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Lord Ṛṣabhadeva told His sons: My dear boys, of all the living entities who have accepted material bodies in this world, one who has been awarded this human form should not work hard day and night simply for sense gratification, which is available even for dogs and hogs that eat stool. One should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of devotional service. By such activity, one’s heart is purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and which continues forever."

Sri Saranga Murari Thakura used to reside at Modadrumadwipa Mam-gachi, where his Deities of Sri Sri Radha-Gopinath are still present. There is also a Bakul tree there which is perhaps existing since the time of Saranga Thakura. There is a local legend concerning this tree. One day when Mahaprabhu came there, he noticed that the Bakul tree in the courtyard of Saranga's temple was dying. So he asked Saran-ga, "This Bakul tree is dying, so what are you going to do?"

Saranga Thakura replied, "Besides Your mercy Prabhu, I don't see any hope for this tree." Then Mahaprabhu embraced that tree, which has remained healthy to this day and is now quite large.

Saranga Thakura had resolved that he would not accept any disciples but Mahaprabhu nevertheless repeatedly requested him to do so. Finally he relented and agreed by saying, "Tomorrow morning the first person I see I will initiate with the divine mantra."

The next day, in the early mornin

This text offers a warning that those who worship the demigods rather than the Absolute enter into the darkest regions of ignorance; but it also warns that those who worship the impersonal Absolute are even worse. The Mayavadi thinkers look to God in an impersonal fashion, they see only the Brahman as the Absolute, which means that they never come to know the personality of the Godhead.

Bhagavad-Gita (2.2) teaches that we can know the Absolute in three stages. The initial stage is that of Brahman, the second is that of Paramatma, and the final stage is that of Bhagavan. If, like the Mayavadi, one perceives of the Brahman as the Absolute, then one imagines the Godhead to be formless and lacking in qualities. However, as Srila Prabhupada explains, “such negative qualities are simply the reversals of relative material qualities and are therefore also relative. By

Srila Kaviraja Goswami writes (Chaitanya Charitamrta-lila Adi 11:37.) that Kaliya Krishna Dasa Thakura was one of the principle devotees of Nityananda Prabhu. He knew nothing other than the lotus feet of Sri Nityananda Prabhu.

According to Srila Kavi Karnapura's Gaura-Ganodesha-Dipika (text 132.), he was one of the 12 gopals in Vrindavana, and in the pastimes of Krishna in Vrindavana was known as Labhanga, one of Krishna's cowherd boy friends. Here he is refered to as Kalah Krsnadasa or Kalakrsnadasa.

On the twelfth day of the dark moon in the month of Caitra, Sri Kaliya Krishna Dasa Thakura disappeared from this world. This is not the same Kaliya Krishna dasa who accompanied Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to South India. At present, Kaliya Krishnadas's descendents live in different holy places in Bengal.

His birthplace is in the Bardhaman (Burdwan) district of West Bengal within a short distance from the Railway station at Katwa, at the village called Akai Hatta. This village is situated on the

"Outdoor kirtana must be done, even at the cost of suspending all editorial work. That is your first and foremost business. Temple worship is not so important. If need be, the whole temple can be locked, but the outdoor kirtana cannot be stopped."
Srila Prabhupada's letter to Rayarama May 16, 1969

"You can avoid the arrest by the police and punishment by the state law by tricks, but you cannot avoid by tricks the law of God. That is not possible. If you violate the law of God, then you will be punished. If you violate the law..., just like if you touch fire your hand will be burned, so this law you cannot violate. Either you are Christian or Hindu or Muslim, if you touch fire, the law of God is that it will burn. So it will not care for you whether you are Hindu, Muslim, Christian. So law of God is applicable to everyone. Either you are Hindu or Muslim or Christian or you have got this faith or that faith, doesn't matter. So we have got such a God whose laws are equally respectable." ~ Srila Prabhupada

We Cannot Rely On the Mind

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

We cannot rely on the mind and our mental speculation. All of us are busy making our mind control everything relating to ourselves. This does not admit the conception of the Absolute. Mental conceptions are all changeable. The property must not be confounded with the proprietor. Our external body is our property. It is perishable and there is no certainty of its retention. In Egypt the body was preserved. The process was thought necessary for the re-awaking of the soul. The materialists see the externality of things. They observe that the combination of material particles produces animation, so the external is scrutinised by the materialistic sciences.

But the idea propounded by intellectual people is that knowledge is eclipsed and obscured by the interception of ignorance (vivartavāda – i.e., erroneous conception, which deludes us in regard to the Absolute Truth). The background of time and space interc

Sruta kirti dasa: "The mood was very sombre and intense. I've already described how he asked his disciples not to touch his feet saying, 'By their touching my feet I have to suffer. They may not be trying to achieve some goal by touching my feet, still the spiritual master has to suffer by accepting their sinful reactions.' Now Srila PRabhupada said things to me that I did not comprehend. It was very disturbing. The words cut through my heart.

He mentioned it to me on two separate occasions during his illness saying, 'One of my disciples is simply waiting -- when will the old man die so that I can become guru.' I could not believe what I was hearing.

I never imagined that day that Srila Prabhupada would not be with us. I was young and naive and thought Srila Prabhupada would be with us until he was 100 years old. Thoughts of his being gone and others giving initiation had never been a subject of conversation.

He sat up in his bed and looking at me said, "This illness is because E

Harikesa das: We were going from Mauritius to South Africa so we needed to have yellow fever shots, and Prabhupada had never had one in his whole life because he would never take any shots. But you could not go to a doctor and just have him stamp the card, you actually had to get the shot and actually have them sign that you got the shot. So Prabhupada refused to get the shot and he said, “Somehow or another get me that card,” and then he had this little smile on his face.

So then I said to Pusta Krishna, “OK, let’s go.” Then he said, “What are we going to do?” I said, “We’re going to get the shots ourselves and do something.” He said, “Ah.”

So we went downtown and Pusta Krishna takes Prabhupada’s card for shots, and he gets the shot and when the man asks him for his name he says, “Bhaktivedanta Swami.” And then he asked him for date of birth. So then Pusta Krishna says, “I forgot.” And the man said, “You forgot?” Then at that time I’m sitting just two rows up and saying, “Oh, God, w

""Prabhupada: Yes. Government's only duty is that government gives me land and I pay tax: "Whatever I produce, take one fourth." Finish. All taxes. If I don't produce, there is no tax. That's all. That is the business between the government and the public. That's all.""

Morning Walk
—
October 16, 1975, Johannesburg

Prabhupada: Therefore we say change the society. Society means you and me. If we agree that this kind of civilization is wrong, then society, what does it mean? They have made the United Nations. What is that? For this purpose, that "Why we are fighting unnecessarily?" So make their settlement, how to live. What is the standard of civilization? What is the aim of life? What they are doing in the United Nation for the last thirty years? What they have done? They simply fighting, the same cats and dogs. What is the value?
Harikesa: Whenever there is some war they send some observers.
Prabhupada: That is cats and watchdog. That's all, watchdog. (laughter) That's all, civilizati

SB 2.2.31 — Only the purified soul can attain the perfection of associating with the Personality of Godhead in complete bliss and satisfaction in his constitutional state. Whoever is able to renovate such devotional perfection is never again attracted by this material world, and he never returns. "

Now, some of these Mayavadi sannyasis accuse me that "Bhaktivedanta Swami is spoiling our Hindu religion." Means dvesta. They do not like Christians. They do not like Mohammedans. But I am accepting Mohammedans, Christian, any damn rascal: "Come on. Chant Hare Krsna."

Srila Prabhupada's Iskcon Spiritnet 

Srimad Bhagavatam 10th Canto 22nd Chapter Summary by HDG Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. 
 

Krishna Steals the Garments of the Unmarried Gopis

This chapter describes how the marriageable daughters of the cowherd men worshiped Katyayani to get Lord Sri Krishna as their husband, and how Krishna stole the garments of the young girls and gave the girls  benedictions.

During the month of Margasirsha, every day early in the morning the young daughters of the cowherds would take one another’s hands and, singing of Krishna’s transcendental qualities, go

"Human beings tend to care about their futures more than any other form of life does. The demigods live a much happier and more carefree life than humans do, and they are able to engage in material pleasures for a longer duration, but then in the end, they face difficulties. The demigods are surrounded with the virtues of high birth, opulence, fame and so forth, and so they constantly seek to augment their opulence.