Documentary about small Hare Krishna ritvk temple in Montreal.
There have been many swamis, bogus swamis and yogis who have come to the western world in the past 200 years.
And every one of them, they recommend you chant this particular mantra. First you give me $20 and I will give you a secret mantra. Or you stand on your head or you press your nose or you give me your money or so many things.
So people naturally they are very much paranoid about things which are new to them. Like new ideas, I think, well, what do they want from me? Why are they inviting me?
But actually our process, we are trying to simply give. We are trying to give what has not been given before.
This Krishna consciousness is not something artificially imposed. It is the original consciousness of every spiritual being. And what this chanting process does, it cleanses the heart of all the dirty things within.
This is our original state. Everyone by nature originally is Krishna conscious. But now we are in a state of forgetfulness. So this chanting, it simply revives this consciousness.
This Krishna consciousness movement is not, as people may think it to sound, something sentimental. Sentimental is chanting and dancing. But we actually have the highest philosophy which is coming from the Vedic literature itself.
If anyone is in doubt as to the authenticity of this great movement, then we have over 80 volumes of literature which have been translated from Sanskrit into English by our guru Sri Nisargadatta.
What does your family think about this?
The response from my family, my wife and my children, are very positive even though they are not 100% joining with me.
Is this a kind of Hindu cult, Krishna consciousness?
I wouldn't say Hindu cult. It's a Hindu Vedic culture, which means it's an eternal constitutional position of every living entity. It's not only for Hindus, but it is known as Hindus because the name came into existence because of the demographical existence with the due course of time when the Mughal was ruling over India. So that's how they gave the name Hindu into existence.
Actually, whatever the practices are done in India, it is a Vedic culture. Actually, overall, it's a Vedic culture.
We have the Bhagavad Gita. This is considered to be the ABCD of spiritual understanding.
Of course, there are at least 600 editions of Bhagavad Gita at that time, and one may ask, what is the need of another Bhagavad Gita?
But everyone, we have experienced, they translate Bhagavad Gita and give commentary according to their own interpretation, their own mental speculation.
But this is titled here Bhagavad Gita as it is because it is without any addition or any subtraction. The message is presented as it is, as if Krishna would hear himself directly now.
So this is one of them. And we have another one: We have the Srimad Bhagavatam, which is a spiritual encyclopedia which is broken into 30 volumes. This is the first volume. This was written 5000 years ago by Srila Caitanya Charitamrita. This is broken into 17 volumes and was written, say, 500 years ago, or 500 years ago. This is relating all about the teachings and the activities of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who is Krishna Himself. He incarnated 500 years ago in western Bengal, in Nadia district, Navadvipa.
So these are undoubtedly very valuable gifts which have been locked away for centuries and centuries in the Sanskrit and the Bengali language, and for which, for want of a better word, the western civilization has been starving on account of a lack of this knowledge.
So Srila Prabhupada, out of his causeless mercy, has actually translated all of these ancient esoteric Vedic texts into the English language, because the English language is to target a wider audience. So now this most treasured science is even accessible to the common layman on the street.
Take for example, once upon a time, you had a baby's body. But that baby's body is no longer existing. And that body of a little boy, that is not existing. Now you have the young man. So these previous bodies are no longer existing, but you are still existing.
You are still the same. You can still remember incidents from your previous life. If you were simply the body, then with the baby's body, you would be dead and gone. That's not a fact. You are still here.
Another example is this: If I cut off your hand and I throw your hand into the dustbin, are you in the dustbin or your hand? So we say, no, your hand is in the dustbin.
So where are you? If I cut off your leg, if I cut off your finger, if I cut off your ear, I take any part of your body, you say, "This is my hand. This is my leg. This is my finger." We don't say, "I hand, I leg, I finger."
So there's a distinction between the observer and the observed, the seer and the seen, the possessor and the possession, the 'I' and 'mine'.