Atmani

Top Ten list

Hare Krishna Top Ten list. Different list that give basic information about the practice of bhakti yoga or more commenly know as the Hare Krishna movement.

1) Here are the top ten things you should know about the Srila Prabhupada.

  1. He is the founder, Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
  2. “Acharya” means that he teaches by personal example.
  3. He was born in 1896. Was initiated in 1933 by his guru and is part of an unbroken chain of gurus going back to the Supreme Lord Himself. He left this world in 1977.
  4. He was a sanyasi, or one in the renounced order of life.
  5. In 1944 he started the periodical called “Back To Godhead”, which is still in publication.
  6. In 1965, at the age of 70, he traveled to the US aboard the Indian freighter “Jaladuta”, with less than ten dollars.
  7. He carried trunks filled with copies of the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam (considered by scholars to be one of the most important Vedic scriptures) which he had recently translated.
  8. Over the next ten years, he translated over 60 volumes of classic 
Vedic scriptures.
  9. He followed and communicated the teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
  10. He spread the congregational chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra around the world. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

2) Here are the top ten things you should know about the Bhagavad Gita As It Is.

  1. It means: The Song of God
  2. It is the greatest philosophy on the planet.
  3. It is 700 verses long.
  4. The Bhagavad-gita is contained in the epic scripture “The Mahabharata”.
  5. It has three major themes: Knowledge, action, and love.
  6. It has five subject matters: the Supreme Lord, the living entity, karma, nature and time.
  7. It was spoken by Lord Krishna to his friend Arjuna on a battlefield 5000 years ago.
  8. Through the Gita, Krishna teaches the essence of the yoga system and the ultimate goal of life.
  9. The most authorized version, “Bhagavad-gita As It Is”, was given to us by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. This has been acknowledged by the the most qualified literary scholars of our time.
  10. “Bhagavad-gita As It Is” is the most widely read edition of the Gita in the world and is offered in 59 languages.

3) Here are the top ten things you should know about the Hare Krishna movement.

  1. Krishna is an intimate name for the Lord and means “all attractive”.
  2. It was founded by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, an incarnation of the Lord, who appeared 500 years ago in India.
  3. It was popularized worldwide in the 1960’s and 70’s by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami,also know as Śrīla Prabhupada.
  4. Its mission is to provide spiritual knowledge regarding everyone’s unique eternal individual spiritual identity and one’s personal loving relationship with the Supreme Lord. 5.Its purpose is to initiate a spiritual revolution in human society based on the holy Vedic scriptures and guided by the spiritual master.
  5. Opening temples where people of all faiths can gather to worship the Lord.
  6. To develop farm communities where the natural order of society, can be established, also known as “Varnashram Dharma”.
  7. To teach and encourage the congregational chanting of the holy name of the Lord as the most effective means of spiritual advancement. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
  8. To publish and distribute periodicals, magazines and books on spiritual matters.
  9. The distribution of sanctified food (prasadam) as a means of purifying society at large.

4) Here are the top ten things you should know about who is a Guru.

  1. Guru literally means heavy. “heavy with knowledge” “master of a certain type of knowledge.”
  2. Guru is a teacher or guide, primarily focused on giving spiritual knowledge.
  3. A bonafide guru is one who can help you establish a loving relationship with the Lord.
  4. A bonafide guru does not claim to be God, but is the respected representative of the Lord.
  5. A bonafide guru does not manufacture anything but rather teaches from the revealed scriptures.
  6. A bonafide guru’s words and actions are in alignment with both the scriptures and other great saintly persons.
  7. There are three types of Gurus, (1) the one who first introduces us to spiritual life, (2) the one who gives instructions, offers guidance and is there to answer questions and (3) the one who initiates us and gives the mantra. These may be separate individuals or combined. 8.Guru is someone who repeats the words of Krishna without alteration and is a clear, transparent carrier of the Lord’s message.
  8. The guru is accessible in two ways; (1) through their personal association and (2) through their teachings and literary works. Of the two, the second is the most important.
  9. The guru is the means by which we can gain self-realization and ultimately the personal association of the Supreme Lord.

5) Here are the top ten things you should know about Krishna.

  1. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in other words, He is a person.
  2. He is your ultimate well-wisher.
  3. He is all attractive.
  4. He is the source of the spiritual and material worlds.
  5. He possesses all opulences.
  6. He is the original guru.
  7. He is eternal, full of knowledge and blissful.
  8. He has unlimited names, unlimited pastimes and unlimited devotees.
  9. His names are non-different than Himself. One who chants the Lord’s names, directly associates with the Lord.
  10. He has a personal intimate relationship with every living entity.

6) Here are the top ten things you should know about Lord Chaitanya.

  1. Lord Chaitanya appeared a little more than 500 years ago and is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is also known as the Golden Avatar due to His golden complexion.
  2. Avatar means one who descends from the spiritual world into the material world for the sake of bringing people back to the spiritual abode.
  3. Lord Chaitanya descended to accept the role of a devotee to teach devotional service by practicing it Himself.
  4. The religious practice for spiritual deliverance in the Age of Kali (our current age) is to chant the Lord’s Holy Names congregationally.
  5. The mantra given to us by Lord Chaitanya containing those Holy Names is: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
  6. The chanting of this mantra will deliver the condition souls from the repetition of birth and death and reestablish their lost loving relationship with the Lord.
  7. The Lord always descends with His eternal associates who assist Him with His activities.
  8. Lord Chaitanya instructed His principle associates to write volumes of books on the pastimes of Lord Krishna and the science of bhakti yoga.
  9. His pastimes are elucidated in the Chaitanya Charitamrita as translated by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
  10. Lord Chaitanya is also known as patita-pavana or the deliverer of the most fallen souls.

7) Here are the top ten things you should know about the Maha Mantra.

  1. This is the Maha Mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare,
  2. Maha means: Great. 3 Mantra means: To deliver or free the mind, and also, a sacred chant for deliverance.
  3. It is a sixteen word mantra of God’s names and is the great mantra for achieving enlightenment.
  4. “Hare” refers to the divine feminine potency of God.
  5. “Krishna” means: He who is all attractive.
  6. “Rama” means: The reservoir of all pleasure.
  7. “O Krishna, O energy of Krishna, please engage me in Your service.”
  8. There are no hard and fast rules for chanting this mantra.
  9. It springs automatically from the spiritual platform and will end the repetition of birth and death.

8) Here are the top ten things you should know about Prasadam or Spiritual Food.

  1. Prasadam is foodstuffs that have been offered to the Lord with love and devotion.
  2. Cooking and preparing food for the Lord is a process of yoga.
  3. The offering can be as simple as a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water.
  4. Cooking for the Lord is done for the Lord’s pleasure without tasting or thoughts of personal enjoyment.
  5. Once offered to the Lord, it becomes prasadam or the mercy of the Lord.
  6. No meat, fish or eggs should be offered to the Lord.
  7. It purifies the mind and heart.
  8. It’s healthy and delicious!
  9. It is karma free.
  10. The distribution of prasadam is done by every Hare Krishna temple and farm community around the world.

9) Here are the top ten things you should know about the purpose of life.

  1. To understand who we are and what our relationship is with this creation and its creator.
  2. To realize we are not this body.
  3. To realize we are eternal spirit souls.
  4. To get free from material bondage and enter into the kingdom of God.
  5. To know we are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord Krishna.
  6. To approach a bonafide Spiritual Master and take shelter of that person so they can impart knowledge unto us.
  7. To seek out other spiritually minded persons and take advantage of their association, (Sadhu Sanga).
  8. To understand that we are equal in quality with the Lord but infinitesimal in size and that we are 9. individual unique personalities different from the Lord.
  9. Through spiritual perfection, we reawaken our original dormant loving relationship with the Lord.
  10. That the means to attain that goal in this age is by chanting the maha mantra, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama,Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

10) Here are the top ten things you should know about reincarnation.

  1. Reincarnation is the transmigration of the soul from one body to another.
  2. The principle teaching of the Bhagavad-gita teaches that we are not the body but an eternal spirit soul, a fragmental, part and parcel of the Supreme Lord.
  3. Our actual size is one ten-thousandth the tip of a hair, but in our original state, we are more luminous than a thousand suns. That is because we are expanded from the Supreme Lord, only He is infinite and we are finite.
  4. When the soul falsely identifies with this material world it becomes covered over by the three modes of material nature. Goodness, passion and ignorance.
  5. The soul becomes entangled by their actions and reactions which is known as karma, and this determines one’s future life.
    • By acting in the mode of goodness, one can be elevated to the upper (heavenly) planets.
    • By acting in the mode of passion, one remains as a human on this earthly plane.
    • And by acting in the mode of ignorance, one enters into the lower species of life like animals or insects.
  6. All of these bodies are still plagued with birth, death, disease and old age.
  7. By practicing Bhakti yoga, one can end the repetition of birth and death and enter into the spiritual planets far beyond the material world.
  8. In truth, we are actually changing bodies in this very life; from infant to youth, middle age, old age and finally on to another body after death. But soul remains the same person.
  9. During our life we create a mentality that will be prominent at the time of death, and according to that mentality we will get our next birth.
  10. The Supreme Lord Krishna states in the Bhagavad-gita (The Song of God), “Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail”. BG Chapter 8 Text 6

11) Here are the top ten things you should know about the Srimad Bhagavatam or the beautiful story of the Lord.

  1. It is comprised of 12 cantos and has 18,000 verses.
  2. The Bhagavatam was written by Srila Vyasadeva, the literary incarnation of the Lord and spoken by His son, Sukadeva Goswami.
  3. It describes the creation of the cosmos and everything in existence in exacting detail.
  4. It explains the origin of the universe and its first inhabitant, Lord Brahma, who then created everything within the universe.
  5. It explains the winding up of creation.
  6. Through it, we can learn about history going back tens and even hundreds of thousands of years.
  7. It describes the different incarnations of the Lord and when They appeared.
  8. It contains stories of the Lord’s devotees that provide valuable lessons for living a spiritual life.
  9. It explains the maintenance of creation, the impetus for activity and the prescribed duties for all law-abiding men.
  10. The tenth canto gives us knowledge of the Supreme Lord’s personal activities in the spiritual world and is the ultimate goal of all living beings.

12) Here are the top ten things you should know about the symptoms of Kali yuga.

  1. Kali yuga is the age quarrel and hypocracy.
  2. According to SB the essence of ancient vedic scriptures this planet goes through four different ages like spring, summer, fall and winter seasons.
  3. The different ages are called Satya yuga, Treta-yuga Dvarpa yuga and Kali yuga.
  4. We are currently in the age of Kali the winter season which if the last of the four ages and is the most degraded.
  5. Satya last 1,728,000, years, Treta is 1,296,000 years and Dvpara is 864,000 years and Kali yuga only last 432,000. This totals 4,320,000 years for one cycle. This cycle repeats itself for the life of the universe.
  6. There are four pillars of religion. Austerity, cleanliness, mercy, truthfulness.
  7. All four pillars are present in Satya yuga. In Treta yuga we loose cleanliness, in Dvpara yuga you loose mercy and in Kali yuga only truthfulness remains.
  8. SB offers these insites to the age of Kali SB 12.2.2 In Kali-yuga, wealth alone will be considered the sign of a man's good birth, proper behavior and fine qualities. And law and justice will be applied only on the basis of one's power.
  9. Though this age of Kali Yuga is the lowest age. It has one saving grace. One can attain the highest level of spiritual advancement in the shortest amount of time by the practice of Bhakti yoga.
  10. Perfection on the path of bhakti yoga can be obtained by simply chanting the holy names of the Lord. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

13) Here are the top ten things you should know about yoga.

  1. Yoga is a Sanskrit word that means to connect, to link with or to yoke.

  2. There are different processes of yoga like karma yoga, hatha yoga, jana yoga, ashtanga yoga and sanakya yoga.

  3. The yoga system is like a ladder with progressive rungs beginning with hatha yoga at the bottom and ending with bhakti yoga at the top.

  4. The true philosophy of yoga is explained in the Bhagavad-gita which explains the different types of yoga and the end result of each.

  5. The ultimate goal of yoga is to understand one’s eternal relationship with the Supreme Lord and by acting on that knowledge, to be reunited with the Lord.

  6. Of all yoga systems, Bhakti yoga is considered the highest because it reestablishes ones loving relationship with Lord Krishna.

  7. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita Chapter 6 Verse 47, “And of all yogis, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all.”

  8. The Vedic scriptures establish Bhakti yoga as the recommended path for self-realization in this age of Kali (our current and the lowest of the four ages).

  9. Everyone wants to be happy and peaceful because that is the true natural state of the soul but they can only achieve it temporarily through material endeavors. Bhakti yoga is the highest spiritual process by which anyone can achieve eternal happiness and peace of mind.

  10. Perfection in the path of Bhakti yoga can be attained by simply chanting the holy names of the Lord: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

14) Here are the top ten things you should know about unconditional love.

  1. The closest thing to love in the material world is the love of a mother for her child. Her love is unconditional without any expectation of anything in return.
  2. When a living entity comes in contact with the material creation, his eternal love for Krishna is transformed into lust, in association with the mode of passion. BG 3.38 purport.
  3. Lust is only the perverted reflection of the love of God which is natural for every living entity. But if one is educated in Krishna consciousness from the very beginning, that natural love of God cannot deteriorate into lust. BG 3.41 purport.
  4. If one loves God then they love everyone. Just like when you water the root of a tree all the branches, fruits, flowers and leaves get nourished.
  5. Worship means to adore, or to show respect and honor to the worthy one. But service with love and faith is especially meant for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Bg 6.47
  6. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch your back is a business arrangement not a loving arrangement. Love is unconditional.
  7. One must first find the proper spiritual master and receive training under his direction. Then one can achieve faith in the Supreme. When that faith matures, in course of time, it is called love of God. This love is the ultimate goal of the living entities. Bg 17.28 purport
  8. Krishna saids in the BG To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me. Bg 10.10
  9. The supreme occupation for all humanity is that by which one can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self. SB 1.2.6
  10. I know no one but Krishna as my Lord, and He shall remain so even if He handles me roughly in His embrace or makes me brokenhearted by not being present before me. He is completely free to do anything and everything, for He is always my worshipable Lord unconditionally.

15) Here are the top ten things you should know about meditation.

  1. Meditation is a recommend process. One should question who am I, What is the goal of life and the means to attain it.
  2. To meditate means to engage the mind in thinking of the form of the Lord, the qualities of the Lord, the activities of the Lord and the service of the Lord. Meditation does not mean anything impersonal or void.
  3. Real meditation means to achieve a state in which the mind is saturated with God consciousness. If you don’t know what God is how can you meditate.
  4. In all vedic literatures it is confirmed that one must meditate on the Supreme absolute truth Visnu. There are different processes of meditation recommended for different ages.
  5. Meditation in the first age, Satya yuga was the recommended process of worship because of the long duration of life. It was easier because all the qualities of austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness were present in that age.
  6. In this age peoples minds are so agitated it is difficult to concentrate. Meditation that is recommended is mantra meditation or chanting the holy names of the Lord. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
  7. One who is not self-controlled and whose mind is not undisturbed cannot practice meditation. 6.11 purport
  8. Yoga practice is meditation on the Supersoul within; similarly, by chanting Hare Krishna one fixes his mind always on the Supreme Lord. Bg 8.8
  9. One should be intelligent enough to know the source of all knowledge, who is the cause of all causes and the only object for meditation in all types of yoga practice. Bg 7.2
  10. He who meditates on Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, his mind constantly engaged in remembering Me, undeviated from the path, he, O Partha, is sure to reach Me. Bg 8.8

16) Here are the top ten things you should know about Karma.

  1. The word Karma literally means “action”.
  2. There are three types: Karma,Vkarma and Akarma
  3. Karma – actions where one receives a corresponding reaction, either good or bad
  4. Vkarma – actions performed against the injunctions of the scriptures.
  5. Akarma – actions where one does not receive any reaction, either good or bad
  6. Karma and Vkarma, actions either good or bad keep one bound to the material plane of existence.
  7. Akarma is purely spiritual activity for which there is neither good nor bad reaction and frees one from the material plane.
  8. The Bible references Karma at least 100 times with such quotes as, “…whatever a person sows, that he will reap…”
  9. Practically all major religions of the world have an understanding of Karma in their teachings.
  10. Reactions of Karma may or may not come immediately, but they always come and are inescapable, unless one performs Akarmic activities.