Of course, there are different types of yoga, but ultimately the basic principle is to purify the mind so we can understand our pure spiritual identity. Yogis want to go beyond the mind, beyond even the intellect, to the very root of life, the soul.
Everywhere the leaders have become deviated. They don’t follow their own principles, their own disciplines. So naturally the young people reject them.
Sivananda had not been in the temple more than a year when Srila Prabhupada came to Montreal. After a short meeting, Srila Prabhupada requested Sivananda to go to Europe to try to open a center there.
A state government that poses itself as a democracy but whose actual policy is to persecute and harass religious communities—such as ours—can hardly be civilized, cultured, or lawful. Such a society is barbaric and animalistic.
Religious Persecution In West Germany. The raid . . . the media barrage . . . the courtroom encounter.
A half-million-dollar effort to snuff out the Hare Krishna Movement.
What is a Hare Krishna festival? It is a transcendental event organized for the pleasure of the Supreme Lord, Krishna. Just as in the material world a meeting or event is conducted especially to show respect and honor to a great man, so a Hare Krishna festival is especially organized to please the Supreme Person.
Most forms of meditation are virtually impossible to perform in the modern world, and therefore one should learn to meditate by the simple method of chanting and hearing the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.
A true scientist would never prematurely declare, “I do not believe that I have a soul or spirit that survives my death.” Rather, if he really wished to perceive the soul, or self, he would embrace the process of self-realization Lord Krishna outlines in the Bhagavad-gita.
The Indian reporter asked why Americans and Europeans are becoming Hindus. Srila Prabhupada said, “Krsna is not Hindu—you won’t find the word Hindu anywhere in Vedic literature.”