Hare Krishna Society

Submitted by: Damagosh Dasa

Caracas Feb 22 1975-Initiation lecture

So the boys and girls who are now being initiated, they are entering the path of understanding God in this way. So there are some regulative principles. I think you have explained to them that no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no gambling, no intoxication. God is pure. He is the purest. Therefore if we want to approach God, we must be pure. Just like without high temperature, nobody can enter into the fire, similarly, God is the topmost temperature. We must acquire that temperature; then we can enter into the kingdom of God. So if you want to increase the temperature, you cannot pour water again on it. Just like if you have got wet wood, you cannot burn it very nicely, but if you collect dry wood, you can ignite very easily. So our material life is now saturated with all kinds of sins. The four pillars of sinful life are these: illicit sex, meat-eating and intoxication and gambling. So if we stop these voluntarily, this is called austerity, austerity, tapasya. Austerity means voluntarily accept some painful condition. So those who are habituated to all these things, namely illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling, to give up these habits, it may become little painful in the beginning. But if you practice and pray to Kṛṣṇa that He will help, it is not difficult to give up these habits. And as soon as you give up this wetting process, the sinful life, then immediately you become fifty percent purified to approach God. Then, by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, you make further, further, more and more progress. And when you are completely free of all sinful reaction, then you understand God and you love him. In the contaminated stage, you are trying to love so many things, but you are frustrated. So if you can love God, then you will never be frustrated and your loving desires will be fulfilled. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We are teaching all our students how to love God. That’s all right……

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Submitted by: Yasoda nandana Dasa

Tompkins Square Park

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SRILA PRABHUPADA IS HIS DIVINE GRACE
by Mahesh Raja UK

67-01-30: Brahmananda
One thing you may note also as a matter of etiquette. THE SPIRITUAL MASTER IS ADDRESSED AS HIS DIVINE GRACE, a Godbrother is addressed as His Grace, and any Sannyasin is addressed as HIS HOLINESS.

HIS DIVINE GRACE IS ALWAYS CONSULTING KRSNA

760714iv.ny
Bali-mardana: In other words, when you decide that someone is to be in charge of a particular temple does Krsna tell you that this person should be in charge.
Interviewer: Or do you by judging him say this person is qualified.
Prabhupada: YES, BECAUSE A DEVOTEE ALWAYS CONSULTS KRSNA AND HE GIVES ORDER.
Interviewer: IT’S A MORE DIRECT COMMUNICATION.
Prabhupada: YES. AND HE GIVES ORDER.
Ramesvara: Because intelligence, our philosophy is that intelligence comes from Krsna. So if I have some…
Interviewer: And your philosophy is that your daily necessities come from Krsna as well.
Ramesvara: Yes, try to understand. Suppose my intelligence sees that this person is qualified, that means Krsna has told me.
Prabhupada: NO, NOT NECESSARILY, KRSNA WILL TELL DIRECTLY. A DEVOTEE ALWAYS CONSULTS KRSNA AND KRSNA TELLS HIM, “DO LIKE THIS.” NOT FIGURATIVELY.
Interviewer: Does that apply then to other kinds of decisions and other kinds of activities as well?
Prabhupada: EVERYTHING. BECAUSE A DEVOTEE DOES NOT DO ANYTHING WITHOUT CONSULTING KRSNA.
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SRILA PRABHUPADA OUR JAGAD DIKSA GURU:

LIVING STILL IN SOUND!

By Mahesh Raja [UK]

750716pc.sf Conversations
Reporter (2): What will happen to the movement in the United States when you die?
Prabhupada: I WILL NEVER DIE.
Devotees: Jaya! Hari bol! (laughter)
Prabhupada: I SHALL LIVE FROM MY BOOKS, AND YOU WILL UTILIZE.
Reporter (2): Are you training a successor?
Prabhupada: Yes, my Guru Maharaja is there. Where is my photo of Guru Maharaja? I think… Here is.

Srila Prabhupada

He reasons ill who tells
that Vaishnavas die
When thou are living
still in sound.
The Vaishnavas die to live
and living try to
Spread a holy life around!

Prabhupada’s Guru Maharaja

Prabhupada: Although according to material vision His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada passed away from this material world on the last day of December, 1936, I still consider His Divine Grace to be always present with me by his vani, his words. There are two ways of association–by vani and by vapu. Vani means words, and vapu means physical presence. PHYSICAL PRESENCE IS SOMETIMES APPRECIABLE AND SOMETIMES NOT, BUT VANI CONTINUES TO EXIST ETERNALLY. THEREFORE WE MUST TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE VANI, NOT THE PHYSICAL PRESENCE. Bhagavad-gita, for example, is the vani of Lord Krsna. Although Krsna was personally present five thousand years ago and is no longer physically present from the materialistic point of view, Bhagavad-gita continues.

Indian Lady: … is that spiritual master still guiding after death?
Srila Prabhupada: Yes, yes. Just like Krsna is guiding us, similarly spiritual master will guide us. (General lectures, 69/09/23)

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Submitted by: Damagosha Dasa

Srila Prabhupada said, He (Krishna) asked me to come here and I said that I did not want to go because it was such a dirty place. He (Krishna) told me if you go I will arrange so many nice palaces for you to live in. I said but I do not want to go. He (Krishna) said you just go and write these books and I will make it comfortable for you. So Srila Prabhupada said because He asked me to write these books I came.

Once in Bombay Srila Prabhupada ordered me to come to his room and listen to him preach to some life members. I sat there and listened for almost an hour. After they left he started to chastise me. Why are you not coming here every day to listen to me preach? You are one of my leaders if you do not learn how to preach from me then what will happen? Then he quoted a verse in Sanskrit from Bhagavad Gita and asked me if I knew this verse in English, where it was in the Gita, and what the meaning was. I unfortunately had no answers. Are you reading my books everyday? He asked. I admitted my neglect. If you do not read my books everyday then how will you learn? You are going out to make life members and collect big donations but you are not reading my books. You must read my books every day!

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Submitted by: Yasoda nandana Dasa

Srila Prabhupada
The Brahma Sampradaya Acharya
by Hansadutta das

INTRODUCTION

When a NON-LIBERATED person takes leadership (material or spiritual) without being under the guidance of a liberated soul, the end result is always destruction and failure. Initially there maybe fabulous success, like in the case of Hitler and Napoleon or as in our ISKCON, Bhagavan, Bhavananda, Rameswara, Jayatirtha, myself [Hansadutta] and most recently Kirtanananda, but ultimately everything will collapse and the FOLLOWERS aware of the leader’s imperfections ABANDON HIM. This is not a criticism, but an observation of the facts and realisation through personal experience.

We want and we need a perfect person to follow: the ACHARYA, then others acting under his charge can be accepted as guides in as much as they are submissive and experienced under the authority of the ACHARYA.

Therefore Prabhupada emphatically advised us: “I wish that each and every centre shall keep the ACHARYA (i.e. Srila Prabhupada) in the centre and keep their separate identity.” (Srila Prabhupada’s Letters, 1967)

In our sampradaya there MUST BE AN ACHARYA at all times (living or departed), like Brahma, Narada, Vyasa, Madhvacharya, Lord Chaitanya, the six Goswamis, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura and Srila Prabhupada, whose commentaries on the standard Vaishnava texts the aspiring candidate can refer to as a YARDSTICK in order to ascertain the BONAFIDES of his chosen GURU (representative of the ACHARYA); otherwise the sampradaya becomes over-crowded with pretenders, and everything falls into chaos, as is the situation now—each a guru claiming to be bonafide. But the practical result is dozens of provincial camps with fanatic followers claiming allegiance to his particular leader as all in all. If the necessity of the sampradaya ACHARYA is understood, the neophyte followers in any or all camps would or will see Prabhupada as all in all and their PROVINCIAL GURU as a servant of Prabhupada, experienced to some degree and capable of helping the newcomer in the philosophical and practical application of the ACHARYA’S TEACHINGS. Just as in the UNIVERSITY the great ACHARYA EINSTEIN is understood under the guidance of an experienced professor, but the professor is never equated with such giants as Einstein, Newton, Gallileo, etc. Even if a person is a great, liberated soul, he should present himself as nothing more than representative of the acharya, if only for the sake of unity in the sampradaya.

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Submitted by: Yasoda nandana Dasa

Some Statistical Reflections on the Awesome Stature of the Acharya

WHAT THE ACHARYA, SRILA PRABHUPADA, DID IN TEN YEARS.

by Hansadutta das

Srila Prabhupada translated and wrote purports to 18,000 verses of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Reading one verse with purport daily would take the reader 49.31 years to complete.
He translated and wrote purports to 700 verses of Bhagavad-gita. It would take the reader aproximately two years to complete.
He translated and wrote purports to the 17 volumes of Chaitanya-charitamrita (2,170 pages, or 11,555 verses). Reading one verse with purport daily would take the reader 31.6 years to complete. Reading one page daily would take the reader 5.9 years to complete.
He wrote Teachings of Lord Chaitanya, a synopsis of Chaitanya-charitamrita;
Nectar of Devotion;
Isopanisad.
He created a monthly magazine, Back to Godhead, which at one point was distributed in excess of one million copies per month.
Under his explicit direction and inspioration, thousands of artful illustrations were published in all the above-mentioned books.
He wrote over 7,000 personal letters to his disciples, published in fie volumes of books.
He gave lectures on Srimad-Bhagavatam, compiled into 11 volumes of books.
He gave lectures on Bhagavad-gita, compiled into seven volumes of books.
His darshan conversations have been compiled into 42 volumes of books.
He produced phonograph records.
He established 108 temples (including Mayapur, Vrindavan, Bombay–with guest houses, Hyderabad temple, New Vrindavana and Gita Nagari farm communities).
His published books total some 147. Reading one book a month would take 13 years, reading one book every two months would take 25 years of reading, about twice the time it took Prabhupada to write them. Probably we will not live that long. If one started reading today, he would not finish till the year 2029. Think of it!

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Submitted by: Damagosha Dasa

Caracas Feb 22 1975

So the boys and girls who are now being initiated, they are entering the path of understanding God in this way. So there are some regulative principles. I think you have explained to them that no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no gambling, no intoxication. God is pure. He is the purest. Therefore if we want to approach God, we must be pure. Just like without high temperature, nobody can enter into the fire, similarly, God is the topmost temperature. We must acquire that temperature; then we can enter into the kingdom of God. So if you want to increase the temperature, you cannot pour water again on it. Just like if you have got wet wood, you cannot burn it very nicely, but if you collect dry wood, you can ignite very easily. So our material life is now saturated with all kinds of sins. The four pillars of sinful life are these: illicit sex, meat-eating and intoxication and gambling. So if we stop these voluntarily, this is called austerity, austerity, tapasya. Austerity means voluntarily accept some painful condition. So those who are habituated to all these things, namely illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling, to give up these habits, it may become little painful in the beginning. But if you practice and pray to Kṛṣṇa that He will help, it is not difficult to give up these habits. And as soon as you give up this wetting process, the sinful life, then immediately you become fifty percent purified to approach God. Then, by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, you make further, further, more and more progress. And when you are completely free of all sinful reaction, then you understand God and you love him. In the contaminated stage, you are trying to love so many things, but you are frustrated. So if you can love God, then you will never be frustrated and your loving desires will be fulfilled. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We are teaching all our students how to love God. That’s all right.

Continue reading →

Submitted by: Yasoda nandana Dasa

“The sun is far above the planetary systems, and there is no possibility of its being covered by any kind of cloud; similarly, 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.”

(Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 17)

Writing From The Transcendental Platform

Author: Mahesh dasa Dated: 03/05/2003

We Don’t Allow Any Literature Which Is Not Given By Liberated Soul

The difference between Srila Prabhupada’s books and other so-called gurus writing is Srila Prabhupada’s instruction was coming directly from Krsna. This is transcendental platform. Srila Prabhupada encouraged his disciples however, to write their realizations.

Note:His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada is always consulting Krsna

760714iv.ny
Bali-mardana: In other words, when you decide that someone is to be in charge of a particular temple does Krsna tell you that this person should be in charge.
Interviewer: Or do you by judging him say this person is qualified.
Prabhupada: yes, because a devotee always consults Krsna and He gives order.
Interviewer: it’s a more direct communication.
Prabhupada: yes. And He gives order.
Ramesvara: Because intelligence, our philosophy is that intelligence comes from Krsna. So if I have some…
Interviewer: And your philosophy is that your daily necessities come from Krsna as well.
Ramesvara: Yes, try to understand. Suppose my intelligence sees that this person is qualified, that means Krsna has told me.
Prabhupada: No, not necessarily, Krsna will tell directly. A devotee always consults Krsna and Krsna tells him, “do like this.” Not figuratively.
Interviewer: Does that apply then to other kinds of decisions and other kinds of activities as well?
Prabhupada: everything. Because a devotee does not do anything without consulting Krsna.

Note: His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada speaks as Krsna speaks.
Antya 5.71
One is forbidden to accept the guru, or spiritual master, as an ordinary human being (gurusu nara-matih). When Ramananda Raya spoke to Pradyumna Misra, Pradyumna Misra could understand that Ramananda Raya was not an ordinary human being. A spiritually advanced person who acts with authority, as the spiritual master, speaks as the Supreme Personality of Godhead dictates from within. Thus it is not he that is personally speaking. When a pure devotee or spiritual master speaks, what he says should be accepted as having been directly spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the parampara system.

Note: difference is Srila Prabhupada speaks what Krsna speaks and so-called gurus have to jog the brain to give answers.

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Hare Krishna Society

Darshan of Radha Giri Manohara and Sri Sri Gaura Nitai

Hare Krishna Tree Plaque

SRILA PRABHUPADA IS HIS DIVINE GRACE

SRILA PRABHUPADA LIVING STILL IN SOUND!

How the Books got written and why we should read them

Srila Prabhupada The Brahma Sampradaya Acharya

Some Statistical Reflections on the Awesome Stature of the Acharya

If we give up the wetting process (sins) then 50% purified-SP

More Glorious than the Sunshine

Writing From The Transcendental Platform