Talk on Leadership by Archana Krishnamurthy

Invitation for Gita Homa on Jan 2, 2016 at Devagiri Venkateshwara Temple, BSK 2nd Stage

CLC is happy to announce the conducting of Gita Homa by Sri Narasingha Chaitanya Matha on 2nd January 2016 at Devagiri Venkateshwara Temple, Banshankari 2nd Stage, Bangalore. All are invited!

Seating is limited and hence kindly confirm your participation in advance by sending as sms to 9686036182 or writing an email to consciouslivingcenterblr@gmail.com. 

You can also participate in the homa as a Yajamana, basically meaning that you can also do the HOMA yourself and take the benefit of the same. Women can also participate in this Homa alone. Contribution required to participate as Yajamana is Rs.1500/- (per couple or per person if individually participating) and you will receive prasad along with a free copy of Bhagavad Gita in English/Kannada. For more details you can call +91 9880314024 / +91 7899433013.

Bring in auspiciousness for yourself and all your loved ones this new year with Gita Homa!

Srila Bhakti Pramod Puri Maharaja - If you have not heard of him, you are missing something

Today is the disappearance day of one of my Param Guru's Srila Bhakti Pramod Puri Maharaja. On this special occasion, I wish to share with all of you what a great personality he was and share some of his great contributions. I am sharing here his biography as mentioned by my Guru ji Srila Bhakti Gaurava Narasingha Maharaja. We are all blessed to be touched by the lives of such great personalities. For me he has been a living example of humility and wisdom. Sharing my good fortune with one and all here....

In the early years of this century, Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakura set into motion a devotional revival that rapidly spread through Bengal, India, and eventually the world. He put into question the very foundations of present-day theistic thought in a way that has little comparison anywhere in the spiritual record, East or West. Through him, the world was awakened to the teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the movement of pure devotion, suddha bhakti.

In orchestrating this modern bhakti revolution, Srila Prabhupada gathered some of the greatest spiritual luminaries in contemporary history into his circle. Such a convergence of exalted spiritual personalities can only be compared to the coming together of Sri Chaitanya’s direct followers in the sixteenth century. One of the devotional giants who entered Srila Prabhupada’s orbit was His Divine Grace Bhakti Promode Puri Goswami Maharaja.

We cannot describe the life of Srila Puri Goswami Maharaja without emphasizing his contribution to the spiritual movement in which he was so integrally involved. The depth of his accomplishments cannot be fathomed outside the context of Sri Gaudiya Math. With his fellow godbrothers, he shared an indomitable faith in the service of his Guru and the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. This service was the sole purpose and highest aspiration of his being. This conviction led him to spend his entire life in the pursuit of Srila Prabhupada and Mahaprabhu’s pleasure and the fulfillment of their desires. If we examine his life in this setting, we will see more than just numbers, dates, places and names. We will see how he embodied the very life current that his spiritual preceptors came to give the world.

Srila Puri Goswami Maharaja took birth in the village of Ganganandapur in Jessore district (in present-day Bangla Desh), on October 8, 1898. His parents, Tarini Charan Chakravarti and Srimati Ram Rangini Devi, named him Sri Promode Bhushan Chakravarti. During his childhood, he met his vartma-pradarsaka guru (“one who opens the door to the path of devotion”), Srila Bhakti Ratna Thakura, a godbrother and siksha disciple of Thakura Bhaktivinoda, the legendary architect of the present Gaudiya Vaishnava movement. Through Bhakti Ratna Thakura he was introduced to Sajjana-tosani, Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s own Vaishnava periodical, which was filled with Bhaktivinoda’s commentaries and holy teachings. In this way Srila Puri Maharaja became familiar with the seminal works of the suddha bhaktitradition, such as Chaitanya Charitamrita, Chaitanya Bhagavata and the Srimad Bhagavatam. It was also through Bhakti Ratna Thakura that he first learned of his future guru, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada.

Srila Puri Maharaja was still a young university student when he first came before Srila Prabhupada at the Yoga Pith in Sri Mayapur in 1915. It was a significant occasion, for Srila Prabhupada’s diksha guru, Paramahamsa Thakura Srimad Gaura Kishor Das Babaji, had entered his eternal abode only the day before. Srila Puri Maharaja often recounted that as soon as he saw Srila Prabhupada and paid his obeisances to him for the first time, he knew in his heart that this was his spiritual master. Some years later, on the auspicious day of Sri Krishna Janmastami in 1923, he accepted both Harinam and mantra diksha from Srila Prabhupada and was given the name Pranavananda Brahmachari.

At the time, Sri Gaudiya Math was rapidly establishing itself as a bona fide manifestation of Indian religious culture and transforming the caste-conscious socio-religious world of Hinduism. Srila Prabhupada Saraswati Thakura was bringing together his intimate associates to share the wealth of Sri Krishna sankirtana. He had accepted tridandi sannyasa in 1918 and by the early 1920’s had already assumed a formidable position in the Bengali spiritual firmament. He was fearless when it came to upholding true religious principles. The students and practitioners of the Gaudiya Math aligned themselves with this attitude and led most exemplary lives of devotion, imbued with austerity, discipline and in-depth scriptural learning. This high standard of religious life was the hallmark of Sri Gaudiya Math and would be the thread that guided all of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples, including Srimad Puri Goswami Maharaja.

The keystone of success in devotion is to perfectly hear the holy words spoken by one’s spiritual preceptor. Srila Prabhupada would often say, “All that is required of you is that you lend me your ears.” Srila Puri Maharaja was fully committed to this maxim. He had the great good fortune to associate closely with Srila Prabhupada for thirteen years and during that time he served him personally by recording his lectures and conversations, which were later published. The greater part of Srila Prabhupada’s spoken words we are left with today come from the transcriptions of these notes. At the same time, Srila Puri Maharaja cultivated a deep knowledge of the Vaishnava scriptures, with the result that he became a veritable storehouse of the wealth of the preceptorial line coming from Sri Chaitanya and his followers. This led him to become one of the most prolific writers and influential teachers in all of Gaudiya Vaishnava history. His writings reflect the disciplined eye of a scholar who expresses with grace and directness the purest scriptural conclusions supported by his own uncommonly profound realization.

Following Srila Prabhupada’s directives, our Gurudeva edited, wrote for, published and helped distribute countless spiritual publications. He was initially inspired and directed by Srila Prabhupada to start writing and contributing articles to the Gaudiya magazine, the backbone of the Gaudiya Math’s missionary work. For seven years he served as a proofreader and as one of its primary editors. In 1926, he was charged with running the world’s only daily Vaishnava newspaper, Dainika Nadiya Prakasa. He held this service for two years, publishing all of his preceptor’s daily discourses along with articles by fellow students and other contemporaries. His service and learning did not pass unnoticed by Srila Prabhupada who awarded him the titles of maha-mahopadesaka (“great instructor”) and pratna-vidyalankara (“keeper of the wisdom of the ancient scriptural lore”).

After the disappearance of his Gurudeva in 1937, Srila Puri Maharaja continued his vocation of spreading the teachings of Sri Chaitanya through the Gaudiya magazine, first out of the Bagh Bazaar Gaudiya Math and then later the Sri Chaitanya Math in Mayapur. After he founded the Sri Chaitanya Gaudiya Math, Srila Puri Goswami Maharaja’s godbrother, Srimad Bhakti Dayita Madhava Maharaja, invited him to head the editorial board of Chaitanya Vani magazine in 1964. Puri Maharaja served in this capacity for thirty-three years, furthering his life’s work of preserving the teachings of his spiritual lineage. Through Chaitanya Vani, he continued to make a deep impact on the devotional world.

In all, our venerable teacher’s wisdom is embodied in over sixty years of writings on Vaishnava philosophy and theology. He penned a rich variety of texts, bringing the Bhagavata dharma to life through hundreds of poems, essays, narratives, diaries, editorials and personal letters, thus creating a storehouse of the wealth of pure devotion for his disciples and the world at large.

In 1942, Srila Prabhupada appeared to Srila Puri Maharaja in a dream vision and imparted to him the sannyasa mantra, ordering him to accept the renounced order. After accepting tridandi-sannyasa from his godbrother Bhakti Gaurava Vaikhanasa Maharaja in Champahati in August of 1946, he toured parts of India with other godbrothers such as Bhakti Hridoy Bon Maharaja and Bhakti Dayita Madhava Maharaja. In the meantime, he continued to write and lecture with dedication. At the behest of his godbrother Tridandi Swami Bhakti Vilasa Tirtha Maharaja, he also served for seven years as chief pujarifor the Yoga Pitha temple, the birthsite of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Srila Puri Maharaja took up a more solitary life of worship in the 1950’s. He moved to a humble cottage on the banks of the Ganges in Ambika Kalna. The king of Burdwan was extremely impressed by his saintly ascetic character and, on the appearance day of Srimati Radharani in 1958, presented him with the ancient Ananta Vasudeva temple in Kalna.

In 1989, at the age of 91, Srila Puri Goswami Maharaja established the Sri Gopinatha Gaudiya Math in Ishodyan, Sri Mayapur, for the service of their divine lordships, Sri Sri Gaura-Gadadhara, Jagannatha Deva, Radha-Gopinatha and Lakshmi-Narasingha Deva. In the following years, he established other temples in Jagannatha Puri, Vrindavana, Calcutta and Midnapore.

Srila Puri Maharaja taught through his every action. He excelled in all aspects of devotional practice and there was perhaps no area in which he did not exhibit utmost expertise, diligence and foresight. This ranged from his encyclopedic knowledge of scripture, to maintaining the printing press, to his beautiful singing of kirtan. He was especially recognized for his sensitivity and attention to detail in the performance of deity worship and devotional rites and was thus widely called upon to be the head priest in most of the Gaudiya Matha’s deity installations and ceremonial functions. He was rarely known to rest; his service was an uninterrupted flow. Even in his later years, he would remain awake, writing and chanting through the night while all his youthful disciples were still asleep. When his personal servants came in the morning, they would inevitably find him awake and chanting the Holy Name, arisen before everyone else in the ashrama.

Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaja had outstanding love for his godbrothers and was inspired in his glorification of others. He found richness in everyone he met. He had the quality of making one feel so much wanted and their life so much valued. At the same time, he paid the least attention to himself. He was an emblem of humility and simplicity, and his generosity of spirit and kindness touched the hearts of the whole Vaishnava community. Among his lifetime, intimate companions were Srila Bhakti Rakshaka Sridhara Deva Goswami Maharaja, Srila Bhakti Prajnan Keshava Maharaja, and Srila Akinchan Krishna Das Babaji Maharaja. Toward the end of his sojourn in this world, he was honored by the Gaudiya Vaishnava community for his learning, long life of service and devotion and made president of the World Vaishnava Association in 1995.

“He has love for his Guru; and let it be known that his life is one with his words.” This tribute, coming from Srila Prabhupada himself, is the most revealing statement about Srila Puri Goswami Maharaja’s personality and qualities. He gave credit for all of his accomplishments to the mercy of his Gurudeva alone. Through the blessings of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakura, Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaja attracted the hearts of so many to the Bhagavata religion. People from so many different backgrounds and countries found in him a true spiritual guide and shelter. He upheld the principles of pure Vaishnavism and delineated the path of saranagati. He so embodied pure devotion and service to his spiritual master that one of his disciples once remarked that he was able to “silently lay down Srila Prabhupada’s entire siddhanta.”

We are greatly indebted to His Divine Grace for his gift–a lifetime of pure devotion, spanning over a century, which we can aspire for, learn from, and discuss about for our own spiritual nourishment. Srila Puri Maharaja departed this world for the eternal abode in the predawn hours of Narayana Chaturdasi, October 21, 1999, one day before the Rasa Purnima. His divine body was transported from Jagannatha Puri to the Gopinatha Gaudiya Matha in Ishodyan and there placed in his eternal samadhi shrine. Prior to his departure from this world, Srila Puri Goswami Maharaja appointed his intimate disciple, Sripada Bhakti Bibudha Bodhayan Maharaja as his successor and President-acharya of Sri Gopinatha Gaudiya Matha.

In years to come as more of his words and vision are translated, the world outside of Bengal and India will come to know the spirit of the true Vaishnava religion that he tirelessly shared. May the gentle rain of nectar of his perfect teachings continue to bring auspiciousness into this world. [From Of Love & Separation]

Are you living consciously?

Are you living consciously? 

What does it really mean? 

Yes, this is one of the questions I get asked back when I ask the first question. 

Let me explain in very simple terms. 

Living consciously basically means living with awareness. Being awake every moment. 

Now, you may be wondering how should you know if you are OR not? What are the signs? Correct! Good job, you are the on the right track of thinking. 

We have to become conscious of a few things to know that. For example, 

Who are we? What are we doing? Why are we doing what we are doing? What is the purpose of our life? Why are we even living? 

Once we have these simple basic answers, we can consciously make decisions in our life for what we should do, why we should do, how we should do etc. 

Priorities will get set automatically. Balanced life will happen quite automatically without special effort. We will be able to see what causes stress. How important it is for us to continue with that activity and accordingly set things in the right perspective creating perfect balance in our life all by our conscious selves.

Makes sense? Great! However, am sure most of you are now thinking on the first basic question – WHO ARE WE? Try to start answering this question – however, one condition – DO NOT USE INFORMATION GIVEN TO YOU BY OTHERS ON HOW YOU HAVE TO BE KNOWN LIKE YOUR NAME OR WHAT YOU HAVE STUDIED OR WHAT IS YOUR DESIGNATION TO DEFINE YOURSELF. You are of course not your name, not your qualification and not your designation. You are much more than that….and you know that! Come on, so take a paper and pen and start writing down who that real you is? 

Hmmmm….finding yourself quite lost? 

Right, and guess what? 

We were living all our life so far without even having an answer for WHO WE ARE? 

How meaningless can we get? Anyhow, better late than never. Let’s get started. Let’s figure out and to begin with for most of us finding the answers to the basic question of who we are and what is the purpose of our life may in itself become the purpose of life. 

Fair enough….let’s start there. So, finding out Who Am I and What is the Purpose of My Life is the Purpose of My Life ☺ Sounds complicated but as you know, it is not! That is what it is, that is where we are. Congratulations for arriving here.

Now, once you know what you want to do, you need to find out how to get there. No one else can do it for you. You have to do it yourself. Now, this is not as difficult also as it may seem. Depending on what we wanted to do so far, we figured out what we should read, where we should go to study, who we should talk to, who will be the right teachers and did all the research using our intelligence and made all the sacrifices and effort to get there and got there. We have to do just the same. 

So, get started friends. All the best! 

If you need some help in this amazing journey of life or wish to share your journey of a conscious life, feel free to write to me. My name is Archana and I am the founder of Conscious Living Center which is a forum for online and offline programs on conscious living. You can reach me on consciouslivingcenterblr@gmail.com

Become Conscious and Spread Consciousness!

WHAT IS THE USE OF THIS MATRERIAL WORLD -PART 1

WHAT IS THE USE OF THIS MATRERIAL WORLD part 1, by Dhiralalita (after her guardians)
WE TOIL AND TOIL AWAY, WHAT FOR?
This world is like a prison camp. It is not our original abode. It is meant for certain purposes. After that we are to proceed to our original home. This world is not a desirable place. It is not good to be enticed to stay here for a long time, forgetting our original abode, where we stay with God, back home back to Godhead. We are the eternal servants of God (Bhagavan). When we decide to lord it over the universe we are allowed these facilities for temporary purposes. But they do not serve our eternal purposes. It would be better to seek out a place where we can find real peace. Here, on this plane, we are always liable to be disturbed. By these disturbances Providence wants to teach us that the world is not our eternal habitation, but that real peace is to be found in Him, God. Being thus troubled we will naturally like to go back to the original place. 

Life in this world should be conducted peacefully instead of in the spirit of retaliation. We should learn to suffer all these things by submitting to His Holy Wishes. If we do so we may have that very peace here. It is because we are ambitious to dominate that we are brought here. If we require more than we are allowed, we are in trouble in this world. We are better off going back to our own position, to our only Friend: The Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the only resort of all our needs and desires. But if we take the burden upon ourselves to run into the wrong direction, we run into troubles in the shape of our daily transactions. We should not be so tempted. The world’s beauty and daily offers are meant to delude us to think this world to be a comfortable place. But this just an illusion, all real improvement should lead to Godhead. It should give us all useful things by which to get rid of these temptations. As we are men and women we should lend our ears to know about the better situation of the transcendental world where the best aspects of the Reality are exhibited. Here in this world we suffer from the difficulties of our eclipsed vision. It is, therefore, better to look after that spiritual region, our original position, by the side of God.
(To be continued)

Comment by one of my followers: You are GOD dreaming you...asleep dreaming this dream ..how do I get back to GOD...you are god now let the GOD wake up in you...its all Good..

Answer: We are one and different from God, i.e. one in quality, different in quantity. Your statements about being God is not supported by shastra
( scriptures).
However the concept of being one but different from God is supported by the Vedantah Sutra and the upanishads:
om purnam adah purnam idam
purnat purnam udacyate
purnasya purnam adaya
purnam evavasisyate

TRANSLATION

The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.

then verse 7:

One who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things. What, then, can be illusion or anxiety for him?

The concept of oneness with God is incorrect because the part cannot be equal to the whole. Knowledge that one is one in quality yet different in quantity is correct transcendental knowledge leading one to become full in himself, having nothing to aspire to or lament over. 

Referring to Shastras is called Pramana or proof, support. For those who do not know, the vedas are very old and go back far in time. You can shoot from your head, speculate forever but who will listen? However, when a group of great saints, Vaishnavas, speak those truths, then it is called revealed scriptures, not man made. It comes from the Original source, it comes from the divine. Try to read the Bhagavad Gita by example and see what it speaks: it explains the soul, it explains God, or the absolute truth, and it explains the relationship with the Supreme, Bhagavan. It is very easy to use words, but to live what you speak is the most difficult, especially in these times where the world is very tempting with its movies, music, literature, technology at its best. So I live what I speak of, I practice Bhakti, and therefore I have a bit more weight doing this.
This is a big topic worth many more talks!
Please feel free to comment!

Watch: PM Modi's speech at British Parliament - standing ovation - proud moment for every Indian. Thank you Mr Prime Minister!

PM Narendra Modi at Wembley Stadium - Full Speech (MODI in UK) - A Conscious Leader!

Bhagavad Gita - Chapter 2

Hope you all had a blast this Deepawali and those of you who bought Bhagavad Gita have started reading! Starting anything in this auspicious month of Karthik is the best thing to do - so, don't let it pass this year without you making an effort to become a conscious soul.

So, I wish to this time write about my take on the Chapter 2 of Bhagavad Gita which is titled Sankhya Yoga which literally means The Yoga of Analysis.

This is the Chapter where the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna referred to as Sri Bhagavan has started speaking to Arjuna about the supreme knowledge and according to me - has said it all. Later chapters are more like explaining ways to adopt the teachings of this chapter in ones life.

This chapter, as the name suggests, also is the beginning of mention of different kinds of YOGA and this one is presented for the analytical mind in a very logical and matter of fact manner.

Sri Krishna is explaining the ultimate goal of life and ways to achieve it. He has also mentioned all that we should stay away from and all that is necessary for us to practice. This is truly like the manual to live and Chapter 2 is the summary of the manual.

We will all agree that we all are looking for happiness and in this Chapter Sri Krishna says in Verse 66 - One who is bereft of self control cannot attain wisdom. Without wisdom one can never meditate. One who cannot meditate cannot achieve peace, and without peace how can one attain happiness?

So, here is the secret to achieving happiness in life revealed by none other than the Supreme Lord. However, it also tells us, why we are struggling with it. We seem to be looking for it in the wrong place and in the wrong way. We can either read this and understand or go our way and realize this someday sometime sooner or later.

This also makes us ponder why we have never been taught any of this which is so important for happiness ever in our lives? Instead of controlling our senses, we are in fact taught all our life to exploit our senses and we are told we will be able to find happiness by doing so......MAYA!! Not correct and the creator of the Universe and all of us is HIMSELF ascertaining this fact here.

So, our parents, teachers and everybody in the society we come across seems to be serving MAYA or should I say are in MAYA! They themselves are in illusion (that is what Maya means literally) and hence we cannot blame them, we can only sympathise with them and pray that they come out of this Maya and surrender themselves to the real knowledge as explained above without further damaging themselves and others. The best way for us to help them is to help ourselves first and become an example for them to follow.

Usually we can relate to Arjuna in the sense that he seems to be asking the questions we wish to ask or at least should wish to ask. However, right in the beginning, it is mentioned that he knew what is his natural propensity was, which I am not sure many of us know. This is very important. He knew he was naturally a warrior, not because he was born in a kshatriya family or just because he knew how to fight but because he knew that was his dharma or natural propensity. This is important to know since based on our natural propensity, we need to pick the path that suits us best to go to the level next to where we are.

Arjuna was advised to fight and after hearing all the knowledge, he decided to fight because that was the right thing to do for him. But if he were to be a Brahmana for example, the same would probably not have applied. Hence, we need to really introspect and know what is our natural propensity. This is where spirituality gets interesting for me.

We have 3 dimesions to us, physical, mental and spiritual - relating to body, mind and soul. It is important for us to become conscious or aware of all these three aspects, missing any one of these dimensions is not going to complete our journey of self-awareness.

We have been given a body and mind to suit the natural propensity of our soul. So, it is critical for us to understand where we are at the soul level to begin with. Of course, ultimately, we are all coming from the same plane and are travelling towards the same destination, however, we have taken different means and routes to travel and therefore, we need to figure out where are we in that journey and go forward. We cannot abruptly change our mode of travel (physical state) or route of travel (mental state).

We have to start from the spiritual state and then other things will adjust itself in due time. We have to do what we have to do based on where we are and what is most suitable for us. This is something no one can help us with. We have to find this out ourselves.

We can get some help on how to find out and we can get some confirmations enroute, but basically we have to be in the drivers seat. When the right time arrives, our spiritual master can help us showing the right direction and the Supreme Lord himself takes on the position of the Chauffeur ( as in the case of Arjuna - Sri Krishna became his Charioteer).

Wishing you all the best in this journey of becoming self-conscious! Write to me on consciouslivingcenterblr@gmail.com if you have any questions. You can join me on Skype or Google Hangout for weekly/monthly interactive sessions. Please do send me your feedback here or through email on how I can help you better.