Ultimate Self Realization

In Los Angeles, California, USA on 17 December 1973 His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta ordered his disciples, "Become perfect in the understanding of this science and become guru and deliver the whole world." Of course his disciples consider themselves to be nothing. They know that they have no potency for turning world history in completely the opposite direction from its current destruction course. So they do not think it it possible that they can become gurus and deliver the world. But at the same time they know that Lord Sri Krishna is all-powerful and that His energy acting through the guru parampara system, the chain of disciplic succession, can accomplish anything wonderful even though it may be inconceivable. Therefore they have dutifully accepted this order that their spiritual master Srila Prabhupada has given them to fully dedicate their lives for becoming gurus and delivering the whole world from its suffering condition. So many solutions are being put forward b...

When our senses scream at us begging for gratification, we should just say "No!" If we take this simple approach to sense control, we will find it very easy to become goswamis, masters of the senses. But if we start thinking that maybe we should compromise with our senses by giving them a little bit of over indulgence, we are paving our royal road to hell. Since if we give Maya an inch, she will take a mile, it is always better to err on the side of caution than on the side of looseness. While some gratification of the senses is necessary to keep the body fit for serving Krishna, it is suicidal to cross the line and overindulge them. If we do so, we are sure to become unhealthy both spiritually and materially. When we practice devotional service seriously it is not difficult to nicely control our senses because in Krishna consciousness we experience the joy of engaging our senses in the Lord's service. We get to relish delicious Krishna prasadam. We are privileged to fea...

Lord Krishna is bestowing showers of unlimited mercy upon each and every one of living entities throughout the totality of existence at every minute. Those who understand, appreciate, and reciprocate with this mercy are His devotees. Those who do not are the non-devotees. Being a devotee is most advantageous position to be in because as a devotee one is able to take full advantage of this unlimited flow of blessings. It is easy to feel that one is being blessed by God when things are going wonderfully. But it is not so easy to see the difficulties, especially the extreme difficulties, to be His blessings. But those who are able to experience everything even the difficulties as the mercy of the Supreme Person are already practically liberated from the sufferings of material existence. This is further explained as follows in the Srimad Bhagavatam: tat te 'nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam hṛd-vāg-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te jīveta yo mukti-pade sa dāya-bhāk...

According to one school of thought a spiritualist should not utilize anything produced by the material society. He must avoid contact with all material things. He cannot touch money. He should not wear a watch or travel in a motorized vehicle. He cannot use a computer or a mobile phone. He must keep himself completely detached from all material things. Only in this way can he become a true spiritualist. If he is in touch with material things, he loses his spiritual standing. But this a gross misunderstanding of reality and how to transcend the material nature. Those who adhere to this line of thought do not realize that everything in existence is the energy of God. If we use that energy in his service, it regains its original spiritual nature. For example I am typing this words using a laptop computer. In this way the laptop computer becomes transcendentalized. Another example is that we have just now made "Thought for the Day" available through an internet networking servic...

When I realized how unlimitedly merciful Srila Prabhupada is in bestowing the unlimited bliss of Krishna consciousness upon those who take shelter of him, I naturally wanted to reciprocate with his inconceivably sublime mercy by becoming his disciple. In this connection I have composed the following verse: Srila Prabhupada, I pray for the mercy That I can please you unlimitedly. For I've got to try to repay the debt For the unlimited bliss you're giving me. In the material world every experience I had ever tasted of love was frustrating and incomplete. But when I experienced a reciprocation of love in relationship with Srila Prabhupada by offering myself to him as his eternal servant I experienced a love that was completely pure, devoid of the lust and greed which contaminates the so-called love of this world. There is truly nothing sweeter than this. You can taste it too. You simply to do the same thing that I did. You have to surrender yourself at the lotus feet of the bona ...

The whole world is out there waiting to be inundated by the sublime mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's nama sankirtana movement. People are beginning to wake up more and more and realize that the old stereotypical answers to questions regarding reality, the universe, our purpose of existence, etc. are not sufficient any more because they do not satisfy the intelligence. More and more people are realizing that the old paradigms do not work and that new more enlightened paradigms are required. This is why the Krishna consciousness movement now needs to focus on training up as many men and women as possible who can act as highly qualified teachers for the education of the world population. With the specter of an ever-increasing myriad of crises hanging over the heads of the human population, people are willing now more than ever to abandon the old reality models and embrace new more practical and enlightened models of reality. There has truly never been a more opportune moment for sp...

The Vedic civilization flourished on this planet for 3,888,000 years. This is the time span from the beginning of the Satya yuga up until the end of the Dvapara yuga when the Kali yuga began 5,000 years ago. Especially since the beginning of the Kali yuga the human society has been becoming more and more godless. The result of such godlessness is ever-increasing chaos. This is leading us closer and closer to the collapse of the world civilization. In the absence of Vedic civilization we have seen throughout the Kali yuga a series of empires, none of which has endured because they have all been based on the false conception that the body is the self and that happiness is derived from material sense gratification. No amount of legislation, military might, or diplomacy can insure sustainability for our modern civilization. Without God consciousness it is sure to gradually disintegrate into total chaos and slither like the sinking Titanic into the ocean of oblivion. If we want to save the...