Krishna | The Hare Krishna Movement

How To Offer Your Food To The Lord

24 Feb 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Practicing Krishna Consciousness at Home, Prasadam Tags: bhakti yoga, devotion, devotional service, God, Krishna, Lord Caitanya, Lord Krishna, love, Prasadam, Srila Prabhupada, yoga

How to Offer Your Food To The Lord

Everything comes from God (Krishna), the air we breath, the water we drink, and the food we eat. But this process of Krishna Consciousness or bhakti-yoga, is the method for re-awakeing our dormant love for God. When you love someone, then there is service. Isn’t this so? A mother loves her baby, and cares for the babies needs; she baths the baby, dresses the baby, feeds the baby etc. So this process of Krishna Consciousness is giving back to the Supreme Lord, in the mood of loving devotional service. Although the Supreme Lord is providing everything, still a devotee thinks, “I want to give something back. I want to offer something to the Lord” Not that we just take from the Lord, ‘O Lord thank you for our daily bread’. No, a devotee wants to bake some bread for the Lord, cook some rice and offer it to the Lord, offer some fruits, and flowers, and water for the Lords pleasure. This is the begining of Love, through service.

A young boy meets a young girl, and he gives her a flower, carries her books, gives her gifts and offers her service. Similary, we want to love God, so we begin with gifts and service, to develope our love and devotion. So this process of offering very nicely prepeared foods to the Lord is Bhakti Yoga. Yoga means ‘union’, and Bhakti means through loving devotional service. It is a very blissful process. I want to Love God, so let me offer some service, some flowers, some nicely cooked food,etc. And we can link up with God (yoga) by thinking of Him, offering prayers, chanting His holy names, and offering the food we eat.

Ouotes by Srila Prabhupada

19 Feb 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Letters by Srila Prabhupada, Quotes by Srila Prabhupada Tags: chanting Hare Krishna, His abode, His form, His pastimes, His Qualities, Krishna, Prahladananda, Quotes

“The more you become in service attitude for Krishna; Krishna will reveal Himself to you. Krishna is within you and He is awaiting your surrender and service, and as soon as He sees that you are seriously in serving mood, you will understand everything about Krishna – His qualities, His form, His pastimes, His entourage, and His abode.”

– in a Letter to: Sachisuta, Montreal, June 17, 1968

“We are trapped souls in a state of forgetfulness of Krishna, and Krishna is giving you the chance now to re-establish your relationship with Him by this chanting process. So take full advantage of it and be happy.”

– in a Letter to Prahladananda, Feb. 14, 1969

Practicing Krishna Consciousness at Home

18 Feb 2011 1 Comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Devotional Service, Krishna Consciousness, Practicing Krishna Consciousness at Home Tags: Hare, Krishna, Krishna Consciousness at home, Padmapani das, Radha Krishna Temple Album, Rama

Practicing Krishna Consciousness at Home
by Padmapani Prabhu

Since the vast majority of our readers are coming to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna Consciousness for the first time through Internet searches, and without access to devotee association or a nearby Hare Krishna temple, many people have inquired about how they can set up an altar in their homes and start practicing Krishna Consciousness at their own pace.

The first and foremost principle of Krishna Consciousness is chanting the Hare Krishna mantra:
“Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”

This mantra is a prayer to the Supreme Lord which means: “O energy of the Lord (Hare), O all-attractive Lord Krishna, O Supreme Enjoyer (Rama), please engage me in Your service.”

On Chanting the Hare Krishna Mantra

18 Feb 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Chanting Hare Krishna Tags: bangalore, Iskcon, japa, kirtan, Krishna, Lord Caitanya, no hard and fast rules for chanting Hare Krishna, Rama, The Hare Krishna Movement

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You can chant these holy names of the Lord anywhere and at any time, but it is best to set a specific time of the day to regularly chant. Early morning hours are ideal.

The chanting can be done in two ways: singing the mantra, called kirtana (usually done in a group), and saying the mantra to oneself, called japa (which literally means “to speak softly”). Concentrate on hearing the sound of the holy names. As you chant, pronounce the names clearly and distinctly, addressing Krishna in a prayerful mood. When your mind wanders, bring it back to the sound of the Lord’s names. Chanting is a prayer to Krishna that means “O energy of the Lord [Hare], O all-attractive Lord [Krishna], O Supreme Enjoyer [Rama], please engage me in Your service.” The more attentively and sin¬cerely you chant these names of God, the more spiritual progress you will make.

Premanjana “Seeing God”

11 Feb 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Krishna Consciousness, Spiritual World Tags: Absolute Truth, God, Krishna, Krishna's Mercy, Srila Prabhupada, Surpreme Personality

Article written by Krishna’s Mercy . org

“Everyone is seeing God in His different aspects; the only difference is that the theist sees God as the Supreme Personality, the most beloved, Krishna, and the atheist sees the Absolute Truth as ultimate death.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 2, Ch 32)

“Have you seen God? Can you show Him to me?” These are some of the challenging questions often directed at those who are religiously inclined and those who are actively preaching the message of love and respect for the Lord found in India’s most famous religious text, the succinct and complete treatise on Vedic philosophy known as the Bhagavad-gita. Any time a preacher takes to kindly passing on information pertaining to spirituality, there will surely be skeptics, uninterested observers, and those who are not willing to listen. When engaged in ordinary conversation, wherein points and counterpoints are exchanged, generally no conclusion is reached in the end. Therefore in order to learn properly, one must take instruction from someone who has weight, a guru, or spiritual master, one who knows the truth as explained to them by previous authority figures. Yet even when hearing from a guru there is a natural urge to see proof, tangible evidence that God indeed exists. The devotees, those whose eyes have been anointed with transcendental love, see the influence of the Lord everywhere. Yet even the atheists, those who are staunchly against religious principles, are forced to see the influence of the same loveable Divine Entity at every turn, especially at the time that matters most: death.

Bhakti; Summit of Yoga

17 Jan 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Devotee's, Devotional Service, Vaisesika das Tags: Arjuna, bhagavad-gita, bhajate, bhakti, devotional service, dhyana yoga, karma yoga, Krishna, Vaisesika Dasa

Bhakti Notes:
by Vaisesika Dasa

FAQ: Why does it seem that Srila Prabhupada’s translations, word for word renditions and purports all seem to point only to Bhakti?

Answer: Srila Prabhupada’s purpose in presenting the Bhagavad gita As It Is, was to bring out Krsna’s ultimate conclusion of the Gita. This is the meaning of “As It Is.”

Some have speculated that in the Gita Krsna presents many paths and that any one of them is as good as another. However, Krsna clearly presents Bhakti as yoga’s summit even when He explains other processes like Karma Yoga and Dhyana Yoga to Arjuna.

In fact, all such processes are meant to bring one to surrender to the Lord in loving devotional service. The more one advances in devotional service, the more one is considered by Krsna to be advanced in yoga.

At the end of the sixth chapter in which Krsna has explained the arduous process of astanga yoga and meditation, He says:

Yoginam api sarvesam mad-gatenantar-atmana
sraddhavan bhajate yo mam sa me yutatamo matah

“And of all yogis, the one with great faith who always abides in Me, thinks of Me within himself, and renders transcendental loving service to Me- he is the most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all. That is my opinion.” Bg. 6.47

Krishna is the only Liberation

02 Jan 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Srimad Bhagavatam Tags: Arjuna, bhakti yoga, Krishna, spiritual master, Srimad Bhagavatam

SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM (1.7.22) “Arjuna said: O my Lord Sri Krishna, You are the almighty Personality of Godhead. There is no limit to Your different energies. Therefore only You are competent to instill fearlessness in the hearts of Your devotees. Everyone in the flames of material miseries can find the path of liberation in You only.”

Remembering Srila Prabhupada

01 Jan 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Devotee's, Remembering Srila Prabhupada, Spiritual Life Tags: books, devotee, guru, Krishna, spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, Vyasasan das

Your Ever Well Wisher

My First Book
by Vyasasan das

I think we all remember very clearly where we were and what we were doing the day Srila Prabhupada first entered our lives. Many of the older devotees remember where they were when President John F. Kennedy was shot, or where they were when “The Beatles” appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. But our remembrance of Srila Prabhupada will outlive any mundane event in our lives, as our relationship with our Srila Prabhupada is an eternal relationship.