Special New Release--Hear It Right Now!! Sankarshan Das Adhikari Public Hall Lecture Timisoara, Romania Saturday 24 March 2007 Link to Hear Lecture Right Now!!
On the order of his spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, Sankarshan Prabhu has dedicated his life for the most urgent work of spreading Krishna consciousness all over the world. The more that Krishna consciousness spreads, the more that the suffering, scarcity, and hate on this planet will be replaced with bliss, abundance and love. This is a golden opportunity for us to do the highest good for all living beings and receive the special blessings of the Lord. Therefore we should, as much as possible, sacrifice our time, energy, and resources to assist Sankarshan Prabhu in his most important work. If you would like to help out to any extent, little or big, kindly inform Sankarshan Prabhu of your desire.
If you would like to meet Sankarshan Prabhu or hear his lectures, you may contact us directly for an appointment or specific information on where and when his lectures will be held.
from The Hague, Netherlands ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Ultimate Yoga Knowledge Revealed in The Hague--Offer the Material World to Krishna
By force of our flight schedule we were required to make an overnight stop in the Netherlands before continuing on to Sofia, Bulgaria. This arrangement was Krishna's greatest blessing upon us because it gave us the opportunity to share the topmost secrets of the self-realization science with the people of the Netherlands. There was a wonderful gathering of eager listeners to hear about why the practice of yoga is essential in this human form of life. I spoke from chapter eight of the Bhagavad- gita and described the six chakra yoga system and the bhakti yoga system. Both of them are recommended in the Vedic scriptures. The bhakti yoga system is especially recommended because it is the most practical and effective yoga system for this age. The six chakra yoga system to be fully effective requires that one completely give up all forms of contact with the material society. But in the bhakti yoga system one can remain fully in contact with the material society. How is one able to do this without having his spiritual consciousness drained? The answer is very simple. The bhakti yogi remains in contact with the material world but spiritualizes it by offering it to Krishna.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Evening Lecture in the Hague, Netherlands
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Why is the Sky Blue?
Does Krishna Love me?
How does He Love me?
What is love?
How do I love him?
Why do I have fear?
Why are spiritual masters impressed with humility?
What is humility?
What is intelligence?
How can I rebuild my relationship with Him?
What can I do for Krishna?
Do I ask stupid questions? Are they challenging in nature?
I feel like an ignorant fool who can never quite get his act together.
Why is the sky blue?
Are you a bona fide representative of Krishna?
Furthermore, please kindly tell me what to do that I may please you?
Will I suffer miseries for all of eternity?
Does eternal damnation exist?
Your servant,
Oli
---------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- Answer: Because Krishna is Blue
Here are your questions with answers:
Q: Does Krishna Love me? A: Yes
Q: How does he Love me? A: By giving you full facility to be unlimitedly happy.
Q: What is love? A: Total dedication to the person you love.
Q: How do I love Him? A: By fully surrendering yourself to always obeying His instructions.
Q: Why do I have fear? A: Because you have not yet mastered the art of loving Krishna.
Q: Why are spiritual masters impressed with humility? A: Because this is what the student needs in order to become spiritually perfect.
Q: What is humility. A: To offer all respect to others without expecting any respect for yourself.
Q: What is intelligence. A: To understand that Krishna is God.
Q: How can I rebuild my relationship with Him? A: By chanting 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mahamantra on a regular daily basis and following the four regulative principles under the direct guidance of the bona fide spiritual master.
Q: What can I do for Krishna? A: Strictly follow these items: 1. No illicit sex (sex other than for procreation) 2. No meat eating (including fish and eggs) 3. No intoxication (including coffee, tea, and cigarettes) 4. No gambling 5. Chant at least 16 rounds of Hare Krishna mantra every day on chanting beads 6. Only eat Krishna prasadam (food which has been first offered to Lord Krishna) 7. Regularly study the Bhagavad-gita As It Is and the Srimad Bhagavatam 8. Develop an ongoing service relationship with your nearest ISKCON temple.
Q: Do I ask stupid questions? A: No.
Q: Are they challenging in nature? A: No. I like your questions. They are very nice!
You have stated, "I feel like an ignorant fool who can never quite get his act together." This is a wonderful realization. Now you must take the mercy of Guru and Krishna so that you can become properly situated.
Q: Why is the sky blue? A: The sky is blue because is a reflection of the blue brahmajyoti, which is blue because Krishna's body is blue.
Q: Are you a bona fide representative of Krishna? A: Yes
Q: Furthermore please kindly tell me what to do that I may please you? A: Simply to try develop your love for Krishna by always hearing, chanting, and remembering about Him 24 hours daily.
Q: Will I suffer miseries for all of eternity. A: Not if you surrender to Krishna.
Q: Does eternal damnation exist? A: There is no such thing as eternal damnation. At any point the living entity can be saved by surrendering to Krishna.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Tuesday 30 October 2007
via mobile phone en route to Amsterdam ------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Back on the Road
Life is great when you are Krishna conscious. That's why I want to see the entire world become Krishna conscious, so everyone can become happy. It's 6:31 am on 29 October 2007. I'm here at the airport in San Antonio, Texas waiting for my flight to Minneapolis from where I will catch a flight to Amsterdam. After a twelve day layover at our headquarters in Austin, Texas, it's back on the road again, this time for three months to finish up my round-the-world lecture tour, sharing the secrets of unlimited happiness in seventeen different countries.
With sincere thanks I offer my humble obeisances at the lotus feet of my eternal spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who has so kindly saved me from the repetition of birth and death and blessed with the order of doing the same for as many as possible of the souls who are suffering in this material existence just like I was.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Changing Bodies and the Soul
If the soul remains unchanged but only the body changes, please explain to me how understanding, knowledge and wisdom come into this equation. When I was a child I had a different body, different mind, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding etc. compared to the body I have now. Along with my mind, understanding and wisdom that I have now, are not all these things, i.e. mind, wisdom, knowledge, etc, making up the soul?
Are we realizing our true self as we gain more knowledge and accept Krishna as the Supreme Controller? When we take a step closer to Krishna acknowledging that He is the Master Controller of the soul, is the soul awakened? Does the thus-awakened soul then begin to guide our intellect and in turn, our actions toward the direction of the soul (atma) i.e. preparing the soul for our new bodies? Or are Krishna and the soul different? Please help.
Discovering myself,
Veeren Rampersad
--------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- Answer: Regaining Your Original Spiritual Body
It is a fact that the soul remains unchanged and that only the body changes. The intellectual faculties are part of the subtle body. The soul is covered by the both the subtle body--composed of mind, intelligence, and false ego-- and the gross body--composed of earth, water, fire, air, and ether. The gross body changes, and the subtle body also changes. Meanwhile throughout all these changes, the soul remains unchanged.
The true self is realized when you understand that you are not your gross or subtle body and that you are an eternal spirit-soul, servant of Krishna. The awakening of your actual self is experienced according to your degree of surrender at the lotus feet of the Lord. Once you are fully awakened, you are completely freed from the chains of the material nature--birth, death, old age, and disease. Krishna then guides you at every step how to safely return to your original, eternal identity as a participant in His transcendental pastimes in the spiritual world.
For such an awakened soul there is no question of taking another material body. His eternal spiritual body becomes revived and he enjoys an eternal life, full of bliss, and knowledge in the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
It is very, very important to note in this connection that Krishna and the soul are different. Although qualitatively one, they are quantitatively different. In other words they are not one and the same; they are one and different. It they were one and the same it would not be possible to render loving service to the supreme person as was done by Arjuna and Hanuman. Loving service means that three things must exist: the servitor, the served, and the service.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Monday 29 October 2007
from Bhaktivedanta Ashram-Austin, Texas USA -------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Today's Thought:
Existence is Exciting
When we get back to life's basics we become completely free from all types of distress. Indeed, our life becomes an exciting adventure at every moment as we re-establish our eternal servitude relationship with Krishna or God, the source of all existence. This is exciting because existence itself is exciting and because through loving devotional service to the supreme person we become gradually re-situated in our natural original consciousness. In other words all the anxieties and stress that we face on a daily basis are simply due to the unnatural coverings which have contaminated our consciousness. When those coverings are removed we find ourselves swimming in an ocean of unlimited transcendental bliss.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
----- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Should I Quit my Job?
I have been attending local ISKCON congregational programs regularly, which gives me immense peace of mind and pleasure. But when I get back to my job (company job), which is the source of my bread and butter, I really feel disillusioned and not comfortable. So is it time that I should quit my job and give my full concentration to spiritual life?
I have also family responsibilities, with my two daughters still to get married.
Kindly give your suggestions,
Your servant of servants, Shyamsunder
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: Do It For Krishna
As long as you have family responsibilities, you must remain at your job. So there is no question of giving up your job. You cannot renounce your material duties. You can however become internally renounced by offering yourself fully in Krishna's service.
As long as we have material bodies we require some means of livelihood. If you will fully offer yourself to Lord Krishna 24 hours daily, whatever means of livelihood you adopt will not be an impediment for your Krishna consciousness. Job means earning money. And if that money is spent 100% in a Krishna conscious way, you will always feel blissfully connected with Krishna, even when you are working your job.
So now you must master the art of how to spend your money perfectly in the Lord's service, without misspending even a small portion of it on material sense gratification. This will completely relieve you from your current sense of anxiety at your job.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Sunday 28 October 2007
from Bhaktivedanta Ashram-Austin, Texas USA ------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Planetary Respiritualization
ISKCON's Founder-Acharya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, has given us the seemingly impossible duty of bringing about the complete respiritualization of planet earth. This is not his invention. He has simply passed on to us the order coming down from Lord Krishna Himself in His most merciful manifestation, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. We are ordered to bring in the full manifestation of the Vedic age, even though we are in the midst of the most materialistic age of Kali. If we can pull this off, this will be greatest paradigm shift in history
One may be baffled by this and wonder, "How could I even dream about dedicating my life to such an impossible goal?" The answer is that along with the order of the spiritual master comes the potency to successfully carry that order out. In other words the order itself contains the full power for its own successful implementation. One simply must have full faith in the order and be fully dedicated to the order. By doing so one becomes fully empowered to successfully execute the order. Those who put their faith in the order and dedicate their lives to it become empowered to fulfill it according to the degree of their dedication.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
-------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Why Does Krishna Wear a Peacock Feather?
Prabhu, why does Sri Krishna wear a peacock feather in His hair instead of other kinds of feathers?
Pradip
------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: Because It's So Beautiful
Krishna always wears a peacock feather in His hair because He is very fond of the peacock feather. Krishna or God is a person. He has likes and dislikes. Because He has likes and dislikes, and because we are part of parcel of Him, therefore we also have likes and dislikes. Because He has a taste for decorating Himself with a peacock, He does so. When we consider how beautiful is the peacock feather, we can immediately understand why Krishna likes it so much.
Special Announcement: Live Conference Call Today with Sankarshan Das Adhikari from 7:15 am to 8:00 am Central Daylight USA time.
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While the vast majority of the present human society remains engrossed in economic development and sense gratification and their concomitant miseries of birth, death, old age, and disease, the enlightened sages, out of compassion, fully dedicate themselves to the thankless task of trying to deliver the unenlightened from their suffering by spreading the Krishna consciousness movement all over the world.
Why is this most glorious task considered thankless? This is so because, especially in the developed countries, most people do not realize that they are in a suffering condition. They think that as long as they have ample facility for eating, sleeping, mating, and defending, life is great. They don't realize that at any moment their comfortable nest will be disrupted and they must face the reactions to all of their sinful activities. So instead of trying to insure a blissful future for themselves, they spend off the results of their pious activities as quickly as possible. As soon as they have exhausted their karmic assets they are thrown by nature's law into devastatingly difficult circumstances.
Therefore those who are fortunate follow the pathway of the great sages to that realm of existence far beyond the karmic dimension of ignorance and misery. They enter into the supramundane plane of pure transcendental bliss billions of light years beyond the cycle of birth and death.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: How Can You Say the World is a Mess?
Regarding yesterday's "Thought for the Day", how do you think contemporary society has gone way off track? How do you suppose that we have made a "royal mess" out of the world? If you are referring to pollution, that is something we have already discussed. Then again if you are discussing how people practice their religion, I think each one is acting according to their own faith.
What has caused the mess? How do you see there is a mess in the first place?
With humble regards,
Your student
---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- Answer: Read a Newspaper
"Society off track" means that human life is meant for self realization, not sense gratification. But yet we see and entire civilization dedicated to sense gratification. "Royal mess" means that instead of serving God like we are meant to be doing, we are serving our senses instead.
It is a fact that different people are acting according to their different religious faiths. One man's religious faith is that you should be tortured and killed because you are not a Muslim. In the name of religious faith so many atrocities are being committed against living beings on a daily basis.
This is why we have to rise beyond the false platform of different religious faiths and understand that religion is one, to reconnect with that supreme person who is the source of all existence. To be truly religious means to be 100% reconnected with that supreme person. Such a reconnected person will never give any unnecessary harm to other living creatures. But yet we see that the so-called religious people of varying faiths are, in the name of the religion, causing so much suffering to other living beings.
Such persons are not actually religious in the true sense of the term because they are obviously not reconnected with the supreme person, the source of all existence. If they were reconnected they would never commit the atrocities they do against other human beings, against unborn children in the womb, and against the innocent animals.
The mess has gradually compounded itself more and more throughout the various yugas (ages) as mankind has strayed further and further away from the teachings given in the Bhagavad-gita. Any intelligent, sensitive person can see the world is a mess just by reading a newspaper.
Your previously expressed idea that pollution can be solved by stronger legislation would be true if there were governments strong enough and intelligent enough to enact and enforce the proper legislation. For example, one of the biggest polluters on this planet are the slaughter houses. If the governments were actually strong and proper, they would immediately shut down the slaughter houses. But there are no such enlightened and strong governments on this planet. So your idea of solving pollution by stronger legislation is not at all practical. We must first have strong enlightened governments, then and only then can your principle of stronger legislation be effectively applied. Until then we are stuck with an ever-increasingly polluted planet.
Special Announcement: Live Conference Call with Sankarshan Das Adhikari this coming Saturday 27 October from 7:15 am to 8:00 am Central Daylight USA time.
Please Call Dial-in Number: +1-218-936-1600 When prompted enter 48587#
Space is limited! So call in as early as possible if you want to be able to access the call!
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I could never stomach taking my goal in life simply to be a well respected man within the contemporary society. Why? Because I could clearly see that the contemporary society is going way off the track. It's insane. It has made nothing short of a royal mess out of this world.
My conscience sought a much deeper meaning and purpose to existence. I could see a society that was grossly out of harmony with the very source of its existence. I knew that I had one duty and one duty only: to reach a state of perfect harmony with the source of all existence and help everyone else to do the same. In spite of my innumerable disqualifications, out of His causeless mercy, the Supreme Lord blessed me with the shelter and guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada removed my ignorance with the light of transcendental knowledge and taught me how to do exactly what I was hankering to do. For this I am eternally indebted unto him. Now I am praying for his unlimited blessings that I can successfully execute my life's mission.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: How to Always Be Krishna Conscious?
From one of Your merciful lectures you instructed us that there should not be any gap for Maya, that we must fully engage our mind 24 hours in the thoughts and service of Lord Krishna, the spiritual master, and the devotees. But these kind of thoughts do not come to my mind spontaneously. Even after the morning sadhana (meditation and worship), my mind is easily carried away by the material thoughts in spite of my sincerely trying to remember the Lotus Feet of Sri Krishna.
So, Guru Maharaja, how can I train my mind to be always focused in Krishna Consciousness? And how can I instill the mind with thoughts pertaining to devotional service?
Thanking You,
Your aspiring eternal servant,
Harikrishnan
-------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------ Answer: By Strong Faith
To keep your mind always focused on Krishna you must have strong faith that by Krishna consciousness you will be elevated to the highest perfection of life. Such focus of mind is called vyavasāyātmikā, being resolute in Krishna consciousness. In this connection Lord Sri Krishna states in the Bhagavad-gita:
vyavasāyātmikā buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana bahu-śākhā hy anantāś ca buddhayo 'vyavasāyinām
"Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched." --Bhagavad-gita 2.41
Special Announcement: Live Conference Call with Sankarshan Das Adhikari this coming Saturday 27 October from 7:15 am to 8:00 am Central Daylight USA time.
Please Call Dial-in Number: +1-218-936-1600 When prompted enter 48587#
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Here at Bhaktivedanta Ashram during our brief stopover on our around-the-world lecture tour I have been rising at 2am to have wonderful uninterrupted japa before beginning our morning program of worshipping Sri Sri Radha Damodar and studying the Srimad Bhagavatam. These moments in the early, early morning directly associating with God, Lord Sri Krishna, are undoubtedly the sweetest nectar. Who could be a more wonderful person to meet with? He is the reservoir of all good qualities and of all opulences. He has so kindly manifested in the form of His holy names so that anyone who would like to directly associate with Him can easily do so. Considering that this opportunity to chant the Hare Krishna mahamantra is the greatest good fortune millions of times more auspicious than achieving all the wealth, power, and fame of this material world, who would not agree to chant these unlimitedly sweet nectarean names?
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Role of Willpower?
What is your opinion on the role that willpower plays in spiritual life?
It is not only my opinion. It is the opinion of Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the source of all existence, that determination or willpower is required. In the recipe of Krishna consciousness willpower or determination is one of the most important ingredients. Without this determination or willpower, one cannot and will not be successful in going back home, back to Godhead.
Lord Sri Krishna states as follows in the Bhagavad- gita:
"One should engage oneself in the practice of yoga with determination and faith and not be deviated from the path. One should abandon, without exception, all material desires born of mental speculation and thus control all the senses on all sides by the mind." --- Bhagavad-gita 6.24
Srila Prabhupada gives a nice example of the importance of willpower or determination as follows:
"As for determination, one should follow the example of the sparrow who lost her eggs in the waves of the ocean. A sparrow laid her eggs on the shore of the ocean, but the big ocean carried away the eggs on its waves. The sparrow became very upset and asked the ocean to return her eggs. The ocean did not even consider her appeal. So the sparrow decided to dry up the ocean. She began to pick out the water in her small beak, and everyone laughed at her for her impossible determination. The news of her activity spread, and at last Garuda, the gigantic bird carrier of Lord Vishnu, heard it. He became compassionate toward his small sister bird, and so he came to see the sparrow. Garuda was very pleased by the determination of the small sparrow, and he promised to help. Thus Garuda at once asked the ocean to return her eggs lest he himself take up the work of the sparrow. The ocean was frightened at this, and returned the eggs. Thus the sparrow became happy by the grace of Garuda. Similarly, the practice of yoga, especially bhakti-yoga in Krishna consciousness, may appear to be a very difficult job. But if anyone follows the principles with great determination, the Lord will surely help, for God helps those who help themselves."
So become very strong in your determination that your life has one purpose and one purpose only, to become a pure devotee of Lord Sri Krishna. If you do so, your soon attaining the supreme perfection of going back home, back to Godhead is guaranteed.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Wednesday 24 October 2007
from Bhaktivedanta Ashram-Austin, Texas USA ----------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Resolving the Science/ Religion Controversy
Nowadays there is a great divide between what is called science and what is called religion. For some this divide means that religion is in error. And for others this means that science is in error. So what is the reality? If both of them cannot be right, then either of them or both of them must be wrong. The split between science and religion has led to endless debates, philosophical struggles, and even legal battles in court.
The actual relationship between science and religion is quite different from what most people think. This is so because truth is one; it cannot be two. If it is two, it cannot be truth. To understand this properly we must understand the real meaning of the terms "science" and "religion", not the distorted understandings that are being propagated by the so-called modern thinkers.
The word science comes from the Latin world "scientia" which means "knowledge." And the word "religion" comes from the Latin "religare" which means "reconnect." Just as the honey in a jar is only fully realized when it is tasted, knowledge of the Absolute Truth is only fully realized when we reconnect with it. The more we connect with it, the more we understand it. And the more we understand it, the more we will want to connect with it. So science is theoretical understanding of the Absolute Truth and religion is practical realization of the Absolute Truth. Just like in a chemistry course we learn that H20 = water in the lecture and then practically apply it in the laboratory, science is theoretical and religion is practical. Both are necessary aspects of fully experiencing and comprehending the Absolute Truth. Real science encourages religion, and real religion deepens our scientific understanding.
So there is no question of which religion somebody belongs to. A person is either connected to the Absolute Truth or not connected to the Absolute Truth. They are either religious or irreligious. And there is no question of religion and science having two different explanations of reality. They are both necessary aspects of realizing the one truth.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Who Created the Creator?
Here are some questions posed by my friend which I couldn't answer:
What is the purpose of a creator? Who created the creator? For what purpose did the creator create the universe and the beings in it and expect the beings to show allegiance to Him? It is as if the creator loves being worshiped and adored. Is He so egoistic or does He have an inferiority complex that He creates the universe to make people believe in His existence and worship Him?"
I request you to please enlighten me on these.
Ashutosh
------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------- Answer: The Creator
Here are your friend's questions with answers:
Question: What is the purpose of a creator then? Answer: His only purpose is to enjoy.
Question: Who created the creator? Answer: The creator. That's why He is the creator. If someone else created Him, that someone else would be the creator.
Question: For what purpose did the creator create the universe and the beings in it and expect the beings to show allegiance to him? Answer: For His enjoyment.
Question: It is as if the creator loves being worshiped and adored. Answer: Yes. That is His position.
Question: Is He so egoistic or does He have an inferiority complex that He creates the universe to make people believe in His existence and worship Him?" Answer: He is egoistic. That is His position. The King has the right to unlimitedly enjoy His kingdom, not others.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Tuesday 23 October 2007
from Bhaktivedanta Ashram-Austin, Texas USA ------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Flying in the Sky of Unlimited Bliss
Every form of pleasure in this material world has its point of exhaustion. The pleasure seeker finally reaches a stage where he can enjoy no more and he has to go somewhere else looking for pleasure. Such a situation where we cannot find anything permanently enjoyable is not very satisfying. No matter how much we gloss over the suffering conditions of material existence trying to make them appear pleasant, still in the final analysis we must admit the suffering condition of this material existence.
Therefore what we need is a type of pleasure that never becomes worn out, a well that never runs dry, so to speak. That unlimited pleasure is available to each and every one of us. In fact, it is our natural birth right. Just as a bird is meant to fly in the sky, we are always meant to fly in the sky of unlimited bliss by reviving our now dormant Krishna consciousness.
Is there scientific proof?
Yes, there is!
The scientific proof is the transformation of consciousness personally experienced in due course of time by anybody who seriously adopts the pathway of Krishna consciousness as taught by its greatest exponent, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
----- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Communication with Other Religions
What is your opinion about the cooperation between religions? Isn't it better to work together for the salvation of mankind instead of arguing on religious topics? What should be the attitude of the devotees to the other religions and spiritual paths?
Hristo
-------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ Answer: For Real Cooperation...
The only way that real cooperation can happen is for everyone to recognize that there is no such thing as many religions, that religion is one, to become a pure lover of God. As long as we think "this religion and that religion" any co-operation that may be attempted will be superficial and will not last. Working together for salvation means that everyone must agree what is salvation. Until there is common understanding of what salvation is, we cannot work together for the salvation of mankind. Our attitude to religious people outside of Gaudiya Vaisnavism is that we sincerely appreciate whatever they are doing and teaching which is in accordance with the Bhagavad-gita, and we are very sad with what they are doing and teaching which is against the principles of the Bhagavad-gita, for example--cow killing.
Bhagavad-gita is not presenting a relative man-made religion. It is the words spoken directly by God Himself, Lord Sri Krishna. Therefore of all scriptures it is the most perfect and the most authoritative. Religion is not relative. It is absolute. It is a scientific principle. The word "religion" comes from the Latin word "religare" which means to reconnect. So religion means to reconnect with God. Any process that reconnects us with God is religion. And any process which does not connect us with God is irreligion.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Monday 22 October 2007
from Bhaktivedanta Ashram-Austin, Texas USA --------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Special Thanks to Our Readers
I would like to take this opportunity to offer my sincere thanks to all of you wonderful souls around the world who have been participating in this e-course by reading our materials, by inquiries, and by following the instructions you have been given. It is because of your appreciation of my humble efforts to serve my spiritual master's mission that this course is going on. Were it not for your participation there would be no Ultimate Self Realization Course. Therefore I very, very much appreciate each and every one of you and am wishing you the very best in your spiritual progress. Please do not hesitate to contact me if there is any way I can be of service to you in your spiritual life.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Bhagavad-gita--ABC's or King of Education?
It is said that the Bhagavad-gita is the ABC's of spiritual life. It is also said that Srimad Bhagavatam is the masters level and that Caitanya Caritamrita is the PhD level.
Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita 9.2 that "This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed."
If Bhagavad-gita is Raja Vidya-the king of knowledge, then why do we say that it is the ABC's of spiritual life?
Your aspiring servant,
Bhaktivinode das
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: Both
You have raised a very interesting question. How can the Bhagavad-gita be considered ABC knowledge, introductory knowledge, and at the same time the most advanced knowledge? Is this contradictory?
No. It is not contradictory. Since Krishna declares the Bhagavad-gita to be the king of knowledge, the highest level knowledge, we cannot doubt this. But then how can it be simultaneously ABC level, introductory level knowledge?
The answer is quite simple. The Bhagavad-gita is the introduction to the highest level of knowledge. Srimad Bhagavatam and Sri Caitanya Caritamrita also present the same highest level of knowledge. The difference is that they go deeper and deeper into it.
We can understand a simple analogy in this connection. If you develop a relationship with the king, the first thing is that you are introduced to him. Then you develop a personal relationship with him and later on an even more personal relationship with him. At all three stages you are associating with the king: introductory level, personal level and more personal level. In a similar way we associate with the king of knowledge in an introductory way in the Bhagavad-gita, in an advanced way in the Srimad Bhagavatam, and in even a more advanced way in the Sri Caitanya Caritamrita.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Sunday 21 October 2007
from Bhaktivedanta Ashram-Austin, Texas USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Global Leadership for a Troubled Age
This planet is desperately lacking leaders. The persons who are now leading the human society are completely disqualified. Therefore the entire global society has been plunged into an ever-increasingly chaotic situation. In spite of so much bad news going on everywhere all around the world, the good news is that the Vedic wisdom, especially the Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad Bhagavatam, gives us everything we need to know in order to to clean up the mess that the leaderless human society has gotten itself into. So we should look to see who are those persons who are the living embodiments of the Vedic wisdom. These person are known as acharyas, ideal spiritual teachers. It is such persons that we should follow, not the cheaters and rascals who pose as leaders simply for their own sense gratification.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Spirituality at Home
It is wonderful to read your articles about Krishna consciousness and get your mail every morning. Thanks for helping us grow spiritually in this material world. I would really appreciate if you could please reply to my following questions:
1)How can I practice spirituality at home among the materialistic members of the family? 2)How can I impart spirituality to my kids who are 13 and 9?
I would like to thank you in advance for sparing some time and all your co-operation.
With warm regards,
Malini
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: Chant Japa and Take Prasadam
One of the greatest challenges for advancing spiritually is the association of persons who have absolutely no interest in Krishna consciousness. The only way you can be successful in your practice is if you can become strong and fixed in your determination.
The first step is that you need to set aside quality time every day to chant the Hare Krishna mantra on japa beads.
The next step is that you should only be eating Krishna prasadam, vegetarian foods which have been offered to Lord Sri Krishna with love and devotion. Ideally you should convince your family to switch to a purely vegetarian diet. You should cook the foods and offer everything to Lord Krishna before anyone else takes it.
If you feed your 13 year old and 9 year old only Krishna prasadam, they will make great spiritual progress. Take them with you at least once a week on a visit to your nearest ISKCON temple.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Saturday 20 October 2007
from Bhaktivedanta Ashram-Austin, Texas USA ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Tasting the Ultimate Nectar
There is nothing sweeter than chanting the holy names of God in a mood of loving devotion because such chanting brings one into direct contact with the Supreme Person Himself. Such chanting is best done in the early morning hours before sunrise when the material world is not offering many distractions to lure the mind away from Krishna's holy names.
From the great acharyas we have learned the system of chanting on japa beads. This system of chanting on beads amplifies the power of the mantra and thus helps one to go deeper into a state of transcendental meditation. Taking the japa beads in one's right hand beginning just next to the end bead, one utters the Hare Krishna mahamantra on the first bead and then moves to the second bead on which he again chants the mahamantra, etc, etc. In this way after chanting on 108 beads the devotee completes one round or one mala. (The 109th bead is called the end bead and is not chanted on. It simply serves as a marker to let you know where to begin and end each round.) After completing the first round the chanter then turns the beads around and goes back in the opposite direction to chant the second round and continues going back and forth until he completes at least 16 rounds.
In the above illustration the chanter has almost completed one round and is chanting the last few beads before he completes the round.
--------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Who is the Bona Fide Spiritual Master?
Apart form Srila Prabhupada, who is the bona fide spiritual master?
Michael
------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------- Answer: Those Who Strictly Follow Srila Prabhupada
Srila Prabhupada, as ISKCON's Founder Acharya, is the only spiritual master in history who can set the standards for ISKCON. It is his merciful teachings which are the foundation of every ISKCON member's spiritual life.
He is our guiding light and our authority, and we are duty bound to follow his instructions. Since he instructed that those of his disciples who are strictly following him should also become spiritual masters and initiate their own disciples, we can understand that while he is the Founder Acharya of ISKCON that on his order there are also many spiritual masters who are carrying on the legacy of the Srila Prabhupada sampradaya by initiating their own disciples and training them how to become first class followers of Srila Prabhupada.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Friday 19 October 2007
from Bhaktivedanta Ashram-Austin, Texas USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Keeping a Cool Head in the Combat Zone
To become Krishna consciousness in this grossly materialistic age of Kali is tantamount to declaring war against the material energy. Thus the sincere devotee of the self-realization science finds himself in a combat zone on a regular daily basis. This is why strong sadhana (devotional practice) is required. This strong sadhana fortifies the devotee against the attacks of the material energy. It enables him to always keep a cool head in spite of so many disturbing circumstances.
The devotee wants to stay fixed in Krishna consciousness, but the material nature is constantly trying to destroy his Krishna consciousness. The material nature tries to induce him to engage his mind, words, anger, tongue, belly, and genitals in sense gratification. But the self-controlled devotee uses them only in the service of the Lord. In this way by taking shelter of the Lord, he becomes a conquering hero who defeats the enemy attacks and successfully manifests Krishna consciousness, even though he finds himself deep within enemy territory.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
----------------------------------------------------------- --------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: What is My Ecstasy?
Can I ask you a question, please?
Do you think I am in an ecstatic mood, which is beyond my rational thinking and self-control?
I am sure you are one who cares for all people in this world.
Regards,
Sree
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: Real or Imaginary
There are two kinds of ecstasy: real and imaginary. There is material ecstasy, which comes as a result of good karma. It happens when your material desires are being fulfilled. However this kind of ecstasy is always temporary because it is alternated with material miseries such as miseries of the body and mind, miseries caused by other living beings, and miseries caused by natural disturbances. Since it is not permanent, it is always tinged by the deep-seated anxiety of knowing that it won't last. Therefore it is not real ecstasy. It is only a shadow of ecstasy.
The real ecstasy is experienced by those who fully awakened their dormant enlightened consciousness by re-establishing themselves in the devotional service of the Lord 24 hours a day under the expert guidance of the bona fide spiritual master.
The test of which type of ecstasy you are experiencing is to see whether or not you have become free from all types of material desires, even the subtle ones such as profit, adoration, and distinction.
The bona fide spiritual master does in fact care about the welfare of all beings. This is why my guru, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, has ordered me to spread Krishna consciousness all over the world.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Thursday 18 October 2007
from Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- Today's Thought:
Millions of Times Better Than Sex
17 October 2007--We are here at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam awaiting our afternoon flight back to the USA after the most ecstatic preaching tour of eastern Europe. It was capped off last night by a very well received lecture I gave to a temple room packed full of young people at the Hare Krishna center in Riga, Latvia. Latecomers could hardly squeeze in the door. My student, Ugis, who owns Riga's leading radio stations announced my lecture on the air for an entire week attracting Riga's youth to find out how to achieve unlimited happiness.
I explained to them scientifically who they really are beyond their material bodies and taught them the practical techniques for achieving that supreme state of happiness which is millions and millions of times greater than any pleasure of this world, even the pleasure of sex. The Riga youth were very impressed and asked many sincere questions. Many of them purchased Bhagavad-gitas and other transcendental literatures at the conclusion of the lecture. I hope and pray that the many seeds of Krishna bhakti planted in their hearts will soon fructify.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Walking and Discussing Krishna Consciousness with Devotees on the Streets of Riga
Revealing the Secrets of Ultimate Happiness to the Youth of Riga
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Understanding the Mahamantra
I have been reading your articles, putting in my best to understand and follow the path described in your articles. I am grateful to the Lord for giving me opportunities to be associated with His disciples, participate in satsangs (spiritual gatherings), kirtans (group chanting) etc. I would be grateful to you if you could help me understand more the Hare Krishna Mahamantra. Is it incorrect to recite?:
Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare
or
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
once you start chanting it all comes out the same. Either way you are alternating Hare Krishna and Hare Rama.
We prefer to start with Hare Krishna because this is the style of chanting exhibited by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Who is Krishna Himself and Who appeared as His own devotee 500 years ago in India.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Wednesday 17 October 2007
via mobile phone en route to Riga, Latvia ---------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- Today's Thought:
End to Global Conflict
At the present moment the entire human society is embroiled in conflict in varying degrees on all levels. Husbands and wives are sometimes in such conflict that it leads to ghastly murder scenes. When even friends are in conflict, how much conflict is going on between enemies? Communities are in conflict. Nations are in conflict. The list goes on and on.
Conflict resolution has now become such a top priority in today's conflict ridden society that organizations have been formed simply for the purpose of researching and promoting conflict resolution. But yet in spite of so much research and effort to find the solution for conflict, we see the conflicts are still going on everywhere throughout the entire world with ever-increasing intensity. In other words, we are not making progress in the field of conflict resolution. The reality is that, taken from the global perspective, conflicts are increasing both in number and in intensity.
So what can be done? Is it hopeless? No, it is not. The underlying foundation of existence is harmony because the Supreme Person is full of love for all living beings. He is never at odds with the living beings. He is always their well-wisher. Therefore if we can simply harmonize our thoughts, words, and deeds with Him and always act as His harmonizing instruments, we will become powerful catalysts for restoring peace and harmony to the human society. And if enough people start doing this, the entire world will gradually become conflict free.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: What is Consciousness?
Namaste. Will you please enlighten me on the concept of consciousness?
Thanks and regards,
Haresh
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: The Sense of "I Am."
Consciousness is the sense of "I am", which you possess. Just like you asked me to enlighten you regarding what is consciousness. This means you have a sense of being a person who wants to be enlightened. It is this sense of individuality that is your consciousness.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Tuesday 16 October 2007
from the ISKCON center in Kaunas, Lithuania -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Pollution Solution
Today we are living in a world which is becoming increasingly polluted. We are gradually turning our entire earth planet into a toxic waste site. Even though so many people are talking about cleaning up the environment, no one is able to do anything to effectively turn the tide of the times towards a cleaner global atmosphere. The forces of greed forge ahead impelling us for the sake of quick material profit to continue polluting our atmosphere more and more and more until it becomes too late.
But there is a solution to the pollution. This solution requires that we understand the root cause of the pollution. The root cause is that our environment is heavily polluted on the subtle plane, the plane of consciousness. The phenomena we experience on the gross plane are the result of what is there on the subtle plane. Whatever is there on the subtle plane will naturally also be manifested on the gross plane. The subtle pollution is our selfish, greedy desire to lord it over this world as if we were its masters and owners.
So the pollution solution begins with understanding that Krishna or God is the proprietor of everything. In fact, Krishna directly states this in the Bhagavad-gita, that He is the owner and enjoyer of everything. If we clean up our consciousness by understanding, thinking, speaking, and acting in harmony with the principle of Krishna's proprietorship, the external atmosphere of planet earth will naturally, gradually become very clean and nice. Air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, social pollution, etc will be relegated into the history books. The entire earth will be transformed into a paradise. May that day come soon!
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
-------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------ Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Room for Hope?
I have one important question. How to defy our destiny? Am I really falling short of my expectations or am I falling short of Krishna's expectations?
Your servant,
Vishal
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: Unlimited Room for Hope
There are two entirely different destinies awaiting you. And you have full freedom to make your choice. One is on the spiritual plane and the other is on the material plane. Your destiny on the material plane is to experience birth, death, old age, and disease repeatedly for an unlimited number of births through 8,400,000 different species. And your destiny on the spiritual plane is to live in full freedom an eternal, ever-youthful, all-blissful, all-existence, in the wondrous divine atmosphere of the spiritual sky.
So which destiny do you prefer? You have to make your choice.
If you prefer to remain within the confining chains of karma, you do this by dedicating your life to the principle of material sense gratification both for yourself and for those with whom you associate.
And if you prefer the unfettered freedom of eternal spiritual existence you must take training in the self-realization science from a bona fide spiritual master. Krishna would like you to return to His abode for eternally rendering Him loving service. But He does not force Himself upon you. Know for certain that whichever pathway you choose to follow will take you to your particular destination, either the repetition of birth and death or the supreme bliss of pure Krishna consciousness. Now which one will it be for you?
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Monday 15 October 2007
from the ISKCON center in Kaunas, Lithuania ----- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Nothing Sweeter!
Today we are heading out from Kaunas to New Goloka en route to Riga, Latvia from where we will fly onwards to our home base in Austin, Texas. This concludes the first leg of our current around-the-world lecture series tour. After twelve days in Austin we will resume our world tour with a lecture series in Bulgaria and Romania and possibly Macedonia. From there it will be on to the Middle East and further eastward to India, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji before returning to North America.
What could be more enlivening than traveling and preaching all over the world for bringing life to a world which is drowning in ignorance? As confirmed in chapter 18 of the Bhagavad-gita there is nothing more pleasing to the Lord than this. Therefore there is also nothing more pleasing to the devotee. In other words as the Lord is pleased, so the devotee is pleased. This is the secret of how to always taste unlimited happiness: Simply always give pleasure to the Lord 24 hours a day. Capitalizing on this ultimate success formula, throughout the ages great transcendentalists have given up the so-called comforts of home life for lives fully dedicated to awakening this sleeping world from the slumber of Maya or illusion. There is indeed nothing sweeter than this!
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
At the Vedic Culture Center in Kaunas:
Flying High on the Hare Krishna Mantra
Explicating the Vedic Science
-------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------ Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Room for Hope?
Hare Krishna, please accept my obeisances.
This thought has moved me, and more than anything it has left me confused. When you say, "I am completely optimistic that this entire planet will someday be completely engulfed in a tidal wave of Krishna prema, pure love for Krishna."
But many times I think that, given the influence of Kali Yuga, and the fact that as Kali Yuga progresses the more degraded we become, what room is there to have faith or hope in anything?
I am grateful for your attention.
Your servant, Esteban
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: Unlimited Room for Hope
From a material point of view, considering the ever-increasing degradation that we witness every day around us, it is certainly inconceivable that the entire world could become Krishna conscious.
But yet this most wonderful and beautiful future for the world is indeed predicted in the Caitanya Caritamrita. The author of Caitanya Caritamrita, Krishnadas Kaviraj, is not an ordinary person of this world. He is a nitya-siddha, an eternally liberated soul, who descended on the order of the Lord to play an integral role in the respiritualization of the entire human society. He has predicted as follows:
saj-jana, durjana, pangu, jada, andha-gana prema- vanyāya dubāila jagatera jana
"The Krishna consciousness movement will inundate the entire world and drown everyone, whether one be a gentleman, a rogue or even lame, invalid or blind." -- Caitanya Caritamrita, Adi 7.26
The words of the such souls as Krishnadas Kaviraj cannot go in vain. Such words must come true. So it is not a question of if they will come true. It is simply a question of when they will come true.
Therefore we have unlimited room for hope. We can expect that by Lord's mercy, even this most inconceivable miracle can and will happen.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Sunday 14 October 2007
via mobile phone on the road to Kaunas, Lithuania ------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
It Was Worth It!
On Friday 12 October, we headed out by car on a three hour drive to Visaginas, a small Lithuanian town way out in the forest. It was a dark, dreary, rainy, cold, nasty day. This was a stark reminder of the nature of this material existence. After we arrived I was wondering why we had taken so much trouble to come to this remote place. After all, we were comfortably situated in Kaunas, and my lecture series was being very nicely received there.
But once the devotees assembled in the apartment of Dina Bandhu Prabhu and I led Hare Krishna kirtan and started explaining the timeless message of the Bhagavad-gita, the transcendental magic once again happened and I could feel how we were entering into the transcendental dimension beyond time and space. And I knew that it was worth it! Why did I ever doubt it?
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Teaching Bhagavad-gita in Visaginas, Lithuania
Eager Hearers
There is Nothing Sweeter
Loving Farewell
We Can Never Forget Such Sweet Devotees
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: How to Feel the Spiritual World?
By the grace of Krishna consciousness, I now have tangible feeling that this material world is not my home. It's just a miserable camp for losers. But I have not tangible feeling that the spiritual world is my hometown. When can I get a real, tangible feeling of this?
I want to take a part-time job to make some money to buy Krishna consciousness books, or donate money to pure devotees. I sometimes try to find a part-time job during college. But it seems that Krishna put so many obstacles to prevent me from finding a job, so I am still not financially independent yet. Why? What's Krishna's arrangement?
Your most humble servant
Yechen Zhang Chongqing, China
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Answer: Dive into the Names
Krishna has greatly blessed you with the knowledge and the feeling that this material world is not your home. And although He has also blessed you with the knowledge that the spiritual world is your actual home, you are not yet feeling that it is your home. My best advice to you regarding how you can get this strong feeling in your heart is that you should dive deeper and deeper into the sweet nectar of Lord Krishna's holy names by chanting the Hare Krishna mahamantra with love as much as possible every day. The Lord's holy names and His transcendental abode are one and the same, so if you will focus your mind on diving deeper and deeper into the holy names of God, you will feel how you are living in the spiritual world at every minute, and you will see that the material world is just something happening out there in the Lord's external energy.
We cannot always understand how the arrangement of the Lord is for our ultimate benefit, but yet it always is 100% of the time. Keep trying for the part time job and see what Krishna arranges.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Saturday 13 October 2007
via mobile phone on the road to Visaginas, Lithuania --------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Entering the Realm of Inconceivable Sweetness
Everyone is hankering to taste the sweetest nectar at every minute, but unfortunately practically no one knows how to taste it. This is why we need a bona fide spiritual master. The spiritual master is that person who knows how to taste the supreme nectar of love of God at every minute and is fully dedicated to teaching us how to also taste it.
Because people are ignorant of how to taste this supreme nectar they invent so many other ways to try to taste it. But in each and every case when all is said and done they come back to the position of frustration.
So why be frustrated now or in the future? Why not take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master today and enter into the realm of inconceivable, never-ending, ever-increasing sweetness? You've got nothing to lose except for your anxieties, and a life of unlimited bliss to gain.
I was one of the most fortunate souls who gained the association of such an authentic spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. We took full advantage of his divine association by fully surrendering ourselves at his lotus feet. He then taught us how to taste this inconceivable nectar and ordered us to share it with the entire world.
If you like, you can also learn how enter into that realm of inconceivable sweetness. It's up to you. Take it or leave it. But always remember that you are most cordially invited to enter this wondrous dimension. When you are ready to take it, we are ready to give it to you.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Tasting the Sweetness in Kaunas, Lithuania
------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Why is there Good and Bad?
The following are some questions that were asked by my office manager:
Why God has created both good and bad?
Why people are committing so many mistakes in their life and suffering?
Why are there four yugas (ages) instead of one yuga?
Why did God give free will to the jivas, the living beings? Because of this free will those jivas who wanted to enjoy separately from God fell down and they are suffering.
Since God created everything, why there should be any bad thing?
Your humble servant,
Vijayakamala
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: God Created Good. We Created Bad.
Here are your office manager's questions with answers:
Why God has created both good and bad?
Answer: God has created only good. We have created bad by not accepting God's unlimitedly good creation.
Why people are committing so many mistakes in their life and suffering?
Answer: Because they are not serving the will of God.
Why are there four yugas (ages) instead of just one yuga?
Answer: Because of the degrading influence of the material nature humanity gradually becomes more and more materialistic. When humanity is from 0% to 24% materialistic, the age is known as the Satya Yuga. When humanity becomes 25-49% materialistic the age is known as the Treta Yuga. When humanity becomes 50-74% materialistic the age is known as the Dwapara Yuga. And when humanity becomes 75-100% materialistic the age is known as the Kali Yuga.
Why did God give free will to the jivas, the living beings? Because of this free will those jivas who wanted to enjoy separate from God fell down and they are suffering.
Answer: Love cannot exist without free will. An existence without love would be unbearably miserable.
Since God created everything, why there should be any bad thing?
Answer: See answer to first question.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Friday 12 October 2007
from ISKCON center, Kaunas, Lithuania --------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
The More You Give Krishna, the More You Get Krishna
Sometimes people wonder how I could totally absorb myself 24 hours a day in constantly traveling all over the world to distribute Krishna consciousness. They ask me, "Don't you get tired?" The insider's secret in this connection is that the more you give Krishna, the more get Krishna. In other words, the more I do this, the more I get energy and enthusiasm. Spreading Krishna consciousness is not an energy depleting or draining activity. It is an activity that energizes you more and more the more you engage in it. It's something like having a special mystical kind of money which when spent becomes even more. Normally when we spend money our bank account shrinks. But Krishna consciousness is like a bank account that increases and increases the more you spend it.
So the point is that when it comes to Krishna consciousness you can never lose. You are always a winner who goes on gaining more and more and more ad infinitum.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Sharing Ultimate Nectar in Vilnius, Lithuania
------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: What Happens in Heart Transplant?
In the "Thought for the Day" on 10 October 2007, you gave in response to the immovable soul question a beautiful example of a car driver who is stationary in the car although the car could be moving at hundred miles per hour.
Someone once asked me what happens to the soul when the heart is transplanted to another body by modern science? I do not know the answer and thus submissively request you to highlight me on this please.
Your "Thought for the Day" is absolutely fantastic and is like the sun, which never loses its radiance!
The soul is seated in the physical heart of the material body. When there is a successful heart transplant, the soul merely changes seats. That's all. The old broken seat is removed, and new healthier seat is brought in to take it's place. Just like if something goes wrong with the driver's seat in your car, you will have a new seat put in. You keep the car (the external body). You put in a new seat (a new heart). But you, the driver remain the same (the spirit-soul within the body).
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Thursday 11 October 2007
from ISKCON center, Kaunas, Lithuania ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Auspicious Rainbow
10 October 2007--Traveling by car last night to Vilnius, Lithuania to give an evening lecture on the Bhagavad-gita I witnessed the most beautiful and complete rainbow I've ever seen in my entire life. I took it as an auspicious omen of wonderful things to come. It was clearly visible for a full 180 degrees with both ends touching the ground. It was so long I could not fit it in one photograph. Therefore to give you a chance to see it I made a movie of it, which is available through the link below.
Another thing that made it especially auspicious was that there was another more subtle rainbow running parallel to it just above it. This second rainbow was not clearly visible in the photograph or movie clip.
Wanting to take full advantage of the auspiciousness which is now in the atmosphere, this morning I prayed to Sri Sri Nitai Gauracandra, the deities of our Kaunas, Lithuania temple that the entire world can very soon be inundated with a tidal wave of Krishna consciousness. The world is suffering due to a lack of Krishna consciousness. If the people can somehow or other be introduced to this sublime knowledge, they will become delivered from all anxiety and illusion.
Please help me to spread this Krishna consciousness by posting links to www.backtohome.com as much as possible all over the internet. The more web sites that have links to us, the more the search engines will point to us and the more people will find us.
---------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Ecstasy at Every Moment?
Unfortunately I do not always feel that happy when chanting my rounds and doing my day to day activities. Is it possible to at every moment relish this great ecstasy and happiness that I feel when receiving your email or attending a kirtan? How to do that?
Your student
----------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- Answer: Associate with Guru Through His Instructions
You have asked, "Is it possible to at every moment relish this great ecstasy and happiness that I feel when receiving your email or attending a kirtan?"
The answer is, "Yes, of course."
You have also asked, "How to do that?"
The answer is very simple. Always remain in the constant association of your spiritual master by meditating upon, worshipping, and sincerely trying to execute the instructions he has given you.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Wednesday 10 October 2007
from ISKCON center, Kaunas, Lithuania ----------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Krishna's Mercy at the Russian Border
8 October 2007--Krishna really blessed us while we were crossing the Russian border to re-enter Lithuania. Our Russian driver, Lila Avatar Prabhu, drove us from Kaliningrad to the Russian border at Sovetsk where we were to walk with our luggage across the bridge over the Neman River to the Lithuanian side where our Lithuanian driver, Kedaranath Prabhu, was waiting for us. We cross the border on foot because getting a car across the Russian border is a much more time consuming red tape process that going across as a pedestrian.
Even though the simpler pedestrian-style crossing is also always a hassle due to the lording-it-over-mentality of the Russian border guards, once you get past that quagmire, walking crossing the bridge over the Neman River is a pleasant experience. This time however was different. On our drive from Kaliningrad to Sovetsk it had been raining the entire time. The sweet devotees in Kaliningrad had kindly supplied with raincoats. And just before reaching the border crossing Lila Avatar stopped at a grocery store and got plastic bags for covering our luggage and our feet. At the last minute before getting out of the car at the border, the rain all of sudden intensified like anything. We sat in the car carefully donning our raincoats and tying plastic bags on our feet while Lila Avatar hopped out into the rain to remove our luggage from the trunk and quickly cover it with plastic bags. Then with full rain armor we headed out to the border guard station, luggage in tow, into the deluge.
By the time we finished our hassle with the border guard hidden behind tinted glass who demanded documented evidence of our flight from Riga to Amsterdam in order for us to leave Russia, the rain had stopped and we could see through the parted clouds a beautiful blue sky opening up on the Lithuanian side of the border. Even though there were so many water puddles we had to walk through or around, we crossed the bridge without experiencing even as much as one drop of rain water. Once we were safe and dry in Kedaranath's car on the road to Kaunas, the blue sky immediately disappeared and the rains came pouring down again sometimes with great fury with winds so heavy at times that debris was being blown across the highway in our path.
The moral of the story? Always chant Hare Krishna. Spread it everywhere. And always depend on Krishna. He will never let you down. He will always take great care of you.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Bridge at Russian Border in Sovetsk
Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Immovable Soul?
I have a question I am submissively presenting before you.
In BG 2.24 Lord Sri Krishna states:
"This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, all-pervading, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same."
Please explain what does Krishna mean by "the soul is immovable"? If soul is situated in the region of heart and we move every day, so then how is the soul immovable?
Your servant,
Phani Karthik Maradani
--------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------- Answer: Immovable Within That Body
In the original Sanskrit the word given is acalah, which means "fixed", "immovable", and also means "mountain" because a mountain is fixed in one place, immovable.
Immovable means "immovable within that body", just as driver is immovable within the car, always remaining in the driver's seat. The car may be moving a hundred miles per hour, but within the car the driver is in a fixed, stationary position.
Similarly, throughout the entire life the soul is always situated within that particular body. Therefore it is known as immovable.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Tuesday 9 October 2007
via mobile phone on the road to Lithuania -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
The Ultimate Meditation
Because Krishna's name and Krishna Himself are one and the same, there is therefore nothing sweeter and more relishable than Lord Sri Krishna's name. This means that the perfection of the tongue is to chant "Hare Krishna", and that the perfection of the ears is to hear "Hare Krishna". It also means that the perfection of the mind is to be completely, totally absorbed in chanting and hearing the Hare Krishna mantra:
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama Rama Rama, Hare Hare
Some people argue that this is restrictive and sectarian. But since everything that exists can be found in the Krishna's name, there is nothing at all restrictive about exclusively focusing your consciousness on this sound vibration. Try to carefully understand that absorption in His name is the ultimate meditation, the supreme perfection. When you become fully absorbed in Krishna's name, you've reached the topmost platform of spiritual enlightenment.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Your question is very nice. There is no such thing as an evil heart. Every single living being throughout all of existence is basically good-hearted. Evil manifests when the pure heart become polluted by the six enemies: lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness, and envy. Through the process of giving up sinful activities and regularly chanting the holy names of God any person, no matter how polluted one's heart may be with these enemies, he can gradually completely free the heart from these six types of contamination and become perfectly and unlimitedly blissfully situated in pure love of God.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Monday 8 October 2007
from Kaliningrad, Russia -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Reviving the Consciousness
In this world everyone is looking for happiness, but practically no one understands how to attain it. The difficulty is that they seek happiness in the wrong way. They try find happiness on the only platform that they know of, the material platform. Although we can certainly get quick pleasure on the material platform, such happiness is fleeting. It does not last for long. What good is material happiness? Even when we are enjoying it we are in the anxiety of knowing that soon it will end. So such happiness is not real happiness. It is simply another form of misery masquerading as happiness.
Real happiness is experienced on the transcendental platform through the revival of one's original eternal identify. This revival of consciousness is achieved through associating with those who have already revived this eternal, blissful consciousness known as Krishna consciousness.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Explaining the Science of Consciousness Revival
Enthusiastic Hearers
More Enthusiastic Hearers
Tasting Sumptuous Krishna Prasadam (Krishna Consciousness is Not Dry Philosophy)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Why Do I Feel Such Bliss?
Why is it that I feel such ecstasy, including weak knees and vibrations through my spirit-soul and body when I hear Lord Sri Krishna's words from Bhagavad-gita?
I feel wonderful joining in with Kirtan and it's great doing Japa....But it's not anything like hearing our Lord's words.
Is it O.K. that i desire to hear Krishna speak more than anything else?
You are feeling such ecstasy because you are reviving your original consciousness, which is eternal, full of bliss, and full of knowledge.
Every devotee has his particular way in which he is especially inclined towards Krishna consciousness. It you feel especially inclined to hear the Bhagavad-gita, that is very nice.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Sunday 7 October 2007
from Kaliningrad, Russia ---------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Sharing the Bliss in Russia
Sharing the ultimate bliss of Krishna consciousness is always the most enlivening experience wherever I travel all over the world. But sharing it in Russia is especially sweet. Srila Prabhupada one time stated that preaching in the snows of Russia was sweeter than mangos. Even though it is too early right now for snow in this part of Russia, I am still seeing the truth in Srila Prabhupada's words. The Russian devotees are very eager to taste the bliss of Krishna consciousness. And the more I give it to them, the more I taste it. Therefore I keep coming back to Russia again and again for this most ecstatic of all activities: hearing and chanting the glories of Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Sharing the Bliss of Krishna Consciousness in Sovetsk, Russia
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: How to Chant?
Please give me advice on how to chant. I am of the Christian faith, but I realize that I need to initiate meditation in my own life in order to find peace in this "screaming / loud / aggressive" world.
Trusting you will be able to assist,
Many Thanks,
Renette
--- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: Hare Krishna in the Early Morning
Thank you very much for your sincere and wonderful inquiry. It is a fact that we must become expert at fully absorbing our minds in God 24 hours day. Otherwise our minds will become dragged away by the mundane influence of this present highly materialistic age.
In this age the recommended form of meditation is to chant as much as possible the holy names of God. The recitation of God's holy name is recommended in all the scriptures of the world. And in the Kali Santarana Upanishad it is specifically mentioned that out of all the unlimited names of the unlimited Supreme Being the most potent names to chant are these:
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare
If you will rise early in the morning every day before sunrise, take your bath, and sit to peacefully chant these names for as much time as you can spare before you begin your day's activities, you will realize a new peace, happiness, and satisfaction in your life which you have never felt before.
And if you are very seriously desiring to absorb yourself in a daily meditational practice I encourage you to read the following article:
via mobile phone on the road to Russia -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Krishna's Miracle in Russia
Friday 5 October 2007--We have just departed from Kaunas, Lithuania via automobile on our way to Russia. It is a sweet, wonderful feeling to be able to spread this ultimate self-realization science, the perfection of religion, in a country which for many decades was the bastion of atheism. That the Russian government, which once arrested, tortured, and even killed persons for practicing Krishna consciousness now allows devotees to openly practice Krishna consciousness is nothing short of Krishna's miracle.
There is no obstacle so great that it cannot be melted by the unlimited mercy of Lord Sri Krishna. Therefore I am completely optimistic that this entire planet will someday be completely engulfed in a tidal wave of Krishna prema, pure love for Krishna. It is not a question of "if". It is simply a question of "when".
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: How to Avoid Being Carried Away?
Hare Krishna!!!!!
Sometimes I get carried away by some thoughts, and it is affecting my studies. What shall i do?
Shefali
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: Offer Everything to Krishna
Krishna consciousness does not mean to neglect your material duties. It means to offer all of your material duties to Krishna by engaging the result of all those duties in His service.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Friday 5 October 2007
from the ISKCON Temple in Kaunas, Lithuania ----------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Subduing the Senses
The biggest enemy we have on the pathway of self-realization is our uncontrolled senses. However, if the senses are properly controlled, they are valuable assets which can be engaged nicely in the Lord's service. Otherwise they are like venomous serpents, which can poison us and destroy our spiritual life. Therefore it is absolutely essential that the aspiring transcendentalist become an expert at always keeping the senses under control.
So what is the art of doing that? The secret is that we have to always keep the senses engaged 24 hours a day in the service of Krishna. From the first moment of waking up in the morning, to the last moment of going to sleep at the end of the day, the devotee must be always engaging his senses as much as possible in the Lord's service.
For example, you can immediately call out "Hare Krishna" upon awakening and in this way engage the tongue, ears, and mind in Krishna consciousness. You can then immediately take bathe to be able to chant the Hare Krishna mantra on japa beads in a clean state. Instead of listening to music which glorifies material sense gratification, you can listen to music which glorifies the Supreme Person. Instead of eating anything and everything, you can only eat prasadam, vegetarian foodstuffs which have been offered to the Supreme Lord with love and devotion. Instead of absorbing your mind in reading mundane literature, you can absorb your mind in great transcendental literatures such as the Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad Bhagavatam. The trick is to fill your day with so much Krishna consciousness that there are no gaps for Maya anywhere within your 24 hours.
"The Next Step in Evolution" a Lecture delivered in Kaunas, Lithuania at Vytauto Didziojo University
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Is Srila Prabhupada a Nitya-Siddha?
Sometimes a nitya-siddha, an ever-liberated personal associate of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, descends into this universe just as the Lord descends.
Is it true that Srila Prabhupada is an ever liberated personal associate of Krishna and he descends under arrangement of Krishna for the deliverance of general people in Kali yuga, or that he is a soul who achieves liberation through the purification process of sadhana bhakti?
Your eternal servant.
Zhang Yechen
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: The Greatest of the Nitya-Siddhas
His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is most definitely a nitya-siddha, an ever-liberated personal associate of the Supreme Lord. He is also known as a shaktyavesha avatar because he descended to this material world on the Lord's order for delivering the fallen, conditioned souls of this age. His mission was to write his most special books, the spiritual law books for the suffering humanity, and to launch ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, that most auspicious spiritual movement which will go down in history for having saved the entire suffering humanity from chaos and despair.
Of all the great spiritual masters who have appeared throughout history there is no one who is as empowered as Srila Prabhupada for inundating the entire world in a tidal wave of Krishna bhakti. These are not mere words. He has proven this by spreading the Krishna consciousness movement all over the world in a mere eleven years beginning from 1966 up to 1977. No other acharya even comes close to what he has accomplished for counteracting this most dangerous age of Kali. Thus by comparative analysis we can see that Srila Prabhupada is the greatest of the nitya-siddhas.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Thursday 4 October 2007
from the ISKCON Temple in Kaunas, Lithuania -------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Today's Thought:
Sweet Bhakti Bliss in Kaunas
There is nothing like the bliss of Krishna bhakti. It is so relishable that all the other pleasures of life become paled into obscurity. Especially here in Kaunas, Lithuania in the association of the ISKCON devotees, the bliss is sweet, thick and heavy, something like premium grade tropical rain forest organic honey (although this crude simile hardly does it justice). The devotees make us feel so much at home that we never want to leave this place. Even though duty calls us to travel for spreading the ultimate science of Krishna consciousness all over the world, the devotees here in Kaunas always have a special place in our hearts. Whenever we return here we feel that the association of these sweet hearted souls is our eternal home.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Kirtan Bliss in Kaunas, Lithuania
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: What Happens to the Soul at the Time of Death?
Please forgive me for taking up your most valuable time. But I really need to ask this from someone like you whom I believe has a wealth of knowledge!
Can you explain what happens to the soul at the moment of death? Where does it go? Is it that the soul gets into another body immediately? I imagine the journey would be different for someone who has transcended this material world before death but can you please explain the difference pathways - the path for a devotee and the path for someone who has not realized Krishna?
Thank you for your kindness.
Regards,
Somatee
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: He is Transferred to Another Body
At the time of death the soul is either transferred to the spiritual world or it takes another body within this material world. This depends of the consciousness he is absorbed in at the time of death. This point is confirmed as follows in the Srimad Bhagavad-gita:
yam yam vāpi smaran bhāvam tyajaty ante kalevaram tam tam evaiti kaunteya sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitah
"Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail."---Bhagavad-gita 8.6
How does one attain that state? This is described in the Bhagavad-gita as like the air carrying aromas.
"The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again quits it to take another."---Bhagavad- gita 15.8
We have gross bodies composed of earth, water, fire, air, and ether. We also have subtle bodies composed of mind, intelligence, and false ego. The gross body dies, but the subtle body continues. Whatever nature you have cultivated during this lifetime is fully manifested in your subtle body. If you have cultivated material desires, at the time of death your subtle body will enter into a human or non-human form according to what sort of material desires you have cultivated. If you have fully absorbed yourself in spiritual desires, the subtle body will be discarded at the time of death, and you will regain your original long-forgotten form and identity in the spiritual world.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Wednesday 3 October 2007
from the ISKCON Temple in Riga, Latvia -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
How to Attain Success
In this world everyone is struggling to achieve material success. It is not an easy struggle because one must compete with everyone else who is also struggling for their portion of a limited pool of material resources. The Lord's devotee, however, is free from this anxiety because his only desire is to please the Lord. He knows that he can please the Lord from any position within this material existence. He can be a material success or he can be material failure. It does not matter. Simply whatever resources he has been allotted by the Lord he engages 100% in the Lord's service. This is his success.
It is significant to note in this connection that by the Lord's grace such a pure devotee who is completely detached from success or failure will not be without material facilities. Simply by rendering transcendental loving service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Lord's devotee can easily have all the benedictions of the world without separate endeavor.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: How to Conquer Anger?
I always read your messages and would like to ask you: How can I control the anger within me and how to be selfless when I deal with the outside world?
Also can you please tell me how can I control temptations when it comes to material success or looking at nice prasadam?
My last question is: If any senior devotee chastises or scolds me how can I take it as a blessing even if I have not done any mistake?
Your Humble Servant. Bhakta Pujan
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: See What Krishna Wants
Anger comes from unfulfilled desires. When things don't go the way we want them to go, we become angry. The easy way to conquer over anger is to stop seeing everything from the angle of what you want. If you will try to see everything from the angle of what Krishna wants, you will easily conquer over anger.
The desire for material success becomes purified by offering the results of that success in the service of Krishna. Arjuna was thinking that he did not want material success on the battlefield. But after Krishna ordered him to fight the battle, he did so on the order of the Lord and achieved great success, which was fully offered in Krishna's service.
There is nothing wrong if you are attracted to Krishna prasadam. It is a very nice attraction. Simply take whatever prasadam you can easily digest and not beyond that. Overeating, out of greediness leads to sickness and disease. Therefore one should always control his tongue in the matter of eating by only taking Krishna prasadam and by taking only as much as required.
Sometimes out of pride we think that we did not make a mistake, when factually we did make a mistake. But if we are being criticized for things that we have not done, we can tolerantly, and respectfully ignore such criticism. However, be very careful in this regard. Remember to always curb down the strong tendency of false egotism. Most of the time we are wrong, but we stubbornly refuse to take the correction that we deserve.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Tuesday 2 October 2007
from the ISKCON Temple in Riga, Latvia ------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- Today's Thought:
Taste the Supreme Nectar
Taste the supreme nectar of devotion by intelligently studying the sublime teachings of the Bhagavad-gita. By thoughtful analysis you will clearly see that this science of Krishna consciousness is not dogmatism or sentimentalism. Just as " H²O equals water" is a scientific principle, which when properly applied will yield the liquid known as water, when you carefully apply the principles of Krishna consciousness, you will personally realize the Supreme Truth and advance further and further to the point of personally meeting God, face to face, eye to eye.
Do not think that Krishna consciousness lacks depth. It is the deepest possible understanding of the Absolute Truth. On this pathway you will go deeper and deeper into the ocean of transcendental bliss and knowledge for all of eternity.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: When Problems Disturb Sadhana
It is said that one can be completely in Krishna Consciousness under all circumstances, but when material or monetary problems come, it first affects the sadhana (devotional practices) and when sadhana is affected, Krishna Consciousness is affected. So how can material problems be a blessing for an aspiring devotee?
Material problems are nice in one angle as Krishna gives realization that material world is not a picnic, but how to deal with them when they are having a negative effect on our practice of Krishna Consciousness?
Your aspiring servant,
Bhaktivinode das
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: Dive Deeper into the Ocean of Bhakti
When material problems come kindly remember that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Great heroes thrive on times of difficulty. This is when they shine. Just as a powerful ksatriya is enthused for battle when he is attacked by an enemy, a powerful Vaisnava is enthused in his sadhana when he is attacked by Maya. Now he can show Krishna how genuine he is in his desire to be a pure devotee.
Those who are enthused for bhakti only when things are going nicely are neophytes. In this connection there is a saying, "Fair weather friend." In other words only when things are going nicely is he your friend. Your devotion to Krishna should not be conditional like that. And there is another saying, "Nobody knows you when you are down and out." So its not that we should only appreciate Krishna when everything is going nicely and then abandon Him when things are turning sour.
If material problems are having a negative effect on your sadhana you are not practicing your sadhana on a deep enough level. Dive deeper and deeper into the ocean of bhakti and you will reach a point where material problems enliven your sadhana just as they did for Queen Kunti.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Monday 1 October 2007
from the ISKCON Temple in Riga, Latvia -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Today's Thought:
Unnecessary Suffering
Suffering is unnatural and unnecessary because we are constitutionally meant to enjoy unlimited happiness at every minute. The only reason we suffer is that our original pure consciousness is covered by illusion. Therefore those who are fortunate and intelligent dedicate themselves fully to getting free from the influence of the illusory energy.
If one can somehow or other surmount the influence of the illusory energy, his original, natural, pure state of consciousness again becomes fully manifested. This process is wonderfully described as follows in the Srimad Bhagavatam:
"If the illusory energy subsides and the living entity becomes fully enriched with knowledge by the grace of the Lord, then he becomes at once enlightened with self-realization and thus becomes situated in his own glory."--Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.34
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------- Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: Why Do We Easily Forget?
Namaste. Why is it that we don't ordinarily have past-life memories, except on rare occasions? Why are we thus limited to only one lifetime of memories? What causes us to forget so easily?
Thank you.
Love always...
Tommi.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: Because We Chose to Forget Krishna
Ever since we chose to forget Krishna our memory has been very meager.
You mention our having one lifetime of memories. But the fact is that we do not even have that. Can you tell me what you were doing at this time exactly one year ago? Can you tell me what you you were thinking, what you were saying, and what you were doing? No. You cannot.
Our nature is that we are forgetful. Remembering our past lives would not be any more helpful for getting us out of the cycle of birth and death than remembering what we were doing a year ago today. So why should we be interested to know our past lives? This is not very important.
When we walk down the street do we look forward or do we look backward? We look forward because that is how we will make progress. Looking behind at the places we have been will not allow us to move forward. So it is better that we look forward to see how we can advance in Krishna consciousness. This is the proper utilization of the human form of life, not trying to figure out who we were in our last lives.
From the great acharyas we have learned the system of chanting on japa beads. This system of chanting on beads amplifies the power of the mantra and thus helps one to go deeper into a state of transcendental meditation. Taking the japa beads in one's right hand beginning just next to the end bead, one utters the Hare Krishna mahamantra on the first bead and then moves to the second bead on which he again chants the mahamantra, etc, etc. In this way after chanting on 108 beads the devotee completes one round or one mala. (The 109th bead is called the end bead and is not chanted on. It simply serves as a marker to let you know where to begin and end each round.) After completing the first round the chanter then turns the beads around and goes back in the opposite direction to chant the second round and continues going back and forth until he completes at least 16 rounds. 
Today we are living in a world which is becoming increasingly polluted. We are gradually turning our entire earth planet into a toxic waste site. Even though so many people are talking about cleaning up the environment, no one is able to do anything to effectively turn the tide of the times towards a cleaner global atmosphere. The forces of greed forge ahead impelling us for the sake of quick material profit to continue polluting our atmosphere more and more and more until it becomes too late.
environment is heavily polluted on the subtle plane, the plane of consciousness. The phenomena we experience on the gross plane are the result of what is there on the subtle plane. Whatever is there on the subtle plane will naturally also be manifested on the gross plane. The subtle pollution is our selfish, greedy desire to lord it over this world as if we were its masters and owners.
