“When a devotee drinks water or any other liquid, he immediately remembers Krishna. For a devotee there is no difficulty in awakening Krishna consciousness twenty- four hours a day.” - Srila Prabhupada (Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya lila, 8.274) Returning to Krishna helps us find shelter. When we confess our failures or report our success and genuinely…
“Recollection, absorption, meditation, constant remembrance and trance are the five items of progressive krsna-smarana. At first remembrance of Krishna may be interrupted at intervals, but later remembrance proceeds uninterrupted.” – Srila Prabhupada (Nectar of Instruction, Verse 8) This step helps us view God as a person, a sentient being who listens and waits for us.…
“Don’t feel yourself to be alone because Krishna is always with you. Krishna is always with every living entity as supersoul, and to His devotees especially He talks and gives instructions how to attain the perfectional stage of meeting Him. So don’t feel alone. Always chant whenever possible, read our books, and there will be…
“We are persons and Krishna is a person, and our relationship with Krishna He leaves open as a voluntary agreement. That voluntary attitude – Yes, Krishna, I shall gladly cooperate whatever you say – that ready willingness to obey is only possible if there is love. Forcing will not make me agree. But if there…
“Our only business is to love God, not to ask God for our necessities.” – Srila Prabhupada If we live in quadrant 3, Krishna will guide us to quadrant 4. If we predominantly live in quadrant 1 or 2, we’d find Bhakti Yoga practises hackneyed. Our spiritual life would be dull and unexciting. Or worse,…
“Being attracted by external opulence, the non-devotee always forgets his intimate relationship with Krishna. Such a person does not like the idea of becoming Krishna conscious.” – Srila Prabhupada (Purport to Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya, 12.184) The four quadrants of a relationship with God Now, let us merge both figures 1 and 2. You have four…
“Religion means to know God and to love him.” – Srila Prabhupada An exercise will help you discover where you stand in your relationship with Krishna/God: Open your mind’s eye. Now visualize a screen/board and draw a vertical line - the line of struggle. (Figure 1). The space on the left of the line denotes ‘No…
“For man, the mind is the cause of bondage and the mind is the cause of liberation. Mind absorbed in sense objects is the cause of bondage, and the mind detached from the sense objects is the cause of liberation.” – Amrita-Bindu Upanishad (Mantra 2) I was now ready for tracking yoga, writing, and hearing Srila…
“The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.” - Bhagavad Gita (15.7) Habits unknown to us I wanly said I have no habits as if I had resigned myself to being inadequate and unable to…
“One whose happiness is within, who is active within, who rejoices within and is illumined within, is actually the perfect mystic. He is liberated in the Supreme, and ultimately he attains the Supreme.” (Bhagavad Gita 5.24) Although our external lives are important, it can’t be at the cost of our inner growth. We may analyse…
“In this world men are not meant for quarrelling like cats and dogs. Men must be intelligent to realize the importance of human life and refuse to act like ordinary animals.” – Srila Prabhupada (Introduction, Bhagavad Gita As it is) If you win one million rupees, you could either waste it away or double it…
“Krishna did not teach Bhagavad Gita to a Vedantist. He went to teach to Arjuna. He was a family man, he was a soldier, but why he was selected? – because Krishna saw that Arjuna was Bhakto si – a devotee.” – Srila Prabhupada (November 10, 1971, Interview) In the mid sixteenth century when Lord…