A Summary Study of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita Taking the role of His own devotee, Lord Sri Krishna appeared as Sri Krishna Chaitanya about five centuries ago in Bengal, India, and began a great social and spiritual revolution that has profoundly affected the lives of millions worldwide. His conversations with the great scholars, kings, and mystics of the day form the basis of Teachings of Lord Chaitanya.

Treatise on Sanskrit poetics and Vaishnava poetry.

Queen Kunti, a tragic and heroic figure, emerges from an explosive era in the history of ancient India. Her teachings are simple and illuminating outpourings revealing the deepest transcendental emotions of the heart and the deepest philosophical and theological penetrations of the intellect. At the conclusion of the devastating Kurukshetra war, Queen Kunti approaches Lord Krishna as He prepares to depart the scene of the battle. Kunti's words are words of glorification impelled by a divine love steeped in wisdom. Kunti's spontaneous glorification of Lord Krishna and her description of the spiritual path are immortalized in the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata Purana (Srimad-Bhagavatam), and they have been recited, chanted, and sung by sages and philosophers for thousands of years. As they appear in the First Canto of the Bhagavatam, Queen Kunti's celebrated prayers consist of only twenty-six couplets (verses 18 through 43 of the Eighth Chapter), yet they are considered a philosophical, theological, and literary masterpiece. Let her heartfelt words of wisdom bring solace to your soul.

The story of Radha and Krishna offers a kaleidoscopic view of lovefrom the sensual to the spiritual. From this rich matrix, not only have artists, poets, saints, and religious cults drawn sustenance, but it has nurtured the mind of an entire subcontinent. In a predominantly patriarchal society where moral codes are laid out in terms of family and social responsibilities, the love between Radha and Krishna offers a delightful counterview. Heres Radha, a married woman elder to Krishna, spellbound by his charms, running to the forest on a full moon autumnal night of Sharad Purnima. To make this even more scandalous, he is sporting with other Gopis, quenching the thirst of all like undiscriminating rain speeding across a vast landscape. Each Gopi has a Krishna for herself and Radha too holds on to her own in this giddy vortex of love and fulfillment. As Krishna leaves for Mathura never to return, Radha waits. Later he plays the role of the mediator in the great war of the Mahabharata, which constantly blurs the line between the right and the wrong in an exploration of the concept of Dharma. Radha remains steadfast in her own Swadharma, which is her longing for Krishna, and stands by the banks of her Yamuna even today. For me, Radha is someone who has snapped off the beginning and the end of a love story. She is the eternal flow, dhara (which curiously is formed when you invert the syllables of Radha). Here any love story would be a mere wave thrown up by this deep current. These poems explore Radhas mind where the past, present, and future are one, where the journey and the destination are one.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrta is the main work on the life and teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the incarnation of Krishna who appeared in India five hundred years ago. Lord Chaitanya introduced the chanting of the holy names of God as the prescribed method of God-realization for our time. He began what is today called the Hare Krishna movement, since the movement's founder, Srila Prabhupada, comes in the Chaitanya line of spiritual masters. Lord Chaitanya transformed the face of India in four respects: philosophically, by encountering, defeating and converting the greatest philosophers and thinkers of His day; religiously, by organizing the largest, most widespread theistic movement in India's history; socially, by His strong challenges to the religious inequities of the caste system; politically, by His organization of a massive civil disobedience movement in Bengal, more than four centuries before Gandhi. This English translation with commentary, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, reveals his consummate Bengali and Sanskrit scholarship, his intimate familiarity with the precepts of Sri Chaitanya, and his pure devotion to God.

Presents works of art selected from the South and Southeast Asian and Islamic collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, lessons plans, and classroom activities.

Discourses by a Hindu spiritual leader from India.