Spiritual Life | The Hare Krishna Movement

The Absolute Necessity of a Spiritual Master

22 Aug 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Gaudiya Math, Lectures, Science of Self Realization, Srila Prabhupada Tags: Gaudiya Matha, Spiritual Life, Srila Prabhupada, The Science of Self Realization, Vyasa Puja

The Absolute Necessity of a Spiritual Master
From; The Science of Self Realization
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

In February 1936, in Bombay, India, the members of a reputed religious society, the Gauḍīya Maṭha, were astonished by the powerful and eloquent words of a young member who spoke in honor of his spiritual master, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī. Three decades later, the young speaker would become the world-renowned founder and spiritual master of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Śrīla Prabhupāda’s presentation is a memorable statement on the importance of the guru in spiritual life.

sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair
uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ
kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya
vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam

“In the revealed scriptures it is declared that the spiritual master should be worshiped like the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and this injunction is obeyed by pure devotees of the Lord. The spiritual master is the most confidential servant of the Lord. Thus let us offer our respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of our spiritual master.”

Gentlemen, on behalf of the members of the Bombay branch of the Gauḍīya Maṭha, let me welcome you all because you have so kindly joined us tonight in our congregational offerings of homage to the lotus feet of the world teacher, Ācāryadeva, who is the founder of this Gauḍīya Mission and is the president-ācārya of Śrī Śrī Viśva-vaiṣṇava Rāja-sabhā—I mean my eternal divine master, Paramahaṁsa Parivrājakācārya Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja.

Srila Prabhupada speaks out on false Gurus

16 Aug 2011 1 Comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Guru & Disciple, Spiritual Life Tags: Acarya, authority of guru, disciplic succession, false gurus, guru, Spiritual Life, spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada

Srila Prabhupada speaks out on false Gurus

The principle of accepting a spiritual master is essential. Satisfaction of the self-realized spiritual master is the secret of advancement in spiritual life. Our Srila Prabhupada is the qualified, self-realized, spiritual master and is directly in line with the disciplic succession. And one can take shelter of him by simply reading his books and following his instructions, and make rapid advancement in spiritual life.

We should be very careful before accepting a Guru

“The sastras enjoin that before we take a guru we study him carefully to find out whether we can surrender to him. We should not accept a guru suddenly, out of fanaticism. That is very dangerous.”
(The Science of Self Realization, chapter 2, ‘Choosing a Spiritual Master’)

Ambition to be Guru is very dangerous

“Our mission is to serve (…). Not that you take the place of the guru. That is nonsense, very dangerous. Then everything will be spoiled. As soon as you become ambitious to take the place of guru-gurusu nara-matih . That is the material disease.”
(Srila Prabhupada Conversation, April 20, 1977)

“That is the difficulty. Everyone sees that “Some way or other, I become guru. Then so many persons will offer me respect. Somehow or other, create some situation. Then I become guru.” This is going on. Not bona fide guru. (…) They will drink, they will hunt after woman and have some attractive singing or dancing and become guru. What is meaning of guru, they do not know. Somehow or other become popular and become guru. This is going on.”
(Srila Prabhupada Conversation, May 2nd, 1976)

One who is disobedient to the order of the Guru cannot be a Guru

“If you become disobedient to guru, then your business is finished.”
(Srila Prabhupada’s Srimad-Bhagavatam Lecture, August 10th, 1974)

About Iskcon Bangalore/ Interview with Project Director, Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa

23 May 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Iskcon Bangalore Tags: Krishna, Krishna temple, Madhu Pandit Dasa. project director of Iskcon Bangalore, Spiritual Life, Srila Prabhupada, Vedic society

Interview with Project Director, Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa

Q1: What was the motivation and inspiration for conceiving and executing a project of this proportion?

The Krishna consciousness movement has wonderful things to offer to everyone. Srila Prabhupada, the founder-acharya, has taught us Lord Krishna’s instructions in such a clear way that they can be applied to any life situation to bring the best within oneself to achieve happiness. There is unlimited facility in today’s world to promote knowledge in various fields, in order to equip the society with the tools required to achieve happiness. But all these pertain to the temporary material sphere only. They cannot provide the real and eternal quality of happiness that we, the souls, are actually looking for. Any amount of material progress will not provide this. Thus although we have a very materially advanced world, we still have an unhappy, dissatisfied and disturbed humanity. Man is primarily spiritual and his real happiness lies at the soul level. He has to pay attention to develop his spiritual identity and serve his real needs along with his material pursuits. Specific attention has to be paid to develop the spiritual aspect of the society if real happiness and harmony have to be experienced. This is the service the Krishna Consciousness movement is doing for the world. This project provides a facility to disseminate Vedic knowledge in a practical and rational way for the benefit of as many people as possible.

“I Love Kṛṣṇa More Than Anything!”

20 Mar 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Teachings of Pralada Maharaja Tags: bhagavad-gita, Krishna, krsna consciousness, material enjoyment, material entanglement, material life, Nrishama, Paramatma, Pralada Maharaja, Spiritual Life

Transcendental Teachings of Prahlada Maharaja
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Chapter 4

I Love Kṛṣṇa More Than Anything!

Now Prahlāda Mahārāja makes a further statement about the complications of material life. He compares the attached householder to the silkworm. The silkworm wraps itself in a cocoon made of its own saliva, until he is in a prison from which he cannot escape. In the same way, a materialistic householder’s entanglement becomes so tight that he cannot come out of the cocoon of family attraction. Even though there are so many miseries in materialistic family life, he cannot break free. Why? He thinks that sex life and eating palatable dishes are most important. Therefore, in spite of so many miserable conditions, he cannot give them up.

Transcendental Teachings of Prahlada Maharaja

06 Mar 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Teachings of Pralada Maharaja Tags: brahmacarya, devotees, family life, illusion, krsna consciousness, materialistic, Prahlada Maharaja, sense gratification, Spiritual Life, Srimad Bhagavatam, Transcendental Teachings of Prahlada Maharaja

Transcendental Teachings of Prahlada Maharaja
by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Family Illusion Chapter 3

Prahlāda Mahārāja told his friends, “You have to begin Kṛṣṇa consciousness immediately.” All the boys were born of atheistic, materialistic families, but fortunately they had the association of Prahlāda, who was a great devotee of the Lord from his birth. Whenever he found an opportunity, when the teacher was out of the classroom, he used to say, “My dear friends, let’s chant Hare Kṛṣṇa; this is the time to begin Kṛṣṇa consciousness.”

Narada-bhakti-sutra Text 2

05 Mar 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Narada-bhakti-sutra Tags: brahma-buta, brahman, brahmojyoti effulgence, devotional service, Narada Muni, Narayan, pure love of God, self realization, Spiritual Life, Srila Prabhupada, Srimad Bhagavatam

Narada-bhakti-sutra Text 2
Translation & Purport by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

TRANSLATION

Devotional service manifests as the most elevated, pure love for God.

PURPORT

As stated before, after attaining the highest stage of self-realization, one becomes situated in devotional service to the Lord. The perfection of devotional service is to attain love of God. Love of God involves the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the devotee, and the process of devotional service. Self-realization, the brahma-bhūta stage, is the beginning of spiritual life; it is not the perfectional stage. If a person understands that he is not his body and that he has nothing to do with this material world, he becomes free from material entanglement. But that realization is not the perfectional stage.
The perfectional stage begins with activity in the self-realized position, and that activity is based on the understanding that a living entity is eternally the subordinate servitor of the Supreme Lord. Otherwise, there is no meaning to self-realization. If one is puffed up with the idea that he is the Supreme Brahman, or that he has become one with Nārāyaṇa, or that he has merged into the brahmajyoti effulgence, then he has not grasped the perfection of life. As the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.2.32) states,

Simple Living, High Thinking

03 Feb 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Krishna Consciousness Tags: High Thinking, Jahnaya das, life style, self realization, Simple Living, Spiritual Life

Simple Living, High Thinking
by Jahnaya Das

If one is truly serious about achieving the ultimate goal of human life by perfecting his spiritual inquiry, he must adopt a life style that is conducive to the cultivation of self-realizing knowledge. This life style can be beautifully summarized in the phrase ‘simple living and high thinking’. Here simple living is in relation to maintenance of the body, and high thinking is in relation to the aim of one’s intellectual pursuits.

In order to exist in this world it is necessary to maintain one’s bodily existence, but as will be shown in later lessons, maintenance of the body is not progress towards the goal of life. Maintenance just allows one to perform the activity of existing in a particular body, which does not denote any accomplishment of a goal. This maintenance of the body involving mainly our activities of eating, sleeping, mating and defending is not in itself any great feat opr achievement. Even the animals are engaging in these activities of bodily maintenance. The cows also eat, the birds also mate, the hogs also sleep and the dogsalso defend. Simply engaging in theseactivities of maintenance does not actually make one human. For this reason, one who is interested in achieving the real, permanent goal of life does not focus solely on these activities of bodily maintenance, but he rather focuses primarily on the path of perfection. This is why he adopts the process of simple living.