The universal form is the form of the Supreme Lord in which one can see everything in the universe, all at once. In the universal form, one can see past, present and future. One can see all the demigods of the material creation, and all other living beings.
Those who do not like this Hare Krishna movement say we are “crazy.” Similarly, we see a person in material consciousness as a crazy person. Who, then, is actually crazy? Who decides?
The Hare Krishna temple in Paris in the elegant 16th district maintains sixty full-time devotees who teach a weekly course in Vedic Wisdom at Nanterre University, run a press and and hold a weekly festival that attracts some four hundred guests.
For a typical initiation, about one hundred devotees gather in the temple. The devotees to be initiated—perhaps a dozen of them—sit in two rows, facing the devotee designated to be the priest of the ceremony.
A study of material nature, for the purpose of distinguishing matter from spirit, is known as Sankhya philosophy.
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.
In Bhagavad-gita Krishna says, Just surrender to Me, and I will give you all protection. Caitanya, in addition, explains the activities following surrender.
Gurukula, a school for children ages five to fifteen, was founded by ISKCON in 1971. It is the only school teaching one how to be eternal, blissful and full of knowledge.
After the disappearance of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, his son, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja, a great scholar and pure devotee, continued to expand the mission of Lord Caitanya.
Vrindavan is a simple village unlike all other places in the world, for this is where Lord Krishna, the Supreme Godhead, comes to earth with His associates to display His pastimes.
We should not be surprised if Krishna had married sixteen million wives, for Krishna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is unlimited. Indeed, we may note with wonder that Krishna married only 16,108 wives.
Conversations about spiritual life between Bob Cohen, a young Peace Corps worker in India, and His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Recorded at the ISKCON International Center at Lord Caitanya’s Birthplace, Mayapur, India
We also invite you to visit one of the Krishna consciousness centers–anywhere in the world–and thus come closer to Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
In the Bible it is said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” There is no difference between God and God’s form, His qualities and His word.
In Los Angeles, California, a community of three hundred Hare Krishna devotees live in a suburban neighborhood sometimes called the Hare Krishna quarter, which includes a dozen offices, four apartment buildings, a book warehouse, a stately temple and a large factory.
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.
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.
We try to direct them toward what is best and most beautiful and what is most spiritually nourishing in the world about them—that is, insofar as the system allows us.
Vedic references tend toward the Big Bang theory, which suggests that at a certain time well in the future the process will reverse itself, and the universe will turn in on itself.
Kamsa heard the cries of the newborn child as his death knell, and he rushed in to kill him. But the baby flew up into the air and assumed the form of the demigoddess Maya. “You rascal,” she said to Kamsa. “The child who will kill you has already been born elsewhere. You cannot kill Him.”