Hare Krishna!

1. Why do we feel that we can be made happy by possessing more than our neighbors?

It is said that the mind has only 3 diseases.. a) It wants to enjoy the things of the world. b) It wants to control and possess people and things of the world. c) it wants to show it is better than others.

This is the illusion, the Maya of Krishna we all are under. We are driven into karmic actions by these 3 drivers of the mind. Hence it is very important to be self aware by observing our thoughts.. 'Is my action going to be based on any or all of the above 3 selfish motives'?. Then we become bound by Karma of repeated cycles of birth, death, old age, disease, fault, misfortune and unhappiness.

That is why Vicharana (non critical, non-judgmental and unbroken self-observation of the self with the intelligence that has been purified by the study of Shastras - Scriptures) is one of the four Gatekeepers of Moksha from our mind, stated by Sage Vasishtha in the Yog Vasishtha. The other thre

The appearance anniversary of Ganga Devi, the goddess of the River Ganges.

This is literally the "birthday or descent of mother Ganges – Ganga Ma". Throughout india this festival lasts ten days beginning on the Amavasya (dark moon night) and going through to the dasami tithi (tenth phase of the Moon, the day before Pandava Nirjal Ekadasi)

"Festivals connected with rivers are essentially bathing festivals. Ganga Dussehra is celebrated on the tenth day of Jyeshtha. River Ganga is worshipped as a mother as well as a Goddess, particularly by people of Uttara Pradesh, Bihar, and Bengal through which the river flows. On this day, if a devotee is unable to visit and bathe in the river Ganga, then Ganga jal (water) kept in most Hindu homes is used for purification. A bath in the river is said to purify the bather of all sins. The Ganga is revered all over India even in places far from its course.

Initially, river Ganga flowed in the heavens. She was brought down to earth by the severe penances of

Gangamata Goswamini.

   From her childhood Princess Sachi devi, the daughter of King Naresh Narayana of Bengal, showed unalloyed devotion to Lord Sri Krishna. She even refused to marry on account of her genuine attachment to Krishna. After her father's demise she ruled the kingdom. But she soon renounced it to find a bona fide spiritual master. Princess Sachi devi met Shri Haridasa Pandit, a leading guru in Vrindavana, and began performing devout bhajana to Govindaji. Although she became frail from undereating, she would always sleep on the Yamuna's sandy bank, and rise before sunrise to clean Govindaji's Temple. Daily she would hear Bhagavata-katha, see Govindaji's arotika, circumambulate Radha-Shyamasundara's lila sthanas (pastime places) such as Vamishivata, Seva Kunja, Nidhu vana, Rasa Sthali.Receiving encouragement from Shri Haridasa Pandit, Sachi devi completely dropped her false ego, put on rags, and went house-to-house in Vraja begging alms. The Vrajavasis were astonished by her

Chapter Two-Texts 24-25

Posted by Ananta Sesa dasa, Bh.S on May 2, 2015 at 9:20 in Bhagavad-Gita Study Group

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Please read texts 24-25 of chapter two along with the purport, and then read the following commentary.  Afterwards, each participant should offer a thought or comment on this passage. As you do so, please consider this study question:

Why is scriptural knowledge superior to Empirical or even Rational knowledge about the material world?

acchedyo 'yam adahyo 'yam
akledyo 'sosya eva ca
nityah sarva-gatah sthanur
acalo 'yam sanatanah

avyakto 'yam acintyo 'yam
avikaryo 'yam ucyate
tasmad evam viditvainam
nanusocitum arhasi

          The words of the previous text are essentially repeated here. The individual soul cannot be destroyed and will eternally be the same. This is knowledge that Arjuna needs to acquire, and in fact, it is knowledge all who wish to become self-realized need to acquire. Once one understands this basic po

I am sitting alone in Vṛndāvana-dhāma
In this mood I am getting many realizations.
I have my wife, sons, daughters, grandsons, everything,
But I have no money so they are a fruitless glory.
Kṛṣṇa has shown me the naked form of material nature,
By his strength it has all become tasteless to me today.
yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ
“I gradually take away all the wealth of those upon whom I am merciful.”
How was I able to understand this mercy of the All-merciful?

Verse 2.

Everyone has abandoned me, seeing me as penniless,
Wife, relatives, friends, brothers, everyone.
This is misery, but it gives me a laugh. I sit alone and laugh.
In this māyā-saṁsāra, whom do I really love?
Where have all my loving father and mother gone to now?
And where are all my elders, who were my own folk?
Who will give me news of them, tell me who?
All that is left of this family life is a list of names.

Verse 3.

Like the froth on the sea water mixes again in the sea,
Māyā’s saṁsāra’s play is ju

In an ancient gurukulam, once a disciple asked the guru "Is there a God?"
The guru took him to a dark room and asked, " What can you see here?"
"Nothing" replied the disciple.
The guru gave a lamp made of mud and said, "Now light this lamp."
The disciple did so and the room lit up. "I can see everything in the room.
Here is a wooden box; there is a cot and I also see the palm leaves on the small table in the corner.."
The guru asked, "How was the room before you lit the lamp?"
"It was dark," said the disciple.
"Did the things in the room cease to exist when it was dark?"
"No, they were there, but not visible," said the disciple.
The guru asked, "Where did the darkness come from?"
"From the absence of light," replied the disciple.
"Then when you lit the lamp in the dark room, where did the light go?"
"It was driven away by the light," said the disciple.
The guru explained further, "Just remember one thing - the light did not bring in anything new, nor did the darkness take away anything

Here is this letter from Srila Prabhupada to Karandhara prabhu.

 

My dear Karandhara,

 

Please accept my blessings…

 

"…Regarding your points about taxation, corporate status, etc., I have heard from Jayatirtha you want to make big plan for centralization of management, taxes, monies, corporate status, bookkeeping, credit, like that. I do not at all approve of such plan. Do not centralize anything. Each temple must remain independent and self-sufficient. That was my plan from the very beginning, why you are thinking otherwise? Once before you wanted to do something centralizing with your GBC meeting, and if I did not interfere the whole thing would have been killed. Do not think in this way of big corporation, big credits, centralization—these are all nonsense proposals. Only thing I wanted was that books printing and distribution should be centralized, therefore I appointed you and Bali Mardan to do it. Otherwise, management, everything, should be done

WARNING: Deities of today's ISKCON are not bona-fide.

If the spiritual master is not bona fide, then is the Deity also not bona fide?

Prabhupāda: Daṇḍavat class(?). Surrender means you must abide strictly the orders, sad-dharma-pṛcchā, ādau gurvāśrayam. To accept a guru means... Śiṣya means one must agree to be governed by the spiritual master. That is called śiṣya. Śiṣya... Śās-dhātu. From śās-dhātu all these terms—śāstra, śiṣya, śāsana. These are words derived from the root śās-dhātu. Śās-dhātu means śāsana, governing. The governing is done by military, governing is done by lawbooks, governing is done by personal instruction, so many things. So śiṣya means who voluntarily accepts to be guided or being governed by the representative of God. That is śiṣya. Yes.

Chapter Two: Teaching 39:

Please read text 39 of chapter two along with the purport, and then read the following commentary.  Afterwards, each participant should offer a thought or comment on this passage. As you do so, please consider this study question:

What is the meaning of John Locke’s comment, and how is it proven false by scripture?

esa te 'bhihita sankhye
buddhir yoge tv imam srnu
buddhya yukto yaya partha
karma-bandham prahasyasi

Lord Sri Krsna has very patiently and lovingly explained to Arjuna the truth of the atomic soul and the material body. He has explained the importance of obeying religious duty, and the way to avoid incurring sin. Now, Sri Krsna must explain how to free oneself from the bonds of work, essentially, how to work without fruitive results. Human beings have long sought happiness as a chief goal of life, and so the

In November of 1967, Srila Prabhupada wrote the following:

“In my opinion, a single sincere soul can maintain a center. You know I started the center at 26 2nd Ave. alone. I took the risk of 200.00 dollars per month for the rent… Still I was maintaining the establishment simply depending on Krishna and then Krishna sent me everything — men and money. Similarly, if a sincere soul goes out and opens a center in any part of the world Krishna will help him in all respects. Without being empowered by Krishna, nobody can preach Krishna Consciousness. It is not academic qualification or financial strength which helps in these matters, but it is sincerity of purpose which helps us always…. That is preaching, cooking, writing, talking, chanting everything one man’s show. I never thought about the audience. I was prepared to chant if there were no man to hear me. The principle of chanting is to glorify the Lord and not to attract a crowd. If Krishna hears nicely then he will ask some sincere d

SRILA PRABHUPADA SPEAKS OUT!!!

"Therefore our movement is being checked in the Western countries that this is a brainwash movement. Brainwash movement, that we are injecting some ideas by psychology, mental control, and our people they are taking to it, and it is spreading like epidemic. How to check it?

Therefore they are now taking action how to stop this Hare Krsna movement in Europe and America. They are trying.

Of course, we are not afraid of this attempt. They will never be successful, rest assured, because we are pushing Krsna consciousness. Krsna was attempted to be killed from the very beginning of His life. That is the nature of this material world, "How to kill God," "God is dead." This is their attempt.

So from the life of Krsna we can understand that so many attempts were made by the demons and the raksasas to kill Krsna, but actually Krsna killed them all. So if you are sincere, if you follow the principles and push on this Krsna consciousness movement, nobody can kil