Bhakti Vikasa Swami's Blog, page 33

Follow varnasrama-dharma or be an animal

When one is educated or trained up by this varnasrama institution, then his human life begins. Otherwise he is animal. One who does not take to this varnasrama-dharma, he remains in the animal life.

Srila Prabhupada, SB 6.1.24 Lecture, Chicago July 8, 1975

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The holy name protects from death

The holy name of the Lord is as powerful as the Lord Himself. Therefore, simply by chanting and hearing the holy name of the Lord, many men can be fully protected from fierce death without difficulty. Thus a devotee is saved.

By the grace of the Lord, if a devotee, at the time of death, can simply chant His holy name — Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare — simply by chanting this maha-mantra, he immediately surpasses the great ocean of the material sky and enters the spiritual sky. He never has to come back for repetition of birth and death. Simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord, one can surpass the ocean of death.

From Srila Prabhupada’s translation & purport to SB 4.10.30

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Real and bogus gurus

Ms. Nixon: How can one tell a bona fide spiritual master from a fake?

Srila Prabhupada: Whoever teaches how to know God and how to love Him — he is a spiritual master. Sometimes bogus rascals mislead people. “I am God,” they claim, and people who do not know what God is believe them. You must be a serious student to understand who God is and how to love Him. Otherwise, you will simply waste your time.

From: The Science of Self-Realization

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Ours is a different movement

Srila Prabhupada: The difference between others and us is that we are the only movement that can actually teach one how to know God and how to love Him. We are presenting the science of how one can know Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by practicing the teachings of the Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad-Bhagavatam. They teach us that our only business is to love God.

From The Science of Self-Realization

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How to chant to awaken prema

ye-rupe la-ile nama prema upajaya
tahara laksana suna, svarupa-rama-raya

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu continued, “O Svarupa Damodara Gosvami and Ramananda Raya, hear from Me the symptoms of how one should chant the Hare Krsna maha-mantra to awaken very easily one’s dormant love for Krsna.

trnad api su-nicena
taror api sahisnuna
amanina mana-dena
kirtaniyah sada harih

One who thinks himself lower than the grass, who is more tolerant than a tree, and who does not expect personal honor but is always prepared to give all respect to others can very easily always chant the holy name of the Lord.”

Srila Prabhupada’s rendering of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Antya-lila 20.21-22

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Use your brain to increase book distribution

Do not hesitate to use your American and European brains to increase, that is Krishna’s special gift to you, now use it. Any activity which will please Krishna should be accepted favorably, this is our guiding principle. Now apply it in this way, by doing everything and anything for spreading this Krishna Conscious literature, and this is really pleasing to Krishna, know it for certain.

From Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Kirtiraja, 27 November, 1971

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Srila Prabhupada’s verdict on democracy

Democracy is the ruination of civilization.

Morning Walk — May 12, 1975, Perth

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The Krsna consciousness movement is spreading like wildfire

In this age, at the present moment, there are inordinate discrepancies in the discharge of human duties. Human life is meant for God realization, but unfortunately the materialistic civilization is stressing only the senses of the body, not understanding the living force within the body. As clearly stated in Bhagavad-gita (dehino ‘smin yatha dehe [Bg 2.13]), within the body is the body’s proprietor, the living force, which is more important. But human society has become so fallen that instead of understanding the living force within the body, people have become busy with external things. This is a discrepancy in human duties. Therefore Krsna has taken birth or taken shelter within the womb of the Krsna consciousness movement. Men of Kamsa’s class, therefore, are very much afraid and are busy trying to stop this movement, especially in the Western countries. One politician has remarked that the Krsna consciousness movement is spreading like an epidemic and that if not checked immediately, within ten years it may capture governmental power. There is, of course, such potency in the Krsna consciousness movement. As stated by authorities (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Adi-lila 17.22), kali-kale nama-rupe krsna-avatara: in this age, Krsna has appeared in the Hare Krsna maha-mantra. The Krsna consciousness movement is spreading like wildfire all over the world, and it will go on doing so. Men who are like Kamsa are very much afraid of the movement’s progress and acceptance by the younger generation, but as Krsna could not be killed by Kamsa, this movement cannot be checked by men of Kamsa’s class. The movement will go on increasing more and more, provided the leaders of the movement remain firmly Krsna conscious by following the regulative principles and the primary activities of chanting the Hare Krsna mantra regularly.

Srila Prabhupada, Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.2.20, purport

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Chanting renovation

Chanting the holy name of the Lord immediately renovates the transcendental relationship of the living being with the Supreme Lord.

From Srila Prabhupada’s purport to Cc Adi 7.76

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The first offense is disobeying the guru

Devotee: (translating) He wants to know if the greatest offense is to disobey the guru.

Prabhupada: Yes, that is the first offense. Guror avajna, sruti-sastra-nindanam. Sruti-sastra-nindanam guror avajna. If you accept guru and again disobey him, then what is your position? You are not a gentleman. You promise before guru, before Krsna, before fire, that “I shall obey your order; I shall execute this,” and again you do not do this. Then you are not even a gentleman, what to speak about devotee. This is common sense.

From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Bhagavad-gita 2.11 — Mexico, February 11, 1975

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