(Srila Prabhupada arriving in Hawaii, February, 1969)
What Is Krishna Consciousness?
These are notes found in a handwritten diary kept by Srila Prabhupada, outlining of how he intended to present the teachings of Krishna consciousness to the Western world [bracketed material added for clarity]:
1. Krishna consciousness means clear consciousness.
2. Material existence means hazy consciousness.
3. Identifying the body as self is hazy consciousness.
4. One has to understand himself first before making progress in Krishna consciousness.
5. [The] Constitutional position of a living entity is being [the] eternal servant of Krishna, or God.
6. God or Krishna means the Supreme Person and the supreme cause of all causes.
7. Forgetfulness of the eternal relationship to God, or Krishna, is the beginning of hazy consciousness.
8. To revive the original clear consciousness of the living entities, the Vedic literatures are there.
9. The Vedic literatures are as follows:
a. The four Vedas.
b. The Upanishads - numbering at least 108.
c. The Vedanta philosophy.
d. The 18 Puranas.
e. The Ramayana (original Valmiki).
f. The Mahabharata.
g. And any book following the tenets.
10. The Bhagavad-gita is part of the Mahabharata.
11. The original Veda is [the] Atharva-veda, later on divided into four for divisional understanding.
12. Mahabharata is called the fifth Veda and is meant for [the] less intelligent class of men who love history more than philosophy.
13. Bhagavad-gita, being part of [the] Mahabharata is the essence of all Vedic knowledge for [the] less intelligent class of men in this Age.
14. B.G. is called the "Bible of the Hindus," but actually it is the Bible for the human race.
15. In the B.G. the following subject matter has been discussed:
a. What is a living being.
b. He is not the body but spirit soul.
c. The spirit soul is encaged in [a] material body.
d. The body is subjected to birth, death, old age, and diseases.
e. The spirit soul is eternal, never takes birth or dies but he exists even after the annihilation of the material body.
f. The living entity is transmigrating from one body to another.
g. He can however stop this transmigration process and attain [an] eternal, blissful life of knowledge by Krishna consciousness.
16. What is God.
a. God is individual person. He is chief of all other persons of different parts — namely the demigods, the human beings, animals and the birds, insects, trees, and aquatics.
b. All these living entities are sons of God, and therefore they are all servants of God.
(Reprinted from Back to Godhead Magazine)
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