CONTENT

Surrender. Faith. Practice.

Russia

16 June 2001

We are all disciples of Srila Guru Maharaj, Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. Srila Guru Maharaj has given us the seed of devotion and we should know how to protect it.

You know that if you plant a seed of some tree, you must then water it, give it some fertiliser, some sun, and so on. Similarly, we must take care of our devotional seed—every day we must come to the arati, join the programme, must get some good association. Good association is necessary for our devotional life. If we do not get good association, then there will be a big problem in our devotional life, so every day we must read some devotional books—Srila Sridhar Maharaj and Srila Guru Maharaj wrote so many books, scriptures, we should read them and know what is written in them. Also, we should sing some songs.

We must continue our practising life in this way every day. Even if you live in your own house, you can turn your house into an ashram, a temple. What do we do at the temple? We do arati, we have an altar, and you too can have an altar with Srila Guru Maharaj's photograph, or the Deities, and every day do arati, offer worship, and offer whatever food you take to the Deities. We must continue our life in this way.

We should all understand who I am and what I should do.

jivera 'svarupa' haya—krsnera 'nitya-dasa'

krsnera 'tatastha-sakti' 'bhedabheda-prakasa'

"By its intrinsic nature, the soul is an eternal servant of Krishna; the souls comes from the marginal energy of Krishna and are simultaneously one with and different from the Lord."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 20.108)

I am not my name. Where did I get my name? When I was born, I got my name, but you should think where you were before, where you are now, and where you will go after that. We are not this body. We have come from Krishna and we must go "back to God, back to home"—we must go to Krishna. To get there, we must do something. What will we do? We must do something for Krishna.

Before I was born, Krishna asked me, "I will give you eyes, what will you do with them? Will you see My Deity form with your eyes?" We promised, "Yes, I will do that." Krishna asked, "I am giving you hands, will you do My service with these hands?" We promised, "Yes, I will." Krishna asked, "I am giving you legs, will you do parikrama of My Holy Dham with these legs?" We answered, "Yes, I will." We had promised all this, but when we were born we forgot it. Why do we forget it? Because we are covered by illusion.

daivi hy esa gunamayi, mama maya duratyaya

mam eva ye prapadyante, mayam etam taranti te

"My alluring, 'trimodal,' illusory potency is practically insurmountable. However, those who take shelter in Me can overcome this powerful obstacle."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 7.14)

Krishna Himself says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, "I created illusion, and unless you take shelter in Me this illusion will not be removed."

We do not know Krishna, we do not know Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but we know our Gurudev—we have got a good Divine Master, and we must follow him. What is the definition of a disciple? To be a disciple means to obey the Master's rules, obey his instruction. So, we must always follow our Gurudev, his instruction, and always see his destination. What is called bhajan? Bhajan means pleasing all Vaishnavs and Gurudev, it means I must follow whatever instruction Gurudev gives.

We must all fully surrender to our Gurudev, to Krishna, but it is actually very hard to do that. We say it with our mouth, "Oh, I am fully surrendered to Gurudev," but it is actually not so—we must fully surrender to our Gurudev mentally also.

You know there is one story in Sri Mahabharat. One day, Draupadi asked Sri Krishna, "Why did You not protect me when Duhsasan and others dragged me by my hair, when they were beating me?" Krishna answered with a question, "Did you remember Me at that time? You did not. You have five husbands, and when they caught you, you were thinking about Bhim, Arjuna, and others. You thought that nobody was there to protect you now, but when your husbands would come, they would punish them."

Duhsasan threw Draupadi on the floor in front of everybody—Bhisma, Drona, Yudhisthir, and others were sitting there. Draupadi began to cry, "Bhim, why are you not doing anything? You are my husband, and in front of you they are abusing me so much, but you are not even looking at me!" Bhim saw what was going on, but he had no power because the Pandavs had been defeated in a game of pasa: they were helpless and could not do anything. Draupadi was crying, but all they could do is sit and look.

Finally, Duhsasan became very angry and said, "If you want to say something, you must say it to me. They are all my servants now!" When Bhimsen heard this, he became very angry and said, "If I get any power in future, I will kill him!" Duhsasan became even angrier and ordered to his soldiers, "Take off her clothes!"

When they started pulling her clothes off, Draupadi thought, "I must hold my clothes! I can protect myself..." Then, she began to call to Krishna with one hand, and she was still trying to pull her clothes back with the other hand. She still thought she could protect herself. When her clothes were almost all taken off, at that time she thought, "I have no hope! I am helpless!" Then with both hands she cried, "O Krishna! Please protect me!"

From this example you see that we cannot do anything—Krishna does everything. If we cannot believe it, we can see that He always says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita,

man-mana bhava mad-bhakto, mad-yaji mam namaskuru

mam evaisyasi yuktvaivam, atmanam mat-parayanah

"Always think of Me, be my devotee, always worship Me and offer obeisances to Me. Thus offering yourself to Me and taking refuge in Me, you will come to Me."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 9.34)

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja

aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

"Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

Krishna said, "I will protect my devotee," He said everything in these verses.

nanyas chintayanto mam, ye janah paryupasate

tesam nityabhiyuktanam, yoga-ksemam vahamy aham

"I bear the responsibility of acquiring and protecting the necessities of My fully dependent devotees who are always absorbed in thought of Me, and who worship Me in every way."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 9.22)

He said, "If anybody takes shelter in Me, I Myself will carry their food."

So, if I take shelter of Krishna, then Krishna will help me…

* * *

At Sri Chatak Parvat and Sri Tota Gopinath Temple

Sri Puri Dham, parikrama day one

14 July 2015

[His Divine Grace is speaking at the bhajan-kutir of Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur on the first day of Sri Jagannath Dham parikrama in 2015.]

There are three kinds of chanting and three kinds of results that it produces. If you chant in your mind, it is one result; if you chant aloud, it produces another result; and if you dance, clap your hands, and chant, that produces another result. When you chant in your mind, it is called japa; when you chant out loud it is called sankirtan; and if you chant loudly and dance, that is called maha-sankirtan.

Insects, birds, trees, plants, animals—they all cannot chant the Holy Name, but if you chant aloud, they can hear something. That is why Haridas Thakur always chanted out loud.

One day, however, Govinda (Mahaprabhu's servant) came to him and saw that Haridas Thakur was hardly moving his lips and no sound was coming from his mouth—he could not chant... Govinda said to him, "Prabhu, your prasad has come!" Haridas Thakur answered,

"Today, I have to break the rule..."

"What rule?" asked Govinda.

"You have brought me prasad, but how am I to take it? I have not yet completed my rounds. I chant three lakhs Names every day, and when I finish the three lakhs, then prasad comes. You have come today at the usual time, but I have not finished my chanting... At the same time, you have come with prasad and I cannot refuse from it, I must take it...."

So, Haridas Thakur took some prasad in his hand and put it in his mouth, then he told Govinda to go. Govinda went back and told Mahaprabhu, "There is some not good news about Haridas Thakur, he did not seem to be quite in a good health today..." When Mahaprabhu heard this, He went to Haridas Thakur.

"Haridas, what has happened to you?" Mahaprabhu asked him.

(What would we say? We would go, "Oh, my health is bad," or, "Oh, I have a fever, I have a cough," and so on, would not we? But Haridas Thakur said,)

"Prabhu, asustha nay mora sarira, asustha hoya mora mana: it is my mind that is sick today, Prabhu. I have not completed my chanting..."

(What beautiful words!)

"But you are an elderly Vaishnav," said Mahaprabhu, "You are the topmost jewel! You are Namacharya Haridas! What are you saying? You say you have not finished your rounds, but now you have become old, you can chant a little less. What need is there for you to chant so much?"

Haridas Thakur shook his head and did not argue. He then said, "Prabhu, there is something I would like to ask You for... I have never once asked You for anything before, but today I would like to humbly ask You for something. I am a mlechha, but You gave me the plate of brahmins, you have given me so much honour... I have seen so many of Your pastimes from Your birth, but I am thinking that You will not stay for many more days in this world, so my only one wish, Prabhu, is—please let me go before You. Otherwise You will go before me, and I do not want to see this kind of lila! Please give me Your mercy, give me Your blessings, Your permission—let me go before You. I want to see Your holy face with these eyes, to chant Your Name with my mouth, and keep Your lotus feet on my chest... Let me go like this, with Your Name on my lips..."

"What are you saying, Haridas?... The Lord will fulfil your desire, but—"

Haridas Thakur quickly clasped Mahaprabhu's feet and said, "Please, do not say anything! I am clasping Your feet and begging you, please do not say any 'but's! I am just an ant, and if an ant like me dies, what is the loss for You?"

"All right, I will come tomorrow..." said Mahaprabhu and left.

He came back the next day and asked, "Haridas, what is the news?" Haridas Thakur answered, "As You wish, Prabhu..."

Then Mahaprabhu asked the devotees to start kirtan and do parikrama around the bed of Haridas Thakur. Haridas Thakur was lying down, and when the kirtan began, he quickly pulled Mahaprabhu down and seated him next to himself. He put His feet on his chest and kept saying, "Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Sri Krishna Chaitanya..." As soon as he said it three times, the soul left the body chanting this Name...

Mahaprabhu took the body of Haridas Thakur in His arms and carried him to the ocean. (The place at the ocean where we went to, is the actual place where Mahaprabhu made Haridas Thakur's samadhi. Later, the house where we went to and so many other things appeared.) Mahaprabhu himself dug a hole and put the sand...

When the samadhi was finished, Mahaprabhu went back to the Jagannath temple. He came to the Ananda Bazaar and, holding His uttariya in front of Him, He begged the shopkeepers for prasad. He would go shop to shop, saying, "My Haridas has left today, and I am making a festival today. Please give Me what you can." All shopkeepers gave so much prasad, and Mahaprabhu Himself distributed it to everyone.

This is how Mahaprabhu made a festival in honour of Haridas Thakur...

...And now we have come here. This is the bhajan kutir of the Guru of our Gurudev's Gurudev, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur. He is the founder of our Gaudiya Math and of Chaitanya Math in Mayapur. During his life he stayed in Nabadwip, and his birthplace is here in Puri, in a place called Narayana-chhata. We will go there when we will go past the Jagannath temple to the Gundicha temple—we will offer our obeisance there and speak some Hari-katha.

And where are we going now? We are going to Tota Gopinath, it is nearby. We will offer our obeisances there and after that go back to the temple.

Tota Gopinath means "Garden" Gopinath—"tota" means "a garden" in Odia (Orissan). One day, Mahaprabhu was walking with Gadadhar Pandit in a garden. He said to him, "Gadadhar, I am going to give you a grand gift today! I am going to give you something wonderful!" Gadadhar Pandit became excited, "Give, Prabhu!" Suddenly, Mahaprabhu began to dig some sand in the garden they were walking in, and He found there a Deity! He said to Gadadhar, "This is My present for you!"

You have probably heard that there are different stories as to where Mahaprabhu disappeared. There are these two different versions, and both of them are correct: some say He disappeared in the Jagannath temple, some say He disappeared in this temple of Tota Gopinath (in the thigh of Gopinath Deity there was some blood, this is how it was understood that Mahaprabhu entered Gopinath).

Gadadhar Pandit served this Deity of Gopinath every day, but one day he said to Gopinath, "Prabhu, I have become extremely old, I cannot do Your service any more... I cannot put a garland on Your neck, I cannot dress You, I cannot do anything properly. I have become useless, Prabhu..." Hearing this—for His devotee's service—the Lord sat down! It is "loving search for the lost servant"! On the next day, when Gadadhar Pandit came to do the arati he saw that Gopinath was sitting!

We will go there now and you can see yourself that the Deity is actually kneeling.

All right, let's go, shall we?

[Chatak Parvat means "sand dune", it is a hilly place where Mahaprabhu once ran madly, taking it for Govardhan Hill.]

[His Divine Grace is speaking in the temple of Sri Tota Gopinath:]

You know, one day Gadadhar Pandit thought, "I want to see how much Mahaprabhu loves me. I will make some sak (spinach) and not invite Him. Let's see if He comes or not." So, he cooked some sak and invited Nityananda Prabhu and all the devotees, but he did not invite Mahaprabhu.

Mahaprabhu came there and said, "What, Gosai? You are cooking nice sak and not inviting Me? You are trying to cheat Me, do not do this!" Then He sat and took prasad. Gadadhar Pandit read Bhagavatam, and Mahaprabhu listened.

Mahaprabhu gave ksetra-sannyas to Gadadhar Pandit—He told him, "You must stay here and serve this Deity." Gadadhar Pandit was the incarnation of Radharani, and Tota Gopinath was his worshippable Deity.

One day, Gadadhar Pandit came to Mahaprabhu and said, "You must give me initiation." Mahaprabhu replied, "Your Guru is coming from Bangladesh, wait for him." That Guru was a grihastha, he wore fancy clothes, chewed pan and spat it out all the time, but Mahaprabhu liked him and called him "baba (father)." It was Pundarik Vidyanidhi, who is actually an incarnation of Raja Vrisabhanu, Radharani's father in Kali-yuga. So, Gadadhar Pandit saw that Mahaprabhu called him "father," but he would spit pan out all the time, and he thought, "What kind of man is this?!" So, Mahaprabhu said to him, "To atone for your offence, you must now take initiation from him! Here is your Guru!" And Gadadhar Pandit took initiation from Pundarik Vidyanidhi.

One day Mahaprabhu was going out and He noticed that Gadadhar Pandit was walking behind Him. He asked him,

"Where do you think you are going? Are you going with Me? You probably just want to stay at different houses and get nice food, do you not? Do you have no service? You have your service—go serve Gopinath!"

"Prabhu, I am not going with You, I am going to see Ai (Sachi Mata). I can go, can I not?"

"No, you cannot. You have your service!" answered Mahaprabhu.

"Prabhu! I can get the result of doing millions of services to Gopinath just by once seeing Your lotus feet."

(HARI BOL! HARI BOL! [devotees cheer])

"Keep quiet!" Mahaprabhu said quickly, and Gadadhar Pandit could not say a word more.

Then, a boat came, Mahaprabhu got in and went away. Gadadhar Pandit fainted. Such was his love to Mahaprabhu.

As I said earlier, this Deity you see here is the Garden Gopinath—Mahaprabhu dug Him out of the sand of this garden, and they say that Mahaprabhu disappeared by entering this very Gopinath...

Jay Tota Gopinath ki jay!

* * *

At Sri Alarnath

Sri Puri Dham, parikrama day two

15 July 2015

In Sri Purusottam Dham, at the shore of the ocean and about twenty-four miles to the East of Puri, there is a town called Brahmagiri. Here, Brahma worshipped Lord Vishnu in Satya-yuga. Pleased with his worship, Lord Narayan appeared here.

A very long time ago there were some devotees of Lord Narayan from South India who belonged to Sri Ramanuja Acharya sampradaya. They were great self-realised souls who appeared in South India to preach devotion to the Lord in this world, and they stayed here.

In Bengali we call devotees "bhakta", in English "devotees" and in Tamil language they call devotees, "alwara," that is how the place got its name: Alarnath or Alwar-nath, the Lord (nath) of the devotees (alwar).

As I have told before, during the Snan-yatra of Lord Jagannath, Mahaprabhu could not get the Lord's darshan, so, overwhelmed with anxiety, He ran here and there was such a transformation within His body that when He paid dandavat at the temple, the stone that His body touched melted. Such was His devotion and love for the Lord. That stone is still here and you can see it—you can see the places on the stone where Mahaprabhu's body touched it.

There was a time when a brahman from a town in South India settle here to maintain the worship of the Deity. One that that pujari vipra had to go to some place, so he told his small, simple-hearted son to make the offering to the Deity in his absence.

The boy cooked as he could and brought the bhog before the Deity of Alarnath. He did not know the mantras for worshipping, so he said, "O Lord, I am an ignorant little boy, I do not know the mantras. My father has left for some other place, please kindly accept this offering." He closed the door, and then saw some boys on the street and went to play with them.

Soon his mother saw him playing outside. She came to him and asked,

"Where is the bhog? Is it not ready yet?"

"I have given the bhog to the Lord!" said the boy.

"Child, you offer the bhog to the Lord and then must bring it back to the house! After we bring the bhog back to the house, we distribute it to everyone."

The boy went back to the temple to bring back the bhog, following the order of his mother, but he could not find it anywhere. There was no bhog in the temple. The mother did not believe him—she went to the temple too and saw it was not there, but still she did not believe it. She thought, "He is a small boy and very naughty, he must have eaten all of Narayan's bhog!" She chastised him, "Your father has been doing this worship for so long, but the Lord has never taken the bhog from him, and you do not know any rules and regulations how to worship the Deity, you do not know any mantras, any tantras, and the Lord has taken all your bhog?! How can it be possible?"

After a while the brahman returned to the temple, and his wife told him what had happened. The brahmin decided to test his son. He told him to go and make the offering again, "I want to see with my own eyes how Narayan takes your offering!"

The boy went to make the offering again, and the father watched hiding in some place. He could hear his son offering the bhog to Narayan and saying, "O Lord, I do not know any mantra, any tantra, I do not know how to pray to You, but my father is not here now, and I have come to offer You this bhog. Please take it." The boy said it said and went away, closing the door. Then the father saw how Narayan started taking the bhog with His four hands! He ate with four hands! He did not believe it at first, but now he could see it himself.

Suddenly the brahmin jumped up and said to Lord Narayan,

"O Lord! If you take all the bhog, what will we eat? You will eat it all and there will be nothing left for us!"

"I am enjoying the love of this little boy," answered the Lord and then asked the brahman, "What boon would you like to receive from Me?"

"What boon can I want? If you eat all the bhog, we will all have to die!"

"All right," said Lord Alarnath, "from today I will not take your prasad, but remember: everything in this world is for My enjoyment."

We have ego and think, "It is my food," "These are my clothes," "It is my Deity," "It is my house," "It is my car," and so on—everything is mine; but when a devotee prays to the Lord, the Lord accepts everything and gives it then back for His devotee. Do you understand? You must believe in it!

The same story happened with Mukunda's son Raghunandan. When he brought back only half of the sweets after offering them to the Deity, his mother did not believe him at first, she thought the child had eaten the bhog.

So, this is Alarnath's temple. The Lord's Deity here is chatur-bhuja murti (four-handed). In His lower right hand He holds padma (lotus), in His upper right hand—chakra (wheel); His left upper hand—sankha (conch); and His left lower hand—gada (club).

Jay Sri Alarnath ki jay!

* * *

Pastimes of Sri Saksi Gopal

Sri Puri Dham, near Saksi Gopal temple

4 July 2016

There were once two brahmans, an old and a young one. They both went on pilgrimage to many holy places and met in Vrindavan. The old brahman was very happy with the young brahman, although he was not very educated, and promised in front of the Deity of Gopal to give his daughter to him.

When the family of the old brahman (his wife, son and others) got to know about this, they were against it. They threatened him, "If you give her to this brahman, we will commit suicide," "We will disown you!" "I will divorce you," and so on. The brahman said that he had promised it in front of the Deity of Gopal, but his son did not believe in the Lord, did not believe in the Deity of the Lord. He thought that the Deity could not bear witness, so he said that only if Gopal Himself came to give witness they would give the girl to that brahman.

Both the old brahman and the young brahman had faith in Gopal, and the Deity actually came to Vidyanagar, Tamilnadu, from Vrindavan to give witness. When the young brahman told Gopal what had happened, Gopal said to him, "How am I to come there from Vrindavan?... All right, cook a kilo of rice today, I will eat and go, but I will go behind you and you must not look behind. I will wear ankle-bells, and you will hear their sound." They set off, but when they were near Vidyanagar, the brahman thought, "I want to see Gopal, is He really walking behind me?" As soon as he turned round and looked behind, he saw Gopal turning into the Deity, standing there and smiling, "I have come to give witness." This is how it happened, and in the end the brahman got married to that girl.

After that, king Indradyumna king conquered Tamilnadu and brought Saksi Gopal here ('saksi' means 'witness'). They made a big festival for Him... But the king's wife, the queen, thought once in a dream, "I would like to give a nose ring to Gopal, but Gopal has no hole in His nose..." The next day she saw Gopal had a big hole in His nose! She made a big, one-kilo gold nose ring for the Deity and arranged a festival.

This is Saksi Gopal, and this is the place where His pastime happened. I am telling only some small details, there are so many pastimes of Gopal, you can read Chaitanya-charitamrita and see also how Khirachora Gopinath stole kheer for Madhavendra Puri... Also, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came to this place and heard this pastime of Saksi Gopal from Nityananda Prabhu who had come here before with Madhavendra Puri...

Jay Saksi Gopal ki jay!

* * *

Gundicha Marjan: A Seat for Bhakti Devi

Sri Puri Dham, parikrama day four

17 July 2015

So we have come with the parikrama here to the temple of Gundicha (Gundicha was the wife of King Indradyumna), and today is also Gundicha marjan. Sometimes we also call this temple "Masi bari" (aunt's house).

The chariot of the Lord comes and stays at this house, and before the festival Mahaprabhu would take all the devotees and come here to clean the temple. What would He do first? First He cleaned with His hand (swept), then poured water and clean with water, and after that He would wipe everything with a cloth.

What is the meaning of this Pastime? Cleaning the temple (Gundicha marjan) means we have so much dust in our hearts, we must remove this dust. There is so much dirt and dust, but once we clean the place in our heart, we can invite Bhakti Devi, the Lord, to come there. Unless you clean the place, Bhakti Devi will not come. So, it is no use to sweep just to show something to others...

Actually Mahaprabhu taught by example. What did He say? He said to the devotees, "Let us see who collects more dirt and dust. One who collects more will have to feed all the devotees!" The devotees tried hard to clean, but when they put all the dust, sand, and so on, they had all collected in one place, Mahaprabhu's heap alone was still bigger, so Mahaprabhu said, "That means that today I will feed all devotees with Jagannath prasad!"

Now we are going to pay obeisance to Lord Nrisinghadev [His temple is within the Gundicha temple compound], then go to Indradyumna sarovar, and return to our Sevak Bhavan....

* * *

Darshan of Lord Jagannath

Sri Puri Dham, the day after Ratha Yatra

19 July 2015

By the mercy of Guru and Vaishnavs we completed the Ratha-yatra festival yesterday in a very beautiful and smooth way.

You have come and got so much austerity here, but without making any effort you cannot get the Lord. Great-great goswamis stayed under the trees and maintained their life like that, and you too have had to stay a few days under the pandal, tolerate the rain falling on your heads, sometimes waited long to take prasadam, but everyone is alive, is it not true? Guru Maharaj said that everyone dies, there is no one who does no die. At home you eat so many nice things, but you have come here for several days and got some austerity for the Lord—you took the Lord's prasadam, you took part in the Ratha-yatra festival...

Why do we come to a holy place? We have come here to get the darshan of Lord Jagannath, but tell me do we have the eyes to see the chariot of Lord Jagannath? We do not have the eyes to get the darshan of the Lord. You think you can come close to the chariot and the Lord can see you, but do you think the Lord only sits on the chariot, in one place? The Lord is everywhere. He is present in the whole of the universe—Tal, Atal, Vital, Nital, Sutal, and so on. The Lord created millions of Brahmas so that they could create these universes and each of these Brahmas are engaged in the service of the Lord.

Many think, "Oh, I will see the chariots tomorrow," but tell me do we have the eyes to see it? Once, a sannyasi said to Guru Maharaj, "Maharaj, I went to Hapaniya Dham get the darshan of the Lord." Guru Maharaj said, "Oh, darshan? Do you have the eyes to see the Lord? You went to take darshan, but I do not have the eyes to see the Lord."

If, however, you can keep Hari-katha (talks, tidings about the Lord) in your heart—if you can see the Lord with the eyes that you have in your heart—then you can actually sit right here and be able to see the Lord. Lord Jagannath has no doubt seen those who were near His chariot if they had a strong desire for that, but if you have clean eyes in your heart, then you can be sitting here and can actually get the darshan of Lord Jagannath.

* * *

Parikrama: Mood, Intention, and Prayer

Sri Puri Dham, the day after Ratha Yatra

19 July 2015

So many people visit holy places—so many come here as tourists, for their own pleasure, eat meat, fish here—and the holy place becomes polluted. But what you do you, Vaishnavs, come here? The holy place too wants devotees to come to them, the holy place says, "Come to my Dham, you will chant the Holy Name and I will become pure again." That is why you come here, you do parikrama and chant kirtan.

People spend so much money, time, energy to do eye exercise on pretext of spiritual benefit, but I never want you to have a loss. I want you to get spiritual benefit. If the Guru cannot direct you to the right path, he cannot be a Guru.

gaura amara ye-saba sthane

karala bhramana range

se-saba sthana heriba ami

pranayi-bhakata-sange

"In the company of loving devotees, I behold all the places my Gaurasundar roamed during His ecstatic Pastimes."

I take you to the places that Mahaprabhu went to, and I do not have any other motives besides this.

Some of you could not come inside the Gundicha temple, but what is the problem? You can sweep outside, you can pay obeisance outside. There is no need to become upset, you can even pay obeisance from afar.

Everybody says, "Haribol, Haribol," but devotion to the Lord depends on the quality of faith and intense desire. People go after money, wealth, cars, houses, etc. but how long will you stay here? You came here without anything and you will go without anything too. Do not eat so much (atyahara), do not hoard things (prayascha), do not talk too much or listen to gossips (prajalpa), accept what is favourable to devotion, reject what is unfavourable to devotion (niyamagraha), give up greed (laulancha) and bad association (jana-sanghancha)—this is how you should do parikrama.

I said before that when I go to Vrindavan I will not take so many people with me. Param Guru Maharaj also said, "I want quality, I do not need quantity." When there is much alloy, there is not much proper quality. Suppose you go to the market to buy some potato—if you buy a lot at a time, some potato will be bad, but if you buy only two kilo, all potato will good. We want quality, we are not interested in quantity.

So, you have come here for the parikrama, and if you can pray to Lord Jagannath, "O Jagannath, please be merciful to me, please forgive my offence!" it will be good. We make so many offences, it is necessary to ask for forgiveness. The Lord is extremely forgiving, extremely merciful, but if we cannot follow our Guru, if we do not understand what the proper service and devotion are, if we do not understand who the Lord is, then we actually do not understand anything at all…

* * *

Appearance of Lord Jagannath

Speaking to the devotees in San Jose

18 August 2013

Previously, Jagannath, Baladev, Subhadra were one Vishnu-, or Narayan-murti, and His name was Nil-Madhav. He was served about a hundred kilometres away from Puri by one savar named Vishvavasu. (Savar means a person of a very low caste. For example, you have heard about people living in the Amazon forests—savar caste is something like them.)

"I want to serve the Lord"

One time, Indradyumna, the king of Orisha, got a very strong desire in his heart, he thought, "I am the king—I have a queen, I have a kingdom, but I cannot serve the Lord properly..." This desire was very strong in his heart, he kept thinking about serving the Lord, and one day there was some sound from the sky (akash-dhvani)—the Lord Himself said to the king, "O Indradyumna, you are searching for Me, you want to serve Me, but I am not so far. I am served here by one devotee, I will not tell you his name. You must find Me—I also want to come to you because My servitor gives Me only forest food, only sweet potato, but I want some good prasadam, I want raj-bhog (opulent food)!" Hearing the message, the king became very happy, "I must find out where He lives!"

The king had many ministers and soldiers—first he sent some to the North side, "Go to the North and find where the Lord stays!" but they did not find anything; then he sent them to the West side, but there too they could not find the Lord and came back; then, he sent them to the South, but they again did not find anything. The king felt very hopeless. Finally, he told his prime-minister Vidyapati, "Vidyapati! The Lord told me He lived in some place near, and it is true, it is a fact, I have heard it with my own ears. You must go and find Him."

"Why are you leaving? Please stay!”

Vidyapati paid his obeisance in the East side (East is considered a very auspicious side), and went in that direction. He was walking and walking and suddenly, in the middle of so much jungle and forest, he saw a house on a hill, and near the house there was a very beautiful girl. She was alone there, and Vidyapati was very surprised, "A girl! Alone in the jungle! I must not stay here, I have to go to another place!" He turned back to leave, but the girl called him, "O Prabhu, where are you going? You have come to my house, and you look like a brahmin. We are savar, but will you not take some prasadam here? Will you not stay?" Vidyapati said immediately, "No, no. You are a young girl, alone here, and I am also young and alone—how can I stay here? It does not look good. What if your father comes, he can beat me. It is not good." (The girl's name was Lalita.) Lalita said, "No, no, if you do not stay here, my father will beat me because I could not serve a brahmin boy properly. Please, you must stay." Then, suddenly her father came to the house and said, "She is right. Why are you leaving? I am savar, my caste is lower than yours, but it is my duty to serve a brahmin. Please stay."

So, Vidyapati, the prime-minister of king Indradyumna, stayed in their house. He stayed there for quite a while. By and by, Lalita fell in love with him, he too fell in love with her, so they got married and became husband and wife.

Vidyapati was actually a guptachar (an agent who is sent to search something out secretly, like FBI, or CBI in India)—he was actually there because he was searching for the Lord, he did not come there to get married or anything like that. So, eventually he noticed that Lalita's father (his father-in-law) went somewhere every day—he would leave in the morning and come back at night; but when he came back, there was so much nice smell coming from his body: incense, aguru (agarwood, or aloeswood), sandalwood, and so on. He was surprised, "Where does this man go every day?"

"Show me the way"

"Lalita," he asked his wife one day, "can you tell me where you father goes every day?"

"Father goes to worship some Deity... He goes in the morning and comes back in the evening."

"Can you ask him if he can show me where that Deity is?"

"I can ask, but it is confidential... You are my husband, so I can ask my father, but I do not know if he will allow you," answered Lalita.

In the evening, she asked her father,

"Father, my husband Vidyapati noticed that you go somewhere every day, he got the nice smell coming from you. He asked me where you went and I told him the truth. I said you went to worship a Deity."

"You have told him?!"

"Yes, I did..."

"You have made a big mistake! You did wrong!" Vishvavasu got angry, "I go there secretly because I know the Deity wants to leave, and I am afraid someone will come and take the Deity away..."

Vishvavasu became very disturbed, he thought, "Maybe I should kill him today... Yes, when the night comes, I will kill him!" But the Deity did not want it, so his mind changed: "No, I will not kill anyone, it will be an offence..." In the end, he said to his daughter, "All right, you can tell your husband that he can go with me, but I will not show him the way. I will tie his eyes with a black cloth and take him there."

Lalita told Vidyapati what her father had said, and Vidyapati said to her, "I will go, it is good, but I need to know the way how to get there..." Then Lalita said, "My father can cheat you, but you are my husband and I cannot cheat you. I have an idea. When you walk behind my father like a blind man, he will take you by hand, but I will give you some mustard seeds, and you can throw the seeds on the way behind my father until the destination, the Deity's place. When the seeds grow, you will understand what the way is by the mustard trees." (She told a very nice plan to her husband.)

So, Vishvavasu tied the eyes of his son-in-law, Vidyapati, and took him to the Deity. On the way, as Lalita had suggested, he threw the mustard seeds one by one on the ground, and Vishvavasu did not know what was going on behind him. Then, they came to the place, Vishvavasu opened his eyes, and Vidyapati saw the Deity. He paid his obeisance, and after that Vishvavasu again closed his eyes and took him back.

After a while, it rained for three-four days and the seeds started growing. Some more days later there appeared mustard trees and when they grew big Vidyapati secretly went to the Deity's place alone to see if he could find the way. He easily found the way and was pleased, "I have found where the Deity is!"

The way back

Vidyapati came back to his wife Lalita and said, "I have been staying with you here for so many days, but I also have mother and father, I must go to see them. I will come back in a few days." Lalita said, "All right, you can go..."

Vidyapati returned to Puri and told everything to King Indradyumna. The king became very happy and extremely excited, "Where is it? I must go there!" Taking all his soldiers, elephants and horses, Indradyuma went to take the Deity, but Vishvavasu did not allow him to take the Deity, so the king's soldiers arrested him. The Deity was very unhappy, "You have arrested and put My servitor into prison! This is not right! When you come, you must come in a humble way. I will not go now! First free My servitor—he may be a savar, but he has served Me for many years, and you arrest him, it is very bad. First free him from the jail and make a temple for Me, then I will come. And I will come Myself—it is not necessary to bring Me!"

So, king Indradyumna made a big temple for the Lord (it is the same Jagannath temple that many of you have seen in Puri), and started waiting. He waited and waited, but the Deity did not come. He thought, "The Deity said He would come, but He is not coming..." One day the Deity came to him in a dream and said, "I am coming by the sea. I will come to the place called Chakra-tirtha. Go there, but not with your soldiers, elephants and horses. Only three people must come—you, my previous servitor Vishvavasu, and your minister Vidyapati who first found Me from your side. I will come as three pieces of wood..."

"How to carry? How to carve?"

So, the three went there to the shore of the sea and saw three pieces of wood coming from the sea. The wood was very heavy, and the king thought, "How will we carry it? It is very heavy!" but as soon as he touched the wood, it became very light, like foam. They picked up the Deities and brought them to the Deities' room in the temple.

It was only three pieces of wood, so now it was necessary to make the Deity. How will they make the Deity? The king invited a carpenter (murti-walla). The carpenter went to the temple with his hammers and all the other tools, but as soon as he touched the wood with his tools, the tools broke. The king then went on to employ one carpenter after another, but every time as soon as their tools touched the wood, the tools broke. The king did not know what to do, "How to make the Deity? It is impossible!" Then the Deity Himself told the king, "One of My servitors will come to you, his name is Vishvakarma. You will not like him and would never choose him because he looks very old, but you must allow him to make the Deity, he can do it."

So, one day an old man came to the king and said,

"Your Majesty, if you give me your permission, I can try to make the Deity..."

"Yes, yes, you can do it," answered the king.

"But I have some condition..."

"What is it?"

"You must keep me in the Deities' room, lock the door from outside, and do not open it for twenty-one days. After twenty-one days you can open the door."

"Yes, no problem," agreed the king.

So, the old man and his tools were taken to the Deities' room, and the door was locked from outside. Every day, two-three times, king Indradyumna and his wife Gundicha Devi would come to the door and they could hear some sound coming from the room, "Tuk-tuk-tuk!" so they knew the work was going on. After fifteen days, however, when they both came to the door they did not hear any sound. They thought, "What if the man has died? The temple room will become inauspicious... What will happen? The man told not to open for twenty-one days, but the man is so old, what if he died before that... How is it possible to wait then?" When they finally opened the door, they saw there was nobody inside, only three Deities were there in the room, incomplete—They did not have proper hands or legs, etc.

"I am Baladev, I am Subhadra, I am Jagannath"

That same night, the Deities came to the king in a dream and said, "I am Baladev, I am Subhadra, I am Jagannath. This is how I will rescue the whole world, the whole planet. But I have three conditions. First, you must declare that this is My temple, it belongs to all devotees, it is not anyone's personal temple. Second, My temple will be closed only for three hours (it will close at 1 o'clock and open at 4 o'clock in the morning)—it will be open for twenty-one hours for everyone. Third, you must offer Me fifty-six kinds of bhog—even though I do not have hands, I have come here for raj-bhog, I am always hungry, so you must offer Me fifty-six kinds of bhog. These are My conditions."

This is how Baladev, Subhadra, Jagannath appeared.

* * *

Nectar of Devotion

Speaking to the devotees in San Jose

18 August 2013

Actually Krishna arranges everything. We must understand that if you think about yourself, you will not get Krishna; but if you think about Krishna, Krishna will arrange everything. This is the main point, and I believe that—I 100% believe it, or you can even say 200%.

We do not want to drink nectar, but Gurudev always gives us nectar and forces us to drink it.

In Sri Sri Prapanna-jivanamritam Srila Sridhar Maharaj wrote a very nice sloka, I heard Gurudev explain it. He said that great souls (like Rupa Goswami, Sanatan Goswami) drink nectar, but when you eat and talk, sometimes some drops fall from your mouth, so Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, "I am collecting a few drops here, a few drops there, and distributing them, telling about that, for my own benefit, and for the others' benefit."

Gurudev explained it very nicely.

We do not want to do Hari-bhajan—we do not want to worship, we do not want to serve—but Gurudev is forcefully taking us to his lotus feet! We do not want to drink the bhakti-ras, the nectar of devotion! We do not want to serve properly, but Gurudev forcefully takes us, gives us proper adjustment, proper nourishment and engages us in service—forcefully! Such is his power. Do you understand?

I was very happy when I heard Gurudev say it. Gurudev gave that lecture in Bengali in 1988, at the first disappearance festival of Srila Sridhar Maharaj. I told Sripad Tyagi Maharaj to publish it in Gaudiya Darshan, and he translated it into English. You can watch it or read, you will be happy to hear it.

Gurudev always tells us certain things, but what can we do? We always give food to our mind (giving food to the mind means listening to the mind). It is our fault that we listen to our mind, that we give strength ("vitamin") to the mind, and, as a result, our mind becomes strong and takes us in another way, the wrong way. That is our problem.

* * *

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Speaking to the devotees in San Jose

18 August 2013

Question: When will you come here?

I am always with you, Prabhu. [His Divine Grace chuckles.]

One day, Krishna went to the jungle, forest, with his friends (Madhu Mangal, Balaram, Sridam, Sudam and others), and suddenly the boys got very hungry. They said, "O Krishna, we are very hungry, we cannot walk!" Krishna told them, "There is one brahman village near this place where we have come to. The brahmans are making some yajna (fire-sacrifice), you can go there and ask them for some fruit or sweets. Tell them My name—say Krishna is sitting over there and He has sent you to them."

The cowherd boys went to the place where the brahmans were doing the yajna and said to the brahmans, "Krishna has come here, He is very hungry, He is asking for some fruit or sweets..." The brahmans became very angry, "Hey! What are you doing here?! We are doing Vishnu puja! A cowherd boy has come and He is hungry, so what? Who do you think you are? 'Krishna is hungry!'—why must we give you food? Get out!!"

The boys ran away and returned to Krishna, "They did not give us anything! They kicked us out..." Krishna is very clever, so He told them, "All right. The brahmans are doing their fire-sacrifice, but their wives are all at home. Go to them and say, 'Krishna is very hungry, can you give something for Him?'" Before Krishna could even finish, the boy had already gone to the brahmans' wives.

The cowherd boys came to the houses of the brahmans' wives and said, "Krishna has come, He is here in the forest and He is very hungry..." The ladies became excited, "Oh, Krishna has come?! To our village? He is here nearby? Where? Where is He? We want to see Him! You say He is hungry? Take this, take this." They took whatever food they could find in the house and went with the boys to Krishna.

Suddenly the brahmans saw the cowherd boys walking past—with their wives walking behind them. They were surprised, "Hey, where are our wives going?! It must be another game of Krishna! What if they are going to see Krishna?" They became very angry...

Anyhow, they came to Krishna. They were very happy to see Him, and Krishna was also happy. The ladies gave Krishna some food and asked Him anxiously, "How is it? Is it cooked well?" Krishna said, "Yes, it is very nice, very nice. I am very happy. I was very hungry today and your husbands did not give Me anything, but it is so nice that you have brought some food." Then, Krishna said,

"So, I have finished eating, you can go now..."

"Go?! But we do not want to go! Besides, our husbands have seen us and they will not take us back. They have already divorced us... We do not want to go, please let us stay."

"How can you stay? It is not good. I am a ksatriya and you are brahmans' wives, it does not look right, please go."

"No, no, no! We do not want to go, and our husbands have already seen us coming here." They began to cry so much and said then, "You do not like us... You are always with the gopis, they serve You so much, but because we cannot serve You properly You do not want us to stay... All right, then we will stay and become servitors of the gopis! Can we?"

"Yes, this is the proper line," said Krishna, but then added, "Do not worry, I will make some illusory environment and you can go back to your husbands, they will not say anything to you, they will accept you happily. It is better if you stay far and worship Me from far. You can worship My sach-chid-ananda vigraha, then, through separation, you will feel even happier.”

* * *

Selfless Dedication

11 April 2013

Gurudev's disappearance festival is coming soon. It is the wish of Gurudev... We are all here serving Chaitanya Saraswat Math, all over the country, and we must not see our own interest so much. We must not take from Gurudev, we must only want to give something to Gurudev—it is necessary to have a giving mood, not taking mood. If we proceed in this way, we will be able to serve our Gurudev's mission and we will also get the real result.

We often think that so much time has passed since we came to Krishna consciousness but we are not getting the proper result—we must not think about it in this way. If you can surrender properly, serve properly, then big things are waiting for you, you will get the result one day. There is no doubt about that, it is necessary to have full faith in that. Srimad Bhagavad-gita says also (18.66),

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja

aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

"Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair."

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said one time, "I am bringing so many brahmacharis from their family life. I tell people to leave their job and family, and they leave their parents, friends, etc. in the same way as they pass and leave stool and urine [Prabhupad says it, these are not my words!]. They come here to the Math, become devotees and then I again send them to the householder people. They came from the householder life, but I again send them there—am I making a mistake? Am I doing wrong? No. What do I send them there for? To preach. Where will brahmacharis go to preach? To the householders, otherwise where will people come from?"

That is "'Gaudiya' pathao ghare ghare: you [Srila Prabhupad] send Gaudiya messengers door to door."

One time, Sripad Bhakti Hriday Bon Maharaj went begging (collecting donations and distributing books) in Kolkata, and somehow he came to a prostitute quarter. Bon Maharaj returned to Prabhupad and said, "Prabhupad, I did not know what that place was, but I went to a prostitute quarter in Kolkata for begging..." When Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur heard it, he said, "No, you went to the right place, you did not make any mistake. You went to a pros-quarter, but you did not go there for your own enjoyment, you went there for your service."

Do you understand? We should surrender and use ourselves in this way—for service. What are you afraid of? When your death is already written there for you, no one can stop it, why are you then afraid of dying? Why do you think about it? You must cross death. If you think in this way, then you will easily get the real benefit, there is no doubt about that—the real benefit is waiting for you then.

* * *

Burning Your Bridges

Speaking to a servitor

6 April 2013, Sri Puri Dham

After I took sannyas, my family told me, "Come for a few days to get your land. You can sell it and take the money." I thought that I could give that money to my Guru and Gurudev could use it for service, but Gurudev did not allow me to go to my house. You are going to your house, this is not my wish and this is not a spiritual matter; but your mind is taking you there, what can I do? Anyhow, you can see: stay at any of our temples and come back quickly, as soon as possible, take care of your service. It is not necessary for you to go back to your home and family.

mayare kariya jaya chhadana na yaya

sadhu-guru krpa vina na dekhi upaya

“It is not possible to conquer maya by engaging in maya. I see no other way to get relief except for the mercy of sadhus."

('Ki rupe paibe seva', Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

Actually, maya always creates attachment. You have had this attachment to the family life for so many years, not only in this birth, but for many lives, and that attachment is so strong that when you now want to leave it, the attachment does not want to leave you. Do you understand? It is very difficult to break attachment, but you must try. Attachment is a kind of disease.

Going to the family, meeting with the family, talking to the family—this is illusory environment. When I came here I never gave my phone number or address to any of my family and for ten-fifteen years they did not know where I was. But even when you are here you still keep in touch with them, you call them, you talk to them, etc., so maya is always pulling you, always tries to take you away from your service. Maya is much stronger than you, do you understand it? If you always keep connection with maya, maya will take you away from your service—that is maya's duty.

Everybody has some karma, some circumstances, and they act according to their circumstances, but there is someone who always writes your diary and keeps record of what you do, and when the time comes you will get another birth based on that diary and your karma. Be careful. If you leave Krishna consciousness, if you do not practise Krishna consciousness properly, maya can attack you any time.

Srila Sridhar Maharaj said even more—he said that even if Brahma comes and calls you, you must say, "I have no time. Lord Brahma, please wait outside. I have some job to do for my Guru, you can wait there for a few minutes."

In this way you can continue your spiritual life... I am saying very strong words today.

* * *

Transform Your Life

6 April 2013, Sri Puri Dham

Question: How can we transform our material desires into the desire to serve?

That is the main thing.

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja

aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

"Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

Srimad Bhagavad-gita gradually came to this. You should think that you must do everything for the service of the Lord, for Gurudev. Everything in this world exists for the service to the Lord, so whatever you cook, whatever work you do, offer everything to the Lord.

It is said also in Srimad Bhagavad-gita (3.35), "Para-dharmo bhayavahah." It means that all other religions are very dangerous. You may read it and think, "Why am I then going to another religion, to this Krishna consciousness?" But Krishna consciousness is not a para-dharma, it is your own religion. Sarva-dharman parityajya: you must give up all religions, but Krishna consciousness is not another religion, it is your own religion. You may be Christian, may be Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim, but when you come to Krishna consciousness, you do not come to some religion, you come to your own religion.

Even if you stay in your house you can still practise properly. Last words of Gurudev were, "Wherever you stay, you must maintain your spiritual life." How should you maintain it? I will tell you now.

If you cook for Krishna, if you take Krishna's prasad, then all kinds of material elements will go away from your heart. In this way you can transform your material life into spiritual life. Whether you work, serve, go somewhere, or stay in a temple, you must think you have service for your Guru, Vaishnavs, Bhagavan.

Even if you live outside the temple, in householder life, it is not a problem, but you must maintain your spiritual life properly. How? You must think your house is not your house, it is Krishna's house, Krishna's property. When you cook something, offer it to Krishna, do arati for Krishna, and so on. You stayed in the temple for a few days and you saw what the temple life is like, and you can practise in the same way at home. When you cook, chant, "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare." You must chant when you cook, you must sing, "Sri-guru-charana-padma kevala bhakati-sadma", "Ohe Vaisnava Thakura dayara sagara", "Nitai-pada kamala." When you cook in the morning, you can also sing, "Samsara-davanala-lidha-loka." For example, in the morning when I go to bath, I put water in the bucket and sing this song "Samsara-davanala-lidha-loka."

Practise singing songs in this way, then your mind will be good—your mind, your heart and everything else will go to the Lord Himself, and you will get pleasure, pleasure and more pleasure, you will be happy. Try to do this and tell me what result you get in a month.

I am doing this and I am getting the result. I am actually a practitioner, that is why I am practising, I am singing, I am chanting when I go to the bathroom, and so on. I do not have time to chant on my beads, but I chant while I do other works…

* * *

Rejected and Dejected?

6 April 2013, Sri Puri Dham

Question: Today we were near the place of Chhota Haridas and we heard the story of Chhota Haridas. I have a question: Mahaprabhu rejected him although he did not do anything very bad, and I felt somewhat scared today thinking what my position is then...

Mahaprabhu did not reject him. Mahaprabhu is the teacher—to show an example to us all, He gives punishment to His own person.

Gurudev also said to me, "Get out from here!" One time, I went away and came back in half an hour saying, "Gurudev, I need some money for the building," but he said, "You can sell your kidney!" This is what Gurudev said to me, but do you think he rejected me? He told me to get out, and I got out for half an hour, but after half an hour I came back. Gurudev thought, "I am chastising him, I am giving him this punishment—I want to see how much he can tolerate, I want to see if he can stay with me. If I tell him to get out and he gets out, then he is not my man." You can understand it easily...

Gurudev said in my presence and in front of everybody, "I can chastise only one person, [he said my name]. If I chastise someone else, they will run away, but if I chastise him, I know he will not run away..."

Question: The more I become involved in service, the more bad qualities I see in myself, and I feel discouraged... What should I do?

If you can see your bad qualities yourself, that is a good symptom. Generally, we think we are very pure: perhaps, nobody can see your fault, but Krishna can see it. Do you understand? If we think we are very pure, that we are great Vaishnavs, that we know everything, that is our bad quality and it is a big problem. As long as you have some material attachment you will not get relief. You have heard the story about Indra and Brahma, have you not? There is also one story about Satyakam and Jabala.

There was once a small boy Satyakam ("satyakam" means "one who always tells the truth, satya"). His mother's name was Jabala. One day, Satyakam came to his mother and said,

"Mother, you work so hard, go to many places for me... If you give me permission, I can go to Gurudev's house tomorrow—I have heard there is one bona fide Guru, his name is Gautam Goswami. I can go to his temple, gurukul, and stay there..."

"Yes, you can go tomorrow, I do not mind," said his mother Jabala.

"Mother," said Satyakam, "I will go there, but when Gurudev sees me, he will ask me many questions... 'What is your father's name? What is your mother's name? Where is your house?' and so on."

"You can answer your mother's name is Jabala, your house is in this village."

"I know my mother's name is Jabala and my house is in this village, but who is my father? You have never told my my father's name."

"You should tell your Guru the truth."

"What is the truth?" asked Satyakam.

"I work for many people, serve and mix with different men, so I do not know who your actual father is..."

The next day Satyakam went to his Gurudev's ashram.

When Gautam Goswami saw him, he said, "You look like a very nice brahman boy... Who is your father? Who is your mother?" He asked him many questions, and Satyakam answered, "My mother's name is Jabala, my house is there, but, Gurudev, I do not know my father's name. My mother said she was working and serving many people, she does not know who my real father is and I also do not know." His Guru, Gautam Goswami, became surprised, "Who can tell the truth like this? His name is Satyakam and he actually tells the truth." He said to the boy, "I will not wait to give you initiation. Bring some wood and the brahman thread, I will give you the second initiation now, I will not delay a moment."

So, Gautam Goswami gave initiation to Satyakam. After his initiation, Satyakam paid obeisance to his Guru and asked, "Gurudev, you have given me initiation, but can you now give me some service? How can I make you happy? Please tell me, what service can I do to please you?" Gurudev became even more surprised, "Many brahmacharis, many sannyasis stay at the temple, but they want their own happiness, they do not think about their Gurudev's happiness. Nobody here thinks how to make their Guru happy, how come this small nine-year-old boy thinks like this?!" Then he said to Satyakam,

"Satyakam, can you make me happy? I have four hundred cows, but nobody is thinking about them—everybody is always thinking about milk and chhana (paneer)... Can you make the cows happy?"

"Yes, Gurudev," said Satyakam, "I can serve the cows. With your permission I can take them to graze in the field."

"Yes, do that," answered his Gurudev.

"But I would like to request you something. Allow me not to come back until I can increase the number of the cows from four hundred to one thousand. I will make one thousand cows and then come back to your ashram."

Gautam Goswami was happy with that, and Satyakam took the cows to the fields to graze. He began to wait when there will be one thousand cows. One day there were four hundred and five cows, then four hundred and six, and so on. In this way, after a few years there was one thousand cows and Satyakam started his way back to Gurudev's ashram.

Satyakam walked all day and stayed under a tree for the night, and each night many demigods came to him. One night, the demigod of air came, another night the demigod of fire, then the sun, the moon, and so on. Many demigods came and gave him divya-jnan, enlightenment, so much knowledge.

By the time Satyakam reached his Guru's ashram, he had become very exalted, and divya-jyoti, divine effulgence, was coming from his body. When he came to the ashram and his Gurudev saw him, he was surprised, "Satyakam! You have become such a big boy! I have been waiting for you! I am becoming old now and I have been waiting for you for many years. I am very happy to see you!" Looking at his disciple, the Guru asked him, "How did you learn so many things? You have been only doing the cow seva... Who taught you all this?" Satyakam told his Guru everything and added at the end, "Gurudev, but it is not sufficient. I want to learn something from you."

Then, Gautam Goswami taught him Srimad Bhagavatam, and Satyakam became a great Vaishnav. Soon after that, the Guru said, "Now my duty is finished, I am going to my place..." and he left making Satyakam the acharya of his ashram. Do you understand? Who become a guru? A prostitute's son. And who is the Guru? A cowherd boy.

...All right, we have said many things, many stories today—we can continue the whole night and the whole day... It is very nice we have got this little time though. We do not know if we will be alive tomorrow, if we will exist in this body, but we must not waste our time, must always use the time for the service to the Guru, for chanting the Holy Name. Have you heard Srimad Bhagavatam's story about Khatvanga Maharaj? How many minutes was his lifetime? One moment (forty-eight minutes).

One time, the demigods and the demons were fighting and the demigods won the war. After the war, the demigods said to Khatvanga Maharaj,

"We have won the war with your help, you were there with us, so we want to give you some boon. What would you like to get?"

"If you want to give me a boon, OK, I will tell you later, but you are demigods, can you tell me how many days my lifetime is?" replied Khatvanga Maharaj.

"O Khatvanga Maharaj, your lifetime is only one moment..."

"Only one moment? Forty-eight minutes?! I will not think about anything—I am surrendering my mind, my heart, my everything to the lotus feet of Hari."

Khatvanga Maharaj was very fortunate because he knew his lifetime was only one moment, but we do not know how many days, how many minutes more we will live—it may be one minute, may be two minutes, or two years. We do not know it...

* * *

Henpecked and Kicked

11 April 2013

In Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's time—I have told this story before—one brahmachari got married and came with his wife to Srila Prabhupad saying, "Prabhupad, I know it is very sad but we have got married... This is my wife..." Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said in reply, "All right, what can you do now? But still you can do service, do Vaishnav service, etc. I can tell you what your duty is." There are four regulative principles—dyuta, pana, striya, suna [gaming, taking intoxicants, free mixing, flesh-eating]—and Srila Prabhupad explained to that brahmachari what is called striya.

Striya is not only illegal sex—if you have your real, legal wife (stri), there can also sometimes happen striya. It is called "stroin"in Bengali: being henpecked, excessively fond of, doting on your wife. It means to be controlled and subdued by your wife (strir bosibhuta). In other words, stroin means becoming a servant of your wife.

You can live as a householder, it is all right, but do not become a servant of your wife, do not become controlled by her. These are Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's words, not mine!

Srila Prabhupad explained to that man: you must work, earn money, and your wife will cook; after she has offered the bhog, she will first take that prasad and you will take prasad after her—then you will not have the mentality that your wife is your servant. You are a servant of Krishna (Krishna das) and you should not think that you are the master (prabhu) of your wife—your and her master (prabhu) is Krishna.

Do you understand? These are very hard words... Now they will say, "Oh, Maharaj is always stopping devotees from getting married!" This is not true. [His Divine Grace laughs.] I am not against married life, but I am against this stroin life. When a brahmachari gets married and becomes a servant of his wife, it is very bad.

"Oh how long I have been a slave of lust, anger, greed, etc.! How many times you (anger, lust, etc.) have kicked me! How many kicks have I had to tolerate from you? Every time you kick me, I have to tolerate so much..."

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Harinam sankirtan ki jay!

* * *

Proper Engagement

Sri Nabadwip Dham

14 November 2010

Yesterday I saw all devotees came to the programme, very good. Before, they make a programme only on Sunday, and I told them: you eat every day three times, you go to the toilet every day, then why do you have the programme only once a week on Sunday? They say, "Oh, I cannot come to the centre every day," but I have seen in some countries devotees go to work and from work they go straight to the temple and meet there every day (those who live far cannot come every day, but those who stay nearby always come). It is association, and it is a source of energy, otherwise if you have a programme only on Sunday, then in one month it is only four-five days...

ara kabe nitaichand karuna karibe

kabe jive daya haibe udaya,

nija-sukha bhuli' sudina-hrdaya

('Kabe habe bolo, se dina amar?')

Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur is writing it. Very nice...

Question: What is the meaning of this verse?

"Kabe jive daya haibe udaya" means, "When will I be giving some real benefit to others?" A real benefit is not giving food or clothes like Rama Krishna Mission does. "Dal, bhat, tarkari deher khadya." It means that dal, rice, subji is the food of the material body. For example, you are doing Ekadasi today, and by tomorrow your weight will be two kg less. But what is the food of the atma, of the jiva soul? It is not dal. You must give others chance to chant the Holy Name, you must bring others to Krishna consciousness. "Nija-sukha bhuli' sudina-hrdaya" means we must forget our own happiness. Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur is saying, "When will I forget my own self and think about others?" That is called jive daya, giving real benefit.

There are three things: jive daya, Name ruchi, Vaishnav seva (mercy to the souls, relishing the Holy Name, and service to Vaishnavs). Mahaprabhu told Sanatan Goswami also,

jive daya name ruchi vaisnava seva

iha bahi sanatana nahi ara dharma

"Be merciful to the souls, chant the Holy Name, and serve the Vaishnavs. Sanatan, besides this, there is no other religion."

Gurudev said once in his lecture, "I want some karela bhaji (করলা ভাজি, fried bitter melon), but they are giving me something else." Then it is karma. They think, "Oh, I will give this, this. Maharaj has come to my house, and I will give bitter? No, I must give him something sweet, it will be better." This is not service, it is following your mind. Do you understand? It is necessary to have service temper (seva-vrtti).

I remember in another lecture Gurudev said: the Lord Himself says, "I want some laddu," but you are giving Him a singara (samosa). Krishna is easy—He says He wants some laddu, then give Him a laddu and He will be happy, everything will be all right, but you are giving Him a singara (samosa)…

* * *

Sri Guru-Tattva: The Captain of Your Boat

Reading from Srimad Bhagavatam and Sri Gaudiya Kantha-hara

17 July 2013

Within you there are so many obstacles, so many material desires—they are like many branches of a tree—but if you serve your Guru properly, if you have devotion to the Guru (bhagavad-bhakti), if you take shelter in him, then you will be able to remove this bondage with the modes of material nature (rajo-, tamo-, sattva-gun). When these three modes of material nature leave you, through the relationship with your Guru you can get service to the Lord and finally reach your destination. This is written very nicely in Srimad Bhagavatam.

evam gurupasanayaika-bhaktya

vidya-kutharena sitena dhirah

vivrschya jivasayam apramattah

sampadya chatmanam atha tyajastram

"By serving and worshiping a bona fide Guru with one-pointed determination, you can gradually acquire an axe of knowledge with which you can sever the trimodal bondage within the material body and attain spiritual benefit. Attaining that spiritual benefit you will then give up the axe of knowledge and attain supreme devotion."

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 11.12.24)

It means you must first acquire good intelligence, a strong common sense; then if you serve your Guru very carefully, being always alert, you can finish your human body in this very birth—all material desires that are like many branches of a tree, will be removed from you (you will become free from the rajo-, tamo-, sattva-gun)—and you can finally get to your destination.

How will you get rid of the modes of material nature? It is written here (Krishna tells it to Uddhav Mahahraj). Those who are intelligent never think about hell or heaven, or even this human plane of existence. If somebody thinks about this, it means they have an ego, an attachment to their body. What do the intelligent people, on the other hand, do? They understand that day by day their life is passing very quickly. There is this example of a bird—a bird is thinking, "Oh, my nest is being destroyed," and it starts building another nest in some other place, but those who are intelligent start practising Krishna consciousness under the guidance of Guru and Vaishnavs.

nr-deham adyam su-labham su-durlabham

plavam su-kalpam guru-karnadharam

mayanukulena nabhasvateritam

puman bhavabdhim na taret sa atma-ha

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 11.20.17)

"Those who get this human body but do not try to practise Krishna consciousness, do not try to cross the ocean of material existence, are suicidal (atmaghati). In this human body there is only one way how you can bring benefit to yourself—this body is like a boat and you must accept a Guru as the captain of this boat. What does the Guru do next? When you surrender to his lotus feet, when within your heart you take shelter in him, he gives you mercy that works like a favourable wind. In this way, propelled by that favourable wind of the Guru's mercy, this boat can take you to your destination. However those who cannot understand who is the captain, what is the mercy of devotion, who do not know what is favourable to devotion, what that favourable wind is, are suicidal."

It also says here that a conditioned soul's mind is always fickle—it is always busy looking for beauty, taste, smell, sound, etc. All senses are always busy searching for pleasure, and they always become tired. You become annoyed and start thinking, "What is my real benefit? What should I do?" Then your mind becomes a little bit cool, not so fickle and restless (it is laulya, one of the faults such as atyahara, prayascha, prajalpa, niyamagraha, etc.).

Mind is always restless, always goes to different places, and we are always disturbed by the mind, but if the soul practises Krishna consciousness properly, it can understand, "This body is a boat," and slowly, slowly this desire to enjoy will go away. When that bondage of the material desires is broken, you get the service to the Lord, and that restlessness goes down a little—not completely, but becomes suppressed.

Next it says here,

mano-gatim na visrjej

jita-prano jitendriyah

sattva-sampannaya buddhym

mana atma-vasam nayet

"You must never overlook the activities of the mind, rather you must use your intelligent to conquer your senses and life air and come under the control of the soul."

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 11.20.20)

Do not ignore it when your mind goes to some place, you must take it seriously. "The mind is going this way? Oh, OK, it can go..." No! You must control it, do not let it go here and there. It is like when water starts dripping, you must stop it at once. If you do not stop it, the hole will become bigger and there will be a full current falling through. If you see water is dropping and do not stop it, it will start dropping more and more: you must stop it at the beginning. Jita-pran means pranayam, controlling the life air, and jita-indriya means controlling the senses, with the help of buddhyam, intelligence. Krishna says this to Uddhav Maharaj. You must control your mind and senses, do you understand? Do not think, "Oh, the mind is going to another place, let it go." No.

sve sve 'dhikare ya nistha sa gunah parikirtitah

karmanam jaty-asuddhanam anena niyamah krtah

guna-dosa-vidhanena sanganam tyajanecchaya

"When the soul becomes controlled by material nature, it is called an influence of a mode of material nature. Being influenced by such faulty modes, following material desires, the soul becomes entangled in the impurity of karma."

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 11.20.26)

Such people cannot leave their attachment. They know that Krishna says, "Hear My glories and you will get faith," but they are always anxious. They know that material desires are a source of misery, but they cannot leave these desires. But Krishna says, "If you practise devotion to Me properly, you will get relief. You must worship Me with love and affection." Who said this? Krishna. To whom? To Uddhav Maharaj. Krishna told everything to him. He even said, "Uddhav, you are most dear to Me! Brahma is not as dear to Me as you are, Siva is not as dear to Me as you are, even I Myself am not as dear to Myself as you are. That is why I am telling this all to you." It is written very nicely...

It is written in Hari-bhakti-vilas (1.101)

yo vakti nyaya-rahitam-nyayena srnoti yah

tabubhau narakam ghoram vrajatah kalamaksayam

"If somebody wears the clothes of an acharya, but practises other things, chants kirtan but in a way that goes against the prescription of the scriptures, invents their own practices, then both who listens to them and who does it go to hell."

paramartha-gururvasrayo vyavaharik-gururvadi

prityagenapi kartavyah

(Sri Bhakti-sandarbha, 210)

"There are vyavaharik gurus (who use others, who flatter others), laukik gurus (who perform worship to impress others)—you must give up such unfit gurus and take shelter of a bona fide Guru."

avaisnava-upadistena mantrena nirayam vrajet

punascha vidhina samyag-graha-yed-vaisnavad guroh

"If you take anti-devotional instruction from those who are not devotees of Krishna, who associate with women, you will go to hell. You must take shelter of a Vaishnav Guru."

(Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa 4.366)

gurusu naramtirsasya va naraki sah

"Those who see Sri Gurudev as an ordinary mortal man, belong to hell."

(Padma-purana)

Krishna says to Arjun, "Ordinary people cannot understand Me. They think I have two hands and they also have two hands, I have two legs and they also have two legs, etc. They think I am just like them..." Similarly, if you see your Gurudev as a mortal man, you will go to hell.

yasya saksad bhagavati

jnana-dipa-prade gurau

martyasad-dhih srutam tasya

sarvam kunjara-sauchavat

"The spiritual master should be considered to be directly the Supreme Lord because he gives transcendental knowledge. For those who think the spiritual master is an ordinary human being, everything is frustrated. Their knowledge and attempts to study are like the bathing of an elephant."

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 7.15.26)

If you take initiation from a Guru, and for you the Guru is a mortal man, then your initiation is useless, it is like the bathing of an elephant. Srimad Bhagavad-gita said,

tad viddhi pranipatena, pariprasnena sevaya

upadeksyanti te jnanam, jnaninas tattva-darsinah

"You will be able to attain knowledge by satisfying the divine master with submission, relevant inquiry, and sincere service. The enlightened souls who are learned in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will impart divine knowledge to you."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 4.34)

Through complete surrender, honest enquiry, and service temper, you can understand everything easily. If you have service temper (seva-pravritti), the Guru will give you some good advice.

Then we come back to where we started from,

evam gurupasanayaika-bhaktya

vidya-kutharena sitena dhirah

vivrschya jivasayam apramattah

sampadya chatmanam atha tyajastram

"By serving and worshiping a bona fide Guru with one-pointed determination, you can gradually acquire an axe of knowledge with which you can sever the trimodal bondage within the material body and attain spiritual benefit. Attaining that spiritual benefit you will then give up the axe of knowledge and attain supreme devotion."

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 11.12.24)

If you worship a bona fide Guru with devotion, then you will get an axe of spiritual knowledge to detach yourself from the body, and you will get spiritual benefit.

samsarera para haiya bhaktira sagare

ye dubibe se bhajuka nitai chandere

amara prabhura prabhu sri-gaura-sundara

e bada bharasa chitte dhari nirantara

"To cross over material existence and dive into the ocean of devotion, you must worship Nitaichand. The Master of my Master is Sri Gaurasundar, I always keep this conviction within my heart."

(Chaitanya-bhagavat, 1.17.152-153)

Finally, the Guru is compared to Nityananda Prabhu.

So, today is Sri Guru Purnima and I have read about the Guru-tattva from all these different scriptures...

* * *

Lord Supplies and Lord Enjoys

Russia

16 June 2001

There is one story that happened in Bengal. There was one family, a brahman and his wife. They had a temple and worshipped the Deities of Radha-Madhav in their house. Every day the brahman went to collect some food and gave it to Krishna.

Krishna said in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, "I have created everything, I am the creator of all creation. So, if you take something without giving it first to Me, you are taking stolen things. I have created everything, and I have created everything for Myself, not for you. If I give you something, you can take it, otherwise you cannot." We think we do everything ourselves, we can get everything ourselves, but it is not true. Krishna does everything, if you read Srimad Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, you can know then what is the position of Krishna. He is the creator of all creation, that is why if we think we do something ourselves, it is not true.

So, every day that brahman read Srimad Bhagavad-gita, went to collect some rice, fruit, vegetables, etc. His wife would cook, and then they offered the bhog and finally took that prasadam.

One day, the brahman was reading the ninth chapter of Srimad Bhagavad-gita, and when he came to this sloka:

ananyas chintayanto mam, ye janah paryupasate

tesam nityabhiyuktanam, yoga-ksemam vahamy aham

"I bear the responsibility of acquiring and protecting the necessities of My fully dependent devotees who are always absorbed in thought of Me, and who worship Me in every way."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 9.22)

he thought, "What? There must be some typo... It is not right! I go for collection every day, I collect myself, and Krishna says, 'If you take shelter in Me, I will carry your food.' It is wrong—Krishna does not carry anything for me. I do everything myself." Thinking there was a mistake in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, the brahman tore the book.

Krishna Himself said, "Srimad Bhagavad-gita is My heart, Srimad Bhagavad-gita is My body," so when the brahman cut the book, at that time Srimati Laksmi Devi was serving Narayan and Narayan suddenly got a shock, as if somebody had hit Him on His back. He said, "Oh, Laksmi Devi, I have to come down to this world..."

So, Krishna came to this world in the form of a twelve-year-old boy and came to the brahman's house (the brahman was not there at that time because he had gone for collection). The boy came to the door, loaded with bags, and cried, "Oh, please take these bags! I cannot carry it!" The brahmani, the wife of the brahman, came out and asked, "Who are You? Why have You come?" She then saw the bag of vegetables and the bag of rice the boy was carrying, and asked, "What gave You these bags??" The boy answered, "The brahman told me to carry it here! I did not want to take it, but he forced Me to carry it. I told him it was too heavy, but he beat Me and told me to bring it here." The brahmani took the bags and the boy quickly went away.

In the meantime, the brahman went house to house to collect some bhog. Usually he would go to one-two houses only, but that day he went to several houses but he could not get anything. In some house there was a sick family member, somebody went to hospital, another house was locked, and so on. He could not get anything.

By twelve o'clock the brahmani cooked the bhog, but the brahman was not coming and she began to worry... In a few hours, he came back, crying.

"Why are you crying?" asked the brahmani.

"I have not got anything today! We will not be able to offer anything to Krishna today and we will get any food today. That is why I am so sad..."

"What are you talking about? You have sent so much rice and vegetables with that small boy! And He said you even had beaten Him also!"

"I did not send anybody, I did not give anything to anybody. What are you talking about? I have not beaten anybody!" the brahman was very surprised.

The brahman went to the temple and prayer, "O Radha-Madhav! What has happened today? I did not send anybody..." then he suddenly notice that Srimad Bhagavad-gita on the asan. Every day after he finished reading Srimad Bhagavad-gita, he kept the book on the shelf, so he asked his wife, "Did you read Bhagavad-gita? I read it earlier in the morning and left it on the shelf, why is it lying here?" Then he saw that the book was open on the page with that sloka in the ninth chapter. Then he understood what had happened. Krishna Himself was saying, "What is written here is true! You were wrong and made a mistake. It is true, if somebody is surrendered to Me, I carry everything for them. Now you can see it yourself."

The brahman began to crying, "How unfortunate I am! I could not see Krishna, and I have beaten Him, I have beaten the Lord Himself!" then he said to his wife, "O brahmani, you are so fortunate! You have seen Krishna Himself!…"

* * *

Devotional Heart

Russia

16 June 2001

Actually you can get the result through the service of Krishna...

In Mahaprabhu's time, there was one widow lady who stayed at Srivas Pandit's house, her name was Duhkhi (lit. "unhappy"). Mahaprabhu always went to Srivas Pandit's house, and one day Srivas Pandit very happily said to that lady, "O Duhkhi, please bring some water! Mahaprabhu is coming and we need some water for His abhisekh, bath." When Duhkhi heard Mahaprabhu was coming and that He would take bath in that water, she became very glad—she was carrying the water from the Ganges and she was crying! What has she done? Just through some small service she actually got Mahaprabhu. When Mahaprabhu came to Srivas Pandit's house, He asked her, "What is your name?" She said, "My name is Duhkhi (unhappy)." Mahaprabhu said then, "Who said your name is Duhkhi? Your name can never be Dukhi. From today your name will be Sukhi (happy)!" This is how that lady got Sriman Mahaprabhu through her service.

Another time, one tailor was near Srivas Pandit's house. When Mahaprabhu came to Srivas Pandit's house, Srivas Pandit started calling everybody, "Please come everybody! Who is there? Please come, please come!" At that time the tailor came to Srivas Pandit's house and saw Mahaprabhu. He became so glad that he said with a very sorrowful mind, "Why was I born in a Muslim family?! Why was I not born in a Hindu family? if I was born in a Hindu family, I could serve Mahaprabhu!" Just by seeing Mahaprabhu that tailor got Mahaprabhu, got the mercy of Mahaprabhu.

Another day, also at Srivas Pandit's house, Mahaprabhu was giving mercy to everybody. He called everybody—whether they were far or near, He gave mercy to everybody. Everybody got His mercy that day, but He did not say Mukunda's name. Devotees asked Mahaprabhu, "Prabhu, today You are giving mercy to everybody, why are You not calling Mukunda Das?" Mahaprabhu replied, "Because Mukunda Das is a khada-jathiya!" Mahaprabhu liked Mukunda's singing, He would cry hearing his songs, but khada-jathiya [lit. khada, straw, jathi, stick—i.e. sometimes humble, sometimes opposing] means he went everywhere, to every place, to every sampradaya without any discrimination. Mahaprabhu was unhappy with him because of this, and that is why He did not call him, did not give mercy to him at first.

Mukunda was very sad, he thought, "I want to commit suicide. I sing for Mahaprabhu, my life is for Mahaprabhu—if Mahaprabhu does not like me, if He does not give His mercy to me, what will I live for?" He called Svarup Damodar and said to him, "Prabhu, I cannot go there myself, I am afraid of Him. Can you please tell Mahaprabhu about my intention, determination?" Svarup Damodar came to Mahaprabhu and asked, "Prabhu, when will Mukunda get mercy from You?" Although Mukunda was far away, he could hear the conversation, so he heard Mahaprabhu say, "He will it get after a crore of lives (ten million lives)." As soon as Mukunda heard it, he started dancing and chanting, "I will get it! I will get it!" Everybody was surprised, "Why is this pious man, sadhu behaving like this? Mahaprabhu says he will get mercy in one crore lives, it is so far away but he is dancing! What kind of man is he?"

When Mahaprabhu saw Mukunda dancing, He became happy and said, "He has believed it!" He then called Mukunda, "O Mukunda, you have believed it! You have believed it, so your ten million lives have all finished in one moment. You will get My mercy now!"

We must believe what Mahaprabhu says, what Krishna says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, what our Gurudev says. We have never seen Mahaprabhu, we do not actually know Krishna, but we know our Gurudev. If we serve our Gurudev (serve not for our own interest, but for his interest), if surrender to Krishna, then we must get Krishna through that service. You do not need to think about yourself. If you think about Krishna, Krishna will thinking about you.

Actually,

jivera 'svarupa' haya—krsnera 'nitya-dasa'

krsnera 'tatastha-sakti' 'bhedabheda-prakasa'

"By its intrinsic nature, the soul is an eternal servant of Krishna; the souls comes from the marginal energy of Krishna and are simultaneously one with and different from the Lord."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 20.108)

What is our jivera svarup? Who are we? We are a servant of the servant of the servant of Krishna—we are His devotees' servants. We are not Bhagavan, if we were Bhagavan it would not be necessary then to do any Krishna consciousness. But we are servants of the servants of the servants of Krishna, we are fallen souls, we have nothing, and we must pay obeisance to all Vaishnavs.

Suppose there is a train going from Saint Petersburg to Moscow. Somebody has a ticket in the first class car, somebody goes in the second class car, somebody travels third class. Everybody has different tickets, but everybody will go to Moscow. So, we are all servants of our Gurudev—somebody is doing some great service, somebody is cleaning the drain, somebody is cooking, somebody is washing the Deities' plate, etc. Everybody's service is not the same, not equal, but we are all going to one destination. So, if we can stay in our Gurudev's boat (if we can have Gurudev as the controller of our boat), and not get thrown out of the boat, then wherever he goes he can take us there.

* * *

Nistha: The Core of Devotion

Sri Nabadwip Dham

11 November 2010

The main thing is to serve the Lord, serve the Guru. That is our seva vritti (or seva pravritti)—it is necessary to have such service temper, such devotion (bhagavad-bhakti).

There is sravanam, kirtanam, asakti, ruchi, nistha—first of all and above all it is necessary to have sincerity, nistha. In Bengali and English, the meaning of sincerity is a little different—nistha is something more than sincerity. Nistha [being firm, fixed, determined] means if you do something you must do it every day.

Gurudev told me: How can you understand, or when can you think, that devotion is coming to you? You are not going to take any test to check if devotion is coming or not—there is no examination that will tell you, "Passed or failed." When you go to school, you study and take an examination, and the result of the examination shows you if you have studied properly or not—you get the examination result and you can understand it. But you do not take such an examination in Krishna consciousness, so how can you understand if devotion is coming or not? You can understand it by checking yourself: if you see that you like Gurudev's lectures, you like reading Gurudev's books—if this kind of feeling comes from your mind, then you can think that some devotion is coming to you, that you have some progress.

You can examine yourself and see it for yourself. If you always want to do some service; if your mind always tells you, "Oh, do some service, read a book"; and on the other hand if you do not like the material movement, you feel annoyed (virakta) at other things, material things that are not related to Krishna consciousness; if you do not like to engage in any outside matters, do some material job; if you do not like talking so much unnecessarily, talking nonsense with others, if do not like talking about anything that is not related to Krishna consciousness; if you do not like reading other books—if you only like doing service and reading Gurudev's books, hearing Krishna-katha—then you can understand that some devotional mood is coming to you.

Such practice removes the seed of sin (aparadher bij). This kind of nistha is necessary for this movement, otherwise if you say something today and the next day forget about it, when you do something for the show, this is not devotion, it is emotion and it will not last. That is why it is necessary for our spiritual life to have proper guidance.

You should associate with pure devotees, otherwise if you always mix with the association of those who do not know anything, you will become contaminated. Gurudev always told this and often told it to me personally also. What does association means? When you talk to somebody in the course of your job, for example when I engage some lady for cleaning service, I talk with her, but this is not association. Just talking with somebody a lot is not association. Gurudev said that if you are, for example, a senior devotee and you take association of a junior devotee from another sampradaya, it will not be fruitful or beneficial, you will not get any good result. You must mix with higher, senior devotees. If you do not get higher senior devotee association, you can read Gurudev's books, Guru Maharaj's books and keep good association through that.

When you get time, read Gurudev's books. If you think, "I am not getting any taste when I read the books," then you can understand that inside you, in your heart, there is an aparadher bij (a seed of sin). You must understand these things, this is important.

If you want to do something out of emotion, it will not give you any result. That is why it is necessary to have sincerity, nistha is necessary. If you do not have nistha, if you do something without sincerity, then you will not get taste. If you think you are not getting the taste, then you must continuously engage in service—whatever kind of service you have, you must do it continuously.

* * *

Extent of Devotion

Sri Nabadwip Dham

11 November 2010

I am thinking: "Visaye ye priti ebe achhaye amara"—how much do we think about ourself and how much do we think about our Guru? You must think about it, you must calculate this percentage. Gurudev always said that somebody may be a 10% devotee, a 20% devotee, a 50% devotee, and so on. Why did Gurudev say like this?

I remember one time there was one Prabhu who stayed here with his family. When he was going back to his country Gurudev asked somebody, "How many days has he been here?" and he was told that he had been here for twenty-eight days. Gurudev immediately quoted one sloka. I asked Gurudev what the meaning of that sloka was, and Gurudev answered with an example, to teach me.

Suppose some devotee comes here, from the West or from another place in India. He immediately goes to his Guru and gives everything he has to his Guru. Later, when he is going back to Kolkata, he feels shy to ask Gurudev, "I have no money... Can you please give me some money for the train fare?" Gurudev asks his servitor, "He is not telling anything to me, but I think he has no train fare. Can you go and ask him if he has money for the train fare?" The servitor goes to that Prabhu and asks, "Prabhu, you are going to Kolkata, do you have the train fare?" The devotee replies, "If you give me something, it will be good..." Gurudev then asks what the devotee had answered, and says, "Yes, I knew he was shy to tell me... Give him 20 rupees to go to Kolkata."

Then Gurudev said there is another kind of a devotee. Some devotee comes here and spends money on many things, buying this, this, this, and when they are going back they give something to their Gurudev.

This is what Gurudev said when I asked him what that sloka meant…

* * *

Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami's Miracle

7 September 2013

The Lord says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, "When a devotee serves Me and offers Me some water and a Tulasi leaf, I free them from all their debts." Do you need money, a house, or a car to serve the Lord? Even if you have nothing, you can offer Ganges water and Tulasi to the Lord...

You have heard about the Deity of Sri Radha-Raman in Vrindavan.

When Gopal Bhatta Goswami lived in Vrindavan, he every day worshipped twelve pieces of Govardhan sila. One day, a very rich man came to him and said, "Baba, please take this dress and jewellery for the Deity." Gopal Bhatta Goswami took it, but later thought, "I have taken this dress, but I worship Salagram sila and they have no hands or legs, what am I to do with the dress now? How will my Deities wear it?" He kept thinking about it.

In the evening that day, he offered the bhog as usual and went to lie down. In the morning, he opened the altar door and saw there was a vigraha (Deity-form of the Lord)! He thought, "What is this? In the evening I offer bhog to Salagram sila and in the morning I see a vigraha!" Then he saw behind the Deity there were the Salagram silas, but there were only eleven silas. What happened to the twelfth one? It turned into the Deity of Radha-Ramanjiu (Bhagavan Krishna). So, now Gopal Bhatta Goswami could put that dress and the ornaments on the Deity.

When a devotee wishes for something, the Lord fulfils their desire. You see that Gopal Bhatta Goswami got a dress for the Lord, and he wanted to give it to the Lord so much, he cried, "My Lord has no hands, no legs, what do I do?" He had this strong desire (arthi), and the Lord took the form of a Deity.

* * *

The Price of Devotion

Sri Nabadwip Dham

11 November 2010

You must not have a gossiping consciousness, it is not necessary—you should practise and serve and have Krishna consciousness. Do some service, serve the devotees, and the devotees will get nourishment through that. Giving nourishment means not just talking about something that is not related to Krishna consciousness, or talking nonsense.

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe

bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe

amani manada hana krsna-nama sada la'be

vraje radha-krsna seva manase karibe

"Do not listen to the mundane talks, do not listen to the mundane news. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes. Do not expect honour to yourself, but offer all respect to others. Always chant the Holy Name of Krsna, and in your mind serve Radha-Krsna."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.236-237)

Without Krishna-katha it is all gramya-katha—that which has no connection with your Guru, no connection with your service, will not give you any proper result or benefit. This is what Mahaprabhu told Raghunath Das Goswami.

Mahaprabhu was teaching Raghunath Das Goswami: at first Raghunath Das Goswami wanted to come to Mahaprabhu emotionally, and Mahaprabhu told him, "Go back to your house. Give up your monkey renunciation and do not become crazy." Mahaprabhu sent him back to his home. He said, "Yatha-yogya visaya bhunja' anasakta hana: you can stay in your house, but be anasakta, stay there without any attachment." (Cc, 2.16.238)

‘asakti-rahita,' 'sambandha-sahita,'

visaya-samuha sakali 'madhava'

"When you are free from material attachment and establish relationship with the Lord, then you will see that everything around you is Lord Madhav Himself."

('Vaishnav ke?' verse 12)

Question: What is the meaning of the word "bhunja" in the sloka "Yatha-yogya visaya bhunja..."?

"Yatha-yogya visaya bhunja" means protect, maintain your property. For the Lord, for service to the Lord. We also maintain our temple—who do we do this for? For the service to our Guru, for the service to the devotees. What is this big, big building for? During the construction when I was making it I went there nearly every day, but after it has been finished, I never go there...

...Actually, very few are devotees... Sanatan Goswami said, "Prabhu, how merciful You are! You have picked me up from the visaya-vistha-garta (a hole filled with the stool of material enjoyment)!" When Rupa Goswami came to Mahaprabhu, Mahaprabhu first sent him back to his own village. Why? He said to him, "Distribute first all your property, all your money, then come back."

kabe nityananda more kari' daya

chhadaibe mora visayera maya

"When will Nityananda be compassionate to me and relieve me from the mundane illusion?"

("Kabe habe bolo se dina amar" by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Do you understand the meaning? It is very difficult to come out from this kind of environment, it takes so much fortune,

alpa-bhagye seva nahi haya

koti janma thakle bhagya

visaya chhade haya vairagya

"Service does not come by just a little fortune. Only after ten million births of good fortune, can you leave this material world behind."

To come out of there you must practise. Only Krishna-katha can give you the love to Gaura Hari...

sri-krsna-chaitanya-daya karaha vichara

vichara karile chitte pabe chamatkara

"If you consider the mercy of Sri Krishna Chaitanya, you will be wonder-struck to realise it."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 8.15)

Mahaprabhu would sing,

krsna krsna krsna krsna krsna krsna krsna he

krsna krsna krsna krsna krsna krsna krsna he

krsna krsna krsna krsna krsna raksa mam

krsna krsna krsna krsna krsna pahi mam

rama raghava rama raghava rama raghava raksa mam

krsna kesavo krsna kesavo krsna kesavo pahi mam

How can you get Krishna-bhakti?

krsna-bhakti-rasa-bhavita-matih

kriyatam yadi kuto 'pi labhyate

tatra laulyam api mulyam ekalam

janma-koti-sukrtair na labhyate

"If you accumulate sukriti for millions of lifetimes, you cannot get real devotion to Krishna through that, but if you suddenly feel an intense greed to get it, that is the only price you can purchase it with."

(Quoted in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 8.70)

You cannot buy Krishna-bhakti even with millions of lifetimes of sukriti—you will not get it; but if you think right now, "I need it!" then you must immediately buy it with lobha, greed. When you feel that kind of greed is coming through hearing Krishna-katha, you must immediately purchase it—such greed is the price for Krishna-bhakti, and this is what you must buy it with.

* * *

Service Consciousness

Sri Nabadwip Dham

15 November 2010

Gurudev always says that you can take something but if you take it you must be able to digest it. You can take something but not for yourself—you must use everything (whether it is some money, land or anything else) for the service of the Lord.

Three-four days ago a lady came to me and said she wanted to give me some land, I said, "No, I cannot take your land because I cannot use it for any service." If you take something you must use it for the service to your Guru, for the service to the Lord, then you can take it, otherwise it will become a bondage, karma-bandhan. If you take something and cannot use it for service, some problem will come to your spiritual life.

"Jivana anitya janaha sara tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara": life is uncertain, any time danger can come...

Question: There is this verse in Sri Isopanisad ("Isavasyam idam sarvam...") where Krishna says that everyone is given their quota and one must not take another person's quota knowing that it belongs to Krishna. Could you explain this verse?

Of course it belongs to Krishna—everything that is created in this world exists for the Lord, for Krishna. If you think, "It exists for me," then there will be bondage. You must use everything for the Lord.

When somebody would come to take some banana leaves from our Math, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj did not give it. At that time there were so many banana trees at Govinda Kunda, and when people did some puja, they would come here for banana leaves, but Srila Sridhar Maharaj said no. Moreover, he did not allow to take even dry leaves that fell from the trees. At that time there was no gas and no so much coal and they cooked using only some wood and dry leaves. So, Srila Sridhar Maharaj explained: when a tree's leaves are used for cooking for the Deities and devotees, the tree gets some benefit, but if you take it and use for your own purpose the tree will not get any benefit. Banana leaves are also used for service—they are used as plates for the devotees to take prasadam—so the banana trees also get some benefit. Why should you take the leaves for your demigods? This is how the trees get sukriti...

What was your question?

Question: For example, Krishna gives me some money, but I have to maintain the family and have other responsibilities, how can then this money be used for service?

If you have a family, it is not a problem because your family practises Krishna consciousness. "Kariya Krsnera samsara chhadi' anachar"—your family is Krishna's family, you must make a family life for Krishna, then it is not a problem. Here in Bengal they get married and think, "My wife will be servant." It is not so. Your wife is not your servant, your wife is a dasi—she is Krishna's maidservant. "Anachar" means bad habits, bad things that are done in family life—this is not good, it must be rejected ("chhadi' anachar").

Gurudev also often said: "They think it is not a problem if a brahmachari becomes a householder, but if I lose a brahmachari, it means I lose at least 50% of that devotee. A brahmachari or a sannyasi can engage in service to the temple fully, but a grihastha has to maintain his life so he uses 50% of his energy for his family." That is true.

How much did Raghunath Das Goswami Prabhu serve? He served twenty-two and a half hours a day, and used only one and a half hours for other purpose (sleeping, prasadam, toilet, etc.). But we are doing the opposite…

* * *

Srila Sanatan Goswami's Pastimes

Sri Nabadwip Dham

15 November 2010

...In Singapore, Malaysia it is not so cold, they always have the same temperature, but can you imagine how much Rupa Goswami and Sanatan Goswami tolerated in Vrindavan during their whole life? They lived under a tree, and how cold and how hot it was there... Sometimes I think how it was possible to stay like that. But Mahaprabhu sent them there and they stayed there.

Sometimes Sanatan Goswami wanted to stay with Mahaprabhu. He would say, "O Prabhu, Ratha-yatra is finished now and I must be going now," but Mahaprabhu felt that in his mind he did not want to go, so He would tell him, "You can stay here for four months more." (For the chaturmasya—Sravan, Bhadra, Asvin, Kartik months).

Mahaprabhu would say to the devotees, "Pratyabda asibe Gundicha dekhite." He could not say, "You must come every year to see Me," so He would say, "You must come every year to see Gundicha."

One time, Mahaprabhu was sitting at the bhajan kutir of Haridas Thakur in Siddha-bakul. When Sanatan Goswami came, he paid a full obeisance to Mahaprabhu. At that time he had so much skin disease (kandu rasa). He had come from Vrindavan to Puri on foot(!), and on the way there was much bad water, the road was often not good, so he got that disease on his body. Sanatan Goswami paid obeisance to Mahaprabhu from far because He did not want Mahaprabhu to touch him. When he got up, Mahaprabhu wanted to come closer, but Sanatan started backing off. Then, Mahaprabhu quickly came to him and forcefully embraced him and all that kandu-rasa touched Mahaprabhu's body. Sanatan Goswami said, "What are you doing, Prabhu!"

He thought, "My body is useless now! Better if I commit suicide..." Mahaprabhu knew about it and said to him, "Have you become crazy? This is not your body, it is My body! It is My property! Why do you want to use and destroy My property? What is this, Sanatan?! I am going to use your body for service of the Lord—I want you to stay in Vrindavan, serve Vaishnavs, preach and write books. This is My plan, and I have entrusted you with My property, I kept it with you, but you want to use it now for other purpose?! What is this?!" Mahaprabhu gave this kind of answer to him, and He told Haridas Thakur also, "Haridas, look after him very well! Make sure he does not do anything wrong!" "Wrong" means Mahaprabhu thought Sanatan Goswami could secretly commit suicide, so He asked Haridas Thakur to be careful and keep an eye on him.

Sanatan Goswami said also, "Hita lagi' ainu muni, haila viparita: I have come here to get some benefit, but it turned out quite the opposite. I was thinking if I could not use this body for service, for the Lord, I can destroy it by jumping under the chariot of Jagannath, but Mahaprabhu does not allow me to do that..."

One time, after Ratha-yatra finished, Sanatan Goswami said to Jagadananda Pandit, "Prabhu, my time is finished now, I have to go again to Vrindavan, but you are so fortunate, you are always with Mahaprabhu..." Jagadananda Pandit said, "Yes, yes, you can go!" Then, Sanatan Goswami came to Mahaprabhu and said sadly,

"Prabhu, Ratha-yatra is finished, I think You want me to go to Vrindavan again... Jagadananda also wants me to go—"

"What? Jagadananda said that? Where is Jaga?!" shouted Mahaprabhu. "Where is he? Kalikara batuya jaga aiche garvi haila! That boy was born only yesterday and now he is teaching you?! He is telling you what to do?!"

("Maryada-langhana Prabhu sahite na paren": the Lord cannot tolerate it if you give disrespect to others. Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami writes it in Chaitanya-charitamrita, it is very nice—if you read it, you can see.)

"Sanatan is my Guru," continued Mahaprabhu when Jagadananda Pandit came there, "and you are teaching him?!"

Sanatan became so shy because he knew Jagadananda was Mahaprabhu's dear and intimate devotee, he always did such a good service, and now in front of him Mahaprabhu was chastising him. Sanatan Goswami said, "Prabhu, what are You saying? You never chastise me, but You are chastising him—You are giving sweet to him and You are giving bitter to me..." Then he said to Jagadananda Pandit, "O Prabhu, I can understand now how much Mahaprabhu loves you!"

Another time, Jagadananda came to Vrindavan and was cooking something that day. Sanatan Goswami went to collect madhukori and when he came back Jagadananda Pandit saw he was wearing a red-colour turban (a mayavadi sannyasi called Mukunda Saraswati had given him some cloth). Seeing the cloth, Jagadananda became very happy, some prem came to him, "How nice! When did Mahaprabhu give you this cloth? When?" Sanatan Goswami said, "No, no, no. Mahaprabhu did not give it to me. Some sannyasi, Mukunda Saraswati, gave it to me." Jagadananda Pandit became so angry—he took the pot with boiling rice in it and charged Sanatan Goswami with it, "I will beat you!!" Jagadananda wanted to beat Sanatan Goswami, and Sanatan Goswami said with admiration, "How much love and affection you have for Mahaprabhu!" Jagadananda Pandit had became angry because Sanatan Goswami knew who Mahaprabhu was, and he could not tolerate that he would use anyone else's cloth.

This pastime teaches also that you cannot take saffron colour or any colour from others—if your Gurudev gives it to you, then you can use it, but you cannot say, "I will get some cloth, dye it myself, and wear it."

It is necessary to serve the devotees, but in anugatya, under the guidance of your Guru—without his guidance you cannot do anything…

* * *

Exclusive Opportunity

Sri Nabadwip Dham

15 November 2010

"Jivana anitya janaha sara"—this life is not certain, we can leave at any time... This life is not eternal, but you have got a good chance, a good opportunity and you must try to use this opportunity—you must use this body for the service to the Guru. This is the main point. If you do not use this body for the service to the Lord, it will be wasted.

Why did Krishna send me here in this body? To serve the Lord. For example, trees also have jiva soul inside but they cannot do service to the Lord themselves; cows also cannot serve themselves but if you use the milk of the cow to make some sweet rice, then the cow can get a chance to do some service. Human being can do serve, but they do not do it because their consciousness (chetan) are covered by the illusory environment—that is why in this age of Kali Krishna comes as Sri Krishna Chaitanya and gives consciousness to the souls (Krishna consciousness).

...There lived once a lady in Hapaniya, do you know what kind of opportunity she got? She did service to Gopinath. Hapaniya is a very nice place for bhajan, and that Gopinath Deity was installed by Sripad Bhakti Pramode Puri Goswami Maharaj, Jajavar Maharaj—you can understand what a great opportunity this was. But she lost it [got married and left]. Why? Because

bhukti-mukti adi-vancha yadi mane haya

sadhana karile prema utpanna na haya

"If you have material desires, if you want liberation, enjoyment, some mystic powers, and so on, then even if you practise all life, or life after life, prem, divine love, will not come."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.175)

Many years ago also, I had another experience. I was going from Vrindavan to Kolkata and came across a sweeper boy in the train. If you have travelled by train in India, you have seen small boys, ten-twelve years old, go from train to train, sweep the floor and ask for some money. They collect maybe one rupee from here and there. This is how they maintain their life. I saw one boy like this at Mughalsarai (it is from from here, about eight hundred kilometres) and asked him,

"Did you eat anything today or yesterday?"

"No, I have not eaten anything today," he answered.

"What do you do with the money then?

"I give it to my mother."

"Does your mother not give you food?"

"Sometimes she does not, sometimes she does... Sometimes people give me something to eat—if they eat something, like a banana, they can give a half of the banana to me if I ask..."

I offered that boy to come with me and stay at the temple. I gave him some good nourishment and told Sripad Tirtha Maharaj to look after him. Tirtha Maharaj was the manager of our Kolkata temple at that time, so he took him to our Dum Dum Park temple. Tirtha Maharaj is actually more affectionate—I can chastise somebody, but he never chastises anyone; so he gave him some good cloth, good prasadam, everything, but at two o'clock at night the boy jumped over the wall and ran away.

Do you see? A ten or eleven year old boy, he has no food, no house.. Just as you can see many homeless people at Howrah or Sealdah stations who have no houses and sleep in the open air at the station, but if you bring them here where so much prasadam is wasted every day and given to the dogs, if you give them a nice room, they cannot stay. Why? Can you say why?

This is not an easy place to stay in. If it was that easy why is then Laksmi Devi still crying in Belvan? Why cannot she cross the Yamuna and join the rasa-lila? It is very difficult to do intimate service—you need not just a little fortune, a great fortune is necessary for that. But we have at last got this kind of opportunity, and we must use it. Do not lose your chance.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

* * *

Sweet Talk

Sri Nabadwip Dham

15 November 2010

"Misti-misti katha bole, sabaike mana jaya kara yaya": you can conquer people's mind if you speak to them sweetly. Gurudev always gave one example to me. He would say: you have much money and you think you can do something with it, but you must be also clever. If you throw a lot of rice in the field, crows will come there; but if you mix the rice with some black ash and throw it in the field, crows will not come. Do you understand what I am saying?

You think you have so much money and you can use that money, can engage others, but just like king Ramachandra Khan said, "I have so much money, I am paying so many people, but no one is really following me, but that sadhu [Mahaprabhu] has no money—why do so many people follow Him?" He was jealous. For example, I can say to Nakul Prabhu, "Nakul, you must cook today for the Deities!" or I can say, "Nakul, you know, I think Radharani likes your cooking, especially your sweet rice. If you could cook it today, it would be so nice." I am telling the same thing but in a sweet way.

Why did Mahaprabhu chastise Jagadananda Pandit? Jagadananda tried to teach Sanatan Goswami, he said to him, "Go, yes, yes, you can go!" And Mahaprabhu chastised him—He was teaching that you should not speak in this way. For example, if somebody wants to go to the West ("Maharaj, I want to go"), you can tell it to them in another way, "All right, if you have more service there, you can go..." I heard this from Gurudev.

* * *

Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math: Gate to Bhakti-Jagat

Speaking online to the devotees in Caracas

4 August 2013

The day after tomorrow is the disappearance festival of our Param Gurudev Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. What did he make Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math for? What kind of simple and sweet things did he give us for our spiritual life? It is necessary for everybody to understand this.

We all actually always think about ourselves, even when we renounce something, we also do it for ourselves, but both this bhog (exploitation) and tyag (renunciation) are very dangerous. Somebody is enjoying their life, doing bhog, somebody is renouncing something, but both are dangerous. What did Vedavyas say? What do the Vedas say? Everything in this life is sacrifice, and everything should be surrender, should be for the Lord.

Once in Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's time, devotees joined the Gaura Purnima festival and after the festival everybody came to Prabhupad because they were going back to their houses. They told Prabhupad, "We are going back home," but Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur asked them, "Are you not cheating me?" Srila Sridhar Maharaj heard this and wondered, "What has happened? Why is Prabhupad saying this? Everybody came for the festival and when the festival finished they are going back to their homes, why is it cheating?" Srila Prabhupad explained, "You have promised me that you would worship Lord Krishna, you would do Hari-bhajan and because of that I have entered into a relationship with you, but now you are going back to your home and will forget everything, you will not practise properly. This is what I call cheating."

Srila Sridhar Maharaj said also: you say, "We are going back home, but we will come back!" but I say, "You do not know if you can come back or not. You leave your service and think you can return to it later, but it is not sure." Even if you say your house is burning and you are going home to put the fire out and then will come back, still I will say, "It is not necessary." Even if your house is destroyed, you will never be destroyed. You are jivatma, a jiva soul, and you can never be destroyed or burnt.

So, when you have got this kind of opportunity you must not lose it.

This teaching is very important for us in our life. It is very important to understand what Srila Sridhar Maharaj writes in his books, what he wants to say to us, but for that you must read the books.

Gurudev also said that if you cannot finish your practising life until your death, if you cannot practise as long as you live in this body, then some problem will come to you. This human body is a very rare opportunity. You will always get an opportunity to do everything else—whatever enjoyment you have, you had it before too, even more than now (for example, when you were a bird, you had a much better vision than now). You have some property, or wealth—chaksu, karna, nasika, jihva, tvak (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin)—and must use it properly.

If you have eyes, you can see that there is beauty in the world, you can see a world of beauty (rupa-jagat); if you have ears, hearing power, then you can understand that there exists a world of sound (sabda-jagat); and if you have faith (sraddha), then you can feel that there is a world of devotion (bhakti-jagat). On the other hand, if somebody has no power of vision, no eyes, they are blind, all the beauty that exists in the world is nothing for them; if somebody has no power of hearing, then all the sounds that exist in the world are nothing for them; and in the same way if somebody has no devotion (bhakti), no faith (sraddha), then the world of devotion (bhakti-jagat) does not exist for them, it is nothing for them and they cannot understand what it is.

Srila Sridhar Maharaj made this temple Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math in 1941, but what did he make it for? He made it for only one purpose: to tell about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's teachings, about Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's teachings. That is why it is necessary for us to understand what teachings he gave to us. That teaching can create harmony and relates to everyone. We are all searching for beauty—we can find that beauty in this teaching, the beauty when everybody is happy. We all want happiness, we all search for pleasure, ananda, and this teaching can give it to us. If we can practise this teaching properly, then we can get such happiness.

* * *

Will You Forget It Too?

Speaking online to the devotees in the USA

5 August 2013

Question: You mentioned Srila Saraswati Thakur saying, "Do not cheat me." Could you explain this a little more?

"Do not cheat me" means "You have promised me you would do Hari-bhajan, but you are leaving now and you are going to forget Krishna, you are not going to keep connection with me—you will go home and forget everything!" If however you depend upon Krishna, then Krishna will take care of everything.

Some people say, "I have no time to chant the Holy Name," "I have no time to do any service to the Lord," "We are very busy trying to make money, earn a living," etc., but even poor people who do not have sufficient money do not use all money they have on rice, dal, and subji—they keep some money for their treatment, medicine, or some other purpose; in the same way, you too must keep some time for chanting the Holy Name, for the service to the Lord. It is necessary to do this.

That is why Prabhupad said, "Do not forget me, do not cheat me. You have promised me you would do Hari-bhajan, and that is why I have entered into a relationship with you." Still, you forget it—you do your own job, you are busy with your own enjoyment just like cats and dogs. When you lived in a forest, when you were a tiger or an elephant you were very happy. Now you are taking paneer and subji, eating something, but when you were in a pig's body you used to take stool and you were happier than you are now. Now you sleep sometimes three, sometimes four-five or seven hours a day and you are not happy, you always say, "I need more sleep"; but when you were a snake you used to sleep twenty-one hours a day, and you were much happier then. Now you have your eyes, but when you were in a bird's body, your vision was much more than it is now...

...That is Param Guru Maharaj Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's style. As Jagadananda Pandit said,

“gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale

gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6)

You must understand what real bhajan is. Prabhupad said that bhajan means anugatya, it means acting under the guidance of Gurudev. Have you read "Bhakti Siddhanta Vani"? It is written there very strongly: if you are doing tapasya (penance, austerity), if you are doing yoga, if you are doing sixty-four bhaktyanga (devotional practices), if you are doing tirtha-bhraman (visiting places of pilgrimage) but you are doing it not under the guidance of your Guru, then it is not Hari-bhajan—it is mayar-bhajan, worship of maya. Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Sidddhanta Saraswati Thakur's words are very strong.

Our mind is always chanchal, always restless. Even Krishna said it to Arjun, "Mind is always restless, it always goes to so many places, never sits in one place." We cannot control our mind, but Srimad Bhagavatam says how it can be possible to control it: If you can practise properly and regularly (every day, making it your habit) under the guidance of a bona fide Guru, then your mind can be controlled.

* * *

Die To Live

Speaking online to the devotees in Caracas

4 August 2013

Question: Could you please say something about Srila Guru Maharaj's teaching "Die to live"?

Yes, it is easy. If you die to live, you will come to service, to the surrendered mood. "Die to live" means a surrendered mood.

We have joined Krishna consciousness and we will not wait for death—no, we have got this human body and we must finish everything while we are in this body. Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur says that you have a dog's brain. I have told you many times that you will always get everything—sleeping, enjoying, pleasure, you got it all before and you will get it all in the future also. When a bona fide Guru gives you some advice, like Srila Sridhar Maharaj said "die to live," this is a simple matter—it means you had before and you will always have in the future an opportunity to enjoy, but you will not always get an opportunity to practise Krishna consciousness.

What is your life for, then? You have to be like a suicide squat—you must think, "I have joined Krishna consciousness, and it is my life, this is what I am alive for, this is what I got this human body for." But if you think that everything is yours, this is a wrong idea. Everything in this world is for the service to Krishna, and we must do everything for Him.

For example, you plant a coconut or a mango tree at your house. The mango tree will grow and give mangoes, but the tree cannot take its mango itself. The tree lives under the shelter of the person who plants the tree, so the person who plants the mango tree, the proprietor of the tree, enjoys the mangoes. In the same way, we also think that we are not the enjoyers, we cannot take anything—everything exists for Krishna. Those who got a human body and who are intelligent will think, "This human body is not for me, it is for Krishna."

Everybody should understand this. We must surrender to the Lord and do everything for the service to the Lord, for the happiness of the Lord.

Srila Sridhar Maharaj also gave one very nice example. Suppose some government gives money to a policeman and tells him, "You must kill this man." If the policeman does it, he will get a reward because he has done it for the benefit of the government. On the other hand, if that same policeman takes a bribe from somebody and the government finds out about it, he will get punishment. Do you understand what I am saying? When the policeman does something for the government, he gets rewarded, so in the same way if you do something for the Lord, you will get benefitted, you will get a reward, but if you do something for your own self, you will get punishment.

* * *

Faith: Internal Substance

Speaking online to the devotees in the USA

5 August 2013

Question: You said earlier that we can hear no sound without ears, we cannot see anything without eyes, and we cannot understand any real spiritual truth without a real faith...

Yes, faith (sraddha) is necessary. Faith means anugatya (service under the guidance of a bona fide Guru) and saranagati (complete surrender),

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana

'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara

bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

"Humility, self-submission, embracing the Lord's guardianship, maintaining the faith that 'Krishna will certainly protect me', engaging only in activities that are favourable to devotion, rejecting everything unfavourable to devotion."

You must understand this song. Pariksit Maharaj said, "We have such wealth as chaksu, karna, nasika, jihva, tvak (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin), and we must use it in a proper way." How to use all this properly is the main things. We need some proper advice because our mind is always chanchal (fickle), it is always disturbed, always suggests so many things.

aichhana amara mana phire yena andha jana

supatha vipatha nahi jane

"My mind wanders like a blind man who cannot tell the right way from the wrong way."

(‘Thakura Vaishnava-gana' by Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

The mind does not know what is the right way, what is the wrong way, it is blind. You must understand who can control your mind—your mind can be controlled by the Guru, Vaishnavs, Bhagavan. If you take their good advice and practise Krishna consciousness properly, your mind will become bosibhuta (will come under your control). Do you understand what I am saying?

Always sing,

kabe habe bala se dina amara

aparadha ghuchi suddha name ruchi

krpa-bale ha'be hrdaye sanchara

"Please tell me, when will that day be mine? When will my offences be removed? When will the taste for the pure Name arise in my heart by the power of mercy?"

('Kabe habe bolo, se dina amar?' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

"When will my material desire be removed!?"

ara kabe nitaichand karuna karibe

samsara-vasana mora kabe tuchha ha'be

"When will Nitaichand give mercy to me? When will all my material desires become insignificant?"

(‘Prarthana' by Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

"When will Nityananda Prabhu give His mercy? When will all these material things be removed from my heart!?"

kabe nityananda more kari' daya

chhadaibe mora visayera maya

"When will Nityananda be compassionate to me and relieve me from the mundane illusion?"

("Kabe habe bolo se dina amar" by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

This kind of thinking must always come to you heart. This is the main thing. This kind of feelings must come...

Param Guru Maharaj told this Pastime. When Krishna came went to Vidura's house, Vidura's wife was in the bathroom at that time. As soon as she heard that Krishna had come, she immediately ran out of the bathroom, but she was not wearing proper clothes (she was nearly naked). Seeing her run out like this, Krishna quickly threw His uttariya onto her, "Hey, what are you doing? How can you come to Me like this?" Can you understand how strong was the feeling of Vidura's wife at that time? That kind of feeling should come to us also...

When Mahaprabhu once came to Jagannath temple, a lady climbed onto His shoulder. Govinda saw it and tried to chase her away, "Hey! What are you doing?!" but Mahaprabhu stopped him, "Stop, stop! Do not disturb her! She has so much desire to see the Lord, I do not have that kind of desire. She is very fortunate, do not disturb her.”

* * *

Bhakti-Yoga: Our Right and Duty

Speaking online to the devotees in the USA

5 August 2013

In this life both bhog (enjoyment) and tyag (renunciation) are dangerous. Both are not good for us—we have right to neither enjoy, nor renounce anything.

Suppose you plant a mango tree. When the tree grows, it gives mango, but the tree itself has no power, no right (adhikar) to take and enjoy that mango because it is not the proprietor—you planted the tree, so the tree lives under your shelter and you have the right to take the mango from the tree. In the same way, we must understand that everything that exists in the world is Krishna's property, and you have no right to enjoy anything because it means you will be enjoying others' property (what is not yours). This is the main thing.

Once, Mahaprabhu asked Gadadhar Pandit, "Do you want My interest or do you want your interest? Do you want My happiness or your happiness more?" Bhog means enjoyment—it means you are using Krishna and Gurudev for your own purpose.

If however you use yourself, or if you even use your Guru, for the Guru's service, then it is good. For example, many countries have policemen. When a there is a terrorist in the country, the government tells the policeman to kill the man, and if he does this job, the government give him a reward. Do you understand? Because he follows his government he gets rewarded, but if that same policeman illegally takes a bribe from you, he will get punishment. So, if you do something for your own benefit, you will get punishment—the result will be karma-phal (some consequence in the future).

So, we should clearly understand what is bhakti-yoga and what the main thing is. The question is how we can understand it. Our mind is chanchal, always restless, and Krishna said to Arjun in Srimad Bhagavad-gita that you cannot control your restless myself yourself, but it is possible to control it through practice under the guidance of a good advisor (a bona fide Guru), then slowly, slowly your mind can be controlled and you can understand what your duty is.

We must understand what our problem is. We spend all day and night in the search of some food, we work the whole day just for food and some comfort in life, but we neither understand nor try to understand what our main problem is. We think our problem is deficiency of food, deficiency of electricity, deficiency of water, sleep, etc.—Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said that we have a dog's brain inside our head. If we know what our real problem is, then we can easily solve the problem…

* * *

Engage Yourself In Service

Speaking online to devotees in Caracas

1 July 2012

Always listen to Hari-katha, always do sravan, kirtan, always read the books, always pracitse kirtan. If you always engage your mind and yourself in service, then you mind will be ok and will not disturb you, your mind will be controlled. I am telling it to everyone: always engage yourself in service. An idle brain is the devil's workshop. Always engage yourself in service and our preaching movement.

If you always think about others' fault, do not do it. We must always take people's good quality, I always say this. Everybody has some good quality, and we will take their good quality.

We must take our life serious. These are not games, it is serious. Life is very short, and we must take our service serious, we must take our life serious. Our life is for sacrifice. If we cannot sacrifice our life for the Lord, for Gurudev, then our future is very bad.

So, always engage yourself in service, maintain the temple, maintain the Deities' service. Do not discriminate, "This is small service, this is big service," do not think like this. All service is equal—whether one is a manager, a cook, or washes plates—all services' value is equal.

We are all practitioners, we are not masters. The problem is our ego—ego creates problems and eats everything. That is why we must be very careful in our practising life. We are going step by step and we must be making these steps very carefully because we can fall down at any time, we can lose our service at any time. Always be careful in your practitioner's life.

* * *

Family Foundation (1): Conception

Speaking online to devotees in Caracas

1 July 2012

Question: How should we preach to our family?

That is necessary and that is easy. You should tell them Gurudev's conception, tell them what Gurudev told us, tell them about the main conception,

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana

mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

"One should associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124)

You can tell them about the lecture and advice that Mahaprabhu gave to Sanatan Goswami and Das Goswami. Mahaprabhu advised Das Goswami that you must maintain your life but without showing false renunciation, phalgu-vairagya.

Also, you should remember that your family may not always come to this line, but we all actually come from the same family. You get a father and a mother in every life, but we get an honest Guru (sat guru) only in this human body. So, you can preach to your family about this, explain what this human body is for.

The only problem is our ego. I have told it many times: when we do not practise properly, always some disease comes, always the mind starts disturbing. I have said it before: you must always engage yourself in service. If you are becoming lazy—if you engage in ahara, nidra, bhaya, maithunam cha, eating, sleeping, defending, and sex—and you increase these activities, then they will automatically increase. You must control your sleeping, eating and your sex life. How can you control it? It can be controlled only through practising otherwise the more you do it, the more it will always increase—for example, if you sleep today eight hours, tomorrow you will want to sleep half an hour more. We have done ahara, nidra, bhaya, maithunam cha many times before, but if we take Deities' prasadam, then "prasada-seva karite haya, sakala prapancha-jaya": all kinds of bad elements, all senses will be conquered.

This is how you can teach others the practitioner's life. You should read Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, chapters 19-23—there you will see what is sambhanda, abhidheya, and prayojan, how your should practise Krishna consciousness. Read these chapters of Chaitanya-charitamrita. When somebody gives a class, they should mostly read these chapters. Sanatan-sikha, Rupa-sikha are there and they are the main teachings: "Who am I?", "Why are we suffering?", and so on. Mahaprabhu was asked these questions and He gave the answer, and you must read it, then you will know how to practise and you can teach this to others also.

* * *

Family Foundation (2): Behaviour

Speaking online to devotees in Caracas

1 July 2012

We are all family members, but we are not giving honour to each other. Be humble, be tolerant, and give honour to each others, these are the qualities that Gurudev said everybody must have. But we are not doing that, and that is why we are fighting with each other. We do not pay dandavat to each other and we become more and more disturbed—but if you fight one day, the next day you must pay dandavat to each other. We do not do that, that is why more disturbance is coming, and the communication gap is increasing. We must give honour to each other, must always be humble, but we always have ego, "I want to be big," "I want to be more senior than them," "I am bigger than them"—that is why the problems come in our spiritual life.

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur paid dandavat even to his disciples, and he would say, "Prabhu, I am your servant, daso 'smi." This is what you must teach others. We think we know everything, that we are big preachers, big singers, but when this kind of ego comes we cannot proceed and cannot increase our spiritual life because of that.

You sing every morning,

thakura vaisnava-gana, kari ei nivedana

mo bada adhama durachara

If everybody tells you, "You are bad," if they criticise you, tell them, "Yes, you are right, I am bad, and I am even worse than that!"

thakura vaisnava-gana, kari ei nivedana

mo bada adhama durachara

"I am durachar, I am the lowest. I am unqualified, I have no qualification. I am a rascal!" Sing this song every morning and explain its meaning, then this kind of humility, vaishnavata will come to you. And even more that that: we must not only say, "I am durachar," we must behave like we feel we are durachar—humbly. If somebody says, "You are bad," we must say, "Yes, I am bad, and even worse than that; I have no qualification."

In this way you must learn yourself and teach others also. "Nija achari' dharma jivake sikhaya"—if you show it yourself, then others will learn from you. Young boys, young girls will learn from you. This is how you must teach your family. If you yourself have the proper attitude and the proper behaviour, then your son, your daughter will learn good behaviour from you…

* * *

Family Foundation (3): Sacrifice

Speaking online to devotees in Caracas

1 July 2012

I am happy with all the devotees, but I am humbly requesting everybody to come together to the programme, not to look at each others' fault, not to gossip all the time, not to criticise each other, and try to control yourself. It is my humble request to you all—follow the mahajan. You should read about every mahajan's pastimes-Jiva Goswami, Rupa Goswami, Sanatan Goswami, Vallabha Acharya, Gopal Bhatta Goswami, and others.

I am actually very happy with the devotees all over the world, and especially with the Venezuelan devotees' service, preaching and everything else. But there is one thing I am unhappy about. I cannot tolerate it when devotees do not practise properly, when devotees' behaviour is not proper, and when the devotees all the time leave their husband or wife. Be careful with this.

I always bow down to those who live a family life because the family life is most useful for service, but do not leave your wife, do not leave your husband. I cannot tolerate it. If you live together, I am very happy. When you live together in a family, problem will come, but you must tolerate it. Srila Swami Maharaj used a bad word, he said, "Rascal!" He can say it because he is an old Guru, but I am I a young person, so I cannot and do not want to use this bad word.

Everybody must be careful. Teach your children by your good behaviour. If the mother and the father are good, then the children will be very good. Do you understand? I am telling this to everybody, all over the world. You must avoid living like cats and dogs and cows—you must avoid this kind of bad culture and behaviour.

And one more thing. I am telling the brahmacharies: if you love a girl, immediately get married, do not do any illegal sex before marriage. I cannot tolerate it, do you understand? If you love a girl, OK, get married, but do not live together and do illegal sex—this "living together" style is very bad, I cannot tolerate it. If somebody loves a girl, and the girl loves the boy, they can get married, but you must not live together and engage in illegal sex before marriage. This is not good. Can you understand it? Is it clear?

—Yes.

These are very hard words and it is very hard for everybody to digest it, is it not? It is hard to follow this, is it not?

—Yes...

But it is my order! Try to follow it.

I am not against married life, I am not against householder life. I do not think that everybody will be a brahmachari or everybody will be a sannyasi, but if you get married, do it in the proper way, practise an honest householder life.

—How can we get your blessing for the proper marriage life?

I am giving a blessing for the proper marriage life, but everybody must make some sacrifice—the husband must make some sacrifice, the wife must make some sacrifice, there should be no ego. If you live together, it is very nice. You can see how Indian people live, and practise in this way, properly. Everybody must be tolerant, not angry.

* * *

Chaturmasya

Speaking online to devotees in Caracas

1 July 2012

Question: Chaturmasya is coming now...

Yes, chaturmasya is good, but I have told you many times that chaturmasya does not mean you must keep a beard, grow long hair and not eat something, but secretly you will do nonsense. Do not do that. Chaturmasya is very strict, but if you show you are keeping chaturmasya and secretly do nonsense, it is not good for a devotee, it is false renunciation. Do not show false renunciation.

I am always a practical man—give an offering to the Deities, Gaura Nitai, and take prasadam. OK? Make opulent bhog for Gaura Nitai and take prasadam. We do not take patal, we do not take some subji—we take prasadam. "Pran achhe yar, sei hetu prachar: as long as you have life in the body, you must preach." Die to live, do you understand? This life is not for enjoyment only—this life is only for surrender to the Lord Himself. Krishna has given me this body for surrender.

How can you control your sex life? Honey and ghee increase sex desire, and if you take red dal (masoori dal, lentil) anger comes. So, you must be always careful with the food. Do not follow your tongue. We follow our tongue, that is why problems come—kamini comes, anger comes, lust comes, and so many other bad things come. We must control our tongue, both talking and eating. Do not take outside food, always take prasad.

This is what chaturmasya is for—to control your senses. During the chaturmasya there always comes kamini, there always increases lust. That is why in Mahaprabhu's time Jiva Goswami, Sanatan Goswami, Rupa Goswami always controlled their food, and we also must always control our food. If you take prasadam, then there will be no problem.

Do not take honey, ghee, if you take them, then kamana-basana (lust desire) will always be increasing, and red dal gives anger like cow's meat (cow's meat and masoori dal are the same). I am telling it to all the devotees: always take prasadam—offer bhog to the Deity and take prasadam…

* * *

Advantage of Adversity

Speaking online to the devotees in Caracas

4 August 2013

When some problem comes in your service, at that time more feelings, more desire and strength will come to you for your service.

One time, two dogs decided to come from Kolkata to Nabadwip. They were thinking how they would go—by train, car or on foot? They talked to each other and decided, "All right, it is better to walk there."

So, they started walking from Kolkata to Nabadwip, and just before they left they asked somebody, "How many days are necessary to get to Nabadwip on foot?" Somebody told them, "It will take you seven days." And they started walking.

They walked and walked, and then the evening came and they thought, "It is night time now, we will not walk. We will continue walking tomorrow. We have seven days to go, and we have walked too much on the first day..." So, they stopped at some place to rest. They were about to take rest there when many local dogs started barking at them, "Hey, why have you come here?! It is our place! Why have you come here?! It is our place!!" The two dogs ran away, "No, no, let them bark, better if we go..."

They started walking again. They walked and walked, and after midnight they thought, "Oh, we are too tired now, we must take rest!" They were going to take rest in some place, but then again the same thing happened as before—as they were about to lie down, local dogs understood that some dogs had come from outside and started barking, "Get out! Get out from here! Why are you here?!" The dogs thought, "Oh, what can we do? We have to go..."

They started walking again and in the morning the saw that they had come to Nabadwip!

The meaning of this story is that thanks to the disturbance make by the other dogs they came to their destination quickly. So, if so many Vaishnav aparadhi criticise you, it is actually a benefit for you, it is not a loss. Do you see how the dogs arrived quickly? It would take them seven days to get to Nabadwip, but instead they came there in just one day. So, if somebody criticises you, your speed of walking will be more, you will not rest, and can reach your own destination.

* * *

Devotion Comes From the Heart

Speaking online to the devotees in the USA

5 August 2013

The main thing is that devotion comes from the heart, it is not necessary to show anything. Gurudev told once one very nice story, I am remembering it now. You may have heard this story before.

One fisherwoman was selling fish, and she used hand scales to measure the weight. Here in India we did not have computerised scales, now there is, but before they would use two bowls—in one of them they would put some weight (one kilo, two kilos) and in the other bowl the vegetable, fish, etc. You may have seen how they buy and sell fruit, vegetables at the market here in India. So, when the fisherwoman was weighing the fish, she used a Salagram sila as the weight for the scales.

Once, a brahman came to her shop to buy some fish, when she was using a Salagram sila as the weight, he said, "Hey, what are you doing?! You are making an offence! You think the Salagram sila is a stone and you are using it as a weight!" The brahman took that Salagram sila from her and brought it to his house.

After one-two days, the brahman saw a dream in which Salagram sila (Krishna) said to him, "Brahman! You have brought Me from her house, but I was playing and swinging there on the scales, I liked it there very much. Why did you bring Me from there?? Take Me back!" The brahman went again to that fisherwoman and gave the Salagram sila back.

What is the meaning of this story?

That brahman was using Salagram sila for his own purpose, he is showing he is a devotee, but he ate fish, meat, etc. The lady, on the other hand, sold the dish, but she did not eat it, and she used the Salagram sila for her business unknowingly, innocently, and she used the money she got from her business for the service to the Lord, whereas the brahman was using Krishna was his own purpose. That is why that Salagram sila did not want to stay with the brahman and went back to the fisherwoman.

You can use Krishna for Krishna's service, that is OK, but you must not use a Deity for your own purpose, like some Indian brahmans do. This is a difficult matter...

Question: Did the Salagram sila return just to play (swing on the scales) or for some other reason?

Salagram sila returned because the brahman could not serve properly. Krishna becomes a servant of His servants—Krishna did not take a big raj bhog from Duryodhan, instead He went to Vidur's house. This answer is not written in the scriptures, but you must understand this story. You can ask this question: what kind of devotion did the fisherwoman have? She sold fish, but internally, secretly she had some devotion—she may kill fish and sell fish, and maybe she used the Salagram sila for her own purpose, but the Salagram sila was happier with her than with the brahman. Because the brahman did not have so much devotion, the Deity came back to the fisherwoman.

You cannot judge others' devotion by the external look. Just as in this story, you can look at that woman who sold fish and may think what kind of devotion she can have... Srila Sridhar Maharaj told another pastime in this regard. When Krishna came to Vidur's house, Vidur's wife was in the bathroom. As soon as she heard that Krishna had come, she got some kind of feelings and she forgot all about herself, she did not think about herself—without any clothes she ran from the bathroom and appeared in front of Krishna. When Krishna saw her, He thought, "What has happened?!" and immediately thew His uttariya to her.

What kind of feelings and thoughts did she have? Do you see? Such feelings can come sometimes—they come in the heart, you cannot understand such feelings. But such feelings do not come to us because we are Vaishnav-aparadhi, offenders of the Vaishnav, we are Nama-aparadhi, offenders of the Holy Name. "Krsna Name kare aparadher vichar: the Holy Name is always searching who is the offender of the Holy Name (aparadhi)." Those who are offenders do not change, such kind of feelings do not come to them...

* * *

Prasad and Service

Speaking online to the devotees in the USA

5 August 2013

Question: Could you tell us about the importance of offering everything we eat, at all times, wherever we are? Is this a necessary formality?

Yes, it is necessary. It is good if you offer to the Lord whatever you cook. If you have some devotion, Krishna will accept it. Krishna took food even from the mouth of a sabar (a man of a low caste)—when the sabar was eating some plantain root, Krishna took it from his mouth.

When you cook something, when you want to use something for the service, you must offer it to the Deities. If you do it, it will be good. If sometimes you cannot do it, for example, when you are outside, still you can remember Guru, Vaishnavs, Bhagavan at that time.

It is a necessary process. Some people cannot understand it and they take food before (or without) offering it to the Deity, that is not good. When you offer the bhog and take prasadam, it is good for you—it will bring benefit for you. Offer the bhog and take prasadam.

Taking prasadam is also a kind of service:

tomara sevaya, duhkha haya yata,

seo ta' parama sukha

seva-sukha-duhkha, parama sampada

nasaye avidya-duhkha

"All the distress I encounter in Your service is also my greatest happiness. Happiness and unhappiness in Your service are the greatest wealth and they both destroys the misery of ignorance."

(Saranagati 16.4)

Through service illusory environment will be removed from you, so it is necessary to engage in service, and taking prasadam is also service. These are the main things.

You must remember also about Nama-aparadh and Vaishnav-aparadh. There is also seva-aparadh, but Nama-aparadh and Vaishnav-aparadh are the worst because Krishna Nam (the Holy Name of Krishna) is always searching who is an aparadhi (offender):

'krsna-nama' kare aparadhera vichara

krsna balile aparadhira na haya vikara

"The Holy Name of Krishna always considers who is an offender. Even if an offender chants the Name of Krishna all the time, it produces no transformation within them."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 8:24)

Krishna Nam is always searching who is an aparadhi, so we must be careful. We always make sadhu-ninda, Vaishnav-ninda, gurva-avajna, how will then Krishna-katha come to our mouth? Sadhu-ninda (offence or criticism of a holy person), guru-ninda (offence or criticism of the Guru), gurva-avajna (considering the Guru a mortal, ordinary person, or disregarding the order of the Guru) are the worst. If we make such offences, then even if we chant "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna," all day and night, how will any feeling come to us? The feeling will never come to us because Krishna Nam searches who is an offender.

* * *

No Other Shelter

17 June 2001

We must serve Krishna. You know that we are suffering from three kinds of suffering (adhibhautik, adhidaivik, adhyatmik: miseries caused by one's body, by the nature, and other souls). We suffer because of our parents, children, from some insects or beast, etc. We are suffering from all this, and we want to remove this suffering. The only way to remove it is to fully surrender to Krishna. There is no other shelter. Mahaprabhu said,

harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam

kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha

"Only chanting the Holy Name, chanting the Holy Name, chanting the Holy Name—there is no other way, no other way, no other way."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 7.76)

This is the age of Kali, and our only duty is to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, except that there is no other shelter. If you take shelter of the lotus feet of Gurudev, take shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna, then all suffering will be removed from you. There is no other shelter.

When Mahaprabhu came to Nabadwip, when He was just born (517 years ago), He was always crying and crying. Somebody recited some poem to Him, but He did not stop crying. Then, one devotee started chanting Hare Krishna and suddenly Nimai stopped crying. This is how Mahaprabhu preached about this Hare Krishna maha-mantra, surrender, and Krishna-bhakti.

One time, when Nimai was three-four years old, He showed He was sick, and was crying so much. It was an Ekadasi day. His mother, Sachi Mata, asked Him, "What has happened?" Nimai said, "I want to go Hiranya Jagadish's house! They made sandesh for Krishna, I want to eat it!" How did He know it? Hiranya Jagadish's house was from away from Nabadwip, it was one kilometre away, and He was just a little boy. But He knew it because He is the Lord Himself, He knows everything. So, Sachi Mata took Him to the house of Hiranya Jagadish, and Hiranya Jagadish happily gave Him sandesh and some other food. Then, Nimai became very happy and all His sickness and crying was gone.

Another time, it was also on an Ekadasi day, Nimai said to Sachi Mata,

"Mother, I want to ask you for something."

"What is it?"

"Promise you will give Me what I ask."

"OK, I will give You what You ask," promised Sachi Mata.

"Mother, today is Ekadasi. Promise that you will not take any rice this day."

Sachi Mata promised it, and from that day she started doing Ekadasi.

At that time Jagannath Mishra was not alive, so people say that according to the Indian laws of brahman families, only widowed wives (who have no husband) do Ekadasi, but it is not so. Mahaprabhu told everybody, whether they have a husband or not, must follow Ekadasi.

* * *

Devotees' Love

17 June 2001

Question: What is the mentality of a servant of Krishna?

A devotee of Krishna, a soul surrendered to Krishna does not ask Krishna for anything—they always think how Krishna can be pleased. This is what they always think about.

Actually, a devotee's love and affection to Krishna is not like a shopkeeper's love. If you want to buy something from a shopkeeper, the shopkeeper will give some 7Up or some other cold drink, but you do not think that he loves you—the shopkeeper gives you that because you are going to buy something from him and he is going to get much profit from you. That is not love. If you want to love Krishna, you will not ask Krishna for anything.

You have heard one story and can see the example. One day, when Sri Krishna was in Dvaraka, He showed that His health was not good. Narad asked Him, "What happened to You, Prabhu?" Krishna said, "I have a very big disease... No medicine will cure it. If you can get some feet dust to put on My head, then only the disease will be removed..."

Narad went to Vraja and asked Srimati Laksmi Devi,"Please give me some foot dust, Krishna is very sick!" When Laksmi Devi heard it, she said, "Oh, Krishna is the crown on my head, how will I give you my foot dust? I will fall down and go to hell! I will not give it..." Laksmi Devi answered in this way. Then, Narad went to the gopis and friends of Radharani. As soon as they heard that Krishna was very sick, they became sad and immediately they gave their foot dust to Narad Muni. Then Narad Muni came back to Dvaraka. Krishna asked him everything and Narad gave report who gave the foot dust, who did not give, etc.

You know that actually Laksmi Devi did not enter the rasa-lila. She thought about herself, she did not think about Krishna becoming cured, that is why she did not enter the rasa-lila...

When Narad asked Sriman Mahaprabhu, "Where do You stay, Prabhu?" He said, "I am always staying in the Srivas Pandit's house, in the kitchen of Sachi Mata, in the house of Radhava, and wherever Nityananda Prabhu is dancing I am always with Him."

Krishna Himself said, "If you ask Me for anything, I will not give it." Why? Because He knows: "Everybody, all jiva souls, are dear to Me, and they all have affection and love for Me, but they do not know any better, they are ignorant, that is when they ask Me for anything, what they are asking for are mundane things. Why shall I give it to them?! They are tatastha, created from Me, and if they ask for something wrong, why shall I give them these mundane things? I will give them devotion instead! I will give them devotion and they will go to Goloka! If I give them money, if I give them gold, or some things, they will suffer and suffer all life, and life after life. Why should I give that to them?"

If you do not ask for anything, that is better. If you do not ask Krishna for anything, Krishna will give you more.

You know in our songbooks there is one song "Bhajahu re mana"—this song is written by Govinda Das. Before, Govinda Das used to always worship Mother Kali, a demigoddess, and one day he asked her for liberation. But Mother Kali said, "It is not in my power, I cannot give this to you." It was after that that he wrote this song "Bhajahu re mana Sri Nandanandana": "Worship Krishna! He can give You everything!"

Do not ask Him for anything—worship Him, love Him.

Prahlad Maharaj also did not ask for anything, but one day Bhagavan Nrisinghadev came to him and said, "Please ask Me for something." Prahlad Maharaj said, "I do not want to ask for anything." But the Lord insisted, and finally Prahlad Maharaj said, "All right, I will ask for one thing only." "What is it?" "I do not want to ask You for anything my whole life. Give me a boon like this"...

* * *

Proceed and Increase

17 June 2001

You know that Krishna is not far—Krishna is always in our heart. We are covered now by illusion, but if Krishna blesses us, if we surrender fully to Gurudev and he blesses us, if we get some mercy from him, then we can actually proceed and increase our devotional life.

It is your affection and love that has brought our Gurudev here. He was very sick, he is now over sevety-two years old and cannot actually walk so much, but your love and affection has brought him here. He has told me many times that the devotees here are very good and they are very affectionate, that is why we cannot ignore them. Although doctors had told Gurudev not to travel, he said to me and others also, "I must go, I cannot forget their love and affection."

I am also inviting you all to Nabadwip—come and see Mahaprabhu's birthplace, our temple in Koladwip. You know that Koladwip is aparadh-bhanjan-pat(!) and it is a temple made by Srila Sridhar Maharaj.

At first Srila Sridhar Maharaj did not want to make a temple. When his Gurudev, Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, left, Srila Sridhar Maharaj went to Vrindavan and wanted to do bhajan, but then he got something like daiva-vani (a message from heaven)—he heard Prabhupad, his Gurudev, say, "If you make something, do not eat it alone, distribute it to everybody! I have kept you here as a preacher of Sri Rupa Goswami, why are you sitting there, alone? Do you want to eat alone? Do you want to get me alone? Why do you not give anything to others, why do you not distribute what you have got to others?" After that, he came to Koladwip, this aparadh-bhanjan-pat. Nabadwip means "nine islands" (nava-dvip)—Rudradwip, Antardwip, Madhyadwip, Simantadwip, Godrumdwip, Ritudwip, Jahnadwip, Modadrumdwip, and Koladwip. Our Chaitanya Saraswat Math is in Koladwip, and it is an aparadh-bhanjan-pat—if you go there, your offences will be removed from your heart, all offences will go away.

Gurudev always says to me that we must chant Hare Krishna, this Holy Name that Mahaprabhu (nondifferent form of Radha-Krishna) brought in this world, without offence. Krishna gave a mouth to me not for eating—we must chant with this mouth. If you use this mouth only for eating, then Krishna said, "I have given you a mouth not for eating only, not for talking nonsense talk. I have given you a mouth so that you chant with it. If you do not do it, then next life I will send you to a cow's body!" A cow also has a mouth, but it does not talk with it, a cow's mouth is only for eating. In a human body, you eat a little bit, but when you go to a cow's body next life you will be able to eat so much. So, we all must chant this Holy Name that is non-different from Radha-Krishna, and keep good association (sadhu-sanga).

Good association does not mean eating with some good men or sleeping with some good men, no. Ants, insects, mosquitos, etc. sleep with the sadhus but they do not get any good association, it is not sadhu-sanga. Sadhu-sanga means getting some good advice from the Vaishnavs, it means, "I will do what they tell me, I will follow their advice." Eating together with a sadhu, sleeping on the same bad with a sadhu is not sadhu-sanga.

Anyhow, we are all fortunate because there are many devotees here, and the Vaishnavs and sadhus are all here, they have come to this country, and above all, our Gurudev is so highly qualified. Who is actually a Guru? A Guru is somebody who has come from Krishna's lok (Krishna's house). Krishna sends a Guru to preach to us. We are fallen souls, and Krishna sends a Guru to rescue us. Whatever we pray for, if we pray to the Guru, the Guru will send our request to Krishna and the Guru will also send us the response, the news from Krishna. This is the meaning of the Guru...

I am finishing for today, if I have made any offence, please excuse me. I do not know things very well, there are many good Vaishnavs here, they are all senior Guru-varga, and I am actually a fallen soul, I am the lowest, I am like an insect in the stool, and I do not know anything. So, if there is any offence on my part, please excuse me. And I am inviting all devotees to come to Nabadwip to see any festival or for the Gaura Purnima festival. Come as soon as possible; as much as it is in my power, as much as I can help anyone, I will try. Please come to Nabadwip.

vanchha-kalpatarubhyas cha krpa-sindhubhya eva cha

patitanam pavanebhyo vaisnavebhyo namo namah

"Again and again I offer my obeisance unto the Supreme Lord's devotees, who are saviours of the fallen, oceans of mercy, and wish-fulfilling trees."

* * *

Come and Get!

19 June 2001

Question: What is the quickest, or shortest, way to Krishna?

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya

chaksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

"I offer my obeisance unto Sri Gurudev, who has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, with the salve of divine knowledge."

His question is how we can get Krishna?... Actually, in Kali-yuga, the age of Kali, Krishna came as Sriman Mahaprabhu who is non-different from Radha-Krishna, and Krishna also came as the Holy Name: "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare..." He went door to door, every village to village, preaching and saying to everybody, "Please chant this Holy Name!" He said, "You have lost your address, you do not know what your address is! You think that this is your house, this is your home, but it is not!" And He urged everybody, "Please chant this Name!" Gaudiya Vaishnavs, our Gurudev have not come to beg money, food or anything else from you, they only come and say, "Please come with us! Chant Hare Krishna!"

In Srimad Bhagavatam Uddhav asked Krishna, "Prabhu, when You are not here, where should I stay?" and Krishna answered, "Uddhav, there will come many devotees like you, and you will see Me in their heart." We sing also in one of the kirtans (Ohe Vaishnava Thakura), "Krsna se tomar! Krishna is yours!" So, where will we get Krishna? In the lotus feet, or actually in the heart, of the Vaishnavs. Who is a preacher? Those who follow Krishna consciousness, who follow rules and regulations. You must go to them—they can give you Krishna. Krishna sent our Gurudev, Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, to preach to us, Krishna Himself sent him to take us, fallen souls, to our home. So, if we go to him and surrender to him, then we will see Krishna.

One day, I went to preach in Bengal, and one man asked me, "Have you seen Krishna? Can you show me Krishna?" Suddenly I saw a milkman going past with pots full of milk. I asked the milkman, "Have you seen butter?" There is butter in the milk, but we do not see it—we have no eyes to see it. Our eyes are full of dirt and dust and we cannot see who is the follower of Krishna, who is a devotee, so with these mundane eyes we cannot see Krishna. In the same way, we cannot chant the Holy Name of Krishna with this tongue because this tongue is mundane and the Name is transcendental—the transcendental Name cannot come to a mundane thing; but if we practise Krishna consciousness, then the Holy Name will come to this tongue—through service.

Actually, our Guru is our only Divine Master, he is the only Rupanuga-dhara, the holder of Sri Rupa Goswami's line, of this Krishna consciousness. Every shopkeeper says his shop is the best and his sweets are very nice, but actually it is not so. You can understand it if you follow Gurudev, if you can see with your own divya-chaksu (transcendental eyes) who follows Krishna consciousness and follow him, surrender to him. You must get some mercy of Vaishnavs for that.

isvarera krpa-lesa haya ta' yahare

sei ta' isvara-tattva janibare pare

"Only those who receive even a trace of the Lord's mercy, can understand the Lord."

(Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 6.83)

Those who get the mercy of Krishna, who get the mercy of Vaishnavs, can learn and can hear this type of Hari-katha, Krishna-katha.

So, we can see all the great Vaishnavs are here, and you are getting some good association from them, through that good association your mind will be clean. We do not actually know where our house is, but we are fortunate to have got this human body—if you surrender to the lotus feet of Gurudev, you will immediately get Krishna. Through the chanting of the Holy Name, Gurudev can show Krishna to you.

To get something, it is necessary to do something. Kripa (mercy) means kore-pabe: if you want to get something, you must do something. What will you do? If you chant Hare Krishna, if you surrender to the lotus feet to Gurudev, your Divine Master, then you will get everything. It is not necessary to read many books, it is not necessary to do anything like this. You can live with your family, live in your house and chant Hare Krishna (the Holy Name of Krishna), come to see Gurudev—through that you will get good association and you will get Krishna.

I do not actually have any qualification, all is the mercy of the Vaishnavs. One day, you probably read about it in Chaitanya-charitamrita, Sanatan Goswami wanted to hear from Mahaprabhu the explanation of the "Atmaramas cha munayo" sloka. He asked Mahaprabhu, "Please, explain that sloka that You have explained to Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya." Mahaprabhu answered, "I have no qualification. I have forgotten what I told him, I am mad and do not know anything, but by some mercy of the great Vaishnavs, if they can say something through Me, then I can say something."

You are all very fortunate, and I see that you all have a good heart. Please come to India and see what the conception of Mahaprabhu is. I am inviting you all to our temple, come, join us. We have not come here for fooding and lodging. We did not come to ask you for any food, we have only come to say, "Krsna bolo, sange chalo!! Say, 'Krishna!' Please come with us! We have to take you with us!!"

Devotees: HARI BOL! JAY!

* * *

Keep Good Connection

23 June 2001

You all know that when one day Srila Sanatan Goswamipad came to Mahaprabhu and asked, "Please, Prabhu, give me Your permission, I want to leave this body..." Mahaprabhu answered, "Why are you saying this? When you surrender to Me, since that day your body is actually is not your body anymore—your body becomes Mine." So, when we take initiation from our Guru Maharaj, when we surrender to him, we should all follow his direction and his advice.

As you know, Guru Maharaj always says that we are all in one ship, or boat, we must all come under one umbrella. He is our captain. Not all of us are clean, everybody has some fault, but we will not see others' faults. Vaishnav is actually adosa-darasi: Vaishnav will not see others' faults, he always thinks, "I am guilty."

In Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's times, among those who lived in the temple, among his disciples, there were some godbrothers who fought with each other. When a disciple once complained to Srila Prabhupad about his godbrother, "He is fighting and quarrelling with me! He is saying bad words to me!" Prabhupad said, "Do not say such things. You must glorify him for half an hour." Do you understand what it means? If we do not look at each other's faults, then I think, and Guru Maharaj also says it, that there will not come so many problems.

Everybody should try to keep connection with Gurudev. Gurudev means his Mission, Gurudev means his lectures, his scriptures, books—we should always try to keep connection with this. You know (and the scriptures, Srimad Bhagavatam, Srimad Bhagavad-gita, always say it) that if you serve Vaishnavs, if you are a servant of the servant of the servant, it will be good—Krishna will be very happy, and therefore Gurudev will be happy too. No seva—no mercy, no mercy—no seva. Prabhupad also says it, Srila Guru Maharaj also says it. Try to get some service, try to anyhow do some service to Krishna or the temple. It is not necessary to have a direct seva to Gurudev—if you become a servant of the servant, it will be better for you.

When our Guru Maharaj was seventeen years old, when he just joined the temple, he told me that he used to always cut grass in the garden and feed it to the cows. He always did so much service, always went house to house, collecting half kg, one kg of rice, etc. He has been doing this kind of service since his childhood when he joined the temple. Because of our ego we want to be a master (prabhu), we do not want to be a servant, we think we know everything, but this is not good—it is pride, and it is bad. We must actually be a servant, we do not want to be a master.

Always keep connection—serve the temple, send letters to Gurudev to India, and also you can serve Gurudev through the service to the temple here locally, through the service to those who are in charge of the Mission here.

Everybody should be always careful. You know that illusion is not so far, illusion is always near us and it always wants to attack us. We are jiva souls—we are tiny, small things and we have no power, that is why illusion will always attack us. If we keep good association through Vaishnavs, by always reading the scriptures, seeing the Deities, coming to the temple, always keep good connection, then illusion will not be able to attack to us. We should from time to time come to the temple, see the Deities, chant kirtan, take prasadam, etc. Most important, it is necessary to do service. I have told it many times, what do we do sravan and kirtan for? What do we read scriptures for? It is necessary to do, and it is all for service. If we get service, then it is not necessary to do anything else—you will get everything through service.

* * *

Fundamentals

23 June 2001

When you chant the Holy Name (the alphabet, or letters, of the Holy Name), the Holy Name cannot come your tongue, but it will be better if you get service and chant Harinam through service, and we should try to avoid bad association. For preaching we have to go to many places, mix with different people, but other than this the scriptures say, and Prabhupad also advised, we should try to avoid bad association.

When Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur came this time, you know there were so many things at that time, there were so many people who imitated devotion—they would wear tilaks, wear neck beads, they chanted, but did many wrong things. That is why Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur made this Gaudiya Mission. He made a Nama-hatta and said, "I am a sweeper of Nama-hata!" Nama-hata means "namer hata", or "market of the Holy Names." He cleaned these Holy Names, he cleaned the society from all bad and dirty things. That is why he said, "I am a sweeper."

There is a sloka in Srimad Bhagavad-gita (4.34)

tad viddhi pranipatena, pariprasnena sevaya

upadeksyanti te jnanam, jnaninas tattva-darsinah

"You will be able to attain knowledge by satisfying the divine master with submission, relevant inquiry, and sincere service. The enlightened souls who are learned in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will impart divine knowledge to you."

Pranipat means full surrender, pariprasna is honest enquiry, and sevaya is service temper. We must have tad viddhi pranipatena, we must surrender to Gurudev fully. We do not only pay dandavat—a full dandavat (sastanga dandavat) means, "Gurudev, you have a sword, and I cannot see anything. You can beat me, you can do anything you like, whatever you do I will obey your rules and regulations."

diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana

sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama

"At the time of initiation, when a devotee fully surrenders unto the service of the Lord, Krishna accepts them as His very own."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4.192)

When devotees take initiation and surrender to Lord Krishna, Krishna sees such devotees as His very heart.

Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur also said that we must not be afraid. Many things will happen, many people will criticise you, many will do bad and wrong things to you, but you must not be afraid. Prabhupad said: when an elephant is going down the road and some dog is barking, it is not a problem for the elephant. Yesterday, when we were going down the street and chanting, somebody criticised us, somebody laughed, but it is not a problem. The crazy people, the bad people think many things, but we do not think like this. They do not chant, do not do anything, but we do it and we know what we are doing is the best. We must do what we are doing, and we must tell others that it is the best. If others do not do what we do, why will we be afraid? We must do out duty.

So, we should always keep a good relation with our family. We live in a family, in one house with our father, mother, children, wife, etc. but it must be asakti-rahita, without attachment. There should be no attachment, and there should be relation with the Lord. We will surrender and see all subjects as meant only for Krishna. Krishna always says, "I am the creator of all creation. I have created everything for Myself, not for you!" That is why all must be Madhava.

‘asakti-rahita,' 'sambandha-sahita,'

visaya-samuha sakali 'madhava'

('Vaishnav ke?' verse 12)

"There must be no attachment and the only relation we must have with the things is that everything if for Him, not for us." This is how we should think.

So, I am telling everybody: please be humble, tolerant, give honour to others. Everybody should pay dandavat to each other. You have an enemy, you fight with somebody, but if you pay dandavat to them, if you talk to them, they will not be your enemy then, they must be your friend. If you think, "Oh, he is fighting with me, he is quarrelling with me, I will not talk to him!" this is not good. Pay dandavat to them, give them some honour, talk to them, and they will not be your enemy, they will be your best friends. Actually, I am myself my best friend, and I am myself my worst enemy also—nobody is my enemy, I am the only worst enemy to myself...

I am the most fallen soul, I have no qualification, and I am asking you for your mercy. If we get your mercy, it will bring benefit to all of us, and to me also. And please come to Nabadwip. I am paying dandavat to everybody, do not take my offence. If I have made any offence, please excuse me...

* * *

Who Will Understand This?

Sri Nabadwip Dham, translated from Bengali

22 March 2016

When Krishna left Vrindavan and went to Mathura and Dvaraka, Vraja gopis cried so much that everything around had become the same to them. Wherever their glance fell, they only wept and lamented for Krishna. They embraced the trees and said, "His feet walked down this path! Here are His broken ankle bells scattered around! Has our Lord forgotten us? How cruel it is that we cannot die! How cruel it is that He has left us! We love Him so much, we know nothing except Him, we understand nothing except Him, but He has left us!"

When Mahaprabhu took sannyas, He went to Puri and alone tasted this vipralambha lila (separation). He felt so much pleasure—you cannot get this kind of pleasure through union. In separation, hankering for union brings a great pleasure. The pleasure of the union is momentary, but in separation you can feel pleasure at every moment, all the time. When you have a strong relationship with Krishna, when you have a connection with your Guru, then you will be able to understand everything.

This is sambandha (the nature of the relation), you must understand these main things very well. If you read Ramananda-sambad, you can see that it is an extremely high conception...

When we were today at Champa-hatti, you saw they were singing from Gita Govinda but we did not sing it. After that, we spoke about Gita Govinda there, about the line "Dehi pada pallavam", but who will I actually tell about it to? Who can understand it, tell me? Who will be able to understand these words of Jayadev Goswami about separation?

Jayadev Goswami started composing this Gita Govinda in some other place, but he could not finish it there, so he came to Nabadwip to finish it. He sat there in Champa-hatti, but then he suddenly forgot what to write next, "What should I write next? What is the next line?" (Yes, who will write it? Who will write "dehi pada pallavam"?) He could not think of anything, so he went to take bath in the Ganga and asked his wife Padmavati to prepare prasad in the meantime. Then, Bhagavan Gaura Hari, Sri Krishna Himself, came in disguise of Jayadev and said to Padmavati, "Padmavati, is the prasad ready?" She answered, "Yes, you said you will take bath and take prasadam, so it is ready. Come, take it." He took prasad. What did He do after that? He went to the room where Jayadev sat and wrote Gita Govinda, wrote the next line, and left. When real Jayadev came back after taking bath, he asked his wife, "Padmavati, where is my prasad?" Padmavati was surprised, "What are you talking about? You have just taken prasad! You took prasad and went to your room, I saw you writing something there." "What do you mean? Who was it? I did not come here!" Then Jayadev went into his room and saw the words written in the book, "Dehi pada pallavam udaram" ("place Your tender feet on My head"). The Lord came Himself to write it. What did He write? What is written there about Radharani? Krishna says to Her, "Please place Your feet on My head." Krishna Himself wrote it.

Do not forget this sambandha (relation)! This relationship is not a two-day connection! This connection is not just to take initiation and go away, no. You must not only think like this, but you must understand it. What can the Guru give you? What is the love of Guru? What do you receive from your Guru? You must always think about it.

diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana

sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama

"At the time of initiation, when a devotee fully surrenders unto the service of the Lord, Krishna accepts them as His very own."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4.192)

Diksa means divya-jnan (transcendental knowledge)—those who take initiation, who surrender, the Lord takes them as His own! This mood, this feeling must come. And it is for this mood and feeling, for this lila that Sri Gauranga came here. He came to tell everyone about the separation that Srimati Radharani feels, about the agony of separation that She feels.

...Krishna said to His friend, "O Subal! Today Balaram is not here, I will not go to herd the cows today!" Balaram also sat at Radha Kunda and said, "Krishna is not here now, I will not go herd the cows today..." This is separation, it is necessary to understand this, it is necessary to think about this.

Gurupad is the Lord's very own! We cannot forget him, we cannot do bhajan on our own like Mirabhai. It is not out line! We do not sit and just chant, "Krishna, Krishna."

radha-bhajane yadi mati nahi bhela

krsna-bhajana tava akarane gela

"If you do not worship Srimati Radharani, your worship of Krishna is nothing."

If you do not worship Srimati Radharani, your worship of Krishna will give you nothing. Without Nityananda you cannot get Gaura; without Gurupad-padma (the lotus feet of Sri Guru), you will not get Krishna! If you serve the Lord without the Guru, you will not get anything. Always remember this.

* * *

Good Association: Life Force of Devotees

Russia

7 August 2002

Good association is necessary, it is essential for our practising life. Good association will give life to us. Chaitanya-charitamrita says,

'sadhu-sanga', 'sadhu-sanga'—sarva sastre kaya

lava-matra sadhu sange sarva siddhi haya

"Good association", "good association," all the scriptures keep saying. Only by good association can you get all perfection.

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.54)

If you get good association, then there will be no problem in your practising life. Srila Guru Maharaj one day gave a lecture about one story from Srimad Bhagavatam. I can tell it to you now, maybe you already know this story.

One rishi went house to house begging, and he saw a bird in one of the houses.

(You know in some houses they keep birds, they serve birds, and if you teach the bird, the bird can talk also—the bird can say, "Hare Krishna!" or, "Please sit down", etc. Once I went to preach in some village, a Western devotee was with me there. I went to a house, and a man's voice said to me, "Please sit down, please sit down!" I thought, "Nobody is there, who is saying it?" Then I saw there was a bird, and it was saying, "Please, a sadhu (saint) has come, a devotees has come, please give some prasadam!" I was surprised.)

So, one rishi came to that house and the bird said, "Why have you come here? Please get out, get out!" He went to another house and saw there was the same kind of bird in that house, but the bird said, "Please sit down, please sit down!" The sadhu then asked Narad, "Why is it that the bird is the same, but this bird says, 'Get out!' and that bird says, 'Sit down!'?" Narad explained, "Both these birds came from the same place, they lived with two brothers, but one man is good, and the one man is bad. One bird got good association from the good brother and the other bird got bad association from the bad brother."

So, if you are in bad association, if you stay with a bad man, then even if you are a good man, you will become bad too. That is why the sastras say that good association is necessary for your practising life. Also it is necessary to fully surrender to the Lord and your Gurudev.

When we get the second initiation (diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpan), we say, "I am fully surrendering to my Gurudev," but it is not so easy. It is very difficult.

You probably know this story from Sri Mahabharat. You know there were Pancha Pandava, the five brothers—Yudhisthir, Bhim, Arjun, Nakul, and Sahadev, and you know Draupadi was their wife. You see, one day Draupadi asked Krishna, "Why when Duryodhan's group dragged me out of my house by my hair and were beating me did You not help me?" Krishna laughed and said to her, "Did you remember Me at that time? You never did!" At that time she only thought, "I am alone, and they are beating me! Nobody is at home now, but if my husbands were here, then nobody would beat me! I have five husbands!" Then, when Duryodhan Maharaj was beating Draupadi in front of her husbands, they started taking her clothes off. She thought, "I can protect myself!" and tried to hold her clothes. Then, she held her clothes with one hand, and called Krishna with the other hand. Finally, when almost all clothes were taken off, she cried to Krishna with both hands, "Krishna, please help me!" At that time her clothes extended and they could not find the end of them.

So, Krishna says, "When you fully surrender to Me, then I will help you. If you do not surrender fully—if you surrender 50%, you will get 50%, if you do 25% surrender, you will get 25%. But if you surrender fully, then you will get your goal. It is necessary to surrender fully...

* * *

"Tell me about Krishna!"

Saint Petersburg, Russia

13 August 2009

Today is the adhivas of Sri Krishna Janmastami, it is a very good day and we must tell something about Krishna's pastimes. Tomorrow is Janmastami, and we have gathered here to speak about Krishna consciousness, about Krishna's pastimes.

When I first joined to the temple, Gurudev actually asked me, "What lila do you like more, Krishna lila or Gaura lila?" At that time I did not know about Mahaprabhu, and I did not know much about Krishna—I had heard many things but I was not interested that that time. So, when Gurudev asked me that, I said, "Gaura lila?" and Gurudev said, "Yes, you have given the best answer!"

Gaura lila is meant for Kali-yuga. Our conception is Krishna's pastimes, but you know once a devotee asked Gurudev, "Gurudev, can you say something about Krishna's pastimes, about Radha-Krishna's pastimes?" Do you know what answer Gurudev gave him? He gave a very rough answer, I could not answer like that [His Divine Grace laughs]. He said, "If you hear it, you will get pregnant!" Radha-Krishna's lila is a very high conception, and it is too tough for Kali-yuga.

One day, Pradyumna Misra came to Mahaprabhu. (Pradyumna Misra was a good Oriya brahman, a good devotee.) He came to Mahaprabhu and asked Him, "Prabhu, can You tell me something about Krishna's lila?" Mahaprabhu said, "I do not know so much... I cannot tell much, but Ramananda Ray knows more than me. You can go to him."

Then Pradyumna Misra went to Ramananda Ray. When he came to his house, Ramananda Ray was very busy. What was he busy with? He was training Jagannath's servitors (young girls of thirteen-nineteen years old) at that time. He was teaching them to dance, how to wear saris, he helped them bath, dress, and so on. Pradyumna Misra waited and waited, and somebody told him that Ramananda Ray was busy in the garden teaching young girls. Pradyumna Misra thought to himself, "Mahaprabhu sent me to hear Krishna-katha from him, but what kind of devotee is he? He is always busy with young girls..." He quickly left.

When he came back to Mahaprabhu, Mahaprabhu asked him, "Have you heard Krishna-katha from Ramananda Ray?" Pradyumna Misra said, "No, Prabhu. He was busy with that, that, that." Mahaprabhu understood what had happened and said to him, "I am a sannyasi, but if I see a prakriti (a photo of a lady), even My mind will be disturbed, but even though Ramananda Ray himself teaches girls to dance, he is not disturbed. Do you think he is an ordinary person? When he does these things, he becomes a gopi! Do you know that Ramananda Ray is an incarnation of Visakha? Please go to him again."

Pradyumna Misra went to Ramananda Ray again, and this time Ramananda Ray paid obeisance to him and said, "Prabhu, you came to see me yesterday, but I could not give so much honour to you, I was busy. Please tell me what is your question?" Pradyumna Misra asked him, and the whole day and night(!) there was Krishna-katha between Ramananda Ray and Pradyumna Misra. When the night was over and the sun rose, their prasadam was still waiting for them—they did not even think about prasadam. This is the kind of Krishna-katha that Pradyumna Misra heard from him.

When Pradyumna Misra came to Mahaprabhu, he said, "Yes, he is the original parsad (associate) of Krishna! He is the incarnation of Visakha, now I understand it." Who knows Krishna? Only Krishna's parsad, only Krishna's associate, can understand Krishna's lila. Pradyumna Misra said, "Now I understand it, and now my ego and everything else is gone..." He heard everything from Ramananda Ray.

The original conversation of Mahaprabhu with Ramananda Ray is recorded in Chaitanya-charitamrita. Ramananda Ray spoke about everything beginning with karma-misra bhakti (when you are doing some service and ask something in return), then jnana-misra bhakti, jnana-sunya bhakti, and so on. Mahaprabhu kept saying, "Eho bahya age kaha ara: go deeper, say more." Then he spoke about "Ye yatha mam prapadyante, tams tathaiva bhajamy aham / mama vartmanuvartante, manusyah partha sarvasah: Howsoever people surrender to Me, I accordingly reward them. Being the ultimate goal of all paths, I am the objective to be attained by all. O Partha, all men follow My various paths." (Bg, 4.11) He spoke about santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, and finally madhura rasa. When Pradyumna Misra heard about this from Ramananda Ray, he said, "Yes, I am getting so much taste from this!"

Mahaprabhu's conception that came from this conversation with Ramananda Ray is very nice...

* * *

Dear and Dearmost

Saint Petersburg, Russia

13 August 2009

Today is the adhivas day of Krishna's Janmastami and today we are speaking about some balya lila of Krishna (Krishna's childhood pastimes). Tomorrow we can speak about Krishna's birth day.

You know that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He is so powerful—when He was only three days old, He killed Putana raksasi. Kamsa sent her to kill Krishna, but Krishna killed her and He was only three days old at that time!

All Krishna's friends (Sridam, Subal, and others) always told their mothers, "Today Krishna did this!" "Today Krishna killed this demon!" "Today Krishna killed that demon!" "Today this has happened!" "Today that has happened!" and their mothers said, "You always speak about Krishna and His heroic deed, then you can tell Him that He must show something to us too!" All gopis, all mothers also wanted to see some of Krishna's lila. And Krishna showed it to them. What lila was it? It was Kaliya-daman-lila. At that time, all gopis, all Vraja basis came to see that Kaliya-daman-lila.

Nanda Maharaj had 900,000 (nine lakhs) cows, and one time Kamsa, knowing that Krishna loved cows very much, sent a demon (asura) in disguise of a calf. The demon's name was Batsasura. That Batsasura calf always came close to see Krishna, always kept close to Him, and Krishna understood what was happening, He knew who that calf was, so He quickly killed the calf.

Srimati Radharani and all Her associates, the gopis, said, "Krishna has killed a cow! He is a great sinner, we will not mix with Him! We will not go anywhere with Him now." Krishna was puzzled, "What to do now?" Then Radharani and gopis said, "But if Krishna goes to every single holy place (Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, and all others) and bathes there, then all His sin will be removed."

Thinking what to do, Krishna called a big meeting with His associates, Sridam, Subal and others. Then, Krishna made a pond (kunda) with His flute and called the kunda Shyama Kunda. He asked Radharani, "What if I bring all the holy places like Ganga, Yamuna and others here, in one place?" Radharani said, "Yes, it will be OK. If you bring all the twelve holy places [Salt Ocean, Milk Ocean, Amara-dirghika, Sona, Sindhu, Tamraparni, Puskara, Saraswati, Godavari, Yamuna, Reva, Prayag] into your pond and bathe there, then all Your sins will go away."

Krishna called all the holy places, but the gopis did not believe Him, so Krishna called every place out one by one,

"Ganga Devi?"

"Yes, I am present."

"Yamuna Devi?"

"Yes, I am present."

"Saraswati Devi?"

"Yes, I am present."

And so on. Everybody was present. The gopis believed it, and Krishna bathed in the pond. Then, Radharani made another plan. She said, "Since You have bathed in this kunda we will not bathe there because all sin went into this kunda! We will not go there." Saying this, Radharani made another kunda with Her bangles.

You know that Krishna is always under His devotees, He is always surrendered to the gopis, and they cannot live separately. So, Krishna said to Radharani, "OK, so Your kunda is better, and My kunda is all poison, but if we mix some of the water from Your kunda into My kunda, then the kunda will be purified!" They mixed some of the water from Radharani's pond into Krishna's pond, and to this day these two kundas are mixed—it is Radha Kunda and Shyama Kunda...

Krishna always says, "Those who say they are My devotees, are not My devotees. But those who are devotees of My devotees, are My devotees." Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur sings,

radha-bhajane yadi mati nahi bhela

krsna-bhajana tava akarane gela

It means that if you do not worship Radharani but worship Krishna, there will be no result. To get Krishna we must worship devotees, worship Radharani and Her associates. When we go for the Vrindavan parikrama, we first go to Lalita's birthplace, then Radharani's birthplace, then only to Krishna's place. This is how we do the parikrama—we do not go to Krishna's place first—we serve devotees. We can get Krishna's mercy only through devotees.

Why in this Kali-yuga do we worship Mahaprabhu? Mahaprabhu is Radha-Krishna's combined form, and we worship those who are now spreading Krishna consciousness, Mahaprabhu's conception, all over the world—Srila Swami Maharaj, Param Guru Maharaj, our Gurudev. We always worship them because they are spreading Krishna consciousness all over the world, and we have got a real connection with that Krishna consciousness through them, through our Guru, that is why we always first take shelter of our Guru's lotus feet because otherwise, without this shelter, we cannot get any connection with this line.

"Radha-kunda tata kunja kutira..." Krishna Himself actually says, "I Myself am not dear to Myself—Radha Kunda is more dear to Me than even I Myself. Radha Kunda is more dear to Me than even Radharani!"

* * *

Appearance of Lord Krishna

Saint Petersburg, Russia

14 August 2009

mukam karoti vachalam pangum langhayate girim

yat krpa tam aham vande sri-gurum dina-taranam

"The dumb can speak, the lame can climb a hill—all it takes is mercy from Gurudev."

(Bhavartha Dipika)

gurvvabhista-supurakam guru-ganair asisa-sambhusitam

chintyachintya-samasta-veda-nipunam sri-rupa-panthanugam

govindabhidham ujjvalam vara-tanum bhakty anvitam-sundaram

vande visva-gurun cha divya-bhagavat-premno hi bija-pradam

I offer my obeisance unto he who perfectly fulfils his Gurudev's most cherished desires; who is fully adorned with the blessings of his Gurudev’s associates; who is expert in all aspects of Vedic knowledge, both conceivable and inconceivable; who is the pre-eminent follower of Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu's line; who is known as 'Govinda'—Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj; whose beautiful, effulgent, exalted form is infused with pure devotion; who is the Guru of the entire universe; and who is the giver of the seed of divine love for the Supreme Lord.

Today is a very nice day—we are together and we are celebrating, making a festival with the devotees. This day today is called Sri Janmastami, the appearance day of Sri Krishna.

This festival is celebrated all over the world, and you heard that even in Nabadwip Dham many people do not know about Krishna consciousness, do not know about Rupa Goswami's line, but they know Krishna and they fast the whole day and night for Krishna. I heard that two thousand people have come today to our temple, and most of them are local people, not our disciples or devotees of our temple. Unmarried girls also like Krishna, and in Nabadwip they all fast the whole day and night for Krishna, they do not even drink any water today. And at twelve o'clock, one o'clock at night (Indian time), thousands and thousands of people will come to take prasadam there. And I am praying to all devotees: follow Krishna consciousness, chant the Holy Name. People come on this day and they are getting some sukriti through that. Here too, if there had been no temple here, if Radha Madhav had not appeared here, we would not have been able to come here. But so many devotees from so many corners of the country have gathered together today and are celebrating Janmastami, they are very fortunate.

You know how Krishna appeared on this day. It is written in Srimad Bhagavatam and I do not want to tell it in great detail. Krishna was born on this day at midnight.

Once, Kamsa Maharaj got some news (daiva-vani) from the heaven saying that his sister's eighth son would come and kill him, so he put his sister Devaki and his brother-in-law Vasudev into jail. Devaki said, "Brother, you know that it is the eighth child, it is so far from now, now it is too early, why are you putting us into jail now?" but he did not listen to her. He put them into jail and as soon as Devaki and Vasudev got a child, he killed them all one by one. Devaki cried so much, but Kamsa did not listen.

Finally, when Krishna appeared, He appeared with four hands like Vishnu, and Vasudev and Devaki paid many obeisances to Him, and thought in vatsalya-rasa (with parental affection), "Now Kamsa will come, he will kill Him! How will we protect Him? Kamsa will any time now!" At that time, there also appeared one child, a daughter, in the house of Yasoda Mayi and Nanda Maharaj, and to protect Krishna Vasudev took Him to Yasoda's house and changed the children—he took Yasoda's daughter and left his son Krishna there.

Then, Kamsa saw his sister had got a beautiful girl and was going to kill her. Devaki asked her brother, "Please, she is a girl, she cannot kill you! Why are you doing this?" but he did not listen to her. He crushed the child against the wall, but the girl went up into the air and some sound came, "You think you have killed Him, but He is living now in Vrindavan, Nandalay..."

After that, you have heard that so many things happened. Kamsa tried to kill Krishna so many times, he sent so many demons, but Krishna finished them all.

Then, Krishna was sitting once in Imlitala, Vrindavan. (If you go to Vrindavan you can see near our temple there is a tamarind tree.) Krishna sat under that tamarind tree and suddenly saw His reflection in the Yamuna. He thought, "Oh, how beautiful I am! Why does Radharani cry seeing My beauty? Why does She always chant My Name? I want to know what kind of taste She always gets! I will come as a devotee, in Her form!" And Bhagavan Sri Krishna came in this age of Kali as Radha-Krishna's combined form—as Gauranga Mahaprabhu, taking the same colour as Srimati Radhika...

Gauranga Mahaprabhu came and always told everybody,

jiva jaga, jiva jaga, gorachanda bale

kata nidra yao maya-pisachira kole

Sri Gorachand says, "O souls, awake! O souls, awake! How much longer will you sleep in the lap of the witch Maya?"

He always went house to house, urging, "'Krsna' bole sange chalo! Say, 'Krishna!' Take Krishna! Serve Krishna!" He took the form of a devotee and personally taught us. He taught Sanatan Goswami, He taught Rupa Goswami. If He had not taught them, we would not have been able to know anything. That is why we must know Sanatan-sikha and Rupa-sikha (teachings of Rupa and teachings of Sanatan). If we read about it in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, we will know everything about the conception of Krishna consciousness.

* * *

Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Prabhupad

Russia

15 August 2009

Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Prabhupad made a channel to the West, and so many devotees come now through that channel. Without his mercy we would not have been able to think anything today, but we are very happy and we are making today a festival for Srila Swami Maharaj, on his appearance day.

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur tried to come to the West through many of his disciples many times, but he could not do it—the only person Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur gave mercy to was Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, and Srila Swami Maharaj preached all over the world and conquered the Western countries through Krishna consciousness.

You know that when Srila Swami Maharaj was going to the West (the first country was the USA) for the first time, he payed dandavat to Srila Sridhar Maharaj and asked him for his mercy, "Maharaj, please give me your asirvad (blessing), give me some mercy—I am going to the West to preach Krishna consciousness... Please give me your blessings and mercy so that I can preach there."

When Srila Swami Maharaj returned from the West, he first met with Srila Sridhar Maharaj, and he told him what preaching he did, how he preached—he told everything to Srila Sridhar Maharaj, and Srila Sridhar Maharaj was very happy to hear it.

One time, Srila Sridhar Maharaj heard that Srila Swami Maharaj was coming from the West. You know how Srila Sridhar Maharaj live and what he was like. He slept on a broken bed, and the bed was not also so clean, he wore clothes that had maybe a hundred holes. He always lived like this. So, when Srila Sridhar Maharaj heard Srila Swami Maharaj was coming from the West, he cleaned his own bed, thinking, "Oh, Srila Swami Maharaj will sleep here!" Then, Srila Swami Maharaj came and saw the bed prepared for him. He said at to our Gurudev (Srila Govinda Maharaj, at that time his name was Gaurendu Brahmachari), "No, this is Srila Sridhar Maharaj's bed! Baba! I am paying so many dandavats to his bed, and I must sleep there?! It is impossible! Why will I sleep on my Master's bed? It is impossible, I can never do that. I cannot even sit on this bed, and you tell me to sleep here?! It is impossible!" Then he said to our Gurudev, "O Gaurendu! Where is your bed? I will sleep with you!"

This is what happened...

Another time, when Srila Swami Maharaj was preaching in the West, in a foreign country, he was in pain and wrote a letter to Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, saying, "Maharaj, I am so far from Nabadwip Dham... I am so far and I am suffering so much, please give me some mercy! You are there, in the holy Nabadwip Dham, Gupta Govardhan, the sacred Govardhan, sacred Vrindavan in Nabadwip Dham... You are there, and I am so far away, I am getting so much austerity without your association. Please give your asirvad (blessing), give me some mercy..." And Srila Sridhar Maharaj wrote in his reply, "You are not a simple person. You are a great Vaishnav, an associate of Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, and you are preaching now in the West, it is our fortune. You are preaching to the men who do not know about Krishna, who do not know about Mahaprabhu! So many others tried but could not do it, but you did it. It is such a great job, you have got mercy from Prabhupad, and you are giving happiness to Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur! You are actually a saktyavesa avatar. (Saktyavesa avatar means Nityananda Prabhu.) Wherever a great Vaishnav like you lives, there is Vrindavan. You think I live in Vrindavan, Gupta Govardhan Nabadwip, and you are not, but it is not true. You are also in Vrindavan because you are such a great Vaishnav, you are giving good association to these people, so actually you turn the West into Vrindavan!"

In the early years, long before preaching in the West, Srila Swami Maharaj lived in Kolkata, and our Gurupadpadma, Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj (at that time his name was Gaurendu Brahmachari) and our Param Guru Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, went to his house and stayed there not just for many days, but for many months and years with Srila Swami Maharaj. Our Gurupadpadma also got Srila Swami Maharaj's good association.

Sometimes Srila Swami Maharaj arranged preaching programmes at some small houses, and he would take our Gurupadpadma to those programmes. He would tell our Gurupadpadma, Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj (a brahmachari at that time), "You have more power than me because you are a saffron-clad brahmachari and I am a white-clad householder, so you sit at the Vaysa asan and read from Srimad Bhagavatam, and I will explain." Srila Swami Maharaj gave so much honour and the big chair of Vyasa-asan seat to our Gurupadpadma because he was a brahmachari and told him to read Srimad Bhagavatam, and he himself would explain it.

Actually Srila Swami Maharaj admitted, he always said, "Gaurendu Brahmachari (Srila Govinda Maharaj) is my dearmost son. From all devotees all over the world, he is my only son." He actually had his own sons from the previous life, but he said, "I have only one son, and that is Gaurendu Brahmachari."

You know also that Srila Swami Maharaj wanted to take sannyas from our Param Gurudev Srila Sridhar Maharaj, but Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, "Prabhu, we always talk and behave like friends. You want to take sannyas from me, but I cannot think of you as my disciple, it is impossible for me, and you also cannot give me the respect that you would give to your sannyas guru. That is why it is better if you do not take sannyas from me, but I have given sannyas to Keshav Maharaj [previous name Vinod Babu], the mantra is the same. You can take sannyas from him, it will be better, and you can keep the same relation with me then."

Now many Gaudiya Maths' gurus come to preach in the West, but when Srila Swami Maharaj had just built the ISKCON temple, he invited all his godbrothers to the inauguration, but only Paramahamsa Maharaj (a disciple of Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur) and Srila Sridhar Maharaj came there, no one else. Srila Sridhar Maharaj actually presided over the ceremony that day. Others thought, "They are coming from the West, they are mlechha and not good." They could not even go to ISKCON to take prasadam because they thought it was bad and touched by the Westerners (they showed "brahman" culture). At that time only Srila Sridhar Maharaj encouraged Srila Swami Maharaj, and he joined the programme, and not only joined the programme, he also took prasadam there happily. You have seen his photo there, but you will never see a photo of any Gaudiya Acharya there. Srila Swami Maharaj had invited everybody, but nobody came there. At that time they neglected and hated them, but now they all go to the West to preach. I feel like slapping them for this!

So, today is the appearance day of this Srila Swami Maharaj, and we are praying to his lotus feet that even from his Goloka Vrindavan he may bestow his mercy upon us, we pray that by his mercy we may be able to serve the devotees. We do not know how long, how many more days we will be alive in this world, we come and go through birth and death, it is not a problem, only we are praying, "Please, give us some mercy, please give us some place at your lotus feet." Everybody must pray for his mercy.

* * *

Two Midnight Lessons

Saint Petersburg, Russia

13 August 2009

"Ekala isvara Krsna ara saba bhrtya"—He is the only man, and everybody else is a servant. Krishna Himself shows that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Once, on the rasa-lila (rasa-purnima) day, Krishna played His flute, and all gopis came to Him in the middle of the night.

"What are you doing here at midnight? Do you have no husband? Do you have no family?" Krishna asked them.

"You played Your flute and we could not tolerate it. We came here at once!"

"OK, since you have already come, you can do some job then."

"What job?"

"Please go to the other bank of the Yamuna, there in a forest called Belvan you will find my Guru Durvasa Muni. He is always meditating and has not eaten anything for so many days. Go there with some mata," Krishna said.

[In Vrindavan, there are twelve forests, or jungles (dvadasa-van), and one of those forests' name is Belvan. "Bel" is a kind of fruit. Before, there was no bel in that forest, but Krishna came to that forest with His friends and ate bel there, that is how that forest became known as Belvan. So, Krishna asked the gopis to go to that forest with some mata. Mata is made from milk and is something like liquid yoghurt, or buttermilk.]

All gopis took some beautiful decorated clay pots with mata and ran to the Yamuna. They ran so quickly thinking, "If I come late, what if I cannot feed him?" but when they came to the Yamuna, they saw that the Yamuna was full of water. They thought, "How will we go to the other bank? It is midnight, there is no boat here now, and so much water..." They returned to Krishna.

"Prabhu, we could not go there..."

"What? Why could you not go?"

"Because the Yamuna is full of water," answered the gopis.

"Oh, so you cannot go... OK, I will teach you one mantram then."

"What mantram?" all gopis sat in front of Krishna, ready to hear it.

"Listen attentively," said Krishna.

"OK, tell us."

"Go to the Yamuna. Stand in front of her with folded palms. Then say to her in a worshipping mood, 'O Yamuna Devi, our Krishna has never seen a face of another man's wife. If it is true, then please dry up."

"What?! What have You just said?!" asked the gopis. "You have never seen a lady's face? Have you never seen our faces? Sometimes You are affectionate with us, and now You say You have never seen our faces?"

"Do not argue with Me, go to Yamuna Devi and do as I told you."

The gopis went there and prayed, "He Surya-vatsa Yamune! O Yamuna Devi, our Krishna has never seen a face of another man's wife, He has never looked at us."

As soon as they said it, Yamuna Devi immediately dried up, and all the gopis ran across it.

When the gopis came to Belvan, they saw Durvasa Muni sitting there, and they lined up to give mata to him. One by one, they put their pots in front of him, and Durvasa Muni ate one pot after another. The gopis were surprised, "How much and how quickly he is eating!" The gopis who stood behind began to worry, "What if he does not eat my mata?" They began to jump out of the line and quickly kept all their pots in front of Durvasa Muni. Having finished all the mata, Durvasa Muni asked, "Any one else has anything?" The gopis were even more surprised, "How much can he eat? He has eaten everything alone!" The gopis answered, "That is all, everybody has finished giving..." Then, Durvasa Muni said, "OK, then you better go now. It is very late now, go back to Vrindavan."

The gopis started off to Vrindavan. When they came to the bank of the Yamuna, they saw that the Yamuna was again full of water. The gopis said the mantra that Krishna had given to them and that they used the first time, but the mantra did not work—Yamuna did not dry up. They began to cry, "How will we go back? What are we to do now?" They came back to Durvasa Muni.

"Why did you not go back?" asked them Durvasa Muni, surprised to see them again.

"Prabhu, we could not go because the Yamuna is full of water again, and even more than before, and there are such big waves..."

"How did you come here then?"

"That time we said one mantra, and the river dried up. We tried to say the same mantra, but it does not work."

"All right, I will give you another mantra then."

Then he told them the mantra, "O Yamuna Devi, our Durvasa Muni has not eaten or drunk anything, he is very hungry. If you believe it, please dry up."

"What?! You have not eaten anything?!" the gopis said in amazement. "Just now you have taken all the buttermilk we brought you!"

Then, one of the senior gopis (Visakha or Lalita, perhaps), said, "It is OK, do not debate with him. We must go there and do as we were told to do."

The gopis went to the Yamuna and said the mantra Durvasa Muni had taught them, and the Yamuna became dry!

When all gopis came back to Krishna, Krishna asked them, "Have you given the food to My Guru Durvasa Muni?"

"Yes, we did, he is paying his dandavat to You. But..."

"What has happened?"

"We do not understand it. Both times we said the opposite and the Yamuna dried up. You said You had not seen another man's wife's face, and if it was true, the Yamuna had to dry up. Durvasa Muni took everything we gave him, and said we had to say to Yamuna that he had not eaten anything..."

"OK, listen to Me. It is very interesting."

[We sing in one of the songs, "Parakiya-bhave jaha brajete prachara: the relationship with Krishna is manifest in Vraja as paramour love." And this is what it means:]

You know that in this brahmanda (universe) Krishna is the only man and everybody else is a woman. So, if Krishna is the only man, how can you be somebody else's wife? There is no other man in the world, that is why Krishna has never seen a face of another man's wife. As for Durvasa Muni, it looked like he took everything, but everything that exists in this world, exists for Krishna, for His bhoga (enjoyment), not for us—everything comes from Krishna, for Krishna. That is why we do not eat anything, we take prasadam, and that is why Durvasa Muni actually did not eat anything. Krishna explained to the gopis, "I took everything, and even though you saw Durvasa Muni eating everything, he did not eat anything, he only took prasadam." This is a fact…

* * *

Yasoda's Darling Krishna

Saint Petersburg, Russia

13 August 2009

You know that Krishna was born in the jail from Vasudev and Devaki, but how fortunate Nanda Maharaj and Yasoda Ma are! They got Krishna as their son and could serve Krishna.

One day, an old devotee asked me, "Maharaj, everybody says Krishna was born in jail from Vasudev and Devaki, does it mean that Krishna is Nanda Maharaj's and Yasoda's adopted son?" I was surprised at his question, "What are you saying?! You are a thirty-three-year-old devotee living in the temple as a brahmachari, and you are asking this question? Where did you get this idea?!" Srimad Bhagavatam always says "Yasoda-atmaja" and "Nanda-atmaja" (son of Yasoda, son of Nanda Maharaj), it is never said there "Vasudeva-atamja" or "Devaki-atmaja". Krishna was their son before, but you know when somebody prays, "I want to get Krishna as My son next life..." Krishna fulfils their desire. That is why the son came from Nanda Maharaj and Yasoda—from their heart.

How fortunate they are and how much affection they have for Krishna. Yasoda Ma even tied Krishna! She was boiling milk (for whom? for her son) when suddenly Krishna began to cry so much, "Give Me milk! Give Me milk!" Yasoda went to Krishna, and that that time the milk boiled over. Some affection, some feelings came to Yasoda Ma and she went to tie Krishna with a rope. She tried to tie Him, but the rope was two fingers too short. She joined more rope, but it was again two fingers too short. She again joined more rope, and it was again two fingers too short. She began so sweat so much, and Krishna took pity on her—the same rope that was short before, became enough to tie Him.

Why was it always two fingers too short? Srimad Bhagavatam says that one finger is desire, and the other finger is mercy. If you have desire, Krishna will give you His mercy; if you have no desire, then Krishna will not give you His mercy. In the same way, if you make one step towards Krishna (towards Krishna consciousness), Krishna will come ten steps towards you.

Another point is that if you invite Krishna, He will not come to you, but if you invite His mother, then it is not necessary to invite Krishna—Krishna will not come without His mother, and if you invite His mother, then He will come to you with His mother (it is not necessary to invite Him separately).

You heard also about the Kaliya-daman-lila. Krishna floated in the water for so long that He became very cold. His mother (vataslya-rasa) took Him to the highest place in Vrindavan and summoned dvadas Surya, twelve suns. One sun gives so much heat, but when twelve suns came all together, there was so much heat that there started so much wild fire. All Vraja basis, all devotees of Vrindavan became afraid, but Krishna's mother kept Him there because Krishna was so cold, He was shaking and suffering so much. When Krishna sensed that all devotees, all Vraja-basis, were very afraid, He ate all the fire! After that, Yasoda Ma took Him home and gave Him some hot milk because she was so worried, "My son is so cold!" When Krishna touched the hot milk with His lips, He cried, "Ow!" Yasoda Ma was surprised, "I have just now seen how You have eaten so much fire, and now You are scared of some hot milk?!" Krishna said then quietly, "Have you seen it? Do not tell anyone about it, OK?"

These are some of His many Pastimes…

* * *

Our Condition

Russia, 17 August 2002

Srila Guru Maharaj always says that we should sing this song because we do not realise what our condition is. Actually what is written in this song is a fact, this is our real life.

amara jivana sada pape rata

nahika punyera lesa

Actually, our life is always full of sin, there is nothing good in our life.

parere udvega diyachhi ye kata

diyachhi jivere klesa [1]

We always give some disturbance, give some trouble to everybody, to all jiva souls—for example, we cut fish, cut meat, we give trouble to so many insects, and so on.

nija sukha lagi' pape nahi dari

daya-hina svartha-para

For our own happiness, for our own selves we can do anything wrong, we can commit any sin, and we do not feel afraid, we have no fear. Daya-hina: there is always no kindness in us, we are cruel. Svartha-para means we are selfish.

para-sukhe duhkhi sada mithya-bhasi

para-duhkha sukha-kara [2]

If we see somebody is happy, we always feel sorrow. For example, somebody got a good job, and we feel sad, "Oh, I did not get that job!"; or somebody becomes rich, somebody makes a big house, and we are sad, "Oh, I could not do that!" These are our feelings: every time we see others' happiness, we feel sorrow. Sada mithya-bhasi: we always tell lies, and para-duhkha means when somebody gets some problem, when somebody is sad, we feel happy.

asesa kamana hrdi majhe mora

There are so many desires in our heart. Even when we get old, we have no teeth, our hair is all grey and falling out, but still we think, "Oh, I will make a big house, I will see my son get married, and my grandson (or granddaughter) will live there, I will see them," and so on. We think we will see everything, that we will be very big and rich, but we do not realise we can die in five minutes. There are always so many desires in our mind.

Once, I went to preach in one place in Burdwan district, it is near our Nabadwip temple. I went there every year, and that time, there was one man who had built a new three-storey house for himself. I went there, and he showed me the house, said what a nice bathroom it had, what a big house it was. He was very proud of it. The next day he wanted to officially move to his new house to stay there, and he told me, "Maharaj, we will make a big some ceremony, with sankirtan and everything!" That was his plan, but in the morning he went to cut a small plant near his house, and there was a snake there—the snake bit him and he immediately died. I saw it with my own eyes. He thought, "Oh, I will live in this house, I will live there happily, my guests will come," and so on, but he could not see it with his own eyes.

krodhi, dambha-parayana

We are always angry, we are always proud and have ego.

mada-matta sada visaye mohita

himsa-garva vibhusana [3]

Mada-matta: we are like drunkards. We have seen in Nabadwip, for example, some people drink whiskey or wine and lie the whole night in the drain, but they think, "I am the prime-minister of India! I am sleeping on a good bed, in a luxury house!" We are just like that. We think we are a sannyasi, we have a big position, we are the manager of the temple, we are the secretary of the temple, we have some big position! But actually if I die one second later, I will be taken to the Ganga and burnt or buried in the mud... This is what our condition is like.

nidralasya hata sukarye virata

akarye udyogi ami

We always sleep, we are lazy, and always keep far from doing something good. For example, you can see that we have come here, we are giving some lecture, speaking some Hari-katha, and somebody is playing football at this time. Do you see the condition we are in? Just as somebody is playing football while we are giving a lecture, we are always far from doing something good; instead, we are always eager to do something bad.

pratistha lagiya sathya-acharana

lobha-hata sada kami [4]

We are always asking for name and fame. We think, "Oh, in future I will be a big guru!", "I will be a big singer!", "Everybody will give me a garland!", "Everybody will wash my feet!" Pratistha lagiya: just for the sake of our own name and fame we do so many wrong things, we behave so bad.

kanaka-kamini, pratistha-baghini,

chhadiyachhe yare sei ta vaisnava

"Those who have given up money, women, and fame, are the true Vaishnavs."

(Vaishnav Ke? 11)

Who is a Vaishnav? We can leave ladies, we can leave money, it is not a problem, but we are always searching for establishment. Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur says pratistha means sukarer vistha—establishment is like the stool of a pig.

e hena durjana sajjana-varjita

aparadhi nirantara

This is our condition. We are not a good person, that is why we never get good association—we always lose good association, we are always sinners.

subha-karya-sunya sadanartha-manah

nana-duhkhe jara jara [5]

We always look for the things that are not eternal, for the material things, that is why we always suffer from the three kinds of misery—adhibhautik, adhidaivik, adhyatmik: miseries caused by one's body, by the nature, and other souls.

vardhakye ekhana upaya-vihina

Now that I have become very old, I am starting to search, "Where is Krishna?" Now, when I have no hearing, I cannot hear the Hari-katha; I have no teeth, and when I sing and say, "Hare," it comes out like "Bhare." Now I have so many diseases in my body—I cannot take so much prasadam, and if I take prasadam, my stomach becomes upset. When I was young, I always went here and there and everywhere, and now I have become old and like this, and now I am thinking, "Where is Krishna?"... That is why Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur says: search for Sri Krishna now.

In India, some people take bath in the pond, and sometimes we stand there and think, "Oh, it is very cold! I cannot jump there!" But Guru Maharaj said: do not wait, throw your towel into the pond, and when you see the towel going away or sinking, you will jump into the water to take your towel!

So, you must do it now—just like Prahlad Maharaj who practised from his kaumar age (from his very youth)...

* * *

Straight Line

Russia, 17 August 2002

Our Gurudev is merciful to everybody, and always I remember one thing:

You see, Mahaprabhu actually never said, "I have given him mercy." When Rupa Goswami was once writing the "Tunde tandavaniratim..." sloka, Mahaprabhu asked him, "What are you writing?" but Rupa Goswami hid the paper somewhere on the roof. However one day Mahaprabhu found it. When He read that sloka, He became surprised. He asked Swarup Damodar, "O, Swarup Damodar, how does he know My heart? How does he know such things?" Swarup Damodar replied, "Prabhu, it is only possible by Your mercy! You have given all Your mercy to Rupa Goswami, that is how he knows everything." At that time Mahaprabhu admitted, "Yes, I have. I have given him mercy!" and then quickly added, "But it is not sufficient! You all should give your mercy to him!" That is why we say that we are in the Rupanuga-dhara line, we are going in this way.

Now our Param Guru Maharaj, Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, is carrying that wealth of Sri Rupanuga line. Just before Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur passes away, he wanted to hear the song "Sri Rupa Manjari pada," from his mouth (from the mouth of Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj). One of the devotees, perhaps Paramananda Prabhu, started singing, but Prabhupad showed anger and said, "I do not want to hear the tune! I told who must sing this song, so this song must be sung by him—I want to hear it from his mouth." Then Srila Sridhar Maharaj started singing—he was singing and crying... Finally, Srila Prabhupad said also about Srila Sridhar Maharaj, "I am keeping only one man in this world who can carry my desire, my Rupanuga-dhara line."

You can see also that in his lifetime, two and a half years before his departure, Srila Sridhar Maharaj made Srila Govinda Maharaj his successor, he gave him his chair. Shortly after that, there were two brahmacharis who wanted to take sannyas from Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, but they were afraid to ask him. There was a disciple of Srila Prabhupad, Satish Prabhu (now Nayananda Das Babaji), who was an intimate friend of Srila Sridhar Maharaj, and these two brahmacharis went to this Satish Prabhu and asked him, "O Satish Prabhu, please go for us to Guru Maharaj—we want to take sannyas from him, please ask him if he can give it to us..." When Satish Prabhu asked Srila Guru Maharaj, he said, "I will not take any more sannyas disciples in Bengal, India. From now on, Govinda Maharaj will give sannyas in Bengal." So, you can understand how much Srila Sridhar Maharaj depended upon Srila Govinda Maharaj...

It is not necessary to go here and there—if you go straight in the line of Rupanuga-dhara, if you will serve to Srila Gurudev, if you can fulfil his desire, then you will get super benefit in your spiritual life.

I have lived in our temple from 1992, and I am always trying to do something for him. Before I took sannyas, Guru Maharaj (Srila Govinda Maharaj) always told me, "Do not leave this temple," and I said, "I will not." So, from 1992 to 1999, for eight years, I never spent one night outside our temple, I never stayed in any other place. I was always at the temple. I have seen also how much honour all temples of Mayapur always give to our temple. When we make festivals, for example Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's festival or Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur's appearance day, we make some ceremony on this day, and all Gaudiya Maths, all Mayapur temples do it together—they arrange a big meeting. Before, they would discuss, "Which temple party will go first during the parikrama?" and they unanimously decided that Srila Sridhar Maharaj's temple, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, will go on the parikrama first because they know we follow the real path, the real way. And we have no problems, we have no fear because we know our Guru always supports us. If we have full faith in our Gurudev, then nobody can break us.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

* * *

Disciple's Life

Russia, 14 August 2003

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya

chaksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

"I offer my obeisance unto Sri Gurudev, who has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, with the salve of divine knowledge."

mukam karoti vachalam pangum langhayate girim

yat krpa tam aham vande sri-gurum dina-taranam

"The dumb can speak, the lame can climb a hill—all it takes is mercy from Gurudev."

(Bhavartha Dipika)

First, I am paying my dandavat pranams to my Divine Master and my dandavat pranams to all the devotees.

Actually, Krishna said,

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.151)

It means that not everybody gets that kind of sukriti, that is why not everybody can come to Krishna consciousness. Only the fortunate souls get this kind of seed. So, I am thinking that you are all fortunate souls for you have got good seeds of Krishna consciousness. The question now is how you will protect that seed. If you cannot protect it, the seed will dry and die. "Sravana-kirtana-jale karaye sechana: you must water your plant of devotion with the water of hearing and chanting (Cc, 2.19.152)." If you plant a flower or a tree, it will grow, but if you do not give it any fertiliser, do not water it, then it will die.

Actually, not everybody lives in the temple, only some sannyasis and brahmacharis live in the temple, so now when the festival finishes we will go to our houses, but what will we do there? First we must understand who is a sisya, disciple. A disciple is the one who obeys the rules and regulations given by their Gurudev. We should make our house an ashram: we can have Gurudev's picture, Deities' picture on our altar, every day offer some flower, do mangal arati, chant kirtans. We can do it every day. We do not have so much time, but still we can chant some kirtan, we can plant Tulasi, offer some flowers, some water, we can pay our obeisance. We can do all this every day. This is actually our daily programme, and we should continue in this way, every day. It is said in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita (Antya-lila, 6.227)

jihvara lalase yei iti-uti dhaya

sisnodara-parayana se krsna nahi paya

"Those who go here and there trying to satisfy their tongue, follow their genitals and belly and cannot attain Krishna."

We always go outside and see so many kinds of food there, and our tongue always wants something, always asks for some food, but we should take, we should honour maha-prasadam every day. We must give whatever we cook for ourselves to Krishna.

In Srimad Bhagavad-gita, Krishna said, "If you are eating something, or if you are taking something for yourself, without giving it to Me, it means you are stealing My things." For example, you can see that some outside people eat fish, meat, and we also clean and cut vegetables, kill some plants, but the difference is that we offer it to the Lord—we do not do it for ourselves, and the outside people do it for themselves. Krishna Himself says, "When you do something for Me, it is nirguna—I take all sin away, and you will have no sin." So, Krishna says, "Everything is for Me! Whatever you earn, whatever you cultivate, whatever you plant, whatever you get, you must give everything to Me."

ananyas chintayanto mam, ye janah paryupasate

tesam nityabhiyuktanam, yoga-ksemam vahamy aham

"I bear the responsibility of acquiring and protecting the necessities of My fully dependent devotees who are always absorbed in thought of Me, and who worship Me in every way."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 9.22)

"Ananyas chintayanto: think exclusively about Me." Krishna said, "If you think about Me, I will think about you." But we do not do that—we think we are the enjoyers.

krsna bhuli' sei jiva anadi-bahirmukha

ataeva maya tare deya samsara-duhkha

Having forgotten Krishna, the soul wanders throughout the universe. Being thus covered by illusion, the soul goes through much material suffering.

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 20.117)

We forget Krishna and suffer so much because we think we are the enjoyers, we are the proprietors, but Krishna says, "No, you are not the proprietor, I am the proprietor!"

jivera 'svarupa' haya—krsnera 'nitya-dasa'

krsnera 'tatastha-sakti' 'bhedabheda-prakasa'

"By its intrinsic nature, the soul is an eternal servant of Krishna; the souls comes from the marginal energy of Krishna and are simultaneously one with and different from the Lord."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 20.108)

What is our svarup (true identity)? We are no the body, we are jiva souls, living entities. Just as we change our clothes every day, our living entity always changes its body. Today we got a human body, and in future we will get a goat's body or a cow's body, for example. You think that you are now twenty years old and tomorrow you will be twenty years and one day old, but no, actually it means that tomorrow your life will be reduced by one day (one day will be deducted from your life). So, you must chant the Holy Name at this moment, do not wait for tomorrow.

* * *

Disciple's Commitment

Russia, 14 August 2003

How will you protect your seed of Krishna consciousness? Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, Param Guru Maharaj, said to his disciple (i.e. our Srila Guru Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj), "Do not to listen to your mind, listen to me." Guru Maharaj told one day a story that happened to him.

Every night devotees made an offering (some rice, dal, etc.), but they did not finish it all, and Srila Sridhar Maharaj ordered to all his disciples that they must not throw away whatever maha-prasadam was left over at night, they had to take it the next day in the morning. One day, the prasadam was kept open at night, without a cover, and some insect, like a fly or a mosquito, got into it. When Guru Maharaj saw it, he exclaimed, "Oof! It is dirty! I will not take it!" but then he remembered what his Gurudev had said, "No, Guru Maharaj told me, 'Do not listen to your mind, listen to me,'" and immediately took it.

Gurudev sees everything. If your Guru orders you to do something and you think, "Oh, I do not want to go there," "I will not do it," "I will have some problem..."—if you always think about yourself, how will you then serve your Guru? You do not know what is good for you and what is bad for you. Gurudev knows it, he knows what is good and what is bad, so you must follow what he tells you to do!

diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana

sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama

"At the time of initiation, when a devotee fully surrenders unto the service of the Lord, Krishna accepts them as His very own."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4.192)

It means that when we take second initiation (diksa), we are paying a full dandavat—our eyes are down, hands stretched up—and we say, "O Gurudev, I am giving you a sword, you can cut me, you can kill me, you can do anything you want, it is not a problem. I will not say anything, I have my face down and cannot see anything." However when we get up, we forget it and start to show our mood—we say, "I will not do it," and so on...

Actually, we have so much ego, and because of that we are suffering and cannot proceed with our Krishna consciousness. We chant all day but the result is not coming because we make offences—seva aparadh, Nama aparadh, Vaishnav aparadh, we make them all. The word "Hari" and the Holy Name are actually not the same, "Hari" is just some letters, but what is the Holy Name? The Holy Name comes from the transcendental, upper level. Gurudev gives it to us from that level and we must chant it without offence. In this age it is virtually impossible, but we must not be discouraged—if we chant and chant all the time, then our dirt will be removed. We must chant the Holy Name and do some service. There are three main kinds of service: jive daya, Name ruchi, Vaishnava sevan—(1) we must not give any trouble to any jiva soul, (2) we must feel taste for chanting, and (3) we must serve the Vaishnavs.

Who is a Vaishnav? Somebody who has a tilak, neck beads and a sikha? Is this a Vaishnav? If we always engage in the service of Lord Krishna, if we chant the Holy Name—if we practise truly and every day—then we can understand, we can realise who is a Vaishnav. That is why we must continue our practising life.

Bhagavan Sri Krishna Himself came here in a devotee form to teach us, and after that His representatives, such as our Gurudev, Param Gurudev, came in the form of a devotee (they are nondifferent from Krishna because Krishna Himself has sent them here), and we must follow them, we must listen to what they tell us.

Where is Krishna (Hari kothay)? Krishna is in Krishna-katha (Hari-kathay), in hearing about Krishna (Hari sravane). By hearing about Krishna, you can see Krishna. If you serve Krishna, you will be able to realise it in your heart—through service you will feel, "Something is happening in my heart.”

* * *

Association: Benefit or Pleasure?

23 June 2001

We are very fortunate today because we have got some association of the Vaishnavs and the devotees of Sriman Mahaprabhu. This kind of opportunity does not actually come every day, so we are very glad that we have got the association of all Guru-varga, all the devotees of Lord Krishna, Srimati Radharani, and Sriman Mahaprabhu, as well as our godbrothers and godsisters.

So, first I am paying dandavat to my Gurupadpadma, who is nondifferent from Nityananda Prabhu—Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj; to all my Guru-varga, as well as all the devotees, godbrothers and godsisters. I am also paying dandavat to all those fortunate souls who have come here and joined this programme.

Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur always said that there is preyo and there is sreyo. Preyo is what your mind chooses for itself, what makes your mind happy. For example, you see somebody perform a dance here, and you think, "Oh, what a good dance!" It is a pleasure for your mind, but it is actually not useful for your transcendental life. That is called preyo. And sreyo is something that is useful, or beneficial, to your transcendental life—your mind may not necessarily be pleased to hear it, but if you hear such things, it will actually give benefit to your life.

I think you are very fortunate souls because you are all waiting to hearing Vaishnavs' Hari-katha. Chaitanya-charitamrita said,

isvarera krpa-lesa haya ta' yahare

sei ta' isvara-tattva janibare pare

"Only those who receive even a trace of the Lord's mercy, can understand the Lord."

(Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 6.83)

Only those who have previous sukriti—who has got mercy from Krishna, from Gurudev, from Chaitanyadev—can learn, can teach, can hear this type of Hari-katha from the Vaishnavs.

Actually, we do not know where our house is,

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.151)

We have been born here many times—we do not know what our address is, we have lost our address. Who is a fortunate soul? It is the soul who has got the association of Guru and Vaishnav, and having got that association the fortunate souls gets the seed of devotion.

You know that our Gurupadpadma has actually come here to distribute the devotional seed—to everybody, all fallen souls. If somebody is a sincere seeker, if somebody has some sincerity, humility, some tolerance, and above all if somebody has desire, then our Gurupadpadma will distribute that seed to them. First it is necessary to have desire—if you have desire, then you will get mercy from the Guru and Vaishnavs...

You know that our Mission's name is Chaitanya Saraswata Math, and the Founder Acharya is Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. Before Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur disappeared, Srila Sridhar Maharaj got some special mercy from him:

Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur was showing his illness lila, and at that time he ordered Srila Sridhar Maharaj, "I want to hear the song 'Sri Rupa Manjari pada.'" There was somebody there who had a good voice, and he started to sing the song, but Prabhupad got angry, "I do not want his voice! I do not want to hear his tune. I want to hear this song from Srila Sridhar Maharaj."

After Srila Prabhupad's disappearance, Param Guru Maharaj, Srila Sridhar Maharaj, went to the birthplace of Sriman Nityananda Prabhu to ask Nityananda Prabhu for His mercy. At that time, Srila Sridhar Maharaj did not want to make any disciples, but when he came to Nityananda Prabhu's house and asked Him for mercy, Nityananda Prabhu said to him, "You are asking Me for mercy, but you yourself have so much wealth. You must distribute it first." From that day, Srila Sridhar Maharaj decided, "I have to take disciples..." It was 1941-1942.

When our Guru Maharaj (Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj) joined the temple, he was seventeen years old at that time, and just seven days after he came Srila Sridhar Maharaj already decided, "I have got my successor—he will be the successor and continue this temple." And our Guru Maharaj, Srila Govinda Maharaj, has been serving his Gurudev heart and soul.

Why did he actually come here to Russia? His health was not good, and before coming here he was very sick, but he said, "My Russian devotees are very dear to me, they love me and I cannot ignore that, I cannot ignore this program. I must go there—even if I die, it is not a problem. I will serve Krishna, even if my life goes, if my body goes, it is not a problem—I must go to Russia." And he said to me also, "Please come with me." And we came. (I came out of India for the first time.)

So, Srila Guru Maharaj is coming tomorrow and from tomorrow he will give his association to you all. This time will not come for everybody, so you should come, do not lose this opportunity. Also, more sannyasis are coming soon to give their association to you all. You must all come and join these programmes.

Actually, we do not know the value of things, we are like babies. When you give some medicine to a baby, the baby does not understand, "If I take this medicine, it will cure me, and my health will be better." The baby can take the medicine one time, but if it is bitter, it will not take it again—the parents will have to give the medicine with some sweet...

* * *

Strong Faith—Strong Future

Russia, 11 August 2002

I will never forget your dealings with us. You are humble, you have so much tolerance, and when I go to my country, I will go preaching village to village and show them the video, I will tell them about your dealings, about your good will, how humble you are. I will tell it to everybody in India.

Srila Guru Maharaj always says that if you want to make a building, first the pillar must be strong. If you have a strong faith, then you will have no problem, you will never fall down from this practising life.

I came here last year, and this year I see that the devotees here are progressing. It makes me very happy. I see they are very humble, they think, "We do not know anything, we have nothing," that is why they are progressing.

You know, in Mahaprabhu's times, there was Mukunda Das. He was a good singer (everybody liked to hear his singing) and a parsada (eternal associate) of Sriman Mahaprabhu, but he always disturbed Mahaprabhu, and Mahaprabhu always had to tolerate him. One day, Mahaprabhu was giving mercy to everybody, but He did not mention Mukunda's name. Srivas Pandit asked Him, "Prabhu, You told everybody's name, but why did You not tell Mukunda's name?" Mahaprabhu replied, "Because he is going everywhere, he goes to the sahajiyas, mayavadis, etc. He mixes with other sampradayas, that is why I cannot give him mercy." Mukunda heard it and became very sad. He wanted to commit suicide. He said to Srivas Pandit, "Prabhu, I wanted to commit suicide. I am singing for Mahaprabhu's happiness, but Mahaprabhu is not giving mercy to me, what for will I live then? I will commit suicide. But can you please tell it to Mahaprabhu? Also, can you please ask Him if I will get His mercy in future, in some other birth?" When Srivas Pandit asked Mahaprabhu about it, Mahaprabhu said, "Yes, he will get mercy, but not now—after millions of millions of births (a crore births)!" Mukunda heard what Mahaprabhu said and began jumping and dancing. He became so happy, "I will get Mahaprabhu! I will get Mahaprabhu! I will get mercy! One day I will get mercy!" Everybody was surprised, "What has happened? Mahaprabhu said he would get mercy in millions of millions lives, not today. It is so many millions of years from now, how is it that he believed it like this?" Mukunda had a strong faith: Mahaprabhu said, "He will get mercy one day," and he believed it. Then, Mahaprabhu called Mukunda and said to him, "Mukunda I cannot believe how much faith you have! You must get mercy now!"

So, when you have a strong faith, you will have no problem, and Srila Guru Maharaj is very happy with you all, and you too must always try to make him happy.

What can I say more? We are actually all friends, we are godbrothers and godsisters, and we will serve our Gurudev together. We do not think, "I am Indian, you are Russian," this kind of discrimination should not come. We have all come from the same place and should go back to God, back to home. This is not our house, we will not stay here long—one day we will have to leave this place. Why must we quarrel? Why must we fight? All these things are nothing.

I am inviting you all to come for any festival—our next festival is Gaura Purnima and Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama, and you can join us. This festival is the biggest festival of our temple, and many people from all over the world are coming for this festival and do Nabadwip Dham parikrama. If you do this parikrama alone, it is not the same. If you do parikrama with the devotees, you will get a super benefit from the parikrama. I have been staying in Nabadwip for ten years, but I cannot go on this parikrama alone—when devotees go on the parikrama together, then we can follow them and go to every place...

* * *

"As You Wish, Prabhu"

Speaking online to the devotees in Ukraine

20 September 2015

Question: If we have some difficulty on our spiritual path, perhaps some inner difficulties, where shall we find shelter, what will be helpful for us?

So many problems will come on this way. The main thing is you must have patience—patience is the main thing.

tomara sevaya, duhkha haya yata,

seo ta' parama sukha

"All the distress I encounter in Your service is also my greatest happiness."

(Saranagati 16.4)

Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur says that when you do service, so much sadness, so much unhappiness will come, so many obstacles will come, but that is your happiness. You can think, "OK, I am in the line of Krishna consciousness, I am a member of Krishna's family, I am a devotee of Gora (Gauranga Mahaprabhu), I am a devotee of Gurudev—Gurudev can give me so much unhappiness, he can give me whatever he desires, he can test me whichever way he wants to, Krishna can do whatever He wants, it is not a problem for me—I will take everything on my head."

Many things can come, many contradictions can come, many problems will come, but the main thing is you must have the strongest faith in your Guru, then your Guru will show you who is real, what is real, he will give you everything. If you have the strongest faith in your Guru, then you will be able to understand clearly what is necessary for your spiritual life—he will supply it to you and he will distribute it to you.

* * *

Practise and Succeed

Speaking online to the devotees in Ukraine

20 September 2015

I am very happy to see you all, to see your smiling faces—Krishna always gives you energy to serve the Guru, Vaishnavs...

Actually, the householder devotees' duty is Nama sankirtan and Vaishnav seva—Nam sankirtan and Vaishnav seva are the main duties of the householder devotees. You have already become a member of Krishna's family when you took initiation, and through practising you are now renewing and keeping this membership of your family of Krishna. (You have left your mundane family and joined the Krishna's family when you took initiation.)

For example, suppose you open a bank account. If you do not deposit and withdraw money from it properly, if you do not operate it properly, then your bank account will be closed. The same is true about your membership in Krishna's family—if you do not practise properly, your membership will be ruined, it will be gone, and you will lose it.

Practise. This is how you can keep connection with your Guru, with the Lord, with Bhagavan Krishna.

Question: Could you please give your blessings for my nephew and sister so that they too come to Krishna consciousness in this life?...

OK. May Krishna always bless them, may Krishna always be with them...

Those who have desire to come in connection with the Lord, will get it. Mainly, the strongest desire is necessary. Those who have this strongest desire to get mercy from Krishna, will get mercy from Krishna, there is no doubt—Krishna has sent His associate as a Guru in this mundane world to bestow His mercy on the conditioned souls.

Any other questions?

Question: Could you please give us some direction about our spiritual life, maybe some general guidance? We are all trying to help in the service to Guru and Vaishnavs...

Yes, that is the main thing.

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara

apane manabi sada chhadi' ahankara

vrksa-sama ksama-guna karabi sadhana

pratihimsa tyaji' anye karabi palana

“Give up your false ego, and always consider yourself lower than grass, poor, needy, and mean. Be tolerant like a tree. Do not ill-treat others, nurture them.”

If somebody criticises you, you must tolerate, you must not criticise them. These are the main things: you should be humble, tolerant, patient, and give honour to others. Trnadhika hina, dina, apane manabi sada chhadi' ahankar: you should give honour to others, and you must give up your ego, give up your deceitful devotion. Maintain your life in this way. Also, you must accept what is favourable to devotion, always and regularly, and you must avoid and reject what is unfavourable to devotion. It is necessary to keep good association. Always try to harmonise with everything—you can look at me how much I am tolerating everything, and you can easily understand it.

Adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango tato bhajana-kriya tato 'nartha-nivrttih: "In the beginning there must be faith. Then one becomes interested in associating with pure devotees. Thereafter one is initiated by the spiritual master and executes the regulative principles under his orders. Thus one is freed from all unwanted habits...." (Brs, 1.4.15)

Sometimes some material desire can come to you, but you should try to avoid it and try to remove it from your heart.

You can continue in this way, and you will have success in your spiritual life quickly.

* * *

Sri Lalita Devi: Our Service Line

Speaking online to the devotees in Ukraine

20 September 2015

Today is Sri Lalita Saptami, and tomorrow is Sri Radhastami...

If you do not worship Lalita Devi properly, if you do not serve Lalita Devi, you will not get mercy from Srimati Radharani; if you do not serve Srimati Radharani properly (Srimati Radharani is nondifferent from the Guru, so it means if you do not serve our Gurudev, Guru Maharaj properly), you will not get mercy from the Lord.

Visvanath Chakravarti Thakur wrote this sloka, we sing it every morning,

saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair

uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih

kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya

vande guroh sri-charanaravindam

"I offer my obeisance unto the lotus feet of Sri Guru, who is said by all the scriptures to be the Lord Himself, and considered to be so by the sadhus, yet is also the Lord's beloved devotee."

(Sri Sri Gurvastakam, 7)

Gurudev is saksad Srimati Radharani. Gurudev is saksad Krishna, but he is not acting as the Lord, he is acting as the main servitor of Lord Krishna. Who is the main servitor of Lord Krishna? Srimati Radharani. So, on the one hand Gurudev is nondifferent from Krishna, and on the other hand he is actually not acting in this world as Krishna, he is acting as the main servitor of Krishna, that is Srimati Radharani.

We always sing,

radha-bhajane yadi mati nahi bhela

krsna-bhajana tava akarane gela

"If you do not worship Srimati Radharani, your worship of Krishna is nothing."

If you worship only Krishna, Krishna will not take your worship, will not accept your service because you do not worship Srimati Radharani, Sriman Gurudev. You cannot serve Krishna directly without Srimati Radharani, that is why we serve Krishna along with Srimati Radharani and we are trying to worship properly, we are making a festival for Srimati Radharani and observe this day in this way.

Gurudev said that when you go to Vrindavan and Govardhan parikrama, you must go to Unchagaon before Varsana. Unchagaon means the birthplace of Srimati Lalita Devi, it is near Varsana where Radharani stays. That is why every year when we go to do this parikrama we go to Unchagaon, the birthplace of Srimati Lalita Devi.

How much Lalita Devi serves Srimati Radharani! Lalita Devi always dresses Srimati Radharani, always washes Her clothes. She dresses Srimati Radharani, decorates Her, she puts ornaments on Her, and so on—she does everything for Srimati Radharani. One time, Radharani began to sweat a lot, and Lalita Devi could not tolerate it—she cannot tolerate one drop of water on Her forehead!

This is the way of your service life, and this is the line that must be accepted—if we can accept this line, then we will get the real path, we will be able to understand clearly what is necessary for our spiritual life. If you always think, "How shall I serve my Guru? How can I make my Guru happy?" then you can easily understand everything.

* * *

Ultimate Prayer

Speaking online to the devotees in Ukraine

20 September 2015

Question: There are some great days like Lalita Saptami and Radhastami, what should we pray for on such days?

What will you pray for? Actually, you will pray to Srimati Radharani, Srimati Lalita Devi like this:

"I am an unqualified person, a conditioned soul, I have no quality, no qualification. Please engage me at Your lotus feet as a servitor. I cannot do proper service, I have no quality to do proper service, but You can engage me just as some simple servitor, as a sweeper or a cleaner. Please accept me as a particle of Your foot dust—just some foot dust at Your feet. I cannot actually touch Your feet, I have no quality for that, but when You walk some foot dust drops at some places—if only I can get that foot dust and keep it on my head! This is all I am asking You for."

You can also read that sloka of Srila Uddhav Maharaj from Srimad Bhagavatam (10.47.63). What did he ask Krishna? Krishna said to Srila Uddhav Maharaj, "Even Narad, Brahma, Siva are dear to Me, even I Myself am also not dear to Me, but you, O Uddhav, are so dear to me." And you can see what that Uddhav Maharaj says...

vande nanda-vraja-strinam

pada-renum abhiksnasah

yasam hari-kathodgitam

punati bhuvana-trayam

"I repeatedly offer my respects to the dust from the feet of the women of Nanda Maharaj's cowherd village. When these gopis loudly chant the glories of Sri Krishna, the vibration purifies the three worlds."

(Srimad Bhagavatam 10.47.63)

* * *

Preaching: Unalloyed Heart

Speaking online to the devotees in Ukraine

20 September 2015

The main thing is that we must preach Mahaprabhu's teaching, Gurudev's teaching, Guru Maharaj's conception.

You can open a hatha yoga centre, or another yoga centre, but you must avoid karma-yoga, jnana-yoga—you will always practise only bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga is the main practice. Without proper devotion, you cannot get the real connection—through jnana-yoga, through karma-yoga you can only get liberation; but liberation is not your destination. Your destination is Vraja Dham, Goloka Vrindavan—this is your home, and you must go back there. How will you go back to your home? Through constant practice.

You can open a yoga centre, but you must know what you do it for. The outside people cannot properly understand Krishna consciousness, that is why you can bring them to the yoga centre, and after that you will give them the main conception, you will tell them what Srimad Bhagavad-gita told:

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja

aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

"Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair."

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 18.66)

This is how you must run the centre.

Even here in India also, you can see that it is a big country, but how many percent follow the advice that Krishna gives in Srimad Bhagavad-gita? They worship so many demigods and say that Krishna told in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, "If you do puja of the demigods, you are actually doing My puja." But what they are doing is not right, it is wrong. Krishna says, "You worship Mother Kali, Mother Durga, and so many other demigods, but actually you are worshipping Me in this way, but you are doing it in a wrong way, this is not the rule how it should be done. If you are doing something and think you are doing it for Me, it is karma-misra bhakti."

Krishna first told Arjuna about karma-misra bhakti, then jnana-misra bhakti, then so many other things like karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, etc., but what did Mahaprabhu say? He said, "Eho bahya age kaha ara. Leave it! Leave karma-misra bhakti, leave jnana-misra bhakti! Go forward, go deeper!" What is the main conception? Radha-Krishna's paramour love (Radha-Krishna antaranga prema).

If you get this main conception in your heart, then you can understand everything easily and you will be not so much interested in karma-yoga or jnana-yoga...

* * *

Procrastination Is the Thief of Time

Speaking online to the devotees in Ukraine

20 September 2015

My question is when are you coming to India to stay here permanently, to serve Gurudev's Mission? I am asking all the devotees who want to come and stay here permanently for the service to Gurudev's mission...

Devotees: We do not have a certain answer, but we hope that Krishna will bestow His mercy on us and that by Krishna's mercy and by Gurudev's mercy one day we will come for sure and serve Srila Gurudev's Mission and your lotus feet also...

We are very unfortunate, we do not know how many more days of life we will get. Pariksit Maharaj was the king, he decided everything, but he got a notice that he had to leave his body in seven days. Khatvanga Maharaj got a notice forty-eight minutes before—he was told that he had to leave his body in forty-eight minutes. They are very fortunate, but we do have that kind of fortune. We do not know if we will get seven minutes or even seven seconds in our life.

We must think what is necessary for us, what we have got this body for, what we have got this life for. If you do not get proper service from your Gurudev in this life, then this body is nothing—you will have to again come back.

chari varnasrami yadi krsna nahi bhaje

svakarma karileo se raurave padi maje

"Whatever varna (a priest, fighter, manager, or worker) or asram (a celibate, householder, renouncer of the household life, or monk) you may belong to, if you do not worship Krishna but engage in your prescribed duties, you will have to fall into a terrible hell."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.26)

Somebody is a brahmachari, somebody is a householder, somebody is a vanaprastha, somebody is a sannyasi, somebody may belong to a higher caste, somebody may be a brahmin, a ksatriya, etc. but if they do not worship the Lord properly, if they cannot practise properly, then their life is nothing.

If you do not worship and practise Krishna consciousness properly—if you preach Krishna consciousness but do not practise it properly—then you will fall down. Even the Guru who only preaches but does not practise properly can fall down...

* * *

Treasure Good Association

Russia, 11 August 2003

First, I am giving my full obeisance to my Spiritual Master Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, then all tridandipad-gan and all my godbrothers and godsisters.

Actually, I have no quality or qualification to say anything about Krishna consciousness, but it is only possible by the mercy of Guru Maharaj, that is why first I recite this sloka,

mukam karoti vachalam pangum langhayate girim

yat krpa tam aham vande sri-gurum dina-taranam

"The dumb can speak, the lame can climb a hill—all it takes is mercy from Gurudev."

(Bhavartha Dipika)

Mukam karoti vachalam: one who cannot say anything, who cannot speak, can say so many things; pangum langhayate girim: one who is lame can climb a tree or climb a hill—it is only possible by the mercy of Gurudev. So, I again pay my full obeisance, my full dandavat, with service mood, to my Spiritual Master.

We are all here getting some good association of the good big Vaishnavs, of all the sannyasis, of Guru Maharaj, and it is actually our good luck—not everybody can get this kind of opportunity. It is only by mercy of Lord Chaitanyadev, Bhagavan Lord Krishna and all the Vaishnavs that we are all meeting here today. We have come from many various countries but we have gathered together here today.

isvarera krpa-lesa haya ta' yahare

sei ta' isvara-tattva janibare pare

"Only those who receive even a trace of the Lord's mercy, can understand the Lord."

(Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 6.83)

"Those who get a little bit of mercy can understand this kind of consciousness."

In our previous life we got some sukriti, and because of that sukriti we are now getting some good association. Sukriti, good fortune, and punya, pious activity, are not the same. I will give you an example and you will be able to understand it easily. You see that there are many flower plants growing everywhere. All trees give flowers, but not all flowers come to the Lord—those flowers that had got some sukriti, good fortune, come to the Lord (are offered to the Lord), and in this way those flower plants get some special sukriti from the Lord. In the same way, many cows give us milk, but some cows' milk is used to make sweet rice that is then offered to the Deities. So, in our previous life, we did something and got that kind of sukriti, and as a result of it we are now getting good association: we can serve the Lord, can serve the Deities, the Vaishnavs.

From sukriti we get faith. Actually everyone's faith is different—Guru Maharaj always says there is 10% faith, 20% faith, 25% faith, 50% faith, and so on. Those who have more faith, can get good service to the Deities.

In Chaitanya-charitamrita, Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami said,

'sraddha'-sabde—visvasa kahe sudrdha nischaya

krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya

"Sraddha is firm, determined faith that by service to Krishna all actions are accomplished."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.62)

Faith means a full faith in Krishna, "If I do everything for Krishna, then all karma (activities) will be successful." Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said: you can make hundreds and hundreds of thousands of hospitals, you may be a doctor and treat so many patients, but if you bring one person from that life to this life and engage them in Krishna's service, Lord's service, then it will much better.

When we get faith, we then get good association, or sadhu-sanga. Chaitanya-charitamrita says,

'sadhu-sanga', 'sadhu-sanga'—sarva sastre kaya

lava-matra sadhu sange sarva siddhi haya

"Good association", "good association," all the scriptures keep saying. Only by good association can you get all perfection.

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.54)

If you get good association of good Vaishnavs, good pious men, then you can realise what you can get through such good association (sadhu-sanga). What does the sadhu do? Sadhu always cleans our heart.

Sadhu-sanga does not mean to be always in direct association. Direct association is good, but we can get sadhu-sanga from far too. One day, Srimad Bhagavatam says that Uddhav Maharaj asked Krishna, "Prabhu, when You leave, how will I stay alive this place? How will I get good association?" And Krishna said to him, "Do not worry, Uddhav. When I go from this place, many Vaishnavs (good, pious men) like you will come to this world, and you will get good association through them."

Guru Maharaj will not stay here for more than one month—he will then go all over the world, or maybe he will stay in India or go to another country. You have had his association, as well as the association of the Vaishnavs, of the sannyasis who have come here, and if you follow their order and advice, if you read the scriptures, then through the scriptures and their order, by remembering them, you can get good association.

* * *

Avoid Karma

Russia, 11 August 2003

Guru Maharaj always says, always chastises me, "Always avoid karma!" Krishna also says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita, "You must avoid all karma." Karma means your duty, so your duty must always be avoided. You can ask how it is possible—if we avoid all duties, how will we eat, how will we live? Krishna says, "Yes, avoid all duties, but it does not mean that you must leave your job, leave your work, that you must not cook, etc. It means you must do everything, but you must do it for Me."

So often we do some service, but if that service does not please Vaishnavs, does not please Gurudev, then it will be karma. Service (seva) and duty (karma) look the same, and Gurudev always gives this example: A cat catches its baby with its mouth, and that same cat later catches a rat with its mouth—although both look the same, the cat takes its baby to serve the baby, but when it takes the rat, it takes it to eat it. Both look the same, but one is karma, one is service (seva).

For the service of Krishna, for the service of the Lord, for the service of Gurudev, you can do everything, but not for your self,

atmendriya-priti-vancha—tare bali 'kama'

krsnendriya-priti-ichchha dhare 'prema' nama

"The desire to gratify one's own senses is kama (lust), but the desire to please the senses of Lord Krishna is prema (love)."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 4.165)

For myself, I cannot do anything, I must not do anything; but for Gurudev, for the service to Vaishnavs, for the service to the Lord, I can do anything and everything, even a sin. Even if I think, "Oh no, it will be a sin!" it is not so—if it is service to Krishna, I can even steal. Even stealing is not problem for the service to Krishna.

Mahaprabhu had a servitor who name was Govinda. Before, Govinda was the servitor of Iswar Puri (Gurudev of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu). Ishwar Puri asked Govinda, "When I die, you must serve Mahaprabhu," and Govinda always served Mahaprabhu. Every day, after the night time prasadam, he would massage Mahaprabhu's head, body before Mahaprabhu went to sleep.

One day, Mahaprabhu danced and chanted so much and when he came back to Gambhira (at that time, Mahaprabhu was staying in Puri, and the place where He stayed is called Gambhira) He was so tired that He lay down in the doorway of His room. His room was very small and had only one door, so when Govinda saw Him lying in the door way, he asked Mahaprabhu,

"Prabhu, please move Your body so that I can go inside... I have come to serve You..."

"Today I am tired, I cannot talk, I cannot move..."

"If You cannot move, what can I do? I have come to serve you, but how will I do it if You do not move?"

"Do as you like, I cannot do anything, I cannot talk..."

Govinda thought, "What am I to do? He is sleeping, and if I cross Him, my foot dust will fall on His body..." Then he got an idea. He spread his cloth and put it on top of Mahaprabhu's body, and cross Him like this. Then, he massaged Mahaprabhu's head and body, did all his service, and Mahaprabhu got a good sleep.

At midnight, Mahaprabhu woke up and saw Govinda was still inside the room.

"Govinda, it is midnight! Why are you still here? It is so late! Why did you not take prasadam?" Mahaprabhu asked Govinda.

"Prabhu, how can I go to take prasadam? You are sleeping in the doorway, how will I come outside?" answered Govinda.

"How did you come here then?"

"I came inside for Your service, but I cannot come outside for my own benefit, to take prasadam, etc. For Your service I can cross You. I know it is a sin and I did wrong, but I did this wrong for You, I cannot do it for myself."

This is the example. For the Lord, for the Guru and Vaishnavs, we can do everything.

* * *

Lord Vamandev

Speaking to the devotees in London

3 October 2015

A few days ago we celebrated Lord Vamandev's appearance day.

Vamandev was a son of Aditi and Kasyap Rishi. Actually, Aditi was very sad because all of her sons, Indra and others, had left the heaven because of the torturing of the demons (asuras), that is why Vamandev came to her womb and appeared in this way.

On the other side, there was Bali Maharaj. Bali Maharaj started a big fire sacrifice and declared, "So many brahmans will come, and I will give some daksin (donation) to them all. I will give whatever they ask for."

Vamandev was very short. He took an umbrella and walked first—all the brahmans walked behind Him and all they could see was an umbrella walking in front of them—and that umbrella was going so fast that they had to run behind it, but still they could not catch up with it! When Vamandev came to the place of Bali Maharaj's fire sacrifice, everybody could see He had so much teja (luster), He looked so extraordinary and exalted; on the other hand, the fire of the sacrifice was very low and small...

Bali Maharaj spoke to Vamandev with folded palms,

"You are a vatu-vaman, You have come to ask me for something..."

"Yes, I want something," answered Vamandev.

"What do you want? Tell me, I can give you anything you want. I can give you Jambudwip, if you want.

"I am a brahman, so it is not good to ask for so many things. I want only something small from you..."

"What is it?"

"All I want is tripad-bhumi, three steps of land."

"Oh, I see. You are a small vaman, and You are also asking for small things... Ask for something more, I can give you heaven, I can give you Jambudwip."

"If I ask for Jambudwip today, tomorrow I will ask for heaven. This is how people are: today they ask for one things, tomorrow they ask for more things, the day after for something more, and so on. It is not good for a brahman. Some small things are better. Do you promise to Me that you will give Me three steps of land?"

"Yes, I will give it to You," promised Bali Maharaj.

Sukracharya, the Guru of Bali Maharaj was there. He said to Bali Maharaj, "You do not know who He is! He is the Lord Himself! The Lord has come to protect all demigods, and it is the Lord Himself asking you for three steps of land! If you give it to Him, He will take away everything, and you will have nothing left. You will then have nothing to give to others as donation. Even you yourself will not be able to stay in any place—you will stay without a house, a room, or anything else. Do not give it to Him! Take back your promise!" Bali Maharaj replied, "No, I have promised this brahman three steps of land, and I will give it to Him." Sukracharya insisted, "Do not do that! Do not give it! He is the Lord Himself!" but Bali Maharaj did not listen to him, "If He is the Lord, then it is even better—if I give Him something, I can serve the Lord. He is the best Person. And if He is just a brahman, then if He takes three steps of land, what is the problem for me?"

Then, Bali Maharaj took a kamandal (waterpot) in his left hand and was about to pour water as an offering to the brahman, but the water did not come out of it. Sukracharya wanted to stop this donation to the Lord by all means, so by his yoga-bal (mystic powers) he got inside the kamandal and prevented the water from coming out. Bali Maharaj simply took a stick from a broom and poked a hole in the pot. As Sukracharya, his Guru, was inside, his eyes became blind.

(We can understand from this that those who obstruct service of the Lord get anga-hani (অঙ্গহানি, suffer a loss of a limb)—they lose their leg, their hand, or their eyes. This is said in the scriptures.)

So, because he was going to stop the service of the Lord, Sukracharya become blind and after that became known as "blind Sukra."

Then, with the words, "Om Vishnu, Om Vishnu," Bali Maharaj gave the donation to Vamandev. After that, Vamandev began to expand and became very big—with one leg He took this martya world (mortal world, including patal, the hellish planets), and with the other leg svarga (the heaven). Everybody was surprised, "What has happened? A small vatu-vaman, but He has become so big and with His two steps He has captured the whole brahmanda (universe)!"

"Bali, you must keep your promise! I have only got two steps of land..." said Vamanadev to the king.

"Prabhu, I have nothing more to give, You have taken everything! What more can I give You?" said Bali Maharaj.

"Are you sure you have nothing more to give? Do you remember something more perhaps?"

"No, Prabhu, You have taken everything. I have nothing left."

Then, Bali Maharaj's very clever wife Vindhyavali came close to his ear and whispered, "You have forgotten something. You have given everything, but you have not given yourself. Not you must give yourself to the Lord."

"Oh, I forgot!" said Bali Maharaj quickly, "I have not given myself to You!"

Then, Bali Maharaj paid a full obeisance at the lotus feet of Vamandev and said, "Prabhu, now I am giving You myself." At this moment, from the navel of Vamandev there appeared a leg (nabhi-padma), and Vamandev put that leg on the head of Bali Maharaj. Vamandev was very happy and said, "Before I was taking from you, and you were giving to Me, but now I am going to give you something and you must take it. What would you like to get?" Bali Maharaj replied, "Prabhu, I do not want anything, You have already gave me Your mercy." So, Bali Maharaj said, "I am giving you Sutalpuri (Sutal planet), you can stay there with Prahlad Maharaj, and I will be a security guard there."

So, you can understand that if you serve the Lord with full surrender, Krishna will give you everything. That is the pastime that we tell on Vamandev's appearance day...

* * *

Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur

3 October 2015

Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

The past few days we have been busy with many festivals. It was Vamandev's appearance day, then Bhakti Vinod Thakur's appearance day, then Haridas Thakur's disappearance festival—we have joined many festivals. Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur's festival was arranged by the Saraswata Gaudiya Vaishnav association (Gaudiya Maths, Iskcon, etc. all together) and took place in Surabhi Kunja. We also joined it; it was a big celebration.

Actually, what Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur gave us is described by Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj in his sloka,

guru-dam grantha-dam gaura-dhama-dam nama-dam muda

bhakti-dam bhuri-dam vande bhakti-vinodakam sada

"He is the giver of Sri Guru; he is the giver of scriptures; he is giver of the holy dham of Gaura; he is the giver of the Name; he is the giver of pure devotion; he is the greatest donor. I always offer my obeisance to this Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur."

(Sri Laghu-chandrika-bhasya, 1.8)

GURU

Guru-dam. Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur gave us our Guru. Actually, if he had not given us Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, where would we stay? In the shelter of whose lotus feet would we stay?

Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur was a deputy magistrate in many places of Odisha and Bengal, and eventually he understood that Mahaprabhu's pure devotion, Mahaprabhu's teaching and conception was being lost day by day. At that time, there were so many aul, baul, karttabhaja, neda, daravesa, sani, sakhibheki, jata-goswami—so many misconception people were roaming all over the world. Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur prayed to the Lord (he prayed to Bimala Devi in the Jagannath temple), "Please, send someone who can keep the pure conception of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu!" and by the mercy of Bimala Devi he got his sixth son. His name was Bimala Prasad—later he became known as Bhagavan Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur. He was the one to start preaching all over India, even around the world (he even established one temple in London). So, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur gave us our Guru.

SCRIPTURES

Then, grantha-dam. Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur gave so many scriptures (grantha). You can see that every morning we sing,

jiva jaga, jiva jaga, gorachanda bale

kata nidra yao maya-pisachira kole

Sri Gorachand says, "O souls, awake! O souls, awake! How much longer will you sleep in the lap of the witch Maya?"

He wrote this song. Gurudev also always sang this song about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, from his book Saranagati,

(prabhu he!)

emana durmati samsara bhitare

padiya achhinu ami

tava nija-jana kona mahajane

pathaiya dile tumi [1]

O Lord! I am very wicked-minded and have fallen into this material world, but You have sent a great soul, Your associate (to rescue me).

daya kari more patita dekhiya

kahila amare giya

ohe dina-jana suna bhala katha

ullasita ha'be hiya [2]

Seeing me so fallen and being merciful, he came to me and said, "O humble soul, listen to this wonderful message and your heart will rejoice.

tomare tarite sri-krsna-chaitanya

navadvipe avatara

"Sri Krishna Chaitanya has appeared in Nabadwip to deliver you."

Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur composed this song, and he composed many other Saranagati songs...

sarvasva tomara, charane sapiya,

padechhi tomara ghare

tumi ta' thakura, tomara kukura,

baliya janaha more

I have offered everything at Your feet and taken shelter in Your home. You are my Master; please consider me Your dog.

"You are the master, I am your servant. Tie me in front of your door, and if your enemy comes, I will kick them out, I will not allow them to come inside your house." He wrote this.

GAURANGA MAHAPRABHU

Next is Gaura-dam. He gave us Gaura. You know that Vasudev Ghosh Thakur wrote,

yadi gaura na ha'ta tabe ki ha-ita

kemane dharitam de

radhara mahima, prema-rasa-sima

jagate janata ke?

"If Gauranga Mahaprabhu had not come in this world, who would have told us about the glories of Srimati Radharani?" In the same way, if Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur had not come in this world, who would then have told us about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu? So, he gave us Gaura, he gave us our Guru, he gave us grantha (scriptures).

HOLY DHAM

Then, dhama-dam. It means he gave us the holy place—he gave us Nabadwip Dham!

Actually, before, it was considered that Nabadwip (Mahaprabhu's birthplace) had been lost in the Ganges. One day, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur was chanting the Holy Name on the roof of this house (his daily duty was like this: in the evening, he went to rest very early, and he would wake up at midnight and start to chant the Holy Name), and from the roof he saw some light coming from a place a little far off. The next morning he went there and saw a vacant place, like a field, and there were so many Tulasi plants growing there. He asking some local Muslim people who the proprietor of that land was, but the local people did not know it. Then, Bhakti Vinod Thakur asked them, "Why are there so many Tulasis here?" He was told, "We tried to cultivate some crops, rice, or jute, but nothing grows here, only Tulasi." Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur wondered, "Why does Tulasi grow in this place?" Then, he returned to Nabadwip and came to Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj (he was very old at that time, 137 years old) and asked him, "Prabhu, can you please come with me?" Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj could not walk, so his servitor put him in a basket and carried him on his head to that field. When Srila Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj arrived at the place, he began to dance and chant, crying out, "Yes! I have got it! This is the birth place of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu! This is Yogapith!"

So, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur discovered Mahaprabhu's birthplace.

THE HOLY NAME

And Nama-dam—he gave us the Holy Name. Before, people made so many Nama-aparadhas (even now too). Mahaprabhu told,

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam

kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha

But the other (apa-)sampradayas, the misconception people were spreading so much Nama-aparadh—their "Holy Name" is what their mind tells them. Srila Sachchidananda Bhakti Vinod Thakur thought, "Nityananda Prabhu opened a market of the Holy Name (Nama-hatta), and I will become a sweeper of that Nama-hatta! With a broom, I will sweep all misconception from the market of the Holy Name!" This was his declaration.

SEVENTH GOSWAMI

Sriman Mahaprabhu send six goswamis to Vrindavan:

jaya rupa sanatana bhatta raghunatha

sri jiva goswami batta dasa raghunatha

"Glory to Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu, Srila Sanatan Goswami Prabhu, Srila Raghunath Bhatta Goswami Prabhu, Srila Jiva Goswami Prabhu, Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami Prabhu, Srila Das Raghunath Goswami Prabhu."

These six goswamis were sent to Vrindavan to preach the main conception of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, to preach what is the real conception of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who came in this world as Radha-Krishna's combined form, to preach what is the real devotion. Mahaprabhu sent them there to preach, and they did it—they succeeded, they fulfilled Mahaprabhu's desire.

After that, they expired... Who will preach all these things now? Sisir Ghosh declared, "Who will be the seventh goswami? If there is any goswami in this world after the six goswamis, it is only Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur!"

Then, we can understand something...

Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur came from a very big and rich family, but who was his friend? One who was poor, who used to go to the burning ghat, who took soil and the Ganges water—this Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj was his friend. Moreover, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur even sent one of his sons (Bimala Prasad) to take initiation from Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj.

There are so many things that can be said about Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. His main conception can be found in Jaiva-dharma. If you read it, you can understand what is the sanatan-dharma, jaiva-dharma (the real duty of the jiva soul), what is our real conception. It is not some sectarianism—this book Jaiva-dharma was composed only to tell what is necessary for a human body.

So, we can understand that if Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur had not come in this world, where, in whose lotus feet would we have found our shelter? He gave us all these things, he gave us Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur. If you think about it, you can understand how much he gave to us, the jiva souls…

* * *

Srila Haridas Thakur's Nirjan

Speaking to the devotees in London

3 October 2015

Srila Haridas Thakur's disappearance day was recently (his niryan day). If you read about it in Chaitanya-charitamrita (Antya-lila, chapter 11), you can see how fortunate Srila Haridas Thakur was...

You know that Haridas Thakur lived in Puri, in a place called Siddha Bakul. "Siddha bakul" actually means a toothbrush of Lord Jagannath—when Lord Jagannath's toothbrush was put there in the soil, there appeared a bakul tree. Srila Haridas Thakur sat under that bakul tree, doing his worship. Sriman Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would come to see him every day; and every day when He took prasadam of Lord Jagannath, He would send His remnants to Haridas Thakur with His servitor Govinda. You know also that Haridas Thakur always chanted very loudly, and without finishing his three lakhs (300,000) of Holy Names, he could not take prasadam.

Once it happened so that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu could not come to see him for a few days, but Mahaprabhu still told Govinda, "Go and give prasadam to Haridas." One day, when Govinda came, he saw Haridas Thakur lying in his bed, chanting the Holy Name very slowly, in a very low voice. Govinda said, "Prabhu, please take prasad," and the answer came from Haridas Thakur, "Aji langhimu." It means, "Today I will break the rule... I could not finish the number of the Holy Name but you have brought prasadam, how I reject it? It is a problem for me. What am I to do?" Then, he took a little bit of prasadam with his fingers and said to Govinda, "Now you go..." Govinda gave this news to Mahaprabhu, he said that Haridas Thakur's health was not good.

The next day Mahaprabhu came to Haridas Thakur and asked him,

"Haridas, what happened to you? What is your disease?"

"Prabhu, asustha nay mora sarira, asustha hoya mora mana. My health is good, but my mind is bad..." Haridas Thakur replied.

"You are now very old, it not necessary for you to chant so many rounds of the Holy Name. Now you can do less."

"Prabhu, I have never asked Your for anything, but today I want to ask You for something... You have shown me so many of Your pastimes—Your birth, Your childhood, Your householder life, Your sannyas life, Your life in Puri—You have shown me everything, but I am thinking that Your pastimes will not continue much longer and You will leave soon... I do not want to see it with my eyes. Please, I want to go before You."

"Krishna is merciful, and Krishna always fulfils his devotees' desire. Krishna will fulfil your desire," answered Mahaprabhu, "But I have done all pastimes always with you—if you leave Me, how shall will I stay alone? How will I continue My practising life?"

"Prabhu, I am only an ant. If just one ant dies, what is the problem for this world? There is no loss. Only one ant will die, will leave... Prabhu, I have these three wishes..."

Everybody must remember these three wishes of Srila Haridas Thakur. He said to Mahaprabhu,

"I want to keep Your lotus feet in my heart, I want to see Your lotus face with my eyes, and with my my mouth, with my tongue, I want to chant Your name, 'Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Sri Krishna Chaitanya!' This is my only hope and my only prayer... Please, fulfil my desire."

"Yes," answered Mahaprabhu, "if you ask the Lord for anything, Krishna will always fulfil your desire..."

The next day, Mahaprabhu came with all the devotees. He asked them to chant the Holy Name, and then He spoke in glorification of Haridas Thakur, telling the devotees what Haridas Thakur had done. Then, Haridas Thakur pulled His hand and sat Mahaprabhu down beside himself. He took His legs and put them on his heart, his chest, and, looking at Mahaprabhu's face, he chanted, "Sri Krishna Chaitanya! Sri Krishna Chaitanya! Sri Krishna Chaitanya!" And that jiva soul left his body...

Mahaprabhu Himself took Haridas Thakur's body on His shoulder and went to the sea. He bathed the body in the sea and said, "This sea is a holy place, but today it has become so much holier." Everybody took some water from the sea into their mouths. Then, Mahaprabhu went to the shore of the sea, dug a hole in the soil. He Himself placed Haridas Thakur's body there and covered it with the soil, sand, etc. After that, He went to the Jagannath temple, Ananda Bazaar market, and begged from the shopkeepers like this, "I am making a festival for Haridas Thakur today, please give some prasadam." So much prasadam came and with that prasadam He made the festival...

This is Haridas Thakur's niryan. Mahaprabhu Himself, the Lord Himself, celebrated it.

* * *

Entering Krishna's World

Vrindavan, 5 September 2011

We say sometimes that Krishna went to Mathura, that Krishna went to Dvaraka (there is Krishna of Mathura, Mathuresh, Krishna of Dvaraka, Dvarakesh, and Krishna of Vrindavan, Vrajer Krishna), but Krishna actually never left Vrindavan. Krishna's pastimes in Vrindavan are eternal (nitya-lila), His pastimes are always going on there. He cannot leave Vrindavan Dham.

You know that Krishna is very dear to Uddhav Maharaj, and one time Krishna said to Uddhav Maharaj, "Not even Brahma, not even Siva, not even I Myself am as dear to Me as you are, Uddhav." When Krishna sent this Uddhav Maharaj to Vraja Dham, he was surprised how much love and affection gopis have for Krishna. They do not think about anything other than Krishna, they do not see anything other than Krishna. Krishna told them, "Do you want to see Me? You must close your eyes, then you will see Me." Vraja gopis laughed when they heard it, "To see You we have to close our eyes? Wherever we look we do not see anything other than Krishna! We do not want to see Krishna, but we always see only Him everywhere! We want to forget Him, we do not want Him, but we cannot not see Him!" This is the kind of relation they have, and that kind of relation, that kind of love and affection is necessary to have. Wherever you look, you cannot see anything other than Krishna—this kind of feeling should come. But how can we see this? Our mind is always in the illusory environment, and whatever pancha-indriya (five senses—chaksu, karna, nasika, jihva, tvak, that is eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin) we have, it is all full of material, illusory environment.

andhibhuta chaksu yara visaya dhulite

ki rupe se para-tattva paibe dekhite

"Our eyes have become blind by the dust of visaya, the material world—how can we see the transcendental world?"

How will we see anything? We have fallen into a net of illusion, and only if somebody cuts this net can we come out—if we get some mercy from Maya Devi, then she can cut the net and we can come out of the illusory environment, otherwise we cannot do it. What is necessary for that? "Tad viddhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya" (Bg, 4.34): pranipatena, full surrender; pariprasna, honest enquiry (sat-jijnasa), and sevaya, service temper (seva-vrtti).

Why do we live? We are born for the service to the Lord. That is called seva vrtti (service mood). When we were in the mother's womb, we promised the Lord, "I will serve You. I promise I will see Your divine form with these eyes, I will listen to divine talks about You with these ears, I will serve You with these hands, I will do parikrama with these legs." This is what we have got this body for, but what we are doing now is all enjoyment, all self-interest. That is the difficulty.

atmendriya-priti-vancha—tare bali 'kama'

krsnendriya-priti-ichchha dhare 'prema' nama

"The desire to gratify one's own senses is kama (lust), but the desire to please the senses of Lord Krishna is prema (love)."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 4.165)

"Kama" means material desire, self-interest. Desire to please your own mind, to please your eyes, etc. is called "atmendriya-priti," but "Krsnendriya-priti" means you serve, you please the Lord, please your Guru, this is what is called service.

We sing the kirtan,

janani-jathare, chhilama yakhana,

visama bhandana-pase

eka-bara prabhu! dekha diya more

vanchile e dina dase

"When I was in the mother's womb, I got very much austerity. One time You showed me Your form—I saw You in my mother's womb, but now I do not see You."

We stayed tied for several months in the mother's womb, and one day Krishna showed Himself to us in the mother's womb, and we prayed to Him,

"Prabhu, I do not want to sit here!"

"Do you want to come out of here? But will you see Me if I give you eyes?"

"Yes, I will," we promised.

"If I give you ears, will you hear My Hari-katha?"

"Yes, I will, I promise!"

Bhajibo boli esechhile, but bhuliya rohile avidyara bhare! "You promised Me you will worship Me, but now you forget Me!" Why? Because we have fallen into avidya, into the illusory environment. "E ghora-samsare padiya manava na paya duhkhera sesa": we are swimming and swimming in this ocean and cannot get to its shore, we only swim and swim, and sometimes we become tired and begin to sink... But! "Sadhu-sanga kari' Hari bhaje yadi": if you get good association and worship the Lord, the Guru, then "tabe anta haya klesa"—all kinds of suffering, all kinds of bad elements will be removed.

* * *

Cultivating the Heart

Vrindavan, 5 September 2011

If you want to grow some fruit trees or some other trees and plants in a jungle, you must first prepare the place. You must first clean the place, then cultivate and plant—otherwise if you plant something in a jungle, it will not grow. In the same way, those who are fortunate souls (brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva), get initiation, get some seed, but after that it is necessary to give nourishment to that seed. Nourishment means you must give water. What does "water" mean? Can you say what, in our conception's line, water means?

Devotee: Service?

No. Where will you get service first?

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.151)

Then

mali hana kare sei bija aropana

sravana-kirtana-jale karaye sechana

“As a gardener, they must plant that seed and water it with practising: hearing and chanting.”

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.152)

Water means sravan and kirtan. This is written in Chaitanya-charitamrita. "Sravana-kirtana-jale karaye sechana": if you put a flower plants into the soil, you must water it. If you take initiation but do not practise sravan and kirtan first, how will you get service?

What is service and what is emotion? There is a book of Srila Guru Maharaj called Emotion and Devotion, you should read it. Emotion means some emotion comes and you do some work but then you stop doing it. Emotion and devotion is not the same, there is a difference. It is written about it in many books, and you must read these books.

"Sravan kirtan jale karaye sechan": first is not seva (service), first is sravan, kirtan—sukriti, sadhu-sanga, then sravan, kirtan. First it is necessary to have sukriti. Sukriti (spiritual merit) is not punya (pious works). If you do some good job, it is called punya, it is karma, vikarma, but sukriti means "tad vastu tadiya sevaya": using everything for the service to the Lord. For example, if you plant a mango tree and the tree gives a flower or a fruit, you can give it to the Lord and then take it yourself. You cannot plant and keep the fruit for yourself—you can take the mango, give it to the Lord, and then get it as prasadam. This is called then sukriti, or ajnata sukriti. There are two types of sukriti: ajnata and jnata (knowing and unknowing).

After sukriti, there is sraddha (faith). There are four types of sraddha: kamala sraddha, taranga sraddha, drdha sraddha and sudrdha sraddha.

For example, somebody says about you, "Look, he wears tilak, kanti-mala and has got chanting beads now! He has become a sadhu!" You hear it and remove the tilak, remove the kanti-mala. You do not think, "You are not giving food to me, you do not give me nourishment, so why should I listen to you?" Such faith is called kamala sraddha, it is like a lotus (kamala)—once it is out of of the water, it immediately falls down. Such faith is small, it is not strong. Then, there is taranga sraddha, such faith comes in waves. When there is some festival, everybody comes, does sankirtan, but after the festival everyone is gone and the kirtan and proper practice finishes. When the wind comes, there comes a wave, but when the wind finishes, the wave finishes too. That is called taranga sraddha. Then, there is drdha sraddha. It means constant chanting, constant practising. You can live anywhere, in a forest, in a jungle, in a small house, in a big house, or in a hotel, it is not a question—you can maintain your spiritual life properly wherever you are, wherever you life. Finally, there is sudrdha sraddha. This is the faith that Haridas Thakur has. There is a sloka that describes it:

khanda khanda hai deha yaya yadi prana

tabu ami vadane na chadi harinama

"Even if my body is cut into pieces and I give up my life, I will never give up chanting the Holy Name."

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, Adi-khanda, 16.94)

They beat Haridas Thakur so much, but his mouth did not leave Krishna. He has the strongest faith.

Gurudev always says there is a 10% devotee, a 20% devotee, and so on. "Sraddha-anusari bhakti-adhikari": the kind of devotion you will get depends on how much faith you have.

These things are necessary for our spiritual life...

* * *

Adopting the Process

Sri Nabadwip Dham, translated from Bengali

22 March 2016

You must have the sambandha-jnan (knowledge of the relationship); after sambandha, there will come abhidheya (how to act according to that relationship); and after abhidheya, there will come prayojan (the goal). Sambandha, abhidheya, prayojan.

You have done this parikrama of the nine islands of Nabadwip Dham. It is said that each of these nine islands represents:

sravanam kirtanam visnoh smaranam pada-sevanam

archanam vandanam dasyam sakhyam atma-nivedanam

"Hearing, chanting, remembering the Lord, serving His feet, worshipping His Deity, offering Him obeisance, serving as a servitor, as a friend, and offering one's self (surrender)."

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 7.5.23)

These nine practices, or viddhi (behaviour within prescribed rules and regulations) are worshipped on these islands, and in this place (Koladwip) the process is pada-sevanam (serving the feet). You must think about this. It is necessary to practise this, and it is necessary to keep this in your heart. Who can give you the Lord? Will you get the Lord by giving some money? No, you will never get Him in this way. You cannot get the Lord through karma (independent activities), you cannot get the Lord through yoga (some exercise or bodily perfection), you cannot get the Lord through jnana (knowledge).

You have heard about it: we went today to Vidya Nagar—sankhya-yoga, Patanjali yoga, this yoga, that yoga—so many yogas are there, all knowledge (vidya) is there. It is also the place of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya. Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya was the incarnation of Brihaspati, the guru of the demigods.

When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu just came to Puri, He fainted, overwhelmed by the feeling of separation from the Lord. When devotees chanted the Hare Krishna maha-mantra into His ear, He gradually woke up and sat up. Then, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya asked the Lord,

"I see You have taken sannyas. What is Your name now?"

"My Name is now Sri Krishna Chaitanya."

"This is not a sannyasi name... What sampradaya did You take sannyas from?"

"I took sannyas from Keshav Bharati."

"So, You a sannyasi of Keshav Bharati's sampradaya. This is a karma sampradaya, but actually there are bigger sannyasis than him. As You have not learnt so much (You have only studied primary grammar), I will teach You the Vedanta. I will teach you very well and give you very fine conception."

This is what Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya told Mahaprabhu, but when he heard the explanation of the "Atmaramas cha munayo..." sloka from the Lord's lotus mouth, he became astonished, "Whom have I been teaching for these seven days?! Whom have I been reading Vedanta to?" Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya then took shelter of Mahaprabhu's lotus feet and became a very big devotee. Mahaprabhu instructed Sarvabhauma on the path of devotion and then He Himself said, "I have never seen another devotee like Sarvabhauma!"

Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya was a karma-jnani, he had knowledge about yoga and was a great pandit, but Mahaprabhu made him a devotee and then Himself said, "It is extremely rare to get a devotee like you, Sarvabhauma!" So, you can understand that you do not have to become a Guru—one does not become a Guru, one is made a Guru. There are so many great personalities who were made Gurus, just as Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur made so many Gurus and sent them for our sake. Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj wrote about Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur,

guru-dam grantha-dam gaura-dhama-dam nama-dam muda

bhakti-dam bhuri-dam vande bhakti-vinodakam sada

"He is the giver of Sri Guru; he is the giver of scriptures; he is giver of the holy dham of Gaura; he is the giver of the Name; he is the giver of pure devotion; he is the greatest donor. I always offer my obeisance to this Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur."

(Sri Laghu-chandrika-bhasya, 1.8)

"He (Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur) gave us our Guru! He gave us Gaura! He gave us Dham (the holy land)! He gave us Nam (the Holy Name)! Time and time again, do I offer my obeisance to him."

It is necessary to practise continuously. There are different kinds of devotees—kanistha-adhikari, madhyam-adhikari, and uttam-adhikari. The Guru is an uttam-adhikari, and he sees the Lord all the time, in everything, and to become a Guru (to be able to accept a disciple), he has to come down to the madhyam-adhikari stage.

Always remember these things, always keep this all in your mind.

* * *

Exclusive Line—Exclusive Dedication

Sri Nabadwip Dham, translated from Bengali

22 March 2016

You must worship and serve the Lord, you must worship and serve your Guru. As long as you are alive you must come for this Nabadwip Dham parikrama. In this way you will get a relationship with the Lord (sambandha), and with this relationship you can come to the Lord and you will never have to come back here again. You must establish such relationship with your Guru (sambandha-jnan). This is said by the scriptures.

So many people do parikrama, but how many people do really come to this line? How many people do really practise and serve properly? In Chaitanya-charitamrita, Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami wrote that there are so many souls in this world—the number of human beings is very small. Many people say they follow the Vedas, but they do what is prohibited by the Vedas, their goal is karma. Among ten million of such karmis, you can get one jnani—they say that jnan (knowledge) is all, knowledge is the ultimate goal. Among ten thousand of jnanis you will get one liberated person. And among ten million liberated souls you will get only one devotee.

At first, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya was interested only in liberation. There are four kinds of liberation: sayujya, sarupya, salokya, samipya. At first, only mukti-katha always came from Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya's mouth, but in the end, after he surrendered to Mahaprabhu, he never once again spoke about mukti—he only spoke about bhakti, devotion. Also, in the beginning Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya did not like Ramananda Ray so much, he thought, "Oh, he is just some crazy Vaishnav," but when he understood prayojan-tattva (what the ultimate goal is) properly, when he heard exclusive topics about transcendental love, then he could understand, "Yes, this is true! Ramananda is the highest devotee!"

Mahaprabhu said that there were three and a half devotees who were most dear to Him. These three and a half devotees were always with Him. They are Swarup Damodar, Ray Ramananda, Sikhi Mahiti, and his younger sister Srimati Madhavi Devi. They were there with Mahaprabhu every day. Who would have known, tell me? Who is able to speak Bhagavatam? It is said, "Aham vetti, Suka vetti, Vyasa vetti na vetti va!" Not everyone knows the Lord...

One time, there was one big pandit who came with a grand poem about Mahaprabhu. At that time Mahaprabhu had a rule: when somebody came with some writing, first Swarup Damodar would see it, then, if he approved it, it could be presented to Mahaprabhu. Many people were rejected in this way, and people would be afraid, "I cannot go past Swarup Damodar! Maybe you can, but I cannot..." So, this pandit one day decided to go to Swarup Damodar. He said, "I have written a great poem, I have a degree in Bengali language and have written so many poems! I have a great 'Ph.D.' in poetry!" Then he read his poem about Mahaprabhu and Lord Jagannath. Swarup Damodar said, "You are a fool! You have no devotion!" He threw it away and said,

yaha, bhagavata pada vaisnavera sthane

ekanta asraya kara chaitanya-charane

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya, 5.130)

"You must read Bhagavatam from a Vaishnav and take exclusive shelter at the lotus feet of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, otherwise you cannot understand anything, you cannot know anything."

So, you must practise, you must serve your Gurudev and be fixed and sincere in your practice and service, then you will be able to see the Lord with your own eyes—you will get service and come to the Lord.

* * *

Lacking Mercy or Lacking Faith?

Russia, 11 August 2003

Through faith, we get good association. Good association cleans us. You can see that a magnet always attracts iron, but if the iron is full of dust, full of rust, then the magnet cannot touch it. We are full of dust at present, and if we get good association, that dust will be cleaned.

Guru Maharaj always says that when you come in Krishna consciousness life, nobody is going to give you an examination to show your progress. You can do this examination yourself. How? Ask yourself: Do you want to hear Krishna-katha, hear a good lecture, want to read the scriptures, or does your mind always go anywhere and everywhere? If you check yourself, you can understand whether you are proceeding (developing, going forward) or decreasing (going backward). If you feel your mind is always fickle, it always goes everywhere, your mind is not in the lecture, not in the scriptures, you do not like chanting the Holy Name, then you can understand yourself whether you are proceeding or going backward.

Taking about good faith, I am remembering Mukunda Prabhu's name. He is Mahaprabhu's associate and a good singer—Mahaprabhu always cried when Mukunda sang. One day, Mahaprabhu was distributing mercy to everybody—whoever was near Him, Mahaprabhu said their names, and whoever was far, Mahaprabhu said their names too, but He did not say Mukunda's name. Sivas Pandit asked Mahaprabhu, "Prabhu, You are saying everybody's names, but why do You not say the name of one devotee who is near You, who is a good singer? Why do You not say Mukunda's name?" Mahaprabhu said, "I will not say his name because he mixes with bad people."

Hearing what Mahaprabhu said to Srivas Pandit, Mukunda became very upset and unhappy. He thought, "What is my life for? I always sing for Mahaprabhu, I chant for Mahaprabhu, I love Mahaprabhu so much, but Mahaprabhu does not give mercy to me! Then I better commit suicide!" He decided to commit suicide, but before doing it, he wanted to ask Mahaprabhu one question. Mukunda was afraid to come in front of Mahaprabhu, so he asked Srivas Pandit, "Prabhu, can you ask Mahaprabhu? I want to commit suicide, will I get His mercy later? Will I get His mercy any time in future?" Srivas Pandit went to Mahaprabhu and asked Mahaprabhu, "Prabhu, Mukunda wants to die... Will he get Your mercy any time?" Mahaprabhu answered, "Yes, he will get My mercy, but not now—he will get it after one crore of lives (ten million lives)."

Hearing this, Mukunda began to jump and laugh, "I will get mercy! I will get mercy!" Mahaprabhu was surprised to see him jump and laugh, He called Mukunda and said, "Mukunda, I did not know you had so much faith! You do not have to wait for a crore of lives, you will get mercy now!"

We all should have such kind of faith—such faith should come to us.

* * *

Beyond Blind World

Russia, 11 August 2003

Everything depends upon faith. You have all got mercy from Guru Maharaj—you have got the bhakti-lata-bij,

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.151)

You can see that we are Indian, somebody is American, somebody is Brazilian, somebody else is Russian—actually we all come from the same place, but we do not see it. "Aprakrta vastu nahe prakrta-gochara (Cc, 2.9.195): you cannot see the transcendental world with material eyes." Our eyes are full of dust and we cannot see with our eyes who anyone is—I do not know, I cannot see who you are, who he is, and so on.

That is why in this Kali-yuga, Krishna comes Himself as Radha-Krishna's combined form, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He came here and went door to door saying, "Do not sleep now! I have come to take you to My home! This is not your home! You have lost your house! This here is not your real address, your address is My home. You must go back to God, back to home! Come to me! Come back to me!" We are searching for Krishna, and Krishna is searching for His friends. We are all His friends, but since many days, years, since many births, we left Him and we are now going round and round in a cyclic order because of our karma. We are now scattered everywhere—you are in Saint Petersburg, somebody is in Siberia, somebody is in Bangladesh, somebody is in Pakistan, and so on—but we are actually all friends, we have come from Him. We are searching for Krishna, and Krishna is searching for us. You saw in Chaitanya-charitamrita (2.4.39), "Kabe asi' madhava ama karibe sevan? When will Madhava come to Me, when will he come to serve Me?" Krishna Himself wants service from His servitor. That is why Radha-Krishna and Mahaprabhu came Themselves to Saint Petersburg—to this jungle, forest area near the Baltic sea—in a Deity form to take your service.

Beauty always attracts us, always charms us. The Deities' form is Reality the Beautiful. There are five channels of perception—rupa, rasa, gandha, sabda, sparsa (form, taste, smell, sound, touch)—and we always go everywhere looking for beauty in this world. What we experience is not eternal—we must go for the transcendental, for the eternal things.

Ants always go to the place where there is sugar. If you keep somewhere bags full of sugar, you will see one small ant going there to take this sugar. It eats some sugar and in fifteen minutes it is so full but still it cannot stop, "I will eat more! I will eat more! I will eat more!" We are like this too. We live and enjoy with these material worlds and think that this is so much joy and pleasure, we do not know anything more pleasant than this world.

Guru Maharaj always says, "Who am I? Why am I suffering?" We must know this.

jivera 'svarupa' haya—krsnera 'nitya-dasa'

krsnera 'tatastha-sakti' 'bhedabheda-prakasa'

"By its intrinsic nature, the soul is an eternal servant of Krishna; the souls comes from the marginal energy of Krishna and are simultaneously one with and different from the Lord."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 20.108)

"He is my Lord, and I am His servant." We can see light here in the temple room, but this light comes from outside, from one source that gives light (electricity) to so many other places. Imagine a dark house. If sun light comes to that dark house, the whole house will immediately be filled with light. Krishna is like the sun, and we, the jiva souls, are like sparkles of that light.

isvarah paramah krsnah sach-chid-ananda-vigrahah

anadir adir govindah sarva-karana-karanam

"Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes."

(Sri Brahma-samhita, 5.1)

He is the cause of all causes. We do not know Mahaprabhu, we have not seen Mahaprabhu, but through our Gurudev we have got service to the Lord—to Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Radha Madhava-sundar—and this is our good fortune. He is so merciful to us, his ahaituki-krpa (causeless mercy) is like that of Nityananda Prabhu.

prithivite achhe yata nagaradi grama

sarvatra prachara haibe mora nama

"My Name will spread to every village and town on this earth."

Mahaprabhu said, "My Holy Name will be preached everywhere, in the whole world, in every village," and we can understand that His Holy Name is now chanted all over this large world, from corner to corner. We could not conceive before that so many Russian people, like you all, are always chanting the Holy Name...

* * *

Kali-Yuga's Wealth

Russia, 11 August 2003

When Mahaprabhu lived in Nabadwip, Mayapur, He used to travel and preach this Krishna consciousness everywhere—He went to Puri, sometimes He went to Vrindavan and South India, one time He even went to Bangladesh.

Before Mahaprabhu came, Bhagavatam said (11.5.32), "Yajnaih sankirtana-prayair yajanti hi sumedhasa": in this world people can be saved by the Holy Name. Mahaprabhu's Nama, guna, lila, parikar, vaisistya (Name, qualities, pastimes, associates and features) are the same as Mahaprabhu Himself. Mahaprabhu and His Holy Name are nondifferent from each other.

Mahaprabhu came here for two reasons, one is external and one is internal. His external duty was like this: He came here and He had to give something. What did He give? He distributed Harinam maha-mantra to everybody in this Kali-yuga. His internal duty was like this: all gopis, all servitors serve Krishna, and seeing their mood and the mood of Srimati Radharani, Krishna wondered, "What kind of taste is Radharani getting? What kind of taste is She relishing? I want to taste it!" So, Mahaprabhu came to relish that kind of taste.

Mahaprabhu distributed this Holy Name, saying,

harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam

kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha

"Only chanting the Holy Name, chanting the Holy Name, chanting the Holy Name—there is no other way, no other way, no other way."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 7.76)

In this age of Kali-yuga, the only religion is the Holy Name; otherwise besides this Holy Name "kali kale nahi ara dharma"—there is no other religion. The Lord says, "You cannot do without the Holy Name—without the Holy Name, you cannot get Me; without the Holy Name, you cannot get your real home and address." This Holy Name (Harinam, Hare Krishna maha-mantra) is the main religion, and through this Holy Name you can reach your goal.

Also, Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur said in Chaitanya-bhagavat (referring to Mahaprabhu's words) that in this Kali-yuga ladies (mahila) and the lower caste (sudra) will get Mahaprabhu's mercy first, and we can see now that this Krishna consciousness is developing more in the Western countries, not so much in India.

* * *

Uddhav Kunda

Russia, 11 August 2003

Gopis' prem, Radharani's prem (affection) is the best...

One day Krishna wanted to examine Uddhav. You know that Uddhav was always with Krishna, and he had some ahankar (pride) because he thought, "I am an intimate friend of Krishna. I always live with Him. I am His biggest servitor." One day Krishna sent Uddhav to Vrindavan. He wanted to show him how much love and affection the gopis had for Him (Uddhav Maharaj did not know anything about it).

So, Uddhav Maharaj went to Vrindavan, and as soon as he arrived, all gopis came to him. Uddhav Maharaj looked almost the same as Krishna, and the gopis thought, "Maybe Krishna has come!" They came near him, but then they realised, "Oh, he is not Krishna," and they turned round to leave. Uddhav stopped them, "Why? Why are you going back? Yes, I am not Krishna, but I always live near Him. Do you see these clothes that I am wearing? These are my Prabhu's clothes—these are Krishna's clothes." As soon as gopis heard this, they began to pull his clothes and smell them. Uddhav was surprised, "Krishna is not here, but when they see these clothes and start to smell it..."

Then, Uddhav spoke to the gopis. He asked them, "How are you? Krishna sent me here to look after you all... He went to Mathura and has not been in Vrindavan for many days... How have you been living?" He asked them many questions. The gopis asked him,

"Does Krishna remember us?"

"Of course, He always remembers you. In fact, He told me one thing..." said Uddhav.

"What is it?"

"Krishna said: if you all close your eyes, then you can see Krishna."

Hearing this, all gopis began to laugh. They said,

"Wherever we look, we see Krishna. We cannot see anything besides Krishna. We always think about Him, we always see Him! Except Krishna, we do not see anything. Except Krishna, we do not think about anything. We want to forget Him! Can you give me a solution how I can forget Him?"

When Uddhav heard this, he began to cry. He thought, "What kind of love and affection, these gopis have for Krishna!" From his tears there appeared a kunda. The name of this kunda is Uddhav Kunda. (If you get an opportunity to go to Vrindavan some time, you can see it there.)

This is the kind of affection and love of the gopis...

...I am very happy to meet you all. I am a fallen soul and have no qualification to say anything, but by your mercy, by your blessings I could say something.

vanchha-kalpatarubhyas cha krpa-sindhubhya eva cha

patitanam pavanebhyo vaisnavebhyo namo namah

"Again and again I offer my obeisance unto the Supreme Lord's devotees, who are saviours of the fallen, oceans of mercy, and wish-fulfilling trees.”

* * *

Watch Out for Dacoits

2 October 2013

Devotion can be stolen. You can be robbed at any time by some dacoits. Kanak, kamini, pratistha (money, women, position), rupa, rasa, gandha, sabda, sparsa (visual, gustatory, olfactory, auditory, tactile enjoyment), kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada (lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness), matsarya (envy). These are the thieves. They are dacoits, and these dacoits can rob you, can steal your money—your devotion.

When there is a danger of dacoits, it is necessary to have some protection. It is necessary to install some door, some door protection, some collapsible gate, some iron gate, some lock. For devotion it is also necessary to have some protection. Devotion needs protection. That protection is sravan, kirtan, and seva (hearing about the Lord, chanting the Holy Name, and engaging in service). All three things are necessary. Your devotion can be protected through these three things, and Maya will not enter so easily then.

Maya is always searching for a hole. Even if you close and block your door, a rat will always try to find a hole where it can enter. Maya is also always searching for a hole to enter. That is why it is necessary to always keep protection.

Sadhu-sanga, sravan-kirtan are necessary. There are sixty-four bhaktyangas (devotional practices), among them nine are the main, among those nine five are the main, and from these five sravan and kirtan are the most important. "Niraparadhe Nama laile paya prema-dhana: if you chant the Holy Name without offences, you will get the wealth of divine love of Krishna." (Cc, 3.4.71)

Krishna Nam (the Holy Name of Krishna) must be niraparadh, chanted without offence—then by such offenceless chanting you can get prema-dhana (the wealth of divine love). You must be niraparadh.

You must try to do sravan and kirtan, it is necessary to have desire. Prataparudra Maharaj is an example of this: he had some good sukriti and he had so much desire...

* * *

Preaching Tactics

1 October 2013

When Mahaprabhu preached, He converted the biggest men—King Prataparudra, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, Prakasananda Saraswati, Ramachandra Khan, King Mansingh, and many other big-big Muslim leaders.

Two kinds of preaching are necessary—on the one hand preaching to the big fallen souls (like Jagai and Madhai—who will save them?), and on the other hand, to the big famous men who control others. For example, the city people control the village people—the village people listen to what the city people say, they think that whatever city people say it is correct. Is it not? This is how Mahaprabhu preached. Think about it.

Do you know the story of Alexander the Great? He conquered so many lands and kingdoms, but what happened to him in the end? When he was going to die, he called the greatest, biggest doctors from all over the world, and ordered to them, "When I die, you must keep me in the coffin naked and show that my hands are empty." What for? He wanted to show everyone in the world: "You are big-big doctors, but you have no power to keep my soul in this body, you have no power to save me." He conquered all kingdoms, but this is what he did at the end of his life. A very good story.

Buddhist, Christians say that cows have no jiva soul, trees have no jiva souls. Even the scientists do not say this is so, but the Buddhists and Christians say this... This is the condition on this planet...

* * *

Guru's Department

1 October 2013

ahankare matta haina, nitai-pada pasariya,

asatyere satya kori mani

"Maddened with ego, forgetting Nitai's feet, I accept untruth as truth."

We can see in the Kaliya-daman lila of Krishna—Krishna was a small boy when He defeated Kaliya nag. We sing in the Prema-dhama-deva Stotram, "Varjya-patra-sarameya-sarpa-sanga-khelanam": "During His childhood Pastimes, Nimai played with discarded clay pots, dogs, and snakes." What does "sarameya" mean? It means a dog. Mahaprabhu played with dogs, and sarpa—snakes; and in Krishna-lila, Krishna also played with a snake. What snake was it? Kaliya nag.

Krishna came to Kaliya nag, and stamped His foot on his head. Kaliya was very angry (he had very much ahankar, ego), "Who is disturbing me?!" Krishna told him that because of his poison in the lake, the cows did not drink the water from the lake, and people also did not come there, everybody was disturbed. In the end, Krishna defeated the pride of Kaliya. These are some of the Lord's childhood pastimes... Also, you can remember how Nimai, who used to play with young girls, defeated Digvijayi Pandit...

Nalakuvar and Manigriv got tree's bodies because of their Vaishnav aparadh (offence to the Vaishnav). The same result also came to Saubhari Muni—his material desires brought about his downfall. We must be always careful about this.

hari-sthane aparadhe tare hari-nama

toma-sthane aparadhe nahika edana

"If you offend the Lord, the Lord's Name delivers you, but if you offend a Vaishnav, there is no salvation for you."

If you go to the Lord, Krishna may not be able to it, but the Guru can give you what Krishna cannot do. Guru can save you. If Krishna cannot save you, the Guru can save you. That is the power of the Guru.

You can see that many times Nityananda Prabhu did what Mahaprabhu could not do. For example, Mahaprabhu was very extreme about King Prataparudra. He said, "If you tell Me about him again, you will not see My face again!" Somebody was requesting Mahaprabhu to meet with Prataparudra—"somebody" means Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, Ramananda Ray, and other devotees. They wanted to help Prataparudra, but Mahaprabhu would become very angry. Anyhow, Nityananda Prabhu managed it.

He instructed Prataparudra, "Go to Mahaprabhu after the chariot festival. After dancing and chanting in front of the chariots, He will become tired and go to take rest in the Jagannath's garden. At that time, some vikar (ecstasy) will come to Him. Change your king's clothes and come to Him in a devotee's clothes, and you must tell Him this sloka, 'Tava kathamritam...' You will see what happens." Nityananda Prabhu told him everything, and Prataparudra followed it perfectly—he followed perfectly what his Guru had told him (Nityanada Prabhu is the Guru), and his desire was fulfilled, he succeeded.

These are the main things...

* * *

Key Virtues

1 October 2013

Mahaprabhu rescued so many fallen souls. One of them was Vijuli Khan. It happened in a village called Pathan Vaishnav gram, near Benares. This year I want to go there during the Kartik parikrama and find that place. One Muslim man became a Vaishnav there...

gaura amara ye-saba sthane

karala bhramana range

se-saba sthana heriba ami

pranayi-bhakata-sange

"In the company of loving devotees, I behold all the places my Gaurasundar roamed during His ecstatic Pastimes."

There was also Ramachandra Khan. He sent a girl—a bad girl, a prostitute—to ruin Haridas Thakur. Do you see? You think there are so many bad people now and at that time there were none, but this is not so. Even at that time there were bad people, not only now.

trnadhika hina kabe nije mani

sahisnuta-guna hrdayete ani'

"When will I feel that I am lower than a blade of grass, when will I bring the quality of tolerance into my heart?"

('Kabe habe bolo, se dina amar?' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

When will these qualities come to me? When will that day come? When will I think of myself as a blade of grass? When will I have the quality of tolerance like that of a tree or some grass?

trnadhika hina kabe nije mani

sahisnuta-guna hrdayete ani'

"When will I feel that I am lower than a blade of grass, when will I bring the quality of tolerance into my heart?"

Remember it. It is necessary to always tolerate. If you can tolerate everything, then you can get the Lord. There is no other way.

kabe ha'be bala se-dina amara

aparadha ghuchi' suddha name ruchi

krpa-bale ha'be hrdaye sanchara

"Please tell me, when will that day be mine when my offences will be dispelled and taste for the pure Name will be infused within my heart by divine grace?"

trnadhika hina kabe nije mani

sahisnuta-guna hrdayete ani'

"When will I feel that I am lower than a blade of grass, when will I bring the quality of tolerance into my heart?"

You must always think, "I must bring this kind of virtue of tolerance into my heart."

Haridas Thakur was Brahma Himself—he is an incarnation of Brahma, but Ramachandra Khan sent a prostitute to him, and he ordered his men to beat him at twenty-two marketplaces—not just one marketplace, but twenty-two! What did Haridas Thakur do? He only kept saying, "Krishna bolo! Prabhu, say, 'Krishna!' Say, 'Hare Krishna!'" He was beaten so much by the Muslim people, but still he said, "Say, 'Krishna!' Hare Krishna bolo! Hare Krishna bolo! Only say, 'Hare Krishna!'"

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

Haridas Thakur is Namacharya (the teacher of the Holy Name, teaching by his own example).

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara

“Give up your false ego, and always consider yourself lower than grass, poor, needy, and mean.”

trnadhika hina kabe nije mani

sahisnuta-guna hrdayete ani'

"When will I feel that I am lower than a blade of grass, when will I bring the quality of tolerance into my heart?”

* * *

Sri Vyasa Puja Day: My Mood and Request

Speaking online to the devotees in South Africa

6 October 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham

I am very happy to see you all today, it is very nice. May Krishna bless you on this day... Actually, this day I must serve everybody—today is my service day. Every day is a service day for me, but today is the day when I must serve devotees more. Gurudev gave me this position to serve you all, and that is why I consider this day a service day. Gurudev is always merciful to all the devotees, and I am praying to you all: please pray to Gurudev for me. That is my humble request.

Here, so many thousands of people have come to take prasadam. Not less than one thousand people came here yesterday or the day before yesterday and are staying here now, and many thousands of local village people have come to take prasadam today. It was a great festival here, and now I am also happy to see you all. Today is actually my fortunate day because I can serve the devotees, and so many Vaishnavs came from Mayapur, I can serve them also, and I can get their sadhu-sanga (sadhu-sanga is necessary). That is a great fortune for me. This is the main thing.

I would like to tell you also. Practise Krishna consciousness together and properly. Try to be together more, have more tolerance, be more humble and give more honour to others. This is necessary, this is Vaishnavism. This is Gurudev's instruction—to be humble, tolerant, and give honour to others—and it is necessary to follow it.

kabe jive daya haibe udaya,

nija-sukha bhuli' sudina-hrdaya

"When will compassion to all souls arise in my heart and I forget my own happiness?"

('Kabe habe bolo, se dina amar?')

"When will I forget my own happiness, my own enjoyment? When will I forget my own happiness and only desire to make Gurudev happy?"

Actually, I have accepted a big festival in honour of my birthday today only to make Gurudev happy. Devotees told me that this year they wanted to make a festival in Nabadwip, and I know that Gurudev will be happy with this, and if I do not agree, Gurudev will be unhappy, that is why I accepted their request and accepted this big festival today...

If you want to ask me anything, please tell me.

Devotee: We want to ask for your mercy and blessings...

[His Divine Grace laughs.] That you have already got. Do you want to ask me for any other boon? You already have mercy and blessings, but if there is anything else you want, you can tell me.

Actually, I am joking with you, but when Nrisinghadev asked Prahlad Maharaj, "What do you want?" Prahlad Maharaj said, "My father hit You, and I only want You to give some mercy to my father." Nrisinghadev said, "It has already happened—your father has already got My mercy. Do you want anything else?" Then Prahlad Maharaj said, "Then give me that kind of boon so that all 'asking' desire (desire to always ask for something) is removed from my heart. This is what I want to ask You for." My desire is also like this. "Kabe jive daya haibe udaya? When will I be able to give some benefit to others?"

I have actually surrendered my whole life to Gurudev—I do not know how much I can surrender, or how surrendered I am to my Gurudev, but when I left my previous house and came here, I got my real home, I got Gurudev. I do not want to do bhajan, I do not want anything, but Gurudev made me like his dog, and that is why I am serving as his dog—I am still serving, I am still protecting the temple as a dog. This is all the devotees' mercy and desire, that is why I am doing it.

I am telling to all the devotees: it is necessary for everybody to have more chastity and more sincerity for service. This is my advice. I want you to be more sincere and more chaste in your service. This is my request to all the devotees.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

* * *

Sri Vyasa Puja Day: Appreciating Mercy

Speaking online to the devotees in Italy

6 October 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham

So many devotees are there, very nice. I am very happy to see all the devotees. Here too so many people have come, and you requested me to give some lecture, and I could not refuse. You know, even if I am tired, if I see the devotees my energy always increases and I do not feel any tiredness any more.

Actually, I can tell you that this year they made a big festival in Nabadwip, but I accepted this festival because I know Gurudev will be very happy with that, otherwise I do not want my birthday, I do not want to make any celebration on this day, I am getting shy. But I do not want to make Gurudev unhappy, that is why—to make Gurudev happy—I have accepted all the devotees' request.

I was in Siliguri a few days ago (and before that, in Bihar and Dinhata), and when I was asked the devotees had already arranged everything, so I could not tell them no and waste all that money... Gurudev said, "If you love me, love my dog." If you can consider me Gurudev's dog, that is sufficient for me, I do not want more than that.

Gurudev always gives me energy. I am actually a very unqualified person, I have no qualification, but Gurudev made me like this, and slowly, slowly I can understand what Gurudev wants me to do. I actually do not want to do bhajan, but Gurudev always forcefully keeps me at his lotus feet. That is my hope. I know where I was, but Gurudev brought me from there and gave so much mercy to me. That is sufficient for me, I do not want more than that.

Do you have any questions?

Devotees: Please give us your mercy...

You have already got it from Gurudev.

Actually, Krishna says in Srimad Bhagavad-gita (9.29), "In this world, nobody is My enemy and nobody is My friend," but if somebody is a sincere seeker, has full faith, and serves to their Guru, then Krishna becomes their friend—not only friend, Krishna becomes their servant! "Tava nija-jan kona mahajane pathaiya dile tumi": we have lost our address and Krishna sent His own man (nija jan)—Krishna sent Gurudev—to take us to our address. So, we already understand what is our real home, you do not have to worry about that. Always be successful in your spiritual life, always proceed in your spiritual life and do not worry about it. I am always with you, and you are always with me. Do not worry about that.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

* * *

Sri Vyasa Puja: A Happy Day

Sri Vyasa Puja day, speaking online to London,

28 September 2011

The hearts of the devotees are very nice—they are following Sri Rupanuga line, Gurudev's line perfectly and properly. This is the main thing. We must not fight for bricks and cement, buildings—we want devotion, we want a preaching movement. This is what is necessary for us.

Today is a very good day for me: everybody is giving their mercy to me, that is why for me today is happy day. Also, I can see all the devotees today, it is very nice. Everybody is happily enjoying the programme, class, and everything, and glorifying Gurudev. That is my thing—I do not want my glorification, I always want to glorify my Guru, I need to preach about my Guru.

Do you have any questions on this day? How can I serve you? I am always at your service, I am actually your family member. I always think that that we are Chaitanya Saraswat family and I am a member of that family. I do not think about myself as being separate, and I do not make any classification or discrimination. We are all brothers and sisters in Gurudev's family—Gurudev is the guardian and I am a member of his family. I may be a bad boy, but elder brother or sister cannot reject their younger brother even if he is a bad boy. I am always doing wrong, but I believe that my family members cannot throw me out. I am always doing everything for my Guru, my only hope always is to fulfil Gurudev's desire, and I want to serve my Gurudev's mission until death. That is my only prayer to you.

Actually, now I am starting making Gurudev's puspa samadhi. Gurudev told me one time, "Can you make one room for me in Govardhan? It will be good for me. I want to stay in Govardhan." And Gurudev himself he made that room basement (chabutara) there. I never broke that basement, and I use that same basement for his puspa samadhi now. I am thinking that if we can go there after Gurudev's next Vyasa Puja celebration in Nabadwip, then we can inaugurate it. It will look the same as Srila Rupa Goswami's samadhi temple. Gurudev wanted to stay in Govardhan, and Govardhan temple is actually the only temple that was registered on his own name (only in his last days he made a will and transferred it to my name).

If you have any questions, you can ask me, do not hesitate. I am always at you service. Do you have any service for me today? How can I serve you? Sometimes, try to connect the devotees, keep always in touch...

I have promised Gurudev I will serve Gurudev's mission, but the opposition group gave Gurudev some problem... When Gurudev was alive they told him, "If you do not change your decision, we will disturb Acharya Maharaj our whole life." I am not afraid of it. I know if they disturb me, I will have more tolerance then. Before, I did not have so much tolerance, but now I am "biting" my arms and thinking why did I get so much tolerance now? Because Gurudev is giving so much tolerance and mercy to me...

* * *

Sri Vyasa Puja Day: My Only Prayer

Speaking online to the devotees in San Jose

6 October 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham

Dandavat, it is very nice to see you all.

Today, I actually want mercy from everybody. Gurudev told everybody, "If you love me, love my dog," and maybe you can think of me as Gurudev's dog, that would be good. I want everybody's mercy today, I want to serve you all today. This is what this day is for. All over the world they are celebrating this festival, but my only hope and my only desire is devotees' mercy and I pray you forgive my offences.

I always make offences to the devotees and I am asking all the devotees to please forgive my offences. I am a dog, and a dog always does everything wrong, that is why on this day I am asking you please forgive my offences. I know devotees always think about Krishna, they always serve Krishna under guidance of Guru and Vaishnavs.

I am very happy to see you all. You are celebrating this festival, but actually for me this day is not a day to take puja from others, but today is the day when I must give puja to all the devotees. It is my desire and my promise: I want to serve you all my whole life.

What can I say more? I always give some instruction, but today I cannot give any instruction, I only pray to everybody that they pray for me to Gurudev so that Gurudev may always stay with us.

On this day I am only asking you all to please forgive my offences. You love Gurudev, that is why you also love me as his dog, that is sufficient for me. I do not want more than that. This is all I want from all the devotees. Dandavat, Jay Gurudev.

* * *

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