Eight Points of Krishna Conscious Philosophy

The philosophy of the Hare Krsna movement (a monotheistic tradition) is summarized in the following eight points:

1. By sincerely cultivating the authentic spiritual science presented in the Bhagavad-gita and other Vedic scriptures, we can become free from anxiety and achieve a state of pure, unending, blissful consciousness.

2. Each of us is not the material body but an eternal spirit soul, part and parcel of God (Krsna). As such, we are all the eternal servants of Krsna and are interrelated through Him, our common father.

3. Krsna is the eternal, all-knowing, omnipresent, all-powerful, and all-attractive Personality of Godhead. He is the seed-giving father of all living beings and the sustaining energy of the universe. He is the source of all incarnations of God, including Lord Buddha and Lord Jesus Christ.

4. The Vedas are the oldest scriptures in the world. The essence of the Vedas is found in the Bhagavad-gita, a literal record of Krsna's words spoken five thousands years ago in India. The goal of Vedic knowledge-and of all religions-is to achieve love of God.

5. We can perfectly understand the knowledge of self-realization through the instructions of a genuine spiritual master-one who is free from selfish motives, who teaches the science of God explained in the Bhagavad-gita, and whose mind is firmly fixed in meditation on Krsna.

6. All that we eat should first be offered to Lord Krsna with a prayer. In this way Krsna accepts the offering and blesses it for our purification.

7. Rather than living in a self-centered way, we should act for the pleasure of Lord Krsna. This is known as bhakti-yoga, the science of devotional service.

8. The most effective means for achieving God consciousness in this Age of Kali, or quarrel, is to chant the holy names of the Lord: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.