Beginners Course In Krishna Consciousness




THE THOUGHT OF THE DAY

I NEVER DIE
From the Gītā we learn that even after the destruction of the body, the Atma, the Soul, is not destroyed; The Atma is always the same, always new and fresh. Fire cannot burn, water cannot dissolve and air cannot dry the soul. Nothing can kill him. The soul is everlasting and eternal. Each one of us is an individual Soul.

MY PHYSICAL BODY IS NOT MY REAL SELF
A person learns, by self-realization, the truth about the gross and subtle material bodies." What kind of truth does the soul learn? The soul learns that "both the gross and subtle bodies have nothing to do with the self". At that time the soul directly sees the Supreme. Then the soul understands his own true nature. The soul understands liberation. But that does not mean that the soul ceases to exist. When he understands that the idea that he is identical with the gross and subtle material bodies is an illusion, and when he then directly sees the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the soul attains liberation, even though he may remain alive in the material world.

WE TEMPORARILY OCCUPY AN EVER CHANGING BIOLOGICAL CAGE
The spiritual mind [the atma] realizes that he is living like a double-caged bird which identifies its own living self with the material cages, that the cages he is living in are ever subject to change and decay and though they look fresh and alive they are nothing but dust and will crumble into dust. The subtle cage of the material mind is within the gross cage of the physical body.

IDENTIFICATION WITH THE BODY EQUALS LIMITED CONSCIOUSNESS
All our experiences are futile in the attempt to attain the ultimate destination; only faith can lead us there. The spiritual world is far, far beyond the jurisdiction of our limited visual, aural, and mental experience. The experience of the eye, ear, and mind is very meager and limited, but faith can rise up and pierce through this area, and enter the transcendental realm.

WE SEE BEYOND THE BIOLOGICAL MACHINE
Often when a patient dies, the doctor, thinking that everything is just matter, says, "heart failure." No, its not heart failure, the spirit soul has gone from the heart. Hrdi means heart and the heart needs the soul to function. Therefore heart failure means that the soul the person has left the heart. But those with no knowledge say there is no soul. For them God also doesn't exist, they only see material elements.

OUR DEEPEST FULFILMENT
When crops are nourished by heavy rain, they soon ripen and produce a rich harvest. In the same way, the streams of hearing the chanting of the Holy names of Krishna result in filling ones heart with pure love for Him, which truly gives the deepest fulfilment of the soul.

DEATH IS JUST A TRANSITION
Therefore, one should not view death with horror, nor have recourse to defining the body as soul, nor give way to exaggeration in enjoying the bodily necessities of life. Realizing not just knowing about, the true nature of the living entity, the soul, one should move about in the world free from attachment and steadfast in purpose.

NAMASTE
The praying gesture of joining one's hands and bowing one's head is found in most religions and many different cultures. Why do most people spontaneously pray like this? If we try out this gesture, we can feel peace and devotion. The joining of the left hand and the right hand expresses God and i are never separated. The deeper meaning of this praying gesture is: “I pay homage to You my dear Lord and surrender myself to You with loving devotion.

HOW TO BECOME HAPPY
Krishna and His energy are fully present in the sound of His Holy Names, known as the Hare Krishna mantra. So even if we don't know the language or intellectually understand how it works, by coming in touch with Krishna via chanting or calling His Names, we'll become happy, and our life will become sublime.

WE HAVE IMMENSE WEALTH
A person who has all riches, all beauty, education, influence, bodily strength, fame, intelligence and mystic yoga power, by all these qualifications, nobody can worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, except simply by devotional activities, by even the poorest person, who nobody cares for, the Lord is satisfied upon him.

ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD KRISHNA
The word 'krish' is the attractive feature of the Lord's existence, and 'na' means spiritual pleasure. When the verb 'krish' is added to the affix 'na' it becomes Krishna, which indicates the Absolute Truth. From Mahabharata

WE HAVE IMMENSE WEALTH
Bhakti is like a precious jewel bound within the hem of our cloth, which we forget about. Unaware that we are carrying immense wealth on our very person, we struggle hard for material existence, searching in all the four directions for the lowest coin in the realm.

ILLUSION
Being bewildered by the external energy, the living entity, although transcendental to the three modes of material nature, thinks of himself as a material product and thus undergoes the reaction of material bondage

A SUBLIME STATE OF BEING
Real happiness is possible, when all that is troublesome to the heart has disappeared and our consciousness is purified. This is not comparable with the temporary relief of sense gratification, experienced on the material platform. To achieve this sublime state of being, one needs to practice a process which is completely pure itself. This process, is the practice of Krishna Consciousness, and the sound meditation, the chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra, is the cleansing process of the heart."

Please chant Hare Krishna and be happy.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,
Hare Rama, Hare Rama,
Rama Rama, Hare Hare

DEVOTION
One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service and when he is in full consciousness of the Supreme Lord by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God. - Bhagavad Gita

MATTER CAN NOT CREATE CONSCIOUSNESS
The difference between matter and spirit is that matter has no consciousness like the spiritual soul; therefore consciousness is is the symptom of the soul and always superior to the body. Matter can not create consciousness. We are all living individual spiritual souls and we are always present within the heart, that is why it beats. Life comes from Life. We are not these temporary bodies made from chemicals and water. We existed in the very ancient past, and we will continue to exist in the future without fail.

GIVE UP GREED LUST AND ANGER
Greed the desire to possess that which belongs to another, can be insatiable and gives rise to anger, lust, misguided judgment, arrogance, miserliness, lack of compassion, enviousness, mistrust and many other evils. As ones greed increases, his ignorance also becomes more dense

THE AWAKENING OF THE SOUL
The attitude or deep sincere inner mood of loving devotion to Krishna, whose wonderful eternal personality and amazing pastimes are described in great detail in the Vedas, is neither slavish, ignorant, nor a gross form of superstition. It is the awakening of the original blissful function of the soul, in which all mental activity is exposed as blunt reflections of the true blissful spiritual reality beyond

THREE TYPES OF DISCUSSION
In a vada discussion the motive of all concerned is to find out the truth. This is the ideal kind of discussion. It is for persons who are sober and impartial about the outcome; they simply want to know what is the truth of the matter. They are in the mode of goodness.

Jalpa is a discussion wherein one is not interested in what is said by others, whether it has some truth or all of the truth, because one simply wants to be heard. Any other view or contribution is of no interest. This is the way for a person in the mode of passion.

A vitanda discussion is in the mode of ignorance. In this version the truth is of no value. One simply wants to win at all costs.
By Srila Jiva Gosvami, Sri-Sat-Sandarbha

GOD CONSCIOUSNESS IS EVERYONE'S ORIGINAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Krishna Consciousness is not an artificial transformation. Our original consciousness is God consciousness, but now our consciousness is covered with so many identifications, situations and problems. Our consciousness is like water. Water is by nature clear and transparent, but sometimes it becomes muddy. If you filter all the mud out of the water, it again comes to its original clear, transparent state. This is the result of Krishna meditation.

WHAT GOES ROUND...COMES AROUND
You are what your deep driving desire is, as your desire is so, so is your will, as your will is so, so is your deed, as your deed is so, so is your destiny. "Isopanishads"

SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHERS
Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada said: Neither the scientists nor speculative philosophers have yet arrived at any conclusion concerning the cosmic situation. All they have done is posit different theories about it. Some of them say that the material world is real, others say that it is a dream, and yet others say that it is ever existing. In this way different views are held by mundane scholars.

LIMITED CONSCIOUSNESS AND UNLIMITED CONSCIOUSNESS
The difference between God and the individual soul is, that the individual spiritual soul is localized to one place and is situated inside the heart. Our consciousness is limited to pervade just this one body. But Krishna has Super Consciousness, He is unlimitedly all knowing. With a small fragment of Himself, He pervades and maintains entire universes. In this way the theory that the soul and God are one, is rejected and not acceptable. A person who imagines that he has become all pervading, thinking himself to be God, is in illusion and deluding himself.

THE ROAD TO BHAKTI
By Srila Bhaktivinodha Thakura
When that suffering becomes excessive, it gives rise to a search for happiness. From that desire, discrimination arises, and from discrimination, the tendency for inquiry is born. As a result of this, one attains sat-sanga (the association of saintly people), where upon sraddha develops. When sraddha is born, the jiva ascends to a higher stage, namely the path of bhakti.
Exerpt From Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharajas Translation Of The Book Jaiva Dharma

REAL MEDITATION
By Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada.
At first, remembrance of Krsna may be interrupted at intervals, but later remembrance proceeds uninterrupted. When remembrance is uninterrupted, it becomes concentrated and is called meditation. When meditation expands and becomes constant, it is called anusmrti. By uninterrupted and unceasing anusmrti one enters the stage of samadhi, or spiritual trance. After smarana-dasa or samadhi has fully developed, the soul comes to understand his original constitutional position. At that time he can perfectly and clearly understand his eternal relationship with Krsna. That is called sampatti-dasa, the perfection of life. "

WE HAVE DEVIATED FROM OUR ESSENTIAL NATURE
By Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada.
According to the Vaisnava philosophy, the Sportive Manifestation of God is of two kinds. One kind is the creation of the material and spiritual universe and its systematization with inviolable rules. The school of intelligent empiricists can to a certain extent experience this type of God’s Sportive Manifestation. The second kind is the descent of God’s Transcendental Sport in this created universe. It is the Jivas(souls) who are the attendants in His Sports. They become attached to matter having deviated from their own essential nature as the result of their desire for enjoyment. But when again the soul or a jiva, gains true wisdom of the transcendental region of God at the feet of a representative of His, he begins to get back his pure essential nature gradually unfolded, and God’s Transcendental, Eternal Forms appear as the objects of his worship according to the comprehension of His service in the graded evolution of acceptance of His protection, self-surrender or theism.

A KARMA FREE EXISTENCE
Chanting Hare Krishna frees one from the reactions of all past karma. Chanting Krishna’s name even once, purely and sincerely, takes more karma away then one could commit and eliminates the suffering associated with it. Implementing this spiritual science into ones life is a sure way to create a secure karma free future."

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE
If you feel peaceful, content, secure, happy and healthy and have good relationships, then all of life's endeavours take on a good quality and you can handle life instead of being handled by it. Genuine Krishna meditation creates a platform of stability, inner content and happiness and the word impossible, looses its meaning."

THE MIND IS NOT THE SELF
When nails grow long, we cut nails not fingers. Similarly when misunderstandings grow up, cut your ego, not your relationship. After all we are neither the body or the mind, we are pure spirit soul. Our nature is pure love and bliss. We should always remember this when the mind reflects something else.

REAL MEDITATION
At first, remembrance of Krsna may be interrupted at intervals, but later remembrance proceeds uninterrupted. When remembrance is uninterrupted, it becomes concentrated and is called meditation. When meditation expands and becomes constant, it is called anusmrti. By uninterrupted and unceasing anusmrti one enters the stage of samadhi, or spiritual trance. After smarana-dasa or samadhi has fully developed, the soul comes to understand his original constitutional position. At that time he can perfectly and clearly understand his eternal relationship with Krsna. That is called sampatti-dasa, the perfection of life. " Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saravati

4 TRUTHS
1) The existence of The Supreme Personality Of Godhead Sri Krishna and the immortality of the spirit soul are not hypothetical ideas. 2) We have free will, but we are bound to accept the reactions to our actions. 3) Virtue which is valued as promoting collective and individual greatness, and which is immensely enhanced by the practice of bhakti, should become a serious part of every child's education. 4) Vice however, which is considered unpleasant, immoral, depraved, sinful, wicked and corrupt, especially lying, should be rejected immediately by everyone.

TRUE INNER SPIRITUAL HEALING
Without self realization, no one can move forward inwardly. This is because within most people, the background of genuine self identity is missing, which is also course for much suffering. Therefore, to become self realized and experience real inner healing, one should learn about this great science of Bhakti at our gatherings all over the World.

TRANSFORMATION NOT INFORMATION
People are looking for information, but really we should look for transformation, a deeper way of seeing. The power of inward looking perception is very real. This wisdom lies hidden but is discovered by the right process of self realisation and one may wonder that even so this knowledge is easily available for the genuine seeker, if it isn’t also one of the world’s most valuable, and enduring, secrets.

IN TOUCH WITH KRISHNA
Krishna and His energy are fully present in the sound of His Holy Names, known as the Hare Krishna mantra. So even if we don't know the language or intellectually understand how it works, by coming in touch with Krishna via chanting or calling His Holy Names, we'll become happy, and our life will become sublime

BHAKTI IS THE KEY
Lord Krishna said "I am equal to all living beings and am neither inimical nor partial to anyone. But as those who approach Me with bhakti are attached to Me, so too I am bound by affection for them." Source Bhagavad Gita 9.29.

BE CAREFUL
You are what your deep driving desire is. As your desire is so, so is your will. As your will is so, so is your deed. As your deed is so, so is your destiny. Source.. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

ELEVATING ONES CONSCIOUSNESS
Although our state of mind is seen through the nature of our activities (how we dress, eat, talk etc.), the type of activities we perform also affects our state of mind. This means we can elevate our consciousness by elevating the nature of our activities. All spiritual activities should help us to free our consciousness from illusion and direct it towards God. A devotee of Krishna accepts the regulations of spiritual life as ‘regulative principles of freedom’, as tools for advancing personal character development and to attain a blissful spiritual consciousness

CONSIDER THIS DEEPLY
Killing animals and eating them, among many other activities, which harm any living entity in any way, is one of the worst things a person can do to create negative karma for himself. Our present karmic reactions, happiness and distress, all have their origin in our present or past life's positive or negative, kind or unkind activities. Therefore a sane person should always consider this deeply before acting, and with great determination and for his own benefit, remove himself from negative activity. Even if the whole world objects and is against it, one should reject all that is even remotely associated with causing harm to life.

WE ARE NOT ONE
The jiva, the real self, does not become one with God, or indeed anything, even after he has attained complete Liberation. The soul retains his individuality under any circumstance. After death or here in this World or hovering on the ghostly plane, existing in heaven or in the transcendental World. There is no situation anywhere, in which the soul can be destroyed or loose his eternal individuality, to think it can, is an illusion.

WE ARE IN FORGETFULNESS
The spirit souls attached to material life, cannot easily comprehend spiritual attachment, nor can they have any experience of it. In reality, it is the souls true function and eternal nature. However, we have become engrossed in attachment to matter which causes us to forget, that we are actually a spiritual particle of consciousness. This is a miserable condition, although hardly any of the Souls who are thus entangled in birth old age disease and death, think so.

HE HAS AN ETERNAL FORM
5000 years ago, Lord Krishna spoke about the meaning of life, the subtle workings of creation, and the understanding of a self- realized soul. He spoke of the science of yoga in all its forms, the path of work, the path of knowledge, the path of mysticism, the path of devotion. And at last Lord Krishna revealed Himself before Arjuna as the source of everything, His eternal form as the Supreme Lord.

HE IS VERY CLOSE
The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy. Bhagavad Gita 18.61
Dr. Daniel Coleman, associate editor of Psychology Today and author of The Varieties of Meditative Experiences.

ITS NOT A VOID OR ONENESS EXPERIENCE
The realized devotees always behold the Supreme Lord and His spiritual abode, just as the unobstructed eye can see the sun within the sky. Because those praiseworthy devotees who are spiritually awake, have realized the supreme reality, they can also reveal it unto others.” Source AK Samhita Vedas.

More Thoughts


Someone asked " “When the spirit soul returns to the Spiritual World does he have the same relationship with Krishna as before he came here to the Material World?”"

The following answers are given by several devotees.

1) The conclusion is that no one falls from the spiritual world or Vaikuntha planet, for it is the eternal abode. (Bhag. 3.16.26, purp.)

2)From authoritative sources it can be discerned that associates of Lord Visnu who descend from Vaikuntha do not actually fall. They come with the purpose of fulfilling the desire of the Lord, and their descent to this material world is comparable to that of the Lord…. it is a fact that no one falls from Vaikuntha. (Bhag. 7.1.35, purp.)

3)The Spiritual World] contains the highest perfectional stage of living conditions…It is the unalloyed manifestation of the energy of the Lord, without illusion as experienced here in the material world. (Bhag. 2.9.10, purport)

4)In the spiritual world… inhabitants…They're aksara. They do not fall down. Ksara aksara. We are ksaras. We have fallen down in this material world. But there are devotees in the spiritual world, in the Vaikunthaloka, they never come down. Never come down in this material world, but they are also persons like us, but eternal persons, with full knowledge and life of blissfulness. That is the difference between them and us. (741105SB.BOM)

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