Tag: bhakti

How should we chant the Holy Name of Krsna? What should be our mood and what should be our meditation?

Raghunatha Dasa realized that when Mahaprabhu gave him the Govardhana-sila He was telling him that his eternal place of residence was at Govardhana and that his service should be performed at Radha-kunda.

In this lecture, filmed on 18th February 1982 at Sri Caitanya Saraswat Math, Navadvipa, West Bengal, Srila B.R. Sridhara Deva Gosvami speaks about the mood of his Guru Maharaja, Srila Sarasvati Thakura, in relation to reading books such as Ujjvala-nilamani etc.

It is said in the revealed scriptures that to understand the very meaning of religion, self-realization and to know God, one has to approach a bona-fide spiritual master through the proper process. A guru or acarya heads a certain sampradaya and brings down the knowledge of the revealed scriptures from the previous acaryas. He practices according to his spiritual master’s instructions and distributes those instructions through his disciples to deliver the fallen souls in this material world.

Saranagati to the spiritual master is a prerequisite for any devotee aspiring for spiritual progress. Srila Sridhara Maharaja says, "In my study I found that saranagati alone is sufficient to produce all sorts of development in bhakti."

After wandering in this material world for many lifetimes, by the mercy of guru and Krsna, the seed of devotion is awakened within our heart. The process starts with a little faith (adau sraddha) and this faith leads us to seek answers (pariprasna) and the association of devotees (sadhu-sanga), those who are practitioners of the devotional process. The cultivation of this seed of the creeper of devotion is the substance of our devotional life.

From time immemorial the human race has acknowledged some form of higher presence or being than themselves. Clans, tribes or individuals all had their own idea. Some believe in a particular God, personalized or not. Some people follow nature. Others ascribe to the moon, the sun, the stars, or other things unseen.

In the famous talks between Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Ramananda Raya (Ramananda Samvada), Ramananda Raya gives Mahaprabhu several propositions on what actually is the ultimate goal of life beginning from varnasrama-dharma, leading up to the ultimate conception.

"Don’t feel discouraged, Krsna and His devotees are reaching out to you. They are reaching to embrace you. Their causeless mercy is our greatest fortune. For some reason unbeknownst to us, we have this opportunity. We are being canvased into that sankirtana , as He has appeared as Mahaprabhu."

Wasn't there perhaps sincerity in some of these religions at the time when they emerged? God is omnipresent and, after all, a man in the desert who had some desire to know truth would experience an aspect of God's beauty, power, love etc. He could feel that to be God and not yet know about Sri Krishna, due to his unfortunate karma of not being near a pure devotee. Does it mean that he has no realization just because he doesn't yet know about Krishna?

During a recent visit to Europe I had some informal discussions about religious conceptions with other Gaudiya Vaisnavas and I was surprised to hear some devotees speak about such groups as the Sufis, Whirling Dervishes, Jews, Christians, Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Muslims as being deeply 'surrendered' souls. Of course, generally speaking this may be true – but surrendered to what?