KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS
A MILLENIA-OLD TRADITION
THE PHILOSOPHY OF KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS
The Vedas describe God as the origin of everything—of all universes and all living beings. Everything is related to God. Recognizing this original relationship with God and acting accordingly is known as Krishna consciousness.
Vedic philosophy deals with the central questions of life: Who am I? What happens to me after death? What is the purpose of life?
When people recognize the importance of these questions, their behavior towards the environment, fellow human beings, and indeed the entire planet will positively change. This highlights the relevance of Vedic scriptures.
Who am I? Am I my body, my thoughts, my feelings, or something more? The Bhagavad-gita explains that the true self of every living being is the spiritual soul. Spiritual refers to that which is eternal and not subject to material decay.
"Every living being is an eternal soul, which is never born and never dies."
– Bhagavad-gita 2.20
REINCARNATION
As eternal souls, we have lived before the birth of our present body and will continue to live after the death of the body. Death signifies the soul leaving the body and entering into a new body. The concept of soul reincarnation can be experimentally supported: Psychology now recognizes the method of past life regression therapy, where people under hypnosis are taken back to earlier lives and describe astonishing, verifiable details that they couldn't possibly know in their current life—sometimes even speaking languages they do not otherwise know. This contradicts the objection that such statements about past lives are due to imagination or external influence.
KARMA
Karma - the law of action and reaction. Unlike animals, humans possess free will and are therefore responsible for everything they do.
"As you sow, so shall you reap."
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
Our desires and actions determine our future in this life as well as in the next. Nothing is coincidence.
OVERCOMING KARMA
The soul transmigrates through the cycle of birth and death, moving from one body to another, until it is liberated through a process of purification. The knowledge of how to attain liberation from the material world and the strength to follow the path of God-realization are received through the grace of God. God may personally appear in the world or send His incarnations, sons, and prophets to open the gateway back to the spiritual world, the kingdom of God, for humanity.