So one of the habits of speech Kṛṣṇa talks about is speaking beneficially. Have you ever said anything to anybody in your household that wasn't beneficial? I'll take that as a yes. There may be a way in which, even towards, I heard this saying once. I don't know if it's true, but it sounds true to me, 'you only hurt the ones you love.' There may be a way in which you could say things out of a sense of being dissatisfied or grouchy, and may say something mean, mean-spirited to somebody, even some...
Dec 09, 2024•1 hr 13 min
And if you've ever been in that situation where you got multiple answers to your question, if you look it up on YouTube, everyone will tell you something different, because everyone has a different angle. So Subuddhi Rāya was very confused, so he was advised to go to Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And he asked Lord Caitanya, after telling him of his situation, what should I do? And Mahāprabhu gave a very simple answer, and straightforward, would you like to know what his answer was? The solution, it's thr...
Dec 09, 2024•14 min
Gaslighting is horrible. It means not taking responsibility for your actions and blaming others. It's usually done in a very subtle way, where the person being victimized doesn't realize it for a long time, until later when they realize, "Oh, I didn't do anything wrong; that person put everything on me." We can also slide into this adverse consciousness where we gaslight God. So don't do that, says the shastra. Just be honest. Admit that God is the supreme controller, admit that everything belon...
Dec 08, 2024•1 hr 16 min
So you can remember, even if you feel that whatever you're offering in the way of your chanting is subpar, insignificant, Kṛṣṇa appreciates it. As we were talking before we started live streaming, is just showing up is a big deal. There's lots of other things you could do. And so what if you show up and you struggle with your chanting, at least you're trying, and you can be thinking that's I don't have much to offer because I'm so lowly, but still, Kṛṣṇa is so grateful that He'll accept it. And ...
Dec 08, 2024•17 min
There's a mode of chanting the holy name of the Lord, an attitude that is especially important, because there's not just chanting the holy name, but there's also avoiding offenses. They're called aparādhas.The word aparādha, ārādhana means proper mode of worship, and aparādha means not worshiping properly. It has to do with one's attitude. The aligning mode for chanting, or the advice which aligns us for chanting properly is 'tṛṇād api sunīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sad...
Dec 08, 2024•1 hr 8 min
What we're engaged in is the vanguard of the Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Movement. Is the ultimate purpose for establishing centers all over the world, and that is to have more outlets from which we can go out and save the conditioned souls. It's not a service that has a plateau. Prabhupāda writes in the ādi lilā of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, that there's no limit to the expansion of of the preaching of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So I congratulate everyone who joined the call today, who's taking on some anxiety...
Dec 07, 2024•55 min
However, the Śāstra are all telling us that you don't have to give in to such weakness. You can develop a strength of heart so that you can rise.So in the in the name of or under the banner of determination and effort,we can remember that practice well, while you can.There's no guarantee we'll have extra time and at some point, as Prabhupāda points out in a purport, we have to fly our planes solo.So get as much practice as you can while you can. And Prabhupāda writes that the ācharya, the guru a...
Dec 07, 2024•28 min
I put one molecule of anger and what did I get back? A waterfall, you know. They just kept coming, flash flood, washed away Kentucky, you know, gone in two days. And, like, that's what happens when you get angry. And If you realize that, you're able to read the śāstra and listen to Kṛṣṇa's words, He says don't act like that, do it in another way. You learn some tools. You know, when it comes up, first the urge comes up and then you think, your intelligence takes over, and you think, 'Oh good, no...
Dec 07, 2024•10 min
This is from the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi Lilā, chapter eight, text number 21, such a charming verse in which the author has written Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself is fully independent. Therefore, although it is the most confidentially stored benediction he can distribute Love of Godhead to anyone and everyone without consideration. And here's Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport. This is the benefit of Lord Caitanya's movement, if one somehow or other comes in co...
Dec 06, 2024•1 hr 3 min
Personally, growing up as a kid, I had a really big question about my purpose. I wanted to know one thing or several things, but one of them was why I had to die. And when I was in kindergarten, President Kennedy got assassinated. And later on, of course, there were of course there were a series of assassinations at that time. It was a tumultuous time around the Vietnam War, and later on, one of my friends from high school had gone hiking with another friend and had wandered off in the wildernes...
Dec 06, 2024•1 hr 44 min
When I first became aware of the feature on a smartphone where you could say something and then it would translate, transcribe it. So I said the first words I said were Haribol and Siri, or whoever does it, translated it into honey bowl, H, O, N, E, Y, B, O, W, L. And I thought, yeah, I like that. Haribol means honey bowl. It's full of sweetness. So that's we, if, if we're chanting on the edge where we're actually, you know, getting taste, then it's ever I haven't heard this before. This is new....
Dec 06, 2024•29 min
..then he says, sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir (SB 10.14.3), that from your position, hear about Kṛṣṇa and use your ears. So check and see if you have them. Did you remember you had ears when you woke up this morning? No, you didn't. Don't tell me you did. You didn't remember. And we barely ever remember what assets we have. This is like, Oh, I don't look good, you know, I don't like this shirt, but you know, remember, you're born with ears. So he's saying that's your biggest asset...
Dec 05, 2024•1 hr 19 min
He is wearing garments the color of the eastern sky during the dawn, and His lovely cheeks shine with the same radiance. The nails of His hands and feet have the same pleasing effect of the moon, shining in the sky. His pleasure diversion consists in discussions and glorification of His own wonderful qualities and names. I offer my obeisances to the Son of Mother Śacī. (Translation, verse 3) ------------------------------------------------------------ To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, pl...
Dec 05, 2024•15 min
The other night at Long Beach, His Holiness Indrādyumna Mahārāja was speaking to a crowd of new people, and he said he's traveled all over the world, every country, practically. And he meets all types of people, because it's that's the way he moves in the world. He meets all the kings and queens and whoever is the most special in the world, he meets them, and he says he notices that none of them are happy. Doesn't matter. They can be billionaires, kings, queens, and they're still in anxiety, but...
Dec 05, 2024•17 min
But if somebody is actually successful in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they come to this position where they have no more impetus, or they have no more urge at all to criticize others, to drag them down, such is the character of Śrīla Rādhānatha Māharaja. And I'll give you a rather obscure example, although I'm sure you have many more from your own experience. But I was surprised one day when I was in Māyāpur and I went to one of his classes. It was a smaller, smallish type class, if you can imagine Māh...
Dec 05, 2024•43 min
Prabhupāda said, "You have to engage in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness seriously." And he said, "You also have to be careful and not assume that I'm over the disease completely, to be attracted to the sense objects. One should not tempt fate or think one's entitled or think I'm liberated. We should always think, 'I'm not liberated, therefore I can't cut corners.' If you stay on the safe side and remain humble and think that at any moment I can be overcome by the powerful waves of sense gratification and yo...
Dec 04, 2024•54 min
..every institution has its unique set of irrational and difficult constraints. Yet, some make a leap while others, facing the same environmental challenges, do not. This is perhaps the single most important point in all of Good to Great: greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline. This is from someone who's empirically studying the various organizations in the profit and non-profit sections, and this is the conclu...
Dec 04, 2024•25 min
..but we have to have some aesthetic beauty. And the Bhāgavatam describes (SB 1.5.11): tad-vāg-visargo janatāgha-viplavo yasmin prati-ślokam abaddhavaty api nāmāny anantasya yaśo ’ṅkitāni yat śṛṇvanti gāyanti gṛṇanti sādhavaḥ It's a presentation that comes from the spiritual world and talks about the unlimited varieties of names, qualities, and forms of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Ultimately, that's the only kind of variety that satisfies us. What we're looking at in the Bhāgavatam now i...
Dec 04, 2024•1 hr 15 min
..and if you can learn to appreciate where you are right now and all the assets that you've been given, you get a spring in your step. It's less likely that you'll be overcome by this high expectation you have on yourself, or you think other people have on you. I personally like to make expectations in any of the saṅgas I'm working with, any of the teams, any of the projects, that are more natural. For instance, as you know well, in one of the teams you're on, I say the purpose for this team is ...
Dec 03, 2024•8 min
There sure are a lot of complexities in life, don't you think? Two people do. When all else fails and everything else will, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. So, what if you have the worst job in the universe? Or what if you're not sure if you should stay in one place or move to another place? And how about if you got really bad advice and then, worse still, you acted upon it? Any of those things ever cross your path? One or more? More? More than one? Worst job ever? Got bad advice and you acted upon it? Or you...
Dec 03, 2024•11 min
Have you ever known anybody who is captured by a television? And I'm not talking about a television reaching out, as in a cartoon, and grabbing somebody and pulling them away, but it captures the consciousness of the person who created it. I create it, and then I am able to somehow channel various pictures and stories. Sounds like a very elemental way of describing television, but then somebody may become addicted to it and become nonproductive. One might even say, "Oh, such and such is addicted...
Dec 02, 2024•1 hr 5 min
The knowledge that brings one nearer to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa ( Meaning of Śrī Īśopaniṣad) Śrī Īśopaniṣad Mantras: https://sites.google.com/view/srijagannathaprayers/sri-jagannatha-ratha-yatra-prayers/sri-isopanisad?authuser=0 Book : https://vedabase.io/en/library/iso/ ------------------------------------------------------------ To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ -----------------------------------...
Dec 02, 2024•5 min
Yeah, it's a good sign if we can get into the practice in such a way that we start feeling that this is my mainstay and that I want to be more and more in this position of just chanting the holy name. And then we accept that as the main process of our day, then we'll make progress in devotional service without doubt. So, we should try to lean into the chanting of the holy name. A lot of it's practical—making time and arranging the circumstances so that we don't get distracted, especially so that...
Dec 02, 2024•11 min
You have to be self-observant and notice how you're feeling and how you're doing it. See that you feel that you're getting more enthusiasm to do more service, instead of feeling diminished or in a situation where, although you're feeling out of balance, you don't want to admit that you are, which can be dangerous because It's much more appealing and also realistic to understand the situation one's in now. As Kṛṣṇa says in the bhāgavatam (11.20.26) "sve sve ’dhikāre yā niṣṭhā sa guṇaḥ parikīrtita...
Dec 01, 2024•1 hr 15 min
Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura had talked about the concept of darśana. Sometimes, it is taken to mean that I want to see the Lord. But he said, "That's not the meaning of darśana. Darśana means to act in such a way that Kṛṣṇa wants to see you." Even going to the temple, oftentimes, he didn't wear his glasses, and he said, "I didn't come here to use these eyeballs to try to see Kṛṣṇa, but I came here to be seen by Kṛṣṇa." And I might approach chanting The Holy Names in a way in which I'...
Dec 01, 2024•15 min
Thank you everyone for joining the Hare Kṛṣṇa Dance Party. Today it is going on in over 1000 cities across the world, special celebration to give gratitude this weekend. The fact that we live in a universe that is perfectly ordered—so much so that we have "ologies," otherwise, we would not be able to make sense of anything unless there is some order in the universe—not complete randomness, that traces back to universal divine intelligence we call Kṛṣṇa. We are celebrating the fact that life is s...
Nov 30, 2024•2 hr 27 min
..even if it's on the tip of their tongue, just one time, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Everyone, say Hare Kṛṣṇa. So, if someone one time says Hare Kṛṣṇa, then you have to say, "Oh, this person—they've already gone through law school and they've graduated," because they've come to this level. They've been able to say Hare Kṛṣṇa even one time, even just a little bit chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. In the commentary of the verse, our Ācāryas talk about how all reformation takes place by chanting of The Holy Name. There are tw...
Nov 30, 2024•17 min
Anything sung in the praise of the Lord is śruti-mantra. There are songs of Ṭhākura Narottama dāsa, one of the ācāryas in the Gauḍīya sampradāya, composed in simple Bengali language. But Ṭhākura Viśvanātha Cakravartī, another very learned ācārya of the same sampradāya, has approved the songs by Ṭhākura Narottama dāsa to be as good as Vedic mantras. And this is so because of the subject matter. The language is immaterial, but the subject matter is important. The ladies, who were all absorbed in t...
Nov 30, 2024•15 min
There's a way in which also we can also help ourselves by putting ourselves in situations, in environments where we're more likely to make good choices. This is Sādhu-Saṅga. If we get good association, at least we can do that. Even if we feel like we're the most fallen and we make bad choices, if we put ourselves in good association, then by that association, gradually we can be persuaded or induced to make better choices. Then we get more strength from Sādhu-Saṅga. I was at Sādhu-Saṅga recently...
Nov 29, 2024•1 hr 36 min
One of the trends in the world of marketing is people try to create a place where everything's available. That's the idea of the modern mall, the idea behind 7-11, they try to figure out exactly what people need and then they put it all in one place. So, Kṛṣṇa has done that for us. Everything that's necessary or consumable anywhere within the three worlds is available in one place—that's through Japa. But you don't have to drive there and get it; actually, you don't have to go far—you just have ...
Nov 29, 2024•16 min
