Before Madhavendra Puri, most Indians worshiped Lord Krishna in a ritualistic fashion, according to strict rules and regulations. Such formal worship is necessary for those who have not awakened their natural desire to serve the Lord with love and devotion.
None of us had ever designed a building or worked with marble or anything like that. But we chanted Hare Krishna, and gradually Krishna revealed these skills.
“In the age of Kali (Quarrel and Hypocrisy) the chanting of the holy name is the best means of God-realization. There is no other alternative, no other alternative, no other alternative”
Seemingly devout Hindus say, “Why are you teaching of Krishna in America? To follow the Vedas you have to be born in India.” Is Krishna’s message, then, just for a few?
The scriptures and the saints and spiritual masters through the ages all say that chanting the Lord’s holy names is the best way to make spiritual advancement in this difficult time. Besides, it’s practical; it works.
He was an expert hatha-yogi in the respected order of spiritual life (sannyasa), and had been running a major yoga center in New York for thirteen years.
“You ‘re all under arrest!” We protested. “All around you there’s drug addiction, prostitution, crime, and violence, and you can’t find anything better to do than arrest us for chanting the names of God!”
King Ambarisa was famous as a pure devotee of Lord Krishna. “But why,” Durvasa Muni wondered, “should people respect him more than a great mystic yogi like me? I will teach him a lesson.”
“Transmigration,” “reincarnation,” “astral travel,” “life after death”—topics once hardly mentioned but now much talked about. Is there a soul? Can the soul live outside the body? What happens to the soul when the body dies?
I am staying here at the temple in Atlanta, and this has upset my parents very much. They started crying on the phone, and my mother even fainted once. Now I see what you meant when you told me that the family ties are much stronger in Indian families than in American families.
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.
College students on two American campuses have discovered that they can add Krishna consciousness to their college life by studying the philosophy of Bhagavad-gita and eating prasadam.
We, the fallen servants of His Divine Grace; beseech all of our Masters—Please give Srila Prabhupada more time! Time to insure the strength of this movement. Time to finish the Srimad-Bhagavatam. And a little more time for us to spend at the lotus feet of His Divine Grace.
A genuine guru must not only speak the truth; he must also live it. His character must be perfect and his behavior exemplary.
Who will say which religion is false and which genuine, which harmful and which beneficial? What we need is not someone’s self-interested opinion but a reliable, nonsectarian standard for separating the bogus religions from the bona fide.
Madhvacarya (acarya means “one who teaches by his life”) lived in thirteenth-century India and appeared in the Brahma-Gaudiya Vaisnava-sampradaya—the disciplic chain now represented by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
New Yorkers will be the first to admit that “Fun City” is often a hard place to be happy in. But the devotees at ISKCON’s center on Manhattan’s West 55th Street know the secret. By chanting the Hare Krishna mantra they’ve opened their minds to a whole new dimension of consciousness.
Laguna Beach—vacationers visit this southern California haven to enjoy the sun, surf and exotic shops. But the devotees at the Radha-Krishna temple there know a much better way you can enjoy yourself.
When it comes to the science of God-realization, most people are pretty much in the dark. In this conversation with Professor Alphonso Verdu of the University of Kansas, Dhrstadyumna Swami uses ancient India’s Vedic literature—”the torchlight of knowledge”—to clear things up.
I’ve been chanting Hare Krishna and reading authorized books about Krishna consciousness for four years, and now I’m finding a higher happiness than I’ve ever experienced before.