Instead, they should ask you, “How is your bhajan? Is your consciousness inclined towards Krsna? Is your mind wandering here and there?” If they would speak of any solutions and if they would speak Krsna-katha, and if they speak the instructions of Rupa-Sanatana, then you should understand that they are merciful to you.
There is no one more exalted than the gopis because Krsna places His head at their lotus feet. Without their mercy, will anything happen? Krsna had some unfulfilled desires. He had to ask for something from Radhaji. What was it?
Try to hear this very carefully. If you want to do bhajana, you will have to remember this sloka of the Srimad-Bhagavatam – not the sloka, but its meaning and mood. Without such remembrance you will always be angry, with so many problems, and you will always be upset. You will not be able to do bhajana...
Try to give your attachment to Krsna, and in that way you will become happy forever. Other attachments will lead you to hell...
Transcendental greed is very sacred and exalted. It must therefore be kept concealed within the heart, as burning camphor is kept in a closed room so that its fragrance will not evaporate but instead become more and more condensed. If you have any realizations, it is best to conceal them. Do you understand the word yara-mata?
In India, there is a place called Naimisaranya. It is a very pure place. It is on the banks of the Gomati River. Thousands of years before, over 80,000 Rsis had assembled in that place. Kali Yuga was about to come; it had made its arrival immediately after Krsna left this world...
Why do we do so many kirtanas? Is it a waste of time? Why not always chant, “Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna…” When you will sing, “Hare Krsna Hare Krsna,” and “Hari haraye namah krsna yadavaya namah,” and “Jaya radhe, jaya krsna,” other devotees think they should take their mala and sit behind, and they can chant, “Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna…”
Devotee: Gurudeva, I am looking for a guru. What are the qualities of a good guru – a bona fide guru?
Srila Gurudeva: He knows all sastra – Vedas, Upanisads, and all other Vedic scriptures – and thus he can remove devotees' doubts. He has some realization of the Supreme Lord, and by that realization he is able to transfer Krsna from his own heart to his disciple...
Very good, thank you. From today on, you should all try to have the firm belief that by serving Krsna your lives will be successful, and that your maintenance and everything else will automatically be taken care of. With this firm belief, you will not need to do anything except chant and remember Krsna. I am repeating these very important topics again and again, in order that you may come to realize them. Try to realize this: if you are serving Krsna, your whole life will be successful; you will not need to do anything for your worldly necessities. In this way, instead of doing anything for your maintenance, you will perform all devotional activities: sravana kirtanam visnu smaranam pada sevana.
Absorbed in this beauty of Krsna, the gopis forget their body and mind. They don’t know where they are. The calves and cows also forget about their surroundings when they see Krsna or listen to His flute song. I was speaking on this yesterday or the day before? Where was it?
Some of the neighbors complained about Srivasa to the Muslim Kazi. They told him "He thinks he is better than Muslims because he is a Hindu. He is a culprit. If he and the other Hindus have to sing so loudly, it must mean that their God is blind and deaf; He cannot hear well. They spend their entire nights creating disturbances. We cannot sleep. What should we do?"...
It does not matter if you do tapasya, if you execute household life perfectly, if you are a brahmacari or if you take vanaprastha or sannyasa. It doesn't matter if you stay submerged in the water in the cold winter, or if you sit in the blazing sun in the summer. All these things will not make any difference in understanding the actual situation of the Absolute Truth, the living entity, and his relationship with that Absolute Truth. Only by associating with a maha-bhagavata (a great soul), will you realize these things. This is the essence of this instruction...
For the benefit of those who do not know about spiritual life full with Vedic wisdom, Srila Vyasadeva wrote down what he saw in his trance. First he wrote the four essential verses (catuh-sloki) of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Lord Narayana had spoken it to Brahma, Brahma then spoke it to Narada, and then Narada elaborated upon it.
We began from sraddha. We told so much hari-katha, and the essence of all is found here - that our object is to serve Srimati Radhika. We should begin practicing bhakti from the smallest fraction, from sraddha, and that practice is called vaidhi-bhakti. Then we should gradually go up. When you develop a real taste for bhakti, you will not fall down, and if you have no taste, oh, you are already fallen. There is no further down to fall...
The meaning of this sloka is that in Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s sampradaya the practices of vaidhi-bhakti take one to raganuga.
It is not raganuga at first. It begins from vaidhi-bhakti. If one in the line of Srila Rupa Gosvami follows vaidhi-bhakti, that vaidhi-bhakti is really the beginning of raganuga.
Especially, I have instructed the brahmacaris and sannyasis to be very careful. There is no more to tell than what I have told in Badger. Even those who are householders should try to come out from that burning well. Don't again try to enter household life. But hardly anyone is listening to me, so what can I do? This is maya.
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