“In the material world, if we want favors from a political leader, we must carry the favor of those surrounding him.

Achieving the favor of the Lord’s dear ones is also the easiest way to achieve the favor of the Lord, the perfection of life.

There is no one dearer to the Lord than His eternal consort, Srimati Radharani. Radharani is so dear, Her love is so confidential, that greatly learned rishis and munis sometimes hesitate even to mention Her Name. Her Name is so confidential and sacred that they fear they might offend It by using It inappropriately.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada intimates that participating in the glorious sankirtana movement of Caitanya Mahaprabhu is an intimate service to Srimati Radharani, a service She greatly appreciates.”

“Due to having an Untrained Mind, a neophyte devotee may not realize that
‘Association of Devotees’ is an essential aspect of Krishna Consciousness
that should NOT be neglected if one wants to become a pure devotee of the
Lord.

Just as a sea-going vessel needs some reference points such as Radio
Transmission, Stars, or the Sun, in order to chart its course across the
ocean, a devotee needs the ‘Association of Devotees of Lord Krishna’ to
cross the ocean of repeated birth and death and to achieve pure love of God.

Every step we take towards the Lord, Srila Prabhupada used to say, He takes ten steps towards us. The Lord is much more eager that we return to Him than we are eager to return!

So therefore He is known as maya moyam, or kripa moya, kripa pracura, karuna pracura. These are repeated in various bhajans, mantras, commentaries.

Now how do we take advantage of that mercy? When someone is very merciful, isn’t is foolish not to take the opportunity of that mercy?

Mercy means, a person wants to help us, we need the help! So who will not take the help? Why should be be proud, “I don’t need any help”…Actually we need it! Without the help we are hopeless case.

And the Lord is willing to extend the help to us. Simply we have to take it!

Especially Sri Sri Nitai Gaur.. they are giving out their mercy without even considering whether we deserve it or not. Simply IF WE WANT IT WE CAN GET IT!

Prabhupada says, ‘It’s like someone is shaving with a straight edge razor, and they’re a little careless, they can easily cut themselves’.

So spiritual life is like a razor’s edge: just that takes little bit of bodily identification. a little bit of mental concoction and we can get off the track, and the harvest won’t get back home in this life , maybe in a future life we will get a chance, nothing is lost.

But we want to bring the harvest back home in this life time; this is the special chance that Lord Caitanya is giving us…that we can bring home the harvest in this lifetime.

Prabhupada promised: “Chant your Sixteen Rounds, follow the Four Principles, engage in service to Guru and Krsna your whole life, you will go back to Godhead…That’s the yajna to bring the harvest home.” 

Prabhupada explains in his Vyasa-Puja address in 1972(74?), that just like in our country when there was British rule, there was a Viceroy, a king’s representative, so naturally when the Viceroy used to go to some meeting, many people used to present valuable jewels just to honor him. But the law was that the Viceroy could not touch a single jewel or contribution; it was going to the royal treasury. The Viceroy should accept all contributions on behalf of the king, all of which go to the king.

Similarly, on this day, Vyasa-Puja day, whatever honor, contribution and feeling is being offered to the spiritual master goes from downward to upward. It is, again, as we have received the knowledge from upward, similarly this respect also goes from downward to the upward. This is the process.

So the spiritual master is the teacher of the student. He has to teach the student how to send back his respect and contribution to God. In other words, whatever worship is being offered the guru accepts on behalf of Vyasadeva, on behalf of the previous acaryas, and offers this worship to them.

The Lord is like, if you want to meet the Prime Minister, if you just go to Delhi, doesn’t mean you can meet the Prime Minister. Lot of security…lot of difficulty to meet the Prime Minister. But if you know a friend of the Prime Minister, he can say, ‘Come with me..I’ll bring you’. Then it’s easy.

So the Guru is a confidential servant of the servant of the servant…he can can take to his Guru, will take to his Guru and like this it goes to Krishna.

So those people who are very proud, they say they don’t want to go through a Guru, they find very difficult time.

For Indira to be acclaimed as a performer of a hundred Aswamedha Yajnas and to become very famous, he had to do a lot. But Yudhistira with only three Aswamedha Yajnas, he was so famous that it was said Yudhistira is famous as Indira. So it’s a very special feature.

You get automatically fame by rendering pure devotion to the Lord…even without asking. Devotee doesn’t hanker for fame. He doesn’t serve the Lord because he wants to get fame. But the Lord wants to see His devotee get glorified!

Srila Prabhupada never promoted himself. He could have called it the Bhaktivedanta movement, instead of the Krishna Conscious movement. Just like you have you know…this Gurudev movement, and this…all the mission they usually name after the Guru, charismatic Guru movement.. then after ‘this baba…’that mama’…’that ma’…whatever (laughter).

But Prabhupada, he made this International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Hare Krishna Movement, Krishna Consciousness Movement. He didn’t make it a personality cult. Still somehow or the other, because of his service, we want to glorify Prabhupada, we want to make him famous, because we appreciate that he did everything, he’s a real pure devotee and therefore he should…his fame should be spread over the three worlds!

Srila Prabhupada said, ‘The Secret of Success is to please the previous acharyas.’

So he said that as all the previous acharyas were trying to develop Mayapur, so he was also developing Mayapur and this was his secret message to everyone. He said he was especially grateful to all the devotees who were helping him to develop Mayapur dham.

He said that the secret of success is to please the previous acharyas.

Ofcourse another thing…Mayapur is one of the ways to please them. You know if you distribute the spiritual literature, the Brihat Mrdanga, then we’re pleasing Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, so then we also are pleasing the previous acharyas, and, so we are trying to expand the congregational development around the world. This is very pleasing to Bhaktivinod Thakur, who started the Namahatta…he actually revived the Namahatta program, that was started by Lord Nithyananda Prabhu. So by doing congregational development you also are pleasing the previous acharyas, also pleasing Srila Prabhupada.

“This chanting of Hare Krishna even if someone does not know what it is, it still works. Once in Hyderabad in South India one man came up to me and said: “Every religious sect have blind faith, blind faith, this is true of any religion without any faith it will still work”. This is a post office.  This is India you know. People are always asking philosophical questions. Never happened in an American post office. But I was thinking, wow what a question! But I remember I said, no, there is a process, even if you chant without faith the names of God, even if you don’t know what it means it still works.

Just like Ratnakar he was chanting murder! Murder! Murder! Kill kill kill in Sanskrit which was Mara! Mara! Mara! Chanting a word which, he was a murderer, he was a robber. When you chant it in sequence mara mara mara it becomes Rama Rama Rama. Chanting Rama even when he was thinking something else it still worked.

So the chanting, like Prabhupada said, it is like fire when you put your hand in the fire whether you believe it or not  you get affected,  somebody does chant somehow with an open mind if they just chant they will feel some difference from the chanting. So I hope that the devotees here they know about the chanting. If you know about chanting take advantage of chanting. If we know and we don’t chant then that is a very great failure on our part to take this opportunity to perfect our human form of life.”

“In difficult time we do not give up our devotional service, we stick to it and in good times we also do not give up our devotional service, now it is okay and I will make hay while the sun shines kind of attitude and I will enjoy life now and worry about death later. But if we know that death can come at any time, someone who has always been engaged in Krishna’s service  12 months a year, 365 days, does not matter whether there is life or death doesn’t matter, all are auspicious,  because everything is in Krishna consciousness.

So the devotees, they always remain moderate, in distress or when they are in opulence.  They are moderate in their existence and keep Krishna as their top priority in their life. Now in the world we ..were you know . things were a little bit looking difficult economically, but not that bad but like now there is war and so many people who are senselessly killed in terrorist attacks. This could make somebody very much down or depressed about the whole future of things. Whether there is some difficulty or there is something good we need to do our duties, we need to do our proper Krishna conscious thing.”

“There was a devotee in Navadweep. His name was Vaasudeva and he was a devotee of Varahadev. So he particularly liked to see Varahadev. So he was able to see that form of the Lord and thus he attained to Varahaloka.

According to the different avatars there are different lokas. If you want to participate there is Nrsimhaloka, Varahaloka, Vaikhuntha loka…so you get to participate in the Lord’s pastimes in that loka, so if you want to go to Krishna leela there is Krishna loka it is also  known as Goloka Vrndavan.

So it is up to you which planet you want to go. All in the spiritual world. Someone was asking today – is there like a visa? Ha! Ha! No VISA! Ha! Ha! Prabhupad would call these people at the immigration stations they are like barking dogs : no, no you cannot come!. But there you can go wherever you want. If you want to worship Krishna you go to Krishna loka, if you want to worship Rama you go to Rama.

Like in the Brihad Bhagavatamrita it is said that some devotee he went to all the planets and finally he decided to go to Krishna loka and how he went there is also revealed. Finally he went to Krishna loka and met Krishna and Krishna said I was waiting so long for you! SO LONG!!

So it all depends where you want to go – you want to be with Krishna, or Rama or Varaha – they are all different forms of the Lord. So like this the mahatmas they understand they are focused on Krishna and they like to worship Krishna. But they respect all the others.”

“When Lord Caitanya visited South India, he visited all the temples. Not only the Visnu temples, but also the Siva temples, the Durga temple, the Meenakshi temple, Ganesh temple, Murugan temple. He visited all the temples. But at every temple he would chant the same mantra Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare | Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

He would give this message to everyone, chant the Hare Krsna maha mantra. This is the mantra for the age of Kali and this mantra can be chanted without any restriction, not only the brahmanas but anybody of any caste any community can chant this mantra. So how many of you are regularly chanting? Wow..so many!!

Those who are not chanting should immediately start chanting and those who are chanting should be very determined that chanting is going on. This chanting is the link in our heart, our eternal relationship with Krsna.”

“Real spiritual life is as sharp as a razor’s edge. The sankirtana movement is so spiritually pure that by remaining in its fire our consciousness will be refined to immaculate purity. This is the wonderful quality of the sankirtana movement. Through its association we gradually become free from all attachment to anarthas or unwanted things.

But beyond these attachments remain subtle shades of enviousness which also must be purged or they will carry the devotee away from devotional service.

These subtle shades of perverse mentality also spring from the enjoying mood. The desire for prominence, such as the impersonalist’s dream of becoming God, also manifests in the character of a devotee who is not completely purified. Hankering to obtain an “important” position in devotional service or to be the “best devotee” is materially tinged and is described in this song as ‘pratisthasa‘ (great importance).

These contaminated desires have no place in the glorious sankirtana movement of Caitanya Mahaprabhu.”

“It is described in the Vedas that we are just very minute almost atomic size, the spirit soul. But although the same type of spirit soul, the same category of living force exists in a very educated person, a very foolish person, the same type of spirit soul is there. The living force is not of a different category.

Same category same basic potential but due to being developed or undeveloped in consciousness the full potential of the spirit soul comes out filtered by the extent of materialistic consciousness that we have. In other words in the pure liberated stage the spirit soul has his unlimited potential manifested.

At that time as described with this spirit soul is more powerful than millions of suns because even the sun is a material luminary which goes through creation, it stays for sometime and ultimately it is also destroyed as everything material goes through these changes. But the living force which is in the body, that is indestructible, that is immutable. “

“By being attached to Krishna, we are automatically transcendental. There are two processes of detachment; one is negative and the other positive. Srila Prabhupada always called devotional service the positive alternative. Negating something or renouncing it does not end one’s attachment to it.

You still may be attached, but you are renouncing it to become detached. Someone may renounce smoking because he knows it is bad for him, but he may still like to smoke. Someone may be attached to some sense gratification but renounce it because he knows it is not good for him. Because we have bad habits, bad attachments and material desires, we regulate ourselves in order to keep away from the objects which are detrimental to our spiritual life. This does not mean that we have given up our attachments or attraction fully, but rather that we are trying to transcend them.

The process of transcending is to become attached to Krishna. One is liberated when he is attached to Krishna so much that he is not attached anymore to other things. When we are fully attached to Krishna we become automatically detached from Maya, naturally. “

“It is quite interesting to note, especially for Americans, that in those days they did not use Ford, Chevy, Benz or Rolls Royce but beautiful chariots, hand carved, with silver and gold. Beautiful horses and elephants were the methods of conveyance. From this we can understand that a great king could feel very proud of his chariots decorated in newest design, with good horses, and so on. Naturally he could be attached to it and go around showing off his buggy to everyone.

But it is mentioned here that Ambarisha Maharaja was detached from all these things. In the material world, you find that sometimes people are very proud of their vehicle. It is a very big status symbol for them to have a proper vehicle. Some people, even if they do not have a big town house, feel very proud if they have a nice vehicle.

The point is, although Ambarisha Maharaja had his vehicles, friends, family or even his own treasury, he simply took shelter of Krishna, and did not remain attached to these things. He accepted them to whatever extent he needed. He used them, but he was not attached to them. This is really being liberated, while in the material world, whether one has or does not have these things, one must not be attached.

It is actually more difficult to have something and not be attached. If we do not have something, it is easier to be detached, in one sense. But most people do not have, and they are still attached to possessing things-they like to have.”

“Lord Caitanya, He was encouraging that we should chant everyday, kirtaniyah sada harih, all the time by reading the saying Krishna namastha kaho. By chanting hare Krishna constantly, we get forgiven for all these offenses.

Whether they were brahmachari, whether they were grihasta. Therefore, He said, grhe thako, vane thako, sada ‘hari’ bole’ dako. Whether somebody is a grihasta or somebody is in the renounced order, he should chant hare Krishna.

Narottam Das thakur who was a life long brahmacari, he is saying, grihe ba bone de thake. Whoever, whether they stay in a Grihasta house or they are living in a forest or ashram or hermitage.

Jibaha Gauranga take sei amar pran: Whoever with feeling chats, Ha Gauranga! he is my life and soul, dear to Me as My life. So there is no sectarian vision here. Everyone is dear according to their devotion.“

“As the Krishna consciousness movement progresses, Kali will constantly send agents to disturb the preaching, to deviate the preachers, or steal the responsible devotees and engage them in some other activity outside of the bona fide Krishna Consciousness movement.

All kinds of destructive influences – too many to name – will try to disrupt the preaching. Especially those in the role of watchman must be vigilant and stop such dangerous contamination from entering and harming the market. (market place of the Holy names).”

“Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura personally accepted this position of  jhadudara, which literally means ‘sweeper’. Why did he assume that position? Because as a spiritual master, Bhaktivinoda Thakura wanted to ‘keep the market clean’.

In other words, spiritual masters and spiritual leaders must be constantly vigilant that philosophy and activities are kept in line with the tradition of the Krishna Consciousness movement, based on sadhu, sastra and Guru. Leaders have the responsibility to keep out dirt – speculations and contaminations – from Nama Hatta preaching.”

“Regarding musical instruments, herein it is prescribed that for Nama Hatta programs it is not necessary to have big, complicated paraphernalia; mrdanga and kartalas are sufficient. Srila Prabhupada liked this type of simple kirtana with mrdanga and kartalas. At the same time, in bhajanas he would sometimes use the harmonium.

In kirtana, the beautiful melody, the music, and the beat all have a purpose. They should help to melt the heart, to evoke the dormat love for Krishna. Bhaktivinoda Thakura gives the analogy of the borax melting gold. He uses what at that time was a commonplace illustration, which indicates how rich society was then. Nowadays everything is plastic or aluminum – even women’s jewelry is often made of plastic – but in that day gold was very common.

I do not know exactly what happens when borax is applied to gold, but apparently it acts as a catalyst, causing the gold to melt much faster when heated. Similarly, kirtana should help the heart to melt naturally.”