Ultimate Self Realization

In the ancient Chinese wisdom we find the concept, "Perseverance furthers." This gem of ancient knowledge is fully and most applicable when we apply it to Krishna consciousness. Perseverance is the stubborn tenacity to always remain fixed in Krishna consciousness no matter what the material energy may throw at us. It means to never abandon the ship of Krishna consciousness no matter how rough the ocean storm of material existence may become. The more we persevere the more we advance on the path of bhakti. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: What is Our Duty? Hare Krishna, According to what I have been told, dharma is not a kind of faith but is duty. So what is our dharma, our duty, to perform at the present moment? Thank you very much, Daniel Answer: Surrender Right Now Krishna clearly tells what is our dharma in the Bhagavad-gita: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pā...

The biggest mistake we make is to analyze and do everything in terms of our material conditioning. In other words we foolishly allow our thoughts, words, and deeds to continue manifesting themselves within the "I am this body" box. We thus lock ourselves into identification with a particular family, a particular gender, a particular race, and a particular nationality. In this way we remain locked into the miseries of this material existence: miseries caused by the mind and body, miseries caused by other living beings, and miseries caused by natural disturbances. The trick to genuine spiritual enlightenment is stop thinking in this "I am this body" box. We have to train ourselves to instead think outside this box on the liberated spiritual plane, i.e. "I am a spirit-soul, the eternal servant of Krishna." If we always remind ourselves who we are actually are, and we manifest our thoughts, words, and deeds accordingly, we will witness a gradual, steady awa...

Today we are returning for tasting and spreading more of the nectarean rays of Lord Caitanya's benediction moon in Atlanta, Georgia. The city of Atlanta and the ISKCON temple there are both very much blessed because Srila Prabhupada stayed at the Atlanta Hare Krishna temple for several days in 1975. During that historic visit I was most fortunate to be initiated by Srila Prabhupada as a brahmana when he personally placed my brahmana's thread on my body. I can never forget the auspicious experience of receiving Srila Prabhupada's blessings for the execution a a brahmana's duties, which are especially to become highly learned in the Vedic wisdom and distribute that most sublime wisdom throughout the world for the deliverance of the fallen, conditioned souls from the clutches of illusion. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Atlanta Hare Krishna Temple Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: What is Soma-rasa? From the last six months I am reading "Thought for th...

When I first took shelter of and surrendered to my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, back in 1971 in Austin, Texas he was not personally present to perform my initiation ceremony. So the ceremony was instead conducted by His Holiness Vishnujana Maharaja. As is the custom at the time of initiation I collected some donations to present to my spiritual master. This is called guru dakshina. Since Srila Prabhupada was in London I was obliged to mail him my donation. This was a great opportunity for me to write my spiritual master. Inspired by the preaching mood of Vishnujana Maharaja I wrote him a letter in which I expressed my desire to spread the Krishna consciousness movement. Within several weeks I received the most wonderful, enlivening reply from Srila Prabhupada dated 7 September 1971 in which he stated: "I can see also that you are a very sincere and enthusiastic boy and are anxious for spreading this movement. Those are first class qualif...

This human life is achieved only after the greatest difficulty of transmigrating through 8,400,000 different species of life. Now that you have gotten after millions and millions of years this rarest opportunity to attain spiritual perfection kindly do not miss this opportunity. Dedicate yourself fully to the self-realization process under the guidance of guru, devotees, and scripture. Attain the supreme perfection of going back to home, back to Godhead. Regain your original position in the pastimes of the Supreme Lord in the spiritual sky. This is my humble request to you. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Is This a Contradiction? I am afraid that I don't understand correlation between the two different editions of "Thought for the Day" which are mentioned below. Please help me to understand them. They are: 1. Monday 18 August 2008--Never Accept Defeat 2. Saturday 16 August 2008--Lose a Battle But Win the War Best regards,...

If one wants to be successful in going back to home, back to Godhead in this very lifetime, he must be staunchly determined to keep himself 24/7 fully absorbed in Krishna consciousness. Just as during a war a nation must always remain vigilant for sudden unannounced attacks from their enemy, a devotee must always be on guard against sudden incursions from the material energy into his consciousness. At any second a lusty, angry, or greedy thought can enter and take root like a cancer in one's consciousness and grow to mammoth proportions quickly destroying one's Krishna consciousness. So one must be very determined to never allow Maya to gain even the slightest foothold within one's heart. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Urgent Appeal--Attacked by Lust Right now I do not have much association of devotees. My hearing is not proper, and my chanting is also not proper because it is done while I am travelling. I am feeling very d...

Here at Bhaktivedanta Ashram today is Sri Vyas Puja, the most auspicious appearance day of my spiritual master, the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. It is no accident that Srila Prabhupada appeared the day after Krishna's appearance day. It is a special arrangement of the Lord to see that His pure devotee, Srila Prabhupada, is especially honored in way that is befitting his position, which is good as that of the Supreme Lord Himself. Of course, it is not that the spiritual master is God. It is rather that he is to be honored as much as the Supreme Lord because he is the most confidential servitor of the Lord. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Why Not Follow a Path Appropriate for Your Birth? Hare Krishna! In your previous email I read that worshiping even Shiva or Brahma is not the same as surrendering to Krishna. But then you say that devoting to Jesus or Allah or Krishna is the same? Th...

Here at Bhaktivedanta Ashram today is Janmastami, the most auspicious appearance day of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna. What greater mercy could the Supreme Lord have upon us than to so kindly appear 5,000 years ago amongst us moving about on this planet with us in a form that is visible for all to see? And even though during His later pastimes here Krishna was quite elderly, by material standards having many grandchildren, still he always maintained the body of a 16-20 years old youth. This is God's potency. He is not subject to the restrictive laws of this material nature. This is confirmed as follows in the Brahma-samhita: advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi "I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is inaccessible to the Vedas, but obtainable by pure unalloyed devotion of the soul, who is without a second, who is not subj...

Genuine religion is scientific. It not based on dogma and blind faith. Science means to know things as they are free from illusion or confusion. And real religion means to fully connect oneself in perfect harmony with the supreme truth, the origin of all existence. So science is perfect knowledge of the truth and religion means to act in perfect accordance with that knowledge. Therefore they are in perfect harmony with each other. The perfect religionist must also necessarily be the perfect scientist. And the one who is perfect in scientific understanding must also necessarily be a perfect religionist. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Can We Spiritualize the Entire Planet? Regarding your e-mail on spiritualizing the entire planet, do you really think that this is possible in this day and age? We are living in the age of Kali, which lasts 432000 years. This is the age of lies, deceit, hypocrisy, and pretence? How can we wish or hope for...

Here in the ambrosial atmosphere of Bhaktivedanta Ashram where we are blessed with the association of Sri Sri Radha Damodar and so many wonderful, sincere devotees I am feeling myself to be most fortunate. I humbly pray to my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada, for his blessings that I can be perfectly pure in my practice of Krishna consciousness and that I can always be fully absorbed in serving his mission of bringing about the complete re-spiritualization of this entire planet as soon as possible. There would certainly be nothing more wonderful than to see the entire planet become Krishna conscious during my lifetime. Even though such a transformation seems completely impossible, still my heart steadfastly yearns for it and I beg Lord Sri Krishna for His special mercy of seeing it happen during my lifetime and for the privilege of being allowed to play a part in making it happen. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Questio...

This material world is plagued by a profusion of charlatans, bluffers who pretend to know things as they are but who in fact are only speculating. Because our modern day civilization is being conducted under the guidance of such fools and rascals this planet has become so much degraded that it is becoming more and more uninhabitable with each passing year. Instead of taking our guidance from such misguided persons we should instead understand the difference between reality and illusion from those persons who have actually seen the truth. Otherwise, it is simply a matter of blind leading the blind with both the leader and follower ending up in the ditch. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Different Versions of Gita I have a copy of the Song of God Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, Intro. by Aldous Huxley. Is this different from the Bhagavad-gita As It Is version? Thank you. Dianne Answer: As It ...

The key to success on the self-realization path is to simply stay on the path always heading in the right direction. No matter how slowly one may be progressing, if he will simply remain on the path, sooner or later he is guaranteed to to achieve the goal. Therefore the most important characteristic for spiritual progress is steadiness. In other words, one has to always accept those things that are favorable for his Krishna consciousness and always reject those things that are not. In a very detached way one has to cut away from his life whatever stands in the way of his quickly achieving the ultimate goal. Krishna assures us that by adopting this mood of unfailing devotional service that we will immediately attain the transcendental platform: māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate "One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes t...

If we want to taste the sweetest, more inconceivably sublime nectar, all we have to do is take complete shelter of Lord Krishna's most wonderful and merciful holy names. Of course since God is unlimited He has unlimited thousands, millions, and billions of names. But out of His unlimited names the Vedic scriptures in the Kali Santarana Upanisad specifically recommend that we chant one particular mantra because it is the most powerful and effective mantra for achieving spiritual perfection in the present highly degraded age of Kali. That mantra is as follows: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare Since the more we give our undivided attention to these sweet names, the more intensely we connect with them, it is advised that we should rise early and chant our daily quota during the most peaceful, undisturbed time of the day before the sunrise. If we will regularly chant the Hare Krishna mantra in this way on a daily basi...

Before 5,000 years ago in the Vedic times the ksatriyas were especially noted for their chivalry and heroism. Even in recent times within the last few centuries the royal order of kings in Rajasthan were also noted in this way. Such royal order would never accept defeat. They would either win the battle or they would die in the battle. They would never flee the battlefield or surrender to the enemy. This is a historical example in this connection. There was a Rajasthani king named Yasomanta Sena, who was the commander-in-chief of Emperor Aurangzeb. In one fight he was defeated, and he came back to his home. When his wife heard that her husband had been defeated and that he had returned home she asked the caretaker to close the door of the palace. When Yasomanta Sena came there and saw that his palace door was closed he sent a message to the queen, "Why you have closed the door? I have come home." When messenger came to the queen and informed her that the king has come and ...

Things nowadays throughout the entire world have gotten extremely off track and are spiraling downwards increasingly every day. We are plagued by incompetent leaders at every stratum of the global society who do not recognize the supreme proprietorship of the Lord and thus futilely try to exert their own so-called lordship instead over that which factually belongs to Krishna. This creates a very incompatible situation for the citizens of planet earth, not only for the human citizens but for the non-human citizens as well such as plants, trees, fish, birds, and animals. The planet earth is therefore crying for that day when enlightened spiritual masters will again be recognized as the factual leaders of the human society and the happy days of Bhagavat Dharma will be restored throughout the entire world. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: How to Become Self-Realized? Guru Maharaja, How does one become self-realized? Padma Answer: Approach a...

It is expected that in the war against maya that the neophyte devotee with sometimes have difficulty and experience setbacks. However this should not at all be a source of discouragement for him. If he will learn how to intelligently capitalize on whatever mistakes he has made, those experiences instead of being setbacks will be stepping stones on his path to perfection. He should never become discouraged and think that losing a battle here or there means that he will lose the war. Even the greatest conquering heroes in world history sometimes lost a battle. If they had let that discourage them, they would have never achieved the great success for which they became famous. Because they did not let that defeat discourage them, they continued fighting with determination and proceeded steadily forward to ultimate victory. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Origin of the Soul I've been reading your stuff for a little while, now and then. I do...

It is oftentimes said that the best defense is a good offense, and in the self-realization process this is certainly most precisely and undoubtedly true. My spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, said that we have to declare war against maya, the Lord's illusory energy. By taking this aggressive position of attacking the material energy we will make steady advancent in driving it out of our hearts. Actually we have no choice in this connection. Maya has already invaded our hearts and taken over our consciousness. The only way we can get a foothold on the spiritual platform is to defeat maya with the weapon of transcendental knowledge. As soon as we assume this aggressive warrior stance life becomes an exciting adventure of advancing steadily in Krishna consciousness. But if we remain in a weak feeble position wondering whether we should take Krishna consciousness seriously or not, the anxieties of material existence will continue to weigh heavily upon our hearts. Instead of being ecst...

By consulting a dictionary we can understand that someone who holds a viewpoint which is based upon insufficiently examined premises is a dogmatist. In other words instead of basing his understanding on sound observation, reasoning, and analysis, he blindly accepts things without due consideration. And on the other hand, a scientist is someone who after careful observation, investigation, and consideration possesses factual knowledge of things as they are as distinguished from ignorance, illusion, or speculation. So my question is: According to the above definitions are the modern day scientists actually scientists, or are they dogmatists? The modern day scientists cling tightly to the idea that life comes from matter. But yet there is not even one scientifically verifiable example of a living thing being produced from dead matter. The concept that life arises from a chance combination of material elements is mere speculation. It has simply been pulled out of the air. The real sit...

Things go wrong in this world all the time. This is why this place is known as the material world. If things went right here all the time, this would be the spiritual world, not the material world. We can, however, by an adjustment of our consciousness always live in the spiritual world even though we are still physically situated in the material world. That adjustment is that we have to see everything, and I am mean absolutely everything, as the special mercy of Krishna or God upon us to help us purify our consciousness so we can return to Him as soon as possible. If we see everything in this light, we will always feel blissful even though facing sometimes the most difficult, devastating calamities. This is what the science of Krishna consciousness is all about. It teaches us how to always blissfully deal with adversity. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Why Did We Fall? Physical body is my pain! Somewhere in my soul I know that this...

In this world of envious, agitated people we repeatedly experience abuse from those who are trying to lord it over us. What should we do when this happens? The most important thing is to always protect our Krishna consciousness. If a dog barks at me, will I bark back? No, I will not because I understand that he is simply a dog and is therefore lacking any understanding of what is proper behavior and what is improper behavior. Envious, angry people are often looking for a fight and will try to provoke our anger so we will descend to their platform and fight with them. When this happens we should be compassionate upon them by keeping our cool and repaying their envy and anger with Krishna conscious love. Lord Caitanya says that if we remain always more tolerant than a tree, we can chant the holy names of the Lord constantly. Just consider how a tolerant a tree is. It endures so many severe weather conditions but goes on continually rendering the service of providing shade, fruits, an...

Who wants to live a dull, drab 9 to 5 sort of existence, squeezing whatever pleasure they can out of a temporary, miserable material body, when one can instead taste the most exciting, adventurous life of a spiritual revolutionary at the vanguard, the cutting edge, of world history? Only those who are uninformed would make the mistake of not living a life overflowing with the sweetest nectar. Therefore those who are so fortunate to have received the unlimited mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu make their lives perfect by solidly situating themselves on the path of bhakti and then inviting everyone else to also experience the supreme adventure by devoting themselves to the Supreme Person. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Is Krishna Present Now? Hare Krishna! Please guide me... Is Krishna present now? If yes, in what avatar? If not, then why not? Where is he? With reverence, Rishi Kumar Aggarwal New Delhi Answer: See Him Everywhere Kris...

We cannot sit idly by and allow the human population to be so grossly misguided. We have to speak up and speak out against the Godless gross ignorance and extreme selfishness that are becoming more and more predominant in the human society. We should no longer allow the misguided fools and rascals to pressure us to joining them in a life of sense gratifcation. Of course, since misery enjoys company, they are always going to pressure us to join them in shackles of illusion. But fools rush in where angels fear to tread. We are not doing them or ourselves any favors by remaining shackled along with them. The best thing we can do for the suffering humanity is to first ourselves become liberated from serving our senses by complete absorption in serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead and then to fully dedicate our lives for delivering them from the shackles of illusion. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: No Spiritual Master Hare Krishna, Pleas...

Who are our leaders? Our leaders are those persons who show us how to end the repetition of birth and death. Anyone who cannot show us how to escape this material existence is not qualified to be our leader. Because the modern day world society is presently being led by unqualified men who no idea what is the purpose of human existence, the entire world society has been plunged into a rapidly deteriorating quagmire which is at best only a show of a human society. It's time we stop following the pathway of those who in darkness and follow the golden road of unlimited devotion as chalked out by the acharyas, the great saintly teachers. This and only this will make us happy and rectify the chronically problematic world situation. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Qualification for Going Back to Home I have been told by some senior devotees in ISKCON that If I get initiated and seriously and sincerely to the best of my ability follow th...

Truth is by its very nature eloquent. It is all beautiful and all wonderful in its simplicity. It does not require to be laboriously analyzed in volumes and volumes of dense and ponderous philosophical tomes. It, like a dazzling sunrise on a flower-fresh spring morning, is a wonder to behold. It is close to us as our very selves. We do not have to spend millions and billions of dollars on outer space exploration to fully connect with and realize the source of all existence. We simply have to open our hearts to that Supreme Person from Whom everything is emanating at every minute, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna. In this connection it is very aptly stated in the Sri Caitanya Caritamrita: "mitaṁ ca sāraṁ ca vaco hi vāgmitā" iti "Essential truth spoken concisely is true eloquence." --CC Adi 1.106 Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: 16 Rounds Immediately or Gradually? I will try to follow your advice ...

We have a choice at every minute to either be in the material energy or the spiritual energy. To be in maya means to be under the influence of the material energy. And to be in Krishna consciousness means to be under the influence of the spiritual energy. If we want to stay out of maya and always be in Krishna consciousness, we have to very aggressively stand up to and counteract the all-pervading influence of maya. In this grossly materialistic age of Kali the influence of maya is everywhere. Practically every song, every movie, every magazine, every book, every university course, every web site, every conversation, etc. is being conducted under maya's influence. Therefore in order to be successfully situated on the transcendental platform one has to himself become a powerful spiritual influence upon the materialistic atmosphere rather than be powerfully influenced by it. In other words, one has to become spiritually empowered by taking complete shelter of guru, Krishna and V...

Many scientists tell us the origin of the universe is a big bang. If there is an explosion in our neighborhood, the police will come to investigate to see what was the cause of the explosion. If we tell them that the explosion came spontaneously out of nowhere, they will not believe it. They will want to know who caused the explosion. Therefore is nonsensical to consider that the supreme source of all that exists is a big bang. Therefore we refuse to accept such dogma. Man is meant to use his rationality to seek out the ultimate cause of all existence. He is not meant to blindly accept such irrational theories. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Challenge: There is Nothing Except God Hari Om, It was really funny to read your answer. With due respect I beg to differ. Two days back also I wrote about this. I will be repeating this since I am quoting straight from scriptures. There is no difference between Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu or Lord Brahma. None of ...

Last Sunday a guest at our weekly Sunday Feast program inquired from me how close I was to my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. In spiritual life we do not measure closeness to the spiritual master by physical proximity. Actual closeness is measured by how much one is dedicated to always remembering and executing the orders that he has received from his spiritual master. This is because the spiritual master is more powerfully present in his instructions than he is in his physical presence. Physically I had scant association with my spiritual master. But I was most fortunate to have received from him very sublime instructions that I have totally embraced as my very life and soul. Thus from the very beginning of my devotional life in 1971 I have been blessed with the utmost mercy of always being closely connected with my spiritual master. For example, on 7 September 1971 he wrote me from London the following instruction: "I can see also that yo...

Recently we had the experience that one of our subscribers dropped out of our course because he found it to be zealous. According to the definition given in the dictionary, zealous means possessing impassioned eagerness. Based on this definition we can see that everyone is zealous about something. Some people are into sports. Others are into music. Everyone has their own particular brand of zealousness. He was disturbed that we are zealous about Krishna consciousness. But if somebody else can be zealous about surfing in the ocean on a surfboard, what is the wrong if we are zealous about surfing in the ocean of transcendental bliss by taking shelter of the Lord's holy names? It is philosophically flimsy to consider one form of zealousness bad, while another form of zealousness is considered good. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Vishnu or Krishna is Original? We were having a discussion the other day about Vishnu and Krishna. I believe ...

No one else awaits a brighter future than Lord Sri Krishna's devotees. The entire human society is destined to suffer old age, disease, and death again and again birth after birth after birth. But Krishna's devotee is exempted. He is allowed to enter into a realm where life is eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss. Such a fortunate soul is not content with merely his own salvation. He is greatly pained to see the entire society being smashed on the rocks of birth, death, old age, and disease. Therefore he fully dedicates his life until his last dying breath to saving as many souls as possible from the hellish quagmire of material existence. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: Why No Onions and Garlic? I am confused why garlic and onion are not allowed. I was in the Fiji Islands a few weeks ago, and I visited the Hare Krishna temple, where I learned that onions and garlic should not be in our diet. But no one in the temple w...

To become Krishna conscious in a materialistic society means that you have to go against the grain. You have to dare to be different. This not always an easy thing to do because there is a tremendous amount of pressure being exerted upon us to conform to the life of sense gratification that 99.99% of the world population is caught up in. It is sometimes said that misery enjoys company, and this is certainly true in regards to the materialistic civilization. This is why Srila Prabhupada explains that to become Krishna conscious we have to declare war against the material energy. The difficulty is that sometimes, like Arjuna, we become lethargic, unwilling to fight the battle. At times like these we can take encouragement from Lord Krishna's instruction to Arjuna: uttistha kaunteya yuddhaya krta-niscayah "O son of Kunti, get up with determination and fight." --Bhagavad-gita 2.37 Sankarshan Das Adhikari Answers According to the Vedic Version: Question: How to Pray? ...

Millions and billions of dollars are currently being wasted every year in an attempt to curb down the terrorism disease, which is more and more and menacing the human society. This horrendous waste of energy is going on because the government leaders have no understanding at all of what is the cause of terrorism. When a human being does not try to awaken his dormant enlightened consciousness he is on the platform of an animal. This is the state of the modern day animalistic civilization. We live in a world that is 99.99% populated with animals. In a world of animals it is natural that some of them will be ferocious like the lions and tigers. If we want to put a stop the terrorism the only solution is to elevate the world society to the human platform by teaching them the ultimate self-realization science. As soon as this is done we will see that immediately that the terrorism disease will be cured. Sankarshan Das Adhikari 911 Terrorist Attack Answers According to the Vedic Version...