Transcendental Knowledge | The Hare Krishna Movement

Spiritual Knowledge Through Kṛṣṇa

05 Jan 2016 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Krishna Consciousness, Krishna Consciousness Movement, Matchless Gifts, The Hare Krishna Movement, The Matchless Gift, Transcendental Knowledge Tags: A. C. Bhakthvedanta Swami Prabhupada, Krsna, krsna consciousness, Krsna consciousness movement, living entity, Matchless Gift, material disease, material nature, original consciousness, self realization, spiritual consciousness, spiritual knowledge, spiritual knwoledge, The Hare Krishna Movement

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Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, The Matchless Gift
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Chapter One

Spiritual Knowledge Through Kṛṣṇa

The aim of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to bring all living entities back to their original consciousness. All living entities within the material world are, to varying degrees, afflicted with a type of madness. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement aims at curing man of his material disease and reestablishing his original consciousness. In a Bengali poem a great Vaiṣṇava poet has written, “When a man is haunted by ghosts, he can only speak nonsense. Similarly, anyone who is under the influence of material nature should be considered haunted, and whatever he speaks should be considered nonsense.” One may be considered a great philosopher or great scientist, but if he is haunted by the ghost of māyā, illusion, whatever he theorizes and whatever he speaks is more or less nonsensical. Today we are given the example of a psychiatrist who, when requested to examine a murderer, proclaimed that since all the patients with whom he had come in contact were more or less crazy, the court could excuse the murderer on those grounds if it so desired. The point is that in the material world it is very difficult to find a sane living entity. The prevailing atmosphere of insanity in this world is all caused by the infection of material consciousness.

Goloka Vṛndāvana; The Supreme Abode

01 Jan 2015 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Bhagavad-gita, Goloka Vrndaban, Spiritual World, Transcendental Knowledge, Yoga, Yogi Tags: Bg 6.15, Bhagavad-gita As It Is 1972 Edition, bhakti yoga, brahmajyoti, cessation of material existence, Goloka Vrndavana, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, kingdom of God, Krsna, mystic transcendentalist, Prabhupada books, Sankhya-yoga, supreme abode, yoga

With the beginning of a new year, I am always apt to take up my studies with renewed enthusiasm, a resolution and firmness of purpose, to read more from Srila Prabhupada’s books, and to delve more deeply into the practice of bhakti-yoga. This morning I was reading about the spiritual sky; Goloka Vṛndāvana.

The abode of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, Fifteenth Chapter, sixth verse:

na tad bhāsayate sūryo na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ
yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama

“That abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by electricity. And anyone who reaches it never comes back to this material world.” (Bg. 15.6)

This verse gives a description of that eternal sky. Of course we have a material conception of the sky, and we think of it in relationship to the sun, moon, stars and so on, but in this verse the Lord states that in the eternal sky there is no need for the sun nor for the moon nor fire of any kind because the spiritual sky is already illuminated by the brahmajyoti, the rays emanating from the Supreme Lord. We are trying with difficulty to reach other planets, but it is not difficult to understand the abode of the Supreme Lord. This abode is referred to as Goloka. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is beautifully described: Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ. The Lord resides eternally in His abode Goloka, yet He can be approached from this world, and to this end the Lord comes to manifest His real form, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. When He manifests this form, there is no need for our imagining what He looks like. To discourage such imaginative speculation, He descends and exhibits Himself as He is, as Śyāmasundara. Unfortunately, the less intelligent deride Him because He comes as one of us and plays with us as a human being. But because of this we should not consider that the Lord is one of us. It is by His potency that He presents Himself in His real form before us and displays His pastimes, which are prototypes of those pastimes found in His abode. (from Introduction to the Bhagavad-gita As It Is)

…The ultimate goal in practicing yoga is now clearly explained. Yoga practice is not meant for attaining any kind of material facility; it is to enable the cessation of all material existence. One who seeks an improvement in health or aspires after material perfection is no yogī according to Bhagavad-gītā. Nor does cessation of material existence entail one’s entering into “the void,” which is only a myth. There is no void anywhere within the creation of the Lord. Rather, the cessation of material existence enables one to enter into the spiritual sky, the abode of the Lord. (from purport to Bg 6.15)

Lord Rsabhadeva’s Teachings to His Sons

21 Oct 2014 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Lord Rsabhadeva, Srimad Bhagavatam, Threefold Miseries, Transcendental Knowledge, Varnasrama Dharma Tags: A.C. Bhaktiveanta Swami Prabhupada, amhita, devotional service, eternal blissful life, living entities, Lord Rsabhadeva, material bodies, rsabha uvaca, Srimad Bhagavatam, transcendental knowledge

This morning by chance, I happened upon the teachings of Lord Rsabhadeva to His sons. It was in an old notebook that I opened just to see what was inside. Inside were prayers from the Vaisnava Songbook, the Brahma-samhita, Teachings of Pralada Maharaja, and these teachings of Lord Rsabhadeva. It was Sri Gandhari’s old gurukula study notebook, and what she was studying 30 years ago was very useful and timely today. It was just what I needed to read this morning and I share it with you today. It is verses 1-27, from the Fifth Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, chapter five.

Lord Ṛṣabhadeva told His sons: My dear boys, of all the living entities who have accepted material bodies in this world, one who has been awarded this human form should not work hard day and night simply for sense gratification, which is available even for dogs and hogs that eat stool. One should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of devotional service. By such activity, one’s heart is purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and which continues forever.

Devahūti Desires Transcendental Knowledge

21 Mar 2014 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Teachings of Lord Kapila, Transcendental Knowledge Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta, books of His Divine Grace, Devahuti Desires Transcendental Knowledge, Kapila Muni, Lord Kapila, Srila Prabhupada, Teachings of Lord Kapila, transcendental knowledge

The following is chapter six in our series on the Teaching of Lord Kapila entitled “Devahūti Desires Transcendental Knowledge”. This chapter contains the timeless instructions on receiving spiritual knowledge. It is very difficult to get out of this entanglement and attain freedom, but if one is fortunate enough to get the association of a spiritual master like Kapila Muni or His representative, then by his grace one can be delivered from the mire of ignorance. The spiritual master is therefore worshiped as one who delivers the disciple from the mire of ignorance with the light of the torch of knowledge. We are fortunate in this age to have the books of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada to guide us. Human knowledge was originally preserved through oral tradition, but today we have this knowledge preserved in the books of His Divine Grace.

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