Suprema Personality

Krishna is God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the original and primeval person who is simultaneously expanded everywhere throughout existence and yet is still situated in His eternal abode in His original, transcendental form. He is the all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-merciful being. He is the chief eternal living entity amongst all eternal living entities who are His parts. He is responsible for fulfilling all the desires of the subordinate living entities since time immemorial.
Krishna is the original name for God. Krishna has many other names according to the country, culture, and language of different peoples. To the Jews He is Yahweh, to the Christians He is Jehovah, to the Muslims He is Allah. To all He is God, the Supreme Being.
Some people think that God is the Brahman, or the formless and eternal manifestation of spiritual energy. They say everything is one and God is therefore everything and everything is therefore God. Devotees of the Lord, called Vaishnavas, accept that Krishna is not only the Brahman but a person. We do not say that Krishna is a person like you or me; on the contrary, He is the supreme Person who is all-powerful and unlimited, whereas we living entities are in every way limited. Krishna is the infinite source of all living beings and we are His eternal infinitesimal parts and parcels.

"I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts."
-Bhagavad Gita 10.8
Krishna possesses all good qualities. He is Bhagavan! He possesses all opulent qualities in the infinite degree. He is the most beautiful personality. Since He is the Supreme, He has the supreme form and personality. No one is more beautiful or attractive than He. Krishna attracts everyone. Therefore He is called Krishna, the all-attractive one. Except for the liberated souls, everyone in the material world is attracted by Cupid. But Krishna is so attractive that He not only attracts the liberated souls but He attracts Cupid as well. Krishna is the strongest personality. By His desire alone all the universes are created and destroyed by one portion of a portion of His personal form. He can do anything and everything as He likes. Krishna is also the wealthiest person since all wealth in all worlds everywhere come from Him. Everything animate and inanimate within all creation is owned and controlled by the Lord, who is the actual provider of everything. One who knows this perfectly well never claims anything as his own but uses everything in the service of the Lord.
Krishna is the most learned personality for He possesses all knowledge.
As He describes in the

Bhagavad-gita 7.26, "O Arjuna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things that are yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows...."

There is nothing in existence outside of Krishna since everything is the energy of Krishna, and therefore there is nothing He cannot know at any time. He is also existing within the hearts of all living entities as the Supersoul and therefore He
knows everything which they do or desire.
No one is more famous than God. Although people of this world know Him in His different forms and names, everyone is aware of the Lord. Some know about Him by worshiping Him in love and service, and some know Him by negating His existence (the atheists) but everyone knows about God. Someone may be famous for some years on this Earth planet, but he certainly may not be known on other planets or at other historical times. Krishna, God, is known in all planets in all universes throughout all time.
And finally, Krishna is the most renounced personality. He is not attached to anything in this world. The only thing which can bind Him is the loving devotional service of His devotees. And even then, if it will expand the devotee's love, He is capable of temporarily renouncing them as well, as He did with the gopis in the famous rasa dance in Vrindavan.
Sometimes God appears in this world just to show the people His original, eternal form. Sometimes He appears in other forms according to the requirements of His pastimes. More than 5,000 years ago, Krishna appeared in His original, transcendental form just to please His devotees, annihilate the miscreants, and reestablish the principles of religion. During this time on Earth, the Lord spoke Bhagavad-gita, which is one of the most famous books on this planet. In this literature, He gives the practical method to attain devotional service to His lotus feet.
The perfection of life is to attain pure, loving devotional service to the Lord. This is the real goal of all living entities. When one is perfected after a life of pure service, often attained after many, many births and deaths of endeavoring to attain real knowledge, one becomes eligible to go back to the spiritual world, the eternal abode of the Lord, which is far beyond the material realm of birth, death, old age and disease.

This verse from the Brahma Samhita describes the nature of Sri Krishna. The Brahma Samhita is Lord Brahma's (the creator of this universe) treatise on Krsna and the spiritual world.


ishvaraha parama krishnaha
sac-chid-ananda-vigraha
anadir adi govindaha
sarva-karana-karanam   Krsna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead.
He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body.
He is the origin of all. He has no other origin
and He is the prime cause of all causes.

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 God.

HIGHEST LOVE OF GOD

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu-the Lord as a devotee Lord Caitanya appeared in Mayapur, West Bengal, more than 500 years ago. He is an incarnation of Krishna who descended to this material world for two purposes; to spread the chanting of the holy names of God to deliver all the people from their material bondage, and to simultaneously taste the nectar of the pure love of God, Krishna, as it was tasted by His topmost devotee, Srimati Radharani, who is the internal energy of Krishna.
In His early life, Lord Caitanya played the part of an ordinary scholar with enormous knowledge and talent, while hiding the truth of His incarnation. Most people knew him as Nimai Pandit. However, when the time was right, He manifested Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead to His devotees and began spreading the congregational chanting of the holy names of the Lord.
After His 24th year, He accepted the renounced order of life, sannyasa, and left His home in Mayapur to travel throughout India to convert all the people to lovers of God. He would transform anyone, be he an atheist, rascal, or worse, as well as the pious and good, to the platform of love of Godhead. Lord Caitanya did not consider whether the recipients of the love of God were worthy or not, He indiscriminately bestowed what no other incarnation of God ever gave before; pure love of the Lord.
After travelling and preaching for six years, He settled in Jagannatha Puri for twelve years and intensely tasted the love that His pure devotees have for Him. Although He is Krishna Himself, He accepted the mood and colour of Srimati Radharani, His spiritual counterpart, and thought of Himself as His own devotee. Thus, although He is God Himself, He always was absorbed in the mood of His topmost devotees and thus He relished the highest love of Krishna together with His confidential associates.
Lord Caitanya started the sankirtan movement which continues to this day. He established the congregational chanting of the holy names of Krishna, with the Maha-Mantra:
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama,Hare Hare.
It is due to the movement of Lord Caitanya that the people of this world can have some idea of the highest position of love of God.

CHANTING HARE KRISHNA

The transcendental vibration established by the chanting of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare is the sublime method of reviving our Krsna consciousness. As living spiritual souls we are all originally Krsna conscious entities, but due to our association with matter from time immemorial, our consciousness is now polluted by the material atmosphere. The material atmosphere, in which we are now living, is called Maya, or illusion. Maya means "that which is not." And what is this illusion? The illusion is that we are all trying to be lords of material nature, while actually we are under the grip of her stringent laws. When a servant artificially tries to imitate the all-powerful master, this is called illusion. In this polluted concept of life, we are all trying to exploit the resources of material nature, but actually we are becoming more and more entangled in her complexities. Therefore, although we are engaged in a hard struggle to conquer nature, we are ever more dependent on her. This illusory struggle against material nature can be stopped at once by the revival of our Krsna consciousness. Krsna consciousness is not an artificial imposition of the mind; this consciousness is the original energy of the living entity. When we hear the transcendental vibration, this consciousness is revived. And this is the process recommended for this age by authorities. By practical experience also, one can perceive that by chanting this maha-mantra or the Great Chanting for Deliverance, one can at once feel a transcendental ecstasy coming through from the spiritual stratum. And when one is factually on the plane of spiritual understanding-surpassing the stages of the senses, mind, and intelligence-one is situated on the transcendental plane.
This chanting of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare is directly enacted from the spiritual platform, and thus this sound vibration surpasses all lower strata of consciousness-namely sensual, mental, and intellectual. There is no need, therefore, to understand the language of the mantra, nor is there any need for mental speculation or any intellectual adjustment for chanting this maha-mantra. It springs automatically from the spiritual platform, and as such, anyone can take part in the chanting without any previous qualification, and dance in ecstasy.
We have seen this practically. Even a child can take part in the chanting, or even a dog can take part in it. Of course, for one who is too entangled in material life, it takes a little more time to come to the standard point, but even such a materially engrossed man is raised to the spiritual platform very quickly. When the mantra is chanted by a pure devotee of the Lord in love, it has the greatest efficacy on the hearers, and as such, this chanting should be heard from the lips of a pure devotee of the Lord, so that immediate effects can be achieved. As far as possible, chanting from the lips of non-devotees should be avoided. Milk touched by the lips of a serpent has poisonous effects.
The word Hara is the form of addressing the energy of the Lord, and the words Krsna and Rama are addressing the Lord Himself. Both Krsna and Rama mean "the supreme pleasure" and Hara is the supreme pleasure energy of the Lord, changed to hare in the vocative. The supreme pleasure energy of the Lord helps us to reach the Lord.
The material energy, called Maya, is also one of the multi energies of the Lord. And we, the living entities, are also the energy-marginal energy-of the Lord. The living entities are described as superior to material energy. When the superior energy is in contact with the inferior energy, an incompatible situation arises; but when the superior marginal energy is in contact with the superior energy, called Hara, the living entity is established in his happy, normal condition.
These three words, namely Hare, Krsna, and Rama, are transcendental seeds of the maha-mantra. The chanting is a spiritual call for the Lord and His internal energy, Hara, to give protection to the conditioned soul. This chanting is exactly like the genuine cry of a child for its mother. Mother Hara helps the devotee achieve the grace of the supreme Father, Hari, or Krsna, and the Lord reveals Himself to the devotee who chants this mantra sincerely.
No other means of spiritual realization, therefore, is as effective in this age as chanting the maha-mantra:
Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare
Caitanya Mahaprabhu dreaming of Radha-Krsna How often and where should one chant?
Srila Prabhupada set the rule that one should chant at least sixteen rounds a day if one is initiated. The best time for chanting is in the morning hours. Though Lord Caitanya mentions that there are no hard or fast rules for chanting, it is still important to know that the chanting is accompanied by following the regulative principles. However, since there are no hard and fast rules one can chant anytime and at any place. The most recommended way to chant is in association of devotees. It is also advantageous to chant in front of Tulasi devi. One main point that Mahaprabhu stressed is the attitude while chanting:
trnad api sunicena taror api sahisnuna
amanina manadena kirtaniya sada hari

PUTTING ON TILAK

 

Tilaka refers to the markings which Vaisnava devotees apply to their bodies, to remind themselves and others that we are all eternal servants of Lord Krsna. The U-shaped mark represents the heel of Lord Visnu, and the oval part represents the Tulasi leaf. Tilaka is applied to twelve parts of the body, and the twelve names of the Lord are recited with each application. To apply tilaka, start with a little Ganges or Yamuna water (if you don't have any, get some water, and stirring it with your right middle finger, chant:
ganga cha yamune chaiva
godavari saravati
narmade sindho kaveri
jale 'smin sannidhim kuru "O Ganges, O Yamuna, O Godavari, O Saravati, O Narmada, O Sindhu, O Kaveri, please become present in this water." Put the water in your left hand, and rub the hard tilak into the water, creating a wet paste out of the clay. Begin by putting your ring finger of the right hand into the clay, and starting between the eyebrows, bring the finger straight up to the hairline, making two straight lines. It should look like a long, narrow U-shape. Then use some more tilak to make the Tulasi leaf on your nose, it should extend about 3/4 of the way down your nose. As you apply the tilak to your body, chant the following mantras: