# Waves of Devotion

> The Writings and Realizations of Srila Dhanurdhara Swami


## Pages

- [Yoga Made Easy by Music: How Kirtan Works](https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/yoga-made-easy-by-music-how-kirtan-works/): (Kirtan refers to devotional singing, but it also refers to the recitation of spiritual poetry and drama or even just...
- [Can God Be Blue?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/can-god-be-blue/): The following is a talk given by Dhanurdhara Swami at Yogamaya New York, on Friday, May 16, 2014, entitled “Can...
- [The Power and Culture of Humility: Developing Self-confidence Through a Humble Heart](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/the-power-and-culture-of-humility/): The following is a class entitled “The Power and Culture of Humility: Developing Self-confidence Through a Humble Heart” given at...
- [The Skill of Happiness](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/the-skill-of-happiness/): The Skill of Happiness In the latest of Yogamaya New York’s Sat-Sanga series, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami gives a talk entitled...
- [Yoga Sutras Seminar at Yogamaya](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/yoga-sutras-seminar-at-yogamaya/): On April 6, and April 7, 2013, Dhanurdhara Swami gave an extensive 12 hour seminar on the Yoga Sutras of...
- [Yoga Psychology at Down Dog Yoga](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/yoga-psychology-at-down-dog-yoga/): Yoga Psychology at Down Dog Yoga The following is a class Srila Dhanurdhara Swami recently gave on April 2, 2013,...
- [A Talk in Middle America](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/a-talk-in-middle-america/): Dhanurdhara Swami discusses his recent lecture to a group of conservative Christians and the reception he received. Dhanurdhara Swami and...
- [The Yoga of Forgiveness](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/the-yoga-of-forgiveness-2/): The Yoga of Forgiveness A must listen to, in this latest of Yogamaya New York’s Sat-Sanga series, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami...
- [Compassion and the Symptom of the Soul](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/compassion-and-the-symptom-of-the-soul/): Compassion and the Symptom of the Soul The following is a class Srila Dhanurdhara Swami recently gave in Christchurch, New...
- [Narada Bhakti Sutra - Sutra 5](https://wavesofdevotion.com/bhakti-in-essence/narada-bhakti-sutra-5/): Narada Bhakti Sutra Sutra 5 yat prāpya na kiñcid vāñchati na śocati na dveṣṭi na ramate notsāhī bhavati Achieving it,...
- [Narada Bhakti Sutra - Sutra 4](https://wavesofdevotion.com/bhakti-in-essence/narada-bhakti-sutra-4/): Narada Bhakti Sutra Sutra 4 yal labdhvā pumān siddho bhavaty amṛto bhavati tṛpto bhavati Having attained divine love, a person...
- [Narada Bhakti Sutra - Sutra 3](https://wavesofdevotion.com/bhakti-in-essence/narada-bhakti-sutra-3/): Narada Bhakti Sutra Sutra 3 amṛta-svarūpā ca This pure love for God is eternal. All spiritual paths, or yogas, are...
- [Narada Bhakti Sutra - Sutra 2](https://wavesofdevotion.com/bhakti-in-essence/narada-bhakti-sutra-2/): Narada Bhakti Sutra Sutra 2 sā tv-asmin parama-prema-rūpā The nature of bhakti is the topmost love for God. The first...
- [The Heart of a Yogi: The Power and Culture of Humility - Part II](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/the-heart-of-a-yogi-the-power-and-culture-of-humility-part-ii/): The Heart of a Yogi: The Power and Culture of Humility – Part II On July 24, 2012, Srila Dhanurdhara...
- [The Heart of a Yogi: The Power and Culture of Humility - Part I](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/the-heart-of-a-yogi-the-power-and-culture-of-humility-part-i/): The Heart of a Yogi: The Power and Culture of Humility – Part I On July 10, 2012, Srila Dhanurdhara...
- [Bhakti in Essence](https://wavesofdevotion.com/bhakti-in-essence/): Dhanurdhara Swami is writing a new book called Bhakti in Essence – A commentary on Narada Bhakti Sutra. Every week...
- [Narada Bhakti Sutra - Sutra 1](https://wavesofdevotion.com/bhakti-in-essence/narada-bhakti-sutra-1/): Narada Bhakti Sutra Sutra 1 athāto bhaktiḿ vyākhyāsyāmaḥ Now, therefore, I will try to explain the process of bhakti. A...
- [Discussion of Sat Sandarbha](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/discussion-of-sat-sandarbha/): This is 42 minute portion of Dhanurdhara Swami’s discussion on Sat Sandarbha given in April 2010 at the Bhakti Center...
- [Srila Dhanurdhara Swami speaks at The Bhakti Center - Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.8 ](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/srila-dhanurdhara-swami-speaks-at-the-bhakti-center-srimad-bhagavatam-1-2-8/): Dhanurdhara Swami discusses this sloka of Srimad Bhagavatam at the Bhakti Center in New York City in Arpil 2010. Srimad...
- [The Mother, the Mind, and Food](https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/the-mother-the-mind-and-food/): The Mother, the Mind, and Food Dhanurdhara Swami Recently my mother related to me how she was advising her daughter-in-law...
- [Events](https://wavesofdevotion.com/events/)
- [Bhakti Yoga Immersion - August 23-26, 2012](https://wavesofdevotion.com/events/bhakti-yoga-immersion-august-2012/): Join Dhanurdhara Swami and Raghunath August 23-26, 2012, for a weekend of sat sanga, meditation, kirtan and yoga at the...
- [The Later Pastimes of Sri Caitanya at The Bhakti Center](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/the-later-pastimes-of-sri-caitanya-at-the-bhakti-center/): The Later Pastimes of Sri Caitanya at The Bhakti Center On May 22, 2012, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami gave a talk...
- [Paradox and Perfection at Yogamaya New York](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/paradox-and-perfection-at-yogamaya-new-york/): Paradox and Perfection at Yogamaya New York On March 29, 2012, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami gave a seminar entitled Paradox and...
- [Bhakti Seminar at Yogamaya New York](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/bhakti-seminar-at-yogamaya-new-york/): Bhakti Seminar at Yogamaya New York On September 17-18, 2011, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami gave a 15 hour seminar on bhakti...
- [Dhanurdhara Swami speaks at St. Albans School](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/dhanurdhara-swami-speaks-at-st-albans-school/): On Thursday, September 22, 2011, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami gave a short sermon that at the chapel of St. Albans School...
- [The Yoga of Forgiveness](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/the-yoga-of-forgiveness/): The Yoga of Forgiveness As part of his monthly satsang series at Yogamaya Studio in New York, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami...
- [Environment on Consciousness](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/environment-on-consciousness/): Environment on Consciousness The following is a lecture given by Dhanurdhara Swami on Saturday, August 21, 2010, at Yogamaya Studio...
- [Windows to the Material World](https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/windows-to-the-material-world/): I just finished assembling my journals into book form for a final edit. Fortunately, I finished the work before my...
- [Yoga Psychology](https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/yoga-psychology/): Introduction “Is there therapy in the Vedas? ” I was a bit taken aback by this inquiry from a young...
- [Seven Ways In Which Hearing Sacred Texts Purifies the Mind](https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/seven-ways-in-which-hearing-sacred-texts-purifies-the-mind/): Seven Ways In Which Hearing Sacred Texts Purifies the Mind Hearing (sravanam) is the conduit of knowledge. It is thus...
- [Book Review: O My Friend! O My Friend!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/book-review-o-my-friend-o-my-friend/): When I first saw Babhru Dasa's O My Friend! O My Friend! , I was impressed with his overall scholarship...
- [Psychology of Bhagavad-gita](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/psychology-of-bhagavad-gita/): Indian Philosophy has a wealth of knowledge about psychology both describing in detail the nature of the mind and how...
- [Media](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/): The Power and Culture of Humility: Developing Self-confidence Through a Humble Heart On May 16, 2014, Dhanurdhara Swami gave a...
- [Psychology of Karma](https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/psychology-of-karma/): In this lecture given at The Arlington Center in conjunction with the Boston Brahmins on September 6, 2008, Dhanurdhara Swami...
- [Japa Meditations](https://wavesofdevotion.com/published-work/japa-meditations/): Published November 2008. Purchase here Japa Meditations: Contemplations on Entering the Holy Name is a collection of selected personal realizations...
- [Srila Bhaktisiddhanta and Raganuga-sadhana-bhakti](https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/srila-bhaktisiddhanta-and-raganuga-sadhana-bhakti/): Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta and Rāgānuga-sādhana-bhakti There is a criticism of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī in certain Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava circles, concerning his approach...
- [Store](https://wavesofdevotion.com/store/): All pricing stated below is for orders within the United States only. For orders outside the United States or for...
- [About](https://wavesofdevotion.com/about/): Waves of Devotion is the personal site of Srila Dhanurdhara Swami. Here you will find Dhanurdhara Swami sharing his insights...
- [Contact](https://wavesofdevotion.com/contact/)
- [Essays](https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/)
- [Published Work](https://wavesofdevotion.com/published-work/): Japa Meditations: Contemplations on Entering the Holy Name A collection of selected personal realizations on japa meditation. Along with his...
- [Weekly Sanga](https://wavesofdevotion.com/weekly-sanga/): Twice a week Srila Dhanurdhara Swami shares his thoughts and realizations on revealed scriptures such as the Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam,...
- [Waves of Devotion](https://wavesofdevotion.com/published-work/waves-of-devotion/): Published September 30, 2000. Purchase here Waves of Devotion by Dhanurdhara Swami is a comprehensive study of His Divine Grace...
- [Greetings From Vrindavana](https://wavesofdevotion.com/published-work/greetings-from-vrindavana/): Published June 16, 2007. Purchase here Greetings from Vrindavana is a collection of selected personal realizations by Srila Dhanurdhara Swami...
- [Dhanurdhara Swami](https://wavesofdevotion.com/about/dhanurdhara-swami/): Photograph by Nancy Ambe. Dhanurdhara Swami was initiated into the Gauḍīyā Vaiṣṇava lineage by Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda...
- [Introduction](https://wavesofdevotion.com/published-work/waves-of-devotion/introduction/): Waves of Devotion Introduction By Dhanurdhara Swami Since The Nectar of Devotion is already the commentary1 of a self-realized soul,...
- [Foreword](https://wavesofdevotion.com/published-work/waves-of-devotion/foreword/): Waves of Devotion Foreword By Satyaraja Dasa (Steven J. Rosen) In this world, there are three major oceans—the Indian, the...
- [Reviews](https://wavesofdevotion.com/published-work/reviews/): Here are some reviews of Srila Dhanurdhara Swami’s published work. On Greetings from Vrindavana... “Greetings from Vrindavana” published A look...
- [Does ISKCON Have A Moral Theology?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/does-iskcon-have-a-moral-theology/): September 25, 2003 Vṛndāvana When my friend Reverend William Muldin, a Catholic priest, humbly commented, “I have been reading Śrīla...


## Posts

- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #27 - The World Cup Through the Eyes of Śāstra](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/07/06/the-world-cup-through-the-eyes-of-sastra/): It was Thursday. I didn’t have a clue what I could write about for this Monday. I then saw a...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #26 - The Banality of Evil and Religious Institutions](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/06/29/the-banality-of-evil-and-religious-institutions/): I hope most of you read my last post “My Association with the Gambino Crime Family”. When I grew up...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #25 - What I Learned from My Association with the Gambino Crime Family](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/06/22/what-i-learned-from-my-association-with-the-gambino-crime-family/): You can’t make this up! I was checking out a documentary called The Lynchpin of Bensonhurst. It’s a long story...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #24 - In Defense of Attachment](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/06/15/in-defense-of-attachment/): During my Deity sevā this morning, along with the bhoga offering, I wanted to offer something more. I began to...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #23 - Our Decisions Determine Our Fate](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/06/08/our-decisions-determine-our-fate-2/): Our Decisions Determine Our Fate What we are now has been determined by the decisions we made in the past....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #22 - Three Words to Change Your Life](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/06/01/three-words-to-change-your-life/): “Any Questions? ” Śrīla Prabhupāda had just finished the morning class and looked out at his audience in the large...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #21 - Some Somber Quotes on Death](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/05/25/some-somber-quotes-on-death/): “What is death but a change of body? ” I woke up to a startling message. Śrīla Prabhupāda was suddenly...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #20 - Paradox in Bhakti I — The Agony is the Ecstasy](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/05/18/paradox-in-bhakti-i-the-agony-is-the-ecstasy/): Often when Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī describes Śrī Caitanya’s feelings at the height of His devotion, he describes His intense...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #19 - The Origin of the Living Entity and the Limits of Reason](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/05/11/the-origin-of-the-living-entity-and-the-limits-of-reason/): A natural inquiry that comes up in almost all spiritual traditions concerns the origin of the living entity in this...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #18 - I Just Can’t Stand Him!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/05/04/i-just-cant-stand-him/): I Just Can’t Stand Him! Did a devotee ever get on your nerves? I can’t imagine how many people I...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #17 - Why Do We Not Fully Feel God When Chanting His Name?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/04/27/why-do-we-not-fully-feel-god-when-chanting-his-name/): An object (vācya) is different than the word that expresses that object (vācaka). For example, if one says water, it...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #16 - Death with Honor](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/04/20/death-with-honor/): I just returned from India last week, and it became so clear to me that this dark age was accelerating....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #15 - Scientism and Blind Faith](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/04/13/scientism-and-blind-faith/): Scientism and Blind Faith I was listening to a talk between Sean Carroll and Alex O’Connor, arguably two of the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #14 - Humility! Humility! Humility!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/04/06/humility-humility-humility-2/): Humility! Humility! Humility! This was St. Augustine’s answer to the rhetorical question he posed to the faithful gathered to hear...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #13 - The Supreme Personality of Godhead](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/03/30/the-supreme-personality-of-godhead/): Śrīla Prabhupāda had a way with words in his translation of Sanskrit to English. The word bhagavān is the most...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #12 - Do You Believe in Miracles? II](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/03/23/do-you-believe-in-miracles-2/): Who is Murti Murti and what in the world does her name mean? Murti Murti’s father was already a yogi...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #11 - The Mystery Verse II](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/03/16/monday-morning-greetings-2026-11-the-mystery-verse-ii/): The audience for Monday Morning Greetings is varied. There are senior practitioners on the path of bhakti and others that...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #10 - The Mystery Verse](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/03/09/the-mystery-verse/): I loved the verse. “In great jubilation, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, ‘My dear Svarūpa Dāmodara and Rāmānanda Rāya, know from...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #9 - What I Learned from the King of the Elephants](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/03/02/what-i-learned-from-the-king-of-the-elephants/): Last week I explained that after reading the first twenty verses of Gajendra Mokṣa in the Bhāgavatam, I was disappointed....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #8 - Bhāgavatam: The Book of Revelations](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/02/23/bhagavatam-the-book-of-revelations/): For ten years I have been able to come up with a solid realization to write about every week. For...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #7 - In Defense of Ignorance](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/02/16/in-defense-of-ignorance/): “In defense of ignorance”? Well, here it is: “Those who worship avidyā (the culture of ignorance) come back to this...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #6 - There is No Victim Consciousness in God Consciousness](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/02/09/there-is-no-victim-consciousness-in-god-consciousness-3/): There is no Victim Consciousness in God Consciousness “Victim consciousness is a stage of consciousness in which people deny personal...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #5 - How Are You? My Answer](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/02/02/how-are-you-my-answer-2/): How Are You? My Answer How are you? Everything is going great, but there is one problem. What is that?...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #4 - How to Feel Bad About Yourself!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/01/26/how-to-feel-bad-about-yourself-3/): I’m a hopeless optimist. A friend once joked: “You’re so optimistic that you could be falling out of the Empire...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #3 - Can Destiny Be Changed?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/01/19/can-destiny-be-changed-2/): Can Destiny Be Changed? First, a story from the Jain tradition that sheds some initial light on our inquiry. Five...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #2 - Marilyn Monroe Died!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/01/12/marilyn-monroe-died-2/): Marilyn Monroe Died! Note: This morning, I realized the Monday Morning Greetings post I was working on, titled “Rasa Theory...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #1 - The Art of the Essay and Happy Tenth Birthday, Monday Morning Greetings!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/01/05/the-art-of-the-essay-and-happy-tenth-birthday-monday-morning-greetings/): That’s over five hundred original essays! In my first essay of every year, I celebrate the birth of my blog...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #53 - The Philosopher’s Corner: Quandary I](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/12/29/the-philosophers-corner-quandary-i/): Quandary I: If God is perfect and complete, how can we possibly increase His pleasure? And if we can’t, is...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #52 - Is Wearing Vaiṣṇava Dress Important?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/12/22/is-wearing-vaisnava-dress-important/): Is Wearing Vaiṣṇava Dress Important? When Śrīla Prabhupāda came to the West he wore the typical dress of an Indian...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #51 - Damn the Expedient!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/12/15/damn-the-expedient-2/): Damn the Expedient! It bothers me when people, knowingly or unknowingly, neglect or minimize what is right in favor of...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #50 - Some Sannyāsī!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/12/08/some-sannyasi/): Some Sannyāsī! I was sitting on a wooden bed in my small room in Vrindavan. The floor was packed with...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #49 - Until We Got Nothing but God](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/12/01/until-we-got-nothing-but-god/): I attended some very good lectures at the Govardhan Retreat Center this week. Many good points were made but one...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #48 - Sādhus of Vṛndāvana](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/11/24/sadhus-of-vrndavana/): Sādhus of Vṛndāvana A question recently came to my mind. I have lived here in Vṛndāvana for almost forty-four years....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #47 - What I Learned from Blind Hockey](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/11/17/what-i-learned-from-blind-hockey/): Paul is a reasonably successful professional film maker who is based in Govardhan in the winter with his wife Kristina,...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #46 - More Than Meets the Eye](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/11/10/more-than-meets-the-eye/): I found the 16th chapter of the Antya-līlā of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta very intriguing. The last eight chapters (14-20) describe Śrī...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #45 - A Sannyāsi Walks onto a Train and Meets a Girl](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/11/03/a-sannyasi-walks-onto-a-train-and-meets-a-girl-3/): A Sannyāsi Walks onto a Train and Meets a Girl I can’t remember the exact train or time, but I...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #44 - On Criticism II](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/10/27/on-criticism-ii-2/): On Criticism II What constitutes constructive criticism, and when do we overstep its line? Before defining that line, it is...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #43 - What I Learned from Bhakta Herman and the Prostitute](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/10/20/what-i-learned-from-bhakta-herman-and-the-prostitute/): What I Learned from Bhakta Herman and the Prostitute You’re a monk. Are you really going to talk about a...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #42 - Bhakti, Bhakti Everywhere But Not a Drop to Drink](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/10/13/bhakti-bhakti-everywhere-but-not-a-drop-to-drink/): Bhakti, Bhakti Everywhere But Not a Drop to Drink The practice of bhakti is very simple, but very qualified people...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #41 - Have I become a Sahajiyā?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/10/06/have-i-become-a-sahajiya/): Usually, a few drops on the head and then quickly in and out. But the weather is so warm and...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #40 - The Black Swan (Not the Movie)](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/09/29/the-black-swan-not-the-movie-2/): The Black Swan (Not the Movie) I bought a book in the airport: 50 Philosophy Classics from the 50 Classic...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #39 - Guruship and the Death of Bhakti](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/09/22/guruship-and-the-death-of-bhakti/): Maybe the title is too heavy, but there is a point there. Material consciousness means to think of oneself as...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #38 - What I Learned from the Sad Story of David Seigel](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/09/15/what-i-learned-from-the-sad-story-of-david-seigel/): He was about five foot three inches and almost 200 pounds and that was in 10th grade! Tough karma for...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #37 - There is no Victim Consciousness in God Consciousness](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/09/08/there-is-no-victim-consciousness-in-god-consciousness-2/): There is no Victim Consciousness in God Consciousness “Victim consciousness is a stage of consciousness in which people deny personal...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #36 - Dearer to Me than Even My Brother Balarama!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/09/01/dearer-to-me-than-even-my-brother-balarama/): Yes, Krishna says say that. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11. 14. 15) Who is dearer than his eternal associates, and even His brother?...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #35 - Advaita Vedānta: A Philosophy That Is Just Illusion](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/08/25/advaita-vedanta-a-philosophy-that-is-just-illusion/): I got a message from an Indian friend who visits Vrindavan. He is a good devotee, and I was therefore...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #34 - Radha-Bhāva and Prabhupāda](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/08/18/radha-bhava-and-prabhupada-2/): Radha-Bhāva and Prabhupāda This is not about Śrīla Prabhupāda’s eternal relationship with Krishna. I will leave that for other discussions....
- [Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Vyāsa-pūjā – Dhanurdhara Swami’s Offering to Śrīla Prabhupāda](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/08/17/srila-prabhupadas-vyasa-puja-dhanurdhara-swamis-offering-to-srila-prabhupada-2025/): Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to you! I marvel at your genius. I had written...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #33 - Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta and the Necessity of Rasa Geography](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/08/11/brhad-bhagavatamrta-and-the-necessity-of-rasa-geography/): In my daily studies of Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta a question arose. First, some background on the section I was reading: Mahārāja Parīkṣit...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #32 - Swan Lake, the Ugly Duckling, and Krishna Consciousness](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/08/04/swan-lake-the-ugly-duckling-and-krishna-consciousness/): It was the first ballet I ever attended. I had no choice, actually. My gracious hosts in St. Petersburg thought...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #31 - Rubies, Diamonds, Rings, and Pearls](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/07/28/rubies-diamonds-rings-and-pearls/): “Rubies, diamonds, rings, and pearls Just to attract fools to the spiritual world Dashing, handsome, and carefree Bhavānanda Goswami” Those...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #30 - From Drama to Meaning](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/07/21/from-drama-to-meaning/): It’s time to begin writing my next Monday Morning Greetings. I have nothing to write. Realizations are a gift. To...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #29 - How Truth is Revealed](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/07/14/how-truth-is-revealed/): For those serious about the study of sacred texts, the term sambandha-jñānā is significant. Commonly it is defined as a...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #28 - The Potency that Removes All Contradictions](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/07/07/the-potency-that-removes-all-contradictions/): I was driving my car in Manhattan and made a wrong turn and found myself on the 59th Street bridge...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #27 - Seeing, But Not Seeing, and the Five Components of Perception](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/06/30/seeing-but-not-seeing-and-the-five-components-of-perception/): Recently, someone shared with me “the gorilla on the screen” experiment. In the experiment people watch a video of two...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #26 - The Death of Nuance](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/06/23/the-death-of-nuance/): My post today is just a reflection on the current state of public discourse, both in the world and within...
- [Monday Morning Greeting 2025 #25 - If You are Not an Optimist, You’re an Atheist!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/06/16/if-you-are-not-an-optimist-youre-an-atheist/): If You are Not an Optimist, You’re an Atheist! This post is about gratitude. What is gratitude? It’s a strong...
- [Correction to last Monday Morning Greetings](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/06/12/correction-to-last-monday-morning-greetings/): I received a lot of feedback from my last Monday Morning Greetings, “Is Chanting Sixteen Rounds a Principle or a...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #24 - Is Chanting Sixteen Rounds a Principle or a Detail?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/06/09/is-chanting-sixteen-rounds-a-principle-or-a-detail/): Śrīla Prabhupāda made it very clear what he expected of his disciples: “My advice is always chant sixteen rounds minimum...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #23 - AI and the Dumbing of Vaiṣṇava Learning and Scholarship](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/06/02/ai-and-the-dumbing-of-vaisnava-learning-and-scholarship/): AI and the Dumbing of Vaiṣṇava Learning and Scholarship There is a very interesting concept in Bhāgavatam philosophy (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #22 - Should we trust Dandavats.com?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/05/26/should-we-trust-dandavats-com/): Should we trust Dandavats. com? By Jayadvaita Swami Where is Dhanurdhara Maharaja? Why has this week’s Monday Morning Greetings been...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #21 - The Pope and Reincarnation](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/05/19/the-pope-and-reincarnation/): I was intrigued by the papal conclave. I was happy the new pope looked and acted saintly, a pastor to...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #20 - Queen Kuntī was Right!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/05/12/queen-kunti-was-right/): When I grew up in Krishna consciousness, we were very sympathetic to the Vaiṣṇavas in the former Soviet Union. After...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #19 - Is Forgiveness the Most Important Quality of an Aspiring Yogi?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/05/05/is-forgiveness-the-most-important-quality-of-an-aspiring-yogi/): Recently I gave a talk on forgiveness titled “How to give up justified hate? ” While giving the talk it...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #18 - Perception, Contentment and Fake News](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/04/28/perception-contentment-and-fake-news-2/): Perception, Contentment and Fake News The black snake was still sitting on the last step of the ghāṭa. It hadn’t...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #17 - The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Preachers Part III](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/04/21/the-seven-habits-of-highly-effective-preachers-part-iii/): The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Preachers Part III 4. Is Pro-active Intelligent leaders don’t just react to problems. They...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #16 - The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Preachers Part II](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/04/14/the-seven-habits-of-highly-effective-preachers-part-ii/): 2. Empowering A person who wants to widely communicate an important message needs people to assist in that work. It...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #15 - The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Preachers Part I](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/04/07/the-seven-habits-of-highly-effective-preachers-part-i/): A group of devotees gathered to hone their skills in communicating krishna-bhakti, and I was asked to give a talk...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #14 - Mahābhāva Dhāma](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/03/31/monday-morning-greetings-2025-14-mahabhava-dhama/): Mahābhāva Dhāma Mahābhāva Dhāma may be Govardhan’s best kept secret. It’s simply a room in the house of a humble...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #13 - Is There Love in the Material World?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/03/24/is-there-love-in-the-material-world-2/): Is There Love in the Material World? While attending a lecture, I was skeptical of the apparent conclusion of the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #12 - Rāgānugā-bhakti Made Easy](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/03/17/raganuga-bhakti-made-easy/): Rāgānugā-bhakti Made Easy I spoke to a Vaiṣṇava scholar in Vrindavan recently who described his perspective on rāgānugā-bhakti. He depicted...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #11 - The Genius of Śrīla Prabhupāda and the Principle of Intrapreneurship](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/03/10/the-genius-of-srila-prabhupada-and-the-principle-of-intrapreneurship/): In my last article “Build Devotees, Not Temples,” I opined that institutions like ISKCON need to spend more resources supporting...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #10 - The Supreme Personality of Rice](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/03/03/the-supreme-personality-of-rice-2/): The Supreme Personality of Rice If you look at my astrological chart, you will see that my Venus is debilitated....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #9 - Build Devotees, Not Temples](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/02/24/build-devotees-not-temples/): Recently I was inspired by an article by Bhakti Vijñāna Gosvāmī titled “How Not to Turn ISKCON Into a Religion....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #8 - The Mission of Śrī Caitanya and the Genius of Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja in Presenting It](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/02/17/the-mission-of-sri-caitanya-and-the-genius-of-srila-krsnadasa-kaviraja-in-presenting-it/): I have written an article before about the genius of Sanātana Gosvāmī in presenting the mission of Śrī Caitanya in...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #7 - Is Teatime an Item of Devotional Service?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/02/10/is-teatime-an-item-of-devotional-service/): Joking. Not really. The story: I was holding my fourth annual BIG (Bhakti Immersion Govardhan) Retreat. It was a motley...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #6 - Love Makes the World Go Round and Śrī Caitanya’s Practice of Bhakti Yoga](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/02/03/love-makes-the-world-go-round-and-sri-caitanyas-practice-of-bhakti-yoga/): Years back, when I was giving seminars at yoga studios, I was always looking for a relatable definition of bhakti...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #5 - Logos, Logic, and Prasādam](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/01/27/logos-logic-and-prasadam-2/): Logos, Logic, and Prasādam Have you ever gone on a “word journey”? I made the term up, but I really...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #4 - Believers and the Elephant in the Room: Tackling the Challenge of Evil](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/01/20/believers-and-the-elephant-in-the-room-tackling-the-challenge-of-evil-2/): Believers and the Elephant in the Room: Tackling the Challenge of Evil At the age of twenty-one Jeff, my youngest...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #3 - Do You Believe in Miracles?!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/01/13/do-you-believe-in-miracles/): Do You Believe in Miracles? ! When something miraculous happens, we have two mutually exclusive choices to explain it. Either...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #2 - How Intellectuals Found God](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/01/06/how-intellectuals-found-god/): In my senior year of high school, Joseph Zogby, my English teacher, asked the students to write an essay on...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #1 - Happy 9th Birthday Monday Morning Greetings!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/12/30/happy-9th-birthday-monday-morning-greetings/): Every year I celebrate the birthday of Monday Morning Greetings, January 4, 2016, by dedicating my post on the Monday...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #52 - My Greatest Fear](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/12/23/my-greatest-fear/): Well, maybe not the greatest fear. The Gītā explains that the greatest fear is losing this rare human birth which...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #51 - The Battle for Our Souls](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/12/16/the-battle-for-our-souls-2/): The Battle for Our Souls The success of yoga depends on our ability to focus our attention on a particular...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #50 - Where There is no Circumference, the Center is Everywhere](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/12/09/where-there-is-no-circumference-the-center-is-everywhere/): Recently, I was gifted a beautiful deity of Śrīla Prabhupāda. In fact, I think most of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciples were...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #49 - Self-consciousness as the Root of All Suffering](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/12/02/self-consciousness-as-the-root-of-all-suffering/): I think I need here to first define my terms. By self-consciousness I don’t mean self-awareness where you realize or...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #48 - Movement or Mission?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/11/25/movement-or-mission-2/): Movement or Mission? In a discussion with a friend, he distinguished between the Hare Krishna Movement (its structure and organization)...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #47 - The Mind of Śrīla Prabhupāda — Part Two](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/11/18/the-mind-of-srila-prabhupada-part-two/): Last week I wrote about the special features of Brahmā-vimohana-līlā. It was the last commentary Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote and the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #46 - The Mind of Śrīla Prabhupāda — Part One](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/11/11/the-mind-of-srila-prabhupada-part-one/): I hope the title doesn’t seem too presumptuous, but it was the best I could come up with in terms...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #45 - Monday Morning Greetings: Election Special](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/11/04/monday-morning-greetings-election-special/): I assume that all of you, even though many of you live outside the United States of America, know that...
- [Monday Morning Greeting 2024 #44 - Home at Last!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/10/28/home-at-last-3/): I’m very busy during Kartika and just getting some regulation in my vrata and I didn’t have time to write....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #43 - The Greatest Benediction and the Essence of Devotional Service](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/10/21/the-greatest-benediction-and-the-essence-of-devotional-service/): Śrī Krishna was extremely pleased with Śrī Nārada for inadvertently causing Him to experience the taste of separation from His...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #42 - The Most Intelligent Man Who Ever Lived and the Three Types of Intelligence He Had](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/10/14/the-most-intelligent-man-who-ever-lived-and-the-three-types-of-intelligence-he-had/): Śrī Uddhava, Śrī Krishna’s most trusted advisor, is described in the Bhāgavatam by Śukadeva Gosvāmī before beginning his narration about...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #41 - Swami’s Analogies Part 2](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/10/07/swamis-analogies-part-2/): In a recent post I discussed the powerful use of upamān (analogies) as a pramāṇa (means of evidence) and offered...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #40 - Entry Denied!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/09/30/entry-denied/): The immigration officer looked up at me sternly, “Your student visa has expired June 10, 2024! ” What! ? There...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #39 - Embrace and Love Death](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/09/23/embrace-and-love-death/): I am fascinated with monastic communities. I recently watched a short documentary about one. Mount Athos is a somewhat inaccessible...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #38 - Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Greatest Challenge and His Genius in Meeting It](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/09/16/srila-prabhupadas-greatest-challenge-and-his-genius-in-meeting-it/): As important as speaking the truth, is having the truth understood. To accomplish that you must understand the language of...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #37 - Some Thoughts on Envy and the Path of Devotion](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/09/09/some-thoughts-on-envy-and-the-path-of-devotion/): Sometimes my Monday Morning Greetings is inspired by a question that I was asked recently in class, such as one...
- [Monday Morning Greetings #36 - A Commentary on the Lakota Code of Ethics](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/09/02/a-commentary-on-the-lakota-code-of-ethics-2/): A Commentary on the Lakota Code of Ethics Recently Madhavananda dasa shared with me the Lakota Code of Ethics. Evidently,...
- [Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa-puja – Dhanurdhara Swami’s Offering to Srila Prabhupada](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/08/27/srila-prabhupadas-vyasa-puja-dhanurdhara-swamis-offering-to-srila-prabhupada-2024/): Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to you! You requested your disciples to write their realizations....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #35 - All One’s Problems are Perceptual and not Actual](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/08/26/all-ones-problems-are-perceptual-and-not-actual/): Suffering is when we either don’t have what we are attached to (hankering), or we lose that which we are...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #34 - Karma or Krishna-Lila?   ](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/08/19/karma-or-krishna-lila/): I was recently asked, “When something happens to a devotee, is it karma or krishna-lila? ” My response: First, the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #33 - Peterhof and Donald Trump / The Danger of Luxury](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/08/12/peterhof-and-donald-trump-the-danger-of-luxury/): Peterhof and Donald Trump Today I will share two thoughts from my recent visit to Moscow: Peterhof and Donald Trump...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #32 - Radical Humility](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/08/05/radical-humility/): Bhakti is the path of radical humility: “One who thinks himself lower than grass, who is more tolerant than a...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #31 - The Single Most Important Question Asked in Two Different Ways](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/07/29/the-single-most-important-question-asked-in-two-different-ways/): Jayadvaita Swami would confidently throw down the gauntlet to his audience: “What could be more important than self-realization? ! ”...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #30 - I Recommend this Book](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/07/22/i-recommend-this-book/): As part of our Metro Mantra Sanga, we hosted Hari-kirtana das for a weekend of programs to hear about his...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #29 - Betrayed!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/07/15/betrayed-2/): Betrayed! Last week I wrote about expediency, but it was beyond the scope of the entry to illustrate the concept...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #28 - Solving the Humility and Self-Esteem Quandary](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/07/08/solving-the-humility-and-self-esteem-quandary/): Those who have been following my Monday Morning Greetings know I have several times approached the issue of reconciling the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #27 - The Mind of God](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/07/01/the-mind-of-god-2/): For many years I had the idea of writing a book called The Mind of God. It was inspired many...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #26 - Who is Advanced on the Path of Bhakti?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/06/24/who-is-advanced-on-the-path-of-bhakti/): I wake up in the morning and chant for several hours and then chant more during the day. Does that...
- [Monday Morning Greeting 2024 #25 - Metro Mantra Sanga](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/06/17/metro-mantra-sanga/): During the Memorial Day weekend, I held several programs in the New York/New Jersey area. The events were accommodating to...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #24 - Swami's Analogies](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/06/10/swamis-analogies/): A reasonable person wants to understand what is true and live by it. But how to ascertain the truth? The...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #23 - The Problem of the Problem of Evil](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/06/03/the-problem-of-the-problem-of-evil/): I was surprised by the emotional reaction from some to my class and the questions and dialogue that ensued. I...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #22 - Blind Following is Condemned](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/05/27/blind-following-is-condemned-2/): Blind Following is Condemned Some readers may be thinking, “You write about authority and surrender, but isn’t blind following dangerous?...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #21 - Swami’s Quotations](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/05/20/swamis-quotations/): I wonder if anyone ever has written a definition for the phrase “notable quotation. ” So far, I haven’t found...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #20 - The Birth of the Śikṣāṣṭakam](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/05/13/the-birth-of-the-siksastakam/): After just completing this week’s Monday Morning Greeting based on my theory of when and how the Śikṣāṣṭakam was written,...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #19 - A Decade of Tears](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/05/06/a-decade-of-tears-2/): This morning, I found out that my godbrother His Holiness Gopal Krishna Maharaja passed away. I won’t go into the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #18 - Dog Bites Monk: Part Two](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/04/29/dog-bites-monk-part-two/): After that dog attacked me, I remained quite calm, almost as an observer. I guess different people react in different...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #17 - Dog Bites Monk: Part One](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/04/22/dog-bites-monk-part-one/): Dog Bites Monk: Part One Nothing serious. I just got my robes ripped to shreds and a nibble on my...
- [Monday Morning Greeting 2024 #16 - From Logos to Mythos: A Practicum in Adding Life to One’s Spiritual Practices](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/04/15/from-logos-to-mythos-a-practicum-in-adding-life-to-ones-spiritual-practices/): When Jaya Jagannath arrived for this year’s Bhakti Immersion retreat in Colombia, I told him that I had changed the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #15 - A Beautiful and Puzzling Theology](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/04/08/a-beautiful-and-puzzling-theology/): A puzzling verse: “Only the most fortunate will relish the mad words of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, which were mixed with...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #14 - How a Podcast Saved My Life](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/04/01/how-a-podcast-saved-my-life/): Not really, but I think listening to one recently may have significantly improved my life. Here’s the story: The non-stop...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #13 - A Day in the Life in Vraja](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/03/25/a-day-in-the-life-in-vraja/): “A Day in the Life in Vraja” comes from some notes I took during the last ekādaśī I spent in...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #12 - Why Humility is the Jewel of Devotional Practice](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/03/18/why-humility-is-the-jewel-of-devotional-practice/): Humility is the most important quality in developing devotion. I am therefore always interested in explaining it in various ways...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #11 - Immigration and the Gītā](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/03/11/immigration-and-the-gita-2/): Immigration and the Gītā April 10, 2017 A friend of mine in Washington, D. C. complained to me that the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #10 - Substance is More Important Than Allegiance](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/03/04/substance-is-more-important-than-allegiance/): A few stories and the question they raise: I have dealt with Father Ashley intimately and have observed him carefully...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #9 - The Agony is the Ecstasy](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/02/26/the-agony-is-the-ecstasy/): I just finished studying and teaching the second chapter of the Madhya-līlā, “The Ecstatic Manifestations of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu”....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #8 - This is the Movement of the Living Entity!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/02/19/this-is-the-movement-of-the-living-entity/): I was standing in a large meadow in Golden Gate Park in the middle of San Francisco before the stage...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #7 - I Have No Devotion!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/02/12/i-have-no-devotion/): There is a principle in spiritual life that the more one is advanced in devotion, the less devotion one feels...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #6 - The Art of Traction](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/02/05/the-art-of-traction/): Years ago, I showed a short TED Talk called “The Art of Distraction” during a japa seminar. It featured Apollo...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #5 - Coming Attractions](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/01/29/coming-attractions/): The past week we celebrated our 17th annual Puri Yatra. I wish you could have been there especially for Hari...
- [Monday Morning Greeting 2024 #4 - The Passing Away of Sridhara Mali](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/01/22/the-passing-away-of-sridhara-mali/): The Passing Away of Sridhara Mali This may be a relatively simple Monday Morning Greetings, but sometimes things can be...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #3 - The Spiritual Practice of Śrī Caitanya](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/01/15/the-spiritual-practice-of-sri-caitanya/): This is how Śrī Caitanya practiced and taught His direct disciples the process of attaining love of Godhead as described...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #2 - A Guide for Beginners (and Their Guides)](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/01/08/a-guide-for-beginners-and-their-guides/): Many people have told me that they appreciate the definition of faith that I frequently cite: “faith is trust by...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #1 - The Miracle of Composition and Happy 8th Birthday Monday Morning Greetings](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/01/01/the-miracle-of-composition-and-happy-8th-birthday-monday-morning-greetings/): The Miracle of Composition and Happy 8th Birthday Monday Morning Greetings This January 1st marks eight years since I started...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #52 - Is Sankirtan Better Than Kirtan?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/12/25/is-sankirtan-better-than-kirtan/): Is Sankirtan Better Than Kirtan? Yes. Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī compares the two and says sankirtan, congregational chanting, as compared to...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #51 - Who Can Hear the Rasa-līlā?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/12/18/who-can-hear-the-rasa-lila/): When I go to Vrindavan every couple of weeks, I teach Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta in the morning in my room. We...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #50 - A Beggar’s Journey](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/12/11/a-beggars-journey/): I have very little responsibility imposed upon me, like a job, a family, or any management commitment. I thus sometimes...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #49 - “Where There is No Circumference, the Center is Everywhere” and Other Kārtika Realizations](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/12/04/where-there-is-no-circumference-the-center-is-everywhere-and-other-kartika-realizations/): Kārtika ended yesterday. Some realizations from the month: How to reconcile that on the highest levels of love of God...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #48 - What Made Prabhupāda Prabhupāda?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/11/27/what-made-prabhupada-prabhupada/): It was the late seventies, early eighties—I can’t remember the exact date, but it was soon after Śrīla Prabhupāda left...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #47 - The Power of Gratitude](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/11/20/the-power-of-gratitude-2/): The Power of Gratitude Gratitude is the basis of experiencing love. As a spoiled child never experiences his parents’ love...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #46 - Devotion and the Dumbphone](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/11/13/devotion-and-the-dumbphone/): I pass a man who is walking around Govardhan, smartphone to his ear, chatting away. Unfortunately, I have seen this...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #45 - I Don’t Want to Die!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/11/06/i-dont-want-to-die/): Within the last week, two people sought counsel expressing a sudden preoccupation, almost panic, with death. I discussed the matter...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #44 - Monday Morning Musings: Chanting and Writing and Other Thoughts](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/10/30/monday-morning-musings-chanting-and-writing-and-other-thoughts/): Are you OK? Last Monday Morning Greetings I discussed that my life was at a crossroads. Some people inquired if...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #43 - Talking to God](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/10/23/talking-to-god/): A friend visited. I revealed my mind in confidence. I am at a bit of a crossroads in my spiritual...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #42 - Why Niṣṭhā Leads to Ruci](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/10/16/why-nistha-leads-to-ruci/): I don’t have a job or a family and just a few disciples to guide. No management responsibilities either. I...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #41 - Can an Atheist be Moral?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/10/09/can-an-atheist-be-moral/): Of course they can! I have studied the moral argument for the existence of God from the writings of the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #40 - How to Feel Bad About Yourself](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/10/02/how-to-feel-bad-about-yourself-2/): How to Feel Bad About Yourself A friend once joked: “You’re so optimistic that you could be falling out of...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #39 - Humility! Humility! Humility! From a Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Perspective: Part I](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/09/25/humility-humility-humility-from-a-gaudiya-vaisnava-perspective-part-i/): I was always struck by the famous quote of Saint Augustine about humility: “If you ask me what the essential...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #38 - Aliens and Earthmen](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/09/18/aliens-and-earthmen/): I’ve exposed myself before as an “alien”, a person who grew up revering asphalt and stickball, never went camping, and...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #37 - Ignorance, Meaning, and the Expansion of Consciousness](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/09/11/ignorance-meaning-and-the-expansion-of-consciousness/): Without understanding what something is, do we really perceive it? All the senses of an animal are functional, with some...
- [Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa-puja – Dhanurdhara Swami’s Offering to Srila Prabhupada](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/09/07/srila-prabhupadas-vyasa-puja-dhanurdhara-swamis-offering-to-srila-prabhupada-2023/): Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to your Divine Grace. I owe my life to you....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #36 – Can God Be Blue?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/09/04/can-god-be-blue-3/): Due to facilitating the Bhakti Immersion in Colombia this week,I was unable to finish a Monday Morning Greeting. I am...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #35 - Forced to Act Helplessly](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/08/28/forced-to-act-helplessly/): Agency means the ability to initiate and control actions and thoughts. Various schools of Indian thought have various views on...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #34 - Pain on the Path of Perfection and Other Thoughts on Chanting](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/08/21/pain-on-the-path-of-perfection-and-other-thoughts-on-chanting/): It rains every few days—mostly in the night—just enough to keep the weather pleasant and temperate. Govardhan has become so...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #33 - Who Wants to Be a Billionaire?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/08/14/who-wants-to-be-a-billionaire/): Do you? On Śrī Nārada’s quest to find the topmost recipient of Śrī Krishna’s mercy, he is eventually directed by...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #32 - Slay Me or Protect Me as You Wish](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/08/07/slay-me-or-protect-me-as-you-wish/): I am enjoying Akincana Krishna das’s class, “Smaraṇaṁ: Meditations on Śaraṇāgati”, one of the four main song books that the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #31 - What I Learned from the Sādhus Who Never Stop Walking](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/07/31/what-i-learned-from-the-sadhus-who-never-stop-walking/): Last week I wrote about the sādhus who never stop walking. Last Tuesday I again walked halfway around Govardhan starting...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #30 - Just Write](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/07/24/just-write/): I believe that’s the title of a book by Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami aptly describing its contents—free writing—a process of writing...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #29 - The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men and Other Thoughts](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/07/17/the-best-laid-plans-of-mice-and-men-and-other-thoughts/): The best laid plans of mice and men I am writing this from the Five Towns Inn in Lawrence, Long...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #28 - Accepting Praise and the Death of Devotion](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/07/10/monday-morning-greetings-2023-28-accepting-praise-and-the-death-of-devotion/): A devotee certainly doesn’t embrace praise. Rather, they resist it. “Jaya! Jaya! ”, meaning “victory”, is what subordinates chant to...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #27 - Hellfire, Brimstone, and Atlantic City](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/07/03/hellfire-brimstone-and-atlantic-city/): A great spot for a parade—a wide boardwalk filled with throngs of people enamored by Bally’s, Harrah’s, and at least...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #26 - I Would Only Believe in a God Who Can Dance!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/06/26/i-would-only-believe-in-a-god-who-can-dance/): I often tell the story of how my budding conviction that Śrī Krishna was God became reinforced while going to...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #25 - The Challenge in Living an Ethically Tuned Life: Part II](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/06/19/the-challenge-in-living-an-ethically-tuned-life-part-ii/): In last week’s post I discussed the article “Reckoning with Compassion”, which highlighted a very important point—that being an ethical...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #24 - The Challenge in Living an Ethically Tuned Life: Part I](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/06/12/the-challenge-in-living-an-ethically-tuned-life-part-i/): A message from Krishna Ksetra Swami: “On another note, I thought you may find this article interesting (maybe food for...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #23 - Is Jagannath the Highest Manifestation of God? II](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/06/05/is-jagannath-the-highest-manifestation-of-god-ii/): The form of the Lord worshiped in the temple is called arcā-vigraha, the deity manifestation of God. Each deity manifests...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #22 - Should a Vaiṣṇava Dress Like One?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/05/29/should-a-vaisnava-dress-like-one/): About twenty-five years ago, my personal secretary was working as the chief secretary for a large advertising company on Madison...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #21 - ‘Tis a Gift to be Simple, ‘Tis a Gift to be Free](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/05/22/tis-a-gift-to-be-simple-tis-a-gift-to-be-free/): Did you ever arrive in a new place and discover it was completely different from the image you had in...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #20 - Why Pray? How Does It Work? What is Its Power?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/05/15/why-pray-how-does-it-work-what-is-its-power/): These intriguing questions were inspired by my study of the introduction to Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta. This is how I understood the introduction...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #19 - Community and Krishna Consciousness](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/05/08/community-and-krishna-consciousness-2/): One way of defining love is the natural energy of affection between two persons that have a relationship. When that...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #18 - An Original Argument for God Revisited](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/05/01/an-original-argument-for-god-revisited/): It was already Tuesday. I still had nothing to write about. Rather than continue to stare at a blank page,...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #17 - Deep Faith, Deep Space, Deep Time, Deep Work, Deep Taste](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/04/24/deep-faith-deep-space-deep-time-deep-work-deep-taste/): Deep Faith, Deep Space, Deep Time, Deep Work, Deep Taste Since Covid, I have shifted more internally in my devotional...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #16 - A View from the Eye of a Tornado Through the Eyes of the Śāstra](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/04/17/a-view-from-the-eye-of-a-tornado-through-the-eyes-of-the-sastra/): It was April 1st, but don’t let the date fool you. I swear this is true. It was the best...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #15 - The Universal Form and Rāgānugā-bhakti](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/04/10/the-universal-form-and-raganuga-bhakti/): One of my passions is to empower people. I define empowerment as recognizing, encouraging, and facilitating the abilities of others,...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #14 - Seeing, But Not Seeing, Sri Sri Radha and Krishna](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/04/03/seeing-but-not-seeing-sri-sri-radha-and-krishna/): In the history of the world, everyone has died. We don’t have to look far to see that our eldest...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #13 - Rasa or Tattva?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/03/27/rasa-or-tattva/): Tattva means science or subject. Rasa means heighten loving emotion to Śrī Krishna. I have seen, however, the words rasa...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #12 - Ego Death Again](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/03/20/ego-death-again/): Ego Death Again Last week, I was fortunate to visit Srila Kadamba Kanana Swami a few days before he passed...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #11 - Why Do We Make God Work So Hard?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/03/13/why-do-we-make-god-work-so-hard-2/): I just arrived in the USA from India and left for Colombia yesterday. My computer also just came back from...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #10 - God’s Problem: The Story of Sri Chaitanya](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/03/06/gods-problem-the-story-of-sri-chaitanya-2/): I tried my hardest but wasn’t able to finish this week’s Monday Morning Greetings. This is the fourth week without...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #9 - A Tip for Learning Śāstra](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/02/27/a-tip-for-learning-sastra/): Śrīla Tamal Krishna Goswami was too busy assisting Śrīla Prabhupāda in a managerial capacity to have time to study. He...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #8 - Float Like a Butterfly and Eat Like a Bee](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/02/20/float-like-a-butterfly-and-eat-like-a-bee/): Recognize the title? It’s a parody of a verse by Muhammad Ali. What is important, however, is not where the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #7 - Sadhus or Cyborgs](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/02/13/sadhus-or-cyborgs/): About two months ago, my computer was in repair, and I had to write my Monday Morning Greetings by iPhone....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #6 - What Makes Something Funny?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/02/06/what-makes-something-funny-2/): The Joy of No Texts I recently visited a far-off sacred forest of Vrindavan that I had never seen before....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #5 - Spiritual Momentum](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/01/30/spiritual-momentum-2/): Spiritual Momentum April 3, 2017 Have you ever lost spiritual momentum? It happens to us all. I had a realization...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #4 - The Ten Foundational Principles of Yoga](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/01/23/the-ten-foundational-principles-of-yoga-2/): The Ten Foundational Principles of Yoga The goal of yoga and all spiritual paths is to end suffering. Reality is...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #3 - Śikṣāṣṭakam Verse Three: A Personal Commentary](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/01/16/siksastakam-verse-three-a-personal-commentary/): “One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #2 - Entering the Life of Prayer](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/01/09/entering-the-life-of-prayer/): Akincana Krishna das shared with me a meditation technique he had been using before he came to Krishna consciousness and...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #1 - Happy New Year from Monday Morning Greetings!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/01/02/happy-new-year-from-monday-morning-greetings/): I ended my year with a bang! My left hearing aid fell out and was lost somewhere near Govinda Kunda...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #52 - The Essence of Caitanya Vaiṣṇavism Made Easy in Four Verses](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/12/26/the-essence-of-caitanya-vaisnavism-made-easy-in-four-verses/): In my progressive study and teaching of śāstra, I am finishing up Rāmānanda-saṁvāda, the discussion between Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya and...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #51 - Has the Sannyāsa Āśrama become Obsolete?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/12/19/has-the-sannyasa-asrama-become-obsolete/): There used to be a framed photograph on the wall on the temple side of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s house just to...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #50 - Goal!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/12/12/goal/): Goal! was one of my favorite movies. I must have seen it in the late 60s when I was co-captain...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #49 - What Makes One Religion Better Than Another](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/12/05/what-makes-one-religion-better-than-another/): From the title one may assume what follows may be sectarian. The faith I belong to, however, is anything but...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #48 - Only the Ignorant Have Enemies](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/11/28/only-the-ignorant-have-enemies-2/): Only the Ignorant Have Enemies “In former times there were many ignorant fools like you who did not conquer the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #47 - Prema Kirtan and Śuddha Nāma](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/11/21/prema-kirtan-and-suddha-nama/): Yamuna devi had affection for Akincana Krishna das since hearing him sing a kirtan in a rāga he learned in...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #46 - The Mind of God](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/11/14/the-mind-of-god/): I always wanted to write an article called “The Mind of God”. It was inspired over thirty years ago by...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #45 - Rules: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/11/07/rules-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/): Rules: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly September 18, 2017 Niyamāgraha is a Sanskrit word that means either too...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #44 - When New York Turned into Vrindavan](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/10/31/when-new-york-turned-into-vrindavan/): I got an exceptional amount of feedback from my last entry “Windows to the Material World”. My point about the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #43 - Windows to the Material World](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/10/24/windows-to-the-material-world-2/): My computer crashed for the third time in six months. I have noticed that every time that happens my japa...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #42 - Messenger of God](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/10/17/messenger-of-god/): Help Wanted: Messenger needed to deliver confidential message to pacify the anxiety of My dearest family members and friends, especially...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #41 - The Hare Krishna Movement and the Lord of the Flies](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/10/10/the-hare-krishna-movement-and-the-lord-of-the-flies/): Lord of the Flies is an acclaimed novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of young boys...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #40 - Home at Last!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/10/03/home-at-last-2/): It’s still a mess! Construction on my place in Govardhan was just finished two days ago. Groups of people are...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #39 - Breaking the Circle of Bondage Covering the Soul by the Practice of Devotion](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/09/26/breaking-the-circle-of-bondage-covering-the-soul-by-the-practice-of-devotion/): I want to explain through a visual example the concept of material bondage and how the process of bhakti frees...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #38 - Kudos to Karma (Yoga)](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/09/19/kudos-to-karma-yoga-2/): Kudos to Karma (Yoga) A Nor’easter slams your town and dumps a ton of snow, and your basement floods. You...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #37 - Is Honesty the Best Policy?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/09/12/is-honesty-the-best-policy/): Is Honesty the Best Policy? Of course. Without integrity—matching one’s words and actions with one’s values—how can one make advancement...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #36 - A Decade of Tears](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/09/05/a-decade-of-tears/): The phrase struck me. I was talking with Bhūrijana Prabhu after the passing of Śrīla Bhakti-caru Swami. We began to...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #35 - EQ, IQ, and the Path of Bhakti](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/08/29/eq-iq-and-the-path-of-bhakti/): I knew Champak’s work had something so do with leadership seminars at GP Strategies, but until the Cali retreat last...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #34 - Monday Morning Metaphysics: Balarama-tattva Made Simple](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/08/22/monday-morning-metaphysics-balarama-tattva-made-simple/): It is my conviction that a sincere person will find the theology of Krishna very beautiful and thought provoking whether...
- [The Significance of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Last Written Words – Dhanurdhara Swami’s Vyāsa-pūjā Offering to Śrīla Prabhupāda](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/08/20/the-significance-of-srila-prabhupadas-last-written-words-dhanurdhara-swamis-offering-to-srila-prabhupada/): The Significance of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Last Written Words Unfortunately, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s infirmity had visibly taken its toll on him. Day...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #33 - The Devotional and the Diabolical](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/08/15/the-devotional-and-the-diabolical-2/): The Devotional and the Diabolical My conversations with Peter are always illuminating. Peter serves his church as an author, lecturer,...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #32 - On Reputation](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/08/08/on-reputation/): Should a Vaiṣṇava be concerned with their reputation? Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, the lineage’s foremost authority on prema, doesn’t seem to...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #31 - Is Surrender a Bad Word?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/08/01/is-surrender-a-bad-word-3/): Is Surrender a Bad Word? When I was in my teens a popular and favorite situation comedy on television was...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #30 - Krishna and Man at Yale](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/07/25/krishna-and-man-at-yale/): I just love to stroll among majestic old buildings, so an old acquaintance and my host for the afternoon, Dr....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #29 - Flipping the Switch to Prema](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/07/18/flipping-the-switch-to-prema/): Faith means our goal. It’s where we feel our sublimity rests. I have some faith. Too often, however, I forget...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #28 - Heart Massage](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/07/11/heart-massage-2/): Heart Massage May 13, 2019 I am often asked how I come up with topics to write about every week....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #27 - The Examiner](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/07/04/the-examiner/): In my last post, I mentioned that I had something of an epiphany concerning the first verse of the Tenth...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #26 - The Process of Writing and Other Thoughts](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/06/27/the-process-of-writing-and-other-thoughts/): I got positive feedback from my last post—that the message was succinct and profound. It is always edifying to be...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #25 - Die to Live](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/06/20/die-to-live/): Die to Live Last Saturday I met my swami friend, Kadamba Kanana Maharaja. He was chanting and dancing enthusiastically at...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #24 - A Personal Commentary on Chinese and Brooklyn Proverbs](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/06/13/a-personal-commentary-on-chinese-and-brooklyn-proverbs-2/): A Personal Commentary on Chinese and Brooklyn Proverbs April 16, 2018 By chance, I came across a book of Chinese...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #23 - Street Unicorns](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/06/06/street-unicorns/): My mother was a fashion designer who prided herself in the clothes she designed and the dresses she wore, and...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #22 - A Fifth Commandment Solution to a Second Amendment Problem](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/05/30/a-fifth-commandment-solution-to-a-second-amendment-problem-2/): A Fifth Commandment Solution to a Second Amendment Problem March 12, 2018 I was disturbed to hear about the recent...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #21 - I Stand with Śrīla Prabhupāda!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/05/23/i-stand-with-srila-prabhupada/): I was recently sent a short documentary about a small nunnery with an adjoining old and ornate church in eastern...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #20 - If I Were God, Would the World Be a Better Place?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/05/16/if-i-were-god-would-the-world-be-a-better-place/): There is such a disparity between what I want the world to be and how the world moves around me....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #19 - Pleasure is the Happiness of a Madman](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/05/09/pleasure-is-the-happiness-of-a-madman/): I haven’t been in New York City for a while. Our car was parked near the Bhakti Center. I proceeded...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #18 - A Soul Killing Civilization](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/05/02/a-soul-killing-civilization/): Śrīla Prabhupāda’s purport was fiery. Jaya Jagannath’s comment on it struck me: “What some people would look at forty or...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #17 - How Bhakti Works Part 2](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/04/25/how-bhakti-works-part-2/): How Bhakti Works Part 2 Analogies are a great way to communicate an idea. I just made up one. Just...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #16 - Inherent, Inherited, and the Culture of Faith](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/04/18/inherent-inherited-and-the-culture-of-faith/): The audience for my Monday Morning Greetings is a mix of people from various spiritual backgrounds. Many readers may therefore...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #15 - An Original Argument for the Existence of God](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/04/11/an-original-argument-for-the-existence-of-god-2/): Please excuse me again for a reprint. I was working on a post about a difficult doctrinal issue and it...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #14 - How a Bhaktivedanta Purport Saved Me from a Mental Hospital](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/04/04/how-a-bhaktivedanta-purport-saved-me-from-a-mental-hospital-2/): Dhanurdhara Swami has been hosting a retreat this past week in Shyam Ashram in Cali, Colombia and hasn’t been able...
- [Monday Morning Greetings #13 - The Perils of Faith](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/03/28/the-perils-of-faith/): To advance in learning, there is a necessity for faith. Unfortunately, there is also a danger in faith. In this...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #12 - Thus Spoke Me](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/03/21/thus-spoke-me/): In my years of teaching the path of bhakti, I have come up with a few hopefully quotable sayings that...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #11 - The Seer, the Seen, and the Path of Bhakti](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/03/14/the-seer-the-seen-and-the-path-of-bhakti/): Every morning Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura would step outside of his room, which was adjacent to the far wall of...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #10 - The Tale of Shlomo, The Greatest Yogi](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/03/07/the-tale-of-shlomo-the-greatest-yogi/): Shlomo was one of my favorites. I met him 1982. He was an older Jewish man from Israel. He wasn’t...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #9 - I want to be a Vaishnava!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/02/28/i-want-to-be-a-vaishnava/): I want to be a Vaishnava! November 7, 2016 Amidst the throngs of seemingly ordinary people here in Vrindavan, just...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #8 - I Fell in Love with a Mountain and Other Govardhan Musings](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/02/21/i-fell-in-love-with-a-mountain-and-other-govardhan-musings/): I Fell in Love with a Mountain I gaze towards the path just outside my ashram gate. A river of...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #7 - Do You Really Think it is OK That They Abandoned Their Babies?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/02/14/do-you-really-think-it-is-ok-that-they-abandoned-their-babies/): Well, who is this about? The answer is a bit bewildering. It is about Krishna’s greatest devotees. When the gopīs...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #6 - On Criticism](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/02/07/on-criticism-3/): We just finished our first B. I. G. retreat (Bhakti Immersion Govardhan). It was one of our best. The facilities...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #5 - A Guide to Vaiṣṇava Behavior: Part One](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/01/31/a-guide-to-vaisnava-behavior-part-one/): I started a new book. I haven’t seen in the contemporary Vaiṣṇava movement a book on Vaiṣṇava behavior. Years ago,...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #4 - Covid Fatigue, Life Fatigue, and Seeing Krishna](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/01/24/covid-fatigue-life-fatigue-and-seeing-krishna/): Initially, I was thinking to write about Covid fatigue. You get the idea—long restriction, then a little freedom, then restriction,...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #3 - The Science of Omens and the Power of Free Will](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/01/17/the-science-of-omens-and-the-power-of-free-will/): When Akrūra was on his way to see Krishna, he saw a very auspicious omen. A deer to his right...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #2 - Old Soul (and Body Too)](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/01/10/old-soul-and-body-too-2/): Old Soul (and Body Too) I recently went with Jaya Jagannath to visit someone who is perhaps New York’s oldest...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #1 - Happy Sixth Birthday, Monday Morning Greetings!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/01/03/happy-sixth-birthday-monday-morning-greetings/): My titles are usually catchy. Not this one. I think it’s kind of boring, but I wanted to personally reach...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #52 - The Battle for Our Souls](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/12/27/the-battle-for-our-souls/): The success of yoga depends on our ability to concentrate or focus our attention on a particular object. Never in...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #51 - Relationship is More Important Than Being Right](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/12/20/relationship-is-more-important-than-being-right/): One on the path of bhakti is not inclined to argue. At the least one should try to avoid it....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #50 - What is Bhakti?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/12/13/what-is-bhakti-2/): What Is Bhakti? Bhakti is a faith—the faith that the best thing is to surrender to God with devotion. But...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #49 - An Intriguing Question](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/12/06/an-intriguing-question/): Last week I received a very interesting inquiry from Satyaraja dasa concerning my post “Are the Gopīs the Greatest Renunciates?...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #48 - She’s Already in the Hands of Śrī Radha](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/11/29/shes-already-in-the-hands-of-sri-radha/): This story begins in Govardhan and ends in Goloka Vrindavan. Mukunda Murari spent Kartik in Govardhan as my guest, camping...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #47 - Are the Gopīs the Greatest Renunciates?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/11/22/are-the-gopis-the-greatest-renunciates/): I think most bhaktas are not aware that when one takes sannyāsa (the renounced order of life) in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism,...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #46 - Sādhus of Govardhan](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/11/15/sadhus-of-govardhan/): An old toothless babushka, maybe in her late eighties, sits hunched over on the grass outside the open pavilion in...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #45 - A Reasonable Question Without a Reasonable Answer](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/11/08/a-reasonable-question-without-a-reasonable-answer/): A natural inquiry that comes up in almost all spiritual traditions concerns the origin of the living entity being in...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #44 - Vrindavan the Beautiful!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/11/01/vrindavan-the-beautiful/): Vrindavan the Beautiful! February 25, 2019 I recently renewed a cherished old daily practice. Early in the morning, before dawn,...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #43 - Home at Last!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/10/25/home-at-last/): Home at Last! October 6, 2000 Vrindavan I left the arrival gate only to be greeted by a mob of...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #42 - Monday Morning Musings VII](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/10/18/monday-morning-musings-vii/): Chanting and Shelter In the last few years, the world seems to be increasingly and rapidly moving beyond our control,...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #41 - Mother Deaf](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/10/11/mother-deaf/): That was a term my mother used to describe me after asking me for the fifth time in a day...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #40 - That Dirty Word Again](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/10/04/that-dirty-word-again/): My friend Satyahari dasa, one of the first disciples of Yogi Bhajan and later initiated into Gaudiya Vaisnavism, shared with...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #39 - The Four Pillars of Peaceful Life](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/09/27/the-four-pillars-of-peaceful-life-2/): I have almost completed six years of faithfully putting out Monday Morning Greetings without fail. I will happily continue that...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #38 - It’s the Consciousness, Stupid](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/09/20/its-the-consciousness-stupid/): Thinking about happiness again. Isn’t that what’s on most people’s minds? For me, at least today, I thought about it...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #37 - Sri Radha Made Simple](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/09/13/sri-radha-made-simple-2/): Sri Radha Made Simple In this world everyone is seeking happiness, and that pleasure is ultimately found in love. If...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #36 - May She Rest in Peace](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/09/06/may-she-rest-in-peace/): No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find a topic for this Monday Morning Greetings. When one finally did...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #35 - Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa-puja](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/08/30/srila-prabhupadas-vyasa-puja-2021/): Tomorrow is the birth anniversary of my beloved spiritual master, His Divine Grace Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. In...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #34 - If Krishna Knows What We Will Do in the Future, Does That Mean We Don’t Have Free Will?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/08/23/if-krishna-knows-what-we-will-do-in-the-future-does-that-mean-we-dont-have-free-will/): Questions like this are challenging, for a theist naturally believes both in God and our free will to choose God....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #33 - A Sannyāsi Walks onto a Train and Meets a Girl](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/08/16/a-sannyasi-walks-onto-a-train-and-meets-a-girl-2/): This past week Dhanurdhara Swami hosted a retreat at Shyam Ashram in Cali, Colombia. He was therefore not able to...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #32 - The Process is Simple, But the Application is Difficult](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/08/09/the-process-is-simple-but-the-application-is-difficult/): The Process is Simple, But the Application is Difficult Śrīla Prabhupāda said that his purports were his personal ecstasy. Would...
- [Monday Monday Greetings 2021 #31 - How To Be a Non-Sectarian Sectarian](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/08/02/how-to-be-a-non-sectarian-sectarian/): I belong to a sect. It is called Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism. Within it there are many different institutions. How should those...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #30 - That Being of Which No Greater Can be Conceived](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/07/26/that-being-of-which-no-greater-can-be-conceived/): He showed up at my college dorm unexpectedly. I had met the devotees the year before in Los Angeles with...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #29 - Have I Become Pavlov’s Dog?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/07/19/have-i-become-pavlovs-dog/): Have I Become Pavlov’s Dog? Ding! How the hell did a message from my iPhone pop up on my watch?...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #28 - The Four Ways in Which a Vaiṣṇava Sees Those Whose Mistakes Disturb Them](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/07/12/the-four-ways-in-which-a-vaisnava-sees-those-whose-mistakes-disturb-them/): Our present age is deemed the age of quarrel and confusion. Unfortunately, Vaiṣṇava societies are not spared from its influence....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #27 - The Jewish Alachua](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/07/05/the-jewish-alachua/): The Jewish Alachua When the pandemic started, I was in a bit of a bind. The place where I usually...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #26 - Monday Morning Musings VI](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/06/28/monday-morning-musings-vi/): Chanting and Guru I chant consciously as a devotional offering to Śrīla Prabhupāda, with the thought that he is listening....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #25 - The Mother, the Mind, and Food](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/06/21/the-mother-the-mind-and-food-3/): Happy 100th Birthday! My mother was born June 25, 1921. This Friday she will celebrate her 100th birthday. In her...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #24 - Let the Dead Bury the Dead](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/06/14/let-the-dead-bury-the-dead/): I thought this was an appropriate title for this Monday Morning Greeting about my Cemetery walks and thoughts. This was...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #23 - Is Jagannatha the Highest Manifestation of God?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/06/07/is-jagannatha-the-highest-manifestation-of-god-3/): In honor of the upcoming New York Ratha-yātrā, I will be sharing a Monday Morning Greeting from 2017 about the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #22 - Commitment Changes Consciousness II](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/05/31/commitment-changes-consciousness-ii/): If not now, when? When will I fully realize my relationship with Krishna? When you are hunkered down in America,...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #21 - Poverty, Protest, and the Vedic Way: Part 2](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/05/24/poverty-protest-and-the-vedic-way-part-2/): Last week, I discussed the problem of poverty and the consequent protests in Colombia. I ended the post by proposing...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #20 - Poverty, Protest, and the Vedic Way](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/05/17/poverty-protest-and-the-vedic-way/): Before I left our ashram in Cali to return to the States, I was asked to address our congregation about...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #19 - Monday Morning Musings V](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/05/10/monday-morning-musings-v/): Krishna is fully present in His holy name, but like any person He does not give Himself to those just...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #18 - The Happiest People in the World](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/05/03/the-happiest-people-in-the-world/): “They are the happiest people in the world! ” Well, maybe not the happiest, but that was my spontaneous thought...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #17 - Unmasking the Truth](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/04/26/unmasking-the-truth/): I hope this will be the last COVID article I write, but I honestly have little choice what I write....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #16 - Whom Do You Trust?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/04/19/whom-do-you-trust/): Whom Do You Trust? I think that was the title of a quiz show in the late 1950s or early...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #15 - Monday Morning Musings IV](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/04/12/monday-morning-musings-iv/): I travel every Sunday. That means an irregular schedule and diet. I feel it the next morning. My mind is...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #14 - COVID and the Cow in the Room](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/04/05/covid-and-the-cow-in-the-room/): There is much discussion about how best to deal with COVID-19. There is something, however, that few seem to be...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #13 - God’s Problem: The Story of Sri Chaitanya](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/03/29/gods-problem-the-story-of-sri-chaitanya/): God’s Problem: The Story of Sri Chaitanya God has a problem. And it is the same problem that we have....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #12 - Are You Bivaxual?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/03/22/are-you-bivaxual/): I love branding and coining new words. This one’s about vaccination. I’ve discovered that some people are pro-vaccination, some militantly...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #11 - The Fault is Not the Whole Person!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/03/15/the-fault-is-not-the-whole-person/): One of the benefits of association with spiritually evolved souls is that sometimes their utterances in casual conversations are so...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #10 - What I Don’t Understand About Yoga Philosophy: Part Two](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/03/08/what-i-dont-understand-about-yoga-philosophy-part-two/): I was sent an article written by a renown Vrindavan Vaishnava scholar and friend of many years. I was being...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #9 - Monday Morning Musings III](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/03/01/monday-morning-musings-iii/): Reflection One “Devotion in the form of kirtan is unlimitedly merciful to those devoid of false prestige. Humility is natural...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #8 - “Before Breaking the Rules, You Have to Know Them!”](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/02/22/before-breaking-the-rules-you-have-to-know-them/): “Before Breaking the Rules, You Have to Know Them! ” I recently heard this quote in a class by Friar...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #7 - What I Learned from Tom Brady](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/02/15/what-i-learned-from-tom-brady/): In American sports, there is a term “GOAT”, which is an acronym for “Greatest Of All Time”. That title unquestionably...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #6 - Movement or Mission?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/02/08/movement-or-mission/): In a discussion with a friend, he distinguished between the Hare Krishna Movement (its structure and organization) and its mission...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #5 - Are Vaishnavas Democrats or Republicans?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/02/01/are-vaishnavas-democrats-or-republicans/): I failed this week. I wanted to elaborate on a discussion I had with a friend about the difference between...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #4 - Monday Morning Musings II](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/01/25/monday-morning-musings-ii/): Chanting means to mean what I say: That’s called sincerity. O Radha! O Krishna! Please engage me in your service....
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #3 - Kaniṣṭha, Madhyam, and Uttama Eating](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/01/18/kanistha-madhyam-and-uttama-eating/): The first and lowest stage of material consciousness, which represents the karmic or selfish mind, is called anna-moya, the animal...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #2 - Is Surrender a Bad Word?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/01/11/is-surrender-a-bad-word-2/): Is Surrender a Bad Word? When I was in my teens a popular and favorite situation comedy on television was...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2021 #1 - My Favorite Quotes on Death](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/01/04/my-favorite-quotes-on-death/): I was walking in the twenty-acre cemetery park across the street from where I stay in New York, when I...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2020 #52 - Monday Morning Musings](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/12/28/monday-morning-musings/): Reflection One My experience is that my ability to meditate on the holy name is very much commensurate with the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2020 #51 - The Krishna Challenge](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/12/21/the-krishna-challenge/): A friend shared with me an excerpt from a book he was reading on his favorite subject, the realizations of...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2020 #50 - Dying in America](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/12/14/dying-in-america/): Dying in America For the past week, I have been staying at my mother’s house. She will be 100 years...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2020 #49 - Humility! Humility! Humility!](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/12/07/humility-humility-humility/): Humility! Humility! Humility! This was St. Augustine’s declarative answer to the rhetorical question he posed to an assembly of the...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2020 #48 - Kartik Meditations 2020 II](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/11/30/kartik-meditations-2020-ii/): Years ago, I was sitting with a sādhu in Govardhana when a young devotee came over to him and declared,...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2020 #47 - Do We Live in a Matrix?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/11/23/do-we-live-in-a-matrix/): Do We Live in a Matrix? Edward Jay Epstein gave me some food for thought, challenging whatever political worldview I...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2020 #46 - Kartik Meditations 2020](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/11/16/kartik-meditations-2020/): For all practical purposes, Monday Morning Greetings was started twenty years ago while I was staying in Govardhan in 2000...
- [Monday Morning Greetings 2020 #45 - Why No Detail?](https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/11/09/why-no-detail/): There are thousands of volumes of elaborate descriptions in Vaiṣṇava literature about Radha and Krishna’s forms, qualities, and pastimes. They...

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- Published: 2016-05-02
- Modified: 2016-05-02
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/yoga-made-easy-by-music-how-kirtan-works/

(Kirtan refers to devotional singing, but it also refers to the recitation of spiritual poetry and drama or even just speaking about spiritual subjects. In the school of Śrī Caitanya, when devotional singing is done in a group with musical accompaniment it is specifically called sankirtan; the prefix “san” comes from samyak, which means “complete”. It is called sankirtan, or complete, as the group experience of kirtan is more absorbing and moving than the individual one. For the purpose of distinguishing group from individual kirtan, when I refer to devotional singing and music in a congregation I will use the word “sankirtan”, although it is commonly known as just kirtan. ) I was happy to read that “sankirtan (chanting with others) is superior even to kirtan (chanting alone) because it produces such extraordinary feelings”. That has always been my conviction, but here was a declarative statement by Śrī Jiva Gosvāmī, one of the greatest Vaiṣṇava scholars in his classic work Śrī Bhakti Sandarbha. Although I was happy to find a supportive statement for the magnificence of sankirtan, the question still remained, why? Why does sankirtan produce such extraordinary feelings? Luckily the answer came soon. While thumbing casually through a book containing the personal correspondence of my spiritual master, Śrīla Prabhupāda, I chanced upon the following statement: “The hearing tendency is made easy and still more favorable by songs and music of spiritual value to be equally shared by all classes of men namely the highest educated and the lowest illiterate....


- Published: 2014-05-23
- Modified: 2014-05-24
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/can-god-be-blue/

The following is a talk given by Dhanurdhara Swami at Yogamaya New York, on Friday, May 16, 2014, entitled “Can God Be Blue? ”.


- Published: 2014-05-12
- Modified: 2014-05-12
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/the-power-and-culture-of-humility/

The following is a class entitled “The Power and Culture of Humility: Developing Self-confidence Through a Humble Heart” given at Yogamaya New York on April 18, 2014.


- Published: 2013-05-21
- Modified: 2013-05-21
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/the-skill-of-happiness/

The Skill of Happiness In the latest of Yogamaya New York's Sat-Sanga series, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami gives a talk entitled “The Skill of Happiness. ” In this talk Maharaja describes the importance of happiness in one's life, what real happiness is, and how the path of bhakti facilitates true happiness.   The Skill of Happiness (Sunday, May 12, 2013 - Yogamaya New York)  


- Published: 2013-04-24
- Modified: 2013-04-24
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/yoga-sutras-seminar-at-yogamaya/

On April 6, and April 7, 2013, Dhanurdhara Swami gave an extensive 12 hour seminar on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali as part of Yogamaya's teacher training in New York City. Dhanurdhara Swami at Yogamaya (Photo by Lisa Bermudez) You can find the recorded seminar here: Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Seminar at Yogamaya April 2013 Part 1 (more... )


- Published: 2013-04-22
- Modified: 2013-04-22
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/yoga-psychology-at-down-dog-yoga/

Yoga Psychology at Down Dog Yoga The following is a class Srila Dhanurdhara Swami recently gave on April 2, 2013, at Down Dog Yoga in Reading, Pennsylvania, entitled “Yoga Psychology,” based on the question “Is there therapy in the Vedas? ” which Maharaja addressed in his essay of the same name. Download the class.


- Published: 2013-04-13
- Modified: 2013-04-14
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/a-talk-in-middle-america/

Dhanurdhara Swami discusses his recent lecture to a group of conservative Christians and the reception he received. Dhanurdhara Swami and Graham on his farm. A Talk in Middle America (Sunday, April 7, 2013)


- Published: 2013-03-29
- Modified: 2013-03-29
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/the-yoga-of-forgiveness-2/

The Yoga of Forgiveness A must listen to, in this latest of Yogamaya New York's Sat-Sanga series, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami gives a lively and enlightening talk on the Yoga of Forgiveness - how forgiveness is an integral part of one's spiritual life. Maharaja relates forgiveness to the concepts of ahimsa, dharma, and karma as well as giving practical methods to explore forgiveness in our own lives.   The Yoga of Forgiveness (Sunday, March 24, 2013 - Yogamaya New York)  


- Published: 2013-03-08
- Modified: 2013-03-10
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/compassion-and-the-symptom-of-the-soul/

Compassion and the Symptom of the Soul The following is a class Srila Dhanurdhara Swami recently gave in Christchurch, New Zealand, entitled “Compassion and the Symptom of the Soul,” based on a passage from the seventh canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, where Prahlada pacifies Lord Nrsimhadeva with his prayers. Download the class.


- Published: 2012-10-16
- Modified: 2012-10-17
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/bhakti-in-essence/narada-bhakti-sutra-5/

Narada Bhakti Sutra Sutra 5 yat prāpya na kiñcid vāñchati na śocati na dveṣṭi na ramate notsāhī bhavati Achieving it, desire and regret, repulsion and attraction, such fervors are no more. After describing in the previous verse that upon attaining Divine Love one is fully satisfied, Sri Narada now describes the result: “All fervors are no more. ” All passions are naturally caused by a sense of lacking within. And although we seek to fill that void with the passions of wealth, romance, and adoration, we remain unfulfilled because we have failed to realize what is our actual deficiency. Our real need is selfless love. Without it no one, even those at the height of power and opulence, can claim that their deepest yearnings have been fulfilled. On the other hand, if one is filled with selfless love, what more can anyone desire? That is the crux of Sri Narada’s message here in text five. This same message was reinforced and further clarified in my own mind in an unexpected way. While walking last year with some friends through the beautiful flower gardens in Vrindavan on the bank of the Yamuna, a simple flower seller stopped to share the challenges he was facing financially. The recent floods had wiped out his rose gardens – a devastating loss. As he described his situation, I couldn’t help but notice the joyous sparkle in his eyes and his exuberant countenance. I was puzzled. “How can one in the midst of such a devastating...


- Published: 2012-09-04
- Modified: 2012-09-04
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/bhakti-in-essence/narada-bhakti-sutra-4/

Narada Bhakti Sutra Sutra 4 yal labdhvā pumān siddho bhavaty amṛto bhavati tṛpto bhavati Having attained divine love, a person becomes perfect, immortal and satisfied. The first three verses introduced the subject of bhakti. In the next three verses, beginning here with text four, Sri Narada describes the effect of such divine love on the soul. First he says that by it one becomes perfect. To understand why this is so, one must understand what dharma is. Dharma means duty. It also means essential nature, for unless we understand what we are made for (our essential, intrinsic nature), how can we understand what we are meant to do (our dharma or duty)? According to the bhakti tradition, the soul is part of the supreme consciousness. As all parts are meant to serve the whole, the dharma of the soul is bhakti — to selflessly serve God. But what does this have to do with perfection? The basis of perfection is realizing and fully serving one’s inherent purpose. For example, the hand is perfect in service to the body, being fundamentally part of it. Similarly, being part of God, we become perfect by our essence or dharma, selfless service to God. Sri Narada thus states that upon attaining our eternal dharma, the topmost loving service to God, we become perfect. Narada also states that by bhakti one becomes satisfied. Satisfaction is a symptom of harmony with one’s nature. Ayurveda, traditional Indian medicine, illustrates this principle by saying that good health results...


- Published: 2012-08-16
- Modified: 2012-08-16
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/bhakti-in-essence/narada-bhakti-sutra-3/

Narada Bhakti Sutra Sutra 3 amṛta-svarūpā ca This pure love for God is eternal. All spiritual paths, or yogas, are simply a means or practice (sadhana) to achieve a transcendent objective (sadhya). Bhakti, unlike other yogas, is not just a steppingstone to a goal but also the goal itself, the sadhya. By the practice of selfless devotion we attain the fruit of pure devotion, the only difference being their respective maturity. In contrast, the practice and goal of all other paths are quite at variance. For example, the jnani strives for moksa (liberation), a state of untroubled awareness, but his practice is vairagya, arduous renunciation. And like every other path, except bhakti, its mode of practice is relinquished upon accomplishment. To highlight that bhakti unlike other paths is not just an intermediary step to achieve something else but also what the practitioner is seeking to attain in perfection, Sri Narada asserts that bhakti is eternal. In implying that bhakti is the goal or ultimate attainment, Narada is following the authority of standard texts like the Taittiriya Upanishad, where the ultimate reality is described as rasa vai saha, a flow of pure and intense devotion. By stating that bhakti is eternal, Narada is also refuting a common and popular view of perfection held by the followers of Advaita Vedanta. Proponents of this school argue that all distinction is illusion and that upon enlightenment individuality is dissipated into one amorphous reality. That is not the opinion of Narada in his sutras. He...


- Published: 2012-07-27
- Modified: 2012-07-27
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/bhakti-in-essence/narada-bhakti-sutra-2/

Narada Bhakti Sutra Sutra 2 sā tv-asmin parama-prema-rūpā The nature of bhakti is the topmost love for God. The first verse of Narada Bhakti Sutra announced the subject of the book, implied bhakti’s superlative position, and hinted at the urgency to realize the self through the study and practice of bhakti. This second verse now defines the nature of such bhakti — it is the purest love for God. Sri Rupa Goswami, a prominent 15th century successor of Sri Narada, thus defined bhakti as follows. “True bhakti is activity not covered by any selfish desire and done with the exclusive intention to please God. ” 1 Thus bhakti in its topmost form has two pertinent characteristics: it is free of all selfish motives, and it is focused upon God. It is easy to see that true devotion cannot be selfish, but why does it have to be for God? God, by definition, includes everything, as he is the basis of all existence. Truly loving God thus means to love everything and everyone, just as watering the root of a tree nourishes the whole tree. Without loving God, however, one’s love for another becomes somewhat exclusive and narrow. Then one’s love is not universal. Love for one person limits affection for another, just as watering individual leaves does not service the whole tree. But bhakti is not restricted to the Supreme. Loving exchanges with others are essential to the path of bhakti. In fact, one who claims to love God but...


- Published: 2012-07-25
- Modified: 2012-07-25
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/the-heart-of-a-yogi-the-power-and-culture-of-humility-part-ii/

The Heart of a Yogi: The Power and Culture of Humility - Part II On July 24, 2012, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami gave the second part in a series entitled The Heart of a Yogi: The Power and Culture of Humility" at The Bhakti Center in New York. The following is a recording of that talk.   The Heart of a Yogi: The Power and Culture of Humility - Part I


- Published: 2012-07-21
- Modified: 2012-07-21
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/the-heart-of-a-yogi-the-power-and-culture-of-humility-part-i/

The Heart of a Yogi: The Power and Culture of Humility - Part I On July 10, 2012, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami gave the first part in a series entitled The Heart of a Yogi: The Power and Culture of Humility" at The Bhakti Center in New York. The following is a recording of that talk.   The Heart of a Yogi: The Power and Culture of Humility - Part I


- Published: 2012-07-05
- Modified: 2012-07-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/bhakti-in-essence/

Dhanurdhara Swami is writing a new book called Bhakti in Essence - A commentary on Narada Bhakti Sutra. Every week he will be publishing a sutra and commentary. New entries will appear below as they are published.  


- Published: 2012-07-05
- Modified: 2012-07-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/bhakti-in-essence/narada-bhakti-sutra-1/

Narada Bhakti Sutra Sutra 1 athāto bhaktiḿ vyākhyāsyāmaḥ Now, therefore, I will try to explain the process of bhakti. A sutra is a condensed phrase codifying a larger body of thinking. Most Indian schools of thought systematize their teachings into a series of sutras to help their students memorize and understand the teachings. Since volumes of meaning have been condensed into very terse aphorisms, sutras are also accompanied by suitable commentaries to unpack the sutras meaning. In this way, a student can retain and understand a concise version of an entire philosophical system. Such sutras traditionally begin with “atha” (now) to indicate the significance of the school that will be discussed and the urgency to undertake its study. By the word “now” the Narada Bhakti Sutra points to the importance and urgency of practicing bhakti-yoga. By endorsing the path of bhakti, the Narada Bhakti Sutra follows the same conclusion as Bhagavad-gita: After summarizing the various paths of yoga in six chapters, Sri Krishna, the Gita's speaker, concludes, “Of all yogis, one who worships Me with devotion is the highest of all. ” Why do the Narada Bhakti Sutra and the Bhagavad-gita both promote the preeminence of bhakti? Yoga practice revolves around controlling the mind through fixing it on an intended object of meditation. The more efficiently a practice helps such focus, the more effective that practice is said to be. Emotion is by far the most powerful means to fix the mind on a subject. Bhakti-yoga is meditation powered by...


- Published: 2012-06-30
- Modified: 2012-07-04
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/discussion-of-sat-sandarbha/

This is 42 minute portion of Dhanurdhara Swami's discussion on Sat Sandarbha given in April 2010 at the Bhakti Center in New York City.


- Published: 2012-06-26
- Modified: 2012-07-04
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/srila-dhanurdhara-swami-speaks-at-the-bhakti-center-srimad-bhagavatam-1-2-8/

Dhanurdhara Swami discusses this sloka of Srimad Bhagavatam at the Bhakti Center in New York City in Arpil 2010. Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 1 Chapter 2 Text 8 dharmah svanusthitah pumsam visvaksena-kathasu yah notpadayed yadi ratim srama eva hi kevalam TRANSLATION The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead.


- Published: 2012-06-25
- Modified: 2012-06-25
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/the-mother-the-mind-and-food/

The Mother, the Mind, and Food Dhanurdhara Swami   Recently my mother related to me how she was advising her daughter-in-law who had become overwhelmed with the responsibilities of herfamily and job. She quoted to her a Yiddish saying that her own mother told herwhen she was similarly overwhelmed with the care of her three young sons. She said something to the effect that “it will all soon pass”. Now that my disciples have children, and I am often living among them, I have become more aware how much sacrifice a mother has to make. Somehow, until my mother recently told me about her own struggles as a mother raising young children, I never realized that she also underwent a similar sacrifice taking care of me and my two brothers. When she told me, my immediate reaction was to feel bad for the pain that I caused her by the insensitive way I joined the Hare Krishna movement (although I, of course, have no regrets with the fact that I joined). I have to say my admiration for motherhood has soared over the last few years! A realization I recently gained from astrology about the importance of motherhood increased this appreciation more. In astrology different planets and different houses are the karaka, or main indicators, for the different prominent aspects of ones life. For example, we can look to the position of the sun and the strength of the ninth house for the nature of ones relationship with the father....


- Published: 2012-06-20
- Modified: 2012-06-20
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/events/bhakti-yoga-immersion-august-2012/

Join Dhanurdhara Swami and Raghunath August 23-26, 2012, for a weekend of sat sanga, meditation, kirtan and yoga at the Pumpkin Hollow Retreat Center in Craryville, New York. Joining Maharaja and Raghunatha will be kirtaniyas Visvambhar and Vrinda Devi of The Mayapuris and Bryn Chrisman of Yogamaya New York. For more information please see the Bhakti Yoga Immersion site. A flyer for this event can be found here here . A full schedule for this event can be found here .


- Published: 2012-06-19
- Modified: 2012-06-19
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/the-later-pastimes-of-sri-caitanya-at-the-bhakti-center/

The Later Pastimes of Sri Caitanya at The Bhakti Center On May 22, 2012, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami gave a talk entitled The Later Pastimes of Sri Caitanya at The Bhakti Center in New York. The following is a recording of that talk.   The Later Pastimes of Sri Caitanya at The Bhakti Center


- Published: 2012-04-09
- Modified: 2012-04-09
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/paradox-and-perfection-at-yogamaya-new-york/

Paradox and Perfection at Yogamaya New York On March 29, 2012, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami gave a seminar entitled Paradox and Perfection at Yogamaya Studio in New York. The following are the recorded excerpts from the seminar.   Paradox and Perfection at Yogamaya New York


- Published: 2012-01-04
- Modified: 2012-01-04
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/bhakti-seminar-at-yogamaya-new-york/

Bhakti Seminar at Yogamaya New York On September 17-18, 2011, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami gave a 15 hour seminar on bhakti at Yogamaya Studio in New York. The following are excerpts from the seminar.   Bhakti Seminar at Yogamaya New York - Part 1 Bhakti Seminar at Yogamaya New York - Part 2 Bhakti Seminar at Yogamaya New York - Part 3


- Published: 2011-10-03
- Modified: 2011-10-03
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/dhanurdhara-swami-speaks-at-st-albans-school/

On Thursday, September 22, 2011, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami gave a short sermon that at the chapel of St. Albans School of the National Cathedral for all their students and teachers. St. Albans is arguably the most prestigious prep school in the America where former Vice President Al Gore and many other prominent US leaders are alumni. Dhanurdhara Swami speaks at St. Albans School


- Published: 2011-04-16
- Modified: 2011-04-18
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/the-yoga-of-forgiveness/

The Yoga of Forgiveness As part of his monthly satsang series at Yogamaya Studio in New York, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami recently gave a talk entitled “The Yoga of Forgiveness” wherein Maharaja discusses forgiveness and explores the possibilities of overcoming deep resentment from the standpoint of bhakti and yoga psychology. The Yoga of Forgiveness


- Published: 2010-08-28
- Modified: 2011-03-21
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/environment-on-consciousness/

Environment on Consciousness The following is a lecture given by Dhanurdhara Swami on Saturday, August 21, 2010, at Yogamaya Studio in New York. Environment on Consciousness


- Published: 2010-01-24
- Modified: 2010-01-24
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/windows-to-the-material-world/

I just finished assembling my journals into book form for a final edit. Fortunately, I finished the work before my computer crashed. I knew it was on the blink, but I dreaded the day when it need to be sent for repair. Leaving the shop on my way home, however, I felt a surprising relief, a sense of liberation. Even though I use the computer almost exclusively for my writing and correspondence, it felt as if some shackle of illusion had been lifted. (more... )


- Published: 2010-01-24
- Modified: 2017-06-20
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/yoga-psychology/

Introduction “Is there therapy in the Vedas? ” I was a bit taken aback by this inquiry from a young and dedicated yoga practitioner. He had been struggling for years with psychological problems. Although he had embraced a traditional path of yogic transformation, he found the help he needed in a more modern self-help process based on contemporary psychology. As I thought about his inquiry, however, the answer seemed obvious. Rich in a tradition of intact family and community support, those born in traditional India did not need to rely on specialists to sort out mental afflictions caused mostly by social dysfunction. Classical Indian philosophy, especially its traditions of yoga, does, however, have detailed information on the nature of the mind. Inspired by my young friend’s question and desiring to organize that information in a relevant way to help address the mental challenges so many people face today, I categorized the basic tenets of yoga psychology into five broad principles: The mind is malleable. There is a correlation between the form the mind assumes and how one feels. The mind is swayed by the power of three main factors—karma, environment, and actions. By controlling the form or mode the mind takes, one can substantially influence how one feels. Full satisfaction can ultimately only be achieved by transcending the mind and realizing the true self. The mind, like any mechanism, can be used more effectively when one knows its workings. This is especially important as the proper use of the mind...


- Published: 2010-01-24
- Modified: 2010-01-24
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/seven-ways-in-which-hearing-sacred-texts-purifies-the-mind/

Seven Ways In Which Hearing Sacred Texts Purifies the Mind Hearing (sravanam) is the conduit of knowledge. It is thus the first principle in the practice of spiritual life. Without gaining faith in a spiritual goal by first hearing about it from an authoritative source, why would anyone be inspired to take up an arduous path of spiritual practice? And even if one did, without sravanam how would one understand the intricacies of that practice? Inspiration and instruction are just two of the ways in which sravanam purifies the mind. The following is an analysis of seven ways (including inspiration and instruction) in which hearing sacred bhakti texts purifies the mind of an aspiring bhakta: As yoga: “Yoga” means to restrain the mind. When one attentively hears bhakti-sastra the mind becomes concentrated with single pointed attention and neglects all other mental impulses. Sravanam is thus (bhakti) yoga. As very effective yoga: The efficacy of a particular yoga process is gauged in its ability to facilitate absorption in the object of one's meditation. When hearing, sastra, which is replete with appealing stories and philosophy about the all-attractive Divine, one's mind spontaneously flows to the object of meditation. Hearing sacred texts is thus a far more riveting meditation than controlling the mind by one's will power alone. As an object of meditation with potency: Absorption in an object serves as a conduit to imbibe the qualities of that object, just as an iron rod absorbed in fire becomes fire-like. Sastra is sabda-brahman,...


- Published: 2010-01-24
- Modified: 2010-01-24
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/book-review-o-my-friend-o-my-friend/

When I first saw Babhru Dasa's O My Friend! O My Friend! , I was impressed with his overall scholarship and accommodating mood. Considering the sensitive nature of this matter, I appreciated the effort he made to respectfully acknowledge those points of view different from his own. Yet after a more careful reading, I found myself having a more mixed reaction to his presentation. Although he did make a sincere attempt to be inclusive, I found arguments that I felt should have been tempered. For example, how could Babhru Prabhu – or anyone – argue that interest in the core sentiment of Gaudiya Vaisnavism – following in the footsteps of the gopis in madhurya-rasa – comes from outside Srila Prabhupada's line, and then strongly imply, in contrast, that only those who aspire for sakhya-bhava have gleaned their mood directly from Srila Prabhupada? I know of substantial, dedicated Vaisnavas who sincerely aspire to follow the internal mood of Sri Rupa solely as a result of their service to Srila Prabhupada. How can any of us speak for everyone? Still, upon reading Babhru Prabhu's paper thoroughly, I realized that he has a strong case. At the very least, the ideological basis of his paper seems indisputable: he has successfully refuted the contention that the only internal mood Srila Prabhupada could have been in is madhurya-rasa. However, I found myself not quite convinced of the conclusion he draws. I would like to discuss some of my concerns here and question the standards one...


- Published: 2010-01-07
- Modified: 2010-01-07
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/psychology-of-bhagavad-gita/

Indian Philosophy has a wealth of knowledge about psychology both describing in detail the nature of the mind and how to favorably transform it. Especially, the Bhagavad-gita summarizes the three classical practices of that transformation: Karma-yoga (the path of action), jnana (the path of knowledge) and bhakti (the path of devotion). From Bhagavad-gita Dhanurdhara Swami summarizes the nature of yoga psychology and how exactly each path transforms ones consciousness. Finally he discusses the practical application of each path in ones own transformation, especially while living within the world. This lecture was given at The Arlington Center in conjunction with the Boston Brahmins on April 25, 2009.


- Published: 2010-01-06
- Modified: 2014-05-24
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/

The Power and Culture of Humility: Developing Self-confidence Through a Humble Heart On May 16, 2014, Dhanurdhara Swami gave a talk entitled “Can God Be Blue? ” at Yogamaya New York.     The Power and Culture of Humility: Developing Self-confidence Through a Humble Heart On April 18, 2014, Dhanurdhara Swami gave a talk entitled “The Power and Culture of Humility: Developing Self-confidence Through a Humble Heart” at Yogamaya New York.     The Skill of Happiness On May 12, 2013, Dhanurdhara Swami gave a talk entitled “The Skill of Happiness” at Yogamaya New York.     Yoga Sutras Seminar at Yogamaya On April 6, and April 7, 2013, Dhanurdhara Swami gave an extensive 12 hour seminar on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali as part of Yogamaya’s teacher training in New York City.     Yoga Psychology at Down Dog Yoga Dhanurdhara Swami addresses the question “Is there therapy in the Vedas? ” at Down Dog Yoga in Reading, Pennsylvania.     A Talk in Middle America Dhanurdhara Swami discusses his recent lecture to a group of conservative Christians and the reception he received.     The Yoga of Forgiveness Lecture given by Dhanurdhara Swami at Yogamaya Studio in New York on March 24, 2013.     Compassion and the Symptom of the Soul The following is a class Srila Dhanurdhara Swami recently gave in Christchurch, New Zealand, entitled “Compassion and the Symptom of the Soul,” based on a passage from the seventh canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, where Prahlada...


- Published: 2010-01-06
- Modified: 2010-01-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/media/psychology-of-karma/

In this lecture given at The Arlington Center in conjunction with the Boston Brahmins on September 6, 2008, Dhanurdhara Swami explains how one can best understand and respond to destiny based on an understanding of classical Vedic psychology. Subjects relating to karma are discussed on the basis of Bhagavad-gita including the reconciliation of destiny and free will, the proofs for the existence of karma, how to read the language of destiny, theodicy (the problem of evil and the existence of God), forgiveness and karma, and how to transcend karma.


- Published: 2009-03-16
- Modified: 2020-06-23
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/published-work/japa-meditations/

  Published November 2008. Purchase here     Japa Meditations: Contemplations on Entering the Holy Name is a collection of selected personal realizations on japa meditation by Srila Dhanurdhara Swami. Along with his own personal realizations, Maharaja shares the realizations of other sadhakas through interviews and essays. From the Introduction by Dhanurdhara Swami: “You should compile these together in a book! ” This simple “mantra” offered by Yadunatha dasa, an enthusiastic subscriber to my online journal, struck a chord. He was referring to my “Japa Thoughts,” my personal realizations on how to enter the holy name, a popular entry often found in my journals during the Indian lunar month of Karttika. Every Karttika since 1974, with the exception of two years, I have resided in Vrindavana, the sacred land of Lord Krsna. Like many Vaisnavas, during that month I take a vow to substantially increase my daily spiritual practice by increasing the time spent in japa meditation. Since 2000, however, I have spent Karttika not only in Vrindavana, but have lived at the foot of Govardhana Hill, the most hallowed ground within the greater Vrindavana area. It is at this time I decided to write my realizations on how to more deeply enter, to become absorbed in, japa meditation. In one fairly recent journal entry I shared the basis of such realizations: “What is a japa realization? It is the recognition of the obstacles that block us from attaining our next level of meditation and the form of mercy necessary...


- Published: 2008-01-06
- Modified: 2014-11-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/srila-bhaktisiddhanta-and-raganuga-sadhana-bhakti/

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta and Rāgānuga-sādhana-bhakti There is a criticism of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī in certain Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava circles, concerning his approach to sādhana. In short, the claim is that by overemphasizing vaidhī bhakti he did not faithfully pass down the traditional teachings on the practice of rāgānuga-bhakti. This is not a minor criticism. After all, rāgānuga-bhakti is precisely what Śrī Caitanya came to give. To fairly judge Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta's approach to rāgānuga-bhakti I suggest that we must start by examining what Śrī Caitanya's immediate successors taught, especially Śrī Rūpa, as they were the ones entrusted to codify and establish His teachings. The intention of this paper is to explore such teachings, in order to demonstrate that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī's approach to rāgānuga-bhakti—his emphasis on kīrtana and his strong cautions regarding smaraṇa—is firmly within the bounds of Gauḍīya tradition. Moreover, I will suggest that it is especially warranted given the historical circumstances in which he developed his mission. Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī’s main description of rāgānuga-sādhana-bhakti is found in the second wave of the first division of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. All Gauḍīya developments in the practice of rāgānuga-sādhana stem from this account. Śrī Rūpa naturally begins his description with the qualification to adopt the practice: The basic prerequisite for practicing rāgānuga-bhakti is simply a genuine longing (lobha) for a mood of devotion similar to that of one of the eternal residents of Vraja. ” (B. r. s. 1. 2. 291) 1 He next describes the symptoms of such lobha: The appearance of greed (lobha) is...


- Published: 2007-08-04
- Modified: 2020-06-23
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/store/

All pricing stated below is for orders within the United States only. For orders outside the United States or for wholesale pricing, please contact us. Japa Meditations Japa Meditations - $12. 00 Postage paid for orders within the US. (International and wholesale orders please contact us. ) Greetings From Vrindavana Greetings from Vrindavana - $15. 00 Postage paid for orders within the US. (International and wholesale orders please contact us. ) Waves of Devotion Waves of Devotion - Please inquire about Waves of Devotion.


- Published: 2007-06-30
- Modified: 2011-02-13
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/about/

Waves of Devotion is the personal site of Srila Dhanurdhara Swami. Here you will find Dhanurdhara Swami sharing his insights on the devotional process of bhakti-yoga. Find out more about Dhanurdhara Swami.


- Published: 2007-06-30
- Modified: 2018-12-16
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/contact/

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- Published: 2007-06-30
- Modified: 2020-06-23
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/published-work/

Japa Meditations: Contemplations on Entering the Holy Name A collection of selected personal realizations on japa meditation. Along with his own personal realizations, Srila Dhanurdhara Swami shares the realizations of other sadhakas through interviews and essays. Published November 2, 2008. More on Japa Meditations. Greetings from Vrindavana A collection of selected personal realizations. Published June 16, 2007. More on Greetings from Vrindavana Waves of Devotion A Comprehensive Study of The Nectar of Devotion. Published September 30, 2000. More on Waves of Devotion. Reviews Read reviews of Dhanurdhara Swami's published work.


- Published: 2007-06-30
- Modified: 2026-01-08
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/weekly-sanga/

Twice a week Srila Dhanurdhara Swami shares his thoughts and realizations on revealed scriptures such as the Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, Caitanya-caritamrta, and the Bhakti Sandarbha. Dhanurdhara Swami holds these sangas every Sunday and Wednesday. If you would like to find out how you can participate in these, please contact us. Dhanurdhara Swami’s Weekly Sanga is available through many other podcasting services. Visit the Weekly Sanga website.


- Published: 2007-06-30
- Modified: 2023-01-08
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/published-work/waves-of-devotion/

Published September 30, 2000. Purchase here Waves of Devotion by Dhanurdhara Swami is a comprehensive study of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s The Nectar of Devotion, His Divine Grace’s summary study of Srila Rupa Gosvami’s Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu. Waves of Devotion is meant to complement The Nectar of Devotion and the author encourages readers to read this book along with The Nectar of Devotion. “With some exceptions, Srila Prabhupada at least briefly summarized every verse in Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu. Consequently, I was able to solidly base the present book on his authoritative statements. Therefore we have entitled the book Waves of Devotion. “Waves are born from the ocean, heighten the ocean, and then merge within it. Similarly, the explanations in Waves of Devotion are born from statements in The Nectar of Devotion. They further explain Srila Prabhupada’s statements and therefore expand them. Finally, after hearing these explanations one will find the very same points in Srila Prabhupada’s own statements. Waves of Devotion will then merge within the ocean of The Nectar of Devotion. “Waves are not just born from the ocean, their very existence depends upon its support. Similarly, every comment in Waves of Devotion is authorized by and depends upon a corresponding statement from Srila Prabhupada’s The Nectar of Devotion. ” Dhanurdhara Swami (Taken from the Introduction. ) Excerpts from Waves of Devotion Foreword by Satyaraja Dasa (Steven J. Rosen) Introduction by Dhanurdhara Swami Reviews of Waves of Devotion Diving into “The Nectar of Devotion” by Jayadvaita Swami Publication Details...


- Published: 2007-06-30
- Modified: 2020-06-23
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/published-work/greetings-from-vrindavana/

  Published June 16, 2007. Purchase here     Greetings from Vrindavana is a collection of selected personal realizations by Srila Dhanurdhara Swami from 2000 to 2004.   Reviews of Greetings from Vrindavana "Greetings from Vrindavana" published by Jayadvaita Swami   Publication Details Published June 16, 2007. Softcover 206 pages ISBN-10: 0970358113 ISBN-13: 978-0970358110


- Published: 2007-06-30
- Modified: 2016-05-31
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/about/dhanurdhara-swami/

Photograph by Nancy Ambe. Dhanurdhara Swami was initiated into the Gauḍīyā Vaiṣṇava lineage by Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda in 1974. In 1982, he accepted the sannyāsa āśrama or renounced order of life. Dhanurdhara Swami is the author of three books — Waves of Devotion: A Comprehensive Study of The Nectar of Devotion, Greetings from Vrindavana, a selected collection of his thoughts and realizations from 2000–2004, and Japa Meditations: Contemplations on Entering the Holy Name, a collection of selected personal realizations on japa meditation by Mahārāja and others. Dhanurdhara Swami spends half of the year in India where he focuses on bhajana, studying, writing and taking people on pilgrimage of holy places. The other half of the year Mahārāja is in the West where he spends his time traveling and speaking about bhakti-yoga.


- Published: 2007-06-30
- Modified: 2007-06-30
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/published-work/waves-of-devotion/introduction/

Waves of Devotion Introduction By Dhanurdhara Swami Since The Nectar of Devotion is already the commentary1 of a self-realized soul, what is the need to comment on it at all? Srila Prabhupada himself said that his books were written not by him, but by Krsna. Thus aren’t they already perfect? The Vedas emanate directly from the Supreme Lord’s breathing. Still, they are understood with the help of a teacher: acaryavan puruso veda. Like the Vedas, Srila Prabhupada’s books are transcendental sound vibration (sabda brahman). Thus the same principle holds for them: they become more accessible through the aid of a teacher. Commenting on Srila Prabhupada’s books is not unprecedented in ISKCON. A simple example is our daily Srimad-Bhagavatam class, which Srila Prabhupada himself instituted. Again, the principle of acaryavan puruso veda is at work: learning from erudite Vaisnavas deepens our comprehension and appreciation of Srila Prabhupada’s books. I’d like to briefly share my personal experience of how essential it is to learn Srila Prabhupada’s books from a teacher. Every year, from 1986 to 1997, I would teach a five-month course on Bhagavad-gita. This rigorous course required that I was capable of analyzing each verse in context of the various themes and sub-themes within and between each chapter. Obviously, this required a more thorough knowledge of the book than I had at the time. Even after studying on my own for many years, I would have never been able to teach this course without having attended His Grace Bhurijana Prabhu’s “Bhagavad-gita...


- Published: 2007-06-30
- Modified: 2007-06-30
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/published-work/waves-of-devotion/foreword/

Waves of Devotion Foreword By Satyaraja Dasa (Steven J. Rosen) In this world, there are three major oceans—the Indian, the Atlantic, and the Pacific. Similarly, for me, there are three oceanic books on the science of devotional service, books that clearly delineate the “waves of devotion” according to the teachings of Gaudiya Vaisnavism. The first of these three books is Rupa Gosvami’s Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (“The Ocean-like Nectar of Devotional Relationship”), a sixteenth-century Sanskrit classic1 that analyzes the various stages of bhakti (devotion) as a methodical procedure resulting in love of God. Sri Rupa extends the metaphor of an ocean and its waves (used in the title and throughout the work) to include rasa (devotional relationship), which is envisioned as a liquid. Rasa is thus often defined as “juice,” “taste,” or “flavor,” poetically indicating that it is delectable or thirst quenching. The idea is that the spiritually thirsty can develop their relationship with the Supreme by drinking from its unlimited reservoir. Krsna, or God, is seen as the akhila-rasa-amrta-murti, the perfect embodiment of all rasas. With this as its central theme, the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu explains how to develop all emotions in relation to Krsna, culminating in srngara-rasa, the mood of conjugal love, which was most perfectly embodied by the gopis (the divine cowherd girls of Vraja). Examples of how this is so is found throughout Sri Rupa’s work. It is with this image of the spiritual realm as an ocean of bhakti, as an ocean of rasa, that Rupa Gosvami divides his seminal...


- Published: 2007-06-30
- Modified: 2007-06-30
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/published-work/reviews/

Here are some reviews of Srila Dhanurdhara Swami's published work. On Greetings from Vrindavana...   "Greetings from Vrindavana" published A look at Dhanurdhara Swami’s Greetings from Vrindavana by Jayadvaita Swami. My latest reading: “Greetings from Vrindavana” by Dhanurdhara Swami. This 206-page book, smartly designed, consists of entries from a journal Dhanurdhara Swami kept in 2000 through 2003 and shared with friends and followers. The entries are full of deep, thoughtful insights into Vaishnava philosophy and practical spiritual life. Dhanurdhara Swami takes us on tour with him as he leads friends from New York on pilgrimage in Mayapur and Vrindavana. What a zesty mix—America and India, metropolis and village, modernity and eternity, New York and Vrindavana! The pilgrims encounter saintly pujaris, biting mokeys, thugs who beat up their driver on the road, and Krishna Himself in the form of His sacred land, His literary revelation, and His holy name. We all have a relationship with Krishna, and the truth of that relationship is finally the deepest truth in our lives. But how are we to find it and “make it happen” for us and dedicate ourselves to it with a pure and full heart? It all happens in Vrindavana. And Vrindavana happens for us—reveals itself to us—in the company of spiritually advanced souls. Such is the company we find here, as Dhanurdhara Swami takes us on tour of Vrindavana, shares with us his own experiences and realizations and those of the pilgrims traveling with him, introduces us to colorful spiritual people...


- Published: 2003-09-25
- Modified: 2016-03-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/essays/does-iskcon-have-a-moral-theology/

September 25, 2003 Vṛndāvana When my friend Reverend William Muldin, a Catholic priest, humbly commented, “I have been reading Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books, but I don’t find a moral theology,” he struck upon something I was pondering. I probed further. “Certainly, in Śrīla Prabupada’s books there is a very clear conception of right and wrong,” I replied. “That’s true,” he said, “but I don’t see the science of how conscience is formed, the tools by which the reader can make moral decisions. ” We discussed the matter for some time. He also kindly sent me an interesting book called Reason Informed by Faith: Foundations of Catholic Morality. Don’t worry, I am not going to become a Catholic. But Bill has a point, and it doesn’t minimize Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. The Bhāgavatam deals with transcendence. It secondarily describes a highly defined culture, varṇāśrama, which outlines the elaborate laws and duties that purify one in support of devotional service. The setting in which a Vaiṣṇava finds himself today, however, is quite different. The question that Bill was alluding to arises from this point: Does the Bhāgavatam overtly give us the tools to apply those codes of behavior to the ever-changing and often complex situations of today’s world? For example, I essentially avoided contact with my parents for years based on the principles of sannyāsa-dharma and those injunctions against associating with non-devotees. There are precedents of slight concessions to the rule—Śaṅkarācārya returning home to perform his mother’s funeral rites or at least one occasion...




## Posts

- Published: 2026-07-06
- Modified: 2026-07-05
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/07/06/the-world-cup-through-the-eyes-of-sastra/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

It was Thursday. I didn’t have a clue what I could write about for this Monday. I then saw a clip of fans cheering wildly when their team scored and won a World Cup game. They then broke out in song and danced wildly. They seemed to be so euphoric, but were they? I then naturally looked at the phenomenon through the eyes of śāstra, and that’s this week’s Greetings. I naturally didn’t glean much support for this world obsession from the śāstra, but let me start with the opposite, something I saw that was positive. Community The World Cup creates a strong sense of community around one’s team. Anything that helps one transcend the limited or self-centered concept of “I,” such as a sense of community, gives one a temporary relief from the source of all pain, the false ego. I saw that especially in the shared bliss the fans were experiencing when cheering in victory. Of course, you could look at that from many perspectives that would dispel the idea of such a sense of joy as real happiness, and I will. But at the least there is something uplifting about putting something higher than oneself, whether it is family, community or nation. Ego The concept of the body as the self is ultimately a mental conception. One can therefore expand one’s concept of the self to one’s family, community or nation. Therefore, a sports community based on enjoying one’s team’s victory is not about putting something higher...


- Published: 2026-06-29
- Modified: 2026-06-29
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/06/29/the-banality-of-evil-and-religious-institutions/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I hope most of you read my last post “My Association with the Gambino Crime Family”. When I grew up in Brooklyn, my brother’s best friend until they were ten years old was Dominick Montiglio whom we recently found grew up to be a hitman for the Gambino crime family. We were shocked that such an apparently normal child became so corrupted. The post tried to briefly explain the reasons why. In this post I wish to expound on one of those reasons that I didn’t have time to elaborately discuss the last time, and I will call it “the banality of evil. ” I will then discuss its practical application to some of the behavioral problems that plague religious institutions. The term “the banality of evil” was first coined by Hannah Arendt in her book, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963). She was a political philosopher who was hired by The New Yorker magazine to cover the trial of Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi bureaucrat heavily involved in organizing the deportation of Jews during the Holocaust. She listened to his testimony and cross examination. She was surprised by what she saw. Arendt saw that Eichmann appeared less like a monster and more like a conformist following rules and pursuing career advancement. It should be by no means understood that she meant the Holocaust was ordinary or insignificant. Her arguments based on her perceptions, however, were quite unexpected, especially considering the extremely strong feelings about Eichmann...


- Published: 2026-06-22
- Modified: 2026-06-21
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/06/22/what-i-learned-from-my-association-with-the-gambino-crime-family/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

You can’t make this up! I was checking out a documentary called The Lynchpin of Bensonhurst. It’s a long story why, but I was brought up in that neighborhood. It was the story of Dominick Santamaria aka Dominick Montiglio, an important member of the Gambino crime family who was brought up by his uncle Nino Gaggi. Nino was arguably the most notorious capo of the Gambino family. I only needed to check out something in the first few minutes, but something caught my eye and that impelled me to explore further. As the map displayed in the documentary zoomed in on his birthplace, first you see New York City, then the borough of Brooklyn, and finally Bensonhurst, my neighborhood. The arrow on the screen then zeroed in on a video scan of the block Dominick grew up with its three-family attached brick houses. Suddenly, I then saw my house just two doors down from where Dominick Montiglio lived! When my older brother watched the documentary, he was shocked. Dominick was his best friend until our family left the neighborhood when my brother was ten. Dominick never showed signs of psychotic or sociopathic behavior. He and my brother never did anything remotely violent or anti-social. In fact, they loved each other as best friends. Childhood friends Dominick Montiglio and Barry Winiker. To give a little more context to this post without going into much detail, I will just mention one thing about Dominick’s life from that documentary. It highlights a little...


- Published: 2026-06-15
- Modified: 2026-06-14
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/06/15/in-defense-of-attachment/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

During my Deity sevā this morning, along with the bhoga offering, I wanted to offer something more. I began to mentally offer a feast. So, I naturally imagined offering the best things out of devotion. Then a thought came: If I didn’t enjoy or wasn’t attached to certain foods, then how could I value them? And if I didn’t highly value them, then how could I offer them with devotion? Attachment and devotion side by side? Isn’t complete non-attachment one of the pillars of spiritual life? Not in bhakti-yoga, according to the Bhāgavatam. Rather it is the faithful soul who is “neither disgusted with nor very much attached to material life” who can achieve perfection on the path of devotion. (A paraphrase of Bhāgavatam 11. 20. 8) It’s easy to understand how one not excessively attached to material life achieves perfection on the path of devotion, but how do we understand how one not disgusted with material life moves forward? As bhakti requires a heart capable of attachment, it is thus not favorable to overly cultivate detachment (to become disgusted with material life) as a goal. Rather it makes more sense to redirect and purify our attachment so that we can become fully attached to Krishna. Cultivating attachment to Krishna therefore means awakening and intensifying the emotions of a soft heart easily moved to affection, longing, gratitude, compassion and loving exchanges. As these qualities can be weakened by the emotional hardness that comes from excessive renunciation (the path of jñāna),...


- Published: 2026-06-08
- Modified: 2026-06-07
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/06/08/our-decisions-determine-our-fate-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Our Decisions Determine Our Fate What we are now has been determined by the decisions we made in the past. If that is true, what we will be in the future will be determined by the decisions we make now. It’s so crucial we make the right choices. But how to do it? Intuition God rests in our heart and directs us from within. The force of intuition is very powerful, and sometimes the message is so undeniable that the right decision becomes clear. The voice of God, however, is not the only thing in our hearts. Our hearts are also filled with the voices of ambition and desire. How should we distinguish between these to make sure we are hearing God in the heart? Consultation The voice or direction of God is manifest externally through the bona fide teachers. It is easy to find out what to do if we have the courage to accept the authority of those who are learned and wise. We are not children, however. We can’t live our day-to-day life looking for someone to tell us what to do, nor is that resource always available. Moreover, even if a guide is there to provide counsel, many decisions are still best left to us. Everyone has a complex personal history and psychological capacity which is not known by others. In that case, responsibility for our final decision becomes solely ours. But if we are still confused in such cases, what to do? Sincerity We often...


- Published: 2026-06-01
- Modified: 2026-05-30
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/06/01/three-words-to-change-your-life/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

“Any Questions? ” Śrīla Prabhupāda had just finished the morning class and looked out at his audience in the large temple room in the ISKCON Dallas Radha Kalachandji Mandir. It was July 1974 and I had joined ISKCON there just weeks earlier. I sat in awe of my master. After a long moment of silence, 6’6” Jñānagamya stood up and inquired, “How can we repay you? ” Śrīla Prabhupāda’s sober three-word response has remained etched in my consciousness ever since: “Just remain obliged! ” Ingratitude stunts devotion. Like a spoiled child who never feels the love of its parents no matter how generous they are, a devotee who is proud and feels entitled can never feel the mercy of God. On the other hand, the humble devotee who can feel God’s mercy easily feels the awakening of devotion for Krishna. In other words, without feeling such love from God, how can one deeply feel love for God? This is also the message of arguably the most important verse in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, verse three of the Śikṣāṣṭakam. The humble can feel grateful for God’s mercy. Inspired by feeling His mercy one chants his name incessantly in devotion. “Just remain obliged! ” Such an important message. Without that deep sense of gratitude what hope is there for ever developing devotion? And without developing devotion how can we ever repay him? Thus, let us count the gifts he has given us: “I bow down to the beautiful lotus feet of my spiritual master,...


- Published: 2026-05-25
- Modified: 2026-05-24
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/05/25/some-somber-quotes-on-death/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

“What is death but a change of body? ” I woke up to a startling message. Śrīla Prabhupāda was suddenly returning from Hrishikesh where he had been trying to recover his health. He was coming today to Vrindavan to leave the world. We soon sat somberly in his room at the feet of our master Due to his health, Śrīla Prabhupāda sat in a chair to the left of where he usually sat cross-legged in front of his desk. It seemed all the residents of the project were there, about thirty at the time. His spoke solemnly. What struck me was not just what he said, but the conviction with which he said it. “If one is to leave world, let him come to Vrindavan. Everything is here, the Yamunā, the white sands of Ramaṇa-reti... but what is death, but a change of body? ” He then quoted the Gītā: “As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change. ” (Bhagavad-gītā 2. 13) We were there months later in the same room witnessing his passing. It was obvious to those who were there: he was not bewildered by such a change! “Don’t think this won’t happen to you! ” Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciples surrounded his bed during his last days. Lying on his back, he turned his head to them slowly and relayed an important...


- Published: 2026-05-18
- Modified: 2026-05-17
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/05/18/paradox-in-bhakti-i-the-agony-is-the-ecstasy/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Often when Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī describes Śrī Caitanya’s feelings at the height of His devotion, he describes His intense anguish. Without skipping a beat, he then characterizes those same feelings of devotion as the highest ecstasy. “In this way, Lord Caitanya used to revel in ecstasy day after day and exhibit these ecstasies before Svarūpa and Rāmānanda Rāya. Externally there appeared severe tribulation, as if He were suffering from poisonous effects, but internally He was experiencing bliss. This is characteristic of transcendental love of Kṛṣṇa. " — Śrīla Prabhupāda, Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 2. 50 The simultaneous experience of intense suffering and bliss? If you are confused, don’t feel bad. We are told by Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī that even those elevated in knowledge and devotion cannot comprehend these things. “Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s emotion of transcendental madness in separation from Kṛṣṇa is very deep and mysterious. Even though one is very advanced and learned, he cannot understand it. ” Antya-līlā 14. 5 When teaching the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, I was therefore faced with a dilemma. If even those advanced and learned cannot understand Śrī Caitanya’s transcendental madness, then how could I explain it in a way that wasn’t totally confusing? Śrīla Prabhupāda, however, encourages us to try to come to at least a preliminary level of understanding. "Unless one is a very highly advanced devotee, he cannot understand these intricate feelings. The author of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, however, has tried to explain this divyonmāda as far as possible, and it is our duty...


- Published: 2026-05-11
- Modified: 2026-05-10
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/05/11/the-origin-of-the-living-entity-and-the-limits-of-reason/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

A natural inquiry that comes up in almost all spiritual traditions concerns the origin of the living entity in this dark world. All mokṣa traditions — Vedic, Buddhist, and Jain — universally profess that our condition here in ignorance is beginningless or eternal. The Judeo-Christian traditions, in contrast, hold that the material world, and consequent ignorance, is not eternal but has a creative beginning point that is followed by a “fall theory,” which begins with Adam’s tumble from a position of innocence. Śrīla Prabhupāda seems to have indicated at different times propositions about this subject that support both theories, although the propositions are mutually exclusive. In other words, if one is true, the other cannot be. So, which is a better explanation of the origin of the conditioned soul’s ignorance? From the standpoint of reason, neither. Both propositions as to the origin of the jiva are problematic within the parameters of human reasoning. To think that the soul has been eternally in bondage for no fault of its own seems ontologically unreasonable and cruel. On the other hand, if the living entity fell from the spiritual world, doesn’t that contradict our understanding of the unspoiled nature of that reality? Here’s another way to understand how any theory discussing the origin of the living entity in this world cannot be supported by reason. I argue as follows. There are only two choices for the nature of reality: it is either eternally existing, or it came into being out of nothing. Can...


- Published: 2026-05-04
- Modified: 2026-05-03
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/05/04/i-just-cant-stand-him/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I Just Can’t Stand Him! Did a devotee ever get on your nerves? I can’t imagine how many people I rubbed the wrong way. Sure, some people are malicious, but conflict is just the way of the world even among the well-intentioned. So how to view genuine devotees who disturb us, even those who in the name of service have violated our rights and hurt us? Some insights: The fault is not the whole person Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, if someone acts in a way that disturbs us, we tend to see only their faults. A Vaiṣṇava, however, never falls into the trap of seeing one’s fault as the whole person. More important is to appreciate the sincerity and service of those who have given their life to God. Vaiṣṇavas are judged by their inspired side, not by their ordinary dealings Vaiṣṇavas are born in different types of families and, in general, have varied natures. Vaiṣṇavas, however, are not solely their karmic nature. More importantly, they are conduits through which Krishna manifests in their words and actions. Despite their nature and dealings which may rub us the wrong way and may even force that person to act improperly, we judge them more by their devotion. There are different types of Vaiṣṇavas Different shapes of metal immersed in a fire become equally hot and effulgent but retain their unique shape at the same time. Similarly, devotees who attain perfection all become devotionally effulgent while still retaining their distinct nature....


- Published: 2026-04-27
- Modified: 2026-04-25
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/04/27/why-do-we-not-fully-feel-god-when-chanting-his-name/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

An object (vācya) is different than the word that expresses that object (vācaka). For example, if one says water, it will neither quench your thirst nor clean anything. Chanting the names of God is different from chanting the names of ordinary objects because in chanting the names of God there is no difference between the object (vācya) God and the word or name that expresses it (vācya). By saying the names of God, you therefore get all the benefit of being with Him. The question arises—if God is non-different from His name and the most powerful and influential object, then why when we chant His names do we not feel His presence fully? The answer is simple. Although the influence of an object may be so intense that there is practically nothing that can cover the object itself, it doesn’t mean that one can’t cover oneself from the object. For example, although the Sun is almost all-powerful, one can cover oneself from its influence with a small umbrella. Similarly, although God, and thus God’s names, are incalculably influential, our false ago, our sense of self-centeredness, can cover our soul from the powerful rays of love coming from God (and His names). And that is why we do not fully feel God when chanting his names. My initially inquiry is now fully answered. I think, however, one more thing needs to be added to make this post complete. Śrī Caitanya best expressed this principle, but from a slightly more positive perspective....


- Published: 2026-04-20
- Modified: 2026-04-25
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/04/20/death-with-honor/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I just returned from India last week, and it became so clear to me that this dark age was accelerating. Mostly those thoughts arose as I reflected on the economic situation. I began to remember the price of things when I was growing up. Just a few: Gas was nineteen cents a gallon My college tuition for room and board was $800 dollars a semester My two-family house in Brooklyn with large backyard was $36,000 Our family doctor, Ralph Burke, made house calls for $10 Our middle-class family rented a bungalow in the Catskills for the summer for a few hundred dollars My graduation gift from my parents for college was a new Volkswagen Beetle that cost under $2,000 I could go on and on. The point is that even if you adjusted for inflation people were paying a fraction of what the same things cost today. The general standard of living of America has been going down fast. When I was reflecting like this, I chanced upon an article that added to my pessimism. It highlighted another growing symptom of this age of quarrel and confusion — what happens when a society immersed in materialism loses all sense dignity. It discussed the gradual loss of death with honor. I have never shared another author’s article on Monday Morning Greetings, but this so viscerally illustrated the thought I wanted to share this week on the increasing degradation of the quality of life today that I thought it was worth sharing....


- Published: 2026-04-13
- Modified: 2026-04-15
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/04/13/scientism-and-blind-faith/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Scientism and Blind Faith I was listening to a talk between Sean Carroll and Alex O’Connor, arguably two of the most effective atheists that challenge the existence of God. I have observed that they generally can hold their own even against the top Christian apologists. They were specifically discussing what they deemed the most challenging argument from the theists they face — the argument from fine-tuning. Their talk was trying to counter it. To me, however, they were basically doing exactly what they accuse those who pose a creator of the universe do. They were embracing a worldview based upon their faith, not upon what they can observe or reason. I think that will become obvious when I briefly explain the argument that they find formidable and analyze their response to it. The fine-tuning argument asserts that the fundamental constants and the laws of the universe fall into a narrow range that permits life to exist. The possibility of that occurring by chance is essentially zero, for even the most miniscule alteration in any one of many constants would make life impossible. What is challenging for these atheists is that they can’t deny the precise fine-tuning of the universe but feel challenged reconciling it with their naturalistic worldview. A finely tuned universe arising by chance is just astronomically improbable. Here is what they pose in response. “The Multiverse Hypothesis: Critics propose that if our universe is just one of many, it is not surprising that one—ours—happens to have the right...


- Published: 2026-04-06
- Modified: 2026-04-05
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/04/06/humility-humility-humility-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Humility! Humility! Humility! This was St. Augustine’s answer to the rhetorical question he posed to the faithful gathered to hear him speak: “What is the most important quality for spiritual advancement? ” As humility is of paramount importance to spiritual life, I have discussed this subject many times. My focus has ranged from posts defining humility to discussions of how it is distinguished from low self-esteem. This week, I had an inspiration to define humility in yet another way: humility is moving out of the center. When I refer to the center here, I am referring to the self-centered conception that the world should revolve around our desires and that happiness occurs when that is achieved. Moving out of the center is placing God at the center instead with the faith that true happiness will be found when we rest in the periphery of existence as His servant. Here are some thoughts on the ways a spiritual aspirant cultivates humility by “moving out of the center. ” Family Life A sannyāsī once told his student monks (brahmacārīs), “If you want to remain a monk, you must be the humble servant of everyone. Otherwise, you should get married and at least be the humble servant of a wife and family. ” Marriage and family are meant to teach us that there is something higher than ourselves. Of course, there is always the risk of misusing marriage to center oneself for enjoyment and control. Community The purpose of proper community is to...


- Published: 2026-03-30
- Modified: 2026-03-30
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/03/30/the-supreme-personality-of-godhead/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Śrīla Prabhupāda had a way with words in his translation of Sanskrit to English. The word bhagavān is the most common term for God. It means one who possesses all opulence and that is usually translated as the Supreme Lord. When Śrīla Prabhupāda used that term to refer to Śrī Krishna, he often translated the term as “The Supreme Personality of Godhead. ” Why? First a question that will help unpack the answer. How is Krishna first referred to in both the Gītā, the book spoken by Krishna, and the Bhāgavatam, the main book about Krishna? He is introduced to the reader in both texts as the chariot driver of Arjuna. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I think both texts are composed in that way to affirm that Krishna is best deemed the Supreme Personality and not just The Supreme Lord. Here’s how. When one is dealing with a subordinate, whose relationship is reverential, to reciprocate that mood one must maintain one’s identity and mood as a superior. A person in that disposition, however, is so much more than that. One can be, for example, also a friend or even a lover. Therefore, to appropriately reciprocate with a subordinate’s mood of reverence, so much of oneself must be concealed. Simply put, position covers personality. In other words, the full revelation of a person occurs only when rank is put aside. And that’s why it is so significant that one is introduced to Krishna in both texts as the chariot driver...


- Published: 2026-03-23
- Modified: 2026-03-22
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/03/23/do-you-believe-in-miracles-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Who is Murti Murti and what in the world does her name mean? Murti Murti’s father was already a yogi when she was born, so she practiced vegetarianism from the beginning of her life. That was unusual for Venezuela in 1973. So, when Havi dasa, the first devotee preaching there, found out about her while visiting her school, he gave her some special attention and carefully explained to her the philosophy of Krishna consciousness. She was all ears. She must have had a connection with India from a previous life. Soon after meeting Havi dasa she implored her father to let her join the ashram. She told him she had found God. The pious man, hearing her sincere plea, signed the legal documents giving permission for his teenage daughter to move into the ashram. Soon after, Śrīla Prabhupāda visited her country and initiated her. “Your name is Murti Murti,” Śrīla Prabhupāda announced, “the perfection of all forms. ” She was a young and attractive teen, so when the brahmacārīs attending the initiation heard her name and looked at her, they blushed. But Śrīla Prabhupāda hadn’t yet finished his sentence. “Devi dasi, Murti Murti devi dasi, the servant of Śrī Radha, who possesses the perfection of all forms” She remained a strict brahmacārīṇi (a celibate lady in the ashram), preaching and distributing books, for seven years. She then married an Argentinian devotee whose family were pious Catholics and insisted they get married in the Church. The kind local priest Jorge Mario...


- Published: 2026-03-16
- Modified: 2026-03-15
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/03/16/monday-morning-greetings-2026-11-the-mystery-verse-ii/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The audience for Monday Morning Greetings is varied. There are senior practitioners on the path of bhakti and others that just have interest in spiritual topics and how I present them. Usually, I speak on general subjects that have relevance to all my readership. Last week I shared a bit of esoteric Vaiṣṇava scholarship. As I haven’t fully finished the subject of that piece, I will write about it again this week. I hope everyone will still find the continued discussion of the “mystery verse” to be interesting. The Mystery Verse II Last week I elaborately explained how Verse Eight of Chapter Twenty of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta is apparently out of place in the context of what is being discussed there. I didn’t have time or space in my post to explain that after I introduced this subject in a seminar, I discovered that there was a commentary on that subject. Every year Hari Pārṣada Dās, a respected ISKCON Sanskrit scholar, was invited to be a presenter at my Puri retreat. He would also attend my classes. After our class on this subject, when I asked if there were any reflections on my presentation, he offered a comment. He explained, there was a commentary on that verse by Radha Govindanath, a renowned Vaiṣṇava academic scholar of the early 20th century. In the commentary, he first described the problem: Verse Eight is an anomaly. Previous to this verse Śrī Caitanya’s painful feeling of separation in the mood of Śrī Radha was described....


- Published: 2026-03-09
- Modified: 2026-03-08
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/03/09/the-mystery-verse/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I loved the verse. “In great jubilation, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, ‘My dear Svarūpa Dāmodara and Rāmānanda Rāya, know from Me that chanting the holy names is the most feasible means of salvation in this Age of Kali. ’” Antya-līlā 20. 8 Although I loved the verse, I also had a problem with it. It came out of nowhere, so to speak, as it just didn’t seem to follow what was being described and discussed before it. I thus couldn’t fully understand the verse’s context and purport. This Monday morning will explore why in the context of what is being discussed it is so mysterious and then offer an explanation to resolve that mystery. I will begin by looking closely at the verses before Text 8 in Chapter 20 to see if I can unlock its context and thus meaning. I therefore will start my investigation in the previous chapter. The beginning of Chapter 19 tells the story of Śrī Caitanya receiving a cryptic message in sonnet form from Advaita Ācārya, the head of the Vaiṣṇavas in Bengal. It was his sincere prayer that had been the cause of the Lord’s appearance. “Please inform Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is acting like a madman, that everyone here has become mad like Him. Inform Him also that in the marketplace rice is no longer in demand. “Further tell Him that those now mad in ecstatic love are no longer interested in the material world. Also tell Him that one who has also...


- Published: 2026-03-02
- Modified: 2026-03-01
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/03/02/what-i-learned-from-the-king-of-the-elephants/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Last week I explained that after reading the first twenty verses of Gajendra Mokṣa in the Bhāgavatam, I was disappointed. The verses were descriptive, but I could not find the intellectual or emotional content there to inspire something for me to write about. Was I wrong! I wish I had read just a few more verses that morning. To make a long story short, all the animals in the forest were terrified by Gajendra, the king of the elephants, because he was so much bigger and stronger than they were. While bathing in the river, however, he got attacked by a crocodile. Despite his sizable advantage in physical stature, after a prolonged struggle he was facing imminent defeat. The water was just not his natural habitat. His strength gradually waned, while the crocodile, an aquatic, naturally gained strength. To save himself his only recourse was to take full shelter of God. Gajendra’s fight is a metaphor for life. Just as the elephant needed a supportive environment to be successful in his fight, to strongly practice spiritual life in the face of life’s challenges we need to be economically (varṇa) and socially (āśrama) situated. I loved how Śrīla Prabhupāda put it. “Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement has actually declared war against the illusory energy, in which all the living entities are rotting in a false understanding of civilization. The soldiers in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement must always possess physical strength, enthusiasm and sensual power. To keep themselves fit, they must therefore place...


- Published: 2026-02-23
- Modified: 2026-02-22
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/02/23/bhagavatam-the-book-of-revelations/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

For ten years I have been able to come up with a solid realization to write about every week. For the last six weeks it has been a struggle. By Thursday again also nothing. I knew the reasons why. It had something to do with a month of leading retreats throwing me off schedule, but I needed to do something about it immediately. I could just not tolerate offering another reprint Monday. In desperation a thought came. Due to the retreats, I have also have not been steady in my study of the Bhāgavatam. Scripture arms one with jñāna-cakṣus, a vision of the world through the eyes of knowledge. Only one empowered in this way can see the world in a way that enables one to write something meaningful about it. I thought, if I read the Bhāgavatam maybe some realization will come. I immediately picked up the Eighth Canto and started to read. I vowed to become steady in my daily reading again. I began to hear verse after verse listing the Manus, the universal administrators. There was practically no commentary. I needed more philosophical content to be inspired, so after twenty such verses I skipped to Chapter Two, Gajendra Mokṣa. That should be interesting. That’s chock full of philosophical input. It begins, however, with verse after verse intricately describing the beauty of the heavenly Trikūṭa mountain. The verses were simply descriptive, but again not many teachings there. A question came to my mind. The Bhāgavatam, and almost all...


- Published: 2026-02-16
- Modified: 2026-02-16
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/02/16/in-defense-of-ignorance/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

“In defense of ignorance”? Well, here it is: “Those who worship avidyā (the culture of ignorance) come back to this world. However, those who are fully engaged only in vidyā (the culture of knowledge) fall even into a greater darkness. ” Śrī Īśopaniṣad 9 But how can that be? Words often have multiple meanings depending on their context. Here vidyā refers to spiritual knowledge and avidyā refers to material knowledge. If we understand avidyā as material knowledge, the quandary is resolved. Material knowledge is fundamentally ignorance because it binds one to the world of birth and death. But to engage in vidyā without it is in some ways worse. Śrīla Prabhupāda describes the utility of avidyā in his commentary to verse nine: “The culture of spiritual knowledge necessitates the help of the body and mind; therefore maintenance of the body and mind is required if we are to reach our goal. ” In other words, to take to spiritual life without the understanding of how to keep the body and soul together is dangerous. Another good example of such darkness is the premature adoption of sannyāsa. Sannyāsa means a life exclusively dedicated to the cultivation of vidyā. When it is adopted before one has been purified by avidyā, meaning working through one’s desires in varṇāśrama, then disaster looms. Has anything caused more disruption and pain in ISKCON that the repeated fall of those in the sannyāsa order who renounced the world prematurely? It should be clear that when talking about...


- Published: 2026-02-09
- Modified: 2026-02-08
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/02/09/there-is-no-victim-consciousness-in-god-consciousness-3/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

There is no Victim Consciousness in God Consciousness “Victim consciousness is a stage of consciousness in which people deny personal responsibility for the things that happen in their lives. People in victim consciousness believe that the world is acting upon or against them, and they are the innocent targets of other peoples’ action or behavior. ” Elevated God consciousness is the opposite. Here are four examples: Dharma the Bull King Parīkṣit was informed that a bull had been badly beaten. He immediately rushed to the scene of the crime. Although the bull knew that he was beaten by the personality of Kali, the bull refused to identify him. He knew that ultimately without the sanction of the Lord, no one could afflict trouble upon him. He then began to explain in detail the various misconceptions about the cause of suffering and how one could use them to abnegate personal responsibility and remain ignorant of the lessons God meant for one to learn. Observing the bull’s reaction, and hearing his exposition full of knowledge and philosophy, the king recognized the bull as Dharma (the personality of religion): “You are speaking according to the principle that the destination intended for the perpetrator of irreligious acts is also intended for one who identifies the perpetrator. ” In other words, although it is the duty of one to protect the vulnerable from exploitation, victim consciousness is not encouraged. Vidura The elderly Vidura was unfairly thrown out of the kingdom by Duryodhana, his cruel nephew,...


- Published: 2026-02-02
- Modified: 2026-02-01
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/02/02/how-are-you-my-answer-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

How Are You? My Answer How are you? Everything is going great, but there is one problem. What is that? I’m not the controller. What? If you are not the controller, how can you be the enjoyer? Why not? Because no matter how many things are going your way, if you are not the controller, not everything will go your way. So? When we are in the mood of the enjoyer, then the problem, the thing that doesn’t go our way, becomes prominent, and not the things that are going our way. That one lousy thing, no matter how insignificant it is, ruins everything, at least for most people. How? As it is said, “A pinch of suffering is felt more than a ton of happiness. ” Think Bill Gates with a toothache. Not just physical pain, but any small insult, or any frustration of our immediate, or long-term desires, can ruin everything. As this world rarely conforms to our desires, it is always a place of suffering for those immersed in false ego, the desire to control and enjoy, which is, unfortunately, most people. What to do? We have to change our strategy. We need to go from seeking our happiness in destiny, what happens to us, which is beyond our control, to seeking happiness in in our free will—how we react to what happens to us—which is within our control. In other words, we need not to change the world, but to change our selves, and this is...


- Published: 2026-01-26
- Modified: 2026-01-26
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/01/26/how-to-feel-bad-about-yourself-3/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I’m a hopeless optimist. A friend once joked: “You’re so optimistic that you could be falling out of the Empire State Building and on the fiftieth floor say, ‘So far so good. ’ We laughed, but it is no joke. A dose of pessimism, however, is essential for bhakti. I think I am realizing that increasingly with age. Hopefully my unhinged optimism is cracking. How? The pain of purification Devotion gradually cleans the heart and helps you see yourself, warts and all. When the mind is cluttered with desires it is often hard to notice our faults, like not noticing something out of place in a cluttered room. Finally, a glimpse of reality: How many lifetimes have I been parading as Pauṇḍraka? Can I bear the pain of purification? The pain of understanding God How painful it is to conform one’s way of living to a truth higher than one’s whims and attachments. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam informs me page after page, “You are not up to the mark. Change! ” Can I bear the pain of transformation? The pain of realization I not only understand a truth; I see a truth — a realization. That realization is so clear that I kick myself. “It’s so simple. How in the world did I miss that? ” I am pained to have lived in ignorance. As more realizations inevitably come can I bear the pain of self-realization? The pain of regret Bhakti begins with regretting our previous life of selfishness separate from God...


- Published: 2026-01-19
- Modified: 2026-01-18
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/01/19/can-destiny-be-changed-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Can Destiny Be Changed? First, a story from the Jain tradition that sheds some initial light on our inquiry. Five friends walk into a forest of mango trees to eat. In a very crass tone the first friend advises, “Cut down the tree! ” “Why cut down the tree? ” the next friend counters, “Just break off one branch. ” “Why saw off the whole branch? ” the third one protests, “Just break off the part where the mangos are. ” The fourth suggests something more sensitive: “Why not just pick the mangos? ” The fifth friend is even more considerate: “Why do we have to pick the mangos at all? Why not just take the ripe ones that have fallen on the ground? ” The reactions of the different friends who desire the mangos from the tree represent different degrees of selfishness, with each requiring a commensurate level of atonement to nullify the offense. For example, the person who wants to cut the whole tree is the most selfish and requires the strongest reaction to learn the lesson. No atonement would suffice, and only the full brunt of a karmic reaction could rectify the offense. The person who just takes the ripe mangos that have fallen on the ground, but does not offer them to God, represents the least selfish alternative. To counteract the offense, simple sincere regret for the offense may be sufficient atonement. The Jain text below commenting on our story sums up the science of atonement...


- Published: 2026-01-12
- Modified: 2026-01-14
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/01/12/marilyn-monroe-died-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Marilyn Monroe Died! Note: This morning, I realized the Monday Morning Greetings post I was working on, titled “Rasa Theory Made Simple,” was not simple at all. I would never be able to explain such an esoteric subject within the two-page limit I generally set for my posts. And furthermore, I doubted I could accomplish such a task in the time I had. I thought I might search my archives for an article I could reprint, but first I thought just to click on the news for a minute and see what was happening in the world. I then stopped myself. I’m on an internet fast, at least from the news. So I began searching for a suitable reprint from at least six years ago and lo and behold, what is the first thing I hit upon? It was “Marilyn Monroe Died! ”—a topic about “no news”. I thought it was a perfect article to reprint as it’s so commensurate with some of my realizations this week. That is generally how I come up with a subject to write about in the first place. So, here is a substantially rewritten reprint of “Marilyn Monroe Died! ”. Marilyn Monroe Died! My friend visited a renowned saint in Vrindavan. I am not sure why — it seemed a bit inappropriate — but he asked him, “What was the last thing you heard in the news? ” I guess he had heard that when this saint arrived in Vrindavan in 1962 he vowed...


- Published: 2026-01-05
- Modified: 2026-01-04
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/01/05/the-art-of-the-essay-and-happy-tenth-birthday-monday-morning-greetings/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

That’s over five hundred original essays! In my first essay of every year, I celebrate the birth of my blog by writing about writing. One thing that I am proud of, and I hope that doesn’t sound egotistic, is that I have honed my craft. I write about that every year. This year, specifically I want to share some writing about writing by some prominent American authors that encouraged me to feel that my craft is going in the right direction. Robert Atwan – The four qualities of a good essay The essay is a particular genre of writing. Years ago, to hone my essay writing, I started to read anthologies of notable essays from the beginning of the genre, which is credited to Montaigne. Every year, I would get the anthology of American Best Essays founded by Robert Atwan, the series editor since its inception forty years ago. I was especially interested in his foreword each year. In these, he extensively discusses in different ways the genre of essays. In one piece he outlined “four qualities we can find in all essays that have lasted beyond their moment of composition: 1) they explore original ideas about specific topics; 2) they include the vivid presence of the writer who readers can discern and track; 3) they incorporate moments of both self-awareness and skepticism primarily through reflection; and 4) they resist what Atwan calls “standardization” in content or form. I thought, “this is what I try to do! ” I hope...


- Published: 2025-12-29
- Modified: 2025-12-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/12/29/the-philosophers-corner-quandary-i/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Quandary I: If God is perfect and complete, how can we possibly increase His pleasure? And if we can’t, is there any purpose to our devotion? Response: God wouldn’t be God if He wasn’t perfect and complete. But He also wouldn’t be God if His pleasure couldn’t increase. Thus, our devotion can increase God’s pleasure. Explanation: We find these types of quandaries puzzling only because of a basic philosophical fallacy. We tend to confine the possibilities of what God can do to reasoning based on our experience of universal natural laws. God, by definition, however, is not subject to natural laws. He’s governed only by His will. Space and time, for example, do not rule God. All His activities and experiences are therefore not temporal. Thus, both His ontological nature and the expansion of His pleasure are perfect and complete and can co-exist at the same time. This phenomenon is described in the Śrī Īśopaniṣad: “The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance. ” Śrī Īśopaniṣad, Invocation Further confirmation comes from śāstra: “‘The highest degree’ indicates greatness that has reached its ultimate peak. But in fact, that endless happiness has no limit. ” Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta 2. 2. 192...


- Published: 2025-12-22
- Modified: 2025-12-21
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/12/22/is-wearing-vaisnava-dress-important/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Is Wearing Vaiṣṇava Dress Important? When Śrīla Prabhupāda came to the West he wore the typical dress of an Indian sādhu. The male followers he recruited basically wore the same. He also wore a kurtā, a stitched upper garment, which was introduced to India from outside. But the general simple cloth dress devotees wore, featuring a lower garment for men which was unstitched and wrapped and saris for women, was very much like the dress Krishna and the residents of Vrindavan wore. At least that is how Krishna’s dress was depicted in Vaiṣṇava painting and iconography for thousands of years. And this artwork was often done or supervised by realized Vaiṣṇavas with internal realization of what Krishna looked like based on the Bhāgavatam. “Wearing a peacock-feather ornament upon His head, blue karṇikāra flowers on His ears, a yellow garment as brilliant as gold, and the Vaijayantī garland, Lord Kṛṣṇa exhibited His transcendental form as the greatest of dancers as He entered the forest of Vṛndāvana, beautifying it with the marks of His footprints. He filled the holes of His flute with the nectar of His lips, and the cowherd boys sang His glories. ” Bhāgavatam 10. 21. 5 During Śrīla Prabhupāda’s time the devotees almost always wore Indian dress. Of course, at the time ISKCON was more or less monastic. Even married people who joined ISKCON lived in the ashram, were maintained by the temple, and served either as fulltime missionaries or did essential services supporting that mission. Wearing robes...


- Published: 2025-12-15
- Modified: 2025-12-15
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/12/15/damn-the-expedient-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Damn the Expedient! It bothers me when people, knowingly or unknowingly, neglect or minimize what is right in favor of what they see as convenient or practical. It is called expediency. Perhaps that bothers all of us. I know it especially irks me. I pray to be free from this tendency. People who manage seem particularly susceptible to minimizing or neglecting what is proper and focusing on what is seemingly practical. All of us are challenged regularly, however, with such choices, especially when the issue is somewhat subtle. In such situations, only the thoughtful and saintly can consistently avoid the lure of seeking a material advantage, and risking their soul, in lieu of what is right. Risking their soul? For each step forward in life we have a myriad of choices to make, some more crucial than others. The soul is consciousness that reaches its fulfillment in selflessness or devotion. Dharma is the science of making the choice that moves one towards a clearer conception of the self as selfless and devoted. All other choices, by virtue of being self-serving, only further obscure that vision. So yes, expediency is at the cost of the soul. It is no wonder, therefore, that this promotion of dharma and the concomitant warning against expediency rests at the root of classical Indian thought. In fact, one of the most famous moral guides in India is the Kauṭilya Sūtras (aphorisms) by Cāṇakya Paṇḍita, which was written specifically to temper the lure of expediency by promoting...


- Published: 2025-12-08
- Modified: 2025-12-08
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/12/08/some-sannyasi/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Some Sannyāsī! I was sitting on a wooden bed in my small room in Vrindavan. The floor was packed with visiting Iranian Vaiṣṇavas. Consistent with their refined culture, they piled their gifts next to me on my bed. There were dozens of fresh pomegranates as big as my head (well, almost), boxes of the best pistachios in the world, sweet lemons, dates, figs, and orange blossom cookies. And that is just a partial list. You get the idea. My bed was filled to the rafters, so to speak, with an ocean of exotic Persian goodies. Suddenly in walks Bhaktin Meaghan, an actress from New York. She squeezed into the small space next to the bed, paid obeisances, and then looked up at the mountain of fine delicacies on my bed right above her and quips, “Some sannyāsī! ” There is nothing like playfully irreverent New York humor. I loved it. But twenty years later I’m still “some sannyāsī! ” I needed to leave India for a week for visa reasons. I chose Thailand because of its proximity to India, and I have one student there whose family would cook for me and bring prasādam. When a friend found out about my trip, he made me a deal I could not refuse. He offered to pay for my tickets and the hotel! When I arrived, I had no idea he would book the best. I couldn’t imagine a more majestic five-star palace. To make matters worse, the receptionist saw me in...


- Published: 2025-12-01
- Modified: 2025-11-30
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/12/01/until-we-got-nothing-but-god/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I attended some very good lectures at the Govardhan Retreat Center this week. Many good points were made but one stood out. “Old age takes away everything until we are left with nothing but Him. ” How true! The nature of this world, especially old age, seems to rob us of everything superficial and temporary until our only recourse is to take shelter of Him, who is our only solace. A faithful theist sees all this as mercy. As I further contemplated this point, I realized how much this sober description of how the world works to liberate us from our false identity. This is a foundational point of Vaiṣṇava theology. In fact, it is the very definition of mukti given in the Bhāgavatam: “Liberation is the permanent situation of the form of the living entity after he gives up the changeable gross and subtle material bodies. ” Bhāgavatam 2. 10. 6 A true devotee thus determinedly tries to shed or purify material designations and consciously embrace eternal identity: “I am not a brāhmaṇa, I am not a kṣatriya, I am not a vaiśya or a śūdra. Nor am I a brahmacārī, a householder, a vānaprastha or a sannyāsī. I identify myself only as the servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the maintainer of the gopīs. ” Padyāvalī 74 The method of shedding this false conception of life is to engage the senses in the service of God. In fact, it...


- Published: 2025-11-24
- Modified: 2025-11-23
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/11/24/sadhus-of-vrndavana/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Sādhus of Vṛndāvana A question recently came to my mind. I have lived here in Vṛndāvana for almost forty-four years. Why? Of course, the main reason I am here is that my sevā, or service, is here. I help pilgrims, especially from abroad, to enter, understand, and experience Vṛndāvana. I am also here because there are sādhus or saintly people that live or visit here and I benefit from their association. And that is the subject of this week’s Monday Morning Greetings. Sādhu I A friend shared his efforts during Kārttika to deepen his attraction for the holy name of Krishna. He described a moment of intense disappointment and frustration. Despite his effort to just focus on chanting, he was not getting what he wanted. He subtly told me that he was so desperate that he almost began to question the practice itself. At that point his heart suddenly opened. His experience of the holy name became deeper than ever before. The only thing separating us from a full revelation of God is our desire to embrace His grace. The sādhu’s extreme disappointment was only a reflection of his intense desire to be with Krishna and serve Him in the form of His holy name. I am grateful for such company. Sādhu II Another friend just arrived. Every year he spends the winter in Govardhana. His health is so chronic and debilitating that he can only leave his bed for five or six hours a day before again collapsing in...


- Published: 2025-11-17
- Modified: 2025-11-16
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/11/17/what-i-learned-from-blind-hockey/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Paul is a reasonably successful professional film maker who is based in Govardhan in the winter with his wife Kristina, who owns and manages several high-end boutiques in Toronto. Although Kristina by nature very much likes exquisite and fine things, the inner spiritual beauty of this outwardly rather unrefined Indian town captured her heart. She strongly wanted to stay. Anyway, they wound up as my neighbors, and we became friends. This evening, I am very much looking forward to Paul’s visit to show me the final cut of his new documentary Blind Hockey to get my input. Blind hockey? I was as surprised as you. Although it follows the basic guidelines of traditional hockey like having five players and a goalie, here are a few of the adjustments made in the rules that makes it work: The puck is larger (about 5½ inches in diameter), made of metal, and filled with ball bearings so it makes noise when it moves allowing players to track it by sound. Teams use verbal communication constantly — calling “pass,” “shot,” etc. — to keep everyone oriented. All players must have under 15 percent vision. The players are divided into three groups and classified based on their level of visual impairment: B1 (red helmet): Totally blind (goalies must be in this category) B2 (white helmet): 3-5 percent vision. Can barely recognize shapes but certainly not any details. B3 (black helmets): Over five but under 15 percent vision. Everything is just a deep blur. Teams are...


- Published: 2025-11-10
- Modified: 2025-11-09
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/11/10/more-than-meets-the-eye/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I found the 16th chapter of the Antya-līlā of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta very intriguing. The last eight chapters (14-20) describe Śrī Caitanya’s intense feelings of separation from the Lord at the end of His life. He is repeatedly described there as lapitaṁ — one who talks like a crazy man. We are told that His transcendental madness is so mysterious and deep that: “Even though one is very advanced and learned, he cannot understand it. ” Antya-līlā 14. 5 The reason I found chapter 16 so intriguing was because within these last chapters, which exclusively describe the Lord’s transcendental madness, this chapter focuses on the glories of mahā-prasādam. My immediate reaction, “that’s an interesting subject, but why here? ” This post is my attempt to explain why. After Śrī Caitanya tastes and then distributes Jagannātha mahā-prasādam to His confidential associates, He comments: “These ingredients, such as sugar, camphor, black pepper, cardamom, cloves, butter, spices and licorice, are all material. Everyone has tasted these material substances before. ” “However,” the Lord continued, “in these ingredients there are extraordinary tastes and uncommon fragrances. Just taste them and see the difference in the experience. “Apart from the taste, even the fragrance pleases the mind and makes one forget any other sweetness besides its own. ” Antya-līlā 16. 108-111 Let’s unpack what the Lord is saying here. When foodstuffs are offered to the Lord and then accepted by His devotee as prasādam, the experience, even the sensual one, mystically far exceeds in relish and inner...


- Published: 2025-11-03
- Modified: 2025-11-02
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/11/03/a-sannyasi-walks-onto-a-train-and-meets-a-girl-3/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

A Sannyāsi Walks onto a Train and Meets a Girl I can’t remember the exact train or time, but I do remember the girl. It was about two months ago on a crowded train from Washington, D. C. to New York. I got on early to get a window seat and, I hoped, sit by myself, and began to work. A few minutes before the train was about to leave, I saw a girl in her early twenties struggling to drag her suitcase down the aisle. She was visibly exhausted and stopped when she got to my seat. Some good Samaritans helped her load her luggage onto the upper rack, and she plopped down in the seat next to me. Seeing her condition, I guessed she didn’t have enough energy to go further. Otherwise why would she choose to sit down next to a fellow in robes and tilaka? Once she had slumped down into the chair, she searched her handbag for a snack. It was as if she needed to eat something just to get enough energy to survive her ordeal. Then she made a phone call. “I made it, Mom,” I heard her say. “I’m OK. ” Well, there goes my privacy, I thought, and went back to my work. The train was only five minutes or so out of the station when the girl asked me if I was a monk. We talked, and I heard her sad story. She was a successful, athletic, gifted college student...


- Published: 2025-10-27
- Modified: 2025-10-26
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/10/27/on-criticism-ii-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

On Criticism II What constitutes constructive criticism, and when do we overstep its line? Before defining that line, it is first necessary to explain what criticism is, why it is so difficult to avoid, and why these are such critical questions to answer for one on the spiritual path. Criticism, or being overly critical, occurs when the envy in our heart is expressed. That propensity is difficult to transcend as we are born into this world overcome with desire and hate (envy). Criticism born of envy is therefore antithetical to the very foundation of yoga, or any spiritual path, which upholds ahiṁsā or non-violence. I like how that principle is expressed here: “The shadow of resentment keeps our spiritual light from shining through, never allowing us to fully experience who we are. ” The question now emerges: How do we reconcile that sentiment with the obvious need and duty to correct the mistakes of others and expose injustice? Those on the spiritual path can criticize when it is one’s duty to correct, when in position to achieve a constructive result, and if it is done with compassion, not hate. For example, in the Bhagavad-gītā, the first words Śrī Krishna speaks to Arjuna are, “You are a pretender and a fool, for the wise man laments neither for the living nor the dead. ” Krishna is taking the role of a teacher who must correct his student to help him overcome ignorance and transcend the ego. Krishna’s criticism is the right...


- Published: 2025-10-20
- Modified: 2025-10-20
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/10/20/what-i-learned-from-bhakta-herman-and-the-prostitute/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

What I Learned from Bhakta Herman and the Prostitute You’re a monk. Are you really going to talk about a prostitute? It’s there in the Uddhava-gīta in the Eleventh Canto of the Bhāgavatam where Śrī Krishna relates to Uddhava the description of the avadhūta brāhmaṇa’s twenty-eight gurus in nature. The prostitute’s experience of waiting all night for a suitor who never came was so frustrating that she renounced the world to exclusively take shelter of the Supreme Lord. From her the avadhūta brāhmaṇa learned that all material hope leads to misery. Each of the twenty-eight gurus in nature, from the sun and the wind to the python and prostitute, taught different lessons. But each instance reaffirms a common point, that a detached and objective study of the world will reveal the same teachings as would a spiritual master, saintly people, or the scriptures. I have had many experiences where I could see in the world what I learned from my teachers. One of the strongest came from observing a very humble devotee twenty-five years ago. His name was Bhakta Herman. Below is a substantially edited version of that encounter which was originally written when I met him. Today I learned a very important lesson from Bhakta Herman. As I was leaving the ISKCON temple in Vrindavan this morning an older brahmacāri came up to me to present a garland from some of the South African lady disciples of Partha-Sarathi Prabhu who were standing nearby. I was intrigued by this brahmacāri,...


- Published: 2025-10-13
- Modified: 2025-10-13
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/10/13/bhakti-bhakti-everywhere-but-not-a-drop-to-drink/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Bhakti, Bhakti Everywhere But Not a Drop to Drink The practice of bhakti is very simple, but very qualified people can find the path of bhakti challenging. Simple, but challenging. It’s a paradox. Let’s try to resolve it. What does it mean that bhakti is simple? It means anyone in any circumstance can take to bhakti. It has no material qualification. For example, you don’t even have to be born yet. Not even born yet! The Bhāgavatam was originally spoken in four verses. The last verse explains abhidheya-jñāna, the means to realize the absolute truth. One of the significant phrases in that verse, which is relevant to our discussion, is sarvatra sarvadā (anywhere and everywhere), which means that Krishna consciousness is universally applicable. The Bhaktivedanta purport to that verse focuses on offering example after example of how one can take up the path of bhakti in every conceivable material situation, even when one is unborn. Śrī Prahlāda heard the Bhāgavatam in the womb of his mother from Śrī Nārada and was born a great saint! Back to our quandary. If bhakti is so universally applicable, why do so many, even those aristocratic, educated and even yogically disciplined, find the path of bhakti difficult to take up and execute? Śrīla Prabhupāda explains the resolution: “The process is simple, but the application is difficult. ” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1. 1. 2, purport) Simple? Who cannot bow down, chant Hare Krishna, hear the Lord’s glories or just see the deities? From the material perspective it...


- Published: 2025-10-06
- Modified: 2025-10-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/10/06/have-i-become-a-sahajiya/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Usually, a few drops on the head and then quickly in and out. But the weather is so warm and the water so ambrosial. Ah! Wading in Rādhā-kuṇḍa. Suddenly a thought comes: This is liquid rādhā-prema. Who am I to wade in her waters? I offer a prayer and then quickly get out. Another thought comes. Have I become a sahajiyā? The word sahajiyā comes from the root words saha (easy) and ja (born). Sahajiyā thus refers to one whose actions and emotions mimic advanced devotion. In other words, they are artificially or easily born, without the requisite qualification or sacrifice. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s spiritual master, strongly condemned those who prematurely imitate advanced devotion (rāgānugā-bhakti). A tract he authored titled “Prākṛta-rasa Śata-dūṣaṇī” (One Hundred Condemnations of Material Rasa) best expresses his view. Two excerpts: “If transcendental attachment has not yet developed within the heart, a devotee is never said to have attained the stage of ecstatic bhāva. The followers of spontaneous devotion (rāgānugas) never say that neophyte students of devotion (sādhakas) have experienced the awakening of bhāva. ” (Prākṛta-rasa Śata-dūṣaṇī, Verse 8) “Rūpānugās (followers of Rūpa) never eliminate the systematic path of bhakti. One should not climb a tree, grab the fruits and pull them off by force. ” (Prākṛta-rasa-śata-dūṣaṇī, verse 57) Naturally Śrīla Prabhupāda followed his spiritual master and condemned imitators. Here’s his view specifically concerning bathing in Rādhā-kuṇḍa: “Has he taken order from Guru Maharaja that ‘I am going to jump over Rādhā-kuṇḍa’? ... Why should he...


- Published: 2025-09-29
- Modified: 2025-09-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/09/29/the-black-swan-not-the-movie-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The Black Swan (Not the Movie) I bought a book in the airport: 50 Philosophy Classics from the 50 Classic Series by Tom Butler-Bowdon. My idea was to skim through the summaries of the fifty classics to see if I could recognize a truth that was conceptualized and expressed in an especially inspiring way. I liked that each classic had an “in a nutshell” summary that enabled me to judge which ones I thought worth reading, sometimes to affirm their conceptions and sometimes to critique them. For example, “Nicomachean Ethics” by Aristotle seemed interesting: “Happiness comes from what we have rationally decided is good for us over the longer term. Happiness is not pleasure, but a by-product of a meaningful life. ” I found the idea of materialism expressed in “The Ego Trick” by Julian Baggini quite unappealing and not worth reading: “The brain and body provide us with a strong and continuous sense of self, which gives us freedom to create who we are. ” What I did gain while briefly going through the book was more faith in my own tradition. The Vedas teach that knowledge of this world is manifest simultaneously with its creation. It is then channeled and preserved through various lineages of wisdom teachers. To be connected in this way gives one a basic standard to gauge the validity of any philosophical treatise or school. I will try to demonstrate that by analyzing just one of the classics in the book, The Black Swan by...


- Published: 2025-09-22
- Modified: 2025-09-21
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/09/22/guruship-and-the-death-of-bhakti/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Maybe the title is too heavy, but there is a point there. Material consciousness means to think of oneself as the center of the world and thus as the controller and enjoyer. Devotion means the opposite, to move away from that imagined center to instead become the humble servant of God. In this regard, here’s how Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī describes the essence of bhakti in his treatise titled Bhakti-sandarbha. “... Therefore, an intelligent person should engage unflinchingly in the unalloyed devotional service of the Lord, under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, whom he should accept as his worshipable deity and as his very life and soul. ” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11. 2. 37 What can be more challenging in cultivating bhakti than to accept such a position where one is highly worshiped by many and sometimes thousands? I remember the end of 1977, just after Śrīla Prabhupāda had passed away. Eleven sincere godbrothers, practically not one over thirty, most not even with eight years as a devotee, took up the mantle of guru. They all received the lavish worship worthy of an ācārya. How do you think that worked out? You guessed it. Most didn’t survive. How could they? Unless one is very spiritually advanced, the worship (pūjā) that is being offered to one as a guru and the distinction (pratiṣṭhā) that naturally follows are the very things one must shun if there is any hope of gaining a taste for bhakti. At the time when my godbrothers took...


- Published: 2025-09-15
- Modified: 2025-09-14
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/09/15/what-i-learned-from-the-sad-story-of-david-seigel/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

He was about five foot three inches and almost 200 pounds and that was in 10th grade! Tough karma for a young boy growing up in Brooklyn in 1964. America is perhaps more than any other country built on the superficial ideal of “I am successful. ” Imagine the challenges placed on David’s psyche to find his self-worth in that setting. But David tried. More than anything David wanted to star for the high school basketball team. We thought he was crazy. Canarsie High School played in arguably the toughest basketball league in the country at the time. The conference even became known as the “suicide division” because it was so incredibly competitive and stacked with talent. It had produced the likes of NBA Hall of Famers Connie Hawkins, Lenny Wilkins, and Billy Cunnigham. The players were that good. But a short and heavy-set Jewish kid? When we passed the outdoor public courts every day after school, we were amused to watch David by himself taking shot after shot. He was determined to make the team. The coach, however, was not amused. He cut David on the first day of tryouts. His dream was crushed! We didn’t see much of David for a few months. Then one day we spotted him across the street on Seaview Avenue on our way home from school. It was a cold, miserable December day, but David was wearing only the shorts and thin jersey of the Knicks, New York’s NBA team! We quickly crossed...


- Published: 2025-09-08
- Modified: 2025-09-07
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/09/08/there-is-no-victim-consciousness-in-god-consciousness-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

There is no Victim Consciousness in God Consciousness “Victim consciousness is a stage of consciousness in which people deny personal responsibility for the things that happen in their lives. People in victim consciousness believe that the world is acting upon or against them, and they are the innocent targets of other peoples’ action or behavior. ” Elevated God consciousness is the opposite. Here are four examples: Dharma the Bull King Parīkṣit was informed that a bull had been badly beaten. He immediately rushed to the scene of the crime. Although the bull knew that he was beaten by the personality of Kali, the bull refused to identify him. He knew that ultimately without the sanction of the Lord, no one could afflict trouble upon him. He then began to explain in detail the various misconceptions about the cause of suffering and how one could use them to abnegate personal responsibility and remain ignorant of the lessons God meant for one to learn. Observing the bull’s reaction, and hearing his exposition full of knowledge and philosophy, the king recognized the bull as Dharma (the personality of religion): “You are speaking according to the principle that the destination intended for the perpetrator of irreligious acts is also intended for one who identifies the perpetrator. ” In other words, although it is the duty of one to protect the vulnerable from exploitation, victim consciousness is not encouraged. Vidura The elderly Vidura was unfairly thrown out of the kingdom by Duryodhana, his cruel nephew,...


- Published: 2025-09-01
- Modified: 2025-08-31
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/09/01/dearer-to-me-than-even-my-brother-balarama/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Yes, Krishna says say that. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11. 14. 15) Who is dearer than his eternal associates, and even His brother? He is talking about His helpless devotees in this world who are completely dependent on His mercy and surrender to Him! That same concept came up in my recent studies of Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta. When Lord Śiva is approached by Śrī Nārada and glorified by him as the topmost devotee, Śiva deflects his praise by glorifying the residents of Vaikuṇṭha, and for good reason. They have given up everything material as if it was useless straw and have renounced all egoistic self-conceptions. Śiva then tells him that there is a destination even better than going to Vaikuṇṭha. He can visit Dvārakā on Earth where the Lord is presently residing with such eternal associates. Śrī Nārada is so enthused that he begins to leave immediately, but surprisingly the Lord stops him. He calls him close to whisper something into his ear and recommends something else! “There is a greater recipient of Krisha’s mercy than your father, me, and other servants like Garuḍa, and even than the goddess of fortune. His name is Prahlāda. He is famous throughout the world as the dearmost devotee of Krishna. ” Bb 1. 3. 75 But better than Brahmā, Śiva, and even the goddess of fortune? A commentary in the chapter offers an explanation. “One reason why the Supreme Lord speaks like this is that although His eternal associates — Saṅkarṣaṇa, Mahā-lakṣmī, and so on — are ever...


- Published: 2025-08-25
- Modified: 2025-08-26
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/08/25/advaita-vedanta-a-philosophy-that-is-just-illusion/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I got a message from an Indian friend who visits Vrindavan. He is a good devotee, and I was therefore surprised by his letter. He had gone to an Āyurvedic doctor who was also a learned Māyāvādī scholar, and the doctor had said something that affected him. “It has poisoned my heart and affected my chanting,” my friend said. “What should I do? ” “What was the reason it affected you? ” I asked. “Did hearing it hurt your heart because it negated the personality of God, or has the hearing created doubts in you about God being a person? ” "He started to explain something about the Lord’s departure in the Rāmāyaṇa and Bhāgavatam, how they died, but that Brahman was supreme," my friend said. "He was very erudite, and suddenly I started to question if what I am doing is wrong. “It seems to me now that my whole spiritual life is at stake. Yes, when I was a new bhakta in the ashram, I had that super-sensuous experience, sphūrti, but how did that prove that God is a person? “I am embarrassed to write this, but I want to be honest. I don’t know why I was so affected. ” “Advaita Vedānta is not reasonable,” I wrote. “Their philosophy says that all distinction is illusion. But illusion must have a subject, someone in illusion. They can’t say the living entities are the basis of illusion, for according to their philosophy the living entities themselves are just an...


- Published: 2025-08-18
- Modified: 2025-08-18
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/08/18/radha-bhava-and-prabhupada-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Radha-Bhāva and Prabhupāda This is not about Śrīla Prabhupāda’s eternal relationship with Krishna. I will leave that for other discussions. What I want to share with you is a realization I had recently in my reading of the last chapter of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja called The Śikṣāṣṭaka Prayers, a realization that highlights how Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us the most practical path in understanding our own relationship with Krishna. In that regard, I found particularly relevant the discussion of the last verse of the Śikṣāṣṭakam that describes the mood of Śrī Radha at that height of Her devotion: “I know no one but Krishna as my Lord, and He shall remain so even if He handles me roughly by His embrace or makes me brokenhearted by not being present before me. He is completely free to do anything and everything, for He is always my worshipful Lord unconditionally. ” (v. 8) Before I continue with my thesis, it is important to understand the context in which this verse is recited. According to Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, this verse is a paraphrase by Śrī Caitanya of what Śrī Radha told Her friends after they advised Her to disregard Krishna. He had apparently spurned her. In other words, She loved Krishna so much that just the suggestion to ignore Krishna, even when seemingly justified, ignited the depths of Her unconditional love. In Śrī Caitanya’s ensuing explanation of this verse to His most confidential associates Svarūpa Dāmodara and Rāmānanda Rāya, He further elaborates on...


- Published: 2025-08-17
- Modified: 2025-08-16
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/08/17/srila-prabhupadas-vyasa-puja-dhanurdhara-swamis-offering-to-srila-prabhupada-2025/
- Categories: Srila Prabhupada, Vyasa-puja

Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to you! I marvel at your genius. I had written an article about that for my weekly blog. Please accept this offering at your lotus feet on this glorious day. Your servant, Dhanurdhara Swami The Genius of Śrīla Prabhupāda and the Principle of Intrapreneurship. In my last article Build Devotees, Not Temples I opined that institutions like ISKCON need to spend more resources supporting and empowering its people, especially those that are creators and doers, to successfully carry its mission into the future. I shared this article with a friend who was a business consultant. He was intrigued by the article and shared with me something from his own experience in the business world that he thought was relevant to the topic at hand. He described the concept of intrapreneurship. In this post, I will briefly share his experience and show how it inspired me to even further realize Śrīla Prabhupāda’s genius. My friend worked for Adobe as a consultant. They had basically one product, Photoshop, and the engineers who had developed the company had improved it as far as it could go. The CEO became concerned. He saw that this one-product company was gradually losing the culture of initiative that initially spurred its success. He knew the history of several successful companies developed by self-motivated and creative people who gradually ceded their authority to technicians and managers only to see the company become stagnant and fail. He became concerned....


- Published: 2025-08-11
- Modified: 2025-08-10
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/08/11/brhad-bhagavatamrta-and-the-necessity-of-rasa-geography/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

In my daily studies of Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta a question arose. First, some background on the section I was reading: Mahārāja Parīkṣit had just summarized the Bhāgavatam for Uttarā devī, his mother, which fulfilled the specific request she made of her son. He did it through an intriguing story in which Śrī Nārada searches for the topmost recipient of Krishna’s mercy. In order of their level of devotion, he visits the main exemplars of bhakti. His journey ends in Dvārakā where Śrī Krishna emphatically declares that the gopīs of Vrindavan are the topmost recipients of Śrī Krishna’s mercy. This journey, which is the crux of the first book of Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta, parallels the Bhāgavatam in both its thematic development and conclusion. It thus expertly fulfills the mission Śrī Caitanya gave Śrī Sanātana for writing the book — to give the world the highest devotion exemplified by the residents of Vrindavan, as described in the Bhāgavatam. I was surprised, therefore, that the book didn’t end there. Rather, Uttarā devī continued. She wanted to know about the place where the recipients of the highest devotion reside. And that raised the question that intrigued me today. If Śrī Caitanya’s mission has been so perfectly delineated through Śrī Nārada’s journey, what was the necessity of presenting a second part of the text with a completely new story in answer to Uttarā’s question, which is almost twice as long as part one? This is what makes sense to me: Sanātana Gosvāmī had a difficult mission which is described...


- Published: 2025-08-04
- Modified: 2025-08-07
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/08/04/swan-lake-the-ugly-duckling-and-krishna-consciousness/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

It was the first ballet I ever attended. I had no choice, actually. My gracious hosts in St. Petersburg thought I would love it. They had set a full schedule before I came, but somehow I didn’t notice they arranged an evening at the ballet. The tickets were not cheap and were non-refundable. In other words, they gave me an offer I could not refuse. We had the best seats in the house. We sat in the front row, the middle seats right over the orchestra pit, the conductor’s head bobbing and his hands flailing a few feet away. I had no idea what was going on. How would I? My idea of culture growing up? Bruno Sammartino and Gorilla Monsoon! I thought I would be bored out of my mind. I was wrong. It started out slow, but by the time it all ended, during the four curtain calls, we also stood up applauding. I was surprised at my reaction. We really enjoyed it. What happened? What did I get out of it? I have studied the nāṭaka śastra, where drama theory is outlined. It’s the elaborate science of re-creating an overwhelming emotion found in the world so that a qualified audience experiences the same emotion, but in a cathartic or “spiritually” uplifting way. Here at the Mariinsky Theater you have arguably the best ballet dancers in the world, a great orchestra, and probably one of the best conductors in the world. The audience seemed also quite qualified. They...


- Published: 2025-07-28
- Modified: 2025-07-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/07/28/rubies-diamonds-rings-and-pearls/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

“Rubies, diamonds, rings, and pearls Just to attract fools to the spiritual world Dashing, handsome, and carefree Bhavānanda Goswami” Those days were wild! Śrīla Prabhupāda had just left this world. Devotees, barely thirty years old, practically none with even ten years in the Hare Krishna Movement, had taken up the service of succeeding him. They were lavished with worship and opulence by their followers. I personally believe most were very sincere, but how was it possible for such young people, relatively inexperienced in Krishna consciousness, to digest the opulence and adoration that was bestowed upon them? It wasn’t. Except for very rare exceptions, they failed. It was 1978, at Śrīla Prabhupda’s first disappearance festival. Haṁsadūta Swami, one of those devotees, made his homage to Śrīla Prabhupāda. He came with his guitar and strummed a folk song glorifying the new “ācāryas’’ with a stanza he composed for each. It seemed out of place, but I guess he saw it as a kind of offering to Śrīla Prabhupāda to tout the attainment of his followers. The above stanza dedicated to Bhavānanda particularly stuck in my mind. As a leader at the time, I found him very personal and empowering. He was, however, awash with cash from his new followers. His strategy to spread Krishna consciousness seemed to have as much to do with his attachments as his mood of service. He would attract people to the path of bhakti by making Krishna consciousness as luxurious as possible, including his own lifestyle. Unfortunately,...


- Published: 2025-07-21
- Modified: 2025-07-20
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/07/21/from-drama-to-meaning/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

It’s time to begin writing my next Monday Morning Greetings. I have nothing to write. Realizations are a gift. To gain one I can chant, study, and look at the world through the eyes of sastra, but ultimately only God can give one a worthy inspiration. I was just about resigned to share a reprinted article this week, when a realization came. I have been at the immigration holding room in a foreign country while the immigration officials are checking me out. I guess not many United States citizens come here and the relations with their country have suddenly taken a turn for the worse. I haven’t heard from the officials since they sat me here. That was two hours ago! I am waiting for my fate, and waiting is the greatest surrender. I am not fearful, however, of what will happen, although I was looking forward to the next three weeks. Many good programs have been set up and many good people to see. But not a blade of grass moves without God’s will. I recalled one of my favorite quotes that came from Epictetus, the great Greek stoic. It was sent to me by a friend when I became sick during Covid with a strange non-Covid related sickness that went on for months. It became my mantra: “Happiness and distress, sickness and health, praise and slander. They all come from God. Why should one care? ” I try not to care. I’m resigned to whatever Krishna wants, but...


- Published: 2025-07-14
- Modified: 2025-07-13
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/07/14/how-truth-is-revealed/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

For those serious about the study of sacred texts, the term sambandha-jñānā is significant. Commonly it is defined as a school’s conception of reality and its means or evidence of affirming its validity. Today, I heard it used in a slightly different way. It slightly re-oriented my approach to studying sacred texts, enough that I would like to share it with you. I heard the term used in a somewhat new light in one lecture from a series of lectures by Śrīla Bhaktivijnana Goswami covering an overview of the Bhāgavatam. There he explained sambandha as one of the four basic prerequisites, anubandha catuṣṭaya, that must be fulfilled for any sacred text to be authorized, at least within a particular school. I will briefly outline this classical description of anubandha catuṣṭaya and then focus on Śrī Jīva’s definition of sambandha as applied to the Bhāgavatam. I will then share what I see as its practical application. Anubandha Catuṣṭaya: Viṣaya—The topic, the subject of the book. Sambandha—The way the subject is revealed to the listener or reader of the text. Abhidhéya—The method or practice which is needed to realize the subject. Prayojana—The result of realizing that subject. Śrī Jīva describes sambandha in relation to the Bhāgavatam as vācya-vācaka sambandha: “Its sambandha (the way its subject is revealed) is that the words (vācaka) themself carry inherent power to reveal what they signify (vācya)”. In other words, the words of the Bhāgavatam themselves are the main way the meaning of the text is revealed...


- Published: 2025-07-07
- Modified: 2025-07-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/07/07/the-potency-that-removes-all-contradictions/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I was driving my car in Manhattan and made a wrong turn and found myself on the 59th Street bridge heading to Queens. I needed to get to uptown Manhattan quickly for an appointment and I had no idea how to get back. I was concerned that I would be late. When I stopped at the end of the bridge, I therefore politely asked a worker standing there for help. “Sir, I think I’m lost. ” The worker was a typically gruff, “what you see is what you get,” “just the facts” New Yorker. He looked at me with disgust. “You’re either lost, or you are not lost! ” Brilliant! I don’t think, however, my New Yorker friend’s cold logic would fare well in the spiritual world. “The Supreme Lord walks and does not walk. He is far away, but He is very near as well. He is within everything, and yet He is outside of everything. ” “Ordinarily, if someone can walk, it is illogical to say he cannot walk. But in reference to God, such a contradiction simply serves to indicate His inconceivable power. ” Śrī Īśopaniṣad Verse 5 and purport Presently I am studying Kṛṣṇa-saṅgati by Sivarama Swami with a friend. Sivarama Swami provides a rendition of Krishna’s pastimes. His introduction is seventy pages long and is meant to prepare the reader to hear those pastimes properly. A lot of the introduction is an attempt to resolve, at least by referencing śāstra, how Krishna leaves Vrindavan at...


- Published: 2025-06-30
- Modified: 2025-06-30
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/06/30/seeing-but-not-seeing-and-the-five-components-of-perception/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Recently, someone shared with me “the gorilla on the screen” experiment. In the experiment people watch a video of two groups passing a basketball. They are instructed to count the passes made by one of the teams to the other requiring them to be very focused. During the video, a person in a gorilla suit walked through the scene, even thumping its chest before walking away. Surprisingly, half the participants were so focused on the task of following the ball they did not see the gorilla, which demonstrates that perception requires attention, not just the senses. After seeing this, it dawned on me how important this point is. In fact, when I thought about it more deeply, I realized that there are several factors required for perfect perception. I came up with five in total. Most importantly, I realized how important these components of perception are in the practice of bhakti. Before I get into that, let me describe what I came up with. The Senses The objects we perceive are composed of five sense attributes—sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. Our initial experience of the world is therefore through five knowledge-acquiring senses—the eyes, ears, nose, skin and tongue. Pratyakṣa, direct observation, is therefore one of the three most important pramāṇas, means of knowing. Attentiveness As our experiment showed, however, the senses alone are insufficient for good perception. The focus of the mind on the appropriate sense viewing that object is also required. Therefore, even if an object comes into...


- Published: 2025-06-23
- Modified: 2025-06-22
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/06/23/the-death-of-nuance/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

My post today is just a reflection on the current state of public discourse, both in the world and within the modern Vaiṣṇava movement. In Nyāya (the school of logic), there are three levels of public discourse: Vāda – entering a discourse in a detached manner to find the truth. Jalpa –entering a discourse by presenting your point vigorously with the single purpose of gaining victory. Vitaṇḍā—entering a discourse only to refute and destroy one’s opponent without any concern even to establish one’s own thesis. Obviously, cultured people prefer vāda. “I am vāda amongst the disputants. ”—Krishna in Bhagavad-gītā (10. 32) No Western philosopher exemplifies this spirit better that the British philosopher, John Stuart Mill who famously said, “He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. ” Mill felt that without this type of detached exploration of alternative views, one could never deeply understand the depths or even correctness of one’s own convictions. And that opposing arguments, even those considered wrong, often contain aspects of the truth that can give one a more complete understanding of one’s own thinking. Now I will share my personal observation. It is difficult to enter a vāda discourse today. When people are polarized, they only listen to something if it agrees with their opinion. And if you disagree with someone, or even just seek clarification, that person assumes you are on the other team or even an enemy. Unfortunately, such unexamined truths too often become shallow and instead...


- Published: 2025-06-16
- Modified: 2025-06-15
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/06/16/if-you-are-not-an-optimist-youre-an-atheist/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

If You are Not an Optimist, You’re an Atheist! This post is about gratitude. What is gratitude? It’s a strong feeling of appreciation of someone or something for what they have done for you and the consequent feeling of receiving mercy or kindness that wells in the heart. This post will discuss why developing this state of having gratitude is one of the keys to inner fulfillment. Being in the state of gratitude and the consequent feeling of inner fulfillment is based on the premise that the universe is ultimately beneficial to us. That premise is based on the principle found in all spiritual traditions that “what comes to us is for us. ” It’s a conviction that every event, even those causing suffering, is designed to teach us something. And it is worth any of the pain we might endure to learn it. That is certainly the strong realization of spiritual practitioners. They can look back on their lives and undeniably see the connection between the experiences they had and the priceless gift of realization that those experiences gave them. I am confident that anyone who has become a grateful seeker will eventually come to that conclusion. There is ultimately a gift of realization contained in whatever they experience, good or bad, and those experiences have been personally designed for us. It is not that one no longer feels the pain of the challenges one faces. But living in a state of mercy or kindness certainly tempers, and to...


- Published: 2025-06-12
- Modified: 2025-06-12
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/06/12/correction-to-last-monday-morning-greetings/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I received a lot of feedback from my last Monday Morning Greetings, “Is Chanting Sixteen Rounds a Principle or a Detail? ” Some corrections: In my last Monday Morning Greetings I wrote: Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta himself took strict vows of chanting and encouraged his disciples in chanting the holy name. But there is no history of him demanding a pledge of a minimum of sixteen rounds to demonstrate a firm dedication to His mission by harināma initiation. Further research indicates I was wrong: “Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī considered chanting a lakh of names more important for gṛhasthas than for maṭha-vāsīs, because maṭha-vāsīs are always engaged in Kṛṣṇa-sevā whereas most householders’ focus is on earning for family maintenance. He said that in the evening after their daily work, gṛhasthas should attend the Maṭha, and that if it were necessary for completing one lakh of names, they should chant throughout the night. But the majority of householders could not live up to this ideal. “Understanding the plight of many gṛhasthas, Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura advised some who had taken harināma but not dīkṣā, and who did not live at the Maṭha, to chant at least four mālās; and he instructed others just to chant, without specifying any particular number of mālās. He exhorted that tulasī beads should not ‘fast’; every day they should be chanted on. Usually householders were simply given beads and told to chant as much as possible. His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda stated that in his household life he...


- Published: 2025-06-09
- Modified: 2025-06-08
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/06/09/is-chanting-sixteen-rounds-a-principle-or-a-detail/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Śrīla Prabhupāda made it very clear what he expected of his disciples: “My advice is always chant sixteen rounds minimum and follow the four regulative principles. All of my disciples must agree on this point otherwise they are not my disciples. Let one live anywhere, but stick to the principles... ” Very strong words! But is the requirement of sixteen rounds a principle or detail of devotional service? It is both a detail and a principle. Let me explain. When we say something is a detail, we are not minimizing it or calling it trivial. A principle is a fundamental truth that remains constant, like following the order of the spiritual master. A detail is something that can be adjusted according to time, place, and circumstances, like the specific method of following that principle. That is by no means inconsequential. So, for those who follow Śrīla Prabhupāda, chanting sixteen rounds as a prerequisite for initiation is the principle of following the order of the spiritual master. Śrīla Prabhupāda, himself, however, at the beginning of the Krishna consciousness movement, gave careful thought to how many rounds he should recommend for his disciples as minimum. He came up with sixteen rounds after considering even more. If it was a principle of devotional service, he wouldn’t have taken that leeway to decide how many rounds he should prescribe. I know at least one exceptional case where Śrīla Prabhupāda even prescribed fewer. What about those in lineage from Śrīla Prabhupāda? Do they have the...


- Published: 2025-06-02
- Modified: 2025-06-02
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/06/02/ai-and-the-dumbing-of-vaisnava-learning-and-scholarship/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

AI and the Dumbing of Vaiṣṇava Learning and Scholarship There is a very interesting concept in Bhāgavatam philosophy (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7. 9. 43) called māyā-sukhāya, illusory happiness. Śrīla Prabhupāda would sometimes explain māyā-sukhāya in terms of material advancement. It temporarily gives the appearance of happiness but ultimately ushers in misery. One example would be the advancement in our modes of transportation. Where would we be in today’s world without air travel? But have we truly advanced when in old age instead of being surrounded by family and community in the same village or town, one’s own children often reside in different states, or even continents, thousands of miles away? New technology always starts off with promises for a better life. Didn’t the Internet and social media promise a more broad-minded, educated society with enhanced feelings of community? But in fact, as a result are we not more divided and lonelier than ever? AI promised to give us the facility to think faster and better and increase our knowledge. But will it? A good way to foretell the impact of technology on the whole of society is to see first how it plays out in schools. Are students equipped with AI deepening their knowledge? Or are they discouraged from learning by never having to use their intelligence to struggle to understand things or even to read a book? My thought this week is to examine how this technology will play out in the Vaiṣṇava world in terms of learning and scholarship, where...


- Published: 2025-05-26
- Modified: 2025-05-26
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/05/26/should-we-trust-dandavats-com/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Should we trust Dandavats. com? By Jayadvaita Swami Where is Dhanurdhara Maharaja? Why has this week’s Monday Morning Greetings been written not by him but by one of his readers—that is, me? Dhanurdhara Maharaja is alive and well, but something has happened that deserves to be told, and he shouldn’t have to be the one to tell it. Two weeks back, as you may recall, Maharaja published a Monday Morning Greeting about the first Russian devotees to come to Vrindavana, back in 1991. He entitled the piece “Queen Kuntī was right! ” Two days later, the article appeared on Dandavats. com, an official ISKCON website that offers ISKCON news and teachings. Apparently Dandavats had thought the article would be an inspiring read for a wider devotee audience. Only one thing: They stripped off the author’s name—Dhanurdhara Swami—and replaced it with the name of one of our godbrothers, Suresvara Dasa. What? When another of my godbrothers, a natural peacemaker, asked what had happened, an editor explained: Suresvara Dasa had read the article in a recent class, the editor had transcribed it from there, and since “Suresvara did not mention the author of the material he was reading from,” the editor attributed it to Suresvara. Honest error? When we listen to Suresvara’s class, here’s how he begins his reading: This is a story... I have a godbrother—maybe you... . Dhanurdhara Swami. Or is it “Dhanurdhara Swami,” right? So he has a blog, and he just shared a story, and the moral of...


- Published: 2025-05-19
- Modified: 2025-05-19
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/05/19/the-pope-and-reincarnation/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I was intrigued by the papal conclave. I was happy the new pope looked and acted saintly, a pastor to the poor and not just a prince of the church. I also looked at it through the lens of my own tradition. I had a few insights. A reporter asked his older brother, also a devout Catholic, about the pope’s youth: “He always wanted to be a priest from the earliest age. Even at five years old he would get my mother’s ironing board and have us cover it with a white cloth. He would call the rest of the family, and he would imitate the Eucharist by handing out the small Necco wafers that my mother provided him. Many of our neighbors seeing his saintliness would joke that he would one day be the pope. ” The reporter followed up his first question by asking if the pope was like this from birth: “No, I think maybe he just picked up something from my parents who were devout Catholics. ” I thought my tradition explains such phenomenon much more clearly through the concept of reincarnation. “The unsuccessful yogī, after many, many years of enjoyment on the planets of the pious living entities, is born into a family of righteous people, or into a family of rich aristocracy. ” Bhagavad-gītā 6. 41 It seems that his desire to be a priest was the result of a pious past life, or many such lives. In other words, he was just continuing...


- Published: 2025-05-12
- Modified: 2025-05-12
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/05/12/queen-kunti-was-right/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

When I grew up in Krishna consciousness, we were very sympathetic to the Vaiṣṇavas in the former Soviet Union. After all they were persecuted, jailed, and tortured by the KGB, but they were seemingly indomitable and couldn’t be broken. In 1991, however, the Soviet Union disbanded and we soon received word that the first group of Russian devotees would come to India. Kesava Bharati Maharaja was one of the Vaiṣṇavas who greeted them in Calcutta when they first arrived. He told me a touching story: “When the devotees from the Soviet Union came, we offered them a big feast. I sat next to one humble soul. He looked at his plate and picked up a piece of papaya in his hand raised it up and turned to me and asked, ‘A fruit? ’ I nodded. He bit it and cried. I was shocked that his previous existence was so seemingly deprived. ” When the first contingent of devotees from the former Soviet Union visited Vrindavan, we met them at Bhaktivedanta Gate on Bhaktivedanta Swami Marg and then ushered them into the temple for kirtan. As they approached the front entrance to the temple, we showered them with rose petals from above. Sivarama Swami and Govinda Swami were especially eager to honor them, and Govinda Swami, a gourmet Hare Krishna cook among his many talents, made them an amazing feast which they served in Tamal Krishna’s house. They had a plan to honor them for their sacrifice. When I describe it,...


- Published: 2025-05-05
- Modified: 2025-05-04
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/05/05/is-forgiveness-the-most-important-quality-of-an-aspiring-yogi/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Recently I gave a talk on forgiveness titled “How to give up justified hate? ” While giving the talk it dawned on me how important it is for one on the path of yoga to be forgiving. My reasoning, which connected yoga with forgiveness, was based on a quote that connected the two: “The shadows of resentment keep our spiritual light from shining through, never allowing us to fully experience who we are. ” Yoga means to bring the mind to sattva, literally the original state of being. The mind is like a lens or mirror. Its original state of being, the state of sattva, appears therefore when it’s clean and not distorted. This is accomplished by meditation which means concentrating on one thing, usually a mantra. By doing so, the other disruptive thoughts emerging from the ego, which distort or sully the mind, are quelled. The mind then naturally moves toward sattva, its natural state, where the lens of the mind is clear and we can perceive or experience who we really are. Meditation means controlling the mind. It begins with rules or instructions on how to control the mind’s activity in relationship to others. Such rules are called yamas. The first and most important yama is ahiṁsā, nonviolence, and it takes precedence over all other rules and regulations. For example, one can even lie and transcend the second yama of satya (truthfulness) if the intention is to protect another from violence. In that way ahiṁsā takes precedence over...


- Published: 2025-04-28
- Modified: 2025-04-27
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/04/28/perception-contentment-and-fake-news-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Perception, Contentment and Fake News The black snake was still sitting on the last step of the ghāṭa. It hadn’t moved one inch since I initially saw it when descending the stairs for my bath. A little fearful, I stopped suddenly and walked fifty meters to a safer spot. I didn’t have my glasses, so I had to squint to see why the snake was seemingly motionless. Oh, it was just a ripped black tire! I had an epiphany. All problems are perceptual and not actual. I felt threatened by the black snake, but what was my problem? Was it a matter of what was actually there or rather something perceptual—what I thought was there? The best example of a perceptual problem is death. When we lose what we are attached to, we suffer. At death we seemingly lose our very existence. We are, however, eternal. Therefore, death itself is only the illusion of non-existence and, in that sense, not an actual problem. Every school of spirituality and self-improvement is based on overcoming perceptual or illusory problems. For example, the focus of the yogic process is to conquer distress and invoke contentment by purifying one’s perception, which is distorted by the static of thoughts born of ego. Yoga corrects one’s vision by bringing the mind to sattva, which means the true nature of being. The original nature of the mind, which is like a mirror or lens, is one that is not distorted or dirty. The yogic technique for cleaning...


- Published: 2025-04-21
- Modified: 2025-04-20
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/04/21/the-seven-habits-of-highly-effective-preachers-part-iii/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Preachers Part III 4. Is Pro-active Intelligent leaders don’t just react to problems. They understand the problems that may arise in the future and make the appropriate adjustments to prevent them before they arise. In the talk I gave to a gathering of almost eighty “preachers,” I noticed that the audience was at least two-thirds women. I pointed that out and asked, “Don’t you see the problems that will arise in establishing a community if there is such gender disparity in it? ” I think the answer was obvious. After my talk one of the teachers belonging to a Bhagavad-gītā university asked my blessings to start a Gītā class just for men. It seems their leader, being pro-active, had already understood the problem. An effective preacher must be pro-active for even today’s success may be tomorrow’s challenge as the world and how people understand things rapidly change. 5. Gives Vrindavan Good experiences create our objectives or goals. We therefore initially develop faith in the goal of bhakti by a sublime devotional or “religious” experience. To move forward in bhakti with determination, however, especially during life challenges and the doubts that may arise, it is essential that such powerful experiences be renewed. I think that is why Śrīla Prabhupāda established centers in Mayapur and Vrindavan. It is in those places, in my experience, that pilgrims can most readily have the sublime devotional experiences that can deepen and renew their faith. A leader on the path...


- Published: 2025-04-14
- Modified: 2025-04-13
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/04/14/the-seven-habits-of-highly-effective-preachers-part-ii/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

2. Empowering A person who wants to widely communicate an important message needs people to assist in that work. It is therefore important to also empower others as preachers. That was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s example. Even though his followers were young and inexperienced, he inspired so many of them to effectively carry on his teachings, even in his lifetime. In other words, he was expert at seeing devotees’ potential, encouraging them, and then engaging them to actualize their potential, even though they were immature in so many ways. Perhaps today we can afford to better prepare and train devotees before we empower them to fully represent the mission. Of course, Śrīla Prabhupāda had no choice but to quickly put his fledgling disciples on the front lines, but he did demonstrate a powerful point—as an effective preacher, he did not hesitate to empower others to expand his mission. When I traveled and preached in south India in the summer of 1978, everywhere I went the people would tell me that “we have heard of your Acyutananda Swami. ” He was so impressive—a young Vaiṣṇava in his mid-twenties who spoke their language, could sing their songs, and expertly presented the philosophy. I remarked at the time that those people, although they had heard of Acyutananda Swami, didn’t seem to know who Śrīla Prabhupāda was yet. I saw, however, no fault in that. Powerful teachers empower students and are happy even if the students surpass them. Of course, Acyutananda achieved influence in just one...


- Published: 2025-04-07
- Modified: 2025-04-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/04/07/the-seven-habits-of-highly-effective-preachers-part-i/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

A group of devotees gathered to hone their skills in communicating krishna-bhakti, and I was asked to give a talk based on what makes a preacher effective. I thought about it deeply. This is what I came up with: 1. Personal Realization Most importantly, a preacher must have personal realization in order to effectively communicate Krishna consciousness. Śrīla Prabhupāda defines personal realization: “Personal realization does not mean that one should, out of vanity, attempt to show one’s own learning by trying to surpass the previous ācārya. He must have full confidence in the previous ācārya, and at the same time he must realize the subject so nicely that he can present the matter for the particular circumstances in a suitable manner. The original purpose of the text must be maintained. No obscure meaning should be screwed out of it, yet it should be presented in an interesting manner for the understanding of the audience. This is called realization. ” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1. 4. 1, purport But how does one get personal realization? It is obtained by a depth of understanding of the philosophy of krishna-bhakti as taught in one’s spiritual lineage and the sincere practice of what one has understood. Without such personal realization, preachers will do one of two things. They will either keep the subject in the language in which they received it, even if their audience has a different frame of reference for interpreting that language. Or they will reformat the message for the understanding of the audience...


- Published: 2025-03-31
- Modified: 2025-03-30
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/03/31/monday-morning-greetings-2025-14-mahabhava-dhama/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Mahābhāva Dhāma Mahābhāva Dhāma may be Govardhan’s best kept secret. It’s simply a room in the house of a humble devotee who lives near me here in the dhāma, a happily married man with three children from somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Gauranga Nam has deep affection for the Vaiṣṇavas. Besides hosting Śrī Śrī Radha Shyamsundara in his temple room, his altar is home to over 150 finely hand-crafted deities of Vaiṣṇavas in the Gauḍīya tradition. They include both contemporary devotees and all the eternal associates of Śrī Caitanya going way back to His līlā. And that ocean is constantly expanding. The last time I visited him nineteen new deities had just arrived. Words just can’t describe their beauty. Indeed, the deity one chooses to worship first manifests within one’s heart. Gauranga Nam’s heart is very big. While the heart of a kaniṣṭha (neophyte) barely has room there for God, and certainly not for His devotees, Gauranga Nam’s heart is filled with devotees. Isn’t that the bhakti philosophy? A devotee is one who takes the mood of his guru. And what is that mood? It is the energy of pure devotion. That sentiment is personified in Śrī Radha and Her expansions, embodied in the heart of Śrī Caitanya and His dear associates and finally carried to the present day by His lineage of pure devotees. Mahābhāva Dhāma materializes that history of gaura-līlā in the exquisite mūrti forms of the devotees who have carried the waves of devotion to this...


- Published: 2025-03-24
- Modified: 2025-03-23
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/03/24/is-there-love-in-the-material-world-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Is There Love in the Material World? While attending a lecture, I was skeptical of the apparent conclusion of the class that the only true love is bhakti, love for God, and consequently there is unequivocally no love in the material world. I respectfully raised a question and a discussion ensued. For argument’s sake, even if we accept that bhakti is only for Krishna, isn’t there a danger in the application of that principle? There are studies done that show that people who adhere to movements promoting such transcendence are in general less empathetic than those that do not. Although, granted, according to the same studies 20 percent who deeply understand the tenets of such teachings are much more empathetic. Whether this study is accurate or not, doesn’t such preaching pose a danger of being misunderstood and making us more hard-hearted? An intense discussion followed the morning class by Jaya Jagannath, and the discussion continued throughout the second day of our Bhakti Immersion retreat. His class was excellent and his points reasonably well argued, as was the push back to his ideas. The exchange is worth reproducing here in the form of a summary of Jaya Jagannath’s basic view, the push back or opposing view, and what I think is the correct view, which is a kind of synthesis. A summary of Jaya’s view: Jaya’s class was based on a verse from the Tenth Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam where Krishna explains that it is only in relation with the self...


- Published: 2025-03-17
- Modified: 2025-03-16
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/03/17/raganuga-bhakti-made-easy/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Rāgānugā-bhakti Made Easy I spoke to a Vaiṣṇava scholar in Vrindavan recently who described his perspective on rāgānugā-bhakti. He depicted it as a challenging path. Śrīla Prabhupāda also taught us that the path is for those who are advanced in bhakti. That scholar’s explanation: “The most important thing in perfecting one’s devotion is chanting the holy name properly. One day my guru maharaja called me into his room when he was chanting and asked me to sit with him. He sat like a statue totally absorbed for three hours. That made a deep impression on me. Since then, I tried to follow his example. Every day I try to sit up motionless for hours to make sure my mind is not diverted away from the holy name to my body. “When one is absorbed in this way, eventually the Lord’s rūpa (form) appears within the mind. Continuing in this way, then the lord’s guṇa, his sixty-four qualities, manifest within the name. Eventually while chanting, the Lord’s eternal associates spontaneously appear. While chanting one then observes those devotees all intensely focused on different aspects of the Lord’s form (rūpa) and various qualities (guṇa). “Ultimately by chanting in this way a desire awakens within the heart to perceive, serve, and follow Krishna in the same way as one of these eternal associates, and naturally in the same relationship that devotee has with Krishna. Such devotees whose very essence or state of being (ātmikā) is intense devotional passion (rāga) are called also rāgātmikā...


- Published: 2025-03-10
- Modified: 2025-03-10
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/03/10/the-genius-of-srila-prabhupada-and-the-principle-of-intrapreneurship/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

In my last article “Build Devotees, Not Temples,” I opined that institutions like ISKCON need to spend more resources supporting and empowering its people, especially those that are creators and doers, to successfully carry its mission into the future. I shared this article with a friend who was a business consultant. He was intrigued by the article and shared with me something from his own experience in the business world that he thought was relevant to the topic at hand. He described the concept of intrapreneurship. In this post, I will briefly share his experience and show how it inspired me to even further realize Śrīla Prabhupāda’s genius. My friend worked for Adobe as a consultant. They had basically one product, Photoshop, and the engineers who had developed the company had improved it as far as it could go. The CEO became concerned. He saw that this one-product company was gradually losing the culture of initiative that initially spurred its success. He knew the history of several successful companies developed by self-motivated and creative people who gradually ceded their authority to technicians and managers only to see the company become stagnant and fail. He became concerned. He thought of Kodak, for example, who were pioneers in the technology of photography. It went from an established major company to bankruptcy. Led by bureaucrats resistant to internal change, they lost their ability to keep up with smaller, more nimble competitors that could innovate quickly and respond to changing market trends. The CEO...


- Published: 2025-03-03
- Modified: 2025-03-02
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/03/03/the-supreme-personality-of-rice-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The Supreme Personality of Rice If you look at my astrological chart, you will see that my Venus is debilitated. I joke sometimes that even if you buy me a new set of silk clothes, as soon as I put them on I will walk out the door and somehow my pocket will get caught in the doorknob and my fine clothes will be torn. I don’t know much about astrology, but I know that, among other things, Venus rules very fine things. It’s just not my karma to procure, possess, or be surrounded by fine things. I surmise that’s a good thing in general for a sannyāsi, for if one overly makes demands on the environment for fine things it would be difficult for one to remain an honest renunciate. Now on to the “Supreme Personality of Rice”. Narma Sakhi from the Middle East invited me to lunch and the rice preparation was so fine it was almost like I had never had rice before. The imported rice itself was so fragrant that just keeping it in the room, even before cooking it, seemed almost like lighting incense. It was perfectly cooked and mixed with finely sliced almonds and pistachios, raisin sized pieces of fried paneer, and bright saffron. It was all of the finest quality ingredients and the taste was simultaneously incredibly rich and subtle with flavors. What to speak of the walnut/pomegranate sauce served on top! It was so ambrosial that after the meal I joked that...


- Published: 2025-02-24
- Modified: 2025-02-23
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/02/24/build-devotees-not-temples/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Recently I was inspired by an article by Bhakti Vijñāna Gosvāmī titled “How Not to Turn ISKCON Into a Religion. ” My initial desire was to write a review for this week’s Monday Morning Greetings. I soon realized that to do it justice was beyond the scope of a post. His article was very comprehensive. I thought it was better to just share my own realizations on the same subject and leave a link to his article so my readers can read it in full. First, a short introduction to his piece. His article is a detailed analysis of what the philosopher Max Weber calls “the routinization of charisma” as applied to ISKCON. The “routinization of charisma” is when a charismatic spiritual movement seeks to preserve its legacy by making the structure and organization (the routinization) more important than its initial spiritual inspiration and objectives (its charisma). In his article he outlines carefully how this adversely affects the spiritual depth and enthusiasm of its members, the vision and quality of its leadership, and its relationship with other spiritual and religious sects. The purpose of an institution is to carry its culture—what is right, real, and of value—into the future. What I would like to discuss in this post, inspired by Mahārāja’s article, is how the institutionalization of a movement fails in moving its objective forward if not done very carefully. I will do that through a brief analysis of the concept of empowerment and then briefly discuss my own plan...


- Published: 2025-02-17
- Modified: 2025-02-16
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/02/17/the-mission-of-sri-caitanya-and-the-genius-of-srila-krsnadasa-kaviraja-in-presenting-it/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I have written an article before about the genius of Sanātana Gosvāmī in presenting the mission of Śrī Caitanya in the first book of Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta. The mission of Śrī Caitanya is to give spontaneous love for Krishna (rāgānugā-bhakti) to the world. I was in awe of how creatively Śrī Sanātana did this. First, he weaved the plot of the book to build a foundation to help us understand its esoteric subject. Then, he highlighted the spontaneous love of the gopīs for Krishna through various dramatic exchanges between the devotees of Dvārakā in the last chapter. I recently saw the same type of literary brilliance of highlighting an essential point in various creative ways in the first chapter of the Antya-līlā of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta by Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja. Before I continue, a disclaimer: I like to write, but I am hardly an authority in literature. I suppose every classic has themes that are presented in various ways, often by telling, showing and dramatizing as found in Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta and Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Still, I found these works exceptional. The authors not only insert their points through the texts in dramatic and creative ways but do it in verse form. The genius of their presentation certainly shone through to me and I’ll try to share some of that here with you. The Antya-līlā of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta is the story of the last eighteen years of Śrī Caitanya’s life as he settles in Puri to fulfill the internal reason for his descent (his personal objective...


- Published: 2025-02-10
- Modified: 2025-02-09
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/02/10/is-teatime-an-item-of-devotional-service/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Joking. Not really. The story: I was holding my fourth annual BIG (Bhakti Immersion Govardhan) Retreat. It was a motley group of devotees from a professional clown and a lead hard-core guitarist to the housewives of New Jersey—three middle-aged ladies with twelve children between them with at least one of their teen girls here to boot. Sure, we would have morning and evening program and daily parikramā, but this group, I thought, also needed “fun. ” Before the evening program I scheduled a get-together in my ashram in the downstairs apartment next to mine. I had our charming Middle Eastern lady and her beautiful and talented twenty-four-year-old daughter arrange teatime with the ambrosial brews of orange blossom and saffron infused teas they brought from their country. At least I thought such “fun” was needed. Their non-stop raucous cacophony of laughter pierced the Braja sky, and certainly the wall of my adjacent room, with what sounded like bhakti-killing “prajalpa” (idle talk). What kind of offering was this before the sacred mount of Govardhan, just fifty yards before us and visible from their courtyard? A thought spontaneously arose in my cloistered Hare Krishna monk mind, a kind of, “Is this authorized, prabhu? ” I thus happily broke up the party just in time for evening kirtan. Young Satya, our middle eastern tea brewer, was designated to lead. She closed her eyes and for two hours with deep bhāva and a simple but melodious melody gradually built up the tempo. As I looked...


- Published: 2025-02-03
- Modified: 2025-02-03
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/02/03/love-makes-the-world-go-round-and-sri-caitanyas-practice-of-bhakti-yoga/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Years back, when I was giving seminars at yoga studios, I was always looking for a relatable definition of bhakti for my audience. One day I unexpectedly found one. I was walking through the flower gardens of Vrindavan when I came upon a calf being born. I watched as the calf immediately went to drink milk from the mother’s udder, and the mother began to lick its calf passionately in return. The calf didn’t have the capacity to analyze her situation, thinking “this is an udder, and it provides my sustenance. It is from a cow, my mother! ” Still the calf, due to their natural relationship, spontaneously identified with and reacted to the cow as its mother. Observing this, I had an epiphany—this spontaneous exchange between the calf and cow is a perfect template for love in general which is the spontaneous energy flowing between two people with a natural relationship. It also offers a perfect analogy for the natural energy of bhakti that flows between the soul and God. More important for me, it was the relatable definition of bhakti I was looking for: bhakti is the instinctive energy of love that naturally flows in the relationship between the soul and God. This also gave me insight into the spiritual practice Śrī Caitanya performed to attain His goal—to experience the devotion of Śrī Radha, His best devotee, at the height of Her love. In the mood of His own devotee, He drew out this natural energy of affection...


- Published: 2025-01-27
- Modified: 2025-01-26
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/01/27/logos-logic-and-prasadam-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Logos, Logic, and Prasādam Have you ever gone on a “word journey”? I made the term up, but I really think it is an apropos name for my engagement with the word “logos”. That journey began when I heard it used in a particular context in a lecture and was inspired to begin a search for the root of its meaning. I then began a correspondence about the term with a friend who is a professor of Philosophy. I thought a lot about it since and feel that I gained some very important and practical insights from that journey that I would like to share. Here is the basic notion of logos, as my friend presented it in our conversation: “Originally, ‘logos’ meant something like rationale, reasoning, or account. So if you gave a speech or made a case for something that would be your logos. The pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus adapted it to be the term for a divine world order, the ordering of the world around a rational principle. So, if you were in touch with the fundamental logos, then you could see the world in harmony. If not, it would seem confused and disjointed. Christian authors adapted this idea to say that the logos is God's divine will that orders the world. And when they say, "Jesus is the WORD," "WORD" translates "logos" from Greek. ” Now let me summarize what I learned from this journey about the meaning of logos. The universe is rationally ordered according to...


- Published: 2025-01-20
- Modified: 2025-01-19
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/01/20/believers-and-the-elephant-in-the-room-tackling-the-challenge-of-evil-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Believers and the Elephant in the Room: Tackling the Challenge of Evil At the age of twenty-one Jeff, my youngest cousin, was mercilessly beaten to death by the local police in a Midwest jail for no reason. His crime: He had asthma and was Jewish. From what the family could gather, it was Jeff’s first day of law school and due to his asthma, he sat near the window in the library to help with his breathing. When the school librarian told him to move because the window seats were reserved for upperclassmen, he refused due to his health and out of principle; the place was nearly empty. When he repeatedly denied the librarian’s demands she summoned the local police. They eagerly hauled off this city boy from Los Angeles to jail, and unfortunately he never again saw the light of day again. He died in jail. His parents and his three older sisters, who loved Jeff practically more than their own lives, were devastated. This sort of suffering and loss is all too common in this world. And it leads us to consider the elephant in the room for theistic belief, sometimes called the problem of evil. If God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, why then when He knows about it, has the power to do something about it, and is supremely good does he allow such cruelty to continue? The existence of evil thus logically contradicts the existence of God. Or does it? Below is my attempt at...


- Published: 2025-01-13
- Modified: 2025-01-13
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/01/13/do-you-believe-in-miracles/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Do You Believe in Miracles? ! When something miraculous happens, we have two mutually exclusive choices to explain it. Either its cause is supernatural or within the scope of known natural laws. For example, the famous magician David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear. His audience was blown away, but when later it was discovered how he did it, it was clear that it was just a brilliantly orchestrated stunt. But does that mean that all “miracles” have an explanation within the laws of nature? In this post I will explain at least some miracles in my own life that don’t seem to have a natural explanation. You can be the judge about which approach provides the best way to understand them: Are they miracles, events not explicable by scientific laws, or just natural occurrences? The mystic jaundice doctor In Vrindavan, there was a simple sādhu named Shyama Sakhi who cured jaundice by chanting mantras and pouring water over the afflicted. As the water turned yellow, the jaundice would wash away, so he claimed. Many people I knew gave testimony backing his claim. Despite their claims, I remained skeptical until a visit to Bangalore one summer when I completely lost my appetite and began to sleep all day. I was forced to immediately accept medical help because in three days I had a non-refundable ticket for the forty-eight-hour train ride back to Vrindavan for an extremely important meeting. The doctor checked me thoroughly and pronounced his diagnosis: “You have...


- Published: 2025-01-06
- Modified: 2025-01-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2025/01/06/how-intellectuals-found-god/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

In my senior year of high school, Joseph Zogby, my English teacher, asked the students to write an essay on Voltaire’s quotation, “If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him. ” Looking back, it seemed Mr. Zogby wanted to indoctrinate us with his own values. I fell for the bait. I wrote what I thought was a brilliant essay showing how God was a concept born of convenience. It all but reconfirmed in my heart the intellectual ethos of the ‘60s—religion was just the opiate of the people. It appears that times have changed. People are again turning to God. From 2019 there has been almost an eighty per cent increase in converts to orthodox Christianity. One of the largest Christian revival meetings in US history took place just recently at Ashbury University in Kentucky and it was led almost entirely by young people. It has also been my own experience that more and more people are turning to God after years of turning away. What convinced me of this revival more than anything else was my observation that even many modern intellectuals, those who were previously against God, were turning to Him. This was confirmed for me by a very interesting article I read in The Free Press titled “How Intellectuals Found God” which told the story of prominent intellectuals coming into the theistic fold. Matthew Crawford is a best-selling author and respected philosopher. At the beginning of his career, he seemed to be the...


- Published: 2024-12-30
- Modified: 2024-12-29
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/12/30/happy-9th-birthday-monday-morning-greetings/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Every year I celebrate the birthday of Monday Morning Greetings, January 4, 2016, by dedicating my post on the Monday closest to the New Year to an aspect of the process of my writing. This year I will discuss my voice in writing, the consistent style or personality in my composition. Looking at it from just a slightly different perspective, when you read my posts, I hope my voice comes through as if you were personally hearing me speak. Are you hearing my voice now? In the “Zonal Ācārya Days” they had a unique arrangement in the Krishna Balaram Mandir in Vrindavan for the morning Bhāgavatam class. Towering over the vyāsāsana for the Bhāgavatam speaker was an adjacent and bigger marble vyāsāsana. If in attendance, one of the eleven “ācāryas” would sit there facing the audience. One day during my class, Bhavananda, the local ācārya, was sitting next to me. He is certainly, to say the least, a flamboyant and dramatic person. That day he really liked my class. Immediately after it was finished, he raised both hands above his head with palms out and fingers gently moving back and forth. He pointed towards the audience and declared in the confident mood and voice of a born and bred New Yorker (although I think he is from Jersey City just across the Hudson River): “I like Dhanurdhara Swami because he is from New York, Jewish, and a devotee! ” He paused and then with even more drama declared: “In that...


- Published: 2024-12-23
- Modified: 2024-12-23
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/12/23/my-greatest-fear/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Well, maybe not the greatest fear. The Gītā explains that the greatest fear is losing this rare human birth which gives us the ability to turn to God. Fortunately, that’s not my worry. This guarantees that one on the path of God is protected from losing that precious opportunity. So, what is my greatest fear? Presently, I am reading the first chapter of the Tenth Canto. I am up to the part where Vasudeva is trying to pacify Kaṁsa. Kaṁsa is threatening Vasudeva’s wife Devakī because her eighth child is predicted to be the cause of his death. Vasudeva, an expert diplomat, unsuccessfully tries many approaches to assuage Kaṁsa’s fear. One of his last attempts is the use of philosophy. He briefly explains to Kaṁsa transmigration of the soul. This body is not all in all, he explains. What we do in this life, and especially the mental state we develop, creates our next body. You will not therefore solve anything by killing Devakī. Rather, the heinous activity of killing your sister, and especially your envy of her, will carry you to a body in your next life racked with even more misfortune and fear. What really struck me in this section, even more than the verses, was how this point was developed in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s commentaries. Here’s the gist of it: “At the time of death, according to his mental condition, the living being is carried by the subtle body, consisting of mind, intelligence and ego, to another gross...


- Published: 2024-12-16
- Modified: 2024-12-16
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/12/16/the-battle-for-our-souls-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The Battle for Our Souls The success of yoga depends on our ability to focus our attention on a particular object. Never in history has there been so much competition for that attention. Perhaps the biggest competitor for our attention, and thus our spiritual life, is social media. Here’s a short analysis as to why. A successful business markets a product. How then did Big Tech become one of the most successful commercial enterprises in history overnight if it’s available for free? The answer is simple: we are the product. Big Tech markets us to advertisers. We are a valuable commodity because advertisers seek certainty in sales, and the extraordinary amount of data Big Tech collects on us ensures them that certainty. Whoever learns the science of utilizing the vast data of our preferences and proclivities will be, without doubt, successful in sales. Such predictability is obviously the advertiser’s and businessman’s dream. I think we all already know this to some extent. What I don’t think we know is the extent to which they are able to control us. Simply put, we are dealing with behavior-changing geniuses. They have perfected the science of recording the gradual and imperceptible changes of what we think, what we do, and how to market things not to help us but to fill their pockets. Perhaps even more frightening is that as they collect more and more data over time, their prediction models on each of us becomes increasingly refined, enabling them to not only...


- Published: 2024-12-09
- Modified: 2024-12-09
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/12/09/where-there-is-no-circumference-the-center-is-everywhere/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Recently, I was gifted a beautiful deity of Śrīla Prabhupāda. In fact, I think most of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciples were gifted one by the brilliant devotees in Russia who developed this project. What is the eight-centimeter deity made of? Coins were collected from every country that Śrīla Prabhupāda visited and then they were melted together for the mold! The deity is even quaintly boxed so that when you open the box it reveals an altar where the open doors become two picture panels on each side. On the left side is Śrīla Prabhupāda in Tompkins Square Park in New York, and on the right is Śrīla Prabhupāda in Radha-Damodar in Vrindavan, which is especially inspiring for me. Those places, New York and Vrindavan, are my prabhu-datta deśa, the place where the Lord or His devotee grants one residence to serve. In this case, they are the two places gifted to me for residence for my service to Śrīla Prabhupāda. I carefully started to worship the deity in a simple way—massaging it with oil, bathing it in warm water and then offering flowers. I am not by my psychology mystical in orientation. That is, my ordinary life does not seem to be overly governed by spontaneous instincts. Rather, I usually more move forward in life after careful thought and a healthy skepticism. But in my worship of this Śrīla Prabhupāda deity, I felt spontaneously a very strong presence of Śrīla Prabhupāda, bringing out my sambandha, my relationship with him, the energy...


- Published: 2024-12-02
- Modified: 2024-12-01
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/12/02/self-consciousness-as-the-root-of-all-suffering/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I think I need here to first define my terms. By self-consciousness I don’t mean self-awareness where you realize or become aware of the self and therefore think of others before yourself in the mood of service. By self-consciousness, I am referring to the disposition of focusing on oneself without considering others. I like how Jordan Peterson, the sometimes controversial, but insightful psychologist puts it. “Self-consciousness is so connected with negative emotion that they are not statistically distinguishable. And there is no difference between being concerned about yourself and suffering... To be concerned with yourself is connected with anxiety and shame and grief and disappointment. ” One other important clarification before I expand on the theme of today’s post. The criticism of self-consciousness as described here is not denying our responsibility to take care of our needs, or even our pleasure. It is rather challenging the mindset that seems to subtly plague us all, at least to some extent, that pleasure is the most important thing in one’s life. I found it interesting that self-consciousness even statistically, or shall we say scientifically, relates to negative emotion and suffering. But I not surprised. Such a conception is foundational to the bhakti philosophical conclusions. What is the root of suffering? Suffering is the natural result of going against nature—a kind of cosmic parental punishment to veer us back to our true and fulfilling self. In other words, by constitution we are meant for service and when we deny our nature we suffer...


- Published: 2024-11-25
- Modified: 2024-11-24
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/11/25/movement-or-mission-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Movement or Mission? In a discussion with a friend, he distinguished between the Hare Krishna Movement (its structure and organization) and its mission (its goals or objectives), stressing the importance of the mission: awakening our eternal relationship with Krishna. It was a passing remark in a brief discussion, but as I reflected on his statement, I was inspired to give it some more thought. It seems important to make a careful distinction between the concepts of “movement” and “mission” in order to balance their relative value. I would like to deepen my understanding of that relationship by first discussing the views of two scholars on the subject, beginning with the thoughts of the late Joseph T. O’Connell, one of the most prominent scholars of South Asian religion in the modern era. Professor O’Connell defined the purpose of an institution as carrying its culture – what is right, real, and of value – into the future. He further divided institutions into two divisions: hard institutions, where the values are preserved by a hierarchical management structure, and soft institutions, where the values are preserved more spontaneously through its teachers, devotional practices, and, most importantly, its sacred literatures. In the history of Caitanya Vaishnavism, both have had a role in preserving its culture, but the latter has proven to be more important, because it deals more exclusively with Sri Caitanya’s mission. An example of such prioritization is demonstrated in a fairly well-known exchange between Srila Prabhupada and his guru, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati. His...


- Published: 2024-11-18
- Modified: 2024-11-17
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/11/18/the-mind-of-srila-prabhupada-part-two/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Last week I wrote about the special features of Brahmā-vimohana-līlā. It was the last commentary Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote and the last pastime in the kaumāra-līlā phase of Krsna’s life. It emphasizes an essential siddhānta (philosophical conclusion) that readers need to understand before proceeding in their study of the Tenth Canto of the Bhāgavatam. Most importantly it shows Śrīla Prabhupāda’s almost superhuman and determined effort to complete it. While studying that līlā, I noticed something else—Śrīla Prabhupāda in his last days not only reveals the deep philosophical conclusions found there, but also provides a unique view of the world through his own eyes inspired by the story he was commenting on. Some examples: The Beauty of Vrindavan “Vṛndāvana forest is always filled with the chirping and cooing of birds like cuckoos (kokila), ducks (haṁsa) and cranes (sārasa), and it is also full of peacocks (mayūrākule). The same sounds and atmosphere still prevail in the area where our Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple is situated. Everyone who visits this temple is pleased to hear the chirping of the birds as described here (kūjat-kokila-haṁsa-sārasa). ” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10. 13. 5, purport) His Appreciation and Concern for the Society He Created “Like the whorl of a lotus flower surrounded by its petals and leaves, Kṛṣṇa sat in the center, encircled by lines of His friends, who all looked very beautiful. ” (Bhāgavatam 10. 13. 8) Śrīla Prabhupāda comments: “The present Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is an attempt to keep Kṛṣṇa in the center, for if this is done all...


- Published: 2024-11-11
- Modified: 2024-11-11
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/11/11/the-mind-of-srila-prabhupada-part-one/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I hope the title doesn’t seem too presumptuous, but it was the best I could come up with in terms of this week’s topic. Let me explain. First, some background. A few years ago, I began to lecture on Brahmā-vimohana-līlā from the thirteenth chapter of the Tenth Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. As I was finishing the chapter and marveling at the depth of some of its long purports, a question arose in my mind. Was there anything special about this chapter that impelled Śrīla Prabhupāda to dictate such a comprehensive commentary on it? It seemed an almost impossible task for one bed-ridden, at the very end of life and in significant pain. As I considered whether there is some special significance to the story that may have inspired Śrīla Prabhupāda to make an almost superhuman effort to complete it, the first thing that caught my eye was the special position of the Brahmā-vimohana-līlā. It is the last pastime in Krishna’s kaumāra-līlā (age 1-5), the first of Krishna’s three age divisions, preceding paugaṇḍa (age 6-10), and kaiśora (age 11-15). Did Śrīla Prabhupāda push himself so that at least one age division was nearly complete before he left? I think there was something even more urgent on his mind that inspired him. The Brahmā-vimohana-līlā, perhaps more than any other story in the Bhāgavatam, vividly establishes an extremely essential siddhānta (philosophical conclusion)—the topmost position of the divinity of God as a simple cowherd boy, Śrī Krishna. Lord Brahmā had witnessed the power of...


- Published: 2024-11-04
- Modified: 2024-11-03
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/11/04/monday-morning-greetings-election-special/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I assume that all of you, even though many of you live outside the United States of America, know that tomorrow is the election to select their next president. The country is split in half, extremely polarized, over this issue. When the results are in, it seems that half the country, the group whose candidate lost, will be highly distraught, with many predicting a disaster approaching Armageddon. A week ago, a Vaiṣṇava who supports Harris wrote me: This political contest for POTUS, IMO, is really about enlightenment values vs oligarchy. Its outcome will have profound repercussions, internationally as well as nationally. Recently a Trump-supporting Vaiṣṇava sent me a slew of quotes from Śrīla Prabhupāda which he interprets to say the opposite, that the election is really about Marxism vs God consciousness with profound repercussions if the left-leaning democratic party prevails: Now, if they are serious to check this communistic movement, save the American country, as well as the whole world, then they must be very serious to understand what is God and what is trust in God. Otherwise this communistic movement will finish the civilized human society. (Morning walk, Los Angeles, December 12, 1973) I am not questioning that these gentlemen may have sincere legitimate concerns. There very well may be catastrophic consequences caused by this election. What I am concerned with here, however, is the effect of obsession about this election on one’s consciousness. I think that would be Śrīla Prabhupāda’s main concern. This post will offer three considerations...


- Published: 2024-10-28
- Modified: 2024-10-27
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/10/28/home-at-last-3/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I’m very busy during Kartika and just getting some regulation in my vrata and I didn’t have time to write. Let me offer this week something that represents my feelings about Vṛndāvana. I think it may be my first Monday Morning Greetings, although it wasn’t called that at the time. It was written almost 25 years ago and is it is still one of my favorites. Home at Last! October 6, 2000 Delhi / Vṛndāvana I entered a myriad of signs lining the path exiting the airport, held by various drivers searching for their pick-up. I wasn’t sure if the message announcing my arrival had reached Vṛndāvana, so I was anxiously searching for my name. What a relief to spot the smiling face of Gopal, our vrajavāsī driver! All of my entries into Vṛndāvana have been similar: the feeling of unworthiness, the grime of my long journey representing the contamination of a prolonged stay in America, the instant relief of a yamunā-snāna (bath), and the happiness of seeing my old vrajavāsī friends. The water at Keśī-ghāṭa was deep and flowing swiftly. It was five o’clock and the sun was beginning to set in the west, sending a reflection of yellow light through its waters like a pathway cutting diagonally to the base of the ghāṭa where I was sitting. I carefully entered her waters, and facing the shimmering golden pathway, I reflected on the natural beauty of Vraja. After chanting my gāyatrī, I waded like a child in her soothing...


- Published: 2024-10-21
- Modified: 2024-10-20
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/10/21/the-greatest-benediction-and-the-essence-of-devotional-service/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Śrī Krishna was extremely pleased with Śrī Nārada for inadvertently causing Him to experience the taste of separation from His own devotees. He offered Śrī Nārada any benediction he wanted. To those who are uninformed about the nature of bhakti, his choice will seem surprising. “Śrī Kṛṣṇacandra, please grant that no one will ever feel he has enough of Your mercy, Your devotional service, or pure love for You, the reservoir of ecstasy. ” (Brhad-bhagavatamrta 1. 7. 135) Here rests the essence of bhakti, never to be satiated. Why is that so? Again, I will resort to analogy to try to help make this very subtle point clear. Bhakti, or eagerness to serve God, is like the thirst for water. When one is thirsty three things happen. First, one is eager for water. Next, one feels a lack of water and is naturally humbled. Lastly, for the thirsty the taste of water is intensified. Similarly, in bhakti these same three things occur—one is eager or thirsty for bhakti, one feels a lack of bhakti and is humbled, and finally one’s taste for bhakti increases. In other words, what Śrī Nārada understood is that to feel satiated in bhakti means that the thirst, humility, and taste in bhakti will level off and eventually diminish. To further understand Śrī Nārada’s request that the devotees never feel satiated in devotion, it is also helpful to understand the substantial difference in our analogy between the thirst for water and the eagerness for bhakti. When...


- Published: 2024-10-14
- Modified: 2024-10-14
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/10/14/the-most-intelligent-man-who-ever-lived-and-the-three-types-of-intelligence-he-had/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Śrī Uddhava, Śrī Krishna’s most trusted advisor, is described in the Bhāgavatam by Śukadeva Gosvāmī before beginning his narration about how Śrī Uddhava delivered to the gopīs a confidential message from Śrī Krishna: Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: “The supremely intelligent (buddhi sat-tamaḥ) Uddhava was the best counselor (pravaraḥ - the best; mantrī – adviser) of the Vṛṣṇi dynasty, a beloved friend of Lord Śrī Krishna (kṛṣṇasya dayitaḥ sakhā) – friend and a direct disciple of Bṛhaspati (śiṣyaḥ bṛhaspateḥ sākṣāt)” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10. 46. 1 In this verse three types of intelligence are enumerated: emotional intelligence (the best advisor); devotional intelligence (the beloved friend of Krishna); and śāstric intelligence (a direct disciple of Bṛhaspati). In this post I will define them and show how they were all required for his seemingly impossible mission to pacify the gopīs’ feelings of separation. Why was such a mission seemingly impossible? Just consider the intensity of those feelings. Krishna says to Satyabhāmā: “And when they cannot see Me they become so torn that the fire of separation leaves them sometimes as though dead and sometimes as though insane. ” Śrī Bṛhad-Bhāgavatāmṛta 1. 7. 97 Before discussing the three types of intelligence that Uddhava demonstrated in pacifying the gopīs, we should understand the general definition of intelligence as ascribed to Uddhava by Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Buddhi sat-tamaḥ (supremely intelligent) Buddhi refers to the developed mental faculties that give one the capacity for discernment and understanding. Each of the three types of intelligence gives Uddhava a slightly different tool for...


- Published: 2024-10-07
- Modified: 2024-10-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/10/07/swamis-analogies-part-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

In a recent post I discussed the powerful use of upamān (analogies) as a pramāṇa (means of evidence) and offered a few original analogies that I composed. For this post, I will offer a few more analogies that I composed inspired by my attempt to explain the following section of the seventh chapter of the Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta and to show the power of this tool in elucidating difficult subjects. Śrī Nārada is mortified because by entering Dvārakā in uncontrollable ecstasy he inadvertently instigates a scene that reminds Krishna of the gopīs. By doing so he sends his Lord into such a deep state of separation that it appears that the Lord has almost died. To pacify Nārada, who is devastated by what he had precipitated, Krishna explains that rather than being upset with Śrī Nārada, He was pleased. Although the pain of separation is apparently unbearable, it simultaneously causes such a state of unparalleled ecstasy that one actually hankers for it. Śrī Krishna thus shockingly tells Nārada: “One may want to feel that separation again and may indeed feel distressed if one cannot. ” Gopīparāṇadhana dāsa’s commentary based on Sanātana Gosvāmī’s commentary elucidates the Lord’s point further: “Judging from the strength of the devotee’s urge to continue suffering viraha-bhāva, that bhāva must in fact be the ultimate happiness. ” (Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta 1. 7. 128, commentary) I am presently teaching this section of Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta which describes how these seemingly mutually exclusive qualities of agony and ecstasy can exist simultaneously on the level of...


- Published: 2024-09-30
- Modified: 2024-09-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/09/30/entry-denied/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The immigration officer looked up at me sternly, “Your student visa has expired June 10, 2024! ” What! ? There must be some misunderstanding. I applied last October for a one-year extension. It has been granted. Look here under visa expiry date. It says 10/6/2024. “In India, the month is the second digit. That’s June 10th. I then realized what happened. 10/6/2024 was the expiry date of my passport when I entered the country last year. When I applied for a year extension, they could only extend the visa until the validity of my passport, but because 10/6/2024 coincidentally would have been the date for the usual one-year extension, if the 10 stood for the month of October and the 6 stood for the date of the month, I mistakenly thought I was extended for one year. Evidently, American Airlines made the same mistake and allowed me to board my flight to India with an invalid visa. I pleaded my case to the immigration official who called his superiors. Soon two officials came, took my documents, ushered me into a waiting area for the deportation office and told me I should wait while they made further inquiries. A flood of realizations entered my mind. Waiting is the Greatest Surrender Surrender means accepting God’s will. When you are waiting for some crucial decision or information, there is nothing you can do about it. You’re left without even a crumb of the illusion of control or participation in the solution. All you...


- Published: 2024-09-23
- Modified: 2024-09-22
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/09/23/embrace-and-love-death/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I am fascinated with monastic communities. I recently watched a short documentary about one. Mount Athos is a somewhat inaccessible mountain on the Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece governed as an autonomous region by a community of twenty monasteries and various small and single occupancy hermitages. The architecture of the monasteries is beautiful, and the art decorating them and stored there is priceless. They feature, however, a more traditional monastic life as compared to my more modern and social preaching life as a Hindu monk (sannyāsī). I was impressed and humbled in many ways as I learned about them. I thought it must be so peaceful to just completely leave everything of the world. Could I be so renounced? Maybe one day I can also chuck it all in and just retire completely to Govardhan. Would Śrīla Prabhupāda approve? I’m not sure. But certainly, I could do much better in my renunciation. I remembered an interview in the documentary with one very educated American born monk, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, who in his interview talked about how his loving father in the USA on his deathbed requested to see him for one last time. He hadn’t seen him in twenty-seven years. This monk never went, never even thought for a second of going, and was completely unmoved about it. It seemed to me so heartless. I felt for his father. He explained it, however, philosophically. His eternal relationship is with God, all others are temporary. Okay, he’s a...


- Published: 2024-09-16
- Modified: 2024-09-15
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/09/16/srila-prabhupadas-greatest-challenge-and-his-genius-in-meeting-it/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

As important as speaking the truth, is having the truth understood. To accomplish that you must understand the language of your audience. When I say the language of your audience, I am obviously not talking about the vernacular of a country or people, but how people according to their culture or experience understand different words and concepts within the same vernacular. In other words, the same word may be impregnated with different meanings according to that person or group’s culture and therefore when a preacher/teacher uses a word, it is necessary to understand what that word or concept means to that audience. The most difficult challenge in communicating therefore is when there is a mixed audience where the attendees understand the words and concepts in different ways. I discussed this challenge previously in terms of how various cultures react, some positively and some negatively, when they hear the word or concept “surrender. ” As Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books were addressing a very mixed audience, I think communicating effectively to them was one of his greatest challenges. And just consider how varied his audience was. His listeners were everyone from non-devotees to neophyte and advanced devotees, from progressives to conservatives, and from those foreign to Vedic culture to those immersed in it. We could go on and on. His teachings also needed to be time tested, as he would be speaking to people through different epochs, and he wanted his books to be the standard books of knowledge for thousands of years...


- Published: 2024-09-09
- Modified: 2024-09-08
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/09/09/some-thoughts-on-envy-and-the-path-of-devotion/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Sometimes my Monday Morning Greetings is inspired by a question that I was asked recently in class, such as one from last Sunday which sparked a discussion about envy and the path of devotion: “Is there envy in the spiritual world? ” Of course, although there is the facsimile of jealousy in the drama of Radha and Krishna, all rasa (loving exchanges) in the spiritual world are born purely out of ecstatic love. Therefore nothing that happens there can be born of envy or hate. That, however, is not our story in this world. “O scion of Bharata, O conqueror of the foe, all living entities are born into delusion, bewildered by dualities arisen from desire and hate. ” “... The illusory energy is manifested in the duality of desire and hate. Due to desire and hate, the ignorant person wants to become one with the Supreme Lord and envies Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead... ” Bhagavad-gītā 7. 27, verse and purport There you have it, the foundation of the material world in a nutshell. We come to this world out of ego desiring superiority and thus we naturally hate or envy those who threaten that self-conception. We may think that as decent people this no longer refers to us, but before making that assessment we should at least reflect just how much the disease of envy is inherent within us once we have accepted a material body. Consider the following. At the end of one’s life, in...


- Published: 2024-09-02
- Modified: 2024-09-02
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/09/02/a-commentary-on-the-lakota-code-of-ethics-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

A Commentary on the Lakota Code of Ethics Recently Madhavananda dasa shared with me the Lakota Code of Ethics. Evidently, he saw some depth in it. I did also. The Code expertly provides the basic principles of behavior of this native North American native tribe. More than the clarity and force of its presentation, what struck me is how it demonstrates the universality of truth. We say truth is veda, which means knowledge, but we don’t limit truth to just what is found within a book, no matter how comprehensive the presentation. Truth is embodied in the world. It exists eternally and independently of human creation. A book just encapsulates it and communicates it appropriately to its intended audience. Throughout the ages, and even occasionally in modernity, great thinkers have seen and realized aspects of that truth and have communicated it according to the language and frame of reference of the people of their time. After looking at the Lakota Code, I could write an article on each item listed, but that is far beyond a Monday Morning post. Therefore, I will briefly comment on the first one and then just list the rest. The main thrust of this entry, therefore, is to use the Lakota Code to show the universality of truth, which should become evident when you read it. Lakota Code of Ethics Rise with the sun to pray. Pray alone. Pray often. The Great Spirit will listen, if you only speak. Commentary: Rise with the sun to...


- Published: 2024-08-27
- Modified: 2024-08-25
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/08/27/srila-prabhupadas-vyasa-puja-dhanurdhara-swamis-offering-to-srila-prabhupada-2024/
- Categories: Srila Prabhupada, Vyasa-puja

Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to you! You requested your disciples to write their realizations. I do that by writing one article every week. In November my realization was about your glories. Please accept this short article as my homage this year: What Made Prabhupāda Prabhupāda It was the late seventies, early eighties—I can’t remember the exact date, but it was soon after Śrīla Prabhupāda left this world. I was given the service of inviting some of the senior Vaiṣṇavas in Vṛndāvana who knew Śrīla Prabhupāda to his disappearance festival. I first approached Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja, as Śrīla Prabhupāda lived in his ashram after taking sannyāsa. He was at first somewhat reluctant to speak, but I prodded him by asking him to describe the qualities he saw in Śrīla Prabhupāda when he lived at his ashram as a humble mendicant that indicated who he would become later as a world ācārya. He thought about my inquiry deeply and then began to explain two qualities that he saw in Śrīla Prabhupāda: his boldness and his ability to relate to others. Recently, when reflecting on that exchange, I began to ponder what I thought was the prime quality in Śrīla Prabhupāda that perhaps indicated what made him Prabhupāda, the person who succeeded above all others to bring the holy name of Krishna around the world. I thought of his many attributes and came up with one—his depth of realization. When I thought about this quality, I...


- Published: 2024-08-26
- Modified: 2024-08-25
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/08/26/all-ones-problems-are-perceptual-and-not-actual/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Suffering is when we either don’t have what we are attached to (hankering), or we lose that which we are attached to (lamenting). Therefore, the greatest suffering is death where our present life ends, and everything connected with it is taken away. Death, however, is the illusion of non-existence. Our greatest problem therefore doesn’t exist. Death and all material problems are thus ultimately perceptual and not actual. All spiritual processes therefore deal with raising one’s awareness or perception with an understanding that the higher the level of our perception (the more we are free from illusion), the higher our contentment. We will discuss a few of those processes here. Yoga: The purpose of yoga is to bring the mind to sattva, which literally means the nature of being or reality. The mind is a lens or mirror which in sattva, or its true nature, is not distorted or stained by frivolous thoughts. This is accomplished by meditation, or the focus on a single thought or object, which quells the other thoughts distorting the mirror of the mind and brings it to a higher level of perception and contentment. Dharma: At any moment we are faced with a myriad of choices. Dharma is the science of correct or righteous action, the option we choose which elevates the mind to a higher level of perception and contentment. Karma: Karma is God’s law that provides a destiny to give us realizations that elevate us to a higher level of perception and contentment. Reality...


- Published: 2024-08-19
- Modified: 2024-08-18
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/08/19/karma-or-krishna-lila/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I was recently asked, “When something happens to a devotee, is it karma or krishna-lila? ” My response: First, the question is phrased wrong. If something happens to a devotee, the cause can be Krishna, but it’s not krishna-lila, a pleasure pastime of God. The question is therefore better asked “Is it karma or Krishna? ” Good question. In the Brahma-saṁhitā we read: “All fruitive actions and their reactions (karmāṇi) for a person engaged in devotional service (bhakti-bhājām) are destroyed (nirdahati). ” Well, there you have it. It’s Krishna. But wait a second! Why then do devotees get astrological readings, which chart one’s destiny, and which work reasonably well? Even at Śrīla Prabhupāda’s birth, it was predicted that he would open many temples at an advanced age. So, is it karma? How can it be? When one surrenders to Krishna, one’s purification comes directly under His supervision. But as our karma is specifically Krishna’s law geared to purify us and bring us closer to God, especially if one responds appropriately to one’s fate, why then should Krishna not allow our fate to unfold? In other words, although a person engaged in devotional service is no longer directly under the law of karma, Krishna still sanctions our destiny to continue because our karma is uniquely geared to purify us. That’s certainly true, but if one’s karma is under Krishna’s direct control, can Krishna change our karma? Yes. The purpose of “bad” karma is not to punish us, but to purify us....


- Published: 2024-08-12
- Modified: 2024-08-12
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/08/12/peterhof-and-donald-trump-the-danger-of-luxury/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Peterhof and Donald Trump Today I will share two thoughts from my recent visit to Moscow: Peterhof and Donald Trump Peterhof is a series of stunning palaces and gardens located in St. Petersburg envisioned, commissioned and supervised by Peter the Great. Perhaps the greatest technological achievement of Peterhof, and one that especially impressed me while visiting, was the sixty-four exquisite and awe-inspiring fountains. What struck me about them is that they are driven entirely without the use of pumps, but just from the pressure collected in reservoirs from natural springs in the upper part of the property. It’s really something to see. Now what does this have to do with Donald Trump? I am not much of a tourist. But my hosts were enthusiastic to show me the city, so I took the opportunity to broaden my perspective by some sight-seeing. I thought that might be something that could inspire my writing. Besides appreciating the splendor of Peterhof, I naturally looked at things through the eyes of the Bhāgavatam. In this case, I particularly recalled the monarchal rule in the Bhāgavatam where the king had the pedigree, training and power to be the proper leader. I didn’t know much about Peter the Great. But I saw the expertise and beauty of St. Petersburg, most of which was accomplished in his lifetime in what was previously mostly a swampy area. I assumed that here was someone who did the work and had the qualities to rule, although now there is some...


- Published: 2024-08-05
- Modified: 2024-09-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/08/05/radical-humility/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Bhakti is the path of radical humility: "One who thinks himself lower than grass, who is more tolerant than a tree, and who does not expect personal honor but is always prepared to give respect to others, can very easily always chant the holy name of the Lord. " Śikṣāṣṭakam 3 Although bhakti in many senses is easy in the sense that it is available for anyone without any material prerequisite, its application is still difficult because of its spiritual demands, specifically in the matters of humility and tolerance, as expressed in a Bengali saying about the path of Śrī Caitanya: “I was attracted to the mission of Śrī Caitanya. It looked so inviting, but then I read the third verse of the Śikṣāṣṭakam. ” But does humility on the path of bhakti have to be so extreme? It depends on what frame of reference you have when you make that consideration. From the standpoint of this world where each soul is embodied due to false ego and naturally strives for superiority and control, such levels of tolerance and humility as described by Śrī Caitanya certainly seem extraordinary. If however we gauge such humility from the platform of the soul, which attains its fullness in unalloyed service to God, then such deep humility is just the natural condition of the soul. This becomes evident when we look at humility from the perspective of the two natural opulence’s of the soul—pure knowledge (awareness) and pure love (devotion). Pure Awareness—when one attains...


- Published: 2024-07-29
- Modified: 2024-07-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/07/29/the-single-most-important-question-asked-in-two-different-ways/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Jayadvaita Swami would confidently throw down the gauntlet to his audience: “What could be more important than self-realization? ! ” The question-and-answer booth at the New York Ratha-yātrā was surrounded by intelligent and inquisitive New Yorkers. Some took up his dare, yet no one could meet his challenge. When I watched those exchanges, I immediately thought about the time Śrīla Prabhupāda highlighted the importance of self-realization, but in a different way. Śrīla Prabhupāda was asked to explain the difference between a human being and an animal. I loved his reply: “A human being can ask the question ‘why am I suffering? ’” Śrīla Prabhupāda was raising the same challenge that is found in Jayadvaita’s inquiry, but we need to dig deeper to understand how. The question “why am I suffering” implies another important question: “what did I do wrong? ” Suffering or pain is not necessarily a bad thing if we look at the issue philosophically. For example, if you did not suffer when accidentally resting your hand on a hot stove, you might not lift it off the stove and therefore could be seriously injured or even die. Suffering or pain, similarly, inspires one to seek the cause of one’s suffering and fully eradicate our problem at its root. But an intelligent person does not stop with the question “what did I do wrong? ” There are deeper levels to the inquiry. As soon as we ask, “what did I do wrong? ” another question naturally arises: “what should...


- Published: 2024-07-22
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/07/22/i-recommend-this-book/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

As part of our Metro Mantra Sanga, we hosted Hari-kirtana das for a weekend of programs to hear about his new book, Journey Into the Bhagavad Gita. The programs were in an interview format. In both programs I questioned him extensively about his work. As a student of Gita and speaker and writer about its philosophy for many years myself, I was impressed with what he has accomplished—an accessible guide and rendition of the Gita imbued with his conviction of the power of its message. I first questioned Hari-kirtana about the necessity for his Gita commentary, especially when Srila Prabhupada was already so successful in widely communicating the message of the book. He marveled at how successful Srila Prabhupada’s Gita was in attracting so many people, including himself, to fully commit to the Gita’s teachings and assist him in his mission. Yet Hari-kirtana was convinced by his years of experience as a wisdom teacher in the yoga world that many people in his western and contemporary audience needed a longer road to the Gita as an introduction to bhakti. In the introduction to his book, Hari-kirtana clearly outlines the people he is targeting: the spiritual but not religious; those unfulfilled, wounded or abandoned by religion; those who are interested in principles of leadership and personal growth; and those who want to learn about yoga philosophy. He then describes for each what the Gita uniquely offers to those people if they can be convinced to enter the text. For example, he...


- Published: 2024-07-15
- Modified: 2024-07-15
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/07/15/betrayed-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Betrayed! Last week I wrote about expediency, but it was beyond the scope of the entry to illustrate the concept with an example. A discussion of how one responds to betrayal would be an excellent way to broach the subject of how dharma can be brushed aside to serve one’s immediate personal feelings. There seems to be no deeper hurt and stronger impetus to strike back with vengeance than when one’s trust is violated. How to deal with being betrayed? I think the story of Vidura illustrates that best. Vidura was renowned for his good counsel. When King Dhrtārastra, his elder brother, calls upon him, Vidura strongly advises him to instruct his son Duryodhana to return the legitimate share of the kingdom, which he had illegally usurped, to his cousin Yudhiṣṭhira. He outlines in detail the ruin it would bring upon the king if this was not done. Duryodhana overhears the conversation and immediately threatens his uncle: “Who asked him to come here, the son of a kept mistress? He is so crooked that he spies in the interest of the enemy against those on whose support he has grown up. Toss him out of the palace immediately and leave him with only his breath. ” (Bhāgavatam 3. 1. 15) How painful! Not only was he thrown out of the palace in his twilight years without any possessions, by a kingdom that he served so humbly and selflessly his whole life, but he was also deeply insulted. What was especially...


- Published: 2024-07-08
- Modified: 2024-07-08
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/07/08/solving-the-humility-and-self-esteem-quandary/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Those who have been following my Monday Morning Greetings know I have several times approached the issue of reconciling the apparent contradiction that although acts of humility appear to demonstrate a lack of self-esteem, a humble person is actually psychologically healthy. I have written several articles on this point and will share today a new insight on the subject beginning first with the definition of humility that I feel best resolves our quandary. Humility is seeing God everywhere. Imagine how insignificant one feels as one fully realizes that one is just an infinitesimal particle of God’s infinite magnificence. The Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta helps us further understand such humility in the description of how a very influential and respected leader of the brāhmaṇas at Kumbha-melā responds to the great saint Śrī Narada who has just declared him the topmost recipient of Krishna’s mercy: “Who am I but a most wretched person? How much charity am I able to give? What opulence do I have? And how have I ever reciprocated with the Lord in devotional service? ” Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta, Part 1, 1. 44 Śrī Gopiparanadhana in his commentary on this verse explains the psychology of a very powerful and respected person who sees the reality of God’s majesty, and how that person can think in the most modest of ways: “Any true devotee of Kṛṣṇa considers himself insignificant, thinking himself one of countless jīvas who are mere sparks of God’s splendor. The devotee is sorry for having foolishly rebelled against his creator. And reflecting...


- Published: 2024-07-01
- Modified: 2024-06-30
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/07/01/the-mind-of-god-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

For many years I had the idea of writing a book called The Mind of God. It was inspired many years ago by the story of the passing away of Bhīṣmadeva. That episode describes the lengths Śrī Krishna would go to for the purpose of glorifying His devotees. For various reasons I choose not to write that book, but the idea always stayed with me. Recently, while studying the Śikṣāṣṭaka prayers, the last chapter in the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, I started to see that chapter through the lens of the mind of Śrī Caitanya. Śrī Caitanya comes to fulfill both internal and external reasons for His descent. That is, He comes both for Himself and for others. For Himself He was Krishna in the form of a devotee seeking to relish the love and ecstasy of Śrī Radha, His topmost devotee, at the height of Her love. He already had been almost 18 years in Puri, the place where he had come specifically for that purpose. He had just heard from Śrī Advaita that the external reason for his descent (why He came for others) was complete—the world by His mercy was now flooded with love of God. In this last year of His life, He could cultivate and relish ecstatic love for Krishna in the mood of Śrī Radha with even more focus. Almost all His time is thus spent in the Gambhīra, a little cave-like room in Kāśī Miśra’s house, with Rāmānanda Rāya and Svarūpa Dāmodara, his most confidential...


- Published: 2024-06-24
- Modified: 2024-06-23
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/06/24/who-is-advanced-on-the-path-of-bhakti/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I wake up in the morning and chant for several hours and then chant more during the day. Does that make one advanced on the path of bhakti? It is certainly good to chant more, and it could reflect some internal devotion, but not necessarily. Could it also reflect that one has little else to do, or is lazy and shirking responsibilities or pretending to be an advanced devotee? In fact, Krishna warns in the Gītā of prematurely becoming renounced with the motive of seeking adulation: “One who restrains the senses and organs of action, but whose mind dwells on sense objects, certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender. ” (Bg 3. 6) Śrīla Prabhupāda also makes clear that what makes one advanced is one’s inner mood and not necessarily what one is doing externally: “... The Supreme Personality of Godhead is known as bhāva-grāhī janārdana because He takes only the essence of a devotee’s attitude. If a devotee sincerely surrenders, the Lord, as the Supersoul in everyone’s heart, immediately understands this. Thus even though, externally, a devotee may not render full service, if he is internally sincere and serious the Lord welcomes his service nonetheless. Thus the Lord is known as bhāva-grāhī janārdana because He takes the essence of one’s devotional mentality. ” (Bhag. 8. 23. 2, purport) When I read the above, I thought of a devotee, a disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda, who seemed to me spiritually evolved in many ways although he had very little sādhana....


- Published: 2024-06-17
- Modified: 2024-06-16
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/06/17/metro-mantra-sanga/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

During the Memorial Day weekend, I held several programs in the New York/New Jersey area. The events were accommodating to newcomers, but for the most part they were gatherings of like-minded people with deep, longstanding bonds. There was no dearth of volunteers, and the many services were all done expertly, especially the Memorial Day feast—chapatis, rice, sweet potato soup, koftas in tomato sauce, creamy paneer subji, bhel puri, handva, coriander chutney, potato patra, cupcakes, ladoo, kheer, mango lassi, and nimbu pani. There was such a strong sense of community. I was impressed, and right after kirtan, at the beginning of my class, I made a simple point based on what I had just seen: “Bhakti is easy. Just chant Hare Krishna with people who like each other. ” Like Christianity, the Hare Krishna movement must offer different “churches” for different people—eventually more localized, to bring nearby like-minded people together and provide community to the maximum number of those interested in devotion. The modern world is increasingly exploitative, and it does not provide sufficient genuine community to give people respite from our dog-eat-dog modern society. As the Catholic social activist Dorothy Day said, “We have all known the long loneliness, and we have found that the answer is community. ” More than ever, people need gathering places that can foster a deep sense of care and belonging, where one is inspired by the community’s service mood to serve others before themselves, the first step in spiritual life. It’s with this vulnerability,...


- Published: 2024-06-10
- Modified: 2024-06-10
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/06/10/swamis-analogies/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

A reasonable person wants to understand what is true and live by it. But how to ascertain the truth? The wisdom traditions of India generally outline three main means of knowing called pramāṇa. The three main pramāṇas are verbal testimony (śabda—what we accept as true in the form of the testimony of a recognized authority), pratyakṣa (direct experience), and anumāna (inference or logical conclusions). In our tradition we consider śabda, our sacred texts, as the highest pramāṇa. Of course, there are limits to śabda when communicating the truth. The audience may not accept the authority of one’s tradition or may accept the authority of śāstra but misunderstand the point being referenced. I therefore find upamān or analogy, making comparison between things that have similar features, helpful in communicating certain points, especially those which are somewhat abstract. For this Greetings I would therefore like to share a few of the analogies I composed to hopefully demonstrate how helpful analogy can be in illustrating concepts that are sometimes challenging to explain. What is Bhakti? Introduction: Is bhakti our nature, an energy of God, or a practice to achieve perfection? It is all of these, but in explaining what bhakti is, especially to an audience not familiar with our tradition, I composed the following analogy. Analogy: Just as there is a natural love that flows between a newborn calf and its mother, there is a natural love that flows between the soul and God called bhakti. Comment: I was in the flower gardens...


- Published: 2024-06-03
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/06/03/the-problem-of-the-problem-of-evil/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I was surprised by the emotional reaction from some to my class and the questions and dialogue that ensued. I was speaking on Nṛsiṁha-līlā and somehow a point in the class was made about reconciling evil in the world with the existence of God. This is just a summary of the perspectives on that issue. “If one has lived a life of dharma and has thus gained the realizations one was meant to get by appropriately responding to one’s karma (destiny), one should be able to look back on all those experiences and understand that the consciousness that has evolved by the lessons of destiny has been worth any of the suffering needed to get there. ” The audience was divided, some seemed to be enlivened by my point and others disturbed. When I say disturbed, no one was disrespectful, but they expressed their personal challenges concerning my point, somewhat intellectually, but more emotionally. Here were the responses as far as I understood them at the time: “There are so many horrible things that happen to one and it is so difficult to go through them. It seems this kind of philosophy, that it is all one’s fault, just adds to the burden. ” “I can accept that I have learned from my past, but I will find it hard to accept it if God puts me through more. ” “I am trying in devotional service, but these powerful emotions come up again and again. Why? ” “I was just...


- Published: 2024-05-27
- Modified: 2024-05-26
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/05/27/blind-following-is-condemned-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Blind Following is Condemned Some readers may be thinking, “You write about authority and surrender, but isn’t blind following dangerous? ” Yes. It’s condemned! Here’s why. Blind faith means accepting what one hears without a reasonable effort to understand it which poses two risks: accepting something that is false because of faith in an unqualified authority presenting something fallacious; or accepting something that is false because we have misunderstood what the qualified teacher has properly presented. Either way one fails to catch the truth. Accepting things that are false Without being thoughtful we not only wind up accepting things taught that we would normally see as overtly false, but we are also surrendering the tool required to extricate ourselves from being misled. To avoid such an unfortunate situation, one must be thoughtful before fully accepting a spiritual authority. Ultimately, a spiritual teacher is sent by Providence in response to our sincere desire for truth. To ascertain, however, whether someone is qualified to play that role, one must first test that person’s qualification over a reasonable period by asking questions and having one’s doubts cleared. Misunderstanding something that is true Having a worthy guide also doesn’t guarantee understanding the truth. We often filter what we have heard through our desires and conditioning so that even if what we are taught is true, what we have understood is not. That’s why we often see good people with qualified guides nevertheless embracing untenable positions in the name of faith. To avoid misunderstanding a...


- Published: 2024-05-20
- Modified: 2024-05-20
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/05/20/swamis-quotations/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I wonder if anyone ever has written a definition for the phrase “notable quotation. ” So far, I haven’t found one. I suspect that’s the case because there are almost innumerable characteristics that inspire a statement to become memorialized, anywhere from a nugget of wisdom to a historical moment, what to speak of the cultural context by which some may appreciate a particular quotation. Thus “notable quotations” is just too broad a term to precisely define. To give my post some context, however, I will offer my own definition of the phrase as a criterion to deem whether a statement is notable. “A notable quotation is usually a short, succinct statement that clearly and powerfully captures an insight, inspiration or event that others are inspired to repeat so that eventually that statement becomes memorialized. ” One more point: I will offer short explanations of some statements I have made, although ultimately a notable quotation should be able to stand alone. Swami’s Notable Quotations Destiny is the language of God Karma, what happens to us, is God’s law to teach us lessons to help us become closer to the self, which is the mood of service. In other words, destiny is the language in which God affectionately speaks to us. Commitment changes consciousness Making a commitment or vow is the promise to act on a good idea from a time-tested traditional perspective rather than just our whims. Such good ideas are called dharma, which is the science of elevating or changing...


- Published: 2024-05-13
- Modified: 2024-05-13
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/05/13/the-birth-of-the-siksastakam/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

After just completing this week’s Monday Morning Greeting based on my theory of when and how the Śikṣāṣṭakam was written, I found a verse indicating that my theory was wrong. So, I was not left with much of a choice—either post a reprint or post what I have written with an explanation. I really try to avoid posting reprints, so I have chosen the latter. I reasoned that even though I came to the wrong conclusion on the historicity of the Śikṣāṣṭakam, I think my post gives an interesting and important view on Śrī Caitanya’s relationship to the holy name in terms of His mission and how philosophical speculation works and what can be gleaned from it. Therefore, I have added this introduction, and I will include another short paragraph following my original post highlighting what I think were the important points one could gather from this week’s Greetings. The Birth of the Śikṣāṣṭakam This post is an attempt to pinpoint when Śrī Caitanya wrote the Śikṣāṣṭakam, His only literary contribution of eight verses summarizing His mission. Within the biographies of Śrī Caitanya, there is in no definitive description of Him writing the Śikṣāṣṭakam, nor in those descriptions of His God-intoxicated life is there even any indication that writing, which was a very cumbersome process at the time, was an activity He would have given His time to. I have a theory, however, how the Śikṣāṣṭakam was born based on the twentieth and last chapter of the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, His...


- Published: 2024-05-06
- Modified: 2024-05-05
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/05/06/a-decade-of-tears-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

This morning, I found out that my godbrother His Holiness Gopal Krishna Maharaja passed away. I won’t go into the details, but his service for Śrīla Prabhupāda was practically unparalleled, and he will be missed dearly, but what I remember about him most was that he treated devotees with respect and never criticized others. In his honor I will offer this fairly recent Monday Morning Greetings reminding us how important it is to honor all devotees, big and small, who have given their lives to God, while they are among us. A Decade of Tears The phrase struck me. I was talking with Bhūrijana Prabhu after the passing of Śrīla Bhakti-caru Swami. We began to reflect on the fact that practically all of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciples have just turned near seventy when this decade began, if not before, and that it was evident that as the decade proceeds, the number of our god-siblings that leave us will exponentially increase. We shared some pain at the thought. As our discussion ended his parting comment struck me: “It will be a decade of tears. ” Honestly, I never felt this deep sense of upcoming loss before. Maybe it comes with age, or maybe as I mature in spiritual life my heart is softening. I am not sure. What is certain, however, is that as one is advancing in Krishna consciousness, those who sincerely represent that should be valued more and more. It’s śāstra: “Śrī Caitanya asked, ‘Of all kinds of distress, what...


- Published: 2024-04-29
- Modified: 2024-04-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/04/29/dog-bites-monk-part-two/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

After that dog attacked me, I remained quite calm, almost as an observer. I guess different people react in different ways—some shaken up, some perhaps angry or even hysterical. I was a bit proud of how much I could extract myself from the drama, but after my friend cleaned my wound and I went back to my room, I was surprised by how much the dog’s antagonism towards me had entered my body. In other words, although I wasn’t traumatized, in the sense that I could observe what happened and not react to it emotionally, I could still see that trauma of aggression within me and feel it somewhat physically. Thinking back on that observation affirmed an important realization: Our words and actions can carry our emotions to others—a realization that is also applicable to the path of devotion where our words and work serve as a vehicle to carry our devotion to God for His pleasure, which is the essence of devotional practice. This phenomenon is clearly expressed in Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s principal definition of pure devotion where he explains that the primary characteristic of pure devotion is that the endeavors of one’s mind, body, and words flow towards Krishna carrying our intention to please Him. This same principle is also indicated in the Yoga-sūtras in terms of japa meditation, where Patañjali writes that one should dwell on the meaning of the mantra, which is full surrender to Īśvara (God), and carry that mood of devotion to God through...


- Published: 2024-04-22
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/04/22/dog-bites-monk-part-one/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Dog Bites Monk: Part One Nothing serious. I just got my robes ripped to shreds and a nibble on my calf and thigh. Maybe a little more than a nibble, but nothing too serious. Anyway, another opportunity to see things through the eyes of śāstra. Realization One Somehow, it was a peaceful time, the rare stretch where things seemed to fall in place, or at least no real major life challenges, which usually seem to always plague one, and a little more excitement than usual —some real good programs to look forward to. So just feeling great, and then I opened the door to the luxurious tropical backyard from the guestroom at my friend’s house in Boca Raton on the east coast of Florida. Ruff, ruff, ruff, real loud and vicious—I was attacked by a ferocious large, white half-German Shepherd, half-Labrador Retriever before I even got out the door. My first thought after the adrenaline rush to deal with the task at hand: “There was nothing I could do. It was destiny. Anything can happen at any time. I am not the controller. ” And it became clear to me why Śrī Krishna never lets us rest in our comfort zone. My thought process: It's subtle, but this is what I witnessed in myself. I saw that if one is not careful when things are going well, one can subtly fortify the general illusion that we are the controller and enjoyer, which fosters the misplaced faith that happiness is based...


- Published: 2024-04-15
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/04/15/from-logos-to-mythos-a-practicum-in-adding-life-to-ones-spiritual-practices/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

When Jaya Jagannath arrived for this year’s Bhakti Immersion retreat in Colombia, I told him that I had changed the topic I would be speaking on. Instead of speaking on the Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta I would be speaking on the Śikṣāṣṭaka prayers from Chapter 20 of the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. He seemed pleasantly surprised, announcing it as “serendipitous”. He explained why: His idea was to teach the attendees of his seminars to approach the text from the platform of what he called mythos, where one engages with the prayers of the Bhāgavatam as if they are the characters of the narrative and the prayers are coming from their own hearts, rather than what he called logos, approaching the text as a passive observer from the platform of understanding, which is exactly what is described in Chapter 20 of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. There it is described how Śrī Caitanya used the stories of the Bhāgavatam to also enter its mythos, or the prevalent attitude that the verses of the narrative communicated. Jaya Jagannath is using the word mythos creatively, but when I share the exercise that he gave to the students in his seminar, and the work that they produced, it will be apparent what he was trying to do, and how it is exactly what the Bhāgavatam as a rasa-śāstra is meant to accomplish—to not just explain what is bhakti, but to make the reader feel and own the prayers of the text as if it is their own. I will share two of...


- Published: 2024-04-08
- Modified: 2024-04-08
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/04/08/a-beautiful-and-puzzling-theology/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

A puzzling verse: “Only the most fortunate will relish the mad words of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, which were mixed with jubilation, envy, agitation, submissiveness and grief, all produced by ecstatic loving emotions. ” (Cc. Antya-līlā 20. 1) This verse is from the last chapter of the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. I was up to this verse in my class and was asked to explain it. I thought deeply about how and realized that first I needed to explain the theology of Śrī Caitanya. Below are my thoughts as to why Śrī Caitanya is such a necessary manifestation of the divine and then my attempt to explain this verse in context: God means the Supreme Controller. Supreme Controller means Supreme Enjoyer. Why else would control be necessary? The ultimate enjoyment is pure love, and therefore to be the Supreme Enjoyer means to have the fullest experience of pure love. Love is an energy experienced between two people in relationship to each other – the object of love (the beloved) and the subject of love (the lover). It is a principle of love that the lover enjoys more than the beloved. Take motherly love, for example. The object of that love is the child, the beloved of the mother, and subject of that love is the mother, the lover of the child. They both enjoy the same energy of motherly love but from a different vantage point. But who enjoys that motherly energy more? Is it not our experience that the mother, or one...


- Published: 2024-04-01
- Modified: 2024-04-01
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/04/01/how-a-podcast-saved-my-life/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Not really, but I think listening to one recently may have significantly improved my life. Here’s the story: The non-stop flight from New Delhi to NYC is grueling. The passion of fast paced traveling and the ordeal of being confined to a less than ideal seat does not create goodness nor enlightened consciousness, to say the least. I resist the lure of the entertainment offered on the touch screen, but I needed some distraction. In desperation, I turned on the screen and looked for a kosher podcast. I found one—a wisdom one. I want to relate what I heard, but I didn’t even remember the name of the podcast, nor the person being interviewed who had impressed me. I was, however, able to find his name by searching some catchy phrase that I remembered in the title of the book he wrote, Tiny Habits. Professor B. J. Fogg has dedicated his life to the study of behavior modification, focusing on favorably developing good habits, the things we do in a regular and repeated way to improve our life. His analysis was brilliant and immediately applicable. A summary is below and then a link to his Ted Talk. B. J. Fogg has found that the most important thing in developing habits is making small commitments or tiny habits instead of proposing some significant change. He explains what he found to be the three foundations of developing a successful habit: motivation, ability, and a prompt or trigger. Motivation is self-explanatory—the degree to...


- Published: 2024-03-25
- Modified: 2024-03-25
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/03/25/a-day-in-the-life-in-vraja/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

“A Day in the Life in Vraja” comes from some notes I took during the last ekādaśī I spent in Govardhan. An old acquaintance organized a retreat in Govardhan of prominent Vaiṣṇava scholars lecturing in English who were either living in or visiting Vrindavan. He texted me to please attend. I was off to Varsana that day for an overnight stay—a first for me—but on my friend’s request I first stopped by the retreat to hear the lecture of an elderly and venerable Vaiṣṇava, a retired Sanskrit professor and a Bhāgavatam scholar. He made some very interesting points. One stuck in my mind: If we want to develop deep love for Śrī Krishna, we must know His svarūpa. Although I usually haven’t understood the term svarūpa in the way he was using it, I understood from his lecture that by svarūpa he meant Krishna’s inner self—His character or heart. This understanding is more inspirational, he said, than just knowing His position or opulence, like His beauty or power, for instance. He gave an example to illustrate the superiority of knowing a person’s svarūpa over just understanding their opulence. An honorable man who gets married to a qualified wife may initially be more attracted to her beauty or social status, but if the wife is a loving person and her husband develops a deep relationship with her, then even if she gets older or even disabled, she will still be attractive to him. In fact, she will be even more attractive...


- Published: 2024-03-18
- Modified: 2024-03-17
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/03/18/why-humility-is-the-jewel-of-devotional-practice/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Humility is the most important quality in developing devotion. I am therefore always interested in explaining it in various ways to save it from conjuring up misconceptions, such as humility is weakness or that humility fosters low self-esteem. That’s what I will do in this post, but first I need to make the concept of “authority”, which is fundamental to my definition, properly understood, as “authority” means different things to different people based on their personal and cultural experience or what definition they use. First, my definition of humility and then a clarification of the use of the word “authority” in terms of that definition: Humility means to give up one’s false and personal authority to the abode of real authority. I am not using the word “authority” here in the sense of “the power and right to give orders and to make others obey”, because to acquiesce to such authority would indicate that the blind followers of despots and cult leaders would be humble. Rather, I am using the word “authority” in the sense of “a person of special knowledge” and humility as the tendency to acquiesce to such an authority, specifically to the Absolute Truth. Also, when I refer to the authority of an Absolute Truth, I am not referring to a specific deity or a particular religion, but more in the sense that there is a logos, a truth embedded within the universe, and that humility is the tendency and feeling to be ruled by universal principles...


- Published: 2024-03-11
- Modified: 2024-03-10
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/03/11/immigration-and-the-gita-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Immigration and the Gītā April 10, 2017 A friend of mine in Washington, D. C. complained to me that the Hare Krishna movement is losing a good opportunity to share the profundity of its teachings by not being involved in spiritual activism. I will take up his challenge by commenting on the modern-day mess in governance by analyzing immigration policy based on the Bhagavad-gītā. There are two extreme views of immigration. One is radically exclusive nationalism, wherein, in the US, “America First” is the only principle, and to protect that principle we have to apply the letter of the law seemingly without heart. In this view, families can sometimes be separated and people who have been terribly oppressed, some who have sacrificed their lives abroad for American interest, can be detained or deported upon arrival, even if they have already been thoroughly vetted. The other view is radically inclusive globalism, a perspective that sees any imposition based on nationalist borders as antithetical to both humanistic and spiritual values. I will argue based on the Gītā that both of these views lack compassion and sensibility. The extremism of the first view would be opposed by verses in the Gītā that present the universality of living entities based on the soul. “The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater . ” (Gītā 5. 18) Such verses either imply or outright condemn viewing people according...


- Published: 2024-03-04
- Modified: 2024-03-03
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/03/04/substance-is-more-important-than-allegiance/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

A few stories and the question they raise: I have dealt with Father Ashley intimately and have observed him carefully as he manages the Isopanthi Retreat Center where we have been holding our Puri Retreat for years. He serves others selflessly and shows utmost deference to everyone, including the Vaiṣṇavas. As far as I can tell he tries to emulate Christ. We were impressed with him. If I had any criticism, I suspect it would be his diet. I am still in touch with my elder cousin, Ma Seva Bharati, a sannyāsini, who, forty-five years ago, renounced a very comfortable and successful life to serve her guru in the Himalayas, at times high in the mountains without even running water. She has visited me in Vrindavan several times and has shown great respect to the devotees of Krishna, the holy name, and Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Bhagavad-gītā, especially appreciating his strong purports. When I introduced my cousin to a god-brother who, for a second, was taken aback by her appearance—a shaved head with a bright orange kurta down to her ankles—I loved her response, indicating her study of those purports: “I’m a rascal impersonalist! ” She’s good humored, respectful, and saintly. I enjoy her company. Twenty years ago, due to visa problems, I had to leave India for six months and started visiting and teaching at yoga centers in New York. I especially liked the Broome Street Temple where Kaustubha was learning yoga and had become friendly with the head teacher, Eddie...


- Published: 2024-02-26
- Modified: 2024-02-26
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/02/26/the-agony-is-the-ecstasy/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I just finished studying and teaching the second chapter of the Madhya-līlā, “The Ecstatic Manifestations of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu”. It’s a challenging chapter because counter-intuitively the highest ecstasy is described as manifest through emotions, which reflect neither ecstasy nor the highest consciousness, but gloom and an uncontrolled mind: “ all the ecstatic symptoms of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu—including despondency, moroseness, humility, restlessness, joy, endurance and anger—instructed His body and mind. ” (Cc. Madhya-līlā 2. 76) Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja outlines this dichotomy: “Externally there appeared severe tribulation, as if He were suffering from poisonous effects, but internally He was experiencing bliss. This is characteristic of transcendental love of Krishna. ” (Cc. Madhya-līlā 2. 50) My attempt to resolve this quandary: Beyond Duality The spiritual realm is beyond duality. The Taittiriya Upaniṣad describes this as raso vai saḥ, “He (the Lord) is rasa (heightened love)”, which is ecstasy, because pure love is the highest pleasure. Makes sense. If there is a God, everything that happens in His spiritual realm would naturally be only for the purpose of intensifying rasa, or His transcendental pleasure, and thus every emotion, even the apparently negative ones, would also serve this purpose and in that way there is no duality between the agony and the ecstasy there. The rasa theory further resolves this dichotomy. The Rasa Theory The rasa theory, based on the Nāṭya Śāstra, is a thorough description of how drama is to be composed. It’s a complex thesis but let me try to simplify it...


- Published: 2024-02-19
- Modified: 2024-02-18
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/02/19/this-is-the-movement-of-the-living-entity/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I was standing in a large meadow in Golden Gate Park in the middle of San Francisco before the stage where Śrīla Prabhupāda was lecturing to thousands of young people who were attracted by the Ratha-yātrā. It was July 1974. Perhaps, you remember that famous picture of Śrīla Prabhupāda wearing a white sweater adorned with a starkly contrasted bright red rose garland, his hands raised in ecstasy in kirtan surrounded on stage by his dancing disciples. To this day I remember the profundity and force of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s speech that reverberated from the speakers in the trees that lined the back of the meadow: “There are so many movements of liberation: women’s liberation, black liberation, this liberation, and that liberation, BUT THIS IS THE MOVEMENT OF THE LIVING ENTITY! ” Now let me take you forward to yesterday, here in Govardhan, and then explain what inspired me to connect that experience to what I heard in 1974. Paramananda das and his son Kana were visiting, so I took them, along with two lady guests, Bhakti Śāstra and Yogamāyā, for some Brijabasi rotis in the nearby village of Aniyor in Govardhan at the house of the family of Bal Kishan Sharma, 84, one of the blessed brāhmaṇa families who, for generations, cook rotis for the sādhus who circumambulate the hill once or twice daily. I like to share the experience of taking lunch there with others so they can relish the rotis and watch one effulgent sādhu after another show up...


- Published: 2024-02-12
- Modified: 2024-02-11
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/02/12/i-have-no-devotion/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

There is a principle in spiritual life that the more one is advanced in devotion, the less devotion one feels they have. Here’s how Śrī Caitanya feels at the height of His devotion: “Srī Caitanya Mahāprabhu continued, ‘My dear friends, I have not the slightest tinge of love of Godhead within My heart. When you see Me crying in separation, I am just falsely exhibiting a demonstration of My great fortune. Indeed, not seeing the beautiful face of Krishna playing His flute, I continue to live My life like an insect, without purpose. ’” (Cc. Madhya-līlā 2. 46) It sounds almost counterintuitive to have the most of something, in this case devotion, but to feel you have none of it. Here’s four reasons why this is the case in terms of prema-bhakti, the height of devotion: Purity and humility Just as in a clear, pure glass of water a speck of dust becomes apparent, in a pure heart even an apparent indiscretion seems significant. Srīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja illustrates this humble position in relation to attaining prema with a similar analogy: “Love for Lord Krishna is very pure, just like the waters of the Ganges. That love is an ocean of nectar. That pure attachment to Krishna does not conceal any spot, which would appear just like a spot of ink on a white cloth. ” (Cc. Madhya-līlā 2. 48) The immanence of God and humility The very definition of maya (illusion) is ma (not) ya (this)—that what you are seeing is...


- Published: 2024-02-05
- Modified: 2024-02-05
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/02/05/the-art-of-traction/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Years ago, I showed a short TED Talk called “The Art of Distraction” during a japa seminar. It featured Apollo Robbins, the world’s most expert pick pocket, explaining and demonstrating his art. His premise was that perception is based on attention and as the mind can focus on only one sense at a time, if you can distract a person from the feel of touch in their pocket to some other sense—perhaps touching them someplace else—you can pick their pocket without them knowing it. He was so expert at the art of distraction that he was able to pick the pocket of a person brought on stage right in front of the audience with neither the person nor the audience noticing it. This principle—that perception is based on attention—is more deeply described in Sāṅkhya when discussing the two main qualities of the mind as anutvam (atomic) and ekatvam (it can only focus on a singular object at one time). Using these terms, for example, “the art of distraction” can be translated as deliberately moving or distracting the atomic and single focused mind away from something someone really wants, in this case a focus on the things in their pocket for the purpose of taking them without notice. It doesn’t take much to understand how this principle of perception based on attention can be applied to japa meditation, for if one doesn’t take precaution to concentrate on hearing the holy name by at least creating a time and space for chanting...


- Published: 2024-01-29
- Modified: 2024-01-29
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/01/29/coming-attractions/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The past week we celebrated our 17th annual Puri Yatra. I wish you could have been there especially for Hari Pārṣada Dās’s seminar, “The Joyous Waves of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s Poetry”. Needless to say, I was engaged twenty-four hours a day and couldn’t finish a Monday Morning Greetings. It was not that I had a dearth of topics to write about. This week I will share a short synopsis of the topics I was thinking of writing about and then share a previous Monday Morning Greetings. The Mission of Śrī Caitanya and the Genius of Sanātana Gosvāmī in Presenting It This was the subject of my seminar. I described the immense challenge that Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī faced trying to communicate to his audience, us, the extreme level of transcendence (parama-daśāntaṁ) and the brilliant way he built the frame of reference of his audience in Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta for us to understand it. The Art of Traction I once wrote an article about the most famous pick pocket in the world called the Art of Distraction where he showed how to take your attention away from what you were doing or thinking about so that he could pickpocket you. The Art of Traction would be about the opposite, techniques that I learned to take your attention towards what you are doing or thinking, in this case meditating on the holy name. Substance is Higher than Allegiance Our Puri Yatra was held at a beautiful Catholic retreat center that was run by just one...


- Published: 2024-01-22
- Modified: 2024-01-21
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/01/22/the-passing-away-of-sridhara-mali/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The Passing Away of Sridhara Mali This may be a relatively simple Monday Morning Greetings, but sometimes things can be superficially simple, but in essence very deep. This is about my (our) very simple, but deep friend Sridhara Mali. Our story: When I first came to Vrindavan there was one taxi and one phone in the whole town. The phone was at the police station. Communication with the outside world was near impossible. I don’t know exactly how it worked, but to call the USA you had to call Mathura, which would call Delhi, which would call the USA, and you were rarely successful. But there was also a certain joy in that level of technological solitude. The parikramā road was still a bumpy dirt road, and halfway around you started entering the forest of Vrindavan. Those who came with me on parikramā over twenty-five years ago remember Hari Bhajan, the saintly forest sādhu whose hermitage was right off the path, and how with his charm and unbounded enthusiasm he would pull you into his forest ashram for prasādam, and then have you sit and do kirtan until it was ready. I’m just trying to give you a sense of the quietude of Vrindavan when I came and some years after that. And then suddenly, about twenty years ago or so, everything changed. The once rustic Raman Reti, where our temple is located, became the center of a burgeoning mini metropolis with traffic jams on the weekends. And that’s where...


- Published: 2024-01-15
- Modified: 2024-01-15
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/01/15/the-spiritual-practice-of-sri-caitanya/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

This is how Śrī Caitanya practiced and taught His direct disciples the process of attaining love of Godhead as described in Second Chapter of the Madhya-līla of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta: “By personally tasting the mellows of love of Godhead, Caitanya Mahāprabhu taught His direct disciples. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is a wealthy capitalist possessing the touchstone of love of God. Not considering whether one is a proper or improper recipient, He gives His treasure to anyone and everyone. Thus He is the most munificent. ” (Cc Madhya-līla 2. 81) In the verses preceding this one, what that tasting of the mellows of love of Godhead looks like is described. There Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja depicts Śrī Radha’s extreme feelings of separation from Śrī Krishna as transcendental madness, which hardly seems to be something one coming to the practice of Krishna consciousness can practically embrace. Can this really be the process that Śrī Caitanya gave to everyone and anyone? Concerning another seemingly remarkable claim about the practice of bhakti, I once asked a Vaiṣṇava scholar in Vrindavan how to possibly make sense of the last and eleventh verse of the Upadeśāmṛta: “If one simply bathes once within those holy waters, one’s pure love of Krishna is fully aroused. ” I loved his answer: “Yes, that is true, but it is the last verse. You must first go through the other ten verses to get there, beginning with verse one where it says one must conquer all the pushing’s of the senses, body, and mind. ”...


- Published: 2024-01-08
- Modified: 2024-01-09
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/01/08/a-guide-for-beginners-and-their-guides/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Many people have told me that they appreciate the definition of faith that I frequently cite: “faith is trust by experience”. Experience engenders faith because faith is what we trust as our goal, and that goal is generally based on a good experience. Therefore, the greatest tragedy is to have misplaced faith, such as trust in intoxication based on an initial experience of getting high, for example, and then becoming addicted and ruining one’s life. The greatest blessing, in contrast, is having faith in a worthy objective, such as attaining mature devotion to God based on an initial religious experience and becoming fulfilled in life. For that reason, I have adopted as one of my services guiding pilgrims visiting Vrindavan, for I believe it is, more than any other place, where one can easily have a transcendent experience and awaken the faith to develop love for Śrī Krishna. Being here since 1976, I have witnessed hundreds of people coming in a humble mood, under the proper guide and getting that experience and faith. I have also witnessed pilgrims visiting Vrindavan completely missing that experience, or even having a negative experience, because they are not ready to humbly follow a guide, or their tour was not properly organized. For this week’s post I will concentrate on a few basic principles that in my experience are essential for introducing new people to Vrindavan. Only take qualified pilgrims A pilgrim doesn’t necessarily have to have faith, which is generally the precursor for any...


- Published: 2024-01-01
- Modified: 2023-12-31
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2024/01/01/the-miracle-of-composition-and-happy-8th-birthday-monday-morning-greetings/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The Miracle of Composition and Happy 8th Birthday Monday Morning Greetings This January 1st marks eight years since I started Monday Morning Greetings here in Śrīdhāma Māyāpur. That’s over four hundred original posts. What I usually do every year to commemorate the beginning of Monday Morning Greetings is to share my realizations about writing gleaned from the previous years’ experience of writing them. Every week I write something that it is published and appreciated—not an easy task. The challenge for one on the spiritual path who has a service to accomplish something in his guru’s mission is how to be always humbler than their accomplishments. The answer in a sense seems simple: give credit where credit is due—God. As I continue writing these weekly posts, I have more and more experience of how often both the realizations on what to write and how to effectively express it manifest beyond my own agency or effort. Sure, like most writers I often struggle with the composition in this way, but it is specifically at those times, when I seem the most lost, that suddenly the solution arises. When this happens again and again over eight years, I have no other answer than it’s God. It is this experience of the miracle of composition, when the result is so far beyond my own effort, that helps me be humbler than what I achieved. No answer but God? Perhaps we can propose other possible explanations, but from my personal experience the most reasonable conclusion...


- Published: 2023-12-25
- Modified: 2023-12-25
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/12/25/is-sankirtan-better-than-kirtan/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Is Sankirtan Better Than Kirtan? Yes. Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī compares the two and says sankirtan, congregational chanting, as compared to kirtan, glorifying Krishna by oneself, gives special feelings of bliss. When I originally read this in Śrī Bhakti-sandarbha a question naturally arose: “Why? ” Recently, a second questions arose when reflecting on Jīva Gosvāmī’s comparison, “If devotees seem to become more easily absorbed in sankirtan than japa, then why is a certain amount of sankirtan prescribed at initiation instead of japa? Wouldn’t that be better for most struggling sādhakas? In this post I will try to answer these questions. Why is sankirtan better than kirtan? Music enhances emotion: The superiority of any yogic process is the facility it gives one to connect or become absorbed in the object of one’s meditation. In bhakti-yoga, one’s connection with one’s object of meditation, which is the holy names of Śrī Krishna, is an emotional connection, which is our devotion to Krishna. As raga (melody) and tāla (rhythm) are connected to deep parts in the psyche that increase one’s emotion, couching the holy names in proper music (sankirtan) naturally enhances our devotion. Shared bliss is greater than individual bliss: A proper community, like those joined together in sankirtan, is a place where shared interest is higher than individual interest and thus a place that helps remove the egocentric or limited concept of “I” or the false ego. As it is this ego that covers us from our loving connection with God, then naturally sankirtan...


- Published: 2023-12-18
- Modified: 2023-12-18
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/12/18/who-can-hear-the-rasa-lila/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

When I go to Vrindavan every couple of weeks, I teach Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta in the morning in my room. We are up to the Second Chapter of the Madhya-līlā, “The Ecstatic Manifestations of Śrī Caitanya”, where Śrīla Krishna das Kavirāja summarizes Śrī Caitanya’s aspirations to imbibe the mood of Śrī Radha. As Śrīla Prabhupāda and his guru issued strong cautions about prematurely hearing such elevated subjects, an important question naturally arises as to who can hear these subjects, and if so, how should they be presented? Sivaram Swami, in his new book, Part Two of his commentary on Vilāpa-kusumāñjali, answers this question in a thorough analysis of Śukadeva Gosvāmī’s instruction to Mahārāja Parīkṣit, where he states that the qualification is faith. “Anyone who faithfully hears or describes the Lord’s playful affairs with the young gopīs of Vṛndāvana will attain the Lord’s pure devotional service. Thus he will quickly become sober and conquer lust, the disease of the heart. ” (Bhag. 10. 33. 39) I can’t do justice within limits of a weekly post to properly summarize Sivaram Swami’s detailed and well thought out analysis of exactly what such “faith” means, but I can, in a cursory way, explain how I understand and explain what faithfully hearing means when I teach those subjects in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. It goes something like this: One of the main objectives of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is to qualify its reader to be able to properly understand Śrī Krishna’s pastimes, especially His playful affairs with the young...


- Published: 2023-12-11
- Modified: 2023-12-10
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/12/11/a-beggars-journey/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I have very little responsibility imposed upon me, like a job, a family, or any management commitment. I thus sometimes joke that I am unemployed, but isn’t that age appropriate for me? When we get older shouldn’t we be free from work and family obligations so that we can chant God’s names? That’s mostly what I try to do—focus attentively on the holy name—but naturally, realizations come when chanting on how to deepen one’s meditation. Two came today. I wrote them down afterwards: Realization One I spent Puruṣottama Mas (month) and Kārtika Mas focusing on my spiritual practices, specifically on chanting the holy names. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says “mādhava-tithi bhakti-jananī,” that the observance of the days of Lord Hari, like Ekādaśī and special holidays, give birth to devotion, so what to speak of the power of observing special months of Lord Hari in terms of giving birth to devotion. I felt that. My chanting, my taste for the holy name, substantially improved by observing these two special months. Just like in childbirth something suddenly appears that wasn’t there before, similarly a greater taste for the holy name manifested by strictly adhering to these special observances. It was quite mystical and that led to my first realization from these months. It goes something like this: The distance between the step we’re on in devotion and our next step in devotion always seem impossible to broach by our qualification, at least it appears that way. That distance therefore can only be covered by...


- Published: 2023-12-04
- Modified: 2023-12-04
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/12/04/where-there-is-no-circumference-the-center-is-everywhere-and-other-kartika-realizations/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Kārtika ended yesterday. Some realizations from the month: How to reconcile that on the highest levels of love of God (prema), the greatest suffering is also the highest ecstasy. During Kārtika I taught chapter two of the Madhya-līlā of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta: “The Ecstatic Manifestations of Śrī Caitanya Mahaprabhu” and the seventh chapter of Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta: “Pūrṇa” (complete devotional perfection). One of the main themes of both chapters was that the emotions of intense suffering that the gopīs feel in their relationship with Krishna is counterintuitively the greatest ecstasy. Here’s a description of such love from Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta: “But this anguish of separation is praised as greater than the happiness of enjoying with those one loves. Separation is so pleasing to the mind that it cannot be described. It always transforms at last into an abundance of pleasure. Only experts in tasting these moods can understand how this happens. ” (7. 126) In both classes questions were asked about how to reconcile this apparent contradiction between the gopīs’ ecstasy being the greatest joy and the greatest suffering at the same time. The answer rests in the fact that the highest joy is love of God and thus the gopīs’ apparently painful emotions in deep separation from Krishna only increase their love and therefore their ecstasy. Still having trouble reconciling the two? I did also, until I thought of an analogy illustrating how painful emotions and joyful emotions can exist at the same time: Just as in viewing a well written tragedy (drama) one...


- Published: 2023-11-27
- Modified: 2023-11-26
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/11/27/what-made-prabhupada-prabhupada/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

It was the late seventies, early eighties—I can’t remember the exact date, but it was soon after Śrīla Prabhupāda left this world. I was given the service of inviting some of the senior Vaiṣṇavas in Vrindavan who knew Śrīla Prabhupāda to his disappearance festival. I first approached Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja, as Śrīla Prabhupāda lived in his ashram after taking sannyāsa. He was at first somewhat reluctant to speak, but I prodded him by asking him to describe the qualities he saw in Śrīla Prabhupāda when he lived at his ashram as a humble mendicant that indicated who he would become later as a world ācārya. He thought about my inquiry deeply and then began to explain two qualities that he saw in Śrīla Prabhupāda: his boldness and his ability to relate to others. Recently, when reflecting on that exchange, I began to ponder what I thought was the prime quality in Śrīla Prabhupāda that perhaps indicated what made him Prabhupāda, the person who succeeded above all others to bring the holy name of Krishna around the world. I thought of his many attributes and came up with one—his depth of realization. When I thought about this quality, I had in mind Śrīla Prabhupāda’s definition of realization that struck me when I first read the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: “ he must realize the subject so nicely that he can present the matter for the particular circumstance in a suitable manner. The original purpose of the text must be maintained. No obscure meaning...


- Published: 2023-11-20
- Modified: 2023-11-20
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/11/20/the-power-of-gratitude-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The Power of Gratitude Gratitude is the basis of experiencing love. As a spoiled child never experiences his parents’ love no matter how much they give him, a proud and entitled person will never fully appreciate the kindness and love of others. Gratitude is the basis of relationships. I have observed how sometimes an ungrateful spouse neglects a good relationship by failing to appreciate the kindness of their partner, even though lavished with generosity and care, only to later regret sabotaging what they had when the relationship broke by their own doing. On the other hand, I have observed very grateful people seeing the good in their substantial connections, despite other’s weaknesses, feeling very secure and loved in this world. Gratitude is therefore the basis of all good relationships in this world. Gratitude grounds you in present. I was walking here in Colombia to visit a bakery opened by one of our friends who I met on his pilgrimage to India two years ago. Although it was only fifteen minutes from our ashram I got lost, and it took me an inordinate amount of time to get there. When I begun my return to Shyam Ashram, I therefore felt tired and bored and strongly hankered to already be back home. As I was in the midst of preparing to write something about gratitude and was contemplating how gratitude grounds one in the present, I consciously started to base myself in the moment by appreciating nature around me, and the fact...


- Published: 2023-11-13
- Modified: 2023-11-12
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/11/13/devotion-and-the-dumbphone/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I pass a man who is walking around Govardhan, smartphone to his ear, chatting away. Unfortunately, I have seen this more and more. A thought comes to mind: “If he completes the whole Govardhan parikrama while talking on the phone, how much spiritual advancement benefit does he get? Afterall, he would have completed a powerful practice of devotional service. ” In other words, how much benefit do we get by completing our parikrama, or any devotional activity, without any devotional focus while doing so? Very little, for sure, in comparison to absorbing ourselves in the prescribed activity, which is the whole purpose of a devotional activity. This is outlined clearly in the Padma Purāṇa, where it describes that always thinking of Krishna without forgetting Him is the most basic of all regulative principles, and by following that injunction all other rules and regulations automatically fall into line. This most basic of basic of all regulative principles offers a word of caution to devotional practitioners: As vaidhī (rule based) bhakti is driven by our faith in śāstra and the promise it gives of spiritual benefit by adhering to a prescribed devotional practice, one can easily lose sight of this most basic of all regulative principle and thus fall under the misconception that the advantage of a prescribed devotional activity comes only from completing it, rather than the opportunity it affords to remember Śrī Krishna. I am not being dismissive of the practice of following our devotional commitments strictly. It is important...


- Published: 2023-11-06
- Modified: 2023-11-05
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/11/06/i-dont-want-to-die/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Within the last week, two people sought counsel expressing a sudden preoccupation, almost panic, with death. I discussed the matter with them. Some further thoughts: Everyone fears death. Fear of death is one of the five kleśas, the psychological underpinnings of all troubling material thoughts, described in the Yoga-sūtras as the basis of ignorance, or identification with the body as the self. The experience of death, being ripped of all one’s attachments at once, is so traumatic and leaves such an aversion to that experience in the subconscious that even a baby, who has no experience in this life of what is death, fears it terribly. That a child fears death, even though they have no experience of it in the present life, is a good argument for reincarnation, otherwise where does such fear come from but a previous life? For one in the bodily concept of life, death, the impending and inevitable threat of non-existence, stains all material enjoyment with duality, for whatever attachment one maintains and enjoys is mixed with the reality that death will eventually take it away. In that sense, enjoyment in material life is somewhat analogous to the pleasure one gets from the last meal on death row. Can you really enjoy each bite facing impending doom? In the same way, how much can you enjoy life while faced with imminent death? Everyone on the bodily platform therefore tries to avoid death in two ways: by psychologically blocking it from the conscious mind and doing...


- Published: 2023-10-30
- Modified: 2023-10-29
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/10/30/monday-morning-musings-chanting-and-writing-and-other-thoughts/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Are you OK? Last Monday Morning Greetings I discussed that my life was at a crossroads. Some people inquired if I could share what that was. Nothing serious. As I explained in a previous post, I am in the unique situation—or perhaps it’s just the time of life—where I have no externally imposed responsibilities, and I can freely choose how I want to serve Krishna. As I was trying to figure it out, a friend visited and recommended that I just talk to God. I did. I will be working on a new book and will continue to develop more the sādhu side of my life—live simply and chant more. Chanting and Writing A scholar was burdened with a deep philosophical question. He decided to ask Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta, the great Vaiṣṇava scholar and saint, so he made an appointment to see him. When he arrived, however, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta was busy, so the great saint asked him if he would mind polishing the deity paraphernalia while he waited. When he returned as scheduled, the saint told him that something extremely important came up and if he could please come the next day. Although he had to wait again, when he finished polishing the brass, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta graciously welcomed his inquiry. To the saint’s surprise the scholar sat their silently, but soon revealed why: “I had this very deep question that had been bothering me for some time, but after finishing polishing the brass today the answer suddenly came! ” In the...


- Published: 2023-10-23
- Modified: 2023-10-22
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/10/23/talking-to-god/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

A friend visited. I revealed my mind in confidence. I am at a bit of a crossroads in my spiritual journey and seeking direction on which way to move my life forward. I liked his advice: “Just talk to God. Ask Him for clarity on what you should do. Śrī Girirāja is a person, and you are here under His shelter. He can hear and respond to you. Don’t you believe that? Isn’t that our philosophy? Don’t we talk and reveal our minds to those whom we love and respect? Doesn’t that also help us to develop that relationship? ” I approached Śrī Girirāja. I fell at His feet. I verbalized my quandary and asked for help. I began my walk. I noticed that my chanting gradually became conversational. I listened to my heart. What is God telling me? Some clarity came. Our relationship deepened. So simple. Just talk to God. After my walk a realization came: I should talk to God more, especially during my mantra japa. In the Yoga-sūtras, when Patañjali recommends that to control the mind we should surrender to God (īśvara), he also recommends how to surrender. We should focus on repeating a mantra (tad japas) and dwell on the meaning (artha bhavanam). In other words, the mantra is not just names of God to be repeated with attention, it is also an address to God, and one should be very much cognizant of its meaning: “O Lord, O energy of the Lord, please engage me...


- Published: 2023-10-16
- Modified: 2023-10-15
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/10/16/why-nistha-leads-to-ruci/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I don’t have a job or a family and just a few disciples to guide. No management responsibilities either. I only travel one or two places to teach. I guess that’s called the life of sannyāsī, maybe a little bābājī in there. I am also blessed with good health and don’t need much sleep. That’s how my destiny has unfolded. What, then, do I do all day? Good question. I chant a lot, do some writing, occasionally entertain or counsel a guest, and do some reading. Still, I have time on my hands and must be vigilant to not waste it. Everyone one has a personal challenge; That’s mine. I arrived a few minutes early at the gate of Brij Vasundhara (the Govardhan “resort”) on the parikramā path and sat there waiting for my parikramā partner to come when those above thoughts flooded my mind. My train of thought continued: “Ruci, real taste in devotion, comes after niṣṭhā, being always absorbed or fixed in devotion. That’s why this daily jaunt around Govardhan is important for me. It keeps my schedule tight to ensure I don’t fall prey to the distraction or idleness that compromises my fixedness and taste for bhakti. That touches on a quandary: Without being fixed in devotional service, there is no taste in Krishna consciousness, but without that taste you can’t remain fixed. Chanting under the shade of Śrī Girirāja, however, seems to help both. It sparks devotion and also gives a strong impetus to remain fixed....


- Published: 2023-10-09
- Modified: 2023-10-08
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/10/09/can-an-atheist-be-moral/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Of course they can! I have studied the moral argument for the existence of God from the writings of the best Christian apologists. While they make very compelling arguments that it’s very difficult to validate the existence of objective moral values without accepting the existence of God, they make it clear that you don’t need to believe in God to have moral values—to love your children rather than abuse them or to be honest and not steal, for example. So, what is this post about? Last week I was trying to complete a two-part series on the quotations of Saint Augustine from a Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava perspective. What I realized was that besides Saint Augustine’s most famous quote, “Humility! Humility! Humility! ”, which I highlighted in the first article, he had several other good quotes about humility that might make an interesting new post if I commented on them from a Gauḍīya perspective. I began with this insightful one: “Humility is the foundation of all other virtues hence, in the souls in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except mere appearance. ” I started my commentary on this verse by referencing a somewhat similar statement from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (5. 18. 12) where it states that if one is not a devotee of the Lord, they have no good qualities because one’s qualities are born of the mind and in service to the material energy. According to my philosophical understanding, that declarative statement—that one who is...


- Published: 2023-10-02
- Modified: 2023-10-01
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/10/02/how-to-feel-bad-about-yourself-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

How to Feel Bad About Yourself A friend once joked: “You’re so optimistic that you could be falling out of the Empire State Building and on the fiftieth floor say, ‘so far so good’. ” I’m a hopeless optimist. We laughed, but it is no joke. A dose of pessimism, even pain in the heart, is essential for bhakti. I feel that more and more. Comes with age? Could I be advancing in spiritual life? Who knows? But my wall of unhinged optimism is cracking, and it’s sometimes heavy. The pain of purification One friend described being in a holy place like putting a mirror to your false ego. Devotion is like that. It cleans the heart and helps you see yourself, warts and all. When the mind is cluttered with desires it is often hard to notice our faults, like not noticing something out of place in a cluttered room. For a minute I see myself. How many lifetimes have I been parading as Pauṇḍraka? Can I bear the truth of self-realization? The pain of understanding God To really believe in an Absolute Truth sets a standard for our life. How demanding it is to conform one’s living to something higher than one’s whims and attachments. I am reading that standard of truth. It is called the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. I am informed page after page, “You are not up to the mark. Change! ” Can I bear the truth of self-realization? The pain of realization I not only understand a...


- Published: 2023-09-25
- Modified: 2023-09-24
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/09/25/humility-humility-humility-from-a-gaudiya-vaisnava-perspective-part-i/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I was always struck by the famous quote of Saint Augustine about humility: “If you ask me what the essential thing in the religion and discipline of Jesus Christ is, I shall reply: first, humility; second, humility; and third, humility. ” Although Saint Augustine is talking within the context of his own faith, his insight is universal and certainly applicable to the essence of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism. Therefore, if I was asked the same question that Saint Augustine was asked but in reference to my own tradition, I would also certainly give a similar answer. Below is my own creative analysis of humility! humility! humility! from a Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava perspective: First Humility According to Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, spiritual life begins with humility. The living entity is nitya baddha, conditioned since time immemorial. That means their spiritual self is covered by a conceit—that I know what is best for my life, and it’s to selfishly control and enjoy. The problem is that simply based on our own authority, the pursuance of this misdirected ideal has failed us again and again, for happiness is not in seeking superiority, but in submitting to and serving God and others. After limitless births of directing oneself with such a miserable result, the fortunate soul may finally admit defeat and search for guidance. That recognition—that to be fulfilled I must submit to an authority and truth higher than my own—is the seed of humility and the emblem of character. Second Humility According to the school of bhakti, this...


- Published: 2023-09-18
- Modified: 2023-09-17
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/09/18/aliens-and-earthmen/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I’ve exposed myself before as an “alien”, a person who grew up revering asphalt and stickball, never went camping, and hates country walks. Still, by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s grace, I aspire for the forest of Vrindavan and the planet of the cows. I also honor “earthmen”, people who not only commune with nature and love country walks but can live off the land. If there is any failure of the modern-day Hare Krishna movement, it’s that despite Śrīla Prabhupāda’s teachings of “simple living and high thinking”, almost all of us, his followers that is, are stuck in the city or suburbs conditioned by a false sense of opulence based on technology and could never see Goloka Vrindavan as the spiritual world if it didn’t have 5G. Seriously! Where did this rant come from? ! A friend sent me a short video interview with a pious young Christian named Titus. He lives without running water and electricity on his own sustainable farm on a strictly plant-based diet. He works hard all day, and if he has spare time, he reads the Bible and an occasional history book. He seems peaceful and fulfilled. The quality and especially integrity of his life hit me because it reinforced in me many of the things I needed to hear again that Śrīla Prabhupāda stressed about simple living, especially that most of our material problems are self-created by the way we choose to live and that few people today, if any, have a relatively peaceful life. Just...


- Published: 2023-09-11
- Modified: 2023-09-10
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/09/11/ignorance-meaning-and-the-expansion-of-consciousness/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Without understanding what something is, do we really perceive it? All the senses of an animal are functional, with some more acute in perception than ours, but if you gave a monkey a computer, would they know what it is? And if not, are they truly perceiving it? It seems obvious from this example that the complete perception of an object entails expanding our awareness of what it is, and therefore the ultimate purpose of knowledge is the expansion of awareness or perception. But why would that be important? It’s important because of the causal relationship between such heightened perception and contentment. In other words, a deeper meaning or knowledge of reality elevates our consciousness and happiness. If that were not the case, or there wasn’t such a relationship, then why do we help someone in distress by helping them see their situation more clearly or with deeper meaning? The principle that knowledge enhances our perception of reality and consequently our contentment is certainly true from a theistic standpoint where reality is ultimately connected with God, and when used according to its logos (purpose) brings us closer to His nature and joy. What else could be the purpose of a creation by an omnibenevolent being? That logos of everything in Sanskrit is called the Vedas, or śāstra. The idea is that from “oṁ”, the sound from which the whole universe manifests, simultaneously the Vedas, the meaning and utility of everything, is also manifest. In other words, śāstra shows how everything...


- Published: 2023-09-07
- Modified: 2023-09-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/09/07/srila-prabhupadas-vyasa-puja-dhanurdhara-swamis-offering-to-srila-prabhupada-2023/
- Categories: Srila Prabhupada, Vyasa-puja

Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to your Divine Grace. I owe my life to you. A remembrance came to me today. It was the commemoration of your disappearance two or three years after you passed from this world. Several of your contemporaries were still alive, and an old Vaiṣṇava – I don’t remember his name – made a eulogy beginning with a rhetorical question: “If Śrīla Haridas Ṭhākura, Śrīla Rūpa Goswami, and Śrīla Prabhupāda were in the same room and Śrī Caitanya walked in, who would He go to first? ” I was a bit startled by his answer: “I say Śrīla Prabhupāda, because who could be more attached to the holy name than the person who spread the holy name around the world? ” Now, someone could object that in a eulogy one has a license to exaggerate, especially for an old, learned Vaiṣṇava who is often more concerned with the rasa or mood of a statement than its literal meaning, but no one can doubt what Śrīla Prabhupāda accomplished. Does he not, therefore, have a right to be mentioned in the same breath as them and thus belong in the pantheon of the all-time luminaries of Śrī Caitanya’s lineage. As far as I am concerned, there is no limit to your glories, but for me your greatest glory, and one that I think about every day, is that despite who I am and the mistakes I have made, my taste for the holy...


- Published: 2023-09-04
- Modified: 2023-09-03
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/09/04/can-god-be-blue-3/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Due to facilitating the Bhakti Immersion in Colombia this week,I was unable to finish a Monday Morning Greeting. I am republishing this one in honor of Janmastami. Can God Be Blue? July 31, 2017 That’s simple. God can be anything He wants. If there were any other reason that God was blue, then He wouldn’t be God, because if a reason or cause external to one’s own will dictates one’s nature, then one would not be fully independent, which is one of the basic criteria for being Supreme. So, the only reason why God is blue, if He is indeed blue, is because it is part of His intrinsic nature. So, the real questions in relation to the nature of God’s color should first be whether there is a God, is He a person, and whether that person is Krishna? Limitations of this article This is a very deep subject. Libraries of books have been written about the nature of God. How can I possibly do justice to such a vast subject in such a short article? I think what is possible here is to give a solid outline supporting the reasonableness that there is God, who is a person, and whose name is Krishna. Criteria for ascertaining whether God exists The main criteria by which atheists have argued against the existence of God, especially in the twentieth century, and which greatly informs their reasoning to this day, is called the verification principle—a premise that states that no one should...


- Published: 2023-08-28
- Modified: 2023-08-27
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/08/28/forced-to-act-helplessly/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Agency means the ability to initiate and control actions and thoughts. Various schools of Indian thought have various views on this. The Bhagavad-gītā seems to say that the soul has no agency: “The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature. ” (Bg. 3. 27) But how can that be? If we have no ability to initiate and control action, then what is the meaning of the law of karma? How can we then be held responsible for that which we have absolutely no ability to initiate? This is a deep and debated philosophical concept in the Indian philosophical tradition far beyond the scope of my posts. I am therefore not going to pretend to have exhaustively argued my own position that there is agency in the soul, but it is obvious that that is what Śrīla Prabhupāda taught. We therefore understand a deeper meaning to the above verse—to the extent we are acting against our constitutional nature as devotees of God is the extent to which we have surrendered our agency and are forced to act helplessly by the modes of material nature. In other words, one can compromise one’s agency by how one associates with the modes of nature, but it is not that the soul has no agency. I am going to do something in this Monday Morning Greetings that I have never done before: print another...


- Published: 2023-08-21
- Modified: 2023-08-19
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/08/21/pain-on-the-path-of-perfection-and-other-thoughts-on-chanting/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

It rains every few days—mostly in the night—just enough to keep the weather pleasant and temperate. Govardhan has become so verdant you practically can’t even see the hill behind its foliage. Although there are plenty of pilgrims packing the path, it is not a loud-blaring-festival time of year and barely a soul comes to my door. I’m here alone. It keeps my stay sacred—an ideal time to chant the holy name! Chanting—the lens or mirror of the mind is cleansed, and what do you see? You see and feel the real you, the devotee of Krishna. A mirror is also held up to the false ego. Sure, that enables you to distinguish it from the soul, but you also see that false-self parading around as if those temporary material designations of body, birth, and position are you. How embarrassing! More painful is looking back and realizing how much folly was done in the name of illusion—the mistakes made, and the harm caused. Should I continue to go deeper and obliterate the rest of my extraneous attachments and ultimately come to point of seeing my envy of God? Chanting—the lens or mirror of the mind is cleansed, and what do you see? The agony and ecstasy. But there is no duality on the path of bhakti, because both the joys and struggles in devotional practice are born from devotion. If we can lament and feel the pain of separation from Śrī Krishna, like a child crying for his mother, as Śrīla...


- Published: 2023-08-14
- Modified: 2023-08-13
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/08/14/who-wants-to-be-a-billionaire/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Do you? On Śrī Nārada’s quest to find the topmost recipient of Śrī Krishna’s mercy, he is eventually directed by Lord Indra to see Lord Brahmā, and for good reason. Brahmā’s quantity and quality of service to Śrī Krishna is unfathomable. He acts as the secondary creator of this universe, is the dispenser of karma and appoints, empowers, and supervises all the demigods in the service of the Lord. Most importantly, on his planet, he facilitates the highest level of ritual worship in the universe for the Supreme Lord in the form of the many armed Mahāpuruṣa who resides there. When Śrī Nārada hears of the glories of Lord Brahmā from Lord Indra, he enthusiastically rushes to Lord Brahmā’s planet to see for himself. He is more than impressed with what he sees and profusely glorifies Lord Brahmā. Lord Brahmā, as a devotee, however, neither wants, accepts, nor even believes such laurels and thus counters Indra’s claims that having such a powerful position, even in the Lord’s service, is a sign of Śrī Krishna’s mercy: “By the power of Krishna’s maya, I am always deluded by various conceits. I think myself the controller, grandfather, and spiritual master of the universe. Proud of my birth from Krishna’s lotus navel, I think myself a great ascetic, His great worshipper ” (Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta 1. 2. 60) He further disses the conception that his power and position is an example of Krishna’s mercy by expressing his fears: “ I live in terror of the all-devouring...


- Published: 2023-08-07
- Modified: 2023-08-07
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/08/07/slay-me-or-protect-me-as-you-wish/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I am enjoying Akincana Krishna das’s class, “Smaraṇaṁ: Meditations on Śaraṇāgati”, one of the four main song books that the great Vaiṣṇava ācārya Śrīla Bhaktivinoda composed. Akincana teaches the songs of “Śaraṇāgati” for memorization and prayer. Included in the class are simple classical mnemonic devices that, in my experience, enable one to memorize the songs in a fraction of what it would normally take, and techniques for deeply meditating on them. Besides the memorization and prayer, what intrigues me most in studying “Śaraṇāgati” is the way in which Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, in verse after verse, uncompromisingly presents the concept of Śaraṇāgati (surrender), such as is expressed in today’s title, which is from the third verse from last week’s song: “Slay me or protect me as You wish, You are the master of Your eternal servant. ” What I was wondering, which will be the substance of today’s discussion, is how people coming to the path of bhakti today, who are generally influenced in their upbringing with a post-modern mind, which tends to psychologically react negatively to authority, what to speak of the idea that there is a truth that we must fully acquiesce or surrender to, can properly understand this concept of Śaraṇāgati. Śaraṇāgati also has all the trappings, at least externally, of a codependent relationship, the mood to totally reject one’s own needs and to plan one’s entire life around pleasing another. What I want to try to do in this post is to, in a simple and brief way,...


- Published: 2023-07-31
- Modified: 2023-07-31
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/07/31/what-i-learned-from-the-sadhus-who-never-stop-walking/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Last week I wrote about the sādhus who never stop walking. Last Tuesday I again walked halfway around Govardhan starting at 5:00 PM. With the heat and humidity, I sweated so much that when I returned from parikrama, although I drank almost a liter of water before bed, I didn’t get up once all night. I was dehydrated and exhausted. Yet these elderly, raggedy, worn old men walk two or three times a day around the whole hill, even now in the hot, humid rainy season! Are they over doing it? In what mode is their austerity? Could it possibly be ignorance? “And those penances and austerities which are performed foolishly by means of obstinate self-torture, or to destroy or injure others, are said to be in the mode of ignorance. ” (Bg. 17. 19) Of course, they mean no harm to others, but doesn’t it seem almost a kind of self-torture? Is it great devotion or over endeavor? Before having this discussion, let us introduce a short outline (my own) describing what is austerity, especially in the line of devotion. The seven principles of tapasya We are not the body, but we identify with and experience the pains and pleasures of the body due to the false ego, the desire to be the enjoyer and controller. The general purpose of life is mokṣa (liberation), to become free from this false identification so we can live in the true self, the soul. By extraneous sensual indulgence, one’s absorption in and...


- Published: 2023-07-24
- Modified: 2023-07-23
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/07/24/just-write/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I believe that’s the title of a book by Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami aptly describing its contents—free writing—a process of writing where, without a specific preconceived idea of a subject to write about, one just lets one’s pen fly. It’s been so busy a week, so let me “just write”. A disciple proudly shared with me that they have been my student since their teens, more than twenty-five years ago. I thought, “But are you chanting your rounds? ” I thought of the story of the boatman, who rowed all night, but forgot to pull up the anchor and despite all that effort remained in the same place. Pulling up the anchor is a metaphor for letting go of our extraneous attachments and taking full shelter of the will of Śrī Guru and Śrī Krishna. If you don’t, you stay in the same place no matter how long you have been a devotee. I challenged myself. “Fifty years and how far have you advanced? ” Time to let go, fully surrender and, through attachment for the holy name, enter the realm of real devotion. That’s why I am here. Well, that’s it for “just write”. What happened? A “Greetings” theme just came a few hours ago, so when I sat down again this afternoon for another writing session, rather than “just write” I felt compelled to carefully write about what just happened and share my realization about it. I was walking out from my ashram to the parikrama path to go...


- Published: 2023-07-17
- Modified: 2023-07-17
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/07/17/the-best-laid-plans-of-mice-and-men-and-other-thoughts/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The best laid plans of mice and men I am writing this from the Five Towns Inn in Lawrence, Long Island, New York. My flight today to India to observe Puruṣottama Māsa in Govardhana was cancelled. I will try again tomorrow. My trip naturally started with slight anxiety as it always does. That is how my mind works when having to travel by plane, especially a long trip. It’s a saṁskāra, an impression, probably from a previous life, that, for no good reason, makes me react somewhat worrisomely when travelling. As soon as I get in the car to the airport, I begin to anxiously pat my different pockets to see if I forgot my wallet, passport, or something else. I then envision the horror of not finding a space for my carry-on, and other silly thoughts. Anyway, this time I resolved to be mindful—that I am not the controller, that what happens is Krishna’s will, and therefore I should be peaceful in any situation in life, what to speak of travelling. It kind of worked, at least within the limits of my realization. I became mindful to catch my mind before it followed its whims. Instead, I turned towards my faith to see every twist of fate, no matter what that may be, as just a different opportunity for service. Off now to the airport for the second time to catch a flight to Śrī Vrindavan, if Śrī Krishna so desires. Praise and the death of my devotion It...


- Published: 2023-07-10
- Modified: 2023-07-10
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/07/10/monday-morning-greetings-2023-28-accepting-praise-and-the-death-of-devotion/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

A devotee certainly doesn’t embrace praise. Rather, they resist it. “Jaya! Jaya! ”, meaning “victory”, is what subordinates chant to praise someone they revere. If one eagerly accepts that praise and doesn’t dismiss it in some way, at least internally, their devotional spirit will be dampened. Why? Casually accepting praise puts one in the center, which feeds one’s core material nature to enjoy, control, and to feel superior, which is antithetical to the mood of bhakti or devotion. In other words, devotion is the mood of serving the center, and therefore one who has devotion shuns praise that tends to move one towards the center and away from devotion. It's not that a devotee deflecting praise is just doing it from a theoretical platform of “it is not good to accept praise”. It is genuinely the way a true devotee feels. A devotee who has the sincerity to look inward sees clearly that whatever they have of worth, including their talents and intelligence, is coming by the grace of God and can be withdrawn in a second. How then can a devotee seriously embrace praise for their status or accomplishments? A devotee also doesn’t easily accept praise because an awareness of God naturally illuminates the true nature of the soul as simply one among countless jivas who are mere sparks of God’s splendor. How can a person with such realization possibly feel entitled to glorification independent of guru and Krishna? But there is something more: A devotee not only doesn’t...


- Published: 2023-07-03
- Modified: 2023-07-10
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/07/03/hellfire-brimstone-and-atlantic-city/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

A great spot for a parade—a wide boardwalk filled with throngs of people enamored by Bally’s, Harrah’s, and at least a dozen other impressive edifices of cheat, with the ocean to its side to boot. As I walk down the Atlantic City boardwalk to meet the Ratha-yātrā, I hear a city public service announcement blaring that struck me as a bit strange: “Anyone who has a gambling problem please call 1-800-GAMBLER. ” I chuckle, “The whole city is a gambling problem. Just shut the whole damn thing down! ” As I continue to walk to greet Lord Jagannath, while surveying the mecca of New Jersey “fun”, another thought came to mind: “This is their Vrindavan—their concept of heaven. ” In other words, as devotees of Sri Krishna see Vrindavan as the abode of joy, people here wander around this fantasy world as their ultimate destination of happiness, and probably even envision heaven as casinos and boardwalks. The greatest tragedy is having the wrong faith or goal, one that will not only not bear true happiness but will ultimately lead to the opposite, which is more suffering. How is that? Happiness is a matter of consciousness, not just the things we surround ourselves with, and when those things are frivolous or sinful, a false and temporary identity is fostered, which means duality and fear. Win or lose here on the boardwalk, there is only degradation of consciousness and more suffering. The next day, I gave a short class to our congregation...


- Published: 2023-06-26
- Modified: 2023-06-24
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/06/26/i-would-only-believe-in-a-god-who-can-dance/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I often tell the story of how my budding conviction that Śrī Krishna was God became reinforced while going to school. In 1971, I was studying philosophy in university, and in one class the definition of God was given: “That being of which no greater can be conceived. ” That stuck in my mind. Shortly after, my former roommate, who had joined the Krishna temple in California, returned to campus and gifted me the newly published Krishna Book. I believe Krishna Book was the first time in the western world, which also meant it was the first for the devotees in the Hare Krishna Movement, that the full pastimes of Krishna were being described in English. I immediately started reading it. Somewhere around the second chapter, where Krishna’s immanence and transcendence were being described, I had an epiphany: “Usually, God is described mostly as just all-pervading and all-powerful, but I now can describe a being greater than that—one who is not only omniscient and omnipotent as described here, but one who doesn’t have the defect of impersonality, who, in addition to Their supreme power, experiences perfect love in relationship with parents, friends, and lovers. ” Yes, I concluded, Krishna is that being of which no greater can be conceived! I chuckled, for my reasoning also made sense of the great philosopher Nietzsche’s most famous and puzzling statement, “I would only believe in a God who can dance! ” This post will be about God who can dance. I will do...


- Published: 2023-06-19
- Modified: 2023-06-17
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/06/19/the-challenge-in-living-an-ethically-tuned-life-part-ii/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

In last week’s post I discussed the article “Reckoning with Compassion”, which highlighted a very important point—that being an ethical person was more than rule following, but also having the practical wisdom that enables one to apply moral principles in new and novel situations. A classic example would be Arjuna’s situation in the Bhagavad-gītā. He was fixed in the important principles of honoring elders, especially one’s family, and being kind to everyone, but was puzzled about how to apply those principles as a warrior when facing his elders, who, in battle, took the side of the enemy that was led by an unscrupulous king threatening to destroy him. Should he drop his weapons and adhere to such universal Vedic principles in that regard, those that we know in Judeo-Christian tradition as the fifth and sixth commandments to honor thy mother and father and thou shall not kill, or is being truly moral something deeper? Śrī Krishna thought so. He thus dissed Arjuna’s so-called compassion as sentimental and spoke the Bhagavad-gītā to hone Arjuna’s rule-based ethical world view in order to convince him that it was a higher principle to fight out of duty and devotion in a just war. One practical example, which is almost a bit humorous, sticks out in my mind. It illustrates how when our moral judgements are reduced to rule following without the required wisdom to make good judgements, it can result in folly or disaster. One common principle of good behavior is cleanliness, especially in...


- Published: 2023-06-12
- Modified: 2023-06-11
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/06/12/the-challenge-in-living-an-ethically-tuned-life-part-i/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

A message from Krishna Ksetra Swami: “On another note, I thought you may find this article interesting (maybe food for thought leading to a Monday Morning Greetings). ” I did. The article he sent me was called “Reckoning with Compassion”. It was written by Jessica Locke, a follower of prominent Buddhist guru/leader Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche who was credibly accused of sexual and other abuses going back decades. She was devastated but faced a dilemma. She could neither follow her teacher and redefine her personal standards of basic moral behavior, nor deny how the teachings helped her to see the world around her more perceptively and with greater compassion. I found her resolution intriguing. Rather than reject what she received, she validated her positive experiences embracing Buddhism while also critically examining her tradition by questioning what she saw as some of the “unskilled aspects” within its lineage. What I would like to do in this post is just give a short summary of her analysis, which I found astute, as a template for how a tradition is susceptible to the unskilled application of its principles, and then discuss how a spiritual tradition, using the path of bhakti as an example, attempts to keep its teachings from being misapplied. The main point in her article was to philosophically and historically address how her Buddhistic lineage dealt in an unskilled way with the problem of what they call “self-cherishing”: “the tendency most of us have to see the world through a self-other binary...


- Published: 2023-06-05
- Modified: 2023-06-04
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/06/05/is-jagannath-the-highest-manifestation-of-god-ii/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The form of the Lord worshiped in the temple is called arcā-vigraha, the deity manifestation of God. Each deity manifests or represents a different incarnation. Occasionally the deity represents not only a particular deity incarnation, but also is the form of a particular pastime of that incarnation, such as Sri Nathaji, who is the form of Sri Krishna lifting Govardhan Hill. The deity of Sri Jagannath is particularly unique. It is not only the form of the Lord representing a particular pastime of the Lord, but also a deity who visibly performs that pastime. For the followers of Sri Chaitanya, Sri Jagannath is the deity of Sri Krishna who is returning to Vrindavan in ecstasy after many years in response to the separation of Sri Radha, and who re-enacts that pastime by inspiring His devotees to mount Him on a large chariot and parade Him. Next Saturday is New York Ratha-yātrā. It is amazing that almost forty years ago, when the Hare Krishna movement was still very much considered a new religious movement and a cult, the devotees were able to get permission to parade Lord Jagannath down 5th Avenue, arguably the most important and influential street in the world. How was that possible? What is not possible for Jagannath, literally the Lord of the universe! Jagannatha Ratha-yātrā is a wonderful gathering of Vaiṣṇavas, but for the Vaiṣṇava it is much more than just a social gathering. They follow in the footsteps of Sri Chaitanya, who participated in Ratha-yātrā to...


- Published: 2023-05-29
- Modified: 2023-05-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/05/29/should-a-vaisnava-dress-like-one/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

About twenty-five years ago, my personal secretary was working as the chief secretary for a large advertising company on Madison Avenue. I don’t know how she pulled it off, but she arranged for me to visit on the afternoon of dress down Friday . She told me her coworkers were sincerely excited to meet me and, sure enough, when I arrived there was a large computer printout on the wall behind the front desk: “WELCOME HARE KRISHNA”. I was then escorted from office to office, meeting the writers, graphic designers and marketers who were all welcoming and respectful. By the time I reached the large open space at the end of the corridor outside the Vice President’s office, about thirty people had followed me there. When the Vice President came out of her office, I gave her one of those special, otherworldly rose garlands from Radha Govinda Mandir, something that money can’t buy, even in New York. She practically melted into the floor, and then quite deferentially asked me a question: “Why do you dress that way? ” “It’s a uniform. A uniform has two functions. A person can be identified, and it gives one a particular mood to do a service, just like a policeman. By their uniform they can be identified when their service is required, and it also gives them a martial mood. There are also police officers who can do the exact same job in plainclothes. In other words, although wearing a uniform serves an important...


- Published: 2023-05-22
- Modified: 2023-05-21
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/05/22/tis-a-gift-to-be-simple-tis-a-gift-to-be-free/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Did you ever arrive in a new place and discover it was completely different from the image you had in your mind before you arrived? When I first stopped at the Hancock Shaker Village, I was expecting a building or two housing a museum. I found a sprawling fourteen-hundred-acre village replete with twenty buildings that were externally and internally pristinely preserved just as when the Shakers thrived there years before. The Shakers are famous for their efficient and functional crafts, mostly furniture and equally fine crafted and constructed buildings. I was humbled by the simplicity and functionality of what the Shakers created, surprisingly as much as I was moved by the grandeur of the Vatican when I visited Rome thirty years before. Both, in their own way, are awe-inspiring edifices of devotion. I loved the Shaker motto: Hands to work, heart to God. My main inspiration for today’s post was the power of simple life, but first a little something about the Shakers. The Shakers were a Christian, communal, charismatic society of strict celibates born in the late seventeen hundreds that accepted both men and women. To this day they stand as the most successful and long-standing utopian community in United States history. They were famous for their simple life and craftsmanship, their gender equality, and especially their ecstatic singing and dancing during worship. While there, a guide gave us a short lecture and a chance to ask questions. I was intrigued by their celibate lifestyle, especially as both men...


- Published: 2023-05-15
- Modified: 2023-05-20
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/05/15/why-pray-how-does-it-work-what-is-its-power/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

These intriguing questions were inspired by my study of the introduction to Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta. This is how I understood the introduction in my own words: Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī had been petitioned by Lord Caitanya to write a book about what He came to give to the world. Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī admits that he has a difficult task at hand—to describe parama-daśāntaṁ—the extreme limit of transcendence, which is the love of the gopīs for Krishna. How can he ascend to the realization needed to ably express a love so great that even Śrī Krishna can’t fathom its limits? As a humble devotee, however, he realizes that with the order of the Lord comes the ability to fulfill it by His mercy. With faith in the power of prayer and seeking to invoke the Lord’s mercy, he begins the task of writing the Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta by incessantly glorifying Śrī Krishna, His holy places, prema-bhakti, the holy name, and especially His full and merciful manifestation as Śrī Caitanya. He then confidently begins his narration of Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta inspired by the realizations he has gained by the shelter of Śrī Caitanya, and the inspiration he has realized internally from the Lord in his heart. Here is what I garnered in answer to my questions about the power of prayer and how it works from contemplating the example of Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī: Prayer helps one to become humble Prayer is a glorification and a petition. The object of one’s prayer is therefore acknowledged as superior. Thus, by its...


- Published: 2023-05-08
- Modified: 2023-05-07
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/05/08/community-and-krishna-consciousness-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

One way of defining love is the natural energy of affection between two persons that have a relationship. When that energy is between a living entity and God, it is called prema, which is universal love and the essence of all happiness or pleasure. A question arises: if God is both a person and advayam jñāna, all pervading consciousness, which nothing rests outside of, then why don’t we feel that pleasure? After all, God’s energy is infinitely powerful, and we are infinitesimal and helpless. Let me state the quandary as a simple paradox begging a resolution: “God’s love everywhere, but not a drop to relish. ” I pondered that seeming contradiction for a while, and an original analogy came to my mind to help me resolve it. Just as the sun has unlimited heat, and we can cover ourselves from its effect by a small umbrella, we can cover ourselves from the rays of spiritual pleasure emanating from God by the covering of false ego. Our existential problem in this world is therefore false ego, and the focus in removing it is a common factor on all spiritual paths. For example, the import or theme of the Vedas, the point that connects its apparently varied teachings, is that all its teachings are connected to removing the false ego, which can be defined as the subtle element that fosters the illusion that we are the material body, symptomized by the desire to enjoy, control, and feel superior. Spiritual life therefore begins...


- Published: 2023-05-01
- Modified: 2023-04-30
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/05/01/an-original-argument-for-god-revisited/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

It was already Tuesday. I still had nothing to write about. Rather than continue to stare at a blank page, I shifted gears and started taking notes on what I was lecturing on at the time. I was teaching the Śrī Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta by Sanātana Gosvāmī, with translation and commentary by Gopīparāṇadhana Dāsa. In the back of my mind, however, I was still searching and praying for a realization to write about. Gopīparāṇadhana Dāsa lived in Vrindavan at the time I resided there, and we were friends. Therefore, while taking notes today, I naturally remembered the difficulty he was having finding a suitable place to live with his family in Vrindavan when he began writing his translation. He was finally offered a place by a god-brother who had become the mahant of an ashram next to Caklesvara Mahādeva in Govardhana, which is where Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī resided and wrote the Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta. What are the chances that the translator of arguably one of the most significant books in his spiritual tradition winds up in the very place where the author wrote the book? An idea suddenly came in mind! For this week’s post I would expand on something I had written before on the phenomenon of synchronicity as an argument for the existence of God. Basically, in that article I argued that when there is an impossibly high improbability of two events coming together, it is far more likely that those events synchronized by forces outside the laws of nature than randomly,...


- Published: 2023-04-24
- Modified: 2023-04-23
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/04/24/deep-faith-deep-space-deep-time-deep-work-deep-taste/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Deep Faith, Deep Space, Deep Time, Deep Work, Deep Taste Since Covid, I have shifted more internally in my devotional life. What else is there to do when you are stuck in New Jersey for almost two years? As I am approaching 73, it is also age appropriate to move somewhat more in that direction. I decided to share my realizations in an informal online japa and prayer school. Isn’t that what a teacher of Krishna consciousness is supposed to do, or one of their main duties? Anyway, let me share with you what I think my outline for the course will be. Deep Faith No one willingly puts effort into any activity without faith, which arises from the experience and understanding of the worth of our objective or goal. Therefore, if our chanting is lax, likely so is our faith. The first part of japa reform is therefore nāma-tattva, learning the truth or glories of the holy name. I find that if we chant even a few times select verses on the holy name composed by pure devotees who have strong faith, very slowly hearing each word, absorbing those verses will naturally spark within us the faith of their composer and inspire our chanting. Deep Space Every object has a potency to influence one to use it for its purpose—a bed will invite sleep, an iPhone will invite chatter, and so on. Chanting thus requires a sacred space, an area at least physically free from any competition for one’s...


- Published: 2023-04-17
- Modified: 2023-04-17
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/04/17/a-view-from-the-eye-of-a-tornado-through-the-eyes-of-the-sastra/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

It was April 1st, but don’t let the date fool you. I swear this is true. It was the best of days. I had been away for three weeks in Colombia and had just arrived at 5:00 PM in Newark from a long flight. When I walked outside the airport to catch my ride back to my “home” in New Jersey, I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by an unseasonably pleasant 72° F soft breeze. I remember being very relaxed in my seat on the way back home, appreciating the clear sky above and basking in the balmy weather. I mostly fasted during my flight, and I was also looking forward to getting back to our place, taking some prasādam, and resting. I noted that the early evening did seem exceptionally heavenly. Suddenly, out of nowhere, almost like an ominous ākāśa-vāṇī, I heard an eerie, sharp beep. It was from my phone. I grabbed the phone at my side and looked down: Emergency Alert: Tornado warnings until 8 PM. Immediately take shelter in the basement of your house or go to the nearest public shelter. “What? ! ” I turned to Jack driving. “It’s nothing. It’s like being warned of a lightning strike. The probability of getting hit by one is practically nil. This is not Kansas. We’ll be home shortly. ” I looked up, and the skies were perfectly clear. Sounds good, then boom! The Sāṁvartaka clouds appear. It becomes pitch black. Columns of torrential rain pound our...


- Published: 2023-04-10
- Modified: 2023-04-09
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/04/10/the-universal-form-and-raganuga-bhakti/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

One of my passions is to empower people. I define empowerment as recognizing, encouraging, and facilitating the abilities of others, especially those who are junior to one. I will be giving classes for the next few months in the New Jersey area and inviting others to speak at my programs in this spirit. Yesterday, after my short introduction, I asked Jaya Jagannath to do kirtan and share a realization. He didn’t disappoint us. I would like to outline his points from memory. Obviously, as it was his realization, and I am recounting it from memory, I can’t do it full justice, and therefore there might be slight gaps in logic between the points in my presentation that were not there between the points in his lecture. Still, it was so well conceptualized and expressed that I am sure that whatever ideas of his that I can recount will be appreciated. I will list what I remember point-by-point. It’s a shame we didn’t tape it. Jaya Jagannath was always somewhat bored with reading the description of the universal form that is repeatedly described in several of the initial cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Gradually, with his studies of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and deep prayer, he began to appreciate these topics as he realized more and more that those things that manifest from God, such as the universe, are in many ways a microcosm of God and when approached in the proper way and attitude reveal the Divine. He also realized how important those studies...


- Published: 2023-04-03
- Modified: 2023-04-03
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/04/03/seeing-but-not-seeing-sri-sri-radha-and-krishna/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

In the history of the world, everyone has died. We don’t have to look far to see that our eldest relatives are gone, and that eventually we are next. Still, the most amazing thing, according to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, is that we act as if somehow we will not die. Yes, we may acknowledge the fact that one day we will leave this body, and we may also be very fearful of death, but still, we are mostly oblivious to the stark reality of our mortality in how we look at, react to, and plan our lives. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam calls this paśyann (seeing) api na paśyati (but not seeing). When I again chanced upon this phrase this week, I was intrigued and began to meditate on its meaning. What became obvious was the myriad of reasons why we don’t see that which is right before our eyes. What struck me most in my musings is how relevant it is to recognize this phenomenon to fully understand Radha and Krishna in truth. First, my thoughts on what the various obstacles to perception are: Inattention Perception is not just a matter of the senses. It depends on the focus of the mind. Have you ever daydreamed while chanting your japa or reciting a prayer and didn’t hear anything although you were chanting the mantra or prayer and vibrating the eardrum with its sound? The reason you didn’t hear anything was because in order for something to register in our awareness it requires not...


- Published: 2023-03-27
- Modified: 2023-03-26
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/03/27/rasa-or-tattva/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Tattva means science or subject. Rasa means heighten loving emotion to Śrī Krishna. I have seen, however, the words rasa and tattva used in a more colloquial manner. When people raise a question whether something is literally true or figuratively true, they sometimes ask whether it is tattva or rasa . To make such subtle distinctions in one’s study of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in terms of the meaning of words and phrases can be important in our understanding of the text. Before I continue with this week’s post, I should be clear that scriptural analysis doesn’t mean that we take the history of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as mere mythology or metaphor and discount the description of the demons and other seemingly fantastic stories, including the other worldly descriptions of the universe. It means using the pedagogical tools given by our ācāryas to help us interpret or understand those verses and stories in a deeper way and in the proper context. The most important lens or tool by which we understand a particular sacred text is called sambandhi, understanding the reality to which all the texts in a particular śāstra has a relationship. In common language, this means deciphering its theme. For the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that reality is that Śrī Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In other words, the focus of Śrī Vyāsa, the author, is to establish Krishna’s position and other subjects such as material science or history, for example, are only studied as far as they help us realize that...


- Published: 2023-03-20
- Modified: 2023-03-19
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/03/20/ego-death-again/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Ego Death Again Last week, I was fortunate to visit Srila Kadamba Kanana Swami a few days before he passed from this world. He set the ideal example of how to leave this mortal frame—no drugs to dull the consciousness, fasting to further purify the mind, and in a resultant calm and clear consciousness constantly hearing the holy name. When I thought about how he passed away and how he qualified himself for that moment by a life of full surrender to guru and Krishna, somehow the term “ego death” kept coming into my mind. Seeing how the Swami died, it seemed “ego death”—a state where one is no longer apparently ruled by bodily and mental dictates, which are the life of the false ego—was something the Swami seemed to have attained. I began to explore this concept beginning with how we acquire our present identification that ultimately needs to die and how as bhaktas we transcend it. We acquire our present false ego practically at the time of our past death. At that moment, Sri Krishna, through His inconceivable potencies, gauges both our cumulative deeds and present desires and chooses a suitable body for our next life to help further purify us of ignorance. The complete identification with this next body is then accomplished by the false ego (ahaṅkāra), a subtle material element designed to funnel or delimit our consciousness to identify with the body that Krishna has selected as the most suitable vehicle to carry out our next...


- Published: 2023-03-13
- Modified: 2023-03-12
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/03/13/why-do-we-make-god-work-so-hard-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I just arrived in the USA from India and left for Colombia yesterday. My computer also just came back from being serviced, so I wasn't able to complete a new Monday Morning Greetings for this week. This is a reprint from six years ago. Why Do We Make God Work So Hard? June 5, 2017 I have an image of an aspect of my life that has this certain background music. I can’t exactly describe that tune in writing. But it is the background music for the cartoon image of a happy-go-lucky soul who is walking down the street oblivious to the impending disaster ahead and then either slips and falls or gets a pie thrown in his face. He gets up with confidence and begins walking with the same obliviousness to his impending danger until the same thing happens again and again. Let me see if I can describe this more vividly: It would be like the cartoon character Goofy, created by Disney in the early thirties, who, in each episode, haplessly fumbles over the same task repeatedly. Actually, this is not how I see my life, but there is a specific aspect of my life that I like to describe in this comedic sense, as it seems to be a fit to an interesting definition of comedy that I had first heard about from a friend and a professional comedian. He described comedy as tragedy plus time. I am not exactly looking back at tragedy in my life,...


- Published: 2023-03-06
- Modified: 2023-03-05
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/03/06/gods-problem-the-story-of-sri-chaitanya-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I tried my hardest but wasn’t able to finish this week's Monday Morning Greetings. This is the fourth week without a computer where I write my Monday Morning Greetings by hand. Within two weeks I should have my computer back. In one sense I will miss writing by hand. When I put my pen to the page it really activates my mind and ideas flow very spontaneously. In fact, I still may write my first draft by hand. The problem comes when I have to organize them for clarity and force without a word processor. Even as I go back to writing by computer, I am now free from a lingering fear: “What if my computer breaks and I can’t write my Monday Morning Greetings? ” As I hope you can see, I am very much dedicated to this craft and service but at least I am now no longer a slave to technology to write them. For this week's Monday Morning Greetings, in honor of Sri Gaura-purnima, I will again offer an article that I have posted many times for this day called “God’s Problem. ” I was hesitant to post it again, but when I read it over it still seemed very fresh as a short explanation and glorification of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Enjoy! God’s Problem: The Story of Sri Chaitanya March 21, 2016 God has a problem. And it is the same problem that we have. What’s the problem? He is not a devotee. What is a...


- Published: 2023-02-27
- Modified: 2023-02-27
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/02/27/a-tip-for-learning-sastra/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Śrīla Tamal Krishna Goswami was too busy assisting Śrīla Prabhupāda in a managerial capacity to have time to study. He brought his quandary to His Divine Grace. I love the answer he got: “Find a way to give more classes. Fifteen minutes of teaching is worth two hours of study. ” Many years ago, Maharaja personally shared this story with me, and I took it to heart. Every day for the last thirty-five years, especially when in India—and I was there at one time for almost twenty years straight—at 4:00 PM I would give class systematically on śāstra for not more than an hour. I don’t so much have the nature to sit down and concentrate and study. I am amazed, however, how many books I was able to teach and study in this way. Of course not everyone has the opportunity or nature to teach. After elaborating on this principle of study somewhat further, at the end of this post I will share a method that hopefully makes what I am talking about applicable for everyone. Of note to this discussion is what appears to have been Śrīla Prabhupāda’s own example of study while leading and managing the Krishna consciousness movement. When I first came to Vrindavan, I could look down from the third-floor guest house where I resided and see Śrīla Prabhupāda in the wee hours of the morning sitting on his upstairs porch writing his commentary on the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He would first read a section of the...


- Published: 2023-02-20
- Modified: 2023-02-19
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/02/20/float-like-a-butterfly-and-eat-like-a-bee/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Recognize the title? It’s a parody of a verse by Muhammad Ali. What is important, however, is not where the verse originates, but what I am conveying through it. I am describing the practice of mādhukarī—literally mādhu (bee) to do (karī)—where sādhus gracefully saunter (float) in ecstasy around Govardhana Hill and sustain themselves by taking just a few roṭīs each from the homes of selected brāhmaṇas whose families have been fortunate to carry out this sādhu-sevā for generations, just like a bee who only takes (eats) a little pollen from each flower and goes onto the next. Somehow—not sure why—I became inspired to give it a try this week. So, I was off to the nearby village of Āniyora to beg for roṭīs from the designated houses where they cook for sādhus. I didn’t get far, however. The first home I approached was the family of Bal Kishan, my 83-year-old Brijabasi friend, the very simple, pious patriarch of the Sharma family. I couldn’t proceed to other houses as Bal Kishan implored me to stay for a full meal, but sitting there did afford me the opportunity to not only observe the saintly sādhus coming for mādhukarī, but more importantly to witness the infectious mood of sādhu-sevā exuding from my hosts. Just by sitting there a realization came that I would like to share, but first I will briefly finish describing what I saw today on mādhukarī. “Radhe! Radhe! ” A humble sādhu comes to the doorway of the second and...


- Published: 2023-02-13
- Modified: 2023-02-12
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/02/13/sadhus-or-cyborgs/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

About two months ago, my computer was in repair, and I had to write my Monday Morning Greetings by iPhone. I shared with someone how difficult it was. She said, “Why not just use a pen and paper? ” Duh! I was so technologically conditioned that the alternative never even crossed my mind. My computer has crashed again, and I’m writing this on a legal pad. Ah! The joy of no texts! Here it goes: Last week, I wrote about visiting an enchanting thick forest ashram in Vraja, where the sadhus live unencumbered by any modern technology, even electricity, and where hundreds of cows roam with their calves, just as they did when Krishna was here—and who is still here for those with eyes to see. Just being there had such a powerful effect on my consciousness that it inspired a remembrance of a statement that I read many years ago. I think it was by Paramahamsa Yogananda: “In terms of elevating our consciousness, environment is more powerful than willpower. ” Influenced by the power of this simple and devotionally laden environment, I began to reflect on how much I have fallen into the illusion that technology is essential to happiness, while, in fact, it mostly degrades the spirit. I was shocked. Have I been captured by the enemy? OK. I get it. We need and use so many things from the modern techno world that have become essential for our day-to-day living, including our service to God. But are...


- Published: 2023-02-06
- Modified: 2023-02-05
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/02/06/what-makes-something-funny-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The Joy of No Texts I recently visited a far-off sacred forest of Vrindavan that I had never seen before. I was stunned by the beauty of a community of sadhus who have lived naturally, and who have protected a large forest, lush with peacocks and herds of cows, with no technology. I chanted “Jaya Radhe” and hundreds of cows affectionately walked towards me from hundreds of feet away. I became enlivened to write about the joy of no technology. When I returned home, the Gods of technology took revenge, and my computer crashed again. Luckily, they have allowed me to dictate this through my iPhone to Kadamba Mala, my editor. I have sent my computer back to America for repair, and I will also get a new one. For the next month I will write Monday Morning Greetings by hand. I am looking forward to the challenge of defeating the Gods of technology, who have, in a way, captured our souls. I am therefore forced to include a short reprint for an unprecedented third time in a row. Please forgive me. What Makes Something Funny? May 30, 2016 During my research for a talk on What Makes Something Funny, which was meant to follow a performance by the B. Centered comedy group, I was surprised that every great philosopher, from Aristotle to Kant, had a theory on comedy. I read through one thinker after the next, trying to understand what makes something funny, but I found the most profound...


- Published: 2023-01-30
- Modified: 2023-01-30
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/01/30/spiritual-momentum-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Spiritual Momentum April 3, 2017 Have you ever lost spiritual momentum? It happens to us all. I had a realization about that in relation to my writing that seemed applicable to spiritual life. I would like to share it, but first I think I need to define what I mean by “momentum. ” Momentum means the power gained when moving or continuing something that grows stronger as time passes, a force that is lost when stopping or pausing, and a force that takes time to build up when beginning to move again. A good example of momentum is when you are driving a car. As you are moving you gradually may be able to shift into high gear and gain momentum, allowing you to cruise along at a high speed effortlessly. However, when you stop and have to start again, that momentum has been lost and only gradually restores after some time. This concept of momentum in relation to spiritual life dawned on me when faced with the weekly demand of writing Monday Morning Greetings. I noticed that when I don’t write every day, I lose momentum and it takes an inordinate amount of time to shift into a reasonable pace of writing when I begin again. In contrast, when I write every day without fail, I seem to remain in high gear and can immediately build on the frame of reference where I left off. It seems that continuity over time in all endeavors gives momentum and enhances productivity....


- Published: 2023-01-23
- Modified: 2023-01-22
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/01/23/the-ten-foundational-principles-of-yoga-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The Ten Foundational Principles of Yoga The goal of yoga and all spiritual paths is to end suffering. Reality is beautiful, and therefore all suffering is caused by illusion. For example, the greatest fear is death, but death itself is an illusion—the illusion of non-existence. Free from illusion, we can see the beauty of the eternal soul. Illusion is caused by the distorted or impure mind, by the myriad of selfish thoughts. To free our self from illusion and alleviate suffering, the mind must be brought to sattva. Sattva literally means “the nature of being,” or the true nature of something. What is the true nature of the mind? The mind is like a lens or mirror, and thus its true nature is to be clean, free from distortion, and perfectly perceptive of what is before it. Therefore, when the mind is in sattva we are able to perceive and live in our eternal spiritual nature. Yoga, or meditation, is the technique, or method, to bring the mind to sattva. Its strategy is simple. As the mind is distorted by a myriad of thoughts, if we can just steadily concentrate on one thought, then all other thoughts will gradually be quelled and the mind will slowly morph into a higher level of perception and contentment. When for a prolonged and uninterrupted period of concentration the mind is so fixed in meditation that one is not even cognizant of anything outside the object of our mediation, then one has reached samādhi,...


- Published: 2023-01-16
- Modified: 2023-01-15
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/01/16/siksastakam-verse-three-a-personal-commentary/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

“One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and ready to offer all respects to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the hold name of the Lord constantly. ” This is arguably the most important verse for those following Śrī Caitanya. When Śrī Raghunātha dāsa inquired from Śrī Caitanya about the goal of life, this was the verse He recited in response, which is significant, for based on Raghunātha’s strict adherence to this verse he was accepted in the Gauḍīya tradition as the ācārya (the main teacher and exemplar) on how to attain its goal of prema-bhakti. The phrase “a humble state of mind” is not a literal translation by Śrīla Prabhupāda of any word or phrase in the third verse of the Śikṣāṣṭakam. I think, however, it is an essential inclusion to the translation of this verse to properly convey its meaning, otherwise one might misunderstand that you can think yourself into being humble rather than develop a humble consciousness, or state of mind. In other words, one should certainly think oneself lower than the straw in the street, but that doesn’t mean humility, or any emotion, can manifest by the force of just one or a few thoughts. Rather, humility must manifest by a process of changing our nature or consciousness, which also...


- Published: 2023-01-09
- Modified: 2023-01-11
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/01/09/entering-the-life-of-prayer/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Akincana Krishna das shared with me a meditation technique he had been using before he came to Krishna consciousness and how he decided to use it. He loved kirtan, but he had one frustration participating in it. He felt his kirtan lacked internal depth, so he turned to something that gave him some of his deepest spiritual experiences before he was a devotee and applied it to his devotional practice. It worked. His focus on the holy name deepened, but he had one doubt. The person he learned that technique from seemed to ultimately have an impersonal goal. Was it alright to adopt a practice from such a divergent path? He sought my opinion. I listened very carefully as he explained what he was doing. The practice Akincana Krishna das was using seemed simple and not controversial. It basically entailed just picking a spiritually inspirational verse or verses that could be practically applied in life and very slowly repeating the verse (or verses) again and again for thirty minutes, dwelling on its meaning until it brought him into a meditative state. He picked the Śikṣāṣṭakam for the practice, and the first thing in the morning every day he would repeat these devotional laden verses for thirty minutes, alternating the Sanskrit with the English translation. He described that doing this would “stain” his consciousness with spiritual impressions that stayed with him the whole day, especially injecting his japa and kirtan meditation with real feeling. Hearing Akincana Krishna das describe what he...


- Published: 2023-01-02
- Modified: 2023-01-02
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2023/01/02/happy-new-year-from-monday-morning-greetings/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I ended my year with a bang! My left hearing aid fell out and was lost somewhere near Govinda Kunda in Govardhana. I missed my flight to Cochin the next day. I had misread the time of departure of 04:55 as being in the afternoon. It was obviously a morning flight! When I arrived at the next destination after an arduous journey, my computer crashed. I am typing this on my phone. Well, I tried to remain positive. Everything was going great in Govardhana, so good that I guess I subtly started to think I was the controller, which can happen on those rare occasions, like this one, when things seem to have a semblance of falling into place. I chuckled a bit with all of this. Krishna just won’t let me think I am the controller and enjoyer! What do you do without a computer when all of your work for service is on it? Chant Hare Krishna! Not so bad. I like it. To start the new year, I will do what I always do—wish happy birthday to Monday Morning Greetings, which was born eight years ago today, which means I have completed around 350 original articles. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura published a newspaper on Krishna consciousness every day. When he was challenged how that was possible, he responded: “Even small towns sometimes have daily newspapers, so what is to write a newspaper every day about Krishna who has innumerable activities in innumerable places. One could write one...


- Published: 2022-12-26
- Modified: 2022-12-26
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/12/26/the-essence-of-caitanya-vaisnavism-made-easy-in-four-verses/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

In my progressive study and teaching of śāstra, I am finishing up Rāmānanda-saṁvāda, the discussion between Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya and Śrī Caitanya—some very high stuff. In fact, after their discussion is concluded, Śrī Caitanya tells Rāmānanda Rāya to keep their discussion secret and to not talk about it anywhere. And here I am talking about those discussions. What audacity! Yes, these teachings are very esoteric, but I think within the limits of my realization I can still extract something of relevance about the essence of Caitanya Vaiṣṇavism for us practitioners to appreciate. First, I’ll share the first of the four verses that I feel helps express the essence of Caitanya Vaiṣṇavism, a verse that Śrī Caitanya deemed the limit of perfection. I will then briefly comment on the others. Read the verse below carefully, but just enough to get the gist of what is being talked about. Its full understanding comes only by the depth of our realization and not just the power of our intellect. “O my Lord, You live in the forest of Govardhan Hill, and, like the king of elephants, You are expert in the art of conjugal love. O master of the universe, your heart and Śrīmatī Radharani’s heart are just like shellac and are now melted in spiritual perspiration. Therefore no one can no longer distinguish between you and Radharani. Now you have mixed your newly invoked affection, which is like vermillion, with your melted hearts, and for the benefit of the whole world You...


- Published: 2022-12-19
- Modified: 2022-12-18
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/12/19/has-the-sannyasa-asrama-become-obsolete/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

There used to be a framed photograph on the wall on the temple side of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s house just to the right of his bed that I always found intriguing. It was an arranged portrait of Śrīla Prabhupāda standing in front of the Krishna-Balarama Mandir with most of his sannyāsis, a couple of dozen or more at the time. I seem to remember the picture had been there during Śrīla Prabhupāda’s time. One day in the early eighties I walked into his room, and it was gone. I was a bit disturbed. Who has the right to take down a picture that was there during the life of Śrīla Prabhupāda? Then I realized why. If you study that picture carefully almost every one of those sannyāsis couldn’t maintain their vows of celibacy and left. Perhaps it was taken down out of personal embarrassment by one of those fallen sannyāsis who was still around, or maybe a loyal disciple just felt it didn’t look good for Śrīla Prabhupāda’s legacy. Even Śrīla Prabhupāda admitted that his experiment of giving young men sannyāsa did not fare well. “My godbrothers criticized me for many things, but one thing they were right about, that I gave young men sannyāsa. ” He then described in terms of a Bengali proverb his dilemma of needing to establish the sannyāsa āśrama but having a paucity of candidates who were qualified: “But what could I do? When there are no trees in the forest, the castor oil tree looks...


- Published: 2022-12-12
- Modified: 2022-12-13
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/12/12/goal/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Goal! was one of my favorite movies. I must have seen it in the late 60s when I was co-captain of my university soccer team, and our coach organized a showing for us. I was enthralled. It was the story of the 1966 World Cup where England beat Germany in the final. Yes, young men love to hear about sports and war. It is now fourteen World Cups later, and there is another World Cup going on. I never really thought about this topic before through the eyes of śāstra, but when I came to understand that another World Cup was on, due to my past I did give team sports tattva some thought, at least enough for it to become my inspiration for writing this week. The first thing that came to mind on the subject was a story involving Śrīla Prabhupāda. In 1975 Śrīla Prabhupāda suggested a team sport called kabaddi for the children in the gurukula and explained how it was played. I was there. The beauty of kabaddi is that it is so simple that you don’t need any equipment to play it. I don’t have time to go into all its rules, but a person can attack the other side as long as he can repeat over and over again the word kabaddi until his breath runs out. Śrīla Prabhupāda just spiritualized the game by changing the word kabaddi to Krishna, but I think even within itself there is something of value in team sports,...


- Published: 2022-12-05
- Modified: 2022-12-04
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/12/05/what-makes-one-religion-better-than-another/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

From the title one may assume what follows may be sectarian. The faith I belong to, however, is anything but sectarian. Its core teaching is that true religion is not a particular faith, but the nature of the soul to love God. The gradation of religion is therefore not so much between one faith and another, but within the different levels of practice within paths of faith themselves. This type of gradation within my own tradition, Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, is clearly delineated in the discussion between Lord Caitanya and Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya, a discussion initiated by Lord Caitanya’s simple request: “Recite a verse from the revealed scriptures concerning the ultimate goal of life. ” (Cc. Madhya-līlā 8. 57) In response, Rāmānanda Rāya cites verse after verse highlighting deeper and deeper levels of devotion but ultimately fails to satisfy Śrī Caitanya’s specific inquiry concerning an expression of the ultimate goal of life until the end of almost twenty-five verses. To discuss them all here is far beyond the scope of what I do weekly, but I will discuss the first few verses Rāmānanda Rāya suggests as a template for the principle of how to gradate religious practices and then broadly summarize the rest of the verses to further elucidate this same principle. Ramananda’s initial response from the Viṣṇu Purāṇa (3. 8. 9): “The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Viṣṇu, is worshipped by the proper execution of prescribed duties in the system of varna and asrama. There is no other way to satisfy...


- Published: 2022-11-28
- Modified: 2022-11-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/11/28/only-the-ignorant-have-enemies-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Only the Ignorant Have Enemies “In former times there were many ignorant fools like you who did not conquer the six enemies that steal away the wealth of the body. These fools were very proud thinking, ‘I have conquered all enemies in all ten directions. ’ But if a person is victorious over the six enemies and is equipoised toward all living entities, for him there are no enemies. Enemies are merely imagined by one in ignorance. ” (Bhāgavatam 7. 8. 10, emphasis mine) These are the words of the young saintly Prahlada to his powerful demonic father, Hiranyakasipu. When I read this verse today, I was particularly struck by the last line. It claims rather emphatically that enemies are envisaged, not real. I pondered the point. How can that be? People have enemies all the time. After some time, a resolution came. We generally think of the term enemy as a person who hates us, but the term here has a broader meaning. It refers to anyone who opposes our goal. That became clear when I checked Srila Prabhupada’s English translation of the Sanskrit word for enemy, paraḥ, which is also glossed as “opposing elements. ” The resolution was thus clear. If an enemy means one who opposes our aim and the aim of life is self-realization, then we have no enemies, because by the law of karma everything that comes to us, even the enmity of others, is meant to bring us closer to God. To see another...


- Published: 2022-11-21
- Modified: 2022-11-20
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/11/21/prema-kirtan-and-suddha-nama/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Yamuna devi had affection for Akincana Krishna das since hearing him sing a kirtan in a rāga he learned in Mayapur at her home at Śaraṇāgati farm when the youth bus tour visited there. Therefore, years later, when he went to greet her in the MVT on her visit to Vrindavan, the first thing she said to him was, “You have a great opportunity to serve the holy name as long as you don’t become a performer! ” She apparently noticed a trend in ISKCON that concerned her, and in a very motherly and affectionate way, she was cautioning him based on her wealth of experience with Śrīla Prabhupāda, to vigilantly try to chant prema kirtan. In other words, the kirtan singer should be exclusively focused on the glorification of Sri Krishna rather than their own aggrandizement. Pradyumna das, who was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s personal Sanskrit editor, shared with me a very similar perspective. He would occasionally visit my room at the Bhakti Center and, inevitably in our casual discussions, share insights based on śāstric wisdom that I would remember for the rest of my life. One time he was reflecting on the type of wild kirtans he would occasionally see on the internet and, in contrast, described the sober style of kirtan he observed in his time serving Śrīla Prabhupāda and on his frequent visits with Śrīla Prabhupāda’s godbrothers. He then shared an interesting analysis on the first words of the third verse of the Śikṣāṣṭakam, where one is instructed...


- Published: 2022-11-14
- Modified: 2022-11-13
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/11/14/the-mind-of-god/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I always wanted to write an article called “The Mind of God”. It was inspired over thirty years ago by reading the story of the passing away of Bhīṣmadeva. The story begins directly after the battle of Kurukṣetra where Yudhiṣṭhira, the king of the victorious army and the grandson of Bhīṣma, is surveying the carnage of a fratricidal war fought to enthrone him as the emperor of the world. Even though he fought to protect his immediate family from an attempted genocide, much of his family lie dead before him on the other side. He feels responsible and becomes extremely distressed. A deep existential doubt arises: “My life has been sinless. Why do such calamities even strike such virtuous persons? ” Yudhiṣṭhira naturally begins an earnest inquiry to resolve his quandary. Not even Śrīla Vyāsa, the author of the Vedas, nor Śrī Krishna Himself could satisfy his doubts. How could that be? Isn’t Krishna, the Supreme Lord, all-knowing? The commentators reconcile the quandary by revealing Śrī Krishna’s mind: “I can answer his doubts but let him approach his grandfather to establish him as the greatest spiritual authority. ” The mind of God is revealed, “I have an ardent desire to glorify my devotees! ” After reading the story of Bhīṣmadeva, I have always been intrigued by this concept of the mind of God, but now I understand something a bit deeper—how this concept is one of the keys to being transformed by hearing Krishna-līlā. Śrīla Prabhupada said we advance by...


- Published: 2022-11-07
- Modified: 2022-11-07
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/11/07/rules-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Rules: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly September 18, 2017 Niyamāgraha is a Sanskrit word that means either too little or too much affinity for the rules, both of which are impediments to bhakti. It is important for an aspirant on the path of bhakti to properly understand the purpose and application of these principles. The purpose of rules Setting and following sound rules helps one to be governed by good judgment rather than impulse. The purpose of the rules in bhakti is simple: to facilitate the remembrance of Krishna, which is the mechanism on the path of bhakti for transformation. For example, when a devotee enters the temple, he or she must bow down. Why? We are basically egocentric. Our tendency is to lack awareness and consideration for others. Bowing down before the deity is meant to increase our awareness of God and our humble position as His servant. Impediment One: Too little affinity for the rules One is averse to rules because rules represent authority, a governance of life that limits our prospects for conforming the world to suit our attachments. To resist following rules just for self-centered purposes is obviously antithetical to spiritual development, especially when such guidelines are meant to uplift us. Similarly, to have too little affinity for the rules of bhakti out of this sense of rebellion, or even just laziness, is an impediment to bhakti, for the rules of bhakti, as mentioned above, are meant to help us remember Krishna. Those who...


- Published: 2022-10-31
- Modified: 2022-10-30
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/10/31/when-new-york-turned-into-vrindavan/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I got an exceptional amount of feedback from my last entry “Windows to the Material World”. My point about the deleterious effect of modern media seemed to have struck a chord. Here’s one impassioned reply: “And the second thing about the devices... it is so incredibly true. We had a computer but my husband got so sick of the kids being addicted to it that he smashed it to pieces and honestly, it was the best feeling ever. We are so glad it's gone. Now my kids don't watch anything and it's SO much better for them. You can just see the difference. ” But my computer is still not working, so this is again typed on my iPhone, and I will have to include a reprint. Although I will also again include a journal entry from almost twenty years ago, it is still quite relevant to the subject we have been discussing concerning the ill effect of modern technology. It's my journal entry from August 14, 2003 when I was in New York during the mass power blackout: When New York Turned into Vrindavan August 14, 2003 New York City When I was a young child, not more than six years of age, my father would occasionally show up at my door at bedtime, poke his head in, and ask in a fatherly manner, “Where was Moses when the lights went out? ” Whether I responded reasonably—“In the dark! ”—or remained silent in protest, the result was the same:...


- Published: 2022-10-24
- Modified: 2022-10-23
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/10/24/windows-to-the-material-world-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

My computer crashed for the third time in six months. I have noticed that every time that happens my japa meditation flourishes. We cannot underestimate the potency of modern technology to distract us. In the 1960s there was a famous social scientist named Marshall McLuhan who wrote The Medium is the Massage. He said that every communication medium has its own particular effect beyond the content you watch or hear through it. I can see that clearly. I notice that some of the devotees who are deepest into their internal spiritual life don’t use personal computers—although their secretaries may have one. Every week I read Satsvarūpa Mahārāja’s journal. I see how absorbed he is in hearing about Krishna. I know he doesn’t use a computer. I especially hold in high esteem for their internal spiritual life two friends, Sacinandana Swami and Partha Sarathi Goswami. They don’t have personal computers. Here in Vrindavana, two of the deepest sādhakas that I know are Jamuna Jivana das and Mother Srimati. They don’t have personal computers. I know several devotees who use their personal computers effectively for preaching and organizing Krishna consciousness who seem to maintain very deep spiritual lives without being distracted, but that seems increasingly rare. Because I am dictating this on my iPhone it may not have the same standard of clarity that my writing usually has, but I think I’ve gotten across that modern technology can be distracting in spiritual life, and we have to be cautious of that fact....


- Published: 2022-10-17
- Modified: 2022-10-16
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/10/17/messenger-of-god/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Help Wanted: Messenger needed to deliver confidential message to pacify the anxiety of My dearest family members and friends, especially My girlfriends residing in Vrindavan, who are near dead from the snake bite of separation from Me. Must have ministerial and communication skills, be very dear to Me, highly educated in śāstra, and extremely intelligent. Only close associates need apply. Those interested contact Śrī Krishna, Palace of Rukmiṇī, New Dvārakā. Just having some fun here. I just finished studying and teaching the pastime of Uddhava visiting Vrindavan. I was intrigued by the character of Śrī Uddhava and why Śrī Krishna chose him to execute two of the most challenging tasks: to deliver a message from Him to pacify the gopīs, headed by Śrī Radha, and to witness, understand, and disseminate the glories of the gopīs’ topmost devotion. Let’s analyze below the qualities of Śrī Uddhava that made him ideal for task at hand as expressed in the first verse of the story: vṛṣṇīnāṁ pravaro mantrī (The best counselor of the Vṛṣṇi dynasty) The gopīs were in a most highly intense emotional state. Anything in reference to Krishna could easily set them off into an even deeper emotional state. One trying to pacify them would need the most highly developed emotional intelligence and the most profound skill in counseling to understand their mind and to know exactly what to say to them. kṛṣṇasya dayitaḥ sakhā (The beloved friend of Krishna) Uddhava was the dearest devotee of Krishna in Dvārakā and thus...


- Published: 2022-10-10
- Modified: 2022-10-09
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/10/10/the-hare-krishna-movement-and-the-lord-of-the-flies/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Lord of the Flies is an acclaimed novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of young boys stranded on a deserted island who revert to savagery and primitive ritualistic behavior. One of the boys, named Ralph, assumes the role of ruler of the other young and confused boys and gets carried away with his power, and from this the term “Lord of the Flies” acquired an idiomatic meaning indicating a leader ruling peers with an inflated self-perception of their own status and dominion. I have also heard the term used to describe the early days of ISKCON, especially after Śrīla Prabhupāda left this world, when sincere young men, most less than ten years in the movement, assumed immense positions of authority over their peers, not only as spiritual masters, but as ācāryas, the institutional and spiritual heads of large zonal areas covering many countries. I am not writing this to place blame on anybody. Mostly, I am reflecting on my own immaturity as a young devotee who was, at the age of 28, thrust into a position of authority and prestige way above my pay grade as the head of a relatively prestigious educational institution, the ISKCON school in Vrindavan. The sign above my office, placed by the previous principal, an elderly and distinguished Indian gentleman, read “Prādhān Ācārya”—the Hindi nomenclature for principal. “Ācārya” means guru and “Prādhān” means the chief. The sign above my door thus literally read, “Chief Ācārya” or “Chief Guru”. What a joke!...


- Published: 2022-10-03
- Modified: 2022-10-03
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/10/03/home-at-last-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

It’s still a mess! Construction on my place in Govardhan was just finished two days ago. Groups of people are already arriving. I’m just not settled here yet. If there is one thing that is certain. I have less the illusion of control here than anyplace else. How can that not be? Śrī Radha is the queen of Vrindavan! Why do I come here? I come here for one reason only. My service here is to help pilgrims enter the holy place. The experience of Krishna, the deep faith that comes when God touches your heart is more profound in Vrindavan than any place else. But my main service is to have that experience myself. You must have something before you can give it. And that experience comes in association with the saintly. If I think about it, however, I mostly come to Vrindavan not because I am qualified to mine the jewels of devotion here—jewels not just buried here, but present in every speck of dust and every flower that blooms—but because there are devotees that stay and visit here that are qualified to do so. They have entered the holy land in a mood of service and can thus scratch beyond its external covering to strongly feel a deep and very real connection to Krishna. I hanker for their audience. I think most of us can admit that we are not pious. We just have to look at our birth and the many unwholesome influences we had growing...


- Published: 2022-09-26
- Modified: 2022-09-25
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/09/26/breaking-the-circle-of-bondage-covering-the-soul-by-the-practice-of-devotion/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I want to explain through a visual example the concept of material bondage and how the process of bhakti frees one from it: Before sharing that visual, it is necessary to first explain the goal of bhakti and the obstacle to attaining it. The objective of bhakti is prīti or love, experiencing the energy of devotion that is shared between two people in a natural loving relationship, specifically, in this case, the soul’s relationship with God. In other words, just as any two people in a natural relationship have an inherent loving feeling towards each other, for example a mother and child or even a cow and its calf, similarly we have a spontaneous natural loving feeling towards God. The goal of the path of devotion is to awaken that feeling in us, which is the highest happiness and the goal of life. The main obstacle to awakening such love is the false ego, the desire to be the enjoyer, accrue control for that purpose, and as a result to ultimately bask in the sense that, “I am superior to others. ” Although this cloud of egoism is insignificant compared to the infinite power of God’s love, it can still cover us from an experience of our relationship with Krishna, just as a small umbrella can block one from the all-powerful rays of the sun. The visual of our bondage is therefore the soul completely encircled by the cloud of ignorance preventing the all-powerful sun of Krishna’s love from touching...


- Published: 2022-09-19
- Modified: 2022-09-18
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/09/19/kudos-to-karma-yoga-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Kudos to Karma (Yoga) A Nor’easter slams your town and dumps a ton of snow, and your basement floods. You are knee-deep in ice water, draining it out. It dawns on you how deep a hole this will put in your pocket—thousands of hard-earned dollars. It sounds like hell. What would you be thinking at the time? I was impressed with my friend’s reaction. “You know, initially I was disturbed, but then I thought of my studies of the Gītā and how to apply it: I have family, so it is my duty to fix the house, and my duty ultimately means what God wants me to do. So instead of being frustrated, I was grateful to do my duty and serve God. ” My friend is a philosophy professor and studied the Bhagavad-gītā with me over twenty years ago. It has remained the foundation of his life. I was impressed with his realization. Instead of the normal “kvetching” when things go wrong, he shifted his thoughts to the glory of connecting our “worldly” life to God’s will through dharma, which is, simply put, doing what God wants from us in any situation. Overcoming selfishness and seeing God’s will is the foundation of any spiritual path. As we continued to discuss, he opined how karma-yoga, the essence of the Gītā, was often too minimized in a devotee’s life. “After all,” he said, “Krishna asked Arjuna to fight. ” As we continued our discussion, my friend shared with me some of...


- Published: 2022-09-12
- Modified: 2022-09-12
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/09/12/is-honesty-the-best-policy/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Is Honesty the Best Policy? Of course. Without integrity—matching one’s words and actions with one’s values—how can one make advancement on any spiritual path? And outright lying is a terrible sin: “There is nothing more sinful than untruthfulness. Because of this, mother earth once said, ‘I can bear any heavy thing except a person who is a liar. ’” (Bhag. 8. 20. 4) So yes, honesty is the best policy, but not always. Commentators on the Yoga-sūtras make it clear that as all other yamas (regulations) are subservient to ahimsa, truth must never result in violence, which means not only avoiding the obvious, such as telling a killer where his victim is, but avoiding any kind of truth that harms any creature anytime and anywhere. It is sometimes a fine line gauging when truthfulness should be tempered with the pre-eminence of ahimsa. In my opinion, the challenges of balancing the two is best illustrated in the character of Krishna’s father, Vasudeva. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we are introduced to Vasudeva’s diplomacy in a very difficult situation. Kaṁsa, Vasudeva’s very powerful demonic brother-in-law, held his wife’s hair in his left hand while holding a sword over her throat with his right hand. Kaṁsa was ready to kill her after finding out by an ākāśa-vāṇī (an unembodied voice) that her eighth child would be his death. Kaṁsa was much more physically powerful than Vasudeva, so he had to resort to various forms of diplomacy to try to save his wife, beginning with sama,...


- Published: 2022-09-05
- Modified: 2022-09-04
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/09/05/a-decade-of-tears/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The phrase struck me. I was talking with Bhūrijana Prabhu after the passing of Śrīla Bhakti-caru Swami. We began to reflect on the fact that practically all of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciples have just turned near seventy when this decade began, if not before, and that it was evident that as the decade proceeds, the number of our god-siblings that leave us will exponentially increase. We shared some pain at the thought. As our discussion ended his parting comment struck me: “It will be a decade of tears. ” Honestly, I never felt this deep sense of upcoming loss before. Maybe it comes with age, or maybe as I mature in spiritual life my heart is softening. I am not sure. What is certain, however, is that as one is advancing in Krishna consciousness, those who sincerely represent that should be valued more and more. It’s śāstra: “Śrī Caitanya asked, ‘Of all kinds of distress, what is the most painful? ’ Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya replied, ‘Apart from separation from the devotee, I know of no unbearable distress. ’” (Cc. Madhya-līlā 8. 248) True friends and well-wishers should be missed when they pass from this world. They add so much to the development and comfort of one’s life. When they are dedicated Vaiṣṇavas they add even more. They nourish the soul. Their loss to the world and our lives is incalculable. I remember over twenty years ago before The Bhakti Center was secured, we used to host programs in 26 Second Avenue....


- Published: 2022-08-29
- Modified: 2022-08-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/08/29/eq-iq-and-the-path-of-bhakti/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I knew Champak’s work had something so do with leadership seminars at GP Strategies, but until the Cali retreat last week, I didn’t know the specifics of what she did and taught. We finally had time to discuss that in more detail. I was particularly interested in a seminar that she devised and taught called Leading with Emotional Intelligence and its relevance to the path of bhakti. Emotional intelligence is the ability to make heathy choices based on accurately identifying, understanding, and managing your feelings and the feelings of others, an ability based on being self-aware. Obviously, if we are not aware of our emotions and don’t have some sense of their cause, we inevitably will act upon them without awareness of whether they are justified or beneficial. You see all the time well-intentioned people having no idea how what they think, say, and do impacts others. The result is often disastrous. The statistical studies Champak shared with me from Harvard Business Review showed how prevalent this unawareness is. Ninety-five percent of people think they are self-aware, but less than fifteen percent are. I think we can see how pervasive this lack of emotional intelligence is by just observing the present polarized political climate where it seems too many people become trapped in an ideological tribe, left and right, and embrace ill-thought-out views with little awareness of how what they believe, feel and do has more to do with the make-up and root of their psychology than the facts at...


- Published: 2022-08-22
- Modified: 2022-08-21
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/08/22/monday-morning-metaphysics-balarama-tattva-made-simple/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

It is my conviction that a sincere person will find the theology of Krishna very beautiful and thought provoking whether they are among the faithful or not. One example of this is balarama-tattva—the science of Balarama, who is the elder brother of Krishna. To understand Lord Balarama, however, you must first understand a fundamental principle of divinity: That God must be enjoying. What is the sense of being the supreme controller if your powers do not result in a state of unbounded bliss? The Taittirīya Upaniṣad thus describes the Absolute Reality as raso vai saḥ—the “Supreme Reservoir of Pleasure”. Śrīla Prabhupāda illustrated this point with a charming story about a godbrother name Sadānanda das. Sadānanda was a German intellectual who visited India first in the early 1930s. He visited many temples of India and saw the figures of the different “gods” of India, from the goddess Durgā riding a lion and holding her ten weapons including a mace and a triśūla, to Lord Śiva covered with snakes and ashes. When he saw Govinda (Krishna), however, with his three-fold bending form blowing His flute, he had an epiphany—Krishna must be God, because God must be enjoying! When Śrīla Prabhupāda narrated this story, he laughed and commented: “You never see Krishna in the spiritual world wearing a construction helmet and smoking a cigarette. ” But what is a reasonable conception of that enjoyment? I wrote about that previously in a piece called “Sri Krishna: A Reasonable Conception of Divinity”. All of us...


- Published: 2022-08-20
- Modified: 2022-08-19
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/08/20/the-significance-of-srila-prabhupadas-last-written-words-dhanurdhara-swamis-offering-to-srila-prabhupada/
- Categories: Srila Prabhupada, Vyasa-puja

The Significance of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Last Written Words Unfortunately, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s infirmity had visibly taken its toll on him. Day and night, he lay prone on his bed, and with whatever energy he could muster left in his body, he tried to rest comfortably and focus on the kirtan that softly played non-stop in his room. It is beyond comprehension that anyone in such a condition could gather the energy and mental acuity to continue dictating a profound commentary on such deep textual work as the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But he did. During hours through the day, he would listened attentively to his Sanskrit pandit read the various commentaries on a particular verse, assimilate them within his mind, and then with great effort bring his voice to a whisper into a dictaphone held to the side of his mouth, which is about as loud as he could struggle to be audible. Despite the condition in which these purports were written, I am convinced they are among his best. When going over those commentaries again recently, what particularly struck me was the significance of his last written words. They seemed to sum up in many ways the spiritual practice he was leaving the world: Seeing the Lord before him, Brahma began to offer prayers with great humility, respect and attention. (Purport, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10. 13. 64) Spiritual practice means concentration or attention. On the path of bhakti, that practice is kirtan or prayers, which to be done feelingly must be chanted from a platform...


- Published: 2022-08-15
- Modified: 2022-08-15
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/08/15/the-devotional-and-the-diabolical-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The Devotional and the Diabolical My conversations with Peter are always illuminating. Peter serves his church as an author, lecturer, and retreat facilitator. He was briefly passing through New York at the end of a lecture tour, and we met at Divya’s Kitchen for lunch. I don’t remember how we got there, but somehow our discussion became about the Devil. I was fascinated with Peter’s explanation of the word’s Latin derivative: “The Greek term diabolos is the root for the English word devil. When we speak of ‘diabolical behavior,’ we typically mean actions that are pure evil. The Greek term is from a compound: dia means to scatter (it’s where the term diaspora comes from), and bolos (from the verb ballo) means to throw an object. Together they connote someone taking a vessel and throwing it against a wall so it shatters and scatters into a million pieces. That’s what the Devil does in Judeo-Christian tradition. He kills and destroys (John 10:10). That’s what the world does on a more subtle level. It takes our attention, energy, and affections and scatters them in a million different directions, so we are never quite present, put together, or focused. ” I found the concept fascinating, especially the last point: our challenges in spiritual life are devilish, breaking our focus and concentration away from God and selfishly scattering it in different directions. Peter continued by explaining that the term perfection, or wholeness, is derived from another word. Again I appreciated how he illustrated...


- Published: 2022-08-08
- Modified: 2022-08-07
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/08/08/on-reputation/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Should a Vaiṣṇava be concerned with their reputation? Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, the lineage’s foremost authority on prema, doesn’t seem to think so: “O Mind! How can the highest and purest prema ever touch my heart while desire for prestige dances there like a shameless dog-eating outcaste woman? ” (Manaḥ-śikṣā, v. 7) On the other hand, however, there are references that seem to say the opposite: “Whenever there was anything that might touch or taint the character of the Lord, Dāmodara Paṇḍita would immediately point it out, not even considering the exalted position of the Lord. ” (Cc. Madhya-līlā 12. 25, Purport) So, is reputation something that a Vaiṣṇava shuns, or is it something they should be concerned with? Well, first one must be clear what reputation is. Reputation is a society’s belief or opinion of one’s character, competence, and productivity. A good reputation is therefore arguably one’s most valuable commodity because the widespread belief of one’s good qualities invokes trust, which is an essential element in attaining one’s goals. It is therefore not wrong for a spiritual person to be concerned with their reputation to the extent that it facilitates the execution of their dharma or responsibilities, whether those responsibilities are within their service, business, management or educational occupation, or even related to the development of a meaningful relationship within their ashram as a student, family member, or renunciate. However, to seek reputation simply to enhance prestige ultimately to enjoy and control the world is shunned, for it simply increases...


- Published: 2022-08-01
- Modified: 2022-07-31
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/08/01/is-surrender-a-bad-word-3/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Is Surrender a Bad Word? When I was in my teens a popular and favorite situation comedy on television was called The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. It was about typical young men in the ’50s. The character that amused us the most was Dobie’s best friend, a beatnik, Maynard G. Krebs. Beatniks, like their descendants the hippies, had the reputation of never working. During the show, whenever Maynard was asked if he would like to work, he would shriek nervously, “Work! ” We loved it. It was as if work was a bad word. I find almost the same reaction today among some devotees when they hear the word surrender, even though surrender is the foundation of bhakti. Ouch! Why do I hear some of my readers react that way when I say that surrender is the foundation of bhakti? Is surrender a bad word? How can that be? “Surrender” is unquestionably the first thing Arjuna says to Krishna after accepting Him as his guru: “I am a soul surrendered unto you. Please instruct me. ” And later, when Krishna describes the responsibly of a disciple, He says “praṇipātena”—that before receiving knowledge, the student must offer prostrated obeisances, which takes the “I surrender” mudrā of hands raised up in the air to the next level, falling flat at someone’s feet. When discussing this point about surrender in my Nectar of Devotion seminar, Sat Hari—one of the students, and a scholar in his own right—shared an insight from one of...


- Published: 2022-07-25
- Modified: 2022-07-24
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/07/25/krishna-and-man-at-yale/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I just love to stroll among majestic old buildings, so an old acquaintance and my host for the afternoon, Dr. Eben Graves, the assistant director of the Yale School of Sacred Music, took me to see the campus when I came last Sunday afternoon to visit him. Of special interest was the Beinecke Library, which houses one the largest collection of rare books and manuscripts in the world. The building is spectacular. When you walk inside your attention is immediately caught by a glass enclosed 10,000 square-foot six story sanctum in the center that houses the collection of one million books. For security reasons, the edifice is cleverly surrounded by a moatlike cavern extended to the floors below, but as you circumambulate this veritable book cathedral you still get a perfect audience of the neatly shelved ancient texts rising several stories above. As you continue around this stately edifice, there are several lounge areas with a smattering of display cases of some of the library’s special treasures, including one with a rare Gutenberg Bible and another with an original copy of the Declaration of Independence. Monday Morning Greetings is grounded in my own realizations—how I see the world based on the perspective of the sacred texts I study. I find that such realizations usually come spontaneously, but on rare occasions when they don’t, I have developed the habit of searching for one. As it was already time to begin my next post and I didn’t have a topic yet, my...


- Published: 2022-07-18
- Modified: 2022-07-17
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/07/18/flipping-the-switch-to-prema/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Faith means our goal. It’s where we feel our sublimity rests. I have some faith. Too often, however, I forget the memorable experiences of devotion driving that faith forward. The strength of my practice with the aim of bhāva then wanes. Today, I remember my faith. With renewed vigor I intensify my effort to attain that goal. I start within, but I wallow in complacency. What to do? Can I turn on a switch to at once light my heart with love and devotion? Yes! But first I must walk through the door—the entrance—to true bhakti. I must fully surrender. No! Not that dirty word again! Bad word? To surrender is to take full refuge of a worthy object of love and truth and to serve that fully as one’s purpose. What can be a more beautiful! It is the child who takes full shelter in the mother’s arms. It is the person of character who fearlessly takes full refuge of the highest principles, no matter what the consequences. And most important, it is the devotee who makes himself fully available for the service of God, who, by the power of his own devotion, has the strength to resist the selfish demands of ego. The story of an ancient wedding party comes to mind. The party left at night by boat to reach their destination eight hours down the shore. When they awoke in the morning, they were shocked to find themselves in the same place as where they began....


- Published: 2022-07-11
- Modified: 2022-07-11
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/07/11/heart-massage-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Heart Massage May 13, 2019 I am often asked how I come up with topics to write about every week. It seems a bit mystical: I just think about the first realization that has come to mind since I began the last Greeting, and then I begin to write. I often get stuck on a paragraph, or even a sentence, and feel hopeless about how to proceed. It’s hard to envision a completed piece. I move forward, however, in the mood of service, confident that the inspiration will come, for Krishna is in everyone’s heart and from Him comes remembrance and knowledge. Inevitably it does. Writing is such a faith builder, because it works every time. I start, can’t imagine how something of worth will come, but then watch the process unfold. By the time I am finished, I am generally quite surprised by the result, which seems to far exceed my abilities, almost as if I didn’t write it myself. I am staying upstate this week at my place. It is my paradise: nothing to do, no one to meet; just writing and chanting. Japa meditation—all forms of meditation—are like starting a car. You don’t start in the highest gear; you have to gradually build up speed. Likewise, gaining chanting momentum takes some time—not in how quickly I am chanting, but in the intensity of focus attained. I have that time this week, and with increased focus comes realization. Well, I had one. Chanting is like a heart massage....


- Published: 2022-07-04
- Modified: 2022-07-03
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/07/04/the-examiner/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

In my last post, I mentioned that I had something of an epiphany concerning the first verse of the Tenth Canto. Mahārāja Parīkṣit had just heard from Śukadeva Goswāmī at the end of the Ninth Canto about the lineage of saintly kings. Within that description were a few verses summarizing the activities of Krishna, which very much inspired the King to want to hear more. The Tenth Canto begins with an expression of his enthusiasm in terms of an inquiry to hear about the activities of Krishna in detail. My inspiration concerns how much Mahārāja Parīkṣit’s name reveals about the mindset behind his inquiries and how much that understanding meant to me. The name “Parīkṣit” comes from the root words pari (in all respects, everywhere) and īkṣ (to see), which conventionally means “to examine”, the suffix making it an active principle, the examiner, which is certainly an appropriate designation for the King, considering the story of his birth and how that informed his raison d’être: King Parīkṣit saw the form of the Lord when Krishna appeared in the womb of his mother to protect him from being aborted by a special weapon that was directed at her womb by the revengeful Aśvatthāmā. The vision of the Lord’s beauty at that time made such a powerful impression on him that he would come to inspect all people in search of that personality he had seen in the womb. As that pursuit formed his constant contemplation and his reason for living, he...


- Published: 2022-06-27
- Modified: 2022-06-27
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/06/27/the-process-of-writing-and-other-thoughts/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I got positive feedback from my last post—that the message was succinct and profound. It is always edifying to be encouraged. “Die to Live” was a simple offering of 500 words, but simple it was not. Finishing it was excruciating. I almost gave up many times. My “pen” finally rested Sunday night. There is no rest for the wicked. Today I began again to write the next post, but what to write? I had no idea. I chanted and prayed. An inspiration came: You struggled last week, so why not share your process of writing? Inspiration Writing begins with an inspiration. Without having some realization to write about, the “pen” can’t move forward. A realization is a vision of truth, a conception that is not just understood, but an epiphany—something that is seen. My faith is that wisdom texts and spiritual practice gives one the lens to get those glimpses of realization, those visions of truth. I believe that most of us have more of those “epiphanies” than we realize. They are often fleeting and gone before we even realize that we have them. A commitment to writing keeps us ready for them so that when they flash by, they can be noted and recalled, just like dreams are usually only remembered when we make the conviction to write them down upon waking. Realizations may not come often, but I seem to get at least one per week to write about. When I do get one, I start the “pen”...


- Published: 2022-06-20
- Modified: 2022-06-20
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/06/20/die-to-live/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Die to Live Last Saturday I met my swami friend, Kadamba Kanana Maharaja. He was chanting and dancing enthusiastically at the Ratha-yātrā festival for hours and hours, but his prognosis is not good. His cancer has metastasized. He will leave soon for Vrindavan to prepare for the final journey. Our prayers are with him. Naturally that got me thinking about death, but I felt foolish: Why do I need someone dying to get me thinking about death? What can be a starker fact of life? Such obliviousness is especially unbecoming for me, a sannyāsi, a monk. The whole idea about the renounced order is that it is a stage of life where one is supposed to “die to live”, an interesting paradox that highlights why it is so inappropriate for a sannyāsi to lose that sense of the ever-present world of death. This becomes clear when one understands what death really is. Death, or the phrase “die” as used in the paradox, does not refer to the point where the body no longer has life, because the end of the body is not the end of life for the eternal soul. Rather, “die” signifies the real part of us that is meant to die, the ego—the misidentification of the eternal self as the body, which subjects us to the terrifying but illusory threat of non-existence commonly called death. A monk must therefore keep himself aware of bodily death to maintain the inspiration for the continuous dissolution of the pernicious ego,...


- Published: 2022-06-13
- Modified: 2022-06-12
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/06/13/a-personal-commentary-on-chinese-and-brooklyn-proverbs-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

A Personal Commentary on Chinese and Brooklyn Proverbs April 16, 2018 By chance, I came across a book of Chinese proverbs. Out of curiosity, I began thumbing through the pages and wound up reading the whole thing. I’m glad I did. A quote by Francis Bacon in the introduction says it all: “The genius, wit, and spirit of a nation are discovering proverbs. ” Here are a few of my favorites, with short personal comments on each: Chinese Proverbs Only one who can swallow an insult is a man. A real man is one who has the strength of humility to control the false ego, which especially gets stirred when one is insulted. Do everything at the right time and one day will seem like three. To do everything at the right time means to be thoughtfully regulated in one’s activities. Making appointments with oneself helps to inoculate one from the intrusion of other less essential demands made by our minds and by others. So much can be accomplished when one does this. For example, if one wants to maintain or increase one’s chanting, then one should chant every day at a prescribed time. Every three rounds will seem like one. Patience in one minute of anger can prevent one hundred days of sorrow. Too much of life is wasted in dealing with problems that one has brought upon oneself by reacting impulsively. In other words, too much of what we are dealing with is self-created and could be avoided...


- Published: 2022-06-06
- Modified: 2022-06-05
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/06/06/street-unicorns/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

My mother was a fashion designer who prided herself in the clothes she designed and the dresses she wore, and her son comes home as a Hare Krishna dressed in shmatas! Yes, that’s the word she used to describe my robes. It is a Yiddish word for “rag” usually applied to shabby dress. Later, as I matured, I was more sensitive when visiting her. She much preferred the brightly pressed saffron silks than the crinkled faded cottons. “Oh beautiful,” she said, as she reached out from her seat to feel it’s fine texture and admire the bright saffron color. I think she would have been happy to see my picture in Street Unicorns. Street Unicorns is a newly published coffee table book that highlights the dress of boldly stylish New Yorkers with the strong urge to express their authentic self in fashion, regardless of what people think. But what the hell am I doing in such a book? It was a little more than two years ago, during a pleasant pre-COVID summer, while walking around Union Square Park with Madhava das during his break from leading kirtan with the harinama party, when we were stopped by a pleasant gentleman admiring our “unique” garb. He spoke something about a book he was writing, asked to take our picture, got our information, sincerely thanked us, and left. Soon we got documents describing in more detail his project and asking us to sign a release so that he could use our pictures. Two...


- Published: 2022-05-30
- Modified: 2022-05-29
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/05/30/a-fifth-commandment-solution-to-a-second-amendment-problem-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

A Fifth Commandment Solution to a Second Amendment Problem March 12, 2018 I was disturbed to hear about the recent school shootings in Florida and the epidemic of school shootings in general. I can’t imagine the pain of a mother burying her own child. I don’t have much to add to the debate on an immediate solution, but the liberality that assault weapons are accessible seems absurd. Obviously, something must be done. Although some form of legislation is needed to help alleviate this endemic problem, I can’t help but think that there is something more deeply amiss at the root that will not be solved by Second Amendment legislation—the increasing widespread frustration in American youth inevitably expressed in some form of destruction, whatever their weapon of choice. In saying this, I do not intend to minimize the fact that the damage of that destructive urge can be exponentially increased by one’s weapon of choice, just voicing my concern that the root of the problem should not be neglected and that a comprehensive solution must include and prioritize what I call a Fifth Commandment solution. The Fifth Commandment states simply, “Honor thy father and mother. ” I call the pervasiveness of mass shootings a Fifth Commandment problem to highlight that a culture that does not sufficiently focus on and safeguard the influence and importance of the family in the lives of its children will produce a society bursting with resentment and prone to violence, regardless of whether guns are restricted or...


- Published: 2022-05-23
- Modified: 2022-05-22
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/05/23/i-stand-with-srila-prabhupada/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I was recently sent a short documentary about a small nunnery with an adjoining old and ornate church in eastern Ukraine that was gradually being seriously damaged during the war. It was documented over time so you could follow the fear and disappointment of the nuns as they witnessed the ongoing destruction of their nunnery complex caught in the crossfire of a horrible war. I was, however, very impressed with the consciousness of the nuns, both their faith and insight. There was one thing that a young humble nun said that especially struck me: “But even if the war ends, what will people do with their lives? ” I am sure that the nun desperately wants the war to end and is not oblivious to the suffering of her people and the necessity for most people to have a “normal” or stable life to support the pursuance of any wholesome goal, especially God consciousness, but her concern is still valid. Normal life, especially as structured in the modern world, is certainly nowhere near an end in itself. The crimes of war should be stopped, and moral outrage has its place, but we should not lose sight that what one will return to in “peace” is an increasingly materialistic civilization whose institutions, values, and economic foundations are gradually crumbling—a society more than ever in dire need of a spiritual reformation. Śrīla Prabhupāda also never thought that the present civilization, even at its best, was “normal”, and he strongly espoused that in...


- Published: 2022-05-16
- Modified: 2022-05-16
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/05/16/if-i-were-god-would-the-world-be-a-better-place/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

There is such a disparity between what I want the world to be and how the world moves around me. It often seems so unfair. But what’s unfair? That I am not the controller, that I am not God, in the sense that I am not all-powerful? Before wanting to have that capacity to control the world, however, I should ask: Would I be good at it? Perhaps in my short-sightedness I am forgetting the complexity entailed in controlling the universe. For one thing, there is a certain principle of interconnectivity operating in the world, and thus it is not perfection to move a thing just the way one wants or thinks is best without understanding the full ramifications of doing so. It is as short-sighted as a small child being stung by a bee thinking it is best for all bees to be eradicated, not understanding their necessity in cross pollination and how the food chain would be threatened without them. I wonder then, if I had the God’s power to control, would I be controlling the world with the foresight of a small kid? I think the first thing most people would probably do with unlimited power, and the thing I probably would also do, is to wish away all the bad things that are happening to them, their loved ones, and perhaps the world. Unfortunately, we would lose the invaluable lessons those challenges were meant to teach us. Is it worth it? Could I do a better...


- Published: 2022-05-09
- Modified: 2022-05-09
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/05/09/pleasure-is-the-happiness-of-a-madman/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I haven’t been in New York City for a while. Our car was parked near the Bhakti Center. I proceeded down 1st Street towards Washington Square Park for the kirtan. Looking around me, I hummed a tune in my mind: “All the lonely people where do they all come from? ” I can’t believe how attracted I once was to live here. I read somewhere that six out of ten Americans have either a panic attack or depression at least three days a week. I don’t know the accuracy of that study, but I can believe it. I thought to my myself: “People here just don’t know the science of happiness. ” The title of today’s article is a partial quote about the science of happiness. Here’s the full quote: “Pleasure is the happiness of a madman, and happiness is the pleasure of a sage. ” There are two conceptions of happiness described here. Let’s explore them. The first conception of happiness is pleasure, the stimulation of the senses and the inflation of the ego. It is a mad conception of happiness because it doesn’t deal with where true happiness rests—the state of the mind. In fact, pleasure may be the cause of misery. When pursued carelessly it will degrade or depress the mind. I somewhat understood this point while still in college after coming to Krishna consciousness and reading the Bhagavad-gītā. It then dawned on me, and I could see it clearly in my college, how people who were...


- Published: 2022-05-02
- Modified: 2022-05-02
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/05/02/a-soul-killing-civilization/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s purport was fiery. Jaya Jagannath’s comment on it struck me: “What some people would look at forty or fifty years ago in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books as polemical, would now just be read by the same people as news. ” Yes, the slaughterhouse of modern education, rascal scientists, demons trying to rule the world, and the degradation and oppression of modern civilization—all the things that he spoke about so strongly—seem to be playing out right before our eyes. I was also thinking of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desire for self-sustainable communities and his lack of faith that the modern economic system was conducive to practicing Krishna consciousness. I see that now more clearly than ever. I visited a devotee for dinner. He gets very lucrative overtime pay in his union job, but he is forced to work nine hours a day. His wife also works, but the expenses for his family, mortgage, building repairs, and high taxes force him to keep working at that pace whenever the opportunity arises. A younger student came to me for counsel. She shared her woes. If she ever wanted to take initiation, she would have to quit her job as a consultant for a leadership seminar company. The too often nine-hour seminars daily were crushing her spirit. Of course, these were extraordinary cases—but were they? For some reason, in the last few days, story after story came to me of oppressive work situations, economic woes, exhaustion, and the toll modern life is taking on people’s...


- Published: 2022-04-25
- Modified: 2022-04-24
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/04/25/how-bhakti-works-part-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

How Bhakti Works Part 2 Analogies are a great way to communicate an idea. I just made up one. Just as a piece of paper burns only when the rays focused upon it through a magnifying glass are concentrated without break for a prolonged time, similarly the practices of bhakti, such as japa meditation, only bear the full fruit of realization when concentration is prolonged over a period without interruption. Śrī Caitanya exemplified this principle by spending the last years of His life with protracted and uninterrupted focus on the holy name. He showed, however, that such focus on the holy name, like absorption on any object, is best achieved not just by will power alone, but when there is an emotional connection with that object. In the case of Śrī Caitanya, His absorption in the holy name was nourished by the most consummate emotion—a relationship in love—specifically the highest love, which manifests in relationship to God. To develop that relationship with the holy name He basically did two things: Visit the temple and worship Lord Jagannatha, the form of the person whose name He was chanting, and sit in His bhajan kuṭīra in Puri listening to the stories and songs of the person whose name He was chanting based on the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from His most confidential associates, Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya and Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara. In fact, it was so important for Śrī Caitanya’s full absorption in nama bhajan to properly hear the appropriate poetic songs and stories to deepen...


- Published: 2022-04-18
- Modified: 2022-04-19
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/04/18/inherent-inherited-and-the-culture-of-faith/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The audience for my Monday Morning Greetings is a mix of people from various spiritual backgrounds. Many readers may therefore not be aware of the debated doctrinal issues that sometimes arise within the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava bhakti tradition. Today I want to touch on one of the issues that has been brewing recently. My objective in doing so is not to resolve the issue but to use it to highlight a related point: that great ācāryas sometimes seem to contradict one another, so how should we behave when a current ācārya writes or speaks something that appears to be at odds with something stated by a previous ācārya? Let’s begin our analysis by briefly outlining the dispute at hand. One side states that bhakti is inherent in the soul and that this principle is a foundational tenet of our lineage, especially through the last three or four generations of our ācāryas. The other side states that Śrī Caitanya’s original followers whom He specifically empowered to systemize the tradition’s philosophical conclusions, led by Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī, espouse something different—that bhakti is not inherent but rather is a spiritual energy that must be bestowed on a spiritual aspirant by one who has attained it. Again, it’s obviously beyond the scope of a weekly post to argue either side. What I want to speak about, however, is how essential it is to discuss and analyze these types of disputes by emphasizing how the tradition deals with its ācāryas through a principle I’ve come to...


- Published: 2022-04-11
- Modified: 2022-04-11
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/04/11/an-original-argument-for-the-existence-of-god-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Please excuse me again for a reprint. I was working on a post about a difficult doctrinal issue and it has been taking be an inordinate amount of time to finish. I’ll be back next week with a fresh post. An Original Argument for the Existence of God June 13, 2016 I am fascinated by apologetics, the discipline of defending the existence of God through reason. I have listened to and read the best apologetics, from William Lane Craig to Alvin Plantinga, and I have studied their arguments carefully. I even devised a public seminar called “Can God Be Blue? A Study of Krishna” based on apologetics, including arguments for God being a person and for that person being Krishna. I coined what I thought was an original argument for the existence of God. I call the argument “The Argument by Coincidence. ” Basically, I argued that if a person carefully studies his own life, he will find a synchronicity between certain events, or “meaningful coincidences,” as Carl Jung termed them, whose probability of occurrence is so small that it is far more likely that the cause of those events rests beyond any random occurrence under the laws of nature. What makes the events even more improbable is the link between those external events and our inner life, as if the events were personally directed toward helping us grow. An example from Jung’s practice illustrates this phenomenon: A classic illustration of synchronicity presented by Jung involved one of his patients,...


- Published: 2022-04-04
- Modified: 2022-04-04
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/04/04/how-a-bhaktivedanta-purport-saved-me-from-a-mental-hospital-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Dhanurdhara Swami has been hosting a retreat this past week in Shyam Ashram in Cali, Colombia and hasn’t been able to finish this week’s Monday Morning Greeting so we are reprinting one from 2016. How a Bhaktivedanta Purport Saved Me from a Mental Hospital October 24, 2016 I am fortunate to have had very wonderful parents. In fact, my ninety-six-year-old mother is still alive, and when I am in the US I try to stay with her for a couple of days every month. Why am I saying this? Because I am about to tell the story of when my parents had me kidnapped to save me from being a Hare Krishna, which they were convinced at the time was a cult, and I would not want anyone to think bad of them in the least. They were very decent people. They kidnapped me over forty years ago, when we young, passionate, dedicated devotees couldn’t always communicate properly the profound truths that we were experiencing, especially to our parents, and when most people, such as my parents, had very little frame of reference to understand an exotic new religious movement in America. Out of love for me, they tried to save me from something they thought was harmful, and unfortunately, not being properly informed, they resorted to deprogramming. Looking back, I blame myself equally for that miscommunication. I am just going to highlight the part of the story where the recollection and sharing of a Bhaktivedanta purport saved me from...


- Published: 2022-03-28
- Modified: 2022-03-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/03/28/the-perils-of-faith/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

To advance in learning, there is a necessity for faith. Unfortunately, there is also a danger in faith. In this post I want to discuss that danger and how to safeguard against being victimized by it, but first it is important to briefly discuss what faith is and why it is so important. Faith is not blind. It is trust by experience. When, by following the guidance of someone who is expert in a particular field of knowledge, one realizes some truth, one naturally gains trust in their authority. That naturally leads to faith, the acceptance of that person’s authority in certain areas of knowledge beyond what one can personally verify. For example, if one’s health improves by the prescriptions of an expert doctor, one will trust that doctor’s authority and follow the health protocol he or she recommends, although one is not a medical authority nor able to confirm the legitimacy of that doctor’s recommendations. The necessity of faith as a precursor to knowledge should be obvious. To learn something means going beyond one’s present perception and comprehension, an endeavor obviously requiring preliminary faith. If that is not there, then the effort to understand those truths would be lacking, and one would remain in ignorance of them. Now to the perils of faith—especially in the fields of transformational knowledge, such as psychology and spirituality. Unfortunately, a person doesn’t have to be perfect in a field of psychological or spiritual expertise to give someone a preliminary experience of transformation and...


- Published: 2022-03-21
- Modified: 2022-03-21
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/03/21/thus-spoke-me/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

In my years of teaching the path of bhakti, I have come up with a few hopefully quotable sayings that perhaps are worthy to share. Well, here they are: Destiny is the language of God. God as Viṣṇu, the all-pervading one, witnesses all our activities. He then manifests as kāla, or time, to move the world around us according to the ignorance He has observed in our past activities to teach us the relevant lessons required to rectify those misconceptions. One’s destiny or karma is thus one of the main ways God speaks to enlighten us. As we are generally ignorant of exactly what God is telling us by our karma, He provides a dictionary of archetype karmic experiences to decipher His karmic language called śāstra. Still, as that language may be foreign to us, He further provides for our edification a teacher who knows śāstra and is thus proficient in understanding destiny, the language of God. Rationalization is intelligence in the service of the false ego. More than anything else the false ego is the desire for superiority—more than even the desire for sensual stimulation, which is why even the wealthiest people with full opportunity for sense gratification often still vie for high political positions. One of the greatest affronts to this desire for superiority is the acknowledgement of having been wrong, something most of us resist by the mechanism of rationalization, where the intelligence is used in the service of the false ego by creatively making excuses even...


- Published: 2022-03-14
- Modified: 2022-03-13
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/03/14/the-seer-the-seen-and-the-path-of-bhakti/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Every morning Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura would step outside of his room, which was adjacent to the far wall of the temple room, and immediately take off his glasses before taking darshan of his Lordships from forty feet away, although he could hardly see without them. A disciple who witnessed this made a humble inquiry as to why. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta’s answer was instructive: “I am not here to see Krishna, but to be seen by Krishna,” expressing the essence of how one in devotion views the world. We can’t imitate Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta’s elevated mood. We shouldn’t therefore blind ourselves before the deity. Rather we need to open our eyes to the beauty of the deity to redirect our desires from looking at beauty for selfish enjoyment to relishing beauty in a devotional mood as an offering of the best to Krishna. What Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta was therefore demonstrating, more than a particular action, was the general principle of adjusting our view of the world, even towards the deities, from seeing the world as an object for our enjoyment from the standpoint of the enjoyer and controller (the seer), to seeing ourselves as objects of God’s pleasure from the position of a humble servant (the seen). Let’s briefly unpack his message to understand its importance. First, I will introduce a basic philosophical principle and give a personal example in an attempt to put this issue in a clearer context. When, by dint of one’s constitution, what one desires cannot be fulfilled in...


- Published: 2022-03-07
- Modified: 2022-03-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/03/07/the-tale-of-shlomo-the-greatest-yogi/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Shlomo was one of my favorites. I met him 1982. He was an older Jewish man from Israel. He wasn’t a hippy, or one of the throngs of young cool Israelis who rushed to India after finishing the pressure cooker of their compulsory military service from eighteen to twenty years of age, or any of the kind of typical alternative Western pilgrim that would occasionally trek to India at the time. When I first met him, I just couldn’t place him in India. He was a simple, squat, balding, over-weight Jewish family man who was suffering, like most people, on the daily grind of work and family. It seems in that anxiety, and a thirst for some adventure, he got a sudden itch to follow some of his younger compatriots to India. According to him, he had no idea what Vrindavan was, or why he particularly came there on his pilgrimage. As he recalled, he was just mysteriously directed to Vrindavan and to our temple where something inexplicable happened. When he got to the altar of Śrī Śrī Rādhā Śyāmasundara and gazed upon Their beautiful forms, he became overwhelmed with an intense joy. He broke down in uncontrollable tears and surrendered right then and there to Their lotus feet and never wavered in that conviction for nearly forty years. Strange? Not really, if you understand the way of faith. Faith is trust by experience. We move and commit ourselves where we experience some happiness, but faith is not a trust...


- Published: 2022-02-28
- Modified: 2022-02-27
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/02/28/i-want-to-be-a-vaishnava/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I want to be a Vaishnava! November 7, 2016 Amidst the throngs of seemingly ordinary people here in Vrindavan, just one old Vaishnava sadhu has to smile and greet you in his raspy voice “Jai Ho, Maharaja! ” and you realize why you have come to this place. Does that sound sentimental? After living here for more than forty years, that is my strong conviction, that the endearing voices and bountiful smiles of such beautiful people inform us powerfully of the real goal in life: to become simple hearted, happy, and in a mood of service. Yes, the beautiful things in life are simple and sweet, because they are born not from opulence but from the hearts of devotion. And that’s the glory of Vrindavan, the jewels of mādhurya (sweetness) that are hidden in the hearts of the real vraja-vāsīs, those who are born in Vrindavan or who live there and imbibe its mood. Yesterday I mined one. Govinda Kuṇḍa is just a forty-minute walk down the parikramā path from my place near Dana Ghati (the place of the tax pastime). It sits next to the side of Govardhana Hill. It’s where Indra performed the ceremonial bath of Krishna to beg pardon for his offense, and those bath waters formed this beautiful pond. Five of us took a late-morning outing there to visit this small sadhu hamlet. Our visit eventually took us down a small road off the main path on the southern side of the kuṇḍa that ended at...


- Published: 2022-02-21
- Modified: 2022-02-20
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/02/21/i-fell-in-love-with-a-mountain-and-other-govardhan-musings/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I Fell in Love with a Mountain I gaze towards the path just outside my ashram gate. A river of faithful scurry around Govardhan. My favorites? The old Brijabasi ladies whose Olympic pace seem to defy their age. Their dress? Have you ever seen Granny from the show Beverley Hillbillies? I put my ear to the ground. I hear only kirtans or joyful chatter. Even the struggling out-of-town businessmen with their puri and pakora potbellies seem to somehow enjoy the arduous five-to-seven-hour trek. I hit the ground in prayer. I’m off. My own trek of gratitude begins. Roti Baba I pass a twenty-foot lean-to kitchen on my right that is open to the pilgrim road, the dwelling of Roti Baba. I have gone by that shanty thousands of times. I have never failed to see him majestically standing there, well over six feet, strongly built, light swarthy complexion, shirtless, covered with a short white cotton wrap from waist to knees, sporting a perfect long grey sadhu beard and dreadlocked beehive hair. He is the emblem of calm, the picture of perfect dignity, as he soberly oversees his operation of volunteers who feed hundreds, often thousands, of pilgrims day and night. His specialty: rotis! As I pass by, I bow my head, appreciating his life of steady service. Seeing Govardhan The real Vrindavan is the hearts of the residents and pilgrims. It takes only a simple kirtan to bring their mood of devotion to the surface. If their smiles fortunately touch...


- Published: 2022-02-14
- Modified: 2022-02-14
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/02/14/do-you-really-think-it-is-ok-that-they-abandoned-their-babies/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Well, who is this about? The answer is a bit bewildering. It is about Krishna’s greatest devotees. When the gopīs heard Krishna’s flute, they immediately abandoned whatever they were doing, even putting down the young babies in their arms, just to run off to the forest to see their beloved Krishna. We can say this is lila, the Lord’s play, but what about the little ones? Somehow even couched in the concept of transcendence, it just doesn’t seem right. Shouldn’t a devotee think of others before themself, what to speak of the mood of the topmost ones? To reconcile this, we need to talk about the relationship between responsibility and renunciation. What scope, if any, within the philosophy of Krishna consciousness, is there justification for the abandonment of one’s duties, even such consequential responsibilities as the protection of those dependent on our care? The Bhagavad-gītā seems to support that one who realizes the soul is not bound by any duties at all: “But for one what takes pleasure in the self, whose human life is one of self-realization and who is satisfied in the self only, fully satisfied—for him there is no duty. ” (3. 17) That’s all fine—that one who is self-realized has no duty. However, Krishna makes it clear in the verses that follow this one that although the duties that are prescribed to purify one’s individual material condition lose rule over one who has transcended that condition, it doesn’t mean one gives those duties up. In fact,...


- Published: 2022-02-07
- Modified: 2022-02-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/02/07/on-criticism-3/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

We just finished our first B. I. G. retreat (Bhakti Immersion Govardhan). It was one of our best. The facilities here are very good, and the prasadam and kirtans were especially wonderful. Between preparing and giving classes, long kirtans, and absorbing parikramas, there literally was not a moment free for anything else, especially writing. I will therefore share with you a previous post. First, here are some short videos of our kirtans: Bhakti Immersion Govardhan Kirtans Part 1 and Part 2. On Criticism October 10, 2016 “The poison of that which you criticize comes to you. ” “Criticism is worse that throwing a spear in someone’s body, because the spear can only pierce the body but criticism can pierce the heart. ” “Criticism is worse than envy. Envy is when it is in the heart. Criticism is when it comes out. ” I have repeated these statements often. I am sure I read them someplace, though I can’t find their reference. I have no difficulty, however, embracing their conclusion. And here is one strong, clearly referenced statement about the necessity to avoid criticism: “Of the nine processes of devotional service, the most important is to always chant the holy name of the Lord. If one does so, avoiding the ten kinds of offenses, one very easily obtains the most valuable love of Godhead. ” (Caitanya-caritāmṛta Antya 4. 71) It’s a good reference, for the most serious of the ten offenses against the holy name is criticism. Of course, the word...


- Published: 2022-01-31
- Modified: 2022-01-29
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/01/31/a-guide-to-vaisnava-behavior-part-one/
- Categories: Lessons from the CC, Monday Morning Greetings

I started a new book. I haven’t seen in the contemporary Vaiṣṇava movement a book on Vaiṣṇava behavior. Years ago, I began writing a book called Lessons from the CC, but I had other writing projects. I only wrote a few chapters. It contained lessons on behavior, but also basic philosophical points. I now have time to again take up that project, but I thought it would be more relevant if I limited it just to Vaiṣṇava behavior and could gradually include the excerpts here. The “CC” stands for Caitanya-caritāmṛta, which describes Śrī Caintanya’s life and teachings. The phrase “Caitanya-caritāmṛta” literally means “The character of the life force in immortality”. That character is love of Godhead. It also includes how a Vaiṣṇava should behave with others. The book has a simple format. I go through the Caitanya-caritāmṛta systematically until I find an example of Vaiṣṇava behavior. I then list that principle. Next, I put that principle in context of a particular story in the text. Finally, I state the exact verse in the text that illustrates the point. I have started my research with the Antya-līlā. Eventually I will cover the previous sections. I suppose when I finally finish and publish, the book will be in order starting with the Ādi-līlā. Here is my first excerpt. Lessons from the Caitanya-caritāmṛta– Antya-līlā Chapter 1 Lesson 1: A Vaiṣṇava removes the impediments to his spiritual endeavors by acknowledging his shortcomings and praying for the mercy of saintly devotees. Nearing the end of...


- Published: 2022-01-24
- Modified: 2022-01-23
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/01/24/covid-fatigue-life-fatigue-and-seeing-krishna/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Initially, I was thinking to write about Covid fatigue. You get the idea—long restriction, then a little freedom, then restriction, again and again. One can become tired of the whole thing. But the more I thought about it, it seemed Covid fatigue was just a microcosm for life in general, a kind of life fatigue. But there seems to be a purpose to it. Let me share something about my own recent fatigue. Hopefully, it will make my point clearer. I wrote last week about how when I came here to an Ayurvedic clinic for a panca karma detox I was unexpectedly quarantined for Covid. My computer also had problems, so I couldn’t write. I was basically stuck in a room for ten days with limited sevā, reduced communication, and due to increased fatigue not even the best mental focus to chant more. Initially, I wasn’t so happy about that. That’s natural when one is stripped of what Śrīla Prabhupāda called “one’s material protective agents”—the temporary powers and possessions that give us the false sense that we are independent controllers. Quickly, however, some clarity came. It was obvious. I just needed to be “crushed” again. To the extent that you think you’re the controller, you can never see who is. I remember sitting helplessly on my porch outside my cabin, looking at the forest, meditating on our philosophy, and suddenly “seeing Krishna”. His care and protection, which is always there, became pronounced. Only when we shed the ahaṅkāra, the sense...


- Published: 2022-01-17
- Modified: 2022-01-16
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/01/17/the-science-of-omens-and-the-power-of-free-will/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

When Akrūra was on his way to see Krishna, he saw a very auspicious omen. A deer to his right was staring at his chariot. He was therefore confident that he would be welcomed by Krishna, even though he was serving as the top minister to Kamsa, who had vowed to kill Krishna. We learn this science of omens from our sacred texts. A contemporary commentator of this text gives an analogy to help explain the phenomenon of omens: “Just as when one does not put on his seatbelt the car is programmed to automatically make a sound to indicate danger, in a similar way the universe has ways of indicating auspicious and inauspicious future events. ” For the last three weeks my left eye had been twitching on and off—an inauspicious sign. I knew something was coming. I have watched exactly this type of portent unfold too many times in my life. The day after I arrived in Kerala at the Vedasudha Ayurvedic Hospital for a panca karma detox, the doctor noticed I was run down. He tested me for COVID-19. I was positive. To me it seemed that this was the portent foretold. They quarantined me for ten days in a quaint forest cabin with excellent medical, nutritional, and cleaning services brought by staff in quasi-hazmat suits. My symptoms were only a slight fever, moderate sore throat, and increased fatigue and sleeping. In other words, a mild flu. I immediately took a COVID protocol of repurposed drugs and...


- Published: 2022-01-10
- Modified: 2022-01-10
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/01/10/old-soul-and-body-too-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Old Soul (and Body Too) I recently went with Jaya Jagannath to visit someone who is perhaps New York’s oldest living servant of Sri Sri Radha-Muralidhara. When I say oldest, I am referring not only to age, now past eighty, but to years at Their lotus feet, now past thirty. Jayati Radhika was visiting Sri Sri Radha-Muralidhara even before the Bhakti Center or The Sanctuary (its former namesake) existed, when They resided in a humble storefront on Manhattan Avenue in Brooklyn, just eight blocks from her home. But I think she must have worshiped Them even longer than that, perhaps for many lives. I see in her all the symptoms of an old soul. Jayati Radhika was not a hippy or a straight edge or from the yoga scene, and she was not born in the movement, or in any of the prominent sources, or veins, from which Hare Krishna devotees are usually mined. She was just a simple middle-class New York housewife, a mother and a dedicated registered nurse, when, returning home from work in 1981, she encountered a young Hare Krishna monk on the street and purchased from him an Easy Journey to Other Planets, one of Srila Prabhupada’s first books. When she reached home, she read the book from cover to cover, searched the address of the nearest ISKCON center, and that same Sunday visited Radha-Govinda Mandir. She never looked back, even though her family, although supportive, didn’t follow her on her journey. Jayati Radhika is now...


- Published: 2022-01-03
- Modified: 2022-01-02
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2022/01/03/happy-sixth-birthday-monday-morning-greetings/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

My titles are usually catchy. Not this one. I think it’s kind of boring, but I wanted to personally reach out to my audience to celebrate. I started Monday Morning Greetings six years ago to the day, so today’s post will be number three hundred and thirteen! Every week I write on whatever thought or realization is prominent in my mind. Well, this was it—to celebrate with my readers. When I begin writing on Tuesday, I usually have somewhat of a vision of expanding my initial realization. Today I thought I could expand my initial inspiration by discussing whether it’s OK to be proud of what one has accomplished, but I just couldn’t take that much further. I knew, however, that putting pen to the paper, so to speak, has a way of activating the mind if you just keep at it. Although this post didn’t exactly go where I expected, the process of writing itself became my inspiration, especially in relation to fostering my faith in Krishna. I very much like the definition of faith that I heard from a Christian apologist: Faith is trust by experience. Every single week, after the first session of writing, I feel helpless. I get to watch, however, how day by day the initial inspiration gets sculpted gradually and miraculously by an inner voice into a finished product way beyond my initial inspiration or abilities. As a result, I have gained faith as a writer—trust by experience—that the result is up to Krishna,...


- Published: 2021-12-27
- Modified: 2021-12-26
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/12/27/the-battle-for-our-souls/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The success of yoga depends on our ability to concentrate or focus our attention on a particular object. Never in history has there been so much competition for that attention. Perhaps the biggest competitor for our attention, and thus our spiritual life, is social media. A short analysis as to why: A successful business markets a product. How then did Big Tech become one of the most successful commercial enterprises in history overnight if it is for free? The answer is simple: We are the product. Big Tech markets us to advertisers. We are a valuable commodity because advertisers sell certainty in sales, and the extraordinary amount of data Big Tech collects on us ensures them exactly that—the advertisements of whomever learns the sophisticated science of utilizing the vast data of our preferences and proclivities will be, without doubt, successful. Such predictability is obviously a businessman’s dream. I think we all already basically know this in a cursory way. What I don’t think we understand is the level that they are able to control us. Simply put, we are dealing with behavior changing geniuses who have perfected the science of the gradual and imperceptible change of what we think, what we do, and who we are on behalf of a commercial goal. Perhaps even more frightening is that as they collect more and more data over time, their prediction models on each of us becomes increasingly refined, enabling them to not only control us for commercial purposes but also to...


- Published: 2021-12-20
- Modified: 2021-12-19
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/12/20/relationship-is-more-important-than-being-right/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

One on the path of bhakti is not inclined to argue. At the least one should try to avoid it. Śrī Nārada felt strongly enough about this principle to include it in his carefully chosen sūtras for those serious on the path of bhakti: “One should not engage in argumentative debate. ” (NBS 75) Of course, one may reluctantly engage in debate or argument to establish important truths to protect others from confusion, but, in general, a Vaiṣṇava doesn’t care to defend themself, especially in contentious discourse that is mostly based on ego. The starkest example of this characteristic was demonstrated in the life of the great Vaiṣṇava scholars Śrī Rūpa and Śrī Sanātana. When a prideful traveling scholar named Rupanārāyaṇa Sarasvatī, also known as digvijaya (a person who had conquered everyone in all directions) came to Vrindavan to challenge them, rather than waste precious time in argument, they informed the visiting paṇḍita that their reputation as great scholars was exaggerated. When he pressed them further for debate, they even signed his jayapatra, a letter acknowledging defeat by him, although by all accounts they were more than qualified to engage with him. The message here is clear. A Vaiṣṇava has one clear objective, to attain love of Godhead. He or she therefore doesn’t prioritize false ego—that cherished conception of being better than others, founded on the desire to be the controller and enjoyer. In contrast, most people in this world are figuratively ready to die to defend themselves. Die to...


- Published: 2021-12-13
- Modified: 2021-12-12
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/12/13/what-is-bhakti-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

What Is Bhakti? Bhakti is a faith—the faith that the best thing is to surrender to God with devotion. But it is more than just an understanding. It is the actual feeling in the heart to want to do so. And bhakti is more than just that feeling of devotion. It is also the practical expression of that feeling through the faculty of the mind, body, and words called devotional service, or seva. And higher than that is pure devotion, when that practical expression to please Krishna is the exclusive desire of the heart, unmixed with or covered by any other desire. Ultimately, bhakti is also God’s energy, the essence of His pleasure potency, which Krishna mercifully places in the heart of that devotee who attracts His mercy by pure devotional service. Is bhakti inherent? Bhakti is certainly the jiva’s purpose lying dormant within heart, which is actualized when touched by the Lord’s internal potency. That full potential of bhakti is thus called bhaktyānanda, the bliss of devotion, which is the essence of God’s internal potency and His highest pleasure. Unlike svarūpānanda, God’s own pleasure, in which He basks alone, bhaktyānanda, the bliss of devotion, must come from another. We are that potential “other,” created as receptacles for a love meant to be offered back to the one who has bestowed it. That is real bhakti, because love of Godhead, kṛṣṇa-premā, the essence of His pleasure potency (hlādinī-śakti), is the thing that pleases God the most. To understand such bhakti,...


- Published: 2021-12-06
- Modified: 2021-12-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/12/06/an-intriguing-question/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Last week I received a very interesting inquiry from Satyaraja dasa concerning my post “Are the Gopīs the Greatest Renunciates? ” Below is his inquiry and my attempt to answer it: “One question in regard to your latest essay. Might it not be dangerous to cite the example of the gopīs as the “exemplars of renunciation”? I mean, should one just leave everything to go be with Krishna? What about dharma? Might this not send the wrong message? For example, might not a simple married person, with children, read this and then enthusiastically join ISKCON, giving up his responsibilities in the material world? Is that what we want? Shouldn’t we in fact NOT follow the gopīs’ example if we have prior commitments in the material world, and instead engage in bhakti while honoring our prior commitments? Otherwise, society falls into chaos. ” For the sake of focusing the discussion, I will paraphrase his inquiry: What exactly is the gopīs’ example of renunciation, and can it be dangerous to cite them as an example? First, it’s important to point out something about comparisons: “One should not disregard a comparison simply because it is partially applicable. ” (Bhagavat-sandarbha, Anuccheda 40) In other words, when we use a comparison, it is usually meant to compare only particular aspects of two things, not everything. For example, if one compares another person’s face to the moon, it may just be referring to the brightness of their face, not its shape, depending on the context in...


- Published: 2021-11-29
- Modified: 2021-11-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/11/29/shes-already-in-the-hands-of-sri-radha/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

This story begins in Govardhan and ends in Goloka Vrindavan. Mukunda Murari spent Kartik in Govardhan as my guest, camping in my living room. I was thus privy, so to speak, to his “Mahābhārata”—his two-week challenge to somehow get Hemangi Priya, his mother-in-law, who was diagnosed with incurable stage four cancer, to Vrindavan to leave her body. The challenges seemed insurmountable. He not only had to quickly secure three visas from the Indian embassy in Moscow, which were under very restricted COVID immigration policies, but he also had to get Aeroflot to accommodate a bedridden patient needing numerous special accommodations, including eight business class seats for Hemangi Priya’s bed, doctor, and travel companion. His most pressing concern, however, was that if this wasn’t done immediately, she would soon be too frail to travel. As the time approached to leave, and with so many contingencies still hanging in the air, Mukunda sought out Śrīla Radhanath Swami, their guru, for some spiritual support. His counsel was almost poetic: “Regardless of what happens, whether she makes Vrindavan or not, by her sincere desire to go to the holy dhāma, she’s already in the hands of Śrī Radha. ” It is hard to describe how much solace Hemangi Priya and Divya-shakti, her daughter, felt from hearing these words. After much drama, including the total lack of information anywhere on the logistics of picking up a bedridden person on the tarmac, either from the airport or the airlines, a random security guard finally suggested to...


- Published: 2021-11-22
- Modified: 2021-11-21
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/11/22/are-the-gopis-the-greatest-renunciates/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I think most bhaktas are not aware that when one takes sannyāsa (the renounced order of life) in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, one receives the gopī-bhāva mantra from their guru to chant. There’s almost an irony here. How can the simple cowherd damsels of Vraja, adorned with their gold and silver anklets, wrapped in fine silk, absorbed in dancing and singing rasa, be the exemplars for renunciation? Isn’t sannyāsa meant to inspire people to devalue those things? Yes, everyone in society should be inspired by the gopīs’ devotion, but the question remains: Why do the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava ācāryas connect gopī-bhāva, meditating on the gopīs, to the inspiration for renunciation when a member of their sect takes the varṇāśrama social position of sannyāsa? I think the question is best answered when one first understands what a proper standard of renunciation is. For that I will refer to the Yoga Sūtras where dispassion is elaborately discussed as one of the foundations of yoga. There Patañjali defines renunciation as not just remaining aloof from the objects of the senses, but being free from a thirst or craving for them (viṣaya-vitṛṣṇasya). The commentators on Patañjali further espouse that upon attaining this level of renunciation, one doesn’t even spend too much energy overly rejecting sense objects in one’s presence because of one’s full inner disinterest in them. Finally, one’s level of renunciation should go beyond just the lack of craving for external likings to the platform of total indifference to even internal attachments, like a desire for...


- Published: 2021-11-15
- Modified: 2021-11-15
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/11/15/sadhus-of-govardhan/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

An old toothless babushka, maybe in her late eighties, sits hunched over on the grass outside the open pavilion in Braj Vasundhara in Govardhan, where Bhakti Vijñāna Goswami gives class. I stand next to a friend who is translating the class for me just ten yards from her. Unexpectedly, the old lady turns around and slowly makes her way towards me. An old Lakshmi-Narasimha deity is put in my hand. I look at it, but before I can say a word she just saunters off. I look at my friend puzzled, “Now what? ” “It’s for you,” he replies, “She’s like that. ” I then hear her legend: “Her name is Satya. She has been here it seems forever, at least longer than any other Russian devotee. Since she came, she has been living in a tiny room near Kaliya Ghat right off the parikrama path, with just enough space for a bed and a couple of people to sit. A multitude of deities adorn the shelves above her bed. Once during the rainy season, a cobra took shelter in her room, but she lived there peacefully for weeks despite the pleas of others to leave. The snake eventually departed. Even at her advanced age, she still bathes every morning without fail in the Yamuna, even in the middle of winter! ” I thought: “She’s the real thing. I’m not that. Only in Vrindavan, and only a Russian babushka! ” Well maybe not only a Russian babushka. French Canadian-born, Six...


- Published: 2021-11-08
- Modified: 2021-11-07
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/11/08/a-reasonable-question-without-a-reasonable-answer/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

A natural inquiry that comes up in almost all spiritual traditions concerns the origin of the living entity being in the material world. All mokṣa traditions—Vedic, Buddhist, and Jain—universally profess that our condition here in ignorance is beginningless or eternal. The Judeo-Christian traditions, in contrast, profess that the material world, and consequent ignorance, is not eternal but has a creative beginning point that is followed by a sort of “fall theory”, which begins with Adam’s tumble from a position of innocence. Śrīla Prabhupāda seems to have indicated at different times propositions that coincide, more or less, with either theory, although the propositions are mutually exclusive. In other words, if one is true, the other cannot be. So, which is a better explanation of the origin of the conditioned soul’s ignorance? From the standpoint of reason, there is no satisfactory answer to this straightforward inquiry, for rather than one position being reasonable and the other not, they are both problematic when engaged from within the parameters of human reasoning. To think that the soul has been eternally suffering for no initial causal reason on its part seems ontologically unreasonable and cruel. On the other hand, how can imperfection exist in Goloka or Brahman, as that goes against the unspoiled nature of that reality? In other words, no matter which way various theistic traditions tackle the question of the origin of the conditioned soul’s ignorance, their conclusion seems to challenge a theistic or divine basis of reality. But does it? Some thoughts...


- Published: 2021-11-01
- Modified: 2021-10-31
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/11/01/vrindavan-the-beautiful/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Vrindavan the Beautiful! February 25, 2019 I recently renewed a cherished old daily practice. Early in the morning, before dawn, I walk out into Vrindavan to experience its beauty. And what is that beauty? Is it the visuals, what I see as I negotiate through the meandering streets to the town’s center, or circumambulate the city on the path now paved around it? Is it the dilapidated structures, open sewers, and sleeping street dogs, or piles of trash with the pigs feasting on it? What exactly is the beauty of Vrindavan? In the far distance I periodically hear the start of a kirtan, and then another and another. I can’t see them, but it’s so mystical to witness a city gradually awakening to the sweet sound of the holy name. An elderly bābā sits on the side of the parikramā path in the cold. He sits in the same spot every day without fail, beautifully chanting the morning melody of Hare Krishna on an old harmonium. His smile reflects the beauty of his heart. I read his mind: “I am the most fortunate person in the world! ” I pass through the narrow corridors that embrace the once grand but now in-disrepair Kesi Ghata. I step over the small powerful stream of sewage rushing toward the river. I continue down the long dark corridor where on my left the path finally opens to the river in descending sandstone steps. A smattering of small rooms and platforms in the palace wall...


- Published: 2021-10-25
- Modified: 2021-10-24
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/10/25/home-at-last/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Home at Last! October 6, 2000 Vrindavan I left the arrival gate only to be greeted by a mob of drivers on either side of the exit pathway waving a myriad of signs searching for their pick-up. I wasn’t sure if the message announcing my arrival had reached Vrindavan. I searched for my name. What a relief to spot the smiling face of Gopal, our Brijabasi driver! All my arrivals into Vrindavan are similar: the feeling of unworthiness, the grime of my long journey representing the contamination of a prolonged stay in America, the instant relief of a yamunā-snāna (bath), and the happiness of seeing my old Brijabasi friends. As I was returning from the Yamunā, Dadu, the old ISKCON mailman, passed me in a rikshaw, but he didn’t see me. He was wearing a yellow marigold garland from the temple Deities wrapped twice around his head like a crown, a sort of transcendental Statue of Liberty. I see many people in America trying to standout by what they wear, but mostly it’s superficial, just based on the latest fashion. Dadu, however, seems truly himself. What he wears thus reflects his inner self, not Madison Avenue. The water at Keśī Ghat was deep and flowing swiftly. It was five o’clock and the sun was beginning to set in the west, sending a reflection of yellow light through its waters like a pathway cutting diagonally to the base of the ghat where I was sitting. I entered carefully into her waters...


- Published: 2021-10-18
- Modified: 2021-10-17
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/10/18/monday-morning-musings-vii/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Chanting and Shelter In the last few years, the world seems to be increasingly and rapidly moving beyond our control, causing duality and fear. Chanting, however, is an activity that I like and can do regardless of how the world moves around me. That’s my shelter—the only shelter—the holy name. Chanting and Taste Krishna is the taste of water. That divinity, however, can only be realized when water is unmixed with anything else, in other words, sweet. Similarly, devotion is the taste of the soul, which can be realized when devotion is not mixed with activities that have no value to devotion. Therefore ruci, the stage of true taste in devotion, manifests after the platform of niṣṭha, the stage of steady devotion. I thus pray to remain fixed and have taste for the holy name. Chanting and Sādhu-saṅga I received a voice message from a close god-brother. He spoke with conviction of Sri Radha and her mood of separation from Krishna. I began to hanker for Vrindavan. The depth and conviction of my japa increased. Bhakti moves forward by sādhu-saṅga, the association of advanced devotees. Chanting and a Life of Devotion When a drop of taste comes in the chanting of the holy name, I ardently pray not to lose it. But prayer is not enough. I must live a life of devotion. Chanting and Realizing Our Relationship with Krishna When will we be qualified to realize our eternal relationship with Krishna? When that objective becomes a “dire necessity”. In...


- Published: 2021-10-11
- Modified: 2021-10-10
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/10/11/mother-deaf/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

That was a term my mother used to describe me after asking me for the fifth time in a day if I had done my daily chore of taking out the garbage. What a rascal I was! But besides that obvious fact, I am bringing this up to illustrate a point based on a recent experience and consequent epiphany: just how much a sense experience, especially hearing, requires more than just the senses alone for us to be aware of that experience, and how important it is for a spiritual practitioner to realize this. In that regard, I want to concentrate on elucidating this point in reference to mantra meditation, to show that besides requiring the stimulation of the auditory sense to hear a mantra, just how much one also requires the proper attitude and concentration. Before expanding this point further, let me first share the impetus for writing this article. I started to listen to readings of the Krishna Book when I lie down to sleep at night. To make sure that I hear clearly, I even use AirPods. I soon, however, fall asleep, only to wake up after some time. Today I was shocked that even though several chapters had been read, I was so deeply asleep that I didn’t have any sense that the recording had been on. A question immediately arose in my mind: although the vibration of the reading was certainly in my ear, did I truly hear those chapters or not? If the answer...


- Published: 2021-10-04
- Modified: 2021-10-03
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/10/04/that-dirty-word-again/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

My friend Satyahari dasa, one of the first disciples of Yogi Bhajan and later initiated into Gaudiya Vaisnavism, shared with me a statement from one of his teachers that I think is relevant to what I want to write about today: “When you translate words from Sanskrit to another language, they become impregnated with the history of their usage in that language. ” At the time, he was referring to the translation of the Sanskirt word śaraṇāgati into “surrender”, which in English carries a meaning of force and oppression that is foreign to the usage of the word in Sanskrit, which means to take shelter (śaraṇa + āgati — “going (lit. coming) for shelter”). In other words, surrender in this sense is the loving submission to or the taking of shelter of one who provides refuge, and not a forced capitulation to an authority that has either no concern for you or intends to exploit you. I wanted to clarify this point before sharing a personal realization I had about surrender so that there would be no ambiguity in what I am trying to express. My personal experience: Due to the COVID restrictions, I have been unable to return to Vrindavana for almost two years. This morning especially, I began to deeply hanker to return. What I realized, however, was that what is separating me from the holy dhāma more than anything else is not the COVID restrictions of the Indian government, but my consciousness and level of surrender. Being...


- Published: 2021-09-27
- Modified: 2021-09-26
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/09/27/the-four-pillars-of-peaceful-life-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I have almost completed six years of faithfully putting out Monday Morning Greetings without fail. I will happily continue that service, but now if something comes up that makes it difficult to complete the weekly post, rather than do a marathon to finish it, I will just draw from what I wrote six years ago, confident that it will still seem fresh to my reader. That certainly won’t happen often. I just enjoy the challenge of writing a weekly post based on a new thought or realization. Well, here is one posting from five years ago: The Four Pillars of Peaceful Life There are four foundations of life that a traditional society automatically provides its community so that people can focus on spiritual life and not preoccupy their minds with worry. They form the basis of a peaceful life. Where one will live Whom one will marry What one’s occupation will be Who one’s guru is I will discuss each individually, but first I ask you to reflect. Are these things settled in your life? If not, how much time and mental energy do you spend to fulfill the ones not settled? If they are fulfilled, how much struggle did you face to achieve that? And finally, if they have been provided, how grateful are you to the culture and people who have facilitated that? Where you are going to live: Tejiyas dasa, a close godbrother of mine, whom Srila Prabhupada asked to start the kisān (farm) movement and who...


- Published: 2021-09-20
- Modified: 2021-09-19
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/09/20/its-the-consciousness-stupid/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Thinking about happiness again. Isn’t that what’s on most people’s minds? For me, at least today, I thought about it more in terms of a philosophical inquiry than as a personal issue. And the first thing about the subject that strongly came to my mind is that happiness ultimately comes down to consciousness. That thought inspired me to write about happiness in terms of consciousness under the heading “It’s the Consciousness, Stupid”. It’s a good title, because although it should be obvious that happiness ultimately resides in the mind, we repeatedly hanker and search for more stuff in the pursuit of fulfillment, including position and prestige. I will begin by writing two entries on this subject today, beginning with the incident that inspired me to write about this in the first place. Theodicy and It’s the Consciousness, Stupid The thirty-year-old son of someone I knew in India died unexpectedly. The father was heartbroken, but due to his stature in learning he could still be reasonably philosophical. After pouring his heart out about the death of his son and the pain that he and the child’s mother felt, he shared the following verse: “No one knows, O Lord, what is the intention behind Your actions, which cause great confusion to mankind. We know You to hold no one in favor or disfavor, the appearance of partiality in You is a false belief of mankind. ” (Bhag. 1. 8. 29) Another friend reading his post texted me: “This verse? Intrigues me. Your...


- Published: 2021-09-13
- Modified: 2021-09-12
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/09/13/sri-radha-made-simple-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Sri Radha Made Simple In this world everyone is seeking happiness, and that pleasure is ultimately found in love. If that is the guiding principle in this world, why should it not be part of its source, the ultimate reality? If there is love in the spiritual realm, there also must be beauty, for love means to offer the best. This correlation between happiness, love, and beauty is the key to understanding Sri Radha. Sri Krishna is the Supreme Enjoyer. His happiness is therefore love and the personification of that love is Sri Radha, who must also be the reservoir of all beauty and good qualities, which are the concrete expression of love. For example, flowers are a common way to express love. They are fragrant, colorful, and may be soft and smooth, but offering them in love is not just a sensual experience, for getting a gift of flowers and experiencing all its wonderful attributes is also the experience of love from the person who has offered those flowers. Krishna’s pleasure potency is called hlādinī śakti, the essence of which is Krishna prema (love of Godhead), and when that love is heightened to the highest degree, it is called mahābhāva. Sri Radha is mahābhāva svarūpa, the form of the highest love (and pleasure). Even Sri Radha’s many ornaments and decorations, which She adorns only for the pleasure of Krishna, are composed of and expressing mahābhāva. Thus Krishna’s experience of Sri Radha is the experience of His greatest love and...


- Published: 2021-09-06
- Modified: 2021-09-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/09/06/may-she-rest-in-peace/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find a topic for this Monday Morning Greetings. When one finally did come to mind, and it came time to write something down, somehow nothing came to mind. This happened repeatedly. Only when my older brother Barry called with the news that my mother, already past her one-hundredth year, had passed away a few hours earlier, did I understand why. This Monday Morning Greetings was to be reserved in her honor. I always thought that when she passes away, I would just reprint my article “The Mother, The Mind and Food,” which glorifies motherhood. There was a problem with that. I just reprinted it a month ago in honor of her hundredth birthday. Fortunately, there is another story glorifying motherhood that just came to my mind. I pray that retelling it is relevant to honor her passing. Over twenty-five years ago I lived in Vrindavan on the roof of a funky house on the other side of the backside wall of Bon Maharaja’s college, a large institution that was directly across from the ISKCON gurukula building. One evening as I was leaving my house to visit the Krishna-Balarama temple for ārati, I saw the great Odia Vaiṣṇava and scholar, Dr. Fakir Mohan, briskly walking by on the path. We had a relationship for many years, so I was eager to greet him and thus quickly caught up to him. Evidently, something was on his mind, because just after he smiled to acknowledge...


- Published: 2021-08-30
- Modified: 2021-08-30
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/08/30/srila-prabhupadas-vyasa-puja-2021/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings, Srila Prabhupada, Vyasa-puja

Tomorrow is the birth anniversary of my beloved spiritual master, His Divine Grace Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. In his honor, I will share a short realization I had recently about his glories, and after that I will present my yearly homage to his honor. The Significance of Srila Prabhupada’s Last Written Words Unfortunately, Srila Prabhupada’s infirmity had visibly taken its toll on him. Day and night, he lay prone on his bed, and with whatever energy he could muster left in his body, he tried to rest comfortably and focus on the kirtan that softly played non-stop in his room. It is beyond comprehension that anyone in such a condition could gather the energy and mental acuity to continue dictating a profound commentary on such deep textual work as the Srimad-Bhagavatam. But he did. During hours through the day, he would listened attentively to his Sanskrit pandit read the various commentaries on a particular verse, assimilate them within his mind, and then with great effort bring his voice to a whisper into a dictaphone held to the side of his mouth, which is about as loud as he could struggle to be audible. Despite the condition in which these purports were written, I am convinced they are among his best. When going over those commentaries again recently, what particularly struck me was the significance of his last written words. They seemed to sum up in many ways the spiritual practice he was leaving the world: “Seeing the Lord...


- Published: 2021-08-23
- Modified: 2021-08-22
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/08/23/if-krishna-knows-what-we-will-do-in-the-future-does-that-mean-we-dont-have-free-will/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Questions like this are challenging, for a theist naturally believes both in God and our free will to choose God. The problem is that if God knows past, present, and future then what we choose in the future is already known. But, if our choices are known, and thus apparently predetermined, then how do we have the free will to choose? To me the question comes in a certain genre of inquiries that to answer require an understanding that God has inconceivable potency and is therefore not restricted by the binary choices in this world governed by His own laws. That fundamental principle rests at the foundation of Upanishadic philosophy: “The Supreme Lord walks and does not walk. He is far away, but He is very near as well. He is within everything, and yet He is outside of everything. ” (Iso. 2) I thought of a simple example to demonstrate that the metaphysical realm operates under a will that is beyond set laws, one that we can’t logically quantify. Let’s look at the origin of reality. There are basically two choices: either reality began at a particular time, and there was nothing before that, or reality has no beginning. Do we have the capacity to conceive that no matter how far back we go, reality can always go further back ad infinitum, or that there was nothing and then there was something? Of course, theists believe that reality, or God, has no beginning, but the point here is that...


- Published: 2021-08-16
- Modified: 2021-08-15
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/08/16/a-sannyasi-walks-onto-a-train-and-meets-a-girl-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

This past week Dhanurdhara Swami hosted a retreat at Shyam Ashram in Cali, Colombia. He was therefore not able to write the Monday Morning Greeting for this week. He requested us to reprint one of his favorite entries. A Sannyāsi Walks onto a Train and Meets a Girl July 25, 2016 I can’t remember the exact train or time, but I do remember the girl. It was about two months ago on a crowded train from Washington, D. C. to New York. I got on early to get a window seat and, I hoped, sit by myself, and began to work. A few minutes before the train was about to leave, I saw a girl in her early twenties struggling to drag her suitcase down the aisle. She was visibly exhausted and stopped when she got to my seat. Some good Samaritans helped her load her luggage onto the upper rack, and she plopped down in the seat next to me. Seeing her condition, I guessed she didn’t have enough energy to go further. Otherwise why would she choose to sit down next to a fellow in robes and tilaka? Once she had slumped down into the chair, she searched her handbag for a snack. It was as if she needed to eat something just to get enough energy to survive her ordeal. Then she made a phone call. “I made it, Mom,” I heard her say. “I’m OK. ” Well, there goes my privacy, I thought, and went back...


- Published: 2021-08-09
- Modified: 2021-08-08
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/08/09/the-process-is-simple-but-the-application-is-difficult/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The Process is Simple, But the Application is Difficult Śrīla Prabhupāda said that his purports were his personal ecstasy. Would not then Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2. 9. 36 reflect the special joy in expounding a subject close to his heart considering that it is his longest commentary in the Bhāgavatam? It makes sense that one who had enthusiastically taken the message of devotional service to every nook and cranny of the world without considering the qualification of the audience, would have special enthusiasm to talk about the universal applicability of devotional service, the subject of that verse. It certainly seems so. Within those purports, for over twenty pages, Śrīla Prabhupāda cited reference after śāstric reference to establish how bhakti is applicable to all, regardless of caste, creed, gender, and even species. He even quoted a reference that shows how a child in the womb of his mother who is hearing the Bhāgavatam can also be practicing the path of devotion. Can there be any doubt that no process is easier to enter than the path of devotion? In direct opposition to that conclusion, however, we also come across many verses describing how attaining devotion is the pinnacle of austerities and knowledge, implying it is the most difficult and rarest of all spiritual attainments. So, which is it—the most difficult or the easiest? We can reconcile this apparent contradiction by thoughtfully analyzing this simple statement by Śrīla Prabhupāda: “The process is simple, but the application is difficult. ” The Process is Simple Krishna...


- Published: 2021-08-02
- Modified: 2021-08-01
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/08/02/how-to-be-a-non-sectarian-sectarian/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I belong to a sect. It is called Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism. Within it there are many different institutions. How should those institutions relate with one another? What would it mean if any one of them was non-sectarian or sectarian? Recently, I heard an analogy that I think helps to frame this issue for discussion. It goes like this: Spirituality is like a liquid, and religion, or the institution, is like the pot. Just as a pot has walls to confine the liquid within, but also an opening to allow others to partake of it, similarly a proper institution, while maintaining and valuing its specific institutional culture and structure, should be open to reasonable exchanges with other legitimate spiritual groups. Let’s take our analogy even further. Although different pots may have different shapes and sizes, it doesn’t mean that what is inside is any less valuable, or even different. Similarly, although different spiritual institutions may have a different culture or structure than the group in which one has reposed their faith, it doesn’t mean that the spirituality they have to offer is any less legitimate. The root of sectarianism is thus when a group legitimizes its own structure or institution in a way that delegitimizes other spiritual institutions and, in doing so, fails to see the same spiritual essence elsewhere. In my observation, such sectarianism takes two forms: In the first form, the sectarian institution has little respect for those whose form is even slightly different, views them as a potential threat,...


- Published: 2021-07-26
- Modified: 2021-07-26
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/07/26/that-being-of-which-no-greater-can-be-conceived/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

He showed up at my college dorm unexpectedly. I had met the devotees the year before in Los Angeles with my college roommate Eric, but now my friend, recently initiated as Akshobhya das, was standing before me as a full-on head-shaved Hare Krishna! He enthusiastically gifted me the recently published Krsna book with that beautiful painting of Radha Krishna on the cover. I was so eager to read it that I cancelled my appointment that night and remained home. I already had a seed of faith in Krishna from my visit to California the year before, but when I got through Chapter Two: “Prayers by the Demigods for Lord Krishna in the Womb”, I had an epiphany: “Yep, there is no doubt. Krishna is God! ” I was studying philosophy at the university, and the previous week the teacher gave us the classic definition of God: “That being of which no greater can be conceived. ” I had heard descriptions of Krishna before—the sweet butter thief and the lover of the gopis—but now, through the prayers of the exalted demigods, I was realizing more of His full-blown majesty and opulence. I remember my thinking at the time: “I can think of a being greater than the one with all the power that is ascribed to a traditional depiction of God. That is one who, in addition to such power, has a sweet and intimate life with family, friends, and lovers. In other words, a person who is Krishna! ” One...


- Published: 2021-07-19
- Modified: 2021-07-18
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/07/19/have-i-become-pavlovs-dog/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Have I Become Pavlov’s Dog? Ding! How the hell did a message from my iPhone pop up on my watch? I was recently gifted a new Fitbit to monitor my exercise. I am so technologically challenged that I just didn’t know my watch could even be connected to my phone. I immediately jumped up to check my phone across the room, but I then caught myself: “Wait a second! What in the world am I doing? Have I become Pavlov’s dog? ” I was surprised by how much I had been subtly conditioned by social media, especially since I am not even on Facebook or Instagram. That sound, and my subsequent response, did make me question if I should even keep an iPhone at all. Yes, the world has become our village and technology is necessary to keep us connected spiritually, but at what price? I think of my friend Carucandra who went off the grid in Kentucky. He works on his simple dwelling, peacefully chants his rounds, and then spends most of his day studying and writing curriculum by hand for the Śrī Rūpanūga Paramārthika Vidyāpīṭha in Mayapur. That type of integrity in this world of constant compromise is, in many ways, a potent example for others. Don’t get me wrong, evolved souls do efficiently and cautiously use modern technology to share good ideas for the benefit of others. I myself try to deal with the medium responsibly, but one is foolish if one does not take careful note...


- Published: 2021-07-12
- Modified: 2021-07-12
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/07/12/the-four-ways-in-which-a-vaisnava-sees-those-whose-mistakes-disturb-them/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Our present age is deemed the age of quarrel and confusion. Unfortunately, Vaiṣṇava societies are not spared from its influence. Too often, we see, at the drop of a hat, long internet threads started among devotees vehemently arguing and attacking one another on anything from differences in philosophical conceptions to conflicting opinions about another person. Śrī Caitanya lived His life as an example for those who want to attain love of Godhead. What can we then learn from His life about proper Vaiṣṇava behavior in contrast to those engaged in hostile exchanges or harboring unnecessary critical thoughts about others? His dealings with and vision of Dāmodara Paṇḍita are instructive. Dāmodara Paṇḍita was an intimate associate of Śrī Caitanya and was among the few devotees chosen to accompany Śrī Caitanya to Puri after He took sannyāsa. Although Dāmodara Paṇḍita was just a brahmacārī, he had the audacity to take Śrī Caitanya to task for his apparent transgression of some technical rules for a sannyāsa. It got to a point that Śrī Caitanya even expressed His fear of doing anything that didn’t meet Dāmodara Paṇḍita’s high standards. Nonetheless, Śrī Caitanya expressed His appreciation for Damodara Pandit and used Pandit’s rule-based nature to responsibly look after His mother and to care for Damodara Pandit’s younger brother, who was also very dear to Śrī Caitanya. The following is a list I have complied based on the above story on the various ways in which a Vaiṣṇava should view other devotees who, for one reason...


- Published: 2021-07-05
- Modified: 2021-07-04
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/07/05/the-jewish-alachua/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The Jewish Alachua When the pandemic started, I was in a bit of a bind. The place where I usually stayed in Upstate New York wasn’t available. Fortunately, by providence, a new place was made available in Jackson, New Jersey, which is the next town over from the subject of today’s post: the culture of the town of Lakewood. Lakewood is the fifth biggest and fastest growing township in New Jersey. Almost 60 percent of its residents are Orthodox Jews, and they support almost two hundred synagogues and one hundred yeshivas, including the 6,500-student Beth Medrash Govoha, the second biggest yeshiva in the world. I was fascinated when I first drove through the expansive city-town on my way to visit a friend further south in New Jersey. I just saw a “normal” town – families, children, people working, going to school, shopping and so on – except that all of the residents were dressed in 18th century vesture. Even the sign of a Chinese restaurant that I passed was in Hebrew. As the average Hasidic family has more than six children, there continues to be exponential growth in Lakewood, three generations after the first Orthodox Jews settled here. As a result, there has been a substantial expansion of the sect to the quieter and more affordable townships next door, including the neighborhood where I presently reside in Jackson. In fact, due to the financial power of a unified community looking out for its own, any Hasidic Jew seems to have...


- Published: 2021-06-28
- Modified: 2021-06-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/06/28/monday-morning-musings-vi/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Chanting and Guru I chant consciously as a devotional offering to Śrīla Prabhupāda, with the thought that he is listening. I reason that as the spiritual master is pleased when the disciple takes bhagavata prasada, how much more pleased he is when the disciple sincerely chants the holy name. Chanting and Momentum In certain activities there is a momentum, an increasing strength gained when moving forward. One of those activities is chanting. If we don’t maintain a certain standard of practice daily, we lose momentum and chanting becomes more difficult. One day last week my practice waned, and my concentration faded. It took me days to return to the standard I had been keeping. I made a note: If I want to steadily move forward in this life towards the goal of prema-bhakti, I can’t afford to lose momentum. Chanting and the Worldly Mind We are not at the level of samādhi, an unbroken focus over the course of an extended meditational practice. Therefore, our mind will therefore sometimes wander to whatever we are generally pre-occupied with. At that time, if our mind has been reasonably imbued with thoughts of Krishna due to a life of duty, service, and hearing śāstra, then we will automatically be inspired to refocus on the holy name. Chanting and Politics My audiologists, who is an Orthodox Jew, yarmulke and all, was exceptionally friendly. While checking my hearing, he casually shared his realizations about surviving the pandemic. I especially appreciated his statement while sharing his...


- Published: 2021-06-21
- Modified: 2021-06-20
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/06/21/the-mother-the-mind-and-food-3/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Happy 100th Birthday! My mother was born June 25, 1921. This Friday she will celebrate her 100th birthday. In her honor, I will reprint one of my favorite articles from five years ago. The Mother, the Mind, and Food Recently my mother related to me how she was advising her daughter-in-law, who had become overwhelmed with the responsibilities of her family and job. She quoted to her a Yiddish saying that her own mother had told her when my mother was raising my two brothers and myself: “It will all soon pass. ” Now that my students have children and I am often living among them and see the sacrifice they are making, I have become more aware of the great sacrifice my mother made in raising us. Somehow, until my mother recently told me her advice to her daughter-in-law that alluded to her own struggles as a mother raising young children, I never realized that she underwent a similar sacrifice taking care of us. When she told me, my immediate reaction was to feel bad for the pain I had caused her by the insensitive way I joined the Hare Krishna movement (although I, of course, have no regrets with the fact that I joined). I have to say that seeing the sacrifice my students have made raising their own children over the last few years, my admiration for motherhood has soared! A realization I recently gained from astrology about motherhood further increased this appreciation. In astrology, different planets...


- Published: 2021-06-14
- Modified: 2021-06-16
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/06/14/let-the-dead-bury-the-dead/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I thought this was an appropriate title for this Monday Morning Greeting about my Cemetery walks and thoughts. This was Jesus’s response to a disciple who wanted to leave his company to travel home to bury his father. Jesus’s insights about burial were not imbued with the usual sentiments of this world towards tombs, and neither are mine. I have been walking every morning around the Hudson City Cemetery, which is across the street from our place. It is anything but a morbid stroll. These types of city cemeteries were intelligently designed to also serve as scenic parks. Here are my thoughts as I strolled its stunning eighty-eight acres. THOMAS GAUL 1882-1931 Gone But Not Forgotten Commentary: The Denial of Death is a 1973 book by cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker where he analyzes human civilization as an elaborate mechanism against the acknowledgment of mortality. Walking around, it became clear that the tombstone is indeed one of these mechanisms. Unfortunately, even if Thomas succeeds in his desire to live forever in the remembrance of him, he is not even the person being remembered. A strange thought came to my mind: Perhaps he is even buried here again in another grave from a future life. JOHN BRANNON July 19, 1912- February 6, 1985 How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon the bank Here will we sit and let the sounds Creep into our ears, soft stillness and Become the touches of sweet harmony Such harmony is in immortal soul – Shakespeare Commentary: As...


- Published: 2021-06-07
- Modified: 2021-06-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/06/07/is-jagannatha-the-highest-manifestation-of-god-3/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

In honor of the upcoming New York Ratha-yātrā, I will be sharing a Monday Morning Greeting from 2017 about the ontological position of Lord Jagannatha. I know I have posted this before the New York Ratha Yatra the two previous years, but relevant spiritual topics are always dynamic, because the more we meditate on such topics, the more their mystery is revealed. Just one final reflection before this week’s Greeting: I am quite surprised that this parade is being allowed just as the pandemic is receding, but on the other hand, if the Lord of the Universe wants a parade down 5th Avenue who can stop Him? ! Is Jagannatha the Highest Manifestation of God? Jagannatha is the highest form of God. That’s the realization I had today here in Puri. My reasoning goes like this: God is a person. I am starting from this proposition because I assume my readership mostly accepts it. Also, I have already argued this point extensively in Monday Morning Greetings #26. Assuming that God doesn’t have the defect of impersonality, my argument proceeds as follows: The fullest manifestation of any person is not in their position or power, but in their personality, or inner self, as a friend, parent, or lover. For example, we may meet a very powerful person, but if we don’t have a familial relationship with them—if they are a stranger or even a reverential superior—very little of that person’s fullest or most intimate self will be revealed. Position therefore covers...


- Published: 2021-05-31
- Modified: 2021-06-04
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/05/31/commitment-changes-consciousness-ii/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

If not now, when? When will I fully realize my relationship with Krishna? When you are hunkered down in America, with all the time in the world to chant Hare Krishna and hardly any other pressing concerns to distract you, these are the types of thoughts that arise. It becomes so clear that there is another world, a higher consciousness, that is incomparably more sublime than the one we wallow in now. That world seems so close, but the pure taste eludes me. Am I like the bee licking the outside of a honey jar? How can I enter that realm of sweetness? I am only separated from that world by my commitment, my firm dedication to pursue my highest ideal. Commitment changes consciousness! Śrī Caitanya came to this world to taste and distribute love of Godhead, but He never manifested love of Godhead until visiting Gaya upon His father’s death. There He met His teacher and realized that the truth was embodied directly before Him. To realize that truth and manifest His full glory, He needed only to observe and listen to that godly person with faith. He became inspired, took initiation, and fully committed Himself to the teachings of His divine master. When He returned home from Gaya to Navadvīpa, the former scholar of logic could no longer be recognized. He was now intoxicated with love of Godhead! Commitment changes consciousness! The Mahābhārata is full of stories about the exemplars of dharma like Bhīṣmadeva, Yudhiṣṭhira, and so on....


- Published: 2021-05-24
- Modified: 2021-05-23
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/05/24/poverty-protest-and-the-vedic-way-part-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Last week, I discussed the problem of poverty and the consequent protests in Colombia. I ended the post by proposing the necessity of adding a spiritual element to any solution. I think it is important to elaborate on this principle. The first thing to understand is that for the common person to pursue spiritual life they require some degree of social, physical, and mental peace. There is thus not an absolute dichotomy between material and spiritual life. Organizing our material life properly according to the instructions of the śāstra and to help others in need through charity are both part of skilled living (dharma), which helps keep us from being mired in selfishness. On the path of bhakti, while acknowledging the necessity to both take care of ourselves and compassionately help others, there is also a higher dimension in dealing with social problems. It is certainly true that everyone has a need to enjoy the senses to some degree, and, in fact, without it, the body dies. We are instructed, however, that although there is a necessity for some level of enjoyment, one should never do it just for that purpose, but rather to keep one physically and mentally fit for the higher purpose of self-realization. If one doesn’t consciously make that higher connection in one’s duties, then one’s activities have limited value. Jesus Christ put it best: “For what shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul. ” (Mark 8:36-38, KJV) On...


- Published: 2021-05-17
- Modified: 2021-05-17
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/05/17/poverty-protest-and-the-vedic-way/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Before I left our ashram in Cali to return to the States, I was asked to address our congregation about the current crisis in the country. Protesters blocked the city roads, and basic commodities could not be trucked into the city in response to a new proposed tax during a time that many families are struggling just to put bread on their tables due to COVID. The lecture posed several challenges due to the complexity of the situation, the limited time I had to present it, and the fact that I wasn’t sure of the audience’s mindset. I thus decided to narrow my focus to how a misunderstanding of destiny exacerbates class conflicts, and how a class of learned teachers are required to guide society through the subtleties of class cooperation and mutual prosperity. I began by describing an ideal cooperative social system through a common analogy that compares an ideal society to a body where the head (the intellectuals and religious leaders), the arms (the military and administrative class), the stomach (the mercantile class), and the legs (the laborer class) work cooperatively for the benefit of the whole body. Based on that, I discussed how a misunderstanding of destiny/karma can exacerbate class conflict. For example, if the mercantile class is not cognizant of the law of destiny and instead embraces the concept of meritocracy, a philosophy that professes that whether one is fortunate or unfortunate is solely based on that person’s effort, they can easily become callous to the...


- Published: 2021-05-10
- Modified: 2021-05-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/05/10/monday-morning-musings-v/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Krishna is fully present in His holy name, but like any person He does not give Himself to those just offering words. The words must have heart. I caught myself chanting listlessly. The problem? Chanting must be grounded in a spiritual identity. What is that identity? We are consciousness meant for service. I listened carefully to the mantra to see if my soul, a call for service, was sufficiently amplified. It has become clear to me that the quality of my morning chanting does not just depend on my determination when I sit down in the morning, but how I have lived my life the day before. How else can I explain why the clarity of my chanting sometimes varies day to day, even when my effort is relatively the same? Only in samādhi is one focused without distraction for extended periods of time with absolutely no cognizance of anything outside the object of meditation. Until that point, we will certainly, to one extent or another, be distracted during meditation. Before chanting, I try to place myself at the feet of our great teachers and in the lap of the most holy places, so that when my mind wonders instead of going to the mundane, it will reside in a sacred place that inspires me to refocus on the holy name. Chanting inspires reading because it is important to have the right thoughts in mind while chanting. A Chinese proverb that I previously wrote about suddenly came to mind: “Patience...


- Published: 2021-05-03
- Modified: 2021-05-02
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/05/03/the-happiest-people-in-the-world/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

“They are the happiest people in the world! ” Well, maybe not the happiest, but that was my spontaneous thought when observing Ricardo, our gardener, and Mireya, the housekeeper. Their smiles reminded me of the type of smile Krishna wears called smita, a closed mouth smile without any external impetus that simply reflects one’s inner contentment. Why are there so many simple people here in Colombia who seem so content and joyful when they have so little, especially compared to the first world? Before trying to unravel this query, let’s first settle on a standard measure of happiness to gauge my observation. There are several ways to define happiness. Let me choose one: Happiness is a mind of good thoughts. What are good thoughts? Good thoughts are attachment to the qualities that elevate one’s consciousness, like devotion and humility, and the activities that inspire those attitudes, and aversion to the qualities that degrade one’s consciousness, like pride and avarice. In other words, the more a person’s mind is imbued with healthy attachments and aversions, and the less it is imbued with unhealthy attachments and aversions, or bad thoughts, the happier a person is. Now let us look at the attitudes that are naturally invoked in a modest life that elevate one’s spirits. Santosh (Contentment) Happiness is contentment that is expressed in the good thought, “Enough! ” It seems that people with a humble life seem much more content with the simple joys in life and their modest possessions, while those...


- Published: 2021-04-26
- Modified: 2021-04-26
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/04/26/unmasking-the-truth/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I hope this will be the last COVID article I write, but I honestly have little choice what I write. It’s not easy to come up with something of substance to communicate every week. I have to just grab whatever realization comes by the time I have to start writing my next post and run with it. Sometimes my inspiration is a topical issue. Hopefully I have the empowerment to see those issues through the eyes of śāstra, and also to get the facts right about what I am commenting on. That’s the challenge. Someone asked me if making a recommendation about wearing masks is śāstra. I didn’t make a recommendation about masks. I made a recommendation to be independently thoughtful in order to avoid letting ideological predispositions overly influence one’s opinions. For that purpose, to help test my readers’ objectivity, I presented what I thought was a reasonable study on masks that had challenged my own understanding. Before I sent it, I then checked the reasonableness of that study with people I highly trust. After it was published, most of the people I got feedback from thought my last article was fair. Two academics, one trained in the field of logic and another in rhetoric, however, independently questioned the fairness of my presentation. A spirited conversation ensued. One of the main points of my article was that we should be open-minded and detached, and follow where the facts lead, even if that forces us to turn around a previously...


- Published: 2021-04-19
- Modified: 2021-04-18
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/04/19/whom-do-you-trust/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Whom Do You Trust? I think that was the title of a quiz show in the late 1950s or early 1960s, hosted by Johnny Carson – if that means anything to my audience, most of whom were not even born yet. It is, however, the best title I could find for the subject I want to share today. I am concerned with how trust in our personal narratives is formed, and how difficult it is to change such trust even when what we previously believed is proven wrong. This is how my concerns arose. I am not a big fan of masks. I generally avoid wearing them, but I have utilized them in certain situations for the simple fact that they protect one from airborne disease. I was then sent a video that said otherwise. I was not particularly attracted to the website where it came from, but the video itself seemed well-reasoned and authoritative. I am skeptical, however, about accepting anything on face value that I am not expert on. I thus shared it with a person whom I very much trust for his trained critical eye and objectivity. In several other instances where I have sent things to him, his response caused me to re-evaluate my initial judgment. His reply: “Sounds sensible and well supported. I'd be interested in seeing a reply. Otherwise: It does seem reasonable. ” As the conclusion was still puzzling when considering the overwhelming national consensus on wearing masks, for further confirmation I sent...


- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2021-05-28
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/04/12/monday-morning-musings-iv/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I travel every Sunday. That means an irregular schedule and diet. I feel it the next morning. My mind is more restless and my chanting less attentive. My solace: As long as I do my best, Krishna will see my heart and be pleased. The mind offers millions of things to think of besides the holy name. Don’t fall for the bait. Have a time and place for chanting where there is absolutely no compromise with the mind. If our determination is resolute in that way, even if we sometimes fail, Krishna will see our effort and bless us with the holy name. Krishna can appear whenever He wants, even in the restless mind. We would all fail controlling the mind if our success was dependent on our personal power born of a sattvic nature. I begged for mercy. It worked. It doesn’t matter how much you chant the name, but rather how you chant the name. There is still strength in numbers if one uses that time to sincerely beg for the mercy of the holy name. Concentration takes effort, which brings one to the point of realizing that our effort is not enough to be successful; We need mercy. Begging for the mercy of the holy name is the foundation of successful chanting. A thought came while chanting about how much reading Krishna Book yesterday gave meaning and life to my mantra. I then remembered the instruction Vishal Prabhu told me he received from Śrīla Prabhupāda: “If you...


- Published: 2021-04-05
- Modified: 2021-04-04
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/04/05/covid-and-the-cow-in-the-room/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

There is much discussion about how best to deal with COVID-19. There is something, however, that few seem to be talking about, even those well versed in traditional Indian literature—that the ultimate cause and cure for the COVID-19 pandemic is beyond a virus. The Cause (collective karma): “Any country where people indulge in unnecessary killing of animals will have to suffer from wars and pestilence imposed by material nature. ” (Bhag. 7. 15. 24, Purport) Śrīla Prabhupāda was especially concerned with the result of the pervasive slaughter of the cow: “Therefore they are sinful. They must have, there must be war, pestilence and famine. ” (Lecture, London, 24 July 1973) The word “pestilence” comes from the Latin “pestis”, meaning plague, and is defined in English as “a contagious or infectious epidemic disease that is virulent and devastating. ” Sound familiar? What to do? To cure a particular disease, you have to first locate its cause and then reverse or eradicate it. The Cure (pious leadership): “As soon as there is complete eradication of sinful activities in the state, then there will be no more war, pestilence, famine or natural disturbances. ” (Bhag. 4. 20. 14, Purport) I am not being facetious. The śāstra is saying something here that should be at the forefront of our discussion. The ultimate cause of pestilence is collective karma. Therefore, a vaccine, even if efficacious, won’t solve the problem. If the hearts of people are not purified, and corrupt leaders and ignorant educators continue to...


- Published: 2021-03-29
- Modified: 2021-03-29
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/03/29/gods-problem-the-story-of-sri-chaitanya/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

God’s Problem: The Story of Sri Chaitanya God has a problem. And it is the same problem that we have. What’s the problem? He is not a devotee. What is a devotee? A devotee is one who loves God. And love means to have a particular relationship with God. Why is that our problem? Because in this sense we are trying to become devotees. But why is that a problem for God? It’s a problem because God doesn’t have love of God. How does God lack that? Love of God is in the heart of His devotees, not in God’s. God is the object of such love (the beloved), not the abode of such love (the lover of God, the devotee). And why is that such a problem? It’s a problem because to love is higher than to be loved. God is supposed to be the Supreme Enjoyer, but He lacks the highest pleasure—to love God—and to lack love (as the giver) is a problem. What does God do about that? Surely, He can make a solution. Yes, that is the story of Sri Chaitanya. God becomes His own devotee to become complete in His experience of love. And not only does He become a devotee, but He becomes His highest devotee, Sri Radha, at the height of Her love, in Her deepest feelings of love—Her moments of separation from Krishna. Happy Gaura-purnima (The appearance of Sri Chaitanya)! Originally published on March 21, 2016


- Published: 2021-03-22
- Modified: 2021-03-21
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/03/22/are-you-bivaxual/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I love branding and coining new words. This one’s about vaccination. I’ve discovered that some people are pro-vaccination, some militantly anti-vax, and some could go either way—a stance I call “bivaxual. ” Because I have some position of authority as a teacher, people are asking my opinion. I guess I see myself as bivaxual. I see whether or not to take the vaccines in terms of risk analysis—whether the greater risk is in taking or not taking it—and therefore a decision based on age and health, and perhaps practicality—like whether it will be required for work, service, or travel. I see it, therefore, as a decision best left to the individual and his or her family. If someone asks my personal opinion according to their situation, however, I may give it. But meditating on this issue for the last week in relation to whether or not I should get myself vaccinated has brought other issues that I think in many ways rest at the core of the debate. When I began to consider the vaccine for my personal health and to discuss the matter with various people, it became apparent how polarized people’s views of the world are, and that healthy public discourse is dying, even in spiritual movements. I see mostly fundamentalism and orthodoxy, which manifests as people hearing only the view with which they already agree and dismissing opposing views by attacking the authors of references cited in opposition to their opinion. When I brought forth information that...


- Published: 2021-03-15
- Modified: 2021-03-15
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/03/15/the-fault-is-not-the-whole-person/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

One of the benefits of association with spiritually evolved souls is that sometimes their utterances in casual conversations are so profound that they can become a moral foundation for one’s life. About twenty-five years ago, I called Tamal Krishna Maharaja to ask for a small donation. A friend of ours and his wife were in dire straits, and I thought I should take up a small collection to help him. He quickly agreed to my request before I could give him the caveat, “Do you know what that person did? ” When I did, however, he immediately responded, “Yes, but the fault is not the whole person. I love him! ” Like most of us, I can’t count the number of times people rubbed me the wrong way or even mistreated me. I also can’t count the number of times that that casual utterance, now imbedded within my moral compass, saved me from the degradation of resentment, especially when the person I was disturbed with was, by all accounts, a sincerely dedicated spiritual person. There are many examples of this principle of liberality in bhakti literature. One of the most prominent is the story of Kala Krishnadasa. Although he was trusted with the service of being Śrī Caitanya’s personal assistant during the Lord’s pilgrimage to South India, he was somehow allured by the beautiful women of the local Gypsy community. Śrī Caitanya, however, personally rescued him, but naturally relieved him of his service. Upon returning to Navadvipa, he took shelter...


- Published: 2021-03-08
- Modified: 2021-03-07
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/03/08/what-i-dont-understand-about-yoga-philosophy-part-two/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I was sent an article written by a renown Vrindavan Vaishnava scholar and friend of many years. I was being asked for a clarification as the article didn’t seem to conform to what we have been taught about the nature of the soul. I greatly respect the scholarship of the person who wrote the article, but I could not understand in relationship to bhakti-yoga the view he seemed to advocate on Vedantic and Yogic grounds: the soul has no thoughts or will of its own. I concluded his view must certainly be more nuanced than what was expressed in a simple question and answer, or I simply misunderstood what he was saying. I responded to the person who sent their inquiry by sending her an article that I wrote many years ago contesting what seems to have been expressed in the article about the ātma. I have included my article below, but first an excerpt from the article in contention: Question: From where does viveka or the faculty to choose between wrong and right come? Does it come from the buddhi or ātma? Answer: It comes from buddhi. Question: Does the soul have intrinsic mind, intelligence, and ego? Answer: No, it doesn’t. Question: Does the soul act only as a source of consciousness (e. g. battery power for a car), while always needing the external mind, intelligence and ego? Is this true even in the spiritual world? Answer: Yes. What I Don’t Understand About Yoga Philosophy July 11, 2016 About...


- Published: 2021-03-01
- Modified: 2021-03-01
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/03/01/monday-morning-musings-iii/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Reflection One “Devotion in the form of kirtan is unlimitedly merciful to those devoid of false prestige. Humility is natural in Kali Yuga, because even the most highly competent today lack the qualification to properly perform penance, yoga, Vedic study and sacrifice. Therefore, the people today who are naturally meek have a special dispensation to easily achieve the results derived from the more arduous practices of previous ages through the easy practice of sankirtan. ” Reflection Two Begin with a saṅkalpa, a vow, to not dwell on extraneous thoughts while meditating. Do that sincerely for some time, and Krishna will reciprocate by helping fix the mind on Him. Devotion will then naturally flow from the heart without bearing the weight of discipline. Reflection Three To one degree or another, the mind of one who has not perfected yoga will occasionally wander while meditating. For such a person, their advancement on the path of meditation will depend on what the mind wanders to. If we are constantly serving Krishna and hearing about Him, then the mind will go to thoughts about Krishna, which will inspire us to regain focus on His holy name. If we are wasting time on social media, it will wallow in the sea of material distraction and hate. Reflection Four The taste of chanting is mercy. Only a humble person can feel mercy. The world makes us humble so we can taste the holy name. Reflection Five For chanting to go deep, there must be some relationship...


- Published: 2021-02-22
- Modified: 2021-02-21
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/02/22/before-breaking-the-rules-you-have-to-know-them/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

“Before Breaking the Rules, You Have to Know Them! ” I recently heard this quote in a class by Friar Richard Rohr that I was listening to in preparation for my last post. I became struck with the profundity of the statement and researched its origins. It is difficult to exactly pinpoint its roots, but it is generally credited to either Pablo Picasso or the Dalai Lama. I don’t know anywhere, however, where this saying is so deeply elucidated as in the essay “The Bhagavat, its Ethics and Theology” by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur. The essay is a mine of jewels on this subject. I will pick just one short excerpt to begin our analysis of this point: “Thoughts will necessarily continue to be an endless series of means and objects in the progresses of humanity. The great reformers will always assert that they have come out not to destroy the old law, but to fulfill it. Valmiki, Vyasa, Plato, Jesus, Mohammed, Confucius, and Caitanya Mahaprabhu assert the fact either expressly or by their conduct. ” As I thought further on the need to be immersed in tradition before attempting to reform it, it became evident to me why this understanding is so essential. At the crux of this view is the conviction that there is logos, a truth or controlling principle that forms the basis of ancient traditions. Therefore, “breaking the rules” to institute reform cannot possibly mean to totally discard the tradition. Rather, it means reformatting or changing how...


- Published: 2021-02-15
- Modified: 2021-02-14
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/02/15/what-i-learned-from-tom-brady/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

In American sports, there is a term “GOAT”, which is an acronym for “Greatest Of All Time”. That title unquestionably belongs to Tom Brady, at least in terms of American football. I just spoke to my older brother the other day, and he informed me that at the age of forty-three Tom Brady won his unprecedented seventh Super Bowl, an unimaginable accomplishment for those who know the game. A lot of talk surrounding his success included his dedication to his craft based on a daily regimen that allowed him not only to continue to excel, but to dominate his sport at a position where top athletes rarely last into their mid to late thirties. I was curious to explore his regimen, so I found an article on his routine. His daily hour-by-hour schedule and his unwavering commitment to follow it was impressive, and it inspired me to improve my own regimen. But it wasn’t just his schedule that impressed me. His approach to excellence was comprehensive, from the intricacy of his fitness program and his daily exercises for mental acuity to his carefully planned diet to give him energy and strength without causing inflammation in the body. Here’s what I gleaned as the two main factors leading to Tom Brady’s excellence that I think also have practical application in spiritual life. Having a Fixed Objective Tom Brady set his goal on being the best at his craft. What stands out more than anything else when studying his career is how...


- Published: 2021-02-08
- Modified: 2021-02-07
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/02/08/movement-or-mission/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

In a discussion with a friend, he distinguished between the Hare Krishna Movement (its structure and organization) and its mission (its goals or objectives), stressing the importance of the mission: awakening our eternal relationship with Krishna. It was a passing remark in a brief discussion, but as I reflected on his statement, I was inspired to give it some more thought. It seems important to make a careful distinction between the concepts of “movement” and “mission” in order to balance their relative value. I would like to deepen my understanding of that relationship by first discussing the views of two scholars on the subject, beginning with the thoughts of the late Joseph T. O’Connell, one of the most prominent scholars of South Asian religion in the modern era. Professor O’Connell defined the purpose of an institution as carrying its culture – what is right, real, and of value – into the future. He further divided institutions into two divisions: hard institutions, where the values are preserved by a hierarchical management structure, and soft institutions, where the values are preserved more spontaneously through its teachers, devotional practices, and, most importantly, its sacred literatures. In the history of Caitanya Vaishnavism, both have had a role in preserving its culture, but the latter has proven to be more important, because it deals more exclusively with Sri Caitanya’s mission. An example of such prioritization is demonstrated in a fairly well-known exchange between Srila Prabhupada and his guru, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta. His guru shared with him...


- Published: 2021-02-01
- Modified: 2021-02-02
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/02/01/are-vaishnavas-democrats-or-republicans/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I failed this week. I wanted to elaborate on a discussion I had with a friend about the difference between the Hare Krishna Movement (its structure and organization) and its mission (its goals or objectives). The wonderful thing about writing is that one is forced to clarify one’s conceptions. What I realized as my thoughts became clearer is that this week’s post needed to go in a completely different direction, and I just wouldn’t have time to complete it by Monday. I am thus reposting an article I wrote four years ago on a subject that I feel is relevant: the tendency for people in the modern age, including spiritual people, to fall too far into political camps rather than to think independently. Are Vaishnavas Democrats or Republicans? Do Vaishnavas have an ideology? Srila Prabhupada had an interesting take in reference to the great Vaishnava King Yudhisthira: “Therefore there are so many states over the earth quarrelling because of ideological differences or other selfish motives. But a king like Maharaja Yudhiṣṭhira had no ideology of his own. ” (Bhāgavatam 1. 10. 4, purport) Certainly Vaishnavas strongly profess a particular ideology, an economic and political system called varṇāśrama. So how could Srila Prabhupada describe as great a Vaishnava as Maharaja Yudhisthira as not having one of his own? The reconciliation is simple. Srila Prabhupada is not saying that a Vaishnava doesn’t have an ideology. Rather, he means that unlike the conditioning of most modern-day conservatives or liberals, a Vaishnava does not...


- Published: 2021-01-25
- Modified: 2021-01-25
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/01/25/monday-morning-musings-ii/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Chanting means to mean what I say: That’s called sincerity. O Radha! O Krishna! Please engage me in your service. Unless the voice in our mind becomes one with our words, it is not pure chanting. Chant until the false ego screams: Chanting brings one in contact with the soul where one joyfully embraces the humble position of servant of the holy name. We are then forced to accept that we are not better than everyone or anyone. Ouch! Pure chanting requires a soft hear: When you feel for others, the soft heart can easily be directed with feeling towards Krishna. Attentiveness in chanting is tastefulness in devotion: The first expression of love is to focus on the object of one’s devotion, which consequently unlocks the mutual feelings of affection in that relationship. Therefore, without attentiveness for Krishna in the form of His holy name, it is not possible to awaken the feelings of devotion between the chanter and His Lord, a feeling that is the taste in devotion. Chanting as prayer: Mindful chanting is the exaltation of the object of prayer and the consequent feelings of humility. The agony and the ecstasy of chanting: Chanting clears the mind and exposes our false self. How painful to see one’s folly as a pretender, but how fortunate to realize that! It is our pretense only that impedes the heartfelt call for shelter that attracts God’s mercy. Chanting must be inspired: There are so many mindsets from humility and determination to appreciation...


- Published: 2021-01-18
- Modified: 2021-01-18
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/01/18/kanistha-madhyam-and-uttama-eating/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

The first and lowest stage of material consciousness, which represents the karmic or selfish mind, is called anna-moya, the animal consciousness of seeing everything only in terms of food. Therefore, for one who is serious about self-realization, controlling their eating is a priority. It is no wonder that one of the six main obstacles on the path of bhakti-yoga, the selfless path of devotion, is called atyāhāra — ati - extreme, āhāra - eating — for just like all obstacles on the path of bhakti, overeating sinks one into material consciousness and impedes devotion. Interestingly, although atyāhāra literally means “overeating”, it is used primarily in a generic way to indicate the excessive increase of material demands, which shows how much eating is conflated in general with the core of material consciousness, and why eating properly is so important. I have divided eating into three levels according to its effect on consciousness. The terms kaniṣṭha (neophyte), madhyam (middling), and uttama (topmost) are generic terms used to indicate the level of one’s qualification for practicing devotion. I am using these terms here in a somewhat similar way in order to gradate the levels in which we can approach eating. Kaniṣṭha (Restaurant Eating) I am using the term restaurant eating to refer to eating food that was cooked to accrue profit and not cooked for one personally and lovingly. The experience of eating such food is simply sensual. As the activity of the eater is not sacrificial, but selfish, there is karmic reaction...


- Published: 2021-01-11
- Modified: 2021-01-10
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/01/11/is-surrender-a-bad-word-2/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Is Surrender a Bad Word? When I was in my teens a popular and favorite situation comedy on television was called The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. It was about typical young men in the ’50s. The character that amused us the most was Dobie’s best friend, a beatnik, Maynard G. Krebs. Beatniks, like their descendants the hippies, had the reputation of never working. During the show, whenever Maynard was asked if he would like to work, he would shriek nervously, “Work! ” We loved it. It was as if work was a bad word. I find almost the same reaction today among some devotees when they hear the word surrender, even though surrender is the foundation of bhakti. Ouch! Why do I hear some of my readers react that way when I say that surrender is the foundation of bhakti? Is surrender a bad word? How can that be? “Surrender” is unquestionably the first thing Arjuna says to Krishna after accepting Him as his guru: “I am a soul surrendered unto you. Please instruct me. ” And later, when Krishna describes the responsibly of a disciple, He says “praṇipātena”—that before receiving knowledge, the student must offer prostrated obeisances, which takes the “I surrender” mudrā of hands raised up in the air to the next level, falling flat at someone’s feet. When discussing this point about surrender in my Nectar of Devotion seminar, Sat Hari—one of the students, and a scholar in his own right—shared an insight from one of...


- Published: 2021-01-04
- Modified: 2021-01-03
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/01/04/my-favorite-quotes-on-death/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

I was walking in the twenty-acre cemetery park across the street from where I stay in New York, when I spontaneously began to think of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s quotes on death, as well some other quotes on the subject. I became inspired to share them with a brief commentary on each one. “What is death but a change of body! ” Śrīla Prabhupāda came back from Hrsikesh to Vrindavan to announce that he was preparing to leave the world. He gathered his disciples in his room and said the above. What struck me was not just what he said, but the conviction with which he said it. Śrīla Prabhupāda then quoted the Bhagavad-gītā: “As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change. ” (2. 13) We were there months later in the same room witnessing his passing. It was obvious to those who were there: he was not bewildered by such a change! “Don’t think this won’t happen to you! ” Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciples, almost all of whom were younger than thirty years of age, surrounded his bed during his last days. He turned to them and relayed this important instruction. If any of us had any psychological avoidance of death at that time, as Śrīla Prabhupāda’s statement seemed to indicate, how could we possibly continue that illusion in the face of the fact that...


- Published: 2020-12-28
- Modified: 2020-12-27
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/12/28/monday-morning-musings/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Reflection One My experience is that my ability to meditate on the holy name is very much commensurate with the quality of my life the previous day, meaning that I met my responsibilities, reasonably prioritized them, and didn’t frivolously waste time. If chanting becomes our service, our life becomes our service. Reflection Two Chanting is like shooting an arrow, for in both marksmanship and prayer one must aim at a target or objective to be effective. I aim my chanting at the lotus feet of Sri Krishna and the Vaiṣṇavas and beg for the mercy of the holy name. O Holy Name! O Sri Girirāja! O devotees of the Lord! O Śrīla Prabhupāda! Please engage me in your service! Reflection Three Don’t fall into the misconception that the holy name isn’t service because a person is seemingly not actively doing or accomplishing anything. Service means to give pleasure to another person, and real pleasure is to feel the love of another. To sit and to offer our consciousness to Krishna in devotion is the highest service, for we are consciousness that reaches maturity and fulfilment in pure love. And in that mood of devotion, we remain fully available for whatever other service is requested from above. Reflection Four Taste in chanting makes us humble, because whenever we just glimpse the holy name, although the experience is sublime, it is also so simple. We then realize that so many others, including the everyday practitioners, must be already at that level of...


- Published: 2020-12-21
- Modified: 2020-12-20
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/12/21/the-krishna-challenge/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

A friend shared with me an excerpt from a book he was reading on his favorite subject, the realizations of the Greek Stoics. I am always impressed with what he sends me: "Listen, as the saying goes, it's crisis time: make a last desperate effort to gain freedom and tranquility — to be a Stoic. Lift up your head, like a person finally released from slavery. Dare to face God and say, 'from now on, use me as you like. I am of one mind with you, I am your peer. ' Whatever you decide, I will not shrink from it. You may put me where you like, in any role regardless: officer or citizen, rich man or pauper, here or overseas. They are all just so many opportunities to justify your ways to man, by showing just how little circumstances amount to. " (From Epictetus’s Discourses and Selected Writings, translated by Robert Dobbin, pg. 116) Reading this, I felt challenged; Could I throw my hands in the air and “dare to face God” and say, as the best of the Stoics do, “From now on use me as you like”? I will soon again visit and stay with my mother. It is not at all easy for me to live there for many reasons, but knowing how overwhelmed my family is with their own responsibilities and struggles, it is not out of the question that more and more responsibility could eventually fall on me. If that is the case...


- Published: 2020-12-14
- Modified: 2020-12-13
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/12/14/dying-in-america/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Dying in America For the past week, I have been staying at my mother’s house. She will be 100 years of age next June, bless her soul. My younger and older brother responsibly manage her affairs, but besides a full-time helper, she lives without any family. Prior to the pandemic they could at least visit regularly. I won’t bore you with the details, but getting old and dying is no fun, especially in America where independence is valued to such a degree that everyone wants their own place, even after visibly getting older. Unfortunately, the result is that when one eventually becomes debilitated, they hardly ever age or die with family and are mostly shuffled off to a nursing home. What could be a worse fate than dying without the care of loved ones, which now seems the norm or culture in most of the first world? I think the root of this tragedy is a misunderstanding of freedom. Freedom is great when it allows you to worship the God of your choice and freely voice your opinions. When freedom, however, is defined simply as freedom to, which tends to overvalue abject independence, then an equally important freedom is excluded, the freedom from, in this case from loneliness, when the support one requires to be secure and emotionally fulfilled is insufficient. In my opinion, this situation is a direct result of the unhinged freedom to culture that minimizes the value of duty, sacrifice, and ultimately the extended family. Thinking about...


- Published: 2020-12-07
- Modified: 2020-12-06
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/12/07/humility-humility-humility/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Humility! Humility! Humility! This was St. Augustine’s declarative answer to the rhetorical question he posed to an assembly of the faithful gathered to hear him speak: “What is the most important quality for spiritual advancement? ” As humility is of paramount importance to spiritual life, I have discussed this subject many times in Monday Morning Greetings, from posts defining humility to discussing how it is distinguished from low self-esteem. This week, I had an inspiration to define humility in another way that I hope adds to the understanding of this important subject: Humility is moving out of the center. When I refer to the center here, I am referring to the pride that the world should or does revolve around my desires and the faith that happiness occurs when that is achieved. Moving out of the center is the humility to shift from this identity to one of servant of God, who is actually the center of all existence and inclusive of all. Some thoughts on how this perspective demonstrates the subject of humility. Family and Humility (moving out of the center) A sannyāsī once told his student monks ( brahmacārīs), “If you want to remain a monk, you have to be the humble servant of everyone. Otherwise, you should get married and at least be the humble servant of a wife and family. ” Marriage and family are meant to teach that there is something higher than oneself. If, out of pride, one tries to use family to center...


- Published: 2020-11-30
- Modified: 2020-11-29
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/11/30/kartik-meditations-2020-ii/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Years ago, I was sitting with a sādhu in Govardhana when a young devotee came over to him and declared, “I chanted sixty-four round today! ” When the young man left the sādhu turned to me and whispered, “He is so merciful. He just gave me the benefit of his chanting. ” If you accomplish something and proclaim your glories, you become proud and won’t advance. You may, however, help others to advance by making them humble. Chanting makes one humble because it clears the mirror of the mind. One not only sees God and oneself, but one also sees the false or pretentious self. Seeing the charade of who we think we are is painful, but somehow there is simultaneous joy. Only when we are humble can one taste Krishna’s mercy. We can’t produce the holy name of Krishna. We can only attract the holy name. One who realizes that begs for the holy name. Krishna is merciful and will certainly appear in His holy name if our entreaty is sincere. A combination lock won’t open the door to a treasure until we get the combination exactly right. The combination that cracks the lock of the holy name and allows us entrance to the kingdom of God is chanting and hearing each syllable attentively and with the right heart. That stage is called śuddha nāma (pure chanting). I have faith, however, that by the sincere attempt to chant attentively and avoid offenses (the stage of nāmābhāsa), we will at...


- Published: 2020-11-23
- Modified: 2020-11-22
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/11/23/do-we-live-in-a-matrix/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

Do We Live in a Matrix? Edward Jay Epstein gave me some food for thought, challenging whatever political worldview I may embrace based on the news. I gleaned this from an article he wrote in 1981 called “The Selection of Reality” where he analyzed the various constraints, from the pressure of time to the demands of advertising, in accurately presenting the news. Here’s his conclusion: “One question finally must be asked: Given these constraints, do the media present a picture of reality upon which rational men may make decisions? In spending over a year watching the three television networks collect, analyze, and present data in the form of news stories, I concluded that these pictures of reality were systematically distorted by organizational requirements. ” Professor Epstein’s analysis reaffirmed what I was already thinking based on studying the research of Johnathan Haidt, one of the most cited scholars on moral psychology, on the origin of political choices: that most people making political choices, whether left or right, make them based more on their conditioning than on sound reasoning, making them susceptible to unbalanced views that ultimately distort part of their worldview. Of course, in reading this most people will say, “Not me, it’s the other side that lives in a fantasy world. ” My experience is that people today on both sides of the aisle are much more prone to fall into tribal thinking than they realize. My aim here in quoting Epstein and mentioning Haidt is to reference the tendency...


- Published: 2020-11-16
- Modified: 2020-11-15
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/11/16/kartik-meditations-2020/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

For all practical purposes, Monday Morning Greetings was started twenty years ago while I was staying in Govardhan in 2000 for my yearly Kartik vow of increased devotional practices. It was then that I had the realization that it would be a good service to share my japa realizations regularly by email and then Facebook. Those realizations were later compiled into two books, Greetings from Vrindavan and, then later, Japa Meditations. Unfortunately, I am not in Govardhan this Kartik for only the second time in forty-four years. I do, however, try to follow the same yearly spiritual protocol and, as much as possible, live there in my mind. So back to the roots of Greetings—“Kartika Meditations 2020”: Poor chanting: “When will I finish my rounds? ” Good chanting: “I hope this never ends! ” Chanting the holy name becomes more and more my service to Krishna as I become older. Conscious that chanting is my service, I try to offer each syllable carefully for the pleasure of Krishna. It dawned on me that I can’t perfect that service just by turning on some yogic power of concentration when I sit down to chant. The quality of my chanting depends much on how I live my life, for how I live my life is how I deal with God. In other words, just as you can’t ignore or mistreat someone publicly and expect to have them intimately deal with you in private, if we spend our day frivolously or irresponsibly in...


- Published: 2020-11-09
- Modified: 2020-11-08
- URL: https://wavesofdevotion.com/2020/11/09/why-no-detail/
- Categories: Monday Morning Greetings

There are thousands of volumes of elaborate descriptions in Vaiṣṇava literature about Radha and Krishna’s forms, qualities, and pastimes. They are all based on the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but the descriptions of the exchanges between Krishna and the gopīs, and ultimately with Radha, are found in just five chapters of the book, encompassing less than 200 verses. Who then filled in the details, what was their right to do so, and how much of that was borrowed from the historical period in which it was composed? I think to answer this question we first have to understand something about the Vaiṣṇava conception of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Vaiṣṇavas believe that God, being Absolute, is non- different from His name and also non-different from descriptions about Him. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, like Krishna, is thus a person and not just a book. One can’t therefore understand either Krishna or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam fully just by studying Them devoid of a mood of service, any more than one can fully understand anyone unless that person is inspired to open their heart by one’s service mood. The method of understanding the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is therefore the use of one’s intellect in the service of Krishna in a mood of humility and devotion with the realization that full revelation of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam will only be given to one who inspires the text and Krishna to reveal Their full splendor through such prayerful study. The elaborate and detailed books about Radha and Krishna were thus written by spiritually elevated Vaiṣṇava scholars who analyzed the...