Madhusudana | The Hare Krishna Movement

Unlimited Forms of Godhead

05 Jul 2013 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Spiritual World, Teachings of Lord Chaitanya Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Aniruddha, Damodara, devotees, four-handed, Hrsikesa, Krsna, Madhava, Madhusudana, Narayana, Padmanabha, prabhava form, Pradyumna, Sankarsana, spiritual sky, Sridhara, Teachings of Lord Chaitanya, Trivikrama, universe, vaisnava calendar, Vamana, Vasudeva, vilasa-murti, Visnu

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Sometime back I ran across this picture and saved it to my files thinking I could use it in a post someday. While posting this chapter from the Teachings of Lord Caintanya, entitled “Unlimited Forms of Godhead”, I was looking for an image to use. So I selected the above image and to my surprise when I clicked on it, it moved. I had forgotten how cheesy cool this image was, and why it captured my interest, back when I saved it. So we share it today with our readers, and thank the unknown artist who put this picture to life.

…The different forms of Kṛṣṇa are distributed throughout the universe to give pleasure to the devotees. It is not that devotees are born only in India. There are devotees in all parts of the world, but they have simply forgotten their identity. These forms incarnate not only to give pleasure to the devotee but to reestablish devotional service and perform other activities which vitally concern the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Teachings of Lord Chaintanya
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Chapter Seven

Contents of the Gita Summarized 2A

06 Jun 2012 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Uncategorized Tags: 1972 Macmillan edition, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Arjuna, as it is, bhagavad-gita, Contents of the Gita Sumarized, Krishna, Krishna consciousness, Krsna, Madhusudana, material compassion, real self, Sanjaya, self realization

As this is a very long chapter we are posting it in two parts. Today we are posting text 1-35, and tomorrow we will conclude the chapter entitled “Contents of the Gita Summarized”

Bhagavad-gita As It Is 1972 Macmillan Edition
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Chapter Two, Text and Purports 1-35

Contents of the Gita Summarized

TEXT 1
sañjaya uvāca
taṁ tathā kṛpayāviṣṭam
aśru-pūrṇākulekṣaṇam
viṣīdantam idaṁ vākyam
uvāca madhusūdanaḥ

sañjayaḥ uvāca—Sañjaya said; tam—unto Arjuna; tathā—thus; kṛpayā—by compassion; āviṣṭam—overwhelmed; aśru-pūrṇa—full of tears; ākula—depressed; īkṣaṇam—eyes; viṣīdantam—lamenting; idam—this; vākyam—words; uvāca—said; madhusūdanaḥ—the killer of Madhu.

TRANSLATION

Sañjaya said: Seeing Arjuna full of compassion and very sorrowful, his eyes brimming with tears, Madhusūdana, Kṛṣṇa, spoke the following words.

PURPORT

Material compassion, lamentation and tears are all signs of ignorance of the real self. Compassion for the eternal soul is self-realization. The word “Madhusūdana” is significant in this verse. Lord Kṛṣṇa killed the demon Madhu, and now Arjuna wanted Kṛṣṇa to kill the demon of misunderstanding that had overtaken him in the discharge of his duty. No one knows where compassion should be applied. Compassion for the dress of a drowning man is senseless. A man fallen in the ocean of nescience cannot be saved simply by rescuing his outward dress-the gross material body. One who does not know this and laments for the outward dress is called a śūdra, or one who laments unnecessarily. Arjuna was a kṣatriya, and this conduct was not expected from him. Lord Kṛṣṇa, however, can dissipate the lamentation of the ignorant man, and for this purpose the Bhagavad-gītā was sung by Him. This chapter instructs us in self-realization by an analytical study of the material body and the spirit soul, as explained by the supreme authority, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. This realization is made possible by working with the fruitive being situated in the fixed conception of the real self.

Srila Prabhupada Explains the Unique Position of Bhaktivinoda Thakura

24 Jun 2011 1 Comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Bhaktivinoda Thakura Tags: Back to Godhead Magazine, Madhusudana, mission of Lord Caitanya, Prabhupada books, Prabhupada Letters, Srila Ghaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Prabhupada

…sometimes even a liberated person like Arjuna plays the part of a conditioned soul in order to play some important part. Similarly, Bhaktivinode Thakura for sometimes was associating with the impersonalists. And then he exhibited himself in his true color as pure devotee, exactly in the same way as Arjuna exhibited in the beginning as a conditioned soul, and then as a liberated soul. So there is nothing to be misunderstood in this connection. Krishna and His devotees sometimes play like that, as much as Lord Buddha although an incarnation of Krishna, preached the philosophy of voidism.

Letter to: Madhusudana
Los Angeles
20 November, 1968

My Dear Madhusudana,

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of Nov. 16, 1968, and have noted the contents carefully. Your sentiment is very much appreciated by me, and your service attitude is very nice. It is very good that you are helping to put out our magazine Back To Godhead, and whenever I see the new magazine mailed to me each month, I am so pleased to go through its contents and see all the nice work you have done, and you are always in my thoughts as I read through it, as well as Rayarama, and all your other co-workers. To make this magazine a great success is very very important to the mission. And you along with your co-workers are doing it very nicely. And Krishna will bless you, please continue to do it.