Ultimate Self Realization

Even though this material world is a special reconnection facility arranged by the Lord for those who have become disconnected from Him, due to ignorance 99.99% of the world population is misusing this wonderful facility to become even more disconnected from Him. Hence we see a planet that is being plunged into an ever-increasingly chaotic condition. But if we will simply utilize this world in the proper way according the instructions given in the Bhagavad-gita, we will achieve a state of unlimited happiness, and upon leaving this body we will rejoin Lord Krishna in His eternal pastimes in the spiritual world. Sankarshan Das Adhikari The Prabhupada House, Melbourne Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Why Do People Treat You Like God? I have looked at your web site and seen your pictures and I have to say: Wow! People treat you like a god, don't they? You sit in the midst of flower petals and on a raised platform. Why is that? Are you above the people you ...

Sometimes we hear that a person begins Krishna consciousness with great enthusiasm and enlivenment and then gradually it becomes dry and tasteless for him. What this means is that the person was never properly connected with the process. Because real Krishna conscious is ever-increasingly nectarean anyone who is properly practicing it will never lose their taste. If someone loses their taste it means that he was only tasting a shadow of Krishna consciousness mistaking it for being the real thing. The way to avoid this pitfall is to place ourselves under the guidance of someone who is factually experiencing Krishna consciousness, who can teach us how to factually experience it also. This person is described in the revealed scriptures as being the bona fide spiritual master. Srila Rupa Goswami, the great authority of the bhakti science, states the first step on the pathway of Krishna is to take shelter of the bona fide spiritual master. Sankarshan Das Adhikari The Prabhupada House, ...

It's always a special treat to be a guest lecturer at ISKCON's temple in Melbourne, Australia. The biggest perk is to be allowed the privilege of staying in the same house where my spiritual master, ISKCON Founder-Acharya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, stayed when would come to Melbourne back in the 1970's. Powerful spiritual masters such as Srila Prabhupada remain permanently present in the places where they resided, especially when those places are being lovingly maintained as worshipable shrines by their followers like what is being done here at the Prabhupada House in Melbourne. The spiritual master is the eternal shelter for his disciples, so naturally the more the disciple can feel his divine presence his spiritual master, the happier he becomes. Sankarshan Das Adhikari The Prabhupada House, Melbourne Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: How to Dovetail with the Supreme Consciousness? Please accept my humble obeisances. All g...

Today we are heading out from Sydney to Melbourne. What an ecstatic life this is, to be a traveling dispenser of mercy! The entire planet is burning in a blazing fire of materialism. And Krishna consciousness is the beautiful dark blue rain cloud saturated with tons of water, which can completely extinguish this blazing fire of material existence. I cannot even begin to conceive how fortunate I am to have received this unlimited mercy from my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He blessed me unlimitedly with the science of Krishna bhakti and ordered to to make this knowledge available to the entire human society. Therefore I always remain busy answering an endless stream of emails and circling the globe again and again to share this inconceivably wonderful mercy as much as possible with everyone that I meet. Here's a video of a recent kirtan I led in Sydney. Check it out: http://www.backtohome.com/video/Sydney_Kirtan.wmv Sankarshan Das Adhikari ...

If you want to really get tuned in and get your soul fully turned on you have to get into kirtan. (Kirtan is group chanting of Vedic mantras.) Silent meditation, although much better than absorption in material sense gratification, will not take you to the ultimate perfectional stage. No matter how much you try to quiet your mind down it keeps whispering to you this thought, that thought, so many thoughts. It is only when your mind has something completely transcendental to grab onto, which is more powerful and more attractive than your material thoughts, that you can truly lift off from the material plane and enter fully into the spiritual stratum. Here's a video of a recent kirtan I led in Sydney. Check it out: http://www.backtohome.com/video/Sydney_Kirtan.wmv Sankarshan Das Adhikari Leading Kirtan in Sydney Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Who Can I Trust? Your Grace, I am very confused and unhappy after reading stories in the ISKCON homepage about the co...

In Sydney there are unlimited opportunities for diving into the ocean of unlimited bliss by sharing the bliss of Krishna consciousness with others. There is such a huge community of sincere souls here who are eager to advance themselves along the path of Krishna bhakti that I could easily be giving thirty lectures a week in the Sydney area, if I only had the time to squeeze them all in. With such a strong demand we are now thinking how we can come to Australia twice a year instead of once a year. Why is Krishna consciousness so unlimitedly blissful? The reason is that it reconnects us with our original, natural, pure state of consciousness which is eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss. One does not need to add anything to one's consciousness to be unlimitedly blissful. One simply has to remove all the clutter that has been imposed upon it by the materialistic society. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Bhagavad-gita Lecture and the Sydney Skyline Timeless Wisdom Enlivens the Soul...

Early in 1971 I was living in Austin, Texas hankering to become a self-realized soul. Understanding that Jesus Christ was a self-realized soul, I embarked upon a program of daily Bible study to try to figure out what was it that made him self-realized, so that I could do the same thing and also become self-realized. Day after day I would read the Bible, but still I could not see what was the formula for self-realization. But one most glorious morning the essence of the mood of Jesus, which made him the self-realized soul that he is, was revealed to me. That morning I read in the Bible where Jesus states, "Father, not my will, but Thy will be done." I was so excited. I knew that this was it. You should forget about doing what you want and simply always from now on do only what God wants. But now I had a problem. I did not know what God wanted me to do. I was waiting for a voice from the sky to give me my assignment and my instructions, but no voice was coming. S...

Our 2006 retreat in Govinda Valley was so ecstatic we never thought that it could be any better. But our 2007 Govinda Valley retreat burst through the stratosphere and took us sailing right into the Spiritual Sky. The sweet sublime atmosphere of Govinda Valley became so deeply imprinted in our hearts that it was like we had been living there eternally. The return to Sydney on Sunday afternoon had a very surreal feel to it. Our modern day cities are such an unnatural, unhealthy way to live. Something has to be done about this. As a human society we cannot survive if we go on living this way. We have to learn how to get back to a more natural healthy God conscious way of life. This the what the bhakti movement is all about. If you are not already into it, make your commitment today to be a member of the bhakti movement for the respiritualization of the entire human society. Sankarshan Das Adhikari More Bliss in Govinda Valley Retreat Participants Exotic Birds Serenaded Us Challen...

My life's goal is to try to bring about a world-wide spiritual revolution by teaching everyone how to revolutionize their consciousness by reconnecting with their original, natural pure state of perfect harmonious loving relationship with the source of all existence, the Supreme Person. That Supreme Person is known variously throughout the world by different names such as Krishna, Govinda, Allah, and Jehovah. No matter by what designation we address Him we must learn the art of approaching him in pure selflessness instead of with our selfish desires. This change of consciousness from selfishness to selflessness is what will someday completely revolutionize the course of human history. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Beautiful Govinda Valley Exotic Wild Parrots Outside the Window Flying the Hare Krishna Mantra Revolution Revealed Tasting the Bliss Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Is Everyone Krishna's Servant? You said, "Jīvera 'svarūpa' haya...

Would you like to live a perfect, stress free, ecstatic, exciting existence? If so, you have come to the right place. Self-realization is not adding something to your consciousness. Rather it is the subtraction from your consciousness of all those things that are distracting you from being who and what you really are, the the eternal servant of Krishna or God. Just as water in its natural state is pure and clean, the consciousness is naturally pure and clean. And just as impure water can be purified and returned to original natural state, the consciousness can also be purified and returned to its original natural state. That purification process is known as the yoga system. And according to Lord Sri Krishna as spoken in the Bhagavad-gita, the perfection of the yoga system is the bhakti yoga system. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Eager Hearers of the Bhakti Science in Sydney Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: How to Find Guru? Can you have more than one guru ? How you can...

Just as the sun lights up everything in the daytime, so the consciousness of one who awakens his dormant love for Krishna becomes completely illuminated. This is so because Krishna is the source of all existence and because all that exists is nothing but His energy. The point is that just as when watering the root of a tree all the leaves and branches become watered, when you become fully connected with Krishna you become fully connected with everything. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Chanting Hare Krishna Recommended by Krishna? Greetings great guru, I am wondering, if chanting the Hare Krishna mantra is the best way to achieve liberation, why didn't Lord Krishna tell us that in the Gita? Thanks, Ted Answer: Yes, by Words and Actions This is why Krishna specifically orders in the Bhagavad-gita that we should be chanting His names 24 hours daily and why He personally appears in the Kali Yuga to demonstrate for us the best mean...

Wednesday 19 December 2007--After a few wonderful days of sharing the unlimited nectar of Krishna consciousness here in New Zealand, we are hitting the bhakti trail again this time back to Australia for a exciting lineup of lectures in Sydney, Govinda Valley, Melbourne, and Canberra. Simply by reconnecting with the original pure nature of the self we can access a reservoir of unlimited happiness. There is so much happiness contained in that reservoir that there is enough to overflow the hearts of every man, woman and child on the face of this planet and drown the entire human population in an ocean of ecstasy. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Solution for Global Warming The world is complaining increasingly about global warming. This morning I was stunned to read an article on the subject - about the dangerous future our posterity will have. Do you see anything improving? Do you have any suggestions from the scriptures? It disturbs me. I...

The ultimate revelation of Absolute Truth is given by Lord Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita. This is why there is nothing more enlivening than traveling all over the world to reveal to as many people as possible the Absolute Truth as it is revealed in the Srimad Bhagavad-gita. This knowledge can and will solve all of the problems that are tormenting the world: terrorism, crime, disease, poverty, famine and even the much promoted global warming problem. This science of the Absolute Truth revives the original enlightened consciousness of the living being empowering him to be what he actually is: an eternal spiritual being, full of knowledge, and full of bliss. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Revealing the Bhakti Science in Christchurch, New Zealand Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: How Avoid Sex Thoughts? Please accept my humble obeisances, Maharaja, I travel every day to my office by train. Sometimes my mind is not fixed on Krishna because it becomes absorbed in thoughts ...

On 17 December 2007 I appeared on the Plains FM radio station 96.9 here in Christchurch, New Zealand. I was interviewed about my around-the-world lecture tour and the purpose of human existence. It was a great opportunity to reach out to a large audience with the liberating message of Krishna consciousness. The wide scale propagation of this Krishna consciousness message is the only solution for the problems of the suffering humanity. It was a taped show, and will be aired on 23 December at 10:30am New Zealand time. It will also be available for download after it is broadcast. The website of the radio station is: http://www.plainsfm.org.nz/Home Sankarshan Das Adhikari On the Radio in Christchurch, New Zealand Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Kindly Help Why do I always feel depressed? I do read your thoughts everyday and to some extent I get some strength but only for a temporary phase. I have lost my appetite and feel my life is not worth anything. I feel weak ...

The most important decision we will ever make in our lives is the acceptance of a spiritual master. When it comes to getting married, we are very cautious while accepting our partner thinking it over 100 times because it is a lifetime commitment. Since the guru/disciple relationship is an eternal relationship, how much more careful must we be when choosing a guru? The neophyte may think that he will just be a devotee of Krishna without becoming a disciple of Krishna's representative, the spiritual master. But this sort of philosophy will not stand in the light of Krishna's teachings. This is because Krishna orders in the Bhagavad-gita that we must accept a guru from whom we inquire submissively and to whom we must render loving service. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Is Activism Good? Your Grace, I read that His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada talked about the blue Kachina in the past. Would Comet Holmes be i...

A devotee of the Lord is dear to everyone because everyone is dear to him. It is natural that if someone truly loves us that we will be also be inclined to love them in reciprocation. This is how the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) was started single-handedly in 1966 by our most beloved Founder-Acharya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Those who received the loving kindness of Srila Prabhupada were so inspired that they wanted to serve him in any way they could. And when, in this way, they gave their love to Srila Prabhupada, he would give them even more love and they would become even more inspired to serve him even more. And then on his order the followers of Srila Prabhupada spread out all over the world giving that love to as many people as possible, thus laying the ground work for this ever-expanding ocean of loving kindness known as the Hare Krishna Movement. This ever-increasing ocean of love just keeps on expanding more and...

Since the modern day self-centered global social order is gradually disintegrating more and more to the eventual point of complete, total anarchy, if we want to have in the future any kind of civilization remaining on this planet, the time has come to begin laying the groundwork for a new enlightened world civilization. Such a civilization must be based on the common unifying principle for all living beings. It cannot be based on any sort of self-centered and thus divisive conception, either concentrated or extended. Since we do all in fact emanate from one common source, it behooves us now to scientifically understand what is that common origin and to also understand how we can all live in a state of perfect harmony with that common origin. It is on this principle that we must now build the new enlightened world order. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Should I Relish the Nectar or Focus on Duties? How do you handle keeping this cont...

Krishna is blessing me recently with the opportunity to assist many more sincere souls in attaining the supreme perfection of going back to home, back to Godhead. Here in Brisbane I performed a third initiation ceremony within a five day period. Bhakta Sheamus has now taken shelter of me as his spiritual master and has been renamed as Syamasundar Das. Syamasundar is a name for Krishna and Das means servant. I am very happy to do whatever is necessary to help anyone who is eager to escape the cycle of birth and death in this very lifetime and regain their original position in the spiritual world. There is nothing more wonderful than when someone makes the commitment through the initiation ceremony of sticking solidly to process of bhakti yoga for their entire life. Such vows if accepted and followed with all sincerity and determination, empower the initiates to fully absorb themselves in Krishna consciousness and to thus relish the sweetest happiness throughout their lives and achieve ...

According to the Vedic wisdom, if we want to connect with God, we must do so, not directly, but through the via medium of the bona spiritual master. But then from the same Vedic wisdom we can understand that one can also directly approach God by chanting His name or bowing down before His deity manifestation. So how could both things be true? Is this not contradictory? Factually there is nothing contradictory in the revealed scriptures, although there may sometimes appear to be contractions for those who do not have an enlightened perspective. Because Krishna directly orders that we should approach Him through His devotee, even if we approach Him directly in a mood of complete surrender at His lotus we must channel our devotion to Him through the via medium of the bona fide spiritual master. This is confirmed in the Adi-Purana where Lord Krishna is speaking as follows to Arjuna: ye me bhakta-janāḥ pārtha na me bhaktāś ca te janāḥ mad-bhaktānāḿ ca ye bhaktās te me bhakta-tamā matāḥ...

After a brief one day stop to initiate a new disciple and give a lecture in Kuala Lumpur, we are now heading on to Australia. In spite of so many impediments being thrown in my pathway by the material energy I am moving forward. There is a special sweetness to Krishna consciousness in the material world. In the spiritual world there is simply pure bliss with no experience of the miseries of birth, death, old age, and disease. But the unlimitedly sweet Krishna consciousness when tasted in this material world is experienced along with the miseries of birth, death, old age, and disease. Although I abstain from chocolate now, preferring it's caffeine-free substitute carob, when I was small boy and was not yet Krishna conscious I used to take chocolate. There were two choices of Hershey's chocolate bars available in those days back in the 1950's in the USA. There was sweet chocolate and there was bitter sweet chocolate. I always preferred the bitter sweet chocolate b...

As we were leaving Vrindavan for Delhi I could feel that a new virus was coming on. By the time we got to Mumbai its symptoms became fully manifested. It was an especially hideous virus. When I woke up on Sunday morning there was a large quantity of encrusted mucus stuck to my eyelids and my eyes were blood red. That day I had to travel at a considerable distance within Mumbai for giving lectures at Mira Road and Navi Mumbai. However, giving those lectures and reciprocating with the wonderful devotees took me completely away from the diseased state my body was in. It was sweet, sweet nectar. But then at end of the day after the exhaustion of packing and so much traveling with a sick body, we had to go the airport for a late night flight to Malaysia. So much time had to be spent standing at the airport waiting for this and waiting for that. After the overnight flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as we were landing my ears could not clear the pressure due to heavy mucus blockage. ...

After two weeks of connecting with Krishna here in India, the original home of the worldwide Krishna consciousness culture, I am heading out once again as Krishna's ambassador on my worldwide Krishna consciousness lecture tour. Although the traces linger on, it is sad to see how modern day India has almost completely lost its connection with its own glorious heritage. But still everyone here has Krishna consciousness in their blood. That's why so many people all over India are joining the Krishna consciousness movement and also why our e-course is more popular in India that it is anywhere else in the world. Here in Mumbai our movement has three thriving centers and a fourth one is now being established. It is especially enjoined in the scriptures that those who have been born in the holy land of India should make their life perfect by becoming solidly fixed in Krishna consciousness and that they should then fully dedicate their lives for spreading Krishna consciousness all ove...

Here at ISKCON Juhu on 8 December in the auspicious presence Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari I initiated two new disciples. Daniel and Magda, an elderly couple from Belgium are now Dasaratha Das, and Mandakini Devi Dasi. Immediately from the moment of initiation the disciple attains deathlessness, immortality. And if the disciple remains true to the initiation vows, deathlessness remains as his or her eternal asset. The vows required for initiation are to chant at least 16 rounds daily of the Hare Krishna mahamantra on japa beads and to strictly follow the four regulative principles: 1. No illicit sex (Sex is only for procreation.) 2. No intoxication (including coffee, tea, and cigarettes) 3. No meat eating (including eggs and fish) 4. No gambling While some may find these rules to be extreme or unreasonable, what ones factually gets instead of identification with birth, death, old age, and disease is the most amazing reawakening of one's original natural pure state of consciousness, whi...

It's an open secret. The more you spread the nectar, the more you taste the nectar. So if you want to taste unlimited nectar, you should dedicate your total existence to giving the ultimate nectar to every man, woman, and child on the face of this planet. You've got nothing to lose except for your anxieties and the greatest treasure of all to gain. Plus all those persons whose lives you touch will eternally remain grateful to you for turning them on to the ultimate nectar and thus saving them from the repetition of birth and death. It's a good feeling. This is called love. And what is that ultimate nectar? The ultimate nectar is being reconnected with your original eternal identity as an eternal being, full of bliss and full of knowledge in the association of the supreme source of all existence, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Sharing the Nectar in Mumbai with Four-Year-Old Boy Named Kirtan. Answers According to the Vedic Ve...

After a two hour flight from New Delhi and the congested hustle bustle at Mumbai's airport we have arrived at the sublime spiritual sanctuary of the ISKCON temple in Juhu, Mumbai. The spiritual oasis we are experiencing at ISKCON Juhu, is so powerful that it feels as though the entire universe is engulfed within it. It is amazing to see how well this large temple with its hundreds of monks is so nicely organized with its help desks, multi-departments and multi empowered managers. The main deities are Radha-Rasabihari and they are very, very beautiful. Simply entering into this temple one can feel how all of his anxieties are going a million miles away. This is Krishna consciousness. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Landing In Mumbai ISKCON Juhu Mumbai Marble Temple Temple Room Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Prasadam Thrown Away? Your Grace, As a humble beginner in Bhakti devotion, I already become aware of tiny sunshines of connection with the spiritual sky pok...