Advaita Acarya offered to the Deity of Lord Krsna the feast his wife had prepared. Pleased to see the gorgeous arrangement for Krsna’s pleasure, Lord Caitanya expressed His great satisfaction. Then He humbly sat down to one side, expecting to take a small portion of the offering.
News of tragedy from India shocked the world—first, the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi followed by mass murders and mayhem, then, hardly a month later, the catastrophic poisonous gas leak at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal.
From the highest planet in the material world, down to the lowest, all are places of misery, where repeated birth and death take place.
Even if one has achieved great success in business, or has amassed great wealth, a nice family, fame, or any amount of worldly or mystical power, still dissatisfaction at the inner core of one’s being is liable to occur.
Everyone is hankering after happiness and pleasure, and when one’s existence is purified he will be placed on the transcendental platform and will be able to enjoy eternal happiness.
Many vegetarian foods are a better source of protein than meat is. A typical hundred-gram portion of meat contains about twenty grams of protein, whereas an equal amount of cheese or lentils yields about twenty-five grams.
The devotees of the Krsna consciousness movement are simply trying to spread this sublime message all over the earth. Observe how people everywhere—in America, Japan, Australia, Canada and Europe—are taking to this life style and taking off the shackles of material existence.
The taking of prasadam, spiritual foodstuffs, by the devotee and the distribution of such foodstuffs to the public is an extremely important part of Krsna consciousness.
In Karma yoga, when you are working for Krishna, you can do your office tasks, speak to people on business, and do whatever you duty happens to be, for it all becomes part of your single aim: to return to God.
Paintings are needed in all the temples, as well as for illustrations in books. For these two reasons an art department has been set up in ISKCON for production of Krsna-katha art (art based on the pastimes of Krsna).
Kardama Muni practiced meditative penances on the bank of the Sarasvati River for a period of 10,000 years. It is understood that the yoga system, in order to be rightly practiced, must be performed by persons who possess a very long duration of life.
The promise of art is illusory. Art cannot save us, no matter how beautiful and well wrought its objects may be. They are, essentially, fictions. At best, art may palliate the pains of life, but even in this it dangerously misleads.
Ice cream, the ingredients don’t vary much from one brand to another. But ice cream that’s been prepared for Lord Krsna and offered to Him with love and devotion stands above all others.
Why is the attraction between male and female so powerful? What is the essence of this attraction? And why does the Vedic literature call it illusion?
I spent an afternoon at the Zoo with my two-year-old son. As I carried him from the elephant compound to the lion house to the bird sanctuary, I began to wish I had heeded my wife’s advice to bring along the stroller. “Why He knows how to walk.”
The art of making these sweets has been preserved through generations of specialized sweet-makers in India. There the sweet repertoire is extensive and elaborate, and although preparing such sweets may appear simple, to do it masterfully requires great skill.
The soul transmigrates at every moment as our body changes from childhood, to youth, and then to old age. When the body disintegrates at death, the soul start s another round of transmigration in a new body.
My whole life is going to waste, to my mind—I am still not very clear what is the aim of my life. A lot of people have been benefited by this great movement [ISKCON], by chanting, but I still feel that this is all the means to the end.
The search for happiness is natural, because it is the constitutional position of the spirit soul to be eternally joyful. But our search for happiness in the external, physical world is always frustrated; we look everywhere, never realizing permanent pleasure.
In that kingdom of perfect peace, where the knowledge of God will dissolve all evil, we won’t kill animals for food, because our food will be provided by God Himself.