Bhakti Vikasa Swami's Blog, page 162
March 13, 2021
Devotee drunkard
Param drstva nivartate [Bg 2.59]. Not by force, but appreciating something better condition of life, one rejects all this nonsense. That is advancement. Bhajana-kriya. By bhajana-kriya, by being initiated and executing the bhajana, now, one just be detestful. Then nistha. Tato nistha, firm faith. Tato rucih. Ruci means taste. You cannot do without it. Just like the drunkard: he cannot remain without drinking. Similarly, a devotee is also drunkard. He cannot remain without Krsna consciousness. That is called ruci, taste.
Srila Prabhupada; Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.25.15 — November 15, 1974, Bombay
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The test of actual initiation
That is the test that whether you are actually initiated. If you are still attached to these… Bhaktih paresanubhavo viraktih… If you are not detestful to all these nonsense habits, then you must know that you are not making any progress. You are not making any progress. Because this is the result: anartha-nivrttih syat. If you are actually making advancement in bhajana-kriya, then these attachments will be finished. No more.
Srila Prabhupada; Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.25.15 — November 15, 1974, Bombay
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March 12, 2021
Siva, pure spirit mixed with maya
Siva is dahi (yogurt) and Krsna is milk. Dahi, the preparation of dahi that you take milk, pure milk, and mix it with little sour thing, then it becomes dahi. Similarly, Krsna is pure spirit, and when this pure spirit is mixed up with maya, that is Siva.
From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.2 — Hyderabad, April 13, 1975
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March 11, 2021
Lord Siva glorifies the beauty of Lord Visnu
My dear Lord, I wish to see You exactly in the form that Your very dear devotees worship. You have many other forms, but I wish to see Your form that is especially liked by the devotees. Please be merciful upon me and show me that form, for only that form worshiped by the devotees can perfectly satisfy all the demands of the senses.
The Lord’s beauty resembles a dark cloud during the rainy season. As the rainfall glistens, His bodily features also glisten. Indeed, He is the sum total of all beauty. The Lord has four arms and an exquisitely beautiful face with eyes like lotus petals, a beautiful highly raised nose, a mind-attracting smile, a beautiful forehead and equally beautiful and fully decorated ears.
The Lord is superexcellently beautiful on account of His open and merciful smile and His sidelong glance upon His devotees. His black hair is curly, and His garments, waving in the wind, appear like flying saffron pollen from lotus flowers. His glittering earrings, shining helmet, bangles, garland, ankle bells, waist belt and various other bodily ornaments combine with conchshell, disc, club and lotus flower to increase the natural beauty of the Kaustubha pearl on His chest.
The Lord has shoulders just like a lion’s. Upon these shoulders are garlands, necklaces and epaulets, and all of these are always glittering. Besides these, there is the beauty of the Kaustubha-mani pearl, and on the dark chest of the Lord there are streaks named Srivatsa, which are signs of the goddess of fortune. The glittering of these streaks excels the beauty of the golden streaks on a gold-testing stone. Indeed, such beauty defeats a gold-testing stone.
The Lord’s abdomen is beautiful due to three ripples in the flesh. Being so round, His abdomen resembles the leaf of a banyan tree, and when He exhales and inhales, the movement of the ripples appears very, very beautiful. The coils within the navel of the Lord are so deep that it appears that the entire universe sprouted out of it and yet again wishes to go back.
The lower part of the Lord’s waist is dark and covered with yellow garments and a belt bedecked with golden embroidery work. His symmetrical lotus feet and the calves, thighs and joints of His legs are extraordinarily beautiful. Indeed, the Lord’s entire body appears to be well built.
My dear Lord, Your two lotus feet are so beautiful that they appear like two blossoming petals of the lotus flower which grows during the autumn season. Indeed, the nails of Your lotus feet emanate such a great effulgence that they immediately dissipate all the darkness in the heart of a conditioned soul. My dear Lord, kindly show me that form of Yours which always dissipates all kinds of darkness in the heart of a devotee. My dear Lord, You are the supreme spiritual master of everyone; therefore all conditioned souls covered with the darkness of ignorance can be enlightened by You as the spiritual master.
My dear Lord, those who desire to purify their existence must always engage in meditation upon Your lotus feet, as described above. Those who are serious about executing their occupational duties and who want freedom from fear must take to this process of bhakti-yoga.
(SB 4.24.44-53, translation by Srila Prabhupada)
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March 9, 2021
Maintaining an elephant
Nowadays there are scarcity of food grains. Even the human being cannot eat sufficiently. But formerly the kings, they used to maintain elephants. They were supplied very nice capatis. Do you know that? Still there are kings, they have elephants. Therefore elephant can be maintained by very rich man. If suppose, if somebody comes, he says, “Take this elephant. I give you free,” will you take? Will you accept? [laughs] You know that elephant will devour you, your all your means of income, all family income, because… You cannot maintain elephant. [laughs]
Therefore in India sometimes, when, a hundred years ago, some students would come in England, especially London, and make a European, English wife… In old days they are doing that. So people would say that “This man is maintaining one white elephant.” Because a European wife means very much expenditure. [laughter] So one Mr. P. R. Das, he was high-court judge, so he was taking bribe on account of maintaining white elephant. He married one European wife. The expenditure very high. In those days for Indian it was a fashion to get a European wife. So this man married one European wife, and his expenditures was very, very heavy. So high-court judge, he was getting only four thousand rupees, and his expenditure was ten thousand rupees, and therefore he was taking bribe. He admitted. So when he was detected by the chief justice, he was dismissed from the post. But this is the position. You should not expend more than your income.
From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture onSrimad-Bhagavatam 1.10.4 — November 25, 1973, London
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March 8, 2021
Joyful, beautiful, flute-playing Krsna
You’ll see, Krsna’s picture, always a flute in His hand. Always joyful. Because He’s the Supreme Lord, there is nothing moroseness. Always joyful. That is the symptom of spiritual life. You’ll see Krsna always smiling, always playing on His flute. As you see in this material world also, some boy, he has got a flute and he’s playing, enjoying. So this is imitation. That enjoyment will not last. But Krsna’s flute-playing is eternal. He’s enjoying eternally. Venum kvanantam aravinda-dalayataksam [Bs 5.30]: and His eyes are just like lotus petals. Very beautiful.
Venum kvanantam aravinda-dalayataksam, barhavatamsam asitambuda-su… Barhavatamsam, a peacock feather. He’s very fond of a peacock feather. So that is on His head. Barhavatamsam asitambuda-sundarangam: very beautiful body like new, blackish cloud. But very beautiful. Blackish cloud. Asitambuda-sundarangam. Kandarpa-koti-kamaniya. But, although He’s blackish, He is more beautiful than millions and trillions of Cupids. Kandarpa… Therefore, He’s all-beautiful.
From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Bhagavad-gita 7.1 — Uppsala University, September 8, 1973
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We must present Krishna Consciousness in its pure form
Regarding your meeting with the Ram Krishna Mission man, you write to say that he has advised you how you should work combinedly with the Maharishi group in Hamburg, and he has said that our goals are actually the same. I do not know how our goals are actually the same. Our goal is Krishna, and we are preaching the gospel of Krishna, Bhagavad-gita as it is. In the Bhagavad-gita the point is stressed to concentrate on Krishna only, and the highest perfection of yoga process is to realize Krishna both externally and internally. We are teaching to vibrate the transcendental chanting of “Krishna” because in that way, by hearing the sound vibration of Krishna, we can see everything as diverse extension of Krishna’s external energy. And because we think of Krishna always in all our activities, therefore, internally we are 24 hours in meditation with Krishna. I don’t think the Maharishi group or the Ram Krishna Mission is teaching like that. So how can it be accepted that our goal is actually the same?
Accepting that Krishna is everything, what is aimed by the Ram Krishna Mission or by the Maharishi group is also Krishna; but Krishna says that although everything is expansion of Himself, He is not in everything. Exactly like in our material experience we can understand that everything is ultimately produced of sunshine, but that does not mean everything is sunshine. Rather, other things cover the sunshine and creates a shadow. The Ram Krishna Mission or the Maharishi’s activities are nothing but expanded energy of Krishna, but by such work Krishna is covered. Therefore it is called Maya. Maya has no separate existence beyond Krishna, but when there is Maya, Krishna is covered. Exactly like cloud is nothing but creation of the sunshine-the cloud has no independent existence-but whenever there is a cloud in the sky the sunshine becomes covered. Therefore it is Maya. Maya means things which have no existence independent of Godhead, but its business is to cover Godhead. Similarly, either the Ram Krishna Mission or Maharishi’s group, they have no existence independent of Krishna, but their activities are just like the cloud covering Krishna. Actually, they never directly preach Krishna Consciousness. On the other hand, they do something to cover Krishna Consciousness. So although water is generated from fire, we cannot pour on water when the fire is blazing. We cannot adulterate Krishna Consciousness with the Ram Krishna Mission or with anything else. We must present Krishna Consciousness in its pure form.
Letter to Jayagovinda LA. Aug13, 1969
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March 7, 2021
A chaste wife goes back to Godhead with her devotee husband
SB 7.11.29, as rendered by Srila Prabhupada
The woman who engages in the service of her husband, following strictly in the footsteps of the goddess of fortune, surely returns home, back to Godhead, with her devotee husband, and lives very happily in the Vaikuntha planets.
PURPORT
The faithfulness of the goddess of fortune is the ideal for a chaste woman. The Brahma-samhita (5.29) says, laksmi-sahasra-sata-sambhrama-sevyamanam. In the Vaikuntha planets, Lord Visnu is worshiped by many, many thousands of goddesses of fortune, and in Goloka Vrndavana, Lord Krsna is worshiped by many, many thousands of gopis, all of whom are goddesses of fortune. A woman should serve her husband as faithfully as the goddess of fortune. A man should be an ideal servant of the Lord, and a woman should be an ideal wife like the goddess of fortune. Then both husband and wife will be so faithful and strong that by acting together they will return home, back to Godhead, without a doubt. In this regard, Srila Madhvacarya gives this opinion:
harir asmin sthita iti
strinam bhartari bhavana
sisyanam ca gurau nityam
sudranam brahmanadisu
bhrtyanam svamini tatha
hari-bhava udiritah
A woman should think of her husband as the Supreme Lord. Similarly, a disciple should think of the spiritual master as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, a sudra should think of a brahmana as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and a servant should think of his master as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In this way, all of them will automatically become devotees of the Lord. In other words, by thinking this way, all of them will become Krsna conscious.
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March 6, 2021
The most essential order
There are many regulative principles in the sastras and directions given by the spiritual master. These regulative principles should act as servants of the basic principle — that is, one should always remember Krsna and never forget Him. This is possible when one chants the Hare Krsna mantra. Therefore one must strictly chant the Hare Krsna maha-mantra twenty-four hours daily. One may have other duties to perform under the direction of the spiritual master, but he must first abide by the spiritual master’s order to chant a certain number of rounds. In our Krsna consciousness movement, we have recommended that the neophyte chant at least sixteen rounds. This chanting of sixteen rounds is absolutely necessary if one wants to remember Krsna and not forget Him. Of all the regulative principles, the spiritual master’s order to chant at least sixteen rounds is most essential.
Srila Prabhupada — CC Madhya 22.113 purport
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March 4, 2021
Economic development is madness
We should not waste our time with solving economic problems. Economic development is nonsense. Of course, this proposal is very revolutionary, and people may even hate me for it. “What is Swamiji saying?” they may ask. But actually it is a fact. This economic development is madness.
Srila Prabhupada; TQK 4: Approaching Krsna, the All-pervading Truth
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