A C Bhaktivedanta Swami PrabhupadaBesprekingen

Would make a fine AD&D campaign.

Contents:
The quest for enlightenment
Matter, spirit, and the controller of both
The spiritual master
Yoga & meditation for the age of quarrel
Spiritual solutions to material problems
Discussions on western philosophy & science
Love of God, the ultimate goal

Short and simple but gives a good introduction of the Krishna consciousness movement and the benefits of chanting. The interview with John Lennon, george Harrison and Swami Prabhupada help give context to how and why chanting spread across the world

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Bhaktivedanta-Swami-Prabhupada-La-Bhagavad-Gita-t...

Gold

El Bhagavad gita tal Como Es es la edición del Gita mas utilizada y de mayor venta en todo el mundo. Es la fuente principal sobre temas del yoga y un conciso resumen de la sabiduría Védica de la India.

Trata de 5 verdades básicas y la relación de cada una con las demás. Estas verdades o tattvas son:

– Krishna o Dios

– El alma individual

– El mundo material

– Karma

– El tiempo.

La Gita explica la naturaleza de la conciencia, el ser y el universo. Es la esencia del saber espiritual de la India y la respuesta a preguntas hechas por filosofos durante siglos.

Basado en las enseñanzas de Su Divina Gracia

Essential spiritual teachings

Across five centuries and half the globe comes this compact guidebook of essential spiritual teachings. How to choose a guru, how to practice yoga, even where to live. You'll find it all in this invaluable work originally written in Sanskrit by Srila Rupa Goswami, the greatest spiritual genius of medieval India. Now translated and explained by Srila Prabhupada, 'The Nectar of Instruction' is the key to enlightenment for all seekers on the path of spiritual perfection.

This is a book to enrich one's life; it nourishes the parts which other books cannot reach! It's full of wisdom and practical advice for anyone bold and adventurous enough to attempt the spiritual path. Having read it once, I've started it again more meditatively and it gives me the same tranquil feeling as gazing into a pool of deep, clear water.

Some of the 'instructions' are stringent, such as the first verse, on controlling the mind, speech, anger etc., but there is also much sweetness, as in text four - the 'six loving exchanges'.

Srila Rupa Goswami, a mystic saint from India, wrote the eleven texts, five hundred years ago, in Sanskrit, and Bhaktivedanta Swami has translated them for the first time into English, with commentaries. These are strong commentaries. He doesn't water anything down for a modern audience and that's one of the things I like about them; he has faith in his reader. He speaks directly to the most vital part of us, our true self, of which we may not even be very aware, and somehow we want to respond and rise to the call.

The commentaries are sprinkled with beautiful quotes from classical Vedic texts, full of deep meaning. It would be interesting to follow up on some of these, such as Bhagavad-Gita.

I think this book will appeal to anyone interested in genuine spiritual life, of whatever religious tradition, or none. It is universally applicable. -Nadia

The work has the standard structure of original Sanskrit text, roman transliterations, synonyms, translations and elaborate purports by His Divine Grace Prabhupada. This is a important work in understanding the science of devotion inspired by Lord Caitanya. The work has only eleven verses. Text one identifies that only who can control his speech, mind, anger, tongue, belly and genitals can be guru. Next verse identifies the items that destroy bhakti. Next two verses deals with ways to develop bhakti. Next two verses instructs how to recognize different kinds of devotees and how to relate to them. Verse seven talks about sweetness of God's Name. Verses 8-11 discusses the glory of Radha and Bridhavan. It is preferrable if it is heard from pure devotees.-s. Venkatesan

I do not claim to have understood what actually is spoken in this book. It is rather techinical, but really deep for such a small book. I re-read it and was happy that I understood more. This book is free form agenda and is open to everyone.-Aruna Locana

Contents

Preface
Text One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, and Eleven
Appendixes
The author
References
Glossary
Sanskrit pronunciation guide
Index of Sanskrti verses
General index

Closed minded, repetitive, stubbornly doctrinaire, nothing special on offer. Tautological claims of authority. Annoying

It was a refreshingly clear departure from the other installments by this author and betrays some quite obvious influence from Western acolytes (responsible for clarifying his ideas).

However, the author's hubris in claiming that 1) all of Vedic teaching consists of "laws" and 2) that you must follow the priesthood (among other examples) serve to vindicate the slow, creeping disappointment with ISKCON I've felt as I read more and more of the organization's materials...

Relatively brief and to the point. Uses many of the same tired analogies but is at least practical toward the end! Short form is a much better medium for the author than his other long prose that drifts in and out of topics.

Very forgettable. One reviewer said "When you've read one book by him, you've read them all." This book did not shake free from the truth of that review.

What the author thinks of his own premise: "The real problem is how to get free of birth, death, old age and disease. This cannot be solved by simply wasting time traveling within this universe. Even if one goes to the highest planet, this problem cannot be solved, for there is death everywhere."

Maybe the most frustrating passage I've read in years: "If one wants to go there, he must simply become Kṛṣṇa conscious and try to understand how Kṛṣṇa appears and disappears, what His constitutional position is, what our constitutional position is, what our relationship with Him is, and how to live." HOW?!! He goes on, irritatingly: "Simply try to understand these ideas scientifically. Everything in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is scientific. It is not bogus, whimsical, sentimental, fanatical or imaginary. It is truth, fact, reality. One must understand Kṛṣṇa in truth."
Really? No doubt at all? How do we DO any of the things you say must be done? How does drumming in the street and letting vegetarian food get cold in front of a statue you poured honey on all morning before sunrise accomplish anything? It's not fanatical or imaginary to rely on something as old as the Vedas to confirm what are recent discoveries? Why wasn't space travel possible in India for 5000 years if Sanskrit texts are the "True Source" of knowledge about this?

Plus, what is worse -- I wanted to see Saturn and you lied to me.

Finally some clarity, but only because of the insistent questioning of Bob Cohen (interviewer throughout, later to be initiated into ISKCON).

Prabhupada's petulant attitude shows through here considerably more than other places. For all his spiritual wisdom and ability, he shows a glaring incapacity to address doubts common to any thinking person. The frustration of anyone with critical thinking skills is likely to pervade all his work.

Still seems to use many words to say not very much

I fear I will progress through every single publication of this group without the concepts even once being explained properly, thoroughly, and most importantly, CLEARLY.

It gets very repetitive, with the same uninventive analogies used by Prabhupada over and over. And yet somehow basic ideas that Westerners (Lennon, Harrison) and Easterners alike (Ono) in prior installments asked about are NEVER adequately addressed or even confronted head on.

The best so far but still quite obtuse.

Not bad, but still assumes the reader knows too much. It is frustrating not to have a one-stop shop for the explication of the ISKCON concepts. I have my suspicions that I'll find it in The Science of Self-Realization, which regrettably is still 11 books away in the 'Recommended Reading Order' for beginners that I am following.

On we go!

A short brochure. Still suffers from a lack of explanation of its key terms. What is 'constitutional position?' And why use terms of art such as this? Isn't the entire point of ISKCON to spread the message effectively? Why obfuscate it with Sanskrit terminology and barely-recognizable English terms ('Personality of Godhead,' 'the pastimes of Krishna') that get in the way of understanding for the uninitiated?

An exemplar of both:
"When we hanker for earning, that is a kind of distress. And when we suffer loss, that is also distress. But if we are situated in brahma-bhuta[?], we will neither be distressed nor will we hanker." [NB: The section this quote comes from is not about brahma-bhuta, and the term goes undefined; it is not a term with wide enough usage to even have any results in a Wikipedia search. It is just flatly used in a passage like this alongside English words straight from the thesaurus, and then we move on in the narrative.]

Okay, material pursuits are temporary and ultimately unfulfilling, I grant you. But to just assert that devotion to Krishna brings one the 'ultimate Answer,' so to speak, without even trying to explain why or how? How does any of this work? What does the part I can actually *do* really mean?

I really liked this one a lot better than Elevation to Krsna Consciousness. And I wanted to give this book a higher rating.. I am just still daydreaming about a linear, explicatory book for a true beginner, someone uninitiated in the odd terminology of ISKCON material:

What on earth is a 'pastime' supposed to be? Just the things Krishna did? Actions? Occurrences/events of his life?
What does being the 'Supreme Personality of Godhead' convey in reality? And what is 'Godhead' (as opposed to 'the Godhead')?
And for all of the above questions... who cares? Is there any kind of ethical point to take from all of this? Who can understand such things?

Devotion and service to Krishna are all well and good to extol, but I have yet to glean the core driving message of the concepts of this movement because of how obtuse and even unhelpful the material can be. And I'm following a semi-official recommended reading order!

The next in order (I think I inserted it here myself) involves conversation between Prabhupada and two very famous entry-level beginners from a little UK musical outfit. I hope by the time of that review I'll have understood at least as well as Lennon and hopefully as well or better than Harrison.

A bombastic finish to what is really a convoluted book. The iskcon material so far seems to all be plagued by a distinct ability to stuff what carries the tone of instructional material full of unexplained Sanskrit terminology and lessons that really never reach any conclusion or follow any linearity whatsoever.

Still, I enjoy the subject matter and am amazed I ever learned enough to become interested, when this is the literature people have had to work with.

A little hard to discern a theme...

This volume was very hard to find. I wonder if I'll find anything in it that ISKCON is trying to hush up. I happen to know that Prabhupada distinctly taught against homosexuality, yet also against abortion, essentially alienating every American at least in one way (this book would be no different). I began it looking forward to finding out why this book has been essentially removed from ISKCON's "lists" (e.g., it is not available on prabhupada.io) . . .

The subtitle confirms my suspicion: 'Exposing a Misdirected Civilization.'

A haughty claim about a civilization with, say, religious freedom, the freedom to marry a person of your choosing . . .

This not to say there isn't still plenty of room for Western societies to grow, but it is hard to deny they have essentially set the tone for maximizing recognition of human social liberty (even if it has failed miserably in certain respects in upholding it).

An interview excerpted at the following link (fully printed as Ch. 4 of this book) is the quintessential example of Prabhupada (the Krishna leader)'s attitude that made me disappointed once I started reading his actual works. In all his books he sounds like this, forcing the reader to root for the other guy every time. The rudeness, the audacity of the claims, the hubris, the closed mind, are all staggering: https://back2godhead.com/srila-prabhu...

This book is enough to convince anyone that Prabhupada is not some sort of special holy man. During interfaith dialogue, he routinely retorts to, e.g. priests, "This is foolishness" and such comments as: "Animal-killers [e.g. Christians, who teach eating meat is not a sin] cannot understand God. I have seen this; it is a fact. They do not have the brain to understand God." (p. 80)

Prabhupada returns again and again, very proud of himself for having made this discovery, that 'Thou shalt not kill' conflicts with the Christian habit of eating meat. He is even audacious enough to claim that to justify eating meat is "misinterpretation of the Bible." (!)

Had he made an inch of progress beyond his own hubris to learn about either the Christian or the Judaic tradition, Prabhupada would know that the entire Bible permits & prescribes the eating of certain meat, detailing exactly how God Almighty wants meat to be eaten by His people. The undisputable answer is certainly not "not at all."

"We believe Krishna because it's true.
It's true because . . . it's Krishna . . . ?"
This is the pitiable thought process of a man who condescends to earnest seekers, WHO and UN employees, journalists, university students, and International Labor Organization workers.

Everything that diverges from Prabhupada's ideas is "foolishness" and everyone who does so is a "rascal." Young people are attracted to people who sound like they have certainty. Ayn Rand had similar influence, in no small part because she was dead-set on the "objective truth" of her extreme characterizations. Most big conversions take place when young. The impressionable and less mature folks who compose the majority of those attracted to ISKCON are much more comfortable in a setting without nuance; this is why even more extreme movements are also populated mostly with younger people. Language like "They are the enemy" and "This is timeless truth and everything else is dead-wrong error" comforts (read: manipulates) the young, and then the group can claim this aspect of their membership as "fervor" and "a groundswell of excitement."

In short, once you know what to look for in a spiritual leader, you realize that Prabhupada's manner of imparting these truths and the way he encourages belief in them fall far short of it.

Interesting.

Segundo o autor, apesar da luta pela sobrevivência, o ser humano anseia pela paz interior. Aquele que se situa na transcendência através da prática da meditação não se lamenta nem deseja ter nada, e é equânime com todos os seres vivos. Para Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, neste estado, ele alcança a Superconsciência.