Bhakti Vikasa Swami's Blog, page 95
January 19, 2023
Simple method to purify yourself
Simple method: simply try to purify yourself by this transcendental vibration, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare… Try to chant always: kirtaniyah sada [Siksastaka 3]. This is the beginning of spiritual life, and this is the end of spiritual life. Not that at the end we shall have to give it up. No — the same method. It is so perfect that it is in the beginning perfect, and at the end it is also perfect. It is not that… There are so many means that you accept something in the beginning, but when you are perfect you give it up. Just like the Mayavadi philosophy, there… Just like the yoga system. When you are not perfect, you accept this yoga system of asana, astanga-yoga system; pranayama, the sitting process, controlling the breathing exercise. But when you become perfect, you need not. You give up. But this process, chanting process, is so perfect that in the beginning of the chanting and when you are completely perfect you are transferred in the spiritual sky, there also the same process will go on — chanting. Hare Krsna!
Srila Prabhupada – February 22, 1973, Auckland
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January 17, 2023
Woman is like fire, and man is like butter
Women should be taken care of — as daughter, as wife, as mother. Bas. No freedom. Then prostitution. Then spoil the whole thing. Unwanted children, contraceptive, abortion. Very dangerous. In our society there are girls. They should live separately. They should be given full engagement, taken care of. No mixing. Then it will be spoiled. Both of them will be… We see big, big workers, sannyasis. Madhudvisa fell victim. The example is given: fire and butter. [laughs] You cannot say that the butter will not melt even in fire. Woman is like fire, and man is like butter.
Srila Prabhupada – April 30, 1977, Bombay
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Krsna’s program: Farm, farm, farm, farm
Let them engage in kirtana. There will be more water for gardening, and it will be moist, and then produce fodder for the animals and food for you. And animal gives you milk. That is Vrndavana life. And they are absorbed in this so-called opulence. Krsna has taken birth. They are bringing so many nice, pleasant foodstuff, coming very well-dressed and ornamented. These are description. In the morning we were reading. How they were happy, the inhabitants of Vrndavana with Krsna and living and cows. That I want to introduce. At any cost do it and… Don’t bother about big, big buildings. It is not required. Useless waste of time. Produce. Make the whole field green. See that. Then whole economic question solved. Then you eat sumptuous. Eat sumptuously. The animal is happy. The animal even does not give milk; let them eat and pass stool and urine. That is welcome. After all, eating, they will pass stool. So that is beneficial, not that simply milk is beneficial. Even the stool is beneficial. Therefore I am asking so much here and…, “Farm, farm, farm, farm.” That is not my program — Krsna’s program. Annad bhavanti bhutani [Bg 3.14]. Produce greenness everywhere, everywhere. Vrndavana. It is not this motorcar civilization.
Srila Prabhupada – May 27, 1977, Vrndavana
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January 15, 2023
Fight, but don’t forget our real culture
The real problem of life is not to adjust things materially, change from one form of government to another form of government. These things are temporary things. It will not give relief. And this fighting between one party with another amongst the politicians or the ksatriyas or the administrators, they are going on perpetually. That is not a very new thing. So we should not forget our real life. For ruling over to get political predominance, there may be fighting. That is natural. It is going on. Just like the Battle of Kuruksetra — it is a fighting between two section of the same family, who will rule over.
So our request is that we may fight amongst ourself for political predominance, but why should we forget our real culture, Vedic culture, Krsna consciousness? That is our request. All important men, leaders of the society, they should take this Vedic culture, Krsna consciousness, and not only preach in their own country, but all over the world.
Srila Prabhupada /Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.3-4 — March 29, 1977, Bombay
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Bring gold for ISKCON
(From Giriraj Swami’s Vyasa-puja offering 2016)
Dhananjaya Dasa told me that at his initiation Srila Prabhupada said, “Dhananjaya means ‘winner of wealth,'” and added, moving his arms all around, “Money is flying in all directions — you simply have to learn the art of catching it.”
The next morning Dhananjaya raised a question related to a purport he had read in Prabhupada’s Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.12.33):
Maharaja Marutta: . . . [He] conducted one sacrifice called Sankara-yajna by which the Lord was so satisfied that He was pleased to hand over to him the charge of a mountain peak of gold. This peak of gold is somewhere in the Himalaya Mountains, and modern adventurers may try to find it there.
“Srila Prabhupada,” Dhananjaya asked, “Is it true that there is mountain peak in the Himalayas made of solid gold?”
“Yes, there is such a peak.”
“Do you know where it is?”
“Why do you want to know?” Prabhupada asked.
Dhananjaya perceived that ISKCON was not doing well financially, and so he said, “Well, if you tell me where it is, I’ll get a rucksack [backpack] and a special hammer and chisel and go to the top of that mountain, hack away at the gold, fill up the rucksack, and come down, and then we can use that gold in Krsna’s service. So would you let me know where that mountain peak is?”
“No,” Prabhupada replied.
“Why not?” Dhananjaya asked.
“That would become too controversial,” Prabhupada said. Then he added, “Actually, more valuable than gold are devotees. You should make devotees.”
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January 14, 2023
We are not liked
Therefore present policy is that “Engage them in work only, and never mind. There is no need of spiritual education. There is no need of jnana. You throw them out, then. Now work just like ass. That’s all.” This is the modern policy of the whole world: engage them. In England and other countries, they want to see that everyone is engaged in working. Then their factories and other things will go on. And if one is engaged in philosophy, jnana, then the work will stop.
So they do not like this Krsna consciousness movement anywhere. We are not liked. They are under the impression that we’ll make the people escaping. But that is not the fact. We are actually distributing knowledge. Jnanagni-dagdha-karmanam. When one becomes actually on the platform of knowledge, then he does not work like an ass. But people want that people should work like ass. That is the difficulty. That is… There is a clash between our movement and others. They want to make all people to work hard like an ass. There is a difference of philosophy. We are preaching, nayam deha nrloke, in the human society, this is not meant for working so hard, like an ass, like a hog, simply for sense gratification. This is Krsna consciousness philosophy.
Srila Prabhupada, Talk on Bhagavad-gita 4.19 — April 8, 1974, Bombay
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January 13, 2023
What we should hanker after
To fix the mind always in the service of the Lord. That we are trying to teach, that’s all. Bhakti. That we should hanker after, how to fix up our mind always in the service of the Lord. That we are trying to teach, that’s all.
Srila Prabhupada; Lecture, Calcutta, February 23, 1972
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January 11, 2023
Devotees are not much interested in flickering history
An example can help us to understand the inconceivable potency of the Supreme Lord. In the recent history of warfare the Supreme Personality of Godhead created a Hitler and, before that, a Napoleon Bonaparte, and they each killed many living entities in war. But in the end Bonaparte and Hitler were also killed. People are still very much interested in writing and reading books about Hitler and Bonaparte and how they killed so many people in war. Year after year many books are published for public reading regarding Hitler’s killing thousands of Jews in confinement. But no one is researching who killed Hitler and who created such a gigantic killer of human beings. The devotees of the Lord are not much interested in the study of the flickering history of the world. They are interested only in Him who is the original creator, maintainer and annihilator. That is the purpose of the Krsna consciousness movement.
Srila Prabhupada,SB 4.11.19, purport
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Importance of association
I know that if you maintain the association of devotees your life will be happy and perfect. That is the version of the sastra that the most important thing for spiritual realization is the company of realized souls or pure devotees of the Lord.
From Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Tribhuvanatha, July 18, 1970
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January 9, 2023
Forget and forgive
We should learn to forget and forgive minor incidents because whenever there are two men in a place, there is always some misunderstanding.
From Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Gargamuni — Los Angeles 11 January, 1968
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