Like to continual waves of the ocean, the Supreme Lord, as the Source of all energies and potencies, continually reaches out to every heart from within and without, inviting everyone to become happy in this present life and the next, by consciously seeking to go back home, back to Godhead.

Sacred texts in all spiritual traditions point to a loving Source of all life as well as the cosmic manifestation, who has endowed all humans with free will - options to choose one's desired direction. Time carries everyone in a direction, driven by one's choices and activities either towards spiritual unity, or towards continued material separation from Source, under the spell of illusion.

The Vedantic tradition stretching back more than 5,000 years, asserts that although there is only one God/Source, He can manifest in unlimited forms without restriction, and without any compromise to His status, as the Supreme Lord, known by countless names in different languages that allude to His qualities such as the Almighty, the All-Compassionate, and Krishna, the All Attractive. Lord Krishna explained his appearance, 5000 years ago in the Bhagavad-gita, a chapter in the Mahabharata; the history of India before 3,000 BC.

Lord Krishna again appeared a little more than 500 years as predicted in West Bengal, India, in 1486 - in a golden hue signifying the mood of Sri Radha (the divine feminine aspect of God): the internal ecstatic devotional potency of the Supreme Lord. He appeared with a mission to freely distribute love of Godhead to anyone willing to embrace it.
kaleh prathama-sandhyayam laksmi-kanto bhavisyati
daru-brahma-samipa-sthah sannyasi gaura-vigrahah

In the first part of Kali-yuga, the Supreme Lord in the golden complexion will become the husband of Lakshmi. Then He will become a sannyasi and reside near Lord Jagannatha.
Garuda Purana

In the age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the holy name of Krishna. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Krishna Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.
Srimad Bhagavatam 11.5.32

antah krsnah bahir gaurah sangopangastra-parsadah
saci-garbhe samapnuyam maya-manusa-karma-krt

"Inwardly Krishna but outwardly of golden form, I will be accompanied by My associates, servants, weapons, and confidential companions. Taking My birth in the womb of Shachi, I will accept the role of a human being."
Skanda Purana
mundo gaurah su-dirghangas tri-srotas-tira-sambhavah
dayaluh kirtana-grahi bhavisyami kalau yuge
In the age of Kali, I will be golden colour. I will be tall and will have a shaven head. The place where I take birth will be a meeting point of three rivers. I will be very merciful and I will keenly engage in chanting the holy names.

Lord Chaitanya revealed his identity to his intimate devotees, as a combination Sri Krishna - in the merciful golden mood of Sri Radha - the divine feminine manifestation of Himself, in order to experience the intense beauty and ecstasy of Radha's love.

"yadā yadā hi dharmasya
glānir bhavati bhārata
abhyutthānam adharmasya
tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham
Bg 4.7
paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ
vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām
dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya
sambhavāmi yuge yuge?
Bg 4.8

Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion—at that time I descend Myself.


In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.

Lord Chaitanya freely gave love of Godhead, even to animals in the forest that he met during His travels, causing them to dance in ecstasy.

Each person has the innate capacity to give and receive love; it's a constitutional function and is only the object of one's affections that determines if love is gained or lost. In the material arena, everything is temporary - such as the physical body and family circumstance, but on the spiritual platform, there is no such loss due to time.

The expression of all love takes the form of service at some point - the mood of pleasing the beloved, whether displayed between parent and child, friend and friend, citizen and country, or romatic  lover and beloved, to serve one's object of love, is the symptom of love itself.

The real identity, purpose and function of each person; each conscious spark of living spirit, was revealed by Lord Chaitanya: (More..)

From a Hollywood mogul exploiting an actress, to one nation's war machine pillaging a weaker state, our earth-bound, conditioned ego's propensity to lord over the world and exploit it's inhabitants is embarrassingly all too common. Our conditioning is fierce not easily shed, without a more pleasing alternative.

Some may propose that survival of the fittest is natural law as seen in the animal kingdom - but animals only kill to survive and don't take more than they need, whereas humans can be much worse as seen regularly throughout history and continuously on the nightly news.

But human potential, free from excessive ego and ignorance has much more to offer. How, one may ask? By understanding the inter-connectedness of all life and the divine Source from which everything and everyone manifests. That is one's pure, spiritual ego state - liberated by wisdom and realization, freed from conditional ignorance. Ignorant desire seeds misery.  Purified desire yields spiritual fruits which satisfy universally. Desire cannot be artificially stopped, but can be perfected by loving intention.

Willingly choosing the culture of loving stewardship of earth, plus equally respecting all of her residents, takes on the form of acts of loving service to the Supreme Lord, just as watering the roots of a tree, satisfies all the leaves and branches.

Recognizing the creator of matter and spirit and knowing who controls both, is said to be the essence of knowledge.

Humans may be mini-creators, but we did not even create our own individual body, what to speak of a planet or universe. Rather it was the energy of our mother and father combined that created this earth-suit with a shelf-life that we now wear.

In same way, the spiritual energy of the Supreme Source animated the material energy of mother nature's cosmic womb, giving life to the universe, and each spark of spirit housed in individual bodies which pervade creation.

Recognizing and lovingly serving this self-evident universal truth, separates humans from animals, and actually re-unites all life through  a higher vision of spiritual truth and reality.

As with anything worthwhile, realizing and engaging in such liberating action and service requires knowledge, determination and practice. but we have the time - eternity if we need it, to get it right. Hopefully we will collectively wise up sooner than later, and re-enter into the timeless spiritual loving reality from which we originally came and even in this life, approach God within and without.

BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE

"Watch out, you might get what you're after
Cool babies, strange but not a stranger
I'm an ordinary guy
Burning down the house..."

Out of fear or ignorance we may project an external agent as a great threat to our existence, when actually the wrath manifested outwardly towards others is usually seeded by lust for passionate personal desires, woefully unfulfilled. Passion usually means act now - then think later of the cost vs benefit scale - which normally plays out on the downside in the long run.

At other times, passion can be used in the service of justice where wrath is needed to protect and serve; the rarity where wrath serves for the greater good.

Arjuna said: O descendant of Vṛṣṇi, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force?

"As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, similarly, the living entity is covered by different degrees of this lust.

Thus, a man's pure consciousness is covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.

The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust, which veils the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him.

Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bhāratas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.

The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence.

Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental to material senses, mind and intelligence, one should control the lower self by the higher self and thus—by spiritual strength—conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust.
Bg 3.38-43

The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.
Bg 2.59

When observing the current state of humanity and our bloody history, sometimes people wonder - if there is a  God, how could He let this happen?

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead expanded Himself into many for His ever-increasing spiritual bliss, and the living entities are parts and parcels of this spiritual bliss. They also have partial independence, but by misuse of their independence, when the service attitude is transformed into the propensity for sense enjoyment, they come under the sway of lust. This material creation is created by the Lord to give a facility to the conditioned souls to fulfill these lustful propensities, and when they are completely baffled by prolonged lustful activities, the living entities begin to inquire about their real position.

This inquiry is the beginning of the Vedānta-sūtras, wherein it is said, athāto brahma-jijñāsā: one should inquire into the Supreme. And the Supreme is defined in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as janmādy asya yato ’nvayād itarataś ca, or, “The origin of everything is the Supreme Brahman.” Therefore the origin of lust is also in the Supreme. If, therefore, lust is transformed into love for the Supreme, or transformed into Kṛṣṇa consciousness – or, in other words, desiring everything for Kṛṣṇa – then both lust and wrath can be spiritualized. Hanumān, the great servitor of Lord Rāma, exhibited his wrath by burning the golden city of Rāvaṇa, but by doing so he became the greatest devotee of the Lord..."
Bg 3.37 Purport AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

In the Padma Purāṇa it is said:
ramante yogino 'nante satyānanda-cid-ātmani
iti rāma-padenāsau paraṁ brahmābhidhīyate

"The mystics derive unlimited transcendental pleasures from the Absolute Truth, and therefore the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, is also known as Rāma."

Just as "Krishna" is the name of God indicating the Supreme Lord is All-Attractive, so "Rama" is the name of God as the source of all spiritual happiness and strength.

Timeless Celestial Love
Brahma Samhita 5.56
(Prayers by Brahma, after Sri Krishna revealed Himself, during Brahma's extended meditation)

I worship that transcendental seat, known as Śvetadvīpa where as loving consorts the Laksmīs in their unalloyed spiritual essence practice the amorous service of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa as their only lover; where every tree is a transcendental purpose tree; where the soil is the purpose gem, all water is nectar, every word is a song, every gait is a dance, the flute is the favorite attendant, effulgence is full of transcendental bliss and the supreme spiritual entities are all enjoyable and tasty, where numberless milk cows always emit transcendental oceans of milk; where there is eternal existence of transcendental time, who is ever present and without past or future and hence is not subject to the quality of passing away even for the space of half a moment. That realm is known as Goloka only to a very few self-realized souls in this world.

"If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit a water, I will accept it."
Bg 9.26

One can make loving offerings to the Supreme Lord from within one's mind and heart, home, church, mosque, temple.. from anywhere. God does not need our fruits, but hungers for our love.

The All-pervasive Source of the universe can reciprocate love from anywhere and everywhere it is offered.

The joyful exchange of love with the Supreme, is the eternal activity (dharma) of each willing soul, wherein one is blessed to feel the love of God unfold from within the heart, freeing one from lower modes of expression such and lust and greed which then have no purpose, being that one is already blissfully spiritually satisfied from within through divine service, by the grace of the Lord.

Below: Offering of spiritual seva (service) of kirtan, food and flowers at Sri Sri Krishna Balaram Temple in Vrindavan, India.

In this tradition, food and flowers accompanied by kirtan (devotional songs) are offered, with the priest then distributing offerings back from the altar to be received, distributed and enjoyed by the devotees who offered them, having become the sanctified mercy (prasad), of the Lord - a divine spiritual practice giving and receiving of love, with the Supreme source of love.

Whatever your spiritual tradition and practice may be, may it bring active love of God into your life!

For anyone looking to start or augment a daily spiritual practice, please chant this universal prayer-mantra asking to be engaged in the divine loving service of the Lord, and make your life sublime!

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

In Los Angeles today, March 25, 2018, festivals are being celebrated in different parts of the city and throughout the world, commemorating the appearance of Lord Rama on earth, a very long time ago.

Through the purely spiritual energy of the Supreme Source, God manifests Himself differently at different times with the same pure spiritual potency as his original form. Just as unlimited candles can be lit from one original candle, so God expands Himself in unlimited spiritual forms and manifestations throughout time and space according to His own sweet will, being the Source of all energetic potency and manifestations.  This is described in Brahma Samhita:

"I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who manifested Himself personally as Krishna and the different avataras in the world in the forms of Rama, Nrisimha, Vamana, etc., as His subjective portions...

The light of one candle being communicated to other candles, although it burns separately in them,is the same in its quality. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda who exhibits Himself equally in the same mobile manner in His various manifestations."      
Brahma Samita, verses 12,19

Festival days are celebrated for many reasons, all of which serve to rekindle or re-ignite one's sense of appreciation, gratitude and spiritual purpose. In fact when one can understand how God can appear in this world, which is nothing but a combination of His material and spiritual energies, the door to the spiritual kingdom of God is opened for immediate entrance, which can be experienced while living in this world here and now, through purified sensory revelation in the heart.

"One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna." Bg 4.9

The lecture below, given by His Divine Grace AC Bhativedanta Swami Prabhupada, explains this verse fully, including how to experience the energy of spiritual world in daily life. Amazingly, the whole process for spiritual liberation and joy is made clear in the  following discourse.

From a lecture in Montreal, Canada on March 19, 1968

janma karma [ca] me divyam
evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
naiti mām eti kaunteya
[Bg. 4.9]

"Kṛṣṇa is explaining how one can very easily enter into the spiritual world, or the kingdom of God. The simple formula is that anyone who understands the appearance, disappearance, activities of the Lord as divyam, transcendental, with perfect knowledge of the Absolute Truth, simply by this understanding one can immediately enter into the spiritual kingdom.
To know the Absolute Truth is not possible by our present senses. That is also another fact. Because at the present moment we have got materially..., materially affected; not material senses. Our sense are originally spiritual, but it is covered by material contamination. Therefore the process is to purify, to purify the coverings of our material existence. And that is also recommended—simply by service attitude. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ [Brs. 1.2.234].
[No one can understand the transcendental nature of the name, form, quality and pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa through his materially contaminated senses. Only when one becomes spiritually saturated by transcendental service to the Lord are the transcendental name, form, quality and pastimes of the Lord revealed to him.]The whole thing depends on our surrendering process and engage ourself in the service of the Lord. Then gradually, the Lord reveals to the devotee. That is the process.
So what is the birth of the Lord? There is no question of birth of the Lord or of the living entities. This subject matter we have already discussed in the last meeting, that the Lord and the living entities, both are eternal. There is no question of birth and death.
The same example, just like the sun: sun setting and sun rising.
Sunset and sunrise, it is simply adjustment of our own position. Actually, there is no sunset, there is no sunrise. The same example is applicable to our appearance and disappearance, as well as God's appearance and disappearance. We are eternal. We are eternally existing, but appearance means this body, appearance of this body.  More

Trillions of dollars have been spent with little success in laboratory research and space exploration, attempting to find the origin of life and the origin of the cosmic forces which influence our existence.

The singularly mechanistic attempt of observing and analyzing the physical universe to discover the source of life, neglects searching for the source of the non-observable finer symptoms of life itself, such as integrity, mercy and compassion; those invisible heartfelt feelings which enrich and nurture human consciousness on the deepest levels.

Integral to the human experience, is the attraction of love, which is not considered in quantum theory.

No matter what space we find ourselves in, most humans agree that sharing life experiences with loving partners enhance one's quality of life - as opposed to being isolated, overly analytical or disconnected. Humans are primarily love-driven beings, although the objects of love may be diverse.

Although perhaps wonderful to observe, one may question if observing distant galaxies or atomic particles will ever provide practical answers as to how one may personally enjoy a peaceful and loving life in the present moment, and forever.

In the search for knowledge, scientific standards demand repeatable demonstrations of observable consistent data, before a concept is recognized as truth.

A similar conception is found in the Vedic spiritual tradition, wherein is stated in the Vedanta Sutra 1.1.1 "Athato Brahma Jijnasa" translated as "Now is the time to inquire about the nature of Absolute Truth" as a topic of observation, inspection, and introspection.

Rather than solely inspecting the external physical universe for answers, in this case one's internal consciousness is the object of observation, with a laboratory and instruments also utilized - those being one's own heart and mind respectively.

Saints and sages from many spiritual traditions have taken the  journey toward spiritual awakening and have been illuminated, by finding the loving presence of the Source from which everything emanates, God, revealed from within the heart, rather than found in a distant galaxy or revealed by microscopic inspection of matter.

The absolute truth (or "that from which everything emanates"), is described in the Vedas as all-pervasive and beyond the manifested universe, yet holds space side-by-side within the heart each individual spirit soul - as the Supreme friend and loving guide, inconceivably remote yet present.

Stated by the Personality of Godhead in the Bhagavad-Gita* verses 10.11, 4.10, 5.29, 10.08. 18.61-62:

"Out of compassion for them, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance...

Being freed from attachment, fear and anger, being fully absorbed in Me and taking refuge in Me, many, many persons in the past became purified by knowledge of Me—and thus they all attained transcendental love for Me...

The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries...

I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who know this perfectly engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts...

The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy. O scion of Bharata, surrender unto Him utterly. By His grace you will attain transcendental peace and the supreme and eternal abode."

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

"In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial."

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

"I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-gita. It was the first of books; it was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions that exercise us."

In 1966, years before New York welcomed a monk from India named the Dalai Lama, another shaved-headed monk in saffron colored robes graced New York city. Having come to New York as an offering of service to his own spiritual master, AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, sat alone in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village under a tree and performed a mantra meditation, from which a world-wide spiritual revolution would soon blossom.

The 60's were rife with revolutionary rhetoric, but this monk's message was about personal internal growth, rather that trying to manipulate one's fickle external environment. It was about truth, love and equality on the spiritual level. It was about how to incorporate a daily practice, forging spiritual concepts into one's daily experiential reality. It was not a new message, but one of singular potency, being delivered by a monk who had humbly perfected the process. Some people saw him glow. All religions were valid he taught, if sincerely practiced and were free of misguided interpretations.

As in any field of endeavor, finding a qualified and willing mentor is crucial for making progress. He gave his time freely to everyone fortunate enough to approach him.

Having come to America with $7 in his pocket and trunk full of holy texts, after a year of struggling to maintain in the city, a diverse group of mostly young New Yorkers, became his students - to hear an ancient message of self and God realization, descending through holy sound.

Soon his students rented a small storefront at 26 2nd Avenue for holding lectures and performing kirtan, musical mantra meditations. With the continued growing support of friends and followers, in the next 11 years, Swami Prabhupada circled the globe 12 times in spreading the mission. He established over 100 temples, translated and commented on 70 books, (now in multiple languages and millions published) while guiding 5,000 student disciples. This happened in 12 short years from the time he arrived in America in 1965 at age 69, until 1977 when departed from this world at age 81, having been teaching, translating and setting a flawless example of joyful non-stop devotional service up until his last breath.

Early on, one of Swami Prabhupada's friends and followers, was a young man from the UK, who was born in 1943 during WWII. At just 19 years old, world-wide fame and fortune quickly descended upon him as a guitar player in a band called the Beatles.

Swami Prabhupada and George Harrison had a nice friendship, as well as guru-disciple relationship of sorts. When asked by George if he should shave his head and move into a temple ashram, Srila Prabhupada advised him it was better to continue on as a musician, to continue his service and glorify the Supreme in his own way. George did that wonderfully through is music and life. He also made donations for printing the "Krishna Book" and for a temple property outside of London called Bhaktivedanta Manor - which to this day is lively temple/ashram with tens of thousands of grateful congregation members.

The Bhaktivedanta Manor residents and congregation fondly remember George Harrison for his generous gifts of spirit and resources. The following video was made in his honor, as a short documentary on his life and service.

Ultimately we are all connected as brothers and sisters, because we emanate from the same Source.

We are all on a unique but common journey, and spiritual victory for one, is a spiritual victory for all. One brave soul's journey gives all of us more heart. I hope you will enjoy the story of our dear brother George.

Although I personally never met George Harrison, the following is a short video offering, dedicated to the memory of our common mentor, guru and guide, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Srila Prabhupada.