Srila Prabhupada:
Letter to Hamsaduta and Himavati written in Los Angeles on March 3, 1968:
“The more one feels imperfect in Krishna’s service, the more he is advancing in Krishna Consciousness. Even the topmost devotees feel they are inadequate in their service to the Lord. So it is good to feel inadequate, and to try harder to please Krishna with better service. But one should never feel, oh, I have seen Krishna, and so I am reached perfection—this is not Krishna Consciousness.”
Bhaktisiddhanta Saravati Thakura:
Quoted in Vaishnava Compassion:
“The world is in no need of any reformer. The world has a very competent person for guiding its minutest happenings. The person who finds that there is scope for reform of the world himself stands in need of reform. The world goes on in its own perfect way. No person can deflect it by the breadth of a hair from the course chalked out for it by providence. . . . What is necessary is to change our outlook to this very world. . . . The scriptures declare that it is only necessary to listen with an open mind to the name of Krishna from the lips of a bona fide devotee. As soon as Krishna enters the listening ear, He clears up the vision of the listener so that he no longer has any ambition of ever-acting the part of a reformer of any other person, because he finds that nobody is left without the very highest guidance. It is therefore his own reform by the grace of God, whose supreme necessity and nature he is increasingly able to realize by the eternally continuing mercy of the Supreme Lord.”
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami:
From Vaishnava Compassion:
“To be truly compassionate requires faith. When we distribute the holy name, we are not just trying to help people hear krishna-nama but to awaken faith in their hearts. If we are faithless, how can we plant the seed of faith in others? The holy name itself is like fire—it will act on the heart of the hearer as He chooses—but Krishna has arranged for the holy name to be delivered through the devotees. Receiving the holy name is meant to be an exchange between devotees and anyone who will hear.”
“Someone will always ask the question, ‘Why should there be any creation in the first place? Creation only means suffering. If Krishna is compassionate, why doesn’t He simply bring everyone back to Godhead by arranging for us jivas to be in agreement with Him?’ But that is not how Krishna chooses to show His compassion. Rather, He wants the living entities to maintain their free will. This is because Krishna is interested in love. Love is voluntary; there is no question of forcing love. Therefore, His compassion is not to remove our free will but to allow us our choice while never abandoning us regardless of where we wander.”
“ALL DEVOTEES WILL AGREE THAT Krishna RESPONDS with compassion when a devotee prays. What is it, then, that blocks us from being aware of His response? This question has a simple answer. We cannot hear Krishna because we have already decided what He should say.”
From Begging for the Nectar of the Holy Name:
“Bhaktivinode Thakura recommends chanting in a sacred place, in the association of Vaisnavas who have already developed a taste for chanting. Also, constant chanting will help us to develop a taste. He also recommends chanting in the presence of Tulasi-devi. And for those who try all other measures and don’t get success, he suggests extreme methods like sitting in a closed room alone, covering the head and face with a cloth, ‘ . . . and concentrating on the holy name. Slowly, one develops attraction for the holy name.’ When Lord Krishna sees a devotee sincerely and enthusiastically attempting to chant, He will reciprocate by removing the neophyte’s mental inertia with the power of His name, and bring him into the association of advanced devotees.”
“‘The devotee should make it a regular practice to spend a little time alone in a quiet place and concentrate deeply on the holy name.’ (Harinama-cintamani, p. 84)”
Prahladananda Swami:
We have fifty qualities of Krishna, but in conditioned life we are covered by the material modes of nature. In goodness some of these good qualities are temporarily manifest. In passion there are some good qualities, but they are misused. In ignorance, one has the opposite of the good qualities needed for liberation.
Just pick up the newspaper. There are plenty of asuras [demoniac people] mentioned.
Good desires are Krishna’s desires.
Our only problem is we do not want to be with Krishna. We desire to take Krishna’s place. Krishna is in the center, and we are trying to be in the center.
Are we going to worship our dead material body or are we going to worship Krishna?
The beginning of devotion is to understand there is a God and He is not us, and He never will be us.
By absorbing ourselves in Krishna we are absorbing ourselves in transcendence and illumination.
In reality everything is already Krishna’s, so we are cannot actually offer anything to Krishna, but we can have the right desires. By hearing from Krishna’s representatives, we can learn the right desires.
Krishna is controlling everything here except our desires.
When a man asked why she chanted Hare Krishna, Sarasvati slapped him across the face with her five-year-old hand. Srila Prabhupada said, “That is nistha [steady faith].”
As the spark loses its glow when away from the fire, we lose our illumination when removed from Krishna.
Our principal relationship with others is to help them advance in Krishna consciousness. That is Lord Caitanya’s instruction. By doing that we will achieve the service of Lord Krishna’s devotees in Vrindavan.
Krishna will directly inspire us from within the heart if we act according to Bhagavad-gita 9.14: “Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.”
The devotee sees his enemy is not his enemy. He sees, “Because my enemies are inspiring me to take shelter of Krishna, they are not my enemies. My friends, because we are doing sense gratification together, are helping me to forget Krishna, and thus they are actually my enemies.”
We can start serving Krishna by chanting a regulated number of rounds daily and doing some service to the sankirtana movement, like maybe giving some donation.
The books allow people to think of Krishna instead of so many other things. Thus Srila Prabhupada judged the success of a program by the number of books distributed.
How to be successful at distributing books? “Tell people how nice they are. People are looking to be recognized. If you love their shoes, you love them, and they become enlivened.”
Generally the conditioned soul does not know he is a conditioned soul. Sometimes a conditioned soul thinks he is a liberated soul, whereas a liberated soul thinks he is fallen.
Adau sraddha [in the beginning is faith]. We have a little tendency to hear about Krishna. This sraddha means I think, “If I do this, I will become happy.”
The attitude is that we want to absorb our mind in Krishna consciousness and withdraw it from various material conceptions.
In the stage called utsaha-mayi, we are very enthusiastic. We think we are pure devotees but others haven’t realized it. We know it within our heart, and Krishna knows.
At anartha-nivrtti one is not bewildered by attachments or aversions.
At nistha one can feel the presence of Krishna, and one can see Krishna in one’s mind.
I understand I am the eternal servant of Krishna, and my business is to engage everyone and everything in helping people become Krishna consciousness.
At ruci everything become tasteful and gives one pleasure.
At bhava we have some genuine feeling for Krishna. Bhava is one ray of the sunlight of prema.
Prema is only the beginning. There are sneha, raga, anuraga, etc.
Bhava is the beginning of uttama-adhikara, the topmost level of devotion.
This pastime is put here not for us to criticize Bharata Maharaja but to show how careful we must be not to fall down.
In 1969, Srila Prabhupada told his servant, Purusottama, “I pray every night to Krishna to please protect me from maya.”
Our spiritual advancement is indicated by our desire for Krishna’s protection.
Mother Yashoda is not peaceful, but she is in ecstasy because she is Krishna conscious.
When we think of Krishna as an employer not as object of love, the devotees as competitors not as objects of service, the association of those averse to Krishna as valuable, and preaching to the innocent as troublesome or useless, we fall down from the vision of a madhyama.
Just chanting our rounds to get them done is like if Krishna walks in and we wonder, “How long is He going to be here for?”
When we chant with offenses we fall into material conceptions. If we have
knowledge, we can perceive this and do something about it.
By chanting Hare Krishna without offenses we can attain nistha, steadiness.
What we think about during the day, we think about during japa. So if we serve Krishna during the day, we will think of Krishna when we chant.
If Bharata took in the deer, fed it Krishna prasadam, and did not let it distract him from his spiritual life, he would have been all right.
People are suffering because they are changing their bodies. They are changing their bodies because they are forgetting Krishna. So by enlightening them about Krishna, we save them from suffering.
Q: On book distribution how do you keep people from taking too much of your time, if they do not want a book?
A: That is easy. Just say, “Thank you very much. It was nice meeting you. I do not want to waste your valuable time.” If they still want to talk, say “I’d love to talk, but they asked me to distribute these books.” Give the person a card to the temple, and invite him to come there to talk with you.
In the beginning, when I would go on book distribution, I would stand off to the side and pray for Krishna to send people. From time to time people would come over, and I would sell them a BTG. I learned from this how I was dependent on Krishna.
Once in the Philly Airport during the marathon I was doing 120 big books a day. I would do two books at a time. During the end of the marathon, I was so tired, I would just show people the two books and would not say anything, and people would open up their wallets and give me money.
Everything depends on desire, steady desire. Rely on Krishna. Enthusiasm, confidence, and patience: these qualities sell books. Our success is in developing these qualities.
Srila Prabhupada wanted the devotees to read or hear lectures an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening.
When I was treasurer, my temple president wanted me to get a job. I found that other temples were going on harinama and distributing BTGs and collecting enough to maintain the temple, so I decided to do that. It requires organization but it works.
Adi Purusha Prabhu [New York City Food for Life]:
When the householders get a deity, they do not think, “the deity is coming into our home.” Rather they consider, “The home belongs to Krishna, and we are living in the servant’s quarters and paying the rent.”
Adam and Eve stepped out of their innocence when they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Each year some of the people who enjoyed the association of the devotees and liked their kirtana and prasadam at the National Rainbow Gathering would come to New Vrindavan and stay for a week or so. Once some of them asked Radhanath Swami if they could be naked at New Vrindavan. Radhanath Swami replied gravely, “At New Vrindavan you have to strip all the way down to the soul.”
One rabbi told a story about a Jewish guy who followed strictly and made it to heaven. God congratulated him but saw he wasn’t completely happy, even though he was in heaven. God asked him what was wrong. The man said he had one son who was a nice Jewish boy but at the end of his life he became a Christian. God replied, “I had a son who did the same thing. It’s no big deal.”
Bhaktivinoda Prabhu:
From a car conversation:
Comment by me: Thank you for your dedication to harinama. It is inspiring when the senior devotees are enthusiastic about it to inspire us newer people.
Bhaktivinoda Prabhu: I just know it is Mahaprabhu’s program, and Srila Prabhupada wanted us to make it our life and soul.
Ramesvara Prabhu:
From a lecture on Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance day at The Bhakti Center:
I learned from Srila Prabhupada’s books that it is actually possible to know the Personality of Godhead and His pure devotee.
When Srila Prabhupada disappeared, for the devotees it was somewhat akin to a cosmic annihilation. They felt that everything they based their life on had been ripped apart from them. That feeling went on for days, and then we remembered there is no difference spiritually in the appearance and disappearance of the spiritual master.
As ecstatic as it is to serve the pure devotee in his personal presence, it is more ecstatic to serve the pure devotee in separation. Srila Prabhupada personified this in his relationship with his guru.
Comparing Srila Prabhupada’s contributions to those of his godbrothers and other followers, the difference is so great they cannot be compared.
We are accustomed celebrating a birth and mourning a death, so celebrating a disappearance is a foreign idea to us.
Srila Prabhupada understood his guru’s mission was to make the name of Lord Caitanya known in every town and village of the world. That was why his guru had appeared in this world.
Srila Prabhupada was not only a pure devotee, nor even only a saktyavesa-avatara, but he is that person who fulfilled whatever Lord Caitanya predicted and whatever Lord Caitanya desired.
Usually authors producing a series of books put out one book every three or four years. To put out one book every year is considered amazing. Srila Prabhupada produced almost one book a month for the last seven years he was present. Even more amazing was that while he was doing this, he traveled around the world, and he organized a worldwide movement.
Srila Prabhupada came at a time when drug and sex culture were highly glorified, meat eating was widespread, and gambling was promoted, and yet he convinced thousands of students all over the world to give up these activities.
Practically every temple in this movement during Srila Prabhupada’s time got a loan from their guru for construction.
He also created a school of art. The early ISKCON artists were very primitive in their skills, but in a very short time they became expert and produced many beautiful paintings.
Comment by Adi Purusha Prabhu: All these paintings in this room were present during Srila Prabhupada’s time.
Any one of these things, the book publishing, training students, worldwide lecturing, or temple management could have been a full time job, and yet Srila Prabhupada did them all at once.
If you think of what Srila Prabhupada did in comparison to any other person in history, where is the comparison?
We cannot comprehend extent of our karmic reactions from millions of births and the meaning of our guru freeing us from our karma.
The beauty of deity worship frees us from sex desire.
The verses of “Gurvastakam” reveal the complete program Srila Prabhupada had for a spiritual culture to save people from materialistic life.
Srila Prabhupada was sent to this world to give the highest knowledge of the Supreme Lord.
The ecstasy people experienced distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books was greater than anything they remembered from their days of intoxication.
After all the devotees returned from sankirtana, no matter how late it was, I would send the report to Srila Prabhupada. One day after reviewing it, he sent me a handwritten note:
“My dear boys and girls, you are working so hard for broadcasting the glories of Lord Krishna’s lotus feet and thus my Guru Maharaj will be so pleased upon you. Certainly my Guru Maharaj will bestow His blessings thousand times more than me and that is my satisfaction. All Glories to the assembled devotees.
“N.B. Every one should go with the Sankirtan Party as soon as possible.
“A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami”
The blessings you get from Srila Prabhupada are thousands of times more, perhaps millions times more, than from your guru.
Everyone should go with the sankirtana party as soon as possible.
I will be happy to return and give a class on book distribution. I will try my best to explain the spiritual dimension of book distribution
Gopal Hari Prabhu:
From a Sunday feast lecture in Alachua:
For new devotees, Krishna fulfills their material desires to encourage them, and for advanced devotees, Krishna takes away everything to facilitate them.
Q (by Sesa Prabhu): Is there a way to understand in the beginning if we are receiving a gift of the holy name or the result of our karma?
A: It may be difficult to understand, but if it takes one closer to Krishna you can see it is a gift of the holy name. Ultimately, in any case, the devotee is determined to accept only things that he can engage in Krishna’s service.
Comment by a devotee: When we approach Krishna even for material things we become purified and advance toward Krishna.
The state of love cannot be without happiness because in all circumstances the devotee is happy by giving pleasure to Krishna.
Murali Gopal Prabhu:
In medieval times, the king’s eldest son inherited everything, and the younger sons got nothing. The younger sons had two options, to join the monastery or to join the military. Thus often the second son would assassinate the first to get the inheritance. The disenfranchised princes in Europe would come to the West and pillage Latin America and take the goods back to Europe to live the life they wanted.
There is a place in New York City where you can get ice cream coated with gold for $1,000.
One industrialist wants to build a state in space. They are doing background checks on the people who want to live there.
Thus we are creating artificial needs.
Greed and lust blind us to others’ needs.
All divisions of society are recommended to decrease their needs to be self-satisfied in all circumstances.
Austerities help us keep our needs low.
When there are not enough resources, it creates conflict.
Ananda Bihari Prabhu:
Sukadeva Goswami describes Bharata Maharaja as a madman for forgetting his devotional practice because of affection for a baby deer. Calling someone a madman is very strong language.
You have to analyze what you do between the different services you perform to understand where you are at.
Maya is like an intruder. The best way to deal with an intruder is to keep him out because that is easier than kicking him out once he has entered.
I asked Adi Purusha Prabhu if he was going to vote. He replied, “I vote every day. I vote for Srila Prabhupada.”
I have attended seminars and read articles about raising a child, but none mentions that changing your own character is the best way to develop character in the child.
One strategy is to give the child a false choice. Are you washing your face with cold water or warm water? In this way, you get the child to do what you want.
The election is a false choice in a sense. Whether you vote from Clinton or Trump, so many difficulties will still be there.
If I do not chant my rounds every day, if I do not hear the class every day, then my work will become completely mundane.
You have to be steady in your service. Your happiness and distress are already determined.
Comment by Adi Purusha Prabhu: Keeping the connection with the spiritual master keeps us from drifting off course and doing mundane welfare without a spiritual objective. When you know you are doing what your guru wants, then you can be confident.
Mahotsaha Prabhu:
When we move our hand, we do not know how to move the different atoms. We have the desire, and Krishna, as the Supersoul in the heart, moves the material energy accordingly.
If just by knowing about Krishna, you do not have to take birth again, you can understand Krishna is transcendental.
The entire Srimad-Bhagavatam is a commentary on the Gayatri mantra.
Krishna did not want to accept shoes from His mother unless all of His 900,000 cows had them, because as a servant of the cows, He should not be in a superior position.
The father of Srinivasa Acarya, Ganga Narayana, longed to meet Lord Caitanya, and in 1510, he could not bear it, and he journeyed to Navadvipa. It was about the time Lord Caitanya took sannyasa. After seeing Lord Caitanya he became transformed in spiritual ecstasy, and people called him Caitanya dasa. Later both parents visited Lord Caitanya in Puri, and Lord Caitanya predicted a great devotee would take birth as their son and be named Srinivasa Acarya.
Narahari Sakara Prabhu was the only one of Lord Caitanya’s associates who Lord Caitanya let glorify Him unrestrictedly in His presence.
Srinivasa Acarya decided to go to Puri himself to see Lord Caitanya, but unfortunately during his journey he learned Lord Caitanya left this world unexpectedly.
Srinivasa Acarya is said to be a partial expansion of Lord Caitanya’s ecstasy.
When Gadadhara Pandit would give class on Srimad-Bhagavatam, Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda and the other members of the Pancatattva would come and listen.
Srinivasa Acarya appeared to enter into a deep meditation for several days while chanting japa. His wives and the king he was the guru of were in great anxiety, but he was not in danger. In meditation he had entered into his original spiritual form and was assisting Radharani’s servants in looking for Her nose ring.
Bhakta Cesar:
Srila Prabhupada explains that only our sadhana is protecting us from falling into material life.
My Guru Maharaja [Vaisesika Prabhu] says, “Your seva [service] will save yah.”
On these appearance and disappearance days, Srila Prabhupada advised us to pray for the mercy of the personality who we are honoring.
Gaurakisora dasa Babaji Maharaj had no interest but chanting the holy names of the Lord continuously and associating with the few devotees he recognized to be genuine.
Whatever the pure devotee uses becomes transcendental and is therefore worshipable.
In January of 1900 Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura took initiation.
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura considered that Gaurakisora Dasa Babaji Maharaja ignored all his good qualities because he had superior qualities himself.
Bhakti Vikasa Swami said of the U.S. election, “You are either voting for Putana or Ravana.”
Comments by Adi Purusha Prabhu:
In the different 12-step programs for recovering from drugs and alcohol, the former addicts always consider themselves still addicted, even after many years. Similarly we should always consider ourselves addicted to sense gratification and carefully follow the practice our guru has given to become elevated.
There are devotees who still think and act like karmis [those who work for their own enjoyment]. As long as we are thinking in terms of “what I like” and “what I do not like,” we are like karmis, although we have a guru and dress like a devotee.
Yama Niyama Das Brahmacari:
From an after lunch performance at the Bhaktivedanta Institute (Gainesville) conference:
Srila Prabhupada did not ask to kick in the face with the flip-flop.
You say the universe began with an explosion when there was no explosive matter out there.
You think are great because you know how to procreate, but it’s simply monkey business.
Lavanga Devi Dasi from Krishna House:
Comments on a class I gave at Krishna House on hearing talks of Krishna:
I see the value of the studying in twos, which you mentioned in the class. I have been reading for twenty minutes a day from one of Srila Prabhupada’s books to my roommate, Hari Priya, and it has really enhanced our relationship. While I read she listens, and we do not even discuss, but somehow we feel much closer as a result of the experience. [Hari Priya joyfully expressed agreement.]
—–
The gopis are famous for their advanced love of Krishna, and it is powerful to hear their appreciation of the power of narrations about Him:
tava kathamritam tapta-jivanam
kavibhir iditam kalmashapaham
sravana-mangalam srimad atatam
bhuvi grinanti ye bhuri-da janah
“[The gopis say to Krishna, in the ecstasy of separation from Him:] ‘The nectar of Your words and the descriptions of Your activities are the life and soul of those suffering in this material world. These narrations, transmitted by learned sages, eradicate one’s sinful reactions and bestow good fortune upon whoever hears them. These narrations are broadcast all over the world and are filled with spiritual power. Certainly those who spread the message of Godhead are most munificent.’” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.31.9)
When Maharaj Prataparudra recited this verse to Lord Caitanya, the Lord embraced him, and said, “You are most munificent! You are most munificent!”
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