The Power of the Disciplic Succession, Guru Parampara
Spiritual knowledge descends through the disciplic succession from Krishna. The representatives of the disciplic succession can not change anything, add anything or subtract anything. Otherwise the disciplic succession will be broken and their preaching will have no potency. Many times in the history this disciplic succession has been broken because the representatives of the disciplic succession did not correctly pass on the knowledge to their students.
We can understand how perfect knowledge can be received. This information is given to us by Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in the Bhagavad Gita, particularly in Chapter 4 Texts 1 and 2.
The Blessed Lord said: I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god, Vivasvān, and Vivasvān instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Ikṣvāku. (Bhagavad Gita 4.1)
This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost. (Bhagavad Gita 4.2)
These two verses describe the process by which this knowledge of Bhagavad Gita has come into our hands and that process is that Krishna originally spoke Bhagavad Gita at the beginning of time as we know it, at the creation of the universe the the sun god, Vivasvan. Vivasvan, by our calculation is very, very old. We can not even imagine the age of the sun god. This is an unbelievable amount of time. Vivasvan, the sun god then instructed the science of Bhagavad Gita to his sons and disciples.
So Vivasvan heard the Bhagavad Gita from Krishna and then Vivasvan spoke the same Bhagavad Gita to his son Manu, the father of mankind and Manu in turn instructed it to Iksvaku. This is the history of Bhagavad Gita. Originally Krishna spoke Bhagavad Gita to Vivasvan the sun god, and that was such a long time ago that we cannot even imagine. Vivasvan then spoke the Bhagavad Gita to his son Manu who is the father of mankind and then in turn Manu spoke that same Bhagavad Gita to Iksvaku who 2,500,000 years ago was the king of this earth planet.
We can understand then that Bhagavad Gita has been present in human society for at least 2,500,000 years from the time when Manu instructed it to his son Iksvaku who was then the king of this whole planet. Unfortunately after some time the knowledge of Bhagavad Gita became lost. This is the nature of the material world. Everything we find in this material world goes through different stages. It is created, it exists for some time, it produces some by-products, it dwindles and then it vanishes. This is the power of time, time is very, very powerful and time wears away everything.
Even if some very perfect spiritual knowledge is established at some point in time then, because of the destructive nature of time, in time this knowledge will be misunderstood, it will be misrepresented by the various generations.
This knowledge of Krishna consciousness that Krishna has given us in the Bhagavad Gita is very delicate knowledge. This knowledge is only potent, it only acts if it is received in the pure disciplic succession and that disciplic succession can be very easily broken. This means that the preachers of Bhagavad Gita have an incredibly great responsibility. As soon as we speak anything, supposedly on Bhagavad Gita which is not simply knowledge that we have heard in the disciplic succession then we have broken the disciplic succession.
The responsibility of the reciter of the Bhagavad Gita is to hear the perfect knowledge from his bona fide spiritual master and simply to repeat that knowledge to the people he is speaking to. He has no authorization to present his own opinion or to add anything new or to subtract anything that was originally in the message as it was presented by Krishna to the sun god Vivasvan , as Vivasvan presented that same message to his son Manu, and as Manu presented that same message to his son Iksvaku. That was 2,500,000 years ago and that was when this Bhagavad Gita entered into the human society through this king, Maharaja Iksvaku, who was at that time the king of the whole planet.
Therefore, the actual qualification of a real spiritual master is that he simply presents perfectly the knowledge that has been given to him by his bona fide spiritual master to the people who come to hear from him. He does not introduce any of his own opinions, he doesn’t add any new information and he does not subtract anything which was there in the original message as it was distributed by Krishna.
Although this appears to be a very simple thing to do, a very simple process, it goes against the very nature of our conditioned life in the material world. In the conditioned state in the material world we are thinking that, “I am very important,” and that “My ideas, my opinion is very valuable.
” We are thinking like this, in the conditioned state of life. This mentality makes it almost impossible for someone who is in the conditioned state of life, someone who is not a liberated soul, to speak on the Bhagavad Gita.
The problem is one who is in the materialistic concept of life will be thinking that “I am the body” and that “I have some very important ideas” and “My ideas are very valuable.” So instead of simply humbly hearing the message of Bhagavad Gita from his bona fide spiritual master and simply humbly repeating that same message, the same message that’s been handed down through the disciplic succession since before the beginning of time, he will want to put his own twist on the message, give it his own spin, and as soon as we add any of our own ideas, any of our own opinions, no matter how nice or how wonderful we think they are, into the message of Bhagavad Gita, we have broken the disciplic succession, we have broken the param para. What we are speaking is no longer representative of the disciplic succession, no longer representative of the param para. The transcendental knowledge will not flow through us.
This is a very mystical thing, the Bhagavad Gita, and the knowledge we find inside the Bhagavad Gita, and how one comes to understand the Bhagavad Gita. These are not simply words printed on paper that one can understand through scholarship, by simply studying the words, studying the language. Understanding of Bhagavad Gita is not possible in that way. The understanding comes from hearing the words of a pure devotee in the disciplic succession, someone who is not adding his own opinion.
Actually “pure devotee” is not a very difficult thing, not a very complicated thing, in one sense, it simply means someone who follows the principles which are set out in the Bhagavad Gita. The pure devotee is very humble and he thinks “My opinion is worthless,” “My knowledge is worthless,” “I am nothing,” All I can do is I have heard this knowledge from my spiritual master and I am simply going to deliver it to whoever I meet, I will simply speak the same thing that I have heard from Srila Prabhupada. In that way, because we are simply repeating the message, then the message will be powerful. It is the message that is powerful, it is not us that are powerful. So we have to become simply carriers of the message.
Srila Prabhupada often gives a very nice example in regard to the postman. The responsibility of the postman is he will take the letter with some person’s address on it and he will simply take that letter and deliver it to that person. When he does this he has performed his duty very nicely. The postman may not be a very qualified person and the letter may contain some very valuable thing. The postman may be a poor man, but the letter or parcel may contain some very valuable thing. The parcel may contain a beautiful diamond ring worth millions of dollars. The postman is a poor man, his responsibility, his duty, is to simply take that parcel and deliver it to the person who’s address is written on the parcel.
If he does that then the person gets that million dollar diamond. So even though the postman himself is not a millionaire, he simply accepts that this is my duty, my duty is to take this parcel and to deliver it to the person who’s name is written on the parcel, and he delivers the million dollar diamond.
So, similarly, the business of the spiritual master is like that. The business of the spiritual master is that he takes the messages that have been given to him by his bona fide spiritual master and whoever comes to him, he simply delivers that same message. Actually anyone can do this. It requires humility and submission and it requires surrender. It is a very simple thing, actually, but we have to come to this point of surrender and humility, and this point of actually realizing that my mental speculation, my intellect, my knowledge, my ideas, they’re all useless, they’re all faulty.
This can be a very difficult thing to come to realize because we are so attached to our mental speculation, to the whole process. The whole world, the “scientific method,” is built on this mental speculation. The whole idea which is underlying the world which we live in, the material world, is that by this process of mental speculation we can advance the knowledge of mankind, that we can create a better world, that we can advance. This is the whole background of the material world–but it’s false.
If you carefully study the results of all this mental speculation and scientific advancement that we see in the world you will find that people are not any more happy than they were 1,000 years ago or 100 years ago. In fact the people are much more distressed now and full of anxieties and the world has become a very dangerous place. Everywhere, all over the world at the present time, there are big, big wars going on, there’s fighting everywhere, there’s terrorism. You can not walk on the street. If you go outside your house there is the very real fear that there will be some criminal who will give you trouble, steal your money. So many disturbing activities are going on, people are simply afraid, they’re always full of fear.
So what’s happened? All these big, big scientists and philosophers have been speculating and coming up with so many ideas and they are sincerely thinking that these ideas will help the people to become “happy,” that they will help the world to become better organized. So what is the outcome of all this mental speculation? The outcome is that the people are more unhappy, more distressed, more anxious than ever before.
Bringing this back to the disciplic succession. The reason I am giving this example of the results of the modern scientific and philosophical mental speculation is even though the scientists and philosophers who have come up with the technology and the philosophy which underpins the way the current materialistic world is running were very sincerely working and were thinking that “My ideas and my scientific advancements will help the people to become happy,” or “My philosophical ideas or my political ideas will created a governmental system in which people will be very happy…” They were sincerely trying for very noble goals from the materialistic point of view but the outcome has been the opposite. The outcome has been very bad. Instead of creating happiness for the people they have created great distress and great misery. But they did not intend to do this, they intended to make the world a better place.
We have been trained in mental speculation from birth. We have been trained to think that there is some value in our ideas, there is some value in our opinion and that we have some capacity with our own strength, with our own mind, to come up with brilliant ideas that will solve the problems of the world and make the people happy. But this is not the way, this will never be successful, our ideas born of mental speculation will not help anyone. It is only Krishna’s ideas, Krishna’s opinion that will help. And the only way we can find out what are Krishna’s ideas and what is His opinion is to hear from a pure devotee of Krishna in the bona fide disciplic succession.
If we are going to become Krishna conscious or if we are going to become able to present this knowledge to others, if we’re going to become empowered by Krishna to preach we have to completely give up this idea that I can do anything valuable on my own strength. We cannot come up with any valuable ideas ourselves. We cannot come up with anything worthwhile.
First we must hear from Krishna and we must hear from the bona fide spiritual master in disciplic succession, we must hear from Srila Prabhhupada, and we need to accept what he is presenting and follow it in our lives and then repeat it to others, simply present the same message and that will be powerful.
This disciplic succession is such an essential point and it is so easy for the disciplic succession to become broken. We see throughout the history that the disciplic succession is often being broken. In the beginning of time Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita to the sun god Vivasvan, Vivasvan instructed it to his son Manu, Manu instructed it to his son Iksvaku and Iksvaku was the king of the earth planet 2,500,000 years ago. For some time this knowledge was being passed down through the saintly kings. Maharaja Iksvaku taught the Bhagavad Gita to his sons who in turn became kings and would teach the same Bhagavad Gita to their sons. But after some time, even though the Bhagavad Gita was still there, people were still speaking on the Bhagavad Gita, however the actual knowledge, the essence of the message of the Bhagavad Gita was lost.
Five thousand years ago Krishna detected that the message of the Bhagavad Gita had become completely lost and therefore there was a need for Him to appear as Krishna to speak the Bhagavad Gita again to His friend and disciple, Arjuna. This is the reason Krishna appeared within the material world.
“This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.” (Bhagavad Gita 4.2)
So this is why Krishna appears. He appears because that knowledge which He originally spoke and which was passed down through the saintly kings in the disciplic succession had become lost. So there is periodically a necessity for Krishna to come himself as an incarnation or for Krishna to send His empowered representative, his pure devotee, to re-establish the principles of religion in the material world. This is because, as we have been speaking, even if the pure religious principles are established, they will be lost in the course of time.
This happens again and again and again. It happened before the advent of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in West Bengal in India, and Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna Himself personally. Also at that time, 500 years ago, the message of the Bhagavad Gita, the param para, the knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita had been lost so Krishna again appeared in the form of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught the teachings of Bhagavad Gita, the teachings of Krishna in the mood of a devotee of Krishna. So the teachings of Lord Caitanya and the teachings of Lord Krishna are the same because Lord Caitanya is Krishna, the same Krishna.
It did not take very long after Lord Caitanya re-established the disciplic succession, the pure param para, that the Bhagavad Gita was again not being understood correctly. Not so long after Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu left this planet some of His disciples also deviated from His pure teachings and schisms developed and there were different groups of followers of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu who started to have different opinions. However in spiritual life there are no different opinions, there is only one opinion and that’s the opinion of Krishna. As soon as we see devotees with different opinions we can understand either one of them or both of them have lost the param para or broken the disciplic succession.
There can not be different opinions in understanding the Bhagavad Gita. There is only one opinion. Krishna’s opinion only. So we have to find the pure representative who is actually empowered to present Krishna’s opinion. This is valuable. Krishna’s opinion is very valuable but our opinion or anyone else’s opinion is completely useless. This is actually the key to understanding and advancing in spiritual life: that Krishna’s opinion is valuable and everbody else’s opinion is completely useless, worthless. This is the beginning.
We have to give up this idea that “My opinion has some value.”
So we see that even a few years after Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu disapeared some of his disciples started quarreling and different factions of disciples appeared presenting different opinions. By the time of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura who was preaching in the late 1800’s. In 1896 Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura sent his booklet, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu–His life and Precepts, all over the world to different Universities. It was found by one of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples in the McGill university in Canada. So we can see from this that even in 1896 Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur had this dream to preach Krishna consciousness all over the world.
But the point of Bhaktivinoda Thakur is that at his time, in the late 1800’s, the whole message of Bhagavad Gita was completely lost. Krishna, as Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, appeared in 1486 and He established the pure knowledge of Bhagavad Gita and in the early 1500’s Lord Caitanya flooded the subcontinent of India with His message of Love of God. He established the clear understanding of Bhagavad Gita.
However by the late 1800’s, maybe 450 years later, there was no hint of the pure teachings of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu or the pure teachings of Krishna and the message of the Bhagavad Gita had been completely lost again. The disciplic succession, the param para was completely broken.
The way the disciplic succession was re-established was through Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s studies of the writings of the Vaisnava Acharyas, particularaly the Six Gosvamis of Vrindavana, the direct disciples of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, principally the books of Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami and Jiva Goswami. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur studied these books and from these literatures of the previous acharyas he was able to establish the pure teachings of Krishna.
The preacing of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur was not so expansive as he was living in Jagannath Puri and acting as the magistrate in the court system in Jagannatha Puri, and he was in charge of the temple of Jagannath. So he was not able to preach very widely all over the world or even all over India, but he had the idea to do this. His dream was that this message of Lord Caitanya would be spread all over the world. So he prayed to Krishna for a son who would be empoured to preach the pure message of Krishna consciousness, the Bhagavad Gita in the bona fide disciplic succession, all over the world. So Bhaktivinoda Thakur did have a son, and that son was Srila Bhaktsiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, and Srila Bhaktsiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur took on this great mission of very powerfully preaching the pure message of the Bhagavad Gita all over India.
Srila Bhaktsiddhanta was always requesting any of his disciples who were a little intelligent and knew the English language to preach Krishna consciousness in the West. He would instruct them that “You should take this Krishna consciousness very seriously and you should preach this message of Lord Caitanya in the Western countries in English.” So Srila Prabhupada was one of many disciples who Srila Bhaktsiddhanta gave this instruction to but Srila Prabhuapda was the one disciple who actually took it very seriously and made that the mission of his life.
So we see because Srila Prabhuapda made the order of his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktsiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, the mission of his life, and he worked very hard to establish the Krishna consciousness movement based on the pure philosophy of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in the Western countries, so he was very successful.
Srila Prabhupada’s success was that he simply repeated the message he received from Srila Bhaktsiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, his bona fide spiritual master in the disciplic succession. So this grand success of Srila Prabhupada’s preaching is a testament to the power of the disciplic succession.
We can also become empowered to preach, but only if we actually realize that my opinion, my ideas, my intellect, has no value. The only value is Krishna’s opinion, Krishna’s ideas. So we must get Krishna’s opinion and Krishna’s ideas through the bona fide pure devotee in the disciplic succession, param para. And we have to humbly simply present that knowledge to anyone we meet, like the postman simply takes the parcel and delivers it to the person whose name is on it. This is his duty.
So we simply have to hear the pure messages which are coming from Krishna through the disciplic succession and repeat them to everybody we meet.
In this way, through the power of the disciplic succession we will become instruments in the hands of Krishna.
If you have any questions or would like to make any comments on the information presented here please post them in the comments section below.
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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Thanks a lot for sharing such a wonderful message…. it clarifies fully the process of discipline succession and one’s role in re-establishing the movement of Krishna consciousness
Reading Srila Prabhupada’s books gives me so much relief as no material activity can.
Hare Krishna Aman
It is so true Prabhu. Srila Prabhupada’s books are completely transcendental, completely spiritual. Reading Prabhupada’s books is direct association with Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. Really. It can seem in the beginning a bit difficult but if we just stick to it, keep reading, even if we don’t feel like reading… It’s the same as chanting Hare Krishna, sometimes we don’t feel like chanting Hare Krishna, sometimes it doesn’t seem to be working, sometimes we try to chant but it is difficult, but if we just keep chanting and just keep reading then very soon we transcend all the material blocks and get onto the spiritual platform.
You know Prabhupada’s books, there are no words to describe them, they are completely transcendental, and completely unlimited. I have read all of Srila Prabhupada’s books honestly dozens of times. I have read Srimad-Bhagavatam, all of it dozens of times, and every time I read it it is a totally new book and I find so many totally new things and it is amazing.
I was a reader before I came to Krishna consciousness. And I used to read a lot of books, when I was younger I read a lot of fiction books, and later on I read a lot of computer manuals. In those days there was no internet so if you wanted to know things you had to read. But I could never read a book twice. And I have a good memory in the sense that once I read a book or a computer manual I know more-or-less everything in the book. I may not remember all the fine details, like I will not remember all the exact parameters for a computer command or function, for example, but I will remember what all the available commands are and will know what can be done or what can not be done. And I will not need to ever read the book again.
But Prabhupada’s books are completely different from every other book. Because every time you read them they are new and fresh. It is never like, “I’ve read it before, it’s boring…” No, honestly, its like “I’ve never read it before. How wonderful it is!! Why didn’t I realize it was so fantastic the last time I read it…”
Anyhow I could go on forever about Prabhupada’s books. They are simply wonderful.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
How can I hear Lord Krishna message from bona fide spiritual master ? Who will be my spiritual master ? I have just started reading Bhagbat Gita as it is and the news letters some days before.
Read all of Srila Prabhupada’s books. Listen to all the audio recordings of Srila Prabhupada. Watch all the films and videos of Srila Prabhupada. Read all of Srila Prabhupada’s letters. In this way you can hear everything from Srila Prabhupada, a pure devotee of Krishna.
Hare krishna !!
Thank you for your kind information. I have gone through fully your email. To be frank I am not much affordable and hence
I will go through network and get whichever possible. Meanwhile
I would like to share with you that I am already going through
Beyond Birth and Death and perfect questions and perfect answers. Daily morning and evening Sri prabhupada’s krishna bhajan will be put on music which will be heard by almost our apartment. I am insisting our kids, neighbours, colleuges to go through Bhagvad Gita. Thank you very much for replying every mail.
Hare Krishna !!
I gone through all the details, thank you very much for your kind support, I would like to know that how can we conclude that one is in Krishna conscious and one could understand /understanding the Gita in the correct perspective. How can one conclude that he/she has realized thy soul, how can one know such and such are the duties to fulfil the souls duties. Is it correct to avoid karma and be in Krishna conscious. How can one conclude that one I going towards right direction…..still having queries, kindly clarify to get purified. Join you in next letter. Thank you.
Krishna consciousness is directly perceivable. So your question is like ‘how can a hungry man know that he is satisfied after eating’? So actually it is obvious. A man who is hungry and feeling weak because of that hunger immediately gets energy and strength and the hunger goes away soon after he eats a nice meal.
So when we become Krishna conscious we perceive that directly. It is very different from material consciousness. In Krishna consciousness we are only thinking of serving Krishna, pleasing Krishna. We no longer have any concern for our own material desires. We know that our business is to serve Krishna and when Krishna is happy through our service we become happy.
So the point is, as the hungry man knows automatically his hunger is vanquished after a good meal, when one becomes actually Krishna conscious he knows it and experiences it directly.
Pranam Prabhu..
Thankyou very much for your newsletters. They are really very enlightening..I am reading them carefully.
I have put my queries many times but I think due to some technical issue they have not been published.
I basically belong to Dehradun but now living in New Delhi in hostel to pursue engineering.
My room mate is an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna. She always speaks of him . Some days back we were having lunch in the cafeteria in a group. There one of our friend said something ill about Krishna’s Raas Lila. On this, she started crying loudly and immediately left. I got shocked to see this and after going to room, asked about her devotion. Then she said that one who obtains Prema Bhakti or love of Krishna, enters into his eternal pastimes and never return to this world again. She showed me some hand made paintings of Golok Vrindavan, and they were so mesmerizing that at once I felt I am lost completely.
Is it all really true? I mean can anyone imagine that he is actually spending time with Krishna personally, talking to him, playing with him as a friend, joking with him etc. in his own home Golok.
Since childhood I have seen my parents worshiping Goddess Durga , visiting her temples, observing Navratris etc. Actually they worship all Gods and have devotion for everyone, but particularly for Goddess Durga. I also used to worship her but frankly speaking from my side it has been just a formality. I did not have any feeling of devotion like my parents.
But now I am quite convinced that Lord Krishna is supreme after reading Bhagwad Geeta As It Is. My friend gave me another book named “Nectar of Devotion”. I read it too. Some days in morning I went to ISKCON temple in East of Kailash. There devotees were singing the Hare Krishna Mantra in a melodious voice. Whole atmosphere was very rejuvenating. I feel like going there again and again.
But still the main thing is how to obtain the real informal loving devotion of Krishna. Doing worship and just going to temple, according to me, is a formal process.
Or is it like that by destiny only one gets it? I mean no matter I make any efforts to obtain love of Krishna, if its not in my destiny I will not get it.
Is Prabhupada an incarnation of Krishna?
I would be grateful if I get a revert from your side…
Love of Krishna is only possible by getting the mercy of a pure devotee of Krishna. Krishna’s mercy comes from pleasing Krishna’s pure devotees. So you have to find a bona fide spiritual master, surrender to him and serve him. And if he is pleased then you can get Krishna’s mercy. So please read Srila Prabhupada’s books and as you read them he will instruct you and when you please Srila Prabhupada then you will be able to get the mercy of Krishna.
hare krishna
namaste
i am reading your messges with great respect and faith. i am staunch devotee lord krishna by the grace of worshipful prabhupad swamiji.i beleve in one scripture, one God and one mantra i.e geeta, lord krishna and mahamantra.
i would like to narrate my life story in brief if it can inspire some body.
In 1982, i happened to meet one prabhji in a iskcon programme. i was highly impressed by that meeting.Before that I heard about Iskcon but never attended any program. i was lucky to have darshan of Prabhpad swamiji. after that i wanted to become patrn o iskcon but i was a poor fellow. Rs. 3333/ the membership feed was too big a sum for me. i had no amount in my bank a/c. idecided to borrow that sum and paid the fee in instalments. i was so poor that I did not have audio casset player too listen to sweet bhajaj in audio cassets given to me by iskcon but after that because of lord’s grace i have made great progress, first spiritually and then economically. i have read almost all books of swamiji except srimad bhagvatwm in 18 parts. i belong to ahmedabad and wish to visit Mayapur at least onca in my life. I am 65 years old
Hare Krishna,i want to ask,how we can judge whether any devotee is giving us a correct suggestion.
YS
Guru-sadhu-sastra. They have to be all consistent. So the way you can know is to hear everything form Srila Prabhupada by reading all his books, and also by strictly following the four regulative principles and chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day and then you will advance in Krishna consciousness and Krishna will also guide you from within your heart.
One hint is today most so-called devotees are bogus and in maya so most of their suggestions are completely wrong…
Hare Krishna
I would like to share my devotional experience in the journey of reading Bhagavad gita from last year ie. from September 2015
My senior in my office is devotee of ISKON and he teaches regularly Bhagavad gita.
I got inspiration from him and arranged orientation course for one month initially in my friends Society in Pune.
Then a step ahead by the mercy of Lord Krishna arranged orientation course in my society initially planned only for month and gradually it extended to 6 months. For children also started classes.Received Positive feedback from the parents of children and also children enjoyed and always very much anxious to hear kirtan of krishna ,stories and shlokas.
I am very much blessed to say that lord krishna has chosen me to do extraordinary and memorable service.
The result i have got is i have become very much focused towards my family, career and also loving nature has developed inside me.Slowly i am feeling immense happiness from inside in devotion towards god and also leading disciplined way of life.I am slowly get detached from unnecessary desires and feeling myself that i just want to surrender to lord Krishna and carry his message to people which is vision of my life.
Thank you very much
Hare Krishna
Hare krishna prabhuji. Nice post from you that says the power of the disciplic. succession we know that krishna is the hightest pleasure and the perfect one from the creation of the world did krishna do not know that the so. called disciples has the power to brake the disciplic succession and if he knows why did he allowe such
Hare Krisna Bakosi
Krishna knows everything. But Krishna has given us a little independence. Krishna is not forcing us. So we come to the material world and we can use our independence properly to serve Krishna or we can misuse our independence and serve maya, that choice is up to us. Krishna does not want us to serve maya, because He knows we can not be happy in that way, still He has given us the independence to choose so if we choose to serve maya that is our fault.
Real disciple will not break the disciplic succession. The problem is in Kali-yuga there are many kali-chelas, servants of kali, who are posing as disciples. They are not really disciples of Srila Prabhupada, they are disciples of Kali and they are NEVER in the disciplic succession.
Hare Krishna
Thanks for sending me regular newsletters
Jai Shree Krishna,
It’s been a two days I’ve been meditating lord Krishna (I’m 17), but lord is not coming while I meditate, how come can I recognise Lord’s Face, please help. 🙂
Hare Krishna Mohit
This is not the mood of a devotee. Devotee does not make any demands on Krishna. Not that, “I will sit down and meditate for two days and you must appear before me Krishna.” No. That is not correct.
Correct thing is to find the pure devotee of Krishna like Srila Prabhupada, read his books and understand the science of Krishna consciousness and follow his instructions and become a pure devotee of Krishna.
Krishna can not be approached directly like you are trying. Krishna is pleased when we please His pure devotees. That is the way.
So please take the proper process and then after some time you will be able to see Krishna face-to-face. Proper process is to read Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day, chant the Hare Krishna maha 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.
It takes some time. We are very contaminated with the material disease. So the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra is the medicine to cure the material disease. We have to take the medicine of chanting the Hare Krishna mantra according to the directions of Srila Prabhupada and we will soon become cured of the material disease.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
What do you understand by “Sarva dharman paritajya mam ekam sharnam brij aham tva sarvapapephya mukshiya ma sucha.?
Please read Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is, he explains the meaning very clearly there.
Hare Krsna Prabhu. I read this article about the power of disciplic succession. Is there truth that some of our Divine Srila Prabhupada’s books may have been edited and that Srila Prabhupada was not happy that changes have been made. Does this mean the disciplic succession is now brokend. Additionally does it mean that it will need to be re-established in time to come.
Y.S
Ras Das
Yes. ISKCON are changing Prabhupada’s books. You can get the details about this at http://www.bookchanges.com
No the disciplic succession is not broken. We are printing all of Srila Prabhupada’s books and you can get them at:
http://www.krishnastore.com
and read them online at:
http://www.prabhupadabooks.com
Hare Krishna
Beautiful Msg.
Thanks for sending me regular newsletters
Respected swami, I have two questions:
1. Whereas I get it, that we, living beings, are to go from materialistic to the spiritual realm, and surrendering to the highest God are helped to get there, I have no idea whatsoever, why were we sent from eternal loka down to these passing worlds.
2. At the time of leaving our body – so I hear – we get where we are gravitating with our conscience. But what if at that moment we are conscient of more loka than one? Do we therefore go to, say, moon, sun, and other worlds simultaneously?
Thank you for your kindness to answer my questions.
Hare Krishna Nadja
We came to the material world because we misused our limited independence. Instead of wanting to serve Krishna we wanted to become the master like Krishna. So it is not possible actually. We are eternally Krishna’s servants and He is eternally our master. But sometimes we want to become the master. So Krishna has very mercifully created this material world where we can “play god” but of course it is created in such a way as to frustrate our every endeavor so ultimately we will again realize we are servants and Lord Krishna is our master and we will surrender to Him and go back home, back to godhead.
And we will go to one place after leaving this body. We can only be in one place at a time. That is a difference between Krishna and us. Krishna is in all places at all times. We can only be in one place at a time.
Hare Krishna Prabhu. All glories ro srila prabhupad. PAMHO, Lord Krishna spoke Bhagavad Gita to Sun god. Would it then be limited slokas, slokas that convey Lord’s message and not 700 slokas because Kurukshetra war didn’t take place then.
Hare Krishna Uday
This Battle of Kuruksettra is eternal. It is like all of Krishna’s pastimes. They are nitya-lila. All of Krishna’s pastimes are all going on at the same time in some universe. So right now in some universe Krishna and Arjuna are fighting in the battlefiled of Kuruksettra. That is nitya-lila. The example given to explain this is the sun. All the different times of the day and night are always present somewhere on the planet. Right now somewhere it is midday. Midday is always somewhere. So Krishna’s pastimes are like that. They are all going on constantly. Right now Krishna is taking birth in some universe, everything, all His pastimes, they are all going on right now.
So it was not a new thing, 5000 years ago, the battlefield of Kuruksettra. It is one of Krishna’s eternal pastimes.
Exactly what Krishna spoke to the sun god we do not have that written down. So I can not say exactly what it was. But it is not that the Kuruksettra War was unknown at that time. No. It is eternal. It was known at that time also.
All these things are eternal.
Dasaji, u r posting very nice and informative and spirtual article, thank u for ur posting lord krishna’s are blessings ar with u foreve, thanks once again
B.Sravan kumar (bsravankumar3@gmail.com)
Jai Hare Krshna: I have a question: When Lord Krshna is wht is said to be, then WHY do other Temples worship Lord Siva, Lord Ganesh ect. Yet all of them have the B.Gita ect. Even when use to be a Satya Sai Baba devotee that they say He is God. I believe it all untill when Baba past away earlier then He said he would, then I kind of got discouraged. I take people for their word and then I get hurt believing everyone . Sai Baba said the Gyatri Mantra is the ONLY mantra to do and say and chant.
And now I learn that Lord Krshna covers all of the above. SO MY QUESTION IS: Why don’t the other pundit’s follow Lord Krshna especially when the Gita says to.
Jai Sri Krshna Jai
Hare Krishna Bhaktin Marcy
Everyone is confused in the material world. And in the material world also everyone has some personal motivation. So the only way you can understand the correct things is if you have the great fortune of associating with a pure devotee of Krishna who can explain everything to you perfectly correctly and without any personal motivation. So we have that chance of associating with Srila Prabhupada personally and directly by reading his books. So that is my suggestion to you. Start a very serious program of reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and at the same time strictly follow the four regulative principles and chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day. Then all the truths will be revealed to you from within your heart.
Krishna consciousness is not something that is imposed on us from outside. No. Krishna consciousness is the original spiritual consciousness that is within us all. It has been covered only. We have to uncover it. And the process of uncovering our original Krishna consciousness is chanting Hare Krishna and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books.
So… Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
prabhu,
all my life of 55 years I suffered from cruel nature of humans with egos comparisons sadisms desires. May Lord Krishna relieve me from them in my few years of remaining life.
Hare Krishna Dear Madhudvisa Dasa. Please accept my humble obeisance’s.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada,
I am blessed to receive this information from you. I am very respectful of the content and have read it several times and will read until it is firmly committed to my memory.
I am pretty new to Krishna Consciousness but have been heading in this direction without fully realizing it. That was until I started attending the Journey of self discovery. I was a little sceptical but questions like who am I ? and Does god exist? were questions that I was interested in. I arrived at the first session wondering who was going to talk and to my surprise a very refined Indian gentleman took the session. He was sincere and I could see that. By the third session I was really liking this and on the way to the course a devotee asked me if I would be interested in a book about god. I said I was going to the Journey and she was pleased and I purchased a small book. As I was leaving she called me back and offered me “Your ever well wisher” I said a small book might be better but she insisted and I took it. The 3rd session really was emotional for me and I could actually feel my soul. I started reading Your ever well wisher and have not looked back. My teacher has expressed from the 1st session that he was only passing on what Shrila Prabhupada had taught. He also emphasised the importance of Param para. What you have said confirms this. I took shelter last weekend and I attended 4 sessions with His Holiness Vedavyasapriya Swami on the subject of Ideal Grihastha life. When ever there was a question the swami would reply by saying Shrila Prabhupada said.
I will purchase the DVD that you have worked so hard on and I will do everything in my power to follow what Shrila Prabhupada has taught. I am certain he will be smiling upon you.
I have learnt a lot from reading your clear explanation of things so far.
Haribol
Cello
I am a strict vegetarian and have not eaten even eggs in my life and hence it is not difficult to become a vegetarian for me. I was working as an electrical engineer in a reputed firm and retired from my duties as an engineer and leads almost a peaceful life. From my childhood I usually read “Sri Ramayanam, Bhagavatham, Vishnu sahasranamam and Lalitha sahasranaman daily when I get time ie. at any time in a day as I have several duties as a mother, wife and daughter. When I become free Ill read it and studied a lot, but it seams a very few thing. Hence I read these news letters for understanding more. I hope that God will teach me a lot what I need ie. only God knows what I want for making my mind and thus my body to become more healthy. I did not give up my habit of reading of these books till this instant. Even though I had read these books several times I feel that I am reading these books at first time when I read.
Hoping to get your news letters
Hare Krishna Prabhu ji……. In the 28th para why you have said this that This is because, as we have been speaking, even if the pure religious principles are established, they will be lost in the course of time……if we go on selling Prabhupada books with same message then how will it be lost???…..Please say
Hare Krishna
Srila Prabhupada’s mood of pure devotional service is already lost. It is there in his books of course. But BBT are trying to edit that out. Still the mood of pure devotion remains in Prabhupada’s books. But the devotees have these days given up the idea of serving Srila Prabhupada and Krishna 24 hours a day. So it is already lost. Prabhupada’s ISKCON is already gone. Already lost.
We need to reestablish it. It is already gone.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
This is a totally unrelated topic, but, I recently started reading the Brahma-samhita with the purports written by Srila Bhakti siddhantha saraswathi maharaj!
This book, unlike the others of Srila Prabhupada, are quite difficult to understand!
I have to read the verses several times but I’m not sure if I’m understanding it correctly.
I hope you can please help me and in the future posts please explain about the origin of the material world! Thank you!!
Hare Krishna! May Krishna bless you! Thank you for the regular emails.
We are the origin of the material world. We desire to enjoy separately from Krishna. So because of our desire to enjoy separately from Him Krishna most mercifully creates this material world for us…
I got something very useful from this newsletter about my opinion being just my opinion. This sounds like not much, but I am dealing with some anxiety from job this past year and have turned to chanting in order to clear the inner nonsense. I needed to hear about keeeping my opinion out of things. I am trying to stay in the moment by chanting when under stress and focusing on just my feelings. My opinion is not needed for that exercise. I know my opinion gets me into trouble (not that i impose it onto others, but with myself). Stick to the truth of being in the moment. This lesson has coincided with some other reading and I feel it will help me.
hare krsna,thanx to sending me a newspaper mataji
Jai Srila Prabhupada……
jai Gurudeva…..
So nice article prabhu……
I hope you r reciving my replys…….
Please suggest free Prabhupada vedabase for android mobile…
And please suggest some hindi books site for preaching work
Hare Krishan Prashant
I do not know anything about Hindi books.
For android I suggest you use PrabhupadaBooks.com we now have a new mobile version and it will be improving more and more over the upcoming months.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
All Glories to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga, All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Dear Madhudvisa dasa Prabhu. Thank You for Enrolling me in your Bhagavad-gita Course of Lessions.
I am Entering into my Twilight Years of Life, I am Slowly Louseing my Memory I’m 69 at present,
Same Age as Our Dear Srila Prabhupada Was when He Singlehandedly Created ISKCON,KI JAI.
Short time Memory loss is my inner Demon, So My Preaching Effet now is Facebook GogglePlus and Word.com which I Post items on 2 or 3 per day on my 5 Page Sites, 3 Face book 1 Goggle and one WORD.COM I Like to Edit and Cut and Paste Srila Prabhupads Nectar, Lectures Photos and support all the other Prabhupadanuges with Quotes and whatever I Can.
Dear Prabhu Could I Have your Blessings and Permission to RePrint-Repost Your Bhagavad- gita Lessions that you are Posting each week to me. You are Explaining Gita So Plain that I’m Sure My Facebook Friends will love to read also, And we Hope that they will Sign-up to your Course.
Please Let me Know How I can be of assistance,
Yours in the service of srila Prabhupada
bhakta Roger Rodpush
Brisbane Australia
Hare Krishna Bhakta Roger
Yes. You can repost the Krishna Connect newsletters on your page.
Yes. You can help by purchasing cases of Srila Prabhupada’s original books at:
http://krishnastore.com/books-wholesale-om-21_37.html
And then just go out and distribute them [sell them] to the public. Srila Prabhupada says “If you love me distribute my books.” So if we do not distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books we are not very serious devotees and we do not love Srila Prabhupada and we will not be able to make much advancement in spiritual life and our lives will be wasted.
So just take distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books very seriously and that will solve all your problems and that will be the most pleasing thing to Srila Prabhupada.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Have you got the knowledge through Disciplic Succession?
Who is your guru and how did he gave you the knowledge of Bhagavad Gita?
If it was said to Arjun 5000+ years ago there should have been many gurus who shared Bhagavad Gita knowledge can you let me know the list of all gurus from the time it was spoken to Arjun?
What is your real name and why you changed it?
I get my knowledge from His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who is my guru and my link to the disciplic succession. Prabhupada is giving me the knowledge through his books, lectures, letters and other recorded instructions. He is also very happy to give the same knowledge to you. You just have to spend the time to read Srila Prabhupada’s books yourself and surrender to his instructions and put them into practice in your life.
As far as there being many gurus that is true of course. We have a list of our disciplic succession. But that is only the direct line. So all the gurus in our disciplic succession had godbrothers who were also gurus and also had their disciples. So it is like a big family tree and we are only listing our particular line back to the source. So yes there were many other gurus but because of the nature of time the knowledge gets lost. Time destroys everything. So in time the spiritual knowledge also gets distorted and perverted. So now you will not find many bona fide gurus. Because the knowledge is lost to almost everyone.
So the true knowledge has to be reestablished time and time again. That is why Krishna comes to this world Himself and sends His pure devotees like His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, to reestablish the knowledge when it gets lost.
So you will find today many people calling themselves gurus and teaching so much rubbish. This is particularly the situation in this age, Kali-yuga, the age of quarrel and hypocrisy. Practically everyone is cheating. They are claiming to be gurus but are in reality interested in getting some personal benefit from the “guru business”. So it is very, very rare to find a bona fide guru. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita “sa mahatma sudulabha” such a great soul is very rare.
So we have found such a great soul, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, now we need to take full advantage of his pure transcendental association by reading his transcendental books and following the instructions we find him giving us in them.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Guruji
I have been reading Bhagavad Gita since last 3-4 months. I am very thankful to you for the newsletters you have been sending. It is helping me to understand more precisely and deeply what i have read in Bhagavad Gita till date. My mother and i have a question ;
What is the difference between Jiva, Aatma and Jivaatma ?
I answered this already but just in case you did not get it.
There is param-atma, means supreme self, means Krishna or Visnu
and there is jiva-atma, means the individual living entity, you or me. Both are present within the heart… Read Bhagavad-gita As It Is for the full understanding.
hare krishna could you please help me to find abona fide guru?
Read Srila Prabhupada’s books. You will find the perfect pure devotee paramahamsa guru there…
Dear Madhusvisa Prabhu,
PAMHO, AGTSP
.
Since two weeks I am receiving your articles with much pleasure and satisfaction, thank you. I agree with you that when talking about God, be it Shri Krishna or His son The Christ, we should always keep to what the Holy Scriptures tell us. Nevertheless I think we are allowed to say what we have realized in this way by means of the grace of the Lordships.
So I like to humbly hear your opinion about next example:
In my early years it behoved He Who identified Himself by letting my ears hear my mouth stumble: “Thou are’t The Christ.” At that very process which was nine months earlier preceded by the other process of the unstained Reception, all wondrously regulated by God, as I became aware of as later oversaw the facts.
In this process I received by His grace Brahman (Self)-, and Paramatma (All-Self) realization. Due to this I later realized the deeper inner meaning of the Herod (the Child-murderer) as being as well understood as our own selfish thinker, which hankers for power and serving of our own- or group interests. As long as we don’t resign this service (to Herod) we block the road to our very heart, and the Christ-Child or our true Self residing therein will not be awakened. While being awakened you will receive the direct knowlegde: “This shining being is eternal and indestructable, even if an atomic bomb should explode here and now.” as well as: “In this Light (Brahmajyhoti) you are connected with every living (specified …) being.”
So my question to you is: “Do you think am I permitted to witness of such kind of experience and interpretation of certain realizations thereof?”
Your servant in the mission of Shrila Prabhupada,
bhakta Rob Sherman.
Hare Krishna Bhakta Rob
No. Your realizations have no value at all at this point in time. Best read Srila Prabhupada’s books.
We have to accept that whatever we have done up to the point of coming to Krishna consciousness is more or less nonsense. We need to be able to let go and surrender to Srila Prabhupada and approach him with our mind as a blank slate.
Not that we come to the spirtual master with so many preconceived ideas and thinking that we are greatly advanced. The quality of a disciple is that he is humble and accepts that he knows nothing and is simply ready to accept the knowledge and mercy from the bona fide spiritual master.
So best to forget your Christian realizations. There may be something there but it is very cloudy and very uncertain. So rather just surrender to Srila Prabhupada, hear from him, read his books, and get all the knowledge perfect and clear.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
what is the relation ship of athman with sri krishna,according to you iskcon people?
Is the realation is same as krishna as said by adi shankara?
or the difference is absolute as said by madhvacharya?
Hare Krishna
There is no different opinion on these things. They are facts.
Within the heart of every living entity there are two entities. The atma, the individual soul and the paramatma, the supersoul. So this paramatma within the hearts of every living entity is an expansion of Ksirodaksaiye Visnu. Who is inturn an expansion of Maha Visnu and who is ultimately an expansion of Lord Krishna.
Krishna is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, the source of everything. The exact process and all the Visnu incarnations, it is a great science and you have to read the books to study and understand these things. Your question is something like asking a doctor for instructions how to perform brain surgery and exepecting him to write you a one paragraph answer and then you will know how to do brain surgery. It is not like that of course. You would have to attend the medical school and study the medical books under the advanced medical professors and pass the examinations and be appointed by a hospital, etc. That is the process.
Similarly if you want to understand Krishna then you have to find a bona fide spiritual master and learn it from him. And it is a process. You have to follow the process and then you can learn the things.
You will find the process in Srila Prabhupada’s books. Please read them. That will answer all your questions perfectly.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Sir,
I went to iskcon class at bangalore ,they said..we are equal to krishna in quality (Sat-chit-ananda)…
but less in quantity…..is it true?…………
what you say for this?
Hare Krishna Srivathsa
Yes. That is true. We are equal to Krishna in quality. But Krishna is unlimitedly great and we are unlimitedly small. The example Srila Prabhupada gives to explain this is the ocean. The ocean is great. A huge quantity of water is there in the ocean, but if you take just one drop of water out of the ocean you can analyze it an it will have the same qualities as the whole ocean. You can analyze that drop and find salt in a certain percentage and you can then understand that the whole ocean is salty. So it is like that with us and Krishna. We are the same quality, the same substance, the same brahman, the same spiritual energy. But Krishna is unlimited like the ocean and we are tiny like the drop of the ocean.
But in quality we are the same as Krishna. But in quantity obviously we are nothing.
Still we can understand some things about Krishna by studying ourselves. In this material world everything is a perverted reflection of the spiritual world but still the origin of everything we see here is there in the spiritual world.
You need to read Srila Prabhupada’s books. If you were reading Srila Prabhupada’s books you would know that this is the correct understanding. We are qualitatively the same as Krishna but quantitatively very different.
Of course here in the material world, in our conditioned state, our original spiritual qualities are covered by maya. But if we make advancement in spiritual life we can exhibit up to a certain percentage of Krishna’s qualities, maybe 78%, not 100%, but in a tiny quantity. We can not exhibit all the qualities of Krishna, and even then we can only exhibit them in a very tiny way. Still like the drop of ocean water and the ocean, we, the spirit souls, are composed of the exact same substance that Krishna is composed of, brahman, only Krishna is unlimited great and we are unlimitedly small…
The full details of this you can find in Srila Prabhupada’s Nectar of Instruction.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krsna.!! .I always used to wonder why is the Disciplic succession stressed too much..why can\’t one simply chant hare krsna and read bhagvad gita as it is and understand it..but this post opened up my eyes regarding this doubt..and indeed it is a natural instinct to become puffed up when one gains some advanced knowledge which others are lacking in..and really I now understand the role of a spiritual master and the real spirit of understanding Bhagvad Gita..
Thanks for this eye-opener..
HARIBOL!
Hari bol….as this bg is instructed to arjuna….but his name is not mentioned in this disciplic succession..why??
hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa
kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare
hare rāma hare rāma
rāma rāma hare hare
No amount of Transcendental Praise & Gratitude can express my Eternal Gratitude & Thanks to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada for passing me the Infinitely Wise Wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita & Bhagavata to a useless bacteria like me.
सच्चिदानन्द
Satcitānanda
Thank You, My Lord, Lord Krsna
I Shall Make Sure That The Human Race Survives the Coming Armageddon.
Hare Krishna…..
Very informative…. Guru…
Thanks
” Knowledge learned wthout a master will help only in self-punishment…..”
Hare krishna
harey krishna
thanks for your kind knowledge u share with us evryday
this help all of us to practically enlighten our lives
Hare Krishna Danadvat pranam HG Madhudivasa Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
All glories to Srila Guru Maharaja.
Today I have gone through The importance of the Disciplic Succession.
Today I have theroly understood the importance of Disiplic Seccesion & it is our ahobhagya that we have come to right place where we have been tought a right things.
Thanks Prabhuji & dandvat pranam from das.
IT is amazing that i have started attending discourse on Bhagwad Gita at ISCKON temple at the same time i started receiving your articles.i believe it is a good sign for me to advance in Krsna Consciousness
thank you
Hare Krishna
Haribor. I like the analogy of the postman. We must deliver the message of the srimad BhagavadGita like the postman does : ” as it is”. Hare Khrisna .
Thanks for driving home the point that my points are useless and only Krishna’s point matters. I will remember that point nicely while preaching to others.
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa-Dasa
Thank you very much for the informative and inspiring email that you personally took time to send to me. It is greatly appreciated.
Evertytime i read the articles i always take note of the simplicity you are able to achieve and bring across through a very profound knowledge which is so enlightening to me and others which serves as a good reminder that following in the ways of fellow devotees and gurus will bring me closer to Krishna Consciousness and self realization.
Love
Yoshan Nico Oree
are u a believer of the ritvik ideology? who initiated u and gave u the name madhuvisa das? i am very accepting and non-judgemental , but am just curious of your initiation background
Hare Krishna Sevananda Prabhu
I am a follower of Srila Prabhupada, that is all. I do not follow any camp or ideology. I follow Prabhupada and by following Prabhupada I follow Krishna. That’s all.
I took initiation from Srila Prabhupada in 1989 before I was even aware the word ritvik existed and before I knew the July 9th letter existed. I only knew that it was Srila Prabhupada who had convinced me that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it was Prabhupada who preached to me so strongly, it was Prabhupada who cleared all my doubts, it was Prabhupada who picked me up and saved me every time I fell down, it was Prabhupada who chased after me and called me back when I strayed away. And during all this time there was not a single ISKCON guru who ever encouraged me in Krishna consciousness. Rather some of them at least like Tamal Krishna, Harikesh, Siva Rama Swami, etc, wanted to and sometimes tried to kill me, only because I was a ‘Prabhupada man’.
So that is the situation for me, Prabhupada is my guru and the ISKCON gurus never ever helped me even in the slightest way and will not help me and do not have the potency to help me to become Krishna conscious. So I am a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, that’s all. Prabhupada is my guru. I do not belong to any camp.
Both the ritvik camp and the ISKCON camp are bogus. Both selectively quote from Srila Prabhupada to support their respective speculations and ideas. Neither camp is at all interested in actually what Srila Prabhupada wants. They have an idea what they want and they selectively quote from Srila Prabhupada to try and justify their own ideas, that is all. The ISKCON guru idea is that conditioned souls can be gurus, which is bogus and useless. What is the point of having a conditioned soul as your guru? He is himself in the clutches of maya and can not even save himself. How can he save you? And the ritviks say that there will be no gurus except Srila Prabhupada for the next 10,000 years and that Prabhupada didn’t want his disciples to go on to become bona fide spiritual masters and accept their own disciples. Which is such an envious and such a demonic point of view. In reality it is the mission of Srila Prabhupada to create at least one and hopefully many bona fide spiritual masters who can do what he is doing, who can actually preach and actually awaken the dormant Krishna consciousness within the hearts of the people who hear them chanting Hare Krishna and preaching. And this is actually initiation.
So Prabhu you can understand I am not a ritvik nor am I am follower of the GBC, I am a follower of Srila Prabhupada, that is all.
Srila Prabhupada initiated me in 1987 after my search for a bona fide guru among the 11 they say he appointed as his successors only came up with conditioned souls who had no power whatsoever to give me Krishna consciousness. That was a very inspiring experience for me and it is way too long to describe here.
Later, in 1989, I started a temple in Canberra, Australia and some Deities, Jagannatha, Baladeva and Lady Subhudra and Gaura-Nitai appeared there so I had to do Deity worship and for that reason only I accepted formal first and second initiation from Jaya Dharma Prabhu, the Prabhupada disciple who was performing the initiation ceremonies for Srila Prabhupada’s disciples in Sydney when Prabhupada was physically present on the planet. He was the Temple President then. So I just asked him if he could do the same thing for me that he had done for so many other Australian disciples of Srila Prabhupada, perform my initiation ceremony on Srila Prabhupada’s behalf, and he did that. He gave me first and second initiation and gave me the name “Madhudvisa dasa”. So that was my formal initiation ceremony but not my actual initiation. At that time I was already initiated by Srila Prabhupada and this was just a formal confirmation of that.
Initiation means we have to actually surrender to Srila Prabhupada and serve him and make his mission our mission in life, and Srila Prabhupada has to accept us as his disciples. We have to actually please him by our surrender and service and complete dedication to serving his mission. Otherwise, without surrender and service, there is no meaning to ‘disciple’.
But you have to know it very clearly that both the ritvik camp and the ISKCON camp are completely bogus. We have to be part of the Prabhupada camp…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
This bogusnus you mention in the ISKCON camp and ritvik camp is becoming more and more apparent to me.
Every time I think ‘oh yes, we actually found some devotees on the same wavelength, in understanding Prabhupada is our Guru and we can connect with him through his books’, a stumbling block comes up. They either want to convince us so much to join their society they tell some mistruth, or they try to put a condition on things.
At this time myself, brother and dad have started a program for Prabhupadas disciples in London and enable some preaching to happen. That said, although we are initiated by Prabhupada and accept him and his instructions cent percent. We are also following 4 regs, 16 rounds, doing mangala aarti at home, worshiping Tulsi, distributing Prabhupadas original books, doing Kirtan in the streets, handing out Prasadam, reading a listening Prabhupadas books and discussing them with each other.
We also have deities that have been in our family since I can remember. That said, it is important for us to formalise everything, as this is also part of the process Prabhupada has set out for us.
We don’t know anyone at the moment who will simply initiate us without expecting us to join their society or what something from us.
Could you recommend someone and perhaps give some contact information? We don’t mind having to travel.
I hope you get this message and would kindly reply to me.
Thank you!
Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!!
Reena
Hare Krishna Reena
I don’t think it is very important, the formal initiation. So many take formal initiation and don’t surrender at all to Srila Prabhupada. The important thing is to do what you are doing. Get out of bed in the morning, have Mangal Aroit, chant 16 rounds follow the principles distribute Prabhupada’s books and have kirtan. That is a wonderful program. So keep on doing it and let it expand naturally.
There is no point in taking initiation from someone who you do not believe is a pure devotee of Krishna, who you have no intention of surrendering to, who you do not believe is a pure representative of Srila Prabhupada, etc.
So just take shelter of Srila Prabhupada, increase your reading and chanting and service and Srila Prabhupada through his books and Krishna from within your hearts will guide you and give you the intelligence on how to push on the preaching of Krishna consciousness in your area.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!’
Madhudvisa dasa
hare Krishna prabhu ji.. I am very thankful to you for sending Krishna newsletter on regular basis..
hare krishna
Madhudvisa dasa,
Hare Krishna, thank you for your news letters, I have read all of them ,I believe that except Lord Krishna no one can claim that he has understood Gita as it is spoken by Lord Krishna himself. Yes but his true devotees like Arjuna, Vyasa, Shukdeva, Chaitanyamahprabhu have understand it and have spoken it to the jives of material world. I have read Gita in Gujarati , I would like to read Gita as it is by ShriPrabhupada. I think we have to remember two shook from Gita , Karmanya vadhika…..and Nirmanmoha jitsangdosa….thank you
Hari Bol
Pushpa
Anyone can understand the Gita when it is explained by a pure devotee of Krishna like Srila Prabhupada. It requires submissive hearing, that is all. One needs to have a little faith and accept that at least theoretically Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and Srila Prabhupada is His pure devotee and therefore the Bhagavad-gita is Krishna’s words and Srila Prabhupada’s explanations in his Bhaktivedanta Purports are nondifferent from Krishna personally explaining the verses, so therefore we need to accept that Bhagavad-gita As It Is is a very important book and that we can learn a lot from it.
So if one is fortunate enough to have this little faith and if he simply reads Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is he will be able to understand the Gita certainly by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada.
You can read Bhagavad-gita As It Is online at http://asitis.com and purchase it at http://krishnastore.com
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna
Madhudivisa ji,
with sincere respect i would like to thanku for sending such wonderful letters
nowadays i m trying to become krishna coincoius but i feel that my mind is not stable,…………because whenever i try to offer my prayers to krishna my mind starts thinking all the bad things i know or things which should not be remembered during……so i have to abruptly stop my offerings ……because i may be doing sin to offer prayer without full devotion….
so plz help me and tell me how this can be avoided…….
HARE KRISHNA
Naturally when you start to practice Krishna consciousness that will stir up things in your mind and some nasty thoughts will come. That is natural. The chanting of Hare Krishna mantra is a purification process. So if you keep chanting Hare Krishna you will be purified. So don’t stop. Just keep chanting Hare Krishna.
HARE KRISHNA
thanku with sincere respect for replying me
HARE KRISNA
A great Hare Krishna to You Madhudivisa dasa- Brother, you woke Me up from the illusionary world. I am now on the spiritual path of Krishna Consciousness. Thank You Madhudivisa dasa! Hare Krishna Monique
Madhudvisa prabhu, thank you for your clear clarification on this subject.
When I first came in contact with Krishna Consciousness movement it was through Srila Prabhupada books only, and of course Krishna prasadam and His Holy Name. I also very much appreciate those devotees who made all this happen. Without their mercy we would not even have Srila Prabhupada books to read. And, my best experience I had in Krishna Consciousness was reading Srila Prabhupada books again and again, and more I read more I felt I was getting into the heart of Srila Prabhupada, and this made me so happy because Srila Prabhupada’s heard was so pure, sincere and without any tinge of selfishness. I was so much happy to have an association with such a great person. I have no doubt that by reading Srila Prabhupada books is no less important or significant spiritually than hearing from Srila Prabhupada in his physical presence. Srila Prabhupada himself wanted that everyone should read his books to make advancement in spiritual life.
This is how I made an advancement in my life, by associating with a pure devotee of Krishna. And I didn’t make any personal effort to do this, it just came automatically. This is the power of reading Srila Prabhupada books.
It was all nice and all inspiring, until I was spiritually smashed down by one devotee who first introduced me in Krishna consciousness. He told me that my chanting of Hare Krishna has no value because I was not connected with guru-parampara, that I have not received the Holy Name from a guru. His point was that I need to be initiated and then my real spiritual life will begin.
It was shocking and painful to me at that time, even more because for long time I had no opportunity to get an association with any guru. Then I started to think that I really need a guru, who will personally guide me in every step of my spiritual life.
So, finally, after long time, I approached one guru in ISKCON. He inspired me through reading his books. His preaching is mainly philosophical and pointing at problems in ISKCON.
At that time I joined the temple as brahmacary. I have got first initiation from him after 2 years in the temple, and now for 3 years I am serving in that temple.
My guru is traveling and preaching a lot. He is also spending so much time writing his books. In this way he thinks he is doing his best in Srila Prabhupada’s service.
I very much appreciate his effort and enthusiasm in Krishna Consciousness. He is a very profound speaker and writer. That I appreciate. But, there is one thing I want to share with you. Although I liked him very much I felt very sad and disappointed when I heard him criticizing Srila Prabhupada’s books, that they are ambiguous, and that his grammatical knowledge of English is very poor. He is doing Srila Prabhupada’s books changes and also supporting those who are doing that.
I can make a long list of other things, but I will mention only a few those which affect me the most. I don’t like when my guru is heavily criticizing other religions in public, putting them all in the same box of covered atheism. This may be truth, but this is discouraging people of other religions to join the Hare Krishna movement. Srila Prabhupada was never criticizing Christianity in itself, but those who don’t follow the instructions of Jesus Christ, and claiming they are Christians. He was heavy on that point. But, my guru goes so far to condemn all other religions as bogus. This gives bad impression in public. Another thing I don’t like is that he underestimates the power of chanting Hare Krishna maha mantra. He speaks that we can chant Hare Krishna and be happy, but there are more important things to do, like writing books to philosophically defeat the modern civilization. This is clear to me, that we should defeat the modern scientists and others, but to think this is more important and glorious than chanting the Holy Name is deviation from Lord Caitanya’s instruction, that in this age to make an advancement in spiritual life there is no other way than chanting the Holy Name, no karma, no jnana, and no yoga. And one last thing I will mention is that he is two-faced in public and personally. What he speaks is not what he instructs his disciples and followers personally to do. I am initiated for 3 years, and he never chastised me personally, even when I was deviating and bad behaved sometimes. He never personally encouraged me in spiritual life and never asked me personally do I need any help from him. Actually I have no personal relationship with my guru. I feel like he is so much busy and I am so much busy that we have no time to meet and little discuss.
It is little difficult for me now, because I see no inspiration from him any more. I feel my spiritual life is checked, when I associate with him by hearing his lectures. He speaks of ISKCON deviations, but he is deviating himself, by not following Srila Prabhupada’s clear instructions. There is no ISKCON deviations because there is no ISKCON. So how can he speak of ISKCON deviations? Why he does not openly say in public there is no ISKCON today? Why he preaches in the name of ISKCON and writes and publishes his books outside of ISKCON? Why does he criticize ISKCON GBC, when he is privately having friends with some of them? I think he is duplicitous, politically oriented, not simple hearted, and misdirecting his disciples with whom he is not personally discussing these issues.
Srila Prabhupada was openly addressing all deviations at those times, in public. He didn’t hide himself from his Godbrother’s or others. Srila Prabhupada made everything clear and open. This is spiritual master. He speaks the truth, no matter to whom it is spoken, when and in which circumstance. The truth must be spoken, and especially by the Guru. So, my guru not speaking real issues of ISKCON, just wandering around the real point, the real problems of ISKCON, only proves that he is also part of that conspiracy of bogus guru business.
I am sorry to say that, but this is the fact. If we make a mistake in basic arithmetic, then all our higher calculations will fail. If you make 2+2=3 then when you build the bridge with such mathematics, it will collapse one or another day. It will not last very long.
In the beginning of my spiritual life, I was more spiritually happy than today. This is because I had only Srila Prabhupada as my guru. Once I accepted another guru as my savior, and finally diksa guru, my whole life all of a sudden collapsed in a moment, just because of one apparently small thing which is not in the line with Srila Prabhupada’s teachings. This is what happens when we put our faith to someone else other than Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada is the only pure devotee at the moment because he never disappoints anyone in any way. This is the impression I have got from reading Srila Prabhupada’s books.
To give the conclusion, I feel disconnected from guru-parampara, because I have taken shelter from a person who is not Srila Prabhupada, and who has not full faith in Srila Prabhupada, and who thinks he is better and more intelligent and more educated then Srila Prabhupada. I am initiated in ISKCON or whatever it is called, and they are deviants.
I feel now that my link with Srila Prabhupada is broken because I am still within ISKCON.
I have no problem to leave “ISKCON” and my “ISKCON” guru whenever I want. I will do that formally very soon. I don’t need diksa from a conditioned soul. Better no diksa at all.
And knowledge and practice is more important than diksa. Diksa is only a certificate. I don’t need a certificate to start chanting Hare Krishna maha mantra, and associate with Krishna personally in this way. I don’t need a certificate to get free from all my anarthas. I will read and pray to Krishna to get free of them. I also don’t need a certificate to become a bonafide preacher of God’s message. I will simply work on myself, how to surrender more to Krishna by following His instructions in whichever level I am. And I don’t need a certificate to know that Krishna is now protecting me fully. He is always protecting everyone, even animals, without any certificate.
Just one last question to finish this long letter:
As I understood from Madhudvisa prabhu, you are saying that disciplic succession is not broken. So, I would say that this is because of Madhudvisa prabhu who is presenting Prabhupada’s teachings to all new devotees through his books and videos. This is how a bonafide guru should behave. He just delivers the message of his bonafide guru, without any addition or any subtraction. I like that from you, prabhu. This is how you are preserving the guru-parampara. I like when you discuss about Bhagavatam cosmology. You have full faith in Srimad Bhagavatam’s description of the Universe. How the Moon is bigger than the Sun, or how the Moon is farther away than the Sun. You have full faith in Srila Prabhupada, prabhu. I can see from that. Not even my guru has such a faith. His top disciple gives seminars where he tries to justify modern view of the Solar System by compromising it with the Bhagavatam’s explanation. He is refers to Richard L. Thompson’s famous book Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy.
My question is that since the disciplic succession is not broken, so everyone can take to Srila Prabhupada’s books, read them and follow them, and make spiritual advancement. Everyone can start chanting Hare Krishna by hearing Srila Prabhupada’s chanting. And everyone will be automatically initiated by Srila Prabhupada if he is sincere and following. So, if one does not become formally initiated by Srila Prabhupada or any other pure devotee, can he still be an instrument to continue the guru parampara in the future? Can someone who is pure hearted in a way that he simply wants to preserve the teachings of Srila Prabhupada and deliver them to others without any change, but he never accepted any formal initiation, become a bonafide representative of guru-parampara, teach others, help them spiritually, and instruct them to do the same thing to future generations? Can we just ignore all this diksa formality and simply stress more on the knowledge and the practice? Does Krishna needs a certificate to bring us into His house, or rather our qualification, sincerity and faith in Him? Can we just preserve the teachings of Srila Prabhupada by following them sincerely, and leave everything else to Krishna’s will, so if Krishna likes, when He is pleased with us, He may send us one of his liberated souls to guide us further, maybe Srila Prabhupada again, in this life or the next?
Hare Krishna Prabhu
Yes. You have fallen into that big hole of accepting a bogus guru that so many ISKCON devotees have also fallen into over the years.
Your guru is bogus, ISKCON is bogus, you have to reject both bogus things and go back to simply reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and chanting Hare Krishna mantra and hearing instructions from Srila Prabhupada directly as you read his books and actually putting those instructions into practice in your life.
Actual initiation is accepting the orders of a bona fide spiritual master as your life and soul, surrendering to him and making his mission your mission in life. The actual initiation has nothing to do with the formal initiation ceremony, the fire sacrifice, etc. So many direct Prabhupada disciples even sat in the fire ceremony and had a formal initiation ceremony but did not surrender to Srila Prabhupada. So there is no initiation actually. Initiation is the beginning of our advancement in Krishna consciousness and we can only begin to advance in Krishna consciousness when we surrender to a bona fide spiritual master like Srila Prabhupada. And a bona fide spiritual master is like Srila Prabhupada. Guru is one. Of course the person may be different but the guru is one. So two bona fide gurus are going to deliver the same bona fide message. Not that one guru can disagree with another guru. That means either one or both of them are wrong.
And Srila Prabhupada has shown us what are the qualities of a pure devotee of Krishna by his own personal example, if there is some other bona fide guru then he has to obviously exhibit the same spiritual qualities as Srila Prabhupada. It is not that there is any lower standard. There is only one standard for a bona fide spiritual master. Only a pure devotee, a completely liberated soul on the topmost platform can guide us in such a way that we can also ultimately become pure devotees of Krishna. A blind man can not lead other blind men. The leader must be able to see.
A bona fide spiritual master is a very rare thing and the important part of the relationship between a bona fide spiritual master and his disciples is that he speaks and that his disciples hear from him and follow his instructions. So Srila Prabhupada is still speaking to us in his books and he is still speaking to us in his other forms of recorded vani like the audio and video recordings and his letters, conversations, etc. So we have unlimited opportunities to hear from Srila Prabhupada and if we take full advantage of all these opportunities and associate with Srila Prabhupada directly and personally in this way we will find that Prabhupada is actually living and does actually care for us and will actually guide us in a very personal and direct and individual way through his books.
So it is not that we should in any way diminish the absolute necessity of having a bona fide spiritual master. That is the most essential point for anyone for making advancement in Krishna consciousness. The point is that Srila Prabhupada is a bona fide spiritual master and he is living still in transcendental sound in a way, helped by modern technology and because of his large number of published books, that no other previous acharya has ever been able to continue to live after his physical disappearance. Prabhupada really is living in his books and if we have enough intelligence and determination to take advantage of Srila Prabhupada’s association in this form and if we can actually surrender to him and really follow his instructions then we are actually initiated by Srila Prabhupada, we have a bona fide spiritual master.
Of course it is very difficult. One of the important things for making advancement in Krishna consciousness is sadhu sanga, the association of devotees. In fact it is essential for our spiritual advancement. However right now, with ISKCON full of bogus gurus like your guru who are absolutely not surrendered to Srila Prabhupada and who imaging they are somehow better and more intelligent than Srila Prabhupada and who are busy writing their own books which they imagine it will be better for people to read than Prabhupada’s books… They are demons. And ISKCON is full of such demons. The demon gurus attract demon disciples and even if sincere followers of Srila Prabhupada join ISKCON they are poisoned by all these poisonous gurus. So ISKCON is a disaster and you have to get completely out of it. They can not help you in any way advance in spiritual life.
Of course outside ISKCON it is not easy also. But you have a much better hope of becoming Krishna conscious outside ISKCON than inside ISKCON.
Your gurus books are all rubbish and will never help anyone become Krishna conscious. If your guru is not surrendered to Srila Prabhupada he is not connected to Prabhupada, not connected to Krishna, and all he can do is write mental speculation and of course he may have some mundane intelligence and ability to juggle words and present things nicely from a scholarly point of view but such scholarship will prove completely useless and his books will not be able to awaken the dormant Krishna consciousness that is present within everyone’s hearts. His books are only maya, even though he may mention Srila Prabhupada and Krishna all the way throughout them. He is completely wasting his time. Without complete surrender to Srila Prabhupada, without the feeling that “Prabhupada is great and I am nothing”, then we are useless, lost, hopeless…
So your guru is doing the greatest disservice by presenting himself as a representative of Prabhupada but not actually being a surrendered servant of Srila Prabhupada himself. You have to reject him immediately. You will not be able to advance in Krishna consciousness with a bogus ISKCON guru…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
My thought is that since Srila Prabhupada’s departure, there have been so many deviations from his high-position disciples, and no pure, simple and empowered soul(s) like Srila Prabhupada or the previous acharyas were left, so I think at that moment the disciplic succession was broken. So how can the new generation devotees get connected with guru-parampara when it no longer exists, at least at the present moment?
Thank you!
Hare Krishna Prabhu
Prabhupada is living in his books and anyone can read Prabhupada’s books and as they read Prabhupada’s books then they are personally and directly associating with Srila Prabhupada, a pure devotee of Krishna. So there no question of the disciplic succession being broken. Prabhupada is living with us in his books and he is the current acharaya and everyone’s direct link to the disciplic succession.
The parampara does not exist in ISKCON, they have completely disconnected themselves from Srila Prabhupada and thus they are completely disconnected from Krishna and they do not have the potency to help anyone advance in spiritual life. But Srila Prabhupada is living, and everyone can directly associate with him by reading his books.
And Prabhupada can create more bona fide gurus, more bona fide links to the disciplic succession. Just like Prabhupada was not a part of the Gaudiya Matha but he turned out to be the next link in the disciplic succession from Srila Bhaktsiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura inspite of him having thousands of disciples and many ‘big’ sannyasa disciples, etc. But they all become useless, ‘asara’ as Srila Prabhupada writes in his purports to Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, because the Gaudiya Matha went against the orders of Srila Bhaktsiddhanta after his disappearance. So ISKCON have gone against Prabhupada’s direct orders in practically every way, they have disconnected themselves from Prabhupada and Krishna. But anyone can connect themselves with Srila Prabhupada through his books and if they actually surrender to Srila Prabhupada they can become the guru of the world. The next link in the disciplic succession.
So it is not that the disciplic succession is broken or does not exist. It is living with Prabhupada and with anyone who is really a sincere and surrendered servant of Srila Prabhupada.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
All glories to Srila Prabhupad
Prabhu does it mean that there is no more disciplic succession after Srila Pabhupad execpt his trancedental described scriptures??
I have read in Srila Prabhupad Lilamrita that he had ordered all his sanyasi disciples to give initiation to more and more people.So, what was that?
Actually I sometimes get confused between what you instruct and what is instructed by other disciples of Srila Prabhupad. Its not that I don’t trust anybody but being a very contaminated soul its very difficult for me to choose the right path. Please show your mercy upon me.
Hare Krishna
Hare Krishan Krishnangi
The disciplic succession is continuing after Srila Prabhupada. But a bona fide spiritual master is not a very common thing. You know that Srila Bhaktsiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura had so many disciples, I do not know how many, but I believe it is in the tens of thousands, and out of all of them there is only one Srila Prabhupada. So it is not a very common thing. The idea of Srila Prabhupada is that he wants to create some ‘moons’. That means real pure devotees who will be empowered to preach and initiate disciples and spread the Krishna consciousness movement all over the world. And actually that is required of course. Because in time everything is lost and confused. So there has to be someone to clear up the confusion. Of course there is no confusion because everything is in Prabhupada’s books so clearly and if anyone would read Prabhupada’s books then there is no question of confusion. But there are so many demons out there that purposefully confuse people about the teachings of Srila Prabhupada.
So the solution is you should hear directly from Srila Prabhupada yourself and understand everything directly from Srila Prabhupada and then there will be no question of you being confused.
We have the Prabhupada Library at:
http://krishnastore.com/prabhupada-library-h-krishna-1734.html
If you get these books and read them it will help you are great deal and that will clear up all your confusion four sure.
The point is Prabhupada wants his disciples to become bona fide pure devotee spiritual masters but this is a qualification that they must attain. It is in one sense a very easy thing but in reality we do not see many are able to attain to this platform. The real thing is it requires surrender to Srila Prabhupada. Without surrender the spiritual knowledge does not flow. And no one wants to surrender… So the spiritual knowledge does not flow through these non-surrendered bogus gurus.
The reality in Kali-yuga is practically everyone who is advertising themselves as a guru is completely bogus with no potency to help anyone at all go back home back to Godhead. So you have to consider like that.
The real Vaisnava acarya is self-effulgent like the sun. When the sun rises in the sky in the morning everyone knows it. There is no doubt. Prabhupada is like that. There is no doubt that he is a pure devotee of Krishna and he exhibits all of the qualities of a pure devotee of Krishna and he is touch-stone. He chants Hare Krishna and speaks on the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam and that immediately changes the hearts of the people who hear from him. So these are the qualities of a bona fide spiritual master.
All the gurus today say ‘well I’m not like Prabhupada but surrender to me anyhow’. But that is no good. Guru is one. Guru is not two. The person may be different but the guru is one. So Prabhupada has shown us what is guru. So if someone else is guru then he has to have the same potency, the same everything as Prabhupada. He has to have the same mood as Prabhupada. The mood of unalloyed pure devotional service.
So I think you can understand that Prabhupada wants his disciples to become gurus but his disciples do not like to surrender and without surrender there is no question of them becoming guru. I am also not wanting to surrender. None of us want to surrender. That is the disease in the material world. None of us want to surrender… And without actual surrender to Srila Prabhupada there is no question that anyone can be a bona fide guru.
The absolute worst thing for your spiritual life is to accept someone as your guru who is incapable of properly guiding you back home back to Godhead. So do not do this. Take shelter of Srila Prabhupada. Read all of his books and follow the instructions you will find Srila Prabhupada giving you as you read his books and you will be very safe in spiritual life and you will make rapid spiritual advancement.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna.
PAMHO Pabhuji,
My mother is following all the rules as well as chanting 16 rounds from last 22 years but she is still not initiated from any guru maharaj(Disciplic Succession, Guru Parampara).
Should she get initiated as soon as possible or wait for some more time untill she get special mercy of Srila Prabhupad and his Diciples?
Hare Krishna
You mother should take shelter of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada by reading all of his books and following the instructions she will find Srila Prabhupada giving her as she reads his books. This is real initiation. Hearing from the bona fide spiritual master and surrendering to him and following his instructions. It does not require physical presence. It simply requires hearing Srila Prabhupada’s instructions and following them.
It is her great fortune that your mother has not taken initiation from a bogus guru. Practically all the people who are presenting themselves as gurus these days are completely bogus and have no potency whatsoever to even take themselves back home back to Godhead, what to speak of taking any of their disciples with them. So taking initiation from these bogus gurus is the greatest disaster for one’s spiritual life. There is nothing so effective to destroy your spiritual life than accepting a bogus person as your guru.
So these days it is very rare that anyone is actually helped by the person they accept as their guru because generally all the so-called gurus are conditioned souls. A conditioned soul is himself bewildered by maya so his is completely incapable of clearing other’s bewilderment. It is just like a blind man trying to guide another blind man. It is hopeless. They are both in great danger.
If one is blind but wants to be guided to the proper destination then he must find a guide who can see. Another blind man can not help him. So if we want a guru to guide us back home, back to Godhead, back to Krishna, then we have to find a guru who actually knows Krishna and who really knows the way to get to Krishna. It requires actually a person who is a pure devotee of Krishna to guide us in such a way that we can also become pure devotees of Krishna.
So your mother needs a pure devotee of Krishna as her spiritual master, she needs Srila Prabhupada, not some bogus ‘living guru’ who is not a pure devotee and who has no potency to guide her back home, back to Godhead.
So your mother needs to read Srila Prabhupada’s books and follow the instructions she finds Srila Prabhupada giving her from the books….
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
hare krishna prabhu ji,
AGTSP!
pls accept my humble obesiances.
Prabhu ji i came to reality of iskcon (post 1977) just 2 weeks ago. since then i m very depressed. fortunately ur association helps me to overcome.
i was regularly attending weekend programs at centre(in gurgaon nearby delhi) since 2011. delhi n north india zone is under gopal krsna goswami.
now i do not like to go there as except bhakti only money collection is going on there. i purchased many books(including s.b. set costing rupees 3500) in hindi as hindi is my native language. n now i have come to know about changes in books. i like to know whether to return s.b. set or keep it or throw them?? i m in confusion. pls guide me.
your servant
daanish.
Hare Krishna Dannish
There will be many tests to our determination in trying to become Krishna conscious. And we have to become strong. Maya will always try to discourage us from becoming Krishna conscious in every possible way she can. And her best servant in this regard is Jayadvaita Swami who is busy trying to destroy the authority of Srila Prabhupada’s books and put questions in the minds of all the devotees as to the authority of Prabhupada’s books. He has done so much damage. As far as the Hindi Bhagavatam, it has not been changed, as the English Bhagavatam even has not yet been changed. So the Hindi Bhagavatam you purchased will be OK. But really Prabhupada wrote the Bhagavatam in English so the English is the original and any translation, while very necessary to make this knowledge available to the people who do not speak English, will never be as good and true to what Srila Prabhupada originally wrote than the original in English. So if you can read English it is better to get the English one. So you may want to exchange the Hindi Bhagavatam set for an English Bhagavatam set.
The only problem with the ISKCON English Bhagavatam set now is after Canto 10 Chapter 13 the translations and “Bhaktivedanta Purports” are not by Prabhupada. Prabhupada only translated up to Canto 10 Chapter 13. So after that the translations and purports are by conditioned souls, non-liberated souls, so they are completely useless. But you may have to purchase the whole set to get Prabhupada’s Bhagavatam. So you should never read these extra bogus books ISKCON have added to Prabhupada’s Bhagavatam. But at least, at the moment, the Prabhupada part of ISKCON’s Bhagavatam is still the original pre-1978 Bhagavatam.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy and never become discouraged by maya’s unlimited attempts to discourage us…
Madhudvisa dasa
hare krsna
i read your newsletters regularly and repeatedly daily to understand the meanings of each and every line of your news letter.though krsna consciousness is very new to me but i found it very positive effect in my life.
thankyou madhuvisa das ji,
I hv a question……..
I have many problem in my life. But I won’t find any person to whom I will discuss and if I discuss, they will not understand so thats why I want to ask you some question….
My first question is that why should I
belive krishna? I m wating….
Hare Krishna Nandan
It does not matter if you believe in Krishna or not. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that does not change if you believe it or not.
If you do not believe you are a fool. Because there is so much evidence of this in the Vedas.
So it is up to you to study the evidence, read Srila Prabhupada’s books. And if you have any intelligence at all then you will know that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
This is not a belief. It is a fact and you can know that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead is a fact simply by studying Srila Prabhupada’s books.
So do it, read Prabhupada’s books and chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna!
Of late I have been receiving the news letters from you. I must say that are of great help to novice devotees as well as long standing devotees. I am gathering them and proposing to make a file of them so that I can go to the articles as and when I am in some doubt. Prbhuji is doing a wonderful job. I look forward to receiving the news letter every two days. Thank you very much.
Sukumaran
i am chanting 8 chanin round per day from 6 months how i can stop my mind to going on other things
Increase your chanting to 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. If you do all these things daily you will see a steady improvement in your chanting and you will find that your mind wanders onto other things much less until gradually you can just concentrate on chanting Hare Krishna and you will feel real transcendental ecstasy from the chanting. You have to remember that advancement in spiritual life depends on pleasing the pure devotee of Krishna. So your advancement will be proportional to how happy you can make Srila Prabhupada with your activities. So you need to very seriously read Srila Prabhupada’s books and try to understand what he is asking you to do as you read his books and follow Prabhupada’s instructions in your life. This is really the secret to advancement in Krishna Consciousness.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhu Madhudvisa Dasa
It is known that in March 2004, in Mayapur, India, took place an altercation between Jayadvaita Swami and Madhuvisa das (defender of the original books of Srila Prabhupada) in relationship with the reissue of the Bhagavad Gita? the devout Madhuvisa das mentioned, is the disciple of Srila Prabhupada who for many years was leader of the GBC and or is you (Madhudvisa Dasa) of a younger generation?
His servant
Padma Carana Das
Hare Krisha Prabhu
It is me, the younger Madhudvisa dasa.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Your servant
Madhudvisa dasa
Madhudvisa dasa Prabhu:
Receive my respectful obeisances
All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Sri Krishna
He was afraid to get an aggressive response from you, but I have received a respectful response, sincere and very consistent with the teachings of His Holiness Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, for I perceive that You are a sincere and faithful dicipulo of the authentic unique acharya. I sincerely appreciate your thoughtful comments and recommendations sincere, who takes much account. thank you very much
Your unworthy servant
Padma Charana Das
Madhudvisa Dasa:
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
I have some questions for you:
¿How can you connect with the pure disciplic succession now that Srila Prabhupada is no longer physically present and we see no authority on the line acharya disciple of Srila Prabhupada?
We know that many of his early disciples proclaimed themselves successors acharyas, but had problems with drugs, illicit sex, pedophilia, homoxesualidad and association with women, among others, ¿who are true successors of Srila Prabhupada, to find your association?
The original version of Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad Gita As It Is, the English edition published by Macmillan in 1972, was amended in 1984 by devotees like Swami and Virabahu Jayadavaita das, these changes were not authorized by Srila Prabhupada as these changes were made after his death (there is also a clear instruction to do so from the author, Srila Prabhupada) ¿is that correct these changes? ¿Where can we get the original version of Bhagavad Gita As It Is? (in English and Spanish version)
The edges 11 and 12 of the Srimad Bhagavatam (which were pending translated by Srila Prabhupada) were translated by Hrydayananda Swami, who is now known to have association with women despite being a sanyasa and practically carry karmi life, ¿is correct read these scriptures?
Hare Krishna Padma Charana Prabhu
Srila Prabhupada is still with us. He is living in his books. You can read them and in that way associate personally with Srila Prabhupada and he will guide you and answer all your questions in this way.
We don’t see any true successor to Srila Prabhupada. The whole idea of trying to find a successor to Srila Prabhupada is bogus because Prabhupada is still with us. You do not need to find a successor to Srila Prabhupada. You need to find Srila Prabhupada.
Yes. The Bhagavad-gita currently being distributed by ISKCON contains 1000’s of unauthorized changes. So it is not very good to read that. Original Macmillan 1972 Bhagavad-gita As It Is is available in English now for many years. You can get it from http://www.KrishnaStore.com and read it online at http://www.asitis.com or http://www.prabhupadabooks.com or download it as a pdf at https://www.krishna.org, etc…
As far as Spanish it is better if you are seriously interested in the teachings of Srila Prabhupada to read them in English. Prabhupada preached in English so the original is in English. Of course there are so many people who only speak Spanish so we have to have translations in Spanish also. But a translation will never be the original book. The original book in English will always be better than any translation in another language. I think if I was a Spanish-speaking person I would most certainly learn English so I could read Prabhupada’s books in the original English.
As far as Hriydananda Swami’s translations of 10th and 11th cantos that is most certainly unauthorized and no one should read them. That will be very damaging for your spiritual life, reading Hriydananda’s “Bhaktivedanta Purports”. It is such great cheating. Only a pure devotee of Krishna can understand Krishna, and the Tenth Canto is the most confidential pastimes of Krishna. And as you point out Hriydananda is not showing the symptoms of a devotee even. He does not exhibit any attachment for chanting the holy names of Krishna even. At least about 6 years ago when I saw him last he was not chanting Hare Krishna at all, not wearing tulsi neck beads, not wearing tilak, not wearing devotional clothing and talking in a very mundane way, no Krishna katha… So such a person can not understand Krishna and reading his translations of the Bhagavgatam would be very damaging to the spiritual life of anyone who would be so unfortunate to read them.
ISKCON is being very, very, very irresponsible by publishing Hriydananda’s Bhagavatam translations and presenting them as being non-different from Srila Prabhupada’s translations. It is such a disaster. So one has to be very careful not to read Hriydananda’s translations and purports…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
hare krisha Guruji
really love the way u write.
my query is when i close my eyes ti c lord krishna i see my love,i
mean i see him whom i love ,in form of the lord.it happens evrytime.
what does this means?
It means you are still in the bodily concept of life. But for a woman it is very good for her to see her husband as her lord and master.
hare krishna prabhu thanku for ur beautifull letter i have a question that as a student is it possible for me to hant 16 rounds a day and reading prabhupad book for 1-2 hr daily.
Yes. Of course it is possible. You just have to get your priorities right. If you get up at 4:00 AM in the morning then you can chant Hare Krishna till 6:00 am and read Prabhupada’s books to 7:30 AM, then you will be finished chanting 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra and will have read Prabhupada’s books for 1.5 hours before you would have normally got out of bed. So you will have lost no time at all from your studies.
Hare Krishna Prabhuji,
All glories to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu & Sri Srila Prabhupada.
First of all i am very much thankful to you for sending this valuable knowledge of Krishna Consciousness daily to me. After my M.Tech education i am unable to meet or associate with devotees due to Job & family. Now due to your daily preaching message, i think i have got again association & i can advance in Krishna consciousness by daily reading your lecture.
Prabhu ji , if in past Lord Krishna himself appear so many time in this material world & given this knowledge to his devotee, then how was this chain broken again and again. Is that with the time all devotee of Lord Krishna is get salvation or it is suppressed by other religion.
Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna Prabhu
It is the nature of the material world that the knowledge is lost in time. That is the way.
It is not purely transmitted, it becomes distorted, perverted and lost. So there is always the need for Krishna to appear again or send His pure devotee to reestablish the correct knowledge.
Hare Krishna,
Very good reading. The Lord Krishna himself did tell Arjuna that they were both born many times the difference being that Lord Krishna remembered them all but Arjuna did not. So it makes sence that Lord krishna would repeat the teaching.
Thank you,
Alan Nicholoplus
Sir,
I would like to add to the mail and its guided discussion.
“A true guru must lead the disciple from the path of darkness to the light. There are materialist pathways that can divert any person. The guidance becomes an essentiality. Also in the wise words of Kabir, the saint: a guru should act like a washerman, and treat students like dirty clothes, and make them clear off the dirt till the last particle to restore the whiteness for the world to see. The relationship under guru-shishya parampara must be such as Kabir said. We see a deviation in today’s environment primarily because of the tampered educational system, where the central focus is not the development of the character, but something else, may be physical possessions etc. We therefore, see the need for a reform.”
Hara Krishna
Really the Paragraph gain the knowledge towards lord krishna and begining of Bhagawad Getta, I love to gain my knowledge from your email, really thanks from my heart to you, Really say, “All things starts from Shree Krishna and in middle for shree krishna and at end for shree krishna” because their is nothing in this world without shree krishna. As from start of world and end of world all we lost our life/Body but never lost our soul, and soul is the part of shree krishna, so why not we purify our soul with Maha Mantra and devotee our self for lord shree krishna.
Hara Krishna
Hare Krishna
Madhudvisa Das
I am very Happy by the read your mail.
Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna To All,
Prabhu ji i am very eager to study your mails.Thank you so much for sending the precious diamonds of life to my mail regularly.I had some clarifications.
1.Krishna is the supreme personality of godhead then why we are including Rama also in Maha Mantra like Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
2.What we need to chant first Hare Krishna or Hare Rama
You first chant “Hare Krishna”. Can you not see that by now?
“Rama” is Balaram. Krishna’s brother….
THANK YOU BROTHER FOR LESSONS SANKIRTAN ,LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE SUCCESSION OF GURUS…SWANI,GOSWANI…I’M ANXIOUS AND I WOULD ALSO PHOTO OF SUCCESSION…JAY PRABHU A MATERIAL WORLD AND AN OCEAN OF SUFFERING…HARE BOL HARE KRISHNA.
ROGERIO FERREIRA LIMA.
Great.The mails you are sending is actually medicine for my mind.There is no need for us to be proud about anything knowledge,money, …….everything real owner is krishna what we all can do is to be krishna conscious and chant hare rama
thanks for you such impressive insight ,Before connecting with you I have recently came across one devotee of lord Chaitanya and with his influence I started chanting this mantra and In 3 months I have achieved the consistency of 10 round of mala daily but I am still not initiated from eskcon while initiated once in life .my Interest is not only growing and I don’t knew the source of strength but the fact of my life is that now That i have not ate food of onion garlic for last 25 days .this change in my nature and personality is driving toward you .please help me so that I would feel a glimpse of devotional pleasure.
dear brother
I have gone through the entire topic about The importance of the Disciplic Succession and I impressed about the real facts.thanks for your mercy for imparting such valuable treasurer to man kind .but I am become more excited to drink this nectar and request you to please let me kn ow about hare Krishna mahamantra as who actually invented it and is there any significant literature present on this mahamantra before lord chaintanya
Hare Krishna mantra was there and was being chanted before Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu made it very prominent and declared it to be the Yuga-dharma or the principal method for spiritual advancement in this Kali-yuga. Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself often quoted a verse from the Brhan-Naradiya Purana: hari nama hari nama hari nama eva kevalam… “In the age of Kali the only way, the only way, the only way to make spiritual advancement is the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra.” So it is not that Caitanya Mahaprabhu invented the Hare Krishna mantra, it was already there and it had already been predicted that it would be the yuga-dharma for Kali-yuga.
Dear brother
I had been imitated once and I am still following the instruction and practice instructed to me from my spiritual master and this is the only reason that I am interested in spiritual subject and discussion .but now I have been connected with you and reading your letters I wish to ask that a person who has been practicing other mantra should go for hare Krishna mahamantra and is this is a right ways to accept the other guru or spiritual practice .secondly what does gita says about a person who keep changing his spiritual practice or guru.pls help to come out with this confussion
Hare Krishna Kapil
Yes, you can change from chanting the other mantra to chanting Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna mantra includes all other mantras and is more powerful than any other mantra. Chanting the Hare Krishna mantra is the yuga-dharma for this Kali yuga and it is specifically surcharged and can counteract all the bad effects of this age. So you can certainly change over to chanting Hare Krishna mantra.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa Dasa,
I am grateful for all the letters. I have been watching Tape 1-23, of Srila Prabhupada on you tube. and I have been doing online studies of the Srimad Bhagavadtam and The Bhagavad Gita-As It Is, everyday. When I read your letters full of wealth of spiritual information, my desires intensifies to become an initiated devotee of Krishna Consciousness. Patience is a key word. I speak of Krishna all the time, chant and sing His Holy Names. Krishna is on my every breath, in my heart and on my mind, He is within me. Teach me to become a strong desciple of Krishna.
Respectfully
Radha
dear brother
I have recvd your mail let me knowing that podcast idea is in your mind I appreciate that and my well wishes are with you but I am more interested in knowing about the devotee experiences regarding chanting of maha mantra and what are instruction there in bhagwad gita for chanting .
Hare Krishna Kail
You will never know about chanting Hare Krishna until you experience it yourself. It is not possible to understand what is Krishna conscious unless you become Krishna conscious yourself. And the process of how to become Krishna conscious is being taught to us by Srila Prabhupada in his transcendental books. So please read Srila Prabhupada’s books and gradually you will come to understand everything about chanting Hare Krishna and Krishna consciousness. Do not expect that you can just write a little question and I can write back a paragraph to you and you will somehow come to understand Krishna consciousness. It is not like that. To understand Krishna consciousness you have to surrender to a bona fide spiritual master, offer obeisances to him, serve him. In that way such a self-realized soul can give you real knowledge because he has seen the truth.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krsna—- I have a question:I do not prepare a meal to offer to Lord Krsna but I do offer all acceptical food and water and incence and candlelight. So is it necessary to actually prepare a meal to offer to Lord Krsna? Harebol
Yes. You can not offer anything to Krishna that is cooked by non-devotees. That is an offense and will not be accepted by Krishna. So you have to cook for Krishna or eat the prasadam offered to Krishna by some other devotee. We can not offer to Krishna or eat anything that is not cooked by devotees if we actually want to become Krishna conscious. The consciousness of the cook goes into the food so if the cook is not a devotee and you eat the food cooked by them you will also become a nondevotee. That is just the way it is. So you have to make arrangements in your life so you can either cook for Krishna yourself or get the prasadam from some other devotee or temple that is cooking for Krishna….
hare krishna
i am very much enjoying each and every mail of yours.. thank you for all your knowledge..i am suffering great miseries of my life..
krishna is helping me to deal with this material world..
i fully understand and acknowledge mistakes that i have made in past..
i surrender to krishna..
now whatever i will do i will do it for krishna
thank you…its been a great relief,,
hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare
hare ram hare ram ram ram hare hare
Hare Krshna,
I would like to know the food which i eat daily.Should it be cooked by krshna devotee itself
or it cooked by anyone before offering it to krshna.Also i would like to know the prayers before offering it to krishna.
Hare Krshna
Hare Krishna Prabhu
Krishna will not accept any food that is prepared by a non-devotee. It is an offense to offer food cooked by non-devotees to Krishna. So devotees can only eat food that is cooked by devotees of Krishna and offered to Krishna otherwise they are eating only sin. It is not actually the mantras that complete the offering to Krishna. It is the desire in the heat of the cook. If the cook is cooking for Krishna and when he goes to the market he is shopping for Krishna and he really makes a very sincere offering to Krishna then Krishna will accept the offering. In reality we do not offer anything directly to Krishna. That is not the process. As we receive the knowledge about Krishna via the disciplic succession from Srila Prabhupada we also make all our offerings to Srila Prabhupada and he then offers everything to Krishna through the disciplic succession. Not that we can directly offer anything to Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada and Krishna will accept an offering if it is really cooked for him with love and devotion. So the most important thing about offering is that we have to become sincere devotees of Krishna first otherwise the offering will not be accepted and will never become prasadam. So the important thing is to become a devotee and not eat anything that is cooked by non-devotees. For offering mantras you can just chant what you know which has to be at least Srila Prabhupada’s pranam mantras, the Panca-Tattva Maha Mantra and the Hare Krishna mantra. The general process is that we cook for Krishna then offer the bhoga to Krishna [which is really actually offering to Srila Prabhupada] and then we have an aroti and after the aroti the devotees honor the prasadam…
There are more mantras but you will naturally learn them as you become a devotee more and more. The main thing is to become a devotee and actually develop an attachment to chanting the Hare Krishna mantra and and attachment to Srila Prabhupada and and attachment to Krishna. And when the attachment is there you will develop real love and from that real love you will develop the desire to render service to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna and will be very happy to prepare nice offerings for Srila Prabhupada and Krishna.
We have to always be conscious that we are cooking for Krishna, not for ourselves or or families, for without this consciousness, without actually cooking the offering for Krishna, there is no hope that Srila Prabhupada and Krishna will accept it…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna
How can we apply principles of Varnaasrma Dharma in the practice of Krishna Consciuosness.
Krishna consciousness is transcendental to the principles of Varnashrama dharam. So just worry about becoming Krishna conscious. That is all you need to do…
Hare Krishna
I am in to Krshna Consciousness for the past six months. Basically I have strong faith on Christ. I have Christ photos at home. Some devotees insist me to get them removed. Since I am into Krishna Consciousness,Is that I have to give up Christ. Kindly assist me
You don’t have to give up Christ to be in Krishna consciousness. Christ is also a devotee of Krishna, he is just preaching in a different country, in a different language, a different culture, but essentially the message Lord Jesus Christ is presenting and the message of Krishna is the same. Of course the presentation of Christ is not actually his own work, it was written down from the memories of his disciples up to thirty years or more after Christ died on the cross. And since then it has been changed somewhat for many reasons. So the knowledge we have from the Vedas is so much more detailed and authorized that what is available in the Bible, but still that does not mean that we can not offer respect to Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to keep the pictures keep them… But make sure you have big pictures of Srila Prabhupada, the Panca-Tattva and Radha-Krishna…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare krishna iam realy gratefull to see all these mails after reading getting changes thank u very much
i want to ask how to meditate properly.
That is the subject of Srila Prabhupada’s 80+ books. Please read them.
Hi, Thanks for the informative material on the Bhagavad Gita. I would love to accept this book but I do have trouble understanding how a “sun god” could have intelligence and even pass down orally the script that makes up the Bhagavad Gita to someone called Manu? I gather this “sun god” is metaphorical speak. could you explain what this means. Please excuse my ignorance.Regards…Steve
Hare Krishna Steve
Every planet has a predominating deity. A person who is in charge of the planet. And there are people living on the sun also. They have a different type of body that is suitable for living there. And the sun god is the leader or the predominating person on the sun planet. And his name is Vivasvan. So this is not metaphorocial at all. The sun god Vivasvan is an intelligent person and Krishna instructed the science of Bhagavad gita to him and he passed it on down through the line of the saintly kings and in time it was lost and the need was there for Krishna to appear again to speak the same Bhagavad-gita to His friend and devotee, Arjuna.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Thank you for taking the time to reply. Now of course, I have to consider your comments and process them.Hari Bol
Hare Krishna,
Thank you very much for this nice message.
Dandvat Pranams to the Lotus feet of most beloved Srila Gurudev , Srila Prabhupad , Srila Guru parampara , Six Goswamis
Sri Panchatattwa
all the saktis of Supreme Lord
and of course Sri Radha Nayananath!!!
Haribol
Dear Sri Madhudvida dasa,
I completely understand the importance of param-para but have a question. If all it means is to act like a post man, how I as a post man will get benefit out of the teachings contained in Bhagavat Gita? Does this param para not require me to understand and then transmit the contents to others? What is in it for the teacher who acts like a post man simply repeats the message?
Thanks in advance for your patience at my quetsion.
Hare Krishna Radhavendran
It is the duty of the postman to deliver the mail. If he does not deliver the mail he will be punished as a criminal and he will loose his job and loose his salary. So it is our duty to simply deliver the teachings of Krishna via the disciplic succession to others.
The devotees are not thinking “what is in it for me.” They are not interested in anything for themselves. Their interest is in pleasing Krishna and glorifying Krishna and engaging others also in serving and glorifying Krishna. The devotee becomes happy when Krishna is happy and when he sees others becoming Krishna consciousness. He has no personal interest, he does not want anything for himself.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
hari bol
i thought your article was quite good. it zeroed in on the point you were making all the time. very good work. i ama student of the gita and trying to understand it…your statement of teaching it as it is…really made sense. i thought that the understanding that came to my mind was krishna….because he helps us to rememeber, and makes us forget.
lets all spread the message, chant and be happy-only that we have spent millions of births, before we are fortunate enough to know that krishna is the supreme absolute truth..hari bol
hare krishna!! prabhu
i am anand vardhan and pursuing BCA. i am very glad to see ur devotion unto prabhupada or indirectly unto krishna. i am associated with delhi iskon temple (dir.HH Gopal krishna) and many of my devotees are my my friends some of them i see enthusiastic and jubliant. it is the fabulous gift that sirla prabhupada has gifted us . i hv also been reading books like bhagwad gita(edited), krishna,ishopanishad, prabhupada etc…, actually i am not able to find my spritual guru and missing sirla prabhupada … pl. help me find that rarest person blessed fully with devotional service just like prabhupada if you could see somewhere around u pl. be informing abt him.
hare krishna!!!
Hare Krishna Anand Vardhan Prabhu
You know Prabhu it is very, very, very rarely that we get the chance to associate with a bona fide spiritual master, a pure devotee of Krishna. You know the verse brahmananda brahmananda kona bhagavan jiva guru krsna prasada paya bhakti lata bija. It means we are wandering from one universe to another universe and only occasionally does one very fortunate living entity get to associate with a pure devotee of Krishna and if he takes advantage of that pure deovtees association and surrenders to him and accepts initiation from him he can get the “bhakti lata bija”, the seed of the plant of devotion. And once he gets that seed he can, under the guidance of his spiritual master, water that seed and gradually the plant of bhakti will grow in his heart until it is a fully fledged plant and it will produce flowers and fruits and finally in the most mature stage of that plant of bhakti it will product seeds also which can be distributed.
So the point you have to come to accept Prabhu is that it is very, very, very rare to find a bona fide spiritual master and you have already found one: His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada—it is so very unlikely that you are going to find a second bona fide spiritual master so you should take advantage of the association of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Of course, since Srila Prabhupada has left our material vision ISKCON have presented almost 200 men they claimed were bona fide spiritual masters. But 100+ of them have already fallen away from devotional service and were obviously not qualified and I can say quite boldly that anyone who agrees to become a spiritual master in ISKCON is not a bona fide spiritual master for sure.
So you will find so many who are claiming to be bona fide spiritual masters but the huge majority of them will be cheaters. Some very deluded and actually thinking they are pure devotees capable of taking thousands of disciples back home back to Godhead, and some just cheaters who are using the position of spiritual master for fame, profit, adoration and distinction. That is the reality. Bona fide spiritual master is very rare.
But these bogus spiritual masters are very popular. Because mostly people do not actually want to surrender to Krishna. They have a life in the material world and they want to keep on enjoying in the material world and at the same time have a guru to show they are a great spiritually advanced person… So they want a cheating guru and there are so many cheating gurus available in ISKCON and elsewhere, that is why Srila Prabhupada often describes the material world as the world of the cheaters and the cheated.
So you want someone ‘just like Prabhupada’, just surrender to Prabhupada, accept Srila Prabhupada as your spiritual master.
It is no different now than when Prabhupada was personally present. Even then unless you were very fortunate you may not have been able to meet Srila Prabhupada in person. Prabhupada initiated most of his disciples using ritviks or priests who performed the initiation ceremony on his behalf because he was accepting disciples from every country of the world and he was only in one place. He instructed his disciples who never met him through his books and letters and recorded classes and we can still take advantage of Srila Prabhupada’s personal association by reading his books and listening to his classes and reading his letters…
So take advantage of the association of the only bona fide pure devotee spiritual master we know for sure that we have, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krsna, Daer Mr. Mudhudvisa thank you for your enlighten comment on the Param Para system and i totally agree on the subject matter. Locana dasa Thakura has warned, visaya chadiya: one must give up material sense gratification. if one indulges in material sense gratification, surely he will be in the bodily concept of life. One who is in the bodily concept of life will undoubtedly have a materialistic understanding of the past times of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thus, by considering the Lord’s pastime mundane, one will come within the category of Mayavada, or imperialistic, in which one considers the transcendental body of the Lord to be a creation of material nature. Therefore the word asangah in this verse is very significant. One must chant the holy name of the Lord without mental speculation. One must accept Lord krsna as He presents Himself in Bhagavad-gita, wherein He states that He alone is Purusottama, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and that His transcendental form is eternal (ajo’pi sann avyayatam) Canto 11-2-39.
Hare Krsna
hare krishna prabhuji,
shree krishna saved DRAUPADI, in my case its worst i am trying my best to survive with my two children and wife, totally helpless every day before going to bed and on rising in the morning i ask krishna will you come to my rescue today. I dont want to beg i want to earn i know i have the talent but no source to exibhit it, will his highness really come to my rescue, or he will come to me when its too late? i am worried.
waiting for your reply.
hare krishna.
Ronak.
Hare Krishna Ronak
Dropadi is a special case. Devotees generally are not asking Krishna to come and save them. We have to get in the mood of servants of Krishna and work for Him. That is all we have to offer Krishna–our service. It doesn’t matter if we are successful or a failure in the material world. There are no material impediments that can slow our advancement in Krishna consciousness.
We just have to become determined to be Krishna conscious in whatever conditions we find ourself in the material world.
Krishna knows everything, He knows what we need–we do not have to ask Krishna for the things we need–we simply need to pray to Krishna: “Please Krishna engage me in Your service.” And when Krishna sends us service we have to do it. That’s all.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
First of all I would like to say thanks to Madhudvisa for sending me e-mail containing diamonds i.e. the essence of Bhagvad Gita.You have started a wonderful mission of spreading the knowledge of Bhagvad Gita to the world.But I ‘ve one ques in mind.I’m a follower of Gaudiya since many years and i’ve seen that not many people in this modern world are interested in true knowledge of God through disciplic succession.Almost all people are interested in preachings of pakhandi babas. People ‘re least interested in true knowledge of God.They even make fun of teachings of Gaudiya or ISKCON.U’ve started a wonderful mission to spread the true knowledge of Krishna.But unfortunately, there’re very few who r ready to receive it.I get very upset at this. Even I want to spread actual message of Gita to people. But people run away from actual teachings of Gita as they r hard to understand and follow.Wat should I do.
Hare Krishna Divya
You have to expect that most people will “run away” if you speak the Absolute Truth to them. People don’t want to hear that Krishna is God and we should surrender to Him and serve Him. They would much rather smoke chilims with the babas and get stoned. That is the world we live in.
Krishna consciousness can not be understood by the mass of people. It requires some qualifications to understand and appreciate Krishna consciousness. So do not worry that most people are not interested. We should take Krishna consciousness very seriously ourselves and become pure devotees of Krishna and serve Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. And not be concerned that most people are not interested and can not understand what we are doing.
Srila Prabhupada often used the example of a very beautiful diamond. It is very nice and actually attractive to everyone but to get it requires the qualification, you have to have the money to pay for it. If you don’t have the qualification you can’t get the diamond. So Krishna consciousness is the state of being where one is full of unlimited spiritual bliss, eternal and full of knowledge. It is an eternal peaceful and blissful condition. And everyone would like this. But the qualification is there, unless one has a bona fide spiritual master and surrenders to him and serves him then it is unachievable. First one has to find a bona fide spiritual master and that is very, very, very rare, and then one has to surrender and generally people are not prepared to surrender. So to actually achieve Krishna consciousness requires these qualifications and can not be achieved otherwise.
What we should do is first become perfect in Krishna consciousness ourselves. We can not preach to others if we are not ourselves perfect. And if we do become advanced in Krishna consciousness like this advancement actually means surrender. And surrender means we are not in control. We are surrendered to the orders of our bona fide spiritual master and we are surrendered to the orders of Krishna. So we will do what Krishna wants us to do. And because we are simply servants of Krishna moving the way Krishna instructs us to move the results are not ours. We want to become instruments in the hands of Krishna.
So we do not really know how things will develop. We simply have to perfect this surrender to Krishna and Krishna’s pure devotee and follow their orders. That is our duty.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
I WANT MORE ARTICLES FOR MY SPIRITUAL ENHANCEMENT. PLEASE SEND THEM FAST!
This simple and clear presentation of disciplic succession or param para is crucial and fundamental to all following good understandings and transmissions of Krishna’s Teaching for humanity. However, I would take some minor issue with the statement that Sri Krishna and Lord Caitanya came to Earth in human forms “only” to reintroduce the Bhagavad Gita As It Is. It was and is also for presenting and experiencing beyond our devotional abilities to respond to without His mercy and Her grace, the transcendental fount of the Madhura Rasa Love Play of Radha~Krishna with Their Initmate Associates upon this theatre’s world stage for our edification and attraction. If this be just my own opinion or theory, then it is valueless and dangerous. If not, then my ability to say this is not of my own power or making.
Hare Krishna,
I belong to Lowest community(caste) . DO Krishna accepts me.
Yes. Krishna accepts you for sure.
Lord Caitanya, who is Krishna appearing in a golden form five hundred years ago is called patita pavana. It means He has come to deliver the most fallen. So any low or fallen person is a good candidate for the Mercy of Lord Caitanya. You simply have to give up the sinful activities of illicit sex, meat eating, gambling and intoxication and chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra daily and you will see that you become transformed into a truly spiritual personality.
There is no question of community or cast. Krishna consciousness is available to everyone without any discrimination at all.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna prabhu
a sincere thanks to you dear Madhudvisa Das prabhu ji
I have gained a lot about krishna from you very pious movement of sending newsletters to all intersted and waking up the spirit of pure ,unalloyed unflinching love for krishna “our care taker and most beloved supreme lord” in them that had been in dormant stage since time innumerable.
Just like Prabhupada maharaj and lord chaitanya were doing even doing now also.
you don’t know how much u have obliged us specially me and to that extent that i can not repay it against any thing belonging to me.you have been doing the work of making me aquainted of my real father mother lover and everything. when i had been visiting iskon temple in delhi a few months before i did not have any idea that sirla prabhupada is not present in this world any more and was shoked with it as if one more time my hope is lost for completing my dream ( to serve Krishna just like gopies on day ) and found my self even helpless after knowing that there is one left in iskon that can take to the work of sirla prabhupada as he did . but again have regained that faith just after knowing about u people in ISKON . when u were sharing ur experience of becoming a devotee i was just so much delighted that i have got the way to reach back to Our Krishna. and by doing this i will surely be able to elevate my self . my expression was like i could not make my laughing stop. i do not know how many times i thank u for this . i just want to serve lord just like gopies , prahalad maharaj , uddhav , prabhupada …….etc and not even slightly less than that. today mourning when i was chanting lord’s name on the beads of tulsi i suddenly got this feeling that i have been massaging my lord’s feet so softly and slowly i was that much excited seeing my lord’s fet in my hands that i can not express it for i am lacking short of words to explain it . i saw that earlier when iused to see this idle of lord
i did not get this feeling now for the lord , then i soon realized that today when i saw the idle of lord today i had this thing of prabhupada in my mind that ” on should not think that this is the idle of stone only on should gain that sight to se the lord within the idle and he has just assumed that form
so as to make it easy for us see the lord’s form , it is lord’s mercy on the devotees only that he enters in the altar for making us available that loving service for him…
i have some some questions to be asked from you too apart from this . PL. be seeking my next questionnaire taking some time apart from ur busy schedule and be replying pl… “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare” Jai shree radhey prabhu jee
A very clear presentation of Srimad Bhagabat Gita as it is.This helps an ordinary mind to distinguish fact from own mind.
Hare Krishna Prabhuji, Dandavat pranam. All Glories to Srila Prabhupada. I have read many of your articles and letters and found them very interesting and educative.Prabhuji I want to ask you, as you keep on telling that the Gurus is Iskcon does not follow Srila Prabhupada; can you give some examples why you believe like that. As I am in Iskcon for the last four years, I always find them gloryfying Srila Prabhupada. Is there no Guru Maharaj in Iskcon who is pure and how can we guess their purity as Krishna says it is very very hard to acknowledge a pure devotee and as we are neophytes the task seems impossible.
Hare Krishna Partha
I don’t know why but today everyone is asking about ISKCON gurus.
I am saying that ISKCON has created a completely bogus philosophy and a completely bogus idea about what a guru is. No real qualified bona fide guru could work within the crazy system ISKCON has created. So you can be quite sure that ISKCON does not have bona fide gurus.
ISKCON philosophy [which has been created by the GBC, not Krishna] states that the gurus have to be subordinate to the GBC. This whole idea has been invented by the GBC who are simply a management body who have not necessarily got any particular spiritual qualifications. But to be a guru in ISKCON one has to submit to the authority of the GBC. This is not guru Prabhu. Guru is surrendered to his guru and he is surrendered to Krishna. He can not be surrendered to anyone else.
So the whole guru thing that ISKCON has created is a complete mess and I guarantee you will not find a single bona fide guru in ISKCON.
Of course mostly the gurus in ISKCON are very sincere. But being sincere is not actually the qualification for being a bona fide guru.
The guru system in ISKCON since Srila Prabhuapda left the planet is a very, very, very sad story indeed. And ISKCON have not learned a single thing. They started with 11 supposed Acaryas who all turned out to be completely bogus in such embarrassing ways, then when that whole guru system collapsed, instead of questioning what went wrong, the GBC appointed about 100 new gurus, and they have all mostly fallen down now also. Now as I have hinted elsewhere ISKCON will approve practically anyone at all as a guru. There is no standard, no qualification. No training, no need to study Srila Prabhupada’s books, no need to be even strictly following the four regulative principles and chanting 16 rounds daily. They just think if they can just make more and more gurus… And the gurus keep falling down and the disciples keep on getting misguided.
It is not a question of guessing purity. And it is not that we can not detect the purity if it is there. If you simply study Srila Prabhupada’s books you can understand very clearly what the qualities of a bona fide guru are. Even the qualities of a bona fide devotee are very rare. So a guru actually has to be a person who really is in love with Krishna. You know Prabhu Krishna consciousness is about developing love for Krishna, we can not develop love for Krishna from someone who has love for money or love for power or loves being served or being worshiped. We can only learn to love Krishna from one who actually really loves Krishna and has really surrendered to Krishna and is really simply presenting the pure messages about Krishna as exactly as they have been handed down to him from his bona fide spiritual master in the disciplic succession.
A real qualified pure devotee is very rare, and he rises like the sun. It is impossible not to see the sun rising in the morning. Similarly it is not possible to miss the pure devotee when he is preaching the message of Krishna consciousness all over the world.
What is the special thing about Srila Prabhuapda? Why is it we are all so attracted to Srila Prabhuapda? Why is it that the ISKCON gurus are all talking about Prabhuapda? It is because he is a pure devotee of Krishna, he is very special, he is not an ordinary man. He is a bona fide spiritual master. And Prabhupada is the standard for a bona fide spiritual master.
You don’t find anyone anywhere–except for a handful of devotees hanging around some ISKCON temple–interested in any of these ISKCON gurus. None of them are rising like the sun, none of them are self-effulgent, none of them are like Srila Prabhupada.
But any one of them could be very easily. That requires surrender. But we don’t want to surrender. Even ISKCON rebel against Krishna’s clear instructions in the Bhagavad-gita, I am speaking about this in other posts today, Krishna says that a bona fide spiritual master is “a self-realized soul who has seen the truth” but ISKCON reject this and say “a bona fide spiritual master does not have to be a self-realized soul. If he is approved by the GBC he is bona fide…”
For a neophyte it is impossible to differentiate between a bona fide guru and bogus cheater. That is why it is very dangerous to remain a neophyte devotee. We have to come at least to the madhyam platform. You see this is the trick. This why Krishna consciousness is so rare. Because the neophyte has some sincere idea that he wants to make spiritual advancement and naturally so many bogus cheating gurus come who really don’t love Krishna or know Krishna at all. We all come to this material world because we want to become the master, we want to become the enjoyer. So actually the materialists do not like this idea of surrendering to Krishna. They want people to surrender to them. They want to be Krishna. Of the Mayavadis come out and say it openly. “Namo Narayana,” they are all Narayana… But this tendency is there in the materialists also they want to become the lord and master and in many cases they take advantage of the position of guru to get followers and really they are not interested in serving Krishna. They are interested in getting people to serve them. This is just a fact. There are so many gurus in this “guru business” trying to get the neophyte devotees to surrender to them and serve them.
So this ocean of bogus gurus is very dangerous for a neophyte devotee. Because he can not tell the difference between bogus demon and pure devotee of Krishna.
So the lesson is do not remain as a neophyte devotee.
Become a pure devotee of Krishna by taking advantage of Srila Prabhupada’s association and instructions. But we will no do it.
Actually it is easy. But we do not want to surrender to Srila Prabhupada, we do not want to surrender to Krishna. That is our disease….
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
hare krishna madhudvisa dasa ji
first of all a real heartly thanks for sending the newsletters.at least i am sure that i will read something pure in the coming days.and connect with krishna
i have one doubt
you said that we have to accept the gita and krishna words as it is but we are constantly asking questions about it and in a way challenging also.so what are we doing is wrong?but if we dont ask doubts we wont understand it properly?
and one last question what does your name means?
thanking you in advance
hari bol
hare krishna prabhu, while i was copying this email to store it in my enotes, i clicked UNSUBSCRIBE and i got unsubsribed…please continue sending these emails and krishna connect information so as to awaken the dormant kc if i have any…please continue from this article….they are wonderful
your humble servant
lakshmi
Hare Krishna Mother Lakshmi
You are still active on the mailing list, not unsubscribed. Thank you very much for the encouragement.
Madhudvisa dasa
pamho madhudvisa prabhu agtACBSP thank you for sending me this wonderful newsletter i realize that i’m zero would like to be connect with the selfless devotional mood of the acharyas but i feel i’m very far away because of too much ego this newsletter remind me to the real devotees of LORD GAURANGA MAHAPRABHU SANKIRTAN MOVEMENT REVOLUTION you may be don’t believe me i been in the BHAJANA KUTIR OF SRILA BHAKTIVINODA THAKUR SVANANDA SUKHADA KUNJA just the faith keep me going with my saddhana bhakti would like to be more serious in the way back home may be i need to wait more to become more old to surrender completely in a helpless mood to GURU SADHU AND SASTRA i got not choice but keeping chanting and reading try my best to avoid mental speculation through the guru hoax which the history repeat it again because as you say the succession been broken several times due to the great responsability of the bona fide guru, is not easy to find HIM but we got HIM HDG ACBSP KI JAY, i know a lot of devotees got frustated because they went to the wrong person i also been victim of the zonal acharya when i were devotee full time in italy anyway what is gone is gone thank you for your sadhu sanga with high a long practice spiritual relizations in association with SRILA PRABHUPADA i been blessed by SRI KRSNA by be connect with you which give me new hope to get there by keeping reading your param-para newsletter wich help people a lot because as you says all the power is in the message as it is agtys ys seva daso haribol
I am thrilled by this reading. It reinforces and validates the importance of true humility, one of the traits I find I lack. Now that I understand what humility is, I can stop acting like I am humble. Thank you.
Hi, thanks for sending me all the letters, i’m really sorry that i haven’t reply before but a friend of mine is going to borrow me “How to know god: the yoga aphorisms of Patanjali”. So i’m going to read it and if you don’t mind i will make you some questions.
Thank you.
Hare Krishna prabhui
i have 2 questions
1.I am chanting fro past 1 month but still am not able to take sinful thoughts
out of my mind while chanting please suggest me the way
2.why do we need to conserve cow is it just because of her usefulness?
please email your answer on aarya619@gmail.com
Hare Krishna Pravin
It is very good that you are chanting Hare Krishna for one month.
In the other sentence you are saying why can’t we kill the cow? So does that mean you are still eating meat? Or want to eat meat?
We protect the cow because Krishna likes cows very much. If you kill the cows you are killing Krishna’s favorite animal. Therefore Krishna will not be happy. And if you make Krishna unhappy your life is totally spoiled.
The thing is we have many sinful activities from a long time, many, many lifetimes. You can not expect them to all vanish immediately. In the beginning we have to understand theoretically the power of chanting Hare Krishna and chant, knowing that our hearts are being purified, but we may not feel that purification happening so prominently in the beginning. But if you keep chanting you will feel it for sure.
For the proper effect you need to also follow the four regulative principles [no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication] and to give you the philosophical understanding and strength and determination as to why you should follow these principles and chant Hare Krishna you need to read Srila Prabhuapda’s books.
It is a science and like any scientific experiment if you want it to succeed you have to follow the process. That process is described very nicely in Srila Prabhuapda’s books, read them, understand the process and follow it and your success will be guaranteed.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
hari ohm ,
what is the difference between bhramam anh parabhramam
Hare Krishna Abhijith
Brahman is “spirit”. We, the spirit soul, are brahman. And Krishna is also brahman, but because He is the supreme, He is unlimited, he is called parabrahman. Para means supreme or unlimited.
In quality we are the same as Krishna. But in quantity Krishna is unlimited and we are very tiny. So that quality is brahman. But the quantity is very different. Krishna is unlimited and we are very tiny. Therefore Krishna is parabrahman and we are brahman.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare krishna prabhuji….
Accept my humble obescince prabhu…
Thank u for such a great newsletters.. thank u and thank you supreme lord krishna…..
Prabhu i have a question regarding my personal life please reply me prabhuji…
prabhu i did my MCA(computers) passed out 2009 and now im trying for a job, and from august 1 by krsna grace im turned to krsna devotee… i studied prabhupada guru books more than 10 and now running geeta 8 chapter and chanting daily 6 times….
if we chant his holy names and remembering always and by totally surrendering to him then our future will be bright ah?
upcourse krsna devotion is the highest taste i know prabhu but im asking that if we do like above then not only mukti krsna will take care about us ah? is he supply material world all needs to his devotees?
can i get job?
please reply me prabhuji please
your servent
Nagender
Hare Krishna Nagender
The idea of the devotees Prabhu is to give Krishna service. To work for Krishna. The idea is to approach Krishna in a mood to give Him something. They do not like to ask Krishna to do things for them. Rather they want to do things for Krishna.
Krishna knows what we need and He will supply or not supply, according to His own desire, His own plan.
Our business is to see everything in this world as Krishna’s energy. And because it is Krishna’s energy we should engage it in Krishna’s service.
We see what situation we find ourselves in and try to work out what is the best way to use that situation in the service of Krishna.
Actually the idea of Krishna consciousness is to realize that we are eternal spirit souls in a temporary material body. This body and all it’s attachments are really distractions from our real business which is to return back home, back to Godhead, and to serve Krishna there.
Our material life may go smoothly or not, we may be rich or poor, but these things really don’t matter. What matters is that we can remember Krishna at the time of death.
There have been pure devotees who have been very rich and pure devotees who seem to be very poor from the material point of view
thank you very much for your email . how do will get knowledge from hare khrisna
Thanks you for send me more about Shire kirshana ?
plz send me about it ?
thanks
I wrote in about 1 week ago but never got a response to my response, and now I don’t even see my comments on the page so I will try again!
My line of thought is that the disciple succession is very important when proving how valid an idea is-the authenticity. In Kali Yuga however, it seems to me that the disciple succession is used as a means to exclude people and to promote the feeling of, “I know more than you, I am better than you, and without me, you are in a world of hurt!
I also think it is important for every one to realize that there are many disciple successions.
yes, i agree that the discpic succession is lost amidst our so called intelligence and maturity. As a child we accept what is given to us. either we like it or dislike it. its as simple as that. but when we grow mature and lose our innocence to intelligence gained thru books, we gradually practise suspicion about what is given to us by whom, is it good/bad, and then keep judging ebverything and everybody based on our assumptions…. I think right when we break free of the womb, we are losing contact with god and there starts our journey to self independence, which is against accepting others opinions and thoughts.
though i agree that a guru is required to give u self realisation, i feel the thoughts and desire to know the very same comes from god… Like he says, he is the seed of every thought in every mind… Arjuna was free to ask his questions in this sysytem bec these questions were not meant to test the guru but to dispel doubts in our own minds. so while it is neccessary to accept what the guru says, we re free to clear our doubts and have diff opinions… if we re wrong he will make sure we re corrected.. that is the grace of the guru!As the disciple seeks the guru, it is also true that the guru seeks the disciple also….. though i ve not been able to meet my guru sai baba in person, i ve experienced him in several incidents where he has helped me, guided me… i know he is there with me…. but yet, i ve this strong desire to sit in front of him and talk to him, sing and dance with him..feed him…and clear certain doubts.. its strange… but i want this to happen at least in my dreams…..kindly pray that this happen soon and he maifests himself as i want in my dreams.. since iam too naive to see him in my awake state… my consciouness has not risen to that level….Hare ram hare krishna.
The disciplic succession is not lost. It is lost in ISKCON. But Prabhupada is with us in his books. If you do not listen to their confusing nonsense and simply take shelter of Srila Prabhupada in his books you will be firmly connected to the disciplic succession without a doubt. Srila Prabhupada did not die. He continues to live in his instructions.
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa
Thank you so much for your mail.
Dear prabhu,
please accept my most humble obeisance.
thank you very much for sending me this valuable articles.
question: we saw many of Srila Prabhupad’s experts disciples have falldown from their sadhana, is this the law of karma? did their falldown was mentioned in their respective charts? Does past karma affect the sadhana of a devotees?
please make it clear
your humble servant
rajaram das
hare rama krishna bandhus.
i feel so happy to read newsletter.feel srila prabhupadas love immensely.all glories to radha-krishna of detroit temple 🙂
Hare krishna!Thank you very much for your mail.Prabhuji, is it important to have a guru.How do we come to know who our guru is.Lord krishna is Himself the Jagadguru.But even He went to guru sandipanis ashram to learn.But it is so difficult to decide who our initiation guru is.I donot want to get carried away in deciding who my guru is and want to take the right decision.A few days ago I had done the art of living course where we were taught the sudarshan kriya(a rhythmic breathing process), during which I could view prabhupadji followed by a view of lord krishna dancing to the tune of sohum.And then a view of lord krishna sitting in a long boat and rowing the boat with along stick.I feel lucky enough that i am able to share with you.
Hare Krishna Prabhu ji,all respectful obeisances unto ur lotus feet. Iam sorry that I was late in sending u this e-mail. U have very correctly said that the power of Vaishanava disciplic succession depends only in delievering the knowledge in pure form as it is received from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna. We should accept the knowledge in the same form otherwise it’s power to transform the heart’s of common people will be lost. Hare Krishna
How Lord Krishna is connected with the Jain Religion??
The Philosophy of Jain Religion regarding Lord Krishna is true??
Kindly reply me I am eagerly searching for an answer regarding this query??
Thank you…
Hare Rama Hare Krishna
Sri Krishnam Vande
PARAMANANDAM vandeham
__/|\__
Hardik Namaskar! Prabhuji
Shree Krishna Sharanam Namaha
U have sent a wonderful mail about “improtance of disciplic succession.”
It is true the impact / power of any original message and a changed messasge is always different. Changing it is like disrespecting ones message.
I also want to obey ur message and put it into practice in my life.
I havent seen Sirla Prabhubada or Sri Krishna so for me u r as good as the original speaker (Guru & Lord Krishna)since your B.Gita message is as it is.
Your student.
Shubhangini.
Hare Krishna Prabuji… Dandavat Pranaam at your feet. Upon reading your last news letter regarding your efforts to bring out Prabupad Maharaj DVD tears came in my eyes. Everything was great and this particular mail touched my heart. I am circulating the mail among devotees. May Lord Bless you with more and more Bhakti. I am reading all your news letters and discussion in the website. It is wonderful.
Your humble servant
Tribanga Gopala Dasa
Finally to the author who wrote on the divine succession of the wonderful science of God. I have to say I completely agree. When you speak of us thinking our opinions are important, I agree they are not, but in accordance with that it really makes no difference does it? Krsna says my devotee is very dear to me. And in that way we are special, whatever that may mean. If I consider my speech delivered by me, or if I know it is Krsna that the truth is spoken by. Still Krsna remains constant, and nothing is lost or broken by me, unless he decrees, that I am without knowledge or truth, that I cannot see. Then though I am blind, I am still his devotee, even though ignorance may have found a place in me. I will be lost for him, that is the truth, and the truth is infallible and utterly beyond me. It only matters in the ocean of misery, of which its existence relies on broken succession, that truly tests devotion and service, transcendental love will always be. I need not see, or know, or even believe, that is the faithful nature loving kindness delivers in times of the need of knowledge and of things delightfully recieved by Him alone, of this what can i know? The spirit is what is moving is the closest thing to the truth I can see. Yet, I am a person, and I am truly aware of all the interactions of illusion as they are seen. Meaning nothing, no, not even when that very tree, has been cut down as He has commanded me. How can it be? That Krsna has spoken the truth to me, the real form of that banyan tree cannot be percieved in this world. And yet I, yes I, Me, attatched to the ego indeed, have myself cut down that vedic mystery? And from attachment freed, are the measurements of perfect disciplic succession indeed. It matters not to me, It matters very much, very, very much to me. This is the conclusion of nothing new, infact there is no conclusion just symbols of the mysterious surrenderence that has been offered to me. In helplessness He, my sweet Lord, even did that for me, yes he surrendered myself to Him for Me. Then I was able to speak the way I do, and very free. And clearly you hear me. For in Him I trust, and fear not what I offer for everything is accountable and made for his purpose whatever that may be. I have said everything in perfection just as I could have broke the line of succession. The origin of all things has always been, the divine mystic opulence, look into the Lotus eyes of the Love of my life, and find me where I will be worshipping him, or falling away in misery and darkness, as I have been claimed to be his servant, and I am thankful for each and every way, Govinda rules, and I obey. This indeed means nothing from me. I only wish to share with you the Love of God, he has shown to me, or deceived me in my self righteous eyes. You tell me what has been lost or broken by me, who claim to be a very dear devotee, and humbly I will serve the truth that you reveal to me, or I will do as I should, because yes indeed, I can see you are a Master and a true devotee. I will serve not to know the science as it is truly spoke, nor to attain the glory of things, nor to become free from that which conditions me, but for no reason, I will know, spontaneous love has inflicted me, I am lost forever in the comfort of infinite resistance and unlimited splendor that confounds my simple existence. Here I am, now. And my sweet Lord, my fufillment of desires The original Person, and so much more, He and I, together. For I have asked Him, and He shall endure Forever. He is the One True God, of this I am sure. In everyway, He is dear to me, and I am very, very dear to Him, this is the Truth, and I speak it in perfection, and perfect harmony with whatever I have chosen to do. Yes indeed, the ego, has no power over the purpose and the original intention He has given me. He himself has Me, and I according to what I have decided, nothing can challenge, or come close to darkening the Light that I myself pridefully present my mystic opulence, because I am full of desires that have dangerously attempted to degrade the Living God, of which I have known, and can clearly reveal all that is known, in ways only The Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna truly knows. May anyone who calls me a liar, or thinks of me worthless and vile, present their judgment on me, in absolute authority, and I will answer. Yes we shall respond and you will have no defense. In loving honor and incomprehensible kindness and mercy I write you this. My brother and my friend, my teacher, and benifit. Hari Bol.
amazin hare kishna to all im from south africa an did not know the importants of the lord , but i asked for guidence , guess what to my amazment got it. it started at isipingo temple were it is custom that people go and feed the poor , i was standing at the gate and a woman with a very youg child came for food ,this woman is an sfrican been born in africa so am i , ok she came to the gate and an security officer at the gate refused to let her in , to get food. An from this it all started for me , it made me wonder how people are and why they do not feel compasion . i collected a plate of food for her and gave her , the feeling of helping a stranger was unreal and i wanted more .The event change my life but not straight away. that day my mother bought a book for me , it was about lord RAMA and the story of his life at that time . it is so beautiful and got me started on this quest to learn as much as i can , thus not knowing any one in the movement as yet , i thought the best way to get wisdom is to read an read to understand. i truthly love the lord an his mercy is wonderfull .. thank u all hare krishna
Hare Krishna,
In regards to the disciplic succession, I am curious to know, are there people who are living relatives of Sri Lord Krishna? Are these individuals included in this line? Where to the reside today? Are they objects of worship?
Thank you, kindly.
noah
Krishnas Dear Prahupada servant Madhudvisa Prabhu! Thank You very Much for your sincere concern. My only besides approciation Is that there is no other Opinio. I. True parampara then to whole haertedly want to please and serve Krishna. BUT , allthou the Gopis all want to only love and express their love for and to Krishna( wich basicly means serving His servants,since Krishna expressed to Dhurvasa Muni ;that He could not help Dhurvasa muni since HE was not free to act as He likes because He eternally bound by his servants Love to act as they desire out of their pure love for Him). Further more Allthou all the Gopis have the exact same philosofical ideas:serve Krishna with pure love ,their actions nor their words Ars exactly the same. Satybhama showing pure Love as she angerly throwing the oilpot on the ground As well going and hiding her self to “seemly” refuse to serve, while Arjuna killed millions. So who are we to judge other devetees reason of actions and Krishnas way to look upon that soul? Arter all,there was this packa brahmin and prostitute,or Naradas requests to him before by a packa brahmin and a shoemaker before he went to go to Vaikuntha for a meeting. We also have the story of the Alva for whom the Deitie payed with his own Crown for his servant sinfull life. Still I want to end with the statement that I liked 100%how you repeated Prabhupadas own Preaching very much. Thats the way indeed. Youts aspiring das anu das.Subala Dasa HKS
I think disciple sucession topic is somewhat great because at Lord Chaitanya
time religion priciple was declined,but what of our terror,materialistic age
the Lord has hestitant to return to straighten kaali-yuga.It seems too long,
yet time is powerful from His viewpiont while ours are confusing.It’s like
the Christians are waiting for 2nd coming of the Lord Christ in sign of bad
age.Beside this krishna.org is doing great welfare work to uplift fallen human society.It is question of balance in nature & our choices that is where we need spiritual leader.
Hare Krsna….
I would like to share these informative articles on facebook….can u please send me the link as to allow me to do so….thanks…Radhe Radhe
Hare Krishna
There is an “add to facebook” button on the bottom of every article page. It is the blue button with the “f” on it. You just click on this and just click on the “share” button and that will automatically share the article on your facebook.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Everything is Krsna, so all I can do is chant and be krsna concious. There is no other way except in ignorance so called by the ignorant. I am the origin of sound and the result of faithful devotional service, and the gift of surrenderence, all things as they are, are for Me, says my devotee, who may be wrong or may be right, he doesnt care for the Lord is the end of knowledge and the goal and the fire of the sacrifice, and the sacrificial offering, My gift to you, and I know where I speak. Krsna Krsna Hari Hari OM.
Hare Krsna! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!! Jaya!!
Firstly you asked me for opening my mind up.
Respectful I agree with every lines here written. I have known Sri Krsna since 1988. For many years I tried to follow the straight line taught by Srila Prabhupada, (I was very happy … as I was living in Vrndavan), but sometimes I faced troubles, even inside the movement next to some devotee’s different opinions . Some of them are still thinking about updating. Introducing rock n’ roll mantras, which I didn’t and don’t feel confortable with. I faced criticism when I dived into the river around 02:00 am. You are trying to immitate Prabhupada, some of them sad. (But He is my example, I replied).
I am sure that a lot of sacred devotees that I knew had split up around maya world because of these different opinions.
I consider myself a Lord Krsna follower due to His Mercy, and not to anything else.
And through His Mercy now and then I find someone who makes me feel happy with such sublime words, like you.
( Some devotees don’t understand: Krsna Conciousness is eternal, it is forever.. there is no update for it. If there is, only Sri Krsna will do it)
Thank you for all. Your words help so much.
Your servent
Elizeu
Haribol
PAMHO – I suggest that thought be taken into consideration as to where would we be if it were not for true Disciplic Succession? The importance of this is far reaching. Some years ago I had the good fortune to give lectures in comparative religion at Inter-American University. During that time the issue of spiritual and verbal traditions among religious groups came up. It was proven that those practices that kept the traditions and teachings true through the unadulterated teachings of their masters survived while those hat did not became corrupt and mislead many.
If we are to be true to that which we are part of we MUST follow the mandates as set forth in the Disciplic Succession – otherwise we become corrupt and transform into a degenerate form of teaching liken to many of the New Age Practices that are loosely based upon the concepts of Indian Religious practices. Krishna Consciousness then becomes no more than some mind bending cult that the general public thought we were for years. We have come to far and let much of the negativity that results from a lack of clarity of teachings that comes from the Disclipic Succession to influence us. – I look at the new generation of devotees born in the last 25 years (I was initiated in 1972) and see the importance of maintaining this truth of Disciplic Succession paramount for them.
You are very correct in stating that this is an important article and should be read by all that are in Krishna Consciousnesses -Thank you *Hare Krish
All that are conscious of Krsna, truly. Have indeed already read it. For nothing is unknown, and that is an opinion having its roots in a specific tree. I think you know the one I mean. The Vedas blessed be, are indeed the end of me. Mind bending or not, matters only to those tossed upon the sea of ignorance, truly there is no darkness where The Lord Krsna has chosen to be. Everything else awaits what is pleasing to me. Fearlessly I speak of the Supreme, because I have believed Him, and He is all I need. The End. Hear what is transcendental, for you have shown your desires to love and love you shall recieve in Me. My friend and fellow devotee.
hare krishna prabhuji
thanxks for this
hari bol
Please go through this website.. very enlightening facts..
Hare Krishna
If Vivasvan was the first person toreceive the knowledge of bhagavad gita why is his name alongwith Manu and Arjuna not mentioned in the disciplic succession in the last page of Introduction. How is it that Lord Brahma, Naradaji and Vyasadev etc are mentioned. Kindly clarify. Hare Krishna
hare krishna!
i m awakened with the blissfull knowledge given to me by the various messages. my thinking has been changed. We are all God’s servant and we are doing His work on this earth.please keep sending me such brain washing letters. i feel blessed by reading the messages and thinking in that way….
Thank you very much…
no need to wash anything if it is clean. I thankyou for this opportunity.
One thing i am definitely sure understanding the transcendental supreme power is little difficult and once when you realize the supreme power with in you there is no stopping, it is necessary for every individual to understand the goodness of god and he is capable of doing wonders to those who trust him he is really good
Thanks
Karthik
I honor you and thank the Lord that you can see. Krsna is glorified in the happiness of his devotees. Realization is the center of all things, and He is the Mystic of Opulence, there is no real need to divide yourself from what is easily seen. The truth is One and Diversity is given for the enjoyment of the Supreme, the original, even you and me. Glory and Honor for ever. Krsna has chosen to love you, and now you see.
Happy Day Hare Krsna! Hare Krsna! Krsna! Krsna! Hare Rama! Hare Rama! Rama! Rama!
Thank you, most graciously, as this has been presented to me in spirit and I was struggling with full surrender.
May KRSNA continue to be the center of illumination ~*~ With sunny and joyful smiles to share 😉
It is very informative. I read from top to bottom and really enjoyed. Thanks for the work.
Om namoh Bhagavate basudevaya.I started receiving news letters since the day when SANATAN DHARMA was discussed.I am feeling blessed from that day onwards.I absolutely believe what Prabhupad had said and and what this news letter says and undoubtedly both are same.The word LIVING ENTITY refers to the soul or ATMA which can not be destructed by any means like cutting ,submerging,burning,air soaking or drying and the same is also eternal.So SANATAN DHARMA is nothing but the properties of the pure ATMA or soul.A pure soul is qulitatively equivalent to the supreme soul .So sanatam dharma is the highest acivement which leads to GOLAKHA DHAM -the habitat of the SUPREME SOUL.From time immemorial soul has got bindings and coverings over it by virtue of its slight independency which is being utilised by Cherish(KAMANA)which ultimately bind the independent soul to the earthy body with the ropes of satwa,raja or tama.But under Sanatan Dharma It is GUNATIT ie no rope can tie it.So Sanatan dharma gives only one right that is right to work .If this right is utilised to serve the GOD or Supreme soul(HE is in everything and every thing is in him)it is Sanatan Dharma otherwise it is something else.The essence of Sanatan Dharma is Knowledge(ref 13 th episode 4th and 5th sloka which say that to know the body ,soul and supreme soul is Knowlege or GYANA).Harekrishna
Knowledge is simple, complete, and of no consequence in the End of Karma Yoga. Or the Yoga of the coming into knowing. For pure devotional service in transcendental loving service is the Highest, utterly beyond concept, and simply performed in harmony with the perfection of the intracacies of action whatever they my be. I this mean nothing and everything to Me, as it is, shall it be. To speak any further, would complicate what is already easy. So as I speak, Hear the Truth, dont listen to me. I know nothing, I have cut down that tree. The vedic dynamic light, Loving his every………sorry the words have left me. Krsna is all that I need. I myself am free, attatchment to anything is attatchment to beauty in spiritual reality. In this way, arise, and do please walk with me. I will surely protect those who love me. I thought I heard it said, Look and see.
Dear please give mail in hindi fonts cause i cant understand english properly
Please learn English, that is the standard world language now.
I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is very dear to Lord Krsna, having taken shelter at His lotus feet.
Thank you Madhudvisa dasa Prabhu!
“The Power of the Disciplic Succession” was a great topic for me as I was blessed this week with my ritvik initiation as a disciple of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Right on time.
Hare Krsna
Hare Krishna Prabhu Ji,
I am grateful to you for receiving these newsletters regularly.
Before i read this newsletter, i was very confused with the order of deceiplic succession. But now i am very much clear with it.
Thank you so much
Your servant
Ashwani Arora
I am awakened since i also had a taste of writing and used to write but one saint intrupted me saying you need not write and i have today understood the message behind his sayings.In fact we should not give our opinions unless directed by God himself or some big spiritual master. We are only the servant of god and should perfectly play our role of a servant/Postmaster.
Thanks and greatful to you very very much,
Parveen Gupta
What you say is true, because you believe it for the pleasure of the Lord, but I know as the Lord has said, I am the supreme enjoyer, so I say, be enjoyed for it is His command, and the most supreme graceful gift, you are free to please the Lord in anyway you can. The Lord is supreme, He is the allower and permiter and dear friend, Love Him, for real, free from false fear, for he is your shelter, do as you will, that is the law. Offering all unto the Lord, o conquerer of wealth. Surrender utterly unto Him, and there shall be nothing left to know, and sin and fear will be overcome, for he is the doer, and the field of activities belong to Him, all things are complete! In the original vedic tradition, just beginning. Spontaneous love, unspoken. Hari bo
hi
I have studied Islamic book and I found they say what srila Prabhupad says,because God is one his devotees has mentioned one thing.I red someone writes here that in Islam isn’t mentioned incarnation but I investigated and found not only incarnation but also not eating meat and other things I had learned from Prabhupad there exsist.,but someone like hear from prabhupad and some one likes hear from Mohammad P. and both has Parampara.
I read Islamic book it’s like reading bhagavad Gita.even I found some similarities in spiritual stories in Islam and veda’s book.
thanks
Hare Krsna prabhu ji ,
Hare Krisna,Madhudiva dasa thank you for the teachings in this article iam understanding more about the Disciplic succession keep up the good work Hari Bol!
Hare Krishna, Madhudiva dasa
Thank you so much for the teachings in this news letter. Having been a Christian Minister in the past, I understand how easy it is for the messenger to obstruct the message. I am so thankful that I am able to receive the teachings concerning Lord Krishna directly from one in Disciplic Succession! Thank you.
Hare Krishna,
Frank
Pranam,
It is said that seek as he (or she) may, the Sishya will not find the Guru, but the Guru will find the Sishya.
How does this process actually happen?
Namasthe
Vijay
Hare Krishna Vijay
One can only get a bona fide guru by the mercy of Krishna. We sing this every morning “yasya prasad bhagavat prasado yasya prasadn na….” “By the mercy of Krishna one gets the bona fide guru and by the mercy of guru one gets Krishna.”
Fortunately, by the mercy of Krishna, we have already got the bona fide guru, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhuapda. All one has to do is surrender to him, serve him, inquire from him submissively, offer him obeisances. Such a self realized soul can give you real knowledge because he has seen the truth.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Pranam,
This has reference to your kind reply. I am a little confused.
Is is not required for a disciple to directly come in contact with and communicate with one’s Guru?
Can one surrender to a Guru who is either no longer physically in our midst or even if still living it is not possible to always have a direct meeting and receive direct instructions.My understanding is that one’s Guru must be very personal who can give direct instructions and guidance based on each disciple’s personality and traits. Can direct guidance received directly from one’s own Guru be substituted by either reading their works or if possible listening over audio-video media.
Please guide
Vijay
Hare Krishna Vijay Prabhu
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Of course one has to come directly in contact and communicate with your guru. That is exactly what happens when a sincere soul reads Srila Prabhupada’s books. They are directly associating with Srila Prabhuapda, they are directly communicating with Srila Prabhupada. And if you have any question you simply chant Hare Krishna and read Srila Prabhupada’s books and he will answer all your questions, through his books.
That is the instruction given by Srila Prabhupada to his disciples in his physical presence. A very large percentage of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples never met him physically. Srila Prabhupada established the ritvik system in ISKCON as early as 1972 and from that point on many of Srila Prabhuapda’s disciples were initiated by Temple Presidents and sanyassis, acting as ritvik representatives of Srila Prabhuapda. In ISKCON in those days for the general devotees there was very, very little opportunity for any physical association with Srila Prabhuapda. Prabhupada’s disciples, in his physical presence, for the most part, associated with him through service and through reading his books and hearing his lecture tapes.
The important thing is to have the right guru. And the right guru is a self realized, liberated soul. Such a great soul can give you real knowledge because he has seen the truth.
Most of Srila Prabhupada’s initiated disciples never had a direct meeting with Srila Prabhuapda where they received “direct instructions based on each disciples personality and traits.” This is just nonsense. Krishna consciousness is absolute. The process is the same. Everyone needs to chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily, everyone needs to follow the four regulative principles, everyone needs to read all of Srila Prabhuapda’s books, and that is where the personal instructions from Srila Prabhupada and Krishna come in. Prabhupada is living in his books and Krishna is living in your heart. Prabhuapda will give you instructions and answer your questions from his books and Krishna will confirm this and give you inspiration from within the heart. That is the way it works. And it only works if you have a real guru.
Rather than dry intellectual talking you should try seriously reading Srila Prabhuapda’s books and try to put into practice what you read there in your life. I can detect you have not been seriously reading Prabhupada’s books otherwise you would have already realized that Prabhupada is living in his books and you would not be writing such a question.
My suggestion with reading is Read Aloud. Krishna consciousness is understood and absorbed through hearing, it is not an intellectual exercise. The transcendental sound vibrations have to enter your ears. So if you read Srila Prabhupada’s books, which a full of transcendental sound vibrations, aloud you will get the double benefit of both chanting and hearing so much transcendental nectar…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Your servant
Madhudvisa dasa
Thank you very much for sending me your letters. As I am a student of Krsna Consciousness all information concerning Krsna is appreciated. I am fully aware that all comments on the subject are not presented in the same light of understanding that comes from our spiritual master Sri Pradhupada. I am glad to see that an effort is in place to keep Krsna Consciousness pure and presented the same way it was presented to the Sun-God. It would be a shame if this knowledge goes the way of sectarian doctrines and disputes. ONE GOD—-ONE INSTRUCTION BOOK. HARIBOL!!!
wish u all a very happy janmashtmi day…………….may god krishna fills all the colour of happiness a man looking for…………………
hi, thank you once again for your time and effort. the study was timely for me because ive been reflecting on the fact recently that the opinions of myself and others are worthless.the world is full of people with opinions who of course are all right.the result is conflict.it seems to me we all need one opinion and thats gods.at least god dosent contradict himself.regarding the disciplic sucession having been broken so many times it makes it hard to know who to trust.look at what happened after prabhupada. so many gurus ,so many groups.where does a seeker like me go ? which guru do i trust ? which group do i attend ? i would appreciate your advice.thanks.gary
I surrendred to Lord Krishana with pure love in my heart. His teachings exists from the begining of this universe, but due to ignorance it is the mankind who many times forgot and again came to know his teachings.
Hare Krishna Prabhu Ji
Accept my sincere gratitude and regards for such an knowledge full article.
I had started Chanting “Hare Krishna Mahamantra” in Jan-2009 ,since then i come to know the life objective the only objective that is “Spreading Krishna Love”.
I was trying to exploring the history of Bhagwad Gita and Krishna Consciousness since last year November-2008.i came in contact of One Of Devotee “Respected Mata Ji Prem Dhara Parvati Rathore” ,who is spreading the Krishna Consciousness on Radio in New Delhi,India.
Till that moment i started exploring Krishna Consciousness ,but at that point of time i was not able to clearly get the information as i was having more influence with materialistic world.But since i started Chanting “Hare Krishna Mahamantra”,slowely slowely my heart and soul started getting pure and i lost attachments to materialism and started journey to real life objective that is Krishna Consciousness.
You article is so superb and it reflects the complete history of “Bhagwad Gita”.I will suggest every reader that to start the journey and to understand the Krishna Consciousness ,please explore and read that How ,When and Why it has started as it’s very necessary.
HareKrishna
Haribol,
i do have within a great faith in parampara system.
My question is: ” To whom i’m going to put my trust.” ( GBC initiating Guru?)
Put your trust in Srila Prabhupada. Then you will be connected to the param-para and will be able to make spiritual advancement. Without a bona fide spiritual master spiritual advancement is impossible.
Hi Madhudvisa,
First of all, i am greatly indebt to your time taken for transmitting the messages of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
All the messages sent until now, are really important and are contributing to open my spirutual sense…i have lonh been searching for spirutual knowledge and i feel that the right door is BHAGAVAD GITA.
I will be happy to receive many more of Lord Krishna messages.
Thank you
Yash
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa Prabhu
AGTSP
Re The Power of the Disciplic Succession, Guru Parampara
A very interesting and informative post, thank you. SP is our living Guru and we take instruction and shelter from him.
What about about the fact that it is worthwhile associating with other devotees. If those devotees have “other” Guru’s and one has chosen SP as ones Guru, there could be obvuois conflicts of interest, thus difficult to associate with other devotees.
what are your thoughts?
Ys
Jay
Dear Jay
Hare Krishna! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
We obviously want to associate with our godbrothers, other disciples of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhuapda. Of course if there was a guru who was really purely presenting the teachings of Srila Prabhupada associating with him and associating with his disciples would be the same as associating with Prabhuapda’s disciples. Because he would teach what Prabhuapda taught.
Unfortunately we generally do not see that. Most of Prabhupada’s disciples who have become gurus have their own “spin” on the philosophy and teach their disciples something different from what Srila Prabhupada teaches his disciples. So in ISKCON you get this strange situation of a bunch of devotees jumping up and down and singing “jaya Prabhupada” but they have some completely different spin on the philosophy to what Srila Prabhupada teaches.
So really, personally, I find I have very little in common with these disciples of the disciples of Prabhupada. Because the disciples of Prabhuapda do not teach the same thing as Prabhuapda unfortunately.
In ISKCON the parampara is broken. The idea is that we are supposed to simply hear from Srila Prabhuapda and repeat what we hear to the people we meet. But they do not want to do this. They change so many things, introduce so many new things, change the emphasis on different points. So they have become a disconnected branch of the Caitanya tree.
If you disconnect a branch from a tree for some time the leaves, fruits and flowers will seem to be OK. But it will not take very long and all the leaves will dry up and fall off the branch and all the fruits will rot and fall onto the ground. That is the ISKCON story unfortunately. It still looks something like Prabhuapda’s movement but because the ISKCON gurus do not teach their disciples exactly the same thing that Prabhupada taught them they are not connecting their disciples to the parampara. So a fan that is disconnected from the electricity supply can not spin for very long.
So if we associate with these people then we will also be diverted and also become disconnected from the parampara….
It is difficult. Because naturally we want to associate with devotees and these devotees jumping up and down singing “Jaya Prabhupada” seem to be Prabhupada’s disciples… But unfortunately they are not getting the clear message from their “living guru.” Of course they can go directly to Srila Prabhuapda and read his books and listen to his classes, then they will get the clear message and then everything will be OK…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
hare krishna prabhuji
dandvat pranam
prabhuji you told to listen mp3 of srila prabhupada. prabhuji could you please tell the name of mp3cd. also i want to know that cd is available in hindi
pranam
Hare Krishna
I thank u from the bottom of my heart.For this is the first time i have heard from a devotee.Before i had only read His Divine Grace’s books which were good enough to bring a phenomenal change in my life.I feel myself drowned by My Lord Sri Krishna’s Grace as i can talk to u.Only the ones blessed by the Lord can talk to a devotee.My foolish question is:”Swami Bhaktivedanta says there is no need to read any separate literature than Gita but I also have the Bhagavat too by His Divine Grace.Though i have read The Gita i feel myself a neophyte.Shall i read The Purana?” I have not scrutinisingly read the Gita and have read the Purana cantos 1,2,forgive me 10,11.And superficially 3,4,7,12.I feel myself incomplete as this was random reading.Some chanting and tv program by the blessed devotees have obviously made me strong in faith of Sri Krishna.
What do u recommend to me to read and how and in what order?
1 can’t spare more than fifteen minutes daily as now is my final year of college(+2)as we say here.And also is reading eqivalent to hearing Srila Bhaktivedanta directly.Also i want to know is chanting and reading enough for progressing the path to Lord Krishna.Please listen to my inquiries ans answer them conclusively.Too much reading in my neophyte stage has somewhat confused me.
Yours Humbly
Saubhagya
Hare Krishna!!!
Hare Krishna Saubhagya
Great to hear from you and yes, although Srila Prabhupada has written in the Bhagavad gita that this book alone is sufficient for self-realization, naturally if you become interested in Krishna, you will want to find out more about Krishna. So Bhagavad Gita is the introduction and a more elaborate study of the Absolute Truth is provided in Srimad Bhagavatam.
Srila Prabhupada has given us his books to read. Otherwise he has undergone so much time and effort to write the books, why would he bother unless he thought his disciples would be interested to read his books?
So as a follower of Srila Prabhupada you should be interested in reading all of Srila Prabhupada’s books. And the order to read them is all the small and medium books like Beyond Birth and Death, Perfection of Yoga, Easy Journey to Other Planets, Raja Vidya–The King of Knowldege, Perfect Questions Perfect Answers, Science of Self Realization, etc. Then Bhagavad Gita As It Is, then other important small scriptures like Sri Isopanisad, Nectar of Instruction, Nectar of Devotion, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, then Srimad Bhagavatam read systematically from the first canto until Canto 10 Chapter 11 ONLY.
Srimad-Bhagavatam from Canto 10 Chapter 14 till the end is NOT BY SRILA PRABHUPADA. It is a completely different thing and reading this will simply bewilder you. So please do not read Bhagavatam past Canto 10 Chapter 13.
After that you can read the entire Tenth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam in the form of Srila Prabhuapda’s Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead. and after that you will read Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, which is the teachings of Lord Caitanya, who is Krishna Himself personally appearing in the mood of Krishna’s devotee. So the teachings of Lord Caitanya are the same as the teachings of Krishna in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, however the teachings of Lord Caitanya go into higher, more confidental topics than in Srimad Bhagavatam, so the Teachings of Lord Caitanya can be said to be the post-graduate study of spiritual life.
You can get all these books at http://www.KrishnaStore.com You can read them all online at http://www.PrabhupadaBooks.com
And yes. Hearing from Srila Prabhupada is very important. Hearing from Srila Prabhupada is as good as reading the books, if you actually hear that is. It is very easy to play a MP3 in the background of Prabhupada speaking and not actually hear what he is saying at all.
Personally I find reading, particularly reading aloud, is, for me, a more powerful process than listening to Srila Prabhupada’s recordings. Of course this is a personal thing. I do both, I hear Srila Prabhupada’s lectures and I read his books daily. But I could live without hearing his lectures, but I could not live without reading his books. As I say this is a personal thing. You may become more attached to hearing Srila Prabhuapda’s lectures than reading his books.
Still Srila Prabhupada has stressed over and over and over again the importance of reading his books. And he made such a huge effort to produce the books. So if we really want to please him we should read all his books.
You have to get your priorities right.
Always your spiritual life is the most important thing and you should be able to find more than 15 minutes a day for it… As followers of Srila Prabhupada we vow to chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily and that takes about 2 hours, so we have to find that two hours every day. Otherwise how will we make spiritual advancement?
If chanting the Hare Krishna mantra is the Yuga Dharma and the only way to make spiritual advancement in this Kali-yuga and Srila Prabhupada has been so merciful to set the number of rounds at a minimum of only 16 per day, then it is so easy to make spiritual advancement by chanting Hare Krishna. Why waste our lives by not doing this simple thing?
So my humble request is that you take this Krishna Consciousness very seriously, read all of Srila Prabhuapda’s books, chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily and strictly follow the four regulative priciples, [no illicit sex life, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication] and I guarantee if you do this you will make very rapid spiritual advancement and you will see your life totally transformed for the better.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
It’s good to know that someone out there still cares enough to go these lengths to make certain that the records are kept straight. Hare Krishna.
hare krishna prabhuji
dandvat pranam. i was on small vacation. after coming back i read all the articles mailed by you. i am very thankful to you from the bottom of my heart for enlighting us by krishna counsious class.
prabhuji i am having no doubt that krishna is only GOD and our only job is to serve him,but still i am not able to do krishna bhakti seriously. after few days attempt again i went back to normal day to day activity. my mind says to pray on the lotus feet of lord krishna ,but practically i am not able to do for the reason which even i am not able to understand. can you please guide me
pranam
your humble servant
chandan
Hare Krishna Chandan
You just have to force your mind to do it. “Pray to the lotus feet of Lord Krishna” is a bit abstract. More practical is to make a vow to chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
For us, in the conditioned state of life, how can we see the lotus feet of Krishna? But if we simply engage our tongue in chanting the Hare Krishna mantra and our ears in hearing the Hare Krishna mantra the dormant Krishna consciousness that is within our hearts will awaken and we will gradually always be seeing the lotus feet of Krishna in our minds. But we can not force this artificially. It will come in its own time.
Krishna consciousness is a scientific process and it will work if we follow the process and the first thing is to vow to follow the four regulative principles: no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication. And second thing is to vow to chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna maha mantra daily.
And although this sounds relatively simple, it can really be a very great challenge to do these things in today’s world, particularly if we feel that we have no attachment for chanting Hare Krishna and our minds are full of so many material desires. But that is where we have to start. We have all these material desires and we have not attraction for chanting Hare Krishna. The remedy to this is to hear about Krishna. That means reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and chanting Hare Krishna, even though we have no taste for it.
It requires a bit of tapasya. Tapasya is austerity. It means voluntary accepting some trouble for making advancement in spiritual life. It is a little difficult to get out of bed early in the morning to chant Hare Krishna, but if we want to make advancement in Krishna consciousness we have to do this. It may be a little difficult to chant 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra if our mind is not attracted to it at all but wandering on so many other subjects. But if we want to make advancement in Krishna consciousness we have to force ourselves to chant Hare Krishna. And to follow the four regulative principles when it seems the whole world around us is doing the complete opposite can also be quite difficult.
But the result of this tapasya will be very nice. Gradually we will get a taste for chanting Hare Krishna and it will no longer be an austerity but it will become a great pleasure… And our mind will become peaceful and we will be able to concentrate on Krishna…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
respected madhuvidasa das,
what are the principles to becoming a pure devotee of krishna,other than praying arti,chanting hare krishna,refrain from wrong doin,gamble,illicit sex,and to love all living biengs.is there anything more that u can suggest?
Hare Krishna
The MOST important thing is we have to find a bona fide spiritual master, a pure devotee of Krishna and hear from him, serve him surrender to him, offer obeisances to him. Without the mercy of a bona fide spiritual master, a pure devotee of Krishna, none of the other things will be effective at all. Our spiritual advancement completely depends on pleasing a pure devotee of Krishna. So the most important we have to do is read Srila Prabhupada’s books and hear Srila Prabhupada’s lectures. Then we will be personally associating with Srila Prabhupada, a bona fide spiritual master and a pure devotee of Krishna. This is what makes it possible for us to become Krishna conscious. The mercy of a pure devotee of Krishna. We have to get that mercy and that mercy is only available through surrender and service. So we have to surrender to Srila Prabhupada, hear from him by reading his books and hearing his classes, and he will instruct us what we should be doing to please him, and we have to do that. Krishna consciousness is devotional service. We have to serve Krishna under the direction of a pure devotee of Krishna…
These things of course you can find and much more in Srila Prabhupada’s books. So please read them.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
When one has genuine LOVE in ones heart..for Krishna ..all else follows 🙂
HARI KRSNA!
Hari Krishna, Sri Madhudvisa..
Since my last post is still awaiting moderating, please indulge me in an additional question? What is the significance of adding ji to a name as from Brahma to Brahmaji? Thank you, your servant .. Daniel
The ji at the end of Brahmaji is added as a sign of respect.
We call another devotee Prabhu, it means master, and also Prabhuji, means respectful master…
Prabhu-ji, thank you. With your help, we are progressing. Daniel
Hare Krishna, Sri Madhudvisa..
I awoke this morning finding that there are a few terms brought up by a couple of letters and replys in this letter on The Power of Disciplic Succession about which I have a lack of knowledge and informational resources.
The little list that I hope you will clarify are these: Mangol Aroti, Hare Krishna kirtan, chanting Japa, ekadasi.. I thought I had a good source for understanding until I used it to look up.. param para which was loosely translated.. supreme philosophy, but which you used, I believe, as disciplic succession.. though they could be used interchangeably.
Is there a good online dictionary that you would recommend for research as we read and listen to these teachings? Is there possibly, also a Concordance of Terms drawn up for the Bhagavad-gita?
I have a good guess at the meanings of some of those terms but clarity is appreciated… thank you for your time and efforts.. your servant.. Daniel
Hare Krishna Daniel
I think the best way for you to discover the meaning of these terms would be for you to search for them at:
http://www.PrabhuapdaBooks.com
That website contains all the books and other teachings of Srila Prabhupada in a very easy to access way. You can just type in the terms you are looking for the meanings of in the search box and you will, I am sure, find many very nice descriptions of the meanings of the words.
Please write back here what you discover.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Prabhuji.. thank you so much.. using the search engine at prabhuapdabooks.com works very well and is so easy.. so what did I find?
Ekadasi is used to refer to two fasting days observed by devotees and these days occur on the eleventh day of the waxing and waning moon though I couldn’t find out why this fast is observed beyond scriptural dictates.
Kirtan is any activity of reading, chanting, listening while remembering Krishna but used more specifically as chanting the Maha Mantra either publically or privately.
Japa, too, is chanting of the Holy Names of God.. however, there is a difference between Kirtan and Japa, which is that chanting within the mouth so that only the chanter can hear is Japa and chanting loudly so others can hear is Kirtan.
Finally, Mangol Aroti was a challenge and produced no information. This turned out to be a mis-spelling. Correctly spelt, it is Mangal Arati and seems to be early morning prayers to the Deity.. Sri Krishna. There was no further indication of what prayers or if this just referred to the early morning congregational gathering to chant Kirtan or Japa.. just an event that was mandatory to the devotional routine at the Temples.. perhaps you can elucidate for us?
There you go.. Daniel’s research problem solved.. thank you for this help… Hare Krishna .. Daniel
Hare Krishna Daniel Prabhu
You have done very well, congratulations. Actually I am thinking that we will create a comprehensive Glossary of Terms at http://www.PrabhupadaBooks.com and maybe you could help to create this in the future?
The Ekadasi days are times that are very auspicious for the performance of spiritual activities so devotees prefer to fast on these days and increase the amount of chanting and hearing about Krishna on the Ekadasi day. If you eat more then you sleep more. So to reduce the sleeping and to increase the available time for chanting and hearing about Krishna devotees fast on ekadasi. This way they can get more benefit from these auspicious days. And even fasting for two days of the month is also give very good health benefits.
Aroti actually referrs to the ceremony the priest performs on the alter in a temple when he offers various auspicious items to the Deities. He will offer incense, flowers, water, fire [a ghee lamp], he will fan the Deities, and before and after the Aroti ceremony he will blow loudly on a conch shell. While all this is going on the devotees gather in the temple to see the Lord and chant some special auspicious prayers and also chant the Hare Krishna mantra. In the temples this aroti ceremony is going on at least five times every day. The first aroti of the day i the Mangal Aroti and that is held at the beginning of the Brahma-muhurta, the most auspicious time of the day, which occurs one and a half hours before sunrise. In the ISKCON temples Srila Prabhupada has fixed up the time for Mangal Aroti at 4:30 am in the morning. This is very peaceful time and a very beautiful and auspicious ceremony. I hope to make a film shortly that will show this auspicous ceremony so when the film is available I am sure you will enjoy seeing it. There are also other arotis, like Darshan Aroti, that happens around 7:00 am, then Bhoga Aroti which happens at about 12:30 pm after the Deities take their lunch. After the Bhoga Aroti the Deities take rest for a couple of hours in the afternoon and the pujari will wake them up at about 3:00 pm and offer some fruts and a nice drink and then there will be another Aroti. Then at around 7:00 pm there will be Gaura Aroti and finally at around 8:30 – 9:00 the last Aroti will be held and the deities will be put to sleep and the next day the same worship will go on. And this goes on seven days a week 365 days a year with no break at all.
Krishna consciousness is a great mine of information and you can research so many different things. You could spend your whole life researching Krishna and the more you research the happier you will become.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna, Prahbuji Madhudvisa… thank you very much. I am very grateful. On we go! .. your friend, Daniel
Hare Krishna, Sri Mahudvisa.. I just wish to say thank you for your letters and that I am here and I do read them carefully. You write clearly and your explanations are profound. I look forward to learning more.. your servant.. Daniel
PRANAMAM Hare Krishna prabhuji,
Asper your advice, now daily iam chanting ” hare krishna ” maha manthra. Now iam getting good concetration, i have no tensions. Now iam learning Bhagavath geetha.Now iam happy Prabhuji.
Thank you so much.
with Prayers
JAYASANKAR
HH Swami madhudvisa-dasa,
Today’s mail from you explaining the Guru – Sishya Parampara was most revealing.
I have read the ‘Raja Vidya – Raja Guhya Yoga’ in Srimad Bhagavad Gita but had not understood the implications of a parampara completely.
I accept your message most humbly and commit myself to becoming a link in the parampara established by Srila Prabhupada.
I accept that your Holiness is the link in the parampara between Srila Prabhupada and my simple humble soul.
Sashtanga Namaskaram,
M. Subramanian.
Hare Krishna,
I m very glad to receive newsletters regularly. I had frnd he is catholic how can i make him understand that believe in lord krishna . Everytime we had an argument abut it. But i don’t hve enough knowleged about bhagvat gita. Why we do have different religion? Why people don’t follow one god.
I have seen even hindu are getting converted in other religion why dis is happening? my frnd he is suffering frm cancer being hindu he following jejus christ bcoz he think he will heal soon he forget abut his own god..
Plz reply i m waiting for ur response………..
Hare Krishna Priyanka
It is very nice you are concerned for your Christian friend. You are lamenting why there are so many religions. But actually there is only one religion. Service to Krishna, God. So as devotees we see the “big picture.” We know that Lord Jesus Christ is also representing Krishna when he is preaching in the Western countries so if the people are attached to worshiping in the Christian way they may not change to worshiping Krishna.
We can talk to them, if they are interested in Krishna then we can talk to them about Krishna. But if they are not interested in Krishna, if they get angry when we talk about Krishna, we should not try to talk to them about Krishna.
You may know that there are ten offenses in regard to chanting the Hare Krishna maha mantra. One of those offenses is preaching to a faithless person. So for preaching we have to find people who are at least a little bit interested in hearing what we have to say. Otherwise, if they get angry when we mention Krishna then we should just give them some prasadam and encourage them to strictly follow the orders of Jesus in the Bible.
Hope this is of some use for you.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Hare Krsna to all of you, I love you all very much, to the limits of my very existence. I cannot help but taste the sweet nectar of any and all of these words concerning Krsna and His Knowledge. It seems so simple to me, and so complete, and splendorous. Krsna truly is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He truly is the ultimate goal, and He is here right now in all of us, His grace lifting us onto His Transcendental Platform of Loving Service. And Perfect yoga being performed under His divine protection, and loving grace, and perfect instruction, is here and now nectar no matter where you are in yoga, you are here with Him, and me, and we are His. That is all, the all in all, grace, and love, and mercy be upon all of you, from here to unbounded eternity, and infinite expansion. Hare Krsna, I look forward to reading more of your transcendental sound and perfect love. The Lord has spoken the truth, and we hear what is said. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Indeed.
hare krishna
I am fairly new in iscon and would just like to know why arjuna was not in the line of disciplic succession?
Hare Krsna!
I would like to ask some doubts.
1)I heard that there is no karma for animals. Then what decides their next body?
2)I read that the Soul is immovable; but I do not understand that. Pls. give your comments on this.
Humbly expecting your reply,
V.Sumathy,
Coimbatore,
India
Jai Shri Krishna.
I read many Bhagavad Gita quotes. But I have a doubt, between Path and Goal which matters more? Mahatma Gandhi had stressed both path and goal are equally important and hence he did not deviate from the path of non-violence. So was his theory right with respect to Gita?
Hare Krishna.
Thanks for the articles and i am really impressed about it.I am confused about exact teachings about Karma Yoga and Bhakti yoga, i need explanation precisely and what as a devotee we should follow.Also what class do we belong to Brahmanas or sudras.Kindly explain in details
Hari Bol,
Reading these, then re-reading them is making me realize that getting to Krsna is like making a good habit. First we read the “how to” directions analyzing what needs to be done till we understand them, we follow the directions read, and through repetition, like a habit, following the “how to” becomes second nature to us. Over time we realize the “how to” directions we were following as told to us are becoming part of out daily life. The desired end product or end situation is, by repletion becoming a habit. Suddenly we realize the directions of “how to” that we read and studied and deliberately consciously followed are now incorporated into our daily life. We are now learning the next steps in the ongoing process, and on we go, on our way to our desired goal, which for me is BACK TO GODHEAD.
To accomplish the spiritual goal the same process needs to be followed as accomplishing a physical goal. Read the directions manual, follow directions, progress step by step till the desired goal is reached.
Hare Krishna,
I am very glad and happy to receive the newsletters regularly.
It’s very informative and helps us to know about lot of unknown things. Since I am just a beginner, I am trying to understand by reading it regularly. Though I read regularly, I am not able to keep in mind all the points, to tell to my friends. I feel it requires continous reading and practice.wat to do?
it gives peace by chanting..
The importance of the Disciplic Succession was jus amazing,
how we can connect with the pure disciplic succession
Pamho. All Glories to Srila Prabhupada
Yes, this example put in here with the postman is so true. I myself had not stayed for more than two or tree months in the Embassy of Vaikunta before I went with the sankirtan devotees up and down the coast and mountains to distribute the shastras in the towns and villages, so you can imagine that I was not a learned scholar in any respect(as I still am not!). Powered only by the unconditioned mercy of the devotees and by a drop of Krishna’s grace was it possible for me to make anyone take some books. Many times I didn’t even have to open my mouth to speak my sankirtan mantra to make people take. I did only have to look at a soul and the person would ask me how much to give. These experiences made me realize more and more the power of the preaching mission. As long as one sticks to the instructions given by the pure devotees and the spiritual Master, nothing is impossible. For the postman to know the adress and the name of the recipient so he/she can deliver, he/she only has to know how to read. This is one of the great wonders of this harinam sankirtana preaching mission. Dear Madhuvisa dasa, Thank you again for giving these classes, I don’t think this one is too long as it is so full of nectar.
Ki Jay. Hare Krishna
Jarle
Hare Bol Prabhu,
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada, parampara, and the saintly vaisnavas,
In an attempt to only use scripture to describe my thoughts was obviously not a very uncomplicated approach, as I quoted the incorrect translation. Please forgive me for
any misunderstanding. I am not sober or expert and very much a fallen soul. I have been initiated to the movement for 10 years. My Diksha Guru is H.H. Jayapataka Swami. I would not have embraced Krishna Consciousness otherwise. I had gone through many previous iinitiations by Mayavadis and so forth , always looking for a greater awareness of God. I used to preach, but have not, since falling in delicate health. I am not important, and endeavoring to preach when i have an opportunity, it appears I have a propensity to cheat as well, however. Your servant of the servant, Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna, All glories to Srila Prabhupada and the Parampara,
Thank you for your studies in the Bhagavad Gita As It Is. Truly, one is given much mercy if instruction is received from a bonafide spiritual master, as many have in the years since Srila Prabhupad left this planet. Humbly, I am quoting a translation from Srimad Bhagavatam, 7th Canto, Part Two, Text 24 which I am currently studying. Transalation…Sober and expert persons shpuld search for the spirit soul with minds purified through analytical study in terms of the soul’s connection with and distinction from all things that undergo creation, maintenance and destruction. In this way, I can quote from the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 18. text 36, Translation…O best of the Bharatas, now please hear from Me about the three kinds of happiness by which the conditioned soul enjoys, and by which he sometimes comes to the end of all distress. The Lord is explicitly saying that through association with a great soul one can be relieved of the distress of material entanglement. In this way, I express my thoughts and even more specifically to the issue which I am commenting and again quoting the B.G.Chapter 2, text 66. One who is not connected with the Supreme can have neither transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace. Jai Radhe, Daya Candrika d.d.
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
Thank you for an informative article. I am very grateful to you for this information. I am going to put money together to purchase the DVD package of this latest article. I concentrate and meditate on Lord Krishna everyday, I stopped eating meat, I stopped drinking wine, and now I am struggling with not having sex, as I am not married, and I do not gamble. I feel I am advancing on the Path, has I have had Transcendental experiences. However, I need guidance, and so I thank you for being there.
Hare Krishna Yvonne. It is very good that you are making progress in Krishna consciousness. It takes time and we can not expect all our material desires to disappear overnight. We do have to struggle with these things. That is quite natural. We have become accustomed to all these sinful activities and we have been doing them for many, many lives and the people around us are doing all these things. So to decide to become Krishna conscious is something like declaring war on maya. So we do have to struggle a bit. But the benefits are wonderful and it is well worth the struggle. The most powerful thing, the thing that can help us most in this struggle is chanting the Hare Krishna mantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
In the beginning we do not have any taste or attachment for chanting Hare Krishna, sometimes it may even seem unpalatable. But actually this chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra is the cure to all the problems we are facing. There is a nice example about this. In India the disease jaundice is quite common. When one is suffering from jaundice he looses his taste for sweet things. Sweet things taste bitter to him. So he does not like to take sweet things. But actually the cure for jaundice is to take these sweet things. So even though the jaundice patient, in his diseased condition, does not like to take sweet things, they do not taste good to him, still they are actually sweet, they only seem bitter to him because of his disease, and gradually, if he takes the sweet things the jaundice will be cured and he will again be able to taste and enjoy the sweet things. So the point is that this Hare Krishna mantra is transcendentally sweet, but we are in a diseased condition so we can not appreciate the sweetness of the Hare Krishna mantra. It may even taste bitter to us. But even if it does appear bitter to us, if we continue chanting, it will cure our disease and then we will actually be able to tase the sweetness of the Hare Krishna mantra.
So please chant Hare Krishna even if you do not feel any attraction for it and even if you can not detect that it is doing anything. It is working, but it takes time for the purification to happen, and we have to keep administering the medicine of the Hare Krishna maha mantra if we want to be cured from the material disease.
Quote:
“Spiritual knowledge descends through the disciplic succession from Krishna.”
Yet, anyone can repeat/teach/preach what he/she has read in His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada’s translation of Srimad Bhagavad Gita As It Is and other Divine Books.
i may have gotten information on spiritual topics from my college professor who read Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad Gita. But he is not in disciplic succession.
What is the significant difference between recorded spiritual information heard and apparently repeated without change by anyone and Spiritual Knowledge which is gained through Sri Krishna’s disciplic succession?
In the article written by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur entitled ‘Understanding the Writings of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur’, he states: “Those who suppose they understand the meaning of his message without securing the guiding grace of the acarya are disposed to unduly favor the method of empiric study of his writings. There are persons who have got by heart almost everything that he wrote without being able to catch the least particle of his meaning. Such study cannot benefit those who are not prepared to act up to the instructions lucidly conveyed by his words.”
The knowledge received by disciplic succession cannot ultimately be mere information, it must be Something Else and it is clearly received as a result: not of learning, but of service, surrender and grace.
Therefore, it cannot be repeated/taught/preached by one who has heard. It is experienced. Who can cause the jiva to experience? Only one who has experienced. Who is experienced and how did he/she become experienced?
“The person to whom the acarya is pleased to transmit his power is alone in a position to convey the divine message. This constitutes the underlying principle of the line of succession of the spiritual teachers. The acarya thus authorized has no other duty than that of delivering intact the message received from all his predecessors. There is no difference between the pronouncements of one acarya and another. All of them are perfect mediums for the appearance of the divinity in the form of the transcendental name Who is identical with His form, quality, activity and paraphernalia.”
“It is not empiric wisdom that is the object of quest of the devotee. Those who read the scriptures for gathering empiric wisdom will be pursuing the wild-goose chase. There are not a few dupes of their empiric scriptural erudition. These dupes have their admiring under-dupes. But the mutual
admiration society of dupes does not escape, by the mere weight of their number, the misfortune due to the deliberate pursuit of the wrong course in accordance with the suggestions of our lower selves.”
“What are the scriptures? They are nothing but the record by the pure devotees of the divine message appearing on the lips of the pure devotees. The message conveyed by the devotees is the same in all ages. The words of the devotees are ever identical with the scriptures. Any meaning of the scriptures that belittles the function of the devotee who is the original communicant of the divine message contradicts its own claim to be heard.”
“Any meaning of the scriptures that belittles the function of the devotee who is the original communicant of the divine message contradicts its own claim to be heard.”
“Those who think that the Sanskrit language in its lexicographical sense is the language of the divinity are as deluded as those who hold that the divine message is communicable through any other spoken dialects. All languages simultaneously express and hide the absolute. The mundane face of all languages hides the truth. The transcendental face of all sound expresses nothing but the absolute. The pure devotee is the speaker of the transcendental language. The transcendental sound makes His appearance on the lips of His pure devotee. This is the direct, unambiguous appearance of the divinity. On the lips of non-devotees the absolute always appears in His deluding aspect. To the pure devotee the absolute reveals Himself under all circumstances. To the conditioned soul, if he is disposed to listen in a truly submissive spirit, the language of the pure devotee can alone impart the knowledge of the absolute. The conditioned soul mistakes the deluding for the real aspect when he chooses to lend his ear to the non-devotee. This is the reason why the conditioned soul is warned to avoid all association with non-devotees.”
preceeding quotes: Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur
“The transcendental sound makes His appearance on the lips of His pure devotee. This is the direct, unambiguous appearance of the divinity. On the lips of non-devotees the absolute always appears in His deluding aspect.”
Non-devotee is that person who has not realized, only heard. Practically, all of us.
Also, disciplic succession does not contain non-devotees.
Faithfully hearing and glorifying the recording of the transcendental sound from the lips of Srila Prabhupada in His Authorized Original Books is an essential divine inspiration and finally: a rarely-given pass or permit to attend to Sri Krishna in His appearance on the lips of the pure devotee.
Those who are looking for knowledge without absolute surrender to Sri Krishna in the form of the Acarya will be mislead. They fall under the category of those who want the kingdom of God without God and those whose knowledge is stolen by illusion. Only Sri Krishna Himself is spiritual knowledge of bona fide disciplic succession and He can only be given by the one who has gotten Him. That is the Sri Guru Disciplic Succession. One cannot find the bona fide disciplic succession through accepting self-proclaiming gurus, mundane reasoning, vox populi, institutional rubber stamping or mapping external succession through blood or initiation lines. And, rejecting the idea of him contradicts scripture: “Any meaning of the scriptures that belittles the function of the devotee who is the original communicant of the divine message contradicts its own claim to be heard.” He can be found only through sincere desire and heartfelt prayer to Sri Guru Acarya, Yuga Dharma Acarya, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. Ki Jai!
“The person to whom the acarya is pleased to transmit his power is alone in a position to convey the divine message. This constitutes the underlying principle of the line of succession of the spiritual teachers. The acarya thus authorized has no other duty than that of delivering intact the message received from all his predecessors. There is no difference between the pronouncements of one acarya and another. All of them are perfect mediums for the appearance of the divinity in the form of the transcendental name Who is identical with His form, quality, activity and paraphernalia.”
“All of them are perfect mediums for the appearance of the divinity in the form of the transcendental name Who is identical with His form, quality, activity and paraphernalia.”
“All of them are perfect mediums for the appearance of the divinity in the form of the transcendental name Who is identical with His form, quality, activity and paraphernalia.”
Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai! Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!
Hare Krishna!
I believe Krishna is only god.Prabhupada also preached that Krishna is only god.Then why there is Islam religion who denies lord Krishna? Koran doesn’t tell about reincarnation.Is Koran the word of god?If yes why god allows to kill innocent non muslims? I want to say that if it is clear that Krishna is the only god then we should try to make muslims krsna concsious and do an auspicious work of making terrorist free world.
Hare Krishna Steve. The thing is over time people loose the real point of religion. There is information about Krishna in the Koran also. Lord Caitanya, when he was preaching to Chand Kazi, established the truth of Krishna consciousness and the perfection of the Vedas, and He also showed the imperfections and contardictions in the “scriptures of the meat eaters.” So if you study the Bible and the Koran you will find so many imperfections and contradictions, but if you study Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam you do not find these contradictions and imperfections.
So, yes, we are accepting Lord Jesus Christ and the Prophet Mohamed as bona fide representatives of God, but over time the followers have lost the point of many of the teachings of Jesus and Mohamed. I am sure that Mohamed would not support the fundamentalist Muslims who use the Koran to justify terrorism.
Yes, you are right we should preach and help everyone to become Krishna conscious and that will make the world terrorist free.
Who said anything about Christianity and Islam denying Krishna ? They just uses different names. Koran calls Krishna as “Allah”, and Bible calls Krishna “our Father in heave,hallowed be thy name”.The same Water is called “pani” in Hindi language, “jal” in Bengali language, “eau” in french, “agua” in Spanish, and “wasser” in German. Similarly different religions call Krishna by different names.Re-incarnation theory is not there in Koran.But then,this sublime theory may have been forgotten by Muhammad’s arabians.In Christianity re-incarnation theory is definitely there. But people have forgotten about it too. Jesus’s promise of “return” is an example of that.
Dear Madhudvisa Prabhu,
Please accept me as your servant in the service to Srila Prabhupada.
Thank you for making continuous efforts in very many ways to serve and satisfy His Divine Grace.
The point you made in your article is very important, specially after the physical departure of His Divine Grace. I completaly and totally accept
and agree with the points stressed in the article.
But still I would like to clear one point regarding the preaching. In your article it is stated that the preacher should simply convey the words he has heard from his guru. And it was stated that the preacher is just like a postman. I have never read in SP’s books that the preacher is just like a postman. I read that about postbox in relation with Deity worship. But I have never read that a preacher being a poor himself can make someone else a millionier. In other words without carrying the love of Godhead in his heart the preacher cannot make someone else a lover of Krishna.
It is for definete that you know these things much better than me and I am sure that I simply have misunderstood your words. And shame upon me that I have dared to utter a word after you have stated something.
Your servant,
Ahinsra das
Hare Krishna Prabhu
What I have done here is follow the perfect process of presenting the perfect knowledge as Srila Prabhuapda has presented it to me. And I may not be perfect. But this knowledge is perfect and it will act. That is the principle Srila Prabhuapda is preaching over and over again. One does not have to be perfect to distribute perfect knowledge. Just as the postman does not have to be a millionare to deliver a million dollars. Of course it has to be done sincerely and humbly and with following the regulative principles and chanting 16 rounds, living an exemplary life. But really one does not have to be perfect to deliver perfect knowledge. Following this process is actually perfection. If you read the books of Srila Prabhuapda more extensively you will find all these things. Prabupada repeats this principle over and over again. You can see one example below.
“So this knowledge is being imparted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, not by a person like me or like you who are defective in four principles. That I was going to explain. The four defects are that we commit mistakes, we are illusioned, and our senses are imperfect, and therefore sometimes we cheat others. Although I know, I do not know a subject matter very clearly; still, I say something as authority. That is cheating. We should not cheat. If we want to give knowledge to the people, we must give perfect knowledge.
So perfect knowledge, how it can come? The perfect knowledge can come from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is the process of acquiring knowledge, so far we are concerned. Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ [Bg. 4.2]. The knowledge, perfect knowledge, is coming from Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and if we receive that knowledge in cool head and assimilate, then our knowledge is perfect. Just like we are preaching this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. This is perfect knowledge. If you inquire whether I am perfect or my disciples who are preaching this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, they are perfect, we may be imperfect. We are imperfect. We accept we are imperfect. But we are distributing the perfect knowledge. Kindly try to understand. We may be imperfect, but perfection means one who assimilates the perfect knowledge, he is perfect.
I shall give you one example. Just like a post peon delivers you one hundred dollars. The post peon is not rich man. He cannot deliver you the hundred dollars. But he… The money is sent by some, your friend. He is honestly carrying that money and delivering you. That is the post peon’s business. Similarly, our duty to receive perfect knowledge from Kṛṣṇa and distribute it. Then it is perfect. This knowledge, what we are distributing, it is not that we have created this knowledge by research work or by so many other ways, by inductive process. No. Our knowledge is from the deductive process. Kṛṣṇa said, “This is this.” We accept. That is our movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We may be imperfect, but Kṛṣṇa is perfect. Therefore, whatever Kṛṣṇa says, if we accept it and if we…. Not accept blindly, but you can employ your logic and argument and try to understand, then your knowledge is perfect.”
From a 1973 Srila Prabhuapda class in Auckland, New Zealand. It is a very special class where Srila Prabhuapda explains this point in great depth. You can read the whole thing here: http://prabhupadabooks.com/?g=157052&f=260914#260914
All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada!
Prabhuji, I am very sorry, I just want to clear the matter.
In the beginning of SB the sages address as follows saying: Dear Suta Goswami, you have studied the scriptures elaborately and have heard from your authorities. But please speak to us about the highest truth as far and as much as you have realised it.
I can understand that it is not required for a person who wants to become Krishna conscious to be perfect. But as far as the delivering of the Krishna consciousness is concerned I cannot understand that without realization of what you are saying how your words will penetrate the heart of a person and change his consciousness.
Prabhuji, I know that Srila Prabhupada have said very nice things about you. I heard that he said that Madhudvisa will go back to Krishna in this life. And I have seen you in Mayapura and listen you speaking about His Divine Grace in 1994. I respect you very much. Please forgive me for my offences. It is not befitting to me to say that but I have to say that you are in a best shape among the disciples of His Divine Grace.
Your servant,
Ahinsra das
Hare Krishna Prabhu
I am not that same Madhudvisa you are thinking of. I joined ISKCON in 1986 in Australia.
I humbly request you please read that class by Srila Prabhuapda that I posted in my previous reply to you. You have not understood the point at all.
A person who wants to become Krishna conscious does have to become perfect. But that becoming perfect is a different thing from what you are thinking. You do not understand what is that perfection. It is the message that is pure and if we deliver that pure message the message will act on the hearts of the audience, even if we do not completely realize it ourselves. This is the whole point I am making in this article. That it is Krishna who is powerful, it is Krishna who is perfect, it is Krishna who is pure. We are not powerful, we are not pure and we are not perfect. We have the tendency to cheat, we make mistakes and we are illusioned. But Krishna consciousness is so nice that if we follow the process, even though we have so many imperfections we can deliver the perfect knowledge and this is perfection. That is the point Prabhuapda is making in the class I have linked to and it is the point you have not understood.
“A person who wants to become Krishna conscious does have
to become perfect.” That indeed is the sum and substance of
message of Gita. Just surrender to Krishna. Abondan all dharmas and surrender to Krishna.Krishna will deliver you from all sins.
Hare Krishna
Firstly, thank you very much for clearing up my previous queries, which have now brought peace to my mind.
This query is about the Khajuraho temples in india (which i have visited in 1994). I always get asked questions about that those temples, which in todays age don’t paint a pretty picture for Hindus. I have look tirelesly to find an explantion behind the temples and sculptures but have failed to find one.
COuld you please enlighten me with the truth about these temples and the real meaning of them. Having seen a lot of the sculptures, they are rather graphic and offer the ignorance no explanation.
Your help would be greatly appreciated
Hare Krishna
R Patel
Dear Sir
Please tell me about vegetarian.If any body permanently want to vegetarian then any health related problem?
So many health problems are solved by a vegetarian diet. This point you can get information on from many places. We are not very concerned with vegetarian or non vegetarian. We are concerned about serving Krishna. And Krishna has let us know in the Bhagavad Gita that He will accept an offering from us of fruits, grains, vegetables and milk products if it is prepared by Hid devotees with love and offered to Him. So what we are interested in is pleasing Krishna, and Krishna clearly tells us what He would like us to prepare and what He will accept. So we prepare these foodstuffs for Krishna and offer them to Krishna and we take prasadam, the remnants of the foodstuffs offered to Krishna. If Krishna had said, “You offer Me animals,” then we would offer him animals and eat the remnants ourselves. But Krishna does not want this. He wants fruits, vegetables, grains and milk products, so as devotees we prepare nice offerings from these four food groups and offer them to Krishna and we are completely satisfied by accepting the remnants of the offering to Krishna, prasadam. It really has nothing to do with vegetarian or non-vegetarian. Srila Prabhuapda said “We are not vegetarian, we are Krishnatarian.” Because we will not eat vegetarian food also, if it is not cooked by devotees and first offered to Krishna. We only accept Krishna prasadam.
HARE KRISHNA PRABHUJI.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR MAIL.
CAN YOU GIVE SOME ADVICE FOR CONTROLLING MY TENSIONS. FOR GETTING MORE CONCENTRATION IN MY DUTY WHAT I HAVE TO DO. PLEASE REPLAY TO ME.
WITH PRANAMAM
JAYASANKAR
Prabhu, the answer is always the same. Become Krishna conscious. And the very definition of Krishna consciousness is “vaikuntha,” a state free from all anxieties and tension. So the thing is even though we are very busy with our worldly duties, this is not our real business, our real business is devotional service to Krishna and we have to make time for this in our lives. Somehow we have to organize in such a way that we can chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily, that we can read from Bhagavad Gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam on a daily basis, that we can strictly follow the four regulative principles: no illicit sex life, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication, like that. This is the process of saddhana bhakti. The process of purification which if we follow it will control all our tensions and make us much more concentrated. It requires great determination and conviction to do this when we have to work in the material world surrounded by so many non-devotees. But if we are to be successful in this Krishna consciousness somehow we have to develop the determination to do these things and then actually do it on a daily basis, chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily, strictly follow the four regulative principles, and read daily from Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. This will save us. Although this is a very simple process you will be surprized to know that very few people actually follow it. And if you read Nectar of Instruction by Srila Prabhuapda carefully you will see that he defines the people who do these things very seriously and with great faith as pure devotees. Without doing these things we can not advance. This is the answer to your question, so please become determined and do it, and gradually you will see all your problems are solved.
For controlling tensions, practice meditation on the HOLY
MAHA MANTRA. It will calm the nerves. Love Krishna with all your heart. Become Krishna Conscious.Surely the ecstatic feeling of love and Krishna consciousness should make you tension free.
1 why is it that representatives start to pass the knowledge in a not correct way? is it because they have other interests different than to serve radha and krishna?
in the present, What happens to devotees who do things against their own spiritual advancement (for example smoking, liying, try to gain persons from the opposite sex) and sometime say things according to the scriptures and other time the opposite -just to justify their own bad habits- ?should i tell them directly thay i know they are liying or should i let them talk.? I know the sastras say one should avoid these persons but in this present era of kali it is almost impossible. there are to few persons who want to serve radha and krishna and one has also to work and gain material knwledge from pérsons who are not interest in spiritual life or are just sahajijas.
and how can i be certain that what regural devotees say is the truth for i don know all the sastras?
How can i not misunderstand the teachings given by the disciplic sucesion?
2) you say one should think “My opinion is worthless,” “My knowledge is worthless,” “I am nothing,””, but when i was growing up a had just that problem i thought my opinions were worthless and therefore so was i ,and a had a very low self steem that it lead me to suicide thoghts. I am not saying that you are wrong, but there must b must be another sentrence to complete them.
Hare Krishna Mataji,
Thanks for the nice questions. Your first question, why do the so-called representatives of the disciplic succession start to pass on the knowledge incorrectly, you have hinted that it may be that they have other interests than to serve Radha and Krishna and this is actually the heart of the problem. The reason we come to this material world actually is that we have rebelled against the principle of surrendering to and serving Radha and Krishna. So this rebellious tendency is very, very strong here in the material world. So there are many who take to the position of priest or spiritual leader not purely to serve Radha and Krishna, but they may have some personal desires to fulfil.
It is very common for people to present themselves as priests or spiritual leaders to fulfil some person desires they have. It maybe they are doing it because they like the fame, profit and adoration they can get by becoming a spiritual leader, this is just a more subtle expression of the sex desire and will gradually degrade into them using their spiritual leader position to fulfil their mundane sex desires.
This is not new, we have seen it over and over again, in all the different religions. Many times the priests and preachers are engaged in this work because they want to get something out of it themselves. This “God business” can be a good business and some are just in it to make money. There are so many reasons people become priests and preachers apart from the desire to serve Radha and Krishna.
So we do have to be very careful that we do not associate with materialists who are presenting themselves as devotees for some personal gain. Associating with such people and hearing from them is forbidden. Sanatana Goswami has quoted from Padma Purana forbidding us from associating with such persons:
śravaṇaṁ naiva kartavyaṁ sarpocchiṣṭaṁ yathā payaḥ
“One should not hear anything about Kṛṣṇa from a non-Vaiṣṇava. Milk touched by the lips of a serpent has poisonous effects; similarly, talks about Kṛṣṇa given by a non-Vaiṣṇava are also poisonous.” One must be a bona fide devotee, and then he can preach and impress devotional service upon his listeners.
The way we can protect ourselves from misunderstanding the teachings of the disciplic succession is to hear from the right person. That is so important. We have to know that the person we are hearing from is a pure devotee of Krishna, otherwise do not hear from him. The danger is so great that we should not take this risk.
We can hear from Srila Prabhupada. We have over 1000 hours of recordings now available on MP3 and more than 50 hours of video and all of his books, letters, conversations, etc. Everything is available at http://www.KrishnaStore.com and you can read everything online at http://www.PrabhupadaBooks.com
So please take full advantage of Srila Prabhuapda and hear from him and then you will know you are hearing the correct information in the pure disciplic succession and gradually as we hear more and more from Srila Prabhuapda we will be able to understand and repeat more and more and we can then also represent the pure disciplic succession. If we have heard properly and we repeat what we have heard that will also be pure and will have a very good effect on anyone who hears from us.
But if you hear from others, who are not pure devotees, then everything will be mixed up and confused and we will not get a good result at all.
As far as the second part where you are commenting on the idea that when you were younger you were thinking that your opinions were worthless therefore you were also worthless, it is not like that. As devotees we do not think we are worthless at all. We have a very important mission, a very great mission, and that is to deliver the messages of Krishna that have come through the pure disciplic succession to Srila Prabhupada and then to us to the people of the world. So in that way we know that we have the most important mission and we are doing the greatest work. But our own concocted ideas, the result of our mental speculations, are actually worthless. That does not mean we are worthless. We become very valuable if we become engaged in distributing Krishna’s ideas as they have been handed to us by Srila Prabhuapda.
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa dasa prabhu. It seems prabhupadabooks.com works no more. Though all the titles of books, conversations, lectures shown on the left side panel, no text is displayed on the right side panel when clicked. Strange. Does it work for any?
Thank you. Hare Krishna.
I just checked PrabhuapdaBooks.com and it is working fine now. If you still have any problems with it let me know.
” our own concocted ideas, the result of our mental speculations, are actually worthless…” True really…. Hari bol 🙂
“But if you hear from others, who are not pure devotees, then everything will be mixed up and confused and we will not get a good result at all.”
….ya actually, i’ve experienced this recently, we should only focus on pure devotees (prabhupad and madhudvisa prabhu), otherwise it becomes a mess! We should always remember these words and shall always be alert…
Thankyou Krishna for Prabhupad and madhudvisa prabhu!!!
HARI HARI BOL…. :O
Hare Krishna to everyone!!!
“you say one should think “My opinion is worthless,” “My knowledge is worthless,” “I am nothing,””, but when i was growing up a had just that problem i thought my opinions were worthless and therefore so was i ,and a had a very low self steem that it lead me to suicide thoghts. I am not saying that you are wrong, but there must b must be another sentrence to complete them.”————maybe one way of solving this contradiction is that we can think that “if I am trying to change the message of Gita then surely my thoughts are wrong and my opinion is worthless” but at the same time if you can find an excellent way of just carrying the message of Gita to as many people possible without changing it then you can think that ” My opinion is definitley not worthless and I have actually done a good thing “.I feel this way you can have a higher esteem of yourself as you have done a very important job of carrying Shri Krishna’s message.
HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA
KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE
Why do some Gurus pass on incorrect knowledge ? Very
simple. They are ignorant fools. And if you are foolish enough to follow a blind man, both will fall into the avalanche.So its best to read Gita yourself.Read Bhagavad Gita-as-it-is.Its the best translation. Still, if you are not satisfied, then read 5 or six or seven other translations. Compare all the translations. You will definitely get the picture. Maybe not 100% correct. But things like “surrender unto Krishna” is not complicated. At least you can love Krishna. Why not do that.Instead of thinking “let me do yoga, I’ll get psychic powers”—which is foolish: think that let me love Kishna and chant his Holy name as an aid to remember
him.
Don’t think “Chant” as a “witchcraft spell”, which when
uttered will give you superhuman powers. Think of it as an
aid to think of Krishna, and love Krishna.
Dear Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna
Many thanks for all the work you have put into this paper. The History of the movement was of particular importance, legitimising the present message of the continued love of and for Lord Krishna, that goes beyond human life spans / timescales.
Wayne
Please send the pure message of Krishna.
Vijay Thorat says:
February 10, 2009 at 7:27 am
Please send the pure message of Krishna.Surrender and think 24 hours a day only on Me your servant Pieter Franciscus Kok
Haribol!!!
Hare Krishnaji!!!
I am very glad and happy to receive the newsletters regularly.
It is very informative and helps us to know about lot of unknown factors. Since I am just a beginner, I am trying to understand by reading it regularly. Though I read regularly, I am not able to keep in mind all the points, to tell to my friends. I feel it requires continous reading and practice.
Can you please write to me our daily routines, as per the article, we are suppose to get up early, but in reality, for working people like us, it is very difficult to follow certain things. I am fast on Ekadasi days. Please advice as to how to go about our daily duties.
I also feel that, my husband and my son should also try getting the taste of this spiritual path. My son is ok, he will listen if told properly for his age, since he is only 16 years. But my husband is not like tht, he wont easily accept anything.
Will be waiting for your reply
Hare Krishna
kalpana
Hare Krishna Kalpana
The program which goes on in the temple with the deity worship, Mangal Aroti, chanting of Hare Krishna kirtan, chanting japa, reading from Bhagvad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam, etc, are not meant just for the temple. Srila Prabhuapda said his idea in establishing these temples was that this would be the standard that householders would follow in their homes. They would come to the temple and see the standard and establish the same standard in their homes.
It is very good to fast on the ekadasi and yes it is difficult in this modern world with the pressures of work and so many other things to find the time for spiritual life. But somehow we have to find the time. The early morning time is the best time because everyone else is sleeping and there are very few disturbances at this time. So if you can adjust your routine to rise a little earlier in the mornings then in that time you can chant some japa and read something from Srila Prabhupada’s books.
The more we become Krishna conscious ourselves the more the people around us also will want to become Krishna conscious. So if you become inspired, your husband and son will also become inspired. These things may take a little time. On one hand we have to be very enthusiastic but at the same time we need to be patient, knowing that it may take some time to reach the point we want to be at.
Prasadam is very powerful. If you can cook very nice foodstuffs and offer them to Srila Prabhuapda and Krishna and then distribute the prasadam to your family you will all gradually become more and more Krishna conscious.
I hope it is of some help.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
hello sir,
it has been my scientific observation that ants,wasps lower insects too have a very evolved brain.it wud b an asset to us if there was a research done on the nature of the soul coz in my opinion it just goes on living ,not necessary in the order of lower physical form to higher form.also i m inquisitive of the “transcendental happiness” as they call in spirituality.i was scared coz bieng a devotee i experienced this thing myself,and i freaked out i thought maybe i m getting mad.i m a non voilent person and respect every life form,try my best to do good as much as i can ,but thats not for krishna,its my own nature.i still doubt his existence.y cant we see him if he exists?
Hare Krishna
To understand what Krishna consciousness is and to experience transcendental happiness you have to actually become Krishna conscious first. So you have to learn the science of Krishna consciousness. It is like any other science. You have to learn it, it is a course of study. And you have to apply what you learn practically in your life. So the start is reading Srila Prabhupada’s books at least 1-2 hours a day, chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra at least 16 rounds a day and strictly following the four regulative principles: no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication. These are the things you have to do before you can expect really to understand Krishna consciousness and experience transcendental happiness.
As far as the brains of the insects… It is not really the brains of the insects that are controlling the insects, nor is it our brains that are controlling us. The brain is only a machine, it does control all the other parts of the body but the brain itself can not think and reason. The thinking and reasoning being done by us, the spirit souls. And the spirit soul in an insect is no different from the spirit souls who are you and me. In fact we could take the bodies of insects in our next life and the insect could take a human body in its next life.
The material body is just like a covering over the soul. Of course if the soul is in a particular material body then he has to act according to that material body.
Buy you are correct that there is a great deal of intelligent control and complexity in an insect that completely baffles scientists, because they do not understand the soul…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna. All praise and glory to all the devotees, to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, and of course, to Lord Krishna.
First, let me say that although I have been peripherally familiar with the Krishna Consciousness movement from its inception, I have only completely dedicated myself and turned my life over to Lord Krishna relatively recently. So I feel not only ill equipped, but also entirely unworthy, to discuss anything about the great Bhagavad Gita. For that reason I wish to apologize in advance if I say anything herein that anyone might find offensive as it is certainly not my intention.
Here is what I am running into, and grappling with in my own mind, which ironically, is precisely the line of reasoning I myself have employed in the past when disputing the contention that the Holy Bible was inerrant. My assertion was that people convinced of the Bible’s inerrancy were basing that on the fact that it was stated as so in the Bible itself – that was all the proof presented. I remember back in school when the teacher would ask a student to give the definition of a certain word, with the one stipulation being that the word to be defined could not itself be used in the definition. So how could the Bible be acknowledged as true based solely on the Bible saying so without any other compelling and authoritative verification?
Well, now that is exactly the argument being used by people to me about the Bhagavad Gita and I find myself unable to give a reasonable answer as to how else it can be relied upon as pure truth from any source other than the Bhagavad Gita itself. Any light you could shed on this or assistance you can give me to intelligently discuss the subject would be greatly appreciated.
Hari Bol!
The question is can Gita be accepted as real truth ? The
answer would be YES, because for thousands of years,the text of Gita has
remained unchanged. Thousands of Sages and saints have
examined it minutely . And have come to the conclusion
that it is truth.You don’t have to accept anything at face
value.You accept the opinions of experts in the field— the sages.It is precisely here that the importance of Param-para system of Guru-disciplic succession comes into picture. But let me tell you this :(forgive me for saying so)if you still have doubts about the truthfulness of Gita, you dear brother have to go travel through a thousand more cycles of births and deaths, till you are able to come to the conclusion that Gita is truth. However, if you are courageous enough to shake off those lingering doubts, then you may get mercy of Krisha in this life itself.
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Thank you very much for this valuable and well written article.
Yes Its ONLY THE OPINIONS AND IDEAS OF KRISHNA that matter and we need to hear from a bonafide guru in order to spread the glories of Sri Krishna
I have a question related to the topic.
How do I need to handle Evolution objectively in all of this. My academic degree is in Evolution and Ecology. I do not have any problems with either Evolution or with GOD consciousness. I just do not know how to relate both topics together. My intuition tells me that both are related.
A few weeks ago, I attempted to start a discussion on this topic with 3 matajis at the temple I go to.
Making a long story short: The discusssion ended with one mataji threatening to beat me up with a plastic container, the second mataji started to attack me personally and the third one kept quiet.
A few weeks later, ome Bramachari told us that people who believe in Evolution are DEMONS.
Another male devotee started to attack me personally because I believe in mutations as one of the causal effect of change therefore Evolution. This male Devotee also told me that scientists are criminals, evolution is bad, Darwin is bad, etc…
A third male devotee told me something similar.
I have stopped going to this temple as often as before because I am afraid.
I am a new devotee and just started to read the Bhagavad Gita.
Hare Krishna Navina
The short answer is, yes, there is a type of evolution that happens. The planet does start covered with water and first there are aquatics, then insects, and as the water dries up and there is land there are the land animals. But this is not at all happening by the process of natural selection that Charles Darwin has guessed it is. It is a nice guess. But it is wrong.
So evolution is partially true, but the idea of natural selection is completely wrong. The species are fixed. There are, all over the universe, 8,400,000 species of life. And these species are existing permanently. There is not much point discussing these points in detail, you can find the information everywhere, but briefly there is no evidence of evolution in the fossil record. Rather there is so much evidence that disproves the idea of a gradual progression from primitive life forms up to the higher forms and ultimately to man. This is just not what happened at all. It is completely wrong, a complete mistake.
Rather than primitive life forms forming an evolving gradually, what actually happened is Lord Brahma was born as the first person within the universe and he is the most evolved, the most highly developed person in the universe, and he was the first living entity. So the highest, most developed form of life was there in the universe from the very beginning and the whole creation and development of the universe happened under his direction.
So Darwin and his followers are very badly mistaken. I have discussed these points in other places on the http://www.Krishna.org website and you can search for them and post other questions on those articles if you would like to discuss the matter in more detail.
The real evolution is the evolution of consciousness. It is not that one species is evolving into another species. This has never happened and will never happen. The individual species are all there and they will also remain. Even if they are not physically manifest at some point in time they still exist in their subtle forms and will be recreated at the right time.
This universe is going on in cycles. It is created, it exists for some time, and it is destroyed, then it is created again. This goes on, and on, and on, like every year we are having summer, fall, winter, spring. So every time there is a new creation all the same species of life come out. It is not that there are different species created by chance each time. It is like the seeds from some plant. The plants many not be viable but if the seeds are in the ground when there is some rain and some sun the plants will grow again out of the ground, and they will be the same as the old plants, not a new species.
So evolution, as Darwin proposed it, is a big mistake, he is very wrong.
It is just an idea, a theory, there is no proof, even so people have become so attached to this idea, only because it provides a so-called scientific explanation of how it could be possible for life to develop on this planet without any higher intelligence in control.
Basically you have to “unlearn” what they have taught you at school. It is a type of brainwashing that you have undergone. They have filled your head with so many incorrect ideas and because, all around you, people are believing these incorrect ideas you think they must be true. But if you carefully consider these things you will see they are nothing more than ideas and there is nothing to suggest actually that they are true…
Darwin is not wrong.about you wrote plants come out seed but in years plant realy evoluated, then people say that they are new a better scientific description they are familly see corn oak before the were grasses, thats how that souls educated themself, see also Bhagavatam souls fall and take form into grain, they live on heavenly planets and when the spirutual bankaccount is empty they fall down and there soul embodied in grain
Thank you so much for your concise but descriptive reply. I now understand clearly the process of birth, death and rebirth that is described in the Bhagavad Gita; this cycle which plays out within both the human realm and the universal realm. It is the only explanation that makes sense. Hare Krishna.
Haribol Navina,
I saw a very interesting program about evolution which made the very useful argument that not only humans, but ants and other creatures sacrifice their lives for others. If natural selection is the name of the game, they would not do this. The Vedas say it is the soul which evolves or transmigrates from one body to the next from the lower species upward birth after birth. Mr. Darwin stole the concept and said that the bodies themselves evolved. But if that were true we would not have monkeys and man co-existing. Also we never saw a monkey give birth to a man. We believe in Lord Krishna’s explanation of evolution (transmigration) but most people have been indoctrinated to believe Darwin’s theory of evolution. Hope you won’t let your misunderstanding and confusion cause fights with devotees or obstruct your appreciation of other truths that you are learning. Keep reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and chanting and slowly you will come to understand and appreciate everything clearly.
I have never understood why people still choose to take the “Theory” of Charles Darwin and talk about it as if it is a fact! a theory that is just over 100 years old!, and yet this information had been available since being written 5000 yrs ago! the vedas clearly states all that is to be understood about life and it’s origins and no matter which road you turn to, the knowledge in the Bhagavad Gita is always clarified espeially through new discoveries in quantum physics. Hado is but one example of Krishnas potent energies and if you look into this discovery (Dr Masaru Emoto “the hidden messages in water” )it is clear to see the “song of God” manifesting as stated. If you take the time to look at this discovery and it’s vast implications you will find it so much easier to grasp the concepts of Krighna’s energies through sound-frequencies & vibrations = The song of God..:-) “AND IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD”. 🙂 EVOLUTION IS BUT FOR THE PURPOSE OF THE EVOLUTION OR THE SOUL.
The knowledge cintained in this newsletter has certainly enlightened me
and has broadened my spiriyual horizon.My understanding was limited up
to a point where Krsna speaks the Bhagavad Gita to Arjun at the battle
of Kurushetra & that was the end of disciplic succession.
My vision is now clear that Sri Caitany Mahaprabhu & Srila Bhaktivinod
Thakura aslo reveivd the philosophy of Krsna Consciousness thus being
part of the parampara system, where the message waqs re-spoken &
written.
However, I have one request, would you pse explain ;
” inaction in action ” & ” action in inaction ”
Thank You
Hare Krsna
Jagannath Priya Dasa.
Jai Shri Krishna.
Here the term “Inaction” refers to “Renunciation.” “Inaction in action” means if a person is involved in any action he should feel he not doing anything but acting as an instrument of God’s hand. Such person never get bonded to the consequences of the work and always remain free. So God advised us to give up the desire of the consequence of our work.
Such person can understand all the actions and the secret of all the actions even when he is not doing any action. This is what is meant by “Action in inaction.”
wrong you the body react and not the soul!that is action senses inaction is obseving this
I was actually just thinking about this topic as I received this e-mail. I have been reaching out to the Vaishnavic community on-line and have come across several instances of the lack of proper respect or appreciation for bona fide disciplic succession. The idea of param para is of strict importance for the maintenance of the successful preaching and continuing growth of Gaudiya Vaishnavism as given by the pure philosophy of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pȧdȧya kṛṣṇa-preṣthāya bhū-tale
śrimate bhaktivedānta-svāminn iti nāmine
asat-saṅga-tyāga,––– ei vaiṣṇava-ācāra. Sri Caitanya
सच्चिदानंद
Haribol!
Hare Krishna Guruji
I am very much grateful to receive daily newsletter regularly. These news letter are very important as they help to know many factors. Points in this newsletters help to develop the hidden spiritual feelings for Krishna..After reading these article I am feeling that why till today I was away from Krishna????? I am very much thankful to one of my colleague who diverted me towards the Krishna Consciousness. As I am the beginner please help me and guide me to move ahead.
Hare Krishna
Kusum
I also have been thinking of this very subject,of disciplic succession, your explanation was very easy for me to understand. Also your explanation of Caitayna and exactly who he was now gives me a better understanding of Krishna. I have been attracted to Krishna for less than one year, but have read the Gita through 2 times and read it everyday now as my morning devotional practice, then I sing/chant the maha mantra 16 times. I feel my spiritual understanding is growing but have been a bit apprehensive of approaching a guru, especially after the things I have read about ISKCON. Thank you so much for this understanding.
Peace
Byron