New Mayapur – France and the mighty kofta
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Hare KrishnaBy Ajita Dasa

New Mayapur has been tested by the usual lack of resources and succession. Incidentally, New Mayapur, situated in central France, 350km south of Paris, is the last place where Srila Prabhupada’s quarters are kept intact in the European continent. Being somewhat similar to New Govardhana in its history, in 2013 the France GBC requested that I help with the New Mayapur project. I started travelling there two or three times a year, for three to four weeks at a time. The New Mayapur management team secured a stall at a five-day festival in Bourges, 140km west of the project. This was the first testing ground for the famous Australian kofta arriving in the ‘land of fries’. The menu remained exactly the same as the catering menu Australians here love so much – the French dove into the nectar rather than turning up their noses! Continue reading "New Mayapur – France and the mighty kofta
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Two Seeds that Grew in Iron
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Hare KrishnaBy Urmila Devi Dasi

One day in an Armenian mountain village, a typically atheistic engineer, a man well respected in his community, sat outside for a smoke. When a truck came to deliver a package, he and his friend the truck driver talked about news from the city. As the driver carried the package to the engineer’s house, the engineer saw an unusual book in the truck: a Russian translation of Sri Ishopanishad. Curious, he picked it up. He looked at the photo of Srila Prabhupada on the back and thought, “How amazing that there is someone like this living on this planet!” Then he spontaneously fell on the ground to offer obeisance to the photo. Continue reading "Two Seeds that Grew in Iron
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Bhagavad Gita Distribution at Cox’s Bazar District Prison in Bangladesh: Dark Life to Light Horizon
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Hare KrishnaBy Mukunda Bhakti Das

Dark life in the locked cell of prison is really a hellish experience. Prisoners remain repentant on the misdeeds of their past lives and fully frustrated thinking on dark future. But Bhagavad Gita can bring a horizon of light and hope in their life as it describes that this material world is also a jail with continuous miseries headed by Birth-Death-Oldage-Disease and by worshipping and satisfying Lord Krishna, the President of whole creation, we can get a nice lifestyle free of sinful activities and break free of this prison of Material world. That is why on 25th May, 2018 Friday, Srimad Bhagavad Gita and Krishna Prasad were distributed among prisoners of Cox's Bazar Central Jail under the supervision of the Chittagong Divisional Committee of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in collaboration with Sri Sri Radha Damodar Mandir , Cox's Bazar. Divisional Secretary of ISKCONChittagong H.G. Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari was present as the chief guest at the Gita Distribution Ceremony. Continue reading "Bhagavad Gita Distribution at Cox’s Bazar District Prison in Bangladesh: Dark Life to Light Horizon
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A Spiritual Masterpiece
Giriraj Swami

Every day during the auspicious Purusottama month, I read the fifteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita, “Purusottama-yoga”—“The Yoga of the Supreme Person,” in which the seventh verse is one of the most significant.

mamaivamso jiva-loke 
jiva bhutah sanatanah 
manah sasthanindriyani 
prakrti-sthani karsati

“The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.”

I found Srila Prabhupada’s purport to be both thorough and profound—a spiritual masterpiece and work of genius—and wished that other devotees could similarly contemplate its liberating depth and beauty.

Hare Krishna.

Yours in service,
Giriraj Swami

Varnashrama in bhakti – Focus on replicating the take-off, not recreating the take-off point
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[Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Chowpatty, Mumbai, India]

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Srila Prabhupada: “Gossip! It will Destroy this Movement”
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“Gossip! It will Destroy this Movement”
Melbourne Temple, 14 Burnett Street, St. Kilda, Thursday, 6 April 1972
‘Behind Srila Prabhupada’s room was a tiny, two-metre square kitchenette. There, each day, Citralekha would prepare rasagullas for Prabhupada, who ate the sweets daily with his breakfast. Around mid-morning, Upendra would start to prepare Prabhupada’s lunch.


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Seeking Benefit
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We all seek some sort of benefit or favor. There are two distinct ways.

One way is solely by using our physical strength, mental acumen. intelligence quotient, money, resources, relationships and networks. In this, there is no trace of Krishna.

The other way is primarily taking instructions from Krishna (through shastra and guru) and accordingly use our strength and intelligence.

I think both are mutually exclusive. It is a matter of choice and depending on the way, our benefits are substantive or marginal.

Hare Krishna.

Children break their Piggy Banks to donate for the Under…
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Children break their Piggy Banks to donate for the Under construction “Sri Krishna Arjuna Temple”. (Album of photos)
During the ongoing 3 days Gita Gyan Yagya at Moradabad. H.G Sakshi Gopal Prabhu requested everyone to contribute towards the ongoing construction of the Grand Temple. Prabhu Ji also narrated the importance of donating during the Purushottam month.
The next day, to everyone’s Surprise, many little kids came with their Piggy Banks, Money Boxes and Yearly Pocket savings
They all rushed towards Prabhu Ji & with great enthusiasm and excitement they all handed over their Pocket money!
Some of them said they were saving to buy toys, new dresses, gifts & video games, some were saving for picnics and trips.
But Happily, they Donated it ALL towards the Temple construction & asked Prabhu Ji to Break their Piggy Banks!
The children said, now we will collect from our friends, teachers, parents, relatives, neighborhood & from wherever we can!
One boy said, he had been saving to buy a bicycle for 2 years. Then he said “but i can walk to school, the Temple is more important than my bicycle.
H.G Sakshi Gopal Prabhu was moved to tears upon seeing this Heartfelt gesture by these little children.
Prabhuji glorified their sacrifices & acknowledged them with various Gifts, Blessings and Maha Prashad.
Prabhu Ji said, “It is this enthusiasm to serve Krishna which will please the Lord!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/1tMT32

Mental strength – how to?
→ Servant of the Servant

We can be mentally strong in this world only if we are neutral (not hating or liking) to the idea of enterprise, success and opulence from this world. Instead, we work hard but happy with whatever Krishna provides because of our work.

This is the only way for mental toughness – to work hard and be detached (vairagya) while simultaneously content with Krishna's provision proportionate to our work.

Hare Krishna

Were you a prince in your last life?
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Were you a prince in your last life?
Kadamba Kanana Swami: Krsna knows the past, present and the future. He knows us better than we know ourselves because we actually have no idea who we were. We could go to India and visit the Bhrigu readers of Rajasthan or Punjab who have these scrolls with all kinds of astrological information on them. If you are lucky, these readers will find your scroll and tell you who you were in your last life. Usually, everyone was either a prince or a princess, or someone occasionally gets a sanyasi.

February 7 1976 – Mayapur February 7th, 1976 Today is Sri…
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February 7 1976 – Mayapur February 7th, 1976
Today is Sri Advaita-acarya’s appearance day, a half-day fast, and the day chosen for the launch of the boat.
In the early morning Prabhupada was driven in a jeep to Hoola Ghat on the Jalangi River, where he inspected the “Nitai Pada Kamala.” Its renovations are complete, and the Deities have been installed below deck. The small wooden forms of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai will be taken on procession through villages whenever the boat lands.
It is a good facility, a 12 ton “Jali” class boat, about forty feet long and fifteen feet wide. It has a shallow draft and was previously used to transport hay, although the maritime authorities have licensed it to carry up to 56 passengers. The devotees have added a cabin above deck along most of its length. Brightly painted in green, yellow, and red, the boat was gaily decorated for today’s occasion with strings of orange marigolds. The high mast is painted in yellow and red strips like a barber’s pole. Inside the cabin the main support beams are bright-yellow and red with lotus-flower motifs.
Tamal Krishna Maharaja helped Srila Prabhupada on board over the rickety bamboo ramp. Prabhupada carefully inspected every corner of the boat. Then he sat for a few minutes on a straw mat, while the devotees held kirtana. Prabhupada likes the idea of preaching on the boat, and he encouraged Sudama Maharaja to make it a success.
Later in the morning Sudama Maharaja sailed away down the Ganga with seventeen men, including four of the older boys from the gurukula, on their maiden voyage. It was a magnificent sight. Many local villagers lined the shore, eager to witness their departure.
>>> Ref. VedaBase => TD 1-9: Sri Dhama Mayapur
Read more: https://goo.gl/SRjTQC

If we make a strong resolution, does the mind’s power ensure that we keep it?
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Answer Podcast

The post If we make a strong resolution, does the mind’s power ensure that we keep it? appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

ISKCON Scarborough- HG Devakinandan Das will be giving a class coming Friday
→ ISKCON Scarborough

Hare Krishna!
Please accept our humble obeisances!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
All glories to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga!

HG Devakinandan Das is a senior disciple of HH Mahavishnu Gosvami Maharaj. Prabhu took up Krsna Consciousness, through the pages of Srimad Bhagavatam, in Singapore in 1983, and met His Holiness in 1989

Prabhu is a lawyer by profession. Despite his busy work schedule, Prabhu puts aside 4 to 5 months every year in travelling and spreading KC.

He oversees the temple projects in ISKCON Dwaraka and ISKCON Rajkot.

Prabhu is also an expert preacher of Srimad Bhagavatam and a wonderful Kirtan leader, inspired many persons in Krishna Consciousness.

He is part of GBC's Strategic Planning Committee by engaging in various devotional projects such as the Affiliate Development and Devotee Care programmes

ISKCON Scarborough
3500 McNicoll Avenue, Unit #3,
Scarborough,Ontario,
Canada,M1V4C7


Email Address:


iskconscarborough@hotmail.com


website:

www.iskconscarborough.org

Saturday, May 26th, 2018
→ The Walking Monk

Detroit, Michigan

Walking Monk and Goat Man Meet

Via Rail transported me to Windsor where I was picked up by Vivasvan, my support person for the first leg of my U.S. walk.  At customs, the officer became very animated when I mentioned I was going to a wedding.  “So you’re the high priest?” he asked me.

“Actually, I’m the ‘blesser’.”

“I hope the wedding goes well and the marriage.  It didn’t work out in my case.  I didn’t know that leaving the toilet seat up bothered her so much; just to give an example…”

I was a little concerned about the lineup queued behind us.  He finally let us go and gave good wishes.

Vivasvan, with family—Ananda Rupa and 2½ year old, Chaya—brought us to the kirtan spot outside the Cobo Center for the crowds at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.  This event is a big deal for the youth who come to listen and party. Some folks, who walked by, slowed down to listen and then moved on, were in attire that is very un-monk-like.  In general, they liked the music and energy we were creating.  Only the amp/speaker we used was of an unplugged nature.

I met Erick Brown and his goat, Deer, who travel the U.S.  I heard about him when I was walking.

Erick, 31, who’s made a name for himself, was recently attacked, tied up, and his bank cards stolen.  Some of the devotees from the kirtanmentioned that Erick has been taking his goat on public transport.  Not everyone takes a liking to that.

Erick told me, “I walk and also take rides to get around.”  Apparently he bought an old school bus and travels with Deer in it.

May the Source be with you!
5 km


Friday, May 25th, 2018
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Toronto, Ontario

Meeting People

My smartphone experienced some damage last Sunday on the Atlantic coast—Peggy’s Cove—when the top rock of an inukshuk fell on it, shattering the glass.  The incident warranted a ride—compliments of Nanda—to the phone clinic, and there, repairs were done; right here in Toronto.

The trip back to the ashram was a hot one, on foot.  As usual, I bump into people I know.  There was Dennis, who’s been coming for years to the temple.

There were new people; a homeless person who thought I was from Tibet and got to know of the mother culture to Buddhism, which is Vedic culture from India.

“I’m from Canada but go to India every year,” I said to him.

I met a woman who was walking behind me.  She sneezed from somewhat near.  I turned around.

“I’m not following you, just going to my apartment,” she said.

She pointed to a tree next to her apartment building and said that there’s the home of a woodpecker.  He taps all the time.  He found a girl-friend and now they’re going to have young ones, she said with quite the sense of confidentiality.  They live in a hole in the tree.

“He keeps tapping just like you guys do with your drums,” she said,  referring to Krishna monks making sound on our mrdungas.

Anyway, she was open and friendly, and that’s what counts.  Most people are willing to be our good friend, but talking about philosophy is not most people’s forte.  Let us encourage everyone to chant.

May the Source be with you!
5 km

Thursday, May 24th, 2018
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Toronto, Ontario

I Hadn’t Seen

I hadn’t seen him for twenty years.  Naro is a third generation Krishna person.  His dad, Kuladev, is my godbrother.

I accidentally stumbled upon Naro at the Brickworks while on a longer than usual trek for the evening with Kevala and Karuna.  Naro was parked with his fancy, souped-up, old model of a car, which was giving him some trouble, and thus he had just finished doing some repairs.

I knew him when he was a boy of eight.  His body has changed, just like I’m sure his car’s body has been altered.  Such is the case according to the teachings of Sri Krishna in the Gita.  “The embodied soul continually passes from childhood to youth to old age.  The soul also passes at death…”

It was good to see a kid now be a man.  I anticipate he’s a good man.

“Take care, Naro!”

Kevala, Karuna and I kept walking to a well-maintained trail—the same one where I did all my training for marathon walking.

“It was in this general location that the idea of trekking the whole of Canada was born.” I mentioned this, as we had just passed under a railroad bridge with huge trees on both sides.

Once we reached near Mount Pleasant Boulevard, we came to a park and entered a park facility with washrooms, just for a break from our three-hour trek.  The building was a forties style, now up for renovation.

Everything requires a reno, these bodies, and at some point, the building or body changes altogether.

May the Source be with you!
12 km

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018
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Markham, Ontario

God is With You

Another late afternoon and a small number of us gathered in Ramsden’s Park for a chanting session of mantrason the grass.  Some folks came over to sit or stand in our circle to participate.  It was awesome.

From there, I managed a short distance of walking toward the subway entrance at Sherbourne and Bloor.  To the end of the line I went, in the packed underground train.  At least the subway train moves.  On ground level you get little speed from 6 – 7 p.m.  It’s a nightmare.

At the passenger pick-up, I was received by a driver sent by Dhira Nitai, who hails from Sri Lanka.  I asked him, “What’s the occasion for having me over?” once I reached his apartment.

“A celebration!  You and I used to heat soup, salad, and pizza after a successful day of fund-raising for the summer Ratha Yatra.”

“Good cause!  Remember how we used to go to just about every Sri Lankan shop to help with donations? Recall the fish and the butcher shops?”

“Yes, they gave generously,” he said.

Then I thought how Krishna states in the Gitathat all people are eligible to serve.  Everyone can approach the Supreme destination, regardless of background.

Actually service for a Divine cause is all-attractive.  When I think of how sweet responses come from strolling people in the park, I know that everyone has this spiritual inkling.  It is all in how you present and approach the public. Act in such a way as to charm.  Then God is with you.

May the Source be with you!
3 km

The past, present and the future
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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 03 January 2018, New Govardhana, Australia, SB 1.2.15)

Krsna knows the past, present and the future. He knows us better than we know ourselves because we actually have no idea who we were. We could go to India and visit the Bhrigu readers of Rajasthan or Punjab who have these scrolls with all kinds of astrological information on them. If you are lucky, these readers will find your scroll and tell you who you were in your last life. Usually, everyone was either a prince or a princess, or someone occasionally gets a sanyasi. But I have never heard of any devotee who was a worm in their last life, and that somehow or other a Vaishnava spat on this worm’s head and promoted the worm into a devotee. Maybe, they would still look a little wormish! (Vaishnavas laughing) Anyway, so it is a little suspicious when everyone was a prince or a princess who had to come back one more time. I have some doubts about these Bhrigu readers to be honest. They may find our scrolls and know some things but they definitely do not know everything.

There was actually an astrologer who met Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked, “Oh are you an astrologer? If so, please tell me who I was in my last life?” So this astrologer sat down and started calculating. And as he was calculating, his eyes got bigger and bigger. He was seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead on the scrolls. He was looking again and again at the calculations and the calculations said that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But the astrologer said something else instead, and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu replied, “You got it all wrong. I happen to know that in my last life I was a cowherd boy, and because of my pious activities of taking care of the cows in that life, I became a Brahmin.” After this, the astrologer finally said, “Whatever you may be, or whoever you may be, I offer my obeisances unto you!”

The article " The past, present and the future " was published on KKSBlog.

QA Transcriptions uploaded on 29-May-18
→ The Spiritual Scientist

https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2018/03/ajamila-knew-scripture-yet-fell/

https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2018/03/mistakes-krishnas-mercy/

https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2018/03/can-balance-bhakti-studies/

https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2018/03/can-help-materially-entrapped-people-become-spiritual/

https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2017/03/can-insulate-negative-people/

https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2018/03/if-a-desire-is-irresistible-what-to-do/

https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2018/03/kali-yuga-thoughts-dont-incur-reactions-mean-practically/

https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2018/03/expectations-practicing-bhakti/

https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2017/03/thoughts-start-becoming-negative-can-flip-positive/

https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2017/03/troubled-controversies-krishnas-movement-try-tackle-just-focus-service/

The post QA Transcriptions uploaded on 29-May-18 appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

19-Madri-Witness to a Temple
→ Successful Vaisnavas – Personal Development for Hare Krishnas

In this episode with Madri devi dasi we hear… How she went from using computers in the 1960s that work by turning handles and programming computers the size of football fields… to eventually writing the history of Sri Sri Radha Giridhari in Auckland The advice that her daughters ignored which led her to Krishna Consciousness […]

The post 19-Madri-Witness to a Temple appeared first on Successful Vaisnavas - Personal Development for Hare Krishnas.

19-Madri-Witness to a Temple
→ Successful Vaisnavas – Personal Development for Hare Krishnas

In this episode with Madri devi dasi we hear… How she went from using computers in the 1960s that work by turning handles and programming computers the size of football fields… to eventually writing the history of Sri Sri Radha Giridhari in Auckland The advice that her daughters ignored which led her to Krishna Consciousness […]

The post 19-Madri-Witness to a Temple appeared first on Successful Vaisnavas - Personal Development for Hare Krishnas.

Kardama Muni continued: What is the use of enjoyments other than…
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Kardama Muni continued: What is the use of enjoyments other than the Lord’s grace? All material achievements are subject to be annihilated simply by a movement of the eyebrows of Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By your principles of devotion to your husband, you have achieved and can enjoy transcendental gifts very rarely obtained by persons proud of aristocracy and material possessions.
Purport:
Lord Caitanya recommended that the greatest achievement of human life is to achieve the grace of the Lord, love of God. He said, premā pumartho mahān: to achieve love of Godhead is the highest perfection of life. The same perfection is recommended by Kardama Muni to his wife. His wife belonged to a very aristocratic royal family. Generally, those who are very materialistic or who possess material wealth and prosperity are unable to appreciate the value of transcendental love of God. Although Devahūti was a princess coming from a very great royal family, fortunately she was under the supervision of her great husband, Kardama Muni, who offered her the best gift which can be bestowed in human life: the grace of the Lord, or love of God. This grace of the Lord was achieved by Devahūti by the goodwill and satisfaction of her husband. She served her husband, who was a great devotee and saintly person, with great sincerity, love, affection and service, and Kardama Muni was satisfied. He willingly gave love of God, and he recommended that she accept it and enjoy it because he had already achieved it.

Love of God is not an ordinary commodity. Caitanya Mahāprabhu was worshiped by Rūpa Gosvāmī because He distributed love of God, kṛṣṇa-premā, to everyone. Rūpa Gosvāmī praised Him as mahā-vadānya, a greatly munificent personality, because He was freely distributing to everyone love of Godhead, which is achieved by wise men only after many, many births. Kṛṣṇa-premā, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is the highest gift which can be bestowed on anyone whom we presume to love.

One word used in this verse, nija-dharma-dohān, is very significant. Devahūti, as the wife of Kardama Muni, achieved an invaluable gift from her husband because she was very faithful to him. For a woman the first principle of religion is to be faithful to her husband. If, fortunately, the husband is a great personality, then the combination is perfect, and the lives of both the wife and the husband are at once fulfilled.
SB 3.23.8: https://goo.gl/KXWZuv

Nourishing the creeper of devotion 4 – Finding our spiritual stimuil
→ The Spiritual Scientist

[Chaitanya Charitamrita class at ISKCON, London, UK]

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The post Nourishing the creeper of devotion 4 – Finding our spiritual stimuil appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Nourishing our lives with the Bhagavad-gita
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[Sunday feast class at ISKCON, London, UK]

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The post Nourishing our lives with the Bhagavad-gita appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Nourishing the creeper of devotion 3 – Avoid attachment to renunciation
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[Chaitanya Charitamrita class at ISKCON, London, UK]

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The post Nourishing the creeper of devotion 3 – Avoid attachment to renunciation appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Strive first for devotion, then for pure devotion
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[Congregation program at London, UK]

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The post Strive first for devotion, then for pure devotion appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Donetsk temple of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara May 25, 2018 (Album…
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Donetsk temple of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundara May 25, 2018 (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: One cannot capture the blowing wind. And it is even more difficult to capture the turbulent mind. One must engage one’s mind fully in Krishna. Only then will there remain no other engagements to agitate the mind. (Bhagavad-gita 6.34, purport).
Find them here: https://goo.gl/V8kfjd