Author Archives: Chaitanya Charan

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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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,…

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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…

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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,…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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…

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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….

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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….

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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…

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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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