The Hare Krishna Movement

What is Krsna Consciousness?

07 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Interview with Srila Prabhupada, Krishna Consciousness, Science of Self Realization, Srila Prabhupada Conversations Tags: caste system, Christ consciousness, fake gurus, God consciousness, Hare Krsna mantra, Interviews with Srila Prabhupada, krsna consciousness, Sandy Nixon, spiritual master God, Srila Prabhupada

The following interview with freelance reporter Sandy Nixon took place in July 1975, in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s quarters at the Kṛṣṇa center in Philadelphia. This discussion serves as a superb introduction to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and covers such basic topics as the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, the relationship between the spiritual master and God, the difference between genuine and fake gurus, the role of women in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the Indian caste system, and the relationship between Christ consciousness and Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

What is Krsna Consciousness?

Ms. Nixon: My first question is very basic. What is Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa means God. We are all intimately connected with Him because He is our original father. But we have forgotten this connection. When we become interested in knowing, “What is my connection with God? What is the aim of life?” then we are called Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Ms. Nixon: How does Kṛṣṇa consciousness develop in the practitioner?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa consciousness is already there in the core of everyone’s heart. But because of our materially conditioned life, we have forgotten it. The process of chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare—revives the Kṛṣṇa consciousness we already have. For example, a few months ago these American and European boys andgirls did not know about Kṛṣṇa, but just yesterday we saw how they were chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and dancing in ecstasy throughout the whole Ratha-yātrā procession [an annual festival sponsored by the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement in cities around the world]. Do you think that was artificial? No. Artificially, nobody can chant and dance for hours together. They have actually awakened their Kṛṣṇa consciousness by following a bona fide process. This is explained in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya 22. 107)

You Can Live With Krsna, Even in This Life

06 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Krishna Consciousness, Lectures, Srimad Bhagavatam Tags: constant devotional remembrance. spiritual sky, Damaghosa, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, krsna consciousness, Lord Krsna, Pradyamuna das, pure consciousness, SB 1.15.47-48, Srila Prabhupada Lecture Srimad Bhagavatam

Photo by Damaghosa Prabhu

“If you become devotee of Krsna, then you can live with Krsna, even in this life. Even in this life. Because Krsna is omnipotent, if you are really devotee of Krsna, He will talk with you, He will dance with you, He will eat with you, everything.”

Lecture by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
December 25, 1973, Los Angeles
Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.15.47-48

Pradyumna: “Thus by pure consciousness due to constant devotional remembrance, they attained the spiritual sky, which is ruled by the Supreme Nārāyaṇa, Lord Kṛṣṇa. This is attained only by those who meditate upon the one Supreme Lord without deviation. This abode of the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, known as Goloka Vṛndāvana, cannot be attained by persons who are absorbed in the material conception of life. But the Pāṇḍavas, being completely washed of all material contamination, attained that abode in their very same bodies.” [SB 1.15.47-48]

Prabhupāda: Tad-dhyāna udriktayā. Dhyāna means meditation. So the Pāṇḍavas, always they were thinking of Kṛṣṇa. While they were eating, they were sitting, they were sleeping, they were talking, they were fighting-Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When Arjuna was fighting, so there was also Kṛṣṇa. When they were dealing in politics with Duryodhana, there was Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is his friend, always talking with him, staying with him, sleeping with him, eating with him.

The Highest Yogi

05 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Bhagavad-gita, Krishna Consciousness, Yoga Tags: bhagavad-gita, bhajete, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Krishna, Krishna consciousness, prabhupada, yoga, yogi, yoginam api sarvesam

It is by great fortune that one comes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness on the path of bhakti-yoga to become well situated according to the Vedic direction. The ideal yogī concentrates his attention on Kṛṣṇa, who is called Śyāmasundara, who is as beautifully colored as a cloud, whose lotus-like face is as effulgent as the sun, whose dress is brilliant with jewels and whose body is flower garlanded. Illuminating all sides is His gorgeous luster, which is called the brahmajyoti. He incarnates in different forms such as Rāma, Nṛsiṁha, Varāha and Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He descends like a human being, as the son of Mother Yaśodā, and He is known as Kṛṣṇa, Govinda and Vāsudeva. He is the perfect child, husband, friend and master, and He is full with all opulences and transcendental qualities. If one remains fully conscious of these features of the Lord, he is called the highest yogī.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is – Macmillan 1972 Edition
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Chapter 6, Text 47

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ
mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā
śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ
sa me yuktatamo mataḥ

yoginām—of all yogīs; api—also; sarveṣām—all types of; mat-gatena—abiding in Me; antaḥ-ātmanā—always thinking of Me within; śraddhāvān—in full faith; bhajate—renders transcendental loving service; yaḥ—one who; mām—Me (the Supreme Lord); saḥ—he; me—Mine; yuktatamaḥ—the greatest yogī; mataḥ—is considered.

Translation
And of all yogīs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all.

Srila Prabhupada is a Friend to All

03 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Srila Prabhupada, The Hare Krishna Movement Tags: Bhagavad=gita, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Krishna, Sri Caitanya, Srila Prabhupada, Srimad Bhagavatam, The Hare Krishna Movement

…Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita, “one who teaches this most confidential knowledge to others is very dear to Me.” Through his translations of Vedic texts such as the Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, and the Sri Chaitanya-caritamrita, Srila Prabhupada taught others the instructions of Lord Krishna in a way that was understandable to all…

Srila Prabhupada is a Friend to All
Author unknown

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, more affectionately known as Srila Prabhupada, is the Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, ISKCON, or more popularly known as The Hare Krishna Movement. The movement was inaugurated in India by Lord Caitanya almost five hundred years ago. The age that we currently live in is full of quarrel and dissent and the only means of self-realization is through the constant chanting of the holy name of God.

The Hare Krishna mantra, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, is found in the ancient scriptures of India, and is the most powerful of mantras in this age since it directly addresses God and His energy in a loving way. Lord Chaitanya freely distributed this mantra to all of India through congregational chanting. Srila Prabhupada, a spiritual master in the disciplic succession descending from Lord Chaitanya, preached this same movement in the mid 1960s beginning in America and eventually spreading throughout the world.

Sri Sri Siksastakam

02 Jan 2012 1 Comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Back to Godhead, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna Maha Mantra, Sri Siksastakam, Subaldasa Swami, The Hare Krishna Movement Tags: His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Krsna consciousness movement, Lord Caitanya, Lord Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Madhva-Gaudiya-Sampradaya, Sri Siksastakam, Subaldasa Swami

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Lord Caitanya’s Mission and Precepts
Excerpted from ‘Back To Godhead’ magazine, 1973 Vol. 1, No. 49 & 50

As foretold in Vedic scriptures, the Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared on earth 500 years ago in the form of Lord Caitanya, who is God Himself playing the role of a devotee of Godhead. The eight verses entitled Sri Sri Siksastakam, which were the only written instructions of Lord Caitanya, reveal the essence of the Krsna consciousness movement.

Sri Sri Siksastakam

by Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu
translated by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
with purports by His Holiness Subaldasa Svami

1.
ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-mahadavagni-nirvapanam
sreyah kairava-candrikavitaranam vidyavadhujivanam
anandambudhi-vardhanam pratipadam purnamrtasvadanam
sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam

Translation

Glory to the Sri Krsna sankirtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years and extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death. This sankirtana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it enables us to fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious.

Past, Present and Future

01 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Bhagavad-gita, Time Tags: Arjuna, As It Is 1972 Edition, bhagavad-gita, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Krishna, past present and future, Srila Prabhupada, supersoul, supreme soul

…Anyone with a material body cannot remember his past life, nor can he foretell his future life, nor can he predict the outcome of his present life; therefore he cannot know what is happening in past, present and future. Unless one is liberated from material contamination, he cannot know past, present and future.

…out of millions and millions of men, some try to become perfect in this human form of life, and out of thousands and thousands of such perfected men, hardly one can understand what Lord Kṛṣṇa is. Even if one is perfected by realization of impersonal Brahman or localized Paramātmā, he cannot possibly understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, without being in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is 1972 Edition
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Chapter 7, Text 26

vedāhaṁ samatītāni
vartamānāni cārjuna
bhaviṣyāṇi ca bhūtāni
māṁ tu veda na kaścana

veda—know; aham—I; sama—equally; atītāni—past; vartamānāni—present; ca—and; arjuna—O Arjuna; bhaviṣyāṇi—future; ca—also; bhūtāni—living entities; mām—Me; tu—but; veda—knows; na—not; kaścana—anyone.

Translation
O Arjuna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things that are yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows.

Purport
Here the question of personality and impersonality is clearly stated. If Kṛṣṇa, the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is considered by the impersonalists to be māyā, to be material, then He would, like the living entity, change His body and forget everything in His past life. Anyone with a material body cannot remember his past life, nor can he foretell his future life, nor can he predict the outcome of his present life; therefore he cannot know what is happening in past, present and future. Unless one is liberated from material contamination, he cannot know past, present and future.