Ultimate Self Realization

Once you clearly understand what Krishna consciousness is, nothing else besides a life of full devotion to Krishna makes any sense. Everything else is stark raving madness. A rough analogy is: Why hold onto a dirty penny when you can instead possess billions of dollars? When you embrace the process of Krishna consciousness wholeheartedly you have nothing to lose except for your anxiety. But still the general population is so much caught up in illusion that they do no accept this all-illuminating perfect path. Srila Prabhupada Reveals the Highest Truth Video For the Day Artist's Concept of Our Completed Project in Austin, Texas USA $56,000.00 collected with $2,444,000.00 still to go. (2.3% of our goal with 97.7% to go.) Contributions gratefully accepted at: http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/donate Answers by Citing the Vedic Version Question: Meaning of Maya? What is meaning of "maya"? Amit Gupta New Delhi, India Answer: Disharmony Maya means

Why suffer unnecessarily in this material world when the bona fide spiritual master is willing to guide you how to escape the cycle of death, thus enabling you to regain your original, eternal identity in the pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His unlimitedly blissful transcendental kingdom? The difficulty is that you have been misguided so many times by so many bogus mentors that you have a natural tendency not to trust anyone anymore. So what to do? You can make an experiment. You can absorb your present lifetime in fully following the instructions of the bona fide spiritual master and then judge by what is the result. If you are not satisfied with the eternal life full of bliss and knowledge that you achieve by following the guru's guidance, you can always revert to misery and ignorance in the cycle of repeated birth and death. Srila Prabhupada Mercifully Guides His Disciples Video For the Day Artist's Concept of Our Completed Project in Austin, Te

This material world, that we are currently living in, is the world of dualities. Therefore we are constantly being bounced back and forth between pleasant and unpleasant situations. The key to liberation from this world of dualities is to tolerate them without being disturbed. In other words, we have to be transcendentally situated beyond these dualities by always keeping a cool head in all circumstances. This is achieved by always remembering Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Srila Prabhupada Always Solidly Fixed In Krishna Consciousness Video For the Day Artist's Concept of Our Completed Project in Austin, Texas USA $56,000.00 collected with $2,444,000.00 still to go. (2.3% of our goal with 97.7% to go.) Contributions gratefully accepted at: http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/donate Answers by Citing the Vedic Version Question: Are We In the Material World for Infinite Lifetimes? I am writing in response to your most recent Thought for the D

As within, so without. In other words, whatever consciousness you cultivate within your heart is the atmosphere that you will create or manifest in the world that surrounds you. So now decide what kind of atmosphere you would like to live in and seriously cultivate that atmosphere within your heart. In other words, if you want to live in a peaceful, God conscious or Krishna conscious environment, you must always hear about, speak about and think about Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The magic of this is that by doing so you will exert an uplifting influence on your surroundings. This practice will transform you into an empowered spiritual revolutionary empowered who is pushing back the materialistic influence of the age of Kali. You will be bringing a new era to the world, a tidal wave of pure love of God. So if you are not already doing this, do yourself a favor. Try this; you'll love it. You and the entire world will be immeasurably benefited. Be A Spirit

Srila Prabhupada states in his purport to Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 3, Chapter 16, Text 23: "The Vedic injunction is that one cannot understand the Absolute Truth simply by mental speculation or logical argument. One has to follow the authorities. Mahajano yena gatah sa panthah. Great authorities should be followed; otherwise, if we simply depend on the scriptures, we are sometimes misled by rascals, or else we cannot understand or follow the different spiritual injunctions. The best path is to follow the authorities." This is why we must have a bona fide spiritual master and always be fully obedient to him. Otherwise instead of utilizing the human life for attaining the supreme perfection of going back to home, back to Godhead we will be traversing the royal road to hell and will be unfortunately stuck here in this miserable material existence birth after birth. Srila Prabhupada Instructs His Disciples Video For the Day Artist's Concept of Our Completed Project

When one takes up the path of Krishna consciousness it's not that he immediately becomes a pure devotee completely transcendental to the modes of material nature. Even though the beginner is in the boat of Krishna consciousness crossing over the ocean of birth and death, that boat is sometimes rocked by huge waves creating a dangerous situation that might cause him to fall overboard back into the ocean. Therefore to become steady in Krishna consciousness one has to learn how to expertly steer the boat even in times of great turbulence This art is learned from most expert captain, the bona fide spiritual master. If one proudly ignores the help of the spiritual master thinking that he does not need any good guidance, he runs the danger of falling off the boat when times become very turbulent. Thus it sometimes happens that neophyte devotees give up Krishna consciousness and go back to material sense gratification. But if the disciple always humbly follows the spiritual master, he w

In Chinese wisdom it is said, "Perseverance furthers." This lucidly and succinctly makes a very profound point and reminds me of what is stated in the Caitanya Caritamrita: "Essential truth spoken concisely is true eloquence." Perseverance means that one sticks to one's duty in all varieties of circumstances: the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly. No matter what happens, one unflinchingly sticks to his duty without neglecting it in any way. This furthers him greatly along his path of personal spiritual emancipation as well as in his mission of delivering the fallen souls of this planet back to home, back to Godhead. "Perseverance furthers" is indeed a rare gem of wisdom that can nicely be engaged in Krishna's service. Prabhupada Persevered All Alone in New York Video For the Day Artist's Concept of Our Completed Project in Austin, Texas USA $56,000.00 collected with $2,444,000.00 still to go. (2.3% of our goal with 97.7% t

When I was a youth growing up in America in the early 60's the standard of morality was quite different than it is now. In those days if you got a girl pregnant, you would be a gentleman and marry her. Now in the current so-called days of sexual freedom if someone gets a girl pregnant, they tell her to get an abortion. The result of this new so-called liberal culture is that every year 40 to 50 million children are murdered in the womb on this planet. The karmic result of this ruthless murder of so many millions of children every year is turning this planet into more and more of a hell. This is one of the reasons why the Vedic culture, which curbs down sex desire as much as possible, is a very practical alternative for the insanity that is going on now. Just as butter is kept away from the fire to keep it from melting, the Vedic culture keeps the men and the women a little separate so that lusty desires are not unnecessarily stimulated. This system of restricted association is cal

Sometimes we hear it falsely said that Krishna consciousness discriminates against certain classes of people. For example we hear that our standard of protection of women from exploitation is some kind of discrimination against women. Such claims are a gross misunderstanding of the liberating science of Krishna consciousness. The actual fact is that the science of Krishna consciousness properly engages everyone according to their natural propensities in such a way to fully engage them in the service of Krishna. This enables them to be delivered back to home, back to Godhead as soon as possible. Krishna consciousness upholds the spiritual equality of all living beings, even the insignificant ant, and at the same time engages everyone in such a way, according to their natures, that they are fully protected and happily re-situated in their original state of consciousness as eternal servants of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna. The Krishna Conscious Movement Celebrate

Our present age is known as the Kali Yuga, the age of quarrel and hypocrisy. It began 5,000 years ago when the foolish brahmana boy named Sringi cursed the great pious pure devotee king, Maharaja Parikshit, to die in seven days by a snake bite. Since that time all hell has broken loose on this planet becoming progressively worse and worse. Therefore there is a burning need now more than ever for those who are actually righteous to take up the cause of promoting Krishna consciousness valiantly and bravely to counteract the demoniac influence of this age. We are therefore requesting all thoughtful men and women to join us in this battle again the demoniac influence of this age. Your lives will be absolutely glorious if you choose to do so. Sringi Curses Maharaja Parikshit Video For the Day Artist's Concept of Our Completed Project in Austin, Texas USA $56,000.00 collected with $2,444,000.00 still to go. (2.3% of our goal with 97.7% to go.) Contributions gratefully accept

On 9 January 2016 I gave a three hour seminar "Progress in Krishna Consciousness" in Scarborough, Ontario Canada. If you would like to attend that seminar via video, can you do that here because the devotees in Scarborough have very kindly recorded it and uploaded it to YouTube: https://youtu.be/BV7f2IJayRs It is of the utmost importance to always be advancing in Krishna consciousness and this seminar will help you to do so. Seminar in Scarborough, Ontario Canada--9 January 2016 Video For the Day Artist's Concept of Our Completed Project in Austin, Texas USA $49,549.13 collected with $2,450,450.87 still to go. (2% of our goal with 98% to go.) Contributions gratefully accepted at: http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/donate Answers by Citing the Vedic Version Question: How to Expand Comfort Zone Without Over-Endeavor? Dear Srila Gurudeva Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to You and Srimati Gurumataji! All glories to Srila Prabhupada

Nowadays we are being told that to be in tune with the modern day scientific world we must reject the existence of God. They say that only old-fashioned sentimentalists accept the existence of a Supreme Being. Such dogmatic statements are not for sane class of men. They are suited instead for the brainless doggish class of men who do not see that everywhere around them are things that come from things. Show me one thing that comes of nothing. There is no such thing. Everything comes from something. Therefore the universe must necessarily also comes from something. This is the meaning of the word "God." God means the source of all existence. Since existence cannot be sourceless, therefore God must exist. Srila Prabhupada Enlightens College Professors--Los Angeles Video For the Day Artist's Concept of Our Completed Project in Austin, Texas USA $49,549.13 collected with $2,450,450.87 still to go. (2% of our goal with 98% to go.) Contributions gratefully accep

Today we are introducing a new exciting add-on to Thought for the Day called Video for the Day. I have been informed that if your system has a pop up blocker that you have will have to disable it. We need feed-back from our readers whether or not you were able to see Video for the Day in your computer smart phone, IPad, etc. So please let know whether you could see and hear the video or not. Thank you, Srila Prabhupada on Television San Francisco USA Artist's Concept of Our Completed Project in Austin, Texas USA $49,549.13 collected with $2,450,450.87 still to go. (2% of our goal with 98% to go.) Contributions gratefully accepted at: http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/donate Answers by Citing the Vedic Version Appreciation: Thought for the Day Touched My Heart In response to Thought for the Day--18 January 2016: Beautiful; this touched my heart! Hare Krishna! Girija Krishnaswamy BSc Engineering, MBA, MSc (InfSysMgmt), PMP Answer: I Cannot Take Any

Yesterday (Saturday 16 January 2016) when I was checking out from the hotel after attending the North American ISKCON Leaders meeting in Houston, Texas USA a gentleman in the hotel lobby saw me in my devotional garb and asked me what religion I belong to. I told him that actually there is only one religion, to become a pure lover of God, that whether you address God as Allah, Jehovah, Christ, or Krishna there is actually one God and one religion, to give yourself fully to God. He very much appreciated this. Only at this point after I established the one universal religion did I mention that I am a Hare Krishna follower. I asked him if he was a Christian and he said that he is. Then I enthusiastically said "Amen", which is a Christian way of affirming or approving something which another Christian has just said, just we say "Jaya." He really liked this. Then I told him that just as I have said, "Amen," I am asking you to say, "Hare Krishna," whi

If we take an absolute statement of the spiritual master and we dismiss it as not being applicable in all circumstances this is called relativization. It is also called glossing over, which means try to conceal or disguise (something embarrassing or unfavorable) by treating it briefly or representing it misleadingly. In other words we should not twist the teachings of the spiritual master around our own attachments. This will keep us in the material world birth after birth. Rather we should adapt our thoughts, words, and deeds so that they are fully in line with our spiritual master's teachings. Bhakti Marg Swami Leads Super Ecstatic Kirtan Leader's Meeting--Houston, Texas USA--16 January 2016 Artist's Concept of Our Completed Project in Austin, Texas USA $49,549.13 collected with $2,450,450.87 still to go. (2% of our goal with 98% to go.) Contributions gratefully accepted at: http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/donate Answers by Citing the Vedic Versio

It is simply wonderful to be here in Houston for the annual North American leader's meeting. We are blessed with the association of many exalted Vaisnavas for two-and-a-half days of seminars on various important transcendental topics such as: book distribution, ISKCON's 50th anniversary, Western outreach, devotee care, and many more. The kirtans are glorious and the prasadam is phenomenal. It's a great way to start the new year with a strong dose of inspiration! ISKCON Leader's Meeting--Houston, Texas USA--15 January 2016 Artist's Concept of Our Completed Project in Austin, Texas USA $49,549.13 collected with $2,450,450.87 still to go. (2% of our goal with 98% to go.) Contributions gratefully accepted at: http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/donate Answers by Citing the Vedic Version Question: What to Do When I'd Rather Hide? My name is Antun, and I am writing to you regarding the Thought for the Day, dated 15th January 2016. There Your

We tend to limit ourselves regarding how much we can do or accomplish for Krishna. This limitation we place on ourselves is called our comfort zone. To advance steadily in Krishna consciousness toward the ultimate goal of pure love of God we need to always try to expand our comfort zone. In this way we will become more and more fixed in Krishna consciousness and in our ability to successfully give Krishna to others. Thus we should train ourselves to feel comfortable outside of our comfort zone and uncomfortable in our comfort zone. Magnificent ISKCON Houston Artist's Concept of Our Completed Project in Austin, Texas USA $49,549.13 collected with $2,450,450.87 still to go. (2% of our goal with 98% to go.) Contributions gratefully accepted at: http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/donate Answers by Citing the Vedic Version Question: What Is Pure Bhakti? What is pure bhakti? Is it only through pure bhakti that we can fully surrender to Lord Krishna? Your servan

I was wandering in the darkness of ignorance for thousands and millions of lifetimes due my mood of defiance of the Supreme Authority, Lord Sri Krishna, until I was fortunate to be blessed by the mercy of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and Lord Sri Krishna with the most sublime seed of pure devotional service. And I was also fortunate enough to realize that I had indeed received something more valuable than anything that can ever be obtained anywhere in this material world. I cashed in on that mercy and thus have been blessed with the most sublime transcendental existence beyond the sufferings of this material world. You too can have this, if you want it badly enough. Thus, it is up to you now to decide whether you want to continue suffering in the cycle of birth and death or you want to enjoy an eternal life full of knowledge and full of bliss. The choice is yours. I hope and pray that you will choose wisely. Krishna Awaits Your Return to His Sublime Abode

To be actually Krishna conscious means to be tasting ever-increasing nectar at every minute. But on the neophyte level sometimes we are blissfully enlivened in Krishna consciousness and sometimes we are miserably bewildered by material consciousness, as Arjuna was on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. The solution for our unsteady Krishna consciousness is to follow the example of Arjuna by fully surrendering ourselves to Krishna according to the precise instructions given by Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita. Then we will fully awaken in the realm of pure bhakti in which life is ever-increasingly ecstatic at every minute. May that day come real soon! Bewildered Arjuna Approaches Krishna for Guidance Artist's Concept of Our Completed Project in Austin, Texas USA $49,549.13 collected with $2,450,450.87 still to go. (2% of our goal with 98% to go.) Contributions gratefully accepted at: http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/donate Answers by Citing the Vedic Version Questi

When someone asks you, "What religion do you belong to?", you can tell them that you practice the one religion that is the religion for all. You can explain to them that real religion is one, to become a lover of God and that any pathway that brings you to point of pure love of religion is first class religion. This is the beauty of our Vaisnava philosophy. It is not sectarian. It applauds and upholds the universal nature of religion while at the same time clearly distinguishing between real religion and materially motivated cheating religion. Srila Prabhupada Teaches Pure Religion Artist's Concept of Our Completed Project in Austin, Texas USA $43,541.83 collected with $2,456,458.17 still to go. Contributions gratefully accepted at: http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/donate Answers by Citing the Vedic Version Question: How Do We Know What Krishna Wants? How do we know what Krishna wants us to do? Kalpana Answer: He Tells Us in the Bhagavad-git

Here in Toronto my disciple Mahabhagavat Das has arranged a whirlwind lecture series for me at several different venues here in the greater Toronto area. I am constantly going from one lecture to the next. The question and answer sessions following the lectures are split equally between me and my wife, Her Grace Srimati Vishnupriya devi dasi. I answer one question, and she answers the next. In this way we go back and forth to answer the many wonderful questions asked by the many who are attending the lectures. It has been a wonderful opportunity to deeply absorb myself in hearing, chanting, and remembering the most glorious name, fame, pastimes, entourage, paraphernalia, and teachings of that most amazingly charming person who is standing on the shore at Kesi Ghat and attracting all the gopi girls by the sweet sound of His flute. P.S. Here is the Srimad Bhagavatam class from 10 January: https://iskconaustin.sharefile.com/d-sa0e908129b44375a Diving Deeply into Krishna's Holy N