Author Archives: Chaitanya Charan das

03.36 – The greatest threat to individual freedom is the individual
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Few things raise people’s guard as much as threats to their freedom from totalitarian governments. Yet they often overlook the greatest threat to individual freedom – the individual. That is, they themselves. The Bhagavad-gita (03.36) points to this threat through Arjuna’s insightful question: what impels us to act self-destructively, as if against our will? If […]

Srila Prabhupada – the leader who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way (Vyasa Puja Offering 2013)
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Dear Srila Prabhupada, Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to your divine self. On this sacred day of your appearance, I meditate on how you are the most exemplary leader – a leader who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. 1.    Knows the way: All of […]

Wasn’t Vedic culture destroyed because of its own faults and not external forces like Macaualay’s schemes?.m4a
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From R Jogani P The Q to be asked is not how did Darwin or Macaulay or Islam or anything else spoil our culture but rather “How did we let all of them spoil our culture?” Any culture which cannot protect itself from outside forces needs to introspect. It is the job of outsiders to […]

Why do Christianity and Islam allow meat-eating? Is it essential for Muslims to eat meat?
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From Ravikant Jagtap P Why Christianity and islam allow meat eating? Some of my friends tell me that it is written in Quran that one is not muslim who don’t eat meat in 40days and cow is created by Allah for eating. Is it true? Why they don’t believe in reincarnation is there clear reference […]

Why hasn’t ISKCON presented Prabhupada as a national spiritual hero?
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From Ravikant Jagtap P Ramkrishna Mission prapogated Vivekananda as national spiritual hero. Isn’t it a failure of iskcon to do so for Prabhupada when he has transformed many lives? What can be done on personal level and widespread organizational level so that every Indian feels proud of Prabhupada? Now also many people don’t know about […]

Was Vedic education responsible for social evils like caste system that Indian reformers tried to remove by adopting Western education?
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From Ravikant Jagtap P Related to your answer on Macaulay as it is represented in history before britishers came to India many Indian were not allowed for taking education and many evils like untouchablity, sati, cast discrimination, child marriages, polygamy in their perverted form were existing and this was all because of vedic culture. Leaders […]

Due to its emphasis on class preaching, is ISKCON not losing the opportunity for mass preaching?
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From Ravikant Jagtap P Spiritual knowledge is meant for Rajrishis who have intelligence to understand it and who have influence to make it understandable to others as number of devotees and resources are few we want to help people in most effective way. We are preaching to educated and wealthy people that is out of […]

Why does Prabhupada say that God has no names?
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From Ravikant Jagtap Krishna no name, but by His qualities we give Him names. If a man is very beautiful, we call him “beautiful.” If a man is very intelligent, we call him “wise.’ So the name is given according to the quality. Because God is all-attractive, the name Krishna can be applied only to Him. Krishna means “all-attractive.” […]

02.40 – Things may belong, but for how long?
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We treasure our belongings, especially those belongings that are worth a lot financially or mean a lot emotionally. Many people go even further, making their belongings the primary purpose of their life and making their belongings their defining identity. Yet no matter how much we treasure our belongings, how long can they belong to us? […]

Try strenuously to control desire
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Material desires, when unsatiated, generate anger, and thus the mind, eyes and chest become agitated. Therefore, one must practice to control them before one gives up this material body. One who can do this is understood to be self-realized and is thus happy in the state of self-realization. It is the duty of the transcendentalist […]

04.09 – The goal of spiritual life is to make spiritual life our goal
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Many people see spiritual life as a pious recreation, as an elective break from the stresses of daily living. Whatever be our initial impetus for spiritual exploration, bringing our spiritual side out of hibernation is good, because it activates our unique human potential for spirituality. It raises us above the sub-human beings that busy themselves […]

16.04 – Obsession with fame deprives us of prema
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Most people get a rush of exhilaration when they go to a new place and find recognition and admiration for them in the eyes of others. And some people make this fame as their supreme source of enjoyment, their primary purpose of life. The Bhagavad-gita (16.04 – darpo abhimash) indicates that such obsession with fame […]

01.44 – Choose the self-definition that is eternal and factual, not fickle and fallible
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The world usually defines us by our possessions – what we wear, what we drive in, what we own, for example. Being influenced by this pervasive social mirror, we too frequently define ourselves similarly. But such a self-definition is fickle and fallible. Fickle because it can change dramatically or traumatically as our material fortunes change. […]

Exploiting the words of God for business is demonic
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At the present moment also there are so many editions of the Gita (especially in English), but almost all of them are not according to authorized disciplic succession. There are innumerable interpretations rendered by different mundane scholars, but almost all of them do not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, although they make a […]

15.09 – When we mistake the mind’s petulance to be bhakti’s impotence, we sentence ourselves to perpetual dissonance
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“This meditation stuff doesn’t work.” We may think like this when we don’t feel happy while chanting the holy names of Krishna. The problem, however, is not bhakti’s impotence; it is the mind’s petulance. Let’s understand how. The Bhagavad-gita (15.09) explains that the mind is the receiving center for inputs from all the knowledge-acquiring senses. […]

The God who conceals his godhood so that love can reign supreme (Janmashtami special)
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God. The word evokes various images in people’s minds. Some think of God as a cosmic judge seated on a celestial throne. Others envision him as an ageless sage with a long white beard. Still others conceive of him as an all-pervading spirit. Whatever people may conceive God to be, they wouldn’t conceive him to […]

04.14 – Seek to know Krishna not theoretically but transformationally
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Many Bhagavad-gita readers are puzzled by its repeated declarations that knowledge about Krishna grants liberation: “So many people know Krishna, but they aren’t liberated. Are such glorifications for real?” Yes, they are. However, the knowledge about Krishna that they refer to is not theoretical but transformational. To understand, let’s look at a specific eulogy. The […]