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 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.

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.

Srila Prabhupada explains that when a tiger deals with it’s own cubs, it picks them up with its mouth just like you see the cat lift up the kitten. But that lifting with the mouth is filled with motherly affection moving them from one place to the other, but when the tiger jumps on the prey whether it’s a deer, zebra or whatever, it might be that it bites them with its mouth. But that is totally a different bite. So the law of Karma is like the tiger on the prey, like the cat on the mouse.

But when you take shelter of Krishna then what appears to be Karma is actually Krishna personally taking charge of the devotee. It is like the cat or the tiger taking the cub, the kid, by the mouth, simply for purification, for our remembrance.

So whether we want to be under the care of Krishna or under the care of the illusory energy and the stringent lat of Karma, that’s up to us to decide. When we are under the care of Krishna and we do devotional service, we feel very blissful. We just have to be a little careful. We have to go on learning and trying to practice responsibly, remaining humble. We have to be aware of what mistakes we are making and try to correct them, because we are responsible for them.