"To accept a spiritual master as the guide of life and to render service unto him and the devotees is essential in spiritual life, because if we accept the Lord's devotees as greater than ourselves, we will also be able to accept that we are very small and insignificant before the Lord. Therefore we should always keep Krsna and the Vaisnavas dancing on our head."
Pure devotees are fully dependent on the will and mercy of the Lord. The eight verses of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Sri Sri Siksastakam contain the essence of surrendering to Krishna; being humble and tolerant, giving respect to others, but not to expect respect from others, not to desire anything else than the engagement in the service of the Lord, chant the Holy Names of the Lord with all the profoundness of your heart, and to make yourself a slave to the will of the Lord.
Hearing and chanting is the bonafide process of removing our mental difficulties. If there are no more difficulties you must have achieved self realization. That can only be expected after some incredible effort, or due to some incredible mercy. Once Srila Prabhupada said that all his disciples, who are engaged in selfless service, are actually self-realized. So we should always try to remain well-situated in the service of our spiritual master. Then we live a very elevated life. And if we avoid to offend other Vaisnavas we may actually achieve true "nista", firmly dedicated life. Any conversation for the sake of spiritual progress is blessed. I feel myself very fortunate that I can participate very frequently in this type of conversations.
"Normally, in this material world we have no special interest in any particular place. As a sannyasi even less, but when my spiritual master gives me a service in an area we have to take it completely to heart, as if this service and place were our very own life and soul. The spiritual master can give you the power to be succesfull if you take to heart what he has given you. It should be seen as a sacred duty."
"Serving in the prabhu data desh is more than a dharma in general. It's a divine plan that is being revealed to a person who can derive energy fromthis for the rest of his or her life."
"Prabhu data desh means the area - desh, where the spiritual master blesses you to serve with a special responsability. Prabhu data means that it is received form up above, from our Prabhu."
"A true conection never falls down, it's protected. And was Prabhupada's idea with the prabhu data desh, to create a connection that never falls down. Temporary refuges are not true refuges."
"Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted in every town and every village his representation and representation means that a person is willing to give spiritual refuge. Without surrender to the spiritual master there is not this actual refuge."
"To get out of maya and make contact with the spiritual master is such an important transformation that at least for oneself there is no more important story, than the story of how it happened."
"Approaching a spiritual master, submissive inquiries and rendering service onto him, are the three qualifications to approach the truth; with humility, sincerity and dedication."
"Approaching the spiritual master should not be done hesitatingly or haphazardly. One should approach a spiritual master with a clear and honest heart. Srila Prabhupada said: 'without return ticket'. One has to come for all."
"If we are in such a lucky position that we are trying to live a spiritual life as a disciple under the guidance of a spiritual master, the first and only criteria should be: How can I follow the instructions and fulfill the wishes of the spiritual master?"
"Everything should be used in the service for Krishna following the individual instructions we received from our spiritual master. We have to think how we can please our spiritual master, giving up our egoistic attitudes. Only by pleasing our spiritual master we will be able to make progress in spiritual life. We should try to think: How would a spiritual master act in this situation? or How would I act in this situation if my spiritual master would be present now? This will help us to get rid of our egoistic consciousness and we will learn to care for others and to help others with everything that was given to us. Actually if we start paying less attention to ourselves and more attention to others we will be more happy."
"I do not know anything but what I learned from my spiritual masters. But I think our sampradaya which was started by Srila Rupa Goswami is introducing to us the most confidencial service to Srimati Radhika."
"The essence is to accept a spiritual master and to render unmotivated, continuous service to him. In the Brahma-samhita it is said that the Lord is never to be found by becoming a great scholar but He is very easily approachable through His pure devotee."
"Spiritual life is all about taking up responsibility and surrendering to a genuine spiritual master. It is like in the Bhagavad-Gita: Arjuna had to become responsable to fulfill his duty without attachment and he fully surrendered to Sri Krishna whom he accepted as his spiritual master."
“In a Vaisnava we find the knowledge and love of Krsna because as he is surrendered to Krsna, all his activities he performs for Krsna. That's why a devotee, or Vaisnava, is very dear to the Lord. So the best way to become engaged in the service of the Lord is to accept a spiritual master and try to do some service for him. In this way our service will be connected to the disciplic succession (parampara) of Vaisnavas and in this way reach Krsna.”
The highest form of mind control is to engage it in devotional service of the Lord by rendering service to a spiritual master. This process will reveal the highest goal of life to us.
"There is no happiness and no success in spiritual life without the blessings of the spiritual Master, and without going on His instructions to actually transform our life from an egoistic life into a transcendentally dedicated life to His sweet will. That is a fundamental principle and Lord
Krishna Himself makes it clear that if you want to understand the truth you have to approach a spiritual Master. tad vidhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya, upadekshanti te jnanam, jnaninas tattva darsinah. And you have to render service unto Him, you have to ask submissively and you have to offer your obeisances. Submitting, inquiry, service these are very beautiful things come into a person when he is actually eager to learn something from a spiritual Master."
"There is a very famous saying which says Familiarity breeds contempt. This is very dangerous, that we think after we know a person for 2 - 3 years I already know everything he says, I know he is also a human being and he has his frailties and then you start minimizing and judging and doing other things in your mind with that person. If that happens to you in relationship with your spiritual Master then your relationship will be severely jeopardized."
"If we have faith in Sri Gurudeva, no desire will come up to change his instructions."
"The spiritual master connects his disciples to divinity by engaging them in the service of the Lord. By following the instructions of the spiritual master all accumulated impurities will be removed from the heart and we will be able to approach the Lord in a humble state of mind. To take shelter of a guru means to enter the boat which is destined to cross the vast ocean of material consciousness."
"You can only be empowered by the guru if you are insipired to represent him."
"Many people speak of meditaion and yoga. There is a market for this. There are magazines of yoga, with advertisements offering you love of Krishna in a course of 4 days. But Srila Prabhupada teaches us a practical process. If you want spiritual love, live spiritual love. Embrace spiritual love.
Distribute spiritual love, celebrate spiritual love, with kirtan and prasadam. Without sacrifice there's no love. Without getting up in the morning when the child cries, you are not going to be a mother. Srila Prabhupada went to the ice, from the beautiful Vrindavan for the love that he felt to his guru and for us and he still didn't know us. But we, we normally run only when we need food or for false ego and luxury. For the rest of the time we want to sleep, sit in front of a TV or be attended."
"To worship is an expression of love. Like when you receive somebody in your home. You are worshiping him by giving him something delicious to eat. Like this, when you go somewhere, people want to give you and show you the best they have. And because I like you, I really want to give you the best and connect you to Prabhupada. Connecting is like having children. I have to
take you and inspire you to sit down and read the Bhagavad-gita. Then take prasadam (well, for that I do not have to inspire you very much). Then sit down and learn mrdanga and karatala to make nice kritana. Now learn how to engage in devotional service according to your talents and inclination. You see, connecting you I have to supply you with a whole life guidance. In that sense, the devotees are much higher than the doctors. Doctors are good. They are learning in the medical school what to do when you come to them and you are sick. They will give you the diet, the medicine and maybe do surgery, but then when you are cured, they will tell you bye bye. You pay him and you go. Doctors have short connection with their patients. It is not so in Krishna consciousness. Every person you connect, you have to take care of and be concerned whether he is well, what he is doing, how is he doing it. When you start connecting people to Krishna, then you have to make sure to tell, what your Guru would tell you. In other words giving your guru to someone is intensifying your own connection with your guru. When I connect you to my guru, you are connecting me to my guru. That is vaisnava understanding. So I am collecting people, and what will the people do? Well, they will also collect more people. And now when we have collected so many
people, we have to feed them, we have to dress them, we have to engage them and make all kinds of things for them. And there again we have to collect, because this costs a lot of laxmi."
"I am talking about Krishna. I can not convince you, but the transcendental sound, Krishna Himself can convince you. I can not. I have no capacity. I am just the servant and I want to serve you and I am speaking about Krishna because my Guru asked me to speak about Krishna. And now I repeat this: You please speak about Krishna, every day, every month, every year."
"A devotee is only interested in serving the Lord. By this service he will be accepted in the entourage of the Lord and he will be entrusted with a specific service to the Lord, through the agency of the spiritual master. If you listen carefully and if you are doing this, participating in the
transmission, then you are preacher. You will get some opulence. You will get realization and insight. Then you will accepted in the entourage, in theLord's movement. Under the guidance of the guru, you will get a specific service. In other words you are getting the chance to serve the lord
personally. This is really the top insider information."
"How can you become a personal associate of Krishna? Talk about Him, about devotion and about the Gita. The Guru will discover your ability and your willingness to become an instrument of his love. Then the Guru will say, come to me, here is this specific important service. If your Guru has not
called you and given you an important service, you know what this means? You have not preached enough. You have not spoken enough. You are not willing and desirous enough to be an instrument of Krishnas love. He has not seen the potential in you to do some specific service. So he is thinking: "let him wash the pots and clean and listen to classes. Maybe one day he will get it."
"I entered in the ashram of my guru in 1971 in the winter. And I am still there. I never left his ashram. Not one single day. And everything he has provided was in a very wonderful way. Not only for me, but for everybody else. I am seeing it since 37 years. I have seen how Krishna provides for
everyone, so it really seems to work. It surprising and amazing to see, how Krishna has a magical plan making department where everybody fits in."
"It is very nice to be a Gaudiya Vaisnava but inside of us we ought not have the slightest amount of arrogance towards other seekers of God from other traditions. Otherwise we are not humble and no real representatives of the ideals of the parampara. As you can see it is wonderful to meet a vaisnava. And our Gurudeva Srila Prabhupada stepped with so much love through this world that he changed everyone who took him serious."
"The projects of the pure devotees are for the welfare of all. This alone can change our consciousness for good. Selfless service. Spontaneous devotion, love and service present the way and the goal. Whether a project of a spiritual person or mission is actually connected to the land and the Lord of Love depends on his genuine connection. Only God knows this connection perfectly. That is the reason why only sincere prayer and the grace of God can bring us to the proper persons. There is much hope for all of us. The inner Guru and guide of all souls will help us to get connected to His shelter. Dayal Nitai!"
"Srila Prabhupada was the best spiritual doctor. He meditated almost his whole life about the symptoms of western atheism and a suitable form to cure it. To make the people at least become vegetarians and hopefully also friends of Krishna. Srila Prabhupada wanted to guide the whole humanity to respect the authority of the vedas. Therefore he prepared the books of the vedas with his Bhaktivedanta commentaries full of love and practical comprehension, so that common people are able to read and appreciate them."
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