Finding someone who understands Krishna is VERY rare
We are continuing with our study of Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is Chapter 7. In the second verse Krishna declares to Arjuna:
I shall now declare unto you in full this knowledge both phenomenal and noumenal, by knowing which there shall remain nothing further to be known. (Bhagavad-gita 7.2)
So Krishna is declaring to His friend Arjuna that He is about to explain complete knowledge of both the material and spiritual worlds to him. Complete knowledge means knowledge of this world and knowledge of the spirit behind it.
Krishna wants to explain full knowledge because Arjuna is Krishna’s confidential devotee and friend. In the beginning of the Fourth Chapter this explanation was given by the Lord, and it is again confirmed here: complete knowledge can be achieved only by the devotee of the Lord directly from the Lord in disciplic succession.
Krishna goes on to explain to Arjuna how incredibly rare it is for a person to understand Him in truth. Even out of these souls who are already liberated, already perfected, hardly one of them knows Krishna in truth:
Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth. (Bhagavad-gita 7.3)
Generally mankind is simply engaged in the animal propensities, namely eating, sleeping, defending and mating, and hardly anyone is interested in transcendental knowledge.
The first six chapters of the Gita are meant for those who are interested in transcendental knowledge, in understanding the self, the Superself and the process of realization by jnana-yoga, dhyana-yoga, and discrimination of the self from matter. However, Krishna can only be known by persons who are in Krishna consciousness. Other transcendentalists may achieve impersonal Brahman realization, for this is easier than understanding Krishna.
Krishna is the Supreme Person, but at the same time He is beyond the knowledge of Brahman and Paramatma.
The yogis and jnanis are confused in their attempts to understand Krishna, although the greatest of the impersonalists, Sripada Sankaracarya, has admitted in his Gita commentary that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But his followers do not accept Krishna as such, for it is very difficult to know Krishna, even though one has transcendental realization of impersonal Brahman.
Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes, the primeval Lord Govinda. It is very difficult for the nondevotees to know Him. Although nondevotees declare that the path of bhakti or devotional service is very easy, they cannot practice it. If the path of bhakti is so easy, as the nondevotee class of men proclaim, then why do they take up the difficult path? Actually the path of bhakti is not easy. The so-called path of bhakti practiced by unauthorized persons without knowledge of bhakti may be easy, but when it is practiced factually according to the rules and regulations, the speculative scholars and philosophers fall away from the path. Srila Rupa Gosvami writes in his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu:
“Devotional service of the Lord that ignores the authorized Vedic literatures like the Upanisads, Puranas, Narada-pancaratra, etc., is simply an unnecessary disturbance in society.
”
It is not possible for the Brahman realized impersonalist or the Paramatma realized yogi to understand Krishna the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the son of mother Yasoda or the charioteer of Arjuna. Even the great demigods are sometimes confused about Krishna: “No one knows Me as I am,” the Lord says. And if one does know Him, then, “Such a great soul is very rare.” Therefore unless one practices devotional service to the Lord, he cannot know Krishna as He is, even though one is a great scholar or philosopher.
Only the pure devotees can know something of the inconceivable transcendental qualities in Krishna, in the cause of all causes, in His omnipotence and opulence, and in His wealth, fame, strength, beauty, knowledge and renunciation, because Krishna is benevolently inclined to His devotees. He is the last word in Brahman realization, and the devotees alone can realize Him as He is. Therefore it is said:
“No one can understand Krishna as He is by the blunt material senses. But He reveals Himself to the devotees, being pleased with them for their transcendental loving service unto Him.” (Padma Purana)
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 Krishna, i am not able to concentrate when i chant the hare Krishna mantra, i keep getting all sorts of thoughts, what should i do?
My second question is sometimes i get lots of ecstasy from chanting and some days it feels dry why is the happiness not consistent? And how to feel more happiness, i tried chanting more rounds but thats not working.
Hare Krishna Dheeraj
Yes. It is quite normal. The mind is very disturbed and when we try to chant Hare Krishna so many things will come up, particularly in the beginning. So in the beginning we have to fight. We have to force ourselves to chant Hare Krishna even though our mind is not cooperating. But the sound of the Hare Krishna mantra will drag your mind back to Krishna. That is the idea. Hearing the sound of the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra constantly will drag your mind back to Krishna and gradually your mind will become controlled. And yes. Ecstasy. Actually that is a later stage, it is not so much there in the beginning stages. That is the problem. We are materially contaminated. So for us we are attracted by material sense gratification but we are not attracted by Krishna. That is the sign of our material disease. But the cure of this material disease is chanting Hare Krishna. So just keep on chanting Hare Krishna mantra at least 16 rounds a day 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 and that is the purification process, so by this process gradually you will find your mind becomes much more peaceful and you become more and more attracted to Krishna and less attracted to material sense gratification.
But we have to understand it is a process, it may take some time, of course it can be instant, if we can surrender instantly, but mostly we can’t. So we have to be prepared to surrender to following the regulative principles, chanting Hare Krishna and reading Prabhupada’s books even if we don’t have much attraction to these things, knowing that this is because of our materially diseased condition and the chanting of Hare Krishna is the medicine that will cure our disease.
Srila Prabhupada gives the example of a man suffering from the disease jaundice. In that disease one looses his taste for sweet things. So he can eat sweet things but to him, in his diseased condition, they taste bitter, so he does not like to take sweet things. But for a man with the jaundice disease the sweet things are the cure. So he has to take those sweet things, even though they taste bitter to him, to become cured by the disease.
So you understand the sweet things are not actually bitter, they only appear bitter to him because he has the jaundice disease, and by taking the sweet things, that he does not like because of the disease, he becomes cured.
So in our materially contaminated condition we don’t have any attraction for chanting Hare Krishna. But chanting Hare Krishna is the cure of the material disease. So chanting more rounds will work, even if you fell that it is not working. Chanting Hare Krishna always works, but due to our materially contaminated situation, we may think it is not working.
So this is the whole point of ‘saddhana bhakta’. Saddhana means we accept the regulations and rules and follow them strictly, even though we may not be perceiving the ecstasy, etc. We accept the process of Saddhana-bhakti on the direction of the spiritual master, we have faith in the process and we follow it, even though in the beginning we may have no actual real desire to follow it and may not be able to feel much benefit from it.
So I hope it is helpful.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna
Dear madhu sir,
If we imagine the image of krishna (deity in temple) while chanting mahamantra…it is OK or not..I mean my concern is first we can’t imagine Krishna..Krishna is not subject of our imagination …I read somewhere imagine Krishna is dangerous attempt…but whenever we think about him the image of temple deity comes in your mind…so the question is how imagination in Krishna consciousness works or how to use it…and I have a problem when I face some kind of situation automatically comes in my mind oh now what Krishna is thinking what he deciding. oh he decide I will win oh now he wants me to loose this kind of stupid thouts comes..sometimes I talk with myself and he is saying this or that ..I know i am talking with myself ..but sometime you try to guess oh what he will think next ..i know he is omniscient he knows past present and future already but our mind bother us and try to defeat us …sometimes it tells oh Krishna is here he is there sometimes comes in your dreams you are seeing Krishna …make you fool when tells you oh you are following (KC) very nicely very good..now you became advance you are pure devotee now..now you can stop serve Krishna..how to control these stupid imaginations…
Thank you
Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna Ashish
The idea of chanting Hare Krishna is to chant the mantra with your tongue and hear clearly the mantra with your ears. So that is the process, hearing and chanting. So do not try to imagine Krishna in your mind, etc. That is good of course. Remembering Krishna, remembering the Deity of Krishna you have seen in the temple. That is very good. That is not speculation. You have seen Krishna in the temple, so you can remember that Krishna you have seen in the temple.
But as far as chanting is concerned the process is to chant the Hare Krishna mantra and to hear it. That is all. The power is in the chanting and the hearing of the transcendental sound.
So just concentrate on properly chanting and clearly hearing the Hare Krishna mantra and make sure you chant at least 16 rounds a day. This will be difficult in the beginning. The mind will be distracted. But keep chanting Hare Krishna and keep forcing the mind back onto the transcendental sound vibration of the Hare Krishna mantra and you will achieve success in a short time.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna, Kindly continue mailing me the series on Bhagavad-Gita As It Is
Hare Krishna prabhu,
Can you suggest me books which describe more regarding Krishna consciousness and other books which help to remove ignorance.?
Thanks
Keyul
Yes. All of Srila Prabhupada’s books will help you remove ignorance.
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
Srimad-Bhagavatam.
All Prabhupada’s other books. You can get them at:
https://krishnastore.com/books-srila-prabhupada-om-21_38.html
So get Prabhupada’s books and read them and follow the instrucions you find Srila Prabhupada giving you as you read his books and very soon the ignorance will be removed.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
i have been recieving your e mails since dec 2015 and have been studying them it have changed my life it has brought me closer to krishna thank you so much please continue krishno work
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
I am really grateful for your interaction and enlightenment on Srimad Bhagvad Gita As It Is, by Srila Prabhupada!
It is really great to understand the Science of God through a humble devotee of Lord like you, who is in discipline succession. I have been reading Srimad Bhagvad Gita As It Is! for almost eighth time, but your commentary gives me in-depth understanding of the subject. No doubt it is impossible to know Lord Krishna factually through philosophical or any other knowledge but it is definitely possible to understand the Lord factually through Him or His bonafide devotee. I am really blessed to have association of great devotees like you. Hare Krishna!
Prabhu, I’m really weak in devotional service. Although I do 16 rounds and 1 hour reading , I feel that I am not progressing and I know that, it is because I am not doing it sincerely. I have not surrendered to Srila Prabhupada nor am I able to do so …
Hare Krishna Rukmini
It is OK to feel weak in devotional service. But we have to keep on doing devotional service and we will get strong. And the strength comes from chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day and strictly following the four regulative principles and performing devotional service like distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books.
So do not worry that you can not feel you are advancing. You are advancing. The chanting works and the service works. You will see as you keep on chanting and keep on distributing the books how much stronger and happier you will feel as the years go by. We have to expect it will take a little time. Krishna consciousness usually does not happen overnight. We have to work at it. And we have to be patient. At the same time we have to be very enthusiastic. So this patience and enthusiasm has to go on side by side. You can read more about this in Srila Prabhupada’s Nectar of Instruction.
As for what to say if you have something that works then say that. It is OK to say the same things over and over again to different people. And don’t think everyone will take the books. It is normal that you have to ask about ten people before someone will take a book. So you just have to keep on asking them. You have to become used to people saying no. Because most people say no. Even big big book distributors, still not all the people they ask take the books. They still have to ask about 10 people to find one person who will take the books.
You have to very convinced and very confident in the books and in what you are saying. You have to very firmly believe that these books contain the answers to everyone’s questions, that they are what is missing in this person’s life. As far as exactly what to say you can work on it yourself. If you discover they don’t like to hear the word ‘God’ then don’t say it. As far as Raja-Vidya it is ‘King of Knowledge’. So everyone wants knowledge. Knowledge is power and this book contains the highest, most secret knowledge, the most powerful knowledge. So there is a good thing to say: “Everyone wants knowledge. Knowledge is power and this book contains the highest, most secret knowledge, the most perfect knowledge.” You want to get the message across that by reading this book the person will become empowered. You don’t have to say a lot about the book. Your business is only to convince them to take the book. When they read the book Srila Prabhupada will preach to them directly and that is the main point. Our job is to just convince them that there is something valuable in the book and get them to give a donation for the book.
All the same lines you were using before are also good for Raja Vidya. It is also timeless knowledge from the ancient and now almost lost Vedic culture. You can quote the verse: Raja vidya, raja guhyam pavitram idam utamam partyaksa…..
The point is just do it. Just put some books in your bag and go out and distribute them. The people will take them. Not all the people will take, but at least one person out of every ten people you ask will take. So if you ask 100 people you will sell at least 10 books. And if you do this every day then in a month you will have sold 300 books which is very good.
So it requires patience and determination. You have to go out every day and be determined to do it and at the same time you have to be patient and not become discouraged if you go out and many people say no. You have to expect that most people will say know. And you have to know that even for big book distributors most people say no to them. But they do not become discouraged by this. They just keep on asking more people and in this way they distribute a lot of books…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna , Prabhu Madhudvisa
Kindly enlighten me about the differences and other implications between chanting
Hare Rama Hare Rama Hare Hare , Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Hare
and
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Hare Hare
Prabhuji -r Jay hok
Hare Krishna
Snehasis
There is no difference at all.
Krsna is the extreme soul of the milkyway and is in every living entity of this materialistic world .
We have to dwell into him to achieve the bliss by purifying ourself from within.
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
Could you please tell me what exactly Mangal Aroti is and how to perform it ?
Thank you.
I will write an article about this in the future. But you can get Morning Program CDs and song book and traveling temple at:
http://krishnastore.com/traveling-hare-krishna-temple-morning-program-cds-h-krishna-485.html
Actual offering of the aroti is not very important. You can get some incense and flowers and offer that to some pictures of Srila Prabhupada and Panca-Tattva and Krishna. Very elaborate and complicate offering of aroti is not necessary. What is necessary is Kirtan. Chanting the Hare Krisha mantra. So the main thing is to set your alarm clock at 4:00 AM and get out of bed when it rings and take bath and put on fresh cloths and go to the room where you have the pictures of Srila Prabhupada and Panca Tattva and chant the morning program songs (samsaradavanala lida loka… etc) and have a kirtan (chant Hare Krishna) and chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra on your japa beads and read from Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is and Srimad-Bhagavatam. These are the important things.
So do this. And gradually it will develop and gradually you can offer a more elaborate Mangal Aroti.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa Prabhu !
I was reading an article by Srila Prabhupada in which he mentions the following :
There is no question of sacrifice, but sacrifice means to give up the
doggish mentality that “I am the Lord, I am God, I am the enjoyer.”
Now what I didn’t understand is that why does Srila Prabhupada consider as
doggish mentality the attitude of “I am the enjoyer” ???
your comments will be very appreciated.
Thankyou
Hare Krishna !
Brijesh Dani
Hare Krishna Brijesh
A dog is like that. He considers a certain area belongs to him and if any other dog dares to come into his territory he will fight to the death to defend his territory. It is like that. If you do not understand something in Srila Prabhupada’s books then just keep reading and ultimately everything will become crystal clear.
We are so dull, we can not expect to be able to understand everything in the Vedas, but if we hear with a submissive and humble attitude still the effect will be there and our consciousness will become purified and we will ultimately become Krishna conscious.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare krishna prabhu!
Thank you for the nice articles! I was just having some doubts and thought of seeking your help. I thought that krishna loves us too much and observes us and feel for us. But i just flipped through some pages in gita and saw that krishna said he is always neutral! I am somehow disturbed by this statement of his! How can he be neutral! If he were he would never have saved prahlad maharaj and appeared as nrsingha dev! He would have let hiranyakasipu harm prahlad by staying neutral! He would never have saved draupadi’s honour but rather let her get disrobed by the wicked dushasan!! How can he be neutral to us??!! Please help me prabhuji!! I am sorry if i have made some offence!
Hare Krishna Sundaree
Yes. Krishna is neutral but at the same time if you keep on reading Bhagavad-gita you will find that Krishna also protects His devotees and destroys the demons [paritraay sadhunam vinasya ca duskritam].
Krisha is equal to everyone but He responds according to one’s surrender. So if one is a devotee and he surrenders to Krishna then Krishna will respond to that, but if one is a demon and wants to attack Krishna Krishna may respond by killing the demon.
Krishna is actually equal to everyone and Krishna’s killing the demons is also mercy for the demons. It is good for the demons to be killed by Krishan. So it is not that Krishna hates the demons and loves the devotees. No. Krishna loves everyone, demons and devotees alike, but He reciprocates according to the surrender…
Our business should be to love Krishna and serve Krishna without any expectation of return from Krishna. That is real love.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna prabhu jji
all glories to bhakta prhalad maharaj and prabhu Narsimha deva
all glories to srila prabhupada
AWESOME
and if I am right, we can develoup that true love or we can remember that forgotten true love of ours towards Krishna through his divine grace srila prabhupad’s books!!!!
then we’ll love Krishna-he will love us without us loveing maya (he is always loving us we need to REMEMBER, we need to REALIZE)
HARI BOL !!! HARI BOL!!!
Hare Krishna Prabhuji,
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All Glories to Srila Prabhupad.
All Glories To Sri Guru and Gauranga.
I would like to really thank and appreciate the painstaking efforts of yours to serve Guru and Gauranga in this wonderful manner. Prabhuji this has been a wonderful service of yours to send us such intriguing articles and further take extra efforts to answer the doubts of each one of us.
This service holds a lot of importance owing to the fact that the internet has a deep reach in society today, specially among the youths.
I would really look forward to your further correspondences.
Ys
Thank u very much for ur valuable words . I am just an nano atom in this path. forgive me if I ask a wrong question. u had showed me a right path . I will go in that path for Lord Krishna’s consciousness.
Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna,
In terms of Lord Krishna having many wives and girlfriends and the persons with poor fund of knowledge misunderstanding this, Srila PRabhupada said in one of the lectures…”Many yogis exercise so much amount of self control, perform so many austerities, take so much pain and take to celibacy simply to experience little brahma sukham or enjoy a fragment of brahma realisation.. and if the Supreme Brahman, Lord Krishna who is the source of that Brahman wants to enjoy HIS pastimes, will HE come down to this material platform of sense gratification?” Point to ponder upon and a very powerful statement by Prabhupada that can shut the mouths of many so called mayavadis who lack the vision to understand Krishna and HIS pastimes
Prabu
Lord has many wifes . why? and what is transcendental truth behind this information.I know lord will do with principles. But I am not able to explain the people who are criticizing lord . Please help me to tell an apt explanation. so that I can shut their mouth. Please help me.
Hare krishna
Hare Krishna Velusubhash
Actually only a devotee can understand Krishna, a non-devotee can not understand Krishna. So it is not really possible to explain Krishna and His activities to a non-devotee.
It is better to avoid those who are inimical and find some person who may not be a devotee, but who is at least a little bit interested in hearing what you have to say about Krishna. This is a prerequisite for us to preach or speak about Krishna to anyone. The person has to be at least slightly interested in hearing about Krishna from us and at least open to considering that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But if they are very strongly associating with some religion and are fanatical and offensive and against Krishna, then us speaking to them about Krishna will just agitate them more and make them commit more offenses. So a preacher has to know this. Who to speak to and who not to speak to. You probably know that preaching to the faithless is one of the ten offenses in chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, so this can be detrimental to our devotional service also.
Of course the real pure devotees, they can devise some scheme to convince these people also, like Lord Caitanya did with the Mayavadis and Buddhists. But this is for the very advanced devotees who can actually do it without upsetting the people and they can actually convince them to take up Krishna consciousness.
Of course also for preaching we can not preach something that we do not know and have thoroughly realized ourselves. So actually preaching is really only possible for one who has some practical realization of Krishna consciousness. So the main thing is we have to become pure devotees of Krishna ourselves and then we will never be at a loss for words and we will never not know the answer to any question, because Krishna is in our hearts and he is guiding us. But we can not perceive Krishna in our hearts and follow His guidance without first becoming purified ourselves. So we have to follow the saddhana-bhakti process ourselves very strictly. We have to rise before 4:00 AM in the morning, offer Mangal Aroti, chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily, 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. We have to surrender to these things and actually become very fixed up in practicing all these things ourselves. And as a result of this we will actually become Krishna conscious and then, by Srila Prabhupada’s and Krishna’s mercy, we will automatically know how to answer every question and how to deal with every person we meet.
So the most important thing is to become really seriously Krishna conscious ourselves, then everything else will be automatically all right. But if we refuse to surrender to even these basic points like getting out of bed before 4:00 AM, chanting 16 rounds, following the four regulative principles and reading Prabhupada’s books then we will not be Krishna conscious ourselves, we will not understand Krishna ourselves, so we will not be able to explain anything about Krishna to others.
Krishna not only has many wives, of course Krishna also has many girlfriends, the gopis of Vrindavan, and some of them are also married but not to Krishna. So for the non-devotees it may seem strange and they can not understand of course. But actually Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, our only business is to render service to Krishna, and service can be rendered to Krishna in five favorable ways: santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya and madhuraya. This is in a neutral way, in awe and reverence [as one worships a king], as a friend, as a parent of Krishna, and as Krishna’s lover. So this falling in love with Krishna is also service to Krishna. But non-can not understand this. They have no conception of God even. They have no idea that God is a person, and no idea that one can have these loving relationships with God. Also these relations of Krishna with the gopis and with His wives are confidential and not for public discussion even among the devotees. Lord Caitanya never discussed these things with anyone except three confidential devotees. So there is no way of understanding Krishna’s dealings with His wives and His dealings with His devotees unless one becomes an advanced devotee of Krishna. So there is no way really of explaining these things to non-devotees. These things are not even to be talked about by devotees on the lower platform because they can not be understood even by these devotees.
The problem is that there is a tendency to consider Krishna to be on the same level as ourselves. And it happens so much in India, in Vrindava, in Radha-Kund, you find so many rascal babajis who are doing their own Rasa-Lila with their own gopis… Such demons imitate Krishna and fools accept them and worship them. But actually they are demons.
So these are very delicate subject matters not to be discussed with non-devotees and not even to be discussed among devotees in general.
So your only real option is just avoid such people. They are inimical, they are not interested in hearing about Krishna, and even if you try and explain Krishna to them, no matter what you say, they are going to become more inimical, more offensive. So it is better to just avoid them and speak to some other people who are actually interested to at least listen to what you have to say.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Dear madhudvisa
Hare Krishna
The new look website looks exciting!
Hare kishna
Spencer
Thank you Madhudvisa dasa.
hare krishna guruji… I was reading the article -finding someone who understands Krishna is VERY rare.. which you sent me . I always keep them with me. Guruji ,, I have taken admission in engineering college ( 4 years course). It needs a lot of hard work . My question is how do i manage all these 4 years ,, so that I am able to do full justice to my studies ,, as I would be giving more importance in B.Tech and simultaneously i am able to chant by ignoring all sorts of distractions. I leave by 7 in the morning and come home at 7 pm. so rest 4-5 hours i will devote to my studies. whwnever I get time as during lunch or free time ,,,, I offer to Lord & chant ,, is this sufficient . my sole purpose is to become a PURE ETERNAL DEVOTEE of HARI. Engineering is just a step to reach there,, its my aim which I am doing for my parents & for me ,, to establish my self. Rest I leave it to GOD . I am scared whether I would be able to score well or not. please Guide me guruji….., jai shri krishna….I need help
Hare Krishna Anurag
You can only do your best. Not everyone has the ability to score wonderfully at these exams. Of course you have to maintain yourself and ultimately you will get married and have a family of your own and you will have to maintain your wife and children also. So you do need to have some education and be able to support them. But at the same time we ultimately have to depend on Krishna and we have to surrender to Krishna’s plan. Devotees generally do not make any very big effort for maintaining themselves and their families and somehow Krishna arranges to look after them. Of course we have to make some effort. That is our duty. But at the same time we can not neglect our Krishna consciousness. If you are leaving at 7 and coming home at 7 I suspect you are spending a lot of time commuting to and from school. There is no reason why you can not take your japa beads with you and chant Hare Krishna while you are on the train or whatever.
We have to chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day and we have to strictly follow the four regulative principles (no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication) and we have to find time to read from Srila Prabhupada’s books every day. Ideally at least 1-2 hours. So these things we have to do, they are absolutely essential if we want to maintain any level of Krishna consciousness at all. Particularly in a situation like yours where you are in the universities and colleges which are full of maya and full of opportunities for falling down from spiritual life. So if you are not strong from chanting Hare Krishna and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books it will be very difficult for you to maintain any Krishna consciousness at all in that situation.
So I suggest that you surrender to the fact that you must chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily, you must strictly follow the four regulative principles, and you must read Srila Prabhupada’s books daily. This will help your studies, it will not harm your studies. The chanting will make your mind peaceful and undisturbed and as a result you will be able to concentrate better on your studies and you will achieve more in your studies in less time. So do not be afraid to spend the time chanting Hare Krishna. And of course we have to be out of bed for the Brahma-muhurta, the most auspicious time of the day and the best time for chanting Hare Krishna, which starts 1.5 hours before sunrise. So we need to get up 2 hours before sunrise so Srila Prabhupada made the standard in ISKCON that Mangal-aroti is at 4:30 AM, so all the devotees get up before 4:00 AM so they have time to take bath and get ready for Mangal Aroti at 4:30 AM. And it is not difficult to get out of bed early in the morning. It is just practice. And you can go to bed a bit earlier. If you chant from 4:30 AM till 6:00 AM, then you will chant ten rounds or something, which is a very good start, then you could read from Prabhupada’s books from 6:00 to 6:30, then you still have an hour for more spiritual activities or for getting ready for work.
So like this we just have to make the time for Krishna consciousness in our lives.
You have to be very careful never to fall for this “I am too busy for Krishna consciousness. I have much more important things to do…” This is maya. And for you at the moment it is your studies. But maya will provide you with “very important” things like this all the way throughout your life to always distract you from Krishna consciousness. So you can not let maya trick you like this. Your studies in Krishna consciousness are important, your chanting of Hare Krishna is important, your reading of Srila Prabhupada’s books is your real education. Other things are secondary and you just have to fit them around the essential Krishna conscious activities in your life.
And some people excel at studies and others do not. There is really nothing you can do about this. It is not actually according to how hard you work. Your success or failure in studies or anything else in the material world is already fixed up by your karma. All we can do is perform our duties unattached to the results. That means we do our best and we know that we have done our best and that is all we can do. The result is in Krishna’s hands. So if we are successful we say that is Krishna’s mercy, but if we fail, also we say that is Krishna’s mercy. This is performing your duty being unattached to the results…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Madhudvisa
Hare Krishna
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada
I would wish make you a question. I participate in Kirtans plays for Iskcon fake gurus.
In those kirtans one to end felt something of happiness. If service than make the Iskcon fakes gurus is contaminated, than type happiness is those than we feeled?
Thank you, for answer.
Hare Krishna Adan
Kirtan is not really for ISKCON fake gurus. You are not chanting their names. You are chanting Krishna’s names. So when you are chanting Krishna’s names you are glorifying the name of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, not ISKCON’s fake gurus. So you know in Kali-yuga the yuga-dharma or the religious principle for this age is Sankirtan, or many men coming together to congregationally chant the Hare Krishna mantra… Even if there is some contamination like the sahajiyas, still they are chanting the holy names of Krishna, so there is hope.
The point is that we should become pure devotees of Krishna ourselves by reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and following his instructions strictly and to the degree of our purity then when we chant Hare Krishna the people who hear us chanting Hare Krishna will be purified.
And surely most, if not all, of ISKCON’s gurus really want to become Krishna conscious, so your best service to them is to become a pure devotee of Krishna and chant Hare Krishna and by your influence inspire everyone around you, including ISKCON’s fake gurus to chant Hare Krishna and dance in the ecstasy of Lord Caitanya’s sankirtan movement.
Kirtan is such a thing that if it is performed by pure devotees it will naturally engulf everyone else around the kirtan, it does not matter if they are pure or not, they will all drown in the ocean of Lord Caitanaya’s sankirtan movement. But the actual kirtan performers have to be really pure to get this effect, but even if the kirtan performers are not completely pure still they are chanting Hare Krishna, they will become pure if they keep chanting Hare Krishna. Chanting Hare Krishna is like fire. If you are around a fire you are going to get hot, that is the nature of fire. You can not be around fire and not get hot. So if you always surround yourself with the chanting of Hare Krishna then you are going to become Krishna conscious. Even Kamsa became Krishna conscious and was ultimately liberated also. Because he was always thinking about Krishna constantly 24 hours a day. But he was thinking of killing Krishna, this is not really devotional service but because Kamsa was always thinking of Krishna, even though in an unfavorable way, still it acted and he was purified in the end.
As far as the bogus ISKCON gurus, the ISKCON guru system is bogus and the ISKCON gurus must be bogus because they are taking part in that bogus system. But still they are devotees and disciples of Srila Prabhupada and they have dedicated their life to preaching Krishna consciousness. So you know there is still hope. In fact there is more than hope. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita that once one has started on this path of Krishna consciousness it will be completed. So the bogus ISKCON gurus are devotees and they are doing a lot of service and they are chanting Hare Krishna and they are surrounded by other devotees chanting Hare Krishna. Of course because of the ocean of offenses ISKCON is committing to Srila Prabhupada by rejecting his instructions in so many ways and by their attacking and blaspheming and banning from the temples anyone who actually does surrender to Srila Prabhupada, it is very difficult for anyone in ISKCON to make spiritual advancement at the moment. These offenses are very powerful and if one is offending Srila Prabhupada and the actual followers of Srila Prabhupada in this way while themselves posing as followers of Srila Prabhupada while not actually following Srila Prabhupada… It is a very bad situation. And that is the problem today’s ISKCON is currently in…
But still there is hope. They are chanting Hare Krishna and surrounded by other devotees chanting Hare Krishna, so there is every chance that some of them or maybe all of them will wake up ‘jiv jago!!’ and realize that they should actually follow Srila Prabhupada and that they should not attack, blaspheme and ban from the temples the devotees who are actually following Srila Prabhupada.
It seems that this would be an obvious thing for them to do but in Kali-yuga everyone’s brain is very slow…
Anyhow, if you become a pure devotee of Krishna and chant Hare Krishna, then that pure chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra will purify you and purify everyone who hears your chanting and you will be doing the greatest service to Srila Prabhupada, to Krishna, and to ISKCON’s bogus gurus…
ISKCON’s bogus gurus have to be bogus because the system they are following in ISKCON is bogus. But you know many of them, probably all of them, are very nice devotees. Kali-yuga is like this. It is an ocean of faults and it is full of contradictions… But there is one great benefit in the Kali-yuga, all the contradictions and discrepancies can be corrected simply by chanting:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
So chant Hare Krishna and be happy and make all the others around you happy also!
Madhudvisa dasa
dear,
what do you think about holy bible.I read it regularly.I find lord is speaking to me through bible.I am Hindu by berth. I read bhagwat gita as it is .
please don’t think I m testing you.I just want to know
from
Ajay
Hare Krishna Ajay
I grew up as a Christian, a Catholic, and went to Catholic schools so I read the Bible quite a lot and as you say it is good and God is certainly speaking in the Bible and it is good. When I discovered Srila Prabhupada’s books including the Bhagavad-gita As It Is I did not find anything in Prabhupada’s books that really contradicted anything I had learned as a Catholic reading the Bible. But when I was reading the Bible it was not clear. There were so many points in the Bible that I could not understand or that did not make sense to me. However when I read Srila Prabhupada’s books I found the same subject matter that is in the Bible, but I found that it is explained in so much greater detail and with so much more clarity than in the Bible.
For example in the Bible the idea of God is somewhat fuzzy. God is Jesus’s father, and some Christians think that Jesus is God, some think Jesus is the Son of God, some think he is both. Some Christians paint pictures of God as an old man with a beard sitting on a throne in Heaven with Jesus at His right hand. So in the Bible even the idea of God is very unclear and as a result Christians actually have no idea really who or what God is. Everything in the Bible is somewhat like this. It is good as far as it goes but it does not go very far.
You can compare the Bible to the Vedic literature in that they are both covering the same subject matter. And what is presented in the Bible is not wrong, but the Bible only presents a tiny percentage of the knowledge that is available in the Vedas. So the Bible is like an introductory book to the science of God. It is very good, as far as it goes. But really it does not go very far.
Therefore the serious students who are interested in actually understanding the science of God in full detail will ultimately find the Bible a little frustrating because the Bible does not contain that scientific detail. Jesus was preaching to some fishermen living in the desert. They were not very great intellectuals and did not have the capacity for comprehending great scientific and philosophical principles. So Jesus has given them the basic principles and morality in the Bible. But as Jesus himself says in the Bible: “There are so many things that I have not told you, because if I told you you could not bear it.” So the Bible is an introductory book and if one wants to develop in spiritual life further or if he wants to understand things in a deeply philosophical or scientific manner then this is not really possible through the Bible. Of course to develop love for God does not require science or philosophy. So one can develop love for God by reading the Bible and following the teachings of Lord Jesus Christ. But it requires blind faith. Jesus gives the instructions to his disciples they should follow, but he does not back this up by science and philosophy. But now we live in an age of science and philosophy. So in this age the people want to understand spirituality through science and philosophy. And to do this one has to advance to a higher level than what is presented in the Bible.
Therefore most people these days will find reading Srila Prabhupada’s books to be so much more satisfying than reading the Bible. There is no contradiction. It is not that Srila Prabhupada is contradicting anything that Lord Jesus Christ is saying, but Prabhupada is giving us so much more information about God, in so much detail and backed up by such perfect scientific and philosophical knowledge.
So I suggest that you not just read Bhagavad-gita, but that you read all of Srila Prabhupada’s books and in this way your understand and realization of Krishna and God will expand unlimited.
Although I read the Bible a lot before coming to Krishna consciousness, I have never read it since I discovered Srila Prabhupada’s books. There is no need. Everything we can find in the Bible we can find in Prabhupada’s books, but in Prabhupada’s books it is explained in so much greater detail and with complete philosophical and scientific explanations.
So any sincere seeker of the truth will naturally ultimately be drawn to reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and will find everything that he is searching for there, no matter what sort of philosophy or religion he originally comes from.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
At the first place all know that Krishna is the cause for all causes.
Due to the effects of the causes, the knowledge is available and that is what Krishna said in 7.2, … there shall be nothing further to be known. This is because they are given to all by Krishna.
In 7.3 Krishna himself says …. hardly one knows Me in truth. He right by perfectionist one cannot know the truth.
All of us are the effects of the causes and if the effects are perfect when where is the gap in knowing the truth.
I would say the knowledge given by Krishna and the truth behind it is hidden and all of us are unable to understand. The first truth to be understood is how this is hidden and open the pandoras box.
For instance from the purana story that when Krishn as Mohini was serving the Amruth to both Good and evil, one evil understood the truth of who Mohini is and tried to be good for receiving the amruth, where both good and evil did not know this except Krishna.
Even if one perfected, Hardly one knows Me in truth was the explanation of krishna.
Krishna says even at death bed if anyone utters “Narayana”, he is sent to heaven; meaning simply utter “Narayana” or Krishna or ram or … then one can reduce the gap in understanding the knowledge given to all by krishna.
For isntance Naradha said smae thing to Valmiki to utter RAM and he did that and he became a saint and the author of Ramayana
Krishn’s words are very simple and interpretation should be simple too
due to illness i never joined the movement at a temple (i am 50) it sadly would seem to be a blessing in disguise as i am not wanting to be led astray. i appreciate your words and thank you for your honesty
sir.
kind regards
rick
Hare Krsna Prabhu,
When I lived in the Hare Krsna Temple in New York, I knew Jadarani devi dasi, she had suggested that I read the Seventh Chapter of Bhagavad Gita, Knowledge of the Absolute. Yes that chapter is very special to me. Do you know if Jadarani is still living and where she is, what temple? Thank you for your emails, that are encouraging. Thank you, Prabhu.
Marilynn
Hare Krishna Marilynn
It is very good to hear from you and at that point in time Jadarani gave you some good advice. But unfortunately she has since left Srila Prabhupada and taken reinitiation from one of the disciples of one of Srila Prabhupada’s godbrothers. She is not called Jadarani any more, she has rejected that name, and rejected Srila Prabhupada.
So now she is in no position to help you unfortunately. She has disconnected herself from Srila Prabhupada and thus disconnected herself from Krishna…
It is very sad but we have to understand things as they are and no be sentimental.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa