The little-known secret to Advancement in Krishna Consciousness
The basic principle of Krishna consciousness is unacceptable to most people, still many are attached to the idea of presenting themselves as pious persons and great devotees even though they reject the basic principle. They can not understand Krishna consciousness because they do not surrender to a pure devotee of Krishna.
Actually it is not possible to understand Krishna consciousness by practicing austerities, by following regulative principles, by chanting a certain number of rounds; even by reading books one can not understand Krishna consciousness. The secrets of Krishna consciousness are hidden within the hearts of Krishna’s pure devotees and there is absolutely no way we can ever understand and realize this ‘confidential knowledge’ unless we find a pure devotee of Krishna and surrender to him completely and make his instructions our life and soul. Then, if we are successful in getting the blessings and mercy of Krishna’s pure devotee it will be possible for us to understand Krishna consciousness. Otherwise Krishna consciousness will remain for us forever something theoretical and we will never experience the transcendental bliss, the happiness, the ecstasy and the real spiritual realizations that a real devotee experiences when practicing Krishna consciousness under the directions of his bona fide, pure devotee spiritual master.
The thing that makes Krishna consciousness possible is the ‘higher taste’, the nectar, the transcendental bliss that one experiences by engaging in the service of Krishna under the direction of Krishna’s pure devotee. Without this ‘higher taste’ there is no Krishna consciosuness actually, it is just a dry philosophical process. It is this ‘higher taste’ that gives us the power to renounce all sense gratifactory activities and simply work for the pleasure of Krishna and His pure devotee…
Even if we have a bona fide spiritual master, a pure devotee who has unlimited power to bless us with advancement in Krishna consciousness, unless we surrender to him and make the mission of his life our mission in life then also we will not be able to understand what Krishna consciousness is…
It doesn’t matter how much we strictly follow the brahminical principles, how much we chant, how much we read, how much we become great scholars and pundits, how many austerities we practice, how early we get up in the morning. All these things, without surrender to an actual bona fide spiritual master, will not help us to become Krishna conscious.
Everything will remain theoretical for us and we will have no taste for Krishna consciousness and we will still in our minds be desiring sense gratification. If we see a beautiful women we will want to have sex with her. This thought does not come into the mind of an actual devotee like Haridas Thakur who, when a very beautiful woman was sent to him by an envious king to try and get him to fall down, was not interested in her advances. Rather he was interested in helping the beautiful woman to become Krishna conscious and he turned her into a great devotee. This is a real devotee. We have to come to this platform. Otherwise we are cheating the people we are ‘preaching’ to and our preaching will have a negative effect. Unless we are strictly following and have the correct consciousness we should not try to preach Krishna consciousness to others.
We may know the philosophy of Krishna consciousness very nicely but if when we see a beautiful boy or a beautiful girl we are thinking of sex then we are not Krishna conscious. We are in maya.
Of course sex is a very gross thing and some ‘devotees’ may be able to conquer this sex desire for the time being by the practice of austerities and penances and in this way they can also become very attractive and strong and determined and powerful. And they can attract many followers of course. But still they may have no understanding of what Krishna consciousness actually is.
There are so-many of these non-devotees in the dress of gurus and sadhus on the Indian guru channels and they are doing a great business. Some of them have some shakti as a result of their penances and austerities and they use that shakti to take the general publics’ money and collect unlimited numbers of followers and disciples. And unfortunately the people in general like this sort of cheating guru.
This is why Srila Prabhupada often mentions that this word is the world of the cheaters and the cheated.
Actually most people do not want a real guru. They want a cheating guru. If the real guru comes they will reject him and search out a cheater. Why? We can find the answer from Krishna directly in the Bhagavad-gita.
What is called renunciation is the same as yoga, or linking oneself with the Supreme, for no one can become a yogi unless he renounces the desire for sense gratification. (Bhagavad-gita As It Is 6.2)
So Krishna is very clearly stating here that no one can become a yogi or link himself with the Supreme unless he renounces the desire for sense gratification. This is the core principle of Krishna consciousness and the basic prerequisite without with no actual advancement in spiritual life will be possible. The beginning of Krishna consciousness means giving up completely all our personal desires for sense gratification and in place of these desires we develop the desire to satisfy Krishna and His pure devotees. Of course many may talk about this but to find anyone who has actually given up all desires for personal sense gratification and really his only desire is to please Krishna and His pure devotees is very, very rare.
And when we reveal this truth most people will not be interested in Krishna consciousness. Because practically everyone is living for personal sense gratification. That is the purpose of their lives. And Krishna is saying that to become Krishna conscious one must give up all personal sense gratifactory activities… So it may be that the real guru who delivers this actual message of Bhagavad-gita may not be very popular with the people in general… But the general public love the cheating gurus who put no limits on the disciples’ sense gratification…
Even if some devotee does understand and realize this basic principle of Krishna consciousness and knows that he needs to surrender to a bona fide guru, Krishna’s pure devotee, then there are so many rascal cheating gurus elsewhere who are just waiting to meet such a surrendered soul and to trick him into surrendering to and serving them instead of Krishna’s pure devotee and Krishna…
In the current age of Kali the situation is so difficult that even most of the sincere seekers of the truth end up being cheated by a bogus guru and are exploited by him because he is engaged in the ‘guru business’ not for Krishna but for satisfying some personal desires. He may be very pious and very ‘spiritual’ and very advanced in knowledge of the Vedas. But it is not possible to clean out the desire for sense gratifaction from within the heart without surrendering to Krishna’s pure devotee and accepting and following his instructions.
These bogus gurus who are dressing as sannyasis and posing as Vaisnava acharyas and gurus are actually the greatest demons and Krishna has reserved the worst hellish planet for them. There is no more violent activity that can be exerted on another person than falsely posing as a spiritual leader for some personal benefit. This is the greatest sin as confirmed in Sri-Isopanisad (from Srila Prabhupada’s purport to Text 12):
The ignorant pseudo religionists and the manufacturers of so-called incarnations who directly violate the Vedic injunctions are liable to enter into the darkest region of the universe because they mislead those who follow them…
The Lord states that as soon as one reaches Him by devotional service–which is the one and only way to approach the Personality of Godhead–one attains complete freedom from the bondage of birth and death. In other words, the path of salvation from the material clutches fully depends on the principles of knowledge and detachment gained from serving the Lord.
The pseudo religionists have neither knowledge nor detachment from material affairs, for most of them want to live in the golden shackles of material bondage under the shadow of philanthropic activities disguised as religious principles. By a false display of religious sentiments, they present a show of devotional service while indulging in all sorts of immoral activities. In this way they pass as spiritual masters and devotees of God. Such violators of religious principles have no respect for the authoritative acaryas, the holy teachers in the strict disciplic succession. They ignore the Vedic injunction acaryopasana–“One must worship the acarya“–and Krsna’s statement in the Bhagavad-gita (4.2) evam paramparm-praptam, “This supreme science of God is received through the disciplic succession.” Instead, to mislead the people in general they themselves become so-called acaryas, but they do not even follow the principles of the acaryas.
These rogues are the most dangerous elements in human society. Because there is no religious government, they escape punishment by the law of the state. They cannot, however, escape the law of the Supreme, who has clearly declared in the Bhagavad-gita that envious demons in the garb of religious propagandists shall be thrown into the darkest regions of hell (Bg. 16.19-20).
Sri Isopanisad confirms that these pseudo religionists are heading toward the most obnoxious place in the universe after the completion of their spiritual master business, which they conduct simply for sense gratification.
Unfortunately this statement very accurately describes most of the “gurus” you will find these days. This problem has made spiritual advancement very difficult, practically impossible for the general public.
So [I keep saying this and please forgive me that] if you want to become Krishna conscious you have to find an actual pure devotee of Krishna and really surrender to him and serve him. And he will instruct you to stop sense gratification and instead work for the satisfaction of Krishna’s senses.
Anyhow, back to the basic principle of Krishna consciousness that practically all ‘devotees’ refuse to surrender to.
Actual Krishna consciousness means that one must know his constitutional position as the living entity and act accordingly.
The living entity has no separate independent identity. He is the marginal energy of Krishna. This is often compared with the situation at a beach on the shore of the ocean. Sometimes the sand on the beach is uncovered and open and at other times, when the the tide comes in, the beach disappears and is covered by water. So in this way the beach can be open or it can be covered by the water. Similarly when the living entity is entrapped by material energy, he is conditioned, and when he is Krishna conscious, or aware of the spiritual energy, then he is in his real and natural state of life. Therefore, when one is in complete knowledge, one ceases all material sense gratification, or renounces all kinds of sense gratificatory activities.
A Krishna conscious person therefore only uses his senses in the service of Krishna for the pleasure of Krishna. He has no personal desires for sense gratification at all. He understands that he is part and parcel of Krishna and that as the part and parcel of Krishna it is his natural and constitutional position to render service to Krishna. And he knows that if he can please Krishna in this way then he will also become satisfied because he is a part and parcel of Krishna. If the whole [Krishna] is satisfied then automatically the part [the living entity] will also be satisfied. In reality this is the only way a living entity can become satisfied–by surrendering to Krishna and serving and satisfying Him.
If one is unable to give up the activities of his selfish nature, sense gratification, then knowledge and yoga are of no benefit to him. The real aim is for a living entity to give up all selfish satisfaction and to be prepared to satisfy the Supreme. A Krishna conscious person has no desire for any kind of self-enjoyment. He is always engaged for the enjoyment of the Supreme. One who has no information of the Supreme must therefore be engaged in self-satisfaction because no one can stand on the platform of inactivity.
So without giving up the propensity for personal sense gratification and without real surrender, submission and service to an actual bona fide spiritual master, a pure devotee of Krishna, advancement in Krishna consciousness is not possible.
About the Author
Madhudvisa dasa My first contact with a Hare Krishna was a most merciful Mataji in Oxford Street, London who sold me a "Higher Taste" cook book in 1984 while I was on holidays there. I started seriously reading Srila Prabhupada's books in Australia 1985 and by 1986 Srila Prabhupada had convinced me "Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead" and "we should surrender to Krishna." I joined the Hare Krishnas in Perth, Western Australia in 1986. Since then I have been chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, reading and distributing Srila Prabhupada's books and preaching as much as I can. That's my life and full-time occupation now really. I like it more than anything I've ever experienced before. Srila Prabhupada's books are so amazing... Even after reading them all many times they're still fresh and new. They are truly transcendental! That's it really. Now I'm just hankering to once again see the world chant Hare Krishna, dance and feast and float away in the ecstasy of Lord Caitanya's Sankirtana movement as it did in Srila Prabhupada's physical presence. Let the whole world drown in the ecstatic flood of love of Krishna!
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Hare krsna prabhuji
AGTSP
DANDAVAT PRANAAMS
Prabhuji..I asked you the same question about finding a bona-fide spiritual master and you asked me to stick to srila prabhupada and his books …I had joined i***** that time and I was about to take initiation but something inside me did not fell right and always opposed and resisted me for this initiation…..
So now I am out of it
But,,,prabhu I have a charm for reading various books and literatures on bhakti
Can I read various books by other Gaudiyas saints like Radha ras sudhanidhi…radha dasyam…brihad bhagwatam ….sandarbhas and many more
I have read Srimad bhagwatam once and again I have started it
C C also
Please guide
Regards
Please guide
No. Other books will only confuse you. Read ALL OF PRABHUPADA’S Books, like Caitanya-caritamrta for example, and read them again AND DO SOME PRACTICAL SERVICE!
When you read Prabhupada’s books he will give you instructions what you should be doing. So follow those instructions and do some practical service, like distributing Prabhupada’s books to the fallen conditioned souls for example.
“No, if you can make the people Kṛṣṇa conscious, then everything will be automatically solved… because the democracy is already there. So if they vote for a Kṛṣṇa conscious person to become president and prime minister, then everything will be saved. So that means you have to create Kṛṣṇa conscious voters. Then everything will be right. That should be one of your aims of this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement. The government still is under the control of the public. That’s a fact.
If the public becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, naturally the government will be Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is up to the public although they do not want to be.” Srila Prabhupada.
Sometimes it is said in the community that devotees should not vote. According to this statement from Srila Prabhupada, it appears that devotees must vote and we must get all those who have gotten some blessings from Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krishna by touching, buying, reading or revering His books, His prasadam, His Temples, and His devotees, to vote. It is time for the devotees who are willing to sacrifice the time, endeavor and heart to step up and present themselves in all spheres of public life to help in making the adjustment from programs run by the demons to programs run by the devotee servants of God and His creation. The public has almost lost all control of the government. This may well be the last chance. We should not neglect it. We are not just chanters, Srila Prabhupada has a great vision and mission to save the whole world. Who among us can we look to, to take up the task? There can be volunteers and their can be suggestions for volunteers. Thank you. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Prabhupada never voted for any of these rascals in his life. I, also, have never voted for anyone in my life, not even before I became a devotee. I could never see the point, both sides are demons. So what is the point? It is not voting that will change the world. It is sankirtan, the congregational chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra, there is no other way, no other way, no other way.
So we need to form Sankirtan parties and flood the world with an ocean of love of God. That is the way, not voting…
How does one achieve the state in which his mind cannot be drawn from Krishna’s consciousness?
In the material world the mind can always be drawn from Krishna consciousness. That is the nature of the material world. At every moment we have the choice. We are eternally servants, the only choice we ever have is to choose our master, we can, at every moment, choose Krishna or we can choose maya. That is our free will.
So the way to become Krishna conscious is to choose to serve Krishna at every moment and while we are serving Krishna we are not serving maya,
Practically it means we have to control the tongue. It means to only allow the tongue to taste Krishna prasadam and to only allow the tongue to vibrate the Hare Krishna mantra and the glories of Krishna. So we can chant Hare Krishna, we can read Srila Prabhupada’s books, we can talk about the glories of Krishna to others.
But as soon as we allow the tongue to vibrate other things, instead of glorifying Krishna, instead of chanting Hare Krishna, then that will drag us down into maya.
Also we need to associate with devotees. The reality is association is very powerful. So if we associate with non-devotees then we will, gradually, become non-devotees ourselves.
All these things are completely and scientifically explained by Srila Prabhupada in his transcendental books. So you need to study Srila Prabhupada’s books and put the instructions Srila Prabhupada gives you as you read his books into practice in your day-to-day life.
Krishna consciousness is not a simple thing, it is a science, and we have to learn the science. It takes determination and effort. We have to become determined to be Krishna conscious at ever moment of our lives. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we have to be always remembering Krishna and never forgetting Krishna. While this is a simple idea, it is actually very difficult for most of us to implement it in our day-to-day lives.
So Prabhupada is teaching us how to become Krishna conscious in his books, we have to learn it from him by reading his books and following the instructions he gives us.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
desires just don’t go out within one go…it takes years…..for a person whose health is not good or for a person who can partially do devotional service, what about them. Even if someone takes to devotional service he/she is tested like hell. The thing is that you cannot suppress your desire. if you suppress it. it will come out like blazing fire. and whose health is not good whose body doesn’t allow him to keep fasts. how can that person surrender because keeps affecting him.
We don’t have to do any big fasts, just not eating grains on Ekadasi and few half-day fasts and full day fast on Janmastami, etc.
So the point is if we chant Hare Krishna mantra at least 16 rounds a day, strictly follow the four regulative principles [no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication] and read Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day, then it will be easy to control our senses. Yes, you are correct of course, Krishna consciousness is not about suppressing desires, it is about transforming desires. Krishna consciousness means instead of desiring material things we have to cultivate spiritual desires. That is the science of Krishna consciousness and it is taught very perfectly by Srila Prabhupada in his books. Please read them.
Madhudvisa Dasa,
Thank you for your article. Are you saying that if I read Srila Prabhupada’s books with consistency, chant 16+ rounds of maha-mantra daily, avoid illicit sex, gambling, animal-eating and intoxication, then I will have a spiritual master? What about worship? Do I not need a living, breathing man in front of me to surrender to? How can I surrender to a book? I badly want to leave this country and find a spiritual master to surrender unto completely, but as you say there are many fakes; might you give some light to me for these questions?
Thank you.
Hare Krishna Max
Srila Prabhupada is living in his books, and if you read them and follow the instructions you find Srila Prabhupada giving you in his books then you will experience that Prabhupada is living and personally guiding you and answering all your questions. But it takes dedication and surrender and service. So it is up to you.
You don’t surrender to a book, you surrender to Srila Prabhuapda who is living in his books. So of course you have to actually realize and experience that Srila Prabhupada is living in his books for yourself. So please read all of Srila Prabhupada’s books and chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day, strictly follow the four regulative principles and also follow the other instructions that Prabhupada gives you when you are reading his books. This is the process. If you want to succeed at it and become Krishna conscious then you have to actually surrender to this process and do it.
If you do surrender, you will discover that Prabhupada is living in his books and is a living guru and is completely competent to guide you and answer all your questions.
Problem is hardly anyone is prepared to actually surrender to Prabhupada, they are not even prepared to read all his books, so how can they expect to become Krishna conscious?
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
I understand this. Thank you
absolute truth jotted down in perfect words, thank you very much
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Prabhu , i am having a small but important query. Please enlighten me.
As Srila Prabhupada is not physically present though Prabhupada will always present in his books, how a new and immature devotee like me can take small small small decision for his life.
Prabhu please enlighten me.
Your Humble Servant
Gaurav
You have to use your common sense.
Even when Prabhupada was physically present with 10,000 disciples he could not make the small decisions of every one of his disciples.
You can learn from Srila Prabhupada’s books what is right and what is wrong and based on that you can make your small decision yourself.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Now that our spiritual master Prabupadha has disappeared we do not know whom to surrender to. If we offer our respectful obeisances to Prabupadha; Lord Chaitenya; and Krishna – for example; like when we prepare prasadam – then that is beneficial whether at the time we are surrendered to a pure devotee or not. Also, Krishna can direct is from within; so that is beneficial regardless if we surrender to a pure devotee or not. If we approach reading of the Gita with a devotional attitude that also is beneficial. So to whom shall we surrender that has not disappeared?
Prabhupada has not disappeared. Prabhupada is living in his books, and recorded lectures, conversations, videos, etc, you just have to take advantage of the association of Srila Prabhupada who is living in sound.
Why having a personal spiritual master is too important ?
Why can’t we advance in krishna consciousness by viewing videos online of iskcon devotees. / Prabhupada books lectures ?
Because you have to surrender to a bona fide spiritual master to make advancement in Krishna consciousness. It is not like a buffet where so many dishes are offered and you pick what you like and reject what you don’t like. No. You have to find a bona fide spiritual master and surrender to him and serve him and follow his instructions even if you don’t like them.
Hare Krishna , prabhu ji
Your lines above has made my mind assume that doing japa regularly , following austerities has very negligible contribution for krishna consciousness. Because of this I becomes lenient in following many things.
Why having a personal devotee guru is too much important , why can’t we advance from such informative contents /you tube videos / prabhupada books/lectures .
Does listening lectures of spiritual masters on you tube / online is not sufficient ?
Thanks
Your servant
No you have to find a bona fide spiritual master, not listen to so many different ones and pick and choose. If you choose Srila Prabhupada and accept him as your spiritual master and surrender to him and that means chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day, strictly following the four regulative principles [no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxicaiton] and just read and hear Prabhuapda’s books and lectures on a regular basis then you will be very safe, then you will have a bona-fide spiritual master.
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
I want to distribute more Prabhupada books.
For as of now little Book distribution I do in my office. I go out on Saturday for book distribution. But it doesn’t give me satisfaction.
I started going out on weekdays also for book distribution but the problem what I am facing is there is no one who can accompany me. Though sometimes I find someone but they’re not regular because we face so many rejection in service.
I can do it alone but somehow I am not able to do book distribution alone. I want atleast one person with me. I know this is my weakness. Prabhu please suggest how I can overcome my weakness.
Your Servent
Hare Krishna Gaurav
Yes. It is hard to find someone to help. But in that case we just have to do it ourselves. Actually dedicated devotee is very rare. And most people don’t want the books and we have to convince them to take and read Prabhupada’s books, still maybe only one out of ten people we try to sell the books to will actually buy the books. But still if you approach 1000 people in a day you will sell 100 books, which is very good. So book distributor needs the determination to go on even though most of the people he approaches do not take the books. But the wonderful thing is many of them do take the books. So we have to look at the bright side.
So yes, very nice idea to try and find someone to go out with you, that encourages them to distribute Prabhupada’s books and increases the distribution, but if you can’t find anyone just go out and distribute Prabhupada’s books yourself. It may be difficult to get out but once you are out there and selling books it is very nice.
So just do it, force yourself to go out and distribute Prabhupada’s books, even if you can’t find anyone else to go out with you.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhuji ,
Please tell me about surrendering to pure devotee. I can read books written by gurus .
Read Prabhuapda’s books, he explains everything there. It is a very simple thing, in theory, surrender. It means you agree to become a servant of the spiritual master. You agree to follow his instructions. So do it. Surrender. And then read Prabhupada’s books and follow the instructions he gives you as you read his books.
Hare Krishna Prabhuji
Madhudvisa prabhu left this world on 5th August 2014. Then who is this Madhudvisa das. please inform me.
Overall the article was very great thanks for this wonderful sharing knowledge and is really helpful for me to see so much time is saved due to your secret is revealed.
There are 2 Madhudvisas. I am the other one. Joined ISKCON in 1986 in Australia. The original Madhudvisa was never on the internet, never even had an email address as far as I know.
Hare Krishna
One question, as it requires to have bona fide Guru, is guru must be present in front of us to give instructions, chanting or if we accept some great devotee as Guru from mind whom we never meet. And one more question which I feel hesitate to ask is, as I know biggest Vaishnava is Lord Shiva, so if one pray them to give Devotion of Krishna, instead of material things, is it right?
Hare Krishna Ajay Your writing is inconsistent. In first line you are saying guru must be physically present and in second line you are asking if you can pray to Lord Shiva who is not physically present. For guru there is no question of physical presence or absence. Guru is present in the form of his transcendental instructions and we can associate with him by following his instructions which in the case of Srila Prabhupada you will find in his books. So you can most certainly meet your bona fide guru by reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. Prabhupada is living in his books and he will instruct you if you are prepared to read his books and surrender to his instructions. Yes. Lord Shiva is a great Vaisnava and we can pray to him in this relationship, of Lord Shiva as a devotee of Krishna, and ask him to help us surrender to and serve Krishna.
Respected Guri ji
I have been getting your numbers of MSG alarming the bogus guru in the name of Krishna consciousness and at the same time, you do confirm that getting a real guru to whom one can surrender is hard to get.
Similarly, you are advising to chant the maha mantra. In Kali yog, it is full of falsification and under the Maya. I believe, the only true way to reach holy God head is chanting Mahamantra as maximum number as one can. Its fire will burn all darkness.
A fresher gets confused on your multiple suggestion. I do chant Maha Mantra only
Yes. In Kali-yuga we have to expect there will be a multitude of bogus gurus to choose from. All equally qualified to drag their unfortunate followers down to hell.
So you are correct, we need to take shelter of chanting the Hare Krishna mantra:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
This is the only way, the only way, the only way.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krsna Prabhuji!
I came to know about Krsna Consciousness 1.5 years back through Iskcon value education test. They gave us a pocket sized Bhagwad Gita- As it is.
From that time I’m reading Bhagwad Gita and Krsna book over and over again. I started chanting around a year back but till now I just chant 4 rounds, I’m trying to increases them more and more as I get comfortable with my vow. Prabhuji I consider Srila Prabhupada ji as my guru but He says if you cannot chant 16 rounds, you cannot be my disciple! But without His mercy, how will I come to that platform? Where do I find pure devotees of the Lord and can I serve them? I’m a 11th class student, so I cannot even go to temple on my own. Please guide me Prabhuji.
Accept my humble obeisances!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Hare Krishna Priyanshi
It is very good you are reading Bhagavad-gita and Krsna Books over and over again. So you can get more Prabhupada books at KrishnaStore.in and read them as well. That is the way to associate with Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada is living in his books and he will speak to you and guide you as you read his books. So you can associate with the best pure devotee of Krishna, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanata Swami Prabhupada any time you want to just by opening his books and reading them. And if you follow the instructions Srila Prabhupada gives you as you read his books then you will be serving the best pure devotee of Krishna.
As far as chanting 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra it is not such a big thing. You just have to decide to do it and do it. You can get out of bed in the morning before 4:00 AM and chant Hare Krishna, in this way you can discover 3 or 4 extra hours every day when otherwise you would have just been wasting them by sleeping. Then you will have no problems chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day.
These things, chanting 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day, strictly following the four regulative principles [no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication] and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day, are the beginning of Krishna consciousness. We have to surrender to these basic points at least just to start our journey back home, back to Godhead.
So just do it. Decide that you are going to chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day and do it. It takes me about 3 hours a day to chant 16 rounds. So you can chant in 3 hours or so 16 rounds and you have 24 hours in the day. So there are still 21 hours left after you have finished chanting 16 rounds. So it is not very much. Anyone can do it, if they want to do it, if they are determined to do it.
Of course maya will try in so many ways to convince us not to chant Hare Krishna. So we have to become very determined and we have to fight maya and chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
pamho madhudvisa prabhu agtacbsp wow thank you for this wonderful and very accurate newsletter i can undetstand what you mean because by your mercy i given up maitunya agara sex life completely without raga dvesa and i start chanting again by getting my loulyam kalatvam back again through hrsikena hrsikesa evanam bhaktir ucyate i got diksa by a pure devotee by good karma i always avoid bogus guru my eternal guru is hdg acbsp i can make real spiritual advancement now because i got rid of kama rupa durasadam mahasano maha papma margete hai is dead also because i got old age and try to save myself before i die still trapped thank you for your good example it been help me agtys ys acsd haribol
Then iam hopeless prabhu,
Fully theoritical, i never meet a pure devotee. How can i surrender to him? What can i do? I just poor soul, very unfortunate. I cant accociate with devotee, now without guru. My unfortunate complete now, i surrender to you prabhu please have mercy on me ? ?
You have Srila Prabhupada to associate with. He is living in his books. You can read Srila Prabhupada’s books and get the personal direct association of a pure devotee of Krishna. So do it. Read Srila Prabhupada’s books, chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day, follow the four regulative principles and you will make very solid advancement in Krishna consciousness. There is no need to feel hopeless. There is great hope if we just chant Hare Krishna and read Srila Prabhupada’s books.
I just want to say anyone wanting to advance in KC must not mix the bad mundane stuff like impiousness and sense gratification with bhakti, if you do so you’ll be misguided easily, its like mixing poison in milk.
However discharging your duty and other pious activities in the sense of renunciation towards self/devoted(or devoting result) towards Krishna are completely fine.
Its nothing new that I am saying of course but its something that I always overlooked and wanted to say it in case someone is helped by this.
Hari bol dandavat Pranams at your Lotus feet for this very insightful instruction.
With utmost regards
Hare Krishna. Krishna consciousness is the most powerful yoga system.
Hare Krsna Prabhu ji Please accept my humble dandavat Pranams.,
I request you to please don’t stop to sending me your insightful messages. I need most, because I wish to serve more and more to krsna and his devotees. For that I need the nectar of your instructions forever.
Dr Shilpi Saxena
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa Dasa,
If the Lord – Cause of causes – is the root-cause of all that be, ain’t that same Vishnu the cause of even Kali Yuga with profusion of non-religion? How then with bad persons: not-withstanding the fact that the Lord provided us – as part and parcel – with free will, ain’t His Sustainance even behind our bad actions? Can be said that even those actions are Krishna’s play?
May your lucid reply not only relieve my puzzling, but serve other seekers too!
Hare Krishna Henrk
No. Krishna is not the cause of the material world. We are the cause of the material world. Krishna gives us independence. But it is limited. We are constitutionally servants, so that is all we can do actually, serve. If you analyze every person you will find they are all serving someone. So if we don’t want to serve Krishna then what are we going to do? That is our constitutional position, to serve Krishna. There is nothing else for us to do actually.
But we rebel. We don’t want to serve Krishna. So it is Krishna’s unlimited mercy on us that He creates this material world and his external energy maya, illusion. Maya gives us the illusion that we can be happy separately from serving Krishna…
So in this sense Krishna is the cause of the material world also, but He only made it because we want it, we want a place where we can become the lord and master. So Krishna has made the material world for us. It is our sand pit… So the parents make the sand pit for their children to play in, but really the desire of the children to play is the cause of the parents constructing the sand pit…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhu Ji,
The topic is very pertinent and has delved at length about those who are actually not fully or truly Krishna Conscious. To be honest, I find my self as Your Grace has described in second and fifth paragraphs (It doesn’t matter how much we strictly follow the brahminical principles…..)
However, how to Advancement in Krishna Consciousness has not been elaborated.
Kindly bless me through. I shall be highly obliged.
Hare Krishna..guruji I love Krishna a lot and I can say that he is my everything.i try to understand Krishna and his worldly creations and times are there when I feel my surroundings are krishnamay.i have read sreemad bhagvat and shreemad bhagvat Gita many times and my Lord is with me when I read these revered books.i feel that the biggest force which can take us near our Lord’s feet is within us.and in this kalyuga running after gurus is senseless.i think that we can’t renounce the world all of a sudden cause we are bounded by our duties..we should chant hare Krishna and be in lords feet while living in this material world.and at a specific age when we have finished our duties we should renounce the world and live for only Krishna..radhe radhe
Hare Krishna mataji
Please read the article again. The power to take us near Krishna is not within us, it is in the pure devotee of Krishna! We have to surrender unto his lotus feet and serve him. And it is very easy now that you have reached Krishna.org Take guidance from Madhudvisa Prabhu and surrender unto the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada and you will see Krishna, your love, face to face! Just do it! Hare Krishna!
Namaskar and Hare Krishna Prabuji!
Very nicely worded and thought provoking article!
I, however, have a question of a different sorts concerning spiritual masters and gurus. Even though I have read the majority of Still Prabhupada’s books I can’t find a suitable answer to my question. I am sure every aspiring disciple has asked this question and now I guess it’s my turn.
There is a lot of energy spent in regards to ones feet. We are told to cover them in the temple, to not leave them exposed, etc. Many prohibitions surround the feet in the Vedic culture and yet we seem to throw that out the window in regard to the spiritual master or guru.
It presents a mixed message to me, because we touch the feet of our guru, we wash the feet of our guru, and so on. Can you please she’d some light on this issue for me, please?
Hoping this finds you well and in good spirits!
Bhakta Van
Hare Krishna Bhakta Van
Yes. Our feet are considered unclean, etc. The idea is to approach the spiritual master humbly. And that humility means touching his feet. And the dust from the lotus feet of the spiritual master is imbued with immense spiritual potency.
This touching of the lotus feet of the spiritual master is the spiritual master’s mercy on the disciples. The sinful reactions of the disciple are absorbed by the spiritual master when the disciple touches his lotus feet. So this touching of the lotus feet of the spiritual master is good for the disciples because it clears their sinful reactions, but it is not good for the spiritual master, because he has to absorb all the sinful reactions of the people who touch his feet.
So anyhow this is just the fact, it is the way it is, lotus feet of the bona fide spiritual master have immense spiritual potency and when the disciple touches his feet he is freed from so many sinful reactions. That is the way it is. We may not understand it. We do not understand so many things. But we have to hear these things from the Vedas and accept them.
The lotus feet of Krishna and the lotus feet of Krishna’s pure devotees are very special. That point we have to accept and gradually we will come to realize it as a fact also. But in the beginning, on the strength of the Vedas and on the strength of the instructions of Srila Prabhupada, we have to at least theoretically accept the power of the lotus feet of Krishna and His pure devotees.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhu!
Does this transfer of sinful reactions take place between everyone or only if the pure devotee or Krishna are involved? In India we are taught by elder members of the family to touch the feet of any elder relative or belonging to the same or ‘higher’ caste. And all these people are very sinful so for one who is trying to elevate oneself it is not good. Please say something on this issue.
Hare Krishna Aman
Touching the feet is a way of transferring sinful reactions from the person who touches to the person whose feet are touched. So a disciple will touch the feet of his spiritual master and that purifies the disciple and transfers the sinful reactions to the spiritual master. So it is not good if the spritual master is not a pure devotee of Krishna, because he will not be able to rid himself of the sinful reactions. For pure devotee of Krishna he can absorb the sinful reactions. But still for example Srila Prabhupada said his bodily problems were due to the sins of his disciples for example. So we should not let people touch our feet generally. Because it means they want to dump their sinful reactions on us. But spiritual master of course allows his disciples to touch his feet. But he wants his disciples to be actually devotees following the regulative principles, etc.
So the point is the danger is letting people touch your feet, there is not so much danger in touching other’s feet…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhuji! Thank you very much for this very useful in formation. Because as I get older, people will touch my feet also. So I have to avoid this.
Hare Krishna!
Why am I not gett your articles anymore?-_-
This isn’t fair. I dnt know what is wrong because I have already subscribed so many times.
@madhudvisa dasa can u please help me regarding this? I have to personally come and check for ur articles .have u closed d subscription or something?
Btw I have a question also….I was telling the same thing thing to my friend since she was interested…what to do about the genital forces? How to concentrate them on krishna? She asked me dis question. Even I don’t have an answer to this. Please throw some light on this.
Hare Krishna Sheetal
Very sorry for the delay in sending articles. For the past couple of weeks I have been too busy and not able to send them. But hopefully I will be sending more in the next few days.
As far as controlling the sex desire that is possible through Krishna consciousness. For girls the Vedic system is they should get married before puberty. That will solve the problem as husband is available. Unfortunately these days everything is messed up and girls, at least in the West, are either never getting married or getting married when they are 40 and too old to have children and raise a family. So it is a horrible society we are living in for everyone.
But for a serious devotee you can still be Krishna conscious and the more you become Krishna conscious the less important these genital forces will be for you. So the point is we have to understand at least in theory that we are not these material bodies. You are not a girl and I am not a man. These are the bodies we find ourselves in at the moment. But our bodies are constantly changing. We are not these material bodies. So if we can actually realize this then we will solve this genital problem.
The main thing is Srila Prabhupada has given us the best answers to all these questions in his books. We need to read them and Prabhupada will clear everything up for us.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabuji,
PAMHO AGTSP! Always enjoy reading your blog. In regards to bona fide gurus I would add that currently that would rule out everyone in ISKCON with the exception of Srila Prabhupada. I know that there are kind and dedicated followers of Srila Prabhupada out there but the waters are so cloudy with the muddy onslaught of nonsense that has gone on over the past six decades. I got to the point where it was almost pointless to try and speak to followers of these so called gurus as their students appear to be zombified to accepting or processing any sort of understanding as to the precarious position that they are in. Anyway please keep up the great service you are doing! Ys. Nityananda Dasa
Hare Krishna Nityananda Prabhu
Yes. Thank you for the encouragement. You are correct, at least according to my experience.
It is not possible for a bona-fide guru to be found within ISKCON because simply by a guru accepting the system, becoming subservient to the GBC, taking their orders from the GBC, being subject to having their disciples taken away from them by the GBC if they disobey any of the GBC’s orders makes them representatives of the GBC, servants of the GBC. In ISKCON a guru can not be a servant of Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. That would go against the laws the GBC have made in ISKCON…
So no actual bona-fide guru would ever agree to accept disciples within ISKCON where the disciples are not under his authority and he can not guarantee that at some point the GBC will not get upset with him and through him out of ISKCON and put his disciples in the care of some demon who will send them to hell.
So you will not find any bona-fide gurus in today’s ISKCON, except, as you correctly point out, Srila Prabhupada who is living in his books.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna !! Madhudvisa dasa,
Your words are uncompromising yet must be true, by evidence and authority of scripture.
Being entrapped ‘hand and foot’ in material engagements I nevertheless try to please Krishna by offering Him the fruits of my work. Yet I must admit that my surrender is far from 100%…
Living, at age of 71, with my espouse for more than 40 years now, it seems a drastic step – for me as well as for her – to leave (for Amsterdam?)
But for the words ‘Do not fear’ from Krishna Himself this all worries me and I humbly pray for your advice.
Hare Krishna Henk
You do not have to leave to become Krishna conscious. You and your wife can become Krishna conscious together, wherever you are.
Just chant Hare Krishna, follow the regulative principles, and read Srila Prabhupada’s books and follow the instructions that Srila Prabhupada gives you as you read his books.
At the age of 71 you have already passed the major part of your life so there is no problem for you now to surrender to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna and dedicate the remaining few years to serving Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. There is nothing else important. At 71 you can not be very successful at trying to enjoy in the material world anyhow. So just spend your final years serving Krishna and train yourself and your wife so you are always remembering Krishna, always reading Srila Prabhupada’s books, always chanting Hare Krishna, so at the time of death you will be sure to remember Krishna. And Krishna promises in Bhagavad-gita that if one remembers Him at the time of death he will certainly go back home back to Godhead.
We do not want to come back again into this material world which is a place of suffering and death only. So don’t waste time trying to be happy in the material world, instead…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Every new newsletter tops the previous one ,amazing ,very inspiring
Pamho ,all glories to Srila Prabhupada,and the 2boxes of books i ordered are being distributed ,mohini
hare rama hare krishna…….nice message .
What about those not near a temple? Can we just surrender to the teaching of prabhupada or does it have to be a living pure devotee. If not I would take direction to finding a pure devotee. I live in Woodstock NB. The closest temple to me is the one in Montreal about 8 hours away.thanks and Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna Sean
Srila Prabhupada is a living guru. He is living in his books. Read them and discover that you can personally associate with Srila Prabhupada by reading his books and Prabhupada will answer all your questions as you read his books…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Thanks
Four regulative principles?
Is non intoxicating herbal tea allowed for certain cures?
Yes. Why not?
Things should be prepared for the pleasure of Krishna and offered to Krishna and accepted as prasadam. So you can offer peppermint tea, ginger tea, etc, to Krishna. Why not?
We have to be practical. Of course we want to get off the bodily platform as far as possible. But if there is some disease then we need to take some precautions. And it is much better to take some natural herbal remedies for example than to take the poisonous dangerous western medicine.
Hare Krishna !!
I gone thru ur explanation and I agree u upon wrong guru’s but I dnt think I m in d first stage, I understd and surrendered myself to u accepting u as a spiritual master so please ignore others, let me know wat is my next step in spiritual advancement. Let me knw wat is my duty to satisfy Sri Krishna (ie spiritual master), since I m chanting, listening to d srila songs, reading books understanding wat is reality, furthermore as u r mentioning dat d devotees should serve…how can v serve.
Wat else can b considered as d work of Krishna conscious.
Hare Krishna Gowri
We have to lean how to become Krishna conscious by hearing from Srila Prabhupada and following his example in our lives.
The way to become Krishna conscious is to transform our lives so every action we perform in our lives is done for the service and pleasure of Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. Becoming Krishna conscious means we need to give up our own personal interest and instead of working for our own benefit, for the benefit of our family, society, country or even for the whole world, we have to transform that service mentality to Krishna.
So this is the science of devotional service. Transforming all the activities of our lives into service for Krishna. We have to serve, it is our nature to serve. Everyone is a servant. But at the moment we are serving so many masters like the desires of our senses, our families, our boss at work, our country, etc. All this service needs to be transformed into service for Krishna.
We have a tongue for example. The business of the tongue is to taste and to vibrate. So a devotee will only allow the tongue to taste Krishna prasadam and only allow the tongue to vibrate the Hare Krishna mantra and Krishna katha, talks about Krishna. He will not allow the tongue to taste anything that has not been prepared by devotees and offered to Krishna for the pleasure of Krishna. And he will not allow the tongue to vibrate gramiya-katha, village talk. He will not engage in gossip or mundane talk. No. He will only allow the tongue to vibrate the Hare Krishna mantra and talk about Krishna.
In the same way all the other senses of our body have to be engaged only in the service of Krishna.
It is a science and we have to learn the science and Srila Prabhupada is teaching this science in his books so please read them…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare krishna prbhu.you wrote that one should not preach ,if he has not correct consciousness. it will take time to get this level ,untill then we should not preach????
Yes. If we are not in the proper consciousness we should not preach. Proper consciousness means chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day, strictly following the four regulative principles and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books 1-2 hours a day. So if we are actually properly situated ourselves and are feeling transcendental pleasure ourselves from chanting Hare Krishna and we are enjoying reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and we are not disturbed by desires for sense gratification then that is good consciousness.
It is pointless to try to preach about Krishna consciousness if we are not Krishna conscious ourselves. And we have to learn how to preach. Preaching means repeating what we have heard from Srila Prabhupada. We can not speculate, we can not present our own ideas. We have to simply present what we have heard from Srila Prabhupada to the audience.
Yes. We should not preach if we are not Krishna conscious ourselves. The main preaching is by the example of our own personal life. So we have to be Krishna conscious actually, otherwise there is no point in preaching, it will not be effective.
Hare Krsna dear Madhudvisa Prabhu,
please accept my humble obeisances,
all glories to Srila Prabhupada,
all glories to Sri guru and Gauranga,
i am very positively impressed by this article, yes i am convinced that without actually searching out very sincerely and actually receiveing the mercy of the bona fide spiritual master pure devotee in parampara, no one can actually become a pure devotee.
So i would have a question only: because to find such a bona fide representative of the Lord is very rare, how is it possible to recognise him and how can we find him actually? Because it seems to me that we actually require to receive the realisation that my surrender unto such a personality is 100% secure, and with that fully surrender without reservation, in other words it is a very big commitment that one would certainly like to be done in full realisation.
Thanks again,
your humble servant,
Srinivas acarya das.
Hare Krishna Srinavas Acarya Prabhu
Yes. You are correct. Accepting a spiritual master is a very big thing. Something that we have to consider very carefully. Srila Prabhupada mentions that the disciple must test the spiritual master to see he is actually a pure devotee of Krishna and is actually capable of delivering the disciple back home back to Godhead and the spiritual master has to test the disciple to see if he is really a surrendered soul and really qualified for initiation.
We have seen in ISKCON the result of so many, 10’s of thousands of, devotees who were unfortunate enough to accept someone who was not a pure devotee of Krishna as their spiritual master, and we have seen it time and time again that the result of this is the destruction of the spiritual lives of both the so-called spiritual master and his disciples.
So the point is we need to be able to differentiate between the first-second and third-class devotees. That means we need to come to the madhyam platform. Problem is on the neophyte [kanistha] platform it is not possible to distinguish who is first class, second class or third class devotee.
So the only solution to this is to surrender to Srila Prabhupada, read his books and follow the instructions Srila Prabhupada gives us as we read his books. And then gradually by following Srila Prabhupada’s instructions we will be elevated to the madhyama platform and then we will be able to differentiate between first-class, second-class and third-class devotees.
Only a madhyama-adhakri, first-class devotee has the power to accept disciples and properly guide them back home back to Godhead, second class and third class devotees may accept disciples but under their insufficient guidance the disciples will not be able to advance properly in Krishna consciousness. Therefore it is essential that the aspiring devotees accept a fist-class devotee, a madhayam adhakri, as their spiritual master.
Hare Krsna,
I want to know more about krisna conciousness & its Philosophy.
Thanks
—
Read Srila Prabhupada’s books. He has written about 80 books on Krishna consciousness and its philosophy. Please read them….
Hare krishna prabhu ji
Is it necessary to accept a guru as a human being,as I accepts KRISHNA as my real guru…so kindly explain ..???
Moreover I read srila prabhupada ji books n chant hare krishna mahamantra…
I’m i on the correct path of krishna consciousness?
Hare krishna prabhu ji 🙂
Yes. It is necessary to accept a human being as your guru. You can not approach Krishna directly. That is not possible. That is against the direct instructions of Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita tad-viddhi pranipatent… “Approach a bona fide spiritual master…”
So yes, you have to approach and surrender to a bona fide spiritual master otherwise it is impossible to become Krishna conscious.
HARE KRSNA…
Prabhuji…
how can i be able to surrender to a pure devotee of Lord Krsna who is no where now…
actually im now in 12th std and im thinking that after my board exams get over i will accept a spiritual master and surrender to him so that i can know Krsna well…and can make atleast some progress…so i choosed ISKCON to be best way to do so…
can i find a pure devotee at ISKCON…if no where else?…
pls help me…as due to Srila Prabhupada i got my interest shift towards Lord Krsna…when i read Bhagavad Gita As It Is before that i was an atheist…so pls pls n pls help me its a humble request…
Hare Krishna Rah
Srila Prabhupada is the one who has already converted you from an athiest to a devotee. So Prabhupada is your guru. So please now take it more seriously and read all of Srila Prabhupada’s books and follow the instructions you find Srila Prabhupada giving you as you read his books and you will find your pure devotee spiritual master for sure.
Hare Krishna Swamy
Can one keep their deceased parent’s picture at prayer alter?
Can we put flowers and pray together with Krishna deity?
Kindly advice Swamy
Yes. Parents can be considered guru, particularly if they have given valuable spiritual instruction. But they should be kept on lower level to Krishna and Guru.
is all religions are same bcoz there are many religions ,and all say that their religions are above all and superior. if religions are made for moral compassion then why people are slaughtering people and beheading in the name of God? (you know which religion i m talking)
Hare Krishna Gaurav
There is only one religion and that is to obey the laws of God.
Nowadays none of the organized religions are obeying the laws of God.
So all the religions we see on this planet today are cheating religions. They present themselves as being the path to God but at the same time the reject the clear orders of God even in their own scriptures. They do not even follow their own scriptures.
So I suggest if you want to discover what real religion is then please read the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. You will find all your answers there.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
PLEASE NAME A FEW BONA FIDE ISKCON GURUS THAT ONE CAN TRUST. Thanks, ANDY
No ISKCON gurus are bona fide and you can’t trust any of them.
This is because every ISKCON guru is surrendered to the GBC, they are not surrendered to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. The have to do what the GBC tells them to do even if it is in contradiction to what Srila Prabhupada and Krishna are telling them to do.
So they are not a link to Srila Prabhupada, they are a link to the GBC.
No bona fide guru can accept a situation like this.
An actual bona fide guru has to take the full responsibility of the disciple and the disciple has to surrender and give his life to the bona fide spiritual master. In ISKCON this is not possible. In ISKCON the GBC, not the guru, is the supreme authority over the disciples and also the Temple President has, in many cases, more authority over the disciples than the guru.
ISKCON guru must surrender to GBC and to the Temple Presidents. ISKCON guru can not give his disciples any instruction that is not approved of by both GBC and by the Temple Presidents.
So ISKCON guru is servant of the GBC and servant of the Temple Presidents. When disciple is giving Temple President problems TP calls guru to order him to surrender to TP.
If ISKCON guru refuses to surrender to GBC and Temple Presidents he will be thrown out of ISKCON and his disciples will be taken from him.
So there are no real gurus in ISKCON. There is no actual guru-disciple relationship in ISKCON. Disciples do not belong to gurus in ISKCON. They belong to the GBC.
So whole guru arrangement in ISKCON is totally bogus and no bona fide guru will ever participate in such a bogus system.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa,
An excellent description of the state of affairs. Thank you for such a clear analysis of the present situation.
I wonder how sincere senior devotees can get association as retirement looms. Do you know of any genuine Krishna Conscious communities?
Thanks
Stewart
Hare Krishna Stewart
Genuine devotees can get the best association of the best pure devotee, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada by reading his transcendental books, hearing his classes, morning walks, conversations, etc and by watching the many, many hours of transcendental video and film recordings we have of Srila Prabhupada.
And no, I am not aware of any group of devotees that is actually following the instructions of Srila Prabhupada at the present time. But you can create such a group yourself. Just follow properly yourself and preach and some sincere souls will be attracted as the result of your pure preaching.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
This day and age it is difficult to pursue chasity but it gets easier with the helpful reminders from the Lords pure devotees. The newsletter is wonderful!
Hare Krishna! As always, I am amazed by your informative and uplifting emails. I believe you are a pure devotee of Krishna which I sense through your blessed emails. I agree that to be a pure devotee of Krishna it must be a decision of the heart to be able to submit without reservation to Guru and Krishna. So kindly tell me Prabhu do you accept a lowly person such as I to be your deciple? I chant my 16 rounds daily, observe Ekadasi and have no desire for sex nor do I look at men with desire. Also, I now only eat Prasadam. I have had up and down moments in the past but I have surrendered to Krishna! He won!
Hare Krishna Nicole
It is very nice to hear you are chanting 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily and following the regulative principles and only accepting Krishna Prasadam. Very good news indeed. As far as me I am not a pure devotee of Krishna. My only qualification is I simply present what I have heard from His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada with no additions or alternations. So I am in no position to accept disciples and you can not accept a spiritual master you do not even know and spiritual master can not accept a disciple he does not know. Aspiring disciple has to live with the person he desires to accept as his guru for at least 6 months and serve him. Guru has to test the disciple to see if he is qualified to be accepted as disciple and disciple has to test the guru to see if he is really a pure devotee and really has the power to take the disciple back home back to Godhead. So it is not such a thing, guru-disciple relationship, that one can send an email to someone they have never met and do not know and say ‘please accept my as your disciple.’ This is not the system. Disciple is something much more serious than that.
Just read Srila Prabhupada’s books. Prabhupada is living in his books and he will guide you and answer all your questions if you take the time to read his books.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhuji,
Thank you so much for the great work that you have devoted yourself to. I am learning a from you.
Hare Krishna, thanks!
Lord Krishna forgive me i surrender my mind body and soul to you all for my one and only and for my loved ones please guide me to be part of your concsionus to live a normal happy life and not do wrong and bad things please Lord give me the strength to build myself up stronger mentally and show how much i really want this and to live a healthy life
Thank you very much Sri Madhudvisa Dasa Prabhu for posting such a wonderful article. Please pray to their lordships on behalf of me so that I always remain in the loving devotional service of my eternal spiritual master Sri Sri Srila Prabhupada.
I feel very blessed when I read anything about GOD….
Hare krishna praphu
I want to ask you one question actually I am studying in 10th standard I also want to become krishna conscious but I am unable to manage my tym and even I am by Abel to chant more than 4,5 rounds my family don’t want me in krishna consciousness so what should I do????? Praphu I am very dedicated to my studies bt I never get good marks so my father says dat u engage ur self in these stupid things fats why ur mind is nt concentrated in ur studies and without concentration it doesn’t matter how much u r hard working I dnt knw anything bt I dnt want to left krishna consciousness so plzzzz tell me prabhu what should I do?????
Hare krishna
Hare Krishna Swati
Just keep on chanting Hare Krishna and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books as much as possible. It is not possible for everyone to get very high marks in education. You can try your best of course. But the purpose of the human form of life is to use this human body to go back home back to Godhead. In reality becoming Krishna consciousness is the only valuable thing. Everything else is material, temporary. Material things only last for a few days. But whatever advancement you can make in Krishna consciousness you will never loose. That is your eternal benefit. So you may sometimes have to say some things to pacify your family a bit. But no matter what you have to say to them never reduce your Krishna conscious activities. Your chanting Hare Krishna will help you in your material attempts also. Krishna consciousness is all auspicious. All good. So just keep chanting Hare Krishna and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and Krishna will give you the intelligence so you can understand what you should do in the future.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Wonderful! Key-explanation!I personnally always thought like that: most of vaishnava gurus are NOT self-realised …Many thanks!
Hare krishna
I do not have a spiritual master and I know our bodies are the vessel and we will return. I am struggling with grief due to the loss of my 22 yr old daughter. I raised her with the teachings I learned as a young person studying. Can you assist me with advice. I am not being obedient grieving. I chant daily, I am celebate and I do not put anything that was once living in my body. I am failing due to my grief.
Hare Krishna Barbara
You need to read Srila Prabhupada’s books. You need to transcend this material world and elevate your consciousness to the spiritual platform. And chanting Hare Krishna and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books will allow you to do this.
Of course naturally it is a shock when our loved-ones die. But we should not be surprised when our loved-ones die. This planet is mrytu-loka, the planet of death. Everyone is dying here. It is just a question of time.
But when we realize we are not these material bodies, when we realize we are the eternal spirit souls inhabiting these dead material bodies, then we will understand that we do not die. We only change bodies.
When this body we are currently staying in becomes unsuitable for the inhabitation of the soul then the soul is forced to leave this body and the modes of material nature will provide him with another body according to his consciousness at the time of death.
So once you realise that death is the nature of this material world and that the soul does not die you will no longer become attached to the temporary material bodies in the material world.
We have to get over this material attachment and I know you are feeling great pain at the moment but this pain is a result of becoming attached to the temporary material body of your daughter. Your daughter did not die. She has just changed from one body to another. And we are all doing that subtly every day.
So we should never be suprised when someone ‘dies’. We should expect that. After all this is the planet of death…
The answer is to become Krishna conscious and the beginning of Krishna consciousness is surrendering to chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day, strictly following the four regulative principles [no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication] and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day. The secrets are in Srila Prabhupada’s books. We have to read them. If you do read Prabhupada’s books that will cheer you up.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna
Dear Madhudvisa Dasa
Please acceot my humble obeisances . All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I am very much perturbed with the process of initiation. I am not yet Initiated . Going by the discussion i read here there are hardly any pure devotees at the present moment. But Srila Prabhupada clearly states in many places in his books and i am quoting from Nectar of Devotion : ” Without Initiation by a bona fide spiritual master, the actual connection with Krishna Consciousness is never performed “. Since i cannot get vapu of Srila Prabhupada for actual initiation…hence i wont be even starting off with process of Krishna Consciousness. And Vani is not initiation.
Please clear this for me.
Pranams
Gopal
Hare Krishna Gopal
Initiation means ‘beginning’. Look it up in the dictionary.
Initiation means hearing from the bona fide spiritual master, surrendering to him, accepting his orders as your life and soul and following his orders.
It does not require physical presence.
Even in Srila Prabhupada’s physical presence on the planet he appointed priests to accept disciples on his behalf. So many, many of the disciples Srila Prabhupada accepted when he was physically present on the planet never saw him physically and he never physically saw them. Their relationship with Srila Prabhupada was 100% based on his books and recorded classes, etc. So physical presence is immaterial. It is no important. What is important is hearing. And we can hear from Srila Prabhupada by reading his books and by hearing his classes.
So that is all you need to do to personally associate with Srila Prabhupada. Read his books and hear his classes. And because you are writing like this I suspect you have not even surrendered to the basic things. We have to surrender to chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day, strictly follow the four regulative principles [no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication] and read Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day. If you actually surrender to and follow these things then very soon you will know that Srila Prabhupada is a living guru. He is living in his books and you can associate with him personally in that way.
It is useless accepting anyone who is not a pure devotee of Krishna, a liberated soul, as your spiritual master. One who is bound up himself with strong ropes can no help to free others of their bondage. No the rescuer must be liberated. So many demons who are themselves completely trapped in the three modes of material nature advertise themselves as gurus and foolish people who want to be cheated accept them as gurus and both the cheating gurus and the cheated disciples go to hell.
So we need to take advantage of a real pure devotee of Krishna. So read Srila Prabhupada’s books and you will discover that is real personal association with Srila Prabhupada…
Don’t worry. Srila Prabhupada can initiate you. And if you read his books and actually surrender to him that is your initiation into Krishna consciousness. If you do not have this much faith that Srila Prabhupada is living in his books and by reading his books and following his instructions you can become Krishna conscious then you are a fool and you need to wake up. What is the point of writing so many books if people can’t read them and become Krishna conscious? That is the whole point of Prabhupada’s books. So he can live through his books and instruct new disciples forever…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna
Dear Madhudvisa Dasa
Please accept my humble obeisances
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada
Thank you Prabhuji , for waking up this fool . This is Day 1 for me.
Pranams
Gopal
Hate Krishna
I want a Q to be answered .
What is sense gratification? We have five senses . Each one has its own peripheral needs , fulfilment and a limit . The buck stops at some point. Along with this we have hunger , need for Oxygen, thirst and health problems in the whole body . Some congonital , some inherited and some caused by environment. All these affect /effect the 5+1 senses So what exactly is sense gratification ? Is it wrong to satisfy the calls of senses? If it is wrong to satisfy the calls of senses there is no need for a temple and a tasty kitchen attached to the temple. We satisfy all five senses+ the pangs of of hunger , thirst and need for good air. All present temples have exemplary electrical and water fixtures . It is amazing to see all those bhaktas want all facilities that they get in five star , or may be seven star hotels. Even the Iscon has such facilities . How do you explain that these facilities are for not for sense gratification?
Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna Premavati
You have not grasped the point of Krishna consciousness.
The point of the temple, the point of the kitchen in the temple producing tasty foodstuffs, is not to satisfy the senses of the devotees or the senses of the pilgrims. No. The point of the temple is to worship and glorify Krishna and the point of the kitchen in the temple is to prepare very tasty offerings for the enjoyment of Krishna’s senses. Devotees never do anything for satisfying their own senses. They know the science of Krishna consciousness. They know that we are all parts and parcels of Krishna. And if Krishna is satisfied then we, as parts and parcels of Krishna, will also automatically be satisfied.
It is like supplying water to the tree. You water the root of the tree then automatically the whole tree, all the leaves, branches, flowers and fruits, everything is satisfied automatically simply by supplying water to the root of the tree.
So as devotees we are not interested in satisfying our own senses. We are interested in satisfying Krishna’s senses. So the kitchen in the temple cooks very tasty foodstuffs to satisfy Krishna’s senses, to offer to Krishna. And the devotees relish the Krishna prasadam, Krishna’s mercy. And in this way they do satisfy their senses of course. But satisfying one’s senses with Krishna prasadam is spiritual.
So the point is if we do everything to satisfy the senses of Krishna then automatically our senses will be satisfied. We do not have to make any separate effort to satisfy our own senses.
It is not that in the palace of a king the servants are starving. No. The servants are also living in the palace and are supplied with very opulent clothing and nice food and everything. Because they are servants of the king naturally their material needs are looked after. So devotees who are serving Krishna, naturally their material necessities are supplied by Krishna.
So a devotee never tries for sense gratification. He knows that if he simply works for the satisfaction of Krishna’s senses then his needs will be automatically supplied.
Sense gratification is an illusion. It is actually not possible to satisfy our material senses. We are meant for serving Krishna. We are meant for satisfying Krishna’s senses. That is the only way we can satisfy our own senses. By satisfying Krishna’s senses.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Very well enunciated prabhu, the Lord cannot be attained without give up the propensity to sense-gratify, I just pray to lord when this most sinful person will give up all sins and chant his name and relish sweet nectar of his lotus feet.
Hare krishna prabhu and keep enlightening us fallen souls so that we can realize our position and get out of the cycles of three fold miseries.
Please accept my obeisance at your feet and my prannam to all the devotees of the lord.
Hello Prabhu,
All glories to Lord Sri Krishna and all glories to Srila Prabhupada and my humber obeisances to you.
I have been chanting regularly for over 10 years and I am looking for a bonafide spiritual master.
Can you help me in finding a bonafide spiritual master. I am willing to completely surrender to him.
Please email me.
Thanks,
Raghu
Read Srila Prabhupada’s books. You will find the bona fide spiritual master you are looking for there, in Prabhupada’s books…
Hare Krishna Prabhuji.
This very very nice description of pure devotee’ path. I read this letter, then i think i m also a bogus devotee. i can not fully surrender to krishna and our spritiual master (Guru). and i m also not satisfied to him at any way.
Prabhuji you are so nicely guided in this blogs.
I will try for this principal and become a pure devotee.
Hare Krishna
AGTSGSG. Thank you prabhu for this great service you are giving. I wondered about a reply you gave on this page about leaving the body and a few months later appearing in the womb of another mother. Is there anything in the shastra about the length of time it takes to be re-born, what happens in the intervening time and if promotion to the spiritual sky is direct or is there a delay eg a type of purgatory for judgement. I am aware there is no time as such in the spiritual sky but from an earthly perspective could you inform me?
Hare Krishna Mataji
At the time of death the sinful people have to meet Yamaraja, and at that time their whole life’s activities are presented to them and Yamaraja judges them and they have to suffer in the hellish planets for the sinful activities and enjoy in the heavenly planets as a result of their pious activities.
So there is a judgement at the time of death and depending on that judgement the living entity is sent to hell to suffer or heaven to enjoy or back to this earth planet. And the type of body he gets is determined by his consciousness. So if he is in animal consciousness he will get an animal’s body. If he is in human consciousness he will get a human body.
A devotee, if he is fully Krishna conscious, remembering Krishna at the time of death, does not have to see Yamaraja. He is directly promoted back home back to Godhead, or he may take birth in some universe where Krishna’s pastimes are going on.
Of course a real pure devotee of Krishna has no personal desire. He only wants to serve Krishna. And in that service he is constantly associating with Krishna. So a pure devotee has no desire for liberation. He is already liberated, already associating with Krishna. So he goes wherever Krishna wants him to go. So he may take birth again in the material world, where Krishna wants him to preach.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
My question is how does one find a True Devotee of Lord Krishna to surrender to?
Read Srila Prabhupada’s books. You will find the true devotee of Lord Krishna who you can surrender to there…
All you need to do is surrender to Lord Krishna and ask HIM for direction. Obviously for one to do that one has to obey every law of the land one lives in and align his thoughts, words and actions in line with The Absolute Truth and in time one finds what one has set out to find. Sincerity and Dedication to the cause is a must. Hare Krishna!
Hare Krishna,
I recently saw in a dream that I was entering a temple like place.. and suddenly I saw myself searching for Tulsi to offer to God, I saw many Tulsi plants and then I proceeded to take Lord’s darshan.. i was rushing up thinking that the temple will shut down in sometime,, then suddenly I stopped in an area as if it was where I could do his darshan and there I saw a blank wall and then on the ceiling I saw two feet..from knee are till feet. i got a feeling as if it was Lord’s feet and then after sometime the feet disappeared.
I am on a journey to Lord Krishna’s consciousness and I feel everything happening in my life is due to him and his will. then was this dream too a message for me?
Hare Krishna devotee.
Madhu
Better READ SRILA PRABHUPADA’s books rather than dream. Then you will be on the solid and correct platform. Dream is nice if it is about Krishna of course but that can not be taken as absolute truth or authoritative. Absolute truth and authoritative you will find in Prabhupada’s books, not in your dreams
Hare Krishna,
I am in the journey to Krishna consciousness and I feel every day Lord Kirshna is there to guide me on this path, in some form or the other. Therefore, even at work, or at home, I am seeing changes in myself..and it has been possible only due to Krishna.
Sometimes, i feel short of his expectations.. as in, I lose temper and then i realise I shouldnt have got upset. How do i kee my emotions in check so that I grow further spritually?
Pls suggest.
Lord Krishna’s devotee
Madhu
Always remember Krishna, never forget Krishna. And of course follow the basic things. Chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day, strictly follow the four regulative principles and read Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day. Most people ignore one or more of these basic fundamental principles and thus their spiritual growth is very slow and stunted.
Prabhu, Your letter about getting a pure devotee, as a Guru and the wasted devotional practices of a neophyte are not in accordance with what we have been taught all these years.Please excuse me for any inadvertent queries and opinions I hold regarding Bhakti marg. All these years I am given to understand that any little attempt at devotional service does not go waste.When a fallen soul (Ajamila),a sinner(Valmiki),an enemy of the Lord(Sisupala,Hiranyakasipa)were liberated why not a sinner,and an ignorant person like me get some benefit on my path to Bhakti Marg?Please show us the way
Hare Krishna Tirupati
Yes. Krishna consciousness, devotional service, is all-auspicious, and everyone who comes in contact with Krishna consciousness in any way at all will benefit. Even those who are against Krishna, even the demons who want to kill Krishna, they also benefit from coming in contact with Krishna. If you read Krsna Book you will see that all those big demons that Krishna killed benefited from it by being liberated.
So any contact with Krishna consciousness is good. But you have to understand it very clearly that you are not going to become Krishna conscious unless you surrender to the process. Krishna consciousness means surrender. And if you refuse to surrender to even these basic things like chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day, strictly following the four regulative principles: no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day, if you refuse to surrender to these things then you are not going to become Krishna conscious.
All these other things they help bring you to the point where you can surrender. That it the point. Krishna consciousness starts at the point of surrender. And all these other things help to bring you to that point of surrender.
So the surrender, following the regulative principles, chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily, seriously reading Srila Prabhupada’s books, these things are required. We have to surrender to these things. Otherwise we are not going to become Krishna conscious. This is the beginning. If we refuse to surrender to these basic things or Krishna consciousness can not begin.
There are so many ‘devotees’ out there who fool themselves they are ‘devotees’ without surrendering to these basic points. That is maya. That is nonsense. Without surrender there is no Krishna consciousness.
But of course whatever we do in Krishna consciousness, whatever connection we have with Krishna at all, these things help us to come to the point of surrender. But the actual Krishna consciousness only begins at the point of surrender.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhuji!!
I am a student of engineering currently in my third year .Since last few months I have been visiting Iskconjuhu and practice chanting but I could never go beyond 2 to 4 rounds.I wanted to know how can my studying also become a service to Krishna??
You have to first chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily and strictly follow the four regulative principles [no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication] and read Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day. Only when you surrender to these things will your Krishna consciousness start. If you have only ever chanted 2 to 4 rounds then you are not serious. And Krishna consciousness is not so easy that people who are not serious about getting it can get it. So you have to become serious, you have to surrender to the process, and then you have a chance of becoming Krishna consciousness. If you do not surrender and follow the process you can not become Krishna conscious.
And there is no way that studying from the demons is a service to Krishna. Hearing from the demons will only reinforce your material bodily concept of life and immerse you more and more in maya. Srila Prabhupada called these colleges and universities slaughterhouses because they take young people, who could be trained up in spiritual life, but they slaughter them instead by filling their minds with the demonic materialistic bodily concept of life. In this way their hopes for spiritual advancement in life are totally destroyed.
Of course you may have to do it to get some job to support your family in the future. But this is not service to Krishna. Hearing from the demons in a college or university. That is maya, that is not Krishna consciousness.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Thank you Prabhuji for guidance.I’ll try to improve upon this.
Thank you Prabhuji.
I’ll try to improve myself.
Who is next guru for iskon?
Srila prabhipadha was died by poison?
I saw in youtube vedios 11 rutviks failed and falldown from spirituavaliry. Why?
I saw another vedios they tells iskon doing no 1 bussiness for america. Is it true?
What is the issue between Bangalore &Mumbai iskon temples?
Why some devotees out from iskon not from Srila prabhupads?
Pls reply in order i am waiting for ur true answers.
Hare Krishna,
Abhi.
Hare Krishna Abhi
Your questions and the answers to these questions are not very important. In short, yes, ISKCON has become totally corrupted and they have totally rejected Srila Prabhupada in so many ways and in this way they have disconnected themselves from the disciplic succession and have become asra, useless. ISKCON no longer have the potency to transmit Krishna consciousness to anyone so it is useless to try and get Krishna consciousness from them. They do not have it themselves, they can not give to us something they do not have themselves.
So the best thing is to just forget about ISKCON and forget about all the controversy around ISKCON. This is all completely mundane, completely materialistic, complete maya, and talking about all this controversy will only entangle us more and more in maya. It is useless.
Instead we can see that Srila Prabhupada is a pure devotee of Krishna and he is living in his books and other recorded teachings like the audio and video recordings of his preaching and lectures. So we can simply take advantage of the teachings of Srila Prabhupada, read his books, chant Hare Krishna and be happy…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
One of the very first teachings I remember was that Krishna is available by his name. Forgive me please if I am wrong, but the very humble are not indoctrinated to Krishna consciousness, rather one goes to Krishna without confusion or appeal, one goes to Krishna solely from desire to be with Him. Service to Krishna must also stem from this place.
I am just bhakti Thomas, I do not worship my own intellect, but I do not believe that a person can transfer to a belief not already recognized by the soul. People wander to and from religions in search of God, spiritual fulfillment and themselves-instead they should start with God, the rest is fulfilled there.
Hare Krishna Bhakta Thomas
I am not completely sure what you are saying. But Krishna appears and sends His representatives into every civilization. So all the religions are searching for Krishna. They may know Krishna by a different name and their knowledge of Krishna will not be as complete as it is revealed in the Vedic texts, but they are all serving Krishna, they are all worshiping Krishna.
Everyone is eternally a servant of Krishna, that is the nature of every soul. So we all have our original relationship with Krishna. Some souls are more covered than others. But every soul has its eternal relationship with Krishna… It is just a question of purification to uncover that original relationship and the most powerful purification is possible by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Prabhu ji
Prabhu i have understood how to give up personal sense gratification. I am following the four major principles strictly and i have devoted my every task to Krishna like cooking for him, studying,etc and I’ll improve myself more as i am developing more love for Krishna day by day, i don’t know how its happening but i am getting more attracted towards Krishna.
But you have written that “Even if some devotee does understand and realize this basic principle of Krishna consciousness and knows that he needs to surrender to a bona fide guru, Krishna’s pure devotee, then there are so many rascal cheating gurus elsewhere who are just waiting to meet such a surrendered soul and to trick him into surrendering to and serving them instead of Krishna’s pure devotee and Krishna…” then what should i do ????…
where would i find a bona fide spiritual master and how would i recognize him?
“Actually it is not possible to understand Krishna consciousness by practicing austerities, by following regulative principles, by chanting a certain number of rounds; even by reading books one can not understand Krishna consciousness. The secrets of Krishna consciousness are hidden within the hearts of Krishna’s pure devotees and there is absolutely no way we can ever understand and realize this ‘confidential knowledge’ unless we find a pure devotee of Krishna and surrender to him completely and make his instructions our life and soul.”
above paragraph is also written by you,
I read prabhupada’s books, your articles and Bhagavad Gita i realize many true things in them which are present inside us and in this world, i chant now and become happy, i am no more attracted towards good looking people, tasty food,etc which used to happen with me before. Now all i love to do is to sit in hare Krishna kirtan at ISKCON, to discuss about Krishna and his qualities, to visit vrindavan, to do tasks for him.
So all these changes in me are good, you know that but sometimes i feel like that something is missing. What is missing? a bona fide spiritual master ? where should i find him and how will i recognize him ? How did you recognized your spiritual master ? Sorry to say but is he bona fide?
Sorry Prabhu if i have said something wrong, please help.
Hare Krishna Prabhu ji
Hare Krishna Vanshika
If you are seeing that you are becoming closer to Krishna, that your consciousness is changing, that you find that you are becoming more attracted to Krishna conscious activities and becoming less attracted to sense gratification it means that you have already begun on the path of Krishna consciousness. So initiation means beginning on the path of Krishna consciousness. So if you are advancing on the path it means you must already have a bona fide spiritual master. And your bona fide spiritual master is His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada is living in his books and other recorded Vani like his audio and video recordings, letters, conversations, etc. So in this way we have an almost unlimited amount of Prabhupada vani to associate with Srila Prabhupada through.
There are two ways in which one can associate with the spiritual master. One is physical association and the other is association by hearing and following his instructions. Physical association is called vapu and associating though the spiritual master’s instructions is called vani. Of the two vani is more important than vapu.
So you have to know it for sure that Srila Prabhupada is with us, he is living in the form of his transcendental books. He has already answered all our questions. If we simply read Srila Prabhupada’s books then we will find everything we are looking for there.
So do not worry. Nothing is missing except the full surrender on our part. We have everything from Srila Prabhupada, we simply need to take advantage of Srila Prabhupada’s association…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhu ji
All glories to lord Krishna ji
All glories to Chaitanya mahaprabhu
All glories to Srila Prabhupad
Thankyou very very much.
I am very happy to know this from you and thank you for these mails which made me realize the true aim of my life and which encouraged me to read prabhupada’s books and to chant.
i will keep reading your mails.
Hare Krishna Prabhu ji
onion , garlic , is told be stopped for devotional service, But ghee intake also interuppts , like onion garlic , [ghee is saatvik or it should be avoided
pls let me know .
We cook for Krishna and Krishna is a cowherd boy and He likes ghee…
So the idea is to please Krishna and Krishna is the butter-thief, remember. He likes butter. So obviously if we are cooking for Krishna, if we want to please Krishna then we are going to cook for Him with butter (ghee)…
very nice article
All Obeisances to the desciplic succession!
Just a quick note to thank you for your service to us all. I have accepted Sri Prabhupada as my Spiritual Master and am doing my best to live as He instructs. I have noticed that you speak just as Sri Prabhupada would if he were materialy present. (direct proof of your service to him) It is through your words on this site that I recieved the knowlege that the ISKCON Gurus had fallen in so many ways. This BREAKS MY HEART. I would offer service to Devotees. I DESIRE to offer service to Devotees. Is there a place one can present himself to gain association with pure Devotees?
Hare Krishna Prabhu
You can get the association of pure devotees by reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. He is living there in his books very vividly and very personally. So you just need to read Prabhupada’s books and you will get the best association with the best pure devotees. You will find not only Srila Prabhupada in his books but everyone is there. The whole disciplic succession and of course Lord Caitanya and Krishna and everyone is there in Prabhupada’s books and you can associate with them all.
So read all of Prabhupada’s books and get the most perfect association with the most perfect pure devotees and by their association you can become a pure devotee also.
You know pure devotee is a very rare thing. It is very, very rare to find such a person in the material world. This place is not for pure devotee. This material world is the prison house and we are all criminals here. So just as it would be very difficult to find a completely pure and honest person in a prison, it is very difficult to find a completely pure devotee in the material world. So Prabhu we have to take the great advantage of the great fortune we have to associate with the great His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and actually realize he is really living with us in his books and he is really ready to give us all his association.
This idea of ‘offering service to the devotees’ is not the right idea. The idea is we want to offer service to the PURE devotees. We need to have some discrimination in regard to how we associate with devotees. We have to be able to see that there are three different classes of devotees. And that is the sincere devotees. There are also materialistic devotees who know that Krishna is God and that He is very powerful and they are serving Krishna and doing devotional service not to please Krishna, but because they want to get some benefit from Krishna for their own personal enjoyment. There are so many of this type of devotee in Kali-yuga, using Krishna consciousness to further their own sense gratification or to become famous, wealthy, to get many followers, etc. So we have to be intelligent enough to distinguish between the different types of devotees and then we have to interact with them in different ways. For materialistic devotees we can offer them obeisances in our mind as they are chanting the Hare Krishna mantra and are therefore glorious. But we can not associate with them, what to speak of serving them, because if we associate with or serve materialistic devotees that will simply reawaken and agitate our own materialistic propensities. Association with materialistic devotees will not help us advance in Krishna consciousness and serving them will cause us to become more materialistic, not more Krishna conscious.
So Prabhu we have to be very careful to serve and worship the PURE devotees of Krishna. The PURE is the most important point…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
My Most Respected Sri Madhudvisa dasa Ji
No words……………………………………….You are a pure soul and doing the best work as stated by Lord Krishnh in Srimad Geetaji.
Hare Krishna Prabhu
Pranams and dandavats
Please clarify, out religious scriptures say that Lord Krishna is incarnation of Maha Vishnu then shouldn’t Vishnu be worshiped? As one of my friend who is a staunch worshiper of Lord Vishnu asked me.
I read all Your replies to the queries of devotees here. But find Your goodself to be some what annoyed with ISKCON. Is there any specific reason for such resentment. I believe You must have started Your journey from the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada.
Your dasa
Hare Krishna Arvind
The Vedas does not say that Lord Krishna is an incarnation of Maha Visnu… Maha Visnu is in the bottom of the universe. He is an expansion of Krishna who is in the Viakuntha Loka. If you do not know this Prabhu you are very ignorant. You should know Prabhu that there are many, many Vaikuntha planets and each one of these Vaikuntha planets is predominated by a different form of Visnu. They are all four-armed but are differentiated by holding different weapons [sanka, chakra, padma, gada] in different hands. In the Vaikuntha planets Lord Visnu is worshiped in aisvarya-rasa [like one would worship a king, in awe and veneration] only.
But Prabhu above all the the Vaikuntha Planets there is the very large lotus-shaped planet, Krishna Loka. That is where Lord Krishna lives with His devotees and there the devotees worship and serve Lord Krishna in unlimited different relationships and mellows. So Krishna Loka is the supreme planet and Krishna’s planet is above all the Vaikuntha planets where the various expansions of Visnu predominate.
So Prabhu there is no question, Krishna is sarva kara karanam, the cause of all causes. Which means that Krishna is the cause of his Visnu expansions also.
As far as ISKCON every actual follower of Srila Prabhupada is disgusted with ISKCON. They have completely rejected Srila Prabhupada and changed so many critical aspects of the philosophy of Krishna consciousness and redefined the very purpose of ISKCON in such a way that the organization is no longer capable of fulfilling the purpose for which Srila Prabhupada created it. They have destroyed Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON and destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of devotees who have got caught up in this disaster by giving them bogus gurus.
There is nothing more disastrous in spiritual life for an aspiring transcendentalist than to have the great misfortune of accepting as his spiritual master a person who is not capable of guiding him back home back to Godhead. And that is what ISKCON does. They have redefined the meaning of spiritual master to any devotee who is ‘strictly following’ they say now, but the ISKCON gurus generally do not strictly follow anything. Even if one or two of them do strictly follow the four regulative principles and chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day, that is not the qualification of an acarya, a spiritual master, that qualification is required of any new bhakta who wants to move into the temple.
So Prabhu ISKCON is doing such a great disservice to Srila Prabhupada and to the world if you are not disgusted with ISKCON then you are an ignorant fool. I suggest you read Srila Prabhupada’s books and try to understand just what Srila Prabhupada’s mission was in creating ISKCON and then you will be able to understand for yourself why any sincere follower of Srila Prabhupada is totally disgusted with ISKCON.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Pranams & dandavatsprabhu
Hare Krishna
Thanks for the clarifications.
Please recommend some of the books of Srila Prabhupada.
Can I get Satvamala by Srila Rupa Goswami online?
Or any other books by Srila Rupa Goswami?
Your Dasa
You only need to read Srila Prabhupada’s books. All of the teachings of the Goswamis you will find in Prabhupada’s books. And you have to read all of Prabhupada’s books, not just once, many times. He has given us a lifetime’s engagement in reading his books. So Prabhu do not bother with any other books.
You have to have faith in Srila Prabhupada and you have to believe him when he says “Everything is in my books…”
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
I am coming across some initiated devotees who say that chanting is not effective if one is not initiated.This means without initiation, a person chanting the holy name is just wasting time. Why such contradictory instructions are being passed on? Can you shed light on this? By hearing such statements by initiated devotees, one may lose interest in chanting, and fall back.Please enlighten us.
Hare Krishna Sanjeev
Being able to chant Hare Krishna has absolutely nothing to do with any sort of formal initiation ceremony. But we can not chant Hare Krishna on our own strength. We have to hear the mantra from a pure devotee of Krishna, like Srila Prabhupada, and surrender to him and serve him. Even without the surrender and service, if we just hear the Hare Krishna mantra from a pure devotee of Krishna, then that is enough to initiate us into the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra.
If you go to ISKCON and hear from them you will hear so much rubbish. So it is better to completely avoid these people. And certainly hearing the Hare Krishna mantra from them is useless, or rather worse than useless because milk touched by the lips of a serpent has poisonous effects. So if you hear the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra from a non-devotee that will be poison to you. So we have to be careful only to hear the Hare Krishna mantra from the lips of a pure devotee of Krishna, and that will be very good for us.
The real success in chanting the Hare Krishna mantra is only possible when one has a bona fide spiritual master and has surrendered to him and is actually following his instructions. But that does not require any formal initiation ceremony. If you read Srila Prabhupada’s books and surrender to him by following the instructions you find he is giving you as you read his books and you hear the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra from him then you are initiated into the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra by Srila Prabhupada, you have a bona fide pure devotee as your spiritual master, and if you follow Prabhupada’s instructions, your advancement in Krishna consciousness will be rapid.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Dear Prabhuji,Thank you for clearing my doubts.I have met HH Lokanath Swami Maharaj a few times, and I am sure he is the perfectly Bona Fide Spiritual Master, but I am just praying and waiting for this to happen, to get his mercy and get initiation by him.Meanwhile I am reading Srila Prabhupada’s books, and trying to chant at least 16 rounds everyday.
Hare Krishna Sanjeev
We do not have any proof that Lokanatha Swami is the perfect bona fide spiritual master and you can not know if someone is a bona fide spiritual master just from meeting them a few times. You have to test any person you intend to accept as your spiritual master by living with him for at least six months and serving him and at the same time testing to see that he is actually a pure devotee of Krishna. And you can not know this without living with him full time.
We do know however that His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is a pure devotee of Krishna on the topmost platform and he is living in his books and recorded classes and conversations and you can hear from and associate with Srila Prabhupada 24 hours a day. He has so mercifully give us so many books and classes and conversations and letters that we can hear and read and in this way we can learn everything perfectly and directly from Srila Prabhupada.he
So Prabhu I suggest that you make a very serious program to read all of Srila Prabhupada’s books and hear all of his classes and watch all of the Prabhupada DVDs. You can purchase the Prabhupada DVDs and audio MP3s from KrishnaStore.com, our you can download the classes from http://www.krishna.tv anyhow, some way or other, get all of Prabhupada’s books, all of his DVDs and all of his audio recordings and read all the books and hear all the classes and watch all the videos…
Prabhupada has given us an ocean of transcendental nectar. We must take advantage of all this nectar he has given us. I would not put a lot of hope in Lokanatha Swami. In so many years he has not given us anything unfortunately…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Dear Madhudvisa Das Prabhuji,
I met HH Lokanath Swami Maharaj in 1985, when he was busy in the village to village padayatra program in India, and he would travel to various villages in India, with a team of devotees, singing and chanting the Mahamantra,and performing kirtans,distributing books,and a lot more. Being a foremost disciple of His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, he was engaged sincerely in carrying out the orders of Srila Prabhupada. This is what had inspired me to maintain faith in his mercy.He has been very active in India, but maybe not as much abroad, for the disciples of Srila Prabhupada are so many, and each had been handling different regions.In fact it was HH Lokanath Swami Maharaj, who advised me to do these two things- Chant the Hare Krsna Mahamantra 16 rounds daily and read Srila Prabhupada’s books. I have been trying to do just that.Please accept my humble obeisances.
Haribol!
I have gotten conflicting answers from Devotees in regards to whether we are actually associating with or following a pure Devotee if the only association we have is through their written words. I have a lot of Prabhupada’s books, as well as BV Narayana Maharaj’s books, and have been feeling as though it doesn’t matter if I remotely try to follow or even absorb what I’ve been reading because I’ve been told that it is not the same as “real” association and will not make much of a difference. Is there really no spiritual merit? Maybe “merit” isn’t the right word. I guess what I mean is this: After the pure Devotee has left this world, what does an aspiring Devotee do? How far into Spiritual life is it possible for them to delve into?
I’ve been feeling a little hopeless after hearing this. I continue to chant a little everyday, and continue to follow the regulative principles, but I’m afraid that I can’t really serve Krishna if I don’t have a pure Devotee instructing me, and I feel lost.
Jai Sri Sri Radha-Krsna!
Hare Krishna
This nonsense, that Srila Prabhupada is not living in his books and recorded classes, and that it is useless to read Srila Prabhupada’s book and listen to his classes and that you need a “living guru” [which implies that Prabhupada is not a living guru and can not help you, he is dead and gone…] Is strongly preached by today’s ISKCON and was preached by Narayana Maharaja before he died.
These are crazy rantings of insane envious people. Prabhupada is living in his books and other recorded vani and you can personally associate with Prabhupada in this way and Prabhupada will answer your questions and respond to you in a completely personal way through his books. If you surrender to him and follow his instructions.
It is possible to become a pure devotee of Krishna only by the mercy of a pure devotee of Krishna. Prabhupada’s mercy is completely available now and any sincere follower of Srila Prabhupada can become a pure devotee of Krishna, an uttama-adhakari, a devotee on the topmost platform of Krishna consciousness….
If they surrender. And, as we know, it is very rare to find anyone prepared to surrender. We are so much attached to maya. We don’t want to surrender to Krishna or His pure devotee…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
hi, my name is Rajesh, i am telling you a true story, i was born in india in hindu family, my whole family used to eat fish, meat and eggs and me too. i was living terrible life but because of young age was unable to understand, when i was 19 years old in 1996, big problems started and began to understand what is going on, i was good in studies good with every good person,my mother advised me to go to temple ,prey god and my problems will end. i started going to temple . second day ,when i came back from temple i thought i should stop eating animals its against our religion, and slowly slowly i stopped eating meat fish and egggs and i stopped drinking alcohal. i started doing prey at home , at temple everyday. always kept in my mind that krishna is supreme lord.i kept doing that up to end 2007, i kept trying to have a good job and make family, after 2007 my karmas were mix of good and bad ,now i am 35+ , still i do prey at home,to make life better i tried everything, still i neither have good job nor wife. feels like now even if i have both , i have almost no feelings to enjoy that, yes what i have, even after been good qualified ,i kept doing manual labour job shit job in australia in hope of everything will be alright.so i have money in bank account thats what i got from hindu gods and angles. thank you hindu god and angels you are really kind and forgiveable
Hare Krishna Rajesh
You are trying to be happy in the material world. It is not possible to be happy in the material world. This is a place of misery and death, and you are experiencing that now. That is Krishna’s mercy on you. Australia is supposed to be heaven according to many Indians, but it is not, it is a place of misery.
So Krishna consciousness means to realize that this material world is not our home, it is a place of misery and death, and we can never be happy here, and with this knowledge we need to change our goal of life. Instead of chasing money and beautiful women and trying to ‘make it’ in the material world, we need to find a bona fide spritual master and surrender to him and serve him and accept his guidance so we can understand how we can get out of this miserable material world and go back home, back to Godhead.
I suggest that you read the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, you will find everything you are looking for in these books.
You can purchase the books from http://www.krishnastore.com and read them online at http://www.prabhupadabooks.com
Chant Hare Krsihna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
vanca kalpa tarubhyas ca
krpa-sindhubhya eva ca
patitanam pavanebhyo
vaisnavebhyo namo namah
Jaya Sri Guru! Jaya Srila Prabhupada! Jaya Radha! Jaya Krsna! Jaya Vrndavana!
Dear Madhudvisa Prabhu,
Thank you very much for very instructive e-mails.
If I may, I would just like to say that all Srila Prabhupada’s books are not just theorethical but totally practical. There is is no guru today like Srila Prabhupada but they are bona fide as long as they keep to the same principles established by Lord Krsna through His pure representative.
May the blessings of Sri Sri Radha-Krsna always be upon you.
Radhe-Shyam!
yhs
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Please accept my humble obeisances,
Thank you so much for the newsletters, it gives me a lot of information and guidance. Now my family all practicing Krishna consciousness and take Srila Prabhupada as our bonafide spiritual master. We strictly following the four regulative principles and reading Srila Prabhupada’s lectures daily but yet
do the 16 rounds.
Thank you.
Your humble servant,
Shan
Hare Krishna Prabhu
I am very happy to hear this news Prabhu. Please keep this up with your family, sincerely reading Srila Prabhupada’s books, having Kirtan, cooking and offering it to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna and honoring prasadam. Never stop this even if sometimes it becomes difficult and your life and all your family members will be very successful.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
Yes Prabhu, we do cooking and offering prasadam to Srila Prabupada and Krishna. And you know that, such simple broga we offer becomes so delicious
prasadam. So amazing.
Hari Bol
YHS,
Shan
Actually, the 4.2 verse is for beginners in spiritual life imo and therefore very important, since we generally take of as beginners. But one should come to the spontaneous platform of Krsna consciousness, then automatically one worships the guru in some specific rasa, since he is part and parcel and the confidential servitor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Always worshipping the Lord is always living in Navadvipa and Vrndavana, wherever you are.
dear brother
hare Krishna
thanks for such an impressive and alluring guidance-but my query is that as a living entity does any living soul who is aspirant for self realization posses a power to completely surrender himself to the Krishna and his pure devotee by his own will -can anybody who is dormant by himself completely able to surrender himself to Krishna and his pure devotee? or surrendering to pure devotee as only possible by grace of such pure devotee .pls clarify
Anyone can surrender. But no one wants to surrender. That is the problem…
You’re right prabhu, no one wants to surrender but one simply has to if one wants to make a succes of life. Directly to Krsna like Srila Prabhupada says in the BG 3.9 purport or otherwise, because of blindness, to the spiritual master. Guru says: SURRENDER, you fool, I love you!
I have been reading and following Srila Prabhupada’s teachings through the Bhagavad-gita and am finding myself slipping away from all that was once familiar. Things I once desired I no longer think about, goals I once had, seem trivial and my “career” path has all but fallen away so that now, by the grace of God, I am being supported by a simple part-time job out of my home where I can spend the rest of my time reading, meditating and praying. Part of me wonders if I am falling into depression or is this is part of bhakti yoga. I can’t stop thinking about God/Krishna yet I know that I have so very much to learn in achieving any sort of spiritual advancement. I welcome insights because some days, I feel very confused (and sometimes afraid) by my new life/new perspective and how different it has become in a short period of time since I have decided to surrender myself in devotion to God. It all happened fast in the scheme of things but for the past year, all I have been praying for is Universal Truth and one day the Bhagavad-gita all but fell off of the shelf at a thrift store and hit me in the head. Perhaps my prayers were answered. Now…how to deal with these answers… 🙂
Hare Krishna Sage
It is very good news. You are becoming sane while the people around you are becoming more and more crazy. So there is no problem with you, the problem is with everyone else. It is strange. The whole world is crazy and only the devotees are sane. That is the truth actually. So now become a very serious and fixed-up devotee by chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily, strictly following the four regulative principles (no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication) and keep reading Srila Prabhupada’s books more and more. After Bhagavad-gita you need to read Srimad-Bhagavatam and then Sri Caitanya-caritamrta and along the way all of Srila Prabhupada’s other books.
You can purchase the books at http://www.KrishnaStore.com and read them online at http://prabhupadabooks.com
So do not worry, you have found the ‘universal truth’ now just dive very deeply into Krishna consciousness and do not mind what anyone else may think!
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krisna Madhudvisa dasa,
I am just now seeing your comments. Thank you so very much for your encouragement and reassurance! Since your post, I have been reading Srila Prabhupada’s books non-stop. I have ordered Srimad-Bhagavatam and am eagerly awaiting its arrival from the krishnastore.com. I have already been following the 4 regulative principles (they actually fell away quite on their own) and am working up to chanting Hare Krishna 16 rounds except that I am very slow at chanting because I become quite emotional. I feel my heart being purified so many tears flow while chanting. I have been attending open house on Sundays at an ISKCON temple in Philadelphia for a few weeks…I am like a stray cat…I just can’t stay away.
Thank you again so much for your words…I haven’t spoken much to others about this so I very greatly appreciated your reply.
Hare Krishna!
Hare Krishna Sage
It is very nice to hear your news Prabhu. And thank you for ordering Srimad-Bhagavatam at KrishnaStore.com.
Right now we are out of stock but it is arriving in the next few days. The pallets of Bhagavatam sets have arrived in the country but just need to be delivered to our warehouse, so we will be able to send out your set soon, within the next 1-2 weeks at the latest.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
HARE KRSNA.I read that the post original editions of Srimad Bhagavatam have all been blemished with input to the narrations by devotees,which Srila Prabhupada forbade.Meanings could take a subtle difference as was originally intended by Srila Prabhupada.I dont like this at all.I want all Prabhupada’s Books as it is…unretouched.Its all nice to be commenting online on Krsna Consciousness..but it has to taken on an ultimately personal level….Transcendence.Ego would dictate self serving acknowledgements of approval within the company of aspiring devotees..but I feel all comments OM TAT SAT should be very carefully and sparingly put forward.The Supreme Absolute Truth should be dealt with the utmost respect,and not in any way misinterpreted,meaning all commentaries on KRSNA has to be written as perfectly understood from Srila Prabhupada’s original edition Books. HARE KRSNA.
Srimad-Bhagavatam has not yet been changed, it is still the original pre-1978 Srimad-Bhagavatam.
please help me
hari bol
Chant Hare Krishna, that will help you very much.
I am lost I need guidance. my rasa of KC is going. i am trapped in maya in college and i have started doing somthing no ideal KC person would do.I talk dirty with this boy i like. i have known him for a long time. we have feelings for each others and iyt is interfering with devotion.
in one lecture i heard that we are born because we have desires and krishna knows about it. kee your chanting on because when you stop that maya has won. my love for krishna is going im getting trapped in this bliss
please someone talk to me about it. i need guidance i cant ask anyone for help.
Hare Krishna.
You have to just spend more time chanting Hare Krishna and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and avoid this boy.
Maya is always attacking us, it is like a war, sometimes she seems to be winning and sometimes it seems we are more fixed up in Krishna consciousness. So we have to always take shelter of Srila Prabhupada by reading his books and the more we read Prabhupada’s books and chant Hare Krishna the more we will become inspired in Krishna consciousness and the less we will be interested in material things like this boy.
So the idea is to become more attached to Krishna and then automatically, as we become more attached to Krishna, our attachment for maya will go away..
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare krishna prabhuji.
I am an engineering student and am trying to be krishna conscious. I think of krishna as my father or brother or mother, presently my husband, owner of this body and soul. I am able to chant 8 rounds of mahamantra daily and have stopped doing yoga after going through these comments. Am i on the right path? If yes why does my mind go blank at times and i find it difficult to control my lusty desires which i had rejected from occupying any part of my mind? I think i can please krishna by doing higher studies near vrindavan and thus get a chance to associate with devotees face to face. Presently i have started studying bhagavad gita by prabhupadaji. What to do when lusty thoughts arise in my mind? Pl help i am not able to study properly. Forgive if i have used any offensive words.
Hare Krishna Lipsa
Krishna consciousness is a gradual process. We are not Krishna conscious, and we start the process of Krishna consciousness so naturally the lusty desires are there. They will be purified and replaced by desires to serve Krishna as we advance in Krishna consciousness but we can not expect that all lusty desires will disappear immediately.
Krishna consciousness of course has the power to conquer all lusty desires but first we have to be following the process. And as I am always writing the beginning of Krishna consciousness is when we come to the point of surrendering to the process of chanting at lest 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily, strictly following the four regulative principles [no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication] and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day. These things are all very essential and we have to adjust our daily life so we can fit in these things.
You will find immediately you are regularly reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and following the regulative principles and chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily that the lusty desires will not bother you as much.
And we need to understand the sources of these lusty desires also. A very big source of lusty desires comes from associating with lusty people. It is quite difficult now because the world is so full of lusty people. Ideally we want to live in the association of devotees but that is also not very possible at the moment. So we have to try to minimize our association with materialistic persons. Our dealings with materialistic persons should be very official and we need to spend as little time as possible associating with them and spend the time we save chanting Hare Krishna and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books.
Another big source of lusty desires is eating food that has been cooked by non-devotees. To become Krishna conscious we need to be only eating prasadam, food that is cooked by devotees with love and devotion and offered to Krishna. So in practice that generally means we need to cook for Krishna ourselves and offer the bhoga and that way we will be able to eat only prasadam…
Of course you may not be able to do everything at once, it is a process, and it takes some time for us to get properly situated in Krishna consciousness, and it is very good that you are chanting at least 8 rounds a day. But the idea is we have to chant at least 16 rounds a day and you need to surrender to this and do it and then you will see much improvement in your ability to control the lusty desires…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krsna Madhudvisa dasa prabhu.Pamho,agtsp.Just wanted to say thankyou for writing to me and that i am currently reading Srila Prabhupadas Srimad Bhagavatam.Nectar!
Your servant,
Nitai das.
Hare Krishna Swamyji pranam
Srila Prabhupada is our guru. Thank you.
your servant,
natarajan
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
Please accept my comment.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Very well said in this article.
Thank you for sharing it with us all.
I used to think about this, but never
really understood it until I read this article.
Thank you,again, for sharing this article with me.
It really helped me out spiritually in my approach to Krishna Consciousness.
Hare Krishna, Prabhus and Matis!
Hare Krsna.pamho,agtsp.when krsna sees someone is sincere he sends to him a bonafide guru.so you get guru when youre sincere.even if there is no physically manifest guru in your country,the world or even the universe,if youre sincere krsna will make the arrangement and youll be intitiated. and even if you are in the physical presence of a real sad guru,if you are only karma or jnana adhikari ie if you are not searching for something other than karma(material enjoyment) or jnana(brahma nirvana)ie if youre not searching for krsna ,he will not intitiate you.dhruva was sincerely searching for lotus eyed lord hari so krsna sent to him narada muni and he was initiated ,cause he was bhakti adhikari(he was not ready to accept anything from narada other than krsna).so if there are difficulties, we have to examine our own hearts and see what nonsense we still want,get rid of those desires somehow, then we are true bhakti adhikaris and we will get all the help we need.develop pure bhakti adhikar,get sad-guru, and then one will get get krsna prem bhakti,ecstatic love of God and all joy will proceed for ever more.thankyou to the devotees running this website for giving me this opportunity to write about this matter,and thus understand more about it myself and advance more towards the temple of prem(ecstatic love of krsna) which is the actual goal of the life of the jivas(the living entities.your friend,nitai das.
Hare Krishna Nitai
Krishna has sent the perfect guru, Sriila Prabhupada, and he is living in his books and you can take advantage of his association and surrender to him and serve him anywhere and if you are actually sincerer he will happily initiate you.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare krishna prabhuji
How to practice non attachment to material desire when everything like TV, 1st prize and other things are so attractive?
Hare Krishna Prabhuji,
Very nice. I wish to enquire prabhuji that isnt there a time factor which is required for a neophyte to come to a level of giving up all sense gratification. Isnt it a process of evolution and practice which can be perfected over time. So till we reach that threshold state we are not in pure Krishna Consciousness. Please enlighten me. Hare Krishna.
Namaskarams.
No. You have to just do it. There is really no Krishna consciousness at all unless you are prepared to surrender to the process of saddhana-bhakti, the process of becoming Krishna conscious. And the process of becoming Krishna conscious is to give up illict sex, intoxicaiton, meat eating and gambling and to chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily and to read Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day. And if you are not prepared to do this then you are not going to become Krishna conscious.
It is not that you can do it gradually. You have to decide to do it. Decide to follow the regulative principles and surrender to the idea of chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra. Of course it is a process and you may fall down even many times in your attempts to become Krishna conscious and that is more-or-less expected. But even if you fall down then you need to recommit yourself again to seriously following the regulative principles and chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily and reading Prabhupada’s books.
We can not have a little maya and a little Krishna and expect to become Krishna conscious. It will never work. We have to surrender to Krishna and that means surrendering to following the four regulative principles and chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily… You can not do less than this and think you are on the path to Krishna consciousness. The path starts with following the four regulative principles and chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily and reading Prabhupada’s books, not before….
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
thankyou prabhuji you have cleared lots of my doubts regerding practicing krishna consciousness
Hare krishna prabhuji
I am an engineering student and am able to chant only 6 rounds daily. I at times feel sleepy while chanting or chant more than 108 times in a round. I feel like crying to become a sincere devotee of krishna and cry also. I just want to spend each moment of my life to please krishna. Please Advice me prabhuji.
Just concentrate on strictly following the four regulative principles [no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication], read Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day and chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily. This is the beginning. You have to come to this standard at least to begin the process of Krishna consciousness. So just work on arranging your life in such a way that you can do these things. That is what you have to do. Other things will come naturally but you can not expect to make advancement if you are not prepared to surrender to these basic things. Of course in the beginning it is hard to chant 16 rounds, you may feel sleepy, but if you want to become Krishna conscious then you have to push aside this sleepy feeling and keep chanting Hare Krishna. It is not easy to become Krishna conscious. Like any valuable thing if you want it you have to work for it.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Prabhu,My pranams and humble submissions.Though I am not qualified to ask for some clarifications of the newsletter,forgive me if this is an offence.My dandavat pranams to sri prabhupad.
To my little understanding I feel a little bhakti and some good deeds do not go waste,during the journey to bhakti marg.I am depressed and discouraged to learn from you that what little efforts we make are going to be a waste.While totally agreeing on the views of getting a Guru and feeling “Higher taste” is it possible for the fallen souls; the diseased, the aged to get a little redemption. What is the way to these people with all infirmities. Did not Chaitanya Mahaprbhu promise deliverence to the the people who are on the path of Sankeethana Marg so also the great Acharyas of all religions.
I am life member of Isckon on the path of bhakti making very little progress.A solution or few comforting words from you go a long way to assuage the feelings of all this oppressed lot.DEEN DUKH HARAN Prabhu.
Thank you.Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna Tirupati
The way is the same for everyone: healthy, fit, young and old, diseased and with infirmities. A devotee transcends the bodily platform and realizes that he is not the material body, So for him it does not matter if he is in a young body, an old body, a fit body or a diseased body — his business is the same — chanting Hare Krishna and performing devotional service. So there is absolutely no difference in the way for a fit person and a diseased person. The way is exactly the same. Chant:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
The ‘good deeds’ are useless from the spiritual point of view unless they are in the service of Krishna or His pure devotees. Like preaching. Chanting Hare Krishna for the old and sick or distributing Krishna prasadam to the old and sick for example. But a devotee does not engage in ordinary worldly ‘good deeds’ because they implicate him in karma, good karma, and he is forced to take birth again in the material world to receive that good karma. So in the absolute sense good deeds and sinful activities are both bad because both of them generate karma and both of them force us to stay in the material world and stop us from going back home back to Godhead. So a devotee does not do anything at all except serve Krishna. And to find out practically how to live your life in this way please read Srila Prabhupada’s books.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa dasa
I’ve read a few books such as ‘Life comes from Life’, ‘The Laws of Nature’, ‘Beginner’s Guide to Krishna Consciousness’, ‘The Bhagavad Gita – As It Is’ – twice, ‘Bhakti Yoga’ and have been chanting 16 rounds (and more mostly) and following the 4 regulative principles and since then i’ve experienced peace / balance / clarity / understanding of life like never before.
My prayer to Lord Krishna after chanting is ‘Lord Sri Krishna, Thank you for all that YOU have given me, please forgive me for all the mistakes or sins that i may have committed knowingly or unknowingly in my life, please help me not to commit any mistakes or sins knowingly or unknowingly in my life. Please take care of me and show me the right path in my life. Give me the strength, the courage and the guidance to follow the path YOU have shown me. Please help me to remember YOU, seek YOU, serve YOU, surrender to YOU and worship YOU in all the moments of my life. Please Lord Sri Krishna show me the right way to worship YOU’ Thank YOU GOD.
Since doing this i feel in total control of the situation i am in, whatever it may be – good, challenging, stressful, happy etc i find myself equanimous and can’t thank Sri Krishna enough for it. Nothing gives me more happiness than chanting the Maha Mantra.
My question is since there are quite a few grave challenges i face in my family life / professional life, am i in the right track? I do my best, given the circumstances to handle whatever situation i happen to face. I personally am totally convinced that i’m in the right direction in life. I just wanted hear from you what do you have to say, is there anything else i have to do? and if there is, i will galdly do so.
Hare Krishna Prabhu
Yes. You are on the right track for sure. Do not be discouraged by the challenges and struggles you face in your family life. Because we are in the material world there will always be so many challenges we have to face and from the material point of view we may have to face many apparently disturbing and disappointing situations. But a devotee rightly knows that he is not the material body and all these relationships like family relationships are only bodily relationships. So as the devotee knows he is not the body he also knows that the family relationships are only imaginary. There is no real lasting relationship at all. It is all finished at the time of death or before. So a devotee is not very concerned in the ultimate issue about these family relationships and also even though he may see so many apparently disastrous things happening around him in the material world, he is not affected by this. The devotee remains fixed in devotional service in Krishna consciousness in any situation.
So yes you are on the right path for sure. The only thing that I suggest is that you are not giving Srila Prabhupada any credit in your prayers. It is only by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy that we are able to approach Krishna. So it is very important to always remember to offer our obeisances and thanks to Srila Prabhupada….
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa dasa ji,
Can’t you have an eternal relationship with a living entity. Let’s say you have a wife and by the grace of Lord Radhakrishna ji and Swami Prabhipada ji you became eligible to go to spiritual world, can’t you take your wife along with you too? It depends if she wants to go with you and her attachment to you but can it happen?
Your servant,
Tushar
If your wife is Krishna conscious then yes you can both go to the spiritual world together, why not?
Hare Krishna Prabhu
Thank you for your reply.
I sincerely don’t intend to ignore anyone, my only need and continous effort is to chant and remember GOD at every moment of my life. My understanding is if you pray to Sri Krishna one is giving due respect to all HIS devotees. While there are many Saints who by their writing gave me a chance to understand GOD, my journey to reach upto Sri Krishna has been long and through reading various Saints. And even though i was a regular visitor to Sri Krishna Temple for years in Muscat it was only in 2010 Krishna Janmastami when a friend of mine took me to ISKCON Temple in Chennai and a young devotee urged me to read a few books which i’ve mentioned in my earlier posts did i experience GOD and now know that i need not look any further. But wouldn’t it be unfair not to credit other Saints and credit only Srila Prabhupada. If i hadn’t read and experienced i would not have proceeded further, the fact is that one thing led to the other. For one to reach the first floor one has to start at the first step but after reaching the first floor shouldn’t one thank all the steps for getting him there, instead of the last step only? Whatever i’ve said is an honest attempt to understand how to go about life correctly.
Hare Krishna Sanat
You do not need any other steps. You can just read Prabhupada’s books and come to Krishna consciousness. Now you have discovered Krishna consciousness and Prabhupada’s and his books you can introduce others to Prabhupada, his books and Krishna. No other saints are necessary or practical in this age.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
My humble obeisances to you and Srila Prabhupad.
It is a very interesting topic.
Please answer my below questions prabhu.
1. I came to know from the above discussions that we can take Srila Prabhupad as bonafide spiritual master and practice Krishna consciousness. My question is Is it necessary or must to Initiation any other living Guru to develop in K Consciousness. Please clarify.
2. I am working in xxxx part of the world. I am chanting 16 rounds and following 4 regulative principles for last 1 year. The ISKCON devotees here forcing me to take initiation from XXXX person ( who is a disciple of Srila Prabhupad). Is it necessary to take initiation from that XXXX person. Even I dont know very well about him.
How to avoid these devotees?
Hari Bol prabhuji
YHS,
Vijay
Hare Krishna Vijay Prabhu
Prabhupada is a living guru and he is quite capable of guiding you back home, back to Godhead. Prabhupada is a pure devotee of Krishna, an uttama-adhikari, a devotee on the topmost platform. So the idea of Krishna consciousness is to actually become Krishna consciousness so that at the end of this life we do not have to come back to the material world but we can go back home back to Godhead. So we need to become pure devotees of Krishna, and the only way we can become pure devotees of Krishna is if we are guided by a pure devotee of Krishna. So if you really want to become Krishna consciousness Srila Prabhupada is the perfectly qualified person to become your spiritual master. But you have to be serious. So many people are not serious. But if you really do surrender to Srila Prabhupada and really do actually read his books and put what you read into practice in your life then you will find that you develop a real tangible personal relationship with Srila Prabhupada and he will personally guide you and answer all your questions and help you through the difficult times in your spiritual life.
As far as ISKCON trying to force you to take initiation from someone you don’t even know, honestly Prabhu they are demons. They see you are attached to Srila Prabhupada and by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy you are able to chant 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily and actually follow the four regulative principles, and honestly Prabhu really most of today’s ISKCON devotees do not chant 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily and do not very strictly follow the regulative principles. Because they are offenders to Srila Prabhupada and the followers of Srila Prabhupada. So they are envious of you Prabhu. I know that may sound strange. But I am a devotee for almost 30 years now and I have seen it so many times that the most enthusiastic, the most sincere devotees in an ISKCON temple are the new bhaktas who are reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and taking shelter of Srila Prabhupada. It is the system in ISKCON to destroy the lives of these sincere servants of Srila Prabhupada by telling them that Prabhupada is dead and gone and that they need a ‘living guru’. So many of them accept this and accept a ‘living guru’ like the dozens of ISKCON gurus who have already been proved to be cheating sinful conditioned souls not even capable of taking themselves back home back to Godhead, what to speak of taking hundreds of disciples with them… So anyhow ISKCON convince the innocent bhaktas to take initiation from some bogus guru and forget Prabhupada, and many of them do it, and that is the end of their spiritual life unfortunately.
You can not just accept initiation from someone you don’t even know. You are putting your life in their hands. Accepting a spiritual master means agreeing to accept him and worship him as being non-different form Krishna. And it means to surrender to whatever order he may give you without question. So it would be extremely foolish to accept someone as your spiritual master if you had not first thoroughly tested him to ascertain if he is really actually a pure devotee of Krishna and if he is really qualified to guide you back home back to Godhead. The disciple has to test the prospective guru to see if he is actually qualified and the guru also has to test the intending disciple to see if he is qualified. And this is only possible if you actually know what are the qualities of a bona fide spiritual master, so for this you have to first very seriously study Srila Prabhupada’s books….
So you can avoid these ISKCON devotees by not going to the ISKCON temples. They are not at all good association. It would be better for you to try and preach to your friends and family members and start your own little sanga and come together and chant Hare Krishna and read Srila Prabhupada’s books. In the current situation ISKCON is not good association and will not help you advance in spiritual life…
This is the way ISKCON works Prabhu. If you do not agree to accept one of their bogus ‘living’ gurus and if you keep on reading Prabhupada’s books and chanting Hare Krishna and following the four regulative principles you will become more and more blissful and advanced in spiritual life and they will not be able to tolerate that and will declare that you are a ‘dirty stinking ritvik’ and ban you from all the temples… If you become an actual devotee they will throw you out…
I know it sounds crazy and rather harsh, but unfortunately it is the truth…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
I am following the regulative principles for the last 2 years. I have not initiated. I have one doubt here. How can we test a guru? We are conditioned souls, and we don’t have that strength to test a guru. Only thing we can do is based on the statements of the prabhupada we can eliminate bogus gurus. Can you explain me more about this?
Hari Bol.
Really you have to become a madhyama adhikari to test a guru. So so this. Accept Srila Prabhupada as your guru and advance to the madhyam platform so you will be then qualified to see who is bona fide and who is bogus. You can assume that everyone is bogus except Srila Prabhupada and start from there. A real bona fide Vaisnava acharya will be self-effulgent as Srila Prabhupada is. He will rise like the sun for all to see. It is not an ordinary thing or a very common thing, a bona fide guru. They are very, very, very rare. So we have Srila Prabhupada, our bona fide guru, why look elsewhere. So far everyone else who has gone to someone else has been cheated by a bogus guru. Why not stick with Srila Prabhupada?
Today’s there r a lot of cheater,they attracts u by evrythng that they can do..so souls r so confused wht to do…i’m a devotee of shri krishna since childhood,i want 2 knw the way to achiv supreme goal of life…plz enlighten my intellect …HARE KRISHNA
Hare Krishna Arvind
Yes, there are so many cheaters. This is the age of cheaters. They are everywhere. But Srila Prabhupada is not a cheater and he has put everything you need to know in his books. You have to read them Prabhu. I can not answer this in a one paragraph post. You have to study the subject matter seriously from a bona fide guru, and Srila Prabhupada is a bona fide guru and he has put everything in his books, so read them. If you have specific questions that arise out of reading Srila Prabhupada’s books please feel free to ask and I will attempt to answer. But such a broad question, “How to achieve the supreme goal of life.” That is the subject of all of Srila Prabhupada’s books, the subject of the whole Vedas. If it could be answered in one paragraph then they would not have written so many books…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
I want to know if i am practising the Hare Krishna movement and my wife and children refused joining me in the service of the Lord, am i suppose to force them to join me in serving the Lord Krishna? What are the requirements of making a place of service? Please i need some pic of the Lord and his Gurus
Hare Krishna
You can not force anyone to serve Krishna. Serving Krishna has to be done out of love. So the best you can do in your situation is yourself engage in the service of Krishna and as you make spiritual advancement your family may become interested also. Or they may not. So if they are not interested then you just have to practice Krishna consciousness yourself. Ultimately everyone is an individual and they make their own decision if they want to serve Krishna or serve maya. You can give them Krishna prasadam and let them hear the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra and this will purify their hearts and gradually they will come to Krishna consciousness. If you can encourage them to read some of Srila Prabhupada’s books, even the small books, then that will help them a great deal.
You can get everything you need to practice Krishna consciousness at home at http://www.KrishnaStore.com, the altar pictures are at:
http://krishnastore.com/posters-cards-prints-altar-pictures-om-22_26.html
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare KRishna Prabhu
Please apprise with the procedure to offer food to Krishna.
Should it be offered to both Raha Krishna or Krishna alone.
Please advice.
Hare Krishna Arvind
Offerings of bhoga to Krishna are not directly offered to Krishna. They are offered to Srila Prabhupada and he will offer it to Krishna. That is the system. So on the alter you have to have the photo of Srila Prabhupada and when you are offering it your mood should be that you are offering this to Srila Prabhupada and that he will offer it to Krishna. Only one plate is required.
We can not directly offer to Radha-Krishna. Everything we offer through Srila Prabhupada. That is the position of the bona fide spiritual master. He appears in this world to accept the offerings and service of his disciples and he does not enjoy these offerings himself, he in turn offers them to his spiritual master and in this way the offerings go to Krishna via the chain of disciplic succession. That is actually the only way you can offer to Radha-Krishna and know They will accept your offering.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hi, i want to know the meaning of Hare Krishna and Hare Rama. Secondly, if Hare Krishna a religious group?Thanks.
Hare Krishna Jonathan
Hare, Krishna and Rama are all names of God. So chanting the Hare Krishna mantra means chanting the names of God. These are not ordinary mundane sound vibrations. The name of God IS God. The holy name contains all the potencies and energies of God and you can get all the benefits of personal association with God through chanting His holy names. You develop the qualities of the people you associate with so if you associate with God by chanting His holy names then you will automatically develop all the Godly qualities. It is such a powerful thing. Chanting the Hare Krishna maha mantra.
Krishna consciousness is not a religion. It is the eternal constitutional activity of the soul. It is our original consciousness. Krishna consciousness is within everyone. It has simply become covered over by the results of so many sinful activities we have committed in this life and previous lives. So the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra is the process that will clean away all the dirt from our hearts and our minds and uncover our original consciousness, Krishna consciousness. So it is not a religion. Everyone is Krishna conscious, it has just been covered over and by the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra that original consciousness, Krishna consciousness, can be uncovered.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krsna Prabhu
Please accept my humble obeisances
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
Thank you so much Prabhu for your articles, if you don’t mind please give me guidance, I used to read Srimad Bhagavad Gita from asitis.com, because I have a little bit difficulty opened prabhupadabooks.com by my black berry smart phone, is it the same site between Prabhupadabooks.com and asitis.com? and where should I go to read the others Srila Prabhupada’s books? I mean what site, Prabhu? Thank you so much.
Your servant
sadtya
Hare Krishna Sadtya
I will try to improve PrabhupadaBooks.com so it can be more easily used from phones and tablets within 2 months. I apologize for this inconvenience and thank you for reminding me of it and if it is not fixed in 2 months please remind me again.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa, nice to hear from you again.
Your comments come just in time
Hare Krishna!
Pranan Swamiji,
Thank you very much for clearing all my doubts prabhuji. I will sincerely try my best whatever you have mentioned about service to Lord Krishna.
My humble request is that please keep posting such a valuable posts on Krishna Consciousness.
Hare Krishna!
Uma Sridhar
pamho madhudvisa prabhu agtACBSP, KAMADA EKADASI KI JAI,this newsletter is very accurate in all the details regarding the present situation in this dangerous current of kali yuga gurus hoaxers as SRILA PRABHUPADA already predicted,you got the real understanding coming from SRILA PRABHUPADA PARAM-PARA and this is the proof that you are initiated by a bonafide spiritual master and associate with HIM as much as you can as the only way of deliverance from this double jail job by swimming against the current of the own nature,i also got initiated by HDG ACBSP couple months ago on GAURA PURNIMA,the brahminical diksa is working but as you mentioned above it’s not easy to go back to the real nature of the dharma especially in this age of hypocrisy full of distractions where most of our actual society citizens are still uncivilized but i have to admit that your service to SRILA PRABHUPADA is great through your spiritual website a lot people get inspired because you explain it nicely due to your genuine devotion to SRILA PRABHUPADA,thank you very much for this wonderful newsletter and for your worthy association,agtys ys a.c.seva das haribol
Hare Krishna!
Pranam Swamji,
Delighted to see your kind post after a long gap. I humbly request you to clear the following doubts which will be beneficial for all those who want to make advancement in Krishna Consciousness.
1) You have asked to give up personal sense gratification activities and work for the satisfaction of Krishna’s senses. – See we for example Me, married woman having children, I have to satisfy my husband as well as my children’s desires; I have to serve them. Krishna also mentioned in Bhagvad Gita in Karma Yoga, we have to do our duty. Our Guru the Grate Prabhupadaji was also a family man after finishing his duties he took “Sanyasa”. Please clarify Swamiji, performing activities for my family is also sense gratification? We are in family, we have limitations,in spite of this we sincerely follow daily chanting, visiting temples etc.
2. Will you please explain how to satisfy the Supreme? How to serve him? even it is very difficult to satisfy ordinary human being, will it not be a difficult task? and what are the symptoms that Krishna is satisfied with our devotion/service?
As you have mentioned, the bona fide Gurus are seldom, finding Real Krishna devoted guru is difficult. So, I follow only Sri Srilaprabhupada reading his books and remembering daily in my prayer that’s all. I humbly request you whatever I am doing is correct process in Krishna Consciousness.?
Please clarify Prabhuji.
Hare Krishna!
Uma Sridhar
Hare Krishna Uma
Very nice to hear from you. You are doing the right thing by accepting Srila Prabhupada as your bona fide guru and following him by reading his books and remembering him daily in your prayer. As you are reading Prabhupada’s books also you will find that he is giving you instructions, so as you get these instructions from Srila Prabhupada you can follow them and that will please Srila Prabhupada and please Krishna.
Being in family life does not mean that you can not be Krishna conscious. And it does mean that you have responsibilities and duties to serve your husband and look after your children, etc. And the ideal thing is to encourage your husband also in Krishna consciousness and together with the whole family you can practice Krishna consciousness by having kirtans together and reading Prabhupada’s books together and gradually you can transform the whole family life so it is centered around serving Krishna.
But there are many things you can do, direct service to Krishna, that will also benefit your family. Everyone has to eat so you have to go to the store and purchase things to cook and cook them. So if you stop purchasing things for your family and instead when you are at the store you have the consciousness that you want to purchase nice things so you can offer them to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna then although the activity is the same, you are still going to the store and purchasing vegetables, grains, milk products and fruits, but you are purchasing them for Krishna, to please Krishna, not for yourself or your family. Then when you are cooking the meal also you don’t cook it for your family. You cook it to please Srila Prabhupada and Krishna, and then you offer it to Srila Prabhupada and it becomes prasadam and then you can offer that prasadam to your husband and your family members. So in this way from the point of view of the family nothing has changed, you are still going to the store and purchasing things and coming home and cooking them and the family is getting a delicious meal. But your consciousness has changed. Actually you are no longer cooking for your husband and your family. You are cooking for Srila Prabhupada and Krishna.
So in this way in every activity of your life you can adjust things so you really have given up all personal sense gratification activities and are only working for the satisfaction of Krishna, and your family is very satisfied, enjoying the Krishna prasadam.
The limitations of family life can be removed in this way, particularly if you can interest the family in participating in some sort of regular spiritual program in the mornings and evenings. It can start as a small thing like a short kirtan and aroti in the morning and evening and gradually if they become more and more interested in Krishna consciousness then the main topic of conversation in your house will become Krishna and suddenly serving your husband and family will become serving Krishna.
Of course not everyone is interested and there are so many material impedements we will have to face in our attempt to become Krishna consciousness but really family life is no disqualification to taking to Krishna consciousness. You just need to continue what you are doing and carefully listen to what Srila Prabhupada is saying to you when you read his books and follow those instructions and you will see gradually everything in your family life becomes very favorable to your advancement in Krishna consciousness, or Krishna may make some other arrangement, it is up to Him of course, He can do anything He wants to do and whatever happens the devotees accept it as Krishna’s mercy.
It is impossible to satisfy an ordinary human being. Because an ordinary human being is under the illusion of thinking that he is the material body and he is thinking if he can satisfy the senses of his material body then he will be happy. But this is an illusion, it is an absolutely incorrect idea. We are not this material body, we are the spirit soul within the body, so no amount of sense gratification can ever satisfy the soul. The soul can only be satisfied by reestablishing our eternal relationship with Krishna in devotional service. So for this reason it is absolutely impossible to satisfy an ordinary human being. But satisfying Krishna is not so hard. He says in the Gita: “If one offers Me with love and devotion a fruit, a flower, a leaf or water, I will accept it.” So Krishna is very easily satisfied and it is not expensive or difficult. What Krishna is really looking for is for us to develop some real love and devotion for Him, that is really what He accepts from us. So it is really very easy to satisfy Krishna and completely impossible to satisfy an “ordinary person.”
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Prabhuji pranam, thanks for the article. Prabhuji i will be grateful if you kindly give your comments about the concept of “making temple” which is very much prevelant nowadays. Actually sanyasis should be parivrajaka (move around on foot) but it is seen that at present all sanyasis and brahmacharys are trying to construct a temple of their own and say that in this way they will preach. Radhe Radhe
Hare Krishna Partha
Yes, this cheating is going on, the sannyasis and brahmacaris are busy collecting lots of money to make a temple and when they have it they simply eat and sleep and live a comfortable life full of sense gratification in the temple, and collect more money from the public to pay their excessive expenses.
This Kali-yuga is the age for cheaters and you will find that practically all the sannyasis and brahmacaris of this age are actually cheaters who are keeping some desire for personal sense gratification, some personal interest they are working for, so they can not actually understand Krishna consciousness…
The real sannyasis and brahmacaris are very hard to find these days…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa Prabhu
All Glories To Srila Prabhupada
Please accept my humble obeisances.
You are right, Srila Prabhupada remark in each one of his pages the subject of devotional service as the only way to develop Krishna consciousness. (Bg. 18 55)
For example Srila Prabhupada say: “In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that those who are mahātmās, or those whose minds have been so broadened as to be engaged in the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, are under the influence of the internal potency, and the effect is that such broadminded living beings are constantly engaged in the service of the Lord without deviation. That should be the aim of life. And that is the verdict of all the Vedic literatures. No one should bother himself with fruitive activities or dry speculation about transcendental knowledge.”
“The practice (of bhakti) makes the master.”
dear guruji,
Hope to find you in your good spirit, If this is the real situation in kali youga than how do you think to accomplish your mission of enlightment and advancement-in-krishna-consciousnes?????
Then it must be the lord himself who has to come to save us. What do you think? And so the KALKI AVATARA IS requird in Kali youga.
Thanks
DEV
Hare Krishna Dev
Srila Prabhupada is already here and he has already saved us. We simply have to take advantage of his books and read them and follow the instructions we find in them and we are saved. We do not have to wait for anyone else to save us.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhu, please accept my humble obeisances…
Thank you for your informative emails.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
We don’t have to search for a ‘living’ pure devotee of Sri Krishna to accept as our spiritual master because Srila Prabhupada IS that pure devotee and we must just surrender to him and his teachings and we will receive the necessary understanding of Krishna Consciousness???
Jaya Gauranga, Haribol
Yes Michael, that is correct. Srila Prabhupada is a living guru and he is here with us and we can just surrender to him and follow his teachings and if we do this and please Srila Prabhupada in this way he will give us his blessings and by his mercy we will be able to become devotees of Krishna and our lives will be successful.
I am from Romania, that is on the other side of the world, I am so powerfully attracted to all these teachings but it seem so hard for me to find them other than each and there on the internet…now talking about the spiritual bona fide Master, if it is hard for you guys to find him in India how will I be able to find one in Romania? I need more information. God bless you all!
Hare Krishna Mithal
All the information you need you will find in the books of Srila Prabhupada which you can read online at http://www.PrabhupadaBooks.com and purchase at http://www.KrishnaStore.com
Please take the time to read Srila Prabhupada’s books and you will find he is your bona fide guru and he is living in his books and he will answer every question you have to your complete satisfaction. You just have to take the time to read his books….
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Prabhu,
Krishna is the Supreme Soul, the eternal master, super-parent & pure friend of all entities. It’s a wonder, knowing all these, we still desist from the real path. Ignorance, falsehood, sensuality is the devil. The boon of Krishna Chaitanya is forever present, still we’re oblivious of it.
Renunciation is difficult without absolute consecration to the Supreme Avatar Sri Krishna. The guru also manifest to the devotee, when the time is ripe, and he/she appears on the commands of Krishna only!
Krishnam Vande Jagat Gurum! Hare Krishna!
Subhashish Das
The above matter is serious and very important.One has to “surrender completely” to the Guru and only then does one learn the hidden secrets of Krishna Consciousness.Maybe only a few disciples “completely surrender” and become elevated to a position of a pure devotee.I have come across :Guru hoppers and Guru changers during my spiritual journey.Since 1978, I have remained stuck to my Guru who gave me diksha, and then shiksha. I believe I cannot ever let go of my Guru wherever he goes finally I have to follow him there, for I cannot imagine him being alone and without a servant,wherever he is.I stay aloof from Guru jumpers, they set bad examples.Once I was given a chance to see what misleading Gurus can do and I totally agree with all the above statements in this article.I thank you Madhudvisa Dasa, for such a wonderful article.This is higher shiksha that I am gaining from your articles, and it keeps my mind focussed. All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.
then prabhu how to get a spritiual master?
Hare krishna
Hare Krishna!
By the mercy of Krishna you get the bona fide spiritual master and by the mercy of the bonafide spiritual master you get Krishna.
Getting a bona fide spiritual master is a very, very, very rare thing. It is said in Caitanya-caritamrta that the living entity is wandering from universe to universe [as he takes birth and dies over and over again] and it is only occassionally that one fortunate soul gets the opportunity to meet a bona fide spiritual master. If he takes full advantage of this meeting and serves and gets the blessings of the bona fide spiritual master then he can get the ‘bhakti latta bija’, the seed of devotional service. Once the disciple has this seed of devotion he needs to water it by hearing and chanting about Krishna and by removing the weeds that also grow in the heart as a result of this watering process.
So it is a very rare thing to find a bona fide spiritual master. They are not at all common. We are so fortunate to have Srila Prabhupada who is a pure devotee of Krishna and who is ready to help us all go back home back to Godhead. But we do not want to surrender to him, we do not want to go back to Godhead. We are in maya… We want to try and be happy in this material world… That is the problem…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Thank you prabu , for ur reply. I accept that only by mercy of lord Krishna one can attain a spiritual master.
Hare Krishna
so where are the pure devottes now, untainted not become casuality to their previous bad habits etc. Does one have to be a pure devotee to be a guru? If so where can i find one? He has to be equal to Sp isnt?
Hare Krishna Parikcit
You can not demand to see a pure devotee now, on your command. You can only see a pure devotee by the mercy of Krishna. They are very, very rare. So you can see Prabhupada now, therefore you should take advantage of the association of Srila Prabhupada and at least educate yourself so you know what is a pure devotee and what is a cheating guru. If you actually seriously study Srila Prabhupada’s books and put his teachings into practice in your life you will have the power to differentiate between the rare soul who is actually a real guru and the millions of cheating gurus…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krsna Prabhu
I m new to Krsna Consciousness. I have been reading Srila Prabhupada’s work and yes even someone as new as me and one who trusts very human beings can tell that he is one in a million. I m in the purification process so am constantly critical of myself and have plenty of questions. The person I thought I was I discovered I m really not. It was a maya. So I have come to a conclusion that a guru is definitely the way to point out to me why I m doing what I m doing so I can correct myself and advance in Krsna consciousness. But like you said it’s hard to find a bona fide master. The process of becoming a disciple is also hard I now see how contaminated I m.
Prahu since it’s so hard to find a bonfire fide master is it then possible to them accept Swami Prabhupada as our guru in our heart and read his work and follow his teachings. Will we then be liberated and reach the Krsna.
Haribol
Hare Krishna Latha
You have already found your guru. You are already reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and you have already realized Srila Prabhupada is a very special person. So reading Prabhupada’s books is direct personal association with him and the more you read his books and the more you personally associate with him in this way the more you will appreciate this personal relationship. Initiation is surrender. So if as you read Srila Prabhupada’s books you become convinced that Srila Prabhupada is a pure devotee of Krishna and if you have faith in his words and agree to surrender to him and accept whatever instructions he gives you then that surrender to Srila Prabhupada is your initiation.
Initiation means beginning. So you have to keep on hearing from Srila Prabhupada and keep on following his instructions to be his disciple and to make advancement in Krishna consciousness.
So yes. You are doing the right thing. You need a pure devotee as your spiritual master and Srila Prabhupada is the only person at the moment we can guarantee is a pure devotee. So many people accept bogus people who are actually demons posing as gurus and spoil their whole lives because of accepting a cheater as their guru.
So you will never have this problem if you accept Srila Prabhupada as your guru. But you have to actually surrender to him and follow his instructions. Then your life will be wonderful and you will make very rapid advancement in Krishna consciousness under Srila Prabhupada’s able guidance.
hare krishna my lord you spoke exactly right that there are a lot of fake teachers especially in india . the radha soami, baba ramdev,nirmal baba,etc form a long list where they befool the innocent public. i am especially amazed by baba ramdev acoording to him yoga is just practicing of seating postures which he shows to public by executing various asanas by which various diseases are to be cured but real yoga is to engage our thinking on lord krishna which he is completely ignorant of and an example how popular he has become is when ask a comman man about yoga he immediately tells you it is performing asanas like ramdev does.
these rascals are never ever going to stop their dirty businesses
Without mercy of Krishna, none of these yogis can perform any action.Whatever they learn is by the mercy of the Lord.They must teach it humbly to others, and not behave arrogantly and display these capabilities for gaining wealth.This paves the way of their downfall, if they utilise yogic capabilities for gaining wealth.Their downfall comes when they begin to assume many things about the public and try to make money out of the spiritual sciences.Imparting such knowledge must be free of cost.Most of them have unfulfilled desires of becoming wealthy, and thus they do such things, running business empires in the name of yoga.
How can I find a true Krishna devotee in this crowd of fake spiritual masters?
Prabhupada is a true spiritual master. READ HIS BOOKS. If you assimilate all the knowledge in Srila Prabhupada’s books and actually follow his instructions in your life you will be perfectly able to differentiate between a real guru and a fake guru. Otherwise you will never be able to tell the difference…
hare krishna, prabhuji
I have a question that i strongly believe in having a guru. i also have an aspiring maharaj i truly agree in what he says but due to my lack of advancement in kc i am unable to follow his each and every instruction. so can i follow him with my limitations? and i have another question that i am seeing many healthy people are dying due to heart attacks and accidents, so i always feel to pray to lord narsimha dev to protect me and my husband, and we can live long and healthy life and make more and more advancement in krishna consciousness and can serve the devotees. can i do this kind of prayer, is it valid?
Hare Krishna Mala
I can only suggest you read Srila Prabhupada’s books and follow the instructions you will find Srila Prabhupada giving you as you read his books. I can not encourage you to follow any other ‘maharaj’ as honestly speaking at lest 99% of the ‘maharajas’ out there are completely bogus cheaters who have no potency to help you on your path back home back to Godhead.
As far as you noticing that many people are dying around you that is a great realization and in itself this proves that you are making some spiritual advancement. So from this observation you can also assume that you and your husband will die also and maybe you will die soon. There is no guarantee that we will live even one day more. So a devotee is always feeling like this, that he may die at any moment and therefore he is always ready to remember Krishna at the time of death. He uses his time very carefully, he does not like to waste even a second without there being some connection to serving Krishna. Because we have very limited time.
But a devotee has no attachment to this material world or to this body or to the family members, etc. He is attached to Krishna and he does not care if he leaves this body of stays in it. So he does not pray to Krishna to ask for protection from death. A devotee does not care about death. Every day we go to sleep and wake up the next morning. So death is just like that. We go to sleep and wake up a few months later in the womb of our next mother, or if we have perfected the process of Krishna consciousness and are able to remember Krishna at the time of death then we will go directly back home, back to Godhead. In any case nothing will be lost for a devotee because of death for a devotees only assets are his Krishna consciousness and that Krishna consciousness goes with him at that time of death to his next life.
So this sort of prayer, to live a long and healthy life, is not valid for devotees. Devotees will not ask for such a thing. A devotees prayer is only “Please Krishna engage me in Your service.” That is all. A devotee does not ask Krishna for anything else. Krishna knows anyhow what we want, and if Krishna wants us to live long healthy lives and serve the devotees then we will live long and healthy lives, we do not have to ask Krishna for this. And if Krishna wants to kill us right now then for a devotee that is also perfectly OK. He does not mind.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
I was in this whole mode about serving the mission of Prabhupada after I was done with householder life but after leaving my family and moving in my local temple I was shooked at how things have changed in iskcon and in utter discouragement I went back to my family because I cannot find quality association with a advanced devotee. I still practice my sadana.
I was in this whole mode about serving the mission of Prabhupada after I was done with householder life but after leaving my family and moving in my local temple I was shocked at how things have changed in iskcon and in utter discouragement I went back to my family because I cannot find quality association with a advanced devotee. I still practice my sadana.
Yes Prabhu, unfortunately you can not find the association of nice devotees in ISKCON temples anymore. At this point in time living in an ISKCON temple is not an option for one who seriously wants to make advancement in Krishna consciousness…
Yes Prabhu, unfortunately you can not find the association of nice devotees in ISKCON temples anymore. At this point in time living in an ISKCON temple is not an option for one who seriously wants to make advancement in Krishna consciousness…