the grocery store. I actually remembered meeting them in the past and how she was kind of puffed up, so I didn’t expect much.
When they came out of the store, they walked straight towards me with a big smile and the boy was holding a $20 bill to give me. The mother was so warm this time and all happy to see me

From Srila Prabhupada’s teachings and Gaudiya history, it seems that there has always been a tension between two kinds of followers of Lord Caitanya’s mission—the preachers and the reclusive practitioners. These are known as the gosthy-anandi (GA) and bhajan-anandi (BA), respectively. The debate between the two centres around how they realise the confidential essence of Lord Caitanya’s teachings, Vraja-bhakti, and the failings that each sees in the other’s practice. GA see that BA neglect Lor