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Reading Notes While Reading Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Reading Notes While Reading Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Perhaps I can read Bhagavad Gita As It Is and take simple reading notes as I go along, mostly my appreciation and bringing my attention to hearing with faith [sraddah] in dealing with the mind’s objections. This is not as ambitious as the compilations of favourite passages. But if I can accompany myself [by writing occasional notes] through a leisurely reading of Krishna’s book, Prabhupada will be pleased with me.

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Radio Shows, Volume II

Radio Shows, Volume II

I have been reading this second volume of Radio Shows and I must admit that I love it. It’s the freedom and the voice that capture me, and the aloneness, the unashamed memories, the connection of all of it to Krsna consciousness. This reminds me of a moment Jean Shepherd described on one of his shows. He used to ride a motor scooter to the studio each day. One day he was stopped in traffic and he looked up at the midtown Manhattan skyline and felt love for that city…

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Prabhupda Meditations IV

Prabhupda Meditations IV

Only out of His immense compassion does the Personality of Godhead reveal Himself as the spiritual master. Therefore in the dealing of an dcdrya there are no activities but those of transcendental loving service to the Lord. He is the Supreme Personality of Servitor Godhead. It is worthwhile to take shelter of such a steady devotee, who is called dsraya-vigraha, or the manifestation form of the Lord of whom one must take shelter.

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Prabhupada Meditations Volume III

Prabhupada Meditations Volume III

, On another occasion, Ramanuja observed Sri Gosthlpurna meditating for many hours in a room with closed doors. At the end of the day he inquired, “O Master, on which form of the Lord have you been fixing your mind, and what is the mantra by which you worship Him?”

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Prabhupada Meditations Volume II

Prabhupada Meditations Volume II

Srila Visvanatha CakravartI Thakura has said that the order of the spiritual master should be the life and soul of the disciple. It is natural, therefore, that one remembers the spiritual master while carrying out his instructions: “I should therefore meditate and pray for his mercy three times a day and offer my respectful obeisances unto him, my spiritual master.”

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Prabhupada Meditations

Prabhupada Meditations

When all the sons of Pracinabarhi left h^frie to execute austerities, they met Lord Siva, who, out of great mercy, instructed them about the Absolute Truth. All the sons of Pracinabarhi meditated upon the instructions, chanting and worshipping them with great care and attention.

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Passing Places, Eternal Truths

Passing Places, Eternal Truths

This body has rattled out of joint; the used Renault is in better shape than I am. I’m glad to sleep in a room tonight, but I want to go back to that cold, steel cave, the back of the van where Prabhupada’s books are within arm’s reach, where the bed is stiff, and sleep is interrupted by truck lights, but where you are free. I don’t want to eryoy special prasadam or soft beds wherever I go, but I treasure the honor of being asked, “Will you give the Bhdgavatam class?”

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One Hundred Happy Ideas

One Hundred Happy Ideas

I was happy to find this affectionate reference to Srxla Prabhupada and even considered stealing the booklet from the library (I couldn’t borrow it because I wasn’t a student). I left the library without the book and the dream then took a turn for the worse, with me getting lost, wandering without shoes, and trying to find a Hare Krsna center. No one I met would help. Finally, I woke up.

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My Stories, Volume II

My Stories, Volume II

The spiritual master is showering us with the rainfall of mercy and it’s putting out the forest fire of repeated birth and death. The story is that he lectured in Melbourne to seminarians in April, 1972 and I read it today. I listened from the viewpoint of one who wants to always follow the preaching acarya. I want to be who I am and yet be his follower exclusively. Is that so difficult? That’s what I’m trying for.

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My Search Through Books

My Search Through Books

Srila Prabhupada smashed Western culture and said it was no culture at all. Yet many millions of people live in Western culture, embrace it, and are educated in it. Those who join the Krsna consciousness movement have also been influenced by it. Therefore, devotee-writers must face the existence of Western culture in its various forms, either to expose its bankruptcy, or in some cases, to appreciate its traces of morality and God consciousness.

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