Breathes out material universes and living beings thus forming the material world.

The songs and lyrics contained here are expressions of consciousness of God, the universe and man’s real goal of life. The upliftment of peace and prosperity, success, self realization, fulfillment, and all spiritual recognition that life in its real sense has to offer. Here is a link of the fourth song.

"Jivatma Love”

Composed by  Steve Taylor  (Siddhajana Dasa)
A song about the faulty choices of the eternal living beings.

Spirit souls are particles of Supreme,
Complete Whole Super Soul creates this world.
We souls made faulty desires to control, 
Loving Divine sent us to this world.

We enter this material place with pride and forgetfulness,
Of who we are, tiny soul cells of His eternal greatness.
We think we are free in this house of dread,
Not knowing everything here must become dead.

Here unsatisfied love turns to lust, then to anger,
Lust manifests itself and becomes danger.
We steal the wealth and misuse material energy,
Mistaking it for original synergy.

Originally ordained to be eternal servants of Creator,
Instead we become slaves of devilish dictator,
We lost our true nature and call ourselves pigment colors,
Fighting each other in battles for gold and dollars.

Ignorance reigns in this age of confusion,
Material science simply creates more illusion.
Without spiritual science in actions,
We don't get it and create more protractions.

There's a solution to this miscalculation and mess,
We have to turn our attention within the Divine Address.
Eternal servants of Supreme Being.
Then we return to consciousness as eternal living beings.

We can no longer act like animals following our mad minds,
We must be conscious and gentle to all living kinds,
We shall now turn again to our real Controller,
Surrender with love, serve Him with devotional sounder.

Chorus 
Jivatma (spirit soul) love is all we are!  Jivatma love we will always be!
Paramatma (Supreme Soul) Love is all there is.  Paramatma controls and distributes the eternal happiness.

Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare.
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama. Hare Hare.

_{The Supreme Lord said, The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman, and his eternal nature is called the self. Action pertaining to the development of these material bodies is called karma, or fruitive activities. BG. Chapter 8 Text 3}

PURPORT by Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

_{Brahman is indestructible and eternally existing, and its constitution is not changed at any time. But beyond Brahman there is Parabrahman. Brahman refers to the living entity, and Parabrahman refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The constitutional position of the living entity is different from the position he takes in the material world. In material consciousness, his nature is to try to be the lord of matter, but in spiritual (Krsna) consciousness, his position is to serve the Supreme. When the living entity is in material consciousness, he has to take on various bodies in the material world. That is called karma, or varied creation by the force of material consciousness.}

_{In Vedic literature the living entity is called jivatma and Brahman, but he is never called Parabrahman. The living entity (jivatma) takes different positions—sometimes he merges into the dark material nature and identifies himself with matter, and sometimes he identifies himself with the superior spiritual nature. Therefore he is called the Supreme Lord’s marginal energy. According to his identification with material or spiritual nature, he receives a material or spiritual body.}

_{In material nature he may take a body from any of the 8,400,000 species of life, but in spiritual nature he has only one body. In material nature he is sometimes manifested as a man, demigod, an animal, a beast, bird, etc., according to his karma. To attain material heavenly planets and enjoy their facilities, he sometimes performs sacrifices (yajna), but when his merit is exhausted, he returns to earth again in the form of a man.In the process of sacrifice, the living entity makes specific sacrifices to attain specific heavenly planets and consequently reaches them. When the merit of sacrifice is exhausted, then the living entity descends to earth in the form of rain, then takes on the form of grains, and the grains are eaten by man and transformed into semen, which impregnates a woman, and thus the living entity once again attains the human form to perform sacrifice and so repeat the same cycle. In this way, the living entity perpetually comes and goes on the material path. The Krsna conscious person, however, avoids such sacrifices. He takes directly to Krsna consciousness and thereby prepares himself to return to Godhead.}

_{Impersonalist commentators on the Gita unreasonably assume that Brahman takes the form of jiva in the material world, and to substantiate this they refer to Chapter Fifteen, verse 7, of the Gita. But this verse also speaks of the living entity as “an eternal fragment of Myself.” The fragment of God, the living entity, may fall down into the material world, but the Supreme Lord (Acyuta) never falls down. Therefore this assumption that the Supreme Brahman assumes the form of jiva is not acceptable. It is important to remember that in Vedic literature Brahman (the living entity) is distinguished from Parabrahman (the Supreme Lord).}   

The songs and lyrics contained here are expressions of consciousness of God, the universe and man’s real goal of life. The upliftment of peace and prosperity, success, self realization, fulfillment, and all spiritual recognition that life in its real sense has to offer. Here is a link of the third song.

"Bluesh Hue”
Composed  by Steve Taylor (Siddhajana Dasa) 

A song about the recognition and description of God as described in the Vedic 
literature.
 
Blue Skies, golden sun, and cooling moon,
Darkesh grey clouds are reminders,
Bluesh green oceans, and mountains,
These colors and objects reminds us of the Original One.
 
Air we breathe, water we drink,
Mother earth bearing trees and plants
Reminds us of hairs on the Body of the Supreme Being,
Rivers we see are veins of Divine Being.
 
Beauty of life is known,
When we realize truths of soul within us,
Then we climb to our highest manifested self,
That we are eternal servants of Super-most Self.
 
If we live in this world,
Not really understanding who we are,
We then fight among ourselves,
Due to ignorance of who we are, we mistake earth bodies to be our true selves.
 
Humans we will only be,
When we know we are spiritual beings,
Made of eternity, knowledge and blissful light,
We are mere sparks of one and only Chief Energetic.
 
Bluesh Hue is His spiritual complexion,
Most beautiful Original Person,
Real King, Queen and Perfect Whole,
That is Supreme Personality of Krsna,
Ultimate beginning without ending Super Soul.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare.
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

_{“Krishna possesses all good qualities. He is Bhagavan! He possesses all opulent qualities in the infinite degree. He is the most beautiful personality. Since He is the Supreme, He has the supreme form and personality. No one is more beautiful or attractive than He. Krishna attracts everyone. Therefore He is called Krishna, the all-attractive one. Except for the liberated souls, everyone in the material world is attracted by Cupid. But Krishna is so attractive that He not only attracts the liberated souls but He attracts Cupid as well. Krishna is the strongest personality. By His desire alone all the universes are created and destroyed by one portion of a portion of His personal form. He can do anything and everything as He likes. Krishna is also the wealthiest person since all wealth in all worlds everywhere come from Him. Everything animate and inanimate within all creation is owned and controlled by the Lord, who is the actual provider of everything. One who knows this perfectly well never claims anything as his own but uses everything in the service of the Lord.”}

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

A Description of God.

_{The Vedic scriptures are very vast. Unlike other worldly scriptures, the Vedas emanate from the sound and breath of the Supreme Being. The word “god” is used in English as to infer the Supreme Being. The name Bhagavan means one who possesses six full unlimited opulences of wealth, knowledge, fame, beauty, strength, and the power of renunciation. No human being or demigod has all six unlimitedly. The Vedas gives many such names for the Supreme Being in the Sanskrit language. Each name used, describes an attribute or description of the inconceivable nature of God. Unlike our names which are different from us, the names of God are identical with God. The word “God” is not a name. It describes a position. Just like president describes a man’s position in his business or in government. The man however, has a personal name.}

_{When one is thirsty, the name water comes to mind, but simply by chanting water, one’s thirst is not quenched. One must drink the actual substance water. In the material world, material energy is different from the names given. In the spiritual world, the names are of the same spiritual potency as the objects. Simply by chanting a name, the object appears in the spiritual world. These inconceivable potencies are described by God Himself in the Vedas and especially in Bhagavad Gita As It Is.}

_{God describes Himself in the Vedas as He spoke and wrote them Himself. This is the exact difference between the Vedas and other planet earth scriptures. The Vedas were spoken at the time of the creation of the entire material world. From time to time, as the Vedas become misused and misunderstood, God descends to the material world on a particular planet in order to adjust the misuse or misunderstanding. He may come Himself or send His confidential servants to act on His behalf and by His request.}

_{We are living a life which we wrongly conclude is the only one. Man has not originally created anything in this material world. He simply uses material energy to mix in various ways to produce material objects. Then man thinks he is God or as great as God or that there is no God since he can produce these objects. He thinks he is a greater material scientist than God. It’s like a childish consciousness where a child builds a sand castle. As an original creator, God created all material matter in the form of earth, fire, air, water and space-ether, all of which we cannot do without, and some even for a few minutes. Man cannot make these gross elements in unlimited amounts, that then uses to mix and form material objects. From these five gross material energies, man’s body and indeed all other gross material bodies are made. Three other subtle energies of mind, intelligence and false ego or false consciousness (thinking oneself to be the body) make up the whole structure of a gross and subtle body in the material world. There is one other unseen energy missing from that gross and subtle body to make it an intelligent complete life-form. This is the spiritual spark of eternity, knowledge and bliss, namely the spirit soul. It is this spirit soul that keeps the body alive. Once this energy spark has left the body, the body again returns to its sources of earth, fire, air, water and ether. Indeed, all material objects whether living or non living has this effect in the material world. Therefore the Vedic literatures spoken by the Supreme Being describe this world as real but not eternal. The Vedas is not only a planet earth scripture but is spoken and written in greatest of details repeatedly in various ways across the entire material universes. It is therefore the source of all knowledge known or unknown to man and demigods alike.}

_{The spiritual spark of the soul that we really are, real life, is a minute particle or sample of God. It is like a spiritual cell of the spiritual personality of Godhead, but simultaneously separated. Just like our bodies have cells. God has cells and we are those cells. We the souls have the same quality of spirit with God but not in quantity. The cells of our body have the same quality of material as our body but not in quantity as our body.}

_{God is a person just like you and I are. We have not created ourselves just because our parents gave us birth. That process itself is given by God. Man cannot create sex organs and sex itself. Similarly all other life forms are not created by us. The only real Creator and Scientist is God Himself. It is for these reasons and millions of more reasons, that God is referred to by numerous various names throughout the entire universe. These names of God, are God Himself. If we develop the spiritual practice of calling out these names, we then invoke the presence of God Himself into our lives. The chief-most name described in the Vedas is Krsna, and so we can chant and call out the name of Krsna. Krsna means “All Attractive”. Another name Rama, means “All Spiritual Strength”. Hare means “Supreme Loving Energy” The energy of love. Therefore we chant}

Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare.
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

_{Human beings who have taken up the process of chanting the Holy Names of God, can realize the absolute truth of the Personality features of the Supreme by a process of gradual scientific and spiritual realization. It is a most practical system of science and religion combined. Man has no other way of knowing God, who God is, who we are, what is this world, what is the spiritual world, what happens after death of this body and many many whats, whys and hows. These questions are answered by God Himself, once they are asked in a non-envious mode. We cannot be jealous or envious of God, because, obviously we really own nothing. We may have some things for a time being but eventually we will have to leave them behind, for we do not own them eternally. We are very proud of our bodies, but we must one day leave it. By the presence of the false ego, we think we are the owners and controllers of both man and even God. We say “God give me this or that” thinking that we are praying to God. It is this false ego which is an insane position of the human mind, why we are constantly suffering instead of enjoying life eternally. We desire to live happily and that is a natural feeling because the soul is a particle of God who is full eternity, knowledge and bliss form. God is not formless, as we think. We can’t have something that He hasn’t got. We have forms, and we have them because God gave us forms like Himself and especially in the human forms. Therefore, God created us humans in His own likeness and image. That is a fact also stated in the Bible and other worldly scriptures the Vedas agrees with. The Vedas however describes in the greatest depths how these facts are real and therefore constitute real material science and spiritual science simultaneously. Once the human being accepts that he does not know and is not envious of God’s position, the Vedas becomes the source of actual knowledge and realizations who God is.}

_{We must read the essence and summary studies of Bhagavad Gita As It Is and Srimad Bhagavatam translated by His Divine Grace, A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The knowledge of the Vedas does not take away the knowledge of other scriptures of man. Actually, the Vedas substantiates and explains spiritual and religious science and knowledge, so that one fully grasps the essence of the presence of the Divine Being, leaving no more room for spiritual blindness, ignorance and other illusions, delusions and confusions of life in this material world. Hare Krsna.}

By Siddhajana Dasa (Steve Taylor)

The Srimad Bhagavatam 12 Canto Set aka Bhagavat Purana, Available at krishnastore.com

The songs and lyrics contained here are expressions of consciousness of God, the universe and man’s real goal of life. The upliftment of peace and prosperity, success, self realization, fulfillment, and all spiritual recognition that life in its real sense has to offer. Here is a link of the second song.

"Achinta Vedas" 

Composed by Steve Taylor (Siddhajana dasa)
A song about the inconceivable Knowledge of God (Krsna) found in the Vedas.

Lord walks but He does not walk,
He is beginning, middle and ending.
He is largest and yet smallest,
He can be seen, still not revealed.

Lord and His inconceivable potencies always existed,
Living beings, His servants exist, never created.
They are as old as He who has no age,
Tiny particles they are, cells of Him but separated.

Lord is real and only scientist,
He creates but does not create.
He manifests what is already existing,
Lord simply loves and plays with His eternal associates.

Lord is eternal, full of knowledge and bliss,
He is most opulent person, yet most renounced,
Lord is master but He can be our servant.
Only if we are non deviant.

Lord eats but He needs no food to sustain Him,
Lord sleeps but He does not rest.
Lord is the only true Enjoyer, with or without the enjoyed,
He is Supreme Being, source of everything.

Lord is a person but impersonal to spiritual beginners,
Lord appears but present in His disappearance as well,
Lord kisses and kicks are all merciful,
Lord is impartial but partial to His devotees.

Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Śrī Īśopanisad

The knowledge that brings one nearer to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa

Introduction Invocation: 

The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.

Mantra One: Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.

Mantra Two: One may aspire to live for hundreds of years if he continuously goes on working in that way, for that sort of work will not bind him to the law of karma. There is no alternative to this way for man.

 Mantra Three: The killer of the soul, whoever he may be, must enter into the planets known as the worlds of the faithless, full of darkness and ignorance.

Mantra Four: Although fixed in His abode, the Personality of Godhead is swifter than the mind and can overcome all others running. The powerful demigods cannot approach Him. Although in one place, He controls those who supply the air and rain. He surpasses all in excellence.

Mantra Five: The Supreme Lord walks and does not walk. He is far away, but He is very near as well. He is within everything, and yet He is outside of everything.

Mantra Six: He who systematically sees everything in relation to the Supreme Lord, who sees all living entities as His parts and parcels, and who sees the Supreme Lord within everything never hates anything or any being.

Mantra Seven: One who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things. What, then, can be illusion or anxiety for him?

Mantra Eight: Such a person must factually know the greatest of all, the Personality of Godhead, who is unembodied, omniscient, beyond reproach, without veins, pure and uncontaminated, the self-sufficient philosopher who has been fulfilling everyone’s desire since time immemorial.

Mantra Nine: Those who engage in the culture of nescient activities shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. Worse still are those engaged in the culture of so-called knowledge.

Mantra Ten: The wise have explained that one result is derived from the culture of knowledge and that a different result is obtained from the culture of nescience.

Mantra Eleven: Only one who can learn the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality.

Mantra Twelve: Those who are engaged in the worship of demigods enter into the darkest region of ignorance, and still more so do the worshipers of the impersonal Absolute.

Mantra Thirteen: It is said that one result is obtained by worshiping the supreme cause of all causes and that another result is obtained by worshiping what is not supreme. All this is heard from the undisturbed authorities, who clearly explained it.

Mantra Fourteen: One should know perfectly the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His transcendental name, form, qualities and pastimes, as well as the temporary material creation with its temporary demigods, men and animals. When one knows these, he surpasses death and the ephemeral cosmic manifestation with it, and in the eternal kingdom of God he enjoys his eternal life of bliss and knowledge.

Mantra Fifteen: O my Lord, sustainer of all that lives, Your real face is covered by Your dazzling effulgence. Kindly remove that covering and exhibit Yourself to Your pure devotee.

Mantra Sixteen: O my Lord, O primeval philosopher, maintainer of the universe, O regulating principle, destination of the pure devotees, well-wisher of the progenitors of mankind, please remove the effulgence of Your transcendental rays so that I can see Your form of bliss. You are the eternal Supreme Personality of Godhead, like unto the sun, as am I.

Mantra Seventeen: Let this temporary body be burnt to ashes, and let the air of life be merged with the totality of air. Now, O my Lord, please remember all my sacrifices, and because You are the ultimate beneficiary, please remember all that I have done for You.

Mantra Eighteen: O my Lord, as powerful as fire, O omnipotent one, now I offer You all obeisances, falling on the ground at Your feet. O my Lord, please lead me on the right path to reach You, and since You know all that I have done in the past, please free me from the reactions to my past sins so that there will be no hindrance to my progress

The original Sanskrit verses of Sri Isopanishad were translated into English by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

(The sweet nectarine pastimes of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. (An incarnation of Lord Krsna appeared on this planet just over 500 years ago)

Letter to: Inquirer — Boston

Written By A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

What Are The Vedas?

Dear Inquirer,
I thank you very much for your interest.
Since you would like to know more about the temple, the worshipers and the scriptures, I beg to inform you that this Krsna consciousness movement is based on the Vedic scriptures. Veda means knowledge, and there are two kinds of knowledge, one mundane and another transcendental. The Vedas are considered to be originally transcendental because they come from the platform which existed before the creation. This transcendental knowledge was impregnated in the heart of the first created living being, and then he distributed the knowledge both for material and spiritual purposes.

This Vedic knowledge was stated in the Atharva-veda. Later on, just at the beginning of this millennium, the Kali-yuga, Vyasadeva, who is the supreme authority on Vedic knowledge, considering the degraded condition of men in this age, divided the whole Veda into departmental knowledge, and some of his disciples were entrusted with the particular departments. In this way the entire Vedic knowledge was developed into four Vedas, then 108 Upanisads, 18 Puranas, and then summarized in Vedanta-sutra. And then again, to benefit the less intelligent class of men like women, workers, and the degraded descendants of the higher class, Vyasadeva made a fifth Veda, known as Mahabharata, or the great history of India.

The original Bharata and modern India are not the same. The original Bharata means the whole planet earth. Having been gradually divided, the modern India is only a fractional part of the original Bharata. So the knowledge is distributed in so many departments of Vedic knowledge, but the whole process aims at God realization.

The living entities within this material world are understood to be rebellious conditioned souls who disregarded the order of the Supreme Lord and thus lost their spiritual kingdom. It is something like Milton’s idea of Paradise Lost. This material world is created, developed, and maintained; it produces many by-products, then gradually dwindles, and at last it is dissolved or annihilated. The spirit souls or living beings are by nature eternal. This condition of life for the living beings, namely, to go through repeated births and deaths, is unnatural for them. Therefore the entire Vedic knowledge is designed to regulate the life of the living entity, not in the animal form of life, but in the human form of life, so that he can fulfill his material desires but at the same time become elevated to his original spiritual position. This process of evolution from the lowest aquatic life up to the stage of brahminical culture is deliniated in the Vedas. This is called knowledge, and when one is liberated from the material contamination, the same knowledge, further advanced, becomes transcendental knowledge.

This process of elevating oneself from different platforms of understanding to the highest status of life is called religion. According to the Sanskrit language, religion is not a kind of faith, but it is a prescribed form of duty to be discharged by the respective divisions of human society, ultimately rising to the platform of Krsna consciousness or God consciousness. The first-class religion, therefore, is that which teaches love of God because religion means to understand one’s position in relationship with God.

This God realization also depends on three phases of life. When God realization is there, distinguished from material realization, this is called the liberated stage of transcendental enlightenment. The next stage is to realize God everywhere in His localized aspect, and the highest stage of God realization is to know Him as the Supreme Person–all-powerful, full of all riches, all reputation, all beauty, all wisdom, and all renunciation.

For further understanding of this religious process, I would recommend that you read our three books, namely Sri Isopanisad, Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, and Easy Journey to Other Planets. When you have finished them, you can read Srimad-Bhagavatam and Teachings of Lord Caitanya. Besides these we have many other books and our Back to Godhead magazines, in which we fully describe this religion only. So please read them one after another, and whenever there is a question you may write to me, and I shall be very glad to answer you as far as possible.

I am so pleased to learn that you are so impressed with our activities and that you are so eager to learn about religion. Thank you very much.

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness has branches in major cities throughout the United States, Canada, England, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, and India.

The songs and lyrics contained here are expressions of consciousness of God, the universe and man’s real goal of life. The upliftment of peace and prosperity, success, self realization, fulfillment, and all spiritual recognition that life in its real sense has to offer. Here is a link of the first song.

 “Transcend the Blues”

Composed  by Steve Taylor (Siddhajana Dasa)

A song to Mother Earth to appease Her.

Dear Mother Earth
You helped made our bodies out of your dirt,
Our souls in human form,
Have not been awakened and acting norm.

We think we are  bosses,
This bad attitude accounts for our losses
You dear Mom are so kind,
You are a sincere servant of Divine.

We can't disrespect you as well,
Like our unconscious brothers and sisters dwell,
We destroy your habitats,
Our acts are like gutter rats.

Dear Mother you are most beautiful,
In this our cosmos and duty full,
Your brilliant complexion of gold, blue and green,
Our attempts at flying over you we have seen.

We now ask your forgiveness a bit,
Even though we don’t deserve it,
We are blinded by following blind leaders,
We now know that they are deceivers.

You shine and glow you are a superstar,
Oh! we are glad to have you as Ma,
We beg you humbly to ask our Creator,
To remove all who have mislead and are predator.

Together both of You have created us,
So we are eternally grateful is a must,
Instead we steal and kill,
Not understanding that we are in your will.

We know we don’t deserve such your kindness,
As our lives are utter blindness,
Still we can’t see our good fortune,
So to kindly offer this song it's like a boon

We chant your Holy Names aloud.
If we don’t.  life is like a dream vanishing in a cloud,
All glories to both of You life givers,
You are the God and Goddess we can see,
How useless and retched are we.

Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare.
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

_{Srila Prabhupada writes, “The planet earth is also called vasundharā. The word vasu means “wealth,” and dharā means “one who holds.” All creatures within the earth fulfill the necessities required for human beings, and all living entities can be taken out of the earth by the proper means. As suggested by the planet earth, and accepted and initiated by King Pṛthu, whatever is taken from the earth—either from the mines, from the surface of the globe or from the atmosphere—should always be considered the property of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and should be used for Yajña, Lord Viṣṇu. As soon as the process of yajña is stopped, the earth will withhold all productions—vegetables, trees, plants, fruits, flowers, other agricultural products and minerals. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, the process of yajña was instituted from the beginning of creation. By the regular performance of yajña, the equal distribution of wealth and the restriction of sense gratification, the entire world will be made peaceful and prosperous. As already mentioned, in this age of Kali the simple performance of saṅkīrtana-yajña—the holding of festivals as initiated by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness—should be introduced in every town and village. Intelligent men should encourage the performance of saṅkīrtana-yajña by their personal behavior. This means that they should follow the process of austerity by restricting themselves from illicit sex life, meat-eating, gambling and intoxication. If the intelligent men, or the brāhmaṇas of society, would follow the rules and regulations, certainly the entire face of this present world, which is in such chaotic condition, would change, and people would be happy and prosperous.”}

(Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.18.13, Purport)

_{The earth is our beautiful home that Krsna The Supreme Personality of Godhead provided. It is described in the Vedic literatures, that Lord Vishnu, an expansion of Lord Krsna, breathes out millions of universes and living entities to produce the material world, which is just one quarter of the entire kingdom of God. The Srimad Bhagavatam gives this information in much more detail. In each universe, there are three levels of planetary systems. These are the heavenly realm the highest, the intermediary or middle realm and the lowest or hellish realm. The intermediate planetary systems are where many planets like this earth exist. The earthly planets houses human beings like us. There are eight million, four hundred thousand species of life forms, of which there are four hundred thousand species of human beings. The human species are not completely like us but are within the category of human beings, meaning the living entities within that body are given special intelligence to ask about and seek out God, and the various questions like, Who am I? What is this life about? What and how this world is made and by whom? etc etc arise naturally. Other lower life forms, these questions do not occur within them. Their questions and activities however are ones concerning eating, sleeping, mating and defending. We humans act in this way as well. But if we do not ask of life’s mysteries, then we are no greater than the animals.}

_{Human life is a very rare opportunity. It is described in the Vedic literatures that human life is especially meant for realizing God. The demigods living in the heavenly planets can also realize God, but because their lifestyle is so opulent and comfortable, and the fact that they live for hundreds of thousands of years as compared to human life, they sometimes tend to enjoy life without thinking of God. In this way their life style can be a form of deterrent to God realization. In the hellish planetary systems, the living beings there are the complete opposite to heavenly life. They suffer extreme torture due to their sinful activities while in the human form of life. They do not remember any thing of God. In this way heavenly life and hellish life are deterrents to God consciousness. The Srimad Bhagavatam describes that the living beings in the heavenly planets, must take birth again, especially those who had forgotten God to a great extent, on the earthly planets as human beings. Those in the hellish planets are given opportunities to again climb the ladder of the eight million, four hundred thousand species of life. This means according to the level of sins committed in their last human birth, will have to take birth among the lower species of life like plants and animals life right down to the lowest life forms like worms in stool and mud. When they have completed this climb back up to the highest animal form of a cow, at their death they again enter into the human forms of life on one of the many earthly planets, somewhere in the intermediary planetary system. One such earthly planet is our earth planet. It is therefore a very rare opportunity to take birth as a human being on this earth.}

By Siddhajana Dasa (Steve Taylor)