Socrates and His Teachings — A Vedic Perspective
Socrates faces his death calmly and without fear, an attitude he said was but proper for a philosopher who is interested only in the care of his soul and is unaffected by bodily conditions.
Yoga Mush and the Jerk Divine
Krishna meditated, He became God. Buddha meditated, he became god. Jesus meditated, he became god. Now god wants you to meditate so you can become god…
Seeing Technology in a Spiritual Light
you can use the car for reaching people with the message of Krsna consciousness. You can use everything for Krsna. That is what we teach. If there is a nice car, why should I condemn it? Utilize it for Krsna: then it is all right.
Beyond the Formless Philosophies
By mental speculation one concludes that because material forms are temporary, spirit, to be eternal, must be formless. This reasoning, however, is illogical, like the conditioned thinking of a cow in a barn.
Escaping the Dream — Srila Prabhupada Speaks Out
In a dream we see so many things that have nothing to do with us. This is our nighttime dream, and we recognize it when we wake up. Unfortunately generally we go back into our daytime dream. “I am this.” “I am that.” “I am white.” “I am black.” “I am American.” And so forth.
Neighbor James
William James’s “Soul Theory” seemed imposing at first—as imposing as William James Hall must have looked to my grandmother. As it turned out, James was pretty close to home. by Mathuresa Dasa Gammy, my grandmother, had a passing acquaintance of sorts with William James, the great American psychologist and philosopher. She owned a two-century-old white […]
The Whole Truth
Satyaraja dasa addresses a gathering at the Whole Life Expo in New York City. Thank you for allowing me to speak at the 1985 Whole Life Expo. I would like to ask you all to reflect for a moment on the implications of the word whole. What does it mean to be truly whole? That […]
Without Him Nothing can Exist
There are many philosophers. Some of them think the Absolute Truth is impersonal, and others say it is personal. In India the impersonalists are known as Mayavadis and the personalists are known as Vaisnavas. So, here Lord Krsna resolves the controversy about whether the Absolute Truth is impersonal or personal.
Questions and Answers on the Science of God
Do we have free will? Are we all on the same path? Are we going in the same direction? Will we all reach the same destination?
Can Faith Be Reasonable?
Our modern society, with its emphasis on science and technology, would certainly seek to view itself as being rooted in reason rather than in faith. Faith, after all, connotes unquestioning belief and seems at variance with the “scientific method.”
Theosophy Ends in Vaishnavism
In brief, a believer in Theosophy accepts as a fact that, “in and through all things, a Directing Will is at work, with a plan of Action from moment to moment towards a predominated end.” That is the version of the Theosophist in a different way as the Vaisnavite works. The predominated end is to serve the purpose of the Predominator Absolute.
Plato’s Politics
Plato believed society can enjoy prosperity and harmony only if it places people in working categories or classes according to their natural abilities. He thought people should find out their natural abilities and use those abilities to their fullest capacity—as administrators, as military men, or as craftsmen.
Psychoanalysis and the Soul
Even in the so-called normal condition, the pleasure derived from sexual intercourse is simply frustrating and insignificant. For ordinary men attached to the materialistic way of life, their only pleasure is sexual intercourse.
Nirvana – Annihilation or Devotion?
German pessimist philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) thought that nirvana, (freedom from suffering) means becoming desireless—putting an end to our will. But His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada disagrees.
Searching for the Place of No Anxiety…
Atheist-existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre writes that because man wants to be God but cannot, he is a “useless passion” in a universe that has no purpose—and thus, he is always in anxiety.
From Despair to Love (Part 2) Making the Leap of Faith
Soren Kierkegaard, the father of existentialism, said we have to make the leap of faith and he saw the goal as God. He wrote, “There is a God—His will is made known to me in holy scripture and in my conscience.”
From Despair to Love
Soren Kierkegaard was a mid-nineteenth-century Danish philosopher who is generally regarded as the father of existentialism. A devout Christian, he believed that religious truth is not innate within man, and that man must therefore receive this truth from God.
The Secret of the “Superman”
Friedrich Nietzsche thought of the “superman” as someone totally self-controlled, unafraid, simple, aware, self-reliant… and nonexistent. But here His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada tells us about real supermen—who they are and how they get that way.
What Thomas Aquinas Knew and Didn’t Know About the Kingdom of God
Thomas Aquinas compiled the entire Church doctrine in Summa Theologica, which constitutes the official philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church. He also systematized a good deal of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy.
Liberation of the Cave Dwellers
In Plato’s Republic, Socrates uses the allegory of the cave to illustrate the nature of man’s attachment to the illusory things of this material universe. He tells of men living in the depths of an underground cave, the entrance of which is open to the light.