First of all, we want to give you a very warm welcome!
In the ancient Vedic texts, it is written that after having wandered for unlimited lifetimes in the cycle of repeated birth and death a person becomes very fortunate coming into the association of self-realized saints.
In order to facilitate your beginning steps on this journey we want to give you some practical guidelines.
Devotees of Krisna follow a devotional lifestyle which implies certain rules. They are executed with one main purpose and that is to always remember Krisna and never forget Him. Therefore, you cannot do anything wrong on this path except for one thing and that is to forget Krisna.
The purpose of the devotional lifestyle is to bring the devotee day by day closer to His beloved Lord Sri Krisna. The daily observance of this spiritual practice (in Sanskrit called sadhana) helps to gradually stabilize the mind and create a shift of consciousness away from a materialistic way of acting and thinking to a life of exclusive devotion to the Supreme Lord.
PRACTICAL GUIDELINES
We wake up early in the morning. It is said that the early morning hours are the best for spiritual practice because the atmosphere in the early morning is calm and peaceful. It is the best time for meditation.
After a sound sleep the devotee rolls over in bed and bows down to his guru: “Jaya Gurudeva!” and says the pranama-mantra, the prayer to his guru, and he remembers his guru and his guru and his guru. In this way, he remembers all his masters going back to Krisna.
Before he steps out of bed, he may pronounce a mantra begging forgiveness from Mother Earth for touching her with his feet: “Oh Mother Earth! Please forgive me for stepping on you.” He says this because stepping on your mother with your feet is disrespectful. In this way, he starts the day with humility and recognition of the other conscious personalities around him.
As he rises, he recites a verse from the Bhagavat Purana:
jayati jana-nivaso devaki-janma-vado
yadu-vara-parisat svair dorbhir asyann adharmam
sthira-cara-vrjina-ghnah su-smita-sri-mukhena
vraja-pura-vanitanam vardhayan kama-devam
Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.90.48)
This is a beautiful verse describing the pastimes of Krisna, God. Although God is eternal, when He descends to this world, He has pastimes like a child, a youth and an adult, so the summary of all the divine play throughout Krisna’s life is captured in this verse.
After waking up, the devotee needs to become clean, so first of all he scrapes his tongue, then brushes his teeth and takes a shower. This is very important to purify oneself from the influence of ignorance (tama-guna), which becomes strong while sleeping at night.
In India, there are different types of tilaka which indicate which ancient tradition one is connected to. This sign, which is usually on the steeples of Krsna or Visnu temples, indicates that our body is also a temple, where our soul lives together with God in the heart.
After showering the devotee will sit on a clean seat (asana), pour fresh water in the acamana cup (a cup with a small spoon) and add a tulasī leaf to it. Then, remembering the Ganges and other sacred rivers, he touches this water (being careful not to touch the water with his fingernail), and chants the tirtha-avahana-mantra.
Mantra to invoke holy rivers (tirtha-avahana-mantra):
gange ca yamune caiva
godavari sarasvati
narmade sindho kaveri
jale ’smin sannidhim kuru
Oh Ganges, oh Yamuna, oh Godavari, oh Sarasvati, oh Narmada, oh Sindhu, oh Kaveri, please become present in this water.
This water and gopi-candana will be used to form a paste in the left hand. Then, with the twelve mantras beginning with om kesavaya namah, the devotee applies tilaka to the twelve different parts of the body, beginning with the forehead.
Mantras to apply tilaka:
(1) Forehead: om kesavaya namah
(2) Belly: om narayanaya namah
(3) Chest: om madhavaya namah
(4) Hollow of the neck: om govindaya namah
(5) Right side of the abdomen: om vishnave namah
(6) Right arm: om madhusudanaya namah
(7) Right shoulder: om trivikramaya namah
(8) Left side of the abdomen: om vamanaya namah
(9) Left arm: om sridharaya namah
(10) Left shoulder: om hrishikeshaya namah
(11) Upper back: om padmanabhaya namah
(12) Lower back: om damodaraya namah
Lastly, a spoonful of water from the panca-patra is dropped into the hand, to mix with the remnant gopi-candana. The candana is wiped on top of the head, while chanting om vasudevaya namah.
Do not apply tilaka in the bathroom. Tilaka paste is to be freshly made each time.
Naturally, because God lives in all of us, everyone’s body is a temple of God. It is not a cemetery for the dead bodies of animals in the form of meat. You cannot take meat into a temple; therefore, if your body is a temple, do not put meat in this body – only pure food. This means that devotees only eat pure vegetarian food which is offered to Krsna.
After bathing and applying tilaka, all the Vaisnavas (devotees) assemble together in the temple room to attend a ceremony called mangala-arati. At 4:30 or 5:00 am, the curtains open to reveal the Deities of Krsna and His Sakti, the Goddess of Love, Radha. The devotees all bow down then sing a beautiful song to Krsna with drums and instruments.
The day of a devotee is filled with kirtana, glorification of the Lord by singing His Holy Names. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has recommended the practice of chanting as the method to attain spiritual perfection for this particular age.
After mangala-arati, the devotees generally sit down for their own private, personal meditations.
The first of these is a remembrance of the Gayatri Mantras which is done silently, and within those mantras are the words indicating surrender, again and again. Thus, we make the daily recommitment to our path.
There is an interesting concept in Indian culture: when a man and a woman get married, in the ceremony, the wife says to the husband, “svaha,” which means, ‘I offer myself to you.’ She says it once, and by the power of that mantra, she is now related to that soul for seven lifetimes. Here in the West, when there is a marriage, the couple says, “Until death do us part.” The understanding is, we will be married until we die and then I will be free again. However, Vedic culture is not like that. In Vedic culture, when you say the mantra on the wedding day, you are signing a contract which you are not getting out of for seven lifetimes.
This contract is formed by pronouncing ‘svaha’ only once, followed by sambandha, (relationship). Sam means ‘completely’ and bandha means ‘binding’, so, the word for relationship in Sanskrit is sambandha, which completely binds together two beings.
Sambandha - binding together two hearts by one word, svaha, for seven lifetimes.
One aspect of diksa or initiation in the devotional tradition is that the spiritual master gives several mantras and you have to repeat each one ten times every morning. Therefore, the question arises: if the relationship between a man and a woman is fixed for seven lifetimes by saying ‘svaha’ once, then what type of relationship, what type of bondage or affection will come between you and Krisna if you are saying that mantra about a hundred times every day? Every day, recommitting to the relationship again and again, your consciousness becomes fixed in your relationship with God.
After meditating on the Gayatri Mantras, there is japa meditation wherein the maha-mantra is very softly uttered. Whereas the diksa-mantras are chanted in the mind, the Hare Krisna maha-mantra should be spoken - either softly or loudly, but it should be articulated. The prana should be engaged in producing that vibration because, to make a sound you have to engage your whole prana. That prana reaches the mental and intellectual levels; therefore, speaking the mantra out loud is the most powerful way of automatically controlling the mind and the intelligence.
During japa meditation of a few hours - “Hare Krisna Hare Krisna Krisna Krisna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare” - our consciousness is fixed on the ultimate cause of existence. If you perform these activities daily, attentively, not only externally for show, but to be completely, consciously involved, with specific intention to attain transcendental love, then the consciousness must expand over time.
To come together every day and study is very, very important. It is so important because it purifies the structures of our thoughts. We carry many misconceptions from our past and so our conceptions need to be adjusted and refined to come in tune with reality. So, studying is essential and my teacher used to say, “Actually, we don’t do study. We do anushianam.” Anushinam means, the cultivation of activities which are pleasing to Krisna. Therefore, the reason we are studying is not to get a degree, not to become a pandita or a scholar, not to know more than someone else. We are studying because in those moments that we are hearing and reading, we are actually engaging our consciousness in the remembrance of Krisna and all the different aspects of His beauty, His associates and the spiritual world, so it is very purifying.
Mangalacarana
Prayer to Sri Guru
Prayer to Vaisnavas
Prayer to Sri Nityananda Prabhu
Prayer to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
Prayer in the mood of saranagati
Prayer glorifying the Holy Name
Prayer to Sri Sri Radha-Krisna
The conception is that we cannot approach Sri Sri Radha-Krisna directly. This is only possible by the grace of Sri Guru, Gauranga and Vaisnavas, adopting a mood of complete surrender. Therefore, kirtana should always be sung in this order. If there is less time we may sing to Guru, Vaisnavas and Gauranga.
Nevertheless, there is a deep philosophy behind this, which is that everything is the energy of God, and God Himself, being unlimited, can appear within His energetic field at any place, at any time, according to His will. In the movie ‘The Matrix’, there is an evil person called Mr. Anderson who is able to appear anywhere - not just in one place, but in many. He can be everywhere at the same time because he has some control over the software. The word matrix actually means ‘mother’, and maya, the material energy, is the female sakti (energy), or mother. Do you think that God, according to His free will, has the power to appear as He wishes in only one place within the matrix of His material energy, or in many places at once? Of course, He can! If Mr. Anderson can do it, why not Krisna?
From this example, we can understand philosophically that the cause of the energy can appear within His own energy, anywhere He likes. In the Narada Pancaratra, a body of work from Vedic literature, it is described that if you take Krisna’s energy, which may be in the form of stone, metal or even paint, and make His image as a cowherd boy, playing the flute and smiling, and you bathe that image and chant certain mantras with devotion, then Krisna mises, “I will appear in this form.”
This Deity is not a doll - in Sanskrit it is called vigraha. In this word, vigraha, vi means ‘especially’ and graha means ‘to accept’. Because the spiritual form of the Supreme Being is beyond our senses, we cannot see Him, so we cannot serve Him.
Therefore, He appears in Deity form as vigraha - especially to accept our service, and if you offer flowers, water, some fruit, or if you cook for Krisna place it before Him, offering prayers and mantras, Krisna has promised in Bhagavad-gita (9.26):
patram puspam phalam toyam
yo me bhaktya prayacchati
tad aham bhakty-upahrtam
asnami prayatatmanah
“If you offer flowers, water, fruit or leaves to Me with love, I will accept it.” (This means offering tulasi leaves, as well as spinach, or kale, or other delicious vegetarian food.) Now, you are beginning to have a loving exchange with God, and just thinking about it makes the consciousness start to expand.
In order to have a peaceful mind the devotee also avoids any type of stimulation like alcohol, drugs, coffee, tea (black tea, green tea, etc.) because in an addictive state of consciousness meditation cannot be practiced.
What has been cooked with love for Krisna should be prepared on a nice plate which is only used for this purpose. Don’t use a plate from which you yourself eat to offer food to Krisna. Each preparation should have a fresh tulasi leaf. If fresh tulasī leaves are not available you may use dried ones. Then you can present the offering on the altar and request your Gurudeva to kindly make the offering to Their Lordships.
Those who have received initiation will follow the procedure of offering the food according to the instructions of their Guru.
Before honoring prasadam prayers are chanted.
