Of course we have to control the mind, and I have already instructed you and all my students that the restless fickle mind can only be controlled by putting the mind to the lotus feet of Krsna, and that can best be done by chanting Hare Krsna mantra, and there is no alternative in this age. By chanting without offenses, the devotee cries to Radharani and Krsna to please lift him out of the material energy and put him into the spiritual energy, which is devotional service. And because we are not ...
Nov 18, 2024•19 min
There are competent people who have clear consciousness. I collect them personally. I find it much easier than trying to figure out stuff myself. I try to find those people who are loyal, well-accomplished and devotional. I can see that they have Krishna Consciousness in their life. And then I.. (Excerpt from the answer) Link to the entire talk: https://youtu.be/9tMx200-y04 To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ ---------...
Nov 17, 2024•3 min
To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Add to your wisdom literature collection: https://www.bbtacademic.com/books/ (USA only) https://thefourquestionsbook.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Join us live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FanTheSpark/ Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-bhakti/id1132423868 For ...
Nov 17, 2024•1 hr 8 min
When Tapana Miśra, who was a very elevated person and had great intelligence, got tangled up in understanding what was the goal of life, because he was so adept at studying various literatures that he got confused. And then he couldn't ascertain what the goal of life was because there were so many different opinions, and they all sounded reasonable to some degree. So then he had a dream, and a brāhmaṇa came to him in the dream and said, "You should meet Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and ask him." So T...
Nov 17, 2024•18 min
To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Add to your wisdom literature collection: https://www.bbtacademic.com/books/ (USA only) https://thefourquestionsbook.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Join us live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FanTheSpark/ Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-bhakti/id1132423868 For ...
Nov 17, 2024•15 min
To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Add to your wisdom literature collection: https://www.bbtacademic.com/books/ (USA only) https://thefourquestionsbook.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Join us live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FanTheSpark/ Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-bhakti/id1132423868 For ...
Nov 16, 2024•9 min
The tendency to self-medicate is one of the ways that we can become misled or confused because, you know, "I read it on the internet." It's something that often now a times people do, "I looked it up, that's what I think I have." I know people who do that a lot— just taking antibiotics on their own for anything. So, we have the benefit of supporting our determination, that we have a prescription. Yes, there are a lot of branches of the Vedas, and you can go through them all and then self-medicat...
Nov 16, 2024•18 min
The fact that Prabhupāda was so attentive to correspondence .Everybody got a response and that's really amazing because Prabhupāda considered everybody, everybody's contribution to be important. No detail was too small for Prabhupāda to attend to. (Excerpt from the discussion) To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Add to your wisdom literature collection: https...
Nov 16, 2024•1 hr 19 min
I just want to take a couple of minutes to think about ways in which to improve japa. I talked at the beginning of the class about desperation, and when we feel ourselves dependent on Kṛṣṇa and helpless, there could be a feeling of desperation in which we call out. And we have the example of Advaita Ācārya. Then there's room in devotional service for ambition. Everyone, being a living entity and not a dead stone, has some aspiration. In the Nectar of Devotion, Prabhupāda mentions how, when we ha...
Nov 15, 2024•18 min
O Lord, Your lotus face, which is encircled by locks of soft black hair tinged with red, is kissed again and again by mother Yasoda, and Your lips are reddish like the bimba fruit. May this beautiful vision of Your lotus face be ever manifest in my heart. Thousands and thousands of other benedictions are of no use to me. (Text 5) To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ ------------------------------------------------------...
Nov 15, 2024•14 min
I just want to take a couple of minutes to think about ways in which to improve japa. I talked at the beginning of the class about desperation, and when we feel ourselves dependent on Kṛṣṇa and helpless, there could be a feeling of desperation in which we call out. And we have the example of Advaita Ācārya. Then there's room in devotional service for ambition. Everyone, being a living entity and not a dead stone, has some aspiration. In the Nectar of Devotion, Prabhupāda mentions how, when we ha...
Nov 15, 2024•18 min
To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Add to your wisdom literature collection: https://www.bbtacademic.com/books/ (USA only) https://thefourquestionsbook.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Join us live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FanTheSpark/ Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-bhakti/id1132423868 For ...
Nov 15, 2024•6 min
I've seen that coming to Vṛndāvana—especially, I mean, I'm coming to India three times a year now—but this is a special kind of retreat. And I agree with you on the intensity I've seen. It takes a while to get in resonance with the environment here, and if you fall out of resonance, it can be torture, because you could be here and then not want to be here. That can happen. The mind can just flip, and then you're gone. So, it's a real art. It's like surfing or something, you know? Learning to cat...
Nov 15, 2024•48 min
A devotee, therefore, should execute his devotional services with full energy, endurance, and confidence. He should perform his scheduled duties, he should be pure in heart, and he should serve in association with devotees. All six of these items will lead the devotee to the path of success. One should not be discouraged in the discharge of devotional service. Failures may not be detrimental; they may be the pillars of success. One must have good faith in the regulative principles followed by th...
Nov 14, 2024•1 hr 53 min
All of us living beings are differentiated expansions of the Lord, but our affection for the Lord is submerged within us, artificially covered by the material quality of ignorance. Spiritual culture is meant to revive this natural affection of the living being for the Lord. The ingredients of fire are already present in safety matches, and only mild friction is needed to ignite a fire. Similarly, our natural affection for the Lord has to be revived by a little culture. Specifically, we have to r...
Nov 14, 2024•1 hr 11 min
Because a person who is spiritually advanced accepts any adverse condition of life as the mercy of the Lord, he is completely eligible to enter into the spiritual kingdom. Even though a person takes to the devotional service of the Supreme Lord, he may sometimes become diseased, impoverished, or disappointed by life's events. A true devotee of the Lord always considers these sufferings to be due to past sinful activities, and thus without becoming disturbed he patiently awaits the mercy of the S...
Nov 13, 2024•1 hr 12 min
I was just realizing on the trip to Vṛndāvana, I just felt enveloped by the words I've heard from the purports. You can't not get affected—it's like radiation. You may think, you know, that was nothing, and then next thing you know, you're totally radiated. And I think that it takes a little time: vidyāṁ cāvidyāṁ ca yas tad vedobhayaḿ saha avidyayā mṛtyuṁ tīrtvā vidyayāmṛtam aśnute (Iso-9) Only one who can cultivate nescience and transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence ...
Nov 12, 2024•7 min
Link to the entire session : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFTW8ykHZKI To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Add to your wisdom literature collection: https://www.bbtacademic.com/books/ (USA only) https://thefourquestionsbook.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Join us live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FanTheSpark/ Podca...
Nov 12, 2024•3 min
Of all His Divine Grace's writings, this work is perhaps the most unique. It was written in Vṛndāvana in 1961 in response to an invitation to attend a world conference, the Congress for Cultivating the Human Spirit, held in Japan. As most of the participants to the Conference were from the Orient, Śrīla Prabhupāda considered deeply how he could best present the timeless teachings of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam suitable to the Oriental people. The original Bhāgavatam was written over five thousand year...
Nov 12, 2024•59 min
The description of the dealings of Kapiladeva and His mother is very confidential, and anyone who hears or reads this narration becomes a devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is carried by Garuḍa, and he thereafter enters into the abode of the Supreme Lord to engage in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. The narration of Kapiladeva and His mother, Devahūti, is so perfect and transcendental that even if one only hears or reads this description, he achieves the highest per...
Nov 12, 2024•56 min
The devotees adopt the devotional process: hearing about the Supreme Lord’s pastimes and glorifying His activities and thereby always remembering His beautiful eternal form. By rendering service, becoming His friend or His servant and offering Him everything that one possesses, one is able to enter into the kingdom of God. As it is said in Bhagavad-gītā, tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā: after discharging pure devotional service, one can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead in fact, and thus on...
Nov 12, 2024•21 min
It is not very astounding, for no one in this life can chant the holy name of the Lord unless he has passed all lower stages, such as performing the Vedic ritualistic sacrifices, studying the Vedas and practicing good behavior like that of the Āryans. All this must first have been done. Just as a student in a law class is to be understood to have already graduated from general education, anyone who is engaged in the chanting of the holy name of the Lord — Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Har...
Nov 12, 2024•49 min
In order to become a devotee of the Lord, one has to accept a spiritual master and inquire from him about how to progress in devotional service. To serve a devotee, to chant the holy name according to a certain counting method, to worship the Deity, to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Bhagavad-gītā from a realized person and to live in a sacred place where devotional service is not disturbed are the first out of sixty-four devotional activities for making progress in devotional service. One who has acc...
Nov 12, 2024•49 min
The devotee’s intelligence is always in touch with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His attitude towards the material existence is one of detachment, for he knows perfectly well that this material world is a creation of illusory energy. Realizing himself to be part and parcel of the Supreme Soul, the devotee discharges his devotional service and is completely aloof from material action and reaction. Thus at the end he gives up his material body, or the material energy, and as pure soul he ent...
Nov 11, 2024•1 hr 18 min
Someone may proclaim himself to be a very good national worker, the best friend of the people and of the country, but actually he cannot be the greatest friend of everyone. The only friend is Kṛṣṇa. One should try to raise the consciousness of the conditioned soul to the platform of understanding that Kṛṣṇa is his actual friend. If one makes friendship with Kṛṣṇa, one will never be cheated, and he will get all help needed. Arousing this consciousness of the conditioned soul is the greatest servi...
Nov 11, 2024•44 min
Lord Kapila advised His mother that she did not need any indirect process. She was already situated in that direct process because the Supreme Lord had taken birth as her son. Actually, she did not need any further instruction because she was already in the perfectional stage. Kapiladeva advised her to continue in the same way. He therefore addressed His mother as bhāmini to indicate that she was already thinking of the Lord as her son. Devahūti is advised by Lord Kapila to take directly to devo...
Nov 11, 2024•1 hr 18 min
It may be questioned herein how the child can be fully Kṛṣṇa conscious within the womb of the mother without any paraphernalia with which to execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is not necessary to arrange for paraphernalia to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu. The child wants to remain within the abdomen of its mother and at the same time wants to become free from the clutches of māyā. One does not need any material arrangement to cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One can cultivate Kṛṣṇ...
Nov 11, 2024•54 min
After birth the child may forget about the difficulties of his past lives, but when we are grown-up we can at least understand the grievous tortures undergone at birth and death by reading the authorized scriptures like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. If we do not believe in the scriptures, that is a different question, but if we have faith in the authority of such descriptions, then we must prepare for our freedom in the next life; that is possible in this human form of life. One who does not take heed of t...
Nov 10, 2024•42 min
The direct offender is more responsible for sinful activities than the indirect enjoyer. The great learned scholar Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says, therefore, that whatever one has in his possession had better be spent for the cause of sat, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, because one cannot take his possessions with him. They remain here, and they will be lost. Either we leave the money or the money leaves us, but we will be separated. The best use of money as long as it is within our possession is ...
Nov 10, 2024•1 hr 20 min
The phenomenal world is created, maintained and destroyed by the finger signal of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore a devotee does not desire anything in this material world. A devotee desires only to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This servitude exists eternally; the Lord exists eternally, His servitor exists eternally, and the service exists eternally. ( SB 3.29.45,purport) https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/3/29/advanced-view/ https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/3/30/advan...
Nov 10, 2024•1 hr 10 min
