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Answer Podcast

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The post ​How does destiny affect our life’s ups and downs – how is it affected by our spiritual practice? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

The post Daily Darshan: April 19th, 2016 appeared first on Mayapur.com.

Harinama at Broadbeach (Gold Coast, in Queensland, Australia) - 17 April 2016 (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: As far as possible, therefore, the devotees in the Krishna consciousness movement gather to chant the holy name of Krishna in public so that both the chanters and the listeners may benefit. (Sri-Caitanya-Caritamrta, Antya-lila 1.101)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/D0mtbo

Harinama in Barnaul, Russia 4/17/16 (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: The Hare Krishna movement is present in every millennium of Lord Brahma’s life, and the holy name is chanted in all the higher planetary systems, including Brahmaloka and Candraloka, not to speak of Gandharvaloka and Apsaroloka. The sankirtana movement that was started in this world five hundred years ago by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is therefore not a new movement. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 2.7.15 Purport)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/A0c5eZ

Initiation ceremony for 150 devotees during the auspicious day of Ekadasi, 17 April 2016, at ISKCON Mira Road (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: The Hare Krishna movement is also an incarnation of Krishna in the form of the holy name. Every one of us who is actually afraid of the asuric rulers and politicians must welcome this incarnation of Krishna. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 10.3.21 Purport)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/n37gM3

It is natural that at some point in our lives we ask, "Why is there suffering?" Or "Why am I not happy?" "Why can't we simply go on with life and not undergo so many trials and tribulations? Why can't God make a universe or world where there is no suffering?" Well, my answer to that is He already has, but we are simply in the wrong one. Let me explain it a little more fully. First of all, we are all spiritual beings within material bodies. Most people at least understand that much. But that is also where the trouble begins. As soon as you are enclosed in a material body and interact with the material energy, you are going to experience various aspects of worldly existence which may not be the most pleasant. According to your interpretation of the experience, based on the dictates of the senses and mind, some of these incidents may be appealing and some will be less than desirable, or even appear to be troublesome to the extreme. Continue reading "Why is There Suffering?
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April 19. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami: Cutting the Knot of Ignorance and Illusion.
Speaking vigorously in the Bowery loft, even until he becomes physically exhausted – sometimes shouting, sometimes pleading, sometimes laughing – he gives his audience as much as he feels they can take. As the emissary of Krishna in the disciplic succession, he can boldly shout that everyone should dovetail with the Supreme. He can speak as strongly as he likes for as long as they are willing to listen. He is a sadhu (the Sanskrit word means “saint” and “one who cuts”) and he repeats the same message that for thousands of years sadhus of the original Vedic culture have spoken. He is reviving the eternal spirit of Vedic wisdom – to cut the knots of ignorance and illusion.
Everything is illusion. From the beginning of our birth. And that illusion is so strong it is very difficult to get out of. The whole thing is illusion. Birth is illusion. The body is illusion. The bodily relationship and the country are illusion. The father is illusion. The mother is illusion. The wife is illusion. The children are illusion. Everything is illusion. And we are contacting that illusion, thinking we are very learned and advanced. We are imagining so many things. But as soon as death comes – the actual fact – then we forget everything. We forget our country. We forget our relatives. We forget our wife, children, father, mother. Everything is gone.
To read the entire article click here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=20490&page=7

Cutting the Knot of Ignorance and Illusion

The first vilāsa of Haribhakti Vilāsa explains quite a bit about the qualities of a guru.

It begins with the most essential, core quality… HBV 1.35 quotes the Upaniṣads, “tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet…” The essential qualifications of the guru is…:

1) to personify the conclusions of the Vedas, 

2) to be expert in explaining those conclusions, 

3) and to be fully dedicated to pursuit of those conclusions.

HBV 38-40 give more details about important qualities of a true guru, quoting from Mantra-Muktāvalī. The guru…:

1) has a pure lineage (referring to the parampara more than the birth family)

2) is pure (isn’t blamable for serious things)

3) is dutiful (doesn’t abandon their responsibilities)

4) is “in āśrama” (may clarify #3, and/or may mean that they pursue spirituality)

5) gives up anger

6) is very knowledgable

7) knows every śāstra

8) is faithful/convinced (of śāstra’s conclusions)

9) does not hate or envy anyone

10) speaks with endearment/ pleasantly (“is nice to hear”)

11) is pleasant in gesture and body language (“is nice to see”)

12) is clean / honest / innocent

13) dresses well (i.e. makes endeavor to please others by appearance)

14) is youthful (may also mean “young”! May also mean youthful-spirit)

15) loves to help every creature

16) is pensive, introspective, intellectual

17) humble character

18) is content

19) is not selfish

20) is deliberate and careful

21) has other good character traits (forgiveness, etc.)

22) worships 

23) resolute (follows through on intentions and conclusions)

24) is respectful

25) is like a mother or father to students

HBV 41 suggests that a guru must instruct the disciple using a balance of both praise and correction.

HBV 42-44 quote Agastya-Saṁhitā about the guru’s qualifications. The guru…:

1) worships divinity

2) is peaceful

3) has no interest in external objects of pleasure

4) understands spirituality

5) can explain the Veda

6) expertly understands the meaning of the Veda

7) both corrects and encourages as appropriate

8) is dedicated to spirituality

9) understands reality

10) understands the true essence of things, understands the heart

11) understands mysteries and secrets

12) can perform rites and rituals with perfect mantra

13) understands how to accomplish things (how to accomplish “yoga”)

14) is minimalist and spartan in personal habits

15) speaks only the truth

16) maintains a household

HBV 45-46 quote Viṣṇu Smṛti, explaining that even if someone has all these qualifications, they shouldn’t go out looking for disciples or advertise themselves. They must only accept disciples out of compassion for and affection for the students.

HBV 47-55 clarify that for Vaiṣṇava dīkṣa the most important qualification is that the guru recieves a Viṣṇu mantra from a proper lineage, and uses that mantra faithfully to worship Viṣṇu.

In his comment on HBV 54, Śrīla Sanātana Goswāmī quotes the pañcarātra stating that it is advisable to reject dīkṣa from a person who is not a Vaiṣṇava, and take the opportunity to receive dīkṣa from one who is. 

HBV 56-58 quote Tattva-Sāgara to illustrate additional circumstance in which it is not advisable to accept a person as guru, or in which is may be advisable to reject the guru. These may be taken as evidence that the person is not truly a Vaiṣṇava. This is when the guru…:

1) desires excessive sex and other greeds for external pleasures

2) espouses mundane philosophies justifying vile behavior devoid of good character

3) pursues behavior not fit for their āśrama – which could be evidenced in physical ways like their becoming too hairless or hairy (a gṛhastha being too renounced or a tyāgi becoming too opulent), and/or in their developing bad teeth, discolored lips and bad breath.

4) becomes full of bad traits (lying, stealing, anger, hatred, etc.)

5) who accepts donations even though already well-off  

HBV 59-72 clarify that a guru can also refuse to accept, or can reject a disciple under circumstances where the disciple displays refusal to learn, etc. In fact, if a guru does not reject such people, it is evidence that the guru wants the prestige of having many disciples, and is a sign that the guru is fallen.

HBV 73 – 78 clarify that a guru must not accept a disciple before the two of them actually live together for one to three years and mutually decide on their compatibility.

As I see it, if a person has all the above qualifications, they are a perfectly qualified guru and it would be extremely easy to be a very good disciple of such a person. Therefore we should try to find a guru with all the qualities, or at least a great many of them. The core property (as evidenced by the Upaniṣad quote at the outset) is a very clear understanding of the Veda, and ability to clearly explain that. Without this core quality, even with the other qualities, a person is not qualified to be guru.

Thus, the main quality of a guru is the ability to explain the Vedas and clear up doubts various people will have about their conclusions and meanings.

Vraja Kishor das

www.vrajakishor.com

Tagged: diksa, diksha, Guru, initiation, reinitiation

Srila Prabhupada instituted the daily Srimad Bhagavatam class as an essential pillar for ISKCON’s preaching movement. He also left us with many instructions on how we can best benefit from this class. The importance of hearing properly from proper sources is always emphasized by Srila Prabhupada. The first duty, of someone who wants to get the right information in the right way, is to select a proper speaker to hear from: “Therefore, first one should select a competent and bona fide speaker and then hear from him.” (SB 1.8.36). However, we see many different types of speakers of all kinds in ISKCON temples and, because many devotees remain unaware of the necessary qualifications for selecting a speaker for Srimad Bhagavatam class, they may fail to select speakers of the appropriate standard. So, in order to remind everyone of Srila Prabhupada's merciful instructions on this matter, here are some references to inform their decisions on who exactly should be selected to speak to the assembled devotees in ISKCON temples. Many devotees may be surprised at the standard required. Continue reading "Who Should Give Bhagavatam Class?
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To become knowledgeable just for the sake of being learned, will look poor if such raw jnana is not balanced by practical experience – vijnana. In Krishna consciousness, it is not what we know, but what we understand, and how we apply such understanding to our daily lives. “Taking a straw between my teeth and falling at your feet a hundred times, I humbly submit, “O great personality, please give up all mundane knowledge that you have learned and just submit yourself at the lotus feet of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’ (Prabhodhananda Sarasvati – Chaitanya Candamrta). One may protest that learning in Krishna consciousness cannot be mundane in any way. True. But if our learning makes us proud and brittle, and prejudiced against ‘lesser’ devotees, then our learning becomes mundane because it causes us to act in mundane ways. Continue reading "Too Proud To Hear
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In the interactions between the Lord and His devotees, both relish the highest happiness. Bhagavad-gita and other scriptures praise Arjuna for his close relationship with Krishna. Arjuna is known for his mood of friendship (sakha-bhava). Since relationships are by definition reciprocal, not only is Arjuna known as Krishna’s friend, but Krishna is known as Arjuna’s friend. Krishna drove Arjuna’s chariot and is therefore called Partha-sarathi, the “charioteer of Partha.” This name shows Krishna’s special relationship with His devotee Arjuna. Continue reading "Exchanges Of Love
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The amazing Bharatpur Ratha-yatra and other adventures!
Krishna-kripa das: I could write a whole article just about all the different items they gave us to eat or drink during the course of the procession. There were bottles of water and bags of water. There was a mango drink. There was an amazing red lassi that tasted like rose water, and there was another lassi as well. There were bags of a papaya shake. There were little cups of khichri. And there were three kinds of ice cream. There were also sweet balls. I have a feeling there were probably more things too, but that is all I can remember. You definitely did not have to worry about being hungry or thirsty during the Ratha-yatra procession.
To read the entire article click here: http://goo.gl/VUWM0n

Ahmedabad Rathayatra (Album with photos)
Deena Bandhu Das: Last week, we took part in one of two Rathayatra festivals that are celebrated by ISKCON Ahmedabad in honor of the 19th Anniversary of the Temple Opening. This was actually the 20th Rath Festival of ISKCON Ahmedabad. Relish this very colorful and lively event through the pics of Vittalrukmini!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/vTP3ub

Varnasrama series.

The post Final Q & A in Moscow (Russian/English) appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Sunday lecture in Moscow.

The post Giving everything to Prabhupada and ISKCON (English/Russian) appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Harinama in Smila, Ukraine (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Chanting the holy name is the chief means of attaining love of Godhead. This chanting or devotional service does not depend on any paraphernalia, nor on ones having taken birth in a good family. By humility and meekness one attracts the attention of Krishna. That is the verdict of all the Vedas. (Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, 4.71 purport)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/e9cjrz

TOVP updates (Album with photos)
Sadbhuja Das: Here’s some of the latest happenings at our GRC/ GRG factory: The production of the segments which will support the kalashes, on top of the domes, and a successful first sample of GRG (glass reinforced gypsum).
Find them here: https://goo.gl/vAiHSL

Sravan Kirtan Camp (Album with photos)
A Sravana kirtana camp was organized in the holy dham of Sri Rangam on 14th -17th April 2016. As this period also included the Tamil New Year (a public holiday in Tamil Nadu) and Sri Rama Navami, there was a sizeable crowd of about 500 registered persons. Besides Tamil Nadu there were also attendees from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and UAE. Daily Kirtana sessions were ecstatic with hundred of devotees packing the program hall and roaring the mahamantra for over an hour. Nagara sankirtan was also organized where Krsna conscious literature was distributed to passers-by.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/U0aZZM

The 2nd Vaisnava Film Awards Festival (THIRD of four parts) (13 min video)
The 2nd Vaisnava Film Awards Festival in Mayapur took place on 18, 19, and 20th March 2016.
Seventeen golden Nityananda Awards were granted to recipients of special achievements and lifetime achievements, in an exciting 90 minutes ceremony, on the stage of Mayapur Festival’s main entertainments pandal.
Ground-breaking new videos were shown, each before it’s respective producer/director was honored by this rare event’s formal recognition.
No doubt this 2nd Award’s Festival is setting a trend that is likely to perdure and grow in popularity in ISKCON. So is the wish of organiser Nrsimhananda Das of Iskcon Television, who was assisted this year by Vasudeva Das, of BhakTV and VANDE (Vaisnava Arts For A New Devotional Era).
The Awards Night was filmed by Subuddhi Ray Das, and edited with the original HD clips by Vasudeva Das.
Watch it here: https://goo.gl/0Rhh7K

Ramayana theater in Bhaktivedanta Manor (Album with photos)
Bhaktivedanta Players: Another successful drama performed..
No matter how many times we do this play crowds just can’t get enough of it. Jai Sri Rama!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/AM3tO2

Historic Times! (Album with photos)
Indradyumna Swami: It was an action packed weekend as the Beijing devotees opened their new temple, we did an initiation ceremony and then held kirtan at the famous Great Wall of China. Historic times for Krsna consciousness in the Land of the Great Red Dragon. Srila Prabhupada, we are your servants. We will go anywhere in the 3 worlds to serve you!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/BQ32jz

April 18. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami: Dovetailing With the Supreme Consciousness.
The Swami’s main stress is on what he calls “dovetailing your consciousness with the Supreme Consciousness”… Krishna is the Supreme Consciousness. Arjuna, as the representative individual consciousness, is asked to act intelligently in collaboration with the Supreme Consciousness, then he will be free from the bondage of birth, death, old age and disease.
Consciousness is a popular word in America. There’s consciousness expansion, cosmic consciousness, altered states of consciousness, and now – dovetailing the individual consciousness with the Supreme Consciousness. This is the perfection of consciousness, Prabhupada explains. This is the love and peace that everyone is really after. And yet, Prabhupada talks of it in terms of war.
So we shall not suffer a pinch if we dovetail our desires with the Supreme Lord. We simply have to learn the art – how to dovetail. Nothing has to be changed. The fighting man did not change into an artist or a musician. If you are a fighting man, you remain a fighting man. If you are a musician, you remain a musician. If you are a medical man, you remain a medical man. Whatever you are, you remain. But dovetail it. If by my eating the Lord is satisfied, then that is my perfection. If by my fighting the Lord is satisfied, then that is my perfection. So in every sphere of life, we have to know whether the Lord is satisfied. That technique we have to learn. Then it is as easy as anything. We have to stop creating our own plans and thoughts and take the perfect plans from the Supreme Lord and execute them. That will become the perfection of our life.
To read the entire article click here: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=20490&page=7

Dovetailing With the Supreme Consciousness

Many temples in ISKCON celebrate Rama Navami, the appearance of Lord Rama, not only on the actual anniversary day but on a second or even third day that is more convenient to the public.

New Govardhana and Brisbane temples celebrated the Lord’s appearance on Saturday and Sunday and many hundreds of devotees and guests were able to participate in the festivities.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 25 April 2015, Radhadesh, Belgium, Lecture at Cultural Festival)

What does it mean to follow the mood of the spiritual master? I think, it means that whatever is really important and essential to the spiritual master, that should also be essential to the disciple. Not that we become cat copies of our spiritual master – that is the last thing you want to see.

It is not about becoming exactly the same. It is about being different but appreciating that the spiritual master is highlighting certain things on the way back to the spiritual world which are important to us. Not that we want everyone to approach these things in the same way because we have different natures but still, whatever is important to the spiritual master must be noted.

We all are eternally unique personalities, with our own unique natures and our own unique relationships with Krsna. Everyone has his own unique feature in serving Krsna.

Just like when I went out with Vaisesika, the super book distributor, he noted my techniques of focusing on people who were already stationary rather than standing in the middle of the street and flagging people down which is so passionate that I do not like it.

So everyone has a different approach but in the bigger picture, we do the same thing. We are serving within Lord Caitanya’s mission because it is the yuga dharma, and somehow or the other, we are part of that. We are serving Prabhupada’s movement and trying to fulfill his desire because he is the founder acharya and these things are important to all of us.

Varnasrama series.

The post Continuing discussion with Russian National Council reps (English/Russian) appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Dear Prabhuji/ Mataji,

Please accept my humble dandavats. All glories to Sri Guru & Gauranga.

I am a 10 year practitioner of Krishna Consciousness and over the last decade, I have built an impressive collection of Gaudiya Vaisnava Books of all genres – be it biographies of saints, Puranas, Commentaries on texts like Srimad Bhagavatam, Chaitanya Charitamrta, Bhagavad Gita etc. to geographical books such as the detailed explanation of various places in dhamas like Vrindavan, Jagannath Puri, Mayapur etc. Find the list here: http://dandavats.com/wp-content/uploads5/Book_Database.xlsx

Almost 85% of the books in my collection are new and well-preserved. I want to sell this entire collection so that I can build a Goshala in Kolkata, the birth-place of Srila Prabhupada. The area where I propose to build a Goshala does not have even water-drinking facilities for local cows, let alone grass or food. The area has more than 500 cows and it is sad to see them suffer. Presently, I have made stop-gap arrangements for them to eat grass and drink clean water but this model is not sustainable and I want to build a solid structure where not only will I be able to service these cows outside but also adopt about 20 cows.

Kindly note that I do NOT want a donation. I want to give the books (the Catalogue is attached) and I expect a sum of INR 2 lacs for this entire collection. Please note that the boxes contain about 75 small, new, interesting books which I have not listed in the Catalogue. If the books have to be shipped within India or abroad, the shipping cost will have to be borne by the buyer. Also, the payment is to be made in cash or by any method where I can receive cash of Rs. 2 lacs.

I sincerely hope that you can help:-

a – Your self by possessing a great collection of books

b – Hundreds of mother cows and calves by contributing indirectly towards their cause.

Sincerely,
Adhiraj Didwania
+919830479263

Ipswich Ratha Yatra Queensland Australia (Album with photos)
The devotees from the Bhakti Centre Gold Coast, Brisbane and New Govardhan joined together to hold the first Ipswich Ratha Yatra as part of the Ipswich Festival of Lights street parade. Ipswich is a city 40 kilometres south west of Brisbane in Queensland Australia. Thousands of people lined the streets and had darshan of Lord Jaganatha, Lord Baladeva and Lady Subhadra.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/xKW7Uj and here: https://goo.gl/hFwkSt

We will be closed Anzac weekend. Sunday 24th April and Monday 25th April See you again for Yoga & dinner Tuesday 26th April!

The post Closed on Anzac Sunday & Monday, 24 & 25 April appeared first on The Loft Yoga Lounge Auckland.

Of all the sixty four arts practiced by the gopis and in the vedic culture, among the topmost if not _the_ topmost, is singing. Krishna learned how to sing in the _kula_ of Sandipani Muni. Students of Indian classical music now spend twenty or thirty years learning how to sing. It is not a question of simply mouthing the words even though "loud and clear" (although that, by itself, is not completely devoid of merit). It best requires some bhava, devotional emotion (which one can hear Prabhupada's voice suffused with). Or at least knowledge and obedience to the standards. If there is no one else present with any devotional idea, then any sincere devotee present, even though his voice may be completely untrained, should sing rather than any professional style singer present lacking a true devotional attitude. Besides the matter of the high philosophical contents of the prayer being sung, there is the matter of the singing being an offering to the deities. Just as there is the injunction (in Nectar of Devotion) that no-one can touch the deity other than a properly initiated person, singing should also be done by someone who has properly understood the purpose of the Krishna consciousness movement. In other words he should be a true devotee. Continue reading "Significance of performing/attending mangal aroti
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By Ravindra Svarupa dasa

Doubt is the motor of the modern mentality, the indefatigable engine that drives the spirit of our age. Such doubt was honored with an early recognition in the essays of the Renaissance courtier Michel de Montaigne: “We are, I know not how, double within ourselves, with the result that we do not believe what we believe, and we cannot rid ourselves of what we condemn.”

During Montaigne’s time, religious wars of unbearable cruelty rent Europe. The absolute certainty of the raging antagonists began to taint conviction itself with bad odor. But Montaigne saw deeper. He descried the doubleness within the very certitude of the religious partisans. He recognized their zeal as a kind of cover up, overcompensation for a hidden, an unacknowledged, lack of faith: “We do not believe what we believe.”

In modern times, disbelief has so far entered into the essence of our existence, that both faithlessness and faith have become fundamentally two varieties of faithlessness.

It is the secret unbelief of true believers that energizes the armies of the night in Mathew Arnold’s poem of 1867:

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

William Butler Yeats delivers the ominous news in his prophetic, apocalyptic 1919 poem “The Second Coming”:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Others, of course, celebrated unbelief—it bestows liberation—and proselytized it. Leave it to Friedrich Nietzsche to push it as a jagged little pill: “Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.” (Aphorism 483, Human, All Too Human: 1878 )

So it happened that, as a child of the times, and all too human, I swallowed the pill. I served at the altar of doubt. Unbelief became my credo.

It took half a dozen years in academia for me to recognize that unbelief—skepticism, relativism, nihilism—had itself become dogma. Departments of religion were pledging themselves en masse to the hermeneutics of suspicion. To confess any conviction other than mistrust of all convictions was to court anathema.

All joined in choir to hymn unwavering faith in faithlessness. This dogmatism began to rankle me. Something was wrong. I brooded, irritably.

And then, my breakthrough: We doubters were failing at doubt. We had failed to take our doubt far enough. If we are going to be thoroughly skeptical, then we must be also skeptical about our own skepticism. If all things are relative, then so must be our relativism itself.

I stated my case at an informal religion department gathering.

“You must feel like you’re walking a tightrope over an abyss,” responded a fellow grad student, only recently a nun.
“Yeah, but I’m not sure there’s a rope either,” I said. Everyone laughed.

Let us be bold enough to remove the very ground we stand on and miraculously levitate on nothing.

And so we come full circle. Doubting our own doubting, we find a surprise awaiting us: a tiny crack opens for the possibility of faith.

Just the possibility. Even less—just the openness to the possibility.

This turns out to be a crack even God can squeeze through.

One thing led to another. Several years after the manifestation of the crack, I joined—to my permanent amazement—a high-demand “organized religion.” A religion committed to preaching. Labeled by one academic as “evangelical Hinduism.” (For a systematically misleading expression, this is spot on.)

Then came a time, fifteen or twenty years later, that I realized that I was utterly and completely certain that, as they say, “God exists.” (For a systematically misleading expression, this is spot on.) I did not merely hold that a feasible case for divine existence could be made, that “God exists” can be reasonably affirmed, that the assertion is true with (of course) the possibility that it just might be false. Not at all. I was absolutely, totally certain.

This upset me.

I’m still a modern person. I assailed my own conviction: How could I be so sure? What right did I have to be so certain? How was it possible? How was I entitled to such a degree of certitude? What was wrong with me?

I attacked my own faith, and it repelled my assaults. I couldn’t shake it. It was as if it were simply there of its own accord, an irrevocable fact; it really didn’t depend upon me.

I put the matter before some judicious devotees. “It’s Kṛṣṇa’s causeless mercy,” said one. “It’s a gift,” said another. A Ph.D. who once taught Christian theology to divinity students, she cited the distinction between certainty and certitude.

These conversations relieved me of my anxiety and allowed me to accept the gift wholeheartedly.

Yet—not to look the gift horse in the mouth—I found myself still impelled to understand better what I had been given.

I began my inquiry with this question: Is there anything at all that every person can be absolutely certain of? The question, of course, summoned me back to the origins of modernity, to the very “father of modern philosophy,” Rene Descartes, who turned Montaigne’s doubt into a methodology. Sweeping away, in his Discourse on Method, everything dubitable, he was left with only his own indubitable existence as a cognizant being. He could doubt everything except that he was doubting. Cogito, ergo sum, he famously wrote: “I think, therefore I am.” Descartes explained that by “thought” he meant “what happens in me such that I am immediately conscious of it, insofar as I am conscious of it.” His own existence as a conscious subject was absolutely certain.

Here I got my own clue and cue: Start, like Descartes, with myself.

But in this, it seemed to me, I was able to be more clear that Descartes. To “start with myself” means, to be precise, to start with ātman, the conscious self.

We commonly use the English “soul” or “spirit soul” to denote the same entity, but without the same clear meaning. The Sanskrit word ātman (in the root form) or ātmā (in the nominative singular), is a noun meaning “the self.” (The same word also serves as the reflexive pronoun, the “-self” in words denoting myself, yourself, herself, etc.)

When I take note, as Descartes did, of my own consciousness, I understand that I am aware, at least to some degree, of the ātman, of myself as a conscious, experiencing living being, now bearing and animating a certain material body and mind.

For two decades preceding my own Cartesian investigation, I’d been engaged in spiritual practices amounting to researching of ātman. To try to understand my own certitude about God, I began to reflect upon those practices.

Ātma–tattva, the science of the self, like any science, presents itself first as a theory, as kind of picture, or conceptual map, of spiritual reality. A theory, like a map, is the fruit of the experience of previous researchers, prepared as a guide for later explorers. The only purpose of theory is to guide practice, just as a road map is drawn up to facilitate a successful automobile journey.

Ātma–tattva also includes practical instructions on how to undertake the spiritual journey, how to use the map correctly. It is, in this way, an applied science dedicated to the clarification and expansion of consciousness.

We do not find any enterprise like this in modern Western philosophy. Modern philosophy certainly speculates endlessly about consciousness and experience, about knowledge and the knower and the known, but it has lost the applied element so prominent in the ancient classical traditions of Pythagoras, Parmenides, and Plato. There is now no distinctive “philosophical way of life.” It’s just another job.

I had taken up a tradition from India, yet it returned me to the very foundations of Western philosophy. When I recognized this, I felt that I’d come back home.

The applied knowledge, the spiritual way of life, requires a commitment to a relatively rigorous and demanding discipline. This is called yoga. The discipline is required to remove the material veil so that one can attain direct experience of spiritual reality: of the ātmā, the self, and of paramātmā, the superself or God.

The necessity for such a disciplined life is stated succinctly in Bhagavad-gītā (14.17): spiritual knowledge depends on goodness, on sattva. If our awareness is covered by the material modes of passion (raja-guṇa) and ignorance (tamo–guṇa) we will not be capable of direct perception of ātmā and paramātmā. Therefore, we who undertake this project live a regulated and radically simple life designed to minimize the demands of the senses, to decrease lust, anger, greed, and so on.

Modern materialistic culture fosters values and activities that expand the modes of passion and of ignorance, so it is necessary to insulate oneself from its influence. Spiritual culture has the contrary aim of developing goodness and reducing passion and ignorance.

After several decades of practice in ātma–tattva, the science of the self, my own consciousness had become somewhat clarified and expanded. I had gained at least some awareness of my own spiritual identity, and, along with that, of God.

A master of yoga named Kavi has stated (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 11.2.42) that for one practicing properly, three things develop simultaneously: devotion, direct perception of God, and detachment from everything else. This happens in the same natural way that for a person who is eating, satisfaction, nourishment, and relief from hunger increase together with every bite.

In the yoga discipline, the practitioner realizes his or her own identity as ātmā and also encounters God initially as paramātmā, as the interior, guiding superself, the self of all selves. In this experience we find the Cartesian key. For knowing God, the paramātmā, is something like knowing our own self. Thus the experience engendered total certitude in the experiencer. As one cannot doubt one’s own consciousness, when that same consciousness has expanded somewhat, God becomes known as I know myself, for God is the very self of my self. Then I can no more doubt God’s existence than I can my own.

I can, of course, doubt my experience of objects perceived in this world. It is possible, Descartes noted, that one is being deceived by some evil demon. (Here he anticipated the premise of The Matrix by some four centuries.) Even so, one still cannot be deceived about one’s own consciousness.

Knowledge of God is not like knowledge of the external world, of this table I write on, of the garden outside my window, of the people relaxing in the garden. In this case, I am spirit knowing matter. There is a far more intimate connection between me and God: Not only are ātmā and paramātmā of the same spiritual nature, but ātmā is part and parcel of paramātmā. For this reason, once there is experience of paramātmā, doubting God becomes impossible. After that expansion of consciousness, God remains part of the content of every experience I have. I experience my own being as part of God’s being.

It is not that in this experience, I perceiving something novel, like a new next-door neighbor or the latest cool thing from Apple. Rather, with consciousness purified and expanded, I now perceive what had always be there, merely unnoticed, unrecognized, unacknowledged.

In this state of expanded consciousness, I am aware that I cannot see anything without God’s seeing it first, hear anything without God’s first hearing it, and so on. I cannot doubt God’s seeing and hearing anymore than I can my own.

The experience of ātmā–paramātmā, which renders doubting God’s existence as impossible as doubting one’s own, is evidently not exclusive to my own or historically related traditions. A natural and unwavering certitude concerning God has appeared in advanced practitioners in many theistic traditions. Those traditions may have various theories (theological doctrines) about God and the worshipper, but, so far as I can see, the simplest and soundest explanation for the experienced certitude of advanced practitioners everywhere is found in the understanding of ātmā–paramātmā.

We can also conclude that we are made for belief, for conviction. There is no way around it.

Herein lies the foundation, I propose, for authentic conviction, for conviction arising from the opening up of the self. Without that, we seem contemned to verify Montaigne’s observation: “We are, I know not how, double within ourselves.” Authentic conviction may serve as antidote to the current global wars between modes of doubleness: Militant belief born from despair at its own unbelief clashing with militant unbelief born in denial of its own belief.

Hare Krishna Festivals UK - Blissful afternoon chanting Hare Krishna through the streets of Northampton, UK, today. (Album with photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is described as maha-vadanya, the most munificent of charitable persons, because He gives Krishna so easily that one can attain Krishna simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 10.3.38 Purport)
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