Ultimate Self Realization

The disciple accepts the order of his spiritual master as his very life and soul and always thinks, speaks, and acts in accordance with his spiritual master's instructions. This is confirmed in the Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, Adi Lila, Chapter 12, Text 10 as follows: ācāryera mata yei, sei mata sāra tāṅra ājñā laṅghi’ cale, sei ta’ asāra "The order of the spiritual master is the active principle in spiritual life. Anyone who disobeys the order of the spiritual master immediately becomes useless." In his purport to this verse Srila Prabhupada states: "Here is the opinion of Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami. Persons who strictly follow the orders of the spiritual master are useful in executing the will of the Supreme, whereas persons who deviate from the strict order of the spiritual master are useless." Therefore anyone who wants to be successful in spiritual life and attain the ultimate goal of going back home, back to Godhead must obey this principle. Discip

A devotee sees everything as the mercy of Krishna. Therefore he is never disturbed in any situation. Srila Prabhupada elaborates on this as follows in a lecture he gave in Vrindavana on 13 September 1976: --Not that because one is Krishna conscious there will be no material suffering. Actually, those who are Krishna conscious, they have no material suffering. Although it appears that they are suffering, they are not suffering. They can accept any so-called suffering and accept it as mercy of Krishna. They never take it as suffering. Tat te 'nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam [SB 10.14.8]. A devotee, when he's in suffering, so-called suffering, he accepts it as the mercy of Krishna. Tat te 'nukampām . And he rather thanks Krishna, that "I had to suffer many more times, but You have minimized it, giving me little suffering. So it is Your mercy." And if anyone lives on that attitude, everything taken as Krishna's mercy, then he is guaranteed

In Bhagavad-gita 5:29 Krishna gives the perfect formula for individual and global peace: bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati "A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries." In regards to this verse Srila Prabhupada states, "When people know that the Supreme Lord, Krishna, is the supreme enjoyer, the supreme proprietor and the most intimate well-wishing friend of all living entities, peace and prosperity will ensue all over the world." So this knowledge must be distributed all the other world so that everyone can be happy. The best means of spreading this knowledge is the wide scale distribution of Srila Prabhupada's books. Other means can be adopted as well to reach as many people

The secret of success on the path of spiritual awakening is to take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master by initiation and then to be fully obedient to his instructions. One's every thought, word, and deed in all times, places, and circumstances should then be fully dedicated to pleasing his spiritual master. One who follows this simple formula, becomes very solidly situated in Krishna consciousness. Those who act independently of their spiritual master, thinking that they can be Krishna conscious on their own, are deluded and will not attain the perfectional stage of pure Krishna bhakti until they have rectified their mistaken mentality. Srila Prabhupada With His Disciples in the Early Days of the Mayapur Project Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: How Can We Be Eternally Conditioned? Hare Krishna! All Glories to Srila Prabhupada! My respectful obeisances unto you Gurudeva. What exactly does it mean being eternally conditioned? By definition eternal means

When I joined this Krishna consciousness movement in 1971 in Austin, Texas USA I was most fortunate to be personally trained by one of the greatest preachers in ISKCON history, His Holiness Vishnujana Swami Maharaja. The most valuable lesson he taught me is that I am a rascal. One day when I was driving him in the temple vehicle I was backing out of a driveway, and I did not steer the car properly. When with one tire we ran over the curb he told me, "That is rascal driving." From this one instruction I could understand that this is my position. I am indeed a rascal. If is from this platform of knowing that I am a rascal that I have been able understand the necessity of fully surrendering myself to the bona fide spiritual master to get out of this rascaldom and become a pure devotee of Krishna. Thank you, Vishnujana Swami, for teaching me that I am rascal. Vishnujana Swami Chanting in Pease Park--Austin, Texas 1971 Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: Can You

The entire world is suffering due to a lack of Krishna consciousness. Everyone is entangled in the clutches of bodily consciousness. Therefore Krishna consciousness must be introduced into all spheres of the human society so that everyone will get the opportunity to be exposed to the sublime teachings of Krishna and the unlimited mercy of His holy name. To this end, having formerly been a popular singer/songwriter, I have launched a new preaching initiative in an attempt to introduce Krishna consciousness into the world of popular music. If you are interested in this preaching initiative, you can check it out at: www.turnontheworld.com There you can hear and download some of the music. Our aim is the relieve the people of the world from the misery that they are by finding a way to introduce to the teachings of Krishna in a way that will attract and capture their attention. Meditating on Krishna in the Mountains of Mauritius Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: What

Anyone who is serious about going back to Godhead must take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master by initiation and then remain true to his initiation vows. If he does this, the spiritual master will take full responsibility to do whatever is required to get the disciple out of the material world back to the spiritual world, even if the spiritual master has to take birth again to do so. One should take advantage of the kindness the bona fide spiritual master and become his disciple because without the shelter of a bona fide spiritual master it is not possible to awaken your dormant Krishna consciousness. Meeting With Disciples at the Baltic Festival 24 July 2015--Palanga, Lithuania Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: Krishna Consciousness and a High Pressure Job I am doing a very very high pressure job in my office. I keep thinking about my job only all the time. How can I become Krishna conscious instead of job conscious? Your servant, Shashank Answer: Chant, Ke

Our love for Krishna is manifested only to the degree that we love His devotees. Therefore if we want to love Krishna, we must learn how to love His devotees. If we harbor even the slightest amount of ill well towards the devotees, we will not be able to awaken the pure love of God which is currently sleeping within our hearts. Therefore the secret of advancement on the path of pure love is to never think, speak, or act in a negative way against even one of the Lord's devotees. You cannot avoid this negativity simply by avoiding the association of the devotees. The only way to effectively protect yourself from being offensive towards devotees is to cultivate positive loving relationships with all of them within your heart. Ecstatically Diving Into Kirtan at the Summer Baltic Festival Palanga, Lithuania--22 July 2015 Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: Is Deity Worship Allowed in the Vedas? Is there any verse in the Vedas which say that God has a form or that wors

Are you fed up with a world that is full of so much sinfulness and nonsense? Would you like to do something to change it? Well, now you can. Now you can become a fully empowered spiritual revolutionary. Lord Krishna has a mission to deliver the entire world from chaos. If you will fully surrender unto Him, he will empower you to assist Him in His mission. There is no life more thrilling than this, to be living on the cutting edge of world history bringing in a new era of spiritual enlightenment to a world which is currently deeply drowning in ignorance. Teaching Krishna Consciousness at Summer Baltic Festival Palanga, Lithuania--22 July 2015 Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: Verse to Remind Us We're Krishna's Servants? Respected Gurudeva, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. In his purport to Srimad Bhagavatam (10.9.1-2), Srila Prabhupada states as follows: "It was formerly a custom that if one wanted to remember someth

The mission of the Krishna consciousness movement is to deliver the entire world civilization from its ever-increasing chaos, which is gradually dragging it down to a position lower than the animals. The modern day political, educational, cultural and business leaders do not even have the slightest clue of how to solve the world's problems. To the contrary they are instead leading the world into rapidly accelerating degradation. So we are intensely praying and working for that day when they will recognize and accept the enlightened leadership of the Krishna consciousness movement and thus bring actual sanity, hope, happiness, and prosperity to the world population. The Krishna Consciousness Movement Will Save the World Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: Seeing the Bad In Myself and the Good in Others? Is seeing the bad qualities in yourself and seeing the good qualities in others very good for your Krishna consciousness? Your student Answer: This Will Indeed He

On Sunday 19 July 2015 I was requested to give a lecture at ISKCON London's Bhaktivedanta Manor on the topic "Krishna Consciousness: Hindu cult or Divine Culture?". It was an interesting opportunity to dive deeply into our philosophy, especially because the audience was composed mostly of Hindus. Strictly speaking according to scripture, the word Hindu is practically meaningless. It is a term coined by the Muslims to describe those persons living east of the Sindhu River. So there is no such one thing as Hindu religion. The term Hindu, in a sociological sense, can be applied to any of the various type of practitioners of different aspects of Vedic culture, of which there are many. There is Vaisnavism, devotion to Krishna or Vishnu. There are also yogis, devotees of Lord Shiva, devotees of Durga, Sankarites, and so many other sects, all with their different philosophies and practices. These are all lumped together under the term Hinduism, even though their teachings and

You are one of the Lord's eternal associates in the spiritual sky. Even though for an uncountable amount of time you have been caught up here in the cycle of birth and death in this material world, Krishna has not forgotten you. He is more eager to get you back to His eternal abode than you can ever even begin to imagine. Therefore you should not disappoint Him any longer by remaining a slave of the material nature captured in the network of action and reaction. You should cast aside your shackles right now and fully surrender yourself to your mot beloved Lord Sri Krishna. You will awaken into the most amazing transcendental ever-increasingly illuminated reality. Krishna and Balarama in the Spiritual World Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: How to Love Krishna? What should I do to love Krishna? Shubha Answer: Rise Early and Chant Sixteen Rounds of Japa Srila Prabhupada explains nicely what to do in order to develop love for Krishna: --You must practice how t

The most amazing thing is happening every day in Union Square Park in New York City's Manhattan Island. For three years straight without consideration of heat, cold, rain, or snow, the Union Square Park harinam party has been going out every day to bless the suffering souls of New York City with the liberating vibration of Krishna's unlimitedly sweet holy name. This park is located only a mile away from 26 2nd Avenue and Tompkins Square Park where Srila Prabhupada began the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in the summer of 1966. It is a super prime location for the public chanting because beneath it is subway station through which 100,000 people pass every day. When the people come up from the subway into the park the first thing they see and hear is the devotees chanting Hare Krishna in ecstasy. You can see in the 2nd photograph below the devotees are situated only a few feet away from the subway entrance. Here is a wonderful video of only one of the thousands

A dittohead is someone who thoughtlessly goes along with vox populi, the popular trends, without any consideration of whether such trends are beneficial or nonbeneficial for his ultimate well-being. In short, a dittohead is a mindless robot who says "ditto" or "me too" to what everybody else around him is thinking, saying, and doing. Human life is mean for thoughtfulness, not dittoheadness. One should try to find out who he is and what is the ultimate purpose of his existence whether or not such thoughtfulness is popular or not. Only when one is truly thoughtful regarding these existential matters is he actually a human being. Until then he is simply an animalistic dittohead. Devotees Chant in Ecstasy at Union Square Park in New York Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: How to Explain Religion and Science to My Daughter? How to explain to my daughter that religion explains more than science thru proofs and points from scriptures? Your servant, Geet

The whole world is waiting for the universal revival of Krishna consciousness because Krishna consciousness is the original, natural energy of every living being. In one stroke Krishna consciousness will immediately solve all the problems of the world because factually there are no problems at all in the world except for the one problem, which is the lack of Krishna consciousness. Therefore we are petitioning everyone, especially the world's leaders, to now turn their attention to the awakening of Krishna consciousness within their hearts. This will bring about the greatest paradigm shift in the history of the universe. This is what everyone is actually hankering for with their heart of hearts. Devotees Chant and Dance in Ecstasy in New York Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: How to Become a Devotee? How to become a devotee? Your servant, Shashank. Answer: Be Who You Are You do not have to become a devotee because you are already a devotee. Now all you have to

The method for becoming appreciated by Krishna is very simple. There is no one more to dear to Him than His devotees. So the more that you appreciate His devotees, naturally the more you will be appreciated by Him. So, how to become expert in appreciating Krishna's devotees? In this regard Srila Prabhupada explains in his purport to Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, Adi Lila, Chapter 8, Text 62 as follows: "It is a qualification of a Vaisnava that he is adoṣa-darśī: he never sees others' faults. Of course, every human being has both good qualities and faults. Therefore it is said, saj-janā guṇam icchanti doṣam icchanti pāmarāḥ: everyone has a combination of faults and glories. But a Vaisnava, a sober man, accepts only a man's glories and not his faults, for flies seek sores whereas honeybees seek honey. Haridasa Pandita never found fault with a Vaisnava but considered only his good qualities." If you will take lesson and follow the wonderful example of Haridasa Pandita

Two plus two equals four. Because this is science, it is true everywhere. It does not matter what country you go to. Two plus two is always equal to four everywhere. You cannot make two plus two equal to five. Just as there is the science of mathematics, there is also the science of God. It is not that can imagine your God, and that I can imagine my God. Just as two plus two always equals four, in a similar way, God is one. It is not that each religion has a different God. No. God can be only one, and the method for approaching Him is by love. This is the ultimate science known as the science of God, bhagavat-tattva vijnanam. Srila Prabhupada Teaches the Science of God Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: How to Give Up Sense Gratification? How to give up sense gratification? Your servant, Shashank Answer: Engage Your Senses in the Service of Krishna By engaging your senses in the service of Krishna they will become millions of times more satisfied than by engaging

The key to always being happy, i.e. Krishna conscious, is to always understand, acknowledge, and visualize everything that is happening to you as the special mercy of Krishna to help you come back to your original identity in His transcendental pastimes as soon as possible. It's really just as simple as that. But the difficulty is that due to our false ego our tendency is to blame others for our unhappiness, i.e. our lack of Krishna consciousness. So, if you are at all serious about becoming self-realized as soon as possible, you must always be mindful of the fact that such foolish thinking is counter productive. It is detrimental for your well-being. You must instead always accept the full burden of responsibility on your own shoulders for whatever you are lacking and obediently carry out the instructions given to you by your spiritual master. In this way you will gain full control over your mind and quickly attain the position of samadhi, ecstatic absorption in Krishna conscious

Benjamin Franklin wrote, "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise." Srila Prabhupada appreciated this saying and referred to it when he was lecturing in England in September od 1969: Prabhupada: In Vrindavana you'll find just early in the morning before, exactly one and a half hours before sunrise all temples will ding-dong, ding-dong, like this. And people will automatically rise up and go to see the first ceremony. It is very nice. So that you'll be forced to rise early in the morning. If you practice you'll be practiced to, "Early to rise, early to, early to bed, early to rise"? Devotee : "makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." Prabhupada: Yes. You become automatically healthy, wealthy and wise. Yes. But here you are accustomed to sleep up to twelve o'clock. So the conclusion is that anyone who is serious about advancing in Krishna consciousness must develop the habit of rising every day before the sunrise to

Recently I read where someone had written that one is supposed to keep their spiritual master a hidden secret. I was quite surprised by this idea because it is so contrary to what we have been taught by Srila Prabhupada, who teaches that it is the duty of the disciple to widely publicize the glories of his spiritual master and his teachings to the fallen souls of this world to attract them to surrender to Krishna. In this connection Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura writes, "One should loudly glorify the guru," and Srila Prabhupada has stated on 4 August 1974 when he was giving a lecture in Vrindavana, India: “This is the business of the disciple, how to glorify the spiritual master, parampara. I glorify my spiritual master, you glorify your spiritual master. If we simply do that, glorify, then Krishna is glorified.” Srila Prabhupada taught us to publicly worship our spiritual master as a regular daily affair. He gave us a song to sing every day which states that the fame of the s

At the present moment our minds are completely contaminated due to our having been fully engrossed and entangled in material sense gratification for thousands and millions of lifetimes. Due to this contamination we often misjudge the difference between right and wrong and thus make so many mistakes. Our biggest mistake of all is to misidentify ourselves with our material bodies. This impels us to foolishly throw away another lifetime in material sense gratification and thus remain a prisoner of material existence. If we are fortunate enough to come into the contact of a bona fide devotee of Lord Krishna who mercifully points out the defects of our mentality and guides us how to engage in the devotional service of the Lord, we will have the opportunity to get out of our slavery to our senses and go back to home, back to Godhead to resume our eternal pastimes with the Supreme Lord in His transcendental abode. Therefore we must always hanker for the association of those devotees who can

On 18 September 1965 when Srila Prabhupada arrived in America he wrote these wonderful words in his arrival prayers: "How will I make them understand this message of Krishna consciousness? I am very unfortunate, unqualified, and the most fallen. Therefore I am seeking Your benediction so that I can convince them, for I am powerless to do so on my own. Somehow or other, O Lord, You have brought me here to speak about You. Now, my Lord, it is up to You to make me a success or failure as You like. O spiritual master of all the worlds! I can simply repeat Your message, so if You like You can make my power of speaking suitable for their understanding. Only by Your causeless mercy will my words become pure. I am sure that when this transcendental message penetrates their hearts they will certainly feel engladdened and thus become liberated from all unhappy conditions of life." Now here we are in 2015, fifty years after Srila Prabhupada's arrival in America. It is a great stru

In this love-starved world, in which everyone is trying to use others for their personal sense gratification, there is nothing more wonderful than to experience the sweet loving kindness of a Vaisnava, a devotee of Lord Sri Krishna. Because Lord Krishna is all-merciful, His devotees are also all-merciful, because they purely represent Him in all of their dealings. Srila Prabhupada Bestows His Mercy on a Small Child Answers by Citing the Vedic Version: Question: What is the Goal of Life for Christians? What is the goal of the life for Christians? As we know, in Krishna consciousness the goal is pure love to Krishna, pure devotional service. But how what is that goal in Christianity? My father is going the Christian way. He wants to make spiritual progress, and he is also interested in Srila Prabhupada's books. What advice can you give him to make spiritual advancement? Thank you, Hare Krishna! Eldaras Answer: To Awaken Pure Love of God The goal of life for every human bei

At the present moment the entire world is sound asleep in the clutches of maya or illusion and suffering greatly because of it. We were also thus soundly sleeping until by the extraordinary mercy of guru and Krishna we were blessed by having the seed of spiritual awakening planted with our hearts. Now just as we were made fortunate by the inconceivable mercy of guru and Krishna, it is our sacred duty to make the entire world fortunate by turning it on to Krishna consciousness throughout every nook and corner of today's deeply troubled planet. Srila Prabhupada Plants the Seeds of Bhakti San Francisco, Golden Gate Park--1967 How You Can Help to Save the World At the present moment our course has over 16,000 subscribers. Although this may seem like a lot, this is a mere pittance compared to the full outreach potential of the internet. Therefore our desire is to expand our subscriber base more and more to reach a much larger portion of the over 3 billion people (more than 40% of

Although the duty of a Krishna conscious preacher is the most revolutionary mission of making the entire world Krishna conscious, he considers himself completely unfit to do so. This humility is the key to his greatness. He does not consider himself to be great. In fact, as far as he is concerned he is unqualified to give Krishna consciousness to anyone because he does not possess it himself. He sees that his only qualification for spreading Krishna consciousness is to act as the fully obedient messenger of his spiritual master because he knows that his spiritual master's message has the power to deliver every conditioned soul in the entire universe back to their original position in the spiritual sky. It is because of this humility that he is so effective in transforming the miserable conditioned souls of this world into fully enlightened, all-blissful, liberated souls. Srila Prabhupada Arrives to Deliver Krishna's Message How You Can Help to Save the World At the presen

At the present moment the entire world society is tightly enwrapped in debilitating darkness. Misguided by foolish, unenlightened leaders the whole global society is suffering like anything plunging into ever-increasing chaos. But things do not have to be like this. There is one switch which, if flipped, will immediately brighten and enlighten the entire human population. That switch is Krishna consciousness. Therefore there is no greater welfare work that the wide scale propagation of the Krishna consciousness movement. The Krishna Consciousness Movement Will Save the World Harinam Sankirtan Party--Vilnius, Lithuania How You Can Help to Save the World At the present moment our course has over 16,000 subscribers. Although this may seem like a lot, this is a mere pittance compared to the full outreach potential of the internet. Therefore our desire is to expand our subscriber base more and more to reach a much larger portion of the over 3 billion people (more than 40% of the world

Srila Prabhupada explains as follows in his introduction to the Nectar of Devotion: "The author of Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, Srila Rupa Gosvami, very humbly submits that he is just trying to spread Krishna consciousness all over the world, although he humbly thinks himself unfit for this work. That should be the attitude of all preachers of the Krishna consciousness movement, following in the footsteps of Srila Rupa Gosvami. We should never think of ourselves as great preachers, but should always consider that we are simply instrumental to the previous acaryas, and simply by following in their footsteps we may be able to do something for the benefit of suffering humanity." Therefore while engaged in the ultimate welfare activity of trying to deliver all the fallen souls of this world back to home, back to Godhead the Krishna conscious preacher understands that he has no potency to do so. It is only the pure message of Krishna's teachings, which was purely given to him by

The solution for religious extremism is the wide scale dissemination of the science of God. Despite so many divergences of opinion, there is only one source of existence. We are all coming from the same place, that original source. When you reconnect with that original source, who must necessarily be a person, in love, you've attained the perfection of consciousness. Whether you call this reconnection Krishna consciousness, Christ consciousness, Buddha consciousness, or Allah consciousness, the aim is one, to become a pure lover of the Supreme Person. This is the real understanding of religion. Real religion unifies everyone. It breaks down all walls. Pseudo religion builds prison-like walls. Come to the Universal Religion of Pure Love for the Supreme Person How You Can Help to Save the World At the present moment our course has over 16,000 subscribers. Although this may seem like a lot, this is a mere pittance compared to the full outreach potential of the internet. Therefor