Krsna Consciousness

The quality of our consciousness can go up or down based on how we see the world and act in it. When we act like the eternal spiritual beings that we are – small parts of a supreme whole – makes us happy. But if we focus our attempts at happiness on the temporary body and mind – on matter – and make those our life's priority, our consciousness will shrink and we’ll be miserable. Spiritual elevation – raising our consciousness to higher levels – happens quickly when we revive our God consciousness. In this compact book, Srila Prabhupada recommends seeing the world as it is – a temporary place full of anxiety – and then taking the road to higher consciousness by rediscovering our relationship with the Supreme Person, Krishna. Anyone can become elevated; the journey begins with a single step up.

The Bhagavad-gita is the main source-book on yoga and a concise summary of India's Vedic wisdom. Yet remarkably, the setting for this classic of spiritual literature is an ancient Indian battlefield. At the last moment, the great warrior Arjuna begins to wonder about the real meaning of his life. In the Bhagavadgita, Lord Krsna brings His disciple from perplexity to spiritual enlightenment. Bhagavad-gita As It Is is the largest-selling, most widely used edition of the Gita in the world.

Although there are many types of yoga practice, the Vedic literature explains that no matter which practice you choose, success is only achieved when bhakti is present. What is bhakti-yoga, and how can you add it to your life or your current yoga practice? As bhakti is a pivotal element in any yogic or religious practice, it is known as the topmost yoga. In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna explains bhakti-yoga to his dear friend Arjuna, and here Srila Prabhupada expands these concepts in this introductory text.

Kṛṣṇa Consciousness: the Matchless Gift is a collection of lectures given by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada on the philosophy and practice of bhakti-yoga – the process of reestablishing our connection with the Supreme Person. In only 118 pages, The Matchless Gift contains facets of the science of bhakti-yoga, along with vivid examples, stories, and analogies not found elsewhere in Srila Prabhupada’s writings. Readers will quickly gain an appreciation for Srila Prabhupada’s agility in making the teachings of the Vedas understandable to a contemporary audience – just as the book’s title alludes to the Matchless Gifts sign that was hung above the entrance of the first temple he established in the West, a storefront property at 26 Second Avenue in New York City.

Since time immemorial, yogis, sages, and mystics have forsaken the pleasures of the ordinary world and gone to secluded places to meditate, eager to attain even a momentary vision of Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Fifty centuries ago that same Krishna descended from the transcendental world to reveal on earth His eternal spiritual pastimes, and the great sage Vyasa carefully recorded them in the Bhagavata Purana. This book is a summary study of the Tenth Canto of that Purana, written by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the foremost teacher of bhakti-yoga in the modern age. The accounts in this book will fascinate you with their descriptions of spiritual adventure and romance. And they will reveal to you the secret of how to embark on a journey to a transcendental realm beyond space and time.