Quote from a Class by Srila Prabhupada Foolish people, they do not know what, how much important this human form of life. They are simply wasting in sense gratification like animals. So this is very instructing, that he is training his mind that "You engage your mind in the worship of Lord KRNSA." Durlabha mänava-janama sat-saìge. And this training of the mind is possible only in good association, sat-saìga. Sat-saìga means persons who are simply, cent percent, engaged in the service of the Lord. They are called sat. Satäà prasaìgät. Without association of devotees, it is impossible to train the mind. It is not possible by the so-called yoga system or meditation. One has to associate with devotees; otherwise it is not possible. Therefore we have formed this KRSNA consciousness society so that one may take advantage of this association.

Hare Krsna, dear friends. Narashingha Caturdasi, the divine appearance of Lord Narashingha deva will take place on the 9th of May 2017 at 5pm. Program is simple yet extatic: Kirtan, class and prasadam for everyone! Please don't miss this wonderful event. 

by purujit dasa

Regarding your question about why we do not eat meat and yet we eat plant life, the answer is that we do everything as Krishna recommends. Everything we eat is first offered to Lord Krishna, and because Krishna does not eat meat, therefore we also do not eat meat. The fruits, grains, and vegetables which we offer to the Lord are not caused any suffering by our offering them to Krishna. Rather they are greatly benefited because to be offered for the pleasure of the Lord will grant for the living entity within the plant body certain liberation in the near future. Everything that we do in Krishna Consciousness is ultimately beneficial to all living creatures because we are working under the recommendations of the Lord Himself who is the well-wisher of all His part and parcel children.

Srila Prabhupada's letter to Ann Clifford -- Los Angeles 2 August, 1969

Lord Krsna says in the Bhagavadgita:

yajna-sistasinah santo
mucyante sarva-kilbisaih
bhunjate te tv agham papa
ye pacanty atma-karanat

The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin.

Bg.3.13

Jivo jivasya jivanam- in this material world one living entity is a food for another living entity. As humans we also have to kill another living entity in order to survivebe it an animal for those, who are meat eaters, or a plant for those who are vegetarians. Even unknowingly we daily kill so many bacterias, insects etc, so in reality this material world is a true slaughterhouse even though the illusory energy makes us think that everything is ok. We are bound to kill and consequently suffer the results of our activities and this is called samsara -or the cycle of birth and death. Therefore here, in this verse, Lord Krsna is instructing the civilized class of human beings on how to take eatables without the unnecessary implications in sinful reaction. The food, which we take should first be offered for sacrifice and this article will explain how you can make such sacrifice as instructed by our spiritual master Srila Prabhupada in your home.


The secret is to offer food to Krsna. Because Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He's not under the material law, nor is He suspectible to sinful reaction. He's the Supreme lawmaker. And just as king or a president is above law, Krsna, or God is above all law. So if we offer it to Him, no sinful reaction is incurred and because Krsna is the most merciful, He leaves His karma- free remnants for us to take. This however is only possible if we make our offerings through the medium of a bona fide spiritual master. He in turn offers it to his spiritual master. His spiritual master offers it to his spiritual master and in this way, the offering is passed through the whole disciplic succesion until it reaches the lotus feet of Lord Krsna. Because the spiritual master has a direct relationship with the Supreme Lord, He can give us proper guidence on how to prepare the foods and only when we offer our foodstuffs through the medium of a spiritual master will Krsna accept it because the spiritual master is Lord Krsna's authorized representative.

Regarding offering food: The custom is to offer the foodstuff first to the Spiritual Master; we cannot do anything directly. The Spiritual Master accepts the offering on behalf of his disciple, and offers the same to Krishna. After Krishna's eating, the Spiritual Master eats it, and then the devotees take it as Mahaprasada. This is the system. Everything is offered to the Spiritual Master first, with the prayer ``Nama Om Visnupadaya . . .''

Srila Prabhupada's letter to Jadurani -- Los Angeles 15 February

How can Krsna eat our food? The answer is Krsna is omnipotent. What it means is that Krsna can eat with His eyes, walk with His ears, smell with His hands etc. Krsna's senses are absolute. In this way He's taking our offerings simply by glancing at them through His picture and leaves them still on the plate. We can thus enjoy Krsna's prasadam. If we take the remnanats of foodstuffs of a patient suffering from tuberculosis, we will contaminate that disease. Similalry if we take Krsna prasadam, we will "contaminate" ourselves by becoming spiritualized. Simply by taking prasadam, we will become immune towards the contamination of the material nature. Srila Prabhupada specifies in his commentary on the Bhagavadgita that accepting prasadam enable one to: 1. advance steadily in life, 2. purify the body, 3.and create fine brain tissues which will lead to clear thinking. If we love Krsna and if we can simultaneously derive such a great benefit from simply taking delicious foodstuffs offered to Krsna, why not make sure that the process is applied properly according to rules and regulations?

Srila Prabhupada:

" God is person, His body is spiritual, but we do not accept it." It is the greatest offense. It is the greatest offense. How it is offense? Suppose you are my friend, and if I say, "Oh, you have no eyes. You have no hand. You have no leg. You have no tongue..." "You have no leg" means you are lame man. "You have no eyes" means you are blind man. "You have no hand" means... That means I am calling you by all ill names. "You are blind. You are lame. You are nonsense. You are rascal." So are they not offenses against the friend? If I say, "You have no eyes," it is gentlemanly speaking that "You are blind." If I directly say, "You are blind," oh, will you be very happy upon me? No. If I say, if "You have no leg..." Suppose if I say if "You have no brain," that means "You are rascal. You are fool." So these impersonalists, they are always, I mean to..., trying to understand how God is eyeless, handless, legless, all less. Simply he has got eyes to see beautiful things. He has got his hands to touch nice things. No. These are offenses. According to Caitanya Mahäprabhu these are great offense against God. So therefore they are, life after life, they are studying this impersonalism, but there is no perfection."

Srila Prabhupada :”What is the difference between the two? Those who are eternally free, liberated, they are godly. They are always ready to render transcendental loving service to the Lord. They are satisfied in that way. Just like mother is satisfied simply by loving child, or friend is satisfied simply by loving. Of course, that sort of love is not possible in this material world, but there are some rare instances. At least we can get an idea that... Similarly, the eternal liberated souls, they are satisfied simply by loving Kåñëa. That is their satisfaction.”

Çré Caitanya-caritämåta,
Madhya-lélä 22.11-15
—
January 9, 1967, New York

We invite all of our friends and supporters to celebrate The Divine Appearance Day of

Lord Sri Ramachandra 

The Festival will be held in the Hare Krishna Center Montreal on wednesday, April 5TH 5Pm.

Bring Flowers for Lord Ramachandra !

Srila Prabhupada: "Just like the Vedic religion is called sanatana-dharma because nobody can trace out when this Vedic religion begun. Therefore it is called sanatana-dharma. Every religion in our present experience, it has got a history. Your Christian religion, it has got a history, two thousand years old. Buddhist religion, it has got a history, 2600 years. Muhammadan religion, it has got a history, one thousand years. But if you trace out Vedic religion, you cannot find out the history, date. There is no date. You cannot find out. No historian can give. So therefore it is called sanatana-dharma."

Engagement Lecture -- April 23, 1969, Buffalo