Katha

The causeless mercy of Lord Vishnu is unparalleled, and such mercy is  perceived by the devotees only by the grace of the Lord.    A devotee does not live on the material plane-he lives in Kṛṣṇa. The holy name of the Lord and the Lord are nondifferent; therefore when a devotee chants Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa and His internal potency are dancing on the tongue of the devotee. When he offers Kṛṣṇa food, Kṛṣṇa directly accepts these eatables, and the devotee becomes Kṛṣṇa-ized by eating the remnants.      One who does not engage in such service cannot understand how this is so, although this is a process recommended in the Gītā and in other Vedic literatures.     Life is a journey. This metaphor is often used to explain various facets of life, including spiritual progress: we embark on a devotional journey towards Krishna from the miserable material world to the ecstatic spiritual world.      Like all material examples used to illustrate spiri...

What is the difference between goodness and unalloyed goodness? In the transcendental world beyond the material sky , the material qualities, especially the modes of ignorance and passion, are completely absent. The mode of ignorance influences a living entity to the habit of lust and hankering, and this means that in the Vaikunthalokas the living entities are free from these two things.  As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita, in the brahma-bhuta stage of life one becomes free from hankering and lamentation. Therefore the conclusion is that the inhabitants of the Vaikuntha planets are all brahma-bhuta living entities, as distinguished from the mundane creatures who are all compact in hankering and  lamentation.  When one is not in the modes of ignorance and passion, one is supposed to be situated in the mode of goodness in the material world. Goodness in the material world also at times becomes contaminated by touches of the modes of passion and ignorance. In the Vaikunthalok...

A person who finds faults in others is a person full of faults.Fault finding is maya’s very vicious weapon to divert our attention from what we have to do in life and that is clean up our own hearts.When faults in others misguide and delude you- Have patience, introspect, find faults in yourself. Know that others cannot harm you unless you harm yourself. Chant these names with love and you will feel the ecstasy: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare  Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare ... हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे || हरे राम हरे राम राम राम हरे हरे|| Hare Krishna ... Jay Jagannath ... https://youtu.be/djIIOQQb0g0 ~~ Bhakta Sanjay.

When people hurt us, we often want to get back at them, hurt them the way they have hurt us. When things go wrong in life, we may want to get back at life’s supreme controller, God, by resenting or blaspheming him. But attacking God is like spitting at the sky – it is the disfigurer who ends up getting disfigured. Resenters and blasphemers find themselves deprived of God’s enlightening wisdom and empowering grace, thereby becoming more vulnerable to the mind’s trivial tantrums and petty passions.   That’s why when life hurts us, instead of getting back at God, it’s far more intelligent to get God back – to reconnect with him through wisdom and devotion. This is illustrated in the narrative of the Bhagavad-gita. At the Gita’s start, Arjuna faced a heart-wrenching crisis: he had to fight and slay his venerable elders such as his grandfather and his martial teacher. Prior to this traumatic war, he and his family had been victimized repeatedly by the relentless machinations of his evil...

Story Time: "Yes, No & Very Good!"    A simple villager once picked up some English words just by listening here and there. He only knew "Yes" "No" and "Very good". But he never attempted to serious understand the application of these words in their proper context. He only thought that a sort of respect for an "English speaking person" could be attained by using these words in front of others! Once some robbers killed a man while escaping with the loot from his house and made it look like the villager was the culprit. When the villager was brought before the judge in court, the Judge asked him in Bengali, "Did you commit the murder?" The foolish villager thought that if he could speak some English in front of the judge, then he would be impressed and have great respect for him. He may be relieved of these allegations. So the villager replied "Yes!" The judge asked "Was there anyone else with you?" The v...

Beginning of all knowledge comes from humility.Humility is a natural symptom of those who love God.Humility means one does not impose his conceptions upon others and he is fully dependent on the mercy of the Lord.    The Bhagavad-gita (13.08) commends humility as the first among the virtues of the enlightened. And it also commends protecting one’s honor, the seeming opposite of humility. The Gita (02.34) warns Arjuna that abandoning his duty will invite dishonor that will be gossiped about for time immemorial and will hurt worse than death.    Wouldn’t being dishonored help one to become humble?   Not necessarily, because authentic humility grows not by being disrespected externally, but by finding inner fulfillment and thereby becoming detached from external respect.    Life’s purpose and the Gita’s central message is neither humility, nor honor – it is dutifulness, specifically dutifulness towards Krishna, which is actually our nature as souls. Such ...

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa)  Canto 10: The Summum Bonum SB 10.6: The Killing of the Demon Pūtanā One day, Pūtanā arrived from outer space in Gokula, the home of Nanda Mahārāja, and by displaying her mystic power, she assumed the disguise of a very beautiful woman. Taking courage, she immediately entered Kṛṣṇa’s bedroom without anyone’s permission; by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, no one forbade her to enter the house or the room, because that was Kṛṣṇa’s desire. The baby Kṛṣṇa, who resembled a fire covered by ashes, looked upon Pūtanā and thought that He would have to kill this demon, the beautiful woman. Enchanted by the influence of Yoga-māyā and the Personality of Godhead, Pūtanā took Kṛṣṇa upon her lap, and neither Rohiṇī nor Yaśodā objected. The demon Pūtanā offered her breast for Kṛṣṇa to suck, but her breast was smeared with poison. The child Kṛṣṇa, therefore, squeezed Pūtanā’s breast so severely that in unbearable pain she had to assume her original body and fell to the grou...

Supreme God i.e. LORD SRI KRISHNA made the laws of karma, and the JIVA i.e. SOUL made it's own karma.     Do not blame the agent of your karma. The people who hurt you are your teachers. They bring you invaluable lessons.     One who comes to the platform of intelligence to understand that rather than serving the cause of material advancement he should serve the cause of Krishna, becomes transcendental to the stringent laws of karma.      “How can we best deal with our disagreers?” The Bhagavad-gita (18.03) offers a healthy model. Here Krishna states the position of those who recommend renunciation of work – a position that he clearly disapproves later (18.05-06). Yet he refers respectfully to the renunciation advocates as manishinah (great thinkers).    That Krishna offers such respect to his disagreers is extraordinary and exemplary for many reasons. Firstly, it is in direct contrast to the general human tendency of mixing the issue with th...

Four Regulative Principles of Freedom    We keep changing our bodies in this material world. Sometimes we take birth in a lower species and slowly evolve through our way upwards.    There is a spectrum of 8,400,000 species ranging from plants, insects, reptiles, animals, birds and human beings. The more we evolve the more we are free… we get better facilities to enjoy our senses.   As a human being, we know, we are much evolved than all the other lower species. But think…    Are we applying our intelligence in right direction? Do we know that we can aim for absolute freedom and all that we need to do is to take guidance from the scriptures?  Are we not just getting lost in enjoying the facilities of sense gratification?   It is only an illusion that we are experiencing a better freedom. We are servants of our senses.   The senses dictate us and we act accordingly. And we think that we are free to do what we want.   Real freedom is t...

The 6 Pillars of the Eternal Religion i.e. SANATAN DHARMA created by Supreme Godhead and he is Lord Krishna. 1. Truthfulness  One must always speak the truth, stand up for the truth, and side with the truth. 2. Mercy    All living beings are brothers and sisters, and thus, one must be kind to all his brothers and sisters. This teaching is unique to Sanatan-Dharma, and it comes from the most merciful Person, Lord Krishna (God). Kindness to animals is practiced by not killing them (vegetarianism and no leather).      Kindness between human beings is practiced by being friendly and considerate to everyone. Consuming alcohol and drugs, gambling, and relationships outside of marriage cause suffering to families and especially to the women and children. Thus one should refrain from these sinful activities. 3.  Austerity    There are many austerities that one can perform. Including living a simple life by not being materialistic, eating simply, fast...

ONLY 24 MINUTES LEFT Once upon a time there was a war between the demigods and the demons. The demigods came to Earth, to India, where there was a powerful king named Khatvanga Maharaja. They requested him to help them – to become their general, their commander. He told them, “Yes I am coming.” And he went to the battlefield. It was a very big war, and at last the king defeated the demons.  Some of the demons were killed, and the rest fled away. All the demigods then requested the king, “Whatever boon you want, we will give you. We will give you anything you want.”  The King said, “Actually, I want salvation from this world, and I want to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” The demigods said, “We are not able to give you that. You can ask for another boon.” The King then said, “Then you should tell me when my death will come.” They replied, “Very soon; in 24 minutes.” He therefore requested that, “At once take me to the Earth, to India.” And they did so. By the time the...

A 24-year old boy looking out through a train's window shouted, Dad, look, "the trees are going behind; they are moving very fast" his Dad simply stared at him with so much joy and smiled! A young couple seated nearby looked at the 24-year old and thought to themselves, he's so grown up but so childish, he must have a mental disorder for his father not to be bothered. Suddenly the young man exclaimed again; Dad, look, "the clouds are running with us" the couple could not resist and said to the old man, why don't you take your son to a good doctor may be a psychiatrist? The old man smiled and said I just did. We are just coming from a doctor but not a psychiatrist ; we are just coming from the hospital. My son was blind from birth. He just got his sight today for the very first time, his behavior may seem stupid to you, it's more than a miracle to me. The young couple just sat down there, lost for words with a mixture of tears and shame in their eyes....

4 Paths To Liberation The First Path to Liberation: Knowledge To attain release, Hinduism acknowledges four distinctive paths: knowledge, devotion, good deeds, and meditation. Hindus do not see these four paths as exclusive one of another. There is a recognition that there are different personalities, and thus different paths. One may pursue one path, and have little to do with the others, or one may hold one path at the center and combine with it one or more of the rest. The path of study is traditionally centered on the Vedic traditions of Hinduism (the Scriptures). It is the intellectual pursuit, but as such it is not limited to the writings. In tandem with the study of the Vedas, the pursuer of insight must come to know the world; the sciences, history, psychology and more must be studied in order to grasp fully the knowledge contained in the scriptures. The path of knowledge is considered the most difficult of the paths, as it is not simple knowledge alone, but a deeper discrimina...