Gauranga is calling...

Derren Brown - 'Trick of the Mind'

Derren Brown (shown on the left) has become famous for his powers of suggestion; seeing the future; art of distraction; recalling memories; and tricks of the mind. He states that it is an ability that he has had to learn, and labor hard over rather than something he was born with. It takes much time and practice to perfect the art of what he does.His program on 4 is extremely popular and his work is became more and more known all over the world. Derren Brown thinks outside of the box and that's what makes his illusions stand out from the rest!He works with everyone, from celebrities, to people on the street!A lot of his stuff I believed could be linked to our philosophy or the way of the material world as it is all about the 'trick of the mind' - our worst enemy!Below is a written description, in his own words, one of his recent tricks of the mind he conducted on his show on 4. The text in bold is my commentary.

When I leave a cash-filled wallet on the pavement in a busy street all day, I am playing with people's perceptions. By drawing a line around it, I disconcert them even more by making it look 'official'. (shown on the right)

No one touches the wallet because they think it's too weird or perhaps some sort of trap. People know that lines are drawn round the shape of the body if someone has died in suspicious circumstances, so that makes them feel the wallet has been put there by the authorities. The line makes it clear that it's not lying there by accident.
I don't think the trick would work without the line around the wallet. It makes the object look surreal, as though it has been put there for some unknown purpose. People walking past suspect that both they and the wallet might be being observed, so they don't touch it. The context and appearance of the wallet are too odd for people to be able to process the information that they have about it.
The aim of this trick of the mind is to make people feel so weird about picking up the wallet that they would rather play safe and not touch it. And it works!

Srila Prabhupada once said

“If you sell diamonds, you cannot expect to have many customers. But a diamond is a diamond even if there are no customers.” Our philosophy and culture is like a diamond. It's value does not change whether people follow it or not as a diamonds value never drops but only increases.
Similarly, in this example, the cash-filled wallet can be compared to our philosophy and culture. As Derren Brown is playing with people's perceptions, Maya (illusion) has clouded our minds with materialism by drawing this line around Krishna.
People don't take up to spirituality easily as they are too tied up in themselves and their attachment to material possessions. Sometimes people also see spiritual life as a 'brain washing' mechanism, 'weird' or a 'trap'.
Maya is very clever at doing what Derren Brown is doing in this situation. Despite people knowing that what they are chasing (in this case money) is right there in front of them, Brown is able to put them off it using their OWN mind against them. Even when people know that Krishna Consciousness is the only way, Maya confuses the mind and makes it believe it is odd and surreal therefore despite their knowledge people reject it!
As Derren Brown says it works! The mind acts as such an enemy that people are reluctant to pick up the wallet, whereas in any other situation they would be more than happy to take it! Similarly our mind works against us in so many ways. Whether it be waking up early to chant; reading the scriptures; going tot he temple; following the four regulative principles; and just being disciplined.
Maya is using our mind to keep us away from what is best for us! Derren Brown has shown in this example that 'just a line' is able to separate people from the money. Maya is throwing all sorts of things at us: ignorance; laziness,;relationships; education; family duties; let alone our conditioning in this material world and neglect of Krishna for so many lifetimes.
The only way we can overcome Maya is by chanting the holy names of the lord. (arms raised) HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE, HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE! Praying that Krishna will give us his mercy by which we can get closer to him and really see what a diamond Krishna Consciousness is!

It-All-Comes-Back-To-You

Krishna Consciousness is the natural and common platform of unity both for national and international if not we may go against the degraded bad karma life of meat-eating, intoxication, gambling and illicit sex (material diseases)!

HariNam SanKirTan Party

"...this sankirtana or street chanting must go on, it is our most important program. Lord Caitanya's movement means the sankirtana movement. You may simply take two hours for chanting sixteen rounds daily, two hours for reading congregationally, and balance of time go out for sankirtana. We must do both, reading books and distributing books, but distributing books is the main propaganda." Srila Prabhupada Letter, 09-18-72

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Krishna Dancing for Musical fountain

This is in Bangalore, INDIA. It is a popular tourist attraction in Bangalore and Its showcased at "Indira Gandhi Musical Fountains". this track is being played every friday regulary twice , thus enabling tourists to listen to the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra.

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Good Association

"Why do people attend satsanga? Are they of any real benefit?"

Once a saint approached a lady for bhiksha, and this was the question that she posed to him. He in turn asked her to prepare buckets full of kheer for him the next day, when he would answer her query. The next day he came back with a bowl filled up to the brim with cow dung and asked her to pour the kheer in it. Dumbfounded, the lady poured buckets and buckets of kheer.

Initially the kheer spilled on the earth but gradually, the cow dung spilled down with the sheer force of the kheer and the bowl became clean and filled up with the sweet kheer.

The saint explained, "I have demonstrated the effect satsanga has on a stained soul. Constantly pour satsanga on the hearts and minds filled up to the brim with lust, hatred, attachment, desire, selfishness and viciousness till complete clarity and total cleansing is achieved. Only then will you be able to purify your existence and understand things as they are."

Srila Prabhupada explains: "By association with undesirable companions we have learned so many bad habits and similarly by association with pure persons or devotees we can become purified of our acquired bad habits."

"Simply by associating with exalted devotees, anyone can attain perfection of knowledge and with the sword of knowledge can cut to pieces the illusory associations within this material world.

Through the association of devotees, one can engage in the service of the Lord by hearing and chanting [shravanam kirtanam]. Thus one can revive his dormant Krishna consciousness and, sticking to the cultivation of Krishna consciousness, return home, back to Godhead, even in this life."

Jai Srila Prabhupad

His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupda, Founder Acharyaof the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Krishna will give you stamina and intelligence to carry out more and more projects successfully in His Name, provided we are sincere and remain strong spiritually by following the regulative principles.

Failure is the pillar of success

So there is no reason to ever allow yourself to become discouraged on the path of bhakti. Take every failure as a valuable lesson for your ultimate success, and you will quickly make progress. Don't think that because you lose a battle that you won't win the war. You do not require any extraordinary qualifications. Simply maintain your desire. That's all. If you will always remain determined to become Krishna's pure devotee, you will definitely win the war against maya in due course of time.

Bhagavad Gita As It Is ???

Hare Krishna Readers,

As Bhagavad Gita As It Is will be the basis of our discussions. I would like to give you a general overview of the book. This overview will continue in the next few Installments.

Even if you have already read the Gita I think you will find this information interesting. Bhagavad Gita is an amazing book. Even if you were to read the entire book every day of your life, every day you will still find new inspiration in it. So please read this carefully. I may be asking you questions about it later!

Firstly I would like to offer my respectful obeisances to my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhuapda, because without the knowledge he has most mercifully given us I would still be completely in darkness as far as spiritual knowledge is concerned. It is only because of his mercy that I can say anything of value.

Bhagavad Gita contains the essence of all spiritual knowledge spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna. Because Bhagavad Gita is spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one need not read any other spiritual literature. One need only regularly and attentively hear and read Bhagavad Gita.

The present time mankind is so absorbed with day-to-day activities related to simply surviving in this world that he does not have the time to read all the Vedic literatures. But that is not necessary, this one book Bhagavad Gita is sufficient.

Bhagavad Gita appears within the Mahabharata. Mahabharata means the "the history of Greater India." So the conversation we hear between Krishna and Arjuna actually happened. It is history. And if you would like to understand everything that happened before and after this conversation, that is available also, in the Mahabharata. However Bhagavad Gita is the very essence, the very nectar of the Mahabharata. So simply studying the Gita is sufficient.

There are thousands of translations of Bhagavad-gita available and we are not just studying any translaton of Bhagavad-gita, and there is a very good reason for this. We are studying Bhagavad-Gita As It Is by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and he describes that the reason he has given us this translation is as as far as he can see in America, and even in India, practically all the other translations of the Gita that are available in the market do not convey the real spirit of the Bhagavad-Gita. In practically all the other editions the commentator expresses his own opinions without touching on the spririt of Bhagavad Gita.

And what is the spirit of Bhagavad Gita? Arjuna was the first student of the Gita, so we can understand the spirit of the Gita by seeing how Arjuna relates to Krishna, how he accepts Krishna and the instructions given by Krishna.

Arjuna accepts Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And he gives evidence that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead also, by saying that all the great authorities in the past also accepted Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And Krishna also establishes Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the Gita. Therfore we should take Bhagavad-gita in this spirit. Understand it as Arjuna understood it from Krishna.

Krishna tells Arjuna that the Bhagavad-gita is not new. He tells Arjuna that He originally spoke the Gita to the Sun god, Vivasvan, at the beginning of the creation, and that the knowledge was handed down through the saintly kings from generation to generation, but now that knowledge had become lost, so therefore Krishna again spoke that same original knowledge to Arjuna.

A very important question is why did Krishna decide to speak this topmost spiritual knowldege to Arjuna? Arjuna was a warrior. A fighter. There were many other, seemingly more qualified people who Krishna could have spoken the Gita to. Why did he pick Arjuna?

Krishna tells Arjuna that He is relating this supreme secret to him because he is His devotee and His friend. Therefore the Bhagavad-gita is best understood by a person who has qualities similar to Arjuna's. That is to say he must be a devotee in a direct relationship with Krishna.

We all have a relationship with Krishna eternally. However in the material state of life that eternal relationship is covered and we are unaware of our relationship with Krishna. But the process of Krishna consciousness can revive that original relationship.

The way Arjuna accepted the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita from Krishna should be noted. His manner of acceptance is given in the Tenth Chapter.

"Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal Divine Person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty. All the great sages like Narada, Asita, Devala and Vyasa proclaim this of You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me. O Krishna I totally accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the gods, nor demons, O Lord, know thy personality. (Bg. 10.12-14)

So this is the spirit of Bhagavad Gita. Arjuna tells Krishna the he accepts whatever He says to be completely perfect, "I accept everything You say to be true." Arjuna says that the personality of Krishna is very difficult to understand, that Krishna can not be known even by the great demigods. Therefore if even the beings greater than humans can not understand Krishna how can any human understand Him without becoming His devotee?

Therefore Bhagavad Gita should be taken up in a spirit of devotion. One should not think that he is equal to Krishna, nor should he think that Krishna is an ordinary personality or even a very great personality. Lord Sri Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, at least theoretically, according to the statements of Bhagavad-gita, or the statements of Arjuna, the person who is trying to understand the Bhagavad-gita.

We should therefore at least theoretically accept Sri Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and with that submissive spirit we can understand the Bhagavad-gita. Unless one reads the Bhagavad-gita in a submissive spirit, it is very difficult to understand because it is a great mystery.