Author Archives: Chaitanya Charan

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…

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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.

Hare Krishna……… Joyous sweet Krishna. Namaste. Krishna. So welcome, everyone, for our Sunday program. So let me start with thanking today’s sponsors. Today’s main sponsor we have is from BISAL, Gochan, and, sponsoring for Liam Gautam’s first grand ceremony, Anna Prasan. So can you please come up? Okay. Thank you. Let’s take picture. They got…

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My dear Lord, please guide us all so that we can learn from the example of your great devotee Hanuman and come closer to you by his blessings. Hey, Krishna. Thank you for coming today on this occasion of Hanuman’s Anwanji’s appearance day. And among the many adjectives that are used for describing Hanumanji, one…

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Hare Krishna. Principles means see, generally, as we say, a friend in need is a friend indeed. So now our choices have consequences. For Hanuman, that meant if he would go with Sugriyo, Walli would always permanently blacklist him. When Walli would send people to assassinate Sugriyo, if Hanuman came in the way, Hanuman would…

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Hare Krishna Prabhu. Prabhu, oftentimes we face reversals and difficulties in life when it’s really hard to look beyond the present. Now at that time how do we maintain the faith that there is a plan from Krishna and it’s working in background? How do we do that? Yeah, see when we can’t see the…

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Hare Krishna Prabhu. Prabhu, so when someone does something wrong to us, how can we know that it is Krishna’s plan, that we are in that situation? Should we tolerate or should we fight back? Okay. So, at one level, we can say that nothing happens without Krishna’s sanction. Sometimes the word is used that…

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So, how much should we be concerned if the South Indians who are coming to ISKCON in North America also start talking about South Indian pastimes and forms of worship, just telling Tirupati Balaji stories or having pictures of Vishnu more than Krishna in their slides when they give talks? Answer? There are three points…

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So Prabhuji, often times in life we’re so used to saying this is Krishna’s plan for every coincidence that happens. So how do we know if we’re actually living according to Krishna’s plan for us or if we’re just interpreting everything as Krishna’s plan but truly only living with our own plan? Yeah, I’m thinking…

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One’s greatness is seen not just in how forcefully they can make the world bend to their will. How forcefully they can get the world to say yes. One’s greatness is also seen in how gracefully they can accept when the world says no. Because accepting setbacks and failures and reversals and even injustices is…

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So, does Krishna have a plan for everyone of us? There are so many Jivas in this world, like billions. So, he has a plan for all of us. And what is the plan? What’s the final goal of the plan? Is it to go back, come back to Godhead? Or is it something of…

The post Does Krishna have a plan for each one of us or are we simply going through life based on our past karma and present choices? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

To see notes, click here Spiritualization of emotions. That emotions are an integral part of who we are and what we do. At the same time, our emotions can very easily drag us into trouble. So, is there a way we can spiritualize our emotions? Now, what does spiritualizing emotions means? It broadly has two…

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To see notes, click here Hare Krishna. I’m grateful to be here, all of you today, at the lotus feet of the lordship, Shraddha Nilamadha. And today and tomorrow, I will take a two part series on the topic of dealing with guilt. Here we see, Yudhishthir Maharaj is suffering from a severe attack of…

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And if we ourselves have done something wrong, can we still see the resulting situation as Krishna’s plan or is that more on us? Again the same answer, it’s achintya veda ved, yes and no. So it is that we can say that if you are driving on the road and the GPS tells us…

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Hare Krishna? Okay, so we talked about plans, Prabhu, so when something goes wrong in our life, when something bad happens, is it still Krishna’s plan? Yes and no. Basically, we can say that Prabhupada translated this as Sasyanvito Rajan. In Bhishma’s prayer, he says everything is within Krishna’s plan. And there’s a big difference…

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To see notes, click here Hare Krishna. So I’m grateful to be here with all of you today. And I seek the blessings of all the pro bodh disciples and senior devotees so that I can speak something on the Bhagavatam. I’m especially grateful for the overwhelming participation and appreciation for yesterday’s session. I have…

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The section of Bhagavatam, which is basically introducing us to the characters. Bhagavatam, as we know, is a conversation between Parikshit Maharaj and Shukdev Goswami. And this conversation, the Bhagavatam’s conversation actually begins the core conversation begins from the second canto. It goes to the around twelve point four. So that is the conversation. Now…

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The section of Bhagavatam, which is basically introducing us to the characters. Bhagavatam, as we know, is a conversation between Parikshit Maharaj and Shukdev Goswami. And this conversation, the Bhagavatam’s conversation actually begins the core conversation begins from the second canto. It goes to the around twelve point four. So that is the conversation. Now…

The post Should heads of state promote their religion? A Vedic perspective | Gainesville | Bhagavatam 1.17.8 appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Question: When we do some activity repeatedly, like drinking or taking drugs, we get addicted to it. But as students, we study for 20, 15, 20 years, why do we never get addicted to studying? Answer Addiction or even for that matter, it’s milder version attachment, is not just a result of repetition. Repetition is…

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Why did mother Sita enter into the earth rather than be united? Be united with Ram when he finally called her back? Answer, ultimately these are pastimes that are meant to function at two levels, their loving reciprocations between the Lord and His devotees, which work according to the Lord’s divine desire for His pleasure…

The post Why did Sita return to the earth rather than reunite with Rama when her sons met him? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Should we aspire for the ecstatic symptoms that are described as characteristics of pure love for Krishna at our stage, or should we aspire just for the removal of anarthas that are troubling us right now? As devotees, we certainly want to develop love for Krishna, and whatever is obstructing us in developing that love…

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Question, how much should devotees read non-devotional books? Answer, there is no should over here. Sri Prabhupada didn’t really present Krishna Consciousness as a rigid set of do’s and don’ts. He focused more on helping us develop Krishna Consciousness. And our primary reading should be reading of Shastra, so that we can become convinced about…

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Question, when we care deeply for someone and have prayed for that person and have seen magic happen in their life, if they suddenly turn upon us and say, what have you ever done for me? How do we respond, especially when prayers are invisible and when we are a sensitive person? Answer, it’s distressing,…

The post If a person for whom we have prayed a lot with magical results suddenly claims that we have done nothing for them, how can we respond? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

We often condemn material pleasures, saying that these are unsatisfactory. But then we hear in scripture that even spiritual happiness never really satisfies the heart in the sense that the devotee is always wanting more and more, just as materialists want more and more. So how is the spiritual dissatisfaction different from material dissatisfaction? The…

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Question, in the Bhagavad Gita conclusion, Krishna talks about those who share his message, those who study his message and those who hear his message, how all of them are benefited. Do all of them get the same benefit and how can we ensure that we don’t choose the easier option instead of the tougher…

The post When Krishna offers multiple levels to connect with him how to avoid the tendency to connect at the easiest level? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Question, what is the Bhagavad Gita perspective on the concept of informational obesity where people have a lot of information but that simply loads their brain just as too much food can load the body? Answer, to some extent this is a distinctively modern problem because it is now that we have access to so…

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Why are some people more inclined to spirituality than others? Answer, there can be broadly three reasons. The first is centered on their past life experiences. Experiences, while some people may or may not believe in the idea of a previous life and that whatever we experienced in a previous life has an effect on…

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How to respond to agnostics who say that God can’t be known? Question, how do we respond to an agnostic who says that God is unknowable? Answer, three steps. First is, based on that very philosophy, that if one is agnostic truly, then maybe one can be agnostic about one’s agnosticism also. That means, if…

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Is it that when we criticize someone, their bad karma gets transferred to us, and if we exaggerate while criticizing, then our good karma gets transferred to them? Answer, karma is a very complicated concept, as Krishna explains, gahana karma nogati. At one level, the essential implication is very logical and essential, that we are…

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Question, how much should we accept the things that are not in our control, especially when it is we who have made some terrible mistake, maybe someone else pushed us or triggered us or even doing something wrong, but we cannot blame that person alone, we are also responsible. And additionally, we feel some regret….

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