April 2015 – Page 2 – Light of Godhead

Supreme is Supreme

Source: SB 2.5.7

Nārada Muni accepted Brahmā as the Supreme due to Lord Brahmā’s wonderful acts in creation, but doubts arose in him when he saw that Lord Brahmā also worshiped some superior authority. The Supreme is supreme, and He has no worshipable superior. The ahaṅgrahopāsitā, or the one who worships himself with the idea of becoming God Himself, is misleading, but the intelligent disciple can at once detect that the Supreme God does not need to worship anyone, including Himself, in order to

light-of-godhead2015-06-10T06:34:06+00:00April 24th, 2015|Categories: Brahma, Narada Muni, Stories|Tags: Becoming God|

SB 1.1.17-19: Developing taste

SB 1.1.17: His transcendental acts are magnificent and gracious, and great learned sages like Nārada sing of them. Please, therefore, speak to us, who are eager to hear, about the adventures He performs in His various incarnations.

Those who are not conversant with the activities of the Lord and His transcendental realm are sometimes favored by the Lord in His adventures as incarnations wherein He displays the eternal bliss of His association in the transcendental realm. By such activities He attracts the conditioned souls of the material world. Some of these conditioned souls are engaged in the false enjoyment of material senses and others in simply negating their real life in the spiritual world. These less intelligent persons are known as karmīs, or fruitive workers, and jñānīs, or dry mental speculators. But above these two classes of men is the transcendentalist known as sātvata, or the devotee, who is busy neither with rampant material activity nor with material speculation. He is engaged in the positive service of the Lord, and thereby he derives the highest spiritual benefit unknown to the karmīs and jñānīs.

light-of-godhead2015-07-12T18:52:50+00:00April 24th, 2015|Categories: Canto 1, Srimad Bhagavatam notes|

SB 1.1.12–16: Partial to devotees

SB 1.1.12: All blessings upon you, O Sūta Gosvāmī. You know for what purpose the Personality of Godhead appeared in the womb of Devakī as the son of Vasudeva.

Bhagavān means the almighty God who is the controller of all opulence, power, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation. He is the protector of His pure devotees. Although God is equally disposed to everyone, He is especially inclined to His devotees. Sat means the Absolute Truth. And persons who are servitors of the Absolute Truth are called sātvatas. And the Personality of Godhead who protects such pure devotees is known as the protector of the sātvatas. Bhadraṁ te, or “blessings upon you,” indicates the sages’ anxiety to know the Absolute Truth from the speaker. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appeared to Devakī, the wife of Vasudeva. Vasudeva is the symbol of the transcendental position wherein the appearance of the Supreme Lord takes place.

light-of-godhead2015-09-07T22:46:59+00:00April 24th, 2015|Categories: Canto 1, Srimad Bhagavatam notes|

SB 1.1.9-11: Spiritual well-being

SB 1.1.9: Please, therefore, being blessed with many years, explain to us, in an easily understandable way, what you have ascertained to be the absolute and ultimate good for the people in general.

In Bhagavad-gītā, worship of the ācārya is recommended. The ācāryas and gosvāmīs are always absorbed in thought of the well-being of the general public, especially their spiritual well-being. Spiritual well-being is automatically followed by material well-being. The ācāryas therefore give directions in spiritual well-being for people in general. Foreseeing the incompetencies of the people in this Age of Kali, or the iron age of quarrel, the sages requested that Sūta Gosvāmī give a summary of all revealed scriptures because the people of this age are condemned in every respect. The sages, therefore, inquired of the absolute good, which is the ultimate good for the people. The condemned state of affairs of the people of this age is described as follows.

light-of-godhead2015-09-07T22:46:59+00:00April 23rd, 2015|Categories: Canto 1, Srimad Bhagavatam notes|

SB 1.1.4-8: Become submissive

SB 1.1.4: Once, in a holy place in the forest of Naimiṣāraṇya, great sages headed by the sage Śaunaka assembled to perform a great thousand-year sacrifice for the satisfaction of the Lord and His devotees.

The great sages are always anxious to do good to the people in general, and as such the sages headed by Śaunaka and others assembled at this holy place of Naimiṣāraṇya with a program of performing a great and continuous chain of sacrificial ceremonies. Forgetful men do not know the right path for peace and prosperity. However, the sages know it well, and therefore for the good of all men they are always anxious to perform acts which may bring about peace in the world. They are sincere friends to all living entities, and at the risk of great personal inconvenience they are always engaged in the service of the Lord for the good of all people. Lord Viṣṇu is just like a great tree, and all others, including the demigods, men, Siddhas, Cāraṇas, Vidyādharas and other living entities, are like branches, twigs and leaves of that tree. By pouring water on the root of the tree, all the parts of the tree are automatically nourished.

light-of-godhead2015-07-12T19:05:18+00:00April 22nd, 2015|Categories: Canto 1, Srimad Bhagavatam notes|

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati chastising Srila Prabhupada

Source: How shall I serve you?

Once in a room with many disciples, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī was speaking and Abhay listening when an old man beside Abhay motioned to him. As Abhay leaned over to hear what the man wanted, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta suddenly spoke out in annoyance at the two apparently inattentive students. “Bābū,” he first addressed the old man beside Abhay, “do you think you have purchased me with your 150-rupees-per-month donation?” And then, turning to Abhay: “Why don’t you come up here and speak instead of me?” Abhay was

light-of-godhead2015-05-25T00:06:46+00:00April 21st, 2015|Categories: Chastisement, Pastimes of Srila Prabhupada, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati|

Devotional service is directly perceived

Source: BG 9.2 purport

In the Vedānta-sūtra (3.2.26) this is also described in the following words: prakāśaś ca karmaṇy abhyāsāt. “Devotional service is so potent that simply by engaging in the activities of devotional service one becomes enlightened without a doubt.”

A practical example of this can be seen in the previous life of Nārada, who in that life happened to be the son of a maidservant. He had no education, nor was he born into a high family. But when his mother was engaged in serving

light-of-godhead2015-06-10T06:37:43+00:00April 10th, 2015|Categories: Higher taste, Narada Muni, Stories|

News from the unlimited spiritual sky

Source: How shall I serve you?

In Calcutta a politician had asked Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī how he could possibly print his Nadiyā Prakāśa as a daily newspaper. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī had replied that it was not so amazing if one considered that in Calcutta alone there were almost half a dozen ordinary daily newspapers, although Calcutta was but one city amongst all the cities of India, India was but one nation amongst many nations on the earth, the earth was but an insignificant planet amidst all the other planets in the

light-of-godhead2015-06-10T06:53:33+00:00April 10th, 2015|Categories: Krsna katha, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, Stories|

God is enjoying

Speaker: Srila Prabhupada
Source: What to Ask From God

One European gentleman went to Calcutta. And he visited several temples in Calcutta. And he visited our temple also. Our temple is Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. Just the picture, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.So, he went to the temple of Goddess Kālī. He saw the Goddess Kālī’s very ferocious feature.And [she] has got one, what is called, chopper in her hand.[splice] She’s chopping the heads of the demons. And she has the garland of the heads of the demons, and engaged in fighting. So, he’s supposed to be intelligent man.He said

light-of-godhead2015-10-07T21:38:05+00:00April 10th, 2015|Categories: Stories, Supreme enjoyer|

We are very insignificant

Speaker: Vaiyasaki dasa
Source: Radha-Damodara Vilasa

Recognizing Tamal Krsna’s organizational ability, Prabhupada spends a lot of time training him in management skills. Tamal begins to think that he is getting special attention beyond that of the other devotees. Whenever the spiritual master detects false pride in a disciple he is always quick to rectify the anartha. Prabhupada brings this up in a gentle way when Tamal brings over Muralidhara’s new painting of the Bhagavatam cover for approval.

As Prabhupada studies the painting, he begins to point out the different features

light-of-godhead2015-10-07T21:22:15+00:00April 10th, 2015|Categories: Chastisement, Humility, Pastimes of Srila Prabhupada, Stories, Tamal Krishna Goswami|

Worship spiritual master as God

Speaker: Srila Prabhupada
Source: Planting the seed

“And now,” he said at length, “I will tell you what is meant by initiation. Initiation means that the spiritual master accepts the student and agrees to take charge, and the student accepts the spiritual master and agrees to worship him as God.” He paused. No one spoke. “Any questions?” And when there were none, he got up and walked out. The devotees were stunned. What had they just heard him say? For weeks he had

light-of-godhead2015-05-20T06:21:38+00:00April 7th, 2015|Categories: Guru disciple relationship, Pastimes of Srila Prabhupada, Spiritual master|

Approach God for wealth and get cheated

Speaker: Srila Prabhupada
Source: Depend on Krsna’s mercy

In communist country the innocent village people, they go to church and ask for bread, and when they come out of the church, the communist leader ask them, “Have you got bread?” So they say, “Now ask bread from us.” So they ask bread, “O, communist leader, give me bread.” So they supply immense quantity of bread: “Take as much as you like.” So then they ask, “Who has supplied you bread?” They say, the communist leader. In this way they propagate, “Now there

light-of-godhead2015-10-07T21:14:43+00:00April 6th, 2015|Categories: Dharma|Tags: bread, Cheating religion, Christians, Communist, Motivated|