Daily Practice

Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj:
"We are not so attached with viddhi (following the Vedic rules and regulations),
but we are proceeding and maintaining, trying to maintain, the viddhi marga.
Our life is Guru seva and Vaishnav seva."

"We must continue our practising life 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 and every day do arati, offer worship, and offer whatever food you take to the Deities. We must continue our life in this way."

"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."

"What do householder devotees do? Householder devotees can practise everything individually at their homes and come to the programme at the centre every Sunday. You eat every day, you go to the toilet every day, and you must practise every day too! You must give an offering to the Lord, the Deities, to your Guru every day. Do not eat anything without offering it—that is not prasad! We must offer bhog to our Guru every day, and take prasad every day."

"You can stay in your house and worship the Lord: 'Grhe thako, vane thako, sada Hari bole dako, whether you stay in a house or in a forest, always call out the Holy Name.' If you start a householder life, what is the problem? Your house is Krishna's house; your family is Krishna's family."

"I am not saying everybody must stay in a temple—everybody does not have that kind of good fortune to stay in a temple; staying in a householder life is not a problem, but Gurudev said you must maintain your spiritual life wherever you stay. So, wherever you stay, wherever you are, you must maintain your spiritual life perfectly. That is the main point."

"Whether you are a brahmachari, a householder, a vanaprastha, or even a sannyasi, you can practise Krishna consciousness and maintain your spiritual life wherever you are. You can stay in the householder's life, no problem, but you must maintain your spiritual life—follow the rules and regulations, and also reject obstacles to Krishna consciousness, reject what is not favourable to Krishna consciousness."

"That is called sincerity: what I do, I must do every day. Some are doing puja, worshipping, one day, and after that not doing, but if you have a deity, if you have an altar in your house, you must worship every day. If you make an offering for your deity, or at the altar, then you must make the offering every day. You eat every day, you go to the toilet every day, then you must feed your deity every day too. That is what sincerity is."

"You can serve the Lord in your house. Wake up early, do mangal arati, cook and give some food to the Deities, feed your children, then your children go to school, husband goes to work, and so on. Maintain your family like this as Krishna's family and you will be very happy."

"You should practise every day. Chant the Holy Name, recite your Gayatri, always remember Krishna—not only one time, or three-four times. When you are in your house practise the same way as you are doing here at the temple: you can wake up at the mangal arati time, sing the bhajans, then offer some things to the Lord, or at the altar, then you can take that prasadam and go to work. When you go to work, take also some prasadam with you; try not to eat anything outside. Maintain your spiritual life in this way, and you will get real benefit.

"Once a day going into the temple and paying obeisance is not service, not worship. Our bhajan (practice) is eternal, every day service: we eat every day, and we must serve every day, must cook for the Lord every day; we go to the toilet every day, and we must serve every day. If you do this continuously, you will see that your family will become Krishna-mayi (Krishna will become the centre of it)."

"Actually, in this world so many people are enjoying, busy with their own selves, they have no time to spare for Krishna, for the Guru—but you must give time to Krishna. You should have sincere attachment to your Gurudev. Ask yourself, do you love yourself or do you love your Guru? Who do you love more, yourself or your Guru? You should give more time to your Guru, you should give more time to the service of your Guru—that is necessary for your practising life.

"When a poor man earns some money, he does not spend all the money he earns. He keeps something aside in case he becomes sick or has some other problem. In the same way, you have got some time and you are always busy with your family, but you must keep some time for your Guru's service!"

"Everything in this life is sacrifice, and everything should be surrender, should be for the Lord."

"We must maintain our spiritual life properly, and to maintain means you should go for the morning mangal arati, then do bhajans, and then go to work. We must also try to avoid all food that has not been offered to the Lord. It is necessary to reject what is unfavourable to devotion and accept what is favourable to devotion, and we must do it."

"You must understand what the service mood is. Everybody—whether you are a householder, a brahmachari, a vanaprastha, or a sannyasi—must have attachment to their service."

"Those who eat regularly, who work regularly, who sleep regularly, can practise properly. Regular sleeping, regular prasadam is also a part of service. If you cannot do it, you will not be able to practise. Do you understand it?"

"You can worship your Guru in any place—even if you stay under a tree and worship your Guru from that place, that is Goloka Vrindavan. It does not matter if you live in a hut, in a small house, or have a very poor life.

"When we got this body we promised that we would use this body only for the service to the Lord. We got many bodies before in our previous lives, but why did we get a human body? Why did Krishna send me here with this body? Before, Krishna sent me in a cat's body, in a dog's body, and so on, but why did He not send me in a cat's body this time? What is this life for? Eating, sleeping, and enjoying? Yes, enjoy, but enjoy with love and affection, enjoy with Krishna, Reality the Beautiful—enjoy with that!"

"Take care of your Krishna consciousness life—we can stay anywhere, we can live anywhere, in a jungle, in a small house, in a big house, it does not matter, but wherever we are we must serve our Gurudev. And it is my only hope that we can serve Gurudev in this life."

"Mathura-vasa means you must stay in a place where there is Krishna-katha, Bhagavat-katha—you must listen to Krishna-katha. If you practise in this way, your life will be glorious. Make your house a temple and teach your children and family members how to be a devotee, teach them how to be a devotional practitioner."

"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."

grhi ha-uka tyagi ha-uka bhakte bheda nai
bheda kaile kumbhipaka narakete yai

"There is no difference between devotees—be they householders or renunciants. If someone makes distinctions between them, they go to the hell of boiling oil."

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 17.22)

"You can serve from your house too, no problem. Gurudev said: wherever you stay, maintain your spiritual life. If you are on the train, in a bus or in a car, that is not a problem—even if you are in a forest you must still maintain your spiritual life. That is the main thing."

"You can make your house Krishna's house. 'Ye dina grhe bhajana dekhi grhete Goloka bhaya.' Worship Krishna and your house will become Vrindavan, then you will not have to come again in this mortal world."

"You can live a householder life, it is no problem, but your family must be Krishna's family. Everything can carry on, but you must realise that Krishna is in charge of everything and live under the guidance of your Guru, the Vaishnavs, and Bhagavan. Continue your practising life in this way, and that will be your happiness."

"In some countries, devotees do not have a big temple, but if they think that in some country there is a big temple and everything is grand there, it is not so. Krishna goes to every devotee's house. Krishna went to all gopis' houses, so why cannot Krishna go to all the devotees' houses? If we fully surrender to our Guru, then Gurudev himself, who is non-different from Krishna, will come. If you offer everything to your Guru properly, then Krishna will give mercy to you."

"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."

Guidance on:

• Setting up the altar
• Arati
• Daily kirtans
• Bhog, cooking, offering
• Cooking Viddhi
• Observing Ekadasi
• Observing Festivals
• Tulasi Devi worship and care
• Four regulative principles
• Scriptural regulations (Spiritual assistance)

Introduction
• Setting up the altar
• Arati
• Daily kirtans
• Bhog, cooking, offering
• Cooking Viddhi
• Observing Ekadasi
• Observing Festivals
• Tulasi Devi
• Four regulative principles
• Scriptural regulations