1. Ishvara – The Supreme Lord

An excellent rose sprouting in the garden doesn’t show up on its own. It has a source – the seed. Clearly, there is a cause and an effect for everything in this world. Any object of this world we see is not shown all alone but is created from a source. Along these lines on watchful thought, we comprehend that each article has a source. How could a painting show up without a painter, despite the fact that there is an easel, paint, brush, etc? Thus by careful analysis, we find the painter as the main reason for a painting to manifest. Similarly, the creation is not generated on its own.

2. Jiva – The Living Entity

The living entity has no separate independent identity. He is the marginal energy of the Supreme. When he is entrapped by material energy, he is conditioned and when he is Krishna conscious or aware of the spiritual energy, then he is in his real and natural state of life.

3. PRAKRITI – The Material Nature

Material nature is the separated energy of the Supreme Lord. Material nature is not independent. She is acting under the directions of the Supreme Lord. Material nature or Prakruti is female, and she is controlled by the Lord just as the activities of a wife are controlled by the husband. Prakruti is always subordinate, prevailed by the Lord, who is the predominator. Prakruti is always under control of the Supreme Lord, whether inferior or superior. The Superior energy – living entities and Inferior energy – Material nature are both predominated, and controlled by the Supreme Lord.

4. Kala – Eternal Time

Kala means time. Time has got its very great influence. Time’s business is to depreciate. Kala’s business is to kill and destroy. 

Kala is a powerful force of the Supreme Lord Who destroys and disintegrates everything in this material world. In the Bhagavad-gita, the Supreme Lord says that He devours everything of this world as Kala.

5. Karma – Activities

In this world, living entities are engaged in various activities called karma. Every action in this world brings reaction. Living entities are suffering or enjoying the results of their activities from time immemorial, but they can change the results of karma, or their activity, and this change depends on the perfection of knowledge. The effects of karma may be very old. They do not know what sort of activities they should adopt to gain release from the actions and reactions of all activities. This knowledge is explained in the Bhagavad-gita.

Text extracted from ISKCON Bangalore

Srila Prabhupada traveled by steamship from Calcutta to New York City, arriving at the height of the youth counterculture wave of the 1960s. Living amid bohemians, beatniks, hippies, and self-proclaimed drug prophets, his mission was to turn whoever would listen on to the chanting of Hare Krishna and the teachings of the Bhagavad-gita.

During the next ten years, he would attract thousands of followers, publish dozens of volumes of translation and commentary on the sacred writings of the Vedas, establish over a hundred centers for the International Society for Krishna consciousness throughout the world, make "Hare Krishna" a household word, and jump-start one of the fastest-growing spiritual movements in history.

 The research team assembled by the author traveled throughout the world to gather thousands of hours of interviews with hundreds of people who knew Srila Prabhupada; diaries and memoirs from his students; and more than seven thousand of Srila Prabhupada’s letters. Then the author and his team distilled this voluminous firsthand source material into a rich composite view of Srila Prabhupada, a dazzling and colorful picture of one of the most remarkable lives of our times.