anxious to get us back home

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura gives his opinion about how a person completely engaged in the service of the Lord transforms his body from material to transcendental. He says: "A pure devotee engaged in the service of Lord Krsna has no desire for his personal sense gratification, and thus he never accepts anything for that purpose. He desires only the happiness of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, and because of his ecstatic love for Krsna, he acts in various ways. Karmis think that the material body is an instrument for material enjoyment, and that is why they work extremely hard. A devotee, however, has no such desires. A devotee always engages wholeheartedly in the service of the Lord, forgetting about bodily conceptions and bodily activities. The body of a karmi is called material because the karmi, being too absorbed in material activities, is always eager to enjoy material facilities, but the body of a devotee who tries his best to work very hard for the satisfaction of Krsna by fully engaging in the Lord's service must be accepted as transcendental. Whereas karmis are interested only in the personal satisfaction of their senses, devotees work for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord. Therefore one who cannot distinguish between devotion and ordinary karma may mistakenly consider the body of a pure devotee material. One who knows does not commit such a mistake. Nondevotees who consider devotional activities and ordinary material activities to be on the same level are offenders to the chanting of the transcendental holy name of the Lord. A pure devotee knows that a devotee's body, being always transcendental, is just suitable for rendering service to the Lord.    (More...)

The Lord is addressed as Dayapara because there is no one but the Lord who can be a causelessly merciful friend to us. He is therefore called the friend of the needy. Unfortunately at times of need we seek our friends in the mundane world, not knowing that one needy man cannot help another. No mundane man thinks himself full in every respect; indeed, even a man of the greatest riches thinks himself needy. This is because he is devoid of a relationship with the Lord. Everything is zero without the Lord, who is the digit which transforms zero into ten, two zeros into one hundred, three zeros into one thousand, etc. A zero man cannot become a happy man without the association of the Supreme One. The Supreme One always wants to make our zero efforts valuable by His association, just as a loving father by all means wants an unhappy son to be in a prosperous position. A rebellious son, however, stubbornly refuses the cooperation of the loving father and thus suffers all sorts of miseries. The Lord, therefore, not only sends His bona fide representatives to all parts of the material creation, but He sometimes even comes Himself to reclaim His fallen sons. For this purpose He also exhibits the actual life in the transcendental world, which is characterized by relationships with Him in servitorship, friendship, parenthood and consorthood. All relationships in the material world are but perverted reflections of these original reciprocations. In the mundane world we enjoy only the shadow of the reality which exists in the spiritual world. The Lord is so merciful that He is always mindful of our difficulties in the mundane world, and He is actually more anxious to get us to return home, back to Godhead, than we are anxious to go. He is by nature merciful toward us, despite our rebellious attitude. Even in our rebellious condition, we get all supplies from Him, including food, air, light, warmth, coolness, etc. Yet because we are detached from Him, we simply mismanage this paternal property which is so needed for our life. Despite their plans, the leaders of society are misleaders because they have no plan to revive our lost relationship with the Lord. His bona fide devotees, however, try their utmost to retrieve the fallen souls and bring them back home, back to Godhead. Such stainless servants of Godhead who try to broadcast the message of our transcendental relation with Him are very dear to Him. They receive such special favor from the Lord for their compassionate work that they can even go back to Godhead in this very lifetime and not be forced to take another birth.    (More...)

By the mercy of the Lord a devotee develops all the good qualities of God, for a devotee can never remain in the darkness of ignorance. A father is always anxious to impart knowledge and experience to his son, and it is the choice of the son whether to accept such instructions. A submissive devotee is automatically enlightened in all the intricacies of knowledge because the Lord from within dissipates his ignorance with the light of self-illumination. If the Lord Himself instructs a devotee, how can a devotee remain a foolish person like a mundane wrangler? A father is naturally inclined to act for the good of his son, and when the father chastises his son, that chastisement is also mixed with affection. Similarly, all living entities who have lost paradise due to disobedience are put into the hands of material energy to undergo a prison life of threefold miseries, yet the Supreme Father does not forget the rebellious sons. He creates scriptures for them like the Vedas and Puranas in order to revive their lost relationship and awaken their divine consciousness. Intelligent persons take advantage of the knowledge contained in these scriptures and thus attain the highest perfection of life.    (More...)