Today the grand mercy of our Lord manifests. 8/17/14.Varsana.

My dear devotees,
Accept all my affection today.

Today is a very special day, when the great mercy of our Lord manifests.It is the day of the appearance of God in His personal form on Earth. It is thanks to the spiritual master that we can approach all this wonderful knowledge of Krishna and His pastimes. We are so fortunate that we not only celebrate the appearance of God on Earth, how Nanda Maharaj made ​​a great festival to share the joy of the arrival of his child Krishna, a day after we also remember the beautiful arrival of the great savior of the fallen souls into the world: Our Srila Prabhupada. It is a double celebration of happiness that fills each of our days. Thanks to Srila Prabhupada we know about Sri Krishna. And thanks to the devotees we can be at the Feet of Srila Prabhupada.

The simplicity of the devotees is something admirable. Vaishnavas are free of the desire for recognition. They only seek to serve unconditionally. Devotees do not demand respect for themselves. However they do for their guru, for their Lord. The most important thing is the attitude that reflects the following: without the guidance of my spiritual master and the Vaishnavas I can not do anything as well as thinking, thanks to the support of the Vaishnavas I can do some service to God.

One can understand that only by Krishna's mercy can you do some service. Well, ultimately we are instruments, nothing more. How best to serve, how to become instruments of love of the Lord, those are the questions we must ask ourselves every day: What does being an instrument of Krishna in practical life mean? How can I do it?

Srila Prabhupada exemplified this with his own life:
He went to America penniless, with two baskets full of books talking about the glories of his spiritual master and so all of Krishna's mercy went with him.

Srila Prabhupada never wanted to be famous, he did not find the movement "Bhaktivedanta Swami". Many yogis who came to the West formed their own movements, where the guru was the center. Of course, that comes from the pollution of advaita - vada which says that we are all God. That's a big mistake to think that we are God. Just think a little bit about our disqualifications and we quickly realize that we have no chance of being God. However, if you take refuge in God and you ask for His divine protection, many of His qualities begin to soak into your own personality. Luckily!. That is the special gift that God gives us, that permeates us with His mercy. Only those who fail to understand that they still think they are God. It's like saying, "My mother is amazing, therefore I am my own mother." Well, not your mother would say about it :)

If one says to God: "I am God himself" it is a great insult, however, if you say, I'm part of the family of God then that is a great blessing. And if I am part of the divine family of God, then all others are also part of it. That's what I want everyone to understand. Being part of the eternal family of God means that we can not mistreat anyone who is part of that family, including animals and plants. I am very happy to be part of this eternal family and be with each one of you.

Today we will be celebrating the initiations of new members of the family and sharing with all devotees who have come so far. All my love to you on this day. Jay Srila Prabhupada!

Your always well wisher,
B. A. Paramadvaiti Swami

Sri Balarama Purnima 8/10/2014. From Bulgaria.

These two are one and the same identity. They differ only in form. Lord Balarama is the first bodily expansion of Krishna, and He assists in Lord Krishna's transcendental pastimes. (CC Adi 5.5.)

My dear devotees,

Please receive all my affection on this day of Sri Balaram Purnima. Today we are celebrating it in Bulgaria and then I will be traveling to Venezuela and Colombia, and stopping by Frankfurt to meet with Purushottama Prabhu and celebrate together.

  This Balaram Purnima day is pretty significant to me. I took sannyas three times in my life, the first time was in a dream I had with Srila Prabhupada, where he gave me the renounced order. The second time was on the day of Sri Balaram Purnima, when in 1978 I received the sannyas order of my spiritual brothers who were in charge of the mission of Srila Prabhupada in Brazil. Then in 1984, I had the opportunity to hear the beautiful sannyas mantra from the lotus lips of Srila Sridhar Maharaj and with this I had the fortune to receive the traditional order of sannyasa in the line of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur Prabhupada.

On this day, I pray for the protection of Sri Balaramji and I ask Him to give me permission to renew this contract of the heart. This is a great responsibility to represent Srimati Radharani, Sri Balaramji, Sri Nityananda Prabhu, my spiritual masters and all the Guru - parampara and the great spiritual family. To serve as a sannyasi is not the most important, but serving with love is. Anyways, the sannyasi ashram is so beautiful. It translates into the constant sacrifice of personal privacy to be always open to the needs of those who are seeking God.

The sannyasi ashram is quite severe, because with discipline you get the chance to serve. The sannyasi ashram is the gift of Srila Prabhupada to develop more dedicated service. People like sannyasis because they feel they can rely on them. It is really difficult to count on any person in this world, but someone who is trying to follow in the footsteps of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and constantly preaching, builds trust. It is a great fortune to have contact with those who are trying to establish places where you can practice spiritual life. Srila Prabhupada gave us this fortune to us, it is difficult to measure.

Today we can see that there are thousands of places that keep the doors open for the thirsty souls of truth so they can come and practice Krishna Consciousness. Therefore I am very grateful to the Vrinda family, especially the sannyasis and maharanis who have given much of their energy and love into the wonderful projects offered to the Lotus Feet of Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada used to quote the slogan of the Indian Railway System which was "The wheels have to keep moving".We can say that "The doors of the temples and the hearts of the devotees must remain open forever", because closed doors means there is no refuge for the souls who seek it.

On this day, 30 years after the origin of this beautiful spiritual Vrinda family and 36 years after I entered this ashram, I express my deepest appreciation for every day that I have received, for each person with whom I have had the opportunity to associate with and I pray for this to continue for the rest of my days in the spirit of fortunate and humble sankirtan devotees. When I first got to know the mission of Srila Prabhupada, I immediately went out to the streets of Europe to preach, there were many hard years. So, as a beggar of love, our sankirtan was begging people to acquire the books of Srila Prabhupada.

I pray to my spiritual master to let me keep doing it for the rest of my life. In my time of sankirtan I only worried about visiting different places to be able to offer the books of Srila Prabhupada to others. But at some point I began to emerge intense feelings of concern for the temples and devotees. I myself was surprised by these feelings. A few days after that, I was sent to Denmark to take over the temple there.
Everything Sri Krsna does is perfect. Our desire is that everyone really can know about Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and (hopefully) you can join this movement, because this union creates a wonderful fraternity where service becomes a real pleasure. Service to the devotees and their association bring us entirely closer to the Lotus Feet of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Dancing in the kirtan with devotees is the introduction to the rasa dance with Krishna in His transcendental abode. But for this we need the protection and mercy of Sri Nityananda Prabhu, the force that gives us Sri Balaram and the constant association with Vaishnavas so we can continue to dance well together eternally in sankirtan with Gurudeva Atulananda with Harijan Maharaja and all of you. The Sankirtan Movement is completely mystical and the constant inspiration of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the centerpiece. He is Srimati Radharani's appearance in a very hidden manner that is full of complete mercy.

My dears, on this day of Sri Balaram Purnima I wish you all that, independent of your capabilities and limitations, to always remain steadfast and constantly keep your faith and positive attitudes towards all. I also pray especially on this day to Srila BB Tirtha Maharaj, one of the star sannyasis that is a part of our Guru - parampara who is always showing us to follow the path of devotion to the last moment of our lives. Only by the mercy of the Vaishnavas those things are possible. And of course, what would the reason be to dance here if there were no eternal dance waiting for us in the spirit world? There is, and there we will go someday if the Vaishnavas are merciful to us. The whole universe is dancing and it is inviting us to dance with Krishna eternally.

That's the secret invitation of Sri Vrindavan that has become visible in Navadvip by the Grace of Sri Caitanya. And it will be expanded worldwide by the grace of Srila Prabhupada and all of you. For all of you, whether grihastas, children, brahmacaris, sannyasis, you are all representatives of Srila Prabhupada fulfilling their momentous duties. You are all representatives of this transcendental dance.

Again once more I pray to Sri Balarama so that all of you stay spiritually healthy and happy and that by His grace itself, we can stay under the shelter of the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada.
Jay Sri Balarama!
Jay Sri Nityananda Prabhu!

Your always well wisher,

B. A. Paramadvaiti Swami

Connection to true happiness. Hungary. 08/03/2014

Conference.

My dear devotees. Receive all my affection from Hungary. At this time we are traveling to Bulgaria.

These past days have been very nice  making plans for the family of Srila Prabhupada in Europe.We had istagosthis, seminars of Faith education, conscious art, sacred baths in the river. We shared very special moments with all the devotees.

Today I want to share a few words about the connection to true happiness. Eternal happiness and not the apparent satisfaction of the senses. First of all, I offer my most humble obeisances to my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, who rescued me from the greatest ignorance. I'm completely indebted to him for eternity, since before I met him I had no idea who I was and did not understand why I'm here. My spiritual teacher found me when I was in dark and terrible ignorance, surrounded by a meaningless world without values​​, and on the edge of being completely influenced by it. At that time he opened my blinded eyes with the torchlight of spiritual knowledge and saved me.

My spiritual teacher told me that life is full of spiritual beauty and consciousness of God is a divine gift that descends as the causeless mercy of the Supreme Lord Himself.

Before I met my spiritual master I was just lost in the pleasure of my senses. Sensory desires are the reason why we get caught again and again in the material world. There is no limit to those desires. One serves them constantly, yet they never show any mercy towards us. But thanks to Gurudeva awakening spiritual intelligence in each of us we can begin to reject and fight to abandon them. For that, I take refuge in the lotus feet of my spiritual master, who removes all fear of the heart. So I ask you all again and again to occupy me in his personal service and save me. Sensual desires are like a fire that is burning inside. A fire that never ends, because one will think that satisfying a desire, even a little bit, then it will calm down, but on the contrary, when you try to satisfy your lustful desires it is like adding fuel to the fire. So the flame grows and consumes all that you have around you.

Vaishnavas insist that sexual activity is very powerful, so powerful that it can generate life. It is the energy that brought us to this world. It is not something to underestimate. Life is not an accident, it is a manifestation of the Divine. Then if such a sacred activity is used just to please grossly lustful desires, then your own energy of being a conscious human being is completely undermined. If you are sexually active or you occupy yourself by fulfilling lusty desires without the intention of creating new life, then your power is cut, just like when you use drugs and your energy decreases.

Devotees teach that there is a world of happiness without exploitation. A world of fun and pleasure without spiritual harm, or exploitation of others, or without considering that others are objects of my selfish enjoyment. Vaishnavas have fun without excess, no frills nor do they need large sums of money to be happy. Devotees have fun singing and dancing for God. Fun with a simple life, with elevated feelings that helps one to explore more and more. There is no need of having contact with illicit enjoyment for entertainment. Ultimately that's more a problem than a pleasure.

The real sense of fun and joy, happiness, can be perceived when one gives love and establishes heart to heart relationships. But that's not easy to find in the material world. Here you only find people looking to meet their selfish needs.Real fun and happiness is what a mother feels for her son, who has so much love that she is filled with joy.So the key is to put our energy into making others happy, respect and appreciate them as part of a universal family, a family united under the protection of God.We have many tools to do this; You have your hands, that are amazing tools that can be used successfully for others through painting, dancing, writing, tending a garden, cleaning, playing music, cooking, taking care of your children ... So many wonderful things that can be made ​​by us ... you only need to be focused in the right way.

Appreciating the wonderful tools that God gave us helps us to always remember that this body is a temple where Paramatma Himself resides. Therefore we should be very grateful. I thank my Lord for allowing me to serve with the instruments of this body which is His Temple.

This human body is the most sophisticated thing we've ever seen. Even the most renowned scientists have not managed to create something like that ... because it is a registered trademark of the Supreme.
We think of everything wonderful that we have and what we can realize through our spiritual master, then it becomes amazing to see people lose their connection very quickly to true happiness.

In today's world people think that happiness is about sex and drugs, in power and money. People do not know the meaning of true relationships of the heart. They just think about relationships based on sex, contaminated by lusty desires. They do not know what it means to bring a life through responsible sex life. A life that will be educated on values ​​and spiritual awareness as an offering to Krishna.

People today do not know what it means to cook, sing or serve those around us. The contamination of the material world lead us to lose honesty. And develop apathy through being honest. And then we get honesty in a world of lies, betrayal, temptations, competition, disease of loneliness ... "of no importance" That is to say, I do not care: I do not care about the impact I have on others, I do not care if I do harm to nature or not, I do not care if others suffer with my actions or not, I do not if what I eat a result of violence or not ... I just care about pleasing my own lustful desires that plunge me deeper and deeper into ignorance.

The materialistic mind is always suggesting that we are the center of everything and that we should take the best part.It puts hundreds of problems in our way, but no matter what,  the focus is to just please the senses. That helps us to assess at what level we really are. As always the trend is to be the enjoyer, the controller and the proprietor. But we should be clear (and if you do not understand it by the good, karma will help us to understand anyway). We do not control anything. We do not even control our bowel movements :)
It is only by the grace of the spiritual master we can remember we are not the controllers.

The spiritual master gives us to the devotees, who stay around us like a protective barrier against Maya and who are always reminding us what is the right thing to do or proper way to behave. And because they are merciful, if we do wrong, they again accept and support us. The spiritual master gives us appreciation for people. Where there is appreciation there can be no exploitation. Where others are considered part of the same universal family then selfish desires of exploitation can not enter.

Lust is selfish. Love gives everything. Where there is appreciation there can be no exploitation, that means not only appreciation for people, but for what we have received. I thank you again and again to my spiritual master to constantly save me from my lustful desires and for allowing me to use all my energy in service to his beloved devotees.

With these words I end today's message. Thanks to all who read this Chat every week, it's my chance to stay in touch with all of you.

Your always well wisher,

B. A. Paramadvaiti Swami