Fan The Spark

1 week ago | [YT] | 17

Fan The Spark

Be a Sage Page by Page: Get Your Bhāgavatam Number

We recommend that everybody take this year—where there is uncertainty in the world—to take shelter of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Get grounded in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam so that you’re not carried away by the news of the world. There’s bigger news here in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. You just read five pages a day, or even one page a day religiously—meaning that, without fail, you read your Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam every day. Set it up in your house so it’s open, it’s on the stand, it’s ready to go, it’s marked. Whatever happens—there’s a gas leak in your house and they tell you to evacuate—you take the Bhāgavatam with you. You wait for PG&E outside, and you read your five pages before they come to make sure your house doesn’t blow up. That’s how dedicated you should be to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.


We all have to be dedicated to something, but right now, we get distracted and dedicated to those things that are here today, gone tomorrow, and such investments produce no permanent result. But reading even one page of Bhāgavatam a day will give us a view to the spiritual world and the opportunity to leave this world and go back home, back to Godhead at the end.

So, we ask everyone to start this program today of picking a number. Please download the app called Be a Sage, Page by Page. It’s good for iOS and for Android. And then sit with your families, sit by yourself, and pick the number that you’re going to do. Write it on a piece of paper and say: "From now, from now until the 26th of September, I’m going to read this many pages every day of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam."
Try to get your family members involved, and try to get your neighbors involved. If you have friends or family anywhere else, start a Zoom call and get them involved, too, so you can read to them between now and the 26th September your number of pages. We are going to try to get everybody on the planet—starting with all of us. Each one of us gets three people, who can get three more people. I know, it’s multi-level marketing! Then we can expand the vibration of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam all over the planet between now and the 26th.

And after that, we’ll go back to scrolling. Does that sound okay? You can read the newspaper, you can do anything you want, as long as you take up this vow between now and the 26th of September to do some portion of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam every day and involve some other people in it. What do you think?

Maya Delayed is Maya Denied | HG Vaisesika Dasa | ISV | 22 Mar 2026 https://youtu.be/09TMx-RT1Pk

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 68

Fan The Spark

Upcoming Programs Live From UK. Please note that the timings mentioned are in UK time zone.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 7

Fan The Spark

Last night I found in our attic a box of books that Nirākulā inherited from her father—although she blames me because she said, "You’re the one who probably got attached to them." They’re classics: Plato, Aristotle; and they’re old classics, too. They have original binding and pictures in them and things like that. I took them down from the attic—painstakingly, I might add; it was not easy. I looked at them early this morning. I took a picture of the stack for ChatGPT, my new buddy. I didn’t make any comment. I just said, "Here, I found these."

And do you know what he told me? He said, "You don’t need these." He said, "You have Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā." He said, "Maybe out of these twenty, you know, you pick out two or three." Then I looked around my room and around our house. We have Bhāgavatam in every room, plus we have all the other books. We are just finishing this book, Miracle on Second Avenue, and I was thinking—I’ve been calculating how much time I have left in the world, if I’m lucky—and I couldn’t read these. I can’t read Ivanhoe, and I can’t read Plato’s dialogues and all these things. I really don’t have time for it, what’s the point of keeping them? That’s what ChatGPT was trying to tell me.

One of the points here is that we don’t have much time. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says, āyur harati vai puṁsām—that the sun rises and sets, udyann astaṁ ca yann asau—and that you should know that every time it’s going overhead, it’s saying, "Look, I’m taking away your life." But if somebody is engaged in hearing from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it says it’s life-giving. You’re investing. So, all other books can go away. We really don’t have to read that many self-help books, because Bhāgavatam has everything.

In fact, I’ve had a long-standing relationship with Rūpānuga Prabhu, the one who’s the head of the GBC College. He teaches management at Chapman University down in Irvine—top-flight university. He has been teaching there for many years. The first time he picked us up at the airport in Irvine, when we went down to visit Southern California, I got in the car and I said, "Okay, teach me about management."

He said, "Prabhupāda already taught you everything."
I said, "How do you mean that?"
He said, "tṛṇād api sunīcena."

Of course, I wheedled more out of him over time. But there are so many books, so many ideas, and there’s very little time. The main teachings that will help us in life are all here in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So, reading it once will not be enough. Of course, even reading one word or one verse could be enough, but I’m saying it in terms of: the more you read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the more you’ll be astounded. If you think you’re astounded by the brilliance of ChatGPT, multiply that by a trillion when it comes to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Because you have this feeling when you read the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that, "Oh, it’s speaking to me. It knows me. It knows my foibles and the ways I’ve been caught up here in the material world since time immemorial." So, this is a living, breathing Deity of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It’s the sound vibration from the spiritual world.

Maya Delayed is Maya Denied | HG Vaisesika Dasa | ISV | 22 Mar 2026 https://youtu.be/09TMx-RT1Pk

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 72

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Success is Built Before it is Seen

You have to follow the scriptures —pramāṇais tat-sad-ācārais (BS 5.59), and you have to behave properly, tad-abhyāsais. You have to have abhyāsa; you have to practice again and again. And about that, I’m going to read you a couple of quotes. Do you want to hear a couple of quotes about practice?

Success is built before it is seen.

Growth requires commitment.

Leaders grow strongest in quiet consistency.

I was really inspired by 'Success is built before it is seen,' because in the early practices of devotional service, there are oftentimes complaints: 'How come I’m the only one who can’t get anything?' 'I’ve been left behind,' and 'I don’t have a taste,' and so forth. But if we apply ourselves—pramāṇais tat-sad-ācārais tad-abhyāsair—practice. How much? A lot!

How much should you practice? A lot. It’s two words. How much? A lot. Some people make it one word, 'a lot.' Okay, so how much abhyāsa? Nirantaram, he says. How much did you practice? Pretty much all the time. Nirantaram means without stopping.

'Bodhayan ātmanātmānaṁ' means then there will be awakening. Bodhayan means an awakening of the soul to the relationship with the Lord. 'Bodhayan ātmanātmānaṁ bhaktim apy uttamāṁ labhet'—one will attain this bhakti. Bhaktyā sañjātayā bhaktyā (SB 11.3.31), like this verse says: if you practice the first kind of bhakti properly, then naturally there will be an awakening.

So this idea of rāgānuga—it’s our practice, and we’re fully equipped. Everything is there. The Holy Name is the consolidated practice given by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who has taken everything in all of the cultures of the Vedic system and all the śāstras, and He has put it in one place. We need that. By chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa without offense, then one can achieve the perfection of life which we’re just describing.

Success is Built Before it is Seen | SB 11.3.31| HG Vaisesika Dasa | POTH, Puri | 16 Feb 2026
https://youtu.be/7JI3yzv86F4

1 month ago | [YT] | 92

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Ami Bangla Boli !!

Books are what we call literary kīrtana. Nāmāny anantasya yaśo ’ṅkitāni yat (SB 1.5.11) — the literatures are written kīrtana.

Imagine you do a kīrtana, which we should do in every place we go; then, when you give somebody a book, they walk away with a kīrtana in their hand. It goes into their house, it goes into the company, it goes everywhere. It is the same thing only; it is called Bṛhat-mṛdaṅga. It is the 'greater kīrtana' because it can go further.

So: give out books, give out prasādam, give out the Holy Name, and then teach these basic principles. People will be very satisfied with you.

Two Key Instructions of Caitanya Mahaprabhu | HG Vaisesika Dasa | GYR | Kurma Kshetra | 26 Dec 2025
https://youtu.be/XWDSu2MmabE

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1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 82

Fan The Spark

Hare Krishna,
Please accept our humble obeisances!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Here are the playlists of HG Vaisesika Dasa's talks on His Bhaktivedanta Thesis delivered at ISKCON of Silicon Valley so far.

YouTube: www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

SoundCloud:soundcloud.com/fan-the-spark/sets/talks-on-hg-vais…

1 month ago | [YT] | 48

Fan The Spark

My deepest thanks to the Mayapur Institute, to my teachers, Rādhikā Nāgara and Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita Prabhu, and my wife, Nirākulā Devī Dāsī, without whom I would not have been able to procure this diploma.
Seeing Śrīla Prabhupāda’s dedication to writing his books, and having received a personal instruction from him in 1973 to read his books, I’m very happy to offer this diploma to His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. And noticing how much effort he put into writing his books, I’ve always thought: if I can put in as much effort into reading his books as he’s put into writing them, then maybe I will amount to something.

Of course, I can nowhere match his efforts, because he’s from the spiritual world, but I’m running behind him with that endeavor. So on this day, I hereby offer to His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda this diploma, which is an offering from my heart. Thanks for saving me from this dark material world through his divine books; and I intend, for the rest of my life, to continue studying them deeply, trying to assimilate what he’s given, which is the most valuable, heartfelt spiritual knowledge available anywhere within all three worlds. Hare Kṛṣṇa.Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda. I hereby offer you this diploma, and thank you very much for saving me from the material world. Śrīla Prabhupāda, kī jaya!

My sincere request to all my disciples: please read all of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books. Please take Bhakti-śāstrī, Bhakti-vaibhava, Bhakti-vedānta, and when it’s available, Bhakti-sārvabhauma. Always study Śrīla Prabhupāda's books, because they’re as deep as the ocean; and if you try to swim in that ocean, you’ll find out just how deep it is. In the process, you’ll become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious by the mercy of His Divine Grace. Thank you for considering my request.

Offering Bhakti Vedanta Diploma to Srila Prabhupada | HG Vaisesika Dasa | Mayapur | 12 Feb 2026
https://youtu.be/1UFqQTYIcz4

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 147

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If you chant the Mahamantra, read some Bhagavad-gītā, and have a discussion—a little prasādam—what else do you need? Everyone feels happy and satisfied, and it’s complete. So, my plan was to keep going in Chapter 14; it would be nice to complete that. And then, when I thought about that, my next thought was: 'What about Chapter 15?' The Bhagavad-gītā never gets old. Sometimes we move on and think of other śāstras, which is nice also. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, especially, is an ocean one could swim in for many lifetimes and still feel that one hasn’t gone very far.
But coming back to the Bhagavad-gītā seems to be foundational and very helpful, even for going into the Bhāgavatam and elsewhere. All the ācāryas gave commentary on the Bhagavad-gītā especially. It’s been well-preserved over the years because of their watchful eyes; it hasn't been interpolated because we have a record of so many commentaries over millennia.
So, we’re fortunate to sit here with this. Prabhupāda points out that reading the Bhagavad-gītā is the same as Arjuna hearing from Kṛṣṇa. In other words, the experience is direct because Kṛṣṇa is speaking not just to Arjuna, but to us as well. The first time I got a Bhagavad-gītā was when I was in high school, and I would say that I would thrill every time I went through it—and that was every day. Every time I read it, I felt as if Kṛṣṇa was talking directly to me, and I was experiencing Him on the page. That is the 'free sample' I got just from reading it again and again. I’m just expressing a little happiness.

Reading From Bhagavad-gita, Ch 14 | HG Vaisesika Dasa | Sridhama Mayapur | Feb 2026
youtube.com/live/LzZadpJmol4

1 month ago | [YT] | 36

Fan The Spark

Most people know that texting and driving is very dangerous because, even if you take your eyes off the road for a millisecond, you can end up piling into another car. It's amazing how just a diversion of attention while driving takes you into a precarious situation.
Similarly, when chanting, don't 'text' in your mind other things. Don't take it off—because it is so consequential, the connection that we make with our own will and our attention and giving it to Kṛṣṇa. That's the main—that’s the main connection that we have: willfully giving our attention to the Holy Name.

It’s not just 'chanting,' just as it’s not just 'driving.' Anybody can get in and drive, but driving and paying attention at the same time, that is the point. You can count with your fingers how many times the Holy Name hits your ear. Make that the count—not just that your fingers are moving or your lips are moving while the Holy Name is going somewhere else but actually count it like that: 'Okay, that’s one, it hit. Here’s two, it hit. Three, it hit.' And keep bringing it back, so that your voice is purposefully aiming at your ear and it keeps hitting over and over again. Then you can count it, and that's where the traction takes place.

Chanting is bringing the attention back. And if you divert, you'll 'pile into a car' somewhere; then you'll get some anxiety—I didn't do this, I didn't do that—and then you've completely forgotten your chanting. That means you crashed while chanting. So, don't text and chant. Stay very focused and try to hit the ear.

The Best Search Engine is Krishna in Your Heart | Japa Jolt | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 28 Jan 2026 https://youtu.be/zfOXhvz1iC4

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1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 81