The Importance of Having a Qualified Guru (Spiritual Master)!

It may sound strange but the biggest danger to your spiritual advancement is if you accept as your guru a person who is incapable of guiding you back home, back to Godhead.

It is Kali-yuga and this age is called the age of quarrel and the age of hypocrisy. Almost everyone is cheating and almost everyone is presenting themselves as something which they are actually not. This is the age of the cheaters and the cheated. Practically every guru is a cheater and practically every so-called disciple wants to be cheated.

Most so-called spiritual seekers are not really prepared to surrender to Krishna or to surrender to Krishna’s pure devotee and make the mission of Krishna’s pure devotee their own mission in life. No they have their own program. And they want a guru who they can give some money to and guru will give them some blessings and assure them that everything they are doing is OK and they really don’t have to change much in their lives at all. So they want to be cheated. They want a guru who will reassure them that it is OK to stay in illusion, it is OK to stay in maya, as long as they give the cheating guru some money, everything is fine…

This is the way of guru in Kali-yuga. Practically you can guarantee that any person you meet who is claiming to be a guru and claiming to be able to guide you back home, back to Godhead is cheating. In Kali-yuga it is safe to assume that anyone who is claiming to be a guru is bogus and is unable to actually help you reach the ultimate goal–shelter at Krishna’s lotus feet.

The real guru is so rare. And in Kali-yuga cheating gurus are so common. That is why we are so incredibly fortunate to have Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada is 100% certain to be a pure devotee of Krishna and 100% qualified to guide us back home, back to Godhead. Therefore we should take this rare opportunity of associating with a pure devotee of Krishna in this human form of life and make our life a success by accepting Srila Prabhupada as our spiritual master and actually surrendering to him and serving him and by his mercy we can easily cross over this ocean of miseries which is this material world.

As I have already said in Kali-yuga it is safe to assume all gurus are bogus unless there is real proof to the contrary. And this is equally true even for ISKCON gurus. So you have to be very careful, they will say “Krishna, Krishna, Prabhupada said…” and take your money and not be able to give you Krishna at all… It is kali-yuga and the cheaters are everywhere.

Srila Prabhupada had a very special facility that no previous acarya in the Gaudiya Vaisnava tradition had. He had the ability to record the transcendental vibrations coming from his lotus lips and and he had access to book printing, publishing, and distribution systems that were not available to the previous acharyas.

In this way, in Srila Prabhupada’s books and in his recorded lectures, conversations, etc, he has been able to make the transcendental sound vibrations coming from his lotus mouth eternal.

What is the basis of associating with a spiritual master and accepting a spiritual master? It is simply to hear the transcendental sound vibrations from his lotus lips and to accept these instructions and to make these instructions one’s life and soul.

So now Srila Prabhupada is even more available to his prospective disciples and his current disciples then he ever was in his physical presence through his books and his recorded classes and conversations.

Some of the cheating gurus of kali-yuga are really very sincere and become gurus for all the right reasons. The problem is because they really do not know they are not qualified to liberate others–only a liberated soul can help others to also become liberated soul.

So in a genuine way these devotees take up the position of guru but because they are not themselves pure devotees they can not guide their disciples in such a way that they can give up all their sinful activities and become properly situated as pure devotees in Krishna consciousness. Because these “sincere” gurus are unable to save their disciples and they have taken the responsibility to save them, they suffer so much bad karma. So ultimately they fall down and so do their disciples.

It is something like if someone has very good intentions and sees a drowning man in the ocean and out of real love and concern for the drowning man he jumps into the ocean to save this man–not even considering that he can not swim himself. So it is a very nice sentiment. But he will drown himself and he will not be able to save the drowning man–both of them will drown. So from this very nicely motivated action only disaster is the result.

The would-be lifesaver should have taken the time to consider the situation and instead of trying to save the drowning man himself admitted his inability to swim and found someone who can really swim and save the drowning man. If he can find some qualified lifesaver and connect him to the drowning man then he will save the drowning man and he will not drown himself.

We need to take a “reality check” and see the extraordinary qualifications of Srila Prabhupada and also see our very limited qualifications. And we can take the position of representatives of Srila Prabhupada. Just like the devotees did when Srila Prabhupada was physically present on the planet.

At that time the preachers in ISKCON were not trying to get disciples for themselves. They were acting as representatives of Srila Prabhupada, preaching the philosophy and encouraging the people who heard them to read Srila Prabhupada’s books and develop a relationship with Srila Prabhupada.

Once we are hearing from Prabhupada by reading his books and/or listening to his recorded classes and conversations we are personally associating with Srila Prabhupada in a very personal and individual way. Prabhupada has the potency to guide us, to answer our questions and ultimately to initiate us into Lord Caitanya’s Sankirtan Movement.

Of course for the practical running of Srila Prabhupada’s world-wide preaching movement there is a need for qualified preachers to push the movement on all over the world. And this was the case in Srila Prabhupada’s physical presence. Srila Prabhupada put responsible disciples in positions like Temple President, GBC and Sannyas and all these devotes had very responsible positions in ISKCON and all were acting as gurus to some extent for the devotees under their responsibility.

But it was very clear that everyone in ISKCON is Prabhupada’s disciple and we are all godbrothers. Of course some are senior godbrothers and some a junior godbrothers but we are all one big family of disciples of Srila Prabhupada sitting together at Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet.

This mood and system needs to be reestablished in ISKCON so ISKCON can once again become the dynamic preaching mission it once was, spreading Lord Caitanya’s Sankirtan Movement of Pure Love of God all over the world and engulfing the whole world in s tsunami of pure love of God…

In the meantime be very careful not to accept a conditioned soul as your spiritual master. Only a liberated soul, a pure devotee of Krishna, can guide you back home back to Godhead.

And remember accepting the wrong guru is the greatest stumbling block in spiritual advancement.

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City Under the Sea — Dwarka?

B.K. Parthasarathy writes about a spectacular underwater archaeological find by a joint British-Indian diving team that could rewrite history.

Who would have thought a city that could be older than the Harappan civilization could be lying beneath water right off the coast of Mahabalipuram?

Sometimes, it pays to listen to the stories of humble fishermen. Local fishermen in the coast of Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu have for centuries believed in that a great flood consumed a city over 1,000 years ago in a single day when the gods grew jealous of its beauty.

The myths of Mahabalipuram were written down by British traveler J. Goldingham, who visited the town in 1798, at which time it was known to sailors as the Seven Pagodas. Legend had it that six temples were submerged beneath the waves, with the seventh temple still standing on the seashore.

Best-selling British author and television presenter Graham Hancock took these stories seriously. The hypothesis that there may be ruins underwater off the coast of Mahabalipuram has been around at least since the eighteenth century among scholarly circles.

“I have long regarded Mahabalipuram, because of its flood myths and fishermen’s sightings as a very likely place in which discoveries of underwater structures could be made, and I proposed that a diving expedition should be undertaken there,” said Hancock.

Hancock’s initiative resulted in the Dorset, England-based Scientific Exploration Society and India’s National Institute of Oceanography joining hands. In April this year, the team made a spectacular discovery

The SES announced: “A joint expedition of 25 divers from the Scientific Exploration Society and India’s National Institute of Oceanography led by Monty Halls and accompanied by Graham Hancock, have discovered an extensive area with a series of structures that clearly show man made attributes, at a depth of 5-7 meters offshore of Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu.

“The scale of the submerged ruins, covering several square miles and at distances of up to a mile from shore, ranks this as a major marine-archaeological discovery as spectacular as the ruined cities submerged off Alexandria in Egypt.”

India’s NIO said in a statement: “A team of underwater archaeologists from National Institute of Oceanography NIO have successfully `unearthed’ evidence of submerged structures off Mahabalipuram and established first-ever proof of the popular belief that the Shore temple of Mahabalipuram is the remnant of series of total seven of such temples built that have been submerged in succession. The discovery was made during a joint underwater exploration with the Scientific Exploration Society, U.K.”

NIO said:

    Underwater investigations were carried out at 5 locations in the 5 – 8 m water depths, 500 to 700 m off Shore temple.
    Investigations at each location have shown presence of the construction of stone masonry, remains of walls, a big square rock cut remains, scattered square and rectangular stone blocks, big platform leading the steps to it amidst of the geological formations of the rocks that occur locally.
    Most of the structures are badly damaged and scattered in a vast area, having biological growth of barnacles, mussels and other organisms.
    The construction pattern and area, about 100m X 50m, appears to be same at each location. The actual area covered by ruins may extend well beyond the explored locations.
    The possible date of the ruins may be 1500-1200 years BP. Pallava dynasty, ruling the area during the period, has constructed many such rock cut and structural temples in Mahabalipuram and Kanchipuram.

The last claim is questioned by Hancock, who says a scientist has told him it could be 6,000 years old.

Durham University geologist Glenn Milne told him in an e-mail: “I had a chat with some of my colleagues here in the dept. of geological sciences and it is probably reasonable to assume that there has been very little vertical tectonic motion in this region [i.e. the coastal region around Mahabalipuram] during the past five thousand years or so. Therefore, the dominant process driving sea-level change will have been due to the melting of the Late Pleistocene ice sheets. Looking at predictions from a computer model of this process suggests that the area where the structures exist would have been submerged around six thousand years ago. Of course, there is some uncertainty in the model predictions and so there is a flexibility of roughly plus or minus one thousand years is this date.”

If that were true, it would be a spectacular development. Previous archaeological opinion recognizes no culture in India 6,000 years ago capable of building anything much.

Hancock says this discovery proves scientists should be more open-minded. “I have argued for many years that the world’s flood myths deserve to be taken seriously, a view that most Western academics reject. “But here in Mahabalipuram, we have proved the myths right and the academics wrong.”

Hancock believes far more research needs to be done on underwater relics.
“Between 17,000 years ago and 7000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, terrible things happened to the world our ancestors lived in,” he says. “Great ice caps over northern Europe and north America melted down, huge floods ripped across the earth, sea-level rose by more than 100 meters, and about 25 million square kilometers of formerly habitable lands were swallowed up by the waves.

“Marine archaeology has been possible as a scholarly discipline for about 50 years — since the introduction of scuba. In that time, according to Nick Flemming, the doyen of British marine archaeology, only 500 submerged sites have been found worldwide containing the remains of any form of man-made structure or of lithic artifacts. Of these sites only 100 — that’s 100 in the whole world! — are more than 3000 years old.”

Hancock, who was understandably resentful about the NIO’s silence in his pivotal role in making the diving expedition happen — SES gave him full recognition — was himself quite generous about who deserved the greatest credit:

“Of course the real discoverers of this amazing and very extensive submerged site are the local fishermen of Mahabalipuram. My role was simply to take what they had to say seriously and to take the town’s powerful and distinctive flood myths seriously. Since no diving had ever been done to investigate these neglected myths and sightings I decided that a proper expedition had to be mounted. To this end, about a year ago, I brought together my friends at the Scientific Exploration Society in Britain and the National Institute of Oceanography in India and we embarked on the long process that has finally culminated in the discovery of a major and hitherto completely unknown submerged archaeological site.”

Interested readers can visit the following Web sites for more information. The Scientific Exploration Society’s Web site at http://www.india-atlantis.org/
And Graham Hancock’s Web site at http://www.grahamhancock.com/

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Lord Shiva, a Pure Devotee of Krishna!

Once, at the dawn of the universal creation a great sacrifice was performed by the leaders of mankind,—namely Marichi, Dakha and Basistha. All great personalities, powerful sages, philosophers and demigods, along with their followers assembled. Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva were also present. When Dakha, the leader of the Prajapatis (the first progenitors of the universe), entered into the assembly his bodily luster was so bright that practically everyone else present seemed insignificant. Influenced by Dakha’s luster, they gave up their places and stood in respect. Lord Brahma is considered to be the first living entity of the universe and the creator of all the material planets and entities. Lord Brahma is directly empowered by the Original Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna or Vishnu, and so he was logically presiding at the head of the assembly. Although Lord Brahma did not rise to honor Dakha, he adequately welcomed him with words and asked him to take a seat of honor. Lord Shiva alone remained seated without showing any respect to the effulgent Prajapati. Dakha was very offended seeing Lord Shiva sitting there, and instead of taking his seat, Dakha began to speak strongly against him.

So begins the history of a great sacrifice and misunderstanding between Dakha and Lord Shiva, which resulted in widespread destruction. It is fully related in the Fourth Canto of Srimad Bhagwatam, the Vedic scripture which deals exclusively in the narration of the transcendental Pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, and His pure devotees.

Lord Shiva is a pure devotee of Lord Krishna, who is accepted as the Supreme Lord by the purport of all Vedic literature, Upanishads, Puranas and Vedanta Sutra, and by the disciplic succession of spiritual masters. The intelligent human being who worships the Supreme Lord Krishna or His immediate expansion, Vishnu, is called a “Vaishnava.” And in the Vaishnava Purana it is stated that Sambhu (Lord Shiva) is the greatest Vaishnava: “Vaishnavanan natan Sambhu.” Lord Shiva himself declares, in the Shiva Purana, that one should take to devotional service of the Supreme Lord Vishnu. Being a pure devotee and a confidential deputed agent of Krishna, Lord Shiva is beyond reproach in all his actions.

But Dakha spoke against Lord Shiva: “All sages and brahmins and firegods present here, please hear me with attention as I am speaking about the manners of gentle persons. I am not speaking out of ignorance or envy.” Dakha very tactfully presented to the assembly that he was going to make a sensible speech, and not out of enviousness. Although he was speaking like a man in ignorance by intending to attack Lord Shiva’s behavior, and although all present were perfectly aware of the exalted position of Lord Shiva, yet Dakha was so envious that he tried to cover his poisonous statements with a plea for gentleness and nonenviousness. He then launched verbally into Lord Shiva and said that he has ruined the good name of the demigods and that he is unclean. Dakha then stated, “Although Lord Shiva has already accepted a position subordinate to me, by marrying my daughter, yet he is not respectful to his father-in-law.” The fact was that Lord Shiva’s wife, Sati, was the daughter of Dakha and they had married under the instructions of Lord Shiva’s father, Lord Brahma. Since Lord Shiva was actuallly the son-in-law of Dakha, one might ask, why did he not stand up and pay respects when Dakha arrived, and that might have prevented the total holocaust which, as we shall see, soon followed. The answer is that at the time Dakha entered, Lord Shiva was meditating, as he always is, on the Form of the Supreme Lord who dwells in the hearts of all creatures. As the greatest Vaishnava, he was in trance of ecstasy, meditating on the One God of all Being and Nonbeing who is alone factually worthy of all our reverence. In meditation, he might not have seen Dakha enter the arena of the sacrifice. But Dakha took the opportunity of cursing him because he was holding an envious attitude toward him for a long time.

Actually, those who are self-realized think of everybody as a temple of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as He resides in everyone’s body. The respect paid to the body is not paid to the material body, but to the Presence of the Supreme Lord within the body. By offering obeisances to the Supersoul, Lord Shiva had already offered respects to the Supersoul of Dakha and there was no need of offering respects to Dakha’s body. But Dakha, not being a transcendentalist, could not appreciate Lord Shiva’s irreproachable behavior. To be always in meditation on the Supreme Lord is not a conjurer’s trick or something to be imitated. Nor is it anything like meditating on the impersonal void. Just as we are persons, but limited to our individual bodies, so the Supreme Lord Krishna is an individual Person, but He is at the same time one and different from the creation. He is Single, One without a second, and yet He is all-pervading. By His Mercy He is present in everyone’s heart, giving the intelligence and pure memory whereby one can go back to Him for personal association in eternal bliss and all knowledge. Lord Shiva then was fixed in mind on the Absolute and therefore he should not have been reproached. Dakha however was thinking only in bodily, materialistic terms, and considered his body insulted by the behavior of his exalted son-in-law. Before the great assembly he vilified Lord Shiva.

Dakha said: “Shiva remains in the filthiest places like the crematorium, and his companions are ghosts and demons and he remains like a madman. He never bathes regularly and puts a garland made of the skulls of dead bodies around his neck for ornamentation. He is very dear to the crazy beings in the mode of ignorance. On the request of Lord Brahma I handed over my chaste daughter to him although he is devoid of all cleanliness and his heart is filled with nasty things.”

The name Shiva is auspicious, and yet those who do not bathe regularly are supposed to be in association with the ghosts and crazy creatures. Lord Shiva appeared like that, but his actual transcendental position is that he is very kind to persons who are in the darkness of the mode of ignorance, the drunkards and the unclean. He is so compassionate on the lowest of the low that he gives such creatures shelter and gradually makes them elevated to spiritual understanding. This is the explanation of Lord Shiva’s transcendental position, according to the authoritative literature. It is stated in the Vedas that Lord Shiva is all-auspicious, so by his association even the most fallen souls can be elevated. In the creation of the Supreme Lord there are different kinds of living creatures, some of them are in the quality of goodness, some in the quality of passion and some in ignorance. Lord Vishnu takes charge of the persons who are advanced Vaishnavas or Krishna conscious, Lord Brahma takes charge of the persons who are very much attached to material activities, but Lord Shiva is so kind that he takes charge of persons who are grossly in ignorance and whose behavior is less than the animals.

Dakha cursed Lord Shiva out of envy and called him the lowest of the demigods and not worth being offered oblations or taking part in the sacrifice. One of the great commentators on the Srimad Bhagwatam, Sri Viswanath Chakravarty, says in regard to this curse of Dakha by which Lord Shiva was cut off from participating in the sacrifice, that it was an indirect blessing for Lord Shiva. As the greatest devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead it is not worthy that Lord Shiva should eat and sit with materialistic persons like the demigods who might be a distraction to his prosecution of devotional service. So he was saved from the calamity of their non-Krishna conscious association.

Dakha was a very powerful mystic brahmin, but under the deadly influence of anger, he declared he could not bear to carry on in the presence of the unclean Lord Shiva, and so he left the area of sacrifice. All the sages and Lord Brahma requested Dakha, “Please do not leave our company”-but in spite of all requests Dakha left the place under the effect of cruel anger. In the Bhagavad Gita it is advised that anyone interested in spiritual advancement must avoid lust, anger and passion, but Dakha was attacked by all three. Nandikesvar, one of the chief associates of Lord Shiva, also caught the evil influence of anger, and he prepared to curse Dakha as well as all the brahmins present there who merely sat by and tolerated the cursing of Lord Shiva. Goswami A.C. Bhaktivedanta writes of this situation: “There is a longstanding dissension among the neophyte Vaishnavas and Shivites, by which they are always at loggerheads. Some brahmins are not admirers of Lord Shiva and might enjoy his being cursed, but this is due to their ignorance of Lord Shiva’s position (as the greatest Vaishnava).” Nandikesvar in his anger did not follow the example of Lord Shiva who was silent and tolerant. Nandikesvar could not tolerate the insult to a Vaishnava and he countercursed Dakha and his followers, stating that whoever supported Dakha would be bereft of transcendental knowledge of the soul and devoid of knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He called Dakha a pretentious householder, with only superficial knowledge of the Vedas; and such a person, he stated, although following the rules and regulations of the Vedas, will be attached to the temporary material sex happiness as the all-in-all, with no knowledge of the spiritual, eternal, blissful life. Lord Shiva’s aide further deemed that whoever attacked Lord Shiva would be doomed to continue seeking happiness in the nescience of materialistic education and working for mundane rewards, and would therefore continue perpetually in the cycle of birth and death. Such attacks on the brahmins are applicable to the so-called brahmins of the present Age of Kali who claim brahminical or spiritual status simply on the basis of heredity or birth in a family of brahmins. In the scripture Vedanta Sutra, it is stated that the human form of life is meant for realizing the Supreme Brahman or Absolute Truth and that is the real business of a brahmin. But the so-called brahmins cursed by Nandikesvar were more interested in living for maintaining the perishable material body and elevating their family position. And worst of all they refused to recognize the pure devotee of the Lord, in the personality of Lord Shiva. Ignited by the envy of Dakha, Nandikesvar wrongly cursed all the brahmins present in a nondiscriminate condemnation. The whole issue became so complicated that those who were not strong enough forgot their positions, and cursing and counter-cursing went on in the great assembly.

As a reaction to Nandikesvar’s cursing, the brahmin sage, Brighu, delivered a brahminical curse to all followers of Lord Shiva, as follows: “One who takes the vow of satisfying Lord Shiva or who follows those principles certainly becomes an atheist, as he becomes diverted from the scriptural injunction.” It is understood that the devotees of Lord Shiva sometimes imitate the characteristics of Lord Shiva rather than follow his example. Lord Shiva once drank an ocean of poison, so the followers of Lord Shiva, without being able to drink even a fragment of poison, imitate him and take intoxicants.

Brighu delivers the curse that if somebody follows such principles of intoxication, he must become an infidel against the principles of Vedic regulation. Lord Krishna Himself declares in the Bhagavad Gita that He descends and corrects the regulative principles when there is too much general disregard of the prescribed rules for spiritual progress. So anyone seriously interested in prosecuting spiritual life has to follow the footsteps of the Supreme Lord, the scriptures and the teachings of His deputed controllers or Mahajans. We have to follow their example, and we are warned not to imitate Krishna or His controllers. Lord Krishna lifted Govardhan Hill in His Childhood Pastime while on earth, and no human being can possibly imitate Him in this. Lord Shiva is a Mahajan or authority in Krishna Consciousness and his unusual activities on behalf of Krishna may be completely independent of the injunctions of the scriptures. But his followers may not assume his stature. The Srimad Bhagwatam plainly states, “One should not try to drink an ocean of poison, imitating Lord Shiva.” Brighu further states that the followers of Lord Shiva will turn against the conclusion of the scriptures. It is confirmed in the Padma Purana that Lord Shiva himself (as Sri Shankaracharya) was ordered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to preach impersonal philosophy for a particular purpose, just as Lord Buddha preached the philosophy of nirvana for a particular purpose. These purposes are mentioned in the scriptures, in those instances where it is required to preach some philosophical doctrine which is against the Vedic conclusion. In the Shiva Purana, Lord Shiva says to his wife Parvati, “In the Kali Yuga, in the body of a brahmin [Shankara], I will preach the Mayavadi [impersonal] philosophy in order to baffle the atheists.” So it is found that the followers of Lord Shiva are mostly Mayavadi impersonalists who believe in becoming one with the Supreme. Lord Shiva himself, however, by virtue of austerity and devotion, is more conversant with the actual constitutional position of the individual soul and the Supreme Soul. As stated in the Chaitanya Charitamrita, Krishna is the Supreme Soul and we are His Parts and Parcels; our position is qualitatively one with God, but eternally subordinate in quantity. The most elevated persons, the pure devotees, engage their lives, minds and intelligence in all varieties of service to the Whole Spirit, Krishna. Lord Shiva, as the greatest Vaishnava, was fully aware of all such intricacies, but Brighu cursed both Shiva and his followers as one in fault. He said, “The vow of worshiping Lord Shiva is so foolish that they imitate and keep bunches of hair on their heads and live the life of wine and flesh indulgence and do not take baths.” Brighu’s point is that those who live without any spiritual regulation are foolish and become devoid of transcendental knowledge. He curses Nandikesvar and says, “Not due to my cursing shall you become an atheist, but you are already situated as an atheist and therefore condemned.”

When the cursing and recursing was going on, Lord Shiva was silent and sober and didn’t speak a word. Lord Shiva is described as always tolerant, but he became sorry at the unnecessary anger. In order to stop them, he left the arena of the sacrifice, and his disciples followed.

Dakha’s Second Sacrifice

Thereafter Dakha began another performance of sacrifice, and he deliberately did not invite Lord Shiva. Generally, although such sacrifices were meant for pleasing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vishnu, yet all the demigods, and especially Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva, were always invited; otherwise the sacrifice was not complete. But Dakha, being very proud of his position as chief of the Prajapatis, and envious and inimical to Lord Shiva, thought to avoid them. He could understand that the purpose of sacrifice is to please the Supreme Lord. His supposed logic in avoiding Lord Shiva was that if Vishnu is satisfied by his sacrifice, then what was the need of satisfying His followers? But Lord Krishna says, “Worshiping My devotees is better than worshiping the Lord Himself.” And in the Shiva Purana it states, “The best mode of worship is to offer oblations to Vishnu, and better than that is to worship the devotees of Krishna.” Dakha’s Shiva-less sacrifice was therefore inauspicious from the start.

But, many sages and demigods from all parts of the universe, with their wives nicely dressed and decorated, were attending the sacrificial ceremony. When Sati, the daughter of Dakha, saw that from all directions the beautiful wives in fine clothing were going there along with their husbands in airplanes, she too became anxious to go and approached her husband, Lord Shiva. She proposed to him that if he would desire to go to the ceremony, then they could go. Being a woman, Sati had some attachment for dressing up and participating in social functions and meeting her relatives in the assembly. But Lord Shiva was a different personality, and not interested in material enjoyment. Sati pleaded that she was not so transcendentally advanced as her great husband and therefore still had a strong desire for a nice social, family gathering; so she begged that they might dress with ornaments and go there like the others. But on hearing reference to Dakha’s sacrifice, Lord Shiva remembered the heart-piercing malicious speeches delivered at the last sacrifice, and he became sorry at heart. There is a question raised here: Why did a liberated personality like Lord Shiva feel so unhappy due to the cruel words of Dakha? The answer is that Lord Shiva is an expansion of Vishnu, assigned as controller of the material quality of ignorance. Although he is completely self-realized and enlightened, yet because he is in charge of the material mode of ignorance, he is sometimes affected by the pleasure and pain of the material world. In the spiritual world one may also feel sorry, but in that absolute existence, either pleasure or so-called pain is full of bliss. When the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna appeared on the Earth in Vrindaban, He had childhood pastimes in which He was chastised by His foster mother Yasoda, and He sometimes cried. But His shedding tears is not in the mode of ignorance. Also, when Krishna played with the cowherds girls, the gopis, it sometimes appeared that they were distressed, but actually that feeling was full of bliss. The temporary material world is declared by the Vedic knowledge to be a perverted reflection of the eternal Kingdom of God, so every variety of feeling that exists here in the material world also exists originally in the spiritual world. But in the spiritual world all the varieties of apparent pleasure and pain are perceived as eternal bliss, whereas in the material world, there is a dualistic perception of pleasure and pain due to the contamination of the modes of passion and ignorance. Lord Shiva is self-realized but due to his contact while in charge of the material mode of ignorance, he could feel sorrow. His position is therefore unique. He is sometimes called almost-God. He is compared in the Brahma Samhita to yogurt. Lord Vishnu the Supreme Personality of Godhead is compared to milk. Yogurt is also milk, but due to fermentation it has become changed. That is the position of Shiva: he has the full godly qualities but he is changed because of contact with matter. Only Vishnu the Supreme Personality of Godhead is 100 percent transcendental and above the material manifestation. Even when He enters the material atmosphere He enters as the Purifier and spiritualizes all matter in contact with Him. As the greatest worshiper of Vishnu, Lord Shiva willingly accepts the position of serving as controller of the mode of ignorance, and he is called the shelter of the most fallen.

Lord Shiva could foresee that as soon as Sati would reach the house of her father, Dakha, being so puffed up with the mistaken identification of the body as the self, would be angry with her although she was faultless. Therefore he ordered her not to go. As the wife of Lord Shiva, she would certainly be insulted by Dakha and his followers; Shiva told her that no one can bear such family insults and that it would be equal to her death if she went. But Sati made womanly pleas. She addressed her husband as he who has no equal in the material world. She knew that no one can match Lord Shiva in his equality to everyone, so why then wasn’t he acting equally toward her by letting her go to the ceremony? It is described that Sati took shelter of a woman’s last weapon—weeping—and she began walking back and forth in the rooms, like a swinging pendulum, divided in mind whether to obey her husband or to go to her father’s sacrifice. At one point she begged her husband calling him Blue-Throated One. Lord Shiva is known widely by this name for a compassionate feat he once undertook. Once some demons and demigods took a sea journey in order to churn the ocean for the purpose of producing nectar. The first effect at churning, however, produced only poison, but Lord Shiva in anxiety that some less strong persons might drink it, took the ocean of poison himself and held it in his throat—which turned blue. Sati called him Blue-Throated and intimated, “You are so kind to others, why not to me?” Finally Sati forcibly left her husband’s protection and started out alone towards Dakha’s house.

When Lord Shiva saw Sati bent on going, he sent his men with her, and he also followed seated on his bull and accompanied by thousands of disciples. When Sati reached Dakha’s house she was greeted only by her mother and sisters. Dakha, her father, completely ignored her. On account of her association with Lord Shiva, he forgot all his affection for his own daughter. Such is the material-familial conception of love, that even by the slightest provocation all intimate affection is gone and a whole relationship is finished. Sati was grieving over this insult and at the same time, as she looked over the arena of sacrifice, she saw that there was no oblation or sacrificial offering being made to Lord Shiva. At once she became angry and looked as if she were about to burn her father just with her eyes. Whenever one offers oblations in the fire, Lord Shiva is one of the demigods honored by the chanting of the mantra, Namah Shivayah Swaha. But under Dakha’s instructions the brahmins deliberately omitted Shiva’s offering and were not uttering that mantra. She became doubly insulted. The followers of Lord Shiva, the ghosts, were ready to do harm to Dakha, but Sati stopped them in the name of her husband. She was so angry and sorry, however, that she began to condemn Dakha and his sacrifice, speaking in the presence of the large gathering. Anger is usually abominable and leads to the destruction of intelligence. But Sati’s anger was special. Regarding such anger, which is transcendental, Goswami A.C. Bhaktivedanta writes as follows: “When Vishnu and the Vaishnava are insulted, one should be angry. Lord Chaitanya, who is the preacher of nonviolence, meekness and humility, became angry when the Vaishnava Nityananda was insulted by Jagai and Madhai, and He wanted to kill them. That should be the attitude when Vishnu and the Vaishnava are blasphemed or dishonored. One should not be tolerant when a person is offending Vishnu or a Vaishnava.” So Sati spoke personally to Dakha in her devotional anger:

“Lord Shiva is the most beloved personality of all living entities—he is universal. Nobody is his enemy, nobody could envy him—only one who is envious by nature. Only you could find fault in him. If somebody has just a little good quality Lord Shiva magnifies it, but you have found fault with such a great soul.” Lord Shiva is so magnanimous that he grants his followers whatever they desire. He is sometimes called Asutos, or one who is satisfied very easily. Once a devotee of Lord Shiva asked the irregular benediction from Lord Shiva that whoever the devotee would touch, that person’s head would fall off. Lord Shiva granted him as he desired. Such a benediction was not very good because the devotee tried to touch the head of Lord Shiva as soon as he was given the power. Still, Lord Shiva considered the devotee’s good quality, that he had come to him and worshiped him and satisfied him.

Sati continued before her father and all persons gathered: “Lord Shiva is the friend of all living entities. He fulfills all desires of the common man as well as the higher personalities who are seeking after transcendental bliss. You think yourself superior to Lord Shiva as his father-in-law and you call him inauspicious for associating with the demons in the burning crematorium, with the locks of hair thrown all over his body and garlanded with human skulls—but greater personalities than you, such as Lord Brahma, honor Lord Shiva by accepting flowers offered to his feet. So you do not know that he is always transcendental. He must be, otherwise, why would such a person like Brahma worship him?” Offering many arguments based on authoritative Vedic information, Sati as a chaste wife, faithfully defended her husband from the slander of her father, Dakha. She certainly spoke in the spirit of eulogy as it was her duty to elevate Lord Shiva to the highest position; but it was not on sentiment, but by facts. Lord Shiva is not an ordinary entity. Someone may take the narrative of Sati as imaginative and conclude that there is no such person as Lord Shiva, but that is not the conclusion of the pure devotees who accept the authority of scriptures and the living chain of spiritual masters in disciplic succession. Doubt-ridden and cynical persons think that there can be no one as wonderful as Lord Shiva. This is because they themselves are limited in body and mind, and they ascribe their limitations to all personalities. Actually it is not so wonderful that there are powerful controllers of universal affairs such as Lord Shiva and Lord Brahma and other demigods. Even in common affairs the president of the country is the final authority in government, and yet he has agents who assist him in his mission. Similarly, the Supreme Controller, God, or Krishna, expands Himself into qualitative incarnations like Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva and He also empowers ordinary living entities with unusual powers and long duration of life in accord with His inconceivable will. In common affairs or in the workings of nature, men of a poor fund of knowledge see everything as happening automatically. But mature examination to the end of things reveals that there is also personal control behind the wonderful happenings in government, science and nature. The space ships are not flying independently across the sky without the control by the brains of great scientists on earth; the staggeringly complex electronic computers cannot work without the human touch. Similarly, the gigantic space satellites called planets are controlled by a Great Intelligence or God. If artists study and labor so hard to paint the image of a flower, and never duplicate its original freshness and beauty, then who can seriously think that the thousands of varieties of natural flowers are produced “automatically” without the touch of the superior Artistry? Storms at sea, the movements of the luminaries in the sky as well as the movements of our hands and fingers, can all be traced to a power beyond our limited selves, to a Supreme Controller, the Cause of all causes, the Personality of Godhead. The wisdom of submissive reception of authoritative scripture enables one to understand what is inconceivable to the mundane senses and mental speculations of strictly materialistic scientists or philosophers. Those who hear and live in the spirit of devotional service have it revealed to them through the heart, with complete sane conviction, that there is a Controller. And to them it is understandable that for His Pleasure He can expand into multi-energies and personalities for control of universal affairs.

All the Vedic literatures describe Lord Shiva as the agent of destruction. When annihilation is due in the cyclical course of time, after a fabulously long time span by human standards, it is Lord Shiva who is the personal destroyer of the world systems. And until that time he willingly serves as the master of the mode of ignorance and offers his compassion to the most degraded souls so that they can be gradually elevated and have hopes of going back to Home, back to the Kingdom of God. We have specific information about the character of Lord Shiva from Vedic literature, the scripture which is likened to the mother of the conditioned souls. In ordinary life, the mother is the sole authority for knowing who one’s father is. So if we want that information on how the controllers of the universe are acting, where they reside and what they are doing, we have to turn to the authority or mother, Vedic scriptures. It is not a question of imagination, but of knowledge. The impersonalists or atheists who say that the scriptures are merely stories can never gain entrance into the Pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His associates like Lord Shiva.

Sati was not merely talking. She was deeply mortified to be so intimately connected to Dakha who had committed offenses at the lotus feet of Lord Shiva. Sati said to Dakha: “I have this body produced by you. And I am therefore connected with you and very much ashamed. I shall not any more bear this unworthy body which is received from you who have blasphemed Lord Shiva. If someone takes poisonous food, the best thing is to vomit.” As the potency of Lord Shiva, his wife Sati could have easily killed Dakha. But to best save her husband from ill fame, as if he had no power to himself fight Dakha, she decided to give up her own body. The Vaishnava feels personally at fault for even hearing blasphemy against Lord Krishna or His pure devotee. The body being the source of her unhappiness, she decided to quit her body at once. Dressed in yellow garments, Sati sat on the ground facing the northern side, closed her eyes and became absorbed in the mystic yoga process. She took the required sitting posture, and then carried the life air upwards towards the navel and gradually raised it to the heart and towards the pulmonary passage, and from there she raised the life force between her eyebrows; meditating on the lotus feet of Lord Shiva, she became cleansed of all taints of sin and then quit her body in blazing fire by meditation on fiery elements. Srimad Bhagwatam states, “When the body of Sati was annihilated by anger, there was a great tumultuous roar heard all over the universe.” Most astonishing was that Dakha remained disrespectful and unmoved by his chaste daughter and made no attempt to stop her death. Dakha was supposed to provide for all living entities, and his own daughter deserved the most respectful treatment. While the assembled persons were still talking among themselves about the passing away of Sati, Lord Shiva’s attendants made ready to kill Dakha and rushed at him with their weapons. As they were coming forward forcibly, the sage Brighu saw the danger and immediately uttered mantras and hymns by which the destroyers of sacrificial performances can be killed. As soon as Brighu offered oblations in the fire thousands of demigods became manifested in the fire and they began to attack the ghosts and attendants of Lord Shiva, scattering them in all directions.

Lord Shiva was at a distance from the sacrifice, but when he was informed that his wife was dead due to Dakha’s insult and that his associate soldiers were driven away he became angry. The Srimad Bhagwatam describes his fury: “Lord Shiva in anger pressed his lips with his teeth and from the bunch of hair on his head he snatched a piece of hair that blazed like fire, and laughing like a madman he dashed the hair to the ground. Then appeared a personality as tall as the sky, equipped with thousands of weapons and arms, of a black color and as bright as three suns.” Lord Shiva sent this gigantic demon of personified anger to kill Dakha. In Bhagavad Gita Krishna declares, “Of generals I am Lord Shiva,” so he is the most formidable of commanders. Led by the demon of anger his army swept into the sacrificial arena and prepared to plunder everything in sight. Seeing the approaching army, the brahmins and their assembled women were filled with anxiety, all due to the danger created by Dakha. In fact the wife of Dakha foresaw, “This is the same Lord Shiva who at the time of dissolution destroys the worlds.” So there was no comparing the tiny power of Dakha to that of Lord Shiva. Goswami A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami writes, “At the time of dissolution, Lord Shiva with his trident in hand dances over the rulers of different planets and his hair is scattered like the clouds over all directions, and he deluges the different planets with torrents of rain. “

The followers of Lord Shiva are described as running around the sacrificial arena with bodies like shark-fish. They pulled down the pillars of the altars, entered residential and kitchen departments, broke pots and urinated on the sacrificial ground. Some of them blocked the way of the fleeing sages and shackled the women. Two priests who had shown their teeth during the cursing of Lord Shiva had their teeth extracted by the soldiers of Lord Shiva, and a continuous shower of stones was set up, so that all the members of the sacrifice were in miserable condition and running for fear of their lives. It is described that such horrible fighting was not exactly on an inimical basis; everyone present was very powerful, and they all wanted to show their strength by Vedic mantra or mystic power.

Finally Dakha was beheaded by the giant-like personality created by Lord Shiva. The party of Lord Shiva gave out joyful exclamations and the brahmins in charge of the sacrifice also exclaimed in grief at the death of Dakha in such a manner. Dakha’s head was thrown on the sacrificial fire and the whole area was set on fire by the followers of Lord Shiva who then departed for their master’s place in Kwelas.

The defeated and injured demigods, priests and all members of the sacrificial assembly then approached Lord Brahma with great fear. They offered their obeisances and spoke in detail to him of all that had happened. Lord Brahma already knew what had happened, and having known beforehand he did not attend the sacrifice. When he had heard everything from the members, he replied: “You cannot have happiness if you blaspheme great personalities like Lord Shiva.” Lord Brahma said it was good for Dakha that he had been killed, otherwise, without that punishment, he would have committed more and more offenses and would be entangled in future lives. Knowing Lord Shiva’s easy, compassionate nature, Lord Brahma advised: “If you go to him without any reservation of mind and surrender unto him and ask to be excused at his Lotus Feet, he is very easily pleased and it will be nice. He has recently lost his wife and is afflicted by the unkind words of Dakha. So go and beg his pardon, who is so powerful that by his anger all the planets can be destroyed.”

After instructing all the demigods, Lord Brahma took them along with him and left for the place known as Kwelas Hill, the abode of Lord Shiva. Srimad Bhagwatam describes Kwelas as having different kinds of mountains, filled with valuable trees and plants and deer. There are different types of waterfalls with transparent water. Peacocks, cuckoos and other birds are always vibrating as if in rhythmic tune. There are many varieties of flowers, animals like the forest cow and buffalo, and plenty of decorated lakes. All the demigods were struck with wonder at the opulence of Kwelas. Under a huge banyan tree where it was silent and with unbroken shade, Lord Shiva sat as grave as time eternal, and the demigods approached him. He was encircled by famous saintly persons like the four Kumaras and Narada. Lord Shiva sat with his left leg on his right thigh and his right hand raised in the position of teaching or Tarkamudra, with the fingers opened and the second finger raised. He was instructing the saint Narada, and it is understood that if Narada was forming the audience, the topic must have been bhakti, or devotional service to Krishna. Brahma very respectfully payed obeisances to Lord Shiva on behalf of the party of the demigods. Lord Brahma requested that the priests whose limbs had been broken by the jaws of Lord Shiva’s soldiers be restored by Lord Shiva’s grace. “Please accept your portion of the sacrifice and let it be properly completed.” Lord Shiva was pacified by this, and he spoke as follows: “My dear father, Brahma, I do not mind the offenses created by the demigods because they are childish and less intelligent, and I do not take a serious view of it, but whatever I have done is just to punish them in order to set them right.” By this, Sambhu (Lord Shiva) expressed his desire for everyone’s welfare and asserted that he had chastised only in the way a father punishes his son, not as an enemy. All the priests’ injuries were gradually healed and even Dakha was revived to life by Lord Shiva’s placing the head of a goat on his trunk. Although he had a goat’s head and a human trunk, Dakha was revived in his previous individual consciousness, because it is not the head or bodily construction that makes individuality but the spirit soul whose symptom is consciousness. When he saw Lord Shiva, just by his presence, Dakha became purified in mind. Tears rolled from his eyes and he was finally sorry and affected by the death of his daughter Sati. He could hardly express himself in prayers, overwhelmed with nonduplicitous love and respect for Lord Shiva. “Although I was punished by you for my ignorance, I understand that you have not withdrawn your mercy. I know both yourself and Lord Vishnu are kind to the friends of brahmins.”

After begging forgiveness from Lord Shiva, and with the permission of Lord Brahma, Dakha again began the sacrifice in the regular way with fire and oblations. And first they offered oblations of the Holy Name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vishnu, in order to make the whole situation purified. Goswami A.C. Bhaktivedanta writes in this matter: “Performance of sacrifice is a very difficult task. In this present Age of Kali (Age of Quarrel) those who are intelligent know it is neither possible to perform the costly sacrifices nor to invite the demigods to participate. Therefore in this age, the Srimad Bhagwatam recommends Samkirtan Yajna (chanting of the Holy Names) as the means to keep the balance of social peace and prosperity and attain spiritual perfection. Samkirtan Yajna means to chant the Holy Names, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, and invite people and distribute Prasadam. This sacrifice will please all the demigods, and there will be peace and prosperity. The difficulty of performing Vedic rituals is that if you do not satisfy even one demigod out of many hundreds and thousands, just as Dakha could not satisfy Lord Shiva, then there is disaster. But in this age the performance is simplified by the chanting of Hare Krishna. And by pleasing Krishna all the demigods become satisfied automatically.”

The sacrificial arena had been desecrated by the followers of Lord Shiva and the recitation of the Name of Vishnu was required to sanctify the procedure. Of course Lord Shiva was now present, and he is all-auspicious, but because in the past his followers had broken the arena and passed urine and done many obnoxious things, so only by chanting the Name of Vishnu in devotion was purity found again. And as complete benediction to this famous Yajna, Lord Narayan (Vishnu) appeared there, seated on the shoulder of Garuda His birdcarrier, and illuminated the whole arena. Lord Vishnu is described as of a beautiful transcendental blackish hue, dressed in yellow garments and many ornaments and appearing in an eight-armed form bearing conch, shell, wheel, club, lotus, arrow, bow, shield and sword and being extraordinarily beautiful. Just His smile was pleasing to the whole world and captivated the audience of Dakha, Brighu and all present.

Lord Shiva, beholding the personified object of his constant meditation, bowed and spoke in ecstacy before the Supreme Controller of the worlds. He said: “My dear Lord, my mind and consciousness are always fixed on Your Lotus Feet, which are the Source of all benedictions and fulfillment of desires. They are worth worshiping. With my mind fixed in meditation on Your Lotus Feet I am no longer disturbed by persons who blaspheme, claiming that my activities are not purified. I do not mind their accusations and I excuse them out of compassion, just as You are compassionate to all living entities.” So here is the key to the character of Lord Shiva. By his own declaration the most powerful personality in the material world never forgets his transcendental relationship as servant of the Lord; and he continues always in Krishna Consciousness in order to remain free from material afflictions. Without such personal meditation on the Supreme Lord, no one can be free of contaminating material activities, characterized by the disadvantages of birth, death, disease and old age and the struggle for existence. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna assures that the dedicated soul who serves with love will never be vanquished by the material devastations. He says: “You simply surrender unto Me and I will give you protection.” The practical example of Lord Shiva’s worship is that liberation means, not some negative, temporary abeyance of trouble by meditation on the void, but practical eternal engagement in loving service to the Personality of Godhead. Those who cannot surrender their own personality, by submissive hearing, unto the Supreme Person must return again and again to the round of birth and death for attempted enjoyment and suffering in the material world. That is the verdict of the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagwatam.

By the grace of Lord Vishnu the sacrifice was completed to His full satisfaction.

Finally, out of so many incidences that make up Lord Shiva’s eternal career, and prove him glorious, there is one activity which is offered as his most glorious pastime in association with the Supreme Lord Krishna. This activity is stated in the Third Canto of Srimad Bhagwatam: “The blessed Lord Shiva becomes all the more blessed by bearing on his head the holy waters of the Ganges, which has as its source the water that washed the Lord’s Lotus Feet. His Feet are like a thunderbolt hurled to shatter sin stored in the mind of the devotee meditating on him.” The gist of this incident is a reference to the entrance into the material world of the sacred river Ganges which flows through many planetary systems. Lord Shiva carried this water down in his hair when it first emanated from the Causal Ocean which is the outside covering of this universe. By carrying this water, the auspicious Lord Shiva becomes even more auspicious. No one should laugh at or attempt to criticize Lord Shiva’s unconventional activities or foolishly attempt to imitate him as a so-called Shivite. Lord Shiva is great for doing humble service unto the Greatest. He is no voidist or impersonalist speculating on the Absolute as we often hear him described. With half-closed eyes and beautiful austere form, seated in meditation, he fixes his mind on the dearmost object, his Lord. And that is why he is called the greatest Vaishnava.

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How to offer food to Krishna?

There is a common misunderstanding that devotees of Krishna are vegetarians. Actually this is not true. Even if one becomes a vegetarian eating vegetarian food is still sinful and will still cause karmic reactions and will still bind the person eating it to take birth in the material world over and over and over again and suffer perpetually. So simply becoming a vegetarian is not very helpful in spiritual life.

in the Bhagavad-gita 3.13 Lord Krishna says:

The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.

So we can see unless the food is first ‘offed for sacrifice’ the person who eats that food is only eating sin. And the result of eating sin is that one becomes sinful. Krishna consciousness is only possible for those who are not sinful so Krishna consciousness is not possible for one who eats sin. Therefore even if one is a strict vegetarian it will be completely impossible for him to become Krishna conscious unless he restricts his eating to only food that has been offered to in sacrifice (yajna).

This is a very common reason why aspiring devotees of Lord Krishna fail to become Krishna conscious. They fail because they continue to eat food that is not offered to Krishna. Even though they may become strict vegetarians this does not help them very much, because vegetarian food which is not cooked by a devotee and offered to Krishna with love and devotion is simply sin. So when they eat this vegetarian food that is not prasadam they become sinful. And a sinful person can never become a devotee. Krishna confirms this in Bhagavad-gita 7.28:

Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life, whose sinful actions are completely eradicated and who are freed from the duality of delusion, engage themselves in My service with determination.

Srila Prabhupada states in his purport to this verse: “Those eligible for elevation to the transcendental position are mentioned in this verse. For those who are sinful, atheistic, foolish and deceitful, it is very difficult to transcend the duality of desire and hate. Only those who have passed their lives in practicing the regulative principles of religion, who have acted piously and who have conquered sinful reactions can accept devotional service and gradually rise to the pure knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then, gradually, they can meditate in trance on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the process of being situated on the spiritual platform. This elevation is possible in Krishna consciousness in the association of pure devotees who can deliver one from delusion.”

So we should understand it very clearly that sinful people can not become Krishna conscious and if one eats food, even if it is vegetarian food, that is not Krishna prasadam, meaning not cooked by a devotee of Krishna and offered to Krishna with love and devotion, he is eating only sin and because of eating sin he will become sinful. And because he is sinful he will not be able to become Krishna conscious.

It is very important to understand this simple scientific fact. If we eat anything which is not Krishna prasadam we are eating only sin and we will become sinful because of this. And we have to know it clearly that for a sinful person it is not possible to become Krishna conscious. So a devotee of Krishna can NEVER eat anything that is not Krishna prasadam.

And another common mistake is to try to offer unofferable things to Krishna and then to try and fool ourselves that these things have now become Krishna prasadam because we offered them to Krishna… Krishna only accepts foods in the mode of goodness. That means foods from the four groups of grains, milk products, vegetables and fruits. And He does not accept things in the mode of passion including garlic and onions. And it is a great offense to offer to Krishna foods that have been cooked by non-devotees. So once something is cooked by a non-devotee it can not be offered to Krishna, if you offer it to Krishna that is offensive and will not be good for you and of course it will not be accepted by Krishna and will not become prasadam…

We have to understand exactly what it is that Krishna accepts when we offer Him some food. It is not that Krishna is hungry and needs us to offer Him some food otherwise he will starve… No. Krishna is complete and full in Himself, He has plenty of food, and anyhow the food that we can offer Him is already His. It is not that we have anything to offer to Krishna, whatever we have already belongs to Krishna. So Krishna is not hungry and He does not need to be fed by us. But Krishna has given us a little independence. He has given us a little free will. We can choose to cook some food for our own pleasure or we can choose to cook some food for Krishna’s pleasure. That is our free will. So if we choose to cook for our own pleasure, to suit our own taste, then we are in maya and whatever we cook, even if it is vegetarian and even if we go through the motions of offering it to Krishna will not be accepted by Krishna and will not become prasadam and will be only sin and we will become sinful by eating it. Why? Because we did not cook it for Krishna. We cooked it for ourselves.

This is a very basic and a very fundamental principle of Krishna consciousness. And it is a point that 99% or more of today’s ‘devotees’ do not understand or follow. A devotee does not do anything for himself. He does everything for Krishna. So when a devotee goes to the market to purchase things he is not purchasing things because he thinks, “that looks nice, I will enjoy eating that…” That thought and consciousness of being the enjoyer is maya, illusion, sinful. We are not the enjoyer, Krishna is the enjoyer, we are meant to be enjoyed by Krishna. We are meant to be servants of Krishna. So when a devotee goes to the market and sees something very nice he is thinking of how he can prepare this nice thing in a very good way and offer it to Krishna and he is thinking of how Krishna will enjoy it.

A devotee does not consider his personal likes and dislikes. He has no concern for that at all. A devotee is only concerned with what Krishna likes and he is only concerned in preparing the food in the way that Krishna likes it. And he does not care. He may not like it himself personally but his pleasure is in seeing Krishna happy. So he purchases the food that Krishna likes and prepares it in the way that Krishna likes it and he offers it to Krishna with love and devotion and Krishna accepts this love and devotion with which the devotee prepares and offers the food to Him. Krishna does not need the actual food, but He does taste it because Krishna is attracted by the love and devotion His devotee has put into the food while preparing and offering it to Krishna. So Krishna accepts the love and devotion of the devotee who has prepared this offering for Him. That is what Krishna accepts. So if there is no love and devotion Krishna is not interested, He has no need for the food, and He is not interested in something that some person has prepared to satisfy his own personal sense of taste.

Therefore it is a very great offense to think of enjoying the food before it is offered to Krishna. Because we are preparing the food for Krishna therefore Krishna should be the first person to taste and enjoy it. We can not even think of enjoying the food in our minds or that will spoil the offering. That is the reason that it is forbidden to taste any food before it is offered to Krishna. If anyone tastes the food then the offering is spoiled and it is can not be offered to Krishna.

It is amazing that so many devotees have forgotten or never understood these essential basic fundamental principles of cooking for Krishna. Without very sincerely following these basic principles no one can become Krishna conscious. It is impossible to eat sin without becoming sinful and it is impossible to become Krishna conscious if we are sinful.

So if anyone wants to become a devotee of Krishna he must make this very serious vow that he will only eat Krishna prasadam, foods cooked by devotees and offered with love and devotion to Krishna. We can not eat anything that is not real Krishna prasadam and expect that we will be able to become devotees of Krishna.

Of course we have to learn how to cook for Krishna. The standards for cooking for Krishna are quite high. One has to be exceptionally clean. One has to have taken a bath before he cooks for Krishna and has to be wearing clean clothes. And the kitchen has to be very clean. There is an English saying: “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” and that is very true. We can not offer something to Krishna that was prepared in a dirty kitchen. And there are some important principles and one of these is we have to keep separate “Krishna’s pots” and our own personal eating plates and spoons and cups, etc. We can not use anything in preparing food for Krishna except Krishna’s things. So that means we can not use Krishna’s cooking things for ourselves. So if we are using a pot to cook for Krishna in we can not eat out of that pot ourselves for example. If we are using a spoon for mixing Krishna’s food in the cooking pot we can not later use that same spoon to eat from ourselves. We have to keep Krishna’s things and our eating things separate.

We have to be thinking of Krishna while we cook. It is not that we can be thinking of some material subject matter and at the same time be cooking for Krishna. A very good way to keep our minds on Krishna is to listen to Srila Prabhupada giving a class while we are cooking for Krishna. While we are cooking our hands are busy but our ears are free. So while we are cooking for Krishna is the perfect opportunity to hear from Srila Prabhupada and this will keep our mind on Krishna and stop it from wandering onto material subject matters.

When we have finished cooking for Krishna we have to arrange the food nicely on a plate that we will offer to Krishna. And that plate has to be Krishna’s plate and it can not be used for any other purpose except for offering food to Krishna. And if we have made some drink we can put that in a glass or we can offer a glass of water with Krishna’s meal.

Now a very important understanding for the actual offering is that really we are not offering anything to Krishna directly. We are actually cooking for Srila Prabhupada and we will offer the food to Srila Prabhupada. Because Srila Prabhupada is a pure devotee of Krishna and it is Prabhupada who has come here to the material world to save us and it is Prabhupada who is accepting our service on behalf of Krishna. That is what the spiritual master does. He accepts the service of the disciples on behalf of Krishna. So we cook for Srila Prabhupada and offer to Srila Prabhupada and then Prabhupada will take our offering and offer it to his spiritual master and in this way the offering will go to Krishna through the disciplic succession.

So we will place the plate with the food and the glass of water in front of a photo of Srila Prabhupada and offer it to him.

There are mantras to chant while offering ‘bhoga’ to Krishna. But the mantras are useless if the offering has not been cooked by a devotee with love and devotion. This love and devotion and actually cooking the offering for Krishna, not for ourselves, is the real essential element of the offering. If we have not put any love and devotion to Krishna into the offering then there is nothing for Krishna to accept and He will not accept because there is nothing for Him to accept…

You can offer to Krishna by chanting Srila Prabhupada’s two pranam mantras then the Panca-tattva Maha Mantra, then the Hare Krishna maha mantra all three times each. It is essential to always chant Srila Prabhupada’s pranam mantras first because it is only through the mercy of Srila Prabhupada that we have any access to Krishna, then it is also essential to always chant the Panca-Tattva maha mantra before chanting the Hare Krishna maha mantra because it is only by the mercy of Lord Caitanya that we have any access to Krishna. There are also two other mantras that we chant when offering prasadam. So it is five mantras in total and we chant each mantra three times. It only takes a few minutes so we should take the time to chant these mantras.
Prasadam Offering Mantras
Srila Prabhupada’s Pranam Mantras:

nama om visnu-padaya krsna presthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svami iti namine

namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesa-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine
Lord Caitanya’s Pranam Mantra:

namo maha-vadanyaya krsna-prema-pradaya te
krsnaya krsna-caitanya-namne gaura-tvise namah
Krishna’s Pranam Mantra:

namo brahmanya-devaya go-brahmana-hitaya ca
jagad-dhitaya krsnaya govindaya namo namah
Panca-Tattva Maha Mantra:

sri-krsna-caitanya prabhu nityananda
sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda
Hare Krishna Maha Mantra:

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare



So they are the five mantras and we should chant them all three times each. Then if one is brahman initiated he chants the first gayatri mantra ten times on his brahmin thread.

The process in the temple or at home with your home alter is that after the Lord is offered food we then offer aroti and kirtan. So after offering there should be aroti and kirtan, then the devotees can honor the Krishna prasadam.

We do not say ‘eat’ Krishna prasadam. Krishna and His prasadam are not different. So we respect or honor Krishna prasadam.

Before honoring the prasadam there is a very short prayer that devotees chant from Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s Gitavali:

1) sarira abidya-jal, jodendriya tahe kal,
jibe phele bisaya-sagore
ta’ra madhye jihva ati, lobhamoy sudurmati
ta’ke jeta kathina somsare

2) krsna baro doyamoy, karibare jihva jay,
swa-prasad-anna dilo bhai
sei annamrta khao, radha-krsna-guna gao,
preme dako caitanya-nitai

“O brothers! This material body is a place of ignorance, and the senses are a network of paths to death. The senses throw the soul into this ocean of material sense enjoyment and, of all the senses, the tongue is most voracious and uncontrollable; it is very difficult to conquer the tongue in this world. O brothers! Lord Krsna is very kind to us and has given us such nice prasada, just to control the tongue. Now let us take this prasada to our full satisfaction and glorify Their Lordships, Sri Sri Radha and Krsna and, in love, call for the help of Lord Caitanya and Prabhu Nityananda.”

It is very good if we can chant this prayer, both the Bengali and English, before honoring Krishna Prasadam. It only takes a couple of minutes and it helps us to remember how merciful Krishna is to us that He has given us this Krishna Prasadam that enables us to control our tongues.

The tongue is the most difficult to control of all the senses. The tongue has two functions: tasting and vibrating. So we can conquer the tongue if we only let it taste Krishna prasadam and only let it vibrate Krishna-katha, talks about Krishna. We should never let the tongue taste anything except Krishna prasadam and never let it vibrate anything except Krishna katha. If we undergo this simple austerity then advancement in Krishna consciousness will be very simple and very rapid for us.

Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!

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Do You Know the Difference Between GOD & DEMIGODS ?

Do you know God is Different from Demigods !!

Then Who is the God & Who are the Demigods ?????

Worshipping the God is really Different from Worshipping the Demigods !!

“Men in this world desire success in fruitive activities, and therefore they worship the demigods. Quickly, of course, men get results from fruitive work in this world.” (Bhagavad Gita 4.12) Many people get confused when it comes to God and the demigods. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of

Godhead and He is param-isvara, the Supreme Controller and there can never be any other controller equal to or greater than Krishna. However there are many other isvaras or controllers in the universe who have varying degrees of power over different departments of the universal management.

Actually Krishna is not directly engaged in managing the affairs of the material world. Krishna is, of course,
all-cognizant, so He is conscious of everything that is going on, and Krishna is all-powerful so He can do anything that He wants to at any time. Ultimately therefore Krishna is in control of everything however He is not directly connected with managing the affairs of the material world. Krishna has more important business: dancing with the gopis and playing with His cowherd boyfriends and cows and calves in the forests of Vrindavan. He has no interest in personally managing the affairs of the material world.

So, to ensure the affairs of the material world go on nicely Krishna has appointed many managers for all the different departments that need to be looked after in the material world. Krishna’s managers in the material world are called ‘demigods’. The demigods are all devotees of Krishna but they still have some material attachments therefore they are still trapped in the material world. However because the demigods are devotees they get promoted to the higher planets in the universe where they can live a very long life and enjoy a very high standard of material sense gratification and they are also given great positions of power and responsibility over various departments requiring managing in the material world.

In this way Krishna delegates the management of the affairs of this and the many other universes in the material world to His devotees who still have some material attachments so He can simply enjoy in Vrindavan.

Actually these demigods are just like us. They are ordinary living entities like you and me but as a result of their performance of sacrifices and practice of austerities they have been elevated to the higher planets and have been given positions of power and responsibility by Krishna. It is just like if a whole group of young men start working for a particular company they are all the same in the beginning but some will become very successful and be promoted in the company and become managers and get powerful positions and some will not. So the demigods are like the successful workers in the company who have been promoted to high management positions.

In reality there is no difference between the managers in the company and the ordinary workers. It is just that the managers, as a result of there hard work and dedication to the company, have been promoted to the high management positions.

But Krishna is not like that. Krishna is always Krishna — The Supreme Personality of Godhead. He does not have to work to advance in the universal management system and fight his way to the top like the demigods have to.

No. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead eternally. He is always on the top. And Krishna is actually all-powerful, whatever He desires immediately happens. The demigods are not like that. Krishna has given them some authority over some department so in that department they have some power but they have no power in other departments and they have no power to grant anyone liberation from the material world.

For example Lord Indra is the King of Heaven and he is in charge of the clouds and weather and lightning. So Indra is very wealthy and lives on his heavenly planet with his associates in a very opulent and comfortable way and he has power over the weather — that is the service Krishna has given him. So if one wants to be blessed with good weather so his agricultural activities will be a success he may worship Lord Indra for this purpose and because Indra is the controller of the weather if Indra is pleased he can send the clouds to that farmers place and give nice rains so his agricultural activities are successful. Also if one worships Indra and thinks of him at the time of death he can be transferred to the heavenly planet that Indra lives on and live a very comfortable life there.

But Lord Indra’s powers are very limited. Beyond controlling the weather and ruling over his heavenly planet he does not have any authority anywhere else. And his authority is given to him by Krishna. So with a little contemplation one can see that there are many millions of demigods in charge of the countless departments in the material world that effect us in our day-to-day lives. So if we want to worship demigods to satisfy them individually one-by-one that will be a very difficult task. In India there are people who try to do this. They have a huge list of demigods and try to worship them all for different boons or benefits.

The benedictions of the demigods are strictly limited to material benefits. They can not give spiritual benefits because they themselves are not liberated from the material world. Even though the demigods live on planets with a standard of living far, far higher than the standard of living we have on earth, still they have material bodies which will also get old, get sick and die. They may live for fabulously long periods of time but ultimately their material bodies will also get old, get sick and die.

In India there is a great misconception about these gods or demigods of this material world and men of less intelligence, although passing as great scholars, take these demigods to be various forms of the Supreme Lord.

They make no distinction between Krishna and the material demigods considering that worship of any of the ‘gods’ is equal to the worship of Krishna.

Actually, as we have discovered, the demigods are not different forms of God, but they are all Gods different parts and parcels–just like we are. God is one and the parts and parcels are many.

 The Vedas say: nityo nityanam: God is one and isvara parama krsnah: “The Supreme God is one–Krishna”.

The demigods are delegated with powers by Krishna so they can manage this material world. The demigods are living entities like us with different grades of material power. They can never be equal to the Supreme God–Narayana, Vishnu or Krishna.

Anyone who thinks that God and the demigods are on the same level is called an atheist, or pasandi. Even the great demigods like Brahma and Shiva can not be compared to the Supreme Lord. In fact the Lord is worshiped by the demigods such as Brahma and Shiva (siva-virinci-nutam). The demigods are powerful men within this material world in the same way that the President of the United States is a powerful man in this world. In our experience we see that many human leaders are worshiped by foolish men with the idea that through that worship and service they will get some material benefit from the great leader. People are working hard in their company worshiping and trying to please their ‘boss’ so they will get promoted within the company and earn more money.

That is demigod worship. The ‘boss’ is a person who has achieved a higher position in the company by worshiping the company leaders and serving them and performing austerities like working hard and doing overtime without pay… As a result he has advanced in the company and has some power and authority over a small section of the company. Worshiping the boss at work and worshiping demigods like Brahma, Shiva, Indra, Kali, Durga, etc. is

EXACTLY the same thing. Just like worshiping the boss at work will not help you at all spiritually, but it may help to increase your pay packet a little, worshiping the demigods can not help you spiritually but it may provide some temporary material benefits.

However Narayana, Vishna or Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, does not belong to this world. He is above, or transcendental to material creation. Even Sripada Sankacharaya, the leader of the impresonalists, maintains that Narayana or Krishna is beyond this material creation.

Foolish people worship the demigods because they want immediate results. They get the results, but they do not know that the results so obtained are temporary and are meant for less intelligent persons. The intelligent person is in Krishna consciousness and he has no need to worship the paltry demigods for some immediate, temporary benefit. The demigods of this material world, as well as their worshipers, will vanish with the annihilation of this material world. The boons or benedictions of the demigods are material and temporary. Both the material worlds and their inhabitants, including the demigods and their worshipers, are bubbles in the cosmic ocean.
In this world human society is mad after temporary things such as the material opulence of possessing land, family and enjoyable paraphernalia and to achieve these things they worship demigods or powerful men in human society. If a man gets some ministership in the government by worshiping a political leader, he considers that he has achieved a great boon.

So we find everywhere in this world that people are worshiping the so-called leaders or “big guns” in order to get temporary benefits, and they actually achieve such things. Such foolish men are not interested in Krishna consciousness for the permanent solution to the hardships of material existence. They are all after sense enjoyment and to get a little facility for sense enjoyment they are attracted to worship empowered living entities known as demigods.

This verse indicates that people are rarely interested in Krishna consciousness. Generally they are mostly interested in material enjoyment and therefore they worship some powerful living entity in an attempt to achieve this…




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Difference Between V I S H N U & K R I S H N A

Krishna is an Incarnation of Maha-Visnu?

There is No Krsnaloka??

As it is a very common Question among the Hindus that Krishna is an incarnation of Visnu. It is a sad history. Over the years there have been hundreds and thousands of
translations and commentaries on Krishna’s Bhagavad-gita both in India and in the West. Unfortunately most of them were prepared with some motive other than simply presenting the discussion between Krishna and Arjuna that occurred five thousand years ago on the battlefield of Kurusettra. Unfortunately people who read these motivated commentaries do not understand Krishna or the message of Kirshna’s book, Bhagavad-gita. 
For more information on this you can download the Original Bhagavad-gita As It Is here.

This phenomenon was dramatically illustrated in the Western countries. For more than the last two hundred years Krishna’s Bhagavad-gita has been very popular in the West among philosophers, religionists and scholars and the general public also. There have been hundreds of translations in the English language and the Gita had been read by millions of people in the West before the Founder-Acarya of the Hare Krishna movement, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, came to America in 1965. The amazing thing is, although the message of Krishna’s Gita is so clear if read “As It Is,” before 1965 not a single person in the Western world had became a devotee of Krishna. Before Srila Prabhupada presented his translation, “Bhagavad-gita As It Is” the Gita was accepted as a brilliant book of philosophy. But the thought of surrendering to Krishna never entered into anyone’s mind until they read Srila Prabhupada’s translation, Bhagavad-gita AS IT IS.

Srila Prabhupada’s translation of the Gita has created a revolution unlike any before it. It has inspired tens of thousands of wealthy, materially comfortable Westerners [and many Indians now also] to give up the materialistic way of life and take on a completely different life dedicated to serving Krishna. Why? Because Srila Prabhupada has not, like almost all the other translators of the Gita, tried to minimize Krishna’s position or twist some meaning other than surrender to Krishna out of the book.
Srila Prabhupada has let Krishna speak to the world by presenting His book, AS IT IS and the results have been wonderful.

Our general tendency in the material world is to be envious of others. We envy anyone who has a position greater than our own, that is the materialistic way. So when Krishna comes and says He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that we should all surrender to Him, such instructions are not liked by materialistic persons. So they write commentaries on the Gita to cover up all the clear instructions Krishna has given with their mental speculation and word jugglery and the poor reader is left totally confused and certainly does not understand the Bhagavad-gita at all.

That is generally the position of the Hindus at present. Totally confused. Even in India,almost all devotees of Krishna the wealthy & pious families,many questions were asked, but even though they were going to the temple every day, they did not know why and could not explain what they believed at all.

So we are very pleased when we discovered the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He has so perfectly and completely explained the philosophy of India that even we can understand it…

As for the specific question in regard to Krishna and Visnu. Visnu is an incarnation of Krishna, Krishna is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, syam bhagavan. 
It is true that all the Visnu-tattva incarnations including Maha-Visnu are non-different from Krishna, but still Krishna is the origin of them all. This point is confirmed in so many places in the Bhagavad-gita and in so many other Vedic texts also.
It is Krishna who is speaking the Bhagavad-gita and all the way through the book He is using the word aham meaning “I”. 
He says "aham sarvasya prabhavo", which means “I am the source of all the material and spiritual worlds…”


Bhagavad-gita 10.41 
The Opulence of the Absolute

yad yad vibhutimat sattvam
srimad urjitam eva va
tat tad evavagaccha tvam
mama tejo-’msa-sambhavam
Know that all beautiful, glorious, and mighty creations spring from but a spark of My [KRISHNA'S] splendor.

Bhagavad-gita 14.3 
The Three Modes Of Material Nature

mama yonir mahad brahma
tasmin garbham dadhamy aham
sambhavah sarva-bhutanam
tato bhavati bharata

The total material substance, called Brahman, is the source of birth, and it is that Brahman that I [KRISHNA] impregnate, making possible the births of all living beings, O son of Bharata.

Bhagavad-gita 14.4
The Three Modes Of Material Nature

sarva-yonisu kaunteya
murtayah sambhavanti yah
tasam brahma mahad yonir
aham bija-pradah pita

It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kunti, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I [KRISHNA] am the seed-giving father.

In this verse it is clearly explained that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, is the original father of all living entities. The living entities are combinations of the material nature and the spiritual nature. Such living entities are seen not only on this planet, but in every planet, even in the highest, where Brahma is situated. Everywhere there are living entities; within the earth there are living entities, even within water and within fire. All these appearances are due to the mother, material nature, and Krsna’s seed-giving process. The purport is that the living entities, being impregnated in the material world, come out and form at the time of creation according to their past deeds.

Bhagavad-gita 4.7 
Transcendental Knowledge

yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham

Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion–at that time I {KRISHNA] descend Myself.

Bhagavad-gita 7.7
Knowledge of the Absolute

mattah parataram nanyat
kincid asti dhananjaya
mayi sarvam idam protam
sutre mani-gana iva

O conqueror of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me {KRISHNA]. Everything rests upon Me [KRISHNA], as pearls are strung on a thread.

Bhagavad-gita 9.7
The Most Confidential Knowledge

sarva-bhutani kaunteya
prakrtim yanti mamikam
kalpa-ksaye punas tani
kalpadau visrjamy aham

O son of Kunti, at the end of the millennium every material manifestation enters into My [KRISHNA'S] nature, and at the beginning of another millennium, by [KRISHNA'S] My potency I again create.

Bhagavad-gita 9.10 
The Most Confidential Knowledge

mayadhyaksena prakrtih
suyate sa-caracaram
hetunanena kaunteya
jagad viparivartate

This material nature is working under [KRISHNA'S] My direction, O son of Kunti, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.

we have just included a few quotes for your reading, there are hundreds more. But there are no quotes saying Maha-Visnu is the origin of Krishna !!!


Bhagavad-gita 10.8 
The Opulence of the Absolute

aham sarvasya prabhavo
mattah sarvam pravartate
iti matva bhajante mam
budha bhava-samanvitah

I [KRISHNA] am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me [KRISHNA]. The wise who know this perfectly engage in [KRISHNA'S] My devotional service and worship [KRISHNA] Me with all their hearts.

A learned scholar who has studied the Vedas perfectly and has information from authorities like Lord Caitanya and who knows how to apply these teachings can understand that Krsna is the origin of everything in both the material and spiritual worlds, and because he knows this perfectly he becomes firmly fixed in the devotional service of the Supreme Lord. He can never be deviated by any amount of nonsensical commentaries or by fools. All Vedic literature agrees that Krsna is the source of Brahma, Siva and all other demigods.
 In the Atharva Veda it is said, “yo brahmanam vidadhati: purvam yo vai vedams ca gapayati sma krsnah.” “It was Krsna who in the beginning instructed Brahma in Vedic knowledge and who disseminated Vedic knowledge in the past.” 
Then again it is said, “atha puruso ha vai narayano ‘kamayata prajah srjeya ity upakramya.” “Then the Supreme Personality Narayana desired to create living entities.” 
Again it is said:

narayanad brahma jayate, narayanad prajapatih prajayate,
narayanad indro jayate,
narayanad astau vasavo jayante,
narayanad ekadasa
rudra jayante, narayanad dvadasadityah.

“From Narayana, Brahma is born, and from Narayana, the patriarchs are also born. From Narayana, Indra is born, from Narayana the eight Vasus are born, from Narayana the eleven Rudras are born, from Narayana the twelve Adityas are born.”
It is said in the same Vedas, brahmanyo devaki-putrah: “The son of Devaki, Krsna, is the Supreme Personality.” 
Then it is said:

eko vai narayana asin na brahma na isano napo nagni samau neme
dyav-aprthivi na naksatrani na suryah sa ekaki na ramate tasya
dhyanantah sthasya yatra chandogaih kriyamanastakadi-samjnaka
stuti-stomah stomam ucyate.

“In the beginning of the creation there was only the Supreme Personality Narayana. There was no Brahma, no Siva, no fire, no moon, no stars in the sky, no sun. There was only Krsna, who creates all and enjoys all”
In the many Puranas it is said that Lord Siva was born from the highest, the Supreme Lord Krsna, and the Vedas say that it is the Supreme Lord, the creator of Brahma and Siva, who is to be worshiped. 
In the Moksa-dharma Krsna also says,
prajapatim ca rudram capy aham eva srjami vai tau hi mam na vijanito mama maya-vimohitau.
“The patriarchs, Siva and others are created by Me, though they do not know that they are created by Me because they are deluded by My illusory energy.”
 In the Varaha Purana it is also said, narayanah paro devas tasmaj jatas caturmukhah tasmad rudro ‘bhavad devah sa ca sarva-jnatam gatah. “Narayana is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and from Him Brahma was born, from whom Siva was born.”

Lord Krsna is the source of all generations, and He is called the most efficient cause of everything. He says that because “everything is born of Me, I am the original source of all. Everything is under Me; no one is above Me.” 
There is no supreme controller other than Krsna. One who understands Krsna in such a way from a bona fide spiritual master and from Vedic literature, who engages all his energy in Krsna consciousness, becomes a truly learned man. In comparison to him, all others, who do not know Krsna properly, are but fools.
 Only a fool would consider Krsna to be an ordinary man. A Krsna conscious person should not be bewildered by fools; he should avoid all unauthorized commentaries and interpretations on Bhagavad-gita and proceed in Krsna consciousness with determination and firmness.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.3.28 Krsna Is the Source of All Incarnations

ete camsa-kalah pumsah
krsnas tu bhagavan svayam
indrari-vyakulam lokam
mrdayanti yuge yuge
All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Sri Krsna is the original Personality of Godhead.

All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists.
In this particular stanza Lord Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, is distinguished from other incarnations. He is counted amongst the avataras (incarnations) because out of His causeless mercy the Lord descends from His transcendental abode. Avatara means “one who descends.” All the incarnations of the Lord, including the Lord Himself, descend on the different planets of the material world as also in different species of life to fulfill particular missions. Sometimes He comes Himself, and sometimes His different plenary portions or parts of the plenary portions, or His differentiated portions directly or indirectly empowered by Him, descend on this material world to execute certain specific functions. 
Originally the Lord is full of all opulences, all prowess, all fame, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation. 
When they are partly manifested through the plenary portions or parts of the plenary portions, it should be noted that certain manifestations of His different powers are required for those particular functions. When in the room small electric bulbs are displayed, it does not mean that the electric powerhouse is limited by the small bulbs. The same powerhouse can supply power to operate large-scale industrial dynamos with greater volts. Similarly, the incarnations of the Lord display limited powers because so much power is needed at that particular time.

According to Srila Jiva Gosvami’s statement, in accordance with authoritative sources, Lord Krsna is the source of all other incarnations. It is not that Lord Krsna has any source of incarnation. All the symptoms of the Supreme Truth in full are present in the person of Lord Sri Krsna.
And in the Bhagavad-gita the Lord emphatically declares that there is no truth greater than or equal to Himself. In this stanza the word svayam is particularly mentioned to confirm that Lord Krsna has no other source than Himself.

Although in other places the incarnations are described as bhagavan because of their specific functions, nowhere are they declared to be the Supreme Personality. In this stanza the word svayam signifies the supremacy as the summum bonum.

The summum bonum Krsna is one without a second. He Himself has expanded Himself in various parts, portions and particles as svayam-rupa, svayam-prakasa, tad-ekatma, prabhava, vaibhava, vilasa, avatara, avesa, and jivas, all provided with innumerable energies just suitable to the respective persons and personalities.
 Learned scholars in transcendental subjects have carefully analyzed the summum bonum Krsna to have sixty-four principal attributes. All the expansions or categories of the Lord possess only some percentages of these attributes. But Sri Krsna is the possessor of the attributes cent percent. And His personal expansions such as svayam-prakasa, tad-ekatma up to the categories of the avataras who are all visnu-tattva, possess up to ninety-three percent of these transcendental attributes. Lord Siva, who is neither avatara nor avesa nor in between them, possesses almost eighty-four percent of the attributes. But the jivas, or the individual living beings in different statuses of life, possess up to the limit of seventy-eight percent of the attributes. In the conditioned state of material existence, the living being possesses these attributes in very minute quantity, varying in terms of the pious life of the living being. The most perfect of living beings is Brahma, the supreme administrator of one universe. He possesses seventy-eight percent of the attributes in full.

All other demigods have the same attributes in less quantity, whereas human beings possess the attributes in very minute quantity. The standard of perfection for a human being is to develop the attributes up to seventy-eight percent in full. The living being can never possess attributes like Siva, Visnu or Lord Krsna. A living being can become godly by developing the seventy-eight-percent transcendental attributes in fullness, but he can never become a God like Siva, Visnu or Krsna. He can become a Brahma in due course. The godly living beings who are all residents of the planets in the spiritual sky are eternal associates of God in different spiritual planets called Hari-dhama and Mahesa-dhama.

The abode of Lord Krsna above all spiritual planets is called Krsnaloka or Goloka Vrndavana, and the perfected living being, by developing seventy-eight percent of the above attributes in fullness, can enter the planet of Krsnaloka after leaving the present material body.

Bhagavad-gita 10.12-13 
The Opulence of the Absolute

arjuna uvaca

param brahma param dhama
pavitram paramam bhavan
purusam sasvatam divyam
adi-devam ajam vibhum

ahus tvam rsayah sarve
devarsir naradas tatha
asito devalo vyasah
svayam caiva bravisi me

Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty. All the great sages such as Narada, Asita, Devala, and Vyasa proclaim this of You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.In these two verses the Supreme Lord gives a chance to the modern philosopher, for here it is clear that the Supreme is different from the individual soul. Arjuna, after hearing the essential four verses of Bhagavad-gita in this chapter, became completely free from all doubts and accepted Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He at once boldly declares, “You are Parambrahma, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” And previously Krsna states that He is the originator of everything and everyone. Every demigod and every human being is dependent on Him. Men and demigods, out of ignorance, think that they are absolute and independent of the Supreme Lord Krsna. 

That ignorance is removed perfectly by the discharge of devotional service. This is already explained in the previous verse by the Lord. Now by His grace, Arjuna is accepting Him as the Supreme Truth, in concordance with the Vedic injunction. It is not because Krsna is an intimate friend of Arjuna that he is flattering Him by calling Him the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth. Whatever Arjuna says in these two verses is confirmed by Vedic truth. Vedic injunctions affirm that only one who takes to devotional service to the Supreme Lord can understand Him, whereas others cannot. Each and every word of this verse spoken by Arjuna is confirmed by Vedic injunction.


Here Arjuna expresses himself through the grace of Krsna. If we want to understand Bhagavad-gita, we should accept the statements in these two verses. This is called the parampara system, acceptance of the disciplic succession. Unless one is in the disciplic succession, he cannot understand Bhagavad-gita. It is not possible by so-called academic education. Unfortunately those proud of their academic education, despite so much evidence in Vedic literatures, stick to their obstinate conviction that Krsna is an ordinary person.


Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.1 Questions by the Sages

om namo bhagavate vasudevaya
janmady asya yato ‘nvayad itaratas carthesv abhijnah svarat
tene brahma hrda ya adi-kavaye muhyanti yat surayah
tejo-vari-mrdam yatha vinimayo yatra tri-sargo ‘mrsa
dhamna svena sada nirasta-kuhakam satyam param dhimahi
O my Lord, Sri Krsna, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Sri Krsna because He is the

Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all

manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. 

It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmaji, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Sri Krsna, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth.

Obeisances unto the Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva, directly indicate Lord Sri Krsna, who is the divine son of Vasudeva and Devaki. This fact will be more explicitly explained in the text of this work. Sri Vyasadeva asserts herein that Sri Krsna is the original Personality of Godhead, and all others are His direct or indirect plenary portions or portions of the portion. Srila Jiva Gosvami has even more explicitly explained the subject matter in his Krsna-sandarbha. And Brahma, the original living being, has explained the subject of Sri Krsna substantially in his treatise named Brahma-samhita. In the Sama-veda Upanisad, it is also stated that Lord Sri Krsna is the divine son of Devaki. Therefore, in this prayer, the first proposition holds that Lord Sri Krsna is the primeval Lord, and if any transcendental nomenclature is to be understood as belonging to the Absolute Personality of Godhead, it must be the name indicated by the word Krsna, which means the all-attractive.
In Bhagavad-gita, in many places, the Lord asserts Himself to be the original Personality of Godhead, and this is confirmed by Arjuna, and also by great sages like Narada, Vyasa, and many others.
   In the Padma Purana, it is also stated that

out of the innumerable names of the Lord, the name of Krsna is the principal one. Vasudeva indicates the plenary portion of the Personality of Godhead, and all the different forms of the Lord, being identical with Vasudeva, are indicated in this text. The name Vasudeva particularly indicates the divine son of Vasudeva and Devaki. Sri Krsna is always meditated upon by the paramahamsas, who are the perfected ones among those in the renounced order of life.
 
Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.28-29 Divinity and Divine Service

vasudeva-para veda
vasudeva-para makhah
vasudeva-para yoga
vasudeva-parah kriyah

vasudeva-param jnanam
vasudeva-param tapah
vasudeva-paro dharmo
vasudeva-para gatih

In the revealed scriptures, the ultimate object of knowledge is Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead. The purpose of performing sacrifice is to please Him. Yoga is for realizing Him. All fruitive activities are ultimately rewarded by Him only. He is supreme knowledge, and all severe austerities are performed to know Him. Religion [dharma] is rendering loving service unto Him. He is the supreme goal of life.
That Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, is the only object of worship is confirmed in these two slokas. In the Vedic literature there is the same objective: establishing one’s relationship and ultimately reviving our lost loving service unto Him. That is the sum and substance of the Vedas.

In the Bhagavad-gita the same theory is confirmed by the Lord in His own words that the ultimate purpose of the Vedas is to know Him only. All the revealed scriptures are prepared by the Lord through His incarnation in the body of Srila Vyasadeva just to remind the fallen souls, conditioned by material nature, of Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead.
No demigod can award freedom from material bondage !!!!!!!!!!!!
That is the verdict of all the Vedic literatures. Impersonalists who have no information of the Personality of Godhead minimize the omnipotency of the Supreme Lord and put Him on equal footing with all other living beings, and for this act such impersonalists get freedom from material bondage only with great difficulty. They can surrender unto Him only after many, many births in the culture of transcendental knowledge.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.9.18 The Passing Away of Bhismadeva in the Presence of Lord Krsna

esa vai bhagavan saksad
adyo narayanah puman
mohayan mayaya lokam
gudhas carati vrsnisu

This Sri Krsna is no other than the inconceivable, original Personality of Godhead. He is the first Narayana, the supreme enjoyer. But He is moving amongst the descendants of King Vrsni just like one of us and He is bewildering us with His self-created energy.
 
Here is an authority speaking about Sri Krsna as the original Personality of Godhead and the first Narayana. 

Even such an impersonalist as Acarya Sankara has said in the beginning of his commentation on the Bhagavad-gita that Narayana, the Personality of Godhead, is beyond the material creation. The universe is one of the material creations, but Narayana is transcendental to such material paraphernalia.
 
Bhismadeva is one of the twelve mahajanas who know the principles of transcendental knowledge. His confirmation of Lord Sri Krsna’s being the original Personality of Godhead is also corroborated by the impersonalist Sankara. All other acaryas have also confirmed this statement, and thus there is no chance of not accepting Lord Sri Krsna as the original Personality of Godhead. Bhismadeva says that He is the first Narayana.
This is also confirmed by Brahmaji in the Bhagavatam (10.14.14). Krsna is the first Narayana. In the spiritual world (Vaikuntha) there are unlimited numbers of Narayanas, who are all the same Personality of Godhead and are considered to be the plenary expansions of the original Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna.
 The first form of the Lord Sri Krsna first expands Himself as the form of Baladeva, and Baladeva expands in so many other forms, such as Sankarsana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, Vasudeva, Narayana, Purusa, Rama and Nrsimha. All these expansions are one and the same visnu-tattva, and Sri Krsna is the original source of all the plenary expansions. He is therefore the direct Personality of Godhead. He is the creator of the material world, and He is the predominating Deity known as Narayana in all the Vaikuntha planets. 

Therefore, His movements amongst human beings is another sort of bewilderment. The Lord therefore says in the Bhagavad-gita that foolish persons consider Him to be one of the human beings without knowing the intricacies of His movements.

The bewilderment regarding Sri Krsna is due to the action of His twofold internal and external energies upon the third one, called marginal energy. The living entities are expansions of His marginal energy, and thus they are sometimes bewildered by the internal energy and sometimes by the external energy. By internal energetic bewilderment, Sri Krsna expands Himself into unlimited numbers of Narayanas and exchanges or accepts transcendental loving service from the living entities in the transcendental world. And by His external energetic expansions, He incarnates Himself in the material world amongst the men, animals or demigods to reestablish His forgotten relation with the living entities in different species of life. Great authorities like Bhisma, however, escape His bewilderment by the mercy of the Lord.

 

Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.1.19 The Supreme Lord Is Equal to Everyone
sapator asakrd visnum
yad brahma param avyayam
svitro na jato jihvayam
nandham vivisatus tamah

Although these two men–Sisupala and Dantavakra–repeatedly blasphemed the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Visnu [Krsna], the Supreme Brahman, they were quite healthy.
Indeed, their tongues were not attacked by white leprosy, nor did they enter the darkest region of hellish life. We are certainly most surprised by this.

Krsna is described by Arjuna in Bhagavad-gita (10.12) as follows: param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan. “You are the Supreme Brahman, the supreme abode and

purifier.” Herein this is confirmed. Visnum yad brahma param avyayam. The Supreme Visnu is Krsna. Krsna is the cause of Visnu, not vice versa. Similarly, Brahman is not the cause of Krsna; Krsna is the cause of Brahman. Therefore Krsna is the Parabrahman (yad brahma param avyayam).

Srimad-Bhagavatam 8.21.5 P Bali Maharaja Arrested by the Lord
Vamanadeva first expanded Himself to the universal form and then reduced Himself to the original Vamana-rupa. Thus He acted exactly like Lord Krsna, who, at the request of Arjuna, first showed His universal form and later resumed His original form as Krsna. 

The Lord can assume any form He likes, but His original form is that of Krsna (krsnas tu bhagavan svayam).  
According to the capacity of the devotee, the Lord assumes various forms so that the devotee can handle Him. This is His causeless mercy. When Lord Vamanadeva resumed His original form, Lord Brahma and his associates collected various paraphernalia for worship with which to please Him.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 9.24.53-55 Krsna the Supreme Personality of Godhead

astamas tu tayor asit
svayam eva harih kila
subhadra ca mahabhaga
tava rajan pitamahi

The eight sons born of Sahadeva such as Pravara and Sruta, were exact incarnations of the eight Vasus in the heavenly planets. Vasudeva also begot eight highly qualified sons through the womb of Devaki. These included Kirtiman, Susena, Bhadrasena, Rju, Sammardana, Bhadra and Sankarsana, the controller and serpent incarnation. The eighth son was the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself–Krsna. The highly fortunate Subhadra, the one daughter, was your grandmother.

The fifty-fifth verse says, svayam eva harih kila, indicating that Krsna, the eighth son of Devaki, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Krsna is not an incarnation. Although there is no difference between the Supreme Personality of Godhead Hari and His incarnation, Krsna is the original Supreme Person, the complete Godhead. 

Incarnations exhibit only a certain percentage of the potencies of Godhead; the complete Godhead is Krsna Himself, who appeared as the eighth son of Devaki.
  Srimad-Bhagavatam 9.24.56 P Krsna the Supreme Personality of Godhead
In the present age, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has appeared as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to inaugurate the Hare Krsna movement. At the present time, in Kali-yuga, people are extremely sinful and bad (manda). They have no idea of spiritual life and are misusing the benefits of the human form to live like cats and dogs. Under these circumstances Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has inaugurated the Hare Krsna movement, which is not different from Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If one associates with this movement, he directly associates with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. People should take advantage of the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra and thus gain relief from all the problems created in this age of Kali.
 
Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.8.13 Lord Krsna Shows the Universal Form Within His Mouth

  asan varnas trayo hy asya
grhnato ‘nuyugam tanuh
suklo raktas tatha pita
idanim krsnatam gatah

Your son Krsna appears as an incarnation in every millennium. In the past, He assumed three different colors–white, red and yellow–and now He has appeared in a blackish color.
[In another Dvapara-yuga, He appeared (as Lord Ramacandra) in the color of suka, a parrot. All such incarnations have now assembled in Krsna.]

It may be noted that Srila Jiva Gosvami, in his book Krama-sandarbha, has enunciated the purport of this verse. In every millennium, Krsna appears in a different form, either as white, red or yellow, but this time He personally appeared in His original, blackish form and, as predicted by Gargamuni, exhibited the power of Narayana. Because in this form the Supreme personality of Godhead exhibits Himself fully, His name is Sri Krsna, the all-attractive.

Factually, Krsna is the source of all avataras, and therefore all the different features of the different avataras are present in Krsna. When Krsna incarnates, all the features of other incarnations are already present within Him. Other incarnations are partial representations of Krsna, who is the full-fledged incarnation of the Supreme Being. It is to be understood that the Supreme Being, whether appearing as sukla, rakta or pita (white, red or yellow), is the same person. When He appears in different incarnations, He appears in different colors, just like the sunshine, which contains seven colors. Sometimes the colors of sunshine are represented separately; otherwise the sunshine is observed mainly as bright light. The different avataras, such as the manvantara-avataras, lila-avataras and dasa-avataras, are all included in the krsna-avatara. When Krsna appears, all the avataras appear with Him. 
As described in Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.3.26):

avatara hy asankhyeya
hareh sattva-nidher dvijah
yathavidasinah kulyah
sarasah syuh sahasrasah

The avataras incessantly appear, like incessantly flowing water. No one can count how many waves there are in flowing water, and similarly there is no limitation of the avataras. And Krsna is the full representation of all avataras because He is the source of all avataras. Krsna is amsi, whereas others are amsa, part of Krsna. All living entities, including us, are amsas (mamaivamso jiva-loke jiva-bhutah sanatanah). These amsas are of different magnitude. Human beings (who are minute amsas) and the demigods, visnu-tattva and all other living beings are all part of the Supreme. Nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam (Katha Upanisad 2.2.13). Krsna is the full representation of all living entities, and when Krsna is present, all avataras are included in Him.
The Eleventh Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam describes the incarnations for each yuga in chronological order. The Bhagavatam says, krte suklas catur-bahuh, tretayam rakta-varno’sau, dvapare bhagavan syamah and krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam. We actually see that in Kali-yuga, Bhagavan has appeared in pita-varna, or a yellow color, as Gaurasundara, although the Bhagavatam speaks of krsna-varnam. To adjust all these statements, one should understand that although in some yugas some of the colors are prominent, in every yuga, whenever Krsna appears, all the colors are present. Krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam: although Caitanya Mahaprabhu appears without krsna, or a blackish color, He is understood to be Krsna Himself. Idanim krsnatam gatah. The same original Krsna who appears in different varnas has now appeared. The word asan indicates that He is always present. Whenever the Supreme Personality of Godhead appears in His full feature, He is understood to be krsna-varnam, although He appears in different colors. Prahlada Maharaja states that Caitanya Mahaprabhu is channa; that is, although He is Krsna, He is covered by a yellow color. Thus the Gaudiya Vaisnavas accept the conclusion that although Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in pita color, He is Krsna.

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam
sangopangastra-parsadam
yajnaih sankirtana-prayair
yajanti hi sumedhasah

 
(Bhag. 11.5.32)

Bs 5.1 T

isvarah paramah krsnah
sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah
anadir adir govindah
sarva-karana-karanam"Krsna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes !!!!!!!!!!!! "

 
All Glories to His Divine Grace Srila A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada!!!


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