reducing, but not artificially

So to encourage Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, one day Caitanya Mahaprabhu went to his room. "Raghunatha? I heard that you are eating very nice foodstuff and you are not inviting Me?" So he was not replying. So He was finding out where he has kept that rice, and He took and immediately began to eat. "Sir, You do not eat. This is not fit for You." "Oh! It is Jagannatha's prasada! How do you say it is not fit?" Just to encourage him. He may not think that "I am eating this rejected," you see?    (More...)

On Janmastami day I offered him sannyasa. So, many devotees came to see in the temple. So there was a big crowd. He was looking very nice. Caitanya Mahaprabhu was also very fair-complexioned. So with this dress, persons with fair complexion looks very nice, very attractive.    (More...)

To understand Krsna is not easy job. But Krsna in the form of Caitanya Mahaprabhu is so compassionate, not only He's giving Himself, Krsna, but He's giving krsna-prema, love of Krsna. That is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's avatara. Daya. Maha-vadanyavatara. So whatever Krsna consciousness movement is going forward, it is due to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's magnanimous compassion for the poor people suffering in this Kali-yuga. Otherwise, to become Krsna conscious is not very easy job. Is not easy job. So those who are getting the chance of becoming Krsna conscious by the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, they should not lose the opportunity. It will be suicidal. Don't fall down. It is very easy. Simply chanting by Hare Krsna mantra-not always, twenty-four hours, although Caitanya Mahaprabhu recommends, kirtaniyaḥ sada hariḥ , always chant; that is the principle. But we cannot do that because we are so much overwhelmed by the influence of Kali. So at least sixteen rounds. Don't miss this. Don't miss this. What is the difficulty, sixteen rounds? Utmost it will take two hours. You have got twenty-four hours. You want to sleep; all right, sleep, ten hours sleep. That is not recommended. Don't sleep more than six hours. But they want to sleep. They want to sleep twenty-four hours. That is their desire in Kali-yuga. But no. Then you'll be wasting time. Minimize eating, sleeping, mating and defending. When it is nil, that is perfection. Because these are bodily necessities. Eating, sleeping, mating, defending, that is bodily necessities. But I am not this body. Dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram... [Bg 2.13].    (More...)

Then after few days Caitanya Mahaprabhu inquired from Svarūpa Damodara, "Oh, nowadays I don't find Raghunatha standing there. What he is doing?" Svarūpa Damodara replied that "Raghunatha has given up that business standing on this. He thought that it is standing like prostitute. 'No, I don't want.' " Then, "How he's eating?" "No, he is..., collects some rice which is washed away from the kitchen, and he eats that." Raghunatha dasa Gosvami was doing that. Caitanya Mahaprabhu one day went to his place and He was searching, just He was encouraging, He was searching. He saw that a small pot some rice is kept. So, "Raghunatha, what is this?" He began to eat, "Oh, is very nice. You eat such nice things, you do not invite us?" [laughter] Raghunatha dasa Gosvami said, "It is not for You. Don't take it, don't..." "No, no, it is very nice!" In this way Raghunatha dasa Gosvami increased, and later on, when after departure of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, when he went to live in Vrndavana with the six Gosvamis-he is also one of the Gosvamis-he was taking three times bathing, but not eating. Every alternate days, he will take a little buttermilk. That's all. This is called tapasya, austerity-coming to the point of nil, no more eating. No more sleeping, no more sex life, no more defense. This is perfection. Who will accept this? [laughter]    (More...)

But this Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, he was also very rich man's son. At that time his father's income was twelve lakhs of rupees, five hundred years ago. So twelve lakhs of rupees means..., money value has gone down by hundred times. Because money's value is what you can get in exchange. If you get in exchange of one dollar, say, a few pounds of valuable things, that is money value. And if it reduces, if you get only one pound instead of getting twenty pounds, that means money value has reduced.    (More...)

Tamala Krsna: ...been seeing this one person there by the name of Bhagavan Shringari Das, Bhagavan Shringari. He's the pūjari of Lord Jagannatha. So he's claiming that when anyone goes to a holy place like Jagannatha Puri that they have to get initiated by a tirtha-guru. So these foolish disciples, they're going and they're accepting initiation from him, and he gives them some mantra, and then he... Naturally there's an exchange of money. They have to promise to send money regularly for Lord... He says it's for Lord Jagannatha. Obviously Lord Jagannatha will never see the money. He also gets them to write a letter. And one of the letters reads something like that "I came to India blind, but now Bhagavan Shringari Das has opened my eyes." Doesn't even mention Your Divine Grace. And this boy, he was telling me this... When he asked about the holy places... This devotee, who-he's doing a little assistance to me-he refused to have anything..., take any initiation 'cause he said that he could understand that something was wrong. He asked him, "What about Mayapur?" He said, "Oh, Mayapur is nothing. That is not the dhama." Then he said, "Dhama means...," and he named the four dhamas. So in this way some of the devotees are... Apparently they're even going back to America and they're encouraging others to send money to this cheater. This man is a big cheater. Govinda dasi, she took this initiation, and some other people, he mentioned... When he was there, there were already four devotees there, some householder devotee from Los Angeles, Govinda dasi,... He sells them things like the flag from the top of the temple for a hundred rupees. You know, different types of thing he sells them. So I said, "So why didn't you ask him, 'Now that we're your disciple and you're our guru, now take us into the temple'?"    (More...)