By taking a little time to chant, either while you're sitting or you're standing, or even if you're walking, to repeat the mantra, you'll notice that it lifts the mind above the many thoughts about the past and the future. Often times, future is about worrying, past about lamentation, what I could have done. And when we chant the the mantra, then, by its very definition, Mantra, the the word tra comes from trayate, which means to deliver. The mind gets delivered from the myriad worries, lamentat...
May 05, 2025•46 min
What Kṛṣṇa is saying is that if you find your sincerity and you offer it to Kṛṣṇa, and you say, "Kṛṣṇa, I'm Yours, and I will surrender to You and only depend upon You," then Kṛṣṇa is already there, as Gajendra, I mentioned, said, "He's there waiting." It's not that He becomes bored; He's always interested in us. He's always aware of us, and what He's mostly aware of, as we found out in this verse today, is our motive. That's the most secret thing within the heart. In the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa sa...
May 04, 2025•1 hr 19 min
So in japa, this principle can be applied of asking Kṛṣṇa for what's most valuable, and we can ask again and again, because the mind might go to something lesser. The main obstacle is a clear path to a lesser goal, and in japa, we're forging a path to the highest goal, but it has to come from us, and that's why it's an individual practice. Kṛṣṇa wants to know especially what we want. He's attentive to every living entity in an individualized way. So if you remember that it's personal and that th...
May 04, 2025•9 min
'Drive with care' is something Kṛṣṇa points out in the Bhagavad Gita. First he says, "yānti deva-vratā devān pitṝn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā yānti mad-yājino ’pi mām (BG 9.25)." Yanti means to go. He said, You can go any direction you want. In this universe, it's a matter of where you push your attention. Because where attention goes, energy flows. And he says you should drive with care, because, for instance, if you drive blindfolded, you're going to smash into somebody, and it's...
May 03, 2025•5 min
There's a principle that when you appreciate the good qualities in others, then they become part of you. But if you become envious of others, or don't try to understand actually what they're doing and you disparage them, then you lose that advantage. So in the culture of respect, when you see somebody that's doing something, I think you said it too. When you see somebody doing something better than you're doing it, you should have the humility to appreciate them and be able to approach them, and...
May 02, 2025•1 hr 4 min
When you're reading a book, if you've ever had the experience that you get finished with a paragraph, you know you read it. But if somebody said, "What did you just read?" you'd say, "I have no idea," because although my eyes are going down the page and somehow the reading process is happening, I'm thinking about something else, like signing up for the next set of classes or paying my taxes or something like that. So, when you're chanting, it's a time where you can become more observant of your ...
May 02, 2025•23 min
That's why we're always so confounded, because we're always trying to create a self. What is my relationship now, when I go to kindergarten with all these other kids that I never met before? What about in fifth grade? How do I adapt? Should I wear jeans or corduroys, or should I wear shorts? Who should I be like? Which identity should I take on now? And throughout our lives, trying to create a persona based on the material body and mind is extremely troublesome, and what to speak of the fact tha...
May 01, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura gives this technique for success in chanting which is to beg. If you beg Kṛṣṇa for a place in devotional service, you will make advancement, although we're helpless—just tiny beings enveloped by the material energy and conducted by the modes of material nature—if we beg Him to be a servant and just keep begging over and over again, think of a very persistent beggar who follows somebody for miles and miles and miles and won't give up. That's how Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that...
May 01, 2025•20 min
I find that when something looks too hard, then it's easy to get discouraged. If you put the bar low enough, and someone says, "So anybody could do that," that's a good place for it, which is what Lord Caitanya is doing there. So oftentimes, devotees become intimidated because they think, "It's too hard," or "It's too much," but there are many encouraging statements like that in the śāstra. Can you hand me a Bhagavad-gītā? Is there one available right there? If you can't get a Bhagavad-gītā in a...
Apr 30, 2025•1 hr 31 min
Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! he Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! he Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! rakṣa mām Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! pāhi mām That is, “O Lord Kṛṣṇa, please protect Me and maintain Me.” He also chanted: Rāma! Rāghava! Rāma! Rāghava! Rāma! Rāghava! rakṣa mām Kṛṣṇa! Keśava! Kṛṣṇa! Keśava! Kṛṣṇa! Keśava! pāhi mām That is, “O Lord Rāma, descendant of King Raghu, please protect Me. O Kṛṣṇa, O Keśava, killer of the Keśī d...
Apr 29, 2025•4 min
Once, when we were in a spot where there was no light whatsoever, no moon and no cities nearby, I stepped out of the car, and the stars were so bright, I was almost knocked on my back. I had an existential moment thinking, "Oh, I'm in a universe I forgot. And look at all these planets that abound." There's a universal form of the Lord described in the Bhagavad-gītā and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But beyond that, there's the original beauty of the Supreme Personality of God Himself that's so captivat...
Apr 29, 2025•1 hr 1 min
This uncontrolled mind is the greatest enemy of the living entity. If one neglects it or gives it a chance, it will grow more and more powerful and will become victorious. Although it is not factual, it is very strong. It covers the constitutional position of the soul. O King, please try to conquer this mind by the weapon of service to the lotus feet of the spiritual master and of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Do this with great care. (https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/5/11/17/) ----------...
Apr 28, 2025•5 min
Prabhupāda also says that one can be attentive when one has a sense of love for Kṛṣṇa, and following the process of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa requires some adjustment to one's lifestyle and also consciousness, in that we remember that "I'm helpless," as Kuntī says, "let go of any sense that you have a maintainer or protector, and just take shelter of Kṛṣṇa, then your chanting will be effective." 'Janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrībhir edhamāna-madaḥ pumān naivārhaty abhidhātuṁ vai tvām akiñcana-gocaram (ŚB 1.8.26...
Apr 28, 2025•12 min
As we make progress in devotional service, it's vital to be aware of who we're tuned into, and to that degree, Prabhupāda was meticulous in instructing us about the process of hearing. And I'll just give a couple of examples, and I will stop in a moment. One was when the devotees first went to India, they came to understand that there was a bigger universe, spiritual universe, outside of ISKCON. Prabhupāda had a few books: Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, The Nectar of Devotion, Teachings of Lord Caitany...
Apr 27, 2025•1 hr 42 min
When we would stay at Govardhana Hill during Kārtik every year, he would come on parikramā with thousands and thousands of devotees. The Govardhana āshram is a quiet place, and during the festival season, sometimes during the day, a yātrā will come in and swarm the place for half an hour, an hour, and then go away. Mahārāja was so personal that he would stop in to see any of his godbrothers, whatever room they were in. And I can remember many times when he would just burst in the room, and then ...
Apr 25, 2025•42 min
Once, the spiritual master of my spiritual master, my Param-Guru Mahārāja (Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura) had said that he wanted a magazine published every day about Kṛṣṇa-kathā and distributed in many places. Someone said, "But how will you have enough news?" He said, "The spiritual world is full of the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa and His devotees eternally. In the material world, the news is old within a few hours. And," he said, "what to speak of one day or every day, we can publish a magazi...
Apr 24, 2025•1 hr 8 min
The person who's representing Kṛṣṇa is 'priya' dear to Kṛṣṇa. So there's a philosophy Prabhupāda used to say, "Love me, love my dog." So there's a way that, if you're walking around SLO, if you just approach somebody and try to talk to them directly, appreciate them, they may be taken aback. But if they're walking their dog and you say, "Nice dog," they'll stop and they'll say, "Oh, do you have a dog too?" And then you can say, "Well, what kind of dog is it?" You'll immediately have a rapport—"l...
Apr 24, 2025•25 min
One of the principles: the less you claim to have or to know, the more you're open to learn, and the more grateful you are for what you get. There's a way in which entitlement—thinking that I deserve more, leads to disappointment, to the degree we have this sense of entitlement. And also in learning, one may see, "The more I know, the more I know I don't know." Oftentimes people, including myself, when I'm hearing some valuable information or getting a lesson from someone, I may think, my unruly...
Apr 23, 2025•1 hr
If we sincerely try to fix our mind on Kṛṣṇa and we practice, then: teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te Kṛṣṇa directly gives us intelligence, the practice of devotional service. He's there. He's speaking to us. Actually, He's always trying to direct, but it's like when somebody's speaking to you and you're looking into your cell phone and you're not actually paying attention, or your mind is going somewhere else, and then you say, "What'd yo...
Apr 22, 2025•25 min
What is the access point for all of us in talking about conquering the heart of Kṛṣṇa? We hear the pastimes in which great devotees conquer Kṛṣṇa's heart, but how is it that we all have access? Well, we heard this morning that one of the ways is to understand what providential means. Once, when I was having a managerial crisis, I consulted some godbrothers about what to do, and they tried to placate me by saying, "It'll probably be all right." And I've heard that a lot before, throughout my whol...
Apr 21, 2025•1 hr 11 min
Extended mental concentration. If you can practice this, your mind gets better at it. If you practice scrolling, that's what you'll get good at. It's not helpful, because it puts rajas in the mind, and that's one of the reasons we have a problem sitting and concentrating—too much rajas. The mind wants to go somewhere else, somewhere else, somewhere else, but the more we can practice in our japa extended mental concentration and stay focused on hearing the holy name, just the sound vibration, kee...
Apr 21, 2025•23 min
Books are beloved in human society. People revere them, and when somebody takes the trouble to put a book together and organize thoughts put in a bound form or electronic. Then people respect it, and they read it. It gets passed around, the ideas that get embedded in society. So it's actually a good idea to inculcate various philosophies into wide sections of society and perhaps even the whole world by distribution of books. It's not a sentimental process. It's extremely practical. -------------...
Apr 21, 2025•38 min
Well one is to express gratitude. One of my godbrothers told me, while we were traveling, and this is an example of getting something valuable from association. He said, every morning when he wakes up, as soon as he swings out of bed and puts his feet on the floor (of course, if you're a brahmacārī—I don't know how you're going to do that), but before he stands up, he says, 'Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.'" And I said, "I'm going to start doing that too." So I started doing that upon getting up. A...
Apr 20, 2025•4 min
Don't underestimate the power of reading Bhagavad Gita everyday, it can be that - "I think, oh, yeah, Bhagavad Gita, I've read that." I distribute Bhagavad-gītā. I mean, I meet people—all the time in the street. In fact, I don't hand Bhagavad-gītās to Indians, because they're going to say, "I already know Bhagavad-gītā, my mother read Bhagavad-gītā, and my grandmother memorized Bhagavad-gītā." So as everybody knows, if they see me distributing on the street, I withhold and I say, "You already kn...
Apr 19, 2025•1 hr 35 min
I started noticing at our community that there where kids, and my first notice of them would be that they would trump through the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class while we were conducting it, without a care in the world, or noticing that they were walking through a group of devotees who were hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Then I started noticing that they were exceptional. Little by little, I noticed that, and I got fascinated with how they were born into families where the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, where the ...
Apr 18, 2025•1 hr 30 min
So he (Lord Caitanya )went back to His spiritual master, and he said, "Did you give me the right mantra? Because when I chant this, I go crazy." And the spiritual master said, "Very good, very good, very good." And there in the purport, Prabhupāda said, "A spiritual master isn't interested in donations or any material facility. What he wants to see is that the disciple gets the freedom of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and gets a taste for chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa." Prabhupāda—the first time I had the fortune o...
Apr 18, 2025•1 hr
We're really in a pickle here, and there's a way in which Kṛṣṇa absolves us of all that, if we just come back to our happy life, happy Life means, "Kṛṣṇa, I'm Yours. I'm Your servant." So the meaning of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa is very profound. It means that you've come to the pinnacle of understanding that my life is meant for Kṛṣṇa, and everything I do is to be used in His service, dedicated to Him. When you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, you can take full shelter of Kṛṣṇa and just say, "Kṛṣṇa, I am a lost sou...
Apr 18, 2025•4 min
That eagle then leapt out from his hands and began to soar. And in that moment realized that it was not a chicken, but it was an eagle. The story—many people may take various lessons from the story—but one of the ways it relates to the practice of what we call Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which means to come back to our original consciousness, is to see that the ways that we work in this world and the idea that we're a material entity ,"I belong to a particular family"—when you perform a yajña, there's ...
Apr 18, 2025•14 min
When you look at the world, you think, "Oh yeah, I know how this works. I know causality. I know the resultant vector of what's taking place here." And when you read the Bhagavad-gītā and Kṛṣṇa tells you, "Here's how to identify the modes of nature, and here's the effect of each mode of nature." For instance, He says, in passion, it's like nectar in the beginning, but poison at the end. When you know that, and it's there in your intelligence strongly enough, and the opportunity comes and you go,...
Apr 16, 2025•1 hr 8 min
How is it that transcendental sound can be transmitted through a material medium? After all, when you hear "Hare Kṛṣṇa," that's a percussive sound, it's coming through the air, and it's touching your eardrum, and it's vibrating, and it goes through the auditory nerve, and then you're able to make some association. So how do you distinguish a material sound from a spiritual sound? Or how are those two different? And they are different, say the personified Vedas, because Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Perso...
Apr 16, 2025•1 hr 29 min
