There was a pūjārī here for many years, taking care of this Deity, and something amazing happened to him that increased his faith a million-fold in Advaita Ācārya. Should I say what it is? He was sitting here one day, and he saw Westerners come here. They were chanting just like we were when we came in, and they were offering obeisances to Advaita Ācārya and walking over. It was the first time he had ever seen Western people come here. And he approached one of them and said, "Who are you? Where ...
Feb 03, 2025•38 min
Everybody needs encouragement. The world is a discouraging place; true or false? (audience : True) That's very discouraging. There's a way in which you can be our first recruiter. It actually is very encouraging. But until one develops a sense for the support that we're getting from Kṛṣṇa at every minute, it feels as if I'm under assault. I mean, after all, I'm born into a world, and then I'm told soon afterwards that you're going to have to exit soon, and we're not sure if it's going to be a bu...
Feb 02, 2025•1 hr 6 min
So, one point that Rūpa Gosvāmī makes about the practice of bhakti is that one should never assume that one knows why one is doing it. And it's always a good question to say, 'Why am I doing this?' before engaging in a practice of bhakti. So, I have a question that we can entertain over the next couple of minutes: Why are you here? Why are you chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa today? But you’ve got to back it up with some kind of scriptural reference. ----------------------------------------------------------...
Feb 01, 2025•17 min
Thakura Bhaktivinoda, the humble servant of the Lord, says, “The holy name of Krishna has fulfilled all my desires by vibrating on everyone’s tongue.” Bhaktivinoda therefore prays at the feet of Sri Rupa Goswami that the chanting of harinam may continue like this always. (Translation, verse 5) ------------------------------------------------------------ To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ ------------------------------...
Feb 01, 2025•11 min
Thakura Bhaktivinoda, the humble servant of the Lord, says, “The holy name of Krishna has fulfilled all my desires by vibrating on everyone’s tongue.” Bhaktivinoda therefore prays at the feet of Sri Rupa Goswami that the chanting of harinam may continue like this always. (Translation, verse 5) To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Add to your wisdom literature ...
Feb 01, 2025•9 min
We can start with the bhūta-śuddhi, which means śuddhi, means to purify. Bhūta means the elements. So the idea is, and this is done for the beginning of starting Deity worship. There's a way in which sitting down to do japa can have a prelude or preface. Let's try reading it together. (excerpt from the talk) Full presentation : https://youtu.be/4I6PZwW-sVo ------------------------------------------------------------ To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.c...
Feb 01, 2025•2 min
Also, please make a concerted effort to read Prabhupāda's books again and again. He said, 'Everything I had to say, I said in my books.' And there's even more than just gathering information. When you read Prabhupāda's books, you're getting his association. So make it something that, even if it's just a little bit every day, try to hear something from Prabhupāda's books and go through them as much as possible. The kids will benefit too, from seeing you and hearing you reading out loud, and that'...
Jan 31, 2025•25 min
I was thinking, so many people are going to the Kumbh Melā, everyone's looking for that one-time place where they can dip in and then be like, 'Okay, I'm elevated, I'm rectified,' whatever motive there is. But this felt to me like the perfect Kumbh Melā. It's coming together to chant. You're hitting the exact spot. There is no point at which one can be more perfectly situated than chanting japa, especially in the association of devotees. So don't worry if you didn't make it to the Kumbh Melā thi...
Jan 31, 2025•21 min
https://www.thesacredtimes.com/sri-jagannatha-ratha-yatra-prayers/isv-nectarean-verses ------------------------------------------------------------ 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://iskconsv.com/book-store/ https://www.bbtacademic.com/books/ https://thefourquestionsbook.com/ ---------------------------------...
Jan 31, 2025•9 min
Wi-Fi, the farther away you are, the less you get a connection. So by the pure faith and in the Holy Name and having sādhu-saṅga and chanting the primary names, one can very quickly become advanced. But if our chanting is weak or distracted or influenced by aparādha, covered by offenses, then the process is very slow. And that's dangerous, because there's a way in which I might think, "Well, it's not working, therefore it doesn't, it's imagination." Fifth defense. So Rūpa Gosvāmī says that we ha...
Jan 29, 2025•16 min
Wherever we are, whether it's Goloka or here, we're still eternal servants of the Lord. So in the beginning stages, we understand by hearing sambandha-jñāna that we're not Kṛṣṇa, that we're actually His servants, then that's a beginning position to chant from. The antithesis of that is mentioned by Bhaktivinoda Thākura and by Haridās Thākura in the Harināma Cintāmaṇi. That idea which contaminates the chanting is Māyāvāda, which is the idea that "I am God." "I'm just chanting. I'm temporarily inc...
Jan 29, 2025•15 min
It was seventh and eighth grade. I don't know about you all, but that's what we had back then. And at Fairview, there was a fellow student of mine named Steve Rau. I don't know if he's still on the planet or not, but I remember when Steve Rau decided that he was going to get straight A's, he was going to be the valedictorian, and he was also going to be the top athlete in school. I remember he made that decision, and Steve Rau did no-nonsense. Steve Rau would run to school and back just to get i...
Jan 29, 2025•1 hr 6 min
I was thinking about how today, in the world because people don't know this. This means they don't know that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Everything emanates from Him. They try to solve the problems of life through their own devices. They make adjustments—politically, economically, physically, socially—and all of them create more complications. That is, when we try to solve our problems through our own intellects, we always create more problems. This is something Prahlād Mahārāj ...
Jan 28, 2025•29 min
Anybody need an attitude lift? Yes, lift your attitude. One, two, three, lift. So much of our progress has to do with our attitude, and it's easy to get pushed down by the three modes of material nature. The way to rise above it is by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. And I'm going to repeat the first verse that came from the Antya Līlā, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, written by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī. Simply by chanting The Holy Name of Lord Kṛṣṇa, one can be freed from all undesirable habits. Simply by chanting ...
Jan 28, 2025•11 min
'Brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja' (CC. Madhya 19.151) means we are aimlessly moving from one body to the next, one universe to the next, and then, by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, one gets a guru, by the grace of the Guru, one gets Kṛṣṇa. And so, Lord Nityānanda is the original guru, and he reveals the importance of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu to all the devotees and reveals that He's the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Caitanya Mahāprabhu took sanyāsa and He he...
Jan 27, 2025•1 hr 13 min
This is a good example of vaidhi-bhakti. You're disturbed when you're three minutes late. This means a very strict idea of how to follow the process. I have a god brother, Saurī Dāsa, who lived with him in the ashram in Hawaii and other places, and he's down to the second. Everything's like, "Get out of my way. We got to do this now," and everything has to be fixed and regulated. He gets up at the same time, and actually, in the beginning of the practice of devotional service, or throughout, we ...
Jan 27, 2025•11 min
As early as this morning, I heard Prabhupāda speaking about how, when we travel, we have many requirements to get from one place to another. For instance, going to a foreign country, he said, requires a visa. He said for his, coming to America, he had to show his bonafides and he had to have some special paperwork. And he said for going anywhere, we need to prepare ourselves. It's not that just willy-nilly you can go from one place to another, nor can you willy-nilly just go back to Godhead by a...
Jan 26, 2025•41 min
We have to take strength from Lord Balarāma. Part of the spiritual strength is to have the enthusiasm and the remembrance, which perhaps precedes the enthusiasm, to take our beads every day and make a valiant effort against the strong waves of māyā to fully take the names of Kṛṣṇa.And one other point is that it's not insignificant if we give our attention to the chanting. In the story of Balarāma killing Dhenukāsura and Kṛṣṇa killing all the other āsura demons, after this pastime in the Bhāgavat...
Jan 26, 2025•17 min
The Padma Purana says, "Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ." If you serve Kṛṣṇa with your tongue by chanting in that mood, then he'll be pleased to reveal himself to the chanter. Otherwise, we can't understand God by attending physics classes or philosophy classes or any other kind of empiric observation. He can reveal himself to the humble soul, and he especially reveals Himself through His name. That's the knowledge and that's the ...
Jan 25, 2025•10 min
Question: This question relates more to the class you gave in the morning about Nārada Muni's life. And so I was wondering more related to what kinds of goals to set, especially in terms of our spiritual category, because Nārada Muni, in very short span of time, from what it seemed in the chapter, he was able to achieve a very advanced stage in his spiritual life.https://youtu.be/xLcU7UrXj74?t=3546 Since most of us, have been born in devotee families and so on, that's likely because of previous ...
Jan 25, 2025•7 min
Today, I thought of this because of going to Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura's Bhajana Kuṭīra and it's on a hill, which is the sand dune. There's a pastime around that also. But thinking of Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, and we'll talk about it more when we go there today, he advocated humility. "Tṛṇād api sunīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā Hariḥ." It's easy enough to roll off my tongue and say, "Yeah, I already know that verse," but how much have I...
Jan 24, 2025•50 min
What we think of, what we fix our intelligence and our mind upon, is indicative of the kinds of emotions that we will develop. So, Caitanya Mahāprabhu told Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī a verse that he learned from his guru: "evaṁ-vrataḥ sva-priya-nāma-kīrtyā jātānurāgo druta-citta uccaiḥ hasaty atho roditi rauti gāyaty unmāda-van nṛtyati loka-bāhyaḥ (SB 11.2.40)." That is, when one chants Hare Kṛṣṇa, because Kṛṣṇa's name is completely spiritual, then gradually the heart will change. Druta-citta means ...
Jan 24, 2025•12 min
Thoughts start in the lower chakra here; this is in the Bhāgavatam. And then they proceed up through these different energy centers, and they become more clear to us. They come as a subtle feeling, and then they come into the thought world. And when they come to here, there's a chakra here - that's when you voice it. So desires, subtle thoughts, and then they get voiced, and then you say it. And once you say it, especially if you put it on the internet, it's practically impossible to take back. ...
Jan 23, 2025•8 min
This morning, I was listening to Śrīla Prabhupāda, and he was saying that it's not hard to see God. He said it's easy. He said it's just that you do not want to see God. And this indicates that it's our attitude which is most important when we're approaching The Holy Names. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu gave simple but ample instructions about Kṛṣṇa's names, and one of them is that he’s not different from his name, and that all the potencies—all his personal potencies, which is the meaning of God, He'...
Jan 23, 2025•17 min
What if one morning, or afternoon, or evening, we suddenly came to the realization that we've been needlessly working hard for people who don't care about our ultimate welfare, and that death and taxes are not inevitable, that we can rise above them? Well, that's the message of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that we're not meant for this world. We have a higher mode of existence which has to do with the goings-on in the spiritual world, which are full of bliss and knowledge and they're based on loving...
Jan 22, 2025•14 min
How do you know that you're real? Are you real? How do you know? You just know, right? Yeah, you wake up in the morning you know that you're alive. Can you prove it mathematically? No. So, some things you know by seeing them, they're self-revealing. So, the fact that we're alive, we know that we exist. "I think, therefore I am," means I'm aware. So, I know I exist. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is the source of all existence. When one comes in contact with Kṛṣṇa, it becomes self-evident, just like when you s...
Jan 22, 2025•2 min
I read an article about a woman who was born in poverty, and she was also discriminated against because of her race. But her friends described how she became a highly successful person because of her work ethic, and they said how she wouldn't waste a moment. For example, once the bus broke down on the way to school, and everybody else waited for an alternative bus, but she walked because she didn't want to miss even a minute. That was representative of how she conducted herself. So, Kṛṣṇa says, ...
Jan 21, 2025•1 hr 11 min
A personal meditation of mine that I recommend is to think of the Ācāryas while chanting. In other words, you can start with the disciplic succession coming from Jagannāth Dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja and imagine that you've come to his Kuṭīra and just offered Daṇḍavats for half an hour and then taken some dust from there. Then take permission to sit outside and listen to him chant and chant along with him. And then you can go down to Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, down the line. Even if you have a picture of th...
Jan 21, 2025•11 min
rasānāḿ ādhāraḿ rasika-vara-sad-vaiṣṇava-dhanaḿ rasāgāraḿ sāraḿ patita-tati-tāraḿ smaraṇataḥ paraḿ nityānandāṣṭakam idam apūrvaḿ pathati yaḥ tad-ańghri-dvandvābjaḿ sphuratu nitarāḿ tasya hṛdaye May Sri Nityananda Prabhu place His lotus feet in the heart of one who lovingly recites this unprecedented Nityanandastaka, which is the reservoir of rasa, the greatest treasure of the most exalted of rasika Vaisnavas, and the storehouse of the essence of bhakti-rasa. (Verse 9) ---------...
Jan 21, 2025•5 min
We have very practical advice from Sūta Gosvāmī that is: make sure that you're healthy and in a natural condition of life, so that you can have vitality. And then, with whatever strength you have, with whatever wherewithal you've developed by good association, by getting a human body, by having some intelligence, by Kṛṣṇa's mercy—use that to ask, "How can I increase my service to Madan Mohan?" One will, step by step, come to the coveted position of being actually attracted to Kṛṣṇa, not theoreti...
Jan 20, 2025•49 min
