It’s difficult to understand how someone on the path of spiritual realization can reject the things most people find enjoyable. Renunciation of worldly pleasure is possible only if one experiences a higher satisfaction.
We generally think that we’re in control of our actions and that we’re making our own decisions, but the supreme authority, Krishna, declares that this is not the case. He says that we are acting as puppets—victims—of the forces of nature.
Yoga is a word becoming increasingly familiar to people all over the world. Many are asking, “What is yoga? What does the yoga practitioner seek to achieve? And what is the ultimate goal of yoga?
Is there a higher enjoyment beyond the relative pleasures and pains of material life? His Holiness Revatinandana Svami describes how to achieve the realm of transcendental consciousness, where pleasure is ever increasing
We may find a typical villager in a Vedic community living with his wife and a few children in a thatched hut with mud walls and a dirt floor. He has a couple of cows, a well and four or five acres of land. The river is nearby.
They have converted three Greyhound buses into mobile temples to bring the message of Krishna consciousness to every town and village in the United States and Canada.
Prasadam means God’s mercy, and specifically refers to food that’s been offered to Krishna. Prasadam has been offered to Lord Krishna in love by one of His devotees, whereas ordinary food has not.
Srila Prabhupada thought if he could get some of the Westerners to become devotees of Krishna, the Indians would then realize the importance of the spiritual culture they had given up.
With this issue, we mark the beginning of the tenth year that BACK TO GODHEAD is being published in the West. It is unique because it is devoted to Krishna.
Everywhere we hold Krishna conscious festivals. People become inspired to join us. Soon we hope to see hundreds of buses bringing these blissful festivals to every town and village.
Many of us feel that this divorcing of the personal or devotional from learning, from wisdom, is a bad thing. And so I think we have a great deal to learn about the religions of India from people who have taken a direct, more involved and, I think, more complete and total approach to the things we read about in books.
This is the great chanting for peace. It means: “O my Lord, O energy of the Lord, please engage me in Your service.” This is the one true universal and eternal religion: service to the Lord, who is known as Krishna, Rama, Jehovah, Allah, and many other names.
All the press operations, including shooting with a copy camera, designing, spotting, stripping, printing, cutting and binding, are carried out by the disciples, with the intention of pleasing the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His pure devotee, Srila Prabhupada.
In Britain, like everywhere in the West, the most immediate and serious interest in the Krishna consciousness movement is found in the younger generation–particularly among some sections of the student and “hip” communities. There are several reasons for this, one being that young people are generally less set in their ways and therefore more liberal in examining new horizons.
Distributing Back to Godhead, I could see many people around me in the position I used to be in–depressed, despite having made all arrangements for pleasure through music and drugs–and this made me more eager to give everyone the transcendental knowledge of my spiritual master’s magazine.
Whatever your interest, it can be satisfied here because the subject of Back to Godhead is Krishna. Krishna, which literally means “the All-attractive,” is a name of the original form of God.
I’d been distributing my spiritual master’s books to San Antonio servicemen since nine o’clock that morning. Now I had to catch the bus from the base back into the city to join the other members of my group.
From cow’s milk, says Srila Prabhupada, you get butter and so many other things, and you can add fruit, vegetables, and grains to make hundreds and thousands of preparations–that is real enjoyment. Krishna Prasada.
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?
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.