Śrī Godādevī Ālvar

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

  The life of Godādevī, or Āṇḍāl, was glorious, for it was filled by her glowing love for Godhead. The spiritual origin of her incarnation can be traced back to the Supreme Lord’s Nīlā-śakti potency.

In a town called Śrī Villiputtur, there once lived a person named Viṣṇucitta, who later became known as Periya Ālvar. He was born in a brāhmaṇa family and had a small garden where he grew sacred Tulasī plants with his own hands. One of his important duties was to weave garlands of fragrant flowers with Tulasī leaves and offer them to the deity there, named, Vaṭa-patraśāyī Bhagavān*.

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* The Bala-Gopāla form of Bhagavān who took shelter of the leaf of a banyan tree (vaṭa) at the time of universal devastation, while sucking His toe.

One day while he was picking leaves and flowers, he was astonished to find a wonderful baby girl, marvellously similar in beauty to Lakṣmī-devī, laying amidst the Tulasī plants.

Anatomy of an action

• Posted by Mahesh J C on July 3, 2015 at 5:30

Hare Krishna!

We go through 4 ascending stages of action.

1. Unconscious Incompetence:

When a child of 3 or 4 years is asked by her dad, 'Can you drive my car?'. The child replies, 'Yes dad, I can drive the car'.

This child is not conscious of her incompetence.

2. Conscious incompetence:

When this child is now 7 or 8 years old is asked by her dad, 'Can you drive my car?'. The child replies, 'No dad, I can't drive the car. My feet won't reach the brake and accelerator'.

This child is now conscious of her incompetence.

3. Conscious competence:

Now this child is 18 yrs and has just  got her licence to drive. She is driving the car slowly with her knuckle turning white from holding the steering tight. His dad asks her a question. The child whose is intently watching the road ahead, says, ' Dad, Sshh! can't you see I am driving!

This child is now conscious of her competence.

4. Unconscious competence:

Now this child is

Krsna-katha Posts versus Forum and Dicsussion;

Generally, any posts including speculation or comparison to non-devotee concepts and ideas, written by contemporary devotees, or topics dealing with world news and opinions, or lectures etc written by devotees not of our direct line, should go to Forum, whereas straight up unquestionable Krsna katha from pure devotees, with some occassional exceptions, should go to the Krsna katha Posts section.  We are assuming our new readers do not necessarily know the difference from sastra versus Mothra.

We used to have them merged, eh-te-hey, as our native Indians in Winnipeg are oft  heard to say, but the devotees did not like it. We are trying to keep anything speculative or slightly different from Srila Prabhupada's teachings away from the Posts which are meant to be 100% sastra and undoubtedly truth and pure.

Admittedly there is an over-lap, and in such cases, the dingbat Editor, thats me! gets to disturb and fluster everyone with his arbitrar

HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupāda:

But I don't see that they have made one single kṛṣṇa-bhakta, neither they were kṛṣṇa-bhakta. What kind of Bhagavad- gītā they have read I do not know. I see by the result. Last word of Bhagavad-gītā is man-manā bhava mad-bhakto... (BG 18.65). Mām eva... Sarva-dharmān. That is study of Bhagavad-gītā. They do not speak of Kṛṣṇa anywhere, that "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Person, you become a devotee." Now how he has read Bhagavad-gītā? I shall take it? Simply by jugglery of words? We have to see the result. They have neither made one kṛṣṇa-bhakta, neither they were kṛṣṇa- bhakta. How he has read Bhagavad-gītā? Tell me. This is the test. They... Whole country is after Gandhi or Aurobindo or big, big... But who is kṛṣṇa-bhakta under their direction? Now we are simply following Caitanya Mahāprabhu, yāre dekha tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'- upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). Just see. Thousands are become kṛṣṇa-bhakta. See by practical.

Alas, we're drowning deep
In waves of colored hue,
Raging winds and thrashing gale
Doth blight all reason true.

Tongues of fire licking flesh
Hell in all directions bound,
Scores of fallen angels
Bleeding stains upon the ground.

Madness, death and courting friends
Do rule this land below,
The nether regions manifest
Upon unsaintly brow.

No hope, no chance, no remedy

Salvation fled in fear,
Age-old human comedy's
Familiar laughing sneer.

And rows of dead, rising up
To punishment deserved,

Just to fall again to dust
Only mammon served.

Amidst this night of dread and fear
Our mindful Lord did send,
A rare and precious jewel of light
All broken dreams to mend.

Prabhupada -- the Lord's dear wish
To ignite the darkened soul,
Pouring immortal nectar sweet
All cups to overflow.

Our vessels full and lips still moist
Shall we now begin our task,
To spread his mercy everywhere
All souls rejoice at last!

In Honor of Srila Prabhupada
(by Padmapani das)

My Godbrothers have no life for preaching work. All are satisfied with a place for residence in the name of a temple, they engage disciples to get foodstuff by transcendental devices and eat and sleep. They have no idea or brain how to broacast the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

Tirupati 28 April, 1974

Washington D.C.

My dear Rupanuga Maharaja,

Please accept my blessings.

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of April 17, from Washington D.C. and I have very carefully noted the contents.

Regarding Mayapur, as you have begun this program should be regularly followed once a year: meet in Mayapur and chalk out activities for the year. Then, next year meet and see how far things are being done and if necessary make changes for responsible GBC and presidents etc. The meeting is very valuable and must be carried out regularly every year. But one thing is that at Mayapur last time most of the time was spent discussing but no program was made firm for the year. For example, our Tama

Shishir Katote R

Question: Are gopis celibates?

Answer: There are 2 types of srinagar rasa that culminate into transcendental sex. First is sambhogeccha mayi bhakti and another is tad tad bhava icchatmika bhakti.

Although it may appear that sex here does not let gopis remain celibate, they in reality still are celibates. Why? Because there is no desire for personal sex gratification. The desire is to please Krishna, not their own senses.

"If you repeat Krishna, if you hear Krishna, incessantly you repeat without offense, then very soon the Lord will enter into your heart. And He will occupy your heart. Your heart will be the throne of the Lord. He won't go from that throne. And then the Lord will be yours. And if I am His:

Published on Oct 23, 2013

Kṛṣṇa is personally speaking about Himself. You haven't got to speculate like nonsense. Just like Gandhi speculated, "I do not believe that ever any person like Kṛṣṇa lived." Do you know that? This is Gandhi's statement, and he is mahātmā. The mahātmā's definition is there in the Bhagavad-gītā: mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ, bhajanty ananya-manasaḥ (BG 9.13). That is mahātmā, not to take advantage of Bhagavad-gītā. Of course, there are... So we do not want to criticize anyone, but sometimes it so happens. Big, big scholars, big, big politicians, they misguide people. That is the position of India. So many big, big leaders and politician and so-called swamis and yogis, they have exploited people by bluffing, and now India's position is: it is neither spiritual nor material. (laughter) That's all. Just like it is, the example is, if there are two boats and if you place your leg this boat and that boat, the position is very precarious. (laughter) Neither in this boat,

Krishna Consciousness Movement is for training men to be independently thoughtful and competent in all types of departments of knowledge and action, not for making bureaucracy. Once there is bureaucracy the whole thing will be spoiled. There must be always individual striving and work and responsibility, competitive spirit, not that one shall dominate and distribute benefits to the others and they do nothing but beg from you and you provide. No. - Letter to Karandhara, 12/22/7

One cannot deny the order of a spiritual master. Therefore one has to select a spiritual master whose order, carrying, you'll not commit a mistake. You see? Now, suppose if you accept a wrong person as spiritual master, and if you, if he guides you wrongly, then YOUR WHOLE LIFE IS SPOILED. So one has to accept a spiritual master whose guidance will make his life perfect. That is the relation between spiritual master and disciple. It is not a formality. It is a great responsibility both for the disciple and for the spiritual master. - Bhagavad-Gita Lecture 2.7-11--New York, March 2, 1966

The ignorant pseudo religionists and the manufacturers of so-called incarnations who directly violate the Vedic injunctions ARE LIABLE TO ENTER INTO THE DARKEST REGION OF THE UNIVERSE because they mislead those who follow them. - Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 12, Purport

By a false display of religious sentiments, they present a show of devotional service while indulging in all sorts of immoral activities. In

Bhaktivinoda Thakura: Sri Krishna-samhita:

"The provisional character of scriptural texts is evident, but the authors of the scriptures do not explicitly indicate this because those qualified to discard the scriptural bindings naturally become independent of scripture with the help of the hidden indications of the scriptural authors and also by their own purified knowledge.

Such persons carry on sinless activities with the help of their own intellect as well as by the advice of the scriptures. In that stage the scriptures do not have any binding power over them, but only serve as their guides.

Hare Krishna!

Many arguments are made in this respect, that as long as we don't cut the animal we do not incur sin.

In the Mahabharata, there is a verse which states that one who sells the animal, one who buys the animal, one cuts the animal,one who cooks the animal, one who serves the animal and one who eats the animal, all are bound equally by the chain of Karma.

But leaving the spiritual aspect of it, anatomically, the human body is not structured to eat animal flesh. Studies have shown the length of the intestine of a tiger is 4 times the length of it's torso so when it eats flesh the toxins in the flesh are not kept for long in the intestine and are expelled at the earliest. Also the concentration of acid secreted in the stomach is so strong that it burns the bacteria in the flesh. While in the cow, the length of the intestine is 12 times it's torso and so the food takes longer time to be expelled from the body. We have seen that the incidence of the Mad Cow disease (bovine spongi

Srila Prabhupada, 1969; "When we dovetail with the desire of the Supreme Lord, then our responsibility becomes more imperative, and we become more active than we are otherwise. In material activity you will get tired. This is the difference between material activity and spiritual activity. When you are engaged in spiritual activities, you'll not get tired. You have newer and newer strength to act. Therefore, desire is not to be stopped; activities are not to be stopped. Whatever potency you have in you, that is the potency given by the Supreme Lord, because you are the part and parcel of the Supreme Lord.

Therefore, all the potencies that you have, they are also part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. And if you utilize them for the purposes of the Supreme Lord, then you become dovetailed with Him, and your life becomes successful. You'll not be disturbed by material desires, you'll attain peace. The peace for which you are hankering in life after life, moment after moment -- that you'll

Hare Krishna!

This is one of the most beautiful Parables which comes very close to the message that Krishna gave 5000 years about our real identity and our connection to Him and to others beings. A must read.