Kirtan is an uncomplicated and effective way of communing with God. The Padma Purana tells us, “Because the holy name and the ‘holy named’ are nondifferent, the name is fully complete, pure, and eternally liberated. Indeed, it is Krishna Himself.” Philosophically, this idea can be summarized as follows: matter and spirit are opposites. Thus, since in the material world, all things are relative, and part of that relativity manifests in a thing and its name being different, in the spiritual realm, the opposite must be true: a thing and its name are one. This is the na...

“The Bhagavad-gita teaches a pantheistic view of God,” he said, his confidence and years of learning clear from his authoritative tone. “The massive vishvarupa—Krishna’s universal form, which encompasses all material phenomena, including time—tells us much about God in the Gita.” His friend, another scholar of some renown, seemed to disagree. “The Gita goes beyond pantheism. It shows us how to perceive God in all things. The Tenth Chapter, especially, shows us how Krishna is the superlative exemplar in seventy categories, how He exists in the perceivable...

Srila Sanatana Gosvami and Nawab Hussein Shah. Sanatana Gosvami was unable to leave at that time. But he lost all interest in serving the government. He sent a letter to Nawab saying that he was very sick. He stayed home studying Srimad-Bhagavatam along with Vaishnavas. Days and weeks went by and Nawab’s kingdom was in great difficultly without Sanatana. He sent a doctor to check what is wrong with Sanatana. Doctor came back and reported that he is in perfect health. He is studying Srimad-B...

The Bhagavad-gita is one of the world’s perennial wisdom texts. Because it offers knowledge of the Absolute Truth, some of its texts can be difficult to understand. Few are as difficult as verses four and five of Chapter Nine: "By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them. And yet everything that is created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystic opulence! Although I am the maintainer of all living entities and although I am everywhe...

Prabhupada quickly engaged his disciples in mimeographing thousands of pamphlets with his “peace formula” philosophy, and he distributed them worldwide. Here is what he had to say: “The great mistake of modern civilization is to encroach upon others’ property as though it were one’s own and to thereby create an unnecessary disturbance of the laws of nature. These laws are very strong. No living entity can violate them. Only one who is Krishna conscious can easily overcome the stringency of the laws of nature and thus become happy...