Year 7

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

If I am to bestow My mercy upon someone, I must expose Myself to him fully. Those who have wrong aspirations and speculative minds will be debarred from having un-obscured perception of My actual Size, Figure and Colour. If I do not confer upon them My mercy, they will simply miss Me...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

We, His eternal protégés, are conditioned to follow His lead in this matter. If we do so, we shall be doing the right thing and will obtain knowledge of the realm of the Absolute. We shall no longer have to remain penned within the narrow material scope of three dimensions. But we are hampered by our mixed aptitude. We have the option of meddling with the material as well as the spiritual...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

If someone accepts such a great soul from the past – in this case Jesus Christ – as jagad-guru and wishes to follow in his footsteps in the present but considers that there is no need for any mahānta-guru, it is questionable to what extent he will be able to properly follow the views of Jesus...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

One should not slacken in one’s chanting of the holy names due to the appearance of material thoughts while chanting. By progressively and regularly engaging in chanting the holy name, all of these useless thoughts shall gradually be dispelled. One need not worry for that...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

There are many obstacles in the way of the search for the Truth. Those obstacles serve to eclipse the real nature of the seer of the Truth, of the search, and of the object of the search. It is the enlightening potency of words that alone is able to destroy all those obstacles...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

The word ‘Kṛṣṇa’ points to the real Truth. The Truth Himself is not the same as the secondary meaning of His name. The word ‘Kṛṣṇa’ is not used to convey any allegorical sense. The word ‘Kṛṣṇa’, when uttered by a soul who desires the supreme goal, has no room for any meanings that lead to ignorance....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

The outward feature is not to be trusted. Lime-water outwardly resembles milk. The apparent face is not identical with the immanence, the soul or the substratum. In determining the self, it is necessary to find our real position. Are we products of material things? Are we the Oversoul? This problem requires solution as we shall leave the external body after a time...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

We know that this procedure also has its difficulties. The mixed aptitude is really opposed to the quest for the truth. It is opposed to absolute emancipation, to the supreme function, the supreme need and the supreme goal. Its nature as well as its language is equally opposed to the quest for the truth....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

The healthy soul’s single most prominent inclination is solely to satisfy the senses of the transcendental cupid, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Surrender to Śrī Kṛṣṇa and rendering service to Him is the only way to destroy the seed of mundane kāma and the only means to get rid of it for good...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Sri nama is Sri Krsna Himself. Not just Sri Krsna Himself, but indeed sri nama is directly the form of the supremely original Sri Krsna Himself (svayam-rupa Sri Krsna). There is no other means to dispel our misfortune than engaging in sri nama-bhajana. Only the ecstasy of chanting the holy names of Sri Krsna can...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

If we were to examine Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya using any one or the whole group of the above subjects, all our labour would be fruitless and take us not an inch nearer to the Supreme Lord. It is transcendental rasa which alone will enable our transcendental finite ego to approach the Transcendental Blissful Infinite...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Externally, the activities performed while engaging in both imitating (anukaraṇa) and following (anusaraṇa) seem to be the same, just as the outward appearance of fool’s gold (iron pyrite) and pure gold are for the most part identical. To be clear, anukaraṇa is synonymous with pretension. A tendency exists in our hearts for such pretension, and it has been called vipralipsā; the tendency to cheat or delude others. That tendency leads us to deceive others for the purpose of accumulating prestige (pratiṣṭhā) and the like...