We often think of “life” as a relatively short span of time in between our birth and our death—we celebrate birth as “coming into life” and mourn for the “dead”—when in fact life is an unending continuum, and what we call “birth and death” are merely bodily changes.

This is Krishna’s beginning instruction in the Bhagavad-gita; for the self there is neither birth nor death. We’re all eternal spiritual beings, meant to live eternally in relationship with the Supreme Person. The joy we experience once we understand the difference between our self and our material covering cannot be overestimated.

Beyond Birth and Death was prepared from transcripts of lectures Srila Prabhupada gave in 1966 on the second and eighth chapters of the Bhagavad-gita.

Translation and commentary by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Translation and commentary by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Sri Brihad-bhagavatamrita is an epic work composed in Sanskrit during the sixteenth century by Sanatana Goswami, one of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu‘s leading disciples. It is one of the first books written by any of the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan.

In three volumes, it gives an easily readable account of two great spiritual quests. In one, the Vedic sage Narada searches throughout the universe for Krishna’s greatest devotee. In the other, the cowherd boy Gopa Kumar searches for Krishna Himself—the Supreme Person, the ultimate goal of life.

The Bhagavatamrita is rooted in ancient history. It is the appendix to the sage Jaimini Rishi’s version of the historical saga Mahabharata, and was spoken by the hero of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, King Pariksit, to his mother, just moments before the king’s death.

This edition of Sri Brihad-bhagavatamrita is the work of Gopiparanadhana Dasa, who was part of the team of Srila Prabhupada’s scholarly disciples who completed the translation and commentary on Srila Prabhupada’s life’s work—the Srimad-Bhagavatam—after Srila Prabhupada’s passing in 1977. Gopiparanadhana Dasa wrote several volumes of translation and commentary on the Goswamis’ writings before his passing in 2011.

Sri Brihad-bhagavatamrita is an epic work composed in Sanskrit during the sixteenth century by Sanatana Goswami, one of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu‘s leading disciples. It is one of the first books written by any of the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan.

In three volumes, it gives an easily readable account of two great spiritual quests. In one, the Vedic sage Narada searches throughout the universe for Krishna’s greatest devotee. In the other, the cowherd boy Gopa Kumar searches for Krishna Himself—the Supreme Person, the ultimate goal of life.

The Bhagavatamrita is rooted in ancient history. It is the appendix to the sage Jaimini Rishi’s version of the historical saga Mahabharata, and was spoken by the hero of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, King Pariksit, to his mother, just moments before the king’s death.

This edition of Sri Brihad-bhagavatamrita is the work of Gopiparanadhana Dasa, who was part of the team of Srila Prabhupada’s scholarly disciples who completed the translation and commentary on Srila Prabhupada’s life’s work—the Srimad-Bhagavatam—after Srila Prabhupada’s passing in 1977. Gopiparanadhana Dasa wrote several volumes of translation and commentary on the Goswamis’ writings before his passing in 2011.

Sri Brihad-bhagavatamrita is an epic work composed in Sanskrit during the sixteenth century by Sanatana Goswami, one of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu‘s leading disciples. It is one of the first books written by any of the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan.

In three volumes, it gives an easily readable account of two great spiritual quests. In one, the Vedic sage Narada searches throughout the universe for Krishna’s greatest devotee. In the other, the cowherd boy Gopa Kumar searches for Krishna Himself—the Supreme Person, the ultimate goal of life.

The Bhagavatamrita is rooted in ancient history. It is the appendix to the sage Jaimini Rishi’s version of the historical saga Mahabharata, and was spoken by the hero of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, King Pariksit, to his mother, just moments before the king’s death.

This edition of Sri Brihad-bhagavatamrita is the work of Gopiparanadhana Dasa, who was part of the team of Srila Prabhupada’s scholarly disciples who completed the translation and commentary on Srila Prabhupada’s life’s work—the Srimad-Bhagavatam—after Srila Prabhupada’s passing in 1977. Gopiparanadhana Dasa wrote several volumes of translation and commentary on the Goswamis’ writings before his passing in 2011.

In the early sixteenth century the West was on one course, the East on another. In India, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was directing people inward, toward a scientific understanding of the highest knowledge of man’s spiritual nature.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita is the main work on the life and teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the incarnation of Krishna who appeared in India five hundred years ago. Lord Chaitanya introduced the chanting of the holy names of God as the prescribed method of God-realization for our time. He began what is today called the Hare Krishna movement, since the movement’s founder, Srila Prabhupada, comes in the Chaitanya line of spiritual masters.

Lord Chaitanya transformed the face of India in four respects: philosophically, by encountering, defeating and converting the greatest philosophers and thinkers of His day; religiously, by organizing the largest, most widespread theistic movement in India’s history; socially, by His strong challenges to the religious inequities of the caste system; politically, by His organization of a massive civil disobedience movement in Bengal, more than four centuries before Gandhi.

This English translation with commentary, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, reveals his consummate Bengali and Sanskrit scholarship, his intimate familiarity with the precepts of Sri Chaitanya, and his pure devotion to God.

In the early sixteenth century the West was on one course, the East on another. In India, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was directing people inward, toward a scientific understanding of the highest knowledge of man’s spiritual nature.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita is the main work on the life and teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the incarnation of Krishna who appeared in India five hundred years ago. Lord Chaitanya introduced the chanting of the holy names of God as the prescribed method of God-realization for our time. He began what is today called the Hare Krishna movement, since the movement’s founder, Srila Prabhupada, comes in the Chaitanya line of spiritual masters.

Lord Chaitanya transformed the face of India in four respects: philosophically, by encountering, defeating and converting the greatest philosophers and thinkers of His day; religiously, by organizing the largest, most widespread theistic movement in India’s history; socially, by His strong challenges to the religious inequities of the caste system; politically, by His organization of a massive civil disobedience movement in Bengal, more than four centuries before Gandhi.

This English translation with commentary, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, reveals his consummate Bengali and Sanskrit scholarship, his intimate familiarity with the precepts of Sri Chaitanya, and his pure devotion to God.