Thought-a-Week

Thought-a-Week   For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.    --Lord Sri Krishna

Krishna Meditations Weekly

Krishna Meditations   A person who becomes well known due to his spotless character is called famous.   It is stated that the diffusion of Krishna's fame is like the moonshine, which turns darkness into light. In other words, if Krishna consciousness is preached all over the world, the darkness of ignorance and the anxiety of material existence will turn into the whiteness of purity, peacefulness and prosperity.   When the great sage Nārada was chanting the glories of the Lord, the bluish line on the neck of Lord Shiva disappeared. Upon seeing this, Gauri, the wife of Lord Shiva, suspected Lord Shiva of being someone else disguised as her husband, and out of fear she immediately left his company. Upon hearing the chanting of Krishna's name, Lord Balarama saw that His dress had become white, although He was generally accustomed to a bluish dress. And the cowherd girls saw all of the water of the Yamuna River turn into milk, so they began to churn it into butter. In other words, by the spreading of Krishna consciousness, or the glories of Krishna, everything became white and pure.   --His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada  Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 22

Picture-a-Week: Lord Keshava

Fwd: Krishna Meditations Weekly

Krishna Meditations   When Krishna was present on this planet, there was no irreligion. In this connection, Nārada Muni once addressed Krishna jokingly, "My dear Lord of the cowherd boys, Your bulls [bulls are the representation of religion], while eating grass from the pasturing ground and moving on their four legs, have certainly eaten up all the grass of irreligion!" In other words, by the grace of Krishna, religious principles were so well cared for that hardly any irreligious activities could be found.   --His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada  Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 21

Fwd: Thought-a-Week

Thought-a-Week   One should try to keep himself satisfied in any condition of life - whether distress or happiness - which is offered by the supreme will. A person who endures in this way is able to cross over the darkness of nescience very easily.    --Sri Narada Muni Srimad Bhagavatam 4.8.33

Krishna Meditations Weekly

Krishna Meditations   A person who can always put his enemy into calamities is called powerful. When Krishna was present on this planet, just as the powerful sun drives all darkness to take shelter in caves, He drove away all of His enemies, who fled like owls to take shelter beyond His sight.   --His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada  Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 22

Fwd: Thought-a-Week

Thought-a-Week   O Krishna, those who continuously hear, chant, and repeat Your transcendental activities, or take pleasure in others' doing so, certainly see Your lotus feet, which alone can stop the repetition of birth and death.   --Srimati Kunti Devi Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.36

Thought-a-Week

Thought-a-Week   The Lord is the bestower of all benediction. If someone gives something to the Lord, he is not the loser; he is the gainer by a million times.   --His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Krishna, Chapter 11

Thought-a-Week

Thought-a-Week   The Supreme Lord, who incarnates out of His causeless mercy, regularly manifests His various pastimes in order to award supreme eternal benefit to the averse living entities of this world. All of His pastimes are performed with a desire to deliver the living entities.    --Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Sri Caitanya-bhagavata, Adi-khanda 13.107

Krishna Meditations Weekly

Krishna Meditations   Krishna's speech, which contains all good qualities in the universe, is described in the following statement by Uddhava: "The words of Krishna are so attractive that they can immediately change the heart of even His opponent. His words can immediately solve all of the questions and problems of the world. Although He does not speak very long, each and every word from His mouth contains volumes of meaning. These speeches of Krishna are very pleasing to my heart."   --His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada  Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 21

Thought-a-Week

Thought-a-Week   The essence of sadhana bhakti is to carefully consider and follow the path displayed by the previous and the present mahajanas (great personalities). One should not neglect the practice of remembering the pastimes of the Lord, for devotional service should be performed with the mind as well as the body.  --Srila Narottama Dasa Thakura Sri Prema-bhakti-candrika 2.2

Krishna Meditations Weekly

Krishna Meditations   One gopi addressed her friend and began to praise the bodily features of Krishna. She praised His blackish complexion, the reddish color of chewing pan enhancing His beauty hundreds of times, the curling hair on His head, the kumkum red spots on His body and the tilak on His forehead. His helmet, His earrings, His necklace, His four garments, the bangles on His head, the rings on His fingers, His ankle bells and His flute – these are the different features of Krishna's ornaments. Krishna, the enemy of Agha, always looked beautiful with His incomparable helmet, His earrings made of diamonds, His necklace of pearls, His bangles, His embroidered garments and beautiful rings on His fingers.   --His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada  Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 26

Thought-a-Week

Thought-a-Week   One who has experienced his own true identity understands that all things exist as paraphernalia for giving ecstatic pleasure to the Supreme Lord.   --Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Commentary on Srimad Bhagavatam 11.2.41

Thought-a-Week

Thought-a-Week   In the revealed scriptures, the ultimate object of knowledge is Sri Krishna, the Personality of Godhead. The purpose of performing sacrifice is to please Him. Yoga is for realizing Him. All fruitive activities are ultimately rewarded by Him only. He is supreme knowledge, and all severe austerities are performed to know Him. Religion [dharma] is rendering loving service unto Him. He is the supreme goal of life.   --Suta Gosvami Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.28-29

Krishna Meditations Weekly

Krishna Meditations   Krishna is full in all opulences—namely strength, wealth, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation. When Krishna was present in Dvaraka, His family, which is known as the Yadu dynasty, consisted of 560 million members. And all of these family members were very obedient and faithful to Krishna. There were more than 900,000 big palatial buildings there to house all the people, and everyone in them respected Krishna as the most worshipable. Devotees were astonished to see the opulence of Krishna. This was verified by Bilvamangala Thākura when in Krishna-karnamrta he addressed Krishna thus: "My dear Lord, what can I say about the opulence of Your Vrndavana? Simply the ornaments on the legs of the damsels of Vrndavana are more than chintamani, and their dresses are as good as the heavenly parijata flowers. And the cows exactly resemble the surabhi cows in the transcendental abode. Therefore Your opulence is just like an ocean that no one can measure."   --His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada  Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 22

Krishna Meditations Weekly

Krishna Meditations   Any person who neither becomes impudent nor exhibits a puffed-up nature is called gentle.   The example of Krishna's gentle behavior was manifested when He was coming to the arena of the Rajasuya sacrifice arranged by Maharaja Yudhisthira, Krishna's older cousin. Maharaja Yudhisthira knew that Krishna was the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and he was attempting to get down from his chariot to receive Krishna. But before Yudhisthira could get down, Lord Krishna got down from His own chariot and immediately fell at the feet of the King. Even though Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He never forgets to show social etiquette in His dealings.   --His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada  Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 22

Thought-a-Week

Thought-a-Week   The need of the spirit soul is that he wants to get out of the limited sphere of material bondage and fulfill his desire for complete freedom. He wants to get out of the covered walls of the greater universe. He wants to see the free light and the spirit. That complete freedom is achieved when he meets the complete spirit, the Personality of Godhead.    --His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.8, purport

Bhagavad-gita As It Is | Part [BG.18.27]

Bhagavad-gita As It Is | Part [BG.18.27] TEXT 40: na tad asti prithivyam va divi deveshu va punah sattvam prakriti-jair muktam yad ebhih syat tribhir gunaih   TRANSLATION: There is no being existing, either here or among the demigods in the higher planetary systems, which is freed from these three modes born of material nature.   PURPORT: The Lord here summarizes the total influence of the three modes of material nature all over the universe.      TEXT 41: brahmana-kshatriya-visam sudranam ca parantapa karmani pravibhaktani svabhava-prabhavair gunaih   TRANSLATION: Brahmanas, kshatriyas, vaisyas and sudras are distinguished by the qualities born of their own natures in accordance with the material modes, O chastiser of the enemy.   TEXT 42: samo damas tapah saucam kshantir arjavam eva ca jnanam vijnanam astikyam brahma-karma svabhava-jam   TRANSLATION: Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, knowledge, wisdom and religiousness—these are the natural qualities by which the brahmanas work.

Where to channelize our attachment for living a fruitful life ?

Every learned man knows very well that attachment for the material is the greatest entanglement of the spirit soul.  But that same attachment, whenapplied to the self-realized devotees, opens the door of liberation.

Here it is clearly stated that attachment for one thing is the cause of bondage in conditioned life, and the same attachment, when applied to something else, opens the door of liberation.  Attachment cannot be killed ; it has simply to be transferred.  Attachment for material things is called material consciousness, and attachment for Krishna or His devotee is called Krishna consciousness.  Consciousness, therefore, is the platform of attachment.  It is clearly stated here that when we simply purify the consciousness from material consciousness to Krishna consciousness, we attain liberation.  Despite the statement that one should give up attachment, desirelessness  is not possible for a living entity. A living entity, by constitution, has the propensity to be attached to something.  We see that if someone has no object of attachment, if he has no children, then he transfers his attachment to cats and dogs. This indicates that the propensity for attachment cannot be stopped ; it must be utilized for the best purpose.  Our attachment for material things perpetuates our conditional  state, but the same attachment, when transferred to the Supreme personality of Godhead or His devotee, is the source ofliberation. Here it is recommended that attachment should be transferred to the self-realized devotees, the Sadhus….

 

Srimad Bhagavatam, 3.25.20.

 

100% pure Spirituality !

Spirituality is the most important element in human life . 

The big question is " How could one  remain, 100% spiritual ? .

The most authentic answer based on historical evidence is , illustrated in Srimad Bhagavad Gita.  

Surrendering totally and unconditionally to Bhagavan Sri Krishna and attaining self-purification by chanting Krishna's names, is the means to attain pure Spirituality ".

Lord Brahma says in Srimad Uddhava-Gita :

My dear Lord Sri Krishna ! Those pious and saintly persons who in the age of "Kali" hear about Your transcendental activities and also glorify them will easily cross over the darkness of the age. You ( Sri Krishna)  have descended into the Yadu dynasty, and thus You have spent one hundred twenty-five autumns with Your devotees".

Bhakti is important

One and only *Paramatman* ( Sri Krishna''s form as Super-soul)  exists in all living beings. If the ocean stands for Bhagavavan Krishna,  we all are small   ponds.  Great Rishis  proclaim that it is only with the blessings of Bhagavan  which keeps us in a constant whirl of action "Isvaranugrahadeva pumsam Advaitavasana. "

Bhagavan  awards us the fruits of our actions. If we become more and more devoted to Him, as recipients of his grace, we will get closer and closer to Him. He will Himself reveal to us who He is and there will be no need for us to inquire about Him or into Him. In response to our devotion He will deign to reveal his true nature to us. He declares so in the Gita: "Bhaktya mam abhijanati yavan yascasmi. . . . " (By devotion he comes to know who in truth I am. . . ).

*Sagunopasana*  (worship of Bhagavan  with attributes) is the decisive  step towards God-realization . For it our religion has evolved the concept of "Istadevata" ("the deity of one's choice", "the Deity one likes").

What is special about Sanatana dharma or Hinduism as it has come to be called? Alone among all religions it reveals the one and only Godhead Sri Krishna  in many different divine forms, with manifold aspects. The devotee worships the Lord in a form suited to his mental make-up and is thus helped to come closer to the Lord with his love and devotion. These different forms are not the creation of anyone's imagination. The *Paramatman*  has revealed Himself in these forms to great Rishis  and they have had close contact, so to speak, with the Deities so revealed. They have also shown us how we too may come face to face with these divinities, given us the *mantras*  to accomplish this and also prescribed the manner in which the divine forms, whose vision they have had, are to be adored.

Bhakti or devotion is common to all religions whatever the manner of worship they teach. It is not exclusive to our faith in which different Deities are reverenced.

Surrender

 

What benefits we get

if we take shelter of Krishna ?

 

Devotion, direct experience of the Supreme Lord and detachment from other things – these three  -- occur simultaneously for one who has takenshelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in the same way as pleasure, nourishment and relief from hunger come simultaneously and  increasingly with each bite, for a person engaged in eating. - Srimad Bhagavatam 11.2.42