Srila Sridhar Maharaja beautifully answers the question "What if spiritual mental exercise is done with faith?" [including, but not limited to: ashta-kaliya-lila etc.]. And simply with a quote from Bhagavad Gita. Try reading this aloud—slowly. Mind is separate. Sraddha is connected with soul, atma, and mind is matter. Mind is material: a part of material… Continue Reading»
Srila Sridhar Maharaja: "Higher devotion never wants that Krishna will come and serve us. “Supply! Oh, give me darshan!” And He will come and give us darshan. To impose our whim on Him, this is not service proper. Whatever He likes He will do, and whatever is necessary from us, if we are given chance… Continue Reading»
Srila Sridhar Maharaja on the dissolution of false ego, and entering the plane of divine sweetness—Vrindavan. When we come in connection with Krishna gradually we will realize that our environment is friendly to us. When the reactions of our previous actions disappear, we will find that every wave is carrying good news to us. When… Continue Reading»
The Scientific Definition of Krishna (Rasa) Srila Sridhar Maharaja speaks on the inner demand of the heart for pleasure: love, beauty, charm and sweetness. The want of Krishna consciousness is responsible for all the troubles in the world (Mahaprabhu says). And that is the aim of Gaudiya Math: to remove this fundamental difficulty. At the… Continue Reading»
Our connection is with the Infinite and that means infinite possibilities—no limitation. We should be open to anything and everything—that is vaikuntha. No kuntha, no measurement, no limitation, no concern with relativity. Only we may consider things as favorable or unfavorable. This sort of adjustment is necessary in the mundane world. Real bhajan means self-surrender:… Continue Reading»
Srila Sridhar Maharaja explains how to leave the world of treachery and enter the world of faith. There is a great value in having the company of the saints and the scriptures, without mixing with the robbery of this material world. What is present here at this moment becomes nothing at the next. We are… Continue Reading»
Srila Sridhar Maharaja answers the question: "When the environment comes to attack us, how can we see Divinity in the background?" We shall try to find out the Supreme Will there. We should feel, “I have done something wrong, so this is coming to control me and to exact the reaction for my offences. Tat… Continue Reading»
Srila Sridhar Maharaja in response to the question why Srila Saraswati Thakur (Surya Siddhanta Saraswati), the expert astrologer, would defer to Bhaktivinode Thakur, who followed the calculations of P.N. Bachi. Continue Reading»
Srila Sridhar Maharaja speaks on entering the divine domain via the medium of spiritual sound. Through the medium of sound we can go to the truth. Sound is the medium utilized every where for every case, so why shouldn't sound be the medium for the spiritual? Through the medium of sound, my mind wants to… Continue Reading»
Quintessential sweetness, insight, depth and originality of Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev Goswami Maharaja. By the grace of the devotees and by the grace of Lord Jagannath, I am here at present in Sridham Puri, which is a transcendental abode. Because our vision is covered by Maya we cannot see the transcendental abode, but by… Continue Reading»
Which view do Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Fydor Dostoyevsky and Srila Sridhar Maharaja hold in common? In his 1970 Nobel Literature acceptance speech Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spoke the following words: Dostoyevsky once enigmatically let drop the phrase: "Beauty will save the world." What does this mean? For a long time I thought it merely a phrase. Was such… Continue Reading»
"In Vrindavan Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur asked his sannyasi disciple to explain about the pure devotion of Prahlad Maharaja, shuddha-bhakti, from Bhagavatam, and not to indulge in describing the pastimes of Krishna and the Gopis and others—because it is too high. We must begin from the first plane of Bhakti, and madhura rasa, that is… Continue Reading»
So sometimes people will accuse those exclusecively dedicated the culture of faith as being socially negligent. That’s a misguidance, superficial for the vision. Continue Reading»
We have to think—what are we representing? We hear that self deprecation and negative expression is the wealth of a Vaiṣṇava. So, we shouldn’t be afraid of expressing the depths of our own negativity. But at the same time we have to think of our Guru-varga, their wealth and their position. So, Śrīla Guru Mahārāj quoted… Continue Reading»
“All art is quite useless,” quipped Oscar Wilde; still it may be unbelievably expensive. A Picasso portrait, “Dora Maar With Cat,” sold for $95.2 million at Sotheby’s recently, the second-highest price ever paid for a painting at auction. The image of Maar, one of Picasso’s mistresses, was sold on the second night of the important spring… Continue Reading»
It’s the old unanswerable question: The Beatles or The Stones, Jesus or Jehovah, Allah or Yahweh, Vishnu or Shiva? There is a plurality of theistic conceptions orbiting the central truth vying for supremacy. Christians believe salvation can only be achieved through Jesus Christ, Muslims through Mohammed, Hindus through the grace of Sri Guru. Each offers… Continue Reading»
## Philosophy with a scientific basis The soul élan vital is in search of fulfillment, wandering throughout existence from one form of life to another until it at last evolves to the human level. Observing the various life forms we detect a gradual evolution of awareness, an unfolding of conscious development (and expression of will).… Continue Reading»
Some years ago, Andrew Sullivan was asked by Tina Brown of the New Yorker to write an article about “religion.” His description and observations: “After routine flattery, she got to the point. ‘We have a fabulous issue coming up on religion, and Dick Avedon is photographing several religious figures and icons, and I wondered whether… Continue Reading»
With reference to his Śrī Chaitanya Sāraswat Maṭh in Nabadwip Dhām, Śrīla Bhakti Rakshak Śrīdhar Dev-Goswāmī says, “This is Govardhan, Gupta Govardhan; Nabadwip is Gupta Vrindavan, more magnanimous than Vrindavan; the Dhām of the fallen, and Govardhan is here. And Rādhā Kunda on the other side. Most holy place for the fallen [aparādha-bhañjanera pāṭa; the… Continue Reading»