Vani | The Hare Krishna Movement

Hearing the Pastimes of the Lord

23 Apr 2018 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, KRSNA The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vani Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, complete beauty, complete fame, complete knowledge, complete renunciation, complete strength, complete wealth, hearing the pastimes of the lord, incarnations, janma karma ca me divyam, Krsna The Supreme Personality of Godhead, six opulences, vani

The Importance of Hearing
Excerpted from: Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Chapter Seven The Salvation of Tṛṇāvarta

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is always full of six opulences–namely complete wealth, complete strength, complete fame, complete knowledge, complete beauty and complete renunciation. The Lord appears in different complete, eternal forms of incarnation. The conditioned soul has immense opportunity to hear about the transcendental activities of the Lord in these different incarnations. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, janma karma ca me divyam. The pastimes and activities of the Lord are not material; they are beyond the material conception. But the conditioned soul can benefit by hearing such uncommon activities. Hearing is an opportunity to associate with the Lord; to hear His activities is to evolve to the transcendental nature–simply by hearing. The conditioned soul has a natural aptitude to hear something about other conditioned souls in the form of fiction, drama and novel. That inclination to hear something about others may be utilized in hearing the pastimes of the Lord. Then one can immediately evolve to his transcendental nature. Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes are not only beautiful; they are also very pleasing to the mind.

“A Month in the Life of Srila Prabhupada”

16 Mar 2016 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada vani, Vani Tags: A. C. Bhakthvedanta Swami Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada, vani, vanipedia, Visnu Murti

Recently this following letter appeared in my mailbox with a wonderful link from Vanipedia.org A month in the life of Srila Prabhupada is generated from the Timeline of Srila Prabhupada’s life and from A Day in the Life of Srila Prabhupada

Dear Devotees,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Thanks to Visnu Murti Prabhu and the Vanipedia team, we can now easily
follow Srila Prabhupada’s life from 1966 all the way to 1977 here:

http://vanipedia.org/wiki/A_Month_in_the_Life_of_Srila_Prabhupada

Please visit this link and share widely.

Pasughna – Killer of Animals, Killer of the Soul

27 May 2014 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Krsna-katha, Srila Prabhupada Conversations, Srila Prabhupada vani, Vaisnava Vocabulary, Vani Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, animal eaters, animal-killing, butcher, commit suicide, hunting, killer of animals, killer of the soul, killing animals, killing cows, Krsna conscious, Krsna-katha, pasu-ghna, pasughna, slaughterhouses

Cow Protection for the Benefit of Civilization

Here is another word for your vaisnava vocabulary; pasughna. I was reading this morning from the Introduction to the Krsna Book and this word [paśughna] just kinda jumped out at me. The meaning is: killing animals or killing oneself. I found this interesting, that killing animals was the same as killing oneself. I did a serch on Vani Quotes of this word and the following post is the results of that search.

…This book, Kṛṣṇa, which is filled with kṛṣṇa-kathā, will thus appeal equally to the liberated souls and to persons who are trying to be liberated, as well as to the gross, conditioned materialist. According to the statement of Mahārāja Parīkṣit, who heard about Kṛṣṇa from Śukadeva Gosvāmī, kṛṣṇa-kathā is equally applicable to every human being, whatever condition of life he is in. Surely everyone will appreciate it to the highest magnitude. But Mahārāja Parīkṣit also warned that persons who are simply engaged in killing animals and in killing themselves may not be very much attracted to kṛṣṇa-kathā. In other words, ordinary persons who are following the regulative moral principles of scriptures, no matter in what condition they are found, will certainly be attracted, but not persons who are killing themselves. The exact word used in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is paśughna, which means killing animals or killing oneself. Persons who are not self-realized and who are not interested in spiritual realization are killing themselves; they are committing suicide. Because this human form of life is especially meant for self-realization, by neglecting this important part of his activities one simply wastes his time like the animals. So he is paśughna. The other meaning of the word refers to those who are actually killing animals. This means persons who are animal-eaters (even dog-eaters), for they are all engaged in killing animals in so many ways, such as hunting and opening slaughterhouses. Such persons cannot be interested in kṛṣṇa-kathā. (Krsna Book Introduction)

Definitions of Vāṇī

02 Mar 2013 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Vaisnava Vocabulary, Vani Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, definition of vani, His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada, message, teaching, the power of speach, transcendental words, vaisnava vocabulary, vani, vanipedia, vanisource, vibration, voice, words

By chance I happened upon the Vanipedia About Page this morning while researching a post for Srila Bhaktisiddhanta’s appearance day, and found this most fascinating definition of the word Vani. We can see from studying Srila Prabhupada’s books just how vast the Sanskrit language is just from the example of this one word; vāṇī. In one letter written to Tribhuvanatha in June of 1972, Srila Prabhupada writes:

“I am very much stressing nowadays that my students shall increase their reading of my books and try to understand them from different angles of vision. Each sloka can be seen from many, many angles of vision, so become practiced in seeing things like this.”

So here is a word for your Vaisnava Vocabulary with its many meanings.

“Although according to material vision His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda passed away from this material world on the last day of December, 1936, I still consider His Divine Grace to be always present with me by his vāṇī, his words. There are two ways of association-by vāṇī and by vapuḥ. Vāṇī means words, and vapuḥ means physical presence. Physical presence is sometimes appreciable and sometimes not, but vāṇī continues to exist eternally. Therefore we must take advantage of the vāṇī, not the physical presence. The Bhagavad-gītā, for example, is the vāṇī of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Although Kṛṣṇa was personally present five thousand years ago and is no longer physically present from the materialistic point of view, the Bhagavad-gītā continues.”

Definitions of Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda has translated vāṇī in the following ways;

vāṇī—a voice
vāṇī—injunction
vāṇī—message
vāṇī—talking
vāṇī—teachings
vāṇī—the organ of speech
vāṇī—transcendental words
vāṇī—vibration
vāṇī—words
vāṇī—words, the power of speech