This is a summary work examining the verse "Absorb your mind and heart in Me, become My devotee, worship Me, offer your obeisances to Me, and certainly you will come to Me.", the essence of the Bhagavad-gita. This brief publication offers vivid illustrations of the practical application of this verse with many pastimes of Krishna and our great saintly predecessors.
Long ago, an evil monarch named Hiranyakashipu seized control of the entire universe. Although he made life impossible for all, his son Prahlad, who was always absorbed in meditating on the Lord, remained undisturbed. Seeing the boy’s natural predilection for spiritual life and thus taking him as an archenemy, Hiranya-kashipu tried to kill him, but without success. If we follow the teachings of Prahlad Maharaja, we will also become fearless pure devotees of the Lord.
This exceptional book, a compilation of five essays, is glorified by all those in the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava sampradāya for fearlessly glorifying and protecting its philosophical principles. The five topics are (1) The Śrī Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Sampradāya and Sannyāsa, (2) Pāñcarātrika and Bhāgavata Guru-paramparā, (3) The Gauḍīya Sampradāya is in the Line of Madhvācārya, (4) Babājī- veṣa and Siddha-praṇālī and (5) Eligibility to Hear Rāsa-līlā Kathā. Each refutation is elaborately and conclusively proven with evidence from śāstra.
"With folded hands, it is our earnest prayer that, after deeply and seriously studying this Prabandha-pañcakam, the camaraderie within the pure sampradāya may be protected and preserved." [Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja]
A priceless collection of Sanskrit, Bengali and Hindi devotional prayers and songs written by the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava ācāryas. By learning these prayers and reciting them regularly under the guidance of a rasika Vaiṣṇava, one will be able to perceive the devotional moods of their exalted self-realized authors.
This treatise was originally written in Bengali, in the year 1986, for the 500th anniversary of the advent of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the scheduled yet hidden incarnation for this age of Kali, as established in Srimad-Bhagavatam and other Vedic literatures. It was composed by Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja (Srila Gurudeva), Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's illustrious personal associate, whose sole mission and most prominent speciality is to give clarity and emphasis to the specific, internal nature of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's all-compassionate mission in this world.
This book comprises Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja’s commentary on Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī’s epic, Śrī Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta. Having recently arrived in Śrī Vaikuṇṭha-dhāma, the place most desired by unlimited saintly persons, Gopa-kumāra is feeling despondent but cannot ascertain the cause of his dissatisfaction. At that time he is approached by Śrī Nārada Ṛṣi, who becomes his śikṣā-guru (instructing spiritual master) and enlightens him on how to complete his spiritual journey.
In this beautiful song of the gopīs, we are taken to Śrī Vṛndāvana, to the bank of the Yamunā, where the gopīs are expressing the deep pain in their hearts in separation from Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The moods of their song would be impossible to understand had our venerable ācāryas not revealed them. In Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja’s commentary, he draws on the meanings they imparted, sprinkling them with the splendid realizations in his own heart, along with well grounded instruction for us all.
A series of seven discourses on guru-tattva, in which Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja discusses the importance of accepting a bona fide guru as more dear than life itself and the absolute necessity of receiving initiation from such a guru. These discourses were based on verse 11.2.37 from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. “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.”
Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja compiled this booklet to educate the public at large about the mahā-mantra, using quotes from the Vedic scriptures to show that the holy name is authentic, beyond worldly sound vibration, specific in sequence, possessing unlimited glory and that chanting it awards the highest spiritual fruit. “To make spiritual progress in this age of quarrel and hypocrisy, there is no other way, no other way, no other way... .”
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.
“I am writing something for those very lucky persons who have greed for rāga (a state of intense absorption in Śrī Kṛṣṇa due to an unquenchable loving thirst for Him), but who cannot find the path to achieve it. This book will be their guide – a moonbeam (candrikā) to illuminate the path (vartma) leading to the loving devotion of the residents of Goloka Vṛndāvana. This path is practically unknown in the world.” This is how Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura introduced Śrī Rāga-vartma-candrikā. The Hidden Path of Devotion is a presentation of four classes given on this on this unparalleled classic.
By his own life’s example, Śrīla Gurudeva, nitya-līlā-praviṣṭa Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja reveals the stages acquired in the gradual development of pure devotion to Śrī Kṛṣṇa. He teaches us what to do, and what not to do, in order to advance in bhakti. He also teach us the importance of acquiring sukṛti, spiritual credits accrued by knowingly or unknowingly engaging in acts of devotion, and saṁskāras, impressions on the heart attained from the sukṛti of this and previous lives.
Śrī Jagannātha Ratha-yātrā is bound to take one’s appreciation of Ratha-yātrā to new heights, beyond the thrill of an extraordinary cultural or religious experience. Annually, in Purī, India, approximately a million people attend the ancient Ratha-yātrā festival, to take darśana of Lord Jagannātha on His chariot, and at least three times that view it from other places in India and around the world. Still, the deep significance of Ratha-yātrā, being most confidential, is not widely known...
This compelling narrative, based on spiritually developed personalities in cultured Bengali life a few hundred years ago, serves as the basis of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's presentation of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava philosophy, from its basic tenets to its esoteric pinnacle. Woven into the story are penetrating philosophical questions that are commonly pondered and eternally relevant. The depth of the answers gives clarity and direction to the quest to establish ourselves in our jaiva-dharma, our soul's constitutional function.
We are not these mortal bodies and this world is not our real home. We are but passers-by, taking a material body for some time only to leave it, and then taking another. Lost and forlorn, we remain oblivious to our blissful real identity. This journey of the soul ends joyfully, however, by the mercy of true saints, such as Śrīla Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja. Part One of this book consists of selected lectures by him, as well as interviews and informal meetings on the topic of the truth of the soul (jīva-tattva). Part Two delivers three chapters from Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s Jaiva-dharma, and Part Three consists of quotes by Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
The very concept that the all-powerful Supreme Person is unaware of His Godhood, fears His mother, and plays mischievously with His friends is universally delightful. This book presents a number of the childhood pastimes of God, Kṛṣṇa, who, by the act of His own spiritual potency, forgets that He is God and plays like an ordinary child. These pastimes are described in India’s ancient scriptures, which state that although God is infinite, unlimited, and inconceivable, He is ultimately a person. He manifests in many forms and is mostly worshiped with great reverence. In His original and topmost feature, however, He inspires such intimate, sweet affection in the heart of his dear devotees that, although He enacts astonishing pastimes, both He and they remain unaware of His Godhood.
