Devotee

When Charles asked his son and daughter-in-law a Hare Krishna couple to move in with him, he knew he’d have to adapt, but his reward was more than he could ever imagine.

“Shoot him,” said the man with the crowbar. Kshudhi felt the cold metal against his skull and chanted Hare Krishna like never before. His nimble nineteenyear old body was tucked under the bed. The other four men with guns hesitated. They attacked the house knowing that a Johannesburg vegetable merchant had kept cash there, but were they ready to kill for it?

It was a momentous winter’s day when Descartes sat down with the sole intention of demolishing all of his opinions. Descartes began by rejecting all knowledge gained from the senses, as the senses sometimes deceive. He concluded that whereas the empirical sciences can be classed as dubious, the abstract sciences such as arithmetic and geometry cannot. However, so determined was he to call into question all of his knowledge, that he conceived of a cunning and powerful demon, who was exerting all of his power to deceive him, even in matters related to the abstract sciences.

For humankind, the mind is the cause of bondage and the mind is the cause of liberation. The mind absorbed in sense objects is the cause of bondage, and the mind detached from sense objects is the cause of liberation. ~ Amrta Bindu Upanishad

Question: Spirituality should be silent and sober like in meditation. When devotees sing loudly and dance vigorously, how can such a noisy activity be considered spiritual?

Answer: Sankirtana, the congregational chanting of the holy names of Krishna to the accompaniment of music and dance, is actually meditation in its most profound, potent and practical form. Let’s see how.

October 7, 1972, Berkeley, California

One evening, Srila Prabhupada spoke at the University of California in Berkeley, the heart of the hippie capital. The San Francisco devotees enthusiastically received him and relished his lecture. They prepared barrels of popcorn and distributed it following Srila Prabhupada’s lecture.

“What is that?” His Divine Grace asked.

“Popcorn, Srila Prabhupada,” Jayananda explained. “Would you like some?”

“Yes, give me some,” Srila Prabhupada said.

After making Harinam Sankirtan every day on two minivans in the summer months of year 2011 in many countries across Europe, our Sri Harinam Mandir Traveling Temple program attracted lots of devotees with the desire to join us. For the purpose of allowing more devotees to participate in the performance of Yuga Dharma Sri Harinam Sankirtan, in July 2012, by the generous help of the devotee community, we bought a big yellow bus for further distribution of the unlimited nectar of the glories of the Supreme Lord Krishna.

At least you’ll be saved if you keep with the company of the devotees. Satam prasangan mama virya-samvidah. If you give up the company, then you again become rogues and demons. Therefore you must be satisfied, in whatever condition. “Whatever Krsna has given, that’s all right.” Satisfied. Surrendered to Krsna. And that satisfaction can be achieved only when one is fully surrendered to Krsna. If I have surrendered to Krsna, Krsna has taken my charge, Krsna says, aham tvam sarva-papebhyo moksayisyami, then why shall I bother myself?

How to immunize our minds against attacks by agents harmful to our spiritual life?

Many of us may sometimes feel fed up with the way things are going in our life. At such times, we feel mentally tired even when we are not physically tired. Because of mental exhaustion, many people seek relief in illusion through time-wasting entertainment at best and self-defeating addiction at worst.

Why an exalted devotee asked Lord Krishna to keep putting her into dangerous situations?

Most people worship God with a material motive. As Lord Krishna explains in the Bhagavad-gita (7.16), such people can broadly be classified into four groups: the distressed, the needy, the inquisitive, and those searching for knowledge of the Absolute. In most cases, they stop their worship as soon as they obtain their objective. They regard God as someone who can lessen their miseries and make their lives happy and peaceful.