Bhakti Vikasa Swami's Blog, page 56

Three very powerful substances

The dust of the feet of a devotee, the water that has washed the feet of a devotee, and the remnants of food left by a devotee are three very powerful substances. By rendering service to these three, one attains the supreme goal of ecstatic love for Krsna. In all the revealed scriptures this is loudly declared again and again. Therefore, my dear devotees, please hear from me, for I insist again and again: please keep faith in these three and render service to them without hesitation. From these three one achieves the highest goal of life – ecstatic love of Krsna. This is the greatest mercy of Lord Krsna.

Srila Prabhupada, Cc Antya 16.60-63, translation

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Serving pure devotees

One must render service to a devotee to get free of sins, revive one’s original Krishna consciousness and be trained in how to love Krishna One must render service to a Vaisnava in order to get freed from sinful reactions, revive one’s original Krishna consciousness and be trained in how to love Krishna. This is the result of mahatma-seva. Of course, if one engages in the service of a pure devotee, the reactions of one’s sinful life are vanquished automatically. Devotional service is necessary not to drive away an insignificant stock of sins, but to awaken our dormant love for Krishna. As fog is vanquished at the first glimpse of sunlight, one’s sinful reactions are automatically vanquished as soon as one begins serving a pure devotee; no separate endeavor is required.

Srila Prabhupada, SB 6.1.16 purport

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Symptoms of a pure devotee

A pure devotee is never disturbed in any circumstances. Nor is he envious of anyone. Nor does a devotee become his enemy’s enemy; he thinks that one is acting as his enemy due to his own past misdeeds. Thus it is better to suffer than to protest. In the srimad-Bhagavatam it is stated: tat te ‘nukampam su-samiksamano bhunjana evatma-krtam vipakam. Whenever a devotee is in distress or has fallen into difficulty, he thinks that it is the Lord’s mercy upon him. He thinks: “Thanks to my past misdeeds I should suffer far, far greater than I am suffering now. So it is by the mercy of the Supreme Lord that I am not getting all the punishment I am due. I am just getting a little, by the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” Therefore he is always calm, quiet and patient, despite many distressful conditions. A devotee is also always kind to everyone, even to his enemy. Nirmama means that a devotee does not attach much importance to the peace and trouble pertaining to the body because he knows perfectly well that he is not the material body. He does not identify with the body; therefore he is freed from the conception of false ego and is equiposed both in happiness and distress. He is tolerant, and he is satisfied with whatever comes by the grace of the Supreme Lord. He does not endeavor much to achieve something with great difficulty; therefore he is always joyful. He is a completely perfect mystic because he is fixed in the instructions received from the spiritual master, and because his senses are controlled, he is determined. He is not swayed by false argument because no one can lead him from the fixed determination of devotional service. He is fully conscious that Krsna is the eternal Lord, so no one can disturb him. All his qualifications enable him to depend entirely on the Supreme Lord. Such a standard of devotional service is undoubtably very rare, but a devotee becomes situated in that stage by following the regulative principles of devotional service. Furthermore, the Lord says that such a devotee is very dear to Him, for the Lord is always pleased with all his activities in full Krsna consciousness.

Srila Prabhupada, Bhagavad-gita As It Is, 12.13-14, Purport

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Mad for sadhu-sanga

So this is our position, and the human life is the opportunity to stop this dehantara. And to stop this dehantara, that is the main business. And how it can be done? Simply by understanding Krsna. And how you can understand Krsna? Simply by association of the devotees. That’s all. It is not very difficult. Adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sangah [Cc Madhya 23.14-15]. Rupa Gosvami says. If you get some faith, “Now I shall become free from this material attachment,” then, as it is advised here, sa eva sadhusu krtah. The attachment we have got for material enjoyment, similar attachment should be for the sadhu, that’s all. Suppose I want to drink. As I become mad without getting any drinking, similarly, when you become mad without sadhu-sanga, then you are liberated. You have to simply divert the attachment. Not to speak of drinking, even those who are smoker, if he cannot smoke for one hour, his throat becomes dried up, “Give me bidi. Give me bidi.” So as you have got attachment for the bidi, similar attachment for sadhu will be our liberation. Tat krtah sadhusu. That is to be learned. That you can learn with sadhu-sanga, if you mix with the sadhus. Therefore our mission is if we can create some sadhu and they distribute themself all over the world… As Caitanya Mahaprabhu says,

prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama
sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama

He wants that in every village, every town of the whole world, there may be a center of Krsna consciousness so that people will take advantage of it and they will also become sadhu. This is the mission of Krsna consciousness.

Srila Prabhupada, Talk on Srimad Bhagavatam 3.25.24 Bombay, November 24, 1974

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Don’t try to invent some new order

We should not give freedom to the mind. That is the real purpose. If you give freedom to the mind, then mind will create so many ideas. I have practically seen in our society. As soon as one is in charge, immediately he invents something new: “This should be broken, and this should be done.” Then another man comes. He breaks the same thing again. There are practical experience I have got. Unless there is control over the mind, it will
dictate something new: “Do it like this.” There was a Bengali poet. He also sung a song, ek ta nutana kichu koro: “Do something new.” This is mind’s business. He is not satisfied with the old things. Nutana kichu koro. So that’s a very big song. Why change? The whole material world is like that. Ei nutana kichu koro: “Do something new,” and be implicated. We are not satisfied with old things. “Old order changes, yields to…” “Old order…,” there is an English proverb like that, “yielding to the new.” But the Vedic civilization is that “Do not try to invent some order. That will create disturbance. Be satisfied. Whatever you have got by nature’s way, be satisfied. Don’t spoil your time. Save your time for Krsna consciousness.” That is Vedic civilization. That is the purpose of life, the valuable life.

Srila Prabhupada. Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam 5.6.4 – Vrndavana, 26 November, 1976

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We should be very careful of our time

So try to become devotee of Krsna. Our Krsna consciousness movement is teaching this philosophy. We have got so many books. Whoever comes here must read the books, devotee, the inmates of the temple, outsider, then you will understand what is Krsna consciousness. Or you should chant Hare Krsna only. Don’t talk rubbish things, waste time. That is not good. A single moment is so valuable that you cannot purchase it by millions of dollars. Now today is 25th May, four o’clock gone. You cannot bring it back. Four o’clock, 25th May, 1975, if you want to get it back again by paying millions of dollars, it will not be possible. Therefore we should be very careful of our time. Time once wasted, you cannot get it back return. Better utilize this time. The best utilization is to chant Hare Krsna or think of Krsna, worship Krsna. That is Krsna consciousness movement.

Srila Prabhupada Lecture 25 May 1975, Honolulu

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Connection with Bhaktisiddhanta

Tamala Krsna: I remember one time Karttikeya Maharaja was chanting to a picture of Bhaktisiddhanta. You chastised him and said, “What is your connection with Bhaktisiddhanta? Your connection is with me.”

Prabhupada: Who said?

Tamala Krsna: You did.

Sudama: You did. I remember.

Tamala Krsna: When Karttikeya Maharaja was chanting to your Guru Maharaja’s picture, you said, “How you can connect with him? Your connection was with me.”

Morning Walk – February 3, 1976, Mayapur

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Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada on loud chanting

It is necessary that you call on Him, loudly uttering the maha-mantra. When you loudly recite Sri Krishna’s names and keep track of the number of times that they are uttered, then all evils are steadily overcome and lethargy vanishes with all of its concomitant defects. At that time even persons who are of an antagonistic nature, apathetic to Hari, will be forced to give up their mockery. “Those who come to scoff will remain to pray” with you.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, from “Sri Chaitanya’s Teachings”

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Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada on finding faults

Only those averse to Lord Hari and whose only assets are their defective material senses find fault with Vaisnavas. In Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna states that His devotees never perish. Can those who worship the Lord without deviation ever fall down? They certainly achieve perfection. Since our vision is polluted we find fault with others and thereby ruin ourselves. When we thus become materialists we become bereft of service to guru and Krsna. We think of the trouble of others because we ourselves are in trouble. Because we are full of faults we find fault with others. If we can correct ourselves, we will find that we have no time to find fault with others.

From: Amrta Vani — Nectar of Instructions for Immortality

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Krsna can change matter into spirit and spirit into matter

Either the material energy or the spiritual energy, both are Krsna’s energy. So even He appears like that He has accepted the material body, that material body does not act as material body. He can change matter into spirit and spirit into matter, because He is the controller, isvarah. Bhutanam isvarah. He can change that. Just like electrician: he can change a refrigerator into a heater, and a heater into a refrigerator, because the same power, electricity, is working. He knows the art, how to change it. But we cannot do that. That is the difference between Krsna and ourselves.

From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Bhagavad-gita 4.6 – March 26, 1974, Bombay

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