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

How I Found A Real Yoga Teacher

The path.from the hatha-yoga ashram to the Radha-Krsna temple is a well-worn one. Many people who are now Hare Krishna devotees had in the past performed various stretchings, contortions, breathing exercises, headstands, and silent meditations before they learned of the higher yoga of Krsna consciousness. Amala-bhakta’s case is extraordinary: not only was he an expert hatha-yogi when he came to the Los Angeles temple in February of 1976, but he was also in the most respected order of spiritual life (sannyasa), ...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 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

My View on Raja-Yoga

I am surprised at the condemnation of other methods of Yoga, especially Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga. Are these methods not as divine as BHAKTI Yoga?… Dear Guruji, I have seen in many books published nowadays and have also heard about the method of attaining oneness with SHRI KRISHNA. That method is the method of BHAKTI. Attaining oneness with Sri Krishna is certainly NOT the method of Bhakti. Bhakti means love. To develop a loving relationship there has to be two people. You ...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–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

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare…

Once you’ve hear it you’ll never forget it. You may not know what the words mean–nevertheless there’s something captivating about the Hare Krishna chant. Is it the catchy tune or the fascinating way in which the words are repeated and reversed? People who chant Hare Krishna say both contribute to its appeal. But they know that the secret of the chant’s attraction is the quality of the sound itself. Anyone can take three words and make a song out of ...Read More

The Four Philosophies: Impersonalism, Yoga, Personalism and Voidism

Although there are thousands and thousands of philosophical and spiritual groups around the world most of them are following one of four basic philosophies: personalism, yoga, impersonalism or voidism. There are also a few other athiestic philosophies which try to explain the existence of the universe and the living entities without any spiritual connection but we will not discuss them here. All philosophers and followers of religion naturally question about the nature of the Supreme and they also question what is ...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

BBT Admits Books Changed To Fit GBC Philosophy

The BBT could not allow Srila Prabhupada to teach that Jagannatha Dasa Babaji actually *initiated* Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, for that would indirectly sanction Srila Prabhupada *initiating* for many generations to come simply via his transcendental knowledge, with the ‘formal initiation’ administered via the Ritvik system that he set up. We highlighted previously in newsletter No. 20, how Bhakti Caru Swami’s Bengali translation of the Srimad Bhagavatam had omitted a very key verse from Srila Prabhupada’s original version. The omitted verse in ...Read More

The Invisible Hand of the Lord

Krishna, I know this material desire is not befitting me, but still I have the desire for a wife, so will You please make an arrangement for me to get a wife. I know quite well that the process of asking benedictions from You, asking You to give me something for my sense gratification is a nonsense proposal. I should only be asking to be engaged in Your service… Kardama Muni was a devotee and a mystic yogi practicing yoga in ...Read More

Lecture at St. Pascal’s Franciscan Seminary Melbourne Australia

DOWNLOAD Father Greene hinted the common platform of religion. Common platform is not very difficult to understand because religion means to know God and abide by the orders of God. That is religion. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is stated that religious systems cannot be manufactured by man. No. Man-made religion is not religion. Religion means God-made religion. Lecture at St. Pascal’s Franciscan SeminaryMelbourne, June 28, 1974 Prabhupada: (chants mangalacarana prayers) Father Greene and all other Fathers and Ladies and Gentlemen, I ...Read More

Srila Prabhupada Addresses The World Health Organization

DOWNLOAD So we can produce enough quantity of food grains all over the world. And if we actually produce food grains, we can feed ten times of the population which are at present. But unfortunately, we are not producing food grains. That is the problem. It is not the problem of overpopulation. It is the problem that we are not producing food grains. Lecture at World Health Organization Geneva, June 6, 1974 Prabhupada: So Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you very ...Read More

MP3 Audio Lecture by Srila Prabhupada Los Angeles, February 2, 1968

DOWNLOAD God realization depends on God, because God, you cannot oblige God by some force. Just like if you have got money, oh, you can do anything nowadays. If you have got strength of wealth, you can have any power, you can do anything. But that does not mean that you can purchase God. No. Prabhupada: vairagya-vidya-nija-bhakti-yoga- siksartham ekah purusah puranah sri-krsna-caitanya-sarira-dhari krpambudhir yas tam aham prapadye This verse was composed by Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya. You know Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya? You have not heard? ...Read More

We Want to Unite the Nations

The Krishna Consciousness mission is not sectarian. We want to do what the United Nations has failed to do. Bombay 14 December, 1974 Bangkok To the People of Bangkok, Thailand Please accept my best wishes. I am sorry I am not able to come but I must remain here in Bombay for some pressing matters. So I am sending my secretary His Holiness Brahmananda Maharaja who will represent me. The Krishna Consciousness mission is not sectarian. We want to do what ...Read More

The more the books are distributed, the more the ignorance of the Age of Kali will be smashed.

The world is feeling the weight of this Hare Krishna Movement, especially in your country. We have to increase this book distribution work more and more to firmly establish this Movement, which is the only hope for the suffering living entities. Vrindaban 23 November, 1976 Atlanta My dear Balavanta, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letters dated November 5 and 9. I am very glad to hear how the book distribution is increasing more and more. ...Read More

Srila Prabhupada On Chanting Hare Krishna (MP3 Audio)

DOWNLOAD Krsna consciousness is not an artificial imposition on the mind. This consciousness is the original energy of the living entity. When we hear the transcendental vibration, this consciousness is revived. As explained on the cover of the record album, this transcendental vibration–by chanting of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare–is the sublime method for reviving our Krsna consciousness. As living spiritual souls we are all originally Krsna conscious entities, but ...Read More

These People are Practicing Yoga?

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare You’d probably never think this picture shows people practicing yoga. But chanting the names of God is actually the supreme form of yoga. Of course, devotees chanting Hare Krishna certainly don’t look much like yogis. At least not the kind of yogis most people think of when they hear the word. But most people, it seems, have little understanding of what yoga is really all ...Read More

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