Ultimate Self Realization

Calamity is a wonderful teacher because it both reminds us and gives us the opportunity to put into the practice the many wonderful lessons that we have been learning from Lord Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita such as: mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ āgamāpāyino 'nityās tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata "O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed." Bhagavad-gītā 2.14 Sometimes we are comfortably situated in a nice place of residence. Sometimes we are not. If we base our happiness on being happily situated in a nice place of residence, we are setting ourselves up for devastating anxiety because everything in this material world is temporary. But if we base our happiness on being securely situated at th

It was a normal day in the material world, the world where there is danger at every step. We were on our way back to Austin from the super ecstatic Baltic Summer Festival. We had a overnight stop in London to catch our ongoing flight the next day to Chicago, which connects with a flight to Austin. Upon our arrival in London we discovered that Finnair had lost a piece of my luggage. Lord Krishna says that we have to be tolerant of the dualities. So I took it in stride. Whatever Krishna arranges I am prepared to accept. Then in the middle of night I kept receiving calls on my mobile phone. Half awake I was thinking that someone was probably calling the wrong number, so I ignored the calls. But when they kept calling I came to my senses and realized that somebody was in fact urgently trying to reach me and I answered the call. It was my disciple, Abhay Charan das, urgently trying to reach me from India. He had been notified by a devotee in Austin that the ISKCON temple in Austin, which

Two days ago it was reported in Thought for the Day that Doyal Govinda Prabhu was the organizer of the Baltic Summer Festival. We failed to mention that the main organizer of this wonderful festival was Kedaranath Prabhu. So today we want to especially express our deep appreciation to this wonderful devotee Kedaranth Prabhu for his dedicated labor of love to create such an uplifting experience for the nearly one thousand devotees who participated in the 2013 Summer Baltic Festival. This stimulating forest retreat featured six days of wonderful deity worship, super-enlivening kirtans, sumptuous prasadam, and many informative and inspiring classes and seminars on many different transcendental topics. There was even a children's Ratha Yatra! All of us who had good fortune to attend this festival will cherish many memories of it within our hearts for many years to come. Also not to be forgotten are the hundreds of devotees who volunteered their time and energy in the many, many depart

When I was giving a lecture several days ago at the Summer Baltic Festival in Lithuania someone asked me how to keep the same joyful spirit alive in our hearts after the festival is over and we return our respective places of residence. I explained to them that you simply have to keep the festival going non-stop 365 days a year by always maintaining an atmosphere of loving exchange with the devotees of Krishna. If we always reciprocate in all of our dealings with the Lord's devotees in loving ways, we all always be relishing the mellows 24 hours day of a sweet Hare Krishna festival of bliss. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Giving a Seminar at the Summer Baltic Festival 23 July 2013--Harmony Park, Lithuania Answers by Citing the Vedic Version : Question: Why Chant Only One Mantra? Dear Master, Somewhere I have read that one should only chant one mantra. But all the names of Vishnu attract me. Although I do chant the Hare Krishna mantra, also I chant the following: "Sri Rama

This material world is a world of dualities. We are constantly being tossed in the waves of pain and pleasure, happiness and distress. If we want to experience actual tangible happiness in the real sense of the term, we have to transcend the ups and downs of this material world and enter into the divine world of Krishna consciousness in which one is always associating with Krishna, the all-powerful, supremely beautiful, totally renounced, all-knowing, unlimitedly wealthy, all-famous Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such contact with Krishna reconnects us with our eternal, all-blissful nature, and immediately relieves us from the stress and duress of this material existence. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Our Special Thanks to Baltic Summer Festival Organizer: Sriman Doyal Govinda Prabhu Question and Answers with Disciples Answers by Citing the Vedic Version Question: Do Lust, Anger, and Greed Come from Krishna? In the Bhagavad-gita Krishna says that lust, anger, and greed are the door

You are covered by ignorance, and the entire world population is covered by ignorance. Therefore you are suffering, and the entire world is suffering. So what is the solution? By hearing from the bona fide spiritual master you will become free from your ignorance and misery. And by following Lord Caitanya's order that you should become a guru by telling everyone you meet about the teachings of Lord Sri Krishna, you will help the entire world to become delivered from ignorance and misery. In this way by hearing and repeating what you have heard to others you will turn on your soul and turn on the world to the transcendental blissful life of Krishna consciousness. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Meeting with Some of My Students 23 July 2013--Summer Baltic Festival--Lithuania Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: How To Satisfy My Hunger For Love? I have realized in my life that I have always been looking for love and expecting to be loved. Whether it is from family, friend,

Srila Prabhupada often quotes the English saying, "If you love me, love my dog," to illustrate the necessity of loving Krishna's devotee as a prerequisite to loving Krishna. This is a most important point to remember while following the path of Krishna bhakti, because Krishna says that His devotees are more dear to Him than His very self. Krishna will never accept us as His devotees unless we are first of all dedicated to His devotees. How much we truly, not superficially, love Krishna's devotees is the test of how much we have actually awakened the dormant love of Krishna that is sleeping within our hearts. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Loving Relationships With Devotees Seminar 22 July 2013--Summer Baltic Festival--Lithuania Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: Can You Help Me to Be Ecstatic? To tell the truth I don't think I am ecstatic. Any help there? Sincerely Ray Escobilla Oaxaca, Mexico Answer: Chant Hare Krishna As Much As Possible If y

On the way to the Baltic Summer Festival we hit a snag in our otherwise smooth travel connections. After coming from Austin, Texas to London via a stop in New York, we were landing at Helsinki with an hour and five minutes before our next flight to Vilnius, Lithuania. We had made the same connection for the 2012 Summer Baltic Festival with no problem. This time however things were different, very different. Instead of our plane pulling up to the terminal for an easy exit via the jet bridge, this time our plane parked at great distance from the airport and we took a bus to the terminal. This delayed us by quite a few minutes. By the time we got to passport control it was 3:15pm. Our boarding passes for the next flight said that we would be boarding at 3:45pm for the flight to Vilnius. At passport control I checked the sign for our flight. It said that our gate, 17A, was a 15 minute walk from passport control. I could see that things were getting a little tight. We had only 15 minute

This material world is bhayaloka, a world of fear. The pivotal fear around which all other fears rotate is the fear of death. Therefore, if we can conquer the fear of death, all other fears are automatically vanquished. The fear of death is based on misidentification of the self with the material body. Since our actual identity is an eternal, deathless being, death is something which is totally incompatible with our nature and hence fearful. But if we can revive our original spiritual consciousness, our Krishna consciousness, the fear of death is automatically gone and with it all of our other subordinate fears. In this connection it is very aptly stated as follows in Srimad Bhagavatam 11.2.37: "Fear arises when a living entity misidentifies himself as the material body because of absorption in the external, illusory energy of the Lord. When the living entity thus turns away from the Supreme Lord, he also forgets his own constitutional position as a servant of the Lord. This bew

We are currently en route to the 2013 Summer Baltic Festival, a week long bhakti extravaganza held in Lithuania. Last year's festival was absolutely ecstatic, and this year's festival will be even more ecstatic. (This is the nature of Krishna consciousness: ever-increasing bliss!) If you are conveniently located in eastern Europe near or in Lithuania, we hope you will come at least for a day or two. For further information go to: www.summerfestival.lt My lecture schedule is as follows: Tuesday, July 23rd from 10:30am to 11:45am “Cultivating Loving Relationships with Devotees” Wednesday, July 24th from 10:30am to 11:45am “How to Succeed on the Path of Krishna Bhakti” Thursday, July 25th from 10:30am to 11:45am "Turn On Your Soul, Turn On the World” Friday, July 26th from 8:00am to 8:50am Srimad-Bhagavatam Lecture (3.25.27) I hope to meet you there! Sankarshan Das Adhikari Here's a Shot from Last Summer's Baltic Festival: Answers by Citing the Vedic V

Srila Prabhupada nicely explains in his purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 1.6.26 that after initiation a sincere devotee travels all over the world to awaken people to Krishna consciousness: "The life of a sincere devotee of the Lord is thus explained in a nutshell by Narada Muni by his personal example. Such a devotee, after his initiation by the Lord or His bona fide representative, takes very seriously chanting of the glories of the Lord and traveling all over the world so that others may also hear the glories of the Lord. Such devotees have no desire for material gain. They are conducted by one single desire: to go back to Godhead. This awaits them in due course on quitting the material body. Because they have the highest aim of life, going back to Godhead, they are never envious of anyone, nor are they proud of being eligible to go back to Godhead. Their only business is to chant and remember the holy name, fame and pastimes of the Lord and, according to personal capacity, to di

Why be dead, stuck in samsara (the wheel of birth and death) when you can be vibrantly alive in your eternal existential position? Why be psychologically derailed and disempowered by a messed up, topsy-turvy, cheating world when you can fully absorb your life in revolutionizing it? This is the wonderful facility offered to everyone by the Krishna consciousness movement. You get to turn on your soul and turn on the world. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Ratha Yatra Festivals Turn On the World (This one is in Miami, Florida USA.) Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: Is Prophet Mohammad Kalki Avatar? We have a serious threat to Hinduism by the bigot Dr. Zakir Naik, who keeps repeatedly telling innocent Hindus (millions of them) personally and through Peace TV that Mohammed the Prophet is Kalki avatar. He proves using convoluted logic and lies by omission and uses all sorts of foolish arguments to prove his point. Can you please at least inform our readers not to be carried away

Our minds are pretty wild. They are like monkeys jumping from the branch of one material desire to another branch of material desire endlessly one after another after another. These meandering monkey minds have kept us entangled in the cycle of birth and death constantly rotating through the 8,400,000 species of life again and again wherein we continuously suffer birth, death, old age, and disease. If we want out, we must fix our minds on Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The easiest and most effective way to do that is to chant the Hare Krishna mahamantra as much as possible 24 hours a day. Such sincere chanting brings immediate relief from all kinds of material distress and attracts the attention and special mercy of the all-attractive Supreme Lord. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Srila Prabhupada Chanting Hare Krishna Japa Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: What is My Real Duty? Lord Krishna says to do our prescribed duties. But I'm confused about my duty.

Quoting from Srila Rupa Goswami, Srila Prabhupada lists the first five steps on the path of Krishna bhakti in Chapter Six of the Nectar of Devotion: (1) accepting the shelter of the lotus feet of a bona fide spiritual master, (2) becoming initiated by the spiritual master and learning how to discharge devotional service from him, (3) obeying the orders of the spiritual master with faith and devotion, (4) following in the footsteps of great acaryas (teachers) under the direction of the spiritual master, (5) inquiring from the spiritual master how to advance in Krishna consciousness Unaware of how the science of bhakti actually works, some neophytes ignorantly think that one does not need a spiritual master in order to advance on the path of Krishna bhakti. Such neophytes are advised to take guidance from the great Vaisnava authorities such as Srila Prabhupada and Srila Rupa Goswami in order to become properly established in Krishna consciousness. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Srila Prabhu

In the modern society our brains are scrambled by an ocean of distractions. Simply for the sake of livelihood we are being pulled by so many different material obligations in so many different directions. This makes it hard for us to always remain focused on the Supreme Personality of Godhead at every minute. So how do we unscramble our brains to get back them in sync with the Supreme? The answer is chanting, quality chanting, of the Hare Krishna mantra and other powerful Vedic mantras, such as the prayers of the Brahma Samhita and the verses of the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. Daily quality chanting unscrambles our brains and gets them back into a wonderful, peaceful state of harmony with Krishna. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Information Overload Scrambles the Brain Quality Chanting Unscrambles the Brain Chanting Hare Krishna in Mauritius--7 June 2013 Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: How Will Human Society Be Helped? How important it is to protect cows? Wh

Modern science is based on the premise that unless something is empirically verifiable its objective reality cannot be confirmed. The difficulty with this premise is that it is not empirically verifiable. This means that according to this premise what we now call science is not science at all. It's dogma. If you base an entire system of knowledge on dogma, that system then washes, like a sand castle, into the sea of unreliability and irrelevancy when it comes to existential matters. This is why modern science is incapable of sufficiently explaining what each of us is personally experiencing at every moment, namely our own consciousness. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Castles Made of Sand Are Washed Into the Sea Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: Was the Mahamantra Turned Around? Respected Guru Maharaja, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and to you. Is it true that the mahamantra was turned around, that originally it was: Hare Rama,

Instead of cooking simply for ourselves and remaining entangled in the cycle of birth and death, we can cook for Krishna and go back to home, back to Godhead. Besides that, after cooking for Krishna and offering the food to Krishna it tastes a million times better than anything we could cook only for ourselves. Why is this? When Krishna tastes the food offered to Him with love and devotion He transforms it from matter into spirit. Such sanctified food is called prasadam, which means mercy, because such sanctified foodstuffs are truly the mercy of the Lord. Devotees of Krishna only partake of the remnants of vegetarian foodstuffs which have been offered with love to Lord Sri Krishna. They never put anything else into their mouths because eating unoffered food is simply eating so many lumps of sin. And there is not much more to be said in this connection. Sankarshan Das Adhikari There is Truly Nothing that Compares with Prasadam: Foodstuffs Offered to Lord Sri Krishna With Love and De

The world is in dire need of being saved. Of this there is no doubt. Every day it is gradually becoming more and more demoniac, miserable, and hellish. So how to save it? There is only one way to do this, and that is one person at a time. So who do we start with? We obviously have to start with ourselves. Physician, heal thyself. If we aren't saved, how can we can save others. How do we save ourselves? We have to surrender to Krishna through the medium of His pure devotee, the bona fide spiritual master. In this way we become saved. And how do we save others? We have to share with them the wonderful mercy and teachings of Krishna. If we approach many, many people to give them Krishna consciousness, a few will take interest and out of them even fewer still will take Krishna consciousness seriously by surrendering to Krishna and also taking up the world deliverance mission. In this way, if we keep presenting this sublime science to as many people as possible, eventually the Krishna

No one wants to die, but yet we have to be always ready for death because this ultimate destroyer of everything can come at any moment. Many will object that you should not think about death, that you should remain oblivious to death and simply go on squeezing as much happiness out of life as you possibly can while you have the chance. But this is their gross ignorance of the science of life and death. They don't realize how to utilize death to elevate themselves to a higher plane of existence in their next life. And thus because, even though in a human body, they ignorantly live an animalistic existence, they degrade themselves down to the animal kingdom in their next life. Not being ready for death is like taking a university course without preparing for the final exam. The result is that you will fail the course and you do not progress to the next level. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Devotees Conquer Death by Chanting Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: Is Krishna an

Take full advantage of the golden opportunity that the human form of life offers you. You have been rotating endlessly in the cycle of birth and death since time immemorial. Sometimes you were a king. Sometimes you were a pauper. Sometimes you were a demigod. Sometimes you were a germ. If you continue to do what you've always done, namely dedicate your life to sense gratification, you will continue to get what you've always gotten, another material body in the 8,400,000 types of species. Why not try something different for a change and dedicate just one lifetime in the service of the Lord? Then when you regain your original spiritual form, you can judge by the result whether or not you think being a liberated soul is a better lifestyle than being a conditioned soul caught up in the cycle of birth and death. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Blissful Devotees of Lord Krishna Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: How to Soften a Hard Heart? Srila Gurudeva, I would humbly l

The ultimate surprise is that you are deathless. You live forever. You are the soul situated within the body. You are not the body. As Lord Krishna says, "The soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind." So instead of being more interested in making material arrangements for the comfort of the body, you should be more interested in awakening the dormant soul consciousness or Krishna consciousness that is currently sleeping within you. By transcendentalizing your interests you become transcendentalized and liberated from death. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Srila Prabhupada Chants Hare Krishna to Awaken Our Krishna Consciousness San Francisco, Golden Gate Park--1967 Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: Why Did God Create Us? My simple questions: 1.Why did God create us? 2.Why is one person born intelligent and another is not? Is this due to karma from a previous life? Alekh Answer: For Lo

Like it or not death is inevitable here in this material world. Death is as sure as death. So how to deal with it? How to deal with the death of others and our own unavoidable death? The first thing to remember is that actually we do not die. It is only the external covering, the material body, which is worn like a garment by the spirit-soul within, which dies. The actual self, the spirit-soul does not die. Why all the anxiety about death then? This is due to our ignorantly misidentifying the body to be the actual self instead of wisely identifying ourselves as the real spiritual self, which dwells only temporarily within the body. If we engage ourselves always in devotional service to Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, this establishes us solidly, fearless, and blissfully in our eternal spiritual identity, which cannot be touched by death. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Conquer Death by Chanting Hare Krishna Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: Good Karma

There are hundreds and thousands of sources for distributing mundane news of the world, and the people of the world are very eagerly receiving it. But such gramya-katha or mundane news is static. It is stationary and lifeless because it does not take you anywhere. It keeps you bound up in the cycle of birth and death. Transcendental news, on the other hand, is dynamic and ecstatic because it carries you like an airplane to the transcendental world where life is eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss. You are what you read and listen to. If you are absorbed in mundane news, you remain a mundaner, and if you turn your attention to transcendental news, you become a great transcendentalist. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Absorb Yourself in Transcendental News. You Will Naturally Become a Great Transcendentalist Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: Is Brahma or Krishna Born First? I have a doubt. Whether Brahma is born first or Sri Krishna? I have heard that all the avata

Were it not for the unlimited compassion and mercy of Srila Prabhupada where would we all be right now? We would be helplessly drifting in the cycle of birth and death, whereabouts unknown. Therefore the extent of our indebtedness to Srila Prabhupada is incalculable. All we can do to try to repay this debt is fully dedicate ourselves to Srila Prabhupada's order that we should become gurus and deliver the entire world. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Srila Prabhupada Mercifully Accepted Thousands of Disciples Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: Why Give Up Good Karma? Dear Gurudeva, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita (9.28) "In this way you will be freed from all reactions to good and evil deeds, and by this principle of renunciation you will be liberated and come to Me." My question is: Why do we need to get rid of reactions to our good deeds? Surely we wish to get rid of sinful reactions to

There are 8,400,000 species of life: 900,000 aquatics, 2,000,000 types of plants and trees, 1,100,000 types of worms and reptiles, 1,000,000 birds, 3,000,000 beasts, and 400,000 types of human beings. The consciousness that you cultivate in your present lifetime determines what type of body you will get in your next lifetime. People who are attached to sky diving will become birds in their next life. Those who are keen for scuba diving will become fish. In this way nature facilitates everyone according to their desires. Those who are intelligent realize that this material world, no matter what species you are in, is a place of misery. Therefore they cultivate Krishna consciousness so that their next life will be an eternal one with Sri Sri Radha and Krishna in that wondrous spiritual sky. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Choose What Your Next Life Will Be Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: How to Interest Others in this Science? I have distributed our Back To Godhead Magazin

One should always be confident about the process of Krishna consciousness, devotional service to Lord Sri Krishna. Sometimes in the neophyte stage of devotional service one may become unhappy and depressed due to a reverse situation. When such depression comes one should immediately replace it with confidence in attainment of the supreme goal, pure love of Godhead, Krishna prema. If one patiently follows the rules and regulations of devotional service, he can know for sure that the day will come when he will achieve all of a sudden the perfection of devotional service. Therefore there is no reason to ever be depressed by any loss or reverse in his advancement in spiritual life. Sankarshan Das Adhikari The Spiritual World Awaits All Serious Devotees Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: The Supreme is Krishna or Shiva? I am all of 40 yrs and all these years have strongly believed in Lord Shiva (family God). Recently last 5-6 months I have been associated with Krishna Co

If you hold back from completely surrendering to Krishna and instead hold on to maya or illusion by continuing to indulge in material sense gratification, you will reap your due reward. Krishna will give you another birth in this material world so that you can continue to trying to enjoy His material energy, which is nothing but a source of misery. Therefore the intelligent thing to do is to give up material sense gratification by fully surrendering to the orders received from the spiritual master who comes in disciplic succession from Sri Krishna Himself. In this way you will become fully qualified to associate with Lord Sri Krishna at every minute and to enter the spiritual world at the time death when you leave your body behind. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Give Up Material Sense Gratification and Gain the Constant Association of the Most Amazing Krishna Forever Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: How Does Everything Rest on Krishna? Please accept my humble obeisances.

Even though "In God We Trust" is still present on the currency of the USA we wonder where the trust in God has gone. The modern day leaders in the USA and in all the other countries are ignoring the scriptural injunctions and simply promoting economic development and sense gratification. This is not trust in God. This is trust in untrustworthy imperfect senses. No wonder people all over the world are so miserable. It's time that the leaders put God back in the center where He belongs so that everyone can become peaceful, happy, and prosperous once again. Sankarshan Das Adhikari USA Currency Declares "In God We Trust." Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: Faith in God Only Without Chanting? My sister says it is not necessary to chant, that only we should have faith in God. What can I tell her? Ankur V. Answer: Faith in God Means Chanting Having faith in God means to have faith in His teachings. To have faith in God, but not His teachings is me

It's great to be back here in New Dwarka, ISKCON Los Angeles, which was formerly the world headquarters of our movement before our world headquarters was re-established by Srila Prabhupada in Mayapur, West Bengal, India. Still in the USA it is very much of a headquarters because here in Los Angeles we have the headquarters of the BBT, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, in charge of the publication and distribution of Srila Prabhupada's books. Srila Prabhupada spent much time here at ISKCON Los Angeles, and his presence is still very strongly felt in this transcendental abode. Also this is the place where I first had personal association with His Divine Grace. So for me it is a very, very holy place. Another great advantage of being here is that I am getting the association of many of my wonderful Godbrothers: Svavasa Prabhu, Dravida Prabhu, Arcita Prabhu, Sura Prabhu, Naikatma Prabhu, Amala Bhakta Prabhu, and many others. The disciples of Srila Prabhupada are a dying breed on this

Our several days stop in Melbourne was truly sublime. I was kept busy every day giving a series of lectures at various venues: the ISKCON temple, the Urban Yoga Center, and at several home programs. Every lecture was well attended. Those attending joined enthusiastically in the kirtans. They carefully and attentively heard my lectures and asked many relevant questions regarding how to advance along the pathway of Krishna consciousness. There were so many cherishable sweet loving exchanges between us, the devotees, and guests. Such is the stuff that fills one's life with transcendental bliss. This is what Krishna consciousness is all about. Sankarshan Das Adhikari Lecture: Happiness in the Modern Age Melbourne Urban Yoga Center--29 June 2013 Send Off Kirtan after Home Program Tarneit, Australia--30 June 2013 Farewell Gathering at Melbourne Airport 1 July 2013 Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: Who Is More Devoted to Prabhupada? Respected Srila Gurudeva, P