Krsna Kathamrita

So one who wants this special benediction of love of God, who wants to taste this, he goes after the relationship with Caitanya Mahaprabhu . And when he hears about Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s inner desire , he is anxious for this to happen. Then that devotee who is serious about getting love of God and who knows he must go through Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he simply focuses his life, his mind, his whole heart on this inner desire, this anxiousness of the Lord, the mission of the Lord to get people all over the world to hear about Krishna, to hear Krishna’s message and to chant Krishna’s names and his whole life becomes simply dedicated to this . This is the essence of the Krishna consciousness movement. To take up the mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and spread it all over the world. By dedicating ourselves in this way, we can know for certain that we will be benefited with love of Krishna and thus we will be able, without a doubt, to return back to home, back to Godhead. That is the process fo

The Lord can be pleased only by a humble attitude in the service spirit. The more we render service unto the Lord under the direction of the spiritual master, the more we make advancement on the path approaching the Lord. We cannot demand any grace or mercy from the Lord because of our service rendered to Him. He may accept or not accept our service, but the only means to satisfy the Lord is through the service attitude, and nothing else. - Krsna, Chapter 58

How to get out of the cozy zone? Radhanath Swami Answers: In order to make progress in any field, you should have faith in where you are going and you must be willing to take a certain amount of risk. A mother is gladly willing to go through so many changes, and she is gladly willing to come out of her cosy zone because she wants a child. She goes though the changes with gratitude because she is so happy that she has a child that will grow up.  It is much cosier to sit on your couch, eat potato chips and watch television than get up and run. But if you want to be healthy you have to run and work on health. On every level, to progress, tapasya or austerity is required.  We have to come out of the cosy zone for achieving anything. If you do not do it willingly for a higher cause – and the highest cause is to reconnect with God – material nature is going to tear you out anyways. Disease tears you out of cosy zone; old age tears you out of cosy zone. Nobody can remain in cosy

Jāmbavān was actually a great devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, but because he was angry he could not recognize his master and thought Him to be an ordinary man. This brings to mind the statement of the Bhagavad-gītā in which the Lord advises Arjuna to get free from anger, greed and lust in order to rise to the spiritual platform. Lust, anger and greed run parallel in the heart and check one’s progress on the spiritual path.... ......In the beginning, Jāmbavān could not understand Kṛṣṇa because his vision was obscured by material attachment. He was attached to his boy and to the greatly valuable Syamantaka jewel, which he did not want to spare for Kṛṣṇa. In fact, when Kṛṣṇa came there he was angry, thinking that Kṛṣṇa had come to take away the jewel. This is the material position: although one is very strong in body, that cannot help him understand Kṛṣṇa.... ......In a sporting attitude, Kṛṣṇa wanted to engage in a mock fight with His devotee. As we have experienced from the pages of

Practical devotion is the secret to understanding the Sastras. My Guru Maharaja used to say that for one who is not engaged in devotional service, reading all the books is simply like licking the outside of the honey jar. One who thinks the books are the thing is content in this way. But we should learn the secret to open the jar and taste the honey. In this way, if we can simply understand one book, or one sloka, the perfection is there.- Letter to:  Pradyumna, Los Angeles, February 17, 1968

Hari Vilas Das - I asked several questions, but one specific question was, "Srila Prabhupada, what does it mean to be humble?" And his answer was really incredible. He said, "Humility means that you are convinced beyond any doubt that there is nothing in this world, absolutely nothing in this world, not your money, not your family, not your fame, not your gun, not your education, nothing that will save you except the mercy of Krishna. When you are convinced like this, then you are humble." 

"In my Krishna conscious life, I have seen that a moment to moment awareness of what Krishna gives for our upliftment has supplied me with a consciousness of deep gratitude. And in that consciousness of gratitude it is much easier to meet Krishna than in the consciousness of feeling unjustly treated and becoming resentful towards the Lord. There is a famous saying in Germany: Even from the stones which are put in my path as stumbling blocks, I can build a beautiful house."  H.H. Sacinandana Swami Maharaj (From a letter, July 2015)

The best way to deal with temptation is to not deal with it Temptation is unavoidable as long as we exist in material existence, just as salespeople are unavoidable when we live in a commercialized economy. When we get an unsolicited sales offer, we don’t spend our time convincing the salesperson why we don’t need that product, nor do we spend time letting that person persuade us. If they have called us, we simply politely but firmly end the call. The best way to deal with such people is to not deal with them. Similarly, the best way to deal with temptation is to not deal with it. If we try to deal with temptation, we end up becoming deluded and entangled. The nature of temptation is that it expertly withers away our arguments, leaving us with nothing to do except give in, often against our will and against our conscience and against our intelligence. Just as a soluble object when exposed to water will dissolve sooner or later, so too does our will to resist dissolve whe

7 Success points for Grhasthas 1. Wake up early and chant your rounds 2. Keep the altar in a prominent place at home 3. Offer a small puja as an offering of your heart and not as a ritual 4. Read Srimad Bhagavatam every morning for 15mins and Bhagavad Gita every evening for 15mins 5. Cook clean pure food and offer to Krsna. By honoring this on daily basis our family will also be purified 6. Work hard to perform your job responsilities well and try to dovetail its results  7. Follow the 4 regulative principles and the success is guranteed - His Holiness Radhanath Swami Maharaj

Yes, you can pray to Krishna - Krishna may be prayed that I am unwilling to become Krishna Conscious, so you can force me to become so. You put me under certain circumstances so that I may be forced to accept Krishna Consciousness. You can pray like that. It is Krishna's special favor and mercy that He sometimes forces a devotee to surrender fully to Him.- Letter to:  Upendra, Los Angeles, November 13, 1968

One should lead one’s life in such a way that the mind is unagitated for chanting. It’s a whole art of living. A chanter is a person who has a peaceful mind and can go deep, savoring the mahamantra during his japa session. If we’re worried or disturbed by different agitations, we’re not with Radha and Krishna. Chanting is out of this world. You have to go there and leave the concerns of the material world, at least when we chant. It is our sacred time. From Bhajan #228 by Satsvarupa dasa Goswami

Japa is not a ritual. It is not a mechanical, mindless robotic process. It is an offering of the heart, a pleading for mercy, a begging to be accepted by the Lord. It is a crying of the soul to be engaged eternally in the Lord’s service. The emotions these moods invoke nourish our chanting.  Krsna is moved by love, not by parrot like repetition. Feelings and desires for Radha and Krsna are meant to be communicated through Their Names.

I easily chant my prescribed number of rounds with focus and attention. When I chant, I chant. I get to chant, I want to chant, and I love to chant. I treat the maha-mantra as Radha and Krsna, fully present in sound. I receive and feel Krsna’s presence, mercy and love in His holy names. I chant in full awareness that the holy name is my greatest treasure. I chant to please Radha and Krsna, not to gain anything material. I am out of my mind and in my heart, fully present to the holy names as I chant my rounds. I fully honour my sacred relationship with the holy names during japa. I chant to be accepted by Krsna, and to repair my broken relationship with Him. I chant from my heart, feelingly praying to come closer to Krsna. I meditate on the meaning of the names as I chant. I turn off my world and turn on Krsna’s world when I chant my rounds. I chant with no other motive than to render pure devotional service. My beads are my connection with Krsna and my ticket back to Godhead. I am to

What if people don't want to hear our message?" Pradyumna asked. "The people might not understand our message, but Krsna will be pleased," Prabhupada replied. "And that is our mission. They thought Jesus Christ's mission was stopped. They killed him. But his mission was attained. He preached three years only, but so many followers. He pleased Krsna. We must not be disappointed that no one is hearing Krsna consciousness. We will say it to the moon and stars and all directions. We will cry in the wilderness, because Krsna is everywhere. We want to get a certificate from Krsna that "This man has done something for Me.” Not popularity. If a pack of asses says you are good, what is that? We have to please Krsna's senses with purified senses." ( an excerpt from the Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita / “A visit to Boston”) 

“Experience is the best teacher – and a fool learns in no other way.” The implication of this well-known saying is twofold: Firstly, wise people learn from others, without having to undergo the experiences themselves. Secondly, experience is the euphemistic label people place on their follies and mistakes. While the saying has its validity, it neglects a third possibility: a person may not learn even after experience. That is the extent of the folly to which we are reduced by the mind. By its insidious influence, it wipes out the basis of our learning: our memory of our experiences. While outlining the eight-stage trajectory to tragedy, the Bhagavad-gita (02.62–63) explains how what begins with contemplation ends in self-destruction. Relevant for our discussion is the sixth stage, the eradication of memory (02.63: smriti-bhrama), which leads to the destruction of intelligence and the final descent to self-defeating behavior. By its insidious influence, the mind wipes out the

If an asteroid comes within the gravity pull of a planet, it is dragged down to that planet. Similarly, during our life-journey, the gravity pull of sense objects – their promise of pleasure – can pull us towards them, away from what we intended to do. The Bhagavad-gita (02.62) warns us that contemplation on sense objects can drag us towards self-destruction. Unlike the largely fixed gravity pull of celestial objects, the gravity pull of sense objects varies according to individual conditionings and conditions. If we are conditioned to indulging in a particular sense object, then its gravity pull on us will be much more than that on others. And if we are in a vulnerable emotional condition such as boredom or anxiety or distress, the sense object’s promise of quick relief will allure us more than at other times. Another consequential difference between the two gravity pulls is that the gravity pull of sense objects depends not just on physical proximity but also on mental prox