Sound Bhakti

I gave you this example the other day of a visceral experience I had because a member of our congregation—a mother, had lost her child who was six years old. He had suffered a heart attack and was not revivable. She came to take counsel and solace. She brought with her a little bag that had some money in it; it came from her child’s piggy bank. He had been saving that money to do something for Kṛṣ...

When I sang this song at the very place where Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura had performed his worship of Śrī Śrī Gaura-Gadādhara, the devotees were dancing and spinning, and my very close friend and worldwide-famous kīrtaniyā Havi Prabhu came up to me privately and said, “Vaiś, this is such a somber song by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. He’s talking about the jīva soul and its sojourn in the material world from a...

As Akrūra in his prayers to Kṛṣṇa on the way to Vṛndāvan said, "We’re like logs floating endlessly in the river, but there will be a time that we come to the shore." For those who have met a Vaiṣṇav, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākur says, "Just as when you see the light on the horizon heralding the sunrise, then you know you’re about to see the sun." And for anyone in this world, he says, who has take...

-Whenever a kīrtana of pure devotees takes place, the Lord is immediately present. By chanting the holy names of the Lord, we associate with the Lord personally. (Cc Madhya 1.126) ----------------------------------------------------------- To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campai...

Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, in a practical way, when the residents of Kulina-grāma asked him about offending devotees, he said, "Offending devotees is poison; the antidote to the poison is to glorify the devotees." So, if you have to do something with your tongue, then just try to find something good to say about them. Somebody says "blah, blah, blah," and you say, "Well, they have nice kids." I’ve...

The concept of Avatāra is definitely prevalent in this verse and in this section, because Kapila is making His avatāra. If we think of it in terms of holes, the avatāra is the one who enters into the holes that we can't get out of. Otherwise, what's the use? Avatāra has the implication of one who's outside the hole and comes in just to deliver us, because we can't get out ourselves. That's why, wh...

The only qualification for sincerely approaching the Lord is that one is akiñcana, meaning that one feels, "I don't have any qualification." Helplessness is our main qualification. In Satya-yuga, because people have such acumen for meditation—they can remain in trance for hundreds, if not thousands of years without budging—they take shelter of that. Although the Holy Name is prominent always in ev...

I like limes better than lemons. I don't think there's any more beautiful fruit on the planet—just the color of it! Don't get me started. Imagine when you open a lime. Do you ever think about what a seed is inside? A lime seed falls out. If you wrap that in a wet cloth and keep it with some aluminum foil around the wet cloth for a week in a warm enough place—then when you open it up, you'll find r...

"The living entity, because he is transcendental, has nothing to do with this material nature. Still, because he has become conditioned by the material world, he is acting under the spell of the three modes of material nature. Because living entities have different kinds of bodies in terms of the different aspects of nature, they are induced to act according to that nature. This is the cause of th...

Chapter Twelve Devotional Service TEXT 1: Arjuna inquired: Which are considered to be more perfect, those who are always properly engaged in Your devotional service or those who worship the impersonal Brahman, the unmanifested? TEXT 2: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Those who fix their minds on My personal form and are always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith a...

Humans have the highest potential to develop their consciousness, and that depends on their situation within the three modes of nature. That's what this verse is talking about, It says: kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu. Yoni-janmasu means that we end up in various environments because of the way in which we have cultivated our consciousness. And that cultivation of consciousness is in...

I went to Vṛndāvana for Puruṣottama-māsa. It was right after 9/11 and the plane was empty; there were only a couple of people on there. When we landed in Delhi, it was really hot because it was 2001—imagine that. It was very hot because it was still September when I got there. Everybody wanted to know about what was going to happen to America, what was going to happen to the world, because of that...

I was just thinking about when Prabhu and I first were getting to know each other—before we were even engaged, and obviously before we were married. Just the things that we had to learn about each other. One of the things that sticks in my mind is we lived in LA at the time, and we used to go down to the marina to take walks. He's a foot taller than me—or more than a foot taller than me—and he has...

ŚB 11.5.32 kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ In the Age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the names of Kṛṣṇa. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential compa...

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says that when you control the tongue, then all the other senses become controlled after that. Then, by that practice of chanting Hare Krishna, you will come to a point where it tastes good and you don't want to stop, and then automatically—systemically—you'll feel satisfied. All the senses become satisfied when you please Krishna by chanting with your tongue: jihvā ādau—first th...

I was thinking about Prahlāda Mahārāj. kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma tad apy adhruvam arthadam (SB 7.6.1) He talked about how one should start the process of education very early. He got direct knowledge from Nārada Muni. But most people don't get that benefit, so it's very difficult to be on track. In fact, it is impossible without some knowledge interventio...

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu went to Śrī Vṛndāvana Dhāma. There, he looked for Śrī Rādhā-kuṇḍa, but no one could tell him where it was, as it had been lost in antiquity. While he was wandering in a field, he came upon some cows and a very small pond. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu went there; he felt that Kṛṣṇa-prema had been instilled in that place thousands of years ago, the pastimes of Śrī Śrī Rādhā and Kṛ...

If someone comes to us with an offer, saying, "I will take care of all your affairs"—for instance, I have an app, and this app will take care of all your other apps, and that includes accounting and all your emails—something like Notion, where you just put it all in one place and then you don't have to worry about it, only much better. Yes, this person will take care of your financial situation. I...

If you consider advertising, how does it work? You have to repeat it. People say things over and over again. Also as mentioned, politically, if lies are repeated over and over again—enough times—then it just becomes an accepted idea from the repetition. So, that’s conditioned life. I’m repeating to myself various false senses of myself. From the Rāmāyaṇa, we have this profound example: that Kaikey...

Brahma Samhita verses: https://versecircle.com/?s=750 To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=launch2025 https://vaisesikadasayatra.blogspot.com/ Add to your wisdom literature collection: https://iskconsv.com/book-store/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=launch2...

Prabhu sent me a video of his mom this morning. It was when he was teaching her how to chant japa. She was 91, I think, and physically she was having a hard time. Her hands were hard to move but she was determined to do it. It was really sweet, and it just reminded me that I miss her. When my siblings and I got to know her, they used to come out and visit, and we would do family gatherings at thei...

List of nectarean verses: https://versecircle.com/?s=1118 To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Add to your wisdom literature collection: https://iskconsv.com/book-store/ https://www.bbtacademic.com/books/ https://thefourquestionsbook.com/ -----------------------...

You’ll notice that the last six verses of the 12th chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā tell us the result of practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness in any of its forms. As Kṛṣṇa mentions, the person becomes straightforward and truthful. There are different ways to interact with people. Somebody who is Kṛṣṇa conscious will be able to sort out situations without resorting to false ego. It's the hardest thing that...

A devotee is not vitally concerned with the ups and downs of the material world, but is concerned with going on with his or her service without deviation. Of course, Lord Nṛsiṃhadeva recaptured Hiraṇyakaśipu, and this resembles the tussle between a cat and a mouse. On the lawn of the Denver temple. I saw the cat—who was a temple cat, doing its service—and it caught a mouse. The cat was sitting cas...

We avoid four sinful activities and especially avoid four things. Be careful about what we eat, as it directly affects your consciousness. No illicit sex, no intoxication, no gambling, no meat-eating. These are just low activities. When we’re engaged in devotional service, we have to be careful because we may not see everything. So there are different kinds of aparādhas. There’s vaiṣṇava-aparādha,...