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  - Português – A supressão das mulheres na ISKCON
    Depois de falar sobre os aspectos externos indianos como um …Read More »
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    Después de hablar tanto acerca de los aspectos externos de …Read More »
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    After speaking so much about Indian externals as an impediment …Read More »
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  1. 29
    
    Mar
    
    LIVE: Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1, Chapter 5, Verse 36
    
    March 29 @ 07:00 - 08:00 UTC-7
    
    Facebook LIVE
  2. 04
    
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    Verdadera Espiritualidad – H.D.Goswami En Vivo
    
    April 4 @ 17:00 UTC-7
    
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Lecture Title	Label/Series	Date	Speaker
How to Trust	Lectures	January 5, 2007	H.D.Goswami

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March 29 @ 07:00 - 08:00 UTC-7

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Recent Posts

Português – A supressão das mulheres na ISKCON
Español – La represión de las mujeres en ISKCON
The suppression of women in ISKCON
Queridos Devotos de Habla Hispana
Can we move off the margins, and be seen more than a fringe group?

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Generally an art historian is looked to for information on a great work of art. We do not accept a chemist of oil paint to be the ultimate expert on the painting. Similarly, the God conscious person and not the chemist or physicist, has the most important knowledge of the universe. Krishna creates the universe as an object of perception, and Shastra is concerned with perception, not manipulation, of matter. Modern science is concerned with gaining power over matter in various ways. Shastra has a different purpose, to enhance our consciousness of a divine creation. #hdg #hdgoswami #creation #gita #shastra #prabhupada #bhakti

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As we know, all kinds of people come to the Hare Krishna movement. Some are very intelligent, some are crazy, some are fanatics, some are mature. We must carefully choose our friends and associates and simply avoid fanatics and irrational people. It is important not to confuse community with society. ISKCON is a society, but within every society, we must choose an appropriate community. It is within the community that we find intimate friendship and support. #hdg #hdgoswami #community #iskcon #bhakti #sadhusanga #gita

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SB 1.5.33 today at 7am PST/10am EST
“The Gītā and Bhāgavatam teach that ultimate liberation is personal Krishna consciousness, and that in lesser, impersonal spiritual attainments, one has not fully understood the Absolute Truth, and thus one’s journey is not yet over.” #hdg #hdgoswami #backhome #iskcon #prabhupada #soul #gita #bhakti

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The passenger in the chariot normally tells the driver where to go. That is especially true in Vedic culture in which chariot DRIVER was clearly a subordinate position, taking orders from the passenger.
Thus Gita verses such as 5.18 -- “a knower of tattva thinks 'I am not doing anything, etc.'” But that is simply a way of emphasizing that we are not the body, that the soul is not literally running or eating when the body runs or eats.
We know that our free will is conditional, we are conditional souls. Thus a human cannot will to fly in one’s body, or to live forever in the same body. There are many conditions imposed upon us, but within those conditions we make choices. And even our ability to make choices depends on our position in the gunas. Sattva-guna gives more clarity, more freedom, tamo-guna hardly any. It is a stage of addicton, compulsion etc. Rajo-guna is in the middle.
These are all factors but there is nothing at all in Vaishnava literature that suggests absolute determinism, or the absence of free will. At the Gita’s end, Krishna tells Arjuna, “Do as you wish!” This bi-partite causality in which we have free will, but the body is conditioned by nature, is clearly explained in Bg 13.21. There is no mystery about it. #hdg #hdgoswami #prabhupada #soul #freewill #iskcon #bhakti #gita #bhagavadgita

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In the Gita, Krishna says that the soul does not identify with the body’s actions. The soul has its own actions in this world of thinking, feeling, and willing. And ultimately we manifest our eternal spiritual body and then we act in many ways.
Even though we are not the body, we are intimately connected with the body in our present condition. Therefore Lord Krishna tells us to take care of our bodies, and to avoid bodily extremes. Thus we should not eat or sleep too much or too little, etc. And of course we use our bodies as a valuable instrument to serve Lord Krishna in this world. #hdg #hdgoswami #iskcon #bhakti #prabhupada #covid_19

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Many of you have been asking about H.D.Goswami’s well-being in the midst of this unprecedented time. Thank you for your kind words of concern, but be assured that H.D.Goswami is well and healthy. Because of COVID-19, his quiet resort town is now even more peaceful, and he was already not getting many visitors due to his Mahabharata writing retreat. So he is almost always away from people, and his health is good, by Krishna’s mercy.
May we all take this opportunity to go within, deepen our spiritual connection with Krsna and each other, and strengthen our compassion towards those who are affected in any way by this stressful time. - Admin

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In Bg 9.24, one falls by a failure to understand tattva. ŚBh 1.2.11 describes the personal and impersonal feature of the Lord as tattvas.
Bg 9.24 is emphatically personal and monotheistic: “Indeed I am...the Enjoyer and only Lord.” In ŚBh 10.2.32, even souls reaching the ‘highest position’ fall down for disrespecting the Lord’s feet. Again, intensely personal. Though reaching param padam, their intelligence is still not fully purified, aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ.
In this verse, the words āruhya kṛcchreṇa, “Rising with difficulty,” perfectly match Bg 12.5, kleśo ’dhikataras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām, “For those whose consciousness is attached to the Unmanifest (Impersonal), there is much more pain and trouble.” Note here that taking avyakta to mean ‘impersonal’ is justified by Bg 7.24: avyaktaṃ vyaktim āpannaṃ manyante mām abuddhayaḥ paraṃ bhāvam ajānanto mamāvyayam anuttamam. “The unintelligent, not knowing my supreme nature, believe that I am avyakta, [but that] I have assumed a 'specific appearance, distinctness, individuality.’ [‘vyakti’ MW p1029]
Please note that the impersonalists are here described as abuddhayaḥ, which matches the term aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ found at ŚBh 10.2.32, found above.
Finally, Bg 12.3-4 declares that even those who worship the impersonal will eventually come to Kṛṣṇa Himself. This matches the statement of ŚBh 10.2.32 that one cannot remain forever on the impersonal spiritual platform in which one does not respect the Lord’s feet.
Conclusion: The Gītā and Bhāgavatam teach that ultimate liberation is personal Krishna consciousness, and that in lesser, impersonal spiritual attainments, one has not fully understood the Absolute Truth, and thus one’s journey is not yet over. #hdg #hdgoswami #jiva #soul #iskcon #bhakti #prabhupada #sanskrit

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Live Sunday, March 15th @7AM PST/10AM EST, Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.28 #hdg #hdgoswami #bhagavatam #iskcon #prabhupada #bhakti #yoga

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We have clear evidence throughout the natural world that species equality does not lead to social or political equality. In virtually every non-human species, including advanced mammals, we find hierarchy, not equality, and this hierarchy is usually maintained with violence and coercion. And for most of human history, almost all societies have been based on hierarchy, not equality. The Declaration of Independence bases equality on the will of the Creator, hardly a material idea.
In the first known Western democracy, that of Athens, equality extended only to Athenian citizens. Many if not most of the residents of Athens were slaves. Not exactly ‘equality.'
I pointed out that ‘equality' is metaphysical (I avoided the word ’spiritual’), and without a metaphysical principle, we are left with a meaningless argument as follows:
1. All humans belong to the same general species.
2. Creatures of the same species have equal rights.
3. Therefore all humans have equal rights.
The obvious problem here is #2. Without metaphysics, it is logically impossible to demonstrate that creatures of the same species have equal rights. This is true simply because ‘rights’ are completely metaphysical. In the materialistic worldview, a ‘right’ does not exist as a real object, since it has no empirical qualities and cannot be detected by any empirical experiment.
So the argument fails because #2 is unintelligible and meaningless within the context of philosophical materialism. #hdg #hdgoswami #prabhupada #iskcon #bhakti #equality #rights #soul

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In the GBC-published book Our Original Position, I pointed out that in Shastra, Sanskrit words expressing endless or beginningless time spans are not used literally when referring to this material world. Punishment must fit the crime and it is very hard to imagine a crime that deserves endless punishment in hell. It is also unimaginable that such punishment would do nothing to change the mentality of a conditioned soul. In the Gita 16.19, Lord Krishna does not say that He punishes souls eternally, or even for long times. He only says that as long as souls misbehave, He will punish them.
Bhaktivinoda Thakura wrote that sometimes we find exaggerated warnings in certain Shastra to convince fallen souls to give up sin. I had very good parents and sometimes they would threaten to do things to me that they never did. #hdg #hdgoswami #prabhupada #iskcon #karma #bhakti #yoga #soul

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In a more developed soul, citta [mind] interacts with buddhi [intelligence], and as Krsna teaches, buddhi should ultimately govern manas [senses]. So one may cultivate a desire for virtue, even for enlightenment. The more one advances through the gunas, as Krsna repeatedly teaches, the less one acts to fulfill selfish desires, and the more one desires to serve, to help others. This desire is increasingly unselfish, i.e. the goal is not mere pleasure. This is the gradual uncovering of the soul. The soul is choosing to engage buddhi or manas or the senses. The more advanced the soul, the more the intention is unselfish, beneficent, and ultimately spiritual. The more pure, the more the soul is acting. The less pure, the more the behavior is conditioned, mechanical, as in animal species, or as in beastly human beings. #hdg #hdgoswami #iskcon #prabhupada #bhakti #yoga

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Live on Facebook, Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.23 tomorrow, Sunday, at 7AM PDT

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Question: Would you please speak about the various words for Mercy in Sanskrit- (such as prasad, daya, kripa, karuna, etc). Also, Is prasad a type of mercy that Krishna distributes to his devotee? Answer: As you will see, daya, krpa and karuna are close synonyms and are used somewhat interchangably in Shastra. Prasada’s primary meeting is not ‘mercy,’ though it is often translated that way in ISKCON. It means kindness or grace, and thus indirectly, ‘mercy.'
Here are the literal meanings from the dictionary:

daya = sympathy, compassion, pity

krpa = pity, tenderness, compassion

karuna = pity, compassion

prasada = clearness, brightness; calmness, tranquillity, absence of excitement, serenity of disposition, good humour; graciousness, kindness, kind behaviour, favour, aid, mediation; the food presented to a Deity, or the remnants of food left by a spiritual teacher (which any one may freely appropriate to his own use) #hdg #hdgoswami #prabhupada #iskcon #prasadam #bhakti

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There is a tendency that surfaces in many religions to try to give all credit belongs to God, to attribute all our good fortune to the Lord. This is a nice feeling, but it leads to theological extremes that deny God’s justice, His reciprocity, and the value of our own effort. #hdg #hdgoswami #bhakti #prabhupada #iskcon

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As one of the most senior and respected spiritual leaders of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), Hridayananda das Goswami (Howard J. Resnick, Ph.D.) is an early pioneer and renowned teacher of bhakti yoga in the Western world. At the forefront of contemporary religious dialogue, he is celebrated for his unique ability to adapt the wisdom of ancient Indian philosophy into teachings that are comprehensible for Western audiences.

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