mental-health | The Hare Krishna Movement

Happiness and Distress

15 Jul 2026 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Uncategorized Tags: ac-bhaktivedanta, happiness and distress, life, mental-health, philosophy, religion, spirituality, Srila Prabhupada, Teachings of Lord Kapila, yoga, yoga-is-happiness-of-the-soul

Everyone wants Happiness and wants to avoid Distress, this is a fact. This Krishna Consciousness Movement is meant to deliver all of suffering humanity from the threefold miseries of material existence.

The attempt in this material world to maximize happiness and minimize distress is called the struggle for existence.

…This material world is the world of duality, and we cannot understand happiness without distress or distress without happiness. This is therefore called the relative world. Spiritual happiness is above these dualities, and that spiritual happiness is the perfection of yoga. Yoga ādhyātmikaḥ. Yoga is the happiness of the soul, and the individual soul can be happy when it is with the Supersoul, the Supreme Soul. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). There is the Supreme Soul, or the supreme living being, and there are many individual souls, individual beings. We are many, but the principal living being is one, Kṛṣṇa. He is the fire, and we are the sparks from that fire. The sparks are illuminated when they are with the original fire, but if the sparks no longer associate with the original fire, they are extinguished. Similarly, our real happiness is in enjoying with the Supreme Being. Happiness is being in His company. Kṛṣṇa is not alone, but is always with His friends, either the gopīs or the cowherd boys, or with His mother and father. We never find Kṛṣṇa alone. He may be with Rādhārāṇī or with His devotees. He is like a king or president. When one says that the king or president is coming, it is understood that he is not coming alone. He comes with His secretaries, ministers and many others. (Teachings of Lord Kapila)

…Everyone is trying to get out of material distress and gain some happiness. In any case, when something is material, there is only so-called happiness and so-called distress. For instance, there may be fireworks going on, and this may be happiness for someone but distress for us. Some people are thinking that these fireworks are very enjoyable, and we are thinking that they are very inconvenient. That is the material world. On one side there is happiness, and on the other side there is distress. Both happiness and distress are actually illusions. In summer, water is happiness, but in winter it is distress. The water is the same, but at one time it brings happiness and at another time it brings distress. When a son is born, he brings happiness, but when he dies, he brings distress. In either case, the son is the same. (Teachings of Lord Kapila)

The Practice of Yoga

13 Mar 2026 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Uncategorized Tags: ac-bhaktivedanta-swami, health, Krishna, Krsna, mental-health, milk-for-life, spirituality, Srila Prabhupada, vegan, vegetarism, wellness, yoga

The gopis remembered their pastimes with Krishna p208

click on image to enlarge

This morning as I was making a breakfast offering, and was offering a nice glass of fresh milk, my mind just seemed to go to this picture of Krsna milking a cow. And I thought ‘milk is such a wonderful food, miraculous really. One can live on milk, and as small children milk is all that is required, and as we develop as yogis, we can subsist on the gifts of God, such as fruits, grains and milk, without a need for killing.

The above picture is one of my very favorites from the Krsna Book, because it is so simple and sweet, and there is a noticeable absence of technology.

The following are two verses from the Bhagavad-gita As It Is describing the healthy diet, and activities of the yogi.

There is no possibility of one’s becoming a yogī, O Arjuna, if one eats too much, or eats too little, sleeps too much or does not sleep enough.

He who is temperate in his habits of eating, sleeping, working and recreation can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system. (Bg. 6.16-17)

Full text and purport

Parenthood (Vatsalya-rasa)

25 Apr 2025 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Rasa's (relationships), Uncategorized Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta, family, Krishna, Krsna, love, mental-health, Mother Yasoda, Nanda Maharaja, parenthood, relationships, spirituality, Srila Prabhupada, The Nectar of Devotion, vatsalya rasa

So we are continuing our series on the five types of relationships (rasa’s) with the Lord. Today we are exploring the Paternal Devotional stage of Love of God (Vatsalya-rasa) as explained in chapter 43 of “The Nectar of Devotion”.

When ecstatic love develops into the relationship of parenthood and becomes steadily established, the relationship is called vatsalya-rasa. The exhibition of this vatsalya-rasa standard of devotional service can be found in the dealings of Krishna with His devotees who represent themselves as superior personalities like father, mother, teacher, etc.

Learned scholars have described the impetuses of parental love for Krishna, existing in the elderly personalities who are in relation with Him, as follows: “The Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose bodily complexion is just like a bluish, new-grown lotus flower, whose body is very delicate and whose lotus eyes are surrounded by scattered hair as black as bees, was walking on the streets of Vrindavan when Mother Yasoda, the beloved wife of Nanda Mahārāj, saw Him. Immediately the milk began to flow from her breasts, soaking her body.” Some specific provocations for parental love of Krishna are listed as His blackish bodily hue, which is very attractive and pleasing to see, His all-auspicious bodily features, His mildness, His sweet words, His simplicity, His shyness, His humility, His constant readiness to offer respect to the elderly, and His charity. All of these qualities are considered ecstatic provocations for parental love.