Sri Siksastakam | The Hare Krishna Movement

Eight Instructions of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

07 Nov 2016 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, chanting, Chanting Hare Krishna, Sri Siksastakam Tags: Caitanya, ceto-darpana-marjanam, chanting Hare Krishna, cleanse the heart, eight verses, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, mantra mediation, mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, morning meditation, Spiritual Life, Sri Siksastakam

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This morning we are posting the Siksastakam prayers by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and commentary by our Srila Prabhupada. This is a very nice morning meditation

Sri Siksastakam
The Eight Instructions of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

From: “Teachings of Lord Chaitanya” Original version 1968
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared 500 years ago in Navadvip, West-Bengal and is considered the most recent incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna.

He left us only eight verses, called Siksastakam, in which His mission and precepts are revealed.

Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486-1535) started His worldwide Sankirtan mission of propagating the chanting of the holy name of the Lord (the process of self-realization for this age – to meditate upon the sound of the maha-mantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare).

Text 1
ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-maha–davagni-nirvapanam
shreyah-kairava-chandrika-vitaranam vidya-vadhu-jivanam
anandambudhi-vardhanam prati-padam purnamritaswadanam
sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krishna-sankirtanam

Glory to the Sri Krishna 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.

A Short Sketch of the Life and Teachings of Lord Caitanya

05 Mar 2015 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Siksastakam, Srimad Bhagavatam Tags: Appearance of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Krsna, Lord Caitanya, o govinda, Vrndavana

Today marks the appearance of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the great apostle of love of God and the father of the congregational chanting of the holy name of the Lord. In honor of His Appearance we share with you “A Short Sketch of the Life and Teachings of Lord Caitanya”, which Srila Prabhupada has included in the introduction to the Srimad Bhagavatam.

In the modern age Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu preached the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by practical demonstration. It is easier to penetrate into the topics of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam through the medium of Śrī Caitanya’s causeless mercy. Therefore a short sketch of His life and precepts is inserted herein to help the reader understand the real merit of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

It is imperative that one learn the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the person Bhāgavatam. The person Bhāgavatam is one whose very life is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in practice. Since Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the Absolute Personality of Godhead, He is both Bhagavān and Bhāgavatam in person and in sound. Therefore His process of approaching the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is practical for all people of the world. It was His wish that the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam be preached in every nook and corner of the world by those who happened to take their birth in India.

Śrī Śrī Śikṣāṣṭaka

31 Aug 2012 2 Comments

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Chanting Hare Krishna, Sri Siksastaka, Sri Siksastaka, Sri Siksastakam Tags: bhava maha davagni nirvapanam, Caitanya, ceto darpana, ceto-darpana-marjanam, chanting Hare Krishna, eitht instructions, Hare Krishna, holy name of the lord, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, sri siksastaka, tṛṇad api sunicena

Śrī Śrī Śikṣāṣṭaka
Eight Instructions
Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu

Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu instructed His disciples to write books on the science of Kṛṣṇa, a task which His followers have continued to carry out down to the present day. The elaborations and expositions on the philosophy taught by Lord Caitanya are, in fact, the most voluminous, exacting, and consistent, due to the system of disciplic succession. Although Lord Caitanya was widely renowned as a scholar in His youth, He left only eight verses, called Śikṣāṣṭaka. These eight verses clearly reveal His mission and precepts. These supremely valuable prayers are translated herein.

Sankirtan; The Yoga for the Modern Age

13 Mar 2012 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead, Sankirtan, Sri Siksastakam, Yoga Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead Magazine, bhagavad-gita, Hari Kirtana, Kali-yuga, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, perfection of yoga, religion, sankirtan movement, The Yoga for the Modern Age

..When Rupa Gosvami first met Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu at Prayag, Lord Caitanya was chanting and dancing in the street “Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna.” At that time also he offered one prayer. Namo maha-vadanyaya krsna-prema-pradaya te. “O You are the most munificent of all incarnations because You are distributing love of Godhead.” Krsna-prema-pradaya te krsnaya krsna-caitanya-namne gaura-tvise namah. “You are Krsna Himself because if You were not Krsna You could not distribute Krsna-prema or love of God, for love of Krsna is not so easily acquired. But You are distributing this love freely to everyone.”

Hari Kirtana: The Yoga for the Modern Age
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Excerpted from ‘Back To Godhead’ Magazine
1970, Vol., 1 No. 34

Ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-mahadavagni-nirvapanam sreyah kairava candrika vitaranam vidyavadhu jivanam anandambudhi-vardhanam pratipadam purnamrtasvadanam sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam. All glories to the sankirtana movement. Param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, when He was only a sixteen-year-old boy, introduced this sankirtana movement 500 years ago in Navadvipa, India. It was not that He manufactured some religious system, just as nowadays so many religious systems are being manufactured.

Actually religion cannot be manufactured. Dharmam tu saksad-bhagavat-pranitam. Religion means the codes of God, the laws of God, that’s all. Certainly we cannot live without obeying the state laws, and similarly, we cannot live without obeying the laws of God. And in the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says, “yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata abhyutthanam adharmasya,” and there is a predominance of irreligious activities, “tadatmanam srjamy aham,” at that time I (Krsna) appear. And in the material world we can see the same principle demonstrated, for whenever there is disobedience of state laws, there is the advent of some particular state officer or police man to “set things right.”

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.