Krishna Consciousness

  Krishna Consciousness by Haripada dasa

When Srila Prabhupada founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in New York in 1966, a friend of his told him why he didn't put God consciousness instead of Krishna, and Srila Prabhupda replied that God is vague, but Krishna is something concrete, and if someone does not know that Krishna is God, come here and we will explain it to him.

In the preface to Krishna's book Srila Prabhupada explains why Krishna is God: Now, one may ask the question why Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead? The answer is, because He exactly and closely fits the descriptions of the Supreme Being, Divinity, in other words, Krishna is God because He is supremely attractive. Beyond the principle of supreme attraction, there is no other meaning of the word "God." How can someone be supremely attractive? First of all, if someone is very rich, if he has great wealth, then he becomes attractive to people in general. Similarly, if someone is very powerful, he also becomes an attractive person; and if someone is very famous, very beautiful, or wise, or unattached to all kinds of possessions, he also becomes an attractive person. Thus, from practical experience we can see that one is attractive thanks to: 1) wealth, 2) power, 3) fame, 4) beauty, 5) wisdom and 6) renunciation.

One who possesses all these six opulences simultaneously and possesses them to an unlimited degree is understood to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Parasara Muni, a great Vedic authority describes these opulences of God. We have seen many rich, powerful, famous, beautiful, learned and learned people; we have seen many people who belong to the renounced order of life and who are detached from material possessions, but we have never seen anyone like Krishna in the history of mankind, who was simultaneously and unlimitedly rich, powerful, famous, beautiful , wise and unattached. Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is a historical personage who appeared on this planet five thousand years ago and behaved just like a human being; but its activities were unparalleled, from the very moment of its appearance to the moment of its disappearance. Each of His activities is unique in the history of the world, and therefore one who knows what we mean by the word "God" will accept Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. No one is equal to God, and no one is greater than Him. That is the meaning of the familiar proverb “God is great.”

Krishna consciousness means the art of concentrating our attention on God and giving him our love. Many people think that they will be happy by promoting the cause of moral principles and religious rites, others think that they will be happy through economic development, and others through sense gratification, but the truth is that people can only be happy loving God or Krishna. And all the great representatives of God in different cultures like Jesus Christ, Srila Prabhupada, Mohammed, Confucius, etc, preach this truth: Love God above all things, and your neighbor as yourself. Krishna consciousness is not a sectarian but universal process, and is practiced all over the world, Srila Prabhupada always said that Krishna consciousness is simple for the simple-hearted and for those who are serious and sincere and it is complicated for those with simple hearts. twisted mind. Although the origin of Krishna consciousness is India, punya bhumi the land of piety, the caste system ruined the whole spiritual culture of India, so Srila Prabhupada came to the West to preach Krishna consciousness and then went to India with its Western disciples and Hindus were very surprised that Westerners out of love for God chanted the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. It is very interesting what Srila Prabhupada says in the introduction to the Bhagavad Gita about the difference between faith and sanatana dharma, faith can change, we see that a Christian becomes a Muslim, or he becomes a Hindu, or vice versa, but sanatana dharma it does not change, sanatana means eternal, and dharma means duty, the eternal duty of the eternal spirit soul is to serve God or Krishna and His devotees.

Personally I am very happy and happy to see that so many people are interested in knowing God and loving him, it is a fact that today there is a great spiritual awakening throughout the world, and that there are more and more peaceful dialogues between religions, The other day a friend of mine told me that Pope Francis talked about the law of karma and when Srila Prabhupada was asked what he thought about Jesus Christ, he always said that Jesus Christ is our spiritual master, thank God that we are no longer of the age media in the era of the Inquisition, that for saying that the Earth was round they burned you at the stake, while that was happening in the West in India Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu and his associates were discussing the Srimad Bhagavatam that informs us of the nature of all planets of the universe and the distances between all the planets in a scientific way.