Author Archives: Vraja Kishor

“Good fortune to all who have assembled here,” he said. “All of you good people, please listen to me. I will speak because we must disclose our own understandings of dharma when we are in the company of saintly and thoughtful people. “I will speak of my dharma, my duty. You have employed me to…

In Kapila’s discussion with his mother, he explains that the primary inspiration for bhakti comes from realizing one’s true self as a luminous consciousness, and realizing that, like all luminous things, the true self extends from a light-source, a Super-self – “paramātmā.” Recently I was sharing this with a fairly large audience, and someone asked me for a…

Dear Gail, Thank you for bringing up an important discussion about the five factors of action in yesterday’s class. We usually learn about these five factors from Gītā, 18.14 – but here Krishna is summarizing the Saṁkhya given by Kapila, which is in a verse that is in the section I covered during yesterday’s class…

Recently I gave a brief class for the residents of an ISKCON center, during their daily morning spiritual programme. The topic of my class was the nine stages of development in Bhakti-Yoga and how to make sure and steady progress towards the goal: Krishna Prema. When I received feedback about this class, I came to…

You can’t get a taste of something you don’t come into contact with. So first you have to find someone with some significant quantity of divine love. Then you have to try to see things the way that person does, feel things, understand things the way that person does – even if its only for…

You can’t get a taste of something you don’t come into contact with. So first you have to find someone with some significant quantity of divine love. Then you have to try to see things the way that person does, feel things, understand things the way that person does – even if its only for…

There is a very prevalent notion that we will attain self-realization / enlightenment / liberation / Vaikunṭha / Vraja Prema (call it what suits you best) by the mercy of Krishna / Rādhā / Guru / Vaiṣṇava alone. “It’s all up to the mercy of the Lord.” This is wrong. If our enlightenment is up to Krishna,…

There is a very prevalent notion that we will attain self-realization / enlightenment / liberation / Vaikunṭha / Vraja Prema (call it what suits you best) by the mercy of Krishna / Rādhā / Guru / Vaiṣṇava alone. “It’s all up to the mercy of the Lord.” This is wrong. If our enlightenment is up to Krishna,…

Hari Kathā from Vraja Kishor    Sunday, October 25th The Ladies of Hastināpur  ISKCON Towaco Vraja narrates and explains Chapter Ten of Canto One, Bhāgavatam’s first extensive exposition of mādhurya-rasa, and a beautifully vivid explanation of Vedānta delivered through the excited, love-charged chatter of the capitol city’s young maidens. Draws from Vraja’s narrative translation of…

Hari Kathā from Vraja Kishor    Sunday, October 25th The Ladies of Hastināpur  ISKCON Towaco Vraja narrates and explains Chapter Ten of Canto One, Bhāgavatam’s first extensive exposition of mādhurya-rasa, and a beautifully vivid explanation of Vedānta delivered through the excited, love-charged chatter of the capitol city’s young maidens. Draws from Vraja’s narrative translation of…

I recently made a post about the importance of understanding the meaning of a mantra. Among the repies I got these inquiries… I think mantra is not what we vibrate with our mouth because that is purelly a mechanic activity. And hearing a mantra is not about receiving sound waves with eardrums, another mechanic interaction from the…

I recently made a post about the importance of understanding the meaning of a mantra. Among the repies I got these inquiries… I think mantra is not what we vibrate with our mouth because that is purelly a mechanic activity. And hearing a mantra is not about receiving sound waves with eardrums, another mechanic interaction from the…

To greet their king, the citizens decorated each part of his city with strands of pearls and flowers, draped cloth from its golden gateways, and flooded the air with the most wondrously fragrant incense. They washed the roads, squares, and lanes with water infused by sandalwood and agarwood, decorated them with flowers, whole fruits, shoots…

To greet their king, the citizens decorated each part of his city with strands of pearls and flowers, draped cloth from its golden gateways, and flooded the air with the most wondrously fragrant incense. They washed the roads, squares, and lanes with water infused by sandalwood and agarwood, decorated them with flowers, whole fruits, shoots…

Mantras are words. Words are very powerful things, because words contain meaning. Meaning is to consciousness what the calorie is to digestion. Meaning is the thing that consciousness digests and subsists on. “You are what you eat.” As this applies physically to food, it applies psychologically to words. The words you speak and hear create…

Mantras are words. Words are very powerful things, because words contain meaning. Meaning is to consciousness what the calorie is to digestion. Meaning is the thing that consciousness digests and subsists on. “You are what you eat.” As this applies physically to food, it applies psychologically to words. The words you speak and hear create…

It starts with a brief explanation of Cc Adi.1.5, rādhā-kṛṣṇa-praṇaya vikṛti – explaining that Rādhā and Krishna are two facets of a singular reality, not just two people who happened to fall in love. Then Vraja addresses the following wonderful questions: Is it ok to want a relationship with Krishna that isn’t centered on Rādhārānī…

It starts with a brief explanation of Cc Adi.1.5, rādhā-kṛṣṇa-praṇaya vikṛti – explaining that Rādhā and Krishna are two facets of a singular reality, not just two people who happened to fall in love. Then Vraja addresses the following wonderful questions: Is it ok to want a relationship with Krishna that isn’t centered on Rādhārānī…

Vraja reads from and briefly explains his overview of Tattva Sandarbha, just recently published as the introduction to Basic Truths of Gaudiya Philosophy – available at http://vrajakishor.com This installment talks about the goal of life, and the means and result of attaining it. Then it focuses on how to evaluate truth or falsity, reality or…

Vraja reads from and briefly explains his overview of Tattva Sandarbha, just recently published as the introduction to Basic Truths of Gaudiya Philosophy – available at http://vrajakishor.com This installment talks about the goal of life, and the means and result of attaining it. Then it focuses on how to evaluate truth or falsity, reality or…

“What benediction should I ask from you?” He said. “What would a wise person ask from a master who can fulfill any wish?” Viṣṇu might suggest that he imagine the most wonderful thing in the world and ask for it, so Pṛthu explained, “I won’t ask for anything that exists in this world, for all…

“What benediction should I ask from you?” He said. “What would a wise person ask from a master who can fulfill any wish?” Viṣṇu might suggest that he imagine the most wonderful thing in the world and ask for it, so Pṛthu explained, “I won’t ask for anything that exists in this world, for all…

The conqueror of the world, Pṛthu, gratefully bowed his head to receive the orders of the world’s all-powerful teacher, Hari. Amazed by the affection shared between Pṛthu’s and Hari, Indra felt ashamed of what he had done, and bowed to touch the emperor’s feet in apology; but Pṛthu had completely abandoned all his anger, and…

The conqueror of the world, Pṛthu, gratefully bowed his head to receive the orders of the world’s all-powerful teacher, Hari. Amazed by the affection shared between Pṛthu’s and Hari, Indra felt ashamed of what he had done, and bowed to touch the emperor’s feet in apology; but Pṛthu had completely abandoned all his anger, and…

And then, the day finally came. It was inevitable. There seemed no way to become a true Hare Krishna without it. It happened in an empty bathtub, in the bathroom of that small house on the San Diego temple property. Wielding the electric razor was a latin teenage brahmacārī with a Krishna ponytail that would…

Pṛthu would ask, “What is the practical difference between a person who bases their identity on an externalized, false self, and a person who bases their identity on you, the internal root of their self?” Having already explained that people with externalized self-concepts exhaust and frustrate themselves with external endeavors, Viṣṇu now explained the fruits…

You can get Basic Truths of Gaudiya Philosophy right now at vrajakishor.com
Tagged: Gaudiya Vaishnava, gaudiya vaishnavism, Jiva Goswami, sad sandarbha, Tattva Sandarbha

All-Attractive Viṣṇu, the powerful and carefree master and the true objective of all sacrifice, was pleased by Pṛthu’s ceremonies and appeared before the emperor along with powerful Indra. Glancing towards Indra, Viṣṇu said, “Here is the one who disrupted your hundredth horse-sacrifice. He seeks your forgiveness, so I think he deserves it.” “Should I really…

This bit is getting edited out of my memoir, Train-wrecks and Transcendence: My collision of Hardcore and Hare Krishna. I’m editing it out for the sake of brevity and focus, but I don’t want it to just disappear immediately into oblivion, so here it is as a post. Issue Four of Enquirer also published a letter from…

Question: How do we love in the material world in such a way that it does not overshadow our pursuit of real love? I have seen both extremes: people whose “love” for material relationships interferes with their spiritual practice, and people who, supposedly in pursuit of divine love (prema) neglect love in their material relationships. I think you have…

blessed and renowned Pṛthu became very angry at Indra, and took up his bow and arrows. The priests say him rise in a terrible rage to swiftly destroy the Thunder-Wielder, “Oh king of broad intellect!” they protested, “it is declared that if you injure any creature now, your sacrifice will be ruined!” Pṛthu glanced ferociously…

QUESTION: How would Maya devi be knowing how to enslave us to her? Paramatma is in our heart, and therefore knows us perfectly. Does she have access to that, in some way, or does she monitor our behavior, and act to that, or is there some other way i haven’t conceived of? Perhaps you can shed…

Q: As far as I understand, we’re all female by our original position. The only male is Krishna. Does this mean that when we back to Godhead, will we become gopis?    A: Femininity is not a matter of biology or genitalia.  Femininity is a state of being, associated with but not identical to female…

Question: I’ve asked many devotees why they have sikhas and they all don’t seem to know exactly why… is there any scripture behind why? I couldn’t find any. All I found was a bunch of statements as to why without scriptural support. The shikha is a symbol of Vedic culture, a.k.a “Varṇāśrama Dharma.” These days it…

As Vena’s son began the final horse-sacrifice for the Master of Sacrifice, envious Indra stole the sacrificial animal, unseen by anyone. Only powerful Atri could see Indra fleeing into the sky, armored in the disguise of being a spiritualist, thus marring a religious image with an immoral deed. Atri showed Pṛthu’s son what was going…

On the eastern course of River Sarasvatī is Manu’s sacred field, Brahmāvarta. There, King Pṛthu began performing one hundred horse-sacrifice rituals. Indra was the only other person who had successfully done this before. When he heard what Pṛthu was doing, he could not tolerate the possibility that someone else might excel his ritualistic accomplishments. Indeed,…

Seeing her fulfilling everyone’s desires with her milk, Emperor Pṛthu fell in love with the Earth Goddess. But since he had taken her milk, she seemed like a mother to him, and it felt wrong to express his love in a romantic way. Even then, since he had threatened to punish her, it also felt…

It dawns on me now just how often I spoke and wrote about the concept that “I am not this body” [during the early 1990s] – following the lead of the vast, vast majority of Hare Krishna devotees I looked up to. Oddly, Vedic texts don’t exactly present this idea in so many words. They…

This continues from the previous section, where the Earth Goddess told King Pṛthu to end the famine and drought by mystically “milking” her. The king, protector of the earth, was delighted by her helpful wisdom. For the calf, he brought forth the original lord of humanity– evoking the Goddess’ compassion for humans. For the pot,…