From Back to Godhead
Mistakes why we make them and how we can rectify them?
To err is human … ” so goes the saying. Safely we can add three more details to the list: tendency to fall under illusion, cheating propensity and imperfect senses. A conditioned soul is bound by these imperfections, but in this article I will focus on the tendency to commit mistakes. All of us make mistakes. Srila Prabhupada says that to make a mistake is not wrong, but to make a mistake and not learn from it, that is
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
Srimati Radharani is wandering in the forests of Vrndavana and she is not entirely in a calm state of mind. Her love for Krsna is not casual. It is not love that you put on the shelf and sometimes take it off and dust it off for a romantic moment. It is not love that is there after work and after business is done. It is not love in between. It is there all the time and with intensity. It is not that sometimes it peaks and other times it is sort of flat. No, this love is existing constantly in gr
“No matter what was going on, Srila Prabhupada always related it to his service to Krsna.”
Srutakirti dasa, ISKCON Mayapur
During my first trip to Mayapur with Srila Prabhupada, the guesthouse had not been built, so our quarters were very austere. We stayed in a goshala, a thatched hut, which had been prepared for his stay. Srila Prabhupada stayed in one room and the rest of us stayed on the other side of a partition. I had never seen so many mosquitoes in my life. It was so bad that by the tim
By Yamuna Devi Dasi
What a week of Vaisnava sadhu-satsanga this has been! I leave the richer, having exchanged with my family members, old and new, Godbrothers, Godsisters, nephews and nieces. While I feel most unqualified to speak to you today, I am honoured and privileged to join my Godsisters in voicing my concerns as a woman in ISKCON.
As the GBC body, all of you are responsible for establishing Srila Prabhupada’s legacy, which, in these difficult and turbulent times, is at stake. One realm
“This idea of creating a database and collecting contacts at all our festivals and in any situation where we come in contact with the public is very important. I tried for a number of years to teach this to devotees and I fully agree with Jayapataka Maharaja as to its importance. “We can follow up in so many creative ways when we have a list of people who we know are relatively favorable. There is a whole science to database marketing and every successful organization, including non-profit and r
Westerners see India's reverence for the cow as superstition, but for those
who appreciate her gifts, the sacred cow is worthy of her name.
Holy cow! We have all heard that expletive enough times, but what on earth is holy about the cow? I remember some years ago my mother was much maligning India for the "primitive and superstitious" practice of cow worship. To a city boy whose only contact with cows was the Sunday dinner, her criticism seemed quite sensible.
In Vedic religion there is in fact
Perhaps one of the more endearing images in the Bhagavad-gita is Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, driving the chariot of His friend, the warrior Arjuna. When we accept the notion of God as a person then we can begin to ask, What does he do? How does he interact with us, and especially how does he interact with his pure devotees, such as Arjuna? Krishna chooses to be the chariot driver of Arjuna in the Battle of Kurukshetra where the Bhagavad-gita was spoken.
This role of charioteer
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
I don’t find any scarcity in this world except the scarcity of Krsna consciousness.”
– Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati
“People are suffering for want of Krsna consciousness. We should all engage in spreading the science of Krsna for the benefit of the whole world.”
– Srila Prabhupada
Krsna is glorified by those who are completely free from material hankerings in this world. Eternally liberated souls are always engaged in glorifying Krsna. And they relish it so much that they glorify Krsna tirele
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
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhuapada
Lecture given in Vrindavan, India, November 12, 1976
To attain bhakti, or pure devotional service to the Lord, one must come to the point of desiring nothing else.
matto ’py anantat paratah parasmat
svargapavargadhipater na kinchit
yesham kim u syad itarena tesham
akinchananam mayi bhakti-bhajam
[Lord Rshabhadeva said:] “I am fully opulent, almighty, and superior to Lord Brahma and Indra, the king of the heavenly planets. I am also the b
From Back to Godhead
By Narasimha Swami Dasa
Lord Krishna’s main message in the Bhagavad-gita is clear: He wants us to fully surrender to Him. The most vital part of the Bhagavad-gita deals with the advice Lord Sri Krishna gives to Arjuna on the surrendering process. One of the dictionary meanings of surrender is “to give (something) up voluntarily to another.” Lord Krishna’s simple words of advice on surrendering are easy to understand. So why do most people, including those of us practicing K
Some years ago, George Harrison was already giving the world the gift of spiritual inspiration through his music when he donated the Bhaktivedanta Manor to Srila Prabhupada.
My sweet Lord . . .
I really want to see you
Really want to be with you
Really want to see you, Lord,
but it takes so long, my Lord.
George Harrison released “My Sweet Lord,” his first solo single, in America in November 1970. Internationally, sales soon exceeded five million copies.
The biographer Simon Leng calls the rele
By Giriraj Swami
On October 3, 1974, in Mayapur, Srila Prabhupada spoke on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.23, Queen Kunti’s prayer:
yatha hrsikesa khalena devaki
kamsena ruddhaticiram sucarpita
vimocitaham ca sahatmaja vibho
tvayaiva nathena muhur vipad-ganat
“O Hrsikesa, the master of the senses and the Lord of lords, You have released Your Mother Devaki, who was long imprisoned and distressed by the envious King Kamsa, and myself and my children from a series of constant dangers.” (SB 1.8.23)
And
When I first came in contact with Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is, I was excited about my discovery. I’d been searching for answers to life’s great questions, and after only a short time in the company of the philosophy of the Gita, I had to concur with Henry David Thoreau, who called it “stupendous” and said that compared to the Gita, “our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial.”
When I shared my enthusiasm for the Bhagavad-gita with my coworkers, a young woman in the
Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s instructions come to the aid of those of us who shudder at the mention of the word “surrender.”
Growing up, my older brother and I would sometimes get into physical fights. I can’t remember what we would fight about, but a few times a month when my parents weren’t home we would end up in a skirmish. He would often bend my arm behind my back, telling me to surrender by saying “uncle.” I would scream and push and stomp until the pain would become unbearable. Then I would ye
Let us say we won a general election. A majority vote sweeps us into power. All state resources are at our disposal. There will still be a democratic opposition in place, but they will want to see how we give all citizens of the land a Vedic alternative. Where do we start?
Sometimes devotees in their exuberance will say, “We’re going to take over the entire world.” Lord Chaitanya’s prediction has to materialise, but the sombre realities of actualising Vedic models of civilisation with VAD in mi
Question: You gave an example of Vyasadeva, who compiled the Vedic literatures and Narada Muni said it was all useless because it didn’t have a connection to the Supreme Lord, so is there any use of propagating Ayurveda, Yoga and things like that, to attract people or better we should represent pure devotional service?
His Holiness Bhakti Bhringa Govinda Swami: We should always represent pure devotional service. There’s no question about that. We’re not here to teach people how to make money. We
“If we connect with Krishna, then we are illuminated.”
“Actually Krsna is the original Supreme Being, original spirit soul. We are
simply minute part and parcel of Krsna. Exactly the same example: just like
the fire and the small sparks. You can see. This fireworks is going on. The
fire is there, and there are small sparks. So long the fire and the small
sparks are together, they are illumination. Similarly, if we connect with
Krsna, then we are illuminated.” [Srila Prabhupada Bombay, November
