A Life Dedicated to God Regardless of the Role We Have to Play is Our Hope 5/26/13 Colombia

                                                           From Colombia

Dear devotees:

The degradation of Kali Yuga is imbued in everything around us. To the extent that the most wonderful expressions, like art, have been contaminated by it. The subject of art is something that should be carefully analyzed. Art and beauty always go together, but as in the material world of confusion and exploitation everything is distorted, all the "good and beautiful" can become degraded.

The essence of art is that it is related to the Divine, any artistic expression has its origin in God, who is the Supreme Artist. Therefore, taking art as the orientation of the sacredness in any culture or civilization one can see all that is being lost.

Today  the different mediums of "art" have been degraded to its grossest form. The painting, photography, music, film, among others, are full of sex, war, consumerism and exploitation. Sure, you can not deny that there are always initiatives using art as a demonstration against all materialism, but mostly everything is crossed with selfishness.

It is common that today all that we receive is loaded with violence. That very message of violence is brought not only  to adults but to children who are just learning. It is so much more difficult for someone with this ​​bombardment of valueless information, can understand the difference between that which is beautiful and that which is degrading, much less if it's a child.

That philosophy of debauchery where people ask for  "fun" is the cause of many ills in society today. This causes people to lose the real criterion, because we are totally malleable and vulnerable. Then all cases of rape, abuse, divorce, cheating, are based on the misconception that debauchery and art are fun.

Thus, the world has been degraded in a very horrible manner. The churches have become corrupt, politics are corrupt, even the spiritualists are corrupted. Maya is everywhere and at every moment, so very deeply pray that the Lord will protect us from exploiting others.

The chanting of the Holy Name is our only hope. Chanting the holy name, accepting and glorifying God from the depths of the heart, which is the source of all pleasure and all happiness is what justifies our existence. And having a life dedicated to God is the meaning of our lives, yet we continue to live in the material world where everything is corrupted more and more.

All that is offered to Krishna is purificatory. But beware, do not misunderstand this as an excuse to do bad things. We cannot offer perverted things nor anything that comes from a level of exploitation to God. All that is offered to Krishna is beautiful by nature, it is artistic and satisfies the heart completely.

Man must urgently change their way of lifestyle. You should try to preserve the natural beauty all around you and stop exploiting and polluting the environment. Human beings want to only find happiness but they are looking in such a wrong way, happiness is in spirituality. There is no other way. If man will not learn by the right easy way then he must learn the hard way.

The element of Krishna Consciousness is very important, because it can completely transform everything. Even if in the service of Krishna one does something imperfect it can be accepted if it has a positive intention behind it. Who is who sets the line to define what is positive and what is not? That individual is the spiritual master, so we need their constant guide every step of our life.

It is very important to plant the seed of Krishna Consciousness in the hearts of all those who we know or those we meet along the way. That is our service and that's what Srila Prabhupada did with us. We could live peacefully in a secluded place, disconnected from society. But it is not real, because the world is suffering because the world thirsts for Krishna Consciousness unknowingly.

Sri Krishna is very merciful to us, because if we were to apply the law of "eye for an eye,a tooth for a tooth" we would immediately suffer firsthand all the evil that we have caused others. Even so, the Lord allows us to bond with His Holy Name and His devotees, so that we may repent what we have done and even purify us.

Krishna and His devotees are our hope. A life dedicated to God, regardless of the role we have to play is our only hope. The conscious art is simultaneously our hope and our satisfaction.

My dear, this is my message to you today. I hope that you can inspire more and more and more people to become aware of God and transform your life into a permanent offering.

I leave all my affection from Cucuta airport.
Just arrived after a few wonderful days in Varsana.

Jay Srila Prabhupada.

Your well-wisher,

Swami. B. A. Paramadvaiti.

Well Wishers 5/19/13 From Colombia

Dear devotees,

I send all my love from the Colombian coast, where we spent a few days of much meditation with our native brothers of different villages.

When I was in the last Mela in Germany, I was surprised with a vegan prasadam recipe made by the devotees of Italy. From that moment I asked my office to distribute this recipe, because for a while we decided along with Gurudeva Atulananda that our Govinda restaurants should offer vegan options, since the most important part is the distribution of prasadam to everyone.

We know that the Vedic culture is not vegan, but it is a culture full of commitment to the protection of animals, especially cows. Vedically it is unthinkable that a Vaishnava could be involved in the suffering of animals and that has not changed, the devotees have unconditional love for all their fellow brothers in animal bodies, because they understand the law of karma in its entirety. The difference is that the modern world, influenced by developments in the Age of Kali, presents devotees with different circumstances that did not exist before. Today animals are exploited and abused in most cases, especially in industries related to meat and dairy. Therefore, any one attitude and decision taken in this regard should be completely humble and respectful toward those who have gone another way, as the subject of vegetarianism and veganism has been very special among animal protection. This is a general law, not only in this case but in any aspect of the life of a devotee; one should never appear before others as if your life’s philosophy is the highest and everything else that everyone does is nonsense.

We are not strictly vegan, but we love all vegans love, even more so to those who are activists for animal protection. We can not become vegan because we come from a culture that worships cows, who consume dairy products and offer them to God. However there is one thing we should be clear on and that is that we must be very conscious and avoid consuming any dairy product that comes from animal suffering and what to say of offering it to Sri Krishna at the altar. We are not vegans, but we can not be accessories in the mistreatment of animals and consume products from the market that are marked with suffering. We should try to get natural milk for our farms and temples as far as possible and make rich homemade preparations to offer to the deities.

In our family we have two GoShalas, which are sites for the protection of cows: one in India by Lalita Madhava, where they care for more than 200 cows and another in Italy, on the farm, where we have five cows. It is a small-scale effort, so we must also commit ourselves to our dairy consumption in the least harmful way as possible. There is another very important point in the act of offering. A little cow whose milk is offered to God is purified immediately, just from connecting with the divine in that manner. So the life of an animal, a fruit or a vegetable happens to have a complete purposeful sense because their life is meant for God. Thus, Vaishnavas attempt to implement a full criteria to situations, and they don’t just say "do not eat anything that comes from animals", because in that case you could question to the point of asking where does the fertilizer of the vegetables you eat come from? If the answer is "cow" then the origin is the animal and if the answer is "chemicals" then do not consume any animal, but then you are damaging Mother Earth with those very chemicals.

The solution to all this is to do the best you can, in the most conscious manner and offer everything to Krishna, as he is the enjoyer and the ultimate controller of all things.

If something does not work perfectly, Krishna handles it in such a way to harmonize it and help souls in their spiritual growth. Most important of all is love, love for all living beings, that means acting as a well wisher of others and killing someone is totally contrary to the position of a well-wisher. The conclusion of this discussion is that we deliver everything we do to God and have faith that we always stay connected to it, either directly or indirectly.

All that is done in connection with God and His holy name is completely beneficial to the person involved and who is around. This is my message today, short words I hope will help out for all those who have been confused with these issues.

A big hug.

Your always wisher,

Swami B. A. Paramadvaiti.

Krsna Consciousness is the Committment to Unlimited Love 05/12/13 Miami

Conference.
Dear devotees,

Receive all my affection from Miami mandir.

Today I want to talk about the greatest love I've ever known.

To begin, I want to offer my sincere obeisances unto my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, who is the savior of my life. Before meeting him, I knew nothing about love, I just had the wonderful experience of love I received from my mother. But even the love of a mother is one of the largest representations of selfless love we can know, nothing is compared to the true love that is beyond the material conception. This is important to understand.

Still, if we know something about the divine love, we must try to identify the closest examples to this, for example: the love of a mother, the loving couple and transcendental spiritual love. The love of a mother is very high, because it is full of dedication and committed service, this is what makes a mother very famous in the field of love. As for romantic love, it is based on the original model received from the divine couple, formed by the original divine masculine and original divine feminine, Sri Sri Radha Govinda.

There are many written texts giving information about the love of the divine couple. One of the most important books on this divine love is the Gita Govinda of Srila Jayadeva Goswami, which gives knowledge beyond our conception of love. Sri Isopanisad is another book that reveals the ultimate origin of all is the love of Sri Radha, that topic has also been mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita, where Sri Krishna says that by taking refuge in Him, one can attain the highest level of Vraja awareness, love of Vraja, which is the love of Radha and the Gopis for Krishna, and Sri Krishna says: "Fear not, I'll protect you, just take shelter".

sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja,
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo 
mokshayishyami ma sucah (18.66)

The concept of refuge in God's love reminds me of the saying that goes: "no risk, no gain" since surrender, Srila Prabhupada said, is the only authorized gambling. In surrendering to God you take all the risk for the greatest benefit. However, in everyday life we ​​take many risks that are not very spiritual, then why not take a chance on divine love? The mere act of eating is a risk, because you do not know if any of what you are eating you can fall ill; walking down the street is also risky, because at any time a car can come and hit you and finished; marrying is also a risk for thou know-est not what is going to happen in the future with your family. We are surrounded by risks. The surrender to divine love is a risk where one should offer the heart fully, since one can not directly serve all people and living beings, so when one gives all of the heart to God who is the source of all in this manner one serves all of His creation.

That aspect of spirituality, where service rendered to God and His servants benefits all humanity, is reflected in the monastic life. That's what I liked most about this lifestyle because it allows full surrender to God and service to everyone without the limit of only one family. Today I am elated to have been inspired by that decision that has allowed me to meet so many wonderful people that I can serve. I dare say that there is no life more wonderful than the life of renunciation and more wonderful still, is the life of renunciation in the service of the harinama sankirtan movement of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, where one can offer all their love and service to the whole world.

Once enthusiastic devotees came to show me a conscious movie called "Pay It Forward" where a child preached that one should do a favor for three unknown people and when they asked why you do this, he answered, "for you to do the same "and thus this creates a chain of friendly people doing favors for others. But my spiritual master gave an even more powerful statement, he said that from the moment you wake up until you go to bed, one should give disinterested favors to everyone you meet and  not favors for material gain but for the welfare of the soul.

Such is the life of sankirtan a constant example of sacrifice and selfless service that can hardly be compared to, especially in a monastic ashram, as one devotes all his energy to the spiritual process with dedication because one has no expectations: there is no need of a house or a bed or a chair, much less a television, you just need time to serve, serve and serve. All is maintained within that practice, because the monastic life is just that, practice, not theory. There is a phrase that I identify with a lot and it says, "everything  that you do not give, is what you're going to lose", that statement makes me think that I must give all that I have in service for as long and as soon as possible, if not I'm going to lose it. Well, as a monk you do not have much materially speaking, but if I have my love, my heart, my word and the knowledge received from my spiritual master, all of that is already a lot to offer.

The material world, however, leads one to deeper selfishness, and at its base it is guided by self-satisfaction. In the material world there is no word "love" or "selfless service", all is based on personal interest. If you want to learn the real meaning of the word "love" you should do good to everyone and start from yourself, it makes no sense to say that you love your mother as you take drugs or intoxicate yourself. We can not speak of love while we hurt others or, even worse, while we are responsible for the deaths of thousands of animals in the meat industry. That is just a crying crocodile who kills its prey and who is "crying" while he eats. In other words, the love that we search with the heart, is that divine love, and it has a price that is not just theory, not just intellectual appreciation, it is a concrete and constant sacrifice, they are the steps to conduct of Sanatan-dharma. The Srimad Bhagavatam states that the real duty of man is to do that which awakens in him an intense desire to render service to God, uninterrupted and unmotivated.

If we meditate on the divine couple, we can confirm that there is not the slightest sign of competition between them, or if there is competition  it is only there to please and to better serve another. Where each of them want to be at each other's feet, and serve wholeheartedly in the spirit of divine slavery. Those are the same symptoms experienced by the gopis, the best servants of the divine couple. Once, Sri Krishna said he had a big headache and only the dust of the feet of His devotees could save him from the pain. So Narada Muni was sent by the Lord to seek that special medicine, but every person that he asked for foot dust replied that they could not give the dust of their feet because they were someone very fallen and if the dust touched the head of Sri Krishna they would surely go to hell, it is the greatest offense that one could consider. Narada Muni was very frustrated, he searched and searched but could not find someone to give him what the Lord needed. Until the Lord suggested to Narada Muni that he go to Vrindavan and speak with the gopis. Narada came to them and asked them for the dust off their feet to bring to Sri Krishna to alleviate his headache, the gopis immediately gathered all the dust on the floor and handed it over to Narada, without the slightest fear. Narada asked if they did not believe that there would be a reaction by this act, but they said "do not ask stupid questions like this rather run to where Krishna is who is suffering." "If we have to go to hell so that Krsna is relieved, then we will." Thus Narada Muni saw the nature of love of the gopis.

One might think: what kind of story is this where God weeps for the love of His devotees? Actually, one does not come to understand this, it is beyond the limits of our little understanding. That's the fascination of bhakti-yoga. All a devotee does is in line to please the divine center, the dearest Lord Sri Krsna and all that Sri Krsna does is try to please the jewel of His love, His most dear. So pray to serve the divine feminine, but in the material world people are fighting to be the male driver of everything. The nature of the spiritual world is the opposite: everyone tries to subjugate themselves to the Supreme Controller.

So we sing:
"Oh, dearest of the Infinite Charmer , this sinner longs for your service.
Only from Krishna, of Thy beloved Krishna, can You give me your love.
Queen of Vrindavan, Rama loves you so much, Your grace I come to beg.
For the great love He has for you, He will not deny you anything.
Yours is my soul for eternity "

This means, pray for complete surrender to the divine couple, standing on the female side as an assistant. In the language of bhakti-yoga this is called meditation on the constitutional position of the soul. In other words, try to remember that we have an eternal body that does not cease to exist when this material body is eaten by worms and the eternal body has an eternal function, perennial occupation is based on the sacrifice towards the highest love.

We see divinity in all beings, as Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita: "For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me.." Krishna is connected to each of us because Krishna loves us, because Krsna resides in our hearts. We cannot be separated from Him and He will never be separated from us. Krishna says: "I love you and want to give you knowledge, rememberance, forgetfulness, but you can know Me only with your love, with your surrender, not with suspicion or intellectual speculation. I'm accessible only with sincere tears of the heart."

Sri Krishna is also called Rama or Radha Ramana, meaning "He who wants to please Radha", and our meditation should be a plea, a prayer to the holy land of Vraja, the land of Vrindavan where everyone sings: "Jay Radhe Jay Radhe ", which means" all the glories of the Supreme Lord's divine companion ". Srimati Radharani dominates the heart of Vraja Mandal. This is still difficult to understand. It is a love story that can captivate our hearts fully if you try to understand it and serve it. Sri Radha-Krishna is the model of divine love. They are the greatest love one can hope to know and serve.

The duty of any person is to serve this divine love, whether be it as a monk or a householder. If someone decides to marry, then it becomes your duty to become faithful to your partner to understand divine love together and take your children and those around you to that understanding. Krishna Consciousness is the commitment to the that love which is unlimited. Sri Krishna is totally mystic and possesses different confidential aspects that go beyond this temporary world, in which we are immersed into those different aspects depending on our level of surrender. It's just the power of surrender and unconditional surrender of the heart that leads one to the peak of love, to feel no attraction for the material world. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita that by thinking of Him at the time of death one will go to Him

But what if at the time of death when you are about to reach the spiritual world they offer you to become king of the earth? You decide come again? One must be willing to overcome all kinds of temptations that keep you away from God's love. We are in constant examination to test our determination and sincerity in the process of surrender. How much is that love worth? Would you return to eating meat for a million dollars? Sure, if you're an aspiring devotee who longs to serve his spiritual master, your answer would be no, because the relationship you have with God and with His devotee is above any other achievement of pleasure or position in the material world. Well, what good is owning the whole world at the cost of losing your soul? The world is full of love and opportunities to surrender to divine love, but if you are not determined or fixed in that ideal of sacrifice then there will be outside influences that will come to try and start anxiety, sadness, frustration, disappointment, intoxication, fraud , betrayal and so you develop a sickness of being unable to appreciate true love.

Life in the material world is a university ran by Maya Devi, where she tests the sincerity of all, that is the order of the day. Where greed makes people be anxious for material achievements that lacks any connection to true love. By contrast, consecrated devotees struggle to not identify themselves with the temporary and do not stick to anything but service at the feet of the spiritual master, always maintaining a feeling of satisfaction and willingness to serve.

Perhaps all this sounds very utopian or seems  like I'm a liar propagating the life of renunciation; I must admit that this life is not easy, it is a life with continuous test, but it is a reality. There are many devout devotees past and present, who have devoted themselves entirely to the service of God, who do not receive any more pay than the benefit of his own sacrifice and whom are also happy and all those who are found with him become happy too.

Thus, followers of Srila Prabhupada and his sankirtan yoga movement have open doors to become true servants of humanity, where even one who can not live as a monk also has every opportunity to devote themselves fully through their family duty and doing devotional service. Whatever the sincere aspirant is searching for can find it in the ashrams of Srila Prabhupada in the service of humanity. He invited us to be part of this school and he has formed it everywhere around the world, even in your own home.

If you're searching for light, it begins turning the light of your heart on and bring it to your house, your school, your work, to all the sites you go. Take the prasada of the Lord to all, for the sanctified food by God has the power to awaken love in the heart by the fact of being saturated with the energy of the deepest offering in meditation, prasadam is healthy food for the afflicted heart and to be taken with gratitude and delivered to others with compassion.

Thank you for sharing the teachings of Srila Prabhupada another day, thanks for allowing me to narrate about the most important love I have received and I have tried to present it as best as I can, although it is only an extract of divine love which is full of many details.



With all my affection
Swami B. A. Paramadvaiti.

The Treasure of Krishna Consciousness in our hands. 05/05/13 New York

Conference.

Dear devotees. Receive my affection from New York

Vaishnavism has a universal function and on that level, each temple in each country plays a very important role. So we expect for our Vrinda family to continue growing so we can serve the world with everything we have. And to serve the world we need to be united in heart, united in diversity with many variants and projects. And to include everyone in this task takes a long time, but is very important because then we ensure that there is dynamism and variety.

Vaishnavas nature is that they are Nirupadis ... that means that they do not want to take any position of prominence. But sometimes, in the performance of a service on must take it, even though you may not want to. For example, perhaps nobody wants to drive a car, but sooner or later someone has to do it, if not no one can be transported. Similarly, the Vaisnavas who are in a leadership position, you may not like to be, but it is part of their service and commitment to comply with it. And it is thanks to these Vaisnavas who have taken leadership in our family that I have much hope of doing service in South America, in Europe, in India ...

And with all my heart I thank Srila Prabhupada for opening the gateway to Sri Vrindavan Dham, where the expansion of the movement of Krishna Consciousness to the West began. Thus, from his tiny little room at the Radha Damodar temple, Srila Prabhupada planned preaching his whole project, which would then later have surprising dimensions. And Srila Prabhupada did all this alone, without the support of his family. Thus he renounced family life which he had been very responsible for, and devoted himself entirely to monastic life ... and what a dedicated monastic life it was. So Srila Prabhupada tried many ways before traveling to the West, even participating with his spiritual brothers, he was always enthusiastic to do great things, but could not find his place ...

So he found his own service to his spiritual master in generating a movement that would change the history of Vaishnavism in the world. A few days ago I heard an audio conversation of Srila Prabhupada, in which my Gurudeva said he had many opportunities to become a millionaire with the chemical company where he worked, but for one reason or another, Krishna did not allow it and lost many opportunities on that level. Thus, one does not know what the plan God has for oneself. It's really a mystery.

The plans that Sri Krsna had for Srila Prabhupada, his pure devotee, were really impressive. It was a new chapter for the ancient history of Vaishnavism. Srila Prabhupada gave a new full page to the movement for Krishna consciousness in the West, and on that page we live as well, we are a direct part of Srila Prabhupada's transcendental legacy. With this page we receive prasada and we can connect you to all the relics of this wonderful culture. It is beautiful to see how Sri Krsna plans manifest in the family of Srila Prabhupada, by the devotees of the west in India and Indian devotees in the West.

There is so much variety in the preaching movement of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, which we crave to spread all over without limits, so that all people can know the wonderful gift of Srila Prabhupada. Therefore it is very important that each of you take leadership in this mission, that you feel responsible for everything there is to do in this preaching expansion effort. For all the people that are coming to the various temples, thanks to Harinam sankirtan, they must be attended to and guided to the perfection in spiritual process. That does not solely rely on the Guru, but it also depends on all the rendered representatives of the spiritual master. That's the line of Srila Prabhupada. Stop a minute and ask yourself, what distinguished Srila Prabhupada? The trust given to all people who were around him, whether they were apparently qualified or not for them, Srila Prabhupada invested on trust ...

For example, in the letters that I wrote Srila Prabhupada, He was completely loving and fully confident in my service, when I was just one of his thousands of disciples who did not even speak proper English. Even so, he gave me all the confidence, he gave me a relationship of the heart and gave me all the support. As in the last letter he wrote me, where I was told that 99 percent of the responsibility for preaching in Brazil  was mine and 1 percent was his. With that phrase, Srila Prabhupada bought me for life. That's the line we must follow: that of trust and responsibility. Give full confidence to those who want to engage in service whole heartedly and embrace the responsibilities that come to us. We must convey that trust, that love to others. Thus, it is my hope that both my sons and daughters take to heart the call to become true leaders responsible for their service. I depend on you to run my small service to the Feet of Srila Prabhupada. And it is you who can carry on the mission of Srila Prabhupada to be something glorious in each of the corners where they are preaching.

Thus, united in the spirit of love for Srila Prabhupada, the glorious spiritual brothers, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta and all guruvarga we have to do our service with humility and respect, appreciating the beautiful work done by Vaisnavas around the world and delivering complete confidence to all those who feel inspired to serve in our company. That's my life. Now the most important thing is that all this takes place, and not just up to me, but to all of you. I perhaps can be a small instrument, by the mercy of Prabhupada, but the executors are you. Future leaders are you.

We have the treasure of Krishna Consciousness in our hands, it is the most valuable thing we have received, now just share it and share it with everyone ... So, always remember that by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada we are part of this great and beautiful family and that this is a lifelong commitment.

Thank you for sharing your time during the chat today. I am very glad to see them online every week. I hope you can pass this humble message to all who are around you and to maintain a very enthusiastic nature about your services.

Farewell from New York with affection
Jay Srila Prabhupada

Your always well wisher,
B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami