“His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has used the appropriate analogy of Cream.

Cream naturally rises to the top of the milk, and similarly, if the devotee’s Desires are pure, light and free from all material contaminations, that pure desire will pull one higher and higher in Devotional Activities.

There is no need to be misled; one should exclude all other desires except one- to be the servant of the servant, in other words, to be a pure Vaisnava.”

“When a living being attempts to enjoy separately from the Lord, he enters Maya’s Web.

Just as an unwitting insect flies into a spider’s web and, just as by struggling, the fly becomes increasingly entangled, so the unwitting living being becomes increasingly implicated in illusion the more he struggles to implement his Independent plans.

On the other hand, just as a baby spider crawls nonchalantly across the web, so the devotee who is linked with Lord Madhava, the original author of illusion, remains free from material entanglement.

By personal devotion and dedication of all one’s wealth to Lord Madhava’s service, one can easily be liberated from the web of illusion.”

“In good times anybody can serve Krishna. Difficult times are a REAL TEST of a devotee.

Sometimes because of our Karmas or something, the situation becomes very complicated. Krishna is just watching. He allows it to go on. But anyway nothing happens without His permission. When he sees that the devotee, even though in problem, is still thinking of Me and is wanting to serve Me, then he becomes ‘purchased’ and feels that this devotee is so determined to serve Me.

If you want to impress Krishna, you should serve Him not only in the good times but other times also. In difficult times if we say, “Forget it, I won’t serve”, that kind of friend you can get anywhere. You can buy people like that. Real Devotee means, that you serve anytime and in any circumstance.

Krishna promises He will protect you. He wants to see whether you believe Him or not. If He sees that this person even in distress is looking to Him for protection, then Krishna will protect. If he is not looking for protection, then why will He protect? We have to be fixed that we want Krishna’s protection, then He will protect us, in His own way.”

Jayapataka: Everything you plan is perfect.

Prabhupada: No. I imagine. Krishna makes it perfect. I think, “It would have been nice if it would have been like this,” but Krishna… Yei prasade pure sarva asa. Long, long ago, when I was publishing Back to Godhead, one sheet, I was thinking that “What is this sheet? If it would have been like Illustrated Weekly, then it would have been nice.” Now they are coming like that.

Jayapataka: Now ‘Illustrated Weekly’ is nothing compared to Back to Godhead.

Prabhupada: No. (laughs) Better than Illustrated Weekly. I thought of getting some help from artist. For painting picture, I will dictate, and they will paint picture. Now Krishna has got lots of artists. So depend on Krishna. He can do everything. Krishna-Balarama.

“Nowadays we try to organize once a week namahata meeting, or house program or get people to come to the Sunday feast but they’re too busy. They cant even break away one night to come together for a meeting and have some kirtan in somebody’s house. This is our progress in the modern society. We progress so much that people are so stressed out that they cant even get together and chant ‘Hare Krishna’ once in a week.

But somehow or the other we must make the time, because we sing together, study the Bhagvatam, study the Caitanya Caritamrita, study the Bhagavad Gita. This actually makes our minds very peaceful, very fixed up in Krishna consciousness and makes our spiritual life very clear. The whole existence becomes balanced.

We become like these mountains we discussed earlier. Solid, even in the midst of clouds, even in the midst of lightening. The mountains stand stiff, solid. We want to be able to survive these difficulties which keep coming in the modern society. We don’t know where its going to lead. It could lead anywhere.”

“Every one of us has experienced how someone in a completely miserable condition – like a person in traction in a hospital – says “I am fine!” when asked “How are you?”, just because he has slightly less pain since the day before. This is the standard of material happiness.

In His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s books and lectures, a similar example is often given. From this example one easily realizes that in material life it is not real happiness that is experienced; rather one experiences simply momentary happiness.

Real happiness is not dependent on material situations, is fully satisfying, and can be experienced when in Krishna Consciousness.

When one is able to understand all these truths about material and spiritual life, that is not an ordinary thing. It is only possible by the special mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”

“In the previous ages, the Lord was carrying weapons. When the devas approached Caitanya Mahaprabhu when He was still in the womb of His mother, they were glorifying Him that, in every incarnation You come, and You deliver the demons and You deliver Your devotees.

The demons are delivered by getting killed by the Lord and then they are given moksha. They merge into the light of the Lord. The devotees of the Lord are given His shelter, and the achieve Vaikunta.

But in the incarnation of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Lord doesn’t carry any weapons of violence. His weapons are only weapons of Love, of Bhajan.

Mrdangas, Kartals, Srimad Bhavagat, His personal beauty, His associates, His festivals…these are all transcendental weapons of the Lord. But they are weapons to kill our demoniac nature! The weapons are not to kill us, but the weapons to kill our demoniac nature only…leaving the devotional nature. That is the special mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

So we see in all the incarnations They are very affectionate to the devotees, but Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the personified…total compassion! Even Jagai-Madhai beat Lord Nithyananda, still Lord Nithyananda gave them His mercy. Who can be more merciful? ”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“By preaching we can burn up the effects of our offenses. By helping others to be Krishna Conscious, we attract the mercy of Krishna in a very quick manner and we can advance quickly.

For those who are liberated, there are also special rasa when they go out and preach and that is what the Lord wants.

So whether one is a very neophyte or one is a liberated soul, they can all engage in preaching.”

“Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and his beloved disciple, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, are “sages” or bona fide spiritual masters whose instructions are Transparent Windows to the Spiritual World.

Where blindly following can cause mishap, one is protected by carefully comprehending the instructions of the previous spiritual masters and the Vedic literatures using reasoning and logic. Logical reflection on the teachings of Krishna is recommended, while mental speculation based on material conceptions and blind sentiments are forbidden.

On the long journey back to Godhead, who but a fool would travel without a map, without a guide? However, when a devotee has a bonafide spiritual master and the Vedic literatures as his guide and yet instead listens to his false ego, that is even more foolish..”

“ What ever pleasures one is getting by meditating on Krishna’s qualities, that pleasure is coming again newer and newer!

This newness is something everybody is hankering for in the material world. You see in the store, on the packages-New! Newest! The daily newspapers tell you what’s new, what’s the latest. What is new is news. Something you don’t know yet, something that’s new for you, something that is inexperienced.

So people go to great lengths not to get bored. Some TV show maybe gets top ratings, but after a while the materialists get bored with it. When it goes down they want something new. People want always something new.

The wonder, “How is it that you can always be just worshiping Krishna? Don’t you get bored?”

Krishna is Nava Nava. He is EVER NEW! The ecstasy of worshiping Krishna or serving Krishna is ever new. You always feel that this is a new happiness; this is something better than I have ever experienced before, this is something different, this is something new. The devotee doesn’t feel any compulsion to look for something different. He thinks, “Why should I go looking for something different when Krishna is giving ever new transcendental pleasures?”

“When there is a big disaster, people start to have reality checks. What did we do wrong? People start to become introspective when there are disasters and problems. That’s an opportunity for the people who are well grounded in their spiritual life, in their Krishna consciousness to be able to promote KC.

We need a more spiritual world. It’s too much of a one sided world, too much materialism. It needs to be balanced. So, Srila Prabhupada was trying to promote this balance deal of a spiritual life with a responsible householder to show and have role models on how to have a spiritually oriented Grihasta life, family life and to promote that to the neighbors, friends, work colleagues and other acquaintances.

We see here in this examples here in the Bhagvatam that different problems in life, we try to avoid them by having a balanced Krishna conscious life by studying families, by dedicated renounced people, everyone serving together in a cooperative society to please Srila Prabhupada, Lord Chaitanya and Krishna.”

“The material world is but a shadow. If we hold our hand against the light it casts a shadow image. The shadow image is like an outline of the hand. It doesn’t show the qualities of the hand, such as the hair, the skin, or the fingerprints. It is only a vague form.

Similarly, in the material world, what we see as admiration, servitorship, friendship, parental affection, or conjugal affection, these are all like incomplete shadows of their real form.

Just as the hand has so many variegated qualities like form, taste, and small, so the relationships in the spiritual world are full of qualities. They are expanded unlimitedly and contain no imperfection or inebriety.

Because the Lord and the devotees are both eternal and liberated from all material qualities, their relationship is perfect and transcendental.”