Krishna
consciousness, by Haripada dasa
When
Srila Prabhupada founded the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness in 1965 in New York, a friend of his told him why he
did not put God consciousness instead of Krishna, and Srila Prabhupda
replied that Dio is somewhat vague, but Krishna is something
concrete, and if someone does not know that Krishna is God, come here
and we will explain it to them.
In
the preface to Krishna's book Srila Prabhupada explains why Krishna
is God: Now, one can ask the question why is Krishna the Supreme
Personality of Godhead? The answer is, because He conforms exactly
and in detail to the descriptions of the Supreme Being, the Divine,
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 possesses great wealth,
then he becomes an attractive person 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 detached
from all kinds of possessions, he also becomes an attractive person.
Thus, from practical experience we can observe 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 who 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 detached. Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is a
historical person who appeared on this planet five thousand years ago
and behaved just like a human being; but his activities were
unparalleled, from the moment of his appearance to the moment of his
disappearance. Each of their activities is unique in the history of
the world, and consequently whoever knows what we mean by the word
"God" will accept Krishna 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 family proverb "God is great."
Krishna
consciousness means the art of focusing our attention on God and
giving him our love. Many people think that they will be happy
promoting the cause of moral principles and religious rites, others
think that they will be happy in 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, Muhammad,
Confucius, etc. preach this truth: Love God above all things, and
your neighbor as yourself. Krishna consciousness is not a sectarian
but a universal process, and it 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 of twisted mind. Although the origin of
Krishna consciousness is India, punya bhumi the land of piety, the
caste system ruined the entire 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 full 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 Muslim, or becomes Hindu, or vice versa, but
sanatana dharma it does not change, sanatana means eternal, and
dharma means duty, the eternal duty of the eternal spiritual 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 spoke 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 we are no longer of the age In the middle of the
Inquisition era, 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.