Dear devotees,
All my love from Germany Yatra .
Back to Their Lordships Gaura Gandharvika Sundaram. It's nice to get to a temple and see the effort devotees put into serving. Maintain an atmosphere of loving and dedicated service. How difficult in these times and in this era! But it is possible by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada. He was and is who encourages our enthusiasm. And sometimes drawbacks arrive but they are little compared to the amount of mercy that we receive.
You have to understand the essence to capture the spiritual beauty in everything. For example when a Arati is done you can express your joy of singing and exist for Krishna with your body, voice, and smile. The joy in this world is artificial, difficulty is joy, rather it is a confirmation that what you are searching for is joy.You can find joy in Krishna consciousness.
If you still have not experienced happiness in devotional activity it is because you have not devoted sufficient effort to deserve it. It's in the way of your efforts. There are people who work hard for their enjoyment without Krishna. The devotee strives in the same manner but more so for the enjoyment of Krishna. If you see such dedication from anyone to achieve something in this world, that is thanks to Krishna who also gives you the ability and intelligence to do it. Imagine, what Krishna could not give to His devotee? In the Bhagavad Gita (9.22) the Lord says:
ananyāś cintayanto māṁ
ye janāḥ paryupāsate
teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ
yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham
" But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form, to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have. "
- Srila Prabhupada says in the purport :
One who is unable to live for a moment without Krsna Consciousness cannot but think of Krsna twenty-four hours, being engaged in devotional service by hearing, chanting, remembering, offering prayers, worshiping, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, rendering other services, cultivating friendship and surrendering fully to the Lord. Such activities are all auspicious and full of spiritual potencies; indeed, they make the devotee perfect in self-realization. Then his only desire is to achieve the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is called yoga. By the mercy of the Lord, such a devotee never comes back to this material condition of life.Ksema refers to the merciful protection of the Lord. The Lord helps the devotee to achieve Krsna consciousness by yoga, and when he becomes fully Krsna conscious the Lord protects him from falling down to a miserable conditioned life.
By the mercy of the Lord, such a devotee never comes back to this material condition of life. The word ksema refers to the merciful protection of the Lord. The Lord helps the devotee to acquire Krishna consciousness through yoga, and when the devotee becomes fully Krsna conscious the Lord protects him from falling into a bleak conditioned life.
Srila Prabhupada ki jay, Srila Prabhupada explained that devotees could chant Hare Krishna and distribute transcendental books, and Krishna would take care of the rest. No one is more valuable in this world than one who knows the transcendental science and helps others. His work is more important than a doctor, engineer or judge. Smart people who understand this are inspired by Krishna in the heart to support the preaching of the transcendental science and so, they also benefit greatly.
Devotees are not very interested in accumulating material things, but the little that they need is always enough.
The devotee wants to accumulate nectar. A kirtan is a nectar. If you are very lucky your kirtan can be led by Gurudeva Atulananda, kirtan does not end there, it is a kirtan until you become unconscious. Gurudeva's Kirtan jumping is revolutionary and that is that he has more than 60 years, and how he jumped at 20, I do not know how. And at 60 he still makes such a revolutionary jump, leaving the youth on a mental plane.
Sada kirtaniyah harih uaauuu ! And at the end of the kirtan you do Prema- Dhvani to remember all the sacred places and important people in your life. Wow. All of this is amazing and gives much joy to the heart. Remembering all the great teachers who fought to build a large family. Meditate on pure devotees. Pray from the heart, "when will be the day that I can do something valuable for them?"
I know different styles of Prema- Dhvani, for instance when Srila BB Bodhayan Maharaj recites Prema Dhvani takes a tour of all the holy sites of Puri Dham, Mayapur Dham, and Vrindavan Dham, he does not even miss a corner.
Another very special one are those of Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaj, who is now in his Samadhi in meditation. We all pray every day for your health: Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaj, God willing stay with us. Stay or go, what Krishna wants, now he is silent, bur when he spoke Prema- Dhvani was very slow, deep, lasted like 5 times longer than any other, straight out of his heart.
After all, what is the life of a devotee? Remembering Krishna, remembering devotees.
I'm always in a hurry, I do Prema- Dhvani very fast, they are different points of view, we are the group of administrators, we are always in a hurry. Come on , let's Sankirtan!
In India there are people who take half an hour to put on Tilak, I have at most 30 seconds.
In India, they put on tilaka with a mirror, it's very nice, it's a whole meditation. Krishna consciousness is a process of details. All is in the details, and perfection is when your details are perfected. Then the modalities that exist in devotional service are also realizations. Then there are different situations according to time, place and circumstance. Preaching and living in India is totally different than preaching and living in the West, truly a difference of day and night. The two situations are good, they are just totally different. You have to understand that in the spiritual life we must have the flexibility to understand individual differences. If you think that everything has to be as you like it, no, it's not like that at all. Everything that has to do with Sri Krishna is special. When we meditate on the essence everything is special.
Another example is when we offer our obeisances to the devotees. In the morning, after the program, after reciting their mantras, 20 people offer obeisances to you. That does not happen at work, in college, or in the government. Nobody ever gives you respect and obeisances. Devotees revere one another because they are a devotee of the Lord and are full of compassion for the fallen souls and they can satisfy the desires of all living entities, therefore people want to offer their obeisances.
Nobody says Vanca kalpatarubhyas ca with a superficial intention or as an automatic thing. No, it is like this: Prabhus, Please accept my most humble obeisances and let me offer my obeisances to your lotus feet. Out of the depths of my heart directly up to the spiritual world.
So the next step is conference day, now comes the majority of the day. Starting with Dhruva Maharaj: Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya . Go play your games! No? Narada muni proposed to Dhruva, go play! And Dhruva said, if you want I will give you my toys, I'm looking for God, if you want to help, then help, but if not then leave me alone, I'm looking for God, a very important job. Narada Muni was surprised by the detachment of the child, who wanted to give up his toys.
So that is how we begin the class of Srimad Bhagavatam: Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya and then there is the message. The message of the Bhagavatam is always strong.
It's amazing how a person could write 18000 strong verses! It is a very special talent, and not only that, each of the lines is strong, full of hope, of information of the spiritual world, the identity of the Jiva. Amazing! I'm reading for more than 45 years and I am still amazed. So then ends the class, and here comes the worst austerity, now we have to recite a mantra called sarira avidya - jal. Even those who are the most lazy come out of their little holes, and they join enthusiastically to honor this yajna. Everyone, brightly eyed, sing. They are the Prasada fans! There they are queuing. So, Krishna grabs us from the front, from behind. If we like the life of a monk or if we like married life then He grabs us but He grabs us from somewhere, we can not escape it! And one of the nicest things about Prasada is that we get to speak with the devotees. And after that, your responsibility, your Dharma and the Dharmas of all devotees are wonderful, including cleaning the bathroom . If you have the proper vision, cleaning the bathroom of the Vaisnavas, you have a very great privilege, if you have the vision, if you understand these things as they are.
Then life of the devotee is full of everyday joys, challenges. To go out preaching one has to be strengthened to deliver His message with much vehemence. If I do not speak well and everyone falls asleep in the classroom, what frustration! It must be delivered with a good vocabulary, beginning with a conducting thread from the beginning to the end of the conference, all mental configuration.
The joy of spiritual life has no limits, it's amazing. But the most beautiful thing is to see the lotus faces of the devotees when they smile, of course! Sometimes they have long faces, but it's not that normal. The devotee is normally very open, smilingly saying: welcome to my heart. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura said, "The mission of my life is to build a temple in everyone's heart."
A temple! Just imagine that, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Takura came to build a temple in your heart, please smile! Because if you smile the temple is open , but smiles the temple is closed.
My guru built a temple in my heart but I make sure that it does not remain closed. Therefore, devotees have to always carry Prasada because in a temple there is always prasada. Imagine, you go to the temple and someone says to you, " Prabhu, today and tomorrow there will be no prasada, they are doing yogic austerities for 10 days and are only serving prana, sit in the temple, take a deep breath to get your dose of prana. . . " I do not know how many would put up with that for a week or so, after 3 days they will say, 'I 'm going on to another mission, this one performs too many austerities .
Everything is controlled by the Supreme Lord . Everything, absolutely everything . The Lord is great. The gift he gave to all of you, to me, is a thing of another world, the world of love. Because temples are the world of love and the devotees living in the temples are full of love. So, on with the love! Prabhupada 's love , the love of Krishna ki jay! , His temple ki jay, Vrinda Sannyasis ki jay, All sannyasis ki jay, All grihastas ki jay. All brahmacaris ki jay, All vishnupriyas ki jay. The Editorial Seva ki jay . All projects to serve the world ki jay. Everything the devotees do to promote awareness ki jay.
By the way, do you use what the devotees produce? This is an important question to ask every day. Are we supporting the efforts of the devotees? Are we consuming their products? Are we in solidarity with our brothers?
It is a commitment to promote the products that the devotees make. This does not take us out of our thread today. Quite the contrary. The essence is to promote all that gives joy and all everything the devotees do is with that ideal. Joy, increase joy. We are glad that SEVA printed a new book out, now we have to distribute it. We are glad that the temple produces prasadam bread, we have to take it to all places. If devotees make soaps like Spoon in Colombia or Brazil or in Antofa mother kunja and the many products out there, please support them. It is our family who makes them. Solidarity among devotees is always important. Your main task is to find joy in Krishna consciousness and give it to others.
You have to let me help you find a situation where you will want to fight to the end of your days. It is a responsibility of the spiritual master to occupy his children in a service where they can be very satisfied.
Maya? Very tricky, right? Maya sets up so many silly traps. It's easy for people to fall into the traps of maya, then we have to fight hard in union. The spiritual master is responsible to engage everyone in Krishna's service, it is important that you have a service which you can work on from morning to night, and hardly stop to eat because you identify yourself so much with that service.
Then do not lose your focus. The essence is to give what you get. And the more details in spiritual life you have the more joy you will have, then you have more to deliver. And that's sankirtan, solidarity. I do not want anything less for you and your soul either. And the souls in this world they do not want anything less.
This is my message for today . I wish much success to your heart and joy in Krishna Consciousness.
Srila Prabhupada ki jay .
Your always well wisher,
B. A. Swami Paramadvaiti .