All Glory to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga

GUIDANCE

Lectures

of

His Divine Grace

Om Vishnupad Sri Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj

Issue #03 (2015/2)

Pranam-mantra

pujya-sri-guru-varga-vandita-mahabhavanvitayah sada

paurvaparya-parampara-prachalita-prajya-pramurtakrteh

bhakter nirmala-nirjharasya nibhrtam samraksakam sadaram

vande sri-gurudevam anata-sira acharya-varyam nijam

I bow my head in eternal obeisance to my Gurudev, the best of acharyas, Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj. He is the ever vigilant, stalwart guardian of the current of pure devotion whose highest form flows from our most worshippable Sri Rupanuga Guru-varga in their exclusive dedication to Mahabhav, Srimati Radharani.

prerakam prachya-paschatya-sisyanam bhakti-vartmani

bhakti-nirmalam-acharya-svaminam pranamamy aham

I offer my respectful obeisances to Swami Bhakti Nirmal Acharya, who is energetically inspiring all of Eastern and Western disciples on the path of pure devotion.

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Ganga Mata Goswamini

24 September 2009

There was once a young girl, a daughter of a good Odisha king, who got much mercy from Jagannath. She always served in the Jagannath temple—made garlands and whatever other service there was. Her father asked her, "You are a young girl, how will you continue your life if you do not get married?" She answered, "I have already given my life to Jagannath, I do not want to get married—I do not want to serve some matta purush (lit. mad, or intoxicated, man). I do not want to serve some man who does not have any love and affection for Lord Jagannath. You will bring some boy and marry me to him, and this rich prince will drink whiskey and do nonsense—I do not want to be his servant!"

India is like this— when a girl gets married, she has to always serve her husband, but that girl refused.

Instead, she went to Vrindavan and asked a babaji, who came at that time to Vrindavan, to give her initiation. The babaji made a condition, "You are so young and beautiful, how will you be able to continue in this way for your whole life? First, show me your renunciation for one year—wear tilak, kanthi mala, a white sari, etc." She followed everything. She went begging and ate only one time a day, fasting for the rest of the day. When the year was over, she again came to the babaji, and he saw how much she had changed—all her beauty was gone... Seeing her determination, he gave her initiation.

Then, she returned to Puri. One day, she asked Lord Jagannath, "O Jagannath, I want to go to Nabadwip for one day to bathe in the Ganga." Lord Jagannath told her in a dream, "It is not necessary for you go to Nabadwip—I can bring the Ganga here for you."

Then, one day, it was midnight, all doors of the Jagannath temple were locked, and everybody—the security guards, pujaris—had already gone to bed. There were only some guards outside the temple. Suddenly they heard so much noise coming from the Jagannath temple—it was the noise of a water current, and they could also hear some voice coming from the inside the temple.

They immediately woke the guards who had the keys and opened the gate, but when they came in, they saw there was only a girl there. It was that same girl. "How did you get here?!" They thought she was a thief and had hidden in the temple to steal the ornaments of the Deities. They caught her and took her to the police station, and were going to tell everything to the King the next day.

The next day, however, Jagannathdev come in a dream to the king, the main pujari, Kashi Mishra, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya and said, "That girl is My real devotee, and your security has put that girl into jail. I will fast today the whole day! Take all the security guards and go to tell her, apologise to her. I brought the Ganga for her, she is not a thief! Your security gave so much dishonour to her, you have made so much offence to her! Go to that girl with a band party, kirtan, and all honour, and apologise to her, otherwise I will fast." The girl was released from the jail, and then Jagannath was offered the bhog.

Lord Jagannath is always for His devotees. Krishna can do everything for His devotees.

That girl's name was Ganga Mata Goswamini. She later became the acharya of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya's temple—that temple's Deity is still there, Sri Radha Krishna Mahaprabhu. She had many disciples, and could give a good lecture—when she would speak Hari-katha, all women would come to listen to her.

It is a very nice story from Lord Jagannathdev's Pastimes.

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Panihati

3 November 2010

Today is Mahaprabhu's Subha Vijay in Panihati. We have been to Panihati for chira-dadhi mahotsav, it is the place where Srila Raghunath Das Goswami Prabhu received mercy of Sri Nityananda Prabhu—having got His mercy, he got service to Mahaprabhu.

Actually, Panihati is not so far from Dum Dum Park, and it is a very nice place, on the bank of the Ganges...

Our Param Guru Maharaj's appearance day is on the same day as Virachandra Prabhu's appearance. Virachandra Prabhu is the son of Nityananda Prabhu; he was born in a village that is called now Virachandrapur. If we can get mercy of Virachandra Prabhu, we will get mercy of Nityananda Prabhu...

So, today is Subha Vijay—today Mahaprabhu went to Panihati. The house of Raghav Pandit and his sister Damayanti is in that same place. Raghav Pandit and Damayanti would prepare food during the whole year to take it later to Puri for Mahaprabhu. They would make so many preparations! The devotees at Raghav Bhavan still make many preparations for Mahaprabhu during the whole year—they still keep this tradition. When I went to Panihati for chira-dadhi mahotsav, they showed me how they kept the preparations and they said that at the Ratha Yatra time something they would send and something they would take to Puri themselves.

That is one of the bhaktanga (one of the practices of devotion)—whatever property, whatever things you have that are dear to you, you must give it to your Gurudev, to Bhagavan.

One day Nityananda Prabhu came to Panihati with all His associates. When He saw Das Goswami Prabhu, He said, "Ai, chora, ai! Come here, thief, come here! Today I will give you your punishment." What punishment did He give? Nityananda Prabhu said, "You have to feed everybody here!" Das Goswami Prabhu replied to Nityananda Prabhu, "That is no punishment! What kind of punishment is this?" To get a chance to do Vaishnav seva is so fortunate! How many people get that kind of 'punishment'? Only a very fortunate soul can get the chance to do that kind of Vaishnav seva. And Das Goswami Prabhu made a festival there—chira-dadhi mahotsav (lit. festival of chipped rice and yoghurt).

Panihati is a small place, but so many people, millions and millions of people, come there, and one year I went there too with a few Western devotees. We made a pandal there the day before the festival and brought chira, flat rice. That chira is mixed with water and distributed. It is a one day festival—we went there in the morning and came back the same day. It is easy to get there from Dum Dum Park.

Panihati festival is a preaching place—just take the books and give chira prasadam to the devotees. Very nice. When we went there, I had bought 200 kg flat rice and three-five people distributed it in small portions to everyone. Within half an hour it was finished, and we were shy there was no more prasad. Everyone was asking for more.

The tree where Nityananda Prabhu and His associates were sitting is still there, right on the bank of the Ganges. There, Das Goswami Prabhu got mercy—he bowed to Nityananda Prabhu, and Nityananda Prabhu kept His feet on Das Goswami's head. This is how Nityananda Prabhu gave His mercy to him.

This is how Das Goswami Prabhu got the chance to serve Mahaprabhu and Svarup Damodar. He mostly served Svarup Damodar because Mahaprabhu gave him to Svarup Damodar. Later, when they disappeared, Das Goswami Prabhu went to Radha Kunda and stayed there. His samadhi, his bhajan kutir are still there, and every year when go on Govardhan parikrama we sit there...

Everyone wants to get mercy of the Lord, but not everybody gets it. It depends on one's sukriti, and we are lacking it—if there is no sukriti, we cannot get service to the Lord. People come for this festival from so far, but we, the Bengalis, stay at home, with visaya...

visaye je priti ebe achhaye amara

sei-mata priti hauk charane tomara

Gitavali, 4.5, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur

We have affection for the material things, for the wife, etc., but that kind of affection must come for the lotus feet of the Lord. If that affection does not come, there is nothing…

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Passed or Failed?

24 December 2010

We sing some songs in the morning and some songs in the evening—to get devotion we must practise devotion, otherwise if we do not practise, devotion will not come.

Why do we lose interest? Why does the Holy Name not come to our mouth? Why do we not get taste for Hari-katha? It is taranga sraddha [flickering faith that comes in waves]... Why do we not get energy to chant the Holy Name? What is the problem? The only problem is that we use our time, we use our tongue to speak about other things—gramya-katha, visaya-katha, material talks, and so on. When your energy goes there and is lost there, how will you get the energy to chant the Holy Name? If your ear always hears other people's talks, some other material talks, how will you get taste, ruchi, for chanting the Holy Name? You will not...

Srila Guru Maharaj gave our society the name Krishna-anusilana Sangha. We must practise Krishna-anusilana, practise Krishna consciousness. If you do not practise Krishna consciousness, you will not get anything. Remember it—we must always practise. Practice makes perfect.

Why do I sing the same kirtans every day? To teach others. We do not want to learn—our mind and thoughts go to another place; but if we hear Krishna-katha, Hari-katha, then it does not happen, desire for bhukti (enjoyment), desire for mukti (liberation) does not come.

Gurudev said: when you go to primary school, high school, college, or do a course you always get there a certificate, but when you join the temple who will give you a certificate? You must make your certificate yourself. Gurudev said you can easily understand yourself whether you pass or fail, it is not necessary to take any examination to understand it—you can examine yourself, "Is the taste for Hari-katha, Krishna-katha coming to me or do I think more about other things?”

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Austerity in Service

31 December 2010

Vrindavan Das Thakur wrote the song Sri Hari-vasare Hari-kirtana-vidhana, composed Chaitanya-bhagavat... How does he know everything? A thirteen-year-old boy, he did not go to school, did not study, but how much he wrote! How much mercy he got! He lived in Denur, in the house of the local landlord Ramahari Chakravarti, and he did bhajan, composed Chaitanya-bhagavat, and served there the vigraha of Nitai Gaur. He also preached in that area. Nityananda Prabhu had ordered him, "It is not necessary for you to go with Me, stay here," and he followed His instruction.

'samsara' 'samsara' ka're michhe gela kala

labha na ha-ila kichhu ghatila janjala

kisera samsara ei, chhayabaji praya

ihate mamata kari' vrtha gela yaya

Time has passed in the affairs of material household life, and I have got nothing—only became burdened... As if spellbound, I was attracted to this pointless material life, and being so much engrossed into it I pass my days in vain.

Kalyan-kalpataru, 3.2.4

We must be humble, tolerant and give honour to others. Big things are waiting for you, but you will not get it if you are not tolerant. We must be tolerant.

ara kabe nitaichand karuna karibe

samsara-vasana mora kabe tuchha ha'be

When will Nitaichand give mercy to me? When will all my material desires become insignificant?

'Prarthana' by Srila Narottam Das Thakur

Nityananda means Gurudev...

What is service? Service means you will get some austerity. You think in your service everything will go smoothly, but it is impossible—everything cannot go smoothly. Krishna will test you, will examine you: how much tolerance do you have? How much love and affection do you have for the Lord and for your Guru? If some austerity comes, will you think, "Oh, I will leave my Guru," will you think, "I cannot stay here, I will go into hiding"? What is the service mood? Service means you must get some austerity—you cannot hope that everything will go smooth in your service.

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Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra

15 June 2011, Skype to Caracas

I am very happy today to see that all devotees together are very happily doing the festival of Parama Karuna in Caracas. My body is a little far from there, but my mind is with you all. Actually, I am very sorry that because of some disturbance here I could not attend this grand festival in Caracas. Physically, I cannot be present, but next time I really want to go.

I am always with you, and truly my love and affection are always with you—I cannot forget your service, your love and affection, and how Nitai Gaurachandra constantly bestow Their mercy on you all.

Today is the Deities' installation anniversary festival. This day comes every year, and all year we wait for this day to come. Actually, today is a very important day—the day when the Deities were installed in the Parama Karuna temple in Caracas.

You all always help me in Venezuela, Caracas, so much. I am very happy that service and preaching are going on very enthusiastically, very gorgeously there, and I always pray to Gurudev for you. Anywhere I go, anywhere I preach, I always tell how much, how affectionately—with heart and soul—the devotees in Caracas serve Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra Prabhu.

You know that "vigraha naha Tumi, saksat Vrajendra-nanandan" ("My Lord, You are not an idol, You are Vrajendra-nandan Himself," Cc, 2:5:96). You also heard that even when Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj started preaching and giving initiation, he went first to Ekachakra to take mercy from Lord Nityananda—Nitaiyer karuna habe Vraje Radha-Krsna pabe—without mercy from Nityananda Prabhu we cannot get mercy from Gaurachandra, Radha, Krishna. I also heard that in 1990, after Gurudev took charge as the successor in 1988, he too went to Ekachakra. Later, Gurudev gave an order to me, "You can make a temple in the birthplace of Lord Nityananda Prabhu."

I remember when Gurudev was in hospital and was going for an operation, we were so sad, but although he was in the operation theatre he was chanting,

nitai-pada-kamala, koti chandra-susitala,

ye chhayaya jagata judaya

Cooling like ten million moons, Nitai's lotus feet soothe the world with their shade.

The sun gives light and heat and the moon cools. One moon is cool, and you can imagine then how cool ten million moons must be (koti chandra-susitala)—you will feel that kind of cool, that kind of mercy, happiness and joy if you take shelter of Nityananda Prabhu's lotus feet. Gurudev showed that...

Guru is nondifferent from Nityananda Prabhu. That is our conception, and our scriptures say that. Nityananda is Guru-tattva—Nityananda is the Guru. And today we are celebrating this festival of Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra Prabhu in Caracas:

How much enthusiasm Amita Sakti Didi has! She came to Ekachakra, brought the Deities' dress, and so many devotees from Caracas came with her and helped—there was a grand festival in Ekachakra in Nityananda Prabhu's birthplace. You may be thinking, "There is Nitai, Nityananda Prabhu, in Ekachakra, and here also there is Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra"—but They are nondifferent! Nityananda Prabhu came there to distribute His mercy to the devotees. You can understand that, you can realise that.

How many devotees' hearts Nityananda Prabhu has captured, how many hearts Gurudev has captured! It is not on the physical level—they have captured the heart! Today we are going to celebrate it. You cannot see me there, I cannot stay there physically, but actually I am always with you, and if you can realise it, if you can understand it, you will be able to see me there.

This is our only hope... Sometimes some problems come, or some disturbance comes, but Chaitanya Saraswat Math is very big, it is like a vast ocean, and if somebody throws one stone, some wave will come but it will immediately disappear by the mercy of Gurudev. So many things are going on, and many devotees feel a little bit sad, "Oh, Maharaj cannot come..." but I am always with you, I am always with all the devotees. That is my hope.

Today is a very important day. Deity installation does not mean we just make a festival for one day, give some sweets, etc. it is not like that actually. It is the day when Nityananda Prabhu Himself came to give mercy to the devotees.

I am very happy, and I am also inviting all the devotees to come to Nabadwip and stay here. Try to come here with your family. If you can stay in Ekachakra, in Nabadwip, or in Siliguri, it will be good. It is a crisis time for us here, so please come from time to time, stay in Nabadwip. There will be some austerity, but austerity is temporary—if you want to get more benefit in your spiritual life, you must serve Nityananda Prabhu. Nitaiyer charana satya Tahara sevaka nitya: the lotus feet of Nityananda Prabhu are the truth, and sevaka nitya, His servitor is eternal. Nitai-pada sada kara asa: always hold onto His lotus feet, they are our only hope. We must remember it. Actually we cannot remember it, but we must try to remember—we must try to remember the mercy of the lotus feet of Nityananda Prabhu.

Please forgive my offences. I am very happy to see all the devotees there and to have got an opportunity to speak to you.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

Visva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Jay Sri Sri Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra Prabhu ki jay!

All the Caracas devotees ki jay!

The grand festival in Caracas ki jay!

Hairnam sankirtan ki jay!

Gaura premanande Hari Hari bol!

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Sankirtan Movement

11 July 2011, Skype to London

Are there any questions from the devotees?

Question: How can we increase our desire to go for preaching?

Through sravan, kirtan, and sadhu sanga, good association. Good association is necessary. You may ask, "How can we get good association?" Read the scriptures, listen to Gurudev's lectures, read Gurudev's books, Guru Maharaj's book, listen to Guru Maharaj's lectures, and you will get desire for preaching.

If through their service somebody becomes proud, thinking, "I am the pujari," or, "I am the manager," it is very harmful for their spiritual life. You should think, "I am the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant. I have come to serve Krishna, but He is so powerful, and I cannot do anything for Him; but Gurudev allowed me to serve Lord Krishna through him." If we serve our Guru, our service will easily go to the Lord. Some do not understand it and become proud that they are a pujari, thinking it is the best service, but those who serve Gurudev understand that service to Gurudev is the best and most powerful. That is why when we do puja, we first do Guru puja, and we say, "Guru, Vaishnav, Bhagavan," we do not say, "Bhagavan, Vaishnav, Guru". First Guru, then Vaishnav, then Bhagavan.

Do not think, "Oh, from the day after tomorrow we will do..." No, from tomorrow we must sing, chant, and dance in the street and distribute books! It is my earnest request: if we all together, all our society, all our centres and temples preach like this, we can do it. If even two devotees lead a centre and go preaching, that is sufficient.

Actually, that is our life. I always tell all devotees that they should all together run the program every day—give a class, preach, engage in sravanam, kirtanam, atma-nivedanam, etc. Practising movement is necessary—our life is not only to do puja and give some prasadam.

I tell it to all temples, you can believe that.

A temple is a house. The householder devotees can cook and serve the Deity, and all the brahmacharis and sannyasis are not meant to only sit and do japa. Their place is in the street—chanting, dancing, and preaching! Let the householder people keep and protect the house, and the brahmacharis, the sannyasis and those who have some ability should go preaching. Everybody is surprised, "What is Maharaj saying?!" Yes, a temple is a house, and maintaining the house, cooking for the Deity, serving the Deity is a householder's job. Sannyasis and brahmacharis must go preaching in the street, chanting and dancing.

I am happy to hear all the devotees, and if I have done anything wrong, please forgive my offence. I am actually a fallen soul, I have no qualification, but Gurudev told me something, and I am only repeating his words to the devotees...

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

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Under Control

22 December 2011

If I see some brahmachari doing something wrong, it is not my business. Samalochana, para-charcha, para-ninda—if you criticise, speak bad, or find fault with others, your bhajan, seva, will go away. Ku-boliba na, ku-dekhiba na, ku-suniba na—do not say bad things, do not see bad things, do not hear bad things.

If you, for example, see some boy or girl doing something wrong, and you immediately go and give the news to others, it is very bad for you because that fault will attack you in return—Gurudev said that problem could come to you. Do not do it. Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur also told so. When two brahmachari would be fighting, what did Prabhupad do? He would call the two brahmacharis and tell them to glorify each other for 10 minutes each.

You must understand it—if you see some offence, that offence will attack you; if you see fault in somebody, that fault will attack you. We must see the good in others. Vaishnavs are adosa-darasi—Vaishnavs do not see others' faults.

na dekhi tarana lesa, yata dekhi saba klesa

anatha katare tei kande

I do not see even a trace of hope. All I see is hardship. Helpless and distressed, I cry.

'Thakura Vaishnava Gana' by Srila Narottam Das Thakur

"I see no way how to be rescued from these material things—everything around me is very sorrowful, very sad... Prabhu, what can I do? I have nobody—no mother, no parents, nobody—I am an orphan, so I am crying to you, Prabhu, O Vaishnav Thakur!"

Kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, abhimana (lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness, and ego)—it all exists in our mind, and the mind controls everything. We have five karmendriya (pada, pani, payu, upastha, vak: feet, hands, rectum, genitals, mouth), and five jnanendriya (chaksu, karna, nasika, jihva, tvak: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin), and the mind controls them all. For example, I am sitting here and see a girl passing down the road. She is gone, but I can still see her—my mind is controlling my eyes. Mind is naughty, dusta, and it must be always controlled.

How will you control your kama-veg (lust urge)? Gurudev gave one mantra—kama-gayatri... If you cannot control kama-veg, there will be a big problem in your spiritual life. Kama-veg must be given up.

You must also control your tongue—tongue means bad talking and bad eating, or eating too much.

gramya-katha na karibe, gramya-varta na kahibe

bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe

"Do not get into 'village' talks, do not hear 'village' talks. Do not eat fancy food, do not wear fancy clothes."

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.236

vairagira krtya—sada nama-sankirtana

saka-patra-phala-mule udara-bharana

"The duty of a renunciate is to always engage in Nama-sankirtan, and maintain your stomach with vegetables, leaves, fruit, and roots."

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.226

Who said this? Sriman Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told it to Srila Das Goswami. "Devotees must always chant the Holy Name, engage in Nama-sankirtan, and only take some fruit and vegetables."

When I heard some devotee in Nabadwip eats fourteen chapatis at a time, I was surprised: how does he control his everything? If you do not control your mouth, you cannot control your mind, and if you cannot control your mind, you cannot control anything.

Gurudev said that eyes, nose, mouth, heart, everything should be gradually controlled. Gurudev gave an example. Imagine you are standing and six men—kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, abhimana (lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness, ego)—are pulling you with ropes in six different directions. Tell me, what will be your position then?

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The News

22 December 2011

Emana durmati. What does durmati mean? What kind of 'bad' is it? Mind always goes towards bad things, always does bad things. Samsara bhitare padiya achhinu ami: I have already fallen into family attachment. Tava nija-jana kona mahajane pathaiya dile tumi. Prabhu, You sent here one person, a Guru. Kahila amare giya. What did that Guru tell me?

Tomare tarite navadvipe avatara. You do not know but Krishna Himself has come to this world, appearing in Nabadwip under the name of Sri Krishna Chaitanya. Toma hena kata dina-hina jane karilena bhava-para. He came to rescue us—to rescue the souls like you and me! We have to cross the river, but without His mercy we cannot do it, and He has come to take us across.

Vedera pratijna rakhibara tare. He promised, "I will come in the Age of Kali." Rukma-varna. Whose varna (colour) is rukma (golden)? Rukma is Radharani's color—He hid His own colour and took the color of Radharani. Vipra-suta. Vipra means a brahmin, suta means a son: He came as a son of a brahmin. 'A brahmin' means who? Jagannath Mishra.

Nanda suta yini chaitanya gosani. He who is the son of Nanda Maharaj became now Chaitanya Gosai. Nija-nama kari' dana. What did He donate to us? He gave everybody His own Name (nija Nama)! Bhagavan Krishna's Name, Beauty, Pastimes are nondifferent from the Lord.

Se katha suniya asiyachhi, natha "I heard that, so I have come to You, Prabhu. I am surrendering at Your lotus feet." Bhakti Vinod Thakur is telling his own story... If we tell it, Krishna will give His mercy—if we cry to Lord Nityananda, He will give His mercy, so Bhakti Vinod Thakur is crying...

(prabhu he!)

emana durmati samsara bhitare

padiya achhinu ami

tava nija-jana kona mahajane

pathaiya dile tumi [1]

O Lord! I am very wicked-minded and have fallen into this material world, but You have sent a great soul, Your associate (to rescue me).

daya kari more patita dekhiya

kahila amare giya

ohe dina-jana suna bhala katha

ullasita ha'be hiya [2]

Seeing me so fallen and being merciful, he came to me and said, "O humble soul, listen to this wonderful message and your heart will rejoice.

tomare tarite sri-krsna-chaitanya

navadvipe avatara

toma hena kata dina-hina jane

karilena bhava-para [3]

"Sri Krishna Chaitanya has appeared in Nabadwip to deliver you. He has brought many humble souls just like you to the shore of the ocean of material existence.

vedera pratijna rakhibara tare

rukma-varna vipra-suta

mahaprabhu name nadiya mataya

sange bhai avadhuta [4]

"To fulfil the prophecies of the Vedas, He has appeared with a golden complexion as a brahman's son bearing the name 'Mahaprabhu' and driven all of Nadia (all the world) mad with divine love in the company of His brother Nityananda.

nanda suta yini chaitanya gosani

nija-nama kari' dana

tarila jagat tumi-o yaiya

laha nija paritrana [5]

"Sri Chaitanya, who is Krishna Himself, has distributed His own Name and delivered the world. Go also and accept your deliverance."

se katha suniya asiyachhi, natha!

tomara charana-tale

bhakati-vinoda kandiya kandiya

apana-kahini bale [6]

O Lord, hearing this message, Bhakti Vinod has come to the soles of Your feet. Crying, he tells his story.

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Sweet Dreams

22 December 2011

If Krishna calls, I am going, but those who are sleeping will sleep through the whole of their life. They will not be able to get there—they will come and go and will always sleep. It is a big problem.

Morning arati is called mangal arati, what does 'mangal' mean? 'Mangal' means good fortune, prosperity, benefit, auspicious. If you do not wake up at mangal arati, auspiciousness is ruined for you.

na la-inu sat mata asate majila chita

tuya paye na karinu asa

I have never accepted the proper conception. My mind has been immersed in illusion, and I have never aspired for your feet.

Do you know how many hours Das Goswami Prabhu slept? One and a half hours, dera ghanta. Toilet, prasadam and sleeping—one and a half hours; and for the rest twenty-two and a half hours he did service. Both Jiva Goswami Prabhu and Das Goswami Prabhu lived like this. Think about it and remember it.

What will happen to you when you become 70 years old? You will not be able to come out of your hole the whole day.

jiva jaga, jiva jaga, gorachanda bale

kata nidra yao maya-pisachira kole

(ar kata kal ghumaibe?)

(maya-pisachira kole)

Sri Gorachand calls, "O souls, awake! O souls, awake! How long will you sleep in the clutches of the witch Maya? How much longer will you sleep? How much longer will you sleep in the lap of the witch Maya?"

What does pisachi mean? It is a petni, a she-ghost, or a witch. So, the souls are sleeping, attacked by a petni.

"Udila aruna purava-bhage": the sun arises in the East, and the mangal arati must be 1 hour 36 minutes before the sunrise. Remember it. It is a must. Before this time it is not necessary to rise.

Who is that witch? Your grandmother became a petni, a witch, and she is pressuring you. It is very clear. 'Maya pisachi' means your grandmother, grandfather always give you affection and when they die, they continue to give you so much affection, otherwise they cannot come to the Lord…

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"I Want Purity"

22 December 2011

Do you recite your gayatri? Tell me the Guru gayatri. [Silence] You took initiation but you are not doing gayatri... How many months is it since you took initiation? Five or six months have passed, but you still cannot recite your gayatri...

I am testing everybody. I am very serious—Gurudev gave me this position, and I am a serious Guru. I want to bring Srila Sridhar Maharaj's culture here again. If I die, it is not a problem, but I will bring Srila Sridhar Maharaj's pure conception.

Srila Sridhar Maharaj said that for those who did not come to the mangal arati, breakfast would be closed, they should never be given breakfast; and Gurudev made it milder: those who did not come to the mangal arati should themselves understand it and should not come for breakfast.

I have to be heavy. I do not want and do not need so many disciples. I do not want quantity—I want quality. They can take initiation from others, no problem, if I have only one disciple, it is sufficient—he can rescue the whole world and can manage all temples. I do not want so many disciples, I do not like that. That is my opinion, and I am telling it to everybody.

Too many disciples will make disturbance, make problem, and all the problems will come to me. If they do anything bad, the fault will come to me because when a Guru gives initiation, he takes all of the sisya's bad karma, and if the sisya does bad karma again after the initiation, the Guru will suffer. I do not want so many disciples—I want purity.

Why do you take initiation? You do not do japa, you do not do gayatri... You must do it every day.

nija sukha lagi' pape nahi dari

daya-hina svartha-para

para-sukhe duhkhi sada mithya-bhasi...

What is the next line? Tell me. Have you forgotten? Why? What do you remember? When you remember Nityananda Prabhu, your mind or brain will never be disturbed, but what do you remember? Who do you remember? Tell me.

nija sukha lagi' pape nahi dari

daya-hina svartha-para

para-sukhe duhkhi sada mithya-bhasi

para-duhkha sukha-kara

"For my own happiness, I am not afraid to sin. I am devoid of compassion and my own interest is supreme for me. I am sad when others are happy, I always lie, and I am happy when others are sad.”

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Lord Nrisinghadev

5 May 2012

We always pray to Lord Nrisinghadev, "Suddha-bhaktir vighna vinas kora: please, remove the obstacles to pure devotion and bad elements from our society." That is our only prayer to Lord Nrisinghadev. I am also praying to Nrisinghadev for that.

Nrisinghadev is always happy with His affectionate devotee, Prahlad Maharaj, and those who are the Lord's dear devotees are not afraid of Lord Nrisinghadev—they pray to Him.

One time a devotee brought some prasadam of Lord Nrisinghadev to Gurudev, and Gurudev became a little thoughtful. At first he hesitated, but then he suddenly said, "I am afraid, so I can take Nrisinghadev's prasadam, but my Guru Maharaj is not afraid." Gurudev said that. You know that everybody was afraid of Lord Nrisinghadev, but Prahlad Maharaj was not. Prahlad Maharaj immediately went to Nrisinghadev, and the Lord gave him so much affection. Lord Nrisinghadev is always affectionate to His dear devotees.

I am praying to Lord Nrisinghadev that He may protect our mission. That is our prayer and hope.

Jay Nrisinghadev!

Jay Prahlad Maharaj ki jay!

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As Soon As Possible

27 May 2012, Skype to Salt Lake City, Utah

You must always 'wait and see', in everything—you will get everything, but you must wait and see, you cannot force anything. That day will come one day and mercy will automatically come.

There are three devotees getting initiation today, and I am very happy to give initiation to them.

(1)

Actually, you already know the rules and regulations. Gurudev would always say, "You must accept the supathya (wholesome things), and reject the kupathya (unhealthy things)." It means when a doctor gives you medicine, he also tells you what to avoid—otherwise you will take the medicine, but it will not work. In this way, Harinam is the medicine for our spiritual life, for our Krishna consciousness life, for our practising life. Take this medicine and avoid kupathya, bad habits (intoxication, illegal sex, bad association, etc.). If you have acidity problem and you take an antacid, but at the same time you eat much sour and spicy food, your acidity will not be removed. So, if you chant the Holy Name and eat meat, fish, and smoke with the same mouth, it will not work. That is why the sastra, the scriptures, say that you must take supathya and you must reject kupathya—accept good things and reject bad things. We must reject these four things—gambling, intoxication, illegal sex, killing other souls (jiva-hatya)—and practise properly, then we will get the result quickly. If we do not practise properly, the result will not come quickly—it will take time and slowly-slowly it will come.

You are going to get the Holy Name, and this Holy Name comes from a Guru parampara:

krsna haite chatur-mukha hana krsna-sevonmukha

brahma haite naradera mati

narada haite vyasa madhva kahe vyasa dasa

purnaprajna padmanabha gati

By Krishna's association, Brahma became devoted to Krishna's service. By Brahma's association, Narad Muni became devoted. After Narad came Krishna Dvaipayan Vedavyas. Purnaprajna Madhva Acharya declared he was Vyasa's servant. He was Padmanabha Tirtha's Guru.

This Holy Name came from Krishna to Brahma, from Brahma to Narad, from Narad to Vyasadev, from Vyasadev to Madhva Acharya, and in this way it comes down our Guru parampara line, or sampradaya—Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya sampradaya. It came to Madhavendra Puri, from Madhavendra Puri to Ishwar Puri, from Ishwar Puri to Mahaprabhu.

Mahaprabhu Himself took initiation. He is the Lord Himself and does not need to take initiation, but He taught us by His own example. Nija achari' dharma jivke sikhaya: if we do not practise properly ourselves, we cannot teach others properly. So, Mahaprabhu Himself took initiation from Ishwar Puri in Gaya—He showed to us that to increase your spiritual life, you must take initiation from a bone fide Guru.

We also took initiation from our Gurudev, and Gurudev gave me this position, he said, "If somebody is a sincere seeker, they got good association and want real chanting, want to practise properly, you can initiate them." You have been waiting for so many days, you are getting association from many of the Salt Lake City devotees, so I consider you a good devotee, a good practitioner and that you can take initiation and practise properly.

Now I am giving you the beads. Start from the big bead. First touch the beads to your head and give 'jay' to Gurudev, then chant Pancha-tattva's name:

sri-krsna-chaitanya prabhu nityananda

sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi gaura-bhakta-vrinda

Ask Them for mercy because They have brought this Holy Name to this abode and without Their mercy we cannot chant.

This big bead on top is the sumeru bead, and these are the big beads. Chant in this way, I am showing you:

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

Chant from the big beads, take turn, and from the big beads to the small beads, and from the small beads to the big beads—in this way chant sixteen rounds or more, but if any day you are busy with service chant not less than four rounds. Sixteen rounds or more is good, and you can also chant without the mala—when you are cooking, when you are doing another service. You can chant at any time: ki sayane, ki bhojane, ki va jagarane (Cb, 2.1.242), even at sleeping time, at bathing time, in the bathroom, when lying down, driving, or sitting in the car. You can chant any time without the beads, the result is the same. OK? Always chant—sevon mukhe kaha Krsna Nam: when you are serving with your hands, you can chant with your mouth.

They will also give you the Nama aparadh book, that is Dasa-vidha Nama aparadha. Do not do sadhu ninda, criticising the sadhu, Vaishnavs, do not think the Holy Name is equal to any other name—you must read about these kinds of Nama aparadh (offences to the Holy Name) in this book and avoid them. Chant without offence and you will get the result quickly, as soon as possible.

(2)

You have heard everything... You are a fortunate soul, you are getting the Holy Name:

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.151

You are getting the seed, but it is not enough to only get the seed—you must take care of it. You must always chant properly and practise properly. That is my advice. You think you are getting initiation and will go to Vaikuntha, but it is not possible without you practising.

A chair has four legs, and actually I am your one leg, but a chair cannot stand with one leg only—three more legs are necessary. You must practise and avoid bad things—this is left up to you. If you do not practise properly, your Guru cannot do anything. If you follow your Guru, that is good for your life. Follow everything I am telling you properly and you will prosper in your practising life, you will be successful in your spiritual life. I am giving you medicine, and if you do not take this medicine, your disease will not be cured. Take the medicine and avoid bad things.

Now you can take the beads in your hand, and start from the big bead called sumeru. First touch the big bead to your head and say,

sri-krsna-chaitanya prabhu nityananda

sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi gaura-bhakta-vrinda

Chant Their name, remember Their name, and ask Them for mercy—without Their mercy we cannot chant because They have brought this Holy Name to this abode. Then start chanting from the big beads, one by one,

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

In this way, chant from the big beads to the small beads, turn the mala, chant from the small beads to the big beads, turn the mala, and again from the big beads to the small beads. Do not cross the sumeru bead.

Sixteen rounds or more is good for you. If any day you are busy with service, not less than four rounds must be chanted. Your Harinam mala, beads, must not fast. Chant in this way and you will have success in your spiritual life. You will be happier.

Also, read the ten offences book and avoid the offences. There are many offences—main ten offences to the Holy Name, seva aparadh, Vaishnav aparadh, etc.—you must avoid these offences and chant the Holy Name without offence, then you will get the result quickly, as soon as possible. Krishna will reveal Himself in your heart, and you will be successful in your spiritual life.

(3)

You have so much anxiety... Only think about Krishna, surrender to Krishna, and all anxiety will be removed from you. It is not necessary to think about anything—Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and you must just surrender to the Lord and your Gurudev, then your anxiety will be removed.

We are suffering from adhibhautik (others), adhidaivik (nature), and adhyatmik (ourselves)—we have so many mental problems, but if you chant and engage yourself in service, all kinds of anxiety will be removed. The more time you are engaged in service, the more time you chant and think about the Lord, about your Guru, Vaishnavs, Bhagavan, the sooner all kinds of mental diseases, tri-tapa-yatan (three-fold miseries), will be removed from you.

That is what is necessary. Do not follow what your mind is telling you, follow your Guru, Vaishnavs, Bhagavan, and everything will be OK for you.

You are a very fortunate soul, you are getting mercy from Gurudev, and you have mercy from the Vaishnavs, Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu. It is a new life for you. Forget everything that was in your past—your past is past. Forget everything you have done in your life before, from today your life is suddha (clean). Chant and start a new life from today. OK?

Chant every day on the Harinam mala that I have chanted on and sent there, it is the bhakti-lata-bij (seed of the creeper of devotion). First always remember your Guru's name, remember Vaishnavs and Bhagavan—"Tinera smarane haya vighna-vinasana, always remember them and everything will become clear (Cc, 1.1.21)."

First give 'jay' to Gurudev. Always chant Gurudev's name, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Name, Nityananda Prabhu's Name, always chant the Holy Name, and you will be cured.

Then chant Pancha-tattva's name:

sri-krsna-chaitanya prabhu nityananda

sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi gaura-bhakta-vrinda

This is Pancha-tattva's name. Chant Their name, ask Them for mercy. They have brought the Holy Name to this abode, and with Their mercy only we can chant the Holy Name—without Their mercy we cannot.

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

There are beads on two sides from the sumeru bead, on one side are the big beads, on the other side are the small beads. Start chanting from the big beads and chant to the small beads, then take turn, and chant from the small beads to the big beads, and so on. In this way, chant sixteen rounds or more, it is good for you.

If any day you do not get time, you can always chant with your mouth and chant only four rounds on your mala. That is not a problem. If you do get time, chant sixteen, fifteen, twenty rounds, sometimes you will chant only four rounds, sometimes five, or ten. There is no timetable, you can chant at any time. Whenever you get time, you can take the chanting beads and chant. Without mala also: you can chant with your mouth only while you are doing some service: sevon mukhe kaha Krsna Nam.

Chant in this way, and Krishna will reveal Himself in your heart, you will succeed in your spiritual life—but you must read the ten offences book and avoid these offences. If you chant without offence, you will get the result quickly, as soon as possible.

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Fallen Souls: Imitation, Ego, Faith

8 July 2012, speaking online to Caracas

When you practise devotion, more devotion comes, but emotion comes in one minute...

Actually, a perfect devotee will not fall down, but there can always come some problem—even bad association can do harm. Once, Bhagavan Acharya came to Svarup Damodar and asked him, "Why do you not hear Sankar Acharya's scriptures, or read something from the Vedanta-bhasya?" Svarup Damodar replied, "Even a great scholar, a great sannyasi can fall down—their mind can be changed—by hearing the mayavadi conception." That is why we must be careful. Do not hear bad things, do not do bad things, and do not mix or go to misconception.

Any questions?

Question: I read in one of Srila Govinda Maharaj's books that devotion is important, and that is why we must be careful about imitation...

Yes, it is correct—false renunciation, or imitation. It is not necessary to pretend and show your devotion—you can always see devotion through one's service. At first, Raghunath Das Goswami showed much renunciation, but Mahaprabhu told him, "Go back to your home! It is not necessary to show so much renunciation."

It is also necessary to practise from an early age. Tapan Mishra's son, Raghunath Bhatta Goswami, practised much from the age of five, but later he got married. Marriage life is not a problem. After passing the brahmachari age, it is your right, you can get married. It is not bad, but it must be an honest householder life.

If somebody takes brahmacharya life, but after that they cannot continue it and get married, it is not the worst thing that can happen. The main thing is that you must not pretend and show renunciation or imitation—if you cannot continue your brahmachari life, then you can be a good grihastha, householder, and still serve your Guru. It is not a problem, but do not pretend.

Ok, any other pregunta?

Question: If there is a genuine Guru, why do many people take shelter of false Gurus?

That is their bad karma, and they are running with it. That is why the scriptures say:

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

Having travelled throughout the universe and got the mercy of Guru, Krishna, a fortunate soul receives a seed of the devotional creeper.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.151

Only fortunate souls can get there. If everybody took shelter of the Sad-Guru (an honest, genuine Guru), then everybody would go to Goloka Vrindavan, and who would stay here?

When Ramachandra came to Ayodhya, everybody went to Goloka Vrindavan; when Mahaprabhu came, everybody was rescued, everybody got mercy—then why did we come here again? We are fallen souls, that is why we are still here...

[Addressing one of the devotee:] You are a big boy now, learn to play mridanga and do kirtan, OK? I am sad, some devotees cannot sing even one word. When I look at them, I am very sad because I see they are not practising properly—only becoming fat...

Gurudev gave me that power—I can see who is doing nonsense, and who is practising and doing proper service.

They only go to school and get jada-vidya, material education—I do not mind anybody getting material education, but through material education we must become good. When I was twelve years old, I also went to school, but every day I would read one chapter from Srimad Bhagavad-gita, then I would go to school. My father did not want me to read Bhagavad-gita, but I read it secretly. That was my practice from childhood.

They do some service, but I am praying to the Lord that through their service ego will not come. I see when I am chanting their mouth is shut, and I feel like punching or throwing a bomb into their belly to make them chant!

Harinam is chetan vastu (conscious)... Gurudev placed the seed of the Holy Name in our heart, and that Holy Name will come to our tongue, but our tongue must be levelled. If I tell Madhurani to dance but do not give her a proper place, how will she dance? Harinam will dance on your tongue, but if you do not make it levelled, do not give a proper place to Harinam, how will the Holy Name dance? You must give proper adjustment to the tongue. If you talk so much nonsense with your tongue, if you eat so many bad things and not take prasadam, how will Harinam go there and dance? Harinam is non-different from Krishna, so Krishna Himself will dance on your tongue, but if you do not make your tongue a proper place, how will He dance there?

We must be careful—we are doing some service, but if ego comes, then we can also fall down...

One day I asked Gurudev something—it is a private question, but I want to say it now. I asked Gurudev, "Gurudev, Bhakti Ananda Sagar Maharaj took you abroad for the first time, he preached so much, helped so much, printed so many books, but why, after so many years, did he fall down?" Gurudev explained it to me: he had done so much service and ego came, he thought, "I made Govinda Maharaj a visva-guru, a world guru." Actually, he was not more than a translator—he knows English well and he helped Gurudev with English—but because that ego came he fell down. This is the answer that Gurudev gave me.

Actually, Guru brings us here and engages us in service, but if we forget Guru's position, we can go back to the position where we were before. I may think I have a great education, I am a big scholar, a big person, but Gurudev made me that, Gurudev gave me that service. So, if somebody gives me honour, it is for Gurudev. The honour I get is only for Guru. If I get a garland, this garland is only for Guru—all pratistha (name and fame) is for Guru. If Gurudev had not given me this position, who would give me a garland? Who would call me a Guru, who would call me Acharyadev? Who would call me President Sevaite Acharya? It is only because Gurudev gave me this position, but if I forget Gurudev's position, if I do not believe that position comes for him, if I neglect him, then any time name and fame and everything else can run away and I can return to what I was before.

Actually, I am saying very strong things, and you may be sad, but I have to do my job and I have to do what is right. I cannot hide it. Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, "Tosamod kari' takhon kokhon guru haite pare na." It means if you butter your disciple, "Oh, you are very good, you are very good," you cannot be a guru. I cannot do like this. If somebody is doing wrong, I must tell what their fault is. And I must say what my position is. Actually, my position is nothing, except that Gurudev gave me mercy, and he is still testing me—every day I get examination. I have to tolerate much, so many things come...

Do not be discouraged. Prabhupad said that everybody in this world would not chant, everybody would not follow pure Krishna consciousness, but do not be discouraged. Gurudev told me: when you go to primary school, there are so many pupils there, but when you go to high school, only 50% of those pupils get there. Then you go to college, and only 10% get there, and when you go to university, just 2% get there. You must understand it.

Gurudev said also, "Sometimes a storm comes and some doors will close but other doors will open. Your temple, your society will run smoothly, do not worry." When you go fishing, you see fish in some place, but when you throw the net some fish will swim away, do not worry about that. You think, "Oh, now not so many people come to the class," but you must have faith: there may be some problem, but do not worry whether everybody comes or does not come. Everybody will not go to Goloka Vrindavan—there is 10% devotion, 20% devotion, 50% devotion, 90% devotion, etc...

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Simple Preaching, Simple Practice

8 July 2012, speaking online to Caracas

Question: When all these gurus are appearing in the market, how should we preach to our family about our spiritual master?

There are many books by Srila Sridhar Maharaj and by Gurudev, and our conception is there. You have the real food.

Yes, there are many gurus in the market.

Mahaprabhu gave His full power to Srila Rupa Goswami. When Rupa Goswami showed Him his two slokas ("Tunde tandavani ratim" and "Nikhila-sruti-mauli"), Mahaprabhu was extremely happy and overcome with ecstasy. It was at that time that Mahaprabhu gave special mercy to Rupa Goswami. Eventually, that Gaudiya line came down to Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur.

In his lifetime, Srila Saraswati Thakur did not actually mention any Guru—he did not indicate who would be the real Guru—but he indicated who could preach his spiritual conception, who could take the flag—it was Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. When Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur was going to disappear, he told Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj to sing the song "Sri Rupa-manjari-pada, sei mora sampada, sei mora bhajana pujana."

In his lifetime, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj gave sannyas to so many, he also made so many foreign sannyasis, but he gave charge to Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj. He brought him and forcefully gave him sannyas. He said to him, "I have been waiting for this for more than thirty years. I want to make you the Guru. If you do not take this position now, I will commit suicide." Then Gurudev took that position—he took sannyas and held the flag. And in his last days, when Gurudev knew he was going to disappear soon, he gave that position to me.

It is easy to preach this...

Question: What should one do if one is into accumulating knowledge?

Actually, it is not necessary. Prabhupad told not to read so many books. It is not necessary to read so many scriptures or try to dig deep in the scriptures. You do not need so much knowledge—try to understand the simple things.

Gurudev gave me only one book—Gaudiya-kantahara. Other than that, I have not read so many books. Now I am reading Srimad Bhagavatam, but not so much.

In this Age of Kali there is only Harinam maha-mantra. If you can only always chant this Harinam maha-mantra, it will give you a great result. Through chanting you will get service, and when you get service, that will be sufficient for you.

If somebody does puja of Gaura Nitai and they can continue their service until death in this world, they will get the same service in Goloka Vrindavan. If somebody makes garlands their whole life, until death, they will make garlands there also, in Goloka Vrindavan. That is sufficient. It is not necessary to become a Guru, it is not necessary to become a big preacher, or a big kirtaniya. It is a simple matter—we only want to go to our real home. We can make garlands for the whole life and do this service there too. That is it.

At the same time, why did Guru Maharaj make sannyasis? Why did Guru Maharaj make preachers? Why did Gurudev give me sannyas and make me the Guru? To give benefit to others. Gurudev finished his service and gave the responsibility to us, that is why we are continuing his job. We only always follow his order. Why do we give initiation? Why do we make preachers and sannyasis? Because we are following Gurudev's order—Gurudev ordered to us to make preachers so that people could get benefit through them, and we are doing that.

"Please Forgive My Offence"

8 July 2012, speaking online to Caracas

Question: When some devotees do service, sometimes ego can come to them. Why is it like this?

Everybody is different, and ego can come easily through some aparadh: service aparadh, Vaishnav aparadh, etc. Actually, when we go too close, it is very difficult, that is why we sing every day, "Vando muni savadhana mate, I carefully offer my obeisance."

For example, every day when householder people wake up in the morning they pay dandavat to their Guru. Before they go to work also they pay dandavat to their Guru and the Deities in their house. Is it correct or not? At the same time, I saw that sometimes a personal servitor who lives with their Guru, does not pay dandavat to their Guru at all. Then you can understand how much offence they are doing. They think, "Oh, I am feeding him, I am doing service to him, I live in the same room with him, so it is not necessary to pay dandavat to him." I saw also Gurudev's mother—when Gurudev was out, she would every day pay obeisance to him.

So, ego comes through seva aparadh, Vaishnav aparadh, Nama aparadh...

Question: How can we avoid seva aparadh?

Somebody dresses the Deity, somebody does puja, somebody cooks, etc. but we must always be careful: "O Prabhu, I cooked this for You, please take it—take the food from my hand. I do not know how to cook..." Those who dress the Deity, they too must think, "I am making so much offence—Prabhu, I am touching Your hand, I am disturbing You so much, please forgive me." You must be careful. Sometimes the pujari takes Tulasi leaves on the dvadasi day or even at night time, and disturbs Tulasi so much—Tulasi is the dearmost devotee, so some offence is coming through that.

If a devotee makes some offence unconsciously, it is not a problem; but if somebody knowingly makes some offence time after time, thinking, "No one can see me!"—if somebody secretly does nonsense, bad things—they must fall down.

Question: If we have made an offence, and we know we have made an offence, how can we rectify it?

Through service. Do not make more offence, and through service your offence will be removed. If a devotee unknowingly makes an offence, Krishna will not ask for atonement:

ajnane va haya yadi 'papa' upasthita

krsna tanre suddha kare, na karaya prayaschitta

If somebody unknowingly commits an offence, Krishna purifies them without putting them through any atonement.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.138

If somebody feels, "I have made an offence. It is not good for me,"—if this feeling comes to their mind—it is good. If, on the other hand, you think, "I am not an offender. I have not done anything,"—if this kind of ego comes—it is very bad.

I always think I am making offence. When I pay dandavat to the Deity, I always pray, "Please forgive my offence." When I pay dandavat to a devotee, I always think, "Please forgive my offence." Always say this in your mind—it is not necessary to show it or say it out loud. When you pay obeisance to the devotee, pray, "Please forgive my offence." If you make any offence to a Vaishnav, then you must go to the same Vaishnav and ask them, "Please forgive my offence."

You should do prayaschitt, atone, by paying obeisance to each other like this, and without discrimination who is senior and who is junior. "Vaishnav kakhano mano-vakye udvega dibe na": when a Vaishnav talks with anybody, they will never use bad words, will never think bad—they will never be harsh, will never give any pressure to others, even mentally. Your behaviour must not give pain to others.

Sri Guru's Joy and Sadness

15 July 2012, speaking online to Caracas

Instead of thinking, "I am a disciple of this Guru, I am a disciple of that Guru," we should think, "How shall I satisfy my Guru?" I always think that I have taken more from my Guru than I could give. I must give to Guru, not take from him.

We must satisfy our Guru—we must always think about the Guru, think about the Deities, "How shall I serve Them? How shall I serve more?" We must not look for others' fault. If you make yourself busy looking for fault in others and worrying about other things, you will not get time to serve. Always be careful.

Kaya, mana, vakya: your body, speech, and mind must always be clear for service—you must always give your body, speech, and mind for service. Otherwise, if you always think about other people's business, you are going to waste your time. It is not your job to find fault with others—you must always think, "I am guilty, I am not innocent. I will not see others' fault, I will not look at others' fault. I must serve, and what somebody else is doing, that is their business."

Can you understand this?

—Yes.

Good. I am very happy you are able to understand this. When your preaching becomes more successful, when everyone proceeds in their spiritual life, when everyone is happy and increasing their service and spiritual life, then I become happy. You may ask me, "What makes me sad?" I become sad when devotees lose their service, when they do not practise properly and service leaves them, or they are not doing proper service...

I pray to Gurudev for them:

durdaive sevaka yadi yaya anya sthane

sei thakura dhanya tare cule dhari' ane

If by chance a servant falls down and goes somewhere else, glorious is that master who captures him and brings him back by the hair.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4.47

I pray for these unfortunate souls who leave their service—I pray that Krishna will bring them back, that Krishna and Guru will forgive their offence, and that Krishna will engage them again in service to Guru.

Actually, for service not so many things are necessary—only your heart is necessary. You know, there is a devotee who knows only two words in English, "Mahaprabhu" and "Guru", but he goes preaching and every day sells twenty-thirty Hindi books. So, all it takes to serve is a heart and desire. If you have desire to serve your Guru, Krishna will fulfil it. Gurudev told me, "If you serve the Guru, the Vaishnavs, then one day Krishna will come to serve you." We must believe these things. If you have full faith in it, then you can easily understand it.

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Start the Fire

15 July 2012, speaking online to Caracas

Question: My initiating Guru has left this world. How can I now recognise the genuine Guru? I see that some people take shelter in other gurus...

Yes, there are different gurus—karmi gurus, jnani gurus, yogi gurus... We take prasad (rice, dahl, subji, etc.), and a pig eats stool, a cows eats grass—are we all the same? Even among people—we all look like human beings, but is our character the same? Some people eat man's and woman's meat; some people eat dog's meat, some people eat snake's meat—are we all the same? No!

There is a saying, "Yadi tora daka suno keo na ase tabe ekla chalo re: you are calling everybody, 'Come with me!' but if nobody is coming, go alone!" Light the fire, and the wind will come: you think, "How will the fire burn?" but you first start the fire, the wind will come! Prabhupad told us not to be discouraged—not so many people in this world will come to Krishna consciousness, not so many people will get a bona fide Guru; but do not be discouraged—you do your job.

Question: I have a daughter, and I would like to ask how I should preach to her.

Tell her what you heard in my classes, what you learnt and read in Home Comfort, Saranagati, the kirtan book. Preach simple things to her: your daughter is new and not a devotee, give her the primary stage. Tell her about Sanatan siksa from Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita (what Mahaprabhu taught Sanatan Goswami), "Who am I? Why are we suffering? How can we be rescued from this world?" Tell her about the answers to these questions...

Question: What is the meaning of Namabhas?

Namabhase mukti paibe: one can get liberated through Namabhas. Namabhas is good. Even those who did not take initiation can chant the Holy Name and get benefit.

One day, Mahaprabhu asked Haridas Thakur, "In this Age, how will the yavan, the Muslim people, be rescued from this kind of environment?" Haridas Thakur answered, "Namabhase mukti paibe—through Namabhas."

For example, Ajamil had a son named Narayan, and when he was going to die, he called out to his son, but Narayan is Krishna's Name, so by taking the Lord's Name he got relief—he was rescued from that kind of environment. That is called Namabhas.

In the case of a yavan, there was Chand Kazi who broke a mridanga. When Mahaprabhu spoke to him, Chand Kazi kept saying, "Haram!" 'Haram' in Muslim language means, "Not to say—it is bad, bad, bad! Do not say it!" Haridas Thakur said that it could also mean, "Ha Ram," which means, "O Ram!" In this way Chand Kazi got relief, got benefit.

If some devotee is going down the street and some drunkard lady sees them and as a joke says, "Hare Krishna!" or when somebody is mocking, "Hey, look, the Hare Krishna people are going!"—they say "Hare Krishna" and get relief. That is called Namabhas. Even if your daughter says out of criticism, "Oh Hare Krishna," she will be also rescued.

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Luchi Fried in Kerosene

15 July 2012, speaking online to Caracas

Question: If a devotee from another line comes to our temple and feels very inspired by our Gurudev, would it be a lack of chastity from the side of this disciple to come here and abandon his own line and Guru?

No, it is not a problem, it is not a matter of chastity or anything bad. If somebody comes to get association, we do not mind. We allow everybody to come unless they are offenders to our Guru. We must see, however, how sincere they are, and whether or not they are pretending or showing false renunciation.

After Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Srila Prabhupad expired, many of his disciples came to our society because Srila Swami Maharaj himself said that after him they could go to Srila Sridhar Maharaj. So, it is not a matter of being unchaste. Somebody goes to primary school, then they go to high school, then to college, and after that to university. We have no problem with that.

You must understand, however, that I will not give initiation to somebody if they are a disciple of my Guru-varga. We must think why they have left their temple, why they have left their Guru—we must examine them. Our temple management of that particular country should find this out.

Do you eat luchi, or puri, sometimes?

—Yes.

Do you fry it in kerosene oil or in good oil?

—In good oil.

Gurudev told me, "You can take puri, but do not fry it in kerosene oil." It means that if anybody comes from another temple, or another society, and you are giving initiation to them, or you are recommending them for initiation, you must think first and clarify them. Do you understand? We will not take puri fried in kerosene oil.

I do not want to make so many disciples, you know that. One disciple is sufficient if they follow perfectly, if they serve their Guru, Vaishnav, Bhagavan perfectly—it is not necessary to make so many disciples. One pure Vaishnav can rescue the whole world—the whole visva brahmanda, chaudda bhuvan (the fourteen worlds). One bona fide Guru, one bona fide pure Vaishnav is sufficient. We do not want to impress others, "Oh, he has so many followers!" That is not right. We want quality, we do not want quantity.

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Gross!

15 July 2012, speaking online to Caracas

Question: If we see some other line is doing Harinam sankirtan on the street, should we join them or should we just give respect and go?

Give respect and go. Not to go fishing there!

Actually, we have some distinction and Gurudev always told not to go to Mayapur, not to go mix with other Gaudiya Maths and missions. Now I can understand and feel why Gurudev told me not go to Mayapur but instead send somebody else. Gurudev always protected me, and now I understand why.

Sometimes I am invited to some big programs, but I do not feel comfortable to go and sit with those who do not follow Prabhupad's conception, among so many mayavadis, sahajiyas, and mix with all the hotchpotch and kitchuri. I think, "I am a small Guru—I want to be their servant, so I will stay far and not disturb them."

I am not after name and fame. If somebody wants to hear Srila Sridhar Maharaj's words, wants to know Gurudev's conception, I will tell them something, I will spend my time on them, otherwise I do not want to be some big pagri-wearing speaker. Pagri is a turban. When Swami Vivekananda, a mayavadi sannyasi, went to America, he wore a turban, and now many Gaudiya Math sannyasis too wear turbans. Have you ever seen Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, Swami Maharaj, Sridhar Maharaj, or Gurudev wearing turbans? But some think they are now big sannyasis, so they wear a pagri to show how big they are...

[Note—there are photographs of Srila Saraswati Thakur and even Srila Sridhar Maharaj wearing turbans but those were taken either in a photo studio or at official gatherings where a turban was used mainly to aide preaching to the government officials. Other than that, in the usual circumstances, they would not wear it.]

Question: When somebody goes to a temple of another line, saying, "Well, I do service there," where does that service go if they do not serve their own Guru and their Guru's temple?

It goes to karma. Later you will see: they will be bound by karma and the result is that they will go to hell.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita told,

chari varnasrami yadi krsna nahi bhaje

svakarma karileo se raurave padi maje

"The followers of the varnashrama institution accept the regulative principles of the four social orders (brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya and sudra) and four spiritual orders (brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha and sannyasa). However, if one carries out the regulative principles of these orders but does not render transcendental service to Krishna, he falls into a hellish condition of material life.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.26

If a brahmachari (celibate), a grihastha (householder), a vanaprastha (retired), or even a sannyasi (monk) follows varnasrama dharma and performs their duties, they will actually sink into hell if they do not serve Krishna.

These are very heavy words, and it is very difficult to digest it, but I am bound to say it, and these are not my words—it is said in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. These words are only for devotees; when you go preaching, do not say this to a new person, otherwise they will not be able to digest it and will run away.

Also, when you stay at the temple, sometimes what you are doing can be karma. If you do not fulfil Gurudev's desire and just follow your mind, that is karma. Do you understand?

diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana

sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama

At the time of initiation, when a devotee fully surrenders unto the service of the Lord, Krishna accepts him to be as good as Himself.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 4.192

At the time of taking initiation we surrender to our Guru and promise him, "I will serve you, I will serve your mission—I will do whatever you tell me to do"—that is called surrender. If after that you go to another temple, go to serve another Guru, what is this? It means you are breaking your promise.

Gurudev said something very heavy in this regard. Suppose a lady has a husband, she serves him, takes care of the house, children, etc. but secretly she mixes with others and does nonsense with others for her own enjoyment, for the enjoyment of her mind. It is called prostitution. So, when a disciple goes to another temple and does service there, they are just like a prostitute and what they are doing is the same as prostitution.

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Great Expectations

15 July 2012, speaking online to Caracas

Question: When we go to Goloka Vrindavan, we can find there so many souls who came from various Gurus, and we see that here in this world there are many Gurus, but it is not that they give the same kind of mercy...

I think you have so much hope, do you not? You have so much desire to go to Goloka Vrindavan, but I have no desire for Goloka Vrindavan—I want to serve my Guru all my life!

One devotee of Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, "Prabhupad, I saw so many great devotees—siddha, perfect devotees—in Vrindavan!" Prabhupad replied, "Did you? When I was in Vrindavan I did not see even one devotee there!" Do you understand? There are many who wear tilak, etc... Once, Gurudev asked me, "There are so many monkeys in Vrindavan. Do you know who they are?" I said, "No, Gurudev, I do not know." Then Gurudev said, "They are all fallen babajis."

That is why we must be careful. We must be always careful with our service. Always be humble, practise, and whatever result comes, Krishna will give it. Do not hope for so many things, like, "I want to go Goloka Vrindavan", or, "I want this, I want that." Your duty is to only do service, to please your Guru. It is written in Srimad Bhagavad-gita simply, "Do your job, and do not hope for any particular result."

Also, when you ask for something good, like you want to go to Goloka Vrindavan, you want to reach heaven, that is also a desire—it may not be a material desire, but it is still a desire. For example, you are doing Ekadashi today and you think and hope, "If I fast on Ekadashi, I will get some good result." If you think like this, you must renounce, reject this kind of thinking. Srila Prabhupad said, "Bhog tyag, tyag tyag": enjoyment must be renounced, and renouncement also must be renounced.

Do you understand it? It is not easy to understand this...

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Under a Haritaki Tree

31 December 2012, Denur

This place's name is Denur, it is Vrindavan Das Thakur's place, but it is not his birthplace. His birthplace is in Mamgachhi—when we go on Nabadwip Dham parikrama, it is the last place where we go to.

You know that Vrindavan Das Thakur's mother's name is Narayani, and she was a niece of Srivas Pandit.

Mahaprabhu said, "I always stay in the house of Srivas Pandit (Srivas angane), Raghava Pandit (Raghava bhavane), at the kitchen of Sachi Mata (Sachimata randhanasala), and wherever Nityananda Prabhu dances (Nityananda Prabhu nartane)." Mahaprabhu always held kirtans in the house of Srivas Pandit, and Narayani lived in that same house. When she was very little, she got Mahaprabhu's mercy:

One day, when Mahaprabhu was taking prasad, she came up to Him, stretched out her hand, and asked for His prasad. Mahaprabhu gave her some prasad, and in this way she got His mercy. As a result, she later got married, and although her husband was not very well (his name is not mentioned anywhere in the books), by the mercy of Mahaprabhu she got a very good son. His name is Vrindavan Das Thakur. That Vrindavan Das Thakur always served Nityananda Prabhu.

Mahaprabhu gave Nityananda Prabhu charge and ordered Him, "Take care of this area (Rad-desh, Gaura Mandal)." After Mahaprabhu took sannyas, He stayed in Puri, and Nityananda Prabhu and Sivananada Sen would every year take all the Bengal devotees to Puri to meet with Mahaprabhu... They would take breakfast in Nabadwip and then start walking to Puri, and on their way the parikrama party stopped here, in this mango garden.

The name of the landlord of this village was Ramahari Chakravarti, he was a brahmin and took Nityananda Prabhu as his Guru (we will go to his house today). He always thought about Him, "When will I be able to see Nityananda Prabhu? When will I meet Nityananda Prabhu?"

One day, Ramahari Chakravarti saw many devotees were coming, and the crowd was so colourful—some were wearing saffron colour clothes, some were wearing blue colour clothes, some were wearing white colour clothes, etc. He was surprised, and walked over to see who they were. As he came closer, he realised that Nityananda Prabhu Himself was standing there! Seeing his Guru, he fell on the ground, offering his full dandavat, "Prabhu, I always think of You, and suddenly You are here in front of me! Please, come with me to my house, please come." Nityananda Prabhu said, "There are so many of us here, how will we all fit in your house?" Instead, He ordered him, "Bring some rice and dahl, we can make kitchuri and take prasad here." Ramahari Chakravarti arranged everything for all the devotees.

After Nityananda Prabhu took prasadam, He said to His servitor, Vrindavan Das Thakur (who was only thirteen years old at that time), "Vrindavan! Where is my thing?" Vrindavan Das Thakur easily understood what Nityananda Prabhu meant, it was not necessary to tell the name of the thing He wanted, and he took it out of his dhoti and gave it to Nityananda Prabhu. And akrodha paramananda Nityananda Ray showed His anger. He is never angry (akrodha), but that day He showed He was angry with His servitor, "Where did you get this?!"

What Vrindavan Das Thakur gave Him was a haritaki fruit. It is used as a mouth freshener and a digestive—it is similar in use to mauri (saunf, or fennel), and is also one of the components of triphala (amloki, haritaki, and bahera). Nityananda Prabhu would take it every day.

Nityananda Prabhu asked Vrindavan Das Thakur, "How did you get it so quickly?!" His servitor explained, "Prabhu, You took prasadam in the morning in Nabadwip, and knowing You would take it, some devotee gave it to me. You took half of it, and I kept the other half because I knew You would take it later." He told the truth himself. As soon as Nityananda Prabhu heard it, He became angry, "You are like a householder! You are keeping things for tomorrow!" What do householder people do? They always keep for the next day, worrying, "What will I eat when I become old? Who will take care of me?" Even today some brahmacharis and sannyasis keep something aside for their old age, or keep some bank account because they worry about their future... Nityananda Prabhu said, "If you think like this, you cannot go with Me! Stay here at Ramahari's house. Preach here."

It was a simple matter—how will Nityananda Prabhu preach alone? For this reason, He kept Vrindavan Das Thakur to preach in this area. That is the story. The main thing is not that Nityananda Prabhu showed His anger—Vrindavan Das Thakur did it for his Guru, what is wrong about that?—the main thing is that He told him to stay and preach here.

And Vrindavan Das Thakur stayed here. His samadhi is here, his bhajan kutir is here, and this is the place where he wrote Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata. He also later installed and worshipped Nityananda Prabhu's and Mahaprabhu's Deities here, Gaura Nitai. We will go there today.

Also, this tree is a haritaki tree, but it is not the same tree. The original tree died, and somebody took the seeds and planted it again...

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Chanting: Any Place

5 April 2013, Sri Puri Dham

Did you see the Deity in the Gambhira? It is Radha-Kanta Math—when you just enter it, there is a Deity that was worshipped by Kashi Mishra's pujari named Gopal. That same Deity is still there.

One day Mahaprabhu went to the bathroom with His tongue stuck out between His teeth. When Gopal saw this, he asked,

"Prabhu, is there any problem? Why are You going to the bathroom with Your tongue like this?"

"Prabhu, I am going to the bathroom, it is a dirty place, but My tongue is very naughty—even at this time it wants to chant the Holy Name! That is why I am trying to check My tongue."

"Prabhu, what is this? You can chant the Holy Name everywhere, even in the bathroom!"

"Yes! You are correct! From today, your name is not Gopal, your name will be Gopal Guru!"

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Sleeping Habit

22 April 2013

Going to be bed at 10 p.m. and waking up at 4-4:30 a.m. is sufficient for one's health. If you continue and practise in this way every day with sincerity, you will be benefitted. To maintain the brahmacharya life, you must wake up for mangal arati—then your sannyas, your brahmacharya will last longer.

I sent you or took you to many places and you saw how householder people live. Many of them are more than brahmachari—in many places, you would be still sleeping, and they are already doing mangal arati. They wake up early, do mangal arati, their wife cooks, then they offer the bhog, take some food, and go to work for the whole day. Some even go from Nabadwip to Kolkata every day, and they come back at night, sleep, and again wake up, do mangal arati, etc. and again go to Kolkata. They are called 'daily passengers', they travel like this five days a week, or sometimes even six days a week with only Sunday off. Many live like this.

You must do what is necessary to maintain you body. If you think your body needs 12 hours of sleep, then look at —. He made his body sleep 20 hours a day and cannot control it anymore. He only comes for prasadam three times a day, that is three hours, and one hour for bathroom and toilet. It slowly, slowly increased, and now he cannot control it.

Sleeping is necessary for the body, it is correct, but 8 hours, not more than that. 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. is already 6 hours, and 10 to 4:30 is 6,5 hours, and the other 2-1,5 hours you can take rest in the day time. It is sufficient.

Our Gurudev woke up 2:30 a.m. every day, and he would call me at 3 o'clock, that is why in Gurudev's time I could not sleep until 4, 4:30, or 5 o'clock—never. I knew he would call me at 3 a.m. and I had to have the mobile phone on. One or two times I did not go, and he chastised me, "I want to talk with you, why do you come now, with everybody? Have you come only to show your face? Do you have nothing to say? Do you not have anything to talk with me about privately?" What could I do? I went there at 3 o'clock when nobody was there. His gate would be still closed, I would knock, and seeing me Gurudev would tell his bodyguard to open the gate...

So, maintain your life like this... If at your young age you sleep for 10-12 hours, it is very bad for your future.

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Spare Yourself

22 April 2013

Computer eats your brain. Gurudev told this to me. Devotees also want to engage me in computers, but I do not want to. Sometimes they give me a smartphone, but they do not understand why I do not take it. Do you think I have no brain to run a computer?

Yesterday I saw a young girl, an apprentice practising under a very big advocate. She was maybe 24 or 22 years old. She was not reading a book, but she was doing something on her computer. When her boss came in, he asked her,

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, I am taking some books and putting them in my computer."

"No! Read the books!"

I heard him saying this...

Computer eats your brain, and you cannot remember now anything. So many devotees have been with me, and everybody has a computer, but if I take some road, they cannot remember the way back, whereas if I take our Indian driver (who does not know so much, who cannot read, has no computer, no education or qualification) to some place once time, next time he can go there easily. Why? Because he is using his brain, but you keep everything in your computer, you depend upon your computer in everything.

There are devotees who have no education, who cannot even read, but they practise kirtan every day and can sing songs without books, but if you tell ** to sing one kirtan, they take out their computers or have to use a song book...

At a young age especially it is very difficult without reading books—you must always read books.

Sastra also says that if you sleep after the sunrise, your memory will reduce. Follow the way Gurudev practised, the way Bhakti Vinod Thakur practised, the way Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur practised, the way Param Guru Maharaj practised—follow the time when they would take rest, when they would wake up. The only exception for one-two days is when somebody is sick and cannot wake up, it is a very exceptional case, and also when devotees come from Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, etc. It is a long distance and when it is day here, it is night there, so they can take two-three days to adjust themselves. When I went to Brazil, sometimes I too could not sleep at night because it was daytime for me...

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In the Face of Austerity

23 June 2013

We must practise properly, but we are not, we are making offence to Vaishnavs... Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said it very nicely: we think, "Oh, this sannyasi is very nice—he gives me clothes, money, shoes, food; but that sannyasi is not good because he tells me to do this service, that service." Or we think, "This temple is very nice, they give me good prasadam, food, there, but in that temple the prasadam is not so good, they only tell you to do this service, to do that service." Such is the mood in this Age of Kali...

Sometimes householder devotees get so much austerity from their wives, husbands, children, that they think, "Oh, why did I get married? Why did I do it?!" For example, a brahmachari gets married and when his family gives him a hard time he suffers so much; at that time he understands it was a mistake and out of despair again joins the temple. Only when they suffer so much, do they understand it, but before that they cannot—you think that a wife will give you so much love and affection, nice food, etc. but you do not realise that it is maya. Attracted by that, you leave the temple, become a householder. You become engrossed in that enjoyment and by and by your life is finished...

Some problem, some austerity will come through your service—if everything always goes smooth it is not service. If your boat is going one way and the current of the river is going the same way, your boat will go easily, you do not have to make so much effort, but if the current is going in the opposite direction, then you will have to give so much labour, have to row so hard. Actually, how much austerity are you getting in your service?

As an example, in Gurudev's time when I just came I was alone. A new devotee, I did not know any Krishna consciousness, I did not even know what a Guru was. I did not know anything, and on the day I came to the temple an old sannyasi told me, "What did you come here for? You are an educated boy, you can do some job. There is no Guru here." At that time Gurudev was out of India, it was 1992 (his first world tour). In 1985 Srila Sridhar Maharaj declared that Gurudev was his successor, and in 1992, seven years later, the devotees would say there was no Guru in the temple. At that time, there was not a single disciple of Gurudev in the temple. I was the first to come and take initiation. Then you can imagine how much austerity I had to manage.

Do you know why everyone was afraid of me in Gurudev's time? Because I did everything myself—whatever work, whatever labour was there, I would do it myself. I am still like that. You saw when we went to Siliguri I distributed prasad. Everybody said, "Maharaj, why are you doing this? You are the Guru..." In what scripture is it written that the Guru will not do any service? Mahaprabhu Himself did service—Mahaprabhu Himself distributed prasadam...

Actually I want to engage everybody in service, that is why I can chastise everybody, but when I chastise somebody they think, "Oh, Maharaj does not love me." Gurudev said about me, "Acharya Maharaj's heart is very soft, there is no dirt in it, that is why he can chastise you in front of everybody. He does not hide anything, he tells everything in front of everybody." It is true—I cannot hide anything...

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Enthusiasm for Service: the Yajna-Patnis

Speaking online to Venezuela & Colombia

Caracas Deity installation anniversary,

23 June 2013

Nitai Gaurachandra are very merciful: if somebody serves them, they can easily get Their mercy. We have no quality or qualification to serve Radha Krishna Deities, but Nitai Gaurachandra are always merciful and it is very easy to serve Them because They do not take any offence that we make during our service.

You know this one Pastime from Srimad Bhagavatam. When the cowherd boys (Madhumangal, Balaram, Sridam, Sudam and others) came to the forest with Lord Krishna, they all became very hungry and Krishna sent the boys to the brahmins who were doing a yajna (a fire sacrifice) at that time, "If you tell them My Name and ask for some fruit, or any food, they will give you." The boys went to the brahmins.

The brahmins were very proud—they were brahmins, worshipping Vishnu, doing a yajna for Vishnu, etc.—so when they saw the boys they chased them away, "Get out of here! You are small boys, and you only came here for playing. We are doing a yajna for Vishnu, and the yajna is not finished yet but you want to eat—you are so greedy! Get out of here!" They did not give them anything.

The boys came back to Krishna and told Him that the brahmins had not given them anything. Krishna told them, "Never mind, the brahmins are doing their yajna, but their wives are now at home. Go to their wives and tell them that I am here and I am very hungry."

When the brahmins' wives heard that Krishna had come to their village, they became excited, "Have you heard that Krishna has come? Yes, He has! Let us give Him everything." They took everything they had—what they have finished cooking and even what they have not finished cooking—and went to see Krishna. They were very eager to bring Him food.

So, all brahmins' wives left their homes and went to see Krishna. On their way they were passing the yajna and when their husbands saw them they were surprised, "Where are our wives going?! They must be going to Krishna to give something to Him!" They became very disturbed and angry because their wives did not listen to them—Krishna called them and they went just like that.

When the ladies came to the place and saw Krishna, they were very happy. They fed Krishna and Krishna was also happy to take food from them. After all the boys ate, Krishna said to the ladies,

"Now you can go..."

"What do You mean 'we can go'? We do not want to go anywhere! We want to stay with You forever, we do not want to go back. Anyway, our husbands will not even take us back now. Please, accept us." They began to cry so much.

"How is it possible for you to stay? I am a ksatriya and you are wives of brahmins, how will you stay with us? This is not the custom in India. You have to go."

The ladies cried so much but finally they said, "You do not want to accept us, it is all right. We know You always play with the gopis and take their service, then we will serve the gopis. Please accept us then as servants of the gopis."

"All right, but I am telling you: go home. I will make some arrangement so that your husbands accept you, and at your house you can serve Me in a Deity form and you will get so much happiness—you will get the same happiness that you want to get by staying with Me, serving Me. From far—through separation—you will feel happy."

That is the meaning of Deity installation festival...

One of the qualities that are favourable to devotion is utsaha, enthusiasm. "Oh, when will the day come? When will the day come? When will I do my service? When will I go to the temple?"—this kind of enthusiasm, utsaha, is necessary to have.

Somebody may think, "I took initiation many years ago and for many years now I have been doing so much service, but I am not getting any result, I still cannot reach my destination." They become hopeless and their service becomes a little saithilya (slackened)—they lose enthusiasm and do not do their service properly. Such mood is not favourable to devotion, it is actually very bad.

So many obstacles will come in your life through service. If you are rowing a boat and the current is going in the same direction, you will be lazy and relaxed; but if the current is going in the opposite direction, you will have to work more and row harder. In the same way, sometimes obstacles will come and you will have to use more energy otherwise if you live a relaxed life maya can attack you. You think a relaxed life and enjoyment are great, but you must understand that obstacles are inevitable in service.

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Lured and Lashed

Speaking online to Venezuela & Colombia

Caracas Deity installation anniversary,

23 June 2013

Today a girl came here. She stays in London with her husband and although she is getting so much austerity, she still wants to stay in her family. I remember one story I heard.

If you go to Vrindavan you will see there are so many widows. About 20,000 widows live in Vrindavan. Do you know what they do there? These old ladies usually come from good families, they had good husbands, but now just to get some food, every day they go to some temple and sing—they sing for three hours and get Rs 5. They spend something on their food, but actually there is no want of food in Vrindavan—if anybody goes saying, "Jaya Radhe! Radhe Shyam!" they can always get something. So, these widows save most of the money they get for their cremation—to buy the wood. When homeless people die, the government always throws the body into the Yamuna or sometimes buries them, but there are no proper Hindu rites observed for them.

These widows left their homes, but actually many of them have big houses somewhere in Bengal (Kolkata, for example). They have a family, but the family gives them a hard time—at their old age, at 70 or 80 years old, they are kicked out of their houses by their sons and now they get so much austerity... Once I spoke to a lady, she did not want to tell her family name at first, but after I gave the lecture, she began to cry and eventually told me that her son had a big gold shop in Bowbazar, Kolkata (you can imagine how rich they are).

Now these ladies are homeless—they live in the street, sleeping outside or sometimes in the corridor of a closed shop. Such is the life of widows in Vrindavan. It is very sad and austere...

So, the story goes as follows. There was an old lady who lived in a plastic shack (you can often see these in India at the railway stations). One day she went begging and got some rice. She cooked the rice and went to bring some water from a municipal tank. In the meantime, a hungry dog entered her house (there is no door or anything), and what did the dog do? The dog saw the clay pot with the rice and wanted to eat it—it put its head into the pot but its tongue could not reach the rice. The dog tried again and again to reach the rice and soon its head was stuck in the pot—now it could neither eat the rice, nor take its head out!

The lady returned with the water and saw the dog, "Oh no! Alas, what am I going to do now?! I had been begging the whole day to get some rice, and now this dog has put its mouth there!" The lady got so angry, she took a stick and started beating the dog so much. The dog could not run away because its face was inside the pot and it could not see anything. So, now not only the dog was hungry and could not reach the rice, but it was also being beaten by the lady—both!

A good man, you can say a devotee, was passing that place and saw the scene, "O God, that lady is beating the dog so much and it cannot run away because it cannot see anything! This is hopeless! I must do something..." The man took a piece of brick and threw it at the pot. The pot broke and the dog dashed away!

This shows what the illusory environment, or maya, is like. If you enter the illusory environment, you become attacked by it and cannot run away from there—you get beaten so much but cannot run away. Maya is very strong. Like that dog, we cannot see anything, our eyes are in the pot (illusory environment), but Gurudev is merciful, he is like the man who broke the pot out of pity for the dog. If one day by the mercy of the Guru, by the mercy of a Vaishnav, our eyes are opened, then we can run away from maya. The Guru can break the illusory environment, can cut the illusory net, maya jal, and can let us see the chinmaya dham, transcendental abode.

Sometimes we become lax—we serve for many years but then become tired. I have told it many times: your mind is your enemy, no one else. You must not follow your mind—we always give food to the mind and it eventually becomes strong and takes us away from our service and from Krishna consciousness. You must tell your mind, "From today, I will not give you any food! I will not listen to you." Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj gave this advice.

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Enthusiasm for Service: Jar, Stool, Banana Skin

Speaking online to Venezuela & Colombia

Caracas Deity installation anniversary,

23 June 2013

You are making the festival and worshipping the Deities today, but you must understand that the Deity is nondifferent from the Lord Himself, and this kind of attachment should come to you: every day Nitai Gaura personally take service from you all and how fortunate you are! Gaura Nitai appeared in Bengal, in Mayapur and Ekachakra, but They came there to take service from you.

That is why I said that utsaha, enthusiasm is necessary: "How will I serve? How will I do this? How can I make the Deities happy? How can I make my Guru happy?" This kind of enthusiasm is necessary, but sometimes I see some brahmachari serves his Guru, serves and serves, but always thinks, "When will I run away? When will I run away from the service?"

One brahmachari always thought, "I am so tired. When will I be able to run away from the service?" Every day he would wait and look for a chance to run away. One day his Guru told him, "Take this jar and bring some water."

(In India some people keep water in clay pots—the water kept in a clay pot stays cool and there is not need for a fridge. These beautiful jars, or pitchers, are called kolshi.)

So, Gurudev sent his servant to bring water, and the brahmachari thought, "This is my chance! I will leave with the jar, keep it somewhere and run away!" As he started walking, the jar suddenly began to talk—the Guru himself appeared within the jar—"Hey! Where are you going? Are you trying to run away? You think you are getting so much austerity through the service to your Guru, Gurudev always tells you, 'Do this, do this, do this, do this,' and you are very tired and want to run away, but wait, first listen to my story.

"Before, I was a small piece of soil, everybody passed urine and stool on me, but all of a sudden I got lucky and some man picked me up. He brought me to his house and... began to beat me so much! He beat me into dust, then mixed with some water and on a machine turned me into good clay. Oh, how tired I was! What austerity I got at that time! After he turned me into clay he put me on another machine and shaped me into a jar, but still he was not satisfied! He then put me in the scorching sun! I lay there in the sun for three-four days, suffering and drying, but even that was not enough for him. After that, he put me into fire and baked me!

"After all this, I become a proper jar and the man took me to the market. There, people asked how much I cost and somebody wanted to pay for me Rs.30, somebody Rs.40, and somebody even Rs.50!

"Do you see? I was just a piece of mud, but now I am a valuable person—I have become a valuable thing! You too are getting some austerity, but try and have patience and you too one day will become a great valuable thing. Do not run away."

Why do we not get energy? Why do we not get happiness through our service? Because we have some material desire inside—desire for something else.

Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur gave an analogy. Imagine you are travelling by car or by bus and suddenly you have to go to the toilet to pass stool, but there is no bathroom anywhere close by. You feel so much pain and discomfort and all you can think of is, "When will I go to the bathroom?" When you finally find some secluded place and pass stool, you immediately get relief and happiness, "Ohhhh..." Then you relax.

If you renounce material desires, you will get the same happiness that you get when you go to the toilet after many hours of waiting. Your material desire is like stool, discard it and you will get happiness.

Speaking of enthusiasm, Param Guru Maharaj, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj told that when Krishna came to Vidura's house, Vidura's wife was in the bathroom. As soon as she heard Krishna's voice, she came to meet him, but she was so excited thinking about Krishna that she did not realise she had no clothes on! She came to Krishna naked! When Krishna saw her, He quickly threw his uttariya to her, "Cover yourself!" That kinds of thing can happen through enthusiasm—she was completely unconscious of the state she came out in, she had no feeling, no thoughts of that. Later, she wanted to serve bananas to Krishna, but instead of bananas she served Him banana skin—she gave the skin and threw away the bananas. She lost all sense when she saw Krishna!

Do you have any questions?

—When we get your darshan, we feel we also get some relief...

Actually relief is necessary. If somebody has some material desire, they get no happiness through their service...

You want to be happy, and Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj said, "I cannot give you anything, but I can only do one thing—I can only show you how to get Krishna." When you walk to some place, you can see milestones along the road and understand how much farther you have to walk to reach your destination. You know what a milestone is—it is usually a pillar that says how many kilometres it is to some place. Also, on the aeroplane they have some pictures on a TV that show how much longer it is to the destination. When you proceed in your spiritual life properly you will see these kinds of milestones or pictures and you will understand you are going the right way...

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Brahmachari's Plight

Speaking online to Venezuela & Colombia

Caracas Deity installation anniversary,

23 June 2013

Actually I feel hopeless about brahmacharis because I am always unhappy with their service...

Gurudev told it to me many times (in front of me and in front of all the brahmacharis), "All my daughters are very nice, but almost all my boys are giving me disturbance." I am not getting really good boys to serve the mission, that is why I think it is hopeless, but Gurudev said, "Fortune favours the brave"—if some brahmachari thinks, "I can do it. I can continue my brahmachari life!" I will be very happy.

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur told one story in this regard. One man wanted to keep a servant, but the servants did not stay—he brought a servant, the servant stayed for one or two days and ran away. He brought another servant, and again he stayed for one or two days and ran away. It repeated many times. Once, a friend came to visit him and the man complained to him, "Oh, my friend, I am suffering so much! My wife is sick and cannot do so much housework, that is why I am trying to keep a servant to help and run errands for the family, but they all leave. Can you help me?" His friend advised him, "Arrange good food—bring some good rice, pure milk, pure ghee, etc. Arrange that and you will see."

The man followed his advice and arranged good food and the servant did not leave. Sometimes the man would order him to do this work, this work and the servant would leave, but he would come back again. Now the servant himself did not want to go away. You can understand what the servant is staying for—he is staying for milk, rice and other nice food, not out of love and affection for the family.

Srila Prabhupad was saying, "What is love and affection?" Now if you give money, that is love and affection. A brahmachari does some service and thinks he is now the manager, but if you tell him, "Do this service," he thinks, "That Maharaj is not good, he always tells me to work, work, work." If you tell him not to work, only to eat and sleep, he is very happy and thinks I am such an affectionate Guru. "OK, sleep, eat, and enjoy. No problem."

When I told Gurudev, "Oh, there are not so many brahmacharis, not so many perfect servitors... They are not doing their service properly," Gurudev told me to use the theory of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Prabhupad. The theory was: give the brahmachari a lady and he will happily do his service and enjoy.

These are very hard and painful words for me to say, but what can I do? I have to say it because it is the truth...

Jagadananda Pandit said, and I am also of the same opinion:

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

I am not differentiating, I know that householder devotees are actually more energetic and do more service for Gurudev and the mission.

You know that Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur had so many sannyasis and brahmacharis in the mission, but he gave charge and the position of the mission secretary to Kunja Babu, a householder, who worked as a postmaster at that time.

Our brahmacharis think, "I am a brahmachari and he is a householder, why should I serve under the guidance of a householder?" This is ego and it will lead them to a fall.

Jagadananda Pandit says there is no difference between householders and brahmacharis: through practice a householder can be more glorious than a brahmachari. If you differentiate and think, "He is a householder, and I am a brahmachari/sannyasi, why should I serve under the guidance of a grihastha?"—this is the path to hell. You can read it in Prema-vivarta (chapter 17).

You know that in my mission I depend on householder devotees more because others, almost everyone, think about their own interest, even sannyasis too. Gurudev said that you can discard kanak (money) and kamini (women) but pratistha is very dangerous for a devotee, even for a sannyasi—if I give sannyas to somebody, they want to be a guru...

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Service: Faith and Surrender

Speaking online to Venezuela & Colombia

Caracas Deity installation anniversary,

23 June 2013

Question: How can we get enthusiasm to serve our spiritual brothers? We often feel enthusiasm to serve the Deity and the temple but not the devotees...

How and what for are you going to do it? If a householder devotee cannot come to the temple, they live far away, what can you do if you live in the temple? If they need association they should come to the temple, hear the class, do service, etc.

Actually, if somebody has Gurudev's photo, the Deities' photo in their house, they can worship themselves—their house becomes a temple. Even though they cannot come to the temple, they should cook for the Deities and take prasad. Not all devotees may be doing it, but it is necessary.

You can see some examples of householder devotees who also did not come to the temple. For example, Mukunda and his wife had a Deity in their house and they served the Deity every day—cooking, etc.—but they did not believe that the Deity actually took the food. One day, however, their son, Raghunandan, offered the bhog to the Deity and the Deity ate it, then they believed it. They had been serving the Deity for so many years, yet they had no faith in the Deity, they did not believe that the Deity could eat...

Another example that Gurudev told is the story of Dhanur Das and his wife, Ramanuja Acharya's disciples, and how they maintained their family life. They were were poor, had no children, and also served the Deities in their house.

Every day they went begging to collect some bhoga: Dhanur Das went to one village and his wife went to another one. In the village where Dhanur Das' wife went, there was a bad man who always followed her. He wanted to have some bad relation with her. He would tell her, "Come to my house! You will not have to go house to house begging any more, I can give you so much food—rice, dahl, vegetables, subji! Come!" Every day he disturbed her and spoke to her like this, but she could understand that the man's character was not good and kept excusing herself, "Yes, yes, I will come, but another day. Do not worry, I will come. Wait." She replied like this and did nothing, her behaviour was good.

One day, she told her husband, "Go alone today. I have some work in the house, I must do your and my laundry. You go to collect, I will not go today." She stayed at home and was doing the laundry when suddenly she heard some noise coming from outside—somebody was knocking at the door. She thought it could be that bad man, "He knows my husband has gone for collection, maybe he thinks I am alone at home today! What if it is him?" She was very afraid, "What am I to do now? Shall I open the door or not?"

Then she thought of her Guru, "Gurudev, you will protect me. I will open the door." When she opened the door, she saw her Guru was standing and waiting in the door! She was surprised and immediately said, "O Gurudev, how can I serve you?" She gave him an old chair to sit down and brought some water, "Gurudev, please take some water, I am coming just now—I will bring some food for you."

There was no food in the house—nothing—and she did not know where to go to get something. Suddenly, she remembered the bad man and how he had always been inviting and offering her food. She decided to go to his house.

She came there and said, "I have come."

The man was so happy, "You have come! Sit down, sit down. Come, stay with me!"

"Yes, I will stay, but later. Every day you promise me that if I come to your house you will give me so much food, etc. My Guru is at my house and he is waiting for me now. Please give me something."

The man was surprised, "How much love and affection she has for her Guru!" He gave her so many things but she could not take it all home alone. She asked him, "How am I to carry it all alone? You have given me so many things. Please, help me to carry it, come with me to my house."

So, they came to the house, Dhanur Das's wife cut some fruit, gave it to her Guru and said to the man, "Please wait, I am going to cook now. Listen to some Hari-katha from my Guru now and later take prasad too." He listened to some Hari-katha, Krishna-katha while she was cooking, and when he took prasadam his mind changed—everything changed in him through that association.

This is called Guru service. Dhanur Das's wife did not even think that she could get into trouble—she thought, "My Guru will protect me." So, faith is necessary. When you lose faith, problems come. It all depends upon faith.

When Krishna described and told so many things to Arjuna, Arjuna said in the end, "I cannot do it! It is impossible for me to do what You have just told me." Krishna replied, "Yes, you are right—you cannot do it! But there is a process." What is that process?

daivi hy esa gunamayi, mama maya duratyaya

mam eva ye prapadyante, mayam etam taranti te

Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 7.14

"If you surrender to Me, then you can do it."

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Sure Is Only Death

Speaking online to Venezuela & Colombia

Caracas Deity installation anniversary,

23 June 2013

** Prabhu does not come so much these days, does he?

—Yes, he is taking care of his safety...

Ai, Prabhu, do you know what is sure in this world? Only death is sure for everybody!

Once—it is not a story, it is a true fact that happened in India—an astrologer told one family that their grandson would die from a snake bite. The family was so much afraid for their grandson that they decided to make a wooden cage to make sure no snake could reach him. They kept him in the cage and never allowed him to go outside.

Near the house, the family had a big garden with many fruit trees, and one day the grandmother picked some fruit called kul (jujube—it is sour and comes in the winter season; I also like that fruit) and brought it to the child, who was about two years old by that time. The boy ate the fruit and a few minutes later died.

Everybody was surprised because the astrologer had said that he would die from a snake bite, why did he then die after eating the fruit? They took the boy to hospital and after the post-mortem examination the doctor said that the boy had eaten something that contained poison of a snake. So, what happened is that a snake had bitten and left its poison in the fruit and the grandmother picked it from the tree and gave it to the boy...

That is why, Prabhu, "marabi rakhabi, yo ichchha tomara": Krishna will protect you, Krishna will save you. If you are meant to die, you can go to even a rathole and die there. Nobody can protect themselves, you know that. There are so many big personalities—the Indian prime-minister Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Bangladesh president, Mahatma Gandhi—they all had so much protection and security but still they were killed by the gundas, terrorists.

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Q&A: Friendship, Offences, Chastity, Dependance

Speaking online to Venezuela & Colombia

Caracas Deity installation anniversary,

23 June 2013

Question: Is friendship possible in this material world?

Yes, but friendship with Krishna. What is friendship? One is not your friend if they only use you. Who is your greatest friend? It is the one who can show me the great path—the great way to Krishna consciousness; it is the one who can take me to the Guru.

tava nija-jan kona mahajane

pathaiya dile tumi

My friend is the one who is sent to me—my Guru is my friend because he gives me shelter and engages me in service to the Lord.

Question: I feel I always lose my enthusiasm...

If you want to do more service, come and practise. Also, be careful you do not make any offence. There are four types of Vaishnav aparadh.

If a great Vaishnav unknowingly did something wrong before and now they are all right, but you think about it, it is one kind of offence. Do not think about it, you must always remove it from your heart.

Sometimes a Vaishnav uses harsh language and you think, "Why is he saying like this?" This is another kind of Vaishnav aparadh. Do not think like that, always forget it, always ignore it.

Another type is for example when you saw the Guru as a child—he was running naked, playing with other boys—and you think, "Oh, now he is a big Guru! I saw him naked!" It is not good to think like this.

Question: How can we, so low and fallen, feel affection and want to be at your service, want to follow your direction? We are so much distracted by Maya...

It is a test. Gurudev said to me, "Get out!" and he said to another person, "I am thinking, 'How much love and affection does he have for me?' I want to see it."

So, first, the Guru will test you: "OK, leave my service! Get out from my service!" If you leave, then you can understand that you have no love and affection for your Guru. Sometimes Gurudev will chastise you, but you must go to him again, then he will think, "Oh, I always chastise him, but he does not leave me." Then love and affection will immediately come.

Question: What must we do to please you?

Protect Gurudev's mission, serve Gurudev's mission. Through Gurudev I made a relation with you, do not forget me, do not forget your service. Do not cheat me. If you forget Krishna, if you forget your Guru, it is similar to cheating me.

Question: When we preach outside, what is more important: to speak to people or to just give them a book?

Preach, talk to them and give a book. Sometimes invite them to the temple and give them some prasadam, and sometimes when there is a skype program on Sunday you can bring them to the temple and I can give a lecture for them. It will be good if they can hear from me, it will be more useful for them. Before, in Gurudev's time, I also did like that—I think I am a fallen soul, I have no quality to preach to them, that is why I bring the people to my Guru, "I have my bona fide Guru, come to him." I would take all devotees to my Guru.

Question: How can we awake the feeling of surrender and chastity?

If you do service, practise, and listen to your Guru, it will come.

In my case I understood that sometimes I did not do what Gurudev wanted and he would chastise me, but I tolerated. It means you must have patience and tolerance, then gradually chastity will come—you must have patience (dairya) and tolerance.

Krishna always arranges everything. I depend upon Gurudev, depend upon Krishna, and I always have no problem.

Actually, I have no quality to serve Guru Maharaj, to serve Gurudev, but they both are taking care of me now, and I am surprised to see it. I did not have a cook, I did not have anything, but all of a sudden they arranged a cook for me, they arranged everything for me...

Today I am at Gurudev's veranda here in Dum Dum Park. After so many days I came here—I did not want to come here and remember everything. I live in this building, but I do not come here, it is too painful, but today I came here to give a class to the devotees, and I am getting some relief through that...

I would come to this veranda when Gurudev called me, otherwise I did not come—I did not come here to disturb him, I did not come here to use him. I am thinking I have no quality to serve him, I did not do anything for him and I could not do anything for him, but still he is arranging everything for me now, he is solving all problems for me...

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Chastity Is Not Lip-Deep

Sri Nabadwip Dham, 2 December 2014

Yesterday I saw in the camera that you were at the wedding house...

—Yes, I went there for a short time...

Why?

—I've never seen an Indian wedding before.

Who told you to go there? Is there any devotional program there? You are from a devotees' family, where will you go—to a mundane program or a devotional program?

—To a devotional program...

Then why did you go to a mundane program? Do you not know what a wedding is like? All the music, the nonsense... Do you have no eyes? Or do you see Krishna everywhere? If somebody is an uttam-bhakta, they always see Krishna everywhere, then it is no problem. Did you see Krishna there?

Why did you go there? I do not like it...

—I went to see the lights, and they invited me...

They invited you? And if tomorrow Narayan Maharaj's people come and invite you, will go there too?

My word is very heavy, but I have to say it.

You may be coming from a different culture, that is not a problem, but you are coming to Gurudev's ashram for the spiritual matter. If I go to some Western country and some other people invite me somewhere, I must first ask the host in the country I am in for the permission to go anywhere. This is what I learnt from my Guru.

They also invited me to that 'festival' and gave Rs 2,000 for some Vaishnav seva. I immediately gave that money to Manas Krishna Prabhu and told him to buy some fruit to make a special preparation for the Deities. You can use them, no problem, but why will they use you? That is my question. These are not my words, these are Gurudev's words.

Once, a disciple of Gurudev made some house and the police occupied that place. He kept asking me to come because some temple representative was necessary there. I could not go myself because I had to be in another place, but I sent a devotee instead. When that devotee returned, Gurudev asked him, "Prabhu, where did you go?" The devotee explained where he had been to. Gurudev asked, "Who sent you there?" The devotee told the truth, "Vinod Prabhu sent me there." Then Gurudev called me, "Why did you send him there?" I explained, "That man is your disciple, and he kept asking me to go there." Finally, Gurudev called his disciple and, when he came, he chastised him so much. That time he said, "Not to use me! I will use you."

So, you can use them... But can you do that? Can you make them devotees?...

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Jagadananda Pandit's Chastity

Sri Nabadwip Dham, 3 December 2014

When Mahaprabhu chastised Jagadananda Pandit, Sanatan Goswami cried, "Prabhu, You are giving bitter to me, and You are giving sweet to Jagadananda Pandit. You are not chastising me like You do him..." Mahaprabhu always gave respect to Sanatan Goswami because he was senior, a great scholar, a minister, and so on.

When that same Jagadananda Pandit wanted to go to Vrindavan, like you all want to go, Mahaprabhu told him: "Go to Vrindavan, but do not stay there long. See Govardhan, but do not climb up to see Gopal." What will you get in Vrindavan? Gurudev said you would only see monkeys' stool—what can you see? Mahaprabhu sent Jagadananda Pandit—'sent' means Jagadananda Pandit wanted to go—and gave him permission, "Yes, you can go, but you will always stay with Rupa Goswami and Sanatan Goswami. Do not go alone for your own eye exercise."

One time, Sanatan Goswami went begging madhukori, and someone gave him a saffron cloth. Sanatan Goswami tied it as a turban on his head and went to see Jagadananda Pandit. When Jagadananda Pandit saw the turban, he got very excited, "Prabhu, who gave you this cloth? When did Mahaprabhu give it to you?" Sanatan Goswami said, "Oh, no, no, no. Mahaprabhu did not give it to me. One sannyasi, Mukunda Saraswati, gave it to me." At that time, Jagadananda Pandit was cooking some rice and he took that pot of half-cooked boiling rice and cried, "I will throw this water on your face!! You are an associate of Mahaprabhu and you are taking a saffron cloth from some other sannyasi?! What is this??!" Sanatan Goswami immediately took off the turban and said to Jagadananda Pandit, "Please forgive my offence. Now I understand how much love and affection for Mahaprabhu you have!"

That is called chastity.

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The Ball Is in Your Court

Sri Nabadwip Dham, 22 February 2015

We are not following proper Krishna consciousness. Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur used to say, "You are coming here for the Gaura Purnima festival, but did you come with a return ticket or did you come forever?" He always asked it—you can see how affectionately he spoke to the devotees. When you come to your Guru, do not buy the return ticket, but you are all buying the return ticket... What is the return ticket? Going to maya, the illusory environment.

Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj made Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math and sent Gurudev all over the world where he cultivated the land and put the seeds, now those seeds are growing and we are that taking that fruit every day and become happy.

Gurudev gave his life for the service to his Guru. He said, "My business is talking," and I saw when he was talking he would sometimes choke and cough with blood, but he did not stop talking. How much life he was giving! He always thought about Nityananda Prabhu:

I remember when Gurudev was going for an operation, he said it was a big and very difficult operation, and I was very sad to see him being taken to the operation theatre, with his clothes changed, etc., but he was smiling: I was crying and feeling so unhappy, but Gurudev was smiling and singing "Nitai-pada-kamala koti chandra susitala."

One day, you will leave this material body, and you do not know where you will be posted. "As you sow so you reap." So, we should understand what Gurudev left us here for. Not only me or them—everybody. He left everybody to preach about the movement, to glorify him, and glorify Chaitanya Saraswat Math. You must spread these glories all over the world, you must give benefit to others, that is the main thing. If you eat yourself, you are selfish; but if you share with others, it will be good for you, as well as good for them. That is called jive daya (being merciful to other souls). You chant the Holy Name, but you should engage others in chanting too.

Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj said: "Why do we eat? Why is it necessary to eat? Because you are hungry? No. It is necessary to eat for service—for service you need to put something into your stomach, not for hunger." Very nice. "What are we alive for? To die to live."

Anyhow, by hook or by crook, we must practise Krishna consciousness. If you remember Krishna's face, Gurudev's face at the time of death, it will be a good luck for you. If you do not practise, chanting will not come to your mouth at the time of death because there will be so much difficulty—you will not want to leave this body, but forcefully it will be taken away from you, and you will be afraid and struggle so much. However, if at that time you remember chanting Hare Krishna maha-mantra, remember Krishna's Name, you will be very fortunate and it will not be necessary to take birth and death again. This kind of fortune should come...

koti-madhye haya bahuta 'karmanistha'

koti-karmanistha-madhye haya 'jnani' srestha

koti-jnani-madhye haya eka-jana 'mukta'

koti-mukta-madhye 'durlabha' eka krsna-bhakta

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.147-8

"Out of ten million people, workers, one is wise; out of ten million wise men, one is a liberated soul; and out of ten million liberated souls one is Krishna's devotee." It is very rare—but if you follow properly, you can be a proper devotee. Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur wrote:

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara

apane manabi sada chhadi' ahankara

"You must be lower than grass, must leave your ego and pride, and give honour to others."

vrksa-sama ksama-guna karabi sadhana

pratihimsa tyaji' anye karabi palana

"Practise the tolerance of a tree. Do not ill-treat others, but nurture them."

If people do something wrong, please forgive them. To err is human, nobody is perfect, so if somebody makes a mistake, please forgive them. Gurudev says that if somebody asks for forgiveness, and the other person cannot forgive them, then they are not a Vaishnav. When Chapal Gopal went to Srivas Pandit and asked for forgiveness, Srivas Pandit forgave him—that is a great Vaishnav...

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Nityananda Consciousness

Sri Nabadwip Dham, 22 February 2015

It happened in a place not so far from here, in a town within Gaura mandal—Jhamatpur Baharan. Every year we do Nabadwip Dham parikrama and want to go there, but time is very short... In this town Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami, the composer of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, lived with his brother.

Once, his brother arranged a festival and invited a local brahmin, Gunarnava Mishra, who brought there Mahaprabhu's deity (without a deity of Nityananda Prabhu). Suddenly, Nityananda Prabhu's servitor named Minaketan Ramdas came to that place, and all the devotees gave much respect to him, but the brahmin who was worshipping only Mahaprabhu did not give him any respect—he did not even give him an asan, did not even pay his obeisance to him. Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami's brother supported the brahmin. Seeing their mood, Minaketan Ramdas went to Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami and asked excitedly, "What is your brother doing?! He follows and gives respect to Mahaprabhu but does not give any respect to Nityananda Prabhu! What is this?!" Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami was very upset and chastised his brother.

Later that night Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami saw a dream—Nityananda Prabhu Himself came to him and said, "Do not stay any longer with your brother in this village. Please come to Vrindavan." After getting this dream, he went to Vrindavan, and it was there where he composed Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita...

When Nityananda Prabhu went to Puri, Mahaprabhu told Him, "You can preach Krishna consciousness in Gaura-desh, Gaura Mandal." Mahaprabhu told Him to preach Krishna consciousness, but Nityananda Prabhu thought, "Krishna's Pastimes are very difficult, it is a very high conception, and these Bengali people will not be able to understand Krishna's Pastimes or follow Krishna consciousness properly, instead they will think something else; but Gaura-lila, the Pastimes of Mahaprabhu, are very nice, so instead of Krishna consciousness, I will preach Gaura consciousness, Chaitanya consciousness!" And He started preaching about Gaura-lila. He would sing,

bhaja gauranga, kaha gauranga, laha gauranga nama re

yei jana gauranga bhaje sei amara prana re

"Say 'Gauranga'! Tell about Gauranga! Chant 'Gauranga'! Those who chant Gauranga's Name are My heart!"

So, let us sing about Gauranga now!

[His Divine Grace starts kirtan.]

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A Reality Check

Sri Nabadwip Dham, 27 February 2015

We are all here by the mercy of Gurudev. Without the mercy of Guru and Vaishnavs we cannot even make one step forward.

"Yogyata vichare kichhu nahi pai: when I examine myself for qualifications, I find none." We have no quality, no qualification, but by the mercy of Gurudev and Srila Guru Maharaj we can get everything.

Gurudev said many times, "I have no quality. I do not know where I was, but my Guru Maharaj took me from that hellish position." We are conditioned souls and Gurudev can take us from that kind of hellish position and use us for the service of the Lord.

We are always offenders, we make so many offences (Vaishnav aparadh, seva aparadh, and so on), and only our Gurudev and Vaishnav-varga can remove these offences from our heart. As long as we make offences we will not be able to proceed in our spiritual life because we cannot do proper service due to the offences.

Actually, we do not know what is service and what is karma, what is service and what is duty. Sometimes we may do something that does not please our Guru, does not please the Vaishnavs because we do what our mind is asking us to do, but:

aichhana amara mana phire yena andha jana

supatha vipatha nahi jane

My mind wanders like a blind man who does not know the right way from the wrong way.

'Thakura Vaishnava-gana' by Srila Narottam Das Thakur

Our mind does not know what is the right way and what is the wrong way, that is why we must take some advice from the great Vaishnavs—our Guru-varga, Gurudev—we must follow their advice and continue our spiritual life in that way. That is the main thing for us.

The problem, though, is that we have so much ego. The sun is giving light, but that light is not coming through because there is a wall blocking the light. Our Gurudev, Gurupadpadma, and Vaishnavs bestow their mercy on us, but we cannot see it because our ego is standing in the way. We think we know everything, we have everything, we are very powerful and very knowledgeable, but in fact we know nothing, we have nothing. We must understand this.

Gurudev always tells us to be humble, tolerant and give honour to others...

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Hampering or Hankering?

Sri Nabadwip Dham, 27 February 2015

You should use everything properly.

If an acharya does not practise with pranipatena, pariprasnena, sevaya—if he is not surrendered, does not have seva-viddhi, service mood, and has no honest enquiry—he cannot practise his acharya life like that. The same is true for everyone. We must understand the meaning of tad-viddhi pranipatena, pariprasnena, sevaya, understand what the surrendered mood is:

dainya, atma-nivedana, goptrtve varana

'avasya raksibe krsna'—visvasa palana

Humility, self-submission, embracing the Lord's guardianship, maintaining the faith that 'Krishna will certainly protect me'.

bhakti-anukula matra karyera svikara

bhakti-pratikula bhava—varjanangikara

Engaging only in activities that are favourable to devotion, rejecting everything unfavourable to devotion.

Saranagati 1, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur

We sing this song every day, but we must understand its meaning and keep that meaning in our hearts.

We must understand what is favourable to devotion and what is unfavourable, and accept what is favourable and reject what is unfavourable. We can do it easily, but the problem is, as Gurudev said, that we are using our energy for another purpose. We waste our energy on other things (for example talk so much nonsense), and then we do not have energy to chant the Holy Name. Sometimes we think, "Oh, I am so tired, I cannot chant... I cannot sing..." Why are we tired? 'Tired' means we are using our time for another purpose; it means Maya is taking our time for her own purpose. So, we can understand clearly what is necessary for our spiritual life...

Gurudev told also one thing, "How many people have you brought to me and how many of them took initiation? If you bring one thousand people, maybe not even one per cent follows and practises Krishna consciousness properly." Think about it.

I asked Gurudev in his last days, "Gurudev, what is your message to the devotees all over the world?" He said, "Wherever you stay, wherever you live, whatever condition you live in, you must maintain your spiritual life properly."

What did Gurudev leave us here for? To fulfil his desire. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj left him to take care of his temple, and Gurudev also left us to take care of his temple, to spread his conception, to spread Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's conception. You have that quality, you have that facility—use it.

Once a devotee asked Gurudev, "I live alone in my country, there are no devotees here, how shall I then get association?" Gurudev answered, "You can make a devotee there and can get association from them!" You can understand what Gurudev wants from this.

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur told that he wanted everybody to be a rich person. Who is a rich person? Is it a wealthy person who has a lot of money and cars? No. He wants everybody to be an acharya—to preach Krishna consciousness. He also said, "I am not very happy... Why? Because I want everybody to become an acharya. Until and unless everybody becomes an acharya, I will not be happy." Then, realise what Gurudev is saying and follow his conception.

You are very fortunate. Many people came here, but many people did not come. After Guru Maharaj disappeared, some of his godbrothers would not come to the temple regularly, and I asked Gurudev, "They say, 'It was Guru Maharaj's temple, but Guru Maharaj is not there now, so why will we go there?' Why do they say like this?" Gurudev told me, "They did not actually get the proper connection with Guru Maharaj, that is why they put this kind of question."

You are proud that you got initiation, got connection with Gurudev so many years ago, but actually you may not have got anything—otherwise why do you become tired? Why do you become hopeless? No! Until death—for as long as you have life in this body—you must continue your spiritual life, you must continue your practitioner's life! That is the most important thing for us in our life.

If you hear about the pastimes of the Goswamis, of Rupa Goswami, Sanatan Goswami, Raghunath Das Goswami—if you hear how much austerity they have, how they follow Mahaprabhu's instruction, how much they serve Mahaprabhu and preach about Mahaprabhu, how much service they do—you can realise that we are not doing anything!

We are so proud of our service, we have so much ego, "We are doing this and that, and that," but Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead—we cannot do anything for Him! We think we are doing so many things, but what are we actually doing? Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur made sixty-four temples in the sixty-four years of his life, but not at any time did he ever mention, "I have done so many things!" Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Prabhupad preached all over the world, but he also thought, "I have not done anything for the Lord." And we are simple-hearted, we have such a big ego problem, and we say that we have done so many things, we are doing so many things. It is not right...

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Sincere Joy

Sri Nabadwip Dham, 27 February 2015

You have joined the Nabadwip Dham parikrama this year, and many are also helping from other countries—devotees are preaching all over the world, and I am very happy.

Para-sukhe duhkhi, sada mithya-bhasi: we are sad when others are happy and we always tells lies, but actually if somebody is preaching Krishna consciousness, it is good for us!

If somebody wants to preach Krishna consciousness separately, I do not have any problem with that—if somebody preaches for their own purpose, that is not good, but when somebody preaches for Gurudev, preaches Gurudev's conception, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's conception, it makes me very happy.

At the moment there is some problem and I cannot go to the Western countries, but when I hear devotees preach outside India, I am happy with them, and I always think about their welfare. For example, I cannot go now and I send Sripad Tyagi Maharaj country to country to give some nourishment to the devotees, and he does it for me—Krishna sent him to me. I am very happy with that.

Actually, no one can stop Krishna's service. At first, when I joined the temple, there were only two temples, the main temple and the samadhi temple of Srila Sridhar Maharaj, and now we see the puja is going on in seven temples in Nabadwip. Some may say, "There are not so many devotees in the temple," but how is it possible then that the service is going on every day in the seven places? After Gurudev disappeared also, there appeared so many more branches, and so much Deities' seva is going on and increasing day by day—how is it possible? Without mercy of Gurudev, without mercy of Guru-Vaishnav, it is impossible.

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Paupers and Misers

Sri Nabadwip Dham, 27 February 2015

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur told that wherever you stay your duty is to do everything for the service to the Lord.

Once, in Kolkata, Sripad Bhakti Hriday Bon Maharaj was sent house to house to collect, and suddenly he found himself in a very bad place, a prostitutes' quarter. He was very sad and shy. He was crying, "O Krishna, O Prabhupad, where, what place you have brought me to! I will go to hell..." Then, thinking, "What am I to do now?" he held his uttariya in front and went collecting in that quarter. He got some donation, one-two rupee each place, and he brought that money to Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur. He cried,

"Prabhupad, today I made a very big mistake... I did wrong, maybe I will go to hell now..."

"What happened? Why are you crying? What place did you go to?!"

He told Prabhupad where he had been to, and Prabhupad replied,

"But what is the problem? I brought you here, made you a sannyasi or a brahmachari, and now I am sending you to the householder people to rescue them from the same position you were in before. If you are doing wrong, it means I am also doing wrong. Do you think I am doing wrong?"

"No, Prabhupad... Now I am happy."

Then you think what condition we were in before, but Guru Maharaj, Gurudev are so powerful, they brought us here and use us now for service. Haridas Thakur also said (humbly referring to his mlechha background), "Who am I? You are giving me so much Vaishnavs' prasadam, that is my great fortune."

What Guru Maharaj and Gurudev gave us is sufficient for us. We are happy and do not want more than that, but it will be good if we continue preaching Krishna consciousness following this line. How much can one do alone? If you help preach and spread Krishna consciousness movement, it is very good. This is very important.

Preaching is necessary, but preaching for whom? Preaching for the Guru. Once, Gurudev told me, Bhakti Hriday Bon Maharaj went to London and after the trip he wrote a book My First Year in England. He wanted to present the book to Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur on his appearance day, but when Prabhupad saw the name, he did not even touch the book. Later, Prabhupad asked, "Who is Bon preaching for?"

So, we are preaching, but preaching for whom? For myself? Preaching what? Our own things? No, we must preach for our Gurudev, that is vital for our spiritual life—if we preach for our Gurudev, Gurudev will be happy, everyone will be happy, and everything will be a success. It is a simple matter and we can understand it easily.

We must follow what is necessary and beneficial for our practising life. If, however, you do not practise properly yourself and tell others to practise, your preaching will not work: if I do not chant the Holy Name and give the mantra to others, that mantra will not work; if I do not chant gayatri and give gayatri to others, that gayatri will also not work. You must practise yourself first.

nije achari dharma jivke sikhaya

achara prachara namera lainu karya

Practise yourself and teach the right path to the souls. Your chanting of the Holy Name will be effective when you practise yourself and preach.

Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj says that you read books and you have some knowledge, you have some property, jnana-, vidya-sara, and you must distribute it, otherwise you will become a mango tree on a hill: you will be full of mango fruit, but nobody will pick it, not even a crow... So, distribute what you have to other devotees, to the conditioned souls. You will give to others, you will preach, and you will not lose anything, instead you will get more and more. If you can do it, it will be good for you.

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Stick to Your Guns

Sri Nabadwip Dham, 27 February 2015

Before Gurudev left, he warned me that so many problems would come. He knows everything—what will happen and what will not happen.

I remember, one year, after his Vyasa Puja, Gurudev sent me to Australia with Srila Ashram Maharaj, and when I came back to India, he wanted to see me. I came, and he caught my hand and, almost crying, asked me, "What will you do? Will you run away? I want to know it. I have been waiting for many days, and now I want to hear from you—what will you do? Many problems will come, will you run away?" I said, "No."

Actually, we are in the battlefield, and if some opposition group or enemy is coming towards you, you cannot go back. You must go forward and fire otherwise if you turn back and run away, they will shoot you in your back! That is not what we want to happen. We are in the battlefield, and we must go forward. Krishna knows what will happen—we cannot write our own destiny, Krishna has already written what will be in the future. I do not know what will be in the future, so why think about the future? Why think about the past? You must do what you must do now, and continue your spiritual life in this way.

In Guru Maharaj's time and Gurudev's time also so many problems came... I have so many followers now in the temple, but when I first joined the temple I saw there was only one person in the temple who followed Gurudev, no one else, and Gurudev knew it. Gurudev would sometimes sadly ask me, "Do you know who of my godbrothers is helping me? Tell me. Can you see anybody?" Then he would say, "Only the cross-field Keshto is helping me." I was surprised to hear that, "What is Gurudev trying to say?" In this way, Gurudev mentioned many things, he always observed everything, and he also said, "Many problems will come, but you have to tolerate."

Sometimes I think, "How much tolerance can one have?" Last year, I was in jail but I gave class every day, I told them about Gaura Purnima, and so on. Actually, this year fifteen devotees from that jail took initiation from me. One by one, they were released from jail and came here. I think maybe that is why Krishna sent me there. I was not unhappy there, I was never sad, never cried, nothing. They always laughed, I always joked with them and gave lectures there as usual. Gurudev said, "Wherever he goes, he will manage everything," then Gurudev's mercy is with me—even when I go to jail I can manage there happily without any problem. Everybody came to me, paid their obeisance, sat with me, and listened to some katha from me. They did not see me as a prisoner, did not think I was guilty, rather, "Oh, that man came here by some misfortune." I did not have any problem there. Then, we can continue our life properly in this way.

Sometimes we do become very sad, and I can tell for myself that I only become very sad and disturbed when devotees leave their service, leave Krishna consciousness, or when service leaves them. I begin to ask myself, "Why did they leave their service? Why did the service leave them? What did they do, what kind of offence did they make? What is happening?"

One day I told Gurudev, "Gurudev, that brahmachari left the temple..." Gurudev replied, "It is natural. It is very difficult to stay in this place, and it is very easy to go away from here—it is a very high place, and it is not for everybody." I told Gurudev that some devotee was making disturbance and somebody ill-treated him, that is why that brahmachari left, but Gurudev said, "You are looking at the external, but you must find out the internal reason. Can you try and kick one dog out of here? You cannot. Then you must understand that this place is a very special place for your life..."

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The Bliss of Solitude

Sri Nabadwip Dham, 27 February 2015

I told yesterday this story of Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur. Suppose there is an elephant and an ant. The ant says, "Oh, the elephant eats so much!" and some may think that because the ant eats little it is a sadhu, but the elephant carries Lord Krishna on its back, so while the elephant does some service, the ant only bites.

Eat as much as you can digest—"Prasad akantha kariya bhojan, sara din koro sankirtan, eat up to your neck and chant the Holy Name the whole day." No problem.

If you go into false renunciation, thinking, "Oh, I should not to stay here, better I go to Hrishikesh, stay there under a tree, and do bhajan," you will become that kind of a sannyasi: a ganja-smoking false renunciate. It is not good. You can stay in a house and live the life of a sannyasi—that is good. You do not have to go away and stay alone in hell. Prabhupad said that if you think you are going to do bhajan alone, it is simply self-deception: nirjane thakibe pratistha magibe. You think you will go to a secluded place to chant the Holy Name, but you will end up in a "gita samsar". This is another story that Srila Prabhupad told.

One devotee thought, "There are so many people here, I cannot stay in this environment! I must go to a secluded place." He went to some hill and found a quiet place, thinking, "Now I can read Srimad Bhagavad-gita properly."

He read the Gita, but he had some other material desire, so how can he read it? He fell asleep with the book open, and one day a rat came and ate a few pages of the book. He thought, "I must kill this rat!" He brought a cat, but the cat miaowed all the time because it was hungry. He had to get milk for it, so he brought a cow. The cow gave milk, but the cow too always cried because it also needed food and care. So, he got a maidservant to look after the cow. The man stayed with the lady and after a while they got married and had so many children.

One day, his Gurudev decided to go and see how his disciple was doing. He came to that place and saw that his disciple had a big family and had forgotten Krishna consciousness. Where did his Bhagavad-gita go?

Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur called that family "a family of gita," not "a family of Krishna". He gave this example for us.

If you feel even some little material desire is coming to you, you must remove it immediately, otherwise it will increase day by day and demolish, spoil your spiritual life. This is the meaning of this story.

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More Than Meets the Eye

Sri Nabadwip Dham, 27 February 2015

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur told that you must use everything for the service to the Lord, and it is Gurudev's desire too.

I remember in 2005, a few days before Gurudev's Vyasa Puja, I went to Chennai for an operation, and after that some devotee offered to Gurudev, "Oh, this time Acharya Maharaj cannot go to collect rice because he is sick... I could buy the whole amount of rice that is necessary." Gurudev was shocked, "Why would you want to do that?? Do you want to destroy my temple?... Maybe he is sick, but he is going door to door, and somebody gives 500 grams, somebody gives 200 grams or 100 grams, but they give their energy for service at Gaura Purnima, for service to the Lord. You cannot take that energy away—you cannot destroy that energy!"

Later Gurudev told me, "You must remember that I will never buy rice for Gaura Purnima. I can spend so much money and make Gaura Purnima festival, but I cannot buy rice for Gaura Purnima." Then I understood what Gurudev wanted. He wants to give benefit to others, and he wants us to go for collection for that reason. You heard also how much praise he would give every year, "I cannot go for collection myself, but they are going and collecting potato and rice. They are doing so much." He said it many times in his lectures.

Gurudev is pleased through service. We may not be able to see it with our eyes, but that is because our eyes are always full of dust (dhulikana). We cannot see every pastime of Guru Maharaj, of Gurudev, and we cannot recognise them (cannot understand who Gurudev is, or who Guru Maharaj is) because we are always playing with maya. How can we then understand their mood? You heard that even Srila Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya could not recognise Mahaprabhu because he had no mercy.

Without Gurudev's mercy, without Guru Maharaj's mercy, how can we understand them? We cannot. We may see and understand them only externally, but without their mercy it is impossible to recognise them. How can we get that mercy? Mercy means kripa, and kripa means 'kore-paba': you must do something to get something. What will you do? Service to Guru—if you serve your Guru, then you will get something from him.

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Stay On Board

Sri Nabadwip Dham, 5 March 2015

Without mercy of Gauranga there is nothing.

One time, I remember a very educated man, three times post-graduate in three different subjects, came to Gurudev and said, "Maharaj, I want to make Chaitanya-charitamrita. I am a triple M.A., and I have studied Chaitanya-charitamrita as one of my subjects, I know it." Gurudev answered, "You may pass post-graduate a hundred times, but without mercy from Chaitanya you cannot compose Chaitanya-charitamrita." I heard this directly from Gurudev's mouth.

So, without mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu you cannot understand that, but the Guru can.

Before, I did not read so many scriptures, and I did not really read Chaitanya-charitamrita so much. When I told Gurudev that it was hard to understand what is written in Chaitanya-charitamrita (before, every evening there was a Chaitanya-charitamrita class in the nat mandir), Gurudev said, "Still, you read it—read and read, read and read." Even Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur himself said, "I have read Chaitanya-charitamrita from cover to cover sixty times, but I cannot understand it fully."

Many years ago, in my brahmachari days, I once asked Gurudev, "Gurudev, can you explain the meaning of 'atmaramas cha munayo' sloka?" Do you know what answer Gurudev gave me? Gurudev said, "You are not fit now to hear the meaning of this sloka." He told me this straight.

Gurudev taught us so many things in this way, but he also had to tolerate a lot. So many things have happened, but by the mercy of Guru Maharaj, by the mercy of Gurudev and Gauranga we are still here and we can continue our preaching programme all over the world, whether in India or outside India, it does not matter to us because we all are members of one family—the family of Chaitanya Saraswat Math. We do not expect it, but sometimes some problems will come. It happened in Mahaprabhu's time, it happened in Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's time, it happened in Guru Maharaj's time, and it happened in Gurudev's time too. It is not a problem actually, although for us it is a problem, but Gurudev left us to help, serve, and protect his mission—that is our main goal, and if we can do it together, it will be good for our own self and good for others.

We are all in one family, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, that is Chaitanya Saraswata paribar, and if we can go on smoothly, if we can go on truly, we will get a good result.

Actually, we do not worry about the result so much—we do not want to make a show for others and cannot say, "Oh, we can do this, and we can reach this"; but we can show some way, guide, "If you walk in this way, you will see how far you are from reaching your goal." Gurudev is the captain of the ship, and if we can stay in this ship, we can get to the place where the ship is heading. So, for us the main thing is to stay in the ship. If we live following what Gurudev said and tell others about it, we can easily continue our spiritual life, and that will be our true success. This is our main goal.

Also, we should not discriminate, "This is my disciple, this is not my disciple." Do you remember Gunarnava Mishra? He always worshipped Mahaprabhu only, but when Minaketan Ramdas, Nityananda Prabhu servant, came there, Gunarnava Mishra did not give proper respect to him. Minaketan Ramdas called him a son of Romaharsana [an offensive brahman who did not respect Lord Baladev and was slain by Him on the spot].

We are not separate, we are together. You think, "He is my Guru," and another person thinks, "He is my Guru," but actually we are all godbrothers, coming from the same Gurudev. Somebody may be giving initiations, that is not a problem. We are the same family, and we should serve our mission together.

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Wholesome Transformation

Sri Nabadwip Dham, 9 March 2015

In this way we are to continue our spiritual life:

If somebody has no manpower, or stays alone in the house, they can sing songs with kartals. It takes only 20-25 minutes to sing five songs—Sri Guru charana-padma, a Pancha-tattva song, Vaishnav Thakur, Nityananda's kirtan, Mahaprabhu's kirtan, and mahamantra. When you chant on your beads, that is another thing—when chanting on the beads so many things can come to your mind, "Oh, where will get money tomorrow? Oh, my wife said this and this to me!" but when you are singing so many things will not come to your mind at that time. So, you can practise in this way. Sing five songs in the morning and five songs in the evening. Can you not find 40 minutes?

Practise Krishna consciousness in this way and you will see how much your spiritual life will increase and you will not get any taste for the outside world—the feeling will come to you, "I do not want to go outside. It is very difficult for me. When service comes I have to go, otherwise I do not want to go—I do not want to leave the temple. My mind, my heart do not want to go outside the temple, but what can I do? For preaching, for service to the Lord I have to go outside, but I do not like that outside world any more, I cannot tolerate it." What to do? We have to tolerate so many things when we go out.

In this way, such situation should come to you. You must give your energy to the Lord, to Krishna consciousness—if you use your energy for another purpose, then you will not get energy for chanting the Holy Name, for service to Krishna. When some material things come to your mind, you must remove them immediately because if you give food to your mind, your mind will become strong and it can take you away from the service. Do you understand? You have no enemy in this world—your mind is your only enemy. Remember it.

Jihva, the tongue, always throws us into visaya sagar, the ocean of material things, but Krishna is very kind, Krishna is very merciful—He has given us His mahaprasad. If we take that mahaprasad, our senses will be controlled and these kinds of bad elements can be removed from our heart—our tongue will be clean and we can start chanting properly.

Now we are full of rust. Magnet cannot attract rusty iron because of the thick layer of rust. You must remove that rust, then Krishna can attract us. That is why we need some good association,

'sadhu-sanga', 'sadhu-sanga'—sarva-sastre kaya

lavamatra sadhu-sange sarva-siddhi haya

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.54

Through the good association you can be successful. Good association is the main thing. If you do not get good association, proper association, do not get proper Hari-katha, proper Krishna-katha, you will not get benefit.

You must use yourself for the service to the Lord: you have got a mouth to speak about Him, to take His Holy Name, you got eyes to see His Deity form, ears to hear about Him, to hear His Holy Name, you have got hands to serve in His Dham, to clean His temple—you have got all this for Him, but we are engaging it for another purpose... When our life becomes Krishna-centred, when the Lord is in the centre of it and we do everything for Him, then our home becomes Krishna mandir (a temple of Krishna). Cook for the Lord, offer it to Him, and take that prasad. Do in this way. Use everything for the service to the Lord—whatever you need for the service to the Lord, use that.

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Glory of the Holy Name: Pastime at Gora Daha

19 April 2015, Skype darshan for Russia & Ukraine

Krishna is always with you. When I see the devotees, always happiness comes.

Always practise Krishna consciousness, always avoid the offence to the Holy Name, Nama aparadh, seva aparadh, and make sure you give up deceitful devotion. Keep your mind always open and clear. This is necessary for your practising life. Always try to give up deceitful devotion.

Once, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came with devotees to a lake. The lake is in Nabadwip Dham, near Godrumdwip—when we go on parikrama, you can see that place. Mahaprabhu offered the devotees, "Let's sit by the lake," but one of the cowherd men of that area told Him, "Do not go there! A crocodile lives in that lake. Even the cows are afraid and do not drink water from that lake." Mahaprabhu already knew everything, and hearing the words of the cowherd man, He started chanting. When the crocodile heard Mahaprabhu chanting the Holy Name, it turned into a dev-sisu, a child god. The boy paid obeisance to Mahaprabhu and started to cry. Mahaprabhu asked him why he was crying, and the boy told Him everything—what had happened and how he became a crocodile.

It happened four ages ago, during Satya-yuga. At that time, there was a forest near Vrindavan called Kamyavan. Once, when Durvasa Muni was sleeping in that forest, childishly the boy decided to played a naughty prank on him—he cut his sikha. Durvasa Muni became very angry and said, "I am giving you a curse. You will become a crocodile and stay as a crocodile in a pond for four ages. When the Lord Himself comes in Kali-yuga as Gauranga Mahaprabhu, He will come to that pond and chant the Holy Name. By the power of the Holy Name you will get benefit and your curse will be removed—you will get your form back." The child god concluded his story, "Just now You have chanted the Holy Name and I have got my form back—You rescued me from the crocodile's body. You gave me Your mercy, and I am happy. Now with Your permission I would like to go back to my parents."

You can understand from this story the power of the Holy Name. Always chant the Holy Name, wherever you are—there are no rules or regulation.

This year I gave permission to Sripad Tyagi Maharaj and he printed a book called Prema-vivarta, written by Jagadananda Pandit. You can read this book, and you will see what love is, what deceitful devotion is, and what the glories of the Holy Name are. You will see what the Holy Name is and that the Name can even remove big-big diseases... I am telling to everybody: if you read this book, you will be very happy.

Always chant the Holy Name—it is the dharma, the religion of Kali-yuga.

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Chanting: Any Time

19 April 2015, Skype darshan for Russia & Ukraine

Question: A devotee is in such a situation that she just gave birth to a baby a month ago and now she does not have any spare time—she cannot even chant the Holy Name, she has absolutely no time to do any spiritual practice. What is your advice to her?

Why cannot she do spiritual practice? Spiritual practice is to chant the Holy Name. It is not necessary to chant on her beads all the time, but when she does something, for example, when she carries her baby, she can always chant. What is the problem? If she tries, she can do. If she thinks, "I will not do it," then she will not be able to do it; but if she thinks, "I have to do it," then she can do it and she will get time.

Actually, she must understand that we get everything—a baby, a husband, a mother, a father, or a friend—for Krishna. Krishna gives us happiness, and Krishna can take it away and give us unhappiness also, why do we forget Krishna then? Why cannot we practise Krishna consciousness? If we understand this, we will keep time for Him.

You can chant at all times, whether you are cooking, or doing anything else. It is not necessary to always chant on the beads, you can chant with your mouth: your mouth has two lips, just open your lips, say, "Hare Krishna", and "Hare Krishna", "Hari" will come out of your mouth. What is the problem?! She can talk, she can do everything, why cannot she chant only one Name: "Hare Krishna"?

If somebody neglectfully chants the Holy Name, like Namabhas, they will get liberation. Why would she not take the Name then? It is not necessary to do japa for a hundred years or fifty years; if you just neglectfully chant "Hari bol", you will get liberation—you will get happiness and you will go to your real path. Why would she not chant the Holy Name? Chant the Holy Name at all times!

Does she understand now?...

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First Steps in Surrender

19 April 2015, Skype darshan for Russia & Ukraine

Question: What should we begin our saranagati with? What should be first steps in our saranagati?

First steps in saranagati are: be humble and give up, or avoid, your ego. We are servants of the servants of the Vaishnavs, so give up your ego and be humble. These are the main things, and it is also necessary to have some patience.

You think you took initiation many years ago, but you cannot see the result in front of you and you lose your patience. You must be always patient, humble, and tolerant. Dainya, daya, anye mana, pratistha varjana. Dainyata means be humble. Daya means be kind to others. Anye man, give honour to others. And pratistha varjan, give up your pratistha, your name and fame. That is called saranagati, these are the main steps of saranagati.

Question: Gurudev, a devotee is asking a question... The society norm is such that one must get married, and her question is how to 'marry' Krishna? She says she does not want to get married to some usual man, she does not want to live the usual 'normal' life...

If she always thinks about Krishna, Krishna will be happy and will fulfil her desire.

In Dvapar-yuga, Kubja wanted Krishna to stay one night with her, and Krishna fulfilled her desire—in the Age of Kali, that Kubja became Kashi Mishra and Mahaprabhu stayed in his house for eighteen years. Similarly, Krishna will fulfil her desire.

It is not necessary to get married. In this Age of Kali, marriage means sex, but 'marrying' Krishna has nothing to do with sex—it is only transcendental pure love for the Lord. In this Age, marriage, wedding, etc. means people do it for their own benefit—they gratify their their own senses, indriya-tarpan, and get their own happiness. They enjoy, but that enjoyment is not permanent, it is temporary. If, however, you have love or search for pure love for Krishna, then you can get permanent pleasure, and you can enjoy with Krishna.

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Questions and Answers: Family, Books, Weeds, and Chanting

19 April 2015, Skype darshan for Russia & Ukraine

Question: There is a Prabhu, he lives with his sister and nephew. Socially, his life is very different from the life of his family, and he always feels hurt by his relatives. He is asking how not to feel hurt and not to feel miserable.

Has he ever come to India?

— No, he has not.

He needs some good association. Sometimes some problems come in a family, but it is temporary, it is actually not a problem. If he thinks there is a problem in his family and he wants to stay here in India, and if he can tolerate the climate in India, he can come and stay with me here.

In general, our duty is to always harmonise with everybody. We should not fight, should not quarrel—we must tolerate and harmonise with everybody, with the society and the people around you. Even if you stay in a temple, even if you live as a brahmachari, you still have to harmonise, still have to tolerate. So many problems come—to stay in a temple permanently is also not easy.

Question: I have desire to read spiritual literature, some scriptures, but now I do not have any possibility to do it, what should I do?

Actually, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur told that if you come to Krishna consciousness, if you practise properly, then it is not necessary to read volumes of books, not necessary to accumulate volumes of knowledge. If you only have faith in your Guru, have faith in Krishna, that is sufficient for you. If you have time, however, you can read and hear Hari-katha from great pure Vaishnavs, pure sadhus. These are main things.

You do not have to think so much about books and things like this. When I joined, I did not read any books for seven years—I only listened to Hari-katha, and Gurudev told me to read Chaitanya-charitamrita. Before sannyas, Gurudev asked me, "Do you read any books?" I said, "No, I do not get time to read." Then Gurudev told me, "You can bring one book from Mayapur, Gaudiya-kantha-hara, and you can read it." Then I started to read that book. Otherwise, I also did not read so many books.

Do not worry—you are practising, following rules and regulations, following Krishna consciousness, and that is sufficient for you. Always avoid Nama aparadh, try to avoid seva aparadh, try to avoid Vaishnav aparadh—if you try, you will quickly reach success in your spiritual life.

Question: What is the best way to bring my relatives into connection with Krishna consciousness?

If you cannot do it yourself, you must always bring them to a great Vaishnav. We cannot do anything ourselves, that is why we always give people to Gurudev.

Many new people came to the temple, and I always took them, handed them over to Gurudev because it is his duty to take care of them, and I have always got a good result through that. If I try to do it myself, I cannot do it.

We will try to give them some connection—if they can hear some Hari-katha, Krishna-katha, and even chant Hare Krishna, that will be good for them, it will give them benefit.

Question: When we chant, our devotion grows and we try to serve, but together with the devotion there are also some weeds growing in our heart, how can we get rid of those weeds in our heart?

That is a fundamental point. These weeds always disturb your devotion, and it is also one kind of offence, but if you chant more and more, that material desire will be removed from your heart. Chant more and more, engage yourself more and more in service to Krishna, in chanting the Holy Name, then automatically that material desire that is like a weed will leave your heart.

If you keep these desires in your heart, that is not good. You must try to remove it as soon as the seed appears—kill it through chanting, do not keep it within, "Oh, today this material desire is coming..." Tomorrow more will come.

Question: Every day I try to offer all my activities to Gurudev with the pranam mantra, but my daily activities are mostly materialistic. Does Gurudev accept these activities even though they are materialistic?

Actually, if what you are doing is connected with service, with the Lord, with the Guru, it is not materialistic. If you can do everything and connect it to the Lord, to your Guru, that is good for you.

You can ask your heart whether what you are doing is wrong, your heart will always tell you. If you think you are doing something wrong, then remove that kind of activity. You should try to understand it yourself.

I am giving you a prescription, and you must always follow it. If a doctor gives you a prescription and you do not follow it, you will always go towards material things. You must follow the prescription and try to remove your materialistic activities, then you will get benefit.

Question: What should our mood and thoughts be like when we are chanting Hare Krishna maha-mantra?

It is not necessary to think about so many things. For primary devotion, it is not necessary to have some special mood. Chant first the Pancha-tattva's name and then the Holy Name, chant it easily and you will get result, the mood will come to you automatically. There are no rules, no regulations—you can chant the Holy Name in any place—whether you are on the train, in the bus, walking, or even in the toilet.

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Standing Invitation

19 April 2015, Skype darshan for Russia & Ukraine

Question: How is your health and mood?

I am ok, I am very happy. My health is good too—every day I do exercise, and my blood sugar is under control, everything is under control by the mercy of Gurudev, by the mercy of the devotees.

There is only one problem... I am making so many temples, but we are short of devotees. You can make an announcement and tell everyone that I want devotees to come and stay here, do some service. If they can come for a few months at a time, it will be good.

Come here—ladies or men, it is not a problem. You can stay in different places here in India. There is a little bit austerity because it is hot, but the Russian devotees have an extra power, an extra mercy from Gurudev: they can tolerate anything. If the food is a problem, if they cannot tolerate the food here, they can cook themselves—I am allowing the foreign devotees to cook. And everyone can get their own room and all facility, there is no problem with that. If anybody is eager to come, I always welcome them. This is my invitation for everyone.

—Gurudev, we would like to say that we are very grateful to you for your mercy. We are always trying to remember you, and we feel that you are in our hearts. We are all paying our humble dandavats to you...

I am also paying dandavat to all the devotees. Please forgive my offence. I am always with you all, and I always remember you all, you are in my heart. It is my humble prayer to everyone—any time you want to come, I always say to you, "Please come." Dandavat pranam to you all.

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"I am Gora's!"

21 April 2015, Sri Nabadwip Dham

Today is a very good auspicious day. Every year we make this festival, Sri Sri Chandan-yatra maha-mahotsav. It takes place in several places, and mainly this festival takes place in Puri. Mahaprabhu also went to this festival in Narendra Sarovar (Puri), where they put sandalwood on Jagannathdev's body and then go on a boat ride. This is Chandan-yatra maha-mahotsav.

Gurudev also wanted to make this festival in Nabadwip. When he was making the plan for the temple in Govinda Kunda, he said that this temple would be Mahaprabhu's Divine Water Play Temple. So, at Chandan-yatra time, starting from today, for twenty-one days Mahaprabhu will go on a daily boat ride in Govinda Kunda. We do a parikrama around Govinda Kunda in the boat, offer the bhog, do some kirtan, and then take prasadam. In this way, by the order of Gurudev, by the mercy of Gurudev, we make this festival every year.

You can read in Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat how Mahaprabhu would also go to the Ganges and play with the devotees in the water. So, we are remembering His Pastimes.

adyapiha sei lila kare gora raya

kono kono bhagyavane dekhibare paya

Gora Ray continues performing His Pastimes, and those who are fortunate can see it.

"Mahaprabhu's Pastimes are still going on, but only those who have the eyes can see it."

We must remember Mahaprabhu's Pastimes for our preaching movement. As Jagadananda Pandit said,

“gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale

gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta by Srila Jagadananda Pandit, 8.6

If you only say, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's! I am Gauranga Mahaprabhu's devotee! I am Gauranga Mahaprabhu's devotee!" and you do not follow His prescription, you do not follow His order, His rules and regulations—do not follow anything—how can you be Gora's devotee? If you say, "I am a disciple of Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj" but do not follow his order, do not follow his request, how can you can say that you are a disciple of Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj?

If you want to preach something, you must first show to others that you are practising it.

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'

gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta by Srila Jagadananda Pandit, 8.7

You put tilak on and show to the whole world that you are a great Vaishnav, but in the meantime you are hidingly doing some nonsense work, you are hidingly going to prakriti-sambhasan, mix with women. Gora can catch you, thief! You cannot hide anything from Gora, you cannot hide anything from Gauranga Mahaprabhu, you cannot hide anything from Gurudev!

You must understand that if you want to make others happy, you must follow the proper conception. We have some main conception, and we cannot mix with so many people. It is not our own conception—it is Mahaprabhu's conception, it is the conception of great Vaishnavs.

You see that Raghunath Das Goswami did not accept buttermilk in the leaves that came from the pond of Chandravali's area—he did not even touch it, he threw it away. Then you must understand that we cannot mix with those who do not follow Gurudev, who have no faith in Gurudev. Once, many years ago, when I said something to Gurudev, he asked me, "Who do you want to stay with—with Chandravali or with Radharani?" Srila Raghunath Das Goswami did not accept buttermilk in the leaves that were brought by a babaji, Vraja-basi, from Chandravali Kunja. He threw it away. So, if somebody does not follow our main conception, does not follow Srila Sridhar Maharaj's conception, does not follow Gurudev's conception, Gurudev's order, we cannot mix with them, we cannot accept the religion that they themselves have invented.

You must understand this clearly and practise properly in this way, then you can get reality, you can get real happiness!

You must take association of pure devotees. There are so many big speakers in this world, and you think that if somebody is a big speaker, or a big singer, they are a big guru. It is not so. Understand it clearly and practise properly, then you will get real benefit.

Jay Srila Gurudev!

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The Ultimate Obstruction

25 April 2015, speaking online to Venezuela

If you practise properly, with humility, tolerance, and giving honour to others, you will get Krishna's lotus feet, and if you think about the lotus feet of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, you will easily get Krishna's mercy, but you should also understand that if we can fulfil Gurudev's desire, it will be even more powerful for our spiritual life. That is why, we must preach properly.

We must follow Mahaprabhu's teachings, Mahaprabhu's conception, then we can practise properly. Jagadananda Pandit told,

yadi chaha pranaya rakhite gaurangera sane

chhota haridasera katha thake yena mane

If you want to maintain your love for Gauranga, then remember the story of Chhota Haridas.

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta by Srila Jagadananda Pandit, 7.12

If you want to get mercy from Mahaprabhu, you must always remember Chhota Haridas. Chhota Haridas made a small mistake, but how much punishment he got for it! You must remember it.

Always avoid Nama aparadh, Vaishnav aparadh. Always. Hari Nam is conscious, He is nondifferent from Krishna, and Nam always considers whether one is an offender:

'krsna-nama' kare aparadhera vichara

krsna balile aparadhira na haya vikara

There is a consideration of offences when one chants Krishna Nam—offenders to the Name get no effect from their chanting.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 8:24

If an offender chants the Holy Name, no feelings will come to him.

When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu lived in Nabadwip, He once went with the devotees to the bank of a lake. There, a cowherd man warned Him, "Prabhu, why are You going there? There is a nakra, crocodile, in that lake, and even cows do not go there to drink water—they are always afraid to go there." When Mahaprabhu heard it, He easily understood what had happened there and started chanting the Holy Name. Immediately, a child god came out of the lake and, crying, paid obeisance to Mahaprabhu. Mahaprabhu asked him, "Why are you crying?" The child god then spoke about his previous life and explained what had happened and how he had become a crocodile.

Once, in the Age of Satya, Durvasa Muni was resting in a forest near Vrindavan called Kamyavan. The child god, dev-sisu, who was only a child, unknowingly, out of his childishness, cut Durvasa Muni's sikha. Durvasa Muni became very angry and cursed him, "For four ages—Satya, Dvapar, Treta, Kali—you will be a crocodile. When Krishna becomes Gauranga Mahaprabhu in the Age of Kali and comes to a lake and after you hear Him chanting the Holy Name, you will get back your form of a child god."

The child god concluded, "So, You have come here and mercifully chanted the Holy Name. Now my curse is gone and I have again become a child god. I am very happy. Please give me Your mercy so that I may go to see my parents and return to my previous life."

So, you must understand what the power of the Holy Name is, and how bad the reaction of Vaishnav aparadh is.

This story is from the new book Prema-vivarta (Chapter 15). You can find it there...

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Near and Dear

25 April 2015, speaking online to Venezuela

Question: When we are so far from you, how can we get your association?

To say or think "so far" is not correct. You offer everything to your Guru, you think about your Guru, then how can it be 'far'? If you think your Guru is far, then how far is Krishna? Venezuela and India are not so far from each other compared to Goloka Vrindavan, where Krishna lives.

ye dina grhe bhajana dekhi

grhete goloka bhaya

On the days when I see devotional service taking place in my home, I feel that Goloka has manifested there.

'Suddha-bhakata-charana-renu' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur

It means that when you worship your Guru, worship Krishna, Krishna is always in your house. Every day you offer to Gurudev, you serve Gurudev, and Gurudev is always in your house. It is easy to serve—anywhere you stay, just follow Gurudev's instruction, and you will easily get mercy from Gurudev.

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Try and Cry

25 April 2015, speaking online to Venezuela

Question: How can we control our senses?

Everybody has material desires, everybody has some bad material attachment. You can control it through practising and by always thinking:

ara kabe nitaichand karuna karibe

samsara-vasana mora kabe tuchchha ha'be

When will Nitaichand give me His mercy? When will my material desires lose all their importance?

"'Gauranga' bolite habe pulaka sarira" by Srila Narottam Das Thakur

kabe nityananda more kari' daya

chhadaibe mora visayera maya

When will Nityananda be compassionate to me and relieve me from the mundane illusion?

"Kabe habe bolo se dina amar" by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur

"When will Nityananda Prabhu be kind to me? When will Nityananda Prabhu give His mercy to me? When will my material desires be removed from my heart? I have so many bad material desires! When will Nityananda remove them from my heart?" Always cry, always think about it.

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Yukta-Vairagya: The Right Perspective

25 April 2015, speaking online to Venezuela

[His Divine Grace is reading from Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, Chapter 9]

We do not mix with those who are not loyal to Gurudev, to Guru Maharaj. They may be great big Vaishnavs, they may even think they are Rupa Manjari, Lavanga Manjari, or some other manjari, but we are servants of the servants of Radharani, servants of great Vaishnavs, of Rupa Goswami, Sanatan Goswami, of Gurudev. We do not think we are Vaishnavs—we want to serve Vaishnavs. That is our quality.

You must accept what is favourable to devotion and reject what is unfavourable to devotion. Always follow yukta-vairagya, proper renunciation:

"From now on, avoid dry renunciation. Bring proper renunciation into your heart and keep it there forever."

Mahaprabhu told to Raghunath Das Goswami,

"Stay at home and always chant the Name of Krishna. As appropriate, interact with the world, remaining detached. Those who reject this purport and misinterpret the phrase are sensualists controlled by pleasures; they follow the path of deceit."

'Deha-rami' means 'a sensualist'.

"They eat fancy food, wear fancy clothes, and accumulate immense wealth. Attached to the company of women, such fools roam about night and day searching for a mansion with a fancy bed."

What is necessary in our life?

"Instead of all this, maintain the body by accepting things that are suitable and actually necessary for its preservation. Eat food in the mode of goodness and reject intoxication. Be kind to all beings and loudly chant the Name. Do not engage in worldly affairs on the pretence of Deity worship, and always avoid attachment and aversion to worldly matters. Never behave enviously, deceitfully, or inimically with others, brother, if you want to follow My advice. Discuss resolute devotion in seclusion, and spend your days engaged in the service of Krishna. If you do not have wealth, then simply perform pure worship. Offer water and Tulasi to Giridhari and hold Him to your chest."

If you do not have money, it is not a problem—you can just serve with some water and Tulasi and keep Lord Krishna in your heart. Unfortunately, however, you get a wife, friends, parents—you get some happiness and, enjoying with that, you forget Krishna. You must think: who gave you your parents, wife, and children? You got it from the Lord, from Gaura-Nitai, from Krishna, but once you get it, you forget about it. If Krishna wishes, He can remove your happiness, He can take everything away—your parents, children, wife...

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Aloof and Focused

May 2015, speaking online to Venezuela

If the senses are not controlled, you will get much suffering.

kama-krodha-adi chaya batapare deya bhaya

avasana haila asi bela

I am attacked by the six highway robbers lead by kama and krodha, and my life is coming to its end...

"Anadi karama-phale" by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur

Kama, lust, krodha, anger, lobha, greed, moha, attachment, etc. are a source of unhappiness. You want something, thinking, "I need this," but when you do not get it you become dissatisfied, unhappy, and your mind goes haywire. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told about it this, and I read it to you. If you cannot control your senses, you will not be able to do anything.

"When will Nityananda Prabhu be merciful to me? When will He force me to leave my pride and give me the shade of His feet? Pride is the path to hell. Carefully avoid it, and humbly immerse yourself in the lotus feet of Radha and Govinda. The Lord bestows greater mercy upon the humble, and pride and humility do not co-exist." [Pv, 10.16, 15, 14]

"Withdraw your affection from the world.” Did you hear that?

"Withdraw your affection from the world and dedicate it to the lotus feet of Krishna. Brother, when you give up your pride, you will give up the world, and when you give up the world, your heart will become pure.

Otherwise your heart will not become pure... Those who are proud do not give respect to the Vaishnav devotees, they do not even have any regard for religion or irreligion:

 "Out of pride, they always remain idle and commit sins. Remember, glorify, and serve the Lord, and be kind to all beings. Do all this as a proper renunciant. Krishna may not give you friends and relatives, or He may give them and then take them away. Accept all such conditions as a source of joy.” [Pv, from chapters 9 and 10]

The Lord gave you a wife, children, brothers, sisters, etc., He has given you everything. Having got everything you wanted, you forget the Lord, but the Lord can also take it all away from you and give you unhappiness instead. You can be given joy, you can be given sorrow, it is in the Lord's hands. People in this world do not understand it—they get everything they want (a house, a car, money, a guru, etc.), and as soon as they get it, they forget the Lord.

How beautifully it is written here:

"Krishna may not give you friends and relatives, or He may give them and then take them away. Accept all such conditions as a source of joy." [Pv, 9.35]

The Lord can take everything away from you, is it not? One day somebody is a king, next day he is a street beggar; one day somebody is a street beggar, next day he is a king. Such is the Lord's play.

"Consider your friends and relatives servants of Krishna, care for them as well as you care for yourself, and speak to them sweetly." [Pv, 9.33]

On the other hand, there are also people who on the pretext of service to the Lord, service to the Deity, serve visaya, their material desires.

yatha-yogya visaya bhunja' anasakta hana

Enjoy material things (visaya) as appropriate remaining detached from them.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 16.238

You can take what is necessary to maintain your family, but without attachment to it.

What are the obstacles to our devotion?

1) Atyahar, eating too much.

2) Prayasa, saving money for future.

3) Prajalpa, taking nonsense with nondevotees.

4) Niyamagraha, not doing what is in favour of devotion, and doing what is not in favour of devotion.

5) Laulya, too much hankering, material desires, too much greed. And,

6) Janasanga, bad association.

Mahaprabhu told Raghunath Das Goswami, "Stay at home and always chant the Name of Krishna. As appropriate, interact with the world, remaining detached." [Pv, 9.19] You must be detached—you are staying at home, and you will be using money and other things, but you must be detached from it.

'asakti-rahita,' 'sambandha-sahita,'

visaya-samuha sakali 'madhava'

"If you can engage in service without material attachment (keeping disinterested nature), and seeing everything related to the Lord, then you can get eternal service to Krishna."

'Vaishnav ke?' verse 12

Be detached (asakti) and maintain proper vision (sambandha).

"Those who Krishna is pleased with and blesses are truly fortunate within this world. The supreme mood of Goloka appears in their hearts, they attain Goloka in Gokula, and maya falls away from them." [Pv, 9.12-13]

Do not engage in false renunciation: it is not necessary to show others you are renounced; you must be a vairagi at heart. False, or show-off, renunciation is very bad. There are many 'renunciants' like this on the street—they wear tilak, do mala, play kartals, etc. They say they do one lakh Harinam every day, but they cannot even chant the full mantra, "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare." They go, "Hare Krishna Rama Rama Hare Hare"...

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Entering Exclusive Service

16 May 2015, speaking online to London

I am very happy to see you all. There are many devotees waiting for me downstairs, and here you too are waiting for me. I am also very happy because there is Deities' installation here in one devotee's house—Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Radha Madhava Sundar.

Everyone is fortunate because there are going to be initiations in London; devotees want to engage themselves in service, want to serve more and more, and I am fortunate to help them. I am only a medium—that is my hope and fortune.

Tell me, does everyone chant the Holy Name properly?

—Yes, they do.

Very nice. The Holy Name is the main thing, you know that. You heard in Prema-vivarta what a Vaishnav aparadh can do. One dev-sisu, a god's child, made an offence to Durvasa Muni and become a crocodile, but after hearing the Holy Name he again became dev-sisu, a god's child. Through the Holy Name everything can be changed, and in this Age of Kali the Holy Name is the way to get Krishna, that is why the Holy name is the main thing in this Age of Kali.

Why do you want to take second initiation? The second initiation is necessary for cooking, for puja, and for engaging yourself in exclusive service. We have so many centres, and somebody has to do puja, somebody has to cook, that is why we make brahmins. That is the purpose of the second initiation.

Through the second initiation you are going to become a brahmin (that is why it is also known as a brahmin initiation), and you cannot recite the gayatri mantra everywhere. You can chant Harinam mahamantra anywhere, even in the toilet, at school, college, university, at work, but this gayatri mantra is recited mainly in the morning and in the evening. If you can recite it three times (in the morning, at noon, in the evening), it is good, but if you do not have the opportunity, then you must recite the gayatri mantra in the morning and evening.

You must first take bath, put tilak on all twelve parts of your body, sit on a clean asan, then recite the gayatri mantra. You cannot do it anywhere, only in clean places, wearing clean clothes. In the morning you can recite it facing the East side, in the evening the North side. If you can recite gayatri in this way, it will be good for you.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

Jay Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

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Our Only Duty

16 May 2015, speaking online to London

Sripad B.K. Tyagi Maharaj: There is one Bengali man who would like to meet you. He regularly comes to our Green Street temple.

It is very nice to meet you. Actually, we are fortunate souls because we have got a human body, and now our duty is to serve the Lord, to serve Guru, Vaishnav, Bhagavan.

Actually, Maya always takes our time and engages us in her service, so we must not lose time—any time we can die, any time we can leave this body—we must engage ourselves in service to the Lord.

We have got parents, a wife, a husband, children—we have got some happiness for Krishna, but having got all this we forgot Krishna. You must understand that Krishna can also take your happiness away and give you sadness instead. Then, we must understand what we got this body for, what our duty is. That is the main thing.

Sripad Tyagi Maharaj is there, and you got some good association from him. Through his association you will get reality, you will know what the main and the real way is. You can take his association and he will tell you every day—I only meet with you all for a short time, and within this short time it is not possible to tell everything.

It is necessary to clean yourself. In this world, you have no enemy, you have no friend—only you yourself are your own enemy. If you want to make other people happy, you are only cheating yourself. You must understand that your duty is to please Guru, Vaishnav, Bhagavan, do not cheat yourself: "Anera mana rakhite giya apanake dibe phanki, if you go to satisfy the minds of others, you will only cheat yourself." [Pv, 8.4] That is why, some chastity is necessary. If you can run like this in this life, you will get your real home, you will go back to God, back to home.

Krishna Himself came in this world as Gauranga Mahaprabhu to take us home... This is not our real home. We must go to our real home—back to home, back to God. We must understand where our real home is: we are staying in a rented house now and we are only a security guard here. We must go to the place of our service.

We should always engage ourselves in service. Sometimes, when you do service, some seva aparadh can come, but do not leave your service. Through chanting the Holy Name, Nama aparadh can come, but when you chant more and more, Nama aparadh will be removed. In the same way, when you serve more and more, your seva aparadh will be removed.

Continue your service, continue practising Krishna consciousness in this way. Also, you need some connection with the Lord, and for that it is necessary to take initiation from a bona fide Guru. A Guru is the one who can rescue you from the illusory environment, from the samsar. You must take initiation from such a Guru. In this Age of Kali it is very difficult to get a bona fide Guru, and Krishna knows that, that is why Krishna Himself comes as a Guru in this Kali-yuga. You must try to understand it...

Jay Srila Gurudev. Dandavats.

Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay!

All the London devotees ki jay!

Always chant the Holy Name! The Holy Name can do everything for you! OK?

Jay Gurudev.

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Jive Daya, Name Ruchi, Vaishnava Seva

17 May 2015, Sri Nabadwip Dham

Vaishnava seva: If you have money, you can do Vaishnav seva; if you have no money, you can talk nicely, humbly with the devotees. If some devotee comes to your house and you have nothing, you can give them a glass water. This is Vaishnav etiquette—if somebody comes to your house, even if it is your enemy, at least you should give them a glass of water. In this way you can increase your service mood properly.

Jive daya: You can give benefit to the jiva souls by using everything for the service to the Lord: you offer a flower, you cook some rice, make chapatis or cut vegetables—it all comes from a tree or a plant, and when you offer everything to the Lord, everybody gets benefit through you. That is called devotion and this is the householder life—to do so that everybody gets benefit from you.

Name ruchi: Always chant the Holy Name. It is not necessary to always chant on the mala, but you can always chant without mala—when you are driving your car, etc. You can chant the Holy Name at any time and in any place.

ki sayane, ki bhojane, kiba jagarane

aharnisa chinta krsna, balaha vadane

Whether you are sleeping, eating, or resting, always chant the Name of Krishna.

Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, Madhya-khanda, 28.28

In this way you can increase your spiritual life. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, "Jive daya, Name ruchi, Vaishnava seva—this is our only religion, or duty (dharma)."

Who can chant the Holy Name?

dainya, daya, anye mana, pratistha-varjana

chari gune guni hai karaha kirtana

Humility, compassion, honouring others, and giving up prestige—become qualified with these four qualities and chant the Name.

"Humility, kindness, giving honour to others and rejecting, avoiding name and fame." It is not necessary to show others that you are doing some service. If anybody tells me, "You are not doing anything." Yes, I am not doing anything, but I will try to do.

So many gurus eventually fell down because of pratistha—it happened many years ago, at that time you were probably not even born, but you heard about it. They would say, "I am a guru, so every day you must give me arati and wash my feet." They thought they had become big gurus... That is called acharya abhiman. If somebody has acharya abhiman, there is so much danger ahead of them. Maya always surrounds them and any time this kind of problem can come. Bhakti Vinod Thakur compared pratistha to baghini, a tigress: Kanak, kamini, pratistha-baghini. Pratistha means name and fame: "I have done so much service. I did this, I did that." It means too much ego, abhiman, is coming...

I remember many years ago there was a senior devotee in South America... South American people loved him so much, he had distributed so many books in South and North America, and he was also the first to distribute books there. Gurudev said, "You have so much ego and your ego does not go from there, that is why your future is not good." Now we see that man has no connection with the devotees, and no one knows where he is...

We are actually walking along a sharp knife blade, walking on a rope, and we can fall down any time. If you have guru abhiman, acharya abhiman, your future is very bad.

We are tiny, but our ego is very big. You do some service, but that kind of ego should not come to you. You must think, "I cannot do anything.”

Sincere Practice

18 May 2015, speaking online to Colombia

When I see the devotees, when we can get association of the devotees, I am always very happy. I see your face and I can understand you are practising properly and you are always following Mahaprabhu's instruction, Mahaprabhu's preaching and conception. I can understand it seeing you now.

Mahaprabhu said you must always give up deceitful devotion:

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'

gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

Sri Sri Preva-vivarta, 8.7

"You are wearing tilak and showing to the world that you are a devotee, but actually you are not practising properly—hidingly you are doing nonsense. Gora knows you are a thief!"

We always say, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's! I am Gauranga Mahaprabhu's devotee." We say it, but we do not follow Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's conception. That is not good. If you follow Gora's conception, Gora's teachings, that will be good for you.

You must understand that Krishna has given you happiness and so much opulence—Krishna has given you a son, a daughter, parents, a husband, a wife—but Krishna can also take them away. We get everything and forget Krishna, that is not good. We have got everything for Him—the happiness we have got is also for Him.

When you get something, you forget Krishna, you forget the Lord, but you must always keep in your heart the teachings of Gurudev, Guru Maharaj, and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. If you have money, you can make a temple, you can do many things, but if you have no money, it is not a problem—with water and Tulasi leaves you can worship the Lord and keep the Lord in your heart…

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Alwarnath Prabhu

18 May 2015, speaking online to Colombia

I always remember Alwarnath Prabhu and how much service he did for the devotees. He may have left his body here, but Gurudev always keeps a room for him in his place.

He made a dome here, he did so much service here, and I think his service was necessary in Goloka Vrindavan, that is why Gurudev called him, and he went there. I am thinking he knows how to make a house, he knows how to make a temple dome, and I am sure Gurudev needed him for his service there—maybe it is necessary to make a dome there, and Gurudev called him, so he left his body and went there.

Remembering his service, remember Chhota Haridas. When Chhota Haridas committed suicide, left his body, Mahaprabhu wanted to hear him sing, and Chhota Haridas sang a song. Everybody was surprised and wondered what was happening, but Mahaprabhu said, "You must believe Me: My devotee does not leave Me, My devotee always stays with Me." "Na me bhaktah pranasyati." [Bg, 9.31] Krishna Himself said, "My devotee is never vanquished. My devotee always stays with Me, and My devotee is never ruined."

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Arrange and Enjoy

18 May 2015, speaking online to Colombia

Can I ask you something?

Actually, I want some devotees to serve here in India. If anyone wants to come here and stay, try to come. Everybody comes only in winter season, and now it is a little hot here... Devotees only come at the festival time and enjoy the festival, but Gurudev said, "You must not only enjoy with the festival, you must also arrange the festival." To enjoy a festival and to arrange a festival is not the same thing. Enjoying the festival is easy, but arranging the festival is a little hard. You must come earlier to arrange the festival.

On 13 July we are going to Jagannath Puri. Every 50 years new Deities come for Lord Jagannath, and five million people will attend the program. If you can come before 13 July, you can also join me in that festival.

I know everybody has some financial difficulty, and South America is now always suffering financial problems, but I think it is temporary. Also, as an example, if you look at me, if you observe me, you can get some hope. You know, when I joined the temple as a brahmachari, I only brought twelve rupees with me, and when I got first initiation, I gave all those twelve rupees to my Guru. Despite that, I have been staying here for about twenty-five years now—how is it possible? You must think about it. You think you have to maintain yourself, you have to do many things, but look at me—I brought only twelve rupees and gave it all to my Guru, my balance was zero, but up until today I am still maintaining all temples and do everything. How is possible? Only through service and through the mercy that comes from Gurudev everything is still running—it is necessary to keep this kind of faith.

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Vrindavan Das Thakur: A Life of Chastity

18 May 2015, speaking online to Colombia

Question: We would like to ask you about Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur, whose disappearance day was recently...

Vrindavan Das Thakur wrote Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata. At first it was called Chaitanya-mangal, then it was renamed Chaitanya-bhagavata. Vrindavan Das Thakur is a disciple of Sriman Nityananda Prabhu and is the main servitor of Nityananda Prabhu. He has so much chastity for Him.

Vrindavan Das Thakur's mother was Narayani. The name of Vrindavan Das Thakur's father is not mentioned, he was not a devotee. When Narayani was a little girl, three-four years old, she got mercy from Mahaprabhu. Mahaprabhu would always go to Srivas Pandit's house, and when He would take prasadam there, Narayani would come to Him and stretch our her hand, asking, "Give something to me!" And Mahaprabhu would give her His prasadam. She got that kind of blessings from the Lord. When she later got married, on the strength of that mercy from Mahaprabhu, she got a good child. Her child's name was Vrindavan Das Thakur, and he became a great devotee of Nityananda Prabhu.

You must also remember how one time Nityananda Prabhu and Sivananda Sen were walking to Puri... Now there are many vehicles—trains, airplanes, etc.—but in those days the only way to get somewhere was to go on foot, so the devotees would start many days before and walk every day. For Ratha Yatra, they would all come to Nabadwip and start from there with Nityananda Prabhu half a month or a month before the festival.

Once, having set off from Nabadwip to Puri, they were passing Denur. Denur is a village near Bamunpara, Gurudev's birthplace. There was a devotee, a brahmin and a disciple of Nityananda Prabhu, named Ramahari Chakravarti in that village. When Ramahari Chakravarti saw so many devotees sitting under the trees in the mango garden and came closer, he saw his Guru, Nityananda Prabhu, there. He at once invited Him to his house, but Nityananda Prabhu said, "There are so many people with me, and your house is very small, how is it possible for us all to fit in your house? Better you bring some rice, dahl, vegetables: we can cook and make a picnic here!"

Ramahari Chakravarti brought everything, they cooked, and everybody took prasadam happily. After taking prasadam, Nityananda Prabhu asked his servitor (at that time Vrindavan Das Thakur was fourteen years old, a very young boy), "Vrindavan, where is My thing?" 'My thing' means after taking prasadam Nityananda Prabhu would take hartaki—it is a kind of fruit that is used as a mouth freshener or a digestive. Vrindavan Das Thakur immediately gave it to Nityananda Prabhu, and, although Nityananda Prabhu was happy, He showed anger,

"Where did you get it from so quickly?"

"Prabhu, yesterday morning You took prasadam in Nabadwip, and a devotee gave it to me. I kept some for You because I knew You would ask for it."

"That is a householder's mood! Keeping something for tomorrow is not good for a brahmachari. It is not good for you! Better stay here—make a family and preach here then."

Nityananda Prabhu left Vrindavan Das Thakur in that village to expand His preaching. Vrindavan Das Thakur stayed in Denur, installed Deities of Nityananda Prabhu and Gauranga Mahaprabhu, and served there...

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Keep Your Heart Close to Your Guru

18 May 2015, speaking online to Colombia

Question: What can I do not to lose devotion, not to lose that feeling...

You must maintain your family through Krishna consciousness. What is your regular duty? Wake up early in the morning, do arati, offer the bhog to your Guru at the altar in your room or house, take prasadam, chant the Holy Name, and as much as it is possible you can preach outside. You must follow a regular programme like this. Even if you live alone, sing the songs, chant the Holy Name, and if some Vaishnavs come to your house, give them some prasadam. Mahaprabhu told to Sanatan Goswami, "Jive daya, Name ruci, Vaisnava seva." Give benefit to the jiva souls, chant the Holy Name, and serve the Vaishnavs—these are your main things, and in this way you can maintain your spiritual life. And follow all the rules and regulations, follow Mahaprabhu's conception.

Question: Sometimes we become caught by Maya and cannot see the real sense. What can we do not to be caught by maya like this?

Actually, Maya's duty is to take our time and engage us in her service. Maya is always taking our mind, taking our heart, taking everything to keep us far from service. We must get good association, we must surrender fully to the Lord, then Maya will automatically run away.

If you do your service properly, without offence, if you chant the Holy Name without offence, do not leave your service, do not give up chanting japa, chanting the Holy Name—if you continuously keep the door shut in this way, Maya will automatically run away from you.

Sometimes your mind is fickle, your mind is disturbed. If you think, "Oh, I cannot do service any more," and leave your service, then it is maya. Through seva aparadh sometimes you may think, "I do not want to do any service," or, "I do not like doing service," and your mind goes another way, but if you leave that service, that is a big problem for you. It is not good for you. You must understand, "OK, my mind is telling me not to do it, but I have to do my service. It is my duty to do the service." You think you are doing Nama aparadh, making offence to the Holy Name, so you will not chant, but if you chant more and more, Nama aparadh will automatically be removed. You must chant and do your service continuously.

Question: Sometimes we do not do service or follow sadhana very well. Will the Guru not reduce or not continue his connection with us?

The Guru is always merciful, Krishna is always merciful. Sometimes we cannot do proper service, we cannot sometimes follow the full conception, but the Guru, Vaishnavs, and Bhagavan are always merciful, they always forgive our offences.

We make so many offences, we do so much wrong, but the Guru and Krishna are always merciful and if we are doing something wrong, they will correct me—if we have some hope and if we try our best. If you think, "I am doing offence," it is good for you. Somebody may not think that they are making offence, but we always make offence. The Guru and Krishna are always merciful, They always accept our service—even if I do it wrong, they will also accept it.

Question: A devotee here is asking you to please tell him what service he can do to receive your blessings.

What does he do?

—He is serving here in the Paipa temple, and all his family is also with him. He wants to do his best and he would like to be near you his whole life.

No problem. He is staying there and he is doing service there. To get mercy it is not necessary to be physically close to the Guru or come physically to the Guru. If your heart is with your Guru, if your heart is close to your Guru, that is sufficient. If somebody stays far but follows Gurudev's instruction, that is sufficient, that is OK. You do not have to come physically to stay with the Guru—always fulfil Gurudev's desire, that is good.

I am reminding also: I need some devotees who want to stay here permanently. There are so many centres here—Ekachakra, Siliguri, Nabadwip, etc. OK?

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Squandering Your Fortune

22 May 2015, Sri Nabadwip Dham

We come here, bringing some sukriti, and get to stay in Nabadwip Dham, in this aparadh-bhanjan-pat, the place where all offences are forgiven...

It is like in business—if you want to have some business, you need capital, but if every day you lose your capital, you will end up bankrupt. Do you understand? You will end up bankrupt! Because you have some previous sukriti you are now staying in the temple, but if every day you lose that sukriti, one day your balance will become zero.

Because Nityananda Prabhu is very merciful He gave us shelter, our Guru gave us shelter, they are ashraya-vigraha (givers of shelter). Yet, we are fallen souls and we are always offenders: although Nityananda Prabhu, Gurudev give us shelter, we come and make offences, we do not do anything here—if we only use our Guru and our Guru's mission and do not do any service, our sukriti will finish one day. Then the door is open—you can go.

Somebody will say, "Oh, he kicked me out! He told me to get out!" It is not my job—it is only desire of Nityananda Prabhu. Only desire of Nityananda Prabhu. Nityananda Prabhu is merciful and He gives one shelter, but when Mahaprabhu becomes a little bit unhappy, He kicks one out. Do understand it?

Once, I said to Gurudev, "That boy is gone..." and Gurudev replied, "It happened because of his own karma." When somebody leaves their service, their own karma is to blame—it is not the fault of others, it is their own fault. So many people have come here and left in this way—a thousand people came and a thousand people left. It is a lack of sukriti...

When you have sukriti you come here, but when you come here you must also earn something, get some income. What is your income? Money? No. It is bhakti, sukriti. Have you come here to acquire dharma, artha, kama, moksa? Dharma means religion, artha means money, kama means material desire, moksa means liberation—have you come here for this? No! We have come here to practise devotion.

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Come to Your Senses

26 May 2015, Sri Nabadwip Dham

Four types of people come to Krishna consciousness: arto, artharthi, jijnasur, jnani (Bg, 7.16). Arto means old people, artharthi are the people who come for money, jijnasur are the people who want to know something, and jnani means some wise people. These four types of people come to Krishna consciousness but if they do not practise properly, they cannot become devotees.

People come here and sometimes they leave the temple, but this is a very important place, Sri Nabadwip Dham. If you compare any other place to this place, it is called Dham aparadh, seva aparadh, Nama aparadh—it is very dangerous for our spiritual life. Nama aparadh and Vaishnav aparadh are especially dangerous...

You heard the story about Draupadi. When they were doing Vaishnav seva, so much money was spent, and Draupadi personally cooked everything, but one Vaishnav, a cobbler (shoemaker) by caste, mixed all prasad on his plate and ate it all together. Draupadi did not like it, "What kind of Vaishnav is this? I have made so many items, but he is not even tasting it, he does not care what kind of preparations I have made—he just mixed everything..." Draupadi committed Vaishnav aparadh.

Gurudev also said that it is not so easy to stay in Nabadwip Dham. We think we leave because of somebody or for some reason, but it happens automatically—if seva aparadh comes, Vaishnav aparadh, Nama aparadh come, the service will automatically leave us. If we make seva aparadh, our service will leave us.

When we joined the mission and came to the temple, we brought some sukriti, but if we do not do any service here, we do not earn any sukriti, then sukriti will eventually finish and one day we will have to leave that place.

Tomara sevaya yata haya duhkha, seo ta' parama sukha (Saranagati, 16.4), so much sadness, so much unhappiness, so many problems, so many obstacles will come in our spiritual life—it is not going to be smooth, or easy. Spiritual life is like walking on a sharp razor blade: any time you can cut your feet. The loss will be yours—no one can stop the service of Gauranga, the service of the Lord, the service will always continue, one way or another.

At the same time, even if somebody is an offender, the Lord always accepts their service. The Lord, the Guru are very merciful—Nityananda Prabhu is very merciful. Nityananda Prabhu always takes our service.

uttama, adhama, kicchu na kare vichara

ye age padaye, tare kraye nistara

Nityananda Prabhu does not consider who is good and who is bad, He saves anyone who falls before Him.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, 5.208-209

"Nityananda Prabhu does not look, does not judge who is uttam, who is adham—who is the best, who is good, and who is the worst—He saves anyone who surrenders to Him."

samsare para hai' bhaktira sagare

ye dubibe, se bhajuka nitaichandere

May those who desire to cross over samsara and dive in the ocean of devotion serve Sri Nitaichand.

Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, Adi-khanda, 1.77

"If you want to conquer maya, if you want to conquer the mrtyu-rup samsar (stop the endless wandering throughout the world of death), then you must worship, you must serve Nityananda Prabhu, the Guru."

Because of our ego we think, "Without me, it cannot run," but everything will run without you—the Lord's service will always continue.

Somebody asked me, "If everybody becomes sannyasi and brahmachari, who will stay in this world? What will happen to the world? There will be no people, and the population will decrease..." What a foolish question! Everything is in Krishna's hands. You think people can control anything? We cannot control anything. We want to be in charge, but we cannot.

isvarah paramah krsnah sach-chid-ananda-vigrahah

anadir adir govindah sarva-karana-karanam

Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes.

Sri Brahma-samhita, 5.1

Everything manifests by His desire—by His desire the sun and the moon rise, by His desire the wind blows, etc. but we forget about this. We have received everything we have (we got a wife, children, friends, brothers, sisters, father, mother, etc.) for the Lord. The Lord gives you some happiness, but having got this happiness from the Lord, we forget Him—but the Lord can also take that happiness away.

Somebody will go to hell, somebody will go to heaven; somebody may become an animal, a bird, somebody may become a demigod—it will continue without an end. You have got a human birth and it is an opportunity to finish your wandering throughout the samsar. This human birth is so auspicious, but we do not worship the Lord, we do not think about the Lord. We must understand that if we do not worship the Lord properly, do not practise properly, then time and time again we will have to keep returning to this world—janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi (the world of birth, death, old age, and disease, Bg, 13:9). If you engage in sinful works, you will go to hell; if you engage in pious works, you will go to heaven; but whether you go to hell or heaven you will still have to come back from there. What is the solution to this?

sadhu paoya kasta bada jivera janiya

sadhu-bhakta-rupe krsna aila nadiya

Understanding that it is very difficult for a soul to find a sadhu, Krishna came to Nadia in the form of a pure devotee.

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 7.8

In this Kali-yuga it is very hard to get a sadhu, a Guru, that is why Krishna Himself comes in the form of a sadhu, a guru. He comes personally to teach everyone, but we do not accept His teachings, we only say we accept it:

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale

gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'

gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.7

We always make Vaishnav aparadh... There are several types of Vaishnav aparadh, but now is the Age of Kali and in this modern age there is so much Vaishnav aparadh—somebody shows something on their Facebook page, or says something about somebody else without thinking, or writes something about somebody else in an email, etc. It is also a kind of Vaishnav aparadh. We make so many offences to the Vaishnavs.

We say we are devotees of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, but what is the duty of a devotee?

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana

mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

One should associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith and veneration.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124

We must keep good association, do Nama sankirtan, hear about the Lord, worship the Deity with faith, and live in a holy place. Krishna must be in the centre of our family—we must life in His family.

matha mandira dalana badira na kara prayasa

artha thake kara bhai yemana abhilasa

artha nai tabe matra sattvika seva kara

jala-tulasi diya giridharike vakse dhara

"Do not endeavour to make monasteries, temples, or big houses, but if you have wealth, brother, then you can make them, as you desire. If you do not have wealth, then simply perform pure worship. Offer water and Tulasi to Giridhari and hold Him to your chest."

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 9.29-30

If you have no money, what is the problem? You can give water and Tulasi and keep the Lord close to your heart. Everyone can get some Ganges water, and even if they cannot, they can always use the mantra and transform any water into the Ganges water; Tulasi grows in all houses—so you can always worship the Lord with some water and a Tulasi leaf and keep the Lord in your heart. If, however, we do not practise what is advised in the scriptures, we will not get anything...

You may be doing some service, but if you make Nama aparadh your seva will always be useless. Mahaprabhu told Das Goswami Prabhu,

gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe

bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe

amani manada hana krsna-nama sada la'be

vraje radha-krsna seva manase karibe

"Do not talk like people in general or hear what they say. You should not eat very palatable food, nor should you dress very nicely. Do not expect honour, but offer all respect to others. Always chant the holy name of Lord Krishna, and within your mind serve Radha and Krishna."

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.236-237

You must serve Radha Krishna, but without service to Mahaprabhu there is no service to Krishna—your attempts will be in vain. How many people can understand this?

dharmachari-madhye haya bahuta 'karmanistha'

koti-karmanistha-madhye eka 'jnani' srestha

koti-jnani-madhye haya eka-jana 'mukta'

koti-mukta-madhye 'durlabha' eka krsna-bhakta

"Among those who follow the dharma there are many of those who practise karma. Among millions of such sincere karmis, there is only one truly wise person. Among millions of such wise people, there is only one liberated soul. Among millions of such liberated souls, there is hardly one devotee of Krishna."

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.147-148

You must always remember the Lord's teachings. Jagadananda Pandit said,

yadi chaha pranaya rakhite gaurangera sane

chhota haridasera katha thake yena mane

If you want to maintain your love for Gauranga, then remember the story of Chhota Haridas.

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 7.12

You must understand and accept the teachings of Mahaprabhu, and what will be your duty? Three things: jive daya, Name ruchi, Vaisnava seva, and nothing else...

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Strike While the Iron Is Hot

26 May 2015, Sri Nabadwip Dham

Do you know what Krishna finally told Arjuna? He said, "You must reject everything."

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja

aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair.

Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 18.66

You must believe it.

If somebody tells you, "I am your father," you will not believe that, but if your mother tells you, "Yes, this is your father," then you must believe it. Similarly, you must believe what is written in the scriptures, what Krishna told Arjuna.

krsna mata, krsna pita, krsna prana dhana

Krishna is your mother, Krishna is your father, Krishna is your very life and wealth.

Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, Madhya-khanda, 1.343

I remember when I went to the preaching field in Hoogly, it was in Gurudev's time, I tried so hard for one devotee. Every year he would give some rice and donation for Gaura Purnima, and every year I went there I would ask him, "Prabhu, come for Gaura Purnima this year." He would say, "Yes, yes, I will come." He wanted to come but every time some problem would come up and he could not come. Another year, he said, "Oh, Maharaj, I will come this year!" but then suddenly he got sick and could not come. It repeated like this for three-four years. Finally, he could not come for Gaura Purnima, he could not come to Nabadwip, he could not come to see Gurudev...

One year, this husband and wife settled on going with me to Vrindavan on Kartik parikrama, but at the last moment he told me,

"Maharaj, I cannot go to Vrindavan because my son is getting married in six months."

"The wedding is in six months, and the Kartik parikrama is now. You can still come!"

"No, Maharaj... I have to arrange everything: we must paint the house, do this, do that..."

The man worked in a field just beside a big road, and one day he was working there happily when suddenly I do not know what happened but a car went into the field and he died...

Imagine it is very cold outside and you cannot make yourself jump into the pond, or the Ganges, to bath. What will you do? You are standing, shaking from cold, thinking, "To bath or not to bath?" Then you must throw your clothes into the river so that when you see your clothes going away you will jump after it! Just like this, you must throw your mind! You think, "I will chant the Holy Name tomorrow—I will wait today, and from tomorrow I will start." Are you sure you are going to be in this world tomorrow? Unfortunately, we do not believe that we can leave this world any time...

There are so many living entities in this world... When you drink water there are so many living entities in that water. When a cow eats grass, so many living entities are killed. What is the solution to that? The solution is given in the scriptures. People kill and eat fish, meat, chicken, and the sadhus too kill the jiva souls, but why is the latter not considered a sin? Because sadhus do not do anything for themselves—they cook and do everything for Govinda, and take prasad. They stay in this world, but they live in a world where Krishna is in the centre (Krishna-mayi). We must forget the ego that "I eat, I can do this." We must forget this 'I' and 'mine' world.

Several years ago we went for a programme in one place. The host was a man in his thirties who had just built a beautiful house, with marble floors and fancy bathrooms. He showed me the house, pointing out, "I did this house myself, my parents did not help. I did it all by myself." He insisted that we had the programmes at that place, "You must give programmes here every day: morning, afternoon, and evening." I told him "There are so many people here and they all want us to come to their houses. Usually we go to one house in the morning, another house in the afternoon, and another house in the evening..." In the end, he persuaded me to stay at his house. The next morning he was cleaning the yard when he saw a small snake in the grass among the trees. The hospital was about 10 km away, which was just two minutes by car, but the Lord did not give him even two minutes—he died before that.

So, we think, "Yes, I will see tomorrow. I will do this, I will do that." We say so many things, but this world is like this, this life is like this:

krsna bhuli' sei jiva anadi-bahirmukha

ataeva maya tare deya samsara-duhkha

Having forgotten Krishna, the soul wanders throughout the universe. Being thus covered by illusion, the soul goes through much material suffering.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 20.117

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Real Mercy, Real Service

30 May 2015, Speaking online to Johannesburg, SA

Yesterday was Nirjal Ekadashi, today is dvadasi, and tomorrow is Raghunath Das Goswami Prabhu's festival in Panihati. All the devotees are going there—with flat rice, mango, jackfruit we are going to make this chira-dadhi mahotsav tomorrow.

After Raghunath Das Goswami made this festival, did that Vaishnav seva, he got mercy from Nityananda Prabhu. Actually, for many years Raghunath Das Goswami had tried to get mercy from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but he did not get it. He did not get it because he went to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu directly, but without mercy from Nityananda Prabhu it is impossible to get Mahaprabhu's mercy.

So, when Nityananda Prabhu came to Panihati, Raghunath Das Goswami Prabhu got that news and asked his father for permission to go and meet with Nityananda Prabhu. His father gave him permission, and Raghunath Das Goswami went to Panihati. When he came there, he saw Nityananda Prabhu, sitting and talking with all the devotees—so many devotees gathered there at that time. Nityananda Prabhu told him, "OK, you have come. As your father is so rich, you can make a big festival here. It is very hot now, and it is mango season... Arrange some yoghurt, flat rice, and mango and feed all the devotees." Raghunath Das Goswami was very happy and he made this festival. That day is going to be tomorrow.

So many people—many millions of people—came to the festival at that time. This festival is still held in that place, on the bank of the Ganges. There are so many people there, but not so much place—people take prasadam even standing in the Ganges' waters.

Raghunath Das Goswami Prabhu made this festival and in this way he actually fulfilled the desire of Nityananda Prabhu—Nityananda Prabhu's mercy came to him. When he was paying obeisances to Nityananda Prabhu, Nityananda Prabhu put His feet on his head and said, "Now you can go to Puri—now you can meet with Mahaprabhu, and you will get service." Soon after that, Raghunath Das Goswami went to Puri and Mahaprabhu accepted him—Mahaprabhu gave him service.

Getting mercy means getting service, so we need service: if you have service, you have mercy. It is always necessary to have mercy of Nityananda Prabhu.

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale

gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6

We always say, "I am a devotee of Gauranga, I am a devotee of Gauranga! I am a follower of Gurudev!" but we do not follow Gurudev's conception, we do not follow Mahaprabhu's conception—we only say we are followers of Gurudev, but actually we do not do properly what we should be doing.

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'

gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

You show the world you serve Gora simply by wearing tilak but secretly you misbehave. Gora will catch you, you thief!

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.7

We are showing to the world that we are devotees—we put on tilak, etc.—but at the same time we are doing some sinful works, secretly we are doing wrong things. It is not good for our spiritual life.

Spiritual life means to always practise Krishna consciousness and not to forget Krishna for even one moment. Always keep your family life with yukta-vairagya—proper renunciation, not false renunciation. Practise properly, keep proper association, and always avoid the Nama aparadh, always avoid the seva aparadh, always avoid the dham aparadh, always avoid the Vaishnav aparadh—and chant the Holy Name properly, without deceit. Always chant with proper attention, with proper service mood. If you can chant the Holy Name like this, the result must come. And do not to lose your patience—have some patience, and the result will come.

Through your service, so much sadness, so much unhappiness will come, but do not leave your service—always stay within your service, and in this way you can conquer maya. It is very difficult to conquer maya, but if you fully surrender, if you practise properly, if you engage in proper activities, one day maya will come to your hand and will listen to you.

Do you understand? Follow the proper practice in this way.

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You Heard It, You Know It—Now Follow

30 May 2015, speaking online to Johannesburg, SA

You have heard many things—you have heard about Chapal Gopal, about the Vaishnav aparadh, you have listened to Param Guru Maharaj's lecture. You know that proper guidance is necessary—proper association, proper medicine is necessary; and you can see that when there is a Vaishnav aparadh, it is very difficult to avoid it, but if you do not avoid it, a very bad result will come to you.

Once, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was walking with the devotees in Nabadwip and they came to a lake. One of the local cowherd boys said to Mahaprabhu, "Uncle, do not go there! There is a big crocodile in this lake—even the cows do not go there, they are afraid to drink from it." Mahaprabhu already knew everything, so He told everybody, "Chant the Holy Name! Do not be afraid." Everybody started chanting Hare Krishna maha-mantra loudly. Suddenly, a God child came out of the lake. He came straight to Mahaprabhu, paid obeisance to Him, and started to cry. Mahaprabhu asked him,

"Why are you crying?"

"Prabhu, You came to rescue me... Previously, in Satya-yuga, I was the same as I am now, a God child, but when I was little, I was very naughty and one day when Durvasa Muni was sleeping in Vrindavan, Kamyavan, I cut his sikha. Durvasa Muni cursed me to be a crocodile for four ages. I began to cry and he said, 'Krishna Himself will come in the Age of Kali as Gauranga Mahaprabhu. He will chant and rescue you.' It happened today—You came here and chanted. You rescued me, and I have got my previous body back. Please, give me Your mercy, let me go back to my parents..."

Mahaprabhu gave him permission and the child left.

If you make Vaishnav aparadh, this is what will happen, but if you chant the Holy Name, all kinds of sins—the worst kinds of sin that you committed in your previous lives—will all be removed. If you chant without deceitful devotion, you will get result...

You must leave your mundane family life and join Krishna's family—this is the main thing. You must remember it.

When we join Krishna's family, there must be some proper etiquette, proper service and proper mood—we must follow Mahaprabhu's teachings, Mahaprabhu's conception, then we will get the result, then we will understand and we will be able to see the form of the Lord with our own eyes—these mundane eyes must be replaced with the transcendental eyes, then we will be able to see the form of Krishna.

Practise properly, maintain the temple properly—that will be good for everybody. Everybody should come together to serve the temple—it is Gurudev's temple. If everybody serves together, it is easy then to maintain a temple. So, practise properly and it will be good for you. The problem, however, is that Maya always takes our time—Maya always uses our time for herself. That is the difficulty—we are always losing our time...

If somebody does not follow Srila Sridhar Maharaj's conception, does not follow Gurudev's conception, how can they stay within our line? We need some chastity. When somebody brought a buttermilk pot made of lotus leaves from Chandravali's area and gave it to Raghunath Das Goswami, Raghunath Das Goswami threw it away, he did not accept it because he saw the pot was not coming from Radha Kunda. Chastity is very important for us—if you do not have proper chastity to your Guru, if you do not have full faith in your Guru, then you will not get the proper result. You must understand it.

Chastity is the main thing—we do not go everywhere, we do not mix with everybody. We are a little bit different from other temples...

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Glorious Parama Karuna

3 June 2015, speaking online to Caracas

So many devotees have come today! I am very happy to see you all, today is the festival of Parama Karuna, the Deity installation day. It is a very auspicious day for you all because by the mercy of Gurudev, through Gurudev, Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, the Deities, Nitai Gauranga, appeared in Caracas on this day. Remembering that day, we are making a festival—you all have joined today and I am very happy to also take some share of this festival.

Actually, it is such a glorious and happy day! Gaura Nitai wanted to come but They were searching who They would come with. When They finally got Gurudev's good association, They suddenly caught Gurudev's hand and came to Caracas. It makes me so happy to see how many devotees have come today—there is no place in the kirtan hall to even stand, and I see some devotees are sitting and standing behind and some devotees are outside the hall...

Why have you joined the festival? Because you have faith—you have the strongest faith in the Deities, Gaura Nitai, and you know that without Gaura Nitai's service you cannot enter the service planet of Radha Krishna. If somebody worships Krishna directly, it is not service, it is the wrong way, but you are doing it the proper way—you are serving Gaura Nitai, and therefore you are entering the service planet of Radha Krishna.

I know how difficult it is to properly practise Krishna consciousness, especially if you have proper chastity to Gurudev, if you follow Gurudev's word, and I know how much you all have to tolerate. When I joined, I also was trying to keep full chastity to Gurudev, and because of that Gurudev's godbrothers gave me such a hard time! You also have that kind of situation now in Caracas, Venezuela, because you have so much chastity for Gurudev, and I understand how much you are tolerating.

The whole world is criticising you, but you are tolerating it and not losing your faith because you have that full chastity. When Raghunath Das Goswami threw away the buttermilk pot, some criticised him, "Oh, he is showing he is so fanatic to Srimati Radharani!" and told many things about him—just like that because you are following Gurudev's word you too have to tolerate so many things...

It is easy to blame and criticise others, but those who can arrange and who are arranging the festival, who are managing the temple and doing it properly know how difficult it is practise and how much it takes to maintain the devotees and disciples. Arranging the festival, doing service at the festival, or permanently staying at the temple, and coming to the temple just to enjoy festival is not the same! Somebody can criticise from outside that you are making a festival and there is some little fault, they cannot tolerate it, but it is easy to criticise a festival but it is hard to make a festival.

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Treading the Wrong Path

3 June 2015, speaking online to Caracas

A few days ago, devotees arranged the festival at Panihati, Raghunath Das Goswami's danda mahotsav, punishment festival. Punishment means artha danda, money punishment. This is the festival that happened in Panihati a few days ago, and our temple also took part in it.

You must understand the meaning of what Nityananda Prabhu told Raghunath Das Goswami. Nityananda Prabhu said to him, "Ai, chora, ai!" It means, "Come, come to Me, you thief!" Why did Nityananda Prabhu call Raghunath Das Goswami a thief? Because when Mahaprabhu took sannyas and came to Advaita Prabhu's house, Raghunath Das Goswami went to meet with Him there, but he had not got permission from Nityananda Prabhu—he had not got mercy from Nityananda Prabhu but went to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu directly. He met with Mahaprabhu many times but each time he could not stay with Mahaprabhu: he did not get His mercy because he had not received mercy from Nityananda Prabhu first.

Then you can understand that you must receive proper mercy from Nityananda Prabhu first, and Nityananda Prabhu is Guru-tattva—if you receive proper mercy from Gurudev, then you can understand everything easily.

You are all practising properly, and you have full faith. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, "There is no difference between brahmacharis and householder people." Their practice is a little different, but if you think, "You are a brahmachari, I am a householder," or "You are a brahmachari, and I am a householder," and you discriminate like this, you will have to go to hell! Do not criticise householder devotees.

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur himself showed how important householder devotees are for our practising life, how much householder devotees do for the temple, for Gurudev, Guru Maharaj. Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj gave so much respect to the householder devotees. Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur himself was a householder, but all the big-big sannyasis would pay obeisance to him. Mahaprabhu said,

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 (kumbhipaka)."

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 17.22

If you read Prema-vivarta, you can understand it easily...

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Simple-Hearted and Sincere Service

3 June 2015, speaking online to Caracas

You have heard the story of Tota Gopinath, the story of Saksi Gopal, Ksir-Chora Gopinath, the story of Raghunandan, the little son of Mukunda—everywhere the Lord shows that He accepts what His devotees offer Him. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu too showed it:

His mother Sachi would offer the bhog, thinking, "If only Nimai was here! He likes this dish, and this, and this... but now He is in Puri..." After offering the bhog, she would see the plate was empty and think, "Maybe I forgot to offer it..." But it is not so—Nimai came! Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself actually came and took everything! Later, He sent Damodar Pandit with the message, "Tell My mother that in winter season, Paus/Sakranti, she cooked so many pancakes and was thinking about Me. Tell her I took everything that day."

Then there is the story of Raghunandan, Mukunda's son. He was very young at that time, about ten years old. One day, his mother told him, "Raghunandan, I have already cooked the bhog and everything is ready for the offering, but I have no time, I must go to the market with your father. Can you offer the bhog today?" Raghunandan agreed and at noon went to make the offering. He placed the offering at the altar, but he did not know any mantras or slokas, so he said to the Deity, "Hey, please take this! Eat!" The Deity did not eat. Raghunandan did not give up,

"My mother gives You food every day and You eat, and when a little boy is offering it to You, You are not taking! Why are You not accepting it from me? Why are You not taking the food?! If You do not take it, I will beat You with a stick!"

"Yes, yes, I am eating now, do not beat Me. I am eating."

"Eat, and You must take it all!"

The Deity took everything. When the Lord finished the entire offering, Raghunandan kept the empty plate in the kitchen and soon his mother and father came back from the market. When the mother saw the empty plate, she asked Raghunandan,

"Where is our prasadam?"

"Mother, perhaps you cooked a little less today, the Deity has eaten everything."

"Every day I offer the bhog, and the Deity does not take it but today you gave it and everything is gone. You must have eaten it all yourself or given to your friends. I do not believe you."

"Yes, mother, it is so. Please believe me. The Deity took everything."

"OK, then we shall see in the afternoon."

Later, in the afternoon, his mother said to Raghunandan, "OK, now take the fruit and the sweets and make an offering again. The Deity was resting, and now you can offer the afternoon bhog. I want to see what the Deity will eat."

Raghunandan took the offering to the altar and spoke to the Deity, "Now eat!"

"Oh, no. At noon I took so much, I cannot take now again!" replied the Deity.

"No, take! My mother does not believe me, she thinks I have eaten everything. Please take!"

In the meantime, his mother heard his voice and wondered, "Who is he talking to?" She came to the door and peeped through a small hole—she saw the Deity was taking a sweet: one half was in His hand and the other half was in His mouth. Seeing this scene, she fainted.

You can understand that this happens through full faith—not so many things are necessary. Actually, only one thing is necessary for that. What is it? Avoid, Mahaprabhu said, avoid deceitful devotion. Deceitful devotion means you are showing devotion to others but you are not practising properly. False renunciation is very bad for your practising life: you must follow yukta-vairagya, proper renunciation, and avoid deceitful devotion. Look at Raghunandan: he does not know any mantra, he was simple-hearted. You too should be simple-hearted, then if you worship the Deity, the Lord, with full faith, you can understand everything easily and you will be able to see the Lord.

At the same time, do not to lose your patience. Sometimes we lose our patience and think, "Oh, I have been in Krishna consciousness for so many years, but I am not getting the result." Of course: if you make so many offences, if you have so much deceitful devotion, how will you get the result?

Avoid Dham aparadh, avoid seva aparadh, avoid Vaishnav aparadh, and, most importantly, avoid the Nama aparadh, offences to the Holy Name. You know it is very difficult to avoid Nama aparadh, but you must do it, otherwise you are doing so much service but because you are making so many offences to the Holy Name your service will be ruined!

Every day we must arrange some istha-gosthi, some Hari-katha, Krishna-katha. We must teach devotees properly what is necessary and what is not necessary for our practising life—we must understand it ourselves and then teach others. Otherwise we are only saying,

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale

gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6

We say we are followers of Gurudev, we are followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but we are not following Gurudev's conception, we are not following Mahaprabhu's teachings and conception. We are only saying it. I have told before that it is easy to say it but it is hard to do it.

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'

gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.7

"You show to the world that you worship Gora, Gauranga Mahaprabhu, you put tilak on your forehead, but secretly you are doing something wrong—but Gora knows you are a thief!"

You must also avoid criticising Vaishnavs, devotees. Do not do para-charcha, para-ninda (speak bad, or find fault with others). Mahaprabhu taught it to Raghunath Das Goswami—you must understand what it means and avoid it. Gurudev also told me, "If you you criticise a devotee today, that same fault will come later to you—the reaction will come to you."

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Maya's Family vs Krishna's Family

3 June 2015, speaking online to Caracas

So many devotees have come today... My question is why do you not come every weekend?

Maya is taking your time. You work six days a week, it is not a problem, but you must give at least one day for the Lord, for Gaura Nitai. Do you understand what I am saying?

You are busy with the attachment to your family six days a week, but you must understand that you have got a wife, you have got a son, a daughter, you have got parents, but who have you got it for? For the Lord! Who have you got all the happiness for? For the lord. But when you get it, you forget the Lord...

You can see Raghunath Das Goswami—why was he so happy? Because he was asakti-rahita—he had no attachment to the mundane world. He had everything—so much wealth, so much property, a good wife—but he had no attachment to his wife, no attachment to all these mundane things.

Prabhodananda Saraswati also gave an example. Imagine you eat very much but after that you have constipation and cannot go to the toilet. You are keeping everything inside and it becomes so intolerable and painful, and when you finally go to the toilet and empty your stomach, you get so much pleasure. Just like that, you are hoarding money, things, property, etc. and become so attached to it, but you will not get pleasure from that. Only when you become detached, when you realise that everything you have is for Krishna, for service to the Lord, will you get the proper happiness.

If you want to make a family, I have no problem with that, but make a family for Krishna. Do not join a mundane family—join Krishna's family. Actually, you have already joined Krishna's family—you are already members of Krishna's family—and you must not lose your membership.

I am not telling you to leave everything, go to Hrishikesh, to some mountain, and go into false renunciation, (phalgu vairagya). Even if you do that, it will not be proper renunciation. You think, "Oh, I do not like the temple life, I do not like the family life so much either. I will just go to the mountain, or some forest," but you cannot conquer Maya in this way because if you go there your belly will go with you, and there too you will suffer so much. Maybe you will just die there or maybe you will not die, but then your knowledge, your brain, will be lost (you will end up sick and feeble)—if you lose everything how will you conquer Maya?

So, I am requesting you all: you must try to come every weekend for the festival program. Try to come, OK? Bring some flower, bring some fruit—whatever you have. You must give something to Gaura Nitai. Some devotees can bring some cloth, some devotees can bring some fruit, some devotees can bring some flowers, even if you have nothing you can bring Ganges water and Tulasi for Gaura Nitai, and if you do not have even that, that is not a problem—give yourself to the Lord, to Gurudev.

Do you remember what Bali Maharaj gave? Bali Maharaj had everything, he lived in Vaikuntha Puri with his grandfather Prahlad Maharaj, do you remember how he gave everything to the Lord but still had to give something more? He could not understand what else he could give, but his wife said, "You forgot that you have not given yourself." Bali Maharaj then gave himself to the Lord. You too must give yourself to the Lord—you have nothing else.

You think you are suffering so much in Caracas because of money and food, but I have told everybody before: come and stay in Nabadwip, serve here and take prasadam happily. Do not worry, "What will I eat tomorrow? I have no money to go shopping..." Do not think what you will do—only think about your Guru's seva, then Krishna will think about you.

Those who left brahmachari life or sannyas life and went to family life, know how much they are suffering now. You work the whole day in the field under the supervision of your boss, and you are getting so much 'nourishment' from him (you know what kind of 'nourishment' this is). After work, you come home hoping for some peace, but there your wife is waiting for you to give you more 'nourishment' (you understand what that 'nourishment' is like). So, think twice before jumping into maya. You want to go swimming in the Ganges, but before jumping into the river, you must think: can you swim? Will you sink or will you float? If you jump and then think, there will be no way out for you.

Gurudev told once that if somebody accumulates some sukriti, Maya can take that sukriti away. I can give you an example. In Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's times there was a brahmachari, a very good kirtaniya. He lived in a village called Putsuri, near Bamunpara. At that time there was no temple or anything like that in Bamunpara; a lady gave some land and a house, and one-two brahmacharis lived there. That brahmachari was one of them. Later, he got married and had three daughters. He had two of his daughters married, but before the last daughter got married he died—suddenly, on an Ekadashi day, he had a stroke. Now that unmarried daughter and her mother tell me, "We have no food, what can we do? We do not have anything." They are suffering so much now. Gurudev's word in this regard is very correct. Gurudev said that the father had done some service for the temple in his brahmachari life and got some sukriti through that, and his daughter was now taking that sukriti because she wanted to take something from the temple—on the strength of the sukriti her father had accumulated she wants to use the temple. She wants to take something, but she does not understand that our duty is not taking, out duty is giving. So, you can see what result can come through maya...

Question: How can we develop the heart to heart relationship with the Guru?

Through service. Fulfil Gurudev's heart, Gurudev's desire, then there will be heart to heart connection.

Do not put your legs in two places, keep your legs in one place—if you have one leg in one boat and the other leg in another boat, you will fall down into the river.

Serve your Guru, serve the Lord with proper attention:

anera mana rakhite giya apanake dibe phanki

manera katha jane gora kemane hrdaya dhaki

If you go to satisfy the minds of others, you will only cheat yourself. Gora knows your thoughts, so how will you hide your heart from Him?

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.4

Mahaprabhu said that if you try to make others happy, you are only cheating yourself. If a lady has a husband, that is sufficient—if she wants to make other men happy, it is not good for her, and she will not get benefit through that. It is necessary to have proper chastity. If somebody has a good husband, that is sufficient, you do not have to make anyone else happy. Keep full chastity to your Guru and do not get involved in social work—your job is to work for the Lord, not for others. You must give your heart to your Guru—do not give it to others!—then the heart to heart connection will come.

[Addressing a youth:]

Practise properly. Life is very short and you are wasting time on maya! You have got an opportunity from your childhood. I did not get this opportunity: when I joined I was a young man, not a small boy or a baby; I have wasted so many years on maya! You have got the chance now, if you neglect that chance, that is not good.

We are running behind maya, but we had that kind of enjoyment in our pervious lives...

According to the Indian law (I do not know how it is in the foreign countries), Gurudev said once, you get married and after your death your wife will take your blood. At that time I did not understand it, but it means that you do some government job and after your death your wife will get half of your pension (your blood)...

Question: When we cook for the Deities in the temple, we know we should be thinking about the Deities, but is it OK if we also think about the devotees—if we think, for example, that this devotee is allergic to some preparations?

If devotees think about devotees, it is good. When you cook for the Deities and you know somebody is diabetic, somebody is allergic to something, then you should follow these things, that is not a problem; but if you cook for the Deities and think, "I am diabetic (or he is diabetic), so I will not cook potato for the Deity," that is not good—the Deity does not have diabetes!

Question: Sometimes I feel I am alone and have no real connection...

What do you mean 'alone'? If you are alone, you can make devotees there and get their association. These are Gurudev's words.

Actually, you are not alone. Your Guru is always with you. You chant and serve the Lord, and the Lord is always with you. Who said you are alone? Do you think you are alone because you live alone? But if you serve Gaura Nitai you already have three members at your house! You think you cook for yourself, but it is not so: you have Gaura Nitai, your Guru on your altar and you cook for your Guru, for Gaura Nitai. How can you then say you are alone?!

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Attachment to Service or to the Self?

14 June 2015, speaking online to San Jose

[Addressing Kum Kum Devi Dasi:] I am sad because you have not come to India for so many years.

—It is true, it has been many years. I think eight years...

Do you still work to maintain the temple?

—Yes, still. It takes all my time...

It must be difficult for you... Why at this age is it necessary for you to work? I am thinking why cannot the devotees help you with the service of maintaining the temple? It is necessary to help you, otherwise for how many more years will you continue working?

Anyhow, you continue the programmes every Saturday, and I am very happy. This is our practice:

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana

mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

One should associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith and veneration.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124

You are a simple-hearted devotee and you know the conception. In this world almost all of the devotees have so much deceitful devotion. Mahaprabhu told us to avoid it. It is not necessary to show your devotion to others. Always keep everything in your heart: na kara markat-vairagya loka dekhaya, do not practise false, 'monkey', renunciation to impress others. Show to yourself that you are doing proper renunciation.

We say, "I am a devotee of Gurudev, I am a devotee of Gurudev," but we do not follow Gurudev's instruction. That is our main problem. They always say they are devotees of Gurudev, but actually they think about themselves, about their own interest, and eventually they become deha-rami (devoted to enjoying the body).

You are an example for everybody—to this day you work so much. At this age you go outside to work to maintain your temple, to maintain the devotees, but all the devotees follow their mind and cannot tolerate even a little austerity...

They have no patience. They think, "I took initiation many years ago, but I am not getting the result," and they lose their patience. They have joined Krishna consciousness but do not know how to behave properly, how to practise properly—they do not know anything, but they always think about the result, always ask for the result. They want some relation, but actually they take from the devotees more than they give—they do not come to give to the devotees, they came to take. Such is this world, people always think about themselves. People do not serve properly—they come to use Gurudev, they do not come to surrender to Gurudev...

I am very sad about it, but what can I do? It is like that in this Age of Kali, but we must try to follow Gurudev's instruction, we must do some service for him. We need to fulfil his desire and think how to please him, not ourselves. In this way we must continue our practitioner's life. That is the main thing...

We always follow our mind, but the mind is always naughty, it takes us away from the service. Maya is very naughty too, she always surrounds us and always looks for a hole—as soon as she sees your weak point she can attack you. If we forget remembering Krishna even for a moment, if we keep even a little bit of a distance from the Lord, from Gurudev, Maya can attack you. Service attachment is necessary for service.

If you follow the rules and regulations properly, do what is favourable to devotion and do not do what is unfavourable to devotion, if you understand what you have joined the temple for, what you have come to Krishna consciousness for, and that this body is for service to the Lord, then service will not leave you.

We always hanker, always ask Gurudev for mercy, but what is mercy? Mercy means service: if you have service, you have mercy. Gurudev said, "No service, no mercy." We must always make ourselves busy with the service to the Guru—that is mercy.

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Ups and Downs of Spiritual Life

14 June 2015, speaking online to San Jose

I am very happy to see you all after so many days. Bhakta-sangete mana anandita anuksana (association of devotees brings so much joy).

Yesterday I was reading Chaitanya-charitamrita and telling how much austerity, how much maya (illusion) always comes to a practitioner—Gurudev said that even Brahma will come to take you away. Nevertheless, we are fortunate because we have got a human body and a bona fide Guru, and we can serve the devotees under his guidance.

You must have proper guidance and get proper association, sadhu-sanga—without association we cannot do anything. Along with that, always avoid the Nama aparadh, always avoid the Dham aparadh, always avoid the seva aparadh. If you continue your practising life in this way, that will be good for you.

Srila Sanatan Goswami was a very rich person, he was a chief minister. He left everything and went to Mahaprabhu, but he got so much austerity. Srila Raghunath Das Goswami too—he started from a town near Kolkata and walked to Puri for twelve days and during this time he took food only three times. Three times! How much austerity they got! In a devotee's life there are always so many austerities, there are always ups and downs. You should always think, "It is the wish of the Lord. Everything happens by the will of the Lord, by the will of Gurudev," and do not be sad, do not think that the Lord or the Guru is your enemy. Your enemy is you yourself: kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya—you have so much lust, so much anger, greed, illusion, madness and envy within. You must learn to control it.

bhukti-mukti adi-vancha yadi mane haya

sadhana karileo prema utpanna na haya

"If one is infected with the desire for material enjoyment or material liberation, he cannot rise to the platform of pure loving service unto the Lord, even though he may superficially render devotional service according to the routine regulative principles.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.175

If you practise Krishna consciousness but have some material desire in your heart, you will not be able to reach the destination because of that desire. You must remove your offences, remove everything unfavourable through practice, through Krishna consciousness, and the main thing is that you must engage yourself in service to the Lord. To do that, you must have the proper seed—the proper seed comes from the proper line. You should take that seed, chant the Holy Name properly, recite the gayatri mantra every day two or three times, and take prasadam.

Even householder people must take prasad.

prasada-seva karite haya,

sakala prapancha jaya

By honouring the Lord's prasadam I conquer over all worldly illusions.

'Suddha-bhakata' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur

Do not take anything without offering it first—not even a glass of water. If you take a glass of water, you must remember your Guru, remember the Lord, then only can you drink it.

Continue your spiritual life practising properly in this way and you will see how much it will improve.

গ্gramya-katha na sunibe, gramya-varta na kahibe

bhala na khaibe ara bhala na paribe

"Do not talk like people in general or hear what they say. You should not eat very palatable food, nor should you dress very nicely.”

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, 6.236

Mahaprabhu told Raghunath Das Goswami, "I am giving you advice. Neither gossip yourself, nor hear any gossip, and if you have any questions, you can ask Svarup Damodar, he will give you the proper answer."

For different kinds of devotees the practice is different, but that is not a problem: you must respect everyone, independent of whether they are a householder or a sannyasi. Householders too are senior and must be respected. Be humble, tolerant and give honour to others.

trnadhika hina, dina, akinchana chhara

apane manabi sada chhadi' ahankara

vrksa-sama ksama-guna karabi sadhana

pratihimsa tyaji' anye karabi palana

Give up your false ego, and always consider yourself lower than grass, poor, needy, and mean. Practise tolerance like a tree. Give up vengeance and nurture others.

When Sriman Nityananda Prabhu was beaten by Madhai, He did not launch any case against Madhai, He did not go to the police. What did He do? Nityananda Prabhu rescued him and gave him love and affection—He gave him Krishna prem! He is very merciful...

ara kabe nitaichand karuna karibe

samsara-vasana mora kabe tuchha ha'be

'Prarthana' by Srila Narottam Das Thakur

"When will Nityananda Prabhu give me some mercy? When will my material desires, material attachment be removed from my heart?" Asakti-rahita: material attachment should not come to your mind; attachment to service should come...

We must not search others' fault, instead we must think that we are guilty, that we have so many faults. We must understand what Mahaprabhu's main conception is. We think we are devotees of Gora:

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale

gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

Just saying, "I am Gora's! I am Gora's!" does not do. Only when you follow Gora's practices and Gora's conception will you get the proper result.

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6

Gorar achar, vichar: if you follow Mahaprabhu's advice, Mahaprabhu's conception, then you will get the result. We only say we are devotees of Gauranga Mahaprabhu and do not follow Gauranga Mahaprabhu's conception properly, that is not right—we must understand what kind of preaching, what kind of sankirtan movement Mahaprabhu wanted to spread.

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana

mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

One should associate with devotees, chant the holy name of the Lord, hear Srimad Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura and worship the Deity with faith and veneration.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.124

If you always think about Nabadwip, then you can stay in Nabadwip—you can think, "I live in Nabadwip." Do not think that Vrindavan and Nabadwip are different from each other. They are not.

Also, Tulasi seva is important. We cannot make Vrindavan parikrama every day, we do not have that kind of fortune, but if you make Tulasi parikrama every day, you will get the same result.

ki sayane, ki bhojane, kiba jagarane

aharnisa chinta krsna, balaha vadane

Whether you are sleeping, eating, or resting, always chant the Name of Krishna.

Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, Madhya-khanda, 28.28

Once, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was going to the toilet with His tongue between His teeth. Gopal, one of His followers and the pujari of that house temple, noticed it and asked,

"Prabhu, is anything wrong? Are You not well? Why are You biting Your tongue?"

"My tongue became very naughty..."

"What has happened?"

"My tongue always wants to chant Hare Kishna mahamantra. I am going to a dirty place, the toilet, but My tongue wants to chant the Holy Name. That is why I am trying to stop it."

"But why? Why do You have to stop chanting in the toilet? You said we could chant the Holy Name everywhere!"

ki sayane, ki bhojane, kiba jagarane

aharnisa chinta krsna, balaha vadane

Whether you are sleeping, eating, or resting, always chant the Name of Krishna.

Sri Chaitanya-bhagavat, Madhya-khanda, 28.28

You can chant the Holy Name at any time—you do not have to wear clean clothes or be in a clean place. You can chant when you are driving your car, or going to the office: sevon mukhe kahe Krsna Nama.

You must make your family Krishna's family. You are already a member of Krishna's family—you are not a member of any material family. You got the membership in Krishna's family, but be careful—do not lose it through seva aparadh, Vaishnav aparadh, Dham aparadh...

You must follow the prescription that Gurudev gave you. You go to a doctor and the doctor prescribes some medicine, but if you do not buy the medicine and do not take the medicine, your disease will not be cured. That disease is bhava rog, the disease of mundanity. If you do not take the medicine properly, that mundane disease not will be removed from your heart. Take the medicine properly: your medicine is Harinam mahamantra. Do service and follow the instruction of your Guru.

Question: You mentioned austerity in spiritual life, but, honestly, I do not like austerity... Is there some way to increase the desire for austerity or is it the point of austerity that it is not supposed to be something we like?

If you like austerity, it is is good.

tomara sevaya, duhkha haya yata,

seo ta' parama sukha

All the distress I encounter in Your service is also my greatest happiness.

Saranagati 16.4

Through your service so much sadness, so much austerity and unhappiness will come, but do not leave your service. As I said just now, do not lose your membership in Krishna's family. Service is very sensitive...

You think you are doing so much, but why do devotees sometimes lose their service? Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is infinite. He controls everything—He controls all the demigods, He controls the whole universe. We, on the other hand, are tiny, we are like mosquitos, but we think we are very big. That is our ego.

We have done and are doing so many things, then pratistha comes, acharya abhiman, guru abhiman come and we think we have become a guru. We have not become a guru, we have become a guard of devotion—maybe we have become a servant, an important or great servant, but not the guru, not the acharya of the temple.

If you take sannyas and think, "Everybody will serve me because I am a sannyasi"—if this kind of abhiman, ego, comes, it is very serious and very bad.

As for austerity, you must tolerate it. Many austerities will come in your life.

When Sanatan Goswami wanted to come to Mahaprabhu, he was put into jail, and he tolerated it. When he finally got free from the jail, Maya caught him again—he was attacked by dacoits. He had so many austerities in his spiritual life but he did not forget Krishna consciousness, he did not forget, did not leave his service to Mahaprabhu. He did everything for Mahaprabhu.

Raghunath Das Goswami too. He came from a very rich family, but what he went through! Even our Param Gurudev, Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, even our Param-param Gurudev, Bhagavan Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur—they came from a very big family, but their life style was so simple. Simple living, high thinking.

We want quality, we do not want quantity. Do not follow, do not run behind maya (illusion)—do not run in a zigzag way after things, do not run behind gorgeous things. Simple living, simple heart, and without deceitful devotion—these are the main things in spiritual life.

sadhu paoya kasta bada jivera janiya

sadhu-bhakta-rupe krsna aila nadiya

Understanding that it is very difficult for a soul to find a sadhu, Krishna came to Nadia in the form of a pure devotee.

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 7.8

It is very rare to get a great sadhu in this Age of Kali, that is why Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Krishna Himself, personally came as the Guru. Why? To teach us.

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Latest News

14 June 2015, speaking online to San Jose

I am always eager to make more and more temples. This is my situation. I am always making, always increasing preaching centres for Gurudev, but at the same time it is very difficult for me to maintain it. Money is not a problem, the only problem is in the servitors—we are short of servitors. Devotees do not want to give their attention to service, that is why all disturbance is coming to me.

If I tell somebody to do some service, they think that I am making them work. They do not think that if they are getting more and more service, more and more kripa, mercy, is coming. That is their bad luck and bad fortune...

There are many festivals going on here. A few days ago there was Panihati festival, the festival of flat rice, yoghurt, and mango, remembering the festival that was made by Raghunath Das Goswami. Devotees went to Panihati and took part in it.

After that, devotees went to Siliguri for the Deity installation festival. More than two thousand people took prasadam that day.

And now the Ratha Yatra festival in Puri is coming. This year there will be new Deities for Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra—after fifty years new Deities are installed in Puri, that is called 'new kalevar'. Now the Jagannath temple is closed—everybody can go inside but nobody can see the Deities. They arrange everything one or one and a half months before the festival.

5,000,000 people are expected to come for the Ratha Yatra festival this year, and we are also going there. 400 devotees are going with me in one train this year, and I am also a little bit afraid because our temple does not have so many rooms. We have only 25 rooms, how is it possible for 500-600 people to stay there together? We cannot also rent a house outside because it is a very busy time. That is why I am a little worried about the devotees...

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Lacking Manpower

14 June 2015, speaking online to San Jose

Question: It is easy to build a temple when you have the money, but it is hard to maintain it when not so many devotees come to serve in the temple. It becomes hard, even though it is a temple, to stay in the association. What do you recommend in such situations?

Do not be discouraged by this. When Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur made sixty-four temples in his lifetime, there also were not so many servitors, but the temples were still running. No one can stop service of the Lord.

In this temple also, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj did not see a proper servitor and Gurudev at first did not agree to take charge of the temple as the acharya, so he decided that he would break the temple and give the Deities to his godbrother. When Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj told this to Gurudev, Gurudev agreed. Krishna sent him.

After Guru Maharaj disappeared, Gurudev made so many centres—he preached all over the world and so many centres appeared all over the world. These centres are still running properly.

Then, after 2010, Gurudev's disappearance, by the mercy of Gurudev so many more temples appeared and also so many Indian servitors came to serve in the temples. Maybe they are new or simple-hearted devotees, but it necessary to teach them properly, give them proper guidance.

We should preach properly and take it seriously, not only worry how to make a temple. If some money comes to make or maintain a temple, we cannot digest that money or use that money for ourselves. We should use the money for service to the devotees—we can make a temple, for example. If in some place there are Gurudev's disciples and servitors, they arrange their service, and I also get energy and enthusiasm to make a temple, then it can be done; otherwise if you do not have so much manpower, do not make a temple in that place. First you must make devotees through preaching, then you can start a preaching centre. That is a good recommendation.

What did Prabhupad make sixty-four temples for? In Mahaprabhu's time, before Sanatan Goswami there were no Deities of Mahaprabhu in Vrindavan. Sanatan Goswami was the first to install Mahaprabhu's Deity there. So, if somebody is not doing it, then you should try to do it. It is necessary to have a preaching movement, seva, puja.

Actually we are not doing anything—everything happens by the will of Gurudev, by the will of Krishna. Mahaprabhu appears Himself, Krishna also appears Himself. What can we do? I do not want to make so many temples, but people come to me and give me some land to make a temple. Every time I make a temple I think, "I will not make any more," but still it comes to me by it own will, then what can I do?

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Gossip: Tolerate and Avoid

14 June 2015, speaking online to San Jose

Question: You were saying we must not listen to gossiping. One of the types of saintly association is confiding in devotees. Sometimes devotees want to confide in us, for example tell us about something they are going through with another devotee, how do we know if it is gossiping or it is our duty to listen to them?

Always avoid it. Who is fighting, they can fight, but you should always avoid it. Gurudev's words are, "Ignore it."

When I just joined the temple, there was an opposition group and many were against Gurudev. I actually did not see anyone who was favourable to Gurudev except only one person. At that time, Gurudev did everything—he went collecting, preaching, etc. So, they would take Gurudev's food and in front of Gurudev would pay him full dandavat, full obeisance, but behind his back they would tell me, "Why do you want to take initiation from him? You are a very educated person, why do you want to stay in the temple?" Do you think everyone was in favour of Gurudev at that time? No one was. I just tolerated. Sometimes I would tell Gurudev about it, but he said, "Do not tell me about it. You must tolerate and avoid that." You must do both—tolerate and avoid. One time when I told Gurudev there were so many people against him, he said, "It is OK. If you have faith in me, if you have tolerance, and you can ignore it, then you can stay in the temple."

Actually, if you make yourself busy with service, you will have no time to listen to gossip...

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Come and Join!

14 June 2015, speaking online to San Jose

I am inviting you all to come and join the festivals: Gurudev's appearance day, Gaura Purnima, etc. I cannot say now if it is possible for you to come and join the Ratha Yatra festival—it is going to be very crowded—but if you can tolerate the crowds, you can come.

I am going this year. I do not know if I am alive or not in fifty years, but this year there are new Deities (new kalevar) installed, and we will dance in front of Jagannath: "Jaya Jagannath! Jaya Baladev! Jaya Subhadra!"

Many years ago Gurudev sent me to Puri at the Ratha Yatra time, and I have not stopped since then: so many obstacles came to my spiritual life, but I never stopped going to Lord Jagannath.

Neither did I stop the Vrindavan tour. Gurudev sent me to make the Vrindavan and Govardhan tour, parikrama, so at the kartik time, after Guru Maharaj's appearance festival, we are also going to Vrindavan, Govardhan, Dvaraka, etc. If you want to join that program, it will be good for you. Come some time to make the parikrama around Vrindavan and Govardhan with the devotees:

gaura amara ye saba sthane

karala bhramana range

se saba sthana heribo ami

pranayi-bhakata-sange

'Suddha-bhakata-charana-renu' by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur

"I will visit the places where Mahaprabhu went in the company of devotees.”

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