A SHORT STATEMENT OF THE
PHILOSOPHY OF KRSNA CONSCIOUSNESS

Chanting Hare Krishna in Mayapur

The Hare Krishna Movement is a worldwide community of devotees practicing bhakti-yoga, the eternal science of loving service to God. The movement was founded in the western world in 1966 by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a pure devotee of God representing an unbroken chain of spiritual masters originating with Lord Krsna Himself.
The following eight principles are the basis of the Krsna consciousness movement. We invite all our readers to consider them with an open mind and then visit one of the Hare Krishna centers to see how they are being applied in everyday life.
  1. By sincerely cultivating a bona fide spiritual science, we can be free from anxiety and come to a state of pure, unending, blissful consciousness in this lifetime.

  2. We are not our bodies but eternal spirit souls, parts and parcels of God (Krsna). As such, we are all brothers, and Krsna is ultimately our common father.

  3. Krsna is the eternal, all-knowing, omnipresent, all-powerful, and all-attractive Personality of Godhead. He is the seed-giving father of all living beings, and He is the sustaining energy of the entire cosmic creation.

  4. The Absolute Truth is contained in all the great scriptures of the world. However, the oldest known revealed scriptures in existence are the Vedic literatures, most notably the Bhagavad-gita, which is the literal record of God's actual words.

  5. We should learn the Vedic knowledge from a genuine spiritual master--one who has no selfish motives and whose mind is firmly fixed on Krsna.

  6. Before we eat, we should offer to the Lord the food that sustains us. Then Krsna becomes the offering and purifies us.

  7. We should perform all our actions as offerings to Krsna and do nothing for our own sense gratification.

  8. The recommended means for achieving the mature stage of love of God in this age of Kali, or quarrel, is to chant the holy names of the Lord. The easiest method for most people is to chant the Hare Krsna mantra:

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

"His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is doing valuable work, and his books are significant contributions to the salvation of mankind."

Sri Lal Bahadur Shastri
Former Prime Minister of India

Children chanting Hare Krishna

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Copyright (c) 1972 by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada