Arjuna could not practice Meditational Yoga

Over the past few weeks we have been discussing the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita where Krishna instructs His friend and disciple, Arjuna, on the process of meditational yoga. Krishna has outlined the practice of yoga as sitting in the lotus position and meditating with half-closed eyes and He has explained that to do this one has to go to a solitary sacred place like on the bank of the Ganges River or the Himalayan mountains for example. It is not ...Read More

His Divine Grace Srila Sac-cid-ananda Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s Appearance Day Lecture, London, September 23, 1969

So Bhaktivinoda Thakura is an ideal guru. He was not a sannyasi; he was grhastha, householder, living with family, wife, children. Still, he was guru. So anyone can become guru. Not that a sannyasi can become guru. A householder also can become guru, provided he knows the science. So today is a very auspicious day, Thakura Bhaktivinoda’s birthday. Here is the picture of Thakura Sac-cid-ananda Bhaktivinoda. He was one of the acaryas of this disciplic succession from Krsna. We have got ...Read More

Meditation and The Self Within

Can meditation solve our everyday problems? Is there life after death? Can drugs help us achieve self-realization? During a visit to South Africa, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada discussed these questions with Bill Faill, a reporter for the Durban Natal Mercury. Srila Prabhupada: “Krsna” is a name for God which means all attractive. Unless one is all-attractive he cannot be God. So this Krsna consciousness means God consciousness. All of us are small particles of God, equal in ...Read More

The Ksatriya Spirit

DOWNLOAD Not that the poor soldiers would fight and the leaders would remain in a secure place, no. The oldest man in the Kuru dynasty, the grandfather of Arjuna and Duryodhana. He was very old man, brahmacari, and he was taking the risk of fighting. This is ksatriya spirit. Pradyumna: Translation: “Then Bhisma, the great valiant grandsire of the Kuru dynasty, the grandfather of the fighters, blew his conchshell very loudly like the sound of a lion, giving Duryodhana joy.” Prabhupada: ...Read More

The only objective is to serve Krsna wherever he may be. (Bhagavad-Gita, Chapter 11, Text 55)

The pure devotee does not even want salvation. He does not want to be transferred even to the highest planet, Goloka Vrndavana. His only objective is to serve Krsna wherever he may be. TEXT 55 TEXT mat-karma-krn mat-paramo mad-bhaktah sanga-varjitah nirvairah sarva-bhutesu yah sa mam eti pandava SYNONYMS mat-karma-krt–engaged in doing My work; mat-paramah–considering Me the Supreme; mat-bhaktah–engaged in My devotional service; sanga-varjitah–freed from the contamination of previous activities and mental speculation; nirvairah–without an ...Read More

The Real Goal of Yoga

Krishna continues His description of the yoga system to his friend Arjuna: Thus practicing control of the body, mind and activities, the mystic transcendentalist attains to the kingdom of God [or the abode of Krsna] by cessation of material existence. (Bhagavad-gita 6.15) There are eight different material perfections that a yogi can attain as by-products of the practice of yoga. These yogic perfections or siddhis include: the power to become smaller than the smallest, the power to become greater than the greatest, ...Read More

Meditational Yoga — The Prerequisites

To practice yoga, one should go to a secluded place and should lay kusa-grass on the ground and then cover it with a deerskin and a soft cloth. The seat should neither be too high nor too low and should be situated in a sacred place. The yogi should then sit on it very firmly and should practice yoga by controlling the mind and the senses, purifying the heart and fixing the mind on one point. (Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6, ...Read More

Krishna Consciousness and Hinduism: To Preach or Not To Preach?

The idea of preaching about God in a missionary spirit is not part of India’s religion. That’s something the Christians introduced into India a few hundred years ago… India’s greatest gift to civilization is her highly advanced spiritual culture, based on the eternal truths of the Vedic literatures. Sometimes, however, we hear the strange idea that this culture is not meant to be shared with others. I have heard more than one Western professor of Indian religion say, “The idea of ...Read More

The Symptoms of a Self-Realized Person

“A person who neither rejoices upon achieving something pleasant nor laments upon obtaining something unpleasant, who is self-intelligent, unbewildered, and who knows the science of God, is to be understood as already situated in Transcendence.” (Bhagavad Gita 5.20) The first symptom of a self-realized soul is that he is not illusioned by the false identification of the body with his true self. He knows perfectly well that he is not this body, but is the fragmental portion of the Supreme Personality of ...Read More

Krishna Consciousness–The Yoga for the Modern Age

Nowadays, we find yoga being taught in numerous courses and touted in mass-market books as a means to achieve health, lose weight, develop mental powers over others, achieve success in making money, or increase sexual potency. But real yoga is something entirely different. All glories to the sankirtana movement. Param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, when He was only a sixteen-year-old boy, introduced this sankirtana movement five hundred years ago in Navadvipa, India. It was not that He manufactured some religious ...Read More

Worshiping Demigods Works But…

“Men in this world desire success in fruitive activities, and therefore they worship the demigods. Quickly, of course, men get results from fruitive work in this world.” (Bhagavad Gita 4.12) Many people get confused when it comes to God and the demigods. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and He is param-isvara, the Supreme Controller and there can never be any other controller equal to or greater than Krishna. However there are many other isvaras or controllers in the universe ...Read More

Krishna Responds to Everyone According to their Desires

“All of them–As they surrender unto Me–I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Prtha [Arjuna].” (Bhagavad-gita 4.11) Krishna is responding to everyone, devotee or non-devotee. He is revealing Himself or not revealing Himself according to the desire of the individual person. In another place in the Gita Krishna says: “I am within everyone’s heart and I am giving remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness.” So one may ask why would Krishna give anyone the ability to forget ...Read More

Arjuna is Krishna’s Friend Eternally

Krishna explains in the First Verse of the Forth Chapter of Bhagavad Gita: “I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god, Vivasvan, and Vivasvan instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Iksvaku.” When Arjuna heard Krishna explain this he appeared to become bewildered. He was thinking that Krishna is his friend and they were both born around the same time so how is it possible that Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-gita to the ...Read More

Jesse Jackson Gets Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-Gita!

A few days ago I was at Occupy Wall Street in New York City distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books. All of a sudden a Black SUV with tinted out windows pulled up on the side of the road and a few men got out. One of them was a black man dressed in a nice suit. Within a few seconds the man dressed in the suit was surrounded by about 50 news people with television cameras and microphones all trying to get ...Read More

The History of Bhagavad Gita

Sometimes it is good to ‘get back to basics’ on the philosophy of Bhagavad Gita. So I think a good place to start is the histroy of Bhagavad Gita. What is the Gita, where did it come from and how old is it? Firstly the title of Bhagavad Gita is two Sanskrit words. Bhagavad comes from the word Bhagavan which referrers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and ‘gita’ means song. Sometimes we hear the Gita referred to in English as ...Read More

You will see the power of Hare Krsna movement in due course of time…

DOWNLOAD So the devotees of Krsna should be trained up both ways: not only to give protection to the devotees, to give them encouragement, but if need be, they should be prepared to kill the demons. That is Vaisnavism. It is not cowardism. Lectures & Classes 730711BG.LON Bhagavad-gita 1.6-7 – London, July 11, 1973 Pradyumna: “Translation: There are the mighty Yudhamanyu, the very powerful Uttamauja, the son of Subhadra and the sons of Draupadi. All these warriors are great chariot fighters.” ...Read More

Matchless Gifts

Like so many downtown New Yorkers, we had been reading books on Eastern philosophy and religion, burning lots of candles and incense and taking ganja, peyote and LSD as aids to meditation. Actually it was more intoxication than meditation; meditation was a euphemism that somehow connected our highs with our readings. I walked around the corner with him, and he pointed out a small storefront building between First and Second Streets, next door to a Mobil filling station. It had ...Read More

Peace on Earth or the Earth in Pieces?

“This book will tell you about real peace on earth,” I promised. “All right, sir, I’ll give it a look.” The young airman smiled as he tucked the volume under his arm. “Have a nice Christmas,” I added. “Hare Krsna.” I’d been distributing my spiritual master’s books to San Antonio servicemen since nine o’clock that morning. Now I had to catch the bus from the base back into the city to join the other members of my group. It was ...Read More

Cases of Srila Prabhupada’s Original Bhagavad-gita–Please help distribute them…

I am encouraged that he is taking interest in selling our Bhagavad-gita As It Is. You may all try to distribute this book as far as possible and it will be a great service to our movement. If any sincere person reads this book I think that he will be impressed by the solid footing on which our Krishna Consciousness is based. All of the nonsense Bhagavad-gitas that deny Krishna are Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories ...Read More

Christ and Krishna – the Name is the Same

When an Indian person calls on Krishna, he often says, Krsta. Krsta is a Sanskrit word meaning attraction. So when we address God as Christ, Krsta, or Krishna we indicate the same all-attractive Supreme Personality of Godhead. When Jesus said, Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be Thy name, the name of God was Krsta or Krishna. Srila Prabhupada: What is the meaning of the word Christ? Father Emmanuel: Christ comes from the Greek word Christos, meaning “the anointed ...Read More

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