Diary of a Traveling Sadhaka, Vol. 21, No. 13
By Krishna Kripa Das
(Week 13: March 26–April 1, 2025)
(Sent from Tallahassee, Florida, on April 5, 2025)
Where I Went and What I Did
For the thirteenth week of 2025, I remained living at ISKCON Tallahassee. I chanted Hare Krishna every day at Landis Green, behind the main Florida State University library. Ananga Mohan Prabhu joined me on Friday as usual and played the drum. In Tallahassee, I distributed a Science of Self-Realization, an “On Chanting Hare Krishna” pamphlet, and fifty-nine little cups of halava to promote our Krishna Lunch at the campus.
I tell about our Tallahassee Ratha-yatra, attended by at least forty devotees, many from Alachua and Gainesville, and a visit to the Alachua Sunday feast.
I share quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Srimad-Bhagavatam, and The Nectar of Devotion. I share quotes from Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s commentary on Caitanya-bhagavata. I share quotes from The Delaware Diaries, Renewal, and Sanatorium by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami. I share notes on classes in Tallahassee by Pran Govinda and Govinda Kaviraja Prabhus and on a Sunday feast lecture in Alachua by Devaki Devi Dasi. I share an insight from a conversation with Dasaratha Suta Prabhu in Alachua.
Many, many thanks to my sister, Karen Beetle, for paying for my new computer out of our mother’s estate. I was able to get it just in time before my previous computer, which was five years old, died. Thanks to Uddhava Prabhu for the video of me dancing before the Tallahassee Ratha-yatra. Thanks to Ananga Mohan Prabhu for the selfie of us on harinama at FSU and for the use of his phone to take Ratha-yatra videos, as I foolishly forgot to bring mine.
Itinerary
April 12: St. Augustine Ratha-yatra
April 13: Gainesville harinama
April 14–15: USF harinamas in Tampa
April 16–20: Washington, D.C., harinamas with Sankarsana Prabhu
April 21–22: NYC Harinam
April 23: Flight to Brussels
April 24: Layover in Oslo
April 25: Kadamba Kanana Swami Vyasa-puja at Radhadesh
April 26: King’s Day in Amsterdam
April 27: Liege harinama
April 28–May 1: Paris harinamas
May 2: Sarcelles market harinama
May 3–4: Amsterdam Kirtan Mela and Sacinandana Swami seminar
May 5 and 6: harinama in Amsterdam, Antwerp, or Brussels
May 7: Flight from Brussels to New York City
May 8–June 15: NYC Harinam
mid June–mid August: Paris
– June 22: Paris Ratha-yatra
– July 11: Amsterdam harinama
– July 12: Amsterdam Ratha-yatra
– July 13: Netherlands harinama
Chanting Hare Krishna in Tallahassee
This FSU student formerly participated in Krishna Lunch in Gainesville and was happy to hear we have it at FSU.
Ananga Mohan Prabhu came out on Friday to my spot on Landis Green behind the main university library. He played the drum during my kirtan, and I played the drum during his kirtan.
Pran Govinda, along with bhaktas from his ashram in Alachua, came to Tallahassee the evening before Ratha-yatra.
Here he chants Hare Krishna at the home of Subir (https://youtu.be/wgncx_b2nvE):
The Tallahassee Ratha-yatra is the Hare Krishna contribution to the Springtime Tallahassee parade, which is either the last Saturday of March or first Saturday of April each year. The parade is so short it is hard for me to do the three hours of public congregational chanting I like to do each day. Formerly, when I came up from Alachua with the Alachua harinama devotees, we would do harinama for an hour at the Downtown Saturday market after the parade to make the whole experience worth the two-hour journey each way. This year I decided to come to the site an hour and a half before the parade as the officials recommend. I brought my harmonium and amplifier and happily chanted for half an hour to Lord Jagannatha, Lord Baladeva, and Lady Subhadra, who patiently waited in their car as the devotees prepared the cart. The first twenty minutes there was no other amplified sound so dozens of parade participants were able to hear the holy names. After I chanted, Mayur chanted Hare Krishna to the Jagannatha deities for a while (https://youtu.be/5EqZHqd-jZo):
Next Ananga Mohan Prabhu chanted Hare Krishna there before the Tallahassee Ratha-yatra (https://youtu.be/HOQYPd6hf3w):
Uddhava Prabhu took this video of me dancing in that kirtan of Ananga Mohan (https://youtu.be/Ss5jAQfmg1U):
Later Bhakta Max, who stays in Pran Govinda Prabhu’s ashram in Alachua, chanted Hare Krishna (https://youtu.be/2hU4KiXVn6M):
Here Kishor Gopal Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at the start of the Tallahassee Ratha-yatra (https://youtu.be/GMmHk9_fqIY):
During the procession I did not want to leave my position in the parade to make a video of our whole kirtan party so I just took videos of people in the crowd who appreciated it.
Here Kishor Gopal Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Tallahassee Ratha-yatra, and onlookers appreciate (https://youtu.be/KcJBKqNyr4g):
Kishor Gopal Prabhu chants Hare Krishna in Tallahassee Ratha-yatra, Nate dances, and onlookers wave, smile, and dance (https://youtu.be/biQwZMgwsAE):
Kishor Gopal Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at the end of the Tallahassee Ratha-yatra (https://youtu.be/A-jp79jeisc):
As we had only chanted Hare Krishna for two and a half hours and I like to do three, I encouraged Nimai Govinda Prabhu from Alachua and his friends to chant Hare Krishna on the way to their vehicle (https://youtu.be/xBPzLoVhlkE):
Keshava Gopal Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at ISKCON Tallahassee after Ratha-yatra (https://youtu.be/ETVqd2c_huQ):
Then his wife, Karuna Gopi Devi Dasi, chanted Hare Krishna there too (https://youtu.be/rUSd1ZMu-wM):
After helping to clean the kitchen and taking a nap, in the late afternoon I went to the campus to chant Hare Krishna for an hour and half to promote Krishna Lunch.
One day one of my regular customers for the free halava stopped to get some, despite being late for class. After class, she got some more, on the way to her presentation, saying she hoped it would bring her good fortune. The next day she said her presentation went well, she was relaxed doing it, and many people asked her questions. Then she got some halava both for herself and her supervisor in charge of FSU international programs. She is a Christian from Jamaica majoring in neuroscience.
I share my harinama statistics for the month of March:
Radhika Ramana Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at ISKCON Alachua first Sunday feast kirtan (https://youtu.be/FHDbvj0CZMc):
During the feast I sat with Arthur from Clearwater, who I originally met at a Krishna House program in Gainesville. He later chanted with me at Depot Park in Gainesville and also at University of South Florida in Tampa. He really appreciated the association of the devotees and relocated to the Alachua area for that reason. He likes to see the truth in the different religious traditions, and he invited two male Mormon missionaries he met in High Springs to come to the Sunday feast. The young Mormons really liked the prasadam and came back for seconds, getting a serious amount the second time around. They shared with us this quote from the Mormon’s thirteen “Articles of Faith” appreciating worship of God in other traditions: “We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.” (11)
Adikarta Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at ISKCON Alachua Sunday feast Gaura Arati kirtan (https://youtu.be/zshMjz_vbVM):
Amala Harinama Prabhu and friends chant Hare Krishna after the ISKCON Alachua Sunday feast (https://youtu.be/8_GslRH_t4k):
Kumari chants Hare Krishna after the ISKCON Alachua Sunday feast (https://youtu.be/R0YX8xQ8c9s):
Insights
Srila Prabhupada:
From Bhagavad-gita 5.26, purport:
“The devotee in Krishna consciousness, although far away from the Lord’s abode, can elevate himself to that abode simply by thinking of Him constantly—by engagement in Krishna consciousness. He does not feel the pangs of material miseries; this state of life is called brahma-nirvana, or the absence of material miseries due to being constantly immersed in the Supreme.”
From Bhagavad-gita 5.29, purport:
“Krishna consciousness, however, brings one into spiritual life even while one is within the jurisdiction of matter, for it is an arousing of spiritual existence by practice in the material world. The more one is advanced, the more he is freed from the clutches of matter. The Lord is not partial toward anyone. Everything depends on one’s practical performance of duties in Krishna consciousness, which in every respect helps one control the senses and conquer the influence of desire and anger. And one who stands fast in Krishna consciousness, controlling the above-mentioned passions, remains factually in the transcendental stage, or brahma-nirvana.”
From Bhagavad-gita 13.34, purport:
“Thus consciousness is the proof of the presence of the soul, as sunshine or light is the proof of the presence of the sun. When the soul is present in the body, there is consciousness all over the body, and as soon as the soul has passed from the body there is no more consciousness.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.8.4:
“Persons who hear Srimad-Bhagavatam regularly and are always taking the matter very seriously will have the Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna manifested in their hearts within a short time.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.6.40:
“Words, mind and ego, with their respective controlling demigods, have failed to achieve success in knowing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, we simply have to offer our respectful obeisances unto Him as a matter of sanity.”
From The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 17:
“By the process of executing regulated devotional service, one is actually elevated onto the transcendental stage, beyond the material modes of nature. At that time one’s heart becomes illuminated like the sun. . . . When a devotee is purified like the sun, from his pure heart there is a diffusion of ecstatic love which is more glorious than the sunshine. Only at that time is the attachment to Krishna perfect. Spontaneously, the devotee becomes eager to serve the Lord in his ecstatic love. At this stage the devotee is on the platform of uttama-adhikari, perfect devotion. Such a devotee has no agitation from material affections and is interested only in the service of Radha and Krishna.”
“One should execute devotional service rigidly in the association of devotees so that there will be certainty in raising oneself to that ecstatic position.”
“It is essential, therefore, that one constantly associate with pure devotees who are engaged morning and evening in chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. In this way one will get the chance to purify his heart and develop this ecstatic pure love for Krishna.”
“In the Padma Purana there is the story of a neophyte devotee who, in order to raise herself to the ecstatic platform, danced all night to invoke the Lord’s grace upon her.”
From The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 18:
“In the beginning, of course, a neophyte devotee must try to keep himself apart from all kinds of alluring attachments, but the real position of a mature devotee is that even in the presence of all allurements, he is not at all attracted. This is the actual criterion of detachment.”
“The strong conviction that one will certainly receive the favor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is called in Sanskrit asa-bandha. Asa-bandha means to continue to think, ‘Because I’m trying my best to follow the routine principles of devotional service, I am sure that I will go back to Godhead, back to home.’”
“When one is sufficiently eager to achieve success in devotional service, that eagerness is called samutkantha. This means ‘complete eagerness.’ Actually this eagerness is the price for achieving success in Krishna consciousness. Everything has some value, and one has to pay the value before obtaining or possessing it. It is stated in the Vedic literature that to purchase the most valuable thing, Krishna consciousness, one has to develop intense eagerness for achieving success.”
“The example is given that on the full moon there are some spots that may appear to be pockmarks. Still, the illumination spread by the full moon cannot be checked. Similarly, a little fault in the midst of volumes of devotional service is not at all to be counted as a fault. Attachment for Krishna is transcendental bliss. Amid unlimited volumes of transcendental bliss, a spot of some material defect cannot act in any way.”
From The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 19:
“When one’s desire to love Krishna in one’s particular relationship becomes intensified, this is known as pure love of Godhead.”
“In the Narada Pañcaratra it is clearly stated that when lust is completely transferred to the Supreme Godhead and the concept of kinship is completely reposed in Him, such is accepted as pure love of God by great authorities like Bhisma, Prahlada, Uddhava and Narada.”
“Ecstatic love of Godhead can be potently invoked simply by following the rules and regulations of devotional service as they are prescribed in scriptures, under the direction of a bona fide spiritual master.”
“From the example of Candrakanti as found in the Padma Purana and from the example of the gopis as found in Srimad-Bhagavatam, it appears that a devotee who always thinks of Krishna and who always chants His glories in ecstatic love, regardless of his condition, will attain the highest perfection of unalloyed devotional love due to Lord Krishna’s extraordinary mercy.”
“In the Narada Pañcaratra pure, unalloyed devotional service is explained as being without any motive for personal benefit. If a devotee is continuously in love with Lord Krishna and his mind is always fixed upon Him, that devotional attitude will prove to be the only means of attracting the attention of the Lord.”
“There are many societies and associations of pure devotees, and if someone with just a little faith begins to associate with such societies, his advancement to pure devotional service is rapid.”
“In the Narada Pañcaratra Lord Shiva therefore tells Parvati, ‘My dear supreme goddess, you may know from me that any person who has developed the ecstasy of love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and who is always merged in transcendental bliss on account of this love, cannot even perceive the material distress or happiness coming from the body or mind.’”
“Without relishing some sort of mellow, or loving mood, in one’s activities, no one can continue to perform such activities. Similarly, in the transcendental life of Krishna consciousness and devotional service there must be some mellow, or specific taste, from the service. Generally this mellow is experienced by chanting, hearing, worshiping in the temple and being engaged in the service of the Lord. So when a person feels transcendental bliss, that is called ‘relishing the mellow.’ To be more clear, we may understand that the various feelings of happiness derived from discharging devotional service may be termed the ‘mellows’ of devotional service.
“This relishing of transcendental mellow in discharging devotional service cannot be experienced by all classes of men because this sweet loving mood is developed only from one’s previous life’s activities or by the association of unalloyed devotees. As explained above, association with pure devotees is the beginning of faith in devotional service. Only by developing such faith in the association of a pure devotee, or by having in one’s previous life executed devotional activities, can one actually relish the mellow of devotional service. In other words, this transcendental bliss is not to be enjoyed by any common man unless he is so extraordinarily fortunate as to be in association with devotees or to be continuing his previous birth’s devotional activities.”
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura:
From Caitanya-bhagavata, Madhya 13.312, commentary:
“To attribute on someone faults that are not present is called blasphemy. Being induced by irrelevant goals, those who are unable to tolerate the glorification of others and with a desire to attack them unfairly attribute faults on them continually meet with inauspiciousness day after day.”
From Caitanya-bhagavata, Madhya 13.318, commentary:
“After Sri Gaurasundara accepted the bodies of Jagai and Madhai to be as good as His own, whatever He had them do, whatever He had them speak, however He had them behave, and whatever He had them eat was favorable for the service of Vishnu. In this way, after turning one towards the Lord’s service, the worshipable Lord takes His worshiper servant, who leaves a body made of the five gross elements within the material world, and departs.”
From Caitanya-bhagavata, Madhya 13.319, commentary:
“The proper use of independence is to become inclined towards the service of the Lord, but the senses of persons who are averse to the Lord’s service are induced by three types of false ego to engage in pious and impious activities and more or less identify with material nature.”
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
From Renewal:
“Listening to Prabhupada’s dynamic speech, and taking part personally in the singing and then the dancing, I felt completely free. I was with my best friends, although some of them I had only known for a few months. I felt the ecstasy of the Swami’s love for Krishna, and felt we had done a great thing and that it would become popular and widespread. I felt happy to have been a participant of the first recording of The Happening maha-mantra record. There was a delay in the production and release of the record, but after a few months it finally came out, and quickly became popular, especially among the youth. It was played on the radio frequently, and it sold well in the record stores. Some persons joined the Hare Krishna Movement just on the force of this record and speech.”
From Sanatorium:
“I once heard Radhanatha Swami say that Prabhupada’s books are full of humility, and humility is everything; therefore, you can find everything in Prabhupada’s books.”
“I hear his [Prabhupada’s] lectures still and I am inspired and struggle. Even the struggle is good, like ‘wrestling with God.’”
“Prabhupada is gradually giving raganuga in his books. You’ll find many sections. There’s one section where he compares raganuga to the gradual learning of how to type with a typewriter. He says at first, you’re given lessons and you go slowly, but gradually you learn to type without even looking at the keys. So, he uses that famous word of his, ‘automatically’ you come to your position, and even to your siddha-deha, your eternal relationship with Krishna.”
From The Delaware Diaries, Volume 2 (Tachycardia):
“We’re having a rather large gathering at Thanksgiving, and some of the members won’t be Krishna conscious, so Sastra asked me if I could give a ‘secular’ talk. I don’t think I can. We have to thank God. I believe the first Thanksgiving was observed in the sixteen hundreds by the Pilgrims who sailed to America from England. They endured a bitter winter trying to make a settlement and dealing with the native Indians but somehow managed to survive. They shot some turkeys and had a feast and thanked God. They were a religious sect, the Puritans, who escaped England because of religious persecution.
“So when we give thanks on this day, it must be to our Provider, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. We can think of all the ways in which we are grateful. We should express our gratitude that we’re able to eat so amply and not take it for granted, since many people in the world are starving. We should be thankful that we have a family of warm friends and relatives who can gather in harmony on this day and not in bitterness or split up. Children should be thankful to their parents, and parents thankful to their children for their obedience and growing up as good persons who want to make a contribution to the world.
“In the religious field, a spiritual master should be thankful to his disciples for their service and assistance, which he offers to God, or Krishna, and disciples should be thankful for the guidance of the spiritual master. We should be thankful we live in a civilized country where religious freedom is guaranteed.
“Aside from the things I put into a speech at a family gathering on Thanksgiving, I may consider privately the things I’m grateful for. I’m grateful that Srila Prabhupada came to me and saved my life. And especially that I met him in 1966. I’m grateful that I didn’t join him by joining an institution or through his disciples but that he personally handled me in the early days, when it was like a family. I’m grateful that he gave me positions to serve in ISKCON, such as temple president, and that he put me on the GBC when he formed it and that he picked my name to initiate on his behalf. I’m grateful that he called me to be his personal servant in 1974, put me in charge of the library party and that he always seemed to appreciate my service. I’m grateful that he and the GBC asked me to write the Srila Prabhupada-lilamṛta. I’m sorry that I failed him with my falldown, but grateful that I was able to work with Brahmatirtha Prabhu and the GBC committee to retain my position as sannyasi in ISKCON and keep my faithful disciples. I am grateful that I’ve been able to spend my later years in relative peace and quiet and take up renewed interest in chanting and hearing.”
“Society mocks the monks as parasites, but they do great good when they pray for souls and when they go into the world and try to help the fallen.”
“I’m glad I made a decision to keep chanting during the pain. Sometimes you have to choose sadhana over health care. You just want that life so badly.”
“Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I live with Him. I cry for self-realization. I want Him in the center of my life. I will hear of His pastimes and instructions.”
“Trying to get my financial affairs in order. Krishna will take care of me. ‘To those who are devoted to Me with love, I preserve what they have and deliver what they lack.’ One way or another, I will survive. He does it personally, and the pure devotee doesn’t doubt it. He has no financial insecurity.”
“You can rest assured that Krishna will give you food, clothing and shelter because you are sincerely serving Him and His representative.”
“Krishna Kripa is here visiting for a couple of days from Gainesville. He went down to the beach with us wearing a dhoti with long johns underwear. He said he liked it more than he expected because it was so peaceful, and the cold and the walk kept him alert. Baladeva took our picture together, and it looks like a seagull is standing on Krishna Kripa’s head.”
“KK said it must be hard for me to tolerate decades of headaches. I replied that it’s become a part of my life. And I told him what the migraineurs say about the remark that migraine is not a life-threatening disease. They say it is life-threatening because it takes so much away from their quality of life. They can’t play with their children, they get fired from their jobs, they have to stay in bed all day. If that isn’t life-threatening, what is? As they search for a cure, they cry out, ‘I want a life!’”
“KK told me he recently met with a sannyasi Godbrother who came to the U.S.A. to see what preaching was going on and decided nothing was going on. He’s going to try something big himself. He is trying to raise $250 million to build a Krishna conscious theme park in Orlando, Florida. Along with the theme park, he’ll build a self-sufficient community that will supply arts and crafts to the theme park. It really sounds like ‘shooting for the white rhinoceros.’”
“KK said he recently attended the Vyasa-puja of Hridayananda Maharaja in Florida, held in the house of one of his disciples. He said the microphone wasn’t properly balanced, and they had to balance it by hanging a can of beans on one side of the stand. Hridayananda Maharaja joked that whoever gave the best homage would win the can of beans. He said the function was very relaxed because Maharaja is very relaxed and funny.”
“I also received a nice letter from Caitanya-candrodaya from Ireland. He writes,
I often hear Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati’s quote, ‘I never was, am not, and never will be a spiritual master.’ I would never have understood it in practice until I see how you, while acting and being my spiritual master, never consider it to be your nature and never identify with it as your fixed position in relation to a disciple. You will always be my spiritual master because you do not only quote it but you live by this quote and are my eternal friend.
It could be shocking for a disciple to realize that it is not an eternal goal or a svarupa of his or her spiritual master. For someone, it could be a shock to realize that his or her spiritual master is not perfect and makes mistakes. For someone it could be a revelation that a spiritual master cannot see Krishna all the time. For some it could be a revelation that maya is strong enough to attack anyone in this world. But I know that you are my eternal friend and an associate of Krishna, I know that whatever mistakes you make, you teach us how to rectify them, I know that all the acaryas serve Krishna in separation, and I know that there is not a single soul on this world that is beyond the potential grip of maya, and the fact that one can overcome maya’s attacks is the actual direct mercy of Krishna to be praised.
I was very impersonal towards Prabhupada, I took him for a ‘previous’ great teacher, but it is by your mercy that I am able to relate to him as a person, not just an iconic figure but a real guru....
Your books talk to us, just as we talk to other devotees, it is as easy to read them as it is to talk to a friend. Please continue to write these ‘friendly’ comments on the Bhagavatam, so that thinking and nondogmatic followers of Prabhupada will always have a refuge of the seniormost disciple presenting Prabhupada’s words and answering the questions without pretense. It will take years to appreciate it for others, but that is the way of humility and art of following.
The last kick in the face of Hindu-imitating, pseudo-traditional and formalist religionist follower of a tradition called Gaudiya Vaisnavism, which is actually the activity of the soul and is free from any form of identification that are of this world, is your art. It is not just nice, it is challenging to a formal believer and liberating to a sincere cultural man, who would rather see a nonsectarian approach to Krishna and His philosophy, culture and love.
“Krishna Kripa admired the fact that I, although having difficulty, never gave up on my disciples but kept my promise to work with them and help them to go back to Godhead. I have kept my side of the bargain, he said.”
“Outside the [Philly] restaurant, I was stopped by a young bearded man dressed in a dhoti who had attended the whole [Vyasa-puja] program. He was someone I had never met before. Haryasva told me he comes to the restaurant often. He’s a disciple of Srila Narayana Maharaja. He told me that he has been reading my books for fifteen years and that he loves them more than anything. He told me one time Narayana Maharaja was crying, and when the devotees asked him why he was crying, he said he was thinking of Satsvarupa Maharaja. I was touched by this expression.”
“My dear Lord Krishna, You are always close to me. Thank you for being with me over the Vyasa-puja weekend and allowing me to discharge those duties. I must always be there for those who wish to be my disciples. I must exchange with them in love.”
“Most of all I need to feel love for You, Divine One, and for my spiritual master. That will be the root for all the love I can give to others.”
“On this day after my birthday celebration, I rededicate myself to setting a good example and serving Your dear ones. Some of them are depending on me, and I must not fail. I must find the love in my heart, which You have implanted, and share it with them. I do this first by becoming Your unalloyed devotee and the servant of my Guru Maharaja.”
“You can be simultaneously involved only with Your most intimate devotees in Goloka Vṛndavana, and yet open to touch with aspiring souls who maybe appear to be very distant to You, living in the material world and still distracted by the illusory energy. Whenever they turn to You, You are ready for them.”
“You are my only shelter. And I only know You through my connection with Srila Prabhupada. He has left this world in his manifested form, but he is still present spiritually in his teachings and personal example. His kindness toward me while he was here remains in my heart. My duty to serve him will always be with me.”
“Have faith in the scriptural statements that chanting Hare Krishna constantly is the greatest act of devotion. Do it despite your low taste.”
“I stand face to face with Krishna. I bow down to His lotus feet. Nami (Krishna) and nama (His name) are identical. Each bead chanted on is bowing to Krishna and Radha. Even when you don’t do it perfectly in the offenseless stage, it counts in your favor.”
“When your time is up, it will be hard to chant the names so do it while you can while you’re calm and at your ease.”
Dasaratha Suta Prabhu:
From a conversation in Alachua:
“The false ego is such a rascal that it convinces you that it’s the Paramatma.”
Pran Govinda Swami:
A sadhu is relishing spiritual life and eager to share it with others.
What you do not believe, you cannot make others believe.
Varna you are born with, but asrama you are not born with.
These three questions we should ask ourselves every day:
Who we are?
Whose we are?
Where we are?
We cannot do bhakti without happiness.
Brahma-bhuta means free from the three modes of nature.
When we come to Krishna consciousness by engaging in devotional service we become spiritualized. When we stop performing devotional service, we return to our previous state.
We get delivered by the devotee infusing Krishna’s potency from his heart to ours.
The gopis have ten kinds of gossip or jalpa about Krishna, and Krishna likes that. Their gossip keeps them in the spiritual world, but our gossip keeps us in this world.
The false ego binds the spiritual soul to matter.
There are only two choices: you either work for Krishna or you work for maya.
When we see things separate from God then fear will come, so we should practice connecting things with Krishna.
No one cannot live without philosophy, and if you do not accept Krishna consciousness, you have to accept some other philosophy.
Every moment we have a choice to love Krishna or not love Krishna.
Service cannot be taken away from us because it is our nature.
Love is eternally with the soul.
The Mayavadis aspire for cessation of existence, but you can ask them how they know in that state they will be experiencing happiness.
The process of bhakti is one of purification not escape. If you try to escape, you can’t run far.
Faith is essential. Even if you cannot understand Krishna’s words, still have faith in them.
Krishna’s form is the condensed form of bliss, from the tip of hair to the toenail.
All of Vraja moves by feeling. Sat and cit is subordinate to ananda. Krishna and His devotees are all absorbed in ananda.
Your soul is more beautiful than your body, no matter how well you decorate it.
The Lord is in our heart as Paramatma, a judge, but by our service Krishna Himself with all His mercy will enter our heart and merge with Paramatma.
Dhundhukari, although grossly sinful, attained liberation when he heard the Bhagavatam with faith and engaged in three things: contemplation, reflection, and assimilation.
In Vraja they do not calculate times or days. This is called vivek-sunya-prema.
Higher than that is visramba-prema. When Krishna is absent, they close their eyes and see Krishna within and engage in pastimes with Him.
Higher is utkantha-mayi, in which the devotee cannot be for a moment without Krishna.
There are ten features of a Vedic welcome.
The eclipse at Kurukshetra was exactly 50 years after Krishna left Vrindavan.
Narada was shocked that Krishna invited everyone to Kurukshetra at the time of the solar eclipse except the residents of Vraja.
Krishna explained that he did not invite residents of Vraja because they love Him so much it would be hard to accommodate them.
Krishna decided to just invite the utkantha-mayi devotees to Kurukshetra.
Nanda, Yasoda, and the cowherd boys and girls went but were detained by the guards outside the Dvaraka pandal at Kurukshetra.
The discussion with the guards continued until it got to the point where Yasoda said, “If I cannot see Krishna, I will die at this spot.”
Yasoda sang, “Gopal!”
Krishna, having taken off his kingly costume, came running.
Uddhava created a special place for Yasoda and Krishna to meet.
Yasoda and Krishna hugged intensely for quite some time.
Afterward Yasoda told Krishna, pointing to Radha and the gopis, they miss You more than I do.
Lover, beloved, and love. Without these things, life has no meaning.
Bringing someone to Krishna gives Him the most pleasure, but to do that we have to give ourselves to Krishna first.
First there is philosophy, then practical action, and finally spontaneous action.
Krishna is the only manifestation of the Lord who can accommodate all the rasas.
Nitya-siddha means you love Krishna more than yourself.
Comment:
You mentioned that if we do not accept Krishna’s philosophy, then we will accept some other philosophy. That reminded me of this verse:
“Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the all-pervading Supreme Personality of Godhead, who possesses unlimited transcendental qualities. Acting from within the cores of the hearts of all philosophers, who propagate various views, He causes them to forget their own souls while sometimes agreeing and sometimes disagreeing among themselves. Thus He creates within this material world a situation in which they are unable to come to a conclusion. I offer my obeisances unto Him.” (SB 6.4.31)
Regarding freeing ourselves from our subtle body, this verse comes to mind:
“Bhakti, devotional service, dissolves the subtle body of the living entity without separate effort, just as fire in the stomach digests all that we eat.” (SB 3.25.33)
You mentioned that Krishna is the condensed form of spiritual bliss. That reminds me that once a girl hearing the harinama in the Times Square subway station said, “That sound is pure joy!” Krishna’s name, which is nondifferent from Krishna, is also pure spiritual bliss.
You were talking about scary verses. Here is another: “There is no stronger obstruction to one’s self-interest than thinking other subject matters to be more pleasing than one’s self-realization.” (SB 4.22.32)
Devaki Devi Dasi:
From a Sunday feast lecture in Alachua on Bhagavad-gita 13.34 on March 29, 2025:
The Alachua community is famous all over the world. Everyone has at least heard of the glories of Alachua.
Thank God we are not conscious of all bodies. It is challenging enough to be conscious of our own body.
A person who is highly elevated in spiritual consciousness is effulgent.
On a morning walk the devotees overheard two policemen talking about Srila Prabhupada. One was saying to the other, “That man is glowing.”
One man who had kidney failure accepted a kidney transplant from his wife. She loved chocolate, but no one else in the family did. However, after the transplant the man raided his wife’s chocolate stash as he developed a craving for it. They mentioned that to the doctor, who smiled, saying that often happens when they transplant an organ. After a few days, however, the consciousness of the recipient influences the new organ, and his former tastes return.
There was a radio program where I heard of a study done on trees. The consciousness of a tree was expressed in sound. The sound of a peaceful tree and the sound of a tree in anxiety were played. The cause of the tree’s anxiety was that three years ago a person had damaged the tree, and now the same person had returned.
There is a devotee in Germany who built his own house himself over a period of a few years. When you enter that house, you can feel its special energy.
Kirtan is the perfect and sublime love song.
Sacinandana Swami says when we use the kirtan to show off it is like giving people a capsule of poison instead of medicine.
We do not get the full benefit of hearing through the internet as when we hear in person.
I was at an ecstatic kirtan. Someone recorded it and gave the recording to me. When I heard it, I was waiting to experience that same ecstasy I remembered, but it was not there. Then I realized that hearing in person is special.
Gaura Govinda Swami says that still there are two benefits of hearing recorded talks of sadhus: (1) We remember the feeling we had when we were sitting in front of the sadhu. (2) We long for that personal association again.
Comments by me:
You were glorifying the special potency of the speaking of the pure devotee, and that reminded me of this selection from a purport, “Although when a pure devotee speaks the articulation of his voice may resemble the sound of this material sky, the voice is spiritually very powerful because it touches the particles of saffron dust on the lotus feet of the Lord. As soon as a sleeping living entity hears the powerful voice emanating from the mouth of a pure devotee, he immediately remembers his eternal relationship with the Lord, although up until that moment he had forgotten everything.” (SB 4.20.25, purport)
At 26 Second Avenue, I prayed to Srila Prabhupada to be able to chant the same name of Krishna that he brought from India and chanted in that very place back in 1966. My kirtans are not usually very ecstatic, but that one was.
On harinama on a good day I pray to chant the pure name of Krishna so that those who hear get the supreme spiritual benefit.
You mention that Srila Prabhupada wanted that tree in Bombay to be protected. Once in Dallas a tree was damaged by lightning, and devotees were worried that it might fall on one of the buildings so they cut it down. Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami was in charge at the time, and when Srila Prabhupada next visited, Srila Prabhupada criticized him heavily for unnecessarily taking the life of the tree.
Govinda Kaviraja Prabhu:
When people are suffering, and they see it is beyond their control, they pray to God, the person who is in control. That is natural.
There was a time, for a month or so, in the Kyiv temple in Ukraine, when we did not have any outreach programs, but the devotees were very absorbed in the morning and evening programs in the temple. During that time, one club spontaneously called us and invited us to do a program, and we did a fire sacrifice in their club. One of the devotee ladies did an Indian dance. A movie was made of it by some nondevotees, and it was shown on TV in Ukraine. Part of the movie compared the devotee’s dance with the dance of the usual club dancer, the divine and the demoniac side by side, and it was very well done.
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This is one of two verses which I am aware of which mention that devotion to Krishna eternally exists within the heart of every living entity. That is a wonderful concept for me. The love of Krishna is already there. It just has to be awakened. In the beginning, because we are so absorbed with the idea of finding pleasure in materialistic activities, devotion to Krishna may seem artificial, and thus it is reassuring to know that it is something we already have, although in some cases it is very much covered. If we are enthusiastic about the practice, it is only a matter of time before our love of Krishna is uncovered.
krti-sadhya bhavet sadhya-
nitya-siddhasya bhavasya
prakatyam hrdi sadhyata
“When transcendental devotional service, by which love for Krishna is attained, is executed by the senses, it is called sadhana-bhakti, or the regulative discharge of devotional service. Such devotion eternally exists within the heart of every living entity. The awakening of this eternal devotion is the potentiality of devotional service in practice.” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 22.105, which is a quoted from Rupa Goswami’s Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu 1.2.2)
