WHAT IS KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS?

 

WHAT IS KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS? (A COMPOSITION BASED ON THE PREACHINGS OF HIS DIVINE GRACE AC BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI PRABHUPAD, FOUNDER ACHARYA OF INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS)
        I will tell you from the basics. You might have already read it, still. First of all have patience to read it fully with understanding. Take your own time. No problem. Anyway and whatever i tell or whatever you had read is not based on any individual person's speculation or based on any research done by some spiritual organisation or iskcon. Those are the information directly coming from the authoritative scriptures like the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhavad Gita, Shrimad Bhagavtam etc.                                                                                                                                                         Now the question arises why we have to take information from the authoritative sources or how can we say that vedas or Bhagavad Gita is authoritative? The need for getting information from the authoritative sources is, will tell you with an example. If a person wants to know who is his father, to whom he has to consult? obviously his mother. If he asks her- mom, who is my father, she will tell him he is your father and the knowledge aquired is perfect. There is another way, he can go to the town and ask everyone who is my father? or he can do some research like blood grouping, DNA fingerprinting of each and every man in his town and try to know who is his father. But that is practically not posssible and the information he gets by asking other people in the town may not be correct. Therefore he should simply accept with faith whatever his mom told and that information is authoritative and it is correct. There are 2 ways of acquring knowledge. Ascending process and descending process. Ascending process means trying to acquire knowledge by various research and experiments and coming to a conclusion. Descending process means simply taking information from authoritative sources like authoritative books or a bonafide Guru. For example In ascending process, say if a person gets some illness and he goes to a doctor. The doctor will prescribe him so and so medications and will restrict him from having some stuffs like oily food, high salt diet etc. If the patient questions the doctor and says i dont believe, let me do my own experiments and see which medications will work for me and which diet will help me, and he tries his own ways by research then he is at risk. Instead he has to simply accept what doctor says and he will be cured of his illness. Similarly if a person wants to study medical science then he has to join medical college and learn under the guidance of his proffessors and study the standard books which they suggest. Then after 5 n half yrs of study and internship the university will grant him mbbs degree saying that you are fit to practice now. A person cannot keep a laboratory near his home and do some research and read some books, without attending a medical college and claim himself to be a doctor saying that i have did all research and acquired knowledge and im perfect.
            What are the disadvantages of ascending process of learning? Any human being, be it anyone great has 4 basic defects. 1) our senses are imperfect. So whatever knowledge we acquire through reseach or experiments are imperfect because it is observed through our imperfect senses. Just for eg we can see light only in the visible range (400 to 790 tetrahertz). Behind it the infrared spectrum or above that the ultravoilet spectrum we cant see. Also we can hear sounds only in the audible range for human beings (20 to 20k hertz). Below it or above it, its not possible to hear. So in this case how can we know about God & the spiritual existence which is totally beyond our sense perception? The 5 senses which we have got by no way or no experiments can perceive it. Anyways coming to the second defect of human beings 2) Human is to err. As humans we are bound to commit mistakes. Even great persons like Mahatma Gandhi or Albert Einstein has commited some or other mistakes. So whatever they teach by their personal experiences is bound to contain some errors. 3) Human beings will come under illusion or "maya" which means that which is not true. Every human being is under the constant control of "maya" when he is living in this material world. So there is every possibility that even great knowledgable persons will loose their intelligence and act wrongly. 4) We have cheating propensity. Every human being has the propensity to cheat others and come up in life. So having these 4 basic defects whatever a human being teaches is bound to have errors in it and the knowledge is imperfect.
             Now you may question, in this case how can we say that the Vedas and Bhagavad Gita is perfect without errors when it is written by human beings??? The answer is that these are not man made. Vedas are said to be "Apaurushaha" means which is not "man made". This is the information which came directly from The Lord. In Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna says- '' Im the composer of the Vedas and Im the knower of the Vedas." Lord Krishna also mentions that He had given the knowledge of Bhagavad Gita first to Brahma, the first living being created by him. Later He imparted this knowledge to Sun God which is also millions of years ago. Then that knowledge passed on to 'Manu', then his desciples and so on, the knowledge was passing on in the desciplic succession. But in the middle that chain got broken down. So the Lord again imparted that knowledge to Arjuna so that the desciplic succession would again continue. In previous yugas like the Sathya yuga or the Dwapara yuga people had a high memory power. So this knowledge would pass from Guru to Shishyas in the form of words only, from mouth to mouth. But they came to know that a time will come, in Kaliyuga when people will be most fallen and degraded and their memory power will be very low. So there was a need to pen down this information in the form of books. So Vyasadeva penned the infomation in the form of numerous volumes of Vedas, Upanishads and other scriptures. Vysadeva was not an ordinary human being. He was an incarnation of the Lord himself. So the information contained in the scriptures are authoritative.
               Ok, now the first and foremost thing we have to understand is that we are not these bodies. We are spirit souls. Our identification is not with this body. Body is just a covering for the soul just like we wear clothes. When the clothes get old we just throw away and wear new clothes, in the same way the embodied soul as it passes various stages of childhood, youthood, adult and old age, when the body dies it just passes on to another body. Lord Krishna mentions What are all the things which makes the covering for the soul. Those are the "panchabhutas" namely Air, Water, Earth, Fire, Ether & Mind, Intelligence and False Ego. False Ego means the constant feeling which we have called "I".. me, mine etc.. Lord mentions to Arjuna when he refuses to fight that " Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings, nor in the future any of us will ever cease to be." Lord also says " the soul is never perishable. Never having once been born, he (soul) is eternal, ever existing. It cannot be cut into pieces or burnt with fire. When the body is slain (dying) the soul is not slain." It means that our existance is eternal. When a man realises this it is called Self Realisation. It is not a theoriotcal understanding like how you or me will know. Many great Sages by virtue of their constant devotion to the Lord will attain Self Realisation and this state is also called " Brahman" state. This state is full of bliss, when a man realises his true self and knows that he is immortal. We are all "Satchidananda" swaroopa. "Sat" means eternal, always existing. "Chit" means full of knowledge. "Ananda" means full of bliss. Our real nature is "Satchidananda". But due to our ignorance and material contamination and assosciation with "maya" we are not able to experience this. Once the covering of  "maya" will be removed by self realisation we can experience this blissful state.                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Now we need to know some important quesions like- Who are we? Who is God? What is our relation with him? Where were we before birth? What will happen to us after death? What is the purpose of life? Well, we are a part and parcel of God. We are spiritual entities. We originally belonged to the spritual abode of the Lord. In Srimad Bhagavatam it is mentioned that this abode of the Lord is called "Goloka Vrandavana". Though we had all comforts, but we wished to be independent and enjoy independent of the Lord, and be the Lord ourselves. But it is not possible. So the Lord sent us to this material world just like a person who has committed crime here will be sent to prison house. God is very keen to get us back to his abode just like a father whoose son has ran away from home though he provided him all comforts. He is eagerly waiting for his son to return back. Lord has mentioned clearly in Bhagavad Gita how to return back to his abode. We need to read Bhagavad Gita to understand this. Now the next question is who is God? Answer- God is that person who is Unlimited. He is not limited by Time, Space, Stength, Power, Beauty etc. There are 6 opulances to which people get attracted. Beauty, Wealth, Strength, Knowledge, Fame & Renounciation. A person may be very beautiful. But he/she cant claim that there is no one more beautiful than him/her and the beauty is everlasing. Once the person becomes old the beauty will be gone. Wealth- A person say Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or Mukesh Ambani may be filthy rich. But can they claim that the property of the whole world belongs to them? No. Its only limited property. Is there any guarantee that the property will be theirs eternally? No. At any point of time they may be bankrupt and loose all their property. Even if they possess it throughout their life, when they die they have to leave everything helplessly. Stength- There are lot of strong people. For eg boxing heavy weight champion Mohd. Ali, Martial arts champion Bruce Lee etc. They might have had stength more than any other person in the world but can they do things beyond human capacity? No. Look at Mohd. Ali's fate now. He is suffering from Parkinsonism. He cant lift properly his own eating plate. So strength is also limited and temporary. Knowledge- A person may have a very great knowledge pertaining to some fields. But can he have knowlegde about anything and everything in this world? No. Fame- A person may be world famous. But will that fame last eternally? As years pass by, centuries pass by the fame diminishes. His fame is limited to this earthly material world. Finally renounciation. It is not possible to achieve absolute renounciation in this world. There will be some sort of bondage. But God possess all these qualities in full. God is "Krishna" & "Krishna" is God. The meaning of Krishna is "All attractive." Krishna is the supreme personality of Godhead. This is confirmed in the Vedas. Krishna possesses all the 6 opulances in full. "Kandarpa koti kamaniya vishesha shobham. Govindam Adi Purusham." It means the beauty of Lord Krishna is so much that even the combined beauty of millions of Cupids (manmathas or ratis) does not match a fraction of beauty of Lord Krishna, The Supreme Enjoyer. Coming to wealth He posseses the wealth of this whole universe. Lord Krishna tells in Bhagavad Gita "Im the cause of all causes." "There is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me like pearls are strung on a thread" "Know that all the opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of  My splendour". "Im the source of all spiritual and material world. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their heart" About knowledge Lord possesses the whole knowlege in and out of all universes because He Himself is the Creator of everything. Fame- Krishna's fame is unlimited. He is worshiped by all. Even Lord Shiva who is the topmost of all Demigods recommends in Shivapurana that Vishnu aradhana is the highest form of devotional service and that Lord Shiva is a great devotee of the supreme Lord Krishna or Vishnu.. Krishna and Vishnu are same. Renounciation- though the Lord possesses the whole possessions of this material and spiritual Universes He is supremely renounced. He has given everything to the living entities to explore and enjoy and He is resting camly in His abode.                                                                                                                  Now the next question is what is our relation with the Lord? Lord Krishna tells in Bhagavad Gita- "It should be understood that all species of life, o son of Kunti, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that Im the seed giving Father" This clearly indicates that we are part and parcel of the supreme Lord and He is our original Father. Because we have lost this knowledge we are under the illusion in this material world and we are considering bodily relations as me, mine, my wife, my husband, my children, my parents, my community, my religion, my nation etc. These are all bodily relations. A person might have been the son of so and so person in this life and has so much bondage for his parents, he might have been no one to them in his previous birth, or even an ernemy in his previous birth, or even he might have been the parent of his present parent in his previous life. Ofcorse its a persons duty to adore the relationships and worship ones parents and love his/her wife/husband and children, but the truth should be realised. Now a person might have been born in India claiming himself to be Hindu or Muslim or Christian and follow his religion with fanatism and has lot of patriotism for his country. In the next life he may be born in Pakistan or Afghanistan and follow a totally different religion. One who is in knowledge does not fight for all these.                                                                                                                                                                            The Scriptures reveal that this human form of life is got after many many lives and it is most precious. There are 84 lakh species of living organisms and the soul makes its journey through all these species in the evolutionary tree. We have all passed through this evolutionary tree through the lowest of the lowest species and climbing up the ladder in the evolutionary tree, from the plants to the birds to the beasts and so on and finally attained this human form of life which is most precious. In all these lower forms of life the organism has to just act according to the rules of this material nature. There is no opportunity for enquiry into the higher aspects of knowledge of life and there is no escape from the terrible miseries of lower forms of life. Every living organism has 4 basic needs. 1) Eating 2) Sleeping 3) Mating 4) Defending. An animal say dog or cat may eat the food fallen outside on the road. A human being may eat food in a posh five star hotel. A dog may sleep on the streets, a human sleeps in a cozy bed at home. A dog mates on the road with its female counterpart. A man mates with his wife in a posh a/c bedroom. Dog fights with other dogs with its teeth and nails. Humans use missiles, nuclear bomb to fight with his enemy nations. How are we different from a dog? We are just doing whatever the dog does but in a sophesticated way. Otherwise there is absolutely no difference. We are no better than a dog if we are doing just what a dog does. Human form of life is not meant for all those. Human form of life is meant for a higher cause. Its not meant to eat well and have sex and to gratify our senses. There is a higher purpose of life. What is that? The sole purpose of human life is to render devotional service to the Lord and escape from the cycle of birth and death. Only in the human form of life there is an opportunity to understand God and to surrender ourselves to God and to escape from the clutches of this material nature and free ourselves from rotating in the cycle of birth and death. People who are ignorant of this fact and consider sense enjoyment as the only purpose of life and resort to sinful activities like meat eating, intoxication and illicit sex will simply loose this very precious opportunity of human form of life and fall down into the evolutionary tree and take birth again as lower forms of life which is very miserable. Thus is very clearly emphasised in Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita. So the greatest challenge now for us is to atleast prevent ourselvels from falling down in the evolutionary tree and take birth again as a human being so that the Lord will provide us better oportunity to understand Him and surrender unto Him and escape from the clutches of birth and death cycle. The Lord mentions in Bhagavad Gita that " Even a little effort made in this direction will save you from the greatest danger" Lord also mentions that "After many births and death he who is in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare." So those people, the so called learned people in this material world, ifthey are ignorant of this truth and work hard just to gratify their senses are great loosers because they will have simply wasted this precious human form of life in which they were provided an opportunity to escape from the cycle of birth and death and go back to Godhead and to enjoy eternally in the abode of the Lord. Lord mentions in Bhagavad Gita "Beyond this material universe there is yet another universe which is called the spiritual universe. This material universe is just a small portion of my creation". Scientists have estimated the extent of this Universe to be 600 billion light years. But if you question them what is beyond it they have no answer. But Vedas clearly mentions what is beyond this material universe and how the Lord created this material universe. We need to read Srimad Bhagavatam which has 18 volumes and everything about this is mentioned in detail which should leave us no doubt.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Whatever work we do in this material world will lead to karma. Good karma or bad karma. It will come under the 3 modes of material nature namely 1) The mode of Goodness 2) The mode of passion 3) The mode of ignorance. To illustrate with an eg- people who do good to others, render service as a doctor, engineer, teacher, farmer or anyone without cheating and with an intention of betterment of others, donating money for charity, helping the poor and needy, will be in a mode of goodness. People who are ambitious and work hard for their own sense gratification will be in the mode of passion. People who are lazy and dont work at all or people who cheat others, bribe others, cause harm to others and see happiness in others distress are in a mode of ignorance. So people in a mode of goodness will imbibe good karma and the natutre bestows them all comforts and material possessions which they have reaped through their good karma. They will take birth in well-to-do families in the midst of luxuries. People who have been in a mode of passion will imbibe a mixture of good and bad karma according to the work they have done. People who have worked in mode of ignorance will imbibe bad karma and as a result they take birth in the midst of all miseries. So its clear that whatever karma we do, good or bad binds us to this material world and we have to take birth again to enjoy or suffer the results of it. So the Lord suggests us to do transcendental karma or "akarma" which is beyond the modes of material nature. How to do it? The process is clearly mentioned in Bhagavad Gita. We need to read it with devotion to understand it. Anyway i will tell you just the main theme. When all the activities you do are done in Krishna Consciousness it will transcendent the modes of material nature and does not bind you to karma. Inorder to Understand what is Krishna Consciousness? how to be in Krishna Consciousness? how to practically apply the concepts of Krishna Consciousness in life? We need to study Bhagavad Gita and the books of Srila Prabhupad to understand all these. A man who is interested to progress in spiritual life which is a gateway for eternal happiness has to follow 4 regulative principles. They are 1) No meat eating 2) No illicit sex 3) No gambling 4) No intoxication. Coming to meat eating- it is not the recommended food for human beings. It is the food for Carnivorous animals. In bhagavad Gita Lord says 'If you offer Me with devotion a flower, fruit or a leaf, I will accept it". Here Lord clearly emphasizes that only vegetarian food should be taken. Even Jesus Christ had recommended vegetarian food and He was a vegetarian. In His 10 coomandments He has mentioned one of the commandments as "Thou shalt not kill". He mentions that you shold not kill any other organism. But these followers subsequently started giving their own interpretations and misinterpreting the words of Jesus saying that He recommended not killing only to humans, animals do not have a soul etc. They have modified all hais preachings and made everything favourable to them for their sense gratification. Coming to illicit sex- A human can have sex only with his/her lawful wife/husband. Any relation oustide his marital life is considered illicit. Even watching vulgarity contained movies, pictures, engaging in obscene talks constitutes illicit sex. Gambling- it steals away all the moral values of a person. Hence we should keep away from it. Finally intoxication- smoking, boozing, intoxicating drugs all should be avoided. It takes away our intelligence and conditions the body and mind to resort to unwanted things.  Human life is meant for austerities. What is "austerity?". Austerity means voluntarily accepting some painful situations for a higher cause. Its a but painful to restrain from things which we feel as enjoyment here and give up those. But we need to do it if we want to achieve something higher. Without austerities it is not possioble to achieve higher. We see so many fake Gurus and priests coming and saying chant all these mantras or read all these quotes from bible, no need of following any austerities, do whatever you want, eat meat and have illicit relations. And thus pay me some money and you will attain Godly powers in six months, you will get all luxuries and all happiness. People will easily get attracted to such things because there is no austerity, we can do whatever nonsense we want and he says in a short span of time we will become God. People know they are going to get cheated, yrt they will go to try and experiment, and unfortunately will get cheated. When people purposefully want to get cheated such cheaters will come. Nothing can be achieved easily. If we want to get something higher we have to pay the prize for it. Just like if we want to buy gold or diamond we have to pay some thousands of rupees which is its cost. If a person keeps a shop and says he is selling Gold and diamond for a very cheap prize of hundred rupees and he by some crook demonstrates others that it is pure gold or pure diamond then people will rush there, because he is giving it in a very cheap rate. They clearly know that there is a possibility of them getting cheated. Still they want to try and experiment. Ultimately after few days they will understand that it is not gold or diamond and the person had made some temporary inventions to make it look like gold or diamond and depict its properties. By that time the person would have fled from the place. So nothing can be achieved very easily without paying the actual prize for it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         So inorder to lead a pious life we need to follow strictly the 4 regulative principles. In this material world while we are living in this society, being in the family it is very difficult to maintain our spiritual consciousness. Hence inorder to achieve it we need to read spiritual books and holy scriptures and be in a good company. Being in a good company is very very important. We tend to get the nature of our companions. So if we are with a bad company who simply resort themselves to sense enjoyment, we will also tend to get that nature. So it is very important that we avoid such company. We should have friends who are pious people and we should keep in regular touch with the devotees, attend spiritual classes conducted by the temple, discuss with the devotees matters of spirituality and thus maintain our spiritual consciousness. Otherwise if we are easy going in this matter it is very difficult and ultimately we are the loosers and we are the sufferers. See, whatever material possesssions we achieve in this material world, whatever great educational degrees we posses, whatever name, fame, wealth we get here is just temporary. When the body dies it is just finished off and we carry nothing with ourselves. We are helplessly trasferred to another body according to our karma. If we have done only self gratification and were totally ignorant of the purpose of human life then we are helplessly transferred to lower life or even if we take birth as a human it will be in the midst of full of sufferings, somewhere in a slum, with stinking marshy land around, no food to eat, no proper clothes, no one to care for and what not. A person who was very rich in his previous birth with full of luxuries, wealth, big big educational degrees, name and fame, will now take birth in a slum in the same city where he previously lived in a big luxurious bunglow in a posh residential area. Look at the irony !!  So it is a fact that nothing what we possess will come with us when we die. Nothing can save us from the miseries of life namely old age and death. No degree or no wealth can save us. The only thing which permanently adds up to our account is our spiritual consciousness. "It is the only bank balance which we carry when we die." We will continue our spiritual life from the point where we had ended up in our previous life. We will be given an environment where it is favourable for spiritual practice and there is an opportunity to continue our spiritual journey and finish up everything and go back to godhead to the abode of the supreme Lord which is full of bliss. Lord guarantees this to us in Bhagavad Gita. He also guarantees that "once you come back to My abode you will never return back. You will eternally enjoy here." It is mentioned in the vedas that there are many planetory systems. Earth where we live constitutes the middle planetory system. There are higher planets where there is higher enjoyment and higher luxuries and comforts than earth, and relatively very low miseries. There is also description of lower planets where the life is hellish and lot of miseries. People can be promoted to the higher planets by virtue of their good deeds or people who are sinful may be demoted to lower planets. But be it lower or higher planets, there is no escape from the four fold miseries of life namely birth, death, old age and disease. A person may have lot of luxuries and material comforts in the higher planets. His life span will also be much much higher and he will enjoy much much more than in earthly world. But once his lifespan gets over and he dies he will fall back into this earthly world or the lower planets according to his karma. The Vedas also also gives description of the process through which we can go to such higher planets. There is a mention of a place called "Nandana kanana" in one of these higher planets. It is said there are thousands of angelic women and unlimited supply of somarasa (wine) there. So people who go there can enjoy all these. But Lord Krishna recommends us not to aim for that because even that enjoyment is just temporary. We will just inculcate karma there and fall back once our lifespan is over. So Lord Krishna recommends people to aim for his abode which is never ending bliss. It is mentioned in the Vedas that the enjoyment what we experince in even "nandana kanana" is just like "a drop of water which will adhere in between the hoof of a cow which will be walking on the sea shore" while compared to the "never ending ocean of happiness" which is present in the spiritual abode of the Lord. We just cant imagine what is that in this conditioned life. We feel that the petty, temporary happiness which we experience here is ultimate. It is our ignorance. So it is necessary that we gain the sublime knowledge given in our scriptures which is the real knowledge.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Now many a times a question will arise in our mind- There are lot of religions teaching their own religious theologies. Whom to believe? You say Lord Krishna is the supreme personality of Godhead. And follow the Vedas. Christans wll say Jesus Christ is Supreme. Follow Bible. Muslims will say Allah is supreme. Follow Quran. Every religion will make its points emphasisingly. So whom to believe? Answer- We can see that every religion has a founder. Jesus Christ is the founder of Christianity. Prophet Mohammed is the founder of Islam. Gautama Bhudda is the founder of Bhuddism, Mahaveera founded Jainism, Guru Nanak founded Sikh religion. But who is the founder of Hinduism? There is no founder. Actually Hinduism was not a religion. It was a way of life. Those people who used to follow Santana sanskrati that is the priciples of Vedas came to be known as Hindus. (ofcorse because these people were residing along the banks of river sindhu). So the teachings of the Vedas or the Bhagavad Gita has got any religion. It applies to mankind as a whole. There is no mention of any religion or saying that we are Hindus, be a Hindu etc. There are no such terms. I will tell you how are the various scriptures Bhagavad Gita, Bible & Quran different from each other. When Prophet Mohammed had taught Quran to the people in the middle east they were very sinful people. He had taught the people whoose level of understanding was very low. They were all thieves, murdering each other, exploiting women etc. So Prophet Mohammed has given in Quran the various rules as to how to live in this world. There are only various stringent rules mentioned in Quran and very little understanding of who is God is mentioned in it. There are also some rules written like- Do not have sex with your mother. Do not have sex with your sister etc. Those people were so degraded that there was a necessity to mention even such things, which we feel totally out of question even to think about. And the Prophet recomended pardah system to the women so that they will be spared from the hands of these degraded men. About God very little information is given. It is only mentioned that there is God 'Allah" and he resides somewhere above in the heaven. There is no more information given. Because people had a very low level of understanding. for eg it is not possible to teach a 1st standard child Trignometry or Newtons laws of motion. Its beyond its capacity to understand. Coming to Bible there is a little bit more information about God is given in it. Jesus Christs had given his teachings to the sheperds. Even their level of understanding was low. Even in Bible there are various rules and illustrations of stories of kings from Egypt, Rome etc to give examples to the people. Jesus Christ came as a messenger of God. No where he claims that He is the supreme God and he is the creator of all this universe and all the manifestations. But he has given a bit more information as to Who is God? Where is God? etc. He says God loves you, worship God etc. In Bible at one point of time Jesus Christ tells that- "I want to tell you many more things. But you are not in a position to understand it." Anyway now coming to the Bhagavad Gita which is the theme of all the Vedas a very rich information about God is given. In Vedas a detailed description of who is God? How God created this universe? Where is he residing? What are his activities? How does he look like? What is spiritual universe and material universe? What is the purpose of human life? Every information is given in a very detailed manner. Lord Krishna had imparted this knowledge to Arjuna, who was a king, and a very great elevated soul and a highly knowledgable person. It is already understood that there is no need of mentioning the rules needed to lead a life in this world. The Lord directly starts preaching information about the soul, his manifestations, the material and spiritual universe, the Brahman effulgence etc. The Lord tells to Arjuna "I will tell you the most confidential & supreme knowledge knowing which there is nothing more left for you to know." So the Lord clearly mentions that it is the highest form of knowledge which human beings can know. Lord Krishna clearly claims that he himself is the supreme personality of Godhead and there is no one superior to him. Lord Krishna says "Give up all varities of religiousness and just surrender unto me and i shall protect you from all sins."                                                                                 Now what is the practical thing we need to follow in life? Iskcon founder acharya His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivendanta Swami Prabhupad tells us follow these 3 things in life inorder to make life successful and go back to Godhead. 1) Chant daily Hare Krishna Maha Mantra. It is- "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare. Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. It is recomended that a devotee should chant 16 rounds of this mantra on beads. Each Tulasi Mala contains 108 beads. so on each bead a full mantra has to be chanted. If we go to Iskcon temple they will tell us the method of chanting the maha mantra. Initially we can start with one or 2 rounds daily according to our convienience and then gradually increase the no. of rounds per day. Now the question arises why only this mantra? Why not any other mantra like Om Namah Shivaya or Om Durga Devei namaha or Om Gan Ganapathaye Namaha? There is no necessity of chanting those mantras. In Kaliyuga the recomended mantra is the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra. It is mentioned that Hari Nama is the only way in Kaliyuga and there is no other alternative. There are about 33 crore Gods mentioned in but its not possible for us to worship all. It is enough if you worship Lord Krishna, who is the supreme personality of Godhead. Just like if you water the root of a tree, the whole of its fruits, flowers and branches will get satisfied. In the same way if you worship Lord Krishna all the Demigods be it Shiva or Ganapathi or Durga will get satisfied. Lord mentions in Bhagavad Gita that "Whatever you offer to the Demigods it reaches to Me only and whatever you get as a boon from the Demigods it is sanctioned by Me alone." Ok. Coming to the next point 2) We have to strictly follow the 4 regulative principles which we had read earlier. 3) Any food before we eat should be offered to the Lord as "Naivaidya" before we eat. The procedures of offering as naivaidya is very simple and is given in "Hand book of Krishna Consciousness" which is available in Iskcon. We need to start our spiritual knowledge by reading books of Iskcon. The recommended books for the beginers are- "Perfect questions and perfect answers", "Beyond birth and death"', "The science of self realisation", "Laws of Nature","Nector of devotion","chant and be happy","Asecond chance" and so on.. Simultaneously one can start reading Bhagavad Gita As It Is which is available at Iskcon. Thus by following these things we can make our lives successful. Hare Krishna.  
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