Some Conclusions based on Vedic Descriptions Subtle body has a subtle form with subtle senses to perceive . Subtle body not subject to gross physical laws of space and time Subtle body changes according to present experiences and thoughts Thought forms become more permanent if desires and thoughts are strong. Attachment to the subtle body of another person can lead to attachments in future bodies Sinful, selfish or violent acts create disruption in the subtle body. This determines t...

Fifty years on and the movement has grown and changed. The philosophy and practises remain the same, but most of the members do not live in small communal clusters. There is still communal living – in around 600 locations internationally – but the majority of ISKCON’s members now live in their own homes, visiting a nearby temple or group if there is one. Preserving Srila Prabhupada’s request for his responsible senior disciples to provide spiritual leadership and to ‘teach by example’ has needed some careful re-designing for a n...

In a famous story from the Mahabharata, Krishna once met with Yudhishthira Maharaja and Duryodhana. Desiring to glorify His devotee Yudhishthira, Krishna requested him to find a person lower than himself, and asked sinful Duryodhana to find a person greater than himself. Yudhishthira had all good qualities. He was peaceful and self-satisfied. No doubt he had healthy self-esteem. Yet he could not find anyone he considered lower than himself. Again, this is the example of an advanced Vaishnava who...

According to many pure devotees, nama-sankirtan is not only the best means of devotional service but the final perfection itself. Of course, prema is the final goal of bhakti, but nama-sankirtan so quickly and infallibly leads to prema that the two are considered virtually identical. Wherever prema is seen to have developed, one can presume that nama-sankirtan must have been performed. Nama-sankirtan is the necessary and sufficient cause of prema.

Krishna is described as akhila-rasamrita-sindhu, "the ocean of rasas." There are five primary rasas. Rasa means the mellow or the taste we enjoy in every activity. Everything is done with some taste. Whatever you do, you must enjoy some taste out of it. There are twelve rasas, out of which five are primary and seven are secondary. They are described in this book. For example, we can consider Bhishma, the grandfather of the Pandav...

“The soldiers in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement must always possess physical strength, enthusiasm and sensual power. To keep themselves fit, they must therefore place themselves in a normal condition of life. What constitutes a normal condition will not be the same for everyone, and therefore there are divisions of varṇāśrama—brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, brahmacarya, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa.” (SB. 8.2.30, purport)

In a Back to Godhead we’d have twenty to thirty pages in those days, which means if we printed 500 copies, which was the normal run, we’d print 500 copies, I’d have to spread out twenty to thirty pages of 500 copies. When it was all printed, then I would have to collate them by hand and then stack them up and then put on the cover, which was a color offset. We’d use every month or every two weeks, every month, a different color – yellow, green, blue, like that – to show that it was a...

Our house must be converted into a temple. We may not be able to go temple daily. But our house must be a temple. Otherwise as human being we are missing the point. We have regulated our food habits by Srila Prabhupada's mercy. Never touch eggs, fish, meat. When the animal is dead - how can it give any strength or energy for you ? Dead body is dead body - rotten and full of poisons. How can it nourish us? Our grains are alive. Rice, wheat grains have millions of l...

This was just unacceptable that Srila Prabhupada could not show his love by not handing out cookies in gurupuja. So Radhanath Swami very quickly took the Deities’ plates with the offerings from mangala arati and tried to offer these to Srila Prabhupada as mahaprasadam. But the secretary said, “No you can’t offer this to Srila Prabhupada.” Then Maharaja snuck around the other side where there was a more lenient servant and placed the tray there. Then Srila Prabhupada, like a little child, he had very small silver spoons, began distributing prasadam to the devotees as...

What makes Bg. 2.40 so encouraging is that Krishna recognizes our difficulty. He both prescribes a gradual path and presents us with information about the tremendous benefit that can accrue to us if we simply endeavor to practice devotion. Srila Prabhupada has stated that if someone would just read one page from his books or taste even a morsel of prasadam, he could be liberated. Similarly, even a little devotion can protect you from falling down into a lower species of life. Such devotion never suffers loss or diminution. Srila Prabhupada writes: Any work b...

Krsna is wonderful, amazing inconceivably so but we have not touched on the most mysterious and inconceivable of all His qualities: His ability to express love. He is powerful, He is wise, He is strong and famous, but His inclination to love all living beings, and His expression of that love in a variety of ways, is His most attractive feature. And even more attractive than that is His special love for His devotees. Therefore, a devotee, while recognizing Krsna's mastership over his or her life, does not ever forget this greatest glory of Krsna's love. I recently...

As we look over the various cultures and religions of the world, we may ask if all religious systems are divine. Though they seem to conflict with each other on various points, still there are many areas of truth in which they all agree. Or you could say that some of the same essential truths can be found within each of them. And by a careful comparison, we can trace the essence of that truth back to what was originally explained in the Vedas, the oldest of all...

"Scientists say that water is a combination of hydrogen and oxygen," writes Srila Prabhupada, the founder and spiritual guide of the Hare Krsna movement, "but when they see a vast ocean they are puzzled about where such a quantity of hydrogen and oxygen could have come from. They think that everything evolved from chemicals. But where did the chemicals come from? We actually see that chemicals are produced from living entities. For example, a lemon tree produces many tons of citric acid. The ci...

Did you hear the story of the man who rode up to the gates of our Mayapur, West Bengal, temple to sell ice cream? He had one of those tricycles you see a lot in India—the ones with a refrigerated box on the back. Nothing sells quite like ice cream on a hot day. Only he wasn’t selling ice cream at all. He opened the lid of the icebox, pulled out a hand bell and a bunch of papers, then began ringing the bell and calling out, “Diksha! Diksha!” [“Initiation! Initiation!”] He was selling d...

"What's it like to go back home to Krishna?" wondered ten-year-old Kiran at the weekly gathering for children from our congregation. I responded by speaking about Goloka Vrindavana, our real home, where we aspire to go after our tenure in this world. "The spiritual world of Goloka is free from all school exams and home assignments," I told the kids. "It's all fun, day and night—no interruption in play!" "Wow!" Kiran replied. "But," he probed, "since we've been away for so long, will Kris...

Somehow, it happens that our motivation in Krishna consciousness may falter. Usually that faltering comes in the form of lacking the desire to do some practical service, associate with devotees, or develop our spiritual practices, such as improving the quality or quantity of our chanting or of our reading of Srila Prabhupada's books. Whenever this happens to me or a friend, I realize the urgency and fragility of devotional service and the importance of remaining inspired...

Friendship is a necessary part of our personhood, in both our material and spiritual being. The ancient Sanskrit text Hitopadesa ("Beneficial Advice") speaks extensively on friendship in simple story form which incorporates maxims, worldly wisdom, and practical advice. In the first book of the Hitopadesa, Mitralabha (“Gaining Friends”), the qualities of a true friend are listed as purity, generosity, chivalry, being composed in happiness and distress, politeness, affection, and truthfulness.

Karttika is the best and most glorious month, purest of pure. It is particularly dear to Lord Krishna, because it is the month of Srimati Radharani. This month is full of love of the Lord towards His devotees. Any vow followed in this month, even a small one, brings tremendous results. The essence of Karttika-vrata is to satisfy Sri Sri Radha-Damodara with our more and better devotional service to Them. Kirttika is the name of the third daughter of Prajapati Daksa. It was a custom in Vraja ...