A Meditation Krishna is the Original Soul. If they were able, all souls could trace their ultimate origin to Krishna, the origin of everyone and everything. Just as the body has a soul within, so the soul also has a soul. The Soul of the soul is known as Atma-atma. But this Soul is never trapped or compromised as the individual soul is. This Soul remains ever free and above all. He is therefore known as the Over Soul or Superior Soul, or Supersoul, the Param-atma. The individual soul has an innate attraction to the Paramatma and forever struggles to rediscover Him. That struggle spans an enti ..read more

Dear Srila Prabhupada, Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet. There was a time in 1976 when you were being driven from Heathrow airport to Bhaktivedanta Manor. The M25 did not exist at that time, so you were moving along the road towards the village of Denham. We young men were excitedly following you in our yellow Ford parcel van. The windows were open and we were singing kirtan at the tops of our youthful voices. Guru and happy disciples on the A 412. Then we realised that there should be a kirtan for you as you entered the Manor gates. That meant that we should arrive before ..read more

Some pictures from this week: The Slovenian landscape is 60% forest Burger bars are not my usual haunt but this one was special: Radha Govinda in downtown Ljubliana Looking every inch the Buddhist chef in this designer ensemble is Mrigendra das, TV cook and organiser of the wedding feast An upturned salad cup: even more tasty than it looks. A fleet of srikhand and halava boats The happy couple cut the wedding cake: Prema Gopi and Bharata The Bob Dylan of Slovenia Meanwhile, back in England, devotees sang in the sunshine at Glasto ..read more

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Philosophy – from the Greek words: philo – love of, affinity for; sophos – wisdom. Philosophy – the love of wisdom Wisdom – from the Old Norse visdomr – the ability to think and act utilising knowledge, experience, understanding, discernment, insight and common sense – coupled with just judgment as to action. Philosophy means the love of wisdom, the ability to separate truth from error, reality from illusion, and the subsequent discernment as to correct action. Professional philosophers use the word in specific ways according to which type of reality and illusion ..read more

Narada Muni, son of Brahma, instructs his disciple Srila Vyasa, and requests him to write the Bhagavata Purana It is said that Vedic injunctions are made large by the Puranas, or histories, since within these texts we can learn of how the Vedas have been implemented historically in the lives of humans, gods, sages and kings. By reading of the interplay of Vedic lore in the lives of real people we can be inspired to follow their example, and be warned of the consequences of acting in a manner contrary to Vedic dharma. Also written in the Puranas are descriptions of the compassionate, knowledge ..read more

Uddalaka speaks to his son Svetaketu in the Katha Upanishad (For an extract of their conversation see end) Samhita, Brahmana and Aranyaka Samhita means ‘that which has been collected and arranged.’ A samhita brings out the meaning of the particular Veda in the shape of mantras systematically arranged. In addition to the samhita portion, each Veda has a part known as a brahmana and another section called an aranyaka. The brahmana portion lists what rituals are to be performed and exactly how they are to be done. When the mantras contained in a samhita are converted into a ritual action called ..read more

On October 6th, 1969, in London, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada gave a lecture about the Vedas. He began as follows: “Ladies and gentlemen, today’s subject matter is the teachings of the Vedas. What are the Vedas? The Sanskrit verbal root of veda can be interpreted variously, but the purport is finally one. Veda means knowledge. Any knowledge you accept is veda, for the teachings of the Vedas are the original knowledge…” The Vedas, Vedangas, Upangas and Upavedas The Vedas are one body of knowledge divided into four, the Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Veda. Each of the four ..read more

The Pancharatra is a group of texts as old as the four Vedas and has the same transcendental origin. They were ancient even in the time of the Lord Krishna’s appearance in this world, and are mentioned in the Shanti-parva section of the Mahabharata. In that portion a description of the transcendental abode Swetadwipa is given, ‘a domain inhabited by devotees of Narayana, whom they worship through their knowledge of pancha-ratra.’ The name pancha-ratra means ‘Five Nights,’ and indicates a series of instructions given by Lord Narayana to His devotees over five consecutive nights. Narada Muni he ..read more

  A lone eagle soars high in the sky above the craggy foothills of the Himalayas, wheeling and gliding on the thermal currents. Her golden-brown wings, extending to a gloriously feathered span of five feet, catch every breeze. At times she seems to hover, so perfectly balanced are the calculations of her own forward movement and the counter-thrust she feels from the wind. Deep below her, over a mile away on the slopes, a small rabbit ventures out of its burrow. It’s just a grey speck in a greyish landscape but she sees it. Making a large circle so as to descend behind her prey, she calcu ..read more