Year 4

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

In fact, it is imperative to truly realize that in every situation, I am being impelled to act by the Supreme Lord. I have not accepted anyone as my disciple. All those whom you consider to be my disciples are actually my guruvarga....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

❝So the true duty of the mind is to associate with the Divine through the senses. We are now deeply absorbed in our passionate senses, which are flying in different directions and are never concentrated on the One And Only. Consequently, we deviate from that Absolute and find hundreds of mundane entities appearing before us....❞

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Only Śrīla Gurudeva, who is the personal associate of Śrī Gaurāṅga, can protect me from the clutches of this material existence, which is like death. However, I will have to carefully consider who is guru (heavy, or profoundly significant) and who is laghu(light, or insignificant)...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

❝Śrīla Gurudeva is fully aware of our foolishness, of our deficiencies and limitations, our improper conceptions, our wavering principles and everything else. In fact, he makes arrangements to cure us according to the degree and nature of our ailments....❞

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Everyone ought to be concerned about and seek out their eternal welfare. Everyone should be selfish in this matter, but most people in this world are engaged in activities that bring about the opposite result. Children busy themselves in playing, the youth in family life, and the old in constantly protecting their property and in taking care of their body. This indicates indifference towards one’s true purpose. Hence, due to the desire to accumulate material gain, the people of this world remain indifferent to their own eternal gain. How unfortunate!...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

The stranger, who was actually Bhagavān in disguise, placed a piece of straw in front of Vāyu and asked him to carry it away. Vāyu used all of his power to carry away the piece of straw, but he could not even roll it as much as the thickness of a hair. So Vāyu, too, returned to the demigods and addressed them.

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

What is essentially required, therefore, is for me to dedicate all of my efforts to understanding that I am an eternal servant of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Without the association of devotees, and without surrendering to the lotus feet of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, it is impossible for someone to know himself solely by his own intelligence...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Everything is the compassion of He who is the embodiment of compassion. “It is all for the best.” Everything Bhagavān does, He does for our welfare, only. Wherever the embodiment of compassion may place someone, and whenever He may place them there, that person should stay there at that time with a smiling face and accept the gift or the chastisement of the Lord...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

The true self, or unalloyed soul, should adopt a policy of not interfering with either the mind or body. If we can thus isolate the actual position of the soul, we will find that we are relieved of all mundane anxieties in the form of matter or in the subtle form of intelligence. Leaving these aside, the true function of the soul is to take the name of Kṛṣṇa, for Kṛṣṇa is the fullest representation of the Transcendent Absolute and the ever-existing Divinity...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

❝This world is a perverted reflection of the original world, which is our real home. Instead of passing our time here, we want to go back to our eternal abode. We are now very busily engaged in pursuing pleasant sensations from phenomenal objects. We firmly resolve to eradicate the root cause of our presence in this world of delusion: so-called pleasure, and endless misery and strife....❞

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

An intelligent person knows to follow the orders and teachings (vāṇī) of great personalities. By this alone, all of his most cherished spiritual desires are fulfilled. None but those who perform service to śrī guru with this mentality can pass even the most difficult test the world puts them through....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

When the Transcendental Sound makes His appearance, we must not adopt a challenging mood and suppose that it also has a material face. The two types of sound – the transcendent and the mundane – are quite distinct from one another...The Transcendental Sound relates strictly to the Absolute, so when we determine our true self, we shall comprehend the Absolute. Any distortion in our conception will prevent us from approaching the Absolute...