Bhakti Bliss at the Bhakti Lounge

11 January 2013--On our second day in Toronto our evening venue was the Bhakti Lounge in downtown Toronto. The Bhakti Lounge has a nice relaxed, casual atmosphere to very gently introduce Krishna consciousness to those who are not at all familiar with Vedic culture. I was requested to speak on how one can take control of one's habits. The key in this regard is go the root level of consciousness. Habits are simply a manifestation of our consciousness. Therefore if one purifies one's consciousness, he automatically purifies his habits. The format was lecture, Hare Krishna kirtan, and informal questions and answers over dinner. I skipped the dinner and focused on answering the many wonderful questions that were asked of me.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:

Question: How Can I Help the Poor and Hungry?

Whenever I see some animal or some human being suffering due to poverty or hunger I feel so sad for them. I feel miserable because I am not able to help them. Please help me and guide me. Let me know how can I help them.

Rahul

Answer: Give Them Prasadam and Krishna Bhakti

I am very happy to hear that you are feeling compassion for the animals and humans who are suffering in this material existence and that you want to do something to relieve them from their suffering.

This material world is such a place that everyone here is suffering, even those who are wealthy and have sufficient food to eat. Everyone here is suffering because we are all helplessly being dragged through repeated sicknesses to old age and death. And this going on endlessly lifetime after lifetime after lifetime. This means that spiritually speaking everyone in this material world is poor and hungry.

Therefore the real solution to relieve people from their suffering is to deliver them from the cycle of birth and death by teaching them how to awaken the pure love of God that is sleeping within their hearts. They can be fed sumptuously with Krishna prasadam to satisfy their hungry bellies and then engaged in joyous Hare Krishna kirtan and in hearing discourses on the liberating teachings of the Bhagavad-gita. If such a program is organized on a mass scale the entire human population will be free from anxiety and become unlimitedly happy in Krishna consciousness being liberated from the cycle of birth and death. This is the mission of the Hare Krishna Movement. Kindly assist us in our mission. This will fully satisfy your desire to relieve others from their suffering.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Little Sparrow Who Conquered the Ocean

Image
In his purport to Bhagavad-gita, Chapter 6, Text 24 Srila Prabhupada wonderfully teaches us the power of determinations by telling us the story of the little sparrow who conquered the ocean: "As for determination, one should follow the example of the sparrow who lost her eggs in the waves of the ocean. A sparrow laid her eggs on the shore of the ocean, but the big ocean carried away the eggs on its waves. The sparrow became very upset and asked the ocean to return her eggs. The ocean did not even consider her appeal. So the sparrow decided to dry up the ocean. She began to pick out the water in her small beak, and everyone laughed at her for her impossible determination. The news of her activity spread, and at last Garuda, the gigantic bird carrier of Lord Visnu, heard it. He became compassionate toward his small sister bird, and so he came to see the sparrow. Garuda was very pleased by the determination of the small sparrow, and he promised to help. Thus Garuda at once asked t
Read more

Heart Melting Reunion with Amarendra and Gayatri

Image
On Friday 26 June 2015 I was blessed with the greatest good fortune of meeting with two of the dearest devotees of my entire life, His Grace Amarendra Prabhu and his good wife, Srimati Gayatri devi dasi. I am eternally indebted to these great souls for how much they helped me in my spiritual life when I was a young devotee. When I was young brahmacari monk in 1973 I joined with the two of them in Gainesville, Florida. We were a three person preaching center, and they were just like a mother and father to me. I had so many wonderful Krishna conscious experiences in their association that I can hardly begin to describe them here. But at least may it suffice for me to say for now that Gayatri taught me what it means to be a soft-hearted devotee of the Lord and she gave me my first cooking lesson, teaching me how to make cauliflower pakoras, and Amarendra taught me the art of how to preach strongly, intelligently, and coolly to defeat opposing arguments. Recently Gayatri almost died. But
Read more

Misguided Fools Say that Masturbation is Healthy

Image
Foolish modern day materialists recommend masturbation as follows: "Masturbation is a common activity. It’s a natural and safe way to explore your body, feel pleasure, and release built-up sexual tension. It occurs among people of all backgrounds, genders, and races. Despite the myths, there are actually no physically harmful side effects of masturbation." They are wrong. To get a proper understanding on this this topic read the question and answer section below. Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom Question: What are the Ill Effects of Masturbation? Since you answered questions related to understanding the real need of sex in a human being's life, so I also request you to please enlighten us with the knowledge about semen conservation, it's importance, and the consequences of frequently releasing it thorough sex or masturbation. Since today most of the youth are indulged in mansturbation and they think it to be good in comparison to doing sex with some female for
Read more