Govardhana Readings 2025

Thakura Bhaktivinoda, the humble servant of the Lord, says, “The holy name of Krishna has fulfilled all my desires by vibrating on everyone’s tongue.” Bhaktivinoda therefore prays at the feet of Sri Rupa Goswami that the chanting of harinam may continue like this always. (Translation, verse 5)

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Nārada Muni Bājāy Vīṇā | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | ISV | 5 Dec 2018

Prabhupāda explains that if you appreciate and render service to those who are dear to Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa will be very accepting. Therefore, we follow the footsteps of Prahlāda Mahārāja, who, even in his prayers to Nṛsiṃhadeva—who's present before him—says that, "First I worship my spiritual master, I serve Him." That's the mood of those who are in the disciplic line: they consider themselves dāsa-dās-dāsa-anudāsah. Caitanya Mahāprabhu liked that verse so much he chanted it during the Ratha Yātrā in front of Lord Jagannāth.

So Prabhupāda said, "Love me, love my dog." If you meet somebody, like we did the other day in Gurugrām, we met a man whose name was Siddhārth, and he was walking his dog. And I said, "That's a nice dog." And the dog was happy; he licked me. The man was happy because I liked his dog, and then he took the book.

So, when we please somebody who's dear to the Lord, or we get the positive glance of somebody who is dear to the Lord, then the Lord considers us. For instance, when Nalakūvara and Maṇigrīva misbehaved, Nārada gave them shelter by cursing them, and then they took birth as twin Arjuna trees. But he said, "When Kṛṣṇa comes for His pastimes"—this was unscripted, because he just uttered it himself—"Kṛṣṇa will liberate you." And so Kṛṣṇa remembers during the pastime of Dāmodara-līlā, when He's dragging the churning apparatus, the grinding mortar. "Oh yeah, My devotee Nārada said that these two will be liberated. So I'm going to go take a little shortcut, or take the long way around, and pull down the trees and liberate them." And His specific thought was, "Because Nārada said it."

So we go by that principle: that we try, as Prabhupāda said, "The more you're the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant, a million times removed," he said, "that is perfection."
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#1 The Later Pastimes of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu-1 | Govardhan Readings | 29 Sep 2025

I quoted Prahlāda Mahārāja. We quote him again, but that was his, his mood: that even though Nṛsiṁhadeva was personally present, he said, 'Yeah, but I just serve my guru one-pointedly.' And we see, even in the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, Jayananda Prabhu was famous for having one-pointed attention on serving Prabhupāda. It's palpable. If you see somebody who is like, 'That's their only interest,' they just want to serve their spiritual master. And Prabhupāda had that, in that he said, 'Everything for Kṛṣṇa and nothing for me.'

How did he execute that? It was whatever the order of his spiritual master was. He just took that. That mood evolves from an understanding of our own self-interest, and it's not material, but it's ontologically correct. That's the last statement, because we're over time. But one of the main points made in the Eleventh Canto by Havi-yogendra, where he says:

bhayaṁ dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syād īśād apetasya viparyayo ’smṛtiḥ
tan-māyayāto budha ābhajet taṁ bhaktyaikayeśaṁ guru-devatātmā (11.2.37)

In which he talks about what is the condition the soul has fallen into in this world. It's fear, which arises when the living entity considers himself or herself to be the material body, because of absorption in the external, illusory energy of the Lord. At that point, hesays, he also forgets his constitutional position as eternal servant of the Lord because he’s turned away from the Lord.

He says, 'In that bewildered, fearful state, he forgets his constitutional position.' He says, 'Therefore one should'—tan-māyayāto budha ābhajet taṁ—'one should serve Kṛṣṇa with one-pointed attention through the medium of the spiritual master, whom he should consider as worshipable Deity.' He says, bhaktyaikayeśaṁ guru-devatātmā, 'his worshipful Deity and his very life and soul.'

That we can see, even in the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, those who have transferred from being falsely self-interested, or erroneously self-interested because they got the wrong sense of self, to real self-interest, that 'serving Kṛṣṇa is my real self-interest,' and then falling in love with the representative... You know, devotees were in love with Prabhupāda. They just wanted to serve him. You can see that in many of the devotees: that that was their only interest. Just "How would Prabhupāda be pleased with this?' And that's the mood that continues to expand in the spiritual world."
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#2 The Later Pastimes of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu-2 | Govardhan Readings | 29 Sep 2025

Prabhupāda encouraged everyone to write. The main forum for writing during Prabhupāda's time, since Prabhupāda was writing all the books, was the Back to Godhead magazine. He wanted devotees to make articles for that. He emphasized, and all that's there in the record—that writing is a way of consolidating your realizations. If you write essays or books, then you have to do deep research, and you also become very acquainted with it, and you become more articulate in teaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Because, as you know well, when you write, you have to refine the way you present it, and then it becomes refined in your mind also. What Prabhupāda said about it was that finding ways to present Kṛṣṇa consciousness in a modern context, he said that you have to be expert to do that. That's one thing he said. To give an anecdote, Prabhupāda encouraged Svarūpa Dāmodara Mahārāja to write a science book, which he did. He wrote a book called 'The Scientific Basis of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.' And Prabhupāda appreciated that a lot, and he touted that book, and his disciple who had written it, so he was encouraging about that.
(excerpt from discussion)

Verses covered: CC Madhya 1.86-109
https://vedabase.io/en/library/cc/madhya/1/advanced-view/
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#3 The Later Pastimes of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu-3 | Govardhan Readings | 29 Sep 2025

Competition is always there, but it should be marked by appreciation for the person and wanting to follow in their footsteps and try to do as well as they're doing because they're setting such a good example, and try not to feel adverse to such a person, and certainly not try to impede their progress. And that can happen.

So, it's extremely important that we remain non-envious—and we have every reason not to be envious—because Kṛṣṇa is all-opulent. He is there for every living being equally. And if we tend to our own field and cultivate it properly, there is no question that we'll be fully abundant because of Kṛṣṇa's generosity. It's already there, even for the animals, what to speak of others. So, we have no cause to be envious of other people. We just have to develop our own service to Kṛṣṇa and our own mentality for him.

The other compelling point is that when we're envious of somebody who is doing something well, then we become impervious to their good qualities. When we appreciate, as Voltaire once said, the good qualities in others, then they become ours. When we have true appreciation without envy, and not even a drop of envy, then the qualities of that exalted person—they go right straight into our heart, and we take them up too. So, that's our choice.
(excerpt from the discussion)

Verses read: Cc Madhya 1.161-218
https://vedabase.io/en/library/cc/madhya/1/advanced-view/
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#4 The Later Pastimes of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu-4 | Govardhan Readings | 29 Sep 2025

Just one note about reading through a whole section of Prabhupāda's books. It's kind of like going on parikramā. When you go around, go over, downhill; you'll find some places more accommodating to your feet. It may be soft sand. Other places, at least in the old days, used to be places people just dumped gravel and there was no way around it. You just have to walk over it.

So, when we're reading through, you might find some sections that are more appealing than others, but in these types of yajñas of reading, the best thing is just to be very patient and listen to everything. Because even though your mind may not appreciate certain sections, you don't know, it's going in. It's like radiation. You can't see it. It goes in, it stays in. And you'll be really surprised later, maybe two years later, five years later, even five minutes later, that you understand that Kṛṣṇa-kathā is transcendental. It's non-different from Kṛṣṇa. It goes in and it stays in, and it transforms us. So, it is a yājña, and you have to be steady and just stay the course.
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#5 The Later Pastimes of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu-5 | Govardhan Readings | 30 Sep 2025

Every knowledge system requires axiomatic statements. Otherwise, you can't go anywhere. Axiomatic means they don't require investigation. They're just accepted. And if you don't have that, as Aristotle said, you get infinite regress. You can't go anywhere. It's like troops keep retreating and retreating and retreating, and they never stand and fight.

And H. H. Hridayānanda Mahārāja gave the example of this: that someone says, 'What temperature is water? What, 200 degrees, or whatever it is.' I said, 'Prove it.' So then you get water, and you boil it, put a thermometer in, and then it says 200, and then it starts to boil. And you say, 'There, it's proved.' He says, 'Wait a minute, prove that's a real thermometer.' So then you go get a thermometer testing kit, whatever that is, and you test it. You say, 'Okay, it's real.' And then you go, 'Prove that that's a real thermometer testing kit.' And in that way, you keep going back and back and back.

There has to be a point at which you have an axiom where this is the source—this is self-revealing. It proves itself. You don't have to investigate it. So, every system has that. In our system of epistemology, the Vedas are apauruṣeya. They're not from a human source. They come directly from the Divine. In fact, they're co-eternal with Kṛṣṇa, and they prove themselves. And of course, Prabhupāda goes into some detail on this in the beginning of the Śrī Īśopaniṣad in this lecture in Albert Hall. He gave this as a premise to say how to understand this philosophy.
(excerpt from the discussion)

Verses covered: Cc Madhya 6.172-270
https://vedabase.io/en/library/cc/madhya/6/advanced-view/
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#18 The Liberation of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya-6 | Govardhana Readings | 03 Oct 2025

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#18 The Liberation of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya-6 | Govardhana Readings | 03 Oct 2025

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