By Krishna Kripa Das
(Week 10: March 5–11, 2026)
Tallahassee and Alachua
I share quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s Srimad-Bhagavatam and Krishna book, as well as from a lecture and a couple of letters of his. I share quotes from Vraja-mandala Lament and Karttika Moon by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami. I share notes on a class on Lord Jagannatha by Bhadra Prabhu in Alachua, and on Lord Caianya by Mukundlila Prabhu in Tallahassee.
Many thanks to Munkundlila Prabhu for the ride to the Alachua Sunday feast program.
Itinerary
January 12–April 10: harinama and college outreach in Tallahassee and Tampa
– March 14: Daytona Ratha-yatra
– March 15: Deland Bhagavatam class, Orlando harinama and Sunday feast kirtans
– March 16–22: NYC Harinam
– March 21: Bhagavad-gita class at 26 Second Avenue
– March 23–25: harinama at University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa
– March 28: Tallahassee Ratha-yatra
– April 11: St. Augustine Ratha-yatra
Chanting Hare Krishna in Tallahassee
Ananga Mohan Prabhu chants my favorite Hare Krishna tune at ISKCON Tallahassee Saturday program, and I take pleasure in dancing (https://youtu.be/CwvJJRKo6P4):
Mukundlila Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at ISKCON Tallahassee Saturday program (https://youtu.be/N6u5C_125Xg):
Carlos, an independent book distributor who visited for three days, chants Hare Krishna in ISKCON Tallahassee evening kirtan (https://youtu.be/TtpC8-RjUtg):
A 76-year-old women was so happy to hear me playing my harmonium and chanting Hare Krishna at the bus stop that I offered her some shakers and she played for a while. She mentioned some of her challenges in life. Then she said, “God arranges that I meet people who have something to tell me, and to whom I have something to tell.” She has everyone sign her book, and so I wrote the Hare Krishna maha-mantra in it, thanking her for her friendly behavior. She wanted to give me a donation but was out of money. Otherwise I would have given her a book.
I made a big batch of banana halava, the dessert we had on Tuesday for our former Krishna Lunch, and I advertised in on Facebook and Instagram, hoping to get our fans to come by and take prasadam again. It tasted really great.
Chanting Hare Krishna in Alachua
Bhadra Prabhu chants Hare Krishna at ISKCON Alachua Sunday program (https://youtube.com/shorts/2uN-CBR4RF4):
Nadiya Mani Dasi chants Hare Krishna at ISKCON Alachua Snana Yatra (https://youtu.be/lFmzzktpsLE):
Later her kirtan became faster and more lively (https://youtu.be/VGQd80YRi-w):
Srila Prabhupada:
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.15.48:
“Persons who are very expert and most intelligent in understanding things as they are engage in hearing narrations of the auspicious activities and pastimes of the Lord, which are worth chanting and worth hearing. Such persons do not care even for the highest material benediction, namely liberation, to say nothing of other less important benedictions like the material happiness of the heavenly kingdom.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.15.48, purport:
“The transcendental bliss enjoyed by the devotees of the Lord is completely different from the material happiness enjoyed by less intelligent persons.”
“Pure devotees, who take transcendental pleasure in hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord, do not care for any kind of liberation; even if they are offered the five liberations, they refuse to accept them, as stated in the Bhagavatam in the Third Canto.”
“This transcendental stage of life, in which one feels transcendental pleasure in hearing the Lord's pastimes, is also recommended by Lord Caitanya.”
“One should engage himself in hearing from pure devotees about the activities of the Lord. That is considered the supreme benediction for mankind.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.15.49:
“O Lord, we pray that You let us be born in any hellish condition of life, just as long as our hearts and minds are always engaged in the service of Your lotus feet, our words are made beautiful [by speaking of Your activities] just as tulasi leaves are beautified when offered unto Your lotus feet, and as long as our ears are always filled with the chanting of Your transcendental qualities.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.15.49, purport:
“Since they are engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, heaven or hell is the same for them. In material life both heaven and hell are one and the same because they are material; in either place there is no engagement in the Lord's service. Therefore those who are engaged in the service of the Lord see no distinction between heaven and hell; it is only the materialists who prefer one to the other.”
“A devotee is not afraid of going to hell if he has the opportunity to hear the glories of the Lord constantly. This is the advantage of chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. One may be put in any condition, but God gives him the prerogative to chant Hare Krishna. In any condition of life, if one goes on chanting he will never be unhappy.”
From Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.13.2, purport:
“Paramahamsas, devotees who have accepted the essence of life, are attached to Krishna in the core of their hearts, and He is the aim of their lives. It is their nature to talk only of Krishna at every moment, as if such topics were newer and newer. They are attached to such topics, just as materialists are attached to topics of women [or in the case women, men] and sex.”
From Krishna, Chapter 32:
“Lord Caitanya thus said that the devotional service manifested by the gopis in Vrindavan excelled all other methods of approaching the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
From a lecture in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 7, 1971:
“That dharma is surrendering unto Krishna. Sarva-dharman parityajya. Clearly you haven’t got to practice any other kind of religion. If you are actually interested in dharma, then this is the process. "My Lord Krishna I forgot You for so many millions of years and was wandering in different species of life. Now I’ve come to Krishna consciousness I’m just surrendering unto You." This is Krishna consciousness movement. We are taking this simple tool. There is no complication.”
“Mukti doesn't mean something very wonderful. Simply this position as Krishna says: sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja. We should do it immediately. You can get yourself free even within a second, provided you agree. But the difficulty is you do not agree. That is the disease, that is maya. But if we agree, immediately liberation.”
From a letter to Jagadisa Dasa on February 27, 1970:
“When we chant, we must concentrate our mind on the sound vibration and in that way everything will be revealed one after another[:] the form, qualities, pastimes, etc. of the Lord. And this is the way of cultivating spiritual realization.”
From a letter to Sivananda Dasa on December 4, 1968:
“One who cannot remember Krsna, let him always hear Hare Krsna and then when he has perfected this art, then always he will remember Krsna, His Activities, His Qualities, etc.”
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura:
From Amrita-Vani:
“When all anarthas are removed while chanting the holy names, then the form, qualities, and pastimes of the Lord automatically manifest. There is no need to endeavor artificially to remember the Lord’s form, qualities, and pastimes.”
Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami:
From Vraja-mandala Lament:
“Vrnda-devi refused to leave Vrindavan when the Muslims invaded. We can see her on the border of Vraja, if we are willing to travel there.”
“Vraja is a sanctuary, the guru’s words are a sanctuary, sastra is a sanctuary, and all of them are available to us by Prabhupada’s grace.”
“Once Nanda Maharaja and the cowherd men told Krishna that they wanted to go on pilgrimage to the Himalayas. Krishna told them that Kedarnath and Badrinath are already in Vraja, and He took them there. He said the result of visiting these places as they are manifest in Vraja is worth much more than leaving Vraja to visit them in the Himalayas.”
“Krishna wants to know from each of us, ‘So you heard My pastimes and you are walking in My land. What do you think? What do you think of the fact that it is covered? How is your taste for chanting the holy name coming along? Do you still want to stay in the material world?’ Krishna asks us all these questions and we answer by our words, actions, and thoughts at every moment.”
“We tend to wander to places not even connected to Krishna consciousness. Still, we are always tied to the rope of guru’s mercy. Sometimes it seems we are exhibitionists, daredevils. We jump from airplanes with free-fall parachutes no matter how dangerous the leap, and hope that rope of the guru’s mercy will save us at the last moment. What is the use of such acrobatics?”
“In his Lalitastakam, Srila Rupa Gosvami says that if anyone living in Vraja has even the slightest desire to become the maidservant of Srimati Radharani, Lalita will arrange for it. If Lalita orders it, Srimati Radharani will accept it. When we hear of an extraordinary benediction like that, it arouses hope.”
“May the real Vrindavan be manifest before us, just as it was for Lord Brahma when he had exhausted his tricks and Krishna revealed to him who was the real mystic.”
“But we get dragged down. Even if someone doesn’t drag us down, we wander down the steps on our own. We open ourselves up to contamination. Curious to hear what’s new in hell, restless to seek out garbage, eager to make money, looking to see if there is still a drop of pleasure left in remembering former sins, going back to prisons from which we have already escaped, deciding again and again whether to be a devotee or a demon—‘Shall I deliberately drink poison? Shall I just end my life right now? Shall I waste an hour? Shall I consider the world without God in control? Consider the world as all there is and the body my all-in-all?”—in this way we play on the brink of our precious but fragile human existence.”
“Even an unselfish religionist will wonder what it means to be concerned about God’s welfare. He’s the Supreme. He has nothing to worry about. But Nanda Maharaja is in the mood of the Lord’s parent. He goes beyond Bhagavan realization. He and Mother Yasoda are always worrying why Krishna looks thin, and they try to make Him tastier meals so that He will eat His fill.”
“Some do kirtana with karatalas. Some do kirtana with a pen. Some serve with their money. All who serve must labor. Get past the uphill rocks and trains and people you don’t care to see. Get past the systems and the controversies, the imagined and real fears. Get past your dullness and stupidity. This body is a lump of ignorance, so why did I choose to be born in one? It doesn’t matter if we’re rich or poor, whether we have good or bad karma—any karma will drag us into another womb.”
“As Srila Prabhupada states, the main point is to practice. It is not enough to see a film or dance depicting Krishna’s life; we need to practice devotional service, seeing Krishna in nine main ways (or five main ways, or three, or even one), all under the spiritual master’s direction. When you learn to always practice, then wherever you are becomes Vrindavan.”
“It is not meant to be broadcast like the Bhagavad-gita, but Prabhupada still wanted KRISHNA book widely distributed. He said, ‘Every home should have a KRISHNA book.’”
“We have also come to Ter-kadamba. There is an old tree, the kadamba under which Rupa Gosvami sat and wrote. When he wrote in the mood of Radha’s separation from Krishna, the leaves of the tree would fall off like running tears. When he wrote of the joy in Radha’s reunion with Krishna, the kadamba tree sprouted new leaves and flowers.”
“The mercy of Vrindavan is even greater than my inability to remember it.”
“The cows wandered off in search of grass, and when the boys noticed, they ran off in search of them without telling Krishna where they were going. They became lost in the thick forest. Vyomasura took the opportunity to start a fire in the dry forest. The flames blew wildly around them as the demon blew upon them. Soon the fire surrounded all the boys and calves. They called out to Krishna, “Please save us!” Krishna came and saved them by swallowing up the forest fire.
“The acaryas have commented that this pastime has a symbolic meaning which is especially applicable to conditioned souls, including those striving to perfect themselves in Krishna consciousness. The jivas are like the cows. The grasses are the sense objects. We are enticed from our constitutional nature of serving Krishna and lured by our tendency to enjoy the senses without Him. Thus birth after birth, we go through samsara-davanala, the blazing fire of material existence. But Krishna is in our hearts and does not forget us. After wandering throughout the universe for many lives and in many species, a fortunate soul contacts a Vaishnava guru and receives Krishna’s mercy (guru-krishna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija).
“In the case of nondevotees, this symbolism is obvious. They are hopelessly trapped in the fire. Rarely do they take advantage of approaching a pure devotee preaching oh behalf of Lord Caitanya. Thus the ignorant and suffering jivas have to perish in the forest fire of karma, only to be reborn again.
“The case of practicing devotees is different, but we may also continue to wander away from Krishna, enticed by the grasses of prestige and other anarthas. To such a devotee, Krishna gives His mercy in the form of reverses or distress. The devotee suffers in the flames of the forest fire, but that suffering reminds him of Krishna. By the blessings and instructions of his spiritual master, he turns to Krishna again. When he sincerely calls out to guru and Krishna, Krishna rescues him, just as He rescued the boys in the forest fire of Vrindavan.”
“Bhandiravana and Bhandira-vata: Radha and Krishna got married here in a tremendous ceremony attended by the chief demigods. This occurred when They were only four years old. They transformed Themselves into fourteen-year-olds in order to get married. As soon as the splendid wedding ceremony was over, it vanished without a trace, and Krishna and Radha returned to Their childhood forms. Taking each other by the hand, they continued on Their way to Vrsabhanu’s palace. This pastime is described by Jayadeva Gosvami and also in the Brahma-vaivarta Purana.”
“When Krishna left for Mathura, He personally promised Sridama He would return to Vraja. Sridama said he would wait for Krishna at Vamsi-vata. “If You don’t return, then I will die here.” Krishna promised to return the day after tomorrow, or the day after that. Sridama waited. He waited for years, but Krishna did not return. There is a murti of Sridama in a temple here. He is bigger than Krishna, and he is still waiting.
“Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited Vamsi-vata. When He arrived, He embraced Sridama’s murti and cried, ‘Sridama! I have come back.’”
“Vrindavan offers a carefree life far from the violence and sexual vibration of the West. It helps our chanting, hearing, and remembrance of Krishna, the key services in bhakti-yoga. From Vrindavan we can contribute to ISKCON’s preaching, either directly or indirectly. We can learn Vaisnava culture. We can develop taste.”
From Karttika Moon:
“This is Mayapura where
you can’t commit offenses.
Everything you do is blessed.
The Two Brothers reign.
They bring you to gopi-bhava.”
“Prabhupada said, ‘Death is not
wonderful. Life is wonderful. And
this is life, Krishna consciousness.’”
“O Navadvipa—
I heard one can’t commit the offense
of overeating here and if you sleep
it’s as good as making personal obeisances.”
“I’m sheltered in ISKCON and
the duties my master gives me.”
“They say one full day in Navadvipa is
worth a million anywhere else.
Well okay, I chalked it up.”
“God, you do exist.
The world is full of doubt.
But Prabhupada is not in
the slightest, and I am his sisya
walking with him in Hyderabad in ’74
when he said the world is full
of doubt but following him
I swallow it.”
“Death ain’t so bad if you
see it in the right perspective.
As O’Neill wrote wittily for
his gravestone, ‘There’s
something to be said
for being dead.’”
“Last conversations of Thérèse of Lisieux. One of her hands holds the other. She says, ‘I want to go to God and pray. I want Him to be happy, want to uh…Bless all souls to love Him as I do!’ Such an ecstatic girl even in suffering. But Srila Prabhupada in Hyderabad said the Bible has only a little love of God, a little info. Some saints took it a long way.
“You fall for it
think yourself special,
and you’ll come back next life
to take a position of power.”
“Srila Prabhupada praised English, said Hindi is for fanatics.
English for world-wide preaching,”
“I am facing Lord Nrsimha.
I ask Him now to …
drive out bad thoughts
from my heart.”
“Prabhupada talks about in his lectures, how in Mayapura during the night these creatures are born and live and die in one night and how in the morning you see heaps and heaps of bodies. Sometimes when I heard the lecture, I felt perhaps he was exaggerating when he said that there were thousands and thousands of bugs and heaps and heaps of bodies in the morning and that you could sweep them away. But now I see it’s true. Why don’t I take Prabhupada literally true on face value all the time? Just a matter of time before you find out that what he says is true.”
“Dr. Radhakrishnan asked our
Swami, ‘Why don’t you write in
Hindi?’ He replied, ‘What language
do you write in?’ The doctor laughed.”
“It’s almost a cliché to say that Mayapura isn’t as intense as Vrindavan.”
“A devotee here gave me this verse printed on a card like a place mark, ‘I praise Sri Mayapura, where a dabbler who walks down many paths at once, a fool, one who has rejected proper religious duty, an independent person who will not follow the rules of the scriptures, a person who has not the slightest scent of the touch of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and those who live here only out of lust and greed, all attain the Supreme destination’ (Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati, Sri Navadvipa-sataka, text 39).”
“Lord Caitanya’s everywhere, and it’s up
to us to see Him in the dhama.”
“O Ugra Lion-Man,
Your black body, Your
stance of ready-to-fight,
massive black head
plainly silver teeth and
10 arms and hands I can
almost see them all—
be real for me,
I don’t fear You because
You are our protector against
evil. Therefore, I ask You
please come alive—and
tear out from the roots
my anarthas.”
“Srila Prabhupada followed his guru, life and soul yet made his own way to America, innovated, etc.”
“But at least we’re talking of reading his
books as bliss and I can back it up with
daily experience—I’ll get back inside that
maybe only when these folks leave and I go
alone somewhere to woodshed it, be alone
with those blessed books and read prayerfully
2½ hours daily—please let me enter
and believe
that they are not for beginners only.
They are for me and give love of Krishna
to whomever carefully reads. I wish to
act on what he teaches.”
“Also! I am taking back my original Prabhupada murti. He’s here in these rooms, and I intend to massage and bathe him. M. will have a box made for carrying him. He’s heavy. I won’t be able to carry my new typewriter. It’s either-or—either Prabhupada or the typewriter. So, I’ve decided I need the murti, want to be with him.”
“I can occupy myself splendidly if people would just leave me alone.”
“Hari, please attract me
To Your names
Krishna, please pull my mind to You.”
“But you have seen Lord Nrsimha
and can call His names,
please protect me from demons,
please kill my own demons
in the heart.
You have seen the picture of
the kirtana of Gauranga,
you have stood on this ground
and missed most of it, but
a little.
A little. A day here is worth
millions somewhere else says
Navadvipa-mahatmya.
West with stars in eyes
and plan. He’ll be a
Prabhupada Gauraṅga man.”
“My hand wants
to chant and write
Lord, as You will,
we operate
as You allow and as You desire
You favor someone.”
“Whatever you told me to do I would try to execute, although I was never able to walk through fire like some of your men. Please continue to engage me in your service in ISKCON. I do have a place at your lotus feet. I pray for strength to carry out the tasks entrusted to me by you, especially in regard to maintaining disciples, so that they are rightly connected to you as their savior, the founder-acarya of ISKCON.”
“You know my weakness and inability. Still you maintain me. You once said I do whatever you say (although I wasn’t a good manager). I want to live up to that statement.”
“I am pinning all hope on attaining a surrendered state by reading your books and encouraging devotees in chanting and hearing.”
“Chanting the names of Jesus, they say, stopped the Lisbon plague of 1432. What if it didn’t? Why pray to be saved? It’s natural. But Srila Prabhupada doesn’t advise that. If Krishna wants you to die, don’t pray to Him to save you. Pray to remember Him as you die. Do we like to hear of the power of prayer? But what is that power? That He may give me the nectar of harinama? Or allow me to live without the nectar (like a cactus that goes so long on a drop of water)? But let me chant and remember Him and serve His devotees.”
“I am not Srila Prabhupada, that by running here and there I hold ISKCON together.”
“Spirit goes on to a next body. Where you go is real self-interest, more than what you leave in this world. But what you do leave is also important, as a contribution. You should do something worthy.”
“So, for me too, guru-seva is the essence. I seek it in reading and writing. Associate with devotees. I don’t see ISKCON as fit to abandon.”
“It was candles, skinny little birthday candles, that Srila Prabhupada gave us in the autumn of 1966. It was a surprise. I remember going to his room in the evening as usual one night a little ceremony was in progress. On Prabhupada’s low table, which was his altar in his worship room, he had us place and burn candles. He directed each of us to go up and set the candle on the tabletop, which we did by first burning a little wax until some drops fell and then fixing the candle onto the table.
“When we asked Swamiji what it was for, he replied, ‘To increase your devotion.’ On later did I figure out that this was our observance of the evening ceremony of Karttika lamps which goes on for the whole Damodara month. This is observed in the temples in Vrindavan and done in a very grand fashion at ISKCON’s Krishna-Balaram Mandir. But for me, nothing will ever be as sweet as lighting those first birthday candles on Swamiji’s tabletop in October-November, 1966. After we would light our candles, we would sit around and watch them burn down. We would joke quietly to one another, saying that the candle represented our soul and we would we see whose soul went out first. Sometimes it was a close race down to the very bottom of the candle— ‘There goes mine!’—and we would laugh as a puff of smoke went up in the air.
“I want to write this book in that mood, of watching our souls burn down, day by day, mine and yours too. I’ll try to increase my devotion during the day, light the candle at night, and watch them go down, day by day through Karttika. Each day is a candle which" starts off with a fresh wick and full length and gradually burns down and goes out. And the next morning we light another. My supply of candles (days) is not unlimited. But I hope to last at least through Karttika, and even that will slip by day by day. So, this book is also on the theme of tempus fugit, ‘time flies.’”
Bhadra Prabhu:
Lord Caitanya is in the mood of Radharani and when He sees Lord Jagannatha, He sees Him as Shyamasundara and wants to embrace Him.
For the Vrajavasis, Krishna is not supreme. He is a friend, son, or lover.
Mukundlila Prabhu:
Because eclipses are thought to be inauspicious even people who do not usually chant the name of Hari will chant the holy name to counteract the inauspiciousness.
Because of Maya, even if we approach the Lord we ask for things that keep us bound up in this material world.
Sankara promoted Advaita-vada so vigorously, Madhavacarya preached Dvaita-vada to counteract it. Lord Caitanya preached acintya-bheda-abheda, uniting the different philosophies.
Lord Caitanya does not only give the holy name, but He pleads that people take it.
It is important we maintain faith in the holy name despite the distractions of the mind because in this age there is no other recommendation for achieving spiritual success other than the holy name.
Lord Caitanya demonstrated that the holy name is not just a spiritual practice that we give up when we achieve perfection, but rather Lord Caitanya experienced the highest ecstasy through the chanting of the holy name.
Sadhana can take us to the stage of bhava. To get prema requires mercy.
In Chapter 12 of Bhagavad-gita Krishna gives so many different practices of devotional service, but Lord Caitanya simply stresses the holy name.
Bhakti is like an exclusive club, where in order to join, you have to be recommended by someone already in the club.
Srila Prabhupada has packaged Lord Caitanya’s mercy just for us.
In the course of our practice we get glimpses of the spiritual world.
Lord Nrsimha came just to protect His devotee. He did not have any childhood pastimes.
If we have doubts that we are in the bhava stage, we are not in the bhava stage.
Lord Caitanya has given us clarity that Krishna-prema is the goal.
As the school system gives the students tests that they can actually pass, so does Krishna.
-----
Devotees distribute Krishna consciousness in all kinds of situations. Why? That is the mood of the Pañca-tattva.
patrapatra-vicara nahi, nahi sthanasthana
“In distributing love of Godhead, Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates did not consider who was a fit candidate and who was not, nor where such distribution should or should not take place. They made no conditions. Wherever they got the opportunity, the members of the Pañca-tattva distributed love of Godhead.” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi 7.23)
May you be successful in following in their footsteps.
