Being a devotee, who is a Vaishnava?

Is a Vaishnava someone who worships lord Vishnu? In the direct literal sense that is exactly what a Vaishnava is! However, a devotee Vaishnava have or should have 26 qualities which define them, of the 26 there are four which are primary or which help o naturally develop the other 22 qualities. These 4 qualities are SIMPLICITY, TOLERANCE, HUMILITY and COMPASSION!

What does it mean to be simple? Simplicity is not wanting more than what has, to be satisfied with what has personally, yet never satisfied but what one can do for Krishna. Simplicity means to SIMPLY depend on Krishna. True independence is COMPLETE dependence on the land, and that is simple for the simple.

Tolerance… Tolerating is lifes greatest ability to live comfortably in all situations, srila prabhupada declared that ones greatness has to be estimated by how one tolerates provoking situations…

Humility means I do not know anything, I am simply begging for your mercy so that I may be able to have some knowledge, that was Arjunas prayer, For the beginning of the gita he is speaking and nothing he is saying is wrong, however he does not take a humble position and while he is in this mood Krishna does not say anything… Until he begs, karpanya doshopahata svabhava… Krishna I do not know anything, this is not a formality this is not the artificial show this is a matter of my very dear life, please instruct me, and Krishna does with pariprashnena sevaya, that he should beg and as for knowledge with humility in his heart then only he will know the truth… who can understand this, if one thinks he know everything the less he can understand the less he thinks he knows the more he can understand…

And compassion… this is the natural quality of a merciful vaishnava to see every living entity as the part and parcel of the lord and therefore loves and shows compassion unto them all…

This is just and introduction… there is much more indepth study coming up, however if you wish to email me GopalaGuru@HareKrishnaTemple.com

Teachings of The Vedas

Delivered as a lecture by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada on October 6, 1969, at Conway Hall, London, England.

Ladies and gentlemen, today’s subject matter is the teachings of the Vedas. What are the Vedas? The Sanskrit verbal root of veda can be interpreted variously, but the purpose is finally one. Veda means knowledge. Any knowledge you accept is veda, for the teachings of the Vedas are the original knowledge. In the conditioned state, our knowledge is subjected to many deficiencies. The difference between a conditioned soul and a liberated soul is that the conditioned soul has four kinds of defects. The first defect is that he must commit mistakes. For example, in our country, Mahatma Gandhi was considered to be a very great personality, but he committed many mistakes. Even at the last stage of his life, his assistant warned, “Mahatma Gandhi, don’t go to the New Delhi meeting. I have some friends, and I have heard there is danger.” But he did not hear. He persisted on going and was killed. Even great personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, President Kennedy–there are so many of them–make mistakes. To err is human. This is one defect of the conditioned soul.

Sankaracarya on Bhagavad-Gita – Srila Prabhupada explains

Through the centuries, India’s greatest philosophers and spiritualists have praised the Bhagavad-gita as the distilled essence of the eternal Vedic wisdom. In his Meditations on the Bhagavad-gita, versified here, the renowned sixth-century philosopher Sankaracarya glorifies the Gita and its divine author, Sri Krishna. Although universally celebrated as an impersonalist, here Sankaracarya reveals his devotion to the original personal form of God, Lord Sri Krsna. And Srila Prabhupada elucidates.

What is Brahman? – The truth revealed [BG part1]

 

tat tvam asi – Thou art that

This is the belief of the mayavadis or the impersonalists of Advaita Vedanta philosophy.

tat tvam asi, I am that, their belief is that Brahman is the only permanent and the Supreme absolute truth, nothing is higher than Brahman, all incarnations and forms of the lord are manifestations of Brahman, Brahman is the supreme and by aham brahmasmi they declare that “I” am Brahman, meaning, that the self is the only objective, that we are all god, and Brahman is our ultimate destination, the merger with Brahman is our goal of life, to become one with god, to realize the self. Hence they believe we are all god, and thus we should realize the self to become one whole, or one with God. Brahman is everywhere and all pervading so therefore everything and everyone is God, it is their belief that only by the realization of this does one get saved and attains salvation, by merger with the impersonal featureless and formless Brahman.

However I would like to declare first and foremost that this conception by the mayavadis is limited and misguided, and therefore this series is here to remove this growing misconception of “I am God, You are God, We are God…”

Srila Prabhupada’s last words – to HH.Narayana Maharaja

The cassette was kindly provided by the BBT Archives. Srila Prabhupada: Narayana Maharaja. He will come tomorrow?

Tamal Krsna Gosvami: He will come when we…(discussing with others). If we pick him up he might come tonight.

Srila Prabhupada: Hmm.

Tamal Krsna Gosvami: If we go just now with the car. Bhakticaru is going just now with the car. Maharaja may come tonight.

(Someone begins to sing govindam adi purusam…)

Tamal Krsna Gosvami: Yeah, Srila Prabhpada. Should we put a little fan on? A little bit.

(The conversation with Srila Narayana Maharaja begins:)

Srila Prabhupada: Prabhupada (Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura) had a desire to preach all over the world – in Europe, America…I tried my best to fulfill his desire. Now we should preach together.

Appearance day of Sri Advaita Acarya

Today,13th February, is the appearance day of Sri Advaita Acarya. He is Sadasiva. *[See endnote 1] He is non-different from Visnu-tattva, and therefore his name is ‘Advaita’ (non-different). He is also a prominent acarya (teacher and personal example) of preaching the glories of the holy name and giving prema-bhakti along with that chanting, and therefore his name is ‘Acarya’.

Advaita Acarya’s fathers’ name was Kuvera Pandita. Before Advaita Acarya’s birth, Kuvera Pandita performed austerities to please Lord Siva, that is, Sadasiva. After a long time, Siva became pleased with him and told him, “You may ask me for any boon.”

Kuvera Pandita then said, “I want a son like you. I want a son who is as qualified as you.”

Siva replied, “This is impossible, so I will personally come as your son.”

My Life and Religion, Who am i?

I was born in Durban, South Africa at the Hare Krishna Temple in Chatsworth. I was born into a very devotional family on the 8^th of February 1991. From an early age I’ve been reading and learning from various devotional books, such as Bhagavad-gita and many other ISKCON books, including other holy scriptures, such as the holy Quran and the holy bible.

 

 

Krishna has always been a steady point in my life, though I was given the freedom of choice. Most people that are born into a religion stay in that religion because it is all that they know, or it is the one they know most about. I was given the opportunity to explore, that’s when I read the bible and Holy Quran, and by my knowledge of both and also of other sects of Hinduism, I found that there is truth in all these religions.

Bringing Peace into your everyday life

In Lord Krishna’s infinite creation lay many countless numbers of universes existing during a single exhale of maha Vishnu and destroyed again during another inhalation, within these infinite universes are a greater number of galaxies within each of these universes. Each of these galaxies is home to billions upon billions of stars and numerous planets. In one minute galaxy there is a planet known as earth, on this planet earth there are approximately 8400000 different species of life, and billions of population living in these specie groups. Out of the 8400000 species, in the specie group known as the human beings with a population count of well over 6 Billion, there is a single individual who thinks he is special.

 

After Hearing my above introduction to myself it really shows us how insignificant we really are, that for me to think that I am “special” would be optimistic to the point of stupidity. However the value of our significance somehow seems to be proportional to the amount of stress and suffering experienced in our daily lives

 

On the path of advancement obstacles are to be expected, this holds especially on the path of spiritual advancement.

A Birthday Realisation

The material world is a tapestry of suffering and a kaleidoscope of pain how is it possible to ever have happiness in a stress filled life?

 

Today, February 8^th 2008, is my birthday. Now Birthdays are supposed to be this very special day when one throws parties and celebrates with family and friends, but today was a day when I came across some of the best realizations of my life.

 

Why are Birthdays celebrated in this material world? Is it a celebration of our unfortunate appearance in this material world, or is it the celebration to the count down until we leave it?

 

I was awakened this morning by messages of well wishes and phone calls of a chorused happy birthday, a mood of ceremony and joy approached the dawn of my day. The day began rather happily, I was enjoying the idea that today is my birthday, and today is my day.

 

Unfortunately my trip to school made material life hit me straight in the face;

Yoga for the Modern Age – by Rasarani dd

View in original format(easy to read) or download

 

Yoga for the Modern Age

What is yoga? What is the purpose of it in the age of Kali? How does one perform it?

Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead explains that ‘yoga’ is a process of controlling the mind and senses.

In the Satya-yuga (the Golden Age), the yoga system was recommended, where one was to always meditate on Vishnu. In the Treta-yuga, one could practice yoga by performing great sacrifices and in the following age, the Dvarpara-yuga, one could achieve perfection by temple worship. The present age in which we are all living in is Kali-yuga. ‘Kali-yuga’ means ‘the age of quarrel and hypocrisy’ and is the age characterized by chaos and ignorance.

As practiced in the previous yugas, yoga was a process involving years of meditation and severe austerities.

However in the kali-yuga, this practice is of yoga is not recommended