Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 19, No. 4
By Krishna Kripa Das
(February 2023, part two)
Tallahassee
(Sent from Tallahassee, Florida, on March 2, 2023)
Where I Went and What I Did
I remained at our center in Tallahassee for the last two weeks of February, doing the morning program by myself except for one day, and chanting Hare Krishna for three hours on the Florida State University campus, except for Saturdays, when I chanted in Cascades Park. A senior devotee couple joined me for three hours one day.
Two younger couples joined me for a hour another day, but the rest of the time I chanted by myself, and thus it remained more austere than it ever has been for me here.
I share notes on the Sixth Canto of Srila Prabhupada’s Srimad-Bhagavatam, which Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami and his friends and followers have been reading recently. I share some quotes from a couple of books by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, Truthfulness: The Last Leg of Religion and Chota’s Way. I share many quotes from Prabandhavali, a compilation of English translations of Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s articles in the Gaudiya magazine which I am proofreading. I also share notes on a couple of classes I heard in Tallahassee, one by Kesava Gopal Prabhu and another by Satyaraj Govinda Prabhu.
Itinerary
February 12–March 4: harinama and college outreach in Tallahassee
March 5: Depot Park harinama in Gainesville
March 6–7: Chanting at Krishna Lunch in Gainesville
March 8–16: NYC Harinam, 3/11: Gita class at 26 2nd Ave., 3/14: Tuesday program
March 17: Orlando harinama
March 18: St. Augustine Ratha-yatra
March 19–23: Tampa harinama and college outreach
March 24: Gainesville harinamas at Krishna Lunch and with Alachua devotees
March 25–April 15: harinama and college outreach in Tallahassee and Tampa
April 1: Tallahassee Ratha-yatra
April ?: take care of mother in Albany
April (3rd week): 3 days of harinama with Sankarsana Prabhu in Washington, D.C.
May 27: Baltimore Ratha-yatra
June 10: New York Ratha-yatra
June 12–17: take care of mother in Albany
June 18: Hartford Ratha-yatra
June 19: NYC Harinam
June 20: London harinama
June 21 to August 14: Paris harinama
August 15: NYC Harinam
August 16–20: Vaishnava Sanga Festival in Canada
August 21: Montreal harinama
Chanting Hare Krishna in Tallahassee
This lady enjoyed Krishna Lunch at UF from 2002 to 2020. She started working at the FSU library a week before I met her and was happy to learn we have Krishna Lunch here!
After I chanted 72 hours of harinama by myself in Tallahassee this winter, a couple of devotee couples joined me for an hour at FSU on Presidents Day. They were Kesava Gopal Prabhu and Karuna Gopi Devi Dasi, based in Madison, Florida, and Rama Dasa and Sita Devi Dasi, based in Syracuse, New York.
Here Rama Dasa chants Hare Krishna on Landis Green at FSU in Tallahassee (https://youtu.be/2BY8bV4bZgE):
Later Karuna Gopi Devi Dasi chanted Hare Krishna as Rama Dasa engaged with students (https://youtu.be/Uo8C0V22Apc):
I was amazed that Rama Dasa and Sita Devi Dasi distributed ten free halavas and collected seven student emails for the mailing list in just half an hour! Imagine how our center would develop if we had an enthusiastic young couple like them here!
Another day Adikarta Prabhu and his wife, Rucira Dasi, joined me for three hours. Adikarta distributed books most of the time. Rucira led kirtan most of the time, as she has a very nice voice and I was tired of hearing my own singing. She sang a lot of the older tunes that you do not hear so much now, which was a nice change. Sometimes Rucira would play the drum, and I would play the shakers with one hand and distribute a cup of halava and a Krishna Lunch invitation with the other hand. I was surprised to see how open many of the students where to receiving the halava, some being especially eager and grateful.
When Krishna Lunch invitations and “On Chanting Hare Krishna” pamphlets blew off my table because of the wind, passing students would often pick them up. I would thank them and tell them they could keep one, and more than half of the time they would. Thus Vayu, the deity of the wind, assisted me in my service.
Here are my harinama statistics for the month of February:
During February, I distributed 191 small cups of free halava to promote our Krishna Lunch program. Once one Krishna Lunch fan had thirds on it.
Special Video
I always liked this video from November 2, 2021, of a kid spontaneously dancing with incredible enthuasiasm to a Hare Krishna kirtan led by Harivenu Prabhu of Iceland at Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn (https://youtu.be/pgSibNMtWsY):
I thought it would look really good in portrait orientation although I had originally taken it in landscape orientation. In the past year or so, I figured out how to do that type of transformation with Flowblade, the free Linux video editor I have been using. Thus I spent some time at the end of February doing that, having very few new videos to edit these days (https://youtu.be/0ELVZlGYTtg):
Special Photo
Florida State University has a financial wellness program called “Unconquered By Debt.” Once when I passed their booth it was manned by a couple of Indians, and I told them that whenever I see their booth it reminds me of a verse from India’s Vedic literature which states that if one becomes completely surrendered to God all his debts to others are considered paid off (https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/11/5/41/). They smiled and told me they regularly attend our Krishna Lunch on the campus.
Insights
Srila Prabhupada:
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.54, purport:
“If a human being is taught to change his subtle body by developing a consciousness of Krishna, at the time of death the subtle body will create a gross body in which he will be a devotee of Krishna, or if he is still more perfect, he will not take another material body but will immediately get a spiritual body and thus return home, back to Godhead. This is the process of the transmigration of the soul. Therefore instead of trying to unite human society through pacts for sense gratification that can never be achieved, it is clearly desirable to teach people how to become Krishna conscious and return home, back to Godhead. This is true now and, indeed, at any time.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.2.12, purport:
“One’s main purpose in human life should be to purify his existence and achieve liberation. As long as one has a material body, one is understood to be impure. In such an impure, material condition, one cannot enjoy a truly blissful life, although everyone seeks it. Therefore Srimad-Bhagavatam (5.5.1) says, tapo divyam putraka yena sattvam suddhyet: one must perform tapasya, austerity, to purify his existence in order to come to the spiritual platform. The tapasya of chanting and glorifying the name, fame and attributes of the Lord is a very easy purifying process by which everyone can be happy. Therefore everyone who desires the ultimate cleansing of his heart must adopt this process. Other processes, such as karma, jñana and yoga, cannot cleanse the heart absolutely.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.2.19, purport:
“In the Western countries, where the Hare Krishna movement is spreading, learned scholars and other thoughtful men are realizing its effectiveness. For example, Dr. J. Stillson Judah, a learned scholar, has been very much attracted to this movement because he has actually seen that it is turning hippies addicted to drugs into pure Vaishnavas who voluntarily become servants of Krishna and humanity. Even a few years ago, such hippies did not know the Hare Krishna mantra, but now they are chanting it and becoming pure Vaishnavas. Thus they are becoming free from all sinful activities, such as illicit sex, intoxication, meat-eating and gambling. This is practical proof of the effectiveness of the Hare Krishna movement, which is supported in this verse. One may or may not know the value of chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, but if one somehow or other chants it, he will immediately be purified, just as one who takes a potent medicine will feel its effects, regardless of whether he takes it knowingly or unknowingly.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.10.6, purport:
“At the present moment the entire world is in a dangerous position under the spell of a godless civilization. The Krishna consciousness movement needs many exalted, learned persons who will sacrifice their lives to revive God consciousness throughout the world. We therefore invite all men and women advanced in knowledge to join the Krishna consciousness movement and sacrifice their lives for the great cause of reviving the God consciousness of human society.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.10.9:
“If one is unhappy to see the distress of other living beings and happy to see their happiness, his religious principles are appreciated as imperishable by exalted persons who are considered pious and benevolent.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.10.9, purport:
“One should feel the happiness and distress of others as his own. It is on this basis that the Buddhist religious principle of nonviolence — ahimsah parama-dharmah — is established. We feel pain when someone disturbs us, and therefore we should not inflict pain upon other living beings. Lord Buddha’s mission was to stop unnecessary animal killing, and therefore he preached that the greatest religious principle is nonviolence.
“One cannot continue killing animals and at the same time be a religious man. That is the greatest hypocrisy. Jesus Christ said, ‘Do not kill,’ but hypocrites nevertheless maintain thousands of slaughterhouses while posing as Christians. Such hypocrisy is condemned in this verse. One should be happy to see others happy, and one should be unhappy to see others unhappy. This is the principle to be followed. Unfortunately, at the present moment so-called philanthropists and humanitarians advocate the happiness of humanity at the cost of the lives of poor animals. That is not recommended herein. This verse clearly says that one should be compassionate to all living entities. Regardless of whether human, animal, tree or plant, all living entities are sons of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.10.12, purport:
“The Lord says in Bhagavad-gita (8.5):
anta-kale ca mam eva
smaran muktva kalevaram
yah prayati sa mad-bhavam
yati nasty atra samsayah
‘Whoever, at the time of death, quits his body remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.’ Of course, one must practice before one is overcome by death, but the perfect yogi, namely the devotee, dies in trance, thinking of Krishna. He does not feel his material body being separated from his soul; the soul is immediately transferred to the spiritual world.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.16.26:
“As long as one is attached to material enjoyment, bhakti-yoga cannot be understood. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (2.44):
bhogaisvarya-prasaktanam
tayapahrita-cetasam
vyavasayatmika buddhih
samadhau na vidhiyate
‘In the minds of those who are too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, and who are bewildered by such things, the resolute determination of devotional service to the Supreme Lord does not take place.’ As long as one is very much attached to material enjoyment, one cannot concentrate his mind on the subject matter of devotional service.
“The Krishna consciousness movement is progressing successfully in the Western countries at the present moment because the youth in the West have reached the stage of vairagya, or renunciation. They are practically disgusted with material pleasure from material sources, and this has resulted in a population of hippies throughout the Western countries. Now if these young people are instructed about bhakti-yoga, Krishna consciousness, the instructions will certainly be effective.”
From Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 20.145, verse and purport:
“‘There are many types of Vedic literatures and supplementary Puranas. In each of them there are particular demigods who are spoken of as the chief demigods. This is just to create an illusion for moving and nonmoving living entities. Let them perpetually engage in such imaginations. However, when one analytically studies all these Vedic literatures collectively, he comes to the conclusion that Lord Vishnu is the one and only Supreme Personality of Godhead.’”
“This is a verse from the Padma Purana.”
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
From Truthfulness, the Last Leg of Religion:
“Everyone is waiting to see if the truth in Srila Prabhupada’s books is also in the lives of the devotees. If not, then people may conclude that the Vedic philosophy is idealistic—it existed once five thousand years ago, and occasionally it reappears at great moments, such as in the life of Lord Caitanya, and in Srila Prabhupada’s life—but it’s not here now: it’s not for us.”
“A devotee’s life is a vital form of preaching. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati said, ‘If at the cost of all my maths I can produce one pure devotee, I will consider my mission to be a success.’ Why? Because a true (pure) devotee establishes the truth of religion. Without a true devotee, we have buildings, by-laws, inventory, holy books, managers, followers . . .”
From Chota’s Way:
[From the hermit turtle’s lessons on solitude which Chota did not fully embrace but was interested to hear.]
“But solitude isn’t separation from life. If you try to go alone merely to get away from people you don’t like, you won’t find either peace or solitude. I go alone not to escape from everyone but in order to find everything and everyone in God. In solitude I feel love for others and communion with them that I can’t find when I’m just doing all the things the turtle crowd does. So for me it’s not running from the world; it’s my place in the world.”
Bhaktivinoda Thakura:
[Prabandhavali is a book to be published by Touchstone Media consisting of translations of the Bengali articles that Bhaktivinoda Thakura published in the Gaudiya magazine and which I am proofreading.]
From “The Transformation of Energy in Light of Srimad-Bhagavatam” in Prabandhavali:
“You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead endowed with inconceivable potencies, and the living entities’ conditional existence is made possible by Your illusory energy. The living entity is constitutionally beyond the jurisdiction of the illusory energy, and so only with the help of Your potency can those who are averse to Your service become manifest by Your will, just like bubbles created by the contact of air with water. When the conditioned souls take shelter of Your holy names, then by the influence of Your holy name, they are reinstated in their original position. They enter the spiritual atmosphere, which is compared to an ocean of spiritual mellows, just like rivers enter into the ocean. All the mellows derived by the worship of the Supreme Lord culminate in madhurya-rasa, which can be relished by the most fortunate devotees.”
From “Is Krishna Responsible for the Living Entities’ Suffering?” in Prabandhavali:
“When the living entity misuses his free will and comes under the influence of maya, merciful Krishna, seeing the living entities’ pathetic condition, follows him wherever he goes, just to deliver him. Just to give the conditioned living entities access to them, Lord Krishna descends and displays His nectarean pastimes in the material world. Again, when He sees that the living entities cannot understand the truth of His transcendental pastimes, He personally appears at Sri Navadvipa and reveals His holy names, forms, qualities, and pastimes, acting as a spiritual master, and teaches by taking the part of a devotee.”
“Question: What are the shackles of the prison house? If the material world is a jail, then what could be the appropriate chains?
Answer: There are three kinds of shackles—shackles made of the mode of goodness, shackles made of the mode of passion, and shackles made of the mode of ignorance. Maya tightly binds the punishable living entities with these three types of shackles. Whether the living entities are in the mode of goodness, in the mode of passion, or in the mode of ignorance, they are all bound by shackles. Although golden chains, silver chains, and iron chains are different in terms of the metal, they are nevertheless chains and nothing else.”
From “The Garland of Vaishnava Conclusions” in Prabandhavali:
“In the spiritual world, the most-pleasing portion is called Sri Vrindavana. There, saccidananda Sri Krishna is present as Sri Sri Radha-Krishna, engaged in eternal pastimes. When the all-blissful forms of the living entities are manifested, they become qualified to enter the eternal pastimes of Sri Krishna as a companion, or maidservant, of Sri Radhika, who is the embodiment of supreme bliss. In those pastimes, there is no jurisdiction of lamentation, fear, or death. An incessant flow of spiritual bliss is the only ingredient of those pastimes.”
“The teachings concerning the worship of Isvara, Paramatma, and Brahman that are found in other religious systems lead their followers to the science of Krishna. By gradual advancement, the conditioned souls will eventually attain devotional service to Krishna. When incomplete religious systems become complete, or perfect, they transform into devotional service to Sri Krishna. To accept the truth of Sri Krishna as life’s ultimate goal is the perfection of the conditioned souls’ acquisition of knowledge.”
“From the living entities’ point of view, the difference is eternal, and from the Supreme Lord’s point of view, the non-difference is eternal. Therefore, difference and oneness are both true and eternal simultaneously.”
“By the Supreme Personality of Godhead’s inconceivable potency, all contradictory elements become perfectly harmonized. Only to the insignificant human intelligence does something appear contradictory.”
“The followers of the theory of oneness accept oneness as eternal, and difference as temporary. Since Sri Madhvacarya has established that difference is eternal, the acintya bheda-abheda philosophy has been confirmed. Those who accept both oneness and difference have no fault, but those who accept only oneness, or only difference, are guilty of the fault of partiality towards an incomplete doctrine.”
“The special characteristic of the Madhva philosophy is that it refutes the mistake of Kevaladvaitavada more precisely than the others. The mistake of oneness stays far away if one remains fixed in this philosophy. For the benefit of all people, Sri Mahaprabhu accepted this philosophy. Still, one need not treat the other three philosophies as inferior in any manner. The philosophy that promotes personalism will certainly bring about eternal benefit for the living entities in whatever form it takes.”
“The living entity is a pure, spiritual being, and his nature is to be eternally blissful and full of knowledge. In the state of non-variegated impersonalism, there is no bliss. Indeed, the aim of the impersonalist is to give up one’s sense of individuality. Attachment to material variegatedness keeps one in conditional life, which entails repeated birth and death. The material variegatedness is a perverted reflection of the original, spiritual, reality. Thus, both impersonalism and materialism are the living entities’ perverted states of being.”
“When a lamp is lit, both the dissipation of darkness and illumination occur simultaneously. Destruction of darkness is like liberation, and illumination is like the nectar of Lord Krishna’s lotus feet. The illumination of a lamp is an eternal fact, whereas the destruction of darkness is a temporary occurrence.”
“Enjoyment of sensual happiness in this world, enjoyment of heavenly happiness in the life after death, and enjoyment of peace derived from dry renunciation—these are the three kinds of desire for material enjoyment.”
“One can engage in sense gratification just to keep body and soul together, and there is no need to abandon welfare activities. One should simply be detached from everything not related to the Lord’s service. One must give up attachment and hatred in relation to these activities. . . . One should engage in one’s prescribed duties and social activities as prescribed by the system of varnasrama-dharma. One should execute those activities in such a way that they will be favourable for the cultivation of devotional service to Lord Krishna. They should never become a hindrance on the path of devotional service. And one should utilize whatever spare time one has to enhance his devotional propensity by cultivating Krishna consciousness. In that way, all of one’s activities, religious duties, and vows of renunciation will be helpful for one’s spiritual advancement.”
“One should maintain his body and family life sinlessly and accept those activities as being indirect devotional service because they assist one’s devotional service to Krishna. Then with whatever time remains, one should cultivate direct devotional service.”
“To hear and chant about the Supreme Lord in the association of devotees after receiving unadulterated transcendental knowledge while accepting material life without attachment is the pure uncontaminated form of bhajana.”
“Question: What is sound vibration evidence?
Answer: The Vedas descended in the form of self-manifested knowledge and is sabda-pramana. It is the best form of evidence, because without that evidence, truth beyond the jurisdiction of material nature cannot be ascertained.
Question: Why can’t God and the spiritual realm be understood by direct perception and hypothesis?
Answer: Sensual knowledge is direct perception; hypothesis is a kind a guess made from perception. These methods can only give one imperfect knowledge of this world.
Question: Then why do we accept direct perception and hypothesis while understanding spiritual matters?
Answer: Direct perception and hypothesis can be helpful in fine tuning that which is obtained by sabda-pramana.”
From “The Purport of the Vedas” in Prabandhavali:
“Up until the end of Dvapara-yuga, even some wise persons, being unable to understand the actual purport of the Vedic literature, concluded that karma is the preferred path while others concluded that yoga was the goal, and still others accepted sankhya-jñana, dry arguments, or non-differentiated Brahman realization. As a result, imperfect philosophical treatises born of partial knowledge created disturbances in the land of Bharatavarsa, like undigested food in the stomach.”
“If one analyzes with a simple mind, one can understand that the conditioned state of the living entities is miserable. One can then understand that it is necessary to follow some means so that one can get out of this miserable condition and enter an auspicious state. That pure state is called prayojana, or the goal of life, and the process by which it is achieved is called upaya.”
“By philosophical analysis, it is seen that the achievement of the service of the Lord’s lotus feet while gradually getting freed from material miseries is the supreme state of peace.”
“Karma performed as fruitive work by one who is averse to God is known as mere karma. When such karma is dovetailed in the service of the Supreme Lord, it is known as sadhana-bhakti and no longer retains the name karma.”
“By the cultivation of knowledge, the conditioned soul first gathers knowledge of the objects of the material world. Later, he understands the nature and qualities of things and their combinations. Sometimes, after cultivating knowledge of such objects, their qualities establish God as their director and maintainer, and thus the conditioned soul exhibits some kind of motivated devotion towards Him. Sometimes, knowing the material world to be perishable, one practices detachment and imagines that he is one with God by merging himself with a kind of indescribable transcendental situation. Sometimes the conditioned soul hates the very existence of truth and tries to achieve the happiness of negation, or voidism. In whatever way one may try, one ultimately has to accept subordination to some supreme truth after realizing the futility of both the conception of oneness and the annihilation of the self in voidness. When that sense of subordination becomes clear, it gradually transforms into devotional service. Thus, devotional service is the ultimate goal of cultivating knowledge. The fruit of karma is material enjoyment, the fruit of jñana is liberation, and the ultimate fruit of both is devotional service. When jñana culminates in devotional service as the ultimate goal, it becomes sadhana-bhakti.”
“In the constitutional state of the living entities, engagement in the loving service of the Lord is their natural, or spontaneous, function. That function, or propensity, is consequently present in the conditional state also, but it remains dormant due to absorption in godless activities. When that aversion becomes diminished by the association of saintly persons, the propensity for service becomes strong, and that state of affairs is called sadhana-bhakti mixed with karma. When the service propensity becomes predominant, then karma, which is due to aversion to the Supreme Lord, transforms into pure devotional service.”
From “Sri Krishna” in Prabandhavali:
“Those who try to understand God with the help of the senses imagine a state of samadhi concentrated on the form of Paramatma, presuming that God is the soul of the universe. They take help of mystic yoga with practices that include asana, pranayama, dhyana, and dharana. However, by this endeavour, a complete realization is not achieved. Such persons derive a partial realization of the Absolute Truth by negating everything material and thus come to Brahman realization. Actually, their Brahman realization is simply a show, because they come back to the material platform, being bereft of spiritual pleasure and activity.”
“The formless, nonvariegated aspect of the Absolute Truth is the object of worship for less intelligent persons. Others, of a lower grade, worship powerful human beings, or nature, and in this way they are deprived of attaining the treasure of love of God. Although the living entities are constitutionally servants of the Supreme Lord, due to bad association, that innate propensity becomes covered. Only those fortunate souls who can appreciate Krishna’s glories and beauty can enter the spiritual kingdom after being delivered from the impersonal calamity and thus attain unlimited happiness.”
“Due to misfortune, one’s intelligence becomes diverted to material science, which cannot extend to the transcendental kingdom.”
“In the cultivation of Krishna consciousness, caste, mundane education, beauty, strength, scientific knowledge, high position, wealth, kingdom, and so on, have no role to play. That is why, for persons who are proud of their varna, or caste, the understanding of Krishna remains far away.”
“The pathetic condition of modern scientists is that they want to know more than they deserve. Observational science has no jurisdiction in transcendental reality, and yet scientists shamelessly make proclamations about ultimate reality. Being confined to an extremely insignificant domain, they should realize that all of their attempts are futile. Humility born of association with saintly persons invokes Krishna’s mercy. And only that qualifies one to enter into a study of the spiritual science. Spiritual knowledge is never attained on the strength of material observations.”
“People who are infected by the blindness of partiality are deprived of the sweet taste of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Let the supremely conscious Lord be merciful by destroying their blindness.”
From “Sri Artha Pañcaka” in Prabandhavali:
“Arcavatara. The worshipable Deity of the Supreme Lord endowed with the names and forms desired by His servants. Though omniscient, He appears as insentient to the ordinary person. Although omnipotent, He appears to be helpless so that His servants must do everything for Him. Although self-satisfied, He appears to be dependent on the offerings of His servitors. Although the protector, He appears vulnerable, and although the master, He remains in the temple, being controlled by the love of His devotees.”
“Artha. Earning wealth and property according to the prescriptions of varna and asrama and piously spending it for the service of the Supreme Lord and the forefathers, as well as for the protection of all living entities, after careful consideration of the place, time and candidate is called artha.”
From “The Philosophy of Vedanta” in Prabandhavali:
“The Brahma-sutra was compiled because the Vedantas, or ultimate conclusions, are eternally present in the Upanisads. Although the statements of the Upanisads are full of wisdom, they are mostly incomprehensible to even great scholars. It is difficult to understand the connection between one statement and another. Therefore, especially for a student, it is difficult to study the Upanisads and derive any benefit. Without the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, the meaning of the Upanisads will never be comprehended. The Upanisads are the crest jewels of the Vedas. Knowledge of the self and the duties to be performed by those desiring liberation are most clearly found in the Upanisads. Unless one understands the purport of the Upanisads, the goal of human life is not attained. After carefully considering this, Badarayana compiled some sutras, or codes, after scrutinizing the statements of the Upanisads. Those codes are known as Brahma-sutra.”
Kadamba Kanana Swami:
From a Zoom meeting on February 11, 2023:
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura has 64 very clear, concise statements of advice which I have on my website (https://www.kkswami.com/?s=Bhaktisiddhanta&Submit=Search),
and if we can follow these, we will be doing very well.
When the spiritual master leaves, the responsibility of your spiritual life is up to you, so you have to come to another level of maturity: “Now I am going to be what he wanted me to be.”
Srila Prabhupada could see that he had to create an ashram for unmarried ladies because in the West there was not the spiritual culture whereby they could remain at home and advance.
The Krishna conscious definition of intelligence is to act according to the spiritual direction we are given.
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura said that for those who have realized their eternal relationship with Krishna is in conjugal love, Radharani is the guru, but for everyone else Lord Nityananda is the guru.
Kesava Gopal Prabhu:
Lord Shiva’s abode is between the spiritual world and the material world because he is compassionate and wants to help others go from the material world to the spiritual world.
Shiva revived Chandra, the moon God, because he had been cursed by Daksa to die for neglecting 26 of the 27 daughters of Daksa he had married. The day Shiva did that is Maha Shiva Ratri.
Satyaraj Govinda Prabhu:
Chapter 1 of Bhagavad-gita is divided into five sections:
1: Inquiry to Sanjaya
2–11: Duryodhana's fear and diplomacy
12–19: signs of victory
20–27: Arjuna observes the armies
28–46: reasons not to fight
Even if we take some medicine we will not become cured of a disease if we do not change our habits which caused us to develop the disease.
Arjuna had killed many people in previous conflicts, and he was not affected by these feelings of compassion. But because the opposing soldiers at Kurukshetra were his relatives, he was reluctant to fight.
Due to his strong attachment to his relatives, it appears Arjuna completely forgot the dharma of a ksatriya.
The ksatriyas would not retire as long as they had the strength of body and mind to fight.
-----
This verse spoken by Krishna to Arjuna is not often quoted but it is significant because it precedes the four verses said to summarize the Gita’s meaning (Bg. 10.8–11), and it explains the cause of developing pure devotional service to the Supreme Lord.
etam vibhutim yogam ca
so ’vikalpena yogena
yujyate natra samsayah
“One who is factually convinced of this opulence and mystic power of Mine engages in unalloyed devotional service; of this there is no doubt.” (Bg. 10.7)
Upon hearing the four key verses after this, Arjuna accepts the divinity of Lord Krishna.
Much of the rest of Chapter Ten is Krishna revealing His opulence and mystic power at Arjuna’s request.
