Krishna Consciousness (Bhakti-yoga)

https://www.facebook.com/krishna.prince.sbd
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 the material 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, the Srimad-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.