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by Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Trivikrama Gosvami Maharaja
To formally accept initiation from the spiritual master and to take initiation from him in the true sense are quite different. The disciple receives the diksa-mantras from sri guru, and when he becomes qualified, he too can become a spiritual master. There is no fault in his doing so. But if the disciple himself accepts disciples before he is qualified, he is not acting in accordance with his level of realization...
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by Sri Srimad Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Gosvami Maharaja
You yourself stand in the witness box. You are the criminal. You are the culprit. Why should you look at the rubbish when so many beautiful flowers are there? You see injustices but you do not see justice? Why not merge to the positive portion? If one hand is working and the other is paralyzed, shall I only attend to the diseased part, giving no attention to the working hand?...
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by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada
The Name is the very storehouse of all rasa. We should seek the Name without making any distinction between the Name and the Object pointed to by the Name, quite unlike the differentiation we find in this temporal world. Krsna, the person, is identical with the word Hari, with His colour, with His form and with all of His attributes and activities....
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by Sri Srimad Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvami Maharaja
If we contemplate the cause for this, we find that as they served him, they failed to maintain the attitude, “Srila Gurudeva will be pleased by accepting my service and pleasing him gives me life.” Since they served him with many other motives and not exclusively with the hope of pleasing him, they were cheated out of obtaining the principal fruit of serving a sadhu and have instead attained whatever they secretly desired....
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by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
To express one’s humility in front of an atheist who is envious of śrī guru and the Vaiṣṇavas, in front of a demoniac person like Rāvaṇa or in front of a pretentious brāhmaṇa, is not vaiṣṇava-sevā, nor is it tṛṇād api sunīcatā....
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by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
A person such as this, who is free from envy and false pride in his caste, education and so on, despite being blessed with all virtue, never craves recognition or adoration from others. Thus he is amani, one who does not expect honour from anyone. That person, being free from envy, always feels happiness in the happiness of others, and pain in their sorrow. And so, he treats all living beings with due honour (manada)...
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by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
There is one person whose name is never mentioned in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And yet Bhāgavatam’s steadfast readers constantly nurture the ardent hope of becoming that person’s devout, one-pointed servant. May that person, who means everything to Śrī Bhagavān, kindly destroy our false ego in all its various forms and bestow upon us the shelter of Her lotus feet. Today is the day of Her advent....
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by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
We are given to understand that no foreign thing should be included in the transcendental region, and we do not find the unalloyed position of transcendence in this world. We are mistaken when the idea comes that we are part and parcel of this universe; merely adjuncts to the phenomenon in which we now experience our conditioned life....
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by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
However, by its very nature, lila is beyond the reach of the material senses and even beyond anything the material mind can conceive. It is never tainted by anything mundane, nor is it subordinate to anything mundane....
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by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
Ordinarily the mind controls our senses and the soul is lying in a dormant condition. The soul has delegated its power of transacting with the external world to the mind, and the mind has five ministers to help in the administration of the phenomenal world. But the mind is a not a dutiful agent of the soul. It always tries to injure the interest of the soul....
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by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
Śrī guru is not mortal. He is an eternal, immortal being. Śrī guru is eternal, service to him is eternal, and his servants are all eternal; therefore so much hope and shelter exists for us. There is nothing such as death for us....
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by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
There is no other alternative for getting rid of our measuring temperament. We are now equipped with senses that are incapable of leading us to the Truth. We are liable to be deluded by the influence of māyā, and māyā is but a trap. If we want to avoid that trap, we are to submit to Him unconditionally. So prapatti, which means full submission, is the essential thing....