Spreading the Holy Name
It is our first and foremost objective to inspire people to chant the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra. Chanting the holy name is the Yuga-dharma; and Supreme Lord Sri Krishna descended as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to inaugurate this dharma and propagate the Sankirtana Movement. He desired that the entire world be inundated with the chanting of the holy name. Srila Prabhupada the founder-acharya of ISKCON accepted this as the mission of his life and established the world-wide Hare Krishna Movement to spread the holy names. Following in his footsteps, we, the disciples of Srila Prabhupada, have initiated various programs like Chanters Club, Harinam Festival, Hare Krishna Flash Mobs, etc., to spread the holy names and inspire as many people as possible to chant the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra.
Gorgeous Deity-Worship and Opulent Festivals
The second objective is to maintain opulent and gorgeous Deity worship along with festivals on a grand scale throughout the year. The Supreme Lord Krishna has appeared before us in the form of a Deity to accept our services. Srila Prabhupada established Deity worship as an important part of the Krishna Consciousness movement. He had set-up temples around the world so that his disciples can serve the Deities every day. He also emphasized on decorating the Deities and celebrating festivals in an exuberant manner throughout the year. The Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna is present in the Deity form. By serving Him, we can purify ourselves from material contamination. By engaging all our senses in directly serving Him, we can get rid of our non-devotional tendencies. It also brings steadiness to our materially agitated mind.
Create Awareness about Srila Prabhupada
The third objective is to increase the awareness and appreciation of Srila Prabhupada – his message, his saintly personality, his character, his mission and his institution. Srila Prabhupada is the spiritual ambassador who visited this mortal world to show us the path back to Godhead. As his disciples, it is our duty to create awareness about him. He is a bona fide spiritual master in the disciplic succession originating from Brahma. A bona fide spiritual master is not an ordinary man. Just as an ambassador is an authorized representative of his country, similarly, a spiritual master, who comes in the disciplic succession, parampara, is an empowered representative of God. Ordered by his spiritual master, he embarked on his life’s mission to spread the message of Krishna to the English-speaking community. He built a house in which the whole world could live. Read his biography to know more about him.
Distribution of Scriptures
Our spiritual master’s mission was to spread the transcendental message of Krishna as recorded in Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam through his books. He founded the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust in 1972. He wrote more than 70 books which have been translated into 57 languages. To understand any philosophy, reading books form an important tool of comprehension for a reader. Srila Prabhupada encouraged his devotees to circulate books among different communities. Reading books form the basis of understanding the Hare Krishna movement. You can access the catalog of his books. Some of these books are also available for download. We also encourage devotees to read and distribute these books. Srila Prabhupada said that this service of book distribution makes him happy.
Missionary Development
The fifth objective is to maintain and nourish a vibrant, inspired and committed community of missionaries with mature understanding of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions for his Krishna consciousness movement. Aspiring devotees who want to dedicate their lives to serve the mission of Srila Prabhupada are given basic facilities to be part of the community, get trained in a disciplined way of life, and serve the mission for the greater good of the society.
Offer For Donors
The support for the mission comes from donors and patrons and they are one of our major stakeholders. It is due to their support that we are able to render our services to the society. We provide various opportunities for our donors and patrons to advance in their spiritual life by educating them on the principles of spiritual life through the books written by Srila Prabhupada. The patrons are also invited on special occasions like their birthday or marriage anniversary, to visit the temple and take the blessings of the Lord. We also invite them for major festivals at the temple. You can also be a part of Hare Krishna Mandir, Kota by help us through donating.
To Increase Krishna Consciousness
People from all walks of life irrespective of caste, creed and gender are encouraged to participate in our programs to develop their understanding of the spiritual practices that will help them in leading a peaceful life filled with happiness and prosperity. To increase God consciousness in the society, Hare Krishna Mandir, Kota conducts specific programs for children (Cultural Education), youth (FOLK Programs), family (Bhagavad-gita Based Introductory) and other members of the society (Krishnashraya). These programs are conducted free of cost, you need not pay for it. Next time you visit the temple, enquire at the Temple Reception to know more about these programs and how you can be part of this.
Prasadam Distribution
Food distribution is considered to be the supreme of all charities. Srila Prabhupada wanted everyone to taste the nectar of devotion. The food that is offered to Krishna is considered the divine nectar that can alleviate our suffering by freeing us from sins. Srila Prabhupada insisted that everyone who visits the temple must get some prasadam. We have been distributing kichadi prasadam to every visitor since the inception of the temple. At every Saturday (Youth) & Sunday (Family), we distribute the mahaprasadam to all people after aarti and katha. From 8:30, we start distributing the mahaprasadam to all people.
If we sincerely follow an authentic spiritual discipline, it helps us attain a state of blissful being – one that is sans all worries and gives us complete self-control.
None of us are our physical bodies. Instead, we are all souls that live forever and are part of a common God – Krishna. Knowing that we are all children of a common father helps us see one another as members of one united family spread across the world.
Krishna is eternal, omnipresent, all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-attractive. He is the source of all Life and the sustaining energy of the universe.
To know and love God is the goal of Vedic knowledge, and the Bhagavad Gita spoken by Lord Krishna Himself over 5,000 years ago contains the essence of the Vedas.
To successfully tread on the path of spiritual discipline and attain the goal of self-realisation, it is imperative that we are led by a genuine guru or spiritual teacher. The Bhagavad Gita and other sacred texts enlists many criteria that are essential in a guru. However, what is most crucial is that a guru follows and reiterates the messages of Krishna, without changing them or having any selfish motives. Also, the thoughts and actions of the guru should always be concentrated on Krishna.
We must acknowledge and reciprocate the selfless love radiated by Krishna, by offering Him our food and a prayer before eating. Though Krishna Himself has provided that food to us, He will be pleased like a parent receiving a gift from their child. This act of offering food to our Lord cleanses our consciousness and brings us closer to Him.
We should stay away from self-centredness and act in a way that gives joy to Krishna. This path to self-realization that entails loving devotion towards God can be followed by people of any age or faith and is known as bhakti-yoga or connecting to the Supreme of loving devotional service.
The most effective means for today’s spiritual seeker to reach the blissful, worry-free state, and to become closer to God, is to chant His holy names. Like Hare Krishna Maha Mantra :
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared at Sridhama Mayapura, in the city of Navadvipa in Bengal, on the Phalguni Purnima evening in the year 1486 AD. His father, Sri Jagannatha Mishra, a learned brahmana from the district of Sylhet, came to Navadvipa as a student. He lived on the banks of the Ganges with his wife Srimati Sachidevi, the daughter of Srila Nilambara Chakravarty, a great learned scholar of Navadvipa. Their youngest son, who was named Vishvambhara, later became known as Nimai Pandita and then, after accepting the renounced order of life, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
The wonderful pastimes performed by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the city of Navadvipa and in Jagannath Puri are recorded by His biographers. The early life of the Lord is most fascinatingly expressed by the author of Chaitanya-bhagavata (Sri Vrindavana Dasa Thakura), and as far as the teachings are concerned, they are more vividly explained in the Chaitanya-Charitamrita (by Sri Krishna Dasa Kaviraja Gosvami). Now they are available to the English-speaking public in our Teachings of Lord Chaitanya.
- Childhood Pastimes
- The Debate with Kashmiri Pandita
- Inaugurating the Sankirtana Movement
- Deliverance of Jagai and Madhai
- Accepting Sannyasa Order of Life
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu preached the Srimad-Bhagavatam and propagated the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita in the most practical way. The essence of His teachings is recorded in Chaitanya Manjusha as follows:
- Lord Sri Krishna, who appeared as the son of the King of Vraja (Nanda Maharaja), is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is worshipable by all.
- Vrindavana-dhama is non-different from the Lord and hence is as worshipable as the Lord.
- The highest form of transcendental worship of the Lord was exhibited by the damsels of Vrajabhumi.
- Srimad-Bhagavata Purana is the spotless literature for understanding the Lord.
- The ultimate goal of human life is to attain the stage of prema or love of God.
His instructions to Srila Rupa Gosvami and Srila Sanatana Gosvami, His discussions with Ramananda Raya, the debate with the Mayavadi sannyasi Prakashananda Sarasvati and the Vedanta Sutra, the discussion between Him and Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya are excellent sources through which we understand His teachings in detail.
The Lord left only eight slokas of His instructions in writing, and they are known as the Siksastaka. All other literatures based on His teachings were extensively written by the Lord’s principal followers, the six Gosvamis of Vrindavana, and their followers.
His mission was to preach the importance of chanting the holy names of the Lord in this age of Kali (quarrel). In this present age quarrels take place even over trifles, and therefore the shastras have recommended for this age a common platform for realization, namely chanting the holy names of the Lord. People can hold meetings to glorify the Lord in their respective languages and with melodious songs, and if such performances are executed in an offenseless manner, it is certain that the participants will gradually attain spiritual perfection without having to undergo more rigorous methods. At such meetings everyone, the learned and the foolish, the rich and the poor, the Hindus and the Muslims, the Englishmen and the Indians, and the chandalas and the brahmanas, can all hear the transcendental sounds and thus cleanse the dust of material association from the mirror of the heart. To confirm the Lord’s mission, all the people of the world will accept the holy name of the Lord as the common platform for the universal religion of mankind.