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So if you go on the ordinary way, from the karma platform to jnana platform, from jnana platform to yoga platform, but ultimately you have to come to the bhakti platform. If you do not come to the bhakti platform, then there is no question of liberation.

By H.D.G. Srila Prabhupada

Life Begins From Cleanliness

(Compiled from notes on lectures of H. H. Mahavishnu Goswami)

The following is a transcription of a lecture given by our spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaja on 2008-12-10 in Shree Shree Radha-NeelMadhav dham, Rajkot. Maharaja was explaining the following verse from shastras.

sukhasya duhkhasya na kopi daataa / paro dadaati iti kubuddhir eshaa
puraa krtam karma sadaiva bhujyate / dehin kvacin nistara yat tvayaa krtam
“No one is the cause fo

“If you go to the spiritual planet, Vaikuëöhaloka or Goloka Våndävana, then you haven’t got to return. That is eternal.” Tyaktvä dehaà punar janma naiti mäm eti [Bg. 4.9]. Mäm eti. If you go to Kåñëa, then your complete success is... 
mäm upetya punar janma 
duùkhälayam açäçvatam 
näpnuvanti mahätmänaù 
saàsiddhià paramäà gatäù 
 [Bg. 8.15] 
Saàsiddhim, that is the highest perfection, paramam. Therefore we should try, we should endeavor, for that purpose, how to go back to home, back to Godhead. 
So si

viñayä vinivartante 
nirähärasya dehinaù 
rasa-varjaà raso ’py asya 
paraà dåñövä nivartate

SYNONYMS 
viñayäù—objects for sense enjoyment; vinivartante—are practiced to be refrained from; nirähärasya—by negative restrictions; dehinaù—for the embodied; rasa-varjam—giving up the taste; rasaù—sense of enjoyment; api—although there is; asya—his; param—far superior things; dåñövä—by experiencing; nivartate—he ceases from.

TRANSLATION 
The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the tast

viñayä vinivartante 
nirähärasya dehinaù 
rasa-varjaà raso ’py asya 
paraà dåñövä nivartate

SYNONYMS 
viñayäù—objects for sense enjoyment; vinivartante—are practiced to be refrained from; nirähärasya—by negative restrictions; dehinaù—for the embodied; rasa-varjam—giving up the taste; rasaù—sense of enjoyment; api—although there is; asya—his; param—far superior things; dåñövä—by experiencing; nivartate—he ceases from.

TRANSLATION 
The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the tast

Tuesday, 2 July 1974

Vaikunthanatha went to Prabhupada's room early in the morning to return a dictation tape. He quietly opened the door and peered inside.

Vaikunthanatha: Srila Prabhupada was wrapped in a chaddar, sitting on his rocking chair, chanting softly on his beads. I was startled. Prabhupada was in a very, very profound state of meditation and appeared effulgent. I decided not to enter, and quietly closed the door.

I suddenly realised my fortune to have witnessed

Satsvarupa Goswami: I recall Prabhupada's power as a preacher and self-realised devotee; and I remember the amazing fact that Prabhupada was constantly speaking Krsna conscious realisations -- as he sat down for lunch, as he spoke to devotees in his room, or even as he went to sleep at night. His flow of devotional arguments shows that Prabhupada's thoughts were deeply-felt convictions, and at the same time they were the exact conclusions of the scriptures.

We also didn't

Since Prabhupada's visit to New Zealand in 1973, Tusta Krsna Swami had left ISKCON and was heading up his own group outside the jurisdiction of the local temple. Adamant that he would neither move back in the temple nor work co-operatively with ISKCON, he had given up the sannyasa dress and grown his hair.

However, Tusta Krsna had recently arrived in Melbourne and had visited Prabhupada a couple of times. Srila Prabhupada had expressed his appreciation for Tusta Krsna's servic

"I think you are also interested in revolution. We are interested in revolution also. But we are interested in revolution that will help people to feel peace themselves, whether they are communists or Marxists or whatever it is you like. We are trying to help people attain happiness because they are...."

This comment of Madhudvisa's triggered the largest vocal protest yet. The commotion rose to a climax as students all over the hall began to shout together, and it

A late-morning speaking engagement at La Trobe University's Agora Theatre had been advertised widely. When Prabhupada entered the chilly hall he found it packed with students. Devotees held a kirtana on stage and introduced Srila Prabhupada, who, looking grave, began speaking very basically about the soul and the body and how this education is required for all people.

But after no more than ten minutes, a young man in the audience stood up and began to shout profa

Later in the morning, a couple of young men from a local yoga asrama came to speak to Srila Prabhupada. They were respectful, and asked some very good questions, which Srila Prabhupada spent a considerable time answering.

Young man: Your Divine Grace, is the purpose of human life to realise God?

Prabhupada: Yes, that is the only purpose.

Young man: Srila Prabhupada, have you realised God?

Prabhupada: What do you think? What is your opinion?

Young man: I can't say.

Prabhupada: T

It was less than six weeks before the scheduled opening of the Krsna-Balarama Mandir in Vrndavana, India, and Srila Prabhupada had not received any report from there. He was concerned that everything be ready on time for the gorgeous installation ceremony. After breakfast, he wrote to Gurudasa in Vrndavana:

I am spending my last two days in Australia and after this I shall go to the U.S.A. In the meantime I wish to give you some instructions regarding our Janmastami in

Monday, 1 July 1974

Srila Prabhupada took another walk at Melbourne's Botanic Gardens. Prabhupada, his head wrapped in a long orange scarf, alighted from the car and paused briefly on the perimeter road near the entrance to the Gardens. Satsvarupa held a microphone forward to record his words.

Rama Prasad: It was early morning -- dawn actually -- and there was only the barest glimmer of light. Yet so many cars were zooming past on the arterial road nearby. Prabhupada looked tow

Since his last visit to Melbourne, Prabhupada's artist disciple Syamananda had moved out of the temple and grown a beard. Today he had again come to see Srila Prabhupada. Some devotees had predicted that when Srila Prabhupada saw him in his non-Vaisnava attire and hairstyle, he would not be very pleased. Syamananda had just completed a new art painting -- half-oil, half-pastels, and now he had brought it to the house to present it to Srila Prabhupada as a gift.

Sya

The Sunday Press, under the head "A Day for Cymbals and Chants" gave a favourable description of the previous day's parade. As devotees read Prabhupada the article, he recalled the beautiful statue of Lord Caitanya carved for the parade. Everything about it, he said, was perfect.

"Who has made?" he inquired, and the devotees informed him that it was Dhaumya dasa.

"This boy is very good." he said, and asked someone to bring Dhaumya to his room.

The carving of the statue had pro

We cannot accept anyone as an avatara unless he has the symptoms described in the scriptures. Nowadays it has become a fashion that any man can come and say that he is God or an incarnation of God, and some accept it: "Oh, he is God." We do not accept an avatara like that. We take evidence from the Vedas. An avatara must conform to descriptions in the Vedas. Then we accept him; otherwise no. For each avatara there is a description in the Vedas: He will appear at such and such a place, in such an