Rating:  Summary: Srimad-Bhagavatam is a MUST read for all. Review: Srimad-Bhagavatam is a MUST read for any persons interested in the spiritual life. Human beings are forever running about in anxiety about material things. Human beings, knowing the impermanance of the physical world, realize that someday they will die. But human beings do not want to die. This is natural because human beings, the spirit-soul not the physical body, is eternal. Being an eternal entity, human beings feel fear and anxiety while trapped in the physical body. Human beings forget that they are eternal and will not die. Srimad-Bhagavatam is the roadmap back home; back to God! Read Srimad-Bhagavatam and put an end to your fear and anxiety!
Rating:  Summary: Transcendental Literature at Its Finest Review: The Srimad Bhagavatams are what many consider the next step after reading Bhagavad Gita. It provides insight on everything from astrological and astromical information (Canto 5) to the sweet pastimes of Sri Sri Radha Krishna (canto 10). Sure, it's a very long read, but once you finish, you have a much greater insight on the spiritual realm. It provides more insight than the Torah, Bible, Qur'an, and all of its Hadiths put together (and I've read all of them, so I know)Melody Green says the book is anti technology, racist, and sexist. Excuse me? Provide some examples, please. Because I seriously doubt you even read this book. Maybe you met an overzealous devotee at Los Angeles int'l and decided to write a bad review based on that entirely. You can't say Hare Krishna devotees prohibit the use of technology because we use the internet as a means of communicating with one another, recording lectures and books for posterity's sake, and as a medium for preaching. Do you seriously think we're going to go against our own scriptures? I don't think so. Take care, have a nice day, and don't believe EVERYTHING that ISKCON tells you ;) Vaishnava Dasanudas, Krsnacandra dasa
Rating:  Summary: Don't waste your money on this book Review: This collection of books is way too expensive, instead get the Library of Vedic Culture CD-ROM where you can get the presentation of all the books by Srila Prabhupada plus devotional paintings and bhajans. And the real good news: all of this is under 13 dollars.
Rating:  Summary: Revealing the summum bonum of life Review: Well, $400 is a lot to pay for a set of books, but this will be the best $400 you ever spent, in my humble opinion. Srimad Bhagavatam is absolutely mind blowing, challenging every materialistic paradigm with devastating logic and searing spiritual truths. Described in its own text as the "literary incarnation of God", it aims to bring the reader to pure spiritual consciousness -- and that's in just the first nine volumes. The tenth and largest volume in the set deals with the sublime and inconceivably beautiful pastimes of Krishna, proclaimed by this and all other Vedic texts as the Supreme Lord. It is a challenging read, not for those who still think that we can make this world into some kind of paradise, maybe adjust things so that suffering will disappear. Those who believe that life is meant for satisifying the senses and the mind will also soon put it down. The Bhagavatam dismisses such notions as utter foolishness. It asserts that the living being is an eternal part of the Supreme Spirit, meant to enjoy unlimited spiritual bliss, but only when he or she gives up the endeavour for material happiness. And it states in no uncertain terms that we do not belong in this world, a world where birth, death, disease, old age, anxiety, pestilence, war and a host of other miseries are ultimately unavoidable. But misery, says the Bhagavatam, can and will be avoided just as soon as we apply in our lives the spiritual science it advocates. That science is the pursuit of transcendence, of a world where misery is entirely unknown, where we experience an ineffable happiness beyond anything ever achievable within the material sphere. The author Prabhupada illuminates the meaning of every text with brilliant purports. True, they are not always easy to fathom, but the Bhagavatam tells us that the very endeavour to understand its message is itself purifying to the intelligence, and thus the meaning gradually reveals itself, like the sun penetrating an early morning fog. After almost twenty-five years of studying Prabhupada's Bhagavatam, I think I am about ready to admit that I am in that fog. Now I think it is time to do something about it, and this book, at least for me, is definitely the answer. I will leave you with two of the invocatory prayers. "Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhagavatam propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhagavatam, compiled by the great sage Vyasadeva, is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhagavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart." (SB 1.1.1) "This Bhagavatam is as brilliant as the sun, and it has arisen just after the departure of Lord Krishna to His own abode, accompanied by religion, knowledge, etc. Persons who have lost their vision due to the dense darkness of ignorance in the age of Kali shall get light from this Purana." (SB 1.3.43) Om Tat Sat Vaishnava dasanudas Krishna Dharma
Rating:  Summary: Revealing the summum bonum of life Review: Well, $400 is a lot to pay for a set of books, but this will be the best $400 you ever spent, in my humble opinion. Srimad Bhagavatam is absolutely mind blowing, challenging every materialistic paradigm with devastating logic and searing spiritual truths. Described in its own text as the "literary incarnation of God", it aims to bring the reader to pure spiritual consciousness -- and that's in just the first nine volumes. The tenth and largest volume in the set deals with the sublime and inconceivably beautiful pastimes of Krishna, proclaimed by this and all other Vedic texts as the Supreme Lord. It is a challenging read, not for those who still think that we can make this world into some kind of paradise, maybe adjust things so that suffering will disappear. Those who believe that life is meant for satisifying the senses and the mind will also soon put it down. The Bhagavatam dismisses such notions as utter foolishness. It asserts that the living being is an eternal part of the Supreme Spirit, meant to enjoy unlimited spiritual bliss, but only when he or she gives up the endeavour for material happiness. And it states in no uncertain terms that we do not belong in this world, a world where birth, death, disease, old age, anxiety, pestilence, war and a host of other miseries are ultimately unavoidable. But misery, says the Bhagavatam, can and will be avoided just as soon as we apply in our lives the spiritual science it advocates. That science is the pursuit of transcendence, of a world where misery is entirely unknown, where we experience an ineffable happiness beyond anything ever achievable within the material sphere. The author Prabhupada illuminates the meaning of every text with brilliant purports. True, they are not always easy to fathom, but the Bhagavatam tells us that the very endeavour to understand its message is itself purifying to the intelligence, and thus the meaning gradually reveals itself, like the sun penetrating an early morning fog. After almost twenty-five years of studying Prabhupada's Bhagavatam, I think I am about ready to admit that I am in that fog. Now I think it is time to do something about it, and this book, at least for me, is definitely the answer. I will leave you with two of the invocatory prayers. "Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhagavatam propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhagavatam, compiled by the great sage Vyasadeva, is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhagavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart." (SB 1.1.1) "This Bhagavatam is as brilliant as the sun, and it has arisen just after the departure of Lord Krishna to His own abode, accompanied by religion, knowledge, etc. Persons who have lost their vision due to the dense darkness of ignorance in the age of Kali shall get light from this Purana." (SB 1.3.43) Om Tat Sat Vaishnava dasanudas Krishna Dharma
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