From: Abhishek Khandelwal I am a student and alongside i m trying to practice Krishna Conciousness. But now a days, i m in a fix that if Material Education is “Dogism”(acc. to Srila Prabhupada Maharaja) then why should i accept this “Dogism”? Even if, i study then what should be my objective behind this activity?…
In Srimad Bhagavatam we see many ‘names’ of the personalities symbolically represent their activities. Some examples are Hiranyaksha- whose eyes made of gold, Hiranya kasipu- who is after gold and soft bed, Dhrtarastra- who encroaches others land, Sunithi- who gives good advice, Suruchi etc. Did their elders gave names to these personalities by predicting their…
Question: Is the guru-disciple relationship eternal? If yes, then what happens when the guru has some difficulties in his devotional service and resigns from the service of the guru? Some important quotes are given below: The guru is not just a person but a principle “Spiritual master is not that a particular man is spiritual…
There are few senses that are as powerful conduits for our innate pleasure-seeking propensity as our eyes. For most of us, our eyes are often like voracious heat-seekers scanning the horizon for objects with sensual heat. The economic lords who run our society exploit thoroughly our visual vulnerability. By planting seductive billboards often at every…
Many of us may have suspected that the Bhagavad-gita being an ancient book might not be practical in our times. Some of us may have been surprised to discover how practical and valuable it is when we encountered advanced devotees who had molded their lives according to it. Such seasoned devotees can bring about this…
Please click on the verse numbers to hear the lectures on those verses:
From: Ladusingh How people from coastal region can follow vegeterianism where only fish / sea food is available?
Struggle for Transcendence amidst struggle for Independence (BST) India was heightening the struggle for independence. Socio political environment was interacting with the spiritual mission of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. We discuss in ISKCON classes acharyas as normative, transcendental figures who exhibit ideal behaviour and we learn from their behaviour about vaishnava dealings, how Lord reciprocated…
We human beings have an intelligence more advanced than our nonhuman fellow beings. This developed intelligence enables us to think beyond the immediate issues that occupy the animal world – eating, sleeping, mating and defending – to the ultimate issues – the meaning and purpose of our existence, the source of creation, the ultimate goal…
Question: In spiritual life, everybody is told to do the same activities like chanting the same mantra. Doesn’t this standardization suppress and destroy our individuality? Answer: Not at all. In fact, this standardization destroys the coverings that block our actual individuality. Firstly, let’s try to understand: what is the essence of our individuality? Is it…
Many of the problems that confront us in our daily lives often seem to have an inbuilt mental glue. They stick to our minds constantly – and especially during our mantra meditation; we frequently find our mind doing mediation about problem-solving, not meditation on Krishna. Gita wisdom helps us understand that the glue is present…
Some of us may sometimes wonder how to harmonize the two aspects of our human personality: the head and the heart. A preponderance of the head makes us so intellectually solid that we become impervious to essential human emotions. At the other extreme, a preponderance of the heart makes us so emotionally liquid that we…
From: Panca pandava das Prji in your class you mention that reincaranation can be identify by and one of the way is Birth marks or body defect, now the point arises after death a person get totally new body then how birth marks it is possible. To hear the answer, please click here
After Lord’s departure, we heard preaching was sidelined because of foreigners rule. Then why did not Achryas tried to spread in favourable places like South India, where there was no foreign influence. We never hear that our acharyas went allover India and debated with different religions to propagate Gaudiya Vaishnavism (Like Ramanujacharya,madhwacharya etc., did).
There was about 100 years of silence/break in Gaudiya Vaishnavism before Viswanath Chakravarti Thakur. How he managed and empowerd by to bring it back?
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu toured south India personally. But we do not have any traces of it even before 500 years. How come such spiritual influence has not attracted any permanent followers? Why LCM had not tried to propagate or make observable and logstanding effects? What was His purpose in that tour? It appears that it was…
Our heart is flooded with many desires that promise happiness. However, most of these desires are unfulfillable due to the limitations of time and resources and other practical constraints. Nonetheless, desires are our primary driving agents without which our lives would become insipid, if not inert. So, we hate to resign ourselves to the reality…
History of India is very less known from 2000BC to 1000AD. What happened in this time? Especially what pushed Vaishnavism down…. (Transcript by Rupak Panigrahy Prabhu) Q> Very little is known about the spiritual history of India from 2000 BC to 1000 AD. What happened in this time, especially what pushed vaishnavism down. A> The…
Emotions are one of our defining features that differentiate us conscious beings from unconscious things. As matter doesn’t have the capacity to experience emotions, the presence of that capacity in us demonstrates that there is more to our identity than matter; we are spiritual beings. Yet it is a sad irony that the very emotions…
Why did Bhaktivinoda Thakura write a controversial book like Krishna Samhita in which he gave a non-literal meaning to the Bhagavatam chronology, cosmology and geography?
From Rajat Prabhu: Did the worship of Krishna Deities exist before the appearance of Krishna in the world? And the same question can be applied to other incarnations.
From Rajat Prabhu: You mentioned that Jainism developed around the 5th century BC. But Srila Prabhupada says that Jainism existed even in Satya Yuga since the time of King Rishabhadeva. How can we reconcile the two? And if it existed in Satya Yuga, then is it also an contender for being the oldest religion along…
When the present presents us with difficult times, the memories of past emotionally fulfilling moments can be timely energy-boosters. Unfortunately, many of us are subjected to a relentless media blitz that evokes our strongest emotions as, for example, when our favorite sports team wins a championship or when our pet hero bashes up a villain…
Some people equate becoming spiritual with becoming unambitious. However, bhakti spirituality centers on ambitiousness, albeit of a kind different from the individualistic ambitiousness glamorized by our present culture. Contemporary culture often defines success as an individual’s ability to carve out one’s own identity distinct from others, to stand apart from the rest of the world….
Phase around Bhaktivinoda Thakur Today we will continue our discussion on the History of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and we will discuss the phase around Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur. Last time we discussed about how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His followers reestablished Gaudiya Vaishnavism in Vrindaban especially all that is destroyed by Amalthes atrocities…
Important points from the answer: 1. The same Brahma-vaivarta Purana that contains the verse forbidding sannyasa also contains the following verse that glorifies sannyasa: dandam kamandalum rakta-vastram matranca dharayet nityam pravasi naikatra sa sannyasiti kirttitah “A sannyasi accepts only a danda, water-pot, and saffron-cloth and resides near a village – this is the wealth of…
Many of us often get so caught in the exigencies and emergencies that keep coming up in our lives that, despite knowing the importance of developing our relationship with Krishna, we are just not able to allocate any time for it. When this unfortunate pattern starts repeating itself, then that is a sure sign that…
From: Praveen Shanmugam How can god be enjoying and satisfied (atmarama) when we conditioned souls , his children suffer tormently in this world?
From Chandan Kumar: Prabhu ji my question is that during the annihilation of the universe all Brahma of different different universe die together or not. if yes then then how is that different Brahmas are having different life span Please explain.
From: Amol Patki We have Gaura Nitai twice on the Alter. Once on the main alter along with Radha Krishna and then as part of the Pancha Tattva. Is this a duplication?
From: Birendra Many times I am envious of others’ physical beauty, wealth, prestige, knowledge and other opulences. How to control these things?
From: Vaibhav Kalambe Why is the index finger considered in-auspicious and not allowed to touch the beads during Chanting?
Many people hesitate to apply the Bhagavad-gita in their lives because they doubt whether its guidelines given thousands of years ago are practical today. Their doubt originates in a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of the Gita wisdom-tradition. A living scriptural tradition can never exist as an airtight-sealed vacuum of scriptural guidelines; if a tradition…
From: Alpana Patel I have recently attended the DYS course and now i plan to attend the next courses. During the course they mentioned that chanting 16 rounds is the ideal and one must come to that point as quickly as possible. What about the Quality of chanting? Is it secondary to Quantity. I ask…
Our heart longs for love, but our head checks us, warning us that the longing for love will bind us in disappointment and frustration. We see time and again how worldly love survives by misleading lovers into suspending and rejecting their intelligence – and paying a heavy price for it. Sooner or later, their sweet…
From: TUSHAR VORA I have seen many times, that after experiencing sense gratification, you eventually get fed up of it and then it is easier to renounce. Isn’t this a smart way to renounce than abruptly renouncing the world as brahmacari’s do since they will always have something lurking in their mind, a desire to…
The rampant corruption and the blatant inequity that assault us in our current socioeconomic system are symptoms of the materialistic fanaticism that is afflicting humanity today. Just as religious fanatics care for nothing and no one except their twisted religious beliefs, materialist fanatics care for nothing and no one except their materialistic agendas for self-aggrandizement….
From: Chandra How to understand Krsna is non-different from His Name? Any example? Answer Highlights: 1. Difference between Varnavada and Sphotavada 2. Difference between svara and shabda 3. Difference between Varnavada and Bhakti
From: Panca pandava Prabhu: Prabhuji as we are against mayavadis then why Caitanya mahaprabhu took sannayasa from kesava Bharati a mayavadis teacher?
Beyond rapidity and vapidity to clarity and serenity Our current materialistic culture impels us to lead lives characterized by rapidity and vapidity: Rapidity: In the rapid mode, we are in a tearing hurry to get things done, to somehow cope with the pressure of the many items that jump out at us from our to-do…
Question from Sanjay: In one of our classes it was explained that demons (or demonic propensities) reside in different planets during Saya-yuga; on the same planet/s during Treta-yuga; in the same families during Dwapara-yuga and in the same body (same person) during Kali-yuga. Is this understanding correct? A brief summary of the answer: The idea…
From: Sri Chaitanya Chandara Prabhu Why Draupadi didn’t allow karna to participate in her swayamvar competition based on his birth and neglected his guna & karma?
Whenever things go wrong in life, we can generally do something to set them right. But when death strikes, there’s nothing that we can do to set it right; the finality of death is unappealable. All that we try, cry, lie and die for is taken away from us in one merciless moment. By taking…
Question: What causes us to feel mentally tired even when we are not physically tired? How can we increase our mental energy? Answer: Short answer: We feel mentally tired because we let stray desires prey parasitically on our mental energy. To increase our mental energy, we need to become more selective about our desires. Long…
From: Bhavani pls kindly provide solution to my problem what is the reason for constantly falling down in spiritual life even though i want to practise spiritual life seriously? what can be done to maintain consistency.how to develope the quality of humility?
From Rahul: Does God really helps when we are in need?. Or if he thinks its nt proper for us, He dont. And if He dont, do we have to just sit watching things we dont want?
Many people hesitate to adopt authentic scripture-based spirituality because they fear that they will have to give up too many worldly pleasures. Even those of us who are practicing spiritualists are often mentally preoccupied with the temptations that we have to evade and avoid. This negative or defensive attitude towards spiritual life makes it more…
Recap of first session In the first session we discussed about four different aspects of studying a tradition, i.e., studying the personalities, studying philosophy, studying the history and studying the literature. Our focus is studying of history, in that we looked at pre Chaitanya Vaishnavism as it is known to us from the historical records…
All of us, at sometime or the other in our lives, feel a void within. This sense of incompleteness, even emptiness, in our hearts is due to our lacking a satisfying object for our love. We generally offer our love to the people and things of the world, but experience soon reinforces what we subconsciously…
Many of us may sometimes feel fed up of the way things are going in our life; at such times, we feel mentally tired even when we are not physically tired. What causes this mental tiredness? It is caused by the many superfluous desires that we unwittingly welcome in our minds. The Bhagavad-gita (16.21-22) indicates…
Bhaktivinoda Thakura, a nineteenth century Vaishnava saint-scholar, explains how a true devotee should respect other religions and their practices, “When we have occasion to be present at the place of worship of other religionists at the time of their worship, we should stay there in a respectful mood, contemplating thus: ‘Here is being worshiped my…
Krishna’s pastimes of magically killing supernatural demons may seem fantastic to some of us. Yes, they are fantastic, in the sense that they demonstrate his capacities to effortlessly accomplish feats that would be impossible for us humans. Krishna’s deeds may be fantastic, but they are not fantasy. They are not figments of a mythological imagination…
“Why am I not advancing fast enough?” This question sometimes troubles the hearts of us spiritual seekers and makes us feel dissatisfied with our spiritual lives. This dissatisfaction can lead us to unwittingly playing the blame game where we try to find a scapegoat for our slow spiritual advancement. Generally this mental blame game finds…
Few consumer products shape the contemporary home as much as a television. Few images represent a contemporary family better than a group of people, physically cloistered and emotionally distanced, huddled around a TV, staring, cheering, glaring and leering at the alluring images that whiz in and out of existence on the screen. For most people…
Love is not just a feeling, but also a doing; not just an emotion, but also an action. In fact, love as a feeling is the root that grows and blossoms into the flower of love as an action. And, paradoxically, love as an action acts as the root that grows and blossoms into the…
All of us have experience of times when our impulses overpower our values and goad us into actions that we regret later. How do our impulses become so brutally strong? This, in fact, is the question that Arjuna asks Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita (3.36). Gita wisdom points to the root cause of this conflict between…
Question: Is Lord Chaitanya an incarntion of God? If yes, they why did he hide his divinity? If he is an hidden incarnation, then why do devotees not let him stay hidden? Why do they broadcast his divinity? To see the ppt with scriptural references to Lord Chaitanya’s divinity, please click here Bhaktivinoda Thakura underscores…
From: Devdatt: In one of your books as a proof of reincarnation, you mentioned about past life regression, which I think is like going in the past literally. This seems really challenging to intellegence to accept as truth because once the things has happened already how can one go and see it , is already…
All of us instinctively long for happiness; most of us presume that becoming happy necessitates acquiring lots of wealth for purchasing the things that will make us happy. However, the pursuit of wealth as a source of happiness inevitably frustrates us due to one of the three Us: 1. Unattainable: We may crave and strive…
Answer: Not necessarily. Without institutionalization, that spirit won’t matter much. Let’s understand this with an analogy. The spirit of spirituality is love of God. If we compare the flow of the human heart’s love toward God to the flow of a river towards the ocean, then the institute is like the river bed. If there…
The Bhagavad-gita (9.18) states that Krishna is present in the hearts of all of us as the witness. The word ‘witness’ often conjures the image of a person who gives testimony to prove the culpability of a wrongdoer. However, this negative connotation doesn’t apply to Krishna, because he is present in our hearts not to…
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The Bhagavad-gita (18.58) indicates that all of us have essentially two choices in making our life’s decisions: to act according to the voice of Krishna and be eternally liberated, or to act according to the voice of the ego and be endlessly entangled. Often, people say that one should follow the voice within as that…
The Bhagavad-gita (16.9) indicates that the atheistic, being possessed by their meager intelligence, flourish in self-destructive and world-destructive activities. In these people, ignorance not only resides, but flies with the wings of the misdirected intellect To be in ignorance is bad; these are the wingless atheists. To be in ignorance and to imagine oneself to…
Question: Why does Krishna brag so much in the Bhagavad-gita, proclaiming that he alone is the Supreme, that his glories have no end and that everything attractive is a spark of his splendor? Why is he not humble? Answer: Before passing judgment on Krishna, we need to understand the application of humility in the context…
The Bhagavad-gita (6.36) reassures us that we can conquer the unconquerable mind by striving with appropriate means. The Gita (8.14) later reveals the appropriate means to be fixing the mind on Krishna through remembrance and service. The mind provokes us by fantasizing about worldly pleasures. However, these fantasies of the mind are just that: fantasies….
1 The Gita says that our spiritual advancement is carried over to the next life. But even in this lifetime, if a devotee falls down, he or she faces so much difficulty in returning to the earlier standards. What is it actually preserved when someone falls down in spiritual life?
1. Is the Vedic concept of Maya same as the Christian concept of Satan? Is Maya real or metaphorical?
The Bhagavad-gita (7.15) uses the word mudhas, meaning asses, to refer to those unfortunate people who violate their own human rights. Our society exalts as human rights those claims that nature automatically and adequately endows to animals: bodily protection and maintenance. Gita wisdom prods us to rethink whether we might have got our definition of…
1. How should we deal with aggressive atheists who derisively dismiss all our arguments?
From: dilip kumar mehta Name of lord Rama also comes in mahamantra what we chant daily but we hardly get oppurtunity to listen the past time of lord Rama. Though we equally chant the name of Krishna & Rama, Iskcon gives less emphasis to lord Rama. Please elaborate.
From: Amit More Is desire the cause of Modes or Modes is the Cause of desire?
From: Birendra I have a colleague who slanders Lord Krishna and Hinduism also. She smokes, drinks wine, eats meat even though she is a Hindu. I cannot tolerate her presence in my office, but she is more powerful than me. What should I do? How can I continue working with her?
The Bhagavad-gita (6.6) points out the dual roles that the mind can play in shaping our destiny: if controlled, the mind can be our friend; if uncontrolled, it can be our enemy. This verse implies that we can control the mind if we decide to. This may seem difficult to believe especially when the wild…
The Bhagavad-gita (7.24) declares the impersonalists who consider Krishna’s form to be a temporary and illusory product of the impersonal Brahman to be abuddhayah, bankrupt of intelligence. The impersonalists are classic and tragic examples of taking a good thing so far as to make it disastrously bad. The impersonalists conceive of the Absolute Truth to…
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