Most Vaisnavas refer to Krishna as having appeared 5,000 years ago and generally credit Vedic civilization and Vaisnavism with great antiquity. But what hard, empirical proof do we have for this assertion?
The letter 'A' denotes Balaram , the son of Rohini, who is the substratum of the entire universe, who is the supersoul of the universe. The letter 'M' denotes Anirudha, who is the supersoul of each individual being in the universe. And the 'dot' above the 'M' denotes Sri Krishna, the fountain head of all Vishnu incarnations.
His Divine Grace Sri Srila Bhakti Rakshaka Sridhara Deva Goswami Maharaja, the founder of the Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Matha, was born in India in 1895, in a respected Brahmana family of the Bhattacarya order, at Hapaniya, District Burdwan, West Bengal.
Without the shelter of Sri Gurudeva, the so-called practice of Krsna consciousness is a mental concoction or simply mundane. Actual Krsna consciousness is situated in the supramental, supramundane plane and cannot be attained simply through our mental speculations. One becomes Krsna conscious via Krsna's grace received through the descending process-guru to disciple.
Recently, we came across a discussion on the internet regarding sraddha - the importance of faith. Is it essential or only a necessity for the beginner? It is an area of siddhanta that is little understood by a vast majority of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas residing in western countries.
Guruvayur is a holy city where people come to make spiritual advancement. In fact, the atmosphere of devotion which pervades Guruvayur is so sublime and charming that one easily experiences transcendence when visiting this holy place. Appropriately so, Guruvayur is known as Bhuloka Vaikuntha: "where heaven meets Earth."
In the Gaudiya Vaisnava sampradaya, the gayatri which the guru (bona fide spiritual master) gives to the sadhaka (devotee) at the time of diksa (initiation) is that of the Vedic diksa (upanayana) and also that of the Vaisnava pancaratrika-diksa.
I would like to say something about Srila Prabhupada, His Divine Grace. I thought of three particular things regarding His Divine Grace. I thought about his mission, I thought about his highest ideal and I thought about his achievements.
The words 'Sri Caitanya Saraswata Parampara' indicate the disciplic succession (parampara) which was handed down from the time of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to that of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura. This parampara is a disciplic succession of divine knowledge (divya jnanam) also known as the 'Brahma-Madhva Gaudiya sampradaya' or the 'Bhagavata-parampara'.
Study, learning, discourse on philosophy so many things are possible prior to initiation (diksha), but unless one gets this ashraya one does not gain admission to the descending flow of bhakti-rasa.