Philosophy

By Atmattatva das - 6.1 2025 Background Information: These stories are biographical narrations by the author, written down around 20 years ago. This was originally meant to be published as a book, but after completing the first eight chapters, the author chose not to continue, and thus we...Read more...

History and Fundamentals of Tantra

Tantra

The Origins of Monotheism

By editor - 11.12 2024 Monotheism—the idea that there is only one deity and all other deities are false or evil—began with Zoroastrians, when they split from the Indo-Aryans. It later spread to the Jews, then to Christians, then to Muslims. That’s a long story that I will...Read more...

ISKCON and Christianity

The Bhakti Movement and Monotheism

What is Māyā?

By editor - 4.12 2024 Table of Contents 1 The Meaning of Truth and Delusion 2 Why the Material World is a Delusion 3 The Cause of the Material Delusion 4 The Inversion of Truth and Delusion 5 Elevating Ignorance to Knowledge 6 The Confusion of Māyā and...Read more...

We’re All in Maya

The Difference Between Māyā, Śakti, and Prakṛti

Is God a Person or Energy?

By Administrator - 3.12 2024 Excerpt from the Bhagavad-Gita As it Is 7.7: Chapter 7: Knowledge of the Absolute TEXT 7 mattah parataram nanyat kincid asti dhananjaya mayi sarvam idam protam sutre mani-gana iva SYNONYMS mattah—beyond Myself; parataram—superior; na...Read more...

Dvaita of Madhvacarya

BY: SUN STAFF - 29.11 2024 Sri Madhvacarya vede ramayane caiva purane bharate tatha adavante ca madhye ca visnu sarvatra giyate Harivamsa "In the Vedas, Ramayana, Puranas and the Mahabharata, from the beginning till end, and also in the middle, Visnu is glorified...Read more...

Madhvacarya

The Vaishnava Sampradayas

Acharya Ramanuja and His Qualified Monism

BY: SUN STAFF - 27.11 2024 Ramanujacarya Moolavar, Sri Rangam By Dr. C.S. Shah. The Guru refused to initiate the learned disciple six times, but the disciple was not discouraged and came back for the seventh time! The gracious Guru, seeing the sincerity and earnest of Ramanuja, now gave...Read more...

The Vaishnava Sampradayas

The Life of Sri Ramanujacarya

Reflecting on the meaning of “nirvisesa-sunyavadi-pascatya”

By Sitalatma Das - 22.11 2024 Part of our ISKCON folklore is a story of early devotees wondering who were those māyāvādīs Śrīla Prabhupāda always rallied against – because no one knew any particular māyāvādī at the time, and then it hit them – they (we) are the māyāvādīs! Not by...Read more...

Mundane vs. Spiritual Wisdom: A Path to Krishna

H.G. Sankarshan Prabhu – 23.10 2024 In this video, H.G. Sankarshan Prabhu delivers a talk on Chapter 5, Text 16 of the Bhagavad Gita, focusing on the transformative power of spiritual knowledge. He explains how true knowledge, which comes from surrendering to Krishna, dispels ignorance...Read more...

Pancaratra Philosophy

By editor - 22.10 2024 Among the early Vaisnava schools is the Pancaratra sect. Its name is possibly derived from the Satapatha Brahmana, where a panca ratra (five night) sacrifice is mentioned (Rodrigues 178). As the story goes, the great being Narayana wished to transcend and become one...Read more...

Pancaratra

Tantra and Pancaratra

The Origins of Monotheism

By editor - 11.10 2024 Monotheism—the idea that there is only one deity and all other deities are false or evil—began with Zoroastrians, when they split from the Indo-Aryans. It later spread to the Jews, then to Christians, then to Muslims. That’s a long story that I will...Read more...

The Bhakti Movement and Monotheism

The Bhakti Movement and Monotheism, Part 2

Transcendental Religion

By editor - 13.9 2024 His Divine Grace BHAKTISIDDHANTA SARASVATI THAKURA PRABHUPADA Place: Sri Caitanya Matha, Sridhama Mayapur Time: Tuesday, 24th February, 1925 The nondevotional endeavors against service to Lord Krishna: The son of the King of Vraja is the transcendental cupid,...Read more...

Secularism in Vedic Philosophy

Organized Religion: Devil’s Work or Divine Necessity?

The Vedic Description of the Soul

By Stephen Knapp - 8.8 2024 Who am I? What am I? Am I the body, mind or something more? These are the age old questions that every philosopher throughout the ages has tried to grasp and understand. After all, how will you...Read more...

The Scientific Theory of the Soul

Can one go back home back to godhead by practicing Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism and Judaism?

Manifestation of Souls and Where They Go

By Stephen Knapp - 8.8 2024 This is the story of how and from where souls manifest, and their evolution through the material realm and liberation from it. Sometimes there are questions from people regarding the...Read more...

Is the size of the soul literal or metaphorical?

Do all sperms have soul?

The Nyāya Conception of a Scientific Theory

By Ashish Dalela (Rsiraja Das) - 6.8 2024 Below is the translation and commentary on some of the Nyāya Sutras, which describe the nature of a scientific theory as comprised of four aspects. The first aspect represents the purpose of the system; the second, the functional parts that execute...Read more...

Indian Philosophy

How Shankaracharya’s Philosophy Made India Weak and Poor

Secularism in Vedic Philosophy

By editor - 12.7 2024 Secularism arose during the era of Enlightenment in Europe to relegate religion to the private realm and determine the public sphere by reason and observation. Europe wanted the privatization of Christian religious sects (such as Catholicism and Protestantism) to end...Read more...

Speculation Is Neither Science Nor Philosophy

How Well Do You Know Vedic Philosophy?

The Meaning of Brahman in Vedānta Sūtra

By editor - 14.6 2024 Many of us have become accustomed to impersonal interpretations of Vedanta, where Brahman is identified as a transcendental state of Oneness, and the soul is the Brahman, in that transcendental state. However, a closer look at Vedanta Sutra reveals that Brahman actually...Read more...

Objections Against My Vedānta Sūtra Commentary

Vedanta Sutra

Speculation Is Neither Science Nor Philosophy

By editor - 3.6 2024 The following conversation between His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and some of his disciples took place in July 1975 on an early-morning walk in Chicago. Srila Prabhupada: Where does Darwin begin? Disciple: He begins in the ocean. He...Read more...

The Vedas Represent a Boundary to Science and Technology

Science - Life Comes From Chemicals - No Chance!

How Shankaracharya’s Philosophy Made India Weak and Poor

By editor - 23.5 2024 There is a popular narrative in India at present that Islamic Invaders and British Colonialists destroyed India’s traditional culture and civilization. That is not entirely false. But any serious student of history is led to ask: Why did these invaders succeed in...Read more...

Why Advaita is Buddhism in Hiding

Three Responses to Advaita Impersonalism

How do we understand when different Vaishnava acharays give different meanings of the same scriptural verse?

By Chaitanya Charan - 23.5 2024 Sometimes different Vaishnava acharays give different meanings of the same scriptural verse. Which is the original, actual meaning of the verse? If the same verse can have multiple interpretations, then how can some interpretations – like those...Read more...

Sastras, Acharyas and Swamis

Western vs. Eastern Personalism, Impersonalism, Voidism, and Materialism

By editor - 27.3 2024 Śrila Prabhupāda described the Western worldviews as nirviśeśa and sūnyavāda, which are translated as impersonalism and voidism. This has always perplexed me because the West is rooted in Christian Personalism. How can a worldview based on...Read more...

How Well Do You Know Vedic Philosophy?

By editor - 26.3 2024 A profound illusion of simplicity arises in studying Vedic philosophy when we speak of the whole without dwelling on its parts. In the elephant and the five blind men analogy, the elephant is the whole, while the legs, ears, tail, trunk, and stomach are the parts. We...Read more...

Seeing the West Through a Vedic Lens

Indian Philosophy

Jīva Falldown - Understanding Anādi

By editor - 13.3 2024 In Chaitanya Caritāmrita 20.117, Lord Chaitanya instructs Sanātana Goswami as follows: kṛṣṇa bhuli’ sei jīva anādi-bahirmukha ataeva māyā tāre deya saṁsāra-duḥkha. Śrila Prabhupāda translates this verse as “Forgetting Kṛṣṇa, the living entity has...Read more...

Falldown of the jiva

Where do the fallen souls fall from?

Why Advaita is Buddhism in Hiding

By editor - 8.3 2024 Buddhism had four successive goals - (a) reject deities as representations of the ultimate truth, (b) end all rituals and sacrifices performed for these deities, (c) dethrone the status position of the Brahmanas who were performing these rituals, and (d) reject all Vedic...Read more...

Three Responses to Advaita Impersonalism

Srila Madhvacarya Defeats the Mayavadis

Three Responses to Advaita Impersonalism

By editor - 28.2 2024 There are numerous and widespread misconceptions about Advaita Vedānta at present. Most people in the West dismiss it as Solipsism or Idealism in which the external world doesn’t exist when Advaita clearly states that the world does exist as a myth, a false story...Read more...

Srila Madhvacarya Defeats the Mayavadis

WHOSE KRISHNA ? WHOSE BUDDHA ? WHOSE JESUS ?

Four Vedic Creation Descriptions

By editor - 22.2 2024 In several Vedic texts, living entities are classified into four categories based on the type of birth: (a) Andaj, born from an egg, (b) Svedaja, born from sweat, (c) Udbhija, born from a seed, and (d) Jarāyuja, born from a womb. These four descriptions are...Read more...

Can Creation Come from Chaos?

Wonder of Creation

Philosophy

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