Author Archives: Chaitanya Charan

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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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?…

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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…

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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…

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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….

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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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Hare Krishna. So today, we’re continuing this discussion on the topic of the punishments in hell. How many of you were there yesterday? Okay. How many of you were not there yesterday? Okay. How many of you are not there today? Okay. So I’ll do a quick recap of what I discussed yesterday, and we’ll…

The post Brutal hell & loving God How can both go together part 2 Chaitanya Charan Prabhu SB 3 30 26 5 appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

So since I got this verse, I was told this three, four days ago, I’ve not been able to sleep very peacefully. These are these are in many ways a very difficult section of the Bhagavatam to explain, first of all, to understand and to explain. So today and tomorrow, I’ll be discussing this theme…

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Hare Krishna. I’m grateful to be here with all of you today. And today, I’ll speak on this verse from the Bhagavad Gita. This is 2.14. So am I audible clearly? Oh, okay. It’s gone. It had connected just now. Okay. Thank you. This one? Okay. Thank you. So the topic I’ll speak on today…

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Thank you very much for coming today. Today, I speak based on the Bhagavad Gita, and we talk about the principle of how God and God’s actions in this world when we say God protects. So how does Krishna protect? What does God protection mean and how does that protection work about? So many times…

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Kashmir Terror Attack: What the Gita Teaches Us About Confronting Evil The recent shooting of innocent tourists in Kashmir is a heartbreaking reminder of the relentless brutality some individuals are capable of. But beyond the shock and sorrow lies a question that refuses to go away: How long will we tolerate such acts without a…

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Did Bhaktiv know Thakur go through a phase where he was averse to the Bhagavatam and the Bhakti path, and was this a result of his reading of western philosophy and western literature? Answer, yes. He did go through a phase like that. And from a transcendental perspective, if you want to consider it as…

The post Did Bhaktivinoda Thakura go through a phase of being averse to Bhakti and the Bhagavatam, and was this aversion due to his reading of Western philosophers? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

For each of us, discipline can sometimes feel like someone else is imposing rules on us, and we just have to follow them. Last year, I was in America, staying with a devotee family. Their son was a young adult—actually, a teenager who had just received his driving license. He was kindly driving me to…

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What is the Bhagavad Gita perspective or the Vedic perspective on IVF? I would say that the Bhagavad Gita offers us timeless principles and it is for us to apply them according to our time, place and circumstance. So it’s more that the Gita offers us a compass rather than a catalogue. A catalogue where…

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What is the Bhagavad Gita perspective or the Vedic perspective on IVF? I would say that the Bhagavad Gita offers us timeless principles and it is for us to apply them according to our time, place and circumstance. So it’s more that the Gita offers us a compass rather than a catalogue. A catalogue where…

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It’s the example is given, say if there is a mountain and there’s an ocean. Now there’s a trickle of water, some water which is meant going to flow towards the ocean. So that ocean is Krishna. Now the material world is in the mountain and that drop of water is me, the soul. Now…

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This is. This is a book that is, and it’s titled ‘Plays’ inspired by the Bhagavad Gita. For me, among all the scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita is the book which is I have connected with the most. And the Gita’s verses are not just sources of wisdom for me. They are equal friends. I feel…

The post Hanuman’s Journey to Maturity, Part 2 – 4 Characteristics of Maturity – HG Chaitanya Charan Das appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

How many of you were there yesterday? Okay. How many of you were not there yesterday? Okay. How many of you are not there today? Alright. Okay. So We’re discussing on the topic of Hanuman’s journey to maturity, not a physical place. But we are going to talk about how we can grow toward maturity…

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We humans are by nature, growth-seeking, wherever we are, we want to improve things. We want to improve things in different ways. But we all want to improve things. We come and move into a home. We want to beautify the home. We want to visit a particular place. We want to go and see…

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Everybody needs a bit of pushing because spiritual growth doesn’t feel like a need for nuisance. So, that’s why a little bit of pushing is required. Now, we have to see whether the pushing is actually pushing them towards spirituality or away from spirituality. So, I was in Texas, not this year, last year, few…

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So now, what does bring what is in our consciousness to Krishna mean? It means, it can mean two broad things. One is that when we live in the world, so there are certain internal things, internally we are attracted to certain things, and externally there are some attractive things. Now we can call the…

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Yes, Prabhuji, so we often hear that Krishna has unconditional love for us no matter what, but if we commit some mistakes that are even beyond what we would have expected from ourselves, does Krishna’s opinion of us change or does it still remain unconditional love and how do we understand that? Okay, so is…

The post If we make some terrible mistakes, does Krishna still care for us in the same way as before, or is his love for us conditional or unconditional? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.