Bhakti Vikasa Swami's Blog, page 128
February 20, 2022
Bhaktisiddhantaappearance: The meaning of Vyasa-puja
So try to receive Krsna’s grace through the disciplic succession, Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Then you will understand everything. Yasya deve para bhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau [SU 6.23]. This is the process, Vedic process. One should have unflinching faith in God and spiritual master. Don’t jump over God, crossing the spiritual master. Then it will be failure. You must go through. We are observing Vyasa-puja ceremony, the birth anniversary of our Guru Maharaja. Why? We cannot understand Krsna without spiritual master.
That is bogus. If anyone wants to understand Krsna, jumping over the spiritual master, then immediately he becomes a bogus. Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, guru-krsna-krpaya paya bhakti-lata-bija [Cc. Madhya 19.151]. That is Vedic injunction. Tad viddhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya [Bg. 4.34]. Nobody can understand Krsna without going through His most confidential servant. This is the meaning of this Vyasa-puja. You cannot surpass. If you think that you have become very learned and very advanced, now you can avoid the spiritual master and you understand Krsna, that is the bogus. That is the meaning of this Vyasa-puja ceremony. We should always pray, yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasadah**. Yasya prasadad, only by the grace of spiritual master we can achieve the grace or mercy of Krsna. This is the meaning of this Vyasa-puja, offering obeisances by parampara system.
From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada’s Appearance Day — Atlanta, March 2, 1975
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February 19, 2022
Our misfortune: no time for Vedic literature
We are suffering every moment, and still, we are thinking we are very happy. Therefore it is our misfortune, that human life is meant for understanding, “What is the position of my life? Why I am suffering?” So for that understanding Krsna has given us so many Vedic literature: four Vedas and the Puranas and the Upanisad and Vedanta-sutra, Bhagavad-gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata. We have got enough source of knowledge, treasure house of knowledge, but we are reluctant. We are busy with the newspaper. We have got time to waste our time to read the newspaper, bunch of newspaper, but we have no time to read Bhagavad-gita or or Vedanta-sutra, the books of actual knowledge. This is our misfortune.
Srila Prabhupada, Talk on Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.25.41 — December 9, 1974,
Bombay
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February 18, 2022
I have gone to the moon
If you actually want to go to the moon planet, there is a clear process. A long time ago — I think sometime in 1960–I wrote the book Easy Journey to Other Planets.
So one gentleman met me: “Sir, your book, Easy Journey . . . So we shall go there?”
“Yes, we shall go.”
“And again I shall come back?”
“No. No coming back.” [Chuckles.]
So he replied, “Then what is the use of going?”
That means he wants to go only for sense gratification. He wants to go to the moon or any planet, come back, and boast amongst his friends, “You see, I have gone.” [Laughter.]
That is his business. Actually, he doesn’t want to go there, nor has he got the power to go, but he wants to satisfy his senses. “I shall go there and come back and show my very swollen chest–’I have gone to the moon.'”
From a lecture by Srila Prabhupada
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February 17, 2022
Reading, writing, and realization
By writing regularly, what you read will become realized.
Srila Prabhupada, Letter, 21 Jan 1972
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February 16, 2022
Read, chant, and preach
As much as possible read, chant, and preach. This is our life and soul.
Srila Prabhupada, Letter, 21 Jan 1972
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February 15, 2022
Again election
Again election, as if election will change their quality. They remain… Let them remain as rascal, and simply by election, in place of one rascal, another rascal will improve it. This is the… Let them remain rascal, but get vote. So that is… That is described in Bhagavatam, sva-vid-varahostra-kharaih samstutah purusah pasuh [SB 2.3.19]. The population is sva-vid-varahostra, and they are giving vote — another big pasu. That’s all. This is going on. This is democracy. The voters are pasu, and he is selecting another big pasu. This is going on. The rascals, they do not know, “If instead of a tiger, we select one lion,” then what is the difference? Simply name. The tiger was president. Now the lion is the president. And both of them — animals. Where is the man, human being? This is going on. And because they are pasu, sva-vid-varaha, they are happy: “Now there is lion. Now the tiger is driven away. Now there is lion.” This is going on.
Srila Prabhupada, Conversation – April 19, 1977, Bombay
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February 14, 2022
Nityananda and Radha
Lord Nityananda alone possesses the distinctive function of the guru. Nityananda is the servant of God, serving Gaurasundara by the distinctive method of reverential servitude. He is identical with Sri Balarama of Krsna-lila. Sri Balarama is not a chum of Krsna, but His respected elder brother. Individual souls are under the direction of Nityananda. They receive the service of Sri Gaurasundara or Krsna at His hands. Nityananda is the ultimate source of the jiva, and the jiva is a potency of Nityananda. Nityananda and His companions form one of the five groups of the associates of Lord Caitanya, whose distinctive function is that of guru. But Nityananda does not directly instruct in the confidential service of Krsna. Srimati Radhika is the guru of the inner circle of the servants of Krsna. Srimati [Radha], however, accepts the offering of service of only those souls who are especially favored by Nityananda, and are deemed by Him to be fit for Her service. There is, therefore, a most intimate relationship between the function of Nityananda and that of Srimati Radharani.
(Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, in the Harmonist magazine)
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February 13, 2022
Followers of Lord Nityananda must preach Krsna consciousness
When Lord Nityananda returned to Bengal to preach the cult of bhakti, love of Godhead, He began touring all over the country. For two purposes — to spread the cult of bhakti and to defeat and subdue the atheists — Lord Nityananda, the most dedicated devotee of the Lord, moved throughout the country.
Lord Krsna appears in every millennium for two purposes, namely to deliver the devotees and kill the nondevotees. His devotees also have two similar purposes — to preach the bhakti cult of Krsna consciousness and defeat all kinds of agnostics and atheistic demons. Nityananda Prabhu carried out the order of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in this way, and those who strictly follow Nityananda Prabhu perform the same activities.
Srila Prabhupada, Cc. Antya 3.148-149, text & purport
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February 11, 2022
Varahadeva: the Lord can appear from anywhere
Regarding your question, how could Visnu appear from the nostril of Brahma? The answer is that Visnu being all pervading, He can appear from anyplace. He appeared as Nrsimhadeva from the pillar. So, one may question how Visnu may appear from pillar, but actually He appeared. He is all powerful with inconceivable potency, and therefore He can appear Himself from anywhere He likes. When Lord appeared as a small hog from the nostril of Brahma He began to expand Himself more and more and gradually He became a gigantic boar. So these are inconceivable energy of the Supreme Lord. It does not, however, mean that Brahma’s nostril is the birthplace of Visnu. The sun rises from the eastern horizon. That does not mean that eastern horizon is the birthplace of the sun. I hope you will understand the transcendental appearance and disappearance of the transcendental Personality of Godhead as such. In the Bhagavad-gita therefore it is stated that anyone who understands the transcendental position of the appearance, disappearance, and activities of Krsna becomes liberated immediately after quitting the present body.
(From a letter by Srila Prabhupada — Unknown Place Unknown Date)
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February 10, 2022
Monarchs were not elected cowards
The kings and the commanders were to stand in the front of the fighting soldiers. That was the system of actual fighting. The kings and commanders were not so-called presidents or ministers of defense as they are today. They would not stay home while the poor soldiers or mercenaries were fighting face to face. This may be the regulation of modern democracy, but when actual monarchy was prevailing, the monarchs were not cowards elected without consideration of qualification.
Srila Prabhupada, SB 1.9.36, Purport
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