Why don't we create a loving and caring atmosphere? Then no one will want to leave!

krsna · December 21, 2005

May 6, 1977

My dear beloved disciples,

Please accept my blessings. I know that over the past years you have suffered so many tribulations to push forward Krsna consciousness in Germany. But this has not stopped you from your determination to serve the cause of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. A devotee is pleased when there is difficulty, for in these difficulties he is forced to remember Krsna.

We cannot expect that the people of Kali-yuga will welcome our attempt to spread Krsna consciousness. It is just like a lunatic asylum: The patients are running around madly and when the doctor tries to give them treatment, they insist that they are not crazy. Sometimes the patient even strikes the doctor. So our task is like that.

We cannot stand to see people suffering due to ignorance. What is that ignorance? They do not know that they are not their body. This Krsna consciousness movement is meant to deliver people to the proper understanding that they are not their body, that they are pure spirit soul. We may or may not be appreciated, that is not our concern.. We must execute the order of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu which is:

“Yare dekha tare kaha krsna upadesa amara ajna guru haya tara ei desa

“Whomever you meet, instruct them to follow the orders of Sri Krsna as they are given in the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. In this way by My order become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land.”

So our business is to satisfy the acaryas and Krsna. If they are pleased then we know our work is successful.

Go on spreading the sankirtana movement more and more. I am only one person, but because all of you have kindly cooperated with me, this movement has now become a success all over the world. Be assured that there is no more direct way to preach than to distribute Krsna conscious books. Whoever gets a book is benefitted. If he reads the book he is benefitted still more, or if he gives the book to someone else for reading, both he and the other person is benefitted. Even if one does not read the book but simply holds if and sees it, he is benefitted. If he simply gives small donation towards the work of Krsna consciousness he is benefitted. And anyone who distributes these transcendental literatures, he is also benefitted. Therefore sankirtana is the prime benediction for the age:

krsna varnam tvisa krsna sango vangastra parsadam yajnaih sankirtana prayair yajanti sumedhasah

Hoping this meets you all well.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

krsna · May 23, 2006

Please, all the bonafide gurus out there can you please tell us what it's really like to have disciples. :pray:

Thank you.

krsna · May 23, 2006

Assuming Responsibility of Being Guru

</CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER><HR SIZE=1></CENTER><CENTER>

[ An essay by Srila

Bhaktisiddhanta

Saraswati ]

</CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER>We have taken upon ourselves the responsibility of welcoming this grave charge. All the audience have accepted ordinary seats, I alone have been provided with a lofty seat. </CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER>All are being told in effect:</CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER> 'Do have a look at a big animal from the

Zoo

-gardens. What arrogance! So foolish! So wicked! Have you ever seen such a big brute? Garlands of flowers have been put round his neck! What laudations! What bombastic long-drawn, and hyperbolic adjectives! And how complacently too he is listening to the praise of his own achievements, how intently, and with his own ears! He also evidently feels delighted in mind! Is he not acting in plain violation of the teaching of Mahaprabhu? Can such a big brute, so selfish and insolent, be ever reclaimed from brutishness?' </CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER>I happen to be one of the greatest of fools. No one offers me good advice on account of my arrogance. Inasmuch as nobody condescends to instruct me I placed my case before Mahaprabhu Himself. The thought occurred to me that I would make over the charge of myself to Him and see what He would advise me to do. </CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER>Then Shri Chaitanyadeva said to me:</CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER>"Whom-so-ever thou meet'st, instruct him regarding Krishna, By My command being Guru deliver this land; In this thou wilt not be obstructed by the current of the world; Thou wilt have My company once again at this place."</CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER>In these verses is to be found the proper explanation of the apparent inconsistency noticed above.</CENTER><CENTER>He whose only teaching is humility greater than that of a blade of grass, said:</CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER>"By My command being Guru save this land!" </CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER>In this instance Mahaprabhu Himself has given the command. His command being 'Perform the duty of the Guru, even as I do it Myself. Also convey this command to whom-so-ever you chance to meet.' Chaitanyadeva says, 'Tell them these very words viz, by My command being Guru save this land. Deliver the people from their foolishness.' Now who-so-ever happens to hear these words would naturally protest with palms joined - 'But I am really a great sinner; how can I be Guru? You are Godhead Himself, the Teacher of the world. You can be Guru.' To this Mahaprabhu replies:</CENTER><CENTER>"In this thou will not be obstructed by the current of the world; Thou wilt have My company once again at this place."</CENTER><CENTER>'Do not practice the craft of a Guru for the purpose of injuring others through malice. Do not adopt the trade of a Guru in order to get immersed in the slough of this world. But if you can, indeed, be My guileless servant you will be endowed with My power - then you need not fear.'</CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER>I have no fear. My Gurudeva has heard this from his Gurudeva. And it is for this reason that my Gurudeva has accepted even such a great sinner as myself and has told me: 'By My command being Guru save this land.' It is only those who have never heard these words of Gaursundar who say 'How odd! to listen to one's own praise!' While the Guru is instructing his disciple in the eleventh Skandha of the Bhagavatam what a great sin, in their opinion, is he not perpetuating! What is the Acharya to do when he has to explain the Shloka 'Acharya Mam Vijaniyat: Never disregard the Acharya; never entertain the idea that the Acharya is your equal in any sense.' These are the words of Shri Krishna Himself by which the jiva is to be benefited. Is the Guru to take himself off, to desert his seat the seat of the Acharya - from which these words are to be explained? That office his Gurudeva has conferred on him. If he does not act up to its requirements he is doomed to perdition by reason of his offense against the holy Name in the shape of disrespect towards the Guru. He has to do it in spite of the fact that such procedure is apparently open to the charge of egoism. When the Guru imparts the mantram to the disciple should he not tell him by this mantram to worship the Guru? Should he say instead, 'Give the Guru a few strokes of the shoe or the horse-whip?' The Guru is never to be decried. The Guru is the abode of all the gods. Should the Gurudeva abstain from communicating these words to his disciple while reading the Bhagavatam to him? 'To him alone who possesses guileless spiritual devotion, similar to the transcendental devotion that is due to Krishna Himself, to the Gurudeva, the holy mysteries are manifested.' Is the Gurudeva not to tell these things to his disciples? 'Athau Gurupuja: the worship of the Guru has precedence over all others. The Guru is to be served just as Krishna is served. The Guru is to be worshipped in a particular way. Is the Guru to desert his seat without telling all these things to the disciple? In the angle there is always the defect in the shape of absence of the fullness, the evenness of level, of 180 degrees or of 360 degrees. But in the plain surface, in 360 degrees, there is no such defect. That in the emancipated state no defect is possible, this simple truth ordinary foolish people entirely fail to grasp.</CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER>As the saying goes, 'having started on the dance it is no use to draw close the veil.' I am doing the duty of the Guru, but if I preach that no one should shout 'Jai' to me, that is to say, if I say in a round about way, 'sing Jai to me,' it would be nothing short of duplicity. Our Gurudeva has not taught us such insincerity. Mahaprabhu has not taught such insincerity. I have to serve God in the straightforward way. The word of God has come down to the Gurudeva; I have to obey it in all sincerity. I will not disrespect the Guru at the instance of any foolish or malicious sectarians.</CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER>Especially as Shri Gurudeva has directed me saying, 'By My command being Guru save this land.' This command has my Gurudeva preached. My Gurudeva in his turn has conveyed the command to me. I will not be guilty of any insincerity in carrying out that command. In this matter I will not accept the ideal of ignorant, insincere, pseudo-ascetic sectarianism. I will not learn insincerity. The worldly-minded, the malicious, the pseudo- renunciationists, the selfish cannot understand how the devotees of God, spurning at everything of this world by command of God, never, not even for a second, deviate from the service</CENTER><CENTER>of God through all the twenty-four hours.</CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER>Hypocritical sectarians, pseudo-Vaishnava sects, those sects that cherish internally the longing for earthly fame, naturally enough think 'what a shame it is for one to listen to the eulogies of disciples occupying the seat of the Guru.' But every Vaishnava regards everyone of the Vaishnavas as the object of his veneration. When Thakur Haridas exhibits the attitude of humility Mahaprabhu says - 'You are the greatest of the world, the crest-jewel of the world. Be agreeable, let us have our meal together.' He carried in His arms the body of Thakur Haridas which is eternally existent, self-conscious and full of spiritual bliss. In the community that follows Shri Rupa, the qualities of desiring no honor for oneself and of readiness to duly honor others are fully present. Those who detect any disparity are, like the owl, blind while the sun shines. They commit an offense by such conduct.</CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER><CENTER>If I disobey the law which has come down to me through the chain of preceptorial succession, the offense due to omission to carry out the command of the Guru will sever me from the lotus-feet of Shri Gurudeva. If in order to carry out the command of the Vaishnava Guru I have to be arrogant, to be brutish, to suffer eternal perdition, I am prepared to welcome such eternal damnation and even sign a pact to that effect. I will not listen to the words of other malicious persons in lieu of the command of the Gurudeva. I will dissipate with indomitable courage and conviction the currents of thought of all the rest of the world, relying on the strength derived from the lotus-feet of Shri Gurudeva. I confess to this arrogance. By sprinkling a particle of the pollen of the lotus-feet of my Preceptor scores of people like you will be saved. There is no such learning in this world, no such sound reasoning in all the fourteen worlds, in no man-gods, that can weigh more than a solitary particle of the dust of the lotus-feet of my Gurudeva. Gurudeva in whom I have implicit trust can never spite me. I am by no means prepared to listen to the words of any one who wants to hurt me or to accept such a malicious person as my preceptor. </CENTER><CENTER> </CENTER>

mahak · May 26, 2006

Haribol. I have actually become the servant of my disciple, desiring all good fortune to him(her) while not so concerned about my own well being. My disciple is more important to me than my own breath, my disciple's spiritual advancement is more importatn to me than even my going back to Godhead. In fact, I promise to forego any spiritual awards due me until my disciple is completely satisfied and fully remembering his (her) constitutional position as servant of the Supreme Lord.

I am committed to my disciple, and hope that Krsna gives him(her) the ability to reciprocate the unconditional nature of such love.

krsna · May 27, 2006

Haribol. I have actually become the servant of my disciple, desiring all good fortune to him(her) while not so concerned about my own well being. My disciple is more important to me than my own breath, my disciple's spiritual advancement is more importatn to me than even my going back to Godhead. In fact, I promise to forego any spiritual awards due me until my disciple is completely satisfied and fully remembering his (her) constitutional position as servant of the Supreme Lord.

I am committed to my disciple, and hope that Krsna gives him(her) the ability to reciprocate the unconditional nature of such love.

Prabhupada often referred to his spiritual master, Om Visnupada Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.

In one morning class he told us how his spiritual master was a perfect guru and he had perfectly followed Lord Caitanya's example of humility.

"Everyone would address the other as prabhu," he explained. "Officially the custom is that spiritual master is considered to be in the place of Supreme Lord, and therefore he is given such respect. But the spiritual master, bona fide spiritual master, he thinks that: 'I am your disciple.'

And practical example I have seen. Our Guru Maharaja, when we offered obeisances, he used to return them and say, 'Daso smi: I am your servant.'":pray:

krsna · May 20, 2007

Prabhupada often referred to his spiritual master, Om Visnupada Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.

In one morning class he told us how his spiritual master was a perfect guru and he had perfectly followed Lord Caitanya's example of humility.

"Everyone would address the other as prabhu," he explained. "Officially the custom is that spiritual master is considered to be in the place of Supreme Lord, and therefore he is given such respect. But the spiritual master, bona fide spiritual master, he thinks that: 'I am your disciple.' :pray:

And practical example I have seen. Our Guru Maharaja, when we offered obeisances, he used to return them and say, 'Daso smi: I am your servant.' :pray:

krsna · May 20, 2007

"One should not proudly think that one can understand the transcendental loving

service of the Lord simply by reading books... One must accept a Vaisnava guru

(adau gurv-asrayam), and then by questions and answers one should gradually

learn what pure devotional service to Krsna is. That is called the parampara

system." :pray:

(Cc. Antya-lila 7.53, purp.)

krsna · May 20, 2007

There is a spiritual sky. There is another nature that is beyond manifestation and non-manifestation. But how will you know that there is a sky where the planets and inhabitants are eternal? All this knowledge is there, but how will you make experiments? It is not possible. Therefore you have to take the assistance of the Vedas. This is called Vedic knowledge.":deal:

(Sri Isopanisad, Introduction)

krsna · May 20, 2007

-Birth appearance at midnight of Shravana k8 to Devakee (July 19/20, year 3228 BC)

-taken by Vasudeva from Mathuraa to Nanda and Yasodaa in Gokula

Untill 3 years

-lived in Gokula

-killed Pootanaa, Shakataasura, Trinavarta demons

3 - 6 years

-moved to Vrindaavana

-killed Bakaasura, Aghaasura, Dhenukaasura (Balaraama killed Pralambaasura)

-moved to Nandagraama

7-10 years

-Brahmaa steals and returns cowherd boys

-Govardhana-poojaa

-played raasa-leelaa with the gopees

-taken to Mathuraa for wrestling match by Akrura

-killed Canura (Balaraama killed Mushteeka)

-killed His uncle Kamsa (Balaraama killed Kamsa’s brothers)

10-28 years

-lived in Mathuraa

-intiated with Balaraama into chanting Gaayatree-mantra by Gargamuni

-instructed with Balaraama in the sixty four arts by Sandeepaani Muni

-protects Mathuraa from many demons

29 - 125 years

-establishes kingdom in Dvaarakaa

-marriage to Rukminee and 7 principal queens

-marriage to 16,100 princesses

-161,080 sons born to Krishna

-speaks Bhagavad-geetaa at Kurukshetra Battle (~90) (3138 BC)

-saves King Pareekshit in the womb

-instructs Uddhava

125 years

-Disappearance on February 18th 3102 BC

-Start of Kali-yuga

krsna · May 20, 2007

Srila Prabhupada:

" As long as you remain a fool, then I can instruct you; but when you think you are very intelligent, then nothing is possible." :pray:

krsna · May 20, 2007

"Material civilization without the blessing of the Lord is child's play only. As long as the parents allow the child to play, it is all right. As soon as the parents withdraw, the child has to stop. Human civilization and all activities thereof must be dovetailed with the supreme blessing of the Lord, and without this blessing all advancement of human civilization is like decoration on a dead body. It is said here that a dead civilization and its activities are something like clarified butter on ashes, the accumulation of money by a magic wand and the sowing of seeds in a barren land."

krsna · May 20, 2007