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Sometimes, the greatest act of leadership… is leaving. Vibhishana was Ravana’s brother. A trusted advisor. A royal insider. But when Ravana refused to return Sita, Vibhishana spoke out. He was mocked, insulted, and finally exiled. And so, he walked away. From power. From comfort. From blood ties. Not because he was disloyal— But because he…
The post Vibhishana: When Walking Away Is the Bravest Choice appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Imagine waiting your whole life for someone you’re not even sure will come. That was Shabari. Every day, she cleaned her hermitage. Every day, she gathered berries. And every day, she waited for Rama. Years passed. No word. No sign. But she never gave up. When Rama finally arrived, her joy wasn’t in recognition—it was…
The post Shabari: Preparation Without Applause appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
So, how should we present the concept of Varna, and how much should we emphasize it—especially when teaching the Bhagavad Gita or introducing Krishna consciousness to newcomers, particularly in the West? There is always a tension in understanding which parts of the Gita are descriptive—that is, specific to the social and historical context of the…
The post So, how should we present the Varna, the idea of Varna, and how much should we emphasize it? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
I’ve been traveling across the world for the last ten years, speaking to people from diverse traditions, cultural backgrounds, and even religious backgrounds. While there can be many differences of opinion on various issues, there’s one truth everyone can agree on, a truth that can be summarized in three words: Life is tough. Isn’t it?…
The post When our conditionings seem too strong… Chaitanya Charan appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Hare Krishna. Thank you for coming today. I’m delighted to be here with you. I’ll be speaking on the Bhagavad Gita, drawing from one of my latest books. You’ll receive physical copies of these books as soon as they arrive. We can read from them then, but until those arrive, I’ll discuss a common problem…
The post When people don’t accept us.. Cincinnati Chaitanya Charan appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
भगवद गीता: प्रश्नों और उत्तरों का प्रवाह कल हमने एक सवाल पर चर्चा की थी, जिसका जवाब 2.50, 422, 0.72 था। हमने यह भी देखा कि भगवद गीता एक व्याख्यान नहीं है, बल्कि प्रश्नोत्तरों का संग्रह है। गीता के प्रवाह को समझने के लिए, हमें यह देखना होगा कि किस प्रकार का प्रश्न पूछा गया…
The post Hindi – Chapter 3 Bhagavad Gita And Decision Making Bhagavad Gita Overview Chaitanya Charan appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Question:When the Bhagavad Gita appears to be talking about Karma Yoga, why do we suddenly find purports that emphasize Bhakti Yoga? How do we deal with this when trying to teach the Gita systematically? Answer:I’ll make three points to address this: Prabhupada’s strategy, his overall vision and purpose, and how we can align our approach…
The post When the Bhagavad Gita seems to be talking about Karma Yoga, why are there suddenly purports which talk about Bhakti Yoga? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Mandodari: The Power of Unheard Wisdom Not all leaders wear crowns—and not all dissenters seek rebellion. Mandodari, the queen of Lanka and wife of Ravana, stands out in the Ramayana as one of the most tragically overlooked voices of reason. When Ravana abducted Sita, Mandodari repeatedly warned him: “Return her. This path will only bring…
The post Leadership Lessons from the Ramayana – Through Lesser-Known Characters appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
We all know Hanuman as the mighty hero who leapt across the ocean. But do you know who reminded him he could? Before that legendary leap, Hanuman was hesitant. Unsure of himself. It was Jambavan, the wise elder of the Vanaras, who stepped forward—not to fly himself, but to ignite belief in Hanuman. “You have…
The post Jambavan: The Mentor Who Made a Hero appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
The context The world has recently been treated to the spectacle of the Elon Musk and Donald Trump spat—which has turned nasty very rapidly. What was initially promised to be a bromance for the ages has withered away and degenerated into a public spat with accusations being hurled at each other in public. Irrespective of…
The post The Musk–Trump Spat: A Gita-Inspired Reflection on Conflict appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Can lack of time be an impediment to spiritual growth?Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that one of the factors that impedes bhakti is prayasa (over-endeavor). So we need to consider: What exactly is causing the shortage of time? At one level, time poverty is something almost everyone experiences. We all need to make…
The post Can lack of time affect spiritual growth? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Any statement about a particular gender in Srila Prabhupada’s teachings is not meant to target or diminish any demographic. The overarching focus is on Krishna consciousness and spiritual elevation, and everything needs to be seen in that light. At times, such statements may appear anti-women or male chauvinistic. However, that was never the intention of…
The post How to understand Shrila Prabhupada statements that women are less intelligent? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Understanding the Controversy Over Book Changes Regarding the issue of book changes, somehow that topic has not caught my interest deeply, and I’ve often wondered why people are so fixated on it. Still, I’ll share my quick understanding, based on whatever I’ve studied. The way Srila Prabhupada’s books have come into existence is quite an…
The post What is your understanding of the editing of Prabhupada books? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Hare Krishna. So the question is, how can we see the current conflict that is going on from a Bhagavata perspective or spiritual perspective? Yes. This is currently raging in social media. And, I’ve been asked this question repeatedly. And over the last month or so I’ve been reflecting on this. And so I’ll talk…
The post Ritvik issue philosophical psychological historical and individual perspectives appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
There yesterday? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Zoom. How okay. How many of you okay. How many of you are not there yesterday? Two. Okay. Thank you. How many of you are not there today? Okay. So, I will just do a quick recap of what I have been discussing yesterday then we will…
The post Gita wisdom for hard times 2 FACT Vancouver appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
My dear Lord, please guide us all, so that we can understand the deep wisdom in your words and texts, and can align our lives accordingly. Hare Krishna. So today morning, we are discussing one of the most evocative sections from the Bhagavatam, which reflects a theme common in the Bhagavatam that is death. So,…
The post How Bhishma convinced Yudhishthira – Balancing dharma & bhakti, Vancouver, Bhagavatam 1.9.20 appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Thank you very much for coming. So this is basically the second part of the class which I had yesterday but it can be understood separately also. But I’ll do a quick recap of what we discussed yesterday and then we’ll move on to what we find yesterday. Can all of you see this projector…
The post How to participate in God’s plan for us – 3 guidelines. Part 2⧸2 appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
That truth which everybody from any part of the world will agree with can be summarized in three words. That is life is tough. Whatever we do, whoever we will be, life is not evil. Life is difficult. And when we face the difficulties of life, if we are of a theistic bent of mind,…
The post How to participate in God’s plan for us 3 guidelines ISKCON Ottawa || Chaitanya Charan appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Hi, Ananga. How are you? Hi, Gayatri. Nice to see you again. Nice to see you too. The other day, I was having a conversation with one of the students from a UC university, and he’s a wonderful spiritual practitioner, very disciplined in his regular spiritual practice, has wonderful questions, thinks beyond himself, wants to…
The post Is Spirituality Meant to Be Personal or Institutional_ _ A Conversation That Unpacks It All appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Today on the sacred occasion of the Sajid Prathy, I will speak on the topic of Krishna’s or God’s love for us and our love for us. Specifically, I’ll talk about the topic of does God care? There’s so many things that go wrong in the world. So many things go wrong in our own…
The post Narasimha Chaturdashi 2025 Does God care when we are suffering_ Philadelphia – Chaitanya Charan appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Is karma caused by the action itself or by the thought behind the action? Both are important. In the broad analysis of Dharma, the right thing to do, as we see in the Mahabharata, in the various deliberations, three factors are seen to be of relevance. The first is what we do, or the content…
The post Does action cause karma or is it the thought behind the action? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Does a soldier who drops a bomb on the enemies during wartime get karma? Is it better for the soldier to drop the bomb on an empty area so that there are no casualties? Life is tough. One reason it is tough is because bad things happen to us. But another bigger reason is that…
The post Will a soldier who drops bombs on the enemy during war time get karma for those actions? Would it be better for the soldier to drop the bombs on empty fields rather than on the enemies directly? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
If we are to desire Krishna and give up all other desires, what can we do when we are not even aware of what we actually desire? How can we cultivate the desire for Krishna? And how do we deal with the feeling that we have done so many things because of which we don’t…
The post How can we desire to see Krishna when we don’t even know what we actually desire and we don’t feel qualified to see Krishna? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
If we have daughters and don’t have a son to do the last rites after we depart, what happens? In general, in the broad Vedic tradition, there is the path of karma kanda. Now, we consider karma kanda primarily to be rituals for material gain, but karma kanda has also been broadly the path of…
The post If we have only daughters and no sons to perform our last rites after death, what will be our destination? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
So, it is said that whenever anything happens to us, that’s because of our own past karma and the people whom we encounter in this life are basically people who we have had some interactions with in the previous lives. So when something bad happens to us, should we consider that it is our karmic…
The post Should we keep tolerating all present suffering by seeing it as a result of our past Karma? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
If some Christians compare Jesus with Krishna and say that our God died for us, has your God died? So how do we reply? Answer, generally the interaction between two faith traditions can fall in three modalities. The technical words used are apologetic, irenic, and polemic. So apologetic is where we try to establish how…
The post How do we respond to a Christian who argues “Our God died for our sake–such was his love for us. How did your God show his love for you?” appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
When the holy name is said to be Nama, Chintamani, Krishna, and why do we need to chant the Gayathri Mantra and why do we have a separate initiation for getting the Gayathri Mantra? We can look at it at three levels. At a devotional level, at a cultural level, and at a personal level….
The post When the Hare Krishna mantra is so potent, why do we have second initiation into the Gayatri mantra? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
If we don’t like to do something when we are a part of a community organization, just so that we are seen to be doing something valuable or something important, we want to do something which we feel is actually of value. But then those services are not valued in the community and then although…
The post If we are doing some valuable services but the institution values some other more visible services, do we need to change ourselves to do those institutionally valued services? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
If a woman who is introduced to bhakti asks, why do I need to get married? And even if I get married, why do I need to have children? How do we answer? I’ll answer in three points. First is, what is our purpose in attracting, in inviting or attracting people to practice Krishna consciousness?…
The post If a Western woman aspiring for bhakti doesn’t want to marry or have children, how can we guide? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Today on the sacred of teaching, I will speak on the topic of Krishna’s or God’s love for us and our love for us. Specifically, I talk about the topic of, does God care? There are so many things that go wrong in the world. So many things go wrong in our own lives. And…
The post Narasimha Chaturdashi 2025 Does God care when we are suffering? Philadelphia – Chaitanya Charan appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Transcript: So, during, it was one to two weeks ago, and we mentioned that everyone should have a service, and not having service is an issue. So, in our temple community, we find that devotees are naturally attracted towards different types of services, and for my sake of understanding and realization, I have categorized them…
The post How to ensure that devotees in a community do all services as required, not just intellectual services? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
So, I was trying to understand how in Lord Rama’s pastime, his Altha was to be a king, but he, his role was, I mean he was Lord himself, so his Parmartha also is like, it’s like kind of serving his own self, right? He’s the Lord. And in that context, I want to understand…
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Why does Krishna describe about Ashtanga Yoga in 5.27 and 28? Three broad understandings can be there. Krishna has given the stage of perfection in the preceding verses, especially 5.25 and 26 and he is giving alternative pathways to that perfection. After he has talked about Karma Yoga practice leading to that perfection and thus…
The post Why does Krishna describe about Ashtanga Yoga in 5.27 and 28? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
Thank you for a wonderful class. What comes to mind when you’re reading things of this stature is that it’s so phantasmagoria, practically. I mean, it’s like a movie or something. How do you get the living energy to understand these principles of freedom, like Krishna Consciousness, when you have to read these kind of…
The post How can we get a Westerner to believe that if one eats cow flesh, one will become a cow in a future life who will then be eaten? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
How would you respond to a person who says, well, I like your conception much better than the Christian conception, but, you know, here in America, in Western countries, they have a saying, if you give a fool enough rope, he’ll hang himself. So it seems like Krishna is giving people a lot of rope….
The post Why does a loving God give us such a long rope that we can hang ourselves with it? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
There is one statement that says that whatever is written in the Vedas has to be taken as truth. Either you like it or you don’t like it. So I tried to understand in the Srila Bhaktivinoda Goswami’s statement and Srila Prabhupada in which take it literally and the other one, it’s not that important….
The post When everything in The Vedas is said to be true, how can we interpret some Vedic statements to be non-literal? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.
There are two cases in which the mind may trouble us. What are the cases? Yeah. Mind sometimes are paid and sometimes the mind isn’t paid. So it desires a moving piece. So when the world is threatening us, that time will be comforting. Now when we are seeking things in the world, when we…
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