Principle

The first principle in devotional service is to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra (maha means “great”; mantra means “sound that liberates the mind from ignorance”).

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare 

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Hare Krishna Kirtan
Hare Krishna Kirtan - slow
Hare Krishna Japa
You can chant these holy names of the Lord anywhere and at any time, but it is best to set a specific time of the day to regularly chant. Early morning hours are ideal.

The chanting can be done in two ways: singing the mantra, called kirtana (usually done in a group), and saying the mantra to oneself, called japa (which literally means “to speak softly”). Concentrate on hearing the sound of the holy names. As you chant, pronounce the names clearly and distinctly, addressing Krishna in a prayerful mood. When your mind wanders, bring it back to the sound of the Lord’s names. Chanting is a prayer to Krishna that means “O energy of the Lord [Hare], O all-attractive Lord [Krishna], O Supreme Enjoyer [Rama], please engage me in Your service.” The more attentively and sin¬cerely you chant these names of God, the more spiritual progress you will make.

Since God is all-powerful and all-merciful, He has kindly made it very easy for us to chant His names, and He has also invested all His powers in them. Therefore the names of God and God Himself are identical. This means that when we chant the holy names of Krishna and Rama we are directly associat¬ing with God and being purified. Therefore we should always try to chant with devotion and reverence. The Vedic litera¬ture states that Lord Krishna is personally dancing on your tongue when you chant His holy name.

When you chant alone, it is best to chant on japa beads (available at the ISKCON temple). This not only helps you fix your attention on the holy name, but it also helps you count the number of times you chant the mantra daily. Each strand of japa beads contains 108 small beads and one large bead, the head bead. Begin on a bead next to the head bead and gently roll it between the thumb and middle finger of your right hand as you chant the full Hare Krishna mantra. Then move to the next bead and repeat the process. In this way, chant on each of the 108 beads until you reach the head bead again. This is one round of japa. Then, without chanting on the head bead, reverse the beads and start your second round on the last bead you chanted on.

Initiated devotees vow before the spiritual master to chant at least sixteen rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily. But even if you can chant only one round a day, the principle is that once you commit yourself to chanting that round, you should try and complete it every day without fail. When you feel you can chant more, increase the minimum number of rounds you chant each day—but don’t fall below that number. You can chant more than your fixed number, but you should maintain a set minimum each day. (Please note that the beads are sacred and therefore should never touch the ground or be put in an unclean place. To keep your beads clean, it’s best to carry them in a special bead bag, also available at our temple.)

Aside from chanting japa, you can also sing the Lord’s holy names in kirtana. While you can perform kirtana individually, it is generally performed with others. A melodious kirtana with family or friends is sure to enliven everyone. ISKCON devotees use traditional melodies and instruments, especially in the temple, but you can chant to any melody and use any musical instruments to accompany your chanting. As Lord Chaitanya said, “There are no hard and fast rules for chanting Hare Krishna.”

Lord prabhu

His Appearance

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared at Sridhama Mayapura, in the city of Navadvipa in Bengal, on the Phalguni Purnima evening in the year 1486 AD. His father, Sri Jagannatha Mishra, a learned brahmana from the district of Sylhet, came to Navadvipa as a student. He lived on the banks of the Ganges with his wife Srimati Sacidevi, a daughter of Srila Nilambara Cakravarti, a great learned scholar of Navadvipa. Their youngest son, who was named Vishvambhara, later became known as Nimai Pandita and then, after accepting the renounced order of life, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. 

Madhya

Lord Brahma explains in Brahma samhita(Bs 5.1) as follows:

"Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes."

CC Madhya 8.136

“The transcendental body of Sri Krishna is eternal and full of bliss and knowledge. He is the son of Nanda Maharaja. He is full of all opulences and potencies as well as all spiritual mellows.

In the Sama-veda Upanishad, it is stated that Lord Sri Krishna is the divine son of Devaki. Therefore Lord Sri Krishna is the primeval Lord, and if any transcendental nomenclature is to be understood as belonging to the Absolute Personality of Godhead, it must be the name indicated by the word Krishna, which means the all-attractive. In the Padma Purana, it is also stated that out of the innumerable names of the Lord, the name of Krishna is the principal one.

Lord caitanya

His Pastimes

The wonderful pastimes performed by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the city of Navadvipa and in Jagannath Puri are recorded by His biographers. The early life of the Lord is most fascinatingly expressed by the author of Chaitanya-bhagavata (by Sri Vrindavana Dasa Thakura), and as far as the teachings are concerned, they are more vividly explained in the Chaitanya-caritamrta (by Sri Krishna Dasa Kaviraja Gosvami). Now they are available to the English-speaking public in our Teachings of Lord Caitanya.

Universe god

In this universe there are millions of planets, and there exist as many universes as mustard seeds in a mustard seed bag. There are innumerable universes coming out of the pores of Mahavishnu’s body when He exhales; and when He inhales, they all enter back into Him. And Mahavishnu is only a portion of Sri Krishna. And

beyond this material world there is the spiritual world, full of innumerable, gigantic spiritual planets called Vaikunthas, which are all resting in the effulgence of Sri Krishna, who engages in divine pastimes in Goloka Vrindavana, the supreme and eternal home with transcendental delights.

The supreme abode of the Personality of Godhead, Krishna, is described in the Brahma-samhita as cintamani-dhama, a place where all desires are fulfilled. The supreme abode of Lord Krishna, known as Goloka Vrndavana, is full of palaces made of touchstone. There are also trees, called "desire trees," that supply any type of eatable upon demand, and there are cows, known as surabhi cows, which supply a limitless supply of milk. In this abode, the Lord is served by hundreds of thousands of goddesses of fortune (Lakshmis), and He is called Govinda, the primal Lord and the cause of all causes.

Vedic literatures (Katha Upanisad 1.3.11) state that there is nothing superior to the abode of the Supreme Godhead, and that that abode is the ultimate destination (purushan na param kincit sa kastha parama gatih). When one attains to it, he never returns to the material world. Krishna's supreme abode and Krishna Himself are nondifferent, being of the same quality. This Supreme abode of Lord Krishna, is shaped like the whorl of a lotus flower. Even when the Lord descends to any one of the mundane planets, He does so by manifesting His own abode as it is. On this earth, Vrndavana, ninety miles southeast of Delhi, is a replica of that supreme Goloka Vrindavana located in the spiritual sky. When Krishna descended on this earth, He sported on that particular tract of land known as Vrindavana, comprising about eighty-four square miles in the district of Mathura, India.

Gita

In the Srimad Bhagavatam, Vyasadev lists various incarnations and finally concludes:

“All the lists of the incarnations of Godhead submitted herewith are either plenary expansions or parts of the plenary expansions of the Supreme Godhead, but Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself.”

When Lord Krishna descended on this planet, He displayed all the six opulences unlimitedly. We have seen many rich persons, many powerful persons, many famous persons, many beautiful persons, many learned and scholarly persons, and persons in the renounced order of life unattached to material possessions. But we have never seen any one person who is unlimitedly and simultaneously wealthy, powerful, famous, beautiful, wise and unattached, like Krishna in the history of humanity. Krishna the Supreme Personality of Godhead is a historical person who appeared on this earth 5,000 years ago. He stayed on this earth for 125 years and played exactly like a human being, but His activities were unparalleled. From the very moment of His appearance to the moment of His disappearance, every one of His activities is unparalleled in the history of the world, and therefore anyone who knows what we mean by Godhead will accept Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. No one is equal to the Godhead, and no one is greater than Him. That is the import of the familiar saying “God is great.”

Bhagvad gita

what is the Bhagavad-gita? The purpose of Bhagavad-gita is to deliver mankind from the nescience of material existence. Every man is in difficulty in so many ways, and in the same way Arjuna also was in difficulty in having to fight in the battle of Kurukshetra.

Arjuna surrendered unto Shri Krishna, and consequently this Bhagavad-gita was spoken. Not only Arjuna, but every one of us is full of anxieties because of this material existence. Our very existence is in the atmosphere of nonexistence. Actually we are not meant to be threatened by nonexistence. Our existence is eternal. But somehow or other we are put into asat. Asat refers to that which does not exist.

Out of so many human beings who are suffering, there are a few who are actually inquiring about their position, as to what they are, why they are put into this awkward position and so on. Unless one is awakened to this position of questioning his suffering, unless he realizes that he doesn't want suffering but rather wants to make a solution to all suffering, then one is not to be considered a perfect human being. Humanity begins when this sort of inquiry is awakened in one's mind. In the Brahma-sutra this inquiry is called brahma jijnasa. Athato brahma jijnasa. Every activity of the human being is to be considered a failure unless he inquires about the nature of the Absolute Truth.

Therefore those who begin to question why they are suffering or where they came from and where they shall go after death are proper students for understanding Bhagavad-gita. The sincere student should also have a firm respect for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such a student was Arjuna.

Lord Krishna descends specifically to reestablish the real purpose of life when man forgets that purpose. Even then, out of many, many human beings who awaken, there may be one who actually enters the spirit of understanding his position, and for him this Bhagavad-gita is spoken. Actually we are all swallowed by the tigress of nescience, but the Lord is very merciful upon living entities, especially human beings. To this end He spoke the Bhagavad-gita, making His friend Arjuna His student.
Arjuna being an associate of Lord Krishna, Arjuna was above all ignorance, but Arjuna was put into ignorance on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra just to question Lord Krishna about the problems of life so that the Lord could explain them for the benefit of future generations of human beings and chalk out the plan of life. Then man could act accordingly and perfect the mission of human life.

Being an associate of Lord Krishna, Arjuna was above all ignorance, but Arjuna was put into ignorance on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra just to question Lord Krishna about the problems of life so that the Lord could explain them for the benefit of future generations of human beings and chalk out the plan of life. Then man could act accordingly and perfect the mission of human life.

The Bhagavad-gita should be taken up in a spirit of devotion. One should not think that he is equal to Krishna, nor should he think that Krishna is an ordinary personality or even a very great personality. Lord Shri Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So according to the statements of Bhagavad-gita or the statements of Arjuna, the person who is trying to understand the Bhagavad-gita, we should at least theoretically accept Shri Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and with that submissive spirit we can understand the Bhagavad-gita. Unless one reads the Bhagavad-gita in a submissive spirit, it is very difficult to understand Bhagavad-gita, because it is a great mystery.

Lord Brahma explains in Brahma samhita(Bs 5.1) as follows:

"Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes."

CC Madhya 8.136

“The transcendental body of Sri Krishna is eternal and full of bliss and knowledge. He is the son of Nanda Maharaja. He is full of all opulences and potencies as well as all spiritual mellows.

In the Sama-veda Upanishad, it is stated that Lord Sri Krishna is the divine son of Devaki. Therefore Lord Sri Krishna is the primeval Lord, and if any transcendental nomenclature is to be understood as belonging to the Absolute Personality of Godhead, it must be the name indicated by the word Krishna, which means the all-attractive. In the Padma Purana, it is also stated that out of the innumerable names of the Lord, the name of Krishna is the principal one.

In Bhagavad-gita 10.12-13 Arjuna declares Krishna as the Supreme Lord:

“Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty. All the great sages such as Narada, Asita, Devala, and Vyasa proclaim this of You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.”

In Bhagavad-gita, the Lord asserts Himself to be the original Personality of Godhead

In Bg 10.8 Lord Krishna says:

“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.”

In Bg 15.19 Lord Krishna says:

“Whoever knows Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, without doubting, is to be understood as the knower of everything, and he therefore engages himself in full devotional service, O son of Bharata.”

God is wealthy

Imagine you are talking to a friend and she mentions that she has been invited for a dinner which would also be attended by the who’s who of the corporate world, Which quality do you see in common amongst all of them? Richness, isn’t it? The personalities that were mentioned earlier are very attractive because of their riches. They are attractive even though they do not possess all the wealth of the world.

Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead,  is the proprietor of all riches. There are many rich men in the world, but no one can claim that he possesses all the wealth. Nor can anyone claim that no one is richer than Him. We understand from the Shrimad-Bhagavatam however, that when Sri Krishna was present on this earth He had 16,108 palaces where His near and dear ones lived, and each palace was made of marble and bedecked with jewels. The rooms were filled with furniture made of ivory and gold, and there was great opulence everywhere. In the history of human society we cannot find anyone who had 16,000 palaces.
We experience in this world that if a man is very rich, he is attractive. The personalities that were mentioned earlier are very attractive because of their riches. They are attractive even though they do not possess all the wealth of the world. How much more attractive, then, is God, who is the possessor of all riches? Great spiritual authorities therefore concluded that Krishna possesses the “attractive” quality of  “richness” or being “wealthy” in full.

vishnava

According to Vaishnava philosophy, Narayana cannot be equal to any one of us. What to speak of us, Narayana cannot be equally estimated even with great demigods like Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva. The Vaishnava Purana says, yas tu narayaana devam brahma-rudradi-daivataih, samatvenaiva vikseta sa pasandi bhavad dhruvam: (Cc. Madhya 18.116) "Anyone who calculates Narayana, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, equal with such demigods, what to speak of ordinary human beings, even big, big demigods like Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma, immediately becomes a pasandi, atheist."

Riletionship with god

The materialists, who are after opulence and material prosperity, may take lessons from the Ramayana that the policy of exploiting the nature of the Lord without acknowledging the supremacy of the Supreme Lord is the policy of Ravana. Ravana was very advanced materially, so much so that he turned his kingdom,Lanka, into pure gold, or full material wealth. But because he did not recognize the supremacy of Lord Ramachandra and defied Him by stealing His wife, Sita, Ravana was killed, and all his opulence and power were destroyed.

How can one truly understand the greatness of the Supreme Lord, we don’t have to look further than the Bhagavad gita, where Lord Krishna says that "That very ancient science of relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee." A devotee is one who accepts the supremacy of the Supreme Lord, and he is convinced about his eternal relationship with God.

Supreme personality

Lord Sri Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and it is confirmed  by all the great acharyas (spiritual masters) like Shankaracharya, Ramanujacarya, Madhvacharya, Nimbarka Swami, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and many other authorities of Vedic knowledge in India. Lord Shri Krishna also establishes Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the Bhagavad gita, and He is accepted as such in the Brahma-samhita and all the Puranas, and especially in the Bhagavata Purana also known as the Shrimad-Bhagavatam. In Bhagavad gita (7.14) it is said, daivi hy esa guna-mayi mama maya duratyaya: the living entities are all entangled in the three modes of material nature.  The external energy of the Lord is very strong, but the Lord, as the master of the three modes of material nature, is ever liberated from the action and reaction of those modes. He, therefore, is uncontaminated, as stated in the Isopanishad. The contamination of the material world does not affect the Supreme Godhead.

Krishna tu bhagvan

Real supremacy belongs to Krishna. Krishnas tu bhagavan svayam (SB 1.3.28) is the statement of Shrimad-Bhagavatam: "Krishna is the only Supreme Lord." Worship of Krishna alone, therefore, includes worship of all the parts and parcels, just as watering the root of a tree also waters all the branches, twigs, leaves and flowers.  The Lord is eternally liberated. Whenever He appears, even within this material world, He is never entangled by the three modes of material nature. He is known, therefore, as try-adhisa, the master of the three modes of material nature.  As Lord Krishna says, mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram: "This material nature is working under My direction."  Material nature is not independent. She is acting under the directions of the Supreme Lord
The Vrindavana-lila of Krishna is the perfect presentation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.  We see how big demigods like Brahma, Indra are completely bewildered. They are sometimes mistaken, thinking that "How this cowherd boy can become the Supreme Personality of Godhead?" Just like some of us think that way.  Although he's engaged in pleasing the inhabitants of  Vraja, but when there is need, He can lift up the Govardhana—at the age of seven years. Or He can kill the demoness  Putana at the age of three months.  So although Krishna is playing just like a cowherd boy, His supremacy as the Supreme Personality of Godhead is never absent there. That is God. God is not created by meditation. God is God. God is never manufactured. We should know this.

Krishna god

Krishna, the meaning of the word in Sanskrit is all-attractive, He is the of GodhSupreme Personality ead, also called as God of gods. Inotherwords, Krishna is the Godhead because He is all-attractive. From practical experience we can observe that one is attractive due to (1) wealth, (2) power, (3) fame, (4) beauty, (5) wisdom and (6) renunciation. One who is in possession of all six of these opulences at the same time and who possesses them to an unlimited degree is understood to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead according to Parasara Muni a great Vedic authority.

Humanity has not come across another personality like Lord Krishna with His unparalleled activities. By all historical accounts, Lord Krishna appeared 5,000 years back and played his part as a human being to perfection. Within the prison of His maternal uncle Kamsa, where His father and mother were confined, Krishna appeared outside His mother’s body as the four-handed Vishnu - Narayana. Then He turned Himself into a baby and told His father to carry Him to the house of Nanda Maharaja and his wife Yashoda in Gokula. The Vedic literatures give further histories of his appearances over millions and billions of years. In the Fourth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita, Krishna states that He can remember instructing the lessons of the Bhagavad-gita some millions of years ago to the sun-god, Vivasvan, because he possesses unlimited knowledge, Krishna has a memory that is boundless.

Bhagavad-gita, spoken by the Lord, has been acknowledged the world over for its philosophical depth and divine instructions. The world’s foremost western philosophers have paid rich tributes for the priceless wisdom that it offers to mankind. A discerning person will notice that the instruction contained in the Bhagavad-gita is higher knowledge, not to be found in any other book of knowledge.

Generally people think that by advancing the cause of moral principles and religious rites they will be happy. Others may think that happiness can be achieved by economic development, and yet others think that simply by sense gratification they will be happy. The whole world is very eager to satisfy the dormant propensity of love for others, however, if one simply reposes his dormant loving propensity in Krishna, then his life becomes successful. This is not a fiction but is a fact that can be realized by practical application. One can directly perceive the effects that love for Krishna has on his life.