Bhakti Yoga – Yoga for Peace

BY THEIR FRUITS YOU WILL KNOW THEM
"Thoughts are like seeds. Loving and happy thoughts produce beautiful flowers and nourishing fruits; or thoughts can be spiteful and depressed, producing painful thorns and poisonous weeds. We can master our thoughts by directing our Self towards Krishna Meditation, by which the mind becomes our greatest friend. The fruits of this meditation are love of God, divine happiness and contentment."

DOGS PHILOSOPHY
"So you know the story, that one dog was crossing over a small rivulet, and he saw the picture of another dog in the water. And actually, there was no dog. He was carrying some food in his mouth, and he saw another dog within the water. So he thought, "Let me take his foodstuff from the mouth," and as he opened the mouth, he wanted to take the other dog's foodstuff, so whatever he had, gone. You see? This is dog philosophy, "Take away." Take other's meal; he loses his own. This is called illusion, māyā. You did not read this, Aesop's Fable story? It is very instructive story. This is dog's philosophy. This is dog's philosophy. All these so-called empire... This Roman Empire was expanded. The British Empire was expanded. Now they have lost everything. Finished. Finished. The dog's business was finished. So this kind of expansion, unnecessarily... Therefore our philosophy is "Be satisfied whatever God has given you." Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam [Īśopanisad mantra 1]. You be satisfied whatever is given to you by God, allotted to you. Don't try to encroach upon other's property. This is civilization."Srila Prabhupada

THE GREATEST OF DANCERS
Wearing a peacock-feather ornament upon His head, blue karnikara flowers on His ears, a yellow garment as brilliant as gold, and the Vaijayanti garland, Lord Krsna exhibited His transcendental form as the greatest of dancers as He entered the forest of Vrndavana, beautifying it with the marks of His footprints. He filled the holes of His flute with the nectar of His lips, and the cowherd boys sang His glories." Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.21.5

THE VIBRATION OF KRISHNA'S FLUTE
Hearing the vibration of Sri Krsna's flute, the bulls, cows and deer of Vrindavana approach Him. Unable to swallow the grass which they had taken into their mouths, they stand silently with their ears raised and appear like animals in a painting. SB 10.35.5

TAKE KRISHNA AND YOU WILL BE HAPPY
We want to be happy, with so many ideas. Everyone is making his own idea. But the rascals, they do not know that, what is the actual process for getting happiness...that is Krsna. That they do not know, na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum durasaya ye bahir-artha-maninah [SB 7.5.31]. You can see in your country, they are trying so many things, so many skyscraper buildings, so many motor cars, so many big, big cities, but there is no happiness. Because they do not know what is missing. That missing point we are giving. Here it is, "You take Krsna and you will be happy." This is our Krsna consciousness. Krsna and the living entity, they are very intimately connected. Like father and son, or friend and friend, or master and servant, like that. We are very much intimately connected. But because we have forgotten our intimate relationship with Krsna, and trying to become happy in this material world, therefore we have to undergo so much tribulation. This is the position. Krsna bhuliya jiva bhoga vancha k From Srila Prabhupada S.B. Lecture 1.15.1

I AM BOUND BY AFFECTION FOR THEM
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.

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.

PraJalpa 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.”

ONENESS AND DIFFERENCE
Though we come in various forms and though we are all individual personalities, we all come from the same source and we are of the same spiritual substance as Krishna. “Tattva” means reality, principle, and truth. He is beginning less and we are all also eternal entities, one with Krishna in quality, and different in quantity, we are simultaneously one with and different from Him, we are eternal parts and parcels of God.

REALIZING OUR SPIRITUAL IDENTITY
Human life is awarded to the living entity the soul, to realize his spiritual identity and his permanent source of happiness. The human beings seek happiness because happiness is our original situation. But he is vainly seeking happiness in the material atmosphere. We are constitutionally spiritual by nature and therefore our happiness can be perfectly perceived in Bhakti Yoga

SAMADHI
In the stage of perfection called trance, or samādhi, one’s mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of bhakti yoga. This perfection is characterized by one’s ability to see the Self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the Self.

QUALITIES TO STRIVE FOR
Peacefulness austerity purity tolerance honesty knowledge wisdom and religious ness.These are the natural qualities by which the Brahmans work.

MATERIAL REALITY
Material life is non-eternal, and hence its impression of being substantive is an illusion in form of a super-imposition on the eternal spiritual self. Material knowledge is not real knowledge because it does not inform about real eternal life and latest at the time of death it is exposed as useless. Material so-called bliss is not real bliss because it is temporary, and when it ends, it results in suffering.”

IT’S PERSONAL
The heat and luminosity of the sun’s rays demonstrate to any rational person that the sun, the source of the rays, is not a dark, cold globe but rather a reservoir of almost unlimited heat and light. Similarly, the innumerable instances of personality and personal consciousness within creation are more than adequate to demonstrate the existence, somewhere, of an unlimited reservoir of consciousness and personal behavior which is that of Krishna.

NOT MUCH TIME
This human life is very short. Therefore, like the traveler in a guesthouse, the living entity the spiritual soul, must diligently prepare for spiritual realization during Its stay in this human body and its limited lifespan. Isn’t it foolish to waste time trying to improve arrangements at the guesthouse during one’s short visit, without concern for one’s destination?

A MOST IMPORTANT ANSWER
Who am I?’ This is the first question which arises in the heart of a person seeking the highest good. If one makes a mistake in assessing one’s true identity, then one will make errors when it comes to determining the ultimate goal of life. If one makes an error in determining the ultimate goal of life, then everything done, every effort made, will simply be wasted.

NOT THIS BODY
The teaching of the spiritual self beyond the material body solves the problems of racism (which has led to billions of war, slavery and genocide victims), nationalism, sexism, various psychological and sexual disorders and all other prejudices and problems arising from bodily identification. The practice of Bhakti yoga and chanting of Hare Krishna, in the right association, will bring about proof and direct realization of ones authentic self

SKELETONISM
The big obstacle to human progress is skeletonism or the faith that ‘I am the material body and reality consists only of what the material body perceives’. In this way one blocks the path to the deeper truth which is perceivable only to the spiritual senses and not to the gross senses. The basic human misconception is that the physical body is the self, which naturally leads to an increasing crisis of the self.

THE LOVER AND THE BELOVED
The lover, the individual soul, is eternal; the beloved, the Supreme Soul, is eternal; and the loving relationship, bhakti, is also eternal, it is the original function of the soul. Thus, this Bhakti yoga re-establishes consciously, the original loving relationship between the Supreme Soul and the individual soul. It is our unfortunate predicament, that we have forgotten this wonderful truth, because we are falsely thinking ourselves to be products of this material plane.

AWAKENING OF THE HEART
As the sun begins to rise, even before it is visible it dissipates the darkness of night. With the first glimpse of sunlight, fear of thieves, ghosts, and demons immediately disappears, and when the sun is actually visible, everything is manifest and everyone begins performing his religious activities and regulative duties. Similarly, the first hint that offense less chanting of the Lord’s holy name has awakened dissipates the reactions of sinful life immediately.

A GRADUAL PROCESS
The gradual process of elevation for self-realization is meant for those who have realized, that there must be an Absolute Truth. After repeated birth and deaths on this path, which is known as deva-yāna, one attains these consecutive stages. Finally one becomes completely situated in ones blissful self, and need not traverse the path of repeated birth and death anymore

MY LORD IS A PERSON
Although He is non-dual, infallible, beginningless, possessed of unlimited forms and the oldest of all, nevertheless, He is a beautiful person with everlasting, fresh youthfulness. Although He is incomprehensible through study of the Vedas, He is easily attained by spontaneous devotion of the soul (shuddha-prema) I worship that original personality, Shri Govinda, Krishna

OUR INNERMOST HANKERING
The innermost hankering of every soul is for Beauty, Love, Affection and Harmony; Not for knowledge, power belongings or anything else. Please chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare; Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. This maha mantra cleanses the dust from the mirror of the mind and awakens us to a pure life of loving devotion to the Lord free from all anxieties.

PICTURES

Transcendental Videos with BV. Tridandi Maharaja