Bhagavad Gita Series

In our scriptures senses are compared with venomous serpents. Just like a snake bite can be a cause of a person's death, uncontrolled senses can be a cause of a transcendentalist's fall down. Many stalwarts in the past have fallen prey to it. We have heard Lord Krishna talking about this business of senses, let us hear this time what His pure devotee, Prahalad Maharaj says about the same business?

The revealed scriptures mention nine means of attaining devotional service. One can directly approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead simply by executing these nine kinds of devotional service. These services, when directly offered to Kṛṣṇa, constitute the highest attainment of life. By practicing even one of the nine processes of devotional service, one can become successful. 
What are these nine means of attaining devotional service?
How to execute each means? 
Who are the devotees exhibiting each mean? 
Which one is the best?

Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appeared in this material world just to show the example of perfect authority, and people have to follow His path. The Vedic injunction is that one cannot understand the Absolute Truth simply by mental speculation or logical argument. One has to follow the authorities. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ. 
One such Mahajan is Pralahad Maharaj. He was tortured, punished, poisoned but he never deviated from the path of devotion to Lord Hari. Although a child still he is reveling the topmost understanding of the Absolute Truth. 

While performing devotional service in the association of pure devotees in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there are certain things which require to be vanquished altogether. The most important thing one has to surmount is weakness of the heart.( Bhagavad Gita 15.20 Purport)
Everything has to evaluated by the result. If we are executing our spiritual practices sincerely, then weakness of heart must be surmounted. Moreover, there are two specific weaknesses that have to be overcome.

In this session you will learn:
• Why social media can be an addiction?
• Why and How?
• Some practical tips to safeguard.

In this session you will learn:
• First things First
• Purpose of our existence
• How to prioritize – some practical tips!

सर्वस्य चाहं हृदि सन्निविष्टो मत्त: स्मृतिर्ज्ञानमपोहनं च ।
वेदैश्च सर्वैरहमेव वेद्यो वेदान्तकृद्वेदविदेव चाहम् ॥ १५ ॥
I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas I am to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.(Bhagavad Gita 15.15)
 
The Supreme Lord whom the whole world is searching after, declares that he is indeed present in one's own heart. He is the source and is willing to give all knowledge but beware, he is the source of forgetfulness as well. 
 

mamaivāṁśo jīva-lokejīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ
manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇiprakṛti-sthāni karṣati
The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.(Bhagavad Gita 15.7)
Some transcendentalists think of soul being one with the supreme spirit and stick to "advaita" or non-dual conception, whereas others think of spirit soul as being completely different from God and believe in "dvaita" conception. However, Lord Chaitanya gave the greatest revelation of absolute truth in the form of "achintya bhedabheda tattva" or inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference, which Lord Krishna originally explained in the Gita.

Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear. (Bhagavad Gita 18.66)
Surrender to God is the perfection of all mysticism and is the real beginning of spiritual life. The only qualification required to realize God, get empowered by God and to transfer oneself to the kingdom of God is Surrender. 
But how do I surrender?
Yes! there is a systematic process as explained by Lord Krishna to Arjuna.
 

"The Blessed Lord said: There is a banyan tree which has its roots upward and its branches down and whose leaves are the Vedic hymns. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas." (Bhagavad Gita 15.1)
One may ask, why Bhagavad Gita is sidelining the Vedic rituals and stressing just on the prime importance of Bhakti-Yoga. It's because the purpose of entire vedic knowledge is to understand the "Inverted Banyan Tree" and then to cut it down, which is easily done by devotional service to Lord Krishna.
What is this Banyan tree?
Why is it inverted?
What is its true understanding?
How to cut it down?

"The Blessed Lord said: He who does not hate illumination, attachment and delusion when they are present, nor longs for them when they disappear; who is seated like one unconcerned, being situated beyond these material reactions of the modes of nature, who remains firm, knowing that the modes alone are active; who regards alike pleasure and pain, and looks on a clod, a stone and a piece of gold with an equal eye; who is wise and holds praise and blame to be the same; who is unchanged in honor and dishonor, who treats friend and foe alike, who has abandoned all fruitive undertakings--such a man is said to have transcended the modes of nature."
Certainly very high state of consciouness!
but the question remains,
Can I do it ?
How to do it practically in my current situation ?

In this session you will learn:
• What can we learn?
• Practical application of learnings
• Priceless wisdom

The auspicious appearance day of Lord Balarama, the elder brother of Lord Sri Krishna, is celebrated on the full moon day of Shravana (August). Lord Balarama appeared as the son of Rohini and Vasudeva. He is also known as Baladeva and Sankarshana. He gives us the required spiritual strength to cross over the hurdles in our journey of self-realization. Devotees fast till noon and pray to Lord Balarama to bestow the spiritual strength needed to practice spiritual life. Lord Balaram carries a plow, the reason for which is to cultivate the hearts of the devotees so that it becomes fertile and suitable for the seed of Bhakti to grow nicely. Being the Adi guru tattva, he guides the devotees on their spiritual path so that they can go back home back to godhead. This day is also celebrated as Raksha Bandhan when sisters tie an auspicious rakhi to their brothers for protection. Many devotees, keeping the lord in the center, offer rakhi to Lord Balaram or Shyamsundar, and pray for their protection from the material energy so that they can one-pointedly be fixed in the service of the lord and attain the ultimate goal of life, which is the eternal service of the lord in the spiritual world.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura (1838-1914) is a prominent preceptor acharya in our succession of spiritual masters and disciples coming from Lord Krishna. He was a pioneering spiritual leader, a householder, a magistrate working in colonial India under the British rule, a prolific preacher, writer, and poet. He wrote volumes of books reintroducing the pure teachings of Lord Chaitanya at a time when those teachings had practically become lost. He composed hundreds of devotional songs glorifying Krishna to uplift the consciousness of the suffering people of this world. He corresponded with philosophers, theologians, leaders, scholars, and professors of his time and sent books, including The Life and Precepts of Lord Chaitanya, to university libraries in foreign countries, planting the seeds for a worldwide movement of Krishna consciousness. Bhaktivinoda Thakura discovered and excavated the birthplace of Lord Chaitanya. Along with his devoted wife, Bhagavati Devi, he raised ten children, including the illustrious Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura, who would become a great spiritual leader in his own time and the spiritual master of ISKCON's founder-acharya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Above all, Bhaktivinoda Thakura taught devotion to Krishna by his personal example. His life story, excerpted below, demonstrates a tremendous amount of courage, character, and perseverance in the face of many difficulties and gives hope to those of us who may be wondering just how to find the time to serve Lord Sri Krishna, His holy names, and His devotees in our ever so busy lives.

For more details kindly contact us at email: hkmmumbai108@gmail.com
*Explore the true meaning of the most famous and misunderstood verse of Gita
*Know its practical application
*Learn some important and deep insights

What is missing in our life?
How to lead a fulfilling life?
1st Session of Ishopanishad series

"By the instruction of a bona fide spiritual master, a living entity can know of his spiritual position, his material body, his senses, how he is entrapped, and how he is under the spell of the material modes of nature. He is helpless, being in the grip of these modes, but when he can see his real position, then he can attain to the transcendental platform, having the scope for spiritual life. Actually, the living entity is not the performer of different activities. He is forced to act because he is situated in a particular type of body, conducted by some particular mode of material nature. Unless one has the help of spiritual authority, he cannot understand in what position he is actually situated."
So let us try to understand our actual position and take a big step towards liberation.