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Imported quote 17929

Similarly, by this Krsna consciousness, continuous chanting, you will make your body spiritualized. At that time, wherever you go, wherever you touch, he'll be spiritualized. Similarly, the iron... Without being spiritualized, without being red hot, if you touch, it will not act. So every one of us, those who have come to this Krsna consciousness movement, expected to preach in the future and to become a spiritual master also in the future. But first of all you must spiritualize yourself; otherwise it is useless. So krsna-sakti vina nahe [Cc Antya 7.11]. (More...)

Imported quote 17938

Let us, therefore, disregard our past and future and follow the example of Prahlada Maharaja given us by Srila Prabhupada. In Srimad-Bhagavatam, Prahlada Maharaja offers the following prayer to the Lord: "My dear Lord Nrsimha, if I can be elevated to the position of Your servant, then it will be possible for me to hear about Your activities. You are the supreme Friend, the supreme worshipable Deity. Your pastimes are transcendental, and simply by hearing of them one can counteract all his sinful activities. Therefore, I shall not care for all those sinful activities because simply by hearing about your pastimes I shall get out of all contamination of material attachment." (Bhag. 7.9.17) Therefore, let us become firmly attached through affection to Srila Prabhupada's Lotus Feet. Let our faith become steady in happiness or distress, success or failure. Sri Gurudeva may be approached, as He has indicated, by fulfilling His instruction without deviation. My Spiritual Master has instructed me to give submissive aural reception to the Supreme Person, Krsna, with single-pointed attention, that I might, by His causeless mercy, realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead within the pages of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Srila Prabhupada states in a purport of the same literature: "One should hear Bhagavatam with rapt attention from the real person and then only he can at one realize the presence of Lord Krsna in every page of the Bhagavatam. The secret of knowing Bhagavata is mentioned here. Nobody can give rapt attention who is not pure in mind. Nobody can be pure in action who is not pure in eating, sleeping, fearing and mating. But somehow or other if somebody hears with rapt attention Srimad-Bhagavatam from the right person and at the very beginning of it, one can assuredly see Lord Krsna in Person in the pages of Bhagavatam. (Bhag. 1.3.44 purport) In the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna says: "My dear Arjuna, O winner of wealth, if you cannot fix your mind upon Me without deviation, then follow the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga. In this way you will develop a desire to attain to Me." (Bg. 12.9) (More...)

Imported quote 18498

This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's advice. Yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa. It is not very difficult. You haven't got to become very learned scholar to become guru. Guru's business is to give the right information. That is guru. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, amara ajnaya guru hana: "Every one of you become guru." "Oh, I am not a learned man," or "I am this, I am that. How can I become guru?" Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, "No, it is very easy thing." Yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa. (More...)

And what is the real thing? That is explained by Krsna: sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja [Bg 18.66]. You take this mission, "My dear sir, you give up everything nonsense. You simply surrender to Krsna." Then you become guru. Is it very difficult to become guru? No. But we shall not take this business. We shall talk all nonsense and become guru and incarnation and God and so on, so on, and cheat others and cheat oneself. This is going on. Otherwise, to become guru is not at all difficult. Simply you surrender yourself to Krsna. You become abhayam sattva-suddhiḥ. You become fearless: "Yes, I am now under the protection of Krsna. I have no more fear. I don't care for anyone. I simply take to Krsna." Akuto-bhayam. Akuto-bhayam. This is said by Kapiladeva also. All sastra says like that, and Krsna also says the same thing in the Bhagavad-gita, bhaktya mam abhijanati [Bg 18.55]: "If you want to know Me, then it is through bhakti, not your so-called jnana and karma and yoga." You will never be able to understand. You will never be able to understand. Naham prakasaḥ sarvasya yoga-maya [Bg 7.25]. You will be simply covered by yoga-maya. This is not possible. Bhakti means surrender. (More...)

Prabhupada: [Transl. There must be. Nature will not spare you, no matter how big wrestler you are.] prakrteḥ kriyamanani gunaiḥ karmani sarvasaḥ [Bg 3.27]. That is nature's arrangement. ahahkara-vimūḍhatma kartaham iti manyate. He is a rascal who is thinking, "I am independent." Rascal number one. Everyone is thinking, "Ah! I am independent." What is their independence? Hmm? [Transl. This is the foolishness. They will not hear. If we give good advice…. upadeso hi mūrkhanam prakopaya na santaye. [Canakya Panḍit] By giving instructions to foolish men, they simply become angry. What to do? Now we have started this mission. It is here. Hear with attention what the Supreme Lord is saying. And tell others about it. This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission that all of you become guru. This is the order of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. You are a Bihari, a neighbor of West Bengal. Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission is, He is saying; amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei desa [Cc. Madhya 7.128]. ...In whichever country, whichever village, whichever family, whichever community people have taken birth, deliver them and thus become a guru. This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu. amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei desa... You don't have to travel all over the world. Those who have capacity they…..wherever you live, preach there only and deliver them. You become a guru. This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission. That you become a guru and wherever you live, you deliver them. So one may argue "how can I become a guru? I don't know anything. I don't know what do I have to do? How can I become a guru?" He says "no, no. Don't be afraid. To become a guru is very simple." "How?" He says "yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa" ….. Whatever instructions Krsna has given, you preach that to others. That's all. Then you will be a Guru." Not that you produce gold, show magic, swindle or cheat people. That is not a guru. Those fellows are all cheaters. yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa... What Krsna said, you tell to others. You are a guru. Is it very difficult for us to repeat what Krsna has spoken? It's all written in Bhagavad-gita. We just have to repeat it. Then we become guru. What do I speak? All these foreigners have come here, did I bribe them, or produced gold or showed some magic? I simply told them, "look, krsnas tu bhagavan svayam [SB 1.3.28] or Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead", and they have accepted it. "Worship Him. Build His temple." And they worship Him in the temple. Krsna says; manmana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru [Bg. 18.65] ["Always think of Me and become My devotee. Worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend."]... Someone may argue "these people are Mlecchas and Yavanas. How they can serve the Supreme Lord?" The Lord says, "mam hi partha vyapasritya ye 'pi syuḥ papa-yonayaḥ [Bg 9.32] (More...)

Imported quote 19502

India has always been known as a holy land long before the advent of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who originated the Hare Krsna movement 500 years ago. Lord Ramacandra, who was the incarnation of the Supreme Lord in the role of the perfect king, actually walked on this land millions of years ago when it extended as the kingdom of the whole world. His activities are recounted in the Ramayana, which is accepted by all transcendental authorities as authentic scripture. The most pious and learned devotees of the Lord have resided in India and taught there. The appearance of the incarnation of Lord Buddha was foretold in the First Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Chapter Three, verse 24, written 2,000 years before Buddha's birth: "In the beginning of the Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Anjana, in the province of Gaya, for the purpose of deluding persons envious of the faithful theist." India is therefore the land where the religion of Buddhism sprang forth. For his special mission, Lord Buddha rejected the Vedas, and therefore the authority of the scriptures had to be reaffirmed. This was done by the great spiritual master Sahkaracarya, who drove Buddhism from the land of India by his brilliant explanations based on the Vedic literature. According to Srimad-Bhagavatam Lord Krsna is Himself the source of all the incarnations. The self-same Lord Krsna appeared in His original form, also on Indian soil, 5,000 years ago when He exhibited full-fledged activities as the Personality of Godhead in the provinces of Vrndavana and Mathura. As it is said, God is great. The true vision of His pastimes and His greatness was then displayed to all living entities on this planet, and it is all recorded in the book Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. It is even stated in a recent book called the Aquarian Gospel that Lord Jesus Christ declared by the New Testament of the Holy Bible to be the son of God, also spent some time in India and worshiped in Jagannatha Puri. India is naturally pious, and throughout the villages of India the people still remain God conscious. But this present age is an impious age. It can be checked only by dependence on the Lord and His devotees and by following the benediction of this age. The leaders of India have in recent history rejected the transcendental culture of the Vedas, which points out that everything is actually spiritual. This material world is simply temporary and is inherently miserable, due to birth, death, disease and old age. The human form of life is therefore meant for realizing God, even by working at one's occupation; the whole society has to aim at realization of God through its activities. Instead of following this path, called varnasrama-dharma, the Indians, influenced by the attraction of foreign city life, have rejected their original culture and tried to be happy by following the materialistic ways of the great countries of the West such as the United States. The danger in their rejecting this Krsna consciousness while in the human form of life is expressed in the Bhagavad-gita. One may slip down to the lower forms of life in the future births. We are all spiritual by nature, but we have become covered, like a mirror becomes covered by dust. Especially for this age, Lord Caitanya, the incarnation of Krsna who is appearing as a devotee in order to teach, has given a very simple method. Everyone should chant the holy name of God, and everyone can do it in any position of life. He has especially stated that anyone born in India has the responsibility to take up this chanting and spread it, and He has quoted scripture to state that there is no alternative for spiritual realization in this age than chanting the holy name of God. It is therefore concluded that spiritual life is urgently needed, and this method should be taken. It is very easy and is being taught by Krsna Himself, yet it has been rejected in India. By the line of disciplic succession, the Brahma-sampradaya has passed down this information; despite the corruption of the present age, it remains pure and intact. Since the incarnation of Lord Caitanya, the spiritual masters in this line are Rūpa Gosvami, Raghunatha, Jiva, Krsnadasa, Narottama, Visvanatha, Jagannatha, Bhaktivinode, Gaura Kisora, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and now His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Although the teachings are intact, unfortunately the philosophers of the impersonal school have misinterpreted the Vedic philosophy to deny the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They have given all attention to the impersonal aspect and thus have wreaked havoc. This is not a theoretical disagreement on theology, but it concerns all humanity. If there is no understanding that God is the Supreme Person, then people in general are led to believe that there is no God, or they are told that if there is any spiritual existence at all, then this implies that every man is God, and that he can do as he likes, without worshiping the supreme authority of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the impersonal philosophy of the Absolute Truth there is no ultimate love. There is no reason to stay on the spiritual platform; therefore intoxication and sex life enter and take over, and both the impersonalist teachers and their students glide to the hellish path. There are real spiritual individualities and spiritual activities according to the Bhagavad-gita, but if one does not take to them then one must take to material individuality, which is temporary and leads to lower births. Seeking to become one with the Supreme in nirvana is not a substitute for the permanent positive happiness which the spirit soul is seeking. One has to engage in spiritual life in service of the Supreme Lord under the direction of a spiritual master, or else he must return to the material platform. Thus it is stated that in order to wipe out impersonalism and to present an easy to perform process of devotional service to the people in this age, Lord Caitanya appeared. In Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna states, "Just surrender to Me," but Lord Caitanya was even more merciful. His movement is simply joyful. His program is listening to Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam, chanting Hare Krsna and feasting on prasadam (spiritual food). The Krsna consciousness movement is not a Hindu or national culture, but it is the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is the father of all living entities. The attainment of the eternal, peaceful, happy state of loving service taught by Lord Caitanya can bring the solution to all the problems of life that has not been attained by technology, politics or modern science. Srila Prabhupada, on the order of his spiritual master, and due to the solid teachings of the order of his spiritual master, came to the United States in 1966 to teach this message. Due to Srila Prabhupada's all-attractive transcendental nature as spiritual master and due to the solid teachings of scriptures and the cleansing experience of chanting the mahamantra, and eating prasadam, spiritual foodstuffs, this message quickly gained support. Temples began opening here in the United States in 1966, and now, in 1970, with 50 temples open, when Srila Prabhupada returned to India his reception was overwhelmingly favorable. (More...)

Imported quote 19515

So I hope that all of you, men, women, boys and girls, become spiritual master and follow this principle. Spiritual master-simply, sincerely, follow the principles and speak to the general public. Then Krsna immediately becomes your favorite. Krsna does not become your favorite; you become Krsna's favorite. (More...)

Imported quote 19907

Prabhupada: Therefore Vedic instruction is tad-vijnanartham sa gurum eva abhigacchet [Munḍaka Upanisad ]. In order to get first-class experience of the perfection of life, you must approach guru. That is the Vedic injunction. Samit-paniḥ srotriyam brahma-nistham. Now, Who is guru? Whom shall I approach? So the next line explains that approach such guru, srotriyam, who has heard from his guru perfectly, that guru. Who had no chance of hearing from perfect guru, he is not guru. This is called guru-parampara, disciplic succession. I hear from a perfect person, and I distribute the knowledge the same way, without any change. So Krsna gives us knowledge in the Bhagavad-gita. We are distributing the same knowledge. It is not by our... [aside:] Water is not required. Water I don't want. There is water. Yes. (More...)

Imported quote 20194

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 24th October 1967. Kirtanananda was awarded the position of a Sannyasi because he wanted it although I could understand it that he wanted to be a spiritual master himself. Lord Caitanya wanted every one should be a spiritual master provided he follows the order of Lord Caitanya. The Lord's mission was to defeat the Mayavada philosophy and establish in the philosophy of Krishna consciousness because Krishna is the Supreme Lord the Personality of Godhead. Anyone following the order of Lord Caitanya under the guidance of His bona fide representative, can become a spiritual master and I wish that in my absence all my disciples become the bona fide spiritual master to spread Krishna Consciousness throughout the whole world. I want it but Kirtanananda was too much puffed up and artificially he took up a certificate from me that he has been awarded the order to a Sannyasi, In the spiritual field nobody can become a bona fide spiritual master by dissatisfying his spiritual master. It is said that one can satisfy the Supreme Lord simply by satisfying the spiritual master and one who dissatisfies the spiritual master has no place in the spiritual world. Kirtanananda wanted to become a spiritual master by dissatisfying his spiritual master and as such he has fallen down. He cannot say anything genuine any more till he has had revival of his pure consciousness in the spiritual world as mentioned above. Differentiation between spirit & matter is clear & practical experience, when a living creature is dead no amount of material advancement of science can bring back a dead body to life. The thing which is absent from a dead body is the spirit. As there is individual spirit in individual body, similarly there is the Great Spirit in the universal material form. As the individual spirit is working systematically within the individual material body, similarly, the Supreme Spirit is conscious of the universal body. The lord knows what is happening in each & every planet as much as an individual soul knows what is happening in each & every part of his body. Therefore, the individual consciousness which is limited, when dovetailed with the Supreme Consciousness of the Lord is called Krishna Consciousness. When I return some of you shall be offered Sacred Thread. I very much appreciate your version that Rayarama is roaring like a Lion-cub. I wish that every one of you should be Lion's descendant. Our Lord Krishna assumed the form of Lion & killed the atheist, Hiranyakasipu, & by disciplic succession we shall also kill all impersonalist atheist. Absolutely there is no Krishna Consciousness for the impersonalist. Hope you are well.

Your ever well-wisher
A.C. Bhaktivedanta, Swami

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