03 Nov 2016
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Festivals, Spiritual Master, Spriritual Master, Srila Prabhupada
Tags: A. C. Bhakthvedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead Magazine, BTG, disappearance of Srila Prabhupada, dissappearance, Srila Prabhupada, Swami Prabhupada, vaisnava devotee
click on image to enlarge
Today we honor the disappearance day of His Dive Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada with a half day fast and are celebrating your disappearance with remembrances and prayers.
The Disappearance of a Vaisnava was explained very nicely by Srila Prabhupada is a lecture given on the disappearance day lecture of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Maharaja Prabhupada on Dec. 13, 1973 in Los Angeles:
“So spiritually, appearance and disappearance, there is no difference. Just like in material point of view, if a person takes birth… Suppose you get a son born, you become very happy. The same son, when passes away, you become very unhappy. This is material. But spiritually, there is no such difference, appearance or disappearance. So although this is the disappearance day of Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, so there is nothing to be lamented. Although we feel separation, that feeling is there, but spiritually, there is no difference between appearance and disappearance.”
For today’s post we are going back in time…to the first issue of Back to Godhead Magazine after Srila Prabhu’s departure.
Srila Prabhupada Speaks Out
text excerpted from; Back to Godhead Magazine
His Final Instructions
During his last months, Srila Prabhupada was not very active physically, and he spoke relatively little. Yet when he did speak, his words were full of spiritual strength. These excerpts from Srila Prabhupada’s last statements reveal the mind of the pure devotee and universal teacher. And they show that Srila Prabhupada is indeed a transcendental personality, whose devotion to Lord Krsna and to the mission of spreading love of Krsna is undying.
“I cannot speak. I am feeling weak. I wanted to travel to Chandigarh and other places, but I changed my program because my health is deteriorating. I decided to come here to Vrndavana (the land of Lord Krsna). If death takes place, let it take place here.”
“There is nothing new to be said. Whatever I had to say, I have already said in my books. Now you must all try to understand it and continue with your endeavors. Whether I am present or not present doesn’t matter. Just as Krsna is living eternally, the living being also lives eternally. But especially… kirtir yasya sa jivati: ‘One who has done service to the Lord lives forever.’ You have been taught to serve Krsna, and with Krsna we’ll live eternally. Our life is eternal. Na hanyate hanyamane sarire: the disappearance of this temporary body doesn’t matter. The body is meant for disappearance. So, live forever by serving Krsna. Thank you very much.”
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06 Oct 2016
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Hayagriva das, Vrindavan, Vrndavana
Tags: Back to Godhead Magazine, BTG, hayagriva das, Krsna, material covering, prabhupada, real dhama, Srila Prabhupada, Vrndavan, vrndavan dham
Seeing The Real Vrndavana
by Hayagriva Dasa
excerpted from Back To Godhead Magazine
Oct 1, 2006 Volume-03 Number-31 (Indian)
Learning from Srila Prabhupada how to see beyond the material coverings to perceive the real dhama
I bend down to get through the door and enter a small, sparsely furnished room. Suddenly, I’m face to face with Srila Prabhupada. He’s sitting on the floor behind a low desk piled with books and papers.
“Jai!” he says. “Our Hayagriva has arrived.”
I pay dandabat obeisances by prostrating myself and touching his feet with my right hand. Then I place my hand to my forehead. To remember the spiritual master’s lotus feet is to remember Krsna. The effect is as cooling as sandalwood.
“nama om visnu-padaya krsna presthilya bhu-tale srimate bhaktivedanta- svamin iti namine,” I say, offering respects. Then I sit before him, and he smiles.
Although seventy-six, Prabhupada seems as ageless as ever. His head is freshly shaved, and the aroma of mustard- seed oil tells me that he has just received a massage. His complexion is radiant, his eyes clear, his face full and healthy. This is the face that attracted me that day when I was walking down New York’s Houston Street and first met him, the face that brought so many young seekers to that little storefront temple on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights. For us, his face embodies all the attractive qualities of devotion, for it’s a pure, truthful, and compassionate face. It is both happy and grave. It is magnanimous, gentle, and forgiving. It is also determined and self-controlled, and, above all, most learned and intelligent. It’s a face not afraid to love and give all in love for Krsna.
Indeed, Prabhupada’s face conjures all those virtues that lead to love of Krsna. It’s not an ordinary man’s face. It transports an entire spiritual fact, the Vedic culture, an atmosphere of bhakti . I first began realizing his potency just by Jlooking at his face. Whenever I’m Kr,na conscious, it makes me joyful. Whenever I’m not, I’m afraid to look at it; it accuses me, makes me ashamed without uttering a word. What power there is in the spiritual master’s face! What magne tism! What volumes of wisdom! ‘
“I’m glad you invited me here, Srila Prabhupada,” I say.
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23 Sep 2016
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Caitanya Mahaprabhu
Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Back to Godhead Magazine, Idintity of Lord Chaitanya, Lord Chaitanya, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Sanatan Goswami, Sri Sri Radha and Krishna, Sri Swarup Damodar Soswami, Srila Narottam das Thakur, Srila Prabhupada, Srila Rupa Goswami, Viswambhar, Viswanath Chakrabarty
Identity of Lord Chaitanya
By A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine 1960 Vol. 3 Part 16
Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is no other than the combined form of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna. He is the life of those devotees who strictly follow the footprints of Sri Srila Rupa Goswami.
Srila Rupa Goswami and Srila Sanatan Goswami both are principal followers of Sri Swarup Damodar Goswami who acted as the most confidential servitor and constant companion of Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu whose name was known as Viswambhar in His early life.
And from Srila Rupa Goswami, Srila Raghunath Das Goswami comes as the direct disciple and the author of Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita i. e., Sri Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami stands to be his direct follower.
From Goswami Krishna Das Kaviraj the direct disciple is Srila Narottam Das Thakur who accepted Viswanath Chakrabarty as his servitor. Viswanath Chakrabarty accepted Jagannath Das Babajee from whom Srila Bhaktivinode Thakore was initiated and Srila Gour Kishore Das Babajee the spiritual master of Om Vishnupada Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupad-the Divine spiritual Master of our humbleself.
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02 Apr 2016
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Allen Ginsberg, Back to Godhead, BTG magizine, Guru das, People, Roger Siegel
Tags: 518 Frederick Street San Francisco, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Allen Ginsberg, BTG, conversation with Srila Prabhupada, Guru das, Krishna Consciousness Temple, swami
This morning I was cleaning out one of the sheds, and found this old suitcase filled with cassette tapes. There were some of the old Bhaktivedanta Archive tapes, Golden Avatar tapes, various lectures, bahjans and kirtans. I started to listed to some of the old vintage kirtans and lectures and I was filled with a nostalgic mood of yearning, for the early days of the Hare Krishna Movement. This lead me to re-examine the old Back to Godhead magazine issues. The following is one article I found very reminiscence of those early days.
A Conversation between A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami & Allen Ginsberg
Recorded by Guru Das Adhikary
Swamiji had come to San Francisco in late January, 1967 for the opening of the Krishna Consciousness Temple there, at 518 Frederick Street. Allen Ginsberg had always shown friendly and helpful interest in the Society; and he agreed to attend a giant “Mantra Rock Festival,” which the temple members were planning to hold in the Avalon Ballroom. And so, a few days before that event, the good poet came to early morning Kirtan (7 A. M.), and later joined the Swami upstairs in the apartment his pupils had rented for him.
We were sitting in the glow of this holy man, munching on Indian sweetballs cooked by the Swami, when Allen Ginsberg came through the door, a warm smile on his face.
The Swami offered him a sweetball: “Take.”
They sat in silence for a few moments, radiating mutual love.
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06 Jan 2016
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada Conversations, Visakha devi dasi
Tags: Back to Godhead Magazine, feasting and festivities, God consciousness, ISKCON center, Krsna, Krsna conscious philosophy, spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, Supreme Personality of Godhead, Visakha devi dasi
click on images to enlarge
I have always enjoyed going back in time and re-reading the old Back to Godhead Magazines. This one was from 1974 and chronicles the arrival of Srila Prabhupada.
The Arrival of a Pure Devotee
by Visakha-devi dasi
New York: His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder and spiritual master of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), stopped here for a few days recently as part of his continuing tour of ISKCON centers around the world. At JFK International Airport, as more than one hundred disciples royally greeted him and curious reporters thronged around him, Srila Prabhupada explained, in clear language and with fixed conviction, the Krsna conscious philosophy of a God-centered society in which “everything animate and inanimate is recognized to be controlled and owned by the Lord.”
“Will this solve the energy crisis?” one reporter asked. “Yes, why not?” Srila Prabhupada immediately responded. “The only lack in the world today is the lack of God consciousness.”
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10 May 2015
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead
Tags: A. C. Bhakthvedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead Magazine, BTG, Govinda, govindam adi-purusam, Krsna, love of God, Placing our love in Krsna, The Original Person
click on image to enlarge
Placing Our Love in Krsna
A talk given in September 1968 by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, at the Hare Krsna temple in Seattle.
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine Vol. 16, No. 10
Govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami. Our program is to worship Govinda, the original person, with love and devotion. This is Krsna consciousness. We are teaching people to love Krsna. That’s all. Our program is to direct your love toward the proper place. Everyone wants to love, but they’re being frustrated because their love is being misplaced. People do not understand where to place their love. First of all you love your body. Then, a little extended, you love your father and mother. Then you love your community, then your country, then the whole human society. And at last you love all living entities. But all this extended love will not give you satisfaction—until you reach the point of loving Krsna. Then you’ll be satisfied.
For example, when you throw a stone into a lake, a circle begins expanding. The circle keeps expanding, expanding, expanding … And when the circle touches the shore, it stops. Until the circle reaches the shore of the lake, it must go on increasing. So we have to go on increasing and increasing our love until we love Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
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25 Apr 2015
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in Back to Godhead, Devotee's, Krsna Consciousness
Tags: A. C. Bhakthvedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead Magazine, BTG, Jayadvaita das, krsna consciousness, Krsna consciousness in India, Srila Prabhupada, Tamala Krsna Goswami, transcendental land of Lord Krishna, Vrndavana
As a young bhakta/book distributor back in 1975, I daily distributed Back to Godhead Magizines along with Srila Prabhupada’s books. I remember one day when the heat was oppressive, I took a break and sat beneath a shade tree and read the following article from the BTG. Reading this article sparked my desire to visit India, and planted the seed that would later bring me there. We share it with you along with some of the accompanying photos.
Conversations from India
excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine Volume 10, Number 02, 1975
A senior member of the Hare Krsna movement tells how Krsna consciousness has gone from East to West and back again.
Last March, when hundreds of devotees from all over the world gathered in India for a pilgrimage to the holy cities Mayapur and Vrndavana, I had the opportunity, after four years, to again have the association of my senior Godbrother, His Holiness Tamala Krsna Gosvami Maharaja. The ISKCON temple in Vrndavana was then under construction, and Tamala Krsna Maharaja had a small grass-and-adobe hut nearby, which he used as a headquarters for chanting, reading and executing his various Krsna conscious duties.
After Srila Prabhupada, our spiritual master, first brought some of his devotees to India in 1970, he entrusted to Tamala Krsna Maharaja the responsibility for overseeing the Society’s various preaching programs in India. I knew something about these programs from pictures, news clippings and letters I’d received from devotees, but still I felt that I didn’t have a clear picture of what we were really doing there. However, Tamala Krsna Maharaja is always eager to talk about Krsna consciousness, and so he kindly agreed to tell me about what our movement has done in India during the past four years.
So, there in his hut in Vrndavana, the transcendental land where Lord Krsna Himself had appeared 5,000 years ago to display His transcendental pastimes, Maharaja and I spent several mornings simply talking about Krsna consciousness—and especially Krsna consciousness in India. Here is an excerpt from our conversations, which we taped to share with readers of BACK TO GODHEAD. We will print more in a future issue.
—Jayadvaita dasa; Editor, BACK TO GODHEAD
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14 Mar 2015
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead
Tags: Back to Godhead Magazine, hippi, hippies, Lust and greed are a disease, protest, reaction, Rejection
The Supreme Proprietor, The Supreme Enjoyer, The Supreme Friend
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine
Unless we understand the father, how can we live as brothers?
This conversation with a journalist took place at the Hare Krsna center in London in 1971.
Srila Prabhupada: I have experienced that in my childhood there were not so many problems in India. But now India is faced with so many problems on account of imitating Western civilization.
Reporter: Not simply because of the increased population?
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23 Dec 2014
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, BTG magizine, Hayagriva das, Prabhupada, The Hare Krishna Explosion
Tags: A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Pabhupada, Back to Godhead Magazine, East Village hippies, Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna Mantra, hayagriva das, hippies, Lower East Side, New Vrindaban, Old Vrindaban, Stay High Forever, the hare krishna explosion
I enjoy reading and re-reading to old issues of Back to Godhead Magazine. And it seems the older the issue the more relishable the content, as is the case with this 1969 issue…
The Hare Krishna Explosion
by Hayagriva das
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine 1969 Vol. 1, No. 26
The joyful history of a dynamic transcendental movement
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare vibrates from a walkup temple on New York’s Lower East Side, from the sidewalks of Haight Ashbury, from Golden Gate Park, from a London flat, from student quarters in Hamburg and Amsterdam, from a storefront in Santa Fe, an exbowling alley in Montreal, a sprawling university campus in Ohio, from Old Vrindaban in India to New Vrindaban in the West Virginia mountains, and from Boston and Buffalo to Los Angeles, Seattle and Vancouver and across the Pacific to Hawaii.
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. The voices chanting the magic vibrations are invariably young. The chanting, accompanied by khartals (small hand cymbals), tambourines and drums, is often loud and frenetic. The dancing is vigorous. The middle-aged and elderly usually stand in doorways or look through windows, watching in amazement, unaware that they are witnessing a process of spiritual realization that has been practiced on this planet for thousands of years. They do not understand. No one really understands. The chanting just spreads. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna …
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30 Nov 2014
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in Back to Godhead, Brahmananda das, The Hare Krishna Movement
Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Back to Godhead Magazine, brahmacari, Brahmananda das, Brahmananda Swami, BTG, BTG Vol.10 No. 12, How the Hare Krsna Movement came to Africa, krsna consciousness, prabhupada, preaching in Africa, The Hare Krishna Movement
How the Hare Krsna Movement Came to Africa
by His Holiness Brahmananda Swami
Excerpted from; Back to Godhead Magazine 1975 Vol. 10, No. 12
The story of how the Hare Krsna movement came to Africa starts in 1971 in the United States. I was in Tallahassee, Florida, teaching an experimental course in Krsna consciousness at the state university, when I received a letter from my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, instructing me to go immediately to West Pakistan for preaching work. I had very little money, and I knew the trip to Pakistan would be long and arduous. However, a disciple takes his spiritual master’s order as his very life and soul, and I was determined that nothing would stop me.
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11 Nov 2014
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Rupa Goswami, The Hare Krishna Movement, Upadesamrta
Tags: A. C. Bhakthvedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead Magazine, devotional service, Obstacles on the Path of Eternity, problems of economic or political maladjustment and instability, spiritual community, Srila Rupa Gosvami, Srila Rupa Gosvami's Upadesamrta, the krsna consciousness movement, Upadesamrta
This morning while I was looking through some of the old issues of Back to Godhead Magazine, I stumbled upon the following article.
Obstacles on the Path of Eternity
An Excerpt from Srila Rupa Gosvami’s Upadesamrta
from Back to Godhead Magazine Vol. 1, No.88, 1973
[SRILA RUPA GOSVAMI was one of six exalted devotees especially chosen through the Krsna conscious chain of spiritual masters to teach the devotional service of the Supreme Lord in a scientific manner. Although all of these six great devotees were erudite scholars and prolific writers, Srila Rupa Gosvami is the most prominent, for he most greatly appreciated the nectar of Krsna consciousness. His Upadesamrta (Nectarean Instructions), a short work of only eleven verses, teaches the basic principles for arousing one’s dormant love of Krsna, the Supreme Lord. Written in Sanskrit some 400 years ago, it has now been translated into English, with an illuminating explanation of each verse, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.]
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03 Oct 2014
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Founder-Acarya, Srila Prabhupada, The Hare Krishna Movement
Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead Magazine, bhagavad-gita, BTG, discipline of God consciousness, God consciousness, Hare Krsna, Hare Rama, krsna consciousness, Srimad Bhagavatam, The Hare Krishna Movement, the krsna consciousness movement
click on image to enlarge
The Krsna Consciousness Movement
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine Vol. 1, No. 48
The Krsna consciousness movement is now being increasingly recognized throughout the world as a spiritual force of great potency, purity and importance to human society. With the simultaneous publication of the first two cantos of Srimad-Bhagavatam and the complete 1,000-page edition of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, the public is becoming increasingly aware that the boys and girls whom they see chanting and dancing on their city streets are students of a most serious discipline of God consciousness which is established on the basis of a philosophical system of considerable completeness, consistency and depth.
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
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24 Sep 2014
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in Back to Godhead, Narahari das, Simple Living, Spiritual Life
Tags: Back to Godhead Magazine, bonafide religion, BTG, chant Hare Krsna, every town and village, God, Iskcon, Krsna, Narahari, narahari das, read Srila Prabhupada's books daily, Sailing Back to Godhead, Spiritual Life, spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, The Hare Krishna Movement, the hare krsna's, transcendental knowledge
Yesterday I was cleaning out the abandoned barn at Bahulavan, which is now being put back together again, and I found an old issue of Back to Godhead Magazine mixed in with so much debris. I pulled it out, cleaned it off, and added it to my collection of Back to Godhead Magazines. I had always heard of this famous sailing ship, and finally got a chance to see it.
Sailing Back to Godhead
Article excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine Vol. 16, No. 6, 1981
A teakwood ketch and a devotee’s determination help bring Lord Krsna’s message to the Hawaiian Islands.
“…Krsna consciousness is the only established religion I know of that openly respects all other bonafide religions. My wife and I chant Hare Krsna and read Srila Prabhupada’s books daily. It’s added a dimension to my life that I feel is essential.”
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15 Sep 2014
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Founder-Acarya, Free Downloads, Free eBooks, Jaladuta, Poetry of Srila Prabhupada, Spiritual Master, Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada's Arrival in the USA
Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead Magazine, First Arrival in the USA, Founder and Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Jaladuta, poem by prabhupada, Poetry of Srila Prabhupada, science of bhakti-yoga, Srila Prabhupada's arrival in the USA, transcendental loving service to God
Today we celebrate the Arrival of Srila Prabhupada in the U.S.A. 1965 with this poem written aboard the ship the Jaladuta and with a free pdf download the Jaladuta Diary. Just click on link at bottom of post to read or save the pdf file.
Poem by Srila Prabhupada on His First Arrival in the USA
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine 1970, Vol. 1, No 34
The spiritual master and founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, is now engaging thousands of men and women in America and throughout the world in the science of bhakti-yoga, transcendental loving service to God. Prabhupada had no personal motive in first beginning ISKCON; he so vigorously preaches the philosophy of God consciousness simply because he has been ordered to do so by his own spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada first arrived in the United States in 1965 with seven dollars, a letter of introduction to an Indian family in Pennsylvania, and a suitcase with some volumes of Srimad-Bhagavatam. In the following poem, written in Bengali on the day of his arrival in the USA, Srila Prabhupada addresses the Supreme Lord Krsna, asking Him His purpose in sending His servant to America. The translation from Bengali was done by Srila Prabhupada himself.
Poem More
09 Sep 2014
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Soul, Spiritual Life
Tags: A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Pabhupada, Back to Godhead Magazine, Bhagavata-dharma, BTG, God, Krsna, part and parcel of God, relationship with God, sons of God, soul, Supreme Lord Krishna, wandering soul
Which Way Home for the Wandering Soul?
A lecture by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine Vol. 18, No. 10, 1983
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for kindly participating in this Krsna consciousness movement, which is spreading bhagavata-dharma. Bhagavata-dharma means “the activities performed in relationship with the Supreme Lord.” The Lord is Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the devotee is bhagavata, one who acts in relationship with Bhagavan.
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09 Aug 2014
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in Back to Godhead, Soul, Spiritual Life, The Hare Krishna Movement, Vishnujana Swami
Tags: Back to Godhead Magazine, Bhagavad-gita 2.59, BTG, His Holiness Visnujana Svami, illusion, illusory energy, mercy of the Lord, neophytes, regulative principles, soul, Spiritual Life, the Hare Krsna movement, vairagya, Visnujana Swami
Some Day the Tiny Soul Will Want to Get Out of Illusion
Instructions to the devotees of the Hare Krsna movement
given in New York City, March 31, 1974
by His Holiness Visnujana Svami
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine 1974 Vol. 1, No. 65
…As soon as one gets the association of the bhakti-vedanta, the pure devotee or spiritual master, and hears from his lips the nectarean waves flowing just like the wonderful River Ganges, these waves enter his ears and his heart and purify him. Thus he is freed from the seeds of contaminated material desires. When he hears sufficiently, his intelligence becomes satisfied, and he agrees to act on the instructions of his bona fide spiritual master. The more he acts on these instructions, the more he becomes freed from past bad habits and the conditional responses of this material world. Thus his conditional association is completely vanquished. This, of course, is where he achieves a spiritual taste (ruci) and spiritual strength (vairagya).
full lecture More
05 Jul 2014
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Hayagriva das, Srila Prabhupada, The Hare Krishna Explosion, The Hare Krishna Movement
Tags: Back to Godhead Magazine, BTG, chanting Hare Krishna, guru, Hare Krishna, Hayagriva dasa, he Hare Krishna Explosion, prabhupada, real guru, Spiritual Life, spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, Swamiji, T, transparent medium
The joyful history of a dynamic transcendental movement
Excerpted from the Back to Godhead Magazine 1969 Vol. 1, Number 26
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare vibrates from a walkup temple on New York’s Lower East Side, from the sidewalks of Haight Ashbury, from Golden Gate Park, from a London flat, from student quarters in Hamburg and Amsterdam, from a storefront in Santa Fe, an exbowling alley in Montreal, a sprawling university campus in Ohio, from Old Vrindaban in India to New Vrindaban in the West Virginia mountains, and from Boston and Buffalo to Los Angeles, Seattle and Vancouver and across the Pacific to Hawaii.
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. The voices chanting the magic vibrations are invariably young. The chanting, accompanied by khartals (small hand cymbals), tambourines and drums, is often loud and frenetic. The dancing is vigorous. The middle-aged and elderly usually stand in doorways or look through windows, watching in amazement, unaware that they are witnessing a process of spiritual realization that has been practiced on this planet for thousands of years. They do not understand. No one really understands. The chanting just spreads. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna …
The Hare Krishna Explosion
By Hayagriva dasa
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13 Jun 2014
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in Back to Godhead, Cow Protection, Taru das
Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead Magazine, BTG, bull as father and symbol of religion, bull protection, cow protection, devotional service, farming for Krsna, Farms, gigantic industrial enterprises, godless civilization, Kirtananda Swami, Krsna conscious farming communities, oxen, Srila Prabhupada
Farming With Krsna in Mind
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine Vol. 12, No. 11 1977
I just spent the day here at New Vrindavan farm community, discussing plans for the future cow protection program, which will include an Ox barn and training for teams of young oxen, for use in plowing, wood harvesting, and pulling carts and wagons. It was all very inspiring and I am very much eger to become more deeply involved in this important aspect of our philosophy. Personally I have plans to work with some young oxen, build an ox cart, and put them to work. What is that saying…”when the father is employed the family will prosper”…so it is time to engage the bulls in some meaningful activity so the family will prosper and they will become joyful once again.
With this idea in mind, we post this older article from the Back to Godhead Magazine.
“Naturally, cow protection includes bull protection. The bull is our father and the symbol of religion. At present a few boys are working the oxen and hauling wood, plowing fields, and cutting hay. Of course, we do have tractors, but we want to develop skill working the oxen. They are our future.”
“Human prosperity flourishes by natural gifts, and not by gigantic industrial enterprises, “says His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who has founded many Krsna-conscious farming communities all over the world. “The gigantic industrial enterprises are products of a godless civilization, and they cause the destruction of the noble aims of human life…. What we need, therefore, is to be obedient to the laws of the Lord and achieve the perfection of human life by devotional service to Him. “Here’s a look at two ‘ ISKCON farms in action.
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01 Feb 2014
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Conversation with Srila Prabhupada
Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead Magazine, BTG, dialogue with His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Karandhara das, science, Srila Prabhupada, Svarupa dasa, The Tiny World of Modern Science
The Tiny World of Modern Science
A dialogue with His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
(Los Angeles, April 16, 1973)
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine Vol. 1, No. 61, 1974
For many years, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the spiritual master of the Krsna consciousness movement, has every day customarily taken an hour-long early morning walk with some of his disciples wherever in the world he is then preaching. Sometimes His Divine Grace says little; he simply chants Hare Krsna on his beads and walks. Sometimes, however, he holds animated discussions or even arguments, challenging disciples to defend materialistic viewpoints so that he can defeat them with Krsna consciousness. The following dialogue was recorded on an inspired morning walk at Venice Beach, Los Angeles. Walking with Srila Prabhupada were two of his disciples, Karandhara dasa and Svarupa Damodara dasa, a chemist working on his Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry at the University of California.
Svarupa: Scientists are worried about energy sources, and now they are working to utilize solar energy for cooking, lighting and various other purposes. They are hoping that when they exhaust all other energy sources, they will be able to use solar energy.
Srila Prabhupada: This is not a very new theory. Everyone knows that because the roots of trees store the sun’s energy, it is possible to get fire from a tree. These scientists are tiny creatures, but they are very proud. We don’t give them credit, because they are simply stating what everyone knows. As soon as you cut a tree, you cannot get fire from it. It has to be dried in the sun. When the energy is gathered from the sun, the tree can be utilized for fire. Actually everything is being maintained by the sun’s energy, but the scientists don’t know where the sun’s energy comes from. In Bhagavad-gita Krsna says:
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20 Nov 2013
by The Hare Krishna Movement
in Back to Godhead, Brahmananda das, Spiritual Life, Spiritual World, Vrndavana
Tags: Back to Godhead Magizine, Brahmananda Swami, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, Kusum Sarvara, Spiritual Life, spiritual qualification, Spiritual world, Srila Prabhupada, Vrndavan
Kusum Sarvara
Please click on image to enlarge
Vrndavana – Land of No Return
by Brahmananda Swami
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine 1975 Vol.10, No. 11
I once visited Vrndavana, India with His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. As I accompanied him on his daily walk one morning we suddenly came upon a particularly beautiful spot. The cool sands were thick with foliage; the tall trees full of singing birds. As the sun brightened the clear morning sky, peacocks filled the air with their peculiar call.
Srila Prabhupada looked over his shoulder and said to me, “So, Brahmananda, this is Vrndavana. How do you like it?”
“It’s wonderful, Srila Prabhupada,” was all I could reply. I felt that he was actually revealing the glories of Vrndavana to me even though I had no particular spiritual qualification.
Vrndavana is the place where the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna appeared five thousand years ago. Lord Krsna descended there from His own spiritual planet, Goloka Vrndavana to attract us by displaying His supernatural pastimes. Srila Prabhupada has explained that when Krsna descends to the material world, this same Vrndavana descends with Him just as an entourage accompanies an important personage. Because when Krsna comes His land also comes, Vrndavana is not considered to exist in the material world. Therefore devotees take shelter of the Vrndavana in India, for it is considered to be a replica of the original Goloka Vrndavana.
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