When you follow the footsteps of the great sages, you say, "Only Kṛṣṇa. All for Kṛṣṇa. I'm all in for Kṛṣṇa. I'm all out for the idea that I'm going to be happy in the material world. That's it—finished, done, no más, out." Then you're eligible for the same result as the greatest of sages: kalpante yennu tāṁ iha—means you get what they got, because you're following their footsteps. Even if you feel feeble in your attempt, you will attain the highest perfection. So if you take this attitude that ...
Apr 15, 2025•1 hr 31 min
Frame or be framed. If I don't frame my exact purpose for my attention, then the undisciplined mind will take me to a myriad other places. So remembering that our two obstacles in chanting are apathy and distraction—at least those are two major ones. And we're here to remedy those by sitting with devotees and chanting, and also remembering that the goal of life is to remember Kṛṣṇa, especially at the time of death, and that we're in a practice session right now. So get ready and do your due dili...
Apr 15, 2025•9 min
There is an interim period in devotional service when we begin. This unfolds in the story, because we'll notice and other people have asked, and ācāryas have answered, how is it that Ajāmila chanted "Nārāyaṇa," but it seemed that he went on with a sinful life? He was chanting "Nārāyaṇa" a lot. "This is Nārāyaṇa. Come eat. Nārāyaṇa. Please come sleep. Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa." And in that case, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, or in the commentary for this chapter, explains (as does Prabhupāda...
Apr 14, 2025•1 hr 27 min
If you win something, you call somebody on the phone: "I just won something!" and tell somebody else. We've won a lot! We've won a free human birth. There are several places. For instance, the Avadhūta Brāhmaṇa—he's out in the wilderness, and Mahārāja Yadu meets him and says, "How did you become enlightened? You're obviously enlightened." And he said, "I have all these gurus around." Mahārāja Yadu said, "I didn't see anybody. It's just wilderness." And he starts pointing to natural phenomena and...
Apr 14, 2025•1 hr 21 min
Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion. (BG 9.14) https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/9/14/ ------------------------------------------------------------ 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-s...
Apr 14, 2025•39 min
It comes from the root word viśeṣa, which means specific or special. It's a name of Kṛṣṇa, indicating that His creation is unique in every aspect, and that means that there's no one particle that's the same as another. There's no one relationship that Kṛṣṇa has, as Brahmā mentions in his prayers, in the 14th chapter, of the 10th Canto, that it's multifaceted, or unlimitedly faceted, his relationships with living beings—they're all unique. So it means "unique Kṛṣṇa's unique nature and His unique ...
Apr 13, 2025•4 min
When Caitanya Mahāprabhu asked, "What is the most unbearable pain in this world?" He said, "The most unbearable pain in this world is separation from the Vaiṣṇava." There's nothing more severe than that, which indicates that the way that one finds this thread of connection is to become very deeply attached to a Vaiṣṇava. The way to become most definitely connected is through service necessity. The service is passed down through the disciplic succession. If one can find a Vaiṣṇava who's fully eng...
Apr 13, 2025•57 min
Just a reminder, there are thousands, tens of thousands, millions of scriptures. They have admonitions about what to do and what not to do. But when we come to our Vaiṣṇava śāstras, and it's repeated in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and agreed upon by our own ācāryas, there's only one purpose to all of them, and that's to somehow or other fix your mind on Kṛṣṇa. There's no other place where the mind is satisfied, anywhere in the three worlds. Doesn't matter where you go, how m...
Apr 12, 2025•17 min
There's another aspect of the Rāmāyaṇa that always touches me very deeply, and it's a story that's told again and again about Rāvaṇa's brother. Rāvaṇa, of course, was the archetypal demoniac king who wanted to enjoy the whole world—the opposite of what we're talking about. Rāma gave up silk to wear tree bark; Rāvaṇa, he wanted everything in the world for himself and couldn't help himself. One of his family members, his brother, Vibhīṣaṇa, tried to dissuade Rāvaṇa from his suicide course, stealin...
Apr 11, 2025•58 min
You are very rare, because not many people take the time to practice spiritual life, and the ones that do are not so focused; they don't have the specificity that you do and the momentum that you do, that you're getting from the mercy of the paramparā. So let's take the advice we're giving ourselves every day and keep practicing, because the ultimate test comes ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ—to remember Kṛṣṇa at the time of death. It's serious business. Prabhupāda says, "Going back to Godhead is not a pla...
Apr 11, 2025•22 min
In friendship, we require trust between the two. So it's not just that we're trying to develop faith in Kṛṣṇa. It's also that we're trying to act in such a way that He'll have faith in us. Easy come, easy go. If one has very easy access, it would seem like something very insignificant. We do have access, but it's a serious relationship also, where Kṛṣṇa, when He sees that we're sincere and serious, the more that He does reveal Himself to us and talk to us.He does talk to those who are pure devot...
Apr 11, 2025•5 min
I read a quote—I hope it's accurate, it was from Einstein. He said, "You can see the world as an ordinary course of events, or you can see everything as a miracle." And the poet Blake had mentioned how you can, through observation, appreciation and gratitude, actually notice within a drop of water the entire cosmos. So there's this sense of, when you look out and you see the rain, or you see the ocean, or you see the ability in another person, you can notice that all these things are coming from...
Apr 10, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Hearing the voice of his master, Kirāta, suddenly stood up, breaking the anthill. And as he emerged from the anthill, Nārada said, "Your name is Vālmīki." In Sanskrit, the word Vālmīki means "one who emerged from an anthill," chanting over decades, centuries, being absorbed in the mantra. His heart became pure. He was a new person. He made his journey to meet Sītā and Rāma, and as we know from the Rāmāyaṇa, he took to a life of compassion. What's more, he became so empowered by chanting the Rāma...
Apr 09, 2025•23 min
The service that we do is always based on our intention. If we're cooking something or we're dressing The Deities, or let's say, leading a kīrtana, we're chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. But if that mantra coming from our heart is actually, "Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. Everybody, look at me," it's not the same as if you're expressing, you know, "Kṛṣṇa, You're everything." So the real service comes from that intention of the way you're doing it. And chanting is the time, as I said in the very beginni...
Apr 08, 2025•18 min
Jīva Gosvāmī says in his Sandarbha that you can understand your own advancement by how eager you are to hear. It's not to say, "Okay, somebody's feeling not as inclined," but one must practice hearing on a regular daily basis until one begins to be attracted. The reason I'm not attracted to chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa or to hearing the pastimes is because of the effects of rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa within my mind, but 'śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ, puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ, hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi, vidhu...
Apr 07, 2025•55 min
This is a great privilege to have specific knowledge of the entryway into The Lord's heart, as mentioned by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in the book Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta, that there are two means by which one's liṅga-śarīra, or subtle material body that holds one to the material world, is destroyed, and one can attain one's spiritual form. The first is by chanting Kṛṣṇa's names, and the second is by seeing Kṛṣṇa's beauty. And there's a way in which Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu describes nāmākārī bahudhā nija-s...
Apr 06, 2025•11 min
We find in the case of Śiśupāla, a couple of things happen as he took birth. He was also extremely opulent. You may have noticed in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śiśupāla was materially no slouch. He was practically described as more opulent than Kṛṣṇa. He had so much opulence he was killed by Rāmacandra in his next life. He had all these assets, and we all know that when he was a little child, he began saying the Lord's Names, and it's a chanting, but he was blaspheming Kṛṣṇa. He still had this hatred...
Apr 05, 2025•1 hr 19 min
One of the teachings that comes down to us from Kṛṣṇa, 'tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā, upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ, jñāninas tattva-darśinah (BG 4.34),' is that to find the path forward in spiritual life, then you must find a representative, one who's following the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, of spiritual life, who emulates the teachings of the scripture and also speaks authoritatively, and then attach yourself to the instruction. And for better or for worse, in fact, the world move...
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr 5 min
https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/18/advanced-view/ 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/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Join us live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FanTheSpark/ Podc...
Apr 03, 2025•20 min
Those who are able to catch the ārya-vacasā—the words that are coming down authoritatively through this disciplic line, coming from the authority of Kṛṣṇa, passed down over many generations—by taking that and, in essence, what Bharata did? He put those shoes up, and he said, "Okay, not my will, but Thy will. I'm going to follow this what your words say." And it doesn't matter if it looks like I'm going in the wrong direction, because everyone said, "Rāma, you're going to the forest. You should b...
Apr 02, 2025•1 hr 34 min
1. (kṛṣṇa) deva! bhavantaḿ vande man-mānasa-madhukaram arpaya nija-pada-pańkaja-makarande (refrain) O Lord Kṛṣṇa! I offer my obeisances unto You. Please fix my bee-like mind in the nectar of Your lotus feet. 2.yadyapi samādhiṣu vidhir api paśyati na tava nakhāgra-marīcim idam icchāmi niśamya tavācyuta! tad api kṛpādbhuta-vīcim O Acyuta! Although the great Lord Brahmä, in his trance of samädhi, is unable to see even a particle of the effulgence emanating from the tips of the nails of You...
Apr 02, 2025•7 min
Manthrā had caught on that Rāma would be installed on the throne, and that Kaikeyī was happy about it, but Manthrā was self-interested, because she had this idea that if Rāma took the throne, then maybe Kaikeyī wouldn't be the main queen. She wouldn't have as much wealth. She might even be pushed out of her position. And, as usual, for a materialistic person, Manthrā was thinking, "What's going to happen to me? What's in it for me?" It was just like when Bali Mahārāja wanted to give away his wea...
Apr 01, 2025•58 min
My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: Simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom. https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/12/3/51/ ------------------------------------------------------------ To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ ------------------------------------------...
Apr 01, 2025•1 hr 21 min
Devotees come here to Govardhana by the millions every year, and they just walk around. You can see all night long, you can hear them all night long, groups of people walking around Govardhana. And I can say that in the years that I've been coming to Govardhana and staying here, which would be—this would be year 25, if we stay at Kārtika over here—25th stay here at Govardhana. I've seen people that do parikramā every day, all the way around. I know people that go around twice a day. It's their m...
Mar 31, 2025•52 min
How it is that one can perceive higher intelligence and, beyond that, the source of that intelligence, which we call the Supreme Being? Is because the Supreme Being can reveal Himself to us. And one may say, "Well how would that be possible?" We may answer by saying, "How would it not be possible?" Because by the very definition of the Supreme Being, one would have to assume that such a being could do anything. And if you say, "Well, there's a limitation," then you're not talking, by definition,...
Mar 30, 2025•1 hr 8 min
HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa encourages young minds to share the benefits of japa, a form of mantra meditation. They concur that japa is good because it helps individuals connect with Kṛṣṇa, providing assistance and guidance. Japa is particularly beneficial in Kali Yuga, as it is the recommended process. It helps one remember Kṛṣṇa, even when not actively chanting. Japa is also useful for calming down during moments of anger, promoting rational thinking and better decision-making. Additionally, it fosters ...
Mar 30, 2025•5 min
One has to become an expert gardener to know what weeds look like when they come up under what circumstances, and one has to protect the creeper. Going around on Govardhana parikramā. You see very frequently that people try to plant things, and when there are new plants, you'll notice that there's more fence and barbed wire around each plant than there is plant, and it takes years for it to grow up, because everybody wants to eat that plant. The monkeys will come and break it, just for fun, the ...
Mar 29, 2025•45 min
Cultivate habit patterns. I love this. I stole that phrase, "habit patterns," from Brian Tracy. I've always appreciated it because I noticed that the brain develops its own patterns. It has neuroplasticity. If you read something, if you listen to something, the brain just starts to develop a new neural pathway to accommodate it. You can cultivate habit patterns in the same way they are ingrained in us. When we deliberately cultivate them, they become ingrained in us. If you consider this, I read...
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 2 min
In chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, there are ways that the Padma Purāṇa suggests we upgrade our attitude, and by upgrading our attitude in various ways, we'll have more appreciation for the holy name, and we'll feel the effects more. Much as the sun has an equal effect on everybody, but if you go inside and close all your curtains and the sunshine doesn't come through, you're not going to get the benefit of the sun. So in the same way, it's an organic process, and it's natural that we contact Kṛṣṇa and we ...
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 8 min
Canto 11 11.2.37 https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/11/2/37/ 11.2.40 https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/11/2/40/ 11.2.42 https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/11/2/42/ 11.2.45 https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/11/2/45/ 11.2.46 https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/11/2/46/ 11.2.47 https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/11/2/47/ 11.3.21 https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/11/3/21/ 11.5.2 https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/11/5/2/ 11.5.3 https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/11/5/3/ 11.5.11 https://vedabase.io/en/libra...
Mar 25, 2025•13 min
