“The letters of the holy name have so much spiritual potency that they act even when uttered improperly. PURPORT Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura states that the word vyavahita (“improperly uttered”) is not used here to refer to the mundane vibration of the letters of the alphabet. Such negligent utterance for the sense gratification of materialistic persons is not a vibration of transcendental sound. Utterance of the holy name while one...

Life is full of so many decisions, big and small. Without knowing the results of our decisions, we can get stuck or choose wrongly. There are many systems taught to leaders, managers, or people in general, for making good decisions, but none of them can promise full satisfaction with our choices. Frankly, it’s even hard to know what is a big decision and what’s a small decision! Sometimes seemingly small decisions can have a large...

Download Sanskrit Terms for Self: Definition and Use in Sacred Literature of the Vedas There are two basic words for self in Sanskrit, the original language of India, as well as the language of philosophers and theologians there today. The first term is ātmā or ātman, and the second is jīva or, both words combined as jīvātman. The former word is defined as: “1. the soul; the individual soul, 2. self; oneself” (Apte, 1988, p.78). The latter’s...

One of the six symptoms of surrender is to take the Lord as one’s only protector. What does it mean to go to the Lord for protection, and how do we pray for protection? This amazing prayer by Jayadeva Gosvami not only gives us the proper mood and suitable words, but also impresses upon our minds the amazing grandeur and beauty of the Supreme Lord.   “May the Lord who destroys obstacles, who seems to increase himself, taking many...

“Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura states that the business of the tongue is to gratify itself with the varieties of flavor, but by wandering in the twelve holy forests of Vraja-mandala (Vrndavana), one can be freed from the twelve flavors of material sense gratification. The five principal divisions of material relationships are neutral admiration, servitude, friendship, parental affection and conjugal love; the seven subordinate...