Ultimate Self Realization

Srila Prabhupada has informed us that the whole world is waiting to be awakened to Krishna consciousness. Therefore we must now rise to the occasion and do just that, awaken the entire world to Krishna consciousness. If we are to be successful now in making the whole world Krishna we must come to the standard now of pure devotional service. This means that we must be completely free from all material desires, even the subtle desires of adoration and distinction. Therefore for the sake of our own deliverance and the deliverance of all the poor souls who are suffering in the cycle of birth and death we must now perfect our chanting of the Hare Krishna completely free from all of the ten offenses, which are listed as follows: (1) To blaspheme the devotees who have dedicated their lives for propagating the holy name of the Lord. (2) To consider the names of demigods like Lord Siva or Lord Brahma to be equal to, or independent of, the name of Lord Vishnu. (Sometimes the atheistic class ...

In my 49 years of practicing Krishna consciousness I have seen many people take to this process and sadly all too many people leave this process also. It's really a shame that someone who is on the pathway to become free from his perpetual entanglement in the miseries of this material existence should so foolishly fall back into material existence. Therefore I am begging all of you who are currently practicing Krishna consciousness to not give it up no matter whatever happens. Mayadevi is there to test us to make sure that we are genuine in our desire to serve Krishna. It is her duty to weed out the superficial show-bottle so-called devotees who are not really serious about fully surrendering themselves to Krishna. For those who are serious she helps and facilitates them in their loving devotional service to Krishna. Therefore always be reaffirming within your heart your desire to fully surrendered unto Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the source of all exi...

Do not be misled by the so-called society, friendship, and love here in this material world. They are simply a false shelter, which do not give you any real protection. Your only true friend is that person who is the very source of your existence, Lord Sri Krishna. Those who purely represent Him are also your true friends. So now you should be your own true friend by making sure that you fully surrender to Krishna and to those who purely represent Him. Any other pathway is sheer idiocy. So be kind to yourself by fully surrendering to Krishna. You will be swimming in ocean of unlimited bliss at every moment. If you have any questions, please write me at: tastenectar@gmail.com Krishna is the Greatest of All Friends Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom Question: Brahma's Creation or Big Bang? Did Brahma create the universe or was the universe created through the Big Bang? Pooja Makkar Answer: Explosions Do Not Create Order Dear Pooja, If I told you that the Taj Mahal wa...

Fifty years ago in early 1970 I was a very popular singer on the University of Texas campus with my regular daily concerts at the foot of the George Washington statue on the University's South Mall. The student newspaper, "The Daily Texan," published a very favorable article about my concerts calling me "the minstrel." Because I was hippy identifying with the love and peace movement I did the concerts with a desire to have a positive uplifting impact on our ever-increasing troubled world. That desire become fulfilled when a few months later under the guidance and inspiration of His Holiness Vishnujana Swami I surrendered to Srila Prabhupada and was accepted as his disciple on 12 August 1971. Since I am now living here in Austin I could not neglect the opportunity to do a widely publicized fifty-years-after anniversary concert of my Krishna conscious songs. If you are in the Austin, Texas area, you are invited to come to the University of Texas South Mall at 12 ...

So you want to be happy? Or do you want to be miserable? The choice is completely, totally yours. It does not depend on anyone else. Always remember that suffering is the pastime of only the fools and rascals. So why punish yourself by remaining in material consciousness? Don't be an idiot. Awaken your dormant Krishna consciousness and be swimming at every minute in an ocean of unlimited transcendental bliss. This is real intelligence. Anything else is sheer idiocy. I hope you make the right choice because I am disappointed when anybody is suffering. If you have any questions, please write me at: tastenectar@gmail.com You Owe to Yourself to Be Krishna Conscious Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom Question: What is Self Realization? My respects to you. Can you explain what self-realization actually is? I know I'm searching for something but don't know the destination. Thank you. Stephen Brown Answer: To Know Things As They Are From: ISKCON Austin, Texas U...

There is no greater boon that one can achieve in millions and billions and trillions of lifetimes than to have the association of a pure devotee of the Lord. Because the pure devotee is unflinchingly fixed in serving Lord Sri Krishna with absolute purity with his every thought, word, and deed in all tImes, places, and circumstances Lord Sri Krishna has become his personal property. Since he possesses Krishna and since he is very kind he can easily give Krishna to us. Therefore we should always seek out and take full advantage of the association of Krishna's pure devotees. Their importance is described as follows in the Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, Madhya 22.54: ’sādhu-saṅga’, ‘sādhu-saṅga’—sarva-śāstre kaya lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya “The verdict of all revealed scriptures is that by even a moment’s association with a pure devotee, one can attain all success." Even if we cannot always be in the physical presence of Krishna's pure devotees simply by alwa...

There is no reason at all for us to be living in an ever more polluted environment. The external pollution that is presenting choking the earth is simply a manifestation of our internal pollution. Through the amazing self-realization process of Krishna consciousness we can clean both environments: the internal and the external. This is what I am trying to do here in this e-course. Please take it seriously and help me popularize it more and more so that in due course the entire world will become pollution free. Your life will be glorious and the whole world will become happy. If you have any questions, please write me at: tastenectar@gmail.com Save the World from All Pollution! Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom Question: Who Possesses Mother Nature? When we all agree that mother nature is the source of everything, then who possesses this nature? Whose nature is this? Sunil K. Answer: Krishna Dear Sunil, That nature is property of Krishna or God. A mother cann...

I am one of the most fortunate persons in the entire universe to gotten the opportunity to be an initiated disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON (The International Society for Krishna Consciousness). Recently my beloved Godbrother, Sriman Siddhanta Prabhu, made of video of me presenting my memories of Srila Prabhupada. So today's "Thought for the Day" is sharing that video with you. If you have any questions, please write me at: tastenectar@gmail.com Click Here or on Image Below to Watch Video Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom Question: Are Negative Spirits Real? Hello, I am truly grateful for all your guidance. I was wondering if negative spirits are real and if they can affect us on our spiritual path and lead us to self sabotage. Also, if someone does become enlightened can that person make mistakes? Thank you for everything you do for us!!! Sara Serkus Answer: World is Full of Negativ...

The Vedic injunction "athāto brahma jijñāsā" means, "This human form of life is meant for realization of the Supreme Brahman, the Absolute Truth." Therefore if we do not use it for that purpose we are lower than the animals. This is so because the animals are acting in perfect accordance with their animal natures. If do not cultivation realization of the highest truth as our life's goal, we are lower than animals. This is why the world is currently such a screwed up mess. Let's fix it by educating the so-called humans how to be actual humans! If you have any questions, please write me at: tastenectar@gmail.com Don't Be an Animal Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom Question: If We Deny Our Spiritual Nature? Who are we if we deny our spiritual nature? Miguel Camino Answer: Lower than Animals Dear Miguel, If we deny our spiritual nature, we are lower than animals. If we study the various species, we will see that the animals are ...

In this material world sex is the number one pleasure. Almost everyone is running madly after sex pleasure. Therefore the sex industry is a humongous multi-billion dollar monster. Sex is used to sell everything from toothpaste to banking services. For example, when Ultrabrite toothpaste was first introduced to market there was an aggressive advertising campaign telling the public again and again an again: "New Ultrabrite toothpaste gives your mouth sex appeal." The reality is that those who run after sex pleasure are destined to take birth again in this material world. But for those who come to Krishna consciousness sex desire is easily given up because they are getting a pleasure which is billions and trillions of times greater than the so-called sex pleasure, which is factually nothing more than a much overly glorified scratching of an itch. If you have any questions, please write me at: tastenectar@gmail.com New Ultrabrite Toothpaste Gives Your Mouth Sex Appeal? ...

Even though they don't know it, the whole world is simply waiting to be awakened to Krishna consciousness because this is their original, natural, constitutional position of eternity, knowledge, and bliss. Therefore those compassionate souls who dedicate their lives fully to the awakening of Krishna consciousness within everyone will go down in history as the greatest reformers the world has ever known. You can easily be one of the such great reformers simply by sincerely trying to share Krishna consciousness with everyone that you meet. This process of sharing Krishna consciousness with others is such a simple process that even a child can do it. So if you are not doing it already, what are you waiting for? Embrace Lord Caitanya's world deliverance mission as your very life and soul right now. As far as possible introduce everyone you meet to Krishna consciousness. Your life will be unlimitedly sublime. If you have any questions, please write me at: tastenectar@gmail.com...

In the modern age people are so unhappy that on the average every 40 seconds somebody commits suicide. If you ever become depressed and your mind becomes disturbed with suicidal thoughts, kick such thoughts out with boot because the karmic reaction for suicide is that you become a ghost. This means that end up in a worse situation than the situation you were lamenting. Instead of suicide the solution for your anxiety is to remember this most sublime instruction from Lord Krishna, which He gives to Arjuna in Chapter Two, Text 14 of the Bhagavad-gita: mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ āgamāpāyino 'nityās tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata TRANSLATION "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." So the next time you...

A half a century ago in 1970 during the height of the counter-culture social revolution in Austin, Texas, just before I surrendered to Lord Krishna I was famous for my daily concerts on the University of Texas at Austin campus on the South Mall at the foot of the statue of George Washington. Since this is the 50th anniversary of those concerts I have decided to do a Krishna conscious "50 Years After" concert at the same spot most likely on 12 March, depending on the weather. This will be promoted to the 50,000 students on the University of Texas campus as well as to the media. If you are free of other commitments on that day and you would like to attend, you are most welcome to come. Come at noon to the George Washington Statue on the University of Texas South Mall. At that time my songs were mundane, although some of them expressed my spiritual leanings. Now my songs are all Krishna conscious. They can be heard at www.TurnontheWorld.com If you have any questions, ple...

Most of what we get from the internet is pure garbage, a complete total waste of time because it does not liberate us from the cycle of birth and death. To the contrary, it tightens the knot of our material attachments. However what we present here in our daily Thought for Day broadcast and our Weekly Lessons is of a completely different nature. The special blessing we offer to you is to give you topics directly in relation to Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the source of all existence, Who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and the best well-wishing friend of all living beings. Connecting with Krishna brings us back to our original eternal, fully blissful, fully cognizant actual conscious identities situated far, far beyond all of the miseries of this material existence, such as birth, death, old age, and disease. So remember this the next time you decide whether or not you decide to open one of our daily emails. We offer you every day the supreme benediction, Kris...

I very much appreciate how Bhakta Sunil has made a YouTube video promoting our e-course. In this regard Bhakta Sunil has written me as follows: Dear Srila Gurudeva, I offer my obeisances at your feet. Srila Gurudeva, a few days back I made a video on YouTube, a tutorial of how to use the mobile app of the Ultimate Self Realization E-course. But I am worried whether telling Your Divine Grace about the video may be wrong and may increase my false ego. Then I thought that the video can help increase your glories. Your Divine Grace may like to utilize the video, so am sharing the link of the Youtube video here : https://youtu.be/Iwx1v-C6sMs All credits and glories to Your Divine Grace. Your insignificant servant, Bhakta Sunil Thanks to Bhakta Sunil who was rendered this nice service to help our preaching mission. If you have any questions, please write me at: tastenectar@gmail.com Bhakta Sunil's YouTube Video (click on photo below to see it) Answers According to the Vedic Wis...

As a young brahmacari monk in 1973 I was transferred from our ISKCON temple in Miami, Florida USA to Gainesville, Florida where Amarendra Prabhu and his wife, Gayatri devi dasi, were reopening ISKCON's Gainesville center near the campus of the University of Florida. (It been closed down during a brief centralization era of ISKCON.). When I arrived it was just the two of them living in a downstairs apartment. It was truly amazing that in one year we went from the three of us to twenty-five devotees living full time in the temple. We then bought and moved into a former sorority house near the campus on Depot Avenue. They cooked what we arguably the best prasadam in the whole ISKCON and were regularly distributing it. Amarendra sent me to the University of Florida campus five days a seek to the Plaza of the Americas to restart a prasadam distribution program on the campus that has been going on now for over forty years. You can can read more about that program here . I will always...

My mother in this lifetime, Carolyn Bridge, majored in music (singing voice) in college and loved to sing in our church choir at St. Luke's Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas. She was such a dedicated and expert singer that the choir director often engaged her in singing solos. Her voice was so powerful that she could fill the entire sanctuary (worship hall) with her voice without the help of a microphone. I am trying to follow in her footsteps by singing with devotion to Lord Sri Krishna. I missed the opportunity to be with her, as we were with my father, to help her remember God at the time of her passing because Gurumata and I were on pilgrimage in India. Wherever she may be now I certainly pray that Lord Sri Krishna may shower His unlimited blessings upon her, my dear mom. If you have any questions, please write me at: tastenectar@gmail.com My Mother Lovingly Holds Me When I Was in a Baby's Body Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom Question: Spiritual Being? Wh...

If you would rather read "Thought for the Day" on the internet instead of in your email, all you have to do is go to www.KrishnaConsciousness.com and click on the Daily Thought page where one click will take you to the latest "Thought for the Day" as well as an archive of every "Thought for the Day" we have sent since January of 2006. Click on this link right now to see how it works: www.KrishnaConsciousness.com If you have any questions, please write me at: tastenectar@gmail.com Krishna Eagerly Awakes Your Return to His Kingdom Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom Question: Real Purpose of Yoga? What is the real purpose of yoga that people have lost sight of? Sara Jane Answer: To Love God My Dear Sara, The real purpose of yoga is to yoke or link oneself with that original source from which everything is emanating. Since that source is a person, the Supreme Person, the perfection of yoga is the yoga of love, bhakti yoga, in which one fully, l...

It was truly an extraordinary mystical evening in the autumn of 1968 when in my apartment at 1271 Lafayette Street in Denver a friend of mine named Patrick Dolan introduced me to the most powerful and effective mantra for spiritual realization. There was a group of us in the room. He started chanting, and he asked us all to join him in chanting: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare That evening sent me off on a magical adventure of gradually awakening my dormant Krishna consciousness. Therefore I am ever thankful to Patrick Dolan. If you have any questions, please write me at: tastenectar@gmail.com Where I Was First Blessed with the Hare Krishna Mantra 1271 Lafayette Street in Denver, Colorado USA Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom Question: Power of Mantras? Do you believe in the power of mantras? Has a mantra worked for you? Goutham Bhat Answer: Absolutely! Dear Goutham, A half a century ago the Hare Krishn...

I have just written President Trump the following letter: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ My Dear Mr. President, Please accept my blessings. First kindly allow me to introduce myself. I am Sankarshan Das, a natural born American citizen, aged 72. I am one of the spiritual masters of the Hare Krishna Movement. You are the leader of the most powerful and prestigious country in the whole world. Our great country has adopted the motto "In God we trust." This is the most important principle for the peace, happiness, and prosperity for all peoples all over the world. Therefore my humble request is that for the remaining duration of your presidency you should kindly make this your topmost priority, to promote God consciousness to the American people and to all peoples all over the world. By bringing God back to the center of our global society the entire world will enjoy the greatest era of peace and pr...

There will come a day when all religionists of all faiths will recognize and appreciate the teachings of Bhagavad-gita as being the original pure essence of religion. An indication of this is the news that just come in from the internet in the story that follows: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Jaipur, Feb 8 (IANS) A 16-year-old Muslim teenage boy has won the Bhagwad Gita quiz competition organised here by Hare Krishna Mission in association with Akshay Patra Foundation. The two-round quiz show lasted for over six months, that saw participation by over 5,000 students. Abdul Kagzi, a class 9 student left the judges surprised with his apt knowledge on the subject and enormous knowledge on Sanskrit hymns and verses. This year, the theme was ''Knowing Shri Krishna.'' Kagzi said that his liking for Krishna developed while watching a cartoon series, ''Little Krishna'' and soon he got the idea how genius was Krishna who c...