Author Archives: Chaitanya Charan das

A time for fury and a time for forgiveness
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If a king cannot distinguish between the time to be angry and the time to forgive, then he is lost.
– Draupadi to Yudhisthira, Mahabharata, Vana Parva

When even Americans are concerned about Christian conversions in India, why is ISKCON unconcerned?
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This article in the Huffington post outlines the unscrupulous ways in which Christian missionaries are converting Hindus.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-goldberg/missionaries-in-india_b_4470448.html
Why does ISKCON act as if this doesn’t matter?
…

When Prabhupada did many things different from his spiritual master, how did he not change anything?
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I read about Srila Bhaktisiddhantha Thakura and found that Prabhupada did many things differently from his spiritual master. Yet he said, “I haven’t changed anything.” How do we understand this?
Answer Podcast

How spiritual happiness is unlimited
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Spiritual happiness is unlimited. Here it is said that even the Lord cannot measure such happiness. This does not mean that the Lord cannot measure it and is therefore imperfect in that sense. The actual position is that the Lord can measure it, but the happiness in the Lord is also identical with the Lord […]

Choose between difficult happiness and impossible happiness
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“It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it elsewhere.” – German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer  

SB 01.05.07 – Krishna is able and eager to guide us – we just need to express our desire for guidance
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Holy Name Meditation Podcast

SB 01.05.06 – The Lord is detached yet masively active – Meditating on him makes us similarly effective
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Holy Name Meditation Podcast

SB 01.05.05 – Remove the blocks that prevent Krishna’s wisdom from entering our head and his mercy from entering our heart
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Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Announcement: “Spiritual Quotes” started; services needed; Full Bhakti Shastri Course videos uploaded
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Starting “Spiritual Quotes”: In this feature, I will be posting quotes from acharyas in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition (except for Srila Prabhupada whose quotes will continue to be published in the Prabhupada quotes category), as well as spiritually meaningful quotes from other sources such as scriptures – Vedic and non-Vedic; and saints and thinkers from […]

The Lord is the only rest for our heart
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“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” St Augustine, Confessions

Why the Lord is never attracted to material beauty
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There is a common proverb that a confectioner is never attracted by sweetmeats. The confectioner, who is always manufacturing sweetmeats, has very little desire to eat them; similarly, the Lord, by His pleasure potential powers, can produce innumerable spiritual beauties and not be the least attracted by the false beauties of material creation. One who […]

SB 01.05.02 – Don’t let the quest for physical and mental productivity deprive us of spiritual productivity
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Holy Name Meditation Podcast

SB 01.05.03 – The materially magnificent can’t compensate for the spiritually deficient
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Holy Name Meditation Podcast

How life is filled with misery
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“Fie upon this wretched life which affords one only misery. To live is to experience nothing but disease and pain. Pursuing in turn religion, wealth and pleasure, one endeavors much but receives little happiness. While everything leads to salvation, that is an impossible goal to achieve.” Ekachakra brahmin at whose house the Pandavas were residing, […]

Is it possible for a human being to be entirely free from sex desire?
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The scriptures mention that no one except Nara-Narayana rishi is free from lust. So is the expectation that our spiritual guides be free from sex desire a projection of our desire to be God, that is, are we expecting our spiritual guides to be God? How do we understand Prabhupada’s statement that he had no […]

SB 01.15.28 – Remembrance of Krishna removes inner disturbance even when outer disturbance remains
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Holy Name Meditation Podcast

SB 01.15.27 – When material reality consumes us, philosophy provides the foundation for seeking shelter in spiritual reality
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Holy Name Meditation Podcast

SB 01.15.25-26 – Our spirituality protects our humanity from degenerating into bestiality
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Holy Name Meditation Podcast

The immense potency of devotional service
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The antiseptic potency of devotional service to the Lord is so great that it can neutralize the material infection even in the present life of a devotee. A devotee does not need to wait for his next birth for complete liberation. – Srimad Bhagavatam 2.7.3 purport

The mind is ever changing and unreliable
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Every mind has its own way of looking at things; so what one mind establishes, the other destroys, nay the same mind re­jects today what it accepted yesterday.

– Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura, Vaishnavism – Real and Apparent

Damodarashtakam (08)
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Damodarashtakam Verse 01 – How the Supreme Controller becomes fearful and controlled Damodarashtakam Verse 02 – The Lord can be bound by nothing but love Damodarashtakam Verse 03 – How Krishna reveals his sweetness to those who are absorbed in his greatness Damodarashtakam Verse 04 – Krishna is Krishna’s greatest blessing Damodarashtakam Verse 05 – […]

When a grain becomes more valuable than tons
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A grain of devotion is more valuable than tons of faithlessness. – Srimad Bhagavatam 2.6.34 purport

SB 01.15.24 – Choosing faith can ensure that the very things which may drag us away from Krishna will impel us towards him
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Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Special Days Meditations (41)
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Gita Jayanti – The Gita guides us to act with adequate contemplation and appropriate emotion, thereby granting abundant satisfaction Odana Sasthi – A Glimpse of Intimate Devotion Saranga Thakura – The mercy of the Vaishnavas returns us from the dead to the living Bhishma Panchaka – Austerity enables us to transcend ourselves Jagaddhatri Puja – […]

The mind’s solutions are worse than the problems
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Its knowledge of good and bad, happiness and misery, donor and the recipient, law and disorder regarding things other than the Supreme Lord is nothing but a series of blunders and is like jumping from the frying pan into the fire or like swimming between Scylla and Charybdis. – Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura, Vaishnavism – […]

SB 01.15-22-23 – Krishna can integrate into his spiritual masteraplan disasters, even self-induced disasters – always choose faith, not doubt
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Holy Name Meditation Podcast

Are the beliefs “kshatriya martyrs attain heaven” & “jehadi suicide bombers attain paradise” different?
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The Mahabharata states that Duryodhana and his aides despite their viciousness attained heaven because they died on the battlefield? Didn’t their past bad karma matter? If it didn’t, how is this belief different from jehadi suicide bombers who kill hun…

When so many microbes are present in a cm, isn’t the idea of a God who loves everyone impractical?
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From Mrigank Sharad when i think about the number of microbs present in 1 cubic cm of air, it seems hard to believe there is some God who is waiting for all these ‘souls’ to be delivered. And he wants to ‘enjoy’ personal relations with all these. Here the brahman conception looks more practical. Answer […]

Don’t descriptions of Krishna’s form make us imagine as spiritual our material attraction to forms?
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From Mrigank Sharad ISKCON talks a lot about Krishna’s beauty! you may say that its a higher kind of beauty , having some spiritual connotation.But i hv seen  ISKCON texts admiring God’s ‘physical beauty’, comparing it with that of thousands of cupids!  When i first read prabhupad’s purport for Gita verse 18.65, where he describes Krishna […]

Is Gita 18.55′s impersonal message (vishate tad anantaram) overridden by Prabhupada’s translation?
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From Mrigank Sharad Gita seems like trying to strike a compromise between dwaita and adwaita, with some of its verses conforming with the first , while others with the later. Prabhupad tried to override the exact wordings of the shloka’s that apparently hint towards adwaita: like , 18.55 : “vishate tad anantaram” equated to “enters […]

If the Gita is a manual why is it so confusing? Why couldn’t it have been clearer?
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From Mrigank Sharad Why sould we need 100 different commentators to help us understand it. God’s words should have been 100% clear and should have left no questions in a spiritual seeker’s mind. But i dont think that really happens!! Answer Podcast

Is the Gita an attempted reconciliation of different Upanishadic thoughts and not a revelation?
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From Mrigank Sharad Gita seems like trying to strike a compromise between dwaita and adwaita, with some of its verses conforming with the first , while others with the later. Prabhupad tried to override the exact wordings of the shloka’s that apparently hint towards adwaita: like , 18.55 : “vishate tad anantaram” equated to “enters […]