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The Laws of Nature: An Infallible Justice
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
- GenresSpiritualitySelf Help
121 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1991
9 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
A.C. Bhaktivedanta
813 books716 followersHis 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 11, 2014
I should qualify that I am not a follower of Hare Kṛṣṇa, and this review is purely from an outsider's perspective. Here is what I learned:
1) Kṛṣṇa is the most powerful Being in the Universe. He is so powerful even His parents worship him. The reason being is He has absolute control over everything. Interesting thing about Kṛṣṇa is He loves to be worshiped. Maybe because He was so worshiped by his parents He's addicted to it? Basically, if you worship Him, He will protect you forever, and if you don't worship Him, you'll be forced to suffer for the rest of eternity. One way of looking at Kṛṣṇa is as a Lion who can kill you if you don't abide by Him, or as a Lamb who will love you if you devote yourself to Him.
2) Everyone is trapped by the Laws of Karma. In a nutshell, if you do bad things, you suffer. If you do good things, you enjoy life more. Moreover, only if you devote yourself to Kṛṣṇa do you break the bonds of Karma. It is only by "surrender[ing] to Him and without any reservation dedicat[ing] your life to His service" that you can escape this planet of suffering, which the author calls a "blazing fire of fear."
What happens if you don't devote yourself to Him? Then you live in the state of Māyā, illusion. You are deluded into thinking that all this material stuff on the planet is what makes you happy, when in actuality only Kṛṣṇa can make you truly happy. When you live in this state, then when you die, you are forced into the cycle of reincarnation. You will have to transmigrate through 8,400,000 species of life, which takes many millions of years before you can come back to human form, where you'll get another shot of devoting yourself to Kṛṣṇa. How these millions of years are explained when humans haven't even been on this planet for that long, I don't know. Maybe time travel?
The author also posits that the reason people are born rich and beautiful and others are born poor and ugly is because of Karma. If you lived a good life, you'll come back wealthy and handsome. If you lived a bad life, you'll come back in a slum where you may die of hunger as a child. Whether or not that child has to go through all the animal reincarnations, I'm not sure. It doesn't seem fair if that is the case, however.
3) How do you devote yourself to Kṛṣṇa and join Him in Heaven? There are 4 regulations you must follow:
- No eating of meat, fish, or eggs
- No gambling
- No illicit sex
- No intoxication of any kind, including tobacco, coffee, and tea.
All of the above things lead to suffering, and distract us from spiritual harmony. We should also do the following:
- Love and Respect Kṛṣṇa in the monotheistic sense.
- Free ourselves from selfish motives.
- Anything we eat should be offered to Kṛṣṇa with prayer, and only after he accepts our offering can we eat it.
- We should chant the holy names of the Lord everyday.
There are other suggestions by the author, like we should not attach ourselves to family in old age, and instead we should join a monastery, but the above 4 are the major ones.
All in all, the book was interesting, but it was hard for me to stomach for multiple reasons. One, the author attempts to strike fear in the reader to convert them to the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. Two, the author calls animals "lowly beasts" and seems to show very little respect towards animals. Three, he says that old people should not stay around family because they will be resented for being a burden on the family and upon their death the pain of their loss will be too much to handle; so instead, they should escape to a monastery, where they will not be a burden and where they can die unseen from their family, all of which sounds horrible.
Do I recommend this book? Not really. The author is often unclear, and his pessimistic view on humanity is disconcerting to say the least. Also, the book feels very dogmatic. Luckily, however, the teachings are based on love and selflessness, so even the extremist version of this religion doesn't lead to hatred and killing like Christianity and Islam. Hare Kṛṣṇa is definitely not the religion for me; I dislike any religion based on converting people through Fear. Yet, followers of Hare Kṛṣṇa do not harm anyone, and if anything they do make the world a better place.
1) Kṛṣṇa is the most powerful Being in the Universe. He is so powerful even His parents worship him. The reason being is He has absolute control over everything. Interesting thing about Kṛṣṇa is He loves to be worshiped. Maybe because He was so worshiped by his parents He's addicted to it? Basically, if you worship Him, He will protect you forever, and if you don't worship Him, you'll be forced to suffer for the rest of eternity. One way of looking at Kṛṣṇa is as a Lion who can kill you if you don't abide by Him, or as a Lamb who will love you if you devote yourself to Him.
2) Everyone is trapped by the Laws of Karma. In a nutshell, if you do bad things, you suffer. If you do good things, you enjoy life more. Moreover, only if you devote yourself to Kṛṣṇa do you break the bonds of Karma. It is only by "surrender[ing] to Him and without any reservation dedicat[ing] your life to His service" that you can escape this planet of suffering, which the author calls a "blazing fire of fear."
What happens if you don't devote yourself to Him? Then you live in the state of Māyā, illusion. You are deluded into thinking that all this material stuff on the planet is what makes you happy, when in actuality only Kṛṣṇa can make you truly happy. When you live in this state, then when you die, you are forced into the cycle of reincarnation. You will have to transmigrate through 8,400,000 species of life, which takes many millions of years before you can come back to human form, where you'll get another shot of devoting yourself to Kṛṣṇa. How these millions of years are explained when humans haven't even been on this planet for that long, I don't know. Maybe time travel?
The author also posits that the reason people are born rich and beautiful and others are born poor and ugly is because of Karma. If you lived a good life, you'll come back wealthy and handsome. If you lived a bad life, you'll come back in a slum where you may die of hunger as a child. Whether or not that child has to go through all the animal reincarnations, I'm not sure. It doesn't seem fair if that is the case, however.
3) How do you devote yourself to Kṛṣṇa and join Him in Heaven? There are 4 regulations you must follow:
- No eating of meat, fish, or eggs
- No gambling
- No illicit sex
- No intoxication of any kind, including tobacco, coffee, and tea.
All of the above things lead to suffering, and distract us from spiritual harmony. We should also do the following:
- Love and Respect Kṛṣṇa in the monotheistic sense.
- Free ourselves from selfish motives.
- Anything we eat should be offered to Kṛṣṇa with prayer, and only after he accepts our offering can we eat it.
- We should chant the holy names of the Lord everyday.
There are other suggestions by the author, like we should not attach ourselves to family in old age, and instead we should join a monastery, but the above 4 are the major ones.
All in all, the book was interesting, but it was hard for me to stomach for multiple reasons. One, the author attempts to strike fear in the reader to convert them to the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. Two, the author calls animals "lowly beasts" and seems to show very little respect towards animals. Three, he says that old people should not stay around family because they will be resented for being a burden on the family and upon their death the pain of their loss will be too much to handle; so instead, they should escape to a monastery, where they will not be a burden and where they can die unseen from their family, all of which sounds horrible.
Do I recommend this book? Not really. The author is often unclear, and his pessimistic view on humanity is disconcerting to say the least. Also, the book feels very dogmatic. Luckily, however, the teachings are based on love and selflessness, so even the extremist version of this religion doesn't lead to hatred and killing like Christianity and Islam. Hare Kṛṣṇa is definitely not the religion for me; I dislike any religion based on converting people through Fear. Yet, followers of Hare Kṛṣṇa do not harm anyone, and if anything they do make the world a better place.
May 17, 2020
The Laws of Nature
An Infallible Justice
by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
"Freedom" is a popular notion; we tend to think we're "free," that we can act as we like, and that our happiness is all that matters. The Laws of Nature; An Infallible Justice defines "freedom" differently. Here we're given a bracing reminder of the interconnectedness of all life, and the natural laws that govern all our actions; whether we're aware of them or not.
This short book presents the need for a connected, holistic worldview, and the profound benefits that come from acting with full awareness of our true selves, our place in the world, and the divine origins of both that world and ourselves.
Part One is a compilation of lectures that Srila Prabhupada gave on Sri Isopanishad in 1968. Self-satisfaction is possible, he says, to the degree we acknowledge the Supreme Person as the ultimate supplier of everything.
Part Two is an excerpt from Kapiladeva's description of karma—the universal law of action and reaction—found in the third canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam.
Part Three presents Srila Prabhupada's commentary on the Bhagavad-gita verse which he frequently promoted as the ultimate peace formula (5.29). Krishna says, "A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries."
An Infallible Justice
by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
"Freedom" is a popular notion; we tend to think we're "free," that we can act as we like, and that our happiness is all that matters. The Laws of Nature; An Infallible Justice defines "freedom" differently. Here we're given a bracing reminder of the interconnectedness of all life, and the natural laws that govern all our actions; whether we're aware of them or not.
This short book presents the need for a connected, holistic worldview, and the profound benefits that come from acting with full awareness of our true selves, our place in the world, and the divine origins of both that world and ourselves.
Part One is a compilation of lectures that Srila Prabhupada gave on Sri Isopanishad in 1968. Self-satisfaction is possible, he says, to the degree we acknowledge the Supreme Person as the ultimate supplier of everything.
Part Two is an excerpt from Kapiladeva's description of karma—the universal law of action and reaction—found in the third canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam.
Part Three presents Srila Prabhupada's commentary on the Bhagavad-gita verse which he frequently promoted as the ultimate peace formula (5.29). Krishna says, "A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries."
May 6, 2023
As an agnostic person raised by Hinduism, I went back in time to my conditioned childhood to recall all the tales of Mythology and retrieve philosophies resonating with the factors. It was an interesting take on reincarnation and karma although few of the factors are quite triggering to the modern world belief system. As a person who's open minded to belief systems, I'd like to learn more about the Krishna Consciousness and experience the change for myself and then quote anything further. I still cannot fathom how strong the religion is preached being inconsiderate of other religions like Christianity and Buddhism. And how the book stands by the traditional caste system and to strictly follow them while there's a whole sort of development in the humanity currently.
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But I'm quite intrigued to learn more about our ancient culture and the transcendalist movement that prevailed in 1820s and explore some art of music and poetry by some mystics like MeeraBhai, Kalidasa and Thakura and also learn more about the journey of the author and his creation that's existing currently.
.
But I'm quite intrigued to learn more about our ancient culture and the transcendalist movement that prevailed in 1820s and explore some art of music and poetry by some mystics like MeeraBhai, Kalidasa and Thakura and also learn more about the journey of the author and his creation that's existing currently.
March 15, 2021
The book was just great,but let me tell that i'm not that theist guy.i'm just a scientific person who was looking for help and moral support.Anyway,the book tells about sin,about krsna and about the miseries and punishments that you will suffer from your sinful actions.It also tells us that nothing is permanent in this material world including family,friends,kinsmen and everything in the material world is an illusion and the soul ,being carried away by the clutches of maya thinks everything to be his permanent
August 24, 2021
Great spiritual insights. Staying conscious in our working world, and follow spirituality is what's the balance of life.
May 6, 2025
The least interesting form of vedanta.
September 30, 2021
We all know the laws of the motion but do we really know the laws of nature. Which we have taken for granted...
One of my favourite book.
One of my favourite book.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews