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Krishna
Consciousness (Bhakti-yoga)
Krishna consciousness means an awareness of and
affection for the Supreme Person, Krishna. It is the
culmination of all forms of yoga, knowledge, meditation, and religion.
All living things are eternal, spiritual persons, and
Krishna consciousness is our natural, original, and blissful state of
consciousness. But in thematerial world everyone
forgets who they are and who God is. We think our body is the same as our self,
and sometimes we don't believe or even care if God exists at all. In such
material consciousness, we live in a more or less constant state of
bewilderment and anxiety, briefly interrupted by temporary bodily and mental
pleasures.
In material consciousness, we don't know who we are or what
we're supposed to do, so we regularly make mistakes that have far-reaching,
upsetting consequences. Our ultimate anxiety is the nagging fear of death,
which we try to avoid thinking about. We think death means we cease to exist—a
thought nearly impossible to cope with, since it so completely goes against our
eternal nature. We try to distract ourselves by intellectual, emotional,
sensual, chemical, or electronic means—which often just cause us more anxiety.
Among our other anxieties are the death of loved ones, and various other
suffering conditions—such as old age and disease—that unfailingly precede
death.
The practices of Krishna consciousness, or bhakti-yoga, are meant to free us from the root cause
of all anxiety by reawakening our normal, spiritual awareness. The process is
simple—meditation on the name, form, activities, and qualities of Krishna, whom
the Vedas name as the ultimate, Absolute Truth, the
Supreme Person. Of course, the Supreme Person may be known by different names
in different religious cultures, but all genuine spiritual traditions agree
that there's only one Supreme God. The goal of bhakti-yoga is
to regain our natural sense of connectedness (yoga) with that one supreme God
by practicing serving Him with love (bhakti).
Krishna is a Sanskrit name of the Supreme Being meaning
"all-attractive." In the Bhagavad-gita Krishna
describes Himself as the source of all that exists. The Srimad-Bhagavatam names
Him as the Absolute Truth,
the ultimate source of all energies, and describes His form, activities, and
home in detail. When Srila Prabhupada founded
the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness in 1966, he chose the term "Krishna
consciousness" over "God consciousness" to emphasize the
specific, attractive personality of the Supreme Being mentioned in so much of
Vedic literature.
The practices of Krishna consciousness include hearing
about Krishna from authentic sources like Bhagavad-gita and Krishna's
biography, theSrimad-Bhagavatam,
chanting Krishna's names, such as the Hare Krishna mantra,
eating spiritualized
food prepared and offered to Krishna with devotion, serving
Krishna's Deity form in the temple, and many other activities meant to keep
oneself steadily absorbed in thought of Krishna. Naturally, the more someone
adopts such practices, the more Krishna conscious they become.
Krishna consciousness is valuable on many levels. The
great sixteenth century authority on bhakti-yoga, Rupa Goswami, says that
devotional service brings immediate relief from all material distress, it is
the beginning of all good fortune, and it automatically puts one in
transcendental pleasure. In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna says those who achieve
Krishna consciousness are situated in boundless transcendental happiness and
think there is no greater gain. They attain peace from all material misery,
they can know God as He is, and can even live with Him in the spiritual world, becoming
free from material existence entirely. The Bhagavatam recommends Krishna
consciousness as beneficial for everyone, no matter what one may desire.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu,
who spread Krishna consciousness all over India in the sixteenth century,
taught that bhakti-yoga is the essence of
all religion and the most important point taught in all scripture. He radically
challenged the established religious views of the time and convinced many
Hindus and Muslims alike to embrace the non-sectarian principles of Krishna
consciousness; that anyone, from any social status or background, has equal
access to God by practicing devotional service. He had His followers prove this
scripturally by a thorough analysis of the teachings of the Vedas. Mahaprabhu Himself showed such
extreme symptoms of ecstatic spiritual love that many were convinced by His
example—and by considerable scriptural evidence—that He was Krishna Himself in
the role of His own devotee, descending to earth to teach others how to love
Him.
By practicing
Krishna consciousness, one becomes more inclined toward eternal, spiritual life
and less attracted to temporary, material pursuits (with their related
anxieties). We've been in the material world for a
long, long time. Instead of living life as if it had no spiritual dimension, we
can start right now to revive our individual relationship
with Krishna and begin our return journey to the spiritual
world, where there is no anxiety—only genuine, uninterrupted happiness.
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