Self Realization and Krishna Consciousness




THE THOUGHT OF THE DAY

All Thoughts Of The Day

THE HIGHEST POSITIVE CURRENT
If we wanted to full a jug with water, it be extremely difficult to remove the air first, but simply by filling it with water, the air is automatically expelled. Similarly, we can not empty our selves from negativity, we can only fill our life with positive flowing currents currents of love, kindness and gratitude. The highest positive current is Krishna Consciousness. Source: "The Book Of Dharma by Simon Haas"

HARDENING OUR HEARTS
Suppression of the higher self, hardens our heart and covers our capacity to love purely. To see ourselves & others as creations of matter, is the root of all forms of exploitations and aggression. Source: "The Book Of Dharma by Simon Haas"

UNCONDITIONAL RESPECT
We truly see the person before us, when we see them through eyes free of violence. Without, we can not respect people unconditionally, at what we call the level of the "sacred self" , whatever their outward circumstances whether they are rich or poor learned or not and so on. Source: "The Book Of Dharma by Simon Haas"

WE SHOULD NOT JUDGE OTHERS
When we measure the with of others by judging them, we reduce then and ourselves, to the level of commodities. Judging is not life affirming, but life negating. Whenever we judge others, by ranking them against ourselves on a scale, we efface ourselves in the process to. Source: "The Book Of Dharma by Simon Haas"

THE PRINCIPLE OF NON-VIOLENCE
We are violent to ourselves, every time we think negative thoughts, speak negative words, or otherwise act against ourselves. In this way the principle of non-violence begins at home, with ourselves. We need to create a counter habit of compassion and love and begin to design a better internal world. Source: "The Book Of Dharma by Simon Haas"

EXPERIENCING THE DEEPEST LEVEL OF POSITIVITY
Some people try very hard to empty their world of negativity, but emptiness is an artificial state. It's impossible to have no thoughts or emotions, instead we have to replace negativity with positivity. The deepest level of positivity is experienced when the soul lovingly reconnects with the Lord. Source: "The Book Of Dharma by Simon Haas"

WITHOUT THE INNER LIGHT
We are all parts and parcels of God and therefore we are self luminous like He is. We are brighter then the sun and the stars. Without that inner light of perception, our perceptual world can be filled with ineffable darkness. Krishna wants us to developed this inner understanding and make spiritual advancement. Source: "The Book Of Dharma by Simon Haas"

THE SACRED SELF
To be centered or grounded means finding a place beyond the assignment & measurement of worth, beyond human judgements & opinions. To find our center means to find the sacred self, unburdened and immovable, before it began seeking it's own worth in the temporary world of objects and events. Source: "The Book Of Dharma by Simon Haas"

NO ONE IS FREE FROM ANXIETY
Nobody is free from anxiety. The soul is suffering and that is expressed through the manifested body and mind. Love of God is the original nature of the soul (Jaiva Dharma) and to realize that love again, is to fulfill the purest ambition. Source: "The Book Of Dharma by Simon Haas"

WE ARE BEYOND BIRTH AND DEATH
We are experiencing birth and death, but actually we are beyond birth and death. We are eternal spirit souls, but according to our work and desires, we are transmigrating from one body to another. This is the science of reincarnation.

THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH IS NOT FORMLESS
Understanding that God is spiritual, people sometimes conceive of Him as being a formless energy or bright light without personality or qualities. They don't understand the energy and the energetic. Also Krishna has not material qualities, He is full of unlimited transcendental qualities and those qualities attract us to Him. Thus the great souls who have given up everything, will never be able to give up their attraction to Krishna and they dedicate their life's to Him.

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. "

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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