Pleasure is a general term which is applied to any feeling of satisfaction which is agreeable to the living entity. This feeling may range from a sense of bodily gratification to a positive sense of spiritual happiness.
Intelligence, knowledge, freedom from doubt and delusion, forgiveness, truthfulness, self-control and calmness, pleasure and pain, birth, death, fear, fearlessness, non-violence, equanimity, satisfaction, austerity, charity, fame and infamy are created by Me alone.
I’ll never forget the first night I went to see Prabhupad. Four of my friends were sufficiently interested to attend his “class.” When we began chanting the Hare Krishna Mantra for the first time that July night, I was reminded of the services of the monks up in Hardwar.
New Vrindaban, united in Krishna Consciousness, is now taking shape under the guidance of Srila Prabhupada. The hills of West Virginia are vibrating with the Hare Krishna Mantra, and it is certain that the forests, fields and mountains have entered the spiritual sky of Vaikuntha.
Krishna the Chariot Driver holds the reins of His chariot, the Creation. He is no inexperienced charioteer. He is very adept at driving the universe through space.
The President was informed that the earth and life on it are slowly dying. And that’s putting it euphemistically. The outlook is bleak. The report, entitled “Global 2000,” paints a landscape of a wasteland that makes T. S. Eliot’s portrait paradisal.
Swamiji says You always wear A peacock feather In Thy Hair And that Thy Feet And colored red And leave a lotus Where’er You tread
Today, for the majority of students attending universities and institutions of higher learning, the question of the end of knowledge, the destination of the long pursuit, hardly ever comes to mind. One’s eyes are usually fixed on graduation day and the diploma that signifies entrance into a good-paying job. For most, the goal of knowledge is money and the material pleasures it buys.
We stood on a rooftop in Manhattan, gazing out over the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge toward Brooklyn. I asked him, “Do you actually love Krishna?” He thought for a second. “I love pleasure,” he said finally. “To be truthful.”
Vrndavana, India, the land of Krishna five thousand years after the disappearance of the Supreme Person, is invaded by eighty American and European disciples of Srila Prabhupada. The white and saffron robed pilgrims arrive in Vrndavana for Karttika, a celebration of Krishna’s rasa dance with the cowherd girls
Srila Prabhupada dropped a bomb no one was expecting. At the morning lecture, someone asked him about the significance of initiation, and he answered, “Initiation means you accept a spiritual master and agree to worship him as God.” There was a stunned silence.
I attended the first meeting in the little storefront with two of my friends. I was surprised to see half a dozen people there. The storefront was narrow and squalid. There was no rug on the wooden floors and no decorations save one painting in the window of Lord Caitanya dancing with His disciples.
When Srila Prabhupada walked in to begin kirtana, he looked at the newly decorated temple and showed surprise. “Ah, you are advancing,” he said. “This is very nice. This is Krsna consciousness.”
In Plato’s Republic, Socrates uses the allegory of the cave to illustrate the nature of man’s attachment to the illusory things of this material universe. He tells of men living in the depths of an underground cave, the entrance of which is open to the light.
It is by intelligence that I can understand that this body is not me. I may say, “My hand, my head, my arm,” but the use of the possessive pronoun indicates that these are my possessions and that I am situated apart from them.
It was almost like following a Martian down the street. Somehow Srila Prabhupada floated through it all, seemingly unaware of the stares, comments and general sensation he was creating.
You have New York, New England, and so many ‘New’ duplicates of European countries in the USA–why not import New Vrndavana in your country?
Krsna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.
Krishna says: “Devotees are always engaged in chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination. Offering homage unto Me, they worship Me with devotion.”
Surrendering all unto the Supreme Lord is a difficult if not impossible task for must people. This is because they are not aware of the peace such surrender brings.