Veda: Secrets from the East

by A.C. Bhaktivedanta

With 16 colour pages,Veda explores the secrets of spirituality found in the ancient writings of the East. Covering topics like the soul,Karma,reincarnation,and meditation, this book will help awaken within you the spiritual insights great teachers have spoken of for thousands of years.

Genres: Religion, Spirituality, Nonfiction

460 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

His Divine Grace Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (अभय चरणारविन्द भक्तिवेदान्त स्वामी प्रभुपाद)was born as Abhay Charan De on 1 September 1896 in Calcutta, India.

He first met his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami, in Calcutta in 1922. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, a prominent devotional scholar and the founder of sixty-four branches of Gaudiya Mathas (Vedic institutes), liked this educated young man and convinced him to dedicate his life to teaching Vedic knowledge in the Western world. Srila Prabhupada became his student, and eleven years later (1933) at Allahabad, he became his formally initiated disciple.

At their first meeting, in 1922, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura requested Srila Prabhupada to broadcast Vedic knowledge through the English language. In the years that followed, Srila Prabhupada wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad-gita and in 1944, without assistance, started an English fortnightly magazine.

In the last ten years of his life, in spite of his advanced age, Srila Prabhupada circled the globe twelve times on lecture tours that have took him to six continents. In spite of such a vigorous schedule, Srila Prabhupada continued to write prolifically. His writings constitute a veritable library of Vedic philosophy, religion, literature and culture.

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was walking down Oxford Street holding more shopping bags than I could carry when a man in questionable outfit asked me if I lived in London. I said No, which he thought was why I looked, and I quote, “so happy”. After the typical attention-grabbing remark, he said he wanted to give me a book – this book – provided I would read it. And I have.

In all honesty the only thing reading this book changed for me was activating my perception of the Hare Krsna movement as a cult of beautifully explained, highly unpractical, and possibly dangerous morals with which I cannot, open minded as I may consider myself to be, give actual credit to.

Achieving Krsna consciousness is [as I understood it] a state of acceptance, not understanding. And the contradiction is one I cannot overcome.

[Zak · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good book, there was some repeativeness through out the book

[Kalliko · Rating 1 out of 5]

Repetitive. So it gets old, but this way some of the concepts and terminology became for familiar and easier to follow and understand. Naturally, it is biased. But on top of that the authors convey a message of "literally anything else is evil and unworthy". Also the gurus quoted in interviews all have a habit of interrupting the interviewers, which was frustrating to get through

[Pedro Gomes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Propaganda for Gaudiya Vaishnavism - you will be walking through an European city and a kind fellow, with orange robes and yellow clay paint on his face, will approach you and gift you this book. He will then ask for money.

Brings great insight to non-western thought, although it represents a very narrow slice of eastern philosophy and religion.
You will be able to discern an approach similar to those of Christian Protestants: they advocate an highly impractical, extreme way of living (no illicit sex, no gambling, no intoxication, no excessive consumption, no meat eating), all thoroughly justified by their holy scriptures. In this case, the Baghavad Gita, a book about a blue 125-year-old kid that plays the flute, called Krishna. The Beatles loved this shit in the 1960s, as by the George Harrison song “My Sweet Lord”.

They provide an accurate diagnostic of modern dysfunction, but fail to provide a realistic solution.

Notes on Spiritual Demand:
The dog and all life wants to eat, mate, seek shelter and defend itself. The life we pursuit is in many ways similar to that of the dog and lowly beast - the rat race. Human uniqueness stems from the additional capacity to pursuit spiritual development, and resulting clarity and bliss.
(It’s very easy to mistake spiritual work for lazyness, as its fruits may not be visible. The same can happen in a court, where a observer is confused as why the high judge is paid the most, when the stenographer seems to be much more hard at work, while the judge seemingly contemplates - this is adoring busyness for the sake of busyness. Here, the highest ideal would be of the ant.)

Notes on Being:
It is my face and my nose and my body, but I am not my face or my nose or my body. They belong to me, but they are not me. To take care only of the body and seek fitness it to polish the cage while the bird within starves.
Nevertheless, our relationship with our body is in many ways more similar to the one of the pilot and the plane:

1. The pilot comands it and tells it where to go.
2. If done skillfully, it can take the pilot to the highest planes. If unskillfully, it will crash and burn.
1. It is, all the while, a cage. Hence, why it may make sense to clap when the flight is over.
1. If the plane is not taken care of, the pilot can not go very far.
1. This me, not Vedas.

Notes on Death:
Action in this life brings good and bad karma. Good karma increases pleasure and decreases suffering, and vice versa. Only Krsna devotion brigs no karma, thus ending suffering.

Philosophy, religion, devotion: they prepare us for death, for you can die unprepared.
A kitten being caught by its mother’s mouth will feel joy as it is being carried away. Despite the superficial similarities and the shared mechanism, it is nothing like the violent death of the mouse in the very same jaws.

Notes on Society:
The modern man is anxious, stressed, always moving but never going nowhere. When talking of progress, we must ask: where?
Should we strive for progress in vanity, or material dependence? Are we so sure of where we are going that we should be going so fast?c

[Anjalica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome read that left me with a better understanding of Krishna consciousness.