The Sanskrit language is rich in words to communicate ideas about spiritual life, yoga, and God realization. This dictionary will focus upon the most important of these (and, occasionally, upon relevant English terms) and explain what they mean.
Shortly after founding the first Krsna conscious temple in the West, Srila Prabhupada organized the first Vedic marriage ceremony, replete with fire sacrifice, garlands, exotic foods, and an intimation of the worldwide mission soon to follow.
A million dollars and three dozen magazine covers later, Anne had wealth, fame, and apartments in most European capital cities. Anne Schaufuss had everything. Except, maybe, happiness.
I finished the school year, bade farewell to my family, girlfriend, and other intimates, and set off for Japan to practice Zen in earnest.
Prabhupada announced that he would soon hold an initiation. “What’s initiation, Swamiji?” one of the boys asked, and Prabhupada replied, “I will tell you later.”
While telling about Lord Caitanya’s universal sankirtana movement of chanting God’s holy names, Srila Prabhupada would explain that Christians could also take part by chanting the name of Jesus Christ.
The ’60s proved a fertile field for Prabhupada’s planting the seeds of Krsna consciousness in the West. Now the intensifying war in Vietnam, bringing forth a widespread clamor for peace, provided him an opportunity to present Krsna consciousness as the real peace formula.
The temple cave of Varaha-Nrsimha juts out from the mountain leading to Ahovalam. Local priests say the Deities in these solid-stone temples were installed thousands of years ago.
Walking in the early morning, I see the tower of the Madana-mohana temple in my path. The village of Vrndavana is still dark. I enter the Yamuna’s waters, and downriver I hear the sadhus’ carefree cries. Chanting and singing, they sound as though they have nothing to lose.
The small storefront temple at 26 Second Avenue had begun to thrive. Srila Prabhupada, by his chanting, his strong preaching, his delicious meals of prasadam, but most of all by his transcendental loving personality, had attracted a few sincere followers.
1980-09-03Real craftsmanship is, above all else, a spiritual exercise.” A mass of spinning clay turns between his fingers. The clay gradually grows into a slender urn that curves and tapers beneath his touch.
There were predictions that after his disappearance the movement and teachings he had established would soon fall apart. Now it is three years later, and Srila Prabhupada’s unique contributions are still flourishing.
Americans have been described as a people in search of a history. Though the great achievements of this country are undeniable, it is a peculiar American trait to be insecure about the historical significance of the nation when it is compared with the older European cultures.
Behind Srila Prabhupada’s appearance on the alien Manhattan streets stand five millennia of planning and effort. The story of it opens one sunrise fifty centuries ago in the Himalayas, where the sage Krsna-Dvaipayana Vyasa sits in trance on the bank of the Sarasvati.
“The Swamiji doesn’t want anyone smoking pot here.” Don denied it: “I have not been smoking. You are not speaking the truth.” The boy then reached into Don’s shirt pocket and pulled out a joint, and Don hit him in the face.
“Much of Africa’s population accepts reincarnation,” he explained. “And because Africans have a tradition of sitting and hearing from spiritual authorities, my lectures were well received.
The other doctors never call him Samika Rsi dasa. Most of them don’t even know he is an initiated devotee of Lord Krsna. In the hospital—St. Joseph’s Hospital, Carbondale, Pennsylvania—he is Shyam Sundar Mahajan, director of the emergency ward.
Sometimes when you’re driving you’re not sure whether you turned in the right direction, and you suspect that you may in fact be going the wrong way. Then every mile you travel is simply anxiety. You don’t know whether to go sixty miles an hour or twenty miles an hour, because if you’re going in the wrong direction you don’t want to go too far too fast.
He was maestro of the chanting, head of the kitchen, and spiritual father to a band of wild, candid young Americans.
In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy, the only means of deliverance is chanting the holy name of the Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way.